Day 134(?)

The sensation of something cold and blissful ran through my back. The feeling of gently warm air, and the of a slightly stiff neck. My head was on something soft and delicate, and my body on something that I had laid on before. I opened my eyes slowly, groggily, and saw the sight of a red dress with black laces. A sheet was under me, it a pure white, and a pillow was on my head. Was I awake? Was I alive? I already knew the afterlife was probably very white.

Or, rather, the fake one.

"Good morning, Eithne. Good to say you awake." A girly voice was the first that I heard speak. Ah. The owner of the dress was Coinnle. I was alive. And with that knowledge came the memories of the previous day.

I exploded out of bed, or tried to, but another explosion of pain erupted from my back and I Was forced to stay still, breathing heavily. Tears were beginning to form around my eyes, and terror wrapped its ugly claws around my throat. I whimpered, both from the pain and from the memories. Alfred? Where's Alfred?

"Eithne." A soft hand touched my cheek, and Coinnle's face came into view. Her eyes, which reminded me too much of her father's, almost broke me. But I knew it was not the Lord, but the little girl who had treated me too kindly. A strange feeling of both comfort and fear washed over me, but after Coinnle continued to stare, stroking my hair now, shushing me quietly I began to calm down. "It's alright now. You're fine, everything is over, Eithne."

I held on to her hand as I let he stroke my hair. Eventually she gave me another hand and moved to lay in the bed with me, seeing as I refused to let her go. She continued to stroke my hair while I held her hand. I don't know how long this lasted, but eventually she stopped stroking and I let her get back up and off the bed.

"Where's Alfred?" I asked.

"He's somewhere. He's almost done delivering his dolls to his clients, he should arrive by the afternoon."

"How long was I out for?"

"A day. It's morning now, so all of yesterday."

That wasn't as long as I thought it was. I nodded and tried to move my neck so that it wasn't in such a cramping spot.

"How bad is it?"

"How bad is what? The lash marks? Those will heal in a month, tops. Once your body has fully adjusted to the first immortal step it'll be healed in a couple of days. The mental wounds? Those aren't going anywhere for a couple of years, to decades."

"The wounds, but thank you for the other part."

Coinnle smiled and got another dab of a white substance on her finger and started to spread it on my back. Ah. This was that blissful sensation I was feeling when waking up.

"What, what is that?"

"A lotion to help stop infections." That would make sense. Not why it was so soothing, but why she was applying it.

The following days were spent recuperating from my wounds, being taught how to read and subsequently write once I gotten good enough at the reading part, in my language. I stayed for a month as Coinnle predicted, and departed sadly from Coinnle's company on the thirtieth day, Alfred accompanying me back to our home. He didn't mention the incident throughout the entire time.

Day 164

The trip back home was much less tiring than the trip before. Two things aided this development, the first was the lack of having to carry massive backpacks on my back. The second was the fact that the enchantment within my body has taken fully effect, and with its boost in both strength in vitality I was back in shape from the injuries I had sustained within days. There was still scarring, but even that would start to disappear in a couple more days.

Right now we were about halfway there, going much faster than we had last time. We were running, and I was trying to test out just how fast I could run without getting tired. I could sprint full tilt for a couple of minutes, perhaps much longer if I really wanted myself to, but I would get tired just as any normal person would. Alfred, on the other hand, never looked tired no matter how fast nor how long I went for.

He was still much stronger than I was, and his element was wind. He was made to be fast, made to outlast me, made to be more nimble as well. If I were cultivator myself the only thing I'd had over him would be my strength and healing ability, both things much more useful in combat than what he offered. But I wasn't a cultivator, and was half as strong as what my element might've allowed for.

But I got tired of running, and I really wanted to spend some time talking to Alfred. It has been a month since we've been alone, Coinnle had always been with me whenever I left the room to meet Alfred. Perhaps she didn't trust me. That was fair, even if the lack of trust hurt.

"Sorry that we had to spend an entire month in the city, Alfred. I know I'm repeating myself, but truly I am. I won't make the same mistake again."

