Broken Lands

Chapter 408 – Shaman

The winged woman met them as they descended to the island. All of her attention was on the lightning-wrapped Archon. “Gira? Where is she?”

Giramakari extended his head towards Sophia, clearly indicating her. “The white and pink short-eared bunny is protecting her enough that she can fly.”

“I’m not a bunny,” Taika protested. “I’m a chinchilla!”

The ignored Taika entirely. “And you let her?”

“I’m here, aren’t I? That’s enough. You know there’s plenty of time to catch her if she falters.” Giramakari sounded annoyed.

The woman with wings made of glowing lines sighed, then turned her attention to Sophia. “Let’s get you on the island. None of the rest of you had any issues? You’re not protecting anyone else?” The last few words were obviously directed at Taika instead of Sophia.

“Only Sophia,” Taika admitted. He sounded significantly less annoyed than he had earlier. “What’s going on? It doesn’t really feel like an attack, but it’s way too much.”

“All Archons can touch the Lifeweb,” she answered easily. “And when you grow up with it, that’s not a problem; you know how to deal with it and how to protect yourself. Archons who grow up somewhere other than Arcatiz sometimes have issues when they first arrive, though, especially if they aren’t born into an Archon community. I like to compare it to someone who grew up underground and then steps into the midday sun; it hurts and you don’t know what to do. We usually have several lost arrive each year, and I’m the shaman responsible for the next one. You. The first step is what your …. Chinchilla? Companion is handling for you; the second step is learning how to handle it. Practice and skill will come later.”

The shaman landed on a gigantic tree branch and folded her wings. Sophia expected them to fold back like a butterfly’s wings since that was basically their shape but they settled against her back and draped over her shoulders more like a bird’s wings might. “I am Shaman Vequine Et’Zin. While I am one of the Et’Zin shamans, I am not the only one; therefore, while we are on this island, you may call me Shaman Venique or Venique, whichever makes you more comfortable. Please don’t call me Veni, even if Gira tries to convince you it’s fine. May I have the honor of your name?”

The formal question was enough to make Sophia answer the way she would have on Suras. “Sophia Dalmoti Rothmer Et’Tart. Please call me Sophia.”

Venique nodded, clearly watching Sophia carefully as she landed. “An Et’Tart? I admit I do not know the Clan, but we can find out where your Clan resides if you … What happened to your wings?”

Sophia blinked. She’d just released the Ability, but … oh. “Didn’t Giramakari tell you? I’m not an Archon. I don’t have wings. I’m Suras, and the Guide seems to know what that is, unlike the rest of my heritage. Suras don’t have wings, but both Suras and Archons are Asuryans, and I have a Species Ability called Latent Lifeweb Link, so I guess Suras must have a Lifeweb as well even though I’ve never heard of it. Maybe it’s one of the things that faded since most Suras are more human than anything else these days? It’s all legends now.”

Venique stared at Sophia for long enough to make her uncomfortable before she nodded once. “That resonates with truth. I wondered what Gira was so excited about. A Suras? How did you get here? I thought the Earthbound were simply another name for other species but you fit here like a missing puzzle piece.”

“Ask her what her father’s Species is,” Giramakari interrupted. “I really want to know if that’s true.”

“I am not your personal Truthfinder,” Venique scolded Giramakari. “You know what it takes for me to sense truth, even with one new to the Lifeweb.”

“It’s relevant,” the birdlike Archon insisted. “Go on, tell her; she’s grumpy, not stupid.”

“Gira!” Any pretense of formality from the shaman was completely undermined when she stamped her bare foot and huffed at her clanmate. 

It made Sophia miss her siblings. Xavier always teased Jenna the same way, though they were as likely to turn it into a ticklefight as they were to simply snipe at each other. She grinned at the memory, then repeated what she’d told Giramakari. “Asuryan Arcane Dragon.”

Shaman Venique stared at Sophia in disbelief for a long moment before she led the way into the building that was built into the tree they stood on. “I thought I was ready to help the lost on my own, but no … the very first one I take on without an elder’s help not only has a pet who can shield her mind, she’s straight out of the ancient legends! Gramma is going to laugh so much…”

The words sounded like they were in Venique’s voice, but her mouth wasn’t moving. Sophia tried to quietly ask Taika if it was a communication through the Lifeweb. He confirmed that something had slipped through his protection, something much stronger than most of what he was protecting her from.

The interior of the building in the tree was spacious, with temporary partitions between rooms rather than permanent walls. It was beautiful but clearly well-worn. It was clean and elegant but definitely not new. The moment the door closed behind the group, a pressure Sophia hadn’t realized was still there seemed to ease. The distant voices were far quieter now, even with Taika’s help. The building had to be enchanted in some way. Sophia could see where that would be important for a telepathic species as a way to minimize distractions.

