Beneath the Dragoneye Moons: Moonfall

Selkie Myth

Mango Media Publishing LLC

Copyright Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

This is a work of fiction, and the views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author. Likewise, certain characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events or locales, is entirely coincidental. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

Cover Art by Kart Studios. Cover Typesetting by MiblArt.

Moonfall (Beneath the Dragoneye Moons, Book 13)

Copyright © Selkie Myth 2024

All rights reserved.

Other Beneath the Dragoneye Moon Titles

Oathbound Healer

Adventures in the Argo

Ranger's Dawn

Beyond the Wall

Moonveiled Journeys

Immortal Moments

Return to Remus

New Horizons

The Gladiator Gauntlet

Under Ashen Skies

Mandate of Heaven

The Phoenix Peaks

Moonfall

Immortal War

Rise From the Ashes

Of Gods and Dragons

Dedication

This story is dedicated to my wonderful wife, Lauren, without whom this wouldn't be possible. Her endless love and support keeps me going.

This story is also dedicated to my beautiful daughter Flora, whose smiles light up my every day.

I would also like to acknowledge my beta readers, who put up with my endless typos, fix my mistakes, and help guide the story, so it can be the best story possible.

I'd like to thank all the other supportive authors and writing communities, and all the kind words they have.

I'd like to thank Royal Road. My story and success wouldn't be possible without their website.

Lastly, thank you, my readers, for being with me from the first step until the last.

A Small Forward

Please read!

Hello all!

I know you're excited to read the next installment of Beneath the Dragoneye Moons and Elaine's adventure, but I'd be remiss in not setting expectations.

This is a short book. In total, it's around 70,000 words. You're now forewarned, go skip the next part if you want to just get on with it and read what happens next!

Beneath the Dragoneye Moons is originally a web serial. A sprawling epic. The story in Moonfall is one I believe important to the overarching story, but it makes far more sense in the greater context of before and after, and less so as a standalone.

However, dropping from the 210,000 words from Mandate of Heaven all the way to 70,000 in Moonfall can leave some people understandably disappointed, hence trying to let you know ahead of time what you're getting into. I do plan for the rest of the books in the series to be a good return to normal form.

Cheers! Enjoy the mangos!

Selkie Myth

Recap

Hello! Welcome to another installment of Beneath the Dragoneye Moons! Here’s a quick recap of the story so far.

Book 1: Elaine is reincarnated on Pallos with some of her knowledge, Papilion having swiss-cheesed her memories before allowing her to reincarnate. Elaine grows up, realizes she still knows biology. Tries a little too hard to lie low, and accidentally kills her friend, Lyra. Takes her healing [Oath] and meets Artemis. When her family tries to marry her off at 14, she decides to run away from home and join the Rangers. She gets kidnapped by runaway slaves-turned-bandits. The Rangers smash the group, and Elaine asks to join. Julius denies her until she reveals the full extent of her reincarnated status. He changes his mind and lets her tag along. They arrive in Virinum, where a monster is terrorizing the locals. The Rangers come up with a plan to take down the monster, and Elaine is critical in keeping Kallisto alive. After the fight, Julius offers for Elaine to join them as a real Ranger, and she accepts. The book ends with Elaine classing up, merging her Light and Dark healing classes into a Celestial class. With the open class slot, she takes a Fire mage class.

Book 2: Elaine starts practicing with her new skills, learning her new limits and capabilities. Kerberos, her fiance, hires some adventurers to retrieve Elaine. They kidnap her, but her Ranger teammates come to the rescue, killing most of them and arresting the rest. Shaken but undeterred, Elaine continues with the team, experiencing just how dangerous life is on the road for a Ranger team. From dinosaur swarms and bandits, to twitchy teammates and deadly monsters, there’s never a moment’s rest for the team. They arrive in Perinthus, a town dying to multiple plagues. Elaine shines, healing as many people as she can while slowly building a map of the victims. It soon becomes clear that one is mundane, and the other is caused by a Classer. The Rangers investigate, determining who the culprit is, and execute him without a trial. Leaving Perinthus, the team continues on, getting into various situations as they complete their round. During this time, Elaine writes the Medical Manuscripts. After two years, they arrive back in Ariminum, the capital, where Elaine is interrogated by Priest Demos and reunites with her parents and they come to an understanding. She is told that she’ll need to attend Ranger Academy to ‘properly’ become a Ranger, and Arthur is promoted to Sentinel Toxic during the Ranger Convocation.

Book 3: Elaine attends the grueling Ranger Academy, where she meets Sentinel Night, her mentor. While she’s there, she’s brought to the front lines against the endless Formorians, in one part to directly fight them and level herself, and in another to keep an eye on Sentinel Toxic’s mass-poisoning efforts, checking that they’re not going to blow back on the soldiers. After returning from the front lines, she’s pitted in a colosseum match against her former fiancé Kerberos, where she blows his head off. She classes up, trading Fire magic for Radiance magic, achieving one of her lifelong dreams - flight. Upon graduation, she isn’t assigned to a team, instead being promoted to Sentinel Dawn. She goes on a failed date with Jaclyn, and learns that Night is a vampire. He teaches Elaine about the creation of the world. After starting to figure out some work and getting an apprentice, Autumn, Elaine goes off on her first Sentinel missions, shaking down her gear and experience. She encounters a weak plague and a pirate attack, and returns triumphant. A series of reports shows a few more years of Elaine’s Sentinel work.

Book 4: The book begins with the Formorians breaching the wall, and all hands are on deck. All available Sentinels, along with Priest Demos, fly out to the front lines, where they entrench themselves deep within the horde for a last desperate strike against the Formorians. Destruction channels a massive earthquake, while Demos beseeches a god to intervene on their behalf. Both go off, each killing one of the Formorian Queens, and the Sentinels split, forming a strike team to kill the last Queen. Elaine and Bulwark return back to help the remaining soldiers against the horde, and they finally succeed in winning their thousand year war against the Formorians. Elaine classes up, obtaining [The Dawn Sentinel] and building a skill to obtain in the future - Immortality. Hunting and Elaine are sent to make sure there are no other Formorian Queen eggs or anything like that in the hostile wastes the Formorians came from. The two delve deep into the Formorian territory, finding someone else was on the other side - dwarves. The two of them split, with Hunting returning to report their findings while Elaine hangs out with the dwarves. They convince Elaine that they’re not the people to talk with, and she should be brought to the capital and talk with someone important. She agrees, but while they’re traveling, they’re interrupted by Lun’Kat fighting with the Guardians. In order to stay alive, Elaine and the surviving dwarves dive down an old mine shaft, finding themselves deep underground.

Book 5: Elaine and the dwarves are trapped underground, trying to survive the monsters, traps, and orcs. Ned is replaced by a shapeshifter, but they finally find an underground dwarven city. Elaine shows off her healing prowess once again, slicing open dwarves to find out how their implanted augments work. She discovers that the dwarves have no intention of letting her go, and devises a plan to escape. She flees once again to the underground, where she is chased by the inevitable shluggoth. Running away, she finds Lun’Kat’s lair, where the dragon is injured. Elaine is sworn to heal anyone, and enters to heal Lun’Kat. She mostly resists taking any treasure, only snagging a single small, hot, red egg before fleeing back to the open air and freedom. Elaine gets [The Stars Never Fade], the immortality skill. She unfortunately has no idea where she is, and starts heading north when she bumps into a trio of elves. They’re heading in roughly the same direction, and Elaine joins up, for safety and guidance. They fight a hydra and emerge victorious.

Book 6: After pissing off some trolls, they encounter a gnoll, whom Elaine makes young again with [The Stars Never Fade], practicing her immortality skill for the first time and meeting White Dove. They travel further to Ochi, a city infested with Shimagu who can hijack other people’s bodies. After struggling with her ethics and morals, Elaine heals the people infested with Shimagu, killing the intelligent bodyjackers in the process. The action devastates her though, and being close enough to Remus, she travels the rest of the distance alone. She finds herself in a city, with a Ranger team nearby - home at last! The book ends with the egg hatching in a blaze of fire, Auri emerging from the flames.

Book 7: Elaine struggles with looking after a newborn Auri, eventually realizing that she’s one of the rarest and most legendary creatures to ever exist - a phoenix. The two make their way back home, where they find Artemis has been sold into slavery and Julius is missing. After freeing Artemis, Elaine reports back to the Sentinels, where she finally hits the level 512 milestone and unlocks her third class. Elaine has a tearful reunion with her friends and family. News of her ability to make people young again makes its way to the Emperor, who pressures Elaine into making him young again, no matter the price. Elaine negotiates - poorly - women getting equal treatment in the eyes of the law. Augustus agrees, and Elaine has a triumphant parade through the city, where Augustus announces both the change, and a war against the Shimagu. News reaches the Sentinels about where Julius went missing - a fairy ring - and Elaine, along with Artemis, Auri, and Autumn - enter the ring, intent on retrieving him. They succeed, but fae trickery and divine intervention mean they leave the fairy ring tens of thousands of years after when they entered.

Book 8: Elaine and the rest are utterly lost in this new world. They don’t speak the language, and half of what they do is illegal. They’re fortunate to meet Iona, a Valkyrie, who has a blessing to speak any language. She helps orient them to the world, and Elaine decides it’d be best for her to attend the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft, to gain as much knowledge and information that she can. Julius and Artemis decide they want to try joining the Hunter’s Guild, and Autumn - now called Amber, after she sold her name to the fae for power - wants to kickstart her dream of becoming disgustingly rich. Elaine attends the School, where she learns as much as she can, and takes a ‘practice’ third class, Biomancy, in order to make modifications to herself that’ll last her entire lifetime - eternity. It also gives her a good view on the remaining classes she has. She also starts to learn the art of Wizardry, etching runes and glyphs to create any magical effect - at a steep knowledge, time, and efficiency cost. Iona and Elaine fall for each other and start dating, and the book ends with Elaine performing a massive biomancy operation on herself and Iona, permanently improving their bodies. The book ends with Elaine taking her third class ‘for real’ - [Bookwyrm].

Book 9: Elaine and Iona are continuing their School adventures. Elaine is a member of the School’s combat team, and the Gladiator Gauntlet is the main event. Elaine attends along with Iona, who discovers that Rolland has effectively disbanded the remnants of the Valkyrie order. Iona enters the tournament, intent on extracting a pound of flesh from the nobility, while Elaine struggles to win the event for the School’s glory. They’ve given her five years of free tuition, the least she can do is return with a trophy for them. Both are victorious, and return to the School. Elaine’s body is on a shorter lifespan than usual with her dramatic biomancy modifications, and chooses to get cursed sooner rather than later by White Dove, because at the School she can research mitigation tactics. She’s cursed, and graduation is around the corner. She graduates in multiple tracks, and gets recognized as the founder of modern medicine due to her efforts with the Medical Manuscripts back in the day… regardless of how many other people contributed over the eons to the book. After graduating, Iona and Elaine fly off together to Exterreri, hoping to find Night.

Book 10: Elaine and Iona leave the School, seeing if they can find Night, Elaine's old mentor. He's the only one likely to have survived long enough to make it to the present-day, and there are hints that he exists in the Exterreri Empire, home of vampires. Journeying from the School to Exterreri, Iona and Elaine encounter the Black Plague and the ruthless Pekari, mechanized golems that terrorize villagers. They finally arrive in Exterreri, where after stumbling around in the dark Elaine catches the attention of Arachne, current leader of the Sentinels. Arachne knows Night, and the two are finally reunited. Elaine and Iona fight off a wyrm to claim a mountain as their new home, Elaine is offered a position as a Sentinel once again, and Arachne teaches Elaine enough to let her qualify as a [Loremaster] in her third class. Iona acquires a new squire, Nina.

Book 11: Iona starts training Nina, her new squire, as Elaine settles into her role as a War Sentinel. The dragon triad is handled once and for all, and Elaine goes off to investigate rumors of another person from Earth. The meeting is disappointing, and when she arrives back home, Dormin confronts them. Artemis is around, and has no tolerance for long villain monologues. Elaine, in her role as a War Sentinel, heads off to the Han Empire with the rest of the Sixth Legion. There, they engage in battle after battle, rapidly leveling and leaving their mark on the war. Elaine becomes comfortable with large-scale engagements, keeping everyone alive, and ends up killing the Great General Meng Ao. Finally, the armies push things too far, and a Guardian intervenes, smashing the armies to bits and bringing the civil war to a head. Elaine is politely asked to leave the Han Empire while Iona and Nina defend a young prince who’s requested sanctuary in a temple. Nina believes that the lives of thousands, perhaps millions when the scale of the war is fully considered isn’t worth the life of a single noble child, while Iona believes protecting a defenseless child whose requested help is a noble calling. Nina slays the young prince, fracturing their relationship and bringing a close to the war. Elaine classes up at home, taking [The Arbiter of Life and Death]. Iona proposes to Elaine when she wakes up, and Elaine says yes.

Book 12: Three phoenixes crash in Sanguino, demanding to know more about Auri. Elaine and Iona get married, and Auri heads off to the land of the phoenixes in the Northern Continent. Elaine settles into her new life, working as the War Sentinel of the Sixth, then going on mandated rest. She starts to explore the world, visiting the Jakong Monastery. Auri is late getting back, and Elaine, Iona, and Fenrir go to retrieve her, stopping by the Island on the way over. They learn the secret of the Pekari, Elaine classes up, and they battle through the Northern Continent until they retrieve Auri.

The Magic System Refresher

This is a simple refresher, covering the major points without getting bogged down in the minor details. Beneath the Dragoneye Moons is a litRPG magic system. There are 8 stats - Strength, Dexterity, Speed, Vitality, Mana, Mana Regeneration, Magic Power, and Magic Control. Most people have two classes, with people over level 512 unlocking a third class. Each class has an element. The eight basic elements are Light, Dark, Water, Fire, Wind, Earth, Nature and Metal. Each combination of two of the basic elements creates an advanced element - Light and Dark make Celestial, for example. Each element has things it can and can’t do, along with the class. People get experience for doing things their class wants to do. A [Lumberjack] gets experience for cutting wood, and not very much for killing a monster. A [Knight] gets a lot of experience for killing a monster, and very little for chopping wood. Leveling up a class gives stats, and raises the cap on skills for that class. Each class can have up to 8 skills, and there are 8 general skill slots.

Skills at the start of Book 13

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 38]

[Mana: 6,911,270/6,911,270]

[Mana Regeneration: 13,695,885 +(41,548,244)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 40,823 (Effectively: 326,584)]

[Dexterity: 65,269 (Effectively: 694,984)]

[Vitality: 203,035 (Effectively: 3,172,422)]

[Speed: 190,267 (Effectively: 3,745,025)]

[Mana: 691,127]

[Mana Regeneration: 1,555,022 (+ 4,154,824)]

[Magic Power: 904,127 (+ 39,600,763)]

[Magic Control: 903,335 (+ 39,566,073)]

[Class 1: [The Arbiter of Life and Death - Celestial: Lv 876]]

[Celestial Mastery: 876] - General Affinity skill

[Aurora Curialis: 771] - Passive improved healing aura

[The Stars Never Fade: 55] - Immortality skill

[Luminary Mind: 602] - Mind skill

[Universal Cure: 876] - Healing skill

[Etheric Aegis: 222] - Armor skill

[Event Horizon: 650] - ‘Black hole’ shield skill, destroys objects

[Zenith Everlasting: 609] - energy skill

[Class 2: [Seraph of the Dawn - Radiance: Lv 855]]

[Radiance Mastery: 855] - Affinity skill

[A Light Shining in the Darkness: 23] - Bright light anti-illusion

[The Rays of the First Dawn: 855] - Radiance beams

[Radiant Angel's Spear of Obliteration: 38] - Radiance weapons + Spears

[Celestial Dew: 855] - Mana regeneration

[Sunrise Halo: 855] - Radiance power boost + cosmic halo on demand

[Seraph's Wings: 855] - Flight skill, six wings

[Six Wings, Six Million Feathers: 855] - Devastating assault skill. Explosive feathers

[Class 3: [Erudite Archmage - Spatial: Lv 712]]

[Spatial Authority: 488] - Affinity skill

[Cozy Reading: 712] - Reading skill

[Teleportation: 195] - Teleportation! Both self and objects

[Repository of the Magus: 557] - Personal library spatial storage

[Tower of Knowledge: 92] - Great big storage skill. Requires personal teleporting in

[Reality, Writ As You Will: 530] - Wizardry skill

[Astral Archives: 326] - Perfect memory skill

[Endless Pursuit of Knowledge: 644] - Exp boosting skill

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 532] - Identification skill

[Handy: 1] - General dexterity skill

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 876] - Companion bond with Auri

[The World Around Me: 216] - Sphere of perception

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 876] - Healing Oath skill

[Sentinel's Superiority: 876] - Combat and skill boost skill

[Persistent Casting: 650] - Mage meta skill

[Tender Gardening: 108] - Growing plants skill

Chapter one

Interlude - Pluvius Nix

The month the Eventide Eclipse returned from the Phoenix Peaks.

Nix.

Nothing. Apart from. To put an end to, to cancel.

Denial.

Refusal.

Pluvius had a home. Had a family. It all came crashing down around his ears one terrible night. His dreams had been haunted ever since, causing him to endlessly toss and turn at night. A comment from one of the [Guards] who’d picked him up stuck with him as he’d fought and raged, screamed and begged, and so he adopted the name for himself.

Nix.

A piercing whistle banished dreams of blades and blood from his mind, and Pluvius Nix bolted out of bed at the crack of dawn together with dozens of other orphans in various degrees of stumbling out of bed. Each orphan had their own bed. It was small, the mattress was lumpy and the pillows looted, but it was theirs, a single maple leaf at the top of each one. They all reacted differently, some jumping up like they’d been hit with Lightning, others futilely pulling the covers over their head to try and get some more rest, others still simply crying at the start of the day.

Nix helped one of the four-year-olds out of bed, not bothering to wrinkle his nose at the smell. She’d had another accident, but Nix was sympathetic. He’d had his own back when he’d first come to the Maple Orphanage, and one of the older girls had given him a hand. She was gone now, and Nix liked to dream that she had gone off to bigger and better things, to a place where she had to share with one person max. Hasta was going to have to wash today, but that meant more hands washing, which meant it was unlikely Nix would be recruited to the task. He preferred getting assigned to the kitchen, stirring the hot cauldron for the stew and catching tantalizing glimpses of knives that the older boys and girls used to chop the vegetables.

The crying child wasn’t fully comforted yet, discovering her wet clothes and wailing more. Nix didn’t want to be on the wrong end of a switch though, and hastily turned back to his bed, fumbling in his attempts to make it before The Matron came in.

Eight minutes. That’s all they got in the morning. A few of the children with an unlocked System were already done, spending a few minutes chatting with each other or trying to wake up on their own. Nix was halfway done with his bed when a pair of small hands grabbed his tunic, and a pair of grey eyes wordlessly pleaded with him.

Nix sighed.

“Alright, just today, understand?” He asked for the eighth day in a row. Hasta nodded silently, and Nix stopped his own efforts to help the girl out. Everyone needed a helping hand in life.

Finished with Hasta’s bed, Nix turned back to his own when the door banged open. The Matron had arrived. Nix stopped trying to make his bed and stiffened next to it, facing the central aisle, along with the three dozen other orphans in their dorm. Her shoes clicked against the floor as her eyes silently swept back and forth over the orphans, evaluating them. Judging them. Eyes flickered from Nix’s bed, to Nix, to Hasta, to Hasta’s bed, and she swept along without comment. One of the kids sneezed. The Matron reached the end of the room, paused for an exactly prescribed amount, then swept back down the aisle.

Rumors abounded about The Matron. The most outlandish was that she was a vampire, drinking the blood of children in the middle of the night. Some said she was an ex-soldier, no, an ex-Ranger. Others claimed she was an underworld boss, selling naughty children to fight pits. Still more claimed she was a [Cultist], secretly a demon, or the absolute worst one of all.

She was a triplet, and there were two more Matrons out there, somewhere, terrorizing children.

It was well-known that she could hear everything going on at Maples.

The Matron paused at one point, glaring at a pillow. Then she moved on. When she reached the front of the room, she clapped her hands together and smiled.

“Good morning everyone!” She said.

“Good morning Matron.” Everyone dutifully replied in chorus, Nix included. Enthusiasm levels varied, from some children belting out the greeting to Hasta barely mumbling it. She looked like she was going to cry again.

The Matron’s smile was unwavering.

“Today is a VERY special day. We have a VERY special guest coming to visit today. She’s donated quite a lot to Maples, and she mentioned wanting to do a VERY special project with you all.”

Ears were perked, and a few kids tried to whisper to each other, their voices dying under The Matron’s Sound control.

“Now, I don’t believe she’s hoping to take anyone home with her today, but we never know. I do know she’s married and has no children. I fully expect everyone to be on their best behaviors. Creptus. Pugia. Jacta. Clesydrus. Crinita. Kitchen duty. Falca. Falx. Sweeping and cleaning. The rest of you, wash up. We want to look our very best this afternoon.”

Nix’s heart started to pound with anticipation and nerves. One part of him was sure he was about to, somehow, not get in trouble. The other was waiting for The Matron’s shoe to drop.

“Now, some of you I am most disappointed in. Interitus. Return the dolls to their owners. Yes, all of them, and they better be nicer than when you first nicked them. Imera. Hasta. Nix. Pliromis. Please stay behind. The rest of you, please, get started!”

A few eyes swung towards beet-red Interitus, while pairs of bare feet walked out of the room, filing past The Matron. The room slowly cleared out, leaving the five behind.

“Imera. You are sick, and there is no shame in that. There is shame in trying to conceal it, and I’m not mad, simply disappointed in your poor decision to hide it from me. Go see the [Healer].”

Imera nodded and ran off, The Matron’s mystique growing in Nix’s mind.

“Nix. It is commendable that you try to help others, but it is impossible to help others if you do not help yourself first. I expect you to be fully ready tomorrow, regardless of the state of the people around you. Go wash up.”

Nix nodded, the words crueler than any corporeal punishment The Matron could hand out. He almost had a sympathetic wince for Interitus. Almost.

Washing was both no fun and exciting at the same time. Nix was too young to have had life trample all hope out of him yet, and he was at the ideal adoption age. Old enough to be out of the ‘high-maintenance’ and ‘dies young’ phases, young enough that his System hadn’t unlocked yet and was still, in a word, ‘moldable’. Nix washed his tunic, then his hair and his face, all while everyone gossiped. Nix was content to listen in on the other groups, his sharp ears picking up various conversations. Far better to keep his mouth shut and collect the dubious wisdom of the group than to waggle his tongue and muddy the waters.

“What do you think we’ll be doing?” One orphan speculated.

“That [Soldier] had us doing drills at one point.” A girl answered. “It got me a [Basic Conscript] class offered. It was red.”

A chorus of oooooh’s met her proclamation.

“Yeah, but did he take anyone?” A boy asked.

“Oxylus, Phalaris, and Cnemus.” One of the girls rattled off. Who had been adopted or taken home by whom were some of the hottest topics the orphans had to discuss - if not the only thing they obsessed over.

They all had to leave Maples, one way or another, by the time they were 14. The luckiest ones were adopted out to wealthy families. The second-luckiest ones were around when some Immortal swooped in, wanting to train dozens of children from the group up to become masters at some craft, having centuries to train them all and see which ones could create the perfect masterpiece. The rest would be cut loose, but with training, skills, and a solid community.

The middle-of-the-road ones managed to get in the good graces of a [Tradesman], agreeing to work as an [Apprentice] for a few years or decades. A raw deal for those who’d been dealt a raw hand in life, but it was security.

The unlucky ones were given eight arcs, the clothes on their backs, and whatever Maples Orphanage currently had in stock to hand out when they hit 14. They were given a brisk handshake, and wished the best of luck. They would need to fend for themselves one way or another.

The hope and dream was that, some day, upon finding success in life, the orphans would be able to give back to Maples, paying it forward to the next generation of orphans. Occasionally, they received large donations, like they did today.

“Heya, Nix, think you’re going to be picked?” Diotima slid in next to Nix. He wasn’t sure he liked the aggressive girl; she always seemed to be on the right end of a prank or other mischief.

The question caused a flood of emotions to surge through Nix’s body.

Did he want to get picked? Did he want a new family? Was it a betrayal of his old one? What would his mother think? His father? Would his old sister consider it a betrayal of their memories?

Questions that kept Nix up at night.

He tried to play it cool.

“Nah. No way she picks me. They said it was a girl, right? Girls pick other girls, and The Matron even claimed she wasn’t looking to adopt. No way. Maybe she’ll pick you?” Nix suggested.

Diotima beamed, her hair somehow dry already. She patted it affectionately.

“Oh, great! I’m really hoping this is the one, you know? I just have something telling me this is my big chance, and I’m going to be sleeping in a real bed tonight. You’ll help me out, won’t you?”

Nix wasn’t at the age where thinking things through, costs and benefits, and other levers of social interaction came into play. His thought process was simple and guileless.

“Sure, why not?”

Diotima beamed at him.

“Great, thank you!” She said, bouncing off to the next kid around their age.

I wonder what we’ll be doing today? Nix wondered.

After a hasty lunch, the orphans were arranged in three straight lines. The smallest one was Madeline.

Nix and his merry band of orphans were under The Matron, but there were three other groups of orphans at Maples, each with their own matron, each with their own set of lines. In their clean clothes, with fresh faces and bare feet, three of the groups hit the road, only the absolute youngest children staying behind. They headed to a nearby park. The route was well-trod, and they made it to a clear park with minimal fuss. Interitus visibly relaxed as they entered, the pinched, pained look on his face melting away as he stepped onto the grass. Diotima was at the very front, trying to put her best foot forward.

The Matron stopped dead when she saw who was there, and it took time for the orphans to stop as well, an ungainly ripple as they paused. Nix felt an involuntary shiver run down his back, as though Black Crow was once again staring him in the eyes, judging him and finding him wanting.

There were two of them, both women, one short and the other tall. Both were clad in armor. Black with a red cape on the shorter one, a pair of badges on her chest, and a deep blue set of armor on the taller one, a winged helmet tucked under one arm. The short one had long hazel hair, blue eyes with sparkling stars in them, and a heart-shaped face that Nix might one day identify as ‘pretty’. The tall one had to be strong, given the size of the arm and leg armor. Her long blonde hair framed green eyes that were just as starry, and her face looked like a battle axe. She was smiling a lot more though, so Nix liked her more.

“Is that a Ranger?” Nix asked Diotima. The girl was looking distinctly uneasy.

“Yes? I- I think so?” She shifted from foot to foot, chewing furiously on her tongue. “That looks like a Ranger badge…”

“Wow.” Nix said, unable to comprehend just how important she was, but knowing she was. It was like the time the [Guard-Captain] had swung by to teach the orphans about laws and guards! Nix could only dream of being so important someday.

The Matron regained her composure, and with a few quick words, everyone lined back up. The shorter one was quietly chuckling as they got within a reasonable distance.

The Matron stepped up next to the two women who were having a quick conversation with each other, while the other two took up positions further back. She started to use her Sound skills again.

“Well! Everyone, please say thank you to Sentinel Dawn and Valkyrie Dusk!”

The two women waved as the children chorused a ‘thank-you’. It didn’t come sincerely from Nix’s heart, why would it? The only thing he had to be thankful for at the moment was an afternoon at the park, although even that was questionable, as there was some sort of ‘special activity’ planned.

“The two of them have donated over a million arcs to Maples. In other words, we’ll be able to pay for each and every one of you here today to take up an apprenticeship, even if you’re not adopted out."

“Thank you!” Nix blurted out, the words quite a bit more heartfelt than before. A Glare from The Matron promised retribution later. He studied the two women closer.

Nix wasn’t sure of what he wanted to do in life, but being rich enough to casually hand out a life-changing amount of money to almost a hundred orphans? That was something he wanted to be.

The Matron went on a speech for a bit, and Nix kept a perfectly still face as the shorter woman’s eyes started to glaze over in boredom. He didn’t let his mouth drop open - adults could do that!?

“... and I would like to now hand it over to Sentinel Dawn.” The Matron said.

There was a brief pause, and Valkyrie Dusk elbowed Dawn. She started and looked around.

“Ah, yes! Hello! I’m Sentinel Dawn. I’m a bit on the old side, and I sorta invented medicine as it’s practiced today. I don’t do this a lot, so all of you should get some fantastic class qualities out of it, especially if you apprentice yourself as a healer. To a healer.” She laughed like she’d made the funniest joke ever. Nix didn’t get it, Diotima forced a laugh.

“You know what I’m saying. Anyway! I have a practical, helpful project for all of you today, one that’s a genuine problem for me. You’ll all be able to walk away from today saying you helped a Sentinel with a real problem of theirs. You’ll be helping me move objects from one place to another, then helping me put them all back again.”

Nix wasn’t the only one looking around, not seeing anything in the strangely-empty park. Diotima looked bright and bushy-tailed, like she couldn’t wait to show off to the prospective parents.

Sentinel Dawn’s hands blurred, and a moment later, a vast Mirage spread over the grounds, marking it into a thousand grids.

“You might have to work together on some of these items. Don’t worry about the heavier stuff, Iona will take care of it.”

Sentinel Dawn gave them a quick breakdown of what went where, a solid third of the terms going over Nix’s head and half of it leaving as soon as it entered. Even Diotima looked pained.

“Let’s get started!”

Sentinel Dawn then vanished into thin air, causing gasps from everyone. She reappeared a moment later, staggering under the weight of a ludicrous amount of stuff. A full wardrobe over one shoulder, a barrel under her other arm, and a chest between her legs. Iona rolled her eyes and one-handedly took the wardrobe off her shoulder.

Nix’s eyes almost bugged out. Iona casually crossed the park, planting the wardrobe down.

“Diotima. Pliromis. Off to the wardrobe, please empty it out.” The Matron ordered. Diotima gave a dazzling smile to Iona, ran over to the wardrobe, and promptly screamed when a dead fish flopped out of it onto her head.

The orphans were giving the two women strange looks. Who kept fish in their wardrobe? Nix liked her style.

The Matron gestured, the orphans stepping forward. As soon as the chest was placed in a new spot, she ordered a few more forward to help with unpacking and sorting.

As soon as Dawn had divested herself of her loot, she disappeared again, only to emerge with another bundle of unusual supplies. The Matron was quietly freaking out.

Valkyrie Dusk was starting to call out directions, explaining where various things needed to be put. Soon it became clear. Food went in one pile, clothes in another. Tools went under the old oak tree that Nix loved to climb, while dishes and forks were piled near a seesaw.

He hurried along, loving the simplicity and variety in the task. What was going to be in the trunk? Surprise! It was a pair of mud-encrusted boots and a dozen cucumbers. Nix was convinced the Sentinel was quite mad and at least level 300, maybe 350, but to his surprise, found the activity fun! Dozens of orphans were running around and laughing, opening things up and sharing what they’d found.

He eyed the pile of weapons growing near Dawn’s spot. Somehow, mysteriously, they were never jumbled up with anything else. Made sense - no matter how crazy she was, she didn’t want to cut herself on a sword or stab herself with a spear.

A bunch of meat pies showed up at one point, and the orphans devoured them as though they’d never seen food before. A [Runner] was sent off to get more, and Nix decided, mad or not, the Sentinel was pretty good stuff.

Diotima’s eternal smile was growing strained, and the looks she shot the prospective parents looked more and more desperate. Nix’s heart went out to her.

The park was getting comically packed with junk. At one point, a goblet fell down on Dawn’s teleport back, and Nix hurried over to pick it up and move it to the right spot.

“Hey.” Dusk said with a smile. Nix’s heart skipped a beat, then the next two. She was talking directly to him! “Pluvius. You’re doing a great job. Thank you.”

Dawn teleported back in the middle and smiled as she dropped a mattress with a shovel and coil of rope.

“Yeah! Couldn’t do it without you Nix, you’re solid.”

Nix’s heart grew three sizes as his head swelled with pride. He knew he wanted to be them when he grew up. They’d donated enough money for him to get an apprenticeship, and he wasn’t quite sure how to accomplish it, but he knew what he wanted to be one day.

Nix knew he was going to join the Legions, and become a [Soldier].

Chapter two

Distant Friends

The month the Eventide Eclipse returned from the Phoenix Peaks.

Iona started wheezing the moment we crossed the doorway to home, slapping her knee and letting her laughs echo through our villa.

“The look on their faces when we told them to all put it back!” She pulled the shock-despaired face that had been identically mirrored on nearly a hundred orphan's faces at the same time.

I started to involuntarily laugh.

“I felt so bad for them! Just, like - there’s a good reason for this, we promise!” I said. “What was up with that crying girl? I felt so bad for her!”

Iona stopped laughing, an awkward look crossing her face.

“I’m pretty sure she’d pinned her heart on us adopting her.” She confessed. “And realized near the end of the day that wasn’t happening.”

I winced as auburn-haired Titania silently showed up in the entryway, a tray of light snacks and drinks prepared.

“Thank you.” Iona hovered them over to us, stepping out of her boots.

“Thanks!” I echoed, opening my mouth, tilting my head back, and letting Iona pour the water in it. It was dumb, it was silly, but it was fun.

“Do we know if Auri is planning on baking tonight, or should I prepare the evening’s meal?” Titania asked.

“Why don’t you prepare for five plus Fenrir?” I suggested. Fenrir got his own food classification, given how much he could pack away. “You’re invited to join us, as always, and Auri might bring Atlas or some other friend round.”

Currently, there were no Valkyries stopping by, and the pile of waiting letters was quite thin. It just drove home how few of them were around.

Titania bowed.

“I’m honored that you’d invite me, but I’d be far more comfortable eating alone. If you wish, I will dine with you.” She gracefully deflected my invitation, and I shrugged.

“No worries!”

Titania bowed

“I’m pretty sure I mentioned we weren’t looking to adopt.” I circled back round to the earlier conversation.

“They’re children, we could’ve ran an entire parade past them telling them we weren’t looking to adopt and had them all recite it eight times before we started, and half of them would still be secretly harboring hope.” Iona said.

“Ah, fine, alright.” I conceded. “Dinner?”

Iona smirked savagely at me.

“I think we’ve got about thirty minutes before then. Need to let poor Titania cook, and I’ve got the perfect activity after today’s work.”

I grinned back.

“So do I! I’ve got that [Handy] skill I want to work on. Build a few new cabinets for my [Tower], maybe a nice dresser, you know.”

I winked at Iona, knowing I was being a little imp. She held her hand out and I took it, happily letting Iona drag me to a room we’d cleared out specifically for this task that got my wife more excited than anything else.

A table dominated the middle of the room, and a number of smaller tables were pushed against the walls. Reams of blank paper were stacked on each one, three inkpots and a half-dozen quills neatly lined up on every desk. In large letters I’d made a sign that hung from the back.

Operation: Moonfall.

Titania was a treat, and had outdone herself once again. Plates of little dippers were scattered all over the table. Bread cubes and pear slices, broccoli and cauliflower, roasted potatoes and pickles were all over the place, a bubbling pot of cheese fondue in the middle. After saying a quick variant of grace, Iona and I were merrily digging in with Fenrir at the end, the meal for six turning into three.

Titania was preparing the second course, a hearty broth where we’d dunk in shrimps and beef cubes, more bread and ravioli, thin slices of goat and salmon, cook them on the spot, and eat them. A chocolate course was after, and it was only Iona’s rule that we give Titania a raise just four times a year that stopped me from paying her more than I made.

“Open!” I commanded, and Iona obliged. I [Teleported] in a beautiful piece of roasted broccoli, the cheese dripping off it into her mouth.

Iona levitated a few into my mouth, and really, who needed hands at this point?

There was a knock on the door, and I almost choked as cheese tried to go down the wrong pipe. Iona pounded my back as I reached for some water. Titania started to head off, and I waved her down as my food failed to murder me.

“No no, I’ve got this.” I wiped my face off, stood up, and headed for the door. Iona joined me, and I focused on my senses, trying to figure out what was going on. Fenrir raised his head briefly, snorted, then went back to eating his entire raw cow.

It was a bit of a curse knowing absolutely everything sometimes, and I often narrowed things down when I wanted to enjoy life and not know about mold, or rats scurrying along the edges of the villa, looking for a way in. We got more visitors than we used to, the start of a village springing up along the base of the mountain, but it was rare for people to trek alllll the way up to our door, especially now that there were other people they could bother if they were like, stuck in a storm or something.

Wait, there was a unicorn at the door? Oh! And a familiar person!

I flung open the door with a smile.

“Amber! You rascal, how’d you know we had an extra place at dinner?” I greeted my former apprentice and old friend, who grinned and tapped her pouch. Her lucky coin was in there, and of course she’d show up right as we had two extra places set at the table.

“You know how!” She said.

It was like I’d blinked, and years had been added onto her. A few more lines, that intangible quality as people aged and became more comfortable with themselves and life. Gems studded her braid, and she had more secreted all over her person. Her eye and limp were the same, and I suppose any payment demanded by the fae was not so easily circumvented. [Identify] brought back that she was at level 410. I wanted to ask about that, but-

“Skye!” Iona shouted, reaching out to embrace the other woman. “And Varuna! How are you?”

Skye!? She was a yuki-onna, which explained the low temperature I sensed, and our old college suitemate! Last I heard she’d been trying to find employment with one of the minor elven households. What was she doing here?!

Skye embraced Iona back.

“Better.” She said coolly with the refined voice of nobility. I swore I could hear the tinkling of snowflakes hitting each other as they fell in her voice. The effect was so cool. Pun intended.

“Come in, come in, all of you! I don’t think we’ve got anything fit for a unicorn right now, but dinner’s on the table and hot, and I insist you join us! Tell us everything that’s going on!”

Amber waltzed in like she owned the place, while Skye was a little more demure. Varuna tried to stick his head in, and Iona had a pained look on her face. Our front door was generous, but it wasn’t exactly horse-sized generous, and unicorns tended to be larger as a rule. Iona shot me a quick apologetic look, and I shrugged in response. I didn’t mind, it was what it was for.

“Varuna, we’ve got a lovely garden that you can munch on, but right now I don’t think our villa is large enough for you.” Iona apologized.

The unicorn looked like this was a classic disappointment, and with a magical whinny and toss of his glorious mane, trotted off to the garden, his silver hooves on dirt sounding like wind chimes.

Iona didn’t wait until we’d made it to the table to start asking Amber questions. Given what she was asking, I immediately understood the why.“You’ve classed up your [Healer] class, and that could’ve only happened if it was ‘lucky’. I don’t see the mortal realms letting you in anytime soon, so it seems like the coin’s suddenly cut off more than half the world for you. Have you gotten any indication that the next big Immortal war’s going to start?”

Normally, I’d think those sort of questions could wait, but Amber’s coin suggested that she might arrive at our doorstep the literal minute everything went to hell. It would be ‘lucky’ for her to be under our aegis at the time.

Amber sucked in her breath through her teeth, continuing to limp through our villa.

“I don’t think so, but I took the suggestion the same way you did. Flipped three times even, and ever since then I’ve been stocking up hard on defensive gems.”

Part of our conversation from our earlier Operation: Moonfall jumped into my head. Damnit, Amber’s coin was really lucky. Waltzed right into our life just as we realized we wanted to buy a few dozen gems.

“By the way, I think we need to place a large gem order.” I mentioned as we entered the dining room.

“Business after food?” Iona suggested with a pointed glare my way.

“Sounds good to me!” Amber said.

We all settled in, the table suddenly full, and Iona heaped Amber and Skye’s plates full of dippers. The only thing breaking the silence for a few minutes was the sound of hungry travelers devouring food. And hungry Valkyries. And greedy Sentinels.

Nom nom nom.

I could see some color returning to Skye’s cheeks, and Iona had excellent timing.

“So! I’m dead curious, why’d you two end up over here?”

Skye took on a business-like tone.

“As you know, I’d been effectively exiled from my country when I bonded with Varuna and seized Immortality. We went to the School to try and obtain an education and a career, but ever since leaving the School it hasn’t gone so well. First…”

In the hands of even a [Mediocre Bard], Skye’s tale would be a gripping epic. Getting a job was hard. With no true connections, being a different race, and no long experience to draw on, she struggled to find gainful employment.

Pride wasn’t an issue. She was willing to work at any level, from a [Cleaning Maid] - a far step down from the [Princess] she’d been before bonding - all the way to a [Negotiator], one of the roles she’d trained for.

Between bandits, slavers, near-starvation, Vorler, and overeager [Farriers], her luck had been bad in some respects, and read like the epic of a [Heroic Adventurer] in others, Varuna carrying the day time and time again. I didn’t hold the [Adventurer] thing against her in the slightest. First, she wasn’t actually registered as one, nor did she act like one, and second, we all did what we had to do to survive.

I’d been lucky in being able to find a ‘job’ as a Ranger. Sure, I’d been thrown into a slave pen at one point, and listening between the lines, Skye had a few close calls herself. I had a great amount of sympathy - but for the grace of the gods go I. Heck, if I didn’t have all the stories from Earth, if I hadn’t been so entertaining, Julius would’ve said no, and I would’ve… I honestly didn’t know what my fate would’ve been like. With the retrospect of age and experience - it wouldn’t have been good. At all.

“...it seems like with the ever-shifting environment of Exterreri I might have better luck finding employment. A number of the ‘Immortal movement’ laws had previously given me concern. Forgive me for saying this, but I was hoping to find a job and stay there, not be forced to move every few decades, but circumstances have forced me to reevaluate. Around the same time, I met a remarkably charming young woman, who insisted it’d be ‘lucky’ for her if I came along to Exterreri. I was skeptical, of course, but Amber started to list off people she knew in Exterreri. Imagine my surprise when I heard your names! I imagined a skill was at play, came along, and here I am.”

We narrowed our eyes at Amber, who grinned like the reprobate she was. One thing she was sure about over the years - Amber’s coin was lucky purely for her. She was the one benefiting, and just because it was good for her, it didn’t mean it was good for the other people caught up in her wake. As money-focused and mercantile as Amber was, she didn’t want to hurt people, but there was no promise that the arrangements she was making and people she introduced to each other were good for each other.

Gigantic book of social interactions or not, I was still a little on the thick side when it came to implications and unasked questions, nevermind the terrifying headache that was second-order effects. However thick as a stone wall my head might be, I did catch the hint of a question in Skye’s story. Iona clearly had as well, and I’d take her lead on when a good time to properly discuss it would be.

“I suppose it’s our turn to explain what we’ve been up to since we graduated!” I said. “First were our adventures at the School, and it’s such a shame you graduated when you did! Iona beat the stuffing out of the entire Rolland team single-handedly in a one against seven, with the Moon Goddesses personally descending to show their support!”

Skye threw Iona a thoroughly unimpressed look, then quickly regained control of herself.

“No no, I’ve got to hear this.” Iona said. “What’s up?”

Skye took a centering breath and straightened herself up in her chair, the perfect image of refined elegance. I could see the [Princess] she’d been.

