Restart Again: Volume 2

by Adam Ladner Scott

  She packed away the last piece of her armor in the canvas bag and sat down next to me, rubbing her shoulder up against mine. “I know you’re trying, and that’s what matters. You just need a little prodding now and then, is all.”

  I massaged my face in my hands. “I appreciate it, honestly. Even if I don’t sound like it.” With a quick nudge back into her shoulder I stood and moved to my sleeping mat. “Now, let’s get to meditating so we can get some sleep.” She joined me in sitting cross-legged on the floor.

  “Nice and easy, tonight,” I said under my breath. “A quick warmup to get the mana flowing, and then we’ll reach out and see what we can see with Detection. Nothing fancy.” We fell into a comfortable silence as we focused inward. My mana flowed up and down my extremities, taking me down into a peaceful trance. “Okay. Starting now…”

  An image of the wagon interior blossomed to life behind my eyelids. Lia sat before me, as radiant as the sun and overflowing with her own energy. The two fronts of probing mana met all around us, and there was a moment where I could feel her presence envelop my own. It was a sensation I hadn’t yet grown accustomed to; equal parts intimate and comforting, it felt as though I could feel her consciousness right at the edge of mine, ebbing and flowing along with the mana.

  In unison, our commingled energy flowed down from the wagon and spread along the ground beneath it. “Good...good…” I murmured, taking in the wealth of information. “Let’s see how far we can reach together, comfortably. No need to…” I trailed off as my focus was pulled away by an unexpected discovery.

  A brilliant light shone out from Valandra’s shield, constantly shifting in color like a crystal spinning under direct sunlight. It was such a unique and fascinating experience that I hardly noticed the energy within Valandra’s body; the subdued violet glow from her core was a shadow in the noontime sun beneath the blaze emanating out of the artifact on her back.

  “It’s beautiful,” Lia whispered, awestruck. We both stopped the expanding wave of energy to focus on the light, our initial task immediately forgotten. “Why does it look like that?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it before,” I admitted. The temptation to probe into the pool of light and experience its mystery was strong, but I knew it would take far more time to understand than I had to give it. As excited as the discovery made me, I also felt trepidation about disturbing the energy. I could feel the immense power of the mana along the shield’s surface and worried about the potentially dangerous effects of releasing it by accident in my study.

  “We should leave it alone, for now,” I cautioned Lia. “I’ll ask her about it tomorrow. Though I don’t expect her to know exactly what it is, I’m sure we’ll get some insight into what’s going on.” While I knew it was the right decision, leaving such an enticing mystery uninvestigated was disappointing.

  Lia seemed to echo my sentiment. “You’re right,” she sighed after a long moment of consideration. “I doubt I’ll be able to get to sleep now.” The dark world of mana shrunk down to a pinpoint as our energy retreated back to us, and I felt strangely blind as I opened my eyes to find our regular wagon surrounding us.

  I laid back and pulled the sheet up around my shoulders. “Just wait. Your body will remember how exhausted it is after your excitement wears off, and you’ll be snoring before you know it.”

  “I don’t snore,” she remarked sharply as she snuggled her back up against my chest.

  “How would you know?”

  She turned her head just enough to glare at me with one eye. “I don’t snore.”

  I laughed and curled my arm around her waist. “You don’t snore.” The ache in my muscles returned in the form of a dull buzz as the relaxing effects of my meditation wore off. “Goodnight, Lia,” I said into the back of her head.

  “Goodnight, Lux.” As expected, her breathing quickly slowed to a steady pace, and I was left alone with my thoughts.

  I promised Amaya I’d try, and I failed. I should have said it. I basically DID say it, which makes it even worse. She’s given me so much, and I can’t even say a simple damned word. My free hand balled into a fist repeatedly as I reprimanded myself. I promised I would do whatever I could to make her happy. It would make me happy too, somewhere in this fucked up head of mine. I could feel sleep’s grip pulling at me, and I closed my eyes one last time. She deserves to be happy.

