The Saga of Nadine the Water Priestess

From that point on, my opinion of Nadine Goldberry changed drastically. Not just anyone could defeat three giant monsters at once on their own. Not just anyone had the compassion to worry about their crew when they themselves were about to black out from magic fatigue. Not just anyone could stay devoted to a dead god because of their love for their mother.

There was only one way to describe her. She was seriously awesome.

I started getting along with Milos pretty well after that. I was completely converted to the Nadine fan club, and he was happy to share all the amazing factoids he had noted down about her over time since he started working as her page. And when I say noted down, I mean literally. He kept a diary that was basically a Nadine observation journal.

“There was this one time when we were in Norden that she thawed an entire frozen lake, because it wasn’t raining or snowing, so the people had no way to get water other than cutting through the ice themselves. Oh, and when the surface of the lake evaporated and she had to cool it down again, the water in the air turned into ice crystals and made her gorgeous turquoise hair sparkle in the sun. It literally sparkled! By the way, did you know that if you look close enough, her irises actually contain seventeen different colors? Seventeen! That is if you count emerald and fern green as two separate colors. Also, the shape of her cheekbones is totally perfect, wouldn’t you say? That reminds me of this other time that…”

It was a little weird, maybe even borderline creepy, but it was also kinda wholesome to see the little guy getting so excited about his crush. Nothing in his journal was particularly perverted, so I could tell his intentions were pure. He didn’t consider himself worthy of Nadine, and as such he was content to admire her from a distance.

“What about me? You think I’d have a shot with her?” I joked as we set up camp on the third night. Nadine and Inna would be sleeping in the wagon, but there wasn’t room for everyone in there, and the girls weren’t too keen on the idea of male overnight companionship.

“Y-you? You’re a simple sellsword, Seiji sir. If anything I have more of a chance than you do. N-not that I would deign to assume that Miss Goldberry would ever look my way!”

Ouch. He was right that my social position was basically rock bottom, but he didn’t have to put it so bluntly.

“No need to call me sir,” I told him. Though it did add to the alliteration he had going on.

“Oh, then it’s alright if I call you just Seiji?”

“Mhm. Go for it. It’s what everyone else calls me.”

“Got it. Just Seiji. Seiji by itself.”

…

“Hey Seiji?”

Don’t wear it out, kid. Is what I thought.

“Yeah?”

“Does this mean we’re friends?”

I’d only known Milos for a few days, but maybe I was as desperate as he was for someone to talk to, because it felt good to hear him say that. Boy, being alone had done more of a number on me than I realized.

“You know what, sure. We can be friends. As long as you can answer one question for me.”

“Yeah?” Milos said eagerly.

“What color of underwear does Nadine wear?”

The page turned redder than he had been when he came out of the wulf’s stomach.

“I-I would never… I am appalled that you would even think about such things as that, Seiji!”

“That was another joke. Your reaction was funny though, so I think we can be friends on that basis.”

“Um, I’m not sure I get it, but I’m happy to have someone as cool as you as a friend!”

I wouldn’t call myself cool, personally, but I decided to take the compliment. I only got so many wins in life, I might as well savor them.

Our little jaunt through the woods became much less eventful after the first day. Which was good, all things considered. No one dying was a lot more valuable than a little bit of excitement.

We started each day off with a hearty breakfast, prepared by Inna and Tomas. I offered to help too, but they said it wasn’t my job and shooed me away. I was sure they would change their minds if I could show off my cooking skills somehow, but since they wouldn’t let me near the food in the first place, I had to resign myself to being a diner rather than a chef. Breakfast was really good, so it wasn’t that hard to simply enjoy it in the end.

There were no monster attacks to deal with after the first day, even of the small, sneaky variety. By day five I was almost shocked. It was like word had got out to all the creatures of the forest. “That chick can kill three wulfs at once with just a bucket of water! Stay away!”

I chuckled to myself at the thought. Nadine shot me a concerned side-eye.

“H-hold on, I wasn’t thinking anything weird!”

“Then what were you thinking?”

I considered telling her for all of two seconds. She wouldn’t think it was that funny.

“Nothing,” I mumbled.

Nadine didn’t look very convinced, but she nodded regardless.

“In that case, would you mind checking on Inna for me? She’s been unusually quiet, but I need to talk with Tomas about something, so I don’t have time at the moment.”

“Uh, sure?”

It seemed like a weird request, but I had no reason to argue with her. Nadine could obviously handle herself if we were attacked again. She didn’t need me to protect her.

That was kind of a depressing thought, in a way.

I slowed down until the door of the carriage caught up to me, then reached out to knock on it. I heard a sharp noise from inside that I figured probably came from Inna.

“I’m coming in, alright?”

