The Way Ahead 4 E-Book

Kaleb

• Herausgeber: Podium Publishing
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: The Way Ahead
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 538

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

As he navigates a strange new world, Edwin weighs forming alliances and deciding who to trust, in the fourth book of this smart, entertaining fantasy series.   Ever since Edwin Maxlin literally fell out of the sky and landed in Joriah, life has been a little bit complicated. For one thing, he's adapting to a new world that's nothing like Earth. For another, he's learning magic, leveling up skills, and adjusting his scientific knowledge to a whole new set of natural rules. Plus, he's an outsider maneuvering the dangerous politics of an empire he knows zilch about. No wonder he hasn't had much time to rest.   Having devoted himself to training and studying (when he's not building incredible new inventions!), Edwin's finally starting to get somewhat of a handle on all his new abilities—with the help of fellow adventurer Lefi and water naiad Inion. But as his quest for improvement brings him closer to the mysterious and mystically powerful Rillah, he's faced with a new set of obstacles. Because in a world where his very existence could make him a target, Edwin must be very careful about who he lets get close . . .   Effortlessly combining elements of high fantasy, character-driven storytelling, and the scientific method, The Way Ahead 4 is the fun, funny, and fantastically addictive next chapter of a remarkable quest.   The fourth volume of the hit LitRPG adventure series—with more than 3.5 million views on Royal Road—now available on Audible and wherever ebooks are sold!

Leseprobe

THE

WAY

AHEAD

— Book 4 —

Kaleb England

aka NorskDaedalus

To my beta readers

Roland Hansson, Aelia Aeldyne, Pel-Mel, Magma,

Pastafarian, Heavenly Daoist, and w1k3d

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission from Podium Publishing.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2023 by Kaleb England

Cover design by Podium Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-0394-2505-7

Published in 2023 by Podium Publishing, ULC

www.podiumaudio.com

Contents

Chapter 1 Tablet Monitor

Chapter 2 Looking Up

Chapter 3 Fight or Flight

Chapter 4 Sights to See

Chapter 5 Booming Business

Chapter 6 Mind-blowing Revelations

Chapter 7 Fire, Water, Sky

Chapter 8 Evolving Awareness

Chapter 9 Derailed

Chapter 10 Unafrayed

Chapter 11 Snowledge Is Power

Chapter 12 Heating Up

Chapter 13 Out of the Way

Chapter 14 A Day Off the Town

Chapter 15 Rillah’ Interestin’

Chapter 16 Alloying Insight

Chapter 17 A Mana on a Mission

Chapter 18 Conversensational

Chapter 19 A Rapid Giveaway

Preview: The Way Ahead 5

About the Author

CHAPTER 1

Tablet Monitor

As they drew closer to the city, Edwin began to notice more and more side roads connecting to their main path. Then again, it wasn’t all that surprising on further reflection. There was no way the single, unswerving main road managed to connect every minor settlement in the area, and the supplementary paths weren’t quite as straight as the cobbled street he and his companions were on, instead curving to gradually join in with their current direction of travel.

It seemed likely that they were built in such a way that it would be relatively easy to get from Sheraith to wherever the roads led or vice versa, but they were very much optimized for travel to or from the nearest large city.

Rather clever, all told.

Of course, the increased road quantity also increased the amount of traffic Edwin and his group encountered. Sure, there were still the daily couriers running back and forth and travelers making long-distance treks, but now they were joined by local farmers hauling in their harvests to the city, small groups of individuals on their way to and from laden with more manufactured goods … there was apparently a market of some form going on.

The density of nearby buildings increased as well. Here, Edwin saw way more wooden structures than stone ones, and that led to significantly different architecture than he’d grown used to. Back in Vinstead, the city he’d visited most often since landing on Joriah, nearly every building was built out of stone, with wood only being used for internals and a bit of structure. In Sheraith, by contrast, stone made up nearly all of every building.

“Oh yeah, what was up with the lack of wood in Vinstead?” Edwin asked Lefi. “There was a massive forest right there; why did everyone choose to use stone as their building material? Was there a fire at some point or something?”

“What do you know of the Verdant, and of Rhothos in general?” the Adventurer replied, voice as boisterous as always.

Edwin shrugged. “Not a whole lot. I know that Vinstead is ancient, though, like predating-the-Empire old. And the Verdant is this big magical forest with lots of crazy stuff when you go farther in, lots of great magical plants, slumbering ancient fey …” He cast a glance back toward Inion. The ancient fey, for her part, pretended to not really notice as she floated along, unsuccessfully trying to get Yathal to open up.

“I see!” Lefi’s eyes brightened, oblivious to Edwin’s additional musings. “Well, the Verdant is the nigh-literal heart of the southern half of the continent. It overflows with life and magic, only kept from encroaching upon and swallowing much of the continent in impenetrable woodlands by a mighty magical boundary. It took centuries to drive back the trees as far as they are now, and none wish to invite them back!”

Edwin frowned. “So … what, there’s a superstition that if people use wood in construction, it’ll weaken the boundaries of the Verdant’s containment? Not to insult anyone, but that seems … kind of stupid. Stone has to be way harder to get and work with than wood.”

Lefi shook his head. “It is no mere superstition, my friend. It has happened thrice over in history that whereupon too much wood was used in Vinstead, the Verdant leaked and caused a multitude of wild creatures to be birthed within the city.”

“Wait, what? Like … it just summoned bears or whatever?”

“The houses sprouted limbs and began to grow a canopy, birds claimed their roosts in those branches, and beasts and monsters began their hunt in the streets. Thus, wooden buildings are strictly prohibited,” Lefi explained.

“You think they’d have learned after the second time,” Edwin remarked.

“Ah, but why would they pay heed to such a baseless superstition?” The Adventurer winked back at him, forcing Edwin to nod in concession.

“How do you know all this stuff, anyway?” Edwin had to ask. “I thought you ran away from home when you were Yathal’s age or whatever. How’d you learn so much history?”

“Ah, you are mistaken in a pair of ways, you see? While I was still an Exceptional youth, my parents saw within me the greatness I was destined for and always encouraged me to fully realize myself—once it was clear that I was already free of the Management and wouldn’t be able to rejoin regardless of what efforts they might endeavor to undertake.

“Alas, one day bandits set upon my village and burned it to the ground. I escaped the destruction on account of my exceptionalism yet swore my revenge upon the perpetrators. To this day, I continue to stalk the land in search of their leader in the hopes of getting my revenge.”

