As cycles passed the landscape outside shifted. The trees got shorter, and vegetation slowly disappeared while the humid air rapidly lost all moisture. Even the constant cloud cover endemic to the Break started to stirate, thinning out as the clouds above seemed to retreat away from the sun.
Coupled with the changes to the view were shifts in the weather, as the monodirectional winds of Sunside began to manifest and kick up a low haze that ebbed and flowed.
Eryth watched the lightening sky and changes in the landscape with no small amount of fascination. The color of the light shifted as the sun crept up the sky, from red to orange to dull amber to pale lemon, lighting up the sprawling waste that had morphed out of the towering pines and carpeting ferns.
They hadn’t run into much wildlife, the sheer wall of noise that the rumbling treadwagons were casting out probably scaring them off. That… or whatever critters there were out there were patient.
Not that the lack of action was a great disappointment, vis beasts could get pretty nasty. Avoiding the local fauna was probably better than having to fight it. There were thrill-seekers in any group, however, and Eryth was currently in the company of a certain overgrown goblin who fit the bill.
“Eri I’m booooorred.”
Cutting through the background racket came the clear whine of Sam, who was currently sprawled across a couple of crates in the main storage of the wagon. Spending all their time cooped up in the closet with their hammocks got old pretty fast, and though Eryth would never admit it, spending time in the smell of Breakwater’s most plentiful export was better than being locked in a room full of cleaner. The noise was worse since they were closer to the engines, but they also got to chat with the odd protector interested in making small talk between shift changes. Even Arnett, the lead protector who had given them a wagon tour, stopped by a couple times to chat.
But back to the present, where a whiney goblin was voicing her displeasure.
Eryth looked up from her book. “Then do something about it.”
At first, she pouted, but then Sam’s eyes sparkled. “How about a quick game of star!”
“No.”
“Awww.”
Eryth wasn’t sure if she was terrible at gambling or if Sam was some kind of card shark.
Probably both.
One thing she did know was that if she played again she would have to sleep in an alley when they got to Chaolus. Maybe she could bum off of Arnold? Eryth knew better than to be asleep and alone in a room with Sam. Her pranks could be inspired when she had nothing better to do.
Sam lay back down across the crates and let out a long sigh.
“Y’know, I had hoped the trip would be more exciting than this.”
Eryth looked back down at her book while she replied. “What were you expecting? A desperate defense against the wilds?”
Sam waved her hand dismissively. “My other wagon trips across Sunside usually ran into more trouble.”
“Maybe you’re out of practice.” Eryth smirked.
Sam rolled her eyes. “Har har. But really, this has been a weirdly quiet trip. Nothing’s attacked the caravan at all. Usually you at least get a sand worm or two.”
Eryth looked up again and squinted at her. “We just left the scrublands a couple days ago. Plus, if you don’t shut up you're gonna jinx us by asking for trouble.”
“C’mon, that’s ridiculous. Just because I’m talking about how weird it is that absolutely nothing has gone wrong at all, which is pretty atypical, doesn’t mean something will go wrong now. That would simply be superstitious nonsense.”
Sam got up from her wooden makeshift couch with a creak and started to speak directly to the ceiling while standing atop a nearby barrel. She raised her voice so she was just shy of a shout.
“I mean, if some karmic force did exist that would punish me for my hubris in declaring the extent to which this period of good luck is out of the ordinary, surely it wouldn’t have time to dole out a jinx here. Which is why absolutely nothing will go wrong. Nope. The rest of this trip will surely be mind-numbingly safe and boring, with no worm attacks at all, no life-and-death scraps, and no unexpected complications. Nope, absolutely none! Most especially not right now!”
By the end of the monologue, Sam had shut her eyes and had her right hand over her heart and her left raised towards the roof. She cracked her eye open, and both she and Eryth were still for a moment.
Suddenly…
…
…
… absolutely nothing happened.
Obviously.
Because jinxing was superstitious nonsense.
Eryth let out a small breath.
“You done?”
Sam sighed forcefully and plopped back down on the wooden boxes with a thump. “Yeah. I guess there is no god. Either that or whatever runs the universe doesn’t appreciate humor.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the clack of boots on steel, and a set of footsteps wound through the labyrinthine piles of boxes and sundry as the sound approached the sprawled out couriers.
Arnold walked out from around a stack of crates with his trademark nonplussed expression. “Why were you guys shouting? I could hear you from the cleaning closet.”
Sam brightened at the new opportunity to tease somebody. “Arnie! So happy to see you again.”
“Hey Arnold.” Eryth waved.
“Hey.” He nodded back. Ignoring the nickname Sam insisted on using.
Arnold ambled over to the two girls. The pair had claimed a corner of the cargo hold as a makeshift lounge, and Sam had scooted around some barrels to make enough space to sit down. Finding a dinged-up barrel, Arnold plopped down. He leaned back against the smooth metal wall of the cargo hold and let out a short sigh.
