Explorer of Edregon

Vin stared in shock at the sobbing pulmon as he tried to figure out what had happened. Lumel had gone from happy to see them to wracked with sobs in the blink of an eye, and Vin had no idea what had caused the sudden change. Realizing he was just standing there staring at his crying girlfriend, he quickly stepped closer and pulled her into a hug.

“Hey, it’s alright! Whatever’s wrong, don’t worry, we can tackle it together,” he said, doing his best to comfort her. To his dismay, his words only seemed to make her sob even harder, and he mentally cursed his lack of dating experience as he tried to figure out what to say or do. Thankfully, after a few more seconds of shaking, Lumel managed to get out a few words.

“I’m… sorry,” she said, hiccupping and wiping her tears on the edge of her robes. Taking a few shuddering breaths, she looked at him with watery eyes and gave him a trembling smile. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s actually the exact opposite.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I thought you’d be happy about me learning Replenishing Breath, and I don’twant to call you a liar or anything, but those didn’t exactly look like happy tears if you ask me.”

“I am happy you learned the spell. More than you could possibly imagine… But no, that’s not what the tears were about,” she sighed, squeezing his hands and summoning a purple bubble around them. The world shifted, and Vin blinked as he realized she’d warped them over to the familiar stone chairs that they’d ended up leaving down here. Taking their seats, she sniffled, pulling her hood down a bit more around her face. “…It was the missing Earthers.”

“What, Paul and Eleanor did something when you brought them back?” he asked, surprised by the sudden fire that ignited in his chest. It wasn’t as if he was going to go attack the two older Earthers or anything, but he certainly wasn’t above running off to shout at them. Especially after witnessing Lumel break down like she had.

“Not intentionally,” she said, hesitating before finally coming out with it. “Again, I’d gotten too complacent after running around with you guys the whole day prior. I wasn’t as careful with my hood as I should have been, and Paul ended up seeing my face, and…”

She paused, withdrawing into herself a bit, the sight of which broke Vin’s heart. “…He didn’t mean anything by it, but he screamed as if he’d seen a terrible monster. Once he calmed down and I explained that I was a pulmon and not a human, he apologized, but the way he kept looking at me when he thought I wasn’t watching… the fear and disgust in his eyes…”

“Lumel…” Vin sighed, moving over to her own bench and putting an arm around her. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that. That’s not fair to you. Especially after going out of your way to help the missing Earthers.”

“Eleanor was very sweet at least,” she said, sniffing again. “She didn’t see what I looked like, but after I explained, she chewed Paul out for his reaction and made him apologize a second time. She even asked if I wanted a hug, and she didn’t push the issue when I said no.”

“She did strike me as the kind, grandmotherly type,” he chuckled, gently rubbing her back. “I still can’t believe she picked up the Bodyguard class of all things. I’ll be honest, I just can’t see it.”

“I don’t know, she seemed pretty protective of me after that,” Lumel said, giving him a shaky smile that fell apart just as quickly as it appeared. Sighing, she leaned her head against his shoulder. “Again, I’m sorry for breaking down like that. I was just still upset about Paul’s reaction, and then hearing that you’d gone out of your way to learn a spell that allows you to breathe underwater… the contrast was just too much.”

“I get it,” he said, before hesitating. “…Alright, I somewhat get it. I’d ask if there was anything I could do to help, but I wouldn’t want to make you break down crying again from me being too nice.”

“I don’t want you to stop being nice,” she snorted, wiping the last of the tears from her eyes. “Talking with you and the others is just so different from everyone else. It’s too easy to forget everyone’s natural reaction is to flinch or scream when they see me. It’s a lot. I know I told you before I was planning to look into figuring out a way to solve that problem, but in reality, I was dragging my feet a bit. I think it’s finally time I got on that.”

“Whatever you want, just let me know if I can help,” he said, earning a bright smile and a quick kiss from her as she sat up straighter in her seat. Taking a deep breath, she shook her head and steeled her resolve.

“I appreciate that, but I think this is something I need to figure out. I spoke with Kym earlier, and he helped me come up with a few ideas. I think my level 45 passive might actually hold the answer to my problems, and I’m approaching that far quicker than I ever would have expected thanks to the unique properties of Edregon and its dungeons.”

“If you want, I might be able to come up with a spell to act as a temporary solution until then,” Vin offered, his mind already beginning to flip through his known spells and think about what he might be able to create for her. “I could probably build something rather quickly out of Concealment if you’re interested!”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“That means a lot that you’d work on building a brand-new spell just for my sake, but no, I want to figure this out myself,” she said, squeezing his hand. “It’s hard to explain, but it’s a control thing as well. Of course I trust you, but I wouldn’t want the solution to be something that could possibly be taken away from me again, you know?”

