The Way Ahead

The streets were surprisingly clear, Edwin reflected, considering how much snow they’d been getting regularly. While the overcast sky ensured that there were still a few snowflakes drifting to rest along the street, the textured stone itself was almost completely bare of snow which might serve as some kind of a hindrance. There wasn’t anywhere obvious all the snow might have gone, either. It definitely felt like Skill nonsense. Perhaps because this was a nicer district of the city, there was more regular road maintenance?

As he wandered around, it certainly seemed to be the case. As the streets became less massive stone blocks and more cobblestone, the piles of snow alongside the side of the road grew dramatically, to the point where some houses were almost completely buried in slightly-dirty snow.

He even got to see one of the street-cleaners! A human man dressed in relatively light and plain clothes held a contraption reminiscent of a snow shovel, but with the shovel blade turned perpendicular to the handle like a snowplow.

To clear the street, the man lined the shovel right up next to the pile of snow on the road and then just pushed. Snow flew in every direction, mostly straight but much off to the sides, increasing the barriers by several inches at a minimum. Then, work done, he walked the hundred feet or so to where the snow had receded and carried on.

It was quite the sight to see, but Edwin didn’t stick around for that long before moving on.

Humans, he noted, were largely bundled up as might be expected, wearing thick woolen jackets and scarves. Half of them wore wool mittens, and most wore some kind of hat as well, which made Edwin feel rather out of place in his standard traveling getup. He had gloves, sure, but they were decidedly work gloves and not that warm. His fingers weren’t cold anyway, and he had a small bottle of heated water if he did end up feeling cold at some point.

Fortunately, what did help him feel less out-of-place was that the avior he saw were wearing largely the same clothes they always did- namely, not much and usually either decidedly workmanlike or ostentatious with very little in the middle. He supposed it made sense if they had some kind of winder down, and made a note to ask Lefi… and checking his note reminded him he still hadn’t figured out what made Bomb Throwing trigger or not.

Well, next time he needed a break from his trait transference problem he could work on that, he supposed.

“Oh look, it’s the daywasr’s toy!” a voice heckled.

Edwin looked up, seeing a young avior- a Treetop Hunter- perched on a nearby roof, but he shrugged and carried on. If he stopped every time he heard an insult he’d spend more time responding to them than actually carrying on with his day. People didn’t like him, that was hardly a surprise.

“Hey! I was talking to you!”

“You were?” Edwin shot back, “I’m sorry, you clearly have the wrong person.”

A flap of his wings brought the avior face-to-face with Edwin, razor-sharp beak inches from his nose. The intimidation factor was definitely lessened by the fact he was at least a head and a half shorter, though. His feather was still very strong, poking into Edwin’s chest just hard enough to be uncomfortable.

“I don’t think I do now. I’ve watched you go in and out of that tower thinkin like you own the place?”

It was kind of hilarious how the kid thought he was intimidating, like Edwin didn’t live with three of possibly the strongest individuals in the city and regularly trained with all of them.

“You may want to work on your Mind Reading skill,” Edwin casually countered, “I think it’s being influenced by something else… Personal Fantasy, maybe?”

“What?” the boy seemed confused.

“Look,” Edwin put on a false smile and sounded ‘reassuring’ as he lightly rested his hand on the avior’s shoulder, “I’m sure that the local Registrar might be able to help you out if you just asked. I’m sure they knew what they were doing when they assigned you some sort of delusion-based Skill. Or did you get that on your own?”

“You adventurer-” the boy started, trying to shrug Edwin’s hand away, but he held firm, tightly gripping the base of the wing even as pressure started to build..

“Correct. Now, get out of my face and leave me alone.”

“I won’t stand to be bossed around by scum like you.”

“Oh, is there anything else you wanted to talk about? I’ll give you… oh, how about a minute, before you leave?”

