The night was deep and quiet, a layer of thick, soft velvet that obscured the sparse wood and the two youths creeping through it, one much more ably than the other. The lead figure, Cadence, had always found the deepest hours of night time comforting. Even in the outwardly foreboding woods, the youth was reminded of the village she had grown up in, of wandering through the forest that surrounded Felisen late at night, creeping from tree to tree, guided only by the vaguely shadowed suggestions of foliage around her.
Even now, following the obvious trail of footsteps and cleared brush left behind by a band of fleeing bandits towards their distant camp, the serene stillness of the night kept Cadence relaxed.
“Shit!”
At least until the second figure’s curses rent the veil of peaceful darkness to tatters.
Cadence stopped and sighed. Oliver’s curse was accompanied by the sound of wild flailing and the fluttering noises of a bush shaking.
“Can you quiet down?” she hissed behind her in the general direction of the noise.
“No! This bush is- AH!” Oliver’s movements became even more strained, the jerkiness obvious even in the bare silhouette visible through the night air.
Cadence was moving, power coursing through her, even as Oliver’s gasp turned into a cry for assistance. “It’s a bramble-spawn!”
Had an onlooker been able to make out details of the brief struggle, they would've seen the leafy branches of the shrub moving of their own accord, entangling and trapping the struggling boy. They also would’ve seen Cadence lash out with a keen-bladed little hatchet, her cuts smooth and accurate despite the darkness.
Cadence was a small youth, often looking far younger than her sixteen years, a perception reinforced by her seemingly endless well of energy and positivity. Her body had a slim androgyny she was proud of, lacking both feminine curves and masculine hardness. Her most striking feature was her hair, a brilliant shade of sky-blue that was obvious even in the depths of the night, and which matched the color of her eyes perfectly.
Cadence was a celestial, an identity that had only recently been codified by the rebellious youths of the Realm. Though at birth she had been called a girl, bright and cheery as morning sunlight, Cadence often felt the need to glow with the same hard, clean light as the moon, taking on a masculine persona cleverly named Caden. Neither wholly male or female, lunar or solar, Cadence had only recently learned the word those like her used to describe themselves.
She was not the sun or the moon, but like them, she was of the stars, a celestial.
Some people, like her erstwhile traveling companion, insisted on using neutral words like “they” to describe Cadence, and while she didn’t fault them for that, she didn’t quite consider it correct. She was a she, except when she was Caden, who was a he. That seemed simple enough to Cadence. But as the neutral pronouns weren’t inherently wrong, she wasn’t insulted by those who preferred to err on the side of caution.
Cadence was also a gifted, blessed by two powers carved into her soul and marked on her skin, able to shape magic into distinct forms. It was one of those abilities, enabled by her near-unique gift of the echo, that allowed her to make short work of the bramble-spawn that had trapped her companion.
[Soul Surge] - Active, Buff - Increase one attribute by five points. Lesser duration, moderate stamina and focus cost incurred when buff expires.
[Soul Surge] activated
Awareness increased
By boosting her awareness, one of the ten attributes that defined the ways magic could alter her body, the dark became more transparent, less crippling, allowing Cadence to make out both the monster and her friend to ensure that her hatchet only cut through the former.
The bramble-spawn was bigger than the one Cadence had once fought alone, but it was still of little threat to either of the traveling youths. Once Cadence had cut Oliver free, the pair made quick work of the overgrown weed, sword and hatchet working together to cut through the monster’s vine-like limbs and expose the tangled roots of its core.
Afterwards, both were left breathing hard. Stamina, the attribute that governed endurance and energy, was also a common cost for special attacks, and both had burned a small chunk of the attribute in the brief scuffle.
“So?” Cadence asked, irritated. “Now do you think it’s okay to stop for the night?”
Oliver grumbled. “If they get away, this was all for nothing.”
“They can’t be far, they're even more inept at woodcraft than I thought. I’ll be able to find them in the morning, no problem.”
Oliver blew out a long breath. “Are you sure?”
