Archie’s fight with the Queen wasp was pretty spectacular. Lots of fire and screeching, though the purification didn’t seem to hurt ALL of the wasp, just parts of it. Archie had other weapons, namely very sharp D-rank talons and very fast wings. His flames seemed to boost his own physical power constantly, making him a dangerous threat even without the techniques he’d learned from me.

Still, he was a baby, and while he managed to tear a big chunk out of the Queen, Vesper ended up needing to step in to take care of it, pushing the monster over the edge.

Once it was dead, we returned to the inn, and Vesper paid for everyone’s meal so we could all celebrate the victory. Ray, Desria, and Cavallo all met us there, and to my surprise, one more familiar face was there.

I offered Chester Baddington my hand with a laugh, “Chess, where did you get off to? Haven't seen you since you helped me out with that second Delthrys trial.”

The master thief laughed, dropping into his chair. “Family business to take care of. My dear old Auntie sold me out to you for a quick buck. Certain parties under her influence take umbrage with that kind of disloyalty. Honor among thieves is a bigger deal than you might expect. Overcharging you might have helped, if I’d died in the attempt. Since I didn’t, I was able to rally support from some of her…less enthused constituents and push her into early retirement.”

“You bailed on us to go foment an insurrection in your Aunt’s criminal organization?” I laughed. “I take it from your enthusiastic demeanor that you took over when she decided to step down?”

“You led a coup against your Aunt?” asked Bella worriedly. “Bad Millie wasn’t the BEST person but she-”

Chester shook his head. “She’s fine. She’s family. I was a little pissed about her selling me out, but I get her reasoning. I really did just force her into retirement. She has a compound in Plainhallow she’s been preparing for a few decades. She moved out there with some of her closer supporters. It’ll be comfortable and safe.”

I’d forgotten that Millie had known Bella’s dad, and possibly Bella herself if I remembered right. I was happy to hear Chess wasn’t a complete bastard. Maybe the organization was in better hands.

I didn’t care too much about the local business industry. The whole ‘criminal enterprise’ thing wasn’t much of an indicator of morality. Ascendants loved their games and roles. Being an ‘illicit organization’ was probably just a way of gaining notoriety. None of it meant much to me, but knowing my friend (even if a recent one) was doing well was nice. In fact…I had an idea.

“Hey, I was hoping to test out a new power. If you’re doing the local crime boss thing, maybe I can hook you up with some new digs. You have a place nearby I can flex one of my Skills?” It wasn’t a Skill, but I didn’t feel like explaining. With my mask in place I didn’t worry about doing a little bit of work with Agares, and I’d come up with a combination I was interested in exploring.

“Wait, what kind of Skill?” asked Ray with interest. He and Cavallo had been having a drinking contest (that he appeared to be losing dramatically). “I want to see!”

Desria snorted. “You’re drunk. You’d want to see paint dry.”

“She’s right,” Cavallo intoned. “You’re dunk. Drank. Skunk. You’re wasted.” He blinked. “I…might be a little buzzed myself.”

Rolling her eyes at her brother, Desria just shook her head. “Embarrassing, aren’t they? But I suppose seeing you do your tricks might keep them entertained enough not to wander off. The last time they had a drinking competition Ray stole the local mayor’s house. They found it eventually, but it was in pretty bad shape and full of ducks.”

I had a lot of questions, but for my own sanity I chose not to ask them. Knowing Bethy had made me wise. Instead, I just chuckled and gestured out the door. “Well after you all then. Chess, why don’t you take us somewhere you could use a secret base.”

He laughed, nodding and standing to lead us all out the door. We went on a bit of a hike, which considering our speed even on a B-rank planet was quite a trek, but we ended up somewhere…interesting. A little crevasse that was somehow, through a trick of the landscape, both open air and completely hidden from view unless you were inside it.

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“Found this on one of my escape runs,” he said fondly, smiling. “I’d just stolen an emerald necklace from some visiting Countess…or was it that crystal penguin? Either way, I was running from a bunch of guards, and one of them had this Stealth penetrating detection Skill. I decided to use my Path a little different, and formed my own detection technique to find some place I could hide that wouldn’t involve my Path. Ended up finding this.”

He gestured down to the clearing in the middle of the crevasse, open air but covered in a ring of trees whose canopies knit together into a roof, or some approximation of it.

“So this is where you want your hideout?” I asked with a grin. “Better be sure because I’m not doing this twice.” I avoided using the term secret base. I’d felt a slight heat from the mask earlier when I said that phrase, and while it had faded, it occurred to me that some words were best avoided during specific activities.

He shrugged. “I only come here for vacations or to think anyway. If it’s not any good I can just remove it, no offense.”

