"Are you making fun of me?" Aureum asked.
The crone's tone in the comment was as if she spoke about the rain.
"What bad weather, that's not good."
It didn't feel adequate.
Spesavia gave a sly glance to the younger woman.
"So what if he knows? He failed. Which means we know. All that needs to happen is we're faster and we stay out of reach. More reason to keep walking."
Aureum got the message. She started to walk again.
"But what if—
"No," Spesavia said, raising her hand. "I do not deal in what ifs. We need to keep walking, so that's what we'll do. No more thoughts for you about it."
Aureum nodded. That was the thing about knowing Spesavia from when she was a child. When she said something, Aureum tended to do it. Though, most people wouldn't try to argue with an ascended sorceress in the first place.
They reached the outskirts of the city, passing through a different direction from when Aureum had arrived. Instead of seeing Fluentem from a hill, she saw the Vena, that huge, slow river, giving her a thousand lapping farewells with each wave.
She looked back. This wasn't a poetic gesture. They had stopped, without explanation, and Aureum was already hot.
The city of Fluentem looked as it always did. Worn down but grand. Even the ruins that surrounded it seemed like a sort of crown for the city, garlanded by trees and vines as they were. Viadelux helped, but Fluentem was far from any days of glory, no matter which direction one looked.
It was a waste. The kind of waste that hurt. Aureum didn't know if she wanted Nix to be more like Fluentem, or Fluentem to be like Nix.
Aureum turned away to look back at her mentor.
Spesavia stood with her feet in the mud. Her shoes were so worn out that a toe stuck out on the right, but she didn't care.
Her hand reached into the water. Aureum could feel the mana moving, but whatever Spesavia was doing, she didn't feel the need to use an excessive amount. There was no glow.
There was also no obvious change.
"What are you doing?"
"Singing for a ride," Spesavia said.
"Huh?"
"Well, it's not like you can walk along the ocean floor," Spesavia said, "and we're in a rush."
Aureum didn't have long to wait.
A strange wave appeared on the water. No, it wasn't a wave. It was something large moving right beneath the surface.
"Whoa!"
Then it broke.
A giant sea creature shook its head in a curve as Aureum watched. She took an involuntary step back.
With only her passing knowledge of ocean life, it looked like a long-necked, smooth-skinned fish with stout fins.
A splash of water doused her and Spesavia.
With the mana she sensed from it, it was a beast of some kind, not some mere animal.
"What! What in the world is that?!"
This wasn't Aureum, but a cry from a man on a ship. Spesavia had called this monster in the middle of the day, within everyone going about their daily life.
There was a lot of shouting. Mostly of shock.
"Call the guard!"
It towered over Spesavia and Aureum. Spesavia turned, water dripping from her gray hair.
"Well, come on, girl. We have to get on its back before they start trying to shoot us."
Aureum took a few hesitant steps.
"Maybe they'll wait."
"Don't be stupid."
Spesavia, old Spesavia, clambered upon its smooth back like she was a monkey.
"It won't eat you while I'm here," she said. "Get on before I drag you behind us in the waves."
"Yes."
A few more careful steps. It was very big and breathing.
Aureum swallowed.
She ran the rest of the way and leapt. With the cloak, she skipped the climb. Instead, she got closer to its head.
Slowly, it turned towards her. Its black eye was as large as her head. She felt her heart speed up.
Then she was falling past it till she landed.
"Be careful of her back, Aureum," Spesavia said. "If you hurt her by accident, even I would not stop her from eating you."
"Mmhmm," was all she could manage.
Her heart felt like it was in her mouth. As soon as she became sort of situated, the thing started moving underneath her.
"Oh, no!"
"Keep your mouth shut!" Spesavia said.
Then it dove underwater.
Aureum felt the panic rising inside her as the water slid over her. But that's all the water did. It slid off from around her, and a bubble formed around them.
She wasn't even wet.
Spesavia had dried them off.
"You can talk now," the crone said, sitting in front, her back to Aureum.
Aureum could see her looking at the river around them.
The fact that there was an entire river around them made Aureum feel more shaky, so she looked at Spesavia's back. The water blocked off the senses she had, and even the wind inside the bubble felt thin.
