[A Fractured Song] - Chapter 8 - Fantasy, Isekai (Portal Fantasy), Adventure

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Edana woke to the sound of screaming.

Although she had a twisted spine, she was a combat-trained mage. The moment the screams woke her, she was out of bed, staff in hand.

Her voice rising, she sang the aria to activate the house’s defenses: composed of shields, traps and other magical defenses that would eviscerate any intruders. All the while, she raced down the hall to Frances’s room.

Where the screams were coming from. It had to be Frances.

Her heart in her throat, Edana slammed the door open, staff raised. Spell on her lips.

What she was met with was a girl shaking on the floor, which was covered in bedsheets and quilt. There was nobody in the room. There was only her student, who was curled up in a fetal position, twisting violently, as if trying to escape something.

“Frances?” Edana knelt down beside the girl. “It was just a nightmare! Wake up!”

[hr]

Frances was back in her parents' house, trying to breathe as the feather duster came down on her back.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” she screamed.

“Shut up you worthless waste of space!” screamed her mother.

She shut her mouth, bit her lip to try to stop, but again came the feather duster and she cried out.

“I can’t. I’m sorry!”

Her stepfather’s gruff, wine-slurred voice rang in her ears. “Sounds like she needs something heavier. Bring me the cane.”

“NO! Please! Anything but that! NO!”

Heavier blows, whipped across her back, and up against her arms as she desperately threw them up to try to soften the blows.

Suddenly, a foul stench filled her nostrils. It smelled like someone had farted and the smell made her wrinkle her nose and blink.

For a moment, she didn’t see her parents, but the bent-over form of her mentor, and she was singing.

The song, a low, bassy tone with a raucous chorus, and the stench made her blink, several more times. Gasping, Frances’s eyes fully opened and she found herself on the floor of her room, panting.

“Oh thank goodness that woke you up. You were having a terrible nightmare, Frances.” Edana waved her hand to clear the air. “Sorry for the stench, I couldn’t think of a way to wake you other than with a flatulence cantrip.”

“Master. I… sorry I woke you up.” She averted her gaze. “Please forgive me.”

Edana managed a tired smile. “There is no need for an apology, my dear student. I get nightmares too. Someday you might hear one.”

Already reeling from the horrific nightmare, Frances’s mind buzzed as it went blank with incomprehension. She was so shocked, she nearly spat out “I don’t believe you,” but her ears were too full with the sound of white noise to form words properly.

“You— you get nightmares? Of what?” she managed.

Her master closed her eyes briefly, her smile fading. Frances cringed. “I’m sorry I asked—”

“There’s no need for sorry.” Edana pinched her nose. “I will have to tell you anyway at some point. So why don’t we go somewhere more comfortable.”

“Okay.” Frances unwrapped herself from the tangle of sheets and smoothed her nightdress, whilst Edana got up.

Before they left, though, Edana glanced back at the room and noted the bare bed.

“Frances, why are you sleeping on the floor?”

Her student bowed her head and crossed her arms. “I… the bed’s too soft. I’m used to sleeping on the floor. I—” Frances yawned “—I’m not good enough for a bed after all.”

Edana was too tired to let anything show other than a hard blink.

Her heart, however, felt like someone had grabbed it and squeezed it. She didn’t want to believe what she had heard, and she dared not ask her student to repeat that. So all she could do for a good long second was to stare at her student.

“I’ll see if I can get you a harder mattress then,” she forced herself to say, hoping her student hadn’t noticed how her grip around her staff had tightened.

[hr]

Frances wasn’t sure what liquid she was holding. It was an orange-colored drink that sent grey smoke trailing into the air. Edana had made it after boiling water and adding some orange pellets to it.

“Master, what is this?”

“Hearthsange. It’s good. Just be careful. It’s really hot,” said Edana, giving her mug a sip.

“I… sorry. It’s just… We don’t have this from where we come from.”

Edana’s eyebrows shot up, and she grinned. “You are in for a treat then, Frances.”

Frances took a small sip and her eyes widened. It tasted nothing like an orange. The nearest equivalent to it was a hot malt drink like Ovaltine, but with a deep cinnamon spice flavor to it. And even though she drank just a little, she felt the heat run down her throat, into her stomach, and then into her arms and legs. Bruises that still hadn’t healed, and had swollen from when she’d flailed in her dream were soothed by the heat and tensed muscles she didn’t know were tight seemed to uncoil.

“It’s amazing… like hot chocolate.”

“Chocolate?”

That made Frances gasp. “You mean you’ve never heard of chocolate?”

Edana snorted and smirked. “Sorry, I was teasing you. We do have hot chocolate. It’s quite rare, though.”

Her student sighed in relief. “Oh, phew. A world without chocolate would be terrible.”

“It would be, though, I would say the same for a world without Hearthsange.” Edana took a deep breath. “So, you were asking about my nightmares.”

