Broken Lands

Chapter 406 – Voices

Sophia frowned for a moment, but she had an idea what he was talking about. “You mean those words next to my Body and Core, don’t you? They appeared with the third upgrade.”

The Wanderer nodded. “They’re tied to having a Grand Talent, and that’s one of the ones that can’t be achieved early; the Guide calls anything achieved before the twelfth level a Grand Spell or Grand Ability to indicate the connection. The requirements for that are similar but less holistic. A Cardinal Facet is similar; it’s your choice of the direction you want your upgrades to go. The words listed next to your Body and Core are facets; to reach the fourth upgrade, you need to shape them into a direction. How do you want your Grand Talent to grow?”

Sophia frowned. That didn’t quite seem to make sense to her, but it was surely her lacking understanding. “What do you mean? How does buoyant even have anything to do with my Grand Talent?”

“It’s not one I would recommend taking as your Cardinal Facet,” Revalos answered, “Even though I can see how you ended up with it. Think about how it applies to what you do; you can fly, while your feathers float in your Demense. They are buoyant. If you turned that into your Cardinal Facet, it would affect almost everything; you might naturally float even in your normal shape or you might focus it into your Abilities. You might even be able to make everyone or everything else in your Demense float, though that seems to fit Dav’s Grand Talent more than it does yours. Because it is a Body-based Facet, it’s more likely to affect the physical, but you can also alter it to be more conceptual; for example, you might be able to alter your Translucent Aura into a Buoyant Aura and either bound over attacks or make them rise as they travel, missing you or your allies. That’s not easy, but it’s possible.”

“So … it’s like adding another word to the Grand Talent?” Sophia wasn’t sure if that was right or not, but it seemed close.

The Wanderer started to say something, then paused in thought. “I guess you could think of it that way. It’s close enough to work with, at least. I think you can see why I wouldn’t have you choose Buoyant; it describes your Body but it wouldn’t really enhance your Grand Talent in most circumstances. If you wanted to fight in the sky, it might be a good choice, but if you were at the fifteenth level, I’d recommend starting with Luxuriant. It’s already tied to your Core and therefore modifies magic more easily, in addition to having better connections for your Sphere.”

Sophia frowned again. The first reason made sense, but how was Luxuriant better? Wasn’t that just used for hair?

“It means rich, lush, and abundant,” Revanos continued. “It should make your Abilities stronger in general because the mana that fuels them will be fully present and plentiful. It may even allow you to use more mana in each Ability; Cardinal Facets like that tend to result in attack and defense Abilities functioning about a level above where they would otherwise be. It’s a good choice, but not the best you could have.”

That sounded pretty good, but Revanos was the expert. “It doesn’t sound as impactful as either my Anchor or my Signature, and I didn’t get to choose those.”

Revanos chuckled. “You did. It wasn’t direct with your Anchor, but it was pretty blatant with your Signature. I saw what you did and you were basically asking to use feathers.”

Sophia scowled at the reminder. She’d learned to own that mistake, even learned to like being surrounded by feathers, but that didn’t make her like being reminded that she’d made an important decision on impulse and had it go badly.

Well, it seemed to go badly at first. She’d fixed it eventually.

“As for importance, well, it will affect how your Abilities grow and also what Abilities you can gain in the future. Older upgrades will always have a more apparent effect, since they’ve permeated farther. As for what’s best … well, that’s largely up to what you want to do in the future, but neither buoyant nor luxuriant really helps with your most powerful Abilities. Your ability to share an ingrained understanding of monsters and boost your allies’ attacks is far more valuable than your own strikes. For that matter, you can boost your own strikes with your ability to capture other mana in plumes; you can already use that to fight significantly above your own level. None of that would be increased with Luxuriant. Oh, the captured feathers might last longer, but that’s all.” 

The Wanderer paused long enough for Sophia to nod in reluctant agreement before he continued. “The facets you have access to will change periodically; it’s usually recognized by the Guide every time you level but if you work towards something specific, you can change them at other times. When you are ready, use your Thread to bind your chosen Facet. You can bind both, as long as that turns them into a single Facet. They must be bound at the same time to do that … you have no idea what I mean, do you?”

Sophia shook her head. She hadn’t spent any of her Thread yet. “I can see how to increase my Body, Core, and level, but that’s it. Nothing else is available when I look.”

