Episode #1: Novices of Greenbrook

[Phoenix1]

"I mean...I dunno!" Heather answered Karl a bit defensively. "Narrating for reality seemed cooler...at least until I started thinking about it and realized I'm not sure it isn't mostly a placebo effect." When Gen said the power words were the best part she just kinda hand-shrugged. "Okay I guess maybe I buried the lede..."

"My theory is the illusions are to make my stories more immersive. But, uh, yeah. It's pretty weird."

--

"Gooot it," Heather said with a sage nod when Lily explained how her Tithe had worked, and what she'd been going for. That made more sense. "That's pretty cool, actually. The whole Knight of the People thing."

--

Heather listened attentively to Levont's instructions, nodding a couple times. She...decided she wouldn't request a drone to oversee her training. She wasn't actually sure how much of a show she'd be able to put on.

Once they were dismissed, she went to enjoy the celebration, eating and chatting and dancing and catching up with people from the village. She was a bit sad that they would be leaving again so soon, but not so much that it impeded her enjoyment of the celebration, or the time she had.

--

She stayed up late and slept in late the next morning, as much just to enjoy the opportunity to do so (which had very much not existed at Fort Naoth) as because of the celebration. But once she was up and showered and had eaten...it was time to figure out how these powers worked.

And for some of them it was easy enough. The power words were straightforward. The illusions were easy enough - having a photographic memory and a vivid imagination definitely helped with that. She quickly came to discover that the Blessing had made her...faster. Like, a lot faster, almost as fast as Gen had used to be. She had forgotten to check for physical enhancements despite how common they were, but that was super-cool. She was disappointed to find that she wasn't any stronger though. Oh well.

Near the end of the first day, she figured out how to kind of imbue the light and sound her illusions could produce into her sword. She couldn't produce damaging intensities on her own, but focused through the crystalline structure of her Dragonsteel blade did seem to do the job. That was also really cool, because glowing swords were awesome.

And yet, she couldn't really tell if any of her attempts at narration actually...did anything.

The next day, she came up with a theory that maybe the narration needed the target to hear it. So she fell back into her old habits, going around town and helping people with various tasks. Now, she helped normally as well, since like, she wasn't actually sure her powers were doing much (the super-speed was super-useful here too). But while she worked, she narrated things for whoever she was working with, and when she finished she asked if it had seemed to do anything.

And the results were...kinda maybe? Like perhaps the tasks were a bit easier than they would have expected, or they felt a little more focused. She had definitely kept it from being boring! How much of it was actual improvement and how much of it was just them trying to be encouraging she didn't really know.

The problem, she thought, was that she was trying to narrate things that were too obviously already going to happen. These were day-to-day tasks in the village, utterly routine. There wasn't really any question that they'd be accomplished successfully.

She needed something more uncertain, more random. Where the right narration at the right time could make a difference. And they were all supposed to be practicing with their powers, soo...

On day three, Heather asked if any of her fellow Pages would be interested in sparring.

If anybody took her up on it, it would turn out that fighting Heather was a little...weird. She spoke as she fought, mostly a sort of running description of what was happening, with occasional quips or dramatic pronouncements, seeming mainly like she was trying to hype herself up. Maybe it worked? She did seem to press a bit harder the longer a fight went on. It was hard to say if she was actually getting faster or stronger or better in any way, or just falling into more of a rhythm. She did seem to describe something happening - like blocking an attack, or one of her own striking home - slightly before it actually happened, but it didn't feel like there was any force, like, interfering with them when she did. And she didn't get it correctly every time. She'd start to wonder if maybe it wasn't so much that her words were changing what happened as predicting it...not necessarily reliably, but maybe yet better than chance.

The really weird ones though were when she narrated something more out-there and it did seem to happen, like a stumble, or a move causing a pulled muscle, or something. Things like that were definitely happening more often than you'd expect from chance, after she described them, but it was still hard to say that she was actually doing anything to cause them, aside from maybe manipulating probabilities.

Although there would be one point where someone landed a solid hit on her...only for their weapon to pass through her and her to say from three feet away "But it turned out it was only an illusion!" She got really excited when that happened, because she was almost positive she hadn't actually created that illusion before-hand. It was one of the only concrete indications she was able to get that her words were actually doing something, actually editing reality in some way.

Regardless she uh...wouldn't actually manageShe's PL 3+1 and excepting Lily everyone else is 4, plus most of her best stuff is ally-support, so pound for pound she'd be at a fairly substantial disadvantage 1v1 against any of the other PCs. to win all that many of the spars, which would be kinda disappointing. She'd keep trying, though, as long as the others were willing to spar her. If they kept it going until the end of the week, then on the last day, the frustration at how finnicky her power was and how it seemed like she had turned out strictly weaker than some of the others, would spill out during one of the spars as an emotional illusion, intense enough to be distracting in combat and potentially even influence behavior.

...So, you know, that was cool.

[Keramane]

Remy gave a little chuckle at Lily's comment. "None taken. I admire your intentions. More than a few knights are there for the title and honours and less for the duty; something I've seen in commentary and behavior at the odd soiree. Being a Knight with the people in mind before all else? That's the way it should be. You would get along well with my father; such was his goal initially as well." She would follow that up with a pat of comradery to Lily's back, perhaps a little harder than intended what with the newfound levels of strength. She hadn't commented on her own reasons but it was probably close to her father's, right?

