[One year later. Six years ATAB(After The Anomaly's Birth]
Fiona Stone has decided to try and get hired as a professor at Aurora Academy in order to be able to see her favorite characters interact right in front of her.
She has been spending her time working for the Church of Humanity over these years and has managed to become a Teacher with the help of her system that allowed her to become a better 'teacher'.
It was a process similar to one of the novel's she had read in her past life. As a Secretive Writer, she has the ability to become different things in order to learn their perspectives and to improve the quality of her stories. The better she acts like that thing, while also making sure she remains a writer at her core, the more she becomes it.
To give an example that she had used in order to become a higher ranked member of the church, she had started to imitate the way the Teachers and High Teachers would act. She would wake up as early as them, talk like them, start to think like them, and so she had started to 'learn' from them.
She would start to behave like a Teacher even without trying, and thus her System told her of one of its functions that she had unlocked. Personas.
She currently has three Personas:Writer, Teacher, Innkeeper.
The first two were the easiest to gain, with the Writer being unlocked at the same time as Teacher. Innkeeper was something that she had only recently gained as she started helping around the Singing Coras inn.
In order to get more 'experience' for these Personas and get more of their abilities, Fiona needs to 'act' like them. To increase her Teacher experience, she has to teach people new things, help them understand things, learn more things in order to be a better Teacher, and more.
She also had to be careful to not lose herself, with the higher the percentage of her Personas, the more likely she is to become someone else.
She was now 21 years old and a proper 'Adult'. She was wearing commoner working clothes, which were simply a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of long pants with some beat up shoes. All of them were brown in color and either scratched or sewn up in several places.
She had continued to write several stories under the pen name of 'Jane Doe', even deciding to create a novel series centered around a genius detective that would solve various cases with the help of his vast array of knowledge and creative thinking.
It was convenient that there already was such a figure within the outer rim of Aurorus, one that was even investigating her and trying to find out the true identity of Jane Doe. Detective Taylor was a Passing character in the novel upon which this world was based, and so she had started to use him as a training dummy to test her powers.
Her powers are relatively simple, in that she needs to 'write' the fate of the character that she targets. Whether it is by writing on a piece of paper, scratching it out on a wood table or even by dragging water across a surface, so long as it is seen as 'writing', it works.
And thus, while writing her stories of 'The Gentleman Detective.', she would use her powers in order to slightly alter Taylor's fate. Tripping on a jutting stone on the road, hitting his head on a door frame, finding 'convenient' clues for his cases, and many more.
It was simply some harmless fun and it also worked to mess with the man that wants to mess with her so much. She had even started jokingly calling herself 'Miss Moriarty' in her mind.
She had also started started to further train her skills, especially her Divination and Water Manipulation magic. She had completed several more tasks which granted her more skills, traits and points, and with her passive earning of points over the years, her Status Window currently looked like this:
[Writer Status]
Name:Fiona Stone
Species:Midorian Dwarf
Character Tier:Unmentioned
Traits:
-Dwarfish senses (As a Midorian Dwarf, your sight is worse during the day and better during the night, your sense of taste is dulled and your sense of smell is heightened in order to detect poisonous gasses)
-Mineral inspection (Your strengthened teeth and strong acidic saliva enables you to eat soils and minerals in order to find out they are made of. This has led to an increased immunity to poison, radiation, and indigestion)
-Thick and stocky (You are much shorter than the average human and you have much larger intestines and stomach, leading to making you look like a barrel)
-Writer's Memory( You can remember anything that you have ever read or written, allowing you to better avoid plot holes and inconsistencies.)
-Writer's Inspiration(You sometimes get random bouts of inspiration, leading to you coming up with innovative stories, answers to questions or simply having a higher chance to gain enlightenment for things related to a Writer.)
-(Improved!)Low Fate Affinity->Medium Fate Affinity(As the Host of the Secretive Writer System you are expected to change the fate's of others and so you have been granted a Low Affinity to Fate. You now have a much more developed 'sixth sense', a very low amount of divination resistance and now have a vague sense 'fortuitous encounters', allowing you to have a very low chance to detect where a fortuitous encounter might be.
You are now seen as a friend or distant kin of beings that are attuned to Fate and Fate Spirits)
-(Improved!)Low Water Spirit Affinity->Medium Water Spirit Affinity(Some Water Spirits are intrigued by your use of water in order to clean your body and to better write by helping your ink dry more quickly.)
-(New!)Facial Muscle Control(You have complete control over your facial muscles, allowing you to have more control over what expressions you show and their intensity.)
