In a distant room, in a well-guarded house surrounded by force fields and wards and patrolled by servitor robots and a few real people, a woman slept soundly in her bedroom, in the center of a nest of silver roots. Those roots were plastic and metal and light, and they burrowed into the foundations and the ceilings and formed geometric patterns on the walls. Lights flickered; fiber optics, but also mana lights. All manner of blues, greens, and softer colors flitted through the network, delivering messages and organizing the city in the woman’s temporary absence, in her sleep.
A tiny red light flickered through the system, curling into the bed, under the woman.
The woman came back to herself, back to her body.
Mayor Emilia Ramirez woke up.
And then she sat up, as though she hadn’t been asleep at all, because she hadn’t been; not really. She was just letting her body rest while she subsumed herself into her True Self, but now she was separated again, all so that she could better understand what had happened, on a human level.
She held up a hand and a tablet appeared in her grip, as though it had always been there.
She read it.
She set it down.
Her True Self had calculated that they could get a Twin City on Daihoon, for Memphi, if they used their connection with Careed to get to Cybersong. It was more complicated than that, of course. There were ten million moving parts to this whole idea. But it was a good idea. A portal connecting Memphi to Daihoon would bring a whole new dynamic to the city that would lead to Memphi becoming a true power.
“A portal to Daihoon, here in Memphi,” Emilia said to herself, quietly, for she still couldn’t believe it.
Emilia had checked out those possibilities long before now, of course, but facts were crystallizing as they were, and now she needed to make big decisions.
Did she want dragons in her city?
Obviously not.
Dragons were terrible for democracy. Emilia had enough trouble with the High Powers in the city as it was, and yet, there were a lot of benefits to having a permanent portal. There were even benefits to having dragons, if the dragon cultists were to be believed, and some of them made really good cases. Dragons that wanted food and fun were perfectly fine. It was when dragons got involved in politics that made everything difficult.
“But a permanent portal was worth it.”
Crystal Tower in Tokyo had opened up a permanent portal for trade nearly 70 years ago, and everyone thought it would have ended in disaster, but the constant influx of kaiju and monster waves on set intervals coinciding with the portals opening allowed them to plan around those sorts of things. Those plans led to organization that led to further growth and stabilization, and Tokyo eventually crystallized as the strongest city on Earth because of those kaiju, because of that impetus to grow.
These days, Crystal Tower had teams of kaiju hunters begging to be the ones on the kaiju kill schedules for portal days, because that’s where they made their most profit on the television shows they recorded around those battles. Tokyo’s kaiju problem had become a ‘kaiju asset’, and not a single person in Tokyo was scared of kaiju at all, because they knew they were safe. And they were safe!
That safety had a compounding growth effect on Tokyo’s population.
“So yes,” Emilia told herself, and her True Self, as she contemplated the future of Memphi. “I want that portal project here, and I’m fine with speaking to Addavein, when he shows. Let’s put together a real plan.” She stepped out of bed and the lights went on in the room. She grabbed a pill out of a cabinet to the side, from a handmade alchemist bottle labeled ‘Restful Night’, swallowing it dry. Instantly, her exhaustion faded away. Real sleep was better than alchemical sleep, but a pill to cure sleep now and then was acceptable, and Emilia hadn’t had one of these pills since 3 days ago. Blinking out the last remnants of sleep, Emilia spoke, “Call the hero’s association—”
She paused as 37 tiny red lights flickered through her network, heading her way.
37 minor alerts.
Since she was up for the day, you know.
Emilia went to work at midnight.
One hour of sleep was enough, but Emilia was not as young as she could be. She might need to consider getting True Healed again… In fact, she put that on the schedule for today, along with an invitation to a meeting at 4 PM with Mark Careed. A late afternoon meeting would give her time to put together a plan before confronting —and hopefully dismissing as a threat— the ‘Brother of the Dragon’.
But if Mark stayed, and this portal thing worked out...
Emilia grinned.
With a flight of dragons at her request, all the adamantium she could ever want, and a True Union user in her city, or rather, in the city beyond the veil, whatever it ended up being called...
Maybe she could see about reunifying the United States.
It’d be the United City States of America, but…
Emilia got goosebumps.
Her True Self, wound throughout the entire city of Memphi and especially here, in her home, flickered with light, as Emilia imagined Memphi, as it could be. As it was in the Old World, but with superheroes truly defending it from all sides, inside and out. Memphi without the threat of kaiju, with enough superheroes to make her a ‘Team Adamantium’, ‘Team Mithril’, and ‘Team Orichalcum’, just like they had at Crystal Tower. Memphi had about 25 superheroes to her name that were worth a damn, from Titanfist, to Steele, to Frozenfire, and there were even a few good supervillains, like Credenza and Grey Phantom, but they weren’t ready for constant kaiju...
“I need to call a full meeting of parliament, and I’m sure Iliandra of the Empire is vying to get the portal close, so I’ll start with talking to her…”
And there was too much work to do this as a human.
Emilia’s voice trailed off.