 

***

Following their release from their attendance on center stage, Remy went to speak with her family. She was still somewhat in noble form - something quite reinforced by her mother's impeccable stature - but it wasn't long before the true Remy bubbled forth and she'd given her father a big hug and was laughing and content as could be. Her siblings would come from the crowd to the edge of the stage and earn themselves a short windy flight (which later became something she'd end up doing for any child who asked). She spoke with her family for quite a time before rejoining the rest of the crowd and enjoying the festivities. A few bites and sweet-apple drinks later and she was cheering and dancing with the people as she was more known to do in her earlier days, genuinely celebrating with the rest.

 

When the time came for questions of the camera drone, she seemed somewhat torn but eventually requested to have one. It was clear from her commentary that she'd rather not risk being embarrassed should she flub up her practice but that on the flipside she had a duty as a Dragomir to make a proper showing. So her familial responsibilities came out ahead in the end.

 

The night following the celebrations was a somewhat rough one however. While the nausea and dizziness had been somewhat manageable during the festivities, after a few plates of Aunty Gratchum's Famous Apple Pie and enough milk to drown the cow that provided it, things weren't staying where they should be. Fortunately for her, noone but the bathroom got to see her spray rainbows into the porcelain. Having your entire body rewritten at the cellular level was unpleasant at times.

 

***

 

The first day of her training saw very little camera use. Her father had gifted her an impressive bow for her successful initiation and much of the day was spent practicing with it. With the increased natural strength she had worried about snapping the string, even though he'd enthused that it was designed with a knight's strength in mind. On the contrary, at first she was unable to draw the string at all, which led to some struggles in making any shots at all. By the end of the afternoon however she'd managed to find the right balance for her draw. This resulted in some footage of her sinking arrows - unenhanced at first - deep into thick wooden targets. The footage of her putting an enhanced shot through the target and three trees behind it, however, was unintended and certainly left in-place merely because she had the misconception that everything was being broadcast live.

 

Day two had her practicing with more complicated aspects of her abilities. Guiding arrows through the air to strike at the sides of the target, intentionally firing far off-mark to try and force it to come around and hit the bullseye. As she got better at her control she started getting a little more confident, changing her target from the sides of the target to the direct back. This was a good plan, until she put another arrow clean through and had to quickly veer it to the side lest she achieve a friendly fire hit in solo-practice. Luckily for her that one didn't end up on her camera. The later part of the day was spent practicing firing while moving herself with her glide, which while difficult, was manageable.

 

Day three she accepted Heather's sparring request. Remy's techniques were intermixed in the spar, mixing ranged shots (with blunted arrows) alongside swift dips into melee for rapid fly-by strikes. Fighting Heather was certainly a bizarre encounter though, given that her illusions had Remy often guessing at what was real and what was not. However Remy's gifts were near-exclusively geared towards combat which earned her the win time and again. While she had deigned not to film the battles due to not wanting to shame Heather (or expose what might be intentionally secret maneuvers) she would if Heather permitted. Remy was certainly not fond of growing in renown by pushing down others' but equally she understood how big a deal the novice training was for the people at home cheering them on so it was considered. Either way she would add an hour of her own efforts, gliding at high speed while unleashing volleys of seeking arrows at hung targets about the estate, likely making the groundskeepers nervous of their potential workload on the morrow.

[Zelphas]

Normally, Josef would never let Karl have the last word. Today, however, he simply grimaces and looks away, turning back to the end of the festivities.

---

Josef barely hears Levont's explanations and cautions about the future. Later, he quietly but firmly rejects the idea of filming his training, and would reject the filming of his Trial if it was allowed; for now, his entire being is focused on getting his thoughts in order so that he can address his... situation as quickly as possible.

Because of that, he speaks up perhaps a bit too quickly, stepping right on the edge of the Archivist's final statement. "Archivist Levont, I need to speak with you immediately, if you are able." He doesn't look at the others; they'll be traveling in the Trial together, so they'll find out soon enough. Let them enjoy the night.

Assuming that he can get the Archivist to one side, Josef cuts quickly to the point. "Due to a... mistaken rune on a tattoo on my part, my Blessing seems to have largely replaced my nervous system with thorns made out of fire." He definitely isn't hyperventilating; he just spoke too quickly, that's all. "Since awakening in the Pool, I have been unable to feel anything I've touched, and breaking my skin has released the thorns from underneath. Doc--that is, Doctor Winthorpe is... not reliable for unorthodox cases, and this is a matter of Blessings. What..." Josef forces himself to breathe slowly. He can't let his words get too fast, or they won't be understood. "What are the next steps, Archivist Levont, sir?"

---

By talking immediately to Archivist Levont and then following his instructions, Josef is able to avoid his father until nightfall, when he is much more composed. Then, by claiming the need to train and refine his Blessing, he is able to limit his interactions with his father until the Trial. With any luck, Josef will be able to leave Greenbrook without Dimitri ever knowing just how badly the Pool ceremony went wrong for his son.

---

Josef does not appear in front of the other Novices until the second day of training. Lily may not notice much that's different in the young man, but the rest have grown up with Josef; they would notice that his movements are slower, more deliberate, that he looks carefully before sitting down anywhere and seems to guide himself to the seat with one hand, and especially how he has picked up what seems to be a nervous habit of holding his arms in front of him and twisting to see all around them, glancing at his legs, and twisting to check his back, as though checking himself for ticks.

Heather is the first person Josef tells when she asks, but the rest learn about the other part of his Blessing soon enough; once he knows how to care for it, he doesn't hide it from them.

For the next two days, Josef focuses on calling his thorns out of him and manipulating them in various ways. They burst out easily enough, he finds, but something seems to be missing in his handling of them; unless he wraps them around his dragonsteel club, they quickly burn themselves out, vanishing in a puff of smoke and heat. For some reason, he feels certain there's more to them than that, though he couldn't for the life of him say what it could be.

