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Chapter 26: Hardball
🕑 Added 2023-12-30 17:21:02 +0000 UTCPrimal creatures are often found in proximity to Primordial manifestations of the Fonts in our realm. Prolonged generational proximity to these manifestations of power grants creatures the ability to innately tap into the power of the Font. Once the connection to the Font is made, the creature can leave the Primordial’s proximity and still maintain its connection. The connection can also pass down to their offspring, but this varies on a species-to-species basis.
Lidian’s Manual to Magical Fauna, 283rd ed
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Zale directed the group to a booth on the side, and explained once they’d been seated.
“This place is strictly for adventurers, but they let the prospective adventuring students in. It lets those looking to become a mentor get to know the new batch of students. Any graduate of the Academy's adventuring program can become a mentor, even if they aren't faculty. They don't advertise that students are welcome though, so best we don't spread it around.”
“That doesn’t seem likely, no one talks to us anyway,” Kole said, trying to inject some cheer into the comment but failed.
“Speak for yourselves,” Rakin said, “I’m plenty popular.”
Kole hasn't known that any former graduate could serve as a mentor. Which was a relief. It'd only been a week but he'd failed to impress any faculty save for one, who'd categorically refused to mentor an adventurer. It was a relief to discover there were more options.
“Do we need to show credentials or anything?” Kole asked. He’d gotten his paperwork identifying himself as a student, but no one had asked for it after his first attempt to enter the library.
“No, its fine, the owner used to work with my mother,” Zale answered, and then gave a wave to a man behind the bar.
The bar tender—and seemingly the place’s owner—was a man in his sixties. He had gray hair and a face that Kole felt he’d not be able to pick out of a lineup if his life depended on it. He was neither ugly or handsome, striking or pudgy, he just was.
“He worked in the art department?” Kole asked, eliciting a giggle from Zale.
“You could say that,” she said, then in a whisper continued, “he was—or probably still is—a fence.”
The aforementioned fence noticed Zale and excused himself from the bar to come great them.
“Who’re your friends?” he asked, without greeting them.
He didn’t sound mad, instead he asked the question as if they’d been in the middle of a conversation with him.
“Gimble, this is my team this year at the academy.”
Zale introduced each, and after a bit of small talk Gimble asked them for their orders. Amara and Kole each ordered alcoholic drinks Kole had never heard of, and Rakin ordered a blended mushroom beverage that sounded terrible.
When it came to Kole, he said, “I’ll just have some water.”
“You ate before you came?” Zale asked, hurt.
“No, I uh—I’d rather not spent the coin,” Kole said.
“Oh, thats dumb. I’ll cover you,” Zale offered.
Kole debated accepting, but then his stomach growled, making the decision for him.
“Ok, I’ll have whatever ale you have from the floating mats.” He didn't have much experience drinking but what little he had came from the floating gardens that spotted the ocean.
Zale then ordered food for the whole table and Humble left to fetch their drinks. When Gimble had left, Zale turned to Kole.
“So, how little money do you have?”
"Just enough to finish out the year—if you keep getting me in to the dinning halls at least."
"Where are you staying? I bet I could find a room for rent on the cheap for you,” Zale offered.
"That's alright. I'm pretty happy with my accommodations,” Kole deflected.
The food and drinks came shortly later, and they talked amiably while they ate.
"How's the food?" Zale asked the table.
"Much better than the food back on Stone Haven," Amara said between bites. Gus was sitting next to her on the booth, out of sight from the other patrons and she was sneaking him bites. "Rat is still a staple of the island's diet."
"Same," Kole agreed, "We mostly eat fish back home... and the occasional rat, but that's falling out of fashion."
"Aye," Rakin agreed, "I never ate a rat, but monks aren't exactly known for their indulgences."
"How angry do you get? Amara asked suddenly. "It must be bad if you got sent up a mountain to deal with it.
"Very," Rakin said, and then downed his gross mushroom sludge.
"Rakin also needed help training his primal ability," Zale interjected. "The monks have historically had great insight on the abilities of the primals and my aunt thought it would help."
That seemed odd to Kole. Dimly, he thought he remembered something about stoneweavers that didn't mesh with that explanation but the drink was starting already to affect him.
The conversation turned and Kole told the others more about his own home, and all of the apparent wonders of it that seemed mundane to him.
Just as Amara was about to delve into an explanation on the specifics of how her new earrings canceled out sound, the door to the inn opened loudly and Gray walked in.
