The storm stayed for two more days. For Dav and Sophia, the primary issue with the storm was that they couldn’t step outside to exercise; even the practice yards were considered off limits because of the storm and the Domain. Rather than spend their time drinking, they threw themselves into research.
Sophia also managed to finally get Dav to open up about his family. He was an only child and his parents spent most of their time working to bring in enough money to keep the family fed and sheltered. He’d said more than once that he grew up in a border town, but it wasn’t until he started to describe his experiences that Sophia realized just how different they were from her own life.
For all that Dav grew up in the shadow of the ongoing fight against Dust, his memories of the past really had little to do with it. As a child, it was around but he wasn’t expected to deal with it in any way other than calling for help. Instead, it was his parents’ poor circumstances that defined Dav’s early life.
Sophia grew up surrounded by her family and her family’s friends, including a number of aunts and uncles that were related by friendship rather than by blood. Dav grew up almost alone, without even many other children. Sophia was taught by her family, while Dav was at the mercy of the educational programs he could reach through his implant. His parents cared enough to help where they could, but they simply didn’t have the time to pay attention to him the way Sophia’s family did.
Sophia learned to fight from a wide range of mentors and people who fought monsters for a living. Dav learned to fight in games; the combat his parents knew was against Dust, and Dust didn’t fight like a creature. Games were also where Dav performed most of his social activities. In some ways, it explained a lot about him and in other ways it explained very little, but at least Sophia now knew that the reason Dav didn’t talk about himself and his past wasn’t because it was something he was unhappy about. It simply was something that he didn’t see any reason to share because it wasn’t relevant.
Amy spent a little time with the duo and listened to them both talk about their pasts, but she didn’t say much. Sophia knew her parents were both Called, but that was really all she knew about them. Sophia got the impression that Amy was also from a larger family, like Sophia, but that hers was less cohesive than Sophia’s.
For all that they spent hours talking, they spent still more time reading over everything they could find in the Registry’s records that might be useful. Nothing was perfect, but there was a lot that was at least similar.
It was midmorning on the last day of the storm when Rensyn finally returned to the room the group had appropriated for research. Amy was nearly done, but both Sophia and Dav still had a lot left. Rensyn checked in with each of them, then brought more suggestions. It would be up to them, but Rensyn was finally acting like the mentor he was supposed to be.
Rensyn was unable to find a Spellblade Sphere that used abilities learned from others, but he was able to locate several who specialized in using heir blades as spell platforms, the way Sophia’s Animate Spell Blade line went. That was enough to let her know that a good part of the reason things weren’t quite working as well as she wanted was that she didn’t have the right Martial Techniques to make the build come together. If she wanted it to work, she needed to learn them from people who fought the same way she was trying to fight.
Rensyn also suggested that Sophia might want to specialize her Sphere at the first upgrade to go a more concentrated spellcasting direction. That would take care of the missing Martial Techniques, because the specialized Sphere wouldn’t rely on Martial Techniques at all; in fact, if it was enough of a specialization, she might lose them entirely. Sophia wasn’t sure she wanted to do that, but she promised she’d consider it as an option when she knew what her choices were.
Dav had a similar problem; he’d been relying on his strength and skill with a blade rather than his Sphere. Unfortunately, the closest comparisons Rensyn could find for a summoner that depended on summons that couldn’t move was a summoner that created traps, and all three of the examples Rensyn could find also had spells for movement or other ways to force enemies into the traps. That wasn’t useful for Dav, since his primary combat summons was essentially an archer. Dav ended up reviewing a lot of different summoners’ abilities to try to find ways to make his Thorn Emitter actually useful.
Taika asked Rensyn for anything he had on Comfort Animals. Rensyn wasn’t able to find anything at all with that name, but he did find some information on “animal associates” that he shared with Taika. Taika still couldn’t actually access his Status beyond his name and the words Comfort Animal, so he couldn’t even tell how similar it was, but he still wanted something to think about.
Sophia quietly asked him about the “bonding” the Wanderer’s message mentioned, and after his reading Taika was able to tell Sophia that that required her or Dav to have an appropriate Ability. All of the examples Taika could find in the material Rensyn located also made the animal subordinate to their bondholder if they accepted, which Sophia wasn’t about to do, so the matter remained in limbo.
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The day after the storm ended, even Sophia could tell that peoples’ moods had soured. At breakfast, she thought it was simply hangovers, but by dinnertime it was clear that there were more people in the building than normal even though they could leave. No one directly said anything, but but the problem was clear: a lot of people had spent more than they should have, either in anticipation of more money from the corpsevine rewards or during the time they were stuck inside, and there was no easy way out of it.
