It was nearing evening before we quit the area, verifying that the four Dungeons that had existed there still did, and any true living Withered were clustered around and inside them.
We were absolutely sure there were living eyes watching us test ourselves against their warriors, looking down at us from the two hills buttressing the inlet that the Withered had claimed for themselves. We were in no mood to provoke anything that could lead a whole bunch of creatures with such monumental amounts of Health Qi down to attack us, and instead opted to just withdraw from the areas they claimed. Once out of sight of prying eyes, I Teleported us back to Candeth Keep.
The Mick’s Lived-line extended past and through this area several times, so there was no issue with him needing to complete a run or anything. With mine intact, I could have extended it with a run inland, but that was something I could do at a later time.
The new Seal Focus for Candeth Keep was located right next to the pit where the Deathstone Pit and its victims had been. Martine didn’t remove the pit, so the first thing you really saw arriving at the Keep was the burned-clear stone glistening next to you, a lingering feeling of lost souls about the place. It was there so that you never forgot the danger of depending on Dimensional Magic and tying your soul to shit that was going to get you killed.
Rather wise of him, really.
There was also one of his Simulacra waiting there, who stepped forward as soon as we popped up.
“Fellow human Lady Magos Ryin, the Master would like to speak with you.”
I looked over at Lord Mick, who just smiled wryly. “Well, it were coming,” was all he said.
“True enough. Take care of yourself, Lord Mick, and we shall be bouncing along hills in the future!” I said as I turned to follow the messenger to Martine’s hall.
------
The Mick headed off for the night and immediate future, having been tasked to help the Royal Family and their Guards with hunting the immediate area and forging a way down to the Withered Area to test everyone out in combat. Soldiers using the Wolfpack Tactics could be incredibly dangerous, and of course everyone wanted to keep earning Naming Karma. Predictable foes you could hone your skills against were most appreciated, even if the spawns around Candeth Keep were more exciting and interesting overall.
Warriors always liked taking on tough foes, as it were!
Martine had basically moved his entire complex in Rithwic here via his power, an impressive magical feat probably related to its prior status as a dimensional space accessed by a Portal. Returning it to that state, even for a short time, and then having it come back into reality here rather than there, had probably done the job.
His bright blue-purple eyes were still glowing with virindi energy, indicating that the Prodigal Human really wasn’t human anymore. At least he’d ditched the rough mask for a more elegant one for me, even if his stare was unnerving, and his dark robes were plain, if well cared-for.
His seneschal and attendant were both present in his throne room, and actually took the time to thank me and Princess Kristie for locating their master and sending him back home. Clearly they hadn’t expected much of us, and yet we’d delivered swiftly, with Martine actually energized and more motivated than he’d been in years.
Martine himself simply invited me to sit down at one of the tables outside his courtroom, while refreshments and drinks were brought for me to peruse.
“My Lord Martine has questions. How may I be of service to him?” I inquired after drinking down half a glass of chilled wine and some buttered hot bread. He knew his hospitality, and Simulacra servants didn’t sleep nor get tired.
“I have been informed by several parties that you are at the center of the magical innovation that is sweeping through the Freehold Alliance, changes taking place among lugians, tumeroks, and Isparians alike.” His voice still had an odd reverb to it, a sign of internal powers, and likely he wasn’t actually making words with vocal cords anymore. I imagined his internal organs were pretty damn weird now, too.
“If you are referring to Matrix magic and alchemy, that is mostly true, although both Commander Briggs and Princess Kristie have extreme depth in matters of Artifice, especially as regards Arms and Armor of all sorts.” I took another sip to let him digest that. “I admit to being rather surprised at your interest. I would have thought the magic I know to be somewhat below your regard.”
“That… is not unreasonable. I have been exposed to greater and higher concepts of magic than you can likely comprehend,” he began, and I held up a finger.
“You are likely very, very wrong about that,” I informed him calmly, and his glowing eyes blinked. “While I may not have the breadth of knowledge and experience of the Quiddity, you have no idea of the limits of my ability to comprehend, Lord Martine. If your Virindi-attuned, energy-spiked brain can understand it, it is most likely that I can, as well.”
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He was silent for a moment, staring at me expressionlessly. “You are actually serious about that, aren’t you?” he ventured, both impressed and amused. “Do you have any idea whatsoever of the gravity of what you are saying?”
“Lord Martine, if you will allow me to speak freely.” He waved his hand after only the briefest hesitation. “You were not an overly intelligent man before the Virindi took you, and you were not a scholar. You were a tradesman, I believe a rope-maker by trade?” He nodded slowly at that knowledge of his history. “You suddenly had your mind opened to ways and means of thinking that were wholly unnatural and extremely powerful, life-altering and mind-twisting in many ways. They sent you careening down the path of magic and manipulation of energies that the virindi opened you up to. Is that a reasonable summary of your current condition, simply further along that road?”
