110

--TheirWorld--

She’d met Gorseth’s daughter Margot before; she’d had a quest to meet with her, in fact, that she’d forgotten all about until the pretty red headed tavern girl came up to them.

“More ale?” the young woman asked in a disapproving voice, wiping her hands on her apron. “You can't possibly want more food…”

“No, love — a request,” he told her.

“Request?”

“This here is Guin; I think ye met before. She’s been investigatin’ the trouble in the woods.” As Gorseth explained, Margot looked Guin over with renewed interest. “Seems she’s got somethin’ to talk to the Circle about. Do ye think ya can give her a bit of an introduction to them?”

The young woman’s green eyes narrowed, then she looked around the room. “Don’t seem to have many fans on the other side, miss,” she said. Guin smirked and shrugged as Margot went on: “I can’t make any promises, but my father’s spoken highly of you in the past — and The Lady knows that, if nothing else, the enemy of an enemy can be counted among friends. Let me talk to Cook and see if I can get off now; there should still be time before the Circle closes.”

“That’s a good lass,” said Gorseth. “You follow Margot, Guin. She’ll lead you the way you need to go. She’s just an apprentice, but she’s looked on well, if hear-say is to be believed. I’ll let Lithe know you came by; should come see her before you set off if ya can.”

“Thanks again, Gorseth,” Guin said, squeezing his hand as she stood to follow Margot.

He winked at her and shooed her away. “I’ll see both of ya soon,” he called as they headed towards the doors of the Trappers House. “Go get them monsters.”

Outside, away from the noise and anxious energy between the hunters and the soldiers, Margot seemed to relax. She took care to wave to a few people on the road, before turning to Guin and saying, “He likes you, quite a lot. It’s nice to see.”

“He’s taken good care of me,” Guin said.

“He doesn’t really know what to make of all the troubles in the forest,” she said. “He tries, but…”

Guin nodded. “I think even for the people who can see into the Veil, it’s hard to understand. The spirits are one thing, the Che-kind, another. And then there are those caught in between.”

Margot peered up at her. “So you do have Veil sight.”

“I do,” Guin affirmed. “Your father said that you were a Druid-in-training?”

Laughing, the young woman said, “No, I’m not. My mother was a Druid. I am training to be a Shaman — too similar, I suppose, for my father to care about the difference, but they are not at all the same.”

“What exactly is the difference?” asked Guin, wondering just how TheirWorld differentiated the two. Compared to the Druid classes, which were relatively consistent in most games she’d played, Shamans were always a little harder to pin down. In many cases, Shamans and Druids were often interchangeable, and the differences were mostly in the mechanics, rather than the semantics.

“Well,” Margot started as her weasel spirit came out from behind her hair to sniff Guin from her shoulder. “Basically, Druids are avatars of nature and nature alone, while Shamans are avatars of the spirits of the Veil in general.

“You see, for Druids, they appeal to the spirits of the elements in order to commune with nature and bend it to their will. I say it this way, but it’s more like they work alongside nature, and, if the Druid is doing their job right, nature is willingly controlled and directed until the bond between the Druid and nature is broken. Like this, though, a Druid can have Veil Sight, but not all Druids need to see into the Veil.”

“Shamans, however, appeal to the spirit world and its inhabitants in order to commune with the ancestors for guidance or wisdom; or even tap into their powers — ‘Ancestors’ being used as a blanket term for all the ancestors of the world, including, but not limited to, the spirits of the elements, and those that are no longer, or were never, a part of the Che. Instead of controlling the elements of the physical, the Shaman functions more as an intermediary between the Veil and the Che. Again, until the bond is broken, this is a willing exchange of services,” Margot explained, waving her finger in the air as she spoke. In a strange way, she felt a little like a combination of Stella and Sathuren at the same time; give them an inch to talk and they took a mile — but where Sathuren’s textbook-style speech often sounded like he was enchanted with the whole idea of it all, Margot had Stella’s penchant for sounding like a bit of a know-it-all.

Still, it made Guin smile a bit as she listened.

“For example,” Margot went on, directing the weasel spirit to her palm. “Every Druid, Ranger, and Shaman as a familiar. This,” she held the weasel up to eye level, “is my spirit familiar, Emer. Among the spirit familiars, weasels are weaker, and are very low level. On the one side, that makes their powers easy to use and manipulate — a benefit, to a weaker user like me. Each spirit has a specialization of it’s own. Weasel spirits, like Emer, are best at hunting small creatures, thieving, and scavenging. Any person with Veil Sight can befriend a spirit like this and make requests of it. I assume that you’ve had such an experience?”

