Broken Lands

Sophia trusted her brother to take care of himself.

At least, she thought she did.

So why was she so worried about him when he wasn’t there for dinner or the next morning? Maybe he met someone in the market and spent the evening playing games of one sort or another. He was certainly old enough to be attractive to someone his own age, and she didn’t really know what he was like after years of being gone. Maybe he was the sort to try to find someone to go home with every night. It didn’t seem particularly likely, but she couldn’t discount it.

Maybe he was kidnapped. In that case, it wouldn’t be for a ransom; Sophia didn’t have enough money for that. At least, she didn’t think she did. It was always hard to be sure what people would try for. Still, the odds were that anyone who knew enough to they had money would also know that they weren’t gaining much.

Well, other than the roc eggs. She guessed it could be for the roc eggs. Xin’ri had only sold one, so far; there was supposed to be an auction in four days. The eggs were supposed to be quite a bit farther away from hatching than that, so it would be fine.

If he was kidnapped to try to obtain roc eggs, his kidnappers would need to keep him alive. Sophia didn’t think much of their chances if they did; her brother wasn’t their father, but he was trained by their father the same way she was. That meant that he’d be able to escape. He’d have an easier time than she would; not only could he shapeshift, his magic was perfect for changing the conditions that surrounded him. It often didn’t take much to slip away.

So she really shouldn’t be all that worried about him being kidnapped.

Maybe he was mugged? But then why wasn’t he here?

Unless … unless he couldn’t be? That was something she didn’t want to think about. She didn’t consider the market dangerous, and Leo was a dragon, well, a half-dragon but still more of a dragon than Sophia was. He was still almost as vulnerable in his humanoid form as Sophia was, and he didn’t have the benefit of Shield to protect him from a surprise blow.

And she didn’t have any way to tell if he was alive, the way she would at home. At home, all she’d have to do is ask Aunt Amaia. She couldn’t necessarily find him, but she’d know if he was alive.

She probably knew if he was alive or not now. Maybe Sophia could ask?

Had Xavier sent her another note?

Sophia dug into her pack. She knew Leo interrupted the ritual, but if that note came through, she’d have a way to ask if Leo was alive; she was certain their parents would have checked and would be willing to check again if she sent a note to her older brother.

There, her notebook!

Sophia flipped through the pages until she reached the last page. As she’d hoped, there was a new letter that must have come through with Leo.

It was twisted and crumpled, with several jagged tears. The worst was one that actually removed a large part of the page. The runework was damaged far too badly to use for a return letter; even Xavier’s message was missing words.

Sophia tried to read what she could, but it seemed to be talking about Xavier’s effort to create a more stable way to cross universes. He seemed to think that she probably wouldn’t need it, but he was trying anyway. That was nice, but it didn’t help her find Leo.

What else could she try? She didn’t have any other way to contact her family and she wasn’t about to just head back into the World Tree without checking on Leo. Phones weren’t an option.

If another member of the Flying Stars was missing, she’d just ask over Dav’s mental link. They hadn’t thought to add Leo, which was definitely a mistake she was going to rectify once she found him.

If her father was here, she knew he’d have a spellform put together in minutes to trace Leo’s trail. She couldn’t do that, either.

What could she do?

She could ask around the inn. Maybe someone here knew something?

A loud series of knocks on the door interrupted Sophia. That couldn’t be her friends; they’d have just walked in. It wasn’t locked. Sophia opened the door to see a winged bear that she was pretty sure was either the innkeeper or at least one of the regular staff. He seemed to be in the reception area a lot of the time, at least.

“You are leaking your panic across the entire inn,” the bear stated with a frown. “You were fine yesterday. What has changed? Is there something wrong with the inn?”

“I’m not panicking,” Sophia denied with a frantic shake of her head.

The bear did not look impressed.

“Really, I’m not! I’m just worried. My brother, he’s missing. He was supposed to be here for dinner and he wasn’t and he’s not here now either. I don’t know how to find him, and he only just arrived yesterday and … and did I just miss him or is he not … not able to come back here …” Sophia wasn’t sure what to say next.

The bear grunted and nodded. “Ah. I haven’t seen anyone who looks like you, but you shouldn’t need to worry about anyone who can get up this high in the Tree. Most won’t bother people like you and your brother; you’re too well armed to be worth the risk. I’m sure he’s fine.”

