The Green Hunter’s eyes widened appreciably. “That… must be an incredible view,” he said.
“It is. There is no sky or atmosphere to interfere with looking at the stars. One can see the patterns of winds and clouds like dust swirling atop water for the whole world. The lands and oceans are laid out before you like living paintings, and suddenly, you feel very, very small and alone, sitting up there in the void with nothing about you, realizing how vast the planet is… and conversely, how very small it is compared to the emptiness about you.”
He grimaced slightly, but his eyes were hungry. “If you were to make a map of such a vista, I would be grateful to receive a copy of it,” he told me.
“I will make it so, Elder Oswald.”
“I have been… dealing with the assassins, as you offered before. Some of my Aun associates have been helping with disposal of some of their agents, or at least their exposure.”
“There were four such persons either gone missing or arrested for treason within the last seven days. Not a good look when heroes were finally purging Tou-Tou.”
“I see you were paying attention. The three training camps that I know of, which should be all of them, may be a tougher nut to crack… and it is likely the senior leadership, at least, has been offered the undead revival paradigm, although I don’t know if it involves becoming undead themselves.”
“Not in the Empyrean Tradition, no. A specific magic ritual is required for that kind of ‘immortality’ to occur. Sacrificing another, willingly or not, is part of that, Blood Magic of the darkest sort, even if they agree to it,” I informed him. “I will note that Nuhmudira also indulged in one of those rituals for her own benefit, convincing her Zharalim to sacrifice themselves for her.”
Just a spark in his green eyes at her name, but the loathing was still there, after all this time. “Yes. That was why they imprisoned her, instead of killing her and allowing her to be merely reborn again. There was none of this vivus to keep the dead, dead, and I don’t know if even I would have been able to do so.”
“Likely not. She was not afraid of you, by all the tales told of her, and your main threat is killing people so they could not revivify at the Deathstones. That means she had alternate methods you couldn’t counter.”
He took a deep breath, nodding slowly. “As I expected of the witch. I do have to ask, however: Briggs was interested when you said you knew of the Magical Rogue, and admitted he did not remember a lot about it. You inferred that you did, and were willing to share that knowledge in exchange for my help.”
“Master Oswald, I am fully aware of exactly how crucial this knowledge is for you,” I replied calmly, watching his lips thin. “Briggs has doubtless explained the concepts of Primary and Secondary Class to you, and you are locked into the Magical Rogue in the Matrix system. You cannot spec out, you cannot retrain, there are no temples which can remake your decisions. Your choices, such as they are, are cut in stone for all purposes, so you need to be careful and wise with your future choices, eking the maximum benefit from every choice you forge ahead, even as you attempt to cover the gaps with more Secondary Classes.
“I have what you seek. In return for it, I will ask for something of similar value to you. As you value your future and what it may hold for you, a man who by all accounts will walk the road of the Eternal one day on his own merits, so you value your past and the knowledge and skills you have attained there.
“Share your knowledge and skills as I share the road to your future, unstinting and open, lifting up others to follow behind the road you will be blazing for them, and we will have an agreement.”
He lifted an eyebrow at me. “Unlimited sharing of information, Magos? Do you know the value of some of the secrets I hold?” he asked wryly.
“Master Oswald, you do not have the slightest knowledge of some of the secrets Princess Kristie, Briggs, and I hold. In the face of your secular knowledge of unpleasant truths and sordid personal affairs, ours only grow in value. The value of yours diminish by the day, while ours become ever more valuable. Your secrets will fade into the dustbins of history, uncared and unmourned, while ours are paving the road to the future, for good or ill.
“You can stumble along in the dark and get lucky, or you can trust, share, and draw from teachers as they draw from you.
“It is true that in time, our secrets will get out, and you need only bide your time and hold onto your own. Perhaps you will go wide and Deep enough to maintain your advantage and edge over others if you do.
“Or perhaps you will lose that edge to others who are sharing, and you will simply be among them, with a Primary Class considered below average in the greater world, watching them surpass you with their greater capabilities.
“Tell me, Master Oswald, how important are your secrets, which could likely vanish right now and the whole world would not care or miss them, versus ours, which are going to change everything?”
He looked at me with intense green eyes, and I looked back with eyes flecked silver, unnatural and likewise intent. I might not have had a Pact with Heaven, but I was still wielding its energies, and some residual Sign had passed through. I wasn’t Heavenbound, but my eyes were still a hue not found in mortals.
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At last he smiled ruefully and shook his head. “You have incredible focus, young Magos. Briggs said that if you are truly a Magos, you are one of the most dangerous beings alive on this island, and to treat you accordingly.”
