Broken Lands

“Are you telling me I can’t be a spellcaster?” Dav sounded upset. He’d certainly heard something Sophia hadn’t paid any attention to in the bad news that her lack of Skills might be permanent. Was she going to have to relearn all of her Paths?

“No.” The Wanderer didn’t sound bothered by Dav’s outburst. “I’m telling you that you didn’t arrive here with a mana core. If you choose a mana-using Sphere, the Guide will establish a mana core. Of everything he does, that’s one of the most valuable.”

The Wanderer was clearly telling Dav to calm down. Sophia needed to do the same thing. Rebuilding a Path wasn’t unknown; her father did it, for one, and so did Aunt Kaasi. It took time and effort but could lead to better Paths if you did it right, Paths more suited to who you wanted to be than the person you’d been when you took them the first time. She didn’t think she’d changed enough to justify it, but apparently she now had a guest. A guest she’d never heard from; that was worrying in its own way, especially if she had to adjust her Path to accommodate his.

Before Sophia could spin herself back up, the Wanderer sighed. “Time is limited. How about we do this the other way around; I’ll show you some Hallows I can grant you and you can ask questions?”

He didn’t wait for either of them to answer.

Your Patron has offered you a choice of Hallows!

As you have no other Sphere, the Hallow you choose now will become your primary Sphere.

Choosing a primary Hallow will not prevent the choice of a Profession, Vocation, or secondary Hallow, but you may be unable to return to your primary Hallow without your Patron’s permission.

Blessed Blade

Linked Hallow: Blade Manifestor

Knight-Errant

Linked Hallow: Mount Manifestor

Infuser

Linked Hallow: Comestible Manifestor

Linked Hallow: Poison Provider

Linked Hallow: Clockwork Generator <>

Linked Hallow: Blade Manifestor

Linked Hallow: Ammunition Supplier

Disappearing Shadows

Linked Hallow: Shadow Portal

Monster Mimic

Linked Hallow: Monster Memorizer

Wandering Healer

Linked Hallow: Mount Manifestor

Linked Hallow: Comestible Manifestor

Linked Hallow: Blade Manifestor

…

The list was long, far longer than Sophia’s Path choices had ever been. The Linked Hallows also seemed interesting; she probably had to choose one of them, unless that was chosen by Cliff based on which Hallow Sophia picked?

Sophia was still reading through her list when Dav exclaimed. “All right, I’m done. What’s next?”

Sophia blinked at Dav. “How did you get through them that fast? Was your list shorter than mine?”

Dav shrugged. “Probably not, but it was an easy choice. Only two of them said they were Eldritch, which is always worth checking, and I want to try out the magic, so it was easy. Eldritch Summoner.”

Sophia had heard dumber reasons for choosing a Path, but most of them came from people on their first non-Species Path, people between sixteen and twenty. Dav seemed older than that; surely he’d picked a Path before. He was Tier One and just moving into delving … wasn’t he? That was the only way things made sense …

She was definitely going to have to talk to him when they had time.

Sophia turned back to her list. It kept going and going, listing all sorts of possible Paths … er, Hallows. She wasn’t much more than halfway through it when a soft voice spoke in her head. “Collector.”

“What?” Sophia looked around. The voice wasn’t Dav or the Wanderer and she didn’t see anyone new.

“Collector. That’s the Linked Hallow I want.” The voice, which Sophia belatedly recognized had to be Cliff’s voice, sounded a little stronger. “You can pick whatever Hallow you want as long as I get that Linked Hallow. It’s the best, the most general. The closest to who I am.”

Sophia had to admit that she needed something to narrow down her choices, so she might as well start with that and see if there was a Hallow that interested her in the list. She focused her Intent on the image, just like she would have at home, and the list warped.

When she saw that, she frowned and realized she was being dense. There was probably more information than just the name available. Some of the Hallows were clear enough from the name, but others really weren’t. With another push, the image flickered again.

Available Hallows with the Linked Hallow: Collector

Weaponsmaster

You excel in the use of any and all weapons. You may learn additional Weapon Techniques from your partner’s Collection.

Shield Wall

You stand in the way of the enemy. You may borrow from your partner’s Collection of tricks to halt the advance of an enemy and guard your allies.

Effect Inflictor

You may inflict conditions upon enemies that do not always make direct sense through the use of mana. Conditions inflicted must be within your partner’s Collection.

Elementalist

Call upon the power of the Elements to shape the World. The Method and Element must both be within your partner’s Collection, but they do not have to have been Collected together.

Elemental

Choose an Element to emulate. Grow closer to the Element as your partner learns more about it.

Aural Emitter

Enhance your understanding of aura to affect those around you. Any effect recorded in your partner’s Collection may be emitted through your aura.

Natural Fighter

Temporarily or permanently gain enhancements to your body from your partner’s Collection.

Image Specialist

Display the image of something in your partner’s Collection. Images may include any and all senses and may have solidity if enough mana is invested in the image.

