I waited for the uproar to die down, and as soon as I felt it fading I raised a hand for silence. “Let’s get to work,” I said. “I’ll outline the plan in brief and then we can get started. First, Hassina has about two hundred and fifty thousand essence along with some boons.”

Various cheers and sounds of amazement went up from the gathered elves, and I was soon raising a hand for silence yet again.

“On a related note: this cave was the lair of a mighty beast that expired only recently, a cat named Palefang. His urine and feces are likely deterring most potential predators from coming to check on us even if they can hear or sense us, but that’s not something I want to count on. The plan is to fortify this position and build our strength while we scout out a location for a permanent settlement. This world’s dangers are unknown to us, and so I also want backup settlements and clear paths we can all traverse to get to them in case we need to move quickly.”

I turned my attentions to Hassina again. “Two things I need right away. Have one of the weavers start enchanting a bow for me—conjured arrows. And pick one of the shapers to give us a report on the quality of the [Air] aspect.”

Hassina nodded. “Fireesha and Galeena,” she said, picking elves out of the crowd. “Get to it.”

While Fireesha grabbed the cores and essence she would need from Hassina and Galeena began to murmur a spell, I continued.

“I want Hassina, Seriana, Valir, Zirilla, and Mirio with me for a moment. We’ll choose a true high council once a permanent settlement is established, but until then, these five and I will do it.”

I looked over the crowd and picked my next-most senior officer after Valir and Zirilla. “Larash.”

“Lux Irovex!” He said, straightening immediately.

He’d used my official title. Unlike most species in the cosmos, elvish titles of high eminence were party unique to the person who bore them—as immortals, the people in our highest positions of power rarely changed. “Lux” essentially implied the rank of a queen or princess, and “Irovex” was my own personal epithet. It meant sky-sunderer in Maian Elvish—I’d gotten it for throwing lightning bolts and killing dragons.

Normal day-to-day usually saw few people other than my soldiers using my title except when they wanted to formally show respect—but I had a feeling I’d be hearing a lot more in the days to come.

“Get everyone organized and get these bags unloaded,” I told Larash. “I want squads and weapons stationed at the entrances to the cave. We’ll have more orders for all of you shortly.”

There was a bustle as Larash began shouting out orders and I pulled my people further toward the cave’s entrance for a short council. We’d brought a large number of supplies with us: not just weapons and armor but tools, books, seeds… we’d only been able to take a limited quantity of mass across the cosmos, but we’d made it count.

“Valir,” I said, turning to him. He was one of the largest elves I’d ever known. Primeval mana had mutated him just as it had me—turning his blonde hair flame-red and growing him to a height of seven and a half feet. He had a broad face, his heavy jaw making his features seem more human than elven, and he always seemed to wear a neutral, almost disinterested expression. I could rarely tell what he was thinking.

“You’re heading our defenses,” I told him. “The bulk of our guards should be [Body] classes for now. At level 10, and with a few rank 1 cores, they’ll have high enough attributes to solve a great deal of problems with arrows, spears, and shield walls. Support them with whatever other personnel you see fit to take.”

He inclined his head. “Lux Irovex.”

“Zirilla,” I said, turning to her where she had already been standing at my side. She was my head elementalist, and one of the few remaining sea elves, with many scales and pearls set into a huge head of wild, curly brown hair. Her typical expression was one of someone who was both bored, and holding back some sarcastic retort. It made her look much younger than she was: Zirilla, along with Luthiel, Seriana, and myself, was one of the only elves to remember our lost world of Maia.

Our first lost world, now.

Gods, I felt old.

“Work with Valir. Assign firedancers and stormcallers as he needs them, then get our channelers and waterweavers and make some mana wells ready to be used in case we need to defend this position. After that, supervise the earthmovers in making fortifications.” I turned to Hassina. “Are we keeping the second [Lightning 3]?”

Palefang had given two boons with [Lightning 3], after all—and Zirilla was the natural choice to receive it.

“Definitely.”

“It’s either for Zirilla or whoever she picks.”

“I pick me,” said Zirilla, mouth curling into a smile. “Two [Lightning 3], Aziriel? Just what were you up to before we got here?” She eyed me up and down. “I see you’ve lost your spear and bow. Hard fight?”

“Hardly,” I told her. “He didn’t even get me down to my fists. But I’ll tell you all about it later.”

“But… who’s the other [Lightning] key going to?” Zirilla asked.

I paused to give her a flat look, then carried on as if she’d said nothing. “Let’s make this cave safe,” I said. “Steps to traverse the different levels are a better defensive feature than outside fortifications when the alternative is jumping and climbing ropes. It’s dangerous enough outside, so let’s make sure nobody is going to fall to their deaths because they tripped on a rock.”

“Steps and railings, coming right up,” Zirilla said.

