[B3] Chapter 19 — Ana’s Big Day (Part I)

  Relief washed through Ana at seeing Celestria waving so vigorously. The young lady was still her cheer-filled self. Miela had explained that Celestria had seen war and killed before, but having acted as her maid these many weeks, it was hard to believe even after finding out about the young lady’s war hero title.

  A smile found its way to Ana’s face as she mimicked the young lady’s enthusiastic waving. The choice had been worth it. She reaffirmed to herself that Young Lady Celestria never suffer at the hands of terrible people again.

  Ana still could scarcely believe her current surroundings. She was inside the Grand Academy! The letter had arrived barely four days ago, and now she was here, magic all around her.

  She recognized the young lady’s elf-friend—a second-year student, fellow tower-member, and teammate, apparently. It made sense. How else would the young lady have met and become friends with an elf?

  “First time seeing an elf?” Tabimi questioned, sounding curious.

  “Sir Mage Orlisi has visited my lady before,” Ana asserted, certain that the answer would be a minor victory over the older maid’s expectation. “Sir Mage styled Young Lady Celestria’s hair for her outings with a Novidus young lord and for her debut.”

  The ill-fated debut had been the last time Ana had seen Young Lady Celestria until now.

  “Yes, Young Lady Iselyn’s hair as well. I was frustrated and jealous that my skills weren’t considered enough but proud of my lady. You weren’t jealous?”

  “I was,” Ana agreed. “I got to watch and learn, though.”

  “Hmmm. That’s an unexpectedly commendable attitude.”

  Unexpectedly? Ana wanted to puff her cheeks in complaint.

  More of the young lady’s teammates began to arrive.

  One of them with a monster sitting on the girl’s shoulder: a red-robed girl and imp she had noticed back in the tower.

  Monsters.

  Yes, Ana knew that mages could bind monsters as companions… familiars. Ranger was one after all! In her mind, Ranger was clearly a dog—just smarter than normal—so she hadn’t really thought about the truth before her eyes.

  And, Tyrilenil’s shop had been an elf thing.

  Here, though, there was no hiding from it.

  “Oh? Aren’t you popular?”

  Ana blinked to realize that somehow she had become the center of attention. Her breath froze and her stomach dropped like an abyss. So many eyes and whispers were being directed her way—not only Young Lady Celestria’s friends and teammates, but pairs of students in the viewing stands as well. Everyone.

  Looking her way.

  Because she was too young to be a maid? She had yet to see anyone else her age.

  Feeling her cheeks heating, Ana scrunched down in the seat and reflexively hid behind her hands.

  Tabimi chuckled at her expense.

  Hiding her face in embarrassment would have been her natural reaction before… but, now, was she just going through the motions? Acting as she would have? The embarrassment should have been overwhelming, and yet, instead there was a numbness, a separation to how she perceived and reacted since…

  Oy!

  How was she supposed to hide her face and fend off Tabimi’s squirm-inducing finger-pokes?

  Half the amusement, no doubt. As if being stared at and talked about wasn’t embarrassing enough!

  Blocking with her elbows and peeking through her fingers, Ana witnessed the arrival of a group of older students and that thankfully drew the attention away from her.

  Lowering her hands and letting her fingers trail along the fabric of her towermaid uniform, her fingers brushed over an outline hidden by the fabric, the enchanted killing tool that now carried her sin—an act she had done of her own free will, a choice that had changed everything.

  Moving away from her parents was scary, but none of that was as scary as the truth of what would be required of her to take the position. Or how scary House Vorshan really was.

  After the discussion of the letter and its offer had resolved toward acceptance, Miela had quietly pulled Ana aside to ‘offer private advice’.

  ‘Young Lady Keira and Young Lady Celestria aren’t yet aware, but the blood of House Vorshan’s main House pulses through both of their veins. And both are heir candidates—though for different branches. The duties of the personal maid assigned to an heir candidate require a different sort of commitment, one I would not fault you for shying away from. It would be better if you did,’ Miela had warned her.