“I’m aware of exactly when that was, and I hope that my words do not cause you to change your disposition towards me.” Her tone was smooth as glass. “I was, unfortunately, engaged in negotiations for a position at the time. We were walking down a forest path together, and the tone of the conversation was… cordial. Polite. We seemed to be reaching an accord. Then the moons shifted, the earth moved, and the entire estate was thrown into a panic, concerned about an assault. We attempted to continue the conversation after, but the mood was broken. The conversation perfunctory. I can’t say I am sure I would’ve been able to secure the position, however…”

Whoops. Iona looked embarrassed, and briefly closed her eyes. There was a sudden presence in the room, weight of the divine weighing down on us, then a plop as an object dropped into our fondue. I immediately [Teleported] it out, examined it a moment, decided it was for Varuna and not Fenrir, then teleported it to Skye, who jumped in surprise. I turned to Iona.

“Did we just get a divine hoof rasp?” I asked in disbelief. Skye was eyeing the rasp with disbelief, like it was a snake going to bite her.

“Yes?” Iona had a direct line to the Goddesses, and it sounded like she couldn’t believe it herself. Amber’s eyes shone with greed.

“Should I change out the pot?” Titania asked, the normally unflappable [Housekeeper] seemingly unsure.

“As weird as it is, I think it’s even more sterile than our forks. It’s brand new and unused, right?” I asked Iona. She was suspiciously silent, and I knew that look on her face.

“Did we just get a used unicorn rasp into our dinner?” Amber asked.

Titania didn’t wait for an answer to our question. She swooped in and stole the pot away.

“What do you think?” Iona asked a few hours later. I flicked her with a finger, purging both of us of the generous amounts of alcohol we’d been drinking.

“Titania, do you need a topup or energizer?” I asked her. She shook her head.

“Begging your pardon mistress, I’m unsure why I’m involved in this conversation at all.”

Iona waved her complaint down.

“Because you’ve got seniority. You’ve been around longer. You’d be working with her. If you think you can do the job and are better suited to it, let us know. If there are areas where you’d overlap, let us know. We trust you and your judgment, and you’ve proven to be extremely capable over the years. I don’t want to step on your toes in the slightest, and value an honest assessment.”

Titania hesitated, then answered.

“There’s only minimal overlap between what Skye proposed she can do, and what I do. The overlap primarily pertains to the groceries, and I’d be more than happy to offload that chore onto someone else. I like being here, and if her great big unicorn can make the trip to Sanguino regularly, good for them!”

Iona and I traded a quick look, and I felt guilty. We were pretty close to the city for us, but for people without the same levels and skills it was quite a hike. The little village growing by the base of the mountain did promise to eventually alleviate that, but for now, I was tempted to say yes purely based on that. Iona fractionally tilted her head, wanting me to speak my mind.

“I’m a bit of a sucker.” I freely admitted. “But Skye’s arguments and skillset were compelling. Titania keeps this place perfectly, and you’re charismatic, charming, and like people. But what she pointed out about the village developing, the ‘Immortals on a mountain’, and the sheer amount of administrative and accounting work that she can keep on top of and opportunities she can seize sounds good. Even Night has someone who can handle that sort of work for him, arguably two people, and didn’t the Valkyries have someone similar? We’ve got the funds, we know Skye, and hey, as she mentioned, unicorn manure does great things for a garden!”

Iona chuckled.

“Your true motives are revealed! You just want more mangos!”

I gasped and put a hand over my heart.

“Well I never! Of course I just want more mangos! But it’d be cheaper for me to just buy more, honestly, than go through something this convoluted. From a humanistic standpoint, I like being able to help people. From a Sentinel point of view, our team’s tiny and most Sentinels have someone to handle administration and paperwork. Financially, we’re in great shape. Hiring people to make our life easier seems like a good investment. It seems good to me.”

Iona hummed noncommittally.

“That’s a good argument for getting a [Majordomo] or [Chief of Staff], but is Skye the best one possible?”

That, I didn’t have a great answer to. My instincts wanted to say YES!, but there was an impulsive tribal instinct involved. We knew Skye, it was easy to bring her onboard and call it a day. It didn’t mean she was the best candidate. The ‘Varuna go vrooom’ argument was one I could get behind.

“She… might not be.” I admitted, recognizing her admitted lack of experience doing the actual job itself. “What do you propose?”

“Why don’t we let her crash for a month or two as a guest, as is only proper.” Iona said. “We’d do that either way. Then, I’ll poke around a bit. See if there’s anyone else we could compare to, and-”

I had great senses, and while I didn’t want to know everything always going on around me, certain sounds cut through the shroud of disinterest I tried to throw up, that perked my ears up like nothing else and hyper-focused me to using all my senses to the best of their ability.

The quiet rattle of chainmail was one of those.

Chapter three

Slavers Die

The month the Eventide Eclipse returned from the Phoenix Peaks.

“Stop! Shh!” I held up my hand, Iona instantly cutting herself off midword, muscles rolling and tensing.

I brought all my senses to bear, concerned at how close they all were before I heard anything. I only sensed two people, and quickly triangulating their position was… weird. Two people just didn’t walk that distance from each other. They were armed, and they weren’t taking the road up. The noise they were making was so faint, it was like they were trying to conceal themselves - and, frankly, doing an admirable job of it.

“Trouble.” I said, popping into my [Tower of Knowledge] a moment later. We’d gotten everything organized and arranged today just in time. Sure, maybe we could’ve just done it ourselves, but a hundred pairs of eager hands had made re-sorting and reorganizing everything that much easier, on top of weighing on their early class evolutions. It wasn’t something I could do everyday - the reality of having a truly messed-up storage that needed to get rearranged wouldn’t have the same oomph if I deliberately messed it up - but I’d made a tangible impact on their lives.

And tangible organization to my [Tower]. The entire first floor was my armory, the items I’d need fast. Iona’s adamantium-alloy armor was in here as well, the convenience of transportation and usually having it near outweighing the occasional awkwardness if she needed it at home and I wasn't around. A brisk round of [Teleportation] got the ribbon out of my hair and snapped my full armor on, helmet and all, with a minor concession to my billowing red cape, just in case I was overreacting - or could intimidate a problem into leaving. A non-violent solution was the best solution, but I loosened the clasp enough to immediately remove it if necessary. Iona’s armor in hand, I popped back out to reality, then [Teleported] all her gear on in an instant. Iona stretched, then her agile fingers flicked over buckles and straps, fixing a thousand minor things.

Less than five seconds after I’d heard the first rustle of chainmail, and we were armed and ready.

“Fenrir.” Iona dashed off to help the wyvern arm up - I didn’t keep his armor in [Tower]. I knew Iona would also be letting Titania, Amber, and Skye know what was going on. Varuna didn’t though, and I left the villa through a side door to the garden.

My poor cucumbers! Ah well, I suppose they were eaten by a guest, and it wasn’t like the unicorn had decided to take a single bite out of them and move on. My mangos were untouched, and therefore I had bigger problems.

“Varuna.” My voice snapped out in the habitual command tones I used when I needed people to listen to me right now. “Possible trouble. Letting you know.”

The unicorn snorted and dashed past me, the doorframe not quite surviving the unicorn squeezing into the villa. Fine - if he was worried about Skye and wanted to protect her or get her out of there, I wasn’t going to complain.

A moment later Iona joined me in front of the villa on the terrace, trees cleared out to give ourselves sight lines, and Fenrir remained crouched down in the center garden the villa was built around, protected by thick armor slabs. We faced the way the intruders were going to emerge from the forest.

I could only hear two, but I rapidly caught sight of more.

“I see five.” Iona said in English. “Elf on their stat sheet. We cleanly out-stat them, but they’ve got higher levels.”

I used [Long-Range Identify] on all of them, trying to get a better sense of what we were dealing with.

[?]

Damnit. I’d used deceptive tactics often enough that I couldn’t complain about them rebounding.

“Seven here.” I muttered back, catching a flash of shadows. “Eight now. [Identify] is just returning a question mark. Light them up?”

“Mmmm.” Iona hummed to herself. “No, let’s let them do the first overtly hostile action. Overtly.” She’d read my mind. I’d been about to ask if sneaking around was hostile or not, and I was sure there were dozens more layers to her actions that she didn’t quite have time to explain.

I trusted her.

Voices called out in High Elvish a moment later.

“Ah, they’ve caught onto us!” One elf laughed.

“It wasn’t like we were trying to be sneaky!” A second one bantered back. “It took them this long to notice?”

Iona clasped her hands behind her back and gave me a tiny tick with her head. I released a soft glow of [A Light Shining in the Darkness], explicitly marking Iona as ‘friendly’ and the elves as hostile. We’d all be able to see - heck, Iona and I could see in the dark - but now it wasn’t threatening, and there was an added layer of deception.

Eight elves emerged from the forest a moment later, although I continuously scanned for more hiding in the woods. If I was up to nonsense, that’s what I would do… but then again, the cursed pride of the elves might not let them do such a crass thing.

Unless, of course, an elf prided themselves on being that good and stealthy, at which point it was possible I’d never detect them, bio-engineered improved senses or not.

They wore flowing silks in bright colors, most of them having at least a scimitar strapped to their waist. One floated, bare-chested and cross-armed, on a cloud, choosing to fly on a rumbling stormcloud instead of walk. The other seven were on the ground, their clothes and equipment reminding me of every story of Urwa elves I’d ever heard.

Iona’s hands started to rapidly flash behind her back, mixing up Ranger hand-signals I’d taught her with the occasional Valkyrie signal.

Then, of course, were basic numbers.

Slave-go. Iona flashed three times, the limitation of hand signals not allowing for great nuance. Frankly, it was a miracle that ‘slave’ was even a signal. Only the sheer cultural weight of the institution in Remus had gotten it in. It took me a moment to interpret what she was saying, and my hackles went right up.

Slavers. Eight of them sneaking up on our home in the middle of the night wasn’t exactly a friendly social call.

Left. Nullifier. Void. 1029. Mantle. Prison. 1002. Merchant. 1005. Priority.

“Hello!” I waved to them. “What can we do for you?”

The elves laughed at my greeting, choosing to completely ignore me.

One over. Mage. Inferno. Sand. Mirage. Unimportant.

“Hey!” One of the elves shoved another. “Look at that healer chick! She’s probably the source!”

Warrior. Gale. Mirror. Ocean. Mine.

Yup, didn’t want to mess with a Mirror [Warrior], I’d leave that to Iona.

Iona tilted her head, and I could tell she’d automatically put on a pleasant smile, even though they couldn’t see her.

Warrior. Mage. Mountain. Mountain. Mountain. Unimportant.

One of the elves whistled at me.

“Hey missy! You wouldn’t be handing out Immortality gems willy-nilly, would you?” I lifted an eyebrow.

“What if I was?”

Prison. Earth. Unimportant. Nullifier. Void. Priority.

I interpreted the middle Unimportant as having a class we didn’t care about.

The elves carelessly laughed again. No hands were near weapons, but a knot of tension was building in my gut. I loosened my arms, letting it flow through me.

“Well, girly! If you were, there’s quite the bounty on your head.”

A different elf pushed a third one, pointing to Iona.

“Heya! That’s a Valkyrie! She’s got to be worth something.”

Mage. Storm. Lightning. Sand. Flying. Iona was talking about the bare-chested elf who was floating above the rest.

“I’m priceless and you know it!” Iona’s tone was jovial, but I could see she was getting ready for violence to explode all around us. Pebbles were subtly shifting near her feet as she flashed out the last few people.

I double-checked that my healing was up, included everyone, then explicitly removed the elves from the ‘people to be healed’ designation. No telling when this was all going to devolve.

Healer. Celestial, Unimportant, Unimportant, Priority.

I wanted to bare my teeth and hiss at the sheer gall of a [Healer] working with [Slavers], or worse, more probably, given how they were all acting, being an actual [Slaver] themself. How could they live with themselves?

It broke my heart a little that they were a priority designation. I knew when I stepped onto a battlefield that others would target me first, try to bump me off as a weak support, when all I wanted was to keep people alive.And now I was targeting the [Healer] first. I suppose, in some ways, it was better than using the [Arbiter’s] aura to suppress their healing, something I didn’t want to do. Which felt overall a little hypocritical of me, and something to think about another day.

Mage. Sound, Unimportant, Poison, Unimportant.

Sound-Poison was Unimportant? His stats had to suck.

I eyed the three targets Iona had labeled Priority while we talked. Or, mostly, we tried to talk and the elves seemed to half-ignore us, paying more attention to each other. Like we were ants, not worthy of having them hear what we had to say, like our words were background noise.

Assholes.

The eight elves were spread out in a loose line, Iona’s description of each of them almost reminding me of a Ranger team. They had a strong mix of [Warriors] and [Mages], with a good number of supports and life classes sprinkled. The [Healer] was in the middle, and the other two she’d marked as Priority were on either end. A mental plan snapped into place.

If this devolved into a fight, using about 70% of my mana, I was going to use overwhelming firepower to take out the [Healer], then a smaller amount to take out the two utility mages Iona had marked as my opening blow. That would literally take a second, then my mana was reserved for healing duty.

I couldn’t fight the [Warriors], especially the one Iona marked Mine, but I could run interference and heal at the same time. Five against three seemed like poor odds, but Iona had [Vow], which should kick in with Skye and Amber behind us, and Fenrir was, well, Fenrir. I’d bet on him against the entire group.

“Five whole prizes! We’re going to be eating good tonight!” Another elf sang out in glee. The [Healer] was acting a little nervous.

Hang on - five? They were miscounting. That, or someone didn’t count as a ‘prize’.

“I don’t know about this, it’s a lot.” He said.

Another elf whirled on him.

“A lot? A lot? Of course it’s a lot! That’s the whole point! We’ve got more people and levels than they do, and we’re elves. Against… humans. It doesn’t get easier than this! Two and a half of them are non-combatants, and oh no, a big, scary bag of coins might try poking us with his horn! Mortals. Are. Nothing.” He emphasized each word to a poke of his teammate’s chest.

Iona and I traded a quick glance. She drew her weapon and got her shield ready. I unfurled my six wings, turned on my halo, and floated up into the sky. I took in a deep breath, letting my voice properly boom, upping [A Light Shining in the Darkness] just a hair.

“I am Sentinel Dawn of Exterreri. Leave now.”

There was a brief pause before the eight elves broke out into raucous laughter. I started to summon [Six Wings, Six Million Feathers], spinning each one around me in a grand featherstorm, picking up speed. I debated summoning a [Radiant Angel’s Spear of Obliteration], but no. The skill was too low level, and outnumbered against elves that outleveled us, I had to be hyper-efficient. This wasn’t the Gladiator Gauntlet where I could showboat, nor was it a threat we overpowered so much I could experiment.

This was a live, deadly threat to our lives and freedom, and it was time to channel every single bit of Artemis inside me.

I was faced with a relatively new problem, one I’d never truly been faced with outside of a theoretical discussion with Night, more than half my life ago.

How sure did I need to be to attack someone threatening me? My [Oath] didn’t demand I had to be an idiot. If someone was drawing a bow, with a nocked arrow aimed at my heart, I didn’t need to wait until they loosed their arrow to defend myself.

The elves were so fucking unprofessional and confusing that I couldn’t tell if they meant me harm or not. It was clear from implication that they were a bunch of evil slavers, but I was genuinely confused, and couldn’t tell if they were going to fuck off, or attack. It was enough of a grey wiggle room where I found my hands metaphorically tied.

There was a mighty crash behind us as Skye, on Varuna’s back, muscled through a wall - Iona’s weak [My Home is My Castle] skill must’ve gotten a few levels from that - then took off down the mountain in a blur. Things went to shit.

The djinn-like mage, floating on a cloud, snapped a hand out and fired a bolt of Lightning after Skye. The other elves drew their scimitars and exploded into motion.

I promptly sent my [Six Wings, Six Millions Feathers] after their [Healer], following it up with a hefty dose of [The Rays of the First Dawn] through his head. More than half my feathers simply vanished on approach, probably from the [Nullifiers] Iona mentioned. The rest landed, and [The Rays of the First Dawn] landed unimpeded, a benefit of lightspeed magic. He survived the initial hit, but I didn’t relent, the million feathers descending upon him like a localized apocalypse.

[*ding!* Your party has slain a [Custodian of Flesh (Celestial, 1189)]/[Master of Mortal Merchandise (Celestial, 546)]/[The Man Who Sold the Moons (Celestial, 556)]]

Fenrir roared as he took off, the Lightning bolt curving from Skye to splash harmlessly against his armor. He circled once, getting some speed, before preparing to go into a diving run.

A few Mirages briefly flickered into existence before the mage realized my Radiance was overpowering them without any effort. The Sound-Poison mage was backing up from the violence, not obviously doing anything besides drawing his weapon but I didn’t trust that. Sand swirled from both the flying elf and the [Mage], and the two warriors dashed to Iona, trying to catch her in a classic pincer. She kicked up her rocks at the non-Mountain [Warrior], using [Telekinesis] to speed them up, while stones rumbled around the Mountain [Warrior]. Four sets of chains sprang up on Iona’s arms and legs, two made out of stone and two made out of metal.

Just as the [Healer] died, I immediately snapped my [Rays] to the two other targets Iona had called out as Priority, cursing their reflexes. I’d hoped to get them taken out before they could bog her down. Their chains arrested her swing, then the Radiance killed both of them. Iona immediately snapped them and engaged the two warriors, using the swinging chains as an extra set of weapons. The Mirror [Warrior] deflected Iona’s Earth-mage proxy attack right back at her, as the Mountain spellblade started to pummel her with stones.

[*ding!* Your party has slain a [Superior Spellbreaker (Void, 1029)]/[Muzzle of the Unruly (Mantle, 1002)]/[Seller of Spice, Silk, and Souls (Celestial, 1005)]]

[*ding!* Your party has slain a [Omniscient Coordinator (Brilliance, 1077)]/[Vanquisher of Hope (Void, 424)]/[Binder of Hopes and Dreams (Earth, 720)]]

I flung myself at the flying mage, then had to spin and abort my physical attack as Fenrir came roaring past me. In Ice and Lightning, the two mages died, then he whirled and chased the third one.

[*ding!* Your party has slain a [Magus of the Searing Sands (Inferno, 1161)]/[Dustbowl Drowner (Sand, 775)]/[Avatar of the Shimmering Oasis (Mirage, 545)]]

[*ding!* Your party has slain a [Djinn of the Storm (Storm, 960)]/[Muon Trapper (Lightning, 828)]/[Devil of the Drylands (Sand, 796)]]

I dove down to Iona’s fight against the two elves, blows trading so quickly I couldn’t keep up. There was a bubble of Ocean around Iona’s head as one of the Warriors tried to drown her, and she-

Nevermind. It took me a moment to replay what I’d seen. Throwing her shield into the Mountain [Warrior’s] face, she tackled the second [Warrior] around the waist, bringing the two of them to the ground. Grabbing his horns, she slammed his head into the unyielding stone again and again, first cracking his skull before exploding his brains out. One final punch through his face left no doubt to his fate, even without the System notification.

[*ding!* Your party has slain a [The Biting Wind (Gale, 1173)]/[The Untouchable Reflection (Mirror, 813)]/[The Great Drowner (Ocean, 512)]]

The Ocean around her head dropped.

The Mountain [Spellblade] was absolutely pummeling Iona the entire time, from raining heavy blows on her helmet to endless barrages of rocks, culminating in an Earthen pillar that tried to crush her. Her adamantium, biomancy changes, and my healing combined let her shrug it all off until a second pillar blasted her away. Panting, the Mountain [Spellblade] looked around and tried to run.

[*ding!* Your party has slain a [Silencer of Screams (Sound, 1107)]/[The Sweet Sedation (Poison, 1109)]/[The Meditating Monk (Light, 509)]]

Iona swiftly conjured her bow, and a twang later the elf was rolling on the ground. In a pounce, Iona was over him, grabbing his horns and his neck. With a single savage pull she ripped his head off his neck, his spinal column coming along for the ride. A horrified rictus marred his face, before Iona dropped his head into her knee, popping him like an overripe melon.

[*ding!* Your party has slain a [Crustcaster (Mountain, 1123)]/[Earthborne Rockcaller (Mountain, 1190)]/[The Highest Mountain (Mountain, 745)]]

I looked around, seeing Fenrir returning. We’d devastated the area, the place was a mess. Blood and stone littered the area, and most of the fragile objects near the front had gotten broken from a thousand tiny sonic booms. I landed with a sigh.

[*ding!* [The Arbiter of Life and Death] has leveled up! 895-> 896. +400 Strength, +400 Dexterity, +800 Speed, +800 Vitality, +1600 Magic Power, +1600 Magic Control, +1000 Mana, +9000 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

[*ding!* [Seraph of the Dawn] leveled up! 870 -> 871. +512 Speed, +512 Vitality, +1024 Mana, +1024 Mana Regeneration, +1024 Magic Power, +1024 Magic Control per level from your class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Strength +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

Eh. Being in a team and splitting experience with Auri made it all safer, but not great experience. I hadn’t really used [Erudite Archmage] at all in the fight, and the ‘downside’ of it being a reader-mage ‘witch studying magic high up in her tower’ class was it didn’t like combat. I was fine with that.

“Let’s go make sure Amber’s alright.” I said.

Amber was fine, and a few minutes later Skye returned with the entirety of Ranger Team Gale behind her, flying in on a roc. I was still sweeping up the broken pottery as Iona built a bonfire, the valuable parts of the elf’s gear already stripped off and put to the side. I waved to the Rangers.

“Hey! Great, you’re just in time to help us clean up! As a concerned citizen, I have some reports to make!”

Livia shot a poisonous glare at Skye, who shrugged.

Good decision-making during a crisis, knowing who to find, how to find them, and effectively getting them here in minutes?

Iona beat me to it, calling across the front yard.

“We have to hire her now!”

Chapter four

Interlude - Auri - The Bakery

Earlier the same day

Why had I wanted to return to civilization? WHY!?

Civilization had invented such tortures as lines and gate tolls and grabby toddlers with sticky hands. I ignored such nonsense somewhat existing around The Dungeon. That didn’t count, civilization was required there.

“Birdy!” The sticky-handed bandit in question tried to reach up and grab me again. “Birdy here!”

His parents had started scared of me, then when I didn’t burn him to cinders like a mage…

“NO! Go away!” I shrieked at the kid, knowing he’d only hear brrrpt.

Why were kids so fragile!? I probably couldn’t even [Mage Hand] him without accidentally breaking everything! I couldn’t lose my spot in line!

Unfair! Tyranny of the helpless! At least he couldn’t get this hi - WHY WAS HE CLIMBING A CART. NO.

I fluttered higher, considering putting a pillar of Fire to help hold my spot in line. But noooo, grubby-guts would probably walk into it. The coolest Lava I had was [Spun Sugar], and I’d used that exactly once against a monster before declaring never again. No matter how much of a tiny monster the toddler was being.

I did make some hands and waggled a finger in the parent’s face.

“It’s just a bird.” One said to the other.

Ooooooh, those little! If I ever saw them in the bakery, I would double-charge them!

No! Wait!

Triple-charge them! Ha!

Ughhhh. At the Phoenix Peaks I could just burn anything giving me problems.

I shook my beak.

No no no! The Phoenix Peaks had their own problems! The wood wasn’t drier on the other side! The wood was drier where I put it in the sun! There was no flour, no sugar, no kilns, no adoring fans - none of that! Most importantly, there was no Elaine, no Fenrir, and eh, I suppose no Iona was also a big minus.

“Pretty birdy!”

Yes! Exactly! Like THAT! I slowed my wings down, letting [Fancy Flying] and System nonsense keep me in the air while I showed off my beautiful plumage to an adoring audience of at least one.

Then I was at the gate, getting Looks from all the guards.

“Hey! Long time no see! Where’s Atlas?” I asked them, knowing they were getting a bunch of brrrpts. I knew how much Elaine liked guards, and I relented a little, writing my request out in flames. One of the guards swallowed nervously.

“Ah, excuse me, gate toll is-”

“I’ve got it here!” I said, reaching for my messenger capsule.

Best. Dungeon. Loot. EVER! Near-unlimited storage on my leg? YES PLEASE! I knew I had a bunch of coins in there from-

Wait.

WAIT.

Where was it!? My storage! Who had - oh water.

I had screwed it up. When I’d thrown it at idiot-face who wouldn’t stop bugging me about making eggs together. The look on his silly beak when I’d hit him with an entire ocean of water had been priceless, but I’d completely forgotten to get it back in the mess!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo… eh whatever. It was filled with a literal ocean’s worth of water. I didn’t need everything to be that soggy anyway.

I sparked, like Elaine’s sigh.

I knew I was being a bit of a grape wood over it all. It really was a shame I’d screwed up and left it behind. My fault, something to remember. Hopefully Weavy and Chompy would find it and pick it up! They were going to make a bunch of eggs, and there were all sorts of goodies inside a young phoenix could use! Yes! I had basically everything at my feather tips here, and-

An awkward cough brought me back to where I was, and the fact I was holding up a guard. WHOOPS!

Ahem.

I’m a phoenix, no need to donate to me to let me into the city. I wrote out in flames.

Sure, that wasn’t how it worked… buuuuut I also knew how twitchy they were around phoenixes, especially after seeing Sasha and Ra fly roughshod over Sanguino for a few months. One of the guards coughed awkwardly, but the senior - she had the fancy hat, Elaine was right, guards did have excellent taste - waved him down.

“If you’re willing to wait a bit, we’ve got a special escort for one of your… plumage?” She suggested.

Atlas! Yes please, he’s the best! I wrote back, moving off to the side.

My message raised a few eyebrows, a [Runner] went off, and I felt as pleased as a roaring bonfire with myself.

I both didn’t need to pay AND I’d gotten them to go find Atlas for me. Perfection!

“Bye pretty birdy!” The bestest toddler EVER waved to me as he entered the city, and I set off a Fire show for him. The guards got a little twitchy, but eh. Bestest Toddler was nice, deserved a show, and his sticky hands were now somebody else’s problem!

Atlas came jogging up a few minutes later, a whole squad of guards with him. He relaxed when he saw me and waved.

“Hey Auri! Welcome back! We’ve missed you!”

“Brrrpt!”

Missed you as well! What’s with all the extras?

Atlas turned and gave a few quick orders, and they went back off being good guards of the city.

“Well, we frankly weren’t sure if it was you or not, so we were being careful.” He explained. “Can’t be too careful.”

Tell me more! What have you been doing while I was gone?

Atlas raised an eyebrow.

“Me? Your stories are going to be far more interesting. The forbidden North! I’ve never met anyone who's been there before. Come on, dish. Did the Wardens swear you to secrecy or anything?”

Wardens? Those losers? Pfffft! They took one look at me and my friends and ran away! Wait, wait, let me start at the start…

We swapped stories while making our way over to my bakery. I went to fly in by a little gap in the wall - excellent for ventilating the place for customers - only to find it was boarded up!

What! A travesty!

“What’s going on here!?” I brrrpted, kicking the offending wall, then flying back down to Atlas. He put his hand on the door, and with a sharp click, it unlocked.

I dramatically gasped.

A guardsman of the law with the ability to pick locks! Scandalous!

Atlas rolled his eyes at me and pushed the door open.

“What, do you want us to break doors down left and right instead when we need to get in buildings?” He asked.

What a wise and thoughtful decision for [Guards] to be able to gently open doors and other locks! I shamelessly wrote in front of him before freezing at the sight of my bakery.

MY BAKERY! I wrote out in all capitals, just to hammer home the severity of the offense. HELP! GUARDS! I’ve been robbed! Ransacked! Vicious scoundrels have pilfered my domain! Quick, arrest them! Crucify them on the main road!

The place was all rearranged. Tables in the wrong spot! I know I’d left the chairs on the floor, now they were neatly put on the counter! The displays were all different!

Theft! Robbery! Murder!

The last one was what I was going to do to the lowlives once I caught up with them!

Atlas folded his arms and tapped his foot.

“Auri, you’re a smart phoenix. You know better than this. Exterreri has laws, and especially for prime real estate in the middle of the city, that includes laws around not leaving it idle. Sentinel Dawn and Valkyrie Dusk were required to rent it out or have it seized, and even then they nearly paid more in taxes than they got in rent. Too many Immortals, not enough land, if we let people take a decade-long vacation and leave their stores unattended we’d have a dead city!”

Harumph. A firestorm on their laws!

Atlas could see that I was clearly unconvinced, but he knew me.

“If half the shops here were owned by an Immortal on vacation, nobody would shop here. Then you’d have no customers.”

AH!

All hail intelligent business laws! Thank you, kind caretakers, for looking after my bakery so well in my absence! Your good deeds will be rewarded, and I’ll send a cake your way as soon as possible!

I flitted over to the kitchen to take stock of what I had. A dozen [Mage Hands] were conjured and opened the various cabinets and ovens, opening all the drawers for inspection.

They’d rearranged everything noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo… I thought I’d been such a clever bird wanting to open the bakery up again today instead of going with Elaine to reorganize her [Tower] - I had no shame in saying so - only to find myself reorganizing here. Derp!

I dusted the oven stones off with a blast of Inferno, noting that a single muffin tray had been forgotten inside an oven when the prior owners had left. Thankfully, it didn’t have ancient muffins inside it, that would’ve been so gross.

As my conjured hands started to shuffle and rearrange everything, I also went and checked on my secret coin stash under the floorboards, nodding my beak in approval.

Good! It was still there. It’d been a bit of a risk leaving it there for so - wait. Ughhhh there was a note on it.

Oh well! I didn’t need to run back home and get coins, I could get started now.

Hey Atlas! Can I please get a few [Runners] to start placing orders?

Atlas knew better than to invade my kitchen when I was working, and I sent the flaming words out the door to him before halting them in front of his face.

“I’m supposed to prevent you getting in trouble and problems finding you.” He shouted back.

What’s going to cause more problems? Me bustling around my kitchen in a closed bakery, or the two of us parading down the street to the Courier’s Guild?

Atlas sighed.

“Three runners you reckon?” He asked.

Yes please! Thank you, you’re the best!

The first [Runner] was a gangly teenage girl, barely panting as she skidded to a halt inside my bakery.

“Excuse me?” She called out. “I was told there was a request for a [Runner] here?”

Yes! Thank you! I need you to go to Farina’s, and pick up…

I wanted to say ‘five’, but her level and physique… yeah…

Three sacks of flour please!

I did my usual trick of sending the words out of the kitchen, hovering them in front of her face.

“Whoa.” She leaned back, then tried to poke them. “Cool skill. Umm, excuse me! Whoever’s back there! I, uh, can’t read. Makes me really good at carrying messages, you see? ‘Cause I can’t, you know…”

Oh by the first flame! I didn’t have time for this! If I wanted to open vaguely today I needed to get working now!

I flew out of the kitchen and yelled at her a bit, mostly incoherent brrrpts. She leaned back right as a second [Runner] came into the store, panting and gasping, sheets of sweat falling off him. Another teenager. Was Atlas getting back at me somehow, subtly fucking with me just because, trying to expand my horizons, or giving great opportunities to kids? I had no way of telling.

“Phidippidia! No fair! You cheated, that one doesn’t count!” He complained between gasps of air. “Whoa! You set the owner’s bird on fire!? Not cool!” He said.

“No I didn’t!” She shot back. “She sent me some sort of message, but I couldn’t read it.”

“Are you sure yo- BY AION’S LEFT TIT!” He swore and jumped about a foot in the air, going pale and swaying slightly.

What now? Ugh, I should go back in the kitchen and… yeah that’s what I’ll do.

I pulled out some chairs with [Mage Hand] and pointed them to the chairs. Where words failed, charades would work, and if the third runner couldn’t read, then maybe the second one could translate for all of them. I did it so fast that the second dude hadn’t gotten a chance to say anything more.

Shaking, he sat down, Phidippidia sitting down across from him.

Good. Stay you two, and don’t make a mess until I can send you all out to be useful! Kids these days - oh no.

Was I getting old!?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo… hang on.

If getting old meant I wasn’t as stupid as hawk-face from the Peaks or the teenagers here, then please, bring it on! I quickly changed my color scheme to various off-white, then conjured a little flaming cane out of classy black flames, then hobble-flew back to my bakery.

Ca ca ca ca! Little old lady baking mysterious goods! Yes! It was perfect! A beautiful return to form! Just needed some magical peaches or something to top it all off. The kids started to talk in the back.

“Did you see his level!?” The second runner tried to ‘whisper’ to his friend.

“I’m pretty sure the bird’s a girl, and no.” The first girl said.

“Almost 900! What is it doing here in the middle of the city!? Where’s the owner!? Do the guards know!?” He said.

“Uh, duh, the guards know. One of them sent us here, remember? And, again, I’m pretty sure the bird’s a girl.” She said.

“How would you know if the bird’s a boy or a girl!? It’s not like you’ve studied them!” He said.

“I just know.” She said.

“Is not.” He said.

“Is too!” She said.

Yes, yes… talk about me more? I think? I wasn’t quite sure if I should be happy or not with their discussions. On one wing, they were praising how good I was, on the other…

AH! What was I doing thinking about them! I had things to do! The kitchen was a mess! I needed to clean it! Sort things! Organize them! Get the right things on the counter and prepped! Pie dishes and oven stones, mixing bowls and stirring spoons, stations ready! Fires banked!

Oh good! The third one came in! Messages away!

I need you to go to Farina’s, and pick up three sacks of flour please!

Sugar! I need a small barrel full. You can get it from…

Restocking the store had money burning like a single dry leaf hurled into an Inferno. Bowls were being stirred, meat was sliced and seared - NOT pork, Elaine hated the stuff - vegetables were rinsed, and we! Were! In! BUSINESS!

Atlas got as much free food as he could stomach, and his friends were also invited to come get free food. I remembered Amber’s rules! Well, a couple of them. Here and there. They were really more ‘suggestions’ than rules, right?

Another [Runner] came in with an order for several dozen pies, with a familiar signature and a heart on the bottom. Three by three, loaves of bread made their way to the front as I debated an age-old question.

There was no way I was going to sell everything today. Opening late after years of not being in business, I’d be lucky to have a dozen people go through the door. At the same time, if my shelves were practically bare, I’d scare away even those few. It would take SO LONG to become famous again.

What to do, what to do…

I debated while using [Spun Sugar] to manipulate the molten sucrose into an impossibly delicate shape for a wonderful three-layer cake. I was feeling quite pleased with myself! Real baking skills! Something I couldn’t have done without this skill! A delicate spiderweb draped from the cake. I was going to put it out as an attractor piece today, then deliver it to Susan at the start of the night. She’d love it!

AHHA! Marketing! I just needed to become famous today! Perfect plan. Nothing a gigantic pillar of flame wouldn’t fix.

But… hmmmm… it was breaking the rules quite a bit. And I knew part of why I was Atlas’s favorite and tolerated so well was because I did follow the rules. No burning everything to the ground, paid my taxes, didn’t make outrageous demands… I did have to live here for a long, long time. No sense in annoying everyone…

AHHA! Brilliant idea!

I was a phoenix, and the last six years had helped hammer home just how special that was. I was going to break the rules juuuuuuust a little. One short giant pillar of flames. Oh! I could try to do a little better than that! The smell of food made people hungry, so maybe if I could get the burning smell to smell like freshly baked bread and cake, they’d… go flocking to whoever was nearby.

Water!

Well, figuring out how to make flames make the smell I wanted after was a good exercise. It was all relating to flames, I was a phoenix, how hard could it be?

I popped out front, checking my stock again and the time. I was going to have to work so late just to get everything prepared enough to come in before dawn tomorrow to have a shot at actually doing decently today. The three funny [Runners] were gone, but Atlas was sitting in a corner by a window, keeping an eye on the street.

Hmm. He was the best! He deserved something nice!

I put a little flaming badge on his chest. Looking very closely, it read Best Minion Ever. He sputtered.

“I am not your minion!” He protested. “I’m a Captain of the Guard!”

Uh huh.

“Suuuure!” I brrpted at him. “Enjoy!”

I fluttered back into the kitchen. Out of the corner of my eye I checked on Atlas, burning a little brighter at his actions.

He was smiling and rubbing the badge.

Chapter five

Construction

Six years after the Eventide Eclipse returned from the Phoenix Peaks

The Celestial Supper was just as good as the first time I’d walked through its doors… by Ciriel, almost two decades ago. I was still slightly torn between ‘comforting familiarity’ as the insides of the restaurant remained unchanged all this time, and ‘eerie stasis’ as it remained exactly unchanged. I had to wonder - would I change my mind in the future, and go straight to ‘comforting familiarity’? Only time would tell, and I was content to sit back and let it happen.

I flickered through the room, subtly flexing on everyone that I could just [Teleport] rapidly from spot to spot to get to where I was going. I stuck to the normal ‘walking’ path and tried to make it clear where I was coming from and going to - didn’t want anyone jumping and losing their very expensive meal - but I could teleport eight times in a second, and I recovered enough mana to teleport just under every seven seconds.

Grinding out [Teleportation] levels was a bear.

Another fun little trick I could pull was scanning everyone as I flashed by them in a single burst of [The World Around Me] repositioning. I [Teleported] a few coins into one particularly empty purse, figuring it was my good deed for the day, and multitasking so many different things at once was novel enough for experience.

No dings though. I was all too aware a lifetime of levels usually ended up at less than half my current level, and most of those lifetimes were spent on their skills as well. Still, every little bit counted! Even an ant could eat an entire mango if they were determined enough.

And somehow avoided my attention for long enough to eat it. Some insects and animals in my orchard were good, improving things and generally net increasing the number of mangos I got, but not all of them. Part of the perfection of mangos included their thick skin, which meant even if they fell on the ground they were still perfectly edible. Truly, the gods and nature combined had outdone themselves when creating mangos.

With one last careful [Teleport] I snapped into the War Sentinel’s room, already sitting in my chair. Nobody blinked an eye at my abrupt entrance - more’s the shame, I was hoping I’d get one of them to jump one of these days. At the same time, nobody really managed to sneak up on a Sentinel. We all had our tricks, and the Sentinels who didn’t have good situational awareness were in the graveyards.

I sniffed at the food, my mouth drooling at the scent of spices.

“Dawn! Welcome! We’re doing a meat barbeque today, thought it’d be fun.” Sentinel Tyrannus said. “No pork for you, no fish because of Depths, and select dinosaurs are excluded due to Queen.”

I grinned as I [Teleported] samples of all the dishes onto my plate, piling it high, remembering the big favor Depths had done for all of us.

Auri, the bird brain, had forgotten about her messenger capsule, but Iona had brought it back with her. Some careful questioning and investigation had revealed that there truly was an entire fucking ocean worth of real water inside the little capsule, which made it one of the deadliest items in the world. For various reasons, Iona couldn’t simply offer it up to the Moon Goddesses, and Ciriel didn’t want it. I would’ve gotten a dozen levels as a [Loremaster] dealing with it, but I’d moved away from that class. Instead, Depths had undertaken a perilous journey to the bottom of the ocean, where the great hole was. She’d dodged krakens and wrestled sharks, grabbed treasure between two leviathans fighting and tricked a siren before finally tossing it in, forever removing it from the world.

She’d gained three levels from all that, and yikes did vampires ever get a raw deal on the leveling front.

Made me wonder why we didn’t deal with more threats that way, but a mental review of them gave strong reasons why we couldn’t do that for most of them.

“How do you classify a fish?” I asked her, curious. “What makes a fish a fish and not, say, an eel? Where’s the line?”

The woman slowly blinked at me as Queen protested Tyrannus’s description.

“The sharovipteryx is a noble creature! A complete marvel! It can both run on four legs and fly, there’s nothing better as a kingdom icon!”

He snorted and Legion helpfully provided an illusion of what one looked like.

It was like a medium-sized salamander, except the hind legs were super wonky. Each hind leg was almost as long as the salamander was, with webbing between the leg and the tail. A worse combination of ugly and impractical I couldn’t imagine - although I supposed they could glide, possibly even fly with the right skills. I imagined they were only still alive thanks to the divine decree against bumping off species.

Let’s see, big book of social rules… can’t quite keep my mouth shut, we were all friends or coworkers, find some middle ground where everyone can be happy, be diplomatic…

“They don’t look particularly tasty.” I said. “So it’s no real loss to skip on them?”

Queen gasped in faux-horror while Calm started to laugh his ass off. The rest of the War Sentinels currently on duty slowly filtered in while we discussed the merits of various animals and how tasty they were, along with liberal praise for the staff and [Chefs] of the Celestial Supper.

It was good stuff!

“Since we’ll never get there if I don’t start it. To business! Next ten minutes are reserved for nothing except shop talk.” Tyrannus said.

It was a clever move that had taken me years - and Iona explicitly pointing it out - for me to notice. The ten minutes thing was a deception. Once a bunch of passionate people all started talking about their thing, there was no way we’d shut up until our time at the Celestial Supper was over.

“I’ve got an issue that’s been brewing for a while, and was hoping to get everyone’s advice on.” I said.

“Sure Dawn, what’s going on?” Tyrannus pounced on my question like a tyrannosaurus rex spotting a pig.

“My Legion’s basically stalled out fighting each other when I’m around.” I said. “They’re honestly getting more experience drilling when I’m not around than live fighting when I am. Pretty sure I’m making it too safe for them, and I’m torn on what to do. I’m going to bring it to the Legata, but I wanted to check in with everyone here first.”

Flood nodded approvingly at the last line. It wasn’t quite the first rule, but one of the most important rules of issues when being a War Sentinel - Did I talk with the Legate or Legata? The person in charge of running the Legion? Most issues could be fixed with clear communication.

“I think you need to step back a minute from levels, and look at real, tangible experience gained.” Flood ground out. “Barring that little jaunt in the Han a few years back, we’ve had a lack of opportunities and fights to hone our edge. The Core Sentinels are busier and I’ve heard the Shadows are stretched thin, but we’re War. Drills only do so much. Since you’ve brought it up, I’ve been meaning to ask. Mind if I ask Legata Katerina for a full Legion-on-Legion spar, with you overseeing it?”

I shot Flood an unimpressed look and folded my arms.

“You know my answer to that. Yes I mind, but if it’s arranged, I’ll be there anyway.”

“Your [Oath] is weird.” Depths said. Legion and Tyranus both snorted into their cups - I was a bit of an airhead at times and a little out-there, but Depths was waaaaaaaay out there. People in glass houses and all that…

“Today’s clearly Dawn day! An idea I’ve toyed with now and then. Calamity’s always working on new brews, so to speak, and I’ve been wondering. Field testing them is, hmmm, awkward, let’s say, and I was thinking. What if we picked out a nice city in Omospondia or something, they’re all a bunch of miserable snakes, and Calamity let rip there. At the same time, you heal them. Both of you are doing it live, and - alright, alright, I get the idea.” Tyrannus said.

I’d been glaring open murder in Tyrannus’s direction ever since I realized his idea was ‘let’s commit mass murder on the down-low for levels!’

“Command would murder us. Arachne would string us up. Night would murder us. The diplomats would murder us. The Senate, half the Sentinels, any Immortals hiding there…”

I kept going, ticking each group off my fingers, finishing naming various groups when I ran out of fingers. And toes, after placing my feet on the table.

A bunch of coins traded hands, along with a few grins.

“Hey!” I protested, looking around. “You were all just winding me up!”

“I mean, we did wind up Legion last week.” Tyrannus smugly reminded me, only for an untouched turkey leg to suddenly reposition itself from his plate to mine. I grabbed it, extended [Etheric Aegis] to protect it against shenanigans, and debated how to best clean all the blood off it. Good for vampires, way too strong a taste for me. Also, goblin was one hell of a choice. I had regrets.