The thought that she apparently belonged to a telepathic species was weird. The only telepath in her family was her grandfather, and her mother’s father wasn’t related to the Asuryans at all. At least, he wasn’t related as far as Sophia knew; they really had no idea what his heritage was. It wasn’t something he’d chosen to investigate.

Shaman Venique frowned when she saw how many people came from Kestii with Sophia and asked that no more than two people other than Taika stay with Sophia. There simply wasn’t room for more. A quick discussion led to the decision that they’d trade out over time, but most of the time, only Dav would be with her. Giramakari was sent to lead them to places to stay and to point out the important places they’d need to know about in Arcatiz. They were talking about the markets when they left, which had Arryn quite eager to get moving.

That was fine, as was the instruction Venique commenced immediately on handling the Lifeweb Link. It reminded her of some exercises her grandfather did with her when he was teaching her how to keep from projecting her thoughts for everyone to hear; his training didn’t do anything to protect her from someone who targeted her, but it might well keep her from being targeted in the first place.

Venique’s instructions were more detailed and included how to keep others’ thoughts away even if they were leaked, but the technique was similar. Sophia was able to completely cut herself off fairly quickly, which impressed the shaman, but that wasn’t enough; she was supposed to learn how to let it wash over her, picking up on anything important and ignoring the rest. 

Venique didn’t care if she kept to herself most of the time, but she did say that Sophia wasn’t allowed to completely cut herself off, and completely cutting herself off was the only way she could get true quiet. Even Venique couldn’t fully protect Sophia without completely blocking the noise, which meant they had extra work to do to figure out why.

Worse, Sophia wasn’t allowed to leave the island until she could manage the technique without the help of either Taika or Shaman Venique. There were no consequences attached other than the shaman’s disapproval, but that was enough. Sophia did not want to disappoint the woman who was trying to teach her how to deal with the mental noise of an Archons’ settlement when all she’d asked for was Sophia’s story and for Sophia to keep herself safe. She was allowed to go outside with Taika or Venique if she wanted to fly, exercise, or simply see the outdoors, but only within the island’s borders.

Sophia felt confined by the second day of it, even though she’d kept to herself for longer than that in the past. The problem was not being allowed to go anywhere, on top of the fact that there were things she should be doing. Without Sophia available, Xin’ri had to lead the effort to find someone who could build a Gateway to reach across universes, and Xin’ri wasn’t having much luck.

The stories the others brought back from the markets helped in some ways; they gave her something to think about other than the really boring breathing and visualization exercises Venique wanted Sophia to practice. They also emphasized just how interesting Arcatiz was; the population was just as varied as the presence of both Giramakari and Venique in the same Clan indicated. 

About a third of the population was large flying animals. Most seemed to be large, often oversized, birds but Dav saw everything from flying squirrels to a group of what he swore were pterosaurs. He described them in enough detail that Sophia could almost see it.

Another large fraction of the population was Archons that seemed to be more or less intangible but still had their original shape. Sophia didn’t need a good description of them, really; the Archons Othala provided images of back in the Skylands were clearly from that subgroup. 

Interestingly, there seemed to be a more or less equal split between birdlike insubstantial Archons and insubstantial Archons from the largest category: Archons who were like Venique, a winged variant of a landbound creature. Winged humans were common but so were many other winged variants, from winged cats to one particularly odd description that made Sophia think of a winged octopus. 

The last subgroup, probably less than ten percent of the population Dav saw, was people without wings of their own. Dav wasn’t able to tell whether they were visitors like the group from Kestii or locals; what he could say was that they were just as varied as their winged counterparts. It was like hearing about a scene from a science fiction movie with a particularly large budget for aliens.

Sophia couldn’t wait until she could see it for herself. Unfortunately, at the current rate, it didn’t seem like it would be any time soon.

Most of her time was spent practicing dealing with the Lifeweb and her no longer latent Lifeweb Link. Venique taught breathing exercises and made her work through her other Abilities, in case some of them were contributing to the reason she couldn’t quite find her balance. At first, they thought it was only Plumed Knowledge that was a problem, since it seemed to accept information from the Lifeweb the same way it would have from Cliff, only without Cliff there to curate the knowledge.

It took five days of headaches and testing before they discovered that Plumed Knowledge was part of the problem but it wasn’t the real problem. The real problem was Arcane Signifier, which wanted to treat every plume she could touch as one of her plumes … and the fact that with the Lifeweb Link, it could touch plumes that were outside her aura. It kept trying to extend her Demense across the entire planet, everywhere there was an Archon with a plume. Archons without feathers like Venique weren’t affected, and it wasn’t actually doing anything, but it made the Lifeweb Link incredibly difficult to restrict or quiet.