The Aftermath - Part 4

Reaching the training ground wasn't as amazing as when they visited the one in Lord Desmon's castle. Being a village, it was rather…lacking.

It was a dirt field less than a quarter the size of the other one. There were a few training dummies littered around that had seen better days. You may expect that given that people fight them, but in the castle, they were regularly replaced meaning you saw new and old ones scattered about. The ones here were probably kept until they disintegrated, rather than buy new ones as they started to get destroyed.

It was the same for the archery targets, having more holes than a sieve. Octavia was sure that when firing an arrow at that target, more often than not, it would pass through and hit the ground behind it given how damaged it was.

Coupled with this, there were not many people actually training. Sure, the whole slavery crisis and guards being interrogated may be partly a cause for this, but even with all the people that had been cleared, Octavia only saw two guards sparing on the field.

Passing them Octavia headed over to Althea who was imposingly standing by one of the decrepit training dummies, looking upon it with a face Octavia could only describe as aghast.

"Really, what sort of training grounds are they running here? No wonder the guards couldn't handle the slavers let alone our troops. I better inform Lord Desmon when I get back about this."

Octavia heard her talking to herself as she neared the instructor, who stopped when she spotted here.

"Ah, Octavia. I half expected you to run away at the prospect of another training session. That happens a lot with the people I train for some reason. Good to see you're not so weak-willed like them." Althea said as her eyes darted towards a couple of soldiers standing nearby. Octavia was sure she could see them visibly shivering at the mention of fleeing from her training session.

"But no matter. I see you also came along Lady Sylvia, and your lovely new daughter as well."

Imeril blushed when she heard that.

"Yes, I did. I came to train." Imeril replied with a beautiful smile.

"Did you now. You're rather young to be training though. I'm surprised your new mommies didn't tell you that." Althea said as she looked up at Sylvia and Octavia.

Octavia was tempted to bring up the whole being mum thing…but honestly, what was the point? It almost seemed like a forgone conclusion now so why bother? It's not like it changed anything.

"Well…about that. It would seem that Imeril is quite…special."

"Oh."

…

What proceeded after that was Octavia informing Althea of what she had seen Imeril do, along with a little demonstration for her, after she point-blank told them she didn't believe it.

The shocked expression on her face when Imeril suddenly became a torn-up training dummy was quite the sight to see.

"Okay. Well, that is very different."

Then all of a sudden Imeril was back.

"See. I'm very good at hiding."

"Yes…yes you are," Althea said not really knowing what else to say to that.

Althea stood there in thought for a moment, likely coming to the same conclusions that Sylvia and Octavia had before.

"Well, I won't be able to train her. I don't even really know how she's doing it. But I know someone who might, or at least may be able to help her understand it and use it better…if she even needs to."

Even Althea was unsure of how Imeril could get better at what she was doing.

Althea then entered the building that stood nearby returning a few short moments later with someone in tow.

The woman that was with her wore a full-length robe of some sort, which was a mix of blue and white. A hood adorned her head, covering her forehead, where long, straight golden hair poked out from inside and passed over her shoulders.

In her hand, she held a staff of some sort, which was made of some sort of redwood, and had numerous carvings across its length, leading all the way up to a crystal that was jagged and poked out at the top.

A crystal that actually looked a little familiar.

"Allow me to introduce you to Knight Commander Eris. She specialises in magic, having trained some of the best mages in our army. She also has quite a fascination with, how should I say this…oddities and everything that looks like magic but isn't."

"I wouldn't quite put it like that Knight Commander Althea. Anyway, it is very nice to meet you all."

Octavia, Sylvia and Imeril all introduced themselves, with Eris bowing her head slightly as she spoke to Sylvia.

With the introductions over, Octavia then went on to bring up Imeril and her ability. But before she did, she knew she had to ask a few other things first.

"Oddities and things that look like magic but isn't?"

"That was a poor way of saying it," Eris said glancing over at Althea. "I have studied magic all my life after I learned I was quite adept with controlling mana. But during my study, I came across sights and abilities that almost appeared to have occurred due to magic and mana but were proven not to have been the case. I have always had a fascination with these, having been rather astonishing sights on occasion, knowing that I myself would never be able to do them. So I study and learn as much as I can about them, hoping to be able to do them myself. This has also led to just genuine interest in other strange and odd things in this world."

The shine in her eyes was clear to see, showing that she was truly obsessed…err, fascinated and honest with what she was saying. So much so however that Octavia was a little unsure whether they should reveal Imeril's ability to her.

But before they could even do that, Eris bought this point up anyway.

Just not how Octavia imagined.

"So when Althea said there was a girl that had quite the ability I knew I had to come running. My how right she was. I had heard about you when you were at the castle, but to see a real live Lamia is just amazing." Eris ranted on as she suddenly ended up right in front of Octavia's face.

"Err, Eris. No it-it wasn't-"

"Look at you. Half of you looks human but the other half looks like that of a serpent. Skin as green as grass, and your tail…it's beautiful and so powerful. Ahh… but look at it. Ohh, what bad man did this to you I wonder." All of a sudden she was behind Octavia, and running her hands over the scales on her tail almost longingly.

For Octavia, even though should couldn't feel the touch much, she eerily shivered at the whole sensation and situation.

"Eris. It's not Octavia that you need to-" Althea went on to say, but it was clear Eris could not hear a word that she was saying.

Also, out of the corner of her eye, Octavia could see a rather annoyed expression on Sylvia's face as she watched Eris stroke her tail.

"Is that…jealously. No, no it can't be…can it." Octavia wondered. But that would have to be a thought to explore another day, as before Octavia could even move to get Eris to stop touching her tail, quick as a flash Eris was in front of her again.

"So what abilities do you have? I had heard Lamia's had all sorts of fantastic abilities, but nowhere were they written."

"…Wait, you know about Lamia's?"

While her odd inspection of her probably came from Lamia's being extinct and so it was rather exciting seeing one for the first time, it was clear now that she knew a little about them.

"Not as much as I would like, but I did manage to find one book about them. Not that it matters now as there is a living one right in front of m-"

*Smack*

All of a sudden Eris was knocked to the floor and in place of where her head was, Althea's hand took its place.

"Althy…why did you do that?" Eris said looking up at …Althy, holding the side of her face where a rather large and unsightly red hand mark was starting to appear. "That really hurt."

"Don't…don't call me that in front of people." Althe…Althy, Octavia giggled inside at that, said as redness grew on her face as well for an entirely different reason. "I did that because I asked you here for Imeril, not Octavia. And you know how you get when you find something interesting."

"Imeril…not Octavia." Eris's eyes quickly moved from Octavia's face to that of the little girl who at some point and taken to standing behind Sylvia's legs as she watched Eris do…what she did.

As soon as their eyes met, Imeril shuffled back even more and all of a sudden was replaced by a rock.

"Ohhh, now that is interesting." Eris then said as she slowly made her way over to Imeril.

Seeing this, Octavia put her foot down and did a rather parent-like thing.

"No…no, don't you dare," Octavia said as she slithered other a took hold of the rode at the back of Eris's neck. Knight Commander or not she had frightened her daught…

*Sigh*

Fine, daughter, and there was no way was she going to just let her go at it and inspect her as she had just done to herself.

"Hey…let me go. I- I am a Knight Commander. You can't just…assault me like this."

She looked over at Althea as if expecting some sort of help from her fellow Knight Commander, but all she got was a look of exhaustion that said, 'You reap what you sow', leaving her dangling in the air in Octavia's grip.

It was quite a sight.

But honestly, Octavia was exhausted and was starting to get a headache.

And they hadn't even started training yet.