Fiona's mind was still churning as Emily turned off the light and retreated from the room. The style and beginning of the story seem to imply that it's just a fairy tale like any other, and yet the presence of the Snake of Time might imply otherwise? Or is Miss Felora only copying the moniker of a famous story book character? Or is the story perhaps indirectly based off of her or some actions she's taken in the past? Could it be true? If so that would mean she's more or less a do-gooder, though maybe in reality she had different motivations for defeating the monster. Maybe she just had beef with the monster and the farmer happened to pick up the pieces. But either way it would imply she's quite powerful, though I suppose I already knew that. Hmmm.
Fiona looked up at the dark ceiling. A golden palace, huh? It doesn't sound that different from the dream where she met me, though she wasn't a snake there. It does sound kind of like her… Her mind started drifting as her drowsiness rose over her and began stealing her away to the land of dreams. I suppose there's not actually that much I learned. I just… don't know… what's fact… or fiction.
Fiona's eyes fluttered open to see golden light streaming across white walls. "Where… am I?" She slowly got up, rubbing her eyes. "What!" She looked down at her body. Not quite her old body and yet not quite her new body either. She looked maybe 11 or 12, an old t-shirt draped down her back all the way to her knees. "What the f*ck!" She looked up still confused only to see Felora Adrigal leisurely seated across from her in a swivel chair, her purple eyes alight with amusement.
"Look's like your mental form is gradually trying to reconcile itself with your physical age," she said in answer to Fiona's confusion. "Your soul sea is changing too," she said, gesturing around at the room.
On the face of it the room still resembled her old bedroom in her parent's house from her past life, but lots of details had changed. Band posters on the wall were replaced with crayon drawings that had been hanging up in her room in the Earl's manor. Various vases of flowers dotted the room filled with flowers she had recently picked, many of which more or less didn't exist on earth. Propped against the books on her shelves were the few picture books that the Earl had had custom made for her.
Fiona looked around in wonder and confusion noting all the changes. "What's… going on, why are we here again?" she rubbed her head, still groggy.
Felora smirked. "There's some things that wouldn't be convenient to communicate in the outside world, what with all the attendants that are constantly flitting around you. I thought it would be prudent to discuss some matters before we commenced our lessons."
"You!" Fiona said, remembering the events of the past day. "Why are you my teacher now! What the hell! Don't they know you're the one who bit me!?"
"I suspect they do know, but I haven't exactly shown you much aggression. And…" She flashed a predatory smile. "I'm not exactly the kind of person you can refuse."
"Eee. Right. Super powerful magician lady. Thousands of years old. Can control time and kill monsters in her sleep, right."
"Monsters?" Felora said amused. "What exactly have you been hearing about me?"
"Nothing," Fiona tried her best to look innocent. "Anyways, matters to discuss, what did you want to talk about? I suppose we might as well get to it now that you're here."
"Yes, first, I wanted to ask, have you mentioned to either of your parents anything about your past memories?"
"Hell no," Fiona said, holding up her arms in an x. "I am just a kid, I want things to stay that way, thank you very much."
"Do you think either of them are suspicious? Or perhaps are not as surprised at your idiosyncrasies as you might expect them to be?"
"Eh, what?" Fiona thought for a moment. "Why are you even asking that? Uh… I don't know, not really though they're both pushing me a bit more than I'd expect for a two-year old, but everyone else seems to think that's pretty normal for this world, so I don't know. Wait…" Fiona suddenly paused. "I know it's weird to ask you this, but should I really be telling you this stuff, how am I supposed to trust you?"
"Ugh, I'm glad you're finally starting to think about that." Felora said with an almost motherly tone. Then she laughed at Fiona's expression. "There's not that many people you can trust in this world! You can trust from the fact that I could've killed you and I didn't that my immediate aim isn't to directly do you harm, but you should always be looking out for secondary motivations. If my actions don't directly make sense to you then there's usually a reason for that."
"So? What's your secondary motivation for coming and teaching me?"
"It's a secret," Felora said, putting a finger to her lips.
"If you aren't going to answer my questions I'm not going to answer yours!" Fiona said angrily.
Felora laughed. "Sorry, sorry. I'll tell you, I just wanted to see your reaction. hehehe." Gradually she composed herself again. "I wanted to come see what would become of you with your stolen soul."
"Yeah about that!" Fiona interrupted. "What's so special about that? So I have a few memories from my past life, what's the big deal?"
Felora suddenly grew serious. "A stolen soul means that you essentially have two souls."
"Two…" Fiona's mouth went dry.
"In magic the fundamental principle that determines how much mana capacity someone has is the strength of their soul. Generally people don't differ from the average that much. Someone with thirty percent more mana than the average person is already considered a great mage, at least when it comes to capacity. But with a stolen soul the effects are even greater, the friction between your two souls generates even more soul capacity over time. With time you could easily come to have three or four times more mana than the average caster. And as such to many you're simply an especially powerful tool. One that might be worth killing for to acquire."
"Killing…" Fiona was stunned. She was that valuable? Why? She never asked for this!
"And…" Fiona was scared to ask. "You're here for that too." she said it more like a statement than a question.
Felora shook her head. "I suppose from a certain perspective you could say that, but I don't need more mana capacity. You see…" She flashed a grin. "I'm a stolen soul too."