“At least let me accompany her if this turns out to be a complete failure.” I gritted my teeth in frustration because I knew exactly that we would bicker the whole time in the carriage while we rode there. “And let Luna evaluate her plan. She should be here in a few minutes.”
I was stupefied. I just couldn’t comprehend how this easy-going, history obsessed girl could help anyone with formulating a strategic plan, let alone evaluate it. Markus and I duelled with our gazes until we were ordered to bring the corpse away, naturally only after I was given gloves. A few minutes later Luna arrived at the tent, high spirited as always.
“Mage Luna on deck!” On deck? Did she serve as a sailor before and fired history books at the enemy ships?
“I need you to look at a plan Lucinda has to weed out a few bandits. Can you do that with your magic?” Arthur seemed way friendlier when he spoke to Luna instead of me or Markus. Was it because she behaved so childish, or was it because Markus and I were used to a harsher tone? In any case, I liked that I wasn’t the only one who had a soft spot in her heart for children.
“There is nothing that I cannot evaluate. Everything has happened before!” Luna was ecstatic to be of use and smiled like crazy.
“Your magic … is it to draw parallels between the past and the present?” I asked, once more curious about her specialisation.
“I …” She still didn’t want to tell me and looked at Arthur helplessly. Apparently, she was forbidden from talking about her magic with anyone and the reason became obvious after Arthur nodded. “I can match patterns magically. I can see even patterns in a battle and draw parallels to the past. It isn’t just limited to history though …”
“Wow, that’s … can I try it out?” I smiled the whole time as she explained her magic, just because of how awesome that sounded. Being able to see what was going on is certainly a great ability, even when it did have its limitations. If she hasn’t heard about a tactic previously, she couldn’t predict how it would play out. Or if the enemy tried to fool her and knew about her abilities, then she would unmistakably choose the wrong counter.
“Sure!”
“1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21. Do you need more?” I intensely looked at her while I said that. The look of realization I anticipated didn’t come directly.
“Hmm…” A blue orb formed between her hands, turning around its own axis. It spread a gentle light around the room, but that wasn’t even the thing I was interested in the most. Her eyes seemed to glow in a yellow hue, although I was probably the only one that noticed that.
“It is a breeding pattern.” I whistled loudly as she correctly identified these numbers and couldn’t help to hug her tightly. I could never do such a feat with a few numbers if I didn’t know their meaning right away. It was the first display of human magic I have ever seen and it was honestly a great one. From the beginning, I wasn’t that interested in the offensive capabilities of magic, but rather such magic like she had which gave the user a very distinct advantage.
“Hmm … 85 10 30 32 33 34 36 39 40 41 44 45.” These were the entries of the king that lead most of his life completely peaceful until he went to war three times in his last years. The orb between her hands began to form anew while I waited for her reply. As realization struck her, she didn’t blurt it out like I hoped she would but kept quiet for several seconds.
“Can we talk about this later?” I smiled innocently and nodded. At least I would get an answer to my questions this way, although I felt a bit bad for trying to trick her. At least she saw me as someone reliable and changed her opinion, just because she saw me with Arthur and Markus together.
“Alright. Here is my plan. What does it take for a bandit to give up and surrender? It is an overwhelming force and surrender as the only option of survival. So we are going to do this …” I told all of them what I intended to do in great detail. While Arthur grinned the whole time, Markus and especially Luna were rather uncomfortable. Especially Markus seemed unhappy because it was a dishonourable way of beating them, while Luna didn’t like certain aspects of it where we needed to show these bandits our, or my overwhelming force. If they knew how much crueller my plan rally was …
She activated her magic once more, but couldn’t deliver the expected results. It already took too long in my opinion, but as soon as blood dripped out of her nose, I shook her shoulders and broke her concentration.
“Luna?” She seemed dizzy, almost as if she ran in a circle for several hours.
“That´s the backlash from a failed activation … no similar strategy has ever been used to my knowledge.” Well, that was to be expected. The commander had to be a blood inhumane bastard to think of such a strategy and I doubted that anyone else except me would be insane enough to play the crucial role.
“Do as planned then. Markus, help her to prepare everything she needs.” Said Arthur, still strangely confident in my abilities.
