Broken Lands

Sophia wasn’t sure why she assumed they’d head out to deal with the corpsevines the next day when the corpsevines had been there for years. Maybe it was the fact that Rensyn asked them to go ahead and use their Wisps?

That wasn’t what happened. Instead, the Vocational Registry building was a hive of activity, with people hurrying through the lobby at all hours. It reminded Sophia of the Adventurer’s Guild at home on a holiday weekend, when everyone who liked delving but didn’t do it for their income came to visit and at least half the groups needed experienced guides. Most people didn’t really want to spend their life fighting monsters, after all. If dungeons weren’t the only significant source of Etherium and the main source of mana stones and monster cores, there would probably be a lot fewer delvers.

At the same time, it was odd. Unlike the rushes at home, which were always a bit crazy but also expected and planned for, this seemed far more haphazard. It was like they had a plan but never used it. They might even be coming up with the plan as they went.

Whatever the reason was, Sophia and her team were kept busy running errands all over Casterville. When they weren’t carrying messages, they were training. Sophia welcomed the physical training; she hadn’t fought with anyone who was distinctly better trained than she was since she was thrown into a new world, and it showed.

The magical training was less impressive. Sophia did not care about wand technique and had no desire to learn it. Unless the wand was enchanted to carry a spellform, all using a wand did was indicate that you were casting and where the spell would come from; it was far better to use aura manipulation. The fact that the people Rensyn found to teach her didn’t know how to use their auras to create proper spellforms and could only do extremely basic Intent-based magic without a Guide-granted spell meant that there was nothing they could teach her in terms of how to cast magic.

It wasn’t until Rensyn tapped Samuel, the Fire mage, as a teacher that Sophia actually had a magic instructor she could trust. He took an entire training session to find out what she could do and what she already knew instead of starting with “the things every young mage should know” and then proceeded to start teaching her things she didn’t know, starting with how the Guide separated Spells and Martial Techniques.

It was annoyingly simple. Spells required mana, while martial techniques were more tiring. Martial techniques also always required appropriate movement, but Samuel noted that most people didn’t require that a difference because most people had to move to cast spells.

There were martial techniques for things that seemed like spells, like flying or teleportation or even offensive abilities. There were spells for things that sounded a lot like material techniques, like sharpening a blade or running faster.

The more Sophia heard, the more she wanted a Martial Technique other than Stunning Roar. It was of limited use, but the real problem was that she couldn’t learn anything from it. The emotional state that was required to use it made it almost impossible for her to carefully examine what the Ability did. It had to have a power source, and “makes the user tired” wasn’t all that helpful as a description.

Sophia clearly needed to hunt some more monsters that used Martial Techniques so that Cliff could learn them. She’d also have to get enough Wisps to buy the slot, but that shouldn’t be too expensive, even at Level Two.

Sophia clearly needed to find Rensyn. When Samuel said he was done for the day, she hurried into the lobby. Aimiva was at the reception desk, exactly as Sophia expected. There were several people in front of Sophia, but the line wasn’t that long. As Sophia watched, the man at the front of the line got a key, nodded deeply to Aimiva, and headed to the stairs.

“What’s going on here?” The young girl who was now at the front of Aimiva’s line set a small cloth pouch on the desk in front of Aimiva. It clinked with a tone that sounded like metal; Sophia assumed it was probably coins. “I could barely get anyone’s attention to take the deer when I brought it home and they said everyone was running because of something here at the Registry?”

“It’s nothing you need to worry about, Lady Essia. We’re preparing for a big hunt; there are some monsters on the outskirts that need to be dealt with. I’m sure your mentor will let you know if you’re on the call list once it’s figured out. I assume you want a room?” Aimiva’s smile was calm and professional, but it was blatantly obvious that she didn’t think she should tell the girl anything.

It made Sophia sympathetic. She could remember all too many times where people didn’t want to talk to her. It didn’t matter if it was because of who her parents were or just that they thought she was too young to worry about things; it was always intensely frustrating.

Lady Essia seemed to be in her mid teens, probably sixteen or seventeen. Her brown hair and freckles reminded Sophia a little of Amy, but she had four ears instead of two and her upper ears weren’t wolves’ ears. Sophia wasn’t certain what they were; they were too rounded and full for any of the animals she could think of immediately. They definitely weren’t dog’s ears. They were closer to racoon ears, but even that was wrong, and they were a bit too pointy for bear ears. Her lower ears were even pointier, although they were shorter than Sophia’s.

A closer look at the girl’s clothing showed that she was richly dressed, with several layers of clothing. She had fur weaved into her hair near the top and what looked like reddish hair extensions forming braids; they didn’t quite match her natural hair color, but that almost seemed deliberate. The pendant she had around her neck was clearly her Registry badge. It was, if anything, even fancier than the ones Dav and Sophia wore, so it had to be one of the nicer ones that came with additional benefits. That probably explained the mention of a mentor.

