Mariwa: An Ivian Tale

The Children of the Lake 1

"And thus the Brave Sailors beheld their future in Scaura's arms. Theirs was the Lady's promise, that one day son and daughter would inherit their mother's land. That one day her blessings would guide them home, and pity the defying fools. As one, they rejoiced."

- The Azure Tale

She stared down her enemy, limbs tense, mouth dry.

They faced each other in the dark, a single dim lamp in between to illuminate both. In that decrepit, stale room, living shadows squirmed, bodies dancing against the walls in mocking delight. She could hear their muffled laughter echoing all around, yet dared not distract herself for even an instant.

Carefully, she reached into the nearest casket with a nail, fumbling in for a few moments before finally hearing that signature stone knocking, then slowly dragged the piece out, taking a brief glimpse down. She knew by heart the symbol she would see, but it payed to make sure. Her opponent imitated her movements, though surely she couldn't have further tricks up her sleeve?

Nevermind that. Preparations complete, she went on the offensive. As strong as the enemy was, not even she would know this move if she hadn't planned it days in advance!

Or, was that a set up? A trap, carefully laid knowing she would have no choice but to spring it? She couldn't be sure, the master stroke having already severed all alternatives.

No, it was do or die, and she hadn't got this far to die. Heart thundering inside her chest, she struck without hesitation. And her opponent, to her great relief, flinched, almost toppling back in surprise! This was it! just a little more, and she would deliver the finishing blow with—

Agare leaned forward, said, "not a word," then leaned back.

"Aaaaaaaaah! C-come on!" Holly said. "I checked with you and everything! And y-you, stop laughing!"

"Me?" Marquise said. "I'm quiet!"

"I can see your shoulders shaking!"

"Oh, Holly, you're just too sharp! But try not to have a little fun when you're taking the game this serious! Your frown, your little sulk, you're just too cute!"

"You're probably thinking of Hoogwil, hillock." Agare said, then pointed. "That word doesn't exist."

"Is that not what I made?" Holly gave it a check, just to be sure, and felt herself flush at discovering she had mixed her letters again! She had scratched half this game's pieces herself, shouldn't she recognize her own handwriting? A better look at the overturned box she had been keeping hers in, however, and there it was, the right piece shoved together with all the others she didn't know where to use.

They had been playing for nearly an hour now, and the score currently sat at 2-1 in her advantage. Marquise had told her to make the pieces and the short table they were playing on out of a bunch of pebbles and a knee height boulder respectively, according to her all to test Holly's strength and finesse. She hadn't minded, the rock wasn't that heavy and it was actually pretty fun to be allowed free reign on the design! The coat of paint was all Swordlight, though, with what little they managed to scrounge out of the woods.

"I-is it m-my turn then, Lady Marquise?" Furfu, her opponent, said. "T-then I think I can put this here, r-right?"

"Nope! Sorry dear, you're entirely out of plays. How many do you still have, Holly?" Marquise asked.

"Three pieces, not counting the one I just played!"

"Five for our Furfu. Guess we have a winner!"

Holly gasped "I won?!"

"I-I lost? I-I lost a-again?" Furfu said, shrinking into herself. "L-Lady Marquise, I swear, I s-swear I kept up with my studies day and night, that I-I reviewed my teachings thoroughly, I-I don't know how this happened but I p-promise it w-will be r-rectified shortly or—"

"Wow, wow, easy there!" Marquise approached the now gently shivering Furfu, rubbing one of her shoulders. "It's alright! You didn't do bad at all! right, Holly?"

"Y-yeah!" Holly said. "You even beat me once Furfu, completely washed me! A-and this was really close too, really tense!"

"D-didn't you s-start learning Awinian t-three weeks ago?"

"...Y-yeah."

