The Way Ahead

“So yeah, Inion doesn’t like you.”

“Doesn’t surprise me, she does strike me as very possessive.”

“She’s not… okay, maybe she is a bit. I just wish I knew how to help!”

“You know I’d never take advantage of you, right?”

“I mean, I know that-”

Probably. How would I be able to tell?

“It’s just a matter of convincing her, and I don’t know how to do that.”

“If I think of something, I’ll let you know. Anything to help you out,” she joked.

“Oh really? In that case, what about telling me about your Skills?” he teased. He tried to not bring it up too much, but his mind never really was able to go anywhere else, and he’d need to think of what he’d bring up next after she refused.

“Sure!”

“Wait, actually?” Edwin asked, discarding his musings, “Are you sure? Not that I don’t want to know what Skills you have going on, especially with your ears. Only one of them seems to be Hearing, what are the others? But anyway, what happened to that being private, or it not being proper?”

“Oh, are you complaining?”

“No! No. I love learning about you. Wait, no, that’s not right.”

“Oh you don’t like learning about me?” she shot back, and Edwin panicked. This was exactly the sort of thing that drove people away from him, just sticking his foot in his mouth.

“No, no. It’s not learning about you, it’s learning about your magic. Wait, that’s worse.”

I said stop sticking your foot in your mouth.

“I like learning about everything and… I’m… just going to stop there,” he sighed.

At least she didn’t seem too offended, and just laughed off his blunder. Edwin couldn’t help but wonder how much damage he’d done to her mental image of him, though.

“I’m just messing with you, don’t worry. But for working with me? It was never going to take long, Edwin. Especially not with you working so much with Lefi. Yes, it matters that you keep your guard up with people. But we’re adventurers, for better and worse. We need to constantly keep an eye out for people who will try and take advantage of our lack of support. That means keeping things close to the chest, yes. There are those who hate adventurers and will look to hunt them down, others will just refuse to pay you for jobs you perform.”

She shrugged, “But the other side of that is that it’s more important for us to make those support networks. Because there’s so few people that we can really trust. Imagine what would have happened to Yathal and Kynigos if Lefi hadn’t gotten them and brought them here. It’s important to weather the storms in groups, and those groups need to be honest with one another.”

“Yeah, but… why me? Is this just because of Inion?”

She gave him a smile and a bit of a laugh, “No, it’s not just because of Inion. Most of it is because you’re honest.”

Edwin started, “What? Do you have any idea how many secrets-”

She chuckled slightly, “I’m not talking about your secrets, whatever those are. We all have those. You’re just very straightforward. When you say something, you mean exactly that. No hidden agendas, nothing.”

“I think you might just be spending too much time with politicians.”

“No more than I can help,” she chuckled, “The nobles still insist on weekly meetings with me, but it’s always the same. Oh, due to unexpected delays my replacement is not coming quite yet, but any day now I should expect them, whoever it is, to begin the trip. But I better not get the idea that I’m actually doing something they couldn’t do without me, I’m not valuable to them or anything.”

“Any time with a politician is too much time with them.”

“I won’t disagree with you there.”

“So why don’t you just leave? I mean, I could get it if they were paying you a good amount or whatever, or if you had someone in the city you liked seeing, but why don’t you just…” he waved his hand in the air, “fly off?”

“Well, you keep things interesting for one. Between your lab stuff and Yathal’s antics? There’s never a boring moment with you around. But as it’s coming to winter, well… I usually settle down for a while, and the Tower certainly is a nice place for that. Much nicer than most places I winter, anyway. I lost my autumn, which is always sad because it’s the best time for flying, but no point dwelling on it.”

“Sure, but why did you stay this long?”

“Well, because they needed my help. Come on, Edwin. I know you understand that.”

“I mean… sure. I wouldn’t say I’m obligated to help random people, that gets into a whole mess of Ethics. Like an inherent obligation of action just isn’t a thing that can or really should even exist.”

“Edwin.”

“Yes?”

“Stay focused.”

“Right. Basically, positive obligations are a huge moral mess, and-”

“Edwin…”

“Sorry, sorry. What were we talking about?”

She sighed, “Would you help people that needed you, even if you didn’t know them?”

“I mean… probably, I guess,” he conceded, “But like… if they asked me… yeah. But I do have limits.”

“So do I,” she agreed, “I won’t stay here forever, but I also don’t want Enforcer Finnas to hunt me down.”

“Okay, that answers my question somewhat, but what is up with that? I haven’t gotten the impression many people actually want you here, but you also can’t leave?”