“Do you seriously think you have any level of control over my actions? You’re scum, worthless to your communities and a bane upon the Empire and everything it stands for. You’re disgraceful, and your little bitch in the tower is too, you know that? Soon the tower’s rightful owners will come around and then we’ll see how smug you are…”

There didn’t seem to be any useful information present, so Edwin tuned out the annoying voice and concentrated on his magic instead. Could he maybe make this go any faster, somehow? It didn’t seem like the little angry ball of feathers noticed Edwin’s ever-tightening grip, but that worked out fine for him.

Numeracy buzzed, letting Edwin know how long had passed.

“Minute’s up. Bye.”

“You still think you can-”

“It wasn’t a request,” Edwin released his grip on the Hunter and Unbound Tether simultaneously, the pent-up energy from the charged Skill sending the avior absolutely flying. The arrogant teen didn’t ragdoll too much, but did manage to catch himself once Edwin stopped pushing and swooped away on stiff wings.

Edwin looked around the street. It hadn’t been busy exactly, but now it was mostly deserted. Nobody had wanted to stick around, apparently. Ah well. He would… check out the docks. Yeah. He’d flown over them a bunch of times, but it was almost always way above them. The one time he’d actually been there, he’d been distracted by Inion and he was curious what the lifeblood of the city was really like.

As he walked, he enjoyed marveling at the city’s sights. The snowbanks were everywhere, and his Skills let him see much more than normal. Skillful Assessment showed the nigh-invisible forms of alley cats stalking across the snow, Numeracy informed him of a bank of snow that was about to collapse- he danced out of the way before it could strike him, and Basic Mana Sense lit up here and there, picking up on hints of icy wind mana from the tower carried with the breeze.

Winter really was beautiful, he reflected. Without the cold bothering him, without his nose, ears and fingers freezing, he could properly enjoy the majesty of undisturbed snowdrifts, and the quaint novelty of seeing a proper pseudomedieval city blanketed in white.

The docks were closed for the season, and while practically deserted by comparison, they were still rather busy. The sounds of a smithy echoed through the streets along with the distant barking of a dog, a hint of fresh bread was carried on the breeze, and the crowds of people scarcely looked up as they bustled about their day.

There were, of course, the frequent displays of superhuman prowess- the man carrying a crate bigger than he was like it weighed nothing, the crier making his voice heard about… something to do with boats, it didn’t matter to him- in a way that sounded like he was standing directly in front of every single person, and a halfling woman casually leaping from a second-story door to the streets below. Along this street, it was clear that there was a significant amount of effort put into making it look presentable, similar to the higher-class neighborhoods like where the tower was located. However, even just looking down the alleyways unveiled where the quality of housing diminished, the walls damaged; paint chipped and peeling, wood cracked and splintered.

Meanwhile, the river itself was mostly frozen over. It wasn’t completely- there was still flowing water near the center- but the docks themselves were encased in ice. While most of the boats that otherwise would be fishing or carrying goods had either left the city for the season or had been pulled out of the water, there were still a few ships still remaining.

One, Edwin noted with interest, was surrounded by a bit of un-frozen water and was inundated with Skills of all forms. He wandered over that way to take a closer look at the vessel, noting an unusual lack of sails. Though perhaps they had just been taken in for the season? In all respects, the boat was crafted masterfully without so much as a single splinter out of place. Although he didn’t know exactly how to tell, it seemed to exude understated competence from the serpent-headed bow to the dark, straight-grained wood of its body.

That was without even getting into the skills inundating every inch of the craft. Now that he was looking, he definitely saw several similar skills imbuing the other boats he could see, but this one seemed to have them all. From the net-like weaving of Efficient Space to something reminiscent of Basic Thermokinesis, and another that was an… inverted Firestarting? Ah, probably a fire-suppressing skill. Very neat.

After a few minutes of admiring the boat’s Skills, Edwin lost interest and wandered off downstream. While subtle alongside the waterfront, it was clear that this was much more of the working end of the port. Nets and ropes smelling strongly of fish cluttered the local scents just as surely as the stone walkway, weather-worn buildings creaked underneath the winter winds and groaned under their snowy burden.

