A young girl's magical adventure 1

Okay, so I’ll admit I was a little short on ideas for this iteration of the Mystery box. So I wrote this up as a setup for a relatively short but normal-ish fantasy story where Tanya becomes a relatively normal adventurer. Setting is Fire Emblem 8. 

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Being X was a cheater. While testing Schugel’s wunderwaffen was dangerous, of course, giving the madman divine inspiration to force Tanya to explode herself with a bomb was beyond the pale. 

Of course, this was one of the religions that forced conversions via swordpoint, so she just supposed that those particular Christians were more true to their god than most religions. 

Now, she was generally of the opinion that any debasement of one’s pride was worth preserving one’s life, as long as you didn’t take that opinion to extremes beyond all reason. But as someone who grew up on shounen, she was rather proud of herself for managing to bite her traitorous tongue off when Being X forced it to utter words of prayer to stabilize the type 95. 

It was something of a shame that all evidence of her last act of defiance was promptly lost in an explosion, but it is what it is. She was a mere mortal against a powerful entity with powers over life and death, so flipping the metaphorical table is pretty much the only thing she can do to stop him from breaking… well, their bet didn’t really have rules, but forcing her to pray or be blown up was a clear violation of the premise; if he was going to usurp her free will anyway, there’s no point in the bet at all. 

After arguing those points with the bastard, he finally acquiesced, sending her off to her next life to a completely different universe that he also oversaw. Same terms as before. 

She was, once more, in a church-run orphanage. Unlike before, it was more of a… swords and sorcery sort of place, and the country she was in was a literal theocracy, with the ‘Divine Emperor’ being the local ruler. 

The good news was that the orphanage was well funded, at least. “Children!” The nun shouted, her eyes watching the sun. “It’s nearly time to go home, everyone come on and we’ll see what we have.”

Tanya calmly finished cutting the stem of the herb she was harvesting; it will regrow from the roots. She gave the remaining stem a generous allotment of liquid from her watering can, the water was mixed with fertilizers derived from the unused parts of the plant and something else that she wasn’t privy to know about, plus it was supposedly “blessed” by the nuns, a magical ritual was done invoking Latona, the local Jesus equivalent. Seeing as how the nun Tanya was walking back toward with her now-empty watering can and her quite full basket of herbs and flowers could, and has in the past, launched magical laser arrows at ruffians who tried to accost them, and could fix a broken ankle by waving her staff that was similarly blessed… Tanya wasn’t quite willing to assume the blessed water was hogwash. 

It really helped that the water was sparklier than she’d expect normal water, even liquid fertilizers, to be. 

This orphanage didn’t rely purely on charity; it was placed near a forest filled with medicinal and magical forage, and when Tanya was four years old, she was taught how to properly harvest that bounty along with the other children in expeditions like this one three times a week. 

Sister Leanne was a strikingly beautiful woman in her mid thirties, and she inspected each gathered herb from the children’s baskets before placing it in a larger basket that the other protector of this trip, a large man by the name of Dorac, would carry back to the orphanage. He spent more time mooning over Leanne’s beauty than actually doing any protecting, but the large axe he favored was good for more than just chopping wood, although as his actual profession was woodcutter, he did spend a lot of time doing that when he wasn’t trying to impress the nun with his mighty thews. 

Unlike the other versions of the church she was familiar with, this one didn’t demand the clergy not marry, neither men or women, so he wasn’t entirely doomed in his goal. Just… mostly doomed. Sister Leanne was either completely unaware (unlikely) or just deliberately ignoring his advances, praising his piety instead. 

Tanya was the last one back, but Sister Leanne wasn’t even halfway done by that time, so she patiently waited in line as the less disciplined children fidgeted and otherwise expressed boredom or fatigue from the four-ish hours of work they just did. 

“You all did an excellent job, I’ve never seen such a neat and tidy set of baskets before.” Sister Leanne praised as she took Tanya’s basket and quickly inspected them. “Excellent job Tanya, every single one undamaged.” The single basket of damaged plants, which would be turned into fertilizer, wasn’t even full, and given that there were ten children (aged eight to twelve, except for six year old Tanya) in the group and that they filled their baskets twice on each trip, that was certainly the best success ratio that Tanya had ever seen on these foraging expeditions. “Come along now, I’m sure Sister Julia has supper ready soon enough.” She put the lid on the larger basket and stepped away from it, allowing the woodcutter to pick it up easily and lash it to his back. 

“Come on, kids!” Dorac said jovially. “If anyone gets tired, I’ll carry them!” Immediately, half the children took him up on his offer, complaining loudly about being tired. True to his word, though, he carried one of the children on top of the basket, and one more each on his shoulders, the kids draped over them as they giggled energetically at the high vantage. The other complaining children merely grumbled as Sister Leanne scolded Dorac lightly for making the offer. 

