Later in the year, after that hunting trip with Cedar. He remembered the suggestion Ellery gave about going to Allsmeet. Jace asked Evaliena about the place while kneading some bread dough.
“You really want to go there?” Evaliena sounded more curious than surprised at the inquiry. “That’s… no small distance and not a simple place to get to,” Jace prompted the yellow vixen to give further answers. “Allsmeet is on the other side of the continent, even with the most powerful version of far stepping I know. I couldn’t make it there in a single bound. I’d need to stop multiple times.” She paused for a moment, then admitted. “And I’ve rarely been to Allsmeet. On top of that… I’m not the most welcome of individuals there.”
Considering Evaliena’s long lifespan for a Therian. Jace thought she had several enemies more, outside of the ones he was told about. “I’m not hearing a no, though.”
“I’m considering it… It’s one of the few permanent settlements we have and regardless of how we get there, we’ll be forced to camp a few times there and back from the distance alone.” She rubbed her chin, considering the idea.
“Can’t you do the journey in a single jump?” Jace tilted his head to her.
“I am powerful. My reserves are finite, certainly deeper than yours and everyone else here combined, however.” She looked at Jace. “If I was not taking you along, I could get to the Indigo Old Growth in as little as a day. I’d still need a few days to recover, anyway.” Jace guessed it would be the case that Evaliena had a teleportation spell for moving just one person in the most efficient way possible.
Jace shrugged and went back to kneading. “If it’s too much of a hassle to get there, then I can just forget about it.” He figured he would eventually go there in his own time and see the place for himself.
“No, I think going to Allsmeet would be a great experience. You’ll get to see the other sides of my people. Since I have nothing happening over the next few weeks, and I honestly wonder if anyone there remembers me.” A smile creeped across her muzzle. “We’ll bring Baysil along too. She’s going a bit stir crazy as well…”
The next few days became a buzz of activity as Evaliena got everything in order for a ‘brief’ trip halfway across the world. If Evaliena’s collection of maps said anything about the distance.
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Teleportation, or far stepping, as it’s called by everyone else at the keep. Had several limitations, some of them rather restrictive. The mana requirements for each different spell, whether area, groups or singular transportation, had significant differences in range and efficiency. The more people that needed to be moved, the worse it got. On top of that, there was a difference between spells that go beacon to beacon and spells that go place to place. The latter required you to have a good mental image of the place or be able to see it directly.
The ease with which Evaliena split those secrets to Jace and Baysil during one of their camps was a surprise to both of them. When asked about it, Evaliena shrugged it off. “It’s not like either of you will make use of that information easily.” She smirked. “Besides, neither have you developed enough to make whimsical uses of farstep.”
The trip took four days, jumping from beacon to beacon across the continent. Some beacons appeared horribly overgrown, while others were well maintained despite their distance from civilization. They even ran into a few therian travellers at one beacon, but they didn’t stay around for long after exchanging news and greetings with Evaliena.
The last step in the journey was a wonder. This place differed from the dark foreboding hollows and verdant, humid forests Jace had visited before. Covered in blue grass, blue green foliage and wide trees that stretch into the sky. Producing a canopy that filtered out the light, leaving the wonderful, enchanting glow of the plants. Though the canopy broke in places, lighting up the humid air and creating an angled beam of yellow light to the forest floor. There was a well trodden, stone cobbled path leading away from the beacon further into the old growth. The air felt stifling and claustrophobic.
A gruff call Interrupted Jace’s sightseeing. The beacon had guards. Their scents, along with the forest, had finally crawled up his nose. He looked around and saw three of what appeared to be leather armoured Therians, each holding a spear with a glassy black head. One Reynard and two of the wolf-like Vargr, all male, the latter two were much larger and significantly more muscled. But to Jace’s eyes, on the inside, they had no more mana than he or Baysil did. He and the two vixens were wearing their travel cloaks in contrast.
The therian guards immediately began interrogating Evaliena. Her tail seemed to flick irritably with a flat expression on her face. “What reason would an archmage and her… apprentices be using this beacon over the one in Allsmeets?” One of the larger guards implying there was another beacon much closer to their destination and Evaliena decided not to use it.
