Broken Lands

Chapter 324 – Feathers!

Sophia’s doubt continued as Dav seemed to struggle with the spell. The first time he tried to Call it into himself, it simply vanished. Against an enemy’s attack, that might be fine, but for something he was trying to use to learn to expand his Sphere, it was anything but fine.

The next two tries were the same, but when Sophia started to suggest that they move on, Dav held up a hand. “I’m pretty sure I saw something that time. I think maybe there’s a piece missing. I wonder if I can combine it with one of my other Calls, maybe, and have that fill in what’s missing?”

“Be careful how hard you push while we’re in the Maze,” Xin’ri cautioned. “Don’t hurt yourself like you did at the fire fissure. This place may be safe, but the rest of the Maze definitely isn’t.”

“I know, Mom.” The words slipped out of Dav’s mouth immediately. He followed them up by flushing a surprisingly bright red. “Er, I mean, I’ll be careful.”

Sophia hid her giggle. She was pretty sure Dav wouldn’t appreciate it, even if his mistake was funny.

Xin’ri sighed, but Sophia could see the way her lips twitched; she was amused, too. “I know. I just worry. This is the Maze, and even if it hasn’t been anything like the terror of the tales, it’s not a good place to experiment. That should happen when we’re safe.”

The longer Xin’ri talked, the less amused Sophia felt. Xin’ri was right, but it was a choice between two bad options. “We don’t have much choice,” Sophia countered. “We can’t pass up the chance to get Dav something useful, but we only have so much money.”

Sophia wasn’t certain how much they had, but she knew what her share was: thirty flowers and a hundred and twenty leaves. They also had a few hundred flowers that they’d kept separate for things the entire team thought they needed. Five leaves would buy a meal back in Mazehold, so it wasn’t nothing, but it also wasn’t much compared to the equipment prices she’d seen. Those could run into the hundreds of flowers, which meant thousands of leaves. 

The crystals Dav was interested in were ten to twenty-five leaves each, pretty cheap compared to other equipment, but if the vendor had a lot of different types, it would really eat into the cash he had on hand. If he could use them, it was worth it. If he couldn’t, it wasn’t; it was that simple. The only way to find out was to test it.

It was Dav’s choice. Sophia would happily give him the aurichalc she had if he needed it. She could get feathers back in Mazehold if she had to, and there was always that idea she’d had about making her own. She was pretty sure he knew that, too.

“It’s not nearly as risky as you think,” Dav stated firmly. “I know my limits and the problem then was too much outside mana. The problem here is not enough mana, so I need to supplement it with another Call, only I can’t really pull anything else from outside. I also can’t juggle two Calls, but maybe one and a bit will work?”

Dav closed his eyes in concentration. A minute passed without any obvious outside signs, then fire washed across Dav. It was red and green, oddly festive. When it passed, a sparkling bird made of solidified red mana with a green belly and crest floated in the air where Dav stood moments earlier.

It was obviously a phoenix.

No, Sophia corrected herself. He was obviously a phoenix, because that had to be Dav. “That’s a bit more spectacular than I expected.”

“More than I expected, as well.” A woman’s voice filled the air, but when Sophia looked around she didn’t see anyone. “I wondered if anyone would find a secret in the spell crystals, and it seems you have started. That will be your first challenge, then; show me what you can do with them. At least one of each type will be there when you arrive; any that you are able to use in this manner will be yours. If you teach me anything new, I will reward you, of course.”

Sophia looked around again and still didn’t see anyone.

“That was the Eidolon, wasn’t it?” Xin’ri said what Sophia was thinking out loud.

“Almost has to be,” Dav agreed. He was already back in his human shape. “That’s good news and I have even more good news; using that Ability added a new Call for me. It’s a weird one, because the Ability level says it’s locked to Overflowing Health. Even weirder, it actually has a useful description.”

“It does?” Sophia stared at Dav. “Your Ability descriptions usually suck.”

“Well, this one doesn’t.” Dav grinned at her. “Here.”

Purifying Phoenix

Transform into a Purifying Phoenix with the power of your Overflowing Health Call modified by a spell of Fiery Cleansing. Those you envelop in your purifying fire will have parasites, toxins, and diseases burned away, limited only by the power of your Overflowing Health to mitigate damage caused by your flames.

“You’re right,” Sophia admitted. “That’s clearer than pretty much anything else I’ve seen. I think it might mean that you can only help one person at a time, but other than that … I think that covers one of the few things you couldn’t do as a healer. Good choice.”

Dav snorted. “I can’t heal anyone quickly and I can’t heal while also doing anything else, including that, though at least it looks like my purifying flames won’t hurt the people I try to help. I’m not really a healer, but at least it gives us more options.”

