19 Cover up (1/2)

Tia stopped by a window. It was so overgrown with greenery that light seeped through in fine streaks. She looked over the drawing again, then picked out seven strips.

”Can you place these two above the window frame?” Tia asked, passing two to Mandy.

Mandy nodded and followed Tia's finger to put them at the places where Tia indicated, curiously enough, they stuck in place even if there should be no reason to. When Tia placed the remaining five, all the text on the paper sheets glowed up in a golden color, then separated off from the paper and interconnected. The inside of the circle filled up with something akin to a golden silk veil and then the veil, together with the paper strips, sunk into the window frame, disappearing without a trace.

Since nothing had changed, Mandy tilted her head looking towards Tia.

Tia noticed Mandy's look and softly smiled. ”Illusory barrier,” she said. ”If someone looks inside this window from the outside, the room would appear to be normal even to non-seeing eyes and,” she looked one more time at the remaining sheets in her hands. ”Probably even to devices.”

”And you need seven for each window?” Mandy let out a soft breath, it had taken August close to an hour to finish his first eight, just how long would it take to do that for all the windows?

”The amount of charms needed is always the same as the star points for the formation,” Tia explained, pointing at the drawing. ”The usual illusory formations have five points, though, I have no idea what modification August applied to these.”

”How can you tell that those are illusory ones, then?” Mandy asked, but there was no trace of doubt her voice, just curiosity.

”The activation is the same, also color,” Tia said, moving on to the next window and passing Mandy two charms again. ”Barriers that physically restrict are white on activation, the barriers that alter perception are golden, those who alter general conditions (like heat, gravity, moisture) are green, those who amplify elements and boost the effect of certain alignment spells are blue and those that block or resist some elements are red. If the barrier is magenta then it's a mix of amplification and resisting and.. hmm, teal would be amplification with condition change.”

While Tia listed the barrier types and their colors, they ran out of paper strips, the stack in Tia's hands ended up having exactly enough for four windows.

”Physical restriction with resisting would be pale rosy, then?” Mandy asked figuring that to be the logic, as the two went back to where August was, only to see another stack of seven waiting for them.

Mandy noticed that August had eaten half the box of pastries already. Wasn't he no good with sweets? His drawing speed had gone up as well, was that due to sugar?

”Yes,” Tia confirmed, as she picked up the paper strips waiting for her, ”but you'd seldom see that - while teal and magenta ones are common when more effects are needed, exorcists make multiple barriers inside one another, rather than making a special barrier for the occasion.”

Mandy made a faint nod, as she followed after Tia to help set up another barrier.

”Most exorcists don't carry around a paper stack with ink, they have gems with a barrier formation in it or a stack of pre-made charms in case of special occasions,” Tia said.

Mandy recalled those gems August had enchanted, that was probably how things looked. It sure seemed to be more practical to work like that as which mission would let you have hours upon hours of time for preparing on the spot? Mandy doubted every case was like the one with the dreamcatcher, where the targets stayed in place like sitting ducks.

As they returned, Tia took out a small pouch out of her pocket, passing it to Mandy. ”Take a look”

Mandy opened the pouch, letting the contents fall into her palm - there were five small white pearls in it.

”The basic restriction barrier,” Tia said. ”If you scatter these on the ground as you run, they will form up on their own and trap whoever is following you. That will only work on up to silver class targets, though, higher would break through it like paper.”

Now that did seem practical! Mandy looked at the pearls in her hand in wonder. ”What happens to the pearls afterward?”

”They crumble away,” Tia said.

Mandy squinted-- okay, rather than practical it suddenly seemed extremely wasteful. ”Why not use pebbles?” she asked as she sat down. August hadn't made enough charms for the next window, so she and Tia could only wait for now.

”Gus, why not use pebbles?” Tia asked.

”High failure rate,” August replied. ”Using high-quality gems makes things far cheaper since you don't waste other materials used in the enchanting process.”

”Didn't you use pebbles for the isolation barrier?” Mandy felt compelled to ask, in that case. Tia's question had not slowed down his hands, so she didn't feel quite as bad about bothering him.

”No, musgravite gems covered in gray paint,” August replied.

Mandy wasn't learned enough in gemstones to know how valuable the gem was, but covering them in paint seemed like a heresy of sorts regardless of their initial cost. ”To hide what you were doing from me?”

”Yes,” August replied and picked up another paper strip to draw on.