“Oh, that’s simple,” she said with a smile as they drifted through the sky, “They’ve done such a great job persuading everyone that they don’t need me, they've convinced themselves too.”

“I don’t follow,” Edwin admitted, “So they think they don’t want you, but also won’t let you leave?”

“The city enchantments need to stay active, and requires a steady source of wind magic to protect the city, but the nobles couldn’t bear to admit to their subjects that they need to rely on an adventurer, so they spin everything in a way that makes me look absolutely useless, or like I’m threatening or sleeping my way into the position. I’m somewhat flattered by the former, but the latter is just ridiculous.”

“Oh, why’s that?”

“Because they don’t have nearly enough towers if that’s what it took to get into one,” she replied with a grin.

Edwin chuckled, “I’ll take your word for it. But that does seem to be the case, yeah. I’ve heard several things that sound like insults about you when I’m out and about. Whatever slander campaign they ran against you is rather impressive, I have to admit.”

“Oh, believe me. I’ve heard it all myself. But it’s all because of how important it is to them that they retain the appearance of complete competency, and the idea that anyone could do anything without their support doesn’t work with that.

“In other places, the local Enforcer might stand as a counterpoint to the Governor, and they can play out their little power struggles on that axis. Here, though? Enforcer Finnas is in the middle of it all and it doesn’t look good for his power if he can’t do everything.”

“So what? You just… let them mock you?”

“You can’t be a successful adventurer if you put too much into caring what people will think about you. Look at Lefi.”

“People are overrated,” Edwin grumbled slightly, and Rillah laughed.

“They can be. And it’s good to see you’re already in the right mindset. But that brings me around to my original point. I’m helping you because you’re helping me.”

“Helping you? I’m not doing anything,” he protested, “And I have to keep shoving my guilt down because there’s nothing I can do. It’s only because of you that we’re able to stay here, and it’s not like I’m providing anything useful. Heck, I can’t even help out by making food every once in a while because my stupid cooking Skill is addictive!”

“Edwin,” she gently admonished, “Do you blame Yathal for not being as strong as us?”

“Oh, so I’m a kid now?” Edwin snapped, then winced, “Sorry. That was uncalled for.”

She gently stroked the side of his head, “You’re not a kid, you’re just new to this is all.”

“What do you know of my past?” Edwin guardedly asked.

I swear, if another person knows about me being an Outsider… I don’t know.

“Not much,” she said with a shrug, “Lefi will only tell me that you’re from very far away, but that anything more isn’t his secret to tell.”

“And you haven’t been bugging me about that?” Edwin was surprised, “You who wants to know everything?”

She waved her finger in admonishment- they used the little finger, but it was still unmistakably the same motion, “You’re the one who wants to know everything. I want to experience it.”

“You want to experience everything?” Edwin teased.

“Oh, of course not everything, no more than you want to know every little detail about the Street Cleaner’s job.”

Edwin wrinkled his nose, “Point taken.”

“You don’t need to be useful now to be very clearly useful in the future or in many other situations. I’ve seen what you make, and you’re clearly shaping up to be a promising alchemist. If you’re ever able to make even half the stuff that comes out of Panastalis, yeah I want to get on your good side now. Can you at least believe that?” she shot him a smile as they fell into a dive.

“Yeah, yeah. So what I’m hearing is, I’m not actually helpful right now for anything but entertainment, you just think I might be eventually.”

Edwin tried to believe that she meant it, but his brain… wasn’t convinced. He was useless! That they were willing to patronize him didn’t make it better, why couldn’t they just tell him the truth? Or worse- were they expecting him to be able to make arycal and midnight dust and all the other stuff alchemists could make? What would she say if she found out he was totally incapable of making any of that stuff?

“Edwin, no,” she gently said, coming to a stop and turning around to look at him, hovering in the air far above the tower.

He sighed, “Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten after you. Can we end the flight for today? I don’t want you to have to deal with me anymore today.”

“Oh? You don’t want to hear anything more about my Skills? Not even my ears? I promise, you’ll find some of them fun!” her voice picked up a slightly melodic tone as she talked.

“Not… not today. I mean, I could, I just… can we talk about them at some later time? I just… I’m not feeling it right now.”

She reached out to grab his hand, and while Edwin initially felt like refusing it, sense won out over spite and he hesitantly reached out to take it. Her hand was so very nice and soft…

Edwin fought back a bit of a sigh. Human physical contact may not have been quite the same as emotional closeness, but it was a nice enough substitute.