“Wait, really? I’m so sorry, I had no …” Edwin immediately felt bad, though a part of him still whispered, protagonist syndrome.

“Ha! No, I merely proved far too Exceptional for my peers and thus the village head deemed that I was too much of a disturbance. He drove me out and my true calling as an Adventurer began!”

“Are you messing with me again?”

“Not in this case, no. That is … near enough to my history as to be sufficiently enlightening, however! Though in truth I was as eager to leave as they were to get rid of me—I was off on a treasure hunt, you see.”

“Treasure hunt?”

“There was a great bounty to be found and I sought to claim it. Powerful magical beasts may maraud the country at times, and if you can kill them before the Enforcer is called out, their hides and meat can fetch truly wondrous prices!”

“That’s … interesting, and it’s strange that they would allow that sort of behavior to happen. Doesn’t that kill lots of people?”

Lefi said, “I do not know that they care. Such activities are seen as exceptionally reckless and, that said, deaths would be inevitable so it matters not whether they die by a manticore’s venom or an oversized hole in the ground.”

“Is that in reference to something specific?”

“Manticore venom? Truly nasty stuff, it is! Completely incurable and it’s more potent the more Skills you have—particularly those meant to resist its effects. Never fought one and I hope I never have to; one scratch and you’re as good as dead.”

“No, I meant the … oh, never mind. How do you know all this stuff anyway? Like some of it I’d understand, you just picked up a random bit of trivia here and there in your years of travel, but the thing about Vinstead? How’d you learn that?”

“Historical Recall! Such a marvelous evolution of the simple recall Skill, as it allows me to recall things I had never learned, akin to Common Knowledge. The two function together marvelously, I shall say. Beyond that, traveling and seeing all that there is to see does wonders for expanding one’s mind.”

“You really do have a Skill for everything, don’t you?”

“Every little thing!”

“Other than Stamina Manipulation,” Edwin teased. They may have only traveled together for a few months, all told, but he’d never seen the deceptively-young-looking man anywhere near as jealous as when Edwin had, through a combination of his magic, alchemy, and sheer persistence, unlocked a Skill to manually control the energy the System called “Stamina.” He hadn’t taken it yet, but it was definitely on his list for future Skills to grab.

“Oh, you little … ! You’ll pay for that!”

Edwin managed to dodge the good-natured cuff, his training sessions with Lefi not wholly worthless, but found himself suddenly drenched in cold water.

“Hey!” he yelled at Inion, who had snuck up behind him with a bucket. “I thought you were talking to Yathal!”

“Gotta watch out for danger from everywhere! No safety!” she called back. “Also, he loved it!”

Edwin narrowed his eyes. Oh, if she wanted a tussle, he could provide.

Edwin lay pleasantly tired next to Inion atop his wagon. She had won, of course. Even discounting the fact it was a predominantly water-based fight against a water mage and naiad, Edwin couldn’t win a fight if …

Oy! Snap out of it.

It had been a fun diversion as they approached Sheraith. Curiously, unlike Vinstead, the main road didn’t run straight to the city’s gate, but ran to the side of it. Connecting them was a road that split off, quite wide and in almost as good of condition as the primary thoroughfare. There was a bit of a backup while they waited for the guards to clear their wagon, made even slower by the apparent presence of a market and correspondingly large amounts of merchants. If it had just been Edwin, he could have joined the rest of the walkers, but thanks to his new carriage, he was stuck in an absolutely massive traffic jam.

In any case, it gave them enough time to figure out what to do with Inion, which turned out to be a more involved conversation than Edwin had really anticipated.

“You know, I think we probably could get you in,” he said to Inion as he turned to Lefi. “Common Knowledge or whatever doesn’t say she’s a fey, right?”

“Not Common Knowledge itself,” the Adventurer replied. “Though Identify Threat is a common Skill among guards, and that would identify her as such, if they thought to look.”

“But would they be likely to?”

“Not particularly, no.”

“Okay, so then you should be fine!”

“Hmm … nah. I don’t wanna risk it!”

“What is it with you and cities? Do you just not like being around so many people away from nature or whatever?”

“No! No, of course not,” Inion said. “Cities are fine. Remember when I tried to get into Vinstead with you? I like cities. I just don’t like the guards is all, ya? Ya. It’ll be fine! You go do your stuff and then we’ll get me in later.”

“Are you … scared of the guards after that one threw you down the street like a rag doll?” Edwin realized. “Ha!”

Inion glared at him. “No. Of course not. They caught me off guard is all. Had I known what they could do I wouldn’t have been so much as budged!”

“Sure …” Edwin teased her. “So then what is it?”

“Look, you go in and do your stuff, I’ll go commune with the river for a while, and I can give you new knowledge about the rivers here tomorrow when you sneak me in!”

“I’d be more likely to believe you if you ever actually provided any actual information other than how much fun you had. All the functional difference here is that I’ll be sneaking you in … You just want to sneak in, don’t you?” Edwin sighed. “You don’t actually care about whether or not you’d be allowed in normally, you just want to do things a different way?”

She didn’t respond so Edwin continued, “So what, should I meet you out here tomorrow? What are you going to actually be doing? Please don’t let it be something that can be traced back to me.”

“Oh, you’re not going to tell me to not get in trouble?” she wisecracked.

“No. If I asked you to do that, you’d make sure to get in trouble just because you could.”

“And you’re not worried about that now?”

“I hope that it would at the very least be more trouble than it’s worth.”

“We’ll see …” She stroked her chin in pretend thought. “We’ll see …”

The spread of buildings outside of Sheraith’s walls was significantly less sprawling than at Vinstead. Farmland dominated most of the landscape, with the few accompanying structures being very nice farmhouses and the like. For a while, Edwin was really confused by the presence of enormous fields of what looked like wheat, but only the stalks. Any grains that might have been growing were totally gone.

He didn’t have to wonder about what might have caused them for long, though. One field was being harvested as they passed, and Edwin watched in awe as a single man hefted what looked like a combination of bucket and scythe, swinging it in a massive arc at approximately waist height.

There was a blur of silver and the massive flash of what Skillful Assessment interpreted as a greenish-brown Skill.

In a single motion, a huge swath of the field was cut just short of the head, the stalks bobbing back and forth from the sudden motion and accompanying gust of wind. Edwin could even see the farmer empty a truly staggering amount of wheat heads from the bucket mounted on his “scythe” into a sack sitting on the ground next to him. The sack didn’t seem to fill up at all from what must have been enough grain to feed a small town for a month, and the farmer barely seemed weighed down as he picked up the bag and started walking to another section of the massive field.

