Chapter 4:
That night we didn't dine on Sand Rabbit stew. My father had collected the string of rabbits that had nearly been his end, if not for Boone, but while he dressed them and stored them, neither Mia nor I wanted anything to do with them. Mia especially looked almost broken with guilt over dropping them in his path. Instead, as it turned out, Scorpion meat was particularly tasty when practically boiled in its own shell. Father had brought the monster back through the warded circle of our camp, while Papa reinforced the runes and brought a powerful shield online in case the monster hadn't been a solo hunter.
Father butchered the corpse with a heavy blade and a crowbar, necessary just to part the thick shell that, when I bundled up my courage and went closer to touch the creature, was as heavy and cold as forged steel, despite the heat of the day. My father looked at me, and cleaning his hands on a wet rag from a bucket nearby, kneeled down to look me in the eye. "You did well, Arcadia. Even if you didn't know what you were feeling, you told me right away and acted very bravely. There are creatures like this in the desert that can use essence to hide themselves - even from people like me. But those protections are not perfect, and often it is pure luck, or trusting a feeling that is out of place, that can save us out here. I am very proud of you, Sprout. You did very well and protected your sister all the way back." He folded me into a hug and we stayed like that for a few minutes. I wanted to tell him about Boone and what he had done to protect my father as well, but that would give away too much, and i wasn't ready for the can of worms that was my reincarnation. I loved simply being my father's daughter, and didn't want that to change.
Milos seemed to sense that I was feeling uncomfortable in his grip, and pushed me back to arms length. "Thank Trickery your mother was there with that first Blue Firebolt, eh? I might have been in a bit of a pickle without her. It just shows, though. We are always there for each other, and all of us are always there for you. Okay? Now, go get washed up, im going to cook us a feast tonight." With that he released me, and went back to butchering the giant arachnid. But I didn't leave right away, I couldn't. I needed to watch the thing that had threatened my family be disassembled. It helped, just a little, to make me swallow my guilt and my secrets.
As well as meat, he removed from the body an egg shaped stone, that shone metallic and a deep, dark black. I swallowed, as I recognised something I was likely not supposed to know about yet - that creature had had a core, and now harvested, that stone would turn into an ability crystal. Father smiled and winked at me, before hiding the stone away in a pouch. It would be worth a lot of money, I expected, though they might save it for Mia or me to use, if they didn't use it themselves.
Ability crystals were the way people with classes grew more powerful. I didn't know much about it, because they kept all details scarce, but I know it was why most people struggled to reach the higher numbers of Wood Rank, and why there were so few Stone Ranked people in the world. There were just too few crystals, and each level of a rank required progressively more crystals to take it to the next one. I thought that, unless someone killed literally thousands of creatures, or else paid a kings’ ransom in gold and jewels, it would be impossible to see the higher ranks.
Mother and Father insisted on eating the scorpion, rather than the Sand rabbits that we were supposed to eat. They said that it would do us good, no matter what, to eat from our kills - as the ancestors had done, she claimed. She said that monster meat did the body far more good than anything those who lived in cities would be eating - unless they were rich enough to have fresh meat imported. It was full of essence and that would help strengthen our bodies and our cores.
While Papa had looked somewhat green around the edges at the idea, we had all long learned that Mother didn't insist on things often, but when she did, we listened or we paid the price.
When I had returned to the Caravan, Boone had been almost collapsed with a strange exhaustion, shivering and cold to the touch. I had snuck off to our bedroom, and wrapped him in a nest of blankets to rest, but there was so much to do that I could only check on him for minutes at a time. His breathing eased into true sleep after a couple of hours, but he didn't speak to me through that whole night.
I had been looking forward to my first lesson on runes and magic, but within minutes of Mother settling us down, it was clear that neither Mia or I could truly settle enough to concentrate, and there was a heavy malaise over the caravan that night.
We rested, we talked, I gave my father a hug that I didn't ever want to pull away from, and eventually we were sent to sleep. Mia and I prepared our sleeping pallet, and I made sure Boone had a space upon it, before we both climbed up and settled in.
It had always been a strange experience, sleeping in the same bed as my sister, and in the same room as my parents, but it was simply the norm when we travelled outside of our home city, the caravan being very large as things went, but too small to have dedicated sleeping spaces for all of us. I turned to her, and took her hand in mine as our eyes met across the pillows. "I know you think things were almost terrible because you dropped the rabbits. But it wasn't your fault, and no one got hurt." I could see the tears welling in my sisters' eyes, and I felt a desperate need to comfort her. "Mama was a step behind us, and My Dad is so strong. And your Papa would have been there with a potion in seconds if Dad had been injured."
