33: Expeditious Retreat
"That was impressive," Alistair said, watching as Ana went flying off into the distance in a long arc.
"Was it?" Liam asked, turning to the garzeth.
"It wasn't impressive in the least," Albert said, leaping up to the top of one of the recently lowered tower walls. His tail swished this way and that in obvious irritation. "That was sloppy. You didn't use any of the proper signs or mana types when you were sketching it. You screwed up the limiter glyph which made it far too powerful. The thing would be far more effective if you hadn't just used pure mana."
Liam turned to look at Alistair. The great beast gave a bit of a shrug, and a bit of a shrug on something that massive turned into something equally massive. Like a furry mountain trying to move, and the motion was so quick and fluid.
Clearly, the garzeth didn't know all that much about spell-casting.
"Well, I suppose at least you managed to get the diagram right. Sort of," Albert said, muttering under his breath to himself rather than talking to Liam. Though Liam wondered if he was meant to overhear. "It's a start, and you managed to pick up on it quicker than any other student I’ve ever had.”
"So you admit that I'm good at what I'm doing?" Liam asked.
"I admit nothing of the sort," Albert said. "All I admit is that you managed to sketch a mana diagram. Any first-year student can do that sort of thing. With practice. A lot of practice.”
That last bit came out grudgingly.
"Granted, I don't know much about using magic. It's not where my interests lie," Alistair said. “But I know that in the demon lands when they are instructing pupils, it would be considered impressive to be able to get a diagram like that so quickly."
"Are you the one teaching this child?" Albert said, frowning at the garzeth.
For a wonder, the garzeth actually took a step back, as though he actually found himself threatened by the small creature.
"Nothing of the sort," he said, holding his paws up.
"That's what I thought."
Liam cleared his throat. Both of them turned their attention to him. Meanwhile, he heard a distant muted thump. No doubt Ana coming to the end of the long, wide arc.
"I'm sorry," Liam said. “But I believe you are my familiar, not my instructor."
"Familiar," Albert said, rolling the word around in his mouth as though it was a four-letter word, or maybe it was something he'd stepped in and he didn’t like the smell.
For all that Liam didn't think he had much of a pot to piss in since he was a cat, and he'd seen how enthusiastically some cats cleaned themselves down there.
There was a rapid motion, and suddenly Ana appeared at the top of the tower walls. Which weren't very high, but it still had her towering over Liam. Her breath was coming in short gasps. She stared down at him, and it was more of a glare than a stare. There was death in those magical glowing eyes.
Liam loved every moment of it.
"You," she said, pointing a clawed finger at him. Her fingers were fully claws at this point. Not just the two claws she'd been using to threaten to go rummage around in his insides earlier.
"Me," Liam said, not particularly afraid of her. She’d tried to rearrange his insides with those claws, and she’d failed.
That was something to remember. He was at least one or two Ascensions higher than her. He still didn't have great experience in trying to figure out that sort of thing. She'd managed to pin him down after all, and she’d been digging her claws into him even though he should outclass her by all measure.
She hadn’t actually been able to hurt him, but she did get the drop on him.
Maybe having an Ascension and a large pool of mana in his body wasn't the end all, be all of winning a fight. Something for him to keep in mind.
"You..." she said again, and then she trailed off. Finally, a huge grin split her face.
"That was amazing," she said, hopping down and walking over to him. She looked him up and down and all around. He felt suddenly uncomfortable under the inspection.
"It was," he said, turning to look to Albert with a quick "I told you so" glance. The cat merely sat there, licking his paw and then running it across the top of his head.
"How did you manage to create a wind spell that powerful? I didn't see the diagram you used, but... You are new to this, right? Like you couldn't even manage a simple slow fall spell."
"There wasn't anything simple about that slow fall spell," Liam muttered.
"Still," she said. “That was amazing. I'm going to be watching you with great interest."
She stared at him with that smile that seemed slightly unhinged to Liam now. But she was paying attention to him, and he decided any attention she paid him was good attention. Though he also had the distinct feeling any attention she paid him was attention that might result in his life ending well before it was supposed to.
"You'll have to tell me more about that as we make our way back to your lands. Did you always know how to do something like that? Was it something you were holding back? Very clever of you, if you did."
She reached down and took his arm. She didn't even so much as ask before she was pulling him along. He looked over to Alistair and Albert, and he knew there had to be a slightly panicked look in his eyes as he stared at the two of them.
