Aliandra “Thanks for the warning, Aliandra,” Vivian said.

  “Yes, I thought it was better to be safe,” Ali said, taking her leave from Vivian’s offid returning to the guild hall. At least she took me seriously. She had no idea what she would do if her minions actally killed one of the novices. I hope they take it seriously too. She would hate to have to unsummon her first boss because she had been over-enthusiastid unthinkingly selected ‘raid enha’ believing that made it the best one.

  Best? That’s retive. The problem is I rong bosses, but not to. Right. The challenge of bang her defense needs against the needs of the guild and the limitations of the pre-bronze novices ed stantly in the back of her mind. She had very limited resources and she had to make every one of them t. At least she had warhe guild now and, hopefully, that meant her Kobold warrior would not be painting the sewer with the blood of the enthusiastic faces she saw clustered around the guild hall enjoying snacks aged in animated versations.

  That just leaves my mana situation. Now that her dungeon had monsters, she had barely more than a thousand mana free, and that included all her bonuses from her Empowered Summoner skill and her domain itself. In fact, mana was so tight that if she let her Acolyte get out e of her skill, her maximum mana would drop below her current reservation from the loss of her wisdom buff, and that would surely be a disaster. There was a time when that much mana would have seemed a luxury, but as she leveled up, all her skills demanded more and more to fuel the growing potency of their effects. Right now, she would struggle to manage in even a halfway-serious fight.

  Her best option, of course, was to simply level up – but that required time, her friends, and – the real kicker – enough mana to do something. Another option would be to hunt for a higher-level, wisdom-dominant moo learn, but she had already asked Ryn to help with researd they had not turned up any particurly good leads so far.

  I may have to unsummon some minions, she thought, frowning. It would be terproductive, drastically redug the ce of her domain, but she o make more bosses and she did not have the mana to support them. If she wao get serious about her defenses, she couldn’t be making level-ten Kobold bosses either – she needed higher-level mohat could stand up to serious invaders or assassins.

  Still deep in thought, Ali o a few adventurers as she passed the jobs board and found herself stepping into the guild store.

  “Good m, Aliandra.”

  “Hi, Weldin,” she greeted the always-elegant Gnome who was s tris perched high up on a tall chair in front of the main dispy table. “How are you?”

  “Good, good,” he said absently, running his forefinger along the text on a tan scroll set before him.

  He seems busy, but maybe…

  “Hey, Weldin, do you have anything that might increase my mana pool?” she asked.

  At the hint of a potential sale, the Gnome’s head snapped up and he fixed her with an i gaze. “Mana? Regeion? Or wisdom? I assume you want to keep that fanew tailored outfit for your body armor slot?”

  “I get some powerful bonuses for wisdom from this,” Ali firmed, running her fingers across the sleeves, “so that would be best.”

  “Yes, Lydia’s work is exceptional. Hmm…” he ied her for a moment, rubbing his thoughtfully. “Oh, I think I may have the perfect item for you. Donel sent it over a few days ago – a sample of what she make with that Magicite you found. Now, where did I put it… brain isn’t what it used to be, you know.”

  Ali watched him rummage around in some drawers and boxes, curious as to the nature of what Donel had crafted.

  “Here we are – what do you think of this? It’s an off-hand mage bauble that takes the pce of a shield slot. You have to hold it – which be inve – but it es with this handy adjustable leather strap to attach it to your wrist. She suggested I try and sell it to a priest, or a nature magic druid, but you have it if it works better for you.”

  The item he pced before her was a short silvery metal shaft with a green sphere of gss firmly attached to the end by an oversized cwed jewelry csp. As he had pointed out, there was a sturdy-looking adjustable strap that could be used to attach it to her wrist so she didn’t actally drop it. With her mana sight, she could make out the intricate runework etched into the handle, and the minuscule shard of nature-affinity magicite suspended in the gss iving it a soft inner glow. The craftsmanship seemed det, but the exquisite runework and elegant tracery of mana really caught Ali’s attention.

