Gribnik:

Pros- Is one of the most financially stable places in the entire Vast Dust, possesses a large number of low-strength manabeasts to tame, and has the largest river in the Vast for a uniquely diverse food culture.

Cons- Has few to no places of non-military education, possesses an elitist aristocracy on par with the Sugal Empire, and is at constant risk of large manabeast hordes.

Mount Averus:

Pros- Is the center of learning in the entire Dust, possesses nearly impenetrable defenses, and hosts a diverse and kind population.

Cons- Is in the middle of a swathe of desert that makes travel difficult, non-cave-based food is exorbitantly expensive, and there are few job opportunities for hunters.

Green Oasis: 

Pros- Is a large hub of commerce and trade, has a fascinating history and many interesting legends to learn, and is one of the few places in the world where orcs make up the majority of the population, making it an interesting place to visit for culture.

Cons- Has a very small population of intellectual specialists, has few other industries other than trade, and is one of the few places in the world where orcs make up the majority of the population, making it a slightly dangerous place to tour.

-Excerpt from ‘Traveling the World,’ By Gelnak

 

*=====*

 

 “Now, feel that mana flow through your hands… yeah, like that!” Molly cheered, “And then, let it go!” Mori let her mental grasp of the mana loosen and felt the volatile mana surge forward. An explosion rocked the hard ground in front of them, sending dirt and the odd stone into the sky. Unio, sitting on Mori’s skull, stuck on with greater force and jiggled with the waves of the blast. Eventually the explosive force subsided and Mori stood up straighter, peering into the dust and smoke. A crater as big as her sat where she shot the orange explosion mana, and she giggled in glee. Molly grinned from ear to ear as well, “That’s a good one! You know what, I think you’re just about ready to use that! First though, let me just give you this…” As Molly spoke, she pulled a small slab of metal from her pocket. It was a metal amulet the size of Mori’s palm with a string big enough to pull outwards in front of her. The surface shone with a blue sheen, radiating pure, untainted mana from it, “It was meant for Fara, you see…” Molly explained, wetness touching her eyes “But, she was more of a mechanic and runelayer than a mage. Mori, I don’t care what you have to do; please… please keep my daughter safe.”

Mori nodded seriously, taking the amulet and draping it around her bone neck. She held it up, staring into its pale sheen for a moment, before holding it in front of her. She took the mana from the air around her and the mana in her bones, pouring it into a sigil that covered the small surface in glowing lines of red, green, yellow, and orange. With a surge of mana a whipping inferno emerged from the amulet, slashing at the ground and scorching the sand. After a moment, Mori stemmed the flow of mana and saw the sigils fading. In front of her, the ground had been cut into by the whipping wind, digging a divot into the dirt. What dirt had not been moved was scorched, turned into a fiery waste by her magic, “I will, Ms. Notchings. I will keep your daughter safe,” Mori assured. 

The woman gave a warm smile and draped her arm over Mori’s shoulder, “Call me Molly, dear. Honestly… what am I thinking? I’m letting a lich I’ve known for a few days take care of my daughter… Well, I guess a lich with amnesia is just odd enough company to protect my baby girl.”

“Ms- Molly, I’m right here, you know,” Mori groaned.

Molly giggled, “I know, dear. I just like teasing you,” she admitted as she pulled away from the lich, “Anyway, you said you were planning on going to Mount Averus to go through schooling?”

“Yep, pretty much,” Mori replied, petting Unio, “I want to go in for sigil casting and maybe mechanical engineering. Fara probably wants to go for runic casting and mechanical engineering, so we’ll be in the same course in that case.”

“Yes, yes. I know, she’s been going on about that for ages now and it’s a little obvious what she wants to do. As for you, I think you have a talent for sigil casting. Before you get a big head- er, skull, I think you would do best in the case where you can carefully construct your spell and not have to cobble something together in the heat of battle. Honestly, you’d probably do well to go after a necromancer’s license, but being a lich is just enough of a gray area for you to get away with it for a while,” she giggled. 

