Chapter 461: Interlude - Nina - Communication

Nina finished waving Iona off. On one hand, she was sad to see the Valkyrie go, but on the other, it was almost a relief. A break from the constant training. A moment to rest.

Nina had spent years on the streets, often alone. Having other people constantly near her grated on her in a way that was hard to properly define. She didn’t have good words for it - it was simply comfortable being alone for a bit.

“Brrrpt?” Auri fluttered up and perched on her shoulder, trilling her high pitched birdsong.

Nina stared blankly at the bird. She didn’t have Elaine’s innate ability to understand Auri, Iona’s blessing for all languages, or even the bond that Fenrir and Auri seemed to share, letting them talk.

It was just noise to her.

“I’m sorry, I’m not Elaine. I have no idea what you’re sayin’.” She explained to the bird. Auri could understand her at least.

The bird rolled her eyes at Nina. The squire wanted to sass Auri back - old street instincts, combined with Auri being a tiny bird - but good sense won out.

Flaming squiggles appeared around the phoenix. Words, Nina knew. She just couldn’t read any of them.

“I can’t read!” She snapped at Auri, perhaps a little meaner than she’d intended.

“Brrrpt!” The bird said, then a series of flames dotted a path between them, and the villa’s entrance. Four flaming hands, each one on a different side of the door, pointed a single finger at the door. The hands moved back and forth, making it incredibly, blindingly obvious what Auri was trying to say.

Nina followed the path back inside, faced with the huge, empty house.

Now what?

There were no neighbors. No desperate need to find food. No monsters to fight, no obvious tasks to handle. The squire figured that she could haul another barrel or two of water to replace what they’d used earlier in the day, but after that?

“Hey Auri, can you teach me how to use fox fire?” Nina asked. It stung her a little to ask. She was a kitsune, it was supposed to be innate to the species, especially after taking a Fire element.

She still hadn’t unlocked the skill though.

“Brrrpt!” Auri replied, then remembered that Nina couldn’t understand her, and nodded furiously.

Nina huffed and puffed down the road, glancing back up the mountain to where the villa was still visible.

She’d always been carried by Fenrir to and from Sanguino, and hadn’t quite realized how damn far the city was from Iona’s home. She could barely make out the edges of the Ashen bat clouding the city. Resetting her classes wasn’t doing her any favors either, her speed, strength, and vitality down to almost nothing.

“You’re not helpin’.” She scolded Auri, more to get frustration out of her system than any real complaint. Plus, the words were probably a lie. Auri was trying to help. Probably.

Maybe.

In an aggravating way.

“Brrrrpt!” The phoenix didn’t let up her aggravating circling of Nina, her tiny wings buzzing at the speed. Embers trailed behind her, but if that was all, it’d be easy.

No, Auri had dialed it up to 17. A full pathway of glowing foxfire lights, little explosions of flames, and a dozen hands clapping and ‘cheering’ as Nina jogged down the almost empty road.

“Please,” Nina begged. “Mercy.”

The clapping and cheering hands vanished.

The rest stayed.

Nina kept running.

Auri eventually had mercy on Nina. That, or she wanted to get to her bakery in time to actually make something for the day, and not lose the entire day to Nina’s slow running. Four [Mage Hands] were summoned, and Nina was whisked down the road at high speed, screaming as the road passed inches from her nose.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!”

What was a comfortable distance for a three inch hummingbird was ‘life flashing before her eyes’ to Nina.

Worst of all?

They didn’t even make it all the way; Auri ran out of mana before they finished getting to Sanguino.

The gate was another challenge, the little phoenix burning words into the air until a high ranking guard showed up. Nina’s instincts screamed at her to turn away, throw up an illusion, and start walking the other way.

She grabbed those instincts, dragged them into a dark alley, and hit them over the head with her trusty pipe until they stopped twitching.

She belonged now. She was one of the people the guards were supposed to protect, not one of the street urchins the guards hunted.

The guard - who seemed to know Auri - waved them through the gate.