Potions had been another avenue of life on Axis that had surprised me. Using special Rune-wrought bottles and normal liquids - or for stronger concoctions specially prepared herbal ingredients - a Runesmith like Papa could create magical potions that could heal and cure disease. I was honestly surprised when I learned that there was almost no need for doctors in this world. The ability for anyone with magic and a basic knowledge of runes and engraving, to make a magical potion that would seal wounds or cure a disease had been amazing to me. Papa had even shown me how to make one, once, and had promised to teach me the proper equations and runes to make my own for when I had my own access to essence. It was an essential skill for anyone who lived outside the cities - and even within, it was rare to find a single household without at least one member who didn’t know how to carve a healing bottle rune.
It wasn’t comforting to Mia at that moment though. Far from it, Mias' eyes scrunched up and tears squeezed from between her lids, as she curled in upon herself. I wrapped my arms around her and drew her close, stroking her hair as she shuddered against me, sobs wracking her little body.
"All I could do was run away, Arcadia. I'm supposed to be the big sister, the fighter, and all I could do was run." I held my sister close and let her cry, despite my knowing there was nothing a six year old could have done to fight that creature, and knowing her upset was irrational, my memories of my past life told me I had spent long periods of my life in similar states - even deep depressions from failure to live up to the expectations of others.
"You're six years old, Mia. You'll get so big, and so strong, but we're just little kids right now." I murmured into her hair. "If…if you want to get stronger though, I'll help. We can work together, train as hard as we can." I meant it too. I'd do anything for her, for my family. Eventually, her tears ceased, and she reached out to hug me back, before drifting into an exhausted sleep.
It was very late by the time my parents came to bed, and I was ashamed to say I had been able to hear that the three of them had needed time to themselves to…reassure themselves that everything was okay between them. Needless to say they had all needed a shower after, and they crept into the sleeping room as quietly as possible so as not to wake us, but I was still wide awake.
More than my own fear of what might have happened, more than wondering if this was just more entertainment that Kintsuji had thrown into my path to help me help her change the world, I honestly wondered what Boone had done, and how.
The little fox was still fast asleep, and nothing I had been able to do would rouse them, but in my soul, I could feel there was an emptiness on their side of the connection, as if they had hollowed out something that wasn't yet ready to be used. I gathered the little nest of blankets, and drew it close to me, and, after hours of trying, I finally managed to fall asleep with my sister on one side, and Boone curled into the hollow of my shoulder. My last thought before sleep took me was that, for the first time in years, I had tried to communicate with Kintsuji, and then my life got interesting. I truly hoped it was just a coincidence.
The next morning, our parents tried to get us excited, as they had almost unanimously decided to break camp and move on - despite everything, we were still on a deadline for their work, and had to reach the site that had been uncovered soon if they wanted to have any crack at it before it was stripped by other, less scrupulous, adventurers.
My Mother and Papa were historians, working in part for the adventurers guild, to study recently uncovered ruins of past civilizations before other forces moved in to raid whatever useful items they could find. My Father, I was told, had originally been employed as their guard and driver, but the three had fallen in love together, and, well, I was the result of that. I couldn’t say I minded the fact.
This world, apparently, had a very open view on relationships. People - and especially adventurers - found love and comfort where they could, as they honestly didn't know what tomorrow would bring. While there were more conservative countries out there, and religions that tried to limit relations and who could and could not be in one, out here in the divide, as long as it was between consenting adults, few would bat an eye, and growing up with three parents - while strange at first to my previous life's sensibilities, had eventually just become normal. There were twice as many Dad jokes, but no real downsides besides that.
However, we had been travelling for weeks now in our caravan home, making our way to a recently stumbled upon 7th age ruin, that recent seismic activity in the Divide had uncovered. There was already a contingent of the adventurer guild there who were slowly clearing out any traps or threats that had made the ruins their home, and we would be coming in behind to catalogue and record what could be salvaged.
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What this really meant, though, is that we couldn't do any magical lessons, as they were hard to teach on the move. So instead, while father saw to the Mutocks - after I had had a chance to feed and scratch them, to father's forbearance - and Mother tied down the house, Papa gathered Mia and myself for a lesson in his speciality - History.
"Now children, let's review. This ruin is suspected of being of the 7th age. What does that mean? Yes, Arcadia?" He finished his question, and gestured to my raised hand, as we sat on cushions in the work area, around the small table we typically dragged outside for meals. It had been unlatched from the wall and revealed a thin cabinet with writing supplies and our few language and history books that had been purchased for teaching my sister and me.
