Letter from Lan’ti Glarewing to his sister Ci’an Aurorachild
Great news, sis!
Mom finally approved the expedition back to that ruined building in the Western Wildlands! There are going to be more of us than I wanted. I never expected her to let me leave with only my team, but I didn’t think she’d make me take two other full First Upgrade teams plus an entire double-team of First Upgrade Professionals!
Well, all right, one of the teams of Professionals is my fault; I wanted Xin’ri and Volat to help, since they’re the best experts I know for runic symbology and ancient Kestii. That meant bringing their assistants.
The second Professional team is the real support personnel, and I have to admit that we will probably need them. This isn’t going to be fast and we need someone to handle everything from getting water and cooking to repairing any tools Volat breaks (because he’s always breaking things).
The other two Called teams are for hunting and security. The area is relatively low-mana for the western Wildlands, but that definitely doesn’t make it safe. The first time we were there, a family of spiketails was using the ruins as a nest (not a Nest, the lowercase one). We cleaned them out, but who knows what’s moved in since we left?
The plan is that we’ll be at the ruins site for four months, but we may have to head home early; it depends on when the migrations start out west. They’re done for this year, so we leave Izel tomorrow. We’re bringing quite a bit since we expect to winter at the ruins, but we’re going to supplement with hunting as we go. The winter will give us a safe time to investigate the ruins. If we can, we’ll camp in the building; the room we used last time should still be safe.
I won’t be able to get any of your letters while I’m gone, but write anyway! I’ll check with Ermine as soon as I get back to Izel. I loved your description of the sea voyage; were the fish really that large?
How is Casterville? I never made it through there, but I’ve heard mixed things from others who stopped there during their Youth Journey. Have you had any luck meeting people you think you might be willing to work with for the long haul, especially people willing to come to the Skylands? My team are my closest friends and I want the same thing for you.
That reminds me; Uncle Los’en got himself in a fight again. You’d think he’d learn not to wear jewelry with the Stepped Pyramid design openly. I think he goes out looking for trouble sometimes, but this time I’m not sure Mother can get him out of it. The Broken Temple’s Hilt is a full appeasement ceremony and indentured service to the Temple instead of a private apology. You know Mother’s not going to stand for that.
I don’t think Uncle would be willing to do it anyway. He’s always hidden his feelings about the Broken Sword poorly, and it’s only gotten worse.
I’m going to be glad to be out of Izel, and I’m grateful you aren’t in the Skylands at all.
Many hugs,
Lan
image [https://i.imgur.com/CvVo8Nf.png]
Lan’ti handed the letter over to the Registry’s receptionist. Rory was an older man, far older than Lan’ti. Lan’ti was also fairly confident he was a Professional, though he wasn’t certain what Profession Rory had. He’d been the Izel Registry’s main receptionist for longer than Lan’ti had held his Calling. “This needs to go to Amy Hunter. Last I heard, she was on her way to Casterville.”
Rory turned around and pulled a pouch off the table behind him, then slid the letter into the pouch. “Master Ermine left a message, said she’d like to talk to you when you came by. You might want to head over to her room. Might be it’s about your sister.”
“Thanks.” Lan frowned, but headed to the right instead of back out the door. The Registry Master’s room wasn’t far from the entrance down the hallway. Lan thought that was because she liked knowing what was going on, but it was also possible that it was just the best room for her. It did have huge windows on the outside that were enchanted to allow her to see out but not let others see in, which had to have been created when the building was built. He’d never even seen inside the room, since she always pulled the inner doors closed before she opened the outer door.
He knocked on the door, then waited. It wasn’t long before Ermine appeared in the doorway. As always, she was dressed more like one of her Called than the Registry Master. If he didn’t know who she was, she wouldn’t have been able to tell, even with her very rare equine ears, more like a donkey’s than a horse’s.
image [https://i.imgur.com/dUyGvym.png]
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“Lan Hunter,” she said with a grin. “I wasn’t expecting you so soon. Weren’t you here last tenday?”
Lan’ti shook his head. It had been two tendays, but that wasn’t important. “Rory said you had news of my sister?”
Registry Master Ermine nodded, but her grin seemed somewhat strained now. “I do. It’s good news, mostly; she’s settled on Night Owl as her Upgrade, even though she’s only Level Three.”
Lanti let out a sigh and relaxed. That meant she was healthy. It also meant Ci’an had found a group she trusted enough that she didn’t think she had to do everything. That was great news. “Amy always loved the stories of Night Owls. Wait, does that mean she’s headed to Izel?”
