Chương 69: 4 – Imaginary Friend

Sweat trailed down my brow in rivulets. It pooled and fell into my eye, but I forced it open anyway. Heat without flame. Warmth without the inferno. Fire without light. Forty feet away, just over the surface of the water, air crackled a spasmed like the burst of a tiny grenade. Mom's fire magic wasn't like any fire magic I'd ever seen before. Fire magic was generated near the body and thrown out. That was the common practice. The way things were done. Mom's, and by extension my, book, taught a different method.

Targeted explosions instead of gouts of flame. Fire needed oxygen, and oxygen was everywhere. Mom didn't know about this at all, of course, but if I was following her book correctly, it was using this fact to allow fire to be generated anywhere. The magic itself was like seeding oil into a location and then lighting it with a spark. This could work on the ground, in midair, or even underwater. However, if I didn't trigger the spark part, it just began to heat the area. That was what I was doing. And I was failing.

"It's still cold, Mera!" Mom called from where she sat with her feet in the water downstream.

"You suck!" I shouted back. Mom's magic looked like tiny grenades, bursting wherever she wanted them to appear. It was also the only reason she had been able to affect Freyna at all, high up in the air. If her magic had been more traditional, it would've been useless. Of course, her second need was still greyed out, and she still needed fire magic for war trolls, implying there would be some sort of attack again in the future. I was starting to get used to that, though. Mom lifted her hand.

With the seventeen points I'd now accumulated in fire magic, I could actually see what she was doing now. The inky oil of mana spread out in a blanket that settled lightly over the top of the water. It was almost like laying a floating heating pad on the river. I could see the distinct haze, blurring the area as she demonstrated again. Two more days had passed, and I'd spent most of them here at the river, attempting to heat enough of it that it would be comfortable to get in the water downstream.

The river was constantly flowing, so I had to keep it up throughout the duration of whatever bath I wanted to take. It made for good training, but I hadn't managed to even come close to heating the river enough that it was comfortable to bathe in. I couldn't actually get in anyway due to the cast, but I had managed to warm it up enough that Mom could dip her feet in without freezing. That was something.

I'd killed more than a few fish, getting the hang of heating the area without lighting it on fire, which Mom, mercenary that she was, sold in town. I continued until my mana was empty. With the new Mana Regeneration skill, it wouldn't take all that long for it to fully recover. Mana normally regenerated at a rate of the wielder's intelligence stat plus their wisdom stat per hour. That was… incredibly slow, but until recently, that had never mattered.

Now, I had a real and present threat and a strong reason to learn to use the most potent weapon available to me. Each level in the Mana Regeneration skill would add the wisdom stat to that base recovery rate. Name: Elmerina Farmer Age: 18 Status: Peasant Level: 17 Health: 200/200 Mana: 3/570 Attributes: Strength: 11 Dexterity: 13 Vitality: 10 Intelligence: 19 Wisdom: 16 Charisma: 20 With my stats as they were, and one point in Mana Regeneration, that meant I'd recover about fifty-one mana per hour.

More if I were exercising or moving to engage vitality. If I could get Mana Regeneration to level ten, I'd recover almost two hundred per hour. But by then, Mana pool will likely stretch the total mana I could hold. Mana Pool's bonus had bumped up to ninety-five mana per skill point. So if it got to level ten, I'd have eleven hundred and forty mana.

Unless I was doing the math wrong, according to my mom, the best mana recovery I could ever get, assuming Mana Pool and Mana Regeneration stayed the same, was empty to full in six hours. It would take me about eleven hours to recover my mana completely, so I had a long way to go. Edra had provided Mom with mana potions, but we were out of them for the evening. They were expensive, and we only had so many. We were likely done for the day.

It had been five days since the battle now, and we still had no word from the front. Mom hadn't received any pigeons back from Imogaesa. I had no idea if Reid was okay, and the only relief I'd had since returning home was burning the crap out of the river.

"Come over here a moment, Mera," Mom said. She was holding her hand up and keeping the flowing water warm. The gesture was completely unnecessary, but it felt natural to use hands to direct mana. I sighed and trudged over to Mom, feeling like I hadn't made any progress. The walk was mostly painless, but my ankle still burned when I put the staff down.

