Chương 79: Rava's Morning Song

At the end of the night, Rava landed in a dark alleyway and pulled off her mask. Her mana reserves were almost completely drained—something that had only happened a handful of times in all her life. Well, that was if you ignored the decades before her ascendance to the final circle of arcane mastery. And it seemed that most people did, as none who didn't could be found for interview. Last night had been hard. It felt like every sector had been overrun.

But that only made the humans appreciate her more when she showed up. She remembered the way they craned their necks. The desperation on their faces giving way to hope when cleared out the zones in a single flyover. The way they cheered and chanted. Hero. Their hero. It felt good. Real good. She switched into her normal clothes before walking out of the alleyway. No longer was she the white hero, adored by all. Now she was Rava, known by many only in name, from whispered myths and legends.

Mighty Rava, respected by all. She whistled on the way to the scholar's cottage. The man answered the door immediately, like he'd been waiting for her. He looked more ragged every time they met, and this morning was the worst. Had he not been sleeping at all? He greeted her with a smile, and that's when she knew he had something for her. But first he wanted to renegotiate the deal. Apparently a mysterious visitor had tipped him off that the devil Ella wasn't fit for his purpose.

This visitor, he claimed, also knew about the link between the invasion and the keystone. She wasn't pleased with him altering the deal, particularly as she'd already delivered her end of the bargain. But he was prepared to return the egg, which showed his earnestness, and she was given a peek at his findings. She did have an alternative to offer, and in the offer she made it clear that it wouldn't save the bay but might just be able to save his books.

He readily agreed, and she taught him the ritual while also providing the necessary materials. The prize was worth it. She would never have figured out on her own that the drawing would have a name like Mooncake. To her, the rabbit looked nothing like the one on the moon. The scholar showed her the pages he'd uncovered, and she memorized everything. She also made a copy of an ancient scrap of writing that was believed to be connected. It was written in an esoteric symbolic glyph that she'd never seen before.

Her next step would be finding someone who could read it. Even if the message itself was unimportant, just knowing the language would be a useful clue. He also gave her directions on how to find the mysterious visitor. They could be worth a meeting, if only for the chance they could point her toward the person capable of damaging the keystones. As for Ella's egg, it was inconvenient to carry around, but she took it anyway. A devil's egg couldn't be stored in an inventory without being rendered useless.

Considering the rarity of the materials she'd invested in its creation, that would be an incredible waste. She put it in a secure pocket on her cloak until she thought of a safer place to stow it. Before departing, she left the scholar with one last warning.

"Perform the ritual today. The bay won't survive another night." Then she left for the animal shelter on Eltershay Avenue to meet the devil expert.

When Rava arrived at the animal shelter, the workers were loading cages onto the wagons out the front. It looked like they were making preparations to evacuate early, which was wise. The scholar had said to look for a lady with horns "and perhaps a tail, though I could be mixing her up." Of the three people she could see, only one fit the description. The other two were a catkin and a dogkin, with the tail but no horn. Unless the scholar had gotten the details mixed up rather badly... but surely not.

She didn't think that the third person was it either, though the girl looked kind of familiar. And then she remembered.

"I wasn't expecting to find you here," she said. The girl spun around in surprise. Then her eyes lit up.

"Rava!" The warm reception was rather unexpected, and it took a lot of effort to play it cool with the girl looking at her like one would the Amber Mage.

"Mae... elle, was it?" she said.

"You remember!" Maelle's grin grew wider.

"I came here to see someone." She gave the description she got from the scholar.

"Oh! That sounds like Ella. But..."

"Ella?" She felt for the egg in her pocket. It couldn't be the same one, could it? But it would explain the warning to the scholar.

"Is she perhaps... more than what she seems?" The catkin woman approached.

"The humans came by this morning and chased her out. Accused her of being a devil. I don't imagine she'll be coming back." It appeared that Ella had fled after her identity had been found out. Could it be worth trying to track her down? Rava regarded Maelle. She did have other questions she wanted to ask the girl too.

"We didn't get a proper chance to talk when last we met. How about I take you out to breakfast?" The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Really?" The girl looked like she'd been invited to dine with a princess.

Maelle was picking at her steak in wonderment.

"I didn't know priests eat this well."

"These ones do," Rava said. They were the only people in the temple's private dining room. The herald and the high priests were busy with some big project for the governor. She didn't care enough to check in on them.

"So you're a pretty important person in the church?" Maelle asked.

"I'm not more like a foreign dignatory," she replied.

"It's rather complicated, and you shouldn't think too much about it." The girl nodded as if coming to an understanding.

"That makes sense. Foreign dignatories often get special privileges and the best food." Rava nodded toward the silver badge on the girl's cloak.

"I see you got a promotion. Congratulations are in order." Maelle beamed.

"I, uh, actually wanted to thank you properly, since I didn't get a chance when we last met." This was back at the Dabaux estate outside Ardark. Rava had escorted a dragonkin woman there in search of a missing girl, who it turned out had been captured by Dabaux and held in the dungeon beneath his estate.

"If it weren't for you, I don't think I would have made it out of there." The girl stood up and bowed deeply.

"So thank you very much!"

"It's quite all right," she replied while basking in the praise.

"Sit back down and enjoy your meal." After the girl resumed her seat, Rava continued, "What happened to that woman—I think she was your guardian? Did the two of you come to the bay together?" Maelle looked down.

"Um. We didn't... we aren't..."

