Broken Lands

While the others cut off an arm and stuffed it into a burlap sack that Amy happened to have, Sophia pulled together the spell for a proper magelight. Her handheld light was good, but it was somewhat focused, like a flashlight. If she was willing to spend the mana, she could make one that lit a larger area and see better.

For some reason, everyone turned to look when she cast the spell. Dav almost immediately turned back to the grisly task of removing an arm, but the others seemed shocked.

“You didn’t say you had a light spell,” Rae Quinn scolded Sophia. “We could have used it earlier.”

Sophia flushed. She didn’t think that was entirely fair; they probably wouldn’t have used a wide light like this. Even if plants didn’t see, they’d probably notice light where there wasn’t supposed to be any. There was no point in making a beacon. Even so, it was true she hadn’t mentioned it, which meant no one other than her got input about whether or not it would be useful.

“This one doesn’t move and can’t be adjusted at all,” Sophia countered weakly. “My magelight is a lot more adjustable, turns on faster, and takes a lot less mana than this spell, even without all the extra features. I don’t use it often, I didn’t think of it.”

Sophia was used to everyone carrying their own light. The fact that magelights seemed to actually be expensive here was odd to her; they were a common consumer good on Earth. Yes, they cost some money, but any delver could afford one, whether they chose a battery-powered one or a magelight like Sophia’s. There were more expensive models out there, but Sophia was happy with the one she had.

“It’s just-” Rae broke off her comment with a headshake followed by a sigh. “Just warn us next time, okay?”

Sophia nodded her agreement. She couldn’t quite interpret Rae’s reaction; she’d originally thought Rae was upset, but the fire seemed to go out awfully quickly. She didn’t think it was envy, at least. That could break parties faster than almost anything other than sleeping with the wrong person.

“There, it’s wrapped up.” Dav’s soft words interrupted whatever standoff was left between Rae and Sophia. “Are we ready to go?”

Sophia shook her head as she tried to get her thoughts back in order. “I think we should look around here for a bit, see if there’s anything here. Why was there a corpsevine on this side of the door with the door closed?”

That was why she’d created the light, after all.

“Good idea,” Dav agreed the way Sophia knew he would. He wasn’t one to leave even possible loot behind, though he’d gotten a little less adamant about it once he realized this was real life and not a game. “This place seems awfully empty for a storeroom.”

Sophia glanced around and found she agreed with Dav. There were a few crude tables and one set of shelves, but other than a handful of pots that held nothing obvious other than old dry soil and one nearly flat bag, they were empty. Off to the side of the door, a small group of rusty gardening tools leaned against the wall.

A little ways down from there, there was a pair of ratty old blankets with several holes and a small, empty bowl. They didn’t look like they were good blankets even when they were new. Sophia had a hard time believing they belonged to the woman who was taken over by the corpsevine they’d just killed; she seemed to be far too well taken care of for that. At the same time, she didn’t know what else to assume about them.

Sophia turned to take in the rest of the room. There wasn’t really anything else of note, other than an odd shine that might be a trick of the light under one of the tables. Sophia crouched down; there was something there, but she couldn’t get a good look from where she was. She sent her Animated Blade under the table to push it out into the light.

It was a rock. An approximately round rock about the size of a baseball with a flatter face that lay aground the floor; Sophia thought it had flipped onto that face when she pushed it out from under the table. That seemed like the most likely source of the shine, so she used the Animated Blade to flip it onto its back.

It wasn’t just a rock. Sophia was pretty sure the sparkling colored bands inside the rock meant it was a geode that had been roughly hacked open. She could see several different colors; the outer one was a yellow or maybe yellow-orange, then a greenish blue, perhaps a teal? Inside that, there was a thin band Sophia thought might be blue, followed by a definite purple and then the teal again in the very center.

It was pretty. It also didn’t belong in a greenhouse. Conservatory. Whatever. “Why is there a geode here?”

“A what?” Moti’s words seemed to capture the feelings of the rest of her party. They all crowded around the geode.

Sophia took a moment to look at it with her MageSight. It glowed, but only barely. “It’s very, very weakly magical. I don’t see any sign of spellforms or any structure to the magic, so it’s probably safe to touch. I think we should take it with us and show it to Rensyn along with the arm.”

She didn’t really think it had anything to do with the corpsevine infestation. It was too weak. It was still worth taking, however; if nothing else, they ought to be able to sell it.

Sophia looked around, wishing she had a way to carry the rock that wasn’t loose in her backpack. It shouldn’t interact with the enchantment, but this place was strange enough to make her paranoid.