There were still some ships in the water, but they definitely seemed to be on the rattier end of things. Some even looked as though it was only the river’s thick layer of ice that was keeping them afloat, but most had very few Skills working on them. It was just… neglected.

The people, too, matched the idea. Clothing was less fine, the people looked more haggard. A figure lay on the ground in an alleyway he passed, the Fairweather Fisher still alive but perhaps for not much longer.

A part of Edwin said he should try to help these people, but it was solidly vetoed. Getting involved in other people's problems was very much not what he wanted to do. While he could sympathize somewhat with their plight, it also wasn’t his problem. He didn’t not care, but he also couldn’t actually care, not if he wanted to remain sane and actually able to take care of himself.

There didn’t seem to be much more of interest- or at least the right kind of interesting- further downstream, so Edwin decided to backtrack before he either got mugged or pulled on some pointless distraction.

Without the distractions of the city to slow him down on his return trip, Edwin skimmed just off the ground with Flight, only really paying any attention to obstacles in his path. Thus, it took only a few minutes before he’d fully made it back to where he started.

He didn’t really feel like heading back to the tower quite yet, and he was kind of curious as to whether upstream the buildings and boats would be nicer. Besides, he had- and still had, he’d checked after leaving the semi-slums- his smoke bombs and a few fireballs, he’d be fine.

It definitely became apparent that everything became nicer as he explored this half of the waterfront; more and more large buildings elegantly sculpted into veritable works of art. There were no nets and ropes cluttering these streets, no. In their place were elegantly-crafted individual piers and works of art, many more guards and far fewer people. Oh, there still were people of course, but not as many as had previously been around.

There were, of course, more boats still in the river up here, almost all of them with Skills similar to the one he’d seen downstream that kept the water around them at an above-freezing temperature, but this time they were significantly gaudier.

Fancy carvings and gildings, luxurious paints, mental Skills- his practice with Rillah’s Mesmeric Flare was paying off it would seem, and while he was still hopeless against her, the boat wasn’t nearly so powerful a distraction- and even hints of magic. There might not have been very many, but sheer presence and size more than accounted for that difference. One even looked to be made of a single stone, some massive boulder shaped and quarried into the form of a luxury barge.

Some had workers, too. One boat had a woodcarver actively detailing the side, others had a few humans and halflings running around with fine materials, though with almost no sounds of construction in the area, it was impossible to tell what they were doing.“Outlaws and troublemakers,” the voice resonated from the air behind and above Edwin, and he turned around to see an avior with steel-gray feathers descend to the street below him, “Do not belong here, and yet you are both and remain.”

Sentinel of the Distant Flow

Edwin looked around, “I’m not? Well, guess I’ll head back then,” he shrugged, “You might want to put up a sign.”

He held back a wince. That sounded way worse than he had been hoping for, and the Sentinel clearly agreed. In the blink of an eye, Edwin found himself slammed against the closest wall, held a few inches off the ground by the avior’s wing.

“It dares mock me?”

“Honestly,” Edwin tried to shrug, fighting back his rising panic. Okay, he had a smoke bomb within reach of his left hand, and he could also Tether himself a fireball and detonate that. He hadn’t tested what it would do to him point-blank but he was at… mostly full Health, after that wall-slam, and he’d probably be fine, “I have no clue who you are. I don’t think we’ve ever met.”

“Know your betters.”

Edwin felt himself flying through the air, but many, many hours of practice helped him catch himself, and with a twist of Flight, he landed feet-first on the ground and not on the river.

“You know, this really isn’t helpful,” Edwin pointed out, “Also I’m pretty sure I should be calling the guards around now?”

“Scum will forever be unaided and your actions today have proven you to be such.”

“Again… you keep saying these sorts of things but I don’t actually know who you are, so…”

There was pressure at the front of his chest, and Edwin looked down to see a feather sticking out of it. That wasn’t good, though he wasn’t really bleeding? The attack definitely took a good chunk of Health, but he stayed tethered to the ground with Flight as Edwin pulled the feather out and slipped it in his pocket.

