“You want to spend the night here?!” Tanner squawked in horror.
[Are you trying to get us killed?!] Mina shrieked internally.
“There’s a perfectly lovely mausoleum farther in that has a nice heavy door. We’ll be fine,” Grandma huffed in annoyance.
“How could you possibly know that?” Tanner stared at her, eyes wide with alarm. Chestnut, reacting to the boy’s emotions, shifted uneasily and snorted.
“A little girl told me,” Grandma answered without meeting Tanner’s eyes. “Anyway come on, we’re wasting daylight.”
It was midafternoon, a little early for supper, but Grandma had plans. She slid off the horse and pushed past the small metal gate barring the cemetery from intruders. Beyond the low stone walls were row upon row of headstones and grave markers, engraved with the names of loved ones past and brief epithets of their lives. Trees loomed overhead, their branches weeping low, foliage rustling in the fitful evening breeze.
“Let’s gather some firewood along the way so we don’t have to come back out.” Grandma started rummaging around in the grass for dead sticks.
[Grandma? What’s a mausoleum?] Mina asked.
[It’s like a little house for dead people,] Grandma replied, calling up memories of stone buildings she had seen in her past. [People with more money than sense build them for their dead relatives, I guess. I don’t really understand it, but it’s convenient for us.]
[Won’t the dead be angry at us?]
Grandma thought about the story she had heard thus far. Had undead monsters been a part of it? She didn’t think so. [I don’t think the dead will mind sharing.]
Tanner led the horse along behind her, pausing now and again to sooth Chestnut as they ventured deeper into the eerie silence of the graveyard. There had been a village nearby, but it had been abandoned some years ago and now lay empty, a tumbling ruin of houses and one small stone building that had served as some kind of religious center. Grandma couldn’t remember what her Mina had said about this world’s faith. Something to look into later, she supposed, if it ever became relevant.
They arrived at the mausoleum that Grandma had been aiming for and, true to her word, it was a sturdy little stone building with a heavy wooden door. Grandma tugged experimentally on the metal ring, but the door did not budge.
“Oh great. Of course it’s locked. Now what?” Tanner scowled.
“Pass me a knife,” Grandma said. She crouched down beside the door and peered in through the crack between the door and the jamb. “This looks like a pretty simple latch. All we have to do is lift it a little.” So saying, she took the knife, inserted the blade into the crevice, and slid it upward. There was a quiet click of metal against metal, and then the door swung open with a loud creak.
“Huh.” Tanner stuck his head in the door and peered in. “What do ya know? That actually worked.”
Grandma smirked. In her granddaughter’s story, this mausoleum connected to a pocket dimension that the people of this world called a dungeon. It was, in essence, a place where magic pooled and settled, and condensed so much that it warped space. In the story, some people tried to revitalize the little village nearby, and the increase in life energy and human activity woke the dungeon, causing monsters to erupt. Even so, the monsters had been fairly weak, and the Duke’s soldiers were able to clean it up without any trouble. Still, that was years in the future, and there were only the three of them right now, so it was probably safe to hide here for a while.
“Will Chestnut come in too?” Grandma eyed the horse with skepticism.
“It’s pretty cramped in there, isn’t it?” Tanner looked back and forth between the building and the animal. “What do you think, pretty girl?” he asked Chestnut affectionately. The horse blew out a breath and shook her head.
“I’ll take that as a no. Can I leave her to you? I’ll work on building a fire and getting some food.”
[What is there to eat in a graveyard?]
[Well, we still have apples, for starters.] Grandma carefully piled the sticks just so, and tucked a wad of dried grass into the little wooden tower. The fire stone released a big shower of sparks when she struck it with the knife, and they caught on the tinder easily. [If only fire was so easy back home,] she huffed as she fanned the flames.
[Home? Where is your home, Grandma? Where did you come from anyway?]
[Oh, far far away, I imagine.] Grandma pulled out the one pot and poured in some water from their waterskin, then carefully set the pot on top of the fire. [When I was a little girl, my parents were cruel to me too. I kept my head down and did as I was told, hoping that in time, they would see that I was a good girl, and love me.]
[Oh.] Mina fell silent. Then, [They never did, did they?]
[No. No, they never did.] Grandma stared into the fire and nibbled on an apple.
[Is that why you ran away? With me, I mean.]
[Yep. There’s no point wasting your energy on people like that.] That, and those people would sacrifice Mina to a monster in order to gain power and prestige. Grandma wasn’t sure it would work, now that she was sharing space inside Mina’s body, but three’s a crowd and Grandma didn’t want to stick around to find out.
“All right, I took care of Chestnut,” Tanner said, panting as he brought in all of Chestnut’s tack. “What’s for dinner?”
Grandma wordlessly offered Tanner an apple.
“I should have known better than to ask,” he grumbled, but accepted the apple anyway. “You know these were for horses, right?”
“So? They’re still food.” Grandma finished her apple and tossed the core into the fire. “Eat, rest, then we’ll go hunt for more food.” With that, Grandma tugged out a horse blanket, spread it out on the ground, laid down, and closed her eyes.
[Mina, what do you know about your mother?]
[Not much,] Mina answered. [I was told she was a maid from the western tribes, and that she abandoned me when I was a baby.]
[I doubt very much that your mother abandoned you, Mina.] Grandma hadn’t heard enough of the story to know for sure, but there had been enough hints along the way. [Probably that Duke threatened her somehow.]
[What? Why?]
[Because the western tribes have a different kind of hereditary magic, and the Duke wanted it for himself.] Grandma slowed her breathing, feeling the world through her small body. Since waking up in this form, she hadn’t had time to really connect with it. Now, she felt the scratchy blanket, the hard cold stone beneath that, the cool stale air in the mausoleum, the heat from the fire warming her sandaled feet. She felt the breath filling her lungs, the blood flowing in her veins bringing nourishment to every part of her being.
[Hereditary… magic?] Mina stumbled over the words. [But I’ve never…]
[You’ve always recovered from sickness and injury unusually quickly, isn’t that so?] Grandma pointed out. [That Duke is a fool who doesn’t recognize power when it slaps him in the face. Mina, you are strong.] What did the story say about awakening Mina’s hidden power? Grandma listened to a memory of a girl’s soft voice, telling a story about magic. With her in-breath, Grandma felt the pulse of the world resonating in her body. With her out-breath, she blurred the boundary between herself and the vastness of the earth around her. [See your strength, Mina. Feel it.] Each breath throbbed with power, her body vibrating with energy, resonating with the lifeforce of the very world around them.
[What… is this…?] Mina sounded shocked. [I can see… lines? Like rivers flowing through and around us.]
[That’s the current of life, I guess?] Grandma chuckled softly, eyes still closed. [It’s good that you can see it. I can’t.] She could feel something, but the stirrings of power within her felt distant and slippery.
[Let me try,] Mina whispered as she reached out. As the girl breathed, the lines started to writhe, shifting toward her in thick skeins, gathering around her and sinking into her body. She felt incredible, vibrant and alive and brimming with strength.
“Hey, Mina, you’re glowing,” Tanner blurted, prodding her with a stick. “Are you sure this is all right?”
The girl’s eyes flew open, and the person who looked out from behind them was a completely different person from before. Tanner shuddered and shrank back with a hoarse yelp.
“It’s all right, Tanner,” Mina said with a smile as she sat up. “Everything’s going to be just fine.”
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