Chapter 16: Chapter 13 – First Lessons, Part 1

Nothing really all that special happened in the morning. Avilia woke me up again and I got up feeling groggy. The unfamiliar bed, the unfamiliar world and the unfamiliarity of everything is taking a bit of a toll on me. But I try not to let it stop me.

I can’t. If I stop for too long, I’m going to die. That’s a great motivator, if I ever needed any. Which I don’t, since I already have one in Avilia.

She’s anchoring me in a way I didn’t entirely expect. Without her I’d be a lot worse for wear, for sure. Thankfully she seemed happy this morning again. I guess what I asked yesterday really turned out to be not as bad as I feared.

It was still stupid of me to ask it.

Either way! I woke up and we had some pleasant conversation about the weather while I changed out of my pajamas and put on my day clothes. Avilia sat on the bed, already prepared for the day. I went with my original clothes instead of the new ones I bought yesterday out of habit. They do feel nicer, and I like the way the look more.

It's the cloak that makes my clothes work at all here, though. Can’t forget about it. You know, the cloak looks like a normal cloth cloak, but somehow it doesn’t make you feel hot even during the day.

Very curious. Or, it would be, if I couldn’t literally see the high-tech circuitry and nanomachines on it while to a casual onlooker it just looks like a cloth cloak. It's really something.

Just like yesterday, we had breakfast at the inn. It was lighter this time, just a breakfast. That’s not to say it was light per se, but lighter. I see croissants again. Bread with jam on it, apparently this is what’s called a “baguette,” or an equivalent as the case may be. As for what we’re drinking this morning… If my eyes don’t deceive me, we have juice instead of water, and apparently this dark substance is coffee?

Considering how small this village is, I can’t help but wonder how the inn seems so well supplied. I mean, I know it’s probably magic, but is this normal here? I thought one of the major problems in medieval times was distances when transporting goods. I’m pretty sure they don’t produce a whole lot of fresh fruit here to make juice with!

Maybe I shouldn’t think about it too hard. I’ll just give myself a headache.

Avilia and I agreed that she’d come to the magic shop later to check up on my progress. She had some sort of errands to run first, and I decided not to pry. I’m just going to assume it’s related to her earlier life-long work as an observer somehow.

As I finished breakfast, it was time to take my leave.

Right now I’m in front of the magic shop’s door. I can’t help but feel a bit excited. Sure, it’s just day three of being stranded here, but this is still a major step forward!

Today’s the day I start learning magic! … or how to read. I’m going to guess she’s going to teach me how to read and write first.

There’s a sign on the door which I can’t read, but I’m going to assume it means “closed”. Yesterday it looked a bit different, even if it was moving in a disconcerting manner.

I knock on the door.

No answer. I wonder if she’s still asleep, or if this wasn’t actually a good time for her after all? She did tell me to show up in the morning!

I look around. The street’s clear, at least.

Oh.

Suddenly, I hear some sort of commotion coming from the magic shop, and a muffled “I’ll be right there!”

It's Karine’s voice all right. I realize that she didn’t give me a time when to come in, so I guess any time I chose to show up on would end up surprising her.

A few minutes pass, and I entertain myself by going through language data fed into my systems by the amulet Avilia gave me when we first met. It’s already picked up a lot, sticking the information straight into my brain. I’ve been wearing it all this time, and, well. If this keeps up, I should be able to speak their language as well as a native in no time.

Too bad they don’t have something like this for written language, it seems. But I can probably abuse the system to help me ease into it anyway, once I can see what each letter means.

The door opens.

It's Karine, looking as well-kept as ever. A bit rushed, though.

“Sorry to keep you waiting!”

“Oh, no problem.”

“Please, do come in!”

She pulls the door fully open, allowing me to walk in.

“I hope you didn’t wait for too long!”

“Oh, no, I’ve only been waiting for a few minutes.”

“Good! I was afraid I just hadn’t heard an earlier knock. Had to get things ready, you see!”

I nod.

“I think we’ll have to start with written language,” she says as she starts guiding me towards what looks like a door to backroom, “It’s going to be a problem later if you can’t read spell books!”

That much makes sense. Thankfully, I’m eager to learn. And can hurry it along, too.

“Not that we’d start with magic that requires spell books,” she says a bit absentmindedly while we reach the door, her eyes seeming to glaze over a little.