"You're making good progress," she said as she stepped out of the water. She wrapped the warm haze around her bare toes and stepped on frozen dirt and wet stone with no visible sign of discomfort.

"It doesn't feel like it. I hate this, Mom," I said.

"Every minute Dad and Reid spend with that bastard makes me more worried." She blinked.

"You… spoke with him?" I cocked my head.

"I didn't tell you?"

"You did not. I thought I specifically told you to avoid the general," she said softly.

"Well, I specifically tried to avoid the General. It just didn't work out that way," I said irritably.

"He ordered me to come see him when I tried to warn him about something confusing him."

"You mentioned that when you told me about Marnakus. There were others? Another prediction?" I nodded.

"Yeah… I… sorry. I've been so focused on the Dragon and the Wind Witch, I almost forgot about Maulander and all the shit he pulled."

"What did he do?" she asked.

"Tried to have me flogged, when I questioned him about Pretyr! It would've happened too, if not for the attack." I said.

"Then… well, then he hit me, and Marcus got mad. Oh gods, I hadn't even thought about that! He didn't draw his axe but he certainly looked like he might." Mom's eye twitched.

"You… Mera we've been home for five days, and you're only just bringing this up now?"

"I've been a little preoccupied!" I told her. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Mom sighed and started to put on a pair of socks now that her feet were dry. I was looking forward to being able to do that when I had a bit more control. It was so damn cool! I'd never be cold again.

"Why don't you tell me exactly how your conversation with Maulander went?" she asked.

"He… right. He asked me to apologize to you. For whatever went down between you and his brother. He honestly seemed like a pretty reasonable person for a minute. I asked him about why he hit Oppa, and he said he didn't like the Diplomacy skill. Then…?" The memory came back slowly. It had been a few days, and it took a little bit to piece things together. I'd been hit pretty hard and healed twice since then. Mom listened, asking clarifying questions and not talking much as I told her everything I could remember.

We were halfway back to the house when she suddenly paused and looked at me.

"Mera… do you… I'm not trying to be offensive, but are you alright?" she asked.

"Huh? What do you mean?"" I know you've been given certain leeway here in town. You go up to the Mayor and speak to him as if he were an old friend. But in what world would you believe that you could talk to a general like that?"

"He…! He was going to have me flogged! Just for asking why he had his men kidnap Pretyr!"

"And he was within his rights to do that. He is a general! I don't know how I feel about his apology, but you, you moron of a daughter, are lucky flogging is all he threatened you with!" I could barely believe what I was hearing. Why was she defending him?

"You were the one who told me to stay away from him! You called him a monster!?"

"And so you believe calling him that to his face is acceptable!?" she asked.

"When he's being one, yes!" I cried.

"You…" Mom stopped and pinched the bridge of her nose, thinking.

"Mera, you were a private. Letting you speak at all was lenient for a man in Maulander's position. From what you told me, I'm inclined to believe he's an entirely different man from the one I remember!"

"Flogging, Mom! For just… words!"

"A perfectly acceptable punishment for an unruly cadet. Questioning a general!? Do you have a death wish!? I witnessed several floggings in my youth whenever I visited the soldiers with my father. Just because it doesn't happen here doesn't mean it doesn't happen!"

"I… you…!?" I didn't know what to say. That was the most barbaric thing I'd ever heard of! And it was just common practice here!? Now I was even more motivated to get Reid and Dad back home! I would never run an army like that! Who would ever stay!? Mom turned back toward the house, and we continued walking in silence for a little while. When she finally did speak, it was more with worry than condemnation.

"Are… you okay, Mera?" I blanched.

"That came out of nowhere." Mom shook her head.

"It didn't. I've been worried about you for a while now. Even before the army came. Perhaps we've sheltered you a bit too much. You're an amazing girl. Everyone in town knows it. Heavens know how, though. I know I didn't raise a girl with enough pressure to get a Legendary Talent."

"What in the hells is that supposed to mean!?" I asked, feeling defensive.

"How did you get your talent, Mera?"

"Uh… the same way everyone else does? It showed up in my menus on my eighteenth nameday. You were there." I said sarcastically.

