Chương 425: 425

Mark stared out across the bow of the airship, the northern lands of Crytalis flowing below him like a carpet of various square-shaped holes. The ship was full of people, from Mark's team, to Tartu and his team, to a few others from the settlement. It was not crowded but it could have been, and it looked magnificent. Eliot had truly outdone himself on the filigree and the gilding and the lighting. Overall it was white, with gold everywhere, like a paladin's armor, which was pretty much on point.

The feathered rudders were quite nice. Mark hadn't expected that. Nor had he expected a solid gold 'halo' for a hover ring. That halo was constructed out of a portion of the brightspeed crystal that was left over from the Dreadnought, so not only did it look good, it was remarkably strong and capable of making this 'Dreadnought, Too' fly at great speeds. They had taken off from the settlement an hour ago, using Brightspeed speeds, and so they had arrived in Aluathan airspace in 10 minutes.

Most of the last hour had actually been going slow while also discussing everything that was to come. Flying at Brightspeed over Aluatha was rather illegal, as well, but that was of secondary concern compared to the talks and the plans. Mark had spoken about one thing during those talks, his one real reason for going along with Walaria's demand for his appearance at this get-together, and that one thing had consumed the entire last half hour in rather fruitless discussion.

And now Mark was here, watching the cenotes of Aluatha pass by… And Grand Mage Rekaro Solari wasn't finished talking. The wiry old man came up behind Mark, winding up a big speech, beginning with, "I know we discussed how this will all work, but I would like to go over it again." The 'adults' 'in charge', like the Grand Mage and Tulo Khava and even Rylan Drakemore, and especially the Ambassador Iliandra Snowstepper, had been rather disturbed by Mark's response to his plans at the party.

Mark simply said, "I'm going to be actively pursuing Forbidden Magics, and I am going to make that well-known. Not only will this action bring me the knowledge I need going forward with this Skiller stuff, it will alienate a vast many people who allied with me about the Reset Quest, and thus fulfill Nobody Important's demands to cut that shit out. Maybe if I alienate myself enough then he won't almost-glass other cities out there.

And maybe, when we have 12 empires up and running, and we can fight back against Category 7 divine kaijus, we can revisit the issue, but for now…" Mark frowned, looking outward, finishing with, "I'm going to capitulate to the terrorists because they have nuclear bombs and I do not."" I still feel that openly pursuing… ahem… Forbidden Magics, will be a thorny issue that you cannot come back from." Mark was almost flippant, talking about 'how bad could it be?'

because the worst case scenario here had nothing to do with Mark's reputation. It was Nobody Important deciding that Mark hadn't stepped far enough back from the Reset Quest… but then Mark looked at Rekaro Solari. The man seemed terribly serious. Mark asked, "Is it the murdering, or… demonic stuff? Or what? I'm not going to actually do any of it, Rekaro. But what, exactly, are you thinking of when you think of Forbidden Magics?" And then Mark added, "Because I need to know this stuff, anyway.

I'm not an Inquisitor and I don't think I ever can be, but there are mysteries I need to know and capabilities of the world that I need to understand, and now is as good of a time as any to get deep into that darkness." All while they had been talking about this stuff earlier, no one had given Mark any specifics. But now, right here, Mark saw as Rekaro decided to break Mage Secrecy. It was a slackening in his shoulders and a relaxation in his eyes.

Rekaro simply said, "Once you look upon the horrors, the horrors look back. Those entities grant powers beyond normal means. Strange powers that twist and open paths in reality that shouldn't exist, but those Forbidden Magics are eldritch, and therefore incompatible with normal human life." But those are simply the worst cases. Lesser cases exist, like sacrifice, both human and not, black witchery and blood witchery, everything demonic, and everything to do with the human soul.

'Forbidden Magic' is not a simple designation that exists outside of context, and when you look at the context you find a spectrum, and when you look at the spectrum, you think you're okay in the shallows, but you will occasionally run afoul of the deeper eldritch, and you won't know you are already inside the monster's jaws until they are snapping shut." Eliot had spoken about it months ago, but not at length. The eldritch poisoned the soul, leaving behind traces that they were always able to influence.

