Sven elbowed him in the ribs and pointed up to the sky. Following the direction, George saw a group of low flying planes pass them in the opposite direction.
“Meristan and Naxian armies are the only ones that use planes like that. Better hope it doesn’t mean anything or it's us regular folk that will pay for it.” Sven had been treating him like an old friend ever since the attack, a change George would have appreciated if he wasn’t trying to be forgettable.
“Probably just a drill. Merista and Elgin are allies right?”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
George hoped that was all it was, or the chances of his plan succeeding would plummet.
******
Cooper stared out of the window of the tavern. The snow was lighter here than the capital, but it was still present. If his professors were to be believed it was something to do with the way the mountains messed with the clouds. He spared a moment to be jealous of Leander and Rebecca, who had gotten to escape the last gasps of winter with their trip. He and Eric had been able to get rides from various stagecoaches or passing merchants to Ineton Township but their true goal was perched high on the other side of the mountain. Only a small track led from the village to the Indell compound which meant they would need to make it up the mountain on foot.
Eric came back to their corner table with two bowls of stew and a loaf of bread tucked under his arm. Cooper took his portion with a murmured thanks as they both dug in, tired from the days of travel. He had been apprehensive about traveling with Eric at first. The lad was young and barely educated. When he made the mistake of voicing that concern to Adam, he had been taken aside and reminded rather firmly that they were members of the sect just like him, and that once you were a member, the sect didn’t hold people’s pasts against them. Besides, starting to cultivate young meant the boy had great potential. A few pointed remarks about Adam’s own history with life in the Flats had shut up any remaining arguments Cooper might have made. No one enjoyed being called a snob to their face but he managed to shut up and do what he was told in the end.
It was a good thing too, the lad was an excellent traveling companion. Never having left the capital, his curiosity made the string of normal roads and taverns feel like an adventure. The boy also had sharper eyes than Cooper for certain practicalities. He had noted a pickpocket a few villages back and kept Cooper from an embarrassing situation of losing his purse to a low-level criminal after gaining magical powers.
The new initiates stood side by side the next morning, staring up at the path. The snow had stopped falling overnight. But they still had to trudge through what remained as they went up the mountain. According to the men sharing a pint in their tavern the night before, it was about a four hour walk when the trails were clear. Long enough that they would use a cart if they had one, short enough that they could get to the school and back within the same day. With the snow up to Eric’s knees, they were hoping to make it up before sunset.
“You know, Laurel can fly, and Martin said he can move the earth or water under him when he needs to move fast,” Eric said.
“We should have asked for a lesson in that before we left,” Cooper replied as they began the hike.
“I did. Martin laughed at me and said ‘come back in a decade’. Would be nice though.” The boys enjoyed a laugh, their breath misting in the mountain air.
“Apparently the improved running he made us practice is the best movement technique we’ll have for a while. And anything better we’ll either figure out ourselves or need to earn access to it from the library.”
They decided whoever was in the lead and breaking the path would get to pick their conversation topic. The morning flew by, the bonding experience distracting them both from the unpleasantness of trudging through the snow. Cooper reminded himself to thank Annette when they got back for the fur-lined boots they were given before heading out.
“What do you think about your aspecting?” Eric had his head bowed as he leaned forward, looking up occasionally to make sure they were on the trail.
Cooper felt a bit bad making him go first, he had head and shoulders above Eric, but the boy had insisted it was his job as a sect member. It was an interesting topic choice though. Martin had given them an initial lecture on narrowing down why they wanted to be cultivators and using that to determine their next steps. There had been precious little instruction after that. The Eternal Archive was not up to date on their pedagogical methods. Lessons in connecting and using the ambient mana to enforce their own bodies, or move some small object, but nothing about their larger goals. When Cooper pushed for details, Martin told him he would be crippled if he got too much help. This journey itself was supposed to be part sect mission, part self-discovery.
Realizing he hadn’t responded, Cooper tried to put voice to his thoughts. “I’m not sure. It was cool when Adam got the perfect librarian aspect, and I thought maybe that would be good for me too. But I don’t know. I’ve spent so long in school and I was only okay at it. Then you see someone like Laurel who can fight off monsters using giant swords made of lightning. It’s awesome, but I don’t think that’s for me either. I mostly joined because I was curious, and I didn’t have other good options. My family is established enough to get me a good position with with the Scribes or a merchant house, but I wasn’t interested…. Anyway recently I’ve been thinking about space magic. Laurel mentioned that was how her tattoo worked, and that spatial cultivators could teleport or do all sorts of things. It would be pretty fun to learn about. But what Adam did is rare, so I would have to find a space attuned natural treasure which sounds impossible. Or maybe something like earth so I can be super durable while I travel around. I’m rambling. What about you, any ideas?”
“Healer,” Eric grunted out as they started a steeper section of the trail. They stopped talking for a few minutes while they huffed up the slope. Cooper could appreciate the improvements in his body from the cultivation and the physical training, but he wasn’t yet at running-up-mountains-without-breaking-a-sweat levels.
“Healing, huh? You're sure?” Cooper asked once the path leveled out for a while.