Alistair merely gave another one of those fatalistic shrugs that looked like a furry mountain trying to move. Albert stared at him with a gleam in his eyes. As though he thought this was the least Liam deserved for daring to be less than perfect when casting a spell that had the high demon princess enthusing so much.
The world had become a very confusing place in the past couple of days, and Liam felt like he was a piece of driftwood that had been set loose in the white-water portions of the Feluin that ran through the forest. Only the waters he was moving through were far more dangerous and intense than anything he'd ever seen with a stick he'd thrown into those waters.
"Your lands and cottage are this way, correct?" she said, pointing in the general vague direction of where humanity was. Though Liam knew they were actually slightly to the south and east of where she was pointing.
A part of him wondered at the wisdom of even letting a demon high princess know where Baron Riven's estates were. He could lead her down through parts of human lands that were largely uninhabited aside from farm workers in the fields who had the occasional cottage that were sometimes no bigger than the one he had on Baron Riven's property.
Less chance for her to do damage there.
But he also worried about what would happen if he led her on a wild chase through human lands and never actually made it back to his small cottage on Baron Riven's estate, or showed her an estate house at all.
"I don't know that you would want to look at my cottage anyway," he muttered. "It's nothing special."
He thought about the cottage, and maybe there was another reason why he didn't want to bring her back to Baron Riven's estate. He thought of that cottage, and he felt a touch of shame. Certainly, it was nicer than what most servants got living in the estate house itself. Off in a corner of the house where all the servants lived. It was comfortable, but his cottage was a place all his own.
Honestly, he missed the camaraderie of it. Living in a place that was close to where all the servants lived while also being somehow in between the servants' quarters and where the family lived. Something he hadn't picked up on until the princeling came along, and he was suddenly made very aware of his station in life at the baron's house.
He didn’t see how his cottage could ever be anything but sad to a high princess of the demon realms. He also wondered why he’d even thought of trying to impress her. But the thought was definitely there, and he couldn't get that thought out of his mind as it stuck there.
"I'm sure anything that is yours would be quite impressive, human," she said. "And besides, I've never been this close to human lands before."
"You've never even been to the Scar before?" he asked.
She turned and hit him with an odd look. One he couldn't quite place. Then she turned away.
"No, I've never even been so far as the Scar," she said. "Isai is considered a dangerous place even for our kind."
"Then what were you doing out there?" Liam asked. "How did you even manage to get away?"
"What do you mean?" she asked, again hitting him with one of those probing looks. It seemed just a touch too intense, just a touch too annoyed for his comfort.
"I mean, I would think that someone of your station in life would be surrounded by guards at all times."
"Are you calling me a liar?" she asked.
He blinked. That was unexpected.
"No, I'm not calling you a liar," he said. "I just wondered why you’re out here without even an escort."
He looked all around, wondering if maybe there was an escort and he’d simply missed it. But he didn't see anything that would indicate there was anybody keeping an eye on Ana.
No, there was just the burnt land of the Scar all around them. A great, terrible wound in the land that hadn't healed even after all this time. There was nothing but dead plant life and blackened ground all around. Which should have been impossible. It should have started regrowing years ago.
It was as though all life had been sucked away from the place on the same night that all life was extinguished in the great city of Isai.
"I slipped away because I wanted to have an adventure, and those stuck-up prigs in the palaces wouldn't let me do it."
"So you just went and did it on your own?" Liam asked.
"I did," she said, raising her chin up. As though she thought he was going to challenge her on it. But he merely laughed and shook his head.
"What's so funny?" she asked.
"You've just told me that I don't have to worry about any sort of bodyguard materializing out of nowhere and trying to kill me," he said. “That’s a relief.”
"What a ridiculous notion," she said.
"But now I do have to worry about some hunting party coming to retrieve a missing high princess, and something tells me anyone like that isn't going to be very happy about seeing a human with her."
She grinned at him. "All the more reason for us to get a move on out of the Scar and closer to human territory where any such hypothetical hunting party would be more reluctant to follow.”
Liam swallowed. He’d hoped she would reassure him that he was overreacting. That she thought there was a possibility she was being followed had him feeling at his neck and moving just a touch faster back towards Baron Riven's territory.
Even though he didn't think there was going to be any safety waiting in the lowly border barony for somebody fleeing a search party looking for a high princess of the demon realms.