Author's note:
Chapters for B4 will come out pretty much whenever I finish editing them. Expect at least three more today. Then it'll be a few days before the next batch.
...Magelord...
Despite everything that had happened in the year since I’d arrived in Tetherfall, there were times it felt like things were moving backwards.
They weren’t, but seeing a boy with a gap-toothed smile chasing his sister, waving his sole arm as he did so…
And he was a success story. One of the people we’d saved. Wouldn’t be too long before he’d get his arm back. I couldn’t do it. Turned out Restore Form could mess up kids if it wasn’t used by someone with the proper medical knowledge.
The camp wasn’t smelling great either. Wasn’t like people weren’t bathing, but it took time to process the filth into fertilizer. It was a low priority, since most were passing through to their final destination elsewhere in Cape Aeternia. At least we’d squashed the rumor that the baths were cursed. A little haunted by a roaming Bevel, maybe, but not cursed.
Despite my grumbling, Nexxa and Books were making good progress escorting people from beyond the reach of the high road. Just little pockets, since neither could go too far for long. Even so, we were setting up to ferry even more.
Even if we were near our limits, I couldn’t justify leaving anyone we could reach. It just meant we had to keep expanding. Even if they’d been delayed by the distances involved between the Front and Aeternia, the monsters were coming. Sightings were constantly increasing.
There were also a few places that were holding on. Places we were hoping could serve as temporary waystations and strongholds. Of course, to do that, they’d need to agree. Then even if they agreed, and their walls held, accepting refugees meant more mouths to feed.
Which was why the new rail lines were so important.
I climbed aboard the train these refugees had debarked from, nodding to the engineer. It pulled out, nearly empty except for a few steel beams.
Shame our maps were so woefully out of date. Even if they were up to date, a single Djinn-souled passing through a region could rewrite the geography in a few hours. Heck, even at Astral-souled I’d been dropping mountains.
Case in point, an hour later the train deposited me at the edge of a chasm that stretched nearly a thousand feet across. One that hadn’t been on the map the scouts provided. We’d had a line halfway across the chasm when it started crumbling.
Disembarking, I left the train at the head of the line some a few hundred feet behind me. Only a day’s flight from Aeternia, and we’d made it in an hour. The trains might’ve been limited, but unless we figured out a way to do jet engines, they were a lot faster than the Shield-class airship.
Henri Junior and his eagle flew nearby, waiting, having been the one who’d been sent out to investigate the problem first, only to request a team to fix it.
I picked up a stone and chucked it forward, watching it fall. Even with my enhanced strength, it didn’t make it halfway. This was supposed to be one of the quick in and out affairs. Test run our ability to lay tracks over distance, help some folk, and get home.
“Always something,” I muttered as I looked to either side before stepping forward into the air, letting my flight muscle carry me out. From above, the chasm was deep enough the bottom was cast in shadow, but it was easy enough to make out with Eagle Eyes. Said bottom was littered with broken copper nuggets and a surprising number of gemstones. I glanced up, looking at the clear sky. If there’d been an active storm, I could’ve fashioned a bridge in an hour or so. As it was, with trips back to the mana-lake…
A little mental math suggested I could do it in an afternoon, if I were to do it myself. If I tired to delegate it, it’d probably take a week.
Or maybe we could just go around?
“How far does this stretch?” I asked of Henri Junior.
The young eagle rider circled just above me. He held a hand over his eyes as he looked inland. He didn’t speak for several seconds before switching his gaze south. Lowering his hand, he frowned before calling down. “It starts about a mile to the west. I think it is still growing on the east end.”
“That… that’s probably something we should deal with,” I said, gesturing towards his eagle. I could fly, but the bonded mount would be faster. “Give me a lift?”
“Of course, Magus Protectus,” Henri said, waving me upward as the eagle slowed.
It only took a moment then I was behind him and we were soaring through the air towards the east end of the new chasm.
What we found was… I wasn’t entirely sure what it was, other than something that was throwing up a lot of dust as it ate its way in the general direction of the sea. What I could confirm was that it had a thick brown carapace-like hide, at least on top.
And that it was capable of consuming tons of rock every minute.
That was also something I could confirm.
Considering it couldn’t have been more than five feet tall, and about twice as wide, its appetite was impressive. It wasn’t eating the rock so much as vacuuming it towards it, then grinding and compressing it. The chasm was much narrower here, barely twenty feet wide at most. As we watched, I realized it was only sucking up a few types of stone, leaving everything else untouched.