Nobody else commented about the utterly absurd stunt, so Edwin just quietly shook his head and carried on.

As the line slowly progressed, a few more buildings started popping up. A couple inn-looking places with stables off to the side, a couple of dedicated stables, and then at last a ring of buildings built right outside of the walls, a miniature town unto itself.

Most people on foot were allowed free passage through the gate, the logic being that anyone without a pack was local enough to not need questioning, but anyone with so much as a backpack was pulled off to one of the sides of the gate.

The gateway’s arch itself was massive and imposing. The stone seemed to be a single enormous monolith but thanks to Outsider’s Almanac, and its ability to tag individual items, Edwin was able to tell that secretly at least seventeen different stones were involved. They were just held together with such precision that their seams were utterly invisible. Honestly, it was in some ways more impressive than just carving it all from a single rock, discounting the effects of Skills. After all, a single large mass didn’t play nice with most object-based Skills like Rock Sculpting, meaning only the highest-leveled, and thus most expensive, sculptors and masons would be able to work with enormous stone blocks.

The gateway depicted a pair of blue rainbows cascading from a massive thundercloud. Or maybe they were waterfalls? They were probably waterfalls, actually. With that concept in mind Edwin was very easily able to pick out the stylizations of flowing water and he almost felt stupid for thinking they were a blue rainbow of all things. Well, whatever. He was the only one who knew about that little mistake.

… he’d still be obsessing over it for the next five years though. Edwin never found himself reminiscing about his stupidity from back home, but did he ever have a “greatest hits” of every stupid thing he’d done in the last nearly two years.

The gate itself was thick, solid wood made from some kind of tree they didn’t have on Earth but he had hesitantly called “ironwood,” and although he could only see the interior of the door, it was reinforced in as much a decorative manner as a structural one depicting some very abstract and stylized picture Edwin wasn’t quite able to parse. Behind the gate there was a small hallway before opening into the streets of Sheraith itself.

He wasn’t quite able to access the city itself yet. First, his group had to get past the three armored figures conducting the inspection of any group with a beast of burden or cart.

Junior City Guard

City Guardian

Experienced Lirasian Gatekeeper

The Gatekeeper looked at them—Identify flickering in concert with a couple of other Skills—and nodded. The one who seemed to be in charge of their inspection turned to Lefi, currently showing as an Adventurer-Mage. He made some gestures on a tablet—a literal tablet, not a computer, just a slab of granite with some carvings on it—and started in with a set of questions.

“Place of birth?”

“Riverbend”—there was a hint of a laugh in Lefi’s voice, but the guard didn’t seem amused—“Rhothos,” he finished, and the Gatekeeper nodded.

“Current Registrar?”

“Rizzali of Vinstead.”

“Reason and date for leaving?”

“Desire to travel, visiting a friend, and providing mentorship. Been on the road for two months or so.”

“Most recent stop?”

“Ashglen.”

“Family and given name?”

“Lefi Forolova.”

There was a crack in the guard’s otherwise stoic facade and Edwin could have sworn the man scowled at Lefi a bit behind his glimmer of recognition. “Right. Reason and duration of visit?”

“Visiting a friend, possibly a month or two. The kid needs a helping hand and she can provide.”

The guard pointed at Yathal. “He yours, then?”

“As far as it matters.”

“Good enough. Planned location of stay?”

“Rented room, or also possible with friend.”

“Who’s this friend?”

“Adventurer Rillah.”

That got the guard to finally look up from his tablet. “The daywasr?”

Polyglot didn’t translate the word, but given the man’s tone it didn’t sound complimentary, so Edwin didn’t poke at it. He had a good enough idea, he felt.

“Yes, her. Is that a problem?”

The man snorted. “Not one of mine. Seven or twelve.”

“Me and the kid or just me?”

“Both, but not the alchemist. We deal with traders separate.”

“Twelve?”

“Twelve. You’re free to go elsewhere, Adventurer.”

“Twelve,” Lefi agreed with a sigh and pulled out a small handful of silver. He dropped a number—Numeracy let Edwin cheat and instantly count twelve—into the guard’s waiting palm. A curt nod later, the two spear wielders withdrew and allowed Lefi, Yathal, and Kyni through. They slipped into the crowd, but Edwin saw a string of two Skills play—namely, Whispering and Yelling—as they passed through and whispered into his ear with Lefi’s voice.

“We’ll be nearby and find you once you get through.”

Fortunately, he knew basically what to do. It was the job of the Gatekeeper to ensure that only productive individuals would be let into the city; they assessed the potential value and risks travelers brought with them and set an entry price accordingly. Those who were sick or known troublemakers were usually refused outright, but Adventurers would usually get away with just a ridiculously high entry fee. Edwin wasn’t entirely sure why the man had listed two prices, but no real matter. He was hopeful he’d be able to escape without one regardless.

“Place of birth?” the Gatekeeper asked once again.

“I, uh … think I’m supposed to just show this in response? I don’t think I should say much more than that,” Edwin replied, pulling out a small token—his Adventurer license, which had apparently at some point been updated to show his Ally of the Empire status according to Lefi. How the Adventurer knew that … Edwin didn’t know.

No, “he has everything” or “he has all the Skills” don’t count as explanations.

At first the Gatekeeper didn’t seem to pay too much to him, finishing up some sort of Skill-based interaction with his tablet before finally looking to study the small trinket. “If you think that’s supposed to … Oh, now that is interesting. Step to the side, my lieutenant will be with you shortly.”

“What about my stuff?”

“It will go with you. Now, move.”

“All right, all right.”

At least the wait wasn’t too long, and Edwin was able to entertain himself like he usually did—Prototyping and Sapper’s Apparatus both made for amazing fidgets, enabling him to create massive physics simulations and let them play in his mind, or create crystal trinkets for more tactile toying, to say nothing of his ability for nigh-literal self-reflection.

An avior joined him after about ten minutes. The humanoid bird was slightly taller than Edwin and was armored in significantly more than the chain shirt and helmet of the normal city guards. A quick Identify confirmed his higher status.

Junior Provincial Defense Overseer

Edwin was out of practice examining avior expressions—not that he was ever that good, all told—but he still got the sense that the lieutenant wasn’t in the best mood. “You’re the one?” he asked.

“Edwin Maxlin,” he confirmed with a nod. “That’s me.”

“Good. Now, do you want to explain that”—he pointed at the license—“to me and why it gets you out of normal questioning?”

Edwin shrugged. “I’ve been officially advised by T— Enforcer Lisana of Rhothos and Emperor Xares that I not divulge parts of my past and history.”