"I've seen the sort of dedication gaining a Legendary talent requires. Smart, talented, and witty as you are, you have not lived a life that should've given you one! And now you tell me that instead of avoiding the General as I told you to, you practically spat in his face! You were almost daring him to kill you. Angry as it might have made your uncle, that is within his right, should he decide it! He is a general! So I ask again… are you okay?" I suddenly felt guilty.

"I'm… fine, Mom."

"What happened to you under my nose?" She demanded. Her voice was growing frantic.

"What caused you to work so hard that you could earn a legendary talent? I wanted to believe it was just a coincidence but… tell me what happened!?"

"Nothing!"

"Those boys from Dolundant you mentioned. The pepper spray? You assured me nothing was happening but–!"

"No!" I exclaimed.

"I've never even met them! Mom, I'm seriously fine. I was just being stupid. I… should've realized the danger I was in with the general. It was a dumb decision! That's all."

"It's not!" she insisted.

"I was so proud of you when you got your talent that it washed over everything else. Of course, my girl got such a wonderful talent. Why wouldn't she? But the more I thought about it, the more I know that it just doesn't fit, Mera. Something must have happened! Something that is still bothering you, even now! Please… just tell me what–!"

"Hadra got elite!" I snapped, interrupting her.

"Is it so hard to believe that I've poured just as much effort into my storytelling and my lab?" Mom shook her head. There were tears in her eyes.

"I could believe elite, little onion. Not Legendary. Hadra is an obsessive. Did you know, once I watched her literally braid your hair while you both slept in the same bed? She wasn't awake. She was nine. Tell me honestly, is your storytelling skill, or some other skill you picked up at that lab, nearly so high as her weaving?" I tried to hide the wince, but she caught it. She knew me too well.

"Of course not," she confirmed.

"And that's okay, Mera! I'm not condemning you! I'm terrified for you. Have I driven you so hard? Have I done something to make you feel the need to train so much? Or did something terrible happen that I never saw?" I hesitated. This had been boiling over for a while. Mom must have been thinking about this since right after I got the talent. It was never confirmed that more skills equaled a higher-ranked talent! That was just speculation! Mom seemed to know differently.

"Mera, I've seen the way others with extraordinary talents got them. How they were treated, raised to push themselves at every possible aspect of life, forced to excel. If you're perfectly fine and not under pressure like that, then what has driven you to earn so many skills? I've given you your privacy; I never dared ask you to share your status screen as some parents do. So please… can you tell me?"

"Fine. I… Fine. I have…" I hesitated, but perhaps she'd finally believe.

"I have someone else's skills, okay? I haven't suffered. Haven't struggled. They were just there when I woke up in the morning. Skills from another person's life." She didn't respond for a long time.

"Why haven't you ever told me about this?" she said finally.

"I did," I insisted.

"When I was six, I remember clearly trying to tell you about airplanes–!"

"This has been going on since you were six!?" she exclaimed. I laughed.

"As far back as I can remember, Mom. My stories aren't so fantastical. They're just from another place. Another time. A girl whose skills I inherited, but didn't earn."

"We could've taken you to healers! Norman… no, but healers who deal with the mind are rare. Expensive, but we could've–!"

"Mom, I tried to tell you about this so many times. You never believed me. Thought it was just a passing fancy. An imaginary friend. In a way, I guess it was." Dawning horror stretched across her features as she breathed out a word.

"April…"

"April," I confirmed.

"Two years ago, when I was sixteen. That was the last time I dreamed of her. Do you remember that nightmare I had?" I felt strangely hollow as I spoke. I hated remembering it. Hated the helplessness. I'd never been able to do anything in those dreams except watch. Watch as she lived, loved, and died. Sometimes I thought I'd almost forgotten, but it always hit me in unguarded moments, like when the troll first stumbled out of the woods at my lab, or during the attack when I thought I might die. Mom shook her head.

Not surprising. She wouldn't remember one single nightmare. I'd had plenty growing up, after all.

"The night of my sixteenth nameday… It happened in an alley. Someone strangled her. No words. One moment, she was walking her usual route home… the next, she was choking around thick hands. Angry, blue eyes. And then… then I woke up. I never dreamed of her again."

"Oh gods…" Mom breathed before folding me into a hug. I returned the gesture, my arms feeling like lead.

"She wasn't real… but her life was! I wanted to prove it. I wanted to prove she was… the only thing I could think to do was…" I broke down, sobbing.