By the end of the first day (the second day of training for everyone else), Josef figures out how to sweep his club and "fire" thorns out at targets, using their tendency to burn bright and then burn out as an offensive boost. He also does a little bit of tests on his basic speed and strength, though he is always extremely careful. By his estimate, at the end of the first day, he hasn't really gotten much stronger, but he has become much faster; he isn't as fast as Gen is now, but he thinks he might be faster than Gen used to be. Perhaps a nervous system made of fire quickened his reflexes, he considers, though he has no way to test that.

The second (third) day is spent seeing just how many thorns Josef can call out from him all at once. The answer is, when he stops trying to direct them, quite a few! If he takes a moment to concentrate, Josef can fill a good section of the practice field with burning thorns over the course of a few moments. These thorns burn out just as quickly as all the others, but it is quite a merry blaze during those few seconds. It's a bit too... indiscriminate, for solid battlefield application, but at least its something. In a rare moment of whimsey, Josef imagines that he's sitting in the middle of a thornbush that someone's set fire to, and then his normal character cuts in and he ponders gloomily why such a picture fills him with a strange sort of longing.

---

The fourth day of training reveals a somewhat disturbing "advantage" to Josef's Blessing.

Realizing that he isn't going to get much farther with such a battle-focused Blessing without some application, Josef accepts Gen's offer to spar. The other boy has Josef (and everyone else there) outclassed in speed and strength, but Josef's Blessing gives him solid area denial, and he has worked to make it punishing to anyone who touches him while he's actively in combat; with that, the two boys are surprisingly evenly matched. They dance around each other for some time, Josef doing everything he can to foul every attack that Gen throws at him, until finally the other boy has the opportunity for a clean stroke. With no other recourse, Josef brings up his club to block Gen's enormous blade.

The shock of impact feels... odd, to Josef, even odder than normal, but everything feels odd to him in the past few days. He pushes through it easily enough, smiling slightly as the impact unleashes his thorns towards the other boy even as he catches his balance from the force of the blow. He angles his club for a quick uppercut to Gen's chin, but the blow wobbles weirdly and misses the other boy entirely, despite them being right in each other's faces. Josef steps back to grab some space, and is surprised when Gen leaps back as well. "What.." he starts, following the other boy's eyes towards his club.

Oh. His arm's bent the wrong way. And he's fairly certain he doesn't actually have a joint halfway up his forearm...

Josef cedes the match to Gen after that little discovery, though the (literal) fire within him seems to push him to continue the fight. Another bit of his warped Blessing unfolds in his understanding, like a flower petal: he can keep fighting beyond what his body would normally be able to endure. In fact, if he's reading his instincts correctly, his Blessing will urge him to keep fighting well past the point of safety. In some surprisingly calm portion of his mind, Josef notes this as another thing to look out for.

[Llyarden]

Josef

Levont...kinda raises an eyebrow slightly at your comment. "I see. And these effects are...unwanted?"  He frowns for a few moments. "You are quite correct that there is nothing a conventional doctor will be able to do to assist you. When you arrive in Lomorre following your First Trial, go to Fort Naoth. The physicians there are trained and equipped to handle Knights with...unusual...physiologies, and will be able to give you more complete advice - and, by then, your soul will have adapted sufficiently to your Blessing that it would be safe for you to undergo a re-Blessing ritual should you decide to attempt to change your Blessing. In the interim...

"Not all injuries will break the skin and thus make themselves noticeable via your thorns, and while as a Blessed Knight you are more resistant to disease than most people, that does not necessarily mean completely immune, and if nothing else unnoticed injuries may hamper your capacity in combat. I suggest you make it a routine to check your body over for injuries you might have suffered without noticing, preferably with the aid of a mirror or your phone to examine areas you cannot normally see. Or, if your embarrassment does not preclude it, asking one of your companions to examine you for wounds."

[Phoenix1]

"You...can't feel anything?" Heather asked after Josef explained what had happened with his Blessing. There was concern in her voice and on her face. Pain sucked, but it sucked for a reason. And evidently it wasn't just pain he couldn't feel. Heather had never encountered a problem that was simultaneously so "do you need a hug?" while also being something a hug literally could not help with at all!

"Well, um, you know, Blessing powers tend to be weakest when you first get them, right? So...maybe once yours develop you'll, like, outgrow the problem, or something?" she offered optimistically, if not very believably. (She knew that the Scouring and re-Blessing rituals and such were a thing but she wasn't sure about the logistics.)

"I don't...think I have, like, touch illusions," she said, a little apologetically, not that illusions would actually be a practical solution here even if she did and even if they worked. Although thinking about it in those terms did make her realize, "It's just, um, tactile, right? Because nerves? I mean...you can still feel, like, emotions, right?"

[Hyperbolic sine]

Karl nodded along Lily's explanation, positively impressed. A Knight of the People...a kindred spirit, then (or maybe not, but nuances aren't really his forte).

"Well, I'd like to preorder a copy of the Page, please" he joked.

*

...wait a sec, Lily also kinda reminded him of Heather. Did that make the two of them kindred spirits as well? No, no, she called his spear creepy, that couldn't-

Why am I even thinking about this?!

***

The next morning, he snuck out of his house at dawn, fleeing tactically retreating from the awkward atmosphere that would have awaited him, and headed for the relative isolation of his favourite fishing spot (he didn't care for being recorded, so he refused the drone while he still could), where he started experimenting with manipulating his blood - was a spear really the only thing he could create?

