Daybreak:Volume 4 Chapter 1: Difference between revisions

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===Chapter 1 - Playing with Fire===
===Chapter 1 - Answers from the Past===


"You've been to Earth?"
"You're a Worldwalker!? The ones spoken of in Hyperion's myths and legends!?"


Kaede's eyes were as wide as saucers, as she stared unblinkingly at the Worldwalker amidst the barren, wintry forest. The two women were taking a stroll through Ceredigion's woods, not far from the main camp of the Lotharin army.
Kaede's eyes were as wide as saucers as her body froze. She stared unblinkingly at the woman she met two nights ago -- the 'local herbalist' who introduced herself as Gwen. Kaede had surmised back then that Gwen might be a Ceredigion noblewoman. She could never have guessed that Gwen... wasn't even mortal.


"Third orbital of Sol? Indeed," Gwendolyn nodded. "The first realm I visited after I began traveling the worlds."
"I certainly hope that I haven't become just a myth." The Worldwalker spun around as she pressed a finger against her cheek and replied with a teasing smile. "I contributed quite a bit to the birth of this country you know," she added with an almost pout as she continued to walk backwards through the snow in the wintry forest.


A bittersweet nostalgia spread across her lips as she leaned back against an oak tree:
"Sorry, that's not what I meant..." Kaede's wispy voice fell to barely audible as her expression turned sheepish. "Yes, you're in all the history books. But everyone thought you passed away, not... 'left to travel to other worlds.'"


"I was rather depressed and wanted to leave everything behind. So I found this beautiful lake on a rainy, forested island to relax in. But it seems that once you're a queen, you stand out no matter where you go. The tranquil years passed, and I eventually came to the attention of a local Prince in search of help."
The Samaran shivered as she felt a biting cold wind blow across her body. She scurried forward in her small boots over the thin snow, only to notice that the woman she followed left no footprints. Nevertheless, as she caught up, she felt the radiant warmth of a phoenix's aura envelop her once more. The soothing glow came from the burning-blue feathers of the phoenix Courtain, who was perched upon Gwendolen's left shoulder.


"I take it you turned him down, treaty and all?" Kaede mused as she munched on a mouthful of lamb stew, its warm bowl nursed between her small hands.
"See, that's one of the problems with the Worldwalkers' Treaty -- it forces us to drop out of history too abruptly." Gwendolen frowned as her playful smile vanished into a crestfallen sigh. "The only complete stories with proper endings are those of the first worldwalkers, who transcended mortality thousands of years ago. And of course those tales have all passed into the realm of 'myths and legends'. Even the remnants of their lives -- artifacts that have endured through the ages -- have largely become attributed to their worshippers instead."


"''The Treaty''... has far too many loopholes," Gwendolyn scoffed with a disdainful smile. "It's what happens when you force a complex group together to draft a compromise, when all each of them could think about was their individual political gain. From what I've heard, the wartime unity of the 1st Generation Worldwalkers had already fractured by the time of the treaty. And too few of them came from administrative and legal backgrounds to understand proper law-making in the first place."
"The story of Hyperion the Dragonlord still survives," Kaede pointed out.


''So, worse than a day at the United Nations,'' Kaede thoughtfully nodded.
"Hyperion also isn't a Worldwalker. He's dragonkind, and that means certain rules do not apply to him," Gwendolen elucidated. "Better examples would be the tales of the Hyperboreans' Stormlord, the Druids' Raven Queen, or the Khanates' Sunslayer, all of them were heroes of the Dragon-Demon Wars. Nevertheless, several thousand years have transformed even those figures into religious icons. And they were the lucky ones, compared to latecomers like me who never even had a say in the Treaty, yet must follow its tenets anyway -- which included abruptly cutting off all contact with my family, friends, and acquaintances."


Most people never seemed to understand that 'defeating the evil empire' was the ''easy'' part compared to what came afterward. Destroying a reviled system was simple. Creating and negotiating a new, functional administration that would be satisfactory to everybody? That was exponentially more difficult.
Kaede scowled as she felt similarities with her own experience. Pascal's summoning -- which had brought her to Hyperion -- had imposed the same tragedy upon her life.


To set rules that governed the actions of immortal archmages with world-rending powers? Killing Hitler suddenly sounded like a quiet, afternoon walk in the park.
"The only reason I can talk freely to you now is because I'm still within my twenty-four hour intervention period," Gwendolen added with a wry smile. "And you are one of the five people I've chosen to reveal myself to."


"But I digress," Gwendolyn continued as her smile returned to a calming serenity. "I didn't want anything to do with that local Prince at first. However, he was ''so righteous'' -- kind, passionate, and not just handsome but cute as well..." Gwendolyn closed her grinning eyes as though enjoying a pleasing dream.
"I'm guessing you've already spoken to Her Highness then?" The Samaran girl inquired. After all, it had been Princess Sylviane who asked her to meet 'an important someone' in the snowy forest, around a kilopace away from the Lotharin army camp.


"So, I tiptoed around the treaty a weee bit. Worldwalkers aren't allowed to hand out artifacts or leave behind any equipment 'foreign to the standards of the realm', to use the legal term. However, we ''are'' allowed to discard locally made tools that we just happened to temporarily bless for our own use -- you know: like animating tools to do the household chores since we can't bring any servants from world to world, other than our familiars."
"Sylviane, Elspeth, and Vivienne," Gwendolen nodded. "I'm afraid they're the only ones you'll be able to talk to about my actions over the past day, including our current meeting. The Worldwalker's Treaty contains a powerful sorcery -- ''conceptual spellcraft'' of the highest order, which is beyond even my ability to weave..."


Kaede had to chuckle, as the image of a Queen who achieved immortality washing her own dishes drifted across her mind.
''Beyond even you,'' Kaede's eyes widened in amazement as she stared back in awe.


"Assuming the blessing is finite and the spell isn't archmage tier or above, nobody really cares. Therefore, I ''temporarily'' blessed two swords -- both for my own use, of course," Gwendolyn grinned with a wink. "It's not ''my fault'' I only needed them for a minute and my magic easily lasted decades. I even tried to prevent mortals from using them by shoving one into a rock and throwing the other into a lake! Because you know," her sarcastic tone now saturated her voice, "that worked ''so well'' with the others."
It suddenly seemed no longer surprising that many of the Worldwalkers were deified. After all, if they were so powerful that their actions defied mortal understanding and could only be explained as 'miracles', then what else could one call them but 'gods'?


Kaede almost snorted the lamb soup she'd been eating out of her nose.
"The 'Treaty Spell', as we like to call it, will have an effect on both your memories and your actions," Gwendolen wore an uncharacteristically serious look as she explained. "You will have trouble even remembering the details of this conversation, at least whenever you're aware that you're within potential earshot of someone not in the exclusive club. Nor can you record anything I tell you down in a manner understandable to others. Because of this, you'll need to act carefully when making use of any knowledge I tell you. Otherwise, you can ''really'' mess up your own memories due to the spell's interference," she finished with a warning.


''No wonder why we have so many tales finding random magical swords! Rocks and lakes are not effective means of weapons disposal! At least use the Marianas Trench or an active volcano!''
"This sounds... dangerous." Kaede frowned.


Meanwhile, Gwen's gentle laughter slowly faltered into a faint grimace.
The Samaran girl had read enough on Earth to realize that the human mind was cursed by the saying 'nature abhors a vacuum'. When individuals had trouble remembering an important event, the brain had a tendency to confabulate and invent details that it considered 'reasonable'. The result was that the memories we hold dear often differed from the reality of what happened.


"...That story didn't end well. Taught me a lesson too."
This was one of the reasons why testimonials were always challenged in a court of law. An individual could be lying and not even realize it, due to their memories being faulty in the first place.


"That can't be right," Kaede suddenly realized. "You said you've only been 'Worldwalking' for a few centuries. No mythical swords had been pulled out of rocks on Earth for well over a thousand years!"
"It's a mixed blessing, that I won't deny," Gwendolen stated with a sympathetic expression. "But then, ''you'' of all people should know that knowledge has always been a double-edged sword."


"''Time'', is a fickle spirit when you journey between worlds..."
"True." Kaede couldn't help but exhale a sigh. Part of her couldn't help but think that she'd be happier if she didn't remember her life on Earth.


Gwendolyn rubbed the familiar's head as the much-younger girl stopped within reach to pause and think.
"However... I understand the Princess and her companions, but why me?" The Samaran girl asked next before she felt a painful squeeze in her chest. "It is because... of what I told Pascal?"


"--I wouldn't overthink it, dear," she added with a peaceful smile. "After all, the universe must keep some secrets to itself."
"Of course, the Heavens sent me ''all the way here'' just to lecture you about the dangers of transferring knowledge between worlds," Gwendolen scoffed in a tongue-in-cheek manner with a disapproving tone. "Do I look like a meddling servant of the Holy Father to you?"  


''Earth's astrophysicists might scream heresy at that,'' Kaede thought.
"S-sorry," Kaede stammered. "I didn't mean it like that."
 
"Then..." the familiar girl gulped down a breath of courage. "Would it be possible for you to take me back?"
 
"No."
 
Kaede felt like Gwendolyn had just punched her hopeful, innocent heart; proverbially speaking of course.
 
''Shot down, so easily! Not even the slightest room for negotiation!''
 
The Samaran familiar wasn't sure if and how she would say goodbye to the still-unconscious Pascal. But it was always better to know her options ahead of time.
 
"That really hurts, Grandma."
 
She had meant to say ''Obaasan'', an appropriately respectable way to address the elderly in Japanese. But some terms just didn't translate.
 
"''Grandma''? Now who's the hurtful one!?" Gwen was still smiling though as she feigned outrage.
 