“He is correct. I am not a paramount, it is very true, but that is not where my focus lies, and as far as we can tell, the steps with augmentation and Luminance that you and your generation took are not something we can use… but then, we know something you do not, and Briggs did not have the ability to Assay and look at.”
“And that is?”
“Everything that augmentations and Luminance gave you, you could earn on your own, and did not need outside help to gain.” He stared at me as I inclined my head. “Within the Matrix system, it’s all there… except your side is incomplete, and the full benefits are in the Matrix system.”
He looked at me, and slowly shook his head. “I do not want to believe you, but I do. From the moment I saw that there were undead and Empyreans with Levels beyond what we were allowed to obtain, I knew there was more, and I found something. You call it the Magical Rogue Class, but it was the ability to use skills and powers that we never had back on Ispar. I always wondered if there were more.
“I stumbled across Briggs, saw the way he fought, and I knew he wasn’t using the Isparian system. He was barely level one hundred, and he fought more devastatingly than any paramount I was aware of, and was far, far stronger than any of them were even at our height.
“Very well, lass. You say your knowledge of the system is more complete than that of Briggs?”
I held up a finger. “His and Kris’ knowledge of the Forsaken side of the system is more complete than mine, because I am not Forsaken, I am Powered.” My finger lowered to point at him. “You… are Powered.” My finger slowly executed most of a circle to include the room. “Every Isparian, Tumerok, and Lugian here… is Powered. As are even the gurog.”
“And so what you know is more valuable to me than what he knows.” He sighed again, knowing he was being outmaneuvered. “Very well. My services as a teacher and mentor will be available to all who seek what I have to teach them, and I will pass on all that I know to a younger generation. What secrets I have… I will make them available for you to draw on as needed, all in exchange for unfettered access to this new system of magic you know so much better than do I.”
“I will accept your words in good faith, Elder Oswald,” I nodded firmly. I reached back with Minor TK and pulled a spiral-bound notebook nearly an inch thick out of my Masspack and presented it to him, pushing it across the table. “Treat the Rune on the cover with your blood.”
He eyed me, then reached into his sleeve, and came out with a finger dripping scarlet. He swathed it across the Rune carved into the leather cover, and there was the faintest swirl of scarlet sinking into the book.
“Only you can read that now. Go ahead,” I waved at him.
He picked it up, marveling at the construction of the wire binding and holes through every page holding it together, instead of thread and glue. Slowly he opened it up, blinked once at the script therein, and leaned forward in open interest.
Slowly, then with greater speed, he began to thumb through the pages, and page after page of script and words and writing going past, divided by wooden chapter dividers into sections for him.
He wasn’t reading it, of course, but when he finished thumbing the pages past, the expression on his face showed that he knew there was a LOT of information there.
“There is… an inordinate amount of information on spells and spell effects,” he said after a long moment. Deft hands found one of the dividers, opened it up, and the Spells section was sprawled before him, obvious to me as I’d made the book. I could Visual File exactly what he was seeing, although the words were now gibberish, even to me.
“Yes. The great power of a Magical Rogue is their ability to trick the universe into granting them spells. Some might call it finding rules and laws and truths others just can’t see, but it doesn’t matter how you understand them, only that you do.
“But if you don’t know what tricks to ask for, well, it’s hard to do the job right. There are rules you must follow in what you can pick, how many you can pick, and how often you can use them.
“So, a Magical Rogue, if he wants to plan his advance, should know what tricks he wants to learn.
“Life may shit upon you, and demand that you learn other things because life is like that, but even then, knowing what tricks can potentially be yours is very important.
“Over half your choices have probably been taken from you already, if you’ve been diligent about things. If you’ve not been diligent, that is actually fortunate, as now you can go learn more things properly, and set yourself up more properly.
“So, a Magical Rogue might find their niche out of necessity and luck, but they expound upon it with skill and foresight, like anyone else.
“Many of the other pages are about the abilities of the other Classes, and you will likely want to kick yourself when you realize how many of the abilities that you’ve chosen are available through alternate and more useful methodologies, like using Casting… but they were not available to you then, and you are on the road you are on, so take it to the end and make it as mighty and dangerous as you can.
“In the end, Karma is fair. Magical Rogues advance faster than pure Casters, even Sorcerers, because they are far more limited in the power they can attain, so they gain in height what they lack in breadth. You will improve faster than someone like myself because of your choices, and should be able to maintain that lead if you try.”
“I… see.” And he likely did, closing the book and weighing it in his hands. “This will take me some time to ponder, I would think.”
“Have some paper and ink available. If you need advice, I know builds and paths that can be taken, some of which I noted towards the end, depending on how you want your own power to advance.” I flicked a Flashlight out of my Masspack and handed it to him. “A cheap trade good.”