Chapter 23
Petor sat high in Mirradon’s saddle, watching the surrounding area.
Several academics had various equipment on tripods, checking the level and the straightness of the road that cut out from Ilus’ main gate into dragon falls.
Ikor had several groups organized, those that were marking out where the road would run, others checking it. Teams of mages working together to smooth and level out the ground. More created large ditches on either side of the four cart wide road, a secondary team clearing back the sparse vegetation to give them good sightlines on either side.
Dragon Falls was covered in vines and sparse grasses and plants. Not enough to create the coverage one might see in a forest, but more than enough to obscure one’s sight.
There was also the problem of lava flows. Where teams could they diverted the flows into new paths out of the way of their construction.
Where they couldn’t, the bridge teams were at work with their own guards.
It was interesting to watch, the group changed ahead of them at a walking pace, dozens working together.
Bridges were more complex, taking teams raising up stone from within the lava streams, to create support pillars on the longest. On the smaller ones they’d extrude out a rectangular metal net. It would fall over the lava flow, touching both sides. Then stone would wrap around it like muscles around bone, creating more complex shapes and finishing off the bridge.
The longer ones that required pillars that would grow out of the lava, metal nets would form from the banks, reaching the metal from the pillars, weaving together, then the stone would follow.
The bridges were as solid as the ground they connected to.
Every so often the teams would trade out, mages eating as the rest allowed them to recover their mana quickly.
Petor clicked his tongue. Ikor had stopped up ahead, a team with him taking out tools and spreading out.
Mirradon picked up her pace.
Scouts watched them as they moved, but they didn’t move closer. Petor’s sight saw through them, the concentrations of mana different against the normal background.
“Much better than the dust roads that we had to use with the supply convoys. You weren’t missing much,” Petor said.
Mirradon snorted.
Already her coat was getting stained with the dust.
“Get you a good brushing once this is all done. Just a few hours to go.”
He rode over one of the bridges, as wide as the road and with barriers on either side. He reached the rough unworked ground beyond and picked up the pace. Mirradon moved across the ground with ease, excited to be moving once again.
She slowed as they reached the work site.
A roughly flat pad nearly two hundred meters by a hundred greeted him.
Lines appeared in the ground as people moved. A stable took up one large section, then there was the main building, a secondary for people to wait in, then outdoor buildings.
Ikor tapped on the ground where he was. “This will be better for the washrooms, the magma flow below is faster and constant.” One of the aides made a note as lines sketched out where the walls would be.
“How we looking?” Petor asked, moving over to Ikor.
“Easy to build things in open space, the stone here isn’t that dense, but it is easy enough to drive out the air to increase its strength. Using the metal within its construction as well, these buildings will last long than you and I as long as no one works to destroy them.” He looked around. “Are they watching us.”
Petor checked the horizon.
“Yeah, there’s a group out there, far away, but they’re real mana dense. Think they’re in the green range of cores.”
“Green range of cores,” Ikor shook his head and kept walking, three helpers following him. Petor nudged Mirradon to keep pace. “Most people don’t make it to that level. Green cores could rule over small kingdoms and nations. Heck entire continents on weaker planes.”
Petor shrugged. “I don’t have a good scale to understand it against.”
“We’re going to have to get you some training beyond just fighting to understand what you can do with all of that.” Ikor waved off the subject. “Anyway it will take longer to set up everything we need, but it should give our watchers something interesting to watch.”
“I’ll leave you to it,” Petor said.
“If you’re interested, you’re welcome to follow and ask questions. This is all rather normal to me.”
“Why the metal and stone?”
“Stone is strong by itself, but it is brittle, you hit it along the right grain and it comes apart, run metal through it and it becomes a lot stronger, also you want to mix up the rock to change the grain.”
“The spells you’re using, are you creating stone?”
Ikor laughed. “Why make what you can use? To answer your question, no we aren’t making the metal and stone. We’re looking through the earth, finding what we need and drawing it up to the surface.”
“How?”
“We’re going to have to move the main building ten meters forward, stone isn’t as dense here and there’s a magma flow too close, we’d have to bridge it with stronger materials to reinforce the foundation,” Ikor looked to one of the aides.