Her body began to slow down as her mind and her True Self began to rev up, most of her consciousness returning to her computer systems growing all throughout all of Memphi. She began coordinating, directly, ten thousand small and large tasks all at the same time, as her body continued to get dressed, to go through her morning routine.
An hour later Emilia blinked, her consciousness returning to herself as much as she desired, which was ‘mostly’. She chuckled as she walked to the hovercar, all silver and with green hoverlights. Today was going to be full of wonderful complications.
She was going to get that portal for Memphi.
Her phone started to flicker with words, her True Self already raking in the communications she had seeded throughout the whole world, to begin to organize everything. Other AIs out there were already combating her desires, because other cities wanted this Twin City thing happening, too. But Emilia was good at this.
Aluatha was sending a representative in a few hours; Iliandra, which meant they were serious about working with Memphi to get this settlement near the Aluatha Empire.
Citadel Freyala and Hearthswell were going to send representatives later; Justicar, the Holy Mother’s own son, and also some Inquisitor Lola, who was training Mark right now.
Crystal Tower was going to do a readiness check; Wandering Sage would be ‘assaulting’ the city with a storm for a show sometime in the next few weeks.
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The complaints were already coming in about the threat of dragons rejoining society.
But, honestly, someone, somewhere, was going to bite the blade on this particular Pandora’s Box, to take the chance, to reap the biggest rewards this world had seen in a long time. There were dangers, yes. Dragons were damned dangerous and incredibly needy, and inviting one into your nation invariably ended up with that dragon taking over control of that nation. But dragons were in charge in Daihoon for the last 5000 years, before the Reveal, because dragons were powerful. Having dragons on either side of the possible portal would negate the need for several full-time kaiju teams.
If Addavein showed up and he was amenable, that was one side of the portal secured, all on his own.
Emilia lifted off in her hovercar with dreams of a United City States of America dancing in the lights all around her. She didn’t want to rule the continent, so she would stick to Memphi, but she’d find someone to eventually become another ‘president’, like they used to have, in the Old World.
And they would have trade all across the UCSA! And people could move freely! And so much more!
“Like how Mom and Dad used to talk. Unbroken highways from one coast to the other. No city walls. Camping under the stars, unprotected.” She smiled. “No monsters at all.”
Emilia fondly recalled the words of a kid that she would be meeting today, that she had just finished fully investigating. The kid was a hothead, but he had his heart in the right place.
In the lights of the city, in the small whirs of fans cooling servers in rooms here and there, and in the background noise of processes that not many hear, the city whispered, “ ‘Death to all monsters’.”
- - - -
Iliandra Snowstepper strode through the Grand Hall of Domal’Takela, the crystal spikes jutting from the ceiling and the chandeliers all briefly reflecting her image in their dark blue depths. And then her image faded. The crystal golems didn’t come alive. The stone walls didn’t turn to liquid, to try to drown her. The fires in the bright gold flames did not try to burn her alive. She had clearance to be here.
But then again, so did everyone these days. This place was filled with tourists, of all things. But it had been filled with tourists ever since Iliandra had started working here 20 years ago, so this was nothing new for her.
The Caretakers of Domal’Takela could have removed the defenses of the Grand Hall ages ago to make this whole place more safe for tourists, but they had not. All of these dangerous magics were historically significant magics, and some of the best self-sustaining magics around. And they were pretty.
People took pictures. Lots of people took lots of pictures.
Iliandra passed a tour group going the other way and wondered if they truly knew the danger they walked through in this place. Some of them must have. Some of them looked to her, walking down the hall with her bright blue robes on. From the widening of their eyes, some of them knew the significance of her robes—
“Oh!” exclaimed a tour guide, pointing upward at a part of the walls, instantly drawing all attention back to the guide, and then the wall. “There’s a reordering over there, on that wall, guests! Up there right there! Do you see it?” The tour guide pointed to a section of the wall where the stone was less than solid, where the wall flowed out of position, and then back into position, like the wall was made of water and something swam inside. “That’s where the leviathan soul is reordering the stone and cleaning away dust. Perhaps a spider built a nest way up there! The whole of Domal’Takela is cleaned by that sort of magic. And over there, the flames are gold because of the captured soul of the dragon…”
Iliandra moved on, through a side door in the Grand Hall, labeled ‘private’.
A wall of gold fire held in the middle of the path and Iliandra walked right through the flames, untouched.
She emerged in the governing side of Domal’Takela, where guests were not permitted. This place was crowded anyway, and if a guest wanted to get in, they probably could. Iliandra glanced into offices where politicians spoke with nobles and mages, their positions denoted by the wearer’s choice of a professional suit, or dress shirt and pants, or robes, like Iliandra’s. Some people didn’t stick to the dress code, of course, but most people did in these sorts of situations.
Some guys carrying a ladder walked the other way.
Iliandra marched right up to the Office of the Provisioner, her march drawing the attention of Provisioner Olden’s guard out front, but the guard simply bowed. They knew her.
Iliandra knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Iliandra walked inside.
