The carriage jolted over a joint in the bridge. Azeneth tightened her grip, and I lost sight of the canal. When she brought me back to the window, I spotted a boat loaded with baskets gliding beneath us. Its owner had to duck under some roots.
Houses stood on patches of solid ground, linked by walkways. Laundry hung beside open doors, and posts sank into the water to secure boats. I kept looking for the end of the swamp whenever the road turned. I only found another canal, more trees, and a light or two among the branches.
“Is there this much water in the elven kingdom too?” I asked.
Thayron answered from the driver’s seat without stopping the horses.
“Tzintli has streams, but it’s mostly forest. The trees are so large that some streets have to go around their roots.”
I tried to imagine a trunk big enough to divert a street. Then I looked at those passing the window. This world was getting me used to things I’d only seen in illustrations far too quickly.
“Is it near here?”
“At the other end of Khalixtla,” Azeneth explained. “The opposite border from the one we just crossed.”
“Then what were you doing near Anymalia?” I asked the merchant.
“A delivery job. I had to collect this shipment and bring it to the city. My routes don’t always take me near Tzintli.”
I heard the reins move. The carriage rounded a bend, and the crates creaked behind us.
“You’ll find plenty of wood, hides, and stone there,” Thayron continued. “Carpenters’ workshops everywhere. The houses stand among the trees, making use of the clearings. On some roads, the canopy hides the sky. You notice when you leave the forest and feel the sun again.”
“Are there shops among the roots too?”
“And people who take their worktables into the clearings. You see planks drying, pieces of leather hanging, carts waiting to be loaded. Some buildings look small until you discover how much of the building extends behind the tree in front.”
I would’ve liked to peek inside one of those workshops. As I listened, I began placing trees around the houses I’d imagined. Each detail made me picture them a little bigger. I ended up wondering how it would all look from a window above the roots.
I imagined walking beneath those leaves. The picture lasted until I remembered that, for now, traveling down a street meant moving with my tip a few centimeters off the ground. I would get to know plenty of roots up close if we ever visited Tzintli.
“I’d like to see it.”
“Then don’t go in a hurry,” he advised. “There’s plenty to look at.”
Azeneth tilted me to show me some houses across the water. I tried to keep asking questions, but she yawned before I could speak.
“How long until we reach your castle?”
“About two hours,” she answered.
“Two, roughly,” Thayron confirmed from the front. “Depends on what we run into entering the city.”
Azeneth yawned again, without trying to hide it this time.
“We’d get there sooner if we flew.”
I looked at her staff resting beside her. She followed my gaze, then rubbed an eye with her free hand.
“But I think I’ll sleep for a while.”
She put a folded cloth on the seat and laid me on it, my grip near her thigh. Only then did she raise her arms to stretch. I watched her settle against the backrest, pull a ponytail out from under her shoulder, and close her eyes.
“Let me know if you need anything,” she murmured.
“Get some rest.”
Her fingers stayed beside my guard for a few moments. Then they relaxed on her skirt. I kept watching her until her breathing grew slower. The carriage was still moving, and Thayron spoke softly to the horses.
As she slept against the backrest, one ponytail covered part of Azeneth’s face. A strand shifted with every jolt, and I caught myself waiting for her to brush it aside, though she never woke. I looked at my grip and the space between it and her skirt. However close I moved, I’d still need her help with something that small.
I tried lifting my grip.
My body rotated above the cloth until I stood upright, my tip hovering over the seat. I could see the window and part of the road better from there. I moved toward the cushion’s edge, but a bump brought me too close to Azeneth’s knee. I backed away before brushing her.
I still had to learn how to move on something that was moving too. I tried again, following the carriage’s sway. I advanced a little, stopped, and turned toward the backrest. There was so little space that returning to the cloth’s center without waking anyone felt like an achievement.
Are you there? I asked the system.
[At your service!]
The answer appeared in its usual place. I stared at it, a little annoyed that I had nowhere to direct my attention when I wanted to talk to it. A window could answer, but it couldn’t show me whether it was listening before I finished.
