Ashley Falcon
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Chapter 162: Remember to be polite when accusing someone of murder. After all, you might be right.
🕑 Added 2022-04-16 23:39:18 +0000 UTCMemories of my previous life flashed through my mind. I’d never forgotten Earth, nor did I want to. My old life held precious memories that I would cherish forever. But it was the memory of my violent death that I had lived over and over again in my mind.
Falling, pain, dying.
Don't hate me for this.
Three years ago those were the last words spoken to me before I died. I'd always remember them, and I’d gone through the memory countless times while overcoming the trauma of my death.
The words had come from the lips of a golden eyed woman.
What did they mean?
It was impossible for me to hate someone after I was dead. Unless they knew that I would reincarnate.
"Who are you?" Her voice echoed out across the room.
The girl tilted her head, curiosity crossing her features, and the mana around me shifted alongside her movements.
I shuffled uncomfortably, my hands tapping against my legs as nerves took over. The sight of her golden eyes had opened a trauma I'd spent a lot of time trying to get over.
Then I remembered my manners.
“My name is Andross Silver, I’m Gerial’s close friend.” I stood up and gave her a low bow. “This is Gold, also a close friend of Gerial's.”
I kept my tone as polite as possible. This was the Marked one of Fue. There was no higher position in her church and in the hierarchy, there was no divine as high as Fue.
An person like me couldn't hope to meet her in a lifetime. Not while I was hiding my status.
Her lips parted into a small smile. “I see.”
She strode forward, each step gliding over the carpet as she made her way towards Gerial’s bed.
There was a chirp in the air.
The girl paused as a feathered wing sprouted out from my side. Gold was greeting her with a salute.
"Hello." She looked at him curiously.
A spark of joy crossed her features but was quickly replaced by a neutral expression.
Gold chirped again.
"What did he say?" She blinked in surprise.
She didn’t have a communication skill. I made a mental note in my mind.
"He's asking if you can really heal Gerial, mistress Fue?” I spoke respectfully.
I watched her carefully as I addressed her. She hadn't provided me her name or status, but that didn't mean I could talk to her casually.
It meant that I had to refer to her how everyone did.
Marked ones adopted the name of their divine, either as a title or a surname. For people that didn't know them and weren't introduced to them personally, this was the name they were called by. It was either that or using their official title of ‘Marked one.’
Gerial was officially Crijik.
His friends and his guards called Gerial by his first name because he insisted on it. However, this was seen as incredibly insulting by most of the population.
The Marked ones were divine and acknowledging that they were human could be seen as denying their divinity.
It depended on the Marked one’s preferences.
"I can." She nodded. "I was not expecting an audience."
Her lips curled downwards, and I froze.
She could kick me out of here if she wanted to. Or worse, she could refuse to heal Gerial. There were no rules when it came to Marked ones, but there were for me while I was considered a commoner.
"You may watch.” She raised a finger to her lips. "When the process begins, please don't make a sound."
I nodded, and she gestured with her hand for me to sit down.
She stopped as she reached the bubble around Gerial. Instead of asking for my chair, she knelt down beside the bed, her white robes flowing over the carpet.
Her eyes closed and she stayed still.
The fact that she had allowed me to address her at all was a surprise. Letting me watch her use magic was unprecedented.
Was she that confident that I couldn't harm her? Or was there another reason?
Gold heeded her warning, staying silent except for the occasional rustling of feathers.
He didn't need to worry. I could tell that she hadn’t cast her spell yet.
I examined her closely.
There were many things I wanted to know the answers to, but one problem reared its head as I examined the girl before me.
She was too young.
The person that had pushed me off my roof to my death had been a woman. She’d been young, but not a girl, or a teenager. As a Marked one I knew that she had grown up quicker than usual. At least she would have if she used the Mark.
I didn't know if she could revert her age.
Roxxy had mentioned there were concoctions that could provide the effect and I suspected skills existed for it, but that seemed like a stretch.
From every angle I could see, this was the wrong person. That didn't mean she wasn't involved in some way.
A movement broke my thoughts.
The Marked one’s fingers rose toward Gerial’s side, wrapping around his hand carefully and clasping it tightly. A gentle expression appeared on her face, and I could see that she genuinely cared for him.
"You two know each other better than I thought." The words left my mouth before I could stop them.