“A few times,” Guin told her, thinking back on Tik-Tak and her experiences in White Fox Forest. And then there was Liorax, of course, though she wasn’t really sure that he counted considering how she had ‘acquired’ him. “Befriending a spirit almost seems like a necessity to those with Veil Sight. Those I’ve met have even been very powerful, or quite talented, in some way. Even the child fox I was friends with as a child was quite clever…”

“Yes!” Margot pointed excitedly. “As a Shaman, though, the spirits aren’t just limited to their own abilities. I can call on bird spirits to lend Emer or I the power of Flight, or on the water spirits to allow us to breath under water. High level Shamans can even use their powers to allow spirits to possess the physical bodies of the Che!”

Guin paused in her tracks. “Possess the Che-kind? Like… Shamans can push souls into other people’s bodies?”

“Or talismans,” Margot said. “It’s a pretty common thing for even mid-tier Shamans to enchant trinkets and things with the blessings and wills of the spirits, or use their familiars to possess the bodies of the Che so they can help fight on our planes. There are time limits, for doing that, though. The more powerful the Shaman, the longer the limit.”

“Still, that sounds like something that could easily be abused…”

“It can be, but, abusing such a power is a quick way to break the bond of trust that binds us. For most, it’s not worth even considering unless one’s heart is too far gone.”

“When you say that the bond can be broken…”

The girl shivered. “There are stories. Many stories,” she said. “We when enter the Circle, it's the first thing that we learn: You cannot enslave the Veil without cost. Just look at what’s happening in the forest now — if there is a darkness that the Imperial Soldiers seek, it would be those that have fallen off the proper path. They are called ‘The Lost Ones’ — but this goes for any caster that uses the Veil. Dark Mages, Clerics, Druids, Shamans — any who once used the Veil for their own gain, and the Veil responded in turn. Most are killed by the experience — but those that live rise again with amazing powers; powers that spread corruption by simply existing.”

Frowning, Guin asked, “Are there any such beings known to the Circle now?”

“No,” Margot said, shaking her head. “But that is why The Circle exists — to make sure that The Lost never come into power.”

It was a lot to take in — and it was a horrifying thought. If there was a Lost One, perhaps Octarius wasn’t the only reason for the spread of corruption. Guin longed to speak with Amikavi on the subject, but she settled on asking Liorax more about it later. Maybe he would know something about it.

“Does all magic come from the Veil?” Guin then asked, wondering if Druids could call on spirits without Veil Sight, then couldn’t others?

“That’s a bit complicated,” Margot said. “I’m a bad person to give a true answer — I’m not that high up in the ranks yet, you see — but I am fairly certain that the roots of magic have always been connected to the Veil in some way, but there are internal and external values that are used in different ways, and by different people. If you can see it, you generally speak to it. If you can’t, you simply use it.”

“So if you can’t see it, it’s simple a resource to be used,” Guin murmured. “Is that why the Imperials seem to think that the creatures of the Veil are some sort of creatures of darkness? Because when the Veil proves itself to be a sentient force, they cannot use it as they wish?”

“I don’t really know,” Margot said. “I wish I knew more, though. By the way, what is it that you are supposed to be talking to the circle about? I’ll need something to tell them in order to get them to see you…”

“I know some things about the tree that’s appeared, and the creatures inside it that Prince Octarius is hunting,” Guin told her. “I also heard that there is something that he’s sending to the circle?”

Tilting her head, she said, “I can’t think of what that would be.”

There was something else, too, Guin remembered, trying to think of all the details. “Captain Othren mentioned someone else being involved, too — Someone I don’t think I’ve heard of before, at least in reference to the Veil… Adrian. Prince Adrian. Do you have any idea who he is?”

It was Margot’s turn to pause. “Prince… Adrian?” she went. “What’s he to do with any of this?”

“You know him? Othren seemed to imply that all those getting in the way of Octarius’s war against the Veil were all the puppets of this, Prince Adrian.

“That’s…,” the young woman started, then shook her head. “I’ll never understand what goes through the head of that foolish Crown Prince, but it's more than odd. Certainly, I know of Adrian — but no one considers him part of the royal family anymore — he hasn’t been for years. To say that he would have something to do with the corruption is…”

Shaking her head, Guin said, “I’m not saying anything, yet. For me, all the evidence is stacked against Octarius. It could be that Octarius is using Adrian’s name as a possible scapegoat for the worsening of the situation. He needs someone to blame that's not himself. But I don’t even know who Adrian is, so I can’t discount the possibility.”

“Prince Adrian — when he was a prince — was the youngest of the royal family. Eighth in line. Even so far down the line, he gave up any claim he had… what good would it do Octarius to…”

“Are you alright?” Guin asked, touching the girl’s shoulder lightly.

“It’s just that… You’ll see. Come with me.”

Picking her pace right back up, the newly determined Margot led Guin on, to a side of the Hunter’s Guild she’d not yet seen.