“I am the only authority you need to concern yourself with, adventurer. It is by my will you remain alive and-”

Edwin decided enough was enough and that he ought to take Lefi’s advice to heart. He didn’t stick around to hear the end of the avior’s rant, instead breaking a smoke bomb. As the world around him turned completely white, he triggered Longstrider and stepped away, the world blurring into one mess of white

“You go nowhere,” the voice hissed and Edwin felt his collar yank him back. Longstrider shattered around him, leaving him just on the edge of his cloud of smoke and right next to a very cross raptor.

Edwin’s eyebrow raised. That was pretty impressive, and he definitely should probably start taking this seriously it would seem. Even Lefi didn’t seem to be able to pull Edwin out of Longstrider, just move stuff in his way.

“What is it that you want?” Edwin sighed, “I’m in a good mood, you know? Or at least I was, and this is supposed to be my day off. Oh! Are you the dad of that one kid who was bothering me earlier or something?”

“Oh, the adventurer says it has a day off. How amusing. As though its every day spent here isn’t a worthless waste of perfectly good food while providing nothing in return. Quite the little leech, isn’t it? Attacking actual citizens and then pretending it isn’t gliding on broken wings.”

“Okay, first off: I do a lot of actually useful stuff and am perfectly capable of paying my own way. But other than that… sorry? Not for taking care of myself, mind you, the guy had it coming. But I’m sure that if you have problems with my existence I can ask Rillah for advice on being unobtrusive.”

“Oh yes, her. I know all about your compatriot and her worthless quackery. Though at least she knows her place.”

“Look, are you ever going to tell me who you are?” he sighed, mentally evaluating what direction he would be best off to flee towards. He held a smoke bomb behind his back, ready to detonate it at a moment’s notice and run off, “I’m still under the assumption you’re just the dad of that hooligan who tried to harass me earlier. And you seriously need to step up your intimidation game, because this… yeah, it isn’t doing much.”

“I ought to throw you from this city and forbid your return. You and all your kind.”

“Okay,” Edwin shrugged, “I’m pretty sure Rillah would be thrilled to be allowed to go. Though maybe you should wait for spring? Not sure how far we’d get in this weather before we had to turn around for some reason.”

“You refuse to take this seriously?”

Edwin leveled a flat glare, “Look, if you’re just going to do all this empty posturing and bluster, no, I’m not going to take this any more seriously than you seem to. Like, you keep saying all these things which just… I can’t really seem to understand how a real, breathing person could say it with a straight face. Start from the beginning, because I’m pretty sure that being an Adventurer still means I get the legal protections of a citizen, and I see a couple of guards coming this way.”

“They will not aid you against me.”

Edwin sighed, his responses spilling out, “Look, you can say these sorts of vaguely ominous-sounding threats all you want, but the fact of the matter is that without knowing anything about who you are or what sorts of things you’re trying to threaten me with, it’s just not effective and makes you sound like you’re just trying to mess with my head. Like yes, that’s a very neat trick, grabbing me mid-stride and all, but unless I have context for that, all it means is that you have some sort of fun Skill that I haven’t seen before. Specific ultimatums, not this uncertain mess.”

There was a moment where the avior seemed decidedly confused, and Edwin took it as a win. Then he opened his beak again, “Very well. I am Imperial Enforcer Finnas Eshrais Reffiel. You will face justice for your numerous crimes, and the guards will not prevent that from happening.”

Well… at least Edwin knew he was dealing with now.

“See? Much better. You’ve established your credibility as a threat, given me a… more concrete thing to look out for, and now I actually know what I’m dealing with. It’s an improvement, but you still need to work a bit on the specificity. For example, what crimes? What would justice look like?” he asked, “After all, I did all your stuff. Paid the gate entry fee- at the merchant’s rate, I’ll have you know- have been staying pretty much out of everyone’s way and I’ve even been helping take care of the weather tower or whatever you call it.”

He paused to think, “Is this actually about the about little kid who kept heckling me?” he realized, “I did my best to not hurt him, just sort of… shoo him away.”

