Then, of course, they had heard whispers of the Sage Academy’s fall. This brought on a whole new bout of conflicting emotions. They were excited that the Sages were probably gone, but at the same time, who were their protectors? Would the warriors of old return to aid them? Or were they so far away they wouldn’t even know when the people were attacked?
No one wanted to think about it.
So they kept looking up at the trees, hoping to calm their whirlwind of emotions.
As Remi walked along with her friends at her side, she realized that this was the beginning of a new Paragon, for she had seen and heard much of the same emotions back on Terra. It was a world that was almost magical in what could be accomplished. It seemed like there were always new adventures to have, new lands to explore, interesting species and unexplored concepts. But it could also be dangerous, overwhelming, and crippling. Many thrived, but just as many couldn’t take it anymore and took their lives. Most of those on Terra found themselves in the middle, as the Paragons near Virga did now—a bittersweet mix of emotions, and the sickening feeling of not knowing which side would win over, the dark…or the light.
“If anyone sees a King’s official, let us know,” Olivia replied, continuously taking a peek at Eckard. He was dressed in one of Ian’s outfits. A three piece suit that was finely pressed and a little too tight on the young Sage. Olivia actually thought it made him look a bit more attractive but she wasn’t about to admit that in this lifetime.
“We can look while Remi gets her repairs,” Eckard replied. “I know of a few places where they congregate.”
“Sounds good.”
They walked in silence, past the onlookers and through the muddy terrain until they arrived at their destination. Remi noticed that Gill was still not on his post, though she supposed that he had to go home sometime.
“We can take her to get repaired,” Ian said, grabbing Remi’s shoulders and leading her to the right after they cleared the entrance. “Harlan and I will keep her safe.”
“I hardly know this guy,” Olivia said, staring up at the man who was almost twice her size in height and mass. They had picked him up at the beginning of the trail and he had apologized to Remi profusely for not making it with Ian back at the Academy. They truly didn’t know the way and he knew that Ian had the necessary medical equipment in Altostratus. Remi didn’t care about any of that. She was glad they were safe, and now, all she wanted was for the boys and Olivia to get along. She didn’t worry about Eckard and how he felt about them. His mind was so dense that he could get along with quicksand.
“We wouldn’t cause her any harm,” Harlan said, staring directly into Olivia’s eyes.
“How am I supposed to know that? You could be Cimmerian spies for all I know.”
“Then come with us.”
“That’s inefficient.”
“Then make up your mind.”
Remi sighed. “I’ll be fine.”
“Don’t make me regret this,” Olivia sneered. Harlan raised an eyebrow but gave her a nod to signify that he heard her loud and clear. After she and Eckard departed to the left and were a considerable distance away, Harlan sucked his teeth.
“What creature crawled up her butt?”
“She is the creature,” Remi replied. Ian burst out laughing.
“Yeah, Harlan,” he said. “You better watch yourself. She might be looking for a place to nest.”
“You two are gross,” he said, sucking his teeth again. They walked on together through the empty streets. Remi was about to ask why it was deserted when she remembered the crowds on the trail to Virga. Was looking at raindrops on trees that new? If so, what really changed in Paragon?
“A little farther,” Ian said as they continued to stroll down the main street, so wide that it could have easily fit eighty people from one side to the other. Remi found herself wondering what it looked like before it was constructed, or if it had always been there.
“I give it five days once we’re past the gate,” Harlan said, taking a small notebook and pen from out of his pants pocket and scribbling some notes.
“Can you put that away?” Ian groaned. “She doesn’t need to hear that.”
“Hear what?” Remi asked.
“Harlan likes to do inventory on everything, and especially when a project is involved. Our upcoming trip is a big example of that. He’s taking notes on who we are, what we bring to the table and how long we’ll survive based on his make-believe stats.”
“Six days tops,” he said, waving his pen in the air. “And that’s if we go slow. The further into Terra we go, the worse our chances of survival gets.”
“You don’t even know us,” Remi replied, but Harlan shook his head.
“Eh, you all aren’t so hard to figure out.”
“Just watch,” Ian chuckled. “Soon as he sees you in battle, all of a sudden we’re going to last a whole month. Give it a couple more days and he’ll be talking about building a summer home on Terra.”
“I will do no such thing,” Harlan replied. “And I don’t know what you’re talking about…make-believe. I have it down to an exact science.”
“Exact science,” Ian scoffed.
“You wait and see.”
“I’ve been waiting and seeing for the last ten years. You haven’t changed a bit, and neither does the outcome of your tallying: nothing. Your analysis hasn’t helped us once.”
“It worked when we were able to take Karen’s apple pie.”
“Fool, I already told you. She let us have it. I asked her if we could have it before your heist started and she said yes. We didn’t steal anything.”
“Says you. I wasn’t there to confirm.”
“You’re hopeless.”