Which… fuck, might’ve been in Tyrannus’s plan the entire time. Dude was canny, but rarely showed it, unlike Flood.

“That was different!” I protested. “He brought it on himself! It was actually funny!”

Legion groaned and threw himself back in his chair. Carefully - he could go through the chair and half the walls in this place like tissue paper if he wanted to.

“That’s completely different! Idiot elven ‘hunting parties’ deserve what they get!”

What scared me about the whole thing - I suspected if I said ‘yes’, we’d be making plans right now. I was no naive idiot - I knew what my coworker’s jobs and business were, and sometimes I felt out of place, being the one advocating for peace and not doing harm. It was an odd place for it, but someone had to do it.

At others, I felt completely at home and in harmony with them. Broadly, we all wanted the same thing, we just saw many different ways of getting there. I could hold my nose up in the air and refuse to work with them at all, or I could do the most good possible in the position I held, and do my best to temper them.

“Any new ones?” Flood growled out. I’d swear her throat was damaged if I hadn’t subtly tried healing it a few thousand times by now. I added one to my mental count as I briefly poked [Universal Cure].

Legion flicked a finger, and a detailed map of Exterreri overlayed our table. A few new red dots pulsed.

“Here, here, here, and here.” He said.

I frowned and leaned forward. Flood beat me to asking the question.

“In the last week!?”

The weekly War Sentinel meeting was always a nice time, and I took the chance while I was in Sanguino to swing by [Quartermaster] Harper’s office, grabbing several rolls of paper from [Repository of the Archmage].

“Daaaaaaaaawn! Oh my gosh, hi! It’s been, like, FOREVER since you’ve last been here! How’s my favorite girl doing? You look TOTALLY amazing, as always! You have style! I am so jealous, and we have so much to catch up on! I’ve missed you like crazy!”

I grinned at the bubbly [Quartermaster].

“Heya Harper! Sorry I haven’t been around as much, but I think I’ve got something super interesting for you.”

“OOOOOooooh, Dawn, you always bring me the best stuff. Hit me with it girl! I am totally ready for this!”

It turned out - going to the moon was fucking difficult. Magic made it possible for us to even consider it, but the sheer calculations and logistics were… yeah. We’d been spending years working everything out, and I was pretty sure we were still missing stuff. We’d spent four years planning and calculating before showing our work to Arachne, who’d loved the idea and was intrigued. She’d then poked more holes in our plan than a spiderweb, and mentioned Night had known a few people who’d taken the trip before us. We hadn’t quite needed to go back to the drawing board, but more calculation and planning was needed.

When I’d asked Night about it, he’d simply smiled and said he looked forward to what my solution was. Ughhhhhhh I understood why he did it, but it didn’t make it any less infuriating.

Naturally, there was my work as a Sentinel, and eight years of vacation had gone by too quickly. I was back on duty before we’d even finished calculating the raw estimated trajectories needed, and I couldn’t leave for two months on a trip. Hopefully in the sixteen years I was ‘on duty’ we’d figure it out, and be able to launch shortly after.

I unrolled the plans we’d made on the desk, Harper’s endlessly bubbly personality sliding away to a serious face.

“What is…” She muttered to herself, eyebrows scrunching up as she flipped the pages over. “Glass? Ah, alchemically treated… it’s a single object. How… oh, I see. But why…?”

Harper looked up with a confused look on her face.

“What is this supposed to be?” She asked.

“We’re going to the moon!” I explained, delighting in her fishbowl expression. It slowly morphed into one of delight.

“The moons!?” She jumped up, clapping her hands. “Oh Dawn darling, you really do bring me the most wonderful things!”

“Moon. Singular.” I gently corrected. “We thought it’d be too difficult to visit both of them.”

Harper went back to the designs with feverous abandon, flipping through them all again.

“Okay girl, I’ve got you! Got, like, a million questions though. Why glass?” She asked.

“So we can see what we’re doing and where we’re going.” I answered. Harper tapped the plans.

“Yeah, but you’re pulling out all the stops to harden it. Instead of trying to harden glass, I know an [Alchemist] whose made a potion to make steel clear. Much easier to work than pure glass, plus we can’t source that here. It would have to, like, be a super-special commission from Tympestshard. There’s one [Glassblower] I know of that could do it and not, like, accidentally kill you all halfway through.”

Harper dramatically shuddered.

“The size of this thing, combined with overland transportation costs… whoof, I don’t want to think about it. Doing it in steel though? You’re sooooooo much more flexible, you don’t need to cast it all at once. Where’s a quill? Ah, okay, so like, see…”

Harper bent over the diagrams, starting to cross out alchemical processes and substitute in new ones, tiny drops of ink splattering as she cross-checked numbers and rewrote half the process from the ground up.

Given how long it’d taken us to come up with the design and iterate over it, I felt vaguely offended. But I wasn’t a material sciences and armaments girl - Harper was. This would be like someone without the needed classes, skills, or education bringing me a set of biomancy plans. I was no genius, but I could probably improve it quite a bit on the spot.

“This here’s for an armor skill, yeah? Yeah, can’t imagine any other reason…” She muttered as she tapped the ‘half-chair’ part of the design.

In order to best keep our spaceship intact, we wanted it to be classified as armor. The best way we knew of to make the System recognize it as armor was to have a ‘control seat’ that was basically half a suit of armor for Iona to sit in, where she could then have the whole thing as ‘armor’. Since it was a single piece, the protection would then extend to the ‘hamster ball’ all around us.

Harper threw down her quill.

“Argh! Okay, this is hard, and it’s good. Solid. Yeah. Dawn, do you mind if I consult with some of the dwarven clans on this project? They like their fancy toys, and I think they could give me a hand.”

Hmmm.

“On one hand, it’s not exactly a state secret, on the other, it’s kinda… our project? We don’t want a bunch of other people coming in and telling us what to do, and how to do it.”

Harper nodded and flipped to the page where we’d listed out all of our gems we wanted. Most of them had a cheery little checkmark next to them, indicating we’d gotten them, and Amber was on the lookout for more.

“I totally get you! This is your baby, not some greybearded dwarf who hasn’t seen the light of day this century! They wouldn’t know what to DO with something so cool, and no worries on them copying your designs! I can see that it’s tailored for both of your skills combined to make it work. Now! Like, the awkward part. The cost. I knoooow you know it’ll be expensive, buuut this is super speciality work. Molten steel and gemstone? NOT a good look. You ready for this?”

I nodded.

“You’re not sitting down, I don’t know if you’re ready… well, here goes.”

Harper named a seven-figure price. I sat down.

“That much!?” I squeaked out. I’d known it was going to be expensive, I’d just… expected one zero less. And it was a high seven figure price. I’d thought the gems were going to be the most expensive part of this, but that was clearly horribly naive.

She tapped the sheet.

“Sorry girl! The raw material costs alone, before the gems? Eeeeesh. Then as I said, we’re going to need a major artisan’s workshop. Now… there’s a few things I can think of to help out.”

I wasn’t interested in cutting corners, but Harper knew better than to cut corners. Cut corners in gear killed Sentinels and Rangers.

“What’s the idea?” I asked.

“Well! This is going to be like, totally flashy, yeah? It could be a Big Deal. Poke the stuffy vampires in the Senate, maybe even the [Empress] could be interested, and boom! You bring an extra standard on the trip, they finance a third of it, everyone wins, yeah?”

I frowned. I’d need to talk with Iona. She’d discussed consecrating the trip to Selene and Lunaris, and when I’d bugged Ciriel about it, the Goddess of Healing wanted nothing to do with it.

It’s not that I’m uninterested, she’d said. It’s that the Moon Goddesses are already involved, and this is their domain. They’d get pissed if I infringed on this rare opportunity. If it was Edor, the watery old fool, I’d say yes in a moment, there’s no contest. This is their domain, their bragging opportunity, their chance to gain big. The moment they need to split it even a little, they lose a lot of the power of the trip. Nah, I’ll sit this one out, and probably get a little token of thanks from them for staying out of their way. I win anyway!

“I have to check with Iona, but assuming she’s alright with it, sure!” I said.

Harper jumped up, clapped her hands and squeeeed, then wrapped me in a tight hug.

“Oh my gods! Thank you SO MUCH Elaine! This is going to be THE BEST PROJECT EVER!!!”

Home was my next destination, and I managed to break out from the permanent Ashen cover over Sanguino before sunset, letting me enjoy some of the dusk. Skye was waiting for me in the front hall when I arrived.

“Trouble?” I asked our [Chief of Staff]. Honestly, everything ran so much smoother with her around, it was great! Didn’t have to worry about most of life’s woes and problems with her fixing everything ahead of time.

She even got one up on the [Tax Collector]!

Skye shook her head.

“A child came by looking for you by name. I’ve seated him in the blue room with some snacks while we waited.”

I frowned and paid a hair more attention to my senses, getting an idea of what I was working with.

“Any ideas?” I asked.

“He said he wanted advice. If he’d been looking for healing, I would’ve directed him to the Guild, but advice was novel enough that I thought you might want to take a look.”

I nodded.

“Thank you, Skye. I’ll take it from here.”

I flickered over to the blue room, teleporting in right in front of a lanky and awkward teenager. He jumped satisfyingly at my entrance, half-choking on some of Auri’s excellent cookies. I carefully and gingerly - didn’t want to break his spine or paste him across the room - patted his back, helping him out.

“S-Sentinel Dawn! Sir! Uh, ma’am!”

He scrambled up, throwing a piss-poor salute in my direction. I suppose he was pretty young.

“Hi! That’s me! Skye said you knew me, and were looking for advice?”

He suddenly started sweating.

“Well, err, kinda? Maybe? Not really? I don’t think you remember me, but I remember you. You helped out the Maple Orphanage six years ago? I was one of the orphans then. Name’s Nix. Pluvius Nix.”

I squinted. His age - early teens, but puberty had clearly started to hit him - looked vaguely right to be one of those tiny orphans who’d run around helping me re-sort my [Tower] back in the day. After six years, even with a perfect memory, it was hard, given how much people changed.

Hells, it was half his lifetime, wasn’t it? That was a hecking long time to remember me.

“Advice! Sure, what can I do for you?” I asked.

“Well… I’m thinking of joining the Legions. Becoming a soldier, then maybe a Ranger one day. Like you?” He asked.

Hmmm.

I didn’t want to recommend anyone join the Legions, but then again, I wasn’t exactly in a position to talk. I’d done exactly that, at almost exactly the same age. Nix was an orphan, so it wasn’t like he had a ton of choices in life, and basically no social safety net. At the same time, I knew the money I’d given was enough for an apprenticeship anywhere, so he did have more options than usual.

“Is there a reason working as an [Apprentice] won’t work?” I asked. On one hand, if the money had vanished or been embezzled, I’d be pissed. On the other, I had Fenrir and Skye to sic on the problem.

“I… don’t really see myself going that way.” He said.

Ugh. Idiot teenagers and the propaganda machine.

“My advice, in the strongest possible words, is don’t join. If you have to join the Legions though, I’m attached to the Sixth, and I’ll do my level best to keep you alive.”

Fuck.

That spark that lit up in his eyes?

The entire first half, the important part of my advice had just gone out the window, and I was sure I was going to see a familiar new recruit in a couple of years, when he’d finished his training period.

Damnit, I hope I hadn’t killed him.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 44]

[Mana: 7,695,490/7,695,490]

[Mana Regeneration: 16,393,330 +(50,591,044)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 49,689 (Effectively: 397,512)]

[Dexterity: 74,104 (Effectively: 789,059)]

[Vitality: 237,472 (Effectively: 3,710,500)]

[Speed: 224,704 (Effectively: 4,422,849)]

[Mana: 769,549]

[Mana Regeneration: 1,833,424 (+ 5,059,104)]

[Magic Power: 1,007,359 (+ 45,381,523)]

[Magic Control: 1,006,513 (+ 45,343,411)]

[Class 1: [The Arbiter of Life and Death - Celestial: Lv 901]]

[Celestial Mastery: 901]

[Aurora Curialis: 901]

[The Stars Never Fade: 102]

[Luminary Mind: 722]

[Universal Cure: 901]

[Etheric Aegis: 388]

[Event Horizon: 680]

[Zenith Everlasting: 701]

[Class 2: [Seraph of the Dawn - Radiance: Lv 883]]

[Radiance Mastery: 883]

[A Light Shining in the Darkness: 350]

[The Rays of the First Dawn: 883]

[Radiant Angel's Spear of Obliteration: 311]

[Celestial Dew: 883]

[Sunrise Halo: 883]

[Wings of the Seraphim: 883]

[Six Wings, Six Million Feathers: 883]

[Class 3: [Erudite Archmage - Spatial: Lv 760]]

[Spatial Authority: 540]

[Cozy Reading: 760]

[Teleportation: 310]

[Repository of the Magus: 600]

[Tower of Knowledge: 228]

[Reality, Writ As You Will: 570]

[Astral Archives: 397]

[Endless Pursuit of Knowledge: 710]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 580]

[Handy: 277]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 901]

[The World Around Me: 343]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 901]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 901]

[Persistent Casting: 710]

[Tender Gardening: 299]

Chapter six

ROUS

Ten years after the Eventide Eclipse returned from the Phoenix Peaks

“Sentinel Dawn. Excellent, I was looking for you.” A young-looking Katerina said the moment I stepped into the command tent. The [Legata’s] curse wasn’t one she could exactly hide from people - she had to delegate effectively everything, including putting on clothes and feeding herself. Fortunately, her [Empire of Nightmares, We Fight In The Shade, We Are Masters Of the Darkness, Rise Up, Shadows of the Legion!] skill was still perfectly serviceable - it was a mass delegation, or so Katerina had speculated.

I personally thought White Dove knew exactly what she was doing, making sure to keep the Legata in the line of fire.

Part of me was a hair suspicious of the second one - I wondered if she simply wanted an excuse to have her staff feed her grapes at all times.

I half-froze at her greeting, my heart sinking into my boots. That meant trouble.

“Legata.” I saluted. “Where do you need me?”

She pointed to the second-closest town to the Legion on the map.

“Local Ranger team’s reported a, and I quote, ‘biomancied horror’ that they’re unable to take care of. For reasons that elude me and I’ll be following up on later, they’ve elected to contact us to give them a hand instead of requesting a Sentinel from the capital. If it’s outside of their expertise, I want a Sentinel on hand. I’m dispatching the Fifth Cohort and Tribune Lavender to handle the problem. I envision you as a subject-matter expert first to be consulted if they need assistance, a healer second - bring everyone back alive - and lastly, the big hammer if they’re unable to solve the problem themselves. Don’t step in unless you absolutely have to.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“A full Ranger team is already calling for help, and you think it’ll be handled without me?” I asked.

“Rangers… as a team, tend not to be idiots.” Katerina said after a moment. “Any individual one? Yeah, some questionable judgment now and then.”

“Frequently.” Someone faux-coughed in the tent. The corner of Katerina’s lips twitched in amusement. There was a definite rivalry between the Rangers and the Legions, and I’d started my career on the other side of it. While I’d spent significantly more time as a member of the Legion than as a Ranger, my loyalties were still firmly on ‘Team Ranger’.

“Frequently.” She agreed. “Same could be said about any of our soldiers though, so let’s not sling rocks around too hard, yeah? All in all though, Rangers are trained to go to the Sentinels first, so the fact that they’re reaching out to us makes me suspect we’re better suited for the job than a hand-picked Sentinel, so I’m willing to let our people have a crack at it first. Right, Tribune Lavender is probably still forming up, and it’d be a huge morale boost if you made it before they left. You still on for drinks with the rest of command later?”

I nodded, the recent tradition a favorite of Iona’s.

‘See you then.” I agreed.

“Dawn. Bring them back. All of them.” Katerina said without looking up from her table.

I nodded, saluted again, and left the command structure. It took me a moment to swap my gear around - going into a fight, no fancy capes permitted - then I took to the air, blazing [Universal Cure] around me, the daily ‘check up’ on the Legion.

The [Healers] here got plenty of experience on the daily scrapes, sprained ankles and occasional accidents that occurred when around five thousand people were either bored, or training with sharp weapons. I didn’t feel bad in the slightest here that I was giving them a daily ‘once-over’ when I swung by in my morning report. Legions moved and deployed slowly, and my time was valuable. If they didn’t need me for the day, I headed back to Sanguino.

I zipped over to where Tribune Lavender was forming up the Fifth Cohort, silently landing next to her as she ordered everyone into formation. I scanned the soldiers with a smile, catching a dozen familiar eyes past their helmets, and noting a new-yet-familiar face.

Nix.

Well, at least he’d listened to some of my advice and joined the Sixth Legion. He looked way too excited at seeing me, and his line leader smacked the back of his helmet.

…Were we seriously letting kids join the Legions? Although, wait. I scrunched my eyebrows up as I calculated.

He wasn’t really a kid anymore, was he?

Fuck.

I swear he’d been seven like, three days ago! Where did the time go!?

“…Once again, we are going on a live excursion.” Lavender shouted, her [Standard-Bearer] ensuring she was heard by all eight centuries in the Cohort. “We’re heading to Massa, where the local [Ranger] team will let us know more. Sentinel Dawn, would you like to add anything?” She asked.

I stepped up a bit, automatically starting to take in a deep breath to project my voice before remembering the [Standard-Bearer].

“I am here primarily as an expert in the field of biomancy, and secondarily as a [Medic].” I said softly. “You are fully capable of handling the problem yourselves, and I will be deeply disappointed if I need to start firing off Radiance attacks to bail you out. Tribune Lavender will be the one expressing that displeasure.”

There we go. Some reassurance on my part, couched in language they all understood, and hopefully the threat of Tribune Lavender’s displeasure would keep them all motivated and moving. Otherwise they might get complacent at ‘oh, the Sentinel’s watching over us, we don’t need to try too hard’ or some other nonsense like that.

“Right! Fifth Cohort! Move out!” Lavender shouted with a sharp chop of her short sword. Bugles blared, drums rolled, banners flashed, and like an ancient arthritic rhino, the Cohort moved out.

Armies did not move quickly. At all. I was bored after two minutes of flying above the cohort after the order was given, when some of the centuries were still standing there. Like, yeah, I’d seen and done all this in the Han Empire, but it was a little different when I was free flying above, and my lunch plans with Auri had gone up in smoke.

Actually… that was a good idea. I’d been a Sentinel here in Exterreri far longer than I’d been one in Remus, but the old, ingrained habits died hard. I had a team now, a full group to support me. I didn’t have to do everything alone, and from the pace of things, it looked like the Cohort was going to reach Massa tomorrow.

I dropped down to where Tribune Lavender was.

“Can I help you, Sentinel Dawn?” She asked.

“Yeah. Going to check in with the Rangers in Massa to ensure it’s not an immediate crisis, then fly across the country, pick up a teammate or two of mine, then fly back. You know, an extra round of my morning commute. I figure Sentinels work in teams, I should have my team here.”

Lavender nodded.

“Thank you for the clear communication. When do you anticipate you’ll be back?”

I turned my head all the way around, deliberately squinting at the parade ground where the last few centuries were getting moving. The way my neck twisted had some of Lavender’s personal line looking green.

“Might be back before the Cohort gets on the road?” I suggested lightly. My joke was met with a choked laugh, and Lavender wasn’t as steely as Katerina. She chuckled to herself.

“Gods, what I wouldn’t give for a skill to make everyone march twice as fast. Right, get going.”

I spiraled high up into the sky on six wings, then shot off to Messa. My arrival gave the gate guards a bit of a heart attack, and wind whipped around everyone in line. I interrupted a pair inspecting a wagon.

“Sentinel Dawn for the local Ranger team, please.” I ordered.

The farmer decided not saying a damn thing was the wise move, and the guards looked at each other with frozen shock. I cleared my throat and pointed to the higher-level one, with formless and grey eyes constantly shifting, rippling like a breeze was blowing through them.

“Please go get me the local Rangers.” I said, and he took off sprinting.

“Ahem, beggin’ yer pardon yer Sentinelness, but is the city… safe?” The [Farmer] asked. I landed and shot him my best winning smile.

“Yup! Minor hiccup that they didn’t ask me for. I’m basically running some very high-level messages around, because their last communication was terrible and my boss wants to chew them out a little for it.”

All true, and reassuring to boot. Katerina hadn’t explicitly said she was annoyed with them, but ‘biomancied horror’ was so vague a description of the problem as to be utterly useless, and I was starting to get a vague idea how she thought.

“'Kay. I’ma just askin’ 'cause I don’t see no cape, and my old granda always said to look fer a cape on a Sentinel, 'cause if they don’t have it on, it’s all about to go to shit.”

I didn’t let how accurate that was slow me down at all.

“They’re probably going to have a bad day.” I acknowledged. “You’re going to be fine.”

The farmer got waved through the gate - the guard deciding that a full inspection wasn’t needed and loudly talking about problems with a Sentinel was probably worse than any minor goods getting smuggled in - and a few minutes of extremely hasty gate checks later, the original guard and a pair of Rangers hurried up to the gate. I waved to them.

“Hi! Is there a nice little guardhouse we could chat in?” I asked.

A minute later we were sitting down around a table, a large pile of freshly baked cookies sat upon it.

I had to give the idea to Auri. Free cookies to the guards would result in a never-ending supply of loyal customers.

“Sentinel.” The leader gave me a crisp nod of acknowledgement. “I apologize, we requested a detachment from the Sixth, we didn’t think the issue quite rose to the level of needing your intervention.”

My eyebrows climbed as I nabbed a cookie. Om nom nom.

“I’m War Sentinel Dawn with the Sixth Legion.” I said. “Mostly I’m here because your communication was piss poor and we have no idea what we’re actually up against. I’m mainly going to be on overview and oversight.”

The Rangers relaxed a bit, and the leader leaned in.

“You’re right, our missive probably wasn’t the best. I’ll take responsibility for it, and all of us will be attending lessons from a [Scribe] in the city.”

I tasked part of [Luminary Mind] to figuring out what, exactly, he was saying between the lines. There was clearly something there.

My fingers drummed the table, my gaze boring into him. I didn’t want to have to order him to REPORT! Like he was some grunt - he was a fully fledged Ranger leader like Julius had been - but I would if I had to.

“I will fully admit, we were not present at the start of the problem. We’ve traced the earliest reports of the Problem to quests posted in the Adventurer’s Guild, where the [Sewer Sweepers] couldn’t properly handle an increase in vermin.”

I raised an eyebrow, and the Ranger lifted his hands up and shook his head.

“I know, I know, I also asked them the obvious question - why didn’t they go to the guard? Something about not wanting to look bad, internal competition nonsense.” He waved his hand dismissively.

I got a detailed breakdown of how things had quietly escalated. More rodents, bigger ones, meaner ones. The guard had gotten called in, and when they found themselves struggling, the Rangers had been promptly summoned.

To the Ranger’s credit, they’d neatly handled the source of the problem, finding the [Weaver of Flesh] responsible and promptly subduing, and arresting him, before handing him over for trial. The gears of justice could spin like a Steam Classer was having fun when they wanted to, and he’d been executed shortly after his trial.

“The issue is how many rodents are left.” The Ranger said. “They’re too big and too mean for the guard to handle with their equipment, not unless we wanted dozens, if not hundreds, of fatalities and the streets to be unpatrolled for a week, and forget us trying to hunt them all down ourselves. They’d outbreed us!”

I froze at that last bit.

“Say that again.” I demanded.

“They’d outbreed us?” The Ranger said. My eyes bore into his.

“Have you gotten anything from the [Priests] about a violation of the Divine Decrees?” I asked, wondering if I needed to pick up Sentinel Calamity on the way back. He wasn’t the nicest Sentinel, but when it came to ‘mass murder on a city scale’, well, with his level I assumed he could tailor something that hit only the rats.

“No, we haven’t.” He said. I wasn’t quite ready to relax.

“Have you seen them breeding? Do you know it for a fact?” I fired off. The two Rangers traded looks, the quiet one shrugging.

“No… I was mostly using it as a comedic expression on the situation.” The leader said. “Apologies. If I’d known it was that serious, I wouldn’t have said anything.”

I sagged in relief. Couldn’t quite expect people to know the boundaries of every threat in the world, and I had been tapped partly due to my biomancy expertise. Cohorts were deployed all the time to handle minor problems and I was occasionally with them.

“Go on. Do you have a sample?”

The Rangers did, and it was… frankly piss-poorly done. I could see what the [Weaver of Flesh] had been going for - gigantic rats with a carnivorous dinosaur’s jaw. Some mad scientist slicing with a scalpel revealed just how poorly it was done - the digestive tract was the same, which, fair, rats could eat everything, but I was willing to bet there was no ‘proper’ compensating for the radical change in diet. Add in the lack of [Priests] going nuts, and…

“They’ll all die out in a few years anyway.” I sighed. “But we can’t concede the sewers to rats for a few years.”

One of the Rangers coughed awkwardly.

“Well, using some smoke and some clever use of cattails, we’ve mostly got them out of the sewers, setting them up nicely for the Sixth Legion…”

Oh what fun.

Armed with knowledge about what we were going to face, I left with minimal polite noises. We all saw the problem, knew the job, and I had things to do if I was going to help exterminate a bunch of rodents. The Rangers enthusiastically volunteered to help in the combat line, and I looked forward to seeing them perform. A little bit of cross-discipline rivalry should make that part of the battlefield spectacular. I filled Lavender in on the situation, then shot off to Sanguino.

Along the way I briefly said hi to Ciriel.

Heya Ciriel! Got a bit of a fun job today, we’ve got some biomancied rats running round! Want to watch?

Oooh! Sounds like fun, yeah! She replied back. Give me the details? What’s new?

Only if you tell me the latest divine drama. I replied. The gossip’s literally out of this world!

We traded notes as I headed back, then it was time to work again. Auri was the easiest to find, and I had a new trick. A last-moment [Teleport] shed all my speed, bringing me from faster than the speed of sound to a dead halt in a single moment. It cost more mana, but I had mana to burn, and I couldn’t use it to go faster, no matter how I tried, but it was fun.

I finished my teleport by shamelessly cutting in line.

“Hey Auri!” The spluttered protests of the person behind me were smothered as they took in my level and armor, and they decided that waiting a few more minutes for their order was wise. “We’ve got a thing, probably a bunch of rats to burn, wanna come?”

“BRRRPT!” Auri shrieked in excitement, her wings beating so quickly they caused a stiff breeze to blow through the bakery. “Brrrpt brrpt BRPT BRPT BRTP!!” She shot off a dozen orders to Atlas, who was unofficially part of the team at this point.

The [Guard Captain] and [Phoenix Minder] sighed, stood up, and took his place behind the counter without a protest about how this ‘wasn’t his job’ or anything like that.

“Joined the guard to avoid working in a store my whole life, ended up working in a store my whole life. In hot armor.” He muttered to himself with a smile.

I grabbed Auri and we zipped over to Fenrir’s cave, where I dropped her off to wake up the wyvern and check to see if he was interested in coming along with us. I had to tear my eyes away from my mango grove - oooh, just a bit of pruning here, an examination there, then I could read the afternoon away, surrounded by my beloved trees - but duty called. Iona was the only one who was hard to track, and I eventually almost literally sniffed her out like a bloodhound. Super senses were a pain at times - but when I wanted to know or find something, they were excellent.

“Elaine! Hey!"

“Want to murder a bunch of rats?” I asked after explaining the situation. Iona raised an eyebrow at me.

“I love doing anything and everything with you, but honest question. Do you think I’ll be the slightest bit useful? Rather, will I be helpful, or am I taking the overkill to stupid amounts of overkill?”

“No such thing as overkill!” I gleefully quoted Artemis before thinking about it.

I paused, imagining the situation. 512ish soldiers in a long shield wall stabbing the heck out of the rodents… or 512 soldiers stabbing the heck out of them, and one Valkyrie acting as a one woman [Reaper]?

She gestured to the work she was doing. I sighed.

“Love you, see you later, might borrow Fenrir anyway.”

Iona snorted.

“Okay, if Fenrir’s coming along, I am absolutely overkill.”

Turned out Fenrir wanted to mostly snooze, and Auri and I zipped across Sanguino, back to the Fifth Cohort.

“You’re late!” Lavender teased. “We’re all off the parade ground!”

I rolled my eyes as Auri fluttered up to perch on the standard, puffing herself up as the soldiers cheered her presence. She was well and truly the mascot of the Sixth, and there were occasional rumblings at changing our cognomen to ‘Undying’, both for my healing and Auri’s phoenix-ness. There was an added layer of ‘smoke and mirrors’ I approved of. Anyone who thought we were ‘Undying’ because of Auri would get surprised by my healing, and anyone who thought it was because of me would have an Auri-shaped surprise burning through them.

“Any thoughts?” I asked the Tribune.

“Quite a few, but I’ll see what the scouts have to say before committing to any plans.”

I drifted up, remembering what my job here was supposed to be. Healing, subject matter expert, and only if things went to shit, Sentinel. I got no experience trying to run a Cohort, meanwhile the [Tactician], Tribune, [Scouts], and the hundreds of men and women of the Cohort did get experience by doing their thing. Pressing too hard on the scale now would either bungle things up, as they knew things I didn’t and were experts in areas I wasn’t, or just utterly ruin any experience possible for them.

I did have things I could do to level though, and I grabbed an old favorite book from [Repository of the Magus].

Yup. Leveling. That’s totally what I was up to here.

Nix

Nix trembled in formation. The Cohort was spread out in a thin line, three deep and almost two hundred wide, the classic killing formation they’d drilled in time and time again. A thick mist hung over the valley, unusual for the time of day. Nix suspected a skill, but was too low in both level and rank to know what the Tribune was thinking.

“Shields up!” The [Centurion] barked, and Nix hefted his shield again, cursing as it was already feeling heavy. “Spears down!”

Nix dutifully obeyed, damning his past-self for volunteering to be on the front line, instead of one of the smarter third-line soldiers. Their job was to stab everything they walked over, making sure they were dead.

“It’s just rats.” He tried to convince himself. “Just rats of an unusual size.”

He didn’t believe it. They didn’t deploy the Legion for rats. Rats that they’d herded with steel and blood to a killing ground they couldn’t escape. This was it. No more screwing around. He was going to ask Hasta to marry him once and for all if he got out of this alive.

Nix’s eyes started to drift skyward, to see if Sentinel Dawn was still there.

Was- Was she reading a book?!

“Eyes forward!” His line leader barked, and Nix snapped his eyes back to the ground.

“Cohort, advance!” The order echoed oddly in his ears, but his legs automatically moved on their own, endless months of drills and training proving effective.

Left, right, left right. One foot after another.

Sentinel Dawn would stop reading when the battle started, right? She wasn’t going to ignore them all as they died?

Fireballs started to explode deep in the Mist, waves of heat washing over them. Sweat instantly prickled Nix’s brow as they marched towards the Inferno.

I signed up for the Legions, not firefighting duty! He complained to himself.

A rat almost as tall as he was lunged out of the thick Mist, jaws filled with serrated teeth as long as knives flashing to his face. Nix instinctively stabbed forward, as the soldiers next to him and behind him stabbed.

His shield was in the right place, his helmet strapped on tight, and what few skills he had were active. It wasn’t enough to stop a several-hundred pound rat, who snapped off their spears deep inside its body before bowling him over entirely, breaking through the line and snapping his left arm and ribs with a sickening crunch.

Nix didn’t hear the orders being screamed or see the shortswords coming out, ramming again and again into the rat’s side. His entire life became trying to keep gigantic jaws away from him. Tiny scrabbling paws ripped and tore at his body, his armor crushed under the weight. His hands were sliced cleanly through before the rat bit down. It felt like red-hot knives were ripping into his throat, and convinced he was dead, his eyes drifted to the heavens, ready to meet the gods.

I’m sorry, Hasta. He thought. I’ve failed you.

The rat suddenly got heavy on him, and Nix ignored the kill notification. He was dead. Everyone was shouting and yelling. Geez. Couldn’t he die in peace? Thirteen years of borrowed time, and-

His line commander slapped him in the face as the ruined parts of his armor fell off him.

“GET UP!” He roared, bodily hoisting Nix up, thrusting a spear into his hand. “You do not stop! You do not lie down to rest! You take your spot in the line, and you HOLD YOUR FUCKING GROUND!”

Nix jumped and hurried forward.

This was a weird afterlife.

Chapter seven

Interlude - Nina - The Paperwork of Assassination

Fifteen Years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks

Nina was the picture-perfect vision of a naive, rosy-cheeked and fresh-faced [Maid], excited to be working at [Countess] Brunswick’s castle.

Quite literally. She’d studied dozens of young human women, seen how attractive other people found them, then blended their traits and looks together to create just one of her many disguises.

It was tweaked after each use. Nina had made the mistake of reusing a ‘face’ exactly once, and the resulting fight had gotten her a half-dozen levels and set her target on such high alert that she’d needed to circle back a few years later.

It was as ‘real’ as it could be in so many ways. Nina kept the same size and most of her body shape, tightly wrapping her tails around her body so nobody brushed them and wondered what was going on. Being the youngest, newest member of the castle also meant she was the least protected and most vulnerable, and she was lucky to get a warning before someone bumped into her or rudely shoved her to the side. An easy price to pay for the access and intelligence she was gathering, but if she looked like a muscular brute of a man and people felt soft curves and a delicate frame when touching the ‘man’, questions would rapidly be asked and Nina’s cover would be blown.

She’d never made that mistake, it was too fundamental to being an illusionist and trickster.

Nina had a mop, bucket, and a job to do, and was scrubbing hard, her invisible ears twitching as they tried to pick up any and all information. It was unlikely she’d overhear anything sensitive or that changed her mind, but there was all sorts of low-level intelligence she could gather in the meantime. Who was in favor, who’d screwed up. Occasionally ‘hidden’ servant’s passages revealed themselves as people were moving in the walls, and it was generally a good idea to have an idea of who was around Nina.

If nothing else, the [Head Butler] would never catch her slacking off.

One of the infamous [Slayers] was coming up the stairs, and Nina polished off a section, making sure to properly position herself. The [Slayer] came up the stairs, medium armor and the classic tricorn hat, and the Valkyrie gasped.

“Oh! Sir Slayer! What an honor!” Nina shamelessly batted her eyelashes, letting a blush creep up her neck and cheeks, ‘innocently’ letting her breasts bounce. The picture-perfect blushing [Maid], overwhelmed at the fame and prestige of one of Vollomond’s most lauded warriors.

Ego. Pride. Sex. Vanity. Arrogance. Jealousy. All of them were weapons, and Nina had no issues in using each and every tool at her disposal to get what she wanted. She was walking a tight line. On one hand, if she stood out too much, some “noble warrior” would want to “rescue” or “elevate” her, and then she’d be stuck, her freedom effectively curtailed by a lover who wanted to spend far too much time with her. On the other, if she was practically invisible to everyone, then she’d be questioned far more often when found in sections she might not be allowed in, an unknown face that required challenging.

No, the middle path was the best one. Men and women, everyone liked their strengths pandered to, their egos stroked. An attentive ear, a pretty face. Nina’s methods weren’t perfect, nobody’s were. There were women jealous of the image she put forth, men who found her attention suspicious. But generally, the effect was there.

A pretty, eager, hard-working face that people recognized and let through unchallenged. That was Nina’s goal, and her hidden ears twitched as she made polite noises and shamelessly flirted with the [Slayer].

“Did you get the boar?” She asked breathlessly, like it was the MOST exciting thing that had ever happened. Nina could practically see him inflate, and she wondered how on Pallos people actually acted the way she did. She just didn’t understand it, unless they were doing the same thing she was.

“Of course!” He boasted. “His head will adorn the [Lady’s] walls on the morrow, and we shall feast on his flesh tonight!” The [Slayer] winked salaciously at Nina. “Perhaps we can find a place at the table for you on my lap, letting you pick the finest pieces?”

Nina gasped like the idea was overwhelming, her tails itching as they wanted to swish behind her but were bound tight.

“Oh Sir [Slayer]! Little me at the high table? I could never!”

Nina could and had on countless occasions. One memorable time she’d sat on a particularly paranoid [Baron’s] lap, and managed to poison his wine after the [Taste-Tester] had confirmed it was clear. Not her favorite moment, and it had taken weeks of washing for her tails to feel clean again. She much preferred a hunting accident, swapping the labels on potions, or best of all, being able to ‘properly’ and ‘honorably’ fight her target to the death.

Years of training under Iona had rubbed off on her. At the same time, she wasn’t going to risk an unfair fight, and both Elaine and Iona had quite a few words on the topic. The conflict between their words and actions regarding fighting seemed obvious to Nina, but both of them seemed to accept it without a blink.

The [Slayer] grinned flirtatiously at Nina. “We’ll see! The [Countess] wants to meet with us, so alas, duty calls.”

Nina continued to dutifully mop as his footsteps faded down the hallway, cleaning the section as quickly as she could while other members of the castle bustled back and forth. Her ears strained, slowly confirming the chance she’d been looking for was here.

People ebbed and flowed through the castle like a toy maze filled with sand being turned over and around. Sometimes one part of the castle was heavily populated, other times it was deserted as everyone moved to another section for one reason or another. Nina had been piecing together the castle and where everything was located over the months, and she was wrapping up work in the tower where the documents were, just as half the castle was shifting over to one of the great halls. She sped through her work, checked again to see if anyone seemed to be lying in wait for her or wanting to talk, and the moment the coast was clear she picked up her bucket and walked over to where she wanted to be.

There were thousands of ways to detect intruders that were using Mirages to sneak around, and by being a visible member of the staff, Nina was dodging nearly all of them. [Tremorsense]? Nina was right there, walking along. Of course it seemed like someone was there. [Whispers of the Wind]? Yup, there was a person there. [Echolocation]? Again - a person there, of the right size, shape, and weight. Vollomond was a hair easier to operate in than other places, as the high number of accepted werewolves gave easy explanation why Nina seemed to be hiding fur. Culturally, it was the thing to do.

Far too many of Nina’s compatriots in the Eventide Establishment - the ninjas, not to be confused with the Eventide Eclipse, the name for Elaine and her friends - tried to rely on pure invisibility and stealth when they first started training. That was one mistake the instructors were happy to beat out of them, instead of throwing them in the deep end and letting them find out for themselves.

There were no guards stationed at the office she wanted to explore, but the door was locked. Nina’s time in the Eventide Establishment had taught her more than basic skills and concepts.

Dragon. Monkey. Bird. Monkey. Boar. Ox. Serpent. Monkey. Rat.

Nina’s hands flashed through the hand signs of the [Jiu Jitsu], an extremely limited form of wizardry. Nonetheless, it granted her access to a wide variety of memorized spells. With a soft click the door opened, and without checking around herself - a sure indication she was up to no good - Nina slipped into the office.

She knew what she wanted - logging records of the magical wood the County was famous for - but didn’t know where they were located, apart from somewhere in the office. As a precaution, she leaned her mop against the wall, then turned it and her bucket invisible. Just in case she needed to rapidly not be there. Her ears peeled and straining to hear the footsteps of anyone approaching, she rapidly skimmed and [Memorized] dozens of documents.

Where is it, where is it? Nina thought to herself as she picked up document after document from the desk, carefully replacing it when it was done. Tax reports and missives from other [Lords], accounting records she’d already seen and training reports.

Nina opened the drawers of the desk, carefully looking at the tabs on the folders before moving onto the next one.

Found it! The kitsune triumphantly flicked the folder out, noting where it belonged. Just as she started to open it, she heard footsteps hurrying up the stairs. Her eyes flew over the documents, trying to learn everything she needed as the key started to rattle in the lock. The unlocked lock.

The Fox Valkyrie kicked the drawer closed, thanking all the gods for dexterity making the move silent, and popped [True Invisibility] on herself and the documents as the door slammed open. Silently, stealthily, she moved into a corner of the room as a harried [Scribe] dashed over to the desk. Praying to Selene and Lunaris that he wasn’t looking for the exact documents she was holding, she watched with bated breath, preparing a [Jiu Jitsu] that promised swift and silent death if needed.

Horse. Tiger. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Horse.

All that was needed now was Tiger. She didn’t let the flicker of a black feather out of the corner of her eye distract her.

Fortunately for all involved, the [Scribe] found what he was looking for on the desk. With a sigh of relief he grabbed the papers, quickly leaving the office before locking the door again. He then took off at a dead sprint, and Nina silently cursed the minor misfortune.

The door not being locked once? Happened. It was a quick oversight. Twice now? She’d need to start getting lucky for nobody to start noticing things, and Nina hadn’t gotten this far by relying on anything as fickle as Lady Luck.

Nina waited a heartbeat before carefully replacing the documents exactly where they’d been, then wasted no time unlocking the door, grabbing her mop and bucket, and hurrying through the castle as her fresh-faced identity, just another worker after a long day. A discussion with the [Head Butler] resulted in reluctant unsolicited praise to her work ethic, and she was dismissed for the evening.

Nina went to her identity’s lodging, before casting another [Jiu Jitsu] to create an imperfect pillow-clone of her body, clothes and all. She tucked the pillows into her bed, noting the thousand and one inconsistencies that would give it away if someone broke into her room and gave it more than a cursory glance.

Honestly, she debated skipping the step entirely, but that one time in Cartref Clyde it had saved her mission, and it weighed heavily on the scales every time she evaluated them. Then she snuck out of her room, going to a second location she’d rented in the city under yet another alias. One where she could tabulate and organize documents, creating a clear picture of all the events occurring in the county.

Nina walked into the seedy inn, one of the cheapest places she could find in the city.

“Oi! You! Rent’s due, pay up!” The [Innkeeper] barked at Nina the second she walked through the door. She swaggered over to the bar, knowing that looking lethal was the right way to fit in here. Everything from her face to her body language was different, and she had no fear of anyone connecting her two faces together.

“I’m all paid up. Rent’s due tomorrow.” Nina mixed disdain with the subtle threat of violence in her voice. The [Innkeeper] wouldn’t be intimidated in the slightest, but it was expected. The right move for her current face.

The [Innkeeper] spat into a glass, then started to polish it. Face or not, Nina doubted she’d be having a drink here tonight… or ever again. She went a little green remembering how many times she’d had a cold one here after a long day’s work.

“Way I see it, you’re paid up until midnight. Gotta pay for the mornin’ shut-eye, less you want me throwing a bucket of cold water and calling the guards, yeah?”

A lively round of negotiation ended with the [Innkeeper] conceding that Nina could spend the entire night - but he did want the next week paid up already.

The mental tally of her finances showed she was in dire straits. Working as a [Valkyrie] - even one as unconventional as her - didn’t pay a single bent arc. There was simply no money in the business, and Nina refused to take assassinations for hire. She was paid as a [Maid] at her job, but at her fake displayed level, age, and seniority, it was barely enough to pay for her first room and food, forget an entire inn room and the significantly higher expenses of assassination. Then there was renting a secure storage unit in the city for her ‘true’ armor, saving enough money to travel to the next location she needed to, and general living. Seeing an occasional play, buying a treat now and then. Nina refused to let work consume every waking moment of every day.