“But … he’s not,” Sophia protested. “He just got here yesterday. He didn’t bring any gear with him, just the clothes he was wearing when he jumped in the portal. He doesn’t have a Sphere or anything, the Guide thinks he’s too young. Which … I think he should be old enough, but not by that much. The Guide doesn’t know that though so … I mean, he’ll be fine if he has time to think, but if he doesn’t and he doesn’t know to protect himself…”

“A child?” The innkeeper looked surprised. “You should talk to the Guard. They don’t usually come this close to the Tree’s entrances, but they’ll put out the call for a lost child. The closest Guard station is two branches over near the entrance to the warehouse district, but you’re probably better of heading upbranch. If you go about a mile that way, you’ll be just outside the Sunflecked Spray residential district. The Guards there should be more used to helping find lost children.”

It was a better idea than anything else Sophia had come up with. She found the rest of her team and they all headed that way.

The next several hours were spent talking to the guards at the Sunflecked Spray Guardhouse. They sent people out to search and also sent queries across the Lifeweb that Sophia wasn’t skilled enough to manage yet.

The answer was the same: no one had seen Leo in either of his forms. There were people who remembered him flying across a good bit of the city when they visited the Gardens, but absolutely no one had seen him without the Flying Stars. It was like he vanished the moment they entered the World Tree.

---

Leo crunched the spine at the base of the antelope’s neck. It fell and Leo danced backwards carefully. The last animal he killed that way turned into a bonfire almost immediately, and while it only singed him a little, Leo would prefer to avoid that happening again.

He’d also rather avoid having to put out the fire it caused. The lumps of mana-infused glass Arvinn pulled out of the ashes were apparently valuable, but he vastly preferred the ones that turned into water. Fire on a grassy plain was nothing to play around with, and Leo was the one of the three of them with the easiest time dealing with it because he could change the grass around the fire to be wet and resistant to fire while they extinguished it.

He wasn’t sure exactly how the rainforest had turned into plains so quickly, but less than an hour after they left the home of the helpful man who lived in a surprisingly comfortable house buried in the side of a hill, the landscape just changed. Leo could see the rainforest behind them still, but the air was almost arid even though they were less than a mile from the humid air of the rainforest.

It was still hot, though. That hadn’t changed.

The antelope seemed to collapse in on itself. Screaming jets of air blasted out from its formerly substantial form. Leo ducked, but one still managed to smack his horn as another swirled around him and threw a rain of grit and pebbles into his side. Once again, he was grateful for his scales.

Leo curled up to protect his head. More gusts of wind battered his wings, damaging the feathers and breaking a few of the delicate bones, but Leo simply weathered the assault. There was no other good choice. Arvinn could bring down an animal, or at least wound it badly enough for Reko and Leo to kill it, but Leo was the only one of the three of them that could withstand the explosion that produced the mana-soaked glass Leo’s companions wanted.

At least he could heal himself. That was something. Reko could heal as well, but not as easily as Leo could repair himself. Even with their Shield, Reko and Arvinn were more vulnerable than Leo was.

He still didn’t really like serving as the bulwark.

When the wind died down, a wave of Change-attuned mana swept across Leo’s back, restoring his wings. He didn’t have to look to know that his wings had changed significantly in color and likely slightly in shape; that was normal. The fact that they chimed as he moved was new, however, so he glanced backwards to see that they gleamed with a metallic sheen.

Okay, that was also new. He was certain they’d still work as wings, since they were for direction and symbology rather than lift, but perhaps they would take less damage when he wrapped them around himself? If they would, it was a welcome change.

Arvinn shouted in celebration, then moved past Leo to the spot where the wind antelope died. “This is great! Windstones are so useful! And we’re getting them as fast as we can hunt them, not after building a shelter-”

She froze and turned towards Leo with a frown. “Why is the Moonlit Branches Guard looking for you? And why are your wings suddenly shiny?”

“I had to fix my wings after the wind antelope,” Leo answered the second question first, because it was the one he knew how to answer. “That always changes my wings. I think this time I was thinking about them protecting me better, so they should do that now. I don’t think it’ll affect my flight. And what do you mean, the Moonlit Branches Guard is looking for me?”

“Leo Rothmer,” Reko answered in a strained voice. “That’s you. Two images, one of them looks like you. They say you’re lost?”

Leo looked down. He wasn’t sure what to say to that.

“Did … you forget to tell anyone you were headed into the World Tree?” Arvinn asked slowly. “Or did you sneak in? I did that once, with pretty much the same result. Are you really too young to be here? That’d explain why you still don’t have a Vocation-granting Feat; you do, but you can’t pick a Sphere ‘til you’re old enough.”

“I didn’t do that,” Reko bragged. “I waited until I was old enough.”

“Only because you were born three months earlier than I was,” Arvinn sniped. “You weren’t supposed to be here any more than I was when we went in, you were just old enough that you could have entered from the Moonlit Branches instead of sneaking in through the roots if your parents let you.”

“It was your idea!”

Leo shook his head. At least he wasn’t in trouble with his new friends, even if they were definitely trouble. They were the fun sort of trouble.