[Claim the Land!] Caraid urged me.

[All Sidhe knows that blood will make the crops grow! The energies released from this battle; the blood sacrificed from both of you, those he killed, and those wounded will empower the claim.]

[You have fought for and won against an enemy, protected what you hold sacred, the Lands you claim will resonate with the power of your determination. Those energies, those ideals that you have demonstrated will help in directing the path your territory will take in the future.]

[You have slain a Ranked Duke and dispelled the power of three Pantheons. The investiture and elevation to King that System has seeded will use those variables to ensure that your claim is complete, there will be no waiting period where claimants can compete for and force you from your Lands. You have already proven yourself in battle.]

[You have battled and withstood not only the schemes of Gods but tokens of their power and approval.]

[There can be no better place to stake your claim then here where the saturation of battle energies permeates the air and ground. Blood has been spilled, claim the Land, and create your faction.]

It wasn’t what I had planned. The area my council and I had discussed was much closer to the Sidhe capital that housed the Seelie and Unseelie thrones. The world capital, Cathair-bhaile, a city divided in half, each faction claiming that part of the city that was closest to their realms. A city located at a place of confluence. Where three landmasses joined together. The Seelie and Unseelie separated by the neutral continent in the middle. The land that I was going to claim.

I agreed with Caraid’s assessment. I could feel the energies from battle, held in abeyance as if the world were holding its breath, waiting for my decision. The ritual to claim the land was part dance part sex act. A sharing of blood, magic, and essence that the Land absorbed, filtered, and used to revitalize areas that had been long neglected.

Removing my clothing, I embraced the earth, wind, and sun. The rich loam of soil connecting with my body as my toes wiggled to reach deeper within the earth. The smells of summer wafting past as the wind became more, unfolding with that otherness that hinted at the Wild Magic. The sun baking the Earth restoring life and releasing the frozen sap of plants that had hibernated over the long winter.

Life.

Myriad and wondrous connecting with me through my skin and senses. The history of this place, the ancient flow of lava that had eroded over time into the soil that gave life unfolded before my sight. A panoramic display of the millions of eons that this Planet required to form and shape dead ore and mineral into the required compost to support the first fragile mutations of life.

God touched and claimed. The Sidhe Pantheon intervened. Danu investing this world with her will and focus until there was no way to distinguish between the Planet and the Divine nature of Danu.

Where my feet touched, as I began my dance, disjointed at first, becoming more frenzied as I leaped, twirled, and celebrated, life germinated. Plants grew like weeds, giving birth to a plethora of seeds the wind and wild magics swallowed. Plants grew, bloomed, and germinated. Seeds of change that simulated the cycle of life released in the wind. More and more seeds released obscuring the sky and coalescing into a great swarming tornado of blackness.

As the winds gathered those seeds, the Wild Magic arrived, joining the energies of the battle that had been released here, it began to harvest the stray bits of DNA that made me, me. Sweat, flaking skin cells, the stray hair, and the bits of spent magic that trailed my movement. Those bits and flotsam, the detritus that I shed as part of daily living were multiplied and imprinted into the seeds that I have given rise too. My DNA becoming intrinsic to the potential for life each seed possessed.

The Wild Magic was prolific in creating an ever-growing collection of seed stock, sparks of intent, and magic that once imbued with my essence was forevermore connected with me. It was like growing a new limb, this expanding cloud of magical seeds, and like my arm it was controllable, I could move them as easily as I could make a fist.

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[CHOOSE]

System had somehow merged the voice of the Tuatha de Danaan Gods. Danu, Beleros, Cyronax, the entire Pantheon of Gods joined into a cacophony of sound that reverberated around the entire planet. The command was followed by the creation of a magical construct that represented the world. Areas that had been claimed by the Seelie and Unseelie faction were shaded in red, obscured, and beyond my reach.

But for those areas that were not claimed, the detail was absolute. It was as if a fog of war had been removed and I could focus and bring into greater detail any area that had yet to be selected. The continent that had been reserved and earmarked as neutral was not the only area that was available.

