Prelude 4 - Charred

Cestia settled on the name “Cherry” for her Charmdrop, after a few lingering moments of reflection. Rufus commended them both on their handling of the pet captures, highlighting first that Cestia reminded him of Suray, “A senior, Diem Squad mentor.”

Naturally, he was delighted to learn that she already had a presence in their lives. Kaye gingerly put his crystalline, pink egg away in the storage box. Rufus set a curled finger to his lip when regarding his other charge.

Many a long, silent breath swooped through his nostrils before he spoke, “Kaye. I have an idea and someone you should meet.”

For a flash moment of anxiety, he worried that was a nice way of saying he was out of the Diem Squad, till Rufus amended, “And you too, Cestia. Honestly, I should’ve included them first, but I just wanted to take a look at where you both are. Their performance area should be right beyond the tree-line, due west from here. Now, I could simply show you where it is, or I could see what you do with those directions. Remember to consult your maps for guidance.”

The games of childhood should’ve prepared each equally for the task ahead. As soon as they met each other, with Bixley still treating his broken arm in the family way (blindly beating it against every wall till the raging pain dropped him like a leaf), trail finding was their favorite game together.

Sometimes, they would just choose a random destination, such as the worm-eaten stump hundreds of paces to the north, then challenge one another to do it under certain constraints such as blindfolded and spun around a dozen times.

However, those were the forests they knew, where trees would whisper ethereally, as though discussing ancient, untold secrets that not even the most sensitive ear could discern as common words.

Often times the eldest in town would scold, warn, and whip him if they caught him talking about the forbidden sounds in the woods. He well knew every cautionary parable about the madness that came from listening and lingering too long in the sounds of the wild. Those were their monsters, since they lacked even plush pink critters.

Kaye didn’t have time for such reflection though. He had to get moving, if he wanted to be the first to the destination. Setting out at a brisk pace, the warm, tan grass also felt slippery, not as though the Charmdrops had left something behind, but more like their nuzzling had polished the blades to an artificial sheen.

That didn’t slow him down more than the instant it took to assess his boot’s grip on the ground before bounding to the next step. It wasn’t a race, but he knew he could go faster than Cestia, so it was worth trying in front of Rufus. Cutting between a set of rapidly escaping Charmies, Kaye tightened his grip on his magical bag and dashed with all the confidence of his secure, well-fitted traveling clothes. He knew from experience not to check how far or close Cestia was from him. Thinking about running and your opponent was the surest way to falter. Suray said something to that effect once.

Passing between the tight, roughly-barked evergreens, the confidence of a clearing, a trail, or other well-worn path receded from Kaye, as he watched his feet for anything that might trip him up. The soil beneath the moist, dense, needle-etched canopy had almost as much give as little Leaky but less spring.

Gossamer darkness traced across his exposed limbs as his eyes adjusted to the even, yet chaotic patterns of trunks and branches. Something was this way, he knew that, whether it was a stream, traveling wagon, or a moss-fringed monument. It didn’t take long for him to sight that something behind the dipped curtain of a decaying, fallen trunk.

At the same moment, sounds filtered through the branches and bounced off their twisted edges. A voice, one with the qualities of a bombastic announcement made at the longhouse where all the community leaders met to smile at and neglect the most desperate requests of the other townsfolk. It sounded like someone in charge.

With a big hop through the opening made by the fallen tree, Kaye came upon a large, sanded stump. The rings and loops looked brighter than normal. Positioned at the center, with a break in the trees casting a perfect circle of brilliant light, was one of the biggest Charmdrops he’d yet seen. Looping atop its outermost bulge was a sparkling, threadbare wire that supported a prominent pair of fluffy, pale ears and an unfurled set of ivory wings.

“HALT! Who be ye traveler who assumes thyself an audience with me?! Speak swiftly and clearly, that I may know thy sincere intent.”

The Charmdrop had spoken. Its voice tossed aside the natural silence of the forest, scattered birds from the pinnacles of the evergreens to the air, and brought Kaye to a halt in front of it.

Like his distant echo finally catching up, he then heard another sound right behind him as faint boots scuffed over the tough bark and landed a few feet away. Slower, steadier sounds plodded in the distance, like a whisk being scraped against dirt.

“Gracious! We shall have a company of it. Please speak your intent, be it benign or malice.”

It didn’t take long before Cestia was at Kaye’s side with her Daring knife leading in front of her. Rufus joined a few moments later and made sure to warn, “Please don’t try anything, Miss Eretawn. You’ll regret it.”

Kaye smirked knowingly. Cestia bent into another predatory pose as she asked, “How come? High level?“

“You could say that. Please stand down.”

