Tutorial's End

Fractured Clan Translated War Songs

The Lark Clan's Song

Slip forward, reticent tide. Metal bends; devotion wanes. Enemies break; weakness slain.

Strike forth, never be kind! Charge in; fury unbound. Know and be; ever free. - Ever free! Ever free! -

Chase as the waves subside. Trace metal red; hammer's wake. Hound the frail, bleeding trail.

Strike forth, never be kind! Charge in; fury unbound. Know and be; ever free. - Ever free! Ever free! -

Slip forward, reticent tide. Caught upon shore: you die. - You die! You die! - Mettle bends; devotion wanes. The clans will prove your bane. - Your bane! Your bane! - Enemies break; weakness slain. We return home; victors untamed - Ever free! Ever free! -

Madrick

Lark Clan War Camp, The Emerald Plains, Pashaka

"HAUH!" The roar of a thousand warriors broke the sanctity of pre-dawn's silence. Resisting the nearly overpowering urge to let his trembling hands drop his sword in exhaustion, Madrick roared with his men and women. Over the last six attempts to correct his past life's failures, he'd been reacquainted to the singular agony of physical training.

The mock opponent facing Madrick bore a savage grin matching his own. Their Hallstatt swords crossed perfectly at their thickest point a handful of centimeters from their tips. Standing shoulders nearly touching in a line to either side of Madrick, five hundred men and women all stood in a perfect mirror with another five hundred opposite. Each warrior pressed with all their might against the other, unwilling to give a single speck of dirt to their opponent.

Opening his mouth, Madrick roared, "HAUH!" Counting a single second, Madrick repeated his cry as his warriors took it up in the same instant. He slid his left foot back and pulled his sword in. His opponent followed perfectly, their blades remaining locked together without sliding upward or downward. Every single warrior in the thousand-strong unit moved and struggled as one. Including their leader.

After six failures, Madrick felt he'd finally begun to approach his prior glory. This morning's exercise was one of his own devising, pressing himself and his people to their absolute limits.

Like most others, Madrick relied on his advancement to enhance and fuel his body. While he regularly shattered limits and overcame impossibilities, his path turned all suffering for the sake of domination into momentum for the war machine within. He hardly felt the epic strain of effort anymore, much less the pain of base physical training. It had all felt alien to him, beneath him, during his first attempt.

In that life, he had been strung up and used as a target for thrown axes of more worthy warriors. In his second attempt, he had joined the men in their training and had been mocked for his sudden apparent infirmity. His body, after all, was exactly as it had been during the events he was replaying. It was his mind which had grown soft. A shocking, unacceptable, revelation. He had been challenged to a duel and slain in combat by a more diligent combatant.

Two years worth of time and four attempts later, he had finally properly conquered his own feeble body again: forcing it beyond its complaints and weakness.

"HUAH!" Came his mechanical command. He waited half a second, then pressed forward. Twisting his arms down and out, he forced his opponent into the same position he had previously been in.

Overcoming his once-again fully human body's weakness, or rather the weakness of a mind not accustomed to pain, was not enough. He had accomplished that much in his first life. It had not saved him.

"HUAH!" A fourth of a second and he echoed himself along with his troops. He turned his forward-most foot outward and leaned in. His partner leaning and turning his back foot in, bracing against the extra strain.

No. Strength alone could not force the shattered clans to join together. Unity required respect, not just power.

"HUAH!" The wall of steel and muscle screamed in unison now. There was no delay between command and action. Madrick took another step, trusting his opposite to force him into the correct position as he followed the arc of their bound blades. His feet turned fully, his opponent's following as a perfect mirror. The pressure between them never eased. Madrick could now see half of the training unit behind his partner.

They continued their dance, faster now. "HUAH!" they sung together. Madrick stepped back, a single confident stride. Trusting the rest of his people to move accordingly, he followed the steps of battle. His arm was taut and strained. His dirty black hair dripped sweat. His legs, back, and core muscles all held tension. His entire body labored to keep his opponent's sword at bay.

"HAUH!" Madrick and his opposite both shoved in the same beat, breaking their swords' contact for the first time. "HUAH!" Madrick struck high, and was parried. At the very moment their swords struck the troop's beat struck. "HUAH!" The blades flicked apart, each twisting to reconnect in the next moment. "HUAH!" a thousand feet slid forward, a thousand feet slid back.

The beat gained momentum, each coming with the beat of the army's synchronized breathing. Every step was perfect. A thousand men and women moved perfectly within the dance of war.

After so many attempts, Madrick had realized he needed to overcome more than his own mind and body. He needed to do more than inspire his army. He needed to inspire those he would rule, all of them.

"HUAH! HUAH! HUAH!" Every combatant broke from their partners in a three step spin. Madrick now faced a short woman with determined green eyes, her partly bound fizzy red hair threatening to break loose.