“As though you have any right to lay a finger upon a proper citizen, outlaw.”

“Okay, getting better,” Edwin wasn’t nearly as calm as he was letting on, but he kept his fear from showing. There was no sense in letting the enforcer know his little intimidation was succeeding, after all. Who knew that emotional repression might have practical applications?

“But if you really want to go all-out, you should really make sure that you signal both that you know who I am and what I’ve done, that you don’t care, and you’re going to mess me up regardless. Something like, I don’t know, ‘Edwin Maxlin, Ally of the Empire or not, you have crossed me for the last time, now you will be exiled’ or something like that.”

“Edwin Maxlin?”

“Oh, have you heard of me?”

“...Yes” he growled, eyes flashing with some Identify-related Skill.

“Even better! Then you can mix in a few personal barbs, really paint a vivid picture of everything going on.”

In lieu of replying, the avior backhanded (backwinged?) Edwin right in his face, sending his neck cracking back painfully but predominantly launching him through the air over the river.

...Well, shoot. That wasn’t what he had wanted.

Edwin righted himself with Unbound Tether and brought Flight into play, hovering above the ice. Meanwhile, the enforcer was nowhere to be seen.

Huh. Apparently his name-drop and reminder of his status worked better than he’d anticipated! It was a bit strange that his identity hadn’t shown up on Identify for an Enforcer, but maybe that didn’t always work or something like that. There were many reasons he might not have checked anything beyond Edwin’s status as an adventurer, ranging from simple forgetfulness and overconfidence to.. well, there was probably something else but he couldn’t think what that might have been.

Edwin breathed a sigh of relief as a torrent of delayed emotions began assaulting his mind now that the immediate danger had passed.

Well, at least it looked like he’d been given a free pass to remain in the city. Or, perhaps the Enforcer would be back before long with backup? Who knew. He was in one piece, mostly unharmed, and not that worn out.

He sighed. It was close to an unmitigated disaster, and could have gone much worse very easily. He knew that a day on the town likely wouldn’t go great, but he hadn’t expected it to go this badly. He should have just stayed in the tower; at least there people pretended to like him.

Pierash greeted Edwin when he slunk in through the door, the too-large eyes of a halfling able to present a very convincing semi-skeptical glare.

“Well aren’t you just a right mess. Did you try to swim down the waterfall?”

“What? I don’t look that bad, do I?”

“A few injuries, and I know you have Health from all your yammering about the place. That any of it stuck means it woulda been bad. Not much of a mess, but a mess all the same.”

Edwin sighed, “It’s fine… I think. Why does everyone hate adventurers so much?” he vaguely groused.

“Oh, lots of reasons.”

“Is there anyone who isn’t likely to spit at me when I pass them on the street, or anywhere where it’s not common? Like seriously, from day one of being in the Empire it’s been nothing but thinly-veiled insults about me at best, open hostility at worst. Like come on. Why even have adventurers if everyone hates them so much? Oh, thank you.” He accepted a mug of hot cider with a nod, sipping at the beverage.

“Oh, well I imagine most folks won’t be bothering you about what your Skills are. But they can’t well tell you that when they see you now can they? Those all who remember when there were no Adventurers are still pretty common and definitely louder. Just be glad they have to treat you as good as they do, or ye’d never be allowed in a city.”

“Good?” Edwin incredulously raised an eyebrow, “I had to deal with some hunter who randomly started to insult me and Rillah and get very up-close and personal, then when I shoved him away and went about my day the Enforcer came out to personally try and bully me. That’s good?”

“Well, what do you know about your kind?”

“You mean Adventurers?” Edwin clarified, “Uh, what do you mean? Like their history?”

“For almost all of history until recently, if you weren’t under Management you were an outlaw. You proved you didn’t want your community, they didn’t want you. Then… oh, about a hundred and twenty years ago, Xares decided that they might still be allowed in society in exchange for but the barest lip service to tradition and law.”