  “She put a tiny pieagicite io create the mana-battery effect,” he added. “It’s nature affinity, so it should be quite effit to recharge it with your mana.”

  Orb of Mana – level 35Resistance: 252+27 Wisdom.Mana: Recharge the mana ste. Mana may be withdrawn to pay for skills or costs. 251/500Requirements: Wisdom 123Created by Donel NovasparkOff Hand – Orb

  “That looks great, Weldin, I try it out?” It was better tha, she hadn’t been looking for additional resistance, but any additional amount would be most wele the ime she faced any magic users. The mana battery wasn’t something she would normally need, but being so short on mana right now, she could see the attra.

  “Of course,” he answered. “But if you break it, you bought it,” he added with a chuckle.

  She smiled at him and picked up the Orb of Mana. “Oh, it’s heavier than it looks.”

  “Yes, but not unwieldy,” Weldin said.

  Ali hefted the object a few times, deg that the Gnome was right and even with it, she would never develop biceps to rival Mato. “I could get used to this,” she observed. She looped the strap around her wrist, adjusting the length to fit fortably, and then examined her mana. Well, that’s much better, she decided, eyeing the whoppi hundred and ten increase. Several calcutions ter, she decided it was more than worth it. Empowered Summoner’s reservation was ten pert of her total mana pool, so it had increased somewhat, but the bulk of the increase accrued to her free mana, putting to rest a lot of her s.

  “How much does it cost?” It wasn’t nearly enough mana for her to go wild with high-level bosses, but it was a big step in the right dire. And I study the runework. It was great to see the kind of crafting that ossible with her magicite and that just made her more excited about the orb.

  “The magicite makes it a little on the expensive side,” he said, shrugging apologetically. “But I let you have it for eleven gold and thirty-seven silver.”

  “Done,” she answered, pulling out the s from her ring. It was expensive, but she didn’t want to be caught without enough mana to defend herself.

  “You’re supposed to haggle,” Weldin said with an exasperated sigh, and she realized she had just ruined his fun aement.

  “Oh, oops?” she answered, but she was already happy with her purchase and wasly all that sorry. Malika would probably be just as frustrated, she thought.

  “Here, I’ll give you a two-gold dist if you promise to find me more of that magicite. Malika told me it was you who found it, and Donel left a standing order to buy all I could y my hands on. I just hope there’s more of it wherever you found it.”

  “Oh, there’s more,” she said, catg herself before she admitted she could make it. She wasn’t lying though; the remains of the densers still y in the ruins.

  Is it really that valuable? If there en order from the Novaspark Academy of Magic, she wouldn’t o worry about the money Ryn ending on library memberships and might even have a really easy way to fund the cost of teleportation services to get her a couple of new ones. She would just o be careful not to bankrupt the academy and draw the wrath of Hadrik Goldbeard by flooding the market. But if she produced a stant trickle, she should have plenty of money, and if this was the quality of items Donel rodug with her raw materials, it would be an excelle for everyone.

  With a happy grin, she took the two s Weldin offered, and the deal was done.

  Malika

  Malika’s awareness slowly returo her body. Hard stone pressed into the tingling numbness of her legs. Her ears reacquaihemselves with the tinuous background roar of the waterfall. The chill mist caressed her skin, freezing on the ground around her. An indest pilr of cirg energy sat before her. I see. Malika took a deep breath of the thin, icy air and opened her eyes, finding Rezan studying her with glowing blue eyes and a surprisingly open and g expression on his weathered face.

  “You are fully healed,” he said.

  “Thank you, Elder,” she said, dipping her head respectfully. It was as he said – the st of the damage inflicted by her bloodline had faded during her meditation exercises and she could feel – and see – her energy cirg smoothly within her body, a pale echo of the power she saw from Rezan, but ahy for the first time since she had earned her sight.

  Healed.

  For the duration of their frantic, barely remembered journey, Malika had feared dying – and for weeks after, she had been terrified that she would never recover fully. But uhe Elder’s patient tutege and care, she had recovered – and more importantly, she had learned and grown.

