Contrary to most cultivation novels and magical stories, powerful intelligent Beasts didn’t ape Human architecture and styles. I knew most Beasts considered our cities and ways of changing the landscape to be incredibly chaotic, alien, unnatural, and even mentally disturbing to them, which was one of the reasons many Great Beasts took such delight in leveling Human towns and cities when they could.
Really, they loved randomly walking through our towns and crushing them, but our habits of making basements and sewers and the ground collapsing awkwardly beneath them meant they tended to use magic to do the devastation instead of trampling stuff personally.
So, there were no grandly carved doorways of gleaming metal or stone. There were carvings about, done by claw or beak or magic, telling old tales that swirled in the thoughts as I gazed upon them, not possessing quite enough empathy or context to get the full stories being visualized out of them.
There were at least twenty Emperors on this last mountain. They would probably have been surprised I could sense their individual presences regarding me, as their Awareness should have been beyond my ability to detect.
Divination Magic, so good at turning the tables like that.
The fact the place did look like a palatial, godly estate, complete with rolling mists on the floor, golden doors, shining torches in glittering holdings, with polished walls and bas-relief carvings everywhere, the floors as smoothly polished as water and tiles arranged in some fantastically ornate matter, was all the warning I needed that someone was projecting into my mind, just like Ancient Dream Serpent Emperor had. There was also a massively powerful Formation of some kind or another in existence about the place, but instead of being rooted in complex geometric symbology, it was embedded into a profound realization of Elemental representation in its natural state, Shaped into being by incredibly sublime comprehension of the natural flows of Magic.
It should have stripped all my magic away and left me pretty much defenseless... except the magic I was using was not dependent on active participation from the Manafield. I could feel the many, many eyes regarding my Wings as I swept up to the ‘doorway’ and landed smoothly, totally ignoring the fact that Human Magic shouldn’t have been working here at all.
There were no guards. If they didn’t want me to enter, they didn’t need guards to prevent me from ever getting here. The mountains would have been wrapped up in a potent Spatial Maze, much like the Heart of the Amazon, only even more complex, and I never would have made it here.
I made a gesture, and a Summoning Portal popped open for a moment. The eager Reynard jumped forth, looking around in expectant glee. He was in his full true form now, twice as high at the shoulder as I was tall, seven Tails swaying golden about him, wings a-fluttering, horns a-gleaming.
He was going to say something when I stopped him, and he clamped up as there was a shifting in attention, and he could suddenly feel those waiting beyond the doorway.
Nonetheless, I stopped and went down on one knee, and Reynard went prone without any hesitation. “Human Healer Fae, Envoy of the True Emperors, and Reynard the Golden Ghost Fox seek permission to enter the Court of K’un-Lun!”
Politeness and respect. They came so rarely from the Monkey Tribes! I also did not give Reynard any status above or below mine, or call him my Contracted Beast or anything. They’d know all that stuff with a glance, so there was no reason, and I wasn’t going to be playing ranking games here.
We were left hanging for a good fifteen minutes; just enough time to test our patience and look for a reaction, not enough time to be said to be wasting or disrespecting anyone or anything.
After all, I was paying respects to Emperors, so this wasn’t about me... it was just that I was a real curiosity to all the Emperors, being selected as an Envoy like this.
Me bringing in a Fox of unknown Bloodline from the Beast Realms was only making them more curious as to why I was here!
“ENTER,” the air seemed to sigh. Reynard and I rose from the misting floor, and we moved forward together over the tiles.
I just glided along on Lightfoot, totally able to keep up with Reynard without looking like it, or using more magic.
The entry hall was the equivalent of a good mile long. How much was real and how much illusion was ambiguous, but the carvings on the walls told of legends of past battles, Beasts battling Beasts, great Beast Emperors of past ages rising and falling as the carvings went on, the turning of ages of conflicts before Humans had really existed.
Without proper information and contexts, I couldn’t understand what much of it meant, but I supposed I could ask Thunderbird or Fire Phoenix Emperor about them later.
When the hallway suddenly opened, it was into a massive room, the mists mostly fading, a great and brilliantly-lit chamber illuminated brightly by the sun shining through pristine clear windows revealing all before it, and making the Manafield as thick as any I’d encountered outside a Refractory Field.
There were a dozen beings mounted on thrones all around the chamber. They all looked to be of human size, some with human appearances, all of them radiating the restrained Auras of Emperors Low or True. They were clad in magnificent robes of gold and silver and jade and crystals, even bearing ancient armor and weapons if it contributed to their images.
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All complete lies, of course, an amusing diversion for them, probably considering it a nice trick that pandered to gullible Human perceptions.
Or maybe they were being polite, although I doubted it.
The center of the floor was clearly marked, and Reynard and I proceeded to it, placing us roughly equidistant before all those Thrones. I went down on one knee with bowed head, Reynard resumed his prostrate status quietly, and we waited to be acknowledged.
“A daughter of Infinite Sands’ lands. Perhaps why she is so polite?” a jovial voice spoke up almost immediately. The furry-faced fellow there in ornate armor, a staff leaning against His throne, His tufted tail twitching, was impossible to miss.
Sun Wukong, The Monkey King, who ruled all the Monkeys and Apes of the World! The Mighty Turk was going ecstatic back at the Compound upon seeing the True Emperor of all Primates through my eyes, as were King Dorado and the other Monkeys in Markspace.
