Branching Out

The day started a little rough. However much he wanted to trust Saria, he couldn't sleep until he warded her guest room. When he woke, he couldn't remember where he was, and shot to his feet ready to fight. His balance was off, he tried to grab some furniture to steady himself, and discovered he was missing a hand. Somewhere between "Where did my hand go?" and his face hitting the floor, he remembered everything.

It made him angry all over again. Meeting a third-tier Paladin was exactly the kind of unplanned encounter that could get him killed. It almost did. All of Taylor's skills didn't amount to much when he was faced with someone so powerful. In the end, he only survived on nerve and luck. If the paladin had worn the right footwear for their encounter, Taylor would be dead.

The phantom pains in his missing hand weren't helping his mood, and he couldn't seem to get his clothes back on. He gave up at one point, fell back asleep, and woke an hour later to sounds of movement both in the cottage and the street outside. The hand he didn't have felt worse than when it was first cut off. Probably, he reflected, because he was running on adrenaline at the time, and hadn't had time to think about it.

His second attempt at getting dressed was more successful than the first, and he found his way to the kitchen. Unfortunately for Saria, his brain was loaded with questions.

"We don't call it the Spirit Realm, you know."

"Right," Taylor nodded. "That would be like us calling Aarden the Humanoid Realm. The other name I know is Maltemali."

"We call it Twilight." Saria slid a bowl of wild rice topped with pickled vegetables across the table to him, with a pair of chopsticks laid across the top. "Maltemali used to be a territory within Twilight."

"What is it now?" Savory rice and tangy, crunchy vegetables woke his hunger. Taylor found himself shoveling it in. Saria tried not to laugh and let him eat half the bowl before answering.

"It's gone. Unmade. We lost it during the Collapse, when the Empire lost the Muse Valley."

There he was again, Darius II. Most of the northern continent was overrun by monsters, mana beasts, and dungeons during his reign. Arcs and dwarves lost their homelands, and apparently, so did some spirits. The survivors in Aarden were evacuated to the southern continent, but at least the land was still there. In theory, the arcs and dwarves might go home someday. It sounded like the same wasn't true of Twilight.

"How much of Twilight was lost?"

"Half, give or take. The Realm is more mutable than Aarden. We have little gains and losses all the time. But what you call the Collapse, we call the Great Unmaking. Millions of us were unmade."

Millions.

"Can it be remade?"

"It's not like a house that you have to rebuild. If the monsters could be pushed back and the vents and dungeons closed, Twilight would remake itself. It wouldn't come back the same, but it would be better for a lot of us. Sunglaze Basin is doing all right, but other areas aren't so good."

Taylor accepted a second bowl and thought while he ate. The Empire's failures had some stunning consequences. For ten years, it struggled to recover one tiny peninsula on the northern continent and failed. The Gordian Empire wasn't strong enough, but it refused to let more people have classes. Ideally, everyone should have a class. The gods created Knexenk to both guide and strengthen mortals. That much was obvious, both from scripture and his conversations with the gods.

Taylor knew how to get classes for more people, but openly breaking tradition would have bloody consequences. He knew all too well what happened when a dominant religion felt threatened. Even worse, the Imperial family sanctioned the Church of Divine Gifts. The law said he could believe whatever he wanted to, but attacking the foundation of that particular church would earn him swift reprisals, probably in the form of more paladins.

"Taylor, why are you here? I'm thrilled you found a way into the Realm, but it's also a little bit concerning. We get the occasional lost child, but we haven't had a magician here in a long time. And, relationships between summoners and spirits aren't very good. People used to learn from us and treat us like companions, but now all they want is for us to fight, and mainly each other. If we get killed during a summons, we come back here. If we die in Twilight, we stay dead. So a hostile magician wandering loose in Twilight …"

"You're worried that I have some agenda that'll be bad for spirits."

"Sorry, but other spirits are going to have the same thought when they find out you're human."

"It's fine. I knew it wouldn't be easy."

"Then why did you come?"

He pushed away his empty bowl. "Lots of reasons. My first trip here was an accident, but I discovered that not only was Twilight real, it wasn't documented. Everyone's been rewriting myths and calling them facts for who knows how long. The chance to explore an unknown place and learn about an unknown people? That's pure magician bait.

"I'm also studying mana attributes, because it might lead to a way to control my curse. And, there's a chance to pick up rare materials and reagents. If monster hunting is a thing here, I'd like to do some of that, too. I've been planning this trip for months.

