This is the first of six post-TLS stories (yes, the number has increased by one!) which I will be posting over the coming weeks. The plan is to post them on Wednesdays, but more info on that later. I hope people will enjoy these little stories. ^-^
I'm going to post them as direct text, the way I do chapters over at the Sarah Lin Patreon, but I can upload downloadable versions if people really want (such as epub). Maybe just at the end for a combined file.
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As Robin crossed the magic lab, her cane wobbled against the floor, forcing her to grip the orb at the top to remain steady. That grip made her fingers hurt more than it should have, and she needed to stop to lean against one of the tables and catch her breath.
Her elbow was aching and her back hurt, but she didn't want to think about those things. The reason she crossed the lab in the first place was to get back to the resonance crystal and check the latest mana capture rates. When her hands - so wrinkled compared to the smooth crystal - conducted the procedure, she smiled as she saw that her newest experiments had been successful.
Robin eased down into her chair, sighing as she did so, and began to tinker with the resonance crystal. Mana materials science had advanced so much since the days she had been enrolled in Stineford Thaumaturgical Academy, and there had been incredible breakthroughs even during her tenure.
Exactly what effect these would have on the real world... she had no idea. Maybe the new resonance crystals would improve the longevity of wards, but there was certainly no advantage in combat. Robin hummed a tune to herself as she adjusted her lenses on her nose and examined the crystalline structure in greater detail.
"Staying late again, headmistress?"
The voice startled her and Robin looked up to find a young woman peering from the door. Well, not so young... much older than Robin had been, when she had been torn away from the Academy years ago. Her standards for age had been skewing lately.
"I just want to run a few more experiments," Robin said. The young woman gave her a curtsy and headed out of the lab.
That curtsy had been so deep... Robin still wasn't used to people treating her with so much respect. Elsewhere she had been a veteran or master, but in Stineford she always felt like a student, which was part of why she had chosen it.
As Robin looked around, she realized that there were only two other people left in the lab, including a student who appeared to be desperately finishing a project for a due date tomorrow. Oh dear, that crystal was very likely to explode.
She decided to let him learn his own lesson, since he might not appreciate a lecture from an old woman, even the headmistress. There was a time when she had been a dynamic force in the politics of the school, trying to reform it into a better institution. But as she got older, that started to seem so tiring and she just wanted to stay in the lab with her little experiments.
After another test, Robin thought that the crystal was ideal, but the mana formation around it required modification to deal with the increased resonance. She performed the modification herself and smiled as it functioned, but knew that method wouldn't work for the average mage.
No, if she wanted to leave something for her colleagues, she needed a less ambitious spell formation. She would have to check the current magical standards, which were contained in one of the shelves across the room. Once it had been effortless to recall those details, but now they slipped away... she wasn't sure if her head was getting fuzzier or she was just tired of memorizing all the new standards. They seemed to change every other week, these days.
For a time Robin remained in her chair, considering whether she should ask someone for help. Stewarn had been a wonderful aide, but he was too bright to play assistant for much longer and she had set him up in his own lab. The new succubus-funded lab in the former slums was a real rival to the Thaumaturgical Academy these days, though she refused to give up the crown so long as she was headmistress. The new Academy was a far cry from the conservative institution she remembered from her youth.
As she gripped her cane and made her way across the room again, Robin considered whether she should have invested more study into book levitation. Riala did everything via levitation these days, but asking Riala felt like cheating. This place, this lab, this work... Robin had done it with her own hands.
Well, mostly her own hands. She hadn't refused help when the others showed up, be it Riala, Qum, or even Orilise at times. It had been months since she'd seen them, though, and Robin had to admit that she felt a little lonely.
The tip of her cane slipped against the stones and Robin fell to one knee with her head swimming. The floor under her hands... still the same smooth stones she remembered from her youth, maintained by spells, and yet...
"Are you okay, headmistress?"
"I'm fine." Robin felt a surge of irrational irritation at the young man's concern and wanted to push herself to her feet to disprove it. As she pulled herself upright with both hands braced on her cane, it took more effort than she wanted to admit. "You might want to check your lower spell formation."
"What are y- oh shit!" The young man saw the flaw and began panicking, forgetting about her as he thought about how much he'd need to recreate to get his project done. He was going to have a long night.
As Robin reached the bookshelf, she struggled to pull the thick book to the table. The reference texts seemed to be getting heavier with all the new standards, which were getting longer all the time. Some of that was due to magic becoming more advanced, but some was just additional regulations.
Looking over all the standards, Robin's vision blurred a little and she realized that she was too tired to deal with all these tedious details. She could figure out an easier spell formation for the new resonance crystals tomorrow, or maybe even give it to one of the young scholars who were always hungering to work with her.
After resting for a while, Robin left the lab and began to make her way carefully down the hallway to the headmistress's tower. The path seemed longer than it once had been, and that wasn't just because the Academy had expanded its grounds twenty years ago. Robin sighed and put together a spell formation to help her levitate back home, though even that wasn't as stable as it once might have been.
A few students going out for a night on the town - which was no longer forbidden - stared at her as if she was some sort of strange beast. Robin realized that she really was a rare sight these days, usually tucked away in her own rooms with private experiments.