“At least let me accompany her if this turns out to be a complete failure.” I gritted my teeth in frustration because I knew exactly that we would bicker the whole time in the carriage while we rode there. “And let Luna evaluate her plan. She should be here in a few minutes.”
I was stupefied. I just couldn’t comprehend how this easy-going, history obsessed girl could help anyone with formulating a strategic plan, let alone evaluate it. Markus and I duelled with our gazes until we were ordered to bring the corpse away, naturally only after I was given gloves. A few minutes later Luna arrived at the tent, high spirited as always.
“Mage Luna on deck!” On deck? Did she serve as a sailor before and fired history books at the enemy ships?
“I need you to look at a plan Lucinda has to weed out a few bandits. Can you do that with your magic?” Arthur seemed way friendlier when he spoke to Luna instead of me or Markus. Was it because she behaved so childish, or was it because Markus and I were used to a harsher tone? In any case, I liked that I wasn’t the only one who had a soft spot in her heart for children.
“There is nothing that I cannot evaluate. Everything has happened before!” Luna was ecstatic to be of use and smiled like crazy.
“Your magic … is it to draw parallels between the past and the present?” I asked, once more curious about her specialisation.
“I …” She still didn’t want to tell me and looked at Arthur helplessly. Apparently, she was forbidden from talking about her magic with anyone and the reason became obvious after Arthur nodded. “I can match patterns magically. I can see even patterns in a battle and draw parallels to the past. It isn’t just limited to history though …”
“Wow, that’s … can I try it out?” I smiled the whole time as she explained her magic, just because of how awesome that sounded. Being able to see what was going on is certainly a great ability, even when it did have its limitations. If she hasn’t heard about a tactic previously, she couldn’t predict how it would play out. Or if the enemy tried to fool her and knew about her abilities, then she would unmistakably choose the wrong counter.
“Sure!”
“1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21. Do you need more?” I intensely looked at her while I said that. The look of realization I anticipated didn’t come directly.
“Hmm…” A blue orb formed between her hands, turning around its own axis. It spread a gentle light around the room, but that wasn’t even the thing I was interested in the most. Her eyes seemed to glow in a yellow hue, although I was probably the only one that noticed that.
“It is a breeding pattern.” I whistled loudly as she correctly identified these numbers and couldn’t help to hug her tightly. I could never do such a feat with a few numbers if I didn’t know their meaning right away. It was the first display of human magic I have ever seen and it was honestly a great one. From the beginning, I wasn’t that interested in the offensive capabilities of magic, but rather such magic like she had which gave the user a very distinct advantage.
“Hmm … 85 10 30 32 33 34 36 39 40 41 44 45.” These were the entries of the king that lead most of his life completely peaceful until he went to war three times in his last years. The orb between her hands began to form anew while I waited for her reply. As realization struck her, she didn’t blurt it out like I hoped she would but kept quiet for several seconds.
“Can we talk about this later?” I smiled innocently and nodded. At least I would get an answer to my questions this way, although I felt a bit bad for trying to trick her. At least she saw me as someone reliable and changed her opinion, just because she saw me with Arthur and Markus together.
“Alright. Here is my plan. What does it take for a bandit to give up and surrender? It is an overwhelming force and surrender as the only option of survival. So we are going to do this …” I told all of them what I intended to do in great detail. While Arthur grinned the whole time, Markus and especially Luna were rather uncomfortable. Especially Markus seemed unhappy because it was a dishonourable way of beating them, while Luna didn’t like certain aspects of it where we needed to show these bandits our, or my overwhelming force. If they knew how much crueller my plan rally was …
She activated her magic once more, but couldn’t deliver the expected results. It already took too long in my opinion, but as soon as blood dripped out of her nose, I shook her shoulders and broke her concentration.
“Luna?” She seemed dizzy, almost as if she ran in a circle for several hours.
“That´s the backlash from a failed activation … no similar strategy has ever been used to my knowledge.” Well, that was to be expected. The commander had to be a blood inhumane bastard to think of such a strategy and I doubted that anyone else except me would be insane enough to play the crucial role.
“Do as planned then. Markus, help her to prepare everything she needs.” Said Arthur, still strangely confident in my abilities.
