Yaris kept them moving at a brisk pace, one which was a little too fast, glaring at anyone who dared try to start conversation. By the end of it Shrike was sweating, and Eim was refusing to take his hand off his shoulder.

They hadn't even said hello to the guards, just tapped in and moved out.

They weren't the same guards as had been there previously, Jump-touch noticed. She was trying to do better with human faces.

After almost two hours of moving, the five of them stopped in a mossy grove, at the base of a tall pillar. It reminded Jump-touch of the Stone in form, if not colour, but there was no hint of magic as she laid a hand upon it. Disappointing.

They had travelled in the opposite direction to last time, and the copper was more pronounced here, the trees almost completely turned and the ground beneath her feet as cold as metal.

Jump-touch was crouched down, examining the ground as everyone else recovered from the forced march. "Is the dust here also copper, isn't that poisonous?"

"It's not real copper, but there are places where you have to wear a mask," Shrike was sitting on the ground with Eim, leaning against the obelisk with his eyes shut, "but it's safe here, the dirt is still just dirt."

He opened his eyes, "my team came this way once, while I was with them, we should be fine as long as we avoid anywhere windy."

"There's wind down here?" Ollie asked, leaning against the pillar and looking towards where Yaris had gone scouting, "I always thought it was strange, the air being so still."

"Only in certain places, the magic in the air causes it to still unnaturally fast, or something like that. That's why wind is a bad sign."

He sighed, leaning forward and resting his head in his lap for a moment. The back of his neck and his shirt were streaked with sweat.

I could offer to clean it by sending it to my Heart and back.

But she didn't. Before they'd left the guild that morning, she had picked up what she was thinking of as 'the object', a huge box-shaped thing, which took up most of the floor space in her Heart. It wouldn't be comfortable for him in there right now at all.

Instead, she dusted off her beautiful new skirt. It would last longer if she could clean it by sending it to her Heart and back, and she was looking forward to trying it out.

And then, the next time they passed a ravine or crevasse, she was going to throw the itchy woollen clothes down it. She hated them, hated that she'd lived in them for days, when beautiful clothing like she had now had been available.

As she swirled her skirt, admiring the way it fanned outwards, Yaris walked back up, her spear over one shoulder.

"There's some slimes off to the left, but I only saw one green. We can keep an eye on them. There's a single dust devil haunting that patch of trees we passed, so don't go in there."

The others nodded as she sank to the ground, cross-legged and facing Shrike.

"So, you were about to make some sort of stupid confession, back there in the city," she said. "About how you either got a cursed skill, or about how you're holding out on us for no reason."

Shrike winced, but didn't say anything.

"You got a cursed skill?" Ollie asked, sliding down the pillar and ending up pooled on the floor beside Yaris.

"No, well," Shrike pursed his lips, "it wasn't glowing."

Glowing?

"If it is cursed or illegal, and the Stone really did give you no choice, they can do a lie-check on you," Eim said quietly. "They can't judge you for somethin' you didn't want and you've never used."

"Unless he has used it," Yaris said, looking pointedly at his knee, "and assuming he can afford it."

Shrike shook his head, and a moment later there was a book in his hands. The cover was thick leather and dyed a pale blue, and there was a silver clasp holding it shut.

It's so smart, I want it!

Shut up, greed.

Hers was a ratty old notebook, why was his book made of leather! Why did it look so fancy!?

"Look," he messed about with it for a moment, before opening it and holding it up for them to see.

Shrike Tanner

[Mage] [Rare Variant]

This class will allow you to use magic like those of old. But be warned, everything comes with a price.

2. Stats

Wits: +1

Mind: +2

3. Skills

[1] [Cold Bolt] [Level 1]

Send a bolt of freezing energy towards your target.

[2] [Summon Familiar] [Level 2 (2+3)] [0]

Summon a familiar to do your bidding. This spell can be cast once per level. Your familiar will require food, water and care, and cannot be dismissed. They will be absolutely loyal to you.