“Got it councillor,” They jotted down some notes, erasing lines in the ground and creating new ones, then moving towards the nearest team.
“There are several spells you can use, Magnetic Draw allows you to draw up metals that are magnetic, though they have to be a lower mass than you or you’re going to hurt yourself. There is earth draw that makes the ground turn almost liquid, it churns bringing up what lays below, you stop it when you get a material you want, mine it, keep it up again and just hack out what you want. Really you want two things, one to have a sight that allows you to see through the ground and what lays below. Then you want something that will allow you to manipulate the ground.” Ikor paused, frowned, and shook his head from side to side. “It’s only a one storey building.” He shrugged and moved on. “So used to the towers nowadays. Foundations are key. So, earth moving spells. Desari talked to you on spell forms and intuitive spells.”
“That how there are spells you form by following a preset weave. Then you can take that same spell and alter its effects by changing how it passes through different parts of the nodes?” Petor asked.
“That’s the short and skinny of it.” Ikor picked up his pace, crossing over to the stables. “A mage with earth spells can see through the ground, get it to move, though more complex stuff like this, it’s an art. You use the earth to compress and move the materials you need. If you understand heat you can warm up and cool materials, change their shape and form, like that metal netting for the bridges.” He pointed to a corner. “Lets make that one where the drain is, keep the slope slight else it’ll spook the animals.”
A crossed out square appeared in the corner he pointed to.
“That metal net, we heated it up, made it easier to move, then threaded through one another, drew that head out and down into the new sections we were making. Its like this place, most of the work is happening under our feet. We’ve created a cross section underground that will act as our frame, pillars to go upon that, they’re getting compressed now, but as they stretch they’ll have the strength we need to support the roof and more.”
“Sight to see through the ground,” Petor started flicking up fingers. “An understanding of what you’re working with and how best to manipulate it. Understanding of the spells you’re using to an innate degree-“
“Don’t forget an understanding of buildings, else you’re going to make something that can’t support a damn feather. That said, build it big and with massive supports and you’re well on your way.” Ikor stepped out of the stable, glancing at a mage carving a magical circle into the ground.
Dozens were doing the same.
“Get mages to move the materials into place, then anyone with the right knowledge, or plans for magical circles can finish it off,” Ikor said.
A much larger magical circle was being carved before the entrance into the main building. Lines ran from it to the different buildings around the build site.
“And here is where we can put your newly increased mana reserves to use,” Ikor held his hands behind his back and looked over the magical circle that three people were working on. He turned to his aides. “Looks good, let me know when we’re ready.”
“Yes councillor.” They said as one and headed off across the site.
Ikor looked over the site, to the road and the city beyond.
The air shifted around them, enclosing Ikor and Petor. Mirradon shifted uneasily but Petor calmed her.
“If this doesn’t work out with Molten Fist, then what?”
“Then we come up with another plan.”
Ikor turned to face him. “Like what?”
Petor let out a breath through his nose, resting his hands on his saddle horn. “I walk upon their fields, destroying all of the crops they try to raise. We stop anyone from supplying them food. We offer contracts to their mercenaries, and new ground to farm to their farmers.”
“No great battle?”
“Battle has its place and it would come to a fight. The more time we have the weaker they’ll become and the stronger we’ll be,” Petor said.
“How can you talk about such things so calmly? The destruction of a people. The loss of the volcano,” Ikor waved a hand at the remains of Cinderstein. Lava still bubbled forth, the plume of smoke had dissipated, but it was a slow thing.
“Just is what it is. It has weight to it because you let it. Break it down part by part, pieces working together and then expand it wildly. When you started learning magic, did you think that you would be capable of such things. That you would know what things you could accomplish.” Petor looked to Ikor.
Ikor looked away and let out a sigh. “I hope its as you say.”
The air’s pressure returned to normal. Ikor walked off to check on the buildings once more. Petor studied the main magical circle and those in the buildings before he clicked Mirradon into movement, patrolling the exterior of what would be the place of negotiations.
The ground had been thankfully smoothed out. The road from Ilus would pass infront of the building site, pointing at the Molten Fist’s capitol.
The bridge’s final touches were being figured out. The crews working back from their bridges to the road teams.