The yellow vixen put her hand on her hip and sighed. “I would blind everyone the moment I landed.” Gesturing towards the guards. Jace personally felt there were a few other reasons why Evaliena chose to pick a beacon a little further away than necessary. The guards continued their questioning for a short while until they satisfied their suspicions with his mentor’s replies. All they really wanted to know was why they were here and picked this beacon. Jace noticed several dozen more auras further away from the beacon. They were expecting something malicious to jump to this beacon…
Jace didn’t get an answer to that as it wasn’t much longer until the three were trekking down the path through the tall and blue glowing woods. The journey would take at least half a day more to reach Allsmeet, so Jace got to appreciate the surroundings. The place positively brimmed with mana, significantly more than the woods near his home. Was it the trees or the soil causing it? So many questions. This was also Baysil’s first time visiting the old growth and Allsmeet. She was twirling in her steps as she looked around the impossibly tall trees. “I never thought I would come here…” Baysil murmured to herself.
Evaliena, who was leading along the path, spoke. “Why don’t you tell Ashwood about this enchanting place?” She didn’t bother to look back.
Jace looked to Baysil. She twirled her fingers in her mane. “Oh, I… putting me on the spot now…” Baysil stuttered for a bit. The chestnut vixen composed herself and addressed Jace. “The Indigo Old Growth is considered our people’s ancestral home.” This piqued Jace’s interest. He needed to, however, keep his eyes on the path lest he trip and smash his face against the stones. He could tell Baysil was giving him a side eye. “You have read the fable book Sandal gave you, right?” Jace nodded and shrugged at Baysil. The last time he read through that book was years ago. Baysil let out a sigh. “This is the forest from which Aspen set out from. Along with his mate and several others.”
Baysil talked a while, and Jace passively absorbed the tale as he continued to drink in the surroundings. That old stuffy forest smell with a heavy dew undertone. Aspen of the Reynards was considered something of a patriarchal figure who left the Old Growth after a fight over food shortages. Took his clan outside of the forest for the first time in search of more bountiful lands. A tale so old, it was before therians even realised their own magic. The Vargr and the Lynx have their own similar stories. Cynthia of the Vargr and Rowan of the Lynx, all had dissimilar reasons for taking their families out of the forest for greener pastures, along with a theme of taming various animals for transport and food.
Evaliena often would curse in her ancestors’ names. But these three fabled characters aren’t them. After Baysil stopped talking, the three only chatted every so often. Jace felt he really needed to interact with more people that weren’t from the hermitage. But he guessed that what he got for being stuck with an ancient mage who desperately craved connection and privacy in equal measure.
After camping once more and watching other small groups of therians travel up the stony path. The three eventually smelt an active town, then the sounds, seeing the farmsteads of its outer ring. Groves of warm-coloured fruit trees, messy thickets of berries and gardens of vegetables, wild corn and rice. Sustained by the warming glow of hovering yellow crystal constructs above. Jace guessed that should be expected, with Allsmeet being located in the middle of a forest.
Jace had to tune how magical sight down as the surrounding mana grew denser and denser. Then he saw the roots. The bellowing, bulging roots anchoring an enormous tree from which mana flowed, that stretched so far past the canopy of the forest that he couldn’t see the top of it. As they closed, the forest parted, leaving only the massive tree branches to shadow a towering wall of stone brick?
Evaliena noticed Jace’s confusion. “Surprised little one?” she sneered as she looked over her shoulder to Jace with a sapphire eye. “Yes, most of our people are now roving clans tending pack animals and flocks of cattle.” She looked to the wall. “But we weren’t always so scattered.”
“That’s the old empire’s fault, wasn’t it?” Jace spoke, remembering some of the first bits of history Evaliena taught him.
“Let’s not dwell on that and just head into Allsmeet.” Evaliena urged. Jace sensed she wished to get inside behind those walls before they wasted any more time gawking and commenting at the scenery. “The forest is not safe at night.”
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Evaliena had explained along how there are spirits akin to Topaz that stalk the Old growth at night. They avoid her because she’s a walking disaster while someone like Jace, who’d be almost entirely foreign, is a meal they would refuse to pass up. Jace wished he’d been told that before they entered the forest…
Eventually, they worked their way to one of possibly many entrance cut outs in the incredibly tall wall. Jace had barely glimpsed the buildings behind the wall scattered over the numerous tree roots and trunk when they approached. The walls themselves seem to have intricate runes inscribed across them. He sensed force and solidity, like a barrier projected just a few inches in front of the walls. Vast and deep.
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Somehow, just like many Hume settlements and towns, there was an entry tax for mages. One of the many things Evaliena hammered into Jace’s head was that Therian settlements tend to be either well concealed or in hard to reach places. They also do not allow Kith, mage or not, to enter, if they somehow survive the patrols.
“Three mages? A master and two apprentices, I assume, from the looks at your gates?” The guard sergeant presumed. They focused on Evaliena. “Could you please unveil?”
Evaliena crossed her arms and refused. “For the safety of everyone else, I won’t.”
