Chapter 104: Mother's love

Veronica was sitting comfortably on her green couch as her right foot tapped idly on the circle of white carpet below her. Looking out to see the mid-day sun through the blue paned windows, she took a moment as the clouds idled through the white sky. The red dragon bag slung over her right shoulder was a source of endless amusement for her, and she often took time when she was free from prying eyes to put her arm in it and wave the other in front of it. Which was a distraction she sorely needed. The past few days had seen her mother running around and seeing to the endless storm of chaos that had taken over her office for what seemed like an eternity now to the young blonde.

The water scion bit her cheek while she considered doing another attempt at making her tea. A task she had all but given up on, because no matter how long or shortly brewed, few or many leaves she tried, she could not replicate her mother's deft hand at that craft. Veronica's heart-shaped face got a look of annoyance, but she made sure to keep her suit like top and lower dress of white and blue proper, lest mother scold her for acting 'below' her station. These thoughts and others ambled through her mind as she waited for the return of her beloved Chattox.

The first thing through the door, however, was her mother. Wearing her ever-present black dress with a formal top, the older version of Veronica with sharp cheekbones and chin, looked around the room with eager blue eyes until she saw her daughter.

"Ah, dear. Good. I have a favor to ask of you."

Veronica raised a blonde eyebrow as her blue eyes looked eager. Their relationship had soured ever since Eli had healed her arm. While the mutilated arm had regained a good deal of its former strength, the bond between child and parent was still as raw and bleeding as when it was first wounded.

"Eli is set to leave the day after tomorrow with Andrew and Jeff. It would mean a lot to me if you could use your connection to him to perhaps talk some sense into him. Or at least try too anyway. We're at the end of anything we can do to remedy this situation but if even a few words from you could induce any kind of change in him before he is shipped off, that could make all the difference."

Veronica gave a small flinch in her right eye. Agatha had accused her of being in some sort of covert relationship with Eli, though questions of a romantic or material exchange going on were left unsaid. The water scion fully denied any such accusations, but, sadly, with the amount of secrecy and questions currently flying around the wonder of their age, any possible thread of conspiracy was readily believed.

Eli was a giant whirlpool sucking everything into the gaping maw that was his glory, and not even scions could seem to pull themselves out of those esteemed waters.

"Of course, mother," Veronica said with an eager rise from the couch.

She wasn't quite sure how to talk with Eli about this, but she felt just sitting down and berating him wasn't going to work. Running about, she quickly collected a crate of her tea leaves, a special kettle with an opening in the bottom side for the insertion of coals, and her two blue and white striped teacups so that they would have some idle activity to indulge in between the verbal jousting. With a grateful nod from her mother, she headed out to the big house with thick grey stone blocks, thick wooden beams, and grey tile.

"I need some hot coals and a pale of drinkable water," She said to the guards in front of the cave-like entrance to the house, with the one on the left promptly leaving to fetch the requested items. Veronica then knocked on the thick oak door as she held her goods in her hands as a cold winters wind blew her hair around.

After a few moments, Eli came through the door wearing his typical white shirt and brown pants. Those purple eyes widened for a moment in surprise.

"Hello, Veronica. What brings you here?" He asked with a twirl of his silver hair as he moved to let her in.

"I wanted to talk," She said as she crossed the threshold of the cave-like entrance and onto proper grey stone flooring. "My tea hasn't been up to snuff recently and mother wanted me to talk with you,"

There was a flash of irritation in his eyes at that, but he apparently had some time to spare because he swung his head towards the dining room on the right. Walking up to the fine oak table, she put her load down on its bare surface and pulled out a chair as she moved her cups to the right, the crate to the left, and the kettle to the middle. Eli sat opposite of her and after a few minutes, a large flagon of water accompanied by a metal pot with burning coals was delivered by a pair of maids, who promptly set their deliveries down beside Veronica and left with light bows. As she picked up one of the coals with the provided iron tong, Eli finally spoke.

"I don't suppose I should waste my breath asking what it is you're here to talk about." He idly stated.

"I think not," Veronica said with a chew on the right side of her lip as she filled the kettle from the flagon, "But that can wait until we make our first batch of tea."

Eventually, a cloud of steam came out of the kettle and Veronica poured portions of tea in her teacups that had a distinctive wave pattern on their tops. After a few minutes, Eli took one cup and sniffed the hot brew for a moment. As he put it to his lips, Veronica followed his example. She let an involuntary sigh escape her lips, prompting a raised eyebrow from Eli.

"Still can't make it taste quite right. It's missing a certain bitter note. But I didn't come here to dazzle you with my lack of tea-making skills." Veronica said with a rueful smile.

"Yeah, I figured there'd be one last attempt to get me to open my legs. A useless endeavor, as I'm sure you well know." Eli rebutted with a small smile.

Veronica hid the unease she knew would show in her face by drinking her tea with a high raise of her cup. She had never proclaimed to be an expert on the male mind, but she had felt she knew enough. Eli's aversion to the spread of his seed was odd but she had dismissed it as a passing stubbornness that would briefly linger before her friends Eska and Mia would be discussing baby care tips with her as a godmother to their quad mage children. When that vision of the future shattered, some very fundamental assumptions she had about the opposite gender broke with it and now she approached Eli, preconceptions, and notions gone.

