Chapter 23: Spare A Little Sympathy

"Wha-"

"The council?"

"Are they here to fight?"

"I need some fresh air"

"Woah woah woah. Ota, get your ass back ere'"

I wanted to tell her about her scales, but every time I tried to speak about it, my throat felt dry, like all the air in the room suddenly disappeared.

"Fine, but they're gonna fight... Right?"

"If they did, it would be suicide. Especially against her"

"Who? The Phoenix Witch?"

"Yeah, I remember something similar happening when I was little. Before we moved here, our town was raided by a bunch of bandits. As they rounded up everything, she stopped by"

Ota put her hat into the ring, but was quickly ignored by Aoife and Adelard.

"Then what? I've only really seen her fight once, and that, uh, was interesting"

I wasn't sure how else to describe it, she hit someone so hard with a staff it indented their thick armor and sent them flying.

"She let them kill her, well, try, and then she fought back"

She once told me that every serious action she takes will have three or more reasons behind it. I started to understand a few over time, but fatally wounding her as if she was a normal person always seemed to always result in fighting.

"How would you even stop someone like that"

"It aint hard, just an urn would do the trick"

"...what"

"Bullshit"

"How?"

"Her body will always turn ter ash before it regens, right? So just hit er' enough and but her in a box"

"..."

"Really? Is it that simple?"

"Yeah, that's way to easy"

"Why you think she makes them copies? It's happened a few times now, short of sendin' her to the stars for a couple hundred years. Well, there are other ways I've seen her defeated"

It all seemed far too straightforward, but Rider tends to be more honest than most. She decided to scratch her chin with her oversized hands, recalling memories.

Or she was just trying to look smart.

"How do you know all this?"

"I found er' once, back when I looked my age. She was sealed in a cave and I was told to exercise a spirit inside, rest is history"

"Just how old are you? Why do I know so many old people? Does anyone look their age in this city!?"

"Heh, *cough*, call it a perk of the job. Of course, you could just... find a grail. They tend te' pop up time to time"

So she's ageless because she's a misfit? That must also mean Red and Merrah aren't at all what they look like.

Although Merrah, she seems kind of young, just like Arisu.

Wait, her last name is Himura, so if I mix that with her first name... Arira, no, Arisa.

Yeah, I think that's a better nickname than Ali.

Arisa from now on, I think it works perfectly.

"So Red and Merrah?"

"It's kinda waisted on er', tho she got her new job under a year ago. Red though, we'll, he's human"

While we spoke, Eyebore came in behind us, bringing a magical apparatus of sorts over her shoulder, using her new prosthetic to stabilize it.

"Careful kid, curiosity killed the kitsune"

"?!"

"Relax, it's just a saying. It means you should pry into other affairs too much, ask them directly instead, in a respectful manner. Sometimes people like to keep their secrets, V"

"Ah don't wanna hear it from er, kids been kept in the dark way too long, you know that. Do I need to pull rank?"

"Just be careful, you don't know her reasons"

"Yeah, ah don't, and I also know her reasons aint built on experience"

She walked over to Eyebore, then lowered herself slightly to match her height before talking again in a whisper.

"I know your listenin', not just through her. I have mah job for a reason. I've been through the ringer more than you. Your hands are drenched, but swimin' in it. I don't waste sympathy on the problems I can fix, I just make em' right before it they break. Keep yer' passive bullshit to yerself"

Even though I couldn't hear her conversation, I knew it was serious, because I've never seen it before. Normally, she would use force to prove a point, or send a message, not meet eye to eye.

"Well done V, now I expect her to relieve her stress on all the soldiers. *sigh* I shouldn't of brought this"

Adelard started to look around the room while Aoefi covered her mouth, they were both blushing.

"Heh, who'd have thought she would be into that?"

"Ota, just *sigh* So what is this?"

Making misunderstandings worse appears to be slowly becoming a habit of Ota's, I fear she's doing it on purpose now.

"Enda will be disguising herself as an... Ambassador, who isn't herself. This widget projects her vision. I'll be recreating what she hears with magic. Unfortunately, we couldn't figure that out aspect out"

"So if that part's her vision, what's the rest for?"

"Music. It was, much more complicated than I thought, but I fixed it, so I'm going to put it together"

"How did it break?"

Her response was to immediately stare daggers at Ota.

"It was my fault... I- She told me a few things I didn't believe at first, and I got mad"

I guess it wasn't an easy transition in her life going from what she thought was a sworn enemy to friend, it must have happened while I was out cold.

"And what have you learnt from that Ota"

"That I shouldn't jump to conclusions?"

"That is important, but no the lesson she wants you to learn"

"Kay, she really likes music?"

"Correct, but still off the mark"

I decided to interject this public scolding on a hunch.

