System Change

Derek opted to stay at the entrance and to not say anything as Alanah took in the cave where she spent much of her childhood and early adult life. As far as he could tell, with the cave being only dimly lit by Alanah’s light orb, there certainly wasn’t very much scattered around the area. But Derek was able to make out a few shapes lying around—he was unsure what they were, but they were definitely different from the rocks and dust that occupied most of the cave.

The siren slowly moved around the cavern from one side to the other. Occasionally, she would crouch down and pick something up before tossing it toward the middle of the room. Eventually, the woman made her way all the way around the cave and came to be standing beside Derek. After a short moment to breathe deeply, she turned to Derek and smiled lightly—in the dim light, he saw a tear roll down the siren’s cheek.

“Come here,” Alanah said. She waited for Derek to nod, then led him to the back side of the room. Finally, she kneeled down, sat the light orb off to the side, and began rubbing dust off of a certain area. “Even after all these years, some of the stuff here is still intact. And if some of the things laying out in the open are still whole, then what about something I took great care with?” she asked rhetorically.

Again, Derek knew she wasn’t waiting for an actual answer from him, so he stood silently behind her and watched. Eventually, a great deal of dust and dirt was removed from the ground, and Derek saw that there were actually some breaks in the rock beneath them. As it turned out, the cracks weren’t natural at all—they made a rough rectangle in the ground and were obviously man made.

Once the entire area was revealed, Alanah took a deep breath and tried to fit her fingers in the small cracks, but could not. “My fingers aren’t as small as they were when I made it, and I never increased the size of the cracks to accommodate my adult hands. I used to use a rock to pry it up when I needed to get to it,” Alanah explained, after which she summoned a very normal-looking dagger from her storage ring. “Now... just have to be very, very careful,” she muttered to herself.

Very carefully, Alanah wedged her blade into the crack. With a slow and steady motion, she pushed down on the dagger and used it to slowly pry the stone up—being careful not to let her current strength damage anything in the process. Derek guessed that this was why she used such a weapon to do the job instead of her rapier or another, sharper weapon—most of the stuff that they would use at their levels would absolutely devastate any normal ground or stone they even lightly touched. This could be seen in the way Harbinger was able to slice through the walls of the abyss.

As soon as the dagger brought the side of the stone up, Alanah quickly grabbed the raised edge with her fingertips. Once she had a good hold on the stone, she took a deep breath and raised it up and out of the ground. It took a lot for Derek not to lean over the siren and get a peek at what was inside the storage hole that she’d made when she was younger, but he was able to control himself and wait.

Alanah sat the stone gently on the ground beside her, then she leaned forward on her knees and reached slowly into the hole. Being more careful and gentler than Derek had ever seen her be before, Alanah slowly raised something up out of the ground. Whatever it was, was wrapped up in an extremely tattered and dirty cloth.

With a flick of her wrist, a stunningly regal and clean white sheet appeared on the ground in front of her, just on the other side of the hole. For the first time, Derek saw that Alanah’s hands were slightly trembling while clutching the object. Lightly, the siren laid the object on the sheet—after which, she picked up and placed the stone back in the hole.

“My mother was a seamstress for our small village,” Alanah said, breaking the silence. She bent forward and took one edge of the cloth off of the object. “Well... she was until she became pregnant with me. After I was born, she was shunned, and it was hard for her to find any real work to do there. Even though she was far more talented than any of the other seamstresses, she only received work than none of them wanted to do.”

Alanah continued to remove the tattered cloth from the item. “Before our village was raided, and I lost her, I think she was planning on bringing me out of Linderis and to one of the other kingdoms. But I don’t think she meant to stay with me—but I’m not sure about that. It’s just a feeling I get. I believe she planned on finding a way to give me a good life away from Linderis, even if it meant giving me up.”

Finally, Alanah removed the last bit of tattered cloth away. Delicately, she reached down with both hands and picked up the now unwrapped object. Derek saw a doll in her hands that was almost as tattered as the cloth it was wrapped in was. With a flash of light, all the dirt and grime were removed with the use of Alanah’s cleaning skill.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Just telling you what I guarantee is true,” Derek said.

“I need to get this to Cydaria’s best seamstress. I won’t let them out of my sight until it’s repaired.” Alanah said, turning the doll over and frowning at some of the damage to it. “I’m surprised it’s still in as good of a condition as it is.”

“Like you said,” Derek replied. “Your mother was great at her craft. Obviously, items she crafted—especially ones that she put her all into—would have great durability. I don’t know what her level was, but even a lower-level crafter would have that increased durability.”

“I don’t know what level she was either,” Alanah said. “She never talked about levels or the Great System or anything. I think she planned to leave with me soon—before I unlocked the system—and didn’t want to sway me toward any one class or another, so she never talked about any of it. I feel like her plan was to find a place for me and let me unlock the system there—with help from people who knew more than she did.

“I don’t know how much copper, silver, and gold she had saved for me,” Alanah continued. “We lived very frugally my whole life, and even though it was hard for her to find work, I know that she never spent everything she made. I also saw her putting some copper away once. For decades, I have been thinking about these things,” Alanah explained. “If we would have left sooner, if my birthday had been earlier, if she would have gotten a few more jobs... all the ‘ifs’ that I’ll never know. It’s useless thinking about them, but I can’t help myself.”

“It’s only natural,” Derek said. “We all have those ‘ifs.’ And even though there’s nothing we can change, we can’t help but think about it... over and over.”

“Oh... right,” Alanah said as she looked at Derek. “I’m sorry... I wasn’t thinking...”

“Don’t worry about it,” Derek said. “It’s all those experiences that made us who we are today, and I have to say, we’re pretty badass.”

“We are, aren’t we,” Alanah chuckled.

“Yes, yes we are,” Derek said. “I mean... you’re a living legend in this kingdom. A very horrifying, bogeyman, but a legend, nonetheless. I’m pretty sure this entire continent is terrified of you. And then, if you go back to the other one, you are one of the most well-known and respected people of all the kingdoms—especially Cydaria. Like I said, pretty badass.”

“Mhm.” Alanah nodded. “And you... well... you are you.”

“Exactly!” Derek said, and at the same time, he felt the vibration pick up in his ear. He furrowed his brow and frowned. “What’s going on?”

Alanah looked at the doll of her mother and hugged it tightly before storing it in her ring. Then she stored the tattered cloth that had protected it all those years and the sheet she’d spread out on the ground. After that, she cast Cleaning on herself, then looked at Derek. “That is our chance to take care of the willow.”