“Um, is this it?” Remi asked, seeing that the boys weren’t paying attention. She pointed at the humble cabin sandwiched between two mansions. Hanging from an outstretched post was a sign that said: The Twins’ Armory and Repairs.
“Twins?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “I thought it was just one person that was coming with us.”
“It is,” Ian replied, pushing the door open and ringing the bell above. Remi looked at where the arrow had shot through his arm since he was in front of her. He was wearing a new dress shirt so she couldn’t see the wound, but the way he was moving, it was as if it had already healed. That was strange.
“Welcome!” a brown skinned girl shouted from behind a glass counter. Underneath there were various rusted and antique weapons on display sitting on a bed of feathers. Remi waved hi to the girl and then glanced around the shop. There were shelves upon shelves lined up against the walls filled with metal parts and unidentifiable steel objects. Behind the girl were more shelves, facing sideways so that it looked like a miniature library was in back. Everything was made of either wood or metal except for the feathers in the glass case up front. The air was thick and it had a metallic taste to it.
The girl herself was outfitted in a chainmail shirt and white cotton pants that were matted in dirt and grease. Her hair was disheveled and pointing out in different places due to the grease and oil covering it. Otherwise, her face was pleasant enough, as if it had never seen the effects of hard labor.
“I see you’ve been decorating,” Ian chuckled as he looked down at the feather bed. “Pretty.”
“We’re trying something new,” she said, flashing Remi another wide smile.
“Has it attracted any new customers?”
“You’d have to ask Milo,” she said.
“Hey, where is—”
A door was slammed from the back of the store and a male version of the girl upfront came storming to the front with a gray suitcase in hand. He barely looked at Ian as he gave him a nod and walked past him. He pushed open the door and then stopped in his tracks.
“We’re going right?” Milo asked, still facing the outside.
“Good to see you too,” Ian chuckled.
“But are we going?” Milo asked, staring at Ian hard with his concern
ed hazel eyes. “I’m ready.”
“She needs repairs first,” Ian said, pointing at Remi’s missing arm. Milo’s eyes went wide as he examined her other prosthetic. His suitcase fell out of his hands.
“This could take a while,” he whispered, examining her.
“Not necessarily,” the girl at the counter said and Milo raised his head slowly to face her.
“Arianna, please…please don’t say anything else.”
“I’m working on it,” she said.
He winced. “See? See? You just spoke. That…that’s going to be a problem.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not going to survive,” he said, turning to Ian. “Please don’t tell me she needs her repairs to happen now.”
“You’re the best that I personally know, and you’re also the only one that won’t want my house as payment. It has to happen here.”
“Arianna will kill me.”
“What’s she done now?”
“I’ve barely slept in three days because of her decorating ideas.”
“You mean the feathers?”
“Yeah…she…she thinks they’re awesome for some reason. She won’t shut up about it. I…I can’t take another day around her.”
“To get us out of here faster, you’ll need your sister’s help.”
“Why do you hate me?” Milo asked, his face scrunched up in agony.
“I don’t hate you,” Arianna shouted gleefully.
“I wasn’t talking to you!”
“Oh…who were you talking to then?”
“Death,” Milo said, nodding his head slowly.
“Once we’re on the road, you’ll be fine,” Harlan said. “But make sure you bring some kits along with you just in case. This here is Remi, and she’s the leader of our little merry band.”
“Leader?” Remi asked.
Ian shrugged his shoulders. “Well, we’re taking your lead.”
“If you’re the leader,” Milo snickered. “Then tell me how you managed to lose both arms and your leg? What? Fell off your bike and broke your fragile little bones?”
“No asshole,” Remi retorted. “I was fighting against three powerful Cimmerian warriors by myself and they all had Sage like abilities. Lost both of my arms in the fight but I still managed to take them out by sticking my eidolon between my teeth and throwing them on my butcher block. Lost the leg because I got careless but don’t worry. I got him back, and now he stares off into space in a cell, thinking about me and what I did to him for the rest of his pathetic, worthless life.”
“Geez,” Milo said, kicking his suitcase to the side. “Okay, let’s get that arm fixed.”
“I’ll be taking that,” Harlan said to him. Milo stared at him in confusion.
“What? My suitcase?”
“No, your manhood. It’s got to be lying around here somewhere.”
They all broke out in laughter.
Except Arianna. She wasn’t sure if she should.
* * *
It took a month.
One full month.
The new and improved left arm wasn’t hard for them to craft. That took a few days. But grafting it back onto her skin, reworking the clasps and attaching the veins…that was painful. Not to mention that Arianna and Milo wanted to try out a new design—one in which she would be able to manifest her eidolon through her hands again. It was a very delicate process, determining what veins should go where, how much blood to pump into the artificial arm and what would happen if she infused too much energy into the hand.
They determined through trial and error that she could summon her eidolon fine, but it was unfortunately a weak one. It was up to her to infuse it with the energy she needed afterwards by placing it on another part of her body. The power surge through the artificial arm would be too much for it to handle. And she couldn’t have that, so they went back to the drawing board.