***

At the end of day two, the answer was clear: "yes, but". For whatever reason, the spear was the only thing he could create effortlessly; maintaining other shapes, be they sharp blades or simple cubes, required constant concentration and was extra fatiguing - to Karl, it felt like having to stand perfectly still in an awkward position. Perhaps with intensive training he'd be able to expand his options, but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

He did, however, discover that he felt much less thirst and hunger, and needed much less sleep, than before the Blessing. Weird, but he wasn't going to complain about extra free time.

***

From day three onwards he began asking his fellow Novices to spar - like mostly everyone else, apparently. His first partner happened to be Remy, who...well, had a bow, so wasn't exactly a "sparring" partner, but whatever. Karl welcomed the challenge, and had to quickly learn to focus his prana and blood in his legs to have any chance of catching up to her; on the other hand, her arrows had a hard time dealing lasting damage as not only were Karl's blood vessels doubling as mesh armour, but it turned out every strike of his spear restored him. Still, it wasn't until the third or so match, after he finally managed to throw his weapon like a javelin, that they were truly matched.

Of course, it wasn't only her he sparred with - there wasn't much else for him to do, after all, so for the rest of their stay in Greenbrook he was basically either sparring or waiting for someone to be available (he may or may not have creeped out Heather further, once the Sanguine Lance began exhibiting the ability to actually drain blood from its target) - but he felt that the experience of facing an archer was particularly valuable, seeing as with everyone else he was the one with the reach advantage, so he took any chance he could to face her.

Well, her and Josef, once he starts making himself available. He did feel a little bad for the whole "can't feel" thing (at least, after seeing the implications in the way Josef moved and compulsively checked himself...his first reaction was more along the lines of "good for him, why is he complaining?"), but I would be lying if I said that using his superior reach to strike while being too far for the thorns to retaliate didn't feel satisfying. Besides, a spear wasn't going to break any bones.

[Llyarden]

Lily joins in with the sparring with any of you who'll take her on, although her win record is...probably about on par with Heather's, except she doesn't have the luxury of having a Blessing tailored around supporting others to explain it. "How the heck are you guys so dang strong?" she grumbles, on more than one occasion. It doesn't stop her taking part, though - and once or twice she does manage to catch someone off guard with her wild variety of bubblegum powers. She also discovers she can actually produce a 'flavour' of bubblegum that heals minor wounds, which pretty much immediately endears her to the villagers of Greenbrook on account of her being much more friendly than Doc Theo.

She, uh...does also accidentally glue herself in place with her bubblegum powers on one occasion, after which she (and probably the rest of you) takes care to avoid the sticky green gum.  But hey, that's why you have a week to train before heading out on your constantly-recorded First Trial.

***

The day of the First Trial itself comes with less ceremony and fanfare than your Blessing ceremony had. Partly this is because you are requested to assemble at the main gate of Greenbrook before dawn and that kind of time tends to put a dampener on celebrations, but also it's because the Blessing ceremony had, in part, been a celebration of Greenbrook as much as you guys (after all, you would be carrying Greenbrook's name for the rest of your days). The First Trial is much more personal. Only a few close friends and family show up to see you off...which, for you guys, means Dimitri (no longer wearing his goofy outfit), Remington and Ydrale...and also Karl's mother who, uh, doesn't seem to have a name defined, but she's here too, and definitely isn't here solely because they would've been the talk of the town if they hadn't gone to send off their own child on the First Trial. She does...kinda seem to be acting like she just sort of happened to be in the area and figured she'd stick around.

The net result of this is that until you guys arrive, the people are outnumbered by the camera drones - one for each of the six of you, plus one focused on Levont himself. For that matter the people are also outnumbered by the big backpacks that have been procured for each of you.

"Greetings, Novices."  Levont gives another bow to you. Dimitri sort of starts to mimic him, glances over and notices that the Dragomirs aren't following suit and tries to pass it off as just brushing some imaginary dirt off his trousers. "As you know, your First Trial will begin at dawn."  Watched by his camera drone, he retrieves a neatly folded map from his bag, unfolds it to show it to you all, before folding it up and handing it over to whoever steps forwards to take it (the camera drone rotates to watch you pick it up before returning to Levont once the map leaves his hand).

The map is a copy of an old-style map, pretty precise but obviously lacking functions like TNLTeratian Navigation Lines, aka GPS but not one of the words in the acronym makes sense in the setting. that your phones have...although leynet connectivity is not necessarily guaranteed given that you might well be marching through the wilderness at some points.

With the business of the map taken care of, Levont produces six small tokens from his bag and hands one to each of you. "Hold those for a few moments, if you please, while the camera drones grow accustomed to your prana."  You were never actually given any training in how to handle the camera drones at Fort Naoth, predominantly because they, uh...don't really need much handling. They have enough battery life for a year of activity, evasion protocols that let them stay out of the way in battles, a stable leynet link that lets them broadcast emergency signals even from the most remote parts of the kingdom and - as is being set up now - prana-tracking crystech. Their best feature as far as most Knights are concerned, though, is their onboard recording software that lets them maneuver to get the most dramatic shots for a given moment...something which, as you've discovered over the past week with the periodic use of the drones, can get kinda irritating because the drones care nothing for either distracting their subjects or getting right up in someone's face when they do.

(You aren't allowed to break the drones.)

In any event, after a few moments, Levont activates the camera drones and they start to move, flitting back and forth in kinda 'searching' patterns before hovering over each of your heads to show that they've found you and that the prana tracking is working right.