Provisioner Radian Olden was an older-looking man who was much older than he appeared, though right now he looked quite old. He was hunched over a keyboard, looking at a screen, his dark black robes bunched up around his elbows as he poked and prodded at the keyboard. But then he saw Iliandra. He happily abandoned whatever he was doing and smiled.
“Iliandra, my dear! What can I do for you?”
Iliandra shut the door and sat down across from Radian, saying, “We have a chance to secure a Man-made Manipulator to make a Hearthswell-empowered twin city with Memphi, on Earth. I have already decided that this is the best prospect for Aluatha, and I have a few other people on board. Second Princess’s office has cleared this idea. Now I am here to include Provisions in this action, before I go and see Mayor Ramirez of Memphi in about five hours.”
Radian’s full attention was on Iliandra the very second she mentioned the Manipulator. His focus was the weight of the sky. With a deceptively calm voice, he asked, “It’s progressed that far?” He didn’t need an answer; he already knew enough. Other, real questions followed, “Has Church Freyala and Hearthswell made a decision on the general for the expansion? What is the plan for dealing with the dragon cultists who want Addavein to open the gates to further dragon overlords?”
They could have spoken for hours upon hours about plans and the directions of any of those plans. But Radian cut to the heart of the biggest controversy; the return of the dragons to humanity. In particular, there was Addavein. That dragon would prove either a blessing, or a curse. Some people had their heads in shadows, unwilling to see what was coming down the tunnels, that the dragons were returning to humanity for good or for ill. They wanted to pretend that the dragons were never going to return. But dragons continued to be born, and they continued to want things that humanity could give them.
Iliandra and Radian both recognized the inevitability of draconic return.
That return would start with Addavein.
But before all of that came to pass, there was the matter of making the city in the first place.
Iliandra said, “The Valen Family has been named as primary organizer. They were former cultists, but they have been a devout enemy of dragonkind ever since Gedahowla the Bright was murdered by her dragon coven in the Reveal. A hundred years ago they had a simple relationship with Addashield, in that they sometimes requested work from him, and he sometimes did that work, but when Gedahowla was murdered, they worked with Addashield to take revenge on her killers. I would not call them partners with Addashield, for they always kept their distance, but perhaps time will tell us otherwise. Addashield’s history is still unfolding.
“The Valen Family is still getting the contract.
“I have spoken with Aurora Valen, who they are championing to be the General of the new settlement, and she has told me that she would sooner die than see a tyrant dragon rise to any power at all, and she’s killed hundreds of their kind. But she also works with dragons. I believe that leaving those choices up to her would be a prudent use of Crytalis’s and the Aluatha Empire’s time, for Aurora is fully aware what will happen if a dragon gets its claws into humanity, instead of the other way around.
“But to better monitor the settlement, I will be switching out some ambassadorial duties with some understudies and become, myself, the primary Ambassador of Aluatha to the new city,” Iliandra said, “That switch got cleared with Second Princess Walaria right before I came here, too. And now, I need the assurances of provisions.”
Radian nodded, taking that all in, and then he leaned back, the weight of the room lightening.
And then he said, “If you’re taking over as ambassador to the new settlement then I have no problem authorizing a dispensation. Aurora Valen is a good choice, too. Include me in the list of recipients you’re updating on your progress. Do we have a timetable?”
“Three months to start, at the earliest, but we’ll go fast with that Man-made Manipulator boy.”
“I’ve seen his little channel...” Radian grinned. “But ‘we’, Iliandra? Already throwing your lot in with the new blood, that much?” He was acting like he was asking for a joke, but Iliandra did not joke about these sorts of things.
Iliandra solidly said, “I am. I believe in Aurora and the Valen family, and I believe in our ties to Memphi and in Mayor Ramirez. Were it for those powers alone, we could make a settlement work, but this will be a portal settlement, and Aluatha has been wanting one of those for ages, ever since Tokyo proved it was possible. We would have had one, if we weren’t so fractious, though I know the cultists will remain a problem. Many different problems of Addavein will be mitigated by our legal stances against dragons… But a dragon city is going to happen, and if we make it a portal city, then perhaps their greed will draw them into being like Gedahowla the Bright, and Darvonika the Obsidian, and not like Bloodmaw at all.”
Radian seemed satisfied. “I heard the dragon apologized to his brother for summoning him across the Two Worlds.”
For a moment, Iliandra felt lighter than air. Disbelief warred with joy, and fought against the fact that Radian never spread untrue rumors. A half second after hearing Radian’s words, Iliandra still didn’t believe them.
Iliandra settled, and said, “If I had heard that from other people, I would call them a liar and a cultist. Dragons do not... apologize. This is… dangerous information.”
And now Iliandra was concerned for entirely new reasons. She had heard that Addavein vanished off to hide, to sleep, but she had not heard anything about an apology. An overtaxed dragon usually turned violent, not apologetic. Addashield had always been way too cunning, though. Addavein had inherited that, for sure.
Radian’s eyes were solid as he said, “That’s why it’s not been spread around. It would embolden the cultists. Tell who you need to tell, but keep it quiet.”
Iliandra asked the big question, “Is he Addashield?”
Radian breathed in, shook his head, and said, “I don’t know.”