“Yeah. Laurel healed James. He had a cut on his arm and it was getting red and warm. We didn’t have any money but she helped anyway. That’s why we joined the sect when we heard about it. And Laurel told me she wasn’t even that good of a healer.”
“Let’s stop here.” They sat on a fallen log that was poking out of the snow while they ate their lunch. The pasties they’d bought from the same inn they slept in the night before were greasy and bland after being spoiled by Esther for months. But after spending the morning hiking through the snow they were one of the best meals he could remember. “You have a pretty noble focus already, did Martin tell you what you would need for that?”
“Fine control and a life attunement. Or I could start with something like plants and evolve it, which is the usual way. He gave me some exercises to do for practice.”
Cooper was a bit surprised that someone so young was already so decided on a course. Eric couldn’t be more than 15 or 16 years old, if that. Cooper had most of a decade on the boy, and had no idea on his path. He went to university because it was expected and he didn’t have any other ideas. The sect was more of a risk but it was still a lot of school and following instructions. Not nearly a good enough idea to base his whole cultivator foundation on. They went back to their hike, this time Cooper taking the lead. Topics ranged from how the girls were doing on their part of the quest to the best meals Esther had produced back home to where they most wanted to visit.
By late afternoon Cooper was getting nervous. They should have made it to their destination already. He had spent several winters being forced along on his father’s big game hunting trips. There was a long list of things the servants brought when they were going to be overnight in the snow, and he and Eric were carrying precious few of them. Cooper looked over to see similar thoughts reflected on Eric’s determined face.
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“I’m sure we’ll get there soon. There haven’t been any forks in the road so we know we’re on the right path.”
They continued on. There wasn’t any other option. The sun met the horizon and the pines that were picturesque and majestic earlier had become wardens as they continued trudging along the path that was feeling more like a prison sentence. Shadows lengthened, sapping the heat from their bodies as their lungs burned with the exertion.
“Cooper.” Eric’s voice was a whisper. “I swear I’ve seen that tree before.” The lad pointed to one of their sentinel pines, odd growths marking it as separate from the monotony of the rest of the forest.
“That’s impossible. We haven’t left the path.”
“I know it’s impossible. But I still remember it from an hour ago.”
Cooper slowed to a stop and Eric came up level with him. He turned a slow circle. There were the footprints from the path he’d just trudged. And there, next to them, another set of footprints, ever so slightly covered by the flakes of snow that had begun to fall after the sun went down.
“Eric…” he said. “We can’t stop. We don’t have the equipment to camp.”
Both boys looked around, at a loss. They were going in circles but that was better than standing around and waiting to freeze.
“Wait,” Eric said. “Cycle mana to your eyes. Martin said you can make parts of your body work better, that’s what we do when we use it to run. We try making ourselves see the path better and then keep going.”
Cooper gaped at the boy. “You’re full of surprises aren’t you? It’s worth a shot.” He didn’t have any better plans they could try.
They began. Cooper thought through the lessons Martin had taught them for the movement technique and applied them again. This time instead of sending extra mana into his legs, he pushed it up towards his skull. The change made him stumble and fall in the snow. He could see everything, individual snowflakes, each pine needle or whorl in the bark of a tree. It was too much. Already a piercing headache was beginning to form. The technique fell apart. Cooper found himself on the ground, gulping lungfuls of air, Eric next to him in the same state.
“Intense,” he managed to get out.
Eric grunted his agreement.
“Less mana than the legs I think.”
Trying a second time was so much worse. Now he had the ability to anticipate the pain and had to do it anyway. This time he focused on the smallest trickle of mana he could manage. The results were the same. It was too much detail. His mind couldn’t handle that many inputs at once and he had to drop it before he passed out. Turning, Cooper saw Eric was in a better state.
“It’s too much for me. I think it’s that fine control you were talking about earlier. I don’t have it. Not yet,” Cooper said. Eric didn’t respond, still surveying the woods. “Eric?”
The boy startled at hearing his name called but he responded. “There’s something weird in the mana. I don’t quite understand but the trail is sort of outlined in gold. It’s pretty.”
Cooper cursed his past self for ever thinking badly of Eric when he was the one ending up as a burden on this trip. “Can you follow it?”
“I think so. Grab onto my jacket so we stay together.”
Cooper did as directed and they started forward, the smaller boy leading. There were no fun conversation topics this time, no banter to break the silence. He followed along, the moonlight filtering through the treetops lending enough light to see that they were about to walk directly into a tree.
“Eric.” No response.
“Eric!”
“Trust me.”
Feeling like an absolute idiot, Cooper did. He shut his eyes and walked forward. Instead of an embarrassing run-in with a stationary object, they kept moving. Cooper didn’t dare open his eyes. After the most stressful hour of his life, Eric announced that they had arrived.
A wrought-iron gate blocked the way and they could see a few modest stone and wood buildings beyond. The Indell Coven was humbler than he expected from the stories. Rumors were that young women came here when they wanted to become witches, that even Theresa Skycrest had studied for a few years to learn her craft. As one of the only other openly magic institutions in the country, it was imperative they made a good impression. Difficult when they showed up scraggly and snow-covered in the middle of the night.
