Aexilica’s home was on the larger side of what Emma understood to be common for the town- called Tepetlmoseua. At least common for its lower classes. She asked a few questions while they made their way for it, which brought illuminating answers.
Iclatyl, the warrior-caste of the Aethiqi people, were the ones situated in the smaller stone structures. Smaller being relative of course, they had nothing on your average block of flats from back home, but each one would have fit half a dozen of Aexilica’s one-story abode, being conservative. They tended to live in extended family units, training and sparring most days, serving as a sort of standing army.
Above them was the Priest, and only the Priest. He served as a sort of local stand-in for the Gods, those Irethani she’d heard about, and wielded pretty much absolute power over the town. Everyone else was just fodder for work or, Emma had heard, sacrifices.
She probably shouldn’t have been that surprised at the notion of human sacrifice here, but she was. It wasn’t exactly a staple of most Isekai she’d read, and it freaked her out more than a little. All concerns of that soon died as Aexilica came back through from her own bedroom, a bundle of clothes in her arms and her armour now taken off.
“Clothes.” She explained, handing them over. “I doubt any of it fits you perfectly, but it’s better than whatever you’ve got on now.”
Emma hadn’t really been able to see it before, fully covered in bulky armour, but Aexilica’s body was incredible. She was about a foot taller than Emma herself, somewhere around six feet, and looked like she’d spent her entire adult life lifting very large boulders over her head and throwing them as far as she could. Her arms were broad and lean, features not boasting even an ounce of fat, and Emma found herself staring down at the woman’s stomach in search of some exposed skin.
“Careful,” Larry growled, interrupting her, “You’re drooling.”
Emma stuffed a sock into his mouth, and hurriedly thanked Aexilica before sifting through the attire.
“How come you just have this lying around?” Emma asked, hastily changing while the other woman looked away. She kept hoping Aexilica would peek at her, but she didn’t.
“They’re mine.” She explained as Emma dressed. “From when I was maybe eleven or twelve. You’re really small.”
Emma scowled. Historically, people with primitive technology and poor living conditions had been under-nourished and smaller than modern humans. She’d hoped that might be the case here, that maybe five-foot-nothing would put her around average, but apparently her imagination hadn’t taken that into consideration when constructing this little adventure module.
“The word is petite.” Emma spat back, finally pulling closed a jerkin around her torso and standing up straight. “Huh, it fits better than I’d have thought.”
Actually, why was she still short here?
“What do your people do for food?” Emma asked abruptly. Aexilica only arched an eyebrow, which did interesting and exciting things with her cheeks.
“I’ve been answering a great deal of your questions so far.” She noted. “Can I ask you one or two before we get back to that?”
“Sure.” Emma shrugged, she did love talking about herself at least.
“What’s with the head?” Aexlica asked.
So, not herself then. Emma hid her disappointment.
“I actually don’t know that myself.” She replied, realising it was true only as she said it and turning to Larry. She took the sock out of his mouth. “Larry, what are you?”
“Oh, you want me to speak now? I have her highness’ permission to vocalise? Why, this is an honour, a privilege. I must-”
“I’ll hang you up by your hair before I sleep tonight if you don’t stop being a prick.” She cut in. Larry hesitated, gulped, then continued.
“I am a Cognitive Footprint.” He said at last.
Aexilica and Emma shared each other’s confusion at that, and he sighed.
“It’s pretty self-explanatory, but fine. Your world has a lot of people die, sometimes someone with a modicum of magical talent, or a strong will, or just the luck to be in the right circumstances, ends up carrying on a while after dying. Eventually, enough of you idiots started watching too much anime, and I popped into being. I’m a Cognitive Footprint, an impression left by human thought. My role, determined by what the humans in question thought it would be rather than any deliberate decision, is to bring people from one world to another.”
Emma chewed on that, and glanced towards Aexilica. The woman looked as lost as she was, Emma giggled.
“So you’re my imaginary friend.” She prodded. Emma had expected it to irritate Larry. She had not expected the volcanic eruption of fury that it incurred.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“Fuck you!” He snapped. “Every single fucking time, you idiots say that. Every time. Do you not have any other ideas? Are you all really that similar that you can’t think of anything else? Are-” She put the sock back in his mouth, cutting the tirade off with a muffled, gurgling fury.
“Prick.” Emma frowned, glancing at Aexilica and seeing, of all things, agreement. But mostly concern.
“This is a very elaborate con.” She sighed. “But I take it he’s some sort of spirit?”
“Sure.”
That seemed to mollify her, and once Larry had calmed down enough the sock came back out.
“You’re lucky I need your dumbass magic to get out of here.” He growled at Emma.
“And you’re lucky you know stuff about it.” She shot back.
“How did you become a severed head?” Aexilica cut in. “If you’re a spirit- let alone a spirit with corporeal form- it would’ve been virtually impossible to hurt you, right?”
Larry seemed actually queasy as he replied.
“This one,” He began, nodding towards Emma slightly, “Ripped it off. Used her magic.”
Aexilica seemed stunned, even Larry did, still. Emma shrugged.
“You’re both just figments of my imagination,” She explained helpfully, “So whatever I say goes pretty much.”