  But do I?

  ***

  8. GETTING TO KNOW YOU

  “Our understanding of the situation is unfortunately incomplete. We have a brief, but verified, report from our scouting party which was delivered a few days before we departed the capitol. The majority of our information is based on firsthand accounts from Attetsian refugees,” Valandra explained. She sat sideways on the driver’s bench of our wagon as the horse pulled us along the wide dirt road without direction. “These reports vary greatly in scope; some describe demonic figures wandering the streets at night, while others blame the situation on a peasant revolt. Across all of the stories, one thing remains consistent: the lands surrounding the Attetsian capitol have become unsafe to live in.”

  I leaned forward from my seat on the interior bench and rested my head on my tented fingers, processing the information. “What did the scouts report?”

  She shook her head. “Every gate to Attetsia is closed, and there are no posted guards to open them. Due to their orders, our scouts were unable to proceed further in their investigation.”

  Lia turned to her with a confused look. “The scouts were ordered to...not scout?”

  “Kaldan’s relationship with Attetsia has been troubled for generations. After a bloody secession from our kingdom, an unsteady truce was formed between our king and the Attetsian Council. This truce has been violated and renegotiated dozens of times, most recently by King Virram,” Valandra told her. “A main tenet of that truce states that no member of Kaldan’s army or ruling party may enter Attetsia’s walls without direct permission, aside from one appointed ambassador. Since the gates stand unmanned, our scouts could not enter without breaking the treaty.”

  “What’s our plan, then?” I asked. “If we’ll be breaking the treaty when we enter, why order your scouts back? If we’re violating the rules regardless, I’d rather have the intel on what we’ll be walking into.”

  “You and Lia are not official members of the Kaldan military,” she pointed out, “and as I am the appointed ambassador to Attetsia, there will be no violation of the treaty.”

  I did a double take. “Wait. You’re the ambassador to Attetsia AND the leader of the Trinity Guard?”

  “Yes,” she stated matter-of-factly. “I was present during the most recent conflict resolution, and the Attetsian Council requested me specifically for the role. They seemed to value my combat skills more than my diplomacy in their decision, but King Virram agreed with them, so I accepted.”

  For a moment I struggled to keep a straight face, but I quickly gave in and laughed out loud. “I’ve never met anybody quite as straightforward as you, Val. It’s refreshing, if not a bit odd.”

  She blinked at me silently and furrowed her brow as if I had just posed her a riddle. “What did you call me?”

  “Val? Short for Valandra?” I looked to Lia for reassurance, and was comforted to find that she looked as confused as I felt. “The most obvious abbreviation of your name?”

  “Nobody has ever called me Val before.”

  I sat in stunned silence as I processed her statement. That can’t be possible. Does she not have friends? Or anybody who can be halfway informal with her? The implication brought up a twinge of pity in my gut. “Huh,” I eventually said to break the silence. “Well, now someone has.”

  “Val. Vaallll. I think it sounds nice!” Lia chimed in, testing out the nickname a few times. “That is, if you don’t mind.”

  She paused for a moment in consideration, then gave a small nod. “That is...acceptable.” It was difficult to differentiate against the dark caramel color of h
er skin, but it looked as though a slight flush had come to Valandra’s cheeks.

  “Was there any other information you wanted to discuss with us?” I asked in an attempt to move the conversation along.

  “Oh. No, that was all. We will have to discuss strategy when we arrive in Attetsia ourselves.” She looked back and forth between Lia and myself multiple times. “Thank you,” she added awkwardly, before turning to face forward on her bench.

  “I actually had a question for you, if you don’t mind,” I called out to her. She stopped mid spin and turned back to us, nodding for me to proceed. “I’m curious about your shield. It’s a beautiful piece, to be sure, but I don’t see how stained glass could hold up to any sort of impact, especially one from a weapon.”