“Tired of watching dust collect on your nose?” Eryth asked. She figured he must be pretty bored if he was bothering to leave their sleeping room. He was a homebody through and through.
“Yeah. I was playing around with vis for a bit. I managed to make a ring of fire and hold it in place.”
He demonstrated this by creating an apple-sized loop of fire hovering a couple of feet in front of his face. The box strapped to his arm emitted the soft red glow characteristic of vis being burned out of blood. After making it spin around for a moment, he let the flickering flames fade.
“Once I get my new matrix after this trip I want to be able to take advantage of it.” He explained with a touch of enthusiasm that he usually suppressed in order to maximize the potency of his scowls.
Using vis wasn’t as simple as shoving your blood into the circuits of a matrix and crossing your fingers, it involved actually focusing on controlling the effect of your vis as it burnt. A matrix made burning vis possible, but without the focus and visualization skills to force your will into it, you wouldn't accomplish anything but getting dizzy as your blood pressure dropped.
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Sam, sensing an opportunity to tease, sprung into action.
“Ooh, living life on the edge there Arnie. Lighting fires inside? That’s something I’d expect from Eri.” Sam cooed.
“I’m just being practical.” Arnold objected. “You should practice with your matrix too. All you ever do is fling stuff around all haphazard.”
“Great idea Arnie, you can help!” Sam floated up some loose screws and had them orbit each other in concentric circles. “Just hooold stiiilllll…”
She flicked the screws lightly at Arnold who swatted them away with a scowl.
“Cut it out!”
Sam giggled to herself while Eryth turned the page of her book.
Arnold, deeming further scowling at Sam to be fruitless, glanced at Eryth. “What are you reading?”
“It’s a catalog of the vis-beasts found around Sunside. I had hoped to read up before we set out, but I guess having something to do now isn’t so bad.”
Sam broke from her giggling. “You’re reading a monster manual? Who’s jinxing who now?”
Eryth had originally gotten the book while on a delivery run outside of Breakwater (the bookshops in Breakwater were trash), but she had wound up being swamped with work and last minute preparations before the trip. The chaos with Mr.Maye had put her off reading for a few days as well, leading to her only now getting around to reading it.
“Shush. You may have convinced me that Sunside is crazier than I thought, but there is no way half the stuff you talk about actually exists. I even find the idea of you once being a mercenary hard to swallow.”
Arnold nodded in agreement.
After finding out that Sam’s past employment was much more colorful than Eryth had originally thought, the former mercenary’s tall tales had taken on a whole new dimension. That said, if half of the beasts that Sam described existed in reality Eryth figured that humanity as a whole should have been driven to extinction.
Sam sat up and dramatically put her hand on her heart. “Ack! You impinge on my honor with such words! My word is my bond after all!”
Eryth was flatly unconvinced.
“Suuuuurrre. And you really did eat your way out of a slug the size of a treadwagon while escorting the council member of a small mining town through ruins.”
“Of course! I still have nightmares about the flavor. I think Councilwoman Deming even kept a jar of the slime as a trophy. Not that she did any of the work…” Sam looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. “A true politician, that woman.”
“And you really did once beat a sentient swarm of flies in a game of star.”
“That one was difficult, the flies were cheating. One of them would try and sneak around to peek at my cards. It was honestly impossible.”
Arnold furrowed his brows. “Then how did you beat them?”
“Well, I cheated harder.”
Eryth suddenly thought about all the money that Sam had won off her over the previous few days and narrowed her eyes at the grinning woman. Arnold must have been thinking something similar because a small sphere of dancing flame appeared near his hand.
“Come again?” He murmured.
Sam laughed. “Very spooky candle boy. Don’t worry though, I would never cheat against you two.” Then much more quietly (but more than loud enough to still hear), “You two aren’t nearly good enough for me to need to.”
Arnold let loose one of his trademark exasperated sighs and let his ball of flame dissipate into the air and muttered about how dumb a nickname ‘candle boy’ was.
Eryth turned to Arnold.
“Just ignore her, even if she says something worthwhile, it’s impossible to find it in all the nonsense.”
Sam was undeterred.
“I’m glad you both appreciate me so much!” She seemed quite pleased she’d managed to get some entertainment out of their annoyance.
Eryth tuned out Sam and her teasing and went back to reading her book. When she had first started doing delivery runs with Sam and Arnold she couldn’t comprehend how Arnold could survive the neverending onslaught of quips and jabs. As it turns out though, a human being can get used to anything.
~
“Hey, Eryth.”
Arnold’s voice came to Eryth as she was in the middle of reading a passage. It was about a snake vis-beast that could transform itself into water and flow through the ground to attack prey. She wasn’t sure how something could use vis without blood, but apparently, this snake thing could. Maybe its vis could flow through water while it was in the channeled state? It could also be that the water was its blood somehow… she wasn’t sure. The book certainly had an opinion though, because at the top of the page was a text box full of citations for competing theories and why they were all wrong and the author was right.
“Eryth.” Arnold repeated.
