Rather than fall prey to shock or pride, Emiri shifted her momentum so that she rolled backward. The last thing she wanted to do was allow Mira to create any significant distance between them. As she came up from her roll, she watched Mira land gracefully on the ground a few feet away. Rather than waiting for the acid spear to circle back around for her to throw it again, she kept the pressure on.

  This time the lunging slash caught a grazing cut across Mira’s arm before she could pull it back. A second later though, a jet of ice burst forth from that same extended hand. The force of it pushed Emiri back and chilled her blood. The biting cold was painful, but Daichi’s teaching as well as her meditations had taught her to deal with the pain. What worried her more was the chilling effect, as it might slow her reactions.

  Still, the acid spear had finally looped back around, and Emiri directed it once again at Mira, who opted to raise her magical barrier rather than dodge it this time. Emiri smiled, for though the acid spear was foiled, it still exploded against the barrier and blocked Mira’s vision for a moment.

  Against a lesser opponent, that would have been enough. Emiri simply would have burst the shield with her mage-slaying dagger, but she knew that just as she could switch to Esoteric Sense in the middle of battle so too could her daughter. So it required a further technique. Luckily, in her training she had learned that Gather Darkness not only obscured regular vision but also mystical senses as well.

  So she beckoned her power, and the world around her was swallowed in a plume of deep shadow so dark as to match the Stygian blackness of some unknown hell. Only Emiri’s eyes could pierce it, and she was just as invisible to Mira as if her eyes had been put out. The temptation to lunge forward for a quick win was in Emiri, but as her master taught, if one is not a fool, then they would be foolish to assume their enemy is.

  Mira probably even knew she expected the next attack, but it was really her only play. Controlling the rhythm of battle was what Emiri was after, more so than relying upon a sudden surprise to carry the day. It was slower, but more sure. Predictably, a surge of fire erupted in all directions from Mira, who used her spell weaving to shape a simple flame fan into a burst attack.

  The damage of such an attack would not be too significant, and if need be, Emiri could have simply taken it, but she also couldn’t be sure that Mira didn’t have a second surprise waiting. So, instead, she waited back. The heat scorched her but didn’t cause the damage it might have if she had been in close.

  Were this a fight to the death, she would have used her Shadow Spear wand. It packed a tremendous punch, and even if Mira could survive a surprise attack from it, such a survival would cost her. Instead, Emiri tried to think like a mage killer and quick-cast Lesser Cancel Magic. The area version of the spell brought down Mira’s prepared defenses, but not her Gather Darkness due to its hybrid nature.

  This time she did lunge forward and landed a solid blow with her dagger, piercing elven leather and the flesh of her own child in one stab. She triggered her bleeding and crippling strikes at the same time as the dagger drove into Mira’s thigh. Perhaps if Mira had been more of a fighter than a mage, she might have expected that, but as it was, she had been responding to protect the center of her being with another hastily conjured magical barrier.

  Emiri smiled. This slowed her sparring partner to a limp, and she was bleeding profusely now. She moved in fast and directed another slash, stacking the bleeding effect a second time. Then dodged back out of the way as first a whip slashed through the air where she had been moments before.

  The next attack was literally impossible to dodge as the magical missiles tracked each of her movements. Once she realized that, she simply accepted the blow. Even her Cloak of Fleeting Shadows couldn’t prevent the damage. Emiri groaned as each missile struck her with their magical force, but not so much that she didn’t throw three shurikens at Mira.

  She had shown the blacksmiths how to craft them. They were a unique weapon, yet she took to throwing weapons, sinking the first of the points that she earned in the dungeon training sessions into the skill. One of this sliced across Mira’s arm and stacked a third bleeding effect. The bleeding rate was now double the damage that any healing spell Mira knew could replace.

  Unfortunately, two of the whip tails her daughter wielded so expertly after only a month lashed out through the air and knocked the two other spinning blades out of the air. Emiri watched Mira extend her hand and quick-cast another spell. She decided to simply accept the damage as she quick-cast Lesser Regeneration upon herself and gritted her teeth as the lightning bolt passed through her now incorporeal form. Emiri had managed to activate her cloak at the last second.

  Things were heating up quickly. Emiri wasn’t sure that she would have been able to survive that bolt otherwise. Now she just needed to trick Mira into one more thing. She drew out another three shurikens and launched them all at once. Mira’s whip moved impossibly fast, and this time managed to knock all three of the blades from the air.

  Still, Emiri followed right on the tail of the blades. Mira had no chance to cast another spell, so she defaulted to pulling the whip all at once across the space, trying to wrap its tails around Emiri. Her shadowy shape protected her again, but the protective effect of her Ring of Noble Command sent 20% of the damage back into Mira.

  The pain must have been great, for her body seized and she dropped the whip. Emiri was upon her in that instant. A quick blow to the solar plexus was followed by an elbow brought up under the chin, causing Mira to bite her tongue forcefully. Then, in a smooth flow of her momentum, Emiri spun and swept Mira’s one good leg out from under her.

  An instant later, Mira was tapping out to show that she yielded before her mounting injuries and the blade Emiri was holding against her throat. As soon as she yielded, the healers moved to restore their health.