"There have been eight great civilisations before ours that have risen, flourished, and fallen. We are currently living in the Ninth age, according to the priests of History. A ruin of the 7th age would be from the Clockwork Dominion, and would be anywhere in the region of ninety to two hundred thousand years old." I recited from memory and his previous teachings - and, if I was honest, my years of Boone sneaking looks at his books in the night and me reading through his eyes. It had surprised me, when I first learned how old Axis was. There had been intelligent, humanoid - though not always human - life on the planet for millions of years. I had wondered how a planet could even supply and survive civilisations like humans for so long, but Boone had provided the rather simple answer: Magic, and the magical places called Dungeons, which often arose out of old ruins. Both could circumvent limited resources and the damages that industry and human ingenuity could do to a world. They both could produce what we needed at a tremendous pace, and often from thin air, and clean away what we didn't back into the fabric of the world. Pollution wasn't really a thing when smog and chemicals could just be…whisked away at the wave of a hand and a few spoken words of power. There were people in cities with specialised classes who could make an absolute fortune keeping the air and water clean and pure.
Speaking of Boone, the wily fox spirit had woken alongside me that morning, seemingly no worse for wear except for being genuinely hungry. He flat refused to answer questions on what had happened until I brought him food, though, and by the time I managed to sneak him some, it was already time for lessons and the caravan was slightly swaying to the fair of the Mutocks up front. Even so, I loved the daft creature, and had managed to squirrel him a few slices of scorpion meat and some razorbeak eggs after breakfast. I could feel that he was happily enjoying his food in bed, and his contentment made me feel hungry, despite having not long eaten. Damned joined souls and their complications.
"Very good. And why is it possible that a ruin that old has survived this long beneath the desert sands?" He turned to Mia, this time, whose face was screwed up in concentration. My sister was many wonderful things, but a scholar was not one of them.
"Is it because of the special metal they made? The one that let them go into space?" My Papa nodded and smiled encouragingly at his biological daughter, urging her on to remember the name. "Maxwellian Bronze?"
"Excellent, yes. Well done. Maxwellian Bronze was a powerful composite alloy, that could attract and contain essence, as humans of that age could not utilise it the same way we can today. The gods stripped us of that ability - but human ingenuity provided an alternative that was still powerful, if different" He began, entering into his lecturer mode, "But the metals that they were able to make, and the things that they were able to build, were able to stay strong and repair themselves no matter how badly they were damaged. This is why, with a powerful enough telescope, you can see the cities they built on the moon - which we humans have been trying to make our way back to for thousands of years."
"If they were so powerful, why aren't they still around today?" I asked, although I thought I already knew the answer judging by Kintsujis’ purpose for coming back to this world, and the things I remembered seeing on my journey through the cosmos to Axis.
"While the simple answer is, no mortal knows, and the gods won't say, it is not a particularly strong answer." Papa said, fixing his glasses. "The long answer is that we have records of the Dominion travelling far from this world, and to distant stars far, far away from here. But, at some point, all of those reports simply cease. There is a large body of my community that believes that the Dominion simply left, and found somewhere better to live, outside the influence of the Pantheon that rules here. Others that they fell to a virus or disease that was magical in origin, and all of their technology couldn't defeat. There are even some who believe they found another species that fought back and won." He coughed and took a drink of water.
"In any case, magic did rise in the wake of their civilization, through the 8th Age, and leading to the world we live in today, post collapse. Tell me, either of you: how do we now determine the Ages, and what they were famous for?"
While I knew the answer to this one, I still had to think about how to phrase it. "The 1st age was the age of Creation, where the gods walked the earth and miracles were common. The 2nd age was the age of Elementals, where humanity thrived by harnessing the builders of the world - the elementals left behind by the gods - to build an empire.
"The 3rd age was the age of Apostasy. The gods tried to seize back their creation and were thrown off by mortals. It didn't end well, and the Gods cursed the world for its crimes. The 4th age was the age of ruination, where the angered gods kept humanity down until they had redeemed themselves, though due to the lack of historical record, we do not know how, only that they did and that they even gained favour, leading to the 5th Age." Mia jumped in at this point, as I was beginning to struggle.
"The 5th age was known as the age of Legends, where champions empowered by the gods took back the world that had fallen into disrepair, repairing and making new kingdoms with their powerful magic and classes. The 6th age was the age of Stability, when the Classes and the powers of humans were clarified into the System and the Soul Cards as we know them today through a divine decree. That age ended when we were locked out of it completely for nearly challenging the gods again." Finally, I picked up the last part of the narrative to finish us off.