“Atlas.” The guard offered his hand to Nina. She boldly took it and shook back.

The instincts against guards were still slowly turning into a puddle of blood in a back alley.

“Nina! Iona’s squire, although she’s out of town for a few days.”

“Ooof, and leaving you behind? Shame. I’m semi-permanently assigned to Auri. Don’t want any issues happening with her.”

Auri puffed up, and Nina wanted to scream at the sheer unfairness of it all. She knew there was no point in it - all she could do was suck it up and keep going.

But a guard, just to escort one person around? One person who knew what they were doing, and could easily get themselves out of any trouble?

There were a thousand and one problems in the city that could use a guard’s attention, and they were off escorting Auri around.

It didn’t make the bitter taste any better, and it didn’t help with the unfairness resonating in Nina’s heart.

Getting to the bakery was easy enough, and Auri and Nina quickly worked out a system. Blue arrows were ‘grab this’, and green arrows were ‘place here’. Discouragingly, the moment Nina was done moving one thing around, another pair of arrows immediately appeared, giving her the next task.

On the plus side, Auri needed a taste tester. Nina was stuffed before they even opened for the lunch crowd, and the goodies didn’t stop coming.

This is perfect. Nina thought as she hauled bags of flour around. Why didn’t I ever think of this before?

She knew the answers.

No connections. The wrong classes. The wrong look. Nobody would hire an [Apprentice] who looked like they’d walk off with the coins after scaring all the customers away, not when their cousin’s nephew needed a job.

The shelves were filled with freshly baked goods, the doors opened, and Nina was slammed. An elvenoid face that could talk was much more approachable than a small bird that wrote in flaming letters.

Some people even seemed to think that Nina was the owner, no matter how she tried to redirect attention to Auri.

“Oh, I’m just here to see the phoenix.” One man told Nina. She frowned at him.

“Buy somethin’ and get out, or get out.” She firmly told him.

He laughed at her.

“Ha! You’re level 15, how are you going to make me do anything?”

Auri demonstrated exactly how she was going to make him do anything. Nina eyed the new doorway.

“You know, I think I figured why you’re not making any money.”

A flaming finger flicked Nina’s ear.

“You know I’m right!” She protested before the next customer came forward.

Remarkably, nothing came out of Auri’s violent ejection. More favoritism from the guard.

Nina had no talent at reading Auri, but even she could see the phoenix looked proud as punch as the doors closed in the evening, the little bird counting out the coins she’d made.

Blue arrows appeared everywhere, with a single green arrow where the trash was. Nina’s shoulders slumped. She was exhausted, and the bakery was a furnace. Auri naturally loved the heat, and most customers were in and out before it could get to them.

Nina had spent the entire day, coated in fur, panting and sweating profusely. She didn’t want to - but she was no stranger to hard work. The only major difference was, her very survival didn’t depend on succeeding.

The thought of saying no literally never crossed her mind. Doing what needed to be done was core to Nina’s being.

Auri seemed to notice how she was flagging though, and lent a little helping hand. Solid Inferno coated every inch of Nina, armoring the [Squire] as if she was a full [Knight].

Nina looked down and marveled at her gear.

“Wow. Can you do this every time I fight?” She asked.

[*ding!* Unlocked [Phoenix Flame Armor]. Take the skill?]

The System prompted Nina with a new skill, one she’d half-earned.

The only hesitation Nina had was which skill to axe. She was at the start of her journey again, and she didn’t have an armor skill yet. It wasn’t exactly what Iona had wanted, but it was close enough.

Plus, the phoenix implication would do stupid things for her next class up.

She took the skill, and started to wonder if she could get anything from Fenrir in her Wind class.

“Brrrpt!” The flaming lights pulsed even brighter, and Nina jumped.

Right! She still had a job to do!n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Clad in blazing armor, the [Overheated Knight of the Flame] got to work.

To Nina’s surprise, they didn’t immediately leave town once they were done, instead going shopping. Through a game of charades - and figuring out the obvious answers - it was easier for Auri to purchase food through someone who looked elvenoid and could actually talk. Atlas’s presence made it less sketchy, and Nina was soon loaded up like a mule.

