Having lunch with a group of relatively powerful adventurers was a curious affair. For all the time I had spent on Mundus, there had been few situations in which I had been able to observe Adventurers in their natural habitat, other than the few I had been travelling with. While I had been watching videos on the forum, I had never bothered to look for any that showed ordinary situations, focusing on the interesting, awesome feats that others had never seen before.

And so, when Jendar excused himself from our conversation, before I ever had the chance to ask him about magic, I was a little disappointed. Though not for long, as I could feel him focus Astral Power, slowly channelling it in the ground nearby, until a set of what I could only describe as campaign furniture started to form from the earth, just that the furniture was made from dull, grey metal.

“How long will those last?” I asked, once a table with a few relatively simple looking chairs was complete. It wasn’t quite the way I wanted to approach a magic-related discussion, but if he gave me such a wonderful show, I wasn’t about to remain silent.

“Not too long, didn’t put a lot into it. The magic will have faded in a few hours, and then they will simply crumble back into dirt.” he replied, while I used Lenore’s sight to take a closer look, fascinated how his Astral Power was infusing dirt pulled directly from the ground, turning it into something that came quite close to being metal.

“Why not conjure metal directly?” I asked, stepping to one chair and claiming it by creating a cushion of Diamond Dust, too cold and impractical for anyone but me.

“Takes too much power. You can freeze air, but have you ever heard of metalising air? Doesn’t work.” he replied, his answer opening up a lot of questions I hadn’t considered before. Before my mind could go down the rabit-hole of questioning my previous assumptions about magic and how the whole thing worked, I filed it away to deal with later, instead focusing on the present and the person I could actually question.

“Curious, I’ve never seen anyone work like this. The dwarves I’ve met before used Runes to enchant their equipment, channelling power through it to create effects, instead of directly channelling Astral Power.” I told him, trying to slowly get to the topic I was interested in.

“You can do that, sure. In fact, I’ve put some formations on Phraan’s sword, and the shields used by Gren and Gwan.” he explained, nodding towards the two orcs. For a moment, I was just flabbergasted, surely those couldn’t be their names. After looking at me for that long moment, Jendar started snickering for a moment.

“No, those aren’t their birth-names, they decided to take them during their hand-fasting ceremony. Don’t ask me why, I don’t understand either.” he told me, still snickering. It seemed to amuse him greatly, and I somewhat had to agree. But on the other hand, there was a tradition to take on the spouse’s name during a wedding, maybe they had done things like this in an effort to make things equal, or something like that? For a moment, I looked at Sigmir, imagining taking on matching pair-names that showed everyone who ever met us that we were together. On one hand, it gave me warm and fuzzy feelings, on the other hand it felt a little performative. I’d rather simply show Sigmir every day just what she meant to me, no need for silly names.

“Love, you wanted to talk to him.” Sigmir gently poked me, causing a blush to creep up my cheeks when I realised I had spent a little too long gazing at her and imagining such a future.

“Don’t worry, the two of you are cute.” Jendar grinned, clearly amused at our antics.

“If only Phraan and Hafta could be that cute.” he added, speaking in a voice that made me think he hadn’t quite meant to say that out loud.

“Oh? Why, what do they do?” I prodded, curious at the story there. There had to be a reason why Hafta, the centaur, had glared at Adra and me the whole time.

“It’s not so much what they do, but what they don’t do, which is talk things out.” he paused, shaking his head, “Bah, just thinking about it gives me a headache.”

“Then let’s talk about something else, how about that?” I asked, planning to use his annoyance to bring the topic back to magic.

“You said you use runes on their gear, I’m assuming Metal, but would you be willing to elaborate? The dwarves who taught me some of their art used Metal, Earth and Gems but I managed to muddle my way to connecting patterns that work with my Ice-Magic.” I explained, getting a raised eyebrow in response.

“That sounds interesting. If you like, we can compare notes, though I’d ask you not to share my version of things, just as I wouldn’t ask you to share the originals you have used to deduce your own connecting patterns.” he nodded, sounding quite interested and motivated.

