– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 216, Season of the Setting Sun, Day 24 –

“So we will visit these dungeon scavengers and then leave Terry with them?” asked Cadence.

Terry perked up his ears.

“We’ll stay a few days before we head out to the newly discovered dungeon,” said Sigille. “It’s not that far away. Depending on the dungeon, the whole trip should take three to four weeks at most. We’ll be in time for Little Emily’s adulthood ceremony.”

“What will I do there?” asked Terry.

Matteo glanced at Terry. “Dungeon scavenging probably. Wallace does not let a good pair of hands go to waste. Once he learns that you are family, you’ll most likely get a few lessons as well.”

“Does this mean that this time, all three of us will do this together?” asked Cadence. She could not hide a small hint of anticipation in her voice.

The past few weeks had made Cadence feel much better about her choice to join the group of the Divine Hammer. Still, while their inclusion of Cadence and her missions with either Matteo or Sigille had made Cadence feel like less of an outsider, she was still feeling as if she had disturbed Sigille’s group. She was looking forward to a mission with all three of them working together.

Sigille nodded.

“Best if the whole group goes together,” said Matteo.

A smile tugged at Cadence’s lips due to the way Matteo had phrased that.

“The preliminary measurements have been inconclusive,” continued Matteo. “Conflicting estimates from the mana concentration and mana suppression readings.”

“Rarely a good sign,” said Sigille and shrugged.

Terry frowned.

“What’s gotten in your undies?” asked Sigille with a look at Terry. “Relax. There is a vast gulf between ‘not good’ and enough trouble to knock us off-balance. I am supposed to worry about you, not the other way around, Little Terry.”

Matteo chuckled.

“One good thing about dungeon dives is that the tunnels impose an upper limit on creature’s sizes.” Sigille grinned. “Easy on my poor back.”

Terry rolled his eyes and could not help but smile. If Sigille had a poor back, she certainly had never shown it as far as Terry could tell.

***

“Hold,” said Sigille warily. She stared at the forest patch in front of them.

“Huh?” Cadence blurted out. “Why?”

Sigille looked at Matteo with an annoyed expression. “Do you think the scoundrel is still up to his old pranks?”

Matteo snorted. “Probably. He does not react well to taunts and, well, you…”

“Yeah yeah,” grumbled Sigille. “I swear one of these days, I’ll lose my temper.”

“I believe that would be counted as your loss, too.” Matteo chuckled.

“Can anyone cue me in?” asked Cadence.

“I believe the scoundrel should be Wallace,” said Terry. “Not sure about the rest that was said.”

“Just be careful where you are stepping,” grumbled Sigille. “Or who might lurk in the bushes.”

“Ma Sigille and Wallace have a kind of competition going on,” said Matteo with a restrained grin.

“Competition my wrinkly bum,” exclaimed Sigille. “Harassment, plain and simple.”

A rabbit hopped through a clearing in front of them and Terry could not suppress a snicker when he saw Sigille giving the rabbit the stink-eye.

“What kind of ‘competition’?” asked Cadence while warily scanning the forest floor.

“On what runs out first,” grumbled Sigille. “He out of pranks or I out of patience.”

Matteo laughed heartily. “They got into an argument about mana use.”

“I just pointed out once that if he truly wanted to keep Little Emily safe around here, then he should get a bit stronger himself,” grumbled Sigille.

“Even if he wants to avoid all the restrictions that come with mana use.” Sigille raised her hands in exasperation. “No one asked him to learn spellwork, but a bit of mana cultivation or at least proper foundational training...” She ended her rant with a grunt.

“Wait, is Wallace manaless?” asked Terry with wide eyes.

“Not exactly,” replied Matteo amusedly. “More of a specialist.”

“Specializes in annoying innocent old dwarfs,” grumbled Sigille.

“Most in his group do not want to be tied down by the official restrictions that would be imposed on mana users, which is not to say that they are manaless,” said Matteo. “It’s more that they stick within the limits of what might pass as natural mana accumulation to stay beneath the censors’ notice.”

“...so they just let their mana pool stay small-ish?” Terry wondered out loud.

“Kind of,” said Matteo. “That and preventing their mana from leaking outside. Similar to one of the mana cloaking techniques.”

Terry nodded. From what he remembered of Brynn’s introduction, mana crafting had three common approaches to cloak an item.

First, you could make use of paired aspects and use, for example, light-aspected mana to offset the signature of darkness-aspected mana.

