With the arrival of Lil, and filling him in on my plan, there’s only a momentary frown upon his face before he decides to be his usual, supportive, upbeat self. Lil quips, “Gotta be Reggie thinking of how to science out new magic, even if it means sciencing out old magic first. That’s my pal for ya!”
I draw a shuddering breath while smiling at my best bud. We hug for a long moment, and I don’t have the heart to tell him just yet that I’ll be marrying his mother sometime in the next few day—. Oops.
Lil’s eyes flash wide as his jaw drops in shock. His gaze flashes towards his mother for confirmation, and of course Kinzul offers her regal, barely noticeable head-tilt of affirmation. Lil suddenly grumps, “But I was gonna be an uncle! What’s the kid going to even be? They’re my niece or nephew ‘cause you’re my Shellcracker sibling pal, but they’re my sibling because you’re gonna be my parent! You’re gonna break my brain!”
I feel horrible as I snort a laugh and several of the gathered let out minor chuckles as well. Trying to comfort Lil, I hazard, “Well, uh, I mean, you can be both maybe? We’re already a weird as hell bunch of four month old bodies with previous short lives and digital construct stuff. Who says we have to play by the normal rules?”
Giggling, Lil agrees, “Definitely sounds like you pal. Who needs rules when you’re Reggie Shellcracker? Magic rules? Nah. Skill system rules? Nah. Family relationship naming convention dynamics? Let’s break that too!”
With Lil taking it so jovially, there’s a fairly hearty round of laughter. We head out towards Mount Verdimenn, so that I can begin several stages of several plans. I’ll need to stop by the prison, I absolutely need to reassure Atter and Shiz, and try to find a way to help them evacuate Atter’s people, and their, um, priority secret that shan’t be named.
We’re going to need more shops. I have to finish the smartphone project, find the setup that it’ll be able to download catalogs from, and pray that someone’s shop has copies of Sugar’s magical tools. We have to do that before something happens to a relatively low-durability construction. It’s got enhanced durability from Sugar and Spice’s enchanted crafting, and being digital in nature, but it’s still just wood. Spice and I were working on the idea of stone storefronts at one point, and I might be able to use retrocognition to recall some of his blueprints and designs. Grr, so much to do, so little time!
As we’re passing within psychic range of the library, Nala calls out to our group, well, to me, telepathically, excitedly, offering, “Schism? Friend Reggie? I think perhaps I’ve found the highest relevancy score of the moment, from Yisstendahl’s hoard, and I think you’re going to delight in this.”
My eyes flash wide with comprehension. Yisstendahl’s spellbook, or one of them. It has the meteor spell in it. That might very well be the offensive tool I need. Wait, wait, hold on, don’t get ahead of yourself. He may have had multiple spellbooks, and it might not be the one that contains the meteor. Still, if Nala says its relevancy score is the highest yet, I absolutely need to snag it as fast as possible. Technically, according to Kinzul, all his books belong to me anyway, so I should probably be sorting them all myself, but Nala has been treating me amazingly well by aiding my analysis, sorting, identification, categorization and organization efforts.
Calling back to Curator, my friend, I elate, “Nala, that’s amazing news! I— was about to do something that couldn’t be undone. I still may, but if it’s at all near what I think it is, there’s a tiny chance I won’t have to. I can’t thank you enough for your ever-ongoing relevancy sorting efforts Nala. I’m sorry I haven’t been by the library to help in a few—.”
There’s a chuckle from Nala as she replies, “Schism, friend Reggie. You were literally in the field of battle for over a day, and I’ve gleaned enough from your mind over the period you’d been near or in the library to understand the dangers you’d faced. I don’t begrudge you me doing my duties without your aid, as you do, or recover from, yours.”
Ah! Why do all the people in my life have to be so amazing?! I can’t even thank Nala the way I’d thank anyone else. Oh, well that’s familiar. A few hours back, Farzee’d been feeling the same way about me. The genuine remorse she’d shown when she—. She endeared herself to me by being sincere, and scared, and grateful, and apologetic. Huff. I’ll see what I can do for Nal—.
