Chapter 5: Chapter Three – You Alright?

Chapter Three - You Alright?

“Hey, you alright?” Crystal asked. The woman she was asking was staring after the other group, who were currently running away.

As far as introductions went, Crystal gave herself a six out of ten for this one. Sure, someone died, but only the one, and thanks to the costume she had on top of her costume (that was, the tattered tent tarp) the people running away would have a much harder time pointing her out to the appropriate authorities!

Crystal’s mood plummeted. She was in so much trouble, and there was no way that would hold up to any sort of investigation. But it wasn’t her fault! Her magic was, partially, instinctive, and that guy had thrown his knife first. So technically it was self-defence, and automatic self-defence at that.

If Fractured Time were there, she’d smack Crystal upside the head for causing so much trouble. If Happy Sparkles were here, no one would have tried to kill someone else to begin with.

“Who are you?” the woman asked.

Crystal perked up. She wasn’t running in terror like the others! That was great. “I’m Crystal,” she said. “Pleased to meet you!”

The woman nodded and she swiped her hand through the air. A slight sheen of frost started to pool away from the air. “I’m Veronica Dotter, of house Dotter. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Crystal nodded, then gestured towards the rising steam. “Are you a magical girl?”

“Pardon?”

“I’d guess you’re not,” Crystal continued. The woman was in her early twenties, way too old to be a magical girl. Crystal... was probably not much younger, actually. Magical girls didn’t age, of course, otherwise they’d just be magical women at some point and that’d just be weird. Which begged the question. “So, is that magic?”

Veronica, who currently had a tight rein on her daemon-fed powers, nodded. “Yes, of course it is,” she said.

“And what’s the name of the place we’re in?” Crystal asked. She had a worrisome worry in her tummy.

“How lost are you?” Veronica asked honestly. Depending on how lost the girl before her was, her answer would change. She pointed to the mountains right next to them, where they could see one of the peaks rising high above the others. “That’s the Widow’s peak, to the south of the Theinplains. Kircken is a few days to the north.”

“Huh,” Crystal said. She had no idea where she was. “Nice, okay. I’m starting to realise that I’m in a bit of a pickle.”

“You’re pickled?” Veronica asked. She couldn’t fathom what this girl was talking about, but it was clear she was a powerful magi of one sort or another, and her father had taught her to tread carefully around those with so much power.

“In a pickle,” Crystal corrected, even if it was probably pointless. She was starting to suspect that she wasn’t on Earth anymore. Or at least, not her Earth. Dimension Death sometimes jumped to other worlds for fun. She used to call it “isekai’ing” herself, but she said that most Earths were pretty much the same as theirs, but usually a little more boring.

Crystal considered what to do for a moment while rubbing at her chin and thinking hard. If this wasn’t Earth--and she hadn’t confirmed that yet--then she needed to find a way back home. That would require either powerful magic, or very good technology. She looked at Veronica again. The woman was wearing a gambeson with some chainmail and a breastplate that only covered her upper torso. She had gloves on, and boots with metal plates over them.

That didn’t exactly scream high-tech to Crystal. The people past Veronica were dressed in poofy clothes that looked rather strange to her. Most of them were wearing wooden clogs. Those that didn’t had strange, monstrous feet.

“Alright,” Crystal said. She stood straighter and put her hands on her hips. She had a solution. “I’m very lost, and you look like a responsible adult. So I’m going to follow you around until I figure out what’s happening.”

“Pardon?” Veronica asked.

“Um. Which part didn’t you hear?”

Veronica narrowed her eyes at the young lady. “No, don’t worry. I think I understood. But what I don’t understand is who you are, exactly?”

“I told you, I’m Crystal. Magical Girl Crystal Genocide!” Crystal flashed a V-for-victory next to her face while winking. A few teeny-tiny crystals summoned in the air behind her gave the scene the brilliant flickers and flashes it needed to look properly artsy.

