In Another World with JUST MONIKA 55 Interlude 7 – With her inside the salon

-

-

Some time later, after Reim brought up a fresh calming pot of tea, they continued the discussion. Linze plastered a far too sweet smile on her face as she sipped tea and watched Mister Zah and Charlotte excitedly chatted about complex concepts.

'He doesn't belong to you," she thought to herself. 'Just because you like someone doesn't mean they have any obligation to return it.'

Like Elze complained, there were just random peasants from nowhere and as a naturally shy person she was very reluctant to express her interest. It was also quite clear to who Mister Zah belonged to.

And that was why she was DOUBLE INDIGNANT watching Mister Zah being so obvious with his fixation with the court magician with Miss Monika RIGHT THERE watching.

"So how is your knowing that we're actually crafting spells according to the Ancient Civilization's rules disadvantageous to us? I mean, it's not that much more dangerous compared to knowing that we have all-element casting," he asked.

Miss Charlotte shook her head. "Oh, no. It's purely a reward from me. You can READ and SPEAK the Lost Ancient Language. That is of incredible value to my research. Please help me with that, we will be able to help a lot of people. Knowledge should be shared for the benefit of all, not hoarded. Specially Ancient lore, they are the inheritance of all peoples."

"I hope you don't mean that it's dangerous for us to know," the Duke Ortlinde inserted himself into the discussion. "I had hoped you had more faith in us to keep your secrets than that. We won't abuse your trust or make you work if you don't want to."

Mister Zah laughed lightly. "That cat's out of the bag, we have more or less thrown our lot with you. Maybe knowing this would become dangerous for the people you don't like?"

Linze's grip on her teacup tightened. She never felt any annoyance at how so overwhelmingly overpowered Mister Zah was with his all-element casing or Miss Monika with her ability to infinitely stack spells for infinite power. They were like heroes who jumped straight off the storybooks, that was to be expected from people like that. Mysterious, powerful, charming…

Linze shivered and shook her head to clear it. She didn't feel she could stand beside him as an equal. But she could get there. She was sure of that.

But the court magician appearing out of nowhere with… that voluptuous body, that soft voice, that… that depth of knowledge to even prove Mister Zah wrong. That was just so… so unfair!

She wanted to reach over and just slap his face and shout 'Look at her! Miss Monika is just floating there now, not even looking at you anymore. She's staring at the vase, ignoring and being completely ignored.'

Linze seethed and started to get up, but felt Yae's hand on her shoulders. She turned to the other girl, who shook her head and with her kind eyes tried get Linze to calm down. Linze resented her willingness to mind her place. To be a warrior woman… does she first need to set aside her own sympathy as a woman?

"What do you research anyway? Actually, specifically, if creating new spells is supposed to be difficult how did you plan on duplicating Null abilities into elemental spells anyway?" Mister Zah asked.

"As you realized, a spell is composed of three parts. The easiest to modify is the defining chant. It would surprise you to learn that to create a new spell is actually easy. It is just that most of them fail to do anything. But if you could READ THE ANCIENT TEXTS you have many more powerful synonyms to work with," Miss Charlotte responded with a happy smile.

But it's Miss Monika that can do that? How would you even bribe someone who doesn't need money, doesn't need to eat or sleep? If she doesn't want to help, what can you do?!

Linze felt that some of the mystery and wonder of magic was being drained the more they talked about it. It shouldn't be something you just wrestle down and control.

But Mister Zah's smile was close to a smirk. He had explained to her before that while it seemed magic did not have a philosophical component, his affinities fit him perfectly. Wind, such complete and utter mastery of wind, because he wished for freedom above all things. Water, because freedom didn't mean chaos, he sought an equilibrium. Fire, because it was dynamic. Earth, least of all, because it was like quicksand pulling him down. Dark and Light in equal measure because he was only interested enough in what was in front of him.

And so Linze did wish that magic did have a philosophical component. Light being her weakest affinity could have said something about her lack of courage, her lack of willingness to sacrifice herself for others. It failed a little bit for those with only Null abilities, but if magic did work that way anyone could develop the magic best suited for them.

Mister Zah appeared out of nowhere, apparently blessed by magic itself.

