106. Chapter
Leaving my room in haste, I almost ran into Camilla, who was standing outside my door, seemingly just about to enter. Her eyes widened in surprise, looking at me with a startled expression.
I instinctively stopped and looked her in the eye. She seemed frustrated, if anything.
The moment her surprise passed, her eyebrows narrowed, and her arms gestured wildly in the air. "Selora? Could you finally explain to me what is going on?" She demanded softly, clearly anxious about my recent antics.
"Ah... yes, getting unresponsive without any explanation must have scared you, sorry. I was in a rush." I apologized.
She stared at me for several seconds, clearly unamused with my answer.
Then her expression softened considerably as she stepped up to me before both of her hands pinched my cheeks hard, pulling my face in a grandmotherly gesture. She didn't seem to intend on letting me go, not until she released some of her frustration.
"Aw, aw, aw-aw-aw... c-can you s-stop?" I pleaded after feeling my cheeks getting painfully hot.
"Didn't hear the magic word." The girl added, but there was no humor in her voice. Seeing the way things were going, I quickly capitulated to her righteous fury.
"S-sorry..." I spoke. "Could you let go... p-please?"
That seemed to do it; after a short sigh, Camilla finally let go of my face, allowing me to quickly hide it under my palms before she could change her mind.
I stood in stunned silence while rubbing my face with my hands.
Camilla put her arms around my shoulders and led me back into the room, carefully closing the door behind us. She told me to sit, her tone still having a strange sense of strictness that I just failed to associate with her usually bubbly personality.
Feeling too awkward to oppose her, however, after the damage I received, my body went along with her demands, and I sat silently at the edge of the bed.
What followed wasn't what I expected, not from Camilla, that is.
The redheaded lass looked at me, a flicker of exasperation glinting in her dark-green eyes, but only for a short time. "I am disappointed in you. Selora." The echo of her voice filled my room, and I froze under her pointed glare.
"Uh-hu..." was the only thing I could say, being faced with the unexpected situation.
She continued, without pause. "I heard some interesting things from your newfound friends. This Hilde girl is quite the rumor monger." Her face leaned closer to mine while standing over me ominously. "She said you got accused of being a blood mage after using some strange magic on Alita's father when he threatened you?" She allowed a moment of silence to drive home her point before directing her question at me. "Is this true?"
I squirmed under her stare, finding the floor unreasonably interesting.
"It's... true, but I... didn't want to do that... I just, I mean, it just kind of happened..." I struggled explaining my situation.
Camilla straightened upon hearing my words, her frown getting tighter by the second. "Are you trying to say that you lost control of your magic, your blood magic? I am not condemning you for defending yourself, but using blood magic of all things, too many of us know already that you are a mage capable of such." She scolded, her voice filled with genuine disappointment.
"I am sorry... I don't know what has gotten into me. One moment I was planning to leave, the next I was overwhelmed with anger, and... the next thing I knew, he was being pressed into the ground, held by his own blood. " I admitted, whispering the last part. Didn't want to risk anybody overhearing it. "Please don't tell it to Aria; if she hears about it, she is going to beat my butt for real this time."
Camilla took in my honest expression, then sighed, rubbing her eyes in an act of tiredness. "Sometimes I forget that you are literally just the equivalent of a teenager."
"Eh?" I looked up at her, surprised by the turn of events.
"That said, I am still going to tell her if... when she gets back. " Camilla added, correcting herself mid-sentence. "You should not have done that; it was incredibly stupid, and without the attack on the capital, you would have been thrown in a dungeon or killed by now."
"You'd better suffer the consequences of your actions than grow stupid by coming to the wrong ideas. That all three people who figured out your nature have decided to let you live is more than a miracle, really." She sighed. "Don't think your luck will last any longer. In fact, you should hope that Lord Smith perished in the partial collapse of his manor, because if he didn't, you would be investigated, and seeing how even a child managed to figure out what you are, I don't expect you to pass an investigation in this matter."
I nodded, still hiding my cheeks under my palms.
