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I canceled the [Blood Presence] spell that linked me to the world inside the Training Network and opened my eyes in my real body…
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I noticed motion in my peripheral vision and turned my eyes from the reflection in the mirror of Genette doing final touches to my hairdo to catch Pasrue’s airship passing the window that overlooks the South Bailey, bringing the dinner guests from Oseri. And at that exact moment, Lydia came pouring into my mind…
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For one brief moment we teetered on the brink, two awarenesses in two places with the same mind, trying to remain separate, then I, Lydia, found myself seated at Tiana’s vanity in Narses while she found herself lying on her back on a sleeping mat, on the floor in front of Senhion’s great painting of the ‘Dragon’s Challenge’ arena.
But a stronger linkage seemed to exist between us, now. I could perceive her, lying there while laughing in defeat. She really had committed to keeping the merged existence going, two instances of our shared awareness occupying two bodies, just like the Hekatoncheires, or like Fan Li seems to be capable of. And I could feel her, sensing me pressing my lips together in rueful resignation.
<Not this time, I guess,> came her wry thought. <Should I go back in and try again?>
<No,> I answered. <It’s a strain on us. That’s why we’re doing it for only short times, remember?>
We spent seventeen hours together inside as one mind, or barely more than a minute, outside. Somewhere between twenty four and forty eight hours inside was the maximum before it would break down on its own, and common sense told us not to push it to the limit.
Or to be more accurate, before the strain on the link between our awareness and Tiana’s real body caused physical stress.
<It would be better if I could develop the ability to split my consciousness and send myself inside as a [Blood Effigy] while staying out here,> Her Grace observed. <The strain comes from running the 1000:1 compression while using this physical brain of mine.>
<Your Grace knows that you are the problem, right?> I inquired.
<Yes, I know. It’s my misgivings over ending you as a separate mind. Even though I see now that it really doesn’t work that way. You didn’t end. We simply merged.>
<It’s also your distress over being two separate awarenesses at once, though. Although I do get that part, as it is troublesome for me, as well.>
<Even though that’s technically what we already do with our separate Incarnations,> she mused.
“Your Grace, are you perhaps speaking to someone right now?” Genette asked, her mouth in a moue.
“Ah… did I ignore you?”
“It was nothing of importance, Your Grace,” she declared in a taut tone that suggested otherwise. “I merely inquired as to whether your hair is satisfactory.”
I chuckled, and said, “You’re allowed to say, ‘Yes, young lady, you were totally ignoring me. Don’t space out like that while I’m talking to you’.”
Her eyes twinkled with mirth from the mirror. “I fear the chambermaids would die of shock if I lectured you like that, Your Grace.”
As well as the well-made hairdo, I appraised the lovely, fairy-like woman in the mirror, appreciating her dark eyes, alabaster skin, cherry blossom lips and glorious raven hair. Genette’s light touches of cosmetics, such as a bit of mascara to enhance the lashes, were well-chosen, but really, Her Grace only needed the slightest enhancements.
Tiana does not appreciate this beauty the way I do. A more honest view of herself is one of the things I hope to impart to her with my persona. Her humility is charming to a degree, but even if she maintains a humble nature on the surface, a beautiful woman really should accept deep down what she is.
“The hair looks perfect, My Lady,” I told Her Grace’s Lady’s Maid.
The wolfkin woman nodded with satisfaction.
<So she realized you were talking to someone by magic, but not that we’ve switched places?> Tiana wondered.
<Yes, Your Grace,> I confirmed. <And don’t you think it’s time to switch back?>
I could feel the seed of the thought that she could just leave this dinner to me, and needed to shut it down immediately. Do your job, Your Grace.
She sighed, agreed, and we made the trade. Tiana’s physical eyes opened to the sight of Amelia, Dilorè, Ceria and my son waiting for me after exiting the painting. Melione, following her own training system syllabus, was still inside.
Nearby, Curator bowed. “Welcome back to the Mortal Realm, Dear Guests.”
After guiding me to my sleeping mat, Curator simply stood by to wait for me Well, from her point of view, it was only a minute. Of course, the way Curator is always spending multiple tracks of awareness, managing the system at many different time compressions, it’s hard to say what meaning the passage of a minute in the physical world means to her.
Ceria gave her a rather strange reply.
“Did we get it done?”
Curator gave her a gentle bow of the head. “All went perfectly, My Lady.”
My Servant looked happy, but somehow conflicted as well. My son, on the other hand, grew mystified.
“Did we get what done?” he wondered.
Ceria bit her lower lip a little, her ears dropping just slightly. She sheepishly said, “Don’t get angry, ‘kay?”
His eyebrow instantly shot up. “Ceria, that’s a clear confession that I have something to be angry about, you know?”
With her head down, she hedged, “Well, you already decided to make me your concubine, so…”
“By Fairy Law, you are a Lady of the Royal Bedchamber,” Oberon corrected. “You become a concubine once you bear me a child.”
Looking up at him with a sly twinkle, she said, “That should be in about eight months.”
“Seven months,” Curator amended.
He frowned slightly, then gave Curator a perplexed look. “You stated before that pregnancy wasn’t possible inside the network except as a simulation.”
The others around me were looking at each other and Ceria with growing smiles as they grasped what was happening. My son, on the other hand, was still waiting for the rest of the explanation.
“In the natural course of things, no,” Curator agreed. “And while it isn’t an issue at the embryonic stage for a pregnant woman to enter, it isn’t a positive environment for fetal development, so the Commander cannot go in. But it is possible to reflect physical changes such as the results of training and exercise in the physical body when it is rotated back into Mortal space, and it is possible to recreate certain processes as long as the resources are available when the host enters the simulation environment.”