“Of course we can. One last dive?”

A wan smile crossed Edwin’s face, “Sure. One last dive.”

“Oh hey,” Edwin noted as they landed.

“What’s up?” Rillah asked, “Feeling better?”

“I mean… I guess a bit? Anyway, Flight leveled again.”

“Oh nice! It’s been a few days, hasn’t it? What’s it at now?”

“Yeah,” he agreed, “Fifty-nine. One more until I start looking at evolving it.”

“That’s great!” she made a quick twisting motion with her outsplayed fingers in a ‘congratulations,’ “You’ve been growing so fast!”

He shrugged, “Guess you can thank Lefi and Inion for that,” Edwin’s eyes widened. “Oh, and you. Definitely you, and getting me to go flying so often,” he hastily added.

Rillah gave him a warm smile, “It’s my pleasure.”

“Gah!” Edwin threw the rock he was holding on the ground in frustration. He was useless even in his magic practice. Sure, he could make slightly different types of mana by focusing on different kinds of potions, but when he tried to mix them to create anything slightly more complicated, or even just to practice, they just absolutely refused to cooperate.

Inion looked up, curious and putting aside what she was working on- some braided flowers from the tower’s garden, still flourishing even in late fall, “What’s wrong?”

“This magic! It’s just…” he sighed, frustration gone, “Just a momentary bit of frustration. I thought for sure I had it that time, but the drops separated just before they finished mixing. Why… well, I mean I expected it to be hard.”

“So what’s the trouble?”

He shook his head, “Nothing, really. Rillah just makes it look so easy. And I know that’s because of practice and lots of Skills, especially given I kneecapped myself way back when. I’m just so far behind everyone else it’s ridiculous. Oh, look at me! I can start a fire with the snap of my fingers, I can mix a healing potion. Then you have Lefi, who… okay, I’ll admit that he’s not a good point of comparison. But then you have Kyni, who can at the very least heal Yathal with no difficulties and straight-up outrun the wind when he’s really trying.”

“Edwin, you’ve been on Joriah for less than two years.”

“Yeah, I know! But look at my company! I’ve barely so much as ruffled Lefi’s cloak when we spar, Rillah outclasses me in everything, and I can’t even get this to work despite having two Skills practically dedicated to it! And don’t even get me started on you.

“It doesn’t matter that I’m getting better because that’s not what matters overall! What matters is that I am behind, and I’m just not catching up fast enough! Sure, Flight will probably hit level sixty in the next few weeks, and I suppose I really need to start thinking about what I’ll do for that... But that still only puts me at tier two. Then everyone keeps patronizing me over it! And that’s without even talking about all the non-Skill ways that they’re better than me. Rillah’s actually able to put up with me, even when I get annoyed!”

Inion glared at him.

“What?”

“You’re an idiot, you know that?”

“…Why?” Edwin’s mind raced with everything he might have just said. What had he done wrong? He needed to…

“Lefi is the Empire’s strongest adventurer and has been improving his Skills for nearly a century,” she counted off her fingers, “That girl is your age, yes, but has had Skills for her entire life and has been a potent mage for most of that time. She’s spent more time getting a single Skill to tier four than you’ve spent onJoriah. And then I’ve had skills longer than this entire empire has existed, and while I was asleep for most of that I still had centuries to grow my Skills and really master them. You’d be an utter freak if you somehow were able to already be as strong as any of us.”

“How do you know all of that stuff?”

“I talk to people, Edwin.”

“I do that too!” he protested, “Though… yeah, not about that, I suppose.”

He sighed, “So basically, I should focus more on my true peers? I’m doing better than toddlers? What?”

“Yes. Though you could well pass into tier three at any point if you so chose and you know it.”

“Sure, but then I’d be dealing with a bunch of really weak Paths, which doesn’t really help.”

“You know most laborers and such might have but a single sixty-point Path, ya? If you wanted, you could surpass them all at will. Really, you already have. Whatever your Flight skill becomes will be impressive enough.

“You had education back on Earth, did you not?” she continued.

Edwin nodded, “Yep. Ages five through… well, you could go until you were like thirty, but most just went until eighteen.”

“Here, you started your schooling two years ago, and now you’re upset that you’ve only gotten twelve years’ worth of Skill growth since then.”

“Yeah, but…”

“Both of them are known across the Empire as being exceptionally powerful. Lefi in particular, but do you really think there wasn’t a single other wind mage Sheraith could have called upon instead of her?”