  “No, I am the one who harmed this daughter of mine, fruit of my womb. I will heal her,” Emiri said with a commanding voice. Emiri then cast a full Tier 3 heal spell. In a single instant, Mira regained all of her lost health. The wounds closed before her eyes, and the bloody stains and sliced leathers were all that remained to prove Mira had ever been injured.

  Emiri felt the cool touch of healing magic cast by the druids upon her and sighed as her own strength was fully restored. Their spells might not be as strong as hers, but in conjunction they accomplished the same thing.

  The third-tier healing spell that Mira had helped Emiri develop was amazingly efficient and powerful and could restore most people other than tanks with deep health pools to full in a single instant. She even went so far as to look at the spell description again. It changed everything in her mind for her as a healer. The base spell was great, but by adding Spell Mastery: 40 to it and adding in her class bonuses, Ring of Noble Command and Magic Focus Essence, it was downright impressive.

  Healing: Restores 320 health plus 2/level to a single target within 30 feet. Cast Time: 9 seconds. Cooldown: 1 minute -1 sec/level. Mana: 90.

  became

  Healing: Restores 896 health to up to 2 targets within 30 feet. Cast Time: 2 seconds (maximum reduction). Cooldown: 6 seconds (maximum reduction). Mana: 15.

  It had been a lot of points to sink into maximizing one spell, but she now felt she would be able to keep a tank up and running. That assurance made her feel like she could freely focus more on the darker side of her build. Darker, but, she had to admit, shockingly fun.

  The first few days of her trying to practice stealthing around town had been quite embarrassing. Daichi had given her tasks to steal a pastry, or move some tools around in the blacksmithing shop, even to simply hide and then startle someone. As with all of his instructions, he didn’t care if it embarrassed her or made her feel she was intruding. There was a purpose.

  After about a week she had learned that he was paying a bounty to village children if they could find her and mess up whatever stealth-based task she was performing. Eventually she got so good that he had to give more hints to the kids as to where she might be found.

  Even then, by today, she had gotten so good that she’d hidden in the rafters of the bakers shop and drizzled honey on what had been meant to be plain bread. She did it without ever being caught. The scary thinking being that if she could drizzle honey, she could just as easily have drizzled poison.

  Emiri wasn’t sure how she felt about tasks like that, but decided the practice was good no matter what. In fact, her success today was what had led Daichi to decide she could no longer put off the sparring match with Mira.

  Now even that was over, and it was time for her daily debriefing. She sat in her kneeling position, deep in meditation yet profoundly aware of her surroundings. It was amazing how quickly she had changed over the past month, but then again, this was Eloria. A combination of character points and hard work went a long way.

  Kneeling behind her were her blades. They had all undergone the same types of training over the past month with her. It was a rigorous dawn-till-well-past-dusk-type training. The only time they had gotten for themselves was when Emiri’s duties as a ruler required her to do something else.

  Only Deoca was allowed to practice in their elven-fighting-style training, but once the idea of the Kirun Sisuta had been explained to some other town leaders, Sir Mun Hagen had offered to personally tutor Hannah. The women had teased her some about that. Hannah had been a farmwife but was widowed in the last attack on Eris’ Rise, and while he was a bit stiff around the collar, there was no denying that the paladin of Mishpat was easy on the eyes.

  The tutor for Balayria was perhaps even more unlikely. She was half-orc and half-elf, so Daichi had been tempted to allow her to train with them. After all, the half-elven Nelson children were allowed to train. In the end though, it was clear that her bashing style of combat was simply not well suited to what Daichi had to teach.

  Balayria had learned to fight by watching orcs and goblins, and their style, while effective, was too chaotic even for one of the paladins to teach her. So when Rak’kar volunteered, as odd as that was, it was the best match possible. This time there were certainly no romantic sparks. Rak’kar only cared about three things, his life debt to Emiri, his pride as an arena champion of his people, and his devotion to Dikastis, the Three-Faced Judge, who was apparently the only recognized deity amongst the minotaurs. None of them knew much about his religion, and he was quiet on the matter most of the time.

  Still, all of them had tutors, and their combat training had gone splendidly. Now, after Emiri had proven that she could spar without holding back against her own daughter, they patiently awaited their next set of instructions. Well, mostly patiently, Emiri could hear Balayria’s snorting sighs as indication of her dislike for waiting idly. Meditation was not something her friend was comfortable with.

  “Well done, you both displayed great talent today. Emiri, your ability to react and prepare for anticipated responses as well as both a willingness to go for the kill while equally being willing to take time if that was the better strategy was top notch.

  “Mira, your magic, as always, is impressive, but it can be a crutch for you. Remember, there will be people out there like your mother. Ones who specialize in killing mages but aren’t going to withhold the final blow like Lady Emiri did. You must be prepared for all eventualities.

  “Your whip work is coming along nicely. The problem being that you still think of it as a last resort. It needs to become an extension of you,” the monk lectured.

  Both Nelsons simply said, “Yes, Master,” when he was speaking to them.