"Destroying something precious to her is one of three"

"Yes"

"What do you mean?"

"Before she considers doing something extreme, Enda needs three reasons. You gave her one that day"

"Wait, does that mean she'd fight me?"

Ota was excited at the prospect, so Eyebore shut her down straight away to avoid possible future damage of anything and everything dear to Enda and all the copies.

"It wouldn't be a fight Ota, she would kill you"

"Oh..."

Her hands hovered over her new horns as she turned around and walked over to the glass wall, looking out of the tower to the distance. As if she could sense Enda's bloodlust brewing far away.

I walked up beside her and took in the landscape.

A snowy plain stretched out far in front through the castle wall sized window. To my left I could see Uber Hill training grounds in the distance followed by lush tall trees slowly twisting and bending into a snow covered forest. To the right, with a fairly large open field between it and the hill, a rocky quarry that looked like a scar cut right into the ground itself.

Rather fitting since Arisa created it by accident.

Her power could be terrifying at times, even if extremely restricted.

"How did you get this thing?"

"Summoning is a precise science, and sometimes, things go wrong. It used to be an extremely common practice, trying to pull people from other worlds. As time has gone on, everyone realized that the technological advancements they had obtained isn't common knowledge anyway"

The equipment had peaked Adelard's curiosity.

Summoning magic was no joke, and its impact on history was unquestionable. Enda is practically obsessed with its results, but didn't practice it. She believes it's akin to stealing, but when pieces pop up in random stores, she buys them for either her collection or the museum at the ground floor.

Money stopped being a problem for her long before this city was built, if I had to guess, she would be amongst the richest people in the world.

It was for that reason when I came across something clearly not from our world, I bought it for her. It was a strange book with a unique symbol on its cover and all but a few pages were completely blank.

Various religions and beliefs, alongside a few deities, crossed over to this world a long time ago.

The symbol on that book gave me a weird feeling, we had something similar on its side, but this cross was upright and both sections had different lengths.

"Touji, are these yours?"

"Yeah, for today. Oh, that's for you, and this is for Enda"

I got her a different book, with the same origin as the other, except it has coloured pages detailing strange technology and machinery. I wasn't sure she could find use for it for the more complicated designs because electricity doesn't exist, at least not in our world.

Arisa told me that at a molecular level, 'electricity does not circulate within cells, but energy does' and she couldn't really explain it better than that. However, she did insist I talk to Tsumugi about it, who spent most of her time in the 'study' or lab.

"Interesting, I wonder if I could use crystals for... Oh, excuse me. Thank you Touji, I think this book specifically will interest Enda very much. Most Bibles we find are completely blank, and this book could be very helpful. For me at least"

She had the option to have her arm healed recently, but she refused because in the time she spent without it, her interest in prosthetics exploded and she wished to use herself as a test subject.

The skill required to regrow limbs was exceptionally rare, regardless of the class of magic. Potions are much more accessible because of that, but it's a long and expensive process, like healing a broken bone without magic.

"If anyone's interested, she's about to start"

Eyebore setup the strange device in the middle of the dining table, then placed her strange box with a horn next to a separate chair, it was clearly the 'music device' she was set to resemble while she was here.

I figured I should come up with a nickname for her with Arisu's new name.

I know she chose her own name, but it was an odd mouthful whenever it needed to be said, so I had to come up with one eventually. The problem was, it was hard to think of anything fitting.

A small shadowy cloud began to form above the table, and we all gathered round to watch. Rider brought over the two platters of food so we could eat while we watched.

Like lightning in thunder clouds, it flicked to life and an image appeared before us. Even though we each sat in different seats around the table, we all saw the same thing. Enda was looking into a mirror, with Red standing beside her as she wore an official military outfit of white and blue.

To put it simply, the woman staring back at us was not Enda, however that is how she chose to proceed, by hiding her identity.

Short blue hair, brown eyes, a much stronger battle hardened physic along a sharp face with fair skin like Arisa's, almost perfect if it wasn't for the height.

"Why didn't she change her height?"

"Tents"

"What?"

"*Chuckle* It's a tall person problem kid, don't worry bout it"

Enda and Red exited the guards station, built into the battlements at a large gate, crossed over a drawbridge into the snow covered field and headed straight towards a burning building. Next to it, a single large tent had been pitched.

I turned to Rider to confirm my suspicions, and felt bloodlust on a level I had never witnessed before, I could barely breath and the whole room noticed her rage.

"You better spare whoever lit that fire..."

"That's two"

Whatever happened between Eyebore and Rider was instantly brushed aside as they saw Merrah's bar burning brightly in the snow. I started to get the feeling that if I didn't eat now, I wouldn't be able to later.

All she needed now was a single reason to slaughter them all.