Moving through the night with Sabrina by my side was an interesting experience. We had travelled with diurnal people before but never with any who I cared enough about to light the way for them. For my munchkin, I was happily making an exception to our normally stealthy modus operandi and used my Fire Magic to produce a happily dancing flame that I kept floating above our heads. It wasn’t overly bright but it was enough to let her see, making things less disturbing for her. Even with the fire, she was rather scared and had started to clutch my clothes until I held out my hand, giving her something else to hold.

When the first Undead came to investigate the light, Sabrina reacted with the expected horror, it was one thing to watch Undead from within a shelter but an entirely different experience to have them shamble in your direction, only to be taken down by swift attacks from Lia or me. Thanks to an earlier declaration of fellowship, Sabrina was starting to get some EXP, slowly increasing her level with every fallen Undead. We’d have to find some way to get her some skills, and have those increase as well, or the whole class-thing might be difficult. Sadly, I wasn’t sure what the best skills would be, we had been training her to control and release her magic at will but that wasn’t really something she could use in combat. It helped her, and she had gained the Astral Meditation skill a while back, but it wasn’t true magic. No, her trouble showed me just how little I knew about non-elemental magic, there had to be some sort of generalist skill, though I wasn’t quite sure what it might be.

I remembered posts from Travellers who were playing as Guild Mages and the descriptions of their magical training. They had described learning defined spells from their mentors, allowing them to easily cast rather powerful magic but there hadn’t been a skill component to it. Not according to the system at least, or maybe it was a skill they simply hadn’t shared. Possibly something along the lines of chanting or spell-channelling or something along those lines, a skill they gained as part of their class.

Hopefully, Sabrina would get the right tools for her path when gaining a class, or maybe after we communicated with Hecate. Unless something went seriously weird, Sabrina wouldn’t be much higher than level five by the time the new moon would roll around, so she wouldn’t get her class for a little longer. Maybe we could even ask Hecate about the skills, but that would depend on the mode of communication and how accommodating the Deity would be. I wasn’t about to annoy Her, partially because of the blessing She had given me but also out of respect. As a Deity of Magic, She had to have walked the Arcane Path for a long time, had explored things I could only dream about and might have forgotten more about magic than I had ever known. Who knew how good divine memories were, She might not have forgotten anything about magic, with it being part of Her domain.

Regardless, training Sabrina was a challenge, especially as I didn’t want to traumatise her, at least not more than necessary. She already had some trauma from the loss of her parents and the whole apocalypse but how that would interact with future trauma from battling Undead and possibly getting wounded, I had no idea. Hel, even interacting with Hecate might cause further trauma, simply because a deity was far beyond mortals, the brief interaction I had with Fenris had most certainly been traumatising, to the point that I had died from it. The only reason I considered my idea safe, if not entirely sane, was that Silva had led us to Sabrina, making me think that the Goddess had plans for my munchkin.

But that was a problem for the future. For now, we had to loot some new clothes, a task that turned out to be a little more difficult than I had thought. Since the apocalypse, things had started to decay and get destroyed. Quite a few stores were exposed to the elements in a variety of ways, in some cases the destruction had been in the initial change, and in many other cases, it was due to random accidents. Something as simple as a broken window could cause wind and rain to destroy the remaining stock, or people looted what they needed. Even the Undead and Shattered might break some doors open, simply because their routine required them to, leaving destruction in their wake.

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Soon, the people at Apple Gate Farm would have to come up with other ways to get clothes, though I wasn’t quite sure what could be done. Leather might work, but I doubted anyone had the skills to tan it and even if there was somebody, I wouldn’t want to wear leather underclothes, that sounded like a great way to get chafing. Synthetic fibres were obviously out, unless somebody had some mad ideas about alchemy, while woollen fabric would require sheep to be re-domesticated. I had no idea how that might work, though I had a feeling it might be the easiest way to get some cloth. Cotton and linen were both plant products though I had no idea how easy it would be to get the seeds, to say nothing about the labour requirements. There had been a reason why the cotton farmers of the American South fought for their slave labour and it wasn’t because growing and picking cotton was effortless. Even with the system, I doubted that the labour requirements would go down, so I doubted cotton would be the fabric of choice. There were other fabrics, though I knew even less about their production, sure I had heard of silkworms but other than that? I was utterly clueless and could only hope to loot enough stuff to keep me situated until somebody else figured all that stuff out.

It would be even worse for Sabrina. I was fully grown, supernatural growth-spurts from crossing the first Divide aside, so unless my clothes were destroyed beyond any possible way of fixing them, be that way magical or mundane, I could wear them for years. Sabrina would, hopefully, be able to grow up with enough nutrition to keep her growth from getting stunted, so she would regularly need new clothes. Maybe it would be a good idea to take that need into account when looting now, my newly designed magical bags would let us carry away what we needed and would hopefully keep the stuff safe.

That could even serve as a long-term test for things left in the shadows. So far, the test I had done with the marked rocks hadn’t shown any wear, but it had only been ongoing for a short time. Tinkering with the bags had made me realise one rather major disadvantage of them, an issue I’d have to either fix or avoid if at all possible.

Namely, the bags were based on my ability to reach into the shadows, allowing me to store stuff there. But what if I stepped into the shadows, either to escape by stepping from one to the next or simply wanted to hide? If I took the bag with me, the stuff that was stored inside the shadows would weigh me down, it might even destroy the connection I used to bind the outside bag to the bag kept in the shadows, making the bag unusable. Worse, if I stepped back out of the shadows, the entire bag would come with me, likely breaking in the process and leaving me with a mess. For now, I’d have to avoid it, or I’d suffer some serious malfunctions and would likely lose everything I stored.

Maybe giving most of the bags to Silva and Lia would be wise, at least until I could fix that issue, not that I had an idea how I might be able to fix it. Unless I found a wholly different way to make magical bags, I doubted there was one.

For now, I had a solution to the weight issue, so I was happy but I would have to continue that line of study. I wanted to have my magical bags recognised by the system and I wanted the skill gains I felt I was due for making them. So far, I had only gained a single, measly point in Darkness Magic and that point was likely for the numerous times I had reached into the shadows to make my bags not for the actual achievement of making them. Sure, it brought me to thirty-seven, but that was far from what I felt appropriate for making the game-changer that were magical bags.

Alas, for now, I had to keep experimenting. And take my daughters shopping, an experience I had never thought I would have. Strangely, while I had never wanted to have kids, I enjoyed having my daughters with me.