Mori giggled with her for a few moments, feeling joy at being able to experience the emotions with the woman, “Ah… Well, we should get back soon; Fara is probably done packing, and I don’t want her waiting on us,” she said while walking back. They had left the town and walked for a few miles out into the dirt to practice, so they had plenty of time, “Hey… I wanted to ask something… about your husband- wait, was he your husband?” 

Molly gave Mori a side-eyed glance, but laughed, “Yes, he is my husband. I’m guessing why you’re asking is because he isn’t here, right?”

Mori nodded slowly, “Touchy subject, then?”

“No, not really,” she replied, “He went off to the Sugal Empire to fight the Clockworks. He’s been sending money back here for a while now, along with postcards and letters. While you two were hunting yesterday, I sent a letter to him about it. I’m pretty sure he said something about finding another woman to keep him company...” Molly mused.

The flames in Mori’s eyes widened with Molly’s words, “If you think that, then why are you so calm about it!?” she cried out, “I mean, I don’t remember anything personal from my life as a guy, but something like that was pretty taboo if I’m not mistaken. Unless… wait, are you alright with it?”

“Why wouldn’t I be,” Molly laughed, “One of the tenets of the Great Goddess of the Growing Beasts is to love freely, so it’s not unusual for people to have extramarital relationships here, especially in the Dust. Think about it, caravaners spend months of time away from their families and they have needs as well. I knew an orc woman, Helga, she would seduce every man in whatever caravan she was guarding. And that’s in spite of having a husband back home in Aekan, according to her, anyway. Right now, I think she’s working with Captain Eaner’s fleet… Whatever, I haven’t spoken to her in a few months,” she said. 

Mori shot a critical eye at her, “Is the ideal of faithfulness to your spouse a thing here?” she grumbled.

“Of course! You realize that these things always happen with the acceptance of the spouse, right? To be faithful is to stop that sort of stuff when they get back from their journeys. I, personally, find it comforting that he probably found someone he’s willing to be that close to —he’s always been a good judge of character, you see, so I don’t worry about him falling for the tricks of a woman after his chips…”

Mori tried to come up with a response, but eventually sighed, “It’s weird talking about the love life of mother of one of my only friends in this life, you know,” she complained while Molly giggled, “But that whole casual relationship thing is something I won’t ever get used to. At least I won’t have to worry about it at all…” Molly smiled and patted Mori on the shoulder bones. 

After a short walk, they reached the outskirts of Hard Sand and walked into Molly’s home. In the shed Fara was still tinkering with Mori’s arm-contraption, her things all packed in a suitcase and in the pouches on the side of her skiff. The skiff itself was slightly different, newly cleaned and with a new gatling gun attached to the front. In the corner of the room, the patchwork zombie corpse was curled up in a big box with Mori’s power cell connected to it. After screwing in a final gear, Fara held the contraption above her head and nodded to herself, “Perfect…” she muttered. Turning to her side, she noticed Mori and her mother and waved, “I’m all ready. Are you alright Mori, you seem a bit… annoyed.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Molly laughed, “I just told her about your father’s exploits out in Sugal. She’s a bit confused about him being with another woman.”

Fara sighed, “Ma, please don’t talk about Dad’s… flings to me. If I really want to know, I can hunt him down and let him bore me to death. Anyway, I think I’m ready. Mori?”

The lich nodded happily, “Yep! All we have to do now is pack our things and get our payment from the Elder. By the way, have you finished with the… uh… arm brace?”

