22 C22 - Greetings Summer

Fazio and I awoke to Selahe standing over us with a wide grin. Fazio immediately looked embarrassed and tried to stammer out a hushed explanation. I chose to go for the grabbing motions to the goatman. He continued to smile with his square irised eyes and picked me up. Fazio looked dumbfounded at Selahe's reaction and quickly tried to get up to follow us. Unfortunately, the ship lurched over a wave. The last thing I saw before Selahe ascended the stairs with me was Fazio landing face first on the floor. It took every ounce of restraint to hold in my laughter.

Once on deck, I noticed the sun had gone quite a distance. It was already one quarter of the way across the sky. There were no bells out in the open ocean but I'd estimate it would be around the third bell of the day. I looked at the sailors lazing about mostly because the sea was calm and there were no enemies in sight. We were fighting a head wind coming from the east, where we were headed, but no one seemed worried about it. I wondered how they navigated on the open sea; the tech level doesn't strike me as possessing anything more complicated than a compass.

Due to the head wind, we arrived extremely late. I was very tired and half asleep in Mona's arms when we arrived. I'm glad I had a nap on the way over. When we pulled into Calo City it was dead, due to the lateness of the hour. There didn't seem to be public artificial light like my old world had. It was extremely dark at this hour. I felt a twinge of fear as we passed seemingly endless voids of darkness. I had heard the Duke talk about assassination attempts in the past. I knew in my head I had multiple people to protect me but my vulnerability was a thorn in my side.

The carriage rolled through the dark city with everyone yawning incessantly as it had been a long day to wake up before dawn and travel until after dark. We finally got to the manor, which I realized with my improved, older sight was more like a castle. Surrounding the manor, there were walls with battlements, manned even at this hour. The defenses held some gardens and things purely for form but I did see several other buildings separate from the manor inside the castle's exterior walls. This must be the barracks where the castle guards sleep.

I felt so happy at being home, despite being exhausted. The familiar smell of the flowers when I came to lunch that first time with the ducal couple. The familiar sights and sounds soothed my tired body. I was put to bed by Mona and didn't practice any magic, instead falling asleep before Mona was even out of the room.

I awoke to the familiar ceiling of the nursery over me. I listened carefully and I heard the second bell of the day. Happy to have slept in some but knowing that Mona would be here momentarily, I decided to forgo magic practice. I didn't want a repeat of yesterday morning as it would be hard for Mona to shrug off a second time. I was confident my growth rate far exceeded the norm so skipping a day or two to maintain my secret would not be a problem.

When Mona entered, seeing me standing in the crib already, she said, "Already awake, young master? Ready to meet your sister?" I nodded and allowed her to get me ready for the day. It seemed like we didn't have to rush, which did make sense. Duchess Calo said we were over twelve hundred kilometers from the capital. The trip there must take at least half a season. Even if we set out at dawn it wouldn't make a big difference in our travel time.

Mona and I went downstairs to the breakfast room. I enjoyed being fed breakfast by Fazio. As Selahe was taking this opportunity to train him to be the butler he technically was. HIs manners were far from perfect but he handled it as best he could. I smiled and praised Fazio as much as I could to encourage him. He looked awkward and nervous sitting at the table with the ducal couple, feeding me spoonfuls of mashed food. The ducal couple made small talk with each other while Fazio remained silent. Despite Fazio's uncomfortable demeanor, the meal was a nice change of pace.

When we completed breakfast, we descended to the basement which was an odd place to set out on a journey from. Perhaps we needed to discuss something in secret before we departed. I say 'we' but I mean 'they,' because I could not participate in a conversation that involved words of more than one syllable.

We gathered loosely in the cool, damp basement. The Duchess pulled out a stone of some kind. It was a large, clear, crystal roughly formed into a long hexagonal shape. I remembered from the soul binding spell that the Duchess gets a constipated "spell-face" when she's about to cast so I focused on mana sense. What I saw blew me away. The crystal was so packed with mana that it probably contained more mana in its comparably small form than all the people present. Including the mana powerhouse that was my mother, Duchess Calo.

I could see her spell clump forming. In addition to her own mana, there was mana coming from the crystal she held. I was so fascinated by the existence of mana crystals I suddenly realized that this wasn't a discussion. Were we teleporting to the capital?

I could tell that the spell she was casting used an enormous amount of mana. My mana sense was being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of mana she was utilizing. I wonder if it's the same for those with mana sense? Can they see through this wall of mana?

I could feel the mana crystal had lost a lot of its power. My mother pushed her hands forward. What happened next astounded me. We weren't teleporting strictly speaking, she was opening a doorway. This had been first theorized in the 20th and 21st century, a way to bridge two locations. It had never been realized because the theory wasn't totally sound and didn't account for all the nuances of quantum mechanics. However, scientists in my old world were studying it up until the day I was executed.

I could see the wall and objects behind an area of the basement distort, like the light was being bent further and further. Until the light seemed to collapse in on itself and twist around into a disc surrounding total black. I could see darkness and what could only be described as an event horizon until eventually an image started to form inside the swirling disc of light. It started as a pin prick of color in the black until it grew in size and shape. That is, until we could see a whole scene behind the event horizon. It appeared to be a marble fountain inside a large square.

The disc of light surrounding the image spun one last time before solidifying into a firm, unmoving ring of light. It was only then did the Duchess finally breathe out a sigh, beads of sweat running down her beautiful skin.

Congratulations!

By witnessing an Expert level spell through your mana sense, your Basic Mana Sense has increased to Rank 7!