62 The Return - Part 3

Before long, they were camping out and having lunch. It was a simple affair, mostly consisting of the fruit they had got, along with some staple camping rations like hardtack. They then finished this off with a few swigs of their waterskins and then packed up. They would have to try their hand at some hunting sometime to liven up the meals.

Once they were all ready, they headed off towards the Lamia village, which wasn't too far from where they had gotten to. Then, as they passed from the last line of trees, she was treated to the same sight she had seen previously.

The wasteland that the village had become.

Looking over at Sylvia she could see the look on her face, which was a mix of horror and astonishment. It was unlikely she had ever seen an abandoned village, especially not one where it was possible that all the inhabitants had been killed in it. So it was right that she was shocked at the sight.

"It's, it's…"

"I know"

Without further adieu, they then headed down…back into the village Octavia was 'born' in.

…

After a short trek, they reached the village, if you could still call it that. The ruins were as they were before when Octavia had visited, and like before, it looked like no one had been there since then. It made sense as unless you knew the village was here, it was highly unlikely you could find it. It was just in a random spot within the forest. There were no longer any paths leading to it, them having been reclaimed by nature since the village was around, and with it being abandoned and removed from the history books, it wasn't on any maps. As far as she knew. So, you would have to venture deep into the forest in a random direction and unexpectedly stumble upon it. And who would do that?

The only people that actually lived in a forest were bandits, and they generally stayed close to paths between villages and towns as a way to earn an income…robbing people that is. Travellers only travelled along paths and roads, and hunters wouldn't stray too far from towns and villages either.

So, like before it was devoid of life aside from the birds flying by and the odd creatures running about. And while Octavia had no real connection to the people who lived here, the sight did bring a bout of sadness. But really that was true for most people when you saw such a desolate sight.

Which is why Octavia was a little surprised when Sylvia said.

"It's beautiful."

"What. How. It's a ruined village where many Lamias used to live and probably died in, how is it beautiful."

"I don't mean it like that…not in some macabre sense. It's horrible what happened, but I mean this is my first time seeing a Lamia village. Even though it's all ruins you can see what it would have looked like before. It's just astonishing."

Octavia could kind of see that. It probably added more to the feeling when your mother spent a good portion of their life studying the race, and probably told their daughter what she learnt. For her to finally see a place where Lamia used to live and not just have heard about it from her mother, it probably was beautiful in a way.

"So, my mother found you here?"

"Ah, yes. Come, I'll show you where it was."

Heading over to the town centre or village hall building, she still had no clue what it was specifically, she showed Sylvia where her egg had been.

"This is so strange. Why was your egg here? How did it survive all this time? Could other Lamias have left it here?"

As she heard this, Octavia realised she was getting into a difficult subject. Even more so when she turned to look at her as if she was looking for some kind of answer, or at least Octavia's thoughts on the subject.

So far, she had only told Sylvia the same thing she had told everyone else. That she came from an egg, and that was that. She had said nothing about her transmigration, feeling that could just lead to problems. They may ask her about Earth and the technology from there and such. She also had this fear, which she probably picked up from a film, of people kidnapping her and forcing her to reveal all the secrets from Earth so they could jump-start the technology in their kingdom and wage war on others. It was a bit of a leap, but not out of the realms of possibility.

But, with the look on Sylvia's face and her newfound goal in order to continue the journey her mother would have followed, she realised it may be time to tell her the truth. And to be honest, given everything they had been through, she couldn't think of anyone else she would probably tell aside from her.

…

She spent a good long while telling her all about herself. She spoke of Earth, how she got caught up with the goddess Prisma, her near death and her transmigration. She even got to the oddity of the symbol the men that had been hunting her had to one of the weapons on Earth.

Sylvia had been listening with rapt attention, not saying anything as she told her about her story. Octavia was sure she would think she was some sort of lunatic, but so far, she had done nothing of the sort. Eventually, she came to the end of the tale and just waited to see what Sylvia would say.

"…"

"Wow."

Short and simple.

"I mean, wow."

After she got over the astonishment of it all, she then decided to ask her questions, which Octavia answered as honestly as she could.

She asked her about what it was like on Earth, more about what happened when she woke up from her egg, about Prisma and the other god after her, and then she got onto Lamia's in general.

"So, you were a human originally, and it was because of Prisma's venom that you became a Lamia in this world."

