Suggested Listening

"Maybe we shouldn't," Elruin decided after taking some time to think about it. There were six of them, with weapons and magic, and she almost died to what she later learned were some of the weakest monsters in the forest. "As you said, I'm not good at fighting."

"Okay," Cali agreed. "It is the wiser decision, so we can leave them to well armed professionals."

"Can you teach me how to fight?" Elruin asked, once they set off on their path. It seemed like something she'd want to learn, to stop Morks and bandits from trying to hurt her more. "I don't want to be in danger anymore."

"I don't think there's much that I can teach you," Cali said. "Generic stuff like situational awareness, sure, but my whole combat style is built around the magic I use. It wouldn't work for you, and you're far too small to stand a chance in mundane combat without augmentation magic. Best I can do is practice with you and spot the obvious stuff. But once we get back to Engewal, there are a bunch of people who will know how to work with your magic."

"Oh, okay." Elruin took Cali's word on this matter. "What did you say before about Revealing?"

"Ah, that, well there's no great secret there," Cali said. "Or, at least, the secret is the art itself. You see, most people can learn to use some magic, maybe one or two related spells that are all part of their core nature. That 'native power', as it's called, is limited. It can still be quite powerful, someone who trains a native power enough can equal the strength of a Revealed mage."

"Like my brother can increase his strength," Elruin said. "Like you do when you jump."

"Yeah, we call that augmentation. It's perhaps the second most common native ability, right behind Elemental Blast abilities," Cali agreed. "Sounds to me like your native ability is Elemental Senses. How long have you had that ability?"

Elruin couldn't remember a time when she didn't have the ability to see life energy, though she only learned about her ability to see the opposite after meeting her dolly. She pushed that thought out of mind, so she didn't start crying in front of Cali. "I think I've always been able to do it."

"That explains a lot," Cali said. "It takes most people a lot of training to spot magic use that precise, and you also have Lifesight that doesn't seem to slow you down the way Detection spells slow most people down. But if you were born with the ability, that explains why it comes so naturally to you. Sooner you start, easier it is, like learning a second language."

"Okay." All of this was fascinating to Elruin, who until this point was given the impression that nobody else in the world had abilities like her own.

"Of course, picking up Revelation so young is... maybe it's another part of that ability," Calenda continued along her train of thought. "Most of us born with a lot of magical potential are discovered young, taken to academies where our talents are cultivated for the betterment of themselves and society. Or, at least, that's what the schools say. My parents say the whole process is a military recruitment drive. Find the strongest, instill loyalty from a young age, and by the time they've graduated, they're eager to become the next generation of generals and royal concubines. That's why I was trained at home, instead of the academy."

"Is that why Revelation is special? It makes us stronger than normal people?"

"No, and yes," Cali took a moment to stop and extend her own magical signature for a minute. "Good, doesn't look like anyone's followed us." She started walking again. "Revelation is... how to explain it to someone who can just do it instead of having to train for years to find it? You're a Music Revelation, what nobles call a Virtuoso, and what the soldiers call a Songmaster. I'm what they call a Kineticist, or a Battledancer for the soldiers. My power taps into physical movement, I can feel the flow of magic like you'd feel the flow of wind over your skin, or see a ripple created by tossing a rock in a pond."

She twirled her hand in a circle, drawing a swirl of magical light which chased her finger. "You sing magic, I touch it, but in the end both our abilities are just our brains trying to find the true patterns of magic. All Revealed mages sense fragmented glimpses of a level of reality that would break a human mind if we saw the full Truth, so our minds translate this Perfect Pattern into lesser patterns that we can look at without destroying ourselves."

She stopped moving her finger, and the magical lights vanished as well. "Or, that's what the scholars say at any rate. I don't know if they're right, but I know they've never seen proof of it. I mean, if they did, wouldn't that mean their minds would have been destroyed?"

She shrugged as she walked. "So, mystic mumbo-jumbo aside, there are real practical advantages to Revelation. First, every one of us can sense magic, at least if it's active or powerful; we can miss weak or distant magic, like you'd miss a whisper from across the room. We can also guess the general strength, element, and purpose of any spell being used in range of our abilities."

"Second, we have a lot more options than the Unrevealed. They have to learn and memorize every step of a spell to use it a single way, while we can construct ours on the fly, if we have to. We can also reshape the patterns to better suit immediate needs, waste less power on structuring spells, and can even learn new spells just by watching someone else use them. But in terms of raw power, there's not much difference between a Revealed and Unrevealed who have similar natural talent and training. In some ways, they can even be stronger. We have the ability to learn new abilities faster than they do, so they keep up by devoting themselves to training their native abilities to their limits, and many a Revealed mage has died underestimating Unrevealed enemies. But there's no doubt that we have a lot more options than they do overall."

"Does that mean you can teach me healing magic? Would you please?" Of all the magic she knew of, that seemed like the most useful; if she could use healing, then everything would have turned out better back on her farm.