Skills:
Active:
-Divination(Improved!)(Beginner->Adept):Allows you to perform extremely low-level divination's with the help of instruments, using mana as the price. The more intricate the divination, up to a certain level, the more mana is required. You can now also have extremely vague and extremely rare prophetic dreams.
-Water Manipulation(Improved!)(Intermediate->Adept):You have learned how to manipulate the water inside ink in order to write your stories much faster than with a quill, further improving your writing speed and quality, you are also able to better dry the ink you use to write or extract it after it had been absorbed by something. The mana cost is relative to the duration and complexity of the chant.
Passive:
-Writing(Improved!)(Expert->Master):You have become an author and managed to write several stories that have inspired and entertained numerous people from Aurorus City and some neighboring towns and cities along with several villages. You have caught the attention of several noble families and a certain detective. You are now very unlikely to make mistakes as you write.
-Imitation(New!)(Adept):You have learned how to imitate many people, being able to imitate the behaviors of a few people, being able to talk and act similarly to them.
-Disguise(New!)(Adept):You have learned how to disguise yourself by changing the tone of your voice, using different styles of clothes and how to act like a different being.
-Trickery(New!)(Intermediate):You are an amateurish trickster, lightly pranking certain people and tricking people into thinking that you are something you are not. You have a better poker face than most and can make people think you are doing something while you are actually doing a different thing.
-Teaching(New!)(Intermediate):You have imitated several Teachers and a few High Teachers, teaching yourself how to become a Teacher. You can now better teach foreign things to other people and help them understand things more easily. You are still inexperienced so you should stick to teaching children.
(...)
Titles:
-Secretive Writer(given by the Secretive Writer System)
Personas:
-Writer(50%):This Persona allows you to be a Writer, someone that writes various tales, poems, songs and more. The higher the level of the persona, the more abilities you will gain. In order to raise your level you will have to act like a Writer:Write different stories, whether fictional or true and inspire or entertain others with your stories. Listen to what the fans of your works think about your creations and improve from them. Become more popular and immortalize yourself through your writing.
-Teacher(25%):This Persona allows you to be a Teacher, someone that teaches and helps others that wish to learn. The higher the level of the persona, the more abilities you will gain. In order to raise your level you will have to act like a Teacher:Teach other beings new things, help other beings understand various subjects, come up with improved or personalized teaching methods, connect with your students, further improve yourself by learning more about what you teach.
-Innkeeper(10%):This Persona allows you to be an Innkeeper, someone that interacts, sees and talks with other beings. The higher the level of the persona, the more abilities you will gain. In order to raise your level you will have to act like an Innkeeper:Interact with people, make sure that your tenants needs are met, improve the reputation of your inn, connect with your tenants and make them feel welcomed, take care of your inn.
Secretive Writer Points: 13.541
[End Writer Status]
Fiona started feeling a strange urge to put on a monocle once she saw her Trickery skill, but decided to not risk it.
Besides becoming a proper Teacher of the Church of Humanity, she had also started learning more and more about the current events of the Aurora Empire and the rest of Yvon. And so, currently she was on the ground floor of the inn, eating a steaming bowl of stew while reading the recent news.
-'Let's see...Besides these Monsters appearing a few years ago and the existence of the Sunset Hexad, the main plot of the story hasn't changed much. I honestly expected for more things to happen, like some events happening way earlier due to my presence but there isn't much.
These Monsters just appearing and then disappearing suddenly is very odd though...There aren't supposed to be any 'Monsters' until the final arcs of the novel, with the war of the continents.
Maybe due to my presence, some Monsters had escaped or were made earlier than usual and then were called back? But the monsters described in the announcement sounded more like those strange creatures from that one website than the Goblins and Orcs or even the Dokkaebi, Djinn or Oni.
Let's see what else...the Empires are gonna have a diplomatic meeting...more mysterious disappearances...the Rain kingdom is now in charge of helping the Southern Territories, providing assistance by giving them various resources...Oh this one is about me:
'The mystery surrounding the enigmatic author, Jane Doe, is slowly starting to gain the attention of various important figures within the illustrious Aurora Empire, with the famous Detective Taylor even vowing that he will find out their true identity.
This is most probably his response to the newest series of books that were written by Jane Doe, 'The Gentleman Detective'. Some of the stories are eerily similar to actual cases that have happened within the outer rim of the capital, which has led to many of Detective Taylor's clients to suspect that he is in cahoots with the mysterious author.
Of course, the talented investigator vehemently refuses any connection with the writer, even going as far as to say that he has been cursed by this author, experiencing various unfortunate accidents or even finding 'insulting, amateurish clues that even a child could've found out' during his investigations.'
Amateurish!? I'll show you amateurish you senile old fool! I will make you not be able to get 'it' up and then write a story about it!'
