A few minutes after Erika suggested it, Ryan, Miana, my other body, and the four members of the Order were all standing in the back of the cavern. The Order didn't seem to immediately recognize Erika, but she did something magically that convinced the four of them at once that she was who she said she was, and then that was that.

She set them to carving out the path to the back where her generator would go, and then she, two of me, and Miana all sat down to wait.

"Miana darling," said Erika with some sweetness, "since you're involved in this I'll explain the basics of this, but I don't think you'll really understand, and that's okay. The world we came from--myself and Ryan--knows enough about the world to turn motion into the natural force behind Thunder magic. That on its own is incredibly useful, in a few ways. Our people use it a lot, really, but it isn't all that helpful here, except to me."

Miana glanced between the two of us. "And also, I suspect, to him."

"Exactly. If anyone but the God of Storms had asked me... well, suffice it to say, getting a mind and soul from Earth to here requires some help from me. I had some help from that side as well, of course, but the whole project simply wouldn't be worth it to me if I didn't have something that I could hold over the head of dear Ryan to make sure he obeyed my commands."

I felt... kind of disturbed to hear our relationship described that way, and I looked at her, but she seemed somewhere between whimsical and entirely serious. "I'm not some wild person hell bent on betraying you," I said, as Ryan. "You don't need some kind of special tool to keep me in line."

"There are few guarantees in this world, Ryan Valentine. It is best that people be encouraged to do the right thing." She gave me an obviously false sweet smile, one that seemed to have some genuine niceness behind it as well. "You do seem to be a nice guy, and I'm glad of that. But I'll be far more glad when I know that I have the ability to take something away from you, that I'm sure you'll want to keep."

"A generator, and I imagine a bunch of batteries as well, or the chemistry knowledge to make my own." Ryan-Me crossed my arms over my chest, more because the room was a little chill than anything else. Xethram-Me was too used to being cold to be uncomfortable, which in itself made me uncomfortable.

"A few. I can give you chemical samples, and that will let you refine more, if you like. Or you can trade for more batteries, later. I do intend for this to be an equitable arrangement."

I shook my head, and decided on a lark to let Xethram speak up. "Equitable? My dear lady, certainly you know very well just how much advantage you have given me. What then can I do to make this deal more equitable to you?"

"Ah!" Erika gave a slightly false romantic swoon, and her voice suddenly held a kind of whimsical nobility to it, the kind a roleplayer likes to pick up when pretending to be a lady of ages past. "A gentleman after my own heart. Equity, dear sir, is not a difficult matter, for you already know how dearly I hold your services, but I assure you there will be many services in particular that I will ask of you with all the brusqueness and assertiveness that you have come to expect from me, and well, I have learned well in ages past that such an unfortunately one-sided arrangement is most commonly resented by other parties. It is for that reason that I am quite eager to make sure that our relationship starts out much more pleasantly than some of the others I've had because," and here her tone dropped, and I sensed an undercurrent of reality to her words, although she didn't need to pause as the tone shifted, "I can assure you, our relationship will suffer in the future, as you are forced to deal with me in the times in my life where I am far less reasonable. At this age, I'm almost always far nicer than I'll be in another thirty years, let alone another three hundred."

I blinked at that. She'd explained some parts of her history, and said she would have "descendants", but the way she said it now made it sound like she was just being reincarnated into new bodies constantly. Did she have a cloning rig? And the ability to migrate her mind and soul, as she had mine?

"And these batteries do what?" Miana seemed content to pretend none of that ever happened.

"They store power. I can't give you as many as you need, but it should be enough for a fair little light show." Erika frowned and fidgeted around a bit. "Actual storm-driven lightning contains a lot more energy than the batteries I'll give you, but most of that power is wasted. And as I'm sure you realized," she glared at Xethram-me, which was where 'I' was, "you wasted an enormous amount of power with that storm. That's always the way of storms, because they are so large, but it was a truly monumental waste."

Both of me sighed. "I know," said Xethram.

Erika shook her head. "I suspect over time, you'll find a way to merge your domain, magic, chemistry, and magnets to create some interesting ways of storing power, but I should caution you, in case you ever feel that you are doing anything particularly clever, that the whole system of magic on this planet is powered by thermal generators. The resulting energy is distributed worldwide, and as with your storm, much of it is wasted, but if you ever feel like comparing yourself to the Arch Sorcerers, the first thing you need to do is give unlimited power to everyone in the world. Until you meet that level of merging technology and magic, you're nothing compared to them."

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I swallowed and nodded. Alanna might have been able to come up with more interesting questions to ask of her about that, but the shock of having the topic so brazenly broached was kind of... shocking.

