28

Chapter 28: Dealing with wolvesNotes:

Was impatient so please forgive potentially more typos than normal.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Chapter 28

"What are you doing here, I suppose?" said Beatrice as she looked up from the book she was currently reading.

"I intend to honour our agreement of course. You helped me yesterday with discovering shadow magic and I was under the impression that you would appreciate me teaching you in return." answered Tanya with a charming smile.

"Mmph. If you are already here then get on with it, I suppose."

"Gladly."

A little under an hour later and she had clearly overwhelmed the poor girl with her descriptions of field regulation and vector calculation. It was pretty amusing to see how much Beatrice´s mindset struggled to accept the logic based magic that Tanya showed her. The alien concepts that her mathematic formulae provided her with must have looked like gibberish to any citizen of Lugnica.

When she felt like she had confused the pitiful librarian enough, she packed her sheets full of diagrams and calculations up and said goodbye.

"Oh and if you see Bubby on your way tell him that he should visit more often. Hmph."

"Forgive the question, but who is ´Bubby´?"

"You may know him as Puck, I suppose. Now leave I am not used to so many daily visitors. It´s distracting, in fact."

It was clear as day that her inability to comprehend Tanya´s teaching had deeply frustrated her when she still pouted like an angry child. Tanya congratulated herself for a job well done. Beatrice would not be able to use her own knowledge against her. Wonderful. A seemingly equivalent exchange from which only she profited.

Emilia was not hard to find. Mostly because she sat at the same spot as yesterday, but this time without Subaru. Only her weird cat spirit Puck kept her company as he watched her from a distance while she meditated on the front lawn. The strange thing was that she was surrounded by different coloured orbs of light that swarmed all around her. She looked like she was in deep in concentration so Tanya kept a dozen meters away from her to not disturb whatever she was doing.

Her annoying companion however had noticed her so she made an effort to engage in a polite conversation while she was mindful not to raise her voice unnecessarily.

 "Ah, greetings Puck. I should say you that Beatrice misses your presence and you should pay her a visit once in a while. I am under the impression that she gets fairly lonely in her library."

"Yeah. Betty doesn´t come out of there very often. She not a very outgoing person. You could say she is quite the opposite of me even though we are siblings."

"Siblings?"

"Not real sibling, but more... you know... adopted in a sense?"

"But I thought you were a spirit that lived countless centuries? Beatrice is certainly younger than that."

"Didn´t you know? She is a spirit as well. A great spirit in fact."

"No, I didn't. Last time I saw her she appeared rather corporeal. I had assumed that she wasn´t a human from her demeanour alone, but I wouldn't have expected her to be a spirit. Are there more people that walk around who might be spirits in disguise?"

"Haha, no. Great spirits are rare and mostly take on animal forms. Well, I knew someone once who could fit that description, but... he is dead. I am sure."

A sensitive topic? Better draw the conversation away from it then before Puck became depressed and didn't answer her questions anymore.

"By the way... What are these lights that surround Emilia?"

"They are minor spirits that she is talking to right now. Normally she communes with them only twice a day, but because of her stay in the capital she has a lot to catch up to, you know?"

"Ahh... And what do they tell her?"

"All kinds of little secrets and events. What the birds in tree over there have been doing, how the grass grows, what the nearby villagers are talking about, what the new guest does in her free time..."

"What?"

"Haha! Only joking. Partially. They are not intelligent enough to understand real words or exact happenings, but it´s enough for emotions and general feelings."

That sounded insanely useful! She had read about the "spirit arts" in one of her books, but she hadn´t thought that it could be such a valuable tool. This simple meditation allowed the practitioner to basically employ invisible and untraceable spies that were also probably able to go through walls. With this at her disposal no enemy would be able to hide from her. It sounded too good to be true!

"How can you learn this technique? Do you need to become a spirit arts user?"

"Well, I wouldn't call it a technique... and you are not required to be a spirit arts user to accomplish this. A spirit arts user is someone who forms a contract with one or more spirits at a time, but in order to talk with lesser spirits you don´t need contracts. Just your affinity for spirits needs to be relatively high. If you are wondering, no you don´t have a particularly strong affinity."

"Would you be able to find out more?"

"Sure thing. Just let me touch your forehead real quick... AH!"

His miniature paw retracted quickly and he held it as if it was burnt.

"What just happened? Are you hurt?"

She was legitimately concerned for his well-being. It would leave a terrible impression of her if she accidentally hurt Emilia´s companion after all.

"Not only do you have no affinity for them, you actively repulse them. When I came into contact with you it felt like I was repelled instantly! It was really strange... I am a great spirit and as such I am way more resistant to these kinds of feelings, but the little ones over there would not even be able to go near you if you went to greet them. In all my centuries of being alive I have never seen something like this. Instead of a lacking affinity I would call it a ´spirit aversion´."

"Very funny. So there is no chance that can learn this?"

She pointed at Emilia who still sat motionless with her eyes closed.

"Nope. Not a chance in hell."

Tanya could only sigh in disappointment. She had been right; it was too good to be true. She nonetheless continued to watch Emilia determined to still discover the functionality of spirit communication. If she herself was unable to do so then she would just train some of her subordinates to do the job for her. The division of labour to share tasks between specialized individuals was one of the greatest strengths of mankind after all and formed the foundation for an effective, capitalist society.

