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September (2024) Bonus Chapter
🕑 Added 2024-09-29 22:37:25 +0000 UTCSince she had become corrupted, Astrid had thought about many things. The lack of an intrusive presence constantly whispering in her ear allowed her to focus on her thoughts. Not having to travel around the continent to accomplish an obscure mission given by the System also helped. With this new freedom, however, came uncertainty. What was she supposed to do now? Since the night she turned fifteen, she had been living on autopilot, following the System's commands and fulfilling its demands without question—not that she had the power to raise complaints.
“What should I do?” Astrid whispered, lying in the bed. It wasn’t just a transcendental question but a pragmatic one. It was her free day, so she had no obligations to fulfill, no classes to teach, and no orphans to look over.
Astrid stared at the ceiling. She had always craved moments like this, a moment to herself free from the call of the System. Now that she had it, she wasn’t sure what to do with it. She had a list of things she always wanted to do: visit a bakery and sip coffee like the ladies in the capital, go to the theater, learn to play the fiddle as well as Mister Lowell did, and read a book. However, she felt she had to do something else. Something important. Something she could stop thirty years from now, look back, and feel accomplished.
Astrid sat on the bed. When she was a Zealot, she always had to be prepared, so she usually slept with her combat clothes on. Today, she decided to stay in her pajamas. The nightgown fell loosely down her shoulders. It felt nice against the skin, and Astrid agreed pajamas were a good thing. The only con was that the nightgown used to belong to Elincia.
Hand-downs had always been expected at the orphanage, even in the time of Mister Lowell. Still, since Elincia became an Alchemist, Astrid couldn’t help but notice the influx of brand-new presents directed to her: an enchanted copper alchemy set, a potion pouch, and brewing tools. Astrid never considered herself a meddling kid. However, she knew the orphanage had a surplus of alchemy equipment. There was no reason for Mister Lowell to buy Elincia new stuff when there was so much lying around.
When Astrid got her Class and left Farcrest, she took two things from the orphanage: the clothes on her back and her resentment towards Elincia. She had replaced the clothes during her trip to the capital, but the resentment remained after all those years. Astrid frowned like every time her thoughts drifted to the past. She hadn’t allowed herself to dwell on her one-sided rivalry with Elincia in a long time. It wasn’t just the gifts Elincia received that bothered her; it was the ease with which everything seemed to fall into place for her. Despite being a troublemaker, she always ended up being rewarded. Mister Lowell’s attention, a good Class, new toys.
Astrid, on the other hand, never had the luxury of choice. Her path had been determined the moment she became a System Zealot. And even before, Astrid always felt like she had to fight for every scrap of recognition. It didn’t help that Astrid was two years younger. When Elincia became an Alchemist, Astrid was a thirteen-year-old with little to show other than her eagerness to follow every single one of Mister Lowell’s orders to the tee.
Still, Astrid couldn’t hate Elincia or Mister Lowell. Mister Lowell had no spouse or heir, and Elincia was the first orphan to show a genuine interest in alchemy. Not only interest but talent. Elincia was the kind of kid who did everything right without apparent effort. Elincia skipped half of the classes, but Mister Lowell didn’t bother her. It was only natural that Mister Lowell showed a particular interest in her.
Astrid screamed into the pillow.
“Alright, Astrid. You have to stop this. This isn’t healthy,” she muttered. “We make her feel jealous once, and then we lay the matter to rest.”
Astrid jumped to her feet and washed her face. More than a decade living with Elincia had taught her the elven girl had the shortest fuse imaginable. A plan hatched in her mind. It was quite simple: talk with the Scholar for five minutes and let jealousy eat Elincia from the inside. That would put her in a bad mood for a whole day.
“If vengeance is bad, why does it feel so good?” Astrid asked herself as she tucked her hair into a messy bun. Operation Payback was on. She blushed and hid her face between her hands. “I can’t believe I named the whole thing.”
The System knew Zealots needed a minimum of rest, so she used to spend the nights in inns and taverns, waiting for the next assignment. The silver lining of getting the Zealot Class was that they were allowed to stay for free almost anywhere. Astrid had met a few Scholars during her years traveling the kingdom. She was staying at a cheap inn near the library district in the capital when an intoxicated trio of young Scholars sat next to her at the dusty counter. Astrid could tell they were still getting used to the nightlife in the capital. It was barely past dusk, and they were shitfaced. Their alcoholic haze didn’t prevent them from talking two hours straight about an obscure biology tome.
Astrid wondered why she hadn’t left after the first fifteen minutes of the dissertation. She knew the reason. The System hadn’t ordered her to do so. So she stayed put for two long hours until they puked, and the innkeeper kicked them out.
