Chapter 49 – Is this Legal.
Matt felt weight settle back on him once again as the communion ritual took effect. He opened his eyes to a very different sight than the previous times he had communed with Tori. Instead of a board room or her house, he was standing in a garden. He looked around and found Tori sitting on a bench under a pavilion that stood beside a small creek.
Walking over, Matt called out. “Where are we now?” He had brough Echo this time and the drake was still recovering from the effects of the spell. Van had formed as the glowing wire frame version that Matt had first met when he bonded with the core.
“We are in one of the parks within my order. Well, we are in a projection of that park, we don’t actually exist in the real world.” Tori answered as she stood to greet them.
Matt looked around, taking in the sights. He couldn’t see much besides the trees and pathways around him and assumed they were deep within the greenspace. “I’ll have to visit this order. How big is it?”
Tori smiled and snapped her fingers. Matt had a moment of vertigo as his entire world shifted and he was suddenly standing atop a very tall tower. Everywhere he looked was city and more city. It was clearly designed for aesthetic reasons and, he had to assume practical reasons, given Tori’s nature. He heard another snap then found himself back in the park.
“Neat trick.” Matt said. “I would still like a proper tour some time.”
“All in due time, for now, please introduce me, its rude to bring strangers together without facilitating introductions.” Tori said with a smile.
Matt gestured to the projection of Van. “This is Van or a representation of him anyway. As you know he has been with me since the beginning.”
“It’s actually a projection of his soul.” Tori said as she approached and held her hand out for Van to take. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person.”
“Greetings, Warden Victoria.” Van said with a deep bow. It was a move that Matt was unsure the real van could ever replicate.
Matt moved on. “This is Echo, he has been around for a few weeks now.”
Tori held out her hand for the drake. “Oh, look at you!” She used the voice that people usually reserve for talking to puppies and babies. “So handsome and very deadly.” Yeah, she was laying it on thick.
Echo just pushed his head into her hand, working it back to just behind his jaw for the best scratches. Tori laughed softly and obliged. “You are a very interesting drake. It’s a shame you died, I bet you would have been quite the alpha.”
“Wait what?” Matt said. “What do you mean he died?”
Tori looked up to him with a raised eyebrow. “You didn’t know?” Seeing him shake his head, she continued. “When you used the summoning token, you found yourself in a void with a lot of floating balls of light, right?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t know what that was.” Matt explained. “The damn thing didn’t come with a guidebook.”
“Ah, right, you have no experience or former education. Every one of those balls of light was the soul of a dead being from one of the planes that had died around the time you used the token. Echo was one of those. I’m not sure what plane he is from or which planet, since drakes are somewhat common. He then partly merged with you. Both of you shared parts of your souls and gained something from each other. It’s a very similar arrangement to what happened with you and Van. “
Matt stopped and thought about it for a few minutes. It made sense to him based on how they all progressed at an identical rate and shared the same affinity, his affinity. “So, Echo got my affinity? It wasn’t that we matched or something?”
“It was the main thing he received in the exchange for his soul. Matt, if you meet anyone else with a ‘plasma’ affinity it will be a monumental coincidence. Plasma is one of the higher-level concepts, typical of your other half but not so for humans. Your friend Tobias is an odd one too, given his void affinity.” Tori answered after walking back to the bench while Echo wandered off to explore the park.
Matt watched Echo for a few moments, he wasn’t upset with the news and had become rather fond of the drake, and this didn’t change anything. “So, what did we need to talk about in regard to Venri?” He didn’t miss the look that flashed on Tori’s face and felt a blip in her aura. The aura fluctuation was so fast, he couldn’t actually tell what it was, so didn’t bother trying to find out.
“How much do you know about the other species and races on your planet?” Tori asked as she sat down and gestured for Matt to do the same.
“Just what the people in the city are and some of their habits and culture. Not much really.”
Tori was silent for a minute and she had the look on her face that Matt began to associate with her dealing with the System restrictions. He wasn’t sure what that was or what it involved but was glad he didn’t have to deal with it. After some small twitches and a much longer pause than normal, Tori unfroze.
“Damned System.” She cursed. “I had to convince it that this didn’t give you any advantage and require a penalty, but I had to essentially provide a script. I will say this one time and will not deviate so hold any questions till the end.” Seeing Matt nod, she launched into her explanation.
“The dwarven species is not originally from any one place but come from several worlds in the seed universe. They share some characteristics such as reduced stature but can vary wildly besides that. Venri comes from a culture that had knowledge of the veiled. Don’t ask me how, they just do.” She held up her hand as Matt opened his mouth, which he quickly shut again.
“Somehow those veiled became worshiped as higher beings, not exactly gods but not far off. The veiled were divided into 2 camps, helpful and hurtful. The dwarves there adapted their entire culture to the veneration of the veiled and continued to do so long after the veiled left that planet. A war was fought and both sides suffered greatly because of it. Cults were formed that lead the ‘worship’ of them but they were completely stripped of political influence after the wars.”