“Gauntlet, more like,” she smirked, “Yeah, I did finish it. If you don’t mind…” she trailed off as she threw the gauntlet to Mori. Catching it, she examined the newly-forged armguard. The unwieldy contraption she had made before was almost entirely transformed, turning into a sleek clocksteel gauntlet that ran up her forearm bones, past her elbow, and halfway up her upper arm bone. She excitedly put it on, feeling the metal as it fit perfectly on her arm. Where her giant gatling gun had been before, the grappling hook they had salvaged from the occupier sat. Gears smaller than a segment of Mor’s finger bone sat, ready to spin into action at a moment’s notice. On the side of her arm, the holster of a revolver was attached. The only part of the contraption that had remained similar to the bare-bones, hollow contraption she had before was the hand.

“I added the grappling hook to replace the gatling gun, and did a bit of work on the hand. Instead of your, frankly, poor hollowing of the hand, I refined it using another method. Coincidentally, I now have a bag of clocksteel shavings, if you ever want some. Other than that, the revolver is an optional thing; I didn’t know what hand you shoot with, so I can make it into a holster if you want. You like it?”

Mori nodded, “I love it,” she said resolutely, “Actually… now that I think about it…” she pulled Molly to the side and whispered to the confused woman, “Do you mind if I ask her to put your amulet into the palm of the arm?”

Molly dramatically groaned, “Oh, woe is me… Everything I do is corrupted by the mechanics of the world!” she grandly said, “I don’t mind. As long as you don’t break it!”

Mori nodded and walked up to Fara, taking the amulet off and placing it next to the gauntlet, “Can you put the disk into the palm of the gauntlet’s hand? Molly gave it to me to use when casting sigil spells and I want to use it with this hand… Can you do it?”

Fara looked over to Mori and nodded, “I can, I think. Just give me a few minutes and it’ll be done.” Just as Fara said, after a few minutes of measuring, carving, and welding, the metal disk was solidly in the palm of the gauntlet’s hand. Mori spent no time in wearing the gauntlet and raising her palm. With a shift of mana, a bright light erupted from the palm of her hand, only getting brighter and brighter as she put more and more mana into it. 

After a moment, Mori cut the mana off and giggled, “That’s going to be good… especially if I can use my death mana with it... That’s for later, though. You said you have everything ready?” Mori asked.

“I do. I just have to do one more thing…” She rushed up to Molly and gripped her in a hug, “I’ll come to visit, okay Ma?” Molly’s smile wavered and her eyes welled up with tears as she returned the hug. Mori gave a warm gaze and returned to playing with her gauntlet and petting Unio. After a long few minutes of tearful hugging, the two women pulled away.

Molly gave an affectionate kiss of Fara’s forehead and pulled a bag from her pocket, which jingled with metallic clinking, “Here. I saved this for when you went off into the world. The Elder also has his reward for you two. Oh, and Mori. Mr. Gudal told me that he had a gift for you. Apparently, he had a brother who was killed by some Clockworks and seeing you bring home an occupier made him grateful. Don’t forget to use your Trait slots and… Stay safe. Both of you.”

“We will, Ma. Don’t you worry. Besides, soon I’ll have a massive fortress I can bring anywhere I want. We will come to visit, though!” Fara answered. After another hug, Fara packed her bags, strapped the box with the patchwork zombie in it, and beckoned Mori to come aboard. Molly tearfully waved them goodbye as they sped into the town. Fara slowed when they neared the edge of town, “Do you mind if we split up for now? You can go get your present from Mr. Gudal while I get our reward from the Elder and say goodbye.”

“Sounds good to me,” Mori replied, “But, where is this Mr. Gudal?” 

Fara laughed a bit and drove her to a shop near the center of the town, “Right here. I’ll come to pick you up just as soon as I’m done. See you in a bit!” Fara yelled, speeding off. Mori shrugged to herself and turned to the sandstone building in front of her. It was built like a large house, with multiple floors, and had a sign with a needle and thread next to the door. Mori took in the building and pushed open the door. 