  When he had initially offered formal mentorship, she had beeant to trust him – a stranger, known only by reputation and his authority as an Elder – but, over the weeks of her vales Kezda, she had e to appreciate his sistency, care, and itment to her recovery and the growth of his students. More important than traits and skills, she had grown to admire and respect the essence of who he was and the open and free way he shared his experience. As a role model and a mentor, she could think of nobody more suited to take over where her parents had left off. His refusal to push her on the question of being his student, when it so obviously meant something important to him, had left a surprisingly powerful impression on her.

  She took another deep breath. “Elder Rezan, I have sidered your offer of mentorship. If you still sider me worthy to be your student, I’d be hoo accept.” As the words left her lips, she was suddenly pgued by doubts. What if he ged his mind?

  He regarded her for a while before breaking the silence. “You honor me with your trust, Malika,” he said, bowing to her. “I gdly accept you as my student, and I vow to guide you to reach your fullest potential, to the best of my abilities.”

  “Thank you,” she said, her inner insecurities flipping to relief in an instant.

  “You are ready to return home whenever you choose,” Rezan tinued, “You have more than enough to work on, but I’d like you to stop by every few months – or when you hit level or skill breakpoints – for further training.”

  Malika nodded. She had already noticed she was reag saturation and she ime to implement the training she had received. But there was something else that weighed heavily on her mind.

  “Teacher,” she said formally, using the Ahn Khen word for a respected teacher or mentor – one of the few words in the a nguage she knew. “My family was killed at Bakahn. Before I return, may I ask you to plete the Rite of Awakening and grant me an Aral Name?”

  Without her family, she didn’t know who else she could turn to, and she lived in Myrin’s Keep, far from the aral vilges of her people. While she no longer prayed to the aors, she felt that without her Naming, the awakening of her bloodline would be left inplete somehow. Unfinished. Perhaps it was not the biggest thing, but it… mattered to her, she decided. A warrior could be no other than who she was, no more and no less.

  “It would be my honor,” he answered, a small flicker of surprise crossing his face. He fell silent, eyes focused inward for some time. “You have demonstrated great bravery, tenacity, aermination, a your energy is gentle and filled with kindness. I, Elder Rezan Jin, would be greatly honored if you would accept the Aral Name of Malika Yu.”

  How… did he know her? A storm of emotions flooded through Malika. Whether he had do on purpose, or it had been a pure ce, Rezan had chosen her mother’s Aral Name for her.

  Trembling from the ued rush of old grief and happy memories, she fell ba the formal response she had heard so many times, “Thank you, Elder. I will do my best to bear the name of the Aor and t honor to the Ahn Khen bloodline which has been awakened within me.” She took a deep breath to steady herself and then added, “And to honor my mother who carried the name before me.”

  As she uttered the st part, a flicker of surprise crossed Rezan’s face, and somehow that felt right. The fact that he hadn’t known sat better with Malika – almost as if it were meant to be. Even though – she reminded herself – she put no sto fate and portents.

  I have a name. She tentatively explored her feelings. Aral Names were chosen to offer homage to the most powerful aors and, with only a limited number of them being avaible, sharing oh someone you knew wasn’t unon. Still, it was an undeniably powerful e to her past, and her family.

  Malika Yu.

  She tried her new in her mind, getting used to how it sounded. A sense of pride slowly rose within her as her Aral tled, like it had always belonged. It would carry more than the usual responsibility, but she would live up to it. The relief that she had not died in the process of earning it slowly faded, repced by a fresh resolve to honor them. She just wished her parents could have beeo see this – they would have been so happy to see her growing.

  “Yay!” Ha excimed, causio startle.

  “gratutions,” Basir said, spping her on the shoulder with a hand heavy enough to unbance her.

  “Ok, I’m ready,” she said. It would be a long hike back down the mountain from the waterfall, but she was eager to return home and see her friends again.

  “Very well, let us return,” Rezan said, leading them to the narrow rocky path down the mountain.