"But," Kaede paused for a brief moment before deciding to tag along. "You're over several centuries old!"
 
"--And my heart is still romantic and young!"
 
"...Plus you have great-great-''great''-grandchildren!"
 
The Worldwalker's meadow-green gaze did darken this time, sending a chill up Kaede's spine in an instant.
 
"Don't remind me, after how idiotic one of them turned out to be," Gwendolyn answered, the pressure in her voice immediately put an end to the conversation.
 
A true queen would always remain a queen, no matter how many centuries passed by.
 
"But why can't you send me back to Earth?" Kaede returned to the original subject. "Is it because of the timeline fluctuation?"
 
Male body or not, if Kaede's only choice was an Earth in a different time period -- when her family and friends did not exist -- then Kaede would rather not return at all.
 
"The time issue isn't insurmountable, just... complicated," Gwendolyn brushed aside the topic as though it were obnoxious legal code. "But the simple answer is that it's against the rules."
 
"The treaty between the Worldwalkers that you spoke of?"
 
"Yes," the elderly lady nodded. "Just like intervention in mortal affairs, cross pollination of individuals between worlds is forbidden. We're allowed to spread ideas ourselves through conventional means, otherwise it becomes a gag order on ''all'' interactions with locals which ''no'' Worldwalker wants. But it stops at that: no propaganda spells, no evangelical armies, no interdimensional cults; an equal footing between us all on each new world we step into."
 
"Then how do you explain my presence here?" Kaede spread her arms, one hand still holding onto her bowl. "Captain Markov -- he's a Samaran skywhale merchant -- once surmised that the immortals must have played a joke on me, since it's abnormal for a Samaran to be 'born' in a fully-grown body, luggage and all."
 
Gwendolyn brows furrowed:
 
"Well, I admit. Your case is... ''peculiar.'' Not that I'm an expert on Samaran reincarnation, you understand."
 
''Do politicians like you always leave a back door?'' Kaede scowled as she crossed her arms in challenge: "does that mean you also believe that a Worldwalker likely had a hand in me being here?"
 
The former queen pursed her lips:
 
"It's possible..."
 
The Samaran girl gawked in awe as Gwendolyn bit her bait... or at least nibbled on it.


Ever since Kaede heard the theory from Captain Markov, she had acknowledged celestial interference as a ''possibility'', however remote. The arrival of Gwendolyn increased the chances, as it not only proved the existence of the fabled Worldwalkers, but also showed that under the right circumstances, they did and could intercede upon mortal affairs.
"It's a shame the most evangelical of us is also the most egocentric." Gwendolen sighed as an exasperated scowl spread across her countenance. "Peter even goes through the trouble of using his original name in each world he visits. Yet for all the teachings of his 'Church', his followers have not learned to think critically for themselves. Like -- why would their Holy Father, who is supposed to be magnanimous and not petty, care for the faults of lowly individuals scattered across countless worlds, when there are far greater problems to address?"


But to seriously consider her arrival on Hyperion as not just Pascal's doing, but the intervention of divine forces as well. It would imply that a Worldwalker had hijacked Pascal's spell as an opportunity, perhaps even boosting it with the power to reach across worlds. But that would also mean that Kaede's summoning was no mere coincidence. She had been plucked by some fateful search criteria to become a pawn in the political chess between timeless beings.
''Though this is also why I treat the Church and its religion as separate entities,'' Kaede thought. Her favorite philosopher, Voltaire, even famously wrote that 'God should not suffer for the stupidity of the priest.'


"But why would they choose you? To what purpose? What motive?" Gwendolyn stared back. "As far as I can tell, you're just a bright, curious, but otherwise fairly average girl. There's no evidence, or even implication, that some machination of divine politics is at play."
"Then... why do you wish to meet with me then?" The Samaran girl asked again. "When you're limited to only a few people?"


The Samaran girl deflated at once.
"I'm doing it as a favor for a friend." Gwendolen's voice mellowed as an affable smile returned to her countenance. "Tara, the Protectress of Samara, has helped me a great deal over the centuries. And your... unusual circumstances, seem to have caught her attention."


If even a Worldwalker could not see any obvious evidence of misconduct, how was ''she'' -- a young girl without even any spellcasting ability of her own -- ever going to find it?
Kaede swallowed. If there was any truth to the stories of old in Earth mythology and folklore, it was rarely a good thing to receive attention from the divine. Religion was far more often an instrument of fear than one of blessing.


"I have to admit though," Gwendolyn added. "If your presence here truly is a part of some greater political scheme, then it is an impressive play indeed."
"Don't worry. I'm not here to abduct you or anything." Gwendolen chuckled as though she read the familiar's mind. "I simply thought you might like a few answers to address your confusion, especially since I've actually traveled to the world of your previous life."


"But... it doesn't make any sense though," Kaede puzzled. "If the Worldwalkers banned cross-pollination of individuals and ideas, then doesn't that mean that the Samarans' very nature breaks the law?"
"''Previous life?''" Kaede stopped moving again as her body suddenly felt like it froze. "You're saying that I died then?"


Gwendolyn shrugged as she made one of those 'it can't be helped' looks.
"Honestly, I don't know what happened to you exactly." Gwendolen also stopped as she turned to face the Samaran girl. "However, the Samarans' rebirth is called ''reincarnation'', and not ''resurrection'' or ''transmogrification''. Even Tara herself has told me that this cannot be altered. The transfer of memories may muddle one's sense of self. But you are never the same 'self' as in your previous life."


"The Samarans predate even the First Generation Worldwalkers. Obviously, since several of them ''are'' Samaran. Of course, many of us never cared, since the Samarans are also the least likely to force their ideals onto others."
"Then I really am dead on Earth." Kaede's voice fell to a bleak whisper.


Kaede tilted her head in perplexity, and Gwen simply mirrored it with a grin and her own tilt:
It felt as though all the colors of the world faded from her eyes while the very air grew stale and cold. Her mouth felt parched as she stared back at the other woman, who seemed to confirm a theory that she has outright rejected up until now.


"It's almost a ''racial'' behavior for them. You included."
At first, it was because Kaede was in denial about herself being stuck in this world. After that, it was due to her desire to maintain a sense of continuity in her life. Her only memories of the past -- before the night she woke up in Pascal's bed -- were of a childhood spent growing up on Earth. If she truly had died on Earth and her existence in Hyperion was a wholly new life, then how would she rectify the lack of a formative adolescence in this world?


With her thoughts turned inwards, Kaede had to agree. She had introduced many ideas to Pascal as potential 'solutions' to problems he faced. But very rarely did she try to impress ideologies upon him, nor did she hold any great desire to. One could even argue that she had always been this way, possibly as a byproduct of her cross-cultural education and heritage.
Furthermore, there was the lingering question of just how did she die?


''Are Samarans mostly like this? How much did it contribute to me becoming one?''
"I must have... on the bus to the tournament," the Samaran girl thought back to her last memory.


It only raised more questions that Kaede would like to ask Captain Markov the next time he brought King Alistair.
"Perhaps?" Gwendolen remarked as her easygoing voice did its best to keep the atmosphere light. "Remember that memory is a fickle thing. Even without rebirth, our minds can forget and confabulate. The Samarans' ability to accrue wisdom across lifetimes is by no means perfect. It is possible that you only remembered up to a certain point in your life."


"Though in either case, you can't send me back to where I came from?"
"Up to a certain point?" The familiar puzzled before she remembered her conversation with the Samaran Captain Marko. "Do you mean I forgot everything else due to regrets that were associated with them?"


"No," Gwendolyn put down her foot, albeit with a sympathetic look. "However, ''if'' a Worldwalker was responsible, then I know whom I'd suspect first. I wasn't even alive yet when she made her famous intervention. Nonetheless, I can only think of one individual who has both the skills and the foresight to take advantage of your presence here"
"That, I cannot say." Gwendolen shrugged. "Anything on my part would be pure speculation. And I for one do not enjoy giving empty condolences. I can only tell you that your concerns are not uncommon among Samarans."  


"A name would help," Kaede's enthusiasm sparkled in her rose-quartz eyes.
A sad smile entered the Worldwalker's expression as she looked upon the snowy-haired girl with a motherly smile:


"Sure," Gwendolyn grinned. Clearly this did not violate any code of 'immortal conduct'. "But keep in mind that names are as fickle as the wind for many of us, especially the older Worldwalkers. The one I speak of -- I call her 'Tara'. It was the identity that I first met her in, but she has at least a dozen others."
"There are downsides to retaining memories of a distant past, especially those of loved ones who are no longer a part of our present lives. It is why the first step in one's journey -- for both Samarans and Worldwalkers -- is to, well, ''let it go.''"


''Tara''? Kaede searched her mental archives and came up blank. It was far too simple and generic of a name to begin her research with.
The Samaran girl did not reply. She only looked to the ground before closing her eyes and taking a long, deep breath. Then, after holding it in and counting to four in a standard 'box breathing' pattern, she slowly deflated her lungs over an equally long exhale.


"She is better known as the ''Grand Strategist'' during the Dragon-Demon Wars. Though I recommend you start with the Great Eastern War fought between the Polisian Federation and the Great Khanate, predecessors of the Grand Republic and Dawn Imperium. Focus on its great turning point at the Battle of Samara and the man responsible for it," the older women added. "His victories and his allies' reforms are what transformed the region into the modern Grand Republic of Samara."
Nevertheless, Kaede's attempt at clearing her turbulent thoughts only left her mind as a clean slate to be filled by longing memories. A bellowing laugh from ''his'' father Konstantin as he left for work. A final hug from his mother Honoka before she boarded an airplane bound for Vladivostok. The cheerful smiles of his older sister Elizaveta and his grandmother Raisa during their last summer together in Russian Siberia. The encouraging shoulder pat from his best friend Daichi before they parted at the bus stop...


