“Are you ready, my Lady?” Will asked, watching the oncoming pack of six darkfire hounds as the monsters left a trail of black flames, which stood in stark contrast to the pristine white of their furs, as they raced along the floor of the ravine.
“Thou knowest I am, my Lord,” the spear in his hands replied as her bladed head started to emit a trail of glowing chill.
“Then let our first true test together commence! Descend, gifts of the heavens!”
In an instant after Will’s chant, a pair of spears - copies of Laevyeth - appeared in the air above the oncoming monsters before shooting downward. They came down like thunderbolts, explosions of lightning and disruptive force scattering or staggering some of the darkfire hounds. The spears carried random enchantments that were now further enhanced by Laevyeths, and would remain for an hour for Will to use as part of his spells or to simply boost him with their presence.
The pair didn’t just remain idle either as they were lifted up on a wave of conjured spears to charge even as the first spell struck. The darkfire hounds weren’t completely taken aback, however, and started breathing hails of flaming projectiles towards the incoming, most pointy tide. Some crashed into the spears, cracking and dissolving some of the conjurations, but any which came close to Will himself were deflected and dissolved as he let Laevyeth dance around him in precise, whirling arcs.
A bit off in the distance, Kite and Dragonfly stood as silent spectators; their auras retracted to let Will and Laevyeth have their first dance together among real foes in some semblance of privacy. In the skies above, Sprite remained on the ship alongside Glint where the student had been given a far-sight crystal with which to watch the proceedings.
“Heavens, they sure seem to have taken to one another,” Dragonfly noted, seeing the elf-spear duo descend among snapping fangs and flaming breaths. The flames did not only flow outwards though, as another one of the darkfire hounds’ capabilities was to draw in and devour most other types of fires around them to replenish themselves. “And I’m glad they could have this particular pack upon which to practice. I hate those things.”
“And yet you have prevailed in the past, proving that tempering yourself against bad matchups is not beyond you, my ardent Dragonfly. May the heavens tremble at your passing,” Kite said, reaching out and draping one of his arms around her shoulders. “And as for Will and Laevyeth, we did have an inkling that they might make for a fine match. Fate seems to agree.”
As if to prove his point, Will rose upon wings of spears in the distance before the weapons shot down into the pack like a piercing, freezing rain followed by a diving spearman and more carnage. The number of Laevyeth-like simulacra around the ravine just kept on growing, which meant that Will’s speed did the same while the hounds were gradually slowed by creeping cold.
In a few minutes, it was over, and Will let all other spears dissolve as he whipped the remnant blood from Laevyeth before holding up the spear before him reverently.
“My Lady, you truly are a marvel.”
“We are, my Lord. Together.”
At their words, Dragonfly looked up at Kite with a slight frown. “They’re… probably going to continue like that.”
“Indeed.”
“Probably as long as they live.”
“Sounds likely.”
“That is both very, very sweet and somewhat concerning.”
Among the monsters in the distance, the pair had moved on from their adoration of one another. Instead, Will walked around and touched Laevyeth’s tip to each of the monster corpses before moving off a bit towards his friends while pouring some crystal wash over the spear to clean away any lingering blood and dirt. Having been cleansed, Laevyeth’s tip flashed once as Will held her up.
“In thy defeat, I claim thee!”
All of the monster corpses dissolved at once, the foul-smelling rainbow smoke shooting up in a great geyser towards the heavens.
“Was it a grand bounty, my Lady? It was your first time, no?” Will asked as they drew closer, Glint already descending from the skies to pick them up as the group intended to hit a few more contracts spread across the northern parts of the kingdom over the coming week.
“As long as my first time is with thee, my Lord, I shalt not object. And the bounty was indeed something. Spirit coins, the quintessence which thou mentioned as well as the monster cores.”
As the group prepared to board the small ship, Dragonfly leaned in to Kite and whispered, soft enough that only he could hear.
