Light flared into my room, blinding after hours of utter darkness. The moss curtain to my room sprang open, and a figure leaped inside with a shout. That turned into a frightened yelp as I grabbed them from behind and pressed my knife against their throat. I felt them swallow hard, and I could almost smell the sudden fear wafting off them.

“Never try to startle someone trained in fighting, Fifa,” I said with forced calm to the frozen woman. “We don’t react well to it.” I lowered the knife and moved away quickly; fear wasn’t the only thing wafting from her, and it seemed that her sudden scare had increased her pheromone production. My body responded strongly, far more powerfully than normal, and I had to fight to keep from grabbing her. I felt a low growl trying to build in the back of my throat, and I forcibly suppressed it, mastering myself at the last minute. Being pressed up against her had apparently vastly increased the effect of whatever she was doing, and I had to remind myself that not only was it possible that she wasn’t exactly friendly toward me, we were likely being watched.

The woman turned and stared at me, her entire body trembling. Her eyes were wide, and she breathed quickly and hoarsely as she took what seemed to be an unconscious step toward me. “I…what…why?” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as if mastering herself, then stepped back away from me.

She opened her eyes again, and while she seemed in control, I could feel the nervousness and discomfort behind her calm demeanor. “You’re right,” she said at last. “I was simply trying to startle you, but that could have gone badly.” Her eyes suddenly narrowed. “Wait, you were waiting for me, weren’t you? How did you know I was there?”

“I assume that it’s time to go,” I replied, ignoring her question. I wasn’t about to tell her that I’d sensed her little spirit coming to check on me, as it always did when she was about to enter my room. I certainly wasn’t going to tell her that I could see her actual spirit through the walls, and that when I noticed it, I used Genius Loci to confirm that it was her.

I’d spent a chunk of the night playing with that ability. I’d first decided to use it on my run back to the valskab, just to see what information it gave me, which turned out to be a major mistake. Information flooded my brain as every spirit in the vicinity lit up, and their types, ranks, and power levels all hit me at once. Overwhelmed, I missed my step and fell face-first onto the road, only catching myself with my arms at the last instant before I tasted stone. I rolled over onto my back and stared at amazement; the ability pinpointed every spirit within about thirty feet or so, but it also told me about the plants in the area, the small animals and insects hiding nearby, and even the fish swimming in the river beside me. It also told me that a handful of stones beneath the road could be suitable as Henguki crystals—if I wanted to dig them up, that was.

“Whoa,” I breathed in astonishment. “That’s a lot of information, Sara!”

“It is, John,” she agreed. “And it’s all courtesy of that mud spirit. It seems to be able to connect with and understand everything around it, and I can turn that information into an analysis. This is why I’m fairly sure that the mud spirit is a high spirit, by the way. From what Aeld said, I don’t think a land spirit would be able to understand anything that didn’t have to do with its element.”

I’d held off on using the ability again until I was back in the valskab. The next time I activated it, I was surrounded by Menskies, and in addition to seeing all their levels and estimated physical stats, I got a listing of the spirits linked to them and the type, class, and power of those spirits. It was quite frankly majorly overwhelming, enough that I didn’t think I’d be able to use the ability unless I had lots of time to sit and study what I saw—and that would negate the usefulness of the ability, since with that much time, I could just analyze things individually.

So, I spent the night walking to the different parts of the valskab I was allowed to visit, sitting there, and activating the ability over and over, trying to get my brain used to processing the information. By the morning, I had a minor headache, but I could handle the influx of info a lot more easily, at least. It was easy enough that when Fifa’s spirit appeared, a quick flash of Genius Loci was enough for me to spot Fifa in the hallway, moving in what she probably thought was a stealthy way toward the door.

“Yes,” she said after a moment of recovering herself. “At least, it will be soon. The sun will rise within the hour, and we should start out as soon as it’s light enough to travel.”

“Are we going to be going the same way we went to the mud pits?” I asked cautiously.

“No. That method of travel only works within the valskab’s borders. It takes too much energy to do beyond it.” She touched the moss curtain, and it spread open to reveal the hallway beyond. I grabbed my spear and pack and followed her into the corridors of the valskab.