The sizable Charmdrop made a faint noise with tutting. “No need to be so heavy-handed about it, Rufus. Nortmir of all sorts take a pride to gore me. I am quite familiar with the blade. Let her chance. Might be a spot of fun.”

After stroking his head and sighing, Rufus held out his hands and responded, “If you so wish. Go easy, she’s only a four.”

Kaye could see Cestia‘s fist squeezing the hilt of the knife, as if she had designs to reforge it with the heat of her palms.

However, she didn't blindly lunge at the talking creature. Kaye could see that her feet were set the same as at the start of any race they ran through the wilds though.

"You may proceed, as you wish", the large, adorned Charmdrop proclaimed.

That was the signal. The first thing Cestia did was shed the weight of her inventory before cutting through the air like a new wind. She dipped down at the threshold of the small platform and stretched her knife out to tear across it. Kaye tightened his jaw and nearly shut his eyes. Just as the strike was about to make contact, the creature rippled along the side and launched the hooped ears and wings into the air. With a metallic ring and a scuff, the knife became entrapped by the ears, as though a pair of hands seized it out of the air.

Following the launched decoration, the Charmie bounded effortlessly into the air and hopped off of Cestia's lowered shoulder before nudging her in the back of the head with a squishy slap.

<MISS. NO DAMAGE.>

Rolling across the mossy ground, Cestia picked herself up, extracted her weapon, and brought a strike down from above. This time, the Charmie launched itself sideways between her legs and didn't need to trip her up before she stumbled on her own. Swinging away, Cestia flared her teeth. Her opponent seemed more like a ghost as she darted her weapon through them but only struck air.

<MISS MISS MISS MISS MISS MISS MISS MISS...>

Using her fists as well as the knife, she tried to corner the Charmie but only managed to make a long gash in the elevated stump. The Charmie looked down at the damage she'd done and then up at her wild eyes. It flipped the hooped ears and wings back onto itself with a rippling of its side. When Cestia launched her next attack, it rebounded off her face then smacked her in the arm.

The motion seemed to Kaye's eyes more like a ball stretched in all directions at once as the Charmie crumpled her to the ground. As she reached for her knife, a jiggle of pink flesh launched it up in a twisting arc to land inside her inventory bag. Disarmed, Cestia still fought, bringing her legs around to boot it. Instead, it helped her leg along until it caught, hyper-extended at the edge of the platform and she cried out in sudden pain. Splayed across the stage, the Charmie dipped its wing right at her throat, in a soft, but still jagged imitation of a knife.

For a moment, it seemed like Cestia might try something, but she panted a few times and held up her hands in submission. It finally backed away and let her rise carefully to her feet. Shaking her head, Cestia had to ask, "How?"

"How? Simple. You doth assume much about me. That I be weak and slow. Assumption toward thine enemy may doom thee. Some monstrous beings out there can summon a swarm or paralyzing mists and be the smallest of all. Strength alone is not strength without strategy and wisdom. And, sometimes, just being faster and willing to run may be enough. Be mindful, for others won't be so forgiving of mistakes."

Cestia backed away from the Charmie, but before she could return to her inventory and knife, it remarked, "Oh! One other note. I would quite appreciate you to not damage my theater floor in the future. I just polished it. Here...." It retrieved and bounced a bottle of some thick liquid in a glass container at Cestia. She caught it and a natural, tan sponge that it sent over next. With a bend, it gestured to the gouge that she left in the otherwise pristine surface.

With a long sigh, she crouched over the damage and started polishing it. Kaye glanced at Rufus, who shook his head and returned the glance.

Approaching cautiously, Kaye inquired, "Theater floor?"

The Charmie dipped lightly and answered, "Indeed. All the worlds follow a script and I am only here to speak a few lines and trade a few thoughts, before my exit from the stage. Forgive me, that bit of friendly sparring did not permit me a proper introduction. I am Charemistius Astrellis Serverento Tautolian. Some prefer a simple Char or a clever, runic Cast. I am equanimous with regard to each."

With a flash of tension, like flailing for a handhold when falling from a nervous height, Kaye fumbled for what words to say in response. Rufus didn't make the next move. It was up to him.

"Hello...to you. I'm Kaye Lindgren. This is...err over there is..." He tensed about stepping over Cestia's introduction, but she didn't turn around, scrubbing while smearing the liquid across the sponge. The compromise was, "This is my friend. We're...we want to be adventurers."