Petor nodded to the guards on each corner of the building site. They nodded back, each armed with a spear and armor.
As he rode around the site he infused seeds and dropped them.
Better to have a backup plan . If the Molten Fist charged then he’d have a lot of time to react, but it was always good to stack things in his favor.
He toured around, never taking the same path before Ikor whistled and waved him over.
He guided Mirradon over at a trot.
“Alright, lets get this thing setup.”
Petor checked on their watchers and slipped down from Mirradon to the ground.
Petor followed him over to the magical circle, it had been charged up with cores, glowing with swirling colors. Mages moved out the way of the buildings, thumbs were raised.
“Alright, lets begin.” Ikor stepped into the middle of the circle and drew upon his mana.
The mana in the area started rushing forward, drawn in by his emptying core.
Petor checked the area, the Molten Fist’s people continued to watch, not changing their positions.
The magical circle activated all of the others that were interlinked. Stone cracked in uniform lines and rose, rooftiles draped over supports, walls and pillars rising into the air, the buildings rose uniformly. The exterior swirling polished stone.
A half wall rose from the ground, all of it drawn up into the air as if it had existed under ground this entire time. Parts settled into place. The main building a circle so there would be no head to any table. The stable large and running down the side, bathrooms and preparation buildings to the rear.
The main building was four stories tall, the stable two.
Ikor let out a huff, the magical circle draining of power as he continued to pull on the surrounding mana, recovering what he’d spent. Petor saw it through his own mana sight.
The magical circle under his feet twisted, turning into a carved pattern running through the circle.
“Good,” Ikor stepped forward to the main hall.
“Stay here,” Petor talked to Mirradon.
She flicked her ears and lowered her head, looking for something edible.
Petor followed Ikor and his crews.
Inside the main building, arches and pillars rose up to support the dome overhead, a circle looking at the ash filled sky.
The stone building took off some of the heat from the exterior.
The room lowered down two steps to a circular table that formed from the floor.
“Alright, lets get some chilling formations in here as well as some chairs. Lets get the doors put into place as well. If anyone is interested in adding in their own art you’re welcome to. Run it past site managers first!” Ikor warned, his voice filling the space. “Lets show them just what we can do with a bunch of rocks.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
People moved around the building, runes appeared on the different stone surfaces, the stone crumbling away or depressing inwards.
It was as grand as some of the churches he’d seen in Capital of Aeld. Magical lights illuminated the space, exposing the veined stone.
Petor turned, leaving them to it and back out.
The other buildings were now filled with people adding the final touches. Petor got back onto Mirradon and continued his patrol, checking on the watchers and the builders.
***
Desari looked out of the window facing Cinderstein, though her gaze was lower, studying the people of Ilus below.
“Copper for your thoughts?” Egrin asked, moving up next to her, looking at the people as well.
“The adaptability of people. How no matter their situation, they do what they can to normalise it.”
The silence hung heavy between them questions and time heavy. A bag upon both their shoulders. One they were worried to confront for what might fall out.
“When you—left the city. I, well I saw what happened,” Egrin said.
“My brother killed me,” Desari raised her gaze. “Well, brother, pantheon, a mix of the two.”
“A mix of the two?”
“I wounded him enough that he would have died, but then the pantheon stuffed their power into his body, made him sort of avatar with their powers and support. It gave him all he needed to defeat me. Especially after the fight with my father. That blow cut through me, my core. It shredded my soul itself. I gather that I was able to use my soul and cultivation to draw forth the elemental lords that drove him back.”
“They stepped upon the world, making the plane shudder. Threw it into chaos. Their rage, their fury , it manifested in the elements they commanded. I have never seen anything like it. Near total control over their elements. I knew you were a powerful elemental mage. I didn’t know you were soul bound to elementals themselves.”
“I was able to hide them in my day to day. A secret I learned to keep from when I was a child.” Desari so wanted to look over, but was scared for what she might see.
“I always sensed that you were holding something back. Wasn’t sure what it would be, but bonded with four elementals. Your control over the different elements was always sublime.”
“With them, casting with the elements went from understanding to--” Desari searched for the word. “Instinctual would be my best comparison. Like how you know how to walk and breathe without concentrating on it. Sure it was hard at some point, but now? Its just something you do without a conscious thought.”
