It was an elf who first tamed the moons, who burned his soul into their surface and opened the gates to new lands. And it was his son whose fire for conquest shattered our open trust and brought ruin to our shores.
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Denor stepped forward to face the simulacrum. His fighting style was as quick and efficient as ever, well trained to the rhythms of Starshaper's simulacrums. He played to the crowd, interacting with the environments of the later rounds and playing up his flashier moves, all without slowing his headlong rush to victory.
Denor sprang his surprise ambition to advance into the intermediate tier, to Lord Veshin's obvious concern.
Denor fought hard, but by the time he finished off the singular opponent he was bleeding heavily and only shook his head when asked if he would be advancing to the next.
After praising his son to the heavens, Veshin rushed him out of the arena to the medical team before returning to announce Lian Teretho.
"Just quit when you're ahead," Jair whispered as the Teretho heir moved past him toward the center of the arena. "It doesn't impress anyone to get yourself beaten up."
Lian glanced at the door through which Denor had unsteadily departed, frowned at Jair, and dropped into his ready stance.
He fought well enough, but he was no prodigy. Passing four rounds, he hesitated, then conceded.
"Four rounds! Lian Teretho!"
Applause, polite but enthusiastic, followed him back to the wall. He gave Jair another confused look as Jair nodded and smiled, but by then Jair's own light pillar was rising and moving to the center so there was no time to interact properly.
"Fourth and finally, Jair Welburne!"
The blue hardlight simulacrum appeared and they took their positions.
"Begin!"
Jair didn't bother with testing out the opponent's strength. He performed a solid overhand chop that shattered the simulacrum's sword, head, and torso all in a single cleave.
It dissolved into sparkles amid the shocked silence of the crowd, the trio of sharp cracks echoing almost like a single rapid trill.
"Well. Ah, will you be advancing to the second round?"
Jair nodded and returned to stance. The remaining two rounds of a single opponent ended just as quickly, the increasing strength of the simulacrum completely unable to keep up with Maelstrom's unchanged power.
The rounds with two opponents were more difficult, in that he needed to strike, evade, then strike a second time, but it still took only seconds to finish each.
"Will you be challenging the intermediate levels today?" Veshin asked as Jair finished the fifth round in less time than it'd taken any of his predecessors to reach round three.
"Yes, thank you."
Jair flashed Maelstrom in the air above his head, waving to the crowds with a wide grin. He met the eyes of several of his doubters, and his favourite sponsor. Ursia Domir was doing her best to add more bets as the night wore on, but after his stellar sweep of the first tier of opponents she was having a hard time getting anyone to bite.
Well. There was something he could do about that.
He intentionally slowed his performance in the first intermediate round, moving to barely intercept the opponent and striking with less than his full strength. The reinforced sword of the second-tier simulacrum deflected his attacks away, allowing the doubters room to reinforce their own haughty opinions, giving his advocates an opening to increase their wagers.
He held out as long as he could, but his current body didn't have unlimited stamina and would fare no better than Homiki if he stretched things too long. With a quick barrage that brought Maelstrom's full power to bear in six rapid strikes, he overwhelmed the hardlight sword and shattered the simulacrum like all those before it.
He took his time waving to the cheering crowd, delayed as long as he could before moving on to the next round, but after this he couldn't afford to play around. If his allies were to make any increased wagers, he'd given them the only help he could.
From here on, he had to fight with his full concentration and without holding back.
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"Round ten, clear! Finishing the entire intermediate tier on his first day as an initiate? Unprecedented! Let's hear it for Jair Welburne!"
The applause was overwhelming. Jair did his best to smile, though he'd taken a couple strikes to the face that, though not dangerous, made the effort more than a little painful.
He'd grown more adept at moving within his younger body's limits rather than wearing himself out trying to ignore them, but that still left him severely restricted as he fought.
Cheering followed him out of the arena, even, reluctantly, from those who’d be losing a large amount of money. Even in loss, they could appreciate the power and mastery on display.
Jair paused at the recovery hall long enough to receive Healer Shirien's recovery spells and subtly applied soulspell, as Lord Veshin came bustling after him.
"Jair! I trust you have a moment? I did promise to introduce you to my friends. We can start with your intermediate level peers."