"That, and stop going all unresponsive on me, not even mentioning that you used me as a mount or whatever. Stupid elf, I can't let you get inquisitioned before you teach me some proper spells. We had an agreement before. I hope you didn't forget it." She scolded me half-heartedly, but there was still a barely noticeable edge to her voice.
"You are just like the others..." I complained, the ghost of a smirk appearing on my face.
Camilla's eyes narrowed at me inquisitively.
"You only want me for my spells," I finished.
Her eyes crinkled momentarily as she added. "Oh~ I think a certain dwarf lass wants far more than just that... Seeing how she rushed over when I brought you here on my back. That girl, Alita, was giving me quite an earful."
I gulped seeing Camilla's mischievous grin. I could feel my ears getting hot under her stare. The moment stretched for a few seconds.
Then Camilla broke into lighthearted laughter.
"Ha ha ha! Oh, god... You should have seen your face." Her eyes run over my body, taking in my hesitant posture and the reluctant expression I wear, ears twitching occasionally. "If you act that clueless around others, you shouldn't be surprised that people want to glomp you, idiot girl."
"Don't call me that..." I asked her, pouting.
She shook her head. "Now you are just doing it to mess with me. Not gonna work."
I thought about it and eventually nodded. Not that I acted that much differently from the way I usually did; however, I had to accept that my new appearance caused different reactions altogether. I have known that for quite some time, and this uncertainty, that I didn't know what to expect anymore, caused me to act far more restrained. Well, that, and getting kidnapped and assaulted several times in a month will do that to you, I suspect.
"Good. Now, where were you planning to go?" She asked, slightly intrigued. Her previous act of seriousness was crumbling away in a few moments.
A shiver went over me, seeing the rapid change. "Ugh... Women are scary..." I whispered under my breath. Fortunately for me, Camilla lacked the heightened hearing that elven people shared, and she missed my comment.
"I want to experiment in creating golems of different elements," I explained dutifully, just like a recently scolded elementary student.
Camilla nodded to that. "You can do that? You never mentioned it before... Why?" she questioned.
"I only recently learned about this, for certain..." I said.
Camilla thought it over, then asked again. "Do you require a quantity of the element you wish to use for your golem? I noticed that when you focused your spell on the ground, you always ended up with an earth golem."
"Now that you mention it..." I faltered thinking through my previous experiences casting the spell. "I suppose so."
The redhead nodded with a smile on her face. "There is a small pond in one of the corners of the backyard." Her smile widened. "Try making something that could hit them from afar."
Seeing that the usual Camilla was back, I couldn't contain my own smile to mirror her expression. "Let's try it, then."
A few minutes later.
We were standing in the backyard looking at the unassuming pond before us. "Go on." Camilla urged me excitedly, poking me in the ribs.
"Stop that! I am trying to focus, you know. It's hard enough without your harassment, woman." She snorted at that. Shaking her shoulders with a disarming cheekiness.
"Like you are any better, elf girl. At least I am a proper adult, without the eggshell still stuck to my bum."
"Is that any way to treat your teacher? I might decide to go back on my plans regarding my prized knowledge of spells and magic?" I teased back.
The taller redhead didn't seem to mind, flipping her hair challengingly. "You are way too ignorant to be called any of that." She answered matter-of-factly. "I am not calling someone 'teacher' who is this small either way." Her eyes pointedly looked at the top of my head, then mischievously wandered down to my chest, one of her eyebrows raising in a playful challenge.
I sputtered, my left arm instinctively rising to cover my breasts before I stopped it in mid-air. Such an action would only showcase my insecurity. I didn't even know why it bothered me...
Seeing that I wouldn't win an argument against Camilla anytime soon, after all, she was way too comfortable in her skin compared to me. I closed my eyes, trying not to rise to her obvious bait, failing partially. "I heard that..." I said in a sour tone before refocusing on the incantation, earning another bark of laughter from the taller woman.
Taking one last deep breath, I started to recall the spell, funneling a considerable amount of my magical power into it.
