Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
fair enough.....
still...seeing the look of self loathing and despair on the peoples faces when their faith and way of life is proven wrong would probably be cathartic...
You want me to (what)? FOZ/SI
- Thread starter Emanucode
- Start date
still...seeing the look of self loathing and despair on the peoples faces when their faith and way of life is proven wrong would probably be cathartic...
Sam L Rioter
Perpetually Confused Tentacle Monster
- Location
- <Insert Tentacle Joke Here>
That in no way, shape, or form helps you.
I'm pretty sure that the chaos caused by destroying a religion that, however loosely, binds the various nations together would make maneuvering and getting home harder.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
...thats a good point....
Ok, gave it a read, and being honest here: It's a terrible bash-fic with a complete jerkass sue of a protagonist, apparently using the worst possible interpretations of canon (plus discarding all context, thematic exaggerations and variations from one version to another) to make the bashed characters look worse. And how the main character is a complete jerkass sue deserves further emphasis, because so far all that he's shown is all he's an "edgy" "badass" who "takes no shit" (but gives a lot of shit to everybody, but with no consequences out of it).
Sam L Rioter
Perpetually Confused Tentacle Monster
- Location
- <Insert Tentacle Joke Here>
The thing about first person perspective is that you can't treat how the perspective character interprets another individual actions as what they actually are.
There's a difference between being pissed about getting branded and told to do someone's laundry and then interpreig that character as having unkind motivations and someone being out of characterly evil.
Also three chapters that were basically: get summoned, get angry, make a deal, and gtfo.
Really kinda early to just declare that it's a bash-fic and SI is just an annoying hypocrit
Interlude
"But Professor Colbert, I didn't do it!" Exclaimed the pink haired girl exasperatedly tried to explain to the stubborn professor who as of yet didn't seem capable of listening to reason.
She seethed, how that simpleton commoner dared to do something like this was beyond her. She summons him and is kind enough to offer him a position to serve her, daughter to a Duke and Duchess, and the brute somehow breaks into the imperial vault. This was supposed to be her crowning moment, the proof that she was capable of casting something other than an explosion, and he couldn't even respect that enough to stay around? The bastard even had the GALL to throw her clothes into the courtyard, she had to walk around in her nightclothes! Well, no one ever accused commoners of being able to act rationally, it's always been the burden of the nobles to guide their lessors. Still, when she got her hands on him….
"Be that as it may, the actions of the Familiar are the responsibility of the Mage, while we are still investigating the long string of failures that lead to this lapse, it is still possible that your familiar had some hand in what happened. He was seen near the scene of the crime a few hours before, and spoke with another person who is still unaccounted for." The balding professor explained.
"But I helped stop the thief in the end, I destroyed three of the golems with my magic!" The pinkette said smugly, "doesn't that prove my innocence?"
The military investigator sent from the capital shook his head, "Miss, I've seen the hallway where you allegedly stopped these golems, we only found a small amount of the items taken from the vault, but you blew through a Class 3 territory enchantment on the wall behind it, which is supposed to be impossible. Tell me, did you help the crumbling dirt in his break in? We have evidence that the wards were disrupted for a time, which isn't impossible to do for you. It isn't out of the question that you orchestrated this, or it's also possible that you were seduced into it, girls your age tend to be impressionable, if you tell me what you know I can recommend leniency."
Louise's face was reddening, "How, how dare you! You insolent piece of commoner filth, you think you can come into here and make your ridiculous assertions, to ME? I am the daughter of the DUKE himself! My mother is the HEAVY WIND!" She shouted angrily, gesticulating with her arms wildy.
"Now now, calm down Miss Vallière ," Osmond said consolingly whilst stroking his beard, "We're not trying to place blame here, the truth is that there are many people who are responsible, the person supposed to be on guard to the vault was sleeping for example. As long as you bring the treasure back from wherever you and whoever helped you hid it, we can chalk it away as a lapse in judgement on your part, without involving the crown"
The investigator looked uncomfortable at this, but this wasn't the first time he's heard of similar arrangements. More than once he's had to let someone go because of who they were or who they knew. He didn't like it, but Nobles were Nobles after all. If they got the treasure back in the end then favors would be exchanged and it would all be wiped clean with a convenient non-noble scapegoat. Ugh.