"Yeah. I'm as clueless about Lamias as anyone else really. You probably know more about them than me. Well, aside from what I learnt in the trial probably."

"Trial?"

"Let me show you. Well, sort of show you."

Getting up they headed out of the building and into what could have been a rudimentary road or path back when the village was present. Past a few more of what could have been houses they ended up in front of the behemoth of a building. The building was a cross between a church and a castle. The building where she had taken her trial in.

It was still visible to her. When she first arrived, it was like she hadn't or couldn't notice it. Why that was the case she didn't know. It might have been the magic of the building seeing her as a human still or something. She would probably never know for sure. But as she had explored the village, it suddenly appeared. When she had completed the trial, the building was still there, but she had been unable to open the door.

All of that was still the same, as she could clearly see the building, but when she went to try and open the door and failed to do so, Sylvia raised some concern.

"What are you doing? You know there isn't anything here right."

It would seem that whatever magic it was that affected this building was still working, and for Sylvia, it looked like there was just an empty area in front of them.

"What do you see in front of us?"

"Huh, well it's just a large area of dirt. Likely would have been a market square or something." Sylvia replied with confusion. She couldn't understand why Octavia was asking about something she herself could see as well.

"Okay, just humour me. Walk into that square. Just…put your hands out and do it slowly."

"Err, okay." So she held her hands out and started to walk, "I don't see what you are getting at he-"

Then she stopped.

She could feel something in front of her, even though it was just an empty space.

"What the?"

To Sylvia, she was pushing forward and pressing against some invisible barrier, but to Octavia, she could see her pushing against the oak-looking doors.

"Is this some kind of magic barrier?" Sylvia asked as she tried to feel around.

"Not quite. This empty space is actually a building. I think, however, it's invisible to everyone that isn't a Lamia."

"That's incredible. Lamia's had that sort of magic." Sylvia said with a look of astonishment.

"I take it invisibility is rare then."

"Not really. People can learn how to make themselves or others invisible, and there are also potions that do it too. What I mean is how they are able to do it on such a scale, and so that it affects specific races. I have not seen anything like that before. And for it to still be working even now. That is amazing."

She looked up in thought for a moment and an odd look came over her face. But when Octavia saw her take out her mother's journal as well as a quill and ink pot out of her bag she realised what it was.

Learning about it was one thing, but she really needed to record all that she was learning about Lamias lest she ends up forgetting…or something worse happens. She had her mother's journal, but while it felt right to continue her notes on Lamias in the journal, a part of her also felt it would be wrong to write inside it given it was an item of her mother's and should be kept as it is.

She thought for a while, but eventually, she decided to write inside it. She said that with her mother's dedication to learning about Lamias, she could see her mother wanting her work to be completed rather than leave her notes gathering dust.

"Have you been in the building?"

"Yes. It was a…it housed a trial to complete."

Octavia spoke about her time in the trail building and all that she had faced. She also spoke of what she had received at the end, and that there were more out there in other villages.

"We have to find them." Sylvia said with a look of anticipation, "Did you learn where the next one is from the trial?"

"No. That's the hard part, actually finding them. It told me nothing about where the other villages are. I thought I could find some information in Caldaria, but Lord Desmon only had information on some abandoned villages, which may help, and from my time in the library, I only found one book that referenced Lamias. It was mostly all rubbish, but there was one part about the 'invisible building' and how its door pointed to another village. That's all we have to go on."

Octavia told her that the door was right in front of them, so turning around they looked to see where it was pointing.

"Okay. We came from that direction. Do you know where Caldaria is?" Sylvia asked.

Octavia looked around, trying to remember the direction she went after completing the trial. As she did, she could see the faintest tip of a spire from the castle between a couple of trees in the direction she could recall.

"I travelled that way, and then found the bandit camp,"

"When you found me, we weren't that far from the road that led to the front entrance. So, if we head in that direction," she said pointing where the door was facing, "we would be heading towards the Elven kingdom. There are several villages and a few more towns in that general direction between here and there, as well as a lot more forest."

As they determined all of this, it was clear to see they had a long road ahead of them. With only a direction to travel, it might be a while before they find the next village. Who knows it could also end up being deep within the Elven Kingdom.

As they thought about this, Octavia suddenly realised they had the map of abandoned villages. So, taking that out, they tried to match up the line with any of the villages. After a little bit of fiddling around.

They managed to find one.