Chapter 9:
Bridging the Gaps
Izuku rested against the tree beside the newly bandaged and cleaned Alexis while her sisters scoured the battlefield under the moonlight.
He was exhausted, but unharmed. In fact, by some miracle, not a single person was injured during the great battle. The entire thing was an overwhelming victory, and he did his best not to let it lift his mood too much. It was still a somber occasion, for these ladies to have to dredge through the remains of their predecessors and their ravaged holy place.
"Disinfectant." Isendra said as she returned from her scouting of the perimeter. "What a stupid oversight on my part. I am so sorry Izuku."
"Oh, um... Think nothing of it? I made do." He said.
"Yes. Made do." She said suspiciously. "Let me see your hands again."
It wasn't a request, it was an order, and he had signed a contract to obey those from her. So, he stretched his arms and fingers out for her to examine under the torchlight. All of his fingers, to the first knuckle, were nothing more than scar tissue. Even his nails had fallen off from his experiment in creating a cauterization spell.
"Burn wounds leave nastier scars than cuts or stab wounds." Isendra explained. "To repeatedly sear your own flesh and heal it over and over again? It will be a miracle if you ever regain sensitivity in your fingertips. If you had any ambitions of playing the guitar or sewing, you can throw those dreams away. I suspect your fingernails will grow back though."
Izuku accepted the small blessing for what it was. A consolation prize for his stupidity and thoughtlessness.
"It was a good plan. You were following the spirit of my instructions and focused your efforts on saving them and getting them out if need be. You did excellently for your skill level." Isendra consoled him.
"But it was pointless." Izuku groused. "I gave myself, and more importantly gave Alexis, permanent and unnecessary scars."
"I don't mind." Alexis said sleepily, stirring from her rest on the ground. "Battle scars add charm and character to a lady of the Sightless Eye. And you did still save us with that wall of fire."
"Wall of fire?!" Isendra demanded.
"Oh, um. Yeah, I just flooded the entire graveyard in front of me with mana and lit it on fire." He explained. "It worked really well because the five sisters froze them all with those nifty ice arrows."
She stared at him.
"I am not surprised to hear that you had the power to do that after you nearly overdosed on mana potion again, but I am surprised you had the technical skill to accomplish such a feat. We will discuss this later. for now, I think the others are finished." Isendra told him.
Izuku turned to look and sure enough Maria, Flavie and the other four rogues had come back from yet another round of searching the dead. Each carried armfuls of armor, daggers, swords and other armaments of the undead. Here and there were coin purses of any smaller trinkets they may have found. Which considering this was a burial ground, probably included a lot of heirlooms buried with the dead.
They carefully placed the latest items in a pile near the tree, with Flavie being more careful than the rest. She carefully placed a folded chain mail shirt on the ground and then place a bow next to it. After that was what he now recognized as a wand and a large, tattered book.
"We can't figure out who is even who of the undead." Flavie explained. "Without access to the monastery and the burial records we can't identify who is who based on their belonging. And their bodies were so damaged by the purge spell tied to Raven's death that we can't even rebury them, let alone in the correct graves."
She wiped a tear from her eye and sniffed a bit but kept her jaw firm.
"I think the best we can do for them is collect their ashes and dust into sacks and send them off down the river." Flavie said.
"I think that is a lovely idea." Maria said kindly as she came up behind Flavie and rubbed her back. "We will prepare the encampment for the funerary services when we get back."
"What of their belongings?" Asked another rogue, Lemmie, if Izuku remembered correctly.
"That is a much easier issue to resolve." Flavie said, turning to Izuku and Isendra. "That you two did the most to put them back to their eternal rest despite having the least at stake for doing so means I think you should have their offerings. That which was buried with them and rose with them. All of these valuables, tools, weapons and armor are yours to do with what you wish."
Isendra stood up in a gesture similar to that of standing at attention.
"Isendra, I suspect Blood Raven's chain mail may fit you with some modifications, and besides Akara I can think of nobody more able to make use of her grimoire." Flavie said as she picked up the two items in question and handed it to his master.
She took them with a slight bow.