“That bright is it?” The sergeant raised a brow. “Either way, you and your apprentices need to contribute a third of your mana to the walls.” He gingerly pointed over to the two circle-like ghostly blue scripts on the inside of the gate… house?. “Then you can go through.”
Baysil went first and placed her black furred hands to the script and pulsed her mana out. Her gate visibly dimmed in Jace’s sight. Baysil growled quietly as she pulled away. “Ashwood, I suggest you be careful. That script has quite the pull.”
Jace walked to the wall next and paused. Evaliena spoke. “Odd. The last time I was here, the walls didn’t need this kind of maintenance.”
“Oi, pup no stalling.” A different guard lightly pushed against him. Jace’s hands planted against the wall and the runes began pulling at his mana hungrily. The flow was too much, and he immediately tore his hands away from the wall, a feeling of tiredness spreading across his body. He looked up at the Vargr guard who pushed him with a glare. The guard shrugged and urged him towards where Baysil stood.
“I do not know the details about the walls, Master Mage. just doing my job.” The sergeant replied as Evaliena walked up to the scripts. Jace felt the telltale signs of Evaliena scrying the surroundings, that spiritual pressure on his hide. Then she dabbed her hand against one script circle and nearly blinded Jace along every other therian that was watching the walls. The scripts became a solid blue, as if made new. “Ancestors!” Several therians cursed and others groaned as if they suddenly became ill. Jace held some sympathy. Witnessing Evaliena’s monstrous reserves had also given him mana sickness a few times.
“And this is why I don’t unveil myself.” Evaliena muttered as she gestured to Jace and Baysil to follow her. The guards were in shock at the display of raw mana and no one realised the three had disappeared into the crowds behind the walls. “That should fix the wards for a while,” Evaliena snickered to herself.
“Is that a while as in a few weeks? Or a while, as in a few decades?” Jace commented. Evaliena looked at Jace and just grinned widely, not bothering to answer.
“I don’t know about you two, but I would really like to rest for a bit,” Baysil whined.
Evaliena looked over at Baysil. “We’ll be here for a few days, so you’ll have all the rest you can need.” She said smoothly. “And maybe sample the local food and clothes. So follow along.”
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In his trips with Evaliena to various Hume towns and cities. There was one thing he could not get over. Sure he could adjust his senses slightly to ignore the smells. But every ‘civilised’ place he went to there was the undeniable stench of waste. How did people not choke on the air? And Allsmeet was no different, apart from the regularly interspersed incense burners to help drown out the forests and its people’s odours. He swore he saw therians here and there casting cleaning spells to touch up their stalls and areas around them. But the smell of crap and incense was suffocating. Maybe it just didn’t bother anyone, and it was just him.
That, however, was just one pet peeve in an ocean of wonder for Jace. Unlike the white plastered brick walls that defined most hume settlements. Jace saw flat stone bases on stilts of stone with carefully molded, swirling pillars of wood that supported clay walls. Others were just built on wooden log pillars. The rooms were usually open from one or two sides when they weren’t on the ground floor, protected by reed blinds and beaded curtains. Which was possibly a reflection of the more open nature of Therians. The locals had meticulously painted the walls with a spread of colour, expressive patterns and, surprisingly, fire glazed to be smooth. Such a thing would have to be fired in place.
And that wasn’t the only decoration. Drapes featuring crests and depictions silently hanging from roofed sign posts. Floating crystal lamps, dream catchers woven from unfamiliar threads and wooden chimes that gently sung in the gusts that breezed through the buildings. There was very little metal work adorning any of the architecture. Jace half wondered if the building would collapse if the magic suddenly left, then realised upon closer inspection there was no magic in any of the construction at all.
With all of this being built around the roots of an incredibly massive tree, with yet further constructions dotting the exterior of the gnarled trunk and going up into its canopy.
And an inn was an inn regardless of where and what culture it was located in. They entered the front of a fenced in complex. There were inns closer to the gate that seemed to serve draft animals, but this place looked more pedestrian. It had a half moon-full moon donut shape, with the ground floor being the half moon and the top floor being the full moon.
A Reynard girl welcomed the group in. Jace wondered if it was one of the family members that ran the Inn. The proprietress was a Reynard matron. Jace had gathered as they went through the crowds was that Allsmeet is a major trading city, The therians there, the Reynards, Vargr and Lynx’s of the old growth, wore much more reserved clothing, tunics of various styles usually reaching down past the knees and dyed with simple bright colours with contrasting sashes. And the women staffing this inn were no different.
Jace stood with mild nervousness, along with Baysil, as they waited for Evaliena to sort their accommodations.
