Explanations

“The world was not made from nothing,” Solenia said.

The three of them were sitting around a table in a hastily rented room in an inn well away from Gerred’s neighborhood. Solenia had seen fit to flee the scene quickly, once Ash and Tienne were back on their feet, and had allowed no time for discussion. Even so, she had promised Ash a full explanation. In the moment, that had been enough for Ash, but by the time they reached the inn she was sure the questions and fear would tear her apart.

“Every religion has basically the same idea, that their chosen god used some sort of fundamental power to create the world. Obviously, us mortals can’t just use it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t interact with it.”

Solenia placed her sword on the table, so that Ash could see the markings etched into it. Up close, there was a strange, instinctive logic to the way they were arranged.

“That’s where the Words of Creation come in. It isn’t a language, not really, but the Words can...describe that power and make it real. Doing so is difficult, dangerous, and requires years of training to do. You’re essentially telling the universe ‘this thing is something that it clearly isn’t. Please make it so.’”

“That’s us, and any other Word-crafter. We Scribe items, buildings, the ground, whatever, to make them do one specific thing. Broadly speaking, it’s what you and everyone else thinks of as ‘magic.’”

Ash frowned. None of this was exactly uncommon knowledge. The specifics of were new, but everyone knew the basics to some extent: person carves certain marks into thing, thing does the impossible. Solenia must have sense her impatience, because she wasted no more time in getting to the point.

“The point of the Words is to contain that primal energy in a useful way, but they’re not perfect. No matter how precisely you can Write, some of that energy is going to leak. Leave that excess alone, and it will go away on its own. But, you don’t have to leave it alone, and that is where you come in, my dear.”

“For a very few people, it’s possible to take control of the leftovers—most call them cinders—and reuse their innate magical potential. As you saw, the results are rather more…direct than Word-craft.”

“Okay, fine, but how did I do it,” asked Ash. “I’ve never so much as seen magic before, but I just...knew how to do it.”

“That makes sense,” Solenia said. “Not much is known about Cinder-craft, since a lot of academic types think of it as unseemly. But in general, it’s believed that Cinder-crafters do their thing entirely instinctively. So congratulations! You’re one of the few people who can use an extremely dangerous form of magic! No, I can’t teach you.”

Solenia let that hang in the air for as long as Ash needed, which turned out to be quite a while. Ash supposed she should be excited. After all, rare was the youth who didn’t dream of awakening to some miraculous power, and then probably going on to save the world or something. Ash certainly had. But in the moment, with everything else that was going on, she couldn’t quite shake the feeling that this was yet one more burden to deal with. What was a common thief supposed to do with the ability to destroy whole houses, anyway?

“So what, if I see those orange specky-things again, I can wave my have through and just…blow something up?”

Solenia just shrugged.

“Maybe. Neither I nor Tienne can see them, by the way. If you can’t use them, you can’t see them. No one knows why. I’m afraid this is entirely your problem to deal with.”

Ash decided she needed a few more good, long moments to think about that. Eventually, it was clear that no more questions were forthcoming, from either direction, and Ash decided there was nothing more to be done about it right then.

“So what’s that, then?”

Ash pointed at the keystone, which lay on the table in front of Solenia. For all that it had been dropped and bounced about, the little stone was completely unchanged. Still, Ash avoided looking at it for too long, for fear that she might find out what was so entrancing about the keystone.

Solenia sighed. Her eyes dropped, looking at nothing, as she idly tapped her fingers on the table for the next handful of seconds. Ash almost laughed at the idea that, after everything, the Valkyrie was still hesitant to explain herself.

“The name is more literal than you might expect,” the elf finally said. “The stone is, in fact, a key. Like I said earlier, they keystone itself isn’t really the problem. The problem is what it unlocks. Have you ever traveled outside of Mearn?”

Ash shook her head. There weren’t many opportunities for a penniless thief to go on vacation.

“Well, a little to the north, there’s a decent collection of hills. Mostly useless rock, so basically no one goes there. But recently, our order has gotten multiple reports of strange sightings. Freaky lights, ghosts, that sort of thing. We investigated, and we now believe that those hills were built on top of something very old, very powerful, and that it’s leaking.”

“Well. That doesn’t sound good,” Ash said. “And I suppose the keystone opens…wherever this power is?”

Solenia just spread her arms, as if to suggest that this was obvious.

“So just take the keystone away, and everything is fine?”

“Oh, no. We’re going to those hills and opening it up. We need to make sure that whatever’s in there isn’t going to hurt anyone.”

This made sense, Ash supposed. If there was danger to be found and fought, Valkyries would do so.

“Sure you’ll be able to handle it on your own? I mean, if it’s so dangerous, why not get the rest of your order or whatever to help. Y’know, more Valkyries.”

“Not an option, I’m afraid. I suspected as much, but you didn’t understand what those men said about our order, did you?”

“Something about two others not knowing. So? Tell them.”

Tienne scoffed at Ash’s ignorance, but Solenia ignored her, and adopted a somewhat more patient tone.

“Despite what we may have been told, we Valkyries aren’t exactly a single organization any more. That ended with the Old Queendom. Now, each of the Orders does their best to continue on with the missions they were given all that time ago, alone. The two orders the men mentioned—the Peony and Aster Orders—handle general military actions and recovery of lost knowledge respectively.”

“They said you were ‘Lilies,’ right? What’s your job, then.”

Solenia leaned forward. Some sort of grim pride drew a smile across her face.

“Our job, as members of the Red Lily Order, is to find out about the worst, scariest threats out there, and take care about them before anyone else knows they’re a problem.”

“…Including the other Orders,” Ash concluded. She was beginning to see where this was going, and it did not exactly calm her down.

“Just so. Even acting independently of any one nation, the other Orders have to worry about all sorts of procedure and politics, and not stepping on anyone’s toes. But us? Well, we’re just wandering heroes. If we just happen to be in the right place at the right time, then isn’t that convenient.”

“The whole point, dear Ashreida, is that we can’t get anyone else involved.”

At any other time before that exact moment, Ash would have never have done what she did next. At the very, very least, she would have hesitated long and hard about it, agonizing over whether she should say it or if she should say anything at all.

But that moment was different. Why, exactly, Ash could not explain. She would never be able to explain, because it defied all sense.

But in that moment, she spoke immediately.

“I’m already involved, and I’m coming with you.”

That whole time Tienne had been sitting patiently while her teacher talked. Ash’s declaration, however, finally roused her to action.

“You can’t be serious,” she snapped. “You are just a civilian. And even if you weren’t the fact that you are a Cinder-crafter makes you too dangerous.”

“Now, now Tienne, this might actually be good for you. We both know your Word-craft could use some work. Observing the other side of the equation could be useful.”

Solenia’s clear curiosity and amusement was almost enough to make Ash regret her words.

“This doesn’t concern her,” Tienne grumbled, even as her whole body slumped. She knew she was outvoted and overruled.

Even so, Ash defended herself.

“I pretty sure my home being threatened means I’m thoroughly involved. And even if the thing under the hills turns out to be fine, there are still those crazy guys running around killing people. Who even are they?”

“That,” Solenia said. “Is a very good question.”