Responding to my train of thought, Nala comments, “You’ve already doubled my ability to Curate by gifting me a powerful magical artifact, and given me access to a hobby that might very well provide minor advantages for the Order. Friend Reggie. You do do enough. Take heart. You’d lightened an unbearable load that no one else in the universe could share. You’d gifted me time, magic, equipment, and for a cranky, antisocial sort like myself, friendship. Relax friend. Come, snag the rewards of *your* efforts.”
Argh, I wanna hug that grumpy librarian so bad! She’s just making it worse! Hah, oh well. I’m truly grateful to her, and for her. I know the best people, the absolute best. My family is amazing. Our family. The Order of the Onyx Dawn. Drawing a deep breath through my nose, I continue T K Surfing towards the library, with Prinrin still clinging to me, snuggling me for warmth.
Wait, did I ever even bother to—. I’m still wearing nothing but my ragged traveler’s cloak, my ever-breathing neckchain, and my belt with its pouches and sheathes. I can sense the devious humor alighting Prinrin’s emotional wavelength as she senses the implications of having been glommed onto me for this continued period. I *feel* the smirk that crosses her face where it’s buried into my upper right pectoral region as she shakes her head slightly while minorly bouncing in laughter, delight, and mirth.
Deviant little old lady indeed. And I couldn’t even love her more for it. Already too special a place in my heart, nowhere else to go for her antics. I sigh a bit wistfully, trying not to think of all the other affections we won’t, and can’t share, since we’re already such an affectionate pair of friends. My face hurts from smiling too much as we finish T K Surfing back to the library, and I’m shaking my head at myself the whole time, chuckling at my own brain.
I half wish this war would slow down a bit, so I could catch my bearings, get my projects running, and actually spend more time learning history from Nala, and learn more about what I’m up against. I could have been slightly better prepared against the ShizTinth stronghold for sure. We have to press the advantage from the momentum of our initial onslaughts to buy ourselves time though, to keep them from being able to even reach us to retaliate as we clear our borders, or to stop them from developing or utilizing anything unexpected. Anyway Reggie, focus up.
Also Reggie, ignore the adorable woman clinging to you. Well it’s going to be harder now that you reminded me of her again! Snrk. Fractured psyche bit again? Yeah. We’re a bit messed up in the head aren’t we? Yeah. She really is adorable though isn’t she? Yeah. It’s really nice, just enjoying her closeness, with no pressure, and clear boundaries. I smile warmly down towards Prinrin whose own smile I can feel against the top of my chest near my shoulder.
Floating into the entrance to the library, I crank up my aura vision spell for the moment as Nala arrives with more than a single tome. One of them, of course, is bound in stained glass, and another in copper plates. There has to be something about Rayileklia where that is somehow able to help bind magic to a tome or something.
Nala comments, “Several of these, Yisstendahl must have used, long, long, long ago. There’s a charge about them, an energy that takes decades, maybe centuries to return. He’d likely jealously guarded them, to keep anyone else from gaining their same powers. There are more things from his hoard with relatively high relevancy scores, but I’ve prepared these for you based on my knowledge of your time constraints, based on considerations made by my Latent, and general application of knowledge of the war efforts. Also, these two sets of cards are apparently something near worth your time, I figured small enough to hand over now. That is to say, take these and get going, you’ve got work to do and so do I friend Reggie.”
I can’t help smiling at the brusqueness of Nala as she tries to hand me the books. I simply levitate them with my telekinetic grips, so she nods affirmatively, and retreats into the library. Oh, wait, does Nala know how badly I need help with gemology and chemistry? Well, she does now. We’ll figure out what we can do later, later.
I snuggle and hug Prinrin a moment before nuzzling my face down atop her head, into her coppery spiky hairdo. Only a few moments though, because we’re back to it, floating down towards the prison with my most beloved people in all the worlds. Lil, Lu, Te, Kinzul, Illy, and Prinrin glommed onto me. Lu flashes Prinny an almost jealous look, because Prinrin’s tiny enough to be able to do this, and I raise an eyebrow towards Lu, wondering if she wants to snuggle while we float or walk.
Sensing the swarm of feelings that Luni uses to try to cover up her desire to be in Prinrin’s place, I float Lu to my left side with my third telekinetic grip, using it to create a T K Square under her feet. We lean our heads together while we float downwards, listening to Lil talk excitedly to Illy about Ixeyla. I sense the warmth and love radiating from Kinzul’s smile as she listens to her son’s affectionate, gleeful description of his time in which he said almost no words to Ixeyla whatsoever. Te tries to keep from smirking or being too harsh in teasing her “Lil Dragbutt,” about it.
