37 YEARS AFTER LANDING: GRANDMOTHER

There was a barrier at the end of the hall. She could see three people manning it. There were two men and a woman, clothed in hunter's greens. She didn’t remember there being any settlements in this area the last time she came through here. A tier two camouflage spell was cast on her, so she didn’t think the people on the barrier would have seen her yet. She stepped off to the side into a minor corridor and out of their direct sight.

The corridor was darker than usual but appeared empty. A light fixture about twenty feet away flickered annoyingly before managing to power up. She scanned the corridor one more time in the increased light. It remained empty.

She leaned her staff against the wall. She pulled the pack off her shoulders and rested it at her feet. She stretched as she considered how long it was since she last came this way. The last two trips she approached from the north. She couldn’t remember the route of the trip before that. It was at least four or five years ago.

She opened her map. She very seldom used it, not only did the structure's rooms and corridors change over time but the map did too. The map’s changes were always to her detriment. Long ago she decided her own memory served her better.

The map showed a square ahead with a large greenspace to the east. She remembered the greenspace, she was heading roughly in its direction. She didn’t remember a square, she might have forgotten it. It was interesting that the map reflected one. It could have been updated to reflect the change in architecture which meant Control wanted her to believe it was always there. That usually indicated a trap of some kind. She would have to be careful.

She closed the map and considered her options. She knew a don't notice me spell but it was only a beginners spell, tier zero. It worked by making people miss the details that didn’t match the residents of their community. It wouldn’t work against someone who knew everyone that should be there. Communities that small were rare. It also wouldn’t hold against a tier three or above magic user. Even a highly observant tier two might see through it. Only her own high magic skill allowed it to work against tier ones. She could help it along by changing her appearance to match the community. It was getting rather late in the afternoon. It would not be unusual for scavengers to be returning for the night.

She hunkered down and opened the top flap of her pack. She carried with her both blue and red wizard silks but she didn’t know which faction the settlement belonged to. Near the bottom of the pack was a set of hunter’s greens. She hadn’t worn them for months. They were integrated and would be a perfect match to the hunter’s greens she spotted at the barrier. She pulled the clothing out of the pack and set it in reach.

She stood back up and studied her surroundings again to make sure no danger materialized during the time she searched her pack. Once she decided it was still safe, she removed her belt and set it on her pack, so that the knife it contained was still within easy reach. She put on the shirt and pants over her existing leathers. They were tight at first but loosened as the resize property activated. She secured her belt over the top of them. She pulled her knife and inspected the blade, confirming that it was still clean and sharp. The knife was not integrated. If she didn’t inspect it regularly it would degrade at an increasing rate.

She fished a length of cord out of an outer pocket and tied it to both ends of her staff. She would use it to carry the staff over her shoulder. She hoped the spell would blur its appearance so it would be mistaken for an unstrung bow. She picked up the pack and staff and peered around the corner into the hall. The barrier was still there along with the guards. The guards at least looked relaxed. They were talking amongst themselves.

She pulled back into the side corridor and took a deep breath. A light about forty feet down the corridor began to flicker. She took that as a sign that she had been in the corridor too long. She canceled the camouflage spell and cast the tier zero don't notice me spell. She boldly stepped out into the main hall and walked with a purpose to the barrier.

The guards saw her quickly and watched her approach. One of the men moved to swing a portion of the barrier open, allowing her to pass. The barrier was a makeshift affair of boards, pipes and furniture. It was a clear indication that this was a new settlement. The barrier wasn’t there to limit access to the settlement. It was there to protect it.

“The southern halls are dangerous for a lone hunter. You should try to join a group before you head back out,” the other male guard said to her. “There is a board by the training yards for forming groups.”

“I will check it,” she responded. She was surprised the guard warned her. It showed a level of concern that was largely missing in this world. He was a big man with large muscles and kind eyes. She continued down the hall another forty feet to step out into the square. The walls of this passage were made of opaque glass.

She turned to the left and began to circle the space. She kept her pace even to give any watchers the impression that she knew where she was going. In a way she did, since all these squares were built on the same pattern or the mirror of it. It took her only a moment or two to orient herself. She was walking past the permanent shops, heading in the direction of the daily markets. Most new settlements only held the daily markets once a week or even once a month. Whatever the policy of this settlement it appeared she was in luck. She could see a small crowd of people appraising the merchandise at a group of temporary stalls. It looked like there were more sellers in the daily market than in the permanent shops. Many of the shops were sealed indicating that they were not purchased or rented by anyone yet.

A group of young children ran past her. She used their passing to step aside. She leaned against the wall of an empty shop and took a good look around her. The ceiling rose high above her. She counted ten rows of balconies overlooking the square. The floor was paved in sturdy stone pavers which were dotted with symmetrically placed plant boxes. Most of the planters were empty showing only bare soil. A few boxes by the public house were planted with fast growing herbs. One near the training yards held a fruit tree that must be fifty years old.

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The guards were in their late teens but that wasn’t unusual. Guard work was considered safe and often went to new warriors with young families. Everyone in sight was under the age of twenty five. They were at least third generation. The children that ran past may be fourth generation. All of her preparations were unnecessary, no one here was any threat to her.

Having slipped in unnoticed she saw no reason to draw attention to herself now. She started forward again. She would see what the market was offering before circling around to the training yards. The yards would be placed between the main square and the greenspace. There would be a gate on the far side of the yard to give access. She would use it to go out into the greenspace before dark. She planned to find herself a nice tree to spend the night in. She would feel more secure there than in the highest room in the inn, because she could see that the square did not possess a protection crystal. It may look and feel like a settlement but in Control’s eyes it was wild space.