To say nothing of how vomit-inducing finding out that way had been.

When she finished her long swig of tea, she put down the cup. Eli had an odd look on his face, something between curiosity and struggling to think of something.

"On the bottom of the cup," He said as he lifted his towards the ceiling and stared at the black V that was painted on the bottom, "I assume that is your special mark."

"Yeah, we had too many problems keeping track of my orders so everything that has significant value or is shipped in from somewhere else has that mark put on it. Except for my dragon skin bag, not that the paint would stay on anyway."

He furrowed his silver eyebrows as he turned his head to the left to look over the crate of tea leaves.

"However, Eli, we have bigger issues than one unpleasant night. Your obligations to humanity-"

"Veronica," Eli said tiredly as he put his right hand up and used the other to pinch the bridge of his nose, "Isn't it a bit late for this kind of talk? Now, at this late hour of things, are there any words left to be said that every high-flying member of society hasn't drowned my ears in?"

Veronica puckered her lips as she struggled to keep her rising temper in check.

"But have you heard them from someone who cannot fulfill that obligation? I could fight every day for the rest of my life, but I'll never do as much good for the world as the women carrying the future of humanity in their wombs or against their bosoms. For all the monsters I've killed and fellow people I've saved on my escapades outside of the town, just having two or three children would do far, far more than what I could ever hope to achieve in my one lifetime.

We are all guilty of the good we would not do, and you're consigning yourself to the guilt of denying humanity a bright new age. I fear the lonely end but at least if I lay on my death bed barren of any family I could say I did everything I could and that is what makes it tolerable. Will you be able to bear the guilt of what you aren't doing now in your old age?"

Elis' nose flared in anger as he strummed his fingers on the table for a moment.

"Veronica, I will be providing children, but it will be on my timetable. Putting a baby in a woman doesn't make you a father just as popping them out doesn't make you a mother. I will not have my children asking why dad doesn't love them enough to be there for mothe-"

He stopped for a moment, his eyes in some faraway place before he suddenly got up from his chair and mover to the left behind the crate. For a few seconds, his eyes stared at the side of the wood crate until he turned his head back to Veronica with a fire in those purple eyes.

"You hypocrite."

"Excuse me?" She demanded, feeling the smaller hairs on the back of her neck rise as she gripped her cup.

"These crates with the black V are all yours, yes?" He demanded with a slam of his hand on the box. That gave Veronica a slight jump, but she kept her composure.

"Of course,"

"Back in the ancient times when we went on that trip for the guild, I had to help move some of the goods that got damaged in the bandit attack when we got back to the academy. One of those was your crates."

"Thank you so much for your assistance," Veronica responded with a strained smile.

"It had tea leaves in it, but it also had an odd vegetable mixed in that looked like celery with yellow edges. I didn't know what it was at the time and quickly forgot about it as we were all too busy trying to keep people from dying or recovering from the trip. But now that I know what those vegetables were and who the crate belonged to…Oh, what a good little setup you have. Getting to play the poor infertile girl whose body has failed her. And now that a real prize has revealed himself, you were hoping to get me to think you wouldn't just be after a baby. Was that the plan? Tempt me with a night of consequence-free fun at some point and then talk some shit about the power of my elements overcoming your defect?"

Veronica's face had started out pink but gradually became a fuller tomato red with each word. When Eli finished, Veronica stood straight up and backhanded him with her right hand as her blonde hair swung wildly from the motion.

"How fucking dare you!" Veronica yelled. "Saying you were so sexually barren that you didn't know what yook root was isn't the most flattering admission, so I'll give you credit for that. But to say …My condition-" She felt tears beginning to form in her eyes as her stomach felt like it wanted to empty its contents.

Eli seemed a bit hesitant now, though he still had some anger in his face that wasn't lessened by the red handprint on his left cheek.

"Never, in all my life, has anyone been so cruel as to throw that in my face!" Veronica said, standing straighter as she kept the tears from falling. "Yet you go a step further and make a joke out of it! Perhaps it's for the best that you don't have any children. What, but the vilest of monsters could be sired from you."

Those purple eyes now held genuine confusion. The lack of malice in those windows to the soul left Veronica hesitant as to what his actual intentions were. As the two spent a second maneuvering around the awkward moment, Eli finally broke the silence.

"You didn't know, did you?" He asked in a hushed voice.

Veronica rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms and stood there in silence before Eli continued.

"Well, I'd say it's likely your mother. That's probably why you can't make the tea taste the same. You're missing an ingredient."

There was a flash, briefer than the blink of an eye but still there, of concern that bolted through Veronica's mind. It was quickly suppressed as she turned around and went to the front door, cracking it open.

"A stalk of yook root. Now." She quickly spat out before closing the door.

Turning around, she headed back to the table and sat opposite to Eli, who had returned to his seat. Veronica was fuming but kept most of it off her face. She didn't entertain the ridiculous scheme Eli had made up and spent the entire time crafting some particularly devastating comments centered around his inadequacies and failures. When the stalk of yellow-edged celery arrived, Veronica sullenly stuck it in the kettle with the tea leaves and poured water into the kettle from the flagon.