Their hallstatts flashed. "HUAH! HUAH! HUAH! HUAH! HUAH!" Strike, parry. Slice, block. Stab, counter. Step right and cut down. The dance continued.

Drums joined their dance. Madrick knew his army had no drums. Their enemy had arrived and had joined, in their own way.

He called for the end sequence to their training, "HVAAARH!" He drew out the roar, throwing his head back as he stepped into a new set of movements. He effortlessly danced around his opponent, who maintained their previous tempo and rhythm. "HUAH, HUAH!"

Three seconds passed, then the entire dance shifted. The shared throat of the training army called out, "HVAAARH!"

Everyone on Madrick's side began to follow his dodging dance, while their opposites continued to cut and strike with abandon. With perfect confidence their blows would either destroy, or miss.

Three more seconds passed. "HVAARH!" Madrick and his army called as one, spinning in a single motion. Madrick and those facing the same direction as himself performed the same three step turn, then added a final step backward. Those they had been facing simply took a step backward and another to their right, opening a perfect space for their companions' spin to end. The entire troop now faced the direction of the beating drums.

The bottom of the east side of the hill they were performing on was occupied by a small force of cavalry. Perhaps two hundred heads watched from the hill's foot. Thirty of the horsemen had large drums strapped across their shoulders, held vertically so either arm could strike their instrument as needed.

The very moment Madrick's training force finished its dance, the newcomers stopped their accompaniment. The sudden silence was deafening, soft dawn light illuminating everyone. Madrick stepped forward, held his sword arm up and shouted, "HUAH!"

A single seconds later, his army replied. This time, the entire army took up the call. Not just the training thousand. Behind them, further up the hill, the rest of his twenty thousand had noticed their visitors and readied themselves in case of foul play.

Now, their eager voices joined the raw tone of their exhausted fellows. One second passed, they chanted again, "HUAH!" Madrick thrust his sword up again in line with the beat. The cavalrymen seemed uncertain at first, but as they increased the fever pitch of the chant, the drums joined the song.

Of all the things Madrick had seen in his many thousands of years, he had been inspired innumerable times. However, there was one source of inspiration which had never failed him, never fallen flat, never run dry. Thus, he had chosen to share that inspiration with his countrymen.

Music and dance, but of a style which their cultures could embrace. Stripping away all the pageantry and nicety, a dance was the same as a martial art. Music could express the rhythm of war.

Egret clan had joined in unbidden at first, then once more when invited. This would be the first thread of a bridge he, Madrick, would construct. This time, his unification of the tribes would not come through the strength of his arms and army. This time, they would be unified in purpose and culture. Every clan wished for strength.

Striding forward under the unrelenting beat, Madrick approached the Egret clan's famed cavalry with full confidence. His army did not follow him, they maintained their steady rhythm, the Egret drummers following their lead. They had already fallen under his leadership, though their uncertain glances toward their commander said they didn't yet realize it.

Throwing a hand up, his army's chant ended in an instant. Madrick smiled down at the cavalry's leader, as he looked up into the man's face, "Welcome, friends! Care to test your mettle?"

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He would show them strength which not even war could properly demonstrate. After all, domination came in many forms and war was only one of them.

Willow

Shandy's Cups, Vesheen City, Shee

With a deep, content, sigh, Willow pushed the large, now empty, plate away and sat back. Pushing her chair onto its back two legs, she stretched her arms up as she bent her back in an exaggerated motion. The meal had tasted wonderful. A shaved beef, or something similar, served over potatoes and onions all topped in a rich gravy. Absolute bliss. Of course, that wasn't the main reason she was being so dramatic.

"WELL!?" Ravvy blurted, voice full of expectation and annoyance. Luzzi had cautioned that they shouldn't discuss any details until they were somewhere secure. They arrived back at the inn, rented out rooms for the night, and ordered food. Ravvy had even paid extra to have the bartender show them to one of the few private dining rooms, which were enchanted to avoid anyone overhearing meetings within.

So, of course, Willow had decided to have a bit of fun and ignore all of his questions as she slowly enjoyed her meal. If Luzzi hadn't clearly been amused, she probably would have just immediately jumped into catching up with them immediately. However, Luzzi was clearly willing to be patient. And Ravvy was clearly not. It was too good an opportunity to pass up.

"Well?" She answered through a yawn, "Should we go to bed, or…"

"HUMANS! DAMN YOU PEOPLE! TELL US WHAT HAPPENED!!" Ravvy practically screeched. His voice rising higher and higher, breaking on the last sentence.

She snickered and rubbed a hand down the side of her face, as she saw Luzzi dramatically pulling both of her paws over her own repeatedly. Willow was a bit surprised the usually serious paavaras was as amused by stretching Ravvy's torment out as Willow herself was, but she wouldn't complain.