"Thank you, Lord Veshin, but I think I'd like to start with those who bet against me."
Veshin guffawed loudly, clapping Jair familiarly on the back. "Ah, good lad, always keep watch on the money. We can do the introductions another day.” He winked. “I’m sure you’ll be coming around much more often in future."
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"Eight hundred thousand!" Ursia Domir crowed, gleefully passing Jair a bank slip for half as much. "I have never seen so much gambling on a student exhibition. And in the middle, with that beautiful fumbling you did." Ursia nudged Jair with an elbow, grinning from ear to ear. "I was worried there for a moment, I admit. That last guy was hesitating to accept, but the moment you tripped he suddenly wanted to accommodate my unusual request. Joke's on him in the end, though!"
Jair shared in the laughter and accepted Ursia's offered toast. “I wonder if I could convince you to loan me the other half? I have some time-sensitive purchases to make. But I’ll be heavily investing in my continued viability, so I can repay you in double after Solaria.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“You have another major event planned so soon?” Ursia watched him over the rim of her glass, smile shifting as she considered. “Ordinarily I’d avoid getting too heavily invested in any one player, but you… Mmmm, you’re a different sort, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“You realize this is an absurd amount of money, yes? I understand you’re not a city boy, but even what you hold there is more than your whole family will earn through their entire lives.”
“I’m aware.”
“And you’re that confident of making as much again in less than a month?”
Jair summoned Maelstrom and gave it a quick flip in the air, the pulsing glow drawing Ursia’s eye. “If you can’t think of ways for me to make a dozen times over what you’re investing given a full Terlunia to work with, I’d have to consider your imagination faulty.”
“Indeed…” she watched Maelstrom wonderingly as it landed in Jair’s hand and disappeared with a flash of silver. “You’ll repay any investment in double?”
Jair laughed and inclined his glass in her direction. “I will. As much as you like.”
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None of the other bets were nearly as large as Teretho's, but when combined with Ursia Domir’s investments, that still got Jair a whole lot closer to reasonably affording his request than he'd been a few hours before.
He found Veshin after the other guests had departed, chatting amiably with one of the chefs as the underlings cleaned up the banquet hall.
His available funds didn’t outright meet Lord Veshin’s number for pushing everything else out of the way, but it was enough. With a million and a half down-payment on the promised total, he agreed to give Jair’s designs one try immediately.
“You know that you’re paying for the time and materials even if it doesn’t work? And you’ll get the rest to me by Solaria, or there’ll be severe legal repercussions?” Veshin laughed. “Not that I don’t trust you, I’m half convinced you can do anything after a show like that.”
“I understand completely. Thank you.” His voice betrayed none of the deep relief at the progress, but his heart felt light and hopeful again. Things were changing. This would work. It really would. The challenge of working through the restrictions of his weaker body and previous reputation could be frustrating, but it would all be worth it.
“You know Starshaper told me he had to increase the substance strength of those simulacra up to the same integrity levels he’d use for an ascendant, and you still smashed through them? Aelir, what a show! They’ll be talking about this for years. Decades! If you ever need anything, you come to me, understand?”
“Again. Thank you. Might I make use of your training rooms for a time?”
“Help yourself. Our facilities are always open to you."
Jair spent the rest of the evening alternating between carefully modulated exercises and meditating. He didn't leave the Veshin training rooms until Denor came and politely suggested he vacate, for his own safety, as he’d been here over ten hours.
He didn’t argue, though as long as he stayed awake he had enough control over his manabody that exposure time wouldn’t be a problem.
Instead, he crossed to the Serin side of the oasis and climbed onto the roof of one of the material improvement storage buildings. For a moment he stood looking out over the oasis, taking in the peaceful night.
He could see one edge of the circle from here, the curved line separating the bright oasis from the blank darkness of the surrounding desert. Teal ferns glowed faintly amid the dark forms of buildings, bright enough to be visible but not enough to provide light around them. The grass, fainter still, spread around to the edges of the oasis, where it abruptly transitioned to dying grass dusted with sand, without enough mana to fully sustain it.
Pale blue flecks of mana drifted upward and floated about aimlessly, dissolving into the air like slow inverse shooting stars or landing on plants or buildings in a brief flash before fading.
