Everything that happened after their interaction with the court mage happened in a blur, a cacophonous amalgamation of sounds and colors, intertwining and swirling, merging and distorting in a frenetic, crazed dance of sensory overstimulation that served only to isolate Kary within her own little word, trapping her in an endless feedback loop of self-blaming that persisted throughout the entirety of the party. For gods know how long, she stayed in something akin to a trance, her dizzy mind blocking off both the snarky remarks from the nobles watching her self-induced suffering from afar and the worried attempts of communication from the folks she knew. At some point, Kelly even wanted to check in on her friend, as she became worried that the girl might have been bullied by the collection of high and mighty figures after seeing her nauseated expression as she became more and more lost within her own mind, though after a bit of back and forth with her self-proclaimed teacher, the court mage a very annoying old man, she was convinced that there wasn’t much someone like her could do against a noble, even if she had been picked up by him as an apprentice. It was sickening and twisted, but it was the logic that kept the world on turning, as the young mage had long since discovered.
Through the rest of the afternoon, the awkward excuse for a party continued, the nobles’ self-congratulatory circles keeping a clear sense of hierarchy between the parties, their boredom giving way to less and less disguised insults to the common rabble who had been invited and attended, from critics to their clothing, to the topics they chose to talk about, nothing was safe from the cold, detached eyes of nobility, for their rotten ears and sickly mouths had no rest in their task of portraying their owners as the masters of their own little worlds, completely oblivious to the objective reality lived by their subjects, their unimportant meat bags that had no other purpose other than filling nobility’s pockets with gold. An anthropomorphized cash cow in the disguise of a well-functioning society, ready for the milking, objects made into subjects that could only worship and admire the people at the top, if not out of genuine awe, then out of fear of what might happen should they not follow the herd with a smile on their face. Seeing the world through the perspective of those men and women, who cared for little more than whatever could affect their schemes, it seemed almost like a dystopia ruled by complete psychopaths, monsters capable of feigning any emotion if it helped keeping their image as a symbol of the nation in the eyes of the general populace, the uneducated masses who were just content enough with their lives to not turn against the ruling class.
Those folks, no different than irrational pigs to these men and women sitting on their golden thrones, were happy with their own lives, all things considered, with the money they received through their jobs, be it as a weapon smith raking gold through commissions by the guild or as a simple farmer selling their vegetables to other businesses enough to live decent lives, for the most part. Of course, such a beautiful and idyllic society, where no single class was exploited, would never be anything more than a farce, an elaborate play to keep those in the capital oblivious to the suffering of the rest of the populace. People still struggled to make meets end, slavery still existed in the dark corners of smaller, less policed cities, away from the capital and from the prying eyes of those who might object. Still, such things were not yet know to the girl, and even if she suspected it, there wasn’t much she could do at the moment, especially when her mind was already occupied by self-deprecating thoughts, the entire time going over her surprise meeting with the court mage, her only distraction from the endless spiral of self-induced torture being her questioning about the magic the man had used.
Even though she had spent very little time playing with her game-like status screen, she knew for a fact that magic depended on mana, some form of energy that the girl didn’t really understand very well, her only time actually seeing it being the time when Kelly used magic in secrecy to allow the girls to take a bath in the middle of the journey. As the man held such an important-sounding position, and was apparently able to effortlessly cast such complicated magic like total invisibility. From a certain angle, it was awe-inspiring, the knowledge that it was possible to acquire such power, and, from another, it was utterly terrifying, knowing that there were people out there capable of killing her without her ever knowing that they were there. It was hard to imagine a swordsmen, capable as they might be, being able to finish someone without said someone being able to at the very least process that they were being killed, the sound of footsteps, of a sword leaving the scabbard, its silvery glint against the sun, the searing pain from having the cold, rigid iron blade wrapping around the dead man’s body, piercing or slashing through its soft flesh and through the space in between the bones, The hot flowing blood raining from the wound as the sword is removed and promptly cleaned with a flick of the assailant’s wrist, spraying blood on the ground that would soon be a pool of blood, a sea of red in which the fallen victim would inevitably fall, drowning in their own fluids as their eyes fail to accurately register the person responsible for their end, eyes that would be soon be plunged into eternal darkness, never to see or experience anything ever again.
