Interlude - Edna and Stella's Little Holiday (Patreon)

This is something silly and fun I wrote in a strange 'flow', so it's Patreon Exclusive. It's just Edna and Stella talking, really. Circa Yea

Interlude - Edna and Stella’s Little Getaway

Circa Year 216-218

“Have some time for tea, Edna?” Stella walked in and the demigod of knight smirked.

“Doesn’t actually sound like a question.”

“You can kick me out, if you don’t like it.” Stella sat, and took out a pot of steaming hot tea and a few cups. Magic, of course.

Edna just smiled, and stopped reading the daily stack of updates. An organisation of their size had way, way too many reports that flew everywhere, and it didn’t help that almost every subgroup within the Valthorns sent Edna, the first of the domainholders, a copy of their reports. She had to admit, it’s really quite impossible to keep up, and wondered how Aeon did it.

Maybe she should’ve gotten some [Administrator] classes.

“The only reports I care about are those from my students. Get your aides to sort your reports by type.” Stella spoke from experience, at least, from her past life on ‘Earth’.

“I probably should.” Edna sat. “What do you have today?”

“Ah. One of the mushroom-flavoured teas from the Mountainworld, mixed with a bit of the tea leaves from our world. And a bit of lemon.”

“It tastes a little... sour.”

“It’s supposed to be. Is it bad?”

“...I’m not used to it.” Edna wasn’t a big fan of tea, but Stella loved it. Apparently excessive use of the void mana had a tendency of inducing really weird nightmares.

“Oh well.” Edna’s office was located in the Valthorn’s headquarters in their own academy compounds. It was a slight distance away from Freshka, at first, but over the decades, the city sprawled outwards, and subsumed the Treeology School and the Valthorn academy into the city. She had the highest floor, with a view of the city beyond. Each of them had one. “There’s usually nothing interesting in the reports, since we are usually personally involved with the more interesting aspects.”

“Talking about work, are we?” Edna smiled.

“You look like you’re still thinking about work.” The lady of the void sipped her own tea. “I asked Kei and Lausanne to join us, actually.”

The second sip tasted a little sweeter. “And?”

“They can’t make it.”

“Ah. It’s been months since I saw them.” Edna conceded. “What are you up to these days?”

“Traveling, really.”

“You make it sound like a holiday. The tone needs to be a little bit more... serious.”

Stella grinned and lightly poked the knight on the shoulder.

“Traveling sounds like you are taking a holiday, going to see nice places and not having to worry about work, or the fights that Aeon has in store.”

“Y’know, a holiday does sound pleasant. Would you go for one? With me?”

“Are you asking me to go on a holiday with you?”

“Yes.” Stella laughed. “I could ask Lausanne or Kei to join us too.”

“Roon? Johann? Lumoof?”

“Eh. Lumoof’s a serious preacher, he’s not fun. The other two boys... neh.”

“The heroes?”

“Hmmm... maybe just Prabu since all he does is eat. But they have so many minders around them that I really don’t want to deal with them.”

Edna nodded as she imagined a holiday party filled with minders. Both Prabu and Colette had a small army of minders to tend to their needs, and a small group of guards, paid for by the state. Of course, Prabu and Colette both manufactured hero-items, which was their form of compensation.

The domainholders like themselves, had a bit more freedom. They had their own offices and army of aides too, but unlike the heroes, Valthorns were free to move about. “I’m thinking of heading to one of the beach islands. Any recommendations?”

“I’ll get my aides to look up-”

“No.” Stella said. “If you ask, they’ll know, and they'll talk, and then the whole world will know. If we want to go, we decide, and I’ll just pop open a portal and we’ll go without telling anyone. I’ll get a few of the face-changing masks from the spymasters so no one can recognise us too.”

“Impromptu holiday.” Edna found her tea tasting quite sweet, the mild taste of lemon just a faint aftertaste.

“What’s so urgent that you can’t go for a holiday? When’s the last time you went for one?”

Edna couldn’t answer that.

“With our [domains], we live forever.” Stella repeated. “But that doesn’t mean we should put off our fun forever. Come, let's go.”

The knight laughed. “That is hard to argue against. Very well. I’ll put in a notice that I’ll be away for two days.”

“Surely you can spare five days at least!”

“Fine, five!”

***

Both of them were very old, in human terms. Edna was almost reaching her 100s, and Stella just a decade or two younger. It is through Aeon’s incredible healing, and their [domain], that they looked like just two adults in their mid thirties.

Immortality was a weird thing, but not unusual. Elves lived for much longer, and so did treefolk. Even those with a shorter life, like lizardfolk, gained a longer life with higher levels.

That however, required focus. The ‘longevity’ provided by a single high leveled class was easily three to four times that of someone with the same amount of total levels, but spread over multiple classes.

Stella, of course, was quite impressed by the beach town of Maripa, and it was the most popular beach town on the whole of the Central Continent.

Tourism was a relatively recent phenomenon, as itnhad taken off quite significantly in the Central continent, driven primarily by an affluent middle class with leisure time. Tourism as a concept was still in its infancy in the Mountainworld. It may have been larger before, but the war ended it.

On the other continents, only the nobility and wealthy partake in the act of tourism, usually as part of a wider ‘educational’ process.