Inside the locked building below him, the same would be happening to thousands of open-exposure construct parts, the raw mana gradually increasing their conductivity and immaterial strength. It could take years to upgrade a single item, but doing them in bulk didn’t take any additional time.
He summoned Maelstrom and stared down at it, running his fingers along the contours and uneven patches, lingering on the pattern of his soul stamped in blood.
Mana drifted up and Maelstrom sucked it in, tiny blue flashes subsumed into the brighter silver as the pulsing of the blade danced in time with his heartbeat.
He’d inadvertently given a lot more than intended during the reforging, dying on top of it like that. Was that how legendary items were born? With the death of their creators?
What would have become of Maelstrom if he hadn’t managed to bind it to himself in those last instants?
“Hey.”
Jair turned.
Raina stood below him, staring up at the glowing beacon that was Maelstrom.
“Hey.”
“Mind if I join you?”
Jair laughed. “Since when do you ask permission?” He sat down and patted the roof beside him.
“Since you have more friends in the nobility than I do.” She scrambled up but didn’t sit. “What’s going on with you today? I’ve hardly seen you, and when I do you’re off…” she shook her head, waved a hand helplessly, and flopped down beside him. “This isn’t quite the afterparty I expected you to go for, but I can see the appeal.”
“I hate it.”
“Hm?” Raina tilted her head at him.
“Playing the games they expect of someone in their spheres. That’s not me. It’s just a necessity. Tedious, stressful, irritating. But right now I need them, and they want me, so…” He sighed and stared up at the sky, stars in the distance, blue manalight drifting up between them and him. “Will you run away with me? Terlunia, or even Dark Night. I don’t want to stay here any longer than necessary.”
Raina slid closer and put a hand on his. “Jair, what happened?”
“Nothing. Everything. It’s too much to explain right now. But this…” he passed her Maelstrom. “I need to find a way to increase its integrity. Right now it’s stable, but it’s not at its full potential. There’s a man in the Oriad who can help. I want to find him, as quickly as possible. And I want you to come with me.”
“I know we’ve talked about traveling to explore the world, but isn’t this a bit sudden?”
Jair shrugged. “You’ve got your class, I’ve got mine. Call it your Reforging Quest, if that’ll make things easier.”
“Well, yes, but even that. Isn’t the Oriad one of the most dangerous places on Orard?”
“That won’t be a problem.” Jair nudged at Maelstrom. “Did you look?”
“Of course not, I would never do that without—”
“I trust you, Rai. Go ahead.”
She looked at him, questioning. Silver light danced across her face, lighting up her untidy hair, her golden eyes softened from their usual fiery hue.
When he didn’t recant, she turned down to Maelstrom. “Inspect.”
For a long moment, she read the information without comment. Then her breath caught and she rocked back, staring down at the weapon as though she couldn’t believe she was touching it.
“We don’t need to stay here,” Jair said softly. “We have everything we need.”
“L-Legendary?” Raina squeaked, voice unsteady. “Ascended? Jair… how?”
“I don’t know. That’s another reason I need to find Eythron.”
“This is…” Raina’s voice turned suddenly serious. “Jair, you can’t let anyone know you have this. This is the most powerful item in all of Veor. Kingdoms have gone to war for less. Assassins would be the least of your worries. Your family…”
“I’ve taken measures to protect their identity.”
“That won’t be enough. We should evacuate them before we leave. I can probably arrange something with my father.”
“We? So you’ll come?”
“Of course I’ll come. I’m not going to send you into exile alone. Jair, this changes everything.”
“Not quite everything. There is still one complication left to deal with before we start packing.”
“Oh? And what is that?”
Jair hesitated, but of all people he’d need Raina’s cooperation most. Now wasn’t a time to hold back. “Your mother has upset a very powerful dragon matriarch, who wants to eat you.”
“Oh.” Raina’s face went blank, all thoughts and calculations disappearing as the sheer hopelessness of her situation hit her.
“Yeah. So, I’m going to need your help with some preparation. If all goes well, we’ll be dragonslayers by the end of the week, and then we can go on our merry way.”
“That’s going to take an awful lot of going well,” Raina said faintly.
“That’s what I’m here for. Don’t worry. I have a plan.”
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