On the other side of the planet, between the factions was another landmass that divided the two enemies. A great chasm, easily as large as any of the other landmasses. An area of fire and brimstone, a place of pooling lava flows and toxic venting gases. It made life, even for Sidhe, difficult. This continent had been seeded to those creatures that were best able to adapt to the extreme conditions required for life to flourish.

Imps, Salamanders, Drakes, and Dragons. Rare plants that absorbed both heat and chemicals. Small enclaves for those Sidhe were gifted with bloodlines that allowed them to not only ignore but thrive in the sweltering conditions.

I considered choosing only a modest amount, an area that might be overlooked by those hoping to make use of the transformation that was about to happen, before deciding that made no sense. Lohne and I had discussed this. The more Land I could claim, the larger the impact on the political landscape.

Selecting the continent that had been ignored, I also selected three island archipelagos, hoping to extend my reach, uncertain if the System would allow it. The addition didn’t add a lot of lands, that might have been the reason why they had been ignored, but I didn’t have time to research why. I selected them because they had never come up in a discussion with my Council. It suggested that there was something about these islands that allowed them to shroud themselves in a fog of forgetfulness.

The Wild Magic howled in glee as I applied the boon from [Danu’s Kiss] to my selection. I had always meant to use the boon, but my understanding of how the Wild Magic would respond was wrong. I thought [Danu’s Kiss] would allow me to claim threefold more Land. It did, but not in the way I expected.

I’d assumed there was a limit to how much one person was able to claim, and that [Danu’s Kiss] would extend that limit, that I would be able to claim a larger area. That wasn’t how the boon worked. Those areas that I had highlighted and selected on the System generated globe were within the allowance that I was entitled. Perhaps if I were still a Ranked Prince that wouldn’t have been the case, but my completion of the CERN dungeon quest had elevated my Rank to King in truth.

A King without a country was still a Power and for the Sidhe, he was entitled to the same prerogatives as a Landed King. What [Danu’s Kiss] did was change the landscape of the territory I had claimed. Restoring life and energy to that part of the continent that had been bereft of energies and slowly starved of ley-line energies.

Perhaps if two-thirds of the territory hadn’t been drained, [Danu’s Kiss] may have worked differently, but as part of the boon, System identified and displayed on the holographic projection of the planet, the reason the territory had such weak and starved ley-line energies. The Seelie and Unseelie had diverted the free-flowing energies, they had each created a dam that siphoned and funneled a huge amount of the energy that should have been contained and used to revitalize and support life from the lands considered neutral into their own domains.

The Wild Magic destroyed those dams. Fresh magics sprang forth as the tide of liquid energy was funneled back into the starved reservoirs. Channels were expanded and raging rapids of destruction were placed where the dams had been created. Churning rivers of volatile energies that erupted, tidal waves of power that would not allow itself to be tamed and stolen again.

As the ley-lines filled, a tsunami of destruction and expansion took place. New rivers of magic expanded throughout the territory. Once fertile and bountiful forests and meadows deprived of magic, greedily harvested the new energies, restoring what had been lost.

In those areas that were held in the grasp of Winter’s sleep, the expanding energies were stored, held in abeyance until the Sun’s warmth once again returned life and fertility to fields and streams long-neglected and abandoned.

That cloud of seeds, the sparks that resonated with my signature, exploded in a titanic event. Wind and magics funneling them so that they scattered. Following atmospheric tailwinds, those bits of energy and life were guided to every area that I had claimed.

Seeds that the System planted until every location had been reached and a thunderous release of rain and storm swept those particles from the sky, cascading so that every rock, plant, animal, and person that resided within the territory I had just claimed was marked as mine.

That instinctive knowledge, that ability to control and be aware, magnified exponentially so that what I had claimed, became mine to direct and know. And as the rains, winds, and thunder raged, the Wild Magic danced in delight activating and enhancing the gift of creation contained within [Danu’s Kiss].