There are a few awkward minutes of silence, during which you have the opportunity to check the contents of your supply packs (tents, basic rations, a little money, and the like - the Knights aren't so cruel as to throw you completely unequipped into the wilderness), before the first rays of dawn begin to creep over the horizon, and Levont clears his throat and continues in a much more formal, ritualised tone as the camera drones (except his) spread out to start getting establishing shots. "Just as His Majesty the First King marched to Denaya to pray for the mercy of the Dragons, so too will you march to Lomorre. Only that which you fair gather or trade, or that the Dragons have graced you with, is yours to use. You will be conveyed by no beast of burden nor artifice, nor use the name of the Knights to unjustly gain more than you are owed. You will comport yourself as Knights, and serve this Kingdom with every step you take towards being named Knights in truth."  He pauses for a moment to look over the six of you. "Do you accept this charge?"

Once you have all confirmed your agreement, Levont looks back to the gate, waiting for the sunlight to hit the city wall. (One has to wonder what they do when it's cloudy or raining).

"Then your First Trial begins now."

Of course, that doesn't mean you actually have to immediately go anywhere. For one thing, there's one important decision you need to make: do you stick to the roads for a slightly longer and more roundabout journey, but one which will provide you with more options to rest in proper inns and the like (which you...probably don't quite have the money for if you stay in a settlement every night of your two-month hike)? Or do you travel as the crow flies and hike through the wilderness for a more direct path with probably the opportunity to hunt game and forage for food (and get plaudits for doing so), but put up with somewhat less comfortable travel?

[Phoenix1]

Heather might have been just a tad disappointed that nobody in particular had come to see her off, except for the part where her best friends were all here with her! She did take a moment to go over to Dimitri though, and say, "Don't worry, Dimitri, I'll-" keep him safe? Hah, yeah, right. She'd be slightly surprised if the thought that Josef would have any trouble whatsoever had even entered his father's mind. "-make sure to text you whenever he does something especially awesome!" Sure the whole thing would be recorded but it wasn't like Dimiti could literally sit there watching the entire journey. Most of it was just gonna be like walking and stuff and he was a busy man!

Heather took the little token as instructed. She went through her pack, and shrugged it on. Her heart started beating fast, and faster as Levont spoke.

"Do you accept this charge?"

"I do," Heather said firmly.

"Then your First Trial begins now."

And Heather swayed on her feet, and almost fell over.

Something flashed through her mind, when Levont said those words, a sensation as ephemeral as it was powerful. No vision did she see, no whispered words or cryptic rhymes did she hear, although for just a moment she almost imagined that the other Pages were almost glowing. Or...maybe not so much radiating light themselves, as just being more brightly lit than the rest of their environment, as if somehow the first rays of the dawning sun had touched them specifically and nothing else, however little sense that seemed to make.

Then it was over, nothing left but a memory...and an odd sense of certainty. They were going to do something. Something important.

A story had begun, and one that would be retold through generations.

...Maybe there was something, to the idea that her narrations were predictions rather than alterations.

She shook her head to clear it of the daze. She looked to Remy with a grin. "Okay then. Time to start the biggest quest of all!"

Step 1: Logistics! Heck yeah!  We are off to a rockin' start!

"I think road has my vote," Heather said. One might think this was because she less used to the rigors of travel, and would prefer a more comfortable journey even if it took longer. This was not in fact the case; Gen and Remy were two of Heather's best friends after all! Plus being able to survive on her own was a skill Laurel had made sure she learned. She wasn't quite as outdoorsy as the two of them, but she wasn't some pampered city girl either.

But taking the roads would take them through more settlements, and they might be able to help some people along the way.

[Zelphas]

Depending on Levont's personality, he might be concerned or even gratified to notice Josef soaking in his words like a sponge, committing them to memory immediately with fierce concentration. "Check with Fort Naoth, Blessing adaptation, routine check, use phone and mirror if possible. Thank you, sir." He discounted the possibility of a re-Blessing ritual immediately; the stick was gone, and going through a re-gifting after the stick was gone would be something his father would never understand.

---

"Maybe," Josef agrees noncommittally to Heather's statement. Privately, the thought of his powers "growing" makes him wonder if the numbness will grow stronger. He's already found it useful as a stabilizer--almost comfortable, in an uncomfortable way--but it getting stronger might not be good. "As far as I can tell, it's only tactile, yes. I remain the deeply emotional person I always have been." That last sentence may have been delivered in complete monotone, with a corresponding blank face.

---

The fact that Karl could effectively attack out of range of Josef's thorns was a constant annoyance... but Josef was faster than Karl was, even when Karl pushed himself, and Josef tried to take advantage of that option to get in close whenever he could. Their spars (Karl was one of the only ones that Josef agreed to spar with more than once) usually still ended in Karl's favor, though, at least in part because Josef was too worried about the possible side effects to really go on the offensive (and Karl was possibly just better, but Josef couldn't admit that).

---

At first, Josef is irritated to see Dimitri there again as they prepare to leave for the First Trial. He has managed to hide the side-effect of his power from his father for the entirety of the past week; if only Dimitri wasn't there, and he could be sure of getting away free... He's a bit jealous of the rest for having more normal connections--until he sees Heather looking around for someone to see her off, and Karl's mother pretending like she's there by accident. His irritation swiftly turns to shame.

"Please don't do that," he still snaps at Heather, walking up behind her, though with perhaps less force than usual. Looking past her, Josef knows he should say something to his father. He opens his mouth to speak, but what he wants to say is impossible, and nothing else will come out. So, after an awkward moment, Josef reaches out his hand, fully expecting Dimitri to pull him into a hug. The pressure still feels... off, somehow, and Josef tries to carefully extricate himself without looking like he's carefully extricating himself, taking his place back with the other Novices.

