Broken Lands

The Moonlit Branches Guards escorted the Flying Stars down to the lowest level and into a guradhouse very close to the entrance to the World Tree.

The first thing Sophia saw was Leo. He was in his draconic form and his feathers looked like they’d been coated with metallic paint, but he was uninjured and definitely her brother. She jumped forward into a hug that he didn’t expect, based on the way he stiffened then relaxed. It was a little bit before he squirmed, silently asking for release.

Sophia let him go and stepped back to check him again. “You’re fine? Where were you?”

“I, uh…” Leo glanced behind Sophia. She followed his gaze to a girl with batwings and a flying fish with the wings of a bird far larger than its actual size.

The fish hovered in the air, not even flapping its wings to stay aloft. It slid forward, then spoke in a young boy’s voice. “We were in the World Tree. It’s fine; a little experience in there will help when he starts his Sphere, probably get him a better Sphere, and he’s more than capable; he was really helpful.”

Sophia smiled at the clear attempt to defend Leo. “He should be. He’s been training for years. Though now that I think about it…”

She turned back towards Leo and forced her smile to turn into a stern frown. It was hard, because the smile kept wanting to peek out, but she had to try. “Does Mom let you go into dungeons alone? She didn’t let me go in alone at your age.”

“Uh…” Leo stammered. “Uh, I found friends?”

Sophia sighed performatively. That was a clear no, even if he didn’t use the word. “You could have asked? We probably could have found you people to travel with outside the World Tree?”

“But … you wouldn’t have,” Leo protested. “You told me to go look at the markets and see what there was to see in the city! For two days!”

“I don’t know if I’d have agreed or not,” Sophia admitted, “Because you didn’t ask! I didn’t even know you could enter the World Tree! You don’t have a Sphere … or do you, now?”

Leo shook his head. “I got a Vocation-granting Feat, but no Sphere. You said that had to be a Hallow, right?”

Sophia nodded. “The Guide thinks you’re only a couple of days old. I think you’re old enough if it gave you your true age, but it only counts what it can see.” She bit her lip. It was still a little odd to remember that a Hallow was honored here instead of being something to hide.

The only other way she could think of to get Leo a Sphere was if the Imperial Spheres had no age limit. She didn’t know if that was the case, and even if they did, he’d probably have to be in the Broken Lands to access them since they were supposed to come from a nexus linked to the Kestii Tower. There might be something similar here, but she definitely wasn’t going to propose that; she didn’t like the idea of having him acquire a Sphere that might have some sort of service requirement and that was true of the Spheres she controlled. Having him end up owing an unknown amount to people she didn’t know was definitely worse.

Maybe the Wanderer would be willing to Hallow Leo? He was a long way from home, just like Sophia was. She wasn’t sure why he hadn’t offered, in fact, unless it was because they were on Arcatiz.

Yeah, that was probably it. She vaguely remembered him mentioning that the Archons had their own Patrons. She wasn’t sure if he even could hand out a Hallow here. Well, if they needed to, they could take Leo through the Gateway they used to reach Arcatiz; Revanos would probably greet them on the way just like the time before and she could ask then.

Sophia didn’t really think Leo needed a Sphere, though. If they were going to leave in a handful of days, what was the point? He was more than strong enough to handle the lowest level of the World Tree even without one, just like Sophia herself would have been. If anything, Leo was better suited to it since he could use his draconic shape as protection.

That thought brought Sophia’s attention to his two companions, who did not have the same benefit.

“All right. You two, are you okay? Do you need anything? I should thank you for watching after my brother.” Sophia figured she really should have asked that earlier, just in case, but they didn’t look hurt. She owed them something for looking after her brother, even though she knew they didn’t do it expecting a reward.

“If anything, he was watching out for us,” the batwinged girl said. “But if you really want to give us something, you can teach us how he’s doing magic without a Sphere for it. I really want to add empowerment to my Sphere, but it doesn’t have a good way to get there without a variant secondary magic Vocation and I didn’t have any available because I don’t have an element like Reko does, but what Leo’s doing isn’t elemental. Even if he says it is.”

“Because it is!” Leo objected. “I’m a Change dragon. That means I use Change magic. That’s an Affinity, just like the elemental beasts or Reko’s water! It’s not different. Everybody has Affinities! I don’t know what yours are but you have them!”

“You’ve also been taught mana control since you were a baby,” Sophia noted. “Arcatiz is better than the Broken Lands, probably because so many of the Archons need something better to pick things up with than their beaks or their feet, but there’s a definite lean towards utility magic.”

“Dad likes utility magic!” Leo protested.

“Not as much as Ita does, and he’s only close if you count wards and how to bypass them. He’s mostly a combat mage, or at least he says he is. Uncle Blaze is a healer and I know he taught you, not to mention Uncle Althyr and Greatest Grandpa Senkovar.” Sophia paused at the thought that maybe she was undermining her own point. “And then there’s Aunt Red. If it’s not blowing up, she’s not trying hard enough.”