Using more force than was needed, she closed the kettle lid with a loud smack. The blonde went on to insert the coals with such speed that one missed the lower lid and fell on the table. Leaving a small scorch mark on the fine oak, the offending piece was quickly put in. With nothing left to do, they both sat in bitter silence as Veronica brooded with strumming fingers on the table, the late day sun shining down over the table through the bars in the window.

Finally, steam came out of the small hole in the top of the kettle. Wasting no time, Veronica quickly poured the near-boiling mixture into the white and blue cup in front of her. Not waiting for it to cool, she poured the too hot drink down her throat. Ignoring the pain of the burn, she quickly prepared her most devastating salvo of insults but stopped when her brain registered what her tongue was experiencing besides pain.

Looking down at the brown brew in the cup, she quickly went over all of her memories drinking her favored liquid. Mother had always insisted on her drinking it, in good health or bad, busy or slow days. What Veronica was now focusing on was whether she had been around when her mother had prepared the tea leaf mixture.

She hadn't, she realized as her face paled and her hands began to shake. At least not for an extended period. There was always something happening, some issue going on where she couldn't be there to make it with mother, classes needed to be attended, spells needed to be practiced, craft to be made, too tired from a long day of whatever crap this place was putting her through. This always left her mother to brew the pot or get ready a previously made pitcher, which is something Veronica now understood to be by her mother's design.

Because that missing bitterness she always had in her tea was now back.

Veronica stared at the cup for a few seconds, her pale face and quivering frame showing no attempt to hide her emotions.

"I'm sorry you had to find out like this," Eli said in a soft voice as he inclined his head with genuine sympathy.

Veronica stood up and looked around for a second as the room seemed to spin.

"Gshh pff" She spat out, the gibberish being some attempt at communicating that she was leaving. With a whirl of her blonde hair as she quickly turned around, Veronica ran out of the room and through the front door. The light snow was kicked up all around her legs and the hem of her dress as she sprinted through the snow on the ground as the fading sun above gave her just enough light to see her to her home. Moving around the back of the house, she came up to the section she had never visited. Along the back of the white brickwork was a long slab of stone on the ground. This held the crates that had all of their tea leaves depleted and were stacked on top of each other in a long rectangle.

Veronica first went through the crates one after another, hoping to find some errant piece of yook root to validate the truth she already knew. The first crate was bare. Quickly tossing it behind her, she looked through the second. Then the third, the fourth, and the fifth. When the sixth produced no new evidence, Veronica had a moment of rage and threw it to the ground with a crunch of wood. As she stood there, taking in deep breaths of winter air with trails of snow and mud scattered all over her legs and arms, her eyes finally found what they were looking for in the ruined heap of wood.

The left side of the crate had cracked open to reveal the hollowness of the wooden wall. Picking up another crate, Veronica noticed that the nails were smaller on one of the sides making it easier to remove. After a few more minutes of ripping open crate sides, she finally had the piece she needed. In one of the crate's false sides, there was a small bit of yook root stuck in the bottom side of the wall.

No shock or surprise came to Veronica. She knew, without a hint of doubt, about what had been going on with her tea. That little piece of vegetable just confirmed that truth. Turning around with the crate in hand, she went through the back door of the house and went through the kitchen. Walking over the flowing wood floor and past the walls with waves of water painted on them, she came back into the main living room.

Quickly pulling down the white curtains, the room was only illuminated by the mana lamp in the center of the ceiling. With her task finished, Veronica moved back to the couch and placed the crate on her right as she sat totally still. Chattox was out in the wilds and he probably wasn't close enough to get the tide of emotions pouring out of Veronica, though the utter stillness of her form didn't betray those emotions as she now had folded them into a furious purpose.

After an hour or two of sitting there, her heart-shaped face a blank slate for every second of those hours, her mother finally walked through the door. Tired and looking worn from a long day, the older blonde's mouth opened to speak when her blue eyes fell on Veronica. Whatever she was going to say died on her lips when her daughter tossed the crate at her feet. As the wood box with its false side open slid across the floor with a loud scrape, Veronica quickly followed it as she stalked up to her mother.

"Agatha," She said with as much control as she could muster, "Tell me, and if you lie I will never forgive you… When I first tried with Harlen and later Cren… could I have conceived if I didn't drink my tea?"

Agatha's face lost some color as her eyes went wide. However, it appears that she wasn't completely unprepared for this conversation. Quickly turning around and shutting the door behind her, Agatha then walked closer to Veronica as she crossed her arms over her black suit top and dress.

"Eli, I suppose, someway somehow, managed to make one last disaster before he's sent off," Agatha said with a bitter smile.

"Well?"

Agatha took a deep breath as she closed her eyes and turned her head to the heavens before bringing it back down to look her daughter in the eyes.

"Yes. You probably would have gotten with child."

Veronica felt the wind leave her lungs as tears began welling up in her eyes. Knowing it in her mind logically was one thing, but there was some part of her that finally snapped when the words were taken in from the source.