"The 7th was the age of the Clockwork Dominion, who found ways around their limitations and built great wonders of technology. The 8th was the age of collapse. We regained the system but the Dominion had damaged our world to such a degree that even the gods stopped talking to the priests. While we eventually rebuilt, the Gods were silent and we were forced to make do without their voices. And now, finally, we live in the 9th age, which hasn't yet been named, but we have been calling it the age of Renewal."
My Papa gave us a happy thumbs up, and Mia and I high fived with a smile. "Excellent. You both have been studying hard I see. So, enough recapping, let's get into the real lesson for today - the threats and dangers of 7th age ruins. Just in case, you understand."
The lesson went on in that vein for several hours, with plenty of breaks to stretch our legs - laps around the slow moving carriage were a favourite of my fathers' - and as it would happen, Papa did even eventually end up teaching us a little about runework. After all, the Runes that we used today to channel essence and create enchantments were based on the magic of previous ages, that had been rediscovered and adapted by men and women just like my parents and the work of cataloguing the past.
Eventually, though, I heard my Father call the Mucocks to a half, and the carriage creaked to a stop. His heavy fist banged on the roof , and I heard him say that we should come up - that we wouldn't want to miss the show.
There was a ladder to the roof hatch bolted to the sleeping room wall, and i scuttled up it after briefly pausing to scratch Boone between the ears and make sure he was okay - though i am sure to Mia, who was following in my wake it must have looked very different, and i wondered what she had seen.
The hatch flipped open, and we climbed out into the setting sun of the evening. The sky was a rich, scarlet silk over sand that was quickly turning midnight blue in the sheltered spots. But against a sandstone cliff a couple of miles away, I got my first glimpse of the ruin.
Seismic activity in the last couple of years - unusual for the Divide as the ley lines deep beneath the earth had long been stable in this area when it came to Fire or Earth essence - had sheared several hundred feet of rock away from the cliff, revealing a structure that had been buried for tens of thousands of years. As I looked at it now, and thought about sudden changes revealing a lost and broken thing, I couldn't help but remember the winged, fox headed woman I had met in the space between worlds. I wondered if Kintsuji was making some kind of play in her quest to break, restore, and strengthen this world.
A rough and scarred pyramid of pitted bronze and dark alloys, that was buttressed by rough, solid rock on both sides. The setting sun lit it in a sparkling curtain of fading light, to say nothing of the dozens of lamps, lights, and lanterns that had been hung, not only from its walls, but from the sprawling camp that had been erected in its shadow. Dozens of carriages, and semi permanent structures had been circled in by a raised wall of solid stone, that was far too smooth to be anything but the product of magic. I knew our own carriage was only slightly smaller than a semi trailer from my life before, and there were dozens of them there - and the pyramid dwarfed them to the size of childrens toys.
A great rent had been torn from the front of the building, and the black shadow of the inside was impenetrable to my eyes. It looked majestic, alien, and unsettling. Something about the place wormed into my soul and warned my five year old self to stay away. It was the first time I had seen one of the ruins of the old worlds - Mia and I had always been too young when my parents left for trips in previous years, and we had been left with carers for that time. After the near disaster of the storm in which I had been born, my parents had been unwilling to risk us both for several years after that. But now we sat before one, and I didn’t know what to think.
“Are…are we going in there Dad?” I propped myself up on my fathers’ shoulder, for once over topping him in height, even if it was just because he was sitting down. He chuckled and shook his head.
“Of course not, Sprout. Maybe one day, if you wanted to. But for now, it is far too dangerous for a little sprite like you or Mia to explore. Who knows what trouble you’d find?” He stood up and cracked out his back in a mighty stretch after hours of sitting in place. “No - maybe one day, if you wanted to, but for now you and your sister will be staying in camp and tending to your lessons while your Mother and Papa do their work.”
I looked at that great, yawning void lit with golden, fading sun and the roaring flames of bonfires. I saw the careful, watchful gaze of rotating bolt thrower turrets and the tall wales of conjured stone, and I saw the pennants of adventuring companies from all over the great divide. It was the stuff of Bard takes and storybooks - the delving of ancient ruins, filled to the brim with deadly traps and monsters, for the mere chance at claiming wonders from times long forgotten. It was the dream of children everywhere - and it terrified me. “It would take a miracle to get me inside that place, Dad.”
Of course, I should have kept my mouth shut. By her own admission, I was here at Kintsujis' request, and her purpose coming to this world was to create times interesting enough to change the world - and it was the worst kind of fool who would live in interesting times gladly.