Fiona was out in the garden, grabbing rocks and fallen leaves as she crawled slowly around under the vigilant gaze of her nurses and attendants. Every time she picked up a new object she had an inexplicable urge to put said object in her mouth. Now as a reincarnated person, who had an enhanced sense of hygiene and dignity, of course she didn't indulge that desire… usually. No, for objects outdoors, that had been in the dirt, that could have been peed on, putting them in her mouth was unthinkable. The closest she would get was grazing her lips on the rocks, maybe lifting up the edges of her mouth briefly just to get that small hint of the earthen, metallic taste… no! She wouldn't do it! She put the stone back down. Well, she had already done it, but no more! She wasn't a baby! Well, in fact she was a baby… what could it hurt? Babies did this all the time… No! No more! Wait till I'm inside, I'll gnaw on some blocks, those have to be way cleaner! God, who knew being a baby was so hard… or so humiliating.
Baby Fiona put down the rocks and looked around her again. The maids had tied a little sun bonnet around her head and the strap was itching her neck. "Wau, wa-a" She tried to pry at the strings of the bonnet, but she couldn't get the strap undone. Darn those maids! They tied the strap too well. Why do they have to be so good at their jobs? As if sensing her thoughts one of the maids began approaching.
"Oh miss Fiona! Is something the matter? Do you want anything?"
Knowing that getting them to take off the bonnet was out of the question and that if they caught her up they'd only pamper her again, Fiona quickly stopped her fussing, turning the other direction and crawling away.
"Hmm, maybe it was just a bug of some kind," one of her male attendants remarked as they watched her crawl a little further away.
Suddenly the air around Fiona shimmered and the voices of her attendants faded away into silence. "Wa?" Fiona looked around. She didn't understand what had happened. All of her attendants were frozen in place as if time had stopped.
"Sss" A snake appeared from around a hedge, its tongue flicking back and forth, tasting the air.
"Hello, little one, having a stroll in the garden are we?"
Did that snake just talk?
"Indeed I did," the snake chuckled, as it continued approaching Fiona.
AAAA STAY AWAY, IT'S A MAGIC TALKING SNAKE I'M GOING TO DIEEEEE. I'M ONLY A BABY WHY COULDN'T I HAVE LIVED LONGER. OH CRUEL, CRUEL WORLD.
Baby Fiona tried to turn, but couldn't manage it very well, and only managed to fall on the ground and erupt in a fit of tears.
"My, my my!" the snake replied, stopping her approach though she was still well within striking range. "What a reaction from the little tyrant. Haven't you been taught yet that it's not nice to cry in front of strangers? Or perhaps you don't know that a lady is more than her appearance." Her last words were imbued with a strange power, flooding the air with majesty as purple smoke curled from her eyes.
Fiona froze as if petrified, suddenly unable to move her body. "Ah, that's better, really for girl with a foreign spirit in her, I thought you'd be better developed than this."
Foreign spirit? Fiona couldn't stop the words bubbling up in her mind.
"Yes, yes, you don't belong in this world do you. Now, I wonder what Earl Chaplan did to get you to descend. Yes, quite fascinating." The snake got quite close to Fiona's face. "It'd be a terrific study to pick you apart to try to find the answer."
Despite the petrification Fiona could feel herself trembling. She had never expected anything like this, after all—she was a baby! What could happen? And moreover she was a rich baby, constantly surrounded by maids and attendants, how could anything happen to her. But here in front of her was an existence that she couldn't even fathom. Magic. The thought escaped like a whisper from her mind, sending a rush of terror and joy through her nervous system.
"Now, now, what should I do with you?" The snake's eyes glowed, and her tongue flicked as if with anticipation.
The Earl of Chaplan suddenly stood up at his desk. A strange magical signature had just flared in the garden. His eyes narrowed, and then in a second he turned towards the window, his muscles burgeoning underneath his clothes. A blue mist rose from his eyes as the window flung open of its own accord. Immediately he leaped out the window, flying through branches as he rolled out onto the courtyard outside his office. Mana rippled through the sky like a curtain in a corner of the garden across from where he stood. He bounded towards the curtain in huge, leaping steps, his clothes slightly tearing under the extraordinary forces. He stopped just before the curtain, blue smoke rising from his eyes as he looked up and down, examining the mana flow. Inside the curtain time seemed to be distorted, and the details of what was occurring inside only escaped very hazily into the outside world. The earl raised his arm, the blue glow in his eyes intensifying.
"Avela." Spears of blue crystallized mana formed around him and began bombarding the veil in a continual torrent. By this time several other attendants had rushed towards the scene. Seeing what the earl was doing they quickly followed his lead. Blue, red, and yellow streams of mana began rising like smoke from the attendants as they began chanting spells. Balls and hammers of mana of various shapes and colors began bombarding the veil alongside the earl, quickly cracks began to run up the surface of the mana construct.
The earl suddenly held his hand up and the attacks from his attendants ceased.
"Verom." The word warped the air around them in waves of power and the veil suddenly shattered, translucent mana shards falling to the ground then fading into nothing. In front of them the three maids and single attendant suddenly broke from the time spell, looking around confused. On the ground by the hedges was a crying baby.