My Own Best Friend 71 - I'm a Scholar

Few things are certain in life. Death? High level individuals have been known to enjoy increased longevity, and with the right class, immortality isn’t out of the question. Sunrise? It’s shaded by the great wheel for a third of every year. Taxes? Some nations don’t even have currency.

But the [World Engine]? It’s not especially consistent. Class theory is a hugely troublesome field precisely because of how inconsistent it can be. The same progression path followed by a different person can result in entirely different classes and skills, and even the same skill from the same class can differ between individual cases. But the Goddess’ gift is always present.

Its interface is usually the first thing anybody remembers, though most lack the means to understand it until they get older. Most children end up choosing their first class by the age of four or five—though childhood classes like that are often discarded once your mother gets a say. It’s not especially productive to invest in a class like [Headbutter] or [Crybaby]. It’s such an intrinsic part of growing up that one’s tier two celebration is generally considered to be the moment when a young Fa’aun becomes an adult.

Until now, Talla has never had a reason to question it. Everyone has an interface with the [World Engine] from the moment they are born, as surely as their heart beats and their lungs draw breath. How could they not?

She said it so casually. As if it was the most normal thing in the world. As if it didn’t bring into question one of the most fundamental truths of the universe.

“[??? non-word, filler particle], sorry. Is that bad? [Question. Indicated by tone rather than particle.]” Allie asks nervously, Talla’s mental notes filling in the gaps between their languages.

Bad? That feels like the wrong word to Talla. A category error. How can it be good or bad? It’s wrong. Not morally, but fundamentally. It shouldn’t be. The Goddess’ blessing is universal—even bugs and germs are theorized to have guidance templates, though their potential is so miniscule that they receive only the barest level of support. Even demons, for better or worse, have access to the [World Engine].

“How is that possible?” Talla asks as calmly as she can, though the tremor in her voice betrays her nerves.

“The first thing we met in this [??? (unknown word, possible meaning: location)] was the [Angel] that [??? (familiar word, questionable meaning: join or link)] me to the [World Engine]. I only started seeing the words after that.”

It’s a little weird talking to Allie sometimes. Talla reflexively uses [Recall Knowledge] to draw on and update the mental notes she’s been taking, but sometimes it feels like having a conversation with her own notebook.

More importantly, though, it says a lot that it’s gaining the Goddess’ blessing that she focuses on. Anyone else would have been horrified—even traumatized—by being unable to access the [World Engine], but Allie speaks as though it’s stranger to have it than not.

“I never asked, but before you woke up in the convergence point, where did you live?” Talla asks.

“Well...” Allie hedges, then suddenly looks down and to her right. “What? Of course I am. Why not? Oh, don’t be [??? (unknown word, possible meaning: foolish or irrational)]! She’s a big girl, she can handle it.”

Talla wonders if Allie even realizes how it looks when she does that. She lowers her voice when speaking to the others in her body, but she doesn’t exactly hide it. Although judging from the increased number of idioms she uses when doing so, she’s at least aware that she’s being overheard.

“I assume that’s another of your odd turns of phrase, rather than you calling me fat?” Talla prods her playfully. “I’ve put on a bit of muscle since taking my commission, but I’m not that big.”

Allie blushes, her pale and furless skin betraying her emotions more easily than a Fa’aun’s would. “No!” she replies urgently. “It just means you’re an adult that’s [??? (unknown word, likely meaning: mature)] enough to handle difficult topics.”

“I should hope so,” Talla chuckles. “I’m a scholar, after all.”

“Right. So, um...” Allie trails off, formulating her thoughts and possibly being badgered by her other selves again. “If I tell you I’m from a different [??? (this word again: almost certainly location)] do you know what that means?”

“You’re from somewhere else,” Talla answers. “That much I already gathered.”

“Not just somewhere else,” she insists. “A different [??? (location? Less certain about the meaning)] entirely.”

“You’ll have to define that word for me more specifically, then,” Talla sighs.

This is always the most bothersome part. Even though Allie’s magic lets her translate—wait! Talla’s thoughts derail entirely as she recalls how Allie understands her.