The obvious solution here was to put a spell through its head and stop its destruction. But I could see uses for a creature that could suck down so much stone. Especially if it ignored the more valuable stuff. There was a lot of marble and granite left in it’s wake, some of which was even imbued with affinity materials.
“Is that a beast or a being, you think?” I asked Henri we circled on his eagle’s back.
“A beast. A grave carver from the Great Empty, I think. A baby, given its small size. Though what one’s doing here…”
“Someone sent us a gift,” I said, smiling. If it was a beast, then that meant it might be able to be bonded. Considering how recently the area had been scouted, and how small it was-
My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden wave of pressure hitting us. It threw us higher into the air, flipping the eagle upside down. Despite my improved resistance, it set my ears to ringing. Henri and his bond had it even worse, the poor boy slumping across his saddle in front of me as the eagle started to fall. It didn’t make it far, given I was underneath it and fully capable of supporting both of them. Not for long though. I hadn’t had time to put in the work to develop my flight muscle beyond the basics. We were already sinking.
I cast Restore Form on eagle and rider both, and by the time I set them down away from the edge of the chasm, they were both stirring. Unfortunately, the eagle woke first.
In its panic, it smacked me over the edge. Given my flight’s fatigue, it sent me plummeting towards the bottom.
Catching myself with a grunt, I floated just over the grave carver for a second. After catching my metaphorical breath, I shot back up, looking for the source of the shockwave. In the distance, I could see streaks of orangish-red light crossing the sky. A meteor shower, striking towards the heart of the continent.
Another pressure wave washed over us. This time it had little effect as I’d had time to shield us. Even so, Henri was fretting over his eagle as it did the same to him. My lip twitched. Each seemed more worried about the other than themselves.
After they’d recovered, I tagged the grave carver for later retrieval then had Henri fly us in the direction of the falling stars. I had a feeling they weren’t going to be good news.
A half-hour and several pressure waves later and I realized they were a lot further away than I’d thought. They might be entering the atmosphere where we could see them, but they were landing deep into the center of the continent. Possibly in the actual heart.
I got Henri to turn back. After returning to the chasm, I sent him off with the train. Once he was back, he’d go find Vaserra, and she’d deal with the grave carver, one way or another. Hopefully no eating of hearts, but I was trying not to judge.
With that delegated, I used Recall to return to Mount Aeternia. Vednil redirected me before I could get started on gathering materials for the bridge.
Instead, I hopped through the Waygate to the Bluff. Waiting for me in the temporary stone homes I’d erected there was Alister. My councilor led me directly to one of the latest batches of refugees. Not every group got a personal greeting, but these were special.
Every new valley we found seemed to have a new subculture. Most were some variation of Elinder, though some were fragments of the old Altean empire.
This group was one of the former, led by a willowy woman who embodied what I’d pictured as a stereotypical elf before coming to Ro’an. Standing at least seven feet tall, if not more, her limbs were lithe and graceful. Unlike most elves of Ro’an, she had no horns. It didn’t stop there. Clasped in her right hand was a gnarled wooden staff, the sleeves of her long wispy white robe woven with elegant golden thread. Along with her thin white hair, it wouldn’t have surprised me if a gust of wind might pick her up and blow her away.
Not that it could, since she was Hydra-souled.
Behind her was her family. Over three dozen elves who shared the same ephemeral look, though none had the same presence.
“The young Magus Protectus himself,” the woman said, her eyes narrowing as I approached. “What have mine done as to deserve your attention?”
“Felith, correct? I’ve been told you’re a skilled nature artificer,” I admitted, though I refrained from mentioning the Hydra-soul part. She’d put in some effort to hide the fact, and I only knew because the filters were set up to flag anyone or anything that crossed the barrier at that strength. Still, I could be honest about why we wanted her. “We were hoping to refine our healing tools. At the moment we’re just pumping mana into the process.”
Which we had plenty of at the lake, but that was less useful for our recovery teams.
“The abundance is rather eye-catching,” Felith said, her gaze shifting from the stone compound I’d met her in to the aurora that hung over the mana-lake. “However, I’m afraid my days of crafting are behind me.” As she spoke, she held up her hand, which wobbled so violently it distorted the air.