"Was…Is… Were you laughing at me? When I cried about not having a baby, were you chuckling when you left the room?"

"What?!" Agatha scoffed with a hurt face, "Dear, I would never laugh at you. It hurt me when you cried about that. You'll never know the relief I felt when you met those two girls who wanted to hold off on having kids. It killed me, seeing you so dejected. But I did what I had to do."

"Had to?" Veronica asked as she pulled back with a sour face. "You had to make my entire life a lie? Make me a pariah amongst the others?"

That seemed to get some of the color back in Agatha's sharp cheekbones as she puckered her lips.

"If they treated you poorly because of something beyond your control, then I say they weren't worth knowing."

Veronica pulled herself up to her full height as she stuck out her soft chin and got a hard look in her eyes.

"But it was in your control. So, why, Mother? Why did you do this?" She spat out, the hurt in her voice coming clear through.

"I wanted you to have a normal life. For you to have friends, go out and explore the world, and experience a full measure of the world, before we went out into the woods to a local herb hag who gave us a miraculous mixture of troll spit, fire-lizard eyes, and other unknown ingredients that cured your condition. A hag who tragically fell off a cliff the next day when we went to thank her."

"Or when the quad mage blasted his seed in me?" Veronica demanded with a look of cold fury.

Now Agatha seemed offended as she drew herself up to her full height.

"I had no such intention. The guards are watching everything that involves yook root like their lives depend on it. Ever since we found some in Eli's tower, the merchant who supplied me with the tea crates had been getting more and more nervous. He finally stopped when they inspected his shop. I had a fair amount of reserves but I finally ran out. Though I suppose I won't need them anymore."

"That was all because you were making a decision that was never yours to make," Veronica said with biting acid clear in her low tone.

Agatha stood silent for a moment, taking a deep breath as she made sure to keep eye contact with her daughter.

"And you could have?"

"Yes! Even if I didn't want to," Veronica yelled as she gritted her teeth, "Eska and Mia have dealt with pressure from their families-"

Agatha burst out laughing at that. Veronica was more surprised than angry and stood there dumbstruck as her mother finished.

"The fact that you would compare your situation to your friends shows you have no idea what you're talking about," Agatha said, her face now getting more serious. "I gave birth to a scion. I'm a crafter and all I did was give a water scion an equally powerful daughter."

Her blue eyes went hard as her face became a blank mask.

"And doing that nearly killed me. If it wasn't for the fact that a passing doctor had a healing potion on him, you'd be talking to a gravestone. Still, I had a great achievement under me. Which lasted until people realized I wasn't going to give you any siblings."

Her lower jaw quivered as she spoke in a near whisper.

"To this day, I get so much shit for not giving you any brothers or sisters. It gets mentioned in my reviews, I know for a fucking fact it's cost me some promotions." Agatha stuck out her right hand and put a finger into her daughter's shoulder through the white and blue suit top, "You, an actual scion? They'd make sure you were with a baby every day. The amount of rest you'd be given between birth and conception would be hours or a day and a half. You think Eska and Mia and the rest of us get pressured to make babies? You don't have the faintest notion of what real pressure is. Reflect on the fact that your friends held out only until the prospect of taking Eli's seed was put on the table. How long did they resist?"

Veronica faltered as she struggled to come up with an answer until she finally did.

"Yet you scold Eli for making the same decision that you made for me. If not for the same reasons."

Agatha's blue eyes rolled as she put her black-gloved hands to her face before she threw them down and gave a humorous smirk while she stuck out three fingers.

"Eli is a man and him doing his duty is just a small grain of sand to the mountain of the task of bringing up a child, much less several. His responsibilities are: Thrusting, grunting, and doing those two as often as possible. His squelching is due to some moral hiccup, not because he will have to do any of the work or spend long nights awake."

Veronica puckered her lips as she crossed her arms.

"We didn't get the impression that his part in pregnancy was insignificant when we pulled open his robes."

Agatha sighed as she put her right hand to her forehead. A long moment passed until she opened her eyes and looked her up and down for a long moment.

"Veronica, you are making these comparisons to your friends and Eli because you have no experience in these matters. When you first got out of gestation, you had the mind of a thirteen-year-old. You've matured rapidly since then, but you still don't have the context or the experience to make these decisions.

If they knew that the seed would take, the government, the academies, and the associations would have all seen Ryan or Jeff fused to your thighs to get a line of scion plant or healing mages. Consequences to your health or wellbeing be damned. You don't know what that's like, you haven't seen the women who've been put through that kind of breeding regime. But I have and I, as your mother and an imperfect human, had to make a decision that you were completely unequipped to make."

Veronica went red in the face as she sucked in a breath and pointed her right hand's index finger at her mother.

"It's. My. FUCKING WOMB!" Veronica screamed. After a second of letting those words hang in the air, she started talking again. "You could have at least let me know so I wouldn't feel like such an idiot for all those tears I shed over my barren existence."

Agatha threw up her hands in exasperation.