While fuming on the inside, Fiona did not exhibit any change in expression as she continued reading the newspaper, this was due to one of her traits, 'Facial Muscle Control'. She slowly started to calm down by eating more of her stew and observing the inn.
Due to it now being the unofficial base of operations of the Sunset Hexad, the inn had started to become more popular among mercenaries, traveling mages, sell-swords and many more professions.
This is mostly because of the new leader of the small mercenary team, the Mirror Empress and her child, the Mirror Princess.
Fiona had not seen any of the three new members of the former Sunset Trio, she had barely seen the group at all in fact, and she both liked and disliked it.
She liked it because she did not have to interact with those brutish mercenaries, with the young transmigrator still not feeling comfortable around such violent people. She may now be in a world filled with magic and other fantastical beings, but she is still an Earthling at heart, a normal citizen at that.
However, she also disliked it because she never heard of these people. The Mirror Empress and Princess, their servant, or even the Sunset Trio before they became the Sunset Hexad. She isn't even sure whether she is responsible for their appearance or if a third party is.
And considering the age of the Mirror Princess, she will most likely attend Aurora Academy, so long as the mercenary group continues to rise in fame.
'Isn't it irresponsible to bring your five year old daughter along while going on dangerous missions? I swear, the people of this world are very uncivilized. I cannot wait to go to the Academy and have access to some modern amenities, like an actual toilet...'
Fiona really wanted to get access to an actual toilet and have to do her business in an unsanitary outhouse. She had started using her Water Manipulation Magic to properly clean herself due to the lack of toilet paper.
She started thinking of something else as she finished eating her food, using the bread to clean the bowl of any remaining bits of the stew and then giving it to the innkeeper which had started to look a bit thinner, with parts of his hair starting to return.
Once up in her room, Fiona put the newspaper away and then looked outside her room's window and at the night sky. The heavens had a purple tint with an uncountable numbers of stars strewn all over it.
When she first came to this world and saw the night sky, Fiona felt a deep feeling of cosmic dread. She had lived within a modern, German city and so when night came, she would at best see a handful of stars or just a pitch black void.
She had come to get used to such a sight, the all encompassing darkness of the sky was 'natural'. Seeing those colors and lights on nights with a clear sky was 'unnatural' to her. Reminded her that she isn't truly Fiona Stone, that she isn't actually 'home'.
Whenever she would feel bored during the long nights she would sit on her chair and simply stare at the sky and the mysterious purple moon, Melos.
That and also talking with her new friend. It was a wild Coras that would come to her window from time to time, having started to visit her around one year ago when the Mirror Empress made her appearance.
Just as she thought of her bird friend, Fiona heard the sound of a beak hitting a glass window repeatedly. A small smile appeared on her face when she looked down and saw the four winged bird outside her window, looking at her and letting out small 'caws'.
She slowly got up and opened the window, allowing the dark blue bird to come inside and watching it hop around the room before settling on her bed.
"It seems that you are still tired, huh? Let me guess, did you have to get food for your little chicks?"
The dwarven woman let out a small chuckle as she watched the coras give a disinterested 'caw', as if telling her:
'Just wait until you get children of your own.'
The reason why Fiona felt like the coras was always tired was because of its permanent half-lidded eyes. She did not even know whether this is how birds show that they are tired, but since coras' are different from crows, she did not think that it was strange.
'I mean, it has four wings and can cast spells, so what if its eyes are a bit weird?'
"Anyway, did you come here just to steal my bed or what? I'll have you know that I need to have at least eight hours of sleep in order to keep my ethereal beauty."
The coras blinked at her, clearly unimpressed by her 'ethereal beauty', but before Fiona could through a few objects at the annoying bird, she saw how it hopped off her bed and then started moving towards her table, where the newspaper was.
Once there, she watched how the coras pecked a few words in succession, and when she saw what these words were, her eyes slowly widened. The words were:
'Aurora Academy', 'help', 'join', 'together'.
"You want to...help me get hired at Aurora Academy?"
The clever coras nodded its head and let out an affirmative caw.
"And in exchange...you want to come with me? Sort of like a contracted beast?"
This time the coras shook its head and pecked yet another word on the newspaper, this time it was 'partnership'.
Fiona frowned and asked her bird friend.
"You want to be partners? And how exactly are you going to help me join? I admit that you are very clever but I don't think that is enough to get me accepted as a professor there, I am going to need something impressive and that I can teach."
At first, Fiona wanted to become a magic teacher but knew that wouldn't be possible. Due to the news of how Aurora Academy will start teaching various talented and high ranked noble 'adults' from the various Empires on Yvon, countless talented mages have already applied there.