  The chance to be a towermaid wasn’t the only reason Ana wanted to do this. She had liked Young Lady Celestria from the start and had suspected that the girl was a noble all along. She felt terrible about what had happened and had worried every day afterward. Young Lady Celestria being an heir was intimidating, but... “I want to. I want to help Young Lady Celestria, even, even if it is only in a small way.”

  The older maid coldly evaluated Ana’s heartfelt assertion, pausing to let the sudden seriousness and scope of the opportunity being offered settle into Ana’s thoughts before continuing, ‘If you are determined, there will be a test of your resolve. Spend the day with your family such that you will have no regrets. I will come for you once everyone is asleep.’

  Somehow, she had come to learn House Vorshan, that she had served all her life, was more than it seemed. Would she be allowed to turn back even if she wanted to past this point? Such thoughts had filled her with worry, and Ana had feared that she would have to fight a beast to prove herself, but no, the test was something far worse. And no, there would be no turning back.

  She wouldn’t go so far as to say there were now two Ana’s, rather there was the part of her that wanted to pretend for a while longer that she was still a normal girl, that everything was just as before.

  The meeting called by the older students ended, and Ana saw the young lady—her young lady—get grouped with two older teammates. The same happened for Tabimi’s young lady and Celestria’s elf friend. Ana didn’t know enough about any of the team members to know whether the young lady’s group was a good or bad result, but the defeated posture of the boy surely wasn’t a good sign.

  “Wonder why the fourth-years are participating…”

  “Are they not supposed to?” Ana asked. Were there year-limited events in the Grand Games? Like the tournament Young Lady Celestria had won?

  “Each can only enter two events, and Ulren and Endreise have already been selected for more important ones,” Tabimi explained. “Besides, does either of Sea-Sword Boy or Frowning Fish Girl seem to you subtle in any way?”

  “Hmm,” Ana considered. What Young Lady Iselyn’s maid was saying did have merit on its face. The girl with the fish had a domineering posture and attitude. The boy looked like Ana’s imagination of a muscled dock worker or deep-sea sailor. “Are they playing as opponents for practice?”

  “Well sure, Ana. That’s not the issue,” Tabimi started to clarify then shrugged with a smile. “You’ll see.”

  Ana glanced toward Young Lady Iselyn. “What about your lady being on a team opposite Young Lady Celestria? Aren’t you worried?”

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  The dismissive snort given in response left Ana feeling offended. Were the older boy and girl paired with Young Lady Celestria that bad? So bad they would drag her lady down to undeserved defeat? Had her lady’s chance been rigged against her? Was her lady being bullied after all?

  Young Lady Celestria had wrapped her group of three in darkness, preventing further evaluation of the pair no matter how much Ana squinted.

  “You’re too cute, my new little friend!”

  Ana was roughly pulled into a side hug and her hair tousled about.

  “My lady was never much liked in her home,” Tabimi whispered over Ana’s captured head. “This’ll be my first time working with a fellow maid who doesn’t cause me trouble because of such pettiness. Let’s treat each other well, Ana.”

  “Thank you for your welcome, senior.”

  “Tabimi. Call me, Tabimi. Or at least, ‘Senior Tabimi’.”

  “Senior Tabimi.” Ana was still an apprentice. Showing respect was only right.

  A voice announced the start of the practice event, and golden light filled the arena and stands. For a moment, the light grabbed at her in an odd way she’d never felt before. Ana was sure she could use her Fate Stealer to slip away from that grasp but the moment passed and the arena was filled with a ghostly mist.

  In the depths of the mist below, the disguised competitors could be seen interacting with an illusionary world, a holographic bust floating above each for easy identification by the spectators. When she stared at any of the competitors, she could hear the sounds of the illusionary world and what was being said. Magic really was amazing.

  Though the part of her that wanted to pretend wanted to marvel endlessly at each new wonder, the just-felt ability to slip through magic was another reminder of her duty and her oath.

