Chapter 624 - Home Again

Arachne was on my side, but probably more than a little irritated with my extra-curricular activities in Ithil. I was a strong proponent of after action reports, analyzing what I did and why, along with trying to figure out weaknesses… but I was going to wait until later to analyze my actions. Sara needed me, and I was going to focus on her and the rest of my family right now. I’d get around to chatting with Arachne later, and analyzing my actions then. Also, my chewing out would probably be shorter. 

The easy part of a war was winning it. The difficult part was after. Rebuilding, regrouping, and ruling. 

I didn’t quite leave immediately. I took a detour… or five… on the way back.

I was looting, plain and simple. There was no use prettying it up in fancy words. There was no use in justifying it. ‘The library is burning down’. ‘The place is going to be ruined’. ‘I can do good things with these books’. ‘I’m going to add them to the library’.

No.

It was far better to look my actions in the eyes and own them. 

I swooped through the burning library-museum, entirely ignoring the blazing inferno. I split my mind into dozens of parts, each one rapidly [Teleporting] books as quickly as I could into my hands, where one last thought process was stashing them into my [Manor].

It was strangely heady. I didn’t want to promise I’d never do it again - forever was such a long time - but after I left the last library, I mentally put a 64-year ban on doing something like this again.

A large part of me was tempted to yell ‘so long, suckers!’ as I flew off into the sunset, but I refrained from shouting. That difficult, tricky work was all somebody else’s problem. I was going back to Orthus and my home, and seeing my friends and loved ones again. I’d earned the break.

Speeches all morning, two hours of attacking Ithil, an hour on cleanup and talking with Sara, and it looked like I was going to be in Orthus for dinner.

I flew back at my absolute top ‘in case of emergencies’ speed. I was going home! Back to my own bed! Back to my orchard! Back to my friends and family! I was going to eat mangos and hug Artemis! I was going to read a book and hike familiar trails! I was going to get my hands in the dirt and drink hot chocolate by the fireplace.

I hadn’t gotten too many levels from my spying over the last few years, although my map making and world travels had gotten me a few. The annual meetups just hadn’t happened at all, which sucked. Auri, however, had been a busy, busy little phoenix, and I’d gotten a steady stream of practically unearned levels from her. All of those levels had helped improve my speed, and I squeezed out every drop of speed to make it home sooner.

The sun was setting as I circled around our cottage in the woods, a cheery smokestack letting me know someone was home. I landed, smiling as the home came into range of [The World Around Me]. I almost teared up at a sweet gesture of theirs. They had a bowl in the kitchen, stocked with fresh mangos. I had no idea how much time and effort they’d spent over the time I was gone making sure it was always fully stocked with fresh fruit just in case I came over, but I was deeply  touched. 

I landed and knocked.

It was my home, sure, but barging in unexpectedly would be rude. Plus, I wanted the place to still be standing, and jump-scaring Artemis wasn’t how I kept the place intact. Titania got the door.

“Titania! I’ve missed you so much!” I bounced excitedly on my feet. Titania wasn’t a hugger, and it’d be rude for me to impose on her like that.

“Elaine!? Is that my healy-bug!?” Artemis shouted from deeper in the house.

Artemis forewarned, I [Teleported] right next to her, wrapping my arms around the woman. They were just about to sit down for dinner, and Amber was grinning. The rascal, I bet she showed up three minutes ago. There was a suspicious amount of food being made. I opened one of my arms.

“Come on Amber, get in here, group hug!” I demanded. I was a little sad that it was just the three of them for now, but delighted they were all here. Amber limped in, and I was suddenly conscientious of the fact that I was the strongest one here by a huge margin, and I couldn’t squeeze them as hard as I wanted. 

“Eee!” Amber joined the pile, and I spent a blissful moment.

Home.

We broke the hug.

“But wait!” I said. “There’s more.”

My serious tone wiped the smiles off Amber and Artemis’s face.

“First things first. The New Remus Empire is no more. I just came from Ithil. Long story short, everyone got mad at the New Remus Empire and went to beat them up. Night personally executed their high command.”

Artemis grinned viciously at the comment, and I remembered that she’d also been personally trained by Night, once upon a time.

“Go tell Skye, she’ll be delighted to hear it.” Artemis said. I poked her in the ticklish part of her side.

“You go tell Skye, oh mighty Ranger Commander. I am nothing more than a humble farmer.”

Identical twin snorts of disbelief met my statement.