When the tokens are offered, Josef takes one quickly, before he can let himself hesitate. He understands the practical reasons for such a record--crystals, he can even understand the reasoning from an entertainment standpoint--but it still galls him to be recorded at all, to be forced to play on the stage at every moment from here to Lomorre lest his slip-ups be broadcast to the entire world. He pulls on the pack with his now-customary care, making sure that it isn't unbalancing him. At least he doesn't have to worry about any discomfort from the pack. Although he may have to check himself for any raw spots in the evening...

"Do you accept this charge?"

"...I do." The gravity of the moment should hide his slight hesitation, this time.

"Then your First Trial begins now."

Well, that's it then. Josef had, for some reason, expected more... something, in the moment.

Heather sways, and Josef looks over to her with concern, only to find himself rolling his eyes slightly at her comment of the "biggest quest of all!" If this was the biggest thing any of them did, they'd be rather poor excuses for Knights... which would fit the way things are going for him, honestly.

"Wilderness has mine," Josef says firmly a moment after Heather speaks. He knows he sounds contrarian, but he's already going to be filmed at all times; he'd rather limit the size of his in-person audience as much as he could, at least for now.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Karl was conflicted. On one hand, he wanted to simply ignore his mother, but on the other, well, this could possibly be the last time in a long while he'd be able to speak - let alone see - her.

He kinda stalled for a bit, checking himself over, then just before Levont called them all over he approached her, said "Well, thanks for everything. I'll...call you when the Trial is over. Say hi to Father for me." and then turned away, joining the other Novices.

***

"Do you accept this charge?"

"I do!" he answered, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically.

"Then you First Trial begins now."

Karl nodded, and took a deep breath to clear his mind of extraneous thoughts. Right now, and the coming month, he had to focus exclusively on the Trial. And, you know, avoid making himself look like a fool in front of the camera drones.

"I...yeah, I'll vote for the most direct route" he had to agree with Josef, much to his chagrin. "Though we could stop by an inn every now and then, if it isn't too much of a detour." Starting the Trial with the cowardly option didn't feel like the correct choice at all.

[RavingScholar]

For the first three days after gaining their Blessings, Eugenides sequesters himself away from literally everyone else. Occasionally a loud, prolonged thudddd sound can be heard or felt, and a very very faint sound of a teenager swearing in the distance. Every night Gen can be seen trudging back to his barn-house with bruises and cuts all over his body.

 

It's only on the fourth day that he feels confident enough in his control over his own body to join in sparring with the others. And then that gets bungled when he manages to break Josef's damn arm without even trying! Granted, the other boy had been going at it just as hard as Gen had been, and it seems that there was something going on with Josef himself to have caused it as well. But after that and apologizing profusely to Josef, Gen spends two more days sequestered, just training his self-control.

 

So with only two days left before their First Trial begins, Gen allows himself to join the others in sparring. He thanks the memory of the dragons that there are no more accidents, and he manages a respectable win-loss ratio. The only one he consistently loses to his Remy, from the simple fact that it was harder to close the distance with a dedicated ranged attacker.

 

On their final night in Greenbrook, Gen sneaks off to the communal cemetery, seeking out a particular gravestone. "Hey, mom," he says, sitting cross-legged in front of Lilliana's gravestone. "I think this'll be the last time I visit for...a long time. I'm about to go on my First Trial, which will last another year. My first step towards true freedom."

 

He looks at the gravestone with his mother's name in simple letters and feels his eyes well with tears. "I wish you could see me," he whispers as he lets the tears fall. "I wish I could have brought you to all the places you told me about. I...I miss you. I wish you were here."

 

He just lets himself cry for a few minutes, there in front of his mother's resting place. "I took your wedding ring. The one that bastard tricked you with. It was part of my Tithe, so...it'll be like a part of you is always with me. Keeping me safe."

 

He gets to his feet. With shaky fingers he kisses his fingertips and places them on the gravestone. "I love you, mom. I'll see the world for you."

--------

In the morning, Gen is peppy and ready. He looks over at Karl and almost looks like he wants to ask if the other boy is okay after talking with his mother, but he holds back. He accepts the drone chit with a nod and seems entirely nonplussed at having next-to-zero privacy for the next year.

 

"Do you accept this charge?"

 

Without hesitation, Gen nods. "I accept".

 

Gen thinks he can guess at Heather's reason for wanting to take the roads. And it's a noble sentiment. "I do think it would be better to cut through, but there must be settlements in the path of a direct route from here as well.

[Llyarden]

"I'm good with either," Lily says, with an idle shrug, "but if I'm doin' my maths right, that's three votes in favour of the direct route, so even if I really wanted to go the long way and Remy did as well, all that'd do is tie the vote and that doesn't seem real useful. So I'll just go ahead and cast my vote for the wilderness as well."

With that decided (more or less), you break out the map that Karl had taken from Archivist Levont to figure out exactly where you're going. As it happens you guys are quite close to Lomorre, which means that heading as the crow flies would most likely take you little more than four or five weeks, putting your arrival in Lomorre somewhere around Mountain's Emerald at the latest. Since the deadline for the First Trial doesn't technically expire until Nobleday of Light (the day before the Summer Solstice) that gives you, like, an entire month and change to account for random pit stops and the like - and that's assuming a relatively relaxed progression. If you guys seriously wanted to push yourselves you could probably get there in three weeks, but as much as the First King's journey was very much rushed with him pushing himself as much as possible, the intent of the First Trial is to give you guys the chance to experience the kingdom you're (hopefully) going to be spending most of your lives serving.

