Kestra met up with her new retainers after breakfast, Graemire once more pretending to be her cloak. She added more coin to their funds, reminded them to get receipts for monies spent, and distributed Scrolls of Literacy to those who didn't know how to read. They were almost all in bright spirits, though respectfully subdued around Kestra.
Accepting that as good enough for the moment, Kestra assigned Klo and Jensa to watch over Odelia while she handled shopping for more tailoring supplies and basic furnishings for all of the retainers' new homes. She quietly asked Odelia to ensure that the sleeping situations were heavy on comfort. "If it makes people feel better to sleep on silk, there's funds enough to see that happens, but don't put display before use. If cheap straw and soft wool leads to better slumber, so be it."
Lol planned to show his juniors around the spice traders in the morning, and release them to say their farewells in the evening. They got Guards Xian and Huishar for their excursions.
Of the farmers, Butan Larango and Gan Kelly admitted they had no one to say farewells to. They were the couple that wanted to be wed, but Hadenshire's law prevented that. Gyer Olea didn't see any need to keep them in the city when they could begin by checking on the state of the current fields and then start marking out new fields. Kestra teleported them over, taking a moment to inform Natspri and Su'ami of the new arrivals.
Lan Vula did have a sister to say her farewells with, and a son her sister had agreed to care for. Kestra quietly pulled her aside. "If your son is with your sister because you don't feel you can be a good parent to him, or that he will be better off in her care, then you have my respect for putting his well being before your pride. But if you feel he will do well in your care and you want him with you, he will only need to swear the oath of secrecy, amended as befits his age, and he will have food, clothing, and shelter as you do."
Vula looked at a loss for words, so Kestra said, "You don't need to make the decision right away. In the future, I can't guarantee you'll get more than the annual visit back in your contract, but for the first months as we're all settling in, I expect to be bringing people back and forth to get the thousand and one things no one remembers when they're moving and settling a new village. Bringing your son back on one of those trips won't be a burden."
"Great Lady is too kind!" Vula got out, her voice choked with emotion.
Kestra awkwardly patted Vula's shoulder.
She assigned the womanly guard pair Quistis Li and Thackery Yosa to escort Olea about her shopping, which left Vo Matal and Nalin Cu to watch over the herders. Kestra left an extra communications device with the herders so that the duo that stayed with the herds were never out of touch with the rest of her people.
While she was sorting everyone out, Manager Scarlet called Kestra to let her know the gate guide was available, so she asked for the guide to meet them at the Hadenshire jie gate. Scarlet provided her with a pass phrase to confirm their identities to each other.
"Why?" Kestra asked.
Manager Scarlet paused, and when she spoke, her tone was very even, hiding her personal feelings. "There have been instances of bandits posing as gate guides and robbing travelers."
"Ah," Kestra said. She almost wished someone would try it with her, just to see their expression when their own stones were used up and she either bonked them for their duplicity or stepped into her own realm.
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The jie gates were teleportation beacons. They were also overseen by the Heavens in the same way as City Stones and Dungeon Cores. Unlike the Stones and the Cores, though, the gates were uniform, their tolls directly set by the Heavens, and their operation could not be directly controlled by anyone but the Heavens. There was an option in the City Stones when laying out the city to prepare a plaza for the Heavens to plant a jie gate, but preparing the plaza did not guarantee receiving a gate.
From what Kestra had learned, the closest the gates came to each other was fifty kilometers. On less mana dense realms, the cost to use the anchors for intra-realm travel was high. For the Low Mortal Realms, like Gossalt, an Earth grade mana stone would transport one person between the cities of Oste and Sortalheim, while it was seven Foundation grade mana stones for in-realm transport on the Mid Mortal Realms, and four on the High Mortal Realms.