No one had pointed a finger at Sophia, Dav, and Amy yet as the people who cleared the Leveled Challenge and removed it as a source of easy money, but Amy quietly told Dav and Sophia that she expected it would happen in the next few days. Too many people knew to keep it silent. They could stay, but Amy didn’t want to.
Sophia thought about that as she got ready for bed. Did she want to leave? Amy wanted to. Rensyn hadn’t mentioned it since the storm, but it was clear the Registry Master expected them to leave. Sophia wasn’t sure. She felt like she’d only just arrived in Casterville. “What do you think, Dav?”
“About what?” Dav slid his legs under the sheets, then turned on his side to look at Sophia.
Sophia flushed a little at the reminder that she hadn’t been speaking out loud. “About leaving Casterville. It feels like we only just got here.”
“It’s been a busy time,” Dav agreed. Or maybe he was disagreeing? Sophia wasn’t sure. “I don’t think you’ve noticed, but everyone knows we’re outsiders and treats us like that. I don’t mean the Quinns or Samuel or Rensyn or Amy; I mean the other teams. They aren’t pushy about it, but they don’t treat us like they treat each other.”
Sophia frowned. She hadn’t noticed, but when she thought back to the storm she could see it. The other teams called out to each other and people floated from table to table. Sophia, Dav, Amy, and Taika didn’t. They stayed at their table and talked to each other; that was all. No one even came over to see what the colorful animal on the table was.
Even if she could see that, though, she wasn’t sure why that was an answer to whether or not they should leave Casterville. “Are you saying we need to stay longer so that we fit in or that we should go because we don’t?”
Dav shook his head. “No, it’s more that there’s no reason to stay. We’re not going to fit in. We’re different; once people know we cleared the Leveled Challenge, that’s only going to get worse. Some will resent us for it, others will be thankful. Either way, it makes us different and different isn’t always good.”
Sophia nodded slowly, then sighed. It was hard to argue with that. “I’m not even sure why I want to stay,” she admitted. “I miss home, but this isn’t home. Why would that make me want to stay here?”
Dav shook his head with a soft smile, then leaned forward and kissed Sophia. “Sleep on it,” he advised. “If you really don’t want to leave, we won’t. If it’s just missing home, though, maybe we can ask Amy what she’d think about visiting her home?”
That was an interesting idea. Sophia would have to think about it. It wouldn’t be at all the same thing, but maybe it would help.
The conversation moved from words to physical actions when Dav reached up to massage Sophia’s tight shoulders. There were few words said after that.
The next morning, the conversation over breakfast centered on where they should go, rather than whether or not they should leave. Amy was in favor of heading to her homeland, but she warned that it was far more dangerous than near Casterville and that she couldn’t take them to meet her parents. When Sophia asked why, all Amy did was shake her head. “We can go to Izel, but my family is unlikely to be there. I’ll know more when we arrive.”
Sophia decided not to push. It sounded like Amy didn’t want to talk about it and also like she didn’t really know what to expect. In some ways, that didn’t surprise Sophia too much; her family also traveled a lot, and long travel times could mean that you spent more time on the road than you did where you supposedly lived. There was a reason she had a really good and comfortable tent.
Even after they settled their destination, it took three more days and a lot of reading before Sophia felt like she was ready to start choosing Abilities. Amy was already done; Dav wasn’t, but he asked Sophia to wait while he chose the communication ability he wanted. It was actually two Species abilities that looked like they would work well together, Eldritch Splice and Eldritch Mental Diffusion. He’d actually selected Eldritch Splice on a hunch to see what it unlocked specifically because it said it didn’t do anything on its own. When several other abilities appeared that mentioned “linked individuals,” he felt vindicated.
They were both shockingly cheap, far cheaper than any of the other telepathy possibilities even with the fact that it was going to cost two Ability slots, so if it didn’t work Dav would be able to remove them from the Species slots and buy something else. On top of that, both Amy and Rensyn were surprised when Dav mentioned it was a pair of Species abilities; apparently, anything as specialized as telepathy was unusual as a Species ability and having it available at such a low Level indicated that it was a possible direction to take in the future.
Eldritch Splice
Connect to other compatible entities of your choice. This ability has no obvious direct effect but may allow the use of other abilities with or by linked individuals.
Eldritch Mental Diffusion
Allows all appropriately connected partners to project some or all of their thoughts so that other linked individuals can sense them. Quality and duration of shared thoughts depends on compatibility and strength of the linked bond. This ability does not allow for true synchronicity, control, or unity.
It was by far the longest description on any of Dav’s Abilities and it made it clear what some of the other Abilities he might be able to get might do.