Noone looked at the old Alaviv. Suddenly the silly old man persona had disappeared. Now when he looked at the gnome, he couldn’t help but feel like he was being stared back at by thousands of elders.
Something about the way the gnome was looking at him reminded Noone of Elder Omias specifically…. Maybe it was because they were both short.
“I don’t know how.” Noone repeated. His mood soured even further after thinking of Tapestry and he was of no mind to argue with the old man.
The gnome put his finger to his chin in thought. Finally he said, “If you can manage to do it, I will leave you alone for the rest of our journey.”
Alaviv held up two fingers. Noone frowned, was this person really bargaining for Noone’s sanity? A smile that Noone couldn’t understand was spread on the gnome’s face.
“Even if I can, which I can’t, why does it matter to you?” Noone asked.
“Because it will be important in the future, and you can.” The gnome frowned now. After being alive as long as he had, there were very few things that got on his nerves. But one of them, were idiots. He didn’t think this Noone was an idiot. “Do it with your magic sense. The same thing you looked at me earlier with before you reigned it in.” Alaviv made a circling motion with his finger as he spoke.
“Just point.” His small bony finger pointed at Noone’s forehead, “And think.” His lips didn’t move, the words being transmitted right into Noone’s mind.
Noone frowned. He didn’t think he could do it, but from what Tobias had said this gnome was obviously old, experienced, and powerful. Could he be right?
Noone’s eyes narrowed and he looked at the old gnome. Despite his obvious age, there was a youthfulness and vigor in the gnome’s face. He had stark blue-almost-white hair which added to his intense demeanor.
Noone tentatively stretched out his divine sense, a habit he had reined in whenever the gnome was around.
Slowly the divine sense encompassed the gnome.
“Too much. Too large.” The gnome spoke into his mind. Noone frowned and shrunk the divine sense again, this time making it much smaller. Now compressed into a ball, he moved the divine sense forward again. As soon as it touched the old man, it bounced off like a ball on a stone wall.
“Too strong. You need to be more delicate. You’re not trying to scramble my mind, just speak into it.”
Once again Noone shrunk the divine sense.
“Wrong. Too sharp. You don’t want to pierce the mind of the person you’re talking with. That’s no way to have a conversation.”
“Wrong. Too shallow.”
“Too jagged.”
“Too unsteady.”
Like this, the whole night passed with Noone flexing his divine sense in ways he had never tried to before. His head throbbed from the effort of the manipulation.
The gnome sat quietly, only offering advice with Noone’s attempts. He was totally patient with Noone, and a small smile played on his lips.
To others, it may seem like Noone was an idiot, spending a whole night trying to understand a concept which seemed so easy to the gnome. However only Alaviv knew that each time he offered a piece of advice to Noone, he never needed to say it again. This method was slow, but it was a hundred percent guaranteed to work as long as Noone stuck with it.
Eventually, exhausted and mind throbbing, Noone sent forth the smallest tentacle-like sliver of divine sense towards Alaviv.
Much to Noone’s surprise, the divine sense wasn’t blocked like it had been before, and easily slipped into Alaviv’s awareness. There was a qualitative change to the feeling of the divine sense once it passed through the gnome's shielding.
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“Did I do it…” Noone thought to himself, focusing his entire attention on the miniscule sliver of divine sense. It was so thin and wispy that Noone felt it might dissipate the moment he took his mind off it.
“Yes. You did.” Alaviv smiled, speaking into Noone’s mind in response to his own thoughts.
The sudden shock of it caused Noone to lose his focus, and his divine sense recoiled out of Alaviv’s awareness who sat there quietly with a grin on his face.
When Noone finally recovered from his shock, he could see Alaviv standing slowly, like an old man his joints popped as he moved, but a smile played on the gnomes’ face. He had a particularly wholesome look in his eyes, like a master being proud of his student.
Noone was not sure how to feel about this weird old man. Initially he had thought Alaviv was merely a bored old being, but now… he wasn’t so sure.