"And Izuku, her bow is too large for you but I suspect you will grow into it in time. It was with this bow that she fought the forces of Diablo himself and helped to take him down." Flavie explained as she picked up said bow and approached him with it.
Izuku backed away at the gesture.
"I um. I don't know if I can accept that." He said.
Quick as a flash Isendra placed her newly acquired chain mail and grimoire on the ground and roughly grabbed Izuku by his shoulder to drag him away.
"Excuse us for a moment." She said to the sisters.
She pulled him away just out of earshot before looking him sternly in the eyes.
"You are insulting them, and you are embarrassing me." Isendra insisted, her teeth gritted in clear anger with him. "Take it. You will apologize and accept any gifts they have to give."
Izuku turned his eyes downwards in deference.
"Yes, mistress." He said, feeling awkward for using the word.
When she nodded in satisfaction and made no stink about the form of address they returned to the tree. Thinking fast he came up with an excuse.
"Apologies. I meant to say, it might be better off in more skilled and deserving hands like yours, as I didn't help battle Raven. But it is yours to decide, so I shall endeavor to earn it in time." Izuku explained with a bow.
Flavie made an 'oh' face of realization at his thinking. she gave Isendra a slightly condescending look as if to imply she had overreacted to his perceived slight. All in all, his bullshit went right under her radar.
"You think too strategically at times, young Midoriya. You are such a man." Flavie chastised. "Sometimes you need to think more emotionally, as tradition and etiquette do not fall by the wayside in war. You have much training and growing to do before you can effectively use this bow, but I have seen your studiousness and hard work in all other things. I know you will train hard with it."
She handed him the bow again and this time he took it. After praise like that, how could he not?
"The rest you may sort through at your leisure seeing as you are to remain here. Are you two okay on your own while the rest of us return to the encampment?" Flavie asked.
"He and I are still fresh, and we were sent to relieve you anyways. All of you need to get back and rest properly. The burial ground must be protected, and I have duties as a teacher that I have obviously neglected. Duties that I prefer to do in private."
They all accepted this and readied to leave. It didn't take the seven of them much time as they were already packed and ready to go.
Together they all walked to the edge of the burial ground and the copse of oaks where the watch usually camped. The seven rogues watched patiently as Izuku and Isendra set up their camp. When that was done, they began their long trek home.
"Bye Izuku." Alexis said with a meek wave as she limped by.
He waved back but stopped when he noticed Isendra looking at the still injured rogue with a look of angry suspicion.
They watched and waited for the group of rogues to vanish into the night before they began to talk.
"We have at least a week until we are relieved, and I intend to spend that week correcting the holes in your training that reared up." Isendra said. "Over the next week I will be teaching you the basic firebolt spell and try to worm out of you the cultural differences that you keep stumbling over. I expect this to be difficult as I have no way of knowing what is different about your society in comparison to mine, unless you can point out things in our society that are utterly unacceptable in yours? But the problem there is that we have no way of knowing if your society has tendencies that are utterly unacceptable here until you stumble across them."
Izuku nodded to her words. It was all a very reasonable process.
"Should we start by my pointing out what is unacceptable to mine that I've noticed?" Izuku offered.
"That seems most logical. Seeing as you are too worn out to practice magic from the battle or even to do your pack mule duties at the moment." Isendra invited.
Izuku nodded.
"I don't have trouble with the things that aren't currently acceptable but used to be in my world, like slavery and indentured servitude. Those I was unsurprised by." Izuku began.
"Slavery and indentured servitude are nonexistent in your world?" Isendra asked, curious.
"Well. It exists but it's very illegal almost everywhere. It is one of the worst evils to us. No, all work is reimbursed financially with a proper wage. No matter what." Izuku explained.
"Even apprenticeships?" Isendra asked. "Journeyman tradesmen are paid in full?"
"Better than most people, actually, yeah." Izuku said. "But most learning is done through schools instead of apprenticeships. Some schools the student pays for or takes out debt for, others are subsidized by benefactors, like companies that employed skilled workers. Izuku explained.
Isendra pulled out her own journal and began writing down what he had just said.
"What do you have trouble with then?" Isendra probed.