“Don’t worry, I get it,” he said, giving her a warm smile. “I guess that’s why you want to look into using a passive instead of building an artifact or something you might be able to lose?”

“Pretty much,” she nodded. “And don’t worry, I don’t think it’s going to be a waste of a passive, or anything like that. I’ve skimmed through the passive list, and there’s one that’s rather well-known among my people’s more famous Airwalkers that I not only have my eye on, but actually have available after how long I’ve spent out of the water. If it works as I believe it does, I think it will not only solve my problem, but be a powerful defensive tool as well.”

“And I don’t suppose you’re willing to let me know what it is you’re planning before you do it, are you?” he drawled.

“Now where would be the fun in that?” she teased, giggling at the exasperated look on his face.

With Lumel feeling better and it having been a few hours since his last meal, which had consisted of nothing more than an overly salted monstrous eel not cooked nearly well enough, they decided a relaxing dinner back in the apartment was what the evening called for. Not feeling up for heading into the heart of Terra at the moment, Lumel warped ahead once they were out of the forest dungeon, and Vin made the trip into town on foot. He made it all of two dozen feet past the guards at the gate before someone called out to him.

“Pardon me, young man, the bones say your future is filled with horrible turmoil and woe!”

Rolling his eyes, Vin turned to find a spindly, older woman who would have stretched the Gods’ definition of ‘able bodied’ sitting against the wall of a building. She had a turban over her head and a handful of bone fragments spilled out in front of her, which she was carefully analyzing, her eyes flicking between him and the bones.

“Yes, yes, a horrible future indeed! You are in danger!”

“Seriously, Theodore, you have to at least let me get further than twenty feet into town before…” Vin stopped as a quick cast of Sense Magic revealed that the strange woman in front of him was in fact not Theodore, and he blinked at the sudden realization. “Oh… I’m sorry. Who are you?”

“Lady Oseralla,” she said, giving him a large smile filled with crooked teeth that looked as though they’d never even heard of the idea of visiting a dentist. “I was born with the gift, and have finally been recognized by the Gods! Brought to this world of magic and marvels where I can shine like the star I was always supposed to be!”

“Okaaay,” he said slowly, silently casting Sense Magic again and confirming that the woman was in fact not using any magic whatsoever. “I’m assuming you’re one of the new Earthers in the fifth wave? What class did you pick?”

“It is you we need to talk about, young man, not I,” she said, quickly pointing at a piece of bone with a particularly jagged shard sticking out of it. “The bones reveal a terrible, terrible loss in your near future. Soon, you will be forced to make a choice between two people you care deeply about. One will be lost to you forever, and the other will never look at you the same.”

“Really now?” Vin asked, scratching his chin. “That’s some pretty heavy stuff. But honestly, I’m a lot more interested in my love life. Is there any chance those bones of yours can tell me if I’ll ever get a girlfriend?”

“The bones are not capable of such a thing,” she scoffed, as if the question was ridiculous. Yet before he could say anything, she whipped out a deck of heavily illustrated cards from one of her many pockets. “It is the cards we must turn to for matters of love!”

“Hey, you again!” one of the guards at the gate finally called out, pointing his spear at her. “What did we tell you about scaring people with your fake magician act?!”

Quickly drawing one of the cards from the deck, the woman flashed it at him as she scrambled to her feet, revealing a poorly painted illustration of two shadow figures holding hands.

“The cards say you might find a girlfriend one day!” she said, before tucking it away and hustling out of there as the guard stomped over, shaking his spear at her.

“Stay away from the main road into town!” he shouted. Clicking his tongue, he turned and saluted Vin. “I’m sorry, sir, she’s one of the new fifth wavers. Picked up the Charlatan class, if you can believe it, but tried originally claiming she was a Seer. It was only after Myers caught her lying in the truth-gem screening and threatened to throw her in jail that she came clean.”

“The Gods really did pick a random spread of people, huh,” Vin said, watching her turn and vanish down a random alleyway. “If it helps, I can confirm with my own spells that she’s not using actual magic.”

“Yeah, we figured that one out on our own,” the guard snickered, before remembering who he was talking to and jerking upright. “I have to go back to my post! Have a pleasant evening!”

Vin shook his head as the guard retreated to his post, wondering just how many other strange people the Gods ended up snatching in their random sampling of people. Deciding it would at least make a fun dinner topic with Lumel, he went to carry on to the mess hall, only to pause as he spotted what looked like a genuine cowboy complete with spurs and hat, with a lasso in his hands. The two of them stared at one another for a moment, before Theodore cleared his throat.

“Is it too late to ask about cow wrangling?”