The interior of the Haven was designed similarly to the Burrow itself. Despite the building being rather large and grandiose on the outside, the inside contained thin hallways that reminded him of the tunnels outside, and countless rooms rather than any large open space. The hallways weren’t quite large enough for Vin and Hearshal to walk side-by-side down, so Vin followed behind the dwarf as he led him through the building.
“As I said before, I’ve never personally spoken with the Whisperer, but I’m aware of where we need to go to get to her,” Hearshal explained as they walked. “Anyone else I would have told them to expect to be turned away by the Whisperer’s apprentices if they made such an attempt, but if she truly has spoken to you already, I imagine she’ll direct them to let you access the second floor.”
“‘If’?” Vin asked, raising an eyebrow as they walked. “You don’t believe ?”
“I’m not saying that you’re necessarily a liar… It is just unheard of, the Whisperer speaking to anyone other than her apprentices,” Hearshal shrugged, throwing a grin over his shoulder. “Perhaps you are simply insane and hear the occasional voice inside your head. I’ve heard such ailnts can occasionally befall those who remain underground within the Burrow for too long. I like to keep an open mind.”
“Where are the Tars?” Vin asked. Following Hearshal’s lead, he flattened himself against a wall as a small family of dwarves scooted past them, nodding respectfully as they did so. “You said they were in the Haven, right?”
“They’re over in the other half of the building. Did you want to go visit them first? I sort of figured you’d be far more interested in the Whisperer reaching out to speak with you directly than visiting old acquaintances."
“No, you got the correct vibe. I was just curious,” Vin chuckled. “Whisperer first, then we can pay them a visit.”
With that, the two of them walked in silence as Hearshal led him farther into the building. Vin couldn’t shake the feeling that the Haven was so sort of giant shrine, and the fact that it was the ho of a woman with the title of the Whisperer wasn’t lost on him with how quiet everything was. Many of the rooms they passed were filled with individual dwarves or small families, all of them sitting with their legs crossed and eyes closed as if locked in prayer. He wanted to ask Hearshal about it, but with so many focused dwarves around him, he didn’t want to interrupt anyone.
He was already concentrating on stepping as lightly as possible to avoid his boots making more noise than Hearshal’s bare feet as they walked.
“This is the staircase up to the second floor,” Hearshal whispered as they turned a corner and found themselves in a room far larger than the others, this one containing nothing more than a grand staircase leading up. The lacquered wood glead in the light of the glowing stones, and a lone dwarf in a brown robe stood unmoving in the dead center of the first stair, his eyes closed and face solemn. “I don’t really want to get in trouble with any of the apprentices, so I’m going to duck out here. Feel free to ask around for later if you want to chat more! I’d be happy to tell you all about our world in exchange for information on whatever goes on up there. I’ve got a ten-year-old bet to settle with one of my school mates.”
“Deal,” Vin chuckled, exchanging nods with Hearshal before the dwarf took his bird back and left. Peering over at the stationary dwarf guarding the staircase, Vin scratched his chin, wondering how to best approach. He’d been sort of expecting to find one of these apprentices waiting for him after hearing the Whisperer speak to him herself, but this apprentice looked more like this was part of his daily ritual. He felt a bit bad about interrupting soone focusing with their eyes closed, but he had a strong feeling the dwarf would be doing this for the next few hours if he didn’t.
Walking up to him, Vin smiled and quietly cleared his throat.
“Hello. I was hoping to speak with the Whisperer?”
Slowly, the dwarf opened his eyes, a slight frown spreading across his face as he scanned Vin from head to toe. The frown deepened as his eyes caught on the boots still on Vin’s feet, before he fixed Vin with a stern gaze. Even standing on the first stair, the dwarf had to look up slightly to match his gaze. The apprentice spoke, appropriately, in a whisper as he replied.
“I understand you are guests and are curious, but we explained this already to your people. The Whisperer speaks through her apprentices for your own safety. Her voice is too powerful otherwise.”
“Ah, sorry. I’m not with the Tars,” Vin said, matching the dwarf’s whisper as he tapped at his rounded ears. “See? No tips. They’re elves, I’m a human.”
“Another outsider?” the apprentice asked, blinking in surprise as he scanned over Vin more carefully. Vin felt the dwarf silently cast a weak spell and sweep it over him, and he physically fought off the urge to peer into the apprentice’s mana and witness the runic formation being used with Beyond the Veil. He was so close to hitting level 50. If he’d made it this far, he could hold off just a little longer.
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“You have an impressive amount of mana in your soul,” the dwarf whispered. “However, mana alone is not enough to protect oneself from the Whisperer. For your own safety, I beg you to turn back.”
