The Third Step: Chapter Fifteen

After seeing the look on all of our faces, Meadow sighed and led us through the winding, mushroom-lined streets and to a cafe called Toxic Heart and Noxius Halo. Despite the name, the roof of the business was dappled with moss that gave off slight swirls of mental energy, and the entire thing emanated a soothing feeling, and the inside was painted in shades of a soothing gray, with 

We were all served cups of a hot, spiced apple drink that seemed to release waves of cold mist, rather than warm steam, creating a rather interesting temperature contrast in the mouth as it was drunk. It was surprisingly pleasant, and over the drink that we discussed the five prophecies.

“I don’t think it’s entirely worth ignoring what she had to say,” Meadow said, gently tapping the edge of her drink with a long, boney finger. “Vivian’s not generally much of a threat in personal combat, but her nation’s economy is crumbling. It’s hardly unfeasible that she’ll push to conquer more territory in an attempt to prolong her power. I’ve been drawn to Vivian’s territory more and more often, but I can’t enter without her killing her own citizens to keep me out.” 

I frowned at that. Meadow’s own speciality in reading the winds, according to her, was finding where it was best to interfere to stop the plans of the other Magi. If she’d been drawn to Nightflock… 

“I’ve never heard of this Adininial she referred to, but Obsidian Forest is old. It’s had many Occultists over the centuries, and it’s certainly not impossible one of them retired and retreated to the other side of the cordon,” Meadow contemplated. “Or that a wild dragon could have reached that level of power. I’m unsure if they had a Title or not, but I suspect not.” 

“Do you think any harm could come of listening to her advice?” Kene asked. “Mainly from me.”

They glanced at me, Dusk, and Dawn, and gave a tired smile. 

“Sorry, I mean no offense to you all. But – and Meadow, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong – befriending a sword mage competitor and learning to integrate Dawn’s dominion into a spell aren’t likely to cause others harm. If I have to choose to completely cut free the hag, or to bind it in oaths and debts to keep its behavior in check…”

“I do have some ideas of whom she was speaking about for Malachi’s prophecy. Two of the people who have completed the training orbs in the top two hundred could be described as sword mages, and one of them is full of rage.” Meadow mused, then coughed a few times and shook her head. “But I agree – I don’t see him befriending someone, nor Dusk and Dawn learning to work on Enforce Reality together causing issues. It might be a minor distraction from the tournament, but nothing too wild. As for you, Kene…” 

Meadow stared off into the distance, and I couldn’t tell if she was thinking deep thoughts, reading the winds to see the future, or simply clearing her head to give a response. 

“It’s a choice you’ve known was coming for a long time,” she finally said. “It’s not a choice I can make for you. It’s possible the hag will harm someone. It’s possible she won’t. But I can say that, if she has her own body, and has a free spirit, that it is her choice. You have to decide if you can live with freeing someone to possibly make mistakes, or if you can live with chaining someone to keep others safer from what might or might not come to pass. It’s not an easy choice, and everyone’s answer is different.” 

Kene thanked her, but I could tell that they were feeling discontent about the whole situation. I couldn’t blame them, and in a selfish way, I was glad that my own issue was so straightforward. Finding an angry sword mage and becoming their friend was something I might have done anyway. 

“What about the last two? The need to climb a pillar of crystal, or to forgive someone? I don’t know what she meant about the crystal, but my mind jumps to the Amethyst Mask, and taking some sort of risk where one of us has to trust him.” 

“That could be,” Meadow agreed. “I have a pretty solid idea about who the trust prophecy is about, but it isn’t my place to say. I just don’t see how it changes things for the worse or better, at least not on the scale most oracles care about.” 

Dusk spoke up for the first time in the conversation, pointing out that the Headsman’s daughter had said several times that the future was changing rapidly, and even said it was being clouded at one point. Meadow frowned, but nodded her agreement. 

“I’ve had similar discussions with the Headmaster, Atsila, Ama, and Darius. None of us can see as clearly as we ought to. More and more things are changing, anomalies are popping up. The signs of change happen all the time, of course, but rarely with such regularity and intensity as have been popping up recently. I may need to consult with the Knowledge King’s records, and see if they can produce records of what happened the last time it got this bad. It hasn’t in my lifetime.” 

We were all quiet at that for a short while, drinking our apple-flavoured, liquid hot and misty cold drink, before Meadow eventually changed the subject. 

“Well, there is nothing to be done about that right now, so we should turn our attention to a task that we can do something about: finding a rebirth tree. Kene, what’s the range of your plant divinations?” 

“With the meta spells I’ve taken in fourth gate, I can get them to a mile radius, if I keep it in a circle, or I can push out about two miles if I stop and focus in a straight line. The latter one is harder, though.”

Dusk made a wind in the trees like sound, commenting it was a shame that Kene’s plant divination couldn’t spread out for about twenty miles. If they could, then I could just Seven League Step all of us around the forest until they found a place where one was.

“I’m not a knowledge mage,” Kene said with a snort. “I could look at getting a range boosting enchantment, but I doubt that I can afford one that makes my range twenty times larger.” 

I felt a pang of guilt at that. I’d intended to work more with the Library, and with Alvaro, but the relationship and time had simply slipped away. Sure, I donated to them, but at the same time, that wasn’t a replacement for actually spending time with someone who I could have very easily become friends with.