"Then no it isn't f-fucking fine," Furfu whispered, void glaring holes into the table. "A-again and again and again, same m-mistake I shouldn't have made once, with one f-fucking year of advantage over her, but I lost? No, no, you fucking idiot Furfu, l-letting others walk all over you again, k-knowing where that always e-ends, like you h-haven't touched a fucking b-book before, like you h-haven't heard about grammar in your entire fucking life, you c-can't do that, no, you have to do better, you have to be stronger, to win harder, to—"

"A-Agare, I think she's going to flip the table again," Holly shuffled away from her.

"...Let's put the pieces away before we've to gather them all around the room, " he said.

"I'll take care of this," Marquise said, "you and Holly go prepare for the next lesson, alright?"

"Uhm?" Holly said. "O-oh, that's right—"

"We're going."Agare said, already leaving. "Come, Holly."

"R-right now?! O-oh, I guess I'm— uhm, alrighty, see you soon Marquise, s-sorry about everything Furfu!"

The only answer was a creak of leather gloves so loud it almost sounded like a squeal. She closed the door behind and hurried after Agare.

Indeed, three weeks had passed since she arrived at Marquise's manor.

Three weeks of meeting Marquise's people, and learning they very much preferred to keep away from her, which wasn't unexpected. Three weeks of Cassia refusing to see her, which stung, but she understood and tried to stay patient. And most importantly, three weeks of having her perspective on the whole world flipped upside down, again and again.

Marquise, and Agare when she wasn't available, had taken the role of her tutor and taught her oh so many things. Neither were Elder Seneschal, but who was? She had learned enough anyway: her entire life had been lived inside a drop on the pond that was Galehold, while a whole ocean sat right outside view. Could the world truly be so big?

Ivias and its history were just part of her studies. Most of her time was occupied by lessons on Awinian, the most spoken language in Ivias apparently. It was strange, with a whole different alphabet and pronunciations to the good old Yinian, yet she didn't find it too hard, if anything it was pretty easy! Which, well, wasn't always a good thing.

Her favorite lesson, however? Will practice.

And being here, outside the manor's sterile walls with Agare and Marquise, feeling the sickly sweet smell of the jungle cloying her lungs, hearing the grass crushed beneath her toes, it always reminded her of why, even though her teachers methods could be rather arcane.

"What's it called again?" Holly asked.

"Gugly! It's a kind of Phantasm." That being, according to Marquise, living creatures like animals who could use Will in a way kind of perhaps maybe similar to her, slightly paraphrasing, "I've seen a couple of them out here this week, shouldn't take long to find another."

Today marked the first time Holly had ever seen her host not dressed in one of her beautiful, wild dresses, but closer to the Faceless in the mansion. Closer, but not exactly the same, she was pretty sure she had never seen any of the others wear something like that sleeveless tunic, colored a simple brown but with a cleavage that dipped as far as her diaphragm.

"And you said they eat berries, right?"

"Don't focus on that!" Marquise said, tutting with a finger. "It's the start of their mating season, so most will be looking for partners on the ground."

"Mating season..."

"Sorry?"

"N-nothing! I've been finding a lot of others bugs and worms, but nothing like you showed me."

It wasn't just the manor, the entire surrounding woodlands dulled her Will, key difference being that at least out here it didn't feel completely useless. Still, it was hardly the highs she had achieved during— She shook her head. No reason to ruin her mood right now.

Still sluggish and imprecise, a couple weeks of practice had helped the coordination of her arms-that-weren't-arms a lot. Now that the cat was out of the bag, she couldn't not feel the unwelcome limbs unfortunately, but on the bright side they had taught her a lot.

Case in point, that there was a "difference" between the soil, its debris, and the things that crawled over it. Not in appearance, not in raw texture, but... she didn't have the words to describe it. In softness? In movement? Something similar, yet beyond. Where her hands could be too dull to really tell the difference between a worm and the mud it dug through if she was to go bug hunting the way she used to, her Will would catch it right away.

Likewise, it didn't miss contact with other Wills anymore. Rustic and brutish, like a child teasing out animals from the bushes with a sharp stick, too weak and brittle to cause any harm yet too annoying to be ignored. "I think I found one!"