“You see, that’s sort of the thing. The Whisperer already reached out to when I entered the Haven,” Vin explained, gesturing to his feet. “She told I could keep the boots on because they were artifacts.” He still thought it was rather odd that the Whisperer hadn’t gone ahead and notified her apprentices of any of this, but he didn’t see the need to lie about what had happened.
“That is a bold claim,” the apprentice said, his brow furrowing as he glanced up toward the roof for a mont. “In that case, if you are truly adamant about seeking an audience with her, I suppose I can run you through the test. Should you succeed, I will escort you to her. Should you fail… there is a very strong chance you will perish. Again, I beg you to turn back. None but those chosen to take on the apprenticeship have passed the test.”
“No worries, hit ,” Vin said, causing the dwarf to blink at his utter indifference.
“...You are sure? I’m not exaggerating in order to scare you. I’ve truly seen people die before from this.”
“I’m pretty hard to kill,” Vin smiled. Once, at least.
The dwarf hesitated a mont longer, before letting out a weary sigh and nodding, as if resigned to his fate. “So be it. Please, remain still as I administer the test.”
Vin did just that, watching curiously as the apprentice raised both hands, aiming them directly at his core. Even without the use of Beyond the Veil, Vin was easily able to sense the raw mana that began pouring out of the apprentice’s palms, flowing over to him and pressing against his chest.
Vin started as the foreign mana was sohow absorbed into his core without him even doing anything, and he stared at the dwarf in shock. Thanks to Bill’s mana potions he was well aware of the fact that outside influences could help a person regain mana, but he had no idea that a mage could simply pass their own mana onto soone else like this. His own core was eagerly accepting the mana, gulping it down like a dying man in a desert finding a trickling spring. The only problem was…
His mana pool was already full.
Vin frowned as a type of discomfort he’d never felt before began building up within his core. It almost reminded him of heartburn, in a way, albeit heartburn of the soul. His initial reaction was to simply start casting a spell or two and burn off the excess mana that didn’t have anywhere to go, but he stopped himself at the last second. This was supposed to be so sort of test, and he highly doubted the test was to see if he could burn through his magic faster than the apprentice could supply it to him. In fact, as Vin focused more on the stream of mana that dwarf was hitting him with, he realized it was actually incredibly weak. The dwarf was only just tipping him over his maximum point, watching him carefully all the while to see what he would do.
Vin grunted in discomfort as his mind whirled and that burning feeling began to grow larger and larger. He had to get rid of the excess mana, but in a way that didn’t involve casting spells. It wasn’t sothing he’d ever had to do before, but it was quite literally do or die at the mont. As he raced to co up with a solution, a crazy idea popped into his head, and he fixated it on almost instantly. It was only the knowledge that his divine boon would presumably save his life if this was as stupid as he thought it might be that allowed him to go through with it.
Taking a deep breath, Vin focused on the overflow of mana within his core, doing his best to recall the sensation he’d experienced when his entire body had tried to convert itself back to mana and escape into the aether. Even with the Goddess’ ntal block firmly in place, his body had never truly forgotten the feeling of what had nearly happened to him. Doing his best to envision that happening once more, but solely to the mana that was already pure mana under his control, Vin pushed outward.
It took him a second to find the right ntal muscles, but soon enough, Vin was smiling as his mana began bleeding out of his own mana pool, drifting through the air around him and rapidly evaporating once it realized it was without purpose.
Almost imdiately, the dwarf stopped, staring at Vin with wide eyes as though he hadn’t expected him to pass his test in the slightest. With no new foreign mana being forced into him, Vin stopped pushing his mana out as well, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow as he realized he was a little short of breath. Even with his incredibly high focus attribute, willingly pushing his mana out of his body like that was almost like flexing a muscle he hadn’t even known existed, let alone one he’d ever worked before.
Arcane Discovery! 10,000 exp gained.
“Alright,” Vin grinned, chuckling at the apprentice’s stunned expression. “How did I do?”
“You… you passed,” he said, shaking his head slightly before beaming at him. His original frown and annoyed look was nowhere to be seen, replaced entirely with a broad smile and relieved expression as he closed his eyes and turned his head sideways so that his ear was pointed toward him in what Vin assud was these people’s version of a bow. “Were you a dwarf within the Burrow, you would have just earned the right to beco one of the Whisperer’s apprentices and join the Haven in truth. As an outsider… Well, I was going to say that is not a path available to you, but I genuinely don’t know if that is true. As far as I’m aware, we’ve never had an outsider pass our test before. At the very least, you have more than earned the right to speak with the Whisperer.”
“Wonderful,” Vin said, taking a quick glance at his interface and noting how he was just under ten thousand experience shy of hitting level 50 with this latest arcane discovery. “Lead the way!”
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