I opened the door and swung myself into the carriage. The seats inside were upholstered with red velvet. That had to be fairly expensive.

Inna was lying on her side on one of the seats. Her rabbit ears perked up as I entered and she quickly raised herself to a sitting position. Her face looked like she might have been crying.

“Woah, are you okay?” Nadine was right to be worried.

“I am fine. More importantly, what are you doing in here? If you make any weird moves, I will scream, right?”

What a weird way to put it. It was almost like she was asking permission.

“Your opinion of my character is way too low,” I said. Sure, I had a criminal record, but not that kind!

“There’s a shifty quality to your eyes that I don’t like.”

“Why is that the one thing you sound sure about?!”

Inna backed away from me as far as she could, pressing herself against the door opposite me. I wished I could blame her, but I was aware that I came across as scary to most people.

“Look, Nadine sent me to check up on you. She hasn’t heard you talking much, which is apparently abnormal.”

Upon hearing this, Inna loosened up a bit.

“Mistress Nadine and I have been close since childhood, right?” she said. “I was her humble servant even then, but she always treated me like a friend. We often talk when we’re on the road. I just… don’t feel like it right now, right?”

“Is it because of the wulf attack?” I guessed. “That was pretty scary. And a member of your crew ended up dying. I already failed at my job practically before we even started.”

“You didn’t fail. You helped keep the rest of us alive, right?”

That was… an oddly thoughtful sentiment, coming from Inna. Was it possible that she didn’t hate me as much as she acted like she did?

Inna looked down at her knees. “The wulfs aren’t what’s bothering me, at least not directly. I am worried about Mistress Nadine overexerting herself. She wants to go the whole way using herself as our water supply so we can get to the shrine faster, right? But if she keeps having to fight like that, she won’t have enough magic left to make more water. You know what she will do if that happens, right?”

“I can’t say I do. I haven’t known her nearly as long as you have.”

“She will create water for us anyway,” Inna said ruefully. “Even if it takes the last of her magic. Even if she has to hurt herself to do it. She will not prioritize herself. In the worst case, she could even… she could die, right?”

The rabbit eared girl sounded so pitiful, I wanted to reassure her. But it would be a lie to tell her she was wrong. Extreme cases of magic fatigue could result in death. Once you gave away all of yourself, in a spiritual sense, your physical body couldn’t keep going.

“I won’t let that happen,” I said instead, with as much conviction as I could muster.

Inna raised her head and looked at me. “You… you won’t, right?”

“That’s right. Nadine hired me to be her guide, but also her sword. Her protector. You have my word, I will make sure she gets through this leg of her pilgrimage unharmed.”

A frail smile formed on Inna’s face.

“If I didn’t think you were creepy, Seiji, I almost would have thought you sounded cool, right?”

“If that was meant to be a compliment, I’m seriously impressed with how backhanded you can be.”

“Let me try again, then. You made me feel an insignificantly tiny bit better, right?”

“…I suppose that’s technically an improvement.”

Folding her hands in her lap, Inna fixed me with a penetrating gaze. Her large, brown eyes stared directly into my slitted, catlike ones.

“This shrine we are headed to is the final stop on Mistress Nadine’s pilgrimage. Once she has been there, we can finally go home, right? So you have to keep your promise. You will keep her safe, no matter what, right?”

“I swear it on my honor as a fellow beastkin,” I vowed.

“Good. I am glad she has someone like you watching out for her, Seiji.”

…

“You can get out of the carriage now, right?”

“Oh, um, yeah, sorry about that.”

I tripped over myself reaching for the door, and heard giggling from behind me as I let myself out. I clearly didn’t share Inna’s sense of humor.

I was determined to keep my promise to her, though. Nadine was cool, powerful, and capable, but she wasn’t invincible. Somehow, I would find a way to protect her.

***

When we stopped for Nadine to create water on day six, the penultimate day before we reached the shrine, I approached Tomas with a question. There was something I had been curious about ever since I first met him. Technically even before that, when I was listening to the conversation in the carriage right before Nadine hired me.

“Hey Tomas, can I ask you something?”

“I am at your service,” he responded in perfect butler fashion.

“How did you know I was eavesdropping when you guys first came to the city square in Debustadt? I didn’t move or make any noise. There shouldn’t have been any indication that I was listening.”

Tomas frowned thoughtfully, like he was considering whether or not to let me in on that information. He stroked his mustache for a moment before speaking.

“Since you already know the basic technique of spirit sense, it shouldn’t be too difficult to explain to you. Most magic users learn to sense the presence of spiritual power and stop there, putting all their further focus on mastering spells and memorizing incantations. But I am not a mage, nor did I learn spirit sense as a way to cast magic. My purposes for being able to detect the energy sleeping within my enemies were… different.”