Hands converging at the spot, she pressed on the poor thing as it realized its mistake, trying to sneak away in vain. Now that her net was cast, it could never get away—

"Ouch!" she cried. "It's stinging me!"

In a manner of speaking, of course. Just like what her Will felt wasn't touch exactly, it didn't feel pain the same way either. The damage felt a little numbing, distressing in a more abstract way, but it was so slight it closer to surprise than anything else. Something to keep in mind though.

For all their differences, the Hollows and this place weren't that dissimilar. Trees could grow to twenty times her height, the foliage could become so dense some places were shrouded in perpetual shade, and at this time of day, as the shadows of the mountains crept over them, night fell before the sun could.

Some fifteen paces away from them, at the bottom of an ankle deep fissure covered in moss and litter, light shifted. It wasn't exactly a change, physically speaking, more like circumstances were conspiring to give her a complete different perspective on the critter's hiding spot, and suddenly there it was, its greens camouflaged with its surroundings.

It was roughly the size of Marquise's palm, an absurdly spiny body so thin it looked as if built out of sticks. Its antennae were longer than its body, its tarsi so large they could easily eviscerate a small rodent or anything of similar size, and its huge eyes never left her, even as it quietly slinked off out of its hole.

"Yup! That's the one for sure!" Marquise clapped softly. "Good job, Holly! But, think you can try that thing we started practicing yesterday?"

"Y-you mean fine tuning?" More specifically, Marquise had wanted her to make it so only Holly and nobody else could notice her ability activating. "I-I don't think so, no, and I don't think we have the time to try right now."

"Well, sure! Little guy does look eager to book it, right? go get 'em, girl!"

Marquise patted her back, and Holly nodded. Eyes fixed on her target, Will honed until its image was clear as day, she lowered herself, listened to the crunch of damp soil and old leaves under her hardskin with barely restrained anticipation, tensing her limps taught, ready to poun—

"Buuuuuuut, not like that!" Marquise said.

"Buh?!" A step and Holly skidded to a halt as the alerted Gugly did book it.

"Two legs, Holly, Two legs!"

"N-now?! I'm faster on all fo—"

"Oh? We have time to argue?"

"Aaaaaaw, fine!" Holly sighed, standing up and running, "If I lose it, it's your fault!"

"It's for a good cause!" Marquise yelled, voice growing distant, "You gotta keep them healthy and exercised! Remember, healthy and exercised!"

As if she hadn't already fully healed! Didn't matter. The chase was on, and soon, her frustration was forgotten.

The forest blurred around her, hot humid air blowing over her skin, gliding strands of old webbing and gliding leaves clinging to her limbs before her speed dragged them away! Burrowleeches, mites the size of pebbles, nettles like balls of needles, clouds of spores bursting under her feet, all dangers of yesteryear trying to get a hold of her beaten by sheer speed! Making for decades gone, she ran like she used—

No, not like she used to, like she dreamed to when playing with her sisters, imagining herself spreading wings and taking flight! And fly she did: over stout rocks she would have had to run around, up cascading manes of roots and small cliffs that could shelter a man, through thorn ridden bushes and hair filled urticaria, untouched and without breaking stride, nobody to ambush her on the way home!

Agare, who was quietly dashing in the corner of her eyes and would not hesitate to stop her if she got too far from the mansion, excepted, but he got a pass as he had never tried hurting her.

And the Gugly, for all it tried to flee into the safety of root networks and long abandoned vermin burrows, was no match for her. It was fast, yes, absurdly fast for such a diminutive creature, but even on two legs all it took was getting serious and she almost overshot it in five long strides, shocking the poor bug into charging several different directions before settling into one, too late.

Now came the hard part. She had to catch it alive, the Marquise had requested as much, but she also didn't fancy needlessly hurting something she was told not to eat, something she wasn't sure she could accomplish thanks to how clumsy her hard-skin made her feel.