"You can't lie!" Agatha spouted with a wave of her right hand to her daughter, "Not once have you ever told a lie people didn't immediately see through. And this isn't some deflection away from the number of sweets you've eaten. Interfering with the breeding of a scion is a crime of the highest level and I couldn't have you be a part of it if I wanted to preserve your reputation. If this all came out, I wanted to be the big bad mother who tricked her poor daughter away from doing her duties. All that I did, I did for you. I risked everything so that you could have a healthy post gestation, if only for a few years."

Veronica stood there for a moment as she took in the tears that went unshed in her mother's eyes. After a long moment, she bit her lower lip and shook her head.

"That was very noble of you. Deciding my life for me with no pesky thoughts about what I actually wanted. How very loving!"

With that, she stormed up the staircase behind her and went to her room to cry herself to sleep. After a long night of tears, punctuated by a visit from her familiar, Veronica made her way back down the stairs. Her heart-shaped face had bags under her blue eyes, which made no attempt to look at her mother in the kitchen before dashing out the front door with her bird familiar on her right shoulder. Heading out to the academy, she ate a quick breakfast at the canteen with the other students. She spent her time ambling over the grey stone floors, in between large oak bookshelves or large packs of students, all of whom made way for her eminence.

What item or person she was looking for was unknown, but still, she looked. When lunchtime approached, Veronica sat at one of the long oak tables alone as she ate her ham sandwich and fruity drink, neither of which registered on her tongue or mind. What did finally penetrate her cloud of confusion and despair was her two best friends moving to sit beside her.

"Hey, Veronica," Eska said, the librarian-looking black-haired woman's sharp nose followed her brown eyes as they surveyed the room. She quickly sat on the scions right while Mia took up the left, with the caramel-skinned redhead content to keep a sympathetic look on her face towards the blonde.

'Veronica, we heard something.' Mia said in a spirit connection, the tomboy asked with a concerned look as her smooth cheekbones showed some white in her skin. 'Have you been taking yook root?'

She clearly expected a no, as did Eska who was also maintaining a spirit connection. Veronica showed the first emotion to grace her face that day.

'How did you find out?' Veronica demanded with a raise of her eyebrows.

There was a sharp intake of breath from her two friends. They both had student robes on and used the sleeves to hide their faces. Eska was the first to recover, though.

'WHAT?!' She screamed through the spirit connection.

Veronica took a moment to collect her thoughts before she explained yesterday's events.

Mia and Eska, to their credit, kept most of the shock off their face.

'Since we were first together, you could have…' Mia was dumbfounded but Eska's mind was running at full speed even as no words came from her.

'So, where did you guys hear that rumor from?' Veronica asked, now feeling some proper emotion again, though it was mostly annoyance.

'Everywhere, pretty much.' Mia said with a bite on her dark lip. 'It's easy to imagine how. Between leaving your tea items at Eli's, screaming at your mother, and knocking open all those crates, there's any number of ways people could have found out.'

Veronica went pale at that as she bit her lower pink lip and strummed her fingers on the table. Picking up her mug, the water scion looked around the room. Now that she was paying attention, she could see that a lot of the surrounding students were stealing glances at her. She wasn't sure how long it was that people had been looking at her, but there was a distinct feeling it had been going on since she arrived.

'Well, I'm sorry. I suppose finding out my entire life was a lie did affect my ability to think clearly.'

'It's okay.' Eska said in the spirit connection, speaking with a wobbly tone. 'But… you do know what this means? Right?'

Veronica nodded.

'All this time, I was crying over my-'

'Not that!' Eska said, staring blankly ahead even as her teeth were clenching. 'Eli. We're trapped in his orbit. Just like Jeff and Andrew.'

Veronica took a moment to consider that angle. With the outing of her fertility, this revelation would leave a grievous wound on her reputation, to say nothing of her mother's. But considering how the president's sons were gone after for their involvement, she realized with dawning horror that they were now in the center of that perpetual storm following the quad mage.

'When this gets out,' Mia said with widening brown eyes. 'Our necks will be hoisted up right along with Jeff's and Andrews for interfering with Eli's breeding.'

'Not just that,' Veronica responded as her throat suddenly became very parched, 'They'll probably blame Eli using yook root on us.'

'Worse,' Eska said, drawing the gazes of the other two women, 'They'll probably think it was a secret ploy to get Eli's child. Every letter written, every word spoken with our families will be gone over, including their activities.'

Mia went properly pale at that. Legality was such a pliable word. Pretty much every house had one legally… flexible practice or another, especially those who traded with the southern coast of the central continent, as Mia's family did. A looking over by so many powers would see their families ruined. Mages were generally more than a bit colder and self-interested than most, but the thought that they could be the last of their bloodlines was still an unpleasant thought for Mia and Eska.

'So, what's changed for us?' Mia asked her friends.

'It's all coming down on our heads, and not just as a passing acquaintance of Eli's.' Eska said with a note of panic, 'All those armies, national meetings, and the madness of deranged associations. All of that far-off, crazy shit we've been idly discussing at lunch and dinner. That stuff that was always the problem of people far more powerful and knowledgeable than us. We're right in the middle of all of it now. There's probably going to be heads of countries and militaries the world over personally looking into us. Across the Coalition and the central continent.'