  “Teacher, if you ge your mind about Aliandra’s shrine, you tact her through Vivian Ross at the Adventurers Guild in Myrin’s Keep.” It was nearly impossible to emute Rezan’s patieill, she mao hold ba trying to push him on this, reminding herself frequently that it was his patieh her accepting his mentorship that had worked for her. She just hoped it might have the same effe him.

  “I will sider ygestion,” he answered, but this time she noticed he wasn’t frowning. Hopefully, it was a real shift and not just her wishes for him to ge his mind.

  I have a name. A new skill, an awakened bloodline, new friends, and the mentorship of an Elder. So much had ged since she had e to Kezda. I ’t wait to share this with my friends.

  Friends.

  After a moment, she touched her eyes. Once, she had vowed she would never cry again. Maybe this, too, was growth?

  Aliandra

  Ali smiled at the sight of the brightly gleaming new sign hanging over the great doors to Thuli’s smithy. Gone was the decrepit old sign, lending the smithy tucked away at the end of the cul-de-sa air of quality and craftsmanship.

  I bet that’s Kavé’s magic, Ali thought as she stopped oep to examihe beautifully lettered sign wrought in steel. Elegantly embossed script proudly procimed, ‘Thuli’s Steelworks’ for all to see in on, Dwarven, Elvish, and even – ambitiously – Draic.

  Nice, Ali nodded and approached the door, instrug her Kobold bodyguards to open it for her. The huli had left for her with Mieriel had been characteristically sparse oails, saying only, “Please stop by whenever ya have a moment. Totally nent.” Ali could easily imagihe burly Dwarf saying it exactly like that and, seeing as she was in town already, she decided to pay him a visit and see what he needed.

  It’ll be o catch up with Kavé too. I hope her apprenticeship is still going well.

  The big doors to the smithy swung open uhe chirping ministrations of her Kobolds, and Ali had to take a moment to let herself acclimate to the reverberating cmor ing crashes and bangs and intense wave of heat that assaulted her as soon as she ehe busy bcksmith shop.

  Phew! She blinked. How could people stand so much cmor all day long? Give her a cozy nook in a quiet library any day!

  “Greetings, Aliandra. This one wonders if you have e to practice your Draic?” Kavé asked, gng up from the bench upon which she was s various steel arrowheads and pag them in boxes. She spoke Draic, but she wore the straight-lipped expression that Ali had e tnize as the girl’s attempt to smile without terrifying people by showing her sharp teeth.

  She’d look so pretty if she’d just smile naturally, Ali mused, but that was a far longer project than her learning to speak Draic. “Hi, Kavé! Thuli left a the guild for me to stop by,” she answered, automatically shifting to the Dragonkin’s preferred nguage, trying to emute her pronunciation, but she still struggled, substituting Kobold chirps for what should be growls, hisses, or, more correctly, one of the several intricate jugations of roars.

  “That one is busy, he will join us shortly,” she answered. “Your Draic is improving, but it still sounds like a Kobold.”

  “Sorry.”

  Ali found a seat near Kavé, dodging the racks of spears and swords, boxes filled with equipment ready for shipping, and the various pte and mail armor sets that were spread out on all avaible surfaces. It was, to her mind, a phenomenal transformation from the dimly lit, dusty, cold room she had found on her first trip here.

  Bcksmith – Dragonkin – level 14 (Steel)

  “You’re making great progress, Kavé,” Ali excimed, coughing as the attempted growl tickled her throat. The new Bcksmith, by all ats, was advang phenomenally quickly uhe skilled tutege of her Dwarveor, and, with her obvious disposition for hard work, Ali expected her growth to tinue unabated for some time.

  Those irades advance so slowly. Seems unfair, somehow.

  Kavé nodded, stoically, but Ali saw the flicker of a smile and khe Dragonkin girl was happy.

  Ali passed the time waiting for Thuli to finish, happily catg up with all the details of Kavé’s apprenticeship and taking feedba her spoken Draic skills. Sage of Learning had long since helped her achieve fluency with the nguage, and it only occasionally reacted to something Kavé said – an unusual turn of phrase or an unfamiliar or unon expression. But there were still some important growls and snarls that, without being born with any Draic heritage, she struggled to emute suffitly accurately to live up to Kavé’s strict standards.

