“But obviously he’s not dead, or all this Elemental stuff would have settled down, and the Harbinger would have been sent back to where it came from.”
“Imprisoned and cheerfully tortured for presumptuousness as his Contingencies keep him alive.”
“You’re welcome to go running over there and find out for yourself. I’ll note there are a LOT more Elementals, they seem bigger, and they are deployed in a guard formation.”
“Had noticed that. You going to be okay here?”
“We’re right on the edge of the repulsive field for the Outer Circle. It’s like a Protection from Evil running at IX. I’ll be fine, they can’t target or even acknowledge I’m in here as long as it’s being powered up.” I made a go-hither gesture. “Highness, go meet the man who would be king.”
She snorted at me, but didn’t hesitate to bounce smartly to her feet and glide forward with the confidence of the supremely deadly.
“And don’t forget post-Eternal Elementals can have access to Primal energies.”
She paused in her advance towards the Fire Essence, glancing back at me, and then wagged a finger back at me in reproof for the late warning.
Really, she should have known.
---
Princess Kristie was still quite calm as she glided towards the Fire Essence.
Primal Flames, huh?, she mused. She was completely immune to heat and fire damage of normal sorts, but Primal flames transcended immunity to such, and could burn things immune to fire without any problem at all. Standard was 50% of the damage was effectively ‘typeless’, and resistance and immunities wouldn’t really apply.
Her half-exhausted bondmage behind her could do that with Primal, Sacred, and Arcane energies, literally over 100% typeless and thus able to burn gods, Elementals, and demons that thought themselves immune to flames with no difficulty. It was something the local mages with their Protection spells would not be happy to find out if push came to shove.
She hopped over the outer Thaumaturgic Circle, really a double Circle filled with arcane energies, Runes of various sorts filling out the space in the middle. It wasn’t a Fivefold Circle like Ryin had used down south for her Commune with Nature attempt, but it was powered at IX at least, so there was no chance of anything below an Elemental Monolith being able to break it, and they hadn’t seen one of those around here.
The four surrounding Circles containing the Essences didn’t quite touch, but there were unseen energies playing between them which constituted an unseen conduit she didn’t want to risk disrupting with her Null… and she totally could. Her Null slid through the currents like a bubble of nothing moving through water, effectively not there, and she could largely ignore the pressure the mana created as inconsequential, the flows devoted to other purposes and not trying to enter and come after her.
The Essence could see her, she was sure of it. No eyes, had 360 awareness. However, her lack of magical Aura would lead it to think she was a mundane creature, possessed of no power.
Between one step and the next, she broke into Lightning Across the Hill.
Normally this was something that required chi to execute, but instead she burned Stamina on the Enduring Road, doing with ki and physical power what chi made inconsequential.
It was the least of the Lightning Charges, basically turning a charge into a near-instant movement that avoided all obstructions and terrain to deliver the warrior to their target.
Or past them, as the case was here.
The blast of flames from the Essence of fire exploded harmlessly behind her, filling the Circle at her heels as she stepped into the inner Circle, venting momentum with her Cloudstepping Sandals Tats, not even skidding at all as she resumed her normal pace.
Agitated Elemental energies crackled and seethed all around as the other Essences reacted to her sudden presence in the inner Circle, doubtless completely wondering how she had managed to get in there without any use of true magic. The Golden glitters at her heels misted away to nothing, and she strode towards the plume in the very center of the circle where floated the edgelord in a quiet meditative pose.
“Good evening!” she called out cheerfully. “Candeth Martine, I presume?”
There was a stirring in the plume, and slowly the too-white mask/helm turned in her direction. She could almost hear him blink, assuring himself that she was there visually. She could also feel his senses trying to reach out to her and instead running into her Null.
Magically, she looked like an empty spot in space, nothing there at all.
“Hello? Hyem got your tongue?” she asked more loudly, as he seemed to be staring at her. “Pull the magic senses back, old man. You’re not going to see me with them.”
“Are… you real?” rasped a voice that hadn’t seen use in some time, while his legs lowered and he turned himself to face her, still levitating within that plume of mixed energies.
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“If you’re Candeth Martine, I am. If you’re some poser with horrible fashion sense, no, I’m not, and I’ll just go.”
His hands twitched, processing the fact she’d just politely told him he had no sense of fashion.
“Have a care, girl,” he finally responded, equal parts irritation, amusement, and some confusion in his voice. “I am indeed Candeth Martiine, and I am not someone to offend!”
“Oh, good. I am Imperial Princess Kristie Rantha, second daughter of Emperor Briggs of Ispar, Warlord of the South personally appointed by King Borelean and vanguard of the Isparian return to Dereth. A pleasure to meet you, although I have to say, your welcoming committee made it quite the slog to get up here. Nice bit of light exercise, however.”
He stared at her again, processing what she said, probably still trying to reconcile her absolute not-thereness in magic with her visual appearance. “So… the Isparians have finally come off of the Vesayans, have they?” he finally murmured, and then his head rode in a jerk. “Imperial Princess?” he repeated. “Of Ispar? You come from Ispar?!” he gasped.