The enormity of their situation was now brought to bear on them. As long as she had known them, Veronica always considered her little group a light gathering of friends. Maybe working together in the future on magical resource expeditions when they all became official mages. Possibly even getting into a high position at one of the associations. Though, the unspoken expectation was that Veronica, as the scion of the group, would outshine the other two.

Now it just looked like she would be getting the finest rope of the bunch.

'Oh, come on!' Mia said, rolling her eyes even as sweat running down her forehead, 'It's not… you really can't… You really think they'll kill us?'

Eska's sharp nose turned down as she fixed her brown eyes on her two friends like a hawk.

'Are you willing to take the risk that the people losing their minds over Eli will patiently and rationally parse through our words and statements? If you're willing to trust people to act rationally, to believe that a scion faking her infertility at the same time that the quad mage hasn't been siring won't be forcibly linked in the minds of everyone who hears it, then you better be willing to put your life on the bargaining table.'

An unspoken agreement was reached between the three women. Blue eyes met brown eyes, brown eyes met each other, and quicker than any words spoken through a spirit connection, the decision to flee was reached.

'Where to?' Veronica asked, leaning back into her chair. Her face hardened as did her two companions. They did not go through the hell of mage training and studying, day after bone-breaking day, to die for some deranged mobs conspiracy-mongering.

'How to, is the bigger question.' Mia responded as she leaned forward. 'They've made sure to stop any carriages coming or going so they can transport Eli tomorrow with no delays on the road. I don't think we have time to wait for the regular traffic to resume before we're dragged in by the guards.'

'Are they using any carriages to move goods?' Eska asked, 'One we could slip into.'

Mia scrunched her nose incredulously.

'And we would manage that, how?' She demanded.

'A heavy rainstorm.' Veronica butted in, 'I can have Chattox summon a small storm to provide us cover from the sky. Though, couldn't we just make a run of it through the countryside? Maybe with some wind crafts.'

The two turned to Eska, who looked down deep in thought for a moment until she reached a decision.

'One of us? Sure. Three people roaming out in the wastes would draw a lot of attention from the undead. To say nothing of the fact that I don't think I could come up with a good set of boosters for three people and have enough time for us to practice using them.'

Veronica strummed her fingers on the table for a second before Mia spoke.

'The western area past the Hub is far more well maintained. We don't need to hike it the whole way there. We just need to get near the Hub before we run off and use some noise-deadening spells to cover our escape. A high-profile caravan like this would have Eli near the middle and a large contingent of fighters near the front to deal with the undead. The kind of carriage we're looking for would be stuck far in the back.'

Veronica and Eska nodded.

'Another mysterious rainstorm would give us the cover we'd need to roll into a ditch.' Veronica said hopefully.

'If they're bringing any kind of goods with them on this trip.' Mia cut in.

'They'd have to bring some stuff for medical aid or camping supplies in case they get stuck out in the wilderness. Can't take any chances with the wonder of our age.' Eska said hopefully, though a note of bitterness came clear through at the end.

Mia and Veronica lightly nodded.

'And where would we be trudging through the undead and wilds to get to?' Eska asked as she put away the sour tone completely.

Mia nodded as she stood up.

'Off to the west coast. I know enough of the area that I can get us to some… less savory places to hide until we can leave the Coalition. Let's meet up at Veronica's when I've scouted out the caravan.' With that, the redhead immediately took off while Eska waited a few seconds before she headed out to prepare.

Veronica felt a faint spirit connection telling her that Chattox was flying around between the central pillar of the tower and the open space of the floors. Even with that, and being surrounded by students and staff members, she felt more alone than she had at any time she spent wandering the woods or walking down empty streets at night.

Tired from the day's emotional labor, Veronica quickly gorged on her sandwich and juice before she left the canteen. As she walked between the shelves the feeling of eyes on her was now unmistakable. It set the hair on the back of her head standing straight up even when she was in a small corner by herself. The late afternoon sun was shining through the windows when she had finally had enough and ran out of the classroom tower, driven out by the constant presence of eyes on her. Eyes that were no longer filled with jealousy, pity, or lust, but now held suspicion and distrust. Chattox accompanied her along the way as the white sea bird familiar stood on her shoulder, its cruel-looking red eyes holding some pity as its crown of sharp feathers wafted with her every step out onto the snow-covered field towards the carriages.

Taking off in one of the metal boxes, the few students accompanying her on the trip paid her no mind as she sat in the corner, her mind running over all those moments in her life that she had cried or fumed over her lack of fertility. The thought of her holding her own child was often a sad one due to its impossibility, but now it was a fantasy that was perfectly within arm's reach. Something that filled her with cold fury rather than hope.

When she arrived back at her house with the sun fading in the cloudy sky, Mia was near the green couch to the right. She looked rather harried as she moved from the couch to Veronica, who quickly shut the door behind her.

"They're leaving. Now." Mia said with a more than mild tone of panic.

"What?!" Veronica gasped.

"I don't know if this was the plan all along or something else. But Eli, Jeff, and Andrew are all being moved out. Within the hour. I'll meet you along the way to the bridge, but I've got to help get Eska in order."

