Broken Lands

“What? No, of course not. Spell creation’s an Archmage thing, you know, people at really high levels with tons of other magic. Why would any of them live in a place like Fallen Kestii?” Revina shook her head as if the thought were simply impossible. “Father’s the closest we have to a spellcaster, and he can’t do air spells, he does stone spells. If we had an archmage, I’d be trying to learn from them, not collecting items and hoping unless that’s what they said to do.”

For once, Revina sounded positively reasonable instead of acting like Sophia’s question was simply the most ridiculous thing in the world. She was wrong, but confidently wrong and not dismissive. Sophia decided not to undercut her immediately; if she did, Revina would probably go back to her earlier complete dismissal of Sophia’s questions as stupid, even if she never said that. Sophia would talk to Vramt about it; he seemed like a better choice than Aymini. He was both Revina’s father and the man whose path Revina wanted to emulate.

“So what are we taking with us and what are we leaving behind? Should we search the rest of the building? I don’t generally think of snakes as things that collect lots of stuff…?” Dav clearly thought the discussion of Revina’s new Vocation was over. Sophia couldn’t agree more.

Revina seemed to accept the redirection, as well. She wrinkled her nose as she answered, “No? Vyk never comes back with anything other than meat and sometimes eggs. We should take the giant snake and as many of the smaller ones as we can, then let Vyk come back.”

Sophia nodded. She probably could have fit some of the eggs in her pack, but she didn’t know which ones had snakes that could hatch at any time and which didn’t and she didn’t want a giant constrictor plus eggshell in her pack. Cleaning it out would be a pain, possibly in more than one way.

“Should we hurry, then?” Sophia glanced at the others, then made her way to the giant snake. Moving it was not going to be easy.

They didn’t make it all the way to the building they’d been staying in before they were seen. Someone who Sophia didn’t know hailed the group a couple of streets before the entrance. “Hey there, Revvy! That’s a heck of a large snake. Vyk be back soon?”

Revina sighed audibly before she shouted back at the man. “Dammit Johan, I told you not to call me Revvy!”

“And I told you not to call me Dammit Johan!” The man sounded amused as he trotted over towards them. He was surprisingly short. While he was taller than Aymini, that was about all Sophia could say for him; the top of his head barely came to Revina’s shoulder. He was covered in grimy fur, mostly gray and white on his face with a deep gray where his hair would have been if he were more human in appearance. Oddly enough, he didn’t have animal-like ears; the fur seemed to be the only odd feature he had other than his height.

“Seriously, though, I didn’t see you with Vyk when they left this morning. Did you go out on your own?” Johan waved at Sophia and Dav. “And you two, I don’t know you. Are you the strays Aymini picked up a week ago?”

Sophia could not wait to get out of this tiny town.

Dav’s sigh sounded like he felt the same way. “Yes. Are you going to help us carry this stuff or are you just going to stand there and talk?”

Johan grinned at Dav. He pranced alongside Dav, pacing him as he dragged the travois they’d improvised to carry the giant snake. “Stand here and talk, probably. I’m not very good at carrying things.”

“He always drops them,” Revina agreed. “You’d think he’d have more pride, but no…”

“Pride doesn’t get things done,” Johan countered. “And no one’s going to complain if I don’t do the heavy work; I get my tasks done and more. I’d rather take pride in fixing windows and making your mom’s glassware than in things other people can do.”

That told Sophia what Johan did; he was probably a glassblower. It seemed like an odd occupation for someone with fur over their skin, but it wasn’t like hair wasn’t flammable and a burn on ordinary skin wouldn’t be pleasant, either. “Glassblower is a prestigious job, then?”

“You can call it that,” Johan agreed. “Not as prestigious here as back in Vremin, but that’s as it is. Vremin doesn’t exist anymore but I’m still alive.”

Sophia adjusted her grip on the travois she was pulling; it held several smaller snakes and while that made it easier than Dav’s, it was still a pain to pull. “What happened to Vremin?”

“Does it matter?” Johan sounded bitter. “Monsters, war, an aetherstorm … it’s gone now and that’s all that matters. What few survived are scattered. More here in Fallen Kestii than most places, but not enough to rebuild Vremin. Get too big and you’ll get chopped; it’s what happened here and its what happened in Vremin.” He stopped at the door to the building and opened it. “I’m sure Revina told you already, but get the snakes to the kitchen. They’ll take care of it from there.”

Revina leaned over and quietly whispered in Sophia’s ear, “It was all three. Ask Aymini for the story if you want to know about it. Johan doesn’t like to talk about Vremin.”

Sophia nodded slightly. It was clearly a sensitive subject, so it was probably best to avoid it for now.

Johan left after opening the door, muttering something about still needing straw. Sophia wasn’t sure what straw had to do with glassblowing, but she didn’t need to know and she didn’t really care to ask.

It took some maneuvering to get all three travois inside, but from the entrance to the kitchen was a straight passageway with only a single additional door. It was clear that the kitchen was set up to get large deliveries from outside; that was even more clear when they were told to leave the snakes in a large open area just outside the main kitchen, through a door Sophia hadn’t paid any attention to previously.

“Vyk isn’t back yet,” Revina muttered. “There isn’t another snake here. I’d better go find Reba; she can pull everyone together to go get the rest. She won’t have gone out with Vyk.”

With that, Revina trotted away and left Dav and Sophia alone except for the kitchen workers, who looked like they’d just as soon have Dav and Sophia disappear as well. Sophia gave them a quick grin, then grabbed Dav’s hand and pulled him out into the main room. He didn’t resist at all; if anything, it was more like he was pushing her ahead of himself.