"From the skies to the oceans, from oceans to the seas, from seas to rivers, and from rivers to lakes," I chanted dutifully, slightly surprised that my mind instinctively exchanged certain parts of the incantation with more fitting versions for a water elemental. "Life’s foundation! Water is the one that quenches our thirst, the one that cleanses away corruption, and the one that can make the world anew. Pray, pray that the ancient waters may never rise to cleanse the world." I struggled with the last part of the incantation, at one point almost failing to properly invoke it.
The closer I got to finishing the spell, the more intense the sense of pressure became. It was like being underwater and sinking deeper with every uttered word. At the end, I was left standing beside the pond, my heart fluttering in my chest as a surprising sense of freshness reinvigorated my being.
Still, the spell proved to be a success. If you could call it that. There was a human-sized ball of water lazily hovering in the air, just above the pond. The water slowly broke away from the surface and presently appeared to calmly hover in the air.
"Is that it?" Camilla asked curiously. "Somehow, I expected something more..." She complained.
I stared at the loosely shaped golem hovering in the air. My clairvoyance activated accidentally under my scrutiny, and the abilities of the golem became clear.
Water elemental, distance fighter. Its primary attack is forcefully ejecting high-pressure streaks of water that could cut through rocks. It grows smaller with every attack, but the golem could refill itself in nearby bodies of water. Highly resistant to physical damage.
"Hmmm... it seems pretty strong," I mumbled, reading the description.
"Is that so?" Camilla asked, looking over my shoulder. "What can it do?"
"Well... it can shoot pressurized water at the enemy at a speed that supposedly can cut through rock."
Camilla whistled at that. "Not bad! I didn't imagine it looking quite like that, but if it works."
"Right... it looks deceptively harmless," I admitted but didn't truly mind it. Unfortunately, the golem needed a surface of water to keep attacking, and there were not that many of those around here.
I looked at the golem and ordered it to follow us while heading towards my favorite spot among the shrooms.
I seriously needed to attempt this meditation; gathering mana was crucial at this point. After summoning that water elemental, I was down to half of my mana.
Camilla was right on my heels. Following me around, curiously glancing at the large orb of water following behind.
Stepping into the middle of the clearing that kind of felt like a fairy circle, only substantially larger than what you would usually associate with one. Camilla and the water elemental followed me to the middle of the circle, where I unceremoniously sat down, crossing my legs and taking up your typical meditative position.
Camilla, seeing my actions, snorted. Her hand reaching out, fingers grasping the fabric of my cowl and pulling it backwards, the material slipping off my head. Making me look up at her out of reflex.
Her dark green eyes stared into my silver orbs as she slowly spelled out her words. Like talking to someone particularly slow in the mental department.
"Friend, could you explain what we are doing amongst a circle of shrooms while the capital is under attack?" The taller lass seemed more and more exasperated by the minute, seeing my actions.
My face reddened in embarrassment as I realized that I had forgotten to explain my intentions to Camilla.
"Sorry... I need to refill my mana pool, and meditating amongst the local fauna is supposed to help with that..." She flicked my nose, then unceremoniously plopped down beside me.
"More elven shenanigans. I should have known." She complained while I covered my nose, giving her the stink eye.
"You are getting awfully comfortable in disrespecting my personal space..." I complained silently, and this time she heard it. My ears twitched subconsciously as a sign of frustration.
Camilla side-eyed me, an impassive look stuck on her face. "You are doing it again. The ear thing." She teased.
My ears froze as my mind registered the instinctive gestures. "Damn it..."
Camilla chuckled. "Aria lectured you again, didn't she? If you can't get your ears under control, nobody is going to take you seriously."
"There are more important things than that..." I complained.
"Right," Camilla agreed. "Like sitting around among a bunch of giant shrooms. In the company of a hovering oversized water droplet; oh woe me for asking."
My body twitched, frustration getting the better of me. "Could you!" My voice sounded shrill from the suppressed emotions leaking to the surface. I turned to the human lass. Seeing her wide grin made me forcefully close my mouth.
