The slight wind caressing my newly shaved face was soothing for my skin that likely hadn’t felt the caress of wind or the light for too long.
“How is that even going to work?” I asked the clock-engineer.
“It’s simple. You’ll start taking lessons from lady Jane, then come back here when you have reached at least a decent level in a combat Form,” answered Logan.
Combat Forms.
From what I knew, and I didn’t know much, combat Forms had been introduced by the Kins.
Kins were the people from the distant south; they belonged to another continent, something so far away that I didn’t even bother thinking about it. Alistar did though, his people were in constant war with the Kins, like much we were with the Elves.
Kins were people with fur, tails, claws, and fangs. I had never seen one, only their depiction on some old paintings or books. Here in Sundoor’s city-state territory lived only Humans, Kobolds, Gnolls, and halflings like momma Jane.
So, the Kins were like the Elves for us. People against which we Humans had been warring against, for dozens of years.
And although that was a distant thought from our daily lives, in times of need, villagers could be conscripted to fight in the war.
“What Forms are you talking about?” I asked him, breaking out from my reverie. “Sunguard’s Forms?”
“Sunguard’s? No, none of you should use a Khopesh. I have a rough idea of what you should learn, but Lady Jane is the expert here, not me. She’ll choose for you.”
“What about Roana?” Nova asked.
“I don’t know if her daughter already knows combat Forms, but I guess she will be expected to learn a combat Form as well; it’s a good exercise to break her out of the loop,” Logan answered, “don’t you think so?”
“I guess?” Nova answered, uncertain.
“So… how’s it going to go? But more importantly, I get it that I’m not going to have a bow, but what about an arm?” I asked with a half-smile.
“Of course, you’ll have a training one and a dagger for your defense. Which will probably become your weapon of choice while fighting with the use of combat Forms,” he answered.
I nodded. At least I’d have an arm.
“Will Harlow train with us?” I asked without thinking, and to an immediate whistle of Alistar.
“Harlow has already mastered her Form; however, for your happiness, Loke,” Logan said, making me fume from my ears, “when you’ll be done with learning your Forms, you’ll be ready to Delve with my Harlow.”
“Delving!?” We shouted in unison, Harlow with us.
“You never said anything about delving, Dad!” She shouted.
“What? Did you think I Delve every day and you’d stay holed up in my house doing nothing for the rest of your life?” He said in a challenging tone.
“No… of course not! But… hey! I don’t “do nothing” all day! Now you’re just being mean!” She answered.
Logan burst into laughter then said, “I know! I’m just teasing you as I’m teasing them,” he cleared his throat, “however, you will Delve when they are ready; it’s about time you did.”
I knew half the story of how Harlow lost her arms, and it was tied to the Fallen Kingdom’s Dungeon. But I had only heard the basis of what there was to say. And there was a lot to say, so maybe Harlow would have cleared that up for us.
“You will leave as soon as Loke’s ready, and the hunters of Murkstall will have recovered enough to let Alistar alone. In the meanwhile, I suggest you guys,” he said, turning toward us, “start training as much as you can because I believe lady Jane to be… rather wild with her teaching.”
Oh, yeah, she really was.
When she taught me how to become a Tamer, it was one of the hardest periods of my life. I could not make a mistake that she played drums with my head.
I remembered the cane… that damn cane was the only weapon she ever wielded.
I hope that thing broke, I thought.
“Jane can’t be that harsh! Come on!” said Nova.
“Oh… you have no idea, sis… no idea,” I said with a sigh.
Nova and Alistar shared a worried look.
Harlow was still pouting a little, and Logan started laughing again.
“Listen now, younglings,” he said, smashing his palms on the table and making it bounce up a little, “You know what’s going to wait for you if you make it through training, right? You won’t only become Delvers, you will become strong, you will be able to protect not only yourselves but those you love as well. And if that wasn’t all… there will be spectacular rewards waiting for you. New toys, made by my own hands. No, not toys. Real weapons.” Logan lowered his voice, “Weapons from the basement.”
My eyes grew wide. That did indeed catch my attention.
“The basement? Are we going to have that strong ale you brew?” Said Alistar.
Logan shrugged, “That’s something you can have now if you want, but the real stuff, the real weapons, and armors, things at Sunguard’s level, are waiting in my basement for you. But they need to be worn and used by people of worth. As you are now, you are not even distinguishable from animals.”
