Broken Lands

So many spells. There were far more than she was used to looking at, so she started categorizing them. At least half of them were simply attack spells; they had different shapes and different elements, but all the did was damage. She definitely wanted one of those, maybe two. More than that would probably be far too expensive to be worthwhile.

No, definitely two. One for when she was fighting one enemy or needed to be careful what she hit; the other to cover the area in flames. Well, not literal flames; she wasn’t that good with fire. The village also gave a good example of why covering things in fire was a bad idea.

A review of the spells that were available revealed some interesting things. First, there weren’t nearly enough elements. Second, the ones that were there didn’t seem to line up with any model Sophia was familiar with for how the world worked. The elements she found quickly were Fire, Light, Ice, Acid, Stone, Metal, Wood, Sound, Lightning, Force, Corruption, and True Death.

A look through the descriptions told Sophia that most of them were roughly what she’d expect. The interesting thing was that the descriptions seemed to tie back to a less detailed list of elements. Fire and Light were sub-elements of Fire. Lightning and Sound were sub-elements of Air. Ice and Acid were sub-elements of Water. Stone, Metal, and Wood were all sub-elements of Earth. Sophia wasn’t sure why Earth had three common sub-elements instead of two. Maybe she’d be able to find someone to ask once they reached Casterville.

Force, Corruption, and True Death were all sub-elements of magic itself, which was a very odd way to look at it as far as Sophia was concerned. Interestingly, the spells with those elements had an additional note that stated they were aligned with Sophia’s Mana Specialization. Sophia was certain that meant they’d be both easier to control and more powerful if she picked them. At this point, she didn’t have any reason not to, as long as they’d do what she wanted.

Force seemed the most straightforward. The Mana Bolt spell was actually extremely similar to her old Mana Spike, though it flew from her hand instead of allowing her to form it wherever she wanted. There were no other good targeted Force spells available, but she had a choice of spells with broader impact. Only one of them allowed her to choose an area to target instead of starting at her location, which made the choice easy; Force Blast was the obvious pick. The area wasn’t shapeable in the spell description, but she’d just have to manage that with Intent. It probably wouldn’t be easy but that was what practice was for.

Corruption spells were strange. There was the same set of spell shapes available, and the descriptions were all similar to each other, but the way they described the “element” was “Corruption erodes the core element of a being.” There wasn’t anything else there to really know what that meant, so Sophia knew she’d have to ask. It was far too open to interpretation.

True Death spells, on the other hand, seemed far more straightforward at a first glance. They were the spell version of the Death’s Embrace Species ability she’d seen earlier. They were a bit more prosaic, since they simply stated “True Death has little effect on natural creatures. It is extremely effective against beings created by magic, such as magical constructs and the walking dead.”

The walking dead clearly meant undead, which made it an interesting combination. Sophia’s first thought was that it meant a sort of antimagic, but it clearly wasn’t; undead weren’t necessarily any more animated by magic than living creators were. Sophia herself wasn’t technically living in that sense; she was technically an elemental, even though no one would guess it by looking at her. She was fairly certain she’d be classed as a “natural creature” by the Guide.

It made her wonder if the spells would work for her. Sure, she could probably get them to work on constructs or undead that were controlled by magic; those things were basically constructs anyway. Whether or not the spells would work on other undead depended on how they were built. That made them unreliable until she learned more. In any case, she didn’t need them right now.

Sophia picked up the two Force-based spells. They were simple enough and seemed to be exactly what she’d been looking for. The only thing that seemed to change immediately was that the descriptions no longer mentioned her specialization, as if that no longer mattered once she had them, but she was quickly able to feel the triggers that would let her cast them. It was just like using a Skill in the Voice’s system. She left it at that for now; using spells in front of the villagers seemed more likely to cause panic than to be useful. The Road was supposed to be safe.

The remaining spells on the Species list were highly varied. She ignored any of the spells that influenced or read other beings’ minds; she didn’t have a particularly good Affinity for that type of spell any more than she had one for seeing the future. The only reason she had any skill at all with either category was her siblings, and she wasn’t even close to as good as they were.

There were a number of spells that were obviously designed to trip, slow down, or even restrain monsters. Unfortunately, they were all clearly connected to one or another of the elements that she wasn’t strong in. Covering a battlefield in clinging vines that ignored your allies and hampered your enemies sounded great, but it was useless if the vines were less than an inch long. Creating a buildup of dirt or snow that your enemies had to push through had the same problem.

Sophia became almost excited when her eye caught on the spell Patron’s Word. Her enthusiasm dimmed when she read the description, “allow a Hallowed caster to hear a few words from their Patron if their Patron chooses to speak,” but it opened the possibility of a better version at some point. She wouldn’t mind asking the Wanderer some questions if she had the chance.

A few spells later, she realized there was a category she hadn’t identified before: transformation spells. They were all short-lived and temporary, but there were a bunch of spells that could give the caster’s body a short-term burst of strength or flexibility or even claws. Most of them seemed to last only a few seconds and none of them seemed useful enough to be worth the Wisps, but they meant that there would be better versions later.

In the end, it was the other Force-based spells that kept Sophia’s interest, along with a couple of spells she couldn’t really categorize. Basic Kinesis seemed like a telekinetic spell. It wouldn’t work as an attack spell but it could be really useful for other uses.

Quickstep shifted space around her target to make them move farther with each step. Sophia didn’t think she’d use it on herself since she now had Rush, but it didn’t say it couldn’t be used on someone else.

Force Weapon and Force Shield were interesting but not worth taking yet, not while she already had a weapon and the “shield” she had was sufficient. They were both spells to consider for the future.