“We’ll travel by wagon,” she continued, leading me through the hallway. “It’s faster than walking and safer.”

“Safer?” I asked.

“Few predators will come near a team of agestera. They’re dangerous when they’re angry, and four of them could fight off an ishvarn pack easily. We’ll also have a pair of warriors traveling with us, for good measure.” She glanced back at me. “Plus, it’ll be easier for Aeld and I to continue your training in the back of a wagon rather than on foot.”

“You and Aeld?” I asked. “You’re helping him?”

She made a face. “The elders think that if you had more training, you might find it easier to show us how to do whatever it is you’re doing, so they instructed me to assist Aeld while we’re traveling—that is, assuming you agree.” She added the last part somewhat hastily, and I suppressed a grin.

“It’s fine with me, as long as Aeld doesn’t mind.”

“Good.” She turned back to look forward. “Let’s get some food and get going. The sooner we leave, the sooner I can return with the knowledge for the elders.”

Agestera, it turned out, were the shaggy, flat-faced creatures I’d seen before. They were tall, at least three feet taller than me, with wide bodies and solid-looking hooves. Four of them stamped and shifted restlessly, draped in leather harnesses that connected to a long, wooden pole jutting from what I assumed was our wagon. I’d seen a few wagons rolling around the valskab, and those were mostly flat conveyances on wooden wheels, open to the sky and fairly simple. Our wagon was a bit more complex. The wheels were larger, and a heavy wooden frame connected them. The wagon bed itself hung from that frame, connected to it by thick leather straps so that it swayed and shifted as the agestera moved. An arched canopy of stretched hide covered half of the bed, while the other half had high walls to each side.

“Hettlug.” I restrained a sigh as Bregg appeared inside the wagon and hopped easily down to the ground below. He looked at Fifa and gave her a slight bow of his head. “Letharvis. We’re ready.”

“Hunter,” she replied. She looked past him at a pair of large, burly Menskies in thick, leather armor studded with bronze plates who stood in the open part of the bed, gazing outward. One of them turned toward her, and the pair stared in silence for a few moments before she turned back to me.

“We’re the last,” she said. “Let’s get going.”

I climbed up into the wagon without issues. The inside of the vehicle was shady and a little cool in the early dawn sunlight. Furs padded a pair of wooden benches that ran the length of the vehicle along the sides, and Aeld sat on one, his staff tied to a pair of leather bindings that hung from the canopy overhead. Bregg sat next to him, while Fifa moved up to the front, into the open part of the wagon. I glanced at Aeld and Bregg and made to follow the woman, but Aeld reached out and put a hand on my arm.

“It would be better if you sat here with us, Freyd,” he said in a quiet voice. “This trip will be a lot easier on all of us if we give Fifa her space.”

“What does that mean?” I demanded suspiciously. “Is she still mad at me about yesterday? Is that why she tried to burst in and surprise me this morning?”

“No, she isn’t angry.” The shaman glanced up toward the woman, who sat alone, her eyes closed and her body tense. “I’ll explain as we travel, Freyd. For the moment, though, please just trust me and sit down.” I glanced back and forth between the pair for a few moments, then settled onto the seat, placing my pack beside me.

“Put your pack beneath the seat, Hettlug,” Bregg told me, gesturing to the backpack. “And put your spear above your head. There are tiedowns there to keep everything from moving, and if you tie them correctly, you can pull them free if you need to in a hurry.” I did as he suggested, finding leather ties fastened to the wood beneath the seat. I tied two to the pack’s straps to keep it from sliding, then attached my spear to a pair of the bindings above my head. I sat back and looked around at the vehicle, which reminded me a bit of the images I’d seen of Conestoga wagons back on Earth. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one examining it.

“This—do you think the Menskallin really built this, outsider?” Kadonsel asked dubiously.

“I don’t know why not,” I replied. “They obviously know how to work wood, leather, and fur. There’s nothing on here that they couldn’t do.”

“But—it’s heavily engineered,” she protested.

“What do you mean?”

