The floating fox seemed to stare at Sophia. It swiped a paw at her from much too far away to actually connect, but Sophia jumped anyway.

  It took her entirely too long to realize that she was watching the fox through an image created by the Guide. When she did, she stepped back a couple of steps and took the chance to look at it.

  Grand Feat Completed!

  For your Grand Feat of casting the primary spell shown in the Spring Plaza of the Spirits of the Woods Challenge, you have been granted a reward!

  This Feat is awarded to anyone who casts the Grand Spell Part the Veil while standing in the Spring Plaza of the Spirits of the Woods Challenge without having cast it before or gained it as an Ability previously.

  Reward: Grand Spell: Part the Veil

  Like all Grand Spells, Part the Veil is highly flexibile and variable, with effects that vary depending on the spellcaster and their Attunements. Common Spell Fragments include Spirit Sight, Spirit Walk, Summon Spirit, Solidify Spirit, Mistform, Out of Phase, and Exorcise. The Grand Theme is a connection to the Realm of the Spirits.

  (feather image)

  Your Patron greets you!

  You've definitely surprised me this time. I only know one person who can directly learn a Grand Spell. The rest of us learn Spell Fragments and Ability Fragments, then try to combine them together into a Grand Spell or Grand Ability. I wonder if you have a particular connection to this specific Grand Spell or if you are a true prodigy like Lady M'Beja?

  If you can learn more, you will need to decide if you should. The time spent on learning a second Grand Spell could also be spent on learning Spell Fragments of the spell you have. For many people, possibly even most, starting with a Grand Spell you know something about is a far better way to create a useful diverse Ability set than starting from many different points and trying to make them work together.

  It will not be relevant for you for a long time, but a Grand Ability or Grand Spell is required to truly reach the third upgrade; it is almost like that is how you are supposed to gain your Sphere and its Abilities, but the Guide gives a lesser version earlier. For now, what you need to know is that your Grand Spell can do very little on its own, but you can derive Spell Fragments from it to do anything within its Grand Theme. Those can be slotted as Sub-Spells of the Grand Spell.

  I doubt those around you will know much of Grand Spells. They are rare in the Broken Lands. Most that I have seen are granted with the second Upgrade and are pallid imitations of the real thing, because the Broken Lord limits his followers' Sub-Spells the same way he limits their Abilities: they can do the one thing he wants them to do very well, but they do not have the flexibility to do more or the power to stand against him. The followers of the Tower of Kestii are not shackled by his limits but few are Hallowed and therefore do not have the aid of a Patron in reaching a Grand Ability early.

  I wish you luck. I fear that you will need it all too soon.

  --The Wanderer

  Sophia took a deep breath, then let it out. She felt herself calm slightly, so she did it again.

  The floating fox wasn’t a real fox; it was a fox spirit. She could also feel it with her aura, a small spot with denser Death mana at nearly the height of her head. She’d clearly granted herself the temporary ability to see spirits when she cast the three-part spell without proper direction. It probably meant she’d been thinking about the spirits outside.

  It might even be because of the small fox spirit. Her mind might have drifted to it while she was finalizing the spell, since she could feel it in her aura. It sounded like this was well within the spellform’s design, since Spirit Sight was listed as one of the common Spell Fragments. As odd spell effects went, seeing spirits was minor.

  There was no message about learning Spirit Sight, though. Maybe that wasn’t how it worked for Spell Fragments?

  Checking her Status should be an easy way to find out.

  Not much had changed since the last time she looked, which made the changes easy to see. The Grand Spell was definitely its own section, which seemed like a good thing. She’d expected to have to find a place for it in one of the two Spell sections, and for a moment she’d almost worried that it wouldn’t fit in either. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d gotten something she literally couldn’t use from the Guide.

  She couldn’t do anything with it until she either managed to figure out how to make a Spell Fragment or got more Wisps so that she could open up a slot under the Grand Spell. She probably needed both.

  Only one other thing on her Status attracted her attention. Her Spheres had a new entry; first was her Spellblade Hallow, then Cliff’s Collector Sphere, with the note that it was Linked. Under Collector, there was a new Psychic Bulwark Linked Sphere.