“Body and Core will vanish once you upgrade again.” The Wanderer shook his head slightly. “It’s supposed to be a clue that you have to do it yourself, I think, but it’s amazing how many people I’ve met over the years with empty levels … well. You’re not there. Thread is the key; you need to use it to reinforce your Sphere, Body, and Core. It can also be used to create new Abilities, though I don’t recommend it until you reach the fourth upgrade. Your Cardinal Facet will help guide you then. You should reinforce them as much as possible in the space you have; they are no longer limited by level but instead by your skill at wielding Thread. Mistakes can be fixed later, but they will cost far more Thread than doing it well in the first place. Unfortunately, you will find mistakes later as your Sphere shifts, but those are less costly to repair than simply being careless.”

That much made sense. “I need to return to the space where I built my Grand Talent, don’t I?”

Revanos smiled. “Exactly. As for the Facet, once it is bound and finalized, you need to use your Thread to connect it to everything it will affect. That allows you to restrict it from Abilities it would weaken but it also can make the tapestry of your Talent less resilient than it otherwise would be. It’s best to choose a Cardinal Facet that resonates with everything you want to be. Level when there’s nothing more you can do with your Thread; it will expand the space you have to work with and give you the best results.”

Sophia asked for details. Revanos walked Sophia through using her Thread properly for Abilities, Body, and Core. It was quite a bit more complicated than she expected; there were different methods for each of them, and even different ways to knot or weave the Thread to make Abilities faster or more powerful or even tie them together. In addition to Abilities, she could also reinforce the linkages and structure of her Grand Talent, making things either work together better or not interfere with each other. There were even stitches that would make multitasking easier. When it came to her Species Abilities, the Wanderer could only show her the most basic options; apparently every Species was a little different, so she’d have to figure out what worked and what didn’t on her own. 

He was able to show her how to unravel Thread and recover some of it; Sophia was confident that would come in handy. There was no way Sophia was going to remember everything they’d gone over without reminders, even though it was incomplete. On top of that, she was going to need a lot of practice; what little she did was full of issues even she could see. For that matter, she could now see tons of imperfections with her actual Grand Talent; the structure was there, but there were places that were thin and others that were positively lumpy. She had a lot of work ahead.

When Sophia tucked the little pyramid in her pack, Revanos reminded her to hang on to it. “There are several things you could use it for. Most of them are related to your Imperial Hub, but your fifth upgrade will need something physical that represents you in some way. I hope that does; if it doesn’t, you’ll need something else. Take it out and look at it occasionally; it’s not something you have to do often, but a connection to it would make the fifth upgrade easier.”

“What’s the fifth upgrade?” Sophia couldn’t help her curiosity.

“It’s called an extension. That’s … well, there are several things you can do with it. Some people duplicate themselves, while others create an entire miniature world that only they can enter. We can talk about it when you’re closer; right now, there’s nothing you can do with it other than try to create the extension seed. You still need to practice manipulating Thread.” Revanos smiled, then stood. “I’m afraid I need to send you on your way. You’ve lasted here far better than I expected, but enough is enough. If we need to talk about anything else, you can ask me in a few days.”

Sophia nodded, then awkwardly stood up herself. She took a step forward for balance then found herself really having to catch her balance as the world seemed to tip several inches sideways and become lighter all at the same time.

She was standing on the glass-like platform on the other end of the Gateway, outside the Wanderer’s realm. It was beautiful, just like the image through the Gateway, with islands floating in the distance. There was one major difference, though: it was loud. Really loud.

It was loud like there were hundreds of people in the next room talking, maybe thousands. They weren’t paying any attention to her and they weren’t individually speaking loudly, but there were just so many of them. They overwhelmed her to the point where she couldn’t hear her own thoughts over the noise.

Sophia sank to the ground. No, not ground, it was glowing white glass. No, not glass; now that she was this close, she could see that it was some sort of glowing clear bark.

The bark of the World Tree. The knowledge seemed to well up from somewhere. Maybe it was the voices or maybe it was Cliff sharing the information; she couldn’t tell.

All she could tell was that the voices were loud.

There was warmth at her back and Dav’s voice, but Sophia couldn’t make out what he said. It was too loud to hear anything. Tears ran down her face at the pain from the noise but she couldn’t bring herself to wipe them away.

“No. No you don’t.” Those words were clear and unmistakable; they were Taika. But how could she hear them over the noise? There was so much noise.

And then there wasn’t. Sophia’s head rang with the sheer quiet after all the noise. A colorfully marked but mostly white chinchilla was on her lap, a warm spot in the cool breeze. Taika.

But wasn’t Taika supposed to stay with Cliff?