”So that's how the forest stayed contained,” Tia mumbled to herself. ”Gus, isn't it kind of dangerous to have a barrier like that surrounding you? It will get out if an oracle tries to look for you.”

August and Mandy both gained wry smiles at the same time. Too late.

”Oh-- was that how Grisham got you to advance?” Tia asked.

”Among other things,” August replied with a sigh.

Mandy faintly tilted her head, did the information on ranks changing spread like wildfire? ”About advancing, is that public knowledge?”

”It's Grisham's hobby to make things as fantasy-esque as possible, so everyone gets a public guild ranking displayed on a board,” August said with a sigh. ”You'd need to do a lot of scrolling and prior knowledge to notice if someone has advanced, though.”

”Ah, that - Grisham actually put you in top five, that's why I noticed,” Tia mentioned.

August chocked on a pastry, but to Mandy's amazement, even that didn't make him stop drawing.

”I mean, if he knows what you are,” Tia added.

”That little piece of ugh--” August sighed without finishing with a colorful word. He looked like he had a headache.

”Well, someone would have found out eventually,” Tia nodded a few times.

”I tried to quit before that happened, but--” August squinted.

”Your only chance was before you advanced to Gold rank, but you needed that one, so,” Tia shrugged with a meek smile. ”It was inevitable.” she didn't seem all that upset or surprised. Her expression supported her words, she really had expected it to happen all along.

Mandy had a feeling that she had misunderstood his reasons for quitting the job and this was a part she felt deluded about. August hadn't mentioned that this was a reason even once. Although... who knows, no one said this was the only reason, and he had failed to quit anyway, so did it matter really? It was also true that they had just met and it would have been odd if he trusted her enough in that stage to spill the beans about everything.

”Why did August need Gold rank?” Mandy asked.

”To lift information restrictions,” Tia replied. ”At gold rank, you can access all the library sections, guild archives, dungeons, ruins, and all classified info.”

D-d-dungeons?? Mandy's back straightened out. There's no way there would be magical labyrinths all over the place, was there? But, ok, she could look those up in the library the next time she goes as she doubted that these two would give her enough detail to satisfy her curiosity. ”Was there anything, in particular, he wanted to know?” Mandy asked instead.

Tia glanced over at August.

”As an avid reader, can't you guess?” August asked. It was pretty clear that he could sense Tia looking at him without raising his own eyes.

So Tia didn't know... hmm, Mandy thought on it. The most basic novel plot would be - ”To quit being a dryad?”

”I'm not that naive,” August said. ”But it is true that a lot of stories go in that direction,” he added.

If not that then - ”To gain a stronger body?”

”That's one reason,” August replied. ”That didn't work out, though.”

Mandy peered at August, wishing to know the reason why it did not. One would become stronger if they learned all kinds of magic, would they not?

”Something to do with alignment balance?” Tia chimed in.

”Exactly,” August said and took another paper sheet to draw on. He was on his fifth sheet in this set.

Mandy turned to Tia.

”Body enhancement skills need to perfectly match up with your own alignment. In Gus's case, he would need enhancement methods that are one-half dark, one half-light and there is nothing like that out there since mixed alignments are something only astral lifeforms have and those don't have bodies, so - why would there be body enhancement methods for them?”

Oh. That was quite a peculiar problem to have. Mandy had had a feeling August might be kind of unique but turned out he was premium grade super rare item with the entire set of problems these items had. You either happily held it in a glass display or used it with the dreading sense that one mistake and nothing could be done to fix it. But didn't that also kind of make him into a regular human being for the most part? If looked at from that direction - humans didn't have access to healing magic or regeneration either.

”I figured there might be some since Grisham and the like have a physical form, but turned out those are homunculi, not actual, true bodies.”

A small bit of the conversation between Grisham and August came back to her memory. So that was what August meant with ”actual living body”.

”What are those?” Mandy asked. She had read enough fiction to know that homunculi were artificial humans, but that didn't exactly match.

Tia took over. ”August might know in more detail since he dabbles in alchemy, but in short they are soulless flesh lumps that die before they are born unless someone inserts a soul into them. While they can be made to closely replicate a real human body, I've heard that most only have some organs and are made in a way that sustains them using aether not food. It's considered to be the most, hmm, modern/best way to attain immortality nowadays.”