  It wasn’t hard to guess that Linked meant it belonged to someone else, especially not when she didn’t see it listed anywhere else on her Status. It seemed unlikely that it belonged to Cliff, so Sophia found herself glancing at Taika. He hadn’t mentioned a new Sphere, but he had just mentioned being able to see his Status. Psychic Bulwark didn’t seem to perfectly match his illusionary Abilities, but it seemed likely that those were Species-related the way Invisible Ink was.

  With that, Sophia could believe that Taika might choose something to protect the mind. That sort of fit the idea of a Comfort Animal. Sort of.

  She could ask him about it later. Right now, something more important was on her mind. “Does anyone know anything about Spell Fragments?”

  “You managed to learn a Spell Fragment?” Amy’s shock was obvious. “That’s amazing. Do you think it’s because you used all three pillars? Is Taika going to learn a Spell Fragment too?”

  Sophia shifted her attention to the colorful chinchilla. He’d finished the second pillar and was now at the third, with the images of the first two tree-pillars nearly completed. She expected he’d start on the third one soon. She really wasn’t sure what would happen, though she was pretty certain it would be different from what she ended up with. “Maybe. Did he learn an Ability from the second pillar? Are either of you going to try?”

  The moment she asked, she realized it was a dumb question. Dav clearly was trying; he was seated in the middle of the three pillars with his eyes closed.

  Amy was just as clearly simply waiting. She shook her head. “There isn’t much point, not if I’m going to follow the Night Owl route. I won’t be able to afford to slot them. That might push Night Owl out of my list of options. It’s specialized enough that you have to really focus on it to actually have it land on your list.”

  Sophia tilted her head to the side. That didn’t sound at all like the list she’d had to choose from, which was so long it was nearly impossible to deal with. “How many options do you get?”

  It wasn’t until the words were out of Sophia’s mouth that she realized it might seem like a strange question. Fortunately, Amy didn’t take it that way; she seemed to consider it part of the same ignorance Sophia had shown before. “It’s a little more complex than that. Didn’t Rensyn go over it with you?”

  Sophia shook her head. She didn’t think he had. It was possible she’d lost it in everything else he talked about, but she was pretty sure he’d pushed it off as something they didn’t need to worry about yet.

  “Right, then I should.” Amy nodded firmly. “You get the option to split your Sphere, take a new Sphere, merge two Spheres - well, obviously I can’t do that since I only have one Sphere - or upgrade your Sphere. Splitting or taking a new Sphere lowers your Level and you have to get back to the upgrade point. Merging can lower your level but it doesn’t always. Upgrading your Sphere, well, that’s why we call it the first upgrade.”

  That seemed ridiculously complex and unnecessary, but Sophia could follow so far. She nodded silently.

  “Okay, so, most people get either three or five upgrade paths. The Broken Lord’s Hallowed only get one, but they’re fine with that. It’s a faith thing.” Amy’s expression twisted for a moment, before she smoothed it out and continued. “I had five choices of my original Sphere, so I expect to get five upgrade options.”

  She started counting them on the fingers of her left hand. “There should be a direct upgrade to my current Sphere, one that is specialized to emphasize my most commonly used Abilities, one that emphasizes the usual role I fill in a fight, one that is broader in some way and will let me branch out to do something else, and one that, well, it’s called the Guide’s Choice. It can be anything. Sometimes it’s completely weird and nothing like your previous Sphere and other times it’s an extremely specialized version of your Sphere that depends on variations of a single Ability.”

  Sophia nodded to show she was following. It was nothing like her initial set of options, which was a huge uncurated list. She didn’t know if that was deliberate or simply because she was an unknown. She also wasn’t sure she wanted to ask; Amy had mentioned that the Broken Lord’s Hallowed only got one choice. What if getting a lot of choices made it was obvious she was Hallowed and Amy held that against her?

  She really did need to feel Amy out about the Broken Lord and … what did the Wanderer call it? The Tower of Kestii?

  “People who only get three usually get the two specialized choices and the Guide’s Choice, so they’re more likely to try to guide their options with additional Spheres and merges or splits, which …” Amy turned her head sharply and stopped in the middle of her explanation.

  Sophia had to turn to follow her gaze.

  Dav had just stood up. He had a frown on his face. He shook his head, then looked at Amy. “Why is the Guide calling this an Ability Fragment? It looks like a whole Ability to me.”

  I wonder what Ability Fragment Dav learned … and what Taika might have picked up…

  Not to mention Cliff. Sophia forgets about him. She really shouldn’t.