"Oh, my... What would your etiquette teacher say?" She scolded annoyingly.
I took a deep breath and then released it slowly. "You are doing this intentionally, trying to rile me up. Why?"
Camilla leaned her head to the side, her pale red hair sliding across her face in an act of cluelessness. "Hmm... why indeed? Someone has to keep you on your toes if getting frustrated makes you throw around certain types of magic." She said humorously, with an underlying tension filling her voice.
I sighed... "Is this going to be a long-term thing?"
She didn't answer, only smiled ominously.
I squirmed under her stare, then nodded anyway. "Alright... now please just stay silent for a bit. I want to do this right."
"As you say, princess," said the redhead.
"Ugh..." I gritted my teeth. Doing all I could to focus on the task ahead.
I really liked Camilla. The girl was my first proper friend here... but that also meant she knew me longer than anyone else from my current friend group, and she didn't fear weaponizing said knowledge when she deemed it necessary.
She deemed it so more times than not.
"You are lucky that I like you..." I said in a last-ditch effort to maintain my shredded dignity.
"Spoken like a true princess." She grinned.
I rolled my eyes, then slowly began to close myself off from the lingering noises of the surrounding world. My sense of time became muddy, and at one point, I found myself drifting in a sea of glistening stars.
I looked down at my body, finding it hovering not unlike the water elemental I recently created.
Besides the flickering lights that appeared around me, some in small groups and some in large clusters, while others were alone, drifting through the sea of darkness that covered everything aside from the small lights and me.
I watched the spectacle in awe for a few minutes, and then I noticed that some of the closest lights were slowly drifting towards me and then getting absorbed into my own light. A gentle sense of comfort filling my ethereal body after every absorbed light.
I understood it immediately.
It took me some time to figure out that focusing my intent and projecting it towards my surroundings was the most efficient way to urge the absorption of light, or, well, mana. At first, I focused on individual lights, but that was both ineffective and frustrating compared to my current method. Alas, projecting my clear intent on a wide area that didn't have a single unique feature aside from darkness was a lot harder than one might imagine.
Learning all this and keeping my concentration was tiring. My focus was already faltering when I noticed that my body failed to absorb any more of the light.
At first, I was confused. Then, I realized that my body shone far more brightly than at the time of my arrival. I figured that my mana was filled, and with a single thought and a pulse of intent, I slipped out of my meditative state.
Groggily opening my eyes, I found myself back in the clearing. My concentration was a bit strained, but my mana pool was indeed filled.
It was strange to be back. My senses felt simultaneously too sharp and dull. Meanwhile, my body felt heavy and sore from sitting in the same pose for so long.
A question rose with that thought. How much time did it take to refill half of my mana? It was crucial information after all. It decided the usefulness of my technique.
Just when I was about to look for Camilla, to ask her how much time had passed since I began meditating, I felt an uncomfortable tightness on the back of my head and a gentle but firm pull on my hair.
I frowned, already suspecting what was happening.
A cheerful voice confirmed my suspicions. "Ah, did you wake? Stay still. I am just about done braiding your hair, Lora," said Camilla. "I always wanted to make you twin braids, only to be refused by a pouty teenager's temper." She complained, and my body tensed, registering her words. "Now, though, justice is served at last." Camilla finished her words with some final adjustments.
"There you go, all prim and proper!" She exclaimed. Watching my reaction wolfishly.
She could hold her expression straight for just shy of five seconds, seeing as I frantically held both ends of my braided hair, the black twin braids innocently curling around my neck and lying across my breasts. I grabbed each end, pulling them in front of my face with scrutiny as Camilla burst into wild laughter. Rolling over her back and laughing like an imp at a birthday party.
"Ca-mi-lla! What is wrong with you? Now I really look like a child!" I shouted. The action only made her laugh harder. She was clutching her stomach, getting uncomfortable from all the laughter. In these moments, I seriously hated that I only had ridiculously overpowered spells to throw around, or wait... perhaps.