“And law isn’t public opinion,” Edwin summarized, “but why all the hate? Adventurers are just… harmless. So what if they don’t follow one single law?”

“Where did you grow up?”

“A really, really long way from here.”

“What was your home like with outsiders?”

“Ou- oh, like foreigners, you mean? I mean… depends on who you asked, I suppose. For me and my circles it generally didn’t matter.”

“There were those who just hated foreigners though, yes? Those who thought nothing good can come from beyond their own home?”

“I always thought it was a bit overblown… but yeah, I guess so.”

“That’s what adventurers are, but proven.”

“Proven? What do you mean?”

“Adventurers are those who we thought were our kin, who respected our traditions and customs, then decided to throw it all away. They are foreigners disguised as proper citizens. They share not our values, and have decided wholeheartedly that they are not like us, not of us. That their former kin are but dust. They rejected their citizenship, it is only fitting that they are rejected in turn.”

“It sounds like you don’t like adventures either?”

“Of course I don’t. They’re immoral, rash, reckless individuals who seek only their own glorification at the expense of all others.”

“But?”

“But that doesn’t justify being awful to them, nor does it justify treating those who had no say over their condition in such a horrid manner. We’re better than that,” she sniffed, “And that describes most of you in residence, other than that hound’s boy. Even with him, his parents clearly failed to raise him properly, if he’d trust a dog over his registrar.”

“I guess?” a thought crossed his mind, “You’re aware of our plan, right?”

“To create a contraption which will remove the need for a resident mage? I am.”

“Doesn’t it annoy you or whatever?”

“Why might it? I have no desire to ensure that another stiff-feathered noble roosts here, and certainly love seeing the ingenuity of you mages. That it ruffles the feathers of the governor and enforcer only helps my approval.”

“Won’t it mess up your… thing, though? Like, if there’s nobody here, what will happen to you?”

“Oh, I imagine I’ll stay here. My Charter is with the city itself, they can’t remove me from the tower, and not having a mage in residence makes my life far simpler.”

“That’s good, I suppose. I wouldn’t want to ruin your life by accident.”

“Perfectly alright, young man. Now, you seem to be finished with that cider. Are you planning to hold onto that mug all night or shall I deal with it?”

“Huh? Oh, right. You can take it, I guess.”

“Excellent. I believe the Lady is in your sitting parlor, run along now.”

“Oh, thanks…” Edwin didn’t know how to address the halfling so just sort of awkwardly trailed off as he watched her vanish around the corner.

He wrenched his mind away from that particular gaffe before it could start to dwell on the mistake, and with just three strides found himself at the doors of their primary sitting room. He took a brief moment totally not about pushing off human contact to admire the intricately painted carvings covering so much of the door before pushing his way inside and tossing his jacket to the side.

True to what he’d been anticipating, Rillah was lounging near the fireplace, quietly playing her flute. At his entrance though, she looked up and stopped playing, the unearthly tunes fading into echoes.

“Edwin! Wow, what happened, you’re a mess.”

“Oh come on, it’s like one bruise!” he protested, to no avail.

“Nuh-uh, I’m not hearing it. What happened?”

He sighed and settled in for another recap of his day. At least he had someone nice to talk to now.

Level Up!

Skill Points 1028→1091 (Average level: 55; Min level: 24)

Adaptive Defense Level 45→48

Alchemical Analysis Level 41→44

Alchemical Dismantling Level 49→53

Anatomy Level 43→44

Arcadian Elixir Level 36→37

Basic Thermokinesis Level 36→40

Bomb Throwing Level 58→60

Fey's Caress Level 43→46

Fresh Air Level 45→46

Longstrider Level 52→54

Memory Level 66→67

Numeracy Level 50→54

Outsider’s Almanac Level 136→137

Overcharge Level 27→30

Prototyping Level 41→44

Refining Level 37→40

Ritual Intuition Level 50→52

Sapper's Apparatus Level 62→65

Skillful Assessment Level 50→52

Stamina Manipulation Level 4→12

Unbound Tether Level 19→24

Watchful Rest Level 40→44