A New Star Chapter 35

"What exactly is going on now?" I asked as we walked to the office. 

"Your parents have a rather special guest, and they would like you to meet them," he replied calmly, but I could sense the faintest hint of excitement, and perhaps even respect, in his tone.  

"Interesting," was all I said, following him down the last hall and into their office.  

My parents, my eldest sister, my mother's secretary, and a mysterious woman with nearly pure white hair, though I detected a hint of silver in it, were all present in the office, and all at the seating area. The count ushered me in and took a seat himself, only after giving the mysterious lady a slight bow, which she waved off with a lazy gesture. The count had smiled at her return motion, the two rather clearly knowing each other from some time in the past.  

"Alexandra, this is Lady Jeanne Audierre Highcourt, though most refer to her as Lady Silver," my father introduced the unknown woman, giving her a slight bow from his chair as she did. "She is an old friend of your great grandfather's, and she is an old acquaintance of the count's, if I am not mistaken, though that is not my story to tell. She has stopped by to visit for a few days and was interested in seeing you after the count had mentioned a few generalities." 

"It is not often we see one so talented," the lady herself spoke, her voice high and sweet. "I was also informed that you are a fellow alchemist, which I could perhaps teach you a bit about." 

"We could certainly compare notes," I replied calmly, seeing my parents make strange faces and the count wince slightly at that. 

"I think you need a few more centuries to compare notes with me, child," she said. 

"Really?" I asked and then put weight in my gaze. It was a trick from my last life, putting the essence of all my power into a look, and I was quite good at it, especially at adding the weight of age into it. While I might appear to be a nine-year-old right now, I was well over a thousand years old, and all that age and power came through in a single glance. My sister and the secretary, already looking mortified at my earlier tone, now seized up completely, though it was an involuntary reaction. My parent's winced heavily and shifted slightly, while the count narrowed his eyes and stroked his beard rather rapidly. Lady Silver herself reeled back just slightly like she had been slapped, very slightly shaking herself before calming and refocusing on me. 

"Well, I stand, or rather sit, corrected," she said quietly. "Clearly, there is far more to you than I knew, or was informed." 

"Yes, yes, depths still to be plumbed," the count muttered, clearly taking her jibe as directed at him. 

"Another reason I am staying here for a time is I was asked to observe your condition," Lady Silver said. I could see Tiff and Helen mouthing 'your condition' in the background after the lady had said it, but I just gave a small nod in acknowledgement. 

"I believe I am fine, but it wouldn't hurt to have a second opinion," I said.  

"So glad to have your agreement," the lady said a bit crisply.  

"Well, shall we?" I asked, motioning to her. 

"You are quite pert," Lady Silver said. 

"I'm efficient with my time," I replied calmly. 

"Fine, very well," she said, standing and walking over to me. Up close, I noticed that she was rather tall, if a bit thin, and her ears were definitely a bit pointed, signaling to elven heritage. She walked around the back of the chair I was on, which was fortunately low, and set her hands on my shoulders. She had rather long, delicate fingers, and I felt her exert some pressure, likely seeking to hold me in place. It would be much more difficult than she imagined, but I made no move to resist or shift position, allowing her to do whatever it was she was going to do, though I certainly was paying careful attention the whole time.  

I felt mana gather in her arms and then her hands before splitting into many streams in her fingers and sliding into my body. It was very clear she was quite skilled, as she controlled the mana with expert precision and such a light touch that I barely felt it moving into and through me. Her mana was cold, not frigid, but void of any fiery temper or element, and did remind me of a cold shower on a hot summer day, that feeling of getting caught in a brief squall on a very hot day and having the chilled water flow over my skin. It lasted for a while, coating my entire body before the lady finally stopped and stood back with a slightly muffled gasp. 

"How are you still alive, child?" she asked in a mildly shocked voice.  

"I'm rather tough," I replied drolly, giving her a slightly sour look over my shoulder. 

"What is wrong with her?" my mother asked with quite a worried tone. 

"Her…everything," said Lady Silver a bit hesitantly. "Her body, her mind, and even her soul bear the marks of extreme trauma and distress. They are all healing, some parts faster than others, but what I am seeing…there's no way you should have survived that Tribulation." 

"Tribulation?!" Tiffany exclaimed, looking a touch embarrassed when every eye in the room turned to her. 

"I don't think we need comments from the peanut gallery," I said coldly. 

"See, that right there," the count said, snapping his fingers and pointing at me. "I told you, Jeanne, she must have the full memory retention pattern. What other nine-year-old uses such strange idioms casually in conversation?" 

"I see your point," Lady Silver said, walking back over to her seat and sitting down rather slowly, clearly lost in thought.  

"Is it really that bad?" my mother asked. 

"This is developing the feeling of talking about me like I am not here," I interjected. "Let me, the source of such rumors, tell you definitively that it is not 'that bad.' " 

"Are you the expert?" my mother retorted. 