“Ready?” He checked in with Eric who was looking around with his face scrunched up.
“Ready.” The boy looked exhausted. They would be in trouble if the witches weren’t kind enough to offer shelter.
Cooper shouted out, “Hello, is anyone there?”
A few moments later, a woman with jet-black hair holding a blanket around her shoulders poked her head out of the door.
“The gate’s open. Come on in before all the heat gets out.”
Chagrinned, they both hurried over to the building the woman called from. It was the largest in the clearing, made of stone with cheerily painted blue shutters. They stamped their boots off on the porch, and left their winter gear and packs in the entryway. The woman led them to a large living room, with another half dozen women all sitting around a merrily crackling fire. A few had knitting while the rest had books or other projects scattered around.
“Come warm up lads, and tell us what brings you up to our little school so late at night.”
Mugs of mulled wine were pressed into their hands as they joined the group around the fire. Cooper had suppressed the nerves admirably up to this point but they were back in full force. He cleared his throat and launched into his prepared statement.
“My name is Cooper Sarsenne, and this is Eric Parchet. We represent the Eternal Archive which has recently been established in the capital. Have you perhaps heard of our organization?” He looked around the room and got nods or murmured affirmations.
“We’re a ways out up here, but we still hear about a monster bigger than most buildings showing up to attack a city.”
“Right, well, through the events of the last year, we have not been entirely pleased with how other organizations and the government have dealt with our sect. With the growing presence of magic in the world, we are looking to form a guild of magic organizations and independent magic users, as a way to regulate and get appropriate compensation for our work.”
“Big plan there lad. And I suppose you are looking for us to join you?”
“Ideally yes, we have here letters from our sect officers explaining the proposed terms in more detail.” Cooper nudged Eric who pulled out the slightly crumpled papers and passed them over to the woman who seemed to be in charge. She skimmed them before passing the packet off to the woman on her right, who proceeded to do the same.
“You two are very young and may not be aware of the dangers magic users face in the world. Why should we join such a group, what do we get from this?”
“More protection from those dangers, for one thing. Knowledge and the ability to negotiate fair rates for your work. Not to mention, the government will be reaching out soon to ask you to help manage the magic around cities and large towns. With a guild in place we can both help with that process and make sure you are treated fairly.”
The women were making eye contact in the way that told Cooper they could have an entire silent conversation around them. Before any of them could say anything, or ask more questions, Eric exploded.
“Laurel and everyone help people. She healed my little brother and defended the city. Martin has been teaching us how to cultivate and protect ourselves. We get food and a place to stay and you should be helping them!”
Cooper was stunned. This was the same boy that had trudged an entire day through snow and weird magic in complete equanimity. Before he could cobble together an apology for the outburst, the head witch stepped in.
“Everyone’s tired. And I’m sure you found the path up the mountain difficult. How about you boys eat something and stay the night. We’ll talk more in the morning.”
There was not much they could say to that besides grateful acceptance. They scarfed down a pleasant stew and were led to rooms by the leaders of the Coven, Sabrina and Valerie. Eric and Cooper had been told it was generally impolite to inquire after another sect’s techniques, but Cooper’s curiosity got the best of him as they walked through the halls.
“Madame Sabrina, may I ask how you go about opening meridians? The leaders of my sect were surprised that such a thing was possible to control without knowledge of the theory. And with how painful the process was,”
“And what makes you think we don’t have knowledge of the theory, lad?”
Cooper’s face drained of color as he tried to apologize. “No, I’m sorry, I just meant–”
“Leave off the boy Sabrina. Now, we don’t call the pathways “meridians” but I think I know what you’re asking. The real answer is we’ve passed down some secrets over the years. What worked for some folks by chance we try and recreate. If your sect leaders are as knowledgeable as you say, they probably have a much higher success rate than we do here.”
After his flub Cooper kept quiet as they reached the room. There were two bunks, comfortable pallets with warm blankets piled on top. With a bare pass at washing, both of them fell into bed and knew no more.
The boys stumbled down to breakfast from the guest room they were sharing to find most of the coven already present. They gathered their bowls of oatmeal and sat amid the witches. He and Eric did their best to answer questions about news from the capital, life in the sect, and the last months learning to cultivate while they ate.
Sabrina was again at the head of the table and was the first to bring up their reason for being there. “We’ve come to a decision. You boys may know Theresa Skycrest was a member of the Coven a couple of decades ago. She reached out recently to ask us to help manage City Cores in larger towns. She also told us about your sect leader teaching her new techniques. A few of our members were already planning on journeying to the capital soon. Either Valerie or I will be leading the group, when we get to the city we will discuss more details about joining this guild.”
“Thank you for your consideration, Madam Sabrina.”
“Are you boys heading directly back to the city? We were planning on leaving by the end of the week, so we can travel in a group.”
“Actually we are taking the long way back, looking for more individual cultivators that might be interested.” Cooper answered her.
“Ah, then perhaps we will see you there.”
“Now then, eat up boys,” Sabrina said. “If you head out soon you’ll make it back to the village before nightfall. The mountain is kinder to people leaving than it is to people coming up. You won’t have any troubles with illusions on the way down.”