Broken Lands

Chapter 405 – Patron Task

“If … no, when I make it back home, you can come visit if you want,” Sophia offered. “See some of Earth.”

Her parents would probably be happy to host him. He’d been helpful, and that was enough for them. If he preferred, he could rent a room in the Adventurer’s Guild building where Sophia lived. They usually had rooms available, since the building was part of Aki’s dungeon and therefore had plenty of space. She was certain her suite would have been cleaned out by now; she’d been gone for years. 

Revanos smiled. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. You need to figure out how to get there first. On that note, if the Archons don’t know how to get you home, I have a Task for you that might help you reach that goal. I say might because I don’t know if M’Beja ever found what she was looking for; the fact that she vanished doesn’t mean anything either way. Few of my people spend much time on Arcatiz, so I haven’t had anyone look into where she went since I became concerned. She’s a good choice for you, as well; if the Archons don’t know how to open a route home for you, she might.”

“M’Beja? The Mage?” Sophia wasn’t going to forget the name of the woman who deciphered the labels on the Maze without preexisting knowledge of Bridge. That might be less impossible if she had access to other Towers that worked properly, but it was still a heck of an achievement.

“That’s right.” Revanos nodded encouragingly. “She disappeared thirty years ago. She went to Arcatiz and never sent word or returned. She disappears for years at a time, more and more frequently, but thirty years is too long. She’d have sent a message to someone by now. Well, probably. There was that time she found a city hidden under an ocean. Not on the sea floor, literally buried in the rock below the ocean bottom. She was out of touch for almost a hundred years that time.”

Sophia giggled. “It sounds like she wanders more than you do.”

Revanos grinned. “It’s not the same thing. She searches and travels, I wander. With that said, we do get along well. She’s fun to travel with; she always has a destination in mind. She likes to claim I cheat; she has to leave home, while mine is never more than a Step away.”

Sophia tilted her head slightly to the side. “You miss her.”

Revanos nodded. “We’ve known each other for almost ten thousand years, after I completed my first Tower and before she managed hers.” 

Sophia frowned. She knew the Kestii Tower was old, but ten thousand years didn’t seem right. There were only six Emperors before the Broken Lord; they’d have to each have ruled for fifteen hundred years or so to make that work, and that seemed unlikely. The Broken Lord held his position for that long, but he was inactive most of that time. On top of that, one of the Emperors died on his initial trip to the top of the Tower after gaining the sword. The math didn’t work.

The Wanderer paused and shrugged at Sophia’s confused expression. “We’re not from Kestii. I suppose that wouldn’t be obvious; there are fifty or sixty major human lands. Kestii’s the only one with only a single Tower; since the disaster there, those of us who are still active have made it a point to encourage subsidiary Towers. Do you know what happened there? I can see how you’re trying to fix it, but that doesn’t tell me exactly what went wrong.” 

Sophia shrugged and explained what she knew, how the third Emperor removed the Empire’s Heart from the pillar that contained Ansuz and somehow damaged the Tower. That led to everything else, starting with the formation of the Maze and the eventual exodus and loss of effective Tower access and access to the Gateways. She was pretty sure the lost Tower access led to an acceleration of the growth of the Maze, which led to the Broken Lord concluding that it had to fall and directly or indirectly arranging his father’s death so that he could become Emperor when he reached the top of the Tower and command it to fall. 

That led directly to the distorted Spheres of the Broken Lord’s followers and the deaths of all of the Hallowed while they were still unconscious after the Tower’s destruction. Within a hundred years, the loss of the Empire’s Heart also meant that there were no new City or Regional Lords, which meant that no one could manage the cities; it made everything worse. There was a lot of guesswork in her story, but the timeline fit; she’d checked that with Ansuz, Tiwaz, and Bai.

The Wanderer listened quietly until she was done, nodding periodically. “The real fault lies with the third Emperor, then. He was a bit prideful and wanted everything under his direct control, but I certainly didn’t expect … well, none of us did. Who would be dumb enough to carve pieces out of the source of their power?”

Sophia’s thoughts flashed to stories of her father’s adventures from before she was born. “Someone who thought it would bring them more power than it cost, of course. When there were no immediate consequences, it meant he got away with it.”

The Wanderer frowned, then nodded. “That makes me wonder if it has happened before, only worse; there have been other places that have simply disappeared. Unlike Kestii, they didn’t become accessible even to Patrons again after a few months; they were simply gone. There are a few places I may … no, that I should ask someone to check on, too. Some lands have monsters that develop outside the Towers. Kestii was a little unusual because that was rare before the Tower, but it wasn’t alone and there are several that have been seeing more monsters than I used to. I think I should set some Tasks to inspect Tower pillars for damage.”