“Probably the last person to do so. The Portals coming from there are being shut down en masse by my folks, who don’t like other planets coming in and snatching up their citizens willy-nilly. If you’ll take a look out there, you can see my companion resting up outside your little Circle here.” She turned to wave back at Ryin, who waved back from out there, somewhat visible in the night with Crown glowing gently back there.
She was sure he could make out Ryin, even if only because her Wards blocked all the details, because he seemed to relax somewhat. “Are the two of you the only ones here?” Marine asked slowly, looking back and forth between them. “That seems… unlikely?”
“Aye, just the two of us. Actually, we were going to investigate Gaerlan’s prison, when we decided to take a detour here based on something Ryin saw. I guess we saved ourselves a trip further north, if Gaerlan is actually over in the pile of rocks to the north of us.” She tossed a thumb at the lit-up remains of Asheron’s Castle a good five miles away.
“He is!” The satisfaction in Martine’s voice was unmistakable. “As is the Harbinger he attempted to bring into Dereth once again, the fool! He had no idea I was released and able to reform myself after his precious prison nexus was disrupted and he was freed. Attempting the same madness as before…” The disdain in his voice and dismissive gesture was unfeigned.
“Looks like you rather messed up his nefarious plots and schemes, somewhat more successfully than last time,” Kris noted professionally. “However, I think the requirement that you have to stay here to keep things under control was a bit of an oversight on your part?”
The man in the ivory mask bristled somewhat, then relaxed, clearly still not knowing exactly what to make of her. “It was unexpected, yes. If you had more adventurers with you, I would ask you if you could make your way to the Castle and kill Gaerlan, then dismiss the Harbinger…”
“That is rather assuming the rest of Dereth wouldn’t like to see you sitting in there doing nothing and leaving them be,” Kris noted cynically. “You didn’t make a really good impression the first time around, Lord Martine, and transforming Isparians into your Simulacra was not a triumph of magic, it was a horror of it.”
“What?!” he blurted out in defensive disbelief. “I made them powerful! Unaging! Immortal!”
“You made them slaves to whatever you are using for a Singularity and Quiddity,” she corrected him coldly. “They were and are nothing but pawns to you, bound by your wills and desires since you dominate their collective. Of the ones inside your Retreat, only the ones you allowed more free will did not leap to embrace vivus and free their spirits of the enslavement you thought was ascension.”
“You… freed them?” The shock in the rough voice was genuine. “They are free of the Quiddity… yes, I can feel it now. Only Hibdin and Ambrosia remain there…” he trailed off.
“They are probably incapable of defying your will and even asking to be released by you, but if you have others you have… converted, I’m pretty sure that exactly none of them want to remain your slaves, trapped in those shells and bound to your Quiddity. The fact people want to escape the fate, and the fact you might be able to do it against their will, makes that a horrifying power and terrible fate, Candeth Martine, not an upgrade!”
“Severing one from a Quiddity is almost impossible. How did you do it?” he asked after a low and thoughtful moment.
She flicked out Quaver, and lit up the vivic fire on her Sword.
Whiteness poofed out for twenty feet around her. Alarmed, she sheathed her Blade even faster than it was drawn, and even before Ryin’s “PUT THAT AWAY!” Magevoice was echoing in her ears.
The fire had actually partly eaten into the plume of Elemental energies around Martine, making him flinch in alarm!
“Vivic fire,” Kristie said, keeping her voice razor-calm and expression unsurprised. “The Fires of Life and the Mortal Realm. They devour energies not native to the mortal plane, and that includes the quasipsionic quantum flows wielded by the virindi, as well as these more Primal Elemental energies around us.” Kris paused, looking around slowly. “I imagine that if I kept my Blade out, the first Wisp would soon spawn from the agitation of the Land, and I would start a cascade of them that would sweep over this entire island in writhing tide of rejected corruption by the Land, killing everything upon it.” Her gaze settled back on him, as well. “It would also consume the energies tying you to your Singularity, and you would perish as any other human would, were I to slay your physical form, Candeth Martine.”
The dark holes in his mask and glitters of blue-purple fire in his eyes regarded her with more intensity and focus than they had a moment before. “An… extraordinary discovery,” he admitted after a long moment of thought. “Do you intend to ply it against me?”
“You have done nothing that I know of that would demand I do so at this time. I do know that if you start converting more living Isparians to slaved simulacra, I will hunt you down and kill you forever. If you think your power entitles you to reign over all Isparians… given the lack of wisdom and control you’ve displayed in the path, and the way the alien energies you wield have forced you to adapt, it will probably be time to end you, as well.
“And before you ask, no, I am not the only one who knows of the vivic fire. It is widely spread among the warriors of the Freehold forces, and pretty much every paramount still alive. It is exactly as dangerous to Summons, virindi, shades, and the undead as it is to you.”
He considered that in silence for a moment. “Then it has made you some powerful enemies very quickly, Your Highness,” he said respectfully.