She glanced up at me sharply. I saw a hint of caution in her eyes that quickly hid behind her calm exterior.
"Yes." She spoke.
Gold pecked my cheek and I winced. He let out a low chirp, the sound reverberating into my ear.
He was criticising my manners. I hadn't addressed the Marked one with a title when speaking to her.
Gold was right.
She hadn't given me permission to speak, let alone address her informally. Thankfully, she didn't seem to mind. I’d heard of nobles that would blacklist people just for forgetting honorifics once.
"I'm going to begin the spell now.” She shifted her gaze to me. "The rules for making sure nothing goes wrong are simple. Do not speak, do not attack me, and do not cast spells of your own.”
I nodded.
“Thank you.” She smiled.
I made sure to keep my mouth shut.
Right now, Gerial was more important than the questions I had. My feelings about the Marked one were neutral, even if seeing her did trigger bad memories.
So far, she hadn't made a bad impression on me.
She raised her arm.
Gerial’s hand was clasped tightly between her fingers, and I sensed a shift in the mana around me.
Then there was a light.
Golden mana poured out of her body, streaming into the air and cascading across the room. It bounced off me, and I could feel its emotions and thoughts coming across to me through my [mana communication] skill.
Domination.
Its majestic presence overwhelmed my senses, humbling me as it stormed over us. A strange sensation swept across my skin and seeped into my flesh and bones.
I felt the need to bow and kneel.
Alongside it a feeling of inadequacy arose in my heart, letting me know that no matter how hard I tried, I would never reach this level of existence. I was a single ant standing in the presence of a leviathan.
This was what others felt when I unleashed my mana.
The endless ocean of gold within me rippled.
My mana wasn't happy.
The feelings of inadequacy disappeared as the golden mana within me roared in retaliation. It flooded through my veins and tried to make its way outside my body to meet the challenger.
I stopped it.
A bead of sweat dripped down my forehead as I pushed my mana back into my manapool. Releasing it now would expose me to Alyssa.
And worse, it might hurt Gerial.
I had no idea what would happen if her spell was disrupted. She’d told me her instructions in no uncertain terms.
For Gerial’s sake I would follow them to the letter.
Fue’s Marked one raised her hand, the majestic pressure lessening as the golden mana shifted and moved at her command.
She had a higher [mana manipulation] skill level than I did.
Mana thrummed across my vision, beautiful golden spires forming in the world around me and dancing in patterns.
This was what I could do if I didn't have to hide my mana from the world and could practice with it freely.
The spires didn't move toward Gerial.
Instead, they spread out across his bed and formed an octagon. Eight different Golden constructs thrummed with power from the eight corners of the formation.
In the middle was Gerial, and the caster.
She closed her eyes and I knew that she was looking beyond the veil of the physical. What she saw was anyone’s guess, but I could feel the mana pulsing in response to an unseen force.
One by one each pillar was converted into a different type of mana.
The golden mana transformed and became transparent. For a moment I thought I was looking at glass, until I realised it was still mana.
What type of mana is transparent?
It was an element I’d never seen before.
All eight pillars converted, and the new element shimmered as it sat in its octagon. Then it started to disappear, and magic wove through the air.
Then the Marked one opened her mouth and spoke.
The world paused around me.
It was a slight difference, barely noticeable. The air wasn't moving, and not even the slightest of sounds travelled through it. The caster’s mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear the words she was saying.
Gold had frozen beside me, his body stuck on my shoulder.
My eyes watched as the last of the mana disappeared and the spell formed. The Marked one nodded her head, and the magic coalesced above Gerial, entering his body.
Then the world started to move again.
The sound of Gold’s feathers rustling tickled my ears, and I could hear the sounds the Marked one was making. That wasn't all. Something had changed in the room.
I felt it intrinsically.
My eyes darted across the room, trying to spot the source of my feelings.
It was Gerial’s body.
Only a moment ago I had been staring at his body and it was filled with signs of his injuries.
Now I did so again, but it had transformed. His hair had grown back, and I could sense a vibrancy about him that hadn't been present before the spell.
Alyssa gazed down at Gerial, lowering his hand gently to his side and cupping his chin with her fingers.
She tilted his head to one side and then to the other.
