Broken Lands

Chapter 411 – Planning For Four

Sophia finally had a path forward, a path that she could make work. Three days after Kestiben and Ekkiba found her on the Et’Zin island, Shaman Venique approved Sophia for short trips off the island, as long as she took Taika with her and promised to return when she started feeling tired from the effort of riding the lifeweb.

She also expected Sophia to try to actively use the Lifeweb. Most Archons who didn’t grow up with at least a small version of it never really learned to do more than listen to the whispers, but Shaman Venique was convinced that Sophia not only could learn to do more but that she had to. Lost archons managed without those skills because they remained on the periphery of the Lifeweb, only barely interacting with it. Sophia didn’t have that luxury; she couldn’t hold the Lifeweb away from herself for long. She had to interact with it.

Interacting with the Lifeweb meant using it. Shaman Venique believed that would make it easier for Sophia, instead of harder. It meant building her own path forward instead of depending on either what lost Archons or young Archons did, but that was necessary for Sophia. She didn’t match either model.

Two days after that, the Wanderer’s third visit to the floating island finally included the details Sophia wanted on what the fourth upgrade meant in far more detail than he had when they spoke in his realm. 

He arrived shortly after Venique left for the day and left before Ekkiba showed up with her son leading the way, catching Sophia alone as usual. It was plenty of time to walk her through both the what and the how of the upgrade, although Sophia knew she’d have questions when it was finally time to implement it. This time, it was a far more detailed explanation and the overall picture looked different from what Sophia remembered of the first explanation.

The fourth upgrade was both the end of the first set of upgrades and the beginning of the next set. It was where you integrated your Body and Core with your Sphere and also where you chose which facet was the most important - and where that facet went. It was powerful but limited, because it did not expand your options; it focused them.

Someone who fought mostly with sheer power like Rockfist might well emphasize his Body facet, tying it together with something like Mighty or Forceful. Gaining new Abilities and even modifying his old ones would become more difficult. Growing his Core might even become impossible, with it expanding only with each upgrade.

While Rockfist was unlikely to choose it, Quick and Accurate were also fairly common facets for a Body Cardinal. Body was also frequently chosen by Professionals that did manual labor of any sort; even people like Jax with his Masks might choose Body, though his facet would probably be very different. The Wanderer had seen quite a few over the years and thought that the best ones he’d seen for infiltration specialists were Unremarkable and Malleable.

Most mages, especially combat mages, were on the other end of the spectrum, putting everything into their Core. Some went for sheer explosive power while others went for precision or subtlety; in many ways, it was a mirror of the Body attribute. Those mages had only a few Abilities and relatively weak Bodies, but they could use what Abilities they had well.

For either of those facets, a high attribute was required. That was what the words next to them meant, that the attribute was past the point where it could be chosen as a facet. It was also the direction it would push the facet if the person upgrading themselves didn’t shape the upgrade beyond the minimum that no one in the Broken Lands knew how to do. It wasn’t necessarily a bad choice, but the Wanderer believed both Sophia and Dav could do better than simply accepting the offered facet descriptions.

There were other possible facets, each with their own requirements and limitations. The Species facet was the one Revanos believed most monsters used, though he was certain many used Body or Core instead. He couldn’t say much about it; there wasn’t much there for a human that wasn’t already present in Body or Core. The few humans that did take it tended to be either Professionals who were extremely specialized or people with a nonhuman bloodline or warp they wanted to enhance.

Some people preferred to enhance or alter one of their previous upgrades with their Cardinal Facet. The Wanderer walked through each of the options with Sophia. 

Choosing to make your Grand Talent your Cardinal Facet had some fairly significant benefits. Sphere Cardinals could create new Abilities far more easily than other Cardinals, though they tended to operate at a lower maximum power. Admittedly, part of that was the fact that people who wanted flexibility rarely chose might or power as the direction for their facet. A Cardinal Sphere was the second most popular option for mages, but Revanos’s example was a friend of his who loved to shapeshift and experiment. It was a decent choice for Sophia, but she got the impression that Revanos didn’t like it, even if he wouldn’t directly say that. He kept asking what new Abilities she wanted and she had no answer for him.

Making your Signature also your Cardinal Facet was an easy way to alter your entire power set. Revanos thought it would be an excellent choice for someone like Jax who needed to be able to create Masks that were as powerful as his baseline, but Plumes was hard to quantify, which made Revanos recommend against it. She was trying to expand what plume meant, not limit it.

Aura was a powerful choice, but also limiting; it would anchor all of her Abilities to her aura. If she chose something that expanded her aura, that might not be a bad thing. More awareness of what happened in her aura would also be good; she used it that way already. Revanos liked making an Anchor the Cardinal Facet, since it was the point everything else built from.