It was hard, impossible even, to imagine such a thing happening without the victim ever realizing it, even though she knew that there were definitely people capable of such feats, and that she was probably standing beside one. One the contrary, from what she had experienced, magic was much more subtle, quiet, deadly. It worked without words, without announcement, no fanfare needed in order to end someone, a silent killer barred only by morals and mana. It was a tangible fear, and one she made sure to remember, for she doubted this would be her last encounter with magic. She didn’t want it to be her last time interacting with magic either, although she would hope for a safer environment the next time she was able to do it. With a completely out of place chuckle that attracted some curious glances towards her, she once more returned to her own little world, in which she remained until the royal convoy finally made its leave as the sun began to set in the horizon, its red, warm light casting long shadows through the large windows, the forms of both noblemen and regular commoners distorting and stretching as the rapidly dimming light consumed it all. For a singular moment, imperceptible for anyone who might have actually cared, they were all equal, their forms indistinguishable from one another in the shadows, both their utter rottenness and admirable hearts meaning absolutely nothing in the face of utter darkness, their identities, thoughts, actions, their hatred, love, arrogance drowned by the long and all-encompassing shadows, silently dying in much the same way a man whose heart had been eviscerated by the sharpest of swords.
A moment later, though, the world return to normal as the lamps placed around the walls begin to emit enough light to turn night into day, the shadows vanishing as light akin to those used in modern times shined from all directions, with the only reminder of the once growing void being the seemingly exhausted staff standing beside the lamp as they tried to catch their breath. Uncaring for the sweaty and disheveled folks tasked with providing illumination, the salon quickly got more spacious as some of nobles made their way immediately after the king himself, their loud shoes echoing through the stone walls, their upturned noses almost touching the ceiling as they made their way back to their carriages, arms interlocked with their spouses, the few that had accepted to come to such a bland party, showing a complete lack of consideration for the rest of the guests. Seeing more and more people making their way out through the open set of doors, more and more people began to say their goodbyes, leaving behind a rapidly increasing staff to guest ratio. Once there were few enough people inside the room, many of which were only still there in order to wrap up ongoing conversations, the court mage and the Kelly, who seemed to be always on his tail during the time they had spent in the party, once more barged through the doors, the old man walking as straight as a newly-constructed stone pillar, his chin held high as his sharp eyes scanned the room, an annoyed ‘tsk’ leaving his lips as he observed the remaining folks.
“What bothers you this time?”
“Why nothing, my dear girl. Do I look bothered in any way?”
“You always are, master. And please don’t call me ‘dear girl’ after you practically forced me to become your apprentice. It gives me the creeps.”
“Heh heh heh… I don’t remember forcing anyone, but you do you, . It’s not like anything you might say will stop me anyway. Heh heh heh.” Cackling like a madman, the man and his cane companion continued to move while he talked to the girl while she walked half a step behind him, the curious pairing attracting some odd looks from the remaining guests and from the staff still catching their breath by the walls, doing their very best to appear invisible to the eyes in the room. After all, it was not every day the court mage, famed for his bizarre quirks and at times even disrespectful behavior that disregarded completely any and all social norms, known for his abilities and evasiveness, often hiding inside of his studies in order to not be bothered by anything or anyone, made his appearance in public like that, even bringing along a . He was an icon within the nation, a whimsical figure respected and hated on equal parts, depending on who you asked, but it was undeniable that he was a paramount pillar of the kingdom in both knowledge and strength. The man himself couldn’t care less about the reputation he had made for himself, though, his strides as confident as ever, his posture just as perfect as it had been on the few times he had been forced onto the battlefield, the clear orb sitting on top of his cane, a symbol of fear and terror for his enemies, bobbing up and down as he crossed the expanse of the salon in a direct line to Asteria, watching from above, silent, as the few people on its master’s way parted like the red sea, until the old man rudely intruded in the circle of commoners by the corner, trying to be just as invisible as the still exhausted staff.