They both stared at that, eyes dripping with pity of all things.
Emma’s stomach interrupted the conversation by growling, and Aexilica, reluctantly, started cooking something up in a great pot hovering over a fireplace. She spoke as she worked.
“You should know about your current standing with the town.” She began. “You’re not a citizen here, and won’t be given permanent residence until you do something to earn it. I had to tell them you were a magic user, which works against you.”
That seemed pretty unfair, Emma frowned.
“How come? Magic is useful as hell, why doesn’t that work in my favour?”
Aexilica eyed her like she was a moron.
“Because it’s not Divine Magic, which means you don’t enjoy the Gods’ favour for using it. In fact, you offend them. Official Irethani doctrine is that non-divine magic users are perverting the substance of creation. You’ll need to work extra hard to overcome that stigma, just like me.”
Huh, Aexilica had magic? Maybe it was more than just luck that left her alive so long against that scorpion.
“How do I get settled then?” Emma asked, bracing herself. She’d died without spending a single day employed in her entire life, and had no intention of breaking that record here. Even years homelessness hadn’t made her get a job, even the temptation of having her brother dangle a cushy position high up in his company hadn’t. It had only been grandpa’s timely demise that let her get off the streets. Emma was a woman of principles, damn it, and she wouldn’t abandon them over anything.
“There’s a problem with one of the town’s water supplies,” Aexilica told her. “It’s been blocked, somewhere up in the mountains. We need someone to investigate. It’s not one of the major ones, or else the Iclatyl would be sent, but it’s important enough to need doing.”
Emma leapt up at that.
“A quest!?”
Aexilica stared at her. “I…Uh, you could call it that?”
“A quest!” Emma repeated, laughing and punching at the air. “Yes! Perfect, I’ll do it!”
A quest, now there was a start to a real adventure. Hey, it was a small one, but it was still a vital step down the road of epic hero. First Emma would do this, then she’d do a few more, then before she knew it she’d be in the big leagues, killing dragons and banging princesses- or killing princesses and banging dragons, she’d be a hero, she could do whatever she wanted.
That thought, that excitement, kept her nice and distracted until a steaming bowl of stew was laid out before her on the table. Emma sat back, and beamed up at Aexilica.
“Thank you.” She whispered. “I really appreciate being fed like this, it’s like you’re my mother.”
Aexilica actually looked warmer at that, smiling back. “It’s…Fine.”
“Can I call you mommy?” Emma asked. She could’ve taken a shit on the table and probably not spread so much disgust across the woman’s face. She said nothing, just seated herself and started eating. Emma ate too, still intensely horny.
“You are going to take this task of yours seriously, yes?” Aexilica asked abruptly, speaking in-between mouthfuls of stew. “You’ve been quite…Very casual about everything so far, but I need you to understand that this isn’t a joking matter. The water source that’s been blocked was quite, quite big and it could be something extremely large or strong responsible for it. In fact, if it was intentional then it would need to have been a strong creature.”
Emma liked the sound of that, she liked it very much.
I wonder if this world has XP points. She giggled at the thought.
“I’m serious!” Aexilica growled. “At best, you have to unblock a river. You need to make sure you have a plan for that. And-”
“Ugh shut UP!” Emma groaned, burying her face in her hands. “God, please, just be quiet for a second, this is so boriiiiing. I know what I’m doing, okay? Worst case scenario there’s nothing there and I just need to blow up some stupid boulders, and if I’m really lucky I’ll get attacked by a horde of horrible monsters and can blow them up instead. It’ll be really cool. So relax, alright? I’ve got this, that’s how these things go.”
The epic hero arrives in the region, gets some menial tasks early on and crushes them pretty easily. Emma wouldn’t need to worry about a serious threat until she faced off against…Well, something obviously important at least. Probably some evil wizard, or a powerful general of the Dark Lord. She frowned.
“Is there a Dark Lord here? Or Demon King, or…Anything like that?”
Aexilica stared at her. “N…No?”
Emma sighed. Alright then, so she could rule that out for now. Perhaps a demigod then- that Irethani Pantheon sounded pretty tough…
After eating, Emma and Aexilica went to bed shortly. The day had exhausted her, left her fighting on a minute by minute basis for consciousness, and surrendering into the bliss of her slumber was almost better than using her magic had been. Almost. The next morning Aexilica woke Emma early, actually dragged her up when she refused to rise, and marched her out of the house, to the edge of the town, and aimed her towards a set of mountains in the distance.
“That’s where you’re going.” She told her sharply. “Nowhere else, just there, got it?”
Emma grinned.
“Is there something interesting around here you don’t want me to-”
Aexilica smacked her across the back of the head, and Emma swore. “Okay, fine, jesus.”
The other woman nodded, mollified slightly, and handed her a pack. “This has enough food for two days, it should last you if you make it. Careful where you sleep, the plains aren’t as dangerous as the woodlands but this is where scytheshells actually make their natural habitat.”
Emma swallowed at that, and nodded.
“Anything else?”
Aexilica paused, thought about it. Then shrugged. “Good luck?” She sounded apologetic.