The rest of the trip went smoothly. Once they had reached the town, Amelia showed Harper where the packages needed to be brought, and what to check to see if there was anything that needed to be delivered separately from the rest. One of the letters Harper carried was one such delivery; it had instructions to be delivered directly to the town’s mayor. The town was large enough to have an administrative building, and they quickly found him there.
After feeding the horses and taking a meal break themselves, they picked up the mail being sent to Mentril, and began their ride back. Mail only very rarely made its way directly between the colony’s population centers. Most of the time, deliveries were ferried back to Mentril, where they were then organized and rerouted to whatever destination their sender intended.
As they were trotting back, Amelia began instructing Harper in some of the dangers they may encounter. “We couriers are rarely attacked. Delivering cores is the most dangerous, but they are handled exclusively by guarded transports, or Vermon. He has the Umbral Domain, and an artifact satchel that hides the presence of one and two Domain cores from most creatures. On the occasion we run into a creature that we can’t outrun or disable; they don’t usually find it worth the trouble to chase us.”
Harper raised an eyebrow. “Usually?”
The older woman nodded. “You need to be constantly vigilant of your surroundings on runs. Especially more dangerous runs, such as to an outlying fort, or that passes near an aether nexus.”
She gestured to their surroundings. “There will often be warning signs that something dangerous is near. The forest might grow too quiet, smaller creatures making themselves scarce in the presence of a predator.” She patted her horse’s mane. “Pay attention to your horse as well. They can often detect danger before we can.”
“Have you ever been attacked by a creature you couldn’t handle or outrun?” Harper asked curiously.
She nodded seriously. “Once, a few years ago. I had taken an especially dangerous job. There’s a crazy old atoran hermit southeast of the colony’s border. He has a cottage near a nexus; he even has a garden growing out there. No idea how he survives. The current theory is that he’s some eccentric Potentate that hates people. He doesn’t answer any unnecessary questions, and rushes people out as soon as possible.”
She grinned at that. “I’ve only met him a few times. We send someone out every few months and bring back some of the potions he makes. All he asks is that we bring back some specific herbs or rare creature parts, and tell him the results of any potion he’s brewed that we’ve used when we next come back. Vermon usually handles it, but it’s dangerous for him as well.”
“Are the potions worth all that?” Harper asked dubiously.
“Definitely,” she answered. “The potions are of the highest quality, and the Governor pays us well to check in on the hermit and collect potions. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise. Once, we got a potion that could cure potent poisons. The Governor used some of it to cure one of his senior hunters. He would almost certainly have died of the manticore poison otherwise. We lost enough people that day.”
After a solemn pause, she continued. “Another potion we got was a primer draught for the Magnetic Domain. The Governor traded that for a lucrative mine a small distance into New Golvoran. One night, when we were drinking, Vermon loosened up and admitted to being incredibly tempted to drink it himself. His strong sense of loyalty and common sense held him back of course.”
Harper’s eyes widened. Primers were the closest one could get to guaranteeing a Domain, even if they lacked any talent in it. If someone drank one for their first, or even second Domain, they would have to be a complete dullard to be unable to manifest it within a few weeks. Not that such a valuable resource would be wasted on someone like that. She wasn’t sure she’d have been able to resist the temptation of drinking it herself.
For someone with several Domains already, they were invaluable. Getting more than four Domains was notoriously difficult, even with pockets deep enough to buy cores unreservedly. Harper was shocked the Governor traded it away. The mine must have been absurdly valuable.
“Going once a month isn’t because we actually need to wait that long, rather, going more often is more than any of us can stomach, especially after my near-death experience.” Amelia returned to the original topic. “A few years back, we needed some extra money when my husband broke his leg and was out of work. I decided to take a run to the hermit’s cottage for the bonus.”
“The trip there went smoothly; the only thing I ran into was a single Domain rabbit that ran away after seeing me. I met with the curmudgeon, gave him the materials and reports on his work, and stored the potions in my aetherspace.”
“On my way back, I heard a loud squeal and felt the ground rumble below me. It turned out a hellboar had caught my scent and was chasing me down. “Me and Dodger, my horse at the time, booked it as fast as we could. Dodger was just a mundane horse, not to mention burdened with me, so there was no chance of us outrunning it.”
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“I did the only thing I could think of. I unstrapped myself and jumped onto a tree we were passing right before the damned pig ran down my horse.” She looked briefly angry, then her features morphed to regret. “I liked that horse; it was a shame to lose him.”
“Anyway,” she continued, “I started to turn into my Alius the moment I landed. It takes me about eighteen seconds, though I may have set myself a new record that day from raw desperation. I didn’t exactly take the time to count. The boar had turned to my tree after mowing down Dodger. The first hit dislodged the roots. The next cracked the trunk. The last shoved the tree over, sending me down with it.”