"Could I get a warning next time?" Aureum asked.
Spesavia chuckled.
"Did you think I was gonna carry you quicker? No, if we have to go fast, this is the best way to travel. For a little while at least. Less records left this way, too."
"Alright…"
"Don't you have any questions?" Spesavia said, turning her head back. "The conversation might help the little wind sorceress."
Aureum carefully crawled herself forward, away from the edges of the bubble. Spesavia bothered to turn around fully, too, sitting cross-legged before her with as much confidence as some minor deity.
"Did you know this would happen? When you gave me the potion?"
"Know that what would happen? The approaching war? That I would remember? That it would be this far? Try to be specific when asking questions, Aureum. I knew it would turn back time, but all my other experiments did. Though they only went back a month or two at most."
"Is that what you expected this one to do?"
"No," Spesavia looked away. "It had a few extra ingredients. I knew it would do better."
"Was it what you wanted?" Aureum said.
"Well, it didn't go back three hundred years, did it? But it's turned out pretty handy after all. Did you know, Aureum, what would happen to you? Why did you choose to use it? I told you it could kill you."
"I was desperate," Aureum said, leaning forward. "I would have done anything to escape."
"Escape? Aureum, what happened to you?"
Aureum looked down. All those years were real. All those years of suffering were real. As much as she looked younger and had no scars, they still happened.
She had never logically denied it, but emotionally, perhaps she had never accepted it. No, it wasn't disbelief. She had fled the knowledge of it. Buried it as quickly as she could.
"It wasn't something simple, was it."
"I was imprisoned, Spesavia!" Aureum said. "I was abandoned by Nivis! Nothing I did worked. They wouldn't let me divorce, despite all my attempts. They wouldn't let me leave!"
"People can be funny like that," Spesavia said, resting a hand on Aureum's head. "Even if they won't love you, they don't accept the shame of being wrong."
Aureum sniffled. More tears. It felt like the past few days had been crying and fighting back crying. Spesavia used a lazy gesture to lift them off Aureum's face into the river without a touch.
"Now, now. Don't cry. The worst should be over."
"If he knows, Spesavia!" Aureum said, grabbing Spesavia's arm. "If he knows what am I going to do?!"
Spesavia looked at the offending hand. Then at her pupil.
"I doubt he knows everything," Spesavia said, pulling away gently. "He might have sensed the large amount of mana so close by, but at the same time, the amount may have confused him of the location. How doggedly did he pursue you?"
Aureum shook her head.
"I don't know, I wouldn't have even known if it weren't for Mendax."
"Mendax?"
"It's not his real name," Aureum said. "He was sent to kill me, but didn't."
"What? The little Aureum I know, seducing assassins into letting her live?"
"No, that's not what happened! I think he seduced himself, if that was his motivation. I didn't do anything, and we weren't anything!"
"Whatever, whatever! His motivations could be as many things as there are stars," Spesavia leaned her eyes towards Aureum with a glint in them. "If one man was all he sent after you, I doubt that he knows how exactly you were involved with time changing. Or he currently assumes you aren't the direct source, and doesn't care about recreating it. Which seems unlikely."
"It might've been two… but I guess even two people aren't enough if he knew."
Then… did he order me to die just based on how I ran away?
Aureum didn't know anything of importance, and she didn't have any strength to speak of.
Paranoid fool.
"Chin up," Spesavia said. "He'll likely be too distracted to worry about you. With the board like this, everything is going to accelerate. And he shouldn't have as many people on his side this time."
"How could things get worse than they already are?" Aureum said. "For as much as every child is told 'beware of tyrants' every city has its own tyrant."
Spesavia shook her head.
"Things could get worse in many ways. We could all be under one king and suffering the same, with nowhere to flee to. Even having a place to flee to still means you're suffering. We could all be under tiny tyrants fighting each other and dying."
She broke off, scratching the side of her nose.
"You may not remember, and your parents may not remember, but I remember such things. We common folk starved in the streets as the men marched to their death at a command. These times aren't all that bad."
