Emily felt Atticus shifting beside her for the first time since they’d arrived. It was his third tonic, and she had been getting worried they weren’t working. Apparently, they just had a lesser effect when it came to head injuries.
“…Gods, what happened? Where’s Alexander? Wait—where’s Runner!?”
Emily blinked, confused at first, until she realized he was talking about his Rime wolf.
“Ah, sorry, I’m not too sure. When I found you, there was no wolf around. Alex is okay, I think, but more importantly, we’re kinda separated from everyone at the moment.”
Atticus looked at Emily with worry, his eyes scanning the surrounding rock as though his wolf would suddenly appear, and they’d start laughing at him. When he realized this wasn’t the case, a more serious look crossed his face, even though both of them were covered in dried mud. His beard held an ungodly amount of the stuff in its dark, bushy depths. Emily had fooled herself into believing it was just a mud treatment, but unfortunately, they couldn’t afford to wash it off right now.
“Okay, how did we get separated, Emily?” Atticus asked, frowning. He was taking this better than Emily expected.
She figured she could use an ally in the current situation, so she explained what had happened with the trolls, leaving out the part where Marth had attacked them. She didn’t want to explain how she’d killed him.
“Then we’re fucked, you know that, right? These mountains are not the place for our titles.” Atticus said as a grim expression appeared on his face.
Emily shrugged as she glanced around the terrain.
“I thought you were a Scout, right? We just need to be extra stealthy.”
Atticus shot her a foul look.
“I am, but if you think I can use my skills to locate the group again, you're out of luck. My bridge is red.”
Emily cocked her head and nodded, something telling her she shouldn’t say anything about “seeing” his bridges.
“So you're a Red Scout, is that a bad thing?”
Atticus gave her a strange look, and then glared.
“In our current situation, yes. I can’t read the terrain, or touch the air and lead us where we need to go. I have to go off experience rather than my title. Even a Blue Source Scout could find us a safe water source, though that’s not particularly useful right now.”
Emily was still at a loss. That was how people in her world normally did things, so she didn’t feel annoyed at him for it.
“Okay, so what does that have to do with you being a Red Scout?”
Atticus searched her eyes, bit his lip, and shook his head.
“Never mind. The next best thing we can do is head to the rendezvous point, which is Lorthil.”
Emily nodded.
“That was my thought too, but we’ve got over a week’s worth of travel ahead. Finding a place to rest should be a priority because while I can keep this ward up for a while, I can’t sleep while maintaining it.”
Atticus glanced down at the blood floating lazily in her hand and nodded.
“...Now, that I can solve. If we can find an elven den, we should be able to take cover there—if we can clear it out.”
Emily gave him a thumbs-up, glad they had a direction.
They climbed onto the rested Rime wolf, and Emily took the reins since Mist would accept nothing else. Apparently, first and second positions mattered a lot to Rime wolves. Atticus said he knew how to change it, but Emily told him not to bother. She liked directing the wolf.
They traveled at a moderate pace, and since it was early morning when they set out, they made it quite far past the current mountains. By late evening, Atticus found an elven den.
The cave appeared to have been bored into the stone by something resembling claws, but either way, it didn’t matter—it was dry and only lightly defended. Even now, the rain hadn’t let up all day, and they were hiding behind a particularly large rock jutting out near the cave’s entrance.
From what Atticus could tell, there were ten of the little beasts, so they crept toward the opening.
Emily was tired and had very little patience to spare, so she walked through the entrance, brandishing a whip of blood. By the time the elves noticed her, half of them were already dead, and Atticus killed the other half, his blades cauterizing the wounds as he lopped off limbs.
By the time they had cleared their little hole in the wall, Emily collapsed against the back of the cave. Mist made his way in as well, blocking the entrance with his massive body. Finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, Emily felt exhaustion knocking at her door.
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Since they’d set out that morning, Atticus had barely spoken a word, and they had traveled in silence. Now that she had a bit more room to think, the questions started pouring in.
“Hey, we’re going to be working closely for the next while, so let’s clear up some confusion. What’s wrong with being a Red Scout? Surely it has its own strengths.”
Atticus glanced at Emily and shrugged. “It does, but not for long-range travel like the others. Red Source is widely seen as the worst one for Scouts. Green or Yellow would be much better.”
Emily snorted. “Which is funny because Red is desirable in a lot of other titles.”
Atticus shot her a glare. She realized that might be exactly the point. What if someone wanted a specific title, but the color of their bridge limited their choices? From what she could tell, nothing actually stopped someone from picking a title, except what they could earn.
“Okay, I get that Red Scouts aren’t in demand. So, what are they useful for?”
Atticus seemed calmer now.