"You got separated again?" The girl nodded meekly. Rava found herself immeasurably disappointed. It struck her like a personal failing. The girl had escaped from the compound, and she'd personally intervened to save the woman from those dragonkin soldiers. She'd been sure they would both find their way back to the safety of the city. But then she'd left the scene, hadn't she? She'd had a fight with that accursed Hooded Winker, on whom even her most powerful spell couldn't land. Then she'd...

flown away, leaving her business there half-finished. She hadn't received the payment due for her part in bringing the woman and the girl together, which was information on the circumstances within the Draegorian Empire. There was a standing directive from the Supreme Council for any intel. Anything she delivered would buy her more of their good graces. The girl probably knew enough, if she wanted to ask. But her deal had been with the dragonkin woman.

And it could be argued that she hadn't fulfilled her end of the bargain in the way that really mattered. To bypass that and get the answers from the girl directly could be considered underhanded. Let it not be said that the mighty Rava lacks honor in her dealings. Instead she asked about Ella, which happened to be a more pressing concern for her at the moment. It quickly became clear that the devil really had left the peninsula for good, leaving behind no real clues as to where she was headed next.

It couldn't be a coincidence that a devil had shown up at Ygg Latten Bay now, of all times. But had Ella really fled because she'd been found out? Or was it that her business here was done? She thought back to the scholar. He'd received a visit from Ella before having the breakthrough in his research. That was quite the coincidence. Looking again at Maelle, she had an idea.

"Can you take a look at something for me?" She took out the strange writing she'd copied from the scholar and passed it across the table.

"Did Ella ever write anything that looks like this?" Though it wasn't known how far back the devils originated, it was reasonable to believe that they might be well versed in ancient languages. And there was a chance she'd revealed some of it to the girl.

"Oh! Are you studying music, Rava?"

"Music?" She looked again at the writing. Could these strange symbols be converted into musical notes?

"Yeah! I actually know this one. It goes like this." Maelle began to hum, and Rava felt like she'd been transported into a magical space. One filled with warmth and where she felt weightless. The melody seemed to come from all around her, and there was a strength, a kindness, a feeling of love. Motherly love. She recognized it for what it was despite having never known it. It was lifted out of a part of her that had been buried under desert sand. It threatened to overwhelm her, to change her—if she would let it.

She wouldn't let it. Two hundred years she'd gone without it. To survive two hundred more, she couldn't allow a weakness into herself that others could exploit. She tightened her heart in resistance until the tune ended and she felt her weight back in the chair. The aroma of dinner-breakfast filled her nose. She closed her eyes and turned away so the girl couldn't see her face. She rose to her feet.

"Rava?"

"Thank you, Maelle. That was just what I needed." She left the girl to finish her food, assured that none of the clergy would dare to kick out a guest of Rava's. Then she left the temple with [Invisibility] and [Flight] layered on herself, and the moment she stepped outside, boosted herself into the air at full speed. She flew out to the hidden arrow on the coastal cliffside. There she hovered before it and produced her harmonica, on which she played the tune she'd just heard from Maelle.

Though her memory for music wasn't the best, and she'd never practiced this song before, somehow she recalled every note perfectly. There was no sign that it worked, but she dived down into the water anyway. Being daytime, the mucks were gathered by the secret door in great numbers. Normally this would make it an ordeal to wall off the enclosure with her spells. But this time she didn't need to because the door was no longer there. The music had worked! The secret was now open to her.

But the mucks were after the same prize. They streamed through the open doorway like ants on the march. Rava blasted them away and entered herself before quickly sealing it with a [Force Wall] behind her. She burned her way through the underwater tunnel, heedless of the mana it consumed, until all the mucks were gone. Eventually the tunnel rose up out of the water. It continued on deep into the peninsula and up and up. She guessed that she was in one of the hills. The tunnel opened out into a cavern.

At the center was a scroll, rolled up into a cylinder, looking out of place against the gray rock. She picked it up and studied it. The paper was of a quality even kings would find indulgent. It was smooth as silk. There was a seal with the now-familiar picture of Mooncake, and she found that she couldn't break it. Nor could she peek at the contents any other way. There was a deep magic protecting the secrets contained within. Her attempts to access the scroll included playing the mystery tune again.

She tried to burn the seal, freeze it, manipulate it. Even [Inspect] failed to work, elevated all the way up to Tier 9. There was absolutely no way to study the scroll or the seal. Then she heard a a splashing from the tunnel. At some point she'd traveled too far to maintain her [Force Wall], and the mucks were on their way up. She tried to stow the scroll away in her inventory but it refused to go. So instead she stuffed it into her pocket next to Ella's egg and then searched the cave.

There was nothing else there except a second tunnel. Another exit, perhaps. She followed it while the mucks followed her. There was light up ahead. She dashed to the end of the tunnel and found herself in the air. Thankfully she still had [Flight] active because it was a sheer drop below her. She spun around and saw that the tunnel opened out in the middle of a cliffside. Looking around, she recognized it as somewhere along the Indy Way Pass. There was definitely something special about this scroll.

But it was going to be difficult to hide, and she didn't want Echo to know about it. She decided to fly back to the mainland. She had a cache set up south of Lorelark, not far from an old fort. That would be a safe place to store Ella's egg, and she could take the time she needed to study the scroll in detail. She had enough food on her to camp out for a couple of days. Whatever secrets were contained in this scroll, they were going to be hers.