“Nothing can ever be simple with Adventurers, can it?” the avior accused.

“Well, I think my companions had a pretty simple entry,” Edwin countered, but he saw his reply didn’t land well as the piercing eyes of the black-feathered hawk bore straight into his skull.

“Perhaps. But they aren’t here right now.

“Now, Ally or not, it is my duty to ensure the safety of my city. Thus, you are to answer my questions honestly and fully. Or you’re back out on the road, understand?”

“I guess? Can I answer that something is an Imperial secret?”

“I will check with every single thing you claim that for, and know that if that is a lie, you will find your life becoming very unpleasant very quickly.

“Now, first. Current Registrar?”

“What are you bringing into the city?” he finally asked. The interrogation wasn’t too bad, but it did take a little while and Edwin was glad that it seemed to be coming to a close.

“Personal alchemy supplies,” he readily answered. “Most of it is self-created, some of it I got in Panastalis.”

“And the … many, many weapons we found lying on the inside?”

“Wait, what?” Edwin was confused, why were …

“Oh, that little …” He trailed off, unsure of the right word to express his frustration. He got his emotions under control quickly enough and breathed out. “Those would belong to my traveling partner, Lefi Forolova. I believe he’s just inside the gate if you need to speak with him. I … actually forgot those were in there.”

“What man needs more than one halberd?”

Edwin gave him a blank look. “You’ll have to ask him.”

“Very well.” The avior set his tablet down on a nearby shelf. “Twenty-four.”

Edwin flinched a bit at the price, but he still fished out the required coins from his pouch, dropping them in the avior’s waiting hand.

“Your friend’s weapons will be kept in the Weapon’s Check; reclaim them when you depart. I’ll be keeping an eye on you, Adventurer. Now begone. Blow away, I have other things I was attending to before this.”

It had been some time since Edwin had been in a “real” city—Panastalis didn’t count, it was basically just a town with an alchemy guild—and the last time he had been there, Skillful Assessment wasn’t nearly as powerful as it currently was nor was he as adept at utilizing it.

Now that he had it on at basically all times, a thousand almost-invisible Skill uses caught his attention. A young boy was using Identify on pretty much everyone he could see as he walked hand in hand with his mother, a sky-blue gnome tiredly talked to a merchant as he wrote something in midair, and a farmer was using Packing to heft a massive, spatially expanded barrel over his shoulder.

Avior swooped from the sky and landed gracefully next to an uncovered stall, buying something, then took off once more. A pair of humans navigated around the stream of people while carrying a stone cube that was a bit over four meters a side. A seemingly empty stretch of road that was lit up with Skills lifted momentarily to let out a halfling and an avior locked in intense discussion.

“Are all cities this rife with Skill usage all the time and I’ve just been blind before now, or is Sheraith special in that regard?” he asked Lefi.

The man chuckled. “You look like Yathal, head darting every which way. Sheraith is perhaps more open with Skill usage than other places, but not by that much.”

Did he really have to make the comparison to Yathal? Well, Edwin did like that he knew better now, but it still made him feel somewhat self-conscious. The boy was looking at a bunch of fall-themed decorations covering every surface, his head indeed darting every which way, and Edwin tried to keep his gawking impulses in check.

As they continued their journey farther and farther into the city, Edwin started noticing a few buildings made predominantly of stone blocks. The architecture quality seemed to improve proportionally, and it was obvious that they were heading to the nicer part of the city.

“How do you know where we’re going, exactly?” Edwin couldn’t help but ask. It was weird just blindly following Lefi. “And are you sure this is the right way? This all just seems so … nice, for an Adventurer.”

“I know everything! And worry not, this is indeed the right way we must venture. We are nearly there, you see. Just around the corner. Furthermore, there are many Adventurers who have fabulous wealth to call upon!”

“Okay …” Edwin mundanely replied. “It’s just that a lot of people are looking at us funny.”

“Worry not of their opinions, they are merely envious of our freedom!”

He didn’t really have a good comeback to that so he fell silent. After a quick check on Bill, the pony pulling his cart—fine as always—Edwin’s attention drifted to their surroundings once again. The architecture in this nicer section of the city was … really, really impressive.

While they were all slightly different, of course, it was pretty clear that the architectural styles in favor included very, very few straight lines. Domes and arches were abundant, rounded walls more the rule than the exception. Very few of the buildings were grand and towering, though, instead leaning more toward short and wide—though “short” still meant three stories in some cases. It was more about the proportions than the actual size, accompanied with a distinct lack of towers and spires he might have normally associated with fantasy mansions.

Then there were the flatly magical features, sprinkled around from place to place—an intricate stone archway held up by posts no thicker than a pencil, floating steps leading to an entrance on the second story of a building, stone shimmering with almost holographic blues and golds.

Among it all, though, a single building broke the architectural standards to a flatly insane degree, and as they drew closer, it seemed more and more likely that it was their destination. The base looked like a natural jut of rock, sticking at least twenty feet out of the ground, but one that had been carved out into an almost mansionlike appearance, painted in all manner of colors but predominantly blue. Around the rock was a small grassy lawn and accompanying gardens, flourishing with life.

The most impressive feature by far, though, had to be the massive stone tower the rock smoothly transitioned into, rising at least a hundred feet into the air. Or … make that two hundred. Three hundred? Even as they got closer and closer to the base, the top continued to be out of range from Numeracy and Identify alike.

“Is … is that a wizard’s tower?”

“Something like it,” Lefi agreed, apparently distracted by the sight.

“And that’s where we’re going?”

“Indeed!”

“Why are we going to a wizard tower?”

“Where else would we go?”

“Are you saying that’s where … Rillah is?”

“Rillah, yes.”

“How?”

“Come along, Edwin! Further into adventure!”

“Are you sure we’re allowed? Those guys don’t look very happy with us,” he noted, indicating a pair of City Guards—well, one was a Senior City Guard, but close enough.

“It shall be perfectly fine, I assure you!”

“I don’t … oh, never mind.”

“You there!” the Senior confronted Lefi. Why was it always Lefi that they thought was the leader? Edwin looked older than him and was the one driving the carriage anyway. Was it the hair? It was probably the hair, wasn’t it? He’d certainly assume the guy with golden hair that glowed and flickered like it was literal fire to be the leader. Or maybe it was the Class? “What are you doing?”

“Well, my friend! I am attempting to enter the current home of my other friend! Now, would you happen to know the method by which we might obtain entrance?”

“I would, yeah.”

