Memory Bonds

The match was interesting. Harmoni wasn’t sure how much she'd like watching people fight, but she could say that much.

Piese made the first move. He took out a wand, and made a giant piece of the arena come out and fly towards Erna. She quickly stepped to the side. As the boulder flew past, she threw dust at it. The dust sort of resembled gunpowder, and when it hit the rock, it blew up. Smaller chunks of rock flew around the arena.

Erna turned to Piese with a smile. He’d seemed intimidated a moment before, but as she turned to him, he swallowed and adopted a more neutral expression. He pointed his wand out, and sent an earthquake under Erna’s feet.

Erna managed to jump out of range, but Piese turned the ground into mud where she landed. She tried to move forward, and immediately slipped.

Erna glared up at him, sunglasses finally a little cocked. Piese smirked, despite breathing a little harder. It seemed a little weird he was tired. They hadn’t been going very long.

Erna reached down, doing something to her shoes. When Piese sent more rocks, Erna moved to the side, walking as easily as on solid ground.

Erna took her cloak off, laying it flat against the ground. When she yanked it away, there were little tubes against the ground. The tubes shot explosions. Harmoni could see little red flare-like lights shoot out towards Piese. With a wave of his wand, rock walls came up in front of him, creating a thin stone shield. The explosions harmlessly hit them instead of him.

With another twitch of his wand, which Erna probably couldn’t see through all the rocks and dust, the ground morphed. It knocked Erna’s tubes down, and wrapped around one of her feet, trapping her in the ground.

Erna struggled to get out of course, but the ground was now solid rock, and anything she had that could break rock would probably break her own foot as well. So she didn't do anything, and Piese didn't do anything either, content to just stand there at the ready.

A moment later, the imp on the podium spoke up again. “Tell me, Erna, can you move?”

Erna looked at him, and at her stuck foot. She glared at the ground, ears dropping like an annoyed cat.

“No,” she said quietly.

“Then we have a winner!” the imp shouted.

“Woo!” the colbber beside Harmoni cheered. “That was awesome!”

He was probably the most enthusiastic. Harmoni flinched slightly, from being near the loudest person in the crowd. A few other people applauded or cheered, but they were a bit more subdued. Or maybe he just seemed loud because he was close to her? No one else seemed to notice, after all.

It seemed like the crowd was expecting more violence.

“Did you really like it that much? Harmoni asked.

She did not need more violence. But Fleck, who liked that kind of thing more, thought the whole fight seemed brief, and neither of the fighters had done anything extraordinary. And she could agree with that.

“Well, yeah,” the colbber said, lowering his voice and turning to her. “I love magic. Always have, always wanted to use it. Of course, at some point, I learned I can’t and . . . yeah. I learned I can’t.” He scratched the back of his head.

Harmoni shifted her weight, not sure how to respond to that. She’d always found magic a little overrated. It seemed like a lot of work and study for something that you’d rarely have reason to use.

It sounded like another fight would be starting soon, but neither of them were paying much attention.

“Sorry that didn’t work out,” she managed. “But you can be good at other stuff, right? You’ve got that . . . thing in your head.”

The colbber smiled, but something in his expression changed, and Harmoni wondered if she’d said something wrong. “The implant. Right.”

While they talked, Fleck was getting acquainted with the dragon. Apparently, she’d bonded with the colbber pretty recently, close to the same time as Fleck and Harmoni. The silvery dragon introduced herself as Moon.

The colbber jumped. “Right. And my name’s Cooper."

Moon turned to Fleck. "Well, I call him Copper," she explained.

And Fleck had to admit, that was a pretty charming nickname.

Harmoni kind of agreed. She got the nickname thing better now.

Cooper continued. "We’re apprenticed to an alchemist in town.”

That was it! That was what Fleck had been smelling earlier. They had a bit of that metal and fire scent he’d picked up earlier. It wasn’t as strong as the place the alchemy was presumably made, but it wasn’t a surprise the two of them were from there.

Well, mystery solved.

Harmoni smiled and shook his hand. “I’m Harmoni, and this is Fleck.”

“Well hi there Harmoni and Fleck. Do you two want to . . . do something else? It’s just, I haven’t seen much of the city yet, and there don’t seem to be people our age in Xentron city.”

There weren’t?

Harmoni shrugged. Fleck was more interested than her, but she wasn’t against the idea. “We can if you like. But Fleck and I haven’t been here long either, if you wanted an expert.”

“Huh. Well, any idea where you want to go?” Cooper asked.

