Suggested Listening

It was nightfall before the pair finished. Lemia had to take another dose of potion for herself, just to help get home, and even Elruin found herself more exhausted than she'd been at any point since arriving in Arila.

Lemia laughed as they walked through her former neighborhood. "I can't believe it!" Before she'd walked proud out of defiance, now she felt real pride. "No healer has ever been able to do more than twenty or thirty disease cases without burning themselves out. We did over a hundred, and dozens of broken bones, it's incredible!"

"We can do it again," Elruin said. It had been a long process, the worst being those suffering from partial starvation. Healing magic was good for many, many things, but it had limits. Everyone knew it was impossible to cure aging, the best that could be hoped for is to alleviate suffering, but starvation and dehydration were also difficult. The seemingly endless pool of death energy helped a great deal.

There were other ways to deal with hunger. "Maybe we can teach them to make farms?" Elruin didn't think they could get chickens and cows here, but there was nothing stopping them from buying viable beans, and wheat was just grass, it could grow anywhere.

"I know where you're going with this, it's been tried before, it never works." Lemia kept glancing to the sides. The people stared at them, now, not in suspicion but in wonder. Elruin would get all the credit, even though Lemia's ability did the hard part. She didn't care, their approval wasn't important to her. Or so she told herself.

"I want to help them."

"They have to help themselves," Lemia countered. "Let's say your plan works, we get a farm going. Let's say nobody attacks the farm, its volunteer, or their families." With Elruin's reputation and power, it was possible they wouldn't dare. "Where do we put the farm? Is there enough space to feed everyone? What of their houses that have to move to make room for cropland?"

Elruin had no answer to those questions.

"Best scenario, we create a new middle-class, employed laborers, who take land and drive off those who were unable or unwilling to work. They form a new camp somewhere else, or get driven into the wilderness to die. Worst scenario, some noble's brat claims the land and the farm. Your connections would probably shield from that, so you become the Lady in charge of the region, and then one day you die, your kids fight over the land, and it becomes politics as usual. Even your power can't stop that."

"We can teach them to work," Elruin suggested. "Maybe hire some teachers."

"Some, maybe, but what work do you give to people with no magical potential?" Lemia asked. "Without magical bloodlines, they're not even worth making slaves from. And before you ask, yes, certain nobles have tried the obvious solution. It appealed to nobody except a certain type of nobleman. You won't find those books in the city libraries, I promise that."

Elruin wasn't quite certain what the 'obvious' solution was, but if others did, then what hope did she have of fixing the world when they couldn't? Maybe she could use her dollies to run farms to feed people, but everyone seemed to think that was a terrible idea. The more she studied the subject, the more she agreed that controlling taint was harder than it looked. She'd need to talk to Scratch about how he accomplished it, some day.

A day that would have to wait, as she returned to school and had to wait several days for any free time to be available, which she chose to spend with Cali.

Suggested Listening

Lyra was on the roof again, when Elruin arrived that afternoon. The dryad hopped down from her perch, then sniffed Elruin. She looked at the squishy horse toy, then gave it a gentle pet while ignoring Elruin.

"His name is Mister Squishybones."

Leya looked at her for a moment, then back to the horse, then jumped back onto the roof. A step in the right direction, considering what she could do if Elruin annoyed her. With the dryad neutral to her presence, Elruin entered the house to find that Cali was up and walking.

"I heard you had a busy week," Cali said. "When did you pick up a healing spell?"

"It was Lemia who did most of the work. She's one of my classmates, who wants to be an alchemist. All I did was provide power." Elruin looked down. "Did I do something wrong, again?"

"Wrong? No, not at all." Cali stopped to lean against a wall and breathe. "Some of the movers and shakers of the city are nervous about you, but they get nervous any time a mud hero shows up."

"What's a mud hero?" This was the first time she'd heard the term.

"Anyone with high magical potential who doesn't come from one of the ruling families," Cali said. "Especially the ones who go around helping people without official sanction. They hate it when anyone looks better than them. Right about now is when they'd be making their power plays to win your favor and increase their own influence, or attempting to discredit you, or some combination of both."

"Nobody's been bothering me," Elruin said.

"Because you were snapped up early," she said. "Any move on you now could be seen as an attack on me, my family, and the College. And your stunt last week made all of us look good, so they'll be keeping an eye out for you. Plus, Lady Juna's staked her interest in you. You're not untouchable, but if you remain a stable quantity, the worst you have to worry about are nobles watching you for a means to ingratiate themselves with our future leaders. And all the betrothal offers."

Which would explain why Lady Juna showed up so soon after she got arrested. "Betrothal offers? You mean marriage? What do I do?"

"Sort of." Cali moved over to one of the large, soft, mostly-moss chairs for a seat. "You do nothing, right now. Since you're so young, the protocol is that families of boys around your age shall approach me to arrange play-dates for you. They figure even if possible marriage never occurs, at least it means networking and contacts for their brat once you're older and taking apprenticeships and leadership roles."

"Then I get married?"