“You know, I rescind all my complaints. This is going to be even better than just Will alone.”
“Kite, would you mind giving me a moment of your time? In private?”
“Of course, Lord Indomitable,” Kite replied, throwing a glance at the others who were gathered around Will in one of the parlors of the city lord’s palace. As Dragonfly, Glint and Laevyeth seemed to be enjoying themselves along with Will’s mother and older sister, he stepped out after the older silver-ranker onto a balcony just outside.
Below them, Gilded looked much like it had when Kite had first arrived; a great sprawl of lanterns illuminating the streets and gold-leafed trees below to ward off the murk of evening.
“I thank you again for your hospitality, my Lord,” Kite continued as he joined the elf at the finely sculpted wood railing. “It would have been most understandable if you had wanted some time with Will alone.”
“It is of no concern, I assure you,” Lord Indomitable replied, glancing back through a window at the people gathered inside. “As things have now played out, I sincerely doubt I will have any chance at a private conversation with him again. That outworlder and him are looking to be quite inseparable,” he finished, nodding towards where a perceptive observer could see Will’s and Laevyeth’s feet touching beneath their seats, a phenomenon which had become most common over the last week from what Kite had seen.
“They do seem to resonate well,” Kite agreed. “I, for one, am both surprised and relieved that you so readily accepted Laevyeth’s circumstances. Even for an adventurer like me, they feel as spectacular as they seem unlikely.”
“I have seen my fair share of things in my adventuring days, Kite. Never met any outworlders though, but other things both grand and foul. This world is filled with wonders, and new ones seem to keep springing up each day. This Laevyeth’s aura feels as pure as my son’s. While this may prove both good and ill, it does indeed look like they are kindred spirits.”
A moment of silence stretched between them before Lord Indomitable eventually continued.
“And you, young Pathbreaker, seems to have once again been a catalyst for a great change in my son’s life. First you gave him the awakening stones with which to complete his path. Then you gave him friendship, protection and - most importantly - perspective. And now, your own adventures have caused Will’s fate to once again change its trajectory. Overall, you’ve proven to be quite the meddler, haven’t you?” he finished, chuckling.
“Will has long been a dear friend to me, but even before I knew him it was obvious that he would be a man who would rather drill through a boulder than to go around it,” Kite replied with a fond smile, remembering days past where he met an odd iron-ranker who had sworn friendship then and there as he had been presented with the two awakening stones of the spear. “He has some quality to him that makes me want to see him succeed; a drive to make part of the world his own. In some ways it is a drive we both share, albeit through different means and ways. Back when we met, I had yet to discover that part of me. But Will? He was already living it. And helping him in what ways I can has brought me much joy.”
“Quite the observations for one so young. A fresh perspective on it, too. An old glacier like me can’t really keep up with you and your climbs,” Lord Indomitable said with a fond smile. “I will ponder what you have said, Kite. But nonetheless, I want to thank you again. Will and Laevyeth seems to have forged their bond, but your thoughtfulness gave them the opportunity. As a father, you have my gratitude.”
The two stood for a few minutes in contemplative silence, looking out over the lights of the city below before a polite pulse of silver aura made them both turn back towards the palace.
“My Lord. Kite. The refreshments are here,” Grim announced with a polite bow. Silver rank had, as with most people, been kind to him. The elf had kept the stern ageless look from before, but it was now sharper and even more refined.
“Thank you, Grim. We will join you at once. And once more, congratulations on reaching silver. Your assistance in getting here was most appreciated,” Kite said as the two walked back inside to join the others.
“It was my pleasure, Kite,” Grim replied as he closed the doors behind them, the hint of a smile playing over his otherwise professional mask as he still seemed to revel at everything which silver rank had given him. “My pleasure, indeed.”
“Little Kite, you really shouldn’t have. They could’ve gone to the guild’s contribution store, or perhaps as a way to entice new members? Surely these are way too valuable to waste on an old man like me?”
