Rules of Biomancy: A LitRPG Healer Fantasy

“Very perceptive, Elijah, I’ll have to give you that. Not to the level of my father, neither of us can approach his experience, but you noticed what others before you couldn’t,” Vera replied. She rolled up her left sleeve, revealing an armband that sat snugly against her skin. It looked rather mundane, the same coloring as her skin, but the sigils that had been put onto the surface with silver spoke of something more. “This was my mother’s, a piece she always wore. A good excuse for me to never take it off either, as it allows me to hide much easier.”

The multiple straps holding it securely in place were removed, the cloth was pulled off the arm, and Elijah was allowed to see the blood-red Aura that now filled up the room.

The legendary Queen of Fire hadn’t only had one child with the gift of magic. She’d had two, both likely to equal her strength in due time.

“Quite the trinket, if it can hide this so well,” Elijah commented, going through his memories for anything that could fit this coloring. It had to be one of the conceptual affinities, something to force others to bend. Not a direct manipulation, however, as he would’ve already been controlled if that was the case. No… it had to be something more indirect. “A fan of the Fae, I'm guessing?”

She smiled. His guess had been spot-on.

“A Leximancer, the second-worst Affinity to ever grace this world with its presence,” Elijah concluded. The Affinity in the first place was, as one would’ve guessed, the born abilities of the Fae. That magical race of creatures, while able to make drinks to die for, were known for their tricks and wordplay. To verbally agree to the wrong thing, even if it sounded completely normal at the time, could be the difference between life and death. It was why the tradition of treating Fae with complete silence had started up since even a single word could ruin a person’s life. “Instead of trapping people within a conversation, you do it through the written word.”

“Does it really count as a trap, when people know what they sign?” Vera questioned, reaching a hand into the empty air. In a flash of blood-red fire, a paper appeared within her grasp, one that she handed over to him. “I have a proposal for you, Elijah. One you might want to consider.”

He took the contract from her, grimacing as he saw the glowing letters on the paper. The rhythmic beating of the glowing Mana within made his muscles tense, yet he continued with his reading of the words. It was… a terrible thing.

“You require my complete silence regarding your ability, I can’t betray you, I can’t help others do the act themselves, and I can’t willingly poison your father,” Elijah summarized. There were some other parts, including Vera being able to force his hand if she needed it, and that Elijah would prioritize her and Harper’s life over his own. “You ask me for permanent servitude.”

“Oh, it’s not permanent,” Vera objected. “It’s just until you die. Anything after is your making.”

A joke.

She laughed.

He didn’t, just staring at her as she looked at him without a care in the world. The Princess hadn’t shown this for no reason. Was it because she believed he would be forced to sign it? The implication for the off-chance that he didn’t was his death, along with that of the others, but what would he prefer? To be a slave and live or to be free and die?

I’d rather stand.

“While I would be under your control once I signed this, I am still a free man before that,” Elijah said, putting both hands on the side of the paper before tearing the contract in half. Incredible amounts of Mana flowed out of the letters at that, to the point where he had to shut his eyes for a second while the others looked on unamused. “No deal. I don’t bargain with devils.”

“Even when you know the outcome of that refusal would be your death?” Vera asked in a calm voice. Even Elijah couldn’t detect any traces of fear in her voice. She thought she had him cornered.

But he knew better.

“You think I don’t know where I sit?” he countered. “You proclaim you do so much in the name of keeping your father alive, and yet you try to chain the hand of the Healer keeping him that way? You might be able to find a replacement for the position if given a few months, but until then I am a vital figure in keeping the King’s health stable.”

“The assistants could make it work.”

“If you trusted that, if they trusted that, I wouldn’t be here to begin with.”

…

A tense silence between them, one that allowed Elijah to notice the slight flicker in their appearance. It was subtle, almost seeming like a trick of the light, but he could see it when their forms calmed and their faces became too normal. Their actions seemed to make too much sense to his sight, too real to be real.

“Fine,” Vera relented, hands up in surrender. “You’ve beaten me in this. Your life will be your own, as you’ve made it clear you’ll let my father die before you let others give you orders.”

“I’ve taken many orders in the past,” Elijah replied. “I’d rather not be in that position again.”

“Yet here you are, working in the castle and following our orders.”