“Hello there, distinguished gentlemen and gentlewomen. I hope this poor excuse for a party didn’t bore you to death. Gods know what I’d do if I had been forced to interact with those suckers for a single moment longer than absolutely necessary.” Seeing as the conversation had come to a sudden stop with the arrival of the old man, he took it as confirmation for him to continue his one-sided dialogue. Still, he couldn’t help but let out a chuckle at the awkward faces of his conversation partners, his wrinkly face, stretched and distorted by age, contorting even more to form something a few generous folks might interpret as a smile, as he knew all too well that these good people were thinking the same thing as him, though they would never say so. It was at times like these, during dimple interactions, an exchange of glances, an uncomfortable laugh, a distressed change of the weight of one’s body from one leg to the other, that the old man was reminded of the privileged position he occupied, where he could do everything he wanted without having to ever get near one of those stinky nobles or their schemes. Not that they didn’t try to make use of him, much the contrary. It was laughable the number of times green nobles, not aware of the powerhouse he represented, tried to move him like a piece of their little game of politics. Sometimes the old mage even felt honored, as some of the less na?ve nobles at least had the decency of setting him up as an essential asset in their machinations, though at other times he would personally dismantle some of the retarded dreams of grandeur, sparing the poor, stupid nobles from having their schemes revealed to the rest of the upper echelons, something that would only net them laughs of ridicule. Returning his mind to the question at hand, though, the mage cut through the silence with his raspy voice, unbothered by the world around him.
“Forgive me for interrupting your merry talks with my boring voice, but circumstances made it such an unfortunate action was necessary. Again, it was not in my plans to return to this damned salon once more within the span of one day, but heh, here we are. I know, I know this sounds almost as cheap as the king’s excuse for being late, but different from that old snake, I at least try to be genuine with the words I speak. As for the reason, well… Let’s just say I have some confidential matters to tend to, for which I will need the assistance of the ever-so-lovely Asteria and the girl she has been taking care of. Hah… I swear I asked someone to look up her name, but for the life of my I cannot remember. Fanny? Penny? Dang my memory! There was a time where I was able to memorize entire books, I tell you, but now… well, you all are seeing firsthand the effects of age, one of the few things power cannot solve. Trust me, I tried. Oh, how I tried. But let me cut my ramblings short, before you I put you all to sleep, for I also have matters I must tend to, though for that I will need to borrow the knight and her squire, as I’ve already discussed, if that’s okay with you all, of course.” Knowing who the old, decrepit man in front of them was, the scholars and renowned adventurers invited to this party couldn’t help but vigorously nod, trying and failing to maintain their nervousness in check, their strained smiles and cold sweat dripping down their necks not doing their credibility any favors.
With an annoyed sigh, Asteria put her hand on Kary’s shoulder, applying a little bit of pressure to get her out of her little world. Shaking her head out of her self-induced stupor, she took a look around, stopping as soon as she made eye contact with the court mage, who simply waved in her direction with that creepy smile of his. Considering how she had spent the last few hours on a downward spiral started by this old mage, her slight trembling body was quite the mild reaction, though it was still more extreme than Asteria could’ve predicted. She knew the old fart was an annoying old fart long overdue his meeting with mistress Death who loved to be a pushover, but it was easy to forget the things he could do should one just push his buttons a little too much. As he himself had proudly proclaimed, age hadn’t been kind to him, although the knight was sure that if he had gone to the afterlife on his designated time he would have appeared a lot brighter than he was now. Even when she was a kid, with no dreams of ever achieving anything worth of note, legends of his strength circulated the country, the young, charming, prominent mage climbing the ranks at ludicrous speed, something only heard of on the poetries sung to the stars by bards. Despite not knowing his tales, and probably not even being aware of the monstrous strength he could exert should he choose to, Asteria came to the conclusion that fear would be the natural reaction when meeting the mage for the first time. After all, he was the court mage for a reason, the pinnacle of magic within the borders of their nation and a paragon of magic each and every single aspiring grand mage had heard of, an example to be followed, a wise old man way past his prime now, who was currently picking up his nose while he waited for the pair of women to come with him, not a single shred of doubt in his mind that they wouldn’t.
After a bit of silent back and forth, as neither of the two wanted to disclose anything to the unrelated parties curiously looking at them, certainly wondering what they had done to attract the oddest of mages, Kary let out a long, drawn out, defeated sigh, the tense air held up in her lungs expelled in an invisible mist the mixed annoyance, anger and exhaustion in a concoction that, although invisible, certainly made its weight be felt by everyone who was there to listen. Amongst the fairly small circle, some people even sympathized with the girl; their kind eyes the most they were willing to go for her, despite having spent quite some time together during their way back to the capital, with a decent chunk of the others not even acknowledging her presence. At the end of the day, it was hard to even call them colleagues, as Kary wasn’t even part of the expedition per se, just an oddity picked up like a stray cat by someone in a high enough position that she was allowed to accompany them, using their resources, tiring their best men with training that seemed to accomplish nothing, enjoying the warmth of their campfire. Yes, most of the folks had been quite friendly to the girl, talking, interacting, using her to sate their own need for human touch throughout the long journey, despite the Kary not being exactly human nor capable of human warmth, but there was no shortage of those who either felt indifferent by the presence of the girl, or actively disliked her for the aforementioned reasons, the cautions taken when arranging the supplies by the organizers disregarded in favor of their desire to hate, fueled by exhaustion and a constant exposure to other bitter men and women.