'Once you looked at them, they could always look at you'; that sort of thing. Mark didn't truly understand it, but he could see it… sort of. Mark thought that was sort of reasonable, so he asked, "Do you think eldritch nastiness can affect someone who can fully view and handle their soul, and discard things they don't want? Because that's the danger, right? Soul poisoning, or whatever you call it?"" That is another main concern of mine.

We do not know how your house works, and Quark's videos have not been useful in determining anything about it at all. It is very possible that some eldritch thing could try to attach itself to you and you would never be able to discover it because you have so much clutter in your soul." Rekaro added, "The elves —theoretically; I am only guessing here…

the elves seem to have handled the eldritch-issue by sequestering themselves in a paradise and putting their Full Selves on library shelves, untouched and unrealized, forever separating themselves from those influences. Comparing your house to someone else with a Binding and several spells is like comparing someone with a mansion to someone who only has one painting. It's easy to check a painting for problems. But a whole house? Impossible."

Mark said, "I see and hear your concern, but I'm pretty sure a house is more like a divine realm, and the gods know everything that happens in their 'houses'."" Ah, but gods do not know everything that happens in their house. You can steal into a godly realm without being noticed." Mark had trouble believing that… and he didn't have to take Rekaro's word for it anyway.

Addavein was on the upper deck of the ship, talking to Lola, both of them having a spirited conversation about something deeply personal to both of them. Whatever was going on between them was weird, and it had been weird for a while.

Addashield had been in a working relationship with Lola back at Orange Academy, though Addashield rarely showed up, and then all of that stuff with Mark and Kanda and the Tutorial and the Hidden Dragons and almost-magefall had happened, and then came all the rest with the dragoning, and then eventually Addavein shrinking himself down to human-sized with Sally's Size Manipulation and Isoko's powers of Wind Shaper and Union…

and now Addavein worked at the arcanaeum in the settlement that Lola worked at, in some sort of Daihoonian-mirror of Earth's previous situation. And now Addavein was on the same hovership as Lola, both of them headed to a Winter Ball in the capital of the Aluatha Empire, alongside Mark and others. And Addavein was Mark's Talzarki… and maybe one day, that would stop being weird, but that day was not today. Mark made it work, anyway.

But whatever was going on between Lola and Addavein was beyond Mark, and he didn't want to be involved in any of that, anyway. It actually made Mark uncomfortable in a weird way when Addavein and Lola talked at all. So Mark called out, "Addavein! I got a question!" Rekaro stood firm, his face smoothing out as he dropped all emotions, as though he had expected this sort of friction in his recommendation to Mark.

Addavein said something to Lola, just out of sight, and then he walked down the curving stairs that linked the upper deck to the main deck. He strode toward Mark and Rekaro grinning, saying, "I do believe the gods recognize all incursions to their realms, Grand Mage, and yet they actively choose to ignore those incursions until they get out of hand, like a person's body recognizing an invader." Of course Addavein had heard the conversation happening down here, and he joined right in.

Mark recalled that technically, according to Xerkonan Etiquette, that was considered impolite, unless you were the strongest person in the room, then you were expected to keep tabs on every important conversation happening around you, in case you needed to join those conversations.

In those scenarios, having the current participants in the conversation condense and state the nature of the talk to the theoretical power-in-the-room was considered impolite, or maybe you weren't the strongest person in the room and that you should step aside and let someone else assume that position. It was all very complicated, actually. They had gone over etiquette again before they left. They'd probably go over etiquette yet again, before they reached any actual party at all.

Rekaro told Addavein, "We have no way of helping Mark if he creates a maze inside of himself where even he cannot see what is happening." That scenario was new to Mark. Mark asked, "Do people often make mazes inside of themselves?"" Mental mazes, yes," Addavein said, "Certain eldritch tricks make the mind turn on itself, linking one memory to another to another in a circular sort of barrier that prevents people from looking at the eldritch located behind the circular memories.

