Broken Lands

Chapter 356 – It will hold

The next time Sophia looked down at the Arena floor, the Arena staff were all gone and the doors she could see were all closed. The Called in the Arena were all alone. Sophia watched as the stone dome crept its way towards the top of the Arena. The shield above it flickered and cracked several times, but each time the monsters were corralled or quickly killed.

It was nice to see people who were competent do their jobs, even in an emergency.

The shield cracked wide open and didn’t heal again when the dome was five or ten feet from the peak. A stream of watery mana swirled into the Arena in pulses, almost like … no, exactly like air had to leave after each new clump of water. Sophia could see the bubbles of air rise above the opening, though they seemed to fall apart quickly as the mazestorm infiltrated them with its watery power. 

Each glug of water mana turned into a watery monster, from simple water sprites to mischievous naiads that paired up with mobile waves. Sophia hoped the Called defending the Arena were up for the challenge; so far, they seemed to be, but this was a significant step up in difficulty.

The incomplete stone dome slowed, then seemed to accelerate its growth. Each clump of water mana was smaller than the one before it, with a final pulse that was cut off as the dome finally sealed at the top. The pounding noise was suddenly muffled with the loss of an opening to the outside.

“It will hold until the mazestorm passes,” the Blade told Sophia. She’d clearly been waiting; just as clearly, she was impatient. “The monsters will be handled by the Called who stayed behind. Half of them are on the Arena payroll for this already; the other half will receive a bonus for their work. Once the monsters are cleared out or contained enough that they can’t escape through the doors, the Called will evacuate as well and the dome will be released. The storm will break through it before it fades, and we will send in teams to clean up the Arena. There will be no matches tomorrow, not even the exhibitions that were planned for after the competition. We’ll delay them a couple of days and turn them into a celebration of reopening the Arena. This isn’t our first mazestorm.”

Sophia nodded slowly. A lot of things about the response made more sense when she considered that this was something that happened regularly, probably several times a year. It certainly explained why there was no panic in the stands; everyone either knew what to do because they’d done it before or they were next to someone who had. To them, it wasn’t really an emergency; it was an inconvenience. 

“Now, while they clean up the mess, I have an offer for you. You are aware of the difficulty of the third upgrade, aren’t you?” The Blade smiled and tilted her head to the side, clearly inviting a response.

Sophia suppressed a snort at the thought of the monsters in the Arena being called “a mess,” but allowed her attention to be drawn away. The view was spectacular, but it wasn’t going to teach her anything the other Arena matches she’d seen hadn’t already taught her. 

“I’ve heard it’s difficult, but it doesn’t sound that bad,” Sophia admitted cautiously. “We have to build a Grand Talent out of everything we have that works with and is a step up from our Anchor and Signature. I have some ideas on where I want mine to go and I think it’s coming together, but I won’t know until I try and I can’t try until I reach level twelve anyway.”

Or was it that you weren’t really level twelve until you had the Grand Talent? Sophia thought that was more likely the case. The Anchor came at level four with the first upgrade and the Signature came at level eight with the second upgrade. She’d gotten her Signature early, though, so maybe you could get a Grand Talent early as well? That was sort of what her Grand Spell and Grand Ability were, after all: a sort of a budget incomplete Grant Talent that wasn’t finalized.

Neither of them was what she wanted in the end, either, although there were some elements of both that she wanted to keep.What she really wanted was to combine them with both her Sphere and her Species and truly gain control over the magic around her. A real spellcasting Grand Talent would be even better, but that didn’t seem to be an option with the Guide; all of the “spells” were really just Abilities in a different package. They didn’t have the same theming requirements to begin with, because “spell” was the theme, but that didn’t make them real spells. Real spells were individually designed and could be customized by changing the spell structure; the Guide’s couldn’t. Oh, they could be guided, but that wasn’t the same thing.

She’d also given up any hope of actually making the Guide let her shapeshift properly. It didn’t actually seem to quite understand what a dragon was, though it did seem to have a lot of the pieces and certainly knew more than it seemed like. The echo was proof of that; she looked a lot like Sophia imagined she’d look if she were able to take on a full draconic form instead of the nearly human basically Suras form she actually had. 

She’d just have to work on that when she got back home and could access the Voice. It knew what a dragon was and had offered her a bloodline Path in the past. She’d simply never taken it. Maybe she should have, but it always seemed less important than pursuing what she wanted to do next.

“That makes it sound simple. It isn’t.” The Blade’s voice cut through Sophia’s thoughts about what she wanted to do and brought her back to the present. “Your Anchor and your Signature are easy; they are based on the Spheres you choose, and all that requires is collecting Wisps. With your group’s talent, it is clear that gathering Wisps is not as much of a challenge for you as it is for many.”

