“My teeth and nails are still red,” Archibald said, grinning inquisitively while staring into a shard of grey ice that Micky’s main body had repurposed into a mirror.
The patriarch’s scalp was as smooth as always, his face looking not a day over thirty, despite having been around for over twenty times that long. Ignoring his unassuming grey eyes and other generic facial features, he seemed only concerned with his creepy smile and magical manicure.
‘Well, I wasn’t here to prevent the mutation from spreading to those body parts when you consumed the ruby powder, but I can stop your nail matrix and dental sacs from continuing to attach it,’ the clone possessing him explained. ‘I guess that your nails will be back to normal in a few months, though you’ll probably have to pull out your teeth and grow new ones with your life mana.’
Percy’s main body had already left the tent alongside his fellow aspect after placing a piece of his soul in his grandfather’s body. They still had hundreds of relatives to grant new mana cores and regular teeth to, though very few people would get to chat with the clone afterwards.
The corner of the patriarch’s lips twitched, though he eventually sighed in resignation. “Doing it for the whole family will be inconvenient. I’m not looking forward to telling parents that I have to break their child’s teeth, though I suppose a little pain is better than having coloured teeth for the rest of their lives.”
‘Broken teeth are the least of their worries,’ Percy said. ‘Don’t forget that I’ll have to possess them to apply the changes, and soul injuries hurt a lot more than physical ones. It’s a good thing we didn’t let anyone too young consume the powder.’
“It is. Receiving a new mana core is also a great way to console the unlucky ones,” Archibald agreed, before moving to a different topic. “Have you decided which of your resources you’re going to share?”
The clone mentally nodded. ‘Please invite the other families to the Guild. I know how difficult it is for everyone to move at once, so it’s fine if they send a few mages at a time to receive their new cores, ruby powder and the Dance. I can also spare enough Gloomy Dawn for eleven mana cores without eating into my reserves. We’ll have to carefully consider who gets it.’
Initially, Nephthys and her mother had struggled to produce enough royal jelly for their own second cores and all of Percy’s and Micky’s. Thankfully, their output had greatly increased over the past decade. Even before her recent evolution, the Ruby Empress had been able to support everyone nearly twice over by herself.
Her first core’s promotion to White hadn’t quite tripled her production, because she still had to rely on her acid mana to support it, but developing her new mutations had helped her do that more efficiently, so her output had still taken another massive leap forward.
Archibald nodded. “We’ll have to be smart about it. Give it to those who will have the biggest impact on the war. It would be wasted on my first core, since it’d still be centuries away from White.”
‘Indeed. It should place your second core around four years away from Blue though, so you’re still getting some,’ Percy said. ‘The same applies to Periphetes and the Violets of the allied Houses. That’s all I can afford right now, but the royal wasps keep getting better at producing it and I at brewing it. It won’t be long before I can spare some for the Guild’s Violets, followed by our family’s Blues.’
“Give some to Galahad then,” Archibald suggested. “His first core should be the closest to Violet. Maybe fifteen years away with Gloomy Dawn? After that, just help everyone raise their second core to Blue.”
The wasps weren’t ready to support so many people just yet, so Percy would have to push things along. He was still too scared to artificially promote his familiar’s first core to Blue – especially after nearly losing control of the Cradle near the end of the recent battle – but promoting her second core should be fine. It wouldn’t be long before the first one advanced naturally either.
As for the next natural advancement of the wasps’ second cores, Percy expected it to take another fifteen years. It wasn’t a short time, but he doubted that the enemy patriarchs would master the Dance sooner than that.
‘So many things to do…’ Micky groaned through their connection.
‘At least it’s not going to eat up too much of our time,’ Percy consoled him.
Even granting the Moirais’ Decree to half a million wasps had only taken about six months. The Alchemists’ Guild and the allied Houses only had a fraction of the population, so giving them their new cores wouldn’t be difficult.
Adjusting how the mutation affected their bodies, placing them under standardized soul contracts, and having somebody from his family teach them the boosting art would add to the time he spent possessing each of them, but he still didn’t think that it would take more than a few weeks.
The main reasons he hadn’t done that before had been the impracticality of flying to each of their provinces, and the urgency of his artificial advancements. His current projects were much smaller and not nearly as time-sensitive, so he didn’t mind rewarding everyone for their loyalty, so long as they made the effort of travelling to him.
As for brewing the extra Gloomy Dawn? His oversized cauldron allowed him to process vast quantities of ingredients at once, and each brewing session only lasted a few minutes, so Percy wouldn’t even notice the additional doses. In fact, he was already processing every drop of royal jelly the wasps produced. The only difference would be his stockpile no longer growing.
‘Grandpa, now that the smaller stuff is out of the way, how does the idea of artificially promoting your cores sound?’
Archibald’s first core might be too far away from its next natural advancement, but they didn’t have to wait that long. Producing another White mage would be one of the quickest ways to strengthen the alliance greatly – especially if he happened to have another Violet core on the side.
“Isn’t that more time consuming than the other things we discussed?” Archibald asked with a frown.
‘It is,’ Percy admitted.
Giving someone the Cradle meant possessing them for months to familiarize himself with their affinities, draw the seals inside their cores, and coach them on how to use them. He could potentially skip the first part if he picked somebody with an affinity that he was already proficient with, and the last part if he left them alone to tinker with the construct by themselves, but the middle part would still take a lot of time to complete.
Artificially promoting someone’s cores would tie up one of Percy’s clones for a full year, which was why he had no intention of doing that for a bunch of strangers. Turning Periphetes or the Ruby Empress into demigods would help him greatly, but he’d rather invest that kind of effort into his own family.
Even among his relatives, he’d only consider those that he was closest to – meaning just Archibald and Elaine. Maybe Galahad too, to pay him back for training him. If it hadn’t been for his uncle teaching him how to resist a Blue’s domain, Percy might have failed to rescue Micky from Acton.
“Well, I’m not going to refuse a free advancement if you’re willing to give me one.” Archibald shrugged. “What do we have to do?”
‘Not much. I’ll stay with you and ask my main body to place another clone in Elaine for a few months to get used to your life and mud affinities. I’m already reasonably good with pure, water, lightning and acid, so I might not need to possess Galahad just yet, depending on what second affinity he awakens. Once I’m ready, I’ll need a few more months to actually promote each organ. It should all be done in a year or two,’ Percy explained.
His recent advancements had increased his free cords back up to five. With one permanently occupied by the clone in his familiar’s body, and two or three clones applying the Cradle to his relatives, he wouldn’t have too many to send out. Still, returning to Melodia would only take up a single cord, and it wouldn’t be long until he freed up the rest.
‘I guess that we can also use this opportunity to oversee the development of the alliance,’ Micky pointed out. ‘That way, our main bodies will be free to practice their magic.’
Percy nodded through their connection, before mentally grinning. Up until now, very few noble families had dared to stand by his side against Machaon, yet that was about to change.
‘I wonder how many Houses will be lining up to join once they hear that we’re handing out mana cores like candy.’