Sophia could already tell she was going to regret agreeing to ride instead of walking. It was definitely the right choice, but she could already feel the first signs of soreness that said she was really going to regret it that evening. At least Dav had his Healing Beacon; it ought to be able to relieve the issues. She didn’t yet know if it would interfere in callus formation, but it probably wouldn’t.
Maybe she could ask him to get it out when they stopped for lunch? They’d been on the road for a few hours, so the break would be welcome. It wasn’t like they were in a huge hurry; they’d be camping for a few nights before they reached the exit anyway. There weren’t many villages on the way to Izel, at least not near Casterville. Amy said there were more once they crossed through the portal, but there still wasn’t always going to be one at every good stopping point.
Lunch came and went. The healing beacon did help, but Sophia was quickly sore again. None of them seemed to have much to say, but Sophia wanted something to distract herself from the discomfort; she definitely didn’t want to have to ask them to stop early for her. “Is there a name for the area near Izel? I know this region is just called Casterville.”
“Outsiders usually call it the tribal lands,” Amy answered easily. “I’m not sure why; yes, the clans are important, but that’s not unusual. The other common name is the north; to get there, you almost always have to travel to an entrance that is north of wherever you start.”
Sophia turned towards Amy. The other woman had a slightly mischievous grin.
“What Clan would you guess I belong to?”
Sophia frowned. She had no idea. “I don’t even know what Clans you have.”
Amy frowned at Sophia then looked the other direction. “Dav! What Clan do I belong to?”
“Wolf,” Dav answered without a pause. “That’s the answer you want, isn’t it?”
Amy barked a laugh. “Too cautious, both of you. Yes, Wolf is the Clan I claim among outsiders. It is easier if most can guess the Clan, or believe they can. Outsiders are not welcome far from Izel, and Izel … well, you will see. At home, there is no Wolf Clan; we are all People of the Shattered Sky. My Clan is the Clan of the Aurora, the Night Lights. Our Shard is the Skylands.”
Amy paused and looked at Sophia, then Dav, then back to Sophia. “But you are traveling with me, and that means you are not just outsiders. You are outsiders to the entire Broken Lands; that matters. I will have to tell my family about you, once I am officially back.”
Amy took a breath and almost frowned. Her voice sounded intense when she spoke. “Which will not be until after I reach the first upgrade. If I want to pursue Night Owl, I have to go home, but I have to go home as an outsider.”
For some reason, Amy’s near-glare settled on Sophia. This wasn’t quite how she expected her question to go, so Sophia guessed this was something Amy had been thinking about saying for a while. Sophia did that sometimes herself.
Sophia didn’t see any reason to argue; it was best to find out what Amy was trying to say. “Okay? Is there something I should avoid saying?”
Amy shook her head. “Just call me Wolf Clan if anyone asks. They probably won’t, unless they decide you’re of the People, but you could be.” She paused for a long moment. “You both act like it.”
“What do you mean?” Dav interrupted. “How are your people different from the people in Casterville?”
“Attitude.” Amy didn’t hesitate at all with her answer. “The Challenge was the most obvious, you didn’t even question completing it; the question was how, not whether or not we should. No one else tried. I’m sure the Registry Master would have tried, eventually, but surely someone else would have realized that doing the same thing as everyone else wouldn’t work?”
Dav frowned. “It had only been a day, maybe two. We asked what others saw, I’m sure someone else would have too.” He took a deep breath, then admitted, “A lot of them didn’t want the Challenge completed. All they wanted to talk about was the rewards. But we’re not local and we were planning to move on; that doesn’t make us different, it just says we had different goals.”
Sophia frowned at Dav’s statement. He’d already been planning to move on? Sophia hadn’t even thought about it. She certainly didn’t mind leaving, but she also hadn’t planned to leave quickly. There just wasn’t much for them in Casterville. She had the impression that a lot of the local work was “local” only in that it was on the same Shard; it might be several days’ travel away. She hadn’t really gotten around to looking into it, with everything that happened.
“You’d have made the same choice if you lived in Casterville,” Amy argued. “You wanted to complete the Challenge because it was just that, a challenge, and because it was a threat to the city.”
“It needed to be handled,” Sophia contributed. “No reason to drag it out, there’s always other things to do.”
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Sophia knew that was true, even if she didn’t know what those other things were for Casterville specifically. If there really wasn’t anything to do, she could study her notes. She wasn’t anywhere near being able to send a message home yet, and that set was in Dav’s bag anyway, but there were still a lot of things she could study left. She also could have tried to work with Samuel, or simply taken a day and gone flying. That would have been fun.
“It’s not just that, either,” Amy continued as if she’d made her point. “It’s the way you deal with people and go after what matters, not talk around things. That’s what we do in the Shattered Sky, we don’t have time for those games.”