"It was the things that were unacceptable even when my world had a similar society to yours that still trip me up. Stealing from the dead has never been acceptable. Even in hard times." Izuku explained.
"Then perchance you should list off the things your world finds most reprehensible and I can explain how they are dealt with here?" Isendra suggested.
"Cannibalism?" Izuku asked.
"Death penalty." Isendra said simply.
"Gayness?" He asked.
"There is not much to be gay about in these dark times, but is it such a terrible thing in your world?" Isendra asked.
Izuku was reminded that words and their meanings changed over time, and she didn't know what he meant by gay.
"Homophilia?" He clarified.
"Some societies still prey on boys your age as catamites, yes, but you need not worry about such a fate befalling you." Isendra consoled. "You need not be violated by older men to learn in my order."
Ah. They carried on a Greek tradition here then.
"Rape?" Izuku asked.
"Very illegal." Isendra informed him. "Usually, the two participants will be forced into marriage, especially if they conceive, or the cad will be forced to pay reparations for seducing the maiden. Rarely is a man executed for being a rake, but it does happen. Especially should he be the paramour of a married woman."
Izuku didn't understand how any of what she just said applied to rape, until he remembered that words change meaning over time.
That's right, rape used to just mean 'premarital sex'. Every now and then a story out of India or the middle east would reach Japan about a poor young girl being forced to marry her rapist. Usually leading to some superficial outrage. When the reality turned out to be that a young man was forced to marry the village mattress he had slept with or else be executed, such outrage vanished. Such men usually opted for a horrible marriage over death by mob.
He didn't know rape also used to be applied to adultery. Sure, they learned during their study of the western Scarlet Letter that the paramours of adulteresses were regularly executed while said adulteresses were just publicly shamed, but it was never referred to as rape.
"I think your world is more similar to the history of mine than it is different." Izuku concluded. "I wish I could just assume the following were unacceptable, but I have to ask. Bestiality, pedophilia, necrophilia?"
"Each warrants a long and painful execution." Isendra summarized. "Though surely taking from the dead isn't as abhorrent to your people as those things?"
Izuku conceded her point with a shrug.
"We shall figure this all out in time, my apprentice." Isendra consoled. "I believe the best policy is for you to simply watch and observe how people here behave and remain silent. Do as I do or say, and you shall be fine. For now, get some sleep. I will keep first watch."
The next morning saw Izuku cleaning up the burial grounds with a broom and dustpan. Flavie hadn't been kidding when she said the army of undead had all been reduced to ash and dust. She left out the bone meal part.
He felt the epitome of sacrilegious for treating the dead like mere dirt to be placed into rubbish bags, but dump them into burlap sacks he did and as the hours waned on the bags became fuller and more numerous. All the while he made a point to keep Isendra's sleeping form in clear view, occasionally doing a lap around the grounds to see any approaching threats on the horizon.
It was bizarre for the place to be so quiet and unmolested after such a fierce battle. It really was just the two of them there.
It was nearly noon when he decided to take a break. He retrieved some bread, cured meat and cheese from their rations and approached Isendra's sleeping form, gently prodding her awake.
"Hm?" She said as she stirred in a panic, before calming down at the sight of him. "Oh. Is it time for me to start the day Izuku?"
"Yes, Mistress." He said, handing her half of the days rations.
"Thank you." She said, sitting up in her sleeping bag and crawling out of it.
They had dug up a patch of dirt under the tree for her to sleep under, that way she could sleep shaded from the sun. The added bonus of being in his eyeshot at all times while not being on top of somebody's grave were added bonuses.
"Tell me of this firewall you performed last night?" Isendra invited as she ate.
Izuku paused in his eating to answer.
"Well, I took some of the mana potion when I was starting to feel exhausted. But felt the potions effects overwhelming him and sought to release it all at once." He explained. "What I did was force all of my mana out at once along the ground and then, you know, ignited it."
Isendra nodded with his words.
"It sounds like your hyper-sensitivity to mana potions is more severe than we thought." She said, "We need to figure out how little you can safely consume, and we will do so during your training starting today."
"Is this an advantage?" Izuku asked. "Being sensitive to mana potions like that?"