Arriving in the prison, the quartet of individuals are indeed, not even locked up, and they’re playing cards with two volunteer Draconiacs, and by the stack of tidbits of minerals, seem to be winning against our locals. I can’t help smiling broadly and chuckling while shaking my head. I’m so, so, so very glad they accepted my offer of mercy. I can’t hide the tears that spring to my eyes, and Prinrin squeezes me all the tighter at sensing how touched I am.
Bowing politely, midair, I call out to them, “Ahliyui, Ahliyuri, I hope you’re being treated well. I hope you, well, over time, I want you to come to feel like you’re at home. Loud, Shiz, I want us to prepare to rescue those things precious to you, including your people, on the morrow, but I’m still not quite sure how to evacuate so many, safely and swiftly. Who has the portable hole?”
Illy blushes as Atter raises her hand, confirming, “The magic pocket? The blushing Acid there left it here for me to hold onto, seemed out of her mind with grief, saying you weren’t coming home, didn’t make it. Yet here you are, in all your glory. Literally.”
Now I can’t help blushing as Atter comments on my nudity, and there’s a fair round of chuckling. I try to explain and console them, “It was apparently a Damnation that’d snagged your less faithful followers. I was worried he was going to go after the six that were helping evacuate you home, so I had to do something about him. I took him for a ride down through the Worldstorm. Your face says you want to know which one. Um, his human form had dark brown wavy hair, and it had stern lines, some folds and creases in his brow and such, a fairly large nose by human standards.”
Atter whistles low and appreciatively, commenting, “Nonnam then. Yet here you are, and it’s plain as day you’re unharmed. Not a scratch anywhere on that strange little body of yours. More and more terrified while feeling more and more safe simultaneously Reggie. I know I made the right choice, but I was hoping Shiz here, and I, could get a look around? Learn something about how you’d sustain an extra thousand mouths. I—. I won’t put them somewhere they’re going to begin starving to death, and have to compete for food. I’d take your offer of exile to the Untamed Lands before that.”
Nodding, I respond, “That’s part of why I came here first. We’re heading to my project mountain, Mount Verdimenn. The more successful it is, the more we’ll expand its magics back here towards Mount Solace, and out into the foothills. If nothing else, I can tell you it would be impossible to starve as long as your people enjoy stew. I’ve got a cauldron that turns water into stew almost instantly. For some reason I named it Daghda’s Cauldron because it endle—.”
Shiz’s jaw drops, and Atter utters, “By The Platinum,” then notices Kinzul, and her eyes widen as she bows and apologizes, “Lady of the Order, I meant no disrespect.”
Kinzul offers an imperious head tilt as usual, waving off the, uh, curse or profanity I suppose. Before I can explain more, Atter mutters, “Artifacts, one of the four? Could it be Shizzy? Last I’d heard was the spear was the last one with known whereabouts, and even that was lost ages ago.”
I begin giggling, a bit nervously, which turns into an almost maniacal chuckle. Teuila starts giggling with me, having been in The Heart, with Jarrah Bettergrove and the Enochian Enclave. She knows Jarrah tried to identify things about me magically, and one of those things was a hint about four artifacts, one of which is Gae Buidhe. I try to warn her not to, but Teuila begins drawing a miniaturized Gae Buidhe out of one of her sheathes and starts extending it.
Te asks, “You mean like this spear?”
All of the dragons and Draconiacs are beginning to gasp and murmur, Atter mutters, “Next you’re going to tell me you’ve the ‘Stone In Two Parts’ and the Claiomh Solais.”
As the ring about my finger buzzes upon hearing what must be its name, the Starmetal Luckstone about Lil’s neck does the same. Similarly, my archsorc staff appears in my hand.
I think we’re all more than a bit stunned. We have four legendary, prophesied artifacts, that Jarrah thought I might be destined to wield? I mean, I kind of already do wield them, technically. Apparently.
Knowing the least about one of them, I ask, “Could someone please tell me about the ‘Stone In Two Parts’? Since, well, apparently this moss-covered stone ring and that Starmetal Luckstone think that that’s their name. I guess I don’t need to know much more about Claiomh Solais, though I’m not sure how the heck my Archsorc staff counts as a Sword of Light, but whatever. Also, my old mentor said I might be fated to wield the four, but I don’t know what sort of prophecy that was about, could anyone fill me in?”
