♣ Me at Age Seventeen – Part 2
BEFORE I knew it, a week had gone by. My training with the Stella was going smoothly, and I became able to use it on a larger scale, but with a weaker intensity than before. Still, I was sure that if I kept working on it, I’d be able to use my powers in new ways. Lord Revireus was also advancing by leaps and bounds towards controlling his power properly, although Air complained that his mental discipline still needed work.
As for the storeroom in Fort Deshmel, that place had completely changed. The cleaning was going according to my instructions, and lumber was carried in to set up the framework of the new storefronts. We’d begun inviting people to set up shop there as well. We set one storefront aside for Mister Giyaga, one for a woman interested in selling sundries, one for another woman who wanted to sell cosmetics, and one for me.
In addition to those three and myself, we’d extended offers to the traveling merchants that dropped by Deshmel. My life in Rofola taught me just how vital peddlers were to the world writ large. We’d informed the peddlers that if they were interested in setting up a shop in Fort Deshmel, we would have space for them to rent. All we had to do now was be patient and wait.
We also brought in stones to set up a new layer of walls outside the fort’s ramparts. Shida was due to come by any day now to help set up monster-repelling barriers.
Will Nakona be coming with him? I wondered. With his curse lifted, Shida should be maturing physically, so I’m looking forward to seeing him. What does he look like now? He should look around twelve years old, I’d think.
Hmmm… Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen Renge all week… Is the war with the Colossals over yet…?
The hostilities with the Colossals in the Mythical continent were ongoing. Renge dropped by the fort every now and then, and he’d said the Colossals were stupid, making it hard to negotiate with them.
From what he told me, a peaceful solution sounded hard to achieve. Shinsen was good at diplomacy. But their limited intelligence made it difficult for them to understand him. And they were also exceptionally stubborn, so the negotiations were dragging on.
It sounds really complicated… And Air’s watching from the sidelines, hoping the Great Curalius will deify. And understandably, Renge doesn’t like that…
“It looks like we’re due for bad weather today, Holy Woman,” said one of the workers as I was tending my garden. “You should probably go indoors.”
I was gathering herbs as I looked up and noticed leaden clouds hanging overhead. “Yes, you’re right…” It did look like it was about to rain. I quickly gathered all the herbs I needed and hurried into the fort.
“What will you be making today?” the worker asked, following me.
“I’ve been asked to make face lotion and body cream, since I’ve been making more sundries than actual medicine recently,” I said. “I’ve been itching to do some real apothecary work.”
“I see. The knights have been praising your heat rash medicine nonstop.”
“It’s been helping? That’s good to hear. I’ll have to make more heat rash medicine, then…”
Imagining how stuffy the knights’ armor must be made me feel like I needed to improve the recipe somehow. There must be some fundamental solution I’m missing…
“Oh, Holy Woman, there you aaaaare! There’s troooouble!” Jiril approached me in a hurry, dragging her tail.
“What’s wrong, Jiril?” I asked. She looked uncharacteristically alarmed. “Did something happen on the Mythical continent?”
“Yes, I believe soooo! There’s mana overflowing there, changing the weeeeeather. I think Lord Renge used his black flaaaaames!”
“He did?!” I couldn’t believe it.
Renge’s black flames had special, destructive powers and he hated having to use them. He only did so when there was absolutely no other choice.
Is it his flames that made the weather change so drastically? I remember him saying that he hates to use them because it doesn’t distinguish between friend and foe and scorches the earth.
“I’m worried, so I think I’ll go baaaaack to the continent! Don’t worry though, Holy Womaaaaaan! I’ll leave Mirage here with you!” Jiril told me.
“Take me with you!” I demanded.
“I thought you’d say thaaaaaat! But you caaaaaan’t. You can’t use magic to defend yourself, can youuuuuuu?”
I clenched my fists. She was right, of course. I could use some spells, but I’d been so focused on controlling the Stella that I hadn’t had the chance to practice them.
But if Renge’s using his black flames, he must be really backed against the wall! I’m too worried to just stay here!
“No, Jiril, Renge and the Great Curalius mean too much to me. Please! I want to make sure they’re safe!” I pleaded.
“Oh… It’s hard to say no when you put it like thaaaaat…” Jiril hesitated.
Okay, I just need to give it one more push…
“Jiril, please! I’ll be too worried to do anything if you just leave me here. I haven’t seen Renge all week! Please…I just want to see him…!”
