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-Plum

35 – New Paths

Andy spent the rest of the day with Maker, talking to him about his hopes for the Gavax settlement. At first, he was curious whether Maker or any of the other Children of Gavax—a label they’d given themselves and wore proudly—knew how to make more of their kind. It turned out that they didn’t, though Maker thought it might be something he’d learn as he advanced his “making” skills. When Andy heard that, he sat for several long minutes contemplating the current state of the children and how it seemed they ought to change.

He broached the subject by saying, “Maker, do you think all of your brothers are happy with their roles in life? Do the diggers love digging, do the cutters love cutting, and do the makers love making?”

“Love…” Maker’s voice took on a note Andy hadn’t heard. It grew soft, and he dragged out the word, making it almost two syllables. “I understand the concept, and I think the answer is yes—at least in my case. I love to make things.”

“Well, I think it’s important that all of your brothers, regardless of type, be allowed to explore the idea. They shouldn’t be forced to continue in the roles that Gavax gave them if they don’t feel as strongly as you do. How would you feel if I told you I wanted you to work as a digger?”

“I would not…love that.”

Andy smiled, nodding. “Along those lines, we need to consider that you might have to fill some other roles now that you’re trying to form a proper settlement. Some of your brothers should learn to fight, for example. I think if they start practicing with weapons—clubs or spears or axes—the System will begin to grant them new classes. You should ask for volunteers.”

“Why must we fight?”

“To protect your home.” They were sitting outside, near the forges, and Andy gestured to the big earthwork bordering the settlement. “Your wall is a good defensive measure, but the world out there is full of monsters. There are other people who might want to take what is yours, and you need to be able to defend it.”

“For us,” Maker said, gesturing to himself and Andy.

“That’s right. We’re partners now. I’m going to send some people here to help you get started, but it’s important that you do what you can to expand what you and your brothers can do.”

“And if I learn to make fighter brothers?”

“Well…” Andy frowned, trying to figure out what bothered him about that whole idea. He decided it was his notion of free will—that a person ought to be able to choose how they go about living their life, success or failure resulting from their own choices. He knew it was a human idea, and that maybe Maker and his brothers would never think in the same way, but he wanted to be sure they had a chance.

Clearing his throat, he said, “That would be okay, Maker, but I wish you would try to learn how to make just brothers—or maybe sisters, too. Let them come into the world without a role. Let them choose what they do. I don’t know; maybe it’s not possible, but it would be nice, don’t you think?”

“A sister?” Maker looked toward the clearing where the System Node hovered. Lucy and Denise were there, sitting at their makeshift campsite, chatting and sipping from steaming cups. “Like those Leader-sisters?”

Andy chuckled, nodding slowly as he decided it wasn’t worth trying to make the distinction between sisters and friends. “Sure, sort of like that. My people are a little different though, and we don’t make people in the same way your old leader did. Maybe things will change for you, too, as you and your brothers advance. I have a feeling that the more you try to grow, the more you explore what you can do and forget what Gavax told you to do, the System will reward you.”

Maker looked at Andy, his turquoise eyes bright as they reflected the afternoon sun. “The System gave me words like that.”

“That’s a good sign. The System can be cruel, and the fact that it’s decided you and your brothers are worthy of its attention means that there’s potential in you.” Andy shrugged. “I mean potential beyond what Gavax had planned for you.”

“This is good.” Maker stood from the flat rock upon which he’d been sitting and nodded toward his forge. “I would like to work for a while, Leader Andy. My mind feels heavy with ideas.”

Andy nodded. “One more thing, Maker. I want you to consider applying Improvement Points you earn toward your Perception attribute. If you can bring it to your natural ceiling, I think it will help you be a better leader to your brothers.”

“I…did not consider that. I will do so, Leader.”

Andy smiled, standing and brushing the dirt off his pants. “My friends and I will leave soon, but I’ll bring others here—people who can give you advice on how to protect the settlement, what sorts of things you should build, and that sort of thing.”

Maker nodded, though it was clear the movement wasn’t natural; he was copying Andy. His wood-like body was more flexible than it looked, though, and despite the lack of an obvious joint like the ones at his shoulders, his chin tilted up and down. “I will tell all of my brothers to watch for you, and I will talk to them about our need for brother-fighters.”

Andy stretched out his hand. “In my culture, when friends meet or say goodbye, sometimes they will want to shake hands. Just grip my hand and we’ll move our hands slightly.”

Maker looked at Andy’s hand for a moment, then gripped it firmly with his surprisingly smooth, nimble fingers. It was only then that Andy thought to wonder why Gavax had created his children with five fingers. He’d noticed that the clay giant had only had three fingers. Not for the first time, he wondered what kind of world Gavax had been from. Were there more people like him? Why hadn’t he made his “children” in his likeness?