Despite Kinzul being the picture of perfect poise and grace, I sense even her heart racing and the tiniest flickers of her brows raising and eyes widening. I want to reassure my wife-to-be that this doesn’t change anything, but I don’t know what Jarrah’s prophecy was about.
The first person to collect her wits is Ahliyui, so she offers up, “I for one, am so fuggin’ glad we surrendered brother. The stone supposedly, when shone on by the sun in just the right way after just the right circumstances, renews the wearer somehow. It supposedly only does this for a true leader, hero, king, something or other. I’m not sure exactly how. Supposedly the mate of the wielder of the four is meant to destroy the eldest evil alive in the lands. There’s also somethin’ about the wielder and heaven or the heavens, but doesn’t mention the mate for that part.”
Kinzul and I try to flash a surreptitious glance at each other. Kinzul is the one that has to defeat Terrorzin? What if I married Teuila? What if I gave the artifacts to Te and had her marry me? I sigh internally, knowing prophecies don’t exactly get tricked by silly little attempts like that. Wait, true leader, hero, king, can be renewed by the— I had no wounds. I have no wounds. I don’t remember exactly when, but when the sun started shining down, I think I got more and more sleepy, and noticed my actual injuries less and less.
I think “The Stone In Two Parts” might, possibly, maybe even topped off my dragonforce if it wasn’t from the Damnation. If I consider one ancient dragonforce, and the one thousand days it buys me, 100%, then I’m at 300%. I’d been considering Olashax and Vanathar’s together as 100%, which meant Tinth’s put me at 150%, either way, it’s 3000 days. Phew. Holy crap.
Mumbling, I confirm, “I wasn’t really injured except for the injury I took on as part of volunteering to siphon away Atter’s wound, but I, um, was healed when the uh, sun shined on my way home. Wait. The Sun shined on me, on my way home,” I glance towards Lil, Aliased Sun, Star of the Order of the Onyx dawn. Could Lil shining on me keep me alive? He’s the wielder of the other half of the “Stone In Two Parts.” There are still other prerequisites to be met, that are vague, that we don’t understand. There might even be prereqs like, “You’re not allowed to know that there are prereqs, or about the other stone, or this stone does nothing,” or something.
There’s a hell of a lot of stunnedness going on, and Prinrin almost slipped off of me as she’s taking things in. I grump, “Supposing, maybe, possibly, Jarrah was right, and that I’m fated to wield ‘the four’, we do have them and all, sure. Okay. But how the hell am I supposed to *wield* a giant cauldron?”
The humorousness of my query finally breaks the spell of everyone being stunned, as chuckles quickly feed into one another, becoming a full bout of laughter. There’s helpless shrugging from everyone gathered, but they continue laughing regardless. Prinrin once again almost tumbles from where she’s clutching onto me as she laughs heartily, so I set myself on the ground and keep my telekinetic grip holding her firmly to me.
I don’t want to tell anyone that I want nothing to do with Gae Buidhe, but it is a good tool, a powerful weapon. In a war of attrition, even scoring a few tiny, annoying cuts per battle, if it drives the foe to flee, will eventually wear them down. Even if I manage nicks that only loose a single drop of blood per minute, a thousand of those becomes a veritable shower of blood per minute. We have multiple Gae Buidhe, and I have multiple telekinetic grips. But strong foes could lash out, grab them, and just as easily end one of us. I’ll try to put that off as long as possible regardless.
Ahliyuri shakes his head and mutters, “Of all the—. Falling into the lap of legendary, prophesied heroes of—. Mercifully! I’d fight alongside that. After, after a month of imprisonment, a week, something, to earn trust.”
His sister, Ahliyui grunts, “You know very well that if you let my brother in harm’s way without me, I won’t take it very well, and that I was plenty willing to fight already.”
Shiz nods along, commenting, “I really only care about the one thing, you know it, if you get them here safely, I’d stand by their side or yours, whichever you prefer.”
Revealing their relationship, Atter adds, “Brother, you—. Thank you for accepting Schism’s mercy. I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye. Thank you for caring about *them*. Thank you Shizzy. I’m of a like mind Hero of the Onyx Dawn, Reggie, friend. I’ve no doubts you can sustain us now, please tell me when we can save *them* and my people. I’m yours to command.”