In the end, you decide to travel by way of another small village in the county called Merryweather, in the county of Uptonshire - it's slightly bigger than Greenbrook and not quite on the direct path; the detour will probably add about a week to your journey, but that doesn't really mean a whole lot given the amount of time you guys have to play with, and it will give you the chance to pick up any extra supplies and the like, or check for any requests that can be handled by a group of recruits (to be fair, when there are six of you guys the subset of requests that could be handled by you is significantly larger than it would be for a normal-sized group of 3-4 recruits.)

With your route decided, you set off! Your departure from the village is a rote, solemn occasion, and even Dimitri restrains himself from yelling encouragement after Josef as you leave. It only takes quarter of an hour's walk or so before the road rounds a hill and your families are hidden from sight.

Barely two hours after that, Greenbrook itself would be impossible to pick out from your surroundings.

Shineday of Mountain's Topaz, 564 F.B.

Over the next three weeks, perhaps more than anything else, there is one thing that you had perhaps had hinted at during your training at Fort Naoth, but which is thoroughly driven into your minds now:

Hiking is really darn boring!

In all the tales of Knights venturing into the unknown wilderness, there are Demons to slay and people in need practically over every hill and behind every tree. Or perhaps the weather suddenly turns on them and forces them into an undiscovered ruin. Rare tales - usually the ones with some moral woven into them - even feature the Knight getting lost or struggling to find food.

You don't get any of that. By the time you reach Merryweather, you haven't so much as seen a Demon, never mind slain one, nor encountered anyone in need of help. (In fact you've barely encountered anyone at all, only occasionally running into the occasional traveller when your path crosses over with a road.) And with half the group being perfectly capable survivalists, you don't have any difficulty finding food - wild animals are pretty plentiful, perhaps owing to your proximity to the Forest of Harpa, and for people with Blessed speed and strength, taking down an animal or two to supplement your rations and foraged produce is pretty trivial.

You do run into a bear at one point! But, I mean, it isn't particularly interested in fighting, and also even just one of you could probably take it down without much difficulty. (Well, okay, maybe Heather or Lily might struggle a bit, but even then it'd be good odds on them winning.)

This all being the case, your arrival at Merryweather is probably pretty welcome. You are, of course, stopped at the gate by the village guards and asked your business, but 'novices on the First Trial' is a perfectly adequate explanation - and, indeed, one that gets you advice that the White Buck is better value-for-money than the Grey Stoat (because Merryweather is actually big enough that it has a whole two lodgings!)

So, about halfway through your journey for your First Trial, you find yourselves with a free evening. The world...or at least the village of Merryweather...is your oyster.

Edited May 10 by Llyarden (see edit history)

[Phoenix1]

Heather gave Josef a kinda half-sympathetic, half-exasperated look when he asked her not to text his father about anything especially awesome he did. She didn't respond verbally, either to agree or argue. Heather did try to be sympathetic to Josef's dislike of the spotlight, but also his father was his biggest fan and would want to know. In this case Heather was fairly confident that it was worth doing, but she would at least give Josef the opportunity to do it himself first.

Heather just grinned at votes came in for the wilderness trek. She was not even slightly surprised to be outvoted there.

--

Once they were on the way and the town out of sight, Heather looked to the drone that was assigned to her and cheerily introduced herself to whoever might have been watching, giving the run-down on her background, her Blessing, why she had chosen to become a Knight, stuff like that. She wouldn't unilaterally do so for any of the others, but would offer to if they wanted to be introduced but didn't want to introduce themselves. If anybody took her up on the offer one might note that she also mentioned more about their skills and accomplishments, which she hadn't for herself (except for Josef, on the probably-off-chance that he wanted her to; her introduction of him would be as grounded as her own, and would not include the whole "confronted a demon at three years old" story).

--

Hiking was boring, but that's what bards are for! As long as it didn't bother any of the others, Heather would be spending a lot of time on the trek singing songs, telling stories, and practicing with her illusions while she did it, weaving images of the characters she was describing and saying their lines in their voices - or at least, how she imagined them. When she described a locale, she'd craft an image of it, building it up gradually as she described each detail. She wouldn't dominate things if any of the others wanted to participate, she'd happily take turns, eagerly encourage anyone who wanted to sing along, and even suggest games of like taking turns creating a story a paragraph at a time and such. She'd also quiet down if any of the others were trying to talk about something. But she also wouldn't have a problem just keeping at it if nobody else wanted to join in. She didn't seem to have any trouble keeping up a steady stream of talking or singing even while hiking, although the illusions weren't necessarily continuous (illusions were pretty cheap in terms of Prana expenditures, but not quite free, especially given how new she was to her Blessing).

She also chatted, probably kind mostly with Lily just because she didn't know her as well as the others she she had more things to ask about and talk about with her.

She left hunting and foraging and such to those better suited for it, but was happy to cook when they camped.

She wasn't particularly disappointed that nothing more exciting than Friendly Bear Encounter happened during the hike. It was no biggie, in the story version the whole thing would just get timeskipped anyway.

--

"I think I'm gonna check in at the White Buck," Heather told the others once they were in the city. After her training at Fort Naoth she had the strength and endurance that carrying her pack around all day was well within her capabilities, but she'd still be happy to be able to just drop it off somewhere! "And then go exploring!  Anyone who wants to join me is welcome!" She didn't figure it was imperative that they all stick together in town.

[Keramane]

Remy had quickly chosen to hike, favouring the wilds to the beaten path! She'd never been allowed to go any REAL distance before, so she was terribly excited to delve into the unknown.

 

----

 

Ten days later, that excitement was still present. Sure, hiking itself was dull; it was walking with more foliage. However, the hunting, the camping, the sleeping under the stars, she adored every moment of it and it was blatantly plain to see. Remy was normally a rather outgoing sort but it could be said that her enthusiasm matched if not outshone Heather's own. Fifteen days and it had diminished maybe 20%. Twenty-one days and she was now at a mellow glow of contentment.

