The Way Ahead

Chapter 99b: Looking Up

“You've heard of me?” he asked, confused, “I don’t think Lefi sent even a single letter since we ran into each other. How? Also, yes. Hi. What is there to discuss?”

He shook his head and extended his hand in greeting. She looked at the motion in curiosity, and Edwin quickly withdrew it. Shaking hands wasn’t a thing here, not really.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

She just smiled, “It’s alright.”

Edwin was of two minds about her friendliness. On the one hand, she was clearly like Lefi: she liked everyone, so he wasn’t special. On the other, he did like her more than the clearly-compensating-for-something adventurer he’d been traveling with, and the attention wasn’t bad.

Inion would be giving him such a hard time when they reunited, though.

He realized he’d been sitting in silence for a bit longer than was polite, “Anyway, hi. I’m Edwin.” He inclined his head in greeting as she took a seat next to him, which she replied to with a dazzling smile.

“Pleasure to meet you, Edwin. I’m Rillah.”

“Yeah, I… anyway, what did you want to talk about?”

Smooth, Edwin, real smooth.

She innocently shrugged, “Well, I like seeing interesting things, and there haven’t been a whole lot of those around lately. You’re quite the sight for sore eyes, really,” she capped off her statement with a bit of a sparkle in her eye, but Edwin had gotten mildly distracted in the meantime.

Oh, so I’m better than complete boredom, he mused.

Shut up, me. It was obviously meant as a compliment, another part of him retorted.

“Me? Interesting? I mean… I don’t… other than… and… yeah, I guess,” he sighed without any way to really help the conversation avoid him- after all, so long as Rillah didn’t know much about him, she was unlikely to dislike him.

“It’s okay,” she put her hand on Edwin’s arm, and he felt a powerful Skill originate from the touch. Instinctively, he jerked his arm back, “I’m sorry!”

She immediately apologized, “I didn’t realize that you’d react so negatively. It’s not often that Soothing Touch provokes that kind of response.”

“It’s alright,” Edwin mumbled an apology in turn, “I… overreacted, sorry. It was a flinch. What… what does it do?”

“It’s just meant to help you find the contact soothing, help take off a few nerves.”

“Can-” he started

Can you turn it off? The question sat unbidden on the forefront of his mind, but Edwin brushed it off slightly. He… he could get through this. If nothing else, it was Adaptive Defense training. He didn’t think Lefi would leave him alone with someone untrustworthy, so he could probably let his guard down a bit, right?

“Can I… what?” she prodded slightly.

“Nothing, nothing,” he waved off her concerns, “It’s nothing important. Can… you do that again, I suppose?” he tried asking with a small smile.

“Of course,” she returned an even larger smile and placed her hand back on his forearm. He could see the Skill, a sort of dark silver snaking its way through his arm. Once it reached his torso, he relaxed against the chair, resting his head on the back cushion.

“That… that feels nice,” he remarked, happy to get a smile in response. Then he shook his head, regaining his cognitive functions, “What were we talking about?”

She giggled lightly, “I mean, that doesn’t really matter all that much, does it? We were talking about you, but if that’s not your speed, we can talk about anything else. You’re just so… fascinating.”josei

Edwin vaguely felt like squirming under the compliment, but managed to quash the impulse in part thanks to Soothing Touch’s influence. He could focus, he could be good.

“I guess?”

“Of course you are, Edwin. But how are you enjoying Sheraith?”

“Oh… I don’t know. I haven’t really been here all that long. Getting out from the wind of the plains was nice though.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Oh? I didn’t realize you were responsible for the weather,” he jested, but frowned when he saw Rillah’s face.

“Wait, what? Are you?” Edwin frowned, “Who are you anyway?”

“I told you, silly,” she grinned, “I’m Rillah. We can swap stories about ourselves later if you’d like.”

“Maybe,” Edwin noncommittally acquiesced, “So… weather? I mean, yeah. It’s been nice, though still a bit chilly?” he shrugged, “It’s rained a few times lately, that’s an experience I haven’t had for a while.”

“Spent too long inland?”

Edwin nodded, “Yeah, pretty much. I lived for a year in the Verdant, you know? Never saw even a drop of rain. That was a really weird experience, and then I come out here and it’s raining every other day. Feels more familiar, all told.”

“You’re not from inland, then?”

Edwin shook his head, “Nah. I’m from… much further away.”

“Hmm…” she narrowed her eyes at him, playfully adding, “I’ll learn about you eventually.”

Edwin softly chuckled, “Eh, probably not worthwhile. So… you do something with the winds? Are you a mage?” he suspected as much, she felt like… warm, vigorous winds to his mana sense.

She nodded, laughing quietly, “Yep! I’ve got a… way with the winds, so when their old Weather Mage finally kicked it, they snagged me to help out. They get pretty bad storms, so I’m here to help… keep that from happening.”

Edwin looked at her with newfound respect, “How powerful do you have to be for that?” he asked.