"Financially? Yes. You can buy one mana potion, split it into eight or more vials and water them down. You will save a fortune. But I know that's not where your mind has wandered to." Isendra warned. "You are not the first person to be hyper-sensitive to mana potions, nor are you the first to imagine overcharging your mana in order to perform spells far beyond your ability is a good idea. Learn from the mistakes of the people who tried; it isn't. If you repeatedly do so it can and will kill you, or worse, permanently disable you and your magic so that the pain of mana surge will be permanent."
Ouch. Yeah, he didn't want that.
"But then why am I not experiencing any pain from it now? I feel fine. Better than usual actually." Izuku told her.
"That's because you are an eleven-year-old child. As such you can bounce back from anything. I could hurl you off a cliff and you would walk it off. Take my word for it, the day will come when you wake up with inexplicable body pains, where your ankle or back hurt for no reason. And that will be the day you realize you have reached adulthood." Isendra explained.
Izuku smiled politely at the obvious joke, even if he didn't quite get it.
It made sense though. Him recovering from overusing a substance better than an adult seemed obvious, actually. Children had higher metabolisms, thus they healed faster, and had more flexible bones. Not to mention less developed nerves thus felt less pain, or so his dentist had explained to his mother at her concerns over the lack of anesthesia during his last cavity filling. That didn't mean he experienced less damage from overusing mana potions, just that he felt it less acutely and recovered from it more quickly.
"Are you ready to learn the firebolt spell?" Isendra asked as she finished off her breakfast.
Boy was he!
"You will need gloves." Isendra said.
Fortunately, there were several pairs in the pile of dead people's things just a meter away. He went over to the slightly organized pile and grabbed a pair of leather gloves.
"Put on two pairs." She instructed.
He put a second pair on over the first.
"And a helmet." She added.
He grabbed a metal helmet.
"Now, as you did with the wall of fire last night, extend the mana out of your body into a separate mass." She told him. "In the form of a sphere between your hands."
Izuku did so, and it came to him easily. It barely took him a minute before he succeeded. The ball of dim, blue light between his hands was barely visible in the bright sunlight, but it was there.
"Now light it on fire." She told him.
That part took less than a thought, and suddenly a ball of flame was hovering in the air between his hands.
"I did it!" Izuku yelled excitedly.
Isendra crushed that excitement along with his flame by reaching out with one hand and closing it into a fist, snuffing out the fire.
"You created a ball of fire. With that the most you could do is a weak flamethrower spell, useless against most enemies as pain will not slow down an undead nor a fallen." She said, "The firebolt is much more than that. It is concentrated, and it explodes with great heat and force upon impact with whatever you throw it at."
"Oh!" Izuku said. "So, I need to add a lot more mana, condense it and only ignite the outside of it? That way when it impacts all of the mana crushed inside will explode out at once?"
Isendra stared at him slack jawed.
"Yes. That is exactly right." She said suspiciously. "I'm starting to understand why my teachers hated me for being so much quicker to learn than them."
This was turning into his time with Akara all over again.
"Shall I try it?" Izuku asked.
"Now is as good a time as ever." She said, backing away from him.
He repeated the process again from earlier, this time pumping all of the mana he could through his arms into a point in the air between his hands. The ball of light he created this time was much brighter than before, like a star brought down to earth. Then, he ignited it.
When Izuku regained consciousness it was brought about by water being poured onto his face.
"Owe! What happened?" He asked Isendra.
"Same thing that happens to every sorcerer trying to cast the firebolt for the first time." She said. "It blew up in your face. No burns or lasting damage, just some soot. And I expect you will develop some bruises from that impressive explosion you caused."
So that's why she had backed away.
"For most people they don't actually send themselves flying two whole meters, but I think we have already established not to expect anything normal from you." Isendra said dryly. "Are you feeling any mana fatigue from that?"
Izuku stood up shakily, paying attention to his body as he did so. The same sensation of heavy exhaustion in his body that he had felt while cauterizing Alexis' wounds had returned during his nap.
He nodded.
"Drink a mouthful of this." She instructed, handing him a potion bottle.