"Ooooh! That! Don't you wanna go first? I wouldn't wanna be selfish and take the spotlight or…"

"No! No! We want to know what YOU did to break the damn rift! Because we definitely didn't do anything! Besides, you pretty much admitted to being the cause of the rift disappearing and all that chaos we were dropped into! Actually, you asked if rifts 'closing' always caused explosions or something, right? Did you close it somehow? Did you learn some spell? Did you break the scenario so badly that the rift decided it'd rather stop existing than deal with you?!" Ravvy's voice again rose in pitch and volume with each excited suggestion. He was literally bouncing in his seat, so excited he apparently couldn't even sit still.

Luzzi was slowly rubbing one of her hands down the right side of her face, apparently subconsciously, as she watched the hazzabi. He was generally all prickly, but now seemed like a kid who had just been promised a trip to an ice cream shop. It was a good thing the room was, supposedly, warded for privacy.

"Okay, okay… Let's see, how to start…" Willow let her chair fall back to all four legs and rested her right hand on the table top, her left falling into her lap. She tapped the tabletop as she considered how exactly to tell her story.

"Alright, so after we got separated, I found myself in this medieval style town square and some kid brought me a poster of the rat king…"

Ravavka

Shandy's Cups, Vesheen City, Shee

An hour later, the insane human woman wrapped up her story. She was standing several paces from the table, having hopped up to demonstrate something at one point. She'd never sat back down, instead getting even more engrossed in her story telling. Willow had mimed fights, acted both parts a drama between of two lovers she had seen, and even alternated between squatting and standing as she recounted her last conversation between that sorcharas and herself.

"So I eventually chose the boon and guide… Hopefully those were the right choices?" She ended a bit uncertainly, looking between himself and Luzzi.

He blinked each set of his eyes separately, an expression to show disbelief rather than a necessity. Willow certainly didn't understand what it meant, because he hadn't told her. It was generally more fun to let people misunderstand him than to explain himself. That had been particularly true with Willow. She was more ready to argue and bicker than nearly any other being he'd met, and yet she didn't seem to actually dislike him despite constantly taking an aggressive or annoying stance toward her.

Perhaps he should have spent more time with humans, it seemed they were more fascinating than he'd always thought.

He saw Willow relax a bit, then a moment later saw Luzzi's soothing tone as she answered. "Those options all seemed to have their own merits." Glancing toward the paavaras with his central eye, Ravavka saw Luzzi's tail swaying lazily as each split tip curved into a C. Relaxed and pleased or content, then.

His visual eye returned to Willow even as he saw her reply, "That's kind of what I thought, too. Though I was really unsure about the guide versus key… Madrick mentioned them before, but didn't really say which was more rare or valuable."

"Guides are more rare." Ravavka answered definitively. Then amended, as he felt the imprecise answer could be a little misleading, "Rather, decent guides are rare. Most guides are bad, but all keys are good. No matter what key you get, it can be used. However, if you get a guide which, say, leads you by subtly altering threads of causality which can only be read by someone with a suitable path, then it's useless to you."

Pulling his legs up to his chest in the too-large human sized chair, Ravavka considered the revelation Willow had casually dropped on them. Rifts can be 'completed' in more than one way, huh? And one of those ways will completely destroy the rift… I wonder if only one person can ever get the benefit of clearing its 'trial' rather than just its 'challenges.' If multiple people can be rewarded, then would Luzzi and I have gained more if we backed Willow up better? Or at least didn't resign ourselves to the fate of following the narrative? Is the challenge of every narrative type rift related to breaking the narrative, or was it just this particular one? Was Chip within a trial and failed it, rather than the rift being broken?

Realizing the conversation had moved on without him, Ravavka looked back up from the wood-grains of the table and caught the end of Luzzi's question, "…boon does?"

"Not exactly? When the boon entered into my soul nexus, it kind of bounced around until I made room for it. It turned into a new room off of my dojo, it's a library now! So, I'm sure it has to do with information or record keeping or something. Probably?" Seeing Willow's scrunched face was almost amusing. After his burst of excitement had died down, Ravavka felt a bit drained. As he always did after experiencing a large amount of emotion.

Certainty worth it, as always. He thought, fondly remembering the sensation.

"You should test it. I'm happy to help you devise experiments. However…" Luzzi hesitated and Ravavka guessed her tail likely flicked toward him to indicate something like a quick glance, though he couldn't be sure since his peripheral vision caught nothing.

He understood what Luzzi didn't want to say and picked it up for her. "You shouldn't tell others exactly how anything in your soul nexus works. They can use it against you." A quick glance toward Luzzi confirmed her relief at not having to broach the topic as her tail tips formed a T.

