"Nyssa?" She asks again, sounding a bit annoyed.
"Hm? Oh. Sorry. Caught up in my head." I pop my helmet free to talk. I keep it on at all times otherwise to keep my field of awareness a full three hundred and sixty degrees but it feels better to speak face to face with her. Garrick and I can have conversations through the armor readily, but that's probably just because we're both pretty socially challenged and it makes it easier. Definitely not the case with Serafina.
The frigid air feels instantly oppressive and stings my throat when I draw my first breath outside the helm. "I like traveling. I just tend to struggle at the places where people are on either end." I try to say it with some humor, but from the look Serafina gives me, it doesn't work.
"How you can be so devoted to helping people while wanting absolutely nothing to do with them amazes me." She laughs warmly with the sentiment, which takes some of the sting out. "Is there anywhere you would want to go that you haven't before? With or without people, I suppose."
I duck under a branch, bracing my shoulder and pushing with my legs until it snaps off, clearing the path for Serafina. I'm trying to avoid her needing to wander as much as possible. Clearing the route is easy enough.
After some thought, "I think I'd like to see Illysia. I would want to visit the academy there. Maybe go see that permanent Nexus there; I heard you can actually see into the Essence Sea through it." The thought actually gets me a little giddy.
"Huh. I'm surprised the answer was somewhere that far abroad. I've stayed there for awhile, myself."
That snags my interest like a magnet. "Did you? What for?" I find myself drawing closer to her with each question and have to restrain myself a bit to focus on my duties. I try to put on a more indifferent air to contrast my unbecoming excitement.
"I studied at the academy, actually. I was there to study conceptual essence theory. Elemental theory is more straightforward, so my family sent me to glean what I could to return it to Eldara to disseminate into our schools." She ducks under a branch that I missed while paying attention to her, wincing as she does. She carries on, though. "My family sends members abroad when they come of age to visit other nations to learn of local advances in knowledge, enchanting, and technology. I, selflessly, volunteered to go to the beautiful and sunny Illysia. It truly was a sacrifice for the betterment of all. The time spent on the beach sunbathing was terribly burdensome." I try my best, and fail miserably, at keeping that imagery out of my head.
"What was the academy like? Is it true that they'll accept people from abroad with no strings attached?" I jog ahead and pull a knife and chop through some dense brush to open the path.
"I found it to be a little stuffy. Lots of "old knowledge" types. My family believes in finding newer, better, ways to teach. The academy is very set in its ways in that regard. I chafed with basically every instructor I dealt with by having the audacity to suggest improvements to their curriculum and demonstrating that I knew their subjects better than them." She shoots me a smug smile with warm eyes, "Aside tenured and boring professors, though. It's a fantastic wealth of collected knowledge. I would live in their libraries if I could." A puff of steam blows out from her lips as she exhales a contented sigh in memory.
"As to the other question: Yes and no. If you get to Illysia, they'll let you study for free. Give you room and board, even. But if you can't pay your way, you'll be expected to take on a civil service role for three months for every year of study. It's well worth it, by all accounts: you'll be paid for the time in civil service, too. My understanding is that most people who take on those locally important roles study for two-to-six years, and after being there for that long, having a job, and getting lodging, people tend to just stay. I need to stop for a little bit." She looks around for a few moments before spying a stump to sit on and hobbling over.
"I don't mind carrying you through the day, Serafina. I can see you're in pain." I pop my helmet back on now that we're stopped. Awareness is more important than eye contact, so I dial up my sensory enchantments all the way, which allows me to keep a literal eye on the surroundings while focusing on Serafina.
"Nyssa, you keep interrupting our pleasant conversations to dote on me like a wallflower. I'm wounded, not a fainting princess." She pretty sharply rolls her eyes with a wry smile.
"I don't want to run the risk of you being out here at night is all. It's a big part of why Garrick's suggestion bothered me. You're in no condition to stand a split watch, and me standing watch all night will compromise my ability to keep us safe the following day." The look she gives me is withering, but I stand my ground. "It's not for lack of trust in your abilities or personal power. I found out exactly how much power you wield, personally, yesterday. My armor still hasn't fully recovered. But anomalies happen."
Serafina draws herself up with a deep breath and then sighs. "Give me another hour or two. We're still moving along at a fine rate and will hit Burrowvale unless there's other delays. In another hour, I'm sure my wound will be irritating me to the point that I will be able to abide being carried."
We both stare at one another for a little while, though my side of the stare is hidden behind my helmet. Serafina chuckles, though, breaking the apparent tension. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you just wanted to hold me." With that statement made, she hefts herself from the stump and sets off in the direction we've been traveling, leaning on her stave.
It stuns me, leaving me standing there for a handful of moments before pressing on to keep pace next to her.
After a half hour of silence, Serafina probes me again. "Tell me, Nyssa, what would you study at Illysia, given the opportunity?"
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The area around us is silent, and starting to give way to more mundane and sparse forest once more which is putting me at ease. Essence-rich regions like the Forest of Alloys are inherently more dangerous.
Not seeing anything questionable or worrying, though. I pop my helm off again. "I would like to look into esoteric essences. Research moreso than seeking a specific new skillset. I want to find out more about Sanctus, and it seems like it would be a place with a decent chance of having something, even if it's only apocryphal."
"Have you considered going to your homeland for that? I'm sure something survived, and your people make up one hundred percent of all known users of that essence. I know there's some settlements that have cropped up made by the demonkyn in Eldara and Kaymar. Seeking them could yield something, too."
She's trying to be helpful. I know that. "No. I haven't and won't." Punctuating my statement, I put my helmet back on and seal it. When I speak again, it comes out filtered by the Sonos enchantments into a stable, atonal, cadence that robs my voice of emotion. "Keep on this path, I'm going to range afield for a few minutes."