“I can agree to that.” I nodded in response, pulling my chair next to his, after giving Sigmir’s hand a short squeeze.

Over the next thirty minutes, until we were interrupted by lunch, Jendar and I used small, inconsequential runic formations, carefully drawn out with connecting patterns to make them as efficient as possible, to demonstrate the way Astral Power was flowing through the formations. Thankfully, Lenore allowed me to see Astral Power in action, otherwise trying to trace those inefficiencies would be difficult. I only realised just how much of a cheat her vision was, when Jendar asked me if I would be able to form my patterns within Ice, so that he could see the wear and tear with the naked eye.

During our talk, we swapped stories and I learned that Jendar was from further north, where the red-bearded dwarven-king ruled under the mountains. When I obviously had no idea what he was talking about, he shook his head, promising me that he’d tell me the story in the evening, possibly with some good ale. I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not, and when I tried to find out, he only smiled and shook his head, changing the topic back to magic.

That was something I couldn’t ignore, especially when he shared some details about his base-class, Geomancer. It sounded quite interesting, specialised in Earth- and Metal-Magic, with an emphasis of support- and even healing-magic. The closest comparison I could mentally come up with was that it was similar to a Druid, only instead of the living earth, the countless living beings that made up Life on Mundus, it focused on channelling the power of Mundus, the solid, rocky planet, itself.

When he learned that I was a Sorceress, he gave me an appraising look, trying to take my measure. Finally, after scrutinising me for a little longer than comfortable, he nodded, before addressing me.

“There are few of those around these days. Following an established part is always easier than trying to find your own. But it looks like you are well on your way to forge your own path, that’s good, the Gods called the Travellers to this world to let them find your own paths.” he said, managing to sound both sagely and insecure at the same time, making me think that it was something he had heard somewhere else, from someone he respected and trusted, but that he wasn’t quite certain of the meaning himself.

“Who is to know the will of the Gods?” I asked, parroting the standard platitudes used by many natives when dealing with Travellers and the Gods themselves. There was a curious boundary regarding things I felt comfortable telling the Natives. I knew that Lenore had seen and experienced a lot of my own memories, and even dreams, but she had never questioned the images. Similarly, I had told Sigmir some of the things I had experienced but it was always in the context of another world, like Pantheon Entertainment had set things up for the context.

“That is true, after all, we are all but mortal.” he nodded along, before shaking his head, as if to get rid of the topic, “Anyway, let’s talk about simpler things.” he decided, his hands weaving yet another magical formation, with tiny patterns that smoothed out the flow of Astral Power.

“Jendar, can you prepare some dishes?” Phraan called from the fire, where he was cooking together with Hafta and Adra. Jendar let his magic fade, the sharp, metallic smell lingering in the air for just a moment.

“Take a close look, you might learn something new.” Jendar told me, kneeling down and placing one hand on the ground, before starting to sketch runes into the dirt. His hands were incredibly dexterous, managing to form an incredibly complicated formation without ever resorting to shaping the ground with magic. It was at a level that I wasn’t quite certain I would be able to copy, but I wanted to try at some point.

“You try channelling your power into the formation.” he offered me, causing my eyes to widen. It was an interesting idea, though not one I had considered before.

Placing my hands next to the formation, I spread my perception, getting a feel of things, before letting Astral Power slowly flow into it, curious what would happen. It was vastly different from my own magical formations, where I could influence the Power within, to the point that I was able to cast them without any runes, if I wasn’t too particular about casting-speed, accuracy and efficiency. But this formation, I could only channel power into it, unable to change anything.

As I was channelling power, a metallic plate emerged from the dirt in the middle of the formation, curiously with some silver trim and frost-like patterns. Closing my eyes, I focused on my nose, my tongue flicking out to taste the air, gauging the amount of Astral Power within the air, trying to get an idea of the efficiency.

“Impressive.” I had to admit, as I was busy re-organising what I had considered about magic and casting spells without the required skills before.

Next to me, a grinning Jendar took the plate, giving me a nod as I retreated into my own mind.