The Lives of Mortals (Pt. 2)

"No, that's not it. The leaves look like this." Rebecca took a set of leaves from her gathering basket to show Tau.

Tau looked closely at the leaves Rebecca held out to her and then back at the leaves that she had picked herself. After having lunch with Father Dawson and Rebecca at the clinic, she decided to join them for herb picking in the forest.

{They look the same...}

[Really? Each of those leaves looks different to me...]

{How difficult...}

[How difficult, indeed...]

"Hmm… I guess you could focus on gathering manroots," Rebecca said, seeing Tau's confusion after being shown the leaves, "It's the time of year when they get redheads. You can't miss them."

"Sure."

"Keep an eye out for yellow puffs and tree flowers… oh, and spike blooms. We can always use more of those." Rebecca added as Tau headed deeper into the forest.

{Neu, do you know what any of those look like?}

[The names describe them pretty well. I think I should be able to pick them out.]

{At least we're not completely useless for these.}

[On a different note though...]

A series of wind blades and the twig above Tau lost all its leaves. Even with Rebecca waving at Tau's departure, it wasn't hard.

{She probably didn't even notice.}

[Not that it matters though. The world is more rigid just with mortals being around. Still, though, it's high time we determined its limits.]

As Tau walked away from Rebecca, deeper into the forest, leaves continued to fall. When Tau walked far enough away to be outside of Rebecca's field of vision, it became easier.

[A tentative theory at best, but better than nothing.]

{Let's focus on getting those herbs now, okay?}

[Sure.]

With her domain, finding the herbs with those distinctive features was easy. Getting to them and digging them out, though, would still take a while. It's been some time since Tau last ran around the forest. The shrubbery was thicker than she remembered, but the footholds and pitfalls were still as plain as day. After just an hour of work, Tau had filled the basket with herbs.

"Good enough. Now, where others?"

Tau expanded her domain to search and soon found them at the base of a nearby cliff. She quickly made her way over to regroup with them.

"That's really high up there."

"I'm going to need to get a closer look to confirm it though."

"You taking the book with you?"

"Of course. I can't compare it with the drawing otherwise."

"Hello," Tau called out as she joined them in the small clearing by the base of the cliff.

"Oh hey, Welcome back! Let's see how you did." Rebecca smiled and waved.

Tau held out her basket for inspection.

"Huh… it's already full?! It's barely been an hour."

"Sounds like someone might be replacing you as my primary helper," Father Dawson said, still looking at the cliff face.

"But… some of these are too small, you should have left them to grow some more for next time," Rebecca commented looking through Tau's basket, ignoring Father Dawson's remark.

Meanwhile, Tau followed Father Dawson's gaze to the top of the cliff and saw a pale glowing orb that seemed to be growing out of the side of the cliff face.

Father Dawson picked up some pebbles and threw them up the cliff face, watching them bounce off and fall.

"I guess this is fine. I'll be going now," he said, taking off his cloak and dropping it in his gathering basket. Holding a manuscript in his mouth, he ran towards the cliff face and jumped.

Tau watched in disbelief as his initial jump easily cleared 3 meters. It only got more impressive as he found footholds and handholds in the tiniest crevices in the stone face, either kicking off with his legs to gain height or hooking onto and swinging around a handhold to reach a better foothold.

"Crazy, isn't it?" Rebecca said, still sorting through Tau's herbs, "He's so small that I always forget how strong he can be when he tries."

Within several minutes, Father Dawson had reached the strange orb. Hanging on to the cliff face with one arm and a leg, he used his other leg as a makeshift table as he flipped through the manuscript with his other hand. After looking back and forth between the book and the orb in the cliff face, Father Dawson put the manuscript back in his mouth and zigzagged back down the cliff face, hitting the ground with a roll which carried him crashing into a nearby tree.

"Ouch," he said, legs in the air and blood starting to flow from the scrape wounds on his back.

"And then there are times when he really does act like a child," Rebecca said, shaking her head. Taking some of the tree flowers Tau gathered, Rebecca crushed them in her hands and started dressing Father Dawson's wounds, later moving on to tying the crushed herbs to the wounds with some medical cloth.

"Let's call it a day," She said when she finished, "This'll slow the bleeding, but we'll need something else to reduce the chance of infection."

"Yeah," Father Dawson agreed, "That blessing gem is a little larger than I expected. We'll need to ask some of the others to help us dig it out next time."

"Is it a new type?"

"No, it's an older one. Its size might be new though."

"Hmm… We got plenty of spike blooms this time, so we'll be fine for a while."

"Yeah, but we'll need more herbs for fever soon, the cold season is coming."

"So, it's down to the willows next time?"

"Probably."

After returning to the clinic, the three of them found a chubby old man sitting at the doorstep.

"Welcome back," he said, noticing their return, "I didn't think you would be out today."

"Sorry, David," Father Dawson responded, "but if you wanted a meeting, you should have let us know in advance. It's a busy time."

"I know that feeling too well," David sighed, "These few days, logging the harvest results, checking our resource stocks, and preparing for the harvest festival and merchants from the center. It's only now that I find some time to relax."

"Thanks for the hard work, dad," Rebecca said, walking past him and into the clinic to drop off the herbs, "I'll bring back some herbs for tea that helps with fatigue, as usual."

"That's not what you came here for, is it?" Father Dawson asked.