"Are you?" I shot back, just as testily. 

"Children, children, please," the count said, which got a glare from my mother. I pointed at the man and let a quite potent bolt of lightning explode out of my fingertip and towards his face, which he deflected, though it looked like it took him more effort than he was happy with employing to do so. 

"That was quite an impressive attack," Lady Silver commented. 

"Hah!" I scoffed. "You haven't seen anything, yet." 

"Don't get such a big head," the count said. 

"Isn't it about time for your nap, great grandpa?" I asked him in a faux sweet voice. 

"Why, I never!" he exclaimed. 

"It's quite clear you haven't, you miserable old coot," I said, dismissing him as he spluttered further. "Now that everyone else has commented on my physical and mental state, are we done?" 

"Wait, hold on," Tiffany interjected. "Sorry, but can we back up? You underwent a Tribulation? Like, an actual one and not one of those weird, simulated ones they make for people to test themselves?" 

"Yes, Tiffany, a real Tribulation, the kind with a capital 'T' at the start," I replied shortly. 

"When? How?!" Tiffany continued, growing more animated. 

"You see," I turned to the count, "this is why they came up with that other old adage, 'Never work with animals or children.' " 

"You are hardly one to talk, you brat!" he cried, pointing at me with his walking stick. 

"I know that has a metal core, you old coot," I snapped, firing a lightning bolt directly into his staff. 

"I say!" the count exclaimed, his beard fluffing out from the excess electrical energy. 

"I certainly know you do," I retorted.  

"I was worried when I heard Emmanuel took a new student," Lady Silver started. 

"I say!" the count cried again. 

"But, it seems like I feared for nothing. It is good the two of you work well together," she continued.  

"I'm so glad I have approval," I said caustically. "If that's all? Right, good, I'll be going." 

Yes, I had not waited for their answers, but they mattered little to me, as I was leaving regardless of their opinions. I pulled off another neat trick I hadn't really shown anyone, falling back through the chair into the Dark Paths, seeing for just a split second that look of shock and surprise on the others' faces, particularly Lady Silver’s, as I exited the conversation in my own way. I needed to head back to my lab and look into a few things before making a trip down into town and checking in with that delinquent, Pietr. I had some things for him to sell, some things for him to buy, and he owed me money, but, hey, what else was new? 

******************************** 

Emmanuel du Forchaine 

"Is she really alright?" Isabelle asked again, looking at Jeanne. 

"She's fine," I interjected, waving a hand airily before returning to stroking my beard.  

"What happened to her would have killed someone else?" Charles asked. 

"It was a Tribulation, Charles," I countered in exasperation. "Practically no one survives them. They're basically un-survivable disasters of unimaginable proportions. Wouldn't anyone die in one of them, Jeanne?" 

"For others, I would say yes, but that child is a true monster, a calamity wearing the thin skin of a human being to hide their terror," she answered, a distant look in her eyes. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked the other daughter, Tiffany, I believe her name was. 

"She's very powerful, not just for her age," Jeanne answered a bit primly. "I shouldn't have to explain this to you; did you not feel the weight she put into her glare earlier? Few below U-Rank can do such a thing, and few of them have I felt with such a power, and such a terrible age. To say anymore would be discussing someone else's secrets; it would be most unseemly." 

"Apologies," the girl quieted. 

"Well, I'm not sorry," I said, laughing. "I told you I found a gem in the rough, and it turns out I might have just found a true gem." 

"Gloating ill becomes you, Emmanuel," Jeanne replied.  

"You don't know me very well then, my lady," I replied with a chortle. "In the meantime, I am going to go keep an eye on my protégé for a moment. Just be glad she didn't bring that legendary weapon in here with her." 

"Legendary weapon? What legendary weapon?! What is happening in my house?!" Isabelle exclaimed.  

"She seems to have found a weapon crafted by an ancient transcendent being," I explained, secretly delighting in ruffling some feathers. Though, I was also playing a bit of brinksmanship with a nine-year-old, the realization of which immediately made me sad. 

"She what?!" Isabelle exclaimed. 

"It's a spear," I explained. "She found it somewhere in the Wilds and it seems to have bonded quite strongly to her. I couldn't fathom its full powers, either. It's a very powerful artifact." 

"Basically none of that made me feel any better," Isabelle said. 

"Good. It wasn't meant to," I replied with a cackle before disappearing in a big gust of wind. I knew Lady Silver could easily track my disappearance, though it appeared even a Z-ranker, and quite a formidable one at that, had trouble keeping up with young Alex when she disappeared into that peculiar dark-based affinity. I was learning to be able to very roughly detect when she was using it nearby, but that was only when she was stepping in and out of it. I was having a damned time of it in finding her when she was in the Dark, though I was pretty sure I was getting a few more clues in that regard. 

