Rezlar

The young elven lord slowly goes through his forms, adjusting them to fit better with Rose’s influence. When he first tamed her, he was focused on her spatial affinity, looking to take advantage of longer reach or maybe being able to have her guide his attacks in unexpected angles.

He’s seen Teemo work the affinity enough to have at least a small idea of what can be done when playing with distances. But what he hadn’t expected was for her gravity affinity to synergize so well with his water. It’s no secret that the tides dance with the moon, but only with Rose’s help does he suspect that the moon has some kind of gravitational effect on the oceans.

It’s strange to think of it as some huge thing up in the sky. Sure, it’s far away, so it must be pretty big, but if his talks with Larx about Lord Thedeim’s affinity are correct, the moon is practically its own planet. It makes him wonder if there’s other nations or towns there, though there’s no sign of them to be seen.

Rose gently plucks at his sleeve with a thorn, drawing his focus back to his forms. She’s right, he should be focusing, not getting distracted. He’s going to be posing as bait before too long, so he needs to make sure he’s ready. And Rose needs to be ready, too.

He’s glad Rose is a bit more… sedate than Lucas and Fiona. His friends’ spiders are wonderful companions and great help on delves, but he can’t imagine trying to keep up with the two spiders day in and day out. He’s no expert in spiders, but he thinks it’s because the two aren’t the typical web-weaving varieties. Rhonda’s jumping spider tends to use his webbing to help him swing and maneuver, where Freddie’s ogre-faced spider likes to bring a small web along with her, like a shield. They’re both the sort to go out and get their prey, so they tend to get into all sorts of mischief.

Thankfully for him, Rose is much more relaxed, happy to enjoy her pot of damp soil and a bit of sunlight. And she’s just as happy to adorn his lapel and weave her affinities alongside him. With her help, he’s already noticing an increased fluidity to his movements, better impact, better flow. And though she has been able to help with his reach, Miller is insistent on her learning to make something similar to a shortcut.

Rezlar has explained the defensive need to her, and though she clearly understands what he needs, she’s less able to do it. The mere memory of her looking sad about disappointing him has him stop his practice for a moment to gently rub her petals. He knows she’ll figure it out eventually. The clear difficulty she has only makes Teemo’s effortless creation of shortcuts all the more impressive in his eyes.

“You’re both making excellent progress,” comments Miller, the ashen elf holding out a nice cool glass of water for the two to recover with. It’s a delicate trick of control to be able to pour a bit into his pocket without it soaking through, and instead keeping it around Rose so she can slowly absorb it at her own pace.

“I’m still surprised how well gravity works with water. Rose is very good with it, too.” He smiles as she wilts slightly in embarrassment at the praise.

“Have you two had any ideas on how to create a shortcut?” asks Miller. Rezlar would say he’s trying and failing to be subtle, but he refuses to believe the elf could ever fail at subtlety, at least on accident.

“Not yet,” admits Rezlar. “Changing my reach is one thing, but making a shortcut is another. Teemo makes it look so much simpler than it is.”

Miller nods at that. “Most masters of their craft are like that, and it can be easy to lose confidence when compared to them. But even Teemo had to start somewhere, and I’m confident Rose will figure out something in time.”

“How much time do you think we have?”

Miller hums for a few moments, considering, before he answers. “At least a week before anything gets out, and then I’d expect at least another week for them to adjust their plans. An organization doesn’t pivot on a single foot, especially not while maintaining secrecy.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Rezlar nods at that, reflecting that it’s one of Lord Thedeim’s greatest strengths: the ability to quickly pivot when needed. A dungeon has an advantage with that, of course. It commands all its denizens, controls all its territory. Seeing Lord Thedeim in action makes Rezlar very glad that dungeons don’t often get as smart as He is.

“Two weeks isn’t very long. Hopefully they’ll take longer than that,” he finally says, turning his thoughts to how to help Rose work out how to make a shortcut. It doesn’t need to go anywhere, it just needs to be able to get him out of danger. He’d feel worse about aiming only for himself, but if he’s going to be bait, he won’t have Rhonda, Freddie, or Pul around.

They may not be the strongest party, but he thinks they’re strong enough together that any attack on him wouldn’t have the luxury of subtlety. So if he’s going to draw anything out, it needs to be just him, and Rose.

He smiles and rubs her petals again. “No pressure,” he reassures her with a bit of a joke, and snickers as she bristles in opposition of the notion. Much as he’d like to keep teasing her, they really do need to figure something out. Without any other ideas, he returns to his forms, this time paying careful attention to how the mana moves.

He knows how his own moves, he’s practiced it countless times before, and put it to use in delves. The ebb and flow of the tides, the relentless persistence of the waves, the subtle shift of currents. Water will find even the smallest crack and widen it to get through.

It’s interesting to him to see gravity flowing along with his water, like realizing a dancer had an unnoticed partner all along. What seemed elegant simplicity with only water is now beautifully complex, the two affinities playing off each other and weaving a marvelous choreography together.

But how to blend in space, too? Larx said gravity and space are at least as linked as the moon and the tides, but he can’t feel anything, can’t imagine how a shortcut could even form.

Well, there’s one way to try to get an inkling. He changes his stance, shifting from defensive to offensive, weaving in thrusts and slashes with parries and footwork, with Rose following along perfectly. A thrust lands much further than it should, a slash comes from well inside his reach, sure to catch an attacker off guard. At first, such things seemed impossible to Rezlar, but now he’s experienced them more, now he’s paying attention, he can see the flow, if only a little.

The movement, the flow isn’t simply forced around and the space between ignored. He can feel the water flow in an impossible direction, drawn down some unseen sluice before reemerging into the proper flow of reality. Is that a shortcut? Someplace… else, not just making a normal place more?

He redoubles his efforts with Rose, knowing she can feel the subtle shift in the current. His motions always strive to be smooth and flow easily, but he understands water is rarely ever so simple. It can flow quietly, or it can rage and froth! It can move with the rhythm of the tides, or it can still and stagnate. It can rush with purpose, and it can swirl in little eddies.

He focuses on the last, willing his affinity to carve a slow and deep pool in the elsewhere, still moving, but not needing to come back anytime soon. A river has room for rapids and calms both, and each carries the water just the same. The water doesn’t need to rush back, it will meet the ocean eventually.

He smiles as he feels Rose reacting to the change, feels her testing and feeling the elsewhere. He wonders if she always could feel it, but never noticed it, like a fish in water. He knows she can figure out how to make a proper shortcut with it, but in this moment, he has an idea to use it for a new technique.

Rose follows his lead as he performs a series of attacks that never seem to quite finish, the raging water flowing nowhere. At least, nowhere here. Elsewhere, the water keeps flowing, keeps the momentum, waiting for the right moment.

“Whirlpool Rampage!” The water in a whirlpool doesn’t simply vanish, and neither did his. All the built up force of water erupts all around the courtyard he and Rose are practicing in, thrusts leaving holes and slashes leaving deep divots in the stone and earth. Rezlar pants as he works to keep his footing, the new technique taking more out of him that he thought. He glances down to see Rose looking rather wilted, too, also drained by the attack. Yet, despite their exhaustion, both are elated. It will still take work to stabilize it, but they have a path to a shortcut, or something similar now.

Teemo’s shortcuts are like a path you never noticed, something just there, out of your sight, hidden like a scout would. Rose isn’t a scout, and neither is Rezlar. But he knows of the hidden pathways of water, of how a still surface can still hide a swift current, and how a swift current can carve a path people never consider.

He and Rose are still a long way from carving their own small spot in the elsewhere, but they’re both confident they’ve finally figured out how to do it.