Broken Lands

Chapter 336 – An Offer

Arak calmly directed the expedition in setting up the campsite and performing an early scout of one of the five new link-gates. He’d done it enough times that it was second nature; the only hard decision was which link-gate to check. Normally, he’d head straight forward to get deeper in the Maze, but his guess was that the phrases Sophia deciphered were in the order of the gates outside. They were plain, so there was no way to tell what they were in the link.

That meant the one directly ahead of them was Ancient Battlefield. He’d seen zones he’d describe that way a number of times, and none of them were particularly rewarding. There were things to be found, certainly, but you had to have people with specific Abilities to make that worthwhile, and he didn’t have enough treasure-finders on this expedition. 

Similarly, Fertile Field and Muddy Hole were out of the running from their position. He did want to take the expedition deeper into the Maze, even if he wasn’t trying to head to a specific area this time. If he intended to stay shallow, either one could work, but he’d probably pick Fertile Field. Muddy Hole could be good or it could be terrible, but a Fertile Field almost certainly had magical plant life, and Meadow was excellent at finding valuable plants.

No, the real choice was between King’s Rest and Floating Assault. The names alone made it easy; in the old days, kings were buried with treasures. There were no kings now, but that did not change the truth. Raiding a king’s tomb was dangerous; raiding a king’s tomb built for an expedition was also certain to be lucrative. 

Which one was it, though, right or left? They could be ordered in either direction. In the end, it was nothing more than a guess that sent the scout group into the one to the left of directly across the link from their exit; if it was either a tomb or something in the sky, he’d know which gate to head for. It wasn’t like sending a scouting group locked you out of other options; that was only the case if they didn’t return.

With everything proceeding well, Arak had time to consider the long term as well as the current expedition. 

He knew the old legends well. They held useful truths, which were even more useful when he knew which parts were true and which parts were heavily embroidered. He’d applied the same effort to separating useful truth from the chaff as he had when learning to turn his stealth Abilities into a full healing Sphere. It wasn’t the normal route, but it was far more useful than simply being sneaky.

The fact that only one person had ever learned how to read the Maze’s script was part of the Mage’s legend, but the ancient stories of that ancient Patron all contained that fact. There was even a journal from one of the Hallowed in the secret Arena Library that spoke of trying to repeat the feat “with Lady M’Beja’s own notes” without success. It was as confirmed as anything he’d ever found in the old legends, even though the Mage’s notes were long gone.

It was also no longer true. A guileless young girl had somehow repeated the feat. It was obvious she didn’t have the full method the Mage discovered; according to all of the stories, Lady M’Beja was a ghost in the Maze and the Tower, able to go wherever she wanted, usually without a fight unless she wanted one. 

That didn’t matter compared to what Sophia had accomplished. A starting point was all Arak needed. Even if he was never able to translate the words himself because he didn’t know the language and had no way to learn it, knowing that the letters repeated if you broke them up into the number of possibilities was useful. The Maze changed every time a mazestorm came though, but many of the links were static otherwise. This was evidence that even the zones that didn’t seem to be static actually were. It would be huge for navigating the Maze even with only that piece of information.

Arak regretted that she’d told him in front of everyone. Word of her ability to translate was certain to reach the Blade. It would have been better if she was a tool in his hand, but he could work with reality. He always had. All he had to do was make certain that when the Blade reached out to grasp her, she held the blade instead of the handle. If he could poison that blade, it would be even better.

A light hand was best. Sophia was young and foolish and should be easy enough to lead where he wanted her to go if he was careful. The main remaining question was if she’d live long enough to be useful. He wasn’t certain she would, but that played right back into his desire to make her a poisoned blade in the Blade’s hands. 

Yes, he knew what he’d do now. It wouldn’t give away anything that the Blade didn’t already know and it might help the Flying Stars live longer. That would help Sophia survive, and several of the other youngsters in the group were promising as well. Two of them, Jaycen Deepmist and Xin’ri, were clearly the backbone of the team in dealing with others; they were the only two that understood how most Called worked with each other. Dav was obviously from a Professional family, while Sophia and Amy Hunter definitely came from wealthy, powerful families.

Fortunately, they were smart enough to make Jaycen their official team lead and to actually listen to him. Arak was certain that only Xin’ri knew a lot of what Jaycen did for the team, but at least he seemed to care about the others. That level of trusting innocence could be a disaster. For the Flying Stars, it simply meant that whatever Arak offered had to pass Jaycen’s review as well as Sophia’s.

That was easy enough. What he was going to offer was both entirely reasonable given what Sophia could do and decidedly in their favor. 