The only silver lining on all this was the fact that they had the decency of hiding their true feelings, masquerading their thoughts through the guise of polite smiles and questioning looks, at the very least trying not to accrue the wrath of the girl’s guardian by outright standing against the girl. Not that it mattered much, as Kary had plenty of experience receiving such glares, their spite far from enough to elicit any reaction from her, for she had experienced far worse within her own household, her mother an endless pit of hatred that had consumed her whole, the woman’s sole existence reduced to nothing more than a spreader of hate and pain, inflicting to others what she herself had suffered on the hands of the people she once thought loved her. At least she hadn’t given Kary such false hopes, her life miserable from well before she had learned to think, and, as the saying goes, misery loves company. Vultures lurking in the shadows with their pathetic little lives couldn’t help but beat the girl to the ground, such small moments of apparent superiority the only happiness present in their dull existences, their own insecurities projected onto their victims, the fires of hell coming at Kary from all fronts, taking in different shapes and sizes, but always with the intent of dragging folks like Kary to hell with them. People that were weak, frail, miserable on their own right, but that preferred to hold their own grief to themselves, letting their own fire consume their bodies from inside, gnawing at their flesh, munching their organs, liquefying their bones until, with nothing remaining to sustain their structure, their burnt and rotten carcass falls upon itself, at last ending their suffering in an implosion just as underwhelming as they themselves were in life.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
During her entire life, Kary experienced it, the feeling of degradation, of inertia, as if she was unable to control her own life, strapped to a rollercoaster that only knew how to go down. She knew those stares, these glares, watching her, judging her, sneering through the glass as they watched her go down, down, down, spiraling without control towards her demise, the employees in charge of the attraction, instead of stopping the inevitable train wreck that would ensue as was their job watching with complete indifference, never once exerting their power, preferring instead to watch from the comfort of their seats as the cart crashed and burned, knowing full well that no fault would be attributed to them. As she had learned to do, she simply ignored them, hoping they wouldn’t take more drastic measures to make their hatred known, for she would be powerless to stop them if they desired to take things further, her strength nothing to brag about, especially in a world where super-humans were more than characters in pieces of paper. Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened in this world as of yet, be it due to their lack of interest in her or due to Asteria’s protection. Whatever the reason was, she was grateful that she had been allowed to live in this world without the heavy shackles placed on her on her previous world. Of course, one could argue that only part of the chains shacking her to her miserable past had been broken, for the suffering they caused her still persisted through world, haunting her, filling her head with absurd, impacting the way she walked, the way she talked, the way she lived her life, regardless of how free she might feel, they were still there.
Shaking her head free of those thoughts, Kary gave the knight patiently watching her a small, almost shy nod. Resisting the urge to pet the girl on the head to ease her worries once more, the knight turned to the seemingly uninterested mage, who looked at the ceiling as if he expected something to appear from there. The woman almost wanted to punch the old man, but she held back, if only to save face, instead addressing him with all the politeness in the world, her words laced with venom as they left her mouth:
“Weren’t you going to take us somewhere, Onico?”
“Hmm, hmm… I do remember something like that, yes. It seems that I’ve made you two wait while I immersed myself in though, heh heh… When one reaches such an advanced age, there aren’t many things that can bring about the joys of youth like reminiscing about the past, y’know. Hah… sometimes I wish I could go back, but alas, time is a finicky mistress, and I feel like I pissed her off more than I should during this long life of mine, so I’ll refrain from doing anything more. If there’s no problem with you, may we depart now? I’m most curious to see the reaction of those scholars heh heh heh…”
“Please refrain from spilling the beans, old man. You of all people should know the importance of keeping such things a secret, right? Then, instead of wasting both of our times with meaningless chatter, it might be better if you instead focused on leading the way, before I ask for a sword to shove down your very lively throat.”