“Dad!”
Logan just laughed, “Get the ale, Harlow! Let’s have a party!”
“Yeah!” Shouted Nova.
“Not you!” we all said to her in chorus.
“You are just a bunch of killjoy!” She shouted back.
It was almost twilight when we stopped drinking.
One’s ability to hold back alcohol depended on one’s Constitution.
I had no idea if the Bonus Constitution worked toward bolstering my ability to hold alcohol since they really worked while in combat, but I still was the first one to surrender.
If anybody was looking for me, they’d find me sprawling on the table in the middle of who knew how many exhausted bottles of ale.
Not that there would be someone looking for me, but as a matter of fact, someone did come looking for somebody else, but not for me.
A group of Delvers on a Flow-cart climbed the hill from the Fallen Kingdom’s side and seemed to be heading directly at us.
My eyes, although half-asleep, could distinguish three Flow-blessed and a regular. They left the Flow-cart a couple of hundred meters from the house, on the first flat land they found and started heading our way.
“Delvers…” I said, but I did not find it in me to add any more than that.
Harlow followed my gaze and adjuster her refound glasses before confirming. “Dad, it’s Noland.”
“Mmh?” Said Logan, turning around.
“Clock-engineer!” Shouted the one walking in front of the others, a Sun-blessed man with short hair.
“Noland,” Logan shouted back, “what brings you this way?”
It was not the first time I had seen Logan and Harlow give their services to Delvers or exchange spare-parts, and buy or sell things. It happened a lot of times; however, for Nova, it was a first.
In the two years we hunted together, she had never really seen any Delvers.
Nova straightened up; she looked excited.
But if it was only that, I would have understood; I didn’t care.
What upset me and made me wake up from my alcohol-induced coma was a look.
The innocent look one of the guys to the back of Noland sent to my Har- to Harlow. It was the regular guy.
I had no idea what it was that drove me to look at him; however, when I met his gaze, I felt its intentions on my skin.
It was desire, a depraved desire toward Harlow that made me want to go there and bust his damn face.
Harlow was beautiful, but I didn’t know exactly what was making me feel that man’s gaze so intensely, if it was Synesthesia or something else I couldn’t know, but the man was not looking at her normally. As a man should look at a woman. He was likely imagining things because of her clock-tech arms.
An extreme urge to kill that individual almost took over me, and I sobered up instantaneously.
I didn’t know what gave it away, but both the regular, a Hunter at his roots probably, and Harlow seemed to react to my sobering up.
The Hunter turned to look at me, while Harlow, sitting near me, gripped my thigh, with her strong, metal hand.
“Stay seated,” Logan ordered in a hushed tone, looking especially at me.
Then he got up to meet the incoming party, and they talked for a while; I could hear them from here. They spoke of Clock-tech stuff and some finds they had brought on their cart.
“Who are the kids?” Asked Noland, the guy in front, after they had agreed on a barter.
“Family, from a village,” answered Logan, “my cousin had his dumb son attacked by a Rivercroc. I don’t know how the kid survived, but he’s definitely got the worst of the deal.”
Logan shrugged, “I’m kind of obliged to fix him up at least a little; they bring me fish, you see?” He finished with a chuckle.
I kept feeling the Hunter’s look on me; if that guy was a Tracer, I could be quite literally f***** if he traced me. Especially after Logan’s lies.
We might have as well the need to take them down.
But those were Delvers, not slave traders, true Delvers from Sundoor or wherever they came from; and Delvers that hunted in the Fallen Kingdom, not Sundoor’s Tower.
Professional bastards. The only one with the ability to take them on was probably just Logan.
I forced myself to play the part of the drunk, resting my head back on the table, yawning.
That seemed to do the trick.
However, this Noland was really intent on making small talks, “Is that a Flow-born I see? Family too?”
“My very own nephew, yeah, it’s a rare sight. My cousin got really lucky with her,” Logan said.
“Does your cousin know that she could buy her citizenship for just spare change with her? It looks like a waste to let her grow old here,” said Noland.
“Yeah, he does indeed know. He’s been saving up for a while to buy himself and her citizenship. One can’t have a little kid living alone in a city, even if that City is Sundoor,” Logan answered.
