Broken Lands

“Talking to Cliff?” Dav’s quiet rumble made the taut muscles in Sophia’s back relax a bit as his voice cut through the clamor of the villagers that trailed behind them.

“Yeah. He doesn’t want to be consulted on where we’re headed. He only cares about Collecting things.” Sophia shook her head. “I don’t understand it, but he was really clear.”

Dav shrugged. “It’s easier. Choices are hard. You’d be shocked at how many people just go along with what other people think they should do because it’s easier, especially if they aren’t sure what to do. Heck, I do that. Cliff just recognizes it.”

“I guess.” Sophia didn’t think she’d ever agree with Dav on that. Who wanted to give up their agency? She certainly didn’t. She’d had enough of that as a child. Sure, she was lucky she didn’t have to spend hours every day inside a childcare facility disguised as a place of learning, but that still didn’t mean she could do whatever she wanted.

Dav shrugged. “We’ve done it here, you know, gone along with what others want because it’s easier.”

Sophia frowned at the comparison. “That’s not the same thing. We could have decided not to help the village, for example. Or to not go into the snake dungeon. Those were both things we were asked to do but I made the choice to go and so did you. We didn’t give up our right to choose. I don’t want to say no just because someone asks me to do something; I just want the chance to choose.”

Dav frowned. He took his time thinking over her answer before he nodded. “Fair enough, I guess. We could have done a bunch of other things, but there wasn’t really any reason to. There will be more options once we’re in a bigger city. What do you think of the Vocational Registry?”

Sophia shook her head. She wasn’t sure what she thought yet. “The name sounds all Big Brother-y, but the way they talk about it, it’s like the Adventurer’s Guild back home, a place to find dungeons and people to delve with. I’m not sure what to think. They must be pretty powerful; that’s not always a good thing.”

“I hope you’re wrong,” Dav said with a nod. “What do you mean by big brother-y?”

Sophia blinked. This wasn’t the first time she’d run into slang Dav didn’t get, but it didn’t happen often. Their worlds seemed pretty close in a lot of ways; slang was one of the things she’d have assumed was the least likely to transfer even with a shared language, but most of it did. It shocked her that something so ubiquitous as Big Brother wasn’t something he knew. “You know, the government is watching? I think calling the government Big Brother is from a movie, but I’m not sure which one. Vocational Registry sounds like a required registration program for potentially dangerous people. Some countries have one back home, but none of them work. It’s impossible to verify so it’s really just a joke.”

“Ahh.” Dav seemed to be saying he understood, but Sophia was pretty sure he didn’t really get it.

Sophia tried to remember what she’d been talking about before Dav derailed her by asking about Cliff’s opinions. Oh, yeah, spells. “Cliff collected some spells from that fight. He also got a technique, but I definitely won’t be taking it; rage that burns you up from the inside seems like a terrible technique.”

“Which ones did you take?” Dav sounded interested.

Sophia glanced over and saw that he was watching her instead of the road ahead of them. She felt her cheeks tighten with a grin as she looked back at the road. It certainly wouldn’t do to trip while he was watching. “I haven’t picked yet. I only have one open slot; I can buy more if the spells are worth it, but I haven’t decided what to get yet.”

“If it’s like mine, you’ll want to be picky. The slots get more expensive each time you get one. The spells don’t seem to change, and the slots only go up five Wisps each time, but that seems like it’ll add up quickly if you aren’t careful.” Dav chuckled softly. “I think I made decent choices. It’s hard to be sure when the Guide gives such terrible descriptions.”

“Oh?” Sophia grinned a little as she tilted her head. There was nothing quite like sharing new Ability choices with a friend, and while the Guide wasn’t the Voice, she was very interested. “What did you pick up? Two hundred points is a lot.”

“Two hundred?” Dav sounded startled. “I only got one-fifty.”

Sophia frowned. She knew the Voice awarded progress based on learning and practice, but the Guide didn’t. She’d finally found the time to ask Arryn about it during the trip from Fallen Kestii. “Didn’t Arryn say that Wisps came from completing challenges? We did the same things.”

Dav shook his head. “You put out the fires in the village.”

“Fifty Wisps for that when it was only a hundred fifty for rescuing villagers? The village was in pretty bad shape; I bet it’ll need to be rebuilt almost completely.” Sophia snorted. It didn’t make sense on any kind of scale she could think of. “If I prevented the fire in the first place, maybe, or if it weren’t a half-remembered ritual I built years ago then used wildly. You helped, too, you told me where to aim.”

Dav shrugged. “We can ask Revina if you want to, but I bet she got the same as I did or even less since she was guarding the tunnel instead of actively evacuating people.”

Sophia looked back towards the wagon. Revina wasn’t visible, so she was either inside or talking to the villagers. She’d have to ask later if she remembered. “I hope not. We needed someone there, just in case. It’s not fair to get lower rewards because you did what you needed to in order to keep people safe.” She hoped that Revina had received at least as many Wisps as Dav or Sophia; guarding the tunnel on her own was potentially dangerous, stressful, and boring when it wasn’t stressful.

“I definitely didn’t want to be the person guarding it,” Dav agreed. “If Arryn doesn’t know how the Guide hands out Wisps, I doubt we’ll figure it out any time soon. What did you spend yours on?”

