Broken Lands

Over the next week, Dav handled the sale of everything they’d gained from the Shard of Kestii and the Devouring Moss other than the Shard itself. Sophia was pretty certain she’d heard him talking about shillings, ducats, and bob, which didn’t make any sense at all even though she recognized them all as words for denominations of money. The important thing was that they had more than enough to restock the travel food they’d used up and even buy some of Aymini’s cheaper alchemical concoctions but not enough to buy any of the relatively scarce magical swords that existed in Fallen Kestii.

At least, not without trading away the Shard. It was apparently worth more than everything else they’d brought up combined, though that seemed to be because it was specifically a shard of Kestii.

Fallen Kestii was honestly pretty small; Sophia thought there were only a couple hundred people spread out across the half dozen buildings that were in use. Aymini and Vramt were the only people with Vocations in the building Dav and Sophia had stumbled into, which meant they were the two who handled its defense. While Aymini had shown them around the rest of the tiny pocket of people in a fallen city, Sophia didn't feel like she knew any of the other buildings well yet and she only barely knew the people in her own building.

Sophia had also learned some things about Dav. While they were in the storm sewer dragging the sled, Sophia hadn’t done any exercise or practice since she hadn’t had the energy to spare. The first morning after they arrived in Fallen Kestii, she could feel the lack of practice. It didn’t show all that strongly, but it was obvious that she’d skipped a day. It happened every time she went on a multi-day delve, so it wasn’t that surprising.

Sophia was debating cutting her physical practice short and moving on to mana control exercises since she didn’t have any other weapons to work with when Dav emerged from the building. He nodded at her and started with a run. Sophia did some basic exercises for speed instead of control and kept an eye on him as he moved from simple exercise into weapons work.

It was clear from his movements and from the fact that he hadn’t said anything that he was used to practicing alone; that was useful right now since there didn’t seem to be that many people to practice with; other than Sophia and Dav, the courtyard was empty. Even the creepum bodies were gone.

After the first few, she got tired of watching katas, or whatever Dav called them. She was also essentially done with her practice for the day, at least for this exercise. Sophia stood and walked close enough to be clear that she was trying to get his attention but not close enough to interfere or interrupt his obvious concentration.

When he finished the sequence, Dav turned towards Sophia. “Do we need to head inside?”

Sophia shook her head. It was funny that that was the question he had; it was like sparring hadn’t occurred to him. “No, I thought we might practice together for a bit. With the shield and your beacon, we’ll have to be careful but we should be able to have a good spar, even with sharp weapons.”

Dav’s surprise quickly morphed into a fierce grin. “Sounds like fun. I’ll try not to break the shield. Do you want to start off slow or full speed?”

The spar was fun and over the course of the week, it became a regular part of their morning routine. Sophia looked forward to it. It helped rebuild her confidence in her training, as well; while Dav was both taller and stronger than she was and his weapon had more reach, he wasn’t half as tricky as the people who taught Sophia and he was a bit slower as well.

Sophia was competent with his sword when they swapped weapons, but Dav tried to use the knife like a sword. It was clear he’d only ever trained with longer weapons and needed some additional instruction. That seemed odd to Sophia; didn’t everyone learn how to use a knife?

No one inside Fallen Kestii seemed aware of the duo’s practice sessions until the third day, when they continued a little longer than the first two days and Aymini caught them in the middle of their spar. She didn’t say anything about it; she invited them to breakfast and headed back inside. Sophia noticed that either Aymini or Vramt showed up to watch for a few minutes each morning after that.

It wasn’t until the eighth morning that Aymini happened to come outside while Sophia was practicing spell control. She had a half-dozen tiny balls of mana-fueled light that she was moving in complex patterns. It wasn’t an illusion or a Light-affinity spell, but leaking light was easy and it let her track the spells without her ManaSight Skill more easily. They were tiny pinpoints of light rather than real lights, but that was all she needed.

Aymini paled and stopped in her tracks, then quickly closed the door to the warded area. “Sophia, hold very still. Glowstings are attracted to movement.”

Sophia froze. Aymini sounded serious. It took Sophia a moment to connect that Aymini might be referring to the lights she was using to track her manaflows. If she didn’t, then whatever Aymini was worried about was probably attracted to the mana; she probably should have asked before practicing outside the wards, but no one had mentioned anything more dangerous than creepums and devouring moss that often got close to Fallen Kestii. She carefully let the incomplete spellform fade, which meant the lights went as well.

Even after it was gone, Sophia didn’t move. For all that there was a good chance Aymini meant the spellform’s light, she might not.

Aymini took the time to search the area quickly before she relaxed a little. “They’ve gone; I didn’t see them leave.”

“Do you mean the lights that were in front of me?” Sophia guessed that she could probably move again.