“Isn’t it obvious? This thing was designed to deal with the weather up here, and designed well. Whoever built it put a lot of planning and detail into its creation.”

“Why does that surprise you?” I chuckled. “Come on, Kadonsel. You’ve seen enough of these people to know that they aren’t really savage or stupid, just different. Did you think they weren’t intelligent enough to know how wheels work?”

“You don’t understand,” she said with some frustration. “The savages—these Menskallin, they don’t typically use any sort of technology, at least not where my people have seen it. They wear armor of hides and furs; they carry spears as their main weapons; they have no ships on the oceans, and never have.”

“Probably because they don’t need anything more complex,” I pointed out. “Most of your technology probably exists because you need it to channel spirit energy. They don’t. They can tap that power directly, so they don’t need all the devices and such that you do.”

“That’s not what I learned. I was taught—all of my people are taught that the savages don’t create these things because they can’t. Our ability to create is a gift from the Great Spirits.”

“You had to realize that wasn’t true, though. You’ve seen them making things from glass and bronze, and we’ve seen their fishing boats out on the lake.”

“That’s different. Most of what I’ve seen them make has been simple: glass and pottery for storage, stone spears; simple metal objects. This—this is as complex as anything my people have built. The hide roof looks to have been treated with the waterproofing the letharvis mentioned yesterday, and the slats holding it up are thick and sturdy enough to support a decent amount of snow but not so thick as to add extra weight. The front and back both have leather curtains that can probably be closed to block out snow and wind. The leather straps should keep the bed from bouncing too much, but they also let it slide over snow drifts instead of having to plow through them, and the wheels are large enough and wide enough to cut through heavy snow themselves. It—it was engineered, planned, designed, and everything I know says that that’s impossible!”

I couldn’t help but snort. “Kadonsel, I’m pretty sure that a lot of what everyone in both species ‘knows’ is bullshit. They were totally certain that the only reason you could have been on that beach was to find a way to kill them, you know. They ‘knew’ that your people were traitorous and untrustworthy, just like you ‘know’ that they’re savages who send the spirits to sink your ships. I’m pretty sure that a lot of what your peoples hate about each other would go away if you all just talked.”

“Wh-what do you mean?” she asked.

“I mean, they think that your arts are profane, that you trap spirits inside those orbs against their wills, and that it hurts them. You think that it benefits the spirits, and that they want it. But here’s the thing: you could all find out the truth if you just cooperated. Letharvisa can speak to spirits, remember? They could tell you if the spirits are truly willing or are being tricked into entering the orbs, and they could tell you how the spirits feel about it. And you all think that the spirits bound to a letharvis are being tainted and harmed, but if a letharvis just let you use those testing rods of yours on them, you could find out for sure if it was true.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“I—I never thought of that,” she admitted.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I doubt anyone on either side has—or that you really know enough about one another to know what you could be capable of together. The funny thing is, an ojain and letharvis working together could do some pretty amazing things. Think about it: the ojain could call spirits, and the letharvis could speak with them and convince them to enter the spirit orbs. No more giving up your own energy to bind one. And I’ll bet a bunch of ojaini could build large enough spirit crystals to hold all the spirits in a valskab, so the letharvisa could tap the crystals and not have to worry about all the spirits running around. They see them as useful pests, anyway, so they’d probably like having them out from underfoot. And think of the things you could run with a spirit crystal that held as much energy as a whole damn valskab!”

“You—would that even be possible?”

“Who knows? Realistically, it might never happen. You haven’t talked to one another in centuries, at least. But I’m proof that a Menskallin can create and tap a spirit crystal, so it should be possible, at least.” She fell into silence at that point, and I let the conversation drop. It didn’t really matter if I convinced her or not; Kadonsel was dead for all intents and purposes after all. Besides, I doubted my mission here was to unite the two species or end their war. It sounded like the Oikies were trying to create a grand ritual that would serve as a sort of superweapon to wipe out their enemies, and I just needed to keep them from firing it—and probably make sure they couldn’t do it again.

