Aerien's POV
(So, as I understand it, our world was a culti[barely intelligible] world too before this barrier was raised) I explain. We had been spending a while trying to catch Levin and Rolwen up on where Gaerien and I are on the subject of all this stuff. It has been a little difficult too. We have a bit of a distraction from the voices downstairs, especially since they are also talking about a subject we have some interest in hearing. Admittedly, we could have likely chosen a better time to talk about this. Perhapse our baby brains are affecting our sense of prudence.
(And, Gaerien was even a god from before then?) Rolwen asks to confirm.
(Goddess!) Levin corrects him.
(Well… fallen goddess.) Gaerien further corrects the record with a dejected face.
(She couldn't get wor… err… wor-shi-p…)
(Worshipers?) Rolwen interrupted me.
(Shut up! I) "uss sawain id at aimmm" I was Ok, although mildly irritated, with those interruptions before when I really couldn't say the words. That time, however, I felt like I really could have said the word myself but he had cut me off anyway.
(Wow! Are you crying!?) Levin noticed the tears in my eyes and pulled himself up to the bed in order to comfort me.
(It's this STUPID body's fault!) I yell. Seriously, don't you guys dare hold this against me. You are in the same situation, so you ought to know better. (Just… keep talking.) I urge them to act as though this isn't even happening while Levin takes a seat on the bed, pulls me into his lap, and begins gently stroking my back. Having him do this actually is quite comforting, I can feel myself calming down already.
Rolwen, the party ultimately at fault, looks around in confusion, glancing over to Gaerien as though searching for some kind of help. With me in this state and Levin being the one who's helping me, that really puts the pressure on him to be the one to come up with a new subject after that landmine there.
(Umm… uhh… so, that means God is real then?) He finally says, making himself seem somewhat unintelligent.
(You mean THAT god?) Gaerien says. (Yeah, we already told you he's the one who made the barrier.)
(Uhh… Yeah! I mean! Just…)
(Wait, I just had a thought!) Levin interrupts, ultimately rescuing Rolwen from this situation. (Ether guy said someone named Falmarin was supposed to be invisible and watching us! Is this Ok for us to be…)
(It's fine, we're talking English) I conclude. (Ether guy said she was the spirit of this tree, so she shouldn't know English even as well as Ether guy does. She will just maybe tell Ether guy if we get hurt or something)
Wait… tree spirit? That would probably make Falmarin either a nymph or a dryad. And wait, I was thinking that was her name because of how Levin just said it. Well, plus my encounter with it last night. If I remember back to how Ether guy was talking about it with my mommy… wait… mommy? I just said that in my own mind! Whatever. I'll blame it on my younger self. Rolwen and Levin use that term all the time anyway. Back to the subject though. When Ether guy was talking to her about it, it did not sound like Falmarin was a name of a person, but rather the way they used it made it sound more like the name of a species.
Well, whatever. That's not worth worrying about too much. We will probably be encountering this "Falmarin" more frequently now that she and Ether guy have figured out I can see her, and Ether guy will probably be talking about her more openly now. I'll be able to figure out whether falmarin translates to Nymph or Dryad and also how the term is used culturally in the language by the elves.
(Umm… anyway, so it's fine if we speak English?) Rolwen confirms.
(Yeah) I assure him.
(Well then, what I meant before was that, there were gods in our world and cultivation is how they became gods?)
(Yeah, that's what we've been telling you!) Gaerien replies in an exasperated sounding tone.
(So, was God, I mean, that god, like… super powerful or something?) He continues to probe.
Gaerien has an annoyed look on her face at this. She even glares at me for some reason. Is she actually irritated about our earlier conversation inside her mental world? Probably she's just being jealous of God. She's really going to have to get over that.
(He made the world barrier by himself.) She responds. (That's… just crazy crazy levels of power! It) "nowaly ake sebal ods a"
(Wow! Wow! Gaerien! Slow down! I can't understand you!) Rolwen cuts Gaerien off as she starts talking faster and faster, causing her baby babble to become incoherent.
(I HATE being a baby!) She yells, hitting the bed with her hands and looking intensely about at all three of us. (I wish I could make myself grow up faster. Maybe I could if this was a human body, but I don't know how to cultivate in a way like that for this elf body!)
(We can grow up faster with cultivation?) Levin said, his ears perking up and looking excitedly toward Gaerien, a sentiment that seemed to be shared by Rolwen as well.
(That's too advanced for you!) Gaerien shoots them down (You would be full grown by the time you could learn how. And also, you're human! I'm elf! Stop com[unintelligible])
(Uhh.. you mean you're AN elf?) Levin corrects her.
(SHUT UUUP!) Gaerien yells, slapping the bed again toward Levin and I.
(Calm down!) I tell her. Was Gaerien starting to throw a temper tantrum here? Maybe this was a consequence of her not having fully accepted her baby self. I would have to talk to the boys a little more, but it's actually possible SHE may be the one who's weird for having only one mind inside that reincarnated baby body. Although, the boys had said that while they felt they had two selves they did not feel they were as distinct as they were for me.
