Chapter 4: Chapter 3

         It has been two days since Alexa’s encounter with whatever has taken residence in Amethyst soul, she now sits in a lavish study across from her mother who is quickly shuffling paper, expertly signing the bottom of each page before setting it aside.

         “Is that so?” her mothers calm voice calmed the young Archmage. 

         Alexa took a centering breath, trying to organize her thoughts as she explained what had happened two days prior. In all her studies, all the combat training, all of her trials and tribulations both physical and mental, Alexandrite Lapidary had never backed down from anything, yet simply identifying whatever was hiding just behind the eyes of her younger sister rattled her very soul, it felt as if whatever had caused the disruption of her skill was looking directly into her soul, mocking her attempt at identifying it. 

         “Yes,” she started, “I have no idea what could cause a simple identify skill to react like that” a chill ran down her spine as she spoke.

         “Could it not simply be a high-level deception skill?” her mother stated matter-a-factly, “one not just to obscure but frighten and stun prying eyes.” Her mother’s tone completely masking whatever she truly felt about the news. “Even I have a skill that can be used to deceive identification magic, albeit not to such an extent to hide my page entirely.”

         “that’s what I thought originally as well,” Alexa sighed, “but whatever it did, wasn’t just a masking, not with the level of identification I have… and” she paused for a long moment ringing her hands together, “it just overpowered me, my spell ended up sapping up half my mana by the time I realized what had happen… when it finally let go.” she finished her mother finally stopping to look up at her.

         “Half?” the matriarch of the Lapidary family murmured, caught off guard by the notion of something that could overpower an archmage like her daughter in a contest like that, “is it possible that it used Amethyst mana pool against you?”

         “Even with Amethyst's power behind it, I should have been able to cancel the spell, but once I activated it, whatever it was, it completely took control of the spell.” Alexa started finally untangling her hands from one another and cracking her knuckles. “And before you ask, I did research skill stealing spells as well, none drain the original casters mana like that, it was likely an ability that forced my spell to stay running for way longer than it should have.”

         They both knew identification spells were costly, any spell with a supporting skill or not, that called information from the voice of the world would normally have a hefty cost. One could mitigate that cost significantly by having skills to either support the spell or to change its output as Alexa does with her identification. Normally the cost of looking at one’s soul page wouldn’t be the worth the drain on one’s mana, however by having the skill “Greater inspection” which halved the casting cost of the “inspect” skill, compiled with all her other skills for casting spells at reduced cost; Alexa could cast inspect with such a trivial cost she would normally never even consider it before casting. But even without all that it wouldn’t cost half her mana to force the spell, maybe a fourth, but half no. Given her mana pool half of Alexa’s mana could in theory spell doom for half of the town if it were to be discharged so to waste half her mana on a single inspect spell is unprecedented.  

         “And then there is the new skill I acquired during the exchange.” She said glancing out the window nervously, “if it gets out you can bolster your inspection skill and acquire a new one simply by gazing into the proverbial abyss. Poor Amethyst won’t have a moment of privacy.”

         “That is if the church of Valor doesn’t burn her at the stake first.” Her mother said catching Alexa off guard by the sudden proclamation.

         “Why,” Alexa started, her confidence wavering at the mention of the church, “why would they do that?”

         Her mother shook her head waving her hand causing a small book to fall out of her spatial storage ring. “They wouldn’t if they know what’s good for them.” For the first time Taaffeite’s expression broke, what stared back at Alexa was not the calm composed matriarch the world knew, but a mother willing to protect her family at any cost. Looking into her mother’s unwavering milky gray eyes Alexa felt a new chill, unlike the slow cold that she felt two days ago, no this one burned with such voracity she momentarily considered diving back into amethyst soul page to escape whatever had caught her mothers ire. 

       

---

         Amethyst hummed as she walked up the bustling street, happy to be out of the mansion after her sudden illness the day before. In fact, the last few days had been quite strange, first while waiting for their parents to arrive for dinner her sister collapsed in the doorway, followed but a sudden bout of nausea that left her feeling as if her veins were on fire, then the next day she couldn’t even get out of bed. The doctor her parents called to look her over said it was a simple case of mana sickness, but that didn’t seem right. Mana sickness comes when one has a buildup of mana in their mana channels without expelling it, but Amethyst had just had magic training with her sister the day before, it was more than likely the sudden burning was mana burn from overusing her mana channels without giving them time to rest, which would explain the nausea from mana depletion, so said her mother who was quite shocked to find both her daughters laying on the dining room floor. So, what was it, was she overflowing with mana? Or was she running out mana? 

         She stopped and investigated a storefront, spying an assortment of fresh fish and banishing the thoughts of mana from her mind. She was out today, given a break from her training and studying while her mother “spoke” to Alexandrite about overworking the young woman. Amethyst did not pity her elder sister knowing that her mother’s talks could be… fighting. 

         “Amethyst, by the gods slow down,” a guardswoman, wheezing for breath, caught up to her.

         “Come now Dora,” Amethyst turned on her heel to face the woman, “I wasn’t even trying to run away this time.” She said mockingly with a grin as the guardswoman’s shoulder sagged and she shifted her weight, causing one of her legs to creak unnaturally.

         Dora was one once a seasoned adventurer, she had boasted near unbelievable feats, priding herself on an indomitable spirit and lighting fast sword strikes. Now after one wrong step in a dungeon left her so in debt from the cost of healing and down one leg she had no choice but take up any job that would take a run-down swords woman. She thought herself lucky when the lapidary family had scouted her for their city guard, even going as far as to fit her with an enchanted prosthetic leg she figured her life was getting back on track. She was quite disappointed when they appointed her the personal guard of their youngest daughter, but the pay was nice and she was quite use to snot nosed nobles from her adventuring days, so she took the job with little complaint, little did she know she was drastically unprepared for the young Amethyst.