Sophia could see what Cliff meant when he said Collector was the most general Linked Hallow; it apparently meant Cliff could Collect anything, whatever that meant. She was pretty certain it didn’t mean he could act as a storage device, but other than that it seemed very open ended.

She’d already rejected several of the options near the top of the list. Shield Wall could be useful under the right circumstances, but not with only one ally. Yes, he was a summoner, but until she knew what he could summon and how well he could control it, that didn’t change things. Weaponsmaster was awesome if she had weapons, but she didn’t. Effect Inflictor was almost the opposite problem; it would probably let her delay enemies like Shield Wall but it didn’t sound like it came with much else. It sounded powerful but once again specialized.

Maybe she was overthinking it. “Wanderer? Is it a problem if I overspecialize? Some of these seem really narrow.”

“They are,” the ball of light agreed. “They’re generally powerful within their niche but if you run into something they don’t work on, you’re in trouble. I was always a generalist, personally. That’s what I’d recommend for you, as well, though I can’t deny the power of a properly-used specialist Hallow. That’s why they’re there. Normally I’d limit the list more, but I simply don’t know enough about you. If something isn’t included in your Spheres, it will be hard to get any assistance with it, and new Spheres are very difficult to obtain. You should plan to learn anything not covered by your Hallow yourself.”

That brought up another question, even if she wasn’t sure quite how to ask it. “I don’t see any Eldritch Hallows on my list, even though Dav got one.”

The Wanderer laughed. He seemed to understand her question. “You aren’t Chaos-touched. He is. I’m not sure how you avoided it, since you both came through the Void, but there it is. I was going to say something later, but I’ll say it now before I forget: Dav, be careful what you pull from Chaos. There are things there that aren’t friendly. Be careful that you don’t pull them over or become one yourself.”

“You’re letting him reach back into the Origin?” That was enough to pull Sophia’s attention off her choices and onto the Wanderer’s ball of light. “That’s a terrible idea.”

“That’s why he needs to be careful,” the Wanderer agreed. “It’s possible to warp yourself so you are no longer yourself with an Eldritch Sphere. They are also very powerful; they wouldn’t be so dangerous if they were weak.”

He’d gotten those Hallows as options because he was damaged by the trip through the Origin while she hadn’t because she was relatively comfortable there? That seemed backwards, but Sophia had already noticed that there weren’t any Hallows based on her draconic heritage, either. There weren’t even any based on her extreme Affinity for mana and essence, unless you counted the fact that she apparently now had a dungeon core as a “partner.” There were a whole host of questions she could ask about that, but it was probably better to save them for later unless they’d open up additional Hallows to choose from. “Can learning something about me change the Hallows I’m offered?”

“Not right now.” The Wanderer sounded happy she’d asked. “If you demonstrate a proficiency, it can change the abilities you can choose from; if you have something you think should have been included but can’t find, choose a more general Hallow and you will be able to develop it in that direction.”

They were a lot like Paths then, just Paths that were harder to change. Cliff’s approach of choosing something very broad sounded like a good idea. That immediately struck most of the options off Sophia’s list; the last thing she wanted to have to do was learn how to do everything manually except for aura manipulation, for example. That was probably extremely powerful but it was just so limited!

Elementalist was interesting since it gave the option of any element. If that was like Affinities, it would be broad enough to do anything. It would limit her to using magic, but she could absolutely learn to use weapons on her own. She’d trained for years for that very reason. “Is magic an element? That is, arcane, the pure manipulation of mana and essence?”

The Wanderer chuckled. “No, it’s not nearly that broad. Anything that specifically calls out the elements means the pure conceptual pieces of the natural world. Generally, that’s fire or heat, cold or ice, air or wind or sound or lightning, acid or water or liquid, and stone or metal or earth. Composite elements, like anything affecting living things or even the remnants of living things are rare but also possible. It varies from Sphere to Sphere; concentrate on the Hallow to see exactly what it offers.”

Sophia sighed to herself and tossed Elementalist on the mental pile to come back to later if there was nothing better. A pure mage Hallow was already limited, she didn’t want to be limited in what she could do with it in the future as well.

Elemental wasn’t even worth considering and neither was Natural Fighter. That one sounded like it might even make her more eldritch than Dav, even if it didn’t use the term.

Image Specialist was possible. Actually, it looked pretty good. She suspected it would cost a lot of mana, but it ought to be very flexible for a pure mage-type. It was a little too close to being another summoner, but that wasn’t necessarily terrible. The terrible part was that it was probably a worse summoner. It still made the short list.

Sophia kept going down the list, but when she reached the end, the short list had only three options: Image Summoner, Collections Agent, and Spellblade. Of the three, Collections Agent was definitely the broadest in what it would let her use, since she could use anything “to aid in the Collection of new things.” Spellblade was the most straightforward combat Path in the entire list of Collector-related Hallows, in a way; it allowed her to “use Spells and Martial Techniques in the Collection to enhance her magical and physical combat.”