Elaine and Iona were always more than happy to give her - and any other Valkyrie - as much money as they needed, no questions, no complaints, just a quiet sack of gems whenever needed. Nina felt terrible about it, no matter how they reassured her ‘that’s what friends do’.

She went upstairs, checking her improvised security measures.

Naturally, her room had been rifled through, and Nina mentally gave up setting the door check. The mallium she’d hidden in the walls was still there, and she pulled it out, wrapping it around her waist like a belt. She entered her room, going to the loose floorboard holding her documents, and saw her carefully placed hair was still intact. She pulled out the haphazard stack of looseleafs and notes, then sat on her questionable bed and started paging through them.

There was no desk.

When Nina had taken her [Creed], she’d never imagined the sheer amount of paperwork involved in ethically rooting out the source of the problem. First, she needed to hear about a problem, and everyone loved grousing about the local nobility, from the [Barons] to the [Dukes]. Not even [Kings] and [Princesses] were exempt, and it took quite a long time to find serious problems that required intervention.

Then there was proving the corruption and that the [Lady] or [Guild Master] was a problem. Were the taxes high and [Serfs] driven hard because the nobility enjoyed hosting lavish parties, or was there a purpose behind the taxes? A reason? Was the discontent due to gross mismanagement, or the simple eddies and flows of the economy? Were people starving because the king’s men took all the crops, or was a local famine to blame?

Proving beyond a shadow of a doubt to Nina’s strict standards that outright murder was mandatory was an insane bar to clear, and she occasionally went years between attempts, as nobody cleared the bar she imposed on herself. One notable case she’d been ready to administer a poisoned needle before discovering that the lavish parties being thrown were to woo multiple guilds into setting up significant expansions locally, and had succeeded. The use of resources in such a manner was questionable in the extreme, but in a twisted way had been for the good of the city and people living inside.

After all that, there was the issue of the heir and succession. Would a small civil war be sparked by the death? Would there be a clean transition of power, or would Nina simply be sowing chaos in her wake, a cure worse than the disease? Would the heir be better than the relative they were replacing?

The last part Nina had slowly been working on over the years, and the answer to that question was becoming ‘yes’ more frequently.

The magical wood documents were the last piece of the puzzle Nina needed. Removing the [Countess] Brunswick and letting her [Heir] take over would be a significant boon to all involved. Well, her, and the two [Advisors] who’d been a horrific influence, and who’d keep spewing poison in the young [Heir’s] ear after he took power. No, the situation in Brunswick called for the removal of three people. The fact that she would need to pay for another week’s rent in the inn didn’t influence her decision to execute on her plan now - but it was a nice cherry on top.

Nina spent the next few hours detailing every part of Countess Brunswick’s holdings and issues that she knew of, along with one to three proposed solutions for each. She then slipped the papers into an envelope, and drew a stylized fox on the front.

Her heart ached, the artist skills acquired through delightful candlelit evenings with Iona. Vollomond wasn’t that far from Exterreri… Nina resolved to head that way once she was done here. It had been far too long since she’d been able to kick back and relax a bit, spend some time with the only people she considered family.

Preparations complete, Nina gathered her stuff and left the inn, carefully feeding a number of extra documents to the main room’s fire, ensuring they would burn completely. She then dropped off what she didn’t need at the front of the storage in a bundle of rags. There was a chance she’d lose it all - but it wasn’t that important in the end.

She’d worked late through the night, and some people might consider the time of day to be unholy early in the morning. Her face as a [Maid] let her literally walk right into the castle, the sleepy guards simply waving her through. Nina picked up an oil can from storage, and being a recognized face, clearly doing a job, let her stroll through the castle with complete impunity, none of the fellow late night owls or early bird risers bothering her. Why would they? She was even visibly doing her job, moving around, refilling the occasional torch.

The first thing she did was slip the package of papers into the [Heir’s] personal washroom cabinet. He’d discover it soon enough, and Nina was a bad assassin. She had a reputation. When The Fox performed her bloody work, a detailed package was left for the inheritor, explaining all the current issues she’d identified, and proposed plans to fix them. As her exploits grew, as more people discovered her little information packages, people started to take them more seriously, letting the bar that [Heirs] needed to clear lower just a bit.

The first [Advisor] was easy enough. Nina walked right up to his room and silently slipped in, not bothering to go invisible or anything. Once inside, she morphed her mallium into a long, sharp knife, and surgically rammed it through his right eye socket, mentally expanding it once it was inside the brain to rapidly destroy it and kill him. The notification was nearly instantaneous.

He was a member of the Moon Cult, and in Nina’s experience, they were everywhere. Whenever she found traces of them, she took notes and sent them along to Iona, who seemed eternally plagued by them, but there was no telling what, exactly, they were aiming for, apart from worming their way into various places of influence. Short of a god to pray to, they were almost like a religious organization, helping each other out when they spotted one another but otherwise not seeming to have a coherent plan. At times, they ended up at the top of Nina’s list, like the advisor she’d just handled, and at others, they were some of the best people around.

Nina had adopted a ‘wait and see’ approach to them, but if there was a decision to be made on who to eliminate, she deferred a hair to Iona and eliminated the Moon Cult member.

He died in his sleep, almost peacefully. Far better than he deserved, with the endless torment he was significantly responsible for visited upon the tens of thousands of souls living in the county, but quick and silent was the name of the game. The moment his body was discovered, the moment one of the werewolves smelled human blood, their guard would be up and it’d be impossible to get anything done.

The second advisor was asleep with two men in her bed, and Nina aborted the attempt on her life. She had sworn to strike at the root of the problem, and while she was accepting of collateral damage in her quest to improve lives, the scales tipped the other way when their lives were added onto them.

Nina scurried through the hallways of the castle, approaching her final challenge. The [Countess’s] room wasn’t nearly as easy to get into. The assassin couldn’t just walk up and say she was there for cleaning, not with the guards on the door and the unusual hour.

Nina went entirely invisible, padding over on soft leather boots, rolling every footstep so it wouldn’t be heard.

The door was unlocked - with guards posted and Brunswick’s infamous temper, who’d dare inconvenience her by locking it - but again, guards were posted. Fortunately, they weren’t physically blocking the door, standing to either side of it.

Nina layered some tricky illusions. First, an illusion of the door, on top of the door itself. Next, she made the true door invisible, then carefully poured a bit of oil on the hinges to stop it from squeaking. It would smell, and the guards would pick up on the smell, but hopefully it smelled enough like everything else, and it wasn’t so overpowering that they’d pick up that the hinges had somehow been greased right under their nose.

Holding her breath, Nina carefully teased the door open, praying the [Countess] hadn’t left a window open and the guards weren’t about to get a cool breeze to alert them to the door. She slipped inside, closing the door behind her, and reformed her mallium knife.

Nina was a professional. No waking the [Countess] up. No discussions. No asking ‘why’, no monologuing, nothing. Simply a quick, surgical strike to the brain from the eyes, followed by a ding!

In order to avoid displaying too many patterns, Nina then changed her morphic weapon to a mace, and bashed the corpse’s skull in, making a pinky nail-sized piece of skull the largest remaining part of her head.

Her job done, Nina fled the castle, making it outside before the cry went up.

Each job was exhausting, and a caravan heading west cinched it for Nina.

It was time to go back to Elaine and Iona’s place.

It was time to go back home.

Chapter eight

Moonfall I

21 years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks.

I didn’t feel almost 60. Age and White Dove had their talons in some of my friends, those who’d deferred Immortality for now, and they looked a little older. Iona’s insane vitality meant she aged at an eighth of the speed a Systemless person would, and her changes were subtle. A few hairs had gone grey here and there from stress, but that was it.

For me? I’d stayed at the peak of youth and vitality the entire time, continuously rejuvenating myself to a biological age of approximately 25, keeping my organs from prematurely failing. It kept me fresh and energetic, and I had to wonder what it was doing to my thinking and thought processes.

I was still… vaguely human though.

I woke up a little groggy to a cold bed, mentally berating myself again for leaving ‘switch my sleep cycle’ to the last minute. All sorts of delicious smells filled the air, and a thousand and one sounds reached my ears and woke me up before I could check the time and see if I needed to be up now, or if I should be sleeping more.

With a sigh I [Teleported] out of bed, and a series of rapid [Teleports] later I was splashing face-first into our warm bath.

I blew bubbles into the water while I adjusted, then flipped over and floated on my back for a bit, letting the warm embrace slowly wake me up.

Tonight’s the night.

The thought, the reminder, jolted me to full awareness faster than getting hit by one of Artemis’s [Lightning Bolts].

Tonight was the night!

I had to look my best. I pushed my speed and dexterity to the maximum as I scrubbed and washed myself at absurd speeds, not really caring about all the water being flung everywhere. I was a bird in a birdbath, losing half the water in the gargantuan pool was to be expected. After, I zipped out, using a clever [Teleportation] trick to instantly dry myself, then hit my vanity a moment later, three rooms over.

My hand paused in the middle of applying foundation.

Hang on. Every single pound, every single gram was accounted for, with only the smallest of tolerances. Did I really, absolutely, need to be looking my absolute best in front of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people?

My hand trembled as a vicious war erupted inside of me, the practical side at war with my vanity.

Forget White Dove’s curse on apples. The vanity I got from my companion bond with Auri was the true curse.

The vanity part of me won out when it pointed out that I could literally dip my face into [Event Horizon] to wash off and delete the makeup, and the survival part pointed out that pixie cuts were adorable and I’d look amazing with one.

The last second stuff was weird. We’d done our best to plan everything out, but we clearly hadn’t planned out every single last detail.

My outfit for the next three months was next, and it could only be put on with [Teleportation]. I’d been right back in the School. It took years of experience and leveling to get the skill high enough to be easily useful, but once I was there and critically, in the habit of using it, it was good. Spatial for the win! Shame it was so expensive, but the quality of life improvement couldn’t be beaten.

The outfit was one-of-a-kind, unique for my build, biology, and situation. It had a dozen different layers, each doing something unique. The ones I really cared about were a number near me designed to be luxuriously comfortable, and to feel like it practically didn’t exist at all. Like being wrapped in a warm, weighted blanket at all times, but designed by [Tailor] Classers so that I wouldn’t start to feel like it was ‘too much’, in the same way a shirt worn for days on end started to feel icky.

A layer of personal enchantments deeper in would be keeping everything clean, and where we were going… yeah. The less said about how my natural functions were handled, the better, and it was both terrifying and a little humiliating when I had to test it all out on the ground. All aspects of it.

Honestly, sunk-cost fallacy and how much this all meant to Iona had been the only thing keeping me going at that stage.

The last layer was made out of shimmering overlapping teal scales, and I had my suspicion what they were made out of. Harper refused to say what they were, ‘for my own protection’, and the final cost on the outfits was staggering. Each individual layer had been treated with a different set of alchemical solutions to improve them in one way, shape, or form - except the scale layer - and the technical specifications were thicker than some dictionaries. The only thing stopping it from being a marvelous suit of armor afterwards was how bulky it was - I wasn’t going to be doing any sprinting in this - and the utter lack of gloves. My bare hands were exposed, a sealant around them stopping anything from getting in, and the helmet looked like a fishbowl. Harper had laughed her ass off when I asked, and Iona and I kept making fish-faces when we tested them out. Glub-glub, I’ma fish. Speaking of her…

I closed my eyes, letting my ears locate my beloved wife. A quick [Teleport] through a wall and a dash along the walls, running literally over the heads of bustling staff members, Valkyries, and only-Skye-knew-who running around, and I joined Iona in our great planning room. She looked frazzled.

“Hey!” I gave her cheek a quick peck, looking all over the room.

Twenty one years of project planning had done a number on the place. I’d thought the thousands of sheets of paper I’d started the project with had been overkill - they hadn’t been nearly enough. Papers were pinned to every wall, and several more standup cardboard walls had been installed to pin more papers to. Those were just the reference diagrams - tens of thousands of calculations littered the stacks of papers on the desk, and there was an entire corner, floor to ceiling, of ‘discarded’ calculations that we weren’t willing to truly torch or discard.

We’d learned of our mistake in our fourth year of planning, when we’d needed to revert back to an old plan, but all of the old plan’s math had been discarded already. Ever since then we kept all papers, no matter how bad, and stuck it in the corner. Even when we brought on teams of [Mathematicians], [Engineers], and [Computers], we’d kept the room as a central repository, a backup, and a private place for us to review.

Ink had stained the desks to the point where it’d be easier to finish the job and paint them black than to try and clean them up, and honestly, if we succeeded, a [Curator] would probably level like heck taking this room and preserving it in a museum. My nose wrinkled at all the empty glass vials around, and I smelled the faint scent of the pick-me-up potions, obviating the need for a night of sleep.

Iona held up a single finger, her reddish eyes burning a hole through yet another trajectory. She’d done alright at math at the School, earning a degree in it, but the math we’d needed for this project had been beyond both of our abilities. Iona had eventually relented somewhat, electing instead to memorize and understand all the outcomes herself - nevermind that we were bringing all of this with us. Knowing which chart to pull out at any given time was part of Iona’s job, as well as reading and interpreting them.

I could do it as well, but I’d be backup on it.

Weight was the name of the game, and storage skills were the ultimate cheat. The math made that explicitly clear.

Iona tore her eyes away from the paper and just lit up at the sight of me.

Almost thirty years of marriage, and that look she gave me still had butterflies fluttering in my stomach. Gods I loved that woman.

“Hey love! You all ready?” She asked me.

“Yeah - you didn’t sleep?” I asked, fully knowing the answer, but knowing it was the best way to prod the real question with her. Iona picked it up, and shook her head.

“No, sorry. I decided that this was the last chance to properly get a look at everything, and I wasn’t quite sure about this chart. No matter how I look at the landing velocities, they’re not making sense to me. I’ll be able to sleep once we’re in the Argo II.”

She had a point, and I wasn’t going to argue it. I pulled out the big weight sheet again, half-expecting [Repository of the Magus] to ding! On me.

The numbers were practically endless, and trying to figure out the correct material for this adventure had taken literal years of effort. There was a complex interplay between the various types of strengths different materials had and their weight. If that was all there was to it, the equations and calculations would’ve been simple.

It had exploded in complexity once alchemy had come into play. Thousands of different processes and treatments could be applied to change the properties, but they all came with their own set of twists. It wasn’t like the [Artisans] could pour endless potions on a piece of metal and call it a day, there was an entire field and discipline around what could be treated when, orders, principles, laws - both natural, System, and legal - available materials, and the one that had driven me insane - some [Alchemists] refusing to work with others. Plus, the potions and treatments did ‘wear off’, and the project was planned to go for so long that it was a serious consideration. Between testing and the length of the journey, we were on a tight deadline. Weather was less of a challenge - rain or moonshine, we were going to launch.

Availability of materials also came into play. There literally wasn’t enough Skyte - the magic metal - for sale in the entire world to make what we needed, and that was if we could even afford it, before the ‘we’re cornering the market and buying it all’ caused the price to skyrocket. Some Classers might’ve been able to make a sheer layer of the stuff all around us, but then we’d literally sneeze and break it.

To make literal years of discussion short - Harper was a genius, and her original instinct of ‘clear steel’ had been close to the winner. A few more clever potions had been applied, and we had the Argo II. A five-meter sphere of .5 cm thick see-through steel, ‘only’ 12,000 kg. By regenerating approximately 19,000 mana per second, I could just about lift the entire spaceship with a little bit of room to spare - enough room to accelerate us to a modest top speed of ‘only’ 400 meters/second. Why I topped out there and not somewhere faster I could only attribute to ‘magic said so.’ Similarly, I felt like I should be able to continuously accelerate us - after all, only gravity was slowing us down, and I’d already demonstrated I could beat it - but no. My flight skill had a top speed, and no amount of ‘but I’m pushing harder against what?’ changed that.

I didn’t dare voice my complaints outloud. The System and magic in general was making this entire trip possible in the first place, and just because it had some random limits didn’t mean I was going to complain too hard. I didn’t think the System would hear me and fuck me over… but occasionally I felt like the entire operation was held together with spit and literal prayers.

Iona was a powerful Gravity Classer by all accounts - but at ‘only’ a million mana regeneration, her contributions were only about 2% of what I could manage myself.

[Luminary Mind] let me split my attention, and keep chatting with Iona while I checked over the well-worn numbers again.

“Anything particularly devastating?” I asked her. “And shouldn’t you start getting ready for the ceremony?”

Iona frowned, then nodded.

“Yeah, good call. Time to store it all?” She asked.

I looked around the room, taking it all in. Over twenty years of work, sometimes serious, sometimes paused, was here. The efforts of what must’ve been over a thousand people in the end crammed high, pins holding papers up on every wall.

[Astral Archives] gave me perfect memory, but I extra-committed the scene to memory before I acted.

“Time to store it all.” I confirmed, swiping my hand over the wall and storing it all in [Repository of the Magus].

Wall after wall, pile after pile, I dumped all the papers in, mentally able to ‘see’ the tags and labels we put on each one. SPEC-11-v0.2.1843 was an early iteration of the space suits we were wearing, TRAJ-17-v6.44.204 was one of the plotted intercept courses. [Repository] let me ‘sort’ the files, and the TRAJ “finalized” sets - truly, only the latest iteration, we had learned wisdom about calling ANYTHING ‘final’ a long time ago - were near the ‘top’, metaphorically speaking. The SPELL set was a detailed list of everything we thought we needed, with endless tallymarks next to them as I wrote each one out in duplicates - along with a few blotches when I’d cast one of the spells. Iona’s eyes glimmered with unshed tears as the last of the paperwork vanished, and I found myself blinking rapidly as the unexpected emotions hit.

[*ding!* [Repository of the Magus] leveled up! 650 -> 651]

[*ding!* [Luminary Mind] leveled up! 791 -> 792]

I suppose decades of work for a project of this size did have some significant weight to it. Only one level was a bit of a disappointment, but I suppose with how high of a level it was, it made sense. Would’ve been dozens upon dozens of levels at sub-100, but over 600? I had to work for every level.

Just like that, it was all gone. Stored away. It was far better to bring the extra papers and not need them, than to realize we needed an old trajectory, calculation, or thought, and not have it. [Astral Archives] had a copy, but Iona didn’t have a perfect memory for this.

I hugged her. She needed it. I needed it.

The Valkyrie sighed, and brightened up.

“Alright! Let’s do the ceremony!”

I poked her ribs.

“Eat first.” I scolded her. “We’re going to be burning calories on this, you’ve been burning the entire candle, and we need to be at peak performance. Eat. Or else.” I threatened, not having any ideas what I’d actually do.

Iona nodded.

“Alright, I’ll eat something. Think Auri left us a pie?”

I snorted.

“Unless she’s changed her recipes recently, I think she’s left us 41 pies.”

“Such overkill.” Iona hurried over to our private kitchen, one of the few places in our villa that was just for us. “I think I can eat three now, and maybe stuff one more in during the parade.”

I found my appetite was being held hostage by the steadily increasing knot of tension in my stomach.

Holy Ciriel. We were actually doing this. Speaking of ceremonies and Ciriel, I should say hi to my friend. It was kinda weird that anytime, anywhere, I could say hello. Made me a little self-conscious at times and drained my introvert batteries whenever I was aware, and I was so thankful that Ciriel let me talk first before responding.

Hey! It’s the big day! We’re going soon! You going to watch the launch? I asked her.

Yes! It’s going to be super exciting! I don’t want to rain on your parade, I really don’t - also, Selene bribed Elarin, the Rain God NOT to mess with the parade, he was totally going to - but back in my day, I got the chance to heal some people who’d gone part of the way to the moon, and got quite a few nice levels out of it! Hopefully you’ll see some of them yourself! I’ll be watching most of it - unless you clearly don’t want me to! Just pop over and say hi if you ever need to chat and are bored. The goddess said.

Okay! I will!

I kept up two different conversations, one with Ciriel, one with Iona, as I forced myself to eat. The suit was big, bulky, and hard to move around in, but every bit of practice was good.

[*ding!* [Etheric Aegis] leveled up! 450 -> 451]

Then it was time for the ceremony, and the start of the end.

Chapter nine

Moonfall II

A bell, amplified by both skills and enchantments, rang out, the pure notes resonating through the entire villa. The entire place boiled with action as people shifted around. [Priests], [Paladins], and a dozen other assorted religious-types, along with a solid chunk of the Valkyrie Order headed towards the chapel, and I anticipated a number of arguments over who was allowed in and who would have to wait outside. I had things to do and went to find Skye, bumping into Nina on the way over.

She was doing great. Energetic, a bounce in her step and a glimmer in her eye. Life was treating her well, and I always enjoyed hearing about the improvements in people’s lives. Less so about how she got those results, but even Iona had begrudgingly admitted Nina’s strategy paid off well. The gossipy part of me wondered if she’d ever get married - a long string of boyfriends had appeared over the years, but her dedication to her craft and constant traveling put a strain that no romance had been able to overcome yet.

My biggest concern with Nina was honestly her level. She leveled slowly - level 388 right now, maybe I was spoiled on my leveling speed and Iona’s - and some rough math on her vitality and age - mid forties - worried me. Physically, she was older than Iona at this point. That, along with Iona’s assertion that Valkyries didn’t die of old age - they died when they slowed down too much.

Nina wanted to stay mortal as long as possible to continue honestly operating in mortal lands. ‘Only breaking one major law at a time’ sort of thing.

“Elaine!” She quickly stepped in, wrapping me in a tight hug. Her fur was so soft, and it was always a miracle how tall she had gotten.

“Hey kiddo!” I completely disregarded that she was, by all accounts, middle-aged. “Not attending the ceremony? Iona’s looking for you.”

She shuddered.

“I’ve got a dozen arcs riding on there being a brawl, and I think Iona will appreciate me not breaking a candelabra over a priest's head when this is all done.”

I snorted at the mental image.

“Yeah I’m sold. Hey, walk with me, I was going to see Skye.” I said. Nina hurried after me.

“Hey, so, um, I know everyone and their brother is trying to get you to bring something with you to the moons.” She waffled, and I snorted. Nina was too old and too experienced to be waffling.

“What do you want me to bring?” I asked, cutting to the heart of the problem. She hadn’t been kidding about everyone wanting us to bring something to the moon, and once word had gotten out, we’d been inundated with various knick-nacks, items, and donations to the temple. End of the day we only paid for a few initial items, and the requests kept coming in. Including absolutely last-minute requests like Nina’s.

Of course, it was Nina - I’d be taking her requested item one way or another.

“They’re over here.” Nina beckoned, and led me deep into the Valkyrie-claimed portion of the villa. It was all ours - but some parts I mostly stayed out of to respect their privacy, just like they stayed out of ‘our’ wing.

Nina tapped a crate, and I gasped as I saw what was inside.

“Nina! It’s beautiful!” I said, and she flushed with embarrassment, handing me a sheet of paper.

“Here are the calculations for it. If…”

I didn’t let her finish her sentence, swooping the kitsune into a hug.

“Of course we will.”

“Can you keep it a surprise until you get there?” She asked.

I grinned impishly.

“Oooh, that sounds like fun, yeah! I’ll do that!” I hefted the crate, and with a bit of effort, popped into [Tower of Knowledge].

The years had been kind to my skill leveling, if not my class levels, and I had a whopping 43 floors. The first floor had been retooled in preparation for this mission, filled with endless emergency measures. The second floor was my combat floor, my entire armory carefully stationed, and the third to tenth floor were purely survival supplies for the trip.

I gently floated through the floors, snagging some clips on the twentieth - the ‘tower supplies’ floor - and noted that I seemed to be getting low on barrels again. Might make a few more when we got back, see if I could level [Dexterous and Handy].

Temple supplies were kept near the top, and I blessed the zero-gravity in here, along with Nina’s thoughtful decision to pack everything in a crate. I gently pushed the box where it belonged, then strapped it down so it wouldn’t float around.

Technically, nothing should move without me pushing it around, and I didn’t need the straps. In practice, I never got anything to truly zero speed, and it would be far too easy to set off a long chain reaction. I’d un-fucked my tower once, I wasn’t going to do it again.

Nevermind that I’d want to reorder the floors again after the mission.

Satisfied, I popped back to existence.

“Right! I need to find Skye.” I said. “Want to come, or was that it?”

“That’s it!” Nina said. “Thank you so much again!”

“Oh, nothing to it, you’re family, of course!” I said.

Nina’s hug was to hide her tearing up, but she forgot about [The World Around Me] - I could see everything. I patted her on the back.

“Pssst.” I mock-whispered to her. “If you want to get involved in the ‘surprise’ the Valkyries are trying to pull, you should leave now.”

Nina pulled back and looked at me in horror, and I winked at her.

“I haven’t told Iona yet, don’t worry. But it is my house, I know what goes on here. Now shoo!”

The Fox Valkyrie looked even more horrified at that, and I chuckled to myself as I went to meet Skye. Amber was there, looking like she’d just rolled in, and frankly, at this point, I just expected her to show up at exactly the right moment.

Eye and limp or not, losing a third class or not, the deal she made with the fae continued to pay off for her. She turned with a serious expression on her face.

“Got lucky.” She said. “Managed to find an auction house that was willing to advertise what we were selling, and the winning bid was 5.6 million arcs.”

Skye and I whistled.

One of the ways we’d helped fund the entire thing - Skye knew the exact numbers, and looking at them made me sick to my stomach - was we’d auctioned off a single ‘we’ll bring this to the moon for you’ slot. Amber had projected a little short of a million arcs - multiple lifetime earnings - but had clearly done better than that.

“What are we bringing?” I asked.

“An urn.” She patted her bag. “And a small plaque.”

Skye’s eyebrows hit the roof and I staggered over to a chair, putting my face in my hands.

“Oh Ciriel.” I swore.

The meeting with Skye had to happen at the last minute, and was of critical importance.

Skye had acquired and managed to hide literal crates of books, all of which I’d happily taken into [Repository] without looking at them closely. The upcoming trip promised to be boring as hell once the initial excitement was done, and I needed some serious entertainment or else I’d go insane. Possibly literally.

[*ding!* [Repository of the Magus] leveled up! 651 -> 652]

The last minute meeting with Skye went well, and soon a holy procession was emerging from the castle, a small amount of divine might causing the candle to flicker in unusual ways. Iona naturally led the procession, carrying the candle, and honestly one of our biggest challenges in all this.

Going to the moon by myself? Relatively simple.

Going to the moon with Iona? Now we had challenges.

Going to the moon with Iona, and bringing a sacred candle? Whoof.

The candle was a big sucker, at least 16 pounds, and had a number of rings on it to try and help tell time. We had a few protective casings for it that would help oxygen come in, and destroy smoke and carbon dioxide.

At the same time, a [Paladin] of the Moon Goddesses building a literal consecrated temple to them on the moon? Her level-ups were going to be legendary. Nobody would bet with me if her eyes were going to turn Gravity instead of Celestial over it.

“Sorry, gotta run.” I apologized to Skye, with minimal fanfare. It felt weird - so long planning, and this was sort of how I was saying goodbye? I had to remind myself it wasn’t forever, and did my best dashing impression, restricted by my suit, and zipped out.

It was going to take the procession a few minutes to make it from the villa to the front door, and I decided to treat myself just a hair by bouncing awkwardly through my beloved mango grove.

I’d planted every seed myself, lovingly tended to every sprouted sapling over the years. Slowly coaxed them into growth, pruned them when needed. Fertilized them, found skill-enhanced soil, cut back offending trees trying to shade them, cast enchantments and rewrote reality. I’d used several tricky spells and spent far too many hours working out how I could ‘stagger’ the trees, such that there was always one with ripening fruit. My own little slice of paradise, a heaven made here on Pallos. I went through the grove, finding a few more mangos that had achieved the perfect ripeness, and carefully picked them for my trip.

Or for now. Depending on my self control.

[*ding!* [Tender Gardening] leveled up! 371 -> 372]

Beautiful loot secured, I met the procession at the terrace.

The sky was clear and the stars were beautiful, this entire thing happening at nightime. It was one part ‘vampires are more active at night’ and several thousand parts ‘we need the stars to navigate’

I winked at Iona as I fell in behind her, all the [Priests] and various other religious types singing hymns and more. A cheeky part of me wanted to pray to Ciriel, but I could feel the sheer weight of divine attention on us.

Selene and Lunaris were invested in this.

Frankly, the project was great for basically everyone. Levels galore, money circling madly, fame and prestige all around - what was there not to like? The procession marched down the mountain trail, where the Valkyries had set up their surprise. It wasn’t quite an arch of steel, but they made their presence known in a thunderous display.

Honestly, they could’ve just asked to join the procession instead of going all cloak-and-dagger over it, but I wasn’t going to rain on their parade.

Fenrir hovered overhead. He could fly impossibly slowly if he wanted to, another miracle of dexterity.

I sent a longing gaze at my beloved mango trees, wondering if they’d be alright in my absence. I’d set everything up ahead of time. I’d pruned the trees, pollinated the flowers, put fertilizer by them all, trimmed back the forest’s trees to make sure they got light, pulled up weeds, and enchanted it to the gills - but I still worried about them.

I quickly caught glimpses of the Sixth Legion at the foot of the mountain, the men and women whose lives I was responsible for utterly destroying anyone’s hope of traversing the road normally. One did not simply go around a fully deployed Legion, and Katerina was hoping enough pomp, ceremony, and effort around this would cause everyone to gain levels. Then there was the morale factor, and a bit of an excuse to throw a party and have people go to Sanguino for a bit. A fair take, and I took brief flight near the bottom, drifting over to a palanquin specially for me.

I recognized tons of faces in the crowd, the men and women I’d spent so much time with. I could only name about a third of them easily, but with thousands and thousands of people and names, I was satisfied with that.

Oh! Nix had gotten promoted! He was a line leader now! Good for him. I’d been worried when he first came to my door and said he wanted to join the army. So far, he’d survived and thrived, and my guilt over the situation was slowly lessening.

“Sentinel Dawn.” Katerina smiled at me. “Good to see you here.”

“Can’t wait to get rid of me?” I teased. She snorted in amusement.

“If I could only be so lucky. Legion! Forward! March!” She commanded, and with great fanfare, we set off.

I was tempted to break into my book stash thirty seconds after we started. Holy Ciriel above, I’d forgotten how slowly an entire Legion moved, and how far away we were from Sanguino. I managed to hold out for another two minutes by leaning on my vanity aspect, but rapidly got suuuuuuuper bored. Iona and the rest were still waiting on the road, waiting for us to pass! THE REAR OF THE LEGION HADN’T EVEN STARTED MOVING! This was pure agony. Torture. The worst of the worst. The corner of Katerina’s mouth twitched at my obvious discomfort.

“Something the matter, Sentinel Dawn?” She asked with a traitorously straight face.

Actually… I was bored, chatting or trading insults would pass the time.

“Your face.” I flippantly replied, grabbing the handles of the palanquin as the legionaries carrying me missed a step.

Katerina shot me a flat look, and I replied with a smug one. I was on vacation, and the War Sentinel attached to a Legion was socially equal.

“I’m so sorry to hear how terrible your taste in faces is.” Katerina smoothly replied. “Perhaps some ogres from Osmonpondia would be more to your taste?”

I mimed being shot by an arrow, and the parade quickly passed as we traded good-natured barbs. A few of the soldiers were brave enough to join in, much to Katerina’s consternation.

About a mile outside of the city, a scruffy dog ran up to us with a missive between his teeth.

“Marley!?” I half-shouted at Night’s immortal pooch. I skimmed the letter with [The World Around Me], laughing at the contents.

Elaine,

I have given the subject much thought. As you well know, I am predisposed to allowing others to make their own mistakes, and to face challenges they themselves have selected unwarned. In this instance, at the final hour before you depart, Susan has strongly advocated for you, and my heart has wavered a small amount, and I do not wish to see one of my oldest friends die. And yet, I do not wish to simply hand the solution to you to read. Marley is going to return with a second letter. I wish for you to store it without glimpsing at its contents, and to only read it in case everything should go wrong. With that being said, and this is of critical importance - READ BEFORE YOU TELEPORT.

Please do not reach for my letter first. Try a thousand different tactics and solutions, endeavor to solve the problem yourself, before reaching for the crutch that is the answer hand-delivered to you.

Yours,

Night

Arachne here.

While Night’s sending you all a letter, I figured I’d add on. The Moon Cult was planning a large-scale sabotage of the operation. Given the size and severity, I personally stepped in, and it’s been handled. Launch away with no concern on that front!

I’ll be personally watching!

Arachne

Marley ran all the way up to the soldiers carrying my palanquin and started to trot along, wagging his tail while he panted.

“Thank you Marley.” I said. One of Katerina’s [Adjuncts] snorted and offered his hand to the dog, who promptly delivered it then scampered off towards the city. The [Adjunct] tried to offer me the letter, and I mentally shrugged, pulling it into [Repository].

My personal library was getting a workout today! The little dog appeared a few minutes later, bearing a second letter. My curiosity was so powerful, but I trusted Night, and I stored it without reading.

The city gates were thrown open at our approach, and I happily let my healing extend as far as I could push it. [Universal Cure’s] range was a good chunk over a kilometer, but I knew it wasn’t at a kilometer and a half yet. More precise measurements hadn’t occurred. Occasionally I checked behind me to see what Iona was doing, but the winding streets quickly made that pointless.

There was one heck of a turnout for the event, even though the Sixth wasn’t returning triumphantly from some campaign or another. I still felt like we’d been robbed after returning from the Han Empire and not getting a parade - I suppose this made up for it. I could see morale going up in a thousand smiling faces from the soldiers as we marched through the city.

The crowds loved us. Flowers and small candies were thrown at us, magical dust floated around, arcanite coins rained down - half of them were illusions - skills were fired off by absolutely everyone, and one grinning soldier peeled off an expertly shot pair of underwear, blowing a kiss back into the crowd.

Then we were at the colosseum, and the Sixth parted smoothly up the stairs while I waited for Iona.

Then hand in hand, divine candle in Iona’s other hand, we walked into the area filled with a hundred thousand cheering citizens, with the object of all this fuss right in the middle, pointing up.

The Argo II.

Chapter ten

Moonfall III

Iona and I waited hand-in-hand by the gate leading to the coliseum, various speeches and a few initial games going on. The pre-show before the real show, entertainment for those who came early and grabbed a good seat.

Also, I mentally bounced around inside of [The World Around Me], a habit I’d developed over scanning around with my eyes.

“Where is Auri?” I asked, mostly knowing the answer but wanting to get some of my frustration out. “She said she’d be here.”

Iona squeezed my hand.

“She’s never managed so many people before, or been the sole vendor to an event this large.” My wife said. “I’d be shocked if something didn’t come up and delay her. I imagine the worst-case scenario is we’ll come out of the gates and see a flaming cake saying ‘good luck’ or something.”

I chewed the inside of my cheeks.

“Yeah. Ugh, I wish we could’ve figured out a way to get her to come along with us. Stupid vacuum. Stupid smoke.” I grumbled.

Iona squeezed my hand again, and waggled her eyebrows.

“Well, while you’re getting all antsy here, why don’t I try distracting you while we wait for all the stuffy speeches to finish up? Booo [Senators]! Boo long speeches!”

I shuddered.

“Any hope you had of that went away when you reminded me [Politicians] existed.” I teased her.

I caught a faint rrrrr at the edge of my hearing, that rapidly got louder as Auri tore through the hallways, causing a huge ripple in the crowds as people flinched away from the tiny, devastating phoenix flying at high speeds right over their head. She blazed into the waiting room a moment later, her orbiting ring of Lava spinning at crazy speeds, a dozen caramel treats brought along with her.

“...rrrRRRPT!!” Auri’s wings flared with fire as she rapidly braked, heat washing over us all.

“Auri!” My face lit up. “You made it! Are you ready?”

“BRPT! Brpt?” She offered us the treats, and I happily took a pair, starting to lick it right as Iona downed hers in a single ravenous bite.

“Thank you!” I was grateful for the last minute sugary treat. “Everything going alright? Any fires you’ve needed to put out?” I grinned mischievously at the last part, still knowing how to rile Auri up.

“BRRPT!” She protested my idiom. “Brrpt brrpt BRPT! Brrrpt, brpt…”

Her quick and dirty version of the thousand moving parts that were needed for the day, and the various wrenches that had been thrown into it and how she fixed them were far more entertaining than pompous Senator #37’s speech, or whoever was up next. A poorly maintained road had caused a pothole, which had broken a wagon wheel, forcing several carts delivering supplies to Auri to detour, which had…

It was like listening to the longest story of ‘if you give a mouse a cookie’, except it was all real and live, a testament to fragile systems and a lack of redundancies. I was starting to sweat over the Argo II, our mission, and a few critical points where we didn’t have any redundancies.

“I’m disappointed that we’re not with the Argo II, checking it over.” Iona fretted. “We should’ve insisted. After what Arachne said in her letter…”

I put my hand on her arm.

“It’ll be alright. Everyone’s invested in this. In a few minutes we’re going to walk out there and get in the Argo II just like we’ve practiced a dozen times. We’re going to wait, then we’re going to lift off without any problems. It’ll work out. Even ask your goddesses! They’ll tell you the same thing.”

“Brrrrrrrpptt….” Auri was entirely convinced that I’d jinxed it with that, and we were going to explode in a gigantic fireball.

“How are we going to end up in a gigantic fireball?” I asked her. “There aren’t even any flames or explosives involved!”

“Brpt.” Auri knew what she said.

Iona half-lidded her eyes and tilted her head forward a fraction, praying to her patrons. A few fidgety minutes later - age had not helped with standing still at all damnit - and my ears perked up at the [Announcer].

“Vampires and mortals, ladies and gentlemen, bold citizens of Exterreri and foreign guests alike, it is time for the main event! The part we’ve all been waiting for! The bold ascent of Sentinel and Valkyrie alike, a testament to the power of Exterreri, complimentary names, a trip to the moons themselves, I am pleased to present - Sentinel Dawn and Valkyrie Dusk!”

The gates rumbled open and the Classer responsible for the lights shone them on us. I smiled and practically bounced up and down as I waved to the crowd, enjoying how I looked and how I’d literally practiced how to do this once upon a time.

Auri came along with me, spinning around me in an orbit like her [Ring of Lava] orbited her, like the moons orbited Pallos. She eventually settled down onto my shoulder. We looked around together, and I tried to spot all my friends in the crowd. Queen and Depths were together, along with a number of their teammates, and I spotted Legion and Calamity clapping. Devour had a few flames going, and all eight members of Ranger Team Gale - a few had swapped around over the years - were in a line, digging into treats they’d bought from Auri’s grand bakery operation. I swear I saw Night deep in one of the shadows, but I wasn’t entirely sure, and Arachne was up next to the [Empress]. The Sixth Legion had a whole section to themselves, and I made some large gestures in their direction to draw attention to them.

Iona was all sparkles and smiles herself, only a vein in her neck betraying the tension she felt. I was sure I had a thousand tells on the kaleidoscope of butterflies my stomach was home to, and we walked out to the screaming crowd. The Argo II was being lifted up at the center of the arena, and my eyes caught the prior act that was now leaving.

“Wait - did they have a pair of [Gladiatrixes] dress up as us??” I asked Iona. She smirked at me.

“I did tell you to read the program. It wasn’t to torture you.”

I groaned.

“Fine, fine, I should’ve read more than our part. I thought it was going to be a bunch of boring speeches.”

I looked up, blinking at the stars, wondering why the night sky looked so weird. Then my jaw dropped as I realized why it was looking so damn odd.

Sanguino had dropped its Ash cloud for us.

Hooooooly Ciriel up in the pantheon. The city had dropped its vampire protections for our launch. Sure, it was nighttime, a ‘safe’ time for vampires, and I was sure huge amounts of Ash was being prepared to recoat the sky the moment we left, but the fact that they’d dropped it at all… damn. I just didn’t have the words for it.

Iona elbowed me - mostly nudging me, given the suits we were wearing - and tilted her head towards the head box, where the [Empress] was standing up to give her speech.

I shut up and bowed my head slightly in her direction. She came with her own Classers, and an unnatural hush and darkness fell over the entire crowd, muffling and dimming everyone else.

“Today, two brave women are attempting the impossible. To go to the moon, and plant the standard of Exterreri there. They are going, not because it is easy, but because it is hard. It is in our very nature to strive, to reach for the stars, to challenge the impossible and to better ourselves, and today, two brave citizens of Exterreri are challenging the stars themselves. They are reaching into the great unknown, and we condone their bravery, tenacity, and courage as they embark. Yet, it is not simply the women piloting the craft that need to be recognized and thanked. Countless thousands of you all have been instrumental in making this happen, from the designers and smiths, the…”

The [Empress’s] speech was both long and gripping, and for once I didn’t find my attention drifting off. The part I’d suggested made it in! Shamelessly stolen - ahem, inspired - by a similar famous speech on Earth. Most of my… inspirations were classical literature, but one or two speeches had made the cut. Fenrir landed in the middle of the speech with a stadium-shaking thud, and shortly after the part of the speech we’d been waiting for came.

“... and now, our two brave [Celestronauts] will board the Argo II!” The [Empress] commanded.

I made my salute extra-large to be properly seen, as Iona’s was smaller and more discreet. Kneeling had been brought up at one point, but Iona had hated the idea. She was fine showing proper deference to the [Empress], but kneeling had all sorts of cultural connotations where she’d grown up.

The two of us started to spin the hatch wheel, while Auri started to fly around the Argo II. My original plan had called for me teleporting it onto Iona, but the weight and size had rendered that infeasible. Once it was opened, I glanced at the rubber rings lining it, checking on them one last time. Iona hefted the door up and down, doing her own last-second check on the hinges.

We’d checked and rechecked every part of the Argo II dozens of times leading up to today, of course. But there was always the risk of something happening at the very last moment. We traded looks, and satisfied, entered the Argo II. Auri settled on top of the ship.

We each had our own spot, designed for our bodies and our skills. Iona had a half-chair molded to her body, with a few flourishes and details to make it look like armor. That half-armor chair was directly and wholly part of the Argo II’s hull, letting her armor skill expand and protect the clear steel. Gems of every type studded the hull. The more important they were, the bigger the emergency they were supposed to fix, the closer to our hand’s resting position they were.

My spot was all the way on the other side of the Argo II, and it was mostly a pair of gauntlets melded to the hull, with the rest of my body supposed to be sticking ‘straight out’. There was exactly enough room for me to beat my wings.

A few basic supplies were at the bottom of the Argo II, but the bulk was inside [Tower of Knowledge]. It was going to be tricky flying and resupplying, and it was one of the few things we hadn’t been able to fully practice.

Iona’s chair was at the ‘bottom’ of the Argo II, and my gauntlets were at the ‘top’. In other words, Iona would be spending the bulk of the trip looking at my feet.

Gems were embedded all over, but right in front of my face only had paint on the clear steel. We’d calculated the primary trajectory - TRAJ-17-v26.79.603 - that worked for this specific date, then endlessly iterated over it. To keep our lives simple, we’d carefully measured, then painted the exact star chart needed on the window, along with a series of rings.

For the navigation, in theory, all I needed to do was to line the stars painted on the Argo II with the corresponding ‘real’ stars, and fly forward. The rings painted all over the ship were ‘timing’ rings. When the moons and Pallos were all exactly filling their corresponding ring, we would know an entire day had passed. Rinse and repeat for all the remaining rings. Day 1, day 2, day 3… all the way up to day 11, at which point we’d be on final approach and more concerned with matching our velocities up - an exercise that could be eyeballed.

