Ten-thousand imp skulls was… a lot. Wasn’t even sure how Nexxa intended to integrate ten thousand into... Ah, she’d be converting the skulls into dust, then baking it into the dragon skull. Made sense.
“Yep. The annoying part will be keeping the rest of them from getting mixed in. Little fuckers practically fall apart with a good blast.”
I stared at Nexxa.
Then back at the display.
Then back at my sister.
“You’re going to design a custom spell for it, aren’t you.”
“It’ll take at least two,” Nexxa said, grin stretching wide. “Probably a month of designing and iteration.”
“All so you don’t have a tail.”
“Yep.”
“Fair enough,” I said, shaking my head as I turned back to my own work. Honestly, wasn’t sure I’d want to live the rest of my life with a tail either.
Or wings. Even if they were incorporeal.
Still, Nexxa’s project convinced me to focus on powers first. If she could find a way to get rid of her tail… well, a month of design was about half a day in my Memory Palace. Not that big an investment.
Speaking of which, I needed to slot Vox’s Ever Expanding Imperium of the Mind into my tier four slot. Doing so would upgrade my Memory Palace. Then we could experiment with second Order spells too.
Which I started on the day after.
Slotting the spell ended up taking me most of the day, during which Vednil kept me apprised. There was a minor emergency, when one of our refugees accidentally ascended to Astral and exploded. It turned out they had a strong fire affinity. No one was seriously injured and the explosion was contained to a single shop.
I’d been half out of my chair before Vednil clarified. Then he went on to inform me Ari had already handled the fallout.
Once I cast Vox’s Ever Expanding Imperium of the Mind using a fourth tier slot, the additional strain of having Nexxa visiting disappeared.
The dilation also increased again. Instead of roughly two days per hour, now it was just shy of three.
“I do believe I’m getting spoiled,” Ari said shortly before we were supposed to leave for the evening. She had her legs up on my lap, the two of us relaxing in a hammock we’d added in the yard outside the shop. “If you ever go away, I’m not sure how I’ll handle all this on my own.”
“Yeah… Even if it was possible, I wouldn’t recommend going through Conflict’s trial the way I did.”
“I suppose I shall simply have to hurry up and ascend to Djinn-soul.” She let out a put upon sigh, her pointed ears drooping ever so slightly. However, she wasn’t able, or more likely, willing, to maintain the facade and giggled a second later. “It is truly absurd that such a thing is not only near-guaranteed, but possible within the year.”
“It’ll feel a lot longer than a year, with how much time we’ve been spending in here.”
“It does not feel like so much time. Perhaps because there is so little that is urgent while we’re inside.”
“Could be. Or maybe it’s just more fun.”
“Perhaps.”
The following hour after we emerged was a sharp contrast as we dealt with cascade of incidents that had occurred while we were indisposed. Almost as if someone had known we’d be gone for the evening. We had been making a habit of it. While Ari took Bevel with her to sort things out, I went to Sidhe.
She was sitting at the bar, surrounded by other people, drinking in the non-private section. It was hard to get a table at Esbee’s these days, unless I used Magus Protectus privilege. Despite the chaos around her, the uniform she’d had tailored remained pristine.
Perfect impression of the rigid military soldier, even if she’d updated the uniform.
So late at night, The World’s End Tavern was a bit too crowded for a private conversation, so we took a Waygate to the Vox Knight’s training bog. There was a castle, several roads and a pair of tall fences with more than one watch tower there by that point. Abundant mana was a mere gate’s step away afterall. We went to one of the empty watchtowers. They were used for drills, with the recruits defending or assaulting each other. Apparently the wargames could get rather elaborate.
And sometimes an inferno drake poked their noses into things, throwing off everyone’s carefully laid plans.
“Ever feel like you’re the inferno drake?” I asked Sidhe as we leaned on the stone railing of the watchtower, looking out over the bog. Thankfully neither of us had to endure the smell, me on account of my Air Shield, and her on account of being able to turn her nose off.
“Hot and angry, always read to tear out someone’s throat or head bash them? There’ve been days like that.”
“Was thinking more along the lines, we’re out here doing our best, just trying to survive in a world that’s bigger than any of us. And while we are, we keep messing up other people’s plans.”
Sidhe shrugged, the motion barely visible in the dark even with Eagle Eyes. “Weren’t very good plans then.”
Nodding, I looked out across the bog at the barely visible lights twinkling in it. “Those incidents earlier. You think they’re someone’s plan?”
“Part of one. Leadup to a plan, more than a plan by themselves. I’ll know more tomorrow.”
“I figured. I’ve been thinking… now that I’m Hydra-souled, I should-”
“Wait, hold on.” Sidhe turned, dark eyes reflecting the dim light as she took me in. “Already? You told me you were months away. What changed?”
“Not much. Turned out my project was more effective than expected. And from a certain point of view, it’s been almost three months since I told you that.”
“Ah. I didn’t account for your time in your palace. Surprised that helped.”
“Don’t know if it’d help everyone. In fact, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t.” I pulled a replica of the anchor out of my pocket, passing what was essentially a normal sized sparkplug to her. “Designed it inside, down to the smallest etching, which made it easy to build outside.”