That part was true. But I also knew using his black flames left Renge dispirited. He could specify where the disaster his flames unleashed would strike, but not what form it’d take. For that reason, Renge believed he was only good for destroying and nothing else. But I knew that wasn’t true. I can’t leave him to stew in his negative feelings…!
“Ohhh… Fiiiiiine. But only for a little bit, understaaaaand? It could really be dangeroooooous,” she warned.
“Okay!”
Yay! I can go see Renge! And uh…check up on the Great Curalius too, of course… I’m worried about her too! Really!
Jiril held out her hand and I laid my hands over hers. In the blink of an eye, we teleported. When I opened my eyes, I found myself looking up at a leaden sky full of brewing clouds. Raging, mana-laden winds blew all around us. The black flames’ power was always overwhelming to behold.
“Wait in the Great Curalius’ spriiiing, all right?” Jiril told me.
“All right…” I agreed.
She took me to the spring where the Great Curalius lived. I walked on the lotus flowers, approaching the big dragon who was lying curled up. Oh no! Is she sick again…?
“Greetings, O Great Curalius,” I said, bowing.
“Oh…if it isn’t Tinaris,” the mighty dragon intoned with a surprisingly casual tone. “You came to visit again? Were you worried about me?”
“Yes…”
She sounds fine. That’s a relief…
“You would have been better off not coming, though,” she went on. “It’s dangerous. Renge just used his black flames.”
“He always gets depressed after using them, so that’s why I’m here,” I said.
“Oh my, yes… So you came here to comfort him?”
“Well, yes…”
I wasn’t sure if my encouragement would help, really. But I loved Renge and was worried about him. The Great Curalius chuckled warmly at my fidgety, hesitant response.
“What happened,” the dragon explained, “was that the Colossi got tired of waiting and marched their army against us. Renge took them head-on, single-handedly holding the line against them. We can’t allow the Colossus leader, a very impatient figure, to rule over the continent. This fight was sadly inevitable…”
“That makes sense…” I said. “After all, you need to handle things accordingly.”
“Yes, of course. Everyone on this continent is like my child. And if they’re all going to live in peace, going to war is necessary at times, sad as it may be,” she said.
That’s a leader’s responsibility. It was a heavy burden, though. I thought leading the people of Deshmel was difficult. Yet, the Great Curalius single-handedly led a number of different races.
But with her as she is now…
“Great Curalius! It’s awful!” a half-man, half-horse Mythical shouted as he ran towards us.
“My child, what’s the matter?” she asked him. “Why are you so flustered?”
Whoa, a Centaurus! I’ve never seen one before.
“The Colossi’s leader resorted to desperate means and they’re now forcing their way in!”
“Oh, the poor fool…” The Great Curalius shook her big head.
“They forced their way in as a last-ditch method?” I asked, confused by this news.
“When Colossi are driven into a corner, they use their mass to charge and physically break through obstacles,” the Great Curalius said.
Huh…? They charge in? Like bulls? And they’re charging in now, here? No way…
“The Holy Woman is here. Let us reinforce the barrier,” the Great Curalius said.
“But Great Curalius, if you strain your body much longer…!” the Centaurus shouted.
“With Renge’s black flames being this intense, even the Colossi’s leader, as large as he is, won’t be able to move freely. The safest way for all is for me to reinforce my barrier.”
“But the strain it’ll place on your body! You won’t last!”
I looked up at the Great Curalius in alarm. But her eyes were fixed squarely on the Centaurus. She was going to sacrifice herself again to protect the continent’s peace. I wanted to do something. To help somehow. I knew that if I did nothing, this kind dragon would once again act without regard for her life and safety.
No! I saved her life once…and Lord Revireus wanted her to live to the point of crying about it…!
“You can do it,” I heard a voice whisper in my ear.
Suddenly, Curalius and the Centaurus both turned to look at me. I realized a bright light was emanating from inside me. And that voice—I didn’t imagine it. It was a voice that I knew.
“Lady Akari…” I said in awe.
“Right now, Tinaris…you can do it! You can protect this place. Listen to the light overflowing from within you. It will protect everyone.”
My eyes widened at the realization of what she was saying.
“The Stella will surely help you! The effort you put in will prevail. Believe in it!”
I listened to the light overflowing from within. Then, effortlessly, I spoke these words for the first time, as if I knew exactly what to say:
“O, Stella—become a wall of light to protect all life!”