A second set of rings were painted in a different color for our return trip, but when we left would dramatically change our flight path, and they were much fainter as a result.

I hopped up and grabbed the gauntlets, slipping my hands into them then hanging from the ceiling, like I was resting between pullups. The scales of my spacesuit perfectly aligned with the gauntlet, and quite a few iterations of the design had included a paste to seal it all shut. My suited legs dangled.

“Thank goodness for the System, otherwise I don’t think I could stay here while they finished all the speeches.” I joked. Iona snorted a laugh while she carefully placed the candle in its holder, then she spun the door closed, sealing us in. I eyed the candle, burning with divine light of two colors, then wrinkled my nose. Iona noticed.

“We need to hope their speeches don’t take too long, otherwise they’ll smoke you out entirely!” She teased as the smoke tickled my nose.

“We did not test this part out.” I eyed one of the gems near my hand, a powerful atmospheric saving gem. It would purge everything currently in the air, then replace it all with nearly pure oxygen. Less than fantastic, but my healing would fix any issues, and it was better - and easier! - to go pure oxygen than the ‘proper’ mix.

Auri hopped around just an inch away from my hands, and I smiled at her when she pressed a burning eye up to the steel to see us better.

“Hey Auri!” I smiled brightly. “You ready for this?”

“Brrpt BRPT!” She was getting some last-second worries and concerns.

“We’ll be fine! I promise! Love you! We’ll miss you! Be good while we’re gone! Don’t give Fenrir too much trouble!” I shouted at her.

“Brrrpt!!”

The speeches went on for quite some time while I hung unhappily in a slowly growing cloud of smoke. We had multiple plans and redundancies for dealing with it, but most of them involved being up in the air, off the ground. I sighed.

“Using one of my worst smoke spells.” I communicated to Iona. “Page 44.”

“Aye, smoke spell is good. Page 44.” She confirmed.

With a thought, I pulled out one of my endless spellbooks out of my [Repository], and Iona grabbed it with [Telekinesis]. Hovering in front of me, she flipped it open to page 44, and I tilted my head forward, pressing my nose against it. My hands were a little busy keeping me hanging, and it was good practice for what we were going to do.

The spell lit up, and the page disintegrated as the smoke cleared.

Then it got quiet. Real quiet. Ice formed up and around the Argo II as Fenrir coated us with a solid layer, creating a pair of wyvern-sized handles. He flapped over and grabbed them with his hind legs, and my breath hitched as the first number lit up the sky.

10.

I’d insisted on a countdown from 10 instead of 8, claiming it was good luck. Night had snorted in amusement while Arachne and Iona had laughed themselves sick over it all, but in the end, I’d gotten my way.

9.

Levels, levels, everywhere. To nearly everyone, mortal and Immortal alike, this was a major event. It had weight, difficulty, freshness, uniqueness, and every single other thing the System enjoyed when determining experience. The only thing it was ‘properly’ missing was ‘mortal peril’, and honestly, Iona and I were going to be staring that aspect right in the face for quite some time. Getting the government interested was another major boon. They’d tacked on enough pomp and ceremony to the entire thing to give more weight, and it wasn’t like there was a limited amount of experience to go around. The more people that were involved in various aspects, the more experience they could get. For example, Auri’s baking. Her classes only had baking tertiary to them at best - more things to do with Fire, mostly - but it WAS part of her class. Us simply going to the moon was the same amount of experience, pomp and ceremony or not, but the pomp and ceremony also gave Auri a chance to push her baking and skills to rise to the occasion, and now she could tap the experience as well. The same went for the [Announcers], the [Gladiatrices], heck, even the [Empress]! The Sixth Legion supporting their Sentinel was a boon to them, and the list went on and on and on.

8.

The crowd had figured out the countdown, and even with the steel and enchantments all over, we could hear them counting down in unison.

7.

6.

Most of the dings! - or whatever other sound people had customized their notifications for - would hit when we launched. There would probably be a second set when we landed, then a few more when we finished the temple, and a third set when we landed back on Pallos.

Of course, the degree of the dings! Would heavily depend on how successful we were.

5.

Auri fluttered low down, and with exquisite flame control, lit up the bottom of the Argo II like a rocket, but keeping the heat from touching Fenrir’s Ice. It wouldn’t do for it to get melted on takeoff, we’d all look bad and get flung all over.

4.

There wouldn’t be any dings! on [Erudite Archmage] - it was capped, and I was hoping this mission would give enough weight and experience to the class for a good evolution. It wasn’t directly linked to what the class wanted to do, but there’d been enough scribbling in dusty old tomes, research, and the creation of magical spells to work it.

3.

Auri and I would be splitting the experience, but we were both getting differently distributed experience in the first place. It would ‘even us out’, getting all our classes a little closer to each other.

2.

I expected more levels off [Seraph of the Dawn]. There was still the ‘go to new places and explore’ as a minor aspect thanks to [Butterfly Mystic], and I’d explored a lot of the world. The moons? Completely new, and I ran the very real risk that my eyes wouldn’t be starry at the end of this, but glowing with golden light.

That would be very bad.

1.

LIFTOFF!

Fenrir flapped his wings and effortlessly picked us up, shooting high into the sky.

[*ding!* [The Arbiter of Life and Death] has leveled up! 906-> 908. +400 Strength, +400 Dexterity, +800 Speed, +800 Vitality, +1600 Magic Power, +1600 Magic Control, +1000 Mana, +9000 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

[*ding!* [Seraph of the Dawn] leveled up! 885-> 888. +512 Speed, +512 Vitality, +1024 Mana, +1024 Mana Regeneration, +1024 Magic Power, +1024 Magic Control per level from your class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Strength +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

We were on our way to the moons.

Chapter eleven

Moonfall IV

I had a lot of images in my mind of how this was going to go. Papilion had removed quite a lot from my mind, and I hadn’t spent much time over the years thinking about it - I’d gone fully native - but the space shuttle launches, the vibe and the feel of them, were one memory that had been preserved. Roaring flames underneath, rattling sensations, and a whole lot of force and energy being applied.

I had no idea past that how any of it worked - that had been surgically removed with a sledgehammer - but there was a certain feel, a certain expectation I had coming into this on what launch day would be like.

We’d practiced launches, Fenrir lifting us all up, so it wasn’t entirely unexpected, simply… dissonant. He was a powerful Classer in his own right on top of being a bloody wyvern, and the ride up was smooth as a washed mango’s peel. There was a small jerk as Fenrir lifted us up, and then it was a smooth trip up.

I looked down, and watched Sanguino rapidly drop away from us. First the colosseum became a tiny dot, then the city, and suddenly I realized I was looking at a solid fraction of the world. The moons were far off to our right, their light glimmering off the Bloodmoon Bay. The Sea of Stars once again proved why it had that name, as the hundred thousand stars in the sky were reflected in the water. That was the top of Fenrir’s flight ceiling, and it was our turn.

“Ready to disengage.” Iona said.

“Aye, ready to disengage.” I confirmed, bracing my arms and muscles against the gauntlets, plagued by sudden doubt. Could I seriously push the spaceship for 11 days? Was my wrist strong enough? I could heal through breaks and fix muscle fatigue, but what about the mental fatigue?

I reassured myself again that it couldn’t be worse than Ranger Academy. I’d done worse for longer. At the same time, I didn’t have the same driving impetus. It wasn’t my entire future for me.

I glanced back at Iona, and doubled my resolve.

It was important for her. It was huge, and I’d walk over burning broken glass for her. Pushing for a few days? Bah, that was easy.

I flapped my wings at full force, effectively trying to push the entire spaceship plus Fenrir. I’d honestly have more luck trying to move a mountain.

Fenrir disengaged his Ice, smoothly peeling back as it all came with him. Dropping that much Ice straight down onto Sanguino would probably kill quite a few people, and he peeled off. Iona quickly waved, but the sudden weight of everything crashed over me, and we started to fall.

Wasn’t the first time we’d practiced, and I fought down the usual surge of panic as we began to slowly spin, flapping my wings and straining against the sheer weight of everything. Iona was doing her part and more - [Flight of the Valkyries] plus [Telekinesis] was doing some of the lifting, but her magic power, mana, and regeneration paled in comparison to mine.

I grunted and strained as I pushed against gravity, blessing how many times we’d practiced and Iona’s [Star-Forged] armor skill preventing any little bits from getting damaged.

In a gale and flurry of feathers and wings, I righted the ship, ignoring how backwards it was for my wings to successfully ‘push’ air while trapped in an airtight container. Magic was weird and awesome that way.

“I’ve got control, accelerating.” I popped my mana bar in front of my face, watching it rapidly dwindle as I accelerated us.

[*ding!* [Seraph of the Dawn] leveled up! 888-> 889. +512 Speed, +512 Vitality, +1024 Mana, +1024 Mana Regeneration, +1024 Magic Power, +1024 Magic Control per level from your class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Strength +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

I hadn’t gotten any levels on test flights. The ‘real’ flight had enough weight that the levels were starting to slowly roll in.

I was a hair disappointed that [Celestial Mastery] didn’t upgrade to [Celestial Spirit]. What was more Celestial than visiting space? I had some hopes when we landed on the moon.

This was where the fine calculations came in. I’d worked out exactly how much mana I needed to keep in reserve if everything went to shit, how much mana I’d need to spend effectively accelerating, and when I was at max speed. Iona had a number of tools and instruments that helped her estimate and double-check my work.

This wasn’t a disaster of a launch, and I rapidly gained speed as we left Pallos behind us. At a certain point, it seemed like we just weren’t moving at all, thanks to the distances involved. I carefully tilted the spaceship around until all the stars were lined up, noting that my head was just ever-so-slightly in an uncomfortable position to be in the right spot.

Damnit. This had been a comfortable spot when I calibrated it! I had to wonder if something went wrong somewhere, if there was a minuscule tolerance adjustment, if things had shifted, or if it was pure biology.

I sighed.

“Liftoff successful?” I questioned, wanting Iona’s confirmation. I could see everything she was doing and could read her well enough to guess the answer, but we weren’t doing something that could easily operate on ‘guesses’ and ‘I’m pretty sure I know.’

“Liftoff successful.” Iona confirmed.

I kept an eye on my mana, making small adjustments to how hard I was flying until I was regenerating ‘only’ about 1000 mana/second. Iona stretched awkwardly in her seat, making sure not to leave too much of it at any point. I was trying not to push [Etheric Aegis] too hard, since our skills would ‘clash’ if both tried to reinforce the hull, instead of ‘overlap.’ Some skills DID work that way, but for whatever reason, one of our skills didn’t want to play nicely.

I was willing to bet it was both of our skills. Both Sentinels and Valkyries tended towards ‘lone operative’.

“Hey, what’s that over there?” Iona nodded in a direction. “Roughly… ugh these degrees, hang on…”

My eyes zeroed in on the target Iona pointed out. An elf was meditating in space, a dozen portals around her with a solid bar of metal in each one.

Wait, no. Not solid metal bars - they were spheres moving so damn fast it looked solid. A moment later she’d zoomed off the horizon, and my mouth went dry as I realized just how ridiculous of an attack was being channeled.

I couldn’t imagine going through all that effort if it wasn’t an attack.

“Someone’s going to have a really bad day.” I said.

“Should talk with Arachne at the end of this.” Iona said.

I was starting to make a noise of agreement, but my stomach decided to rumble, protesting and demanding to be fed.

“Feed me captain!” I jokingly demanded.

“Aye aye, feeding!” Iona dramatically flicked a finger, and the only bag we’d brought on board opened up, a mashed sandwich floating out. She hovered it in front of my face, and I snapped out like a crocodile, grabbing the whole sandwich in my jaws and trying to eat the whole thing fingerless.

“You know, if you choke on that, it’s going to derail our plans something fierce.” Iona said.

My response was muffled by turkey and mustard.

“Drink?” Iona asked when I’d finished, offering to share the rest of the water she’d gotten out while I was eating.

“Yeah, sure.” I said.

Iona watered me - our continued acceleration meant we weren’t weightless, nor did we have any fun of weightlessness yet - and we carried on.

I got real bored real fast.

“Book time?” I asked. Iona shook her head and verbally denied it.

“No. We should do our first supply run first.” She said.

I eyed my mana and blew a raspberry.

“Ugh, I need to wait until it finishes regenerating.” I complained. “Boooooooooooring.”

I blinked at the stars, noticing I wasn’t exactly aligned. Somewhere in my food and water break I’d drifted slightly off-course.

“Hold on, adjusting.” I said.

“Aye, adjusting.” Iona confirmed, and I repositioned my head and tweaked the entire spaceship a little ‘down’. Direction was now all relative, but given that I was pseudo-fixed…

We spent thirty some minutes chatting, and I was discovering that it was much harder than I thought to keep exactly on-course. I thought I flew straight as an arrow… but maybe that was exactly the problem, arrows didn’t fly exactly straight. None of my drifting was so severe that I thought I needed to readjust and recalculate my course.

“Alright, full enough mana.” I announced. “Ready for a supply run?” I asked.

Iona took a deep breath, and explosively let it out. This was the single largest point of failure we’d identified. If this went wrong, we were all in for a really, really bad time, which likely led to Iona punching her way out of the spaceship then free-falling to Pallos, trying to mix flying down quickly enough to hit atmosphere with not going so quickly that she’d burn up on one-woman reentry and her flight skill could save her.

Of course, I’d be nowhere nearby to help or heal.

“Aye, supply run is a go.” She confirmed.

“Close helmet.” I announced.

“Aye, close helmet.” Iona confirmed, using [Telekinesis] to lift and twist my clear helmet onto my head, sealing me into my space suit.

I mentally visualized each step of the process, what I wanted to grab and where it was, then vanished into [Tower of Knowledge].

My anchor point was static in reference to the largest local landmass. On the School, that was the island I was on. Up in space? Pallos itself was my mark. My exit was stationary with respect to Pallos, spin and all, while the Argo II was merrily blasting off to the depths of space without me.

I tore up the tower to the fourth floor, quickly grabbing compressed air canisters - turned out they were super easy to make when the ‘exit mechanism’ was ‘break it’, and skills could easily stuff them full - a small barrel of water, and a large sack of food, then silently teleported back into existence. The lack of a pop was weird.

All in all, the process had taken me about a second, and I instantly located the Argo II, blasting away at a merry 400 meters per second. I unfurled my wings and sped after it, not needing anything as mundane as ‘air’ to move with. My personal max speed was quite a bit higher than my max speed ‘pushing’ the Argo II - before the minor effects of gravity trying to mess with things came into play - and I was able to catch up, [Teleporting] the supplies in before slipping through the metal shell myself. I positioned myself such that my hands were almost already in the gauntlets when I got back, and Iona promptly unscrewed my helmet without being prompted.

[*ding!* [Seraph of the Dawn] leveled up! 889-> 890. +512 Speed, +512 Vitality, +1024 Mana, +1024 Mana Regeneration, +1024 Magic Power, +1024 Magic Control per level from your class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Strength +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

I hadn’t leveled like this in years. Then again, so much of my time had been spent planning for this trip.

[*ding!* [Tower of Knowledge] leveled up! 280 -> 285]

[*ding!* [Teleportation] leveled up! 380-> 382]

Oooh, nice. I got an extra floor from that! It was empty for now, but bigger was better when it came to… towers. Shame my wings were capped, I just liked to fly around too much.

“Whooooooooo!” I shouted. “IT WORKS! We! Are! Going! To! The! MOON!” I settled in, making sure we were aligned and pushing the Argo II back to its top speed.

Iona was all smiles and grins, her gigantic fat candle pulsing with divine light.

“You did it!” She shouted.

“We did it.” I corrected. “I literally can’t do this without you. Speaking of… I’m hungry.” I gnashed my teeth comically, like I was a shark chasing minnows, or like someone had dangled mangos on a hook in front of me.

In my defense, that had happened, and I’d only fallen for it once.

Iona simply smiled, choosing not to argue.

“Books are good?” I asked, boredom rapidly setting in. I had eleven whole days of nonstop flying to go before reaching the moon, and after the initial excitement I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy.

“Books are good.” Iona confirmed. I let out a little happy noise - we were in space, nobody cared about ‘dignified’ here - and grabbed the first book Skye had prepared for me to read - Legacy of the Lifebringer - then settled in and paced myself. Iona’s eyes drifted slightly, talking to her patron deities.

The twin goddesses of the moons were very invested in our mission - Lunaris especially. It was ‘her’ moon we were going to.

I was halfway through my first book when Iona’s eyes flew open.

“Fuck!” She swore.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, guiltily adjusting my flight pattern again. Must’ve drifted a hair when I was reading, I needed to split my attention better with [Luminary Minds].

“That fucking lizard’s been screwing with our flight!” She said.

It took me a moment of thinking before my jaw dropped open. Only long-honed instinct and the deep impression Julius had made - Don’t say their name - stopped me from saying Lun’Kat’s name.

I blasted [A Light Shining in the Darkness] all around us, the clear steel hull letting the light through. I expected some levels, possibly for the stars around us to shift or even reveal that we were hurtling straight towards Pallos, but nothing happened. Iona tsked at the whole situation, clearly getting live updates from her goddesses.

“Illusion’s too far away.” She said. “Hang on, we’re going to get a correction.”

A pair of orbs appeared in front of me, looking scarred and pitted like I imagined the true surfaces of the moons looked like. Iona clicked her tongue as her eyes flickered, and the moons rapidly readjusted their position. The paladin shook her head with a rueful chuckle.

“Goddesses of the Moons, yes. Orbits, gravity, and tides, they’re great at. Intercept courses? Not so much. Follow those.”

I eyed the moons skeptically, unsure at the precision I was being offered and exactly how I was supposed to use it.

“I’ve got no idea how to use this.” I said.

“Yeah, hang on…. Get me TRAJ-17-v24.11.311, TRAJ-17-v24.6.781, and TRAJ-17-v24.3.123.” Iona said.

I flicked the three over from [Repository of the Magus] and floated them over to Iona, who frowned as she looked over them, getting into a deep, silent discussion with the goddesses. Now and then she called out for more trajectory charts and star charts, flicking some back my way to store in my storage. I continued flying ‘straight’, not bothering to line up the dots on my… it wasn’t exactly a windshield with no wind, was it? - with the stars.

[*ding!* [Repository of the Magus] leveled up! 652-> 653]

The weight involved was making everything ding! freely.

Finally, Iona and the goddesses seemed to reach a conclusion, and a bunch of tiny moons, alternating blue and yellow, appeared in front of me in a line, like tiny dots.

“Just follow the path!” Iona said.

Well… alrighty then.

It wasn’t what we’d planned, but I trusted that Iona and the goddesses had figured out the correct path. I imagined I was eating a mango, then getting a drink of water or eating a blueberry. Mango, water, mango, blueberry, mango, water… I got bored fast, and after the alright from Iona, went back to reading.

[*ding!* [The Arbiter of Life and Death] has leveled up! 908-> 910. +400 Strength, +400 Dexterity, +800 Speed, +800 Vitality, +1600 Magic Power, +1600 Magic Control, +1000 Mana, +9000 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

Hello levels, what the heck are you for? I doubted that was Auri - she’d need to be doing something gigantic to get those levels, and the experience should be enough for [Seraph] to also level, but I didn’t think following divine tic tacs was worth two levels.

I split my attention with [Luminary Mind] and was a little outraged that I’d been right! I’d followed the stars exactly, and I did fly straight! Lun’Kat had been slowly shifting the stars on me to throw me off!

It was tiny, it was petty, but it pissed me off. My mind was my sanctuary. Causing me to doubt myself like this lit a deep flame of burning anger at the dragon. A flame I could do nothing about.

I amended that thought.

This entire mission was a huge boon to the Moon Goddesses should we pull it off, and it was clear they were in conflict with Lun’Kat. I could do nothing about it, except help Iona and the goddesses succeed. I pushed forward with renewed determination, wanting nothing more than to stick it to the dragon.

Spite was one hell of a drug.

[Persistent Casting] worked with [Wings of the Seraphim], and I was able to continue flying while I slept. An unusual combination - normally I’d end up way off I-don’t-know-where if I tried to sleep and fly at the same time, but here it worked, only needing the smallest course corrections every time I woke up. The days rapidly blurred together, the suits thankfully doing their job when it came to managing waste, and I’d relaxed a few days ago.

Levels continued to slowly roll in while we traveled.

On the eighth day I was flying along like normal, when I was suddenly ripped so hard from my spot that my bloody hands and wrists were left in the gauntlets, then slammed into the side of the Argo II so hard I was turned into a paste.

Chapter twelve

Moonfall V

My healing snapped me back to the picture of health, but that was the only thing that looked good about the situation.

[*ding!* [The Arbiter of Life and Death] has leveled up! 910-> 911. +400 Strength, +400 Dexterity, +800 Speed, +800 Vitality, +1600 Magic Power, +1600 Magic Control, +1000 Mana, +9000 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

Not now.

It was like the hand of a god had descended and smacked me like a fly, and there’d been so little ‘me’ left that the healing had explosively scattered the remains of my body all over the shuttle, painting the entire inside in gore. It was almost entirely red, but dozens of tiny bone shards stuck up from everywhere, and the occasional rainbow serpent scale shimmered in the light. My old hands were still dangling from the gauntlets, my radius poking out like an accusing finger. Iona blinked, the white of her eyes in comical relief against the rest of her red face, and she spoke urgently. One hand was up and shielding the candle, the protective casing on it entirely broken.

“Elaine? Elaine! Speak to me, what’s wrong, what’s going on?” She was at the edge of her seat, brimming with the primal need to get up and rush over to me, to tend and care for me. Only our drilled discipline kept her in her seat - we needed her skill running to preserve the hull, especially if this was going to happen again.

“I’m alright.” I automatically said as I scanned around, [Luminary Mind] splitting into a number of different thought processes. I slowly replayed the scene in my mind, trying to work out what had happened.

I’d been flying along one moment, then violently jerked away the next. None of my senses had picked up anything, [The World Around Me] didn’t have anything unusual in the picture.

I went cold as the part replaying my injuries and cataloging them started to roll in with the complete damage report. I’d been entirely pasted, from head to toe. My brains were scattered in a 300 degree cone.

I shouldn’t have survived that. This was exactly the type of injury that should’ve done me in entirely. The only thing I could imagine was the complex interplay between my vitality, healing, and biology, combined with ‘only’ getting squashed on one side, not both. I’d been hit by a hammer, not a hammer and anvil. I shivered and unsteadily pushed myself off the wall, letting me slowly float across the shuttle.

There was a me-sized and shaped dent in the wall where I’d ended up that deformed the skill-reinforced steel. My spacesuit was ruined. The weakest seam had come undone, unzipping me from head to crotch, giving an avenue for everything to escape through. My helmet had shattered, and there were shards of bloody glass embedded in the ceiling. A piece fell out of Iona’s cheek, my permanent healing throwing it out.

“Good thing we didn’t make the whole thing out of glass.” I joked poorly, trying to bleed off some of the tension.

“Elaine.” Iona said more urgently. I wriggled out of the ruined remains of my spacesuit, one part of my parallel thoughts noting that biological functions were about to become so much harder, then pushed away. I held up my hand, letting it slowly flip me through the shuttle, then pushed away an eyeball that was getting a little too close.

“I know, I know, I’m sorry, I’m still trying to work out what happened. I’m coming up with nothing.” Technically, I wasn’t coming up with nothing, but my brain was coming up with wildly outlandish theories. Like attack by an invisible dragon - we wouldn’t be alive if that was the case, plus it made no sense. The list only got more absurd from there. The biggest part I worried over was it looked like I was the only one impacted. Vitality defense excluded an external attacker, so the problem was me. Somehow. I worried over the problem more, continuing to scan everything.

Our current set of supplies were ruined, but I had more in my [Tower]. They looked like they’d had blood and bone explosively sprayed all over them, but not like they’d been pasted by massive forces. It had only been me.

“We’ve been thrown quite a bit off course, and we’re currently in a deep spin.” Iona said. “The sooner we can work this all out, the better.”

I nodded. This deep in space, the risk wasn’t returning to Pallos and burning up in the atmosphere, it was the harshness of space itself. Speaking of, one of Iona’s big concerns was her candle. I cast a quick spell to resecure it. I’d cast a better set of spells later.

“Going to get some cleaning done before we resume. Maybe refresh our supplies.” I said. I opened my wings to-

I was alert, I was aware, and feeling myself suddenly jerked the wrong way had me stopping my flight. Didn’t stop me from getting pasted a second time, this time from the legs-up, but it wasn’t as bad. I ‘stopped’ about halfway up my body before I reformed. I pulled myself up and out of the large dent I’d made in the ship, only for everything not strapped down suddenly trying to escape.

[*ding!* [The Arbiter of Life and Death] has leveled up! 911-> 912. +400 Strength, +400 Dexterity, +800 Speed, +800 Vitality, +1600 Magic Power, +1600 Magic Control, +1000 Mana, +9000 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

“Breach!” I yelled, lowering myself back into the hole. Iona swore, and moved like she was going to get up.

“Stay! Still!” I yelled, reminding her. “Whatever’s going on, the last thing we need is to lose the armor on the shuttle!”

“Fuck!” She swore again, her knuckles going white on her seat. My body was still plugging the hole, and my mind raced as I tried to figure out a solution. We had gems to handle breaches, but most of them assumed small ‘punch in’ breaches, not an Elaine-sized hole. Fortunately our redundancies had redundancies, because I’d knocked out one of our repair gems in my hurtling around.

“Should I teleport to-” My teeth clicked together as Night’s letter slammed back into my mind.

…only read it in case everything should go wrong. With that being said, and this is of critical importance - READ BEFORE YOU TELEPORT.

“Night knew this was going to happen.” I whispered. Iona took one hand and wiped her face off, nodding at me.

“The letter he sent. Should we read it now?” She asked.

Our ship was coated in gore, we were spinning out of control, my flight was fucked up, and my body was physically plugging a hole. My breathing was getting heavier in the thin air, like I’d been launched from sea level to the top of a mountain in a single go.

My training and practicality demanded I pull the letter out now, weight and levels be damned. There was no sense in trying to solo the monster as a Ranger when we had an entire team to back us up. I felt it was time to tag Night in.

“We could try to see if we can solve this ourselves.” I hazarded. “It’d be more levels, and possibly more weight?” I was trying to make some concessions to Iona and her goals.

Iona shook her head.

“No, let’s get the letter now.” She insisted, worry etched in her face.

I cautiously teleported it out of [Repository], breathing a little mental sigh of relief as it stayed still. I read it outloud.

Elaine,

I hope you’re reading this due to your eternal curiosity getting the better of you, rather than encountering a problem in deep space.

Skills are interesting things, and as you know, no two skills work exactly the same. From what I have seen and observed of your flight skill, it is a RELATIVE skill, and not an absolute skill. That is to say, your flight depends on Pallos itself, not upon your body. This has a number of advantages and disadvantages, one of which you are encountering now.

As you are flying towards the moon, your skill’s frame of reference has abruptly shifted from Pallos-local to Moon-local. Your current velocity is far, far faster in Moon-local than it is on Pallos-local, and I suspect at this point that you have been violently shoved into the side of your craft, possibly repeatedly as I hope you’ve tried a number of things before reading this letter. The experience is good for you.

If you teleport, your relative velocity will be set to Moon-local, and the shuttle will be barreling away from you too quickly for you to ever catch up, barring a literal miracle. Selene and Lunaris may deign to intervene, given the nature of the mission, but gods can be fickle. I would not rely on them to bail you out, a paladin of theirs onboard or not.

The solution is relatively simple, and I’m a bit disappointed that you were not able to solve it yourself, as other pioneers who’ve visited the moons before and returned to tell me their tales have. At the same time, your classes are not [Explorer] or [Celestnaut], but a [Healer] and a [Paladin], so you can be forgiven the shortcut. Iona must use her skills to slow the Argo II down to a Moon-local speed. Then you should brace your legs against the hull, and fly at top speed as hard as you can away from the direction you’re trying to push. This will cause you to attempt to match the speed of the Argo II, making the relative speed difference one that your body and the grand ship you are upon small enough to effect a change. From there, you can regain control, and continue on your journey.

Do note the same thing will happen on the way back. Forewarned, you should not have nearly as many problems.

I hope we are able to laugh over this missive in approximately four weeks, when I expect you back.

All the best,

Night

The letter was soothing, and I felt a calm come over me.

“Okay, okay, this is all fixable.” I said. “Night even made it sound easy!”

Iona nodded.

“Agreed. What he’s not mentioning is the deadline we’re on. I need to fix the shuttle, blind, with our current supplies, and we’ve lost a decent amount of air.”

I gestured to the gems we had.

“This is literally what half of our gems are for. I don’t think we want to use a set of liftoff gems, but the rest? Here’s my plan…”

Iona and I pushed our speed stats to the limit, knowing we were on a timer but a wrong move now could make things so much worse. We plotted out a few flowcharts, a couple of branching decisions, and got ready.

“Three, two, one, go!” I said, and we sprang into action.

The first thing was resecuring Iona’s candle. Not strictly needed for survival, but there was a little bit of wiggle room. It took barely any time or mana to do, and a quick gem activation by a fleck-sized emerald gave it a wooden shell, breathing life and air into the guttering flame.

Iona let her candle go, hovering it in front of her while her hands jabbed out, pressing various gems and telekinetically moving things around. I lifted myself up and out of the second hole I’d made as she hit one of the ‘repair’ gems, solid steel replacing only part of the hole. I grabbed some of our supplies that were trying to fly away, and slapped [Event Horizon] over the hole, ‘sucking up’ a body and a half’s worth of gore before it could plug the hole and prevent the repair gems from working.

Upon seeing the first repair gem not getting things done, Iona rapidly activated two more citrine repair gemstones while I activated one of the atmosphere restoring aquamarines. It wasn’t good for our long-term health, but we wouldn’t be around to worry about long-term health problems without using it. Our most pressing need - air - fixed, we quickly moved on.

“Skill up?” I asked, getting confirmation.

“Aye, skill up.” Iona rapidly confirmed.

I [Teleported] what little supplies I could, then swept the inside of the shuttle with [Event Horizon]. It was supposed to be a protective shield spell, but it worked fantastically well as a cleaner in a pinch. Iona then furrowed her eyebrows, the only hint at the sheer amount of [Telekinesis] she was throwing around.

[*ding!* [Event Horizon] leveled up! 700 -> 701]

It was a subtle skill in many ways, but I felt a slight pull on my body as she started to de-spin us and change our velocity.

Gravity was the enemy, and the reason why I had to push, instead of Iona doing most of it in the first place. However, we were pretty far from Pallos… I reviewed a few numbers mentally and snapped my fingers.

“I’ve got it!” I said. “I think we’re closer to the moon’s gravity than Pallos’s gravity, which is why we’re now Moon-local instead of Pallos-local.”

[*ding!* [Luminary Mind] leveled up! 803 -> 804]

It was one of the System’s most insidious traps to assume I’d leveled because of a correct assumption. Working complex things out in dangerous situations is what caused the experience and the levels, not the accuracy of the results.

Iona hummed a bit, still focusing on her task. No [Luminary Mind] for her.

“Thought we passed that point a day ago.” She said. I let myself gently rest against the side of the shuttle, unable to hover in the middle with Iona constantly ‘pushing’ the entire structure.

“Our estimates on how heavy everything is could be off.” I said. “We had estimates for Pallos, but the moons? Could just be lighter than we imagined.”

There was a whole THING there with the Goddesses knowing the proper mass of their moons or not, but I hadn’t gotten the vibe that they were the most technical. Or maybe our gravity formula or math were flat-out wrong. Or… there were any number of possibilities that could explain us being wrong on the gravity midway point.

Heck - it was only wild speculation that it had been the gravity midway point that caused it! Maybe we were right about the gravity point, and it was exactly 8 units of an arbitrary measurement - either time or distance - from the gravity point, and there was some ‘stickiness’ to the local frame of reference. I was speculating wildly without enough information, and given how painful finding out was, I wasn’t eager to experiment.

Or… there was the intercept course to consider. We were rushing to meet the moon at a particular point, but we were both moving. The moon wasn’t static. That would also change the calculations, and…

I split off part of [Luminary Mind] and started to review a number of calculations, most in the GRAV series, and a few TRAJs.

Either way - gravity didn’t have a tyrannical grasp on us right now, given how we were being pulled between the moon and Pallos, giving Iona enough time to bring her skills to bear. She didn’t need to actively fight gravity every step of the way the way I needed to near Pallos.

I felt useless in the moment, and I mentally shifted gears. What could I do right here, right now, that would improve our chances for success? What resource had we run out of, what could I make to help things?

Well, our two big limiters right now were Iona’s mana, and repair gems. I couldn’t do much about the first one - Arcanite was too heavy and bulky to reasonably bring along, and while I had some sketches for my [Tower] involving huge quantities of the stuff, I hadn’t executed on those yet, and I couldn’t bring it out for Iona. I also wasn’t an Arcanite Classer, so I couldn’t transfer mana like that.

Writing more [Repair] spells though - that was something I could manage. I pulled out my ‘bootstrap’ spellbook and a blank spellbook, summoned ink, and got writing. Given the situation, I was favoring sticky Ooze disks that didn’t want to separate, figuring I could quickly write the spell, and they worked as a stop-gap measure for any small holes.

I had a few ‘big’ repair spells prepared and ready, but with the demise of all our gems relating to it, we needed more. I also mentally shifted and rearranged my notes on who did what in various situations - I was the only person who could repair the Argo II at this point.

[Luminary Mind] pinged with another issue.

“We’re going to need to switch from BUILD-08-v14.03.107 to BUILD-10-v2.01.801” I said. Iona swore.

“Fuck, you’re right. Your suit’s completely dead. No hope of repairing it?” She asked hopefully. I shook my head.

“No, and it gets worse. Build time’s going to get gated hard by my mana regeneration, unless we want to test exactly how long I can survive in space effectively naked.”

Unsaid, of course, was a divine miracle fixing all our problems. I wasn’t holding my breath. They definitely were willing to put their thumbs on the scale for Iona, but the gods had never stepped down and solved my problems.

Priest Demos and the Formorians were more of an ‘All of humanity’ issue than one of mine. And the Moon Goddesses had laid out a neat trail for me to follow…

STILL.

“Or we just, you know, traded suits for the unloading part.” Iona pointed out. I facepalmed.

“Or if we just traded suits, yeah.”

We continued to work in furious silence, the only sound the scritching of my quill on parchment.

[*ding!* [Reality, Writ As You Will] leveled up! 610-> 620]

After the second level I started writing a little faster, seizing the chance for quick levels while restoring our buffer of backup spells.

The slow acceleration we were under had the ink drops slowly drift away and hit the side, and I occasionally swept them away with [Event Horizon].

[*ding!* [Event Horizon] leveled up! 701 -> 702]

I ran the numbers on a ‘reinforcement’ platform, to see if I needed to make anything to ‘stand’ on when I tried to fly, but the hull of the ship was the single strongest thing around. I’d just destroy anything I could quickly and easily make, then all my weight would be crashing directly onto the hull, and…

It was no good.

“I think we’re ready for you again.” Iona announced.

“Point to where I should go.” I said. Iona tapped two spots right over her shoulders, and I lifted an eyebrow. That was a lot of faith in me and my abilities - if something went wrong, her head would be between a hard place and a rock quite quickly. I didn’t offend her by asking if she was sure, instead grabbing and floating into position. I was basically squatting over her face, but not in a fun way. Iona let go of her candle, and grabbed my rear. I could see all of her muscles flexing under her suit.

“Ready?” She asked.

“Just confirming, because this still feels a bit weird to me - I’m flying away from you, right? As fast as I can?”

I took out Night’s letter again and we both reread it.

“It makes sense to me.” Iona said. It took me a few moments later for the picture to click once again.

“Alright, yeah.” I agreed. “It makes sense to me as well. Just confirming, I doubt we have any planned TRAJs for where we’re going to end up, yeah?”

“Ish?” Iona agreed. “We’re not so far off that existing TRAJs won’t work. We’re well within the margin of error. Or… fuck, no we’re not. Our velocity’s completely changed. Yeah, we’re completely off. Let’s get into position, then discuss how we’re getting there.”

“Alright. Countdown from three?” I proposed.

“Three. Two. One. GO!” We counted in unison, then I spread my wings and tried to fly as fast as I could forwards.

My knees bent at the sheer force, protesting the amount of effort and complaining that my joints weren’t made for this. Iona’s hands pushed up, helping support all the forces rumbling through my body and spreading out the impact on the Argo II. My mana dropped hard as I pushed it into the skill, getting myself just a little bit more speed. I cut it off with only a sliver of mana left in my pool, and quickly returned back to ‘normal’ speeds. Thank dexterity I didn’t overdo it and shoot across the Argo II again. That would’ve been awkward.

I almost wanted to complain about the lack of [Seraph] levels for the stunt, but I’d gotten a little spoiled recently with how easily levels came.

We had a few minutes of calm while my mana regenerated. My stomach rumbled and my mouth was dry. While I was in a blessed position to normally not worry about the physical demands of extensive spellcasting on the body, we were on a bit of a crunch. I couldn’t go into [Tower] and retrieve any of my supplies before ‘syncing’ my speed with Iona’s. Or in other words, getting the Argo II’s local speed close to Moon-local.

“Are you as hungry as I am?” I asked Iona. She licked her dry lips.

“I’m fairly certain that talking about anything else is a smarter decision.” The blonde said.

“Good point.”

We drifted for a bit, then I circled back to position.

“Ready to push?” I asked, getting back into the over communication cadence.

“Aye, confirm ready to push.” Iona said.

“Three, two, ones, go!” We shouted in unison, and I flung myself forward again.

The hardest part of the move was when the relative speed was the greatest, and our first efforts had blunted the bulk of the edge. I gritted my teeth as my knees bent again, but slowly, surely, was able to bring the Argo II back under control.

“I think I’ve got it.” I said as I flew forward, almost hovering in the middle as I flew at top speed. Iona snorted and pulled a hair with [Telekinesis], and I twisted slightly to slot myself into the gauntlets again.

It felt like I was getting ripped apart again, but gentler. The difference in velocities between what I could ‘push’ the Argo II at and what I was currently going wasn’t that large, the only difference being what I was trying to push. My muscles screamed at me, then were soothed by a combination of [Universal Cure] and [Zenith Everlasting], and we were soon flying along at a good speed.

[*ding!* [Zenith Everlasting] leveled up! 888 -> 889]

I almost wanted to see how long I could stay awake under the skill’s influence to level it up as hard as I could, but it was a bad idea.

“Supply run in eight minutes, then let’s recalculate the course.” I suggested.

“Agreed.” My wife said.

I spent an immortal moment looking outside, once again reveling in the sheer beauty of the vast cosmos. For all that we were on a mission, there was no sense in missing out on this once in a lifetime opportunity to stare at the stars.

Goddess, they were beautiful. They didn’t twinkle out here. They burned brightly and defiantly, sending their light for untold billions of miles before it reached my eyes.

I was Immortal. I had all of eternity. Would I someday board another ship like the Argo II, and go deeper into the vastness of space? Were there new worlds to explore?

Suddenly I didn’t feel like I was forever confined to the surface of a single planet. I rotated around, and took a look at Pallos.

It was a tiny blue marble in the vastness of space. Everyone I’d ever known, every single man, woman and child, every monster, beast, and dinosaur, was on that tiny dot. I felt my mind expand at the sheer profoundness of it all, words utterly failing to describe how tiny and insignificant it all was. From the smallest ant to Jormungandr, from level 1 to level 4096, that was it. That tiny fleck of blue, only a little larger than the boundless expanse of stars all around it.

I don’t know how long I stared for before Iona coughed, and I was reminded about Earth as well. There were even more people on their own blue marbles.

“About that supply run?” She suggested, and I snapped back to reality, the here and the now.

“Oh! Right!” I said, looking around and evaluating, then shrugging.

We needed everything.

I vanished into [Tower of Knowledge] and zipped to the third floor, thankful I didn’t need to drop off anything on this run. I grabbed more air canisters, a picnic basket, and a small barrel of water, before grabbing two victory mangos. I then teleported back into reality, my scales and healing fending off the harsh vacuum of space. It felt like thousands of pinpricks under my skin, in my eyeballs. Pressure trying to escape, but being healed just as quickly as it was damaged. My scales were doing good work, helping keep everything inside, but I didn’t want to see what happened when it failed on me. I sped towards the Argo II, [Teleporting] back in and shivering as the sensation dropped.

[*ding!* [Teleportation] leveled up! 411-> 412]

“Victory mangos!” I told Iona as I bit into mine, skin and all, like a totally normal and civilized person.

“I thought those were for after the mission.” She started to peel hers like a… well, I loved her very much, mango-waste or not.

Eh, who was I kidding, we both knew I was going to eat it.

“We have lots of victory mangos.” I primly told her. “For situations just like this.”

Iona smiled, and we ate the mangos together, made all the sweeter by floating through space, drifting through the void.

Three days later, we gently landed on the blue moon.

Chapter thirteen

Moonfall VI

The moon.

There were two of them, and the layer of illusion Lun’Kat had over them had ended about half a mile from the surface - lower than most clouds were on Pallos. The illusion was razor-thin, as most mirages were, and the ancient dragon had clearly not bothered to do anything so mundane as make it see-through on one side.

Above us was an endless illusion of a dragon’s eye, looking down on us just as much as it was looking up. I’d never wondered before what it would be like to be stared at up-close by a planet-sized eyeball, but now I knew.

[*ding!* [Seraph of the Dawn] leveled up! 893-> 894. +512 Speed, +512 Vitality, +1024 Mana, +1024 Mana Regeneration, +1024 Magic Power, +1024 Magic Control per level from your class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Strength +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

[Erudite Archmage] was getting so much weight in the background. I didn’t know how much of it was good - I was probably going to have to take the second or third-best class - but I was getting quite happy with the direction it was heading in.

It was terrifying on a primal level. Intellectually, I knew it was… acceptable. The lizard part of my brain was screaming that there was a GIGANTIC PREDATOR RIGHT THERE! ALERT! ALERT! RUN! HIDE!!

The ‘fight or flight’ reflex had landed solidly on ‘flight’, with my body seemingly forgetting that ‘fight’ was even an option. Staying in control when my body was so desperately screaming for ACTION was difficult, and Iona’s knuckles were white as she continued flexing.

On our way down I’d hit the illusion as hard as I could with [A Light Shining in the Darkness], carving a large hole through the mirage. Practically speaking, if anyone was looking at the moons as I did it, they might see a tiny little blip in a single speck - if they had good eyesight. It was nothing like when the titan had smacked Lun’Kat down and forced her to drop the illusion entirely.

The levels were epic.

[*ding!* [A Light Shining in the Darkness] leveled up! 410 -> 750]

Honestly, I was a little surprised there wasn’t more to it. The sheer weight of Lun’Kat’s illusion on the moons was literally unmatched by anything else I knew. She’d been running them almost non-stop since creation, and being able to metaphorically and almost literally poke it in the eye was an achievement and a half.