"Oh… Well, don't?" Willow suggested, sounding a bit confused. "I trust you two. Well, Luzzi. And I know I can beat Ravvy up if he crosses me." She bragged, showing her teeth to Ravavka in a feral manner. He accepted the barb and returned, "Pft, only if I let you get close to me. I could fry you from a planet away and you'd never see it coming!"

Before she could snipe back, Luzzi returned them to the serious topic at hand, "We shall not use this information against you…" A hesitation, probably another 'glance' his way, before she continued. "At least, I won't. However, it is common wisdom to keep information about your soul as close to the vest, so to speak, as possible. Knowing you visualize your nexus as a dojo suggests that a good method to cripple your soul would be to challenge your understanding of what a dojo is. Should someone be able to sufficiently confuse your understanding, or even shatter it, your nexus can be dramatically damaged. A damaged soul nexus is difficult, if not impossible, to repair without respawning to start anew. With your achievement which makes your nexus remain between respawns, such a tactic is doubly dangerous to you."

"Hmm… Well, it's fine. I know what a dojo is, so I don't have to worry about that. Right?"

"Perhaps…" Luzzi hesitated again. Once more, not wanting to state the truth to the silly whelp.

He took that role happily, "And by 'perhaps' what Luzzi means is you're stupid to think like that."

To his surprise, Willow didn't take that as a challenge and shoot something snarky back, she just turned to stare at him, waiting for more. He obliged, "No one knows everything about anything. At least, not anyone who just arrived. Maybe there are some gods who have explored their insights so deeply that they truly know everything, but that can't be applied to any of us down here in the base or ranker ranks."

The girl still didn't interrupt, apparently taking him seriously. This was one of the things about Willow which made her interesting to Ravavka. He had intentionally spoken in a condescending and argumentative way, fully expecting her to reply in kind as she usually did. Instead, she apparently interpreted his words as being worth listening to, despite knowing he'd poked a button or two. She disliked the condescending tone he'd used.

Seeing as she was still paying attention, he continued, pilling on sarcasm, "Or do you really know the entire history of a 'dojo', how every single being who ever made one thought of it, what the purpose of every beam and block in its creation is, and every spiritual connotation ever attached?" Just for good measure, he lifted his lips in the closest thing to a sneer he could manage. He'd been assured his species lack of lips and wide mouth was disconcerting, and even disgusting, to humans. Not that Willow seemed to care much anymore.

Instead of getting the rise he was looking for, she nodded slowly, eyes distant. "I guess that's true… Maybe I should have said, 'I know what a dojo is to me'? I don't think the meaning and understanding of what a dojo is to me can really be changed. Refined, enhanced, maybe. Expanded, probably? But…"

She shrugged, "A dojo is a dojo. And I've lived more than half of my life in one. Or you could call it a gym, either way, really. It's all the same. Besides, dojo's just the word I use. How do you know that you're interpreting what I'm saying right? Maybe what I call a dojo is something else to you? It's just a word, not the concept itself, after all."

"Huh? Who are you? Did our punchy human get replaced by someone with a brain in that rift?!" Ravavka cried dramatically, throwing his arms up and widening all of his eyes.

She rolled her eyes and tossed a shard of ice at him after fishing it out of the glass of water in front of her. "My brain works just fine, thanks."

"Please, let us return to the subject at hand…" Luzzi placated. "Please avoid sharing too much of your soul's inner workings with anyone you have even the slightest reservation of. Even those you trust, consider whether they actually have need to know. If they do not, it is better to keep it to yourself. Knowing secrets of another's soul is a burden, as much as an honor."

Ravavka nodded along with that, agreeing fully. He'd personally prefer not to know anyone's nexus configuration or how they imagined it.

"Okay, deal… I'll keep the details to myself." Willow answered, though she sounded a bit disappointed. Understandable. Most new arrivals wished to get advice on building their nexus from others with more experience, hoping sharing would help someone coach them in their path. Unfortunately, only scammers and charlatans would claim they could help someone on their path by knowing more about it.

Deciding it was time to get back to something more important, Ravavka tapped the table to get their attention, "Enough boring stuff. What kind of guide did you get?"

"Oh! I haven't actually looked yet. I have a weird UICI message that says I can 'accept' it whenever I want. Will it… Like… Appear in front of me when I accept?"

"For most rift rewards, no. You would need to collect the reward as you left. However, it seems this is a special circumstance. The only time I've seen a similar prompt was after acquiring a UA which rewarded a physical object. When I chose to accept, the reward materialized in my hand." Luzzi replied.

"Great! Then…" Willow held her hand out. A distant expression and a few seconds later, a soft glow began to emanate from just above her outstretched palm. In the next instant, a tiny pink blob of goo was jiggling in her hand.

Ravavka fell back laughing. "Your guide is some kind of fairy snot!"

Seeing Willow's slight look of disgust, he could only laugh harder.