Kaede nodded. The Samaran Captain had given her the exact same example, which was a good sign of not only its correlation, but also the availability of its information.
Kaede would never have a chance to say goodbye... to any of them.


"What was his name?"
"Letting go is so much easier said than done," the Samaran girl replied mournfully as she reopened her wet gaze. She struggled to not cry as tears brimmed in the corner of her eyes.


Gwendolyn bit down on her lip in thought.
Yet, as she refocused her gaze to look upon her elder, the familiar saw the same nostalgic longing in the eyes of the seemingly middle-aged lady.


"It's hard to pronounce, so I may not be saying it right. But I believe his name was... Subotai."
"Isn't it always?" Gwendolen replied with a bittersweet smile.


The familiar girl's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
It was a reminder that just like Kaede, Gwendolen also never had a chance to bid all her loved ones farewell.


Kaede had never encounter a greater irony: that the only man who managed to conquer Russia on Earth was responsible for forging it in another world.




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''How could a man whose military conquests led directly to ''tens of millions'' of deaths somehow be reborn with the serenity of a Samaran?''


Kaede was still in her little world when a cell phone ring tone began in the back of her head, jolting her out of her reverie. She sat in the tailgate of a small, covered wagon that carried Pascal's unconscious form. A bump in the dirt road rocked the carriage at the same time.
"You've been to Earth?" Kaede asked some time later, as the two began to head back in the direction of the Lotharin camp. Meanwhile, she raised the furry waterskin in her hands and took a long sip of its still-warm tea.


Magic always seemed to adjust to the user, even in the case of her earrings' ability to receive ''Farspeak''.  
The herbal drink contained a mix of lavender and chamomile which was sweetened with honey. It was a combination that the healer Perceval had recommended to Kaede to help with her menstrual period. Though Kaede left out the fennel this time, as her next period was still a week away and she wasn't having stomach cramps. Nevertheless, the lavender-chamomile had a surprisingly potent, calming effect on her. And she certainly needed it after the previous conversation about her life and death on Earth.


''Must be Onee-sama calling,'' Kaede thought as she gave it a mental 'click'.
''I need to ask Perceval if it's possible to get addicted to this,'' Kaede thought as she relaxed with a smile.


"<u>Hello. You've reached voicemail box of Kaede S--</u>"
"Third orbital of Sol? Sure." Gwendolen nodded. "It was the first realm I visited after I became a Worldwalker."


"<u>Cease whatever joke you are playing at, Miss Familiar,</u>" Kaede immediately recognized the serious tone of Karsten, Pascal's Majordomo in his Nordkreuz estate. "<u>Is your master -- His Grace -- available? I've been trying to reach him for two days now.</u>"
Her bittersweet smile returned as she looked towards the early morning sky. The sun was now completely above the horizon. Though it was still partially blocked by the giant, indigo planetoid.


"<u>He's... unconscious,</u>" her voice darkened. "<u>Injuries from recent combat...</u>"
"I had just become a Worldwalker back then, and all I could think about were regrets of what I could've, ''should've'' done beforehand," Gwendolen began to explain. "It became simply too painful to stay in the same world as my old friends and wartime comrades, to watch them slowly grow old and die when I wasn't even allowed to meet them before their death. So I left this world, and decided to find another to spend time in. I wanted to forget the past and find a new purpose, a new eternity -- a life that didn't revolve around the policies of Ceredigion and Rhin-Lotharingie."


"<u>Then why are you fine?</u>" Karsten snarled. "<u>Is it not your duty to protect your master?</u>"
''Being forced to 'let go' must have felt extra painful when one is a committed nationalist,'' Kaede thought. It would be like ripping the very purpose of her existence out from her core identity.


Kaede wanted to retort. She had been kilopaces away when Pascal cast that reckless spell. How could she have helped? Yet, at the same time, she was also the reason he experimented with magic beyond his comprehension in the first place.
"I wandered for some time, before settling down at a beautiful lake on a forested island where it rained a lot," Gwendolen continued on as her smile grew more pleasant. "But it seems that once you're a queen, you stand out no matter where you go. I attracted a lot of attention from the locals, to the point I had to move my home to an extradimensional pocket I created in the middle of the lake. Yet even then, stories about me would continue to spread among the folks. And before long I came to the attention of a local prince in search of help."


"<u>I was in a different battle... his orders.</u>"
"I take it you turned him down, treaty and all?" Kaede mused as she took another drink.


Even Karsten couldn't reprimand her for that.
"The Treaty... does have a lot of loopholes," Gwendolen continued their conversation with a mischievous grin. "It's what happens when you force a complex group together to draft a compromise, when all each of them could think about was their individual political interest. From what I've heard, the wartime unity of the 1st Generation Worldwalkers had already fractured by the time they created the Treaty. And too few of them came from administrative and legal backgrounds to appreciate good law-making in the first place."


"<u>I hope you're taking proper care of him then,</u>" his stern voice rang as authoritative as to the estate's other servants.
''So, far worse than a day at the United Nations,'' Kaede thoughtfully nodded.


...And in Karsten's eyes, Kaede was exactly that: a servant of the House of Moltewitz.
The Samaran girl always found it odd that popular history and literary culture romanticized wars and conflict. The reality, however, was that destruction was easy and -- in her opinion, boring -- compared to what came afterwards. To establish a new administration that would be satisfactory to everyone involved was exponentially more difficult. As a result, overthrowing an existing power structure without an alternative prepared often led to an even ''worse'' system of governance.


"<u>I am, and he's slowly recovering,</u>" Kaede tried to sound reassuring. "<u>May I ask what you are calling about? Perhaps the Princess would like to know as well.</u>"
It was a mistake made time and again in the history of Earth.


"<u>The Princess does not need to be bothered by such trifles,</u>" the Majordomo reprimanded. "<u>Though it may help if you inquire one of her advisors. We're running into some... business trouble... here in Nordkreuz. The Public-Private Investment Partnership that His Grace created before departure has developed some questionable behavior as of late.</u>"
Perhaps it was no surprise that the end of the Dragon-Demon Wars and the departure of the Dragonlords from Hyperion resulted in the Chaos Age. This was a period of twelve hundred years during which this world was torn by continuous conflicts, as kings and lords fought over the power vacuum left behind by the dragonlords.


Kaede's lips twisted. She should have expected this. Every economic reform throughout history has run into its share of road bumps and, occasionally, massive pitfalls.
She also learned from Gwendolen that it was during the beginning of this era when the Worldwalker's Treaty was signed. It happened after one of the 1st Generation Worldwalkers deleted an entire country overnight with a single spell.


"<u>What's the issue?</u>"
"So you ended up helping that prince after all then?" Kaede spoke as she pulled her thoughts back to their present conversation. Her bubbling curiosity couldn't help wondering just who Gwendolen's beneficiary on Earth might have been.


"<u>Do you remember the North Sea Company -- one of the three created by His Grace?</u>"
"Not at first," the Lady shook her head. "At the beginning I didn't want anything to do with him. However, he was persistent, and ''righteous'' -- kind, earnest, passionate, and not just handsome but cute as well." The woman closed her smiling eyes as though enjoying a pleasant dream once more.


"<u>Yes</u>," Kaede nodded. Pascal had established a company to spur the redevelopment of each Nordkreuz sector: public infrastructure, industrial workshops, and trading/docking facilities. The North Sea Company's responsibility was focused mostly on the port itself.
"So, I tiptoed around the treaty a teeeny bit. Worldwalkers aren't allowed to hand out artifacts or leave behind any equipment 'foreign to the standards of the realm', to use the official phrase. However, we ''are'' allowed to discard locally made tools that we just happened to temporarily bless for our own use. Like... you know, animating objects to do the household chores since we can't bring any servants from world to world, other than our familiars," Gwendolen finished as she turned to Courtain and brushed the phoenix's glowing-blue feathers.


"<u>Stock values in the company have been rising at a phenomenal rate,</u>" Karsten continued, his tone growing increasingly worried. "<u>I believe this is normally good news, as the stocks are openly traded and its rise in value will boost confidence and bring in more investment. However, Her Grace, Cardinal-Chancellor von Lanckoronski, have expressed concerns that the changes are... 'too unnatural'... which is ironic since that better describes her own deviancy.</u>"
Meanwhile, Kaede couldn't help but chuckle, as the image of a queen who achieved immortality yet struggled with her own dirty dishes drifted across her mind.


''You mean her love of young boys,'' Kaede snorted a little. Even she had heard the rumors by now.
"Assuming the blessing is finite and the spell isn't archmage tier or above, nobody really cares. Therefore, I ''temporarily'' blessed two swords -- both for my own use, of course." Gwendolen grinned with a wink. "It's not ''my fault'' I only needed them for a minute each and my magic lingered for decades. I even tried to prevent mortals from using them by shoving one into a rock and throwing the other into a lake! Because you know," her sarcastic tone now saturated her voice, "that worked ''great'' with the others."


"<u>...At any rate, the guild leaders say that the availability of capital should not double and triple from nothing. Yet the city is awash with rumors of how quickly the company could profit, once the Skagen Peninsula's territories are annexed by the King's peace treaty with the Northmen. They claim that there is great wealth in the north, with new products like cocoa and sugarcane soon to enter the market to earn a fortune...</u>"
Kaede almost snorted the tea that she had been sipping on out of her nose.