“Yep,” Lady Essia agreed. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be here this time, it depends on when Father realizes he hasn’t seen me for a few days. He was way too busy to interrupt his schedule for his daughter, so …”

Essia shrugged. She didn’t seem particularly upset; it was more like this was normal. “I’m guessing a couple weeks. Where is Mentor Samuel, anyway? I think I figured out the twisting thing he was trying to teach me while I was hunting and I want to see if I’m doing it right.”

“I’m not sure,” Aimiva admitted. “Probably in his workroom; that’s where he usually is. I know he’s not out in the field, but he could be elsewhere in Casterville.”

Sophia shook her head and spoke up. “He’s out in the practice yard; he said something about working on his weaves when he sent me inside.”

Aimiva mouthed a “thank you” towards Sophia while Lady Essia’s back was turned before she grabbed a key. “Here you go, Lady Essia. You’re in the usual room.”

“Thank you!” Lady Essia chirped, then moved to the side. Sophia noticed that she kept glancing between the exit and Sophia, almost like she was nervous.

Before Sophia could decide whether she should check on the girl or not, Aimiva finished with the man in front of Sophia and called her forward. “What do you need, Sophia? Is something wrong with your room?”

Sophia shook her head. “No, nothing like that. I was just wondering if you had any idea where Rensyn is?”

Aimiva shook her head. “You’re not going to be able to find him ‘til this evening; he’s coordinating something for the Commander, so he’s in Casterville running around. He’ll be back for dinner, but it may be a late dinner.”

Sophia nodded. That was when she’d seen him for most of the past week, if she saw him at all. “That’s what I figured. Thanks.”

Sophia turned away from Aimiva only to find that Lady Essia had bounced up to her. She was shorter than Sophia had thought; Lady Essia was only as tall as Sophia’s chin.

“Can you lead me to Mentor Samuel?” Lady Essia glanced towards the door again, then back at Sophia. “Since you know where he is? Are you taking lessons from him too? He’s the best, isn’t he?”

Sophia blinked at Lady Essia’s string of questions. The reason Aimiva was relieved by Sophia’s intervention was suddenly a lot more obvious. She turned and led the way out the door before she answered. “Yes, I am. I hadn’t realized he had any other students; have you been taking lessons from him for long?”

“Oh, years and years,” Lady Essia answered with a wave of her hand behind her. “My Father doesn’t have time to teach me, so he arranged for Mentor Samuel to visit the Palace three times a week when I was little. He’s unhappy I took a Vocation instead of waiting for a Profession and blames Mentor Samuel for it, though, so that doesn’t happen anymore. I have to come here if I want to learn more. It shouldn’t be a problem but Father doesn’t like it when I remind him I’m an adult so I don’t usually get to stay here for long. He doesn’t object to the animals I hunt even if he does make me take guards. It makes it really hard to gather Wisps, I can’t do anything important and even when I’m doing something useful I have higher Level guards which makes it so that I barely get any Wisps. I’ll never Level at this rate.”

“Calm down and breathe, Essia.” Samuel’s amused voice interrupted Lady Essia’s increasingly high pitched rant. “I know it’s tough, but your father doesn’t want you hurt.”

“I’ve had a Vocation for a year and all I have is three spells,” Lady Essia countered. “I was able to choose two of them when I picked my Vocation! One spell in a year isn’t tough, it’s useless.”

“You’re a lot better at control than you were,” Samuel countered. “Undirected healing is fine for restoring shield, but not for bodily healing or purification. One spell also isn’t all you’ve gained; be honest.”

“Fine. One spell and two Starcaller Special Abilities. I can stun my enemies and temporarily blind anyone who attacks me. I still have to use a weapon to actually kill deer! No mage is supposed to have to use weapons,” Lady Essia whined.

“I do,” Sophia countered. “So does Dav, and I know Samuel knows how to use a knife even if he doesn’t prefer to. That’s not really what’s upsetting you, is it?”

Lady Essia looked like she’d just lost the ground under her feet. She turned to Samuel for support but he shook his head. She looked down and muttered. “No. It’s just - I thought I’d have a spell for everything by now. It’s been a year and I’m not even level two.”

Sophia felt her irritation with the girl melt. Essia was clearly a bit spoiled, but under that she seemed to have the ability to admit when she was wrong. Sophia could also understand the girl’s position.

“It wasn’t my father that tried to keep me safe, it was my mother,” Sophia told Essia. “You’re what, seventeen? I didn’t manage to convince Mom that I could go out in groups I found for myself until I was eighteen, almost nineteen. It sucks, but I remember telling myself it meant my Mom cared.”

“And I think I have a solution,” Samuel said. “Lady Essia, just how good is your Purify spell now?”