“Thank you for going through that,” said Verity. “It was informative. I don’t believe my tutors ever covered it, though I do recognize a few of those from plays or stories.”
“Like I said,” Hannah said with a shrug, “hexes aren’t really used against people anymore, and shame that they ever were.” She looked at Verity. “Kept your lunch?”
“Why wouldn’t I have?” asked Verity. “The dead things we saw in the dungeon were far worse than any description you could have given.”
“Good,” Hannah said, nodding.
“We have the gods in Tarbin,” said Isra. “I have the six holy books in my home. I’ve read them.”
Hannah nodded. “I meant no offense,” she said again. “I only thought there were things you didn’t know, and it might be a way to say for you so you didn’t have to sit and wonder or feel like a dunce by askin’ about it.”
“Not that you’d be a dunce just because you didn’t know something,” said Verity, rushing to follow Hannah.
“It was a kind gesture,” said Isra, making an effort to relax. Sometimes with the animals, they realized that they had made a mistake and took some time to calm down. She endeavored to be better than them. “Thank you for the thought.”
“No problem,” said Hannah. “Now, since you’re here and all, can we finally see what you can do?”
Chapter 19 — I Suppose You’re Wondering Why I Gathered You Here
Alfric and Mizuki walked together. He was following behind her as she went down a trail behind her house, one that had clearly been put into place quite some time ago. It wasn’t in need of much care though, and Mizuki happily walked along.
“I’m not squeamish,” she said, looking back at him.
“No?” asked Alfric. “No one said you were?”
“I don’t know why Hannah likes to talk about gross things, that’s all,” said Mizuki.
“She’s a cleric,” said Alfric. “She’s trained as a healer, among other things. She’s learned how to deal with injuries and disease.”
“Well, fine, but she doesn’t have to talk about it,” said Mizuki. “Especially not at the dinner table. She doesn’t have to delight in,” she waved her hand, “hexes and things.”
“I’ll talk to her,” said Alfric.
“I can talk to her myself,” said Mizuki, swatting away a branch that was in her way. “I’m just complaining to you because you get it, right?”
“I do,” said Alfric. He had already wished a few times that Hannah was more circumspect in what she said.
“I feel bad, because I know she had some hurtful business with her guild or something, but I kind of get why that would be,” said Mizuki.
“Yeah,” said Alfric. This was the first he’d heard about something going wrong with Hannah’s guild, but it seemed like the kind of thing he’d want to ask Hannah about later, rather than getting Mizuki’s version of it. “But we’ve just gotten over the bump with Verity, so I’m hoping that we can keep things nice and level going into the next dungeon. Intra-party strife can kill a party quickly.” It was also quite difficult to predict, in his experience.
“So I should just shut up?” asked Mizuki, swatting aside another branch.
“You should understand that we’re all in this together,” said Alfric. “We don’t have to like each other, but it does help things. Try to find common ground. Try to build bridges. Talk to each other.” These were his father’s words coming out of his mouth. He hoped that his father was right.
“Well, okay,” said Mizuki. She stopped, and Alfric stopped behind her. “We’re here.”
Alfric looked ahead and saw that they were in a circular clearing, which had clearly been made that way by human hands. Saplings lined the edges, attempting to reclaim the space, and the grass was tall. A giant rock occupied the center, twice as tall as Alfric, as thick around as a wagon, and covered with lichen, but there were carved runes visible on it.
“What is this?” asked Alfric.
“Magic stone,” said Mizuki. She walked forward, brushing past the tall grass as she moved along the thin trail until she was standing next to it.
“What does it do?” asked Alfric.
“Oh, I have no idea,” said Mizuki. “It’s ancient stuff, at least two thousand years old, maybe even more. Same with the portal, right? A bunch of runes telling you stuff, and no one knows how to read them.”
“There are people in Dondrian who know,” said Alfric.
“Well, sure, I didn’t mean that it was lost,” said Mizuki. “But you go off the color or whether they light up, right?”
“We do,” said Alfric. He frowned as he looked over the stone. When the Editors had made the change that had given every hex a dungeon, it had been an enormous benefit for the world, even if it hadn’t happened exactly how they wanted it. The stone collars around most dungeons post-dated that change, obviously, since the dungeons were ancient, before recorded history, even among the feil and dwodo. Things like that were still quite old though, and Alfric treated them with a certain respect because of that. This seemed to be of the same class of thing, and Alfric felt a reverence toward it.
It was a respect that Mizuki clearly didn’t share, because she had begun to climb it.
“What are you doing?” asked Alfric.
“There’s a thing at the top,” said Mizuki, who was using the runes carved into the rock as handholds and footholds. From the way the lichen and moss on the stone had been disturbed, it didn’t seem like it was her first time. “I don’t know if they have these in the city or not.”
“We don’t,” said Alfric as he watched her hoist herself up onto the top of the stone. “What does it do? Should you be messing with it?”
Mizuki was catching her breath from the climb and now standing high above Alfric, looking down at him. “I’ve done this dozens of times before,” she said. “It makes me happy.” She knelt down and pressed something on the top of the stone. It immediately lit up, with the runes all glowing blue for a moment, then pulsing slightly at a slow pace.
“What does that mean?” asked Alfric.
“No idea,” said Mizuki cheerfully. “But from the color and the pulse, I think it’s an all-clear of some kind. Blue means there’s nothing to be worried about or maybe the job is done.”
“Who put this here?” asked Alfric. He guessed that it had been moved in the last hundred years. “Why?”
“Dunno!” Mizuki called down to him. “Watch this!”
She crouched down until her butt was nearly touching the rock, then launched herself into the air. It wasn’t a jump, or not just a jump, because she continued on up for what had to have been a hundred feet. That high up, a fall would have killed her, but she fell slowly, spreading her arms and then gliding in a gentle circle around the stone. Alfric watched her carefully, worried that she would suddenly plummet to her death, until she was low enough that a fall would only injure her, nothing a cleric couldn’t fix. She kept on gliding in circles for as long as she could, then stopped in place and dropped the last two feet to the ground.
“Impressed?” she asked, grinning at Alfric.
“I am.” It was spectacular. Alfric had always liked seeing displays of magic. “You used the magic of this thing, whatever it was doing?”
Mizuki nodded, still grinning. “Countermagic, but yeah. It’s just about the only thing that gives me enough power to fly, and then only once a day. I think my record is half a mile, and I could have gone further if I hadn’t gotten stuck up in a tree.”
“It’s impressive,” said Alfric. “I just wish I understood what you’d actually done.” He looked at the stone behind her, which was once again inert.