One of the large fire sprites was bound by the Cord of Spirit Ice. It struggled but didn't seem to make much progress.

Another floated in place with a Night Owl staring at it. Dav watched it, as well, clearly uncertain how much longer it would stay frozen but unwilling to kill it until it did break free. Sophia wasn't sure if she should be amused or annoyed that he hadn't just killed it and come to help her; should she count it as him putting profit over her safety or as him trusting her to take care of herself?

She shook her head and settled on the more charitable option. He cared about money, it was true, but he'd proven more than once that it wasn't his biggest concern. He'd also proven that he trusted her, and if she really needed help, she could ask for it.

The last one was bound by bands of light that came from Jax's shield. He had his sword out, ready to act if it broke free, but it was clear he didn't expect it from the relaxed way he stood and watched the sprite, completely unlike Dav watching the one Amy held fascinated.

Sophia shook her head. "Still figuring out what you can do with your new gear?"

"It's not that new. It's just … figuring out how to make everything I put into the Mask work. It doesn't always come out quite the way I expect, but this time it's going well. I have two different ways to bind opponents; spiked swordlight and guarding bands. The swordlight is more fragile and hurts the enemy as they break out; this can't hurt them but is sturdier." Jax chuckled. "I tried the swordlight first."

Sophia returned to her normal shape, picked up her water, and gave Jax's fire sprite a closer look. "That explains the fire weeping all over its sides. I guess I should go ahead and collect it, shouldn't I?"

Jax grinned at Sophia and waved at the fire sprite, as if offering it to her.

Sophia shook her head, splashed some water in its direction, and tried to turn it into a Firewater Plume. It wasn't until the process was already going that it occurred to her that Jax's light-bonds might interfere. Fortunately, they didn't; if anything, they made it easier because the fire sprite barely even tried to resist.

The one Ci'an had dazed or perhaps charmed was even easier, but the one trapped in the Cord of Spirit Ice simply didn't work; it was like there wasn't a fire there to capture. Dav had to release it from the cord before Sophia could get the Ability to trigger. Once he did, it seemed to take a while for the fire sprite to recover; before it did, it was trapped.

With all of the nearby fire sprites handled, Dav began to heal everyone. Sophia was the only person without a few burns, because she'd sacrificed feathers instead. Ci'an was only singed in a couple of places, while Jax was the worst off with some fairly notable burns on both arms from his attempts to capture the fire sprite. Everyone else was in between and even Jax would heal in an hour or two with Dav's help.

At least, that was his estimate.

Once they were all ready, Xin'ri went back to carefully harvesting the largest fireflowers while everyone else gathered other useful parts of the plants. It wasn't until Xin'ri closed the box on the fourth oversized fireflower that a message from the Guide appeared.

Feat Completed!

For your Feat of reducing the threat level of Fireflower Hollow, you have been granted a reward!

Fireflower Hollow has not been completely cleared in seventeen years. While it is still not completely cleared, you have removed the primary threats that were present and prevented any more from reaching that stage for a minimum of five years.

Fireflowers aspect all nearby mana to fire. They use it to feed their fire sprites and, sustain themselves through harsh conditions, and store any excess in their "flowers," though those can more correctly be called seeds. Once the "flower" is fully saturated with mana, it detaches from the main plant and is carried by the plant's fire sprite to the farthest location the sprite can reach before the sprite dies from the seed's drain. They prefer places where they can establish Hollows, and fireflowers are one of the pioneer species, able to initiate the creation of a Hollow in conditions that are otherwise good enough. These locations include most human settlements. While fireflowers themselves are not a significant threat, the transformation of a settlement location into a Hollow is a valid threat.

Only four of the fire sprites in this Hollow were strong enough to reach a settlement while carrying a fireflower seed. Those sprites and the seeds they would have carried are now all gone.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Reward: Fire Mana Fissure Opened

Fireflowers can also share mana through their roots. Normally, this only goes in one direction: towards the center of a fireflower field, to help build the seeds that will result in the next fireflower field. With the loss of all four of the strongest fireflowers, the fireflowers have temporarily lost control of their fire mana network and a fire mana fissure will open between the four large fireflowers. It will last until it is sufficiently drained or the fireflower patch recovers sufficiently to reestablish control.

Completely draining the fire mana fissure will kill the entire fireflower patch and open the Hollow for a new seeding. No additional Feat will be awarded for killing the fireflower patch.

"I didn't actually think it would work," Ci'an admitted. "Not after we saw how many of the fireflowers had fire sprites and how big this place is. There's no way we could clear this entire Hollow."