“If nothing else, I’m sure it’s a better idea than trying to fight a dozen bandits when we stumble into them in the middle of the night. They might be a little more dangerous than our friendly bush back there.”
“Yeah well… fine.”
Cadence was quickly realizing that even the begrudging concession from the former noble was a win, and set about trying to find a suitable place to stop for the night before her Soul Surge ran out.
#
At a glance, Cadence and Oliver couldn’t be more different. Regardless of presented gender, Cadence was small for her age, and after months spent on the road, could only really be called “scruffy,” her muscles as taut and lean as whipcord, clothing frayed and dirtied. Oliver's body, on the other hand, could best be described as “heroic.” He was tall, nearly a foot taller than Cadence, with an athletic physique and broad shoulders. Even bloody, tired, and covered in road dirt, Oliver was well-put together and inarguably handsome. Oliver’s skin was darker than Cadence’s pale complexion, a mingled olive tone that spoke of his mixed ancestry just as much as his dark brown hair.
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Their personalities were just as different. Where Cadence was energetic, eager, and friendly (with the exception of the very occasional bout of melancholy), Oliver was consistently sullen and quiet, introverted and easily irritated. Despite his skilled bladework and proven ability to defend himself, outside of combat the former noble lacked any real confidence in himself. His self-doubt only made his social obliviousness and paradoxical noble arrogance that much more grating.
Cadence had little doubt that Oliver would’ve made an excellent noble, had he stayed with his family in Elliven. He had a habit of taking charge of a conversation, even when he didn’t know where it was going, and when he was properly incensed, he had an almost magnetic air of authority. Unfortunately, Oliver had, indeed, left his family home, for reasons Cadence was only vaguely aware of, and the rest of the world rarely had need for his unconscious superiority complex.
Still, Cadence trusted the squire’s blunt honesty and sometimes, on the road, that was all you could count on (or at least, so she assumed from the stories she had grown up on).
“This is miserable.”
Not that it made his complaining any less tiring.
“Then go to sleep,” Cadence told him. Stubbornly, she kept her eyes closed and did not move from the blanket she had wrapped herself in.
“Are you sure we can’t risk a fire?”
“Extremely,” Cadence repeated for the third time. “On a night like this, our bandit friends will be able to see the glow of a campfire for miles.”
Oliver sighed. Unfortunately, they were not on a hike through the (mostly) abandoned woods of the deadlands for fun, nor were they laying down after a pleasant, if tedious, day making their way up the Flax Road with Hugo’s Trading Company, as Oliver had been for weeks and Cadence had been for days.
Hours before, the very bandits the pair were chasing had descended on poor Hugo’s caravan, killing the merchant himself along with most of his employees, as well as badly injuring two others–including their friend, Beryl, a warden-in-training who, by now, may very well have succumbed to her wounds. The other young warden recruit they had been traveling with, Rose, was returning to the nearby town of Jellis along with the scant survivors and the single prisoner they had taken from the bandits.
Oliver and Cadence were young, and very different, but they both agreed on how to handle the human predators who had attacked an innocent trader’s wagons. As such, they had journeyed into the woods alone, trying to make the most of the fleeing bandits' tracks before the group could strike their camp and vanish into the deadlands.
“If it makes you feel any better, I’ve no doubt they’re also muddling through a cold camp tonight.”
“What makes you so sure?”
Cadence finally gave in and sat up, throwing off her blanket. Despite them laying down under the same low pine bough, the night was dark enough that, with her Soul Surge worn off, Cadence couldn’t make out the shape of her companion. “What part of ‘visible for miles’ do you not… Forget it.” Cadence blew out a breath, trying to force a little of her customary cheer into her tired voice. “Look, are you going to bed, or are you just going to lay here whining all night?”
“No. I just…. I don’t know. We’ve been through a lot today, I want to talk.”
Cadence nodded to herself, waiting for the squire to elaborate. After a couple minutes without any follow up, she asked, “What do you want to talk about then?”
