The Ethersmith

“You’re not horrible, Aolinn,” Vivi found herself saying. “I’ve met far worse people.”

“That has to be a lie,” Aolinn said under her breath.

“No, you really aren’t,” Vivi said. “At least not right now. You’ve been easy to take care of. You’re only annoying when you act like a princess. You tried to kick us out of the ball only for being loud. You yelled at a boy on the streets because he inconvenienced you for seconds.”

To Vivi’s surprise, Aolinn didn’t start arguing. Her eyes pointed even lower. “A Royal princess must know her worth. If the daughter of a sovereign is disrespected, the inconvenience must be dealt with wrath.”

“Is that what you’ve been taught?”

“It’s… what my father told me. Word by word.”

“Well, that’s what makes you annoying,” Vivi said. “Everyone below your rank is afraid of you. And everyone above your rank…”

“They’re competition,” Aolinn said. “Competing for what, I don’t know. I’m the youngest daughter. I’m a marriage piece. Nothing else.” She snorted. “I’m really quite worthless, am I not?”

“You’re not,” Vivi said, though she couldn’t find the words to prove that. Instead, she asked, “How old are you?”

“I’m sixteen,” Aolinn said. “The age where I need to look for a partner, or I really become useless.”

She’s really younger than me, Vivi thought.

The campfire crackled, while Alda shifted around on her makeshift grass bed. Behind her, a flash of scarlet ether came as Lucius shot a ranged claw attack at a mild ethereal presence. Probably another rabbit. A slash sounded as the claws collided. That definitely didn’t help Aolinn’s mood.

“I don’t know if I can help,” Vivi said. “I don’t think you’re a horrible person. But you trying to kick us out from a ball was annoying. That kind of behavior will make me dislike you. I won’t be friends with someone who frowns at someone simply because they’re dressed worse. Even if that someone is a commoner. Especially then.”

“So even though I’m a sovereign’s daughter,” Aolinn asked, “I should still act modestly?”

“I’m not telling what you should or shouldn’t do,” Vivi said. “Those are just the reasons why I disliked you when we met.”

Aolinn continued staring at the ground, thoughtful. “I’ll improve. I want to be more like you. I want others to be happy when they see me. Not afraid.”

“I think you’re on the right path,” Vivi said with a subtle smile. “If you’re happy to see someone else, they will probably be happy to see you as well.”

Aolinn nodded. “Yes. I don’t know if I understand, but I’ll try my best.”

That nod seemed determined, replacing some of her gloominess. Silly girl, Vivi thought. Talking to Aolinn somehow made her feel so old, even though the gap between them was only one year.

It seemed they’d have a lot of time to get to know each other. Vivi was glad Aolinn wasn’t a complete maniac of a travel companion. “Try to get some sleep,” Vivi said. “We might be walking a lot tomorrow.”

Aolinn nodded. “Thank you. And good night.” She lay back down and didn’t whimper for the rest of the night.

***

“So, princess, can I call you Ao?” Alda asked.

Vivi squinted under the bright glare of the morning facets. She blinked twice, and saw Alda grinning, full of energy, with her hands on Aolinn’s shoulders.

“Ao?” the noblewoman asked, voice soft. “Eh, sure?”

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“Perfect,” Alda said. “Then, pretty girl, tell me what do you know about farming?”

“Farming?” Aolinn asked. “Um, not much?”

“I figured. From today onward, you’ll be my farming assistant, Ao. I’ll teach you how to grow some food, and we’ll have a lot of fun. How does that sound?”

Aolinn looked like she wanted to reject the offer out of habit, but another part of her was clearly transfixed by Alda’s grin and the new nickname. A soft and nervous “uhhh” escaped from her mouth, until she said, “It sounds… good?”

“Perfect,” Alda said. “For your first lesson as my assistant, you will learn that, under no circumstances, should you wander off more than twenty yards away from me, or you might get ambushed by a rabbit. Understand?”

Aolinn squeaked a nervous sound as agreement, while Cael sat next to Vivi.

“Looks like she took a liking to you,” Cael said with a light smile.

Vivi sat still with a headache for a moment. She rubbed her eyes. “Who, what, when?”

“Aolinn,” Cael said. “How did you get her to trust you so fast?”