The coras slowly started hopping towards Fiona and before she could back away, it jumped on her right shoulder and then fully spread its four wings, causing Fiona's shadow to look slightly distorted.
Fiona then started to feel incredibly dizzy, deciding to sit back down on her chair as she slowly fell asleep.
As she slept, she started dreaming about Aurora Academy, about the various towering buildings and dormitories, the training fields, the secret realms and much more. Then, she started dreaming of the towering gates leading to the academy, seeing how they slowly opened for the upcoming first years.
Various fifteen year olds from the four Empires. She saw Antonio Midoro, Aurelius de Leon, Leonardo, Diana Storm and many more, all slowly walking towards the entrance exam in order to see if they are qualified to join the Academy or not.
Her view then shifted inside the entrance hall of the academy where the first entrance exam would take, and among the hundreds of faculty members, she saw her future self.
She was older by almost a decade but her beauty had grown even more. She was wearing the clothing of a high ranking Professor, holding a beautiful staff which had a large, metallic circle at the top where a pendulum was staying perfectly still.
Within this circle there was also a coin within the top part of it which was constantly spinning, as if it couldn't decide on which side it should land on.
And finally, on her right shoulder, there was a magnificent coras, with its grayish-blue eyes pointed directly at her. She saw her future self look at the coras and just as she was about to look at the current Fiona, the coras let out a deafening caw which signaled the start of the first entrance exam.
This caw started to distort Fiona's vision, making it seem as if reality was undulating like the waves of a raging river until she woke up from her dream extremely exhausted, looking around the room until she saw the mysterious coras on her shoulder and a system notification right besides it.
[Ding! Congratulations for encountering and befriending a Fate Magical Beast! As a reward for such an unbelievable feat, the Secretive Writer System will reward you with a new Persona:
Diviner(5%):This Persona allows you to be a Diviner, someone that interacts, sees and changes the fates of others. The higher the level of the persona, the more abilities you will gain. In order to raise your level you will have to act like a Diviner:Read people's fates, learn more about your own fate, interact with beings that are attuned to Fate, look at the world of Souls without going insane and be mysterious or vague about your predictions.
In order to get more experience as a Diviner, the system recommend you to create a new identity for yourself which you can then use to join the ranks of a Teacher at Aurora Academy.]
Fiona was having a hard time understanding what was happening, but then she remembered her Medium Fate Affinity. Its description talked about how it would make her seem 'friendly' to beings attuned to Fate.
She then looked at the coras that was still sitting on her shoulder, and now that she knew its identity as a Magical Beast, she could now very faintly sense a connection to it by using her Fate Affinity.
"...Thank you for wanting to help me. Did you come to me because you detected my affinity to Fate?"
The coras let out an affirmative caw and then put its wings back down.
"Well, if we are going to be partners, would you like me to give you a name? I don't want to just call you 'bird', plus I am sure that a smart being like you deserves a name."
After getting another affirmative caw, showing that the coras did not mind being given a name, Fiona started to think about an appropriate name. She thought of any animals from the mythology of her past life that are related to fate and crows, and her thoughts immediately went to the Norse Pantheon.
Specifically, Odin, who was seen as the Chief God of the Norse pantheon and Germanic paganism. He was known as the All-Father and, after sacrificing one of his eyes and hanging himself for days on the Realm Tree, Yggdrasil, he gained great mystical knowledge.
After rubbing one of her eyes and telling the coras that it cannot have her eye, which left it confused, Fiona continued her train of thought.
Odin also had two crows or ravens, Fiona wasn't sure, which would sit on his shoulders, they were Huginn and Muninn, his messengers. And so, considering that the mysterious bird like to sit on her shoulder, and its affinity to Fate, she decided to name it:
"Huminn. Funny, it kind of sounds like Human."
The newly named bird, Huminn, started letting out a bird-like laugh and Fiona started laughing as well. She did not find it as funny as the bird, but she didn't want to make it feel awkward.
"Well, if we are going off Norse mythology anyway, then I now know what to name my new identity. Nornin."
The name was a combination of the Norns, the Norse goddesses of fate, and 'Odin' due to his connection with ravens and prophecies.
And so, the Unfettered Seer was born.
[The next night]
The outer rim of Aurorus has quieted down within the Day-bell section, and on its slightly dirty cobblestone roads, a figured woman was walking down the road. Her name was Gina Despas, the wife of Frollo Despas.
She was currently walking this late at night because she had started to feel lost. She had recently gotten married to a newly made Baronet and a talented conjurer and was now with child, but she could not help but feel like her husband was...off.
