Broken Lands

“I’m not a lizard,” Leo objected. His attention was on the winged fish, which he knew wasn’t really a fish. He was almost certainly talking to two Archons, the native inhabitants of Arcatiz.

“It can talk,” the girl said. She sounded surprised, but Leo guessed he couldn’t blame her. She’d clearly assumed he was a monster.

“Good thing you didn’t kill it,” the fish sniped, then twisted in the air to face Leo. “Ah, sorry about that. We didn’t realize you were intelligent. Um. Is there something you’re out here for? Do you live near here?”

As if that wasn’t incredibly suspicious. Leo sighed. “If I did live here, do you think I’d answer it when you ask that way right after your partner threw a javelin at me and cracked one of my scales? No, I don’t think I would. But I don’t live near here, so I guess I don’t have to worry about that.”

“Cracked one of your scales?” The fish sounded perplexed. “Didn’t it bounce off your shield?”

“Shield? Why would I carry a shield?” Leo shook his head, then hopped out of the tree with his wings spread so that he’d float gently to the ground near the duo. At this point, he wasn’t actually worried about either of them stabbing him again; even if he were, it sounded like they’d need the magical javelin to actually hurt him and that was still under the tree he jumped out of. He turned so that they could see the scale and tapped next to it for emphasis. “See? Cracked scale. If I don’t do anything about it, it’ll take a few days for a replacement to grow and then it’ll fall off. Dad can regrow a scale in less than a minute, but I haven’t put anything into healing so if I want it to be that first I have to control it myself.”

Did he have enough mana for that?

Leo checked carefully. He’d recovered almost half of what he spent on opening the way in while he looked around, so he wasn’t in dire straits anymore. It would take about a quarter of what he’d recovered to quickly replace the scale, which seemed like a pretty fair trade right now. This place wasn’t all that dangerous to a dragon. It was clearly the people that were dangerous.

Yeah, he could afford it.

Leo spent a little extra mana to make it glow as he altered the speed of the new scale formation temporarily. The glow would disappear along with the alteration when the old scale fell off. Glowing was a bit of a waste in terms of healing, but everyone said you had to show off a little for other people to believe you. Well, everyone except Dad and Aunt Amaia, and Leo knew better than to trust what those two said about getting other people to believe you. They didn’t follow what they said anyway. Dad was flashy and Aunt Amaia always wanted everything to be like the movies.

“Not a physical shield you carry around,” the girl said with a shake of her head. “Shield from the Guide. You know, the one you get with your Calling?”

Leo felt the inchiness of a scale about to fall and carefully scratched it with one of his claws. Only a small swipe was needed to make it fall out to reveal the new scale just as the glow faded. He could see the girl watching with wide eyes, but the fish didn’t seem to be watching.

The flying fish swatted the girl with one of his wings. "It probably doesn’t have Shield, a lot of the characters in the World Tree don’t. We should ask him about a mission again, we need a Challenge.”

“Yeah,” the girl said distractedly. Her eyes were still fixed on Leo’s side where the new scale was. “You need to ask if you can learn that, Reko.”

“Learn …” The fish, Reko, shifted again so that one of its eyes faced the girl, then followed her gaze to Leo’s side. “Oh. Yeah, that would be nice. So what do you need us to do and can you unlock that Ability so I can learn it?”

Leo frowned. That wasn’t the reaction he expected. “I don’t need you to do anything and I don’t think I can teach you how to replace scales. Dragon scales aren’t like fish scales, dragon scales are closer to feathers than anything else, magically hardened feather plates. Fish scales aren’t, aren’t fish scales basically bones?”

Leo wasn’t sure about that, but he knew fish scales weren’t the same thing as dragon scales. Dragon scales were sort of like the scaly parts on a chicken, only far, far better. Magically better. They were innately tied to the dragon’s native Affinity, too, which meant that almost any dragon could do what he did, though he did have it easier than most since he was changing things. “And what do you mean unlock? Is that something to do with the shield you were talking about? Sophia mentioned Callings, she said I can’t get one without a … whatchamacallit, vocation-granting feat. Even then it’ll have to be a Hallow, ‘cause the Voice, er, Guide thinks I’m too young for a Vocation even though I’m more than old enough because it doesn’t count the time before I arrived on Arcatiz.”

Both Archons froze. Reko recovered first. “You’re not part of one of the World Tree’s Challenges, are you?”