Cali sighed, but didn't stop moving. "Ah, no, that's one thing Revelation won't allow. What types of magical energy you can access is inborn, and I know of nothing that can change that. You're a Negation mage, so there's no chance of you being able to use Healing magic. You could imitate the pattern of healing magic, but once you channel energy into it, well, my guess is it'll break the spell structure. Or the outcome would be a death spell. Might still be useful, but not going to heal anyone."

"Besides, I'm not a healer, either. I just have a sarite that'll let me cast a couple generic low-power spells. Which is Life-oriented, so it wouldn't play nice with your natural energy. But don't take it too hard, a good dragon slayer can save more lives than a healer, in the right circumstances."

"Oh," Elruin would have to give some thought into what being a dragon slayer might be like. It didn't sound very safe to her, that's for certain.

The conversation drifted off to less important things, such as Cali's job as a scout, and even some small details about where she lived on the outskirts of a small town not far from the Engewal, the very city that Kasa had wanted to send Elruin and her dolly. As they talked, their path to circumvent the ambush took them back around to the main road.

Cali looked up at the sky. "I was hoping to get my route finished today, but looks like we'll have to hole up at our last stop for the night."

"Okay." Elruin was surprised to see the sun had long crossed its zenith. The excitement of the day had distracted her and made her forget her appetite, but now that she was thinking about it she could use food, or at least water. Her clothes remained bloody and dirty thanks to her Mork encounter, and while the hours of walking didn't cause her the discomfort it would have for a normal girl, she was happy to hear they'd be taking a break soon.

Cali approached another farm, which had another wall not unlike the one Elruin left behind. Cali tapped on the gate, but did put enough magic in her motion to cause the defensive barricade to become visible for a moment. It was a much more peaceful display of light and sound than what she did last time.

"Who's there!" A man's voice shouted from behind the wall.

"Calenda na Andara, Ecrossian priestess," Cali stated in a clear voice, but one devoid of shouting or magical voice. "I'm doing a checkup after the storms, to see if anyone was hurt or lost."

"I must go tell Mother of your arrival." Now that he knew he was talking to a woman, the farmhand switched to the polite not-quite-submissive language of inter-gender conversation.

"I understand." While Calenda's official status as an Imperial Scout gave her authority to cut through the delays of polite conversation, she didn't like to throw her weight around, unless she was dealing with criminals. Especially when she was about to ask for a place to stay for the night and maybe a meal. Once again, she could have demanded both with her legal authority, but she considered that a last resort. Never a good plan to insult the people who were going to make your food.

They weren't waiting long before a head poked out over the wall above the gate. "You say you're Ecrosian?"

Calenda looked up and offered her best friendly smile; farm types were difficult to deal with at times, always suspicious of outsiders. "Third Order, serving under Naliel Sar." She couldn't blame them, with the bandits and monsters and whatever other horrors crawled out in the wilderness. "I was here with her just last year, if you recall. The chicken-blight?"

"Yes, I'd recognize that red hair anywhere." She looked down. "It's okay, Sanel, she's who she says."

The gate slid open, requiring three strong men just as the one from her home farm. Behind it stood a large, barrel-shaped man like Father, but with more gray hair and lacking the beard. "Please, come in, be welcome." His eagerness belied the desperation of a man who would sell his soul for whatever he was about to ask of her. "After the storm, we were afraid-" he stopped for a moment. "Elruin? Elruin, is that you?"

"Yes, Uncle Sanel, it is I." Elruin did her best polite pose, with her hands together in front of her lap. 'Uncle' Sanel was not really her uncle, but one of his sons was married one of her sisters, Kasa might end up marrying one of his other sons, Father's brother was married to one of Uncle Sanel's sisters, and she was pretty sure Mother was a cousin to Aunt Leyli, somehow. To save the trouble of delving deeper, they were just 'Uncle' and 'Aunt' to her and her siblings.

Sanel hesitated for a moment, before his wife called down from the wall. "Don't worry, I've got her. Neda, take the priestess to Sera. Husband, go with."

It was a little impolite, a priestess dealing with anyone other than the Lady of the estate, but such was the life she'd grown accustomed to. Emergency situations called for a loosening of the social norms at times, and the woman who was assigned to escort her appeared to be the eldest daughter, along with the Lord of the estate to follow along. It was an acceptable show of respect to her station.

"Show me," Calenda said with her command voice. She paused just to look back at Elruin. "You'll be safe here, right?"

Elruin saw no reason to think she wasn't. "Yes."

"Don't worry, I'll look after her like she was my own," Aunt Leyli said as she began her slow descent down the ladder. Elruin waited for her, then cooperated with the poking and prodding as her Aunt checked her over. "You're filthy! Did you roll all the way here? You're covered in dirt and... is that blood? What happened to you?"