"We made it!" he shouted in triumph.
Some of the patrons seemed to recognize the group and walked up to shake his hand.
The group had all taken a page from Zale's book and dressed up for the occasion. Harold wore an outfit cut to look like a formal military uniform, but without the frills or insignias of rank or allegiance. Gray had donned a black vest with silver buttons over a plane white shirt. Esme's outfit looked like it cost more than Zale's armor, wearing dress identical in color to Zale's own dress, but embroidered with fine details and cut much more revealing. Mouse on the other hand hadn't seemed to have changed from class.
"Crabs," Kole cursed, taking a long drink and looking away before he got distracted by Esme's aura.
He looked at Zale, and saw her chewing her lower lip as she watched the newcomers interactions, all while Amara continued on about her earrings.
"Looks like you're boyfriends here," Rakin teased.
"Shut up!" Zale said at the same time Kole asked "Boyfriend?"
"Aye, Zale's had a crush on Harold forever."
Kole felt his stomach sink and then looked at his drink, as if it might be the source.
Zale stared at Rakin, nervousness gone and murder in her eyes. Rakin lifted his hands up next to his head, signifying he was dropping it. When Zale looked back to the door, Gray’s party had been seated across the room from them, and she caught Harold looking away quickly.
“Weren’t we going to watch the hardball match?” Amara asked, into the silence.
As if on queue, Gimble rang a bell above the bar and shouted, “Shut your ale holes! It’s starting!”
All eyes turned to the bar as an illusion appeared in the air above it, showing a forest floating in the ocean. It was difficult to tell the scale of it, but if the trees were normal sized, and not the behemoth’s the druid were wont to nurture, the floating island was at least a mile across.
“What in Torc’s name is that?” Rakin asked.
“It’s a floating mat,” Kole supplied. “Assuine’s followers made them during the Flood.”
“Oh. I always pictured them less ‘foresty.’”
The view circled the island before closing in on the center, where a stone sphere sat in a forest clearing. Then, the view split in two, showing two groups of four, each standing on a ship a way off from the island. The first group consisted of four humans—if you considered the two member of the Iron Vein tribe to be human. The male giant held a heavy stone ax while the female was covered in belts and bandoleers of throwing darts. The two smaller human were clearly worshipers of Assuine by their garb of plant fibers that seemed to have been elegantly grown into clothing. One wielded a bow, while the other held what looked to be a simple tree branch.
The other group was more eclectic. They had a older human male who couldn’t have looked more like a wizard if he’d been wearing a pointed hat and waving a wand. He stood frantically searching through his spellbook as soon as he’d seen the island. With him stood a female archer, who appeared to be a mundane human, but for the sky blue skin and constant breeze that blew off of her, marking her as an Air primal. A gray skinned orc wearing leather armor and a gnome dressed much the same finished the group, each wearing thick overcoats.
Murmurs broke out in the tavern as the adventurers recognized some of the contestants. Kole looked at Zale for some commentary on who they were, but she was looking over at Gray’s table with a vacant expression.
A light flashed into the sky, and the human with the staff dove into the water, moments later, a wave surged from where he’d been and a enormous whale surface. The remaining three jumped on its back and got down on their hands and knees. The dart wielder went to each, touch eat of their hands, and then the whale dove and began to swim for the island at full tilt. The source of the illusionary vision followed the group, and went into the watcher, showing the three adventurers magically bonded to the whale’s back by their hands, dangling behind it.
The other group used a different tactic, and as soon as the flare shone, the wizard began casting a spell. The spell had no visible effect, but after only a few seconds, he shouted something to his team and thy set off. The two over-coated members each pulled a small stone from their jackets and threw them into the ocean even as they began to cast spells. From the orc’s stone, the water surged into a column, that shaped itself into a platform large enough to hold the orc. The green scaled equine head of a hippocamp rose from the gnome’s stone, and the small adventurer jumped onto the the back of the aquatic steed. The wizard cast a second spell, and took to the air, the Air primal following under the power of her own innate magic.
The fliers reached the island first, and continued on towards the center over the trees. When the whale reached the floating island, it’s passengers jumped off its back onto the tangle of roots and moss that made up the island’s ground, and then it swam back underwater, disappearing from view. The three broke out into a sprint, the archer leading the way, and the tree’s parting before them as they ran.