“In that case, would it be possible you’d take some students.” I gestured towards Alister who had a list of Tethered volunteers. Or Untethered, I supposed. Most had strong nature affinitie and strong interest in improving their nature crafting. Xoth was already up to his eyeballs in students and I didn’t have enough the time or skill to refine our healing rods further.
She narrowed her eyes. “Is this your price for allowing my people to settle within your lands?”
“Not at all. We’ll pay you for your time.” I held up a few golden Waves, though the coins didn’t seem to hold much appeal to her. “Is there anything specific you’re interested in? We have trade with Spellford, so if you can imagine it, we can probably get it.”
“I don’t know what a Spellford is. And I don’t take students. If you’re not going to make it a condition of our stay, I must decline.” Felith crossed her arms.
Was kinda wishing I had made it a condition. Probably should’ve. It might’ve annoyed her, but improved tools would’ve saved lives.
Deciding not to push the matter for the moment, I had Alister join us. Since I was there, I joined in the discussion about where her people would be settling, though it was mostly Alister who handled the details. Felith and her people chose a small valley that lay on the new rail line, one that was almost entirely unsettled. When Alister mentioned this, Felith informed us they’d deal with it themselves. All they needed from us was the safety of our walls and the barrier.
It was a common sentiment. Surviving in mostly isolated mountain valley communities seemed to instill a certain amount of independence, independence folk didn’t want to give up.
“You’ll still be subject to our laws. Which you should have received already,” I said, having dealt with enough people who thought otherwise to repeat it. Didn’t love the idea of having to enforce the law on someone who was a higher tier than me. Really needed to get crafting so I could reach Hydra.
“I have. They seem… reasonable.” Her tone didn’t exactly match her words but at least she wasn’t screaming at us or attempting to kill her three husbands because they wanted to leave her.
That had been a… day.
I looked towards her family, searching their expressions for their reaction. None of them were listening, seeming more concerned with a story one of their members was telling about an encounter with a chimeric fox-hawk-thing.
Fair enough.
Another half hour of clarification followed, as well as an interruption from one of the children, who had a skinned knee. Felith didn’t even say anything before turning away, kneeling down and murmuring to the young boy. The matrix she used to heal his skinned knee was intricate enough I couldn’t do more than make out the rough shape of its outer shell, even with Reveal Magic. Despite the complexity, it seemed mana-efficient.
Exactly the sort of magic we needed, damnit.
She gave the boy a white taffy and a kiss on his head, then sent him on his way.
Another ten minutes and Alister had most of the details sorted for getting her people to their chosen valley. I was busy teasing out what I could from her demonstration of the spell. The complexity was solidly third Order, though not more than a single slot. It was just a very tightly packed spell matrix.
With the attempted refugee outreach wrapped up, I was broken out of my thoughts and sent to another meeting. Seemed I had a meeting with Perth’s aunt Sidhe. Somehow, I’d managed to go two weeks without seeing the Dauntless’s former captain.
I found her waiting on the balcony outside the World’s End Tavern, staring out over the bustling chasm that Tetherfall had become. There were a lot more elevators these days, several of which reached the bottom of the chasm. Those were mostly used by Inertia’s people, who were looking for useful deposits.
Despite the transition she and the rest of the Dauntless’s former crew had gone through, Captain Sidhe no longer looked like a stone golem. It seemed she’d commissioned an artifact that changed her appearance.
Wasn’t sure how to feel about the fact she hadn’t asked me to help, but maybe she’d had Kezil do it. The old man was an able artificer when he was sober. Too bad it sounded like the first thing he’d done was find a way to bypass his body’s anti-drunk limits. Thankfully, he hadn’t caused any problems, at least none that Esbee hadn’t been able to handle.
“Hey, captain,” I said as I took a seat at the table.
“Hmm.” Sidhe didn’t turn away from her inspection of the valley. “Captain… not so much. Not anymore.”
“So you’ve decided not to take up the helm of Aeternia’s Shield?” Even as I asked, I flagged down Esbee to order lunch.
Sidhe waited until Esbee stepped outside the table’s muffling enchantment before replying. “Wrong skillset. I’d need months just to catch up on all the different principles. They might both fly, but your new airships are nothing like Terra Vista’s.”
“So, why’d you ask to meet up then?” If it wasn’t taking on the role of captain, I figured it most likely had something to do with the fact she’d been Perth’s aunt.
