Broken Lands

“We deal with spirits. Ghosts are one type of spirit, but there are many others. I’m Spirit Touched.” Moti paused as if he expected that to be enough of an explanation and looked at Dav, then Sophia, then back to Dav. “You have no idea what that is, do you?”

Sophia shook her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dav do the same.

“Moti can borrow small amounts of the power of the spirits around us.” Raevyn dropped her voice and spoke in a whisper. “Exactly what he can do depends on what spirits are nearby and how powerful they are. If there aren’t any cooperative spirits, he’s limited to the abilities of the spirit who connected with him, the only spirit he can always work with. That’s why he couldn’t do much in the fight; there were no other spirits nearby and clouding minds or causing rage wouldn’t help, while inducing sleep wasn’t going to work at all. He tried to empower me, but neither of us is strong enough for that to help.”

Sophia frowned thoughtfully at that. Mental effects could be powerful if they were used well. The type of effects Moti could achieve were definitely useful and they didn’t sound like they were any more intrusive than they had to be. Empowering allies would be useful when the others weren’t, at least if the allies were strong enough and the boost was good enough.

The real question was why they weren’t trying to join one of the larger groups Rensyn mentioned; was that just because of prejudice against their Species? “How many people can Moti affect at once?”

Moti answered for himself. “One at a time. I don’t know if that will ever change. Some of them can last for a little while.”

Well, that answered that question. If he could only boost or restrict one person at a time, that was a huge limit. Being able to effectively overlap them on a few people meant that he might well succeed on smaller groups.

“I’m a Spirit Seer,” Raevyn announced quietly while Sophia was still thinking about Moti’s fit. “I can see spirits of all sorts, not just ghosts, but I can also see with the eyes of the spirits. I can often find hidden things because they mean something more than what’s around them or see people who are trying to hide. None of that really helps in a fight; all I can do in a fight is find other spirits for Moti to request help from or help my allies see better.”

Sophia strongly doubted Raevyn’s Sphere was as weak as Raevyn seemed to think it was. The far more likely problem was that she hadn’t yet figured out how to take advantage of it. Sophia had that problem; she’d spent her entire time here feeling like she was fighting with one hand tied behind her because she didn’t have any quickly castable spells. She’d only recently resolved that and hadn’t had a chance to try it out yet.

On top of that, there was really no reason Raevyn had to be good in a fight. “If you can see the things we can’t, that’s worthwhile. Finding hidden treasures is nice, finding traps is better, and seeing things that are trying to ambush us before we get there is even more important.”

Sophia was not really sure how well the Quinns would fit with her and Dav. The one thing she could say was that they were definitely different; while Dav had his summons, he mostly used his sword and Sophia was fairly certain she was going to mostly use her force magic. Neither of them had the sort of disabling abilities Moti had or the sensory ones of Raevyn. She’d guess that Raevyn would probably fit better, but neither was someone she’d reject out of hand.

At the same time, Sophia wasn’t certain that two people that couldn’t really fight was a good choice when there were really only two people who could. “You two don’t want to be separated, right?”

Moti shook his head. “We will go together or not at all. Anyone who wants my help needs to take Raevyn as well.”

Did people around here really value knowing what they were looking at so poorly that they rejected Raevyn? Maybe there simply weren’t many hidden things in the area around Casterville? If everyone thought there weren’t any secrets to be found or traps to avoid, having someone who could find secrets and traps would be a lot less valuable.

Sophia shook her head to clear her mind. It didn’t matter what others thought about their abilities; what mattered was if they’d suit well enough to fight together. This world didn’t seem to limit the number of people that could enter a Nest, so keeping a group small probably wasn’t as important as back home. “I think we can-”

The door to the kitchen slammed against the wall next to it as a young woman walked into the tavern. Sophia looked up in surprise and recognition. This was the woman who caught Moti then captured the man who threw him, the man who kicked Raevyn.

She was tall, tall enough that Moti’s head only came to her shoulder when he slammed into her. Sophia was fairly certain she was at least a few inches taller than Dav, as well. She was tanned, with long brown hair that didn’t quite match the gray of the wolflike ears that sat on the top of her head, twitching and moving as she listened to the world around her. Strangely enough, the wolf ears did match the fur at the top of the hooded cloak she wore. The lower portion of the cloak was dyed in a mottled green-and-brown pattern that was probably intended as forest camouflage.

“Amy,” Rensyn said in a warning tone as he caught the door before it could slam closed. “Be a little more careful.”

“Oops.” Amy grinned happily.