“I haven't been able to replicate forming into my Alius under such pressure before or since. My shift finished right before the tree hit the ground, narrowly avoiding disrupting the process and turning me back. If my Alius wasn’t a bird, or if I was just a little slower, I would not be here today. That was the last time I ever took that particular job.” She finished.
After hearing the story, Harper scrapped her plans to visit the hermit. Not yet anyway. They continued at a moderate pace. Amelia rattling off to Harper the different signs that she should pay attention to, and the recommended response to each. Whenever they came across a set of tracks, the older woman pointed them out. It was important to know what type of creature could be lurking about, and how recently it had come through.
She explained how she should react to creatures commonly found in the forest. Whether to back away slowly, ride away as fast as possible, make as much noise as she could, and a variety of other responses, tailored to the specific threat.
Seeing Harper’s intimidated expression at the deluge of information, Amelia grinned. “Don’t worry too much. I’ll be drilling you over the next few months, and we’ll encounter plenty of these situations over it.”
They elected to speed up, wanting to return before it got too dark. Harper kept her senses open, trying to pay attention to everything at once. She hadn’t realized how much focus her teacher had on their surroundings the way there.
It was exhausting.
She kept having to pull her attention back to her surroundings. Harper had gotten too used to taking refuge in her thoughts, blind to the outside world. This was something that would have to change. At least until she got better at being aware of her surroundings, even if subconsciously.
Eventually, they neared the city, slowing down to canter the rest of the way. Harper asked a question that had been on her mind for a while. “If you have a bird Alius, why don’t you just fly to your destination for your deliveries? Why bother taking a horse?”
She smiled in amusement. “If only it were so easy. Unfortunately, there are several factors that make that impractical. The most important is that most things we carry are not Domain materials and so can’t be taken into our aetherspaces.”
Harper began to interject before Amelia continued. “Just carrying them with my Alius has its own set of problems. For bigger deliveries, I would struggle to carry them. The most I’ve carried that way has been for letters, usually messages that the Governor has needed delivered as fast as possible. The more I carry, the more awkward and hindered my flight is.”
“That leads to the next reason. Flying can be dangerous. There’s no cover up there. Anything with a keen eyesight would be all too happy to jump a lone single Domain bird. Weaving between trees is better, but it’s much slower and the occasional predator still waits in the boughs of trees. Mundane birds manage by being a less appealing target, having no core, and following their instincts. Birds with a core usually travel in a group, making travel safer. A group like that is also something I need be careful of.”
“The last reason is that it’s often not worth the cost. The more I use my Alius, the more food I need to get for it. That’s not even mentioning that I would have to consume more cores. Getting a core a year is enough of an expense.”
Aliuses were not only expensive to grow in the first place, but to maintain. The more someone used an Alius, the more sustenance it would need to sustain itself, much like a real creature. Food was relatively easy to obtain. You could hunt mundane creatures, forage, or just buy food.
Cores were harder. Hunting even single Domain creatures was much more dangerous. They were like humanoids after being reforged by the first Domain, their bodies enhanced, their senses sharper, and their minds improved. Most people preferred to buy them, but it took a healthy chunk out of their yearly salary.
The more someone used their Alius, the more they needed to consume. Leaving one’s Alius in their aetherspace put the body in a sort of stasis. It wouldn’t totally stop the need to feed it, but it would drastically reduce the needed resources required.
“These aren’t insurmountable obstacles of course. I do make deliveries by flight every so often. Usually, an urgent job with a decent bonus attached. It just makes more sense most of the time to go by horse.” Amelia finished off.
Harper thanked her for the explanation and by that time they had arrived back at the city. Amelia showed another form to one of the guards waiting at the gate, a different guard this time, and they headed back to the city hall. The courier showed her where to drop off the packages and check them for anything pressing. Finding no such message, they left their burden in the capable hands of the delivery organizers.
Amelia turned to her. “Well, that’s it for the day. Since you’ll be with me, you’ll follow my schedule. I work from Starday to Stoneday. Not every day will be a round trip. Chances are, we’ll be staying overnight at some of the places we visit. Be prepared to be gone for several days, should it prove necessary. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
True to her word, they spent the next four days going to one of the further towns, then to villages even further than that. In the town, there was a room set aside especially for couriers to sleep in. For one of the larger villages, they lodged with the headman. All the while, Amelia taught her the courier trade, and how to safely navigate the wilds. Soon, seven days had passed faster than Harper could believe. They had three days to themselves, until the next Starday, then they’d get back to work.