Sophia blinked. Hadn’t she just said she hadn’t picked yet? “I haven’t. I think I should pick spells from what Cliff collected before I pick everything else. Or maybe I should look at what’s available? I didn’t see anything the last time I looked that really jumped out.”

Dav shrugged. “I saw some things I don’t remember seeing before, but there are so many options it’s hard to be sure. The most interesting ones were my new Summons - here, let me show you.”

Dav

Summons:

Unaffiliated Abilities:

Chaos-Warped Human

(Bastion of Health, 1, 1)

Innate Communication (Bonus, Free)

(Eye Image)

(Thorn Emitter, 1, 1)

(Mana Core Specialization: Eldritch, 1, 1)

Body: 8

(Eyes that See, 1, 1)

(Empty, 1, 1)

Core: 2

(Eye Image)

Attunements:

Species Abilities:

Shield: 10

Contraceptive Amulet, 3

(Bonded Armor, 1, 1)

(Empty, 1, 1)

Wisps: 6

Eldritch Armor, 7 (Growth)

Level: 1

Eldritch Summoner Abilities:

Spheres

Perfect Fit: Dav

(Eldritch Reinforcement, 1, 1)

Eldritch Summoner (Hallow)

Rapid Assembly

(Eldritch Weapon Alteration, 1, 1)

Level:1

“I managed to use all but five of the new points,” Dav stated almost proudly. “I didn’t see anything in the Unaffiliated section that I wanted more than the two summons, so I went with them, and I figured I should leave a Species slot open to see if I can get another free ability. Other than that, the chance to maybe get weapons like the armor I have is too good to pass up.”

Sophia nodded, then paused. “You think Eldritch Weapon Alteration will do that? Why didn’t you take it first?”

“I didn’t see it,” Dav admitted. “It’s one of the ones that makes me think some things might have been added, but there are so many options I might have just missed them.”

It almost made her wish for the Voice’s limits. It generally gave no more than five Path options, all of which were viable and different from each other. She’d thought that was a bit limited and never understood her father’s grumbling about “too many options” until she saw what the Guide gave as options.

There were literally hundreds of options and most of them were absolutely terrible. Did anyone actually need help with Basic Wand Use? Sure, maybe it was like the Voice’s Path Skills in combat styles, mostly intended for people who didn’t have access to teachers, but it certainly wasn’t something Sophia would ever pick. There was no reason to present it to her.

She hadn’t asked about that yet. Revina hadn’t mentioned it, which worried Sophia; what if it was something that was tied to having a Hallow? The Wanderer wanted to keep that quiet; how important was that, really?

For now, she’d be careful how she asked the question. She’d also ask Revina instead of Arryn; for all that he’d been helpful, Sophia kept getting the feeling that he had deeper plans. She didn’t think he was hostile. In fact, she thought he wanted all three of them to do well. That didn’t mean he didn’t have plans for them, though, and that worried her.

“Eldritch Weapon Attunement wasn’t very descriptive,” Dav continued. “It just talked about claiming a weapon as my own. I’m guessing that’s like bonding the armor, only I might get some choice in its abilities? I’m hoping for either resizing or the ability to summon it to my hand; either one would add a bunch of options.”

“Does it really not give you more than that? That’s not much of a clue on how to get it to work. The abilities I’ve seen weren’t detailed but they gave a starting point, at least.” Sophia knew that her Imbue Blade didn’t say everything it could do, but it gave the basics: put power in a weapon to make it stronger and throw the power you’d invested as an attack. It didn’t say you could change exactly what the shape of the power was, but that wasn’t a huge leap from what it did say.

Dav shook his head. “No, it just says I can imbue it with my eldritch might and claim the weapon. It’s really not much. It’s still better than Eyes that See.”

Sophia wasn’t sure how anything could be less helpful than that without being utterly useless. “What does that one say?”

“Summon the Sight of the Eyes that See.” Dav stopped and grinned at Sophia. “Really, that’s it. I wanted something that would let me see magic. It was the only ability I saw that seemed likely to do that; I didn’t have a Mage Sight like what you mentioned. I spent a lot of time looking through the Species menu, but that wasn’t there. Eyes that See was, but I just couldn’t take it. What if it gives me another eye or something?”

However much Sophia wanted to reassure Dav, the “Eldritch” energy he was messing with was what she knew as Potential. The Guide also called it Chaos or Primordial Chaos. Sophia’s eyes widened as she realized that was the key. “I think I know why your descriptions are so terrible.”

Dav raised an eyebrow at her quizzically.

“The Guide doesn’t know what they’ll do. It might sort of know, but it’s dealing with chaos. You have to guide it and set the form it’s going to follow. If you think it’ll give you another eye, it probably will, but if you think it’ll just change the way your eyes look, that’s probably what it’ll do. I bet that’s why it can’t say too much; it needs you to have a general idea of what’s going to happen but it can’t be sure it’ll manage exactly what it intends because you can alter it and it’s playing with things it can’t fully control. It’s sort of like the partial successes you get at shaping what your healing beacon looks like.” It was only a guess, but Sophia thought it was a horribly convincing guess.