  She removed the shield from her back and displayed it carefully with both arms outstretched. “This shield has belonged to the royal family since the founding of Kaldan. Countless generations have used it before me, and many more will use it after I am gone.” I could hear real passion in her voice as she spoke, which I noted as another first for her. “In that time, it has never broken, chipped, or scratched.”

  I had expected as much based on the overflowing amounts of energy stored within it, but I was just as intrigued with how much she knew about it as I was with the artifact itself. “I don’t understand how that’s possible. Could I examine it, maybe? Just for a moment.” There was a long pause as she regarded me with cautious eyes, but in the end she gave a slight nod and offered it out to me.

  Instinctually I braced my arms as she slid it to me, but the shield hardly seemed to weigh anything at all. Compared to the massive tower shields I had worked on in Ashedown’s forge, Val’s shield might as well have been a leather buckler. I set it down across my lap and ran a hand along the glossy surface. It felt nothing like its appearance; my fingertips identified the material as burnished steel even as the deep cerulean blue of stained glass shone up at me.

  “I cannot say for certain how it works,” Val said as she watched my every move with hawk-like focus. “If legends are to be believed, this shield was one of three artifacts given to the Yorrell family by a great wizard at the founding of our nation. The first King Yorrell gifted one to each of his three most talented knights, and the first Trinity Guard was formed. They have defended the royal family ever since.”

  “And you never have to maintain it?” I asked, dubious. “Not even a little polish here and there?”

  “I have never personally witnessed any damage to the shield, but it is inspected whenever I return from an assignment regardless,” she answered. “Councilor Gullen and the other High Clerics pray over it for a night, after which it is transferred to the king’s armorer for an inspection of the gear systems.”

  Bingo. The new information made perfect sense when I thought back to the shield’s mana signature: multiple people were putting their energy into it, which accounted for the shifting color and the impressive power level. While the concept of storing mana in a vessel for later use was new to me, it had a certain elegance that felt obvious in retrospect. Could I implement something like that with my sword? Is there a maximum capacity for mana in a certain object? Maybe it’s dependent on the elemental makeup, where specific structures have a higher capability to—

  The silence around me finally registered in my head, and I realized I had been sitting quietly with my thoughts for far too long. “Wait, what?” I asked as I internalized the second half of her sentence. “The what systems?”

  Val leaned forward and flipped the shield over in my lap. The back was a slightly concave sheet of silvered metal inlaid with hollow steel tracks. They ran across the shield in two directions, lengthwise and widthwise, and crossed at the center where an intricate arm strap system currently sat. Small levers and buttons jutted out from the handhold, presumably the control center for whatever function the gear tracks served.

  Lia leaned over from her spot opposite me to inspect the shield, poking and prodding at various bits of machinery with her face only inches from its surface. “Wooow,” she whispered in amazement. “What does it all...do, exactly?”

  “To put it simply, this system allows me to rotate and extend my grip on the shield. It has numerous applications in combat scenarios, and makes wearing it much more comfortable as well,” Val explained, her eyes gleaming with enthusiasm.

  I took a few more moments to marvel at the engineering work, then carefully handed the artifact back to her. “I’d like to see that in action sometime,” I said with a grin. “You know, there’s no better way to get to know someone than a good spar. I can’t trust that you’ll have my back in a fight unless I know what you can do with that thing. Plus, it’ll finally give us a chance to see the famous ‘King’s Shield’ in action.” I turned to Lia and waggled my eyebrows. “You’d like to see that, wouldn’t you Lia?”

  “Oh, definitely!” she replied excitedly. “And I want a turn, too! I’ve only ever trained with Lux, so I think it would be really helpful to practice with someone else for a change.”

  I turned back to Val to gauge her reaction to the idea, and was shocked to find a small smile on her face. “Perhaps that is something that could be arranged. I must admit, I have been quite curious as to your combat abilities as well, Lux. The reports on the topic were…” she paused, searching for a word as an amused grin curled her lips further, “inconsistent, to say the least.”