Tanya just shook her head ruefully as she walked behind everyone, keeping a weather eye out for anyone looking to cause trouble, either man, beast… or monster. Their particular orphanage was near the coast, and also near the border of the neighboring country Jehenna, and further along that coast was a set of ruins that spewed out endless amounts of monsters out of what the children were told was an ancient stronghold of the Demon King, who was sealed away… somewhere. Maybe in those ruins, maybe elsewhere. Tanya asked, and none of the nuns knew the answer. The quantity of monsters wasn’t quite bad enough to be a huge problem, as they were disorganized, and while they sometimes managed to reach this far north, it was uncommon. 

She was 80% sure that the Demon King would become unsealed within her lifetime, assuming Being X didn’t just copy his last idea and have a gigantic war start up. She’d be more certain if she knew how that sealing was accomplished beyond ‘Latona did it’, but her understanding of church doctrine was that it did not place a lot of weight on knowledge, even among the clergy. No, the only thing that really mattered was Faith, and while of course the clergy was educated, the standards were… not particularly high. 

Still, no monsters or large beasts bothered them for the five mile trek back to the orphanage, and the children carried by Dorac swapped out multiple times. Tanya didn’t complain, though. She could physically handle the trip, and she did have to pass a certain minimum physical standard when she joined the Empire’s military, so she’s an old hand at powering through long marches. She’s not even carrying anything besides an empty watering can. 

Once back, Sister Leanne clapped her hands. “Okay children, wash up for supper, and then there’s no more chores for the rest of the day. You can play to your heart’s content until sundown.” This was, at this time of year, in about three more hours. Was this workload exploitatively large? Tanya thought so, but mostly that was because they went particularly deep into the forest today, the commute made it worse than it should be. Still, her diligence and precision have been noticed, so hopefully it won’t be too much longer until she is promoted to helping with the refinement. 

But that won’t happen on its own. Tanya watched the large basket be brought to the ‘medicine house’, which was a structure at the edge of the property, surrounded by a fence that indicated its forbidden nature. Only once the basket of herbs was out of sight did she turn and start cleaning herself for supper, as instructed. 

Getting an education would be much harder here than in the Empire, she needs to grasp what opportunities arise. 

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As far as the nuns wanted the children to be concerned, once the herbs went into the medicine house, they did not exist anymore. This was unacceptable. There was a profitable enterprise conducted by educated pharmacists or whatever they’re called here right within sight, and they wanted her to learn how to sew? Yes, she did not deny that it was a useful skill, but she already knew how to sew from the last orphanage! 

She had been staking out the medicine house after their gathering expeditions for two months now, and every time, she was pulled away for some chore or another and missed the arrival of the chemist. Not this time: She had narrowed down the arrival time with some eavesdropping on the nun’s conversations, had positioned herself in hiding, and had bribed Sofiya and Crue to cause a ruckus to distract the nuns from hunting her down. 

After patiently waiting for what was probably about twenty to thirty minutes, a man entered the gate. He was young, about twenty-sih, and was wearing a sturdy coat with an apron and hood, with glasses perched on his nose. Glasses! This must be the mysterious scholar that processed the medicines. He even had a magic book strapped to his belt like Sister Leanne did during expeditions! 

Now, for her approach: Tanya casually sat up from her hiding place; a carefully manipulated patch of flowers that she could lay down in and be completely concealed. “Hi!” She said, practically chirping. 

The man startled, taking two steps back as he saw the unexpected child. “Hello?” He offered, confused. 

“I’ve never seen you here before.” Tanya observed, her voice going quickly as she rapidly alternated between statements and questions. “Who are you? You look like you can read. Are you supposed to be here? You don’t look like a priest. Did you see my cool hiding spot? I’m the best at picking flowers, I never make a mistake. Do you know how to pick flowers? It’s harder than it sounds like.”

Tanya’s rapid-fire babbling, her best attempt to seem like an actual child, seemed to overwhelm the man, unable to get a word in edgewise. As she expected, however, his eyes seemed to glimmer with interest as Tanya boasted about her herb gathering prowess, curiosity rising as he registered that she was demonstrating a keen attention to detail and a relevant knowledge base for his work. Exactly as she had intended. “Calm down, child.” He said after gathering his courage. Tanya immediately went silent and stared straight into his eyes, the very picture of an obedient apprentice. “Now, introductions. My name is Mennehl. What’s yours?”

“I’m Tanya.” 

“Very good, Tanya.” Mennehl said, smiling at Tanya’s calmer answer. “I need to go to the medicine hut, to make medicines. Do you want to watch?”

“Can I?” Tanya asked, showing not just interest, but childish excitement at the idea. 