As Kadonsel predicted, the wagon rode relatively smoothly over the rough gravel of the road. We still bounced around a lot—it wasn’t like the thing had struts like a modern car—but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d been expecting. The four agestera pulled us along at a decent pace, probably moving about as fast as I could run. Riding was obviously much easier, though; in fact, the swaying of the wagon bed and the rhythmic clomping of hooves was kind of lulling, and I found myself fighting to stay awake after a couple hours. I hadn’t exactly slept well in the valskab the night before, not that I expected to. The idea that the elders of the place might have set me, Fifa, and Aeld up to die—which is what probably would have happened if I hadn’t been able to meld the high spirit—made drifting off under their care pretty difficult. I trusted Sara to keep watch, obviously, but I slept even more lightly than normal just in case I needed to get up in a hurry. Fortunately, Aeld distracted me after an hour or so.

“We should continue your training, Freyd,” he said, speaking loudly to be heard over the sounds of stomping hooves, creaking leather straps, and wagon wheels banging over ruts in the road.

“It doesn’t seem like a great place for it, Aeld,” I laughed, pointing to my ear. “Shouting at each other is going to get old fast.”

“You’re right that this isn’t the best place for a conversation. Fortunately, you’ve learned many of the basic skills a letharvis needs, and much of what you need to improve simply requires practice.”

“What sort of practice?”

“You recall the patterns I taught you to summon light and wind? Choose one and use it.”

I held out a hand and activated my light spell, carefully restraining the flow of power into it so that it was no brighter than the one he’d shown me. A dim globe of soft radiance hovered above my hand as my will caught a light spirit and fed it energy it used to glow. It wasn’t really hard to do; the spirit was maybe Class G or H, by my reckoning, and it didn’t have the will to resist me. I probably could have done the same thing with Dominate Spirits, although I might not have gotten the exact result I wanted that way. My spells gave me a lot finer control, even though they took my energy to maintain.

“Good,” he said approvingly. “Now, empower the other pattern—without releasing the first.”

That was a little harder, but it only took a bit more concentration to call a minor wind spirit and set it swirling around me.

“Not bad. Now, hold those as long as you can. If it becomes simple, try moving the light about or directing the breeze to blow in whatever patterns you can manage. The goal is to increase the ease with which you can hold patterns and, eventually, the number that you can maintain at once.”

“It’s already pretty simple, Aeld,” I said doubtfully.

“It may seem that way, but the difficulty will increase over time. The spirits you’ve called will get fractious, and you’ll tire. Maintain this for an hour at least before you make any judgments.”

I leaned back and closed my eyes. Holding the two patterns wasn’t really all that difficult, especially since I’d had so much practice holding far more complex patterns in other worlds. Compared to some of my advanced cultivation techniques, twilight spells, and runes, these patterns were extremely simple and took practically no focus to maintain. I moved the light about and set the breeze to swirling, gusting it into Bregg’s face just to be a dick, but that took only a tiny bit more focus than holding the spells did.

“Is this helping anything, Sara?” I asked dubiously. “Is it improving my channeling skills, at least?”

“Not really, John,” she said regretfully. “Like you said, this is too simple. If you want to grow your skills, you have to challenge yourself. You need to move around more energy—or channel a spell that’s more complex than these.”

“Which would alert Aeld and Fifa that I’ve got more powerful spells than they know, so that’s probably out,” I sighed. “And adding more energy to these spells would turn them into their more advanced forms.”

“You could use a spirit that they couldn’t see,” Kadonsel suggested slowly. “Like—like me.”

“You want me to cast a spell using you?” I asked skeptically. “Won’t that hurt you?”

“Not unless you drew too heavily on me, I don’t think, but that’s not what I’m suggesting. I recognize this exercise; I did something similar as a student. I had to move power back and forth through conduits into spirit orbs, using as many conduits as possible. The point isn’t how complex a pattern you can hold; it’s how many channels of power you can maintain at once.”

“So, how would using you help?”

“If you took my energy and channeled it through multiple flows, then recombined it, it should build your skill, and they wouldn’t have any idea what you were doing. It’s just like splitting the energy from one orb to pass down multiple conduits, really.”