She just laughed, “Oh, most of it isn’t me. You saw all these?”

Rillah pointed to the inscriptions that filled the majority of the room, “All I need to do is magic it up every day and it does the rest, unless there’s something really bad that comes around, but that’s not so common this time of year.”

“But you’re stuck here in the meantime?”

“But I’m stuck here in the meantime,” she flatly agreed.

“For how long?” he asked.

“Blast it if I know. They’re supposed to be getting some replacement from the capital or whatever eventually, but they’ve been saying that for months now. If they don’t get something new soon, though… yeah. They won’t be happy.” She let out a soft peal of laughter.

“It’s as cushy as a cloud here, you know? The position gets an absolute fortune for almost no work, not that I see most of that. Because I’m an adventurer, they say that it would just be wasting good coin and it goes right into the pockets of the local politicians,” she shrugged. “That’s just how it goes, though. And I’m not a Hunter so I don’t mind too much. You really can’t, not if you want to keep your mind.”

She looked at the ceiling, “It is a nice place, though. Never lived in a proper Tower before, so it was quite the experience for the first couple of weeks. But now? Ugh, I so wish I was back on the road. Did I mention how boring it is here?” she asked Edwin, turning to face him more fully, “there’s not even enough room here for a proper Dance! And people get mad if I go flying in the streets. Not that it stops me, you know, but… Oh, I’m sorry. I was rambling.”

“Mmh,” Edwin mutely replied with a shrug.

“Hm. You’ve had enough of this, I think.” She withdrew her hand from Edwin’s arm, and while the effect wasn’t instantaneous, the sensation still felt like being emotionally plunged into a pool of cold water.

He gasped, “Woah, that was a sudden change,” he shook his head, “I hate mental influence Skills.”

She hummed slightly in agreement, “You did a good job keeping yourself composed. Do you have lots of practice?”

“Unfortunately,” he sighed, “I’ve had to directly fight compulsions twice now, and I like to think I’m getting pretty good at it, you know? Apparently relaxation is harder to fight though.”

She grinned, studying Edwin with a keen green eye, “There’s a story there, isn’t there? I’ll get it from you eventually. You practically smell like good stories.”

“Uhhh….” Edwin wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“It’s a Skill! Honest,” she tried to reassure him.

There were some awkward moments of silence while Edwin tried to process the new information.

“So… you’re a wind mage?” he eventually guessed just to break the silence, based off the feel of her mana, the formations in the room itself and her supposed job.

“Hmm… you first.”

“Me?”

“Well, it’s not often I meet another mage,” she explained, “and it’s always neat to compare notes. What’s your specialty? I’ll tell you mine if you go first,” she winked.

Edwin returned a smile. Ah, so that was what she found interesting about him. His magic. And here he marginally had hoped it was his personality. But of course it wasn’t, why would it be? “I mean… I don’t know if I’m that interesting or even have a speciality. I’ve got like three Skills that use magic, two of them are evolutions? I started off with Basic Mana Sense, used that to get the Mage path, got Basic Mana Manipulation with that, evolved it into Mana Infusion, then combined Mana Infusion with Packing to get Flight.” He shrugged, “So yeah.”

“Didn’t you get any evolved magical Skills? Unless you’re tier one?”

“Let’s say you go first?” he countered, “I mean, it’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just…”

“You only just met me,” she finished, “And I’m this strange and beautiful figure with natural magic and you think I might be a fey or something.”

“Funny you say that…”

“I’m joking,” she said with a smile, and brushed her hair to the side, “The System calls it Isochronal magic, and that means what I’m good at changes with the seasons. This time of year I’m one of the stronger wind mages on the continent- not that there’s much competition,” her voice lowered into a grumble, “and is why I’m here.”

“What about other times of the year?” he asked.

“Uh-uh-uh! You need to tell me about your magic first. Also, it’s seasonal. You could probably guess it.”

She really liked winking, didn’t she? Edwin sighed, “I have… five tier two magical skills. One is Mana Infusion, lets me make Skills and materials magical,” her eyes widened at that but she didn’t say anything, “Then Ritual Intuition, which lets me get a sense for what different kinds of mana are, Overcharge- which Lefi could tell you all about, and lets me Mana Infuse myself and my attributes, Improbable Arsenal which is like Efficient Space but needs magic, and Basic Thermokinesis, which lets me heat up stuff.”

“That’s it? Well, I wasn’t expecting that, is all. Quite the impressive collection, I have to say. What about Flight?”

“Haven’t evolved that one yet, actually. Only got it a little while ago.”

“Aw, a liddle tier one are we?”

“Hey!” he protested, “Lefi is tier one too.”

She smirked, “Well I suppose he is. But you’re both children to me. Clearly I am the most mature one in this building.”

“Really? What about… I forgot her name. The Assistant.”

“Pierash? Well, maybe. If you count being boring and uptight as being mature.”

“Wait, that wasn’t what you were doing?”

