About twelve hours after Randidly encountered the Aether Mines and then passed one over to Neveah for study, Neveah had finally had some progress in examining their structure. It had been an extreme distraction from her other work, but ultimately more fruitful than she had expected. What had given her the inspiration to finally understand the construct was the realization that the structure of the Engraving was slightly different than Aether that the System generally used.
Neveah sent Randidly a message to get himself and then made herself comfortable outside of the Yyxtrix’s tomb. Without Randidly’s Skill with roots, she had built a basic mud structure brick by brick. Time consuming, but she felt rather disrespectful to set up a rest area within the tomb. So with a little elbow grease, Neveah had created her own rest hut directly outside the entrance.
To say the interior was sparsely decorated was generous. It was a bit of flat ground where Neveah could stand and stretch her wings in secret. The sole piece of furniture was an oak table pressed against one of the walls, which was currently covered in papers. There, she waited for Randidly to respond and began running over her recent notes
When Neveah stopped trying to match the structure of the Aether Mines to an exact shape, she had quickly realized that the Aether Mines looked very similar to quite a few things that she had encountered in the past. The lines of Aether were just made with slight variations to the shape.
The variations were small, but the important part was that Neveah tested it and confirmed that the varied shape still had the same main effect, with some small differences to the way it behaved and interacted with the flow of energy around it. Which meant that a master of varying Aether could tailor each individual symbol within a greater construct to take advantage of the exact nature of the working of which it was a part.
With that method, Neveah suspected that there could be as much as a 30% increase in the effectiveness of the Aether working. Which, considering the scale at which Aether generally functioned, was a ridiculous boost.
It was only after Neveah furiously noted down several avenues worth pursuing in her research that she realized that Randidly hadn’t yet responded to her message. This time, rather than just send a message that might be missed, Neveah connected to his consciousness directly-
Hissing, Neveah disconnected as quickly as she could. Through their connection, a boiling heat spilled over to flood Neveah’s body. Even without the connection, the heat didn’t dissipate. It seemed to sink into her limbs and stir her muscles. Blinking, Neveah considered the heat once again. It had been surprising when it had burst through their connection, but now that she was experiencing it… the heat was actually quite relaxing…?
Neveah reestablished the connection, much more prepared this time for what that would bring. But she was slightly disappointed that the heat that flowed through was much reduced compared to before. It seemed Randidly had noticed her previous connection and ceased doing whatever it was that created the heat.
What’s up? Randidly’s thought appeared in Neveah's mind.
Neveah passed over the good news and the bad news. The good news being her discovery about varying Aether Engravings for minor effects. The bad news being that the Aether Mines were rather elegantly done; even with a few months' worth of time to focus on them, there wouldn’t be a hard solution to their presence in Randidly’s body other than Nether.
Then Neveah sent over a pointed question. What was that heat that I felt when I connected to you? It was… invigorating.
For a second, there was no conscious thought from Randidly. And then, of all things, there was a flash of worry and envy in Randidly’s heart, followed swiftly by some wry amusement as he recognized his own reaction. Heh, I’m almost unwilling to tell you, considering how powerful your physical Stats are already… but I think I found a way to make better use of my body. There’s this strange… limit that I believe has limited us subconsciously. That heat you felt is me building up momentum to break that limit.
Intrigued, Neveah’s consciousness flew through Randidly’s body, inspecting the situation directly. Immediately, she could sense the slight changes to his physical form. It was like his already impressive body had been put through a smelter and forged into steel. His muscles were elastic and woven together. Neveah noticed that his bone density had increased a small amount. His veins were thick and clear of obstructions.
Despite his earlier reluctance, Randidly provided Neveah with all the thoughts and conjectures that he had gathered during his training sessions. By this point, he had been working on consistently breaking past his limits for almost six hours, achieving just over a dozen successes.
After understanding the process, Neveah clicked her tongue. Fascinating. But you’ll be happy to know that I don’t think I can replicate your success. A lot is based on the implicit image of your body’s power, yes? Well, I don’t have that. I was… well, I don’t really know what I was before I met you and became your Soulbound. But I have no history with my body. No basis to strengthen my image. And also most of my time is spent pretending to be something other than my true form...
Randidly immediately released a wave of sadness and shock. Ah. Sorry. I didn’t mean-
No, it’s fine. Hundreds of miles away from Randidly, Neveah smiled to herself. For all that Randidly was growing more powerful, he still stepped as carefully around issues like this. Such moments revealed a helplessness that was rather endearing. But, Randidly, there is one thing that you didn’t notice in your experiments.
Feeling Randidly’s confusion, Neveah continued. Your images. They are growing more solid. Or perhaps it would be better to say that they can manifest much more easily. From what I can tell, it works like this: the ‘potency’ of your images determines how much of your usual power an image can wield without you physically moving. But now you are raising your base power by increasing the specs of your body.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I almost suspect that you are touching on a deeper secret than you realize.
Then Neveah broke off the contact. Alone in her resting area, she grinned to herself. “FINALLY, Randidly’s getting something that he’s going to be better at than me. I won’t have to keep such a low profile anymore to spare his feelings… now, back to figure out that last Aether puzzle...”
*****
Vye looked up from the careful map she was drawing of the surrounding region when she heard someone tapping against the sheepskin exterior of her tent. “Yes?”
A bearded man pushed his head into the interior of the tent and slowly looked around. Vye didn’t miss the way his eyes lingered on the extremely detailed map of New Earth’s original 6 Zones. With the memory capacity available to most individuals with the advent of the System, he had essentially copied it with his lingering gaze.