“It is not… incorrect?” he answered after a moment. “Merely… incomplete?”
“The learning of every other Tradition of magic involves exactly the same growth of mind and manipulation of energies, altered and changed to reflect those very energies. And, of course, wise teachers teach a proper way to go about learning that path.
“In short, Lord Martine, I am an extremely smart person who was educated in the proper manner to open my mind to magic and pursue the extra pathways required to build up my mastery of it and sense those energies, but I did so in the Isparian Tradition foisted off on us by the Empyreans, and the Matrix system made more for humans.
“Now, I may not be your equal in knowledge, as I assume your contact with the Quiddity unloaded amounts of lore directly into your brain that I’ve not had time to gain or gather myself, providing you the information and lessons needed to take advantage of the power they unleashed in you.
“But nothing in the powers you have displayed leads me to believe that your intellect, your knowledge, and your powers exceeds that which the Empyreans gained through time and instruction, as opposed to having brain surgery done on you by Aberrant Hiveminds from another plane of existence.
“In short, Lord Martine, underestimating other Casters because they haven’t gone through the same experiences that you have is very unwise, as Gaerlan proved to you, and I’m sure you deduced after meeting with Asheron. I’m sure Harlune, Rytheran, and Lady Aerefalle could also school you on such facts of life.”
He was silent a long minute as I took another drink and he digested what I had to tell him that way. “You believe you could understand what I have looked upon, despite how grim and terrible so much of it is? So utterly… inhuman?” he basically rasped at me.
“Lord Martine, I mean this in the nicest way, but do you actually understand Empyrean Magic? You have seen it close up and experienced it. I imagine you can identify it instantly, but do you actually understand WHY it works, as opposed to the Virindi magic?” I asked him quietly.
He paused again, and then his eyes began to dart left and right, as if he was scrolling through something in his head, looking at events in the past.
This went on for a good three minutes or so, and he looked both confused and intrigued. “I will admit that I am not clear on many of the concepts they used, as to why they did the things the way they did, and how they worked. I could potentially do the same, however…”
I just held up my hand. “That makes you a sorcerer, not a wizard or magos, Lord Martine. How much of the magic you do know, the Virindi Tradition, is actually about knowing what buttons to push, how to push them, in what manner and style and timing to push them… and not about knowing WHY they work?
“Would I be correct in saying that you wielding magic is more akin to knowing what effects you want, the strings to pull to get them, and having the power and will to do so?”
“That is… not far off the mark,” he admitted readily. “You do realize that the entirety of the Isparian system falls within the purview of Virindi Magic, correct?”
“But not the Empyrean system. The Isparian system is basically a magic system for commoners and low-born Empyreans, with all the important stuff removed so as not to threaten the true powers.”
I reached over to Crown, touched his head, and popped off the Prismatic Stone there, holding it up for him to look at. “Gaerlan designed these. Compare to the Elemental Stones, which are a lower order, and have Elemental Slayer. You can clearly see the gap in concepts and power between the two of them, the main effect only targeting one kind of Elemental.” I held up one of the new Shocking Stones, and deposited both gems into his hands, which were rather cold, and hummed with alien magic to my touch.
He lifted them up before his glowing eyes, studying each of them intently. “You are making a specific example of these?” he asked after a moment.
“We are making headway and have almost broken the Slayer effects for Undead, Skeletons, Shadows, Tumeroks, Mukkir, and Olthoi, with Isparians and Ghosts trailing only slightly. We are aware of Burun Slaying from Regal Weapons and Tusker Slaying from specific old quest Weapons nobody has been able to find yet, and supposedly there are Slayer effects on some truly rare legendary Weapon drops we have no familiarity with.
“We are also aware that you know the secret to Virindi Slaying, as you made available the first Singularity Weapons. We are hoping you might share the secret of it with us, but we will have to translate it into true Isparian-style knowledge so that it will work inside our own Tradition.”
He slowly set the Stones back down on the table between us, pushing them in my direction smoothly. “That information is not secret, and I would be more than willing to share it with you. Virindi Slaying Weapons are at least as valuable as Elemental Slaying, I would imagine…”
“Oh, it’s not really to make the Weapons,” I smiled at him, startling him. “It’s to design proper Artificer Infusions and spells that can Imbue the effect, so that we don’t have to have whole bags of Weapons carried around and trotted out for specific purposes.”
A Skull, formed from a Dark Revenant and lined with gold Runes sealed around it, floated up out of shrunken inner storage on Crown and floated down between us, Burning with cool black flames. He stared at the Baneskull with great interest and intensity, trying to suss out what had been to it, and why.
“This… is Curse Magic of a type,” he finally judged warily. “What is it?”