Broken Lands

Dav chuckled and shook his head. “That would figure, wouldn’t it? I finally get something eldritch in a game that actually seems like it could develop into something that’s truly eldritch, only it’s not a game and it doesn’t have decent instructions. I’m not sure if I should push for it or try to avoid it. It seems like it might be really powerful but that it also might completely screw me over. There are a bunch of things on the Summons list and the Species list that worry me; I don’t want Frog Legs. The Jaws that Bite or the Claws that Catch might work as summons, but why does it have to sound like stuff that changes me instead of another creature?”

Sophia didn’t know how to answer that. She groped for a response that wasn’t as simple as telling him to follow his judgment; that was a non-answer. “It sounds like a balancing act. It’s always possible to go too far; there are lots of stories about people who did that. You’re working with Potential, so you need to shape it to be what you want instead of letting it shape you. It won’t be easy, I’m sure, magic never is. I’ll be happy to help you pick if you want to share?”

Dav paused as he listened to Sophia’s offer. He stayed mostly still for a long moment, then seemed reluctant as he nodded. “I think I’ll take you up on that. I don’t usually let others choose my builds, but this isn’t a game and there’s no way to respec. I keep having to remind myself of that, when I’m not concerned about what it means. Some advice might be helpful, but I’ll always make the choice.”

Sophia nodded. With anyone else, it wouldn’t need to be said; telling someone else what Path to take was bad. She knew it happened, especially for early Paths where a child lived with their parents, but it made no sense to Sophia. She’d always been encouraged to take whichever Path interested her, since that would be the easiest to follow. “Of course not. It’s your Path … er, your abilities, not mine. I can teach you what I know and maybe help you use things, since this is sort of close to what I know, but I can only choose for myself. You should pick yours, too.”

Dav nodded, then tilted his head and grinned at Sophia, like he’d just thought of something amusing. “So, you said you hadn’t picked yet? What are you thinking about?”

Sophia supposed that was fair. If she expected him to accept her help, she should talk to him about her options too. “The only new Martial Technique Cliff has available is Consuming Rage. It’s definitely off the list; I don’t want an ability that hurts my ability to think. That’s already hard enough in combat.”

Now that she’d thought about it more, the part where it burned you from the inside to use it seemed like less of a disqualification than she’d originally thought. Dav had a healing ability. She still didn’t want Consuming Rage.

Sophia moved down the list Cliff talked about. She hadn’t forgotten what was there yet, even if she hadn’t yet opened up a slot to see the full descriptions. “He picked up a bunch of Spells. I don’t understand why Rush is a Spell instead of a Martial Ability, but it’s definitely on my list of potential choices; movement Skills are useful for anyone. Cliff says Flaming Spark is just that, a way to start small fires, so I probably won’t take it, but Spit Fire sounds interesting; it might be a better way to deal with things at a distance than throwing an Imbued Blade.”

“Are you sure you want to spit fire?” Dav sounded surprisingly unimpressed with the Spell that Sophia thought was probably the best offensively in the entire set. “I had an Acid Spit option and it sounds terrible. Wouldn’t that hurt the inside of your mouth?”

“Not if the spell is built properly,” Sophia countered, then paused. Could she count on the Spell being built properly? She’d already seen that the flaming beavers were willing to use Consuming Rage; it wouldn’t be impossible for them to use a Spell that hurt themselves. “Maybe they’re depending on their Shield to protect themselves? That seems foolish, but it matches up with the Consuming Rage technique. Yeah, that’s a good point. Maybe after I read the description, I’ll know.”

“You haven’t?” Dav seemed startled. “Did you say you were definitely going to take at least one of the Spells?”

Sophia flushed and didn’t answer. She didn’t even have to open a slot to do that, which meant she didn’t have a good reason for not reading the descriptions. It didn’t even take long. A quick review of the descriptions told Sophia that while Cliff’s opinions about what was good and what wasn’t were clearly shaped by his past as a dungeon, his descriptions were close to the ones the Guide used.

Sophia could only see one major difference, and she could see why Cliff hadn’t mentioned it: the Cliff Dungeon was largely stone. “Flaming Spark is a little more than a fire starting spell; the description says that you can either direct a single spark or gather a group of sparks around yourself to hurt creatures that attack you. I bet that’s why the larger beavers looked like they were surrounded by fire.”

“It’s probably also why the entire place went up in flames,” Dav noted. "That one might be worth something, but not in a town.”

Sophia nodded reluctantly. She still didn’t like the spell, but she had to admit that it might be situationally useful. “As for Spit Fire, it doesn’t say either way. I think it depends on having enough Wisps. There are three more spells. Buffet and Slice are the same as what Revina described, and Hydrokinesis’s description doesn’t actually say what it does, just that I can’t select it in a Level One slot. I bet that’s what one of the numbers after the slot is, its level.”

