DF245 - How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns (Tyla) (Patreon)

Tyla slipped away from the celebrations. Not that she wasn’t happy about their miraculous salvation; it was just that humans were too loud. Not all the time; elves also celebrated with music, dancing and feasting. But so many of them were packed into such tight quarters… Tyla quickly found herself needing a break, and distance.

It was a good opportunity for her to Commune. She hadn’t had much time to do so, of late, what with all the fighting. The war might not yet be over, but Tyla hoped for a few days of quiet before she was sent out again.

Will Anton even use the Whiskerwind? she wondered. It was of shallow enough draft to travel upriver and a devastating weapon, but Tyla thought Anton wanted to avoid the army camped at the mouth of the Avel.

Magic will be useful wherever we go, she told herself. And being useful helps me grow.

Even though she hadn’t directly participated in sinking the enemy ships, her spells had contributed enough to gain her two levels. That might not seem like much seen next to Captain Cheia’s startling rise. Or her sister, Aris. Or King Anton. Tyla didn’t have the Traits to confirm it, but everyone was talking about how he’d reached Tier Four after that glorious, terrifying fight.

But two levels in a year was considered fast, under normal circumstances. War was different, of course, and Tyla’s circumstances were even more special.

She paused to contemplate her Status as she waited for a particularly boisterous group of humans to pass by the side street she was… passing through. Not hiding.

Tyla Greenwalker of the Padascar Tribe, Dungeon Wife (Level 4)

Overall Level: 26

Paths: Padascar Hunter (Broken)/ Doxy (Broken)/Apprentice Dungeon Witch/Dungeon Witch/Dungeon Wife

Strength: 15Toughness: 16Agility: 25Dex: 31Perception: 37Will: 31Charisma: 23

Traits

Persistent Tracking, Silent ShotDanger SenseSense Magic, Cast Lesser CharmCommune, Cast Standard Charm, Cast Greater Charm, Enduring Caster, Cast Minor SpellDungeon Sight, Bind Creature I

How long would she stay, “of the Padascar Tribe,” she wondered. Names did change, but without any known rhyme or reason. It might happen when she accepted that she was never going to be able to return, or it might require the tribe finding out that she carried the corpse of a Numina and exiling her.

Tyla didn’t like to think about that. She had her reasons, and she would try to explain them, but… she didn’t think she could have convinced her old self, the person she’d been before she was captured.

She waited a little longer for the party of humans to move on, but they seemed to have encamped for at least a little while. So, she went over. She might not be able to jump as high as the high-Strength types, but she was light and lithe and could jump high enough to grab the edge of a roof. Then it was a simple matter to swarm silently up onto the building and continue with her journey.

Only after she was up did she remember that she could have cast a spell to fly, or turn invisible. Physical effort was still the first tool she reached for, even though she had better ones.

Oh well, she thought as she moved silently along the roofline. There’s no rule that says I have to stop acting like a hunter.

She moved so quietly she didn’t even disturb the pigeons she was sharing the roof with. Just to confirm a theory, she tried using Bind Creature I on one.

No result, as expected. This was the third type of animal she’d tried to use it on, and it was looking more and more like she could only use it on dungeon creatures. At some point, she would have to ask to borrow one of Kelsey’s skeletons.

Kirido was still a small town, and it didn’t take Tyla long to reach her destination. The streets were less crowded here, so she dropped down to approach in a more conventional manner. She smelled the bakery before she came into view of it. The smell of baking was not one she was familiar with, but it was comforting. It drew in a few hungry revellers, but none of the bread being baked here was on sale. It was all going to the castle.

Tyla pushed the door open.

“We’re closed!” Etase Lucina called out cheerfully. “Oh, hello dear! You’re back!”

“Yes, ma’am,” Tyla said carefully.

“You were at—” Etase grimaced, “—the fight? I heard about the result…”

She gestured to all around her. There wasn’t anyone in the room, but Tyla took it to mean that the news had spread quickly and loudly. Everyone had heard.

“Yes,” Tyla said. “Anton won. He’s fine. Some injuries, all under control.”

“Oh, thank the kind gods,” Etase said, breathing a huge sigh of relief. “I was so worried about my boy.”

Tyla grinned. She wasn’t sure when Anton’s relationship with Aris’s mother had been upgraded, but she found it amusing that the would-be king had a baker who called him son.

“Captain Cheia is staying with the boat for now, but it doesn’t look like we’ll be sent out,” she said.

Etase snorted, already returning to packing a light crate with pastries. “Don’t you go humouring that girl with her airs, young lady. She should be here, helping us with this order instead of going off to war.”

Tyla nodded, but couldn’t help a sly smile. “Are you sure it shouldn’t be the other way around?” she asked. “After all, they’re calling this the Royal Bakery, now.”

“Oh, get away with you,” Etase scoffed. “This is the plain old Lucina Bakery, same as it’s ever been.”

“Whatever you say, your highness,” Tyla said, making a decent attempt at a curtsey.

Etase shook her fist in Tyla’s direction, making her giggle.

“I’m going to go up and meditate,” she said.