If he was starting to get tired of the conversation, he was a master at not showing any trace of it.
I could only praise his patience.
“Alright, if you need a hand, just let me know. I know a man or two that might make an exception for the entrance of a regular father and his Flow-blessed daughter. However, if that one is her brother… I’m sorry, but that’s not much that could be done for him. I don’t have to tell you that, I guess. Maybe Gustav might be able to do something about it, but given how you and him… ended things, maybe even that road has crumbled,” said Noland.
Logan laughed out loud, agreeing with him.
Five minutes later, the Delvers were leaving toward Sundoor.
“Who in the Abyss were those?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“That Hunter’s look was…” I briefly turned to look at Harlow.
“Yes, he’s one of those fetishists for clock-tech implants, he’s called Jamie,” Harlow said, refusing to add anything else.
Logan could only nod. Whatever he did in his defense, especially without a justifiable provocation would be only punishable with death from the City.
He was forced to bear their taunts and… kinks. It was already a lot that a Shade-cursed was allowed to freely trade in Sundoor’s lands, I thought.
Although we used barter to trade with him, Delvers paid him in crowns, Sundoor’s currency, which he would then use to pay for his harder to find materials. I knew he could freely trade in the City. I had seen him and Harlow go there a few times.
The poor villages’ economy was so irrelevant that crowns did not even reach them. And if they did, the villagers made sure to keep the money safely stashed away in fear of thefts and raids.
In Murkstall, we paid a heavy price bearing the plague; however, even though it was a dark period, it did indeed come with its perks, such as protection from any sort of attacks.
Knowing that we were plagued, no one dared to come to attack us.
But now things would start to change, to get back to normalcy, and we would have to prepare new fighting Classes to protect us.
I hoped the mayor was ready for what was coming because if we had to train, we would be away for a long time. And both Alistar and I were a force to be reckoned with.
“They didn’t seem that bad,” said Nova, “didn’t they give us suggestions to join the City? They actually seemed nice!”
“The road to the Abyss is paved with good intentions, youngling,” said Logan. “But, we shall see what the future brings, for now, we are just delving in untrodden waters. Now,” he said, once again, smashing his hands on the table like he liked to do to get our attention, “before twilight is over, apply another healing round on Loke, Nova. We need him fresh and ready to train.”
“Yups!”
I spent the following week healing, resting, and getting back in shape.
I couldn’t hide how much I enjoyed being in Harlow’s company, eating food made by her, seeing her work, and receiving lessons in clock-engineering.
Given the abundance of clock-tech body parts that I had now, she decided that I would have to really understand at least the basics.
Although the implants had been made in SolarTitanium, even the one on my shoulder, living the life of a Delver meant living in danger, damage was bound to happen, and I needed to at least know how to fix myself.
There were a lot of things to know about clock-tech, a whole lot, and I had no Class boons to bolster my knowledge or understanding, so I had to study it with my head as the only tool.
But it did not scare me. I always wanted to learn the art, so there was no way I would refuse or not give it my all when given a chance.
When Harlow finally removed the dressing on my hand, and I witnessed my three finger’s hand, I couldn’t help but cringe a little.
I was fully awake and followed her explanation and the process while she mounted my new SolarTitanium fingers.
The fingers were small, and there was no space in which to fit a Crystal, least of all a socket for it. In fact, according to Harlow, they did not need Crystals to operate.
SolarTitanium, even more so than SunBronze, could store and retain the Flow inside of itself, and as long as I exposed it to the Sun rays during the day, the Flow stored inside most of the implants, apart from the knee, would work without the need of Crystals.
When she mounted my new Clock-arm, I was displeased to know that it was not the one I had seen, but although new, it was much more regular.
SunBronze Clock-arm
Durability: 100%
Bonus: Strength + 10, Constitution + 10
Flow Capacity: 100%
Strengths: Good bonuses, mobile fingers
Weaknesses: Not meant to be used for defending
This Clock-arm has been built by a Clock-technician. It is meant to be an arm adaptable to every circumstance. Although not offering the best Constitution bonus given the alloy, it is exquisitely worked.
If it was made by a Clock-technician, it meant that Harlow had made it for me; she must have made the blueprints and built it all by herself. I was enthusiastic!