“Ah—Lux Irovex?” It was Galeena, approaching us from out of the crowd. She was a high elf, with a shrewd face and a bob of silver hair. She was also our head coreshaper, responsible for stripping aspects out of the world to form skill keys in a delicate, controlled fashion that didn’t waste any aspects the way I had when coalescing boons earlier.

“I’m guessing the air has been stripped of its [Air] aspect?” I asked her.

“Yes. Hard to give an exact proportion, but maybe a tenth to a fifth is usable? We’ll have to siphon quite vigorously if we want to capture some [Air] keys.”

Zirilla’s expression became serious—a rare face for her to wear. “That’s… not good.”

“I know,” I told her grimly. “Once the defenses are even a little stable, work with Hassina to start siphoning.”

“Yes,” Zirilla said slowly. “Of course, but—”

“Intelligent air elementals,” I said. “I know. We’ll handle that particular problem once we’re in the air, though.”

“As you wish.”

I turned to Mirio. “Mirio.” I smiled. “You look nervous.”

“It’s inexplicable, given the circumstances,” he said, glancing away from me. Mirio, our new Archdruid, was a tall, slender man with ice-blue hair and a thin, pretty face.

My greeting had been something of a joke—Mirio always looked nervous.

He had not been a popular appointment, and while there were many faults to be found in him, his unpopularity stemmed from one simple fact: he was eighty. Sometimes, he acted more like he was forty. I didn’t envy the position I’d put him in—he’d spent the last few weeks having every one of his actions sharpshot by critics looking to show his unworthiness.

But you don’t often find wildhearts in the city, and the ones who’d worked as teachers at Ellistara were mostly rookies. Hence why I’d chosen Mirio: everyone else was dead.

“If I may say something….” he hazarded.

“Go ahead.”

Mirio began speaking, and as he did so, the same thing that always happened when he spoke about his job happened: he lost sight of himself, got absorbed in his thoughts, and slowly inflated with confidence.

“The mana here is twenty-six percent primeval,” he said. “It’s both more dense and more highly concentrated than any we’ve seen in a natural environment. Convergences arise as a possible defense mechanism above a threshold of four percent primeval concentration. Given all that… I’m worried that this world could be past some second threshold we’ve never witnessed. The convergences here could work differently than on Aranar, or there could be some other defensive adaptation using the [Wild Bond], one that we have heretofore never witnessed but that adds an unknown risk factor.”

“That sounds like a reasonable worry. Thoughts?”

“Well, I think we can’t be too cautious,” he said. “For now, I really don’t think anyone should leave this cave except you. Even assuming normal convergences, a monster who hunts with the [Wild Bond] could fly overhead, detect us, and bring an army to our door. Now, you triggered a convergence and should have been assimilated into the local ecosystem when it failed to kill you. But I still think we should be ready.”

“I agree,” I said. “The convergence I triggered didn’t exactly run to its fullest conclusion—my battle with the cat who used to live here interrupted it.”

Mirio frowned. “Interrupted… the whole thing? All of the creatures were pushed back?”

“There was lightning. And everything was deathly cold for a while.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Ah. Well, as long as you didn’t flee, that should—” he seemed to catch himself. “Ah, sorry, Lux Irovex. You know all this.”

I regarded him for a moment. “I want you to sit with Luthiel as he keeps watch,” I said. “You both see far—help direct him in where he’s pointing his gaze. Both of you can dig into the minds of the creatures around us. Assess threats.”

“Ah—yes, Lux Irovex.”

“Something wrong?” I asked, arching a brow, daring him to object to being assigned to work with the traitor.

“No!” he said quickly. “No, no of course not. I’ll go see Luthiel.”

“As for your recommendation,” I said. “I’ll be the only one going outside until we can get me in the air. At that point we can send out hunting parties while I sit atop the nest, ready to be dispatched if they run into trouble.”

“Good,” he said. “That sounds, ah, good.”

“And put the rest of the wildhearts under Valir’s command. In time they’ll be our biggest asset—but it’ll be a while before we can reliably communicate with the wildlife here to do anything other than spy them out and kill them. And the animal spirit skills are all so costly—we have limited mana keys to support them with.”

“I most definitely agree, Lux Irovex.”

“Good,” I said. I turned to Seriana, our new archmage. She was tall, slender, and had a head of straight, neatly-cut black hair that was shot through with streaks of a bright, vivid green.

“We’ll get the rest of the seers to divide the area around us into wedges and keep watch with Mirio and Luthiel,” I said. “And there’s a stash of bones on the upper level of the cave that I’m sure the weavers will be interested in. Apart from those two things, we’re going to need to enchant our bows—spare some [Weave] classes to ensure there’s at least enough aspect in some of them to get started.”

