Broken Lands

“Exactly what you need? That’s great news!” Revina grinned at her father. He’d been searching for a new material for years. “Does that mean you’re going to be looking at Leveling again soon?”

Vramt shook his head. “I doubt it. It’s more likely it’ll open up a new Shaping tree, and you know what that means.”

“Yeah.” Revina rolled her eyes. She did know what it meant; it meant months of practice and probably a year or two of wisp dedication. “At least there’s no new Ability chain?”

Vramt shrugged, then winked at his daughter. “If there is, I shouldn’t need to buy new Slots. If the glass does what I think it will, it should let me unslot the Spike and Melt chains. I don’t use Melt that often, so relying on glass’s innate potential should be enough. I don’t want to get ahead of my planning; the new tree will be plenty to absorb all the wisps I’ve managed to gather in the past two years. That’s enough about me, though; I’m an old man and almost done with my journey. What about you?”

Revina suppressed her inclination to snort. Her father wasn’t old; he just said that, the same way he had for years. “I’m working on it. I think another half-dozen blowshrooms will let me finally call a wind spirit to bond with; I have the air-aspected nightshimmer to use as a base this time. While you’re working on the managlass shaping, I’ll head over to the Deryns’ place. Vyk and Reba are planning another hunt, since we’re getting low on beastalow meat. They want to take a Ruins Constrictor this time; there’s one a little ways in towards the city center and they don’t want it to establish a Nest.”

“A Ruins Constrictor?” Aymini spoke over Vramt’s nod. “I assume it’s near where you want to search for blowshrooms?”

Revina nodded. That was why she’d been talking to the Deryns about it, after all. Vyk Deryn wasn’t that interested in Ruins Constrictor meat, but meat was meat and he loved to hunt. They might both be Professionals, but the Deryns managed to keep their building safe without a proper Vocation; they knew the value of stopping a threat before it became a danger.

“Those are usually pretty weak if they haven’t formed a Nest,” Aymini mused. “All you have to do is see them before they see you, and I know you can do that. I have a better idea. Why don’t you ask Sophia and Dav? They’re strong enough to handle a Devouring Moss, so they should be able to handle a Ruins Constrictor with no problem. They’ll get more out of it than the Deryns and more importantly you’ll get to spend time with them and see if they’re suited for your initial party.”

“They’re nobles,” Revina protested. She’d avoided them; every experience she’d ever had with noble youth was terrible. It was far too obvious she was Warped. Both of her parents had dark skin and she was not only pale but slightly gray-skinned. Her hair didn’t help. “They’ll never agree to help someone like me.”

Aunt Aymini shook her head. “They’re nobles, yes, but they’re also Warped. More importantly, I think they grew up in the kind of community we’re trying to build, a place where Warped people are accepted. They don’t treat me like a child and their reaction to Lorisel was awe at his cooking; I don’t think they even noticed that he has stripes.”

Revina turned to her father for support; after all, he didn’t like nobles either.

Vramt shook his head. “Talk to them. I’m not as sure as Aymini that they’re nobles, I think they may be raised by Vocational families the same as you, but it doesn’t matter. Rank stops at the door, you know that.”

Revina nodded; she knew the quote, she’d just never seen it in action outside her own home, back in the days before they fled to create Fallen Kestii. “You really think they’d respect that?”

Revina’s father grinned at her. “Honestly? I think they’re both as uncomfortable with hierarchy as you are. It wouldn’t hurt to talk to both of them about magic; neither seems to be primarily a spell user the way you should be, but they may have some family techniques they’d be willing to share. More than that, they’re worth a tryout because there really aren’t any other options; no one else in Fallen Kestii is trying to get a Vocation. They got their Vocation alone and recently, so they can help you through a Vocation-granting Feat if we can find one.”

Vramt’s expression grew serious. “With that said, be careful. Feats like that grant Vocations because they’re dangerous; if the Ruins Constrictor turns out to be from a Nest, don’t just jump into it. Talk it over with the rest of your party. They won’t know as much about the snakes as you do. If it looks too dangerous, back off; we can keep looking for a new Feat.”

Revina rolled her eyes. She knew she was lucky her father supported her effort to gain a Vocation, but she wasn’t a child. She was twenty-one; she’d been old enough for a Vocation for years! Did he have to repeat that every time he mentioned the Feat? “Yes, Dad. I know.”

Sophia glanced at Dav. “I’m up for it. You?”

“Definitely,” Dav stated with a grin. “Anything that lets us get out of here and get moving. I … this place is nice enough but I’m not ready to settle down, you know?”

That was a bit more than Sophia meant, but he wasn’t wrong. She was also ready to move on. The people of Fallen Kestii were nice enough, but she was definitely starting to feel cooped up. “I don’t think escorting Revina is the first step in leaving, but I don’t have any idea where we’d go, so I haven’t been in a hurry. I don’t see any reason we can’t stay a little longer. The only thing we really need to do here before we leave is figure out what to trade for the Shard we found, and that’s not something we’re going to decide by staying inside.”