“And this is some sort of ascension assistance device?” Sidhe held it up, flicking the gap.
“Only for me. Wouldn’t do much for anyone else. It’s a spell engine for a new spell.” Wiggling my hand back and forth, I turned around when I heard a sound behind us. A few of the Vox Knight recruits seemed to be sneaking to the Waygate, dashing forward while keeping their heads low. Well, attempting to sneak. They must’ve been new, if they thought either would help. “Looks like not all the recruits want to stay put.”
“Vexith lets them sneak off as long as they don’t get in trouble,” Sidhe said without turning to look, still inspecting the replica sparkplug. “Would you be able to do this for others?”
“Not for Bevel or Ari. And it’s not exactly cheap or easy. The engine probably cost…” As I did the math, I paled. “Five thousand Waves. Roughly.”
“Hmm. A cheap price to advance to Hydra so quickly. If not for the lake, you’d make it back in mana alone inside a year. Even more worthy, considering the value of a stronger leader. Why haven’t you announced your change in status?”
“You think I should? Ari suggested it’d be smart to keep it quiet for now. Especially if I’m going to be hunting for trophies to ascend to Djinn.”
“You believe you won’t remain a Hydra for long then.” Sidhe stated it, nodding to herself. “I never did find suitable sacrifices myself. I suspect my brother was partially responsible.”
“You mean Perth’s dad? Never did learn much about him.”
“Hmm. Not likely to need to know much until…” Sidhe paused, tugging at the sleeves of her uniform. “Actually, if you make Djinn in less than a year… maybe it’s time I told you everything.”
“That seems like it could take a while. Much as I hate to say it, might be better if I got it in a report, so I can go over it inside Memory Palace.”
“A useful tool that.” Sidhe paused, flexing her hand. “While the improved senses are nice, and I do appreciate not being dead, not having spells leaves me feeling half-crippled.”
“Yeah. I’ve got a team working on that. Nothing promising so far.”
“I am aware,” Sidhe said, chuckling softly.
“Guess we’d have prepared you poorly for your role as Master of Information if you hadn’t been briefed.”
“Oh, I was aware before you assigned me the position. Those you have working on the project are hardly the most closed-lipped.”
Neither of us spoke for a moment after that. Me, mostly because I was fighting down the urge to let out a big sigh. Sidhe because she was giving me time to do so.
After letting out the sight, I tapped the rail. “Since I’ve lucked into being surrounded by competent people, I’m assuming you’ve already dealt with it?”
“Alister has agreed to supply them information that will lead them off-course, in a way that may yet prove useful, but less vital to our security. I’ve also been screening candidates for several projects that require more… discretion.”
I nodded, noting that the recruits had failed to activate the Waygate and were slunking their way back towards the castle in the distance. One of them seemed to be on the receiving end of a lot of jostling. Likely the one who was supposed to get a working keystone.
“No complaints about the keystones?”
“They are more than adequate. I’m glad most no longer lead to our main control chamber.”
“Was surprisingly easy,” I admitted while looking back to the bog. I summoned a rock and tossed it into the water, counting the skips. “Barely took us a day.”
“Would it be possible to limit them further? Most don’t need unrestricted access to the entire network. Simply their most common destinations.”
“Sure. We can talk to Alister about it. Probably use less mana, maybe use that to sell the idea. Let people buy upgrades or weekend passes, but have that get tracked.”
“Yes, that would work. Though any skilled agent will bypass them, forge their credentials or copy the Spellkey.” Sidhe handed the replica sparkplug back. “But having the obstacles in place is better than not.”
“Probably reduce the number of incidents?”
“At the least, it would make it more challenging to make them seem unrelated.”
Once again we passed into silence.
“Do you think it’s safe for me to leave?” I asked after a few seconds. It’d been weighing on my mind, the more the second Shield-class airship came together. Going to Terra Vista and more importantly, the Forgelands would solve a lot of issues. And Home Spark meant I could leave and return easily. Well, once we built a second spell-engine, anyway.
“For you or for Cape Aeternia?” Before I could respond, Sidhe held up a hand, stopping me. “Either way, no. But staying here isn’t safe either. If you were to find a way to ascend to Djinn while travelling to the Forgelands, that would put us in a better position. Even a dragon-souled would have a hard time assaulting this place with a pair of Djinn such as yourself and my niece guarding it.”
That she knew I wanted to go to the Forgelands wasn’t a surprise. I’d made that promise to Inertia, and most of her people knew it. Nexxa though… “Is that an educated guess, or have you been listening in on our conversations?”
“Merely an educated guess, prior to this moment.” Sidhe gave me a crooked little smile, gesturing out at the bog. “Even what we see is little more than an educated guess, interpolated by our brains. Mine just happen to require less direct stimuli.”
“Sounds like you’re bragging.”
“I think I have that right.” She held up her hand again before gesturing at the empty fields where the Vox Knight recruits had been. “ Now, enough business. We’re in the training grounds. Show me just how much your ascension to Hydra has strengthened you.”