Unwritten Destiny [Yuri/Sapphic, Isekai, LitRPG]

I made my way out of the inn and down the street to Maple's shop. They looked up and smiled as I entered. "Hello again, beautiful girl. How can Maple help you today?"

"I don't have any gold to spend. I was hoping you could tell me where to find that wizard. The smarmy one who was in here yesterday." I smiled and clasped my hands politely in front of me, trying to give the impression that they wouldn't be contributing to murder if they told me.

Maple's ears twitched and they gave me a long, hard look. "You seek favor with the wizard, yes?" I nodded. "It will not be an easy thing. He is prideful and you wounded him in a way few men will forgive."

I grit my teeth. "He deserved it."

They nodded. "Maple does not disagree. You will find his hut just down the street. It's the one with the chickens in the yard. You can't miss them."

I nodded my thanks and left the shop, making my way down the road. "Oh yeah 'come back to my wizard tower.' What a load of shit." I guess he wasn't the only prideful one.

<Great and fair-minded Torr, I beg yeh guidance.> Huh, that was Sebastian. I decided to keep listening. <I worry about my niece and her girlfriend something fierce. They're so eager to be adventurers. I fear they'll run off into something they can't handle. I don know what to do.> Huh. That gave me an idea.

The chickens squawked a friendly hello as I walked past them. The hut was actually a surprisingly cute little blue and white cottage with some elegant shutters on the windows. Surely I had the wrong place? There was no way the man I met had this much taste. I knocked on the door. After a few moments, I heard rustling around inside and then he pulled the door open. He looked down at me, recognition swept through his face, and he squealed. The wizard stumbled backwards several steps and grabbed a thick book from the closest shelf.

He held the book protectively over his groin while his other hand glowed with magic and pointed at me. "Stay back! I'm warning you! Those chickens out there used to be people, until they crossed me!"

I looked over my shoulder at the chickens. Highly unlikely or I'd already be a chicken. I slowly raised my hands in a non-threatening way that I had seen Alexis use. "I'm not here to hurt you. You deserved that kick, but we're square." I tried to give him a reassuring smile and he recoiled. Alexis is so much better at being nice. "I realize how this will sound, but I need a favor."

He considered me for several long moments. "And why should I help you?" A very good question. I could only think of one card to play.

"You're a learned man." He inclined his head in a surprising show of restraint and humility. "How much divine history do you know?"

The question caught him by surprise. "More than most. It was a great passion of mine when I was a novice." He tilted his head. "Why?"

"This will be.. extremely hard to believe, but.." I blew my bangs out of my face with a huff. "In this form, I go by Paz. But you might know my true name; Lapazulalei."

He made a try for several complex expressions before settling on polite amusement as he shook his head and wagged a finger at me. "I must commend you for your research abilities. Even amongst the upper most echelons of learned scholars, precious few know that name! You had me going for a minute there." He chuckled and shook his head again. "Out of scholarly curiosity, what favor were you seeking from me?"

"I need two pendants of Protection from Detection and Intrusion; both Magical and Divine."

He laughed, hard. "Well now, THAT is quite the ask. I don't imagine you have a hundred platinum sitting around, so what were you hoping to trade, 'little goddess?'

"This." Here goes nothing. I couldn't access any Divine knowledge without my Precept of Prescience, but there was one particularly useful spell that I knew quite well. I pulled out my sketchpad and wrote down the arcane formula for Enchant Divine Soul Stone.

As soon as my pencil finished the last character, the words began gently glowing on the page. I held it out to show him. Inkairu looked down at the page, chuckled, and looked back up at me as if searching for the joke. He looked back down at the page and read it again.

"Well, this is.. this-" He ran his hand through his short hair. "This can't possibly be real. It's a trick of some kind. Only the g-gods can even write down or copy spells of tenth tier or higher!" His eyes flicked up to me and then down to the page yet again. "I can't even cast this!"

I nodded agreement. "Not yet, but you could do, one day. If you stick to your studies."

He was becoming agitated with excitement and pacing back and forth where he stood. "This.. this! I-" He looked up at me again and swallowed. "You're really her?" His voice was uncharacteristically tiny and thin.

I spread my hands out and did a spin. "Fresh out of demon prison, and in the human homunculus flesh."

He was mumbling and talking to himself as he read the formula for the hundredth time. He reached out, hesitated, and then ran his finger along the words glowing with Divine light. "But. This is priceless. This formula would fetch thousands and thousands of platinum in Yynith'Sevyr. W-why would you trade it for two pendants? Even ultra rare ones are worthless next to this."

I shrugged and shifted my feet. "I'm not in Yynith'Sevyr and I need the pendants now. And I suppose you'll owe me one. So, do we have a trade?"

He nodded so fast and so hard that his head was in danger of popping off. "Yes, of course we do! I'd be a complete fucking idiot to say no. You copy that into my spell book and you'll have your pendants. And one hell of a favor owed on top of that." He stroked his beard in thought. "It will take all of my supplies. How much time do I have?"

I smiled at the experienced question. He had been around before. "We're leaving town in five days. I know that's really, really tight but.. that's my timetable."

Inkairu pulled out his spell book and started making notes. He looked up at me. "Yes. Yes, I think I can make that work. It will be a Hells of a rush job, but I think I can just do it!"

I held up my pencil and put out my hand for his spell book. "Then we have a deal."