With the appearance of the virindi, a fairly simple and straightforward infiltration had become more complex, and potentially much more deadly.
It also couldn’t be delayed, given what they were already doing to the civilians there. So, spinning up alternate scenarios became a rush, and ultimately we went with cheese, because cheese is what you go with when good practical solutions aren’t possible.
Since we couldn’t get an army closer because of the forces of the mines that might swarm out to engage them, there was only to excavate the escape tunnel starting ten miles away on the other side of an otherwise impassable section of the mountains, and extend it all the way to Linvak Tukal!
I brought my team there, Reduced in size so my Teleport could fit them all in, set my exit position up in cover as careful forces converged on the location to wait for any refugees there and get them out and away in time. I even Shaped out a cavern large enough to hold hundreds of lugians and supplies right under the nose of Gotrok scouts watching from the top of the mountain, alert to all the distracting movements of soldiers below moving east and west to no real purpose, but with great energy.
They’d learn of what happened at the first mine soon enough, but Linvak Tukal had to be cleared now!
---------
“Aye, ‘tis the great task o’ the loyal freedom fighter an’ rebel against tyranny t’ tolerate the sheer enormity of their task as we be looking on the stone an’ setting one foot in front o’ the other for miles an’ miles,” the Mick extolled sadly, earning chuckles from everyone behind him.
I was not just boring a tunnel under and through an entire mountain, hoping like Hell not to run into any secret Elemental Nodes, buried Empyrean Dungeons, or broken stone and chasms leading to some subterranean underkingdom that was going to mess with us. I also had to bore under the valley and then up to the level of the city without intruding on the complex mines and tunnels beneath it, for fear of alerting the virindi.
“You’re welcome to pace us up above as long as you stay alive,” Kris shot back promptly, stretching out lazily as she kept walking forward. The stone in front of us was receding at seventy feet every six seconds, forcing everyone to keep up at least a trot to keep the pace, startling a good number of them. Many instead opted for riding Disks I snapped up when it became clear it was going to be hard to keep the pace.
It also impressed them to silence when they realized just how long a tunnel I was making and how much stone I was Shaping out of our way.
The Mick took the retort with his skin as thick as normal. “An’ go up an’ down all them hills for no reason? I be not a raw recruit needing to get his arse in shape an’ his lungs t’ breathin’ properly, Highness,” he answered in an injured tone.
“Yes, yes, you’re exercising at all hours, I’ve heard,” she threw back at him, drawing a whole lot of stifled exclamations behind him.
“Them special chakra release techniques do require some practice,” he admitted with a scholarly air. “An’ ye know well that the introductory ranks be workin’ best in the wee hours, aye? Can’t be just flexin’ me greatness during the day only, aye?”
“Greatness, you’re calling it now?”
“Quoting, more like?” he corrected her sagely.
“If you make me listen to the two of you dancing around your amatory exploits, I’m going to drop you both into a pit, seal it tight, and see how long it takes you to chop your way out,” I said over my shoulder.
“Not the same pit, I should hope!” the Mick cried out quickly. “Me reputation would never take such accusations as would arise!”
“Please. The only way any claims would be true is if you couldn’t walk when Kris got out of it and strolled away.”
Snickers broke out, and Kris put her nose up in the air proudly. Even her Cursemark seemed to pulse righteously at my words.
The Mick lifted his hand to say something, paused with finger upraised, then just grinned. “Fair,” he agreed cheerfully. “But that be a special kind o’ stamina, not runnin’ for practice, ye have to agree.”
I gave him an exasperated side-eye. “I could pick one of your Roach-queens and make it deep enough that a minimum of four hours is needed to hack your way out. Who knows what might happen during that time, Lord Mick?”
“Now, now, don’t be dragging the wee ones inta things,” he just grinned back. “Ye’re much too nice t’ do such an awful things t’ their reputations!”
“Awful things. Yes.” I ignored the cheeks flaring on the cheeks of Selena, Milee, and Polita, and their conspicuous silence. “Perhaps better to leave such matters between consenting adults instead of those heading into a hellhole, then?”
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Aye, aye. Tell us all how ye’re keeping us on course an’ not wandering in t’ the surface accidentally an’ all, what?”
“Detect Location is a basic Cantrip that gives you an approximate location relative to a known point of interest, and indicates magnetic north. Higher Valences can provide completely accurate mapping coordinates, including vertical height, and even dimensional coordinates up to thirteen vectors or so.
“I’m basically moving between waypoints I set up in my Visual File based on my lived-line over the surrounding terrain as a moving point of reference.”
“Thirteen vectors?” a stunned Rogar spoke up.
“Sufficient to navigate between multiverses,” I informed him.
“It’s possible to travel between multiverses?!” the Mick exclaimed in shock. “Isn’t going to the likes o’ Bur just five vectors?”