Thunderbird had told me that the wandering Monkey King had been the very first Great Beast to teach magic to Humans, introducing them to Earth Magic. Indeed, the legends across most of Asia and Africa said that the Earth Magic was learned from either a Monkey or an Ape...
“This young one is of no Bloodline I recognize, my Emperor,” a woman’s gentle voice contributed. The location would be that of Kwan Yin, the famous Cloud and Moon White Fox Emperor, flanking the Heaven Westward Fox Emperor. If Thunderbird was correct, it was She who had revealed the secrets of Healing Magic to Hera, the first Olympian and founder of the Acropolis, in one of Her disguises.
“Nor I, my Emperor,” agreed a slyer voice from the other hand of the Emperor. Sable Moon Fox Emperor, considered the stealthiest of the Emperors, Vizier to Heaven Westward Fox Emperor. All of the Foxes had nine Tails, of course, being the pre-eminent members of their Bloodlines.
“He comes from the Beast Lands. There are far more Bloodlines there than remain upon our world!” a ferocious and bluff voice reminded everyone curtly. The speaker looked like a very large Oriental man with a painted white face, a massive glaive by His side and ancient armor painted white and red upon it. That should be Guan Yu, called Heaven’s General, the Ancient Shining Mountain White Tiger Emperor who was the most physically powerful member of K’un-Lun’s Court... and one of the Beasts who had given some Humans knowledge of Ice Magic.
Legends of Him in China called him a great slayer of demons, and the carvings on the walls indicated that He had fought against a lot of other Beasts, including some of fantastic origins. I doubted it was to expressly defend Humans, but He’d certainly earned his reputation somehow...
“Of what Bloodline are you, little Fox?” the elephant-headed tauroid form of Ganesh, the famous Sacred White Elephant Emperor, addressed Reynard.
Reynard happily jumped back to his feet at being addressed. “I am Reynard, a Golden Celestial Winged Fox!” he announced proudly. “Reynard was born a Crimson Ghost Fox; my father is Winkle, a Baron of the Many-Tailed Silver Foxes!” Ho, his father had formally broken through? I’d have to extend my congratulations! “After Reynard Contracted with Healer Fae, my Bloodline has changed and evolved! Reynard knows of no other Fox like me, even in the Beast Realm!” he declared confidently.
There were Psychic murmurs all about as the Emperors mumbled between themselves.
It was Indra, the ancient and mystical Emperor of the Baku, who spoke next. “This evolution in your Bloodline was unexpected, young Fox?” the Emperor who was believed to have taught the first yogis of India the Psychic Element asked.
He looked down at me, and I just smirked. “It was not expected, no, Your Majesty!” Reynard agreed quickly, his wings fluttering a little. “It has been only a bit over three years since Reynard was a Servant! Contracting with Healer Fae was a great choice for Reynard!” he went on happily.
Okay, that started a buzz. Going from a Crimson Ghost Bloodline and a Servant to an almost-Noble and whatever his current Bloodline ranking was in that amount of time was literally heavens-defying!
Or, more precisely, Heaven-aided! Any other creature that could reach Noble in three years was probably born a Commander...
“Reynard has been trying hard to keep up with his Contractor. She went from a mere Novice to a powerful Human Archmage in that time! Reynard is still lagging behind her...” His ears and wings and Tails all drooped slightly in regret, and I had to really restrain myself to not laugh.
He was an Eidolon of an effective 36ish Pact-Bond, or more! He was ridiculously powerful, at least twice as tough as he looked, and only the fact that Noble-tier Beasts were all just completely broken was hiding the fact!
I didn’t have my Astral Ward up, which was why I could still see all these illusions, and they could naturally read my... interesting power level and magical Aura with great precision. Of course, they’d never seen an Aura like mine, which was generating even more interest.
“Human Fae...” began another voice.
“By Proclamation of Ancestor High Emperor Flowing Silver Nine-Tailed Fox, my Contractor is Healer Fae!” Reynard interrupted the breathy woman’s voice most cheekily.
The stunned amazement that a half-Noble would dare to do such a thing, and then the realization WHY he would say such a thing, hung heavy in the air for a moment. He was literally obligated to say it out of respect for his Ancestor... who was a High Emperor!
How I’d actually earned a Name from a High Emperor of the Beast Realm had to have them dying of curiosity!
“Healer Fae,” the breathy voice of the woman in glittering crystalline garb restated herself smoothly, “your Aura is most curious. We can feel the influence of the Luan upon you, and the Phoenix, but your Elements are... very hollow?” she asked diplomatically. “Explain this to us.”
“To Radiant Holy Auspicious Butterfly Emperor!” I responded, not rising, possibly startling Her at being identified. “This one is a Typeless Caster, with no Elements to her magic! The Elemental Affinity the Emperor senses upon this one is a Firefrost Luan Dual Seed, and the result of Rituals attuning this one to Fire and to Ice! This one has no true Elemental Magic!”
Or, in other words, any of the Magic K’un-Lun was believed to have been the first to spread among Humanity. The Butterfly Emperor was believed to be the greatest living master of Light Magic, and to have taught the first Humans of Light Magic. Even the Synod and the Kabbalists would talk around the point of where Humans had learned Light Magic from when it concerned the Emperor of all Moths and Butterflies, even if they quickly took responsibility for spreading it to the point it was at today...