“Back to the store then?” She asked, turning without waiting for a response. A huge flaming X appeared in front of her, and Nina stumbled and tripped as she tried to stop in time.

Auri instantly dismissed the flames before barbequing the poor ninetails, grabbing her before she could fall.

“Brrrpt!” Auri fluttered around Nina, redirecting her.

Nina’s face fell.

“We’re taking this home!?” She cried out.

Her legs burned. Her feet ached. She’d started the day out with a full marathon, had spent all the normal operating hours on her feet, running around in the bakery, and was now expected to finish the day off with a second marathon, this time with thirty pounds of food on her back.

She wanted to cry.

“Brrrpt!” Auri nodded her head, then perched on her shoulder.

Well.

Nothing else but to do it.

“Need a hand?” Atlas asked.

Nina almost broke and took advantage of the guard. But no. That’d make her no better than the rich toshes that had personal guards. The sooner they shook him, the sooner he could be doing useful work.

Or maybe, if I say yes, he’ll stay out of the way, out of the slums, and there’s one less guard to harass people.

In the end, Nina’s distaste for guards won out.

“No thank you.” She politely replied, and got walking.

One foot in front of another. Nina started to chant the mantra to herself. One foot in front of another.

[*

ding!* Unlocked [Endurance]. Take it?]

Nina instantly accepted the general skill, the burden on her body immediately lightening.

“Brrrpt!” Auri cheered encouragement from Nina’s shoulder, and as soon as they were out of the town, a hall of foxfire lights lit the way for Nina.

One foot in front of another.

[*ding!* Unlocked [Foxfire]. Take it?]

“Yes!” Nina found the energy to leap in the air, coming back down on bloody paws. She grabbed the skill, immediately focusing on it.

Nine ghostly will-o-wisps appeared over Nina’s tails, and she reveled in the feeling for a moment. They clicked with her. They were meant for her. It was an open-ended question if they’d survive the merger into the Storm element.

The pain came back, and Nina gritted her teeth.

“Brrrpt?” Auri drew images of Nina being carried, flying through the air again. Third time Auri had offered this trip.

“Please.” Nina agreed, accepting this third time.

“Brrrpt!”

Nina was slowly getting used to flying, and started to wonder if she’d take a skill in it. She could see why Elaine enjoyed it so much.

Battered, exhausted, and with the moons having already peeked in for the night and left again, the two members of the Eventide Eclipse finally made it back home.

“Thank fuck!” Nina shouted as she got through the door. Auri grabbed all her bags and vanished in the direction of the pantry.

[*ding!* [Unlikely Page] leveled up! 13 -> 14]

[*ding!* [Street Apprentice] leveled up! 15 -> 19]

Levels. Solid for a day’s work. The larger increase in [Apprentice] made sense, given how much Nina had been working as one, versus being a [Page].

Nina’s fur stood on end as she heard voices coming from within the house. Instinctively, she reached for her illusions to hide herself, but she didn’t have them anymore.

She wanted to run, to hide, to scurry into a dark corner.

Nina wasn’t that scared little girl anymore.

She was a squire - okay, technically an [Unlikely Page] - of a Valkyrie. Didn’t mean she was going to charge in all stupid-like, but she wasn’t going to run and hide.

“Hey Auri!” She yelled.

She knew she was low level. Auri, on the other hand?

The two of them snuck through the house, the other voices having paused when they heard her shouting, then started talking even faster.

Nina found them in the private dining room. A man and a woman. The man was lean and scarred, relaxing over a mug of beer. Iona’s beer. The woman had short blonde hair, her feet up on the table, and was eating from the end of a knife.

“Brrrpt!” Auri shouted, flying over to them and zipping around them excitedly. “BRRRRPT!!!”

Friends of Iona’s? Nina boldly stepped into the room. In poor, broken High Elvish, the woman greeted her.

“Many greetings! Name my Artemis is!”