Hours later, after the scouts returned with the news that the one he’d picked was, in fact, catacombs rather than a tomb, Arak scratched at the outside of the tent Sophia and Dav shared. It was small, but more than large enough for two who slept in the same bed.

The tent flap opened and Dav looked out. “Arak?”

“Can I talk to you for a few minutes?” Arak smiled at the confused man. He made a habit of visiting the different teams, one or two each night. Dav clearly hadn’t noticed. Even stranger, he hadn’t overheard Arak talk to the rest of the team a few minutes earlier; if he had, he’d have expected Arak’s presence. Arak had obscured the content of their conversation, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be heard. “It’s probably going to be more comfortable outside, but I can squeeze in if that’s what you want. We just need to talk for a few minutes.”

Dav turned towards the interior of the tent, then Sophia’s soft voice answered. “Come on in, there’s plenty of room.”

Arak frowned at that, but followed Dav into the tent. He was met by a sight he definitely didn’t expect: a table with six chairs. Sophia sat on one of the chairs with an impish smile, clearly enjoying his surprise.

As he looked around, he could see four different alcoves divided by curtains and a small area that was clearly intended to be used while standing. It could have been a workspace, but Ara’s guess was food preparation. He had no idea why you’d need that in a tent, but this tent was more like a small house than any tent he’d ever seen. 

There was also exactly no noise from outside once Dav closed the outer tent flap. 

Arak gathered his wits again. He couldn’t prevent the moment of surprise, but it didn’t harm anything to be surprised. He turned towards Sophia; this had to be hers. She was the one who was used to wealth. “Where did you get this tent?”

“My father had it made for me,” Sophia admitted. “He said that a good tent was worth more than anything but his weapon, and sometimes it beat the weapon. I thought he was joking, until I got to the Broken Lands. I’ve used it more here than ever before. Finding a new way to power it was not easy, but it was completely worth it.”

“I guess that means you’re not interested in selling it,” Arak observed. He wasn’t certain he had the aurichalc to buy it if she was interested, but he knew he’d at least consider it if he had the chance. He spent entirely too much time on expeditions to the Maze not to value something that could bring the comforts of home along for the trip. That was even before he considered the fact that it would probably carry more than Sophia’s bag already would, and her bag was beyond impressive.

Sophia shook her head. “And before you ask, no, it can’t hold as much when it’s closed as it does when it’s open. Most of the furniture and walls you see are part of the tent itself; it’ll hold a little more than the built-ins, but not that much.” She paused and shook her head with a grin. “Everyone always asks that.”

Arak tried to look like he hadn’t been about to ask the question she’d preempted. He was certain she wouldn’t believe it if he said something, so he moved to a different question. “Is it soundproof?”

“Yeah. I turn that off when we’re ready to sleep; that way, we’ll hear if there’s an attack or something. It’s not as important during the daytime, and there are some wards set up to alert me if the tent is struck or there’s enough noise or … a couple other things, I have a list.” Sophia waved a hand in the direction of one of the curtained alcoves, probably where she thought the list was. “There are things I don’t want anyone else to hear, you know? That’s why the rest of the team decided to have their own tents.”

Arak wasn’t sure how to take that until he noticed that Sophia was flushed red, as if she were embarrassed. He glanced at Dav, who was not only not blushing but looked almost proud. Yeah, Arak was certain he knew what she was talking about, and it wasn’t what he’d use the soundproofing for. Even so, it was very convenient; he wouldn’t need to block sound for this conversation.

“I want to talk to you about the expedition so far; I do that every few days with each team. Before that, though, I want to invite you on a smaller expedition once you reach the third upgrade.” Arak paused for a moment to marshal his thoughts. He knew what he wanted to say, but how he said it was just as important as what he said. “I don’t know how much you know about the Maze, but there are a few areas that move around but as far as I can tell are always there. One of them has a locked link-gate covered in the symbols you’ve figured out how to read. I’d like to take you there and see if you can open it or at least tell me what the link-gate says.”

It was better not to mention the symbol on the door. It wasn’t just a broken sword, it was the broken sword: the symbol of the Kestii Empire, broken into three pieces. It was the proper symbol for the Broken Lord, and Arak was certain he knew what it meant. It had to be the true center of the Maze, where the Heart mentioned on the wall in the Registry was hidden. The reason no one had found the center wasn’t because they couldn’t get there, it was because they didn’t know what they were looking for.

Arak intended to be generous. If Sophia really could get him through that door and let him claim the Heart and conquer the Broken Lands, he’d need people with power to support him. He’d happily give her all the resources she needed to keep exploring the Maze or almost anything else she wanted to do. She’d already shown that she could create results no one else could.