She rolled her eyes and swatted Edwin’s arm in response, “Oh, shush. You’ve known me for less than three hours, you should not be so…”

“Quick-witted?” Edwin supplied.

“Precocious,” she settled on, then frowned, “Wait, no. That doesn’t translate well with Polyglot.”

“It’s a bit strange seeing the guy who raised me look younger than I am,” she continued, “but that’s how it is sometimes.”

“Wait, Lefi? He’s older than you?” At long last, confirmation that Lefi was in fact older than his abnormally young appearance.

She shrugged, “Don’t really know how old he is. Depending on when you ask he’s either older than the Adventurer program itself, was one of its first participants, or might ‘just’ be about twenty years older than you or I. But he’s looked the exact same for the last fifteen years, and acted the same way too.” Rillah shook her head, “He hasn’t changed a bit.”

“So then, you’ve known Lefi for fifteen years?”

“Ever since I became an Adventurer. Well, he helped me become one.”

“So that means you were… what, Yathal’s age when you met him?”

She thought for a moment, “That seems about right.”

“How’d you become an Adventurer so young?” he asked, but immediately realized he had made a mistake when he saw Rillah’s reaction.

“Hmmm… let’s wait until we know each other better for that, kay?”

Edwin shrank back, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

“Hey! Hey. It’s okay,” she tried to reassure him, not wanting to hurt his feelings, “Look, how about… you can ask me any question you want and I’ll try to answer, okay?”

That didn’t help him when it came to feeling bad, but whatever. He sat in silence, thinking for a short while before finally deciding.

“Can you… teach me magic stuff?” Edwin settled on.

“Why do you think I was trying to talk to you?” she winked, “But you gotta help me in turn, deal?”

Edwin shrugged, “Sounds good to me, I guess.”

“But that can be another time! Tell me, how was your trip? Lefi always exaggerates so much, did anything interesting happen on the road to you?”

“Well, there was this spider….”

By the time the two of them finished talking, it was late. It was quite possibly the most positive human interaction that Edwin had had in literal years, and he was exhausted. The human interaction had started shifting from enjoyable to just draining at some point, but Rillah either was another extrovert, or had some kind of Skill that gave her social stamina and seemed just as cheerful and bright as she had been to begin with.

She yawned and stretched, giving Edwin a slightly sleepy grin, “Well that was nice, but I think it’s about time for bed, yeah?”

He nodded in reply- he was still marginally recovering from not sleeping the night before, but he was essentially fine, “Are the rooms all all the way at the bottom?”

She nodded and rolled her eyes, “The tower’s really old, but pretty much all of its masters could fly. They liked to show off their superiority by making everyone climb endless stairs if they wanted to get to any of the magic stuff, whereas living is all done at the bottom.

“Also, I’m pretty sure the top’s been knocked over a time or two, so… yeah. Sleeping in the bottom.”

“I guess that makes sense. Still, it’s a lot of stairs to have to go all the way back down.”

“Or… take the fast way!” she called out, and fell backwards into the stairwell.

Edwin’s stomach lurched, but before he even really thought through his actions, he had sprung up and jumped into the void.

Vertigo set in immediately, but he wrestled the impulse to the side as he activated Flight and…

Oh. Right.

Of course she could fly too. She was a wind mage, more or less, and had even said that she could during their conversation.

However, he had expected her flight to be strictly magical, like his was. Maybe a mantle of winds or whatever that wrapped her and allowed her to float effortlessly. He was not expecting to watch a pair of massive wings spring from her back- so that was why she left it bare, that made sense- filling up most of the airspace with burnt orange, yellow, and red feathers.

He managed to Tether himself to the side before he could slam into her, but she slowed down as well, rising up past him and making her wings outright pass through him.

“Aww! So noble, trying to save me from my own jump?”

“I wasn’t…” he trailed off. “Shut up,” he muttered, much to the laughter of Rillah as they floated down a too-tall tower.

And so, Edwin found himself on a proper bed for the first time in nearly two months, studying the ceiling. For all that it had been an exceptionally long and exhausting- in every sense- day, he still felt it was overall a success.

He’d found someone who he could stand and that could stand him, not that it was too great of an accomplishment for someone who clearly both just ‘liked everyone’ and had likely been asked by Lefi to help Edwin out of his ‘shell,’ just like with Yathal.

He was perfectly in control of his own shell, thank you very much. He didn’t need to be pulled out like some scared little kid.

Another part of him said he shouldn’t complain about so much personal attention from a pretty girl, but the year and a half he’d lived with Inion put that part of his brain firmly under his control.

In any case…

Edwin sighed. It had been a nice day. He would stick with that. Tomorrow, he’d visit Inion and see if there was any good way to try and smuggle her into the city- maybe she could hide inside a water barrel or something- and maybe start learning a bit about magic from Rillah. Maybe he would stick around for a bit longer, he thought. It… wouldn’t be awful, at least.

He could enjoy this.