Flying has become far more enjoyable for me than it was when I first attempted it. Looking down at my young city and the people living their simple lives inside, feeling the wind rush past my feathers, is incredibly soothing. There’s still a little worry that I might fall and hurt myself, but it isn't any worse than the unease I would feel from running on uneven terrain. My wings are a part of my body, and I've come to trust in them.
Also, to keep my heavy body in the air, a great deal of strength has to go into every beat of my wings. Something about working my muscles and feeling the power within them is deeply pleasing to me. I've heard similar sentiments from several of my fighters, so I think it might be a trait of the Orc race.
Landing has become my favorite part of a flight. If I time it well, I can fall to just above the ground and flap once more to break my momentum. The air pressure stirs up a nice dust cloud.
Well, I won't land like that if others are close by. It would be rude if I got them dirty. I can just clear the dust off with earth magic though.
After taking a nice flight, I spent some time with the women. They were working diligently, but apparently they're very bored. They started saying things like, “Hurry up and start the lessons again,” and “Did you do something else crazy for us to gossip about yet?”
Hmm. I'm away from Babylon a lot these days. It would be better if their entertainment didn't rely on me. There’s that metaphor about teaching a man to fish, right? It would be good if I could do something like that.
“Why don't you all sing while you work? It’s supposed to make things more enjoyable.”
I honestly thought that this suggestion would be enough to open their eyes to this obvious truth, but they just looked at me with eyes that were even more narrow and beady than usual.
“Lord Vyra, what is “sing”?”
Apparently Orcs don't have a culture of singing. As a former Human, this is one of the most shocking things I've heard about my people.
“Well, humm,” I crossed my arms and bent my back. It’s a little tricky explaining something so simple. “Singing uses the same things that talking does. You use rhythm and pitch to produce a melody, and you can add words so the song will have a meaning. I guess I should just show you?”
I already tested my voice a long time ago when I was trying to use
To improve the Orcs’ understanding of singing, I made up a little song without putting much thought into it.
“~I like the little cat-thiiing that cliiimbs in the treeees. Why won't one cooome ooout so I can pet iiit~ Well, something like that. You can sing about anything and make it as long or as short as you want. If someone makes a song that others like a lot, they can all learn it and sing it together. See?”
“Owah! Lord, how did you do that with your voice?!”
“I see, I see! With this we can have lots of fun!”
“Eh? Um, can someone help explain it to me?”
“Let’s try it out now!”
I'd be lying if I said all the Orc women had nice voices. In fact, most of them didn't, but they weren't bad to listen to either. They had the kind of not-great singing voices that others would still have fun singing along with, and you could still sort of tell what they were trying to make their voices do.
There were a few that were better at it than the rest. They would probably become wonderful to listen to after some practice. There didn't seem to be anyone horrible enough to make me block my ears.
I messed around with the women for a little longer, singing songs and being sung to, while laughing at some of the stupid lyrics that sometimes came up. Once my Magic Power had recharged, I parted with them to go and earnestly examine my new spells.
The first one I want to properly examine is
Just in case something happened to make me misfire, I went out to where my castle was located to test the spell. The three-dimensional Spell Pattern I formed around me was packed so densely with my Magic Power that I could almost see the distortions in the air with my naked eyes. The “hole” that had existed in the center of my third level Spell Patterns had become something much deeper. It no longer felt like a gap where I could place things, but a vacuum which would collapse if it wasn't filled.
I felt certain that if I allowed this hole to collapse, the rest of the Spell Pattern would fall apart with it.
What a volatile spell.
I started to feed the spell my intentions. I put in concepts of what I wanted to build, where I wanted to build it, and what it should be made of. Even so, the hole was still spinning wildly and calling for more.
So I gave it more. How thick should the walls be? What about carved decorations? How about the furniture inside? How tightly should the soil be packed? Which way should the crystals grow? What kind of conductive properties should the metals have? What about the mineral content in the stones? It still wasn't enough.
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I was utterly unwilling to let such a difficult spell fail after working so hard to hand craft it. So I expanded the area and repeated what I had detailed above. When that wasn't enough, I made it wider still. Until the radius of the spell’s influence was nearly touching the currently inhabited area, I kept expanding it. But the hole still didn't seem satisfied. At this point, I knew I wouldn't be able to fill it with only this surface information. Since I didn't know what else to do, I opened up my Mind and allowed the suction power of that hole to reach inside.
Take whatever else you need, if it’s even in there.
I had given the spell working specifications. What it wanted now must be that thing called Law. Since I can use
I was unsure if it really would, but the hole became a vortex and reached inside of the Mind I had opened for it. After spinning around inside me until I felt nauseous, the hole finally filled and the spell activated.
Every last drop of Magic Power was promptly sucked from my body. I didn't even know if the spell had succeeded at first because I had fallen unconscious.
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When I opened my eyes, father was looking down at me, trying to shake me awake.
“... .ll..”