Noticing the hovering water elemental, I reached out with my telekinesis and pulled away a handful of water, separating it from the big guy. It didn't even seem to notice.
Then, I pulled it closer, and after hovering it just above Camilla's face, I let go, watching gleefully as the water splashed against her face, resulting in an alarmed shriek.
I snorted, seeing her shocked expression as she sprang up, rubbing the water from her face.
"Did you just splash me with water?" Camilla asked, seemingly catching on. "Geeze, can't a girl have some fun, even when the world is ending and we are about to be enslaved and all that?"
I pulled my cowl over my head and slowly stood up, waiting for the accumulated sourness to leave my legs. "Hmmm... I see you aren't a complete fool after all." I mocked the stunned redhead, even going as far as to pet her on the head.
She stared at me, a strange glint appearing in her eyes. I disregarded it and walked by her, acting cool.
"Come now, apprentice, we have places to be... EH?! Mufmh..." Just as I walked by her, I felt the woman grab my right boot and pull it backwards hard. The timing was unfortunate, since my other leg was still in the air, making me suddenly fall flat on my stomach and eat a mouthful of earth.
"Aww... you are way too clumsy to be my mentor, Lora. You are more like a little sister to me, a particularly gullible one." Camilla told me as she crouched down next to my prone figure.
I flipped over to my back, spitting out some of the mud that got stuck in my mouth, and looked at the annoyingly satisfied redhead crouching by my face. "I want the old Camilla back, the one who got all flustered and shy around me just because I was an elf and a witch," I told her. Earning a soft chuckle from the woman, along with an amused shake of her head.
She rolled her eyes. The gall of this girl...
I sniffed.
"Stop moping about." She offered her hand; I grasped it and let her pull me up.
"You said we were going somewhere? Right?" Her green eyes glinted with barely withheld excitement.
I gave her the stink eye, but seeing that she didn't plan to mock me for now, I conceded. "We are. While you carried me back to the estate, I spotted several places using clairvoyance where the enemy forces were engaged in battle across the city. Some of them need just a little bit of push to turn in our favor."
Camilla straightened, looking at me expectantly as she spoke. "I suppose you intend us to be that push. Besides, that was more than an hour ago. Are you sure the fighting didn't end already?"
"Good point, I will take a peek at the place before teleporting, just to make sure." I nodded solemnly. "As you know, I can cross short distances in an instant, carrying along one or two people at most," I said, already feeling the sweat on the insides of my palms. Recalling the last and first time I used that spell. " I shook my head, trying to get rid of the terrifying memory.
Camilla gently patted me on the back, then started stretching and loading her one-handed crossbow, the one she looted from the dark elves, along with her short sword and dagger. Now that I've thought about it.
"Great, I am going to tell the others..."
She couldn't finish her line before I grabbed onto her sleeve. "Don't! They are not going to let us leave, and it will cause unnecessary arguments," I warned her.
"I can't carry more than you and the golem." My expression tightened. "Perhaps, not even that." The golem was a big question mark, but it was worth a try anyway.
Camilla's expression darkened as she turned to me. "We need to tell them, Selora. They deserve to know, and remember last time we went out and did our thing, it was on me that time... I won't make that mistake again."
Feeling her determination, I immediately sensed that there was no place for an argument here. I simply nodded.
"You are right, Camilla. I am sorry."
She patted me on the head annoyingly. "And that's why you listen to big sister here!" She placed her hands on her hips and added cockily. "Now figure out if you can carry that golem while I go over and speak with the others. I will be back in a bit."
"Ah! Camilla, a second, please?" I called after her, almost forgetting what I wanted to ask her after waking from meditation.
She stopped and looked over her shoulder. "What? Miss me already?"
I choose to ignore that part and ask. "How long was I meditating?"
She frowned and then answered thoughtfully. "About an hour. I think."
I smiled, more than happy with that result. "That's... that's better than I expected. Thanks!"
"Happy for you, I guess. Now don't do anything crazy while I am away..."
"Okay."