“Marvelous! Might you enlighten us to that method?”

“You know what?”—the guard leaned forward—“I don’t think so. Your lot doesn’t get in.”

“I assure you, I am perfectly respectable.”

“Yeah, well, we don’t want you lot in here; how’d you even get in?”

“My presence was requested by Adventurer Rillah.”

“Ha! Now there’s a joke. Let me tell you what, you scram right now and we won’t haul you in for attempting to disturb the peace. You got it?” The man’s voice rose and carried a hint of mockery with it.

Lefi took in a breath, but before he could say anything, a halfling woman—an Honored Senior Mundanity Assistant—was at the gate. “What is the disturbance?” she demanded of the guard. “The lady wishes to not be disturbed.”

“Ah! Much obliged, my fair lady.”

“These ruffians are attempting to force their way into the Spire’s property, honored lady,” the same guard spoke up. “We’re just going to remove them before they bother—”

“Too late for that, and don’t cut off your betters,” she snapped, leaving the guard spluttering. “You, Adventurer. What are you doing here?”

“I was sent for by Lady Rillah, you see!” Lefi’s fingers pulled out a small green stone from one of his pouches, and after a quick Identify, coupled with something Edwin recognized as Common Knowledge, and a few other Skills he didn’t recognize, on the halfling’s part, she nodded.

“Very well. Come in, let me close the gate.”

“Much obliged, my fair lady.”

“Your cart and horse can go in the stables around back. Come on, come on!”

That galvanized them into action, and Edwin quickly prompted Bill to enter the opened, very fancy gates.

“If you do get in with the daywasr, lemme know what it’s like, eh?” the non-Senior guard spoke up for the first time as they departed, and his partner gave out a rough laugh.

Lefi did not take the statement well, and in the blink of an eye he had drawn his sword and held the guard at swordpoint.

“Oh, so you do want me to—” The Senior was cut off by the half-ling’s cough.

“Knock it off! Get in here, Adventurer. And you, shoo! Go bother someone else,” the woman scolded, and she shut down the quarrel entirely.

“You’ll pay for that, Adventurer,” the guard promised, but Lefi didn’t seem concerned.

“What was that?” Edwin quietly asked as they were led into the estate’s grounds.

“Well, they insulted—”

“No, not that—though I may want an explanation at some point about that—but the little stone you showed her.” He nodded in the direction of the halfling.

Lefi held out the plaque in presentation before withdrawing it. “Ah, apologies. I forgot you do not possess Common Knowledge. If Identified, it identifies my person as one who is allowed entry to see Adventurer Rillah.”

“When did you get that?” Edwin hadn’t seen any messages arriving for Lefi that might have carried the object with them.

“Oh, some time ago. We have known each other for many years, but this I received alongside my message as to her whereabouts.”

That didn’t answer all his questions, but Edwin found himself busy with stowing Bill away in the small stables they had on the property. Caring for such a large animal was … a very different experience, but Lefi had helped him learn a lot more about it. That conversation also revealed that Bill probably had Skills to make him easier to care for as well, which Edwin was able to spot once he knew what to look for. Pristine Coat, Eating, and Prime Health were all Skills that the Empire’s Trainers knew how to unlock for horses, and all were standard fare.

Bill would have other Skills, of course. Unlike the Companion Skill Kynigos had for Yathal, Trainers couldn’t perfectly control the Status of their subordinates. Thus, like most animals, the pony likely had a moderately sized grouping of Skills at a decently high level, but no evolutions.

In any case, Edwin was glad it didn’t take too long and he didn’t have to leave Lefi and Yathal standing around waiting for him.

The notes of a flute floated toward them, melodic and beautiful. It tickled Edwin’s memory in some regard, though he couldn’t remember why exactly. He nodded to Lefi as he rejoined his companions, speaking about something with the woman.

“So,” he asked as they entered the tower’s base, “onward and upward, I suppose?”

“Upward?”

“That’s bound to be a lot of stairs ahead of us if we’re going to the top.”

“Ha!” Lefi clapped Edwin’s back, sending him staggering as the Assistant opened the door for them, the faint musical notes spilling out as she did so. “Indeed! Onward and upward, my friend! Onward and upward!”

CHAPTER 2

Looking Up

The interior of the tower was every bit as impressive as the exterior. That it was bigger on the inside may not have been a surprise at this point, but the sheer scale of the expansion still awed Edwin. The entry hall alone looked like it was larger than the massive stone was in its entirety, the ceiling stretching beyond his Identify range, and there were very clearly some wings off to the side, circular doors shut tight. Across the arched roof and walls, a colorful mural of some kind depicted some massive scene that heavily incorporated weather alongside a host of individuals, avior and human alike.

It was also oddly silent despite a lack of architectural features to dampen the sounds of walking. In fact, the only noise he could hear was the flute melody floating from seemingly all around them.

At the far end of the hall a massive spiral staircase rose to the ceiling, supported by nothing and distinctly lacking handrails. It was simply a set of wooden slats floating in midair. That they bobbed up and down when pressed upon didn’t do too much to help Edwin feel reassured about their stability, but Yathal had no such restraint and thought they were the coolest thing ever.

“Will the dog be accompanying you upstairs to meet the lady?” the halfling assistant asked, voice neutral.

Lefi glanced over at Kyni, circling anxiously around Yathal as he climbed over the stairs. “He will.”

“Of course. The lady is at the top. Go at your leisure.”

The stairs stretched on forever, or so it felt. After they climbed past the entry hall, the steps were magically fastened to the walls and so no longer bobbed up and down, but there was still a sizable gap in the middle of the spiral staircase and gave Edwin a sense of vertigo every time he looked down. While it didn’t seem to bother his companions, Edwin had to fight off the knee-jerk reaction he had to potentially falling all the way to the ground. To try and help, Edwin didn’t actually put any weight on the steps. Instead, he tethered Flight to the stone wall— covered with paintings and stone reliefs reminiscent of the main room below, but with a slightly different style to them.

Every so often, the style would suddenly shift, but there seemed to be a consistent story being told. That said, for the life of him he couldn’t figure out what that story was. There were avior and humans and even a couple of gnomes that showed up, but also lots of weather motifs and, well, it was a lot. Maybe it was the story of the tower? That seemed quite plausible.

Honestly, these stairs must have been artificially lengthened. Why would you do that? The outside was legitimately shorter, why couldn’t they have put the stairs out there?

“C’mon, Kyni. Pleaseeee?” Yathal asked his dog suddenly, panting between each word.