“As time went on, the cults began to die off and the beliefs were watered down and mixed into state holidays and such. But, as always, there were those that remained devout followers, traditionalists if you will. That is where Venri comes from. She was born into one of those cults and grew up with their practices ingrained into her. “
Matt silently took it all in, mostly from the oddity of the situation. He didn’t exactly know what to do after that and Tori just let him think on it. “So, I became the focus of her attentions when she figured out, I am part veiled?” Matt asked to confirm. Tori nodded but didn’t say more. “And you are involved how?”
This part was something Tori could comment freely on. “I ran an intercept play using one of the other gods in my pantheon. Which then led to another mess that we find ourselves in. I didn’t want her to pledge her undying loyalty to you and bind herself in what is essentially slavery. It would be bad for her, and you if that happened.”
Looking up from where his gaze had landed on the grass, Matt had to ask. “What ‘mess’ are you talking about?”
“The mess of old and binding agreements around pantheons owing territory in newly initiated worlds.” She then elaborated after seeing the eye roll Matt gave her. “The accords after the massacres that left nearly 90% of an initiation cycle dead within a year. The accords are there to prevent such events from happening, but it means we needed to move fast.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Matt sighed. “Can you fill me in on what happened?”
Tori went on to explain what had happened with Venri and Tobias getting blessings and how it put them very close to a threshold that they had to act on before anyone else did. It turned out that it was successful as Franklin had accepted his blessing and the city now had 4 primes and was officially owned by Tori’s pantheon.
“Well, I am glad it all worked out for you.” Matt said as Tori finished explaining. “Now, what do I do about Venri?”
Tori looked deep into his eyes, took a deep breath then spoke. “Nothing.”
“…Nothing?”
“Well not exactly nothing. Just let her continue on with her path for now. Her patron will be coaching her to mitigate the worst of her zealotry. He is trying to shape it in a way that serving your interests involves her growing stronger independently, so she becomes a better ally. Honestly its going better than I would have hoped.” Tori said.
“Riiiight. I will take your word for it.” Matt said, fully ready to have the dwarf committed to an asylum of some sort.
“So, do you have anything you want to know about?” Tori asked, finally letting Matt drive for a while.
Matt considered for a moment. “Yeah, a couple things. I want to know why I have some titles that give stats and stuff while others don’t. The second thing is if I have to be aware of any alliances you have or enemies if I run into others from outside our city.” The last part wasn’t so much a question as it was a prompt. He knew well that there were grander politics in the outside universe but wasn’t sure if it concerned him or not.
“Well, I can answer your second one easily.” Tori said as she summoned what appeared to be a rather thick pamphlet or a thin book. She handed it to Matt and explained. “This has the latest information about our pantheon and its allies, those that are neutral and our enemies. It even has the update from Tobias’ new patron.”
“Oh, the anvil or something right?” Matt asked, completely forgetting his title and name.
Tori sighed. “You seriously have to be careful in some crowds, especially if you come to our main cities. His name is Weltgan otherwise known as The Proverbial Hammer.”
“Cool, I will share with the others when I get back.” Matt said and stored the pamphlet in his ring.
“See that you do. Its probably the best we can manage until we can bring you here for proper tutelage.” She paused then pulled out a blue crystal object, held it, then made it vanish again.
“What was that?” Matt asked.
“Communication crystal, I sent a note to my aid about finding a ritual god in our pantheon to get one of your ritualists up to speed on some things.” Tori said in a rather nonchalant tone. It reminded Matt how much power and influence she actually had.
“So, about the titles?”
“What do you know about how the System gives experience?” Tori asked.
Matt thought for a second before responding. “Well, I get experience for doing things such as fighting and overcoming challenges.” He considered a moment before adding to his statement. “I also noticed that I got credits for a lot of things too. “
Seeing he was finished, Tori explained. “You gain more experience for taking greater risks and the same can be said with titles. The greater the achievement, the better the title. If you did something that had little risk or wasn’t too difficult, the title will be minimal if anything, more of a note from the System.” She then brought up a screen that showed Matts fight with the corrupted patriarch. “If you do something truly special, you get special rewards. The same can be said with skills that you are offered.”
Matt was confused at that, but Tori saw his look and elaborated. “You will get skills offered based on what you have done but also some random ones that the system thinks you will like. The random ones will be lower rarity but still serviceable enough for you to use and upgrade.”
That reminded Matt of something, and he pulled up his system window to confirm. “I got skills offered that used ‘willpower’ but I don’t have that as a resource. What’s the deal?”