Kanon materialized beside me and stated, “You had an assignation with your lover during your previous break. She entered the spirit realm interface where we host your physical bodies while you are inside carrying the ‘necessary resources’ within her. The rest is simply the same mechanics of the interface which allow us to transfer developmental improvements from training to your physical body.”
Curator completed the explanation with, “Thus safely bringing her and her baby through the first month of uterine and embryonic development. “
“So you planned it with her,” he nodded.
“Of course,” Kanon stated. “Back in Elder times, we regularly performed this service for the Servants who wished to become parents. Knowing your plans, I offered the same to Ceria.”
This wasn’t the first, the tenth, or possibly even the hundredth child for Oberon. He was born ten millennia ago. So he wasn’t stunned, shocked or otherwise off-balance like most men hearing about a new child. He simply grew a wry smile and gave Ceria’s head a fond caress.
“Are you angry?” she worried.
“Of course not,” he told her gently. “Are you prepared for this?”
“I thought I was,” she answered, then rubbed her tummy and confessed. “I’m kinda nervous, now.”
He chuckled and tousled her hair. “Now I know why you were so insistent we go outside for lunch.”
Dilorè glared at me. “As an Immortal, you were some kind of fertility goddess, weren’t you? This is another one!”
That wasn’t me, that was my lover, I nearly quipped. I mean, fertility goddess is Rhea’s basic divine authority. But I managed to keep my humor to myself.
“I had absolutely nothing to do with this one, Dilorè. Well, except for fixing them up with each other in the first place.”
So I guess she wasn’t entirely wrong?
Chiara and Melione were not present when we watched Ceria’s “Dragon’s Challenge” stage, because it was a trauma Chiara didn’t want to repeat, even as a spectator, and because Melione didn’t want to break immersion. They emerged from a dynamic painting of sunlit many-colored wildflowers lining a path beside a brook meandering through a forest clearing, with oppressively dark oaks framing it, at precisely the moment that we passed it in the main corridor on our way out for the day.
Although I don’t remember much about painting that landscape, my actual subject must have been the light. Lighting was an object of fascination to Senhion as an artist, and the painting emphasized the sharp contrast between the abyssal darkness beyond the oaks and the sunlight from the narrow strip of blue sky above upon the flowers and water. But I don’t know why this particular painting became the model for a basic ‘school’ scenario, where both the maids and the Servants spent most of the day. I should ask Curator to explain that.
During their time inside this scenario, before leaving to go play with the Fire Tribe, the maids studied magic to close the skill gap with the two very capable Servants. Their previous education focused almost entirely on domestic service with only rudimentary magic training. Khortys and Pirkitta are both technically ‘combat mages’, as are Amelia’s girls, but they have no experience, just occasional workouts in the training rooms of the Fairy King’s castle. Austrydhur was probably the most practiced of the maids, since Healing magic has plenty of applications outside of warfare and adventuring, but she was also the youngest maid, with much left to learn.
Meanwhile Melione had no schooling at all. Her entire education was just what her grandmother taught her as a healer, and what little Temple School they provided in her rural village. Despite her high mastery of Healing, she was completely illiterate. Worse, she grew up speaking Ostish, and could barely manage any Dorian. So the mortals decided as a group, with Melione in agreement, that she not only needed to master reading and writing, she must master Dorian before proceeding to anything else.
Chiara, well-ahead of the others on both fronts, played the role of a tutor in the scenario, although she was getting some advanced magic education on the side.
Of course, Curator arranged that well-timed exit for them. She could manipulate the exact compression rate to control when they appeared, after all, so my Servants could have spent several additional days ‘inside’ after we exited the system and walked down the corridor.
When they appeared, Austrydhur immediately dashed over and caught Melione’s hands.
“How is it? Have you started training Healing magic yet?”
Melione gave her a head shake and a bitter smile. “I’m afraid I have yet to pass my reading and writing exams.”
Chiara immediately rejected her embarrassment, although she addressed her words to the maid. “It will take several more months inside, after all. Children need years to learn this. Mel is doing quite well.”
“I feel terribly foolish, holding everyone back,” Melione complained. But she said it in clear Dorian, which was significant progress.
Her fellow healer switched into encouragement mode. “You still know a lot more Healing magic than me! You’ll master the language long before I can catch up to you!”
Khortys noted, “We can always wait a few hours before entering tomorrow, to give Mel a head start.”
Pirkitta worried, “Should we really go again, tomorrow? We’re here to serve Her Grace, not to use this training system…”
“Educating yourselves is serving Her Grace,” I stated firmly. “And these two can go back in after dinner and spend all night. They could fit in a couple years between now and tomorrow when the rest of you return.”
“But I haven’t visited with you for so long!” Melione protested.
“It’s only been eight hours or so, Miss Melione,” I corrected, keeping my smile gentle. I didn’t want to make light of her feelings.
She looked a little dissatisfied, but I decided to ignore it. It was good for my Servants to get used to separation from me.
That feeling of dancing on the edge of becoming Her Grace returned. Should I try it while we were at the same speed?
Not yet, I decided. At least, it didn’t seem safe to try it while I was walking.
Speaking of separation turned my thoughts to Ceria. She and Oberon were about to leave, to introduce her at the Fairy King’s Castle. I slipped over and took her arm while we walked.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, maybe with a slightly teasing voice.
“How’m’I feeling?” she echoed, her ears tipping slightly. She clearly didn’t know what I was talking about.
“Your man is about to bring you home to meet his family.”
She snorted. “Well, I mean, I already met his mom, right? The rest is easy.”
That got a laugh from me. She had a point.
