Shadowcast

Later That Day: Part 1

After her lesson in druidic plant magic, Liza headed down to the edge of Sigilspear's campus to meet up with Wendy and Wren. As she discovered, Sigilspear had a work-study program where students who were unable to pay tuition would essentially run errands for the university in exchange for their education. Apparently both Wren and Wendy were poor as well, so they were all doing their errand-running together.

Outside the main castle complex, the campus opened up into a grassy meadow. At the edge of the meadow was a dense band of trees that separated it from the rest of the city. Off in the distance, Liza saw the stone and brass skyline of Besnior. Her focus suddenly shifted as a stray magic bolt flew right by her face. It spiraled past and smashed into the ground next to her, sending up a plume of grass and dirt. She looked to see where it came from. Out in the meadow, two students threw blasts of color at each other, chipping away at the magical body shields that surrounded them.

"Wow," Liza said to herself, "That's some potent stuff." Her gaze drifted across the meadow. All around the campus, students were talking, laughing, practicing spells. The very air buzzed with magic energy. Liza loved it, but she felt out of place here. Like a riverside pebble on a sandy beach.

She followed the path into the forest. Before she knew it, she was on the other side. She wondered how anything lived or grew in such a narrow band of trees. Magic, probably. A neatly-built stone thoroughfare stretched out ahead of her, leading to the towering spires of Besnior.

Standing there, like ants among giant blades of grass, were Wren and Wendy. Liza was surprised to see Professor Garon standing with the two, holding a package delicately wrapped in brown paper and tied up with a little twine bow.

"Hey guys!" she said, "How were your classes?"

"I learned how to do this!" Wendy conjured her glyphs and placed her hands on the ground, creating a large circle in front of her. A short pillar of magical force rose up from the ground. Wendy hopped up onto it and sat on the edge.

Wren chanted some nightmarish phrases in some kind of hellspeak and thrust his hand toward Liza. Liza felt her feet leave the ground.

"Wren," Liza said, "Wren! Put me down!" She turned herself in the air to try and grab at the grass, but she was already up too high. Against her will, she hovered sideways toward Wendy. "Wendy!" She was no help, giggling like a schoolgirl as Liza clumsily scrambled through the air trying to right herself. With a flash of his rings, Liza landed next to Wendy on her magic pillar.

"Levitation," he said, "I can lift people now."

To Liza's dismay, the professor recognized her. "Hey! Great job in class today." He must have seen the deep frown on Liza's face. "Look, you're not a failure just because you can't do a fire bolt yet. Every wizard's path is different."

"Do you mean something by that, or is that just some 'follow your dreams' B.S.?"

"Trust me, I don't deal in B.S. Make the spell your own. Do what's right for you."

Liza nodded, but didn't really take Garon's words to heart. They were the same words she heard from the Vox Monstratus. "Everyone learns at their own pace. You'll catch up." "You just need a little extra time to keep up with the rest of class." "Use whatever organization technique is best for you. If you can just get yourself organized, you can stay at the same level as everyone else."

Liza shook those intrusive thoughts from her mind and turned back to her friends. "So, what've we got here?"

"I was just about to ask that," said Wren, "What's the mission?"

"This," Garon told them, gesturing to the package in his hand, "is a crucial component our Brighthands in Little Beilan need to complete their ritual."

"Little Beilan?" asked Liza.

"Hells yeah!" cheered Wren, "We're going to Little Beilan!"

"What is Little Beilan?" Liza asked again as the merry three began to walk off the campus into the city streets.

"It's one district over and one level down," said Wendy, "A lot of North Shore immigrants have settled there over the years, so there's a lot of cultural history there."

"Wow," Liza said to herself, "I keep looking over at that city skyline, and I forget that it's just the tip of a great stone and steel iceberg in a jagged green sea."

"So poetic," Wren said, "I didn't know you had that in you."

"There's a lot you don't know about me," Liza said before her brain could tell her not to.

"Let's change that, then," Wren said, cracking his knuckles, "Wendy, what do you want to know about Liza?" Liza froze.

"M-me?" Wendy said, frantically whipping her head around to see which other Wendys Wren could have asked.

"Yes, you. Liza's so mysterious. It seems like there's something she doesn't want to tell us."

Liza narrowed her eyes at Wren, sizing him up. Her heart pounded in her chest. Was he about to do some crazy interrogation spell to reveal all her secrets?

"But that's okay! We met yesterday, there's plenty of time to get to know each other!"

Liza felt the tension release from her shoulders. "Why'd you have to scare me like that?"

The group came to what looked to Liza like a train station. She remembered trains trundling down long iron tracks, lightning crackling along their wheels, a sound like thunder blasting from their horns. "What's this place?"

"It's a lift station," said Wendy, "It's how we go between the different levels of the city." Liza watched as a wide, flat disk floated up into a grooved track in the floor. A throng of passengers, including a pair of absolutely jacked goliaths carrying a large wooden box, waited impatiently for their turn to ride. The disk came to rest in the middle of the semicircular track, and a small goblin opened a gate in the waist-high handrail, letting everyone out. At the exact moment the last reptilian figure's pinky claw left the magic disk, the entire crowd of waiting passengers charged aboard, leaving almost no room for the three of them. Wren dropped a few copper pieces into the goblin's open hand as they stepped onto the disk.

"Sorry," Liza said, dropping a meager couple copper coins, "I'm broke." The goblin shot an annoyed glare at her, but didn't say anything. Once he closed the railing, the disk gave a sudden lurch, nearly throwing Liza off the edge. A luminous line of blue shot down toward a landing below them. "This is so cool!"

She looked away from her friends and out at the city. Pillars of brass and stone caught the light of the setting Sernan sun, strung together by an endlessly intricate web of connecting bridges and sprawling platforms. The lattice of walkways and towers stretched down farther than Liza could see. An illusory dragon sprayed a plume of fire from an arcane billboard. Carriages carried by spinning wheels of light sped through the sky, weaving up and down between the bridges and landings, blaring out horrid roars at the more reckless drivers. Tall, slender elves in decadent gilded robes mingled with little lizards and brawny, brutish orcs. One gnomish woman struggled to keep her sputtering clockwork purse in one piece as it burst open and scattered her tools across the landing.

"This place is amazing," Liza said, "This is your city?"

Wren chuckled a little at the childish grin on Liza's face. "You get used to it."

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Author's Note:

Guess who's up at 3 in the morning even though he's got to be at work by 8? It's technically Friday, so I'll go ahead and post this now.