That… was true. And entirely fair.

“And Rillah was just talking to me about this, too. I need better benchmarks, don’t I?” he sighed, “Not that I really have any available.”

He sat in silence for a moment before steeling himself, “Any idea what I should do about that with my magic?”

“You said you picture it as a potion, yes?”

“Yeah. What are you… like a stream or something?”

She nodded, floating over to him, “Close enough. Summon a bit for me?”

Edwin obliged, mentally tipping over the potion bottle and letting some of the radiant liquid run down his arm and pool in his hand. The visualization was already showing its worth- he would have never been able to hold that much mana before he knew to imagine it as a potion. Now, the difficulty wasn’t in keeping the mana together as it was to keep it against his hand, a significantly easier task.

Inion nodded, and he felt her mana- so reminiscent of a shaded spring- burble up from her palm and gather in her hand the same way Edwin’s had.

“When you use your mana, you must determine how it is that you shape it. For me, water is an extension of my body, so I can control the water itself. You have a much harder job, how is it that you see yourself directing your mana?”

“I mean, I’m trying to get it to mix properly.”

“What is your goal?”

“I mean, I don’t really have one. I’m just trying to feed two slightly different types of mana together and mix them somehow, just to get a bit of practice. But they’re always staying either distinct or just cancelling each other out. I’m starting to wonder if going with potions was a bad idea. Rillah uses sounds and music, and she does all this harmonizing stuff where two notes can have their individual effects but combine to make a third… how does that work, anyway? Can you cripple your magic by choosing a bad visual?”

“The mana doesn’t change with your visualization,” Inion explained, “Not by itself. Your mana is no different than it was before. But! With a clear picture in mind you can make different applications way easier than normal. As you get better with the picture, the easier it’ll be to get it to work the way you want.”

“Oh, so they’re… more like models, then?”

“Mah-dels? You say that word and I hear at least three different terms.”

“Umm… so in Physics, there are things that don’t conform to normal experiences. Electrons and photons- don’t worry about it- are the major ones. So, there’s different models that you can work with that focus on different properties of the things, and depending on what model you use different calculations might be easier.”

“I have no idea what you just said.”

“Could you look at someone’s mana and tell what their visualization is?”

“Not to any detail, nah. Though that only applies if they aren’t using it at all, but if they are you can infer quite a bit.”

“Okay, great. So yeah. It’s not that the mana itself changes, but the way you approach it can make certain tasks easier or harder.”

Inion raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, I know that’s exactly what you said, but now I understand it. So how does that help?”

“Well, you’ll get better with practice.”

“Yes, I know that, but I can’t even get started. Hard to practice when you fail all the time,” his lips quirked up slightly, “Just look at my training times with Lefi.”

“You said he was doing better, didn’t you?”

“Well okay, he is, but… nevermind. It was a bad joke. How am I supposed to practice it, though?”

“You spend at least an hour in your workshop each day doing potion-work, don’t you?”

“Yes? What does… oh!”

“Use Mana Infusion at first to get used to it, I’d say. Then try to freehand it.”

Edwin jumped up, “Inion, I could kiss you! That’s perfect!”

“Oh? Do you want to?”

Edwin’s face must have gone through some very complex and very amusing emotions, because Inion just laughed at him while he went red from embarrassment and tried to hide his face.

Level Up!

Skill Points 995→1020 (Average level: 53)

Adaptive Defense Level 41→42

Alchemical Analysis Level 37→40

Alchemy Level 92→93

Arcadian Elixir Level 32→35

Bomb Throwing Level 55→56

Fey’s Caress Level 41→43

Flight Level 56→59

Fresh Air Level 44→45

Improbable Arsenal Level 36→39

Longstrider Level 46→48

Mana Infusion Level 89→90

Prototyping Level 39→40

Ritual Intuition Level 43→46

Sapper’s Apparatus Level 59→60

Skillful Assessment Level 48→49

Watchful Rest Level 36→37

Name

Edwin Maxlin

Age

2

Race

Extraplanar Human

Class

Alchemist-Errant

Attributes

Health 25

Impact 7

Mana 33

Perception 19

Stamina 30

Skills

Alchemical

Alchemy 93, Alchemical Analysis 40, Refining 36, Alchemical Dismantling 46, Sapper’s Apparatus 60

(Purify: 75)

Magical

Basic Thermokinesis 32, Fey’s Caress 43, Ritual Intuition 43, Mana Infusion 88

Flight 59, (Basic Mana Sense: 82), (Basic Mana Manipulation: 9)