“Oh hush now, uncle,” Kite said with a roll of his eyes, sliding the wooden box across the table to the older man while staying resolute in the pathfinder’s final attempt at protests. Said protest finally fell silent as he leaned over and opened the lid, Walker’s posturing changing from seeming to regard the box as some kind of poisonous snake to one of awe.
“I made sure that Peony poured a lot of work and attention into these, after all. And given how many contracts you still take on yourself or oversee for our junior members, you too need to be ready for the trials which the heavens may spring upon you.”
Inside the wooden box was a pair of bracers constructed from some kind of irregular, organic-looking latticework of green crystal. It was as if a network of ivy had grown into the shape before crystallizing, its shape making it seem like it was still - somehow - growing.
“Go ahead, uncle. Try them on,” Kite eventually urged, tapping the box. “They won’t do much good just laying there.”
Eventually, Walker nodded and reverently picked one of them up, turning it over to look at it from different angles.
“She… sure did a great job,” he finally said. “It’s just odd, you know? I’ve gone so long being probably one of the poorer bronze-rankers of the regions, and now I can have something like this just made for me? As a gift?”
“You’ve been a guildmaster for some time now, uncle. I would say that you should allow yourself to reap some benefits.”
“Sure, sure. But it takes longer for us old ones to shake such habits.”
“Uncle, you are what? Just over forty? That’s hardly ancient. Give us a decade or two and we’ll basically be considered the same age for most intents and purposes given that we’re both silvers.”
Walker only shot Kite a sour glare in response, grumbling something incoherent under his breath that sounded suspiciously like ‘no respect for their elders’ before his attentions was drawn back to the artifacts.
“So… just channel some mana into them?”
“Yes,” Kite agreed. “Peony said they would refit themselves and expand a bit.”
This proved true as the bracers suddenly glowed beneath Walker’s touch, and a moment later the crystal lattice work slid up the guildmaster’s arms. They lengthened somewhat too, and ended up covering his arms from the wrists and up, only ending a bit up and over the shoulders where they instead spread out a bit.
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Walker moved his arms experimentally, nodding with satisfaction as the material bent with him where needed.
“Well then… As these lavish things have been thrust upon me, I believe that it’s only fair to get a proper sense of what they’re capable of and- Oh… Ooooooooh…”
His eyes widened in realization as a bit of focus gave him the instinctual knowledge of what the artifacts were capable of.
“You did say you wanted more utility from them, uncle. But please forgive this young one for urging Peony to make sure that said utility could be useful in combat as well,” Kite noted with a satisfied smile as Walker started conjuring vines which crept up the walls of his office in the Convergence guildhall, only to let them disperse. Instead of the usual, simple dissolution of the conjurations, they fell into green, seed-looking fragments which soon grew into new vines; thinner but a lot more numerous.
Walker looked as if he would protest again, but finally seemed to surrender his last bit of grouchy skepticism. With a sigh, he instead stepped up and wrapped Kite in an embrace.
“To think that my little Kite has grown so wise and resourceful that he can give his old uncle such a princely gift.”
As he spoke, a shadow suddenly fell over some of the windows as something huge had suddenly grown out of the ground in the courtyard below, blocking out the sun.
“It would only be fair that I invited my benefactor to my first experiment of just how big I can grow my verdant companions now, wouldn’t it?”
Then Walker stepped off into a nearby set of vines and disappeared, his aura shifting to somewhere outside - or rather, above - the guildhall.
“A more foolish man might have proposed to race you, uncle,” Kite said with a smile as he started running for the nearby balcony to join Walker outside. “But while I wouldn’t claim to be as wise as you seem to find me, I will at least boast with having learned to not engage in completely hopeless battles. And that it is good to let one’s elders show that they still have a thing or two to teach you.”
“- and so, the meeting is adjourned. Go, and spread the seeds of Discord.” Black Wood Mask finished, rising from her seat as the inner circle started to disperse.