The blonde's face went pale as her familiar took off upstairs to one of the windows that was left perpetually open for his entrance and exit from the house. Veronica nodded to Mia, who took her in a hug before running out the front door. Without a moment to spare, the water scion quickly changed into her rough leather armor and stuffed whatever food or clothes she could get her hands on down her dragon skin bag. While it was the size of a book, the red-scaled side bag had the space of a small wardrobe.

A gift from Eli, who was now the only way out of the noose he helped put on her neck.

Her items gathered and will steeled, Veronica came up to the entrance of the house and stared at the oak door for a moment. Her mother was still out at the office and Veronica knew she didn't have enough time to visit. Biting her lower lip, the blonde's heart-shaped face contorted in pain for a moment before she gripped the door handle.

'Once this all blows over in a month or two, I'll make it up to her,' She thought bitterly to herself as she pulled open the door.

Going out over the snow-covered yard, she saw Andrew and Jeff, wearing white shirts and grey pants, being led out of the house to the left. Their faces were stoic and passive like they had accepted their fate as a guard on each of their sides escorted them out of the house. Off further ahead, she saw a growing group of soldiers and mages forming a crowd around the larger residence where Ryan had lived. Eli wasn't among them, but from the scars and general appearance of the men and women, they were the elite of the associations and the army. Fortunately, none of them deigned to notice her. The sweat running down their foreheads despite the cold and the occasional long stare said they knew the danger of their cargo.

Veronica was wearing her typical outing gear with a leather bag on her back holding the space expanded bag. She was able to walk through the gate and move among the regular peasants without drawing more than a passing glance from those trying to keep alive during this harsh season. The cold air barely registered even as her breath came out as a fog, the wild beating of her heart driving away the winter's bite from her body. It took her until she was halfway up the main road for her familiar to re-establish the faint spirit connection. Looking out over the crowd of coming and going workers and housewives, she saw the long line of carriages getting ready to take off. The ones closer to the gate were solid metal boxes that looked sturdier than a troll bracing for a blow. Closer towards the back, near the now almost abandoned warehouses closer to the bridge down the rightward road, were some carriages that had the more… it will do finish, complete with thinner walls and unpolished lines showing where the sheets of iron were crudely smacked together.

"It's now or never," Mia whispered in her right ear. Not missing a beat, Veronica didn't look back as they both ducked into a small alley that reeked of piss. Eska followed shortly after, done up in similar, plain leather armor like the other two women. Around Eska's face was a brown wrap that was typical of those seeking to shield their faces from the cold. Handing two covers to her accomplices from a large bag slung over her back, Mia covered her face and nodded to the others before taking off down the other side of the alley.

It was a good ten minutes before Mia came back.

'All right, I think I've found one,' She said in a spirit connection, 'Near the back towards the river. A dinky carriage with a bunch of crates filled with dried fruits and arrows. It has the manifest on the side so it's a part of the caravan. The best part is that they are going to be immune from inspection, just a quick check for the papers and they'll be putting us right through.'

'Great,' Veronica responded with a look to the other women, 'Are we ready to go?'

A moment of hesitation came up, brought on by the finality of what they'd be doing in the next few minutes. It passed as quickly as it came, prompting them to move out of the back of the alley and into the street leading towards the warehouses. Veronica sent a faint prompt through the spirit connection to Chattox. A few seconds later, small bits of icy water started falling over the area near the bridge and warehouses. With an accompanying wave of groans from the surrounding passerby, the rain picked up as the three approached the back end of the wagon train.

Seeing their target in one of the spaces between the big wooden buildings, Mia, being at the front of the group and most well acquainted with the area, looked around. Fortunately, it seems the decision to leave early caught the caravan off guard as well. The line of crude metal wagons had one guard at the front of the carriages to the left while the rest could be seen trying to work the crowd into giving Eli a clear shot to the bigger carriages further ahead.

When the rain reached a fever pitch that made it hard to see more than a few feet ahead and turned the snow into icy slush, Mia nodded. The three moved quickly between the horses and through an empty alley on the right of their target. Swinging back around, they came upon the open end of the carriage and quickly made their way up into the carriage as Veronica told Chattox to stop.

There were large crates stacked about with sacks of food and arrows, though there was enough space on the right and left for the three to sit down in and remain unseen. Veronica sat by herself between a barrel and a large stack of crates on the left side while Eska and Mia sat together further down the right side. There was a stampede of boots as the men moved to cover and heat the horses, who were now covered in a layer of ice where they couldn't shake it off. In time, that too passed and before long, the sound of a driver getting in was heard as a shadow fell down the center of the carriage. Their laughable inspection complete, a whistle was heard far off.

Followed by the thunder of hooves on stone and the neighing of horses, eventually, their carriage took off with a hard pull until coming to a stop again. None of the women dared peek out to see where they were even after several minutes of staying still. When the carriage took off again, there was a distinct waft of ash in the air. Ever-present this close to the bridge, it became more distinct with the sudden rise in temperature. When the carriage moved at full speed, the putrid smell of death invaded their nostrils, letting them know they were in the proper wilds now.