Can you give yourself a form?
[Of course.]
Then why don’t you have one?
I considered arguing. Instead, I focused on keeping away from Azeneth’s knee.
Well, I’m requesting one now. Something I can look at while we talk.
The letters dissolved into tiny violet dots. They gathered over the opposite seat, forming four slender legs, a small body, and a head with raised ears. A violet deer appeared in a soft glow. Its antlers resembled twigs, with clusters of flowers hanging from them like tiny wisteria blossoms.
I tilted my body for a better look. The deer took a step, its hooves hovering above the cushion. Azeneth slept on.
Can she see you?
[Only you can perceive this form.]
The deer raised its head toward me. Its words still reached my mind, though now I could watch its ears move as it spoke.
[Is this all right? Do you like it?]
I’d pictured a face, perhaps something resembling a person. This little animal seemed to have escaped a forest full of flowers. When it turned to show me its other side, the clusters on its antlers swayed.
Yes. It’s pretty.
[An excellent choice of form!]
You chose it.
The deer lifted its muzzle slightly. I left it at that and watched it approach the seat’s edge. It didn’t need to ask anyone to hold it. It could plant its feet, turn its head, and approach whatever it wanted.
I kept watching one of its hooves as it lifted it.
I’d like to have a body someday.
[You’ll be able to.]
I kept staring at the raised hoof. The deer lowered it and waited.
I didn’t answer. I went over the words one by one, wondering whether I’d heard something it hadn’t said. My tip sank until it touched the cloth, and I took a moment to remember I was trying to stay upright.
What?
[It’s possible to obtain a body. You only need to keep leveling up.]
I leaned toward it so quickly that I had to correct my position to avoid falling onto Azeneth.
Why didn’t you tell me before?!
[I forgot.]
The deer raised a hoof beside its head, closed one eye, and poked out its tongue. A violet flower slipped across its forehead and settled between its ears.
I stared at it.
You forgot?
[Yes.]
I’d spent so much time worrying about someone picking me up, how they held me, and what I could see from a hand. Only a few hours earlier, I’d been celebrating barely lifting myself off the ground. Now this deer had just told me I could get a body as though it had omitted some unimportant detail.
I wanted to keep complaining, but I looked at Azeneth asleep. I’d imagined having a hand to offer her so often that the possibility distracted me even from my annoyance.
A real body.
[A body of your own. Keep leveling up.]
I imagined accepting a cup without wondering where the person offering it would pour its contents. Opening a door. Getting out of the carriage after her and choosing where to sit. Things I’d once done without thinking now held my attention until I forgot to keep watching the deer.
I could walk beside her too. Azeneth wouldn’t have to switch hands so I could see something or worry about where to rest my blade. I held that picture a little longer, trying to give it shape without knowing what that body would be like.
I didn’t know how that fit with the curse Azeneth had described. I couldn’t check it from this seat either. The deer waited in front of me, and for the first time, I had something definite to want beyond surviving the next blow.
All right, I agreed at last. But try to remember these things sooner.
[I’ll keep that in mind!]
Its tongue disappeared, and both ears stood up again. The answer still annoyed me, though I was already thinking about the levels I’d gained. I couldn’t hurry the journey or leave Azeneth alone to hunt another monster. I stayed beside her, newly eager to arrive.
A while later, I lowered my grip and lay back on the cloth. From there, I could see the opposite seat’s edge and the deer’s legs. Thayron’s voice sounded muffled from the driver’s seat. The horses kept going. This chapter was taken from novelping(.)com without permission.
Can a sword sleep?
[You can.]
I didn’t need to find out much more just then. I closed my eye and stopped watching the road. I still felt the swaying, but following the carriage’s turns grew harder. If Azeneth woke first, I could tell her I’d rested too.
At first, I kept counting the wheels’ jolts. Each sound drew me back to listening, wondering whether Thayron would stop the horses or Azeneth needed me. The cloth remained beneath my blade, her hand resting nearby. Eventually, I let a bump pass without trying to discover its cause. The next barely interested me.