This time, Ametrine was first among them, conjuring her portal of shimmering smoke without another word and stepping through. Once she emerged within her chambers up at the royal palace of Heavenward, she let her porcelain mask vanish into her dimensional storage space before sitting down at her dressing table.
Outwardly, she remained the very definition of poise and grace while her insides were currently freezing over with cold, frustrated fury.
“I keep getting outmaneuvered and pushed back. Soon there won’t be much more for me to do than to nod along with the others,” Ametrine thought to herself, unflinchingly touching upon the bitter thought of defeat. She hadn’t come this far by shirking away from the realities of things. “Curse them, and curse the Builder’s cult for agreeing to make plans for a joint operation, tentative or not. We don’t need them here. They are too much of an unknown.”
One hairpin after another was laid out in neat rows on the table before her as she let down her hair before rearranging it and pinning it up with a different, even more elaborate set. They had been a recent gift from his majesty, and she would wear them to court today as a symbol to the others of her continued favor.
As usual, their god had been silent in the matters of inviting the Builder cult for collaboration. Strife and disagreements were of Discord, after all, so the deity let them figure out their way forward by themselves most of the time. And speaking of the creed and purview of her god, Ametrine found herself having ideas on the matter coalesce more properly.
“I suppose I will have to assist the others in this matter as best I am available, as was our agreement when forming the council,” she thought as she calmed down somewhat, meeting her own lustrous bismuth eyes in the mirror. Ametrine let a smile, small yet slightly triumphant, color her expressions, seeing that twinkle in her eyes which her King had so often admired.
“I am sure that some other players, if made aware in a careful way and at the right time, may bring strife enough into this little venture to satisfy Discord no matter the outcome.”
Little Sun Sprite gave off a cry in her best Dragonfly impression as she stepped into the staff-thrust, striking the shimmering pane of force close enough to the center to count as a solid hit. She spun directly afterwards to swing at another barrier which had appeared to her right before resetting and striking one low to the ground in a downwards slaw. Neither blow was strong enough to actually have a chance at cracking even the brittle barriers produced by Leyline Warding’s ongoing effect, but Kite still let each disperse to give the girl the satisfaction of it.
“Well done, Sprite,” he praised, already standing quite close to the student in one of their compound’s empty gardens as the aforementioned essence power had quite the limited reach.
“Thank you, Pathbreaker,” Sprite intoned in return, bowing as she stood at attention, just as Dragonfly had been drilling into her over the months they had spent together. Through his aura, Kite could feel that she was still somewhat anxious when left with him alone without her teacher, but the feeling was both less prominent and better held in check these days. Progress, at least of sorts.
“If I may give you a pointer, it would be one which uncle Walker - and later the esteemed Phiona Geller - spent a lot of time teaching me, one smacked hand or shin at a time; a staff has two ends, which each have their uses depending on your stance, balance and need. Use them both,” he finished, having assumed his best impression of the serious and driven Geller scion.
To demonstrate, Kite let his own staff fall into his hands as barriers started appearing around him in a similar pattern. Much like Sprite, he struck out with a thrust and followed with a swing. But instead of resetting and striking a mighty downwards blow, Kite finished the final target by slightly shifting his stance and smashing it with the lower end of the staff instead.
“Why do you think they counseled me so?” he asked, staff disappearing back into his void sheath.
Sprite, while slightly chagrined at the perceived mistake, straightened and took a moment to think.
“It’s… because of efficiency and momentum?” she eventually ventured. “Keeping the initiative is more important if it leaves my opponents with less time and opportunity to strike me in turn?”
“Very good,” Kite said, reconjuring the barriers around her again. “Why don’t you try the exercise once more, but this time you instead alternate between using each end of the staff. It should give you some feeling for when it feels better and more efficient and when it just becomes awkward. But to complicate things somewhat, that will also change if you ascend through the ranks in the future.”