"You're the one that suggested it," Jax said with a grin. "And now you know why Feats for clearing Hollows are really rare. This is possibly the easiest one I've ever gotten, and I couldn't have picked it up with most of the teams I've worked with. We couldn't have triggered it in the first place; if we could gather fire flowers at all, I'm sure we'd have given up on the big ones."

Xin'ri snorted. "That just means you weren't working with a Professional to gather them. Which is the fault of the Professionals, not you; all too many choose to be Professionals because they don't want to leave safety. It's not safe, but …"

She trailed off and shook her head. "But that's not what's important right now. Do any of you have a use for the fire mana fissure?"

Sophia started to shake her head, then paused. "I might be able to steal some of the fire for more firewater plumes. I have some water left. I'll have to take only a little of it, but I think I can manage that since it's supposed to be mana." She'd have to manually separate off some of the mana using her aura before she could turn it into a plume with her remaining water, but she was good with mana. She should be able to do that.

"We can return with more water, for that," Xin'ri stated firmly. "I will also want to capture some, but we won't be able to sell anything I capture. I can use it to make a really good fire staff for my use, along with some crystals I can use to recharge it. I should be able to use firewater plumes, too, as long as I design that in. Or, hm. Maybe I should go for a steam staff instead?"

"Why not as well?" Dav suggested. "They would be useful in different situations, and it's not like you have to choose. Unless I pick something up in my upgrade, I can't use it, and I'd say that something that will help you fight is better than something we can sell. We already have that."

Sophia brightened. "Does that mean you're ready to take your upgrade now?"

"I have the Wisps," Dav agreed, "but shouldn't I wait until we're back in Tiwaz's ruins?"

"You're not going to fall over the way you did for the first upgrade." Jax winked at Dav. "Sophia and Ci'an didn't, did they? I just had them do it in the ruins because we had the time to wait and it's safe there. We've cleared out this Hollow; it'll be fine."

"All right." Dav sounded doubtful, but he sat down anyway. Sophia could tell when he triggered the level; she knew he'd be busy with picking his upgrade for a while. It took her more than an hour to choose, and she'd ended up with the same thing as the previous upgrade. It would probably be the same for him, or harder. He had to consider what his choices meant for his Signature, after all, if he could figure that out. Neither Xin'ri nor Jax seemed to be certain what his options would be, but he could always ask once he saw his choices.

Sophia and Xin'ri headed over to the four large flowers and found the "fire mana fissure" the Guide talked about. It wasn't directly visible unless you could see mana, but it was easy to tell where it was anyway; the plants in a gash that was probably a foot wide and four feet long were dried out. In the middle, they were already starting to blacken. Sophia wasn't sure if they'd actually ignite or not, but her initial guess was that they would, and probably soon.

To her mana sight, obviously fiery mana was pouring up from below. The weird thing was that once it was in the air, it seemed to spread out and then slowly vanish. Sophia tried to follow it for a few minutes and eventually came to the conclusion that it was being reabsorbed by the plants around them. It wasn't only the fireflowers, either; all of the nearby plants were adapted to fire mana, and as long as they weren't too close to the fire mana fissure, they seemed to welcome the additional mana.

Sophia returned to the fissure and found Xin'ri using a wand to slowly channel the fire mana into a roughly five foot long stick. It was clearly the body of the next staff Xin'ri planned to make, but right now it was completely unadorned and simply looked like wood. "Will the wood be able to handle all of the fire mana?"

Xin'ri chuckled. "Not a chance, but it doesn't have to. This is going to become engraving ink for whatever I end up making; wood doesn't hold fire mana particularly well, but ash does, and it's by far the best way to get the fire mana into the engraving ink. It's always best to incorporate the mana as part of the pigment; if it has to be carried in the binding agent, even distribution or in this case transmission of the mana is more difficult.

Sophia blinked at the explanation and decided not to ask why she was using what seemed to be a perfectly good piece of wood to get ashes. The explanation would almost certainly be that it was a particular type of wood prepared in a particular way and Sophia simply didn't want to hear it. If she heard it, she might have to care.

Instead, she grabbed some of the fire mana well away from where Xin'ri was working and tried to condense it into a ball. It definitely didn't want to cooperate, but it didn't get any actual say in the matter; it was going to be a firewater plume shortly.

By the time Dav finished picking his upgrade, Xin'ri had a surprisingly small amount of black ash in a sealed glass jar and Sophia was out of water but had five more firewater plumes.

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