On the other hand, transferring between realms, regardless of their "rings", when using the jie gates had a cost related to the difference in the grade of the realm and the distance from the origin to the exit. Within the same ring, or one ring distant, as from the Low Mortal Realms to the Mid Mortal Realms, the toll the jie gates demanded per person amounted to one Base mana stone. Going from a Low to High ring within the same realm sea cost one Foundation mana stone.
Going up to a nearby realm sea got more complicated based on which ring of the realm sea you were currently in and where you were going. Going from Low ring to Low ring, Mid ring to Mid ring, or High ring to High ring cost two Foundation mana stones. Going from Low to Mid or Mid to High rings cost an Earth mana stone, and from Low to High ring across realm seas was two Earth mana stones. Going from the Low Mortal Realms to the Low Immortal Realms cost a Sky mana stone. To get to the High Immortal Realms from the Low Mortal Realms took a Celestial mana stone, and two to get into the Divine Realms. Going down the realms, however, cost a Base grade mana stone per realm ring dropped.
That was assuming the traveler met the level minimums and had undergone the Tribulations needed to pass between all the realm seas in between the start and destination realms. The jie gates would not let people circumvent those requirements, but would drop them into their closest unfulfilled Realm Sea Crossing Tribulation and out at a random jie gate afterward -- if the traveler survived.
When people wanted to spend the least to go up the realms, they needed to wait at least a week on each realm-ring between transporting up to the next, and if someone had ever been close enough to a jie gate to feel its mana, they could choose to teleport there, unless it was locked down. In that case, or when the jie gate was left unspecified, travelers were teleported to wherever in the designated Realm Sea consumed the least mana at the time of their traveling. When a jie gate was located too close to a war declared before the Heavens, it was locked down, but that rarely affected anyone outside of the Kuruk nexus. Befoulments that encompassed a jie gate also resulted in the gate being locked down.
Travelers who were looking to increase the number of gates they could connect to could also ask to go somewhere they had never been before, and the range of that would depend on the mana stone they provided. These kinds of travelers often acted as gate guides, taking along people who wanted to go to specific locations. The clients paid for their guide's fare to and from the gates in addition to the guide fee, which ran around a Base mana stone per gate.
Graemire insisted on accompanying Kestra. He said that it wasn't just because of their talk the night before, but he also only gave her vague statements about assuring her safety. The extra few Base mana stones weren't an issue. She was easily producing enough with the three mana stone generators she had gained through the quest line to improve her internalized mana well.
They arrived at the Hadenshire realm anchor plaza. It wasn't all that far from the Jade Pearl Auction House. Kestra didn't even have a chance to stop over at one of the cafe stalls that lined the plaza to check out what they were selling for tea. A man of mature years wearing traveler's slacks and robes, with clackity boots announcing his steps, approached them to ask, "Is the Honorable Miss searching for iron skies?"
"Among other things, cinnabar on the horizon, too," Kestra returned the guide's pass phrase.
The guide bowed and presented a slip of paper. "This guide is Hao-Wen Halde, Honorable Transcendental. Branch Manager Defhar provided this itinerary for the locations you wished to visit."
Kestra took the note, looked it over, and then gave it her nod. "Shall we begin?" she asked, returning the page to the guide and offering her hand for him to touch to form what on Moh would have been called a hunting party and in the Myriad Realms was called an allied group. The guide clasped forearms with Kestra, the golden light of the Myriad Realms' working barely perceptible in the bright light of the day.
They had five cities to travel to, one of which was on a realm within the Mid Mortal Realms.
In each city, the guide took her to that city's warehouse district. In three of the High Mortal Realm cities, they went to the Yurik Metals House. On the Mid Mortal Realm stop, it was Fengar's Minerals providing the iron and copper. Kestra inspected the ores, mostly assuring herself that the mini mountains of rocks she paid for were in fact the ores that her smith friends had asked for. Then she handed over the purchase price, preferring to pay in mana stones to the factors' delights. After that, she put the ore into her rings of Holding and of Storage.