“You need a Master of Information.”
My response was delayed by Esbee arriving with a thick cut of meat along with a familiar green slushie. Also because her words had come out of left field. The meat sat there as I considered Sidhe’s suggestion. “You mean a spymaster.”
“That is one word for it. I’ve been talking to people. You keep getting blindsided. You wouldn’t have known of the Sahevin or the mountain clans if not for a tip from High Shaper Thozgar. A Master of Information would help.”
“That’s… I wouldn’t even know where to start,” I admitted, cutting into my meal to give me time to think.
“I suspected as much. It is a role I once filled for Perth’s father, before I escaped,” Sidhe informed me, sliding a jade crystal towards me. It was similar to the ones we received from Keeper, except it had golden filigree running along the sides.
Accessing its contents was as easy as Keeper’s, and I soon had a report on… well, my domain. It was similar to the reports Alister gave me. More analysis of rumors and general trends though, less hard numbers.
“I’d like to enlist your man, Calbern and the Vox Knights.”
“As operatives?”
Sidhe snorted. “Hardly. Neither could be inconspicuous if their lives depended on it.”
Instead of asking for more detail, I took a sip of the green slushie. It had a sharper tang than Bevel’s first attempt. Paired well with the steak.
“They have numerous skills that would be useful for any operatives I train. Your knights would be a good place to start. Not that I’d limit my recruitment to them. A major part of being an effective Master of Information is cultivating assets, something that’s… challenging, with most of your neighbors collapsing.”
“So… what’s the point of a spymaster then?”
“This is a time of chaos. As you stretch out across the continent, helping all those you can, you’ll need new eyes and ears. Even fresh refugees know how far you intend to spread. And as you spread, it’ll be the perfect opportunity to spread your eyes.” Sidhe shook her head, looking at me for the first time, her eyes having a black marbling struck through by golden veins. The only sign of her golem form. “There are many places that still stand. Places that will take exception to your presence. Knowing their cultures, their strengths and weaknesses will be vital to our goals.”
“So… are you offering to be my spymaster? At Esbee’s tavern? Isn’t this the sort of thing we should be discussing somewhere more discrete?”
“Hardly. Do I strike you as the sort of person to stalk the shadows?”
I took a moment to look captain Sidhe over as I chewed a bite. She had a point. Even before she’d become a golem, she had the sort of presence that commanded attention. I thought back to what Kezil had told me before I’d met her on the Dauntless. She managed to get an experimental supership built by maneuvering Terra Vista’s upper class into funding it. It’d been a mystery to him how she’d done so, but if she’d been using the sorts of skills she was implying she had…
“No one expects the uppity knight to be a Master of Information, do they?” I asked rhetorically after swallowing.
Sidhe gave me a hint of a smile out of the side of her mouth, before returning her attention to the chasm. Or at least, seeming to. It reminded me that she’d once been known for her casting ability. Something that hadn’t survived the transfer to the golem body.
Neither of us spoke as I finished my lunch, sipping carefully at the green slushie while reviewing the reports she’d given me. Asking her if she wanted the job was pointless. She’d already stepped into the role. It occurred to me that she likely had her own reasons for doing so. If I hadn’t witnessed what she was willing to do to keep people safe in the Dauntless trials, I might’ve been hesitant to trust her. I certainly trusted her more than anyone else with her skillset I might otherwise try to recruit.
Still, I had no intention to rely solely on her. Much like I tried not to rely solely on Alister. She was right about me getting blindsided repeatedly. That morning I’d encountered both the grave carver and the shooting stars. Speaking of…
“Does my new Master of Information know what those shooting stars were?”
“I have ideas, but I suspect chief Vaserra will know before we will. The Ten Feathers serve her, despite nesting in our lands.”
I ignored her note of disapproval. The Ten Feathers were a prickly bunch, and they responded better to Vaserra than anyone in my employ other than me. And I didn’t have the time to be receiving daily reports from their scouts. Other than Henri, the Ten Feathers didn’t understand the concept of brevity. “No theories? Never seen anything like it before?”
“I… have. In the past, such streaks of light preceded surges of especially strong monsters along the Front.” Her hand curled into a fist, and she rapped it on the table twice. “If they are the same, then they’re visible from a far great distance than they should be.”
“Great. More monsters.”