Broken Lands

“Where are we headed? I don’t recognize this part of the Moonlit Branches,” the winged koi asked.

Sophia glanced at their surroundings. They looked familiar, but it took her a moment to place where they were.

Dav answered before she could, probably because he was the one who was leading them and didn’t have to check where they were headed. “The Gardens. It’s a good place to talk, and we can get a meal there as well. Plus, I want to see what the gardens look like at night.”

It wasn’t night yet; it wasn’t even all that close to night. It was more or less late afternoon, pushing early evening, but that meant there were hours of daylight left in the day. Dav clearly expected to be at the Gardens for a while.

He was probably right, when Sophia thought about it. She wasn’t a teacher and couldn’t always tell Affinities apart, but she was pretty sure that if she got the girl, Arvenn, to express her Affinity, the Guide would do that part for her. It was simply going to be a matter of getting her to take the first step. It was a step Sophia didn’t have the tools to help with, but Sophia managed the step without tools herself and Dav did the same with her help. Ci’an and Xin’ri hadn’t needed Sophia’s help for that step; they were already past it when she met them.

Okay, maybe some of Sophia’s toys when she was really young helped. She didn’t really remember that far back; she’d always been able to express her mana. The fact that she was half magic dragon definitely helped that part; it was possible she’d been using mana since she was born. She still had to learn to control it, though, and that was basically the same thing.

Well, sort of.

Dav led them directly to the tea house in the middle of the Gardens. It took him longer to reserve a place and get food ordered than it took Prelate Varthas, but that only made sense. The Prelate clearly came there often and knew the menu, while Dav didn’t. On top of that, a lot of the delay was actually the discussion about what toppings and teas they could actually have; while “human compatible” was easy because the Gardens staff knew what it meant, Archons apparently had a lot of different limits, so Reko had to talk them through what she could eat. Arvinn was fine with human food, as was Leo.

A few of Dav’s initial selections, based on the food the Prelate ordered, were noted as not being good for either Arvinn or Reko, because they didn’t even have their first upgrade. Leo protested that he didn’t, either, which resulted in a strange look from the man taking their order and the words, “As you say. You should probably avoid eating them as well, then.”

Sophia stepped forward. “You can tell who shouldn’t eat the food or not, can’t you?”

“Usually,” the man agreed. “It’s very helpful when large groups arrive, or even groups like yours. We restrict anything above the third upgrade but people with no upgrade at all can have trouble handling third upgrade food. A taste is fine, an entire roll isn’t.”

He paused, then added reluctantly, “Since you don’t know … eating food above your upgrade makes gathering Wisps easier, and once you’re third upgrade or higher, you need to eat higher grade food to gather Thread at all. It doesn’t have to be for every meal but the more often you do and the better the food is, the easier it is to get Thread. You’ll know when you’ve had enough, but if you eat food that is too far above your upgrade, you may not realize in time.”

Sophia wondered if that explained part of what happened in the Broken Lands; people slowed down a lot after the second upgrade, even people who blazed through the first two like Sophia, Dav, and Ci’an. The Flying Stars slowed down a lot less than other people, though; Sophia assumed that was because they kept pushing and figured out that the Guide rewarded challenging themselves, but perhaps part of it was the food they ate. Everyone ate processed monsters, that was where a lot of Mazehold’s food came from, but only people who regularly went into the Maze reliably had third upgrade monsters as part of their diet.

“What happens if you don’t stop?” Sophia knew she shouldn’t ask, not with Leo present, but she couldn’t help herself. It might discourage him, but it might also get him determined to try.

“Nausea, undesired Ability use or inability to control your Abilities, and sometimes permanent injury or Warping,” he stated bluntly. “Especially if it’s repeated. Some people like to push all the way to the edge to get the best Wisp gain, but I think that’s stupid. You spend more time sick than gathering Wisps and that slows you down, plus you’re sick all the time. So don’t do that. Now, do you want the hiliberry jam tarts and ifi-leaf tea or not? Most of you are third upgrade, so they’d be good for you, but you need to limit how much the youngsters have.”

Sophia relaxed a bit. The symptoms sounded really familiar, especially when combined with the thought that they resulted from too-powerful food from monsters. It sounded a lot like the weakest form of monster core poisoning, something that was completely possible to recover from back home with the help of Order’s Guild. She could still remember the class on it she had to sit through when she officially joined the Adventurers’ Guild; it was all stuff she knew but it was supposed to teach her how to recognize the problem in others before it became so severe that it couldn’t be fixed. Chasing power too quickly came with problems.

