Chapter 7
Tilluth touched the people of its valleys, and the earth, and the animals and the plants. Tilluth – a wave of awareness.
Tilluth was Alpha and Alpha was Tilluth. Alpha was thankful for Tilluth; when the time to Link had come Tilluth had willingly sacrificed much of its own health to allow the process to proceed. Without that sacrifice, Tom Weaver, inexperienced Controller that he was, would have destroyed his nascent network in the attempt to make it stronger. If Tilluth had resisted the merging, Alpha would have been destroyed.
Even damaged, Tilluth Core was strong. A strong part of the growing gestalt consciousness that Tom was calling Alpha, a strong node in its network, and a strong protector of its valley.
With the Dungeon that had been formed, there was no longer a need to spawn Flame Lynx in the valley, and Tilluth ignored the few predators which remained.
As it went through the inhabitants of its valleys, Tilluth noticed one that was badly injured. While the Warrior was suffering from serious wounds, the young man would recover soon. Although it was unlikely that he would ever regain the use of his voice. The part of Tilluth that was Alpha and the part of Alpha that was Tilluth decided to give the man an extra infusion of Mana to help his recovery and regrowth. It spent just a little bit more energy and gave him a title worthy of the sacrifice he had made when he had been injured.
That the man would view it as mockery was beyond Tilluth and Alpha’s comprehension.
Title Gained:
Champion of the Voiceless
If Lubald had the ability to speak when that notification arrived, he would have cursed the system for its tastelessness.
Tilluth and Alpha, two beings that were now part of the other, would not understand why their efforts were poorly received, if they had bothered to care. Alpha’s focus shifted to elsewhere in the network, and Tilluth’s focus shifted back to its endless cycle of maintaining its territory.
Tilluth touched the land. It touched the plants, and the creatures, and the people. It oversaw its dungeon. It expended Mana to Seed the dungeon with riches. It breathed in, pulling more mana from the environs to replace what it had spent.
With the mana came miasma, but that was alright. It had a dungeon to store the excess miasma in now. When the miasma reached a critical level, it would simply spawn a powerful monster in the deepest recesses of the dungeon. In the mean time, it would spawn weaker monsters towards the surface to encourage the humans in its territory to kill monsters, gain experience, and grow strong.
Tilluth inhaled and inhaled, until it had enough mana to repeat the cycle from the top.
Tilluth touched the land.
~~~~~
Aisha returned to Weaver Estate the night before their departure. She had, reluctantly, allowed herself to be convinced to join them on their next foray into dungeon delving, despite insisting that it was foolishness. She was a healer and not a fighter, so like Tom she intended to remain in the back, possibly waiting outside the dungeon until and unless the others cleared it or were injured and required her services.
She had spent the week advancing her studies. After speaking with the king, she had gained enough coin to actually pay her volunteers for their time and participation, and she had put together a thick portfolio of sketched lifelines. She had, on each document, carefully recorded not only the drawings themselves, but the subject’s age, class, level, and any subclasses they might possess.
It was a fascinating study, and she was looking forward to the analysis portion of the efforts now that she had a few dozen data sets to begin with.
She still wished for a more sensitive way of measuring the mana circulation system. Emil assured her that he was working on one, but she knew it was far from his only project. It was unfair of her to expect more of that from him.
The king’s mages were also working on the project, but they had no inkling of what sort of imaging she was actually requesting of them. And, with the events in Velund, which Aisha was only peripherally aware of, they were occupied elsewhere. Like Emil. In the mean time, she would have to work with what she had.
She had no X-rays, no CT-scan or MRI. Not of the Earth variety, nor a magical equivalent. She had no microscopes or method of testing the blood for chemistry, hormones, or other markers. That was fine. She’d worked under those conditions before. Before she had magic to compensate.
As the others were falling in for the night, Aisha spent a few hours beginning to sort through her data sets while eating a cold ham sandwich and reheated soup from the kitchen.
She had suffered a crisis of faith when she’d learned that people in this world had a magical organ system about which she knew nothing, but her confidence in herself was returning. The crisis had reminded her that she didn’t know everything, and even more importantly she didn’t have to do everything alone.
While she had started this study, she wasn’t going to be a lone wolf, a one woman miracle worker any longer. She had detailed her methods of gathering data carefully and begun spreading them through the community of healers in this world. As more and more people looked at the problem, as more brains worked together, the chances of actually identifying patterns increased exponentially.
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Perhaps mana circulation patterns were random.
If they were not, then it was only a matter of time before the people investigating the matter began seeing order in the chaos. Aisha allowed herself a moment to feel proud of the work she had put in on the study so far, and then she got back to work.
~~~~~~
Anaxis carefully recalibrated the magical portion of his portable scry-mirror. Not his mirror any longer, he corrected himself. He had given it to Tom Weaver to establish a direct link between the Koratian government and the only Controller alive in the world.
