Six months later, the rain stopped.
Shiv had just finished the complete harvest, and was feeling pretty great. He looked up at the cloudless sky and wiped the sweat from his brow. His [Imbue] ability, which allowed him to manipulate nonliving matter, had grown quite a bit more powerful, and also gained a great amount of range. He no longer had to be touching the object to use the power.
On top of that, he'd gained a new skill…
[Heal {touch} (Water)]
It had been [Weak Heal] for a few minutes, but had upgraded quickly to what it was now as he continued harvesting.
Now, he was going around testing his healing ability on his farmers, relieving them of the various scratches and bug bites and finding that he was quickly becoming hungry. Much faster and much more strongly than any other skill had before.
'Guess I'll need to pack a few extra Tomato Soups.' Aside from the skills he'd gained, he'd also increased his Class from Commoner to Initiate… whatever that meant. But with the Class upgrade, he'd unlocked an invaluable skill called [Inventory Crafting] that let him use Recipes to make various meals that had spectacular effects. And all of this was done instantly with a single mental order, so long as he had all of the ingredients in his inventory.
Tomato Soup, his favorite because of how easy it was to consume (he just chugged it like a cup of milk), had an incredible increase in the amount of nutrients it would restore to his body as opposed to normal tomato soup. On top of that, it had the added effect of increasing the heat of his fire magic by a factor of three.
'Fun times.' Shiv healed the last of the farmers and yawned. "Hey, Blaze! You ready to go see good ol' lord Wells?"
"The annoying guy?" It seemed that she'd picked up some of his modern way of talking, as well as his dislike for the noble. "I guess… but only if you let me destroy him!"
"I don't think it's quite time to do that … but we'll see."
Shiv sent the farmers home for a short vacation in town, then set off with Blaze. They had been in the center of his farm, along the stream where he'd first made camp. The place had been completely transformed. Instead of small, tidy rows of normal plants, there were strange earthen buildings with all kinds of controlled environments inside. Some were filled with water, others fire, and even more were just raised platforms with fledgling plants on top, shifting gently in the heavy breeze.
They passed one particular environment that was simply a tall pile of dirt with little white dandelions growing all around its base.
They passed through a gate, and into vast fields that went on almost as far as the eye could see. In these fields were many types of food crops, and Shiv stopped for a moment to look at it. "I'm kinda proud of this. It's too bad I'm going to have to destroy all of it later." With a shake of his head, he continued walking. Blaze followed behind, not seeing what there was to be proud of.
Suddenly, a swarm of dragonflies with scorpion tales swarmed toward Shiv, causing him to curse and fall to the ground. He cocooned himself and Blaze in stone, yelling, "I take it back! This whole place can go to hell!" Then, with a guilty glance at Blaze, "uh, don't go repeating that. Especially around your big bro."
Blaze responded with a smile that was evidently supposed to be innocent, but only came off as malignant and smug. "OK!"
The trip continued half an hour later when the bugs finally tired of their game and left the two alone. Shiv had wanted to burn them, but they were fireproof.
In town, Shiv stopped by Fran's house and got her opinion on the prices of a lot of the plants he was going to sell.
Then, the two were officially on their way to the capital.
***
Shiv and Blaze were making their way through the crowded main street of the capital. Every time someone came too close to invading her personal space, Blaze would set her hands, hair, and eyes on fire, inevitably scaring whoever trespassed into jumping back with a scream.
"Why, Shiv! What are you doing here?" A smooth and refined voice greeted Shiv.
He turned to find a strangely familiar woman appearing out of the crowd.
"Pretty good. Yourself?" He desperately wracked his mind for where he'd met this woman.
"Oh, quite well. I'm getting ready for another performance for the royal family. I suppose you are here to give Wells the plants and obtain your reward?"
'It's… Lucille without a hat?' and indeed it was. Her face was very attractive, sculpted with elegance, and her eyes sparkled with cleverness.
"If you're willing to lend a listening ear, I might be willing to share information important to your survival." She said as she casually linked arms with him and gently pulled him so they were walking again.
Shiv was slightly disoriented with the abrupt change of subject and the fact that she seemed perfectly comfortable on his arm, as if they'd done this a thousand times before.
As such, all he was capable of saying was, "Oh yeah?"
"Oh yes. Be a dear and don't act surprised, please." He nodded uncertainly at her odd request. "Wonderful. We are simply a couple strolling along the streets, talking about nothing of importance. Certainly not something so preposterous as Wells' plan to betray you."
Shiv was nodding along with her words, and when she dropped that piece of information with no change in tone or her cheerful expression, he just continued nodding.
Mentally, he was somewhere else. 'I don't think my girlfriend would appreciate me walking with a girl like this… Wells is going to betray me!?'
"His reasons for choosing this course of action are unknown even to me, I'm afraid." She continued in the same nonchalant tone.
Shiv remained silent.
"I know why!" Blaze spoke up, squeezing between the two of them.
"Oh, Miss Blaze! Please, do share." Shiv watched her closely as she replied, and saw that Lucille seemed delighted.
"Last time me and daddy were there, Wells was annoyed." Blaze said somberly.
"Annoying." Shiv corrected. "And that's not a reason for him to betray us. That's all great, but there's something I'm actually more curious about."
Lucille, who was smiling with amusement, became a bit more serious when Shiv looked at her. "And what is that?"
"Why are you telling me all this? As far as I know, I've done literally nothing for you."
"Oh, you silly boy. You'll figure it out eventually." She giggled, then continued, "don't worry about Wells. Come to my show tomorrow night, and I'll direct you to someone who will pay you double what Wells was going to, and who absolutely will not betray you." She slipped something into his pocket and subsequently disappeared into the crowd.
"Hey Blaze, do every man on the planet a favor, and answer them directly when they ask you a question." He stopped and put a hand on her shoulder, looking her directly in the eyes. "And don't say something like 'don't worry about it' either." He added the second part as an afterthought, and only moved on when she nodded.
He started walking again, but stopped when Blaze didn't follow. He turned to see a look of deep concentration on her face, and remained silent. He waited several minutes for her to figure out whatever it was she was trying to figure out. "Hey, daddy? Aren't you going to destroy every man on the planet?"
Shiv hesitated, and she continued. "So I don't have to worry about saying 'don't worry about it'!" She laughed and ran to catch up with him.
But he had seen the pain that flashed in her eyes as she did so.
He respected her wishes, and pretended to be oblivious. "Oh, right. Silly me."
"Where are we going now?"
"Where else? We're going to Wells' mansion. I think it's time we taught him a lesson. Don't you?"
"Yeah! Like his ABC's!"
"Alright, you teach him all that, and I'll teach him what the cost of betraying us is."
Before they headed to Wells', Shiv decided to see the sights. They walked around the capital, exploring and admiring the strange folks with even stranger powers.
Before they knew it, night fell.
***
"Shhh!" Shiv shushed Blaze furiously.
"You shhh!" She whispered back just as furiously.
Unfortunately, despite their shushing, or perhaps because of it, the guard walking underneath their perch heard them and looked up. Shiv made sure she wouldn't do anything before silently dropping on the guard, shoving a very long knife down his throat. He then quickly manipulated the ground into swallowing the unfortunate guard up.
He then hopped back up on the wall with Blaze, and they moved on to the next checkpoint. "I swear, taking you on stealth missions is the worst!" He grumbled at her under his breath.
"Shhh!"