"Wasn't her," the blue haired girl who was silent up until then mentioned, "Was flying dragon at night, courtyard was in full view, she wasn't there."
"Then why didn't you stop her!"
"Dangerous." She summarized.
"Professor, if I find my stupid familiar before he manages to get rid of whatever he took, would that be acceptable?"
"Ah, that may be a bit hard to do if you truly weren't involved, we found fifteen separate tracks leading in all directions, while most are undoubtedly fake trails that will end after a few miles, we still have to investigate all of them. It is exceedingly unlikely that you will be able find him. Have you had any success with trying to share his senses?"
She blushed, "Err, I tried it and it kind of, didn't really work?"
"Do you at least get his name, so we can put the word out?"
"Why would I ask my servant his name? If anything he should ask me for what I would prefer to call him"
The headmaster put his head in his hands and sighed, "It isn't advertised openly, but there is a way to forcibly widen the connection between familiar and owner temporarily by way of potion, allowing them to intuitively know where the other is. However, it's dangerous and expensive, and even more unfortunately our small supply was among the items taken. It also takes an entire week to brew, I'll get someone to start on it right away, but we won't be able to even start looking for your familiar, assuming he's even involved, until a week from now." He explained.
Why? Why was such a cruel thing happening to her? Her prayers were answered, she finally cast a real spell, proved she was a Noble. It was enough to have her not to have to bear the shame of being kicked out of school. Now her familiar not only ran away, but implicated her in a crime as he left. What'd she ever do to him? She was more polite than he deserved even. She didn't know who a lowly commoner could possibly help with something like a magical robbery, which was undoubtedly done by a skilled mage (not noble!), but it didn't even matter anymore. She had a way to find him, once it was done she would help find him herself, and for the crime of humiliating her in front of her peers, she would get her revenge!
~~~
"Was that really necessary?" Asked Colbert in the privacy of the headmaster's office after the grueling interviews they all had to go through. "You knew she wasn't involved and yet you pointed the investigation straight at her"
Osmond tried not to show how nervous he was in front of his colleague, "Yes, it's unfortunate, but it's imperative that we get the treasure back. If anyone discovers how lacking our security measures were for the kingdoms treasury, we could even lose support from the Crown. Besides, even if the potion doesn't exist, it will keep her occupied for a week while the real search continues. I contacted her mother letting her know how bad it could look if the Vallière's were involved in a scandal like this, and she's agreed to personally head the search. She's already talking to whoever owes her anything to recruit more bodies to cover more ground."
"Will that be enough?"
"We better hope so" The headmaster grimly stated.
She seethed, how that simpleton commoner dared to do something like this was beyond her. She summons him and is kind enough to offer him a position to serve her, daughter to a Duke and Duchess, and the brute somehow breaks into the imperial vault. This was supposed to be her crowning moment, the proof that she was capable of casting something other than an explosion, and he couldn't even respect that enough to stay around? The bastard even had the GALL to throw her clothes into the courtyard, she had to walk around in her nightclothes! Well, no one ever accused commoners of being able to act rationally, it's always been the burden of the nobles to guide their lessors. Still, when she got her hands on him….
"Be that as it may, the actions of the Familiar are the responsibility of the Mage, while we are still investigating the long string of failures that lead to this lapse, it is still possible that your familiar had some hand in what happened. He was seen near the scene of the crime a few hours before, and spoke with another person who is still unaccounted for." The balding professor explained.
"But I helped stop the thief in the end, I destroyed three of the golems with my magic!" The pinkette said smugly, "doesn't that prove my innocence?"
The military investigator sent from the capital shook his head, "Miss, I've seen the hallway where you allegedly stopped these golems, we only found a small amount of the items taken from the vault, but you blew through a Class 3 territory enchantment on the wall behind it, which is supposed to be impossible. Tell me, did you help the crumbling dirt in his break in? We have evidence that the wards were disrupted for a time, which isn't impossible to do for you. It isn't out of the question that you orchestrated this, or it's also possible that you were seduced into it, girls your age tend to be impressionable, if you tell me what you know I can recommend leniency."