She glanced over, Egrin was holding his chin, his mind working as ever. “It might be something to look into. Though you were vehemently against contracts?” He caught her eye.
“I am against slave contracts, but with them I had mutual contracts.” I have to get a spot in the summoning rooms to reach out to Eira and Aesur.
“Mutual contract?”
“You increase your overall comprehension and ability with an element and they increase their mana capacity. You can also call upon one another.”
“Whereas with the contract the Geraxi use, you bond them to yourself or your gear. You try to cut off their increase in power as they might overcome their bonds.”
“With their soul under your control they throw themselves into a fight and even if they are destroyed, they can come back again with enough mana.” Desari closed her eyes. “It is a cruel existence. Though the Elemental Lords did a number on the Geraxi Empire after I died.”
“I read some in the reports.” Egrin shook his head. “War, nothing comes of it, but it seems that we are destined to repeat it, even if we try to break free of its grip.”
“To stay out of war, you have to make it so that anyone who tries to fight you is hurting themselves more,” Desari said.
Egrin smirked. “Sounds like you had a good teacher.”
“The best.” Desari said truthfully.
Egrin coughed, covering his embarrassment at the blunt answer. He took a few moments to gather himself again.
“So your companions and yourself?” He trailed off, not sure the questions to ask or how to ask them.
“We all come from different worlds. They too died like me. Then in a place between the Celestial Plane and our own material, we were gathered. A devil gave us an offer.”
“Oh?” His voice was light, but his eyes sharp.
“Be reborn, he would have contracts that we could complete, working to gather the coin we would need to buy information and transportation to our worlds, or things we left undone in our previous lives.”
Egrin frowned and looked at her, his eyes glowing with mana.
“The bodies, I think that they were created for gods to descend into.”
“A way for weaker gods to reach the mortal planes and increase their own power?”
“Through the religious texts gods are supposed to descend upon a willing member—like my brother, or come in their own incarnations. The strongest gods descend, but the weaker ones arise. The language is definitive in that aspect.”
“The stronger gods can create their bodies and the weaker ones use others to rise up. How are they created?”
“I am not sure. Though I can’t tell any difference between this body and my own.” Desari held up her hand and studied it. “Though we only had white cores when we were reborn. I don’t know if that was part of having our souls torn apart—it seems like all of us did—or if that’s part of using these bodies.”
“I can’t see anything different according to my sight and senses,” Egrin said.
“I don’t know if that’s relieving or not.” Desari dropped her hand.
“It is what it is, we can only learn from the facts.”
“Talking of facts, what happened here, afterwards?” Desari asked.
Egrin’s face hardened. “Now that is a story. I’ll see if I can summarize it.” He looked up at the ceiling.
“So, the teleportation spell went wrong, we were supposed to move to a secondary place in the material plane. Instead with the god’s interference, the targeting was thrown off. Time passed for us differently, we teleported, outside scenes of worlds, of stars, of planes, even other planets we’ve never seen before appeared. We fought to keep up the teleportation spell, draining through our mana reserves, through the cores we had, if the spell failed then we would be exposed to the ravages of the mixture of teleportations.” He shook his head and moved for a nearby chair, Desari followed him.
“The summoning department realized that their summoning circles were getting stronger and weaker. They transformed the circles to latch onto the planes they were trying to summon from. It failed several times, then we latched onto the fire plane and we dragged ourselves forth. In effect using it as a temporal anchor and summoning ourselves into the world. It was genius!” He dropped into the chair, Desari taking the one opposite, sitting on the edge as he sunk back into his.
“It wasn’t the actual fire plane, but here in the abyss’ fire region. A few weeks for us were a few months for everyone else. When we arrived, our ground merged into what was here, we raced to move the buildings, save what we could. We had just dealt with that, when people started knocking on our gates, demanding to know who we are and what we were doing.”
Egrin grimaced. “We told our story and worked to gather our strength again. I had classes start up again, give people some normalcy, others joined the city to learn. We looked into the teleportation spells, they were thoroughly wrecked from the damages and strains. Teams started to repair them. Then fighting broke out.”