“I follow them until they no longer fit my ideals.”

“That’s treason, you know. Could have you hanged for that.”

“And I could assure your death before either of us could flee this room.”

Vera’s eyes widened at that promise before she chuckled once again.

“You think you can kill me here and now?” she questioned, not looking like she’d believed him. “Is it because of the ring that Alin gave you? If so, I welcome you to try it. Ignoring you haven’t attuned it to you, the effects can take a full ten seconds to be unleashed, and long before that you will have already fallen.”

“Because you’re not sitting at the table and your friend has a knife to my throat?”

The illusion of the princess and her assistant faded away a second later, the true figures being revealed by his side. Vera stood to his right, wand in hand as she pointed it towards his chest, and Harper was to his left with her blade almost pressed against his throat. Even just a breath too deep would have his jugular pierced.

“Yet again, you surprise me,” Vera commented. “How did you spot it this time?”

“You’ve practiced for many hours,” Elijah replied without fear of the knife that was ready to kill him at a moment’s notice. “Several weeks' worth of practice perhaps, though it doesn’t matter. You’ve gotten too good at it. The movements are too real, too fluid, too fitting for her. Everything you can expect her to do, she will do.”

Too open, as if the person behind the movements was looking from outside as well. An imitation of the surface while ignoring all the inner workings that made the final reactions happen.

“Maybe you’re closer to my father than I gave you credit for,” the Princess said, her wand still pointed his way as she moved to sit back down on the chair from before. Harper didn’t move from her spot, though she did lower her knife just a little. “While I am mildly interested in how you think you would be able to kill me, I am not willing to see it for myself just yet. Especially not when we both still have things to do, things that… align in some ways.”

He looked at her with disappointment clear in his face, while she looked a little sheepish at what she was going to suggest. Was there truly so little shame in that princess?

“Would you consider being allies in the next few months?”

“You think I would trust the person willing to kill me on a whim?”

“Don’t act like you wouldn’t do the same.”

…

“What are you proposing exactly?”

“You have two enigmas that you’re hiding from somebody, somebody that has an abnormal level of reach within the leadership of this country and this city,” Vera expanded. “The amount of attempts on my father’s life has increased in recent times, some getting closer and closer to succeeding. Whatever is happening, I am starting to think it all might be related. That a Royal Mage could be found dead without a word reaching my ears means that it is covered by somebody who is a threat to everything I’ve worked to preserve.”

“And the fact that they’re so desperate to regain those two, pulled in from another world, means that they’re connected to something very terrible,” Elijah added, the princess nodding at his words. “And because of that, you think it fair that we combine our efforts to keep them protected, as the opposite could spell disaster?”

“That’s right.”

…

She was making a fair assumption, thinking that many of the things of the major events were being caused by one group. Elijah had started considering the same thing, already wondering who would want the King dead the most. A foreign country perhaps? Somebody willing to sell everybody else out for a slice of the power that would be gained in the aftermath? Somebody with a personal vendetta? It all required a position of power already, along with enough reach to make it all happen in the shadows.

Yet to gain that level of influence already, it required somebody in the upper echelons to be behind so much of it, and, while Elijah thought very little of the people here, most were at least loyal to the cause. Loyal enough to stand by the Royals for many decades.

A problem that he couldn’t figure out. A problem that Vera had spent years on while being as far along with it as him.

If allowed to fester, it’ll hurt us more than it’ll help.

“I have no trust that you won’t kill me in the future,” Elijah finally said. Vera didn’t deny that fact. “And you have no trust I won’t kill you either.”

“It’s a very real possibility, with all the threats I have made against you,” she agreed, not even mentioning that the simple fact that she knew made her a liability. While Elijah did like to think he trusted others, that was only reserved for those he’d known for decades. Here, he was sure that she would sell him out if the action ever proved more worthwhile than keeping him around. “But you have also made plenty of threats against me, so it does even out. In this aspect, we’re on equal footing.”

“Not in the slightest,” Elijah countered. She didn’t deny it. “Allies it is.”

They didn’t shake on that agreement, yet it held true regardless. For now, they would help each other.

Leaving the room behind and being escorted to the laboratory, however, they found a giant walking the same way in a hurry.

Aleksi?