The Villainess Survives

Valentina, Amber and the mother were all walking over the gravelled path at a leisure pace. While the two ȧduŀts were talking to each other, Amber was looking around the place with eyes that shined full of curiosity. It has been a while since she has seen such vibrant colours. But taking them in with newer pair of eyes was much more breathtaking.

She was glancing from side to side when she spotted a particular flower. Well, you couldn't tell if it was a flower or not in the first place. A dense purple fog surrounded the flower, making it impossible to see what was inside. It would also periodically pulsate a bright white light that looked like mini bolts of lightning. Curious as she was, she walked towards it and crouched down so she could take a better look at it. She wanted to touch but didn't know if it would be dangerous so she refrained from doing so. But she was still quite interested in the flower. After all, there is nothing like this on earth. (A/N: Unless I'm an idiot who hasn't done his research properly.)

As if reading her mind, her mother started speaking. "It's an elemental flower."

"An elemental flower?" Amber replied in a questioning tone as she looked at her mother

"Yes, it is usually given to young, talented mages to increase how much magic they can use. But since it is too hard to absorb the magic, it is used as a pretty decoration. This flower is for the lightning element, the same as the Silverwood's bloodline magic." She replied to Amber with a gentle smile. Though you could feel a tinge of anger when she mentioned the surname, Silverwood.

"Can I touch it?" Amber asked. It's not that she was oblivious to her mother's mood, but she was currently far more interested in the flower.

"Of course you can"

Amber extends her hand forwards, pushing it through the mist until she felt something. As soon as she touched it, a tingling sensation passed through her body, making her feathers stand up. Instinctually, she immediately retracted her hand and glared at her mother while pouting.

Seeing the cute reaction, the mother couldn't help but chuckle before reassuring her, "Don't worry, it won't hurt"

Trusting her mother, amber placed her hands back onto the flower. Feeling the tingling sensation once again, she was tempted to remove her hands but continued touching them. After a while, she got used to the tingling sensation but that isn't to say that it was pleasant, or even comfortable. The aura that the plant emitted just felt out of place when she went near it. It was hard to explain.

Amber removed her hand from the flower and asked her mother another question.

"Is there one for wind magic?"

But this time, instead of her mother responding, it was Valentina's turn. "There is one towards the east of the garden lady Amber. Would you like me to take you there?"

Amber turned her gaze back to her mother and looked at her with puppy eyes. "Can I go?"

Seeing this, the mother obviously couldn't let her daughter down. "Of course you can. But stay close to Val alright?"

Amber nodded her head in affirmation.

"Will you come too?"

"Alright!" Amber replied happily with the mother smiling in response

"Take good care of her okay?" She then directed her attention to the purple-haired maid and gave her an order.

Valentina bowed down as she responded to her superior. "I can reassure you that she will return back safe."

"I already told you that you don't need to bow to me,"

Hearing the warm words from Amber's mother, Valentina lifted her head up and gave her a smile with a small nod. As she was about to say something, she was interrupted by the impatient young girl who had already set her way eastwards. "Come on! Let's go!"

"Go on, you don't want to be left behind do you?"

Valentina nodded and left the mother behind as she rushed to where Amber was heading. After confirming that the pair had disappeared from her line of sight, she took a glance at the ring on her pinky. The ring itself was coated yellow and was surprisingly reflective. She twisted it a bit before mustering the courage to mumble a name

"Sylvie."

As soon as those words left her mouth, the ring started glowing a dim blue hue. With each second that passed, the wind started flowing faster and faster towards the ring. The ring too started glowing bright and brighter until it suddenly burst into a pile of dust. From the dust in the air, a high pitched voice escaped shouting a name.

The tiny figure bolted out from the cloud leaving a blue trail behind her until she clung to the hand resting on the wheelchair. Tears fell down the figures pale cheeks while she cried out loud.

Seeing this, Amber's mother or more specifically Rachel, ċȧrėssed the cheeks of the little figure clinging to her arm.

"Sorry for not taking you out for so long. I've missed you, Sylvie." She says as droplets of water also fell out from her own eyes.