The elf girl gave a determined nod and bow in return, then threw herself back into practice doing what Kite had suggested. It was a practice which Phiona Geller had Kite himself go through many times in the past, and readjusting it to Dragonfly’s student seemed to work as he could see Sprite’s brow crease in consternation as she found herself occasionally tangled in awkward angles, as well as elation when her next strike flowed just that much more smoothly due to the alterations.
And soon enough, another thing happened which Kite recognized from his time being drilled by uncle Walker at a young age. Sprite, having increased in both speed and confidence, accidentally tripped herself when trying to strike low with the back end of the staff mid-pivot. Fortunately, Kite’s reflexes were well beyond the level where he could have the barriers disperse before she banged her head against them, but Sprite’s shame was still palpable as she now lay in a heap on the ground and tried to disentangle herself from the staff.
Kite’s first instinct was to help her up, of course, but it was soon tempered by previous rejections of a helping hand.
“But maybe…” he thought as an idea struck him.
This meant that just as Sprite managed to find her bearings and was starting to try and rise, she found the head of a metal staff - trio of rings chiming gently - held out for her to grab onto. A surprised look and a moment of consideration later had Kite suppressing a smile as the elf girl reached out and grabbed the offered assistance, pulling herself up in a swift motion.
“Why don’t we try again? You’re making good progress, after all.”
“How far off are the four of you?” Kite called towards the bathhouse.
Had it just been Dragonfly there he might have taken the opportunity to admire her stretching languidly in the hot springs, but as she was currently joined by both Sprite, Glint and Laevyeth, propriety won out by a good margin.
“Give us an hour at least,” came the relaxed call in return. “If we’re spending the next two weeks or more out in the wilds, I’ll need to accumulate as much comfort as I can to make it last.”
“Take your time then,” he called in return before moving off. Seeing that Will was seated deep in meditation surrounded by several conjured copies of Laevyeth, and therefore wouldn’t be much in the way of company, Kite instead set off towards the astral space. As they would be traveling for some time, an initially empty mana pool wouldn’t be a detriment and might as well go to the seed below.
A quick trek through purple sands and quick descent through a carved out tunnel leading down soon had him seated in the familiar cave, looking up at the thing. The seed still sat as a silent, mysterious monument, and as usual it greedily devoured each and every drop of mana Kite would offer with Sage acting as the conduit.
“I wonder how much more you need,” he murmured softly, as he had done many times before. But this time, the question was asked with a bit more anticipation, as there had been a marked difference in what vague sense he got in return from the thing for the last three months.
The feedback had always been vague at best, but the soft glow from its small cracks had become a lot more stable.
“Will it be a week? A month? Another year?”
As usual, the seed gave no answer, and Kite found his mind drifting onto other matters as the mana leaving him had stabilized at a pace that would let him continue channeling for some time before emptying out. Sage, being its usual self, hovered beside him with a patience only reserved for calligraphy and this task, the otherwise restless astral gatherer seeming content at accompanying Kite at his vigil.
“I hope that Wander and Braid might have something more for us when we meet up with them in Orchard,” he said, addressing the silent familiar to pass the time. “It feels like the servants of Discord have made themselves most scarce, and that worries me. From his last missive, Little Crow seemed to think that the clan might have caught some faint leads in the capital, but still far from conclusive.”
As was often the case, Sage didn’t reply. The familiar did emote at times, but it was almost exclusively when its alien interest was piqued. Still, it was better than talking to himself.
“From what Ryker and the others at Gauntlet say, it’s when the churches of the darker gods suddenly fall silent and go into hiding that one should be worried. If only we could catch a glimpse of what their actual objectives are. And why there seems to be so many differing interests converging here in our little kingdom. Discord, Undeath, Destruction, Plague… As well as the differing cults like the cannibals of the Red Table or fleshwarpers of The Menagerie. How are we to-”
“Completion.”
Kite was interrupted by the sudden emote from the familiar, who had apparently taken some kind of interest in his words this time.