The rest of the trip passed with the occasional stop. These were quickly accompanied by the sound of far-off fighting and the crunch of bones that let the three know that the undead were still present on the empty plains of snow and bark scars. With the falling of the sun and the rising of the stars, the three tried to drift off to sleep in shifts. But the churning worry in their guts made the prospect of shutting down their minds a lost cause.

After a good hour or two of travel, when they estimated they were still a far ways from the Hub with a blanket of stars and black in the sky, the carriage came to a hard stop again. Waiting for the usual cacophony of battle and bone-crunching, the fighting continued for far longer than the few seconds it should have. The trio became worried at what was happening. When they heard the driver jump down from his seat and the metal scrape of him drawing his sword rang out, they were fully awake.

It was a few more seconds as they sat there like petrified rabbits before a single word sounded over the din of screaming and, more worryingly, odd cracks and explosions.

"ORCS!" A woman's voice cried out.

"Oh, shit," Veronica said without a thought given to secrecy. Chattox was having trouble seeing what was happening and flew down to their carriage as she stood up. The other two wordlessly agreed with her statement and promptly abandoned their spots. Whatever happened tonight, they had no intentions of being a part of it.

Abandoning their carriage, the three promptly trusted their safety to the unknowns of the night as they flew to the right of the carriage. They were at a bend of the road with large hills on the right and could now get a semi-clear view of the battle as they stopped near the edge of the road. Frojan were lined up on the side of the hill farther ahead and took cover behind whatever boulders they could find. Each had wooden pads with water shields and an odd-looking weapon of long wood pointing towards the caravan defenders with water blades and showers of molten stone shooting out of them and raining down on the men and women.

"Come on!" Mia said to the other stunned women.

Veronica nodded, taking off but stopped when Eska stood there wide-eyed and pointing towards the battle.

"Look!" She demanded as her pale face had some reflections of the firelight shining from the burning carriages and bodies. Veronica looked again over the battlefield, not understanding what the big issue was. Then it hit her like a troll's fist to the gut.

"The Frojan's crafts. They aren't failing from the spells." The water scion whispered, even though the chorus of carnage meant even her companions would barely hear her shout. Mia scoffed before she took in the fighting. Blasts of magical wind were coming from the mages, yet the barrage from the Frojan's weapons never faltered, nor did their shields waver. Unlike the mages barriers under the brutal assault as walls of water steamed away from the red-hot spray and small forts of earth were chipped into chunks by water blades.

One wind mage made the fatal error of sending out a gale as she flew towards one of the frojan with an exaggerated leap. The big green frogman with a blue robe just turned his weapon up and split her head in two with a single water blade from the snout of his weapon that sent out a loud crack. He huffed for a moment before turning back to the main group with a rain of molten slag as greetings.

Chattox, flying above, landed on Veronica's shoulder and pecked the woman. Snapped out of her horrified stupor, the blonde shoved the two other women.

"We'll die if we stay here. Get your fucking legs moving!" She said in a panicked voice. That got the rest of them moving as they took off with her over the snow-covered road. When they got past the ditch in the road and onto the slight hill, a hard crack and rending of metal drew their gaze back to the battle, which had stopped as both sides also turned to the noise.

Near the center of the caravan stood one metal box larger than all the others, with some leather strips around the sides and in the corners. There was another rending of metal as the box of the carriage shook. Another moment and the entire back of the carriage swung open to reveal Eli, wearing a grey shirt with brown pants. What drew everyone's eyes was the cloud of white mana coming out of his body, which only made the look of fury in his face more terrifying.

Veronica's jaw dropped as the image of Eli sucking in that mana and throwing fireballs somewhere off to the left blotted out all other images. The ultimate mage jumped down from the carriage to continue the fight that was now blocked by the other carriages, billowing streams of white mana from his skin all the while as the frojan started up their assault again.

It was Chattox who first recovered, pecking at Veronica's cheek with such force that he drew blood this time. That pain finally pushed past her shock as she took her friend's hands.

"Come on! We've got to get out of here." She chastised as their feet started working again. Even the caramel-skinned Mia was fully pale now as she was dragged behind the blonde with her black-haired friend.

"Ultimate. He's…" Eska couldn't find the words to finish.

"Ultimate mage." Veronica finished as Chattox went to peck the other two women into action. "He'll handle the orcs. But we need to get out of here."

The battlefield of impossibilities was quickly left behind them as the black of the night swallowed the three women and the bird familiar. Veronica, for her part, felt no small amount of shame. Leaving behind an ultimate mage to potentially fall into the hands of the orcs was such cowardice that not even the most loathsome bard in the seediest tavern would sing of such an act without spitting.

As she sprinted and practically dragged her dazed friends behind her through the drifts of snow, there was a loud series of explosions that sent a faint rumble through the ground and snow as a small storm of wind kicked up. For the first time in her life, Veronica wondered if the act of some god was involved. Then she realized that it was no god. It was the man of a thousand mysteries that she had thought of as a friend, who had helped her through so many trials and struggles, finally bringing the full measure of his might down onto the field of battle.

Sweat ran down the back of Veronica's neck as the first pang of pity she had ever felt for the green-skinned women and frogmen made itself known. Something that was quickly pushed to the side as all three women now ran at full speed into the safety of the winter's cold embrace.