“Sara, is that possible?” I asked the AI.

“It is, John. You’ve done the same thing with the energy from your other spirits, moving them around. This would just be a more complex pattern, is all. If we made it difficult enough, it should push the boundaries of your Spirit Channeling skill.”

“And it won’t damage Kadonsel?”

“Not if you don’t draw power from her, I don’t think. As long as the energy flows stay connected, she should remain intact.”

“Okay, let’s give it a try.”

The pattern that Sara gave me at first was a simple one, two flows of energy that curled almost like the loops of a bow back onto themselves. I was a little nervous channeling Kadonsel into that image at first, to be honest. From what Aeld said, weakening a spirit’s power also lessened its intelligence and awareness. The ojain proven very useful to me, after all, and I didn’t want to lose any of her knowledge and experience just to bump a skill up a level or two. Sara didn’t think it would hurt her, though, and the fact was, Sara knew a lot more about all this than I ever would.

“This is—strange,” Kadonsel said once I set the energy flowing. Her voice was oddly layered, as if she were speaking in stereo.

“Does it hurt?” I asked quickly.

“No. It’s just odd. I can feel myself being in two places at once. It’s disorienting, but it doesn’t hurt.”

I held the bow pattern for a while, then added a third loop to make a sort of trefoil. I tacked on a fourth once I’d acclimated to three, creating a cloverleaf shape. That was harder, and I decided that four was my limit, at least for the moment.

“I think you’re right, John,” Sara agreed. “These are stable, but a fifth might not be. Each loop spreads out Kadonsel’s energy more thinly, and that makes it harder to keep intact.”

“What happens if I lose one?” I asked with a touch of concern.

“The whole thing should simply collapse back into her. Kadonsel is aware, after all, and in a way, each of these loops is like one of her limbs. She wouldn’t let it dissipate any more than you’d just randomly cut off an arm or leg.”

The morning passed in silence. Outwardly, I spent the time moving around my light and breeze, but inwardly, I focused hard on keeping Kadonsel’s pattern stable and intact. I felt Aeld watching me, but as far as I knew, he couldn’t tell what I was really doing—and if he could, I was sure I’d know about it almost instantly. There was no way the shaman wouldn’t call me out if he saw me playing with an Oikie spirit.

The wagon stopped after several hours, and I followed the others off the vehicle. The two warriors with us produced some food and began to prepare a meal over a fire that Aeld lit. While they worked, Fifa approached me, almost hesitantly. Her entire body was tense, and she looked uncomfortable as she neared. I felt the same way, since as soon as she got close to me, her odd pheromone aura hit me hard, and I had to force myself to stay focused. Whatever was happening with her, it was getting worse, it seemed.

“Freyd, I’d like to watch you claim another spirit,” she said quietly, standing back from me with her arms folded across her chest protectively. “I’ll call it this time, though, after what happened at Lerlauga. Do you agree?”

I wanted to argue, but there really wasn’t a point. I could tell her that I suspected that someone had set me up to fail at the mud pools, but the fact was, she was one of my suspects. Sharing my suspicions with her wouldn’t have been a good idea. Besides, just in case she was right that I’d made a mistake, it probably was smarter for her to perform the calling.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” I sighed.

“Good.” She looked around at the others. “Not here, though. We should go away from the camp a bit.” She paused. “I—I think Aeld should come, too. Is that okay?”

“It doesn’t bother me,” I shrugged.

“Good.” She glanced at the shaman, who turned to face us, then rose to his feet and started walking our way. “Now, what sort of spirit would you like me to call?”

I frowned thoughtfully. “I could really use another close spirit,” I said slowly. “Maybe a spirit that will help me be faster and stronger, or a spirit of healing, like Aeld has.”

She snorted. “I’m not calling a close spirit, Freyd. I told you that it’s dangerous. I’ll call a land spirit for you, and that’s all. What kind?”

“I would recommend a spirit of sand,” Aeld said as he reached us. “You seem to favor more complex spirits, after all, and there are plenty in the riverbed nearby. You could also call a smoke spirit; the fire will attract some quickly.”