When had she become so reclusive? As she floated to her tower, Robin reflected that it had started when the mages of her generation began to die of natural causes. Even someone like Rachila, who had never been a dear friend, felt like a severed connection. And the succubi working in the Academy weren't even those she remembered: this was an entirely new generation, even with increased succubus lifespans.
The magical defenses around Robin's room were by far the most powerful on the campus, allowing her to pass through smoothly but repelling all others. That was Tower-tier magic, the sort that she didn't work with so often anymore. Once inside, she breathed easier and even floated more fluidly about her rooms.
Years of accumulation made them more cluttered than she had expected, filled with papers and fascinating but unproductive little experiments. Yet none of it got in her way, and she was able to easily move to her sitting chair. Robin spent a while reading new papers, including a fascinating treatise on elemental ontology from Tak'Kan. She really needed to finishing writing up her response to that soon.
When her eyes grew tired, Robin went to make herself a cup of tea. She might normally have had a snack as well, but found that she wasn't so hungry. Instead she merely enjoyed the tea, not even returning to her papers. Sometimes these days she just sat and reflected on all the experiences of her life.
It had contained so much... though not everything. They had agreed that she could marry and have children if she wanted, but in the end Robin had never even dated. Her heart was too full with so many other relationships, or maybe she was just separated from everyone else by the weight of what she had experienced. She had found many partners in magic, but not in life.
More tired than she had expected, Robin shuffled to her bed in the other room. She removed the outer robes of her office, but couldn't be bothered to change into a nightgown. Instead she lay down in her under-robes and tucked herself in, trying to find a comfortable position.
It was more difficult than she expected, partially because she had a slight cough and mostly because her mind was racing with new ideas. She had an insight about the spell formation, and once she would have rushed back to the lab to try it. Now that felt like far, far too much effort.
Robin began to cough again, and this time it was more painful than expected, shaking her in the bed. She frowned at the distraction... and then he was there.
Simon sat beside her on the bed and gently took her hand in his. His fingers looked so strong and young compared to hers, yet the touch was electric and somehow simultaneously put her at ease so she could relax back into her bed. He didn't say anything, and he didn't need to.
"Is it time?" Robin asked.
"Yes," he told her. "Tonight in your sleep."
"I didn't think... I'm leaving so much half-finished." Robin closed her eyes, yet as she felt the warmth of his hand, it didn't seem to matter so much anymore. "What happens after?"
"Your story will be tied off just as you wanted." Simon rubbed the back of her hand lovingly, as if she wasn't so wretchedly old. "There will be a power vacuum and fights over your notes. You can get involved if you really want, but..."
"No, I've had a lifetime of academy politics. That's enough." Robin settled back, now at ease, yet strangely she wasn't sleepy. "I'm... glad that I did this. I was afraid I'd be young forever, but now I feel... more rounded."
"You're taking a step I never did," Simon said softly. "I only reached the beginnings of old age before I swerved into immortality, and I've never tried to live a full life."
"Oh, a lot of it is overrated." Robin chuckled as she realized that it didn't seem absurd for her to make a statement like that now. Once she had been one of the youngest in the group, yet the differences in their ages seemed trivial now.
They didn't talk much more than that, but Simon remained there, holding her hand. It had been a very long time since he'd helped her go to sleep, but it reminded her of warm memories from so long ago. She wondered if she would feel it, if there would be a final coughing fit or sudden pain, yet instead her mind grew dimmer and dimmer, as if falling into sleep...
Outside her window, she saw the shadow of Death waiting.
Then Robin opened her eyes in blinding light. She knew she was in one of the divine realms immediately from the way the air sang with mana, but what surprised her was how intensely her body resonated with it.
Yes, her body. Robin instinctively braced herself against the pain as she sat up, but the motion came incredibly easily. This wasn't the shell she had left behind in her room, it was the divine body that had been slumbering while she lived an entire life. She had gotten so used to her aches and pains that being in such a vibrant immortal body was downright shocking.
She had gone from a cramped and cluttered room to a chamber of divine light, but one thing hadn't changed: Simon remained beside her, seated on the altar where she lay.
"Ah..." Robin had meant to say something, but taking a breath somehow felt like more than enough. Simon gently brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. There was no need for words, at least not now. Perhaps later they would discuss everything, but for now she basked in the silence as the weight of memories settled around her.
"Simonette!" A pink blur exploded into the room and collided with her. Qum hugged her so fiercely that Robin expected her ribs to crack, but she wasn't in her aching old body anymore and it simply felt good to have the pink succubus squeezing her.
"It's okay, Qum," Robin said, stroking the other woman's hair. "I'm here."
"Simonette was so old!" Qum pulled back, staring at her with huge eyes. "Cumdump loves all Simonettes but old Simonette was so tired and wrinkly and needed gentle hugs! Sometimes Cumdump came to hug sleeping Simonette but she wasn't there but now she is there!"
"Yes, I'm back." Robin pulled her in for another hug, smiling over the mound of hair at Simon.
Qum and especially some of the other succubi were going to be hungry for her, and Robin found that she was looking forward to reuniting with everyone. Yet that wasn't her first priority, far from it. Her mind felt so much lighter than she had expected, and an old woman's thoughts were combining together in new forms that promised exciting new directions.
She had set down one set of experiments, but that just meant it was time to get to work.