“If I can get Rob to speak about his Scholar fixations, nothing will stop him,” Astrid said with a mischievous smile. Sure, her plan might put Rob in a compromising position, but in spite of all the times he made Elincia mad, she forgave him more quickly than not. Elincia was down bad, and Astrid had never seen her like that.
Astrid looked at her reflection in the mirror and decided to comb her hair. Comb your hair, wash behind your ears, brush your teeth, wear clean clothes. She always obeyed Mister Lowell’s orders to the letter, but she suspected there was a slight gap between basic hygiene and getting ready to impress.
“How do you even get ready to impress?” Astrid asked at the reflection in the mirror. She had little to no references in the matter. Almost all women she had met were Zealots like her, and Zealots concealed their identities behind their golden masks. It wasn’t like any of them dressed to impress.
Astrid realized she had zero feminine figures to look up to growing up.
Asking one of the kids? Shu was too young to know anything, Nokti literally had no hair, Firana was Firana, and Ilya was smart enough to see through her questions. Tavern guys liked big-breasted waitresses. Astrid noticed they tipped those better. However, there was nothing she could do to improve in that department.
“You were a Zealot, Astrid. You spied on the country's most powerful men and women. You can get some information about the governess of a poor orphanage,” she slapped her cheeks. “Although the System usually gave you the tools to do it.”
This time, she was on her own.
Astrid opened the window and snuck out. Her bedroom was a few meters away from Elincia’s, so she hid beneath the bushes and peeked through the window. Rob was nowhere to be found, and Elincia was sitting in front of her dressing table, still in pajamas. Astrid stayed still as Elincia cleaned her face and applied generous amounts of lotion. Then, she brushed her hair and tried three different hairstyles before deciding on a side braid.
Astrid wondered why Elincia was wasting time experimenting if the side braid was the one Elincia used every other day. It was that or loose hair over the shoulders unless she was cooking. Then, it was a bun or a high ponytail.
After redoing the braid once or twice, Elincia seemed satisfied with the result. She opened the wardrobe and picked her outfit. There wasn’t much variety, but Elincia took her sweet time. Finally, Elincia chose a blouse with puffy shoulders, a bodice, and a simple green dress. She got rid of her nightgown and examined her naked body in front of the mirror before putting on the clothes.
“Rob might not be a fan of huge breasts,” Astrid muttered, scratching her chin. She still had to decide how to feel about Rob, but he didn’t seem like a bad guy. He had helped keep Mister Lowell’s legacy alive despite being oblivious sometimes.
Elincia examined her outfit and frowned. She loosened the upper lace of her bodice and tightened the following one, raising her breasts. Then, she grabbed the loose fabric around her waist and pulled, highlighting her figure.
“He’s a cake man!” Astrid muttered.
Elincia sighed and tied her bodice normally before leaving the room.
Astrid didn’t know what to do with what she had just witnessed.
“It’s not like Rob would notice if I change my hairdo.”
Astrid decided that making her feminine charms flourish was a lost battle. Ultimately, she wanted to make Elincia jealous, not derail her relationship. Whether she understood it or not, Rob’s presence at the orphanage made Elincia more tame to the point she was almost pleasant.
Astrid left her mud-covered shoes in a corner and put on her slippers. She left her room and headed to the kitchen. The orphans were already buzzing around, but they knew not to bother her unless it was her turn to look after them.
“Where’s Rob?”
Elincia raised an eyebrow. “In the ballroom. Why?”
“Good.” Astrid smiled and turned around.
“You've been sneaking around all morning, Astrid. What are you up to?” Elincia shouted, but Astrid was long gone.
Rob was sitting hunched under a window in the ballroom with his back towards the door. Astrid couldn’t see what he was doing. She knocked on the door, but Rob didn’t react. Was he sleeping? Astrid walked slowly, making no sound other than the whisper of the hem of her nightgown against the floor’s old wooden planks.
“If you sit with your back to the door, you are going to end up getting stabbed,” Astrid said, making Rob jump in his seat.
“Emperor almighty, Astrid! You scared me!”
“I could’ve stabbed you,” she replied, looking over Rob’s shoulder. There was a row of small dye flasks and a cup with brushes. “Are you painting dolls?”
“Figurines, actually,” Rob replied, showing a tiny soldier in blue and gold armor.
For a moment, Astrid forgot about Operation Payback. During all her years as a Zealot, she hadn’t met anyone who painted ‘figurines’ for fun. The nearest thing she knew was Craftsmen painting statuettes for a noble or wealthy merchant’s dining room. Rob said he was a commoner back in his homeland, but Astrid couldn’t help but doubt. No commoner in the Kingdom of Ebros had the money, the time, and the patience to sit down and paint small statuettes. The whole thing looked like a hobby for eccentric nobles.