“Ah, Asteria, the ever-annoyed Asteria, what am I to do with you? I can only wish that, once you reach the level of people like me, you come to realize the importance of pointless conversation. But it would be presumptuous to force my own old-man beliefs into the mind of the young, wouldn’t it? As you so aptly put, enough with the meaningless chat. If there’s nothing you would like to say to the rest of the room, let’s go!” With that, the old mage turned around, hastily making his way towards the open doors as he cackled like a kid who had just successfully pranked someone, though his speed as he dashed through the room wasn’t anything to write home about. Although the three women left behind did have to do some light exercise, compared to the torture Kary was made to go through every single day of their journey back, it wouldn’t even count as a warm-up. The same, however, couldn’t be said for Kelly, a mage through and through who had never really put much effort into her physical capabilities, despite her lengthy history with traveling. After all, it would be nothing but foolish to try to cross large distances on foot, making it so the only times the mage girl used her own two feet to move from place to place were when she was in the comfort of a safe settlement.
Soon enough, they were all following behind Onico like little ducklings following their mother, letting their conversations flow through the deserted corridors, none of the few lonesome guards scattered throughout the stronghold daring to put a stop to the court mage and his entourage, at best simply seething silently inside their helmets at the old fart’s luck with women. For longer than Kary expected, they walked and walked, their steps echoing through the endless corridors and hallways as they passed through twists and turns, stairways and locked doors, making everything feel more like a fortress meant to disorient a potential enemy than the centermost piece of a nation. But at last, in the end they arrived… somewhere. So long they spent walking Kary didn’t even know where they were at the moment, just that it was underground and far, far away from the salon where the party was held. Without missing a beat, the mage reached for the handle of a simple-looking door at the end of a long corridor, which itself was at the bottom of a long spiral flight of stairs through which other hallways could be accessed. It was all confusing and disorienting, as if a drunken ant had been the one responsible for planning the layout of the entire place.
He showed no hesitation as he blasted the door open, allowing the light inside to be shed into the darkness of the corridor in which the girl were still in, their attention suddenly directed towards the room beyond the doorstep, their curiosity taking the best of them as they slowly advanced in order to make the figures in the room beyond. One step, two, three, and the two friends were finally able to see the workshop located in the depths of the palace, where scholars who had dedicated their entire existence to the study of antiques congregated in order to solve this new challenge that had been place in front of them, it’s form an unassuming stone that contained registers of a long gone civilization, of which very few written remnants were left, for stone wasn’t their preferred writing method, as they had come to the conclusion after much thinking, much to present day researchers demise. Inside the room, though, silence reigned supreme as men and women worked quietly on their attempts of deciphering the old language, their considerations done to the tune of shuffling paper and dripping ink, their interactions limited to quiet whispering and comparison of notes. It was as if Kary had entered another world altogether, intruded upon a place she shouldn’t have, halted a sacred ritual that prevented this world’s demise, the dedicated scribblings of these folks, both young and old, the only thing preventing evils from time immemorial from bursting through the floor in their desire to plunge the world into eternal darkness. Of course, the factual truth was in many ways more boring than the fruitful imagination of a recently-transmigrated girl who did not yet knew where the limits between magic and miracles lied.
Despite the loud noise made by Onico, very few of the scholars bothered to look who was it that had decided to annoy them, though those who did stopped dead on their tracks, eyes bulging almost comically as they wondered what such a distinguished figure like the court mage was doing on the depths of the palace, where there weren’t even guards to protect them in case of an attack, as unlikely as it was that such a thing would happen. Noticing the abnormality, an especially old man sitting on the back of the room, sharing his table with equally aged elders as they quietly discussed some of their analysis, turned to see the man who had caused such a disturbance, his expression going from annoyed, to confused, and then to flustered in a matter of seconds, much to old mage’s amusement. As soon as he recognized the figure on the door, the old researcher, who would still be considered nothing more than a small child in the eyes of the ancient practitioner of magic, bowed his head as deeply as his weak bones allowed him to, his mind racing to try and find some conceivable reason for the sudden visit. Finding none, however, the scholar was forced to ask the man himself, dearly hoping that the terrifying smirk on the mage’s face wasn’t a sign of problems to come.