She would have to try regardless. Judging the distance right, she pounced, hand outstretched but nails curled back. A blink of an eye away from snatching it, her shadow passed over its head, and the Gugly, in a move of blinding dexterity, flipped itself back, dashing in the complete opposite direction.

Where her other hand stood waiting, caging it against the ground, before she grabbed and raised it into the air.

"Ha! Do you think this is my first time bug hunting?!" Holly said. "Good try, I knew you—"

Her hand reached eye-level just in time for her to see the little bastard scurry down her arm.

And so began the struggle to catch it again as it ran circles around her body. Back and front, up and down her limbs, never jumping off to safety but always evading her grasp by a sliver! How could something so barbed be so slippery?

Its journey through her body ended as she felt its tarsi right below her chin. Almost slapping it, sending it running towards the crown of her head, a sudden impulse overcame her, and so before it had the opportunity to scamper elsewhere, one of her hairs came from right below and wrapped itself around its thorax!

And... that was it?

She could feel it wriggle against her skin, and almost couldn't believe what she had done. She won! Not that it was ever in doubt that she would, but it had been so simple! All she had to do was reach around with one of her hairs and—

Holly froze.

Her grip slackened, and the Gugly lost no time in freeing itself. She felt its final efforts, crossing down to her shoulder then the small of her back in the split of a second.

Then it disappeared. The shock of what she had just done caught up with her, so she turned around, ready to throw herself back on the hunt, only to find Agare some four or five paces away, the critter firmly pinched between his fingers.

She stared at him, speechless. She almost couldn't believe the sight, as if she had lost herself inside a dream and mixed it too deeply with reality, until Agare spoke. "You've done well. The Marquise will be pleased. Now, come."

"W-why?" Holly said.

"Because you've accomplished the objective." Agare said, "Your movements are still clumsy and maladjusted, yet they show significant improvement. You have proved your Will can keep up during activities without outside interference, and you that you can use it without losing control."

"A-ah. That was the reason, then?"

"In part. Now come, we shouldn't be tardy."

She nodded, a little upset, a little nonplussed. Something in Agare's tone nagged her the wrong way. Still, she shrugged it off. Better to enjoy the rest of the lesson by not thinking about it too hard.

Indeed, three weeks had passed since she arrived at Marquise's manor.

Three she spent learning more about her body than she ever had years down in her room. Three weeks trying to piece together what Will even was, to no result. And most importantly, three weeks of coming to know the limitations of this wondrous, terrifying new life of hers.

The evening had come, and after a light dinner of meat, meat, and meat, she retired with Agare back to her room, planning to read until the next morning since she had a lot of books to catch up on, but a couple hours later she had done everything but.

It was a difficult situation. She didn't want to neglect something that now felt so fundamental to her being, but on the other hand even thinking about it cause her such unease. It was interesting, magical even, and horrible beyond description.

The fear distracted her from Marquise's wishes. For example, the reason she couldn't fine-tune her Will anymore, either activate full power or none at all. And it was so annoying! She had done it before! After a few hours thinking it through, she had arrived at an excuse she was half satisfied with.

Marquise was fast. So, so fast. At least she didn't actually hit Holly at all, and even apologized for the nasty joke, but the shame taught her to think twice before mouthing off again.

Marquise had heavily implied, all but said really, that she might be able to do the opposite, that is, make things harder to perceive with her Will. Was that related to her poor ability to somewhat change colors? The way Marquise reacted suggested that no, not at all, but did get her called cute. She also—

"Holly!"

Deep in introspection, endlessly tapping at the book before her, "The Sun Invasion", without ever having turned it to the first page, she jumped window high before catching herself.

"A-A-Agare?!" Holly said, peering over the glowing rock filled lamp she had been lent to look at the only other person in the room, who had spent the last few hours silently leaning against the far wall.

"Do you really not mind that the Marquise is using you?" he said, motionless in his corner.

"What?" Holly asked, heart slowing down as she came to understand the question.