“There’s going to be fallout, of course. Let’s skip all that. While in Ithil I met a recently orphaned girl, Sara. She had nowhere else to go, and wanted to stick with me.” I shrugged. “I said yes. Any last second questions before I introduce her to everyone?”

Artemis shrugged.

“I can always ask when she’s asleep.”

“Hey Titania! I think we’re going to need a kid’s room set up!” Amber shouted over to the woman. She didn’t acknowledge, but she did start to move over to a less-used storeroom.

“Quick, not really funny story.” Amber said. “My coin suggested that I stock up on a few children’s toys, but I tend to also use my best personal judgment. A sanity check. I’d judged that it was a poor idea, so… sorry, I don’t have anything for you.”

I shrugged. I hadn’t expected Amber to bring me anything. “That’s fine.” I said, then opened up [Portcullis] and stepped inside.

“Coming?” I asked. The two followed me in.

I could immediately see Sara through [The World Around Me], and I internally winced. She’d cried herself out and crashed, her head lolling at an awkward angle as she drooled on the blanket. I put a finger over my lips, Artemis nodded her acknowledgement, and the three of us quietly sneaked through my [Manor] to Sara’s room. I quietly opened the door, and knelt down next to Sara.

“Hey Sara? We’re here.” I quietly whispered to the girl as I gently shook her shoulder. I made sure the first thing Sara saw was my smiling face, touched with some concern. Which was how I felt, I just had the ability to properly and knowingly show the emotions in a way that would be correctly interpreted.

A gentle shake didn’t wake her up, and Artemis shook her head.

“She’s all tuckered out. Let’s get her into a real bed, and handle her when she wakes up.”

I nodded and took a hold of Sara, the little elf instinctively curling up next to me. We silently moved back into the cottage, Titania already having fixed up Sara’s room. Seriously, how did she do it!? We hadn’t even had a child sized bed in the house three minutes ago! I closed the curtains with [Teleportation] - just a quick ‘flicker’ resetting their position - stopping the evening sun from streaming in. I tucked her into bed with Toothy, her doll, as Titania brought in a rocking chair, and Amber appeared a few minutes later with a plate.

“We’ll catch up later?” She whispered. I shook my head, settling down on the chair. No idea when Sara would wake up, but it shouldn’t be all alone, not again.

“Just whisper downstairs, I’ll hear it from here. I’ll teleport over notes to my contributions.”

Amber shuddered.

“I usually forget just how much you see and know.” She said. “It’s spooky.”

I shooed her away with my hand, a twinkle in my eyes.

I’d wanted to introduce Sara to everyone over dinner… but maybe it’d be a midnight snack. I took two books out of my storage. One of the books I’d, ahem, saved from Ithil, and a notebook. Getting a quill was another brief thought. Everyone else went downstairs, and all started on dinner.

“How was your trip back?” Artemis asked to the empty air, clearly directed at me. She looked around, a hair uncomfortable, like she wasn’t sure how to direct her question.

My mind stumbled upon an idea, and I pulled out a third book. A half-filled spellbook. I spent a moment with most of my [Luminary Minds] going, working out the math involved, before I got scribbling with [Reality, Writ As You Will]. I put my hand on the mandala as it finished, casting the spell.

I was a little off. I hadn’t bothered to go more precise with my casting, but a direct copy of me shimmered into existence at the table, a combination of Mirror to copy my image and Mirage to project it. I ‘looked’ Artemis in the eyes and smiled. Amber rolled her eyes and scooted ‘outside’ of my projection.

Technically, I could mimic ventriloquy with wizardry, but sound was hard. Sounding like myself was even harder without prepared ‘capture and cast’ spells, but that would involve talking loudly next to Sara, which defeated the purpose of it. Letters, however, were completely valid. 

Trip was fine! Only took me a few hours. My flying speed is great these days! It’s a little sad though, the world feels like a smaller and smaller place every time. I’m pretty sure I could go around the world in a single day if I wanted to. Powerful Classer Problems, I know. How about you? Anything fun recently? I wrote down on a piece of paper, tore it out, and [Teleported] it down to Artemis.

My once-mentor read it out loud for everyone. 

“I’m turning green with jealousy.” Amber declared. “If I could move that fast…” She trailed off, but I could see the arcs dancing behind her eyes, jingling more beautifully than a tower filled with gold. I wondered if she was ever going to let her eyes literally turn into arcs? That’d be hilarious.

Artemis briefly tensed up, then relaxed.