You could also choose to build your facet out of a subset of your Abilities, and that was Revanos’s recommendation for someone like Sophia. There were almost always Abilities that were commonly used and even in use all the time, like Sophia’s Arcane Signifier. Those were good candidates because they were already things that everything focused on, so enhancing them improved everything without adding the inflexibility that focusing on a larger facet brought. 

It was also possible to choose something else as your Cardinal Facet, almost like a second Signature. Revanos didn’t go into detail on that; he believed it was nearly always a poor decision, because it meant limiting yourself for very little gain. As with the other choices, there were times when it might be useful, but he believed it was only worth it if there was something specific you needed to change or control and none of Sophia’s team had that sort of problem.

Technically, you could also choose not to choose with a Cardinal Facet like Unity. For some people, that was even a good choice, people who needed to be flexible and well-rounded. Revanos thought that it was a terrible idea for most people, however. Everyone had strengths and weaknesses. Most people who tried to do everything did most of it poorly.

Revanos’s most specific suggestion for Sophia was to focus on the linking aspect of her Signifier and the way it interacted with her Lifeweb Link, her aura, and how she gained and sent information and power across both. It would strengthen her allies but probably weaken personal Abilities like her Plume Shift, Translucent Aura, and Prismatic Plume Strike. At the same time, it might well let her extend those Abilities to others, which was an interesting thought as long as she was willing to accept that she would always work with other people. If she liked it, it would take time to feel out what she needed to do to make it her Cardinal Facet. If she didn’t, she’d need to figure out what she liked better.

Sophia’s father often traveled alone. He was individually powerful enough that he could and his skill set lent itself well to being on his own. He also often worked with others, sliding in and out of groups as it made sense for his life. The fact that he could work alone didn’t mean he didn’t want to work with others or that he could reach the same heights alone as he could with other people.

Sophia’s mother was rarely alone. This was by choice; Rissa liked people. Unlike her husband, she rarely ever entered dungeons or fought; that wasn’t her way. Her weapons were money and relationships and she used both of them to keep her family safe and help her worlds prosper. The fact that she was also an extremely successful Oracle didn’t hurt, but she couldn’t achieve anything without the help of others. 

Sophia took after her father more than her mother … or, at least, she’d always thought she did. She wasn’t an Oracle; that was Jenna’s burden, though Xavier also had a few oracular moments. Sophia thought she escaped it until she saw the Ability Fleeting Foresight appear in her Species Ability list. 

That wasn’t the key, though. It was far more important that Sophia loved diving into dungeons like her father, testing her skills against the monsters the dungeons created. She wasn’t as powerful as her father, but that was fine. She’d learned a wide enough array of skills that she could fill almost any role that was needed and even take on weaker dungeons with minimal help. That was how she ended up as a dungeon escort for newcomers, after all.

Sophia had strayed a long way from that person during her time in the Broken Lands. Dav was with her the entire way and she leaned on him more than a little. He leaned on her, too, but Sophia knew she needed him more than the other way around, especially at this point. Ci’an was with them starting in Casterville and then they added Xin’ri and Jax. Jax was already stepping away and Sophia expected to lose Ci’an and Xin’ri when they finally found a way to travel to Dav’s homeworld. 

That was going to hurt, but at least it was a relatively safe place. The only dangers Dav talked about were the Dust and the dangers of being born poor; there weren’t monsters wandering around the planet the way there were in the Broken Lands or even back home on Earth. Terra was like Earth before the Voice arrived and magic became common, other than the Dust. Her personal power wouldn’t matter that much, if it even made it there.

Once she got home, she’d be able to find people to work with; her family had connections and money. She could hire people if she had to. Being set up to function best with other people might not have always been her dream but it wasn’t exactly a huge limiter. The real problem was the thought that maybe Dav wouldn’t be there. Maybe he’d stay behind on Terra when Sophia went home to Earth.

More power wouldn’t fix that.

Only honest communication would have a chance.

That evening, Sophia waited for Dav to return to the floating island, then asked him what his plans were when they reached Terra.

Dav’s answer was simple. “We’re going to find my parents and maybe look for a few friends; I don’t have many. Then we’re going to find a way to get to your home.” He paused, then added hesitantly, “Do you think there’s room for a disabled barkeep and his waitress wife on Earth? I’d like to bring my parents with us when we go.”

It was exactly what Sophia wanted to hear. “Of course there is. I … I was worried you’d want to stay.”

She wasn’t sure what she’d have done if he’d answered the other way. Would she have stayed with him or tried to get back to Terra? It seemed likely, but really, what future was there for someone like her on a planet that didn’t have monsters?

Dav laughed softly. “My parents are really the only thing tying me to Terra. Other than missing them, this time has been the best of my life.”