Splinter Angel Chapter 217 (Patreon)

A single frank conversation in the dark didn’t magically make Ana and Lara the best of friends. They didn’t have a habit of spending any kind of time together, and that didn’t change. But there was a little bit less tension between them after that, and while Ana didn’t care — it hadn’t affected her before, and it didn’t now — it was clear that the others were relieved. People didn’t deliberately block their line of sight to each other anymore, for one. Ana hadn’t even noticed until they stopped.

They started out early the next morning, like they had every morning. This time, though, they weren’t quite so hurried. There was no one hunting them, so far as they knew, and nobody’s Danger Sense was warning them of prowling beasts or demons in the vicinity. Early meant after sunrise, not as soon as the twilit sky was bright enough to see where you put your feet.

Despite not being actively hunted they were all at least somewhat on guard. This was a Splinter, after all, and the compendium said that the Gauntlet Mountain Splinter was home to more roaming demons than the average. It also said that Levels all the way up to the low 40s weren’t unheard of, though most were in the 20s or low-to-mid 30s. Nothing they couldn’t deal with, and they were killing anything they came across, there was no question about that, but nobody wanted a fight they weren’t ready for.

The map of the Splinter included in the compendium unfortunately lacked the kind of detail necessary for them to determine where they were. Nor did Ana’s Wings of Glory help them. Three and a half minutes wasn’t a long time, but it was long enough to climb until Ana’s lungs burned with the cold of the thin air, take a look around, and descend safely. Even then, she couldn’t see so much as a hint of a roof or a wall in any direction. She couldn’t see much of anything, really; at the peak of her ascent, when she didn’t dare stay up any longer, the taller ridges in every direction still towered a mile or more above her.

So she turned to her most unique advantage.

Hey, she said to the Wayfarer, waiting for a while until she felt the goddess’s attention on her. I’d hoped not to need to bother you, but we could really use some guidance on where to go.

Her reply was a single word, Dawnward, and a sense of weariness. But that was enough. On the word of a deity, and with the wind auspiciously at their back, they walked into the rising sun.

Ahead of them lay snow-capped mountains, but the same was true behind them. Just as Summer Angel was full of primeval forest and the Misty Fens were full of horrid wetlands of one sort or another, the Gauntlet Mountains were just what it said in the name: mountains, endless mountains. Over seven hundred miles north to south and almost five hundred from dawn to dusk of tall ridges and peaks, of narrow passes and deep ravines and canyons and valleys. Some of those valleys were high, hard and barren; others low and fertile; all of them separated by mountains so tall that each of them might as well be its own little world.

Somewhere out there, in a particularly wide, fertile valley, lay the outpost. That was what it was called, by long-standing tradition, but Ana understood that you couldn’t take the word at face value. The outpost in Summer Angel had housed perhaps five hundred inhabitants; the one in Misery Splinter, fifteen hundred to two thousand. Gauntlet Mountains’ outpost was a full-sized large town or small city of over five thousand souls when the compendium was last updated. But that wasn’t everyone. This was an old, established Splinter, and the outpost was far from the only settlement. Others had sprung up in other valleys where the land could be worked and animals could graze, and it was impossible, the compendium’s author claimed, to say just how many people lived in the Splinter.

From where Ana stood, it was hard to believe that anyone lived there at all. The mountains were rough enough that visibility was limited, with even the largest peaks constantly vanishing behind heights and ridges. She wouldn’t have been surprised to find an entire city tucked away around some of the turns they took, but it would have been a ruined one, long lost to time. If not for the trail, it would have been easy to believe that they were the only people alive in the entire Splinter, alone with the birds, the small mountain goats that survived on the sparse forage, and the strange, frilled, Komodo-sized lizards that basked in the morning sun.

She didn’t mind it. The twelve of them were quite enough for a while.

They marched all day, stopping to rest only when they passed fresh water. The trail climbed and descended. It led them through ravines and over long flats and around craggy bluffs, but it kept leading them, and that was the important part. It never branched, and it never seemed to grow any wider or more defined, but it was always there. Paths had been cleared through fallen rock, and flat stones had been placed in wide, rushing streams, making their crossing easier. And all that was encouraging, because if it had led away from civilization, it should have grown faint and vanished as they went.

For a group that had trudged through a seemingly unchanging landscape since sunrise, their spirits were high as they made camp in the late afternoon. It was hard to feel lost when you had the word of a goddess to go on. And the march itself had a simple pleasure to it. The sky was so very big, and so very blue, and there was a stark beauty to the landscape; it was cold, but no worse than they could handle; and while making a campfire would quickly become a problem with no fuel to be found, they still had a cooked dinner courtesy of Rayni and Kaira. Rayni had shot one of the small mountain goats which had been unfortunate enough to wander too close to the trail; they cut the meat into thin strips which they laid of a large, flat rock, and which Kaira seared with a sustained Shaping which Ana could best liken to a blowtorch. It turned out pretty rare in the middle, and Jisha was a bit leery; she knew far more about parasites in meat than Ana was comfortable with hearing. But in the end she folded. She shrugged, put her faith in Vitality and Panacea, and tucked in.