Kaede frowned. Assuming things remained similar as they often were, cocoa was a product of the new world. Both it and sugarcane grew in tropical climates, and certainly not in the cold north. Weichsen soldiers no doubt acquired batches of it during Operation Winter Typhooon, which in turn made its way back into Weichsel to energize public curiosities. But the Skagen Peninsula -- ''if annexed'' -- could hardly yield any such crops!
''No wonder why we have so many tales of finding random magical swords! Rocks and lakes are not effective means of weapons disposal! At least throw them into an active volcano!''


"<u>The traders within the city should know better!</u>" she retorted.
However, Gwen's gentle laughter slowly faltered into a faint grimace.


"<u>They do, and many of them have actively opposed these rumors.</u>" Karsten declared. "<u>Yet they continue to spread, as if all voice of reason has been pushed into a corner. It doesn't help that even when one rumor is dispelled, another -- such as claims that the Northmen's silver mostly come from their peninsular mines -- replaces it.</u>"
"That story didn't end happily," she added after a long sigh. "It taught me a lesson as well."


Kaede furrowed her brows. This was an ominous sign. The marginalization of accurate information requires propaganda, ''purposeful propaganda''. Some entity was actively spreading false information to engineer public opinion, then switching gears to distract the populace once they have achieved their aims. It reminded Kaede of just how vehemently her father cursed the western media for its blatant lies during the 2008 War in Georgia.
"That can't be right," Kaede objected with a puzzled frown. "You said you've only been 'Worldwalking' for a few centuries. No mythical swords have been pulled out of rocks on Earth for well over a thousand years!"


"<u>These rumors are causing... 'speculation', as the Cardinal's supporters describe it, to run astray,</u>" Karsten added. "<u>One local guildmaster claims that all his apprentices have sunk their savings into the company. Because of such rash behavior, the North Sea Company's stocks have multiplied tenfold over the past few weeks, achieving total values that -- according to the Cardinal's agents -- surpasses even the gross value of Nordkreuz combined before the air raid.</u>"
"''Time'', is a fickle spirit when you journey between worlds." Gwendolen raised a finger as she noted in a playful voice.


The Samaran girl bit her lip. The story now sounded familiar enough to clear her doubts.
It only made Kaede's eyebrows furrow more, as the much-younger girl paused to think.


Someone at Nordkreuz -- likely a group of shareholders for this North Sea Company -- had learned to game the new system. The false rumors were almost definitely started by them, and the rampant speculation was fast forming a 'financial bubble' where asset prices grow to be implausibly, unrealistically high.
"I wouldn't overthink it, dear," the former Queen then added in a motherly voice. She reached her hand over and rubbed the snowy-white hair of the Samaran girl. "The universe must keep some secrets to itself."


If such a bubble was allowed to keep growing, it would eventually burst. The collapse of the Japanese Assets Bubble in 1992 ruined an entire generation to stagnation. A single company in Nordkreuz should not have such catastrophic results, but with public confidence on the line, even a small disaster could ruin Pascal (and her) attempts to introduce modern finance and investment.
''Earth's astrophysicists might scream heresy at that,'' Kaede thought.


"<u>Karsten, please listen to me -- this is a potential problem that Pascal foresaw in our discussions,</u>" Kaede told an outright lie to fabricate some authority for her following statements. "<u>The Cardinal's supporters are partly correct, although the guild leaders probably hold ulterior motives of their own as they never liked the idea to begin with. The North Sea Company is developing what we call a 'bubble', and if left unmanaged it could spell disaster for Pascal's new economic policies. We must nip this problem in the bud by popping this bubble with a sharp needle.</u>"
"Does that mean..." the familiar then added in her wispy voice before she gulped down a breath of courage. "Even if -- and I say ''if'' -- you could communicate with people from Earth, there is no guarantee that it would be from the time that I... my ''previous self'' lived?"


"<u>His Grace always did show foresight,</u>" Karsten spoke as proudly as a father would. "<u>He has left instructions then?</u>"
A moment of silence passed as Gwendolen looked sternly at the younger woman before replying with an almost laugh:


"<u>Yes.</u>" Kaede's thoughts were running on overcapacity now. Even for her this was frontier territory, as she had no experiences at all when dealing with finance. "<u>We're not sure if this'll work. But -- Pascal suggested pulling out all of ''his'' initial investment in the troubled company at once. As the original shareholder, his stocks represent a sizeable slice of the pie and will surely cause a noticeable dip in the company's asset value.</u>
"No. I am not passing any messages for you."


"<u>People will notice, and their confidence will waver. Seize this opportunity and spread a counter-rumor that the North Sea Company is facing a crisis of mismanagement and lying about their future prospects. Use the estate's maids, footmen, deliverymen -- anyone you have access to propel the rumor...</u>"
''Not even the slightest room for negotiation!''


"<u>The maids and footmen, ''spreading rumors!?''</u>" Karsten sounded insulted.
The Samaran familiar wasn't even sure what she would say if she was given one last chance to talk to her family. But it was always better to learn about her options first and decide later. Except of course -- this road was closed to her from the start.


"<u>Karsten, please. More is at stake here than just the honor of the house,</u>" Kaede pleaded. "<u>Someone is likely manipulating the system in a most treacherous attempt to earn a greedy profit, perhaps even ''sabotage'' Nordkreuz.</u>"
"That really hurts, Grandma."


Now that she considered it, Kaede would not be surprised if the whole incident ''was'' deliberate sabotage. The Communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin once warned that "Imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism." But by the same token, capitalism could be monopolized and controlled to aid imperialism. The Holy Imperium of the Inner Sea certainly has a history of tying military and economic expansion together. Weakening Nordkreuz by sabotaging its economy certainly played to its geostrategic interests.
She had meant to say ''Obaasan'', an appropriately respectable way to address the elderly in Japanese. But some terms simply didn't translate.


Faced with the dire circumstances, Karsten replied with only a begrudging "<u>...I understand.</u>"
"''Grandma?'' Now who's the hurtful one!?" Gwendolen was still smiling even as her voice feigned outrage.


"<u>Once the rumors begin clashing and the stock prices waver, you should openly, ''publicly'' confirm the Landgrave's loss of confidence in the company using your position as the estate's caretaker,</u>" Kaede steadily hammered out the plan's supporting elements. "<u>It will discredit them, hopefully delivering a ''Coup de Grâce'' to the whole charade. Meanwhile, put a trade-ceiling -- a daily limit on the value of stocks bought or sold at once by any investor -- on each ''individual'' stock. Consult the guild leaders on what is the yearly earning of a new craftsmen and use that figure. This will stop the culprits from trying to hide the stock's decline using their own funds, but also help protect the poor investors if our actions are successful.</u>"
"But," Kaede paused for a brief moment before deciding to tag along. "You're over several centuries old!"


"<u>But the estate cannot control all of this!?</u>" The Majordomo countered.
"--And my heart is still romantic and young!"
 
Kaede twisted her lips. This was the biggest problem of new ideas. There isn't enough ''system'' set in place to manage everything -- to control, to supervise, to enforce.
 
Then a lightbulb lit.
 
Weichsel was a near-absolute monarchy, which gave one body the highest authority to... interfere as they saw fit.
 
"<u>File an official appeal in Pascal's name to the King's ''Black Eagles'' in the city," Kaede answered. "Ask them to enforce these actions using their authority. Request them to monitor and report on anyone who attempts to retrieve sums exceeding five times the daily purchase ceiling. This should require only a few agents from them. Tell them there may be foreign subterfuge at play when they demand why. Pull in the Cardinal-Chancellor for extra leverage if you need.</u>"
 
Kaede still remembered when the King personally named the Cardinal as the overseer for this endeavor. If some catastrophic failure were to happen, Cardinal von Lanckoronski would not be able to escape responsibility either.
 
"<u>Understood,</u>" Karsten confirmed.
 
"<u>If our counter-offensive proves successful, the North Sea Company's stocks will begin a sharp decline as people lose their confidence and pull out their funds,</u>" Kaede stated. "<u>Once the fall begins, I want you to slowly re-inject ninety percent of Pascal's pulled funds over a six-day period to stabilize its descent. Let the company collapse, but not all at once, so the people's losses may be mitigated.</u>"
 
Kaede left ten percent so Pascal wouldn't lose everything he had thrown in. An early pull would net him tenfold earnings to spend. Since this was his money, it was best if she could return his original investment and not... earn a beating.
 
She doubted he would. But Pascal did have a scary temper.
 
"<u>Do you understand everything that I've said?</u>"
 
"<u>Yes.</u>" Karsten confirmed. He even rephrased a list of all the actionables, which rather impressed Kaede given how new the subject must be to him.
 
''Though that's not really surprising,'' Kaede smiled to herself. ''After all, Pascal was allergic to stupid people.''
 
"<u>I'm not keen on such rapscallion behavior, you understand,</u> the Majordomo added. "<u>But I believe I understand its necessity.</u>"
 
"<u>I have no doubt that His Grace will be thankful for your sacrifice,</u>" Kaede grinned. "<u>Please keep me apprised of day-to-day development. I'll see if any of the Princess' advisors may weigh in on this problem before Pascal has recovered.</u>"
 
"<u>Understood. Please take care of His Grace.</u>" Karsten was almost imploring. "<u>I'm counting on you.</u>"
 
With a mental 'click', the ''Farspeak'' call ended, and Kaede took a deep breath to calm back down.
 
It was her first experience with just how much power she could wield through decrees in Pascal's name. Not a lowly rank like Pascal the Captain or empty titles like Pascal the Crown Prince Consort, but the one position that Pascal truly held authority in: ''Landgrave''.
 
Even a slight taste of it felt... ''intoxicating'', in a self-righteous sort of way. Her conversation with Karsten began with him patronizing her. It ended with her giving him a list of orders to carry out.
 
She had better be careful with this power, especially as her influence with Princess Sylviane grows. Plenty of trusted, close advisors have lost their heads because they grew overconfident in issuing orders in their master's stead.
 
