“Stories of spells and impressions reign supreme in all story-telling. The true and yet obscure workings of flow are able to enchant all but the most uninspired of characters to greater intrigue.

However, most depictions of either are lackluster when described in word, for their very nature is that they are not the static of words but the flow of the world.

So it goes, that even the most trivial of impressed items outshines the tellings thereof in reality.

Take a pair of slippers, with the impression of a frog’s jump inlaid. It is only in your mind that those words become more. Those impressions you gain when thinking of a concept are what powers impressions in the first place.

Impressions are when the imagination of their creator overlaps with reality.”

Excerpt from “The Agency of Flow”, author unknown.

—

The rest of the goodbyes and the subsequent departure happened too quick for Liana to properly take it in. She had hugged her father, her friends Teira and Monika, and exchanged a few pleasantries with the capitalist, who had facilitated the majority of Liana’s future without batting an eye.

“Try to look dignified, alright? We can’t have a future flowbringer go screaming around like a toddler,” Ionis whispered to Liana.

Liana just stared at the woman in response. Halting her steps on the way down the stairs.

“But I am not screaming,” she managed to get out after a large pause taken up with comprehending the statement.

“Not yet, but you no doubt will. You felt the impressions on the clothes, right? So get ready. We’ll leave for real in just a moment,” Ionis responded still in a hushed manner.

“Mr Sanonborough, I expect the delivery within two weeks as agreed upon. You shall have your garment once you have fulfilled your end of the contract,” she continued directed at the capitalist.

“Yes, Miss. A pleasure doing business with you,” he said and actually bowed. Liana had never seen someone rich bow before. Usually, it was only the servants and applicants like her.

Liana’s thoughts swirled. She hadn’t seemed to be required to do any sort of specific greeting but now she was confused, if the capitalist had bowed should she have. No, she would have been instructed to do so ahead of time, either by the capitalist or her parents who had spent several hours with the capitalist over the last two weeks.

Though, when she thought back on her first interaction with Ionis, the woman didn’t seem to be one for propriety or societal norms, contrary to what had been drilled into the former schoolchild's head.

“Let’s go,” the flowbringer spoke and pulled lightly on Liana’s sleeve.

They stepped down the last few stairs of the pavilion and Liana began to wonder how they were going to get to Teeram, the place Ionis claimed as her home.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Ionis untwined a part of her robe in an almost not perceivable motion and attached it to Liana. In the next move, she touched both new garments, exhaled once, and a wave of light blue swashed along her arms into the trousers and shirt.

Disorientation overcame the girl as her perspective changed. From one moment to the next, the ground disappeared from below her feet, as though she was catapulted away. Wind rushed through her face and hair, putting an uncomfortable pressure on her face.

The twirling sensation of butterflies rushing through her stomach slowly subsided as her movement became more regular and she recovered from her shock.

The initial vertigo Liana had experienced upon ascending had quickly morphed into excitement and wonder as she observed the world around her - below her to be percise. The large houses of the wealthy boroughs with expansive gardens and well-paved roads shifted to only poorly maintained paved roads and later gravel and dirt streets that connected the higher density regions of town. As density increased the houses looked more and more familiar, reaching a peak when they drifted over the river district, the place where Liana had spent most of her life so far.

While she couldn’t make out her house from up above, she did notice some of the more distinct squares, the school building, the bath, and her father's joined shop at the river bank.

Just as Liana had grown used to the sensation of rapid movement above the town they began to lose height slowly but noticeably. Were they had cleared even the tallest houses by double their height they were now barely scratching the very same buildings.

Their direction changed slightly. Liana persumed that Ionis guided their movement.

The change of direction brought them towards a larger fenced pasture with guertls - the six-legged transport monster being the number one reason for fast transport times throughout the region.

As they showed no sign of slowing down Liana grew increasingly more worried. As she saw the ground approach she prepared herself to scream to get the attention of the potentially woman. Upon getting within a few dozen feet Liana tried to communicate her distress, to scream. Both was fruitless. The air pressed to hard against her, giving her no chance of either.

The closer they got to the ground the more did Liana worry. They were not decelerating whatsoever and Liana knew she would be paste upon their inevitable crash. Not able to help herself she thrashed about, to somehow get Ionis to pay attention and cease whatever she was doing.

The woman didn’t react whatsoever.

Maybe, just maybe she had actually started grinning, though Liana wouldn’t be sure about that.

Then another feeling came over her. The same as when she had initially put on the trousers, this time it lingered and she was able to grasp what it was meant to represent. Solidness, hardness, and being unshatterable, unmoveable. Like an anvil that was used to mold iron into its shape. Like the rocks falling from the sky unblemished and a bit like the inevitability of death.

When the ground finally connected Liana felt nothing. She had feared to be turned to mush regardless of what kind of feeling the impression gave her, at best she had expected to maybe bounce like a pebble when thrown.

She was however just laying on her arms and knees in a fetal position, the way they had been positioned in front of her body to brace for the impact moments before.

Liana shivered all over not sure what exactly was going on and just waited there without moving for over a minute, with Ionis standing to the side of her.

Taking stock of her situation, however, was uncomfortable, and looking around gave her a sudden sense of vertigo whenever she looked anywhere besides the ground.

It was as though her body still thought of her as moving, giving her the feeling of falling whenever she looked anywhere but the ground.

All that stopped when Ionis snapped the connection between their garments.