“There are a lot of places you could go,” Revina offered. “It depends on what you want. We’re not close to much here; that’s why Fallen Kestii is safe, but it’s also why there aren’t that many people here. We need more people to expand the farms and maybe someone to raise some meat animals, but without a nexus there’s not much point in that.”

“Unless there are enough people with Vocations to guard the place,” Aymini countered. “Not that that’s likely to happen here soon; maybe if there’s another Warped War, but I’d rather we stay small. Most likely, we’ll collect enough Shards to crystallize a new Nexus before we have enough people to manage without one.”

Revina waved her hand in the air. “Let’s talk about the trip instead of the far future. I need blowshrooms. If I can get my hands on some Dancing Feathers or Solid Clouds, that would be great; Driftweed might also work. Anything that has air or wind-related mana that I haven’t already used would be even better. I know where to find blowshrooms but the rest is more a matter of being lucky than anything else. There aren’t any Air-aspected zones nearby so I need to make one, even a bad one, to be sure I’ll be offered the Vocation I want. As long as it’s in the family, I can make it work. That means we’ll probably be going all over the near city, as far as we can get today.”

Revina glanced at both Sophia and Dav. Whatever she saw seemed to satisfy her. “It won’t be free of danger, especially not if we go without anyone else. Vyk Deryn is planning to hunt a Ruins Constrictor today; if you want to stay safe, we could travel with him. If we do, we probably won’t see anything other than a dead snake.”

“You wouldn’t be asking us if that’s what you wanted to do,” Sophia responded. That much was obvious. “You won’t need us if you know you won’t see any dangers. So you want to go places he isn’t going.”

Revina nodded. “I want to go out earlier and stay later. He’ll return when he catches the snake; there’s not too much of a reason to try for two. One will feed everyone here for a few days, then he’ll hunt again.”

“That’s a big snake.” Dav had an expression that Sophia took a moment to interpret. Disbelief. “Can they get that big and still be dangerous?”

“Magic,” Sophia answered before Revina could. “And yes, it’s possible; even without magic, the largest snakes can be really large and have a lot of muscle. That’s a lot of food.” They could also be dangerous to humans if they were large enough; venomous snakes didn’t require the size, but that wasn’t what they were talking about.

Any snake called a “Ruins Constrictor” was bound to be a constrictor and almost certainly not venomous. There were records of snakes eating adult humans on Earth before magic was known; with magic, Sophia knew that anything was possible. She didn’t think the World Serpent was a likely possibility here, but that was all she was sure of.

“What does it eat?” Dav still didn’t seem to want to believe that there were snakes that big nearby. Sophia couldn’t entirely blame him; it made her glad that she was sleeping in a secured guarded building.

“Young beastalow, Ruin Rats, whatever it can catch. There’s more living here than you’ve seen. We keep the plants off Fallen Kestii but the rest of the ruins are far too large for us to deal with.” Aymini didn’t seem to want to spend time talking about the eating habits of giant snakes. “I want you to stay above ground and out of the ruined buildings. I’m trusting you two to keep Revina safe; remember that she doesn’t have a Sphere yet, so she’s especially vulnerable. If you find another Shard or a Nest, you can investigate but run if it’s too dangerous. Got it?”

“What’s a Nest?” Dav asked the question before Sophia could.

“Why don’t you know that?” Revina sounded dismissive. “You have Vocations, how can you not-”

“Revina.” Aymini interrupted Revina’s verbal attack. “You grew up with me and your father. They didn’t. When a Beast settles down and breeds, they sometimes create a Nest or a Burrow. It means they can’t leave; only their spawn can. They can be farmed, but more often they’re destroyed when they’re found before the Beasts that spawn from them overwhelm the area. Destroying a Nest or Burrow by killing the Beast that created it is a Vocation-granting feat as long as you legitimately participate; you two could help Revina through one and get her her Vocation. Vramt and I could not; we’re too strong. That’s why I’m willing to let you decide to do one; we haven’t found a Ruins Constrictor nest, so if there is one it should be fairly weak and Revina needs the Feat.”

Sophia was pretty sure Revina was just trying to make herself feel better for the fact that Sophia and Dav had to protect her, but she knew better than to say that. It would only make Revina more defensive. Instead, she nodded at Aymini’s description. “That sounds like a dungeon with a focus on a particular creature. I’ve heard of dungeons like that.”

Aymini gave Revina a look that Sophia carefully didn’t echo. The last thing she wanted right now was to say “I told you so” to Revina.

Well, maybe not the last thing. It would be satisfying. Sophia knew better and knew it would be detrimental in the long term, though, so she didn’t.