Kaede stared back at the supply train that she was now a member of, with over a hundred wagons following behind the main army. It was often too easy to forget how many pieces must be in position for history to be made. The people who worked in the background were often forgotten by everyone except scholars, but that did not mean they lacked the power and influence to affect the world.
 
The Samaran girl was still gazing into the distance when she felt a faint stirring over her familiar link. The placid void she felt instead of Pascal's consciousness was growing active once more, radiating waves of awareness, discomfort, even confusion and pain. Then, just as Kaede spun around in uncertainty, she saw a twitch from his exposed right hand as his arm tried to lift it up.
 
"Pascal!"
 
Relief and joy flooded across her mind at once. The driver turned around to stare but she didn't even care. She scampered over to Pascal's side and took his shaky hand into her own. A warmth filled her entire body as she felt the weak movements of his fingers.
 
The healers hadn't been sure when he would awake from his coma: perhaps this week, perhaps next month, perhaps never. It was a miracle that he survived at all. To be conscious again after just six days' time -- some higher power must be watching over them.
 
She felt his weak arm trying to reach up. With his right hand arrested by her grip, he tried next with his left, steady with noticeably better control this time.
 
"Don't..." Kaede caught his other wrist before it could reach his face. "Don't take off the blindfold. Your eyes haven't recovered yet. You'll go blind."
 
"K-kaede?" A sickly, raspy voice emerged from Pascal's parched throat. The healers had kept his body fed and hydrated through ''Sustenance'' spells. Though it clearly wasn't enough. His body continued to tax itself in a low fever, gradually repairing the horrendous damage taken from the directional thermonuclear blast.
 
"Don't..." She added before remembering. "<u>Don't tire yourself out. Just speak to me by telepathy.</u>"
 
Kaede thumbed the back of his hand as she stared at his pale cheeks. She felt her eyes grow blurry as she brought his fingers up to her tender cheeks. His touch was cold and clammy but she didn't care. She was just glad that he was back among the living once more.
 
The pain and nausea that ebbed over their empathic link was growing. Pascal's body was clearly still in a state of recovery from the acute radiation poisoning that -- had this been on Earth -- would have easily killed him. His next appointment with the healers wasn't until dusk, when two of them would cast ''Regeneration'', ''Cleanse'', and ''Invigorate'' on every one of his damaged organs and muscle groups again. 'Magic' was the only reason he still lived, and even then, the healers wasn't sure yet on how much of his bodily functions he could recover.
 
Yet, despite his misery and agony, Pascal's first statement had nothing to do with his own personal well-being:
 
"<u>I failed... did I not?</u>"
 
Kaede could almost feel the tears that leaked from beneath his blindfold. With her own palm, she cupped the hand still feeling its way across her cheeks and pressed herself into it. She wanted him to feel the smile that he could not see, to sense the joyful tears and be reassured that all was still well.
 
There was so many, so many things she wanted to say to him. But at the moment, none of them seemed to matter. Just the fact he was still alive was enough for her, for now.
 
"<u>No, you didn't,</u> she replied. "<u>You blew away the Caliphate's entire right wing -- their best cavalry brigade by survivor accounts. It did hurt our forces as well...</u>" She didn't try to hide. "<u>But, in the end, ''we won''.</u>"
 
Pascal didn't need to hear how exactly they won yet. There would be a time for that later, when he was feeling better and not stuck in depressing blackness.
 
There was an audible sigh of relief as Pascal relaxed in his wagon-bed. Then, as a hot tear dripped from Kaede's eyes onto his fingertips, his blindfolded eyes turned towards Kaede once more:
 
"<u>I am sorry...</u>"
 
"<u>You... ''idiot!''</u>" the familiar girl choked back a sob. Unable to hold back all of her thoughts, she let one leak, just one:
 
"<u>Did you even have ''any idea'' of just what kind of fire you were playing with!?</u>"
 
Kaede almost burst into tears as memories of that night came rushing back in. Thousands of burned out tree husks that stretched on for kilopaces. Tangles of blackened limbs as soldiers dumped bodies onto corpse wagons. She would have thought Pascal dead had it not been for her own life. Yet the state she found him in wasn't much better -- with severe burns covering him from head to toe and entire patches of inflamed red skin sloughing off.
 
A mental sigh emerged from Pascal as his feeble fingertips tickled her cheek.


"<u>I am sorry to have worried you...</u>" He replied slowly with a tinge of regret, and Kaede remembered that he could acutely feel her emotions -- much better than she could feel his. It offered him a perfect mental image of her expression, even if his eyes couldn't actually see.
"...Plus you have great-''great''-grandchildren!"


"<u>But...</u>" He continued more forcefully. "<u>It was a ''necessary'' fire to play.</u>"
The Worldwalker's meadow-green gaze did darken this time. It sent a chill up Kaede's spine in an instant.


"<u>And just whom do you think would be happy if you had died!?</u>" Kaede retorted. "<u>Your father in heaven? Your fiancée? Or your King?</u>"
"Don't remind me, after how idiotic one of them turned out to be," Gwendolen replied. The finality in her tone immediately put an end to the conversation.


Kaede knew that she herself wasn't even near the top. Pascal would always uphold his social obligations first: as an heir, as the crown prince consort, and as a vassal lord. In his growing list of responsibilities and priorities, Kaede ranked somewhere far down, somewhere closer to his own personal safety.
It reminded Kaede that a true queen would always remain a queen, no matter how many centuries passed by or how playful her personality could become at times.


...That was the price of the 'special bond' they shared.
"But... why can't you establish the equivalent of a ''Farspeak'' call to Earth?" Kaede returned to her original question. "Is it because of the timeline fluctuation?"


"<u>That is not for any of us to decide,</u>" Pascal added dryly. "<u>Unfortunately, only the Holy Father can ultimately decide where my fate lies.</u>"
"The time issue isn't insurmountable, just... complicated." Gwendolen brushed aside the topic as though it were obnoxious legal code. "The simple answer is that it's against the rules."


His comment knocked Kaede off balance, leaving her staring back in surprise.
"The Worldwalker's Treaty? Even though you're within your intervention period?"


She couldn't quite grasp it yet. But, something about Pascal was... different. Something beyond merely his injured state.
"Yes," the older lady nodded. "Just like intervention in mortal affairs, cross-pollination of individuals between worlds is forbidden. We're allowed to spread ideas ourselves through conventional means. Otherwise it becomes a gag order on ''all interactions'' with locals, which no Worldwalker wants. However, it stops at that -- no propaganda spells, no evangelical armies, no interdimensional cults. The Treaty was meant to create an equal footing between us all on each new world we step into."
 
This wasn't the same Pascal she had left before the Battles of Lysardh Point and Glywysing.
 
 
...


"Then... isn't the Samarans' inheritance of previous lives' memories a form of cross-pollination between worlds?" Kaede asked with a raised eyebrow.


"<u>The Lotharin Rangers estimated that out of almost ten thousand Cataliyan troops who arrived on the battlefield, less than a thousand escaped.</u>" Kaede briefly explained the Battle of Glywysing's final outcome.  
"Except Samarans existed even before the first Worldwalker," Gwendolen pointed out. "Otherwise Tara -- the 'Protectress of Samara' and one of the 1st Generation Worldwalkers -- could not be a Samaran. Though the nature of the Samarans' memories does open a potential hole in the rules of the Treaty."


Pascal replied with a thoughtful nod.
"What do you mean?" Kaede tilted her head as she asked with a puzzled stare.


"<u>And our losses?</u>"
"I mean by the fact that because of the Samarans' reincarnation, your kind offers one of the few ''legal'' ways for cross-pollination between worlds," Gwendolen explained seriously this time. "This is actually one of the more contentious issues between Worldwalkers, with Peter's camp often crying unfair about it. It hasn't helped that Tara made excellent use of it during her famous intervention in the Great Northern War."


It felt odd for Kaede to not see his clear, turquoise gaze, only the black blindfold wrapped between his golden light curls and his pale, faded cheeks.
"Wait, the ''Great Northern War'' of Hyperion." The Samaran girl frowned. "That's the war that gave birth to the Grand Republic of Samara. Then... did Tara's actions help found one of the great powers of Hyperion?"


Even his emotions seem to have vanished from their empathic feedback link, leaving only his ebbing pain and nausea behind. Pascal must have suppressed it, and the master-to-familiar channel was not as sensitive as its reverse. Kaede could only sense powerful sentiments through it to begin with, or moderate emotions if she concentrated. But now, there was almost nothing on the other side.
"Indirectly, yes, which is why it's so contentious," the older lady stated with a conflicted look. "Though it would be more precise to say that the individual whom she aided is the one who helped to create the Grand Republic. Have you ever heard of the title 'Grand Marshal of the Federation'?"


It was as if she was talking to a faceless... well, certainly not a stranger, as he was easily recognizable even with his blindfold. But it just felt... ''weird''.
"Yes," Kaede nodded. "I've heard the Grand Republic reserved that title for a single Samaran commander, and it is always him and his reincarnations who succeed the name. The Samarans call him the 'Soul of Martial Virtue'. And it is claimed that he is the general who defeated the Great Khanate during the Great Northern War."


"<u>We... lost around twenty-five hundred out of our four thousand troops,</u>" Kaede noted, trying to sound positive. "<u>The lowest casualties were actually on your flank, as your spell destroyed the enemy right wing wholesale. However, it also left your wing so disorganized and shaken they hardly participated in the remainder of the battle.</u>"
Her eyes then snapped wide as she stared at the Worldwalker in astonishment: "are you saying that he ''wasn't'' actually the one who defeated the Khan's armies? That it was actually a Worldwalker's intervention?"