Physical

Overcharge 27, Longstrider 48, Fresh Air 44

(Athletics: 81), (Breathing: 76), (Flexibility: 74), (Nutrition: 73), (Packing: 92), (Seeing: 72), (Sleeping: 73), (Survival: 76), (Walking: 74)

Mental

Numeracy 48, Prototyping 40, Anatomy 43, Polyglot: 70, Memory 65

(Language: 36), (Mathematics: 74), (Research: 50), (Visualization: 80)

Combat

Bomb Throwing 56, Adaptive Defense 42

(Throwing Weapons: 48)

Utility

Outsider's Almanac 134, Watchful Rest 31, Skillful Assessment 41, Arcadian Elixir 32, Improbable Arsenal 33

(Firestarting: 94), (Improvisation: 14), (Status: 22), (Identify: 80), (First Aid: 82), (Harvesting: 76), (Construction: 77)

Paths

Skill Points: 1020

Combat

Assassin 0/60, Bomber 0/60, Giant Slayer 0/60, Heedless Hunter 0/60, Hunter 0/30, Killer 0/30, Titan Slayer 0/90, Warrior 0/60, Way of the Empty Hand 0/60, Trapper 0/60, Artillerist 0/60, Sapper 0/60

Alchemy

Alchemical Medic 0/60, Demolitionist 0/60, Makeshift Alchemist 0/60, Potioneer 0/60, Practical Alchemist 0/60, Mystic Alchemist 0/90

Science

Chemist 0/60, Experimenter 0/60, Researcher 0/60, Purifier 0/30, Scientific Revolutionary 0/90, Scientist 0/60, Engineer 0/60, Physicist 0/60, Mathematician 0/60, Material Scientist 0/60

Magic

Aerialist 0/60, Fey Friend 0/60, Feybound 0/60, Feycaller 0/60, Mage 0/60, Magical Gardener 0/60, Micro-Biomancer 0/90, Primal Constructor 0/90, Primal Ritualist 0/90, Realm Traveler 0/120, Skilled Arcanist 0/60, Fey Supplicant 0/60, Feykind 0/90, Attuner 0/30,

Mental

Dedicated Student 0/60, Lecturer 0/30, Scholar 0/60, Unbowed 0/90, Canny 0/60, Steady Mind 0/60, Mentalist 0/60,

System

Almanac Administrator 0/60, Forerunner 0/60, Outsider’s Almanac Specialist 0/90, Pioneer 0/60, Skill Researcher 0/60, System Scholar 0/60,

Trophy

Blackstone Conqueror 0/60, Deepwoods Panther-Hunter 0/60, Stonehide Vanquisher 0/60,

Career

Brickmaker 0/30, Butcher 0/30, Diver 0/30, Gardener 0/30, Lumberjack 0/60, Merchant 0/30, Potter 0/30, Scribe 0/30, Woodsman 0/30,

Physical

Ascetic 0/60, Daredevil 0/60, Physical Alchemist 0/90, Survivor 0/60, Physical Laborer 0/30, Athlete 0/60

Traveling

Escapee 0/30, Exile 0/30, Traveler 0/30, World Traveler 0/60

Medical

Field Medic 0/60, Medic 0/30, Steadfast Medic 0/60, Medical Lecturer 0/60

Misc

Arsonist 0/60, Autopyromaniac 0/60, Burglar 0/60, Child 0/12, Expert 0/60, Imperial Ally 0/60, Novice 0/12, Pyromaniac 0/30, Razer of the Ruined Tower 0/60, Rebel 0/30, Slave 0/12, Trainee 0/60, Traitor 0/60, Brushed by Power 0/60, Lirasian Citizen 0/30, Royal Advisor 0/60, Favored by Power 0/90, Insomniac 0/30, Sleepless Disciple 0/60, Student of Power 0/60

Completed Paths

CharLimitCanttalkmuchNocluewhathappenedDidmybesttohelpyouli, Mage, Skilled Arcanist, Physical Alchemist, Bomber, Linguist, Beginner, Warrior, Path Less Traveled, Athlete, Scout, Unkillable, Superior Alchemist, Adventurer, Explorer, Outsider, Skill Researcher, Wanderer,Alchemical Warrior, Novice Pyromancer, Novice Ritualist, Alchemist, Physicist, Engineer, Physical Arcanist, Biologist, Practical Alchemist, Fey Scion, Feytouched