Ryn of Avonside

“Ah, if I could, my lady?” Eilian asked, with that twinkle in her eye that came when she was admiring a shiny person who'd caught her attention. “Before we get to the more consequential topics, I was wondering if we could get your thoughts on something?”

Turning from where the fabric golem had disappeared, Nofrei raised a gorgeously arched eyebrow. “Oh?”

Licking her lips, Eilian leaned forward and her expression became more serious. “We were attacked on the road near some ruins, further upriver. The bastards used enchanted arrows and a magitech rifle. They managed to wound one of our friends, actually. Any idea who they were?”

Nofrei, looking thoughtfully at the mango bonsai I'd just made, asked,  “Did they have any distinguishing marks, a uniform, perhaps?”

I shook my head, then quickly looked to my gilded friend to make sure she hadn't seen anything either.

“Nothing?” Nofrei gave an apologetic look and shrugged one shoulder. “Then they were probably just bandits. There's a few gangs out in the plains who like to target mages. We tend to carry a lot of coin— ah, those of us who weave fabric, not flora. I imagine you scared them quite senseless with your, ah… more direct method for inflicting harm.”

Grace snorted softly beside me. “Direct is an understatement. She blasted them with beams of fire and bolts of lightning.”

“Bolts of lightning?” Nofrei blurted, giving me a long, alarmed stare.

Quickly, I waved my hand dismissively. “No, no, not a true lightning bolt. They take a scary amount of energy to create. They were more modest bolts of arcane energy.”

“I don't know of many mages who could create a true one, so that is at least reassuring,” she laughed, relaxing into her magical chair. Gesturing to my little tree again, she continued, “Regardless, they might not have been ready for two Garden mages and the relative ease with which you twist the elements. We who hail from the Loom are more about presentation — social and artistic, with an emphasis of creating clothing that can enact our will…” Her attention drifted, and she exclaimed, “Ah, the ekah has arrived!”

The fabric golem had indeed returned, and on one twisted fabric hand, it balanced a plate that carried nine tall brass cups of some kind, along with an open bottle of dark glass. The golem expertly whisked around us, placing a cup in front of each of us. It then left the bottle on the table, wandered over to one of the fabric shelves, and disanimated.

Nofrei flicked the now mundane fabric back into its place with a wave of her hand. “So, what is a group like yours doing just… wandering into town? You mentioned being ambassadors for an… Avonside?”

I looked to Dr. Ross and jerked my head towards her. “Would you like to…?”

With a gentle smile, the professor began to explain to her what our mission was, and more importantly, where we were from. He kept things broad and vague, including directions and what we were capable of as a society, because this woman still hadn't properly introduced who she really was. We knew a name, sure, but we had no more information about her than that she was a fabric mage.

When he was done, the woman's calm, confident demeanour had shifted to one of deep interest and thought. “I see. I could tell just by looking at you that you were far more than simple adventurers.”

I dipped my head to hide my embarrassed amusement. Having our whole important individual vibe pointed out like that was… it felt awkward.

“Um, yeah. Though, Nofrei… can you tell us a little of who you are? We kinda just spilled the beans here without verifying that you weren't, you know, some secret imperial operative or… you know.”

With a slight smirk, she said, “I'm too colourful to be a skulking assassin. No, I am a… first off, I am of the Tolem family. Nofrei Pherih Tolem.”

I sort of just stared at her, trying to remember if any of those names were important.

“Tolem is one of the four great lineages, yeah?” Asked Grace, leaning in towards me so our arms were flush against each other.

“Yes, and if family lore and history it to be believed, we were one rulers of a place in the old world names.. Aegipat. For nearly two thousand years, our family has existed in some form or another — although it was a near thing on more than one occasion. In fact, some of our more delusional detractors insist that the true Tolems were killed during the Transitory Wars,” she said, before shaking her head to clear it. “That's all moot, however. We have great power, political and in coin, and that's all that matters.”