“Is that what you do as a Patron?” Sophia wasn’t really sure what a Patron even was. She’d been thinking of them sort of like gods from back home, but it was blatantly obvious that they weren’t. She knew what faith felt like, and while there was some faith gathered around the Wanderer, there wasn’t nearly enough to qualify him as a god, even a minor one. It was closer to the amount of faith that gathered around rulers, leaders, and some celebrities.

The Wanderer shook his head. “A Patron doesn’t have to do anything; we’re Patrons because of what we achieved in our Towers, not because of what we do now. Most Patrons are only active for fifty or a hundred years, if they choose to take on the duties at all. Most of the rest limit themselves to the area around their Tower; they wouldn’t seem much different from the Emperors of Kestii, though there are at least as many differences as there are similarities.”

That reminded Sophia of one of the things she wanted to ask the Wanderer. “The Imperial Spheres … Can you teach me how to work with them? I was able to strop things out of the Broken Lord’s Spheres and send people to other Spheres, but I’m worried that doing much more than that might break them or set people up for failure when they try to upgrade.”

“That’s hard to do at the lower upgrades, but as you get higher … yes, I can see where you might need some help. I can’t see your Imperial Hub, so you’ll have to tell me what you see.” Revanos held up a hand before Sophia could speak. “Not here. I’ll visit you in a few days, when I can. I want to get those Tasks set up before I forget, and there are always things pulling me away from larger efforts.”

He smiled widely. “I am one of the more involved Patrons, after all. Everyone knows of the Wanderer; most people know someone who’s seen me or met me. I get around.”

Sophia chuckled. Of course he did. “Can you help with the fourth upgrade at the same time? No one in the Broken Lands knows how to get there. It’s led to some pretty terrible things.”

She found herself telling Revanos all about the Broken Blade and what she did in the belief that it would let her reach the fourth upgrade. She knew it wouldn’t have worked; she could see the Broken Lord’s setup, and there were no fourth upgrade Spheres available from the one the Broken Blade had, even though her later search had turned up some Spheres clearly modified by the Broken Lord that were at the fourth upgrade, along with a number of others that weren’t in use at lower upgrades. Sophia’s best guess was that they dated back to the fall of the Tower.

“There was once a Patron who made it his business - and his Paladins’ task - to hunt down people like that.” Revanos shook his head slowly. “They did a lot of good, but I’m glad they’re gone. Some of them were entirely too zealous and would kill anyone who ever gained Wisps from another person, which includes a lot of Professionals that never did anything they shouldn’t. Aeric eventually had to deal with him; he’s the perfect example of someone lifted up by the strength of others, so his Patronage stood in alliance with … ah, never mind. You don’t know the people involved. It’s enough to say that foolishness like that isn’t new.”

Revanos held out his right hand with his palm facing the sky. A solid-looking silver figurine of Sophia’s Imperial Sigil appeared above his hand. It glowed with magic Sophia thought she recognized, magic that felt like essence instead of mana. “This will work well. Think of yourself as this sigil. Each upgrade is another set of blocks in the pyramid, building upwards. At the same time, you do not only have your upgrades; you also have your Sphere. It is the sword, supported by the upgrades without being one. You are the feathers, different from the upgrades and the Sphere but still tied to them. You control your Sphere and your upgrades, not the Guide; that is the better way to advance.”

It was a nice analogy, but it didn’t really explain much.

“The lowest level is your Anchor,” the Wanderer continued. “Like the bottom floor of a tower, an Anchor is how you interact with the world. Yours is Aura, of course, and much of what you do is expressed through your aura.”

Sophia nodded. That made sense; it was also the best description of an Anchor she’d heard yet. 

“Each step up is similar to the one before it, yet different. As your Anchor is what you use, your Signature is your outward expression of your power. Your Grand Talent seems completely different to most people, but it is what you express rather than how.” Revanos paused, then flicked the sigil towards Sophia. “Here, take this. I expect you’ll find it useful whether or not you choose to incorporate your position into one of your upgrades.”

Sophia reached up and picked the pyramid out of the air. The moment she touched it, it gained weight as though it were made of something light, like aluminum. It dimmed but she could still feel the slight pulse of magic beneath its surface.

“The fourth upgrade is different again, the last of the foundational upgrades. The Guide really likes the number four, apparently,” the Wanderer joked. He clearly meant the fact that an upgrade happened on or was required for every fourth level. “You are ready to pursue it now if you wish, but I recommend waiting until you have built your fifteenth level and are certain what you want your Cardinal Facet to be.”