“Come on in, then.” He said, walking to the medicine hut and taking a bulky key out from one of his belt pouches, opening the door and waving her through. 

The medicine hut’s interior was… pretty much exactly how Tanya imagined it. It had a fireplace with a cauldron, two desks with neatly organized tools, and a full bookshelf. “Wow…” Tanya said, playing up the sense of wonder that a real child would feel in this situation. Everything was going according to plan… 

Mennehl set up a stool next to one of the desks, and patted it. “Sit here, and don’t touch anything. I’ll show you what I do with the herbs you spend so much time picking.” Once she was seated and dropped the pretense of being an excitable ball of energy, he began: First, he inspected the piles of ingredients, sorted into the three things they were asked to gather: Vuln flower bulbs, vita weeds, and the apex leaflets of the Latona bush. “What do you know about magic, Tanya?” He asked. 

“Not much.” Tanya said ruefully. “Sister Leanne has a magic book that she uses to throw light beams!” She waved out her arms, making ‘pew pew’ noises for emphasis. “Also, she has a staff that makes cuts and bruises go away.”

“As I expected.” He said simply, still carefully examining his ingredients. He frowned at one of the leaflets, as it appeared to have been damaged during transit, and set it aside. “If anyone were to ask you how many different kinds of magic there are, the proper answer would be four: Light magic, Dark magic, Anima magic, and staff magic.” Mennehl scoffed. “The difference between any of the three and staff magic is massive compared to the differences between the other three to each other. Another way of thinking of it is that tome magic, which all three of the others can be considered, is about invoking higher powers, channeling the power of God, of the spirits of nature, or the stranger things dark magicians try to reach. There are subtleties beyond that, but that’s not important right now.”

He took a mortar and pestle, and started juicing the vuln flower bulbs. “Staff magic, on the other hand, is mostly rooted in the physical world. These medicinal plants could be used to create normal medicine with a few other ingredients to keep it from spoiling, make it into a cream or drink or whatever you’re doing with it, but with a bit of magic, they could instead fill a staff and fuel a healing spell. The strength of the mage matters a lot in how potent the resulting healing is, and priests can further enhance it with the blessings of God, but fundamentally, all you’re actually doing is making a medicine delivery stick.”

“Wow…” Tanya said, genuinely impressed. “...Can you make someone sick with one?” She asked, curious. 

He paused at the question. “...no. A staff can generally only be used for what it was designed to do. The magic inside them has enough flexibility to be aimed and such, but…” Mennehl trailed off. 

“But could you make a sickness staff.” Tanya offered, “Like if you put those berries that make you sick in them instead.” 

Mennehl laughed. “You’re a clever little girl, aren’t you? Don’t go asking the priestesses questions like that, though. I don’t think they’d think it very funny.”

Tanya processed the statement, then laughed along. “Yeah, it is kind of silly, isn’t it?” 

He kept crushing the bulbs into paste. “So if you had a sickness staff, what would you do with it?” 

Tanya knew a test when she saw one, though. She kept asking and answering questions for over an hour, watching each process as he mixed the herbs with some kind of syrup he brought with him, using fire he conjured in his hands to turn the mixture into five surprisingly large sugar crystals, each about a foot long and with the thickness of Tanya’s tiny little girl wrist. They were then coated with wax and inserted… into five carved wooden staves that were in a drawer, each with a hollow inside, what appeared to be silver lining the interior filled with runes. “There we go, the job’s done.”

Suddenly, the door unlocked and opened, revealing a haggard Sister Pauline. “Mennehl, would you happen to have-” She paused, looking straight at Tanya. Tanya idly started kicking her legs as she gave the nun an innocent smile. “Tanya, why are you in here? You know it’s forbidden.” She asked, clearly disappointed. 

“No no, it’s my fault.” Mennehl said immediately. “I met her on the way in and she was just so curious, I invited her to watch me work. She was a perfect little angel.” Tanya smiled wider. “I think she might have a knack for this job, actually. Tanya, what did I do today?”

Tanya immediately started rattling off every step of the process, starting from him cleaning his workstation all the way to the final insertion. “...but you haven’t cleaned up again.” She added at the end. She also had ideas on how to optimize the workstation for the task, but she held off on poka-yoke. That comes later, when she’s doing the job herself. 

“See?” Mennehl said, puffing himself up with pride for having spotted Tanya’s talent. “I certainly couldn’t do that after watching it once.”

Sister Pauline’s mouth firmed into a line as she considered this information. “...You should bring her up with Father Benard, if you wish to adopt or apprentice her.” After saying what she was clearly supposed to say in this situation, she added: “But she’s a bit young for that, isn’t she?”