He held it for a moment to let them all read it, before lowering the book again, placing it pages-down over his lap.

There was a quiet in the group. Yaris was glowering at nothing, Ollie was looking at Yaris, and Eim's face was a closed book.

"What's so bad about that?" Jump-touch asked finally, as nobody spoke, and the others turned to look at her. Was it so bad?

"As long as you don't like, tell them to kill and have them accidentally kill you, what's the problem?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

There was a beat of silence, and then, "the last line doesn't bother you?" from Eim, something in his voice that she couldn't identify.

She shrugged, "should it?"

Should it? She tried to think it through.

"It's rubbish you can only use it once per level. That's your level, right, not the skill level?"

Shrike nodded slowly, catching eyes with Eim. The others watched.

"Okay. And it's bad that they require food, water and care. It would be better if you could summon something that didn't, like a-" she had to work out a translation, "like a Clay or Mud person. A person made of clay."

Everyone was looking at her, so she barrelled on, "and what if it only gives you one every time you level? Eventually you'll be having to feed a whole village of friends? That sounds difficult."

Was that the problem with it? Humans were obsessed with money, after all. Having another mouth to feed in the party meant more hunting, and more coins needed for food. She could see it being a problem.

That said, couldn't they hunt for themselves? That would make it easier-

"You're giving something life," Shrike said slowly, and she focused back on him. "You're bringing into creation something that didn't exist before."

She stared at him. "But, isn't that what people do all the time? When people want more goats, they breed goats together so they have more goats. If people want more humans, then they make more humans?"

She wasn't sure how humans were made, but she suspected the theory was somewhat right.

"Okay but you don't- it's the last line really. That's what makes it super illegal, rather than just mostly-illegal. The absolute loyalty."

"Why wouldn't you want that?"

She would have to work out what illegal meant later, her boon was giving her mixed messages.

Yaris, sitting next to Jump-touch, opened her mouth, closed it again and shook her head.

Jump-touch looked at her curiously.

"No, you carry on," she said, shaking her head. "I'm not smart enough for this."

"You-" Shrike stopped to think for a second. "You don't get it? Absolute loyalty. It means you create something that can only think how you tell to think."

She looked at him uncomprehending. Was this a human thing? It meant the summon wouldn't betray him, and would find it easier to do its job, what was wrong with that?

"So," he licked his lips, struggling. "So you're not only bringing life into this world, which is, again, very illegal- but you're also bringing it in intentionally crippled."

"What if you tell it to not to be so loyal to you, wouldn't that work?"

No, she knew it wouldn't even as she said it. It would just make the summon artificially disloyal, anticipating your commands and then doing the opposite. That's the sort of thinking that gave you Mud people.

"People have tried, it doesn't work." Shrike tapped his cane gently on the floor as he spoke, sending up small clouds of dust.

"And you can't ask the Stone to take that bit out?" She frowned, "I still don't see how it's a problem. Are you going to betray everyone in the group?"

He frowned, "no? Of course not?"

"Then you have loyalty to us, right?"

"It's not- No, I don't. If one of you did something bad, then I could fight back. Think of it this way. If Eim had been cursed with 'absolute loyalty' to the team, he wouldn't be able to punch Yaris anymore, he'd just have to take whatever beating she was giving out. He would never have been able to hit her with his numbing spell."

"Wow, thanks. Paint me as a monster why don't you."

"So, I could abuse the summon. I could decide not to give it food or water, or I could decide to send it into situations where it might get injured, or die, and it wouldn't be able to do anything about that, it wouldn't even be able to comprehend that it was a problem."

Jump-touch stared at the big object inside her Heart as he spoke. She didn't know what it was, but she knew it was very heavy. Too heavy for her to ever lift by hand.

It was wrapped in layers of cloth and covered in labels. The labels were all in different languages, but they were all written in the same script, because languages evolved. That meant that they had all been the same language once, but through a mixture of time and distance, they had become different enough that she couldn't make them out, even with her boon helping.