“I’ve never taken one with me who has guzzled up as much flow as you. It is always worse with others, but you… That little stop at the end cost more than fifteen times as much for you as for me. Good thing I precharged yours too. Would have looked really bad if I had killed my apprentice on her first day on the job,” the woman said with too much cheeriness in her voice.

It took Liana a bit longer to gather up her wits, calm her breathing and heartbeat before she trusted herself to speak without breaking up into stuttering.

There were many thoughts swirling to her head right now, but antagonizing the woman by asking her why she hadn’t warned Liana would not be one she was going to voice.

Instead, the apprentice tried to pick up on Ionis’ last statement.

“What do you mean it cost you more than fifteen times as much to stop me? We were taught that each impression costs the same regardless of person,”

“Ah yes, the trust education network of Marigash. I don’t understand how you people can be so trusting of them. You should know that they want you to know the least amount of knowledge possible. Regardless, that is partially correct. If you use an impression on yourself, or technically your soul, that is correct. The glaring issue with this is that there are skills and other people. See, without our contract, it would have cost me double as much to force an impression onto you. Had you been cooperative it would have been cheaper, and a contract usually allows for the minimum cost-increase to be only two-fold. Hmmm… I can see that you still have questions and that I might have not been entirely clear.

“Let me retry. For two people with the same skills at the same level an impression will almost always cost the same. If you want to affect other people it will always be more expensive, doubling at least with a contract, and reaching, as I was just able to see, to at least fifteen times as much. If the affected party resists those can go even higher based on a variety of factors.

“Now, please stop asking questions while I finalize our transport to Larkos,” Ionis said.

Resisting the slight nudge in her head to stop irritating the woman any further by asking questions Liana spoke up again.

“Don’t you mean Teeram?”

“No, I do not. Now shush,” the obviously irritated woman responded. She then mumbled under her breath, just loud enough for Liana to hear.

“And here I thought taking an apprentice would be easy pickings, and she starts being annoying within the first minute.”

Why would she though? Flying has to be faster than anything else out there. Even guertls won’t be as fast, not even on the eternal crossroads and she can’t get us to Teeram in a single day with them, Liana wondered, knowing full well that she wouldn’t be able to gain any insights from the woman unless she allowed her too.

It took another moment to find the source of Ionis’ sudden change of character, when she did, she was even more surprised.

A well build, scruffed and mudded man approached from further down the pasture. Every observant person would no doubt see the obvious good cheer in the man’s face and in his step. As to why he was so happy, Liana wasn’t sure, she had little doubt that she would find out soon though. A flow bringer stranding in your shop or place of trade would probably only mean one thing.

That you were to make a killing today.

“Ahhh Ms Ionis, it is a pleasure to see you. Does this mean you are accepting of my proposed offer?” he asked.

“Yes Cavendar, until my death I may rent your best available guertls with carriage and driver free of charge for a month at a time if I pick them up personally. Really, I don’t see why you are so interested in that time limitation,” she responded while rummaging around in her outer coat.

“Well, wouldn’t want you to permanently rent those guertls now, would we,” the man said and winked at Liana. “You could just steal all of my guertls in due time, couldn’t you.”

“I suppose not. Wouldn’t even need them without the brat,” she denied and continued a lot quieter, maybe a cheeky remark at Liana or just a manifestation of her inner thoughts. Liana grew increasingly worried about what sort of person Ionis really was. She didn’t seem quite normal, which was fine. She did seem a bit unhinged though, which she hadn’t been warned of beforehand. People only said that she was a bit special.

“It’s charged for two to three activations, you’ll need someone strong to charge it up, just once will be tough. Though I supposed when you’ll actually need to use it, you are in deep shit regardless,” Ionis said, holding out a thin strip.

“Thank you! Really I mean it. This means a lot to me. Just a slight issue. My two best guertls are currently not available. But there really is only a very minor difference in speed. And the ones currently here are I dare say even more enduring,” the tamer said.

Ionis only sniffed at the comment and responded that it was of no matter.

Instructing master and apprentice took barely any time since they were going to be accompanied by a driver who had apt experience with taking care of the beasts. During the drastically shortened instruction Liana was told several times to never approach guertls from the side or behind, and especially not to pet them.

According to what she had heard and what the tamer said they were known for hurting humans in savage ways.

The coach they were finally shown had a rather different shape than the open-top versions she was familiar with. Instead of a squared design the wodden construction approached an oval shape with a cut-out in the front for one or two drivers. The axels too were different. they had weird-looking metal constructions adjacent to the wheels - the purpose of those was obscure at best.

After having entered the coach Liana had felt the lurch that indicated the beginning of their journey, oddly dampened from how it had been in past experiences.

“At least he didn’t skim us with the carriage. Though it is probably not ideal for speed either,” Ionis grumped. “I assume you have some questions, I can see it on your face in fact. You can ask away, I don’t mind what you ask, but I might not answer. And please, for the sake of apotheosis don’t annoy me with propriety. It is just a waste of time.”

“If you can fly the way you just were, why did you bop up and down at the party?” asked Liana.

The master chuckled, then began speaking, though clearly still amused.

“Oh. Good story. Charles, the other flowbringer in attendance vehemently denies that being equipped by me would help him, so I was trying to prove him wrong,” the grin stretched even wider on the woman's face. “And it worked. Never seen him so flustered before. A great evening, doubly so with you there as well. Don’t worry, I’ll teach you all about marketing at some point.

“But you see, for a medium expenditure in flow, he is able to float for about a second, and since he was asked to do security I wanted to show that I could do it equally often, and it cost me almost no flow,” breaking out in newfound joy the woman continued to chuckle, looked out the window and sighed.