36 - Favor (Patreon)

Phoenix plopped into the plush booth as Dazien groaned, rubbing his ribs, as he also took a seat in the cafe they had originally visited before their fight with the wights. Uriel sat next to him looking equally exhausted and the Wayfarer sat opposite the two, looking at the menu once more to see what food options there were.

“Your mentor is a mad man,” the amethyst warrior complained, “He does know we’re still Crystal Caste right? Does he always beat you until you can’t stand?”

Phoenix grinned and shook her head, “No, I usually spar with Bliss. I’ve never actually seen him slap around another person like that before,” she explained, then added thoughtfully, “I wonder if he was just trying to make you give up sooner rather than later.”

“Forget that,” he rebuked, “After going through all that I’m not turning back now.”

The Wayfarer narrowed her eyes at him, “You’re claiming sunk-cost via pain? That’s a new one to me,” she observed, then directed her next question to Uriel, “Is King Dazien some sort of masochist?”

The cinderen shook his head and answered bluntly, “More on the sadist end. Usually involving lots of rope.”

“Hey now, how did that spirit of wrath beating us half to death turn into a discussion about my personal proclivities?” the gemite asked, affronted.

Phoenix continued speaking to Uriel, as though not hearing the warrior, “That checks out. He does have that cage ability, after all, which is kinda like rope.”

“Is this how things are going to be?” Dazien asked, not able to hide the grin on his face, “You two combining forces to humiliate your king?”

“I have sworn no oaths of fealty, your majesty,” Phoenix replied then stuck a tongue out at him. Getting thoroughly trounced repeatedly by Paul during hours of training had stripped away much of the personal walls between the three new companions.

The waiter arrived then and took their orders before leaving the private room once more and Phoenix turned back to Uriel, “I didn’t realize you knew the sword so well,” she said, gesturing to the weapon leaned against the wall next to them, having removed it from his hip to sit better.

The mage nodded and pointed a thumb at Dazien, “This one wanted a sparring partner.”

“It’s a good skill to have when you run out of mana!” the would-be king retorted defensively.

“That is a fair point,” Phoenix admitted.

“Thank you!” the warrior said, throwing up his hands, then wincing at the gesture to rub his sore ribs again, “Finally, you agree with me on something.”

Then she added, “It’s not like you can really expect the tank to keep everything off you.”

Dazien’s jaw dropped as he stared in shock at her and both Uriel and Phoenix burst out laughing as he said in exaggerated offense, “You wound me… truly, I don’t know if I can take much more of the pain from the dagger in my back.”

“I’m joking,” she said between chuckles, “You did great with those wights. I wouldn’t have gotten that last one you caged up before it got to Uriel.”

The humor dropped from the Defender’s face as he frowned slightly and said seriously, “I wasn’t able to protect you, though.”

“Hey now, nobody died,” she pointed out, trying to cheer him up, “That was the goal right?”

He nodded and their conversation paused again as the waiter returned with caffeine and pastries. Phoenix took a bite of the warm confectionary and gave an appreciative moan then said, “I’m surprised they have food like this here. I haven’t seen anything growing in this frozen wasteland.”

The gemite explained between his own bites, “We have the Cultivator’s Citadel to thank for that. It grows most of the city’s food using a variety of magic rituals, enchantments and tools.”

“We could have used those on Earth,” she said thoughtfully.

Dazien paused his eating as he asked quietly, “Is that the name of your world?”

She nodded and he asked curiously, “Was there a problem with getting food there?”

“Magic… wasn’t really a thing there. At all. A lot of food depended on shipping routes, fair weather, and access. The storms and fires were getting worse every year from pollution and we didn’t have healing magic so when new viruses would break out that we didn’t have cures for...

“Well, a lot of people died when that would happen and food supplies were often disrupted… which would cause more people to go hungry. Not to mention the problems of just affording food in some areas. We couldn’t just magic away the problems…” she trailed off, not wanting to talk about it further and spoil the mood even more.