Edna and Stella relaxed in a beachside cafe where they had some local coconut-ish juice magically blended with milk and ice. There was an ice mage working at the beach, and Stella reckoned he was well paid for the task because the ice-blended coconut juice cost quite a tidy sum.

“This is quite lovely..” Stella said as they watched younger teens play by the beach. “If only the sun wasn’t so harsh.”

The knight was just amused. “Your skin won’t get dark.”

Edna wasn’t very interested in playing on the beach or the water. All she did was dip her leg in the warm ocean waters and sipped her coconut juice. She remembered that she came here before, a few decades ago as part of Aeon’s long conquest of the Central Continent.

Back then she wasn’t a domain holder, and she remembered how different everything was.

The nicely manicured beachside promenade wasn’t even built yet. In fact, the whole place was just a regular village.

And she came as an invader, with a small army at her side.

“You look like you're having difficult thoughts.” Stella took a bucket of water with magic and attempted to splash Edna.

Edna’s [shields] appeared and blocked it. “Eh. Nothing like that. Just... remembering how much the world is changing.”

Stella threw a few more balls of water, all deftly blocked. "It sounded like you had a hand in it."

"When did you learn how to read my mind?"

Stella looked offended. "Oh please, your [domain] would have blocked it."

Edna smirked.

There were some treefolks lounging by the beach, a rarity, and Edna was quite amused at how these treefolk wore beach-shoes. Apparently saltwater was uncomfortable for some treefolks, and stepping in the ocean was a bit like drinking unfiltered ocean water.

As far as Edna could remember, Lizardfolks and Treefolks generally preferred freshwater resorts. That meant lakes and rivers.

"Do you regret it?" Stella asked. "Ever feel like you are a murderer?"

"Sometimes I see the faces of those I killed in war. But when I see what change I am part of, I'll still do it." Edna repeated. "This is much better, no?"

"The path to hell is paved with good intentions." Stella said. "I sometimes wonder what happens if we keep walking this path, and then, Aeon turns evil?"

"Then we will defeat him. Wait. Actually that's probably impossible." Edna said. "We'll have run away from him. He can't catch us. For a while, then he'll train the next generation of void mages and we'll have to keep running."

Stella laughed. "That's a realistic assessment of our odds."

"You see a lot of what Aeon does throughout the multiple worlds, do you think that can happen?"

"Unlikely. He pursues knowledge and power, all to break this cycle. He is also scatterbrained, and unfocused when nothing draws him in. But, I believe he can be negotiated with. I have seen him compromise and give up his claims, and coexist. With Reefy, With Lillies. He doesn't need to rule, and if the demons were not an issue, he would happily step back and hide in his valley forever."

Edna looked at Stella, her face was stern, serious. "Were you aware of his decades-long experiments with the death-row prisoners?"

"...yes." Stella said.

"What did you think of it?"

"I-" The void mage was silent. "I don't know, actually."

Edna picked up her cup of coconut slushy and sipped it. "Punishment is cruel, no matter the form. If you believe the state has the right to take away a person's life, it also extends that the state has the right to do anything to that person, because killing is the worst thing a state can do. Lumoof once told me that souls reincarnate, and thus the body is but a temporary vessel. The pain is temporary, but the knowledge shall prevent future crimes."

"That scares me." Stella said.

"Lumoof, our dear priest, once stated that Earthlings value life because of how finite and how fragile it is. But here, souls move on, and we know it because we can see it. Bodies can be destroyed, and yet the will remains. So, if the body is replaceable, damage or experiments to a body is nothing more than experiments to one's tools. That's how Lumoof saw it, anyway."

"Do you believe that? It sounds absolutely wild to me."

“Lumoof can see the souls moving, so it’s easier for him to accept that sort of justification. I can’t, but I believe that Aeon's experiments are for the greater good, just like how punishment is a deterrence for future good behavior. It's cruel and terrible, just as cruel as sentencing people to their death and whipping, but.. there are no perfect leaders. It’s a compromise I’ve come to terms with."

Stella nodded.

"So weighing all things together, I still believe I am on the correct path.”

"That's a heavy thing to think about while drinking coconut milkshake. You thought about it a lot."

"I'm a knight, Stella. My class almost requires me to have a clear sense of what I believe in. I spent weeks talking to the other priests when Aeon spoke of his experiments many years ago. Ken, of course, would argue that I engaged in some kind of mental gymnastics."

Stella laughed. "Let's stop with that heavy topic."

"You started it."

"Did not."

"You led me into it. You led me through a dark path and now you ask me why I followed."

Stella grinned at how deftly Edna associated it with her class.

"Any bets on the next domainholder? Did you ever imagine yourself being the first Domainholder?"

Edna was pensive. "No. It should've been Lord Jura, and after him, Lausanne and Faris."

Stella realised she said something she shouldn't have. "My bad."

The two sat by the beach pool, and Edna then nodded. They both decided to change the topic. "I was told there is a pink colored lake on the Mountainworld."

"Oh. Its an algae-filled lake. Pretty, but not really safe."

"Algae? The slimes?"

"Yeah. Pink slime."

"Ah. Surely safe for us, then."

"Well... they can't hurt you for sure."

"If there are no demons, maybe I should use my ability and walk into a volcano."

"How about I throw you into the sun at high speeds." Stella smiled.

"That does sound quite fascinating."

"Showoff."