The rest of the day following their sparring session with Vanessa was surprisingly laid back. The palace workers were pleasantly surprised to see her walking around, but other than slight conversation, there weren’t any outbursts of emotion, except for one. Of all of the people in the palace, Rose had expected him to have the most nonchalant attitude, but it was most certainly the opposite.
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Vanessa walks into the courtyard, looking for Hiro. She spots him sitting on the ground, leaning against a large tree surrounded by kids, as if he's telling them a story. A few of them are starting to nod off in the warm, afternoon sunlight. Vanessa waits until the last of the children fall asleep to approach him. The second he sees her, he immediately breaks into tears, but remains silent, so as to not wake the children. Instead of simply walking in between the kids to get to her, he creates some fog in front of him and twirls his hands towards her. She pauses for a moment to think about what he's trying to say, and then it clicks. She points at Hiro and starts to twirl her finger, creating a vacuum out of wind magic, funneling the fog into it and carrying it towards herself. Once it all gets to her, Hiro fades into the fog and reappears in front of her, giving her a big, tight hug. As he squeezes her, he says, "I've missed you so very much. After the first few weeks, I had almost given up on you waking up. I thought you really were gone for good.".
"My apologies, I did worry you all. Trust me, I have no intention of letting it happen again."
As they stand in each other's embrace, Rose and Vuella peep through the door to the courtyard in an attempt to eavesdrop on their conversation. After a few moments, they separate, and Vanessa caresses his face, wiping the tears away.
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"Remember, a king must be wary of his appearance in front of his followers.” She says as she discreetly nods over to the girls peeking through the gap in the courtyard door.
“I think I’ll be fine with them seeing their king shed tears of joy.”
“As long as it’s just this once. It seems like you’ve gotten accustomed to kingship.”
“If only you knew, Mother. I’ve been… Working hard, for lack of a better term. In the past five weeks, I’ve managed to get myself mixed up with a thief, a king, assassins, and more.”
“Well, tell me about it. We’ve got nothing but time.”
“Yet again, Mother. If only you knew.”
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They both take a seat on a bench in the courtyard and start chatting about past events. Rose wants to leave, but Vuella insists on staying since this is all new information to her. Rose begrudgingly stays and explains any of the missing parts from Hiro’s descriptions. After thirty minutes of this conversation, Vanessa asks him about Rose.
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"It seems like you're doing well, but I have to ask why you keep letting people get close to you. The Hiro I know wasn't as quick to trust as you are now. It hasn't burned you yet, but it could."
"I understand your concern, but I've taken enough measures to ensure the safety of the Royal family.”
“Safety measures are good, but you could just avoid the danger all together. What I really want to ask is what made you change?”
“Well… You know, I haven’t given it much thought before, but thinking about it now….” Hiro pauses for a moment, staring up at the sky.
“I think the answer is Rose. Initially, I brought her here to hunt down an assassin for me, but since she’s been here, she’s become so much more than that to us”
“So you like her THAT much? The way you talk about her sounds like Rahu is going to get a queen fairly soon.” Vanessa says jokingly, jabbing him with her elbow.
“It wouldn’t be the truth to say I didn’t like her to some degree.”
Rose is starting to blush from this revelation as Vuella pokes fun at her, making kissing faces at her.
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“However, not in the way you’re thinking.” Rose lets out a sigh of relief as she hears Hiro amend his previous statement.
“If you ask Rex about her he’ll talk your ear off about how great of a student she is and how much she’s grown in terms of combat. I can’t even ask Helen about the things the two of them talk about in private. But for me she feels… like the younger sister I never had. I guess you could say that, in addition to her infectious kindness, has made an impression on me.”
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Rose is beyond pleased with Hiro's description of her. At this point, she's ready to walk away, but Vuella reminds her of something before she leaves.
"This is good and all, but didn't you need to ask Mr. Hiro about something?" Vuella says as she stands up and starts to stretch.
"Was there… Ah! It was magic! Thanks!"
Before giving it any thought, she teleports into the courtyard between them. With a bright smile, she says, "Mr. Hiro, can you teach me about magic?"
Hiro lets out a sigh and puts a hand on his face.
"How wonderful of you to join us. We were just talking about you.” Hiro says sarcastically.
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“But to answer your question, no I can't. However you do happen to be sitting in front of the greatest magician Rahu has ever seen."
She turns her head to see Vanessa waving at her with a smile.
"He flatters me, but even now, I’d say that I’m only the second best magician in Rahu’s history. I've learned from the best and only improved over the years. I can teach you the basics now if you like."
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Vanessa stands up and grabs both of Rose's hands, putting them palm up on her own.