Ha, shocking, electric. Never mind.

"You can't use that power?" Miana was asking.

"The Dragon System adds properties to the natural forces," responded Erika. "The particular tools I use are incompatible with that. I have a series of enchantments that will be placed around the generator to make sure the output of the generator is very specifically exempt from that, and," she looked at me, "you will respect that. I've already designed an outlet that can send you power from the batteries without tainting it, but those rooms have to remain pure, or it's of no value to me. That means no casting magic on anything in there, or using magic in there, in any way except the few I approve of. Okay?"

I nodded again. "The rooms are yours, My Lady," replied Xethram-me. "I am very appreciative of your trust, but in this, I can only consider you a specialist, and respect your knowledge and insight."

"Indeed." Erika smirked and steepled her fingers. "I am pleased that you have accepted this. Very well. Come along, let's see how they're doing."

In the next half hour, we watched and waited as the diggers dug, the rock-mover moved rocks, and the enchanter engraved a great many glyphs in the walls, ceilings, and floors. Entirely too fast, all things considered, we had a room with a fairly strong waterfall going through it, which disappeared into a hole in the floor.

And then, for the first time, I saw the effect that Erika used to teleport things.

It was an odd sort of spatial tear, one ringed with electricity, or rather, one that spouted static bolts along its edges as it moved. The tear opened very quickly, and dumped out a large turbine into the space--dumped meaning specifically that it was guided in on beams of light, ones that looked like industrial clamps you might see in a factory. Within a few moments, with no obvious effort on Erika's part to control the whole process, the turbine was installed in the best possible spot for it, and the equipment slipped back up through the hole, which snapped shut effortlessly.

Erika nodded, and moved up to the turbine, tapping her fingers on a digital control panel on the side. Satisfied, she nodded. "Okay. Now, the battery closet."

In the smaller room, the racks of batteries might as well have appeared out of nowhere, because they were deployed in instants, along with an obvious controller near the front of the room and two large coils of thick wire. With no obvious effort, Erika gestured and a hole appeared in the wall, which the cables fed themselves through, seemingly automatically, while with her hands she plugged them into the controller, and then took a series of smaller (but not small) leads and attached them to each level of the rack. The batteries, I noted, were already wired into the rack.

She gestured us outside, pressed some buttons on the generator's console, went back into the battery closet for a moment, and another hole appeared in the wall. Shortly after, an outlet box appeared on the wall, clattering against it as Erika adjusted the wiring.

And then she was done, and stepped out of the closet, nodding. "In theory, it should just work. The generator will shut off when the batteries are full. There's a box in there with stuff on the batteries, but that's not for now. This," and she gestured to the outlet, "you can take power from, but nothing else. When it's fully charged, you should get up to one hundred amps at ten thousand volts, though at that current you won't get it for very long."

I boggled at that number, not having experienced anything of that voltage in my daily life. "Are you serious?"

"Just don't do magic on any other part of the system. And keep everyone out, starting now." She glanced at Miana. "That means you, too, Miana. You can ask him questions about it; he understands the principles. For now, I need to get back to my station. Are you two going to be okay?"

I had a moment where I wanted to give a default answer to the question, but forced myself to think. Knowing that the worst necromancer wasn't close, we still had to deal with the army and... I guess she specifically said two necromancers? "Maybe. You think we can deal with two necromancers and an army all by ourselves?"

Erika glanced at Miana, who shook her head, slowly, as though still in shock. "The army isn't our concern," she said, slowly. "The Blades must deal with that on their own. But... we have to deal with the necromancers. And 'we' does not only mean 'you'." Miana looked at me, and I felt odd, like I Was being judged in a way I didn't understand. "They are my people. I appreciate your help, and I will need it. But... I do not believe you should be the one to fight them, unless they make their way all the way here."

That seemed like an odd statement, and I tilted my head, waiting for her to explain.

"I am not certain, yet, what it should be, but I know that I must have another Domain, as you have two, and as Alanna does." Miana pursed her lips. "Blades can be many things, but the more I think about the past, about the religion I have joined, the more I realize that every goddess has wanted to die exactly because they have lived only for the sword. To be the sword of my people... that is an honor, but it cannot be all of life."

"You don't need my help just to have two domains," I said, quietly. "You simply have to add to what you have."

She shook her head. "I have to change," she said. "I... no, I need to think about this more. You may be right."

I glanced towards where Erika should have been, but she was gone, subtly enough that I didn't even notice. I shook my head at that, but offered Miana a smile. "Of course, just let me know."

She stared at the ground as she marched out, and I used divine magic to conceal the entrance to the hidden rooms, then let Ryan go inside and nap for a while while I walked around as Xethram.