 

She would sing when prompted by Heather. She knew a number of trail tunes from her time with the hunters and trappers. Fortunately for the public at large her father had ensured they wouldn't teach his daughter anything too raunchy so the songs were rather wholesome. The huntsman's equivalent of a sea shanty; a land shanty? Whatever. Along with that she would describe game, various mushrooms and herbs, things they found and be informative about their uses, in case any young novices were going to watch. Knowing which herb was useful to fight poison ivy is eternally useful, no matter what your upbringing was.

 

There were no demons to slay which was a good thing in her books. It was a sign of stability and safety for the local populace, ever a good thing. There were no bandits or wayward knights-gone-wrong, no adventures of derring-do, but these weren't things that would happen right away. That's all fine. Everything's fine.

 

..But by the dragons did she crave a bath. Sure, she didn't expect anyone to peep on her when she went to wash at the river, but she didn't trust the little drones, so she'd kept half-clothed at all times which meant her bathing was only half-effective. And while she wasn't as fussy as her family when it came to scents and such, three weeks of hiking, hunting and climbing did make for a bit of a stink. So a room with some privacy where a woman could wash was definitely in the cards.

 

----

 

"I'll check in after I trade these hides for some spare coin. But, adventuring can wait until after I've had a nice long bath."

 

Once in-town Remy would make for the market, toting what hides and antlers they'd skinned from their previous meals. Sure they could afford a room, but if you kill a beast you waste none of it. If she couldn't use the parts herself, she'd ensure someone else could by trade; it was the bare minimum you should do as a huntress after all. A bit of barter later and the spare coin would find its way to a stall for sweets, because she was ever a fan of sweet things. Also a bit of salt, some spices to replenish what they'd used, a decent stew-pot and tripod and some local trinkets to mark their travel. Namely, some locally made bracelets; simple things sure, but a good starting point for her treasure box of memories.

 

Sufficed to say everyone in the team got a bracelet thrust upon them. They were nothing special, just some woven coloured threads akin to a friendship bracelet, but hey, it was something, right?

Edited May 11 by Keramane (see edit history)

[Zelphas]

Josef blinked in surprise, honestly astonished to be supported in his vote. The fact that Karl, of all people, agreed with him was perhaps the biggest shock.

---

Josef blamed Heather and Remy in roughly equal amounts for how he acted during their month-long trek through the wilderness. Even he realized this was unfair, but he clung to that unspoken belief stubbornly.

Heather started it, with her irrepressible ability to fill every moment with something to do--and her need to bring others into it! She never pushed, not aloud, but Josef knew she wouldn't leave it alone until everyone had taken part in a song, or a story, or some sort of game on their trip. The ever-present drone wore on Josef's mind; the last thing he wanted to do was have his life broadcast to the world, but since that was a foregone conclusion he wanted as little as possible. He made a show, each night, of testing and stretching the limits of his powers; they were flashy, at least, so he could put on a performance for the cameras. But as the days went by, he found himself appreciating the boredom; boredom meant that this part of the trip would be passed over, when the time came to broadcast everything.

But Heather wouldn't be satisfied with that, and Josef's attempts to find something to satisfy his friend's desire to include everyone led him to what Remy was already doing--describing bits of the wilderness they passed through, their uses and benefits. He thought he had picked something simple when the pauses finally grew unbearable, describing a bit of creeping knightshield ivy on a nearby tree, so named for its leaves shaped like tiny kite shields--but then he had looked closer, and realized that the shields had slightly more rounding and a fine sawtooth edge, meaning that this was a strain of the somewhat rarer dragonscale ivy, and while both had benefits as a mild anesthetic the dragonscale variant was also a mild stimulant; in fact, dragonscale ivy's rarity was due to overuse, the euphoria from the rarer plant inducing occasional feelings of invincibility and recklessness among those who ingested it, meaning that it had actually been outlawed a century or so prior in several places and only recently was that relaxed--

Before he knew it, Josef had talked for half an hour about the different types of ivy and creeping vines in the area, almost certainly wasting everyone's time. That night, just before sleep took him, he swore that he wouldn't let it happen again. Then three days later, he noticed that a scattering of wildflowers were in an unusual formation, suggesting that something had been buried nearby and disrupted their growth. He swore again to go back to his grim silence. But two days after that, they passed through a copse of large evergreens, and the carpet of needles was slightly less dense than he expected--

All in all, by the time the group reaches Merryweather, Josef is thoroughly disgusted with himself for the full dozen times he ran off after a half-glimpsed leaf on their trek or prattled on for long, long minutes about this or that bit of flora.

---

"Agreed on the White Buck, but probably not the exploring. I'm going to need to restock," Josef comments with a grimace, holding up his right arm and hand for emphasis. Underneath several clean white bandages are a welter of long, straight cuts, souvenirs from a blackberry bush that Josef had heedlessly pushed through in his effort to confirm that several berries in the center had ripened out of season, a fun little quirk that probably wasn't worth using most of the use of his arm for the last two days. The poor bush hadn't survived the blowback from his powers, and in fact Josef had spent a fair amount of time both putting out fires and bandaging himself up. At least his Blessing let him heal quick, but he had still run through a lot of bandages over the last month, and he was close to running out.

After checking in, Josef goes looking for the nearest pharmacy. He tried to be quick--get in, get bandages and a few healing supplies, get out--but the owner is apparently something of a herbalist, and her offhand comment about the plants that grew nearby quickly turns into an animated discussion about what she grows in her garden and the little tweaks and tricks she's found that don't show up in the printed books on medicine...