Autumn

Autumn watched as the elder human jogged away, hopefully in search of the stone she’d requested. He spoke to several of the young warriors, and they ran off in different directions. Tanaka, meanwhile, remained with her in case she needed to speak with anyone. Autumn was immensely glad one of these people spoke a language she knew. Forming a translation spell without any common speech was possible, but difficult and prone to spectacular failures. 

She’d asked for a small rock because she assumed one would be easy to find and because stones and crystals held spell work more easily and permanently than most any other medium. Sure, books and scrolls were the best things, but the proper inscription and bindings took hours, if not days or weeks. For swift magic, nothing beats the stability of a good rock.

Next to Autumn, Tanaka kept poking at the barrier as if baffled by its very existence. Autumn felt the same way about the Enclave. 

It was impossible, or it should be. Every Enclave to ever exist had two things in common: an anchor, and a barrier. Anchors were usually portals from whatever world the Enclave was copied from. Sure, sometimes disasters happened and the Enclave was permanently cut off from its origin point. But there was always a sign; a dead Gateway, a shattered portal stone, something. This place had no anchoring point unless it was hidden in one of those buildings. It had no barrier until Autumn set one. 

And, well, this place was brand new. A day, maybe two days in relative time for its occupants, no more than that. She could tell by the writhing of the Mists. It felt like a fresh bruise in the back of her mind, raw and uncomfortable. The magic-user who’d created this Enclave should be here. Why hadn’t they come to greet Autumn, or to tell her to stay off their territory at least? Where were they? And why did Tanaka and Buck act so surprised by the most basic magic?

Well, once she finished her translation stone spell she would be able to ask more directly. And later she could go back to Ayame's Enclave and practice her Japanese because she had clearly been neglecting that linguistic skill. It didn't matter that she'd only learned because she wanted to be able to read Ayame's spell scrolls and those lovely little books the older Champion collected. It was a skill and she should put the due diligence to maintaining it.

The young warriors returned and formed a half-circle around her and Tanaka with Buck in the center. Each of the half dozen warriors held out a small stone. Autumn smiled and looked over each one, selecting a small, smooth stone with no obvious fault points that would make it shatter when exposed to enough magical energy. She'd learned that lesson young.

She turned to Tanaka. "Will you thank them for me, please?" she asked.

Tanaka nodded and translated, while Autumn took the stone and sat down, kneeling with her legs tucked neatly under her. She held the stone balanced on the palm of her left hand and rested her right over it.

Tanaka crouched next to her. "They say you're welcome and why do you need a rock?"

"You will see. Would you be willing to help?" Autumn asked.

"How can I help?" Tanaka asked. "What do I have to do?"

"Just place your finger on the stone, here, and think about the two languages you speak. Don't worry about reciting a lot of vocabulary, just... muse on the way the languages feel on your tongue, in your ear."

"Okay? Why?" Tanaka asked, poking the rock gingerly.

Autumn just grinned and began to recite the spell. There was a humming sound, and the rock took on a gentle, greenish glow for a moment. Tanaka gasped at the visible magic but kept her finger where Autumn had instructed. 

"Thank you," Autumn said to Tanaka.

"Hey, that was English!" Tanaka yelped.

"No, it was Elvish," Autumn corrected. "You heard English because it's your preferred language." She held up the rock. "This is now spelled as a translator. So long as someone is holding it, I can understand all of you and all of you can understand me."

"Wow!" Tanaka yelped, then tilted her head. "Why didn't you do that before?"

"The giant spider was a bit of a distraction," Autumn admitted. "Also, I needed some common language base to set the spell on. As we both speak at least a little Japanese, I was able to use that as a bridging point for the spell."

"Is that why you needed me to touch the rock?" Tanaka asked.

"Yes, exactly! Your focus and language understanding is excellent, by the way, it usually takes me almost twice as long to achieve that spell. Well done."

"Uh, thanks?" Tanaka said, and then looked over and up at her teacher. "Sergeant, the rock lets her understand us!"

"I see that Recruit," the elder said. He held out a hand to help first Tanaka, and then Autumn, to their feet.

"Does this mean you'll be willing to answer some questions now?" the elder asked Autumn.