"And who calls us a 'soft generation' at least twice a week?"
"It's collateral," Spesavia said. "The previous generation provides what it couldn't get to that generation, they become spoiled, and the third or fourth generation are robbed from because they weren't taught good values from the spoiled ones."
"Good values? And what kind of values keep you from getting robbed?"
"Don't trust pretty men or women with easy smiles, don't follow people blindly in any locations you don't know, and carry a sharp knife."
Now Aureum shook her head.
"I don't think those tips help with getting robbed by the Lords of a city."
"Didn't you hear me? Don't trust pretty smiles."
"Okay, maybe Nix is graced with a pretty ruler, but not all Lords are like him. A lot have pretty ugly smiles. It's more about not going against authority. It's easier."
Spesavia scoffed.
"Nothin' worse than letting someone move into your house and move you out just because of some 'authority'. People turned against each other, everybody too afraid to speak, and who guzzles down everything they make? Some fool and his assorted gang of cronies, all thieves to the last. By the time people wake up, it takes bodies to get out."
Aureum looked to the river. It was dark, green, and foggy. They were much deeper than they'd been before. Spesavia had the only light in the place, a necklace of dull rock with a hole through it that shone.
"I can't do anything about it alone," Aureum said. "Even if I see the criminals for who they are, they have all the power. And how do I convince a city that their lord is mad? They seemed to be happy with him doing whatever he pleases."
"Tch!" Aureum scoffed before she continued. "It would be too inconvenient for people to want to believe."
"Now that's the truth," Spesavia said. "'Course, the fact that nobody can ever seem to agree on how to fix anything doesn't help."
"I guess somebody has to lead," Aureum said. "I just wish it could be the wisest, instead of the strongest."
This got a chuckle from Spesavia.
"Have you ever seen a wise man go first?" Spesavia said. "And does a truly strong man hide behind every wall he can build?"
"Now you're just playing with semantics, you old crone!"
"Heheheh! I'm not going to say it's not a simplification, but maybe you'll see the point to my views someday."
"So what? It's good advice to build walls when there's danger outside."
"And sometimes those walls make the danger. 'We'll be safe with more men and bigger walls,' people say. And sometimes it's true. But what stops a king when his greed goes towards his people? Then the walls are a cage, and the guards, wardens, and the people? They are like slaves."
Spesavia rustled a bit. She pulled out an old little wooden bottle.
"Ah, forget about me, Aureum," Spesavia said. "I've seen too much. Things aren't always this way. Most of us old history books won't just stand around to see things happen again."
Then who does she want to lead?
It seemed every kind of leadership had its problems, and past a certain point, leadership was just necessary. But Aureum was already tired of grand discussions. She kept it to herself.
"Do you remember this?" Spesavia said.
"No."
The old woman pulled the lid from the bottle. It had a stick with a carved-out hole attached to it.
"It's a toy we give to young water sorcerers. Makes them think about control. I showed it to you as a kid. Watch!"
Spesavia dipped the lid in the container and brought it to her lips, blowing bubbles.
"What? That's just a bubble-maker!"
Aureum laughed.
"Heh! What teaching trick for young kids?" Aureum said. "That's just a toy!"
"It can also be a tool!" Spesavia said joyously. "But it makes an excellent toy too."
"I don't think you're even using mana, just a bit of solution to make the bubbles stick!"
"I'm using mana! So fine even you can't sense it!"
The crone blew bubbles into Aureum's face.
"Now come on, don't let the bubbles escape. That's our air."
"Ohhh, I see you stuck some training in there still."
"It's a game! Catch the bubbles, Aureum! Nope! Hands aren't allowed!"
Aureum complied. By the time she'd caught or accidentally popped the bubbles, she'd forgotten some of the more dreary things. It wasn't difficult, but at the same time, she was far from doing it to perfection.
"We should have made bets on it," Spesavia said. "Then you wouldn't have been so lazy about it. Eh! Now that I've entertained you, you must now entertain me."
"Got anything specific in mind?" Aureum said.
"Just tell me about all that has happened to you. Both present and past."
"Not like we have much else to do," Aureum said.