”Close replication is not the same thing as the real deal, though,” August added, a tad of scorn seeping in. ”And unless you are something like Grisham, the body will start shaping your astral form as you dwell in it and I wouldn't call those immortals even human after a few decades of living in those things. Undead, at least, keep their astral body intact and later advance into something that fits them even more. Using homunculi cuts off all chances of advancement and rather degrades your soul with time.” August bit on another pastry once he had said that.

Wao! The most surprising part about this was that August's hands did not slow down even throughout a complex conversation of this sort. The next most surprising thing was casually discussing the dream of human medicine like it was no big deal. Mandy could only listen with a surreal feeling in her gut. It did not help that they were inside a tiny forest inside an apartment with flickering lights and blooming flowers surrounding them, yet both August and Tia fit in so naturally that she felt like she was the only odd one out.

”There is a tiny minority that has the same mindset as Gus and prefers going litch or vampire despite the numerous disadvantages,” Tia added. ”But you do need to be a particular kind of person to go through with it.”

”Is it even common to die normally on the seeing side?” Mandy asked.

Tia chuckled. ”Few people, in general, choose immortality even if it is an option, probably because we deal with immortals often enough. It takes a special kind of person to be able to bear immortality with grace and most people don't have what it takes.”

That was different from how Mandy imagined it to be. Whenever she had entertained ideas of immortality it seemed to be a long happy time of doing whatever you loved for forever inside a healthy body. And there were immortal races out there too, so it felt odd to hear that people would choose to die if they could live forever. People being unable to bear it was something Mandy could understand in fiction with all its convoluted plots and loved ones dying around you and whatnot, but if everyone could be immortal, none of those plots should work?

Tia continued, almost as if sensing the mixed feelings. ”At the time when homunculi craft got perfected, around six hundred years ago, there was a boom in Immortals. Everyone and their hamster went immortal.”

Hoh, now that sounded like something that made sense. Mandy nodded, waiting to hear what would be the dark plot that ruined it all then.

”But after around a hundred and fifty years one half of them had destroyed their very souls just to die and right now only around fifty individuals live on from that time. Apparently, living starts to get incredibly tiring unless you are a scholarly type.”

”Tiring?” That's it? How disappointing, yet again. Mandy had expected side-effects or some dark reasons or, at least, dystopian settings of evil tyrants never dying and people raising against them. But tiring...

”That's what they said,” Tia replied. ”Many have repeated the same mistake since then and, yep, most end up similarly, unless they are the scholarly type.”

Mandy's eyes formed straight lines. Scholarly type huh? Well, she felt she might as well be that type. Not having any books could make things boring, but as long as she had things to read, Mandy felt like even centuries could pass in a blissful blink.

”You two will probably be fine,” Tia added, seeing Mandy's expression.

Huh? ”Two?” Mandy glanced over at August.

August sighed. ”You sure can be sloppy at studying,” he said and picked up another paper strip to draw on.

Eh-- Eeeeeeh? Then why was August making fun of Sarah if he himself was like that?

Tia laughed. ”His body will probably die at one point, but dryads are immortal.”

”Unless some crazy paladins or other dryads kill them, that is,” August added.

Okay, mortal body, immortal soul - wow, lookie, didn't that sound like a religion? Mandy's retort remained internal since she figured that it only meant that after his body dies, he would be - maybe not like herself exactly, but something akin to that. An Astral lifeform that would stay on this earth. She hadn't even considered an option of him dying and leaving her behind, same how she had not considered properly the option of even liking him, but she felt lucky to had skipped out on anguish of that sort. Good save, Tia.

Perhaps ruining August's clothes was the best thing she could have done, Tia had helped her avoid a huge drama stone, because - who knows if August wouldn't find it amusing to see her anguish about that part? And Tia had also saved her from the worry of pregnancies - a part August seemed to have set her up to anguish about, although not too successfully. The more Mandy thought about it, the less concerned she felt. Even if by some unlikely chance she ended up with a child, she was (kind of, sort of, maybe) lady in her forties and she had handled her baby brother well enough to have a feeling that a kid wouldn't be too much of a problem. For her, that is. Considering she didn't even need to sleep, aka, the problem of all young mothers out there. The only one troubled would be August. Her troubles would only start once the kid would be old enough to die... Well, that was not something she ought to be concerned about now anyway. That was only the worst case scenario. Being aware that something wasn't that much of a problem didn't make that thing a desirable outcome.

August finished the last drawing in the set and passed a stack to Tia. ”Set these up around the door and order something spicy or salty, please.”

”Roger!” Tia said and took the charms, glancing at Mandy to invite her to come along.