You are reading story Shattered Moonstone at novel35.com

         In Dora’s eyes the young girl was all but an angel, she expected Amethyst to be a nightmare after hearing how her family doted on the young girl. But she was amazed to find her to not only be a well-educated young girl, but she was kind, even asking the swords woman if she needed to rest on their first few outings. Dora mistook this as an insult and reprimanded the young amethyst who was just barely 9 at the time and caused her to cry, she thought for sure that was the end of her cushy job before amethyst father stepped in educated his daughter on why it was insulting to ask a warrior if they are ok repeatedly. Dora now regrets this action, as Amethyst has grown into a habit of leaving the swords woman behind until Dora was forced to ask her to slow down. Apparently what her father had told her was “don’t insult those behind you by asking if they need you to slow down, they will tell you. If you think they can’t keep up, then you should slow down without telling, never ask, do.” And since Dora had boasted about being able to walk for days even with one leg, the young girl never asked her again if she needed a rest.

           “Not trying to” Dora sighed, “regardless, please be mindful, I’m not as young as I use to be, and the streets are crowded today since the ships are back in port. Your father will have my other leg if I lose sight of you.” Both women felt that the warnings were exaggerated, no one would be foolish enough to attack a member of the Lapidary family, it would be the equivalent of declaring war on the entire united empire. Nevertheless, the world had no shortage of martyrs and fanatics willing to die for a cause so Dora had no intention of being lax with her duty.

         Amethyst let out a dramatic sigh, hunching over and limping mocking the woman, “ooo my leg, it was eaten by… what was it a leviathan? No no no it was a griffin? Maybe a sphinx?” she said with a grin, and the older swords woman couldn’t help but chuckle.

         “It was a snot-nosed noble brat.” She said ever so gently, tapping the young girl on the head, “keep it up and I’ll take one of yours to replace it.”

         They teased as they walked, Dora almost missing how the young girl used her teasing as an excuse to slow her pace to that of the hobbled guard. 

         Navratna was a huge sprawling city, filled with a vast variety of different races and walks of life. With the dead sea to the east barely 3 hours walk away used for fishing and trading, and the dragon's maw mountains to the west used for mining and as a natural buffer against the northern nations, the city was used as a massive trading depo and a checkpoint for anyone trying to enter the United empires lands from the northern nations, not to mention it lording over the closest port to the capital, the town is often called the Crystal wall, joking the city was a glass trading depo masquerading as a fortes to scare off the beastkin from the north. Well, that was until a dragon appeared from the Dragon's maw mountain range and the city of Navratna quickly took action to do its job as a border territory defeating the dragon before it could ever approach the rest of the empire.

         Amethyst and her guard walked for a while more before finally stopping at a small bakery, the small girl quickly patting herself down much to the amusement of the older guard. 

         “If you wipe any more dirt off that dress, you’ll rub the color out.” She said nudging amethyst. “Pop in there and buy your bread. Ill wait out here the ovens make my leg lock up.”

         Amethyst let out a squeak before being forced into the small bakery, instantly overtaken by the smell of fresh pastries. A large bunny kin woman stood needing bread on the counter, her droopy ears all but melding into her hazelnut hair, as they twitched at the noise of the door opening. The bunny woman turned slightly, raising an eyebrow as she looked to see who entered.

         “o, if it isn’t the little miss” a jovial voice called out as a pair of long rabbit-like ears perked up over the divider leading into the kitchen, “What brings you in today? We just finished up baking a nice apple pie.” The woman’s voice was followed by a loud clanging from the kitchen as a young bunny kin man shot out darting past the large laughing woman as he came to a stop right before amethyst.

         He stood a head taller than her with short hacked off brown hair and long ears that added almost a foot to his height, he had solid brown eyes that shown no white as was usual with bunny kin and a light coat of flower powdered his short almost unnoticeable brown fur, if it wasn’t for the distinct bunny like snout, one would think he was just a very tan boy.

         “Good evening, miss amethyst.” He stammered as he dusted his hands on his apron. “how… how can I help you?

         Amethyst couldn’t help but let a small giggle as she looked away from the boy, “good evening Applejack. Just… some bread. Yes.”

         Applejack was just 3 years older than Amethyst and given the young girl's outgoing personality, he was quite smitten with her, though he would never outright say it. They had many years of awkward flirting before they could even consider such things, not that his mother, Hazel wouldn’t tease the young man any chance she got.

---

         Sleeping in its void, the soul known as Me hadn’t a care in the world. Well it had a lot of cares, but what could it do, Eryl had spent hours lecturing it about how dangerous it was to flood that much Aether into a child. If Amethyst didn’t happen to develop Aether Conversion, which apparently is a skill that dilutes Aether down into mana much like the inverter it had made originally to save the small soul, the amount of power that it had used to spook the perverted peeping tom would have burned the poor girl’s mana channels completely. But apparently it failed to consider the amount of damage to much mana could do to a child as well. 

         All this made it concerned, what if it accidentally kills Amethyst? Would it die as well or just pop back into the void? What if it becomes a human? Would it be that weak where its own power risked destroying its soul? Is it possible to accidently blow your own soul up with magic? Are human souls weak or just the body? 

         Its mind was flooded with thoughts only to be brought to a grinding halt as one word slammed to the forefront of its mind.

DANGER