“Merde, that’s tough,” was her verdict as she chewed, and chewed, and chewed. “Pretty good, though. Not, uh… what’s the word? Not wild?”

“What’s it in Wanteul?” Kaira asked.

Jisha shrugged, and chewed, and chewed. “Can’t say. I don’t know what it is in français.”

“Gamey,” Omda suggested. “Like boar or rabbit.”

Jisha snapped her fingers at him as she kept chewing. “Yes! Yes! It’s not like that.”

While the rest of the Party discussed the relative virtues of the humble mountain goat —- Mabb suggested it might make a good stew — Ana checked her two notifications. They’d flashed into her awareness as she helped set up camp, so it was no surprise that the first was her gaining Level 3 in Camping. Only Level 3 — perhaps she shouldn’t have been quite so ready to let those with more experience handle the logistics.

While the Minor Crystal that came with the Skill Level was nice, it was the other notification that put a little smile on her lips.

[Congratulations! You have completed the Achievement Skilled III! Further increase to Skill Leveling speed awarded!

Skilled III: Gain 200 total Levels across any number of Skills.]

Wasn’t that just lovely? More Skill Levels meant more Crystals, more Perks, and, potentially at some point in the future, maybe even an Ascension Point. She’d take that over a few Advancement Points any day.

Then her eyebrows drew together unbidden for a moment, and she turned to Rayni on her right, saying, “Hey, Ray, a question.”

The Huntress held up one finger, then did that rolling I’m chewing motion with her hand for a good long while before swallowing. Only then did she reply, “Yeah?”

“The Skilled Achievement — what happens when you Merge Skills? To the progress toward the next Tier, I mean.”

“Oh. Yeah, you’ll want to get that to Tier three or four before you start Merging, probably.” She looked around the group, some of whom were still discussing how to best cook mountain goat while others listened curiously. “It just counts how many Skill Levels you have, right? That’s what I’ve been told, at least.”

“That’s correct,” Lara replied. “That’s what I was taught, at least. Mother forbade me from Merging any Skills until I had it at at least Tier four. I skipped out before that happened, but it’s one of the few rules of hers that I’ve come to appreciate.”

“Right.” Ana nodded thoughtfully. “Thanks. I might do the same.”

Lara shrugged. “It’s a trade-off. On the one hand you get versatility and stronger Perks. On the other, you have to spend much more time practicing specific Skills, but you get more Perks and Crystals, and a higher Tier on your Skilled Achievement. Neither way’s better, but one may be better for you.”

“Lara doing anything her mother told her is a good sign that it’s good advice,” Messy said, and she wasn’t at all flippant. She was dead serious about it. “This woman let her hair grow to the middle of her back because her mother thought a duelist should keep it short. Left it down, too.”

Lara laughed sheepishly. “I hacked it off after the first time a demon yanked me off my feet by it.”

“You could have put it up in the field,” Nari suggested. Her own hair was up in a bun, tied with a simple red ribbon.

“I could’ve, but the whole point was to spite Lady Silvervale. It really didn’t suit me, anyway.”

Nari hummed and leaned into Lara’s shoulder. “I like you like this,” she said softly, closing her eyes.

*

One benefit of spending their days marching through the mountains was the abundance of Earth-aligned mana to practice Shaping with. Walking on the bones of the world, even a little pocket world like this Splinter, meant that Ana was as close to the natural source as she could possibly be. The only thing better would have been the depths of some mine; not because of the depth, but because a working mine would put her closer to concentrations of metal ore, and thus Metal-aligned mana.

That was something Lara and Kaira had explained to her as they walked. It had started with Kaira complaining how there was more Stone-mana than ambient here, and how she had to work twice as hard to Channel it into Fire. Lara had commiserated; she could get some Kinetic-aligned mana from the wind, apparently, but otherwise she was in the same boat.

Ana’s takeaway had been that there was such a thing as Stone-mana. “I thought Earth was Earth,” she said.

“Well, yeah and nah,” Kaira said, wiggling her shoulders in a weird little see-saw motion. “I mean, you can use Stone for Metal Shapings and the other way around just fine, but you’re gonna lose a little bit along the way.”

“So… mana can align with any Craft?”

“Yep!”

“I wish Tellak had told me about that when I learned to Channel.”

“She probably didn’t want to overwhelm you,” Lara offered. “Like Miss Kaira said, any Earth-mana will work with any Earth Shaping, no matter the specialization. And I imagine getting a decent Earth-alignment was hard enough, right?”

“I mean… yeah,” Ana admitted.

“Well, Metal is going to be much harder than Earth. A smaller target, a narrower track, whichever analogy works for you.”

“Hah, yeah,” Kaira agreed smugly. “I’m glad I don’t need to bother with all that. Hitting Fire and Lightning in the right mix is bad enough, let me tell you.”