Then I stopped noticing the bumps.
“Zaelia.”
I opened my eye to fingers around my grip. Azeneth leaned over me, and for a moment I tried to remember whether we’d left the lizard far enough from the road.
“We’re here.”
The noise reached me as Azeneth lifted me. Wheels on stone, voices offering goods, someone hammering metal at a quick rhythm. Through the window, I saw a high wall, buildings crowded behind it, and a bridge so full of people I could barely make out the water.
“Is this your castle?”
“The central city,” Azeneth replied. “The castle’s farther ahead.”
She brought me to the door. Roofs stretched far beyond the street in front of me, balconies overlooked canals, and walkways linked buildings. I tried to follow one to its end, but Azeneth stepped out, and the crowd hid the rest.
It was enormous. Until then, I’d seen roads, a fort, and a few houses among the water. Here, people crowded everywhere, squeezing aside for carts, unloading baskets from boats, and bargaining at stalls so full that fabrics hung above the customers.
Through a gap between two shoulders, I saw a boatman hand a rope to someone on a platform. Higher up, baskets hung at a window, a woman hauling them up. A cart crossed my view of the rope, revealing another crowded street beyond it. I struggled to imagine how much continued behind the buildings.
I tried looking up. Lanterns hung above doors, and laundry stretched between balconies, high enough for people to pass beneath. The water caught the lights and broke them apart as boats moved. I would’ve kept following one of those patches if the smell of food hadn’t caught my attention.
The smell of warm dough drew my eye to a tray beside a doorway. Farther on, a woman stirred a steaming pot. I would’ve liked to taste what she was cooking. I watched too long and nearly missed the man passing my tip with a sack.
Azeneth brought me against her chest, out of his way. I looked at my edge and remembered the numbers I’d left unfinished after the fight.
[Durability: 175/250.]
Seventy-five points had been added to my maximum Durability, and I still hadn’t filled them. I checked my mana, still full, and used Healing I. Fifteen points of mana were enough to finish repairing me.
[Durability: 250/250.]
[Mana: 55/70.]
Warmth spread through my blade as Azeneth moved away from the carriage. I was glad it had come to mind now, with her hand around my grip and time to read the notifications without anyone trying to cut us.
Thayron climbed down from the driver’s seat and checked the ropes securing the crates before approaching us.
“I need to take this to where I’m selling it,” he said. “Thank you both for clearing the road.”
“Thank you for bringing us,” Azeneth replied.
He gave us a brief nod and returned to the horses. His tone hadn’t changed when he spoke to her, and he didn’t seem to expect orders. A nearby vendor asked Azeneth whether she wanted fruit. She shook her head and stepped aside for two women arguing over a basket.
Thayron climbed onto the driver’s seat and waited for a gap between the carts. I watched until the crates disappeared behind an awning. I would’ve liked to ask more about Tzintli, but his horses were already heading elsewhere in the city. We stayed beside the canal.
Nobody stopped to look at her as I would’ve expected them to look at a queen. Among so many horns and unfamiliar faces, Azeneth walked on with her staff beside her, receiving the same offers as everyone else.
A shout drew my attention to a table beside the canal. Two men shoved each other while a third tried to move a mug out of the way. One struck the bench with his leg, and several people turned to protest. Azeneth crossed the street before we could get close.
I kept looking at the stalls. Open sacks, jars lined up on a board, bundles of plants tied beneath an awning. I remembered the poison I’d absorbed beside the lizard.
Is it still stored?
[Ingredient reserve: giant lizard poison.]
I had that, but I still needed materials for other potions. I tried to find the plants again, and Azeneth turned me so I could see over her arm.
“Can we look for a few things before going to the castle?” I asked.
“Of course. What do you need?”
“Materials. Some herbs and containers, to start with.”
She looked at the surrounding stalls, then at the next bridge.
“I know someone who can help us.”
She adjusted her hold on my grip and took a street beside the canal. The vendors’ calls followed us as we let a cart pass and continued among the stalls, heading toward the person Azeneth wanted to visit.