Vye put down her quill and rolled up the map she was currently working on. In Vye’s mind, maps should be spread freely to various groups. That was why maps existed, to assist. And the Order Ducis agreed with Vye’s stance, asking her to keep no strategic information back when she made maps. But this man’s crawling gaze was just one more small thing in a deluge of disrespect that she had received since she had arrived.
Despite her status as a diplomat, this was what she had to endure?!? Well Vye had reached the limit of her patience. Tilting her head to the side, she let a little bit of her image manifest around her person. “Did I stutter? Why are you here, Kevin?”
The man visibly flinched. Then a look of confusion spread across his face as Vye let her image drop. As though he was a hound, he sniffed the air as he began to speak. “I know you talked to the foreign minister, but our liege has finally agreed to meet with you. After talking with some other groups, it seems like you weren’t completely lying about some people being freed earlier than us.”
Vye twitched. One more bit of disrespect. She was becoming extremely tired of the attitude that many of the Blighted Paragon’s subordinates took with her. It hadn’t been so bad at first, but after a day of staying nearby, they clearly began to test the boundaries. What was most humiliating was that they had started by demanding that she help with chores around the camp so long as she stayed here.
The Blighted Paragon seemed to take a page out of Communism and lived by expecting every individual to do their part to help the whole. It was why, despite the annoying badgering that Vye experienced, her original report was rather generous when it talked about her opinion on the society.
The local overseer’s request for help was obviously denied. When he had pushed Vye on it, Vye asked what benefit she was receiving which meant she should help. He claimed she had eaten their food so Vye had laughed, produced a sandwich from her interspatial ring, and eaten it in front of him.
Not her most subtle move, but even then the subordinates of the Blighted Paragon were getting under her skin.
When Tatiana asked Vye a few hours after her original report if she had anything else to add, Vye had discussed the problems that were cropping up. And Tatiana’s answer had surprised Vye.
Don’t forget, you represent the legitimacy of the Order Ducis, and by proxy all of the New Earth governments. I know it is difficult, but don’t hesitate to teach them a harsh lesson if they push too hard. Randidly sent a group of his Riders to stay nearby. We have your back.
Honestly, it might be easiest to make a big deal of things now. Then we have justifications to show them the pecking order.
But that didn’t help her right now, a bubbling pot that was about to explode. Her gaze on Kevin was sharp as she made her decision. He had one chance. And if he didn’t take it...
Vye stored away all of her materials and walked to the front of the tent. Kevin didn’t move out of the threshold of the tent, scratching his beard while his eyes remained fixed on Vye. He reminded Vye of dozens of shitty men that had convinced themselves, and sometimes her in the past, that they deserved a bit of their time.
He opened his mouth to say something. Unfortunately for him, Vye was not confused about how to deal with such attention longer. So when she reached a short distance away from Kevin, she smiled and raised her hand. Ritual: Reject.
“You- ooof!”
The strong rejection could only influence objects a short distance away from Vye, but Kevin had leaned forward to emphasize height as Vye approached. The man folded over like a flicked house of cards and was blasted out of the tent. He impacted the ground and rolled through the dirt until he tumbled into a low stone wall along the edge of the camp.
Some of the other people in the area looked up from their cooking fires or out of their tents, but they quickly lost interest. That was the only obvious flaw that Vye had been able to detect in the people who worked underneath the Blighted Paragon. If it didn’t concern them directly, most people wouldn’t bother to stick their nose into something they didn’t understand. Even if it appeared that someone else was being harmed right in front of their eyes. In Vye’s mind, the lack of empathy was a serious problem.
That, and the disrespect, of course.
Kevin groaned and rolled over. With a flick of her wrist, Vye threw out another Reject Ritual on her tent behind her. Just in case Kevin wanted to test his luck again. Luckily, she knew where the Blighted Paragon’s tent was, so Vye could stalk forward through the camp without Kevin’s assistance. She left without a backward glance.
Only one word was appropriate to describe the camp around Vye: tidy. Almost obsessively so, considering that most people were refugees from the cities that the Blighted Paragon had already attacked. To dismantle dangerous regimes, the Blighted Paragon claimed, and the attitudes of the refugees did seem to indicate this environment was superior to their prior circumstances.
But even so…
Vye was relieved when the guards at the Blighted Paragon’s tent recognized her and ushered her through to the interior. The central tent was smaller than Vye had expected, not at all fitting for the man who had gathered such a large group of people to his cause. There was no gold, silver, or precious gems displayed.The only hint of its status was the bristling line of guards that surrounded it.
When Vye walked into the tent, she actually stopped up short only a step past the entrance. Because right as she laid her eyes on the Blighted Paragon, she felt something invading her body. She instinctively activated her newest Ritual: Cleanse. With the support of her image, whatever had invaded her body was instantly eradicated. She quickly followed up with a Reject around her bod to prevent it from happening again.
Howard Boltmer, a man with pale and thin hair very obviously combed over to cover up the fact he was balding, simply blinked at Vye’s actions. Vye gritted her teeth. Seriously? Even you? “Mr. Boltmer… was that an act of war?”
Although she wanted to lose her temper, Vye wasn’t quite that mad yet. Suddenly, she was very aware of how many bodies were between her and any allies. Even if there were Riders nearby, would she be able to last here if this man truly intended to take her hostage…?
But Howard Boltmer just shook his head. “Just habit, don’t think anything of it. But to be fair, would you bother to waste your time talking to someone who was weak enough to fall prey to a petty trick like that? Now that you’ve proven yourself… tell me again about the organization you represent. Perhaps it can be one of my partners in the future.”