2 Chapter 35: Are You Sure?

Siting in the lake, Sara meditated as she circulated the Mana inside her body, small blue lights that represented the lesser water spirits gathered around her. There was a great deal of them thanks to Morella calling for them to help, which they gladly did, causing the Mana in the area to increase significantly. Lucilla and Morella stood on the shore watching the younger girl.

"She's making a surprisingly amount of progress in such a short time." Lucilla commented.

"She's gotten a handle on her Mana's circulation quit effectively." Morella said in agreement.

It was still too early to tell if Sara even had an affinity for water or not, so she also did this training at night with a blind fold, but Lucilla was impressed by the girl's diligence and natural talent. Sara should be able to start using magic or even elemental Chi in no time. Looking at Sara a strange feeling welled up in Lucilla's chest, and she wasn't sure what it was.

"Are you prepared for this fight Lucy?" Morella suddenly asked, snapping Lucilla out of her thoughts.

"What do you mean?" Lucill asked.

"Are you prepared to fight the Hero dear?"

"... I have to be. Don't worry if I can't handle it, I'll just run." Lucilla said. "I'll be fine, just make sure you stay safe."

"I will be safe; I'm not the one being hunted by the Hero." The Nymph retorted. "Lady Nielia said being in this forest strengthen you... will it be enough to fight him?"

Lucilla looked down at her hands, concentrating on the increased Mana in her body. She could definitely feel the increase in strength from before, but she was still nowhere close enough to face the Hero. Luckily, she seems to still be growing increasingly stronger. She hoped it was enough to kill Jason, with him gone she would be one step closer to ensuring the peace of her family.

"It'll be fine." was what Lucilla answered with.

It had to be fine.

Morella stepped closer to Lucilla and gave her a sideways hug and said, "You know you can count on me, right? Just because you got those fancy blades doesn't mean you have to face the Hero alone."

"I know." She said leaning into the hug. "I just want you to focus on taking care of yourself before worrying about me."

The two-sister stood together in silence for a while, until Sara got herself out oof the lake. Separating, the young girl's teacher grabbed a towel nearby and handed it to her. She then conjured fire lit up a campfire prepared ahead of time so Sara could warm herself up. Thanking her teacher, the young girl sat down, still dripping with water.

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Deep within the Fey Forest two figures could be seen walking together. One was an albino with silver hair and crimson eyes, the other was completely blue with fin-like ears. Soon enough the two of them eventually stopped and the blue woman turned to look at her younger sister. The crimsoned eyed woman fidgeted, her eyes darting back and forth.

"Alright, are you ready?" Morella asked with a warm smile.

"Not really..." Answered Lucilla.

After Lucilla finished her lessons with Sara Morella had suggested that the two of them did some training themselves. Liking the idea of moving her body around the Silver haired woman agreed. What she wasn't expecting though was to be brought to different location in the forest and then asked to navigate herself to each location. When she was told what her task was going to be, Lucilla broke out in a cold sweat.

"I'll be here the entire time; I'll give provide assistance when you need it dear." The Nymph reassured.

"Sigh, Alright." The younger woman conceded, excepting her fate.

Let's work on the easiest location to find first. Just head west and we should run right into the Lake from here."

Lucilla nodded in affirmation and started walking in a random direction. Fortunately, she started heading west, which cause Morella to smile slightly as she followed the girl from behind. They continued to walk for a few minutes, occasionally they would come across an obstacle and have to make a detour. At some point Morella noticed something was wrong.

The more they walked, the more they diverged from walking west. Their heading was closer to north-west, emphasis on North, if they continued in this pattern, they would eventually end up doing a complete one hundred and eighty degree turn and start heading east. Lucilla herself didn't seem to realize this yet and was plowing ahead.

"Lucilla dear, we are meant to go west remember?" Morella called out.

Freezing in place Lucilla looked back at the Nymph with shock. "Wait, what direction are we going in then?" She asked.

"Currently we're going north-west, more north than west. You can't tell? Those mountains in the distance can be used as a big landmark to help get your sense of direction." She responded, pointing to the mountain range far north."

"Yeah... got it." She responded, yet she turned right and started heading east instead."

Sighing Morella quietly grabbed her sisters should, turned her around to face west. "Here's a tip, if you need to find out which way is west, remember that west is left of north, while east is right of it. So, if those mountains are north..."

"Then this is west." The silver haired woman finished.

-- -- --

After another hour, with a few more gentle course corrections from Morella, the two of them fell into a comfortable silence. As they continued walking, the young woman suddenly spoke, breaking the peaceful atmosphere. "Hey, Morella, do you want to sit out of this fight and go back to Yuki?"

"Now why would you ask something like that? I thought we were going to face this together Dear." Responded the nymph.

"Yes, well, my reason for doing this is... you don't really have any real stake in this fight." She answered. "You don't actually have to be here. Plus, what if something happened to you?"

Morella smiled as Lucilla continued walking ahead not looking in her direction, not realizing she was once again veering off course. "I suppose you're right about me not having any interest in fighting. I might like this forest, but I have no desire to risk my life for it."

"But." She continued. "If you're fighting then I'll of course going to be there to help. If anything, we just have to convince Sara that fighting is pointless then we'll leave."

"Why Sara?" Lucilla asked.

"You won't retreat unless she wants to. Am I wrong?" The older woman questioned with a teasing smile on her face.

"I- Just let me know when you want to leave, I'll grab Sara and forcefully make her retreat if you think we need too." she said using her sword to push a low hanging branch of a tree out of the way. She didn't want to accidently upset a Dryad, so she was being extra carful of where she swung her sword.

"Yes, yes, I'll be sure to inform you Dear."

"Oh. Watch your step a 'red purpled-eyed flower' is right there." Lucilla said as she stepped around a flower with red petals with the stigma of the flower looking similar to a purple eye. It wasn't realistic, but that didn't make the plant any less dangerous.

The 'purple-eyed flower' Species has different effects depending on the color of the petals. The red ones have hallucinogenic properties, and when damaged will release a chemical in the air laced with Mana causing one to experience hallucinations.

"Should we take on back for Judieth? I'm sure she'll love to study them." Morella asked as she crouched down next to the flower. "Or maybe Yuki? I'm sure she can find a way to have fun messing with people. It'll let her vent some of the anger she has without doing any real harm."

Shrugging Lucilla looked down at the flower. "We don't even know how to extract it safely; I say leave it."

"Mm, true. I guess another time then."

Without another word the two of them once again started their hike through the forest.