Leo shook his head. “Nope! I was starting to wonder if that was what you thought. I knew you didn’t recognize me and that’s why you attacked me so I figured I’d give you a chance anyway but you really should be more careful. Not everyone is so forgiving. Dad says it’s important to treat misunderstandings like mistakes and give people a second chance but not let people take advantage of it, and I’m sure this was just a mistake so I thought I’d give you a second chance. You’re the first people I’ve met since I got here and I thought maybe you’d be able to tell me what I’m supposed to do here? I followed Sophia in but I think they’re in a different instance, maybe a different floor, and I didn’t really get to find out what I’m supposed to do here so I’ve just been exploring. It’s really interesting; I’ve never been in a rainforest before.”

“Do you always say everything you think?” The girl smiled at him. “I’m Arvinn and this is Reko.”

She didn’t seem like she knew what to think but she also didn’t seem offended, which was good. Some people didn’t like it when he talked too much. Leo carefully reminded himself that his inside voice needed to stay inside; he was usually better than that but really he was getting a little lonely after hours of exploring the rainforest alone. It was interesting but like anything interesting it would be better with people. “I’m Leo. You’re both Archons, right? Are you looking for something here? Can I travel with you for a bit?”

“We’re looking for Wisps,” Reko answered. He bobbed in the air for a moment, almost like he was nodding with his entire body. “And if you can take that spear … uh, javelin … to the side and walk away with just a cracked scale-”

“No.” Arvinn interrupted Reko. “No, we are not taking someone with us just because he can take being beaten up! You turned down everyone else in the class because you didn’t want to share the Wisps, are you sure you didn’t just want me for my spear?”

Leo cleared his voice to remind them they weren’t alone. He didn’t really want to watch them argue. He could leave, but he had a question now. “What are Wisps?”

That turned into a long, confused explanation. From what Leo could tell, they were some sort of resource that let you build your first Path and set up the way it was supposed to go for a couple of Tiers after that. Those weren’t the terms they used, but it was pretty clear what “Sphere” and “upgrade” really meant. It sounded a lot more annoying than the Voice’s method back home, but it also sounded easier to start; you didn’t have to be able to do the most basic piece to get started, you just had to pick the right first Sphere and customize it from there.

Leo was pretty sure the Voice’s method was superior to the Guide’s. There were probably arguments either way for the combat Paths and Spheres, but the simple fact that once you took a non-combat Sphere you couldn’t ever advance your combat Sphere was enough to make it obvious that the Guide’s system was terrible. Hybrid Spheres required either a Patron, which sounded an awful lot like a god to Leo, or aligning yourself with a specific Tower that supported that particular hybrid Sphere. Leo didn’t like that at all.

He liked the fact that no one really knew where Wisps came from even less. Learning about what you could do and getting better at it didn’t matter, which was weird, but he’d have thought that figuring out how to get Wisps more easily would be the first thing everyone tried. Arvinn was able to list some things that helped, but it basically boiled down to the World Tree being the best place for Called to get Wisps. Professionals needed to do their Profession, which made sense to Leo, but apparently it was really slow which made no sense.

During the conversation, they started walking through the rainforest. Leo might not have formally agreed to join them, but once they finally explained what a Challenge was and why they wanted to find one, he led the way towards a wide stream he saw earlier in the day. The stream wasn’t important, but the old stones in it probably were. They were carved, after all, probably part of a bridge once upon a time.

The thoroughly annoying water sprites that he avoided the first time were still there. This time, Leo happily chomped on them to turn them back into water while Arvin stabbed and Reko blocked their watery projectiles.

Reko refused to enter the stream, which Leo found amusing. While Reko and Arvinn argued about that, Leo hopped in and explored the space near the old stones. The only thing he found was a small figurine that looked like a one-winged falcon; where the second wing should have been was an oval with swirls carved into it.

It was mildly magical. Leo couldn’t figure out what the enchantment was, but Reko called it a token of the Way and said that discarding it would help you find where you were going. Finding one was good luck, especially in the World Tree.

Reko tried to make it sound mysterious and special, but Arvinn broke out laughing when Leo asked why it was good luck and answered his question with the practical information that it was good luck because it meant something worth looking for was probably close. The enchantments on the statue weren’t really very powerful and they didn’t have anything to do with actually finding a route. Discarding or finding a wooden carving of the Falcon of the Way was traditional, which was also the reason that a lot of the small had enchantments to help someone who was handling them remain calm and focused. That was it.

Leo was pretty sure he’d just been pranked. It was embarrassing but also kinda fun. Now he just had to figure out how to pull one over on the flying fish.

It took more than a little exploration, but shortly after they settled in for the night in the home of someone who was simply a creation of the World Tree, Leo saw his chance. It took more than an hour to set up, but he managed to get Reko in the right spot so that when he pulled on the “traditional fish stick,” the string he’d tied to it turned the shower on … right over Reko’s head.

Reko knew some really inventive swear words.