One week later, they had a new design. It was a little bulkier, but she could put as much energy into her eidolon as she wanted from her fingers. The con of it was that she wasn’t going to be able to move too fast. That couldn’t do, and so she opted for the original model.
Another month went by, and once again, she wasn’t a single second closer to finding a Sorcerer’s weapon, or Kace.
“You might want to rethink this,” Milo sighed, wiping grease across his forehead. Remi groaned as she shifted her weight around on the cold steel table in the backroom. The lighting was dim so she couldn’t see his face, but his voice said it all. He was frustrated with how things were progressing. He was supposed to have left two months ago.
“What do you mean?” Remi replied weakly. If they had tried all of this back on Terra, she was sure she would have died. Thankfully in Paragon, her body healed quickly so she was able to go through the grinding process of being broken down and built back up again.
“Your main focus is manifesting an eidolon into your hands that contains the right amount of energy you need, but…I think we’re going about this all wrong. Have you considered using a conduit?”
“I don’t follow.”
“Your friend, Olivia, does it. She uses a standard sword to infuse her energy into. It’s fast, and in many ways, it’s stronger than an eidolon. Your eidolon is tied into your will, right?”
“In a sense,” she said, stretching her neck. Something in her back was pinching her. “If I get wounded, then the eidolon might get weaker.”
“An external vessel wouldn’t. You could be wounded, and a sword in this example would be just as strong as when you started out. I understand that eidolons have the capability to get even more powerful, but how often will that happen?”
“What are you saying?”
“I think that we should stick with this model, but you should focus on infusing your power into external vessels and not so much into your eidolon. It will actually help you conserve energy, and if the stories you’ve told me are to be believed, once we’re on Terra, you might get sick again. It will be good to not have to use your eidolon.”
“That will take some getting used to.”
“It’s not that difficult. The main problem will be stopping yourself from instinctively summoning an eidolon all the time. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t ever unsheathe it should your standard sword or whatever you’re using happens to break. Though with the proper blacksmith, that shouldn’t be a problem. I suppose that’s why Olivia had hers custom made.”
“Where is she now?”
“Ian’s house. Where they’ve always been. You keep asking for them but I assure you, you’re in good hands.”
“I…I do?”
“Yes,” he sighed, turning around to assess his tools. “Every day in fact. I don’t blame you though. You’re still groggy.” He paused. “Arianna has no excuse though.”
“So…what…what happens now?”
“I think,” he paused to think, “I think that we should take another month to redesign your right arm. Although I want to get going as soon as possible, there’s no point if you end up having to come back here a couple days in.”
“Thank you,” she said. “This…this is a lot of work.”
“Oh, don’t thank me,” he chuckled. “I’m getting paid handsomely. Ian must really believe in you or something. I mean, I understand the possibilities. But the risk he’s taking is far beyond what I would be able to do.”
“What do you mean?” she said through a parched throat.
“He didn’t tell you?” Milo asked, walking back over to her and examining her right arm. “Of course not. How could he? You’ve been back here pretty much the whole time.”
“Tell me what?”
“I’m getting his house,” Milo replied.
Remi felt her heart stop. His house? The house his parents lived in? The one where he performed his work? His home? Why? He barely knew her. He knew…nothing about her. Was finding new materials on Terra that important to him? Did he really think that his reputation would increase so much th
at he would be able to get the house back or secure an even better one? From what she understood, there wasn’t unlimited space in Virga so why would he give up such prime real estate? Why for her?
“Why?” she found herself muttering, and Milo chuckled to himself.
“Because he’s smitten,” he said, tapping a screw on her right arm.
“I don’t know him.”
“No, you don’t. And he doesn’t know a thing about you. That’s why you’re so fascinating.”
“I don’t get it.”
“It’s because you’re not from around here,” he said, bending down close and rubbing grease on the screw so that it could be removed easier. “Here in Paragon, the people are all the same. We think the same. Act the same. Believe the same. And in that lack of diversity, we become sick in our own way. Without change or growth, we become stagnant and unhappy. We start lashing out or getting cranky and we don’t even know why. We become terrible, terrible people because it’s the only way we can justify the agony that is going on internally. We refuse to seek out new things or new concepts because we’re supposed to be in Paradise, but we also need a way to cope with that decision.”
“You don’t seem so bad.”
“That’s because we’ve just met, and you are in fact, new and exciting. Give it time. You’ll see what I mean.”
“And Ian,” she sighed. “Is he the same?”
“No,” Milo replied. “And I think that’s because he’s been fighting against his upbringing all his life. I think that’s why he wants to go on your journey so bad as well. It’s because he needs it. He can’t go on for decades more without change. It’s nice to have a home, but it means nothing if you’re not happy within it.”
The Sorcerer's Dragon (Book 2) Page 10