“I’m pretty sure there are a bunch of people on the expedition that would disagree,” Sophia countered before she could think about whether it was a good idea or not. “Sure, it takes time, but you can heal things no one else has the mana for and do it while we’re traveling. You make sure everyone’s in shape for the next fight instead of fixing them in this one.”

Dav huffed and looked away from Sophia. She could tell that he felt embarrassed about his outburst and also that he wasn’t convinced by her argument. That had to be getting fed to her by his Ability that handled nonverbal communication; she might have been able to pick out some of it on her own, but it wouldn’t have been that obvious. What she couldn’t tell, probably because he couldn’t either, was whether he was being stubborn about admitting how useful it was because it wasn’t what he thought it should be or if he really didn’t think it was all that important.

Nothing she could do would change how he felt.

“You know, that shopkeeper was right. We really won’t be coming back to his stall. He’s wrong about the reason, but not about what we’re doing next.” Xin’ri sounded amused, though there was an undercurrent of tension. She was probably trying to distract them. “Why don’t we head on to the next stop? It’s supposed to have feathers.”

“That’s not tempting enough to get me to do whatever you want,” Sophia warned Xin’ri.

“Maybe not, but it did get you to smile.” Xin’ri winked, and Sophia realized she was right. She was smiling.

Dav started first. He made it all the way to the end of the courtyard, where it joined a street, and stopped. “Ah, which way is it?”

For some reason, that very practical question made Sophia laugh. She had no idea which way it was, either. “Xin’ri had better lead.”

It was back the way they’d come, less than a minute’s walk from the previous stall. Even so, it was a very different stall, with a pair of leather-lined wooden covers that supported an entire array of glowing lamps hanging over the display. There were a few dreamcatchers, as well, and a lot of different bottles and wands on the table, but it was what was at the edge of the table that caught Sophia’s attention. 

There were feathers. They hung from hooks stuck in the leather tablecloth and they looked like they’d been dyed, but they were undoubtedly feathers. They weren’t what Sophia needed; she needed plain feathers, not ones turned into ornaments. It was still a good start.

This time, the first thing they asked about was feathers. The shopkeeper seemed doubtful at first, but before long she was pulling crates full of feathers out from under the table that held her normal goods. Every single feather radiated magic, while the crates seemed to be sorted by general mana type. 

The one thing she didn’t have was nonmagical feathers. Sophia expected that, given the theme of the Night Market, but she still felt like she ought to ask. She’d just have to buy more when they got back to Mazehold; it wasn’t like she was at all low on feathers yet.

While she worked, the shopkeeper talked to Xin’ri and Dav about the rest of her goods. Sophia didn’t pay much attention; while it was nice to know that there was a huge variety of wands available and an incredible supply of magical liquids ready to be used for making other things, Sophia wasn’t really all that interested. She was here for the feathers.

A couple of the mana types the new feathers displayed were ones Sophia already had skyeagle feathers for, wind and fire, but these were different. First of all, they weren’t from a skyeagle; Sophia didn’t recognize the bird, but they didn’t look right for skyeagle feathers. Second, the shopkeeper called them “the wind that cuts” and “the fire that spreads,” rather than the more generic wind and fire Sophia already had. Whether or not that mattered would depend on how she used it.

The rest were mana types Sophia didn’t have. Every single one had a secondary attribute, like the wind and fire. For lightning, it was paralysis rather than burning or even speed. For space, it was travel, which seemed almost backwards to Sophia, but she knew enough about Intent to know that magic was extremely responsive to the user’s thoughts. It could work. 

Once it became clear that some of them were the same “element” but with a different focus, Sophia ended up making a list.

Wind - Cutting

Wind - Silence

Fire - Spreading

Lightning - Paralysis

Space - Travel

Metal - Durability

Metal - Sharpness

Water - Absorption

Sand - Fluidity

Light - Perception

Sophia could see a way to use every single one, though some would be easier than others. It would be even better if she could combine them; spreading paralysis could be really useful if she could get it to work.

The problem she had was the same as Dav’s, only made worse by the fact that she used up feathers that were in her Domain. They might last for several uses or they might only last one; either way, she needed to be prepared for them to be used, which meant she had to buy a lot of feathers. One leaf per feather sounded good until she realized there were thousands of feathers in those crates and she simply didn’t have the aurichalc for it.

There was only one possible solution. She’d have to impress the Eidolon the same way Dav already had and earn enough of a reward to pay for all the feathers she wanted. Sophia ended up buying a few of each type, but it wasn’t nearly what it could be. Not yet.