I shrugged. “Your call. I have to do a bit of work on the land before I start. Need to set a foundation, even on a B-rank planet. Luckily, I have some idea of how to do that. It’s pretty genius too.”

At least, I did with a little help. Foundations were…weird. An entire discipline of construction with people dedicated to their study. Creating buildings could rely heavily on location, special places giving special abilities, and foundations could simulate those places. However, a deep forest, a hidden crevasse on a B-rank planet, there should be plenty of special here to go around.

Triggering Agares and Zagan, I activated Eye of Revelation and Song of the Soil. Combined with Zagan and the Eye, Song of the Soil showed me something different than usual. A life force. A heartbeat in the planet. Reaching out with Agares, I shifted the dirt and grass in the clearing, forcing it down, packing and condensing it. There was a lot of Impact here to work with, and I was able to get it pretty dense.

Once that was done, I constructed a technique, letting me harness and manipulate the flow of life in this area with Zagan, and Archie poured his power into the dirt from above, the cry of the Life Nova Phoenix echoing through the crevasse as he empowered the earth I worked with.

The refilling dirt shifted, squirming and writhing, but I controlled it, Song of the Soil showing me the flows of life force and Zagan letting me alter them.

It was like rerouting veins and arteries through a beating heart, shifting the arrangement of life in the soil to resemble something stable, something growing and alive. It reminded me of Formations, kind of, but it was more of a one off trick that let me recreate the same effect. I shaped the refilling life force until it made up a stable structure of power, one that could exist without me, and then I cut off my contact.

The black stone foundation beneath us was set a hundred feet down, in a deep hole made when I’d compacted the earth. As the energy cleared from my eyes, I saw it in the physical world and I was thrilled with the result.

My work wasn’t done though. I’d just set the stage. Reaching out with Agares, I pulled on the dirt, melting away the straight edges of the hole, gathering material. Stone, dirt, roots, trees, it all dissolved into that tar like muck, flowing towards me as I condensed it into blocks of rough dark material.

Unlike before though, I didn’t infuse the Agares form with harmful black flames. I infused them with the purifying, lifegiving flames of Zagan. The formerly sweltering and destructive heat was warm and life affirming, making the whole crevasse, which had expanded quite a bit from all the hollowing out, feel like a holy place.

Archie flew above in circles, a slow cyclone of green fire raining down to help me set the stage, and with my Piece of Mind skill helping by letting my split my attention, I slowly began to create.

First a floor, then the walls. Rooms separated by arched doorways and windows to the outside. I built the structure up over time, slowly condensing and firming the stone, going back to shore up places that seemed weak as I did, and I connected each bit to the beating heart of that foundation, into which flowed the energy of the entire forest.

The veins of life force helped, showing me where I needed to expand or contract the stone, what spots were weakened, and finally, after probably an hour of work, I gasped in relief as I slumped back onto my ass, staring down at my finished work.

At first, I was underwhelmed. It looked…ugly. A misshapen lump of darkened rock that didn’t deserve to be called a house. But as I watched, something changed. Catalyzed by the life fire in that stone, all the roots and seeds and trees that had been consumed by Agares sprouted anew. Vines and branches shot from the rock, encasing the place in wood and greenery. Flowers bloomed across the surface, and through the windows I saw carpets of thick green moss growing on the ground.

The heart of the forest beat through the building, pushing new life out of it as we watched, changing the malformed hovel I’d created into something beautiful and unique. I turned to the others, most of whom were gaping at my creation. “I meant to do that,” I said confidently.

“I…don’t think it matters what you meant to do,” said Vesper in awe. “This is…holy shit Fist, this is crazy. Can you make another one of these?”

“Nope,” I replied cheerfully. “Total fluke. I THINK this is some kind of natural energy center. This is the kind of thing you’d have gotten if you Invented a building in this spot. I cheated a bit to make that work, connected a few threads, crossed a few wires. But mostly this wanted to happen, I just gave it a push. Turned out great though.”

Dropping down from the cliff I’d made, I landed on a lush carpet of grass that had sprung up outside the house. Approaching the front door, I was pleased to see a curtain of hanging flower vines that I could push aside to enter.

The moss inside was springy and soft under my boots, making for an easy and comfortable stroll. Bark lined the walls now, coating them like wallpaper, and luminescent flowers had grown out around the windows in sconce form.

I’d figured Zagan would make construction with the stone easier, but I hadn’t considered THIS. It made me determined to learn more about my powers, to learn to do things like this on my own, without Archie or help from the environment. I’d forgotten how much I loved experimenting and building things, not to mention working with my Dust Construction.

Turning to Chess, I spread my arms, indicating the interior. “So…what do you think? Not bad for an hour’s work, huh?” His answering cackle had an edge of hysteria, but it was the good kind, and we all burst out into gales of laughter. All in all, it was a pretty good night.