“I wonder what the difference between bonus and free is, then,” Dav said with a grin.

Sophia’s eyes darted to the Innate Communication line on her status screen. “Who knows? We could ask, but I’m pretty sure it’s unusual. I doubt most people know the answer. Arryn might, but I’m not sure I want to ask him.”

Dav nodded. “He’s been helpful, but it’s the sort of helpful that says he wants to sell us something. I’m not sure what, other than getting us to join the Registry, and that’s done.”

Sophia nodded. She liked Arryn well enough, but she couldn’t forget that he was a merchant and not her friend. “Arryn said there are training classes at the Registry, since a lot of people who take a Vocation have parents who are Professionals. I bet we can find out there.”

Dav nodded and didn’t say anything.

Sophia didn’t notice; she was too busy digging into the other options in her Status. Time slipped away as they walked; she didn’t pay attention to their surroundings beyond noticing that the enchantments on the road repeated but didn’t otherwise change as they traveled. “Mana Core Specialization doesn’t seem to be an option for me, but I do see the Spell Reservoir you mentioned. Other than that, if I leave out the silly things like sharpening my horns to make them a better weapon, there are a few interesting things in the Species area. I can harden my Shield against my Specialization or against what it calls nonelemental damage. I bet that’s why I don’t have a Mana Core Specialization as an option; it doesn’t know how to change my Affinities and I already have them.”

Sophia snorted when she saw the next item on the list. It was clear that whether or not the Guide knew what a dragon was, a dragon was still a dragon. “Warped Breath is hilarious. Infuse your breath with your Warped element, then exhale to damage your enemies. I bet that one won’t hurt me, even though it doesn’t say either way.”

“Do you think it’s worth taking?” Dav actually sounded eager, this time. “It sounds like a good one.”

Sophia shook her head. “It doesn’t say anything about the breath going farther than I can actually breathe. It’s probably directional, but I’m far smaller than a dragon. Although … didn’t that beaver spit fire at us from something like twenty feet away? Maybe that’s less of a problem than I think it is. That was a spell, though, so who knows.”

The smile vanished from Sophia’s face as she looked at the very next option. It was completely unexpected; while she, like many from Earth, had a higher than normal Death Affinity, it wasn’t one she’d expected to turn up here. Despite her training, it wasn’t her focus and there was no reason the Guide should be able to see more about that part of her heritage than the fact that she was a half-dragon. Despite the fact that death was her father’s primary Affinity, it wasn’t hers. “Death’s Embrace. There are those that walk the line between life and death. Many are difficult to harm, yet you know the way to bring them to the sweet embrace of death as easily as the living. Why is that a Species ability?”

Dav shook his head. “The categories don’t really seem to make much sense. That sounds a lot more like a Spellblade ability to me.”

“To me as well,” Sophia agreed. “I wasn’t expecting a Death-based ability, either. It sounds like a useful one, if we run into the wrong enemies. I think I’ll wait on it, since we haven’t seen anything like that. I wonder if it’s important?”

“I hate training classes.” Dav’s answer brought a bark of laughter from Sophia.

“Yeah,” Sophia agreed. “I probably should wait to pick things, but some of this is so obvious. There are quite a few things on this list, but the only important one I don’t think I’ve mentioned is MageSight. I’m definitely taking Spell Reservoir; a lot of what’s here is spells. I haven’t listed any of them, since I don’t really need things like a spell to make light, but I think it’s still worthwhile.”

She suited her actions to her words, then swore. “The heck. The reservoir doesn’t come with any slots, you have to buy that separately? Really?”

Dav laughed softly. “I guess that explains why it seems so useful but isn’t more expensive than other abilities. It is more expensive, it just hides it well.”

Sophia huffed at Dav. It wasn’t funny!

Okay, maybe it was. It still wasn’t nice to laugh at her.

Her indignation vanished the moment she opened the list of Species Spells. It was as bad as the other categories; there had to be hundreds of possible spells. One thing was immediately obvious. “You definitely want to buy the Spell Reservoir as soon as you can,” Sophia told Dav. “There are a bunch of spells here that weren’t on my Species list; they must require the Reservoir to become available.”

She didn’t pay attention to what Dav replied. She was too busy looking at spells. This was finally what she’d been searching for: a choice in where she went that wasn’t all about her physical capability. If she could lean on her spellcasting, she would. There was more than one reason she’d picked a fairly pure mage Path; she knew how to fight, but it wasn’t her preference. She wanted to plan things from a little farther back, where she could actually see what was going on.

It was a better choice for her anyway. She might be a half-dragon, which made her stronger than most humans, but she wasn’t exceptionally strong or fast for a half-dragon. She also kept up with physical combat mostly through training. She knew she was no prodigy. Worse, she didn’t really enjoy it.

The opposite was true of magic. She loved magic and was very good at it. It was her chosen Path and she wanted to return to it.

Now she finally could.