"<u>I see...</u>" Pascal sighed.
"It's... complicated," Gwendolen sighed. "The Marshal ''did'' defeat the Khan's armies. However, he did so after Tara intervened and gave him back all of his memories from his first life -- memories which he would not have kept otherwise."


An uncomfortable silence settled over their private channel, while only the creaking of the wagon wheels and the chattering of distance drivers disturbed the air around them.
"Because they were regrets?" Kaede asked.


"<u>Pascal, please... don't block me out like this.</u>"
"Very much," Gwendolen nodded with a sad smile. "Tara once commented that the Marshal had some similarities to my own life. He's also apparently from the same world as you," She added as her expression turned to tease.


"<u>Then speak clearly,</u>" he countered, his harsh words almost accusatory. "<u>What are you not telling me?</u>"
"From ''Earth!?''" Kaede looked amazed. Her eyes were almost glittering as her curiosity instantly spiked to astronomical heights. "Do you know his original name then?"


"<u>W-what are you talking about?</u>"
"No," Gwendolen responded in an almost playful tone. Then, more seriously: "as a general rule, I don't like to pry into others' pasts. After all, we all have secrets that we'd like to keep."


The question came so sudden it caught her off guard.
Yet, as the lady glanced down and saw the look of utter disappointment from the younger girl, she offered some additional information as a consolation.


"<u>I'm blind, not ''stupid'', although I guess there is not a huge difference," Pascal sighed bitterly. "There's no way we could have won that battle if my spell neutralized both sides at once. My entire gamble rested on blowing away the Cataliyans' right wing so that my troops -- still fresh -- could smash into their flank. Their deployment was premature which gave us a short window of opportunity to knock them off balance. Otherwise, there was no way our outnumbered ''and'' underequipped soldiers could win!</u>"
"All I've heard is that he partook in one of the greatest wars of your world's history, and that he was never defeated during his lifetime, ''not even once''. However, he also committed one of the greatest sins of man. It left his soul deeply scarred. And it is due to his desire to atone for this that he became a Samaran."


Without much of a choice, Kaede told Pascal the whole story of the battle as she heard it: of how the Lotharins had lost the town, how the Princess had been pressed to the brink of defeat, only to be rescued by divine intervention. She avoided mentioning Sir Robert and Lady Anne's death or how it nearly broke Sylviane, but... Pascal was also too smart for his own good.
Kaede did remember from Captain Marko that the Samaran Marshal was 'averse to warfare' due to something that happened in his first life.


"<u>So... in the end, what I did mattered not at all,</u>" Pascal took a deep exhale.
''Undefeated yet traumatized,'' the familiar scratched her head as she struggled to come up with a name. ''There can't be that many 'undefeated generals' in Earth history.''


The void where his emotions had been suppressed returned once more. Kaede could feel the gloom of guilt spreading from their empathic link. The dark fog soon took on a sickly hue, turning to one of disgust, even loathing -- hate not directed towards anyone else, but at himself.
Kaede's first thought was the great Russian General Alexander Suvorov, who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars but died of old age before he could face Napoleon. However, Suvorov's lifelong career as a soldier was untarnished. Meanwhile his namesake -- the illustrious Alexander the Great of Macedon -- was too egotistical of a man to be bothered by his own conscience. It was a fact made obvious when he force-marched his own comrades through the Gedrosian Desert and lost over 12,000 men, all because he wished to punish them for their mutiny in India when they refused further pursuits of glory and demanded to return home.


"<u>Pascal</u>..." She felt his anger tore into her own emotion, stabbing into her heart like glass shards.  
"Speaking of which, the Marshal also supposedly remembers ''all'' of his memories from his first life," Gwendolen remarked thoughtfully. "It was Tara's gift, or perhaps more of a curse, to him."


It smashed her calm self-control as though a raging bull in a China shop. Her eyes grew teary once more as she realized why he was trying to bottle everything in.
''Just like me then, or at least, what I believe to be all of my previous life,'' Kaede thought.


"<u>What do the troops say about me?</u>" He demanded next, as if already knowing the answer.
"Are you saying his case and mine are similar?" The familiar thought to confirm her own suspicions.


"Pascal..." Kaede pleaded, tears brimming her eyes once more.
"I cannot deny that both of you are anomalies to the standard Samaran experience of reincarnation," Gwendolen concluded with a pensive look. "It is very possible that your master's summoning spell did something that he did not anticipate. Experimental magic has always been dangerous due to its chances of unintended side-effects. And your master is, frankly, too brilliant for his own good. His inexperience combined with a lack of precautions is, in my opinion, just plain reckless," the Worldwalker finished with a stern frown.


She hadn't even realized that she dropped out of telepathy and spoke through the real air.
''That's certainly true,'' Kaede sighed as she reflected upon Pascal's recent actions in creating a magical nuclear blast.


"Pascal, please. You're overthinking things."
"I think... ''I hope'' that Pascal will learn a lesson from what happened this time," the familiar defended her master. "He might be brash. But he always learns from his mistakes. And he only did what he did this time out of desperation."


"J-just answer the question, you silly girl," his raspy voice blurted out. "What do the troops say about me?"
"I certainly hope so," Gwendolen declared. "I would hate to see my country laid to waste by some foolish idea of his. It would not be the first time when experimental magic escaped the control of its creators and destroyed an entire region."


For a moment, Kaede gawked back as if she had just been slapped.
Kaede nodded. She had not forgotten the story of how the Dead Mountains south of Weichsel came to be, as the murderous mists which filled its air were anything but 'natural'.


One crucial moment -- that was all it took for him to learn the horrible truth.
"But to return to the topic -- I would even suggest you pay the Samaran Grand Marshal a visit and discuss your experience with him personally, once you have a chance," Gwendolen stated. "The problem is that the Marshal lives all the way in the principality of Samara, which is deep within the Grand Republic, several thousand kilopaces away to the east."


"They're calling you the ''Deathbringer''," the wagon driver spoke out with barely-concealed contempt, perhaps even hate, in his tone.
''In other words -- not anytime soon,'' Kaede exhaled a long sigh.




Latest revision as of 23:08, 20 April 2025

Chapter 1 - Answers from the Past

"You're a Worldwalker!? The ones spoken of in Hyperion's myths and legends!?"

Kaede's eyes were as wide as saucers as her body froze. She stared unblinkingly at the woman she met two nights ago -- the 'local herbalist' who introduced herself as Gwen. Kaede had surmised back then that Gwen might be a Ceredigion noblewoman. She could never have guessed that Gwen... wasn't even mortal.

"I certainly hope that I haven't become just a myth." The Worldwalker spun around as she pressed a finger against her cheek and replied with a teasing smile. "I contributed quite a bit to the birth of this country you know," she added with an almost pout as she continued to walk backwards through the snow in the wintry forest.

"Sorry, that's not what I meant..." Kaede's wispy voice fell to barely audible as her expression turned sheepish. "Yes, you're in all the history books. But everyone thought you passed away, not... 'left to travel to other worlds.'"

The Samaran shivered as she felt a biting cold wind blow across her body. She scurried forward in her small boots over the thin snow, only to notice that the woman she followed left no footprints. Nevertheless, as she caught up, she felt the radiant warmth of a phoenix's aura envelop her once more. The soothing glow came from the burning-blue feathers of the phoenix Courtain, who was perched upon Gwendolen's left shoulder.

"See, that's one of the problems with the Worldwalkers' Treaty -- it forces us to drop out of history too abruptly." Gwendolen frowned as her playful smile vanished into a crestfallen sigh. "The only complete stories with proper endings are those of the first worldwalkers, who transcended mortality thousands of years ago. And of course those tales have all passed into the realm of 'myths and legends'. Even the remnants of their lives -- artifacts that have endured through the ages -- have largely become attributed to their worshippers instead."

"The story of Hyperion the Dragonlord still survives," Kaede pointed out.

"Hyperion also isn't a Worldwalker. He's dragonkind, and that means certain rules do not apply to him," Gwendolen elucidated. "Better examples would be the tales of the Hyperboreans' Stormlord, the Druids' Raven Queen, or the Khanates' Sunslayer, all of them were heroes of the Dragon-Demon Wars. Nevertheless, several thousand years have transformed even those figures into religious icons. And they were the lucky ones, compared to latecomers like me who never even had a say in the Treaty, yet must follow its tenets anyway -- which included abruptly cutting off all contact with my family, friends, and acquaintances."

Kaede scowled as she felt similarities with her own experience. Pascal's summoning -- which had brought her to Hyperion -- had imposed the same tragedy upon her life.

"The only reason I can talk freely to you now is because I'm still within my twenty-four hour intervention period," Gwendolen added with a wry smile. "And you are one of the five people I've chosen to reveal myself to."

"I'm guessing you've already spoken to Her Highness then?" The Samaran girl inquired. After all, it had been Princess Sylviane who asked her to meet 'an important someone' in the snowy forest, around a kilopace away from the Lotharin army camp.

"Sylviane, Elspeth, and Vivienne," Gwendolen nodded. "I'm afraid they're the only ones you'll be able to talk to about my actions over the past day, including our current meeting. The Worldwalker's Treaty contains a powerful sorcery -- conceptual spellcraft of the highest order, which is beyond even my ability to weave..."

Beyond even you, Kaede's eyes widened in amazement as she stared back in awe.

It suddenly seemed no longer surprising that many of the Worldwalkers were deified. After all, if they were so powerful that their actions defied mortal understanding and could only be explained as 'miracles', then what else could one call them but 'gods'?