“S-Sir court m-m-mage, m-may I ask what your p-purpose of this v-v-visit is?” The scholar asked, trembling in his boots, his old bones rattling as he tried to maintain a modicum of composure in front of the absolute monster that had decided to interrupt their jobs with no apparent reason nor rhyme. It was natural for both this old researcher, who had spent the last decades of his life studying the history of this world, and the younger generations who had come after to know about the legends of Onico, stories that dated way beyond their own birth days, his legend spanning from sea to sea. Although he had calmed down considerably with the end of the turbulent times that afflicted the continent as whole, the mystique behind his character persisted even through periods of peace, giving each and every single person in that room more than enough reason to be scared shitless of the wrinkly mage, which in turn made him extremely amused. After basking in their terror for a little while, enjoying the sense of superiority that had accompanied him throughout most of his career, he decided that it wouldn’t be particularly good for his image if he always made himself look like a bully jerk, so he was quick to respond.
“Heh heh, sorry to bother you… Well, I assume I am bothering you all right as we speak, given the looks of some of the younglings, heh heh heh… So I’ll try to make it quick, before someone try to expel me from here. You asked me what I wanted here, right? Well, I might have just found someone capable of making your entire line of work obsolete, so to speak. I know, I know this is quite the bold claim for even me to make, but give me a chance to elaborate on this, will you? So, the person in question is someone I only entered in contact with very recently, so I know not much about her, but what I can tell you all is that she has some sort of translation skill, and that she had so kindly offered to help you folks decipher the stone that has been giving you so much trouble these days.”
“That’s ridiculous. If you meant to tell a joke, then it is customary to make it funny.” Said a young man angrily glaring at Onico, his hands itching to go back to work, the only thing preventing him being the presumptuous and absurd words leaving that old man’s mouth, the credibility so unfathomably low that no amount of power he might have would give it any ground to stand on. Such ability has been searched far and wide by many of the people sitting on this room, but not once were they able to find anything of the sort, their predecessors writing ass much and advising their successors to not waste any of their precious time in search of something they would never find. Some of his colleagues had taken these words to heart, never bothering to spend a single moment in the at this point almost customary search for someone, anyone that might have been able to give them new insights on the ancient texts they so desperately wanted to decipher. It wasn’t as if they weren’t making any progress, for there were clues and imagery that allowed them to find out the meaning behind some isolated words, giving them some insights on the ancients’ grammar as well, though to this day their alphabet remained a mystery to be solved.
Even though a translation skill wouldn’t mean they work would be over — far from that, in fact — it would give them a lot more to work with, advancing their individual projects months if not years, depending on the complexity of it, but it such things were nothing more than the wishful thinking of na?ve, green researchers who had yet to be acquainted with the harsh reality. And yet, here was one of the kingdom’s most renowned men proudly proclaimed that he had found this person of legends. It had to be a joke, right? A bad one, at that. But no, the old mage seemed to be completely serious as he continued to speak:
“Heh… I can already tell from your faces that you don’t believe me at all. Well, no matter, for if I was in your shoes, I wouldn’t believe in myself either. Then, I feel like it’s only fair to show you all the star of tonight’s show, a girl who some of you might already know from your travels through the world, I present to you, Karyyyyyyyy!” Stepping aside, the old man let go of his cane, that continued in its perfectly erect position, while Onico himself waved his hands in an exaggerated manner towards the open entrance, through which a shy girl, much paler than anyone that would consider themselves healthy, stepped through, her face a mix between chalk-white and crimson red, eyes darting around as if looking for somewhere she could hide in. Not finding anything, she resorted to giving her audience a shy wave of her hand, her mind racing at breakneck speeds to find the most appropriate thing to say to this very unenthusiastic public she had been presented to. , she thought. .
“Umm… H-hello everyone… umm… as, as umm… Onico s-said, m-my name is… uh… Kary, and, and I have b-b-been given t-the ability to, to eh… translate s-stuff. Yeah. I-I know m-my words don’t spark a lot of umm… confidence, yeah, confidence, but t-that is because I’m r-really, really scared to m-m-mess things up. I-I want t-to help, so p-please…” Hearing the stuttering mess that was Kary, Asteria and Kelly quickly entered the room as well to back her up, with the knight promptly plopping one hand on top of the girl head, carefully caressing it much to the girls dismay, who tried to appear as small as possible when the woman addressed the scholars and researchers gathered there:
“You heard her. I haven’t checked for myself, but from the way she talks about it, it seems to be the real deal. Could you please give her a chance to prove herself?” She asked, bowing her head in much the same manner the old scholar had done in the presence of Onico, this time for quite the different reason. Seeing the seriousness on both the women’s faces, the young could only look at their elders in the hopes that they would give a satisfactory answer. For a while they stood there, silently, communicating without words in the same manner they have been doing before Onico’s arrival, as if they had made an oath never to let a sound escape through their lips ever again. An eternity seemed to pass in tense silence, as they all waited for their final verdict, which was proclaimed by the same old man that had addressed the court mage a few minutes prior.