"If you want, but I'm not forcing the issue," Cali said. "My parents and siblings want me to, but I told them to go visit the farmsteads and find their own wild talents to auction off if it's that important. And I told the suitors that for now I want you pursuing your education, then we'll worry about suitors. Smarter that way, if you can keep your value going up over time. How would you like to marry a prince? Do they still tell those fairy tales about poor girls marrying princes these days?"

"Sometimes," Elruin said. "My sisters all wanted to marry princes. I never thought about it."

"Well, if you keep up like you have been, you might have to think about it. Or maybe one of the Heir Potentials, or one of their children at any rate. It will be years before we have to worry about any of that, but what do you think?"

Elruin considered it for a moment. "I came over to see how you were doing? Are you feeling better?"

"I know, and I don't know." Cali admitted. "They've finished bringing Crela back, I'll be there tonight when she's ready to wake up, and I've been doing everything I can think of to not think about it. How do I tell her? What do I tell her? No, I don't expect you to have any answers, I just wish I had some."

"Here," Elruin set Mister Squishybones in Cali's lap. "Take him with you, he can give Crela a hug."

Cali snorted. "Wouldn't that be a sight to behold." She put an arm around the toy nonetheless. "Thanks, I'm sure Crela will get a laugh out of it, if nothing else."

Elruin had to leave not long after, to let Cali go to her friend. Elruin returned to campus to do more study and work. She would have to wait another week to get Mister Squishybones back, but she knew Cali needed him more than she did right now. So after getting her prized toy back, and making sure Cali was feeling better, Elruin took the time to go out by herself.

She was known, now, with people looking at her wherever she went. Healers were common, healers that could handle as many people as she had that week were not, and ones as young as her were unheard of. She had no understanding of what a celebrity was, but for now she was a celebrity in town, if a minor one. For now, however, she wanted to walk the wall looking for a vulnerability, some means to sneak back inside if she had Lemia help her sneak out.

Options were minimal, at best. Even in the poor side of town, the wall was designed to withstand assaults from mages, dragons, and armies alike. Even if she found a vulnerability in the wall, there was the half-mile of open prairie between the wall and the forests which she didn't know how she could sneak across. Perhaps at night, perhaps with her magic and sarite, she might get close. She had little hope...

Suggested Listening

She spotted the threat moments before the guards atop the tower. Streaks of white flame, pure creation magic slammed into the magical shields that protected the city from the skies. The energy was warped, forced into a new form by the power of a song not unlike Lyra and the shelter. The shield, the city, changed in response to the magic.

The sky turned orange, then a face formed in the sky. He was a grim man who looked much like Lord Garit, with the same eyes and green hair, though he had a beard. One of his eyes was missing, replaced by a burnt-orange orb which glowed with power, highlighting the fresh scar from the wound which took that eye. At first glance, it appeared to be a one-way projection and nothing more, though the power needed to do so at this scale defied her comprehension.

"I am King Claron ne Enge, leader of the Liberation Army. To the citizens, the captives, of Arila, I bid you lay down your arms and hide in your home. We are your protectors, and will not harm those of you who do not harm us."

People muttered in the street, uncertain of what to make of the situation but also unconcerned. To them, the wall was inviolable, and the madman with his declarations was little more than amusing street theater. Elruin knew better- whatever he was, he had access to a scale of magic which could destroy the wall, if he so desired. Worse, the warped bubble was blinding people to the outside world, and all the bodies approaching the city from outside. A thousand soldiers, maybe more, would be at the wall soon.

She began to run, with the full strength of her new speed-boosting air shard.

"To my kin, the so-called nobility, the jailers of Arila, I demand your unconditional surrender. Your ill-gotten gains shall be confiscated in the name of the people, and you will be allowed to live amongst those you look down upon. You don't want to resist. You know me, you know what I will do to you."

Elruin kept running, back to safety, back to friends. She didn't know from which direction the attack would come, but she knew there was no time to spare.

"To the priests of Arila, know that I am blessed by our Emperor God Enge, Himself." The projection enlarged on Claron's face, specifically the object in his eye socket. "This great artifact is a representation of Enge's own will and power. The unworthy would be struck down by touching it, yet I stand stronger than ever before. All who resist are traitors to the church and to the crown."

It had been a long time since Elruin ran so hard it hurt, but she hurt and yet she kept running. There wasn't time, there wasn't-

The earth rumbled, as Claron displayed a similar level of power as the projection. Small mountains rose up around the city, dozens of long ramps which allowed the enemy's army to march right to the shield, and step inside. Those guards on the walls found themselves outnumbered and overwhelmed by an army that appeared out of nowhere through the barrier.

Enemies started dropping into the city, using magic to launch themselves off of the walls and into combat range of the patrolling officers. Those who dropped their weapons, who showed no resistance, were spared by the Ghosts of Sorvel as they took position in the main streets of the city. It was clear that the ghosts would win with the advantage of surprise on their side, along with the power which Claron held and the larger, bulkier creatures which moved up the ramps he'd made. Soon, there would be monsters in the city.

The city, or some part of it, fought back, dying and killing in the streets against these outsiders who came to take their homes. Elruin estimated she was a match for any two, maybe three of these fighters at a time on either side.

She was out of time, and far from safety.