“Well, let me tell you about some absolute idiots, and why there’s nobody from the New Remus Empire around right now. Oh, and the new Rangers got some lessons. It all started with a note…” 

Speaking of notes, I started to write my next contribution to the conversation. I’d add in what I thought of Artemis’s story into it, I just didn’t want to forget. Thank goddess for [Luminary Mind] letting me do several things at once. I could still actively listen to Artemis, while thinking and planning.

Hey Amber, think you could take a stroll around the neighborhood after dinner and pick up a few kid’s things for Sara?

=============

I stayed in my chair when Sara started to stir in the middle of the night. She’d crashed early, it was no surprise. I grabbed a spellbook of mine and quickly cast a few dim lights around the room, slowly brightening colorful balls. She sat up and looked around, her face falling when she saw me. Sara promptly burst into tears.

Not exactly the reaction I’d been hoping for. She was vaguely reaching out to me, and I swooped over, wrapping her up in my arms.

“S-s-sorry.” She stuttered out. “I thought it was a bad nightmare, then I saw you, and it’s not… they’re gone.”

“Shhhh.” I rubbed her back in a circle. “I’m here. Do you want a bite to eat? You’ll feel better.”

Sara shook her head, and I was suddenly lurched into an internal debate.

She needed to eat. Did I put my foot down, and insist she eat something because it was good for her? She was just a kid. Or did I show kindness, understanding, and compassion, and leave her be? At the same time, that could be just as bad of an idea. 

Hmmm.

“Alright, you don’t have to eat if you don’t want to. Let’s go downstairs, to the living room. I’ll get some snacks out if you change your mind, and maybe we can…” What did parents do with their kids? Play? Chores? Sara was in no state for either one right now. “... see what happens.”

As easy as it would be to simply [Teleport] Sara around, I guided her downstairs step by step, Toothy locked in a death-grip. I did blatantly use my magic to fix up some easy snacks. We hadn’t exactly been quiet, and a bleary-eyed Artemis joined us a little later. We settled down, and Artemis opened up the conversation.

“Hi Sara, I’m Artemis! It’s nice to meet you. What’s your favorite color?”

Sara locked onto Artemis, clearly mulling over the question.

“Green.” The elf finally declared.

“Green! That’s a great color. Grass and leaves, so many things are green!” Artemis said.

With that small crack, we slowly pried Sara out of her shell. It took days for her to become halfway functional, and we didn’t force it. Once she was up and moving around a bit more, we slowly added in more. Light chores, perfect for a kid. Books and stories. I created ‘the invisible book’, which I pretended to turn the pages of while I recited stories from memory. Stories from Earth, stories from Pallos. Stories from Exterreri, and stories from Urwa. Games and playing with the other kids in Orthus - Sara was an instant hit, the cool new kid. And an elf. The prejudices against the New Remus Empire hadn’t become hatred against elves, and hadn’t had time to extend to children. They hadn’t been taught to hate yet. I could see a golden glimmer of Arachne’s plan, the consequences and benefits to striking immediately. Hatred against vampires had been cited, yes, but how easy would it have been for the hatred to extend to elves as well? How many decades would it have taken to expunge it?

The last part was education. A broad basis to start Sara’s life off. She was only two years away from her System unlocking, and I wanted to give her the best start to life possible.

“Do you know what you want to try first when your System unlocks?” I asked Sara. If she’d been on a path already, I wasn’t going to disrupt her. Plus, Immortal elf. They tended to cycle through a dozen different things, but the common thought was the first path, the first time going through the levels, shaped and defined a person more than anything else. It made sense. Being a [Warrior] during a person’s formative years would carry with them for the rest of their life. 

“What do you do?” Sara asked one bright morning. We were outside, up in a tree, looking down on the plain Orthus was in. I smiled.

“Well, I’m a healer. I help fix people when they get hurt! If they scrape their knee or get a splinter, I make it all better.”

I wasn’t going to mention the horrors of Ithil, not when the wound was so fresh, not without her bringing it up first.

“Were you helping people back at my home?” Sara asked. It was the first time she’d brought it up.

I nodded.

“Yup! It looked like you’d gotten fairly hurt. I don’t know for a fact that it was my healing that helped you, but I think it was. I’m pretty strong.”

“Oh.” Sara said, kicking her feet freely. Part of me worried, the other part knew I had at least a dozen different ways to catch or heal her before she hit the ground if she fell off the branch. “Can you heal everyone in a city?”

“At the same time.” I said. Sara bit her lip and looked down at the forest floor, mulling over her next question, opening her mouth a few times before looking away and closing it.

“It’s okay, you can ask me anything, I won’t get mad. I promise.” I said.

“Okay… Why didn’t you heal my parents?”