Three days had passed after Jacobina had tried in vain to start their friendship with a secret that had not come to exist. Regardless, the paintings of her mother had been quite nice. It was as if the pictures were alive. Well, theoretically they were. According to Jacobina's mother, her node allowed her to give the paintings what she called spirit. If the world found her paintings worthy, she could conjure what she had drawn. An amazingly powerful node, though it was rather limited in its applicability.
It appeared as if there was a tendency in Jacobina's family towards nodes that could become quite powerful if it weren't for these limitations. Summoning an army or a dragon, befriending a powerful animal, maybe even some monster in the future, was nothing to laugh at. Elise idly wondered what node Jacobina’s father had.
Certainly something weird.
She sighed and entered the room she and her mother called home. It wasn't necessarily the smallest room, although the two wardrobes filled with clothes or, in Elise's case, clothes, her armour and sword, made it seem quite small. The large window through which Elise could look out at the great cathedral in the distance was a nice bonus.
Elise donned the armour and equipped her sword. Today would be the day that would finally allow her to find out what her nodes did.
Just a day prior Gustav had revealed that his master, the mansion’s guest, was currently in a nest. Gustav’s master was accompanied by Lucius, the captain of the knights that had accompanied her mother and Elise on her journey to Aschen, a handful of knights and mages and lastly a large following of supportive personnel including a handful of blacksmiths or other tradesmen. Gustav had told her that he had to bring his master a handful of empty deep-pockets because the ones his master currently had were apparently full with materials.
Due to the fact that the nest would be significantly weakened Gustav assumed that they could find something that Elise could fight. Sadly she did not know much about the nest besides the fact that it was presumed to be the origin of the goblins and other greenskins, as the mercenaries called them. A fight against a humanoid being was something Elise looked forward to. The angry voice agreed, strongly, and had been quite happy following Gustav’s announcement.
An hour later, partially due to a hearty meal that had ended up in her stomach, Elise was as ready as she could be for what was to come. She impatiently waited in front of estate's gates, walking in circles, much to the amusement of the two guards standing there.
“I swear,” she started to curse but was interrupted by something landing next to her. She looked to her right, noticing Gustav. He was wearing a rather grande-looking red armour made of what appeared to be a drake’s or another dragon’s distinct relative’s skin. Furthermore, a pair of red leathery wings Elise never had grew out of his back. She idly wondered if he could fly.
“I can,” he just said casually, causing Elise to look at him with widened eyes.
“Well,” he started, “I know that face. Anyone who sees my wings asks me the same question. So, before we go, do you dislike heights?”
Elise shook her head, “I prefer walking, that just takes about two hours or so.”
“Flying is faster,” the dragen stated proudly, “We will be there in no time. And I assume that you want to be there as fast as possible?”
The world from high above had looked so vulnerable. Elise had loved every single moment of her flight with Gustav. Unfortunately, it had been quite uncomfortable because she was carried in the same way as the fox she had rescued.
But flying was something she had come to love. It was like she was riding a well-trained horse and weaving through the grasslands. But the sheer complexity of the simplest movements was unlike anything Elise had ever seen. It was as if a musician was playing two instruments at once. But one mistake would not make the song sound bad, no, it would mean death, or at least a sudden sense of approaching death. Describing the feeling of flying itself was extremely difficult. It was unlike anything she had ever experienced. The closest analogy she had was that flying was like experiencing her birthday twice and eating as much chocolate as her heart desired.
Unfortunately, the flight had been quite short, and awkward. Gustav hadn't spoken much. It had taken all his concentration to maintain a shield of shimmering light, claiming that it allowed him to fly faster and not crash into anything that normally called the endless sky its home.
Their landing was not as spectacular as the flight. One moment they were in the air, two moments later they were on solid ground. Elise tried to walk awkwardly, but it felt as if her legs were not her own.
"Just wait a few seconds," Gustav said helpfully, "your legs are not as used to gravity as they were before. It feels strange, yes, but it's harmless. Though I always wonder if beasts that only fly lose the muscles they don't use."
He shrugged, "But that's not important. A colleague of mine, you may know her, told me what your skills are. But would you like to explain them to me personally? We don't want anything unexpected to happen, do we?"
Elise nodded eagerly, "I can do a few wild spells, nothing complex. I call them ‘Sight’, ‘Spectral Shield’, ‘Magic Mirror’, ‘Feather Fall’ and ‘Fairy Fire’."
She paused, but Gustav urged her to continue.
"'Sight' lets me see more, it's hard to explain, its like having a third eye that… Well, it sees differently. I don't know what else to say. 'Spectral Shield' blocks incoming physical attacks, though I can't use it properly yet, 'Magic Mirror' blocks incoming magical attacks, same problem here, I have yet to use it in a fight without fearing death. 'Featherfall' makes my body a little lighter, allowing me to run a little faster and.... well, fall more slowly. 'Fairy Fire' is useless, the chaotic nature of wild magic forces the spell to dissipate after five metres at most," she said.
"Well, that should be obvious," she added, pointing to her sword, "I'm.... I would say decently experienced when it comes to the sword, other weapons, not so."
Gustav frowned, "So you lack range, you can, possibly, survive an attack, but you probably fight in a manner that you won't get hit. Let me think ... mhmm, that might work. When we find a group, I kill all but one enemy, you then show me what you can do. When we find another group, I’ll kill all but two and so on until I deem you strong enough to defeat a stronger monster in a fight. The fact that you don't have a node makes it pretty hard, though the added benefit of wild magic mitigates some of the problems."
Elise nodded, "Well, as long as I don’t fight a large group or something significantly stronger or smarter than a demonic spider everything should be fine."
The Dragen nodded and looked at the entrance of the nest, a natural cave entrance if it weren't for the iron bars blocking most of it, or the many wards beside it. The two three meter tall iron golems next to it were also more part of the security system. Gustav found it lacking, in the capital any nest entrance was under constant surveillance by the army, the many mage towers and the Association. He supposed that the system here was barely enough to warn the city if a nest were to overflow.
Gustav still wondered why there were nests, they made no sense. Animals were created by what one might call simple means. Demonic beasts were the result of corrupted animals, the spiders a pretty good example of demonic beasts. But monsters? These were created by the nests, the many that managed to escape became feral and significantly dumber. Sometimes they also lost some of their powers. It was as if a cruel god had decided to play a trick on the whole world to add even more misery into the mix. The only glimmer of hope was that there was a rumour that a nest had something in its lowest level that controlled the whole nest, but he knew of no nest where one had reached the lowest level.
"Well," said the Dragen, "I suppose the break was long enough."
He marched to the entrance and entered the nest accompanied by a young Monia who was quite eager to finally find out what her nodes would do.