“What?”
“Completion,” Sage repeated through its oddly interpretable rearrangement of the signs making up its form.
Kite was about to ask which part of his musing the astral gatherer was referring to when he noticed it; he still had mana left. No more was transferred to the seed, the link currently fading much like when he had finished pushing a budding manifestation over the edge. The seed looked much like before on the outside though. Perhaps the slightly undulating glow was a bit fuller but-
Then the glow suddenly stabilized into a firm, purple light. Kite’s magical senses had a few moments to sense a thrumming shift from inside the thing before a loud crack resounded through the cavern. And pandemonium followed.
In but a moment, the stalagmite carrying the seed shattered as questing roots exploded downward. They seemed to melt the purple stone at a touch as they went which crystallized as a glassy film. What was worse, they grew in thickness with alarming speed as they burrowed down and out to the side.
“Sage!” Kite called, alarmed as the space was rapidly filling with the expanding tendrils. He sprang to his feet, ducking beneath another root which shot out to the side and dove through the wall with ease as he made for the exit, only to find it rapidly closing up as more of the plant matter - at least Kite assumed that’s what it was - was pushing for a most aggressive expansion.
Fortunately, Kite was also quite familiar with the tunnels beneath the astral space by now, and a mental command to the astral gatherer - who now floated at its customary spot just behind him - sent a beam of resonating force upward in a sweeping blur which carved a hole through the stone ceiling leading to another passage up above. A few steps through the air on conjured panes of force took Kite up and through the new opening, and not a moment too soon as something from below started to grow upwards as well.
“No time- more openings!” he thought, and quickly used both remaining charges of his familiar to carve through the ceiling twice more as he fought to stay ahead of the churning, crushing masses unfolding below.
Another layer of stone above - was that the final? - awaited him and Kite was just charging up a swing trailing Void-Sunders-Firmament in an attempt to push through when the floor beneath him buckled and then erupted upward. The tunnel ceiling rose to greet Kite at great speed as he suddenly found himself ascending, carried on something shooting up from beneath. At the moment of contact, mana left him in a great surge as Implacable Motion kicked in to help Kite plow through the stone and what he had left proved just enough to get him through the final stretch of stone and up into the oddly lit open air of the astral space above with only a few scrapes.
As soon as he broke through, Kite dove to the side and ran straight out into the air with all the speed which his magically enhanced body and enchanted boots could muster. His expanded field of vision showed only an expanding geyser of purple sand behind him with the shape of something huge occasionally glimpsed in its center, and only once the eruption of purple debris had stopped expanding did Kite allow himself to slow down, eventually stopping and turning to get a proper look at the result of what he had helped set into motion.
A branch came into view first as the winds of the astral space finally managed to start scattering the cloud of sand; deep, dark purple but covered in what looked like mostly translucent glass bark of a much lighter tone. More branches followed before the trunk of what turned out to be a majestic tree was finally revealed.
It stretched well over a hundred meters up into the air, light purple surface shimmering in the even, sunless light of the astral space. The trunk split into several different lengths almost immediately above the ground and then further into branches which sprouted bright blue leaves at the tops, leading to the bare, glass-barked tree seeming to form an expansive roof of azure which stood in lone contrast to the otherwise unified purple color scheme of the pocket dimension.
Kite stood transfixed for minutes as the burgeoning torrent of growth slowly seemed to settle, the landscape around the patch of cliffs where he had once discovered the hidden tunnels along with the Geller cousins and Vista now a wavy landscape of roots which had drilled through stone and sand alike.
“Sage?” he eventually murmured after brushing away the fine layer of purple dust which now covered him from head to toe. The familiar had floated up beside him, turned towards the new edifice of the astral space in rapt attention. It did not answer, but that did not deter Kite as he continued.
“I… believe that we might need to postpone our trip a bit more, and see if we can’t determine what - between the heavens and the earth - just happened here. And what might come of it.”