Second, you could use runes that bend mana for a similar effect.

Last, you could do what Matteo had hinted at. You could prevent mana from leaking outside. Although in the case of crafting, this either meant mana-osmotic materials, runes, or enchantments.

“So they just control their mana to prevent it from flowing outside?” asked Terry. “Isn’t that pretty advanced for someone pretending to not be a mana user?”

“Not to mention that there are plenty of other things that should be learned first,” interjected Sigille with a scowl. “Things that actually keep you alive as opposed to merely hidden from the imperial sniffing pets.”

“Cloaking would be useful anyway, wouldn’t it?” asked Cadence.

“Yes, which is why it should be learned.” Sigille raised her hands in front of her face and made a gesture as if she was placing a box to one side. “Eventually.”

“Putting it first, though, incurs more than just one problem.” Sigille shook her head. ”If you haven’t learned how to properly move the mana through your body before, then flipping the order will make it much harder. Simply preventing mana from leaking outside is different from doing that while also consuming mana to move and fight yourself.”

“One reason why they all have to rely on ranged weapons,” commented Matteo while nodding.

“I get not wanting to be bound by the stupid magic restrictions.” Sigille threw her hands up in the air again. “But have some sense. It’s not always possible to hide from trouble. A mana corrupted does not avoid you just because you have a weak mana signature. On the contrary, that makes you seem like that much more of an easy snack.”

“Anyway,” started Matteo. “Since then, Wallace and the others have made it a tradition to prepare a low-mana greeting for Ma Sigille.”

“A lesser dwarf might have already collected a few of their teeth,” grumbled Sigille.

“So, this mana cloaking…” Terry let his voice trail off while stealing glances at Sigille.

“Not yet,” said Sigille. Her tone was calm again. “After the burst techniques feel like second nature. Putting cloaking before burst techniques is not as bad as putting it before regular internal mana control, but it’s still… not good.”

Terry nodded and filed the topic for later. He was somewhat disappointed, but he trusted his aunt.

“If I might suggest a few things,” started Matteo. “Spars against the dungeon scavengers could be a useful experience since their group coordination is excellent. As for specific skills… You could learn the basics of picking mana locks.”

“I feel like I should say something here,” interjected Sigille. “Corrupting your little cousin and so forth.”

Matteo snorted. “I don’t think Terry will go picking pockets with that knowledge. I also remember you admitting a few times that it is a useful skill to have.”

“Alright.” Sigille lightly slapped her own armored belly a few times. “But if Whaka Terry ever gets picked up by the guards, then you’ll have to pay his bail.”

Cadence giggled.

“Aside from that, Wallace’s group consists mostly of aspect archers,” said Matteo. “Wallace can probably show you a few tricks on aspecting.”

There are tricks?

Terry was dumbfounded.

“Particularly on how to do it quickly,” continued Matteo. “They generally don’t keep many aspected arrowheads around as that would raise questions if a censor ever strolls by. Instead, they mostly aspect their arrowheads during battle with whatever element is required.”

Sigille shook her head exasperatingly. “Enough ability to create a mana refractor and that is how they choose to use it.”

Terry became pensive. His introduction to aspecting had been very brief and he had thought that this was all on the topic. He did not believe that Brynn was intentionally keeping details hidden.

Makes sense, I guess. In Arcana, barely anyone pursues aspecting for long. Those interested in mana-crafting quickly move onto the more advanced concepts.Those merely looking for some side-income would not care enough to research the details. No one would specialize and make a life-long study of it.

Terry thought of Miguel. While Miguel heavily relied on his aspected arrows, he never had to hide the existence of his arrows and could rely on storage items. There was never a need to aspect new arrowheads while already in battle.

Additionally, Miguel did not intentionally limit himself to a role as an aspect archer. While his coldfire-aspected mana made it difficult, Miguel trained as a mana cultivator as well. He was also practicing diligently to learn at least a few spells.

Once again, Terry wondered what his aunt Brynn would make of these aspect archers he was about to meet. With every step, Terry was looking more and more forward to meeting them.

***

In the forest, Terry watched Sigille suddenly dash to the left. A moment later, a net was pulled up where she had walked before.

Whistling sounds could be heard, which were followed by a groan from Sigille.

Sigille’s eyes rapidly darted over the forest floor and landed on a suspicious looking rock near her. She hurriedly distanced herself.

An arrow hit the target of Sigille’s suspicion…

*Splash* The fake rock popped and water splashed around it.