I moved down to the cellar first, knowing I would find the girl down there, and of course, I was right. She was in her lab, a rather scary place, if truth be told, considering the things I suspected she was whipping up in there. That wasn't just limited to some pretty strange and terrifying alchemical concoctions, but also included some things that I still didn't understand the point of, including some strange tests with what appeared to be wires or cords of various different metals. I understood some of the basic principles that she was testing, but she was far more knowledgeable than I in such matters, if a quick peek at her notes was to be believed.  

In the wandering of my thoughts, I had momentarily lost track of her, but I found her again in her room, grabbing hold of that damnable spear. I backed away a little farther, knowing the thing could sense me, even after I backed away, but wanting to minimize my presence to try to avoid detection. I didn't always spy on my student, but I was a bit curious as to what she had been about recently. Beyond the Wilds, she was working on some things in town, and I wanted to make sure I had a handle on the situation.  

I attempted to follow her as she left her room, but she quickly vanished into darkness. Tch, how frustrating. I made a rather educated guess about where she was going and flew to the nearby town, hoping to catch a sight of her as she entered through the wall. Well, she wasn't going physically through the wall, but she was still entirely bypassing the wall and entering the town. She really would make quite a scary assassin, and I knew she was stone cold and cold-blooded enough to do it, very few questions asked.  

I spied her emerging into an alley on the outskirts of town just a few minutes later, proving my suppositions correct. I would have been worried about a young child going to some place so dangerous, but I was quite convinced at this point that, other than her parents and the lovely commander of their guards, she was the most dangerous thing around these parts by a country mile. Well, with the obvious other exceptions of Jeanne and myself, of course, but we were both more transient and shouldn't really be counted. I had no doubt that if the girl had been left to her own devices, she would have either killed herself in some sort of spectacular manner that would have made all the papers, or she would have most of the country under her thumb in the span of a decade without them knowing what was happening. 

I followed her as she made her way to that loud oaf's bar and barged in, shaking my head a little at it all. If a dark alley was a dangerous place for a young child, a smuggler's den was certainly no better, but, again, I was more worried for the smugglers than I was for her. That thug and the handful of what he called his ‘enforcers’ were moderately strong, but even at this point, if they really pushed Alex, well, I didn't really want to think of what she would do to them. I just prayed she would leave most of the town intact by the time she was done, but that was no real guarantee. I watched as she had a brief, rather harsh negotiation with Pietr, which was putting a good spin on it; it was basically ten minutes of the young child bullying a grown street tough near to tears before leaving in a huff, the man swearing and throwing things when she was gone.  

That was apparently all the dangerous business for today, as she returned to the estate, another guess of mine proving right. I found Jeanne next to me a moment later, giving me a questioning look. I waved at the girl's room before gesturing us to leave. Once we had retreated a fair distance, I breathed a sigh of relief before blocking all sound around us with winds. 

"You're rather scared," Jeanne said, a slight smile curving her full lips as she glanced at me. 

"That fainting violet act you sometimes pull won't work on me," I reprimanded mildly. "What did you see, when you used your affinity on her?" 

"I wasn't lying earlier," Jeanne replied, becoming deadly serious for a moment. "She's a real monster wearing the thin skin of a human. Very thin. I'm sure you've felt it?" 

"Her power in her last life must have been immeasurable," I said quietly. "I feel it sometimes, like a leviathan in the depths, a monster hidden below the surface, staring out from the deepest recesses of the dark at you; watching, waiting, hoping for that one mistake that will let them devour you." 

"I feel it, too," Jeanne said with a slight shiver. "You realize, if she reaches Z, she'll be the greatest of us?" 

"Z? Jeanne, my dear, by the time she breaches the barrier at the top of T-rank, she will be uncontested. I have faith she will open the old path," I said, giving her a very serious look. 

"You think so? You really think that she can do it?" Jeanne asked, turning to me with a strange longing in her voice, though I understood it well. There were maybe a hundred or so people who understood how she felt at this moment. 

"I think she will breach that barrier," I replied. "But enough. What of what you read?" 

"She…she must have had the strength to fight against time and fate and death itself," Jeanne said. "She lived for…centuries. Many, many centuries. Nor did I sense the layering of multiple lives." 

"So long?" I asked absentmindedly, stroking my beard. 

"She also has a weight, both in the spiritual and physical plane," Jeanne said. "Her body is…I hate to pause so much or have so few answers, but her body is unbelievable. She makes me shiver, just being near her; I can't believe a person with a body that powerful can exist." 

"You think she's tier four?" I asked. 

"Four? Manny, try tier five, possibly even six," Jeanne said hotly. 

"Six?! Surely not," I exclaimed, my hand paused mid movement. 

"It's at least tier five, of that I am certain," Jeanne said. "Manny, she's a real monster. She hasn't even showed us half of what lurks in there, either, or we'd really be losing our minds right now." 

"Of that I was already certain," I said with a laugh. 

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