Alfred didn't turn to me as I spoke. He had grown slightly more colder to my presence, the worst part of the experience so far. But he would still talk, and still tease me, so it was fine for the most part. Alfred shook his head. "I had more opportunities to meet with new customers, and it was an excuse to have me outside of my own house for a bit longer. You're fine."

I didn't respond to that. But I did want to continue speaking, so I wracked my brain for a different conversation topic. Coinnle had looked visibly shaken up at one point, wanting to stick closer to a maid that she was particularly fond of. She'd spend the final half of my stay sleeping with her rather than me, a very sudden change from her usual affectionate and gentle demeanor. I tried to comfort her, but nothing I said could get through. She'd give me lessons still, but would spend most of her time with the maid.

I'm pretty sure the maid was a búraló, a wolf girl, as well. What was their story?

"Do you have any idea why Coinnle started to grow distant with me during the third or so week, Alfred?"

He looked at me this time, an expression too complicated for me to understand. He breathed out a long breath through his nose. "Remember that favor she had promised to the Lord? Explicitly it might look like it didn't mean much. But implicitly, it meant she was willing to undergo more bodily enchantments. Those are excruciating, I had some done on myself while I was in the military. It's mandatory, but I only needed two. She has much more than two, and she will get much throughout her life. By giving her father a favor, she was saying she was willing to go through that torture in exchange for your life."

Oh.

"And the Lord had made well on that favor, and she had ten more enchantments done on her. For ten days she was made to go through it, each morning one carved into her skin. You noticed her abscence in the dining room, that was the precise reason. As was usual, she would recluse herself with her favorite maid, Seirbhí, until she could get herself mentally stable once again."

Oh.

"I can promise you she had suffered hundreds times worse than what you went through with the whips. She had saved your life."

I wanted to back and thank her, to grovel on the ground and kiss her feet.

"Why?" The only question that made sense, why would Coinnle go out of her way to suffer through that for my sake?

"You're an ainmhithe, just like Seirbhí. She might've done the same for anyone else, but especially because of your racial traits she helped you. She finds your kind fascinating."

Eh? Just because of that she'd suffer through enchantments? That sort of messes with these feelings of gratitude welling up in my chest. Regardless of her motivations, suffering through an agony that Alfred has described for my sake is worthy of my reverence. I nodded, not knowing what else to say. How about the final thing on my mind?

"What about the fine? How will I be able to pay that back?"

"I already paid it off."

"Huh?" Every other word Alfred is telling me is making me more and more confused. I had tried to enslave him, albeit I never meant to harm him, and he was willing to pay the fine for it himself? "Why would you do that?"

"It was either that or have you become an indentured slave."

"Wait, if enslaving someone is worthy of the death sentence, why would indentured slavery be alright?" This entire scenario is starting to make less and less sense as conversation continues.

"The difference between an enslavement spell and voluntarily making yourself into one, without a spell being cast, is massive enough to warrant them two different concept entirely. If one truly didn't want to be a slave, either because the burden was too much or because it was involuntary, then he could kill himself. It's within his right to."

"What's so different about driving someone to suicide through slavery and enslaving him through a spell?" Anger started to well up in my chest. This doesn't make sense.

"The spell removes free will, he is no longer in control over even himself. A slave made through natural means has free will, and death is only the removal of this physical form. He will reincarnate again."

"That's flimsy reasoning and you know it."

"Voluntary slavery is another way of paying off debts, is the final say of the matter. Involuntary slavery is still up for ethical consideration, but for now it isn't illegal. To return to the original topic, I have paid off your debts in your place. I fully expect you to pay me back not through monetary means, but in your continued service. Having a magician with greater innate talent than I in enchantments is priceless, five hundred gold is nothing for me."

"But it would've been free if not for what I did. This amount of forgiveness only makes me feel worse."

Alfred didn't answer that, instead continuing to walk. This time I truly did run out of things to say, so the entire trip back home remained silent save for when something important came up, like needing to rest or having to do other natural business. Both coming only from me, unfortunately. Alfred was beginning to feel more like a machine than a human, something that could outlast and out power me without missing a step. How can a man be so unnaturally dedicated?