Louise's face was reddening, "How, how dare you! You insolent piece of commoner filth, you think you can come into here and make your ridiculous assertions, to ME? I am the daughter of the DUKE himself! My mother is the HEAVY WIND!" She shouted angrily, gesticulating with her arms wildy.
"Now now, calm down Miss Vallière ," Osmond said consolingly whilst stroking his beard, "We're not trying to place blame here, the truth is that there are many people who are responsible, the person supposed to be on guard to the vault was sleeping for example. As long as you bring the treasure back from wherever you and whoever helped you hid it, we can chalk it away as a lapse in judgement on your part, without involving the crown"
The investigator looked uncomfortable at this, but this wasn't the first time he's heard of similar arrangements. More than once he's had to let someone go because of who they were or who they knew. He didn't like it, but Nobles were Nobles after all. If they got the treasure back in the end then favors would be exchanged and it would all be wiped clean with a convenient non-noble scapegoat. Ugh.
"Wasn't her," the blue haired girl who was silent up until then mentioned, "Was flying dragon at night, courtyard was in full view, she wasn't there."
"Then why didn't you stop her!"
"Dangerous." She summarized.
"Professor, if I find my stupid familiar before he manages to get rid of whatever he took, would that be acceptable?"
"Ah, that may be a bit hard to do if you truly weren't involved, we found fifteen separate tracks leading in all directions, while most are undoubtedly fake trails that will end after a few miles, we still have to investigate all of them. It is exceedingly unlikely that you will be able find him. Have you had any success with trying to share his senses?"
She blushed, "Err, I tried it and it kind of, didn't really work?"
"Do you at least get his name, so we can put the word out?"
"Why would I ask my servant his name? If anything he should ask me for what I would prefer to call him"
The headmaster put his head in his hands and sighed, "It isn't advertised openly, but there is a way to forcibly widen the connection between familiar and owner temporarily by way of potion, allowing them to intuitively know where the other is. However, it's dangerous and expensive, and even more unfortunately our small supply was among the items taken. It also takes an entire week to brew, I'll get someone to start on it right away, but we won't be able to even start looking for your familiar, assuming he's even involved, until a week from now." He explained.
Why? Why was such a cruel thing happening to her? Her prayers were answered, she finally cast a real spell, proved she was a Noble. It was enough to have her not to have to bear the shame of being kicked out of school. Now her familiar not only ran away, but implicated her in a crime as he left. What'd she ever do to him? She was more polite than he deserved even. She didn't know who a lowly commoner could possibly help with something like a magical robbery, which was undoubtedly done by a skilled mage (not noble!), but it didn't even matter anymore. She had a way to find him, once it was done she would help find him herself, and for the crime of humiliating her in front of her peers, she would get her revenge!
~~~
"Was that really necessary?" Asked Colbert in the privacy of the headmaster's office after the grueling interviews they all had to go through. "You knew she wasn't involved and yet you pointed the investigation straight at her"
Osmond tried not to show how nervous he was in front of his colleague, "Yes, it's unfortunate, but it's imperative that we get the treasure back. If anyone discovers how lacking our security measures were for the kingdoms treasury, we could even lose support from the Crown. Besides, even if the potion doesn't exist, it will keep her occupied for a week while the real search continues. I contacted her mother letting her know how bad it could look if the Vallière's were involved in a scandal like this, and she's agreed to personally head the search. She's already talking to whoever owes her anything to recruit more bodies to cover more ground."
"Will that be enough?"
"We better hope so" The headmaster grimly stated.
you're screwed.
Remember kids, say no to psychedelic potions.
Romantic_Kaiju
Romantic Kaiju
- Location
- National Battlefield
You really, really need to get out of Tristian fast. Karin has lots of favors, and pull with the Queen. Run, son, run.