Something about the way he said different came across as mildly terrifying. What kind of scary stuff did this guy do before he became a butler?

“With enough practice,” he went on, “one can hone their spirit sense to pick up on subtler details of a person’s soul. Their intent, for instance. When you were listening to the Mistress’s conversation, I could tell by the behavior of your spiritual energy that you intended to hear what she was saying. If you had only heard a few words by accident, I wouldn’t have paid you any mind.”

“You can actually do that?!”

It was an incredible ability he was describing. If I had been able to sense whenever someone harbored ill intent toward me, I never would have had to bother with half of the interviews I went through when I was looking for a job after being released from prison.

I might have been able to stop Miss Blanche from going anywhere near those thugs in the first place too… No, I couldn’t let myself think about that. What was done was done. That wasn’t my life anymore.

But still, think about it. Sensing someone’s intentions was basically like mind reading, right? Wasn’t that kinda OP?

I suddenly realized something. Was that what the angel who brought me to this world meant when she said “angelic intuition?”

Maybe not. I could be reading too much into it.

“Seriously? You can actually do that?” I repeated, not knowing what else to say. I would have tried to put it more elegantly, but talking fancy wasn’t exactly my strong suit.

“I am being entirely serious.”

“…What about the wulfs, then? I’m pretty sure I noticed them first.”

Shouldn’t someone with such advanced spirit sense have perceived them long before me?

“Beasts like wulfs are creatures of instinct,” Tomas explained. “Their intent is very different from that of humans, or beastkin for that matter. I specialize in people, not animals. In short, yes, I knew there were creatures hidden among the trees, as is typical of most forests, but I had no idea that any of them intended to attack us.”

“Oh. I think I get it.”

Humans and animals having different types of intent did make intuitive sense. It was interesting to me that beastkin fell more on the human side. We were made from combining humans and animals, apparently, the same way elves were. Based on what Tomas was saying, it seemed we took after our human ancestral element more so than the bestial side. That felt weird to hear—in a good way, mostly.

“You look pensive, Seiji. Is there something on your mind?”

“Huh? Uh, no, it’s nothing. I was just thinking that beastkin are more like humans than I realized.”

Tomas’s eyes went dark. He looked straight at me, and if I didn’t know any better I would say that I was picking up some murderous intent from him. His stare was that potent.

“Humans and beastkin aren’t alike,” he said severely. “They are the same. As are elves. Don’t believe the Protectorate Church’s lies, Seiji. Regardless of your race’s origin, you are not evil simply because you were born into it.”

Woah. This guy was more religiously passionate than I would have guessed. He was a part of Nadine’s party, so I supposed that made sense. But there was something about his intensity that made me feel like it was personal for him. He wasn’t a beastkin though, so why did he care so much about us?

“I’ll, uh, keep that in mind.”

Speaking of me being evil, there was one other part of Tomas’s advanced spirit sense that kind of scared me. I was hesitant to ask about it, but I had to know.

“So, can you sense stuff like… like black magic, too? Like, if someone is a black mage, could you use spirit sense to tell?”

Tomas shook his head. “Magic only takes on a color after it is cast. The halo of light that surrounds a target affected by magic is a result of the release of spiritual energy. Mistress Goldberry’s spells glow aqua because that is the color released by the spirit of water. Similarly, black magic spells glow purple as their dark energy is released. Even a tainted soul will appear colorless until its energy is put to use.”

Thank goodness. That meant he still didn’t know what I was. My secret was safe.

“Could you teach me how to sense people’s intentions?” I asked him. It’d be a seriously useful skill to learn.

Tomas frowned at me again. “It took me decades of practice before I could identify subtleties like that with my spirit sense. In not much more than a week we will part ways, and likely never see each other again. It would be pointless for me to try to instruct you in that amount of time.”

“Oh, yeah.”

I hadn’t been thinking about the fact that once we got back to the city Nadine’s party would return to wherever they came from, and I would be left behind. I mean, I was looking forward to using the money I got from them to forge a new path for myself, but it was kind of sad to think that this trip would be over so soon. Milos was the only friend I had at the moment. It was a friendship that was never meant to last.

“Don’t look so down, son. If you practice hard enough, you will pick up my techniques naturally on your own.”

“Thanks.” That wasn’t what was getting me down, but I appreciated the effort to cheer me up.

Suddenly Tomas withdrew his pocket watch. I was worried for a moment that he was going to attack me with it, but instead he flipped it open and checked the position of the hands.

“Tea time. Will you be joining us today, Seiji?”

I wasn’t sure how we were planning on having tea since the set had been shattered into a million pieces, but I got the feeling Tomas was prepared for that all along. Maybe he had an alternate tea set stored away in the wagon somewhere.

I shrugged. “Sure, why not?”