“Yes, but, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Frances’s gaze dropped to her mug. “I mean… I don’t think I want to tell you about my nightmare.”

“Then you don’t have to tell me.” Edana shut her eyes, tightly and when her eyes opened, they were on the crackling fireplace. “But please don’t tell anybody what I will tell you now.”

Something about how her master seemed to grip her mug told Frances that this order was particularly important, and so she nodded. “I won’t, Master. I promise.”

Edana nodded in brief acknowledgment, but her eyes were still on the fireplace. “Do you recall someone called me Edana Firehand, when we first met?”

Frances bobbed her head.

“There was a war between the human kingdoms when I was around fifteen. I was a combat mage that participated in the battles for the Kingdom of Erisdale, against our neighbor the Kingdom of Lepantaria. I…” Edana heaved in a deep breath. “I killed a lot of people, Frances. People I regret killing. I still see their faces sometimes as they burned in flames that I unleashed on them.”

Edana’s breath hitched in her throat and she picked up her mug and took a deep draught of the Hearthsange, before putting the mug heavily on the table.

“You need to know this, Frances, but there is a reason I devote myself to teaching. In the last battle of the war, I killed a boy, just your age. I was wounded, he was charging me with a spear. I had to stop him. So… I killed him. And his face… haunts me the most.”

The mage looked back at her student, noting that her eyes were wide, and she had yet to take another sip of her Hearthsange.

“You should take another sip before it gets cold,” said Edana.

Frances did so, and let out a contented sigh, before facing her mentor.

“Why are you telling me this?”

Edana’s smile was distant, even if she was meeting her student’s questioning gaze. “Because you should know who your teacher is, Frances. I am not a perfect person. I have made many mistakes, despite my best efforts. I will never stop trying my best, but you need to know that not all my orders, or instructions will be perfect.”

“But you didn’t want to kill them, or him, right?” Frances asked.

“No. I didn’t, but I still feel deep shame for doing so, even if I think I had to,” said Edana. She pursed her lips. “Frances, you do know why I’m teaching you magic right?”

“To fight the Demon King, and—oh.” Frances swallowed, staring at her cup. “I’m going to have to kill monsters.”

“Yes. I’m not going to force you into combat anytime soon, but… well, depending on what you want to get out of my tutelage—” Edana blinked “ —which we’ve never actually talked about. I am sorry for not asking earlier, Frances, but what do you want from my tutelage?”

Frances frowned, bowing her head. What did she want from Edana’s tutelage? The obvious answer was to learn how to use magic, but she suspected her master was asking for a different answer. She was asking for not what kind of magic she was going to learn, but something more basic.

It clicked for Frances far too quickly and her eyes widened.

I want to learn how to be safe. I want to stop hurting.

She couldn’t say that though. But what could she say without technically telling a lie?

“I want to learn how to use magic,” said Frances quickly. “Because I have to if I am to fight the monsters, and because I really have been enjoying learning magic. There’s just so much I can do with it!”

She forced as much of the happy feeling she had felt from yesterday as she learned magic into her smile. Her hope was that Edana wouldn’t be able to tell that it was a recollection.

To her relief, Edana only smiled sadly. “There is a lot you can do with magic, isn’t there.” The older woman sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m just sorry I have to teach you so that you can survive the upcoming fighting.”

“I don’t think you have to be sorry. I mean, you’re such a great teacher,” said Frances. She blinked. She hadn’t planned to say that but it was true, and she found that she didn’t like to see Edana look so melancholy.

“Even though I’ve killed children?” Edana asked, quietly, fixing Frances with unflinching green eyes.

An image from her recent nightmare resurfaced in Frances’s mind. The far too recent image of her parents beating her, even as she begged them to stop.

She briefly closed her eyes, pushed that thought away, and took in the sight of her mentor, hunched over, looking far older than she was. A person who for the last few days had been nothing but kind and understanding to her. Someone, who’d entrusted her, useless, waste-of-space Frances, with her greatest guilt.

“Yes. I… I really enjoy every moment I spend with you, Master.” She felt her eyes water and quickly wiped them. “I know I don’t deserve you, Master, but I really want you to keep teaching me.”

Edana blinked, feeling her own eyes moist up slightly. She wiped them with her sleeve and her smile widened. “Thank you, Frances.” She pointed at her student. “And by the way, it isn’t about deserving. Besides, you’ve been nothing but hard-working and attentive. I really enjoy teaching you as well.”

Those words struck a chord in Frances and she smiled, no— she grinned, for the first time in a long time.

“Now finish that Hearthsange. It’s getting late and we have a long day tomorrow.”

Author's Note: I absolutely love writing Frances and Edana having moments together, and I hope you enjoy reading this one.

Also, question readers, how are you liking this compared to your typical fantasy or isekai reading material? This is very... unconventional as a start so to speak, and so I'd love to hear your opinions/thoughts on this.