For instance: You have several drawers in that kitchen in your house, but are you looking in all of them, all the time?"" I take your point, but even so: Quark is there," Mark said, "He can see through all of the drawers because he doesn't see them how I see them."" And you are correct," Addavein said, "Familiars are one of the best ways to combat the eldritch, but even they can be fooled. So the real issue with delving into Forbidden Magics is not 'how do I avoid infection?'

but rather 'how do I heal myself from the infection I will inevitably get?'

" Addavein said to Rekaro, "In that way, I believe that Mark is already poised to do well, for he was likely exposed to the eldritch with that Manipulation Kaiju in that floating city layer of Endless Daihoon. Since he is standing here, and all of them are standing here and doing well, then we can conclude that their methods of fighting off the eldritch are rather strong. Eliot is a True Castellan, after all."

Mark got a weird sort of chill at Addavein's words, but then he glanced toward the part of the ship where Eliot was, down in the depths in the control room, talking to Andria and Derek. Mark said, "Eliot's Castellan already does most of the work, huh."" Correct again. All Castellan-protected cities naturally burn out small eldritch infections by virtue of the infected person being inside of the walls and affected by the fire," Addavein said.

"As long as you return to civilization every now and then, you're good." Rekaro said, "It is still dangerous, Addavein."" Life is dangerous. Better to be prepared than caught unawares." Mark moved on slightly, saying, "Speaking of memories being used to redirect thoughts… We're doing the Water People Understanding Party tomorrow. Could I 'arrange furniture' in my house to promote innate anti-eldritch actions? For when I'm outside of cities?" Addavein wasn't sure. Rekaro was less sure, but he had ideas.

Addavein looked to Rekaro." Theoretically, yes," Rekaro said, mostly to Addavein, "But I would never trust something like that." Addavein easily said to Rekaro, "The academics have to meet the monster sometime, Grand Mage, and it is better to happen in controlled situations than outside of controlled situations." Rekaro countered, "Mark is adamantium at PL 99 all across the Hex. That is my main issue. If he is corrupted then there is no one available to put him down."

Rekaro told Mark, "It would be better if you approached your studies of the Forbidden from the position of the Inquisitor, if you were to approach them at all, and whatever you do, do not approach them in public." Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Addavein hummed for a bare moment, then said, "All decent points." Addavein and Rekaro had a 'practical versus academic' sort of thing going on.

Mark didn't understand it much, and he never saw the two of them interact as anything other than professional when Mark or anyone else was around (as far as Mark knew) but there was a certain angry, polite, give-and-take tension between the human-sized-and-shaped dragon and the old, wiry man with a beard. Mark had Thoughts on all of that, and also Lola, and school/arcanaeum/university in general—" What are you truly going after, anyway, with the Forbidden Magics?" Addavein asked."

There are many things to learn in an arcanaeum setting. Many, many things!" Rekaro said.

"No need to delve into the depths right away, and especially before you can even recognize what you're learning." Mark said, "I need to find out how to kill gods like Thrashtalon. I need to make armies of good tri-Talents, capable of defending the walls of countless settlements. I need to know about demons, and answers to questions they will not answer, like about elves, and Okuana's true history, and about the goblins. All of that."

Rekaro responded, "You should consider a basic education before you go after graduate-level and Grand Mage work." Addavein said, "Rekaro has a good point, but I believe that a ranking of the issues presented will give us a better idea of what you're actually going after first, Mark. What is the most important thing for you at this moment?"" Well…"

Mark said, "I cannot do all of this myself, and the settlement was only agreed upon, under duress, with the unsaid promise that if it succeeded then the Empire would replace Aurora with someone they picked, but mostly they expected failure. There's just not enough kaiju killers out there, and there are certainly not enough high-tier individuals to clear out full goblin infestations.

So, I guess, this weird, new ability I have to switch around Powers on monsters —and hopefully people— is the most important thing to go after right now. So pursuing the skills of a Skiller is at the top of the list. That means soul work, which means all things deep in the dream. I have no idea where all the other stuff falls…" Mark frowned a little, adding, "A week ago I would have named the Reset Quest, but I'm kinda pulling at possibilities and seeing what sticks. So, Forbidden Magic." Rekaro looked pensive.

Thinking. Addavein easily said, "There's a funny bit of history here that I doubt even Rekaro knows, for it was sealed by Empire at the start of the Empire 350 years ago." Rekaro looked askance at Addavein, curious.