My new arm was rather standard. It did what it was intended to, but I appreciated a lot the fact that it had all mobile fingers.
I had forgotten how it felt to have all the fingers in my left hand, and it took me some time to get used to it.
However, the worst part of removing my bandages was when I finally removed the one on my head’s left side.
Harlow brought me a mirror, and I could see the results.
There was indeed a piece of metal showing on top of my left brow, it proceeded partially around the head, but thankfully, the rest was covered by my hair.
Logan had shaved them clean for the operation, but they were already growing back, and although they didn’t obviously grow on top of the metal, the rest of my head had them, which was good.
Finally, the most surprising part was my left eye.
For some reason, it had stuck in its weak points-seeing transformation. It was not active, but it was indeed transformed.
It didn’t hurt, it didn’t burn, I did not cry tears of blood for overusing it because I simply wasn’t using it. I could perfectly see from it, and beyond that, when I used my ability to gauge weak points, it activated perfectly. There simply was no setback in that transformation, but it did not recede.
I felt a little weird, but Harlow told me that she liked it. Who was I to contest that after hearing her opinion? Was I a fool? Of course, I wasn’t.
Time passed as I learned the basics of Clock-tech that I always wished I had, and in the free time, I trained my new Agility Minor Perk.
It was damn Shade consuming; it used an entire regular Stone to transfer my full body somewhere, but damn if it was effective as a movement technique, although really hard to master.
The effective range of the transfer depended on my shot, or from my throw, if I could throw fast enough, which I found out that I could.
I surely had to thank the Strength I had never stopped raising, for that.
Yet, I had to carefully try and test my Trick Shot from the basics to learn by heart when the Shade projectile was released from the tail of whatever it is I was shooting/throwing.
When I used the ability, I would find myself where the Shade double was at that moment.
The process felt like being squeezed for a moment and then expanded back to regular size.
The shade projectile would be no more, and I would appear in its stead.
The real problem with the whole transfer process was to perfectly time it and arrive at the destined location.
After training in it for a couple of weeks, I was nowhere close to mastering it. I also thought back at what Logan had said about using the Shiny Stone; maybe evolving this ability might have given me a greater return.
Although without upgrading Trace, I would have most certainly died at the hands of the Sunguard.
Synesthesia and the ability to see the whispers of the Soul were not offering me much. Or at least that’s how I saw it by comparing them to my complete Agility Skill.
I also learned a great deal from Logan about Attributes and Skills, like how the Bonuses really affected you.
A Strength boost for example increased your overall power while using your Skill. Nova’s Constitution Bonus for Breathing Patterns, for example, would always boost her Constitution, as long as she breathed, which would mean always.
My new Constitution Skill would do the same. It would constantly boost my Attribute as long as I had clock-tech parts in my body. While Alistar’s Duress was different.
He would have a huge boost as he used his Duress Skill, quantifying how much it would actually boost him.
Skill boosts in the same Attribute, but not belonging to the same Class would rarely work together, but in a few cases they would.
Logan also told me many things about different Classes that I wouldn’t have otherwise known, and that would surely come in handy in the future.
At times I wondered how such a talented individual as him had found himself on this solitary hill, but then I guessed that if he did indeed come from Sundoor; the complexion of his skin and the color of his hair were traits that would be very hard to deal with.
While I trained, Alistar and Nova came and went.
My sister wanted to oversee the villagers and their recovery; Alistar had to accompany her back to the village and hunt while the villagers got back in shape.
By the time the village returned into a semblance of what it was in the past, before the coming of the Shade-plague, a whole month went by, and thankfully, there had been no trace whatsoever of the Inquisitor or the Inquisition as a whole.
Maybe Logan’s connections had kept his reputation steady.
And, finally, when a whole month had passed since I started my recovery and study period, I knew I was ready to leave.
I would be going back to the village before the coming of the Shade Festival, which would be held in Sundoor in roughly two weeks, and whose preparation was already creating a lot of movement in the region, even so far from the City.
Alistar, Nova, and I planned to head to momma Jane before it started; also, they said I would find a surprise waiting for me home, but before that, it was Logan, the one surprising me yet again.
I was saluting Logan and thanking him profusely for all he had done for us when he interrupted me.
“Before you leave,” he started, “I’ve got something for you; it was time it was returned to its rightful owner.”