The Holding ring was an artifact from Moh. It had been a ring of Minor Holding, but one that could be imprinted, bound up with the owner's mana so that as the owner grew, so too did the item. The storage ring was a quest reward from her "Welcome to the Myriad Realms" quest. She hadn't known that the same twist of mana she was used to seeing as a waiting imprimatur rune wasn't meant to act as a soul-binding formation, even if it still did. Mostly, people of the Realms knew that formation as the part of an item where you applied a bit of blood and got a much weaker binding.
Soul-bound items could only be used by the person to whom they were bound. Full stop, end of discussion. If they didn't break upon their owner's death, they were rendered inert, their mana snuffed out because that mana was the mana of their owner. Blood-bound items, on the other hand, could still use their owner's mana to power their effects, but the blood bond could be broken without damaging the item, allowing it to be passed on with only a bit of fuss.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Both of Kestra's rings were soul-bound, and had grown with her as she gained around fifty levels of power on the Myriad Realms, as well as increases in grade for her internalized mana well. Even without having given Inspri the ability to affect them, each ring now had the space to take in one or two of the ore shipments Kestra was buying. With Inspri handling the actual storage of those ores, it wasn't any great feat on her side.
For those who witnessed her casual appropriation of her goods, it broke their common sense. On more than one occasion, Kestra kindly pointed out to overly impressed, and more than a few avaricious, individuals, "Divines have left the Divine Realms, and I run errands for a few of them." That didn't actually turn aside the avarice, but it did add fearful respect to the mix, which added caution to the observers' steps.
Between their first and second stops, Halde asked, "What is it like, to work for a Divine?"
"The Divines I know are Awakened. I don't know how the Divine Ascended differ, but with the Awakened, Divine or otherwise, I've found that they appreciate when one shows respect without cowering and speaks directly. Those of a Divine power level know when you lie; your body and your mana betray when your words fail to reflect your knowledge. Also, Divines that are practiced with their Mana Manipulation skill can walk beside you and seem no more than a low level existence. Learning that has made me a lot more cautious when dealing with people of unknown backgrounds."
Over the communications device, Graemire scoffed at her. "Says the woman with no problem slapping a stranger's face."
Jaw-talking back, she asked, "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, let's see: taking over Sortalheim, the Ben boy, and that guard yesterday," he answered with a teasing lilt in his voice.
Glancing over to see Halde quietly absorbing that idea, to go by the slight widening of his eyes and the gaze he swept over those around them, Kestra took the moment to respond to Graemire with more than just a childish "nuh-uh!". "Ramakith was a Low Mortal Realms City Lord, not a person with an unknown background. The Ben boy had no mana control, and neither did any but one of the people with him, not to mention he literally swung first. The city guardsman also had no mana control to speak of, and made it obvious that he was a city native with a history with Guard Klo, again, not completely unknown."
"Mm-hmm," Graemire murmured back, a playful mocking quality to his non-verbal reply.
Smirking a little at the banter, Kestra asserted, "I do threat assessments before I slap strangers' faces, but, yeah, I'll smack a boogie down if they try to flex and flare at me."
They didn't have much time to continue the back and forth as they were coming up on their destination.
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Their last stop with Hao-Wen Halde took them to a Mid Mortal Realm town with an outpost office of Fengar's Minerals. After introducing Kestra to the mining group's factor, Hao-Wen took his pay and departed.
The factor, Troy Lial, served Kestra tea, nothing all that interesting, just a few floral flavors added to a green preparation of tea leaves. When the niceties were seen to, he said, "I am given to understand that you wished to see what could be done to clear the mines. Forgive this humble trader if I am too bold in asking how you might proceed?"