"Jump?" Shrike's voice was soft, and she blinked him back into focus.

They had been talking, right?

Something in her chest ached, a familiar pain.

"I think we should leave it," Eim gave him a look, and Ollie nodded.

"You never used it?" Yaris asked.

He shook his head, "I first got it at level two, and decided I wouldn't touch it. When I went back at three, I think the Stone was annoyed I hadn't used it. It changed it from 'Summon a loyal familiar to do your bidding' into what it reads now."

He sighed, "I'll guess I'll see what it does to it at level four."

He laid one hand on his bad knee. "I knew there were costs, when I took the class, but I didn't think they would consist of simply having no choice in what skills I got. I thought I would be like the mages of old, with pages and pages of choices, and that I'd have to choose between power and sacrifice."

"You're only level three," Eim shoulder-bumped him, "it might get better."

He bumped back. "I hope so. But what if it just keeps piling on. It already seemed pissed that I hadn't used it so far, what if it gives me something worse?"

I still don't understand why they don't just speak to it. The Stone seemed very reasonable to me?

There was so much she didn't understand, things it was her job to understand.

She could do it, she could break through this, all she had to do was ask more questions, right? And then everything would snap into focus, like the street earlier.

"Couldn't you," she tried, "couldn't you just talk to it, and ask it to take that line out? Or ask it to give you a different skill?"

"The Stone?" Shrike asked. "It's not something you can talk to," he sighed, "or at least it's not for me. I had choices when I first Chose, but ever since then, I have the optional stuff, like [Spark], and I have what I'm given."

"Spark?"

He blinked at her, then shook his head. "Everyone, every human? Can pick up a [Spark] skill from the Stone. It lets you light fires easily, and if you use it enough, and go back later and pour a little experience into it, you can turn it into [Lantern]. It costs a silver from the Chapter House, so not everyone has it, but everyone is offered it. There's a couple other skills too that get offered if you meet the requirements. But [Spark] is special."

Beside him, Eim clicked his fingers, and there between his fingers was a momentary flicker of flame. "I haven't used it much," he admitted, "but it can be life-saving. I was all into that survival stuff when I was a kid, so I saved up my pocket money and went back to get it on my own."

"Rich kid," Ollie whistled.

He shrugged. "I didn't have to pay the Stone Fee, and I was due anyway, so I only had to pull together the silver."

"I guess I was complicated," Jump-touch mused, "because I was new and I couldn't understand Resper, but you should try talking to it next time! I also think it can hear you if you're in the city, or on the black road outside?"

He gave her a long look. "Some scholars theorise that, yes. But that's thinking that's better left to priests and the terminally insane."

Eim was clicking his fingers together, watching the spark.

"We got two silver for the Peck Peck, and a full silver for the apples, because the guy I sold them to was working for the guild. Fifty copper for the slimes, and a hundred copper for the two staircase quests."

He glanced at Jump-touch. "Oh. It's two hundred and fifty copper to a silver, and twenty five silver to a Gold. There's bigger denominations of currency, but they don't matter. A loaf of bread is around five coppers. I'd give you the price of a house, but with the way things are right now, the government isn't so bothered, as long as you register it and keep it maintained."

He rocked backwards, eyes a little distant. "That gives us three silver and a hundred and fifty coppers for our previous excursion."

Ollie whistled, and he grinned at her, blinking. "Still. Taking out what we've spent on bathing, supplies and various other things, plus putting some aside for emergencies, we have around a silver and a half left over. That's what'll be divided at the end of the month."

Nods all around.

"I'll work out what Jump has spent then," he added, "but if we wanted to, at this rate, when we level and hit up the Stone we should be able to pick up [Spark] for any of us who wants it. It'll be cheaper if we book in as a group, but..."

Jump-touch zoned him out. Coins coins coins, human numbers. No wonder the Stone spoke to them in only through maths, if this was how they thought all the time.

The ache in her chest was fading as she touched her fingertips to the smooth copper floor, thinking about the summoning spell.