Wait. Did she still have those magically insulated silk bags her mother talked her into carrying back when she first started delving? The only time she’d ever used one was the one time she did a delve in a new dungeon and that turned out to be nothing worse than a variety of magical ore she didn’t recognize, but she didn’t remember ever deciding to take them out. They didn’t take up much space.

Sophia had to really dig through her bag to find them, but her hand felt silk before it felt the bottom of the space inside the pack. She pulled the bag out. She definitely needed to repack and figure out exactly what she had in the bag soon. There could easily be other small things she’d forgotten about.

Heck, there could be something large she’d forgotten about. When was the last time she’d actually gone through everything hiding in all of the expanded-space pockets?

Sophia wasn’t sure. It could have been years.

Rather than think about that depressing topic, Sophia used the bag to scoop up the geode without touching it, then tucked it away in her pack for safekeeping. “Did anyone find anything else?”

“A couple of coins, that’s all,” Moti said from near the entrance.

“I’m pretty sure the corpsevine came in the same way we did,” Rae informed the others. “It might have been trying to get to the others or something. This door is locked and the key isn’t here.”

Sophia’s head whipped around to stare at Rae. She hadn’t realized the woman was messing with the door that might lead to other corpsevines. “Don’t do that! We don’t want them to know we’re here, even if they can’t get through the door.”

“I wasn’t going to open the door,” Rae said somewhat mulishly. “I hadn’t gotten past looking anyway.”

“Good,” Amy interjected. “I’ve got the arm, Sophia has the geode. Dav, do you have anything? I want to get out of this place. It smells like rot, and I think I know what was rotting.”

Sophia couldn’t help but glance at the body on the floor. It made sense that it was rotting. At the same time, she wondered what they’d find once they got into the Conservatory itself. Would there be more plant-zombies? Would they be bones with plants growing on them? Did the “cuttings” even last long enough for that?

Sophia shook her head. She wasn’t even sure they’d go back, though she rather expected that was Rensyn’s plan.

“Nothing.” Dav sounded distinctly unhappy about it, too.

Oddly enough, that made Sophia grin a little. She could have predicted how Dav would react to not finding anything and this gave her the chance to cheer him up once they were back at the Registry. She was already looking forward to it.

Sophia cut her connection to the spell lighting up the room just before they stepped outside. It was light out but not bright, and she didn’t want to accidentally attract attention. It probably wouldn’t, but she was pretty sure this was a case of better safe than sorry and she definitely didn’t want to attract more corpsevines. Sure, one cutting wasn’t a problem, but who said it would be only one next time?

Lillah was waiting for them outside when they emerged. With her help, finding their way back inside the city’s wards was simple and safe, if time consuming. From there, it was a reasonably easy trek back to the Registry.

It was barely afternoon when they arrived. The first step inside the Registry building reminded Sophia that breakfast was a long time ago and wildly inadequate as the smell of cooking food wafted from the tavern at the back of the building.

Dav’s stomach rumbled almost in time with Sophia’s. He chuckled and gave Sophia a quick side hug, grabbing her then releasing her again almost immediately. “Let’s get this taken care of so we can get some food.”

Rensyn wasn’t in the lobby. Aimiva was once again at the front desk, but Amy was already on her way there with the arm, still wrapped in its concealing burlap sack. Sophia grabbed Dav’s hand and followed Amy; she wanted to know if they needed to wait for Rensyn or if they should get food first.

Aimiva nodded along to Amy’s explanation, which Sophia noticed didn’t actually include what Rensyn sent them out to check on. When Amy finished, Aimiva reached under the desk she stood at and seemed to concentrate for a moment. Sophia almost reflexively activated her MageSight and saw exactly what she expected: a small flow of mana from Aimiva to whatever was hidden by the desk. She was clearly activating a magic item of some sort, probably something that would call Rensyn.

Once she finished, Aimiva turned to the table behind her and opened a cabinet door, then pulled a small key on a single ring off a small hook. The sight made Sophia reach into her pocket for the similar key that unlocked the room she shared with Dav. It was positively quaint to use a key to lock and unlock things, something from a historical movie instead of real life.

Aimiva closed the cabinet with a jangle from the other keys, then walked out from behind her desk. “Follow me, we have a small meeting room for things like this. Rensyn doesn’t like to use it, but you should know where it is and he can put up with it; the last thing I want is to have to hunt you down once he turns up. I think I know where he is, but with Rensyn you never know. He should be with you shortly.”