Chapter 34 – Introspection

As it turned out, the keyword was “introspect,” which hadn’t even been within Lillia’s top ten guesses. Havoc chimed in with it as an option just as Lillia was getting to ‘display.’

“Introspect?” Lillia asked after the text in the mirror changed from short snippets to long explanations. “Why would it be introspect?”

“Beats me, kid,” Havoc said. He was still on the other side of the room, now attempting to climb into the pieces of Sir Nobody’s armor that Lillia had poured out of her inventory for him. “Just heard some adventurers say it upstairs.”

“Inspect, I’d get,” Lillia said, “but introspect?”

“What’s that even mean?”

“It means to look inside yourself,” Lillia answered. “Which kinda makes it make sense for looking into skills but—You’d figure it would be ‘inspect’ or something.”

“Guess so.” Havoc grunted. Something metal splashed. Havoc cursed.

“Wait, Havoc. You said you heard adventurers say it all the time. Is there a mirror in your room?”

“Of course not! Who would want a mirror in their room? They’re so easy to break.”

“Yeah. True.” Lillia lied. Of all the arguments worth having with Havoc, this didn’t seem like one of them. If someone couldn’t understand the inherent importance of checking their hair in the morning, then there was nothing worth talking to them about in terms of fashion.

“So did they have mirrors?” Lillia asked. She only asked the question aloud because they were already talking. If the adventurers had been in Havoc’s room with a mirror, that meant they would have had to bring a mirror in themselves.

Time for Lillia to find her way back to Rickshaw.

Assuming there was a way back. Resting would bring them to the Architect, and they did not have Vianaffir or any of the other weapons Lillia had earned. They had a rusty knife, some scraps, and whatever Havoc could do in borrowed armor.

Well, first it was time for some introspection. That was a possible solution.

“Introspect: Heiress’ Blessing”

The mirror housed the new wall of text. Lillia read out loud.

[Heiress’ Blessing – Support: Enhancement]

[The Princess designates a champion as she sees fit.]

[Once a party member or friendly creature has been marked as champion, they receive several benefits while they can see the Princess, the Princess can see them, or they are within [60] feet of the Princess. These effects last a short time.]

[When under the effects of Heiress’ Blessing, the champion gains immense bravery and any wounds received heal over time. The benefit of this healing effect grows greater if the Princess is injured, based on the degree of the injury.]

[If this ability is self-cast by the Princess, she temporarily receives the benefit of bravery, but no other effects.]

[The Princess can only have one champion at a time. The Princess can only have a champion if she is alive.]

“That last part is ominous,” Lillia said. During her explanation, Havoc had offered the occasional ‘uh huh’ but most of his responses had been grunting from struggling with the armor. “And how am I supposed to keep track of sixty feet?” Lillia asked.

“Come on. You know what sixty feet is, kid.”

“I can assure you I don’t.”

She heard Havoc get up. “You’re telling me, you don’t know how far that wall is?”

Lillia looked around to the three walls she could see. No, she didn’t know how many feet each of them was away. “I can’t see what wall you’re pointing at, Havoc.”

“This one,” Havoc said as he came around the corner. He hadn’t managed to get any of the upper half on yet, but he’d strung some of the lower plates from Sir Nobody’s armor together.

He didn’t look like a knight, but at least he was only indecent in the courtly manner.

Lillia checked the wall. “Twenty feet?”

“Thirty-five,” Havoc corrected. “Give or take a foot on either end.” Havoc adjusted the codpiece. “Don’t you royal types get educated?”

“Of course. I know how to measure something.”

“Then how far away is that wall?” He pointed at another one, behind Lillia.

“Twenty feet,” Lillia said without turning to look at it.

“That’s right.”

“Really?”

“Of course not,” Havoc said. “You ain’t gonna get better at this if you don’t try.”

Lillia sighed and turned back to the mirror. For the sake of decency, she’d wrapped the cloak around herself, but now it was a sopping wet reminder of the person who’d given it to her. She sneered at the lilac fabric. As her focus broke the text on the screen dismissed itself.

Lillia looked from the mirror to Havoc.

There was, technically, one very obvious way to find out what “champion” meant.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Hey Havoc?” Lillia asked.

“Yes?”

“I name you my champion.”

There was a brilliant flash around the hobgoblin. He jumped, sending several hastily strapped-on plates splashing back down into the shallows between pools. Once it cleared, Havoc was covered in a thin veil of rose-gold sparkles. He tried to rub them off. Lillia giggled.

So that was what happened when she named someone else her champion.

“Is that one of the abilities you were talking about?” Havoc asked. “Does it have to be this glittery?”

“I think it looks good!” Good was a stretch, but maybe better. At least it was somewhat of a fashion decision.

“Can you take…” Havoc checked both his arms and then held up a hand to stop Lillia from testing. “One second.”

“Okay wh—”

Havoc dragged his claws across his left arm. Blood spilled down into the pool.

Lillia shrieked. If she wasn’t already standing on one of the pools to look into the mirror, she would have fallen into one.

The wound on Havoc’s arm stitched itself shut, blood retreating back into his body. The hobgoblin frowned at the wound, lifted up his claw to strike again.

“No, don’t!” Lillia said. “Don’t do that again! It was awful. Stop. Stop.”

“Oh, come on, Lillia, you’ve seen enough of my blood,” Havoc said. He wound his arm back up, but stopped as Lillia started to struggle her way out of the pool, fighting both the weight of the cloak and the need to keep it wrapped around her as she extricated herself in the water.

“Don’t!” Lillia heaved herself onto the shore with all the grace of a lilac whale. “Didn’t it hurt the first time?”

“‘Course it hurt. I was bleedin’ like hell.” Havoc lowered his hand as he watched Lillia worm her way across the shallows.

“Then why would you do it?”

“Gotta know now when it’s safe. Right?”

“Why would you do it again?” Lillia pulled herself up, crushing chitin in her hand as she did. There were still tears in the chitterpede battle gown from her battle with Eisel.

“Measure twice, cut once.”

“Then cut once, Havoc!” Lillia said. “We only have so many lives to go around. I don’t want you getting sepsis and dying.”

“Sepsis?”