Dusk...
“...where rest the weary, and dream of the wind at dawn.”
Aethra’s Salute finished, and Dusk Renewal swept past me. I didn’t get all my Slots back, but I had most of them.
We were on the road now, having flown out of the Deadzone, back to where our vehicles were parked, and we were now heading away and out of the place.
We could see fireworks going off in the distance occasionally, and the phones of the people were lighting up with newsfeeds from Heavenbound Hall, and things going on in Mexico.
The collapse of the Shrine of the True End was definitely making news, and the sudden vacuum as the Sinbound and their agents abandoned their positions and vanished was all over the place. Certain of the warlords and people in the area were finding themselves suddenly in possession of a lot of weapons and money, and even new volunteers eager to work for them, while word of the fall of the assassins was cause for celebration for many of the peasants.
Information that x had killed y using z, however, was also spreading out, and taking down the power structure and delicate balance among the warlords, turning them upon one another, and often pitting subordinates against leaders when they found out some of the things their bosses had done.
There was a lot of shooting going on amid the fireworks, and the balance of power was changing.
Too, the report that a fireteam had walked into a Shroudzone, and walked out after killing hundreds of thousands of undead, was noteworthy. No one had ever done such a thing.
Our excursion into the Shrine had not been free of damage, but with Master Fred there to eat away the Curses with Wrath and heal everyone who was shot, while I treated everyone except Topaz to Imbued Healing’s Healing Domain kicker effect of an hour of +temporary Soak after getting hit by Darts that couldn’t hurt them, it was basically impossible to one-shot any of them. Having to get through 21 points of damage before you could even injure any of them was as good as False Life... and I could keep re-applying it if it was used up.
I closed my eyes and held little Collin Highmoon as Karma was released, crystallized, actualized.
No dings...
I took my Wizard/3 Level, as high as I could go with Sorcerer still at Five. With four Theurge Levels, that meant I was Casting as a faux Wizard/7. +2 skill points, +1 Soak for Favored Class benefit.
General Feat, I picked the Fire Meta/3, Burning Spell, a +1 Meta that gave additional damage equal to +2 per Valence of the Spell. It wasn’t as good as Fiery Spell, but it all went on the stack... and was even better when it applied per Shard.
Purchased Feat, I went back and picked up the Basic +1 Meta, Still Spell. It was automatic with Shardcaster/2 for my Shards, so I hadn’t been quick to grab it, but it would round things out... and I needed to get rep counts for it. Being able to Cast without gesturing on any spell was always useful, especially when it was free.
Purchased Mastery was Concentration/4, Extraordinary Concentration, which I could grab as a Fake 7. Maintain concentration on two separate spells at one time, or on one effect while Casting another, with a Check that topped at 40. My check defaulted to 48. It was not a problem.
I had officially stepped into Caster/7, even if I didn’t actually have the Level. That meant I had broken the Six barrier, I could zip past it at anytime, and now was the time to double down.
I had Valence IV’s, but only a few spells to fill them. Importantly, I didn’t have Mystic or Elemental Theurgy at this Valence yet... yet.
I ticked over Halvyr/2, my natural Racial Level.
It was an interesting effect, combining the radical obsession of the Human side with a timeless patience and carefree existence of the elven side. A willingness and energy to do things now, to claw for power in the time remaining... and a patience that all things would come in time regardless.
An interesting dichotomy, given how focused I was on getting stronger.
A d8 of Health, + Con modifier. 6 Skill Points. +2 on all Charisma based skills. My Skill Affinity/Wary was increased from +2 to +3, the level of a Talent.
+1 Caster Level, to a Class of my Choice. I solemnly ticked over the bar, and I was a Wizard/3 (8), jumping two Caster Levels in one day.
I was now basically the equal of the top .01% of spellcasters in this world, just with that Level, and ignoring the fact I was Deep as Heaven.
Shard Casting Level at 23...
Technically I could make my Second Star, but my choices on spells would be pretty limited.
I quietly murmured Exemplar Surge, and as the magic surged through me and made me an actualized super-halvyr, I grabbed and Wrote Control Summoned to Einz.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The list of IV’s the Hall had copies of was pretty extensive, traded from the elves or Sorcerers who had reached Seven and picked some odd stuff. Control Summoned was a fairly niche spell that such folk generally didn’t research, wanting more general purpose stuff, like, oh, Wall of Fire, or Dimension Door, or the incredibly nasty Improved Invisibility.
Expanding their repertoire of spells was another of my jobs. The biggest task would be expanding the list of V’s, as there were literally only six of them publicly known in the whole world. Bloodline overlap was a thing, after all...
Teleport, Energy Cone, Wall of Force, Conjure Elemental, Illusion V, and True Sight. That was it... a nice list, a useful list, but far from what I considered a decent spell collection. It would be much longer if anyone had reached Nine in a Divine Casting Class, but that hadn’t happened yet... although Azaia Morningwind might be able to, if she reached that Level.
It would explode shortly in the future, of course, once the proper Leveling Pattern was made public.
But more importantly, I had reached a solid Five in Sorcerer, and could make a lasting impression on the local Akashic Record... so I could teach Vivus as a Weapon Enhancement, and Vivic Spell as a Metamagic Feat, effectively enough that it could be learned as a Purchased Feat by people with enough Karma...
