Broken Lands

The best Arvinn could manage the next morning was to make something she held fall slightly slower. It wasn’t enough to get the Guide’s attention, but it was more than she’d managed before. Sophia told her to keep practicing and to try to feel the mana she used when the object slowed down; she ought to be able to control more than just that if she could feel the mana.

They made it to the auction site two hours before it was to begin. Sophia offloaded the remaining eggs where she was told, then followed Xin’ri around to look at the other things that were going to be offered. There was a list, but if you wanted to look at them in advance, you had to show up early the way they had. They weren’t the only people looking, either; everyone else who handed over items at the last minute stayed to see what else was there as well.

Sophia wasn’t sure how their “private auction” turned into a big event, but it had, with over a hundred other sellers putting in a few items each. The roc eggs were the stars of the show, with one going to be sold at the beginning and then periodically throughout the event to keep interest up, but there was a lot of other stuff. Xin’ri was happy about it, and that was enough for Sophia.

Most of what Sophia saw was interesting but useless to her. She didn’t need anything to help her take care of her wings, her equipment needs were met by Xin’ri, and she was pretty sure Xin’ri was already taking notes on all of the stuff she might want to buy. The monster cores that were labeled “magicite” were probably the most interesting thing she’d seen, at least until she came to the magicite lamps.

“You definitely don’t want those,” a familiar voice spoke up from behind Sophia.

“I know,” she answered absently, most of her attention on the lamps. “What are they trying to achieve? They’re dangerous; those lights look like they’re evaporating tiny bits of the, ah, magicite.”

“That’s the point,” the same voice said. “They’re intended for people who can’t gather Thread no matter what they do. They work for some, mostly Professionals who never took a Calling and don’t work with anything that comes from the World Tree, but for most people they’re nothing more than pretty lights that shouldn’t be near children. You’re certainly in that group.”

“Then why aren’t they incorporated into tools? Wouldn’t that be a better use of the cores, er, magicite?” Sophia turned to see who the familiar voice was and saw a dark-haired man in a purple robe covered in constellations. She recognized him as the Wanderer, though he’d asked her not to use his title when Archons were nearby. “Revanos? I wasn’t expecting you here.”

“And I wasn’t expecting you to recover roc eggs, so I guess we’re even,” Revanos said with an easy smile.

“Did you want one? I can talk to Xin’ri…” Sophia glanced around to see if she could find her teammate. They owed enough to the Wanderer that giving him one of the eggs seemed like a small payback.

“No need. I may bid or I may not, but I’m not short on aurichalc, and you deserve it for bringing them back,” Revanos stated firmly. “I did want to catch up with you, though, and I can’t reach you inside the World Tree without entering myself, and I’d rather not do that. I know about your brother.”

Sophia frowned quizzically at Revanos. “And…? I mean, he’s around here somewhere; I think he was looking at the swords. He didn’t bring one, so he wanted to see what was here before we buy one at the main market. I think he’s hoping there will be something perfect that we won’t find elsewhere.”

It was a little bit silly, but she couldn’t blame him. He wasn’t likely to find anything as nice as the second upgrade spear Arvinn used that was within the price range Xin’ri set for the blade, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t look. If he found something really nice, he might manage to wheedle them into bidding on it, though Sophia rather doubted they’d win it. There was supposed to be a pretty decent crowd, so Sophia wasn’t expecting much in the way of good deals. That was the point of the auction, after all - to drive up the price of the eggs.

Revanos shook his head. “No, it’s not about the auction. I know that your brother came through a tear in the world, the same way you did. Unfortunately, even though he’s your brother and would otherwise qualify, I cannot grant him a Hallow. Normally, I would say that he simply needs to step into a world where I have power and I would grant it as I often do for travelers, but the Patrons of this world have the first chance. There are two who reached forward to grant him a Hallow, but they were both denied; Marith, the Goddess of the Way, has forbidden it. If he were on one of my worlds, I could override that, but … well. There is a reason they did not and there is a similar reason I will not. Picking a fight with the Goddess of the Way is unwise when you walk the Ways her people maintain.”

Sophia’s mouth dropped open. That was not something she expected at all. “Wait, Goddess of the Way? Prelate Varthas introduced himself as the Prelate of the Way.”

“You have met Varthas? Good. He can intercede with Marith if anyone can. That is not where I would use it, however,” Revanos bit his lip. This was the first time Sophia could remember him looking tentative; he was normally certain of himself. “She has forbidden opening a Way to your homeland, but not to another’s. I know you spoke of heading to Dav’s, so that is what you should ask him about.”

Revanos sighed heavily. “She will not tell me why she has forbidden it, either, so all I know is that she did tell M’Beja. It must have been right before M’Beja disappeared, because all I know is that she was searching for something here on Arcatiz, somewhere a long way from the World Tree. She didn’t say what or why or mention that Marith forbid anything.”

