Broken Lands

It took long enough for Rensyn to show up that Sophia really wished they’d stopped for food first, or at least asked Aimiva if they could have food sent to the meeting room. No one seemed to want to talk, which left Sophia stewing in her own thoughts and half-wishing for food while she kept her eyes resolutely off the arm that sat at the far end of the table from where everyone in the group had chosen chairs.

At the same time, she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to eat before they handed over the arm. She thought she was handling it pretty well, but every time she thought about the way the corpsevine-controlled woman opened her mouth, Sophia felt a little nauseous. She was trying to think about this like a delve, but this was the first time she’d ever come back from a delve with a human or human-like arm as a prize.

It shouldn’t bother her. She’d fought in dungeons with zombie monsters and they didn’t bother her the way they bothered some people.

They didn’t look alive the way that woman had and then suddenly reveal the monstrosity beneath, either.

Sophia scooted her chair a bit closer to Dav’s and leaned up against him. He put an arm around her shoulders without saying anything. It made her feel better, somehow, to know there was someone there for her, someone she could count on for help. The fact that he couldn’t really do anything about the corpsevines wasn’t important at that moment.

Naturally, just as Sophia was finally starting to get comfortable, the door opened. Rensyn came in first, followed by a man who was probably a few years senior to Rensyn; Sophia couldn’t guess ages that well when they were both so much older than she was, but Rensyn moved more fluidly than the new man.

He had red hair, which made Sophia think of Uncle Blaze, but he lost to her uncle in every other measure. Uncle Blaze would never wear that sort of loose, layered multicolored robe; he preferred practical, easily washable clothes. Uncle Blaze usually had his hair up, instead of long and draped across his shoulders. Uncle Blaze also knew how to fight with both his hands and his magic, while this man moved like he’d never had to think about fighting.

The biggest place that he lost, however, was none of those. It was simply the fact that he wasn’t Uncle Blaze. Sophia knew it wasn’t fair to compare every redheaded man to her uncle, but it was hard. She missed her uncle.

Rensyn turned right when he entered the room, headed towards the group, but the redhead went left. He’d zeroed in on the arm like it was exactly what he was looking for. Maybe it was.

“What did you find?” Rensyn asked urgently. His gaze swept along the group and he seemed to relax a little. “Did any of you get hurt?”

“We’re all fine,” Sophia answered the second question first. “Dav’s arm was twisted, but it couldn’t get through his armor.”

Under other circumstances, Sophia would want a healer like her uncle to check on Dav’s arm, but at this point she had faith in Dav’s healing beacon, more faith than she had in the local healers. If there was any minor injury, it would take care of it without the need for outside healing. She hadn’t even met any healers; it was the most notable omission from the tour of the Registry hall, now that she thought about it. The Adventurers’ Guild building back home had an entire wing of one floor dedicated to healers, even though many groups had some sort of healing with them when they went into any dungeon.

Dav’s arm tightened around Sophia, but he didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure if that meant he wanted to say something himself or if he was thanking her for talking; either way, she was confident she’d find out later.

“That’s great,” Rensyn said with a grin as he seemed to relax still more. His eyes fell on Lillah and he frowned slightly. “Who are you?”

“It’s definitely corpsevine, and fresh,” the redhead at the other end of the table declared before Lillah could answer. “I really hoped you were wrong.”

“I’m Lillah Gardener,” Lillah stated, seeming to ignore everyone except Rensyn. She clearly didn’t miss anything, however, because she went on to make her offer. “I’m here because I can find corpsevines and their cuttings. Sophia said that was something you’d value; can we come to an arrangement?”

“Yes,” the redhead declared, speaking over whatever Rensyn’s answer would have been. “We can. I’m Matt Walsh, and I’m the person you need to talk to about that. I will almost certainly be commanding the effort to eradicate the corpsevines, completely this time. Someone who can find them would be very useful. First, one moment…”

Matt Walsh paused just long enough to take a good look at everyone in the room, including Lillah and Rensyn. He then turned to the table and stared at the geode where it sat on the insulating silk bag for a moment. “It’s dead and everyone here is clean. Rensyn, make sure the arm and the burlap bag are burned. The rock and the bag under it are fine, so you can do whatever you want with them. Come talk to me when you’re done with your mentees. For now, though, Miss Gardener?”

Lillah twitched in surprise when she realized that when Matt Walsh said “Miss Gardener,” he meant her. “Yes?”

Sophia got the impression that not many people used her last name with her. Of course, that assumed that Gardener was her original last name; it wouldn’t surprise Sophia much to learn that it was one she’d assumed after she got the profession.

Matt Walsh nodded. “Follow me. We need to have a long talk about what you do to find corpsevines. And how I’m going to pay you, of course.”

It was obvious that Matt Walsh cared a lot more about finding the corpsevines than he did about paying Lillah. Sophia was certain that Lillah could still do something with that; after all, as far as they knew, no one else could sense them at a distance.