Veronica stared. The girl wasn’t sane, she decided. Not sane, coupled with a great degree of control over whatever powers she’d obtained. “Fine. I was going to guide these people to Oberschield anyway. You may follow, if you wish.” The moment they arrived, Veronica would make herself scarce and report what had happened to the guild.

If she could get her report in before Frederick, then it might tip any future judgements in her favour.

The problem was getting to the guild in time for that.

“Which way is Oberschield in?” the girl asked.

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Veronica paused, then pointed.

“So... the same way the people who just ran away went in?” Crystal asked.

That was a good point, one that Veronica hadn’t considered. Frederick would return to Oberschield first, if only to regroup. Then the group would either continue their hunt, or join up with another, or maybe they’d even return to Kircken.

With Veronica... quitting, and Michel currently nothing more than a still-smoking pair of boots, that left the team with only two daemon-fed members. Not nearly enough to hunt any of the local daemons for their meat, not if they expected to have a good haul.

“Ma’am?”

Veronica jumped and turned to face one of the people she’d been protecting. The group had been so quiet she had nearly forgotten about them. The man speaking to her had stepped up, hat in hand, and was eyeing the dirt beneath her feet.

He was partially-turned, though the transformation had stopped early enough that he retained much of his humanity, at least in appearances. His eyes were too large, and too far apart, and there was something… Fishy about his skin, but he could have passed himself off as a particularly ugly fellow if it wasn’t for the webbing between his hands. “I want to thank you. We all do,” he said without looking up.

“Oh,” Veronica replied. She hadn’t been expecting that. “You’re welcome, citizen.”

“We’ve been on the run since... well, you likely know. We’re just peaceful folk who were cursed in the worst way. We don’t mean anyone no harm, ma’am. When we saw those folk coming for us, we thought it’d be the end. So thank you.”

“Why were you afraid of them?” Crystal asked. She had pretty decent hearing, and couldn’t help but listen in on the conversation between Veronica and the strange fish-man. All of the people by the walls of the cliff were strange. She hadn’t figured out if that was normal or not yet.

Veronica seemed normal, but she was also able to make things freeze via magic... somehow. The other people who’d run away had all been human-looking, but Crystal hadn’t stared at them all carefully, so she couldn’t be sure.

She listened in as Veronica and the fish man spoke back and forth. It seemed that the people just wanted to keep heading the way they were going... without Veronica or Crystal coming with them.

Veronica couldn’t decide if she was incensed or not. The peasants didn’t want her assistance beyond what she’d done already. In one way, it was a relief. It meant less work for her. She didn’t even know where to begin to worry about the logistics of moving so many people. In another way, it was clearly an insult.

They were as good as saying that she wasn’t good enough to defend or care for them, and the fact that it was entirely true didn’t factor into how she was feeling about it.

In the end, common sense took over and Veronica wished the peasants well. She even fished out a couple of silver and gave them to the man she assumed was the group’s leader. It wasn’t much, but for what looked like farmers and seamstresses, it would be enough to buy a meal or two for the entire group if they were careful.

She wasn’t some uneducated noblewoman who didn’t know the value of coins. Her father was a mere baron, and that meant they were closer to the peasantry than they would have ever liked to admit.

“Bye bye! And good luck out there!” Crystal called out to the strange people as they left. “Watch out for boars! They’re quite mean!”

Veronica turned to her, and Crystal tried a smile, though she knew it came off as a bit awkward. “I’m going to Kircken,” Veronica said. “It’s two or more day’s walk from here.”

“I can walk,” Crystal said.

Veronica eyed her. How much could she trust this strange child? Not much, she decided. “Sure. Let’s go.”

It was both pragmatic and rude, but Veronica was determined to lose the girl at the first rest-stop they reached.

It wouldn’t be hard. There were plenty of inns a quarter day’s ride apart along the main road to Kircken. She’d just leave before the girl noticed her going and keep up the pace until she was left behind.

If she really needed help, well, she was on the road. There would be plenty of people willing to help.

Veronica decided not to dwell on the morality of it.

Crystal, meanwhile, was just happy to have a direction to head in. “Okay, so I have a million questions,” she began.

***

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