Fractured God

The two women were enjoying some tea together with muffins on the side. From how expressive their faces were, anyone could tell this wasn't a common occurrence for them.

Unlike their usual tea, which was made from various herbs collected from occasional walks in the forest, this stuff was the real deal. It came from a real tea farm, it actually gave the drinker a boost of energy and it went well with milk, unlike the herbal stuff.

And while the muffins were plain, the fact they had soft, freshly baked, cakey muffins in front of them, instead of having to settle for stale bread or even hardtack was something they thanked the skies above for.

How were they able to pay for these (without cursing their terrible financial decisions the next day) instead of dining the usual lunch of bland biscuits and herbal tea? Well, it was thanks to the money their newest member got doing a little public event. Why was it not in his hands? Well, you see…

"Here's how much we got for your little spar session today," Elizabeth said as she handed Tibaut a small pouch of gold.

"What'd we even do to get this money?"

"You wouldn't know it but there was an entrance fee to even watch your little spar session."

"Are people really that entertainment starved here?"

"Yes." She responded almost immediately.

"How much is this anyway" he asked while fondling the bag.

"Enough for a good meal."

"Could you be a bit more specific?"

Elizabeth then clicked her tongue, annoyed and responded "About 4 meals at any local tavern."

Upon hearing that Tibaut handed her back the money. Elizabeth looked at him confused. His eyes looked dead.

"Why are you handing this back?" She asked, confused.

"It's just that" he paused for a second and looked to the sky "Putting in all that effort and earning less than a prostitute probably does for moving her hand for a few minutes makes me feel a bit hollow inside." He said before slowly walking away.

"(Wait shit, I should have asked her about how much a world map costs. Eh, screw it, given the type of world this is, it's probably expensive as hell.)" He thought having already walked outside of her sight.

Elizabeth looked at him as he walked away. She shook her head and thought to herself "It really has been a while since I've met someone as crass as him. Well, at least I can buy some treats on the way home." Before jetting off to the nearest pastry shop.

"So why'd he suddenly give up when that knife hit him?" Vanessa asked with a few crumbs on her face.

"Because he's an idiot," Elizabeth responded plainly while sipping on her tea. "Honestly, what kind of idiot accepts their enemy's terms so easily?"

"Oh, you're kinda starting to sound mad, Liz." Vanessa said while gulping down the hot tea like a cup of water.

Elizabeth gave her a bit of a stink eye before dropping a familiar claymore on the table and telling her "By the way, Ezekiel's paying you to sharpen up his sword. Get to it."

Vanessa then began to pick up muffins before being stopped by Elizabeth's hand.

"What are you doing?" Elizabeth asked, looking as if she was contemplating breaking the small woman's hand.

"I'm taking some later you idiot, what else does it look like." She responded while desperately trying to break Elizabeth's grip on her (To no avail sadly).

"You've eaten more than enough you old hag."

Tired of taking this disrespect, Vanessa did what she thought at the moment was a good idea. Biting Elizabeth's hand. While this did free her, the look on Elizabeth's face told her that getting a hand broken might have been a better option.

Tibaut was currently outside the mansion standing still and doing nothing. To the untrained, it may have seemed like he was doing nothing. However, to a trained eye, it'd also seem like he was doing nothing. However, in his mind, he thought he was making progress trying to release his own mana.

He saw how Elizabeth looked about as natural as she normally was when she was doing it. Is it some sort of state of mind or did it work like magic? While he was trying to figure out how to do it he was interrupted by the sound of two women familiar to him shouting, followed by the sound of running.

("What the hell's going inside there") he thought as he was walking to the sound of the noise. Suddenly Vanessa slammed the doors open, threw a muffin at Tibaut and kept running. Elizabeth almost immediately followed, however, she got distracted when she saw Tibaut with one of the muffins. Tibaut then made an awkward smile while he waved at her.

"So about that mana thi-" He tried to ask.

"Where did she go!?" She said, nay ordered him to spit out.

"I wasn't really paying attention.

So anyway, could you help me out here."

"Tch" She clicked her tongue looking and realising Vanessa was nowhere in sight. "Alright, what is it?" She responded with a lightened tone realising she could tortu-, teach Vanessa a lesson later. Elizabeth started to fix her hair while waiting on Tibaut's response.

"Can you show me how to do that mana thing?" He asked.

"Have you read the defensive magic book yet?"

"No, why's that important?"

Elizabeth sighed. "It's literally the first thing you learn from that book. Well, whatever, it's only one sentence anyway and most skip over it by accident."

"One sentence?" he thought. How would one sentence allow him to do it?

"Alright so imagine making a spell but don't finish it."

Surely it couldn't be that easy. So he tried it. And the air around him felt quite odd. He felt like the dry air around him had been substituted with the humid air of a jungle. Just like Elizabeth did back to the tent.

It was that easy.