Vivi gave him a look. “You were both eavesdropping, weren’t you?”

“Perhaps. Would you like tea?”

“Sure…”

Cael summoned a mug from spatial storage and poured tea from a kettle he’d heated up. “This isn’t from some random plant, no need to worry,” he said. “I’ve got tea stored for two weeks.”

“Thanks.” Vivi’s posture remained low, her whole body still utterly exhausted as she took a sip. The tea wasn’t as bitter as she would have liked, but it would do. Lortel was already drinking tea, sitting on a log with her usual calmness. Vivi sighed, being the last one to wake up. “Looks like I’ve gotten used to sleeping in Paradise…”

“Honestly,” Cael said, “the ability to fall asleep instantly, anywhere, is the best feature of becoming an ether hunter. Although, camping in a forest with murder rabbits around us was also a pleasant change for once.”

I can’t wait to get home… Vivi thought. “Everyone is dying above. We’ll need to get out of here as soon as we can.”

“Yeah, I believe everyone agrees,” he said. “I’m hoping to gain more information out of Francesco soon. In the meantime, we’ll explore all of the safer areas, while figuring out a method to safely traverse the caves and the lava area.”

“Any ideas?” Vivi asked.

“For the questions I want to ask Francesco, yes,” Cael said. “And for exploring the caves, it might be smart to craft a blowgun with shockwave runes. If light doesn’t shine through the thick ether, maybe we can just blow the layers off.”

Vivi raised her eyebrow. “That could work. Do you know how to craft one?”

“I have absolutely no idea,” Cael said with perfect confidence.

Vivi snorted. “I could make one, but I’m missing half of the materials and equipment. I have a few ether roots and my hammer and crochet hooks, but I only have a few ingots in storage, and I’ll need a forge and an anvil, or something to replace those.”

Cael batted an eye at the mention of a crochet hook, but said, “Well, you’re the runesmith.”

“Speaking of runes,” Vivi said, and called, “Alda, can you come here for a moment?”

The woman paused her lectures, and they headed over, Aolinn hesitantly behind, as if unsure whether she was included or not. “I have a few spare runeswords still in spatial storage,” Vivi said. She summoned one of them, handing it to Alda. “That one is called ‘Moonlight’. I’ll let you use it while we’re here.”

For Cael, she summoned an even older back-up sword made of crystal mithril, with strength and swiftness runes. He tried to hold his hands back, saying, “I’m not very good with swords.”

“You’ll be much safer off with it,” Vivi said. “I don’t need it. I still have one more back-up on top of my strongest sword.”

“We have spirit swords, you know,” Alda said while eyeing Moonlight. “I know you’re trying to prove that runeswords are competitive again, but the spirit blades have worked wonders for us for over a century.”

“No, those swords aren’t just competitive,” Vivi said. “Have your spirits run some ether through them. You’ll know right away. That’s a much stronger sword than anything you’ve swung before.”

Alda gave her a look, but she flowed ether through her hand, into the runes.

Her eyes blinked with ether as she froze in place, until the focus in her eyes disappeared, as if she’d suddenly lost her senses. Vivi knew that feeling. When something was so overwhelming in the ethereal realm—a totally blinding presence—the five other senses suddenly felt insignificant and small in comparison. Alda just stood still, admiring the feeling.

Until she planted her left foot for a strong stance, and she slashed wide behind her.

Moonlight’s blade hit an arrow perfectly in the middle, cutting it open. The two arrow halves flew astray, the other crushing through a nearby tree, the second hitting the ground with a thump, dirt flying off.

Aolinn yelped, falling on her back, as crossbow-wielding figures revealed themselves in a circle around the encampment. Ten of them, blue crystalline figured, vaguely shaped like humanoids. A few of them had horns, some didn’t, and they wore clothes. Nine wore white rag-like robes, one with a pitch-black cloth. Their eyes were fully white, monstrous, and each one had ethereal auras well into the tens of thousands.

Compared to monsters, ten thousand was not a lot. But humanoids and monsters used ether differently. The ether that demons or spirits shaped was much more efficient than the ether that made up monsters. These creatures were far more efficient with ether than any monsters Vivi had ever seen.

“Capture them alive,” the black-clothed figure said. “Tie them down. Take their weapons. Keep their tongues. In ten years, they might learn our language.”