I was willing to bet if I flew around at illusion-level for a bit and just spent a bunch of time breaking it, I’d have a max-quality black [Breaker of Illusions] or similar class waiting for me. It would also help my [Seraph] class, assuming I wanted to keep going down the path.

Good class quality and skill levels, improvements around the board for everyone involved in this mission. Made me want to figure out other ridiculous stuff we could do, but it was really hard to top going to the moon.

Well… maybe we could try going to another planet, but I wasn’t sure how possible that was.

The moon itself was… bland. Dusty blue rocks as far as the eye could see, but virtually no ‘texture’. The land was flat, with no meteor strikes that I could see, no mountains, nothing. It took me some time to realize why it looked so weird and different.

The moons had been created, not formed, and it seemed like the gods had paid minimal attention to the fine details. No atmosphere meant no wind, and 30,000 years was nothing on the cosmological scale. No mantle and core meant no tectonic motion, and I realized the moons were virtually untouched since they were made. It was like taking a fairy ring to the past, as impossible as that was, and getting a glimpse of the world moments after creation.

Was this the sort of vast hellscape that Night had found himself on? Endless rocks as far as the eye could see, all in the same shape? Honestly, it was a bit of a literal miracle that the moon didn’t have a thick layer of dirt on it… but it would’ve been interesting.

I suppose if the gods had made the moons more habitable, there’d be a bunch of people living here by now.

Iona had the honor of going first onto the moon.

With my ruptured suit, I could survive vacuum, but didn’t want to test it. We’d skipped the airlock portion of the Argo II in favor of less weight, and we had a brief debate if I should be around for a pivotal, emotional moment.

“It’s important.” I argued. “I’ve survived a bunch of space jaunts on supply runs, and this isn’t that different. Except for the length of time. And the location. Look, if anything goes terribly wrong, I’ll jump into my [Tower] and be perfectly safe. I’ll be coming back to the same relative position, so it’s not like it’s a huge problem, and I could do the first construction supply run at the same time.”

Iona opened her mouth with a single finger upraised, then paused.

“You know what? I’m convinced. Ready?” She asked.

“Nope, hold on. Communication enchantments, let me grab the backups.” I said. I went into [Tower], bringing some trash along the way, and found a pair of agate earrings. I clipped mine on, then brought them out to Iona. I [Teleported] them through her helmet to skip the whole on-off process, neatly setting them on her ears at the same time. With a thought, I activated mine, letting me still talk with Iona even with the vacuum separating us.

[*ding!* [Teleportation] leveled up! 413-> 414]

“Ready?” Iona asked, gesturing with her candle. We’d brought a LOT of backups for the candle’s protection, and it was extra-wrapped. The wick was nearing the one-third mark, most of the candle burned away, but it had started large and fat, and we’d successfully kept it safe and protected this entire time.

“Aye, ready.” I confirmed.

Iona’s eyes briefly unfocused, communicating with her goddesses. I could feel the weight of divine attention and presence on us, a sort of static in the air, a pressure on my body. I gazed lovingly into her eyes, and got to witness the exact moment the stars in her eyes faded away, to be replaced by a black hole’s distortion.

Iona’s [Paladin] class had just overtaken her [Valkyrie] one. It felt odd and weird to me - I liked the stars more, and hopefully this was a temporary adjustment.

“Unscrewing the door.” She said, putting on her mitten-like gloves.

“Aye, unscrewing the door.” I had my hand on one of the air canisters, ready to break it.

Iona ‘pulled’ the door in slightly as she unscrewed it, keeping the seal tight with sheer force of MUSCLES. I grabbed onto my gauntlet tight with one hand, holding an air canister ready with the other.

“Ready?” She asked when it was all unscrewed, keeping the entire force of the atmosphere inside the shuttle with pure strength.

“Ready!” I confirmed.

Iona opened the door fully, shielding the protected candle with a hand, a blast of air escaping into the desolate moonscape. She slipped outside and slammed the door shut, starting to one-handedly spin the hatch. I cracked the air canister, then zipped over to the hatch, helping her close the door.

It was a little less dramatic than we’d hoped, but it was safer. Iona had worked on her words for ages. She’d planned for weeks what she was going to say.

“One small step for a woman. One large honor for Lunaris and Selene, sovereigns of the moons.”

With the Argo II once again airy and pressured, I took the moment to briefly [Teleport] out of the shuttle, wrapped Iona in the biggest hug I could all while my skin prickled, then vanished back into the spaceship.

[*ding!* [Teleportation] leveled up! 414-> 415]

I’d be damned if I went all the way to the moon and never actually set foot on it myself. That was just a gigantic NO, from every angle. Iona’s candle flared brightly with twin blue-and-yellow light, and I got to work.

Getting to the moons was half the challenge. Now we wanted to do something while we were here.

Besides loot a ton of moonrocks, because I was going to hoover up every last one I could find. The actual substance of the moons weren’t THAT sacred to the goddesses, and Iona had told me point-blank that they fully approved of my loot goblin tendencies here.

Once I had enough mana to spare. I was about to push myself to the limits - again.

We wanted to build a temple to the Moon Goddesses. It was why Iona had gone through all the effort of bringing a sacred, lit candle here. It added that much more significance to the entire time.

No time like the present to get started, and while Iona was devotedly admiring the moonscape - ignoring the hellish dragoneye sky above us - there was only so long it would last.

I teleported into [Tower], then floated high up to where our temple supplies had been stored, along with a thousand other knick-knacks. I grabbed the Standard of Exterreri - with a little Remus eagle subtly carved into the wood, a most excellent bribe - and as many of the basic building blocks that I could easily teleport around, and crucially, fit into the Argo II!

[*ding!* [Tower of Knowledge] leveled up! 302-> 303]

I teleported back to reality, and once again exposed myself to raw vacuum as I teleported out with the standard, firmly planting it into the dust. A tiny gesture, but a significant one.

[*ding!* [Teleportation] leveled up! 415-> 416]

My heart really wasn’t into shouting “FOR THE GLORY OF EXTERRERI!” or any number of other lines that people had come up with, and it’d be super hollow. It was an interesting thought. The place was my new home, but I was tight with Night and the Sentinels, along with the little village that had sprung up. There were the Valkyries as well, but they were naturally nomadic, and…

Yeah, maybe there was a reason vampires weren’t heading to the moon too often.

I didn’t know what to say. There was something about knowing the sheer devastation that the Immortal War was going to kick off that made it hard for me to get attached, knowing that it was all going to fall apart.

I’d done the research at the School, knew the statistics. Ennui was the single deadliest emotion to an Immortal, and had arguably done more Immortals in than even the most devastating Immortal war. I had wondered, back when I was traveling with the elves, why there had been so many troll statues standing out in front of their cave, waiting for the sun.

I didn’t wonder anymore.

I shook my head and refocused on the task. I’d planted the Standard of Exterreri! The bat flew once again!

[*ding!* [The Arbiter of Life and Death] has leveled up! 912-> 918. +400 Strength, +400 Dexterity, +800 Speed, +800 Vitality, +1600 Magic Power, +1600 Magic Control, +1000 Mana, +9000 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

Heart into shouting things or not, I’d successfully planted the Standard of Exterreri on the moon. Enough in a Sentinel’s wheelhouse that I was getting credit for it! Thinking about it - other Sentinels heading up to the moon would also be good experience for them… ignoring the awkward ‘always in sunlight’ parts…

Yup, a bunch of levels for me off that, and I was willing to bet the [Empress] had just gotten a level. At over 1500 and a vampire, that had to be a challenge, and a number of the other [Political]-types had to be leveling off it all. Might make them better at their job, and a large part of their job was ‘don’t let the big war happen.’

Everyone knew it was coming, but it was possible to delay. To let more people live long and fulfilling lives. To position ourselves better, to be able to save more lives. I knew exactly where I’d be when the first skills came raining out of the sky or boiling out of the sea. I’d be bouncing from the Sixth to as many cities as I could, culture, race, or nation be damned, and healing as many people as possible. Levels today improved my speed tomorrow, and the bigger and better my heals, the faster I could move, the more range I had, the more lives I saved.

All the thoughts flashed through my mind as I [Teleported] back into the safety of the spaceship, wondering if I should borrow Iona’s suit.

I ran the numbers, while meditating on what being on the moon was like. I’d stepped onto it bare-footed, and the searing heat was unexpected, as was how dusty it all was. It didn’t have a good analogy, because wind would blow it all away on Pallos. It was like super-fine sand over heavy rocks. I’d gone out bare-footed, and I wiggled my toes, letting the cooling dust play over my toes. It was fun! I’d been focused hard on moon rocks, but now I wanted to grab a broom and sweep up a few bags of moon dust!

[*ding!* [Celestial Mastery] has upgraded to [Celestial Spirit]!]

“HOLY CIRIEL! Uh, also, thank you holy Selene and Lunaris!” I shouted out, doing a wild little happy jiggle-dance.

I’d done it! I’d gotten it! [Celestial Spirit]!

It was a huge milestone. The [Affinity] tree was notoriously hard to upgrade, and Celestial as an element didn’t exactly make it easy. A bit difficult to expose myself to Celestial things, unlike Fire, Wood, Water, or other mundane, ‘easy’ substances.

The skill was a huge boon. [Affinity] was widely studied by the School, and there was enough data on [Authority] to have quite a few different books on it. [Mastery] was rare enough that the knowledge needed to be actively searched for, and all the School had on [Spirit] was that it existed, and was the dramatically more powerful version. I didn’t have hard numbers, but it was “well known” that it was required in order to turn into an element. There were enough scholarly remarks doubting and questioning the conventional wisdom that I wasn’t convinced myself, and just because it was a requirement didn’t mean I automatically got a skill dinging and offering to let me transform into a Celestial entity.

I seriously doubted it was in the [Arbiter] skill tree. It was possible, but I hadn’t read any stories about it when reviewing the books during selection.

[Spirit] was still strong though. At the very least, it was going to boost how strong and efficient all of my skills were, and further reduce my healing cost, on top of boosting my range, and similarly empower every single one of my skills.

One of the Sentinels seemed to think he was a Core Sentinel because of his [Ooze Spirit] skill! Granted, he did have the ability to turn himself into some weird Ooze that went faster every time it bounced, and I had no idea how to even begin to fight someone like that. Maybe applying a lot of fire to the problem? But it wasn’t like there was any biology to fight.

“I got [Celestial Spirit]!” I shouted at Iona, then remembered the earrings. I activated them and repeated myself.

“Whoa! That’s huge!” Iona broke out of her prayer to congratulate me. “Tell me more! I want to get it as well, if possible.”

“Yeah, I’d love you to! Here’s what I did…”

I explained the admittedly unimpressive events that led to the notification.

“... and I think it goes without saying that you should ask Selene and Lunaris for help?” I said.

“Good idea!” Iona went back to praying, and a few minutes later I was bored, having finished working out the math.

“Hey love! Let me get in your space suit, it’ll be about twice as fast for me to empty out the tower and get everything here. Then you can build it!”

Iona signed a thumb’s up, and continued her prayer. I jumped up slightly, trying to see how many spins I could pull off between my speed and the low gravity.

The answer was - I want to get off the ride. So much for trying backflips or anything else fancy. I figured Iona’s prayer might last a while - she was usually pretty good about fitting them into our lives, but this was a Big Moment for her - even though she was probably just bullshitting with Lunaris right now. Opportunity!

I popped into [Tower], and while I loaded myself up with a number of smaller supplies that I needed to bring out - no sense in wasting the teleportation mana overhead - I also grabbed a few more mangos.

Honestly, it was a bit of a miracle that I even managed to ever get some stored. I’d figured the trick out a while ago. I needed to bring about twice as many as I wanted to store into [Tower], and about half would end up stored properly.

While Iona prayed to her Goddesses, I indulged in my personal religion. The worship of the delicious mango. Moon-mango was a variant I hadn’t tried before! Time for mangomoon, part II!

There were often constraints in how I needed to eat my mango, and I had no issues simply sinking my teeth into the sweet and juicy flesh, but variety in mango consumption was the spice of life! I opted for a more ‘traditional’ approach, cutting the skin off, then neatly cubing the flesh left on the skin. We were on the moon, so I opted for a slightly different approach. I plucked out each cube off the skin, then gently tossed them up, delighting in how slowly it moved. Like a circus performer, I snapped each bite out of the air with my teeth, before popping up the next one. Waste not, want not, I scraped the skin clean with my teeth.

Moon mangos were the best, and I figured I’d try planting the seed up here. Sure, all logic demanded that it was going to get absolutely wrecked environmentally, but a combination of divine interference and mangos being the best fruit had my mental magic 8-ball rolling to ‘Outcome Uncertain’.

Iona rapped on the hatch, and I vanished into my [Tower]. I grabbed another set of building supplies - super lightweight wood for the most part, stone was so heavy that I couldn’t move a reasonable amount into or out of [Tower] - picked up a few more air canisters, eyeing the dwindling pile uneasily, counted to 100 twice, then teleported back into reality. Iona was pressed up against the side of the Argo II, making sure my return to reality was unimpeded.

Even a finger in the area I was trying to get back to would completely stop me, as would most other materials, vitality-reinforced or not. Iona had fortunately taken the chance while I was out to move the initial round of supplies out of the Argo II, and I cracked the canister the moment I was back. The sphere practically exploded, compressed air rushing out to fill the vacuum, and my skin stopped tingling a moment later.

“Everything all good? Success?” I asked Iona. Her face was alight with religious awe, a kid in a candy story.

“It’s… marvelous.” She said. “Everything I hoped for and more.”

I grinned.

“Well, hey, with me doing some hauling while you take a break, you’ll have lots of time to pray!”Iona looked like she wanted to kiss me, which to be fair, was her normal state of appearance.

“Ready for the swap?” I asked. I was vaguely looking forward to being in a suit again for a number of reasons.

“Aye, ready.” Iona confirmed. I lightly jumped up, marveling at the low gravity, then [Teleported] Iona’s spacesuit onto me. It was way too large and awkward to move in, but strength and dexterity basically obliviated all problems.

By Ciriel’s crown, I loved the System. I could do SO MANY THINGS.

Iona stifled a snort when she saw my face through the plate. I looked like a kid wearing their parent’s clothing, but to be fair, I did steal Iona’s sweaters semi-frequently. Wifely privilege. They just smelled so good and were so comfortable!

“Alright, I’m going to get started.” I shot Iona a cheeky wink, which got her face to light up. “By the way, some light reading for you if you get bored.”

I teleported out a few books from my [Repository], along with a single spellbook. Most people could use spells, but wizardry was needed to write the spells. Basically, it was a book of talismans, in a sense. I quickly bailed out of the Argo II with another [Teleport] before Iona could read all the titles.

A look between gleeful and lustful crossed Iona’s face like a dirty old man’s as she saw the titles I’d selected for her, before switching to outraged as she saw the spellbook I’d picked out.

One for waste management, as it were. I did have Iona’s spacesuit now.

“Elaine!” She bolted up all outraged, communicating through the earrings. “No! You-”

I waved, talking over her.

“No time to chat, gotta get to work!”

I vanished without a pop, chuckling the whole way.

Chapter fourteen

Moonfall VII

I was Immortal. I was, barring a violent death, going to live forever. I was still adjusting my mindset to what that meant, and I’d started to idly doodle out a list of every career I ever wanted to try - basically all of them - and ranked them in order that I wanted to try them in.

High up on my list was [Courier], to my mild surprise. The work itself didn’t sound or feel super ‘me’, but the travel, the outdoors, being able to spend most of my time just running or flying without a care in the world sounded nice. There was also a pretty major ‘lack of responsibilities’, at least compared to what I was currently doing. Someone else to figure it all out, the wind in my hair and a satchel of letters… yeah, I probably would try being a [Courier] at some point. Probably somewhere where I wasn’t recognized and when I had no responsibilities, aka I was on vacation.

My skills offered me a subset of [Courier], letting me move vast quantities of supplies rapidly over a distance. Heck, I’d just transported everything needed to construct a small temple to the moon! I was rapidly shuffling the job way, waaaaaaay down to the bottom of my list. The traveling was great.

Hauling it all out of my [Tower]? Pure misery.

Wood and bamboo were the main building blocks I’d brought out, and a wide variety of tools came along for the ride. Hammers, saws, and far too many nails were a start, but axes, shovels, pickaxes, chisels, gimlets, squares, and more came out. Even some workbenches! One of our dumber, drunker BUILD diagrams had included us ‘bootstrapping’ various tiers of workbenches and construction equipment, until we sobered up the next day and realized we could just… bring it pre-assembled. Our current BUILD plan, before I’d gotten my suit destroyed, called for Iona to quarry as much moonrock as she could to build the temple with.

Our redundancy involved me carrying enough supplies to build an entire temple, and Iona was probably going to go out and mine some rocks anyway. Either way, no matter how I sliced it, no matter how I distracted myself, this was incredibly boring work with long stretches in the middle to regenerate my mana.

Piles of raw clay ended up next to pottery I’d been asked to bring, crystals carelessly thrown next to the rope. Lanterns and candles felt questionable to me, but they were for the aesthetic, and the statues were blessedly hollow. They’d be impossible otherwise. I had my doubts that the paint could dry in the lack of air, there were some sacred trappings, and of course, the thousand and one various ornaments and knick-knacks we’d brought here.

But mostly wood and bamboo. Soooooo much wood and bamboo. According to Vitrovious, we could do some really interesting builds and structures that weren’t possible on Pallos due to the significantly lower gravity. We were interested, but some of the designs ended up so outlandish we had to turn them down. We had no idea how to build them!

[Handy] was a skill I’d planned out to grab when classing up, just a nice little utility skill in my general skills, something that was useful for day to day life, but not anything done frequently enough that it wasn’t worth taking a skill for. Over the years I’d evolved it to [Dexterous and Handy], and our plans had called for it to be the star of the show here, helping us fit everything together and build the temple.

Communication, as always, was key.

“Hey love, I’m pretty sure you want to do the building, right? It’s good for your class?” I asked.

“It’s great for my class.” Iona confirmed. “Pretty sure I’d get a boost for ‘solo building’ the temple as well, if you don’t mind.”

“No, not at all. Gotta ask though, what’s the point? You’re already capped out on class quality for a divine class, any sense in pushing it?”

“Raw levels?” Iona answered. “Skill quality?”

“Oh right, duh, yeah. I’ma shut up now. Oh look! My mana’s ready for another trip.” I vanished for another run, wanting to facepalm but not being able to thanks to the whole spacesuit thing.

It took a few days to haul everything out. We’d tried to be lightweight, but we were trying to make an entire building, and cruel physics made demands of us. We fell into a steady rhythm, once I was no longer concerned about Iona’s revenge for the prank I pulled. Head into [Tower], spend about thirty seconds blowing all my mana teleporting things out, then [Teleport] back into the Argo II to take off my suit and get some cuddles. After my mana regenerated, put the suit back on, [Teleport] out, and repeat.

Iona was clearly going a little stir-crazy.

“Want to take the suit and go for a walk? Maybe a long run?” I suggested.

I could tell that Iona wanted to say yes with every fiber of her being, but she ground her teeth and shook her head.

“No, I don’t want to waste our time, and more importantly, every time I get in and out of the Argo is a pain.” Iona was staring out at the moonscape, idly tracing shapes against the clear steel. Her voice was filled with such longing that it damn near broke my heart.

I wish I could’ve redoubled my efforts and done it twice as fast, but the System was a cruel mistress at times. My mana regeneration was my mana regeneration, and no amount of staring at it was going to change anything. I was pretty happy with my decision to pick [Arbiter] in light of its high mana regeneration and my current tasks.

It took time, but eventually I managed to haul out the second-to-last item, leaving Nina’s crate of surprises alone. It didn’t exactly go in last, but it replaced an easily replaceable item.

[*ding!* [Teleportation] leveled up! 416-> 417]

[*ding!* [Tower of Knowledge] leveled up! 303 -> 329]

Given that I’d gotten maybe half a level total from loading everything into [Tower], I was pleased that the mission and the unloading was worth so many levels.

I ate heartily inside of [Tower], working on regaining some energy and reviewing the supplies we had left. Spares of almost everything, and I was glad we’d packed too much food. We were already running low on some of our favorites. It wasn’t anything that made me the slightest bit concerned that we could be in anything resembling dire straits. More like going to the store, buying a nice salmon filet for dinner, then eating it. The tastiest food went first and quickly, and our tastiest food was out. We still had huge barrels of rice, buckets of beans, stacked loaves of bread, and enough butter to drown in, for a start, on top of the endless fruits, vegetables, and other assorted food. We were fine.

“Alright love, all you!” I flashed into the Argo II, waiting a moment for Iona to get up before switching the suit over. “I’m going to cook something nice, so don’t be too worried if I’m not immediately back.”

Iona nodded.

“Ready moonwalk?” She asked.

“Aye, moonwalk’s a go.” I confirmed, teleporting into [Tower] a moment later. I wandered over to the ‘kitchen’ area - it was hard having stovetops and no gravity, it just didn’t work - and planned out the most obnoxious ‘love you’ meal I could plan.

My dastardly deeds done, my own stomach sated, I returned to reality, sat back in Iona’s chair, and watched the show.

It had been the magic stats that had gotten us this far, but now it was the physical’s turn to shine. Iona was roughly thirty times as fast as a human with the same base characteristics - without her [Vow] coming into play - and given the muscles she’d asked for when I was doing her biomancy, she could lift 25,000 pounds effortlessly, and quite a bit more than that if she put her mind to it. Nothing I’d brought was close to that weight. That was before the moon’s lower gravity kicked in. All of the supplies had been gated by my magic stats versus their weight - uhh, with the lower gravity, I should be specific like the [Nerds] kept telling me and use mass - and every piece she was able to move like a twig.

Goddesses, what a show. She was the epitome of grace and power, all while a fantastic temple to the Moon Goddesses was rapidly made in front of me.

She started off tracing the outline of the temple, marking where each piece would go with a stick in the light dust. She zipped over to the Argo II at one point, and she didn’t even need to ask me to pull out the BUILD document, unrolling it and plastering it to the side of the Argo II for her to read. Then she zipped back, continuing to work.

Blessedly, there was no flooring - what could be better for a temple to the Moon Goddesses than the surface of the moon itself? - and a set of benches were quickly assembled. A warm-up exercise.

Iona wielded a pickaxe against the ground, [Telekinesis] easily pulling the broken-up rocks out. Some sharp thrusts with a shovel ‘smoothed’ the hole - only possible because Iona’s skills reinforced the shovel, but not the rocks - then drove down supports into the holes. Loose rocks were gently tossed in my direction, and I snapped them into the Argo II with [Teleportation]. The skill was doing a lot of work on the entire trip. Bamboo was crossed to make the walls, and the entire thing came together at a shocking speed. Whenever Iona needed a second or even third pair of hands for something, [Telekinesis] saved the day. We didn’t need to worry about objects breaking under their own weight. Iona had a skill specifically for that, and we were on the moon. Gravity wasn’t exactly a big threat.

I tended to Iona’s divine candle as I watched the show. There was something about the sheer competency on display that had me openly staring the entire time.

Iona dashed over, opening her mouth and pointing to it. I revealed the meal I’d cooked with an evil grin on my face, and furrowed eyebrows from Iona.

Skewered shish kebabs. Extra-spicy. Burned on the way in, and on the way out!

I [Teleported] them into her helmet, skipping the whole airlock process, and I could read the swears Iona was shouting as she tried to [Telekinetically] navigate them into her mouth.

[*ding!* [Teleportation] leveled up! 417-> 418]

The cherry on top! A level for pranking my wife!

She shot me a foul look and I made a heart with my hands, causing her to bend over laughing. I activated my earring, letting me talk to her.

“I was thinking soup next!” I cheerfully told my wife.

“Noooo…” Iona said between hiccups of laughter. “Don’t do it!”

I grinned wickedly, but didn’t get Iona soup next.

Piece by piece, the entire temple came together. Honestly, with all the way it was made easy, it looked like assembling a toy. Low gravity was one hell of a cheat, and it took Iona a fraction of the time to build the temple as it took me to teleport the supplies out of storage.

Whenever I started to think that magical stats were the end all be all of the System, Iona busted something out that reminded me that physical stats could perform equally amazing miracles, that the road not taken was just as valid and potent.

The illusions over the moon made the concept of sunrise and sunset an unknown when we launched, and I’d watched a bright spot in the illusions slowly march across the sky. I assumed it was the sun, and there was some play or counterplay to allowing it to ‘shine through’ a bit. Perhaps it was simply cheaper to do so, or maybe it was part of letting the ‘eyes’ go through ‘phases’, like the moons went through phases.

Iona started to put the finishing touches on everything, and when she had a brief pause, I activated our earrings.

“Hey! Hold up on those windows, I want to replace them with something else.” I said. “A last minute substitution.”

Iona raised an eyebrow.

“And you didn’t mention it to me because…?” It was a fair question. Communication and over communication was the name of the game, and secrets in space could easily get both of us killed.

“Because it’s a harmless substitution Nina asked for. Hang on, let me get it out for you.”

A minute of juggling later, and Iona had a mystery crate in front of her.

“It’s supposed to replace the windows on the right side.” I explained.

She pried the crate open and gasped at what was inside.

“Oh, Elaine, it’s beautiful.” She gushed. I beamed, happy to have been the architect of the surprise.

“I know! Plus, [Tower] storage and all that.”

Iona placed the windows in, then glanced at the divine candle. It had a little more than a quarter left, which looked quite sad.

“I wanted quite a bit more pomp and ceremony to this, but ready for the consecration ceremony?” She asked.

“Hang on, let me get my spellbooks out.” I double-checked my mana, confirming I had enough. Everything I’d calculated said I’d be fine for this next step, but it was another hard to test move, and failing here would be disastrous.

I pulled out three different spellbooks, and flipped them open to the appropriate pages. Technically, I could’ve made a single mega-spell to do what these three different spells were doing, but each one was easy to write in a single, different language, and trying to link them together would’ve been difficult.

I also grabbed a ton of air canisters, my stomach dropping as I saw how much our reserves dwindled with that move. I knew we’d packed three times as many as needed, but it was a little frightening to see them decline so much. I knew I could heal through it all if I needed to, but spending almost two weeks gasping and choking on nothing sounded like a miserable time.

Aiming the atmospheric spell was a little tricky. It was fixed relative to the exact position of the mandala on casting, and I was trying to cover a large volume.

“Ready consecration spells.” I said.

Iona’s eyes unfocused slightly as she prayed, and I was suddenly hit with the sheer weight of the divine. The illusions across the sky flickered out, and the presence of Selene and Lunaris almost crushed me as they manifested themselves.

Once again I could see directly into the divine, the very firmament that made up the gods themselves thanks to [The World Around Me]. Like during the Gladiator Gauntlet, my mind screamed in agony as I witnessed the impossible, twisting visions that no mortal mind could comprehend.

I was a little more prepared this time, and every inch of my [Luminary Mind] bent to the task, healing my brain and mind for the chance to perceive and understand, to level and vivisect divinity. To gain perspective and witness the goddesses in all their splendor.

They were both inside the Argo II and outside of it, here and not here, two and one. They -

I could see it.

I could see it!

I COULD SE-

Selene hit me on the head and turned off my skills, wresting them from me. I blinked, snapping back to reality, realizing my face and neck was absolutely coated in blood. The Goddess gave me a disapproving look.

“Is that any way to attend a solemn event your wife cares about very much?” She scolded me. I blinked the blood out of my eyes, suddenly forced to rely on my mundane senses. I briefly worried that they’d been ruined forever, before realizing if they could do that, they would’ve bonked Lun’Kat on the head eons ago and been done with it.

I considered where we were. On the moons, in a fragile little spacecraft, on the divine territory claimed by the twin goddesses. In front of a temple of theirs, next to a paladin of the moons, my wife. I considered how important the event was, what it meant to them and Iona.

I considered that it hadn’t technically started yet.

I very quickly flipped Selene off, and Lunaris laughed at Selene’s outraged look.

“Play with the mortals, and they’ll tease you right back~” She said in a sing-song voice that reverberated greatly. It was both a little like how White Dove Spoke, and yet completely different. There was a different layer of power, the melodies and harmonies couldn’t be confused. I lacked both the words and the proper musical education to properly enunciate the difference, but it sent pleasant shivers down my spine.

These two were only vaguely similar to when they’d descended during the Gladiator Gauntlet. It was hard to explain all the ways and reasons how and why, simply that they were… more. Maybe the right word for it was serious?

Iona was watching, one-third amused and two-thirds utterly horrified by our antics. I shot her a grin and a thumbs up, letting her know everything was alright on my end. Her face softened, and she tried to clap her hands - less than successful in her spacesuit.

The goddesses turned their attention to her, and she bowed deeply.

“Lunaris and Selene. I am honored beyond words that you have chosen to attend the events of today in person. I-”

Lunaris waved her off.

“My child, my friend, we will have all the time in the world to discuss on your way back. For now, we are manifesting a miracle to make the candle lighting ceremony a success. Perhaps we should get on with that?”

Iona flushed - honestly one of the only times I’d seen her off-balance, she was so smooth most of the time - and hurried over to the Argo II.

“Ready… miracle, I guess?” She asked.

Selene grinned.

“Aye, miracle is a go!” She pumped her fist up into the air. I sat down in the chair. I debated dismissing my spellbooks, but decided to keep them all out.

Plus, I could still do the music. Mentally readjusting and feeling like my thoughts were absolute garbage, moving through sludge and molasses, I activated the array, hoping [Luminary Mind] would come back online. I made a note in [Astral Archives] that I needed to have some extended practice sessions without [Luminary Mind] - it had been part of me for so long that I honestly didn’t recognize myself without it active.

It was horrible. Like remembering being smart.

As if they heard me, my skill came rushing back to me, but not [The World Around Me], and I promptly erased the note I made.

Practice without [Luminary Mind]? For what? Fighting a god who decided to save me from myself instead of smiting me into motes of dust? I shook my head and refocused on the event.

Golden light came from Selene as blue light radiated from Lunaris’s hands, the two mingling and intertwining together around the entire temple, moving like a pair of moons around a planet. Iona opened up the hatch of the Argo II, and the candle drifted outside. With a chorus of vocalized hymns - thank you Synthestia, for making music and sounds so easy - Iona managed to make her one-woman walk a solemn procession, making her way to the front of the altar, where a pair of candles waited. She lifted the candle up high, and I coughed. She hastily lowered it onto the moonrock floor to beaming approval of the Goddesses.

“Oh Selene and Lunaris,” Iona intoned, starting to look up before catching herself and started to look behind her. The two Goddesses flickered, in the pews one moment, hovering above/on/behind the altar the next.

Damn divine fuckery.

“On this day, I wish to dedicate this temple to you and your glory. We-”

It would be rude to grab a book and start reading it, but I wasn’t super religious, and even the direct manifestation of two Goddesses when my wife was consecrating a temple to them could only hold my attention for so long. I was better about plastering a happy smile on my face and focusing my eyes in the right direction, and it wasn’t quite like this was dictating my entire future, unlike some other meetings I’d zoned out in.

I took some time to appreciate the sky. The sun was low on the horizon, and the stars were all crystal clear, without any winking. It was a hair disappointing that it was exactly the same look as our entire trip over, but on the celestial scale, we hadn’t moved at all.

Terrifying to think about, really. There was a vast and infinite universe out there. Was I really stuck here on this rock - errr, actually, on that rock over there - forever?

Well… stuck with all my friends and family, and with everyone I loved. Maybe I’d stick around long enough to see space travel become a thing, or maybe I could head out when I ascended.

Actually, good question - could I head out into deep space after I ascended? And just travel at the speed of divinity, whatever that way?

Huh. I’d have to ask the Moon Goddesses when they were done. I wasn’t going to invoke another goddess in the middle of a ritual, although I could see what Ciriel thought of the whole thing.

There was also [World Traveler], and the infinite dimensions opened to me there. So… yeah, I wasn’t stuck. Not by a long shot. The knowledge was like a soothing balm, one that let me relax even if my actions were the same. It was the difference between sticking around a library all day and reading because I wanted to, and reading all day because I was locked in and had to. The iota of promised freedom was enough to calm myself.

The candles were lit, sparklers went off, everyone hugged, and I snapped back to the here and now, clapping and whistling and generally trying to be a one-woman audience.

Then I staggered as the divine weight on me briefly doubled, then tripled. I gasped, trying to breathe, struggling to lift my neck to look around before the weight vanished. I loved Iona, I was glad we were here, but boy, I couldn’t wait to go back to my life with fewer divinities hanging around. It somehow felt different from hanging around a bunch of high level Immortals, even though they were just a bunch of high level Immortals in the end. Technically speaking.

“Sorry!” Selene waved at me with an apologetic grin. “My bad!” Lunaris was comforting Iona, who was clutching her chest. I double and triple-checked that my healing was on and she was getting the benefits. She recovered quickly. Beaming, Iona came back, and after a round of congratulations, I found a chance to ask my question about being able to travel to the depths of space as a goddess myself one day.

Lunaris thoughtfully tapped her lips.

“No… I don’t believe so.” She said, dashing my hopes against the rocks. “We can sort of ‘see’ where other pioneers have gone before, for lack of a better word, but with no faith acting as an anchor, I can’t simply point off to a star and appear there.”

Huh.

“With an anchor though…?” I asked hopefully.

“With an anchor, we could go anywhere.” Selene confirmed, winking at me. “Go forth, build lots of temples with Iona here, and have the two of you ascend to a worthy pietfolio. Then you can simply wait for a devoted of yours to take to the stars, and follow after them! Provide support! There’s a small faction of gods similarly interested… just saying, building a few more temples could get you there sooner rather than later~ Lunaris got hers, when do I get mine?” She joked.

I didn’t think she was joking.

They turned their attention to Iona, and I took a backseat as the three of them started talking. I’d rarely seen Iona so animated and excited. I tucked the smug thought that she’d been happier and more enthusiastic on our wedding night into my heart, happy with the knowledge and comparison. I was content to let them be happy and chat like the old friends they were, and this time it wasn’t disrespectful to read books.

Openly, at least.

I had no idea how long it took for them to talk, and to Iona’s credit, she kept trying to loop me into the conversation. It felt a little like being the odd one out in a clique, with how close they all were and the in-jokes and conversations, but Iona’s social skills gamely fought to keep me involved, and to her great credit, mostly worked.

Alas, all good things had to come to an end, no matter how wild eating finger food on the moon with no spacesuit was. I made my polite goodbyes, then jumped into my [Tower] from the Argo II, giving Iona some privacy to say her own goodbyes.

Not that they were needed, the Goddesses were only ever a thought away for her.

I came back a while later and the divinities were gone, the illusion snapped back over the moon. A smudge of moon dust was on the top of the Argo II.

“Where we need to launch.” Iona explained, looking excited.

“Ah, perfect.” I said. “Let’s grab a bunch of rocks, bury the ashes and get out of here? I’m starting to get nervous about our supplies and the timeline, plus we’re going to have to reorient back with the whole moon-local, Pallos-local thing.”

Iona sighed and looked around the moonscape.

“I wish we could stay.” She said. “Oh! But big news! I got [Celestial Spirit] and [Gravity Spirit]!”

I blew a disgusted raspberry at that, then morphed to a grin.

“Congratulations! Anything new offered? What’s it like? Two at once is great, I’m so happy for you!” I gushed.

Iona and I animatedly chatted for a while more, the conversation bouncing around and easily moving from the skills to the event, which brought up the temple. The grave we needed to dig then came up, and it killed the mood. Iona solemnly dug a six foot deep hole, placing the urn at the bottom before filling it back up. The marker was placed on top, and I could see her praying again. I joined in.

Ciriel,

Please see to it that this soul finds peace and comfort wherever they’re going. I don’t know who they were, but they were clearly loved.

Thanks,

Elaine.

I tried planting a pair of mango seeds by the entrance to the temple, lamely piling up crushed-up rocks around the seeds. Not my best efforts, and it was so implausible that the System didn’t even deign to reward me with a level for my efforts in [Tender Gardening], or even offer a questionable side-grade to the skill. In a dedicated class, or maybe if I’d been trying to get a new skill, I probably could’ve forced something like [Unlikely Gardening], but honestly?

It’d probably just be [Inefficient Seed Murder] or some nonsense like that.

Iona needed some prodding for us to actually leave, but we finally got there.

“Three! Two! One! BLASTOFF!” We shouted in unison as I unfurled my wings, getting us up and off the ground. More levels flashed by as our mission was ‘accomplished’, and getting back was fairly straightforward. Forewarned and forearmed, we crossed by the ‘local change’ zone without too many problems, hurtling towards Pallos.

Landing was going to be easy, I was going to just gently lower us down, and it wasn’t a problem.

Back on the moon, there was a temple. A temple dedicated to the Moon Goddesses, the first one built on their sacred land. It was made out of wood, sweat, and dedication, and had windows on all the walls.

One set of windows was stained glass, and each panel told a story. A girl crying over a collapsed mountain, a stylized Valkyrie on a triceratops. A bloody battle against goblins, a kneeling squire being raised a knight. A fierce battle against a wyvern, and the hatching of an egg. A chance meeting in a tavern, and a single foe standing against seven defeated enemies. A hand reaching out to a small kitsune and a marriage.

A trip to the moon.

And a panel of a happy family around a table.

[*ding!* [The Arbiter of Life and Death] has leveled up! 918-> 920. +400 Strength, +400 Dexterity, +800 Speed, +800 Vitality, +1600 Magic Power, +1600 Magic Control, +1000 Mana, +9000 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

[*ding!* [Luminary Mind] leveled up! 804-> 808]

[*ding!* [Etheric Aegis] leveled up! 451-> 455]

[*ding! [Event Horizon] leveled up! 701-> 702]

[*ding!* [Zenith Everlasting] leveled up! 888-> 889]

[*ding!* [Seraph of the Dawn] leveled up! 894-> 895. +512 Speed, +512 Vitality, +1024 Mana, +1024 Mana Regeneration, +1024 Magic Power, +1024 Magic Control per level from your class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Strength +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

[*ding!* [A Light Shining in the Darkness] leveled up! 750-> 751]

[*ding!* [Teleportation] leveled up! 417-> 425]

[*ding!* [Repository of the Magus] leveled up! 666-> 675]

[*ding!* [Tower of Knowledge] leveled up! 329-> 333]

[*ding!* [Reality, Writ As You Will] leveled up! 620-> 621]

[*ding!* [Astral Archives] leveled up! 480-> 481]

[*ding!* [The World Around Me] leveled up! 365-> 400]

[*ding!* [Persistent Casting] leveled up! 730-> 740]

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 59]

[Mana: 7,959,810/7,959,810]

[Mana Regeneration: 17,422,279 +(54,255,459)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 53,227 (Effectively: 425,816)]

[Dexterity: 77,629 (Effectively: 826,594)]

[Vitality: 251,646 (Effectively: 3,931,969)]

[Speed: 238,878 (Effectively: 4,701,836)]

[Mana: 795,981]

[Mana Regeneration: 1,939,860 (+ 5,425,546)]

[Magic Power: 1,039,313 (+ 47,340,707)]

[Magic Control: 1,038,458 (+ 47,301,762)]

[Class 1: [The Arbiter of Life and Death - Celestial: Lv 920]]

[Celestial Spirit: 920]

[Aurora Curialis: 901]

[The Stars Never Fade: 200]

[Luminary Mind: 808]

[Universal Cure: 920]

[Etheric Aegis: 455]

[Event Horizon: 702]

[Zenith Everlasting: 889]

[Class 2: [Seraph of the Dawn - Radiance: Lv 895]]

[Radiance Mastery: 895]

[A Light Shining in the Darkness: 751]

[The Rays of the First Dawn: 895]

[Radiant Angel's Spear of Obliteration: 330]

[Celestial Dew: 895]

[Sunrise Halo: 895]

[Wings of the Seraphim: 895]

[Six Wings, Six Million Feathers: 895]

[Class 3: [Erudite Archmage - Spatial: Lv 768]]

[Spatial Authority: 600]

[Cozy Reading: 768]

[Teleportation: 425]

[Repository of the Magus: 675]

[Tower of Knowledge: 333]

[Reality, Writ As You Will: 621]

[Astral Archives: 481]

[Endless Pursuit of Knowledge: 768]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 585]

[Dexterous and Handy: 369]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 920]

[The World Around Me: 400]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 920]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 920]

[Persistent Casting: 740]

[Tender Gardening: 372]

Chapter fifteen

Miracle Medic

25 years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks

Given my druthers, I’d stay locked away in my library, letting Skye and Titania rotate the books, happily devouring books as I nibbled on snacks. Maybe I’d occasionally meditate for the health benefits - the giants really knew how to combine the two - but all in all, I’d probably retreat deep into my happy little shell and isolate myself.

It was a good thing I wasn’t alone! After going to the moon, we’d taken a year-long break, but Iona was restless and filled with energy. Nina swinging by was a good reminder to break out of my shell and go explore the world, and to be fair, the most interesting things did happen when I was out and about.

Once my initial inertia was overcome, I was reminded of how many books were everywhere, and I worked on leveling my [Relentless Pursuit of Knowledge], nevermind that it was capped. There were people to be healed, and while all of Pallos was a tiny blue marble when viewed from a distance, it was a deep and complex marble, filled with joy and wonder.

Which is how I found myself on a caravan with Iona, slowly rumbling over the desert sands of Ankhelt without Fenrir or Auri. Fenrir wanted to fly and push himself when he wasn’t snoozing - that, and he caused panic everywhere he went - and Auri was having a grand old time with her bakery, and we did pop back frequently enough to not be missed. Also, when I was on-duty, we spent sixteen years in close contact, a little bit of traveling and separation for a few weeks now and then helped us stay friends, as odd as that sounded.

All the countries had a long history, but Ankhelt in particular had HISTORY. The shifting sands of the desert along with the construction method of their buildings made them particularly suited towards remnants surviving Immortal Wars. Entire cities would get swallowed up by the sand, regardless if a Classer was involved or not, only for the shifting winds to unbury them thousands of years later. Bodies would be preserved and mummified, and entire cities worth of loot were simply sitting there for the [Treasure Hunters] to loot.

Speaking of alternative careers I wanted to try out sometime - [Treasure Hunter] was pretty high up there.

The caravan’s path to Augustine was winding. The Blue Fire Wastes on one side, and wurm territory on the other. Most of the animals in the caravan had been hobbled as to not attract the fearsome beasts.

I, personally, was hoping we’d see some, and I knew Iona was itching to fight one. The creatures were rare and majestic, similar to the wyrm we’d battled but also completely different. They made vast swathes of the desert difficult to traverse - for those who couldn’t fly.

Iona had successfully argued that we should take the low road, the way most people travel and experience the world, just to remain connected to mortals and their woes. To see the nitty gritty of life, instead of darting from city to city, landmark to landmark. To be able to protect people on the road.

She spoke with such fervent ardor that I shrugged, paid handsomely to have a nice spot in the wagon, and cracked open the pile of books I’d gainfully acquired from the last city I’d been in.

The lack of discrimination laws was an utter outrage! They hadn’t wanted to sell to me just because I wasn’t a beastkin! So I [Teleported] in the middle of the night, looted the shelves dry, and left a large sack of gems behind to pay for it all.