Shaking his head, pushing the questions aside, he released the small, bark-covered man’s hand. “Goodbye for now.”

Maker turned and walked to his forge, joining a dozen of his brothers already working there, and Andy walked over to Lucy and Denise. As he approached, Lucy looked up, smiling, a cup of steaming liquid in one hand. “We couldn’t hear everything you said, but I’m impressed by your patience, Andy. It sounded like you had quite a conversation.”

Andy shrugged, pulling his camp chair closer to the women. “He’s smarter than he seemed at first. I’m feeling better about how things are going to go around here.”

“Well,” Denise said, sipping from her cup, “at least they don’t have to worry about growing food or bringing in fresh water. Heck, they don’t even have to worry about plumbing.” She turned toward the gate leading out to the Gavax Grove—a name the three of them had settled on for the rows of strange, red-leafed trees. “I guess they have to water the trees, but it seems like the cutters know how to do that.”

“Yeah…” Andy sniffed, wrinkling his nose. “What are you guys drinking?”

“Hot cider!” Lucy stood and walked over to the camp stove. “The kettle’s still hot. Want some?”

“Uh, yeah.” Andy laughed and summoned a cup from his storage ring. “By the way, we don’t have to camp here. I can probably open a passage from here to where I met the Huorn Nomads. From there, I can open another to the mesa.”

“Oh!” Denise said, leaping to her feet. “I’ve been wanting to see what your magic travel spells are like!”

Lucy looked toward the setting sun and tilted her head. “Are you sure you can’t go straight to the mesa? It seems to me that you met the Huorn further south.” She pointed west, then tilted her arm several degrees away from the red- and pink-streaked sky, toward the darker sky in the south. “You told us you went south first, right? Then, after you met the Huorn, you turned east toward the mountains. I bet the mesa isn’t much farther than the campsite.”

Andy stood and tried to picture a mental map of the desert, and after some thought, he figured Lucy was probably right. The mesa, the Huorn camp, and the Gavax settlement made a triangle more than a line. It was probably a little shorter distance to the camp, but the mesa might not be as far as he thought. “I guess I can try. The worst that will happen is I’ll burn up a bunch of mana struggling to open the passage, in which case I’ll just have to rest awhile before another attempt.”

“Nothing to lose then,” Denise said. “If you have to rest, we can just have a cookout.”

Andy took his cup from Lucy and took a long pull. The cider was only warm—not hot. It was refreshing and sweet, and he gulped the rest down before sending his mug into his storage ring. “Well, I have to change my class.” He chuckled at a silly thought as he sat down on the hard-packed ground and made the mistake of giving voice to it: “Don’t draw a mustache on me.”

“Andy!” Lucy said with a giggle. “Why would you give us that idea?”

“Oh…” Andy looked from Lucy to Denise, who was also grinning. “You better not!”

“How would you even know? Got a mirror in that magic ring of yours?” Denise asked.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Andy lied.

“Seriously?” Lucy said, grabbing hold of the loose, tangled braid she’d been wearing. “I could use that, Andy!”

“Well, don’t abuse me while I’m out, and I’ll consider letting you borrow it,” he replied, lying back.

For a moment, as Lucy and Denise teased him further, he lay there, staring up at the early evening stars. He was suddenly struck by the enormity of the universe. Even with the System and magic, and everything he’d seen, the great expanse of stars—more than he could ever hope to begin to count—was wondrous to him. He blinked his eyes, surprised to find them moist, and then he called up his status sheet, selecting his active class and then changing it to Axiomatic Pathfinder.

Dark walls closed around him, but as usual, it felt brief. He blinked his eyes, and the stars—in a much darker sky—were back. Lucy was there too, smiling as she leaned over him. “You’re coming back to us, hmm?”

Andy immediately rubbed his upper lip, then pulled his fingers away, peering at them for any sign of ink. “You wouldn’t.”

“You’re so silly,” she replied, kissing him tenderly. “You already have a few days of stubble. What would be the point?”

“Barf,” Denise said from somewhere behind Andy. “Get a room.”

Lucy wrinkled her nose at Andy and helped him stand up. “Don’t let her fool you; she was just telling me how lucky we are.”

Andy had known Denise before Lucy—had seen her with Kent—and he knew there was a lot more to her emotions than met the eye, so he hurriedly changed the subject. “How long was I out?”

“Just around ten minutes,” Denise replied.

Andy turned to see she was packing up their little campsite, piling things neatly for him to store away in his ring. “Seems like that’s pretty standard, I guess,” he said, walking over to touch the chairs, the little table, and the camp stove.

As the objects disappeared, Denise said, “Sure would be nice to have a ring like that. Anyone back home make any progress on that kind of enchantment?”