The Blade paused as if she expected something from Sophia, so Sophia nodded. That did seem to be true; others talked about gathering Wisps as if it was difficult. It didn’t really seem that bad to Sophia. Having to manually allocate everything to keep her Sphere progressing properly instead of that being handled in the background by the Voice based on the Paths she chose was annoying, but in the end it wasn’t really a problem. It just meant she had to get enough Wisps, and all that took was time and effort. It was simpler than back home, in a way; here, it seemed to be purely based on combat, rather than being based on actually learning and following your Path or creating a new one.

Well, all right, it wasn’t that simple here, either. You also had to accomplish something. It wasn’t the same, though.

“The third upgrade is not that easy. You are making your own Sphere, and that means it has to pass the Guide’s tests to be a valid third upgrade Sphere that is compatible with your Anchor and Signature. The best Grand Talents are narrow but flexible, while a bad but acceptable Grand Talent is only narrow. I am certain you will have heard the advice to incorporate everything you wish to keep; this is the reason for that, but it is also where so many fail. You are a mage and a summoner. It would be easier to focus on only one of those, but it would be a mistake. Focusing on your summons is the way I would normally recommend that you go, as your summons are powerful, but it would give up your ability to unlock items for others. That would be a large loss. Giving up the spells you cast from your feathers would be a smaller loss, but it would still happen.”

Sophia stared at the Blade. Did she really think that Sophia had an Ability specifically for unlocking items? Sophia knew she wasn’t particularly secretive, and that wasn’t even a secret she’d tried to keep.

It was nice that the Blade wanted to give her advice, but it wasn’t likely to be useful if it was based on such flawed premises. At the same time, she was trying to keep Cliff secret, even if she wasn’t entirely certain why anymore. “I’m not going to give up magic. Don’t worry about that. Or summoning.”

The Blade smiled. “That’s a difficult thing to attempt. I know you don’t see it yet, but you will. I know you aren’t a devoted follower of the Broken Lord, but I still have an offer for you, a trade you might say. There is a way to make advancing to the third upgrade just as easy as all of the others.”

Sophia didn’t have to wonder how the Blade knew she wasn’t a devout follower of the Broken Lord; her Registry badge gave that away with its intact sword. She wasn’t sure what that had to do with the third upgrade, though. As far as she knew, the only interaction the Broken Lord had with Spheres at all was when he gave out Hallows.

Unless that was the answer. “You’re saying a Hallow lets you just step into the third upgrade? Or maybe the Broken Lord designs the Great Talent?”

If the Broken Lord could do that, the Wanderer could too. Sophia should have known that; after all, he’d designed her first upgrade Sphere and modified things significantly from her original Sphere. Now that she thought about it, that change was a lot like the way the third upgrade was described. Despite that, she doubted the Wanderer would do it again unless something like the Hallowed sword they’d stolen came up again. She was pretty sure the Wanderer wouldn’t have done it the first time if there was any other choice.

“That’s right,” the Blade confirmed. “The Broken Lord will grant you a Hallow.”

“And what do you want in exchange?” Dav interrupted before Sophia could turn down the offer. 

Sophia frowned at Dav. What was he playing at? There was no chance they’d accept the Blade’s offer, now or ever, so why didn’t he let her say that?

“We’re trying to find out why the Arena’s Called do better in the Maze than the Registry’s, even though they have less experience with it,” Dav’s mind-voice silently reminded Sophia. “The expeditions are probably part of the answer, but they definitely aren’t all of it. Telling the Blade we won’t work with her is a great way to not get that information.”

“I wasn’t going to say we wouldn’t work with her, just that a Hallow wasn’t the way to get us to help!” Sophia protested across the mind link. 

Dav didn’t even have to reply verbally; the feeling of doubt he sent across the link was enough for Sophia to understand his point. Even if Sophia did only reject the Hallow, the Blade might take it as a full refusal.

“There is something deep inside the Maze that I want opened,” the Blade admitted. “I believe Sophia may be able to do it, but it can’t be reached by anyone who is not at the third upgrade. That is the trade I want: I will give you all an easy way to reach the third upgrade and you will come into the Maze with me.”

That was the second time Sophia had been asked to enter the Maze with someone from the Arena after she reached the third upgrade in order to open something. Were the Blade and Arak Shade after the same thing? In Arak’s case, she knew it was behind a locked link-gate, and it seemed like that was the “something” the Blade wanted opened as well.

Dav nodded. “We’re all going to try to reach the third upgrade on our own, but we’ll keep your offer in mind. Perhaps we can make a different trade once we’re there?”