Sam L Rioter
Perpetually Confused Tentacle Monster
- Location
- <Insert Tentacle Joke Here>
OK now this seems a little bash-fic-ish
Louise seemed a bit out of character overly ignorant and bitchy.
Edit: Went and read SB comments,
is it just me or does SpaceBattles seem more critical of things in general?,
And people didn't say much about Louise's attitude.
Has it really been that long since I read FOZ
Louise seemed a bit out of character overly ignorant and bitchy.
Edit: Went and read SB comments,
is it just me or does SpaceBattles seem more critical of things in general?,
And people didn't say much about Louise's attitude.
Has it really been that long since I read FOZ
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Canon Louise didn't ask for her (presumably lifetime) servant's name until quite a while in. She's really proud of being a noble, and up until recently was really insecure about not being able to magic right. She was looking forward to being a "real" mage for years now, and then she gets her big break so she's overcompensating on the whole "I'm a noble and now I DESERVE all the noble things".
Now all of a sudden everyone is saying her big moment of success is a failure, and all these negative things about her. Everyone is acting like it's a forgeone conclusion that she's guilty, and she went to sleep believing she's innocent. And it's all a commoners fault. She's pissed and not acting completely rationally right now (she's a teenage girl remember). Without someone (the SI) the vent on, she's going to get extremely pissed and go off on any perceived disrespect from anyone she thinks she can get away with yelling at.
I thought the characterization was all right, but I'm always open for criticism, if you have any suggestions I'll be glad to hear them.
- Location
- Poland
I think the characterisation was right, except for one thing: the self entitled attitude.
The problem here isn't that she's acting like pretty much every caricature of Draco Malfoy ever. It's that her dialogue makes her feel very flat. It's a knee-jerk response to think about Louise this way. If the first and the only thing that comes out of Louise's mouth is the self entitled bullshit that would make any modern person scoff in disgust, then someone might assume that that is the only thing that will ever come out of that mouth and the reaction is to expect more of the same until they're proven wrong.
This is pretty much an immune response to years of reading badfics where people don't act like real people, but caricatures of themselves.
tl;dr Louise didn't come off as completely believably human to my modern sensibilities
The problem here isn't that she's acting like pretty much every caricature of Draco Malfoy ever. It's that her dialogue makes her feel very flat. It's a knee-jerk response to think about Louise this way. If the first and the only thing that comes out of Louise's mouth is the self entitled bullshit that would make any modern person scoff in disgust, then someone might assume that that is the only thing that will ever come out of that mouth and the reaction is to expect more of the same until they're proven wrong.
This is pretty much an immune response to years of reading badfics where people don't act like real people, but caricatures of themselves.
tl;dr Louise didn't come off as completely believably human to my modern sensibilities
Yeah, while her current circumstances mean that her super entitled defensive response is plausible-ish, it's still almost all we've seen of her, which makes us assume she'll continue like this indefinitely. Hopefully we'll see her in different situation and get a more sympathetic and human side. This is probably just an issue with serials. If next chapter she, for instance, waits to be in private to cry about not being strong enough like mother, we would recognize it as a reaction of a more complex character.
- Location
- Little Rock, AR
And we have a bash fic. That blatant self entitled disrepect in this situation when dealing with a milatary official? The stupid fantastic racism beyond anything she's shown in canon. And Dropping her family and her mothers name ever for anything. These things are not louise. Their a caricature of an arrogant noble who doesn't do anything when Znt's conceit is that Noble do shit and alot of it on a death world, and harem hijink, and comedic sociopathy. Congratulations on dooming a continent and leaving a chick to get raped and take the rap for your grand felony. Also in pissing off an alienating Znts leonardo da vinci, the government, and the pope all the people you need to get home.
Dimensionist
Grandmaster of Apologism, Keeper of the Faith
- Location
- Bangalore, India
Agreed for the most part. You actually could do something with this concept, but the characterization here is way out of whack.
I've only seen the first season of the anime and a bit of the second but the characterization seams about right also who did he leave to get raped
- Location
- Poland
Don't worry about it. Larekko has "holier than thou" syndrome.