Sigille dodged two subsequent water balloon traps when she heard a rustling in one direction and jerked her head around.

Sigille was giving the stink-eye to the offending rabbit that was getting more and more suspicious with each additional encounter.

While Sigille was looking at the rabbit, another arrow impacted on a nearby tree.

Sigille’s eyes darted to the tree to notice a mechanism on the arrow spring that caused steam to be released.

*WHEEEEEEEE*

Terry resisted the urge to block his ears against the loud steam whistle in order to follow whatever was going on.

Sigille jerked her head around and realized that the movement she caught was again from the suspicious rabbit that was now fleeing the scene.

Half a second later, she was dodging water that rained down from above where more water balloons had been popped by arrows.

Terry saw Sigille reacting to another incoming arrow that aimed at her from the opposite side of the rabbit.

Sigille caught the blunt arrow not far from her head. She was about to shout something at the hidden pranksters when the caught arrow squirted water on her face.

Sigille’s eyelid twitched.

“I believe this should be it,” said Matteo with a forced deadpan expression.

Terry sensed around twenty weaker mana signatures appear around them.

Sigille rolled her eyes and groaned before drying her face.

Cadence tried very hard not to giggle at the Divine Hammer being forced into a game of water pranks.

“Is it just me or did we get you faster than last time?” An elf with short brown hair stepped into view. “You are not getting soft on me, old hag, are you?”

Sigille clicked her tongue without moving her eyes off the elf.

“What now? Silent treatment?” asked the elf. “Aren’t you a bit old for such things?”

“No, I’m just thinking very hard about how I should return your little trick arrow,” replied Sigille with a smile that did not reach her eyes. “Or where. Perhaps I should probe where you are going soft, you cheeky twig.”

“Oooh, you’re making me blush,” retorted the elf. “I told you no pillow talk in front of the children…”

Sigille shivered and flicked the arrow away as if it had turned into something icky. To emphasize the point, she shook herself like a wet dog. “Eww…”

“Hey Wallace,” greeted Matteo.

“Hey yourself, kid,” said Wallace while beaming at him. “Glad to have you back with us. We missed you. You could visit more often, you know. I’m sure the grumpy dwarf can do a few missions on her own.”

“Speaking as the grumpy dwarf,” started Sigille. “Just for my sanity’s sake, was that rabbit involved in your scheme?”

“I’m afraid that would touch on our most sacred secrets,” replied Wallace with a deadpan expression. “I can neither confirm nor deny that suspicion.”

“One of these days…” Sigille grumbled and narrowed her eyes at Wallace.

“So who are the guests?” asked Wallace.

“Whaka Terry is my newfound cousin,” said Matteo.

“Oh?” Wallace glanced at Sigille, who nodded at him. “Greetings, Terry. I’m Wallace.”

“Greetings,” returned Terry.

“Just out of curiosity, is the rest of the family just as grumpy as the old hag?” asked Wallace and jerked his head at Sigille.

No way in hell am I going to answer that.

“Blink once for yes,” said Wallace with a wide grin.

Terry suddenly found himself trying very hard not to blink, which had Wallace break out in laughter.

His laughter stopped when a strong small hand dragged his shoulder down so that he suddenly found himself being eye to eye with Sigille.

“I barely tolerate your cheek towards me,” said Sigille with a smile that wasn’t one. “Be very careful about what you insinuate about my baby sister or next time, I’ll take you with me on a mission so that Matteo can visit the others.”

“Why, my lady, I would not dare to speak your little sister’s name in vain.” Wallace grinned sheepishly.

“Uh-huh.” Sigille let him go. “As always, you seem to be most afraid of an honest day’s work.”

“Right right, okay so Terry is family and that leaves…” Wallace moved his gaze towards Cadence.

“Our new group member,” said Matteo.

“I’m Cadence, pleased to meet you, Wallace.” Cadence slightly lowered her head in greeting.

“Greetings…” Wallace tilted his head and glanced back towards Sigille, who shrugged.

Other people arrived and greeted Matteo heartily while they showed somewhat apologetic faces to Sigille.

“Come on, let’s go to the camp,” said one of them.

While they were walking, Wallace slowed down to walk next to Sigille in the back.

“That robe looks awfully like those you described on the witch,” whispered Wallace and a hint of anger flashed through his eyes.

“Same cult,” whispered Sigille. “So far, she seems alright despite hanging on the witch’s words.”

Wallace only grunted in response.