"And you're going to unseal it… now? Here?" Addavein grinned as he told Rekaro, but primarily Mark, "I believe I will, for all the old oaths do not apply, and this one seems important to unseal… In a roundabout way, anyway. The path you're pursuing with Skilling, Mark, with the idea of making true powers for public defense, is actually an eldritch path. So yes, you will hit upon the eldritch almost instantly in your pursuit of this. Oh yes!

The entire profession of the Skiller has deep roots in a specific eldritch being, capable of switching out destinies and souls and various other things. The process worked like this:" You had one donor, one recipient, and one burner." The donor would be sacrificed to the being by the burner, and the burner would be consumed in the transfer, and then the recipient would gain the power of the donor. The burner was lost to the eldritch.

I won't explain more than that, lest that old horror come back, and they do not need to come back." Thrashtalon probably knows of it, so you will need to know of it, too." But there are reasons we moved on from the old ways, and those reasons have nothing at all to do with the loss of practitioners or rebelling populations not willing to be sacrificed anymore, or anything like that, though those examples are secondary to the main reason the old ways fell out of favor."

The old ways are gone because they aren't as useful as actually knowing what you're doing, and then doing it yourself," Addavein said, "Once we crossed that bridge as a society the practitioners lived and could teach others, and society flourished. The truly bad thing about the eldritch is not that they are unknowable and horrible and corruptive —though they are— but that they can do things easily, that you cannot, and that is the lure that makes people go back to them over and over again."

These days we have mostly forgotten those eldritch, and that is all for the better. As soon as you figure out what you're doing with your house, perhaps we can even move beyond Skillers." Mark was once again horrified at the methodologies of the mages of history, but… he was here now, and of course they had better methodologies these days. Rekaro had been momentarily caught unawares when Addavein started talking, but he rapidly caught up, and he said, "I do know of that one, actually. It's not that sealed.

You never talk about it outside of Skiller studies, but it is known."" Ah! I wondered if they still did that," Addavein said, nodding. Rekaro asked Mark, "Do you still need to go after generalized 'Forbidden Magic'?" Mark ehh'd, thinking— "Oh." Mark asked, "I've talked a little bit about how witchery is just System-creation on a smaller scale, but the witches I know have blown me off regarding that. Do you think there's any truth to it? Anything there?" Rekaro asked, "I don't know about that but…

What's the purpose of the gathering of this knowledge? Perhaps that is something I can answer." Addavein waited, too. Mark could have spoken about how they needed a temporary 'System' for when they Reset the real System, but that would hit a brick wall. No one wanted to talk about the Reset Quest anymore, except to say that it was stupid. So instead, Mark said, "Every time I try to ping System Prime it takes ten-ish tries. My record was getting a response on the second try, and the worst was 53 tries later.

I want to strengthen that response time, or that connection, or whatever it is, and understanding the System itself might help better, and I do not trust Malaqua or the gods in this; I'm almost 100% sure that they are literally bound to give anti-answers, if they give any answers at all." Rekaro nodded a little, but he had nothing to say about that."

I've dipped a toe or five into witchery here and there," Addavein said, "And it can do some amazing, sideways-action sorts of things, so I could see the System itself being an application of witchery, though only as a small part of the main whole.

It would be easier to answer this theory if we knew what the System was, exactly, but all theories point to something we inherently cannot see, touch, or know —much like an eldritch being hiding itself from everyone— because all theories fail in this way or that way or another way…" Addavein turned, seeing what Mark was seeing, so he rapidly finished with, "I think someone on Walaria's staff is trying to make maps of System Prime, or at least trying to understand all of that, too— Talk to her about it."

Mark felt Eliot coming upstairs, too, and so he looked that way, alongside Addavein and Rekaro. Eliot tapped the comms beside the entrance to the ship's cabin, speaking to everyone on the ship, "We're 5 minutes out from the Grand Port of Crytalis. Mark, please be ready for front-and-center." Mark hadn't even looked in front of the ship in 20 minutes, but he did so now, and yeah, there was the Grand Port.