“Likely not twenty times, but you could certainly improve the range with the right potion or enchantment,” Meadow agreed. “Though, on the topic of enchantments… Malachi, do you still have the spatial rings you recovered from the Idyll-Flume?” 

“I do,” I said. “I’d have to track down where I put them, but they’re here somewhere.” 

“One of the families of the deceased woman, Sarah, moved out to Obsidian Forest some time ago. If you can return the ring to the people here, that will only leave Alexander’s ring.” 

“I see,” I said, my mood growing somber once again. 

“How about we split up?” Meadow suggested. “Kene and I can check some of the local markets and shops associated with the Naturalists to see if there’s anything that we can rent for extending senses, while you go to find Sarah’s family.” 

“Sounds good, where should we meet up?” I asked. “Also, are the Naturalists the local version of the Wyldwatch?” 

“More or less, though they do the jobs of both the Wyldwatch and Spiritwatch. We can meet up at their main city branch to go through the public records and look for any good leads on where to find a rebirth tree.” 

We discussed a few more details, then Meadow wrote down the address of Sarah’s family, and I left to find them. The house I arrived at was small, clearly a one bedroom, but very nice and well kept. The paint was fresh, the garden was manicured, and the windows were clean. 

When I knocked on the door, it was answered by a woman old enough to have been my grandmother. Her face resembled Sarah’s in some ways, though it was different in others. I gave her a polite nod, then took a deep breath. There wasn’t a polite or nice way to bring it up, so I just dove in headfirst.

“Twenty-two years ago, did your daughter, niece, or other relative named Sarah go missing in the Idyll-Flume?” 

The woman’s eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed in suspicion and other strained emotions. When she responded, her voice was tight and clipped.

“She did. Why do you ask?”

“I was in the last Idyll-Flume competition,” I said, trying to put as much sympathy into my voice as I could. It wasn’t hard, since I really did feel bad for her. I could easily imagine my dad waiting at home for me to come back, eventually accepting that I was gone forever, and then twenty years later, someone showed up asking about it. 

“I encountered the ghosts of Sarah, Garret, and Alexander,” I continued. “They were caught in a cave-in, and all of them passed. I laid their ghosts to rest, and at their wishes took their spatial rings to return them to their family.” 

“I see,” the woman said. “Well, come on in then.” 

She led me into her living room and set about making a cup of tea while I sat awkwardly on the couch. Dusk summoned her cloud and tried to examine the woman’s house, but I stopped her from looking anywhere but the living room. After we were given our tea, we spoke for a while about Sarah, about finding the ghost, and even about my life. Sarah’s mother – for that’s who the woman was – had always known that Sarah died in the competition, but thanked me for bringing something to remember her by. 

After about an hour of talking about Sarah’s life, her mother tapped the spatial ring three times on the coffee table, and I felt space shimmer and ripple for a moment before a deluge of items fell from the ring.

There were lots of blackened lumps where the plants that had once been stored in the ring had rotted away. Even today, a storage ring capable of keeping plants fresh for twenty years would be extremely expensive, and twenty years ago, only a business tycoon’s child would have had one. But, setting aside the rotted remains of the destiny plants, many of the other things in the ring were unspoiled by the passage of time. 

From what her mother had said, Sarah had been the team’s long range fighter, blasting at their opponents with wind and lightning, and most of the ring’s contents had clearly been stored for her to later absorb. There were also a handful of her personal effects, which I suspected were what her mother would really treasure. 

“You and your spirits can each take something, as thanks,” the elderly woman told me, smiling sadly. 

“You don’t have to–” 

“Bah,” she said, waving me off. “I’m old, and my time exploring and fighting ended twenty years before you were born. Most of the treasures I’ll be selling off anyways.” 

We went back and forth a few more times before eventually Dusk, Dawn, and I all set to poking through the items. Dusk quickly selected a flight boosting treasure, while Dawn seemingly had no interest in any of the items, and so mentally suggested I use her selection to find something that Kene would like. 

Her mental image of Kene was… incredibly strange. She viewed them as a ball of light with shadows wrapped inside, and spikes of history pushing through the past and into the now. The image made my head hurt a bit, so I just agreed and had her pick out the treasure she thought would be best for Kene, while I looked at one for me.

Most of them weren’t the most compatible with my own magic, given that I wasn’t a tempest mage, but there were a few things that could be useful. 

After a bit of looking, I narrowed it down to one of three things: The first was chestnut, spinning in an invisible tornado, that I thought could be absorbed into Sky Dragon’s Senses to help improve their ability to ride the winds and extend my senses out over a further area. It wouldn't make them stronger, per se, but it should help expand my range while using the spell.

The second was a spark of light that absolutely glowed with desolation magic, and that I thought could be used to improve the power of any offensive spell. Given that I didn’t actually want most of my offensive spells to be deadly, that meant I’d use it on the one spell I’d selected purely for its raw offensive ability, Mantle Dragonfyre. 

The third and final treasure was one I couldn’t use right now, a sphere of shifting mist that radiated fourth gate power. It was gentle and stable, like the Coalheart or Timemind, a treasure meant to sit in my garden like a spell, and while I wasn’t sure what its original purpose was, I was fairly certain that it would interact with my Ghosteyes spell in some fashion.