“Hold on, are you still casting that spell?!” she asks incredulously. “I specifically told you to rest!”

How is she doing that without Talla sensing the magic, anyway?

“Oh, we’re not using the spell,” Allie clarifies. “We can understand because of Evelyn, I think.”

Talla frowns. The newest addition to Allie’s crowded mind is very concerning, but there are so many concerning things about her that it just ends up as another entry on an already long list of things to address.

“Never mind, then,” she sighs. “The word?”

“Right,” Allie says. “[??? (type of location, maybe?)]. You were close, but you need to think bigger.”

And so begins the game of trying to slowly close in on the specific meaning of one of Allie’s words. Usually Talla can figure them out on her own, but every now and then they hit a roadblock like this one and have to spend a few minutes clearing it up.

“Country?” Talla suggests. “Continent?”

“Bigger,” Allie says, shaking her head.

Talla’s eyes widen. “Bigger than continent? Hemisphere? Uh...”

Another word dances on the tip of her tongue. A rare one, seldom spoken even among fellow astronomers. But it couldn’t be.

“Still bigger,” Allie says, watching Talla’s face carefully.

Talla tries to school her expression. For having a differently-shaped face, Allie has proven to be deceptively good at reading Fa’aun expressions and body language. There’s nothing for it, though she probably won’t know the word anyway.

“P-planet?” Talla stammers.

Allie blinks, then cocks her head. “That’s weird, I don’t understand that word.”

Talla lets out a sigh of relief, then chuckles and shakes her head. “You wouldn’t. It’s a fairly obscure astronomical term for the type of astral body that includes the globe.”

“Oh! You mean [??? (unknown word, there’s no way it means planet, right?]?” Allie asks, brightening up. “That’s right, I’m from another [??? (blood and acid, it does)] called ‘Earth.’ But also—bigger.”

Talla freezes, her blood going cold in her veins. Bigger? What does that even mean? A bigger planet is still just a planet, and anything more broad ceases to have any meaning, except...

A calm descends over her. Oh, of course. Talla feels like a fool for not thinking of it sooner.

“You’re from another world?”

“World! Yes! That’s it!” Allie starts to clap, but then has to steady herself on the cot when she gets dizzy.

Talla sighs. As mind-boggling as that claim is, it makes sense. Everyone in the world has a connection to the Goddess through her divine work. The idea of other worlds beyond the reach of the [World Engine] is much easier to accept than people within this world lacking her blessing.

“I think that’s good news, actually,” Talla says, after mulling it over. “That you were explicitly granted the Goddess’ blessing after arriving here is a point in your favor.”

Although the existence of other worlds might not be something that the Church of the Great Wheel is pleased to hear about—if only because it lends additional credence to the teachings of their ringward rivals.

[Level up!]

Thaumaturgist of Light and Life is now level 6.

+8 Awareness.

+12 Ego.

+12 Will.

And then there’s that. Talla isn’t even surprised by it anymore. Just appraising Allie the first time had been enough for a level, then the incident with the strange super-red and super-blue invisible colors, and now the revelation about other worlds.

Talla would be lying if she said that her desire to help Allie was completely altruistic. She wants to think that she’d help Allie either way. The young girl is clearly just an innocent—mostly innocent—victim of circumstance. She’s only been in the world less than a month, and while she’s made mistakes, they were only in the interest of her own survival.

Yes. Talla would advocate for Allie even without the benefit of gaining three levels to her core class in under a week. But blood and acid, it certainly helps to keep her motivated.

“We take those, I guess,” Allie sighs. An unusual turn of phrase, but Talla guesses its meaning from context. “Vi and Maggie want me to ask if it’s [unknown word, likely meaning: good or permissible] for us to look at our core class.”

Talla takes a moment to consider it.

“Normally I’d say there’s no risk of harm from interfacing with the divine mechanism, but the fact that it gives you symptoms of strain is concerning.”

But they need to level, and raising attributes is one of the best ways to combat magical strain in the long term.