Bounding forward and to the side, Char regarded Kaye from up close and Cestia from a distance. "Now I glimpse more clearly through the veil of knowledge. It's been too long since you had proteges, my dear Rufus. Far too long. And I already find myself filled with...concern. How may I help?"

Delicately setting his dress instructions across his shoulder, Rufus relayed, "I don't want to speak poorly of my students but, right now, I need outside help for them to get to where they need to be."

Char probed Kaye and soon uncovered his issue with Charmies, to which he remarked, "Being unwilling to harm my kind is not the worst problem to have. Many of us live as briefly as the sunlight twinkles in the depths of winter. I am most fortunate to have enjoyed, endured, and complained about several hundred winters passing. And I've learned some tricks that may be of use to you. Come along..."

Kaye diligently followed as Char led him to the edge of the clearing. Bounding sideways for a stretch, Char finally came to rest before an evergreen which appeared different.

"Corruption seeps into our world and all the living things in it. And it is worsening. Wild creatures are becoming more violent. And Nortmir turn on their brethren. Nortmen, as you'd say, against one another. The dead against the living. Some pronounce it the sign of the Nithehor's imminent release. That the old magic holding such horrors at bay is weakening. I have my own thoughts. Look up."

Fighting with the limits of his attention, Kaye did his best to absorb all that information. Farming had been getting more difficult at home. Some animals ran away or suffered painful conditions that led them to strike out. But that always happened. The longhouse gathering hall filled with such complaints, but they'd been there since he could do little more than crawl. Nortmen, Nortmir, he knew were the names given to men but especially those in the region of Elshelm Castle, straddling the Tranquil Sea.

Looking up, Kaye darted his head around for some sign of things out of place, some modest horror or vengeful bird. But his eyes kept searching furtively till Char hinted, "The lowest branches."

When pointed out, it was obvious. Much of the evergreen was healthy, strong, and proud, stretching towards the sky with uncontained optimism. But the lowest fringes, those in his reach, appeared dead or dying. Not only that, they curled upon themselves, as though shriveling in agony and suffering. One branch in particular looked like the hands of his father in his last days, twisted and unusable for even putting on his clothes without assistance.

"Here, you see such corruption. Pervading the land and invading those who live from it. Things may be worse now but this is old, ancient pain coming to the surface. Kindly use your blade to cut a piece off."

Although he had to stretch and jump to get at the section Char wanted, it took just a slight rain of dead needles and wood chips before Kaye held a sizable chunk in his hands.

"This is a Gnarled Twig", explained Char.

<GET - 1X GNARLED TWIG>

Continuing, the thespian Charmie explained, "Tracker and hunter types of Nortmir prune them regularly. I find throughout Pronderosa, they are quite infamous, as games of chance often use them, along with minor enchantments, as consolation prizes. When the corruption worsens, they turn into Weeping Wood, and ultimately, Deathly Twigs. I would not recommend facing either of those alone. Even with myself and Rufus here, the best idea would be haste and evasion. By long-standing royal decree of His Majesty, only guild halls may use them for teaching and purification purposes. So, consider this a quick, outdoor lesson. Rufus...I require a tersa green apple, if you have one."

The leftover in Cestia's bag from her intimidation capture of Cherry sufficed without complaint from Cestia, who had craned her head and ear during Char's instructions but was nearly finished undoing her damage to the stump.

On Char's instruction, Kaye set the apple down in a random spot by itself. Making the faintest noises of hunger, Char dubbed, "Sumptuous. Now, carefully place the gnarled twig nearby."

It didn't take long after the twig was set on the mossy, cool earth for something to happen. A shimmering column of light flared from the center before twisting and biting upon itself into dark, ethereal purple brambles. Spreading like poison smoke, a line of drooling, blank Charmies emerged and drew towards the apple like moths towards the moon.

They appeared more like morbid puppets, corpses of those brilliant creatures rotted and reanimated. Scattered ulcers dotted their surfaces. Kaye unfurled his blade and didn't need more than Char's fervent instruction, "Please strike them down."

He initially tried to lunge at them with some measure of Cestia’s enthusiastic bloodlust, but it felt as wrong as any of his prior attempts. With his farm experience, this should’ve been simple. His father showed him how to deal with calves born in the shape of one, when they should’ve been two. That was mercy, hacking off a tangle of suffering at the stem as simply as slicing off that gnarled twig.

Even if he decided the role of a Smith was for him, some measure of death would come from his wake. It was a necessity. Carving off the dry skin from his lips with his teeth and swallowing hard, he plunged his knife through the nearest, hollow-minded Charmie.

As soon as he struck, they tumbled to rough, scattered fragments, as though a few, spidery invisible strands had been all that was holding them together.

