Broken Lands

Chapter 327 – Fair Trade

The sky was lighter than it had been when Sophia finished explaining the spark spellform. It was false dawn, which meant they’d been in the Night Market for most of the night. Sophia wasn’t certain exactly how long she’d spent explaining spells, but it was long enough that her team and team Rockfist had set up a small campsite, cooked a meal, and gotten in some naps. Sophia ate a little, but she was too involved in explaining things to the Eidolon to sleep.

“That is enough.” The Eidolon paused, then reached her right hand into her left arm’s sleeve. “You have given me more than I can handle, already; this is truly a weak Night Market, and from what you have said about your Tower, it seems all too likely that the knowledge I have gained will be stuck here.  I will try, but I should have known the Tower was broken and I did not. Something is deeply wrong with your Tower.”

Sophia frowned. Of course something was wrong with “their Tower;” it was broken. The Eidolon knew that. Did that mean there was something else wrong as well, or was this just an artifact of the damage? It was pretty obvious that the Eidolon was connected to something else outside the Tower of Kestii, or at least that she thought she should be. 

Whoever the Eidolon really was, she was from another planet, probably connected to the Guide but definitely not completely controlled by the Guide. Sophia couldn’t tell if she’d made a deal with the Guide, was invented by it but still sapient like a dungeon, or if she’d infiltrated its Tower system somehow. Any of those was possible. What wasn’t possible was her being nothing more than a part of the Guide; she seemed to be collecting information that the Guide already had.

It did know about spellforms, didn’t it? 

It had to. The Eidolon had remarked on the similarity between spellforms and the shaped mana the Guide showed off in Challenges, the same way Sophia had. It had to know about spellforms. Didn’t it?

“You should fix your Tower. All you need to do is find the old central hub. Of course, that assumes you can enter; you will have to figure that out on your own. There are too many possibilities to tell you how to get there and enter. It is also not under my purview; I can speak of it only because it seems likely to affect something that is within my aegis.” The Eidolon pulled her hand back out of her sleeve. It held several round tokens that looked about the size of an aurichalc coin. “And that is magic. You call it basic, but basic is what we need to build upon. You have earned this.”

A token floated from her hand towards each member of both teams. The common one that went to everyone except Dav and Sophia bore a white-on-white speckled eight-pointed star in a circle set against a matte black surface dotted with points of white, like the Eidolon’s form. It seemed to have a glowing aura that shifted in colors as it moved, but somehow did not obscure the token’s design.

The token that flew to Dav was similar, except that the outer circle was filled with colorful swirls. There were still speckles, like the rest of the token, but it was a very noticeable difference even so.

Sophia’s was even more distinctive. Its outer circle was purple and black with white streaks that shifted and moved like lightning, while the star had a far smaller star inset within it. At the center of the smaller star, a sphere pulsed in dark and light bands that seemed to expand and contract, releasing the lightning that showed in the outer circle.

“I would give you more for this if I could, but I am limited by the rules of the Night Markets; I can give only goods that you have earned and tokens. You will receive everything that you chose, along with some other things I believe you will be able to use. The white tokens are a one-time entry to the Night Markets; they will not select a particular one, but you will be allowed to test to see which you will enter. The token with a ring of color will open a door to a Night Market of magic; it may or may not be mine. No test will be required if the one who earned it is the one who used it.” The Eidolon glanced around the group. She seemed satisfied about what she saw, whatever it was. “The last token is mine. It will last until it is used by someone other than the one who earned it. I do not reward those who steal.”

That meant it also wouldn’t be worth as much if it was sold, though Sophia was certain that a token that guaranteed entry to a Night Market filled with magical goods even once would be quite valuable. That wasn’t going to happen any time soon, though; the Eidolon was right about that. Sophia had no desire to sell the token. She could get more money; she probably couldn’t get another token.

And now that she thought about it, there was one thing that might be here that she hadn’t even thought to ask about before. “You can’t give away things we haven’t earned … does that mean you can teach?”

“I can trade,” the Eidolon corrected Sophia. “And yes, knowledge is one thing I can trade, so long as it will fit within the bounds of a visit to the Night Market. We have very little time left in this night, and you will wish to leave before the Day Guard comes. I see the shopkeepers with your things are coming; they will give you what you have won beyond the tokens. What would you ask?”