“Hume Strips?” The Matron asked as she looked over the small pile Evaliena had offered as payment. “These wouldn’t be much of value outside of the metal used to create them here in Allsmeet. Mastermage.” Evaliena sighed and took her strips of currency back. She then produced a purse that seemed to clink with glass. It glowed with many faint stars of mana. The matron’s eyes twinkled slightly and her loops curled into a faint smile.
“I forgot. It’s been a long time since I’ve been here.” Evaliena relayed as she started picking from the purse. “These mana stones should cover the costs of a few nights?” She extracted a handful of the dull-looking gemstones.
“I’ll book you in.” The Reynard Matron said cheerily. “Come, bring your apprentices. Your room will be on the next floor.” Room, not rooms. Jace thought it would be selfish of himself to request one room for his own privacy. So he kept his quiet, as he didn’t understand the customs here. He could just chalk it up with Evaliena, forgetting he was not really a Therian. So up the wooden stairs through the centre, there were no doors to lock, just thick curtains covering the entries. With faint spell crafted wards on the frames. The proprietress shifted one curtain out of the way, urging the three inside. “Make yourselves at home here. This room has a view of Allsmeet. Remember to take one of the wooden slips from the wall next to the door when you go out. Dinner is about to be served soon if you wish to join us and the other guests downstairs. But we can bring food up if you are… less sociable.”
Evaliena answered. “We’ll be joining once we settle in.” The Matron left and Evaliena looked at Jace and Baysil. “I’m going to make something clear to you two. You’re free to roam around Allsmeets yourselves. Just together, I have a few things I need to check in on myself. And don’t worry about money here.” She pulled out the purse of mana stones from earlier. “There are no trade sticks, no metal currency. You pay with these infused stones.”
“Is there anything else we should worry about? And also, how do we get to the markets?” Jace asked as he looked around the fairly modest looking room. He noticed there was a single large futon-like mattress on the floor, along with an earthenware pot, a table with jugs of water and what looked like a collection of fire-aspected crystals set in a mock fire pit.
Evaliena leant against the reed padded wall near the door, crossing her arms. “You may encounter the odd Mer, specifically Dwarves and Elves, usually those coming to trade, not exactly to sightsee.” She dipped her head. “But that’s knowledge from a very long time ago.”
Jace tilted his head, curious at the prospect of meeting real dwarves and elves. He wondered what the settlement would have to trade and what the others would bring to trade with. But he doubted Evaliena would want to speculate on that now. And Baysil wouldn’t have much of an idea. “As for finding the markets.” Evaliena tapped her muzzle. “Follow your nose and ears.”
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As expected by Jace, dinner at this inn was a social affair, like having food around the hearth back at the keep, but with wicker cushions for seats and old wooden tables stained and worn smooth from years of use. Those were set around the open side of a large fire pit where various ceramic pots bubbled and steam with slowly rotating skewers of meat that hung near the fire. The wood that burned in there was fragrant to the point of being nauseating in a pleasant way, complimenting the array of so many other scents.
The proprietress didn’t make much of a show of the process, often mingling and chatting with the guests. Her family prepared the food and served it as a simple yet appetising buffet. There were beans and wild rice. Flatbreads and broths. Seasoned meat that was served in uncooked strips and cooked chunks. Pickled vegetables and fruit chutneys. Along with a very light smell of beer.
And an interesting facet for Jace. Chopsticks were the utensil of choice. Along with a spiked stick and spoon. All made from a smooth white wood like material. When was the last time Jace had even seen chopsticks? While neither showed it, seeing Jace’s familiarity with the utensil surprised Evaliena and Baysil. though he had some difficulty manipulating the chopsticks with retractable claws on the ends of his fingers. He felt some pride with the two gave and just used a spoon and their hands.
Baysil and Evaliena chatted with the other guests. Jace sat between the two as he enjoyed his meal, a small selection of pickled vegetables, and cooked meat. Something about the funk and crunchiness of the vegetable was appealing to Jace. Some were there to trade their clan’s wares, others seeing relatives and a good deal of just passing through to places unknown. After everyone had their fill, and a little refreshment with some beer. Most guests turned in for the night while others went out into Allsmeet.
When getting back to their room, Jace chose to glamour himself to take up less space on the mattress. Even though there was plenty of space for an entire family. Evaliena tsked “Are you really going to do that?”
Jace simply replied with a “Meh.” He started rolling up his travel cloak, which did not shift with him like his kilt and shawl did. He used the roll as a pillow. Evaliena shook her head, rolling onto the mattress and pulling Jace into her embrace. “Need I tell you to remember who you are now, and where we are?” She whispered. Baysil joined shortly after. It wouldn’t be before sleep took his mind.