“I’m sorry. That sounds terrible,” Dazien said apologetically then asked hesitantly, “Did you leave behind any family?”

She shook her head in the negative, and he prompted, “Friends?”

Phoenix just shrugged, and didn’t expect the next question, “Lovers?”

She scoffed with a snort of laughter at the idea, “Yeah, right. Even if I was interested, there was never an opportunity for that for me. Before I arrived in this world, I had been practically bedridden my whole life.”

The two men looked at her in surprise and she gave them a look as though it should be obvious, “No magic, remember? No god of healing on my planet to cure a building full of sick kids.”

“That’s horrible,” the gemite said, still shocked at the idea.

“It was,” she agreed then smiled softly and added wistfully, “I could never have imagined being somewhere like here; eating cake with a couple of teammates after hours of fighting.”

“I’m not sure you could call getting our hides handed to us ‘fighting’,” the warrior replied.

She chuckled and took another bite of her pastry and sipped the warm coffee, just enjoying the moment for a bit, as the group fell into a comfortable silence.

“So,” Dazien started, and Phoenix almost laughed at his insatiable curiosity that was giving her own a run for its money, “No more questions about your old world,” he clarified, then asked a bit hesitantly, “Can we ask how you got that Soul Mark on your chest?”

The Wayfarer froze as she registered the question then slowly looked up at the pair, not sure if she should start panicking, “You saw?”

They both nodded and Uriel explained awkwardly, “Your shirt was kind of destroyed from that attack. When we went to check on you… it was kind of hard to not notice.”

Phoenix set her coffee down, thinking through her response as she looked out the window. Her teammates didn’t interrupt her thoughts as they waited patiently, busying themselves with eating and drinking as the snow continued to fall outside.

Finally, she explained softly, “I was given a divine quest and the gods felt it their prerogative to mark my soul with their personal stamp of approval. And before you ask, no, I don’t want to go into more details about it,” she softened slightly and added, “Not right now, at least.”

“Fair enough,” Dazien acquiesced with a nod, knowing when to back down from a touchy subject.

Then a thought came to her, “Do you have a Soul Mark? I heard the others talk about how Warrior favors you.”

“Ah, well. Not like that,” the gemite said a bit awkwardly, “Most people say I have Warrior’s favor because he has seen to a lot of my training personally, which is not common. He has not graced me with a mark like that, however,” he said, gesturing to where hers lay hidden beneath her shirt before continuing, “Soul Marks like that are actually pretty rare. I’ve honestly only seen one other before from a single god. To have one mark with five different deities is simply unheard of.”

“Who else did you meet with a mark?” she asked curiously. She would be interested in meeting someone else like her.

“Ah,” Dazien said looking down at his plate with awkward resolve, “It’s not really my place to say,” he looked back up and added pointedly, “Just as I would not say anything about yours to others.”

“Oh, right,” the Wayfarer said, mentally berating herself and waving the question away, “Of course, I was just curious about someone who might have gone through something similar to me. It’s fine though, I appreciate you keeping my secrets… I think I actually trust you more now for not telling me.”

Silence fell again and Uriel surprised both of them by asking her, “Who is Robert Frost?”

Phoenix grinned at the change of topic, “A poet. He wrote a particularly famous poem that reminds me of you. I’m not sure you would like it, though.”

The cinderen shrugged and gestured for her to continue, so she did, taking on the slightly sing-song voice of recitation, “Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate, To say that for destruction ice, Is also great, And would suffice.”

Dazien shook his head in amusement, “I can see why you would think of Uriel, but it’s a rather depressing poem, is it not?”

The Wayfarer shrugged, “I like to think of it in more abstract terms. I mean, in the literal sense, sure fire and ice can destroy the world and probably will in the end. But when he equates fire to desire and ice to hate, I think it describes a bit of our nature. If we become too extreme in either our apathy or greed we will destroy ourselves. Though, I think I agree that I’d rather burn from chasing my desires than freeze from a heart full of hate.”