“Nothing has gone wrong. He is healed.” A smile blossomed on her face.
Then she glanced at me and remembered I existed.
She coughed lightly, covering her smile behind her hand. Her fingers retracted from Gerial’s face, and her lips pursed.
"He will wake up soon. Thank you for not disrupting the spell." Her voice floated into my ears. "I expected nothing less from a person that Crijik’s Marked has described as his brother.”
“Gerial talks about me?” A flutter of surprise spread across my heart. “Um, I mean, does Gerial talk about me, mistress Fue?”
That surprised me.
Not because Gerial had spoken about me, but because I wasn't sure when he'd done so.
Was he visiting Fue’s Marked one in private?
"He did during his visit to my church." She responded. “Andross Silver. He asked me to speak with you when we met.”
She rose, her white robe swimming over the carpet and then rising off of it.
"Did he, mistress Fue?” I asked.
"He did. And you can stop with the honorifics if you want to. It’s only us here.” She pursed her lips. “He said you were family, and that his brother should get to know his future wife.”
“That’s pretty good advice.” I nodded.
Then I registered what she’d said.
Did she just say wife?
I blinked in surprise, and then coughed lightly. My eyes widened and I saw a twinkle of amusement in the Marked one’s eyes.
"I gather from your reaction that the news hasn't been made public yet." She smiled.
It most certainly had not.
Wasn't Gerial too young to get married? I wasn't sure what the customs of this world were for that. Or how they worked.
It could also be a marriage of convenience. Or an arranged one to be enacted in the future.
He was a political figure, and so was she.
"I won't get mad if you ask questions." She saw the expression on my face. "After all, it's very rare that I get the opportunity to talk to people without them fainting or prostrating the entire time.”
There were several questions that came to mind. But only one was urgent.
"What happened?" I gestured towards Gerial. “How did he get so injured while visiting you?”
Oops.
I didn't mean for that question to sound so much like an accusation.
Her expression shifted.
"It was my fault." A hint of sadness and guilt melded into her features. "We strayed from our guard details to talk in private. It was my suggestion, and I ordered them to move back."
She shuffled uncomfortably and her hands clasped together.
“We went into the garden, and people were waiting for us. I—I didn't sense them for some reason. Neither did Gerial. The moment we entered their range they attacked. Our guards reacted within seconds, but they were aiming for me, and Gerial took the attacks for me.”
She turned toward him, reaching out and grasping his hand in her own.
“Then he disappeared.” She frowned.
I knew the story from there. He had gotten me to activate the portal.
But why? If the attack was already over then he would have been in safe hands at the Fue church.
"I recognised the magic.” Fue’s Marked continued. “It was one of the signature spells used by Artus’ Marked. He transported Gerial away from us. I-I wasn't sure where he’d been taken. When I heard he’d been found an hour later by his guards I requested immediate access to heal him.”
What?
I stared at her.
Her expression steeled as she realised what she’d said.
“That is a matter for me to worry about. I apologise for bringing it to your attention, I was emotional.” She let go of Gerial’s hand. "I’ll be going now. Please inform Gerial of my sincerest apologies. He has rendered a great service to me, and I will never forget it.”
She turned toward the door and stepped forward, intending to leave.
“Wait. Please.”
My voice came out louder than I thought it would and it echoed across the room.
She paused.
I immediately realised my mistake.
I'd given a Marked one an order. Not just any Marked one.
The Marked one of Fue. The highest divine.
"I've put a lot on your plate.” Her expression softened. “You may ask me one question, but then I must go.”
There were many questions running through my mind. I wanted to know the full story of what had happened to Gerial. And I wanted to make sure he was truly healed.
I also wanted to ask about my death.
There was never going to be an easy way to do it, but there was always going to be a smarter way. I could get to know her, and then talk to her as a friend. Or I could wait for a less tense moment.
But this world was unpredictable.
Gerial had almost died, and the target of his attackers had been Fue’s Marked. She could be harmed, or killed, and this opportunity might never come again.
I wasn't the kind of person to shy away when the answers I sought were right in front of me.
"Please allow me to pre-face that what I ask now is asked out of genuine curiosity, with no malice or ill intent.” I took a deep breath. "Years ago, someone with golden eyes pushed me off a roof.”
I gazed into her eyes.
“Was that person you?”
