Chapter 34: A Mother's Intuition

Chapter 34: A Mother's Intuition

As it turned out, the decision to not cry for a third time was a stupid one. Misa decided to give herself a pass. Her mother was holding her again, sobbing into her shoulder, and as much as she hated seeing her cry, she was alive.

She never thought she'd be able to hold her mother again. Of course, she'd never imagined her mother being the one to cry, either.

"Mom," she said softly. "It's good to see you." Again, she wanted to say, but then she'd never seen this version of her mother before, had she?

"Misa," Charise cried, clinging tightly to Misa's larger form and refusing to let go. "I knew you were back I knew as soon as you were here But I thought I might have been going insane..."

"You weren't." Misa's tone was gentle, and her voice was steady, though her eyes were still wet. Orkas had said it was difficult for him to truly be her father, since he'd missed so much of her growth; by contrast, with her mother, it didn't seem to matter. Charise was just... glad to have her there.

It hurt her heart to see the way her mother trembled. Misa was used to seeing her mother as a whirlwind of energy; she was a woman who always seemed to know what she wanted and what she needed to do to get it. It had something to do with her class, from what Misa understood she'd never been told exactly what it was, but it seemed to give her a powerful and unmatched intuition that paired perfectly with her attitude.

From the stories she'd heard, Charise had been the one to pursue Orkas, back when they first met. She'd beaten him in a duel to do it, and when asked what she wanted for a prize, she'd requested a kiss.

Apparently, no one in the village had ever seen Orkas blush before. Or since. Follow current novels on novelb((in).(com)

That was the confidence that Charise once had. Misa had never seen her mother like this, on the cusp of breaking down entirely.

"I knew something was wrong," Charise told her. "I had a skill. I saw the world split, when you died... and something impossible happened. But I didn't understand. I still don't."

Misa hesitated. Orkas hadn't explained anything when he dropped her off, only said her name.

"It's... complicated," she hedged at first but she saw the way her mother sagged. She needed answers; she'd gone twenty years without them, working only with an intuition that told her what had happened was impossible. It was a wonder that her mind had stayed intact at all.

So Misa gathered herself, and explained what had happened. Less angrily than she had with Orkas, of course. Charise was mostly silent as Misa spoke, but rather than distressed, she seemed relieved. Her tears abated somewhat during Misa's explanation, though she continued to hold her daughter close.

"It... doesn't answer all my questions, but it explains a lot," Charise said. She smiled gently, wiped her tears away, and then sat down on the mossy ground; she patted the space next to her, and Misa took a seat. She didn't fail to notice the way her mother still shook slightly when she moved, but she was rapidly regaining her confidence, at least. "My skills... Did I ever explain my skills to you?"

Misa shook her head. "You always said you would one day, but you didn't want to do it yet."

"Yes, I wouldn't have." Her mother managed a weak smile. "[Intuitionist] is a strange class, and talking about it will sometimes grant listeners the class directly. It's not something I wanted to inflict on you. I wanted you to be able to get a class of your own."

"There's a class you can spread just by talking about it?" Misa asked, sounding a bit alarmed. Her mother chuckled, though the sound was a small.

"I know what you're thinking. It's a self-solving problem. It doesn't work if you're intentionally trying to spread it," Charlise told her. "It has... an intuition about it, you could say."

"Mom," Misa groaned.

"It's a common class, but people don't talk about it much because it's mostly uninteresting, besides its ability to unintentionally spread. I don't know for sure, but my intuition tells me " here Charlise gave her a wry smile "that the class is granted to you if you intuit something about it. Or if you intuit its existence, which is how I got the class, even though I didn't want it."

Misa choked back a tearful laugh. "Yeah. Sure. It's been a long time since I've had any. It was my favorite, you know."

"How could it not be?" Her mother said with a chuckle. "It's mine, too."

And when she took her first sips of the stew, she had to stop briefly. The rich smell brought her back to the days of old, when everything was simple, and at the same time...

It made her think of her home. The new one, the one she'd found with Vex, and Derivan, and Sev.

"Hey, mom?" She asked, her voice rough. "Can you teach me this recipe?"

Charlise looked at her, surprised. "You like cooking?"

"No," Misa chuckled. "But... I want to share this with some friends. A little piece of home."

"Ah." Charlise paused and smiled. "Of course. And I'm glad you found some friends. If you get a moment... Perhaps you could tell me about them?"

Misa looked to the horizon. The village would take time to prepare for everything, and if she understood the timeline right... they had almost a day left before they would be attacked. She had her plans, and she'd given them to Orkas; she'd had her plans for years.

So she had a little bit of time.

"I'd like that," she said quietly. "I'd like that a lot."

Everything was prepared.

Misa had told Orkas everything that she remembered of the invasion that would come. She'd explained the countermeasures she'd thought of, in the days and weeks following the attack, when she was wandering listlessly and carrying the village's store of mana crystals on her back. She'd further explained the details of the dungeon they were in, and how that might change the attack.

They'd both agreed that if they were meant to fight off Platinum monsters, they would have no chance, no matter how good their preparations were. The original horde that had attacked their village had been Iron-ranked, with the elite monsters in the low tiers of Bronze. With their best warriors and mages only at low-Bronze, they'd been very quickly overwhelmed.

This time, with Misa at a higher level and this being a dungeon... whatever it was, the horde might be up to Silver. That was as confident as they were about the array of traps and walls they'd made. The horde would, if everything went the same way they did the first time, abate by itself within a couple of hours. Misa still had no answers about what had triggered that attack, for there had been no indication that a dungeon break was near nor did she know where the monsters had gone after it.

But the information they had was enough. It meant that at worst, they simply needed to endure and keep the walls of the village strong for a few hours.

The first signs of the attack would happen soon, Misa knew. It had started with a bright beam of light in the sky, accompanied by a tear in space that felt wrong, even as far away as their village was from that tear. Then there was a great rumble of the earth, and a darkening of the sky.

Hopefully, they were ready.

Hopefully, Sev and the others would be here soon, too.

Her grip tightened on her mace, and she watched the horizon, waiting.