Edwin didn’t catch what or how Kynigos replied, but Yathal took on a pleading expression. “Awww. But whyyyy. This is so much and Mister Lefi says any Skill can be good!”

Kyni gave a short bark in response, making Yathal redouble his puppy-dog look and made Lefi cut off a chuckle. One more quick bark and Yathal hung his head and despondently continued to climb the stairs, breathing hard the entire way.

“What was that about?” Edwin asked Lefi. “I don’t speak dog, but you apparently do?”

“Polyglot helps,” Lefi gave as a bit of unhelpful clarification, “but Yathal got a Stair-Climbing Skill and wanted Kynigos to let him take it.”

Edwin chuckled a bit at that as he continued to secretly float up behind the golden-haired Adventurer. Unlike most animal companion bonds, where the human was the one in charge, Kynigos was the one who was able to shape Yathal’s Skills.

Looking up wasn’t informative as to how much longer it would take unless they were genuinely only just barely starting to climb the tower and that wasn’t just an optical illusion, but he really, really hoped it was the latter. It wasn’t hard for him thanks to Flight, but it was tedious.

The faint music grew louder and clearer as they continued to climb, until they eventually reached the top. The stairway just … stopped suddenly, letting out into a too-large room at the top of the tower. There were, of course, no handrails around the massive hole in the floor, and Edwin very carefully stepped away from the biggest safety hazard he’d ever seen in a building before looking around.

Wind blew through the room at a steady rate, coming in through massive windows in every direction that definitely weren’t visible from the outside. The floor consisted of massive stone blocks inset with blue sigils and circles faintly glowing and absolutely brilliant to his arcanoception. It felt like swirling winds and brewing storms, but in … reverse? Whatever, he could examine it more later on.

There wasn’t a whole lot of traditional furniture in the room save for at one end of the chamber, where a few chairs and a couch rested upon a thick rug next to one of the windows. Given the sole occupant of the room was sitting in that window playing the flute, it wasn’t hard for Edwin to pick out who Rillah was, though she was sitting with her back to them.

Oh, huh, I know her, Edwin realized as they approached the Adventurer, one eye on her Identify result.

Seasonal Dancer of Whimsy

I passed her on the road. Really good flute player.

While most of her clothing seemed sensible for an Adventurer and the slightly chilly fall breeze passing through the room, her mostly bare back was the primary thing that Edwin could see from his angle, though the top half of it was covered by brown hair. Was she … not wearing a shirt? How the heck was she not freezing? There must have been some kind of Skill at play.

“If it isn’t the snowbird! I would have thought you might have melted away staying here all this time,” Lefi called out with a hint of a smile Edwin wasn’t familiar with. Rillah immediately straightened and spun, showing she was in fact wearing a turquoise and gold … not exactly a shirt, considering it only covered from her collarbones to her midriff, but garment.

Her face brightened, and Edwin caught a glimpse of two different eye colors—one a deep brown and the other a brilliant green while she jumped up from her seat.

“Lefi!” Rillah’s voice was melodic and soothing—Edwin clamped down on his mental state, warding off mental Skills—and she brushed a lock of hair away from her eye as she bounded over to them. She wrapped the Adventurer in a hug, and Edwin had to quash an irrational, possibly Skill-caused, pang of jealousy.

After a moment, they separated. “It’s so good to see you; I’ve been cooped up in this little city for months, can you believe it?”

“I know, little snowbird. That’s why I’m here.”

“Have you come to sweep me away to the far corners of the wind?” Her face was one of picture-perfect innocence and curiosity, then broke into a grin. “I’m glad you’re here.”

She finally turned to the others in their little group, and she bent over to greet Yathal. The boy was doing his customary hide-in-Kyni’sfur routine, but he hesitantly looked up to greet the woman’s gentle smile. “And you must be Yathal. I’ve heard so much about you! I’m sure we’ll be great friends.”

“Really?” Yathal said, barely above a whisper.

“Of course! Unless you don’t want to be my friend?” she asked with an exaggerated pout. “Then I’d be sad.”

Yathal whispered something into Kyni’s ear, who nudged the boy. Seemingly remembering something, the little kid clasped his hands together and bowed deeply. “I would be quite honored if you would accept me in your presence.”

“Oh … there’s no need for that, little buddy! We’re Adventurers! Do you know what that means?”

Yathal shook his head, so she leaned in conspiratorially and faked a whisper to the boy. “It means we don’t have to be proper all the time.”

“… How? Don’t you get in trouble?” There was a note of hope or awe in his voice.

“Nope! What are they going to do? Send us to our room? Nuh-uh! We can go wherever and do whatever we want!”

“But Ma always said that being rude to people would mean they wouldn’t wanna be your friend.”

“Pshhh. Look at me! They’ve been keeping me here for months because I have something none of them have. When you’re an Adventurer and someone needs you for something, they really need you,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “They’ve needed me so much these past months that they gave me this whole huge tower all to myself! Some of them can’t even stand to look me in the eye and they still need to put up with me.”

“Whoaaa …” Yathal turned starstruck as he looked around the building they were in. “They kicked out the governor for you?”

Rillah bit back a laugh. “No, not quite. The governor’s place is really nice. It’s supermagical, and you know what? He’s got a bunch of Adventurers working for him himself.”

Yathal’s wide-eyed gaze returned to the woman. “Really? I thought nobody wanted Adventurers around.”

“That’s just what governors like to say so they can get them all to themselves,” she said with a wink.

“What do they want them for?”

“Oh … all sorts of things. Governor Kos’vilista has a couple of mages working for him, as well as some for … other stuff.”

“What kind of other stuff? I’m not a mage.” The boy pouted a bit, but even Edwin could tell his heart wasn’t in it.

“Hmm … I’ll tell you”—she bopped his nose in emphasis—“when you’re older. But some of his guards are Adventurers, you know?”

“Really? But …”

Edwin wilted a bit as the two of them carried on for quite a while. He could see what Lefi meant—Rillah had a way with words that put the normally shy boy at ease instantly, bringing him to say more over the course of an hour than Edwin had heard over the entire month and a half trip.

At some point, Edwin and Lefi seated themselves on some of the available chairs. Rillah, for her part, eventually sat cross-legged in front of the entranced boy. Eventually, though, Lefi stood up and gave a good stretch. “It’s been wonderful seeing you, snowbird, but I think we need to get going. Come on, Yathal. We need to find a good inn nearby.”

“Oh! There’s no need for that; you guys can stay here. There’s at least three more bedrooms, and I’d love to get the chance to talk to the boy, sorry, the man of the hour again.” She beamed at Yathal.