She knew that conjurers worked with Spirits, but he would keep talking with his contracted spirit, using his Spirit Sigh spell continuously, never stopping even when his eyes would start to bleed, only taking breaks when he is about to pass out or if she tells him to.
For her, he was simply talking to an invisible being, talking in hushed whispers and having a wide, excited expression on his face as he did so. When she first started showing signs of being pregnant, he had started feeling incredibly happy.
She was also happy, of course, but that didn't mean that she wasn't also extremely worried for her husband's mental state. And so, she had gone into the outer rim of the capital in search of a Diviner in order to learn what was truly going on.
Her servants would whisper secretly about him being mad and his colleagues that were staying with them did not pay any attention to her worries. They looked at him as if he were some unstable artifact, moments away from imploding.
As she walked through the streets, gently cradling her pregnant belly and reassuring herself that she wasn't doing something useless, she saw a small stand on the right side of the road, standing between an apothecary and a butcher store.
She slowly walked towards it and noticed that at the stand, a cloaked figure was sitting there, with a coras sitting on her right shoulder.
As she approached, the coras let out a caw and looked at her, but instead of feeling uncomfortable or frightened, she instead started to feel lighter, as if a burden was lifted off of her shoulders.
She continued walking until she was standing in front of the mysterious, veiled woman. There was a small candle lamp which slightly illuminated her figure and the small stand, with a piece of paper being placed on its wooden surface.
The following was written on it:
'-Miniscule Fortune:1 copper coin
-Small Fortune:10 copper coins
-Medium Fortune:100 copper coins
-Getting your future read:1 silver coin
-Getting your fate changed:10 silver coins'
The prices were actually quite cheap when compared to official Diviners, but since she was standing in front of someone with no reputation, Gina was feeling hesitant. She had taken only fifty silver coins with her and she still had to pay for a late night carriage in order to get back home.
She then heard the slightly muffled voice of the mysterious, short fortune teller.
"May the light of Melos reveal new paths to you, stranger. My name is Nornin and my partner's name is Huminn."
The coras let out a small caw which echoed through the empty street, with only the occasional vagrant or carriage being heard or seen nearby.
Gina straightened her back and looked at Nornin with an inquisitive but unimpressed gaze, not wanting to come off as desperate.
-"Greetings to you as well, fortune-teller. I would like to know of your capabilities, so tell me, why have I come to you?"
She wanted to know whether she was an actual fortune-teller or a scammer, and so she waited as the veiled woman looked up at her and went silent for a few moments, her eyes looking straight at her.
Just as she thought that she was getting toyed with, she heard the fortune-teller's voice once more.
-"It is a simple thing, but you will have to purchase one of my services after I am done.
Your mother has named you Gina and you gained the family name of Despas after you got married to Frollo Despas, a new baronet and conjurer.
You are currently pregnant with twins with their birth only a few weeks away. You have come here because you are worried about your husband's mental health.
You are thinking of running away if you are to learn that he is a lost cause, planning to live your life with one of your friends, who you met during your apprenticeship at an apothecary store."
Gina let out a shocked gasp and started to look around, wanting to make sure that she wasn't followed by any hidden guards. She was planning to stop Nornin once she told her about her being pregnant with twins but her curiosity got the better of her.
-"That is enough, I believe you. I would like to know what my future will entail and whether I can change it for the better."
Nornin gave her a small nod and, after getting handed a silver coin, she started whispering a chant that Gina could not hear.
The veiled woman was in a state of deep concentration and looked to be struggling with something, but once Huminn, the mysterious coras sitting on her right shoulder, let out a small caw, Nornin opened her eyes and looked at Gina.
-"In four years you will lose your children.
In five years, you will find them.
You will see them be happier than ever before.
An Empress will take them in and take care of them."
Gina looked mortified and looked at the fortune-teller, demanding an explanation.
-"What do you mean that I am going to lose them!? Answer me!"
-"I have already told you everything that you need to know, and so, my services are no longer available to you. Goodbye."
Gina was starting to panic but before she could do anything, Nornin sat up from her chair and walked into a dark alleyway. She remained frozen on the street for but a few moments but as soon as she tried to go into the alleyway to get her questions answered, she only saw a dead end.
The fortune teller had mysteriously disappeared without leaving any trace.
Tears started to well up in Gina's eyes as she caressed her swollen belly, now knowing that she will lose her children before even getting to see them.
Her legs were starting to shake and she now had to cling to one of the walls of the alley in order to not fall down, and so for the next several minutes, she quietly wept in a dirty alleyway.
She slowly walked towards a carriage and paid for a short journey to her house, her hands never leaving her belly.