“Six. That Bur is located outside our dimensional plane, but parallel to it. Most of the worlds the Empyreans traveled to are in slightly different planes to this one. Once you can shift between dimensions, it’s actually easier to shift your physical location and place of appearance than trying to Teleport across interplanetary or interstellar distances.
“This is true for Ispar, as well. Ispar is not merely a very long distance away. It’s across a dimensional divide entirely, like most other such worlds.”
Kris just nodded. The dimensional divide was enough that with the nominal disruption to magic here on the Marks, she couldn’t stay in contact with her parents. An in-plane destination, regardless of the distance, would not have had the problem at all without some very active magical interference, as normally mono-planar distances were no problem for a Mark, either.
“How’d they find whole other worlds out there, then?” Selena asked the most pertinent question. “If they were already tied to another world, I can see that being easy to reach…”
“Empyreans also regularly deal with Mythos Entities, who exist at eight dimensions and higher, potentially up in thirteen. They can look across the dimensional divides and see the streams of souls moving in and out of the mortal plane, follow them to living worlds, and then mark those worlds and all their iterations and equivalents as easily as you or I could pick up a book and read it.
“So, the Empyreans talk to them, and the Entities might give the location of such a world if asked, if they have a motive for them to learn it, or perhaps just for some random entertainment.
“The Empyrean ‘discoveries’ of thousands of worlds were the results of a lot of bargains with things mortals really shouldn’t be talking to. It’s also remarkable how information about all those many, many worlds seems to have vanished from the memories of the Empyreans so readily, and also how so very, very few Empyreans ever grow strong enough to actually empower such magic without directly calling on such Entities once again…” I trailed off into the silence behind me.
“That be not the same as gods, aye?” the Mick asked carefully.
“From our perspective, it may pragmatically not make much difference, if the gods being compared are also bastards. But no, Gods and Titans are very different from Mythos Entities.
“The most powerful Mythos Entities come from Outside Creation, beyond the constraints of a multiverse. Many other Mythos creatures are descended from those powerful beings, and some lesser gods may indeed be born from them, too. They usually give their forebears names like Chaos, Madness, or somesuch thing to indicate the difference in power and age. True Gods come from inside Creation, inside their own multiverses, and while they might be able to reach out and between them, they are still Gods and tied to where they come from.”
“Titans?” Kopf, walking further back, piped up, interested in that.
“Four nominal tiers of Gods: Demigods, Lesser Gods, True Gods, and Greater Gods. True Gods and Greater Gods are explicitly not finite, akin to existing as concepts and ideas, and can manifest material avatars.
“Titans are explicitly creatures with the power of Gods, but a material existence. There technically are no limits to their size and power, but they often tend to be primitive, violent, territorial, and prone to fighting one another or the Gods. They tend to get killed off over the ages, while Gods rise and fall with those who remember them and what they are.
“Mythos creatures from Outside Creation follow the rules of both and neither. They have no rules save when they come into contact with a multiverse and have to adapt themselves to interact with it. Gods, Titans, both, neither… they are Outside Creation, and while their spawn may infect realities and be subject to the laws of those realms, true Mythos Entities obey nothing except their own whims.
“The virindi are a Mythos Entity existing here as a Hivemind of separate units actually all united in their Singularity and Quiddity. Why they are here is their own business, but I doubt they truly understand it. However, it means we are dealing with a very non-mortal thing with non-mortal drives, which has problems even existing on the mortal plane… yet still it is here and bothering us, instead of whatever realm is its true home.
“Whether they were brought here by some idiot Empyrean or attracted by something else, we still have to get rid of them at some point or another, as their plans surely have no concern whatsoever for us…”
“We believe there’s at least eight other minor or Lesser Mythos Entities who have interests here. The Deep, T’Thuun, the Harbinger, the sponsors of the Falatacot, the Burun, the shades-maker, and Grael… there are a lot of things interested in this little island for some reason, and we really don’t know why.”
“Asheron abandoned the rest o’ the planet to the olthoi an’ came here, where the Olthoi Queen was, an’ where all the olthoi are trying to get to,” the Mick pointed out to everyone. “That be pretty insane on the face o’ it, aye, everyone?”
There were hesitant murmurs of agreement as they considered that. He would only come here if it was important, more important than the rest of the world, and so he did… even if the true Olthoi Queen was here.
“It is logical that in the eyes of the virindi, the lugians are nothing more than animated, walking pickaxes that can hack at the world for them, valued when useful, discarded or ignored when irrelevant to their goals.
“The Gotrok have thrown themselves on the mercy of things they think have shreds of decency, gratitude, and honor, and they are going to pay for it badly.
“Our goal is to see that the rest of the citizens of Linvak Tukal do not also pay for it.”