They both stared at her for a moment before the amethyst warrior shook his head again with a soft chuckle, “That’s a rather philosophical interpretation.”

She shrugged, “I had a lot of time to think before monsters and magic kinda took over my life.”

“Monsters and magic do that,” Uriel said and the companions laughed at the truth of it.

Phoenix was watching Paul pace around her dorm room while trying to explain that he wasn’t abandoning her.

“I should hopefully be back in a week. Two at most,” Paul said as he handed her a tiny five-sided rune-etched metal rod about the length of her finger, “This will let you into my home should an emergency arise. You can stay out of trouble for a few days, yes?”

The Wayfarer rolled her eyes at him and said sarcastically, “Yes, dad.”

He huffed at her, “With your tendencies, I wouldn’t be surprised if you died on a mission while I was gone.”

“Your confidence in my survival abilities is reassuring as always,” she continued, laughing internally at how flustered the man seemed to be, completely unlike when they first met. Phoenix wondered if it was a result of becoming closer as student and mentor or if her last near-death experience was actually much closer than she had thought and he was truly worried about her survival without him there to shove a healing potion into her.

“I’ll be fine,” she tried to reassure, “I have my party now and we’re basically just planning to train all week in anticipation of the blood moon. Dazien mentioned we’ll be stationed in Tulimeir rather than an outlying town or out patrolling the tundra, which I suspect you had something to do with,” she hinted at.

“I might as well take advantage of the benefits my position gives,” he replied unapologetically.

“Sounds a bit corrupt for someone so focused on purifying things,” she said, realizing she made a mistake when he turned abruptly to stare at her. She wasn’t quite sure what she had said that seemed to put him on edge, as she returned his gaze with confusion and asked, “What?”

“Nothing,” he said gruffly after a moment then added, “It’s not corruption. I simply requested you be kept close to the city to accommodate your training. It’s not like I bribed an official to chain you here.”

“I guess if you were going to bribe them to do anything it would be to keep you near me?” she inquired.

The Adventurer shook his head, “No. The Soul Reapers are too much of a threat to go unchecked and unchallenged. If this Rift I’m going to gets detonated, it will likely wipe out a few nearby villages, aside from disrupting the overall magical ecosystem of the area. I’m not going because the AOA ordered me to, I’m going because the enemy needs to be stopped.”

Phoenix nodded, more subdued by the thought of destruction on that large of a scale. “I’ll try my best to stay safe,” she replied softly, matching his sincerity.

Then she pulled out the small [Flame of Life] trinket and lifted it for him to see, “I got this as a quest reward. I, um, that is… you can hold onto it if you want to make sure I’m staying safe.”

Paul stared at the object in her hand for a moment before meeting her eyes and giving a rare smile, “I would appreciate that.”

She nodded and offered it out for him to take which he obliged then held out his own hand with his palm up.

When she raised a questioning eyebrow he gave a soft chuckle and took her hand, explaining, “The tip here is to prick your finger with. That will attune it to you so it can track your status.”

The Astromancer scrunched her nose at the idea but nodded and pushed her finger to the very pointy decorative-looking piece at the top of it and watched as the few drops of blood trickled down into it, causing the tiny flame within to turn white and grow, filling the orb, while the pointy bit seemed to melt and vanish to no longer prick anything else.

Her mentor thanked her once more then simply patted her head before leaving her small dorm. She finished getting herself ready and made her way to the departure area at the western gate. This was the same location that they had met for their trials and it was now where she usually spent the first two hours of her day. The AOA had been eager to create a temporary position for her to help with the logistics of portaling low Caste parties to various locations around the tundra.

With portals being a high value commodity, even her Crystal Caste one was seeing steady use every morning as teams of people departed for the day. Once those were done, she would meet up with her own party for training as the moon got more red-tinged with every passing night.

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