And Miss Monika…

There was no justice here. How dare Mister Zah not pay attention to her at all times, when it was sure she was paying attention to him at all times! That sort of self-sacrificing love was sacred!

But she couldn't work up the nerve to say anything.

In the end, it was Sue who asked "Does this mean we can't cure mother's eyes? There's no magic for that after all…" And no one could begrudge her selfish wish at all.

"Oh! No, I'm sure there is!" Mister Zah replied.

/"There is. There are many ways, some of them worse than others,"/ Miss Monika spoke up suddenly.

/"Things break and increase entropy. Entropy is also an energy state."/ Miss Monika then turned to Sue, grinned, and wiggled her index finger. /"Observe. [Rewind]."/

Another spell circle appeared under the vase, and the shards pulled themselves back together. The again-whole vase rolled slightly to the side. The kinetic energy that would have shattered it was already spent.

Mister Zah leapt half out of his chair, startled. "Jesus Christ, Monika, what?! That's [Reparo]. That's… [Time Gem] shenanigans right there! That's ridiculously abusable. Instead of [Recovery] being able to heal all ailments, did you get the ability to repair anything non-organic instead?!"

/"I've been really thinking it over, and if we consider Time a vector that would also work,"/ Miss Monika replied softly. While Mister Zah and Miss Charlotte theorized, she was working on the problem. Like she said before, she had nothing but time and her own thoughts. Always and always she ached about being useful. /"But unfortunately I think if I applied it to Duchess Ellen, her eyes would be healed… yes. But she'd also lose five years of her memory."/

Mister Zah carefully sat back down and said "Monika... for Sue, I wouldn't say that's worth it. But you... you basically just gave people eternal youth in exchange for literally losing years of their lives."

Miss Monika looked faintly sad. She didn't even care one bit about that or how she could use that power for her own benefit.

Linze felt envious of Charlotte, but she really admired and respected Monika in a completely different way from how Yae revered her. She was not an untouchable existence. While the court magician was the exemplification of everything she wished she could be, Miss Monika was Linze's ideal – the woman she wanted to imitate, the kind of person she wanted to grow up to become. Linze was a happy student.

/"I know! This is dangerous. But to me, that's how things work! [Recovery] may be a perfect spell, but until I see it in front of me, I can't perfectly [Decompile] it. Working from all the descriptions I had, this is the best I can do. So you better work out a harmless Light spell that accomplishes the same thing instead."/

"Oh my. That really IS dangerous…" the Duke murmured.

But Miss Charlotte looked much less impressed. "I see. There are similar documented spells like [Repair], [Modeling], [Remake], and [Reshape] too. But this one works because of the strictly defined rule of time reversal instead of a command to repair itself.

"I have seen personal Null abilities that worked in a similar manner. There was this one Null spell that could just allow you to command objects to obey rules and conditions, as long as it was even vaguely possible..." She suddenly slapped her left hand over her right arm that began to twitch uncontrollably. She shivered, not because she was cold, but it was like she was afraid?

She shook her head and began to lightly slap her own face to wake up from a fugue. "Pardon me, I was… a little distracted there."

But now Mister Zah ignored her discomfort. "I can't just chkdsk and fixboot brains like boot sectors, Monika! If only [Cure Heal] was a specialist spell instead of two general purpose medical spells jammed together. Actually I think that for intent-based magic, Sue's good intentions with strong understanding and visualization of what needs to heal would be stronger than just throwing more magic at it."

/"So are you just going to be content being a tutor. Here. In the capital?"/ Monika asked, with a tight note to her voice.

Mister Zah stopped, and his lips bent down in a scowl.

Linze grit her teeth. Be paid well to be a teacher and healer. Stop being an adventurer. Every day at walking distance to Miss Charlotte. Then… what about her and Linze? They were unnecessary. Yae too, she would leave, there was nothing interesting in magic and books for her.

He turned towards Sue and smiled sadly. "Sorry. We are adventurers after all."

Linze's heart sang. Yes. That was all they needed to be! Free and proud!