“So basic spells don’t require a lot of reading?”

“No,” she says as she turns the handle of the door, “They don’t.”

She walks in first, and I follow.

The door leads to a fairly small room with a table and a couple of chairs. It’s pretty bright thanks to the morning Sun.

Oh, and there’s a person there, too, setting up books and writing materials on the table.

She looks around Karine’s age, just a little bit younger, perhaps. She has blonde, braided hair. She wears an interesting looking outfit, reminiscent of French revolutionary military uniforms, maybe. I remember seeing those somewhere… History books? Or was it in fiction?

Both. The answer is both.

She doesn’t seem to pay much attention to us.

“Ah, Flore,” Karine says as she walks up to her, touching her shoulder and making the woman turn and look at her. Oh, the unknown woman’s heart rate became elevated. “This is the person I told you about.”

She looks at me. It’s not a warm look, but it’s not exactly the worst I’ve gotten so far. She has a bit of an aura of nobility around her, doesn’t she? Not the rehearsed sort that Karine has, either.

Oh, and unlike Karine, she has a normal eye color, too. Is that hazel? Light brown, at any rate. It’s not a bad look.

Karine turns towards me, too.

“This is Flore Valant, my shop assistant and confidant.”

So… Best friend, maybe?

Flore bows slightly. “I apologize for my lack of manners. I wasn’t told to expect you just yet.”

“Oh, it’s nothing. We didn’t really agree on a specific time. I’m Irene Durant.” I do a slight bow back, mimicking her. I hope there aren’t any pitfalls for me to fall into relating to courtesy here.

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“I have everything set up just like you asked, Karine,” she says, looking away from me.

“Thank you. I don’t know where I’d be without you!”

Karine leans towards Flore and the two hug. Flore blushes a little as her heart rate elevates even further, while… Karine seems entirely oblivious. There’s no change in her.

What kind of a dynamic do these two have? Is that unrequited love?

I’m not sure I should start making any assumptions on my own.

Flore’s face remains aflush as they separate from the hug, and Karine pays it no mind.

“I, um, I think I will take my leave now,” Flore says, averting her gaze from Karine, “Someone has to look after the shop while you’re teaching.”

“Alright, thank you. I’m counting on you!”

Flore nods and rushes out from the room, closing the door behind her.

“Please, take a seat!” Karine points at the seat with writing materials in front of it, closer to the door.

“So,” I say as I take my seat, “how are we going to do this?”

Karine sits down on the adjacent chair.

“Well, as you can see on the paper in front of you, we have the alphabet.”

“This one here,” she says, pointing at the first one, “is an ‘A.’”

Uhhuh. Weird coincidence.

“This one beside it is a ‘B.’ And here we have a ‘C’.”

Wait. What? Seriously?

“… This wouldn’t happen to be a ‘D’ would it?”

“Why, yes, yes it would!”

“And this one’s an ‘E’, this one’s an ‘F’?”

“Yes. How’d you know?”

I look at Karine.

“… I don’t know how to say this.”

I look back down at the paper, incredulously, and then turn back to look at her.

“But barring the looks, they sound exactly the same as the alphabet I’ve used all my life.”

She smiles.

“That shouldn’t be too surprising, should it?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re an outworlder. The impact your kind has had on society is immense. There’s really no way to know where our own influence ends and yours starts.”

Huh.

“But right now,” she continues, “You should just be happy that learning the alphabet won’t be too much of a hassle for you. Now, learning how to write coherent words and sentences, that’s a different matter. You need to actually learn the language.”

“… About that.”

“Yes?”

“You remember how I showed you my arms yesterday, right?”

“I couldn’t forget it even if I wanted to.”

“And you know how I can talk to you, probably due to magic?”

“Yes, that’s what I assumed.”

“Well, thanks to the same technology, I’ve nearly mastered the language.”

Her eyes widen in surprise.

“What?”

“Just what I said.”

She places her hand over her face.

“I… I should’ve seen this coming. You really are a fast learner, aren’t you?”

I nod.

She lowers her hand onto the table.

“Any other surprises I should know about before we continue?”

“Not really, no. I doubt it’ll help me that much with magic. Language learning is a part of the programming, but magic? No.”

“Okay, good. Is it safe to assume that after this one lesson you’ll know how to read and write?”

“I’d say so, yes.”

“Okay. Let’s finish this then and get to the next lesson.”