It was shielded with invisibility magics so you couldn't see it until you were closer, but now it was there; a giant spire surrounded by airships. All of Crytalis spread out below the spire. Crystal pyramids housed arcologies under clear glass, allowing the people inside to 'live outside', while deep holes in the ground, like inverted pyramids, were where most people lived in Empire Aluatha.

Giant death crystals floated over every major glass pyramid, and every pyramid had clear lines of sight on most of the land all around them, which was why most of the population lived in the inverted, underground places. Kaiju attacks demanded clear and unambiguous responses. Green corridors cut all of those spaces from each other, into squares and triangles, while Castellan made all the monster spawns that would have happened inside the cities instead happen in those green spaces.

Fire teams constantly patrolled those green lands and killed everything. Mark saw a moving conflagration burning the land, right now, sliding through a corridor, while the land behind the fire team turned from ashen back to green. With Castellan protecting this much land in the heart of the Aluatha Empire, the degree of monster spawns and Wild regrowth was insane. That insanity demanded that Aluatha keep parts of itself completely separated from the rest in a way that wasn't truly mirrored on Earth at all.

Aluatha was deeply against free travel and especially against foreign visitors. If you were a citizen you could somewhat move around, but only to the public parts of this or that arcology or district or whatever. Mark asked, "Will they let us actually visit places?" Rekaro simply said, "Doubtful."" You go anywhere and do anything you want, Mark," Addavein said, and then he strongly added, "And take note of who tries to stop you for any reason, regarding anything at all." Rekaro said nothing against that.

Mark turned toward the Grand Port, where white and blue banners materialized like snow storms falling from tiny clouds in a 6-sided pattern around the port. It was decorations for the Winter Ball, and tens of lines of vehicles clouded the sky, like droplets of water becoming a river that flowed to the top of the tower then departed, their cargo dropped off. A second line of cloud-shaped vehicles took guests from that top space to the crystal pyramid down to the east. Mark asked, "Is that Domal'Takela's arcology?""

No," Addavein said, "That's the Traveler's District. Warehouses at the bottom levels and guest services at the top. We'll be taking a train to Domal'Takela about an hour north from here."" But we have already crossed into High Society," Rekaro said, angling his chin toward some flying guys wearing long, flowing white garments that marked them like air traffic controllers, which they absolutely were. Just fancier. Rekaro said, "Here we go." Go time.

Mark breathed deep, prepared himself, and then he waved an arm, his tailored white suit creaking ominously at the armpit as he almost got too enthusiastic. He (sort of quietly) Called out, "Greetings!" Some sort of defensive structure around the fliers briefly flickered and much quieter words came to them, directly, through some sort of sound magic." Please refrain from wide scale magic of any sort, and please follow us," said a woman's voice, very professionally.

"We will be jumping the line. Thank you." Mark pulled his embarrassment in as much as he could, and said, "… Okay!" Derek drove the ship forward, following the fliers— And Rekaro muttered, "Ahh… this will be fun." Addavein happily said, "I am expecting it to rank rather high among all the Winter Balls I have ever attended." Mark felt weird when Addavein spoke like Addashield, but… He moved on, asking, "It's just a lot of talking and meeting people, yes?""

It's nothing like the Grand Festival in Calmhaven; this is true. People come from all over the Two Worlds to that coastal city and the surrounding lands, turning that event into a truly worldly experience. The Winter Ball, by contrast, is where plans for the next year are cemented after a great deal of talks at the beginning of the year, a few months ago. The Empire demands that any threatening politicking takes place before the participants get here, though that sort of anger still happens here, under the surface.

Usually the Winter Ball is a very boring affair with a great many people making sure that plans are still happening, but I suspect this year will have at least one or two big splashes." Rekaro told Addavein, "Care to guess last year's main topic?"" I bet it was me!" Addavein said, happily, tail swaying back and forth." It was." Mark wasn't sure how he felt right now, as the airship leveled off with the top of the Grand Port and started flying in, following the fliers ahead. Not scared; not really.

But he did have the urge to carry a sword, or put on his armor… maybe he was slightly scared. Hopefully this whole affair wouldn't have a bloody end.