"But then, I ended up using it as an escape route to get away from a Paladin gone wild. So I need an exit near a town that isn't Bostkirk, where I can duck in and mail a few letters so people don't panic. Oh! I'd like to map some entry points, so I can use the Twilight Realm as a shortcut when I'm traveling around the Empire."

"That's quite the list." Her eyes were laughing at him. "I could be your guide and help you with all those things. For a price."

"Interesting. I'm listening."

"First, once you've accomplished your goals, you owe me a night at the Sunglaze Resort. Don't worry, you can afford it. It'll only hurt a little."

"It's hurting me already, just thinking about it. What else?"

"Second, you don't write or cause to be written anything about the Twilight Realm without oversight from a greater spirit. I know you love books, and probably think everything should go into one, but that would be an excellent way for all of us to get killed. Do you agree?"

That promise was a little harder to make. Taylor thought he could probably find another spirit to guide him, but not one he already knew. Then again, he didn't necessarily mind being the only person in the world who knew something. Framed that way, not writing anything down was a benefit, not a cost.

"As a worshiper of Shitukan, I promise Twilight's secrets will be kept unless approved by a greater spirit. Even my most private journals will remain blank on the topic. Not that I have any journals to write in at the moment. What else?"

"Finally, you learn to be a summoner and put me on your roster."

"You want to go adventuring? With me? Why?"

"Why? I want to set foot in mortal cities, dine on food I never imagined, and see amazing art. I want to get in fights, make friends, and dance with the beastkin. I don't have the knack for crossing the gates, so I can't leave Twilight without a summoner. Even if I could, it would be too dangerous. I need a summoner, but summoners are rare these days. Good ones are almost nonexistent."

Taylor had never been a summoner before. He preferred to rely on his own power instead of using others as a crutch. But if he viewed her as a companion and not just a way to augment his fighting ability, then the idea had appeal.

"I can't promise the summoning thing will work out for us, but I can promise to give it a try. Is that enough?"

"Plenty!" She clapped her hands. "Oh! We're going to have so much fun! You'll see! But first, take care of your hand."

"Look, I can conjure new flesh as good as anyone, but it needs a constant mana supply for at least a week. I lost all my tools and materials yesterday. I don't have anything to work with."

"I have a solution for that. You do the healing part."

The injury was new, so Taylor's body remembered what a hand was supposed to feel like. He also had detailed knowledge of the bones, muscles, tendons, and vascular systems. Making a new hand cost a lot of mana, but it didn't take long at all. The bones formed first, extending from his severed forearm until the skeleton was complete to the fingertips. The meaty stuff filled in next, layer by layer. The skin and nails came last. When the blood started flowing and he first twitched his fingers, Taylor had an appendage that felt alive but distant. Over the next several days, real flesh would gradually replace the conjured flesh until the new hand was entirely his.

Saria braided a lock of her long hair, then cut it off. She was left with a translucent, gray-green strand which she wrapped and tied around his hand and wrist. It glimmered like moonlight reflected from a moving stream as Saria filled it with mana. As long as she charged it periodically, Taylor wouldn't have to constantly think about maintaining the conjured flesh.

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No wonder she was worried. As beings made primarily from mana, spirit bodies were potent magic materials. An evil wizard would have a heyday in this place.

"First stop is right here. Do you feel it?"

"I think so. I'm new to the spirit-related stuff." Taylor pushed his senses out until he could feel the gate between Twilight and Aarden. It wasn't a physical obstacle. It was more like a thinness between worlds, where one leaked into the other. It took them most of the day to hike away from the river until they found an odd rock that reminded Taylor of a crouching child. They had to climb to the top of it to get to the gate.

"As soon as you go over, move away from the gate and do the ritual. Don't forget the arm movements. They're important."

"Are you sure? Because to me it feels like all the song and dance stuff is optional."

"It's important to me! You may not care, but spirits judge each other on the ceremony. No self-respecting spirit shows up for a half-hearted 'come hither'. Put your back into it, or I'll make you do it again."

"There won't be anyone to see it. And, we already did it like nine times."

"I've seen you practice a technique all afternoon, trying to get it right. This is the same thing. Do you want to be an awe-inspiring summoner, or do you want to be lame?"

"Well, I don't want to be lame."

"Then get out there and do the ritual. I'm waiting!"