"Just make sure not to over exert yourself. Magic is a simple thing, really. It uses an energy found exclusively in nature called Mana as fuel. This is why normally, when a person uses magic in its basic form, it shouldn't feel like you yourself are expending anything. This 'basic form' of magic is split into six different natures, similar to abilities. The natures are as follows: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, and Dark. For now we'll focus on finding your nature. I'm going to use some low level fire magic on you to expose your body to mana. When you feel it, don't resist it, but let it flow over you."
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Rose follows her instructions and feels a wave of warmth pass over her. For a moment, it's simply warmth, but following that feeling, a feeling of irritation goes throughout her body, starting mild, and grows more and more intense until it abruptly vanishes and the mana gathers in Rose's hands.
"As you can see, the fire magic has gathered into your hands. Now that we're here, there's only one more thing to do. Close your eyes and think of all of the traits that constitutes your personality, condense it into one word, then push that word through the mana in your hands.
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"Yes ma'am."
Rose plays back all of the significant memories in her life up to this point. After thinking for a moment, she realizes this is harder than she thought. What exactly makes her herself? And how does she fit all of that into a single word? As she recalls memories, she is brought back to the day Hiro came to her in prison, thrusting her headlong into this new life of hers. Thinking of her life prior to and following this meeting, she sees herself as a thief and then a member of the Royal family. From no family to a family larger than she could've hoped for. From homeless to having a home bigger and better than anyone else in the kingdom. What do all of these things have in common?
"Change."
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As she says this aloud, the ball of mana in her hands changes from the previous red, to a deep black. The mana begins to pulsate, and after a few pulses, it shoots upward in spiral shape. However, rather than remain its initial black color, it swirls into a black and white vortex. A few moments pass and the tornado of mana subsides, dispersing itself back into nature, from whence it came.
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"And with that, we now know what your affinities are. You have two of them, which is quite rare. They are light and dark, both of which are uncommon in their own right, but even more so together.”
As they break away from each other Rose looks at her now empty hands in amazement.
“Whenever you want to use it, think of what you thought of prior to the black and white spiral, and whichever affinity you want to use, and you should be able to gather and manipulate mana in that nature. While you’re still new to it, the only thing you should be able to do is sling around each respective nature, but once you get better with it, you can cast spells that do a bit more.”
Vanessa says. A few moments after she finishes speaking, the children begin to wake up one by one.
“Looks like our time to ourselves is about up. I have a couple of letters to write, so I’ll bid you two farewell.”
And with that, Hiro stands and walks away. Vanessa follows him out shortly afterward while Rose stays with the children until some of the maids come and relieve her of her babysitting duty. The rest of the day went by as normal as it could with a classroom’s worth of children in the palace.
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The next week goes by peacefully, with the new palace residents adjusting to their new lives. While having the children around livened up daily palace life, it was also nice to have extra pairs of hands with Vuella, Velajul, and Elajuel being there to pick up any slack from the palace staff. Overall, everyone was content with their new lives, even if it could be hectic at times.
.
.
.
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“Rose, I have a task for you. Take these to the mail center.” Hiro says, while handing her a stack of sealed envelopes stamped with the crest of Rahu.
“Yes sir. Who are they headed to?”
“They’re going to the king of each nation. I’m calling for an emergency meeting to discuss the mana beast and the repeating waves of mana that have been affecting Rahu.”
“So these are the letters you mentioned you were writing before. I’ll get moving immediately.”
“Ah, one more thing. Tell them to get Lord Tyrol’s letter to him sooner than the others.”
“Yes sir!” Rose says as she teleports into an alleyway in the center of town. She steps out into the late afternoon sun, and starts on her way to the mail center.
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The capital was as busy as usual. Despite Rahu’s large police force and numerous police patrols around the capital, it still manages to be prime hunting grounds for thieves and the like. It was fairly tame before Hiro became king, but once people saw Vanessa step down, all of the once suppressed criminals and shady underground organizations reemerged to wreak havoc yet again. Hiro has done a well enough job at quelling them, but every so often you can still see a few manage to slip through the cracks. As she walks, Rose notices through the crowd people being robbed without them noticing. Sleight of hand, pickpocketing, misdirection, and more, all being used to steal from the common man. She couldn’t be upset at them for their actions without knowing their situation, but the least she could do was right their wrongs.
“I think I have a minute or two to spare.” She says as she walks towards the location of a young thief near a shop set up on the side of the main road.
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He was having a conversation with the owner about the price of some earrings while sliding his hand towards a necklace at the end of the table. Rose starts to approach the shop, but fakes tripping over something in the road and falls into the thief. As she falls, she slips two gold coins into his pocket, pushes him away from the necklace, and lightly bumps the stand.
"Sorry about that! I can be a bit of a klutz sometimes." Says Rose as she begins to stand back up. On her way up, she taps the thief's pocket and dusts herself off. The thief feels his pocket and tries to hide the confusion from his face.