It had been a risk; the boy might have discarded, destroyed, or neglected the precious item. Or he might have turned it over to the Welsian government, and they might have attempted to use it to spy upon the comings and goings of the central scrying room in Koratia, although that wouldn’t have lasted very long before being detected. The biggest risk was simply the loss of one of the paired crystals that powered the scry-mirror he’d given Tom; such things were extremely valuable.
It had been a risk, but Anaxis was a risk taker. And where the Weaver family was concerned, his risks were paying off.
He had purchased their goods for a significant profit, both for the Weaver family and for himself. Or at least he expected to profit once the goods arrived at their destinations. In doing so he hoped to have made a positive impression with the family.
More importantly, he had protected them on their journey south.
And then there were the efforts related to Tom himself. Putting Tom in contact with his Queen was the biggest risk he had ever taken, and he was finally about to see the results.
After the magical part of the scry-device was connected to a full body mirror, Anaxis initiated the connection with its twin, hundreds of miles to the northwest. Tildra, spy-mistress of the kingdom of Koratia, and Gloracia, the queen of that same nation, appeared in the mirror, already waiting and ready for this meeting.
On Anaxis’s side of the glass were Tom Weaver, Grant Peterson the summoned hero, and Norman and Sue Weaver, Tom’s parents. Smiles and introductions were exchanged. Once everyone had been introduced, Tom explained his reason for holding the meeting.
“Queen Gloracia, I wish to have Koratia’s help in completing my System Quest,” he said without much preamble.
The queen, for her part, didn’t blink. “I am honor bound to help anyone on a system-generated quest, Tom. Does this mean that you will be coming to my kingdom to claim the cores within?”
“There’s no need for me to go that far,” Tom said. “I’ve done a bit of experimenting with my powers, and I’ve learned that I’m able to link to a set of Sundered Cores through their Command Core. I am assuming that you have a similar setup in Koratia to the map room in King Fenard’s palace. I would like to obtain several of those command cores and have them sent by courier to me so that I can link them to the network I am building.”
Gloracia continued to smile, but Anaxis could tell that she was not enamored with the idea. “There are perhaps three or four cores I could provide you for this exercise, Tom Weaver. Cores which have been misbehaving lately and require your services anyway. But as I understand things, you are presently unable to build a settlement without an associated Dungeon. Has this changed?”
Tom smiled. “But Queen Glorica, have you not heard? The dungeons are the best part of the settlements that I create. Allow me to explain how my level ten ability, Seed, works.”
After a bit of discussion, in which Grant occasionally stepped in with specific figures of tonnage and yield of the materials which were being pulled out of Beta, Gamma, and Delta dungeons, the queen was abruptly convinced.
“I will send you those cores which are already misbehaving,” she announced, “And several additional ones for you to turn into seeded dungeons in my lands. In exchange, I will enact the same laws that Welsius has enacted regarding Seeded dungeons ensuring that you are compensated to the tune of ten percent of the mined materials from the dungeons you curate. Is this an acceptable compromise?”
“It is exactly what I was looking for when I asked for this meeting,” Tom admitted. “And I had one other purpose. Queen Gloracia, I regret to inform you that I have had a vision, and in that vision I foresaw the destruction of two of the great nations. I believe that the vision refers to the ongoing chaos in Velund, and foretells of a second nation collapsing into the blight.”
Gloracia went pale. “Are you saying that Koratia is next?”
“I do not know which of the great nations is next,” Tom admitted. “My … spirit guide, was surprisingly reticent on the matter. I attempted to prod her for details, but all I could get out of her was that it will happen within a year from now. I have already warned King Fenard, and as you are the only other ruler with which I’ve got a direct line to I’m passing the information on to you as well. I want to warn the other kings and queens, but--”
“Do not worry about that, I shall take care of it for you,” Gloracia announced. “In fact, I suspect that this is the topic of the summit which King Fenard is in the process of scheduling. If he does not bring it up at the next discussion between the kingdoms, I will bring it up myself. A vision from a Controller who has already begun a System Quest is no laughing matter, and a vision of such catastrophe must be addressed.”
“Thank you, your majesty,” Tom said. He had, over the winter, been extensively schooled on how to speak with royalty, and although he was less formal around King Fenard, he felt that he had acquitted himself well during this discussion.
“Are there any other matters?” the queen asked.
“Only what will happen with the funds that will be generated by the permits for mining and resource gathering in my dungeons in Koratia,” Tom admitted. “My mother is a Trader, and Grant is a man whose insight into such matters I trust. I would like them both in on this discussion.”
“Right,” the queen said, and she turned to her spymistress. “I delegate these discussions to you, Tildra. I need to begin contemplating the news that Tom Weaver has shared with us, and what the response of the monarchy will be to these matters.”
Tildra stepped forward, bowed to her majesty, and took over the remaining discussions as the queen retired from the meeting.
Several hours later, the matters were tabled. Between the acumen of Sue Weaver and Grant Peterson, Tildra felt that she had been fleeced in the negotiations thus far.