Lefi didn’t argue—he wouldn’t, considering he had been expecting it from what Edwin recalled—and agreed with a quick nod. “Where do we go?”

“Stairs.” Rillah lazily indicated them, but a grin crossed her face and revealed she knew exactly what it meant. “Talk to Pierash; tell her you’ll be here for a while. She’ll love that.”

Lefi chuckled. “Pierash being the Mundanity Assistant? Seems she’d be thrilled to hear that. I could practically feel the dismay radiating from her that Kyni might get dog hair on the floor.”

A wry look crossed Rillah’s face. “She’s the one, yeah.”

“Well, excellent. I shall see you in the morning, then?” Lefi waved to Rillah as he started to descend, Kyni gently pulling Yathal along. The kid was the classic combination of “adamant that he was totally fine” and also “nearly falling asleep on Kyni’s back.” Edwin hoped he wouldn’t fall off his ride on the very long climb down.

Edwin, for his part, was glad to escape the social situation that was sitting awkwardly off to the side for several hours, and he tried to slink off following his companions, only to be cut off by Rillah’s voice.

“I don’t think we’ve been properly acquainted,” she spoke up. “You’re Edwin, right? I’ve heard about you.”

“You have?” he asked, confused. “I don’t think Lefi sent even a single letter since we ran into each other. How? Also, yes. Hi.” He shook his head and extended his hand in greeting. She looked at the motion in curiosity, and Edwin quickly withdrew it. Shaking hands wasn’t a thing here, not really.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

She just smiled. “It’s all right.”

Edwin was of two minds about Rillah’s friendliness. On the one hand, she was clearly like Lefi: she liked everyone, so he wasn’t special. On the other, he did like her more than the clearly-compensating-for-something Adventurer he’d been traveling with, and the attention wasn’t bad.

Inion would be giving him such a hard time next time he saw her.

He realized he’d been sitting in silence for a bit longer than was polite. “Anyway, hi. I’m Edwin.” He inclined his head in greeting as she took a seat next to him. She replied with a dazzling grin, which, given his painfully bungled introduction, only confirmed Edwin’s suspicions she was just generally friendly.

“Pleasure to meet you, Edwin. I’m Rillah.”

“Yeah, I … anyway, what did you want to talk about?”

Smooth, Edwin, real smooth.

She innocently shrugged. “Well, I like seeing interesting things, and there haven’t been a whole lot of those around lately. You’re quite the sight for sore eyes, really.” She capped off her statement with a bit of a sparkle in her eye, but Edwin had gotten mildly distracted in the meantime.

Oh, so I’m better than complete boredom, he mused.

Shut up, me. It was obviously meant as a compliment, another part of him retorted.

“Me? Interesting? I mean … I don’t … other than … and … yeah, I guess.” He sighed without any way to really help the conversation avoid him—after all, so long as Rillah didn’t know much about him, she was unlikely to dislike him.

“It’s okay.” She put her hand on Edwin’s arm, and he felt a powerful Skill originate from the touch. Instinctively, he jerked his arm back. “I’m sorry!”

She immediately apologized. “I didn’t realize that you’d react so negatively. It’s not often that Soothing Touch provokes that kind of response.”

“It’s all right.” Edwin mumbled an apology in turn. “I … overreacted, sorry. It was a flinch. What … what does it do?”

“It’s just meant to help you find the contact soothing, help take off a few nerves.”

“Can …” he started.

Can you turn it off? The question sat unbidden in the forefront of his mind, but Edwin brushed it off slightly. He … he could get through this. If nothing else, it was Adaptive Defense training. He didn’t think Lefi would leave him alone with someone untrustworthy, so he could probably let his guard down a bit, right?

“Can I what?” she prodded slightly.

“Nothing, nothing.” He waved off her concerns. “It’s nothing important. Can … you do that again, I suppose?” he tried asking with a small smile.

“Of course.” Rillah returned an even larger smile and placed her hand back on his forearm. He could see the Skill, a sort of dark silver snaking its way through his arm. Once it reached his torso, he relaxed against the chair, resting his head on the back cushion.

“That … that feels nice,” he remarked, happy to get a smile in response. Then he shook his head, regaining his cognitive functions. “What were we talking about?”

She giggled lightly. “That doesn’t really matter all that much, does it? We were talking about you, but if that’s not to your liking, we can talk about anything else. You’re just so fascinating.”

Edwin vaguely felt like squirming under the compliment, but managed to quash the impulse in part thanks to Soothing Touch’s influence. He could focus, he could be good.

“I guess?”

“Of course you are, Edwin. But how are you enjoying Sheraith?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I haven’t really been here all that long. Getting out from the wind of the plains was nice though.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Oh? I didn’t realize you were responsible for the weather,” he jested, but frowned when he saw Rillah’s face.

“Wait, what? Are you?” Edwin frowned. “Who are you anyway?”

“I told you, silly,” she said. “I’m Rillah. We can swap stories about ourselves later if you’d like.”

“Maybe,” Edwin noncommittally acquiesced. “So … weather? I mean, yeah. It’s been nice, though still a bit chilly? It’s rained a few times lately; that’s an experience I haven’t had for a while.”

“Spent too long inland?”

Edwin nodded. “Yeah, pretty much. I lived for a year in the Verdant, you know? Never saw even a drop of rain. That was a really weird experience, and then I come out here and it’s raining every other day. Feels more familiar, all told.”

“You’re not from inland, then?”

Edwin shook his head. “Nah. I’m from … much farther away.”

“Hmm …” She narrowed her eyes at him, playfully adding, “I’ll learn about you eventually.”

Edwin softly chuckled. “Eh, I’m not that interesting. So … you do something with the winds? Are you a mage?” He suspected as much; she felt like warm, vigorous winds to his arcanoception.

She nodded. “Yep! I’ve got a way with the winds, so when their old weather mage finally kicked it, they snagged me to help out. They get pretty bad storms, so I’m here to help keep that from happening.”

Edwin looked at her with newfound respect. “How powerful do you have to be for that?” he asked.

“Oh, most of it isn’t me. You saw all these?”

Rillah pointed to the inscriptions that filled the majority of the room. “All I need to do is magic it up every day and it does the rest, unless there’s something really bad that comes around, but that’s not so common this time of year. That means it’s just a bit of mana, not even enough to tire me out.”

“But you’re stuck here in the meantime?”

“But I’m stuck here in the meantime.” She sighed.

“For how long?” he asked.