  “I suppose it’s settled then,” I said with a clap of my hands. “We’ll stop the wagon early tonight and get to know each other a little better.”

  With all of us in agreement, we fell back into our usual travelling tasks. Val turned her attention back to driving the wagon, and I took Lia to the opposite end to begin our training for the day. The session began with Lia as the instructor for a change; after I failed to locate the correct rations for breakfast from a clearly marked crate earlier that morning, she had insisted on teaching me the written language of Kaldan. Using the few books she had packed in her belongings, she introduced me to the Kaldanic alphabet. I was relieved to find it was a phonetic system, and set about memorizing the symbols as best I could.

  After a brief lunch, we spent the rest of our afternoon in magic training. We started with our usual meditations to practice mana control and to push the boundaries of our Detection magic. I always found the task to be an exciting challenge; whether it was reaching farther than I had before or maintaining the ability for a longer period of time, there was always a limit to push beyond. I wasn’t sure if Lia shared in the passion with me, but she never complained about the activity, even when I pushed her harder than I probably should have.

  The other aspects of our training were harder to perform in the back of the wagon. Though I grew to trust Val the longer we traveled together, I held firm in my belief that she couldn’t be allowed to learn how our magic worked. The thought of teaching a lesson in hushed tones that Val would most likely still be able to hear seemed silly and inefficient to me, so I resorted to a simpler method.

  Using the rings I had commissioned as a textbook, I taught Lia the Alderean runes one symbol at a time. I would point to a particular inscription on my ring and give her the one word meaning, then draw out the symbol with my finger on her upturned palm. In turn, she would find the same symbol on her ring, repeat the name, and attempt to recreate the design in my palm. It was a tedious and repetitive activity, but I hoped it would prove effective despite our limiting circumstances.

  When Val pulled the wagon off the road at the end of our day of travel, Lia and I leapt from the back before it came to a full stop, both of us desperate to get away from our formal lessons. I flopped down into the soft grass with a relieved sigh and stared up at the sky, a cloudless blue tinted with sunset orange. There was an electric tingle of anticipation that ran along my arms and legs as I thought ahead to my match with Val. I had been curious if her skills matched her reputation since I first met her, and I finally had the chance to find out.

  “So, are
you ready to get started?” I called out when I heard her approach after tending to the horse.

  “I thought it would be prudent to set up our camp now, while we still have the sun.”

  “No, no, that can wait,” I said as I hopped to my feet. “This won’t take too long. Just a simple sparring match.” The adrenaline was already in my system, and I rocked back and forth on the balls of my feet. “Best two out of three?”

  Val considered for a moment, then set down the small crate she carried. “That is acceptable.” She scanned the surrounding area and pointed out a clearing free of thick ground cover ahead of us. “I believe that should serve our purposes well enough.” I followed her to our new arena and took my place across from her. Lia stood at the edge of the clearing and watched us both with rapt attention as we looked over our gear.

  “We don’t have to worry about using training blades for this; I’ll make sure my sword is blunted. I can take care of yours as well, if you’d like,” I offered as I drew my weapon and activated the enhancement through my ring.

  She shook her head. “That will not be an issue. My shield is not sharp enough to cut you.”

  I raised an eyebrow at her. “I had assumed that. My intention was more for your weapon, not your shield.”

  “My shield is my weapon,” she stated simply. As she drew the shield from the harness on her back, I noticed for the first time that she didn’t have any traditional weapons at her hip, and her offhand remained empty as she took a comfortable stance.

  “You don’t use...no, alright! That’s good!” I called out, excited. The concept of fighting with only a shield confused me, which only invigorated me further to find out how the King’s Shield had earned her reputation. “Let’s begin, then!”

  “As the challenger, I will allow you the first strike,” she responded confidently. Her grin had returned, remarkably impish now, and her olive eyes were alive with passion. I could tell that the person standing before me now was not the same person I had met in the throne room in Yoria.