"Ah, hello Tanya. Nice to meet you here. We didn't get to talk much during breakfast."

The silver-haired girl had finished her business with the minor spirits apparently.

"Yes that is true. I was just watching how you summoned so many spirits and was very impressed by how you did it."

Emilia blushed.

"Oh, it´s nothing really. Everybody could do that."

"Well, I certainly can´t." Tanya dryly remarked.

Seeing the half-elf´s questioning look she explained: "Puck assessed my affinity with spirits and found out that I seem to be utterly incompatible with them. It´s not all that surprising really if you consider that no such creatures existed where I came from. Spirits and ghost were usually reserved for fairy tales or the stuff of legends."

"But Subaru also said that his homeland didn´t have spirits and he gets along pretty well with them."

That was good to know. She would need to consider the possibility that he was also spying on her with the help of these spirits. So many potential security risks! It was nerve-racking. Was it possible to make a room for lack of a better word "spirit-proof"? Did some kind of magic exist that could lock out these pesky, invisible observers? Hopefully Beatrice knew the answer. As a magic user and spirit she was the most qualified expert.

"Interesting. Has he also learned any magic yet?"

If Subaru was an ordinary boy from the normal, non-magical Japan that she knew, then he was either totally inept in this field or a novice at best. Still, it was important to gauge his abilities.

"Yes. He can manage a few Shamaks and Minyas already. Sadly, his gate is damaged and is in urgent need of healing. That was something I wanted to talk with you about anyway."

He was a yin magic user as well? The suspicious coincidences certainly piled up further and further. What was her personal, supernatural tormentor planning with the boy? The fact that Being X hadn´t already shown himself to her in one of his demented speeches was unnerving her greatly. Each day that elapsed without his interference made her tenser. Something was brewing at the horizon and she didn't like it one bit.

"How could I possibly help with his gate? I am no healer."

"I know, but I would be grateful if you could take him back with you to the capital when you return home and bring him to Lady Crusch. She has the best healer in Lugnica under her employ and he is our best hope of restoring his health."

"That opens the question why Lady Crusch should do such a thing. He is a member of an opposing camp after all."

"Well... I might have made a deal with her that puts him under her protection until he is fully healed? Sorry, that I didn´t tell you beforehand."

"No worries Emilia. I trust you that you would not betray me."

The half-elf had already started to refer to her on a first name basis and now she tried the same. It was not the proper way, but she had long learned that strictly following the protocol often lead to disaster. To truly be successful you had to know which rules of society to bend in your favour.

This served to tighten their connection by pretending to be friends. Bringing her closer was easy, because Emilia was for some reason way too trusting for someone who was hated by the entire world.

Oh no! She nearly forgot that Puck was listening in. She needed to think something positive! Quick!

Emilia was a kind person who make a good (but not very trustworthy) friend. She would gladly help her reach her goals, because they were very reasonable and were "morally right". Tanya would even happily make her queen if she swore to always listen to her advice. (In this case Emilia would take the blame from the public if something disastrous happened and she would be the one who was targeted by assassination attempts.)

"Thank you Tanya." she smiled.

"I see... Have you thought about my proposal? Not the technicalities or the specifics, but just the general gist of our alliance."

"Yes, but... I don´t know. I don't know if I want to give up on becoming queen yet. I mean the royal selection has just begun and..."

"I understand." Tanya interrupted. The girl had still doubts that needed to be quelled. Luckily her experience of working in the human resources department would come in handy.

"I really do. This is a hard decision to make and it is very selfish of me to demand an answer from you in a few days, but know this..."

She tried her best to look as soft, but at the same time as serious as possible.

"Whatever you choose I will not hold it against you. Even if you decline my offer I hope that we can be somewhat friendly towards one another in the future. Just because we would be rivals then doesn't mean that we must hate each other. We both will be robbed of an opportunity, but that is how life functions. We can´t always get the things we want. You will have to brave to journey to the throne completely on your own and I will have to look for new allies to save this kingdom. Nonetheless will we prevail."

Tanya made it purposefully sound like Emilia would lose more than she if she refused the bargain. She also used what information she could gleam about the girl to make her losses seem more significant. For example, she knew that Emilia was lonely and understandably afraid of the world that despised her. By indirectly stating that this might be her only chance at gaining an ally she pressured her into accepting. Emilia wouldn't push the only person of importance (with the exception of Roswaal) away who extended a helping hand to her.

"Uhm... Thank you."

"No problem. I must be going now. I have much to study after all."

While she made her way to her room she allowed herself a feral grin.

Mission success. The girl was deceived without her ever having to lie. It wasn´t even a malicious act, because she truly wanted to help her. Alone Emilia would have no chance at rescuing her friends from the forest, simply because the people of Lugnica would never vote for her regardless of how many good deeds she did. Humans were mostly not very rational creatures and generally did not change that much in just a few years. The republicans in exile certainly hadn´t changed their minds in spite of the utter stupidity of their plans and their pathetic defeat. People were sheep.

And she was the wolf.

Notes:

What Youjo Senki crossover has not been done yet, but would be fun nonetheless?

Which universe/fandom has not been blessed by the glory of Tanya yet?

(I am not writing anything like this before I have finished this story! It´s just