The Eidolon was right; Sophia could see a couple of the colorfully speckled white on black stall owners moving around the crates that held Dav’s crystals. The glow from the crystals seemed to be weakening, so they were probably picking them up and putting them into whatever storage items Meadow selected.

There was only one question Sophia wanted to ask. She wanted to know how to get home, and how to get Dav home. They ought to be the same method, whatever it was. She also wanted to be able to get from Dav’s home to her own and back, but that could wait. “There are supposed to be Gateways at the center of the Maze. How do they work? Can we direct them somewhere else? Can they reach another universe?”

“Big questions.” The Eidolon frowned and shook her head. “There are Gateways set around most Towers. If you had something else between your Tower and the Gateways, that is unusual. I have heard of such before. It is a sign that the Patron who controls the Tower must-” 

The Eidolon’s mouth kept moving, but no words came out. After a moment, she seemed to recognize the problem and shrugged. “It seems that is not considered knowledge within my aegis. So, Gateways and a way to travel? The best Gateway engineers are the Archons, by far. It is said that they can repurpose a Gateway or even create a new one that is stable and will last a long time, based on magic that they brought with them when they first crossed the void. How much of that is true I do not know, but it is without a doubt that they are the best. They do not share their knowledge with those not of their kin, but they will happily sell their work. You will need more aurichalc than you have to gain their attention.”

Sophia’s mind flashed back to the image Othala showed them of two Archons. One, the Archon of Stone Issvako, was the one who designed the interlink between Othala and Tiwaz; the other, and Archon of Wind Sophia didn’t know the name of, was an assistant. She’d only asked about the Archon of Wind because of family stories from her father that said there was one in her heritage. Maybe that meant they would share information with her, but that wasn’t all that important. What was important was that it was a clue for how to find a way to move between worlds. “Is there anything else you can tell me about them? Where can I find these Archons?”

“They are found on nearly all worlds. I do not know which they call their home, but finding them is not usually the problem.” The Eidolon turned to look at the sky, then shook her head. “I fear our time is up. I look forward to seeing you again. You will find an exit from the Night Market behind me. I do not recommend staying for the Day Guard.”

With that, the Eidolon seemed to shrink in place and fade out of sight. As she did, the light that surrounded her seemed to collapse inwards and become a ball of darkness that emitted bands of crackling light. It was suddenly clear where the symbology on Sophia’s token came from.

Sophia turned around and found that the partial camp was already mostly packed. “I guess we’re in a hurry?”

Meadow grinned from next to the blankets she was quickly rolling into a bundle. “I asked some of the stall owners about exits before we got here and heard the same thing the Eidolon just told you, that there’s one at the end of the way here. Even better, this is one of the last places the Day Guard will check; if this were a real city, I’d say that they know what’s up and are paid off not to worry about it at night, but they’re still not going to let it spill into daytime. There are stories of people who fought the Day Guard; we could probably do it and win, but there’s no point. They do not carry coin and their weapons and armor won’t last if you pull them out through the link-gate. The Night Market won’t be back, even if we manage to hold out until nightfall. The shop keepers say that’s because they won’t set up in a place with active fighting and I don’t know. I’ve heard of people try to stay hidden for the whole day, but I’ve never heard of anyone who succeeded.”

“And you can’t return once you leave, either,” Jace added from the side. He’d just finished clipping his own blankets onto his backpack when he paused and made them vanish into the storage bracelet he’d just gotten. “We’ll have to find another way back to Mazehold, probably the route someone else on the expedition took to get here. The link-gate will be locked from the other side unless you use a token, and tokens are expensive. I’ll probably sell mine; I’ve been trying to put together a cache to use to get my Profession going, and this will be a nice bump.”

“I want to see what you make of it,” Meadow said with a grin. “I heard you can open magical locks, so maybe you can open the link-gate without needing a token. That would be great, though I don’t know what we’d find on the other side. No one’s ever opened one without a token. We’ll have a chance to see, once we head out through this link-gate.”