Seeing the conflicted look on Noone’s face, Alaviv’s smile widened into something playful.
“Well. I should get going. You managed to do it before sunrise, so like I said, I won’t bother you again for the rest of the journey.” Alaviv sighed dramatically, putting the back of his hand on his forehead feigning exhaustion, “And after staying up with you all night, and putting up with your blockheadedness.”
Noone smiled wryly, obviously keen to the game this old man was playing. Never in his life had he experienced such an elderly individual, where was his shame? One moment Alaviv exuded wisdom and solemnity that came with age, and the next second it was replaced by a playful and youthful troublemaker.
Noone had no idea what to make of it.
“Wait.” Noone said, sighing as the old gnome began to walk away, sighing exasperatedly in the process.
Despite clearly hearing Noone’s words, the gnome pretended he did not and continued to skulk off. Noone did not know whether to laugh or cry.
“If you want to come visit me tomorrow night, I promise not to ignore you. Maybe you can tell me about what happened when you were six.” Noone said hesitantly, putting everything else aside, inviting the gnome to visit again.
Finally Alaviv stopped crying his woes and turned around flashing a playful smile at Noone before disappearing between the wagons.
Noone scratched his head. There was only an hour before sunrise, and his head throbbed from the effort of manipulating his divine sense so extensively. Eventually he just sighed and returned to where Tobias and Sarah were sleeping, laying down on his own mat beside them.
He thought about the weird gnome, Alaviv. Noone was almost certain the old man was a wizard of some class, and most likely extremely powerful at that. He even called Noone’s divine sense ‘magic sense’ which Rae had told him was a specialty of the wizards.
Noone had no disillusions about the gnome knowing something about his path of cultivation. Most likely it was a case of similar skills having similar methods. Like when Noone interrupted the dealings with Hoar by absorbing some of His energy during Sarah’s advancement.
The next morning at sunrise, the entire caravan was alerted to the sound of a deep and sharp whistle which pierced through each cart.
At the front of the Caravan, an intimidating dwarven woman stood with her hands on her hips. Besides her stood Alaviv, Tobias, and mercenary fighter that some recognized as the third security lead.
People who had travelled with the caravan on this route before knew what was coming, but the others were left in the dark.
“Adventurers and merchants, all who have joined my caravan.” Novrada’s thickly accented voice echoed across the gathering crowd. “We are now entering the area of a prominent bandit troupe. We have dealt with them in the past and we will continue to deal with them in the future. They are small compared to us, and generally don’t cause more than a little bit of trouble. But they are fast. None of the towns nearby are able to do anything about them. We are not here to clear them out, only to fight them off if they rear their ugly heads!” She spoke cleanly and efficiently, leaving no room for argument.
Various expressions ran through the caravan of a few hundred people. Experienced merchants and adventurers looked on disinterested. A few of the shrewdest merchants watched the expressions of the newbies, making bets on who would flee first in the face of conflict
The newbies in question all tried to settle their hearts, some used mantras to calm their minds, others rationed out that the chances of them being attacked in the midst of so many people were slim. Others still looked excited for their first taste of ‘being an adventurer.’
Noone’s party for the most part looked on disinterested.
Noone himself felt odd, but otherwise couldn’t be bothered to show any emotions. If bandits came, he would deal with them. However, a small frown could be seen on his face. In his mind, he didn’t understand these beings of the surface. He had heard of bandits by now, among other unpleasant types. But someone like Noone who came from a community of perfect camaraderie couldn’t understand why these people existed… It just seemed wrong.
Feylin stood nearby, gripping his sword tight in its sheath. In his mind, he imagined scenarios of running through the caravan – dodging arrows and healing the injured. Fighting off bandits, hand-in-hand with the rest.
Everyone had their own thoughts, listening to the dwarven woman explain strategies in case of attack.
What no one noticed though, was the expression on Sarah’s face. She did not look eager like Feylin or scared like many of the young adventurers. She merely sighed, tempering her will for something only she was aware of.