“We have decided to allow the girl to try and interpret some loose words whose meaning we have already deciphered through imagery associated with it. Since we are trying to test this girl’s supposed miraculous skill, she will be made to read this words bare, with no clues to help her grasp their true meanings. If she is able to do as much, we will entrust the stone found a few months ago to her. Although no conclusions will be able to be reached from that alone, for we still have no way of verifying the accuracy of her translation in a broader context, it might still give us clues for what to look for next. And hopefully you all know by this point that we thrive on such clues. Now please, dear.” The old man beckoned to girl to approach, ruffling through a pile of papers while Kary walked through the tables, nervousness building up all the while, her mind spinning wild tales of what could happen to her should she fail to do the job entrusted to her. She swallowed the saliva that had been accumulating within her mouth as she reached the old scholar, who now had a piece of paper in his hands. Wordlessly, he handed the girl the paper, a list of words in a language wholly unfamiliar to the girl cascading down the yellowed parchment. From the girl’s perspective, it seemed like a bunch of gibberish, random strings of characters attached together in a senseless cacophony of linguistics. The world held its breath as the girl tried to read it, watching with all the attention in the world as she carefully passed through each of the words, each of the characters, before proudly proclaiming her interpretations:
“House; Children; Tower; Bell; Wall; Friend; Bad. Is that correct?”
“Oh-ho… Hmm, yes… yes it is. Not a single mistake from the samples I gave you. Ha ha ha! That’s unbelievable! To think there actually exists a translation skill out there! Thank you girl, truly. Knowing that those old farts were wrong after all, hah, I can die happy now.”
“Oi! Just because you already have one foot on the grave doesn’t mean you are allowed to die before me, you buffoon!” Exclaimed an equally old lady from her sitting spot, waving her bony arm with her hand balled into a fist of indignation. Hearing the carefree banter between the two, a bit of Kary’s initial apprehension melted away from the warmth coming from them, and, although she wouldn’t mind standing there like a wallflower while appreciating the relationship shared by these two old folks, it seemed that the younger researchers were not about to let the girl go, not without extracting some juicy information from her. To the side of where Kary was, a young woman in pristine white clothes began coughing uncontrollably, drowning out of the sound of the old couple, bringing back the attention of the room towards Kary and her seemingly impossible abilities. Feeling the sting of all the eyes boring holes on her body, the girl couldn’t help but laugh nervously, afraid of what would come next. For a single gut-wrenching moment, it seemed as if the entire weight of the world had been placed on top of her. Her breathing became ragged; sweat droplets began to form on her palms as she waited for what would happen next. What she didn’t expect was the excitement showed by the usually so disturbingly quiet scholars serenely sitting on their wooden chairs, some of whom even jumped into the air while laughing like absolute maniacs.
Historians would later describe in great detail the discoveries kickstarted by the Maiden in White and the countless parties she had been made to participate in due to that. Most of what was translated by the girl amidst the festivities that went well into the night were lost to time, as happens to all things recorded only by the drunken minds of the most brilliant men and women of a nation, the celebration much too agitated for anything at all to remain inside their heads other than the hangover they would all suffer from on the day after, but a singular piece of text was salvaged from the drunken hysteria. Amidst the incessant laughter and glee, Kary was asked by none other than the old scholar the stone that had been promised to her before all hell broke loose. Ignoring the chaos created by his friends, heck, at this point practically his family, he waited, pen and parchment in hands, as the girl slowly made sense of the scribbles hastily jutted down the rock. Although the original context on which it had been written has been lost to the sands of time, its meaning remains, unchallenged, reinforced, even. It was both a warning and a plea, a cry of resignation that managed to send chills down the translator’s spine, despite her lack of worldly experience. Blocking all the sounds from all around her, the girl read:
The vultures of ruin loom upon us all
Watching, circling, cackling with sick glee
For we have failed to make the correct call
With their fire, I wonder, will we finally be free?
So long have I waited for better days to come
But naught all hope is for, forever lost to wretched war
For so long we have tried, our results forever none
And yet by the best I stand, desperation out last straw
For whom this amateur mess might one day find
I wish only to know a single, simple truth
Had there ever been any faith in my na?ve mind
Would there have been any future for our dear youth?
