The Great Hearth

The group took the time to regroup, restock, and repair what they could. There was a debate on whether they should repair the cart or replace it with a sled. Even if the roads were paved, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t be snowed over, or that they would stay on the roads, for that matter.

Considering snow, Ariana discovered a problem: Although she felt casting was easier than ever, the harsh cold prevented the plants she knew from growing. No matter how much magic she used, she couldn’t get a pumpkin seed to sprout.

She was able to extend the growth season of her strawberries back in Loomholm, but it seemed that this harsh cold of Indrock was too much for even her.

Furthermore, it was incredibly dry here despite the sea being right there. She had trouble pulling water from things, and her magic couldn’t generate as much water. She tried using the snow, but she couldn’t control it as well, and it had far less impact.

Despite feeling like magic itself was easier to use, her specialization had been dampened significantly by the environment. She would have to figure out some alternative, a way to make her magic stronger or to get around the winter problem.

Thinking back to the ferry, the passengers told her that they eat fish, mushrooms, and pine. She hadn’t considered trying to grow mushrooms for a while, but a tree didn’t seem that far out of her abilities.

During the downtime, she watched how the people of Great Hearth went about their lives, hoping to gain some insight into how they survived the region.

One thing she noticed was how everyone used fire magic. She saw a shop owner blasting some snow off the roof of her stall. She saw someone purchase a raw fish from another stall and roast it on the spot.

She saw one little boy with his hands clasped together as if he had caught something. He went up to another little boy to show his hands and unleashed a series of sparks like a firecracker. The other boy was startled and fell over. The first boy laughed at the prank. The second angrily stood up and chased the first.

She also saw that most people had small lanterns with them, just like on the ferry. Around sunset, people would light their lanterns. When she talked with others, they questioned her about where her lantern was. She told them she didn’t have one, and this seemed to baffle people.

At one point, she asked an old man about the lanterns. He looked puzzled as to why she wouldn’t know that already. He told her that they symbolize the protection and guidance of the First Saint, a warmth and light to ward away the cold and the dark. The fact that she didn't have one was deeply concerning to the old man.

As fascinating and wonderful as all of this was, it didn’t help her with her problem. She might have been the only person in the country who didn’t know how to cast fire magic. 

During her investigation, she found herself shopping with Ellie. There was a question that burned in Ariana. 

She glanced at Ellie. “Ellie… When we first met, we…” Ariana was having difficulties forming her words. “Why did you… Choose to come with us?”

Ellie looked up from a mushroom she was inspecting. “Well… speaking from a logical perspective, you and that kid were both stronger than me. It improved my chances of survival. It made sense at the time.”

“Well… when things went wrong in the church… why didn’t you go with Koichi? You would probably be so much safer than with me…”

Ellie set the mushroom down. “I’m not so sure about that. Objectively, Koichi did nothing in that encounter. Despite his claim to be the hero, and his level being higher than all three of ours combined, we ended that conflict with no casualties while he did nothing.”

“But since you’ve traveled with me… You almost died at least twice. That priest attacked us because of me. Those elves attacked you because of me. That hydra attacked us because of me.”

Ellie was quiet for a minute. “Strictly speaking, there is no evidence that the Hydra was your fault. As for the elves and the church… You didn’t choose to be attacked. You wanted to ask questions and stopped a man from leaping off the edge of a platform. Those are objective facts.”

Ariana was quiet. 

“As for traveling with that kid… with a level that high for as short a time as he had been here, he must have gone looking for things to fight and kill. Yes, he was stronger, but the facts point to traveling with him being the more dangerous choice in the long term.”

“So… you chose me because you thought it was safer…”

“Also, the kid’s attitude rubbed me the wrong way. He was stubborn and very rude to us. That and… I felt like the task you set out was… better.”

Ariana looked to her. 

“Assassinating a world leader doesn’t sound as… good… as reuniting a mother and child.”