"Well," David turned towards Tau, "it's time we addressed the issue about this lass here."

"I see. Well, wait in my study for a while. We'll be with you after I deal with my bleeding," Then, to Tau, "Go help Rebecca organize the herbs."

Tau did as she was told. There was a feeling of dread growing inside her. It was inevitable, but she would have liked to have more time before having to deal with this problem. If not for Neu, she probably wouldn't even have bothered preparing.

[I guess this is it. We'll go with what we discussed.]

Before long, Father Dawson, David, and Tau were sitting in the clinic's study around Father Dawson's desk. Rebecca headed home to get started with dinner.

"Now then, there are several obvious questions I need to ask," David started, "Who are you? Where did you come from? Where and how did you get that?" David pointed at the sword floating behind Tau.

"I… name… mine… is… Camelia Hart…?"

Tau went from pretending to be shocked to feigning a headache.

[Nice acting.]

"Camelia Hart...?" David repeated slowly, then glanced at Father Dawson.

"Doesn't ring a bell," Father Dawson shook his head "Also doesn't sound foreign though."

"Hey… Camelia, you said?" David continued pressing, "Where are you from? And how did you get that sword?"

Tau just continued feigning a headache as she slowly shook her head.

"She probably doesn't remember," Father Dawson answered for her.

Then, to Tau, he said, "Sorry about this. You can go now. I'll pay you a visit later to take a look at that headache."

Tau took the opportunity to leave, still clutching her head to keep up the act.

{Well, that was easier than expected.}

[There's probably something they know that they're not telling us, but for now, that doesn't matter.]

{Yeah whatever, let's just get back to Mrs. Bentley's in time to help with dinner.}

-

"Now then, I think you owe me an explanation," David said to Father Dawson after Tau left.

"She probably found that holy sword in another ruin from the age of Solomon."

"Exactly! That's why she should be able to tell us about the location of the new ruins."

"I'm not finished. The ruins have a damaging effect on one's soul. Even strong-minded explorers cannot stay within a ruin for more than three days at a time without losing their minds."

"So, you're saying that her soul is damaged? And that's why she doesn't remember?"

"Very likely."

David sighed, "So, it's a dead-end, huh?"

"Unfortunately."

"How many more need to die..." David mumbled under his breath.

"As many as it takes," Father Dawson responded firmly.

"I don't know if my heart can take it. Every year with so many youngsters heading into the wilderness in their search, never to return."

The two of them sat in silence for a while.

"You should go," Father Dawson said, "Get some rest. The next few days will be busier than ever."

"Yeah," David agreed, getting up, "You get some rest too."

"Sure, sure," Father Dawson turned back towards the work on his desk.

-

"Say, is this the place?" Phi asked.

"You said that you would handle it, so you tell me," Kant responded.

"Ah… then I'll just say yes…?" Phi shrugged.

The two of them were taking a leisurely stroll through a massive stone temple in the mountains.

"Have some confidence. This is indeed the palace of the King of Earth."

"Hm… So I just need to find him and destroy him, yeah?"

"Do not destroy him. Just remove a part of his memory."

"Yeah, yeah, same difference."

The two of them arrived in what looked like a throne room. In front of them, on the far side of the room, was a massive stone seat. But, the seat was empty.

"Huh…? Is this it?" Phi exclaimed, looking around, "Did we make a mistake?"

"No," Kant said, "It is here."

The walls of the room suddenly folded inward, and what used to be a large open room was instantly filled with flowing earth. There was no space left, except for a cube in which Phi and Kant stood, which the flowing earth seemed unable to penetrate.

"That's not fair Kant! Don't steal my fun!"

A flash of red and the room was clear again. All the stone and dirt disappeared as though they had never existed.

However, the seat was no longer empty. Now, there was a statue of a humanoid figure seated atop the throne.

"How dare you!"

The voice echoed across the room.

"To stand before a king and not pay your respects!"

Ignoring the booming voice, Phi turned to Kant with a question, "Hey Kant, is that statue thingy the king?"

"Not quite. The king is the spirit that inhabits this room. It is not something physical."

"Huh…? That's kinda difficult," Phi scratched her head, "How do I hit something like that?"

"You dare ignore me!"

A stone spike shot out from the ground towards Phi, who raised a hand to intercept it.

"Physical things are much easier..." She pouted as the parts of the spike that would have hit her and Kant evaporated into nothingness.

"Think of it this way," Kant commented, "It would be boring if it were so simple. A puzzle is more entertaining."

"I guess that's true!" Phi laughed, sweeping her hand upwards, removing half the room and deleting the ceiling of the temple.

"You would desecrate my temple! I am Amaymon, King of Earth! And you will feel my wra-"

A wall of darkness surrounded the mountain range, painting the sky a deep empty shade of black. It was this emptiness that shocked the King of Earth. He was the King of Earth, an existence tied to the ground upon which all things stood. Yet, at that moment, he could only feel the patch of earth within those walls. It was as if the rest of the world had disappeared.

"My apologies, Amaymon, King of Earth," Kant said slowly, "I cannot allow this fight to get too out of hand. Make do with access to only this much earth."

"You… What are you two…?"

"Just a tired old man and an adventure-starved brat," Kant yawned.

"Aw Kant, that's mean!" Phi cried, "At least call me a lady!"