Taylor tried not to roll his eyes, with limited success. Traditionally, there were two parts to a summoning. The first part was a spell, and he knew the original Mi'iri version. The second part was the invocation, which was unique for every spirit. A major part of acquiring a new summons was developing an invocation to cause it to appear. People sacrificed valuable objects, did dances, played music, swore oaths, gave fantastic names, and promised rewards. According to the most prominent scholars, offerings had to match the mana attributes and skill traits of one's desired spirit. There were charts and graphs, catalogues of observed rituals, and wagonloads of theses on the subject, which was all the more remarkable for being a rare ability.

Today, Taylor had learned that invocations were about aesthetics and bragging rights and nothing else. The spirits thought it was fun.

Feeling like an idiot, but too intrigued not to try it, he made sure his mask was secure and passed through the thin wall between Twilight and Aarden.

The rock formation was very similar between the two realms. The main difference between them was the graffiti on the Aarden rock. It was covered in crudely chiseled anatomy, dirty limericks splashed on with red ink, and outlines of animals with … disproportionate anatomy.

Adolescents of all races gathered around the rock, about twenty in all, filling cheap wooden cups from a keg and dancing to a guitar-drummer duo. From his position on high ground, Taylor could see couples in the grass, just beyond the throng, lips locked together and rolling around.

"Hey! Who brought their little brother?" He'd been spotted.

"Not any of ours," said a bushkin boy. "You know him, Francie?"

"Not one of mine, either," said a human girl. "You lost, kid?"

The music stopped, and Taylor found himself at the center of attention of everyone who wasn't actively groping a person of the opposite sex. He was too young for this bacchanal, but it was too late to avoid it. He stepped off the rock and floated to the ground. To his disappointment, nobody was impressed.

"Not lost. I was … " He was about to make excuses and leave. But it occurred to him that this kind of audience was exactly what Saria had in mind. "I was looking for a secluded place to try a new summoning ritual. Obviously, this isn't it."

"Well, come on, then," said the beastkin boy. He and the girl, Francie, were standing at the center of the throng, nearest to the keg. "Let's see it."

"Let him go, Carl. He's just a kid. You don't have to embarrass him."

"No way. Look at him. He's got something, and he knows it."

"Come on! We've all been there and tried it. It never works."

Carl shook his head. "Nah, this one's got the juice. Tons of it. Everyone clear a space! Give him room."

Couples came in from the grass, drinks were poured, and a circle formed with Taylor at the center. Some people laughed at the impending entertainment, wondering if it would be any good. Many of them scoffed.

Taylor tossed his pack aside and took a fistful of prepared mica flakes in his hand. If Saria wanted a spectacle, then he would make her a spectacle.

He started with a little sonic magic, a fanfare followed by long harp arpeggios up and down the scale. He tossed streams of sparkling mica into the air. (Big arm movements! Reach high!) He did the same at all four points of the compass (Crouch and turn. Big arm movements!) until the air around him was filled with glitter. Then, the space went completely dark. Rings of light shot from the darkness, momentarily blinding his audience. When they blinked away the after-images, they beheld a tall woman with translucent hair and green-on-green eyes. Her robe was fine linen, embroidered with a rainbow trout wrapped around her. Her hair and robe floated, weightless, as if she were underwater.

Saria was just as surprised to see a throng of youths in mid-party as they were to see her. She waited a full second or more for a reaction, but the kids were too dumbfounded to react. She snapped open a paper fan and swept it imperiously across the audience. "I have arrived! Who will offer ale to the spirit of ice and darkness?"

A great cheer went up among the youth. Several cups were presented for her to choose from. Taylor got mobbed by congratulatory back thumps and hair tousling. The music played, people started dancing, and Saria joined them, swaying to her private rhythm.

Taylor gave them a few minutes, then separated himself from the throng and turned on his Riverstone illusion. Without a reliable way to keep time, he couldn't afford to be around so many people. When partiers passed by his spot, they gave him a thumbs up, told him he was amazing, or offered him cups of ale.

"You okay?" Saria sat next to him after the second dance. Mana danced on her skin. It had started right after she arrived and hadn't stopped. Taylor knew that kind of mana for what it was.

"I'm good. Just keeping my distance so nobody tries to kill me. How's your class coming along?"

"Wow!" She gazed at him, slightly tipsy and half-astonished. "Well, so much for that surprise."