Seeing no point in dilly-dicking around, Kestra answered, "The metal ores I'm picking up are an errand for a Divine. The Divine wants Mortal Realm mercury, and is willing to allow me to place a teleport beacon at the mine. The Divine will inspect the cause of the disturbance and decide on a course of action from there. Your assistance in this will make things easier, naturally, and I'm given to understand that each day the mine remains unworkable, you are suffering a loss of about half the ore shipment the Divine originally requested. If the Divine decides on a course of action that allows the mine to be worked again, the payment for that clearing will be taken in ore from the mine, not to exceed the originally requested amount. Do you object to this?"
"Not at all!" The factor nearly tripped over himself to snap up the offered deal. "Here's my map; I'll highlight where the mine is at. While there are some hot springs in the area, if you don't have Body of Poison you should stay out of them, and a few have unstable temperatures, too. The Red Mountain is a volcano, an older one, but there are a few more active ones in the area, too. Lots of geysers and Fire and Earth Element heavy resources, but this is the Mid Mortal Realms, so the grades are all around high Base grade, with a rare low Foundation grade plant or creature to be found. Would you like a guide? It will only take a short wait to get them here and ready to head out."
"If your guide can't fly, they'll only slow me down. Can you send a message along to the mine to let them know to expect me?" She wasn't sure about what communications devices the factor and the mine's foreman might have.
"I'll send the message over now!"
Kestra smiled, got the terms in writing, finished her tea, and took off. She exited the town on foot, got past line of sight of the walls, and started her run up to take off.
Control Gravity let Kestra throw herself into the air and not fall, but it didn't impart velocity, nor had Kestra quite gotten the hang of deflecting air in front of her while pushing on the air behind her. It was probably one of those frames of reference problems because if it wasn't her physical body being moved about, Kestra thought she was actually pretty good for her lack of practice at moving objects around with the Gravity and Air Control spells.
She would be landing for course corrections. Graemire could have taken over, and had offered to, but Kestra pointed out, "I have to practice to figure this out and get good enough on my own. If there's no urgency, there's not really a reason for you to do all the work. Besides, you can catch us if I lose control, right?"
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If Graemire had been controlling their flight, they would have reached Fengar's Minerals Red Mountain Mercury Mine within an hour. It took Kestra five, and would have taken longer if she hadn't figured out how to reach out with her Control spells and pull herself along to gain velocity and make course corrections.
Graemire pulled on mana itself, which was why he moved much faster. Kestra, despite her skill ranks, didn't have the understanding of mana needed to do the same. If it weren't for the way the Myriad Realms awarded increased gains for pitting oneself against greater challenges, regardless of who was with you, she highly doubted her skill ranks would look the way they did.
They landed out of sight of the mine, and while they walked, Kestra pulled up her Skill Book to see if there were any changes to her Mana Manipulation rank thanks to using the pulling method with her Control spells for flying.
♦•♦•♦ SKILL BOOK ♦•♦•♦
Alchemy: 71
- Water Extraction [Journeyman]
- Earthen Temper [Apprentice]
- Radiant Transmutation [Expert]
- Shadow Flame Refinement [Expert]
- Icebound Refinement [Journeyman]
Blades: 37
- Elemental Strike [Journeyman]
Calligraphy: 41
- Copy Scroll [Apprentice]
- Transmute Knowledge [Apprentice]
Cooking: 27
Formations: 11
Healing: 3
Mana Manipulation: 97
- Imbue Mana [Journeyman]
- Affinity Infusion [Expert]
Marksman: 86
- Extended Range Shot [Apprentice]
- One Becomes Many Shot [Expert]
Martial Arts: 2
Meditation: 52
Pottery: 18
Stealth: 73
- Traceless Steps [Journeyman]
Tailoring: 7
Throwing: 92
- Extended Range Toss [Apprentice]
Tracking: 12
Traps: 18
Woodworking: 53
- Wood Like Water [Apprentice]
♦•♦•♦ ▼○▲○▼ ♦•♦•♦
With a bit of tinkering in that part of her soul where the Myriad Realms affected her, Kestra had gotten the Living Scroll with her Skill Book to show the Techniques she had for each skill, which were a special kind of spell that relied upon skills to function.