“A strong mind can shine forth even at such a tender age.” Mennehl said firmly. “But yes, I believe I will be discussing matters with Father Benard. It should be nearing lunch time, Tanya. Go off and get yourself some food.”

Tanya hopped off of the stool. Should she? Yes. She hugged Mennehl’s leg. “Thanks for showing me magic.” She said politely, before literally skipping off, overacting her genuine happiness that her plan went off without a hitch. 

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Mennehl didn’t go so far as to adopt Tanya, which meant she still lived at the orphanage, but he did take her on as an apprentice, which meant all but the most minor of her chores were replaced with assisting him in his job as an alchemist and scrivener. 

But she only did that when he was in town, which was not always. He was married to a holy knight by the name of Genivere, and he was occasionally asked to reinforce her squad of cavalry if they expected trouble. Come to think of it, this was probably why Tanya wasn’t properly adopted. Well, that and Genivere didn’t seem to like Tanya, she would naturally need to approve of any such arrangements. 

In fact, she acted more like… “Oh. It’s you.” Genivere said as she answered Tanya’s polite knock on their modest dwelling. “Go away.” She said quietly. Like a jealous schoolgirl who knew they couldn’t outwardly do or say anything against an unrelated girl that was interfering with what they saw as their ‘personal time’ with their love interest. 

As someone who still considered themselves an adult, such a childish reaction from a college-aged woman over someone a third her age was just… cute. This wasn’t the kind of thing you saw in the Imperial Military, so it had caught her off guard to see a knight, who had trained to kill others for longer than Tanya had been alive in this life, act like this. 

Tanya smiled brightly at the jealous wife of her teacher. “You’re so silly!” She said cheerily, dismissively. “I’m here for my lessons.” She explained inanely, as a child would. Also loudly. 

Genivere pouted, but Mennehl heard her announcement and shouted: “I’m by the fire, Tanya!” He shouted. Irritated, Genivere stood aside for Tanya to come in. 

Their house’s fireplace was substantially more elaborate than Tanya had expected, but this had a simple explanation: a roaring fire was inside, and Mennehl was drawing wisps of flame into a book he had on the floor on front of him, seated in seiza on a small cushion to conduct his ritual. 

Tanya merely watched as the stream of fire between wood and book increased in throughput as Mennehl chanted, eventually cutting off as the remaining fire intensified to a white-hot flame that burned the rest of the firewood into a pile of ash in seconds before snuffing out. “There.” Mennehl said, before pointing to a broom and dustpan. “Your first lesson in spell-crafting: cleaning the fireplace. Have you ever used a broom before?” He asked. 

“Yes sir.” Tanya said, before hesitating. “That cage looks complicated though.” She added. 

“Right, right.” Mennehl said, standing up and opening up the fireplace so she could access it. It was not a simple manner, and she paid close attention to how he undid the latches. “It has to be like this to contain the fire spirits, you see.” He explained, gesturing for her to start sweeping. Standard apprentice work, really. “While you’re doing that, I’ll explain what I was doing. I’ve mentioned before that magic involves invoking powerful beings, like God in the case of light magic. What I haven’t yet explained is that when a mage casts from a tome, the spell is already completed, for the most part. I’ve bargained with a nature spirit to lend me, or rather the bearer of this book, which is the written form of the agreement, half of the fire he gained from the wood I offered him.” He silently pointed to where Tanya was supposed to dump the ashes when she looked at him with a dustpan full of it. “Actually shaping that fire into an effective spell is on me, the fire spirit only provides the magical power I’m directing. Further refinements are performed by the mage using the tome, because if you try to use one without training the fire’s just going to explode outward and set you and everyone around you on fire, and that gets worse with more advanced tomes.”

“So the book just… stores the magic?” Tanya asked, to confirm. “Like a bottle?”

“Quite like a bottle, yes.” Mennehl said, clearly pleased. “The number of pages a spell takes up varies; this spell I’m binding into this tome only takes two,” He shows off the book, which shows how each copy of the spell takes up both sides of one page. “-and I’ve bound twenty sheets of paper into this book. Now how many instances of fire magic is that?”

Trick question. “Forty.” Tanya said, amplifying her pride as she usually did. She could trim down her enthusiasm as she ages, but for the first few months she should keep it up. “Because the first paper is the first and last pages, and the second is the second and second to last pages, and so on.” And as it was double-sided, each sheet of paper was thus four pages. 

“Very good.” Mennehl said, “That’s correct. You’re very good with numbers.” She had learned how to read this world’s language pretty quickly, in her opinion, but she only put a token effort into holding back her ability with arithmetic. “Now, I’ve set a goal to finish this book today, and I need to bind four more spells into it.” He pointed to the pile of firewood in the side of the room. “Now, we’ll work together on this part: We need six of those to make a big enough fire for this spell.”

Tanya got to work.