"Oh, I'm surprised all right. You didn't tell me that getting summoned also got you a class. That's an important detail."

"I didn't mean any harm. You're the one who said he wanted to experience things and learn about spirits. I thought it would be more fun this way."

"Do all summoners know about this?"

"No. Maybe the most powerful ones know. Anyone who learns about it keeps it to themselves."

He almost asked why, but the answer was the same for every question about Knexenk. Because the Empire. Because the church. If people know Knexenk gave classes to spirits, they'd ask why she couldn't give them to everyone. There was too much advantage to keeping knowledge for oneself, and too much danger in talking about it.

"We have a job to do, mister. We'd better get on with it before we run out of daylight."

"You don't want to stay and party some more?"

"Thank you, but no. These children have terrible taste in ale. You can buy me something better in town. After you mail your letters. Kasper will worry if he doesn't hear from you."

They started the mile-long walk to a compact settlement with stone walls and dour-faced taurans guarding the gates.

"You never finished telling me about your father."

"He never read my letters, and he never wrote. I never saw him a single day in my life, except maybe on the day I was born, until he tried to kill me. There's nothing to tell. That's the point."

They walked in silence while Taylor wrestled with the memory of his one meeting with the colonel. The smirk. The hate. The sudden violence.

"I think that, in the back of my mind, I always assumed he was basically a good person who couldn't get past blaming me for my mother's death. But after meeting him and hearing about what he's doing to Mourne, I can't think that anymore. It's like … It's like he loved one person in his entire life and, when she died, he lost all his reasons to be a decent human being. And it makes me wonder about my mother, and what kind of person she was. The few bits of information I have about her say she was a wonderful woman, but then how did she end up with Otis? It's all … well … disappointing. Actually, it's worse than disappointing. Knowing your father is scum is a crappy feeling. Part of me wishes he died in Restoration, just so I can keep thinking good things about him."

Saria didn't say anything, but walked along in companionable silence.

"Thanks for listening, I guess. I don't even know why I'm telling you all this."

"Because I asked, and no one else did." Saria winked at him. "Water spirit, remember? Empathy goes with the territory, for better or worse."

"Did you choose a class yet?"

"Knexenk kept trying to give me Water Mage, but I held out for," she made dramatic motions with her hands, "Enchantress."

"Very classy. Very mysterious."

"Right? What's the point of taking Water Mage when you have thousands of years of experience as a water spirit? Why not expand a bit?"

They had to cut their Twilight-related conversation short as they neared the gate. Taylor showed his Dwergbank card and claimed Saria as his spirit companion, and the tauran guards let them through. Half the town was tauran, which was odd but not unheard of. Taylor and Saria wouldn't be in town long enough to investigate.

They found the post office, where Taylor sent letters to Kasper, the Blakes, his lawyer, Cecelia, Varda, Hendrika, and his sometimes-apprentice Alexia. He didn't realize how many connections he had accumulated until he had to notify them all that he would be unreachable. He was hoping the paladin situation would work itself out through the contract he had with the church. With any luck, he wouldn't be in hiding for long. There was a slight chance he would get all his things back, too.

After the post office, they ate at a restaurant where, for once, more people stared at the otherworldly Saria than at Taylor in his Riverstone illusion. The meal cost him a few small silver coins, but they enjoyed an impressive pate wrapped in puff pastry. When sliced, the loaf's cross-section revealed a geometric pattern made from different kinds of meat, offering several tastes in a single dish. Saria pronounced the ale superior to the teenagers' swill and practically danced into the street when their meal was over. She gawked at every passerby and every storefront. The world of Aarden was amazing to her, and Taylor couldn't stop grinning at her oversized reactions to everything.

"Thank you!" she said when they were outside the city. "We are going to have so much fun!'

"I think you mentioned that before. You get any quests yet?"

"So many. I have a couple that'll close after you dismiss me. Our first mission together was to post your letters, plus I took Dining On A Summoner's Dori. It's a one-shot, but so worth it! And I can't wait to get my first summoning payout."

"What's your reward?"

"Meet me in Twilight, and I'll show you."

Taylor thought the words that ended a summons, and Saria vanished. After a quick Airwalk to the gate (where the party had degenerated into a group stupor), he was back in Twilight, facing an elated Saria.

Her cupped hands were in front of her, filled with green marbles. Taylor recognized them as Twilight currency.

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