Dimensionist
Grandmaster of Apologism, Keeper of the Faith
- Location
- Bangalore, India
Well, to be blunt, the anime flanderizes the characters for status quo shenanigans and pandering.
The LN also favors status quo, but at least there the characters are more nuanced and their reasons for doing what they do is explored. And Louise? She's not like she's portrayed here, where it's a deliberate twisting of the negative aspects of her character and applying them to people it really shouldn't apply to. Heck, even the bit I saw of the anime doesn't correspond to this sort of a characterization, so I'm dubious of even that.
So no, Larekko's not got 'holier than thou' syndrome. I may not entirely agree with the condemnation of the SI for running away, since the story has just started and all the overarching problems are a bit far away, in addition to him merely choosing to escape being the equivalent of a pet or indentured servant - but he's spot on when he says this is more a caricature than a character, and the author's clear bias against the character is showing, which is always awkward to read about.
- Location
- Little Rock, AR
The Anime is the lowest canon and Louise who gets charmed in the magic sense into betraying queen and country and I guess Guiche if things ever come to head.
In any case Louise is never this much of a brat to anyone not Saito and engaging in a mutually antagonistic orgy of hate, and is especially not to people in authority. She also never ever name drops her family even when being shat on, especially when being shat on. It goes against her pride and her entire complex what with her mom essentially being captain America with Tornados while she is Captain America before the serum.
She's not Draco Malfoy. Going to her mom is giving up and she's more likely to eat her wand than do that.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm gonna have to concur. This is a bashfic straight out of the classic days of Ranma 1/2 flanderization. With a standard edgy douche SI too. Also this?
No. There are plenty of shows, especially among anime and manga, which mix silly slapstick with serious action willy nilly. Yes, its incoherent. But at the end of the day, we aren't supposed to take the comedic sociopathy on the same level as the serious characterization parts. Even when those parts are intertwined by the plot. I agree that its dumb, but that's the material you are working with. Respect it. Make it work.
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1.3
After a short breakfast of some bland tasting rations, I sat down in amusement as I watched Matilda frustratingly tried incantation after incantation to try and work out how to use the "staff of destruction". Once she got to the point where she was trying (unsuccessfully) to mimic wand movements with it I decided to help her out.
"That's a weapon from my homeland, and one time use as well, I can show you how to use it so you can show your Bosses for some brownie points"
She glared at me, and then took several deep breaths before speaking, "If you knew this whole time, then why didn't you speak up earlier!"
"Well I needed your help identifying my treasure, and I figured maybe if I knew something you wanted then that might be something I could trade, for all I knew you might have decided to petty and tell me that wasn't part of the deal or something"
She chuckled weakly, "Who, me? Would I do something like that?"
"Yes?"
She raised her finger at me as if she was going to dispute it, then after a thoughtful look she lowered it, "Well…I would have, but you had no way of knowing that. But that's not really the problem here, you came out of nowhere with a strange accent, know things you can't have any business knowing, and just piss me off for no reason at all. Still, you've been trustworthy so far so I can't see why we can't do a mutual exchange of information"
"Sounds good, so the way you use it is-"
"By mutual exchange I meant question for question, I've just about had it up to here with the way you seem to think it's hilarious to surprise me with your strangely relevant knowledge, if you know it there's no reason why I can't learn about it now when it can help me rather than you just dishing it out as you please to seem mysterious"
I thought about it, it was a pretty reasonable offer. It might not be the best idea since she was working for people who would probably want me to work for them or die, I remembered that one guy who was going to shoot Saito if he tried to leave for home as a prime example. Still, compared to the fact that I was the Gandalfr and DIDN'T want to work for the "holy land" which they would figure out soon enough without me, nothing else would make them want to kill me MORE.
"Allright, but we get veto rights to questions, and I'm only doing this on the condition that we don't answer them just technically correctly, but answering the intent of the question along with relevant information. If we don't want to answer just say so and we can ask something else for our question"
"Agreed, I'll go first then, the way you swung that sword into concrete, and how you weren't afraid at all when you met me, you aren't human are you? Are you one of the firstborn?"