The two summoner’s reached the island last, the gnome causing his mount to vanish in a cloud of black smoke, while the orc directed his water elemental to follow below. They ran through the forest with much greater difficulty. The view followed the fliers as they arrived in the clearing in the center. The primal archer remained in the air, bow drawn and scanning the forest, while the wizard landed to recover the stone. Just as he touched down, the roots of the island itself rose up to grab him. He dove to the side, but only found more roots waiting. An arrow shot out of the trees towards the air born archer, and she vanished into the air, reappearing an instant later, arrow loosed as soon as she was corporeal.
The captured wizard vanished from his fetters, reappearing in the air with a ball of fire forming in his hand. The two tribes people ran for the stone in the center while the archers exchanged fire. Wizard threw the ball of fire into the clearing, but the man with the ax bellowed, his tattoos glowing orange as he pushed his ally down on the ground and dove atop her. The clearing lit up in an fiery eruption that set the trees ablaze, but as soon as fire of the explosion vanished, a steel dart flew out of the clearing, striking the wizard in the shoulder. His means of flight failed him, and he fell to the ground. His ally vanished into the air again, but didn’t immediately reappear, instead the wizard’s descent slowed.
The dart wielding primal crawled out from under her scorched teammate and ran to the soot darkened stone. As she reached for it, water seeped up through the ground, and the cresting wave form of a water elemental formed around the stone and the women that sought to take it.
The burned giant rose to his feet slowly, his back a mess of burns, and charged at the water elemental only to be tackled to the side by a panther. The two people of the Iron Veins battled their conjured foes, the conjurers themselves nowhere to be seen and their archer ally seemingly taken out by the Fireball.
From within the water elemental, the giantess fought to swim towards that stone, which swirled around her, always just out of her grasp. She sunk to the bottom of the watery creature, and just as her feet found purchase, her own tattoos lit up blue, and she jumped, sailing through the water and grabbing the stone as she continued on into the air.
While still airborne, an arrow came from the forest, striking her in the ribs, and she disappeared, taken out of the competition by the magic that supported the event. The stone continued upward, and then began to shift, moving to the source of the arrow on invisible strings.
The barbarian in the battle with the panther lost his ax, but had his arm around the felines neck, choking the beast as it tried to rake him with its back claws. The panther went still, then vanished into a black fog. The beast summoner had anticipated the dispatching of his minion, and as soon as the panther had disappeared, another stone flew at the giant and grew and expanded into a giant octopus that completely engulfed the target. The water elemental moved to aid is fellow conjured ally, and it subsumed them both. The captured adventurer thrashed futilely, but then went still and vanished as well.
With all her foes down, the air primal landed with the stone, beginning to head back to her boat with her allies. Rapidly, they ran through the forest, until without warning the ground parted beneath them, and water surged to fill the void. The air primal took to the air to avoid falling, but the conjurers weren’t so lucky. Before she could depart however, a whale breached the surface, mouth agape, swallowing the flier whole.
The whale landed on the floor of the mat, but it parted before it, allowing druid to fall through the vegetation and back into the ocean below. The view followed the whale back to its boat where it breached once more, turning back into a man with a stone ball in one palm and a staff in the other. He landed on the boat with a bit of a stumble, but once there, focused on the stone in his hand, willing it to shatter, thus ending the match.
“I totally forgot about the whale,” Kole admitted on their slightly inebriated walk back to campus. They’d stayed a few hours after the conclusion of the match to corous with the adventurers—and avoid their fellow classmates—and were making their way back just before the campus curfew of midnight.
* * *
“How’d you forget about the flooding whale?” a entirely sober Rakin chastised him.
“Why aren’t you drunk?” A less than sober Kole shot back. “Isn’t that a thing with dwarves?”
Kole’s brain caught up to his mouth too late, and he covered his mouth with a hand. To his surprise Rakin laughed.
“Bah! Dwarves do love their drink, but they don’t often actually get drunk. I don’t drink though. Its part of my training. It damages the body and disrupts the flow of ki.”
“Key? Key to what?”
Rakin sighed.
“Ask me tomorrow if you remember.”
“I think we’re lost,” Zale—also drunk—said from the front.
Far too loudly, Kole shouted, “Oh! I know! Amara! Wheres your bird?”
“She went home with a letter,” Amara said, and then let out a big yawn. “Can we just sleep here?”
“Bah! Children!” Rakin grumbled. “Follow me.”
He took the lead and tried to maze his way through the unfamiliar city. He knew he only had to travel east to return to campus, he only had to figure out which way that was.
