//Author’s Note: I’m going to be experimenting with a lot different things going forward. I’d like to start telling the story from more ‘flavorful’ perspectives, so this one is written from Alice’s perspective. She’s been a pretty flat character so far, and I feel like she deserves more.

♦ Alice ♦

Recently, I’ve realized that I don’t understand myself very well. That revelation came to me as I was writing a letter to Ronny, telling him where to find me.

Why did I do that? It would’ve been easier to steal a boat and sail off to another country where I could reinvent myself a second time. He and his friend, Enzi Etungsta, probably would have survived regardless of what I did. The fact that they found my letter is proof that they were already on the path to escape the destruction.

Intellectually, I understand that it would have been in everyone’s long term best interest to split paths and never meet again and yet despite that, I chose to stay with Ronny.

One might argue that it was Ronny’s decision to follow my instructions, and that all I did was give him a possible route, but that argument misses something important. Ronny is a naïve man—at least in this world. While there’s no doubt that very intelligent in regard to purely mental tasks, he’s childish in that he lets his heart decide his actions.

Because he wants the best for me, his heart wouldn’t allow him to abandon me. There was never a choice for him, and that’s what I take issue with. By telling him where to find me, I can’t help but feel that I took away some of his freedom.

Now that both Maddy and The Guild know that I’m alive, my life going forward will undoubtedly be perilous. When someone has power, they’re destined to use it despite whatever intentions they might have. I accept that now. The problem is that by association with me, Ronny will get dragged into that peril. Can I accept that? I’m not sure.

It’s been five lonely years since I was Alissa Grivelspyre. In that time, I isolated myself in that dinky little inn I had. I went so far as to keep it in a decrepit state to scare off any possible tenants before they got the chance to know me. It was strategy that proved effective. Until Ronny showed up. He was just so helpless back then. I knew that someone like him would die out in the streets, so I caved and let him stay.

I really did intend to kick him out as soon as he got his feet together, but emotions got in the way. After all that time, the loneliness had left a hole in my heart. A hole that Ronny filled. It didn’t take much for me to get attached.

I don’t know when I started having feelings for him. I wish I never had, but I can’t control how I feel. I want him by my side, but at the same time, I don’t want him to live the life that being with me entails. For his sake, I can’t be with him. And that’s okay.

Before leaving for Deep Dural, I still wanted to prepare some more things so after they finished breakfast, I sent Ronny and Enzi to bathhouse I’d discovered on the day before. After a long journey, the two were eager to accept my proposition.

After they were gone, I took out some enchanting paper I’d managed to loot from a nearby store and started imbuing them. The process was complex, and required a good deal of expertise, but it didn’t give me much trouble.

One of the most important families in Barnock, The Thelza Family, specialized in the production of ‘casting scrolls’, and back when I was Alissa, I was close friends with Theo’s mother. She taught me how to make them.

First, you activated the paper by dousing it in mana. Once that was done, you had to write detailed inscriptions in the ‘Ancient Language’, which modern-day people like myself didn’t have any way of understanding. Even the world’s greatest scholars could only copy preexisting inscriptions found on artifacts left behind by the Torcan Empire, which was a civilization that had disappeared more than a thousand years ago.

It was all very mysterious and strange, but I had managed to memorize the inscription that denoted ‘fire’, and that was all I really needed to know. Due to its complexity, it took a long time to draw in, but I did eventually succeed in completing it. All that was left after that was to imbue it.

This step was the reason I had Ronny and Enzi leave. It was a violent process. I stood up, stepped back, and started launching fireballs at the paper. Each one was powerful enough to make the whole town hall shake, and even though the spell I was using was designed to prevent the flames from spreading, the building started falling apart. By the time I was satisfied with the scroll, a good portion of the ceiling had fallen.

I’d been brushing up on my magic over the past week or so and was already able to utilize most of my magic. I wasn’t at full capacity yet, but it was good enough for what I was going to use it for.

Grabbing the scroll and Enzi’s shockingly heavy knapsack, I walked over to the bathhouse. It was time to start the journey.