  ‘Weapons crafted to defend against the Fateweaver and those like him.’

  That was how Miela explained the Fate Stealer in Ana’s hands.

  Ana didn’t have a clue who this ‘Fateweaver’ guy was, but anyone with a name like that and needing such evil weapons to overcome his power had to be dangerous.

  ‘Is the Fateweaver one of Young Lady Celestria’s enemies? An enemy of our country?’ Ana had asked.

  ‘Thought to secretly serve the High Council and the kings before them, the Fateweaver’s goals are known only to the Fateweaver himself. As such, the great Houses of Crysellia have each devised means to ensure his power would not extend its influence unchecked. Our unnamed organization is one such check.’

  Ana was old enough to know that complicated answers like that meant nothing good, the kind of answer that a girl told herself before doing bad things. She had not been wrong.

  Young Lady Celestria had finished her disguise and split off from Ranger, heading the opposite direction. The young lady was surprisingly skilled at disguise and acting, walking with a happy skip in her step and interacting with the illusionary people.

  A passing woman laughed and called out to Celestria, “My, you must be having a good day, dear.”

  Celestria beamed back at her. “I am! Has the day also been treating you well?”

  “I can’t complain.” The woman shook her head with a smile and chuckled under her breath, “Ah, to be a young apprentice again, still excited by learning a trade!”

  With Ana’s attention so focused on Young Lady Celestria, the arena’s magic brought the view of the young lady closer, and in the increased detail, Ana noticed a dark haze that seemed to cling to her lady. No one Celestria was interacting with seemed to notice it, though.

  Ana sought out the other contestants. Each had a different color clinging to them, and colorful mists floated in the air and swirled like disturbed fog when walked through.

  Unlike the others, Young Lady Celestria’s passing didn’t disturb the colors in the air around her. No, not all of the others. Tabimi’s lady, covered with a pale silvery blue, was the same, also not disturbing the colors.

  “What do the colors mean?” Ana asked her fellow maid.

  “That’s one of the fun features provided by the arenas,” Senior Tabimi answered with amusement in her voice. “The arena’s illusion makes the flow of magic visible so magicless spectators can better enjoy the bouts. The colors represent the element of magic being used. It makes me wonder if this is how nobles and mages see the world all the time; the illusion was created by a mage, after all.”

  Wow. If that was true, the world must seem a different place to nobles.

  “If you focus intently enough, sometimes you can even get a sense of the element.”

  Ana squinted her eyes and leaned forward, drawing a chuckle from her companion, but… maybe there was something…

  “Woof! Woof! Woof woof!”

  Ranger causing a commotion in the illusionary world drew Ana’s attention away from trying to ‘sense’ the different elements.

  Celestria’s brave familiar was jumping side-to-side in front of the dock-worker-looking boy and barking loudly, blocking the way forward and causing people to stare and murmur.

  “Shoo, dog. I don’t know what your problem is, but go bother someone else.”

  “Woof!”

  Did the young lady know?

  Ana quickly switched to Celestria who seemed to be talking to herself.

  “Tallien! Can you hear Ranger from where you are?”

  “…I can,” a boy’s voice answered, sounding reluctant. Was that the defeated-looking boy that was one of Celestria’s group members?

  “Get the guards and bring them. Ranger has Ulren pinned down, I think!”

  “Ugh. I just got away from the guards and now you want me to go back?”

  “This is a chance!”

  “Fine, fine.”

  The elf girl’s holographic bust moving rapidly through the air pulled Ana’s attention back toward Ranger and the dock-worker-looking guy, ‘Ulren’ apparently. Where the elf should have been was a sky-blue haze vaguely shaped like a person. Was the elf flying?! And invisible?!

  “If you’re here, that means your precious person is here. Be a shame if anything happened to her,” Ulren grumbled at Ranger, taking a defensive pose and looking around, as if expecting any one of the people nearby to suddenly attack.