"That's 2 questions, but I'll let it slide. No I'm not one of the firstborn, I'm human, and any supernatural abilities I have either come in from items on my person or from my familiar runes."
"What do you know about the elves, specifically information relevant to the goal of me contacting them and maybe potentially defecting to them and requesting asylum or something"
She was so stunned (by my genius perhaps?) that she couldn't even reply for a few seconds.
"That's..the stupidest idea I've ever heard. For founder's sake, I even witnessed that girl Louise argue for the better part of an hour with the school nurse that it was possible that she had a water affinity, and that if she tried a healing spell on a person in her care she might finally unlock her magic. Let me tell you exactly why it wouldn't work.
First, elves for the most part hate humans, you can argue about whether or not it's deserved or not, but they guard their borders jealously. They catch anyone but a small number of approved traders going through their lands and they will bombard the area with spells-"
I waved my sword at her
"- and even assuming you somehow survived that, which will be difficult even with your fancy sword, they wouldn't even listen to you. They'd open a sinkhole beneath you to get past your magic resistance, and then take you prisoner to question how you managed to resist them. And they're proud and xenophobic as well, they think that humans are beneath them, in their culture they don't even consider their people to have a say in things until they're 100 years old. I can guarantee you that after a minute of listening to your babble you'd be lucky to get executed quickly and painlessly, and even that will only happen if you somehow didn't manage to insult them by then"
"Ehh, bad idea then. I thought they were basically tree hippies with magic, go ahead with your next question"
"What's the source of your information?"
"I'm going to veto if you ask any more about that, but to cut a long story short, through a roundabout series of events which I'm still having trouble believing, I ended up skimming several books that detailed notable players and events that would occur in the future assuming someone other than me got summoned. I didn't think they were real so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but broad picture wise I know more than most people that aren't the major movers know."
"My next question is; assuming I tell you everything of relevance I can remember, will you let me bunker down in the orphanage with Tiffania? I kinda got nowhere to go, and if I'm right you can really use my help"
"What's happening at the orphanage?"
"It was my question, but that segways into what I want anyway so I'll let it slide, basically there's going to be a war, lots of troops moving around, and I THINK that Tiffania is going to get her cover blown going into town or something, which is something I could do FOR her, hint hint, and there may or may not be more troops in the area, and I don't remember the rest. I do know that she's a void mage, and that key people in the church will be able to recognize the signs, and I KNOW that if they know about her they'll want her to help with the war effort, willingly or not."
She stood up angrily, " FUCK! THOSE BASTARDS! THEY KNEW THE WHOLE TIME. Just do some tasks for us Matilda, we'll leave the orphanage alone Matilda, just one more task and you're done Matilda, they were playing me the whole time? They were never intending to let me go, were they?"
"Like I said I don't know all the details, but if I had to guess I'd say probably not, so, do we have a deal?"
She nodded, "Fine, yes, tell me everything"
So I did. After all I'd need allies and support if I ever wanted to do anything other than run for the rest of my life, a friendly void mage and kickass earth mage who both had no loyalty to the local Cult were about as good as I could hope for. Things were definitely looking up!
A/N: End of the first arc
"That's a weapon from my homeland, and one time use as well, I can show you how to use it so you can show your Bosses for some brownie points"
She glared at me, and then took several deep breaths before speaking, "If you knew this whole time, then why didn't you speak up earlier!"
"Well I needed your help identifying my treasure, and I figured maybe if I knew something you wanted then that might be something I could trade, for all I knew you might have decided to petty and tell me that wasn't part of the deal or something"
She chuckled weakly, "Who, me? Would I do something like that?"
"Yes?"