There was one huge problem with Night Owls, and it was the same reason there weren’t many, any more than there were many Wild Geese. Both Upgrades required visiting a specific Challenge before the First Upgrade. It was a Challenge that required a group you could trust, but that was all Lan’ti knew about it. He knew it was near Izel and mostly challenged by First Upgrade groups, but he didn’t know which of the Challenges it was.
No one wanted people heading into Challenges where they would just die, so the more dangerous ones weren’t revealed unless you were going after that particular Upgrade and the Registry Master thought you could do it. It still happened, of course; there were always idiots. Night Owl had one of the higher death rates, even with the Registry Master restricting what groups could attempt it.
Lan’ti trusted his sister. She wouldn’t be trying it if she didn’t think her companions were both good enough and trustworthy.
Ermine nodded. “Yes. I don’t expect her to arrive for a few months, but I’ve already started putting together a training plan. It’s difficult, since I don’t know much about the two people with her, other than knowing that they impressed Jessamine.”
“Jessamine?” Lan’ti didn’t know who Master Ermine meant.
Ermine nodded. “The Registry Master in Casterville. Your sister and her friends took on and completed a new Leveled Challenge in Casterville. I don’t know what the Challenge was, but it impressed Jessamine and the Shield of the Sun has never impressed easily.”
Lan’ti blinked. He might not know who Jessamine was by her name, but he definitely knew who the Shield of the Sun was. “The leader of the group with the deepest Maze run in a century is in Casterville?”
Somehow, that bit of news shocked Lan enough that it wasn’t until after he was several minutes’ walk from the Registry building that he realized he hadn’t asked for any more details about his sister’s situation, or even if Registry Master Ermine could get a message to her to tell her not to come to Izel.
She probably couldn’t, not if Ci’an had already left Casterville.
That meant he needed to talk to his mother before he left Izel in the morning, and the talk would be about his sister instead of simply well-wishes for the trip. It was a good thing their mother was in Izel right now.
Or maybe it wasn’t, now that Lan’ti thought about it. After all, the reason she was in Izel was the same reason Lan’ti needed to warn her that her youngest was returning to the Skylands. If only Uncle Los’en didn’t decide to piss off the Temple!
image [https://i.imgur.com/uvkTIDP.png]
Amy’s method of finding the nearest Clan was not what Sophia expected. She’d expected a magical beacon or some kind of communication device.
Instead, Amy flew above the trees and looked for the nearest sign of fire. The first time, she didn’t find anything, so they traveled more or less northeast through the woods. After a couple of hours, Amy reported back that she saw something in the distance, so they changed their route to head towards whatever it was that Amy saw.
The woods were mostly peaceful as they traveled. They passed several more giant turtles, though only one had the same sort of spikes that the first one did. To some extent, that made Sophia think that maybe they’d made the right choice about which one to hunt; the non-spiky giant turtles were far less magical and therefore probably had only mundane meat. The one thing they might have that was better than the spiky turtle was an intact shell that wasn’t cracked at each point where a spike protruded through it.
Sophia couldn’t think of a good use for a turtle’s shell, but she was certain there was one. Maybe it would be useful in armor or something. They’d saved what they could, but it wasn’t in good shape at all.
There were a number of other animals as well, but the vast majority of what they passed was herbivores content to leave them alone as long as they didn’t come too close. Sophia was certain she saw a bear with yellow streaks in its fur, but it was a long way away and it disappeared beyond other trees before she could point it out.
The only real problem they had came when they found a stream that cut deeply into the forest floor. The depression it was in was surrounded by trees, but there were none near the water. Fortunately, it was shallow so they only had to detour upstream most of a mile to find a place where the slope was gradual enough to let the horses cross.
It was enough of a delay that it was late afternoon before Sophia could smell wood smoke on the breeze. Fifteen minutes after that, they emerged from the trees into a clearing filled with signs of long-term but temporary habitation. There were tents scattered around the clearing. Some had dirt floors, but others seemed to have some sort of elevated floor to get the inhabitants above the ground.
A fire burned in a square hearth set with rocks; a nearby large pot told Sophia what that fire was intended for. In the distance, smoke rose in a haze from other fires hidden by a larger group of tents.
Sophia swept her eyes across the clearing, but one thing was clear: this wasn’t a camp set up with defense in mind. There were no walls or ditches to slow enemies down. There wasn’t even a large amount of space to give people time to react to attackers. Instead, it looked like the place was set up for everyday use. This was not made by people afraid of the monsters in the forest.
image [https://i.imgur.com/v0hy3tN.jpeg]