He let out a sigh of the truly tired. “We defended ourselves, the guards and students turned to soldiers. People rallied to fight, others to get home. We’ve been in basically that situation ever since.”
“Does everyone want to return to the material plane?”
“A number of them do, their families are back there, they were just supposed to be going to school, not have all of this happen to them.” Egrin waved at the plane beyond.
“What about the council? Do you want to return to the material plane?” Desari asked.
“Depends on the day really.” Egrin drew in a breath through his nose. “I realize that you were right, Ikor too when we got here.”
Desari raised her eyebrow.
“Don’t give me that I can admit when I’m wrong. I’m not some bull that can’t take in new facts.” Egrin gave her a displeased look.
Desari shrugged and nodded. “And what were we right about?”
“Having a fighting force, being able to defend ourselves instead of just relying on the agreements and alliances we have with others.”
“Hope for ideals, prepare for realities,” Desari said.
Egrin’s heavy sigh, that of an old man’s crushed dreams released from deep inside his chest. An agreement sorely and sadly given.
“You said that you and your friends have much to do, will they stay and help us?” Egrin asked, pushing on.
“I, well, they do have their own things they need to do. I owe them. They have helped me get here. I want to help you out as much as possible. They have a great amount of potential as well. With the right training, understanding and teachers. They could be even more.”
“I told you that you needed to get out and adventure more.” A smile played on Egrin’s face.
“Yes, but there were spies entering your academy with every admission test. I couldn’t be sure you’d be safe without me. I didn’t know that you were keeping an eye on people.”
“I must admit that you caught a great number of people that got past our screenings. Though I doubt we’ll be easy in letting more people into our academy.”
“I noticed that there are a great number of people from the abyssal plane within the city. They are those students that joined?”
“Yes and they had a greater understanding of violence and wanting to protect the safety and knowledge they found here than many of the students that came with us from the material plane.” Egrin’s face twisted. “It pains me that in our time of need they looked to themselves instead of helping out their fellows.”
“Lessons are there to build up a person, but a test of a person is in the struggles they undergo,” Desari said.
“So you have told me of your bodies, a little of your companions, do you know their backgrounds?”
“In pieces, but I don’t want to pry.”
“Worried that they will ask you the same questions. You are one to avoid talking about your past,” Egrin nodded.
“Well, I was trying to keep undercover from everyone,” Desari said.
Egrin leaned forward in his chair and slowly took her hands within his. Looking at her with those kind eyes, a worry and fear mixed with determination in their depths. Desari’s stomach clenched and turned.
“Desari, know that if you want to, and are willing, I would be more than interested to hear your story, your past. Your journey back to us.” He squeezed her hands reassuringly.
She grabbed onto his hand and gripped it tight, a heat, rising up the back of her neck, pinpricks itching at her eyes.
“I told you the truth about my grandparents. Though they were not killed in a fire.” She held onto his hand like a life-line. The world fading away as memories, uncoiled from her mind and its hold there, her chest warm like a fire was burning within her. “My mother left the employ of my grandfather, and travelled back to her parents, there she gave birth to me. She raised me for a number of years before she died. My grandparents took me in and raised me. You know those stories. My father came hunting to look for who would be his heir. Somehow he found out about me. His men cut down my grandparents, set fire to their bookstore and I was whisked off to Haker Hall. There I trained against his other ‘heirs’ and we trained to defeat one another by any means necessary.”
She lived through her life once more, telling him of taking position as his heir. Then her reaching out to the scorpions, exposing all that her father had been hiding from the emperor. Their land had little and he had little to give. Still it tore them apart and left them with but their men to send to the legions in order to pay for their debts. While she traded her information for a position within the scorpions. Moving through their ranks, she gutted those in the empire trying to subvert the emperor.
Not out of a sense of duty, but a sense of vengeance and for the thrill of the hunt. She built up her abilities and contacts. Till a job came up. A way to reach Ilus, the fabled academy city that drew in talents from across the mortal plane.
She’d planned to drain the city of knowledge, to advance her skills once more. The stronger she was then the less people could threaten her.
Entering the academy she stretched out her reports from the beginning, looking to get more time. She came to know the people within the academy, came to make friends, know her teachers.