Leo might or might not have had to sit through the class yet, but it was clear why the waiter’s Ability didn’t pick Leo out as someone who couldn’t eat the higher-upgrade food: he could safely eat it. The basic problem with monster cores was tainted essence, just like in the Origin, and dragons were generally safe from that. Leo was definitely safe.

Sophia’s Aunt Red had a theory that essence was required to advance along the Voice’s Paths, which was why delvers tended to advance faster and higher-Tier worlds helped everyone who lived on them. Sophia didn’t know if it was true or not; Red could be very right or very, very wrong.

“The tea but not the tarts,” Dav decided. “And we’ll want a couple of other teas as well, including something similar to the ifi-leaf tea. That is, if one pot of tea split seven ways isn’t too much for them to handle?”

The server seemed to consider it for a moment, then nodded. “I will have the tea brewed for that. Eight flowers and three leaves will cover the meal and the reservation; if you need additional snacks, please feel free to ask. I’ll have one of the servers escort you to the Starflower Garden; it’s a bit small for seven but it’s available and we can have additional seats brought out.”

Sophia wasn’t certain what to expect from a place called a starflower garden, but it made sense once she saw it. The basic shape of the space was nearly identical to the one they were shown to by Prelate Varthas, with a central tiny amphitheater-like seating area nearly filled with a table and a set of stools, a pair of archways leading in and out that could be blocked by a force field, and everything covered in plants.

The table and stools were metal and glass instead of wood, but it was the plants that made the real difference. The space the Prelate preferred reminded Sophia of something under the sea even though they were definitely not underwater. The theme for the Starflower Garden was very different. It deserved its name in the most obvious way possible.

All of the plants flowered profusely with flowers shaped like stars, even the vine-covered trees that overhung the garden. Most were relatively simple two-dimensional stars, but others looked almost like an explosion. A handful of them also glowed, either at the center or all along the star.

Sophia guessed that those were probably from more magical areas, similar to the way the food in the Garden came from different parts of the Maze. Of course, that also made her question the Garden back in Mazehold. Was it based on these gardens? She knew it contained different magical plants and that some of them found their way into the food supply in Mazehold. Was it possible that some of the plants that were dangerous to consume were dangerous because they were third upgrade or higher?

She’d probably never know, but it was interesting to think about.

The ifi-leaf tea came out alongside an appetizer that was basically a flavorful thick bread, almost a soft cookie, except that it was savory instead of sweet. The closest thing Sophia could compare it to was gingerbread, which made it pair very well with the almost chocolate flavor of the ifi-leaf tea.

Sophia took a moment to appreciate the food before she turned to Arvinn. “Okay, so you want to learn magic and don’t know what Affinities you have. I’m probably not the best person to teach you, but the people I know who would be better are back home. So … how much do you know about magic?”

Arvinn looked at her friend Reko, but Reko shook his entire body, obviously unwilling to answer for Arvinn. She turned back to Sophia uncertainly. “It lets you do things your body can’t do on its own, like fly. That’s the only magic I have, and a lot of Archons have that much. It doesn’t require training, you learn to use it as you grow up, the same way Reko can use his water to move things without needing hands. The thing is, the Guide grants Spheres for magic like Reko’s but not magic like flying because flying’s not special.”

“Are you certain of that?” Sophia smiled at the assumption that flying was “not special.” Flying was very special, as any Suras could tell you. With that said, there were a bunch of different ways to do it that simply looked like “flying is easier.” Dav managed it by manipulating space and gravity, while Sophia was pretty sure that her wings drew on the association between wings and flight even without using any of the mechanics. The fact that she didn’t have to do any of it consciously while Dav did have to manage his was an advantage for her, but it also meant that she was more dependent on the assistance than Dav was. “Didn’t you get a Sphere choice that mentioned flying?”

“Several,” Arvinn admitted grumpily. “They clogged my Vocation choices and kept me from seeing anything useful. Well, anything more useful than Spear Maiden, which is why I ended up with such a basic Vocation.”

The words Spear Maiden from a girl that could fly immediately made Sophia think of the Valkyries, who had a lot more going for them than just having a spear. They probably weren’t an Archon legend, though, so perhaps she could understand why the girl didn’t value her Vocation. “Okay. What were they? We might be able to use that to help figure out your Affinity.”

“Flying Spear, Winged Warrior, Night Sky Scout, and Aerial Spotter,” Arvinn said with a tone that sounded almost disappointed, as if she was losing the enthusiasm she started with. “And I know why I got all of them, they’re just worse versions of other Vocation options I had. An Aerial version of a normal Vocation doesn’t let you buy any of the footwork or repositioning Abilities. Sure, you can get Abilities that make flight easier or more maneuverable, but I can already get those through my Species Abilities; I don’t need them in my Sphere too!”