  “Woof! Woof!”

  Ana cringed. Ah, poor Ranger was alone and in danger! Would the reluctant boy get there in time with guards? There was no way Ranger could fight two mages by himself!

  Celestria didn’t seem too worried though, waving and greeting people outside as she ducked into a store. A bookstore?

  “Welcome, come for learning or perhaps a fiction for your leisure?” a man placing books on a mostly full shelf greeted Celestria.

  Celestria chuckled. “An inquisitor adventure would be fun, as only the brave seek the truth these days.”

  “Hmm, I think I have just the book you’re looking for, but is it something a young apprentice can afford? It’s a limited edition and was hard to come by.”

  “Oh? I’m even more interested now; seems I came to the right place.”

  “Indeed you have. I’ll get it for you.”

  While Celestria was engaging in an incomprehensible banter with the bookseller, the reluctant boy, Tallien, now a dapper young man—not unlike Father!—seemed to have done a good job with his task and was running Ranger’s direction with a squad of armored and baton carrying guards.

  Sir Mage Orlisi was hovering nearby, having arrived at the scene.

  “I’m not sensing her, Ulren,” Sir Mage Orlisi whispered into the air.

  “If I take her dog out, the alert is going to go out and cause us problems,” Ulren’s voice spoke from both the dock-worker boy and by Sir Mage Orlisi—a string of blue mist connected them. Was that a long-distance talking magic?

  “That’s him! The one the dog’s barking at, I think he’s an enemy spy!” fancy-Tallien shouted out, pointing.

  “Shit.”

  A sudden storm of whirling salt exploded out from the dock-worker boy and when the magic cleared he was gone, escaping through a nearby shop as the screams of the women inside attested.

  Ana was curious and focused on him.

  “If the dog’s here, Ria’s here. You can’t find her?”

  “I think she’s using Soulkeeper techniques to separate herself from the flow of fate,” the elf girl grumbled, then laughed. “But that won’t stop us from finding the rest of her group, and the guards being around should delay Ria from getting her jade slip at least. For now, let’s get our own jade slips, having one might let me use it to find the other slips.”

  Half the guards chased after the fourth-year, the other half chased after Ranger who took off in a different direction and was howling like a hunting hound that caught a new scent.

  Tallien slipped away, unnoticed in the confusion, his task done.

  Skipping along happily down a crowded street several blocks away, Celestria slid a folded paper from where it had been tucked inside the book she had purchased and unfolded it to reveal two hand-drawn maps and scribbled notes. She asked a passing guard for directions and skipped off toward her next destination, humming a folk tune Ana didn’t recognize.

  Was Ranger’s job simply to cause chaos while Young Lady Celestria accomplished her own tasks? Could it be that easy?

  Somehow, as she watched dumbfounded by her lady’s cunning, Ranger led the guards straight to one of Young Lady Iselyn’s group members who promptly chose to run away, and Tabimi groaned.

  Was it really that easy to sniff out the other participants?

  A glance at Young Lady Iselyn revealed that Tabimi’s lady had also acquired the required maps. It was going to be a close race; was Young Lady Celestria taking this seriously enough?

  Ranger pounced on the boy he was chasing, knocking him down, but Aldri appeared next to the boy and they both disappeared to reappear elsewhere, leaving Ranger to sniff the air, again seeking more chaos to cause.

  “The Black Watch suddenly showed up and now we have mages and familiars running loose, clearly up to no good. What is going on?” one of the winded guards cried out to the sky.

  The event continued like that until the first jade slip was acquired. Sir Mage Orlisi didn’t get far before a black signal flare was launched upward and a terrifying group of black armored knights appeared floating in the sky.

  A voice boomed out from one of the knights, “Clear the streets!”

  In the illusionary world, an entire city ward’s people froze in place, shocked, before panic took over, and amid cries of “It’s the Black Watch!”, people started rushing for their houses, if nearby, or shops and taverns to shelter in if not.