“For now,” Talla hedges, “how about I stay with you, and if I think you’re pushing too hard I’ll tell you to stop?”

“That works for us,” Allie agrees. “Maybe you can give us some advice about how to advance after all.”

“I’d be happy to!”

At the end of the day, curiosity is Talla’s greatest vice. Helping Allie is the right thing to do, and it’s gaining her levels, but more importantly—Allie is just so fascinating!

*

“Alright!” Maggie crows excitedly. “We got the doctor’s permission!”

I roll my eyes. “What we’ve got is the doctor’s concern. She knows we’re just going to do it anyway if she says no, so she’s staying close by to keep us from hurting ourselves.”

“You do know I can still hear you, right?” Talla says with a chuckle. “It’s just a shame I can’t hear the others.”

“You’re not missing much,” I sigh. “Mostly Vi and Maggie yelling at each other.”

“Hey that’s not true!” Maggie protests. “I also sometimes come up with genius plans and new spells!”

“Once,” Vi interjects. “You came up with a new spell once. And it’s already obsolete.”

“Fuck off, Vi,” she sneers. “Science isn’t defined by its successes.”

I rub the bridge of my nose and shake my head.

“Yeah, it’s probably better that you can only talk to one of us at a time.”

“Hey, this is actually a good time to ask her if she can use [Message] with her thaumaturgy skill,” Maggie suggests.

Talla perks up slightly at that. “Did one of them just speak through a [Message]?”

I blink. “You can tell?”

“Sometimes,” she confirms. “I can’t see or hear anything, but I feel a brief...something through my magic sense. I noticed that it usually happens when you’re talking to yourself, but it took me a while to figure out what it was.”

“Huh...” I muse. “Maggie thinks that you should be able to use [Message] with your magic skill.”

“Hmm? I don’t think so—it’s not a skill.”

“It is!” Maggie insists. “It looks the same, feels the same, and functions the same. The only difference is that it’s not attached to a class, but neither is the regular interface.”

I scratch my cheek. “I’m not sure how to translate her argument, but she says it’s the same.”

“It can’t hurt to try, I suppose,” Talla says. “The worst case is just that it doesn’t work.”

She closes her eyes for a moment, moving her hands in a vaguely mystical manner. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t actually have to do that, but it looks like a visualization technique.

“Let me see...” she mutters quietly. “[Sense Magic] is a good start, but how am I supposed to...?” Talla frowns slightly and cocks her head, making a grasping motion with one of her hands. She furrows her brows, but doesn’t give up. “[Message] isn’t like my skills, there’s nothing to...wait—I think I have something!”

She slowly brings her hands closer together, hesitating for a moment before clasping them together.

“[Sense Intent]?” she whispers incredulously.

“Oh shit!” Maggie exclaims. “It actually worked?!”

“Did you ask me to do that thinking it wouldn’t?” Talla asks.

I widen my eyes and stare at her in shock. “Wait, you heard that?!”

She scrunches up her face. “No, but I understood it. This is very strange—is that how it felt with your spell?”

“With Maggie’s spell I heard Fa’aun, but the meaning just appeared in my head like the interface does,” I explain. “Though since Evelyn showed up I can just sort of...understand Fa’aun.”

“That’s about right,” she confirms. “Though it’s even stranger with your other selves—the meaning appeared without any sound at all. Could you ask one of them to speak again?”

“It’s nice to properly meet you, T’ala’a,” Violet says. “I’m sorry for how awkward our earlier conversations were, I don’t have Allie’s talent for languages.”

“Oh! Yes, nice to meet you too, Vi,” she replies. “You said my name right!”

“She’s not limited by biology,” I mutter.

“Ah, ‘biology’! That’s what that means,” Talla exclaims. “Oh this is a fantastic spell! You have a surprisingly technical vocabulary.”

“Really?” Vi asks. “I don’t think biology is all that technical on its own. Maybe if she said something more specific like cardiovascular or mitochondria...”

Talla’s eyes practically shine as she grins at me. “Oh, we’re going to have so much to talk about!”