“Well, bully for you,” Ana muttered.

“This might be a good opportunity to practice,” Lara suggested, ignoring them both. “You’ve got all the Stone-mana you could possibly want. And I know you’ve got at least one Metal Shaping; I don’t think I’ve ever met an Earth-mage who didn’t know Iron Skin. Just keep that going and tweak the mana you push into it. You should be able to feel it grow stronger or weaker as your alignment gets closer to or further from Metal.”

“You know what? I’ll do that,” Ana said. “Thanks.”

“Sure.”

“Oh, great,” Messy said, “now she’ll be in her head all day. Lara, I’m stealing your girlfriend.” Then she kissed Ana on the temple, and before anyone could object she started leading an unresisting Nari away to the symbolic privacy of a few yards off the track.

“Wanna talk Craft?” Kaira asked Lara as they watched the two drift off.

Lara snorted softly. “Sure. Sounds good.”

“Great. And if you call me Miss anything again I’m setting your bedroll on fire. Kaira, alright? Or Irry, if you’re up to it.”

This time, Lara actually laughed, short and sharp. “Fine. Got anywhere to start, Irry?”

As those two got into it, Ana got busy. Feeling for how effective her Iron Skin Shaping was had become a familiar exercise, one which she’d used to measure her progress in how well she constructed and maintained her Shaping. She hadn’t thought to use it to dial in her Channeling, though; she’d just compared her results to the pure Earth-mana below her feet. How could it get better than that?

By using the correct type of mana, apparently. Another spike of annoyance passed through her. Couldn’t Tellak have told her about that from the start? But then she pushed the feeling down, forcing herself to accept Lara’s suggestion. It made sense that Tellak would have wanted her to learn the basics first. That was probably how she’d been taught.

Another day passed, and for most of it, Ana was, as Messy had said, in her own head. With one half of her focus on her Shaping and the other on her Channeling, she trusted her feet to keep her on the track and her friends to nudge her if her feet weren’t up to the task.

Dialing in a Mana alignment when she had nothing to compare to was… hell, it wasn’t much like anything else, really. Her Shaping and Channeling relied on a completely unique sense which she’d only had for six months now, and that was all she had to go off of. So she Channeled, making tiny adjustments with the half of her focus that was on her Shaping entirely focused at every moment. Time and time again she’d start to feel like she was getting close, but the tiniest adjustment in the wrong direction or the slightest slip of her concentration was all it took to lose it. But that was fine. It was hard, but it wasn’t impossible. The fact of the matter was that she did feel like she was getting close, time and time again. She could see success on the horizon. All it would take was focus and hard work, and Ana was a stranger to neither.

It was late in the evening, as they sat in a circle with only the moon for light, that Ana breathed out an unconscious, “There we go.” Just like when she’d first learned to Channel she felt the mana slip into alignment, one that she’d never felt before but that just felt right. Her Iron Skin had never felt stronger — the difference wasn’t huge, but it was undeniably there. And as she relaxed and let her focus slip, the Channeling now stable as the correct polarization for Metal etched itself into her mind, she saw that she had notifications waiting.

[Congratulations! Your Skill Channeling has improved to Level 5! You have been awarded: Growth Crystal (Minor). You have gained the Perk Resonance.

Resonance: Do not guess. Listen. Feel. The construct knows what it needs. While Channeling mana into a Shaping, you will instinctively know which type of mana that Shaping prefers, and you will find it significantly easier to align your Channeled mana with that type.]

“What was that, Angel?” Messy asked softly.

“I figured it out,” Ana replied.

“Oh, your alignment problem?”

“Right. And I got a Skill Level out of it. A Perk, too.”

“Well done,” Messy said, kissing her on the cheek. “I knew you’d get there.”

Ana basked in the praise for a moment. Those few words affected her more than they probably should have, but what did that matter? She felt loved and appreciated; she wasn’t going to spoil that by wondering if she was overreacting.

When Ana’s only reply was a happy hum and to snuggle in closer under their shared blanket, Messy returned to the ongoing conversation. Ana listened for a while as they talked about large-Party tactics; perhaps she should have forced herself back to alertness and participated. It was an important topic. But she couldn't quite make herself. A heavy exhaustion had been settling on her ever since her accomplishment. The constant wind was cold on her face, but under the blanket Messy was gloriously warm, a warmth that spread through Ana’s flesh and sank into her very bones. She couldn't fight it.

Feeling utterly satisfied with herself and very much happy, Ana let herself drift off to sleep.

Note: I've found two mistakes. In Chapter 210 I said that Ana gained Level 13 in Sense Motive; that should have been Level 14. I counted the Crystal for it, but because I had the wrong Level in the text, I then forgot to update the Summary. Also, an extra Lesser Crystal snuck in at some point. At least I think so; I can't figure out where it came from. I've corrected both from here on, so if you notice a discrepancy, that's why.