"The 'Treaty Spell', as we like to call it, will have an effect on both your memories and your actions," Gwendolen wore an uncharacteristically serious look as she explained. "You will have trouble even remembering the details of this conversation, at least whenever you're aware that you're within potential earshot of someone not in the exclusive club. Nor can you record anything I tell you down in a manner understandable to others. Because of this, you'll need to act carefully when making use of any knowledge I tell you. Otherwise, you can really mess up your own memories due to the spell's interference," she finished with a warning.

"This sounds... dangerous." Kaede frowned.

The Samaran girl had read enough on Earth to realize that the human mind was cursed by the saying 'nature abhors a vacuum'. When individuals had trouble remembering an important event, the brain had a tendency to confabulate and invent details that it considered 'reasonable'. The result was that the memories we hold dear often differed from the reality of what happened.

This was one of the reasons why testimonials were always challenged in a court of law. An individual could be lying and not even realize it, due to their memories being faulty in the first place.

"It's a mixed blessing, that I won't deny," Gwendolen stated with a sympathetic expression. "But then, you of all people should know that knowledge has always been a double-edged sword."

"True." Kaede couldn't help but exhale a sigh. Part of her couldn't help but think that she'd be happier if she didn't remember her life on Earth.

"However... I understand the Princess and her companions, but why me?" The Samaran girl asked next before she felt a painful squeeze in her chest. "It is because... of what I told Pascal?"

"Of course, the Heavens sent me all the way here just to lecture you about the dangers of transferring knowledge between worlds," Gwendolen scoffed in a tongue-in-cheek manner with a disapproving tone. "Do I look like a meddling servant of the Holy Father to you?"

"S-sorry," Kaede stammered. "I didn't mean it like that."

"It's a shame the most evangelical of us is also the most egocentric." Gwendolen sighed as an exasperated scowl spread across her countenance. "Peter even goes through the trouble of using his original name in each world he visits. Yet for all the teachings of his 'Church', his followers have not learned to think critically for themselves. Like -- why would their Holy Father, who is supposed to be magnanimous and not petty, care for the faults of lowly individuals scattered across countless worlds, when there are far greater problems to address?"

Though this is also why I treat the Church and its religion as separate entities, Kaede thought. Her favorite philosopher, Voltaire, even famously wrote that 'God should not suffer for the stupidity of the priest.'

"Then... why do you wish to meet with me then?" The Samaran girl asked again. "When you're limited to only a few people?"

"I'm doing it as a favor for a friend." Gwendolen's voice mellowed as an affable smile returned to her countenance. "Tara, the Protectress of Samara, has helped me a great deal over the centuries. And your... unusual circumstances, seem to have caught her attention."

Kaede swallowed. If there was any truth to the stories of old in Earth mythology and folklore, it was rarely a good thing to receive attention from the divine. Religion was far more often an instrument of fear than one of blessing.

"Don't worry. I'm not here to abduct you or anything." Gwendolen chuckled as though she read the familiar's mind. "I simply thought you might like a few answers to address your confusion, especially since I've actually traveled to the world of your previous life."

"Previous life?" Kaede stopped moving again as her body suddenly felt like it froze. "You're saying that I died then?"

"Honestly, I don't know what happened to you exactly." Gwendolen also stopped as she turned to face the Samaran girl. "However, the Samarans' rebirth is called reincarnation, and not resurrection or transmogrification. Even Tara herself has told me that this cannot be altered. The transfer of memories may muddle one's sense of self. But you are never the same 'self' as in your previous life."

"Then I really am dead on Earth." Kaede's voice fell to a bleak whisper.

It felt as though all the colors of the world faded from her eyes while the very air grew stale and cold. Her mouth felt parched as she stared back at the other woman, who seemed to confirm a theory that she has outright rejected up until now.

At first, it was because Kaede was in denial about herself being stuck in this world. After that, it was due to her desire to maintain a sense of continuity in her life. Her only memories of the past -- before the night she woke up in Pascal's bed -- were of a childhood spent growing up on Earth. If she truly had died on Earth and her existence in Hyperion was a wholly new life, then how would she rectify the lack of a formative adolescence in this world?

Furthermore, there was the lingering question of just how did she die?

"I must have... on the bus to the tournament," the Samaran girl thought back to her last memory.

"Perhaps?" Gwendolen remarked as her easygoing voice did its best to keep the atmosphere light. "Remember that memory is a fickle thing. Even without rebirth, our minds can forget and confabulate. The Samarans' ability to accrue wisdom across lifetimes is by no means perfect. It is possible that you only remembered up to a certain point in your life."

"Up to a certain point?" The familiar puzzled before she remembered her conversation with the Samaran Captain Marko. "Do you mean I forgot everything else due to regrets that were associated with them?"

"That, I cannot say." Gwendolen shrugged. "Anything on my part would be pure speculation. And I for one do not enjoy giving empty condolences. I can only tell you that your concerns are not uncommon among Samarans."

A sad smile entered the Worldwalker's expression as she looked upon the snowy-haired girl with a motherly smile:

"There are downsides to retaining memories of a distant past, especially those of loved ones who are no longer a part of our present lives. It is why the first step in one's journey -- for both Samarans and Worldwalkers -- is to, well, let it go."

The Samaran girl did not reply. She only looked to the ground before closing her eyes and taking a long, deep breath. Then, after holding it in and counting to four in a standard 'box breathing' pattern, she slowly deflated her lungs over an equally long exhale.

Nevertheless, Kaede's attempt at clearing her turbulent thoughts only left her mind as a clean slate to be filled by longing memories. A bellowing laugh from his father Konstantin as he left for work. A final hug from his mother Honoka before she boarded an airplane bound for Vladivostok. The cheerful smiles of his older sister Elizaveta and his grandmother Raisa during their last summer together in Russian Siberia. The encouraging shoulder pat from his best friend Daichi before they parted at the bus stop...

Kaede would never have a chance to say goodbye... to any of them.

"Letting go is so much easier said than done," the Samaran girl replied mournfully as she reopened her wet gaze. She struggled to not cry as tears brimmed in the corner of her eyes.

Yet, as she refocused her gaze to look upon her elder, the familiar saw the same nostalgic longing in the eyes of the seemingly middle-aged lady.

"Isn't it always?" Gwendolen replied with a bittersweet smile.

It was a reminder that just like Kaede, Gwendolen also never had a chance to bid all her loved ones farewell.


...


"You've been to Earth?" Kaede asked some time later, as the two began to head back in the direction of the Lotharin camp. Meanwhile, she raised the furry waterskin in her hands and took a long sip of its still-warm tea.

The herbal drink contained a mix of lavender and chamomile which was sweetened with honey. It was a combination that the healer Perceval had recommended to Kaede to help with her menstrual period. Though Kaede left out the fennel this time, as her next period was still a week away and she wasn't having stomach cramps. Nevertheless, the lavender-chamomile had a surprisingly potent, calming effect on her. And she certainly needed it after the previous conversation about her life and death on Earth.

I need to ask Perceval if it's possible to get addicted to this, Kaede thought as she relaxed with a smile.

"Third orbital of Sol? Sure." Gwendolen nodded. "It was the first realm I visited after I became a Worldwalker."

Her bittersweet smile returned as she looked towards the early morning sky. The sun was now completely above the horizon. Though it was still partially blocked by the giant, indigo planetoid.

"I had just become a Worldwalker back then, and all I could think about were regrets of what I could've, should've done beforehand," Gwendolen began to explain. "It became simply too painful to stay in the same world as my old friends and wartime comrades, to watch them slowly grow old and die when I wasn't even allowed to meet them before their death. So I left this world, and decided to find another to spend time in. I wanted to forget the past and find a new purpose, a new eternity -- a life that didn't revolve around the policies of Ceredigion and Rhin-Lotharingie."

Being forced to 'let go' must have felt extra painful when one is a committed nationalist, Kaede thought. It would be like ripping the very purpose of her existence out from her core identity.

"I wandered for some time, before settling down at a beautiful lake on a forested island where it rained a lot," Gwendolen continued on as her smile grew more pleasant. "But it seems that once you're a queen, you stand out no matter where you go. I attracted a lot of attention from the locals, to the point I had to move my home to an extradimensional pocket I created in the middle of the lake. Yet even then, stories about me would continue to spread among the folks. And before long I came to the attention of a local prince in search of help."

"I take it you turned him down, treaty and all?" Kaede mused as she took another drink.

"The Treaty... does have a lot of loopholes," Gwendolen continued their conversation with a mischievous grin. "It's what happens when you force a complex group together to draft a compromise, when all each of them could think about was their individual political interest. From what I've heard, the wartime unity of the 1st Generation Worldwalkers had already fractured by the time they created the Treaty. And too few of them came from administrative and legal backgrounds to appreciate good law-making in the first place."

So, far worse than a day at the United Nations, Kaede thoughtfully nodded.

The Samaran girl always found it odd that popular history and literary culture romanticized wars and conflict. The reality, however, was that destruction was easy and -- in her opinion, boring -- compared to what came afterwards. To establish a new administration that would be satisfactory to everyone involved was exponentially more difficult. As a result, overthrowing an existing power structure without an alternative prepared often led to an even worse system of governance.

It was a mistake made time and again in the history of Earth.

Perhaps it was no surprise that the end of the Dragon-Demon Wars and the departure of the Dragonlords from Hyperion resulted in the Chaos Age. This was a period of twelve hundred years during which this world was torn by continuous conflicts, as kings and lords fought over the power vacuum left behind by the dragonlords.

She also learned from Gwendolen that it was during the beginning of this era when the Worldwalker's Treaty was signed. It happened after one of the 1st Generation Worldwalkers deleted an entire country overnight with a single spell.

"So you ended up helping that prince after all then?" Kaede spoke as she pulled her thoughts back to their present conversation. Her bubbling curiosity couldn't help wondering just who Gwendolen's beneficiary on Earth might have been.