The market was heavy on raw ingredients. There were herbs, fruits, meats and skins. She saw several piles of scrap that could be recycled into ingots with the right skill. There was even a stall with small potted plants. There was not much in the way of finished goods. There was the usual mix of used goods. Many sellers offered a knife or sword set behind them that they would sell for the right price. They were the weapons the stall owners themselves once used to brave the wilds with before they decided to try their hand at shopkeeping. One of the open shops was an archery supply. A large display of bows and arrows filled its windows.

There didn’t appear to be any metal working. That explained the low prices on the scrap. The buyer would have to haul it to the next settlement for resale. One of the last stalls was offering pouches, bags and backpacks. What made them interesting was they were not made from leather but rather cloth. They were all in hunter’s green.

She paused to look over the goods. Displayed in pride of place was a tunic of brigandine armor. The rivets through the green cloth were a bright silver, making her think they and the plates within were a high grade steel. This was tier three, maybe even tier four work, as it was a mix of both metal and cloth work. The rest of the offerings were tier one products.

“Did you craft the brigandine?” she asked the young woman who was watching the stall.

“No, Grandmother,” the woman responded. “My father made it. He was killed during the last migration.”

Calling her Grandmother meant this young woman saw through part if not all of her don't notice me spell. Since all the settlement's residents were young the spell should have presented her as the same. She didn't think of herself as old but this world's residents would perceive her as such. They lived short lives. Most of the women started having children between thirteen and sixteen. Very few of them lived to see their grandchildren.

Grandmother looked over the goods again and decided some of the more complex backpacks might be tier two. The woman was young, probably no more than fifteen. A second girl was sitting on the floor of the stall, near the back. She was seven or eight. She had an octagonal sheet of paper or more likely vellum that she was drawing on using a white stylus.

The stylus was obviously integrated since the ink it laid down was a bold black. The girl was tracing out the patterns in the paving stones. The stones were a mix of circles, teardrops and rounded diamonds. Here and there she could see a star, with the inward vertices rounded to fit the circles or teardrops. Sometimes patterns like that were used to hide the pattern of spells. With the market stalls, people and goods covering much of the floor she couldn’t tell if it held any secrets. The girl finished the pattern she was creating. After inspecting it she seemed unhappy. She pressed the vellum with the other end of the stylus and the ink appeared to be sucked back into it. The girl started again.

The girl’s persistence and repetition reminded Grandmother of spell making. She knew of no spell craft that involved writing. Something about that thought sparked a very old memory but she couldn’t pin it down.

“Your daughter?” she asked the shopkeeper, even though she knew the girl was too old to be the young woman’s child.

“My sister,” the young woman explained. She shifted her position to block Grandmother’s view of the girl. “I can re-dye your outfit while you wait. I have a knack for it.”

Grandmother looked down at her hunter’s green’s to see that they was a little gray. The phenomenon probably helped the girl see through her spell. She was surprised it happened so fast. She put them on over her leathers to limit their contact with her. The last time she wore this outfit the green lasted much longer. When she took it off and returned it to her bag, her color would leech out of it and the green would return.

“No, not today,” Grandmother replied automatically. She shifted her weight in preparation for moving on. The young woman proved her abilities as a shopkeeper by catching Grandmother’s intentions.

“If you change your mind, ask for Ellen at the public house,” the young woman said in an attempt to make a future sale. Grandmother nodded at Ellen and walked off.

She passed the board by the training yard that the guard mentioned. It was planted in the dirt at the base of the old fruit tree. She saw there were several posts but she did not pause to read them. She gave up on groups a long time ago. If she was going to die due to a stupid mistake, it was going to be her stupid mistake.

There was an abundance of pre-teens in the training grounds. They were being instructed by a few individuals in their teens and early twenties. Some of those in their twenties were likely the parents of the youngest trainee’s. There was no one wearing wizard’s silks. A group of very young children were in the magic area. They were sitting in a circle humming. They alternated between waving their hands in the air and rubbing their stomachs. Grandmother had no idea what that was supposed to accomplish.

They were watched over by an archer who wore blue touched leathers. It was the first sign she saw in this settlement of alliance. She looked carefully around and found that several of the trainers carried small touches of color on their clothing. There were representatives with both red and blue marks.

It was a well populated settlement. If a wild square built a large enough population and survived enough migrations, they could spawn a new protection crystal. The process was unpredictable, so people usually settled where they found a protection crystal already in existence. Even a tier zero rest would be easier to protect than wild space.

There were four guards on the arches to the greenspace. They let her pass out without comment. Again they all wore hunter’s green. The arches opened onto a balcony overlooking the green. The floor of the greenspace was two floors below. The trees easily rose past this level reaching to the glass sky above. Staircases to the right and left descended down. Centered in the balcony was a fountain. The water in the fountain shot toward the sky. It rained down into a basin which routed it over the edge in a sheet cascade that vanished into the green growth below. The basin was covered in a geometric design in red, blue, yellow, green, orange and violet with a ring of white octagonal tiles around the water jets. Pale beams of colored light illuminated the water. It was astonishingly beautiful. Displays like this always surprised her. It was hard to believe that the same entity that spent most of its time trying to kill them could also build this.

She took the left stairway down into the green.