Kaia the Argent Wing

I set the statue down into its pride of place on the small stone plinth and stepped back. The shrine was finished. In reality, it was just a small wooden shed with one side open, shielding the statue from the worst of the elements. Still, I was proud of the work we'd done. Some of my friends had even carved crude little images into the wood, like my khopesh from the battle, or broad feathered wings.

“Now what?” Alec asked, as we all stared at the little structure. Everyone who'd worked on the shrine was gathered here, along with several who hadn't but were interested nevertheless.

“Um… I guess we ask Cynath to bless the shrine?” I mused, then shrugged and said, “Everyone repeat after me, ‘Cynath, protector of Edgewood, please claim this shrine as yours so that we may give thanks.’”

“Cynath, protector of Edgewood, please claim this shrine as yours so that we may give thanks,” everyone recited in a ragged chorus.

Nothing happened for a second, then two, then three…

Put an offering on the pedestal beside the statue. Something you took from your enemies, preferably. Cynath's voice rang helpfully in my head.

Thinking for a second, I began to wonder what I could use as an offering, until I remembered that the little knife in my hand was made of squiron.

“I offer this humble blade made from the bodies of my enemies as tribute,” I said, once again coming up with random religious sounding crap off the top of my head.

I put the knife down on the stone pedestal and backed away… just in time to see a gentle pillar of moonlight engulf the whole shrine and its surroundings. The snow, which was now just a perpetually falling fact of life, was instantly seared into hissing steam.

Coughing as the vapour hit my lungs, I stumbled away from the shrine. What on Ear— the ground two yards in front of the shrine split open and sagged downwards in a single movement. Fine golden-orange sand poured up out of the wound in the Earth, followed closely by fresh water that glinted in even the dim overcast sunlight.

On either side of the shrine, two palm trees thrust up from the dirt like a nature documentary on fast forward. Their leaves blossomed like flower petals, then sagged as gravity took hold. A moment later, beautiful flowers erupted from thin spines, looking for all the world like little fluffy white bunny tails.

As those flowers were rushing through their fertilisation phase, the soil at the base of the trees was once again consumed by frantic growth. Wild grain of a dozen different varieties exploded up in a frenzy.

The action finally stilled with the trees creaking under the burden of a fruit I wasn't familiar with, while the grain whispered pleasantly as the wind filtered delicately through it.

To say the crowd was stunned would've been an understatement. Hell, I was stunned. Cynath had just turned an area that was at most four yards diameter into a mini desert oasis…

The creation of a new holy place is such a rush! She said breathlessly into my head. I will have to wait again to do anything else miraculous, but with the shrine I should recoup my energy much faster.

“That's… amazing,” someone said—One of the soldiers, I think.

“I’m going to see if it works,” I told the crowd, and stepped forward to press my hand to the statue.

Instantly, storm-sense options whirled into my mind’s eye. There were ways to reassign my attributes, there was a plethora of different, although generic class options, and even a sort of vendor system.

What the… what was amber?

The vendor system could create various items using a currency or fuel called Amber, but there was no mention of what it actually was. If I could find some of this stuff, there were abilities you could buy, provided you had an ability orb to overwrite, or raw storm-infused materials for making things.

Someone else joined me at the statue—a suburbanite I barely recognised as the father of a kid from school.

“I lose half my experience if I change my class,” he sighed… but then with a shrug, he pressed a storm-sense button I couldn't see and his body wavered like a mirage for a moment.

“What did you pick?” I asked, and the crowd at the shrine edged closer to hear his reply.

“Battle mage,” the man said with a smile. “I always liked the idea as a kid. I guess now I get to live it out.”

He flexed his fingers in a strange gesture, and fire engulfed his palm as he pointed it skyward. A small orb of flame raced up into the heavens for almost fifty yards before it lost cohesion.

A few folks in the crowd began to clap, while others pressed forward to touch the statue. I quickly moved out of the way to watch in bemusement as a dozen or so people went to choose new classes.

“I guess that’s that, then?” April asked, clapping a hand down on my shoulder. Gotta say, it was very strange to feel someone’s hand engulf my little shoulder like that.

“We did it,” Chloe said, approaching on tentative steps.

I gave her a grin. “We did! It's going to be… interesting to see how people respond to an obviously supernatural shrine in our new home.”

Her face creased into a frown. “They’ll try to destroy it.”

“They can try,” I chuckled darkly. “We just watched a freakin’ oasis appear out of the snow. Hell, it's actually warm near it. That seems like extremely powerful magic to me, and not the kind you want to fuck with.”

Chloe grunted noncommittally and looked back at the thinning crowd. People who'd changed their classes were now heading out to the field to test their abilities, which was… chaotic. Someone should probably impose a little order on the chaos before people got hurt.

I saw the bespectacled soldier nearby and waved him over. “Hey, I never got your name.”

“Toby,” he said with a smile. “What's up? What can I do for you, ma’am?”

My heart fluttered when he called me ma’am and I had to tamp down on my emotions just to prevent a deer-in-headlights look. He was kinda cute too…

Concentrate, Kaia. 

“I saw you change your class, what'd you pick?” I asked, just to keep my damn train of thought moving.

“Longbowman!” He said with a hint of boyish excitement. “I was a bit hesitant to make the switch, but if we find out what that amber stuff is, there's a starter bow for sale in the vendor shop.”

“Excellent!” I said, then glanced up at April to gouge her thoughts. “With Charles finally agreeing to work on our manufacturing capabilities, we might be able to make that metal bow we were talking about.”

“I think so,” April agreed with a nod. “Arrowhead casting will be a pain but I'm sure we can figure it out.”

“Hex bag arrows!” Chloe blurted suddenly.

We all turned to stare at her, and she blushed slightly with all the attention, even as she scowled through the embarrassment. “I could make hex bags to be put on arrows. Then we could shoot them way further.”

“I feel like you could be pretty good with a crossbow—” I began, but a thudding boom drew our attention back to the field, where someone had blown a tiny crater in the frigid snow and dirt. Right. I actually had a request for Toby.

“Hey, dude?” I asked, giving him an imploring look. “Can you go impose a little bit of order on that chaos before someone gets hurt?”

He laughed. “Sure, I can try.”

I thanked him, and he wandered off to start shouting at all the various suburbanites who'd just gained access to firebolt spells and whatever.

“Charles wants to weld up a proper steam engine,” I said conversationally, glancing sideways at April. “I saw some crazy tubes of steel at your work, do we want those?”

“Probably,” she groaned. “I'll let him know so we can ask the Captain to put a retrieval party together.”

We discussed the plans for the workshop further while watching Toby and his soldier buddies impose basic safety guidelines on the rabble. Other than the steam powered hammer, our ideas for upgrades included rebuilding the wood lathe so it could also accept power from an engine, and a steaming room for straightening out wood. Kinda funny how everything involved steam.

As we were speaking, I noticed the Captain walking towards us and waved.

“It's finished, then?” He asked, gesturing to the shrine.

“Yup! Bunch of folks have combat classes now, as you can see,” I said proudly.

“Ready to rush into harm’s way,” he said, giving a morose shake of his head.

One dude—a kid I'd known from school—fell on his face in the snow after activating some sort of dash ability. I winced, we should probably get a healer out here, just in case.

Glancing back at our leader, I asked, “Hopefully they'll be going out with people who've already got experience?”

“I hate making rules… but something like that might be a necessity,” he agreed as the dude picked himself up to peals of laughter from his friends.

I hummed in agreement, but watching everyone reminded me of my alter ego. I needed some time as Silver, preferably sometime soon. I missed the feeling of personal power that came with that body…