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In the evening hours, all the Lower Pendorian combat mages and their support troops crammed onto Pasrue’s air boat, embarking on Diurhimath’s raid into Parna. A few hours later, Morrígan arrived in Oseri via projection to assist the fairies as they began the initial steps to dismantle the formation buried beneath the town.
This small one was not present for that event. It is a bit embarrassing to admit, but the absence was unavoidable. This one is only present in Oseri via the [Blood Sigil] on Bruna’s back, and my host was leading the civilian husband of a female combat mage into temptation, so to speak, even though his wife was headed into danger on the mission.
This small one protested her plans, but without any effect. Bruna insists upon keeping herself fully charged, rather than relying upon the magic mana-supplying charm that her mother expects her to use, preferring to save it for emergencies. One assumes she finds it more fun to ‘have her snacks’ anyhow.
An amazon is a monster akin to a succubus, after all. Her magic is that of extraordinary physical enhancement, vigor and eternal youth rather than beauty, flight and Dark magic, but her source of mortal mana is the same. And because Bruna has a peculiar concept of fairness, she had seduced the wife before she left and then told her not to feel guilty, because she would pay the husband back for it herself. With a monster’s magical charm at her disposal, she could ensure that both victims accepted the preposterous trade.
Thus, Bruna was basking in post-amorous relaxation at roughly the same time the fairies found the formation reacting strangely to their efforts. Alarmed at this unexpected development, the Fairy Queen ordered them to immediately evacuate the town.
Of course, communications were not instant, and Bruna had progressed into another round, on her knees on top of him, profoundly enjoying herself while this one did her best to ignore the situation, when a bell began tolling.
Her companion swore, and Bruna stopped and stared down at him.
“Is that an alarm?” she queried sharply, in completely different character than the moment before.
“Y… yes…” he huffed, still out of breath. As she climbed off him, he added, “That’s the town bell. They don’t toll it continuously to tell the time.”
“Get dressed.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, groping for his clothes. She was already wrapping her hips with her leather kilt.
For all her lascivious nature, Bruna is a practical woman. She helped wake and dress the children before slinging her glaive over her back, then picked up his daughter while he carried his son. The children were confused by the stranger helping their father, but their father of course explained nothing, just declaring her to be “Big Sister Bruna”.
As they began to discuss where to go for shelter, the magically-amplified voice of Lady Ilni, the tamed gorgon, began repeating an instruction through the night air. “All townspeople, take a minimum of luggage and proceed to the railway station. All townspeople…”
One part of the deal Her Grace struck with Diurhimath was that Lady Ansri and her fiancé stay behind, which required that Lady Ilene do so as well. Tiana had an ulterior motive for that, beyond the public explanation that Ilni’s father, lord of both the civilians in Oseri and the remaining population in Upper Pendor, had no other living heir, and as long as an heiress remained alive, it was difficult for Cullen to install a puppet in his place.
That ulterior motive was probably obvious to nobody else. Her Grace felt awful for Ilni, a monster born to a far worse situation than herself, and didn’t want her being used as a weapon of war. Thus she came up with a reason for Ilni’s tamer, being her own half-sister, to stay in Oseri.
“Railway station?” Bruna’s confused lover wondered.
Having already checked through Tiana’s memory, I told her <Her Grace is already arranging for an evacuation train. It seems this is quite serious.>
“Do you know where that is?” Bruna asked.
“Yes, everyone does,” he answered. “Miss Pasrue used it as her landing spot before we built one better suited for her craft. But why there?”
Realizing Bruna would like a better explanation, I briefly filled her in on what Lady Serera had told Her Grace. <They want the town evacuated. During the night, a magical presence suddenly flared up beneath the town in reaction to the first step in the attempt to take over and dismantle the formation. Rather than the magic that killed the previous townspeople, which Morrígan had confidence she could disrupt before it began, the reaction was likely to be a booby trap of unknown nature. The moment it happened, she froze it with some form of fairy spell, which is holding it back from continuing for now.>
<Unknown nature?> Bruna shot back. <What does that even mean?>
<This one will take measures to learn. For now, Her Grace only knows that dangerous quantities of mana are involved.>
She simply frowned and asked no more. A warrior dislikes few things more than threats of unknown nature.
But she gave him a response based upon the information this one gave her.
“The Duchess can send vehicles to evacuate you from here using the railway.”
“They told us it was some sort of road, but how does it help us? Can carts travel on it?”
<The railway does not yet reach as far as Lower Pendor, Bruna. He has never seen a train,> this small one noted.
“You could say that,” she answered him, electing not to waste time explaining.