It was too clear and light of a blue to be a regular mana potion, so he assumed she had just watered one down to be safe for him to drink. When he drank the mouthful as instructed he confirmed the same minty taste of a mana potion but milder.
"Wait a few moments, and when you stop feeling the increase in your mana drink another mouthful." She told him.
He did as she said, and they wound up repeating the process two more times before he felt like his mana was where it was when he woke up. She took a note of this in her journal, probably calculating how much mana potion that equated to.
"Now, I need you to try the firebolt again, this time using far less mana." She told him. "It will explode in your face. As will the third one and the thirtieth one. When you're able to maintain a firebolt between your hands for an entire minute we will move onto hurling it. And then work on your casting speed. And only then will you focus on power."
Izuku nodded. It was a logical process of development in his mind. Master casting the spell first, then doing so quickly enough to be of use at all in a battle, then improve it.
And so, the days passed.
His mornings were spent cleaning up the piles of human remains and his afternoons were spent knocking himself flat on his butt over and over again while Isendra studied Blood Raven's journal and organized their misbegotten goods. Each day ended with him scrubbing his face clean of the thick layer of soot he had earned. Along with the satisfaction that he had increased the time he could hold the spell by another ten seconds.
By the third day he had completely cleaned up the dead bodies and moved onto weeding the graves. Isendra had given him an odd look for his extra self-imposed labor when she had woken up and seen the results. She made no comment to encourage or dissuade him, so he kept at it.
It was on the fifth day that Isendra finally gave him further instructions.
"Now throw it." She said.
He tried to, but when he moved his hands to push it away it simply exploded.
"With your mana, young one." She corrected with a chuckle.
Ah. That made more sense. Sadly, it was easier said than done. It was another three days of attempts before he managed to send the firebolt flying instead of exploding in his face. By then the graveyard was free of weeds and he had even started on cleaning the tombstones themselves, though he had no hope of straightening them without a few heavy lifters there to help.
"You need to be able to hurl it more than two meters. I have seen you fire a bow. I know you can aim." She scolded.
Oh right. He had neglected his bow and knife practice these last six days. He would remedy that tomorrow, for now he needed to master the firebolt. He was so close it was maddening.
"I'd say you've pretty much learned the spell. You just need more practice." Isendra told him, clearly seeing his frustration. "In this at least your sensitivity to mana potions is a boon. One bottle is enough to keep your mana stores full for days. You can squeeze in far more practice than most apprentices. Believe me, you are making extraordinarily good time."
Izuku recognized her words as an invitation to take a break. He relented, putting his arms down and taking a deep breath.
"Come, sit with me. Let me show you what I have been learning." She ushered him towards her.
He came to her and sat on the ground just behind her.
"Moreina, in life, had picked up a few very useful spells. Including powerful healing spells, which I am not attuned to nor is my equipment. But more interesting is this." She said, opening to a page he couldn't make heads or tails of. "You cannot read runes, but this page and its diagrams depict a warp spell. A useful one that I have been learning while you practiced the firebolt."
Gheed was spending his evening doing what he did most evenings. Sitting on the edge of his cart smoking his pipe to wind down from the day.
Trading between the different encampments was long, slow work and the wagon from the east encampment brought with it tobacco and tea leaves, which most people thought he was crazy for combining.
"Any good drink come in today?" Warriv asked as he approached.
"Sadly, no." Gheed said. "But the bread is oddly plentiful. Hopefully the hunting party brings back some good meat this time."
"Anything but blood hawk meat is all I pray for." Warriv sighed in wanting.
One second the two men were being jovial, the next they were cowering beneath his wagon as a great, white gate opened up right next to them.
Peeking out from their hiding place, bereft of weapons, they saw a small figure walk through it carrying a burlap sack nearly as large as he was.
"Oh hey Warriv. Gheed. What are you doing down there?" Izuku asked politely.
"Um. Hiding from potential hordes of fallen flooding through a portal that just opened up next to us?" Warriv offered.
"Huh. Well that isn't going to happen, only nice people can get through this gate." Izuku told them. "Well I need to get these bags of bonemeal, ash and dust to Kashya. If you could help me with that, Warriv. Then I need to come sell you a lot of neat stuff, Gheed."
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