“Right,” she said, nodding. “And if I may,” she added, “I have a few personnel who I think could do work on composing some deterrent spells with runework—fire, mostly, but possibly some conjured caltrops and the like.”

“Good,” I said. “Handle it however you need to.” I glanced around us, then lowered my voice. “And let Ranival know that we’ll be furnishing his people with [Decay Magick] as soon as we have the keys. After that, we’ll have them in the field—but when we find a permanent settlement, they’ll be a crucial part of our defenses.”

Seriana nodded slowly, her face impassive. “I’ll see to it.”

Ranival and his people were our white necromancers. Classes with [*Death] cores were typically not something that most people had any desire to live alongside—they were extraordinarily dangerous, and their magic could motivate them toward heinous acts. But Ranival and his people were proven elves of principle—elves whose names needed no polish.

I turned to Hassina. “Approximate key distribution?”

“They’re going to to the [Body] classes first, then ensuring that the odd [Sight], [Fire], [Lightning], [Frost], and [Life] class is keyed up to be combat-ready while saving pretty well all our [Mana] and [Missile] keys for bows.”

“Good,” I said. I nodded, then added: “I know you’ve got numbers, Hassina. Let me have them..”

“2 655 elves, not including yourself,” she said. “Average tier of class is 2.7. So: 717 000 to get them all to level 5. For level 10, 1 577 000 essence. All told, about 2.3 million essence to get us started, though you’ve put a dent in it with your 260 000.”

“A dent.”

Hassina flashed a smile at me. “Come now, Aziriel. We both know you could have tried a little harder out there.”

Mirio’s head snapped over to Hassina, his mouth agape. Everyone else, though, was used to her jokes, and gave her remark little attention.

Hassina made a show of sighing with regret. “In any case, getting keys to fuse with all our cores is more important than gaining levels—and that’s going to take twelve and a half thousand keys, assuming one per core. Counting two thousand bows, we’ll need sixteen and a half thousand keys—an essence value of 8.2 million.”

“Well,” said Zirilla. “Nothing she didn’t know coming in, I suppose.” She looked around us, at the walls of the cave. “We can fortify this place easily, but the lack of soil and foliage on the slopes just outside have me worried about flooding—unless it’s the mists that strip the soil, not rain. How long do you intend us to stay in this place, Aziriel?”

“Depends on circumstances, but ideally not more than a week.”

“It seems to me, then,” said Hassina, “that we may well find ourselves moving to a more permanent settlement only after we’ve gotten the essence—but before we’ve gotten the keys. Not ideal.”

“No, but it can be done,” said Valir. “We’ll still have elven arrows, air power, the right support and a few strong champions to divert the attentions of any divergences. If the terrain is right, all the better.”

“It can be done,” I agreed. “Now, as I see it there’s a lot more that can be said, but we’ve covered what we need to for now. Start picking the people you need and get to it. I’ll sort my own keys out with Hassina, then get hunting. But one more thing before you go.”

I looked around at each of them. “Every one of you is responsible for keeping up morale. We have momentum, now. We have a shared vision of what the future should be and the knowledge that we can work together to bring it about. I know I don’t need to tell any of you the great value to be found in that truth, and how much we all need it. Now: take what Hassina can give and get started.”

They nodded, then each took turns laying their hand in Hassina’s gathered palms. I watched them all as they first touched her hands, then made the minute posture changes that always seemed to accompany a sudden growth in power—the straightened back, the slow, satisfied inhale, the gentle nod. Then they split off to start assigning tasks to their various personnel.

I took Hassina over to a nearby wall, then used my [Frost Magick] to write my skills and attributes on conjured sheet of ice.

“Interesting,” she said, looking it over. “You’re completely physical.”

“Circumstances sort of called for it.”

“I would’ve thought you’d make a high [Channel] and then pummel everything with circle magic.”

“I did that,” I said defensively. “Just without the high [Channel].”

She shot me a bemused look. “All on natural abilities? The ancient master of primeval spellcraft showed her quality, I’m sure.”

“I couldn’t afford to be fragile once the intelligent spellcasting cat appeared,” I said. “As it happens, being strong enough to leap thirty meters and agile enough to dodge a flurry of falling leaves is a good foundation for a spellcaster. Physical attributes are defensive as well as efficiently offensive.”

“Efficiency? We’re bathing in free mana. And if you want some more numbers, your [Channel] is a hundred and forty percent more powerful than everyone else’s.”

“A little more than that,” I said, glancing at the board.

She made a show of rolling her eyes. “Sorry if I missed the last four percent, Lux Irovex.”

?—Your [Primeval Resonance]: 108% Effective, 54% Base

With my 40% primeval mana, I channeled 148% faster—they didn’t multiply together, just added. “You missed eight percent, actually.”

“Okay, well sorry I missed the other last four percent, then.”