Sophia nodded. Revanos cared about M’Beja and worried about the fact that she’d been missing for decades but she also knew he didn’t believe the Mage was dead. Finding out more about what happened to her was the only thing he’d asked of the Flying Stars since they arrived on Arcatiz, but they hadn’t managed to learn anything.

“Leo will be fine without a Hallow,” Sophia reassured Revanos. “If all goes well, we won’t be here long enough for him to pick up an upgrade anyway, so getting a Sphere doesn’t really matter. I expect he’ll spend some more time on the lowest level of the World Tree; he made a couple friends who are exploring there and … oh, I see them at the entrance. I should go say hi.”

“Go ahead.” Revanos’s voice had lost an edge that it held from the moment he approached her. He must have been really worried about not being able to grant Leo a Hallow. Sophia didn’t quite see why he was so worried; it really wasn’t a big deal.

Was it?

Well, they weren’t going to be here long enough to find out, were they?

Sophia made her way over to the entrance to greet the two overwhelmed-looking teens. Well, Arvinn looked overwhelmed. It was hard to tell with Reko; Sophia wasn’t good at reading the facial expressions of a fish. Did he even have facial expressions?

“Oh hey!” Arvinn swung around to face Sophia once she was close. “I almost didn’t see you! Is Leo here yet? He said he wanted to look at a backup weapon with me, a knife or something for after I’ve thrown my spear.”

Javelin, Sophia silently corrected, but she didn’t say it out loud. “Of course. He was looking at swords … ah, over there.” It didn’t take long to find her brother’s glowing horns.

Arvinn followed Sophia’s hand then turned towards her, puzzled. “Where? I don’t see him.”

Sophia checked. That was definitely her brother. “RIght there, between the man in the purple robes and the … I’m not sure what that is, a giant pot.”

“I see the robes and the pot,” Arvinn agreed doubtfully, “But I don’t see a giant lizard.”

“Of course not, a dragon would be…” Sophia groaned as she realized what the misunderstanding meant.

She reached out across the mental link that they had finally set up. “Leo, get your distinctly non-scaly butt over here and explain to your friends why it isn’t scaly.”

Leo picked an easy way to explain his shapeshifting: he shifted shape into the dragon the duo knew while he made his way over to them. When he arrived, he let both Arvinn and Reko stare at him for a long moment before he spoke. “Hey, you two. Sophia says I didn’t mention I can shapeshift. Sorry about that. Want to come check out the knives? There’s one that I think would be perfect for Arvinn and Reko, I want your opinion on a set of daggers.”

He shifted back to his human-like shape with a grin.

“You are not one of the Wise,” Reko stated firmly. “We defied the Wise to flee and there have been no more. That is why few Archons can shift shape easily, we must choose what we want to be forever. But … you are not an Archon. There are Spheres that allow changing shape; they are not Archon Spheres but they exist. So it is not wrong that you can change shape.”

“‘Course not,” Leo said easily. “I’m a dragon, most dragons can shapeshift at least a little. It’s not a problem at my size but I’m told it’s awfully awkward to deal with others when you’re six times their size or more. It’s easy for me anyway, I’ll probably pick up a bunch more shapes with time. I’ve been working on one like yours, Reko, but it’s not ready. It still looks like an abomination instead of like you.”

That was enough to get the youngsters to follow Leo. Before long, they seemed to have forgotten their surprise and the trio was happily running from display to display, trying to figure out what they wanted.

The auction itself was a new experience for Sophia. She’d seen bits of auctions in shows, of course, but she’d never actually sat through one … and even if she had, it wasn’t quite like any she’d seen. The auctioneer was a perfectly ordinary looking crow except for his size, about four times as large as any crow Sophia had ever seen. He flew over to the item being sold, described it, then gave a starting bid and an increment and called out each bid as he saw it, both who it belonged to and what the bid was at.

Bidding involved a colored flame that came from a small enchanted device that each bidder was given. All of their bids, including Arvinn’s and Reko’s, were to be done through Xin’ri, so that was all Sophia needed to know. There was clearly information encoded in the color of the flame as well as which device was used; if Sophia had to guess, the colored flame was more for the other bidders than the auctioneer, because he often called the bid out then looked towards the bidders.

They did end up picking up a sword for Leo and a set of daggers for Reko. The blades Arvinn was interested in each went for at least twice what Xin’ri thought was a reasonable price.

Xin’ri was not the only bidder interested in raw materials, and she was willing to back out of the auctions earlier than several of the others, so she got less than she’d hoped, but it still came to a total of several Suns, a price that was more than covered by the sale of the roc eggs, the first of which went for two Suns and four Leaves. Each of the later roc eggs went for more.

After the auction, Sophia saw Revanos collect one of the eggs. He waved at her cheerfully but didn’t approach.