  “Now, I believe that you and your Kirun Sisuta are ready for your first field test. Lady Mira, you are dismissed, but just because your mother is gone does not mean that I don’t expect to see you bright and early tomorrow morning. We will make you a force to be reckoned with, even if all your spells are spent.”

  With that, Mira stood up and bowed to her master. “Master, if I may be permitted, I have managed to recreate an enchanted item that may prove useful to Mom on her mission.”

  Daichi frowned at the overly familiar way that Mira addressed her mother. He still expected everyone to call her Lady Emiri or, failing that, at least Baroness Murkwood. “Very well, what is it?”

  “Well, actually it’s two items. With Dad’s help I was able to recreate and maybe even improve on the bag of holding. I don’t know why, but he seems to be so much better at spatial magic than I am. Just wait till you see this new attack spell he developed…” Her voice faded off as she saw Daichi glaring at her.

  “Er… yeah, about the items. So, here is a new and improved bag of holding. It will keep everything inside it safe, and time passes within it seventeen times slower than it does outside the bag. We were able to… oh, well, you probably don’t care about that part. But it will hold anything up to six feet long except living beings. Then you call out exactly the item you want just by thinking of it. No more having to dig around inside it,” Mira said.

  “That is a very useful gift for a reconnaissance mission such as your mother is going on. Now, I believe you said there was a second item?” Daichi asked.

  “Yes,” Mira said as she excitedly pulled out a velvet bundle from the bag of holding. Unfolding it revealed six pristine shurikens. “These are made from the latest alloy of mithril and magicyte. They are light, well balanced, and super sharp, but also very durable and highly conductive to the magic of the person who becomes attuned to them. That is why I’m being careful not to touch them directly. They will resist the magic of others not attuned to them.”

  Mira handed the bag and then the velvet cloth over to Emiri.

  “Sweetie, these are precious. I know your father is worried about me going on this mission, but thank him for his part in this, and thank Hiroto as well because I can feel the enchantment on the blades.”

  “Master Hiroto actually allowed me to perform the enchantments and only double-checked my work, Mom.”

  “Then I am even more proud to use them, although you did wait to give them to me till after our duel.”

  “Ha, you didn’t raise any stupid children, Mom.”

  Emiri broke protocol then and hugged her daughter deeply and whispered in her ear, “Take care of your father. I worry about him more lately than Sara or Jackson. Rak’kar and the others will protect Sara, but the person we have to safeguard your father from is himself. He is pushing too hard, and I worry about the swing in his personality.”

  Mira whispered back, “I will keep an eye open. Just make sure you come back safely.”

  Then the two women broke their embrace, and Emiri stepped back. She couldn’t help but look one more time at the new shurikens.

  Masterwork Shurikens (set of 6)

  Quality: Peak Epic

  Base Dmg: 5

  Range: 50 feet

  Weight: 0.2 each

  Passive Effect: +5 razor’s edge force, cutting damage (+20% chance to bleeding strike).

  Passive Effect: Double effective range.

  Passive Effect: Rapid Throw—may be thrown 50% faster than normal.

  Passive Effect: Mana Attunement—may be bound to a single user, then charged by the mana of that user for various effects. Is highly resistant to spells and mana of those it is not attuned to.

  A short time later, Emiri was headed north out of the city. She had said goodbye to Dave the night before in a way that he deeply appreciated. This morning she said goodbye to her daughters. They were both obviously a little nervous, but Sara was excited by the prospect of getting to live inside the dungeon while Mommy was gone.

  This mission would be a good test of her new abilities and something to benefit her people. Certainly she had butterflies in her stomach, but more than anything, Emiri was happy to be proactive.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “A girl becomes a woman when she puts away her dolls and starts to toy with the hearts of young men.”—Moon elf proverb (at least amongst the men)

  Eris’ Rise—Mira Nelson

  The past five weeks had felt much longer to Mira. Of course that was only logical because she had been spending two-thirds of her time in the dungeon with its time dilation. What had only been five weeks to the outside world had in fact been over a year’s time for her.

  It was reflected on her character sheet, which now said that she was sixteen. More than that, it was shown in the changes to her figure. She had started to grow more curves and would have killed to look like this back on Earth. Mira might not have filled out quite like her mother, but she had more than one young man trying to get her attention now.

  The odd thing was that while she had been on the verge of boy crazy back home, she was not really interested in any of the advances. They came from all fronts, and even her father’s stern gaze didn’t discourage all of them. There were warriors, crafters in the dungeon, and even a few woodmen who tried to get her attention. None tried too hard, with her being nobility and all, but she had the feeling that if she had given an inch, they would have taken a mile.

  Her complete disregard for all their advances served her the best, though. It gave Mira time for what had become her true love: magic. She loved it in every form. Enchanting was great, but it was only one tool for expressing magic. She loved researching spells, but even they were just a structure meant to control the magic.

  Controlling magic was what Mira did. It was the very nature of her class. Yet there was a part of her that had begun to feel that magic was a majestic and free thing, not meant to be so crudely harnessed. She hadn’t put her finger on it yet, but it was one of those amazing truths that she knew waited just outside her grasp.