It would’ve been larger if they had just SOLD it to me, but nooooooo, they…

I shook my head, thinking of Iona to distract myself and move my mind off the unhelpfully rage-inducing train of thought. Anger did me no good. Wurms! Big wurms! I’d love to - oh Ciriel damnit.

“Iona!” I screamed in mock-rage, shaking my fist at the canvas roof. My wife’s laughter echoed from the roof, where she was standing sentinel.

“It took you this long to catch onto the wurm jokes I’ve been making?” She laughed, and mimed one of her earlier jokes. “I’d love to wrestle a big wurm for a whole day and night.”

My cheeks flaming, I simply blew a raspberry in her direction, knowing I’d been utterly defeated in every way. I could retreat and claim I was doing what I kept putting off - reorganizing [Astral Archives] - or I could change the subject.

“I want to perform a ‘miracle’ at Augustine.” I said. “Should we do that before or after seeing the great pyramids?”

“After, we’ll see them on the way in.” Iona said.

I settled back into my cushions, readjusting some of the cooling runes. I’d made a lot of friends in this caravan by not only supplying the runes, but personally empowering them. Being a [Healer] alone would’ve gotten me quite a lot of grace, but the cooling was the final nail in the coffin. Nobody asked me to do a single chore, and the one idiot who’d tried to start shit suddenly discovered that everyone else was still getting a refreshing Icy breeze while his runes mysteriously went on the fritz.

Good times, good times, and nobody was harmed.

Iona, on the other hand, made herself friends with half the caravan with her silver tongue, and all of the caravan with her sheer willingness to roll up her sleeves and make things happen. Latrines? Done in a minute. Cleaning? Iona had half of it done in thirty two seconds. Looking after the animals? If I didn’t know her stat sheet, I’d swear she had [Animal Handling].

Sand also made for a fantastically smooth ride, and that was before [Wagoneer] skills.

A few days later Iona was poking her head in through the top part of the wagon flap.

“Elaine, Elaine! The pyramids!” She gestured, and I didn’t bother moving normally. With a simple [Teleport] I popped above to witness the pyramids in their full splendor, needing to cover my eyes.

“My eyes! They burn!”

The sheer white limestone coatings on the massive tombs were reflecting the sunlight enough that it was painful to look at. I briefly debated seeing if sunbathing in or around the pyramids would help with my Radiance class before deciding that no, it wouldn’t help. I had too much going for me in the class in the first place. The top was a massive brass capstone, and my mind boggled at how they’d managed to get it up there in the first place. Physical labor or magic, it would’ve been a gigantic undertaking. Even if they brought it up in pieces then used magic to merge it, it was huge! The symbol of Ankhelt, the All-Seeing-Eye, was etched onto every side, symbolically ‘watching over’ the citizens.

I had to wonder if it was inspired in any way by the Dragoneye Moons high above. The eyes themselves were beastkin, and a brief glance at history suggested they changed with the ruling clan’s beastkin species.

My curiosity was itching at me, begging at me to go poke my head into the pyramids and do a bit of exploring. The only trap that could threaten me was a total collapse of the pyramid on my head, and I should be able to spy any trap mechanisms through the walls, thanks to [The World Around Me].

Except they were fairly recently tombs for the [Pharaohs], which begged the question - when did exploring cross the line from ‘disrespectful’ to ‘reclaiming history’? How long did I need to wait before it was socially acceptable to go tomb raiding?

What if other people beat me to it, and there was nothing left to see? I didn’t want to raid or loot them, just… explore a little. As one does. I was no [Adventurer], hellbent on looting every last coin! My motives were pure and good. It was different. Somehow.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Cognitive Dissonance]! Would you like to replace a skill with it?]

Hey! No! That wasn’t fair! I wasn’t even asking for a skill! It was completely different!

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Utter Hypocrisy]! Would you like to replace a skill with it?]

I was in an argument with the System and losing. It was time to cut my losses and run away.

… I was not an [Adventurer].

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Not An Adventurer]! Would you like to replace a skill with it?]

The fuck would I even do with - you know what, it was time to walk away.

The great city of Augustine rose up behind them, filled with a riot of a thousand brightly colored silks, a grand city who’s sights I greedily drank in. A thousand and one words could be used to describe the bustling streets and the culture, but [Astral Archives] wasn’t limited to mere words, no matter how much I wrote in them. They were memories. Thoughts and feelings, senses and impressions, all could be stored, and I took a strong mental ‘snapshot’ of a good image of the city, and stuck it into my big book of cities. Then we carried on.

I withdrew my aura and tightened up my [Persistent Casting] zone as we arrived, not wanting to quite give away the game yet.

The gates were a fun time with Iona’s level over 1000, scary eyes, and not-beastkin nature, while I stayed very, very quiet about my true level and Immortal nature. Wasn’t technically supposed to be here and all that. I had to wonder if the Wardens were eventually going to track Iona and I down and have some impolite words with us. The nature of communication on Pallos and the difficulty of putting the pieces of the puzzle could be helping us evade their notice, or they simply had bigger fish to fry. I didn’t know, but poking the bear would just make it more likely that they’d want to deal with me.

We got in, found a clothing shop and purchased a set of the local clothing. White linen dresses with a strap over one shoulder, along with a shawl to keep the sun off our heads. I clicked my tongue at them.

“Do you think it’s worth getting them dyed?” I asked Iona as we left the store. She glanced up at the sun.

“Nope. Helps keep us cool, and I know you and dyed clothing. You’ll just complain that the quality is inferior to Exterreri dyes if you do dye it, or complain it’s not genuine if you use some from Sanguino. Come on, we’ve done this conversation before.”

I pouted prettily, then brightened up.

“Alrighty! Let’s go perform a miracle, eh, eh?” I egged Iona on, who only snorted at my minor blasphemy. Ciriel approving of my ‘miracles’ made it alright in the [Paladin’s] books.

She brightened up at that.

“Yeah, let’s go!”

The beastkin of Ankhelt took their religion seriously, and we had the pick of a half-dozen different temples near the center of the city. We skipped the Temple of Death, one of Thanatos’s biggest temples on Pallos, and elected to go for one of the smaller temples. I mentally reviewed my healing template for beastkin, making sure I was including all the species variants.

There was a tricky line to walk between being visible enough that people believed it was a miracle as opposed to other nonsense, and being so visible as to cause problems. A second complication was Iona and her [Vow] to never lie. She had to always tell the truth, and wasn’t a huge fan of deception, nor did she particularly like me lying. She understood that I needed to now and then, but whenever possible I liked to stick on the truthful side.

I approached one of the [Ushers] or [Priests-in-Training] - unsure exactly how Ankhelt did things - and made my pitch to the crocodile beastkin.

“Hi!” I said in poor Demotic. “I’m wondering if there’s a good place for me to entreat Ciriel for a miracle?”

There were thousands and thousands of gods and goddesses, each with a unique pietfolio. She was one of the slightly more popular goddesses, and in a temple I didn’t feel the need to clarify exactly what her domain was.

He nodded at us and gestured, giving me a toothy smile.

“Any plans on sacrificing live animals, or anything —---?” He asked. I tilted my head towards Iona a bit, not quite catching the last word.

“No, we’re simply praying today.” She answered.

“Right this way.” He started to lead us down the bustling halls, and thought about hamming it up a little. Talking a bunch about the miracle I wanted to perform. My Demotic wasn’t that good, and I decided to keep my mouth shut for now.

“The word was problematic, but in Demotic it’s a specific type that refers to divine offerings that could be messy for the temple.” She quietly murmured. “All the different types of messy, from political to physical.”

It took all types, I guess. The words a culture had were a fascinating look into their mind. As the Modu giants had fifty different words for snow, describing all the characteristics, Ankhelt had quite a few words around gods, offerings, and the divine lineage of their [Pharaoh]. Given how none of the gods objected to the claim of divinity, it made me think some gods and mortals had gotten busy quite a few years ago, which had its own whole set of implications.

Iona had never seen anyone tagged as a [Demigod], but I had a running bet that one day we’d see it.

We were led to a smaller side chapel, where a few other people were praying in the pews or offering sacrifices to one god or another. Iona bowed her head slightly and started to pray, staying aware enough of the world to shuffle forward with me as the line moved. I could’ve just gone to the pews, but this was part of being slightly visible.

Offerings were placed on the altar, and usually vanished in a small sparkle of divine light. Everything being offered was neither a live animal, nor were they problematic.

Occasionally, an offer wouldn’t be accepted, and the [Priestesses] there whisked them away for the temple’s benefit. Iona raised an eyebrow at the practice, but restrained herself to an evil eye. I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t approve of the practice, but it was the current culture, and there were a number of interesting arguments for and against it.

I reached the front of the line, got on one knee and started to silently pray. I was trying to give the picture of faithful, devoted prayer, an [Adherent] or [Zealot] throwing themselves at the goddess’s mercy. Trying to invoke a solemn occasion. I sent a modest amount of mana Ciriel’s way.

Heya Ciriel!

I’m pulling the ‘divine miracle’ prank again. You still cool with it? Do you want to make a show of it, or…

Elaine! Yes, that would be great! Can you give me a moment to prepare an appearance?

Sure! I replied back, all excited to see Ciriel again.

It was a fantastic win-win for both of us. Ciriel got most of the credit for the ‘miracle’, and I got to stubbornly help as many people as I could without throwing the local Healer’s Guild into utter disarray. It was a way I could catch the people who didn’t know they were sick, or were too poor, discriminated against, or were just otherwise slipping through the cracks. My tolerance had gone down with age, and while I still sympathized with the plight of other [Healers] needing patients and to grow, healing people was more important.

The lights in the chapel flared with divine presence, and I released my aura and my healing. At over 10 kilometers in range, [Aurora Curialis] was more than hitting the entire city, but that couldn’t fix all ills. [Universal Cure] could hit right around a mile and a half. I felt a nudge in my skill as gasps echoed through the chapel.

Many people petitioned the gods, but it was rare for them to answer in such a public fashion. Chatters, gasps, and a quick reshuffling of favorite gods occurred as Ciriel was recognized. Iona was a big help with that, promptly bowing deeply with her hands in front of her. My wife’s clear tones dominated the space, projecting her voice in a way that most people could hear her.

“Honor and respect to holy Ciriel, Goddess of Healing!”

The best part? Iona truly felt that way, holding the gods in high esteem. There was no deception, no attempt at concealment, just pure honor and respect for the goddess. Her voice was probably pitched a hair differently than if it was some other random deity that was being manifested, but that was it.

My mana dropped like an anchor into the ocean, then abruptly stopped as I healed nearly the entire city in a single stroke. I’d probably need to skim around the edges of the city to catch people I’d missed on the first go through, but I could do that while running around invisibly.

“My miracle upon the city.” Ciriel proclaimed, then vanished in a sparkle of divine lights.

Thanks, Elaine! This was a ton of fun! By the way, I nudged your skill a bit. It’s covered the whole city, no need to do anything else! By the way, there’s some FASCINATING drama going on between Edor and Elarin that’s got me reaching for the glazed nuts. You want to know?

Oooh! Yes, please, dish! I replied, a part of me loving gossip when I wasn’t involved at all. It was like a story, except I knew some of the people involved. Vaguely, at a distance, where it probably wouldn’t spill over into my life.

They were gods, so there was no promise on that front, but it was unlikely.

Iona helped hustle me out while I heard the next few prayers go loudly to Ciriel, and a number of [Priests] and their ilk tried to descend upon me. That was a whole mess of politics I didn’t want to get into, and even Iona was tired of dealing with them.

Bless her.

“I saw a little bookstore on the way over, next to a coffee shop.” She quietly muttered to me, her bulk and level opening a nice hole in the crowd. “Want to go there?”

Bless that woman, I loved her so much.

[*ding!* [The Arbiter of Life and Death] has leveled up! 925-> 926. +400 Strength, +400 Dexterity, +800 Speed, +800 Vitality, +1600 Magic Power, +1600 Magic Control, +1000 Mana, +9000 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

[*ding!* [Aurora Curialis] leveled up! 920 -> 926]

[*ding!* [Persistent Casting] leveled up! 802 -> 803]

Chapter sixteen

Doppelganger Dilemma

Thirty five years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks.

I was in a bad mood, putting it lightly. A number of elves had decided to ‘go get some levels’, and their way of doing so involved flying into Exterreri, murdering a bunch of farmers and villagers, then fucking off before news arrived at the Sixth, and we were able to muster a response. My foul countenance was echoed six hundred times, the entire cohort darkly looking over the burnt fields and bodies nailed to the wall.

[Centurion] Nix spat and asked what we were all thinking.

“Why, by all the gods, are we letting them do this? Why aren’t we retaliating? We should be burning their fucking forests to the ground!”

They grew up so fast.

The sentiment was met with much agreement, and in spite of my [Oath], a part of me tugged in agreement. I wanted revenge, plain and simple.

I knew why we weren’t, the higher level analysis that went on behind the scenes. I kept it to myself, knowing it wouldn’t make me any friends.

We’d lose.

We’d lose hard, and not only would Tympestshard overrun us, but the Golden Courts would join in, and the rest of our neighbors would jump on the opportunity. We might spark off the next Immortal war, but Arachne and the rest believed that everyone else would simply see a chance to eliminate a competitor before the ‘real’ fighting started. The end-game dictated that some treachery and backstabbing would probably kick off the ‘true’ war before Sanguino was sacked - it was almost as far away from the borders as possible - but most of Exterreri would be burned and dead by then.

In contrast, defensively, we were in a much better position. If the elves had to sally out of their forests to us, we’d still lose, but we were too tough of a nut to easily crack. They’d have to overcommit, send bodies into the grinder, and by that point their neighbors were more likely to invade them instead.

It was death by a thousand cuts, but I wasn’t so naive as to think we weren’t cutting back. Night’s meetings were more often run by his devilish aide Addolorata than not, and the number of Sentinels at the meeting had plummeted, most of them being deployed. It wasn’t all defensive action, and even Iona approved.

Well. We assumed we weren’t deploying our most valuable military asset raiding farmers and soft targets. Night and Arachne were smart, they knew that simply invited stronger retaliation with powerful justifications behind it for no good reason. Command… I didn’t have as much faith in, but the other Sentinels would bitch and moan if they were ordered to basically go out and murder in cold blood.

Well… most of the Sentinels would.

“Cohort, halt!” The order came through the [Tribune’s] [Standard-Bearer]. “The elves are gone. Break by century, we’re moving into search and recovery patterns. First century, you’re staying here. Second century, Dacia. Third century…” The [Tribune] continued to efficiently split the cohort up, and I knew from bitter experience that each [Centurion] would further break up the individual lines to help individual places.

I drifted over to the [Tribune], mindful of my appearance and role as the Legion’s War Sentinel. Couldn’t be too relaxed and in touch, not in the field, not in the current situation. I waited until all of her orders were issued before quietly speaking up. Her support staff could catch what I was saying - but they had to be in the know anyway.

“Tribune, all due respect, I’ve already searched for survivors.”

His hardened face blinked away a tear.

“I know.” He confirmed. “I think we all know. I believe the search and rescue phrasing is better off. Since the elves have left, Sentinel, I believe your time might be better spent elsewhere?”

I tumbled the suggestion through my thousand and one rules, determining in the end that it was truly a suggestion or comment, and not an attempt at an order. The whole thing was depressing enough, and I wasn’t feeling useful enough, to stick around versus seeing if I could do some more good somewhere else.

A question I’d been debating was settled though. I needed to talk with Auri about her bakery, and see if she was willing to wind down operations for a bit. One of these days everything would go to hell, and I wanted my loved ones nearby when it happened. I didn’t want to push the pause button on life, but perhaps spending more time together would be a good thing. Of course, that was simply my desire, and everyone else might be thinking other things. Plus, it wasn’t like we could haul Skye and Titania around, and they were sorta part of the family at this point. Amber and Nina were forever off doing her own thing, and… yeah.

Speaking of Amber, I should buy a bunch of protective gems for everyone. The really nice thing was since I’d thought of making a large purchase from her, it was almost guaranteed that she’d be over for dinner.

Okay, Amber was going to be fine regardless of what happened.

I took off and returned to the Sixth Legion, assisted with a few bloody drills, then spread my wings and took off towards home.

The wind blowing through my short hair was nice, and I closed my eyes and enjoyed it for a minute. Then I opened them, knowing I could get quite off course if I flew blind for too long with my speed. I had a bit of fun playing ‘hawk’, spying on people’s day to day lives, getting quick snapshots and speculating what was going on. Some [Farmers] were hard at work in their field, and one teenager was napping behind a shed, probably slacking off. Two travelers were having an argument, and a young couple were passionately entwined in a forest. Birds sang and squirrels ran, dinosaurs lumbered around eating grass and bees buzzed flowers.

Just… life, all around me.

Then I spotted a body in a ditch. I flew a little lower, making sure they were inside my healing radius, but nothing happened.

Dead. Damnit. Should I stop and bury them, or-

I almost zipped by entirely when they twitched, and almost went head-over-heels as I screeched to a stop, plunging down.

I rapidly cycled through different healing models, making sure all elvenoids were included, then expanding a bit to make sure changelings, skinwalkers, slimes, and other such creatures would be healed. Still nothing, and I could see her breathing raggedly. In minor desperation, I changed my image to a broad-spectrum ‘heal everything’, only to get no results.

[Identify] returned nothing - it didn’t even recognize the woman, same response as casting the skill on a tree - but [A Light Shining in the Darkness] didn’t dispel any illusions.

I landed next to the woman, immediately assessing her condition with [The World Around Me] while [Luminary Mind] split off, speculating on what, exactly, had happened and what was going wrong.

I was able to see that she appeared to be an elf, and a preliminary analysis suggested she’d been brutally beaten.

I will never see a patient as anything other than another creature in pain.

Fuck the raids, fuck the war, fuck my anger and rage at elves in general right now - she was hurt, she needed medical attention, that was that.

I cataloged her injuries, dredging up old memories and rusty skills. I knew the theory of healing and fixing someone, but it’d been decades upon decades since I’d needed to practically do anything.

Bones, clean break: Left radius, left ulna, right humerus, ribs 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 on the left side, ribs 3-6 on the right side, jaw in three places, coccyx, and her right clavicle were all cleanly broken. Both of her tibias and fibulas had been surgically broken, and those were simply the clean breaks. The right side ribs were clearly from a single punch.

Bones, compound break: Two of her phalanges on the left hand.

Bones, shattered: Orbital socket, hips, shoulder bone, most phalanges, most metacarpals. Right wrist was an absolute mess.

Bones, missing: Central incisors top, lateral incisor left, bottom left canine.Top Left pinky, left index phalanges. Her giraffe horns had been cruelly sawn off.

Bones, crushed: Entirely on the spine, the difference between ‘crushed’ and ‘shattered’ being fairly subtle. C2, C3, C4, T6-T11.

Bones, fractured but unbroken: The list was ‘most of them’, but the only ones that concerned me at the moment were on her skull.

That was just the bones. Tendons, ligaments, muscles, blood vessels, organs, nerves - everything was a mess. From a collapsed lung to a brain bleed, a dead kidney to a lacerated liver, from steady internal bleeding to bruises at the back of her throat, from deliberately crippled to half a knife broken off in her back, it was frankly a miracle that she was still alive, and not a corpse.

There were also a large number of unusual microscopic injuries. Parts of bone and marrow that were missing, thinner-than-expected vein walls, some nerves that were disconnected and not close to the trauma

The first step was to stop the bleeding and preserve her life. As long as she was alive, there was more work that could be done. Once she was dead, that was it. There was a cascading order to organs and their importance. First and most critically was the brain, which required oxygenated blood flowing to it, which brought in the heart, lungs, and circulatory system. As long as those were intact, I’d have hours to handle the rest.

[Universal Cure] wasn’t working, and so I wielded [The Rays of the First Dawn] like a burning scalpel. I narrowed it down to a fraction of a millimeter, able to control a fraction of my power at that size. I didn’t need close to my full power, she had no vitality, and I ran the risk of burning additional areas with the heat already. I seared shut a nasty gash on her side, then burnt through abdominal muscles to stop her liver bleeding. I severed and charred the vein leading to the failed kidney before delicately closing the wound on the side of her head. The wretched smell of burning pork filled the air, smelling disgustingly, nauseatingly delicious.

The unfortunate part to [The Rays of the First Dawn] was it was poor for opening spaces up. The blood sloshing around her abdominal cavity wasn’t a problem, but the cranial pressure needed to be relieved, and fast.

[Luminary Mind] had been working the entire time, every parallel thought process working hard, and I was starting to get some ideas of what was going on.

First. The lady wasn’t attached to the System, for whatever reason. It was different from the angel I’d healed, who had been ‘attached’ to the System so to speak, allowing my skills to work on her. No backend image in the System? No healing. It brought to mind creatures that had been assembled out of raw material by an expert [Biomancer] - not modified from an existing baseline, but wholly created - but to create actual intelligent life like that was monstrous.

The thought of ‘wasn’t attached to the System’ and ‘no vitality’ came at almost the same moment, two different thoughts leading to the same conclusion, and a whole new world of possibilities opened up.

No vitality meant no vitality defense. Which meant [Event Horizon] was in play, I could [Teleport] her, and so many other skills that normally couldn’t be applied to people were now in play.

The elf started to seize, and I immediately applied my knowledge and new capabilities with no hesitation. A few small [Event Horizons] surgically sliced through her skull, relieving the pressure in a geyser of blood, then her brain started to literally poke through her skull. Her thrashing was simply causing more problems, and I briefly entertained the idea of severing a spinal nerve to prevent further harm before electing to slime her instead, restricting her movements.

One different track of [Luminary Mind] was trying to work out where to take her for further attention. In an ironic twist, her lack of System access meant anyone good probably wouldn’t be able to use their skills on her. I needed apprentices, preferably less-well-trained ones that still had ‘basic’ skills that could work on her.

I will admit when I don’t know how to heal a patient.

In my - admittedly, confidence, not hubris or arrogance - I’d assumed I wouldn’t encounter another case that I was incapable of healing. The impossible had happened, and I was pleased I’d quickly and without ego recognized the problem and the solution.

Find someone who could.

Virtually everyone I’d ever trained was out of the question, and I entertained the idea of the Healer’s Guild in Sanguino. My role as a Sentinel carried weight, and I could yell and everyone would jump. There were a lot of healers and apprentices there, and we’d have sheer force of numbers. Anyone who could even help would get dramatic and impressive System achievements - ‘Healed someone Sentinel Dawn couldn’t heal’, ‘Assisted the Mother of Modern Medicine with a patient she lacked the skills to fix’ and all manner of related potent achievements.

Those didn’t come along every day.

Except… they were generally well-educated, and my weight and imposing presence could and would completely overawe them. Add in the critical nature of the patient, and I could easily imagine most of them freezing up in the moment. Additionally, the Sanguino Healer’s Guilds were big, and that came with its own downside. Namely, everyone was fairly well-educated, which meant a dearth of the type of skills I needed.

The nearby city had enough of the overlapping problem. The education was a little worse, which was a plus for once, and I’d be able to contact the local Ranger group about the assault and press them to find the perpetrators. That would happen far later though, and I could assign it to them once this was all solved.

I had their sick scent already, and if all else failed, I could try to literally sniff them out and bring them to justice myself. It was overkill, but I was mad. The people who did this were going to pay, on my name as a Sentinel.

The other issue with an apprentice with poor skills was they didn’t know enough to fix the myriad medical issues the poor elf was facing, let alone restore her horns, fingers, and the rest. No, I needed a [Biomancer], and the best one I knew was on a flying island. I didn’t keep perfect track of the School, but I knew someone who did.

Normally, transporting someone so injured would be nearly impossible, but I had two things working in my favor. First was medical. She was in such bad shape that it didn’t matter if her neck injury got worse - her back was already broken in two places, her brain was poking out of her skull, and it was a fucking miracle Black Crow hadn’t seized her soul already. Elves were tenacious and well-built in the first place.

The second was her lack of vitality. Holding onto her, I simply teleported us into [Tower of Knowledge], softly whispering to her as she floated in space.

“It’s going to be alright.” I said in High Elvish. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

Checking that she wasn’t going to drift into a spear or anything, I quickly teleported back to reality, unfurled my wings, and took off with an earth-rattling sonic boom, bushes bending back and trees losing their leaves in the force of my takeoff.

I didn’t know where the School was right now, but I knew who did, and I knew where she was.

The whole time, another [Luminary Mind] thought process was furiously talking with Ciriel over the issue.

Ciriel.

I’ve got a genuine medical mystery here. Hoping for a little bit of divine nudging for what’s going on. I know the more unknown information you transmit the harder and more expensive it is - can you give me a hint?

Elaine!

Hmmm… you’re right, this IS a curious one. Let me see… oh! That’s interesting! Think of the Mirror element. Love to chat more later!

Mirror, Mirror… the current symptoms… oh!

Ciriel’s hint was the subtle nudge in the right direction that got the entire puzzle to fall into place.

[Clone] was one of Mirror’s more infamous spells, allowing a powerful Classer to literally make copies of themselves. There were all sorts of complications around the skill, and several famous plays involved [Clone] shenanigans, from comedies where they pretended to be triplets, to an infamous tragedy where the [Clone] couldn’t handle being ‘the fake’, and murdered the original to become the ‘true one’, before fading away himself.

It took one hell of a mindset to successfully pull it off, and while I knew the Jiwa rune for the spell and had the magic power to cast it, I lacked the mentality for it. I couldn’t bring life to this world then abandon it, nor would I let her fade away. In short, I cared too much to create “disposable” selves - and I was unsure if I had the mindset to survive knowing I was ‘a clone’.

It had sounded fun once upon a time, but the harsh realities of the situation had me flinching away.

The benefits were theoretically endless if it could be pulled off. It depended on the details of the skill, but some [Clones] had access to the same System as the ‘original’, and others didn’t. Having access to the System allowed them to use skills and be stronger and faster, but lacking System access freed [Clones] from restriction skills and curses alike. Being able to create dozens of loyal helpers every day was a quick way to creating a one-woman town. Many hands made light work, from chopping down trees, tilling fields, erecting structures, and so much more, dozens of minds in dozens of bodies could easily solve problems.

For elves, some of the more self-aware could use it to get a clever point of view that wasn’t impacted by their curse… assuming they could break their arrogance long enough to listen to themselves. It probably helped that the [Clone] was them, neatly bypassing most of the innate issues with it.

It wasn’t for me, but I could understand why people would do it. Unfortunately, a [Clone], peeled away from the ‘main body’ or even after the main body was killed was fairly helpless. No System, no support, and a rapidly decaying body was a bad mix.

It explained everything I was seeing. The microscopic missing aspects? That was conjured material dissipating. The lack of System access? The original was dead, or the skill was deliberately done that way. I was leaning towards the first one. Also explained why it was so difficult to heal her. Her nature as a [Clone] with a dead original meant there was no System image to tap.

I was on a tight timer, and I landed inside Sanguino minutes later.

The guards took one look at a blood-soaked Sentinel in full combat gear - they knew the difference between cape off and cape on - and promptly turned back to their patrols, only one guard peeling off and hustling over my way.

“Arachne, this is Dawn. I need the current location of the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft now.” I spoke to a wall coated in threads. There were a few [Biomancers] in Sanguino, and I could easily commandeer them. I didn’t know if they were good enough for the surgeries required. I knew Marcelle was, and the time needed to investigate and interrogate the [Biomancers] to check if they had the appropriate level of skill would take too long. It was possible they’d miss something crucial, and by then it would be too late for me to transport the elf somewhere else.

Unless the School was too far away, or inaccessible. Then I’d have to go to a local [Biomancer] and pray.

The threads shifted and morphed a moment later into words, detailing the exact location of the School, along with its current trajectory.

“Thanks!”

I took off with slightly less force, not wanting to cause any harm to people.

I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I blazed through the clouds to the School, mentally resolving myself.

I will apply all measures that are required to my patients.

I didn’t have the time to be slow and polite. The nameless elf in my [Tower] was dying, and dying quickly. I grabbed one of my spellbooks from storage, the gale force winds almost ripping it from my hands. I flipped it open and flew backwards for a bit, sheltering the pages while I continued to hurtle towards the School, casting the set of Jiwa runes that let me see the magic of the world laid bare.

I [Teleported] through the School’s shields, flickering a few more times to prevent setting off any alarms or wards. I shot towards the School’s hospital, going so quickly and touching so little that I barely saw any faces, most people having no time to react to my presence. I stopped in a dramatic gust of wind in the emergency department, paper, pens, and gowns flying everywhere.

Didn’t matter. I scanned my surroundings with [The World Around Me], combining what I saw with the knowledge I had from when I’d been a [Student] here myself. I pointed to one [Healer] with a bushy white beard who looked more outraged than shocked or afraid.

I was an armed and bloody soldier storming into their hospital after all. It wasn’t a good look, and I could sense the security forces already starting to descend upon me.

Who made teachers fight anything? The idea was absurd.

“You. I need a full team in room 304. [Biomancers] preferred, non-image stabilization required. Normal skills won’t work. Move!” I shouted before [Teleporting] twice to reach the empty room in question. I darted into [Tower of Knowledge] before coming out with her limp body, carefully placing it on the table. Some [Healers] and the like were starting to mingle outside of the door, none of them daring to come in. I threw the door open, restraining myself from yelling at them.

“Patient’s there, normal skills won’t work. Move!” I yelled before [Teleporting] out of their way to a lower floor, then dashing out of the hospital to find Marcelle. I dodged a pair of demons in leather with clubs, then dashed off to the Wood tower to find my old mentor. She wasn’t in her office, and I flew through the tower, finding her lecturing to a class. I barged in, mentally apologizing to the students but not having the verbal bandwidth to say anything.

“Marcelle. Commandeering you for an urgent medical emergency in the hospital, room 304.” I tapped my Sentinel badge, knowing she was loyal to Exterreri and I could, in an emergency, request her services.

It was a power I’d almost never exercised, but today was the day.

Marcelle gaped at me in surprise, and I had to remind myself that she wasn’t a combatant, wasn’t used to high stress, high pressure situations like this. Some of the students were starting to make a ruckus, but they were idiot nobles for the most part.

Her mouth snapped shut.

“Understood.” She said, starting to head towards the door.

“Class, dismissed until next time, where we’ll be discussing the case that Sentinel Dawn has brought.”

I offered to carry Marcelle and she declined. I didn’t like it, but I accepted her decision, and I rapidly explained the situation, a thought occurring to me as I did.

I knew for a fact that vampires could be healed even under sunlight when they were ‘cut off’. Huh. Interesting.

That was when the vines came for me, and I debated playing a game of cat-and-mouse with the Witch in White while giving Marcelle more details of the patient.

No.

I’d done enough, and at this point I’d be escalating the situation for no good reason. Marcelle was competent, and I’d literally traveled hundreds of miles just to tap her.

I let the vines wrap around me and carry me away, confident that I could talk my way out of the situation, then felt startled by the thought.

When had I become so confident at talking myself out of trouble?

I had not managed to completely talk myself out of trouble. Just mostly.

I got thoroughly scolded by The Witch in White for ‘invading’ the School, and Iona pointed out that my utter lack of remorse was why Vitus and Marcelle had both gotten fired.

Like it or not, I’d flown in under Exterreri colors, representing Exterreri, and as such, ‘Exterreri’ was being punished by losing a number of their recruiters.

I’d leveled from the whole ordeal, and Authil - the elf we’d saved - was eternally grateful to everyone involved. The Witch in White wasn’t so cruel as to immediately evict us all, and Marcelle found the challenge of morphing ‘true’ dead flesh into living flesh and bone endlessly fascinating. She leveled far more than any vampire had a right to, and I was genuinely concerned with her thoughts on ‘doing this again.’

Marcelle had literally replaced a brain one strand at a time, and everyone involved claimed consciousness had continued the whole time, which was a huge can of worms that made me glad I wasn’t a [Biomancer] anymore. Authil had basically sworn a life-debt to the vampire - I only felt vaguely put out by that. The Rangers had been competent enough to catch the men doing the mugging, and I liked to think my stormy presence at the trial had helped sink the ‘she wasn’t actually a person so its alright’ argument.

It sucked to think that the justice system worked that way, but nobody and nothing was perfect. I only had so much time and energy, I did what I could and let myself sleep soundly at night.

Chapter seventeen

A Legacy Echoing Through Time

Forty-Eight Years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks

The library of Ithil was going to unveil a new set of books they’d found, and the claims had them dating back to the Remus Empire.

The original Remus Empire.

Given how many different empires claimed the title of ‘Remus’ over the years, I was skeptical, to say the least. At the same time, elves were a little obsessed with proper credit and attribution, and when multiple high-level elves specializing in a field were all claiming the same thing, well, I wanted to take a look. Get a glimpse of home.

It hurt to say in a way, but a piece of my heart had forever been left behind in Remus. I was happy, the wound had scarred over, but the prospect of getting a glimpse of a relic left behind was like catnip.

Arachne worried it could be a trap, which wasn’t an insane take. It took ages for us to get official permission to go, but eventually the entire Eventide Eclipse headed out to Ithil.

“One other thing I’m looking forward to,” I said to Iona as we traveled on Fenrir’s back to the city. We had a small escort of elves who’d barely deigned to talk with us, but they’d make things smooth - as well as probably spying on me to make sure I wasn’t up to any nonsense. Which I wasn’t! Overtly. Himben was their leader, and I’d mentally designated him as my ‘tour guide’. “Is looking at the rumored mandala in Ithil. I’ve heard about it before, and now I can see it for myself. What do you think?” I asked her.

“Hmmm… a city-wide magic circle seems insane.” Iona mused. “But we’re talking about elves here, insane’s what they do. I think the reality is going to be smaller than we imagined. There’s going to be a large mandala, maybe the largest in the world, but the city will have outgrown it. How could it not?”

Iona had a point, and we swiftly made a bet, with Auri going for the ‘no mandala’ option, and Fenrir only grunting ‘wildcard.’

Which was frankly unfair… but I suppose if somehow it wasn’t any of the other options, he deserved the win.

We continued to fly over the lush forests, before the glass spires of Ithil tore through the canopy, reaching for the sky.

I was struck dumb by the sight for a moment, awed by the sheer capabilities and glory the elves were capable of building. They were arrogant, yes, but in some ways they had earned their arrogance.

The city’s population was nearly as insane as the tall spires of the city itself. Elves were innately Immortal, and the culture of Tympestshard liked dense cities. Couples had kids, and… just didn’t stop having children, causing their population to snowball hard over the years. An innate cause of Immortal Wars being the population growth and lack of resources to support it, but it wasn’t like anyone could declare ‘alright we’ve got enough elves now we’re going to sterilize everyone’.

Yet, at a glance, the city didn’t look like it was having overpopulation issues. I suppose an Immortal planning things out ahead of time gave them a significant leg up, along with incentives to do the job right. A mortal at the end of their lifespan, but at the peak of their political power, could easily be swayed - bribed - towards making substandard choices. An Immortal that had to deal with the consequences of their actions was slightly more incentivized to do the right thing.

I was a Remus girl. The first thing I noticed were the streets. The first was obvious, the broad roads with solid traffic control on the ground. Dinosaurs of burden hauled goods into the city, smoothly driven around a well laid-out set of slightly curving roads. People walked briskly along the sidewalk, and it almost felt like looking at ants with how beautiful and precise their movements were, and how the whole thing flowed without any issues. I didn’t see any kids playing on them, but Himben had been extraordinarily strict and extraordinarily clear about where they were, why, and that I was to go nowhere close to them.

It wasn’t a military secret, it was well-known.

“Ithil grows like an onion.” He had said. “As each new generation grows up, they move to the edge of the city and settle down, slowly learning the vast mysteries of life. Before long, the next generation will move out around them, constantly expanding the city. Permanent moves are rare. Where would they move to? Which brings us to temporary moves. The central district of the city is for couples with young children who are not ready to face the world yet. It is protected by our strongest guardians, [Nullifiers] keep any skills from being used, and it is absolutely forbidden for you to visit or enter.”

Fair enough. In a world of skills and the System, where everyone had magic, ‘how do we deal with these squishy kids’ was an eternal problem. With mortals, it was a little easier in a way - a mistake by the average person could only do so much damage. With Immortals, the math changed a bit - a single mistake could wipe out a sizable fraction of the children in the city. With how many people lived here, and their average age and level… yeah, I could see needing to go to the ‘next level’ and sticking them all in a single district.

It did have me reevaluating how many elven couples had children at any given time. It couldn’t be quite as much as I thought, given that everyone fit into a single district. With the [Nullifiers] mentioned, I wondered if elves didn’t like living under all their skills being restricted and mostly locked away.

Also… how would they enforce it? I suppose people could live outside the district, but then I suppose there was a lot less support, both System-wise and socially.

The second layer of roads wound around the buildings around the second or third floor, a series of ever-moving, ever-flowing sidewalks up in the air. A fall would be lethal to some baseline humans, but unlikely to an elf and even rarer when the System came into play. Here all sorts of skills and abilities were on display, elves rapidly moving around the city unimpeded by slowpokes and transportation carts.

I nearly missed the third layer of roads, given how they were invisible and barely used.

Every crystal spire had a number of fine gossamer threads connecting the top of the spire to all the other nearby tops. Now and then an elf would flash over the threads, their combined speed and dexterity so high that they could basically walk on spiderwebs - and the city was built to accommodate them. They were barely used not because there were so few elves that could use them, but instead because the elves that did use them only spent seconds on them, before arriving at their destination.

I saw a number of low-level elves sitting in trees away from the city and meditating, and I asked Himben about them.

“What are those elves doing?” I asked, not quite seeing the point. If it was one or two, sure, they were off doing their own thing, but it was enough as to be a cultural moment or something.

Himben snorted in derision, and yelled to the elves instead of answering my question.

“Just move out of the city! Stop slowly weaning yourself off the auras! You’re elves, for crying out loud! Have some pride!”

I suppose that did answer my question. His words did get a few of the elves standing up, hopping down out of their trees, and striding further into the forest, but most ignored him or hurled insults back at us in typical teenage fashion.

“It takes pride to fight pride.” Iona murmured quietly behind me.

“Brrrpt!” Auri agreed. I wasn’t sure she knew exactly what she was agreeing to, given how she was trying to ‘sagely’ nod. Loved the little bird brain.

“What auras are comm- Oh!” I said as Fenrir flew right into them.

It was like a ripple across my skin, a spark of electricity in my bones and a pep in my step. My hearing sharpened even more, my vision granted me sight into the deepest shadows, I felt refreshed and energized, like a million arcs. I subtly shifted how I was sitting in Fenrir’s saddle, suddenly finding that I was so much better at it, and how comfortable I was.

“This is nice.” Iona’s voice was like a thousand windchimes. The air was fresh and clean, and the auras just continued to stack up!

A far take from Exterreri’s ‘restrain yourself and let others level’, Ithil - and possibly all of Tympestshard - seemed to have a ‘let your auras and skills loose, and let everyone enjoy.’

We passed some sort of barrier, and we could hear the songs. A thousand voices, each singing their own song, their words resonating off the crystal spires, and yet they didn’t clash at all. By some twist of magic, they harmoniously blended together, from the weeping dirges of a funeral, to the brisk and happy notes of a party, to the lamenting saga of a lover waiting for her husband to come back from war. All the songs wove together, and I felt yet another layer of auras land upon me. All my dirt fled, my hair became silky and smooth, and all the wrinkles dropped out of my clothing - to start!

Fuck, this was how the typical elf lived? No wonder half the time they were going ‘poor mortals, how tough life must be for you!’ No wonder the young elves needed to slowly wean themselves off the endless overlapping auras! They had the good life here already!Iona was looking extra-fantastic, and I had no idea how that particular aura worked. Fenrir was looking sleek and dangerous, his teeth sharp and his claws shining. Auri was a menace to the eyes. If she got the slightest bit of flattery I didn’t know how I was going to pry her out of here.

Thousands upon thousands of floating lights were dotted everywhere, slowly shifting through various phases and patterns, creating a light show like no other. A layer of sublime poetry could be heard with the music, and everywhere I looked was an eyeful of beauty.

My awe at the entire thing might eventually fade with time, but I suspected that everything had been crafted to such a level, with such thought, that I’d never get bored. I didn’t see any runes or mandalas yet, or anything that implied a city-wide magic formation.

“That’s the place prepared for your landing.” Himben pointed to a pasture with a number of eager-looking elves filled along with cattle, sheep, and a variety of tasty dinosaurs, and Fenrir came in for a landing unprompted. He was going to be pampered over by a dozen elves or two looking to improve their classes and levels - but I had a sneaking suspicion that the auras had already handled anything the elves were planning on doing. Or not. Either way, cities weren’t super friendly towards massive beasts, regardless of their intelligence level, and even a ‘shrunken’ Fenrir was off the table. Instead he was going to stay out here.

Himben was looking eager as we landed, happier than I’d seen him up until now. Huh, maybe being away from all the auras had been making him grumpy? I knew I didn’t want to leave for a good long while, it was nice here. Add in an Immortal civilization’s worth of books… if the elves were halfway tolerable I was tempted.

Which, of course, was the kicker. Looking at Ithil, it was easy to see how insidious and carefully crafted White Dove’s curse of arrogance, hubris, and aloofness was to the elves. They were the best at what they did. I hadn’t seen any other cities that held a candle to Ithil, and it wasn’t even considered one of the ‘must-see’ elven cities!

Himben held out a hand, and a moment later a bottle of eye-wateringly potent alcohol on a tray with a few saucer-cups slapped into his hand, summoned from somewhere.

“To our esteemed guests, a toast to your arrival. I believe you mentioned a sweet red was to your liking.” He poured us all drinks - I was nervous about what elf-potent alcohol at a greater volume than Auri’s body was going to do to her - but we clinked saucers and had a deep drink.

It was difficult to describe how wonderful the wine was. Tympestshard exported wines to Exterreri, and I occasionally got my hands on a bottle. They were clearly using us as an experiment, test market, or to offload their bad stuff, no matter my earlier theories.

It was just that good. There was no burn of alcohol in the drink, simply fruity bliss that disguised just how potent skills had made it. I felt a pleasant tingling through my body, and decided to limit myself to one, possibly burn it out with my healing if I had to.

Auri already had her feet up in the air on my shoulder, little flames burning with psychedelic colors. I side-eyed her before deciding she was alright if she still had enough control to make flames that tiny and detailed.

Iona smacked her lips.

“That’s good stuff!” She praised.

“Would you like another?” Himben offered. Iona took him up on it, and the two unlikely drinking companions downed three more each. I offered my wife my arm - or shoulders - if she needed a support, but she was still smooth and steady on her feet. The elven onlookers had gone up to Fenrir with a wide variety of implements, already removing his saddle but seeming disappointed that there was nothing to scrub. His scales were gleaming and clean, his claws had been sharpened and filed before we left, and generally we’d put our best foot forwards. Combined with the auras, and there just wasn’t much to do.

How did young elves level with auras handling so much and making life so easy?

“Come! Let me show you the beauty of Ithil, the singing city!” Himben beamed at us, gesturing grandly to the footpath that was of course there.

“BrRrRppPt!” Auri ‘drunkenly’ replied. I left her on my shoulder, knowing Auri’s dexterity was enough to keep her on, wacky pose or not. Iona was grinning, loosening up in the social situation.