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"No problem ma'am, I completely understand! I guess that means you're like me then?" He says as he helps her up. They exchange a glance and Rose responds with “Kind of, but less than you think.” while the shopkeep is busy readjusting his stand.
"Are you two done? If you're going to buy something, then buy it. If not, scram!" He says.
"Yes sir. We're leaving, we're leaving." Rose responds as she turns to the young man and guides him away from the shop. After a few minutes, they’re out of sight of the shop, Rose whispers to the boy, saying “Stay out of trouble.”, before letting go of him and teleporting away to a dark alley a few streets over, before continuing to meddle with a few more thieves.
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After a few more instances of this, Rose continues her original task of taking the envelopes to the mail center. Realizing she’s been neglecting her duties, she sprints off in the direction of the mail center. After a few wrong turns and asking townspeople for help, she finds it and hands the envelopes over to the attendant.
"Lord Azor says to deliver the one to Lord Tyrol in Kennis sooner than the others."
"Yes ma'am. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"No sir. Thank you, on behalf of Lord Azor."
She says as turns and exits the building. As she walks back, she starts to ponder about the envelopes and the meeting that is soon to come.
"Have the other nations been having the same kind of trouble we have? What are the kings like? Do they like Mr. Hiro? If not, why? Are any of them enemies with each other? What abo-"
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"I'm sorry! I won't… do it again! I… swear!"
"Damn right you won't! We'll make sure you never rat on us again."
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Rose's train of thought is disrupted by a group of thugs beating up someone in an alleyway nearby. She looks around for the source and enters Hyper Speed. Once she finds it, she sees four fairly large men with matching tortoise shoulder tattoos attacking a young woman.
“Gotta stop them, but her safety comes first.” She says to herself as she sprints down the alleyway. She uses light, fast footsteps accompanied by long strides to approach both quickly and quietly.
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Once close enough, she jumps and kicks the closest man in the neck with enough force to knock him unconscious. Two of them turn around and start to attack her while the last one picks up the girl and attempts to run off down the alleyway in the opposite direction. Rose briefly engages the two men in front of her in combat. She immediately summons a ball of light magic in her hand and lets out an extremely bright flash, blinding the two men, defeating them with relative ease. She then pursues the last man, finding him zigzagging through various alleyways and narrow pathways between buildings.
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The man sees her chasing him and getting increasingly closer. He grins as his feet begin to flare up and fire starts to beam out of them, shooting him high into air, surpassing the height of buildings almost instantly.
“See if you can catch me now, girlie!” The man yells as takes off in the direction of the ports.
“If you were up against anyone that wasn’t me, maybe you would’ve gotten away. Too bad.” Rose responds as she teleports next to him grabs onto his neck, slightly dragging him down. The man looked both annoyed and astonished. Trying to pull himself back up, he starts to wobble from the uneven amount of weight.
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“Listen! If you put us down gently, I’ll go easy on you!” Rose yells at the man.
“Easy? Why would I do that even though you can’t actually stop me?” The man retorts.
“You asked for it.” Rose says as she slides a small knife out of her boot and stabs the man’s arm that’s carrying the young woman, who has now fainted from her injuries. The man drops the woman and throws Rose off of his back, while flying haphazardly through the sky. As she falls, She teleports to the woman, catches her, and teleports them both to the ground.
Rose looks up, aiming her knife at the wildly moving man, before she is startled by a loud roar.
“Draconis! Swallow him whole!”
These words are accompanied by a massive dragon made purely of water, soaring through the sky, scooping up the man in its jaws before returning the way it came. As Rose follows it back with her eyes, she sees it twist itself on the spire atop the palace, tucking its wings in and bowing its head to its master, Rex.
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"There's three more in the alley over there. Thanks!" She says as she turns her focus to the woman. She looks about Hiro's age, a little bit taller than herself, with shoulder length faded pink hair. At the moment, her clothes were in tatters and bloodstained, while her face and arms were covered in cuts and bruises from her beating earlier. Upon closer inspection, she sees that the woman also has the same tortoise tattoo on her shoulder as the other men. A few moments later the woman begins to wake up.
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"Hey, can you speak? Do you know what happened?" Rose asks.
"Kind of… I remember I was on my way to the royal palace before getting attacked by… my crew."
"Your… crew? And why were you going to the palace?" Rose asks even more curiously than before.
"It's a long story, but if you can take me to the palace, I'll explain everything. I just really need to talk to Lord Azor."
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Thinking about it, Rose is uneasy about taking her to see Hiro, but she couldn't figure out why. However, she knew she would never find out anything about this woman or her situation if she didn't. Without any information about her, whatever the problem is wouldn't be resolved.
"I can teleport us there, but I can't guarantee an audience with him immediately. Before we go, what's your name?"
"It's Sera. And yours?"
"Rose. Nice to meet you."
Rose puts her hand on her shoulder, and they teleport into the palace foyer.
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