“I don’t think so. We can ask, though. Also,” he said, holding up a finger, “if I’m not counting things wrong, I believe we have five Boon Points to spend. Don’t let me leave town again without sorting those out. Maybe one of them will lead to more crafting bonuses or something.”

“Five?” Denise arched an eyebrow.

“Yep, we had three when I left, and then the System gave us one for the new subject territory—” Andy nodded toward Maker and his brothers as they pounded away on their anvils. “—and then we got one for the, uh…”

“Mesquite Mesa faction progress,” Lucy finished for him.

“Right!” Andy stood up straight, rolled his neck, then turned toward the last, deep red streaks of sunset on the distant horizon. “So you think the mesa is pretty much due west, huh?”

“I think so. We came a long way north from the Santa Ritas, where the Dondalli village is. Maybe it’s still a little more north from here, though, so…” She came around behind Andy and grabbed his shoulders, gently turning him to his right. “In that direction. That’s what my hunter’s senses are telling me.”

Andy looked at her skeptically. “Seriously?”

Her smile was hard to read as she shrugged. “Maybe. I’m definitely better with directions since I’ve gained all these levels and improved my hunting skills, though.”

“Fair enough. It doesn’t really matter if I’m facing exactly the right way; it just helps me visualize what I’m trying to do.” Andy held up his left hand, gripping his right into a fist as he concentrated, pouring mana into his Greater Axiom of Passage. His fingertip flared with magenta light, and he drew it confidently through the air, sketching the lines of the axiom like he’d done so many times before. All the while, he pictured the base of the mesa—the foot of the trail that would take them up the side.

He wasn’t sure why he didn’t picture the gate at the top. Some instinct told him it would take significantly more mana to create a passage up there. Was it the settlement’s natural protection? Was it resistant to spells like the one Andy was casting? He’d opened passages to the top before, but not from such a great distance. Whatever the reason for the feeling, Andy went with his gut and poured his mana, hundreds per second, into the axiom, forcing the universe to acknowledge a passage from where he stood to the base of Mesquite Mesa.

“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” Denise asked, moving a little closer so she could watch his axiomatic glyph brighten and solidify in the air, spinning slowly.

“Yes,” Lucy agreed, also coming closer.

Andy barely heard them; his concentration was focused on the effort at hand. The material of the universe was fighting him, resisting the passage that would bridge such distant locations. He bore down, though, focusing his will, and forced the process with an overwhelming flood of mana. Then, like some invisible membrane had been penetrated, he broke through, and the passage opened.

Panting, Andy nodded toward the swirling tunnel into nowhere—a corridor bordered by blurry lines of starlight and gossamer mist. It began at Andy’s feet and stretched away into an impenetrable haze. “Go. It won’t last too long, so walk quickly through it.”

Lucy didn’t hesitate. She bounded into the twilight tunnel, and he watched as she rapidly grew small and faint, blurred by the magical distance. He glanced at Denise, who looked at him, hesitating. “Go on. It’s safe.”

“Promise?”

“Yeah! But hurry, please!”

Denise nodded and then charged after Lucy, and Andy was right on her heels. He wasn’t too worried; as always, he could feel the stability of his passage, and he knew it wouldn’t come apart on them. He figured he could have held it for another twenty or thirty seconds by the time he stepped out, his foot crunching on the gravel and dirt of the washed-out road beneath the mesa.

“That was amazing!” Lucy said, rushing forward to grab his hand.

Andy smiled, nodding. “I have to admit, this class has a lot of potential. I mean, it’s already useful, but I wonder…”

“Wonder what?” Denise asked, waving her hand over her head as she stared at the top of the trail. Andy could see there were some lights up there, but without his Flame Sight, he wasn’t sure if people were looking at them or not.

Maybe it was the thrill of his success, but he answered Denise without much thought, for once giving voice to his doubts. “Wondering if maybe I ought to stop hoarding Improvement Points for now and see what I can do with this class. If I could improve the passage magic even more… I mean, you can imagine. Then, well, there are a lot of other universal rules I could mess with. I’ve barely scratched the surface of what the Axiom of Time can do.”

Denise looked at him sharply. “You have a spell that can alter time?”

“Only slightly, but then it’s only at rank one.”

Denise pursed her lips, looking at Lucy and then back at Andy. “I think you and I should sit down and really talk about what your class can do. It seems to me that you might be right. It might be wiser to save up for Evolution Points later—after you’ve unlocked some of the frankly broken-ass magic your class seems to offer.”

Lucy shook her head, taking Andy’s hand and tugging him toward the trail. “Come on, let’s go up. You two can talk later. Right now, we’re supposed to remind Andy to spend our Boon Points.”