She almost took Basic Magesight simply from the name, the same way she’d almost bought the MageSight Species ability. She was definitely going to take one of them. After reading the spell description, Sophia returned to the Species ability and selected it instead; the spell was less comprehensive. The higher cost of the Species ability would be worth it instead of having to take another spell later. Spell slots seemed like they were going to be pretty precious anyway.

Weaken Spell was the last one she noticed that looked useful. She knew how to counterspell, but counterspelling took time. This wouldn’t. When she read it, however, it wasn’t as good as a true counterspell: it couldn’t break a spell as it was being cast. It would weaken an existing spell and could break it with enough time and enough castings or it could make a spell less powerful as it was being cast. On the other hand, it didn’t require her to know or understand anything about the spell. It would handle everything. In that way, it was completely unlike counterspelling.

The flaming beavers used spells. That was enough of a reason to want Weaken Spell. Sophia had no doubt she’d encounter more spell-using creatures. Weaken Spell, Basic Kinesis, and Quickstep all made her list of options if she had enough points, but she needed to look at both Unaffiliated and Spellblade abilities before she bought any more.

After she bought those two slots so that she could look and see what was there, she had 81 Wisps left. She wasn’t going to be able to afford all three spells even if she didn’t buy anything from the other categories, and she probably would.

Sophia wasn’t more than a handful of entries into the Unaffiliated section when she saw something that made her laugh and look up at Dav. “You were trying to tell me that Mana Core Specialization is in Unaffiliated, not Species, weren’t you?”

“I did tell you that,” Dav protested with an innocent look that poorly hid his smile. “I can’t help it if you weren’t listening. I assume you’ve had a chance to look at your options?”

“Most of them,” Sophia admitted, then flushed. She was the one who suggested they work together and here she’d gone and picked stuff without talking to Dav!

She stopped looking at things for long enough to fill him in on what she’d seen, what she’d chosen, and why. Dav listened politely and nodded as she went along, but didn’t offer any advice beyond things she already knew. She was going to look at everything else before she picked more things!

There were a lot of Unaffiliated abilities, but other than Mana Core Specialization and Individual Telepathic Link, which Sophia couldn’t afford, there were none that seemed particularly interesting. Mana Core Specialization was available for each of the sub-elements Sophia had seen other than the three she apparently already had, but each of them held a warning that selecting them might weaken existing specializations. She wasn’t about to take that chance.

She was certain she’d want some of the other Unaffiliated abilities; uninteresting didn’t mean bad, just boring. She wasn’t going to choose any of them immediately, that was all. If she could, she’d keep enough Wisps available to buy something later. If not, well, she had an open slot and Wisps didn’t seem to be that hard to get.

Sophia told Dav about that and moved on to the next category: Spellblade. She didn’t expect much, not after her lack of luck earlier, but the category was at least three times as long as she remembered. It seemed like she’d needed a spell before most of the abilities became available. Just as importantly, a lot more of the abilities looked like ones she wanted.

She could only afford one or two of them. Spellblade slots were expensive. With what she saw now, that made some sense; there were simply so many seemingly good options. Her eyes caught on one ability after another. With Dav’s help, she narrowed her options down to a handful.

Animate Blade was essentially telekinesis that was specific to Imbued blades, but instead of having to concentrate on each motion, she could give the blades commands. Blade Discharge would let her cast a preselected spell whenever her blade made a solid connection with her enemy’s shield. Arcane Blade would pull a little power from each spell she cast to empower her blade. Empower Spell would let her essentially overcharge a spell, trading time and additional mana for a larger effect when she finally cast the spell.

Blade Discharge was Dav’s favorite, because it seemed the most immediately powerful. Sophia knew better than to look only for immediate power. It would lock her into a fighting style that she didn’t like unless she also took something like Animate Blade and they worked together. Arcane Blade had the same problem. Empower Spell, on the other hand, was purely spellcasting and that made it Sophia’s initial favorite until Dav pointed out that she could just cast two spells if she had a bit more time. Empower Spell might well be better in some way, but it didn’t change things.

Sophia picked Animate Blade because it did exactly that: it changed things. A “spellblade” Hallow almost certainly needed a blade; if she could meet that requirement with a blade that fought for her at a distance, it was worth it. She’d have to see how good it would be, but even a distraction could be useful if it was precise enough.

Sophia bought a second slot and checked the list. As she’d at least half expected, picking up Animate Blade did add new options to the list, the way picking up Imbue Blade had probably added Animate Blade. There were several that looked interesting, but her choice was obvious: Animate Spell Blade, which would let her cast spells that originated from her Animated Blade. She’d have to test and see if she could do it with a command, but if she could it would almost double her ability to act quickly on the battlefield.

With that, she was out of Wisps she wanted to spend. She couldn’t even afford another Spellblade Ability Slot and if she bought a Species Spell Slot she wouldn’t have enough to buy a spell. She could afford a Spell Slot, but she wasn’t that interested in the other spells Cliff had gathered so far and if she did that, she might not have enough for an Unaffiliated ability later.

Sophia

Spells:

Unaffiliated Abilities:

Warped Human

(Rush, 1, 1)

Innate Communication (Bonus, Free)

(Feather Image)

(Empty, 1, 1)

Body: 5

Martial Abilities:

Core: 7

(Stunning Roar, 1, 1)

Species Abilities:

(Aura Armor, 1, 1)

Shield: 10/10

Species Spells:

(Spell Reservoir, 1, 1)

(Force Bolt, 1, 1)

(MageSight, 1, 1)

Wisps: 26

(Force Blast, 1, 1)

(Feather Image)

Spellblade Abilities:

Spheres

Attunements:

(Imbue Blade, 1, 1)

Spellblade (Hallow)

Contraceptive Amulet, 3

(Animate Blade, 1, 1)

Level:1

(Animate Spell Blade, 1, 1)

Collector (Linked)

Level: 1