“Blast it if I know. They’re supposed to be getting some replacement from the capital or whatever eventually, but they’ve been saying that for months now. If they don’t get something new soon, though … yeah. They won’t be happy.” She let out a soft peal of laughter.

“It’s as cushy as a cloud here, you know? The position gets an absolute fortune for almost no work, not that I see most of that. Because I’m an Adventurer, they say that it would just be wasting good coin and it goes right into the pockets of the local politicians.” She shrugged. “That’s just how it goes, though. And I’m not a Hunter so I don’t mind too much. You really can’t, not if you want to keep your mind.”

She looked at the ceiling. “It is a nice place, though. Never lived in a proper tower before, so it was quite the experience for the first couple of weeks. But now? Ugh, I so wish I was back on the road. Did I mention how boring it is here?” she asked Edwin, turning to face him more fully. “There’s not even enough room here for a proper Dance! And people get mad if I go flying in the streets. Not that it stops me, you know, but … Oh, I’m sorry. I was rambling.”

“Mm.” Edwin didn’t know quite what to say.

“Hmm. You’ve had enough of this, I think.” Rillah withdrew her hand from Edwin’s arm, and while the effect wasn’t instantaneous, the sensation still felt like being emotionally plunged into a pool of cold water.

He gasped. “Whoa, that was a sudden change.” He shook his head. “I hate mental influence Skills.”

She hummed slightly in agreement. “Well, you at least kept yourself dignified. That’s more than most can boast. Do you have practice?”

“Unfortunately, I’ve had to directly fight some seriously strong compulsions twice now, and I like to think I’m getting pretty good at it, you know? Apparently relaxation is harder to fight though.”

She studied Edwin with a keen green eye. “There’s a story there, isn’t there? I’ll get it from you eventually. You practically smell like good stories.”

“Uhhh …” Edwin wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“It’s a Skill! Honest,” she tried to reassure him.

Some awkward moments of silence passed while Edwin tried to process the new information.

“So you’re a wind mage?” he eventually guessed just to break the silence, based off the feel of her mana, the formations in the room itself, and her supposed job.

“You first.”

“Me?”

“Well, it’s not often I meet another mage,” she explained, “and it’s always neat to compare notes. What’s your specialty? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” Killah winked.

Edwin returned a smile. Ah, so that was what she found interesting about him. His magic. And here he marginally had hoped it was his personality. But of course it wasn’t, why would it be?

Shut up, me. Don’t be ridiculous. She met me less than three hours ago. Which is probably about the maximum time that anyone could like my personality for.

Shut up, me.

“I mean … I don’t know if I’m that interesting or even have a specialty. I’ve got like three Skills that use magic, two of them are evolutions? I started off with Basic Mana Sense, used that to get the Mage Path, got Basic Mana Manipulation with that, evolved it into Mana Infusion, then combined Mana Infusion with Packing to get Flight.” He shrugged. “So yeah.”

“Didn’t you get any evolved magical Skills? Unless you’re Tier 1?”

“Let’s say you go first?” he countered. “I mean, it’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just …”

“You only just met me,” she finished. “And I’m this strange and beautiful figure with natural magic and you think I might be a fey or something.”

“Funny you say that …”

“I’m joking,” she said as she brushed her hair to the side. “The System calls it Isochronal Magic, and that means what I’m good at changes with the seasons. This time of year I’m one of the stronger wind mages on the continent—not that there’s much competition”—her voice lowered into a grumble—“and is why I’m stuck here.”

“What about other times of the year?” he asked.

“Uh-uh-uh! You need to tell me about your magic first. Also, it’s seasonal. You could probably guess it.”

She really liked winking, didn’t she? Edwin gave in. “Okay, I have … five Tier 2 magical Skills. One is Mana Infusion, lets me make Skills and materials magical.” Her eyes widened at that but she didn’t say anything. “Then Ritual Intuition, which lets me get a sense for what different kinds of mana are; Overcharge, which Lefi could tell you all about, and lets me Mana Infuse myself and my Attributes; Improbable Arsenal, which is a magical Efficient Space; and Basic Thermokinesis, which lets me heat up stuff.”

“Well, I wasn’t expecting that. Quite the impressive collection, I have to say. What about Flight?”

“Haven’t evolved that one yet, actually. Only got it a little while ago.”

“Aw, a liddle Tier 1 are we?”

“Hey!” he protested. “Lefi is Tier 1 too.”

She smirked. “Well, I suppose he is. But you’re both children to me. Clearly I am the most mature one in this building.”

“Really? What about … I forgot her name. The Assistant.”

“Pierash? Well, maybe. If you count being boring and uptight as being mature.”

“Wait, that wasn’t what you were doing?”

She rolled her eyes and swatted Edwin’s arm in response. “Oh, shush. You’ve known me for less than three hours, you should not be so …”

“Quick-witted?” Edwin supplied.

“Precocious,” she settled on, then frowned. “Wait, no. That doesn’t translate well with Polyglot.” She continued, “It’s a bit strange seeing the guy who raised me look younger than I am, but that’s how it is sometimes.”

“Wait, Lefi? He’s older than you?” At long last, confirmation that Lefi was in fact older than his abnormally young appearance.

She said, “Don’t really know how old he is. Depending on when you ask, he’s either older than the Adventurer program itself, was one of its first participants, or might ‘just’ be about twenty years older than you or I. But he’s looked the exact same for the last fifteen years, and acted the same way too.” Rillah shook her head. “He hasn’t changed a bit.”

“So then, you’ve known Lefi for fifteen years?”

“Ever since I became an Adventurer. Well, he helped me become one.”

“So that means you were what, Yathal’s age when you met him?”

She thought for a moment. “That seems about right.”

“How’d you become an Adventurer so young?” he asked, but immediately realized he had made a mistake when he saw Rillah’s reaction.

“Hmm … let’s wait until we know each other better for that, ’kay?”

Edwin shrank back. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

“Hey! Hey. It’s okay,” she tried to reassure him, not wanting to hurt his feelings. “Look, how about … you can ask me any question you want and I’ll try to answer, okay?”

That didn’t help him when it came to feeling bad, but whatever. He sat in silence, thinking for a short while before finally deciding.

“Can you teach me magic stuff?” Edwin settled on.

“Why do you think I was trying to talk to you?” She winked yet again. “But you gotta help me in turn, deal?”

Edwin thought a moment. “Sounds good to me, I guess.”

“But that can be another time! Tell me, how was your trip? Lefi always exaggerates so much, did anything interesting happen on the road to you?”