“She’s not trying to make things explode,” Leo countered. “She’s just trying to figure out what they do and how to use them.”

“And yet they explode about half the time,” Sophia countered. “Still, not my point. My point is that you’ve learned a lot of different magic over the years, while the Archons generally focus on things that help them do everyday tasks. I’m sure there are people here who do all that stuff but they don’t do everything the way we learned; they only do the stuff that’s closest to their Affinity and what they specifically need. As far as I can tell, they also don’t have a way to test for Affinities and ….”

She trailed off as she realized that what she was saying was probably highly offensive, because she was basically saying that they didn’t know what they were doing. That wasn’t true at all; the specialists definitely knew what they were doing. They just didn’t have children learn all of it, probably because most kids didn’t need to know all of it.

Sophia flushed a little as she turned towards the batwinged girl. “Ah, yeah, it probably helps that we have really broad Affinities so we have to learn all of that stuff, so that we can pick what we’ll specialize in later. But, uh, I’m sure yours is more specialized and it sounds like you already know what you want to do with it, so I bet we can help you, … you know, I never asked. What’s your name?”

“Arvinn,” the girl answered. “And you’re Sophia, right?” She glanced around the room they were still standing in in the Guardhouse. “Can we leave and talk about this? I want a magic Sphere but I don’t want to stay here?”

Sophia glanced up at the guardsman who watched with an amused expression. She was pretty sure his name was Inver or something like that. N’Ver, maybe?

Whatever his name was, he nodded and waved them out with a simple, “I’m glad it worked out well. Next time, make sure to talk to your sister before you head into the World Tree, Leo. I don’t want to end up back here.”

It was probably a miracle when Leo nodded without trying to justify himself. Maybe he’d grown up at least a little from the child Sophia remembered?

Yeah, that seemed likely. It had been years.

“Why don’t you just go to a stable Challenge and try to learn the Ability it holds?” Ci’an asked as they made their way along the branch. “Some of them have to be magical; even if they’re not spells exactly, they can get you almost anywhere if you plan it out right and I’m sure you have quite a library of Challenge Abilities here.”

Arvinn shook her head. “Stable Challenges outside the Tower are really rare. I’d never be able to afford entry into one of the ones that gives the sort of Ability I want. I don’t want to just be able to sharpen my spear or something, I want to be able to do more, to do stuff that a spear normally can’t.”

“Why would they be rare?” Ci’an shook her head in disbelief. “There are dozens of Challenges around Izel, and if we’ve found that many Challenge seeds in the past thousand years or so, since Izel was settled, why don’t you have more than enough? I thought Arcatiz was a lot older than Izel. Do even stable Challenges die eventually or something?”

Arvinn shook her head. “There just aren’t that many stable Challenges. I don’t know.”

“A Challenge hub can only have so many stable Challenges, and floating islands don’t have Challenge hubs,” the flying fish Reko added. “So they have to be maintained on the surface, and well … no one really wants to do that. It means you have to be a long way away from the World Tree and most Challenge hubs are only good for a couple upgrades before you have to move on. So most people just use the World Tree and the Abilities they can buy with Wisps, plus whatever Challenge slots they can get from their Clan. Arvinn and I are from a subordinate branch of our Clan and it’s a different branch that manages the Clan’s Challenges. We’re allotted one Challenge run per upgrade unless we gather the aurichalc to buy another slot, so we need to make the best use of it. A chance at waking an element usually doesn’t work. So we decided not to do that.”

“Most people never do a stable Challenge back home,” Xin’ri told Ci’an. “The fact that you’re from Izel and an Aurora means you got several a year - heck, the fact that I got to go on a couple with your brother was a really nice bonus while he was trying to talk me into joining him on the expedition. I had to buy the other slots I got, and they definitely aren’t cheap. That’s why Challenge slots are mostly traded instead of bought. How many stable Challenges did you do outside Izel?”

“Only one,” Ci’an slowly admitted. “And we traded a slot in one of Izel’s Challenges for it. So I guess you have a point, even though that wasn’t at a Challenge hub; there weren’t any other stable Challenges near it. Aren’t there a couple of other places with a lot of Challenges, though?”

“Supposedly,” Xin’ri agreed. “But they were a long way from Izel. I know you spent time in Casterville; how many of the people you met there do you think even did one stable Challenge?”

Ci’an didn’t have to answer for the answer to be obvious. It wasn’t something that got talked about in Casterville. Sophia wasn’t even sure most of the people there knew stable Challenges existed; it wouldn’t surprise her too much if even some of the people at higher upgrades didn’t know. They were rare, despite the fact that Sophia had done quite a few.