“A Red Scout can detect nearby creatures by looking for their warmth. We can see anything that gives off body heat, but we struggle with certain types of creatures. That’s why most parties don’t choose Red Scouts.”
Emily hummed. It reminded her of infrared goggles. Cold-blooded creatures probably wouldn’t show up well in that case.
“But that’s still impressive, right? So why are Red Scouts looked down on?”
Atticus rubbed his beard and nodded. “It is, but only if we already know where to look. The downside is it doesn’t have a great range unless we sink a reckless amount of Source into it.”
Emily nodded, seeing his point. It wasn’t that Red Source was bad for Scouts; it just didn’t synergize as well with the title as the others did. They could sense an ambush, but if it was a horde of geckos, they’d be caught unawares like everyone else. If someone was going to choose a Scout, it would be better to get one who could lead and see all incoming ambushes. Red source was almost relegated to pure destruction, and while it was welcome in many of title it seemed Scout got the short end of the stick. Emily didn’t ask Atticus’s motivation for picking Scout, he must have his reasons and Emily didn’t care enough to meddle, but she knew from experience that one chose the path that fit them the best.
“Well, just keep leading us like you are I have Explorer, so I’ll help where I can and that will have to be good enough. We’re still making good time. We might even make it to the city before the company.”
Atticus seemed thoughtful but nodded, so Emily turned over and went to sleep.
Her dreams came quickly, and the stars fluttered in her vision, and like always they were happy to see her. They arranged themselves like musicians at a band practice, flowing into neat rows of text.
‘30 - third threshold released at rank 50’
Skill threshold released at rank 37
Active slot: Scarlet sister - access to the Scarlet sister skill tree, along with the Blood Mage skill tree.
Increased learning speed when consuming blood, this is further increased if the blood is given willingly. Increased learning speed when studying blood wards.
Passive slot: Explorer - Increased learning speed when engaged with new environments.
Passive slot: Mercenary - Increased learning speed when accepting missions for coin. This is further increased when in proximity to the sub-species[Rime wolf].
Passive slot: Performer - Increased learning speed when studying others—replication based on understanding.
The stars were impatient and while Emily also wanted to rank up faster she knew there was no way to rush it. She’d get there when she got there.
In the meantime, it would be smart to swap out one of her passive titles. Right now, Performer didn’t suit her current situation, so she needed to adjust it. But then the question was to which title should she change it to?
It should be something that would directly relate to her survival, but combat-wise she didn’t have many others that fit the mold. Swordswoman was out, and so was Verminbane. There might be insects in these mountains but it wasn’t really worth picking on the off chance.
Runic Adept was probably the title Emily had the most interest in, but even that one wasn’t too useful at the moment.
Emily had the stars rearrange themselves so she could reread the other titles and one in particular caught her eye. She had forgotten that this passive even worked like that but it was a no-brainer in the situation.
Emily called for the single star and it came quietly to settle in her hand. Staring at it, she squinted her eyes and then shrugged her shoulders and slotted Void plagued’s passive.
Passive slot filled: Void plagued - Increase learning when one is lost.
At the moment she couldn't think of anything that filled the slot out better, they were literally lost in the mountains.
Plus this didn’t count as using the title, right?
She could change the passive slot whenever she wanted so it was just the best available one. Emily stared at the filled slot for a moment before looking away and allowing her subconscious to sink into the inky bottomless pit of sleep.
The stars saw Emily off as usual but as she left, she sensed a hazy note of something new. The stars were acting with a strange energy to their moments, as though nervous to see her go.
In the morning Emily awoke feeling great, stretching her body out as she worked the sleep from her sore muscles.
Atticus had taken first watch so he would still sleep for a little longer. Unfortunately for him, Emily got bored real quick, she was about to wake Atticus to set out for the day when Alex’s pack caught her eye. She’d tied it there in a rush and forgotten to check through it to see if there was anything she could make use of.
So, going over she unbuckled it and looked inside. There was about what she’d expect in there, with the exception of one thing.
Once more Emily’s eye caught on the bracelet Alex still hadn’t gotten rid of, and with a scowl, she hummed and harred.
Pulling the red glass bracelet out, Emily twirled it in her hand as she familiarized herself with the smooth texture of the stones inlaid in it. It was truly beautiful and Emily loved the way it refracted the early morning light against the cave walls.
Emily’s hum quietly rang out in the small space.
Technically it was hers, right? Alex had bought it for her as a gift, so he shouldn't mind if she took a quick look at it.
Mind made up Emily fitted the clasp around her wrist and held it out further to admire it.
She was just about to take it off when Atticus sat up from his corner and his eyes still heavy with sleep, but the moment they fell on a bracelet he sat up straighter.
“Wait, Is that a Cardinex? Where is it set to?”
Emily blinked as she looked down at the bracelet.
“Um, a what now?”
Blood points: 159