When I hop into motion to jog around, I hear Serafina starting to apologize, but tune it out. The last thing I want to do is think about any of that again.
I'm Eldaran. I've grown up here for eighty percent of my life, and the other twenty percent are barely even memories. I was too young to remember most of it. So why bother?
I let scouting absorb my mind, dispelling the rising tension in my chest until I hear something coming from a nearby copse of trees. When I peer over in that direction, I see beady black eyes on a warped green face staring back at me before it scampers away back into the safety of the copse. I dash, trying to catch it before it can get away.
Goblins. The definition of a minor monster, but now that they've spotted me, it'll go tell its den, and they'll wind up pursuing us once they've gathered. They're patient up until the exact moment that they think they have an advantage: then it becomes everyone else's problem. Somewhat like slimes, except they'll never run and they carry sharp little knives and love to, specifically, stab dogs and canid beastkyn.
Not happening. I'm not about to let a small horde of monsters chase me and my wounded ally, nor follow us back to a country town.
I burst through the small grouping of trees to catch a glimpse of the goblin heading into a stony hole in the ground. Almost assuredly the den.
This is last thing I need right now. If I go back and get Serafina, they'll have had time to organize and could be an actual threat. If I drop down there now, Serafina will be alone for the next ten minutes while I mop the place up.
I just told Serafina that I was confident in her abilities, so I'll prove it and deal with the greater good first.
I stalk up to the hole in the ground. It's a sheer drop about fifteen feet with handholds for climbing up. Roughly circular and framed with rocks and scrap wood. It’ll probably able to allow ten of them to clamber up at once. A midsized den.
Doing some calculation for the likely monster density, I pull out my codex and make a quick status update, an entry about clearing a den, and then toss it on the ground outside the den. I'm not worried, but procedure is procedure, and it exists for a reason. If I somehow die down there, better my codex is found outside of the area where I was killed.
That sorted, I start calling on Aero to provide myself a sensory boost and on Ignia to prepare a basic weapon imbuement. Goblins are afraid of fire — it's their primary bane — so setting my daggers aflame will provide a fair passive advantage, but I'm going to hold off on doing it until I get an idea of how many there are. Weapon imbuements expend essence passively, and then in more significant bursts on actual strikes so I want to put off using it until I actually need to. They're just goblins, after all.
[Swift as the Wind]
[Imbuement | Aero]
As my mental enhancement settles, I feel the world around me slow down fractionally. With a nod to myself, I draw my knives, and step out over the hole to fall down through the bracing wood to land stably at the bottom.
Right in front of a goblin. A looter based on its spear and crude backpack, not the scout I caught a glimpse of. It stares at me for a moment. A mistake.
In a smooth motion, I sheathe one knife, step forward, and use my newly freed hand to snatch it up by the throat. It immediately drops its spear and tries to punch at my armor to no effect. It tries to sputter up a scream or a warning, but I just clench tighter until I hear a crack and it goes limp.
I carefully set it on the ground, quietly, and cut open its bag. It'll dissipate in time, but I want to see what it's carrying and if it's likely run into people recently.
The contents spill onto the ground with a soft clatter into a large moss patch. Coins, a necklace, a watch, and a locket — clearly personal effects. I collect them and drop them in one of my mundane pouches to avoid the sound of transfer from interacting with my carryall.
They've hurt people. I wasn't going to feel bad anyways, but now it'll feel good instead of merely necessary.
I take in the entryway, it's a small mouth of a cave network extending underground, established in its early stages of growth. Will remain to be seen how advanced it gets as I descend. I follow the only path forward and downward, coated in just enough glowing moss to remain visible to normal vision in here, and works to extend my dark sight substantially.
Otherwise, the cavern is wide and tall enough for me to make my way through without crouching. While my armor has stealth-enhancing enchantments, I take care as a matter of due course — sticking to patches of moss wherever I can, and stepping slowly and carefully otherwise. I'm no sneakthief, even if I know how to be quiet.
I'm particularly glad this one is tall enough for me, though. Crouching around an is awful way to actually remain stealthy; you make so much noise in doing so, despite what people assume. Tall, slow and smooth is better than a low, awkward, profile in almost all cases.
The little tunnel leads me down at about a thirty-degree grade. Just steep enough to be awkward, but not so much that I'm risking my footing. When I reach the bottom after following a couple wandering switchbacks I hear the consistent chattering of goblins and the sounds of fighting. Clanging weapons, bodies hitting the ground, and the like. They're very unified when threatened, but otherwise will just keep fighting, drawing more essence to an area to encourage their den to grow and more goblins to spawn. More complex ones, too.
Dealing with monster dens is a high priority for the Vigil and various guilds for that reason. A small den with ten goblins can grow into an underground complex in a few months if they don't draw enough attention to get themselves dealt with. The goblins will be as dangerous as goblins ever are, but a thousand of something, no matter how weak, is still a concern.
Much worse if a few of them wind up evolving from essence exposure.
That won't be happening here. This den collapses today, no matter how many of them are inside, evolved or otherwise.
I keep following the path where the sound is coming from, but I come upon a crossroad. A section where the den decided to split off and grow a new direction in search of denser essence pockets underground. I can continue onwards straight, but these offshoots are usually fairly small, and I'd rather not have something come up behind me when I get into the main chamber.
I angle down the side path and follow the moss until I reach an opening that dumps out into a room that contains what I can only describe as "a goblin pile". Goblin bodies in varying states of discorporation have been tossed down the slope to collect at the bottom of the little hill. Directly above the piles of essence leaking bodies slowly breaking down, with those wisps of freed essence drifting their way up to it, is a dense roiling orb of purple and red essence about seven feet across at its widest point within its established corona of essence.
A den core.