Tori smirked at him and changed her screen to another view showing a random status page. “Once, long ago, the system had many more stats and much more information than the screen currently shows. In its feedback sessions over the millennia, it has simplified things. Originally the System window was always open and couldn’t be dismissed, that caused many issues, as you can imagine.”
Matt then learned about the ‘hidden pages’ of his status screen. He had wondered why there were a lot of common stats missing but quickly learned why. People became overly fixated on the numbers and the constant fluctuations of some became more trouble than they were worth. Stamina was not actual stamina but a representation of a physical energy resource. There was no agility stat because it was always in flux based on strength and dexterity, thus never having a steady value.
“So, willpower is a consumable stat but doesn’t act in a linear fashion like mana or health so they System hid that?” Matt asked at the end of Tori’s explanation.
“Precisely. The stat is there, but you cant see it and the value doesn’t really mean anything.”
“Huh.” Matt said, looking at the example screen that Tori displayed. He did not like the look of all the extra information and couldn’t imagine trying to live with that always present. “Well, I wont avoid those skills next time then. Well, I might, if they don’t really fit.” Tori smiled and nodded.
Echo and Van had long since returned from their tour of the gardens. The construct was standing at the entry to the pavilion while Echo had taken the opportunity to lay down and sun himself in the grass. Matt smiled as he watched the drake lazily roll over to sun his other flank.
“I think my time is running short.” Matt said. “I appreciate all the wisdom and info.”
Tori stood and gestured for them to walk. “Think nothing of it. I wish you luck with the alchemist and your future exploration.”
“Any last-minute advice?”
Looking off into the distance for a few seconds, Tori went completely still. Matt could briefly sense mana moving before she began to speak. “Gratitude, when properly expressed, is often a better motivator than payment.”
“Well, that’s ….” Was all matt could say before her was pulled from the ritual, Tori’s smirk being the last thing he saw.
*****
“… Cryptic.” Matt finished as he suddenly snapped back into his real body. “Well, shit.” He said as he stood up and looked around the empty bay he had commandeered for his ritual. Echo was just getting to his feet again while Van was still in the crouched position he had been in. “What did you guys think of the communion ritual?”
“The transition is rather uncomfortable, but I enjoyed not being so large for a little while.” Van answered, standing to his full height and walking out of the bay door.
Echo just sent a bunch of images and impressions of all the things he found interesting. Among those was the smell of a certain tree, the color of a rock and the feeling of the sun being different. Matt would summarize it that his familiar had enjoyed exploring a new place.
Laughing at the drake, Matt led the way further into the building, Echo trailing him in search of wherever Tobias was. Matt wanted to talk to him after almost immediately going into the ritual after the raid party returned to the city.
The Forge had changed again. This time the major change was a central hallway that connected the work areas. The hall acted as a barrier to all the noise and helped keep people out of each other’s way. It wasn’t perfect as Matt nearly ran over a particular demoness as she wandered out of a side room while reading a book.
“Oh, sorry, I did…Lord Matt.” Sari began before bowing deeply. “Please excuse me for impeding your travel.”
Matt rolled his eyes and raised the enchanter up. “Drop the honorifics Sari, and it was just a little stumble.” He paused a moment as an idea struck him. “Here, take a look at this one for a while.” He said as he handed her the ritual device that he received from the dungeon.
Sari’s eyes went wide as she took the small device that looked like a shallow metal box. “This. This is. Wow.” Was all Sari could say as she started examining the box from every angle.
Laughing, Matt patted her on the shoulder. “Haha. Ill be back for it tomorrow morning, have fun.” With that, he walked away, continuing his search for Tobias.
A few doorways later, Matt found his friend sitting at a table and reading his tablet. Tobias looked up as Matt and echo entered the lounge room. “Nice digs, Toby.” Matt said as he sat down across from Tobias.
“You say that now.” Tobias muttered under his breath.
“What?”
“Eh, nothing. What’s going on? Have a good chat with Tori?”
Matt just chose to ignore the muttered comment and filled in Tobias about everything he had learned. At one point, the researcher pulled out his tablet and began taking notes. The recap took only an hour, mostly because Matt chose to withhold the background information about Venri.
Finally setting down the tablet, Tobias looked over steepled fingers at Matt. “We should probably welcome Frank to the club then. He will also probably like to take a look at that pamphlet unless his patron gives him one.”
“From what Tori said, he will be getting more than he bargained for from Raz. The guy is a stickler for details from what I heard.”
Tobias nodded along. “Well, then we can at least stop by and have a chat about something else we found.” He then shifted gears. “Hungry? We can stop at this new place in town and see if Frank will meet us there.”
Matt sensed the aura change and immediately felt it filled with … misdirection. There wasn’t any intent, so he couldn’t pin anything down but wondered what Tobias was hiding. “Sure, that sounds good.” He would play along and see where he ended up, not like he was in risk of being attacked or anything.