His head rose, and she knew he was staring her in the eye. "Don't pretend you don't notice. Even you can't be naive enough to not know better."

"H-hey, I'm not naive! I'm not the smartest, but..." Holly said, but shook her head. She decided to go for simple honesty, "And no! I don't mind!"

"Shouldn't you? Most in your situation would. Serving the naked, underhanded ambitions of another for so little isn't common."

"E-even then, if it wasn't for her generosity, where would I be?"

"Dead," Agare said.

"W-well, s-see?!" Holly said, shivering a little at the bluntness. "I-if she wants to put me to good use, I don't really mind! I mean, I'm actually getting a lot out of this too, look! This is a book, a proper history book, and I can read it in front of everyone! E-Elder Seneschal would give me such a scolding if he saw..."

"Aren't you worried about your sister?" He leaned forward, and she froze. "Marquise might have lied. She might be rotting under your village's ashes, and you would never be the wiser."

She gulped, feeling her hairs swiping behind her head. "W-why are you asking me that? What's wrong with you?!"

"You are among strangers, Holly. Has nobody ever taught you not to trust every hand extended your way? Aren't you afraid we might only be milking you for all you're worth, and planning to discard you as soon as you can't keep up? Your misstep today could have been your last."

Holly held her tongue. There were a lot of different answers she wanted to give, angry, spiteful answers, as well as fearful ones, bitter ones, but something stopped her. This wasn't it. This wasn't exactly what was being asked of her.

And so, she arrived at simple honesty again. "Agare, if you were, what could I do about it?"

"... Explain yourself."

This time, she was the one to stare Agare down. She had to admit though, she didn't think it was working. The Faceless were hard to read at the best of times, Agare chief among them. Still, she fought through the knot forming inside her throat, and spoke.

"I-I don't want to think about it, b-but if Cassia was actually dead and Marquise had been lying about it, w-what could I do about it? where could I go? I don't have anyone to cry to, to h-help me, you guys are the only ones who even know I exist!"

"So that's it? You don't have better options?"

She shivered, suddenly cold to her stomach, "N-no, that's not what I mean! I-I like the Marquise, she did so much for me... D-do you think I ever imagined I was going to live in an actual house ever again?! Specially one this big! That I was actually going to eat enough food to feel full, to meet so many people I had never thought possible, a-and, and— Aaaaah! What I'm trying to say is that I'm glad to be here! In fact, I wouldn't mind if she used me a little harder!"

Hard not to blush after saying all that.

Agare didn't answer, but she could feel his attention boring holes through her. Had he not been convinced? Did he think there was something else there? Well, that was all he would get!

After a minute or two, she felt him look away, and couldn't help but visibly relax.

"Haaaaaauuuuuuh..."

She jumped, "W-wait, what did you just—?!"

"She's alive." he said.

"What?"

"Your Cassia is alive. I have seen her with my own two—"Agare said, stopped, then murmured under his breath. "Fucking Marquise, what are you doing to me... I've seen your sister, I've seen her speak of you. She's alive, and here."

"R-really?"

"What did I tell you about blindly trusting strangers?"

"D-did you or did you not?!"

"I did, I'm just making a point," Agare said, turning towards the door, "I'm sending in Furfu. Remember to not open this door until I return, even if you hear something happening outside."

"Wait, I though the Marquise didn't let you leave me alone?"

"She gave me special permission during certain occasions."

"Like?"

"You don't need to know." Agare looked at her one final time from the other side of the door, the hallway's dim lighting not much better than her room's, "I will be back soon."

And that was that. Agare left without another word, and she was left with her thoughts. Furfu was probably still a tad mad from that morning, so she would be taking her time to come, and until then Holly would have all the time in the world to ponder these new and horrifying ideas Agare had left her with.

Except, not even at the tip of a blade she would!

And so, even though she wasn't too keen on it, she finally flipped the first page of the blasphemy she requested, and started reading.