“Either of those would be fine,” I caved, realizing that I probably wasn’t going to get another close spirit anytime soon.

“Actually, John, I might be able to help you with that,” Sara said slowly. “You’ll need to have a couple hours to yourself, but if you can manage it, I think I have a way to summon a close spirit without calling a possessed creature, as well.”

“Getting a couple hours without company might not be easy,” I noted. “I’ll figure out a way if it can get me another close spirit, though.”

“You might want to wait until you’re close to more of the savages,” Kadonsel suggested. “Close spirits are always more prevalent around thinking creatures, after all.”

Although I would have preferred to have claimed a close spirit, adding the land spirit to myself went smoothly. Fifa sent out her call, and I saw the power spilling out from her with See Magic. A shimmer of magic rippled toward the fire, and a moment later, a cream-colored, wispy spirit rose from the flames and surged toward us. I intercepted it before it could reach Fifa, holding it in place with Dominate Spirits, then absorbed its energy for my own. I didn’t get much from the small spirit, but it wasn’t anything to scoff at, either.

Spirit Melding: You have Melded a Smoke Spirit!

Class K Land Spirit

Spiritual Power: 23

Benefits: Prowess +1, Celerity +1, Cleansing Breaths

Ability: Cleansing Breaths

Active Ability

Natural pollutants and irritants are filtered from the air you breathe while active.

Special: This also filters out normal scents, as well as natural airborne toxins.

“Well?” Aeld asked Fifa when I’d finished melding the spirit.

“It’s—interesting,” she said slowly, staring at me. “At first, I thought that he was draining the spirit of energy, but it would start recovering from that, at least a little. It’s as if he’s separating that energy from the spirit completely, then binding it to himself.” She sighed. “I’ll need to see more.”

“Next time, maybe call something a little stronger,” I suggested. “It’ll take longer to meld, and you’ll be able to observe for longer.”

“Meld?” Aeld asked.

“That’s what I’ve been calling it since I’m not really binding or bonding the spirit; I’m taking its energy and making it mine.”

“An apt name, then,” he agreed.

“You can call it whatever you’d like,” Fifa said a bit waspishly. “It doesn’t matter. I still have to learn it, which means we need to do this more—and I have to spend more time with you.” She stopped and took another deep breath, then looked at me without meeting my gaze. “I’m sorry. I’m just—frustrated. You’re right, Freyd; calling something larger might show me more.” She lifted a hand, but Aeld stopped her before she could begin casting.

“You can’t call something powerful without proper preparation, Fifa,” he said sharply. “And not this close to the others, either.”

“Good point,” she said with a grimace, lowering her hand. “I’m not thinking very clearly. Maybe after we set up camp for the evening, we can try.”

“Maybe,” I agreed, then gave Aeld a grin. “If you teach me a pattern for healing—or one I can use with my storm spirit.”

“Healing…” Aeld paused, his face pained. “It’s difficult without a bound healing spirit, Freyd. Summoning close spirits carries the same risks as calling them, and spirits of healing are rarer than most. Even if you have the pattern, it’s very likely that you won’t be able to use it.”

“Not yet,” I agreed. “But I plan to find and meld a healing spirit at some point, and I’d like to be able to use it when I do.”

“I can show you that,” he sighed. “You have to promise to be careful with it, though, and not use it without a bound healing spirit. I can also show you how to channel specific aspects of your spirits, such as the lightning from your storm spirit.”

“Thank you,” I told him, then glanced at Fifa. “What about you? You’re the one who really wants to observe me melding a spirit. What can you do for me in return?”

Her eyes widened, and a shiver seemed to pass through her body, but she quickly mastered herself. “You have a steam spirit. I won’t teach you anything that can hurt others, but I can show you how to use its ice to protect yourself. Will that work?”

“Perfectly,” I smiled.

“Good. Now, why don’t you train until we eat, then we’ll get moving so you can train more. The goal is to be able to hold five simple patterns at once by the time we reach Aldhyor—and I don’t think you’ll be able to do it.” She stared at me boldly. “Prove me wrong.”