“Lead the way! I’m so impressed with everything I’ve seen so far, I can’t wait to see more!”

A seed sprouted in my mind, a flower unfurled, light broke through the clouds. I had a brilliant idea. A genius idea. It might not work at all, but every little bit counted.

Iona had mostly gotten over her prejudices around Immortals, but wasn’t quite ready to make the plunge herself. Maybe repeated exposure to Ithil and similar wonders would be enough for that one last tiny push. I was possibly deluding myself - if me, Fenrir, Auri, and her divine Goddesses weren’t enough motivation to get her to accept Immortality, a nice trip to a city probably wasn’t going to do it.

But every little bit counted. When the moment came, I’d double and triple check with Iona that this was what she wanted… but I also knew she only needed to be persuaded for a single day. With her vitality and age, I had a lot of years. I could afford to be patient on this. Iona knew my stance on it, and appreciated that I didn’t push the issue.

“Is there somewhere you ladies would like to go first?” Himben asked as an elf whipped by overhead, carried on quickly-growing roots. Iona and I traded a look, silently communicating.

“Give us the tour!” I was practically bouncing in excitement. “Show us everything we need to see! Impress us!”

Himben grinned.

“You want a tour? Then a tour you shall get!”

Elves could be… odd at times, to say the least. Himben being our tour guide could’ve gone one of two ways.

Either he was arrogant and condescending, pointing out the obvious and explaining it to us, or he took his role as a tour guide seriously and was an unparalleled, peerless guide, the epitome of a good host and role model for the city.

Fortunately, he was the second.

“Food! Food is one of our great needs, and as such, the government subsidizes it. Everything you see laid out on the tables is free! Simply take it and go. We do ask that you finish everything you eat, as wasting a great need…” Himben simply shook his horned head sadly at the thought. Iona grabbed some sizzling meat skewers - there wasn’t a chef or person near the table, but clearly some ‘hot foot stays hot’ aura was going on, along with a related ‘cold food stays cold’ - and handed some of them to me. It felt weird to just… walk up to a table and take something, but I quickly got used to it.

The skewers were divine, and we started to graze on basically anything we saw, sampling the fine delicacies the elven [Chefs] made for everyone.

“I’m going to get so fat.” I said as I licked my paper plate clean. Both because every drop was ambrosia just a hair short of mango, and because I was feeling a little self-conscious about how much I was eating, and wanted to demonstrate that I was not wasting at all. I held my paper plate out in front of me, and still doubting how well it worked, let it drop.

It vanished.

There wasn’t a single trash can in Ithil, nor was there a single piece of trash on the roads. A number of the auras simply handled the problem, and it boggled my mind. Just… how!?

Another set of auras I wanted to try were the ‘mastery’ auras. Anything I did, anything I tried, I’d just be that much better at. What made the aura utterly disgusting was the ‘mastery’ persisted. I tried to carve a chair? The skill would help me out in subtle ways, and when I tried to next make a chair, while I’d be missing the nudge, I would still have the muscle memory and experience from last time.

“Race you.” Iona half-groaned as she licked her fingers clean. “I think Auri will explode before then.”

I eyed the round featherball on my shoulder, occasionally making pitiful brrpts. Too many cupcakes. I poked at her with my finger.

“You know, I’m sure there’s a few [Bakers] who could bring themselves to teach a mythical phoenix… I bet you can extract all their secrets in an afternoon.”

Himben looked horrified at my suggestion, and Auri started to burn brightly, rapidly returning to perfect phoenix form. She’d object to the phrasing of course. Every form was a perfect phoenix form according to her.

“Brrpt? Brrrpt?” Auri asked.

“Yes, I’m sure. Go! Have fun! I’m surprised you didn’t remember saying that’s what you wanted to do. We’re going to meet at Fenrir when we’re all done, and librarians tend to get nervous around living fire next to all the books.

Muttering darkly about ‘unfair discrimination’ and baking techniques, Auri fluttered off down the road. Iona leaned in.

“Do you think she knows where she’s going?” She stage-whispered to me at Himben’s facepalm.

“Actually, for once, yes. She’s got quite the nose for bakeries.”

Himben continued to give us the tour. Walls of flowers eternally blooming into gorgeous murals, statues on every other corner, gardens filled with swaying trees and buzzing bees, and a half-dozen projects that were going to take a long time to complete.

“Can I try the highest level of roads?” Iona asked, pointing up at the fine threads between buildings.

I could practically see a crisis going on in Himben’s brain. On one hand, his guide inclinations wanted to say yes, absolutely, right this way. It was at war with his pride, which said that naturally only elves were graceful enough to pull it off. Iona was built like a brick shithouse.

“There are a few strands that are considered the ‘testing’ strands for those who believe they have mastered the skills and the stats needed to traverse the highest levels of roads.” Himben finally figured out a compromise. “Perhaps try one of those first?”

Iona did, then laughed with delight as she sprinted across the fine threads in the city, hundreds of feet above the ground. It looked like a ton of fun and I ended up joining her, before finally settling down to what I’d actually come here to see.

The library.

Tympestshard made little distinction between ‘library’ and ‘museum’, the two buildings being the same thing to them. It made sense. Both were dealing with ‘history’, and given the age of the books, a [Curator’s] skills overlapping, yeah, sure, I could see it.

The buildings were unspeakably grand and majestic, like everything else in Ithil. Part of me idly noted that I hadn’t seen any hint of a city-wide circle yet, which made me think it either didn’t exist, or was so large I couldn’t see it. We went inside and my jaw dropped.

Books. Books upon books upon tightly packed books. I’d been in big libraries before - Sanguino’s was pretty nice - but like everything else, the elves one-upped everyone else hard. A book bound with starlight, a book forged in flames. One had pages woven of spider’s silk, and another glimmered with gems. A book made out of crystalline slates, and one that absorbed all light.

There were mundane books, of course, by the wagonload, spiraling ever up on packed shelves. A sphinx looked to be one of the [Curators], and it simply got odder from there.

I whimpered, and Iona patted my arm.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to get her out of here.” She joked to Himben. I nodded my agreement.

“Crowbars at a minimum.” I let my senses expand, let [The World Around Me] unravel to its greatest size, and split my mind into 18 different parallel thought processes, each one of them devoted to the endless books. A fraction of a single thought process was still dedicated to Iona and the arm I was leaning on, letting her steer me around while I greedily absorbed all the knowledge and stories that existed. Whispering Winds, The Last Emer, Mist of the Vale, The Silver Horn, Ironwood Heart… the titles went on and on, some repeats, some new.

I let my skills rip, reading everything as quickly but thoroughly as I could, my mind whirring and racing with excitement as I went through so many stories and tales.

Normally I had to limit myself somewhat. Normally. What was the point in reading everything in Sanguino in a month? Then I wouldn’t have anything else to read.

Here though, in Ithil? My time was limited, the books were vast, and it was only my good moral character that stopped me from simply yoinking a small fraction of the collection into [Repository of the Magus].

There wasn’t enough room in the skill for all the books.

I made a sad mental note that when shit hit the fan, if there was a moment of stability and not needing to be saving as many lives as possible, that I should see how many books I could rescue. It was unlikely that I'd get the chance. Then I went right back to reading.

Iona gently steered me to a floor where the elves were putting on a new exhibit, a collection of books and artifacts from the Remus period. I slowly detached myself from the books, finishing up each one and getting a little misty-eyed at one tragic twist in the end.

If only he’d waited another month, no, another week! They all would’ve lived happily ever after! Whyyyyy.

My attention snapped to the present, a plaque in two dozen languages helping explain things.

These artifacts were found by the adventurer group The Drunken Dwarves following a Pekari tunnel. They encountered an ancient buried <<library-museum>>, which had an exhibit of artifacts from the first Remus period.

Damn. Remus was so old that they were raiding ancient museums to get items. That explained how they found so many in a ‘cache’... and why did it have to be adventurers!?

I started to look over the artifacts with bittersweet feelings. A faded Remus standard with the familiar eagle, a moth-eaten tunic, a collection of arrowheads. The coins with a triangular hole in the middle, marble busts and mosaics, frescoes and jewelry. Spoons!

Then scrolls. Tons and tons of familiar scrolls and tablets, and I idly read their contents as I passed, feeling strange.

The elves were infuriatingly right again. They had gotten artifacts from the first Remus Empire, and even some from the Remus Republic! It was like my childhood had been packaged up, oxidized, and placed in a museum. It was so weird. I grew up wearing a shirt like that, the belt was familiar. The ‘can you believe this was the wagon they used!?’ was admittedly cheap, but invoked nostalgic memories of the Argo.

A number of scrolls had also been recovered, and I came to a screeching halt at one of them, reading it over, double and triple checking the contents. Running it against other things I knew, only getting a ‘maybe’. Still, a maybe was enough. I knew the elves were perfectionists, and extracting anything from them would be a challenge. Himben was the wrong person to ask, but I figured I’d start with him, and let him pull his weight as the diplomatic interface.

“I’ll pay three million arcs for that scroll.” I pointed to one that started off with a number of remarks from endless translators and scribes throughout the ages. Each complaint and remark was faithfully transcribed and transcribed, with other people adding their own comments to the comments. Honestly, it was practically a study in language and the evolution of copying in and of itself!

They shared similar sentiments.

Why are we transcribing this?

It’s a direct first person account of the time.

The person had no historical impact at all.

It was the life of a normal person.

She was part of a wealthy family, but she didn’t even have intelligent thoughts into the family members that might matter.

It’s good practice.

On and on the complaints went, students and apprentices being given the scroll to copy as a warmup. Numerous typos and misspellings had clearly made its way into the scroll, only to be faithfully copied over.

That one, I blamed on skills. It was really easy to have a copying spell, it was harder to intelligently analyze what was going on.

Iona raised an eyebrow - the amount was far past the ‘we discuss it before we spend this much’ limit. I flashed her a few hand signs, apologizing and transmitting my urgency.

Brisk negotiations occurred, and I eventually had to not only pay more, but show them the prayer my parents had lovingly stitched for me - another genuine Remus artifact, but “fresh” and almost entirely preserved. Thank Iona and her silver tongue I didn’t need to sit for endless interviews, although I suspected I was about to get a lot more visitors knocking on my door.

Damnit.

With tears in my eyes I accepted the journal and promptly stored it forever more in [Repository of the Magus]

I didn't know for sure. Maybe I was deluding myself. Probably was, with the billions of people over the years. If I was - I was happy to accept it, and believe in my illusion.

I had the diary of my niece.

Diary day one.

Grandma Julia got me this diary to write in. I don’t know what I write. What should go in? Does this actually help? Dad seems to think so. Senator Themis. Might be worth recording that? Maybe?

Oh no, I’m being called. Maybe writing in here will get me out of chores. After all grandma did want me to write here, so it’s a good excuse right? Let me talk about the mango bowl…

Chapter eighteen

Happy Birthday!

Sixty Two years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks.

I took a deep breath in, enjoying the myriad smells of life and mango. From the floral blooms to the loamy soil, the ripe mangoes to the morning dew, to sappy resin and freshly cut grass, my orchard was my happy place. My peaceful place. I’d cleared a small area in the center just for me, with a few benches to sit on.

I hadn’t let the looming threat of war stop me from living and enjoying life, and I was proud of myself for it. My decades-long project to create a grove of mango trees just for me had paid off, and the place was serene and beautiful. A place I could always go, no matter how bad of a day I’d had. The sun was on my face, there was a light breeze as a few fluffy white clouds passed overhead, and everything was simply perfect.

What day it was helped.

A trio of happy-screaming System-locked kids sprinted through the central area, playing ‘monster’. One of them was chasing the other two, and honestly, I thought they learned how to split up when running away as toddlers. The two zipped past me, but the ‘monster’ skidded to a halt and paled at me. He did his best kid impression of a bow.

“Prima Elaine! I’m so sorry, we didn’t know you were here. We…” He trailed off and flushed. I cracked open an eye and an indulgent smile, and flapped my hand at him.

“I’m pretty sure monsters don’t have manners that good. Plus, they’re getting away.” I said.

It took the kid a moment to realize what I was saying, and with a throaty ‘RAWR!’ and his hands curled up into claws, went chasing after his friends.

I smiled indulgently. Ah, kids. They weren’t usually allowed up here, and credit to their parents - they’d been pretty clear about where they were and weren’t allowed to go, and proper manners. Made me kinda wish I could be a godmother again or something. Someone who could see kids for a few hours, then return them home when I was done.

I held out my hand and [Teleported] my staff from where I’d leaned it on a fence to rest, almost a hundred feet away. I stood up, stretched, and started to slowly go through the meditative motions I’d learned at the Jakhong Monastery, all while keeping track of the kids hunting through my orchard through [The World Around Me].

I was halfway through my set when one of them, in the throes of trying to escape being eaten by the monster, looked like they were about to run into one of the low-hanging flowering branches. There would be a lot of crying on their end, and the branches would be ruined.

I [Teleported] all three of them out of the grove, having enough magic power to enforce my will on low-vitality children, and repositioned them such that the two ‘chased’ kids would be running back towards the villa, assuming the ‘monster’ ran right at them. Instead, they looked around, marveling and speculating on what just happened. I smiled and whipped up a quick spell to project my voice.

“Don’t monsters chase people?” I asked the three of them. Distractible kids they were, the monster started chasing the other two, and I settled back to finish my routine.

“Hey Elaine, everything’s ready here. Come on over when you want.” Iona said deep inside the villa, speaking at a normal volume. My ears perked up at that, and after looting all but three - errr, make that two - mangos for tomorrow, I skipped on over to the party.

It was our birthday! Iona and I had settled on ‘trading’ birthdays where one of us spoiled the other rotten - it just worked best for us - and I’d called dibs on the big 100. Iona had been completely fine with it - she’d gotten the 64th and was also the one getting the 128th, which I didn’t mind at all. She tended to have very specific ideas about what she wanted, and so did I, which made our system entirely harmonious.

I’d wanted it to be a small, intimate gathering of my friends.

I didn’t realize how many of those I’d gotten until I was staring at the pile of invitations.

Iona needed no invitation, but I made sure to include Titania and Skye. They helped run the household, but the invitation, to me, was symbolic that I considered them friends, and wanted them there as themselves, not as some of the people helping out.

Auri’s invitation was made out of a burning cake, clever enchantments on the icing making burning words, spelling out my request for her attendance.

She’d insisted on making me the best cake ever, and I wasn’t going to gainsay her.

Iona and I had giggled madly as we made a mystery for Fenrir, which in theory was going to culminate with him dropping in on the party. The invitation was the present, in many ways.

“Aren’t we worried about, you know, side quests?” I asked Iona. She chuckled.

“If he does fall into a side quest, he’ll have an even better time, and root out some problem. Isn’t that the best gift we could give him?”

She had a point.

Nina and Amber naturally made the list, along with Night and Susan. The semi-retired Katerina was sadly unable to attend, currently enjoying a much-needed vacation on the sunny shores of northern Exterreri.

Nina’s squire-turned-Valkyrie couldn’t make it, and Iona was endlessly pleased that the wheel had turned, as she was more of Iona’s mind on how to best operate. Iona had decided she wasn’t taking on [Squires] anymore. The wound from Nina’s ‘betrayal’ had long ago scarred over, and the two were on great terms - but the hurt echoed.

One burned, twice shy, and I didn’t blame Iona for not wanting to go through it again.

Night and Arachne were both going to be in attendance, which included their personal Sentinel teams. Event security basically - the sun was out, they were vampires, etc. etc. Frankly, I was touched that they were even willing to take the risk, as miniscule as it was.

Artemis and Julius had both been pried out of the School and were in attendance, along with one of Artemis’s favorite ‘gophers’.

“Because I’ve gotten too lazy to do things for myself.” Was her stated reason. I was pretty sure she was just soft on the student, and wanted to make connections and good experiences for her.

I was a little disappointed that I’d gotten Vitus fired from the School. Next on my ‘ways to fuck with Vitus’ had been to teleport out every single screw and nail from his office. Everything should remain standing until he touched it, at which point it would’ve all fallen apart.

Speaking of fucks - I was too old to give a fuck about any sort of group drama that could result from my invitations - and people not invited. All of the War Sentinels except for Calamity got an invite. We didn’t get along personally, and barely got along professionally. More than I expected accepted the offer, a few declined, citing work. A number of Sentinels I’d made friends with over the years, including Devour, Terminus, Springsteel and Skater, were in attendance, as was Atlas and his wife. Nix had retired - RETIRED, he was just a little kid the other day, how could he have retired already!? - to Ortus village, the rapidly growing community at the base of the mountain. Bless the original settlers, they’d made it clear which direction the community needed to expand in. Both Nix and Hasta were invited, along with a dozen other friends I’d made over the years.

Librarians I’d spent countless hours discussing books with over the years had gotten an invite, and since it wasn’t just about me, even though I was the focus, everyone in the slowly-growing Valkyrie Order had a letter written for them, along with a dozen of Iona’s closest friends.

Harper was retired from being the Ranger’s [Quartermaster], but was as lively as ever, and Marcelle held no grudge over the School stuff, and was quite happy in Sanguino, teaching and running her own questionable experiments.

I know the Rangers had been over for a ‘friendly chat’ at least twice.

The list went on and on, and it quickly became a bit of a joke between Iona and I. I didn’t mind - I was just happy to see all my friends and family, safe and happy.

I was no packrat, and while I didn’t pretend I was a minimalist or didn’t need tons of stuff, I was also pretty liberal with my income,simply… buying anything I wanted. It made gift-giving occasions hell on people, and I liked seeing people happy so… I twisted it. I gave the gifts! It was a TON of fun!

In no time at all, I was dressed in a really nice, tight outfit - one of the gifts I was giving Iona, at her explicit request - and partying in the little garden in the middle of the villa. We’d thrown a heavy canvas over the open-aired portion to make a ‘roof’ for all the vampires, an initial layer against the sun. Mystical flames floated around near the makeshift ceiling, courtesy of Auri. Fenrir had made a statue of us out of Ice near one end, the waves of cold radiating off of it a welcome relief from the heat. Tables groaned under the catered food piled high, delicacies prepared from around the world. I was feeling like Ralakar food today, the spices were simply divine.

It would burn horrifically on the way out, but that was the price of tasty food.

I waved to Iona as I came in.

“Hey love!” I said, enjoying how her face just lit up at seeing me. Over 64 years of marriage, and we still had that impact on each other.

“Elaine! You look great!” Her eyes danced all over me, and I spun around, showing off a bit. I looked fantastic and I knew it. “Let me grab Nina, the two of us have something for you.”

“Okay! I can’t wait! I’m going to swing over to the buffet table and grab something before it’s all gone.” I said.

[Teleportation] was great for many things, but getting rice and curry out of a tray was not on the shortlist. Along the way I was greeted by a number of the guests.

“Elaine! Happy birthday!”

“Dawn, congratulations on 100!”

“Hey, the student that got me termin - I mean, got me a brand new job! Happy birthday!”

I stuck my tongue out at Marcelle’s good-natured greeting, who laughed with a mouth full of very pointy teeth.

“Marcelle, great to see you! Have you spotted the bloodwines yet? I got a nice bottle from Vesontio. How are the body modifications going?” I knew Vesontio’s vineyards produced her favorite vintage - at least, last I checked. Her pupils rapidly changed between a dozen different animal eyes before winking, letting me know exactly how it was going. I continued to slowly walk to the buffet table, a vision of everything vanishing as people said hi to me dancing through my mind.

“Excellent! This is such a marvelous event, thank you, and once again, happy birthday!”

I got to the buffet and started to heap my plate high with food, then navigated my way to the ‘birthday girl’ table we’d set up in a prominent spot. There were too many people for me to sit with everyone, but I had too many friends to pick and choose who was going to sit with me, and who was going to be relegated to a ‘second class’ friend. Our solution? One modest table with a few ‘guest chairs’ that anyone could sit in.

Iona was making her rounds and chatting with people. She’d join me eventually, but for now she was having the time of her life with her friends. We loved each other, we were married, but we weren’t joined at the hip, no matter the jokes.

My ears perked up at the distant sound of Auri brrpting a dozen expletives, swearing on water and mouldy bread as something went catastrophically wrong in the kitchen. A few moments of sensing later, I relaxed.

It wasn’t that bad.

[*ding!* [Sage of Tomes] has leveled up! 824-> 825. +1500 Magic Power, +1500 Magic Control, +700 Mana, +700 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power from your Element per level!]

… it was time to be an ostrich like Auri’s phoenix friend Weavy and stick my head in the sand over that. Everything was fine.

No matter how much Auri was talking about diverting waterfalls through the kitchen. Nope.

[Sage of Tomes] had been the ‘natural’ evolution to [Erudite Archmage], with nothing particularly special about it to set it apart from the prior ‘learned wizard’ aspects. A few of my skills had changed names, but most of them simply upgraded quietly. From my discussions with other high level Classers, it was normal.

Night and Susan were the first couple to swing by, holding hands and being disgustingly cute with each other. If I didn’t see them holding hands and nuzzling each other in public, I would’ve never believed it myself. I did catch glimpses of Night’s team at the edge of the party, watching over everyone. Arachne’s threads were on every surface except the sealed present room and our personal quarters, and eh, sure, why not.

“Night! Susan! Come, sit, sit!” I [Teleported] over a bottle I’d kept stashed specifically for him. It was so old I’d swear it was vinegar if reliable Classers hadn’t told me otherwise.

Night and Susan sat down at the table with me.

“Elaine. Congratulations on a hundred years of living, as the System measures it.” Night said. I sighed dramatically.

“I’d be one of the oldest creatures alive if I just used normal math for my age!” I joked.

“Nonetheless, it is a significant milestone to you, and it is my deepest desire that we should meet again for your 1000th birthday. This is simply the beginning of a long and fruitful life, no matter how quickly it looks like you are attempting to achieve divinity. It brings me great joy to be sitting here with you today.”

Susan leaned in.

“Yeah! This party’s fantastic, you have such good taste!”

I grinned at the compliments, being easily flattered.

“Thank you! I hope you’re there too, and you’re too kind. I’ve been to your parties, they overshadow this one like nothing else.” I punned. Susan dutifully groaned.

“I spent a lot of time thinking - what do you get the man who has everything?” I asked Night, waving off his attempt to answer and say he didn’t need anything. “No, no, I’ve got this. The answer is - you get his wife something she likes. Susan, I’m shamelessly cheating on the present we got you. Auri’s acquired this silk from the North Continent, I haven’t seen or heard of anything like it down here. Maybe it could be useful for your threads, or maybe just have your [Tailor] make something nice?”

I [Teleported] out a nice bolt of shimmering teal spider silk, obtained from some rare spider variant with unique skills. Susan gasped as she ran a delicate finger over it.

“Oh Elaine! It’s beautiful!” She beamed, and Night couldn’t keep a happy smile off his face.

“I will take my leave now. I am sure others would love to spend some time with you, and far be it for us to simply monopolize all your time. I believe I see someone I wish to have a conversation with as well. Once again, I would like to wish you and your wife a happy birthday, and hope you will be around for many more.” He got up with a polite flourish, and Susan slung her arm in his. The two melted into the party, and Artemis was over a moment later, dragging Julius behind her. A small storm of sharp rocks swirled around Julius, and I pointed at Artemis as she sat down.

“I swear to Ciriel, if you hurt someone or cause a problem here… I’ll unleash a pair of cockroaches in your villa. A breeding pair of cockroaches.”

Julius shuddered in disgust and sat down. Artemis twirled her chair around before sitting on it backwards, the freshly-made Immortal looking shocked.

“But Healy-bug! He’s all fragile right now! Given the levels here, someone hits Julius on the back too hard without checking his level and they’ll break his spine!”

Julius reluctantly nodded, but stuck up a finger.

“Yes, but we’re at Elaine’s party now, and her healing’s up. You said you’d drop it then.”

His voice was… slow. Way too slow.

[Leader - 32].

“Oh! You finally made it to the Reset River! Congratulations! And yes, my healing is up and locked with [Persistent Casting] Artemis, it’s like you don’t know me at all.” I shot a glare at my friend, who had the good grace to look sheepish as the swirling stones dropped. “Julius, tell me about your plans! A new set of levels is a new lease on life, and I’m curious what you’re thinking.”

The two traded looks, and Julius shrugged, looking a little embarrassed.

“Well, I’ve had to do a lot of soul searching. Remus and being a Ranger was everything for me, and that’s all gone now. Rebuilding it all… well, Artemis helped, so much. I can’t say enough good things about you, love.” He put his hand on Artemis’s and squeezed. “Being at the School, I figured I should teach something I was good at, and I found my niche. Party leadership when fighting monsters.” His jaw tightened. “Including elvenoids.”

That was a little heavier than I was expecting, and Artemis - very gently, very slowly - socked him on the arm.

“Hey!” He protested.

“We are at a party.” She reprimanded him. “I’m supposed to be the goofball making the inappropriate comments! You’re supposed to be keeping me in line! This is all backwards!” The Lightning [Mage] threw her hands up in the air in despair.

Julius looked suitably chastened at Artemis’s rebuke, then shot me a sly wink. I laughed at his clever… was it really a prank?

Iona took the moment to plop down next to me, giving me a quick peck on the lips. She grinned roguishly at the two, clearly having heard the conversation.

“I’m really curious, how does the stat difference work? I know with Elaine - hahahaha.” She laughed as I twisted her ear, burning red. Neither Artemis nor Julius seemed to care.

“MOVING ON.” I shouted. “I got something for all three of us. Tada!”

With a flourish I teleported out three miniatures, covered with silks. Artemis eagerly ripped hers off, while Julius more carefully folded the silk and put it off to the side. I put the silks back in storage with a thought.

Damn, being a Spatial mage really paid off at the higher levels. No regrets on the element I’d taken, although I probably would have similar thoughts with anything I grabbed. Iona whipped out her sketchbook and a pencil, her hand blurring as she started to capture the moment.

Her gallery of moments was one of my favorite things, and the pencil on paper stored beautifully in [The Library of Infinite Wonder].

Artemis and Julius were both stunned wordless by the little statues, lovingly crafted by a high level [Mason] who’d been exceedingly well paid to have me breathing down his neck over every little detail. I ignored the tears that sprang to Artemis’s eyes, and how Julius’s hands trembled over them.

It was Ranger Team 4. All seven of us, rendered down to the hair texture and painted, the wagon sliced open to show the interior.

Julius. Artemis. Kallisto. Maximus. Origen. Arthur.

And myself, as a scrawny teenager.

There had been a few artistic liberties taken - we didn’t have the standard of Remus flapping in the wind, for example - but otherwise it was almost exactly as I remembered it.

Three had been commissioned, one for each of us. A memory preserved in stone, names engraved eternal on the bottom.

“Elaine… it’s beautiful. Thank you.” Artemis whispered, wiping the tears with her sleeves. “I… I think I need to go before I make a mess. Thank you.”

She loudly blew her nose into the sleeve of her tunic, grabbed her statue, then rapidly made an exit without Julius. He looked after her retreating back with fondness.

“We’re not leaving, but I do need to check on her.” He said. “Happy birthday again!”

“Yeah, now I’m almost as old as you are. Decrepit!” I joked.

Person after person, present after present, I met with my guests. Nina got several thick tomes on law, politics, trade, and economics - a way to help her out that wasn’t simply supplying her with weapons. For Marcelle, I’d copied an ancient elven [Biomancer’s] journal that I’d read in Ithil. [Astral Archives] plus [The World Around Me] and [Scripture Savant] made me a certifiable menace when it came to copying books.

Amber was still deep on trading intangible goods, and I gave her the exclusive rights to my life story, whatever that was worth. She got all excited over them, and Iona looked unimpressed.

“What?” I asked. “She’ll find a good [Playwright]! We might see me on stage!”

“That’s exactly what I’m worried about.” Iona joked as she put the finishing touches on the Amber sketch. “Who are they going to get to play me? I’m going to end up scrawny in most of these productions!”

Harper got a puzzle box made out of rare metals, with each metal containing a hint about how it was supposed to solve the greater puzzle. My mind had shorted out when the seller had explained it to me, but Harper seemed to understand my verbatim explanation.

“Girl! This. Is. TOTALLY AWESOME! Thank you thank you THANK YOU! This is the best present EVER!”

Harper had looked torn between continuing to be a guest at the party, and running away to a dark corner to start working on it. Iona managed to capture that moment beautifully on her paper, the delighted indecision immortalized.

Sentinel Devour got some unusual animal parts Auri had harvested from the North, and my little phoenix friend continued to be the MVP as she’d also obtained a pair of truly fireproof gloves from The Dungeon, wanting me to pass them off to Atlas for her. For whatever reason, it couldn’t come from her - proper boss-minion etiquette and all that.

Auri had been lurking around a corner until Atlas got his gloves, then she shot over to her rightful place on my shoulder.

“Brrpt!” I was pretty sure she was raising a protest just for the sake of looking like she was protesting. She’d gotten him the gift!

“Auri. I’m not spoiling Atlas rotten. Plus, don’t you want to know what I got you?”

“...Brrpt.” Auri tried to play it cool for half a second before furiously nodding her beak.

I [Teleported] it over - I could not get over how easy the skill made life - and presented it to an adoring Auri.

“BRPT! BRRRPT! BBRPPPRRRPT! Brpt?” Auri bounced up and down on my shoulder in approval, before flying off, wings buzzing.

The enchantments on the thing had been tricky. First was getting it to recognize ‘brrpt’, then keeping everything hyper efficient enough that a small trickle of mana from the arcanite inside was able to continuously power everything.

“Say ‘Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the prettiest of them all?’, and see what happens.” I encouraged her.

Auri shot me a burning stare, and I sighed.

“Yes, I know you don’t speak my language. Try it in brrpt.”

“Brrrpt?” Auri asked the foggy mirror. It cleared up and showed… Auri!

“BRRPT!” Auri was delighted. She had a whole collection of mirrors, but this was a magical, enchanted mirror, one that would show who the prettiest person in the whole world was.

In reality, it was a simple fogging enchantment that was designed to lose power when the passive ‘listening’ enchantment picked up some specific brrpts. That had been crazy hard to do. Of course, since nobody else besides Auri could trigger the mirror - in theory - it would only ever operate properly for her.

Iona’s sketch of the moment included a shit-eating grin on my face that I was sure didn’t exist.

The elderly Titania came up next, and her present was a big one.

“Titania. If I’m not wrong, you’ve wanted to become Immortal, right?” I asked her. She hesitated a moment, glancing quickly between the three of us before nodding.

“It’s been a hope of mine ma’am, but-”

I cut her off.

“Nonsense. You’re practically part of the family, and I can’t have you go dying on us. Come on, let’s go to a private room for this.”

Titania wasted absolutely no time in rushing over, primly sitting on a long low chair the moment we got into the room.

“Is there a target age I’m going for?” I asked her.

Titania’s vitality hadn’t been nearly as high as the rest of us, and time had hit her hard. Not so much that we were worried for her health, and this was a good time to do it.

“My early thirties were a wonderful time, if you could aim for that?” She asked.

I placed my hand on her head, and with minimal fanfare, activated [The Stars Never Fade].

The world faded away, and a lush forest faded in around us. Tall trees reaching for the heavens, laden with fruit, and berry bushes were scattered all around. The cycle of life and death repeated all around me, a tiny sapling growing into a mighty oak on my left, a bamboo thicket being sucked into the ground and returned to seed on my right.

There were no animals, from insects to raptors.

The spinning greenery ended on an empty patch of land, surrounded by vibrant trees. A thousand little pieces of dust gathered together, creating a single tall mushroom in the center of the glade. Then the image faded out, and reality snapped back.

[*ding!* [The Stars Never Fade] leveled up! 511 -> 512]

I braced myself for the appearance of White Dove, the avatar of death, to descend upon us and issue her pronouncement. The curse Titania would have to live under forever more.

It never came.

After a few minutes of awkwardly waiting, Titania got up and stretched.

“Thank you again, ma’am. Should we get back to the party? I’d hate to keep you from your celebration.”

To say I was concerned was understating it a little… but what could I do? Titania had never been anything other than exemplary, no matter how odd that was, and I wasn’t about to poke White Dove and say ‘excuse me, you missed one.’

How… odd.

We returned to the party, and I leaned over to ask Iona a question.

“Titania’s marked as a human in her System, yeah? There’s nothing weird with her status?”

Iona peeked over.

“No, everything looks normal to me. Why, was there something odd?”

“You could say that…” I said.

Nix and his wife and young son swung by the table next. He’d been one of the kids playing ‘monster’ earlier in the grove.

“Nix! Great to see you! I can’t believe you’re retired. It’s unbelievable.” I shook my head, my long hair waving in the breeze.

He chuckled as he sat down.

“Can’t believe it myself. I’d always heard you were Immortal, but seeing it with my own eyes? Seeing everyone get older while you stayed eternally the same?” He whistled. “That’s some trick. How’ve you been? I feel like we haven’t gotten a chance to talk in ages.” He chuckled at his own joke, while his son rolled his eyes.

“Oh, good, good! Thank you for the socks you sent last winter Hasta, I love them! They’re super comfortable.”

We continued to shoot the shit for a while, his son looking more and more uncomfortable, eventually poking Nix.

“Ah right, I should get to it.” Nix straightened up, attaining a military bearing.

“Sentinel Dawn, would you be willing to take my grandson Primus on as an apprentice to learn the healing arts?”

I nodded, figuring out his question six words in.

“Of course I would - wait, grandson!?”

Chapter nineteen

The Letter

Nearly 75 years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks

“Emergency letter for Sentinel Dawn from Sentinel Arachne.”

I was on vacation.

Fuck.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 112]

[Mana: 9,709,900/9,709,900]

[Mana Regeneration: 24,556,129 +(79,242,431)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 77,951 (Effectively: 623,608)]

[Dexterity: 102,293 (Effectively: 1,089,216)]

[Vitality: 334,977 (Effectively: 5,234,016)]

[Speed: 322,209 (Effectively: 6,342,040)]

[Mana: 970,990]

[Mana Regeneration: 2,674,850 (+ 7,924,243)]

[Magic Power: 1,279,544 (+ 62,761,633)]

[Magic Control: 1,278,608 (+ 62,715,722)]

[Class 1: [The Arbiter of Life and Death - Celestial: Lv 981]]

[Celestial Spirit: 981]

[Aurora Curialis: 981]

[The Stars Never Fade: 558]

[Luminary Mind: 981]

[Universal Cure: 981]

[Etheric Aegis: 510]

[Event Horizon: 842]

[Zenith Everlasting: 981]

[Class 2: [Seraph of the Dawn - Radiance: Lv 948]]

[Radiance Mastery: 948]

[A Light Shining in the Darkness: 751]

[The Rays of the First Dawn: 948]

[Radiant Angel's Spear of Obliteration: 430]

[Celestial Dew: 948]

[Sunrise Halo: 948]

[Wings of the Seraphim: 948]

[Six Wings, Six Million Feathers: 948]

[Class 3: [Sage of Tomes - Spatial: Lv 840]]

[Spatial Authority: 840]

[Scripture Savant: 840]

[Teleportation: 501]

[The Library of Infinite Wonder: 840]

[Tower of Knowledge: 433]

[Reality, Writ As You Will: 700]

[Astral Archives: 840]

[Endless Pursuit of Knowledge: 840]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 624]

[Dexterous and Handy: 500]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 981]

[The World Around Me: 533]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 981]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 981]

[Persistent Casting: 981]

[Tender Gardening: 420]

Chapter twenty

A Thousand Years for Revenge

Nearly 75 years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks

Lossamiel had [Sworn Vengeance] on the [Slavers] of Urwa.

At first she’d been meticulous. Kept a list of those responsible for kidnapping her, passing her around before slapping her in chains and silks and putting her on an auction block. A list that included the [Auctioneers], the buyers, the suppliers, and the hated Emir Eabd.

Being a [Slave], branded and forced to dance, wasn’t the end of the world. It was bad, but it was nothing.

Pain and raw emotion were a currency, an entertainment, and Lossamiel, along with the other slaves, had been occasionally tortured for the night’s amusement, surrounded by laughing and jeering elves.

Then there were the pits…

When the freshness and novelty of Lossamiel had started to wear out, the [Emir] and the rest had dug deeply for new entertainments.

Lossamiel could still hear her scream as tiny feet kicked helplessly, inches above engraved marble. Every detail was carved into her mind, from how her wrists broke against the manacles, to the exact pattern of the shirt’s weave, to the choking gurgles. The horn-nubs that hadn’t even revealed the antler’s shape. The carefully timed cruelty to let her go just too late to do anything, the laughs as the party went on around her sobbing over her daughter’s death.

That was when she had [Sworn Vengeance], and didn’t care who she hit in her quest.

All of Urwa was rotten, and needed to be purged. Everyone involved was either a [Slaver] and deserved to die, a citizen who helped and profited off the system and was complicit, or a slave themselves who would die to see their [Slavers] killed with them.

Freedom came one day. She’d been sold to a less-careful master who was fine with ‘refuse’ from the Emir, a cheap bargain for ‘high quality goods’. He wasn’t quite as good with chain lengths and skills, and Lossamiel had been able to dance close enough to wrap her chains around his neck and choke him out.

An orgy of violence had followed, Lossamiel venting her anger on the slavers closest to her before calming down and thinking.

Lossamiel had planned. It was a shame for the mortals whose lives would be too short to benefit from her move, it was torture for the remaining slaves, but it was better to do this right than to have a short-lived and futile rebellion.

The first thing she studied were the locations of all the [Emirs] and [Sultans]. How they operated, what the entire slave network looked like. What her targets were and where.

The information was freely available, and cost Lossamiel practically nothing. Simply the city toll to enter a city with a library, and she was set.

The next project was harder.

The general shape was easy and bandied about, but the details, the specifics, were restricted to the point of practically being banned.

The Guardians, and how they operated.

Lossamiel had spent two decades piecing together a loose theory of how they worked from various stories and tales, but even then most of them handled Guardians appearing after an attack. There were no solid records of how they intervened on channeled or highly prepared attacks. Simply the rare passage in a restricted book going ‘Sentinel Queen and The Nightmare were seen conversing on such and such date.’

Guardians were people too, and for all Lossamiel knew, it was a social call between two old Immortals, and had nothing to do with prepared attacks.

She managed to develop a theory anyway, and she’d find out how accurate it was.

The third was studying the Divine Decrees and dimensional magic. This was by far the most expensive undertaking, needing to pay for an apprenticeship to a senior [Mage] who knew how it worked, and didn’t like competition too much. Creating portals was difficult, but doable, but creating portals that didn’t rip the fabric of space, simply pushed it around?

Quite a bit harder. If it stopped the gods from simply smiting her and preventing her revenge, it was all worth it.

It took a few more years to get her skills to a comfortable spot and plot the best course of action, but once it was done, the elf took off high into the sky, past the clouds, past where there was any air. Lossamiel carefully aimed her portals at each other, making sure they were aimed at the infinite expanse of deep space, past the horizon of Pallos.

She’d contemplated aiming them at the ocean, but the threat of a tsunami would probably be enough to summon the Guardians too early. No, aiming them away from anyone was best to stay unnoticed and undetected.

Then she dropped her steel balls into the portals, a dozen skills playing with each other. Aiming, survival, making sure the attack penetrated properly. Reading currents and playing with mass. They fell through, only to reappear a few feet away in the exit portal, ‘above’ the original one.

Speedy thing went in, speedy thing came out, and Lossamiel’s steel balls rapidly accelerated in minutes to terrifying speeds.

She wasn’t aiming for simply terrifying.

Minutes.

Hours.

Days.

Years.

Decades.

Shera, The Dreamer, swam slowly through the depths of the ocean. She was a leedsichthys, one of the titans of the depths, but not quite the largest. Blue whales, krakens, and leviathans were larger. She’d been mistaken for a leviathan often enough, and most creatures knew to avoid tangling with her.

A shark took a curious nibble, and she simply redirected the currents to place him in her mouth, biting down with a satisfying crunch of breaking cartilage. She returned her attention to the ripples in the world.

Shera was a Guardian, and one of the gifts bestowed upon her was to see ripples, for lack of a better word. Focal points where disaster loomed. There were all sorts of qualities to the ripples, from frequency, to intensity, to color, flavor, and more.

Nearly every living creature gave off ripples, and the vast majority were ignored. It was almost easier to see the unusual ripples in the sea of ordinary ones, and intervention was a judgment call.

An infrequent ripple came from the coastline, tasting of fish, colored blue and being small and rare. Some [Mermaid] trying to conjure enough water to drown the world, no doubt, but lacking in the skills and coordination to succeed. Maybe there’d be a few millimeters change in the ocean’s level, nothing that the tides wouldn’t wash out.

Now, if King Nereus were trying to organize the merfolk en masse to drown the landfolk, perhaps as retaliation for his daughter being butchered and eaten by orcs for the Immortality her body provided, that could create a much larger ripple, one Shera would need to investigate and nip out before the world was flooded and drowned. Again.

A hungry set of pitch-black ripples was coming from a shelf in the ocean, and the intensity and frequency was finally large enough to stir Shera to action. With a few flips of her mighty tail, she sped through the depths, arriving at a chasm where a leviathan had been felled by a single ingested Vorler egg. It had hatched on the inside, poisoned the leviathan to death, then had feasted on the body, wildly reproducing over generations. The ancient monster was now bones, and a massive swarm of Vorlers threatened to overrun life in this corner of the ocean.

Shera preempted all that by crushing them to death with the weight of the deepest depths of the ocean, magnified a dozen times. It was like the hand of a god had come down on them, and Shera made sure not a single tiny egg would survive.

Perhaps it was time to dream again, to imagine the vast endless impossibilities that her Mirror element could then give rise to.

Then one of the endless far-off ripples dramatically changed in frequency and intensity. It had been building up for years and years, but at such a low level that it was ignored. It was suddenly at such a high level that every Guardian would intervene, and Shera immediately moved, leaving devastating currents in her wake, reshaping parts of the world, moving directly towards the ripples.

Up on the lazily spinning moon, obscured by mirages that had lasted for tens of thousands of years, a single sprout defied all the odds to burst from the ground, unfurling leaves into an impossibly hostile environment.

Lossamiel shifted the portals a hair, pointing them from a harmless location to populated city centers. She launched her attack with a single word, knowing she would die moments later.

But her revenge would be complete.

“[Moonfall].”

Thank you all! Please read!

Hello everyone!

After months of blood, toil, tears, and sweat, I'm pleased to deliver this installment of Beneath the Dragoneye Moons to you! Hurray! I am so grateful to you - yes, you - for making the investments needed to make this story happen.

Thank you!

It's your support that makes it possible for me to write Beneath the Dragoneye Moons, and your involvement just means so much to me.

On that note, if you need your fix, there is more Beneath the Dragoneye Moons available now! I'm unsure when, exactly, you are reading this, but the story is continuing on both and on my

Amazon strongly rewards books that get rated and reviewed. Please consider leaving a review if you've enjoyed the story!

There is a rapidly growing community on Discord if any of you would like to connect with and communicate with anyone else in the BTDEM community.

Regardless if you choose to review or not, if you want to continue reading or not, or if you want to support me in other ways or not, thank you again for taking the time to read Beneath the Dragoneye Moons, and I'll see you all in the sequel!

Cheers,

Selkie Myth