When they got far enough into the room, Sophia whirled and looked at Dav. “What do you think? Should we get cleaned up, hunt down Aymini or Vramt, or just sit and relax with a Healing Beacon for a bit?”

Dav gave Sophia a long look from her head to her feet. Sophia found herself blushing for no reason and suddenly realized she was still holding Dav’s hand. She let go hastily; there was no reason to hang on.

“Let’s check when they’re available,” Dav suggested. He flexed the hand she’d just released; she hoped she hadn’t been holding on too strongly. “Then I think I want a bath and a chance to look over Ability choices; I haven’t checked, but I’m sure we picked up some Wisps from the Nest. Hopefully there will be time for that before we talk to them. I can pull out a Healing Beacon while we bathe or while we talk.”

Something wrapped itself around the head of the great Black Bird that bled in eternal darkness. This pleased the Black Bird; it had no way to hunt other than waiting for another creature’s attack and it was hungry. It had not eaten in far too long.

It moved its head sharply forward and stabbed with its beak. As the attacker loosened its hold, the creature spread its dripping wings and covered the attacker in its dark blood. No matter how the attacker struggled now, it was caught in the creature’s dark blindness.

The attacker was long and sinuous. Somewhere in the dimness of the Black Bird’s past, it thought that perhaps it knew what the attacker was: a snake. Snakes were prey to the Black Bird, and this snake was no different.

The snake did not struggle much, once the Black Bird savaged it with its beak and talons.

The Black Bird slowly ate its prey. As it did, it felt Home’s direction become clear once more. It did not trust the feeling; always by the time it got closer, Home’s direction was blurred once again.

It did not want to give up the first large meal in far too long, so the Black Bird waited to head for Home as it ate. It ate and ate and ate.

There was still part of the snake left when the Black Bird could eat no more. It could still feel Home, as well. Perhaps it was time to try again. This time, surely, Home would be found.

The bleeding Black Bird waddled awkwardly forward and launched itself into the sky. It knew its bleeding flight was different, but it did not pay attention. It could still feel Home!

It flew closer and closer. It was almost there when Home once more disappeared.

It knew it was close. This time, the blind Black Bird did not stop. It flew on and on, in the direction Home had been, though it could no longer tell if that was the correct direction.

Its flight ended with pain and something it had not expected: light. Purple light filled its mind. It had not seen light since it was torn from its Home, and it did not see the light now. It merely knew it was there.

The Black Bird recovered quickly and launched itself into the air. Home was not here; Home was hidden. It would find Home the next time the purple light revealed it.

Home had to be close.

Fallen Kestii had very nice baths. What it didn’t have was individual baths; instead, it had a series of rooms that you were expected to progress through, sort of like a fancy spa. Oddly enough, it wasn’t fancy; the baths in the building they were in were plain, as if they were just the minimum that was expected.

The first area was the washroom. It was the only area that was separated into two areas by gender; it was also the only area where you were supposed to be naked. If all you wanted was a quick shower or to remove grime, you could visit the washroom and leave, but almost no one did that. You could choose to wash in a tub, from a bucket, or using a shower arrangement; Sophia used the shower even though it was the coldest because it was also the fastest.

Sophia didn’t like the washroom. The water was colder than she liked and the soap was harsh. The one good thing she could say about it was that she was always happy when she was done and could wrap herself in the thin but opaque soaking robe that was expected for the next room.

It was cotton, dyed unevenly red-purple, and available in a wide range of sizes. Sophia had no trouble finding one, though the oversized sleep shirt that it reminded her of seemed like an odd thing to wear when she knew she was about to get into hot water. They didn’t have bathing suits, so a communal set of bath gear that was washed after each use was apparently the standard.

The communal hot bath was a long, snaking waterway that you climbed into from the back. It had seats on both sides and was hottest right where it started; as it traveled, it cooled. If you wanted a different temperature, all you had to do was move. The seats were carved right into the stone of the waterway itself and were a wide variety of heights; most were set up for more or less human-sized adults, but there were “seats” that were nearly flush with the floor and seats that had to be for children, because even someone as short as Aymini would be wet only to her waist.

Sophia gave a quick look up and down the hot stream and didn’t find Dav. She must have been faster. It wasn’t surprising; he didn’t seem to have the problems with either the cold water or the soap that she did. Or maybe he just wasn’t willing to suffer through getting drenched in cold water all at once just to speed up getting out of it; that was also possible. She was almost always faster than Dav.

Not that the three times they’d gone to the baths together after Aymini showed them how they worked were that much of a benchmark. It wasn’t like Sophia had hurried this time just so that she could pick the starting point. Really.

The fact that the soaking robe would be plastered to Dav’s chest when he got out had nothing to do with the reason they kept going to the baths at the same time, either. Sophia knew that was just as much of a lie as the first, but she was still going to keep telling herself that. She didn’t know Dav well enough to be interested yet. She didn’t even know if he was interested in her!

Either way, it meant she got to pick the temperature. Sophia moved to a spot a little higher than she actually preferred; she’d found that if she warmed up then backed off to a more comfortable temperature, it worked better.

She slipped her feet into the water then carefully slid along the smooth warm stone until she was buried up to her neck in water that felt way too hot for a moment, then quickly seemed nice. It was starting to seem just a bit too warm again when she heard Dav’s voice. “Sophia! Why do I always find you at the hot end?”

Sophia stood up. She acted like it didn’t mean anything, but one corner of her mind wondered if Dav would finally notice what she looked like with, essentially, a wet shirt on. “I need to warm up, same reason as always. I’m ready to move a bit cooler; why don’t you join me?”