“Hmm?” She finally looked up.
Arnold had manifested a small loop of fire in front of him and was gradually shrinking it down in size while making it spin around slowly. He must have successfully fended off Sam’s verbal attacks.
Sam, meanwhile, was still lying on her perch atop some boxes, apparently taking a nap.
“Just wondering something. Why do you only have a burner matrix?” Arnold asked, gesturing to the small metal box strapped to Eryth’s left arm. “I mean, with how well you shoot you don’t need vis to stay safe, but why not at least dabble? I’m sure you could afford it. Especially since you like to take some shady jobs.”
The ‘sleeping’ Sam sniggered at that last bit but otherwise didn’t say anything.
Inoculated against random Sam noises, Eryth and Arnold ignored her.
Eryth exhaled. She didn’t like talking about matrixes. It made her jealous.
“Have I not mentioned it to you before?” She asked as she dog-eared a page and closed her book.
Arnold shook his head. “No, I honestly thought maybe you had some kind of religious thing against it.”
Eryth grimaced. “Absolutely not. Good god no.”
“You just said ‘god’ while you swore.” He pointed out.
“Habit. It’s pretty common darkward.” Eryth shook her head to dispel the thought.
Arnold looked curious now. Or, at least as curious as somebody with a permanent frown could look. “Okay, then why?”
She was kinda reluctant to explain, but she didn’t want to lie to Arnold. It would just feel like tricking a kid. She may only have known him for something like a year at this point, but his scowl and pessimistic disposition had grown on her. Plus, she wanted to see how he’d react, him basing so much of his identity around his fire vis.
She knew Sam was listening too but, eh, she had already talked to Sam about the fight in Breakwater. What was another pseudo-secret with great blackmail potential between coworkers and friends?
Eryth sighed. “Okay. So, you know how each person’s vis alignment determines what their matrix can do with their vis?”
“Yeah. Basic stuff.”
“Well, I don’t have one.”
“A matrix? Well duh, that’s what I’m asking about.”
“No, not a matrix, an alignment.”
Sam suddenly sat up. “Wait, if you don’t have any vis, how are you even alive?”
Her eyes sparked with realization and she stared at Eryth in shock.
“You’re a zombie aren’t you? That explains so much.”
As per usual, Sam did her absolute best to completely undermine the conversation.
Eryth rolled her eyes at the larger courier. “Just join the conversation if you’re going to interject!” Eryth scowled. “And I do have vis, it just doesn’t do anything.”
Arnold’s face was moving between various frowns that displayed confusion, bewilderment, and disbelief in fluctuating intensity.
“There’s no way.” He scrunched up his eyes and looked down at the metal flooring before looking up again. “No alignment at all? There has to be some kind of effect when you burn it.”
Eryth shook her head as she drummed out a pattern on her book with her fingers. This was an annoying subject. Yes, the odds of vis not leaning toward any alignment at all were almost nil. Yes, she would have to be supremely unlucky. And yes, it was annoying as fuck to be completely unable to use a proper matrix. No cool vis powers for Eryth.
“Nope. Nothing. Somehow, someway, burning my vis releases no energy. It’s completely unaligned.”
Sam burst out laughing. “Wow.” She snuck the words out between chortles. “You have to be one of the most unlucky people I’ve met, Eri. That’s kinda hilarious.”
Arnold seemed to be thinking. Suddenly he looked up. “Wait, if it’s completely unaligned, then why bother using a burner matrix?”
Eryth tapped at the matrix hooked into her arm. “It may be worthless, but I still generate vis. If I don’t get rid of it, it'll build up the same as anyone else.”
Useless vis was still vis. Gotta keep the density down or else.
Sam’s laugh had now reduced to a short giggle every few seconds. She wiped her eyes. “No silver lining for you huh?”
Eryth fiddled around with her matrix, tracing the metal tubes as they snaked their way out of the small box and into the veins inside her arm. They were warm from her body heat and her blood flowing through them.
Eryth leaned back and let out a short breath. She brought her hand down from her arm to her holster and drew her gun, spinning it around her finger.
“Yeah well, I try to make up for it with other means.” She nodded towards Arnold. “Only downside is it’s much harder to practice in the wagon than vis.”
She holstered the gun.
“It would be nice to get some range time in soon though.”
As she spoke, the constant rumble of the treads pulling at the ground began to rise in pitch, and the chugging of the engines rose in intensity.
“What’s going on?” Arnold voiced his confusion.
There was some shouting coming from over near the living quarters where the protectors spent their off-hours, then the screech of a steel door being thrown open. The clack of a half dozen or so footsteps bolted through the cargo hold as the extra protectors rushed towards the engine room and the roof-access ladder.
The booming voice of Arnett easily forced itself to be heard over the racket.
“Raider attack! Get to the roof! Time to earn your paychecks! Move!”
Arnold turned pale, while Sam looked over at Eryth with a disgusting smirk and gleeful excitement in her eyes.
“Now, who was gonna jinx us again?”