I look over to Rolwen. He seems to get the idea and climbs up with the rest of us on the bed and begins to pull Gaerien into his lap.
(No! No! NOOO!) She struggles with him as he goes through the robotic motions of imitating what Levin is doing with me as he looks over with an uncertain face. (Mmmm… I really hate this…) Gaerien sits in Rolwen's lap, actually crossing her arms and looking like the grumpiest baby I have ever seen. I really have to hold myself back from laughing, knowing that would just upset her all over again. Despite Rolwen's somewhat clumsy ministrations, it does seem to be having an effect. Of course, the fact that having someone treat her like a baby is calming her down on a surface level seems to be torture for poor Gaerien on a deeper psychological level.
(Anyway, I also wanted to talk about telling Ether guy our secret too) I told them, letting the other shoe drop now that we seemed to be on the same page here. (Not about Gaerien, just about our previous life thing.)
(Ummm… really? I mean, I guess…) Rolwen said. (I don't think anything bad ever happens when reincarnators tell people about it, as long as they can make people believe them.)
Well, it was good to have agreement, but something felt really off about what Rolwen just said. It felt like there was something in there, so I carefully in my mind. 'I don't think anything bad ever happens when reincarnators tell people about it.' Ever… reincarnators… web novels… I have to shake my head when I put the pieces together. I can tell this kid is probably going to be trouble for us in the future. It is really not going to be good if he has trouble realizing this is the real world and not some fantasy. Although, hopefully growing up from an infant will help him get the picture on his own. If not, well, so long as we stick together I will have plenty of time to work on him.
With no strong protests, it seems we have reached a decision that we would try to find some way to tell Ether guy about us being reincarnated from a previous life. That is, as soon as we could figure out a way to do it in a way he was likely to believe us. Our lack of Elven vocabulary was still going to be a massive barrier in this.
I was afraid they may have had some objection due to him being an elf, the same people who took them away from their families, and that might have made them sore about the idea of letting on their secret to such people. Maybe I was just projecting my own feelings onto them? Or rather, maybe these kids were being logical. It would definitely make a lot of things easier if our caretaker at the very least was on the same page as us, and Ether guy had already revealed himself to be the type who would likely keep this sort of thing between us if we let him in on it. I really hope their reason was one of those two scenarios. I won't know what to think if it's because Rolwen was going along with the plot of one of his web novels.
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Eirlathion's POV
"You seem to be doing well," Eirlathion said to his new apprentice. He was loathe to break her concentration now that she was on the right track, but he had to give her a little more in the way of instruction before he could leave her to her own devices. Her progress was important, but it was not important to the extent he was willing to wait here until she had finished a round of spirit cultivation.
"Once you have collected enough spirit energy, you can begin to form a crystal from it. It ought to be large enough to handle apprentice level spells within about a week if you come here every day to gather your spirit energy. Do not attempt to fill it on your own though. When it is complete, I will have to instruct you on how to recognize your own mana from the mana of others. It is actually quite important that your spell vessel be filled with only your own mana."
"Hmm…" Túeth, his apprentice, responded with an acknowledging grunt. Her eyes fluttered open after this and she looked up at him. "So, what are we going to do now master?" She seemed to be looking around the room. Right now, she was seated in the middle of his downstairs cultivation mat, situated in the alcove of this floor. The only other real seating area was the table, which was not so ideal of a place to go into a cultivate meditation. It was not impossible, especially with how dense the spirit energy was in this house, but a lack of proper posture would harm the ability to fully focus and get the maximum effect possible.
She seemed to be quite self-conscious of the fact that she was currently occupying the spot that was rightfully his to use. From what he had seen from her, if he even hinted he had intended to focus on his own cultivation, she would instantly skitter away from that spot and respectfully bow and scrape to him as she made way for him. Being held in such high regards was both a boon and a vice at times.
"I believe I should go up and check on the children." He said. "I heard them getting unusually rowdy earlier. You may come along if you would like, but if you would rather stay down here and work on forming your spell vessel then that is also a fine use of your time. From now on, this alcove is yours any time you are here." The instant he made her this offer, he could see the unrest and the protest building in her demeanor. "Don't be concerned," he immediately quelled her unrest. "I have my own still in my lab upstairs. You may use this one at your leisure without concern."
He fixed her with a troubled gaze for a while after saying this. He had wanted to invite her to come upstairs with him, but felt it was too early to push her into something like this. It was probably fine. She had gone up there on her own earlier anyway. That's good enough for today. She will be in this house frequently enough from here on if she has any real desire to become a magus, so there will be plenty of opportunity for her to simply go up those stairs should the desire ever strike her.
"Very well, I believe that is as far as our lesson can progress for today." He said. "You will have to at least develop your apprentice level spell vessel before we can progress further." He gave a satisfied nod at those words and, with that, retreated toward the stairs.
An idea suddenly struck him upon reaching the foot of the stairs. He placed his hand on the wall and muttered in a low voice, "Nymph, please show yourself."
"What is it master?" Came an equally quiet response. Eirlathion looked about for a moment, only to find Nymph had appeared only as a face in a knot of wood.