"Hmph. I didn't miss you." Sylvie tried acting tough but her words were contradicted by the way she currently looked.

Sylvie is what one would call an elemental spirit. Elemental spirits are beings made out of pure mana and they are known as masters at controlling an element. That would be great but due to being made out of mana, they need to use another person's mana to be able to use magic. After all, if they used their own mana, it would be akin to them using their own existence. So they need to find a host and connect themselves with their mana pool.

In exchange for connecting both their mana pools, you form a contract where when the host dies, the spirit will also die. And the spirit also loses its ability to reproduce which is just the icing on the cake. So naturally, they spend many decades and centuries choosing a host they would form a contract with and to wisen up. Due to the being made from mana, they are practically immortal in terms of age. That is of course until they find a host.

The spirit called Sylvie finally stopped crying and wiped her red eyes. She also blew her nose on the corner of Rachel's clothes revealing a delicate face with a cute little bowtie on her hair. She had a sleeveless blue and white dress that covered her entire body. A pair of translucent wings could be seen on her back, flapping gently. She flew away from the hands and floated in the air while looking at Rachel.

"Why did you call me out?"

"Can't I call out my spirit companion?"

"Sorry, sorry. This might sound like an excuse but I didn't have the time to be alone so I could summon you."

"Hmm?" Sylvie tilted her head slightly as she stared at the woman in front of her "What do you mean? I don't see any problem with Amber seeing me."

"Well, Amber is too young so she might reveal your identity to others-"

"I don't see a problem though,"

Rachel tried to explain the situation but was cut off by Sylvie which made her a bit annoyed.

"I haven't finished talking!" She scolded her friend. Taking a deep breath, she then continued talking. "Since spirits haven't been researched much, they might think about doing experiments on her. Evidently, I don't want to take that risk."

Although it might seem crazy, this is a valid concern. In the kingdom of Tether, magic crazed maniacs have been trying to research what magic is. Even going as far as using illegal methods to do so. So imagine how much 'research' they would do on someone who was born from someone who has a contract with a spirit.

"I see… But why don't you just trust her to keep quiet?" Although Sylvie now understood the mother's reasoning, she couldn't help but state the obvious.

"She is just a child. She won't understand the risks," Rachel replies while slightly shaking her head from side to side. She left out a long sigh after she finished talking.

"Rachel… I have lived for over a hundred years now and if there is one thing I've learnt, it is that children are smarter than you ȧduŀt humans give them credit for."

Sylvie gave words of wisdom that came with her age. Although she would act like an idiot, that doesn't necessarily mean that she was one. After all, if an idiot lived for long enough, they would learn a thing or two and gain a level of wisdom. So Rachel took those words to heart as they came from her friend of over 15 years.

"I also want to be able to meet my cute niece."

"Niece?" Rachel asked while being confused.

"Don't you humans call your parent's close friends aunty?"

"We do, but that doesn't mea-"

"Than she is my niece!"

The serious atmosphere from before dissipated as Rachel left out a long sigh. She had a feeling that she would get a headache if she argued with the little spirit so she decided to let the matter go.

"Do it your way,"

Rachel started to rotate the wheel of her wheelchair as she decided to take the long long way to where Amber and Valentina would be.

"Come on! We have a lot to talk about, don't we?"

Sylvie followed soon after and sat on Rachel's shoulder and started talking to her.

"Of course we do! It's been 2 fuċkɨnġ years since we last talked,"

"Language!"

"You used to live in a tavern. Don't you dare go lecturing me about language young woman."

"Who was the one who got seduced by my singing and formed a contract with me huh? Also, you make it sound as if I was doing something inappropriate in the Tavern. I was singing as a bard for Pete's sake."

They both glared at each other before bursting into laughter. It had truly been a while since they last bantered like this.

"I've missed talking to you, Rachel," Sylvie said with a genuine smile on her face

While walking past the different exotic flowers and shrubbery, the two of them were catching up on all the events Sylvie had missed with Sylvie herself recounting stories from her own memories.