Ariana looked away. “I’m not even sure if this Demon Lord is who I thought they were anymore… we could be going all this way for nothing…”

“True… we could even die this time, all of us. But… everything that I’ve seen and heard on this journey… to me, taking the chance that you were right and stopping all of this with minimal casualties is better than the alternative.”

Ariana was still unsure about everything. Ellie hesitantly placed a hand on her back. “All of the logistics aside… I don’t regret coming along with you. I had nowhere else to go, no one else to go with, and you… accepted me. You, Hayden, and Sophie, too. I’m glad I met all of you. That wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t gone with you.” 

Ariana smiled at Ellie and pulled her into a hug. 

They shopped a while longer. 

Further investigation was needed for ways of dealing with her magic problem. Ariana focused this time on things done with trees and mushrooms. 

She saw a sled full of odd pine trees being brought into the city. The bark on them looked to be black, and their needles had a purple tinge. They had massive cones on them that had the same black color as their bark. Some cones were smaller and looked softer. She decided that watching them work would be a good idea, plus she was still curious about how you eat a tree.

She watched as they stripped the tree of needles, bark, cones, and some mushrooms that had grown on it like shelves. As they carved into the tree to peel back the bark, it looked as if the tree was bleeding from the color of its sap. They tossed all of the mushrooms into a nearby box.

They had a massive machine with huge teeth at one end. They fed coal into it, set it burning and churning. The machine roared to life, and they fed the stripped log into it slowly. Beneath a chute, a bag was propped into place, and a barrel was locked into place under a spigot. Into the barrel started pouring a molten red sap, and into the bag was dumped a flow of sawdust. It took about five bags to catch all the dust.

She saw some workers dumping the mess of needles, cones, and bark into a long trough. The trough was shaken back and forth, and the needles fell through the bottom to a second trough underneath. More workers sorted out cones, larger cones to a cart on one side, smaller to a cart on the other. 

One of the workers shook their hand after a needle pricked them. 

All the remaining bark was swept to one side of the trough and into another cart. 

She followed the carts and bags to the next step, though there were some glances at her. Fortunately, they seemed less like suspicious glances and more curious ones. She waved politely. Some of the workers seemed flustered, others chuckled and nudged elbows.

In this area, there were workers scooping soaking wet needles, cones, bark, and mushrooms out of large vats with long nets. They were dumped onto individual trays and spread out, then workers in leather sifted through them with flaming hands. The trays steamed from the heat. 

As the fire-handed workers sifted, the vats were refilled with the items she followed here, then workers stirred the vats with long sticks. As they stirred, other workers topped the vats off with snow. 

She saw the mushrooms, needles, and small cones getting bagged up, but the bark was thrown into a steaming vat, and workers with knives were cutting into the larger cones. They removed some small nuts from them, then the cones were tossed into the vat with the bark. 

Confused, she cautiously approached one of the workers. “Excuse me, I had some questions.”

The worker turned to her and grinned. “Well, hello there. Ask away, miss.”

“Oh, right, um… I was wondering… why do you boil the cones and bark?”

His head tilted. “Huh?” He turned to look at the vat. “Oh, right…” he looked back at Ariana. “Well, if you boil the hell out of them, they get soft enough to chew, like smoked meat. As is, the bark’s hard as steel, takes some damn good axes to cut through. Plus, these mesmer pines store all their sugar there.”

Arian was confused. “In the… bark?”

He nodded. “And the cones. The little ones are packed with it.” He gestured to the vat. “There’s enough in the bark and big cones to make syrup and get sugar from that.”

“Syrup and sugar… huh…”

The guy grinned again and leaned on a nearby barrel. “So, what’s a sweet thing like you doing looking for sugar?”

She blushed a bit. “O-oh! No, no, I’m just… trying to learn about the trees.”

The guy chuckled. “Stick around, I can show you all sorts of things.”

Ariana’s head spun; she hadn’t been flirted with in years. “I… thank you for the offer, I think I’ve got what I need already.”

The guy shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He went back to work.

Ariana walked away quickly, her face flushed.

She found her way back to the others, trying to process what she learned about those pine trees… and push the thoughts of flirting from her mind.