After walking for some time, Terry could see a campfire. However, his attention was immediately caught by a mana signature from the cave near the camp.

Dungeon.

Terry took a deep breath.

Dormant dungeon but still a dungeon.

“MATTEO!” A blur of red hair whizzed into the group and clung to Matteo.

Matteo displayed a wide smile like Terry had never seen on him before.

“Hi, little one.” Matteo patted the hair of the elven girl. “How have you been, Emily?”

Emily pulled back with a slight pout. “I’m not that little anymore, Big Brother. Remember, I’ll have my adulthood ceremony soon.” She beamed at him. “Thanks for coming. I’m happy to see you.”

Terry saw Wallace send Matteo a look while putting his finger in front of his lips. Terry remembered the conversation about the adulthood ceremony between Sigille and Matteo.

“Auntie!” shouted Emily and quickly pulled Sigille into a hug.

After the greetings, smaller groups formed and Cadence found herself next to Wallace.

“So… How do you know each other?” asked Cadence with a polite smile.

In contrast to his earlier all-smiles appearance, Wallace suddenly wore a grim expression as he examined Cadence.

“We have scavenged dormant dungeons for most of our lives,” said Wallace with a grave tone that took Cadence aback. “Only once have I found an abandoned child in one. A child with eyes so devoid of hope and life, I will never be able to forget the sight. He was just sitting there, waiting for death.”

“Just a child…” Wallace gazed into Cadence’s eyes and leaned closer to her. “The old hag is right in that I am not particularly powerful, but if I had caught sight of that Willow or whatever on that day, then I would have found a way to make her pay.”

Cadence froze up.

Wallace leaned back again and calmed himself by looking over his group of friends before glancing back at Cadence. “From what I hear, you and that woman belong to the same club. Now, I really hope that does not mean that you are alike.” He paused and stared at Cadence.

Before Cadence could muster a response, Wallace continued: “If you are not alike – if you are anything resembling decent folk – then I suggest you better watch your back around that woman.”

A moment later, Wallace was back to his original spot and his cheerful self.

***

“Maybe I should join the Guild instead?” suggested Emily. They were all sitting around a campfire. “Follow in Big Brother’s footsteps.” She looked at Matteo.

Wallace’s face turned into a grimace of horror. “That’s terrifying.”

“Don’t,” said Sigille. “That’s not even funny.”

“Why?” Emily was taken aback.

“The Guild is…” Matteo looked at the elven girl he considered his little sister. “...not a good place for you.” He searched for words. “There is a reason that they say that the Guild is only for crafters, dreamers, and the insane.”

“Which one are you supposed to be?” retorted Emily angrily. “I can become strong, too.”

“I have no doubts about that, but the Guild is not a good place to grow,” interjected Sigille. “And if you really want to follow the druid path, then Dhruv is the best instructor you can find in Tiv.”

Emily was still maintaining eye contact with Matteo.

“Ma is right,” said Matteo. “The Guild isn’t such a nice place. I’m no crafter. I don’t dream much either.”

“You’re not insane,” objected Emily and glared at Matteo with reproachful eyes.

Sigille chided Matteo with a silent look as well.

“You’re wrong about that,” said Matteo. “The dreamers either leave or die early. What remains is insanity. Normal people don’t make it that far. You won’t find a single normal person in the ranking or beyond. Everyone is obsessed in some way or other.” He added in a low voice. “I know who and what I am.”

Sigille sighed and lowered her gaze.

“I get the cultists, but there are normal people in the ranking, too, aren’t there?” asked Emily.

Matteo shook his head. “Even Amelia and Dargones have their circumstances. Their secrets are not mine to divulge, but there is a story to them always sticking together. There is a reason why Amelia has thrown away her title as a noble. There is a reason for Amelia involving herself in Guild management even though they both hate it.”

Matteo shrugged. “Even people like Jee are the same. He doesn’t share much, but his vendetta does not seem any less deep than my own. I know that he voluntarily submitted himself to some kind of ritual for these mirror-like eyes. I’ve investigated once and…” Matteo shook his head. “Let’s just say the only way to pass that without going insane is to not be completely sane to begin with.”

“But—” Emily still felt like objecting.

“No exceptions,” insisted Matteo. “I have my own demons to haunt me and I will hunt my former mentor until at least one of us is dead.”

Sigille sighed wearily.

“The Guild is the right place for me.” Matteo stood up and patted Emily’s head. “You deserve better, little one.”

***