  “There ya are, ssie!” Thuli excimed, stomping into the antechamber, the smithy having fallen silent finally. He dunked his head in a barrel of water, smeared the soot arouing most of it off, and then pulsed his fasating ember-affinity magic a little, causing his skin and hair to dry instantaneously. Ali studied the brief flurry of tiny flecks of ash floating down to the ground as his unusual mana faded.

  “I got your message,” Ali said, “but before we get to that, I brought you some axes.” Knowing she’d be visiting the Bcksmith today, she had created an assortment of axes sampling the entire spread of variants she had learned. Her colleade a surprisingly rge pile on the broad wooden table.

  Thuli let out a long whistle of appreciation as he picked up a heavy two-handed axe and examihe craftsmanship. “This is a fine axe.” He tested the sharpness of the bde with a broad thumb and then ha to the curious Kavé so she could study it too.

  “You guys look quite busy now,” Ali remarked, indig the racks of reddish, bureel ons on dispy, and the boxes and crates stacked up high to the side up against the wall.

  “Aye,” Thuli answered. “ander Brand wanted a lot o’ ons after the Goblin siege and the undead, and he was quite excited about my new Firefed Steel. Even some adventurers from out of town wao buy some swords and daggers.”

  “That must be good for business,” Ali offered.

  “It is,” Thuli said, but then he sighed melodramatically and threw up his hands. Ali reized it as a typical Dwarven affectation and just let him take his time to get to the point.

  “I think I’m stuck,” he said, eyeing her ily. “I haven’t been able ta uhe final steps in the creation of Eimuuran steel. After that farce of a Town cil trial, I know you found the ruins of Dal’mohra, and I uand why you would want to keep something that big a secret.”

  Ali grimaced. It had been necessary at the time, but secrets were not good for building trust – a fact she was well acquainted with. She had slowly e to appreciate Thuli for his blunt hoy araordinary workmanship, but early on, she had not known who she could trust. “Would you like to see it?” Ali asked, by way of sotion. Or perhaps as a salve on her sce.

  “No, ss, I am no adventurer. Crawling through ruins and fighting off monsters is for you bat people,” Thuli said, grinning. “I’m more than happy with these,” he decred, lifting a halberd in one hand like a feather.

  Huh? I would have sworn he’d be falling over himself to see the Dwarven ruins. This much was a surprise, given that he had explicitly stated that finding the lost city was the personal quest he had devoted his life to. However, Ali still detected distress on his fad in his body nguage, and knowing he was at his wits end she waited, giving him the space to share his thoughts.

  “But… if ya find any signs of the Great Fe… that I would give my right arm to see,” Thuli said, a faraway look ing to his eye.

  “You hat arm to use the fe,” Kavé said in an admonishing toaking Thuli’s hyperbole literally in a way that caused him to snap out of his reverie and made Ali ugh.

  “I… obviously, I dinhat literally,” he said gring at her with an expression that was half amusement and half exasperation. “But there must be a missing piece, something I don’t uand in the f of the steel. I hoped that if I could just see the Great Anvil or the Fe of Thovir, I might find inspiration. Maybe I’m asking too much.”

  “I haven’t found the fe yet, but I know where it is,” Ali said. “Or at least, where it should be, I guess. When I was younger, I took a trip down into the mines and saw the fe. I even withovir Emberfe w his magic there, but back then I did not have the ability to appreciate his skill with mana. I don’t know if it still exists, but if it does, it would be below the old farming level of the city, somewhere through the mines.” The only problem was it would be behind the jungle and the spawning pools, and by her reing, the entrance would be buried under a mountain of rubble fallen from the upper city levels.

  “If you find it – anything – I would dearly love to see it,” Thuli said, reverence filling his voice. “Or even just the Emberfe Mines – if you find any essences, ore, or metals – anything might help.”

  “Very well, I will ask my friends to help clear the way there,” she said. There were plenty of monsters in that jungle, but she k least one bear Beastkin that would be eager for the challenge.

  ----------

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