“Why not paint on a canvas?” Astrid asked.
“It’s different. Technically, you can make an army and play with them,” Rob said.
That sounded even more esoteric than only painting them, but half of what Rob said sounded like witchcraft to Astrid.
Rob used [Minor Illusion], and a small army of little statuettes floated before Astrid’s eyes. There were hundreds of statuettes. They came in all sizes and every color of the rainbow. There were non-humans also. A faction looked like orcs, but they were stumpy and wild. Their weapons and machinery made little sense to Astrid, but Rob seemed encouraged by the illusion.
Oh, right. Operation Payback.
Astrid didn’t even know what to ask, but the goal was to keep him talking. “What is the deal with these figurines? Do they resemble the troops from your homeland?”
Rob laughed, but not in a mocking way.
“These are fictional armies, but you can say there are a lot of stories between them.”
Astrid glanced through the window. The stories of fictional armies seemed marginally more entertaining than hearing the senseless rant of drunk Scholars talking biology. Not that she had anything else to do. Literally. She still had to decide what to do with her life. But Operation Payback came first.
Astrid grabbed a chair and dragged it to Rob’s painting station.
“So, what’s the deal with the blue men,” she asked.
Rob’s face lit up, and Astrid didn’t know whether she should worry. She felt a shiver slowly running down her spine. Her danger sense had never let her down before. Still, she took a deep breath and got a hold of herself.
“These are probably the least psychotic of the bunch, the—” Rob said but stopped mid-sentence. “Do you want me to start from the beginning?”
“That seems a good place to start,” Astrid replied, not knowing she had just sealed her fate.
For the next few hours, Rob talked about a world engulfed in a constant and seemingly eternal war where religious zealotry, fear, and violence ran rampant. Rob explained how the little human statuettes had conquered the stars and millions of worlds before plunging into a war that sent them into a dark age. Then, when everything was kind of over for the humans, a powerful magician decided to reunite humanity. Astrid glanced at the illusions with fear and awe in her heart. Those weren’t just stories. It was history. With stories within stories, stretching out over the years.
Astrid understood less than half of what Rob had to say, but the illusions helped her fill the gaps. The part where the armies fought between planets in what Astrid could only describe as floating citadels especially confused her. However, Rob wasn’t just a good teacher but also a competent storyteller. Hours passed, and Zaon brought them sandwiches for lunch. Astrid had even forgotten about how hungry she was. And the stories kept going.
Astrid knew she had to stop Rob, but she felt hypnotized by the bright illusions. The stories piled one after the other. She saw men and beasts die in ways she couldn’t even imagine. Humans were kind of a bunch of dicks, she had to admit to herself, but the rest of the world left them no other option. Astrid felt like her brain had been turned into a mush when the sun set over the mountain. Even if she closed her eyes, she could see the bright space battles and the ground campaigns behind her eyelids.
“Well, look at the hour,” Rob said as if they had been chatting for an hour when they were at least twelve. “I have to train with the kids tomorrow, so we should leave it here. Good talk. Let’s continue another day.”
Without saying more, Rob grabbed his painting implements and left the room, leaving Astrid sitting in her chair like a dehydrated starfish. Not a minute passed when someone entered the room. Astrid assumed it was Rob, but the steps were too soft to be him. She turned around and encountered Elincia with her arms crossed.
Right. Operation Payback.
Astrid tried to articulate a word, but her voice came out as a hoarse grunt.
“I know what you were trying to do by spending the day with Rob in that flimsy nightgown,” Elincia sighed. “I’d be mad, but it seemed you got caught in your own trap.”
Astrid’s back cracked as she sat straight, and Elincia helped her stand. Then, they returned to the eastern wing. Astrid walked in a catatonic state. Brains weren’t supposed to endure that amount of new information.
“What did we learn today?” Elincia asked as they reached the sleeping quarters.
“Don’t feed the Scholar,” Astrid muttered with a coarse voice. “Also, in this household, we hate the Horus Heresy, and Rob is a cake man.”
Elincia blinked, trying to make sense of Astrid’s words.
“Rob is a what—”.
Astrid closed the door behind her back and slipped into the bed. She closed her eyes, and the illusions of the little soldiers and their battles slowly subsided. The sheets were fresh, and the night silent, but she couldn’t fall asleep.
“I wonder if Big E is alright,” she muttered in the grim darkness.
Comments
Paul McGlynn
The Emporer approves.
Ben Bass
TYFTC! That was awesome, I love that Rob is a good storyteller too, and the ability to really bring things to life with the minor illusion is just so awesome. Poor Astrid, although I think she might have found something to do when she isn’t blindly following orders/directions.
t3chn0fr34q
it seems like im not the only one that fell into the eye of lore terror with this months big release