"No, I mean completely show yourself. I would like you to be next to me when I go upstairs, I want to test something and I really can't believe I hadn't thought of it before." Eirlathion groaned inward a bit at Nymph's apparent misconception of a need for secrecy from his low muttering. Then again, it was probably better to assume the need for secrecy than to ruin the secret should there be a future scenario where such a thing is actually needed.
With Nymph obediently hovering next to him now, Eirlathion ascended the stairs. He looked about upon reaching the second floor and found all of the children on the bed, the boys holding the girls as they usually did. He smiled as he approached them, he was trying to do his best to look natural. Meanwhile, he was studying their eyes. Or, to be more precise, he was watching to see the direction each child was looking.
Gaerien, and Eirlathion knew it was Gaerien because she was being held by Rolwen, was staring at the bed. There was nothing that could be concluded from that. As for the boys though, both of them had rather surprised looks on their faces and were looking with quite a bit of interest over Eirlathion's left shoulder, directly at the spot where Nymph was hovering.
The put-on smile Eirlathion had been putting on transformed into a genuine smile of satisfaction at this. He had only just thought of this after using this as a demonstration for Túeth, but what had really set it off was the fact that Aerien was able to see Nymph last night. On the subject of Aerien, her eyes flickered over to Nymph for only a fraction of a second before she looked up at Levin and Rolwen. After this, she turned back and locked eyes directly with Eirlathion. Was she upset with him? More to the point, if she could be upset with him over this, it meant that she was aware of exactly what he was doing.
Well, he couldn't really do anything about it how she felt about him, but once again this child is quite frightening with how incredibly intelligent she is at such a young age. As he was pondering over this, he almost missed some movement from Gaerien. It seems she noticed something was going on, and she looked up to the same location the boys were looking. After that, a very happy look flashed across her face and then she looked directly at her sister.
"ii.. at vamawin?" ([Is that Nymph?]) Hearing these words from Gaerien was enough to make Eirlathion pause in his tracks. It had been a little while since he had worked on learning the language that the boys spoke, but he was pretty sure he knew the simple words she had just used. Furthermore, although it was definitely a mess of baby talk, he was quite certain she had just said "nymph." That was not a word he had really taught any of them before. In fact, the only time he had said the word to any of them was to Aerien last night. Again, Aerien's intelligence for her age was amazing to a scary extent.
"Did Aerien tell you about that?" Eirlathion decided to hide his shock behind a happy face he put on for the children as he used a praising voice toward Gaerien. "Yes, this is Nymph. Nymph, how about you say hello to everyone?"
"Hello. I'm really happy everyone is able to see me. I'm nymph, the spirit of master Eirlathion's house. Since you all live here, you can also call me nymph. Although, it would probably be more appropriate for the humans to address me by my proper name, which is..."
"No, they can call you nymph as well." Eirlathion cut them off. "They're all too young to understand, we don't want to confuse them like that." Yes, there is no way the girls would understand, and the boys would likely end up teaching the girls to call Nymph the same thing they were supposed to call him. And besides that, it might actually not be so bad giving them the privilege and treating them as family, these boys were rather extraordinary themselves after all. They might do rather well being trained as mages, his own master ought to know a thing or two about human cultivation methods. He ought to still be residing in the capital, so they would have the opportunity to speak with him once they got to the great tree and talked with the queen.
When Eirlathion turned his attention back to the children, Aerien was fixing him with a look that seemed incredibly inappropriate for a baby. It was not the slightly upset look from a moment ago, this look seemed to have a very deep complexity of emotions to it. If it were any other infant in the world he would have dismissed the emotions on her face as his imagination, and even for the amazing child that Aerien was he still did not understand what he was seeing. It seemed to be a mixture of... what could best be described as disappointment, and some other deep seething type of anger that comes from a very dark place.
No, certainly not. He must be reading into it a little too much. "What's wrong Aerien?" He asks her.
([Nothing.]) She responds, and then sends a very adult version of an upset look toward Nymph. This look is only on her face for a second, but it reveals that there was something she really didn't like about them. That look though quickly crumbled into that previous look of disappointment.
Eirlathion didn't understand any of this at all. Maybe he was just reading too much into it. She was likely just upset about how Nymph had pointed her out to him last night. Or, maybe... she was a very intelligent girl. It was more likely she was angry about Nymph watching her at night, and the fact that Eirlathion had closed off the stairs leading down to her for the first time since she had come here after he took her back up to the nursery floor.
Yes, that seemed like the most reasonable explanation. She was looking at him angrily when he came in as well. Yeah, he had gotten into the habit of seeing Aerien as such an incredibly intelligent child, but even if she was so smart that she could see why he had shown Nymph to the boys, it did not make sense for her to be angry over that. Yes, the whole thing was probably just because she was upset about last night.
Well, she will get over it eventually then. He had hoped to be able to go up to his lab and leave Nymph visibly around for the children to get familiar with, but he might have to allow Aerien to calm down a little and not push things. Well, if it's just her being upset, she ought to calm down by tomorrow.