4. A Dangerous Woman, Alevian
“…Ugh, damn it.”
Sunlight beat straight down onto Yona's face, forcing her eyes open against her will.
She had gotten up in the middle of the night, eaten a belated dinner, washed up, and lain down on the mattress that had been swapped out while she was away—and apparently she'd drifted off without meaning to.
Climbing out of bed, she stretched herself long and slow, blinking her sleep-heavy eyes as she looked around. Nothing much had changed. The same inn room as always, this wretched all-wood room that looked the same no matter where her gaze landed.
“…Ah.”
Only then did she remember what she'd meant to do today.
She raised her right arm slightly. The strange tattoo was still there, inked dense and dark as ever. She'd half hoped it might vanish overnight, but no such luck. Her skin was pale white, yet her right arm alone was black with markings from shoulder to wrist, and it felt deeply unsettling.
It didn't hinder her movement in the least, and her holy power still circulated just fine, too.
“…So other than the fact that it's ugly to look at, it's actually fine?”
The only real problem was how it looked. If she showed up at the cathedral wearing this, the instructor nun would be absolutely delighted.
Yona washed up quickly and threaded herself into her habit. Again she yanked the neckline down off her chest, then threw a priest's hooded coat over the top, and that was more or less that—ready to go.
“Here, the key.”
“Heading to the guild?”
The owner of the Moon & Star Inn, whose near-total silence was his single greatest virtue, accepted the key Yona held out. Taciturn as he was, Yona had been a long-term guest long enough that they exchanged a word or two in passing.
“No, the Tower.”
“The Tower?”
“Yeah. I've got some business there. Anyway, take care.”
Leaving behind the owner, who took the key without so much as a reply, Yona stepped out of the inn and stretched again, long and luxuriously. The weather was beautiful. If there was one thing she'd come to like since being dumped into this world without warning, it was that sky—that endless blue. In a world with no pollution whatsoever, the heavens were so impossibly clear and clean that simply looking up at them could lift her mood.
“Alright, let's go.”
The Tower. Its official name was the Evian Society of Magical Researchers, but nobody called it that—to everyone, it was just the Tower. She had to visit the cathedral tomorrow anyway to buy a new Holy Shroud, so today she'd planned to stop by the Tower first. You never knew—this might turn out to be something that required magical deciphering.
“Freaky! Hey there.”
Spotting Freaky, her old party member, Yona waved first. Freaky noticed her a beat later, waved back, then came scurrying over.
“What brings you to the Tower?”
Yona was on the taller side for a woman, but Freaky barely came up to her waist. Wrinkled green skin, pointed ears—Freaky was a goblin, and yet, remarkably rare for her kind, possessed real magical talent, making her one of the Tower's oddities: a resident mage who also worked as an adventurer.
And she was also the person Yona had come to see today.
“Came to see you.”
“Me? I'm not really into women, you know.”
“…Cut the crap.”
Yona nearly cursed on the spot. But this wasn't the guild—it was the Tower—so, deciding she'd better watch her mouth, she swallowed the curse that had climbed all the way to her lips.
“Is there anywhere quiet we can talk? Somewhere without people.”
“No people, huh… ah, yeah. Sure, follow me.”
The place Freaky led her to was the library. Not a soul in sight, even from the entrance. A seat of knowledge and scholarship, and yet a library with no people in it—it felt strange for a place that called itself the Tower.
“Everyone's too busy with their own research in their labs. The library's really just here for the townsfolk, but honestly, where in this town are you going to find people who use a library?”
Fair point. Yona just nodded.
“So—what exactly did you need me for?”
“This.”
Yona scanned the room one more time, confirming again that they were alone. Only then did she roll up the right sleeve of her hooded coat, baring the skin beneath.
“Wh-what is that?”
“I don't know either. That's why I came looking for you.”
Black characters, packed tight from her right shoulder down to her wrist. At a glance, they almost looked like a picture. Freaky stared at Yona's arm, unable to close her mouth.
“I didn't know you were into this kind of hobby.”
“Are you insane? Is my arm a scrap of parchment for scribbling on? This happened yesterday, after I killed that thing—whatever it was, a goat or a monster or what have you. You know how I killed it, right?”
“Mm… so you're saying this happened when you took down that demonic beast? Can I touch it?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
Freaky had been practicing magecraft for years now, but she'd never seen anything like this. Evian had every kind of character under the sun, so she'd seen tattoos plenty—loads of them, in fact. But this… up close, they were clearly letters, and she had never once seen letters carved into someone's skin like this.
And when she touched it, it just felt like ordinary skin. Freaky pressed down firmly on Yona's arm.
“Doesn't hurt at all?”
“Not at all.”
“Weird.”
Yona caught Freaky's expression and understood immediately. Ah. This has nothing to do with magic, does it. Well, that figured. She hadn't expected much going in, so the disappointment wasn't crushing either.
“There's no mana in it at all.”
“Really?”