My head felt thick and heavy. His lips looked like they were moving too slowly, and his words were thick and garbled. It felt like my head was flooded with water.
I put my hand on his to stop him from shaking me, and then took some time to recover.
“Muh,” I slowly sat up and rubbed my head, “did the spell fail?”
Rigdam looked at me while supporting my back.
“I don't know what effect this spell you cast was supposed to have, but if it was to build a glorious city, then I think it has at least succeeded to some extent.”
When my eyes were no longer too delicate to take in the sun’s rays, I took a look around. Immediately, my pupils dilated as far as they could, and I used my wings to shove myself onto my feet.
“This is Babylon?!”
In front of my eyes was the castle I had built the other day, only it was no longer a dirt and clay castle where only it's construction speed could be praised. Now, it was built of gleaming sea-green crystals as wide around as my body and almost twice my height. The crystals climbed to the sky and gathered the sunlight within their bodies, glittering like a natural wonder.
Deep within the crystal structure, I could see through to some thick black metal which was supporting and protecting the interior. On either side of the marble staircase, leading to the large granite and gold doors, was a statue of a Dominance Orc--similar to me, but not me--wielding a majestic Short Lance.
The shocking thing was that that glorious castle didn't look out of place. The surroundings had also changed significantly. The packed earth beneath my feet was now a wide street, paved with glossy black quartz bricks. There were wide sidewalks along the sides of the street, paved with smooth white quartz bricks. Tall light posts made of blue metal were placed at regular intervals, and there were holes placed between the slightly lower road and the slightly higher sidewalks to allow water to drain. Neither the drains nor the light posts were currently functioning, but the structures were there and ready to be used.
Past the street I looked around to see the buildings I had intended to be nearest to the castle, but they weren't placed exactly where I had drawn them on my city blueprints. Several structures had changed in size or shape and even switched places with other buildings, but nothing felt off about this current layout.
All the buildings were constructed from various materials and emphasized various architectural techniques, but they all had two things in common. None of them used any wood in their designs (obviously), and all of them had well-ordered geometric carvings added for decoration. These carvings used mostly straight lines and right--or forty-five degree--angles. They were the kind of carvings I used to like making during my old life as a lapidary.
Feeling far too excited, I excused myself and took to the air. The view of Babylon is completely different now that so much has been built. The vast empty space has been replaced by countless works of art, all arranged in an orderly, yet lively, fashion. It was the kind of city that could make me feel healed just by looking at it. From the sky, I spotted the library, the research facility, the academy, the military barracks and training field, as well as rows and rows of homes just a bit farther away. There are also a few buildings that look to be Guild halls, as far as I can tell, and more.
All of them… I couldn't make them any better if I tried. They're even mostly furnished on the inside!
After looking until I had my fill, I landed again near father.
“It’s even more amazing than I hoped,” I told him.
“Well, it’s something I’d never imagined seeing before today. But I don't get any feeling of anxiety from these strangely beautiful buildings. What is this fragile-looking stone set in the ground?”
Father tapped his hooves against the black quartz bricks, releasing high-pitched clacking sounds.
“I think it’s quartz,” hesitation leaked into my voice. “But I didn't ask for quartz roads. In fact, quartz is somewhat weak to physical force, isn't it?”
As if to test that assumption, I stomped my heel onto one of the bricks, promptly mashing it into small pieces. “Hiii!” A surprised sound left my mouth as I panicked over breaking my brand new road.
Why is it made of something so fragile?! I'm sure I asked for something sturdier when I put the information in manually! I'm so sorry!
However, my worry didn't last long. Before my eyes, I watched as the shattered pieces of crystal drew themselves back together, forming a smooth surface as if nothing had happened.
Unsure of what I had just witnessed, my lips moved slowly, “It repaired itself?”
Intending to test this concept, I punched a hole in one of the nearby walls, then bent a lamp post. One by one, they slowly, but visibly, reverted back to their original shapes.
“This is amazing,” Rigdam muttered. “An indestructible city. What would the Descendants think of something like this, I wonder?”
When I opened my mouth slightly, as if to answer him, I felt something wet land on my cheek. I'm crying, I realized. Father realized it too.
“Vyra?!” He seemed to notice that I wasn't in any pain, nor was my expression sad at all. “Is it really amazing enough to cry over?”
“Ah,” I wiped my tears away, but they just started falling again. My breathing wasn't affected at all, so I could still talk normally. “Even if I explained it, I don’t think there are others in the world who would understand. For now let’s just say that the spell I used pulled the ideal image of a city out of my mind, and did a great justice to my citizens while it was at it.”
Father tilted his head, but I could see him doing his best to sympathize. “I suppose anyone would be happy to live in a nice place like this.”
I laughed and finally stopped crying, putting on an energetic face. “You should have passed a place with lots of houses on the way here. Have everybody pack up their things and move to those buildings. There’s enough for everybody to have their own, but they can live together if they prefer that. It’s almost time to get rid of that temporary housing. Ah, I hope Fiara finishes that teleportation research soon.”
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