Blade Over Magic

The Truth of the Matter

The first thing Xander saw was the ceiling of a tent, and it took him a few seconds to realize that it was their tent.

Before he could sit up, though, a face leaned over his. Purple eyes and white hair.

"You’re awake." Mia said in her usual flat tone, which is when Xander realized that his head was on his pillow, meaning his was in one of the rooms of the tent.

He slowly sat up and inspected his body. Sure enough, his wounds were gone. His missing eye was healed, and the cuts and bruises covering him were nowhere to be seen.

His gaze then shifted to the edge of his bed. There, a dark blade longer than his upper body could be seen, its flat side relatively thick, yet the blade itself was very sharp, and there was no handle. Rather, the bottom looked rather organic, like it had been a part of a living creature.

’... Right, that’s what remained of the ant after it died.’ The rest of it was destroyed, yet the limb survived, which was odd, considering that Xander’s last sword strike was meant to erase it from existence entirely. But perhaps it bypassed that to an extent at its death and left its limb behind.

After recalling its end, he guessed this was its own way of showing respect, or perhaps its way of wanting to be remembered. Its most defining trait being used as a weapon by the one who killed it.

He sighed, then he turned to Mia who simply stared at him.

There was a brief silence between them, then he asked.

"Where are the others?" Mia aimed a thumb at the tent flap.

"Standing behind there and waiting for one of us to address them so they can come in." There was a muffled noise from behind the tent flap, and Xander sighed. In truth, he’d already noticed them. After all, their lines of intent were pretty obvious through the flap.

Though, interestingly enough, at present, Xander couldn’t observe the full extent of the Paths, only aspects of them, like intent. However, he knew that if he wanted to, he could view them fully with a thought, but he also knew that it placed a significant burden on his existence as a whole, so he couldn’t sustain it indefinitely.

He glanced at Mia, and unsurprisingly, he couldn’t see any lines of intent coming from her. It was almost like she wasn’t a living thing, but he was fairly certain she was.

He turned to the entrance and spoke.

"You guys can enter." There was a brief pause, then the tent flap was pushed aside as Aubrey, Curtis, and Falael stepped inside.

When Xander saw that none of them had any more injuries, especially Aubrey, he let out a small sigh of relief before suddenly feeling a bit nervous.

As things stood, Xander was pretty sure he was in for a pretty significant lecture at least and getting punished pretty badly at most. He could only hope that they wouldn’t be too angry.

When the three entered the room, Falael clicked their tongue but didn’t look at Xander directly. Inversely, Aubrey stared straight at him, like she was trying to peer directly into his soul. And Curtis just looked around with a concerned look on his face.

Xander also didn’t say anything. Not yet anyway. He also intentionally refused to read their lines of intent.

After a moment, Aubrey adjusted her glasses and said with a strange tone.

"... I’m guessing you know what you did." Xander nodded slightly, unable to dissect her tone immediately. Then Aubrey continued.

"And I’m assuming you believe we are angry at you." Xander nodded again, finding her wording a bit ambiguous.

Finally, Aubrey sighed, and Falael spoke.

"Ordinarily, we would be considering the shit you pulled." Then they stared... no, glared at Mia who sat on one side of the bed without a care in the world. "If not for the fact that she explained the truth behind the situation to us." Xander blinked, clearly perplexed, then he turned to Mia who was watching everything with about as much interest as a cat looking at sand.

"... The truth behind the situation?" At his questioning look, Mia shrugged slowly.

"I orchestrated much of what happened."

"..."

Xander’s brain went blank for a moment.

"... What?" He couldn’t help but ask, and Curtis blurted out.

"W-Well, according to Mia, your father arrived much earlier. Only a few days after receiving your letter. But she purposefully held him up because she wanted us to be pushed to the brink by the situation. And in your case, she knew about the existence of the special ant. And also knew that you’d be the only one who would be able to deal with it one on one..." Curtis fidgeted slightly while glancing at Mia. Even he, with his usual nervousness, seemed deeply disconcerted by the reality. "... She knew that, given the chance, you would attempt to guide the ant in a direction where it was an optimal opponent for you. Which is why a lot of what happened turned out the way it did." Aubrey spoke up at that moment.

"She essentially manipulated the situation... She understood your character, and ours, and let things develop the way they did." When she finished, Xander turned to Mia.

"Pretty much." She didn’t even try to defend herself. She just replied in her usual bored manner, which seemed to irritate the others more.

Xander fell silent for a moment, then he asked.

"Why?" His voice wasn’t accusatory. Just curious.

Mia glanced at him, then she shrugged slightly.

"Y’all need to grow faster." And that was it. She didn’t elaborate, which made Falael snap.

"Oh, great, and you’re not gonna explain why I presume? Of course! All these powerful people feel like as soon as they get so strong, all of a sudden, they get to make decisions that alter the lives of those weaker than them without their permission, simply because they are stronger! So many people died, but its fine, Mia is some unbelievably powerful entity who can do whatever she wants. We should be glad that she doesn’t just mind control us and instead be grateful or whatever!" The half-elf clearly had a lot to say, and in response to that, Mia simply turned to them and said flatly.

"Your perceived weakness is your own fault. Not mine." The room fell silent, the Falael took out their wand.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Curtis immediately grabbed their hand and stepped in front of them, blocking their sight of Mia.

"Let go Curtis! I don’t care if I don’t hurt her! She needs to know that she can’t... she can’t just do that!" Their voice cracked at the end. "People people died! The cap- Andrew died! And she just gets off scott free? Th-That’s not... that’s not okay..." The rage turned into something shaky and vulnerable, and Curtis and Aubrey flinched but said nothing.

At that moment, Xander spoke.

"I agree and disagree with the result." This made the other three look at him in shock, and even Mia raised a brow.

But Xander just continued, not looking at anyone in particular, voice slightly flat.

"From the direction of cold logic? Yeah, I don’t see anything wrong with the choice she made. People grow under pressure, and she had a good enough understanding of our personalities to ensure we all grew one way or another, whether it be in direct combat power, experience, or simply understanding our abilities later. The Captain died because our strength wasn’t enough. Simple as that." The trio were stunned by his words, unable to believe what they were hearing. But Aubrey noticed he had more to say.

"... But?" She ventured, and Xander finally looked up.

"But," He glanced at Mia. "People and lives are not chess pieces. They are not static, unfeeling items that can be expended to achieve a goal due to necessity. Life is precious." He faced her fully, and she looked at him, as well.

"For a being at your level, I have no doubt that you have more experience than me. Universe knows how old you are, too. So I won’t act like I know better, chances are that I don’t. However..." His expression turned solemn.

"Never do that again. Please. And if you think you have to, at the very least, inform us. Granted, we wouldn’t be able to stop you if you chose to do so anyway. And even if its something inconsequential to you, we—or at least I—see you as a part of this group. So we need at least such a level of trust. That’s all I’m asking." Xander’s words or tone weren’t forced or overbearing, neither were the overly pleading or subservient either. Instead, it felt like he was... calmly yet seriously chastising a friend.

It made Mia feel a trace of something. Surprise, maybe?

The others fell silent, and after a few seconds passed, Mia just nodded.

"If you say so." Xander let out a small sigh of relief, and the others felt a similar way, but then Mia spoke again.

"You are mistaken about something, though." That made them all pause and look at her with slight wariness, but she just said simply.

"I’m not some ancient creature. I’m 19." Everyone blinked.

"... Huh?"