“And my [Primeval Power] makes my attribute increases very strong. With a good bow, and infinite arrows—”

Hassina sighed. “Look, Aziriel. You’re my friend, all right? I know you’re not perfect—you don’t have to work so hard to justify your mistakes to me.”

I glared at her. My glare is not an expression which is not typically met with a mischievous smile, and yet Hassina did just that.

“I’ve still got that [Mana 3] for your [Primeval Mana Hide] she said, nodding over to the list. Which—I mean, we’ve got a lot of options, but… I’m making that the priority.”

“Sensible,” I said. [Primeval Mana Hide] allowed one to passively absorb mana from anything touching their skin. In this environment, its strength would be grossly out of proportion with that of other skills. I’d need the constant mana both to maintain flight and to throw lightning.

“The priority beyond that is getting you in the air, naturally,” said Hassina. She nodded to herself. “Okay, I want you to take 12 [Bird], 30 [Body], 12 [Water], 12 [Life], 9 [Armor], 4 [Mana], 3 [Missile] keys. You’re turning [Wild Grace] into [Avian Grace] and then [Kite’s Grace] once I’ve got the keys. [Frost Magick] is becoming [Air Magick]. [Life Magick] is eventually getting replaced with [Primeval Mana].”

“No healing?” I asked.

Hassina gave me a sidelong glance and a wry smile. “I’m assuming you’ve left the carcass of a giant cat somewhere for someone else to pick up?”

“I have. It’s… well, it’s about five hundred meters down a nearby cliff. In the middle of swamp.”

Now it was Hassina’s turn to glare at me, slowly crossing her arms as she did so. She waited a few moments, then continued as if I hadn’t said anything. “Your second binding can be a [Blood Magick] item, then—a cloak or some teeth or something. It doesn’t matter what his class was, Fireesha says that all dead primeval classes can make the blood hidden aspect.”

“She’s right,” I said.

Hidden aspects were composed of normal aspects—{Blood} was made of [Body], [Life], and [Water]. Because [Life] was a subtype of [Wild], and [Water] was a subtype of [Elemental], almost every higher-tier class with any subtype of [Primeval] in its class cores could make the pure {Blood} skill, [Blood Magick].

Enchanting used the innate aspects that an object had accrued through its history to support the essence and aspects that formed its permanent spell. A dead elementalist like Palefang could have his remains support stronger [Elemental]-themed enchantments than any random objects.

When I’d enchanted my matchbow with [Primeval Missile Conjuring], it had helped that I’d killed a few things by launching arrows from it first. Fireesha would be getting me a much better-crafted enchantment, now, and with a less-used bow than the one Palefang had broken. She could do better than I could because was a far more skilled enchantress than I was, and had a little more time to work with.

{Blood} enchantments worked best on the remains of something that had once had a circulatory system, and the remains of a creature who had once wielded [Body], [Life], or [Water] aspects—or any of their higher-order aspects. The more powerful the creature, the better. Palefang’s bones or hide would make a good {Blood} binding, and so would those of any powerful creature to be found here.

“The bones you mentioned might even do it,” Hassina continued. “The ones on the upper level, I mean. But [Primeval Mana] is easy to build onto, and we can probably get away with just that and the manahide when it comes to getting you the mana you need to support flight.” She paused, worked her mouth. “You know that counting [Surge of Might], you’ve got five attribute increasers?”

“Look at the attributes, though.”

“I know, I know,” she said, glancing at the wall where I’d written them. “But we’re agreed that you’re pivoting into spellcasting now, right? Your absurd five-count will keep you in physical attributes for a while now.”

“We’re agreed,” I said.

“Just think,” said Hassina, spreading her arms. “Imagine how many ancient, powerful beings there are on this world, each locked in a constant struggle for survival, each having cultivated a deadly set of skills and instincts that won’t matter at all when your lightning kills them instantly. Here.”

She held out her hands, palms together.

I placed my hand in hers.

+ [Mana 3]

“All right, well it looks like this is your bow,” said Hassina, nodding to where Fireesha was making her way towards us, matchbow in her hands.

“Lux Irovex,” Fireesha said, presenting the bow.

“Thank you, Fireesha. I’ll be putting this to use directly.”

“While you’re gone I’ll work on things to fill your other two bindings,” she said.

“I’ll try not to be out for more than an hour,” I said. I was, to be honest, looking forward to the other bindings—Fireesha knew her art well, and a bound enchantment was at least as powerful as a skill.

“Very well,” Fireesha said, inclining her head. “Good hunting, Lux Irovex.”

“Yeah,” Hassina said, loudly enough that most of the cavern could hear. “Good hunting!”

Suddenly the call was echoed by everyone in earshot as I moved toward the mouth of the cave and took one of the spears they’d started stockpiling there. I shot Hassina a flat look.

It’s for morale, she mouthed.