A small bell jingled, catching the attention of the young woman at the counter. The store was small, cozy even. Rugs made of what looked like stitched together pieces of scrap fabric hung from the walls while a normal rug was splayed out across the floor. The few shelves that were there were made of wood, a rare luxury according to Molly and Fara, filled with pieces of clothing. As she walked to the front, Mori took a look at the price tags and saw that a single shirt was about 30 chips. Finally arriving at the counter, she waved a hand, “Good morning, ma’am. Molly said something about Mr. Gudal having a gift for me?” she asked.

The young woman, a human with abnormally long, slender fingers and odd pupils that looked like a cat’s, smiled, “Ah, you must be Mori, then. One second,” she said as she leaned back to look through a door behind the counter, “Duta! The lich is here!” she shouted. Leaning back, she was taken aback by something, “Ah, sorry about that… It’s kind of easy to refer to you as ‘the lich’ and… Does it bother you?” she asked.

Mori giggled, “Of course not. I am a lich, after all. Albeit a very social one. So, how long have you been working in this town?” she asked.

The woman smiled, relieved, “For a few years, actually. I used to live in Green Oasis, working as an apprentice to a famous tailor. After a few years of getting nowhere, I met Duta, we got married, and we moved out here to the most dangerous and secluded place around. For-”

“Ah, please don’t talk the lich’s ear off, Moira,” Duta said, leaving the back of the shop, “If you go on, she’ll be here for hours.” Duta was an orc, with similarly slender fingers as Moira and with pale green skin, though without the odd iris shape that the woman had.

Moira huffed, “Tch. You just don’t appreciate a good story.”

“And I don’t have ears,” Mori added.

The man looked between them and shrugged, “I suppose not. Anyway, thanks for taking down that occupier. They’re nasty things, left behind by patrols to drive off people from good land. My brother was killed by one, you know. Anyway, you don’t want to hear me wallow in memories, so here,” he said, handing over a bundle of silky fabric. Mori unfurled it and found it to be a new black cloak, made of a silky substance. Numerous patches were sewn into the inside, and she could faintly feel mana from the patches. “A new cloak. I noticed the one you’re using was a bit… not good. So, as thanks, I used some of my fun silk to make you a good cloak. I put in a bunch of runes via those patches. It cleans itself, repairs cuts, and can be fed other fabric to regrow parts that are torn away.”
Mori felt her eye flames flicker in delight and shed her old blanket to don the black cloak. The couple raised their eyebrows at Unio sitting on her head, but made no mention of it. It was simple, but fit her very well, loosely hanging off her bones like a cloak should, “I love it, but what’s ‘fun silk?’” she asked.

Moira laughed, “That’s the stuff he uses to do fun projects like bed sheets for us. It’s also the stuff that people around here won’t have the money or desire to buy.”

“Thanks for taking that, by the way,” Duta added, “Most would consider wearing black in the desert as a complicated way of committing suicide, so I could never sell it.”

“Not a problem,” Mori replied, “I don’t think a suicidal lich is possible, so it’ll go to good use.”

They all laughed, “Alright then,” Duta said, “I’m pretty sure I heard little Fara pull up in front, so you shouldn’t keep her waiting.”

Mori tilted her head, “You can hear her?” she asked.

The orc nodded, “We orcs have pretty good hearing. What, you never been around an orc during life?”

The lich tensed for a split moment, but shook her head, “No, not really. Thanks for the cloak!” she shouted as she left the cozy store. Just as Duta said, Fara was sitting on her skiff, waiting for Mori, “Hey! Look what I got!” she shouted, spinning around and showing off the black cloak, “He gave me a cool cloak! Anyway, how much did we get from the Elder?”

Fara admired the cloak for a few moments before lifting a heavy bag of clinking metal, “All in all, we made out with over 7000 chips. Ma gave us 3000 and the Elder gave us 4000. With this much, I could probably make a bigger skiff… we can think about that later, once we get to Green Oasis. Now, ready?” she asked.

Mori nodded and climbed aboard the skiff, “Ready as I’ll ever be!” With their farewells said, they sped into the Vast Dust, heading to Green Oasis.