A moment of silence stretched into a minute, then two. Cadence had begun to think her companion had fallen asleep after all before he replied, “Your gifts.”
Cadence frowned. “I don’t talk about my gifts.”
“Too bad. It’s my turn to force an issue.”
“Isn’t it supposed to be a whole thing that nobles like to keep their gifts secret? I thought asking someone for their gifts like this is supposed to be rude.”
“Not for allies,” Oliver replied sharply. “If we’re supposed to go into battle together, I need to know what you can do.”
Cadence chewed her lower lip, not bothering to hide her anxiety in the inky blackness of their makeshift camp. Now she was the one on the back foot…
“You know what I can do,” she tried. “We fought, and I won. I helped you with Aton, too.”
“Yes, but what I saw doesn’t make any sense! I’ve seen you use too many abilities, from too many different gifts. Either you're lying about being Novice level or… or I don’t know what. But I need to.”
Guilt gnawed at Cadence’s guts. He was right, of course. At Novice level, the lowest level for gifted, an individual could only have two gifts. Each of those gifts offered just two abilities, along with a boon, a passive increase to attributes. Combined, they also allowed for a fifth ability, an augment produced by the intersection of two gifts. By any normal standards, Cadence had far too many powers–but at the same time, she had far too few.
Prompted by the direction of her thoughts, Cadence’s stats and gifts appeared before her eyes, in the odd, not quite real way gift descriptions worked, as if they were simultaneously figments of her imagination and physical words floating in front of her, clearly visible in the darkness without shedding any light.
Cadence of Felisen
Level: Novice
Gifts:
[Gift of the Wanderer]: +3 to Stamina and Awareness
[Gift of the Echo]: +1 to all attributes, stacks with all other boons
Attributes:
Strength: 6 (5 + 1)
Resilience: 7 (6 + 1)
Stamina: 10 (7 + 3 + 1)
Coordination: 7 (6 + 1)
Speed: 6 (5 + 1)
Will: 8 (7 + 1)
Knowledge: 7 (6 + 1)
Focus: 5 (4 + 1)
Awareness: 10 (6 + 3 + 1)
Charm: 6 (5 + 1)
[Gift of the Wanderer]
Level: Novice
Experience: 47%
Explore new places and understand the heart of an adventurer to gain experience.
Abilities:
[Know Direction] - Active, Utility - Learn the direction of true north. No cost.
[Wanderer’s Knowledge] - Active, Utility - Learn rudimentary knowledge about any single target. May not work on exceptional or rare targets. Minor focus cost per use.
[Wanderer’s Mantle] - Boon - Moderate boost to stamina and awareness.
[Gift of the Echo]
Level: Novice
Experience: 42%
Use abilities on unique targets to gain experience.
Abilities:
[Gift Reflection] - Active, Soul - Copy one gift ability from a nearby target. Gift abilities operate at Novice level regardless of the target’s level. Abilities from certain gifts cannot be copied. This ability has a one hour cool down, but the copied ability is retained until it is used again.
[Soul Surge] - Active, Buff - Increase one attribute by five points. Lesser duration, moderate stamina and focus cost incurred when buff expires.
[Soul Empowerment] - Boon - Minor boost to all attributes.
Augments:
[Gift Divination] - Wanderer, Echo - Active, Utility, Soul - Learn the gifts possessed by a target. Can only be used on targets your level or lower.
Cadence was not prone to keeping secrets. If anything, she was just the opposite, often having a hard time keeping any thoughts or opinions to herself. But her gifts were one thing she kept quiet about, due to the simple fact that she wasn’t supposed to have either of them.
please note that Wanderborn's posting schedule will be changing soon! Starting next week, on Monday 12/30, Wanderborn will be reducing to twice per week updates. I know this is a big drop from the current increased posting schedule I've been following throughout book one, but this is to give me time to make progress on my next work - stay tuned for details on that front! But again, starting 12/30, Wanderborn will be posted twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays! Thank you for understanding <3
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