Sophia had the distinct feeling that slamming the door before she walked through it wasn’t an accident. Amy wanted to make an entrance.

“I know you two,” Amy said, her grin still plastered on her face. She waved at the Quinns. “And I’ve worked with you before; we can make it work.”

Raevyn straightened in her seat. She wasn’t grinning, but if Sophia had to guess what she was feeling, the word she’d use was hopeful. She clearly knew Amy and seemed to want to work with her. That was a good sign.

“Who are you two?” Amy gestured at the other end of the table, more towards Dav than Sophia. Her meaning was still obvious.

“I’m Sophia Rothmer,” Sophia introduced herself. Amy’s dramatic entrance might have put her off her game for a moment, but she wasn’t about to stay there. She gestured towards Dav to include him. She needed to pull Amy off her high horse and get them back onto even footing. “Dav Carolan and I are a long way from home, and it looks like we’ll be here for a while so we’re looking for people to work with. I take it you’re one of the people Rensyn thinks might be able to work with us?”

Rensyn stopped near the entrance. He tried to look stoic, but Sophia could see how a smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. He was amused.

Amy huffed. She glanced at Rensyn, then back at the four seated at the table. “Yah, but that’s not the real question here. The question is if I’m willing to work with you. You’re not going to spend all your time stuck in this excuse for a place to live called Casterville, are you?”

“Why would we do that?” Dav actually sounded puzzled as he spoke up. “There can’t possibly be enough to do here, unless there’s a giant dungeon or something?”

They hadn’t yet had the chance to explore the city, so Sophia didn’t know the answer either. She still couldn’t believe that staying in the city was the right answer, not with things like the flaming beavers they’d encountered on the way to town outside. Those things needed to be hunted down before they destroyed another village.

Amy nodded. “Right answer. I don’t mind coming here for supplies, but all these piles of stone give me the chills. So who’s up for a drink, or d’ye want to go kill something instead?”

Sophia blinked at that. It was far too early in the day to be drinking. With the bar fight earlier, she was beginning to wonder if the locals disagreed with her on that.

She wanted to know more about Amy before she was pulled along in the other girl’s wake. That meant she’d need to be blunt. That was even more true if Amy had been drinking, and drinking would certainly help explain her brashness. “What can you do in a fight? I saw you disable that guy in the bar fight.”

Amy waved a hand in the air. “Aah, that was just a bar fight. No need to really hurt anyone there. Got a bit unfriendly at the end, you don’t kick people once they’re on the floor. In a real fight, well, I’m a wolf. What do you think I do?”

“Are you a werewolf?” Dav leaned forward and asked the question before Sophia could. “I’ve always wondered what that would really be like.”

Dav had some of the strangest questions and opinions. Sophia supposed that was because he’d grown up in a world without magic. She knew that modern presentations of magic were often not particularly realistic; they were almost certainly worse in a world that didn’t have real magic to compare them to.

Amy jerked backwards. “A werewolf? No, I’m no cursed monster enthralled by the moon. I’m a beastshifter; I take on the shapes of animals to fight or whatever.” As she spoke, she waved a hand in the air, like it would make “whatever” mean more than it did. “I only have two shapes so far, but wolf’s one of them and it’s good in a fight. If I can’t get close, I can just shoot the monsters, but where’s the fun in that?”

Sophia wanted to say that fighting wasn’t supposed to be fun, but she’d met people like Amy before. To them, it was fun; some of them were hopeless because they became lost in it, but many simply enjoyed it the way other people enjoyed running or swimming or any other physical activity. Sophia wasn’t going to be able to tell which type Amy was until she saw her in a real fight.

Sophia knew which type she was, personally. She didn’t talk about fighting being fun the way Amy did, but she enjoyed it. She liked a good fight. Almost all delvers did, whether they admitted it or not; there were many other ways to earn a living, after all. Delving was for people who enjoyed it or couldn’t find anything else they were good at.

Sophia was pretty certain which type Dav was, as well. He was a lot like her.

“So what can you two do? I already know about the Quinns.” Amy set her hands on her hips and stared at Dav. “If you’re going to ruin my surprise, you can ruin yours too.”

“I have a sword and some summons,” Dav admitted. “I haven’t had a chance to try them all out yet, so a fight does sound good. Perhaps it’s time for some live testing?”

Yeah, Dav was definitely a lot like Sophia. She grinned at him, then gave her own answer to Amy. “I’m a spellblade. I can enchant blades and cast spells from them. I just picked up that ability, so sure. Do you know a good place?”