“No. We haven’t been here that long,” Harmoni repeated.

“We don’t really know what’s here,” Fleck added.

Moon looked at him, then at Cooper. “Well, the city garden was pretty cool, right?”

“The garden!” Cooper exclaimed, snapping his fingers. “Of course!”

At Harmoni’s blank look, he elaborated.

“It’s a garden on the edge of the city, easier to fit there. It’s not for food though. It’s a sort of wildlife garden, grows a lot of plants you can find here on Xentron. And some that people have brought over. It’s a nice place if you like plants. Good for inspiration too. Gave me an idea for something I can invent, with alchemy.”

Well, that sounded nice enough. And Harmoni hadn’t exactly seen many plants that could grow here before now.

So the group took a sharp turn, wound themselves out of the crowd, and headed for the Eastern edge of town. Luckily, they were already pretty close to that edge.

There was a gate at the edge of town. At first, Harmoni couldn’t see anything on the other side. She couldn’t even see a fence going all the way around, just at this side. But she squinted as they moved closer, and noticed a sort of veil over the gated area, a curtain that was almost invisible except for where it seemed to fold in on itself.

It was definitely magical. Fleck could tell by the smell, but he could also still smell the plants inside.

There was a guard outside the main gate. Or at least, Harmoni was pretty sure it was the main gate. It was the only one she saw. The guard was an elf wearing some light armor, and Harmoni was pretty sure the symbol of the clerics was on his belt. He asked their names when they came up to the gate, along with what they planned to do inside. Harmoni found herself answering with flippant honesty before she’d even really thought of what to say. Then they were allowed to enter.

Magic induced honesty?

Well, more like the power of God, considering that was a cleric. But same result.

As they passed, Harmoni glanced at the clipboard he had. It seemed he wrote down who came in and their species, and numbered how many people came in.

Harmoni entered, and paused with a gasp. A lot of the plants in here seemed to be cacti, unsurprisingly. But they’d brought in plants from the forest Harmoni had seen earlier. There was a tree near the back fence, in the center, reaching so high Harmoni couldn’t see the top. Even the cacti were nice to look at, a few flowering. But the stand outs were the weird, alien looking plants. There was a blue squishy looking cactus, like a water balloon, and trees that grew upside down, with leaves coating the ground and roots in the air.

“Harmoni? You coming?”

Harmoni blinked a time or two. She’d been so busy staring at everything, she hadn’t noticed Cooper and Moon go further into the garden. While Harmoni could see a lot of the tall or large plants from here, you probably got a better experience by walking around.

Harmoni smiled. “Right. Coming.”

It was a good time. Harmoni and Cooper walked along the paths, looking at small or low growing plants.

Fleck wasn’t all that interested in plants, but he and Moon were having fun. They rolled in the dirt, near the plants that needed more water. They also chased each other around. The open space was good for that.

There was signs about some of the plants. Apparently, the upside down ones probably grew leaves near the ground so they wouldn’t dry out on the desert planet. That was the leading theory anyway, but it didn’t explain the roots.

And as they walked, Cooper explained some of the plants that were useful in alchemy. Either as a literal ingredient, or as inspiration. The squishy cactus for example, looked like it should be fragile. But in practice, the outer skin was really hard to tear or pop, it was just also flexible.

“Can you imagine what we could do with that?” Cooper asked. “You could make unbreakable bags with them, or make your own skin like that, so it’s hard to hurt.”

A little freaky, but okay.

“Are you doing something with it?”

“Maybe. I've got one in my room, and I've been studying the skin. I was going to make some sort of shield or forcefield with it, but it’s not rigid enough. Maybe I’ll get back to that later, but I’d rather use the plant for something it’s naturally good at.”

When they were done, Harmoni and Cooper parted ways with a wave. They hadn't been in there too long. The place wasn't too big. You could see most of it from the front entrance. And ironically, they never did get to the alchemy shop Fleck was smelling.

But that was probably for the best. They'd already been out for a while before meeting Cooper and Moon, and Harmoni wasn't sure she'd wanted to wander around all day.

And as for the alchemy shop? Well, if it was the one Harmoni had seen before, what was the rush?

Moon hopped onto her hind legs and shouted goodbye to Fleck about half a block away.

Harmoni and Fleck were welcome to visit them later. Cooper hadn’t asked what the two of them did, and Harmoni hadn’t told him. Though if he wanted to see her again, his dragon could probably find them no problem.

Probably.

It had been a good day, and it had been less stressful than her early days. But they'd still seen a lot. It was time to head back to Udo's.