She raised her finger at me as if she was going to dispute it, then after a thoughtful look she lowered it, "Well…I would have, but you had no way of knowing that. But that's not really the problem here, you came out of nowhere with a strange accent, know things you can't have any business knowing, and just piss me off for no reason at all. Still, you've been trustworthy so far so I can't see why we can't do a mutual exchange of information"
"Sounds good, so the way you use it is-"
"By mutual exchange I meant question for question, I've just about had it up to here with the way you seem to think it's hilarious to surprise me with your strangely relevant knowledge, if you know it there's no reason why I can't learn about it now when it can help me rather than you just dishing it out as you please to seem mysterious"
I thought about it, it was a pretty reasonable offer. It might not be the best idea since she was working for people who would probably want me to work for them or die, I remembered that one guy who was going to shoot Saito if he tried to leave for home as a prime example. Still, compared to the fact that I was the Gandalfr and DIDN'T want to work for the "holy land" which they would figure out soon enough without me, nothing else would make them want to kill me MORE.
"Allright, but we get veto rights to questions, and I'm only doing this on the condition that we don't answer them just technically correctly, but answering the intent of the question along with relevant information. If we don't want to answer just say so and we can ask something else for our question"
"Agreed, I'll go first then, the way you swung that sword into concrete, and how you weren't afraid at all when you met me, you aren't human are you? Are you one of the firstborn?"
"That's 2 questions, but I'll let it slide. No I'm not one of the firstborn, I'm human, and any supernatural abilities I have either come in from items on my person or from my familiar runes."
"What do you know about the elves, specifically information relevant to the goal of me contacting them and maybe potentially defecting to them and requesting asylum or something"
She was so stunned (by my genius perhaps?) that she couldn't even reply for a few seconds.
"That's..the stupidest idea I've ever heard. For founder's sake, I even witnessed that girl Louise argue for the better part of an hour with the school nurse that it was possible that she had a water affinity, and that if she tried a healing spell on a person in her care she might finally unlock her magic. Let me tell you exactly why it wouldn't work.
First, elves for the most part hate humans, you can argue about whether or not it's deserved or not, but they guard their borders jealously. They catch anyone but a small number of approved traders going through their lands and they will bombard the area with spells-"
I waved my sword at her
"- and even assuming you somehow survived that, which will be difficult even with your fancy sword, they wouldn't even listen to you. They'd open a sinkhole beneath you to get past your magic resistance, and then take you prisoner to question how you managed to resist them. And they're proud and xenophobic as well, they think that humans are beneath them, in their culture they don't even consider their people to have a say in things until they're 100 years old. I can guarantee you that after a minute of listening to your babble you'd be lucky to get executed quickly and painlessly, and even that will only happen if you somehow didn't manage to insult them by then"
"Ehh, bad idea then. I thought they were basically tree hippies with magic, go ahead with your next question"
"What's the source of your information?"
"I'm going to veto if you ask any more about that, but to cut a long story short, through a roundabout series of events which I'm still having trouble believing, I ended up skimming several books that detailed notable players and events that would occur in the future assuming someone other than me got summoned. I didn't think they were real so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but broad picture wise I know more than most people that aren't the major movers know."
"My next question is; assuming I tell you everything of relevance I can remember, will you let me bunker down in the orphanage with Tiffania? I kinda got nowhere to go, and if I'm right you can really use my help"
"What's happening at the orphanage?"
"It was my question, but that segways into what I want anyway so I'll let it slide, basically there's going to be a war, lots of troops moving around, and I THINK that Tiffania is going to get her cover blown going into town or something, which is something I could do FOR her, hint hint, and there may or may not be more troops in the area, and I don't remember the rest. I do know that she's a void mage, and that key people in the church will be able to recognize the signs, and I KNOW that if they know about her they'll want her to help with the war effort, willingly or not."
She stood up angrily, " FUCK! THOSE BASTARDS! THEY KNEW THE WHOLE TIME. Just do some tasks for us Matilda, we'll leave the orphanage alone Matilda, just one more task and you're done Matilda, they were playing me the whole time? They were never intending to let me go, were they?"
"Like I said I don't know all the details, but if I had to guess I'd say probably not, so, do we have a deal?"
She nodded, "Fine, yes, tell me everything"
So I did. After all I'd need allies and support if I ever wanted to do anything other than run for the rest of my life, a friendly void mage and kickass earth mage who both had no loyalty to the local Cult were about as good as I could hope for. Things were definitely looking up!
A/N: End of the first arc