Aymini nodded sharply. “I haven’t seen so many glowstings here at this time of year before. I hope there isn’t a nest nearby.”

Sophia shook her head. “That wasn’t glowstings. It’s a mana control exercise. I was using the light to track the manaflows more easily. If it worries you, I can keep them dark in the future.”

“Mana control exercise.” Aymini’s words were flat before she sighed and shook her head. “That would probably be best, it looked exactly like glowstings. That’s not why I came out here; I know it’s a bit earlier than usual, but you two should come on in and get breakfast. Revina wants to head into the central part of the city and search for blowshrooms today. She usually just goes with Vramt, but he’s doing something with that managlass you had.”

The butterfly’s glass wings were surprisingly valuable, as it turned out; Vramt wasn’t the only person who bought some of it. No one wanted all that much of it, but they still ran out of glass before they ran out of interested people.

Sophia frowned at Aymini, then turned to Dav and quietly asked, “Do you know who Revina is? I can’t remember her.”

Dav shook his head. “I think I’ve heard the name, but all I can say for sure is that she didn’t buy anything from us.”

A young woman was seated at the table Dav and Sophia usually shared with Aymini and Vramt when they walked into the main hall. She had breakfast in front of her, but she ignored it in favor of staring at the giant wardstone that hung above her. That had to be Revina.

Revina was young, probably in her late teens or maybe early twenties. That was as close as Sophia could manage to guess, because she had gray hair and it threw off any attempt Sophia made to guess her actual age. Between the hair color and the fact that her ears had an odd bronze-like fin extending from their rear, it was clear that she was Warped, like everyone else in Fallen Kestii. Unlike some of the Warps, hers definitely didn’t detract from her appearance.

“Revina!” Aymini smacked the table when she reached it. “Eat! You’ll need to tell these two what you want to do in the city. You can’t just expect them to go along with you because you asked the way Vramt usually does; convince them.”

Revins jumped in her chair at the noise, then flushed. “Yes, Aunt Aymini.”

“I’m still not your aunt,” Aymini grumbled. “Get started eating while we get food.”

Sophia saw Revina wink at her and Dav as they walked away. She wondered why she hadn’t met the girl before; she seemed pretty memorable, so Sophia was confident she hadn’t forgotten her.

The first few minutes after they got back to the table were filled with eating, but Revina finished well ahead of Dav and Sophia. She looked back and forth between the two of them for a solid minute, apparently unsure of how to start, before Sophia took pity on her. “You’re Revina? I’m Sophia and this is Dav.”

Revina nodded. “I knew you had to be, Father mentioned you two and you’re pretty unique even for Fallen Kestii.”

“Father?” Dav didn’t say more than the single word, but it was still clear what he was asking.

Revina nodded. “You’ve met him; Vramt is my father.” She paused and grinned mischievously. “That’s why Aunt Aymini is my aunt, of course.”

“I am not,” Aymini grumbled. “Vramt isn’t my brother.”

Revina snorted. “You were on the same Team since you were kids. Would you rather I called you Mom?”

Aymini shook her head. “No.”

“There, see? Aunt Aymini. Anyway, you two.” Revina turned towards Dav, then Sophia. “I don’t know how much Aunt Aymini-”

“Still not your aunt,” Aymini muttered.

Revina ignored Aymini’s interjection. “-told you, but I don’t have a Sphere yet. I’m too young for a Profession, and I don’t want one yet anyway, even if Aunt Aymini keeps telling me it would be safer.” She shot a quick glare at Aymini, but even Sophia could see that Revina was more amused than actually upset. “I want some kind of combat magic, but this isn’t exactly a Spell Tower, so I have to do what I can, which means following in Dad’s footsteps and heading towards some kind of elemental magic.”

Sophia nodded. The only real question she had so far was what a Spell Tower was, but she could ask that later.

“Stone doesn’t speak to me the way air does, so that’s what I’m going after, wind magic. That means I have to experience all sorts of wind and keep as many kinds with me as possible all the time. Blowshrooms are the best option for that. I have to go out and get new ones pretty often. Father usually goes with me, but today he’s busy with some glass; he thinks he can add glass as a stone subtype if he studies enough of it, and he’s close to the Dedication. He’d go if I asked, but I don’t want to interrupt him.” Revina looked at the table and whispered to herself. “He’s excited about the glass.”

“The edges of the inner city, where the blowshroom is found, are fairly safe but no one goes out alone.” Aymini sounded impatient. “I could go with Revina and leave you two here covering the door, but I thought you two might like to see more than this building. If you two can handle Devouring Moss, you can handle anything you’re likely to find nearby. What do you say? Do you want to watch out for Revina or stay here and watch the door?”