“I think you mean that we fit with you.” There was a clear smile in Dav’s voice as well as on his face. “There are always politics, that’s what being around people means. I like to be direct, when I can, and I don’t think Sophia knows how to be anything but blunt. That means you know where we stand, and…”
A cold, wet spray hit Sophia from nowhere and she looked up, distracted from Dav’s spiel. The day had been clear and hot, but there were storm clouds there now. They were dark with rain and while she didn’t hear any thunder, she was pretty sure she saw lightning spark from one cloud to another in the distance.
It was still early to set up camp, but it was better to lose some time than be caught in a sudden downpour. They could travel in the rain, but Sophia didn’t see any reason that they should. Casterville didn’t seem to get that much rain; the only long storm she’d seen was the one that made the Registry keep everyone inside for two days and that was the Domain, not the storm.
Other than that, she’d only seen small showers that lasted a couple of hours then were gone. This didn’t look like a small shower. Sophia frowned up at the clouds for a moment longer, then interrupted. “Guys? There’s a storm coming in. It’s moving fast. If we want to get under cover, we need to stop now instead of looking for a stream to camp near.”
“...multi-day hunt, we can’t…” Amy trailed off in the middle of whatever she was saying to Dav and looked up at the sky. “I don’t like that. It wasn’t there when we stopped, and we should have been able to see it.”
“Are you sure?” Dav frowned at the dark clouds. “It could have blown up while we were talking. I wouldn’t have noticed it.”
“Look at how much closer it is already,” Amy pointed at the clouds. “And how sharp the line is. There’s a little water coming here on the wind, but no. We have a few minutes until it reaches us, but that’s all, definitely less than an hour. It’s moving much too fast for a normal storm.”
Sophia felt herself tense up. “You’re thinking of the storm back at the Registry.” She certainly was. “The one with the Domain. The one Taika said was hunting me.”
There was nothing around that could serve as good cover or protection like the Registry building. The tent was good, but it was made to protect against weather, not monsters. She might be able to create a ward in the time they had, but only if she was ready for it and knew exactly what to ward against. She didn’t. She had what she bought in town and that was it; it wasn’t intended for blocking monsters and she didn’t know how to block a Domain.
Maybe a Domain was like an aura? That made some sense, but an aura the size of even a small storm would be humongous. What was she supposed to do with that?
“I don’t think I can hide from it,” Sophia muttered. “Taika? You know what it is, right? Do you have any ideas?”
Taika didn’t answer. In fact, now that Sophia thought about it, Taika hadn’t said anything since lunchtime. Sophia turned to Dav. He’d already dismounted and opened his saddlebags to reveal a colorful ball of fluff.
Sophia was pretty sure she heard a snore coming from the fuzz. She wasn’t sure why it was funny, but the fact that Taika was asleep at a time like this was somehow utterly hilarious.
Dav reached into the saddlebag and shook Taika. “Wake up, we need you.”
The ball of colorful fluff unrolled and yawned widely, then Taika pushed his head outside to look at Dav and Sophia. The fluff on top of his head was brightly striped today, but the color stopped at his forehead almost like he was wearing a colorful cap. It made him look sleepy and confused, which set Sophia laughing again.
Taika’s eyes opened wider. “What’s so funny?” He sounded almost offended.
Taika [https://i.imgur.com/MJp4rkT.jpeg]
“She’s worried about the storm,” Dav said to bring the rodent up to speed. “Over there.”
Taika looked up at the sky. His expression was hard to read, but Sophia didn’t think she imagined it when she saw him frown. “That looks like the Hungering Spark’s storm.”
“Yeah,” Sophia agreed when she managed to catch her breath. “You’ve dealt with him, do you think you can hide me from him? It’s me he’s after, isn’t it?”
Taika tilted his head to the side, then straightened and shook his head. “My illusions worked well last time but he should know better now. I can only hide you visually and I don’t think he’s looking for you with his eyes.”
“Maybe you can use your illusion?” Dav suggested. “The one the corpsevine used to catch both Amy and me?”
“Maybe,” Sophia agreed. She’d tried it on Dav while they were testing Abilities and sworn she wouldn’t use it on him again. Using it on something trying to kill her seemed like a good idea. “If we can catch it at all. That was the problem when it was over the Registry, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Dav agreed, “But if it’s coming for you, it has to come to you. I heard it moved fast, but hopefully your illusion will hold it in place so we can do something about it.”
“I can try to grab it with Root Grab,” Sophia offered. “Sort of a second layer. And you can use Eldritch Anchor. Do you have a way to tie it down, Amy?”
Amy shook her head. “Not yet. I thought about taking one of the arrow enhancements that can do that, but with the Abilities you and Dav picked up, there didn’t seem to be a reason to. There are some really good Night Owl Abilities for individual control, but I won’t have them until after I’m a Night Owl.” Amy paused, then offered, “I do have a couple of chain arrows; they’re awkward to use but they can work if we have to. They’re probably not as good as your Root Grab.”