She had been looking to become more lethal. Instead she made potions to heal, others that just smelled nice. Without knowing it, it had become her home. She had taken to hunting down the other spies and scorpions.
“I didn’t have a plan much more beyond that. I wanted to go to you and tell you everything. At that point I was scared that you would just think I had been using you the entire time and cast me out. Then I couldn’t learn anymore. I couldn’t protect Ilus anymore.”
She didn’t know when the tears had started to fall, or when he had given her a handkerchief. She dabbed at her eyes.
“How the little barriers of just talking about something become great walls between us,” Egrin shook his head.
Desari nodded her head, tired from all of it.
“I could see the want in your eyes to travel. To learn and see more. I wished that you could get free to see all your eyes could take in. Its why I pushed you to take at least the voyages away,” Egrin said.
“Well I’ve had plenty of adventure already, and there’ll be more in the future.” Desari sat up straighter. “They put their own quests on hold to help me out here. They went into the heart of the enemy’s lines to learn about the people there and give you all a chance. I owe them.”
“I see the way you are around one another. You’re more than just acquaintances. I think you’re well on your way to becoming friends.” Egrin’s smile was amused at such a thought.
“I can make friends,” Desari defeded.
“You had mainly associates I think the greatest friends you had was Miss Wilkins from the library and then Penrik when you were talking on various theories.”
“How is Miss Wilkins?”
“She was deeply saddened with your loss. You should see her once this is all done. She would love to see you.” Egrin smiled.
“I always thought you two would be a good pair.”
“What!?” Egrin sat forward alarmed.
“Keep it down will you headmaster,” Zedna muttered from her reading.
“Miss Wilkins and I!” Egrin admonished.
“She is a lovely lady, smart as a whip. She sneaks a look at your ass when you’re not looking. You always seem to ask her about various books, even though you know that library as well as her. She’s extremely skilled in enchanting and wind magics. You have fun with one another, you’re relaxed around one another. Neither of you is getting younger and you see the students akin to your students.” Desari shrugged. “I don’t see what is the problem.”
“I never knew you were thinking this.”
“Well, I’m feeling especially free with the truth today.” Desari grinned, sitting back into her chair and resting against the back, it felt good to relax a little.
“She is one of the administrators of this academy I’m her boss—”
“there are dozens of faculty that are married or seeing one another. Next issue,” Zedna dismissed without looking up from her books.
“It has been a long time since he has worried about matters of the heart, so focused on work,” Penrik said, slowly turning the page.
“And you don’t?” Egrin asked.
“I know that my temperament is one that others find difficulty in understanding. I am not in need of children. I do crave intimacy or I would not have taken up this position. I enjoy being around others that are able and willing to communicate in a manner I find understandable. If I was to find someone that I enjoyed discussing with and my hormones were so inclined I do not deny that I may find a suitable partner.”
He hadn’t stopped reading, not once in the discussion of his love-life.
Egrin looked honestly, shocked.
Desari laughed. “Penrik and I have talked about it before.”
“You two?”
Penrik shivered and Desari shook her head. ”We are not best suited to one another in that manner.”
“Friends, colleagues, not that thank you. Even though you are beautiful by many standards Desari.” He lowered his papers and turned to them. “You are one of the scariest, deadliest women I have ever met, with a will not to just learn but put into practice things that would make me nervous.”
“You know how to charm a girl,” Desari’s smile grew.
Penrik shook his head and went back to reading. “The Desari’s of the world.”
Jana’s mouth quirked in the barest hint of a smile. Zedna chuckled. “Multiple worlds Penrik.”
“I stand corrected.” Penrik looked up from his papers. “If you are willing to talk on those I would be most interested.”
“Well I was going to talk about everything that has happened since I was ‘reborn’.”
“A most interesting hypothesis that you are indeed using a sort of homunculus that is meant to hold the soul of a god.” Penrik nodded slowly, his mind in thought.
“I’ll put on the tea,” Zedna stood with a soft smile, looking at Desari. “It is good to have you home girl.”
Those simple words touched Desari deeper than she’d think they would. Looking at them all, they’d changed by degrees, but they at the core they were the same. Even knowing her past, they remained her—friends.