"Not at first," the Lady shook her head. "At the beginning I didn't want anything to do with him. However, he was persistent, and righteous -- kind, earnest, passionate, and not just handsome but cute as well." The woman closed her smiling eyes as though enjoying a pleasant dream once more.

"So, I tiptoed around the treaty a teeeny bit. Worldwalkers aren't allowed to hand out artifacts or leave behind any equipment 'foreign to the standards of the realm', to use the official phrase. However, we are allowed to discard locally made tools that we just happened to temporarily bless for our own use. Like... you know, animating objects to do the household chores since we can't bring any servants from world to world, other than our familiars," Gwendolen finished as she turned to Courtain and brushed the phoenix's glowing-blue feathers.

Meanwhile, Kaede couldn't help but chuckle, as the image of a queen who achieved immortality yet struggled with her own dirty dishes drifted across her mind.

"Assuming the blessing is finite and the spell isn't archmage tier or above, nobody really cares. Therefore, I temporarily blessed two swords -- both for my own use, of course." Gwendolen grinned with a wink. "It's not my fault I only needed them for a minute each and my magic lingered for decades. I even tried to prevent mortals from using them by shoving one into a rock and throwing the other into a lake! Because you know," her sarcastic tone now saturated her voice, "that worked great with the others."

Kaede almost snorted the tea that she had been sipping on out of her nose.

No wonder why we have so many tales of finding random magical swords! Rocks and lakes are not effective means of weapons disposal! At least throw them into an active volcano!

However, Gwen's gentle laughter slowly faltered into a faint grimace.

"That story didn't end happily," she added after a long sigh. "It taught me a lesson as well."

"That can't be right," Kaede objected with a puzzled frown. "You said you've only been 'Worldwalking' for a few centuries. No mythical swords have been pulled out of rocks on Earth for well over a thousand years!"

"Time, is a fickle spirit when you journey between worlds." Gwendolen raised a finger as she noted in a playful voice.

It only made Kaede's eyebrows furrow more, as the much-younger girl paused to think.

"I wouldn't overthink it, dear," the former Queen then added in a motherly voice. She reached her hand over and rubbed the snowy-white hair of the Samaran girl. "The universe must keep some secrets to itself."

Earth's astrophysicists might scream heresy at that, Kaede thought.

"Does that mean..." the familiar then added in her wispy voice before she gulped down a breath of courage. "Even if -- and I say if -- you could communicate with people from Earth, there is no guarantee that it would be from the time that I... my previous self lived?"

A moment of silence passed as Gwendolen looked sternly at the younger woman before replying with an almost laugh:

"No. I am not passing any messages for you."

Not even the slightest room for negotiation!

The Samaran familiar wasn't even sure what she would say if she was given one last chance to talk to her family. But it was always better to learn about her options first and decide later. Except of course -- this road was closed to her from the start.

"That really hurts, Grandma."

She had meant to say Obaasan, an appropriately respectable way to address the elderly in Japanese. But some terms simply didn't translate.

"Grandma? Now who's the hurtful one!?" Gwendolen was still smiling even as her voice feigned outrage.

"But," Kaede paused for a brief moment before deciding to tag along. "You're over several centuries old!"

"--And my heart is still romantic and young!"

"...Plus you have great-great-grandchildren!"

The Worldwalker's meadow-green gaze did darken this time. It sent a chill up Kaede's spine in an instant.

"Don't remind me, after how idiotic one of them turned out to be," Gwendolen replied. The finality in her tone immediately put an end to the conversation.

It reminded Kaede that a true queen would always remain a queen, no matter how many centuries passed by or how playful her personality could become at times.

"But... why can't you establish the equivalent of a Farspeak call to Earth?" Kaede returned to her original question. "Is it because of the timeline fluctuation?"

"The time issue isn't insurmountable, just... complicated." Gwendolen brushed aside the topic as though it were obnoxious legal code. "The simple answer is that it's against the rules."

"The Worldwalker's Treaty? Even though you're within your intervention period?"

"Yes," the older lady nodded. "Just like intervention in mortal affairs, cross-pollination of individuals between worlds is forbidden. We're allowed to spread ideas ourselves through conventional means. Otherwise it becomes a gag order on all interactions with locals, which no Worldwalker wants. However, it stops at that -- no propaganda spells, no evangelical armies, no interdimensional cults. The Treaty was meant to create an equal footing between us all on each new world we step into."

"Then... isn't the Samarans' inheritance of previous lives' memories a form of cross-pollination between worlds?" Kaede asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Except Samarans existed even before the first Worldwalker," Gwendolen pointed out. "Otherwise Tara -- the 'Protectress of Samara' and one of the 1st Generation Worldwalkers -- could not be a Samaran. Though the nature of the Samarans' memories does open a potential hole in the rules of the Treaty."

"What do you mean?" Kaede tilted her head as she asked with a puzzled stare.

"I mean by the fact that because of the Samarans' reincarnation, your kind offers one of the few legal ways for cross-pollination between worlds," Gwendolen explained seriously this time. "This is actually one of the more contentious issues between Worldwalkers, with Peter's camp often crying unfair about it. It hasn't helped that Tara made excellent use of it during her famous intervention in the Great Northern War."

"Wait, the Great Northern War of Hyperion." The Samaran girl frowned. "That's the war that gave birth to the Grand Republic of Samara. Then... did Tara's actions help found one of the great powers of Hyperion?"

"Indirectly, yes, which is why it's so contentious," the older lady stated with a conflicted look. "Though it would be more precise to say that the individual whom she aided is the one who helped to create the Grand Republic. Have you ever heard of the title 'Grand Marshal of the Federation'?"

"Yes," Kaede nodded. "I've heard the Grand Republic reserved that title for a single Samaran commander, and it is always him and his reincarnations who succeed the name. The Samarans call him the 'Soul of Martial Virtue'. And it is claimed that he is the general who defeated the Great Khanate during the Great Northern War."

Her eyes then snapped wide as she stared at the Worldwalker in astonishment: "are you saying that he wasn't actually the one who defeated the Khan's armies? That it was actually a Worldwalker's intervention?"

"It's... complicated," Gwendolen sighed. "The Marshal did defeat the Khan's armies. However, he did so after Tara intervened and gave him back all of his memories from his first life -- memories which he would not have kept otherwise."

"Because they were regrets?" Kaede asked.

"Very much," Gwendolen nodded with a sad smile. "Tara once commented that the Marshal had some similarities to my own life. He's also apparently from the same world as you," She added as her expression turned to tease.

"From Earth!?" Kaede looked amazed. Her eyes were almost glittering as her curiosity instantly spiked to astronomical heights. "Do you know his original name then?"

"No," Gwendolen responded in an almost playful tone. Then, more seriously: "as a general rule, I don't like to pry into others' pasts. After all, we all have secrets that we'd like to keep."

Yet, as the lady glanced down and saw the look of utter disappointment from the younger girl, she offered some additional information as a consolation.

"All I've heard is that he partook in one of the greatest wars of your world's history, and that he was never defeated during his lifetime, not even once. However, he also committed one of the greatest sins of man. It left his soul deeply scarred. And it is due to his desire to atone for this that he became a Samaran."

Kaede did remember from Captain Marko that the Samaran Marshal was 'averse to warfare' due to something that happened in his first life.

Undefeated yet traumatized, the familiar scratched her head as she struggled to come up with a name. There can't be that many 'undefeated generals' in Earth history.

Kaede's first thought was the great Russian General Alexander Suvorov, who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars but died of old age before he could face Napoleon. However, Suvorov's lifelong career as a soldier was untarnished. Meanwhile his namesake -- the illustrious Alexander the Great of Macedon -- was too egotistical of a man to be bothered by his own conscience. It was a fact made obvious when he force-marched his own comrades through the Gedrosian Desert and lost over 12,000 men, all because he wished to punish them for their mutiny in India when they refused further pursuits of glory and demanded to return home.

"Speaking of which, the Marshal also supposedly remembers all of his memories from his first life," Gwendolen remarked thoughtfully. "It was Tara's gift, or perhaps more of a curse, to him."

Just like me then, or at least, what I believe to be all of my previous life, Kaede thought.

"Are you saying his case and mine are similar?" The familiar thought to confirm her own suspicions.

"I cannot deny that both of you are anomalies to the standard Samaran experience of reincarnation," Gwendolen concluded with a pensive look. "It is very possible that your master's summoning spell did something that he did not anticipate. Experimental magic has always been dangerous due to its chances of unintended side-effects. And your master is, frankly, too brilliant for his own good. His inexperience combined with a lack of precautions is, in my opinion, just plain reckless," the Worldwalker finished with a stern frown.

That's certainly true, Kaede sighed as she reflected upon Pascal's recent actions in creating a magical nuclear blast.

"I think... I hope that Pascal will learn a lesson from what happened this time," the familiar defended her master. "He might be brash. But he always learns from his mistakes. And he only did what he did this time out of desperation."

"I certainly hope so," Gwendolen declared. "I would hate to see my country laid to waste by some foolish idea of his. It would not be the first time when experimental magic escaped the control of its creators and destroyed an entire region."

Kaede nodded. She had not forgotten the story of how the Dead Mountains south of Weichsel came to be, as the murderous mists which filled its air were anything but 'natural'.

"But to return to the topic -- I would even suggest you pay the Samaran Grand Marshal a visit and discuss your experience with him personally, once you have a chance," Gwendolen stated. "The problem is that the Marshal lives all the way in the principality of Samara, which is deep within the Grand Republic, several thousand kilopaces away to the east."

In other words -- not anytime soon, Kaede exhaled a long sigh.



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