"But… but what about mother, then?" Sue asked plaintively. "It's very… harsh, not being able to see anything but patches of light. It's painful!" Like when she was going around with her eyes closed, it felt like light itself was pressing down on her eyeballs, the little girl explained. It would have been better if she was not partially healed at all.

Mister Zah and Miss Monika stared at each other. Only Miss Monika could see straight through that mask into his eyes. Moments passed but it was like they had a long conversation. Yes, that was a relationship that should not be set aside so easily.

Don't cheat, Mister Zah! Don't give in to temptation!

"I have an idea," said Mister Zah.

Miss Monika put her hand to her mouth and giggled. /"Do tell."/

"No one else can use my spells so simply because I've managed to make them all executables that require their own program layer. Fine. But there's this one amazing gal who can Decompile spells, and who can Apply the effects of spells onto others."

/"You can't give Duchess Ellen virtual eyesight, Player. We still haven't figured out which nerves or neurons are responsible for her blindness."/

"No. But you and I are masters of air and vibration. We could make her A Woman Without Fear."

A what?

Miss Monika stood up straight, suddenly completely serious. /"That… that could work. I know how it works. That's my radar sense. That's your active air pulse. If we combine that…"/

Mister Zah raised his right hand, opened his white gloved fingers out wide… and then clenched it.

And once more Linze was reminded why only Mister Zah and Miss Monika could ever really fit each other. Power. Vast, uncompromising power rolled off them and touched everyone in the room in shimmering waves of force. They called it visualization, but to Linze, it was like they could just force the universe to bend to their will. Mister Zah refused to be contained. Miss Monika refused to be limited.

She was beginning to see why Yae behaved so meekly towards Monika.

"Come Forth, Wind," Zah Playa whispered, his voice oddly carried by the rapidly pulsating air. "Currents of knowing, [Air Sense]."

/"Sue, close your eyes,"/ Miss Monika commanded. The little girl obeyed, and so did Linze. And so Miss Monika declared /"Borrow an aspect of Total Mastery over the Element of Wind! [Amplify: Proprioception], [Amplify: Somansensory Reception], [Stack: Haptic Feedback], [Stack: Air Sense], [Application: BLINDSIGHT!]/

And then Linze's world exploded into a riot of colors. Because Monika had noticed, and to help her learn applied [Blind Sight] to her too. Colors intensified until it was painful, and then seemingly leeched away leaving muted pastel shades.

It was like a world washed out, but with deeper shadows. Shadows that seemed to come out in outlines from behind people and objects. It was if there was light, but it was centered on herself.

A world of sight, by sound. A world of color, by heat.

She could see Sue looking around, a look of awe on her face. Her blonde hair was dark almost purple hue, and her face was a fascinating pink.

Linze still didn't understand how this could make a woman without fear, unless it had something to do with how this sense could make someone 'see' equally well in broad daylight and in the moonless deep of night. There was nothing to fear in the dark, because there was no such thing anymore. Only a distant softness.

A woman without fear…

Was that a hint? Yes, Miss Monika. I will do better.

And then after a while, Monika said /"[Cancel]"./

Linze blinked repeatedly as her vision returned. The world through her natural eyes seemed darker, blurrier, less intense. Less… sublime.

Miss Charlotte gasped for breath, and put her hands over her heaving chest. She looked at Mister Zah and Miss Monika with fascination and hunger just as before, and now a little bit of terror.

"Does this… does this happen often?" she asked.

"What?" Mister Zah asked.

"Do you often just up-end everything about what is possible? [Blind] [Sight], a contradiction in terms. And yet… it's not even in the Ancient language. So quickly, so effortlessly…!"

Linze laughed. Openly, and her now lukewarm tea spilled over her skirt. Because the answer was YES. Very obviously, YES.

Then she stopped. Only she realized the penalty required for this spell. Miss Monika would have to sacrifice one of her immeasurably precious spell slots just to allow one blind person to have this strange form of sight. Mister Zah would not correct their unfairly blessed ignorance, he was too kind like that.

At least a week until Mister Zah could return for his tutoring promise for Sue. A lot of things could happen in a week.

"That is very, very, VERY dangerous…" the Duke murmured.

Linze agreed silently.

-

-

Chapter end