The Shroudzones on this blighted world were now on a timer. It would take time and a lot of gold to make up appropriate Weapons, but it would happen, and then the undead would be facing True Death. Guns would speak once again, and Shrouds would, in the end, fall.
We hadn’t stayed around to beat on the Mexican Shroudzone more. There was the little problem of a baby being with us. Little Collin was in decent enough shape, having been tended to by a wet nurse taken forcibly from one of the nearby villages, and returned with my thanks and fifty thousand dollars in cash to her home... and a promise that if she wanted to come to America, Heavenbound Hall would find a place for her.
Her family was very happy to see her, especially as news of the fall of the Shrine was spreading, but it took very little encouragement for them to realize that even something as minor as inviting us in for a meal in gratitude was probably dangerous. We were satisfied with baby supplies.
The atmosphere in Bone Marrow was celebratory, and the following van was equally delighted. Our course was set for the Yellowstone Firezone in Wyoming, our original target of opportunity, with a stop or two along the way.
After all, most of us had never been to the nation’s new capitol, so making a stop there was completely a way for us to unwind and relax.
There were a few things that needed to be done, too. The Shooters wanted to check in with their church in person, as did Sir Pellier and Father Bower, and along with Helix, the latter three needed to check in with their superiors in the military and report what they had done.
The Mick didn’t have to check in per se, but giving him some chat time with his erstwhile superiors to report that he’d spent an entire night locating the Shrine of the True End, infiltrating it in gaseous form, and butchering a lot of the undead within before we even got there would earn him a lot of creds in certain areas where reputation was important.
That he’d gotten in a lot of practice on his blood magic doing so was another thing they didn’t need to know about for now. He’d been in the Fellowship and shared in the massive Karma total we’d earned, and had no interest whatsoever in returning to Detroit as long as we were planning on continuing such epic slaughter.
------------
No one outside our group and that of the midwife’s family had seen me with the baby, and that included at the border. So, those interested in investigating, namely the Church of Shoul and the father’s family, could find out I got out with him, but not what happened after that.
It was not at all unexpected to have a Church to Sylune in the District of Washington, as the Goddess of Silver Magic was above reproach on magical matters. If you were paying for stuff, the Uruthimi would be happy to take your cash for whatever reason, of course...
Literally nobody laid eyes on me, and nobody local knew what was going on. A young couple, a human and halvyri, had arrived to visit The Azimuth. Both were Casters; he was an underpriest of Harse and a White Necromancer, she was a Sorceress of the Celestial bloodline.
I was waiting for them in the Shrine to Heaven all the Good Churches possessed. Collin was with me.
I rose to greet them. They were both dark-haired, as was Collin, so there would be little question of parentage.
“Lady Traveler!?” the woman blurted out. She was naturally older than I was, and astonished to see that I was the person she was here to meet. Her husband was also dumbstruck.
“So I’ve heard. This is Collin Highmoon.”
She stared at me in disbelief as I handed him over. I let his little hands tingle on mine a final time as she accepted him.
The two of them had been trying to conceive, and simply not had the luck as yet. The Church of Amana had already invented the paperwork for a false pregnancy, and their transfer to a new home had been arranged so that outsiders would not be suspicious of a young couple suddenly gaining a new baby.
“I will direct you in how to overcome his opposing Bloodlines when it comes time for them to manifest. You and I are the only ones who know his Truename as of now. Keep it well.”
“Yes, Lady Traveler,” the woman responded carefully, handling her new precious bundle with joy. Collin had been taken premature, so he was less than two months old. “May I... may I ask why you are not keeping him?”
My smile was probably the definition of bittersweet. “I have to save the world. It is not a job I can balance with taking care of a child at this time.”
“If we need to contact you...?”
“Here is a contact person and name in Heavenbound Hall. Do not contact me directly, but if you call here, I will know almost instantly.” I handed over a card with the name of a young Cleric named Shelly Pierson, an Amanan who had Sworn under my Banner. The Allegiance system would allow her to get in contact with me literally instantly. “Don’t take off the Necklace he is wearing, ever.”
“Understood.” Windgraf Mochtal had finished it for the boy personally. There was nobody on the planet currently who could cast a Divination that could get through its protection.
“How... how long do you want us to keep him?” she asked, as if afraid I would take him away.
“I already have enemies, he has some of them, but I am going to acquire MANY more. He can’t join me until he can take care of himself. I would like him to have a full and wonderful childhood. When he is grown and able to take this news, inform him.
“He will call you mother, and call you father. That is the most wonderful gift I can give him.” I looked at them both as they tensed up.
“I will not come for him before you tell him anything... unless you abandon him for some reason.”
“That will not happen!” the man swore instantly, and Harsites took their words seriously, or they wouldn’t be Harsites. I inclined my head, looked at the bundle of life I’d rescued from a fate worse than death one last time, and Dimension Door’d out of there before their eyes.
He grabbed the bag full of baby stuff sitting on the pew, and they turned to go. The Moonsisters who saw them just assumed they’d missed the baby, if they noticed anything unusual at all...