Every twenty-five ranks was one grade of skill, from Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, to Expert. After reaching rank 100, one was a Master of the skill. Inspri, as Kestra's recognized servitor, got to do a lot of querying the Living Scrolls (which Kestra still thought of as painted screens, like the lightly woven window covers of Moh). That querying left Kestra with the never-explicitly stated, but heavily implied impression that skill ranks were a kind of reward for successes and not actually a gauge of skill. Raising them raised the help one got from the Heavens to continue succeeding. Repeating the same kind of success got diminishing rewards, and there was also the factor of the expected difficulty for someone of a particular rank.
That was the biggest reason why people needed higher grade materials to get higher skill ranks. One could perfect shaping a mostly inert, low grade clay into a cup, then get a higher grade clay, something with Fire affinity mana to it, for example. The act of shaping the cup was a similar, and diminished, success, but shaping the mana in the higher grade clay to work with the shape of the cup was a new kind of success, and a higher level of difficulty.
When the Divine Creatures power leveled Kestra, she used her Marksman and Throwing skills, supported with her Imbue Mana Technique. Once she got the successful hit in to count for EXP distribution, she then actively tried not to draw their opponent's attention, hence her extreme growth in those skills compared to the rest.
Her Alchemy skill ranks, on the other hand, Kestra felt failed to reflect her actual skill. On Moh, she had been skill capped in Alchemy. Her levels had been insufficient to support all the aid her knowledge afforded her under the voice of the world's mana sharing system. She had years of successes yet to truly demonstrate the breadth of what she had learned on Moh and to experiment with how the expression of the Elements on the Myriad Realms affected that breadth of knowledge.
Martial Arts and Healing, she noted, were new.
«From subduing Ben Hadiaram,» Inspri pointed out to the unvoiced curiosity in the bond between her and Kestra.
♦•♦•♦ Martial Arts ♦•♦•♦
Knowing when, where, and how to strike while choosing the weapon most appropriate to the situation from those in your arsenal is the basis of martial strength.
♦•♦•♦ ▲▼▲ ♦•♦•♦
♦•♦•♦ Healing ♦•♦•♦
Magic and time alone cannot cure all ailments. You have demonstrated knowledge of how to aid a living being in recovering from injury or illness.
♦•♦•♦ ▲▼▲ ♦•♦•♦
The description for the Healing skill made Kestra want to smack her face. "It's First Aid! No wonder I wasn't getting the skill before now!"
"What's this?" Graemire asked.
Kestra read back the description for the Healing skill, and added, "On Moh, that's the First Aid skill, preparing someone to not get wrecked when their vitality heals them or you pour a Healing potion over their wounds and they drink the rest. None of the healing I did before setting that fool's shoulder back in place required any preparation before applying mana and vitality!"
"And what does Healing encompass on Moh?" Graemire asked.
Kestra frowned. "They're uncommon classes, bordering on rare, so I don't know all the skills. And that's another difference. Most of the skills of the Myriad Realms fall into what I think of as general skills, and the Techniques that go with them would be specific skills on Moh. A lot of what the Realms call spells would be treated like skills on Moh, too."
She scratched at the corner of her jaw. "I've heard that [Healers] all have a core skill called Lend Vitality, but what it does I don't know. Probably something like sharing their stamina pools, but it could be something else."
Graemire patted her shoulder with one of his vines. Kestra had explained about the core skills and classes of Moh before, how people there leveled up by increasing their skill ranks, not slaying others and taking their EXP. Core skills had to be raised to gain levels in one's class. One could continue to demonstrate their knowledge and proficiency with a skill, earning what were essentially ranks under the Myriad Realms' system, but the aid one got from the voice of the world of Moh never exceeded one's combined class levels.
"Do you want to bring out Ralouf now?" Graemire asked, changing the subject.
"That's probably for the best," she agreed.