Nodding, I listened while in my head, question began to build and build, until it was absolutely begging to be asked. “Okay, but… can you explain a little more about how all this families and lineages stuff works? It's a little vague to us currently.”

From what we’d heard so far, it sounded like it was just your typical noble houses thing, but I felt like we were missing a lot of cultural nuance that might make the difference.

“Well, that’s a question with a very tangled answer,” she said, pursing her lips as she took a moment to think. “To start, the empire is home to quite a few lineages, not just the four. However, the empire was founded by an accord between those four, and thus they are considered the greater lineages. A lineage is a family or set of families that can trace their ancestry all the way back and through to our origin world.”

“Okay, so… noble houses, like the Anve?” I asked tentatively.

Nofrei grimaced and gave me a bit of a look

“Okay, okay,” I said quickly, holding up my hands defensively. “Sorry. We're new.”

“Yes, and so the insult is forgiven,” she said, taking a deep breath.

Yeah, okay lady. Two thousand years was an impressive length of time, but they still sounded like nobility, but very very entrenched in the region.

“Sorry, if I could uh…” Dr. Ross said, clearing his throat. “If we were to begin talking to the empire about initiating formal communication and trade, who would we talk to?”

“Well, my lineage could surely aid you in a seamless integration into the empire, and under us, trade would naturally follow,” she said, leaning back in her seat. There was a smile on her lips, but her eyes held too much calculating intellect for it to reach them. I suppressed a shiver. I was beginning to suspect that this woman was much more dangerous as a politician than as a mage.

Several of our group exchanged concerned looks as they processed the implications of her words, but Dr. Ross just matched her smile. “Ah, I'm sorry I must have bungled my understanding of the language. I meant to say that we would begin such contact as equals, at least as far as our freedom is concerned. Currently, the government of Avonside has no plans or interest in ceding its sovereignty to another power so soon into our arrival here. We would have a great deal we could offer to a potential ally, however…’

Nofrei snorted softly. “I see. I figured as much. I'm not the one who would make such a decision anyway. My magical prowess has afforded me certain status within the Tolem lineage, but I still bear the name of a minor family.”

“What family is that, if I might ask?” Ross enquired, pulling out a notebook and pen.

“Pherih,” she said. “I am Nofrei Pherih Tolem.”

“Okay, interesting. Thank you,” he replied, writing a little more before he looked up.

“Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to hear about who you all are. I'm deathly curious.”

The conversation continued from there, with her probing for information and the rest of us giving her as much useless cultural knowledge as we could. We hadn't really discussed it ahead of time, but it was obvious that we should keep the full scope of Avonside’s tech advantage to ourselves. At a certain point, we'd seem valuable enough to risk whole armies to capture.

We did also learn a little about the current state of the wider Ghraiga Empire. The current ruling lineage were called the Sarcids, with Emperor Peadar as their man on the throne. In his youth, he'd inherited the throne from the Tolems, when their Emperor had died in battle attempting to claim some islands far to the east. Before he dropped though, he managed to add huge swaths of territory to the Empire.

Since then, Paedar and the Sarcids fought tooth and nail to stabilise and grow the sprawling Ghraiga. For the most part, they'd succeeded. Science and learning were thriving, goods flowed, and compared to previous reigns, the people were happy — according to Nofrei, anyway. I was still on the fence about how far we could trust her.

Later that afternoon, we said our goodbyes and left to find a room to rent, so we could retreat to my grove. With so much of the day still ahead, maybe I could write a report for Troy about that bandit incident. I had ideas about medics. Like, if the buns were that good at controlling their magic, we could train them and create an excellent class of medics… right? I'd have to float the idea past Troy, then see if we had any bun mages who were willing to volunteer.

I'm sure many would, if it was me who asked, which is why I'd get someone else to make the proposal to them. I wanted them to actually be interested in the idea, rather than just agreeing because they wanted to make me happy. I didn't want to take advantage of them, at least… no more than I had to. The fact that they were created with an innate desire to do what I said created some very hairy ethical dilemmas, that's for sure.