Etase nodded, intent on her work, and Tyla made her way up the stairs. With how crowded Kirido was right now, managing to find a room to herself hadn’t been easy. But, as a crewmember under Cheia, and a companion to Lady Aris, there was one place she could stay.

Aris’s old room.

Truthfully, she could have shared Cheia’s. The girl spent most of her time on the boat and rarely came back here to sleep, much to Etase’s displeasure. But the Lucinas didn’t want to rent the room to a stranger, and Aris certainly wasn’t using it.

Tyla hadn’t altered the room much. Elves didn’t surround themselves with possessions; they were used to owning only what they could carry. She sat cross-legged on the floor and took out her core.

When used in a dungeon, Commune let her talk with the Numina directly, without an intermediary Avatar. It took her to what Kelsey insisted was a dreamworld, based on the imagining of the dungeon in question.

Tyla’s core was, technically, part of a dungeon. A dead part—but not entirely. Mana still flowed from it. Tyla could meditate on the flow of mana and get a little experience, but Commune did something different.

Commune.

Tyla sat with the core in her lap, both hands cradling the crystal. Based on previous experience, she knew the stone was glowing much more brightly than usual, but she had her eyes closed.

Commune.

Was she imagining what she felt? Or was that the whole point of dreamworlds? If the core wasn’t fully alive, did Tyla have to provide the dreamscape?

Commune.

Tyla imagined an empty white world. Something simple and easy to understand.

Oh, wait, she remembered, I have mana.

She drew Mind mana out of the stone, pairing it with Create. Something flickered into life, but it wasn’t stable. It never lasted long enough to hold in place. She didn’t have enough mana.

The sense of a presence, fragmented, warring against itself, but not the presence itself. It wasn’t here.

She couldn’t reach it.

Commune.

Her trait reached out, but failed to connect. Her timing was wrong.

She tried again. Forming the image in her mind, feeding mana into it and…

Commune.

Failed again. She needed to be faster. The mana drained so quickly. The core was an endless supply, but it barely produced a trickle of Mind mana. She tried again.

Commune.

Another failure.

Commune.

She was so close.

Commune.

Tyla took a deep breath and rethought what she was doing. She had been trying to recreate Kelsey’s mindscape and meet with the… fragment… in there. But if there was a mind in there, perhaps what she needed to do was find it.

Instead of Create mana, she switched to Perceive. Her core produced a lot more of that type, more than overcoming the lack of Mind mana. With this much combined, she could manage a Greater Charm.

She cast, and her mind reached out to the spark hidden deep inside the crystal in her hands. There was something there. A cracked and crumbling cave. A mineshaft. A tidal pool. A cavern of ice…

Commune.

The image wouldn’t stabilise. It kept switching between scenes, unable to decide what it was. Tyla’s head started to ache from holding the opposing concepts. On instinct, she tried another spell.

The current one would hold for a moment, so she reached for Control and Magic mana. Dungeons were magic, more than anything else, and she just needed it to stop.

The spell took hold, and to her relief it worked. The writhing, twisting images halted, and just a single scene met her mind’s eye. It was… not the first cave, but another, in slightly better structural condition. There was an elf there.

A child, maybe four years old. Naked. Staring at her. When Tyla focused on his face, it changed… blurring to be replaced by another one. His body didn’t change, but it was different eyes looking at her from under different-coloured hair.

“Hello?” he said. Then the spells ended and Tyla collapsed from exhaustion.

She didn’t wake until the next morning, from Etase knocking on the door.

“Hello in there! Planning on having breakfast?”

“Uh… yes…” Tyla said, slowly processing the words she was hearing. “Of course, ma’am, I’ll be down in a minute.”

What was that? she thought as she stretched her limbs. It had been a while since she slept in a tree, which was pretty similar to what she’d done here. Did the… boy knock me out, or was I just unaware of how much I’d exerted myself?

Thinking back, either was equally plausible. She’d felt the drain from the twin spells pick up as soon as he spoke. And she really hadn’t been keeping track of time while trying to construct a world in her own head.

Shaking her head, she went down to breakfast. At least she was already dressed. She just had to splash a bit of water on her, and she was good to go.

Or not, she guessed from Lady Etase’s disapproving look.

“You need to take better care of yourself, dear. Do you plan on going to court like that?”

“No, they’d make me wear the robe if I was,” Tyla said. Just one more reason to avoid court as much as possible. Which wasn’t as much as she’d like. The other mage, Magister Killian, was angling for the court mage position, and Tyla was fine with that. Even if Anton wanted her to take it…

“I’ve got another errand to run today,” she told Etase. “If anyone asks, I’ll be in the dungeon.”

Etase sniffed in disapproval. “I suppose that proper grooming is wasted down there, but you still have to be seen on the streets.”

“You’d be surprised,” Tyla said, biting down on a slightly-less perfect pastry. Both by how little Tyla cared for what the townsfolk saw and how far presentation went with Kelsey. Not that Tyla was trying to impress her or anything…

She blushed and choked down her mouthful of golden goodness.

“I’ll clean up a bit more before I go,” she promised.

“Good… are you sure you have to go down there? I know things have changed, but that dungeon is dangerous.”

“She—it—is,” Tyla agreed. “But we have an arrangement.”