I kept my distance from Alfred both of respect and fear. Whether I had truly loved Alfred I couldn't discern anymore, my feelings of wanting to have him are still there. But is that love? I had not given up on making him mine, although I had given up on forcing it through such forceful means. Was there something wrong with me?

Day 165

We had arrived back home, the familiar feeling and smells coming back to me in these moments. It had been just as we had left it, nothing had moved and nothing looked to have been stolen. I was back home, or the closest thing I could call home, but the feeling of not knowing what to do now was starting to take over me. Previously I would be taught some magic and literature by Coinnle, but now that there no longer was a schedule to follow, I had nothing to do.

Alfred, on the other hand, looked like he knew precisely what to do. He placed everything we had bought in the city, mostly foodstuffs and some amount of materials that Alfred couldn't source locally, where they should've been, and went straight to his workshop to begin doll making once again. Not knowing what to do, I followed him throughout. He didn't mind, and I'm not sure he noticed.

Once he had seated himself inside his workshop, and I on my own side of the workshop, I saw him begin to prepare another doll.

"What am I going to do?"

Alfred, for once, noticed my presence with a glance. He nodded. "Draw, paint, try your own hand at making dolls. If you need advice then ask, I don't mind teaching you anything. You are an apprentice of a doll maker, it would be unsightly for you to be without any education in art. At night I will be teaching you the basics of my magic, now that you've completed the first step I'm obligated to."

Then I'll have a lot of free time from now on, it sounds like. "What do you suggest I practice first? Art wise."

"Good question. Drawing with charcoal. Wait a moment, I'll get all the supplies. You'll be surprised by the amount of supplies I have for these things. I'll also teach you the basics of how to draw."

Nice. I could have the attention of Alfred for a couple more hours, it sounds like.

Day 175

Ten days had passed since we've both gotten home, my days have been spent being taught by Alfred both in the craft of art and in the craft of magic. I had aptitude for magic and I soaked up information like a sponge there, but for art it was a much more difficult beast. I didn't have the dexterity or the sense of how to draw anything, and all my sketches looked wonky and disproportionate. Alfred never seemed to care about how bad it really was, but he would always tell me when I got better at something, and would scold me when I keep repeating the same mistake.

The days went on, and I still sucked at drawing. But when it came to enchantments I was on pace to becoming useful to Alfred within a year, maybe less. I'm starting to realize that I'm both a massive time investment for Alfred and a massive money sink as well, although I'd stopped eating the steak months back I still remember how much he had spent just ot feed me a single meal. Now my diet consists of mostly vegetables, since I no longer had as much a need to eat as before. This internal body enchantment is awfully convenient.

Another benefit of the enchantment was that my body was no longer as flabby. It wasn't that I was fat, on the contrary, but I never looked all that impressive. I still don't, but at least now muscle was apparent on my frame. My strength was also increased to ridiculous levels, but Alfred could still murder me without much effort. I had tried to wrestle him in a sparring match once, but he had both experience, strength, and muscle mass on me. Being reminded of how much power this man has wells up a different sort of feeling in me, a mixture of envy and that possessiveness. I don't know what to make of it, but I don't dislike it.

I wasn't optimized for fighting physically, anyway. I'm not a cultivator, I'm a magician, although I don't know any battle spells.

When Alfred wasn't helping me he was preparing a single doll for an experiment of his. He had gained both enough knowledge, knowledge given to him by the very faerie that he had made a doll of, and the ability through the form of my presence. According to the faerie he couldn't do what he wanted to and had to rely on a magician, and a magician I was. I'm certain that had influenced his decision on whether or not to pay for my fine himself. But why me? He could've gotten any magician, any apprentice, as easily as he could walk through villages and ask who would want to work for him.

It's not worthwhile to wonder these thoughts. Alfred had saved me and I happened to be a magician that he could teach, that was enough for me.