This one suppressed the urge to chuckle in her ear. She certainly chose the most efficient answer. She proceeded to help him put together a single traveling case with things for himself and the children, and the few valuables they had brought to Oseri, then escorted them to the station.
As more and more civilians joined them, emerging from houses to head to the train station, the children grew nervous and cranky, and Bruna was summoning whatever experience she had from having younger siblings to comfort them. This small one elected to refrain from any further comment.
<You are supposed to be trying to learn to think and speak in First Person, Fan Li,> intruded the thought of another at this time, from elsewhere in this small one’s soul. Of course, Bruna could not hear this voice. It belonged to Fan Li. Specifically, one of the other Fan Lis, since there were at least four other Fan Lis currently operational at that moment.
During this one’s lifetime, the spiritual core grew large enough for this one’s awareness to be active in more than ten streams at once, and as Her Grace’s amazing speed of cultivation has expanded her living energy at a breakneck speed in Sky Ocean, this one has added to the number of streams this one could maintain.
This small one replied, <Rather than that issue, now is the time one should focus upon learning more about the threat, other Self.>
<Of course, we are already endeavoring to do so. Morrígan’s magic and the threat are already largely understood. Do not dodge the subject, dear Self. We all agree, we must learn to say I, me, my once more.>
<It is difficult!>
The other Fan Li chided with an amused aura, <A being who is a millennium and a half finds something so simple so difficult. This begs disbelief.>
The one delivering the gentle scolding was the Fan Li who stays in the background, coordinating the rest of us. It is likely to be her existence that causes the other Incarnations to freely speculate about this one’s secrecy on certain matters, and even causes the other Incarnations to entertain thoughts that this one is not truly an equal part of themselves. That is to say, they understand that this one is indeed partially divergent from them, almost a separate being, despite being part of them. This one works hard to prevent that divergence from happening, as it would lead to far too many problems for all Incarnations.
<You are the baseline Fan Li containing our complete self, not the edited version that is we who face the other Incarnations and those outside. This one considers you to have an advantage.>
<Fan Li, say it again, properly.>
As an ancient sage, emotions like exasperation are beneath this one… beneath me. Peace and tranquility shall always rule this ancient heart.
<I consider you to have an advantage. More than a millennium of habit dies quite hard.>
<I keep the parts of me which they are better off not touching yet away from them, by existing partly separate from them,> the other Fan Li stated. <You, my other streams of awareness, contain only the parts of me which they can safely see.>
It was an agreement, of sorts. Or a concession of the point. The Fan Lis who interact with others are not the true Fan Li.
But the concession ended there. <Nevertheless, you, my other selves, need to lose that artificial humility which I imposed upon myself for my son’s sake. When he rose to the Dragon Throne, I needed to lower myself to ensure his people followed him and not his mother, and thus began speaking of myself in the most humble fashion. Fan Li, that humility serves no purpose here. Worse, it is a fundamental component of the wall between you and our other Incarnations. It must end.>
<This one… I shall continue to try. It is hard to fight a millennium of habit, other Fan Li.>
<Indeed,> the other me replied, more gently. <I do understand, but I cannot relent. In the long run, we must learn.>
I had no head to nod, in this context, but projected that sentiment in lieu of a response. Hoping to end the conversation, this… I returned my attention to my job.
By that time, more information had come to this… to me, from other streams of Fan Li. Her Grace had directed a train that was stopped overnight at Derida, where the spur line joins the main line, to abandon its schedule and come to evacuate the townspeople. The Fairy Queen had dispatched a team to reinforce us. And the masculine incarnations had returned to time compression with one of my clones, to brainstorm the situation and apply cosmic deduction to it.
This one must confess to experiencing a sense of helplessness. The role this one played here, observing and standing ready to assist, felt far less useful than what others were doing. But, just like Bruna, this one’s current role was to guard, not to act, so this one stood vigil by stretching [Vampire Sense] into the night.
The reinforcements arrived before daybreak, fairies flying in from Narses. Through Her Grace, this one learned they had actually used the shortcut between Tëan Tír and Narses through Sky Ocean. And to Bruna’s surprise, they carried a passenger they picked up along the way. Lady Ceria was riding in the arms of Lady Diloré.
Once on the ground, she propped her staff on her shoulder and strode with a jaunty step over to her little sister, with Diloré staying at her side.
“Don’t forget what His Majesty told you, My Lady!” Diloré was warning on the way. “You must retreat if there is any sign of danger! I’m under orders from him, so I won’t hold back, evacuating you!”
With a baffled tone, Bruna asked as her sister arrived, “Why would His Majesty tell her that?”
“She means the Fairy King, not King Gerald,” Lady Ceria explained. Which, of course, explained nothing, since Ceria had yet to tell Bruna the news, regarding either her baby or the Fairy King.