There’s a slight eyeroll, and mild grimace when Atter calls Shiz Shizzy, but an underlying smirk at the same time. Shiz bobs his head ever so slightly, nodding along with his sister. Holy crap. We didn’t just save them, but we converted them into wanting to be actual heroes? I—. My life is a chaotic mess. One moment, I’m reading smut with Prinny and Illy, after some heartwarming reunions, after a very rough day of a mission that nearly cost the two Thunderers their lives, the next we’re dealing with suddenly me being engaged to Kinzul, and the sad event that came after that. Now we might have made incredibly powerful allies?
Almost to teasingly cement my status in their minds, Kinzul comments, “Yes my love, my Schism, my spouse, tell us when and how we act to save such precious new family to come.”
The six who weren’t already privy to the information level their jaw-dropped gazes at me. Kinzul fibbed a bit. We haven’t gotten married yet. I try not to pout as I answer, “As much as I hate it, I need the night to try to finish some projects that can help with our home’s safety, and my power, and our sustainability, since I’m on limited time. I’d like to leave as early as possible on the morrow, probably in a pre-dawn hour, like when I’d awoken to storm the stronghold. I’m terribly, terribly afraid of what could happen to your people in the meantime Atter, but I don’t even really have a way to get them out safely yet. I’ll work on solutions, even if I have to pause the flow of time tomorrow morning to come up with them.”
Several of the assembled flub a non question, “You what.”
The flub causes everyone else to chuckle, including the other flubbers. Rubbing the back of my head, gazing around the room, I mumble, “Just, just one of my powers. It’s not as powerful as it used to b—.”
Shiz cackles while shaking his head in disbelief, roaring, “Not as powerful as it used to be! Stops time, and our Hero here used to be *more* powerful? How the hell am I even alive having fought you?”
Blushing further I try to explain, “I, erm, well first of all I wanted you alive, god that sounds cocky, sorry. Atter stuck up for you, so I wanted to try extra hard to get you to safely surrender. Secondly, when I stop time, I’m stopped along with it. Except in my brain. I can keep thinking, planning, reliving, picturing, drawing up details from memory, plotting them out. If I use it in battle, I can predict the next few moves my enemy is going to make, and often line myself up for a killing blow, or at least to be able to land an otherwise hard to land strike. I used to be able to travel in time, backwards, up to approximately two billion seconds or something like that. Far longer than my own lifespan I think. Only, nothing came back with me, except the logs of my journey in the now-changed timeline.”
Shiz can’t stop laughing and shaking his head. The twin Spellknights are both hissing at each other in draconic, but even I can tell the gist of it is something like, “Do not screw up and piss them off!” “You’re more likely to than me!” or such similar things. Loud, Atter, walks towards me and sets a hand on my shoulder, just above Prinrin’s face, and she looks me in the eyes while shaking her head in disbelief.
Atter mutters, “I fairly well believe that if you still had that power, that you’d travel back to rescue my people, if we get there, and they’re gone.”
I nod emphatically, agreeing, “Most definitely. I’m sorry I can’t do it on this planet.”
Several of the gathered question, “This planet?”
Grumbling, I try to change the topic, since I do really need to get working on things before resting. I offer, “Atter, did you want to join us to see the secret that makes the sustainability even more reliable? I’m not ready to trust everyone else in its presence. It’s, well, not exactly fragile, but it’s destroyable. I’m sorry you three.”
The twins hold their hands up in a placating manner, indicating no offense taken, or that they understand they’re still not quite in my earnestly trusted column. Honestly, if they willingly stay in the prison overnight, without leaving, without being locked up, that pretty much clinches my trust for them. Shiz wears a half smirk and nods approvingly, understandingly. Shiz and the twins are pretty close to each other in terms of whom I trust more, it’s hard to tell. Atter simply nods along at my offer, so we leave the two Spellknights, the other Thunderer, and the two volunteer guards, to go back to playing cards.
Telepathically, privately, though not so privately since my walls are down, Illy asks, “Should you be putting all your cards face up on the table like that?”
Giggling, I can’t help teasing Illy, “Who said that was anywhere near all my cards?”