Once the door closed behind Lillah, Rensyn leaned against one of the walls and sighed. “Sorry to spring that on you. I was talking to Matt when you returned, and he’s one of the few people who can tell where an enemy is. It works on corpsevines, even when they’re not in a body, but he has to be able to see them. We assume that’s how some of them escaped last time. If one was somewhere we didn’t look or even buried in the dirt somewhere, he could miss them. We also don’t know how they got into the Conservatory in the first place, but since it hasn’t been used since then…”

Rensyn’s apology trailed off with a wave of his hand, as if to indicate that it wasn’t important. Sophia could see where it probably wasn’t important for the current infestation, but it was something they really ought to try to find out to prevent another infestation from consuming another Conservatory. There had to be others if this was the West Conservatory, didn’t there?

Sophia shook her head to clear it. She could bring up investigating the corpsevines’ origin once they had something to investigate, which meant after they’d killed them all. She glanced at the arm on the table, shook her head, and added another condition. After they’d burned the bodies, too. She certainly wouldn’t be comfortable going through the West Conservatory for clues before that.

“That isn’t how I’d have wanted you to meet him, but Matt was right: he’ll almost certainly be commanding the effort to rid Casterville of corpsevines. He’s our only full commander, uniquely qualified to-”

“I won’t work under him,” Amy interrupted Rensyn. “Not in the way that makes his Spheres work. I won’t place anyone’s judgment above my own.”

Rensyn frowned. He clearly hadn’t expected Amy’s objection. “If you know that much about commanders, you have to know the benefits they bring.”

Amy nodded as she stared defiantly at Rensyn. “I do, but I still won’t agree to following someone else’s orders even if I think I should do something else, and that’s what being under a commander means. Sure, you can try to work around the restrictions, but do what you think is best based on what you find doesn’t work. You have to actually be following a command, not a suggestion. That means consequences for disobeying the command, and I won’t accept that. I’ll fight corpsevines, I’ll even try my best to do the tasks I’m assigned, but I won’t do it under a commander. I figure I’d better make that really clear before we start.”

“Well, I don’t.” Dav surprised Sophia when he spoke. She’d expected him to be quiet and listen, the way she was. “What does a commander do?”

“Depends a bit on the commander,” Amy answered without taking her eyes off Rensyn. “People under their command are faster, stronger, use less mana, all sorts of things. It’s like having an enhancement mage except a commander and an enhancement mage can work together in a way two enhancement mages can’t. Thing is, there’s always a cost and for a commander that cost is that you have to be under their command to get the benefits and disobeying orders has a penalty. No one’s quite sure how the Guide decides when someone’s under another’s orders, but we know that trying to ride that line and get the boost without the cost doesn’t work. If you go into a fight knowing you’ll pull back at a point different from where the commander ordered, you won’t get the boost. If you come back because going forward will get you killed but that wasn’t in your orders, the backlash will hurt you, maybe even cripple you. It’s a lot of trust to give someone, and I don’t trust him that much.”

Sophia stared at Amy for a moment then turned towards Rensyn in disbelief. Up to now, the Spheres here had seemed more or less analogous to the Paths she was used to, but there was no Path like that that Sophia could think of. There were certainly Paths that could help others, but a Path that could cripple someone else if they didn’t do what the “commander” said? That was not something that matched up with a Path that improved others; it sounded more like a curse than a blessing.

Unexpectedly, Rensyn didn’t contradict Amy. Instead, he took a deep breath and let it out. “That’s … very unlikely. I’ve worked with Matt before; he knows to set up orders so that you can retreat if things are too bad. It’s not going to go the way you’re imagining.”

“That’s right,” Amy agreed, “Because I’m not going to let anyone else make those decisions for me. I’ll go solo or even back out of the task if I have to. Clearing out the West Conservatory will be worth a high reward but a high reward isn’t worth that.”

Sophia glanced at Dav. She wanted to support Amy, but she wasn’t sure if that was the right call. Dav met her eyes and tilted his head slightly towards Amy. Sophia took that as him asking her what she wanted to do, so she nodded slightly.

Dav nodded back at Sophia, then turned towards Amy. “You won’t have to go solo. Sophia and I will watch your back, whether or not that means we’re benefiting from Matt’s abilities. That’s no reason to split up the group.” Dav paused and looked towards Rensyn. “Us being there won’t mess things up for anyone else, will it?”

“We’ll go, too,” Rae piped up. “I think we worked together against the corpsevine pretty well, we can do it again. It’ll be easier now that I know what to look for.”

Sophia wasn’t so sure they’d done well, but that was fixable. The important thing for now was that they were all still willing to work together.

Rensyn seemed to feel the same way. He shook his head, but it was with a smile. “No, it won’t interfere. I’ll have to talk to Matt about it, but there are always some groups that don’t come under the commander’s umbrella for one reason or another. I’m glad you five are willing to stay together. Now, tell me ... why do you have a shiny rock on the table?”