< +4 XP >
< +30 Zel >
< +4 Daring growth >
< +1 Glompy Goo >

Since he had done it once, it didn’t feel quite so difficult to thrust the knife out a second time. And so on. It became mechanical, like one of the many chores around the farm that just needed to be done.

With his jaw tightened to the point of pain, he kept stabbing as they kept coming. It helped that their eyes didn’t look back at him but rather locked on the apple if they were looking at anything at all. Their bounds came at identical mindless intervals. If he looked close (which he didn’t wish to do), he would’ve noticed the hollow stretches in their bodies, as if they had already been bored through by something small but ravenous.

After what seemed like an endless march, the gnarled twig hissed violently like it was on a hot stove and melted down to an oily, black goop which darkly discolored a patch of grass but left no further sign of its presence.

Kaye had reached level 4 with a small assortment of Zel rattling around his coin purse, and a handful of almost the same things Cestia had acquired during her enthusiastic assault. The only new item was a vial of Mint Ambrosia.

Char simply explained, “Every living thing in these worlds has a chance of summoning items into existence upon its death. It may be something that it consumed at one point, an object lost by someone who fought it in battle, or something else of value. Since the Nortmir value coin most of all, you may always find that given up by their spirits, the will of this land, and the great potential within all things.”

Kaye nodded. He learned early enough from Suray and her tales of adventure that slain monsters provided adventurers with everything they needed. What Char said matched up with her words. It didn’t exactly make sense to him, especially when Suray detailed all the gourmet ingredients she found from feral monsters, but he knew the nine realms held so many strange and inexplicable things. It was explanation enough for him.

Rufus added, “You should hang onto that Ambrosia. When you start to learn a job class, you will grow in specialty potential or SP. It can sap a lot of your energy, depending on the skills you learn and try to wield as swiftly as possible, to defend those around you, to strike with supernatural strength, or to call upon the magical elements. It’s easy for that potential to be exhausted and all you’re left with is what raw physical strength you have. But that bit of sweet nectar should restore a modest amount.”

A proper job. He still had no idea. Some Darings could go far into their training without choosing a job, but Suray often spoke of it as the greatest challenge in the land. A task comparable to facing a looming mountain with the humble knife in his hands and chipping it down to dust and earth one pebble at a time. For now, he focused on the fact he was a level 4.

Char continued this thread, “There is potential in the ground, potential in the things that dwell upon it, and unveiled potential in both of you. You now have four steps forward on your path. In what direction will you take them? Rufus?”

Stretching gingerly, Rufus adjusted the notes on the dress as he held out his hand and detailed, “First and foremost, you have your Strength. I would adamantly suggest simply putting your focus into this until you decide upon a job. It’s how hard you hit physically. Next, Agility. As demonstrated by our friend, it is a potent ability that increases the speed of your attacks as well as your ability to avoid them. Next, we have Fortitude, which relates to your personal defense, the strength of your life force, and your ability to resist physical assault. After that is Intellect. This matters most to those who wish to wield supernatural powers and cast magic spells, as more of it will rejuvenate those sources of potential. Dexterity increases your skill, speed, and accuracy if you wish to be a ranged adventurer with a bow. And finally, there’s Luck, which is the chance divine intervention may allow you to strike stronger and harder as well as how quickly you will recover from cursed conditions.”

Cestia, who was finishing up with her repair of the stage, remarked, “I already put all my available effort into strength with my parchment.”

Shifting to another part of the dress document, Rufus nodded and noted, “Of course. You both are clearly aware of many of the fundamentals. But I just wanted to make sure I’ve provided you with all the knowledge I have to offer. One addendum though, the parchments that you received are unalterable in their core attributes. However, there are mystical ways with which you can reset what you have committed to your essence. So, feel free to experiment.”

Lifting his head curiously, Kaye inquired, “Such as one’s name? Is there an easy way to correct that?”

Rufus quickly shook his head. “It’s etched in the tree of all life, Yggdrasil. They say there is a currency beyond celestial matters, scarce even to the gods themselves, which may alter the inalterable. But I’ve never seen it.”

Char bounded over calmly and assessed Cestia’s completed work with a variety of rippling stretches and his eyes up against the wood grain. After some noncommittal grunts, he proclaimed, “It shall suffice. Now, I have imparted the fundamentals upon you. Rufus has done even more. Not to imply the education ends here. It may never truly cease for any of us. But now it is time for you to put what you have gleaned and gained into true practice. Let us begin your very first quest as Daring adventurers.”

<BEGIN QUEST - “A LOST PET”.>