“Mm-hm. You're sure you didn't get this done yourself?”
“No, I told you. Hey, say what you will about me, I'm a healer. Fixing sick people is my job. You really think someone like me would go around getting her arm inked up? Please.”
“…Mm, fair, I suppose. But how can there be no trace of anything? It's bizarre.”
Freaky turned Yona's arm this way and that, peering at it again and again with open fascination. Yona, for her part, watched her and thought: two years I've known her, and she's not going to be any help at all.
“Hey, is your master around?”
“She is. Want me to show you in?”
“Yeah. I'd rather not if I can help it… but with this thing painted on my body, I'm feeling pretty uneasy about the whole business.”
Freaky's master was someone Yona knew well. Normally the last person she wanted to see—but even so, no one else came to mind who might actually know something about this.
“She'll be inside. I don't need to come in, right? You can go in on your own.”
“Do you really have to be like that?”
“I'd really prefer it that way.”
Freaky waved with an awkward smile, leaving Yona standing there alone. For a while, Yona deliberated. Was this really a good idea? Wasn't there a saying about chasing away a fly and inviting in something worse? Whoever was inside was more than weighty enough for that.
But the deliberation didn't last long, and her actions came even faster. Worrying wouldn't change anything, and she hated the idea of walking around with something this unsettling clinging to her arm any longer than she had to.
“Alevian.”
No honorific. Not "Ms.", not "sir", nothing of the sort. She'd been told—drilled into her until it stuck—that she was never to attach such things to this name.
Opening the door and stepping inside, she found the room unchanged down to the last detail. Sunlight streamed in well enough, but that very light only made the dust motes drifting through the air more visible. Thick tomes lay scattered hither and thither like landmines across the floor. A strange smell hung in the air, and an odd warmth pressed against her skin. Stepping into that laboratory, Yona called out for the room's owner once more.
“Alevian!”
“Oh? Who is it—Yona?”
Along with a slender voice, a face poked out from behind a bookshelf deep in the room. A blonde beauty in sharp, square-framed spectacles. Alevian.
“Yona—aaah! It's been forever—aaah!”
The woman approaching with a smile spread across her whole face was Alevian. Long, tapered ears marked her as one of the fae. She closed the distance at a brisk clip and wrapped Yona in a fierce hug before Yona had any chance to react. The soft, plush sensation hit her all at once, and as Yona flailed in flustered surprise, Alevian just grinned slyly.
“How has it been this long? Have you stopped loving me?”
“I never loved you in the first place.”
“Oh? Then was that night just a one-night fling?”
“That never happened. Let go of me.”
Ugh, seriously. This is exactly why I didn't want to come. As Alevian's energy climbed higher and higher without end, Yona's irritation climbed right along with it.
“I heard all about your heroics from Freaky. Word is, if it hadn't been for you, yesterday would've been the day the Evian Adventurers' Guild went up in smoke.”
“Oh, come on, it wasn't anything that dramatic. It would've worked out somehow even without me. So—anything come to mind about this?”
Alevian pushed up her spectacles and turned Yona's arm this way and that, examining it from every angle.
“What lovely skin you have…”
“Not that. Forget the skin. Tattoo, writing, whatever it is—this. This is what I'm asking about.”
“Right, right… let's see. Not a trace of mana, and no miasma either… At first glance—”
“What do you mean, 'at first glance'?”
This was the problem with mages. Would it kill them to just explain things in plain terms? Always this "no mana here, no miasma there" business.
“So what's the conclusion?”
“It just looks like letters to me.”
“I know they're letters.”
“No, that's not what I mean.”
Alevian released Yona's arm and sat up straight. Pushing her slipping spectacles back up her nose, her face had turned rather serious.
“I mean it literally—these are just letters. No mana, no miasma. Just writing. Plain and simple, nothing but letters. To anyone who looked, it would seem nothing more than a tattoo. And your holy power flows just fine through it, doesn't it?”
At that, Yona fell silent and tried it. The holy power that lay coiled in her lower abdomen answered her call, wheeling once through her entire body in a smooth circle. Then it streamed cleanly down into her right arm and kindled a soft white radiance.
“Yep. Flows fine.”
“Exactly. That's the point. If there were any mana in it, or miasma, do you think your holy power would circulate through it at all?”
“That's true, but…”
Alevian smiled an unreadable little smile. She extended one slender finger and drew a long line down Yona's arm, from shoulder to wrist.
“I understand why you're worried. The real question is what these letters mean. I'll look into that for you.”
“Thanks. Really.”
Dislike was dislike, and gratitude was gratitude. Yona said it plainly. Dealing with this lesbian was always a bit of a headache—but then again, she did come in handy at moments like this.
“Once I figure out what the letters say—”
“You'll send word?”
“No.”
Alevian shook her head. That mysterious smile still brimming across her face sent a chill crawling up Yona's spine.
“I'll come find you at the Moon & Star Inn. You're still staying there, aren't you?”