Chương 427: 427

It was a nice tram, and a nice trip. They got the lead car in a 5 car train, and there were snacks and drinks for free, if you wanted them. For a little while, Mark was able to pretend that everything was okay. His worries about Okuana and the Reset Quest and Skillers and Forbidden Magic and demons and Nobody Important…

All of that took a backseat to standing on the tram, eating tiny snacks on toothpicks served by stoic women and men of the Empire, and watching the 'Kingdom District' of Aluatha roll by underneath large, open windows. The picture windows even had overlays of words on them when the tram went by some places. Tiny cameras in the walls tracked the eyes and then wrote words upon the window, naming places that Mark looked at too much while also giving history.

It was what Quark did when Mark asked him to, but for the public. There were too many names to remember, though, but Quark backed it all up, and Mark would look at it later if he cared to… and he probably would. A lot of history was in this land, and Mark felt the need to know at least a small portion of it. Isoko was over there using her phone and taking videos in her gorgeous white dress with the landscape in the background, talking about places to see.

Andria was with her, talking about the spa treatments they were going to get on Monday, and they were excited about that. And then the tram seemed to blast off into the open air, but really it was just crossing a 'canyon' down below. It was like looking down at a skyscraper alleyway. It was yet another 'underground' location, known as a cenote. The tram to Crytalis rimmed along the edges of many cenotes, both natural and not.

The newer, man-made cenotes were inverse pyramids, to match the arcologies rising like white-crystal normal-pyramids into the sky. The older cenotes were formed from natural locations, with rough edges that had been tamed by man, but which were not uniform at all. More and more of the cenotes nearer to the capital were natural, and they reminded Mark of the interior of the bones of Kabberjaw, in Endless Daihoon.

Endless cliffsides, falling away deep into the ground, the stone walls transformed into overhanging housing and shopping and living spaces of all sorts. Some roads connected through the middles of many of those pits, like steel and stone spider webs made by a kaiju-sized spider.

When Mark looked deeply at one of the pits that really, truly reminded him of a spider's web, with a bunch of redundant roads connecting various skyroads together, the readout on the screen displayed a historical story of some ancient kaiju-spider that the empire had used to defend the land… or something. The story didn't make sense. Addavein caught Mark's disbelief. He stepped nearer, saying, "No one believes that story, but it's true."" But it's a kaiju? And it's not a dragon.

It wasn't made from a person, was it?"" Not from a person at all. It was a natural kaiju."" How did you guys… tame it?"" We had dragons at the time, so that was the dragon's share of the explanation as to 'how'. Gedahowla the Bright, specifically."" She was the bigger monster, and she moved the spider along?" Addavein smiled a little, remembering the past, and then he said, "Gedahowla likened herself to a druid, some of the time, and the spider, Stoneweaver, was rather amicable for a kaiju. We moved her along…

I say we moved her along, but it was more that she ate through the previous lands, and so we helped her move on." She traveled through many cenotes over the centuries, after the founding of Aluatha, turning one pit in the ground after another into a good home, clearing out all of the horrible monsters and leaving behind fuzzy spiders. Oh the spiders were horrible, of course.

They ate people all the time if a person got out of line with them, but they were a whole lot better than the grab bag of random monsters that you'd encounter in a real cenote." Addavein explained, "It was one person with the Tamer skill who really helped to make that happen. Venchitter was his taken mage name. Stoneweaver eventually ate him, of course, when he forgot that she was a monster. That was 50 years after the whole system was already set up, though.

Venchitter had raised lots of orphans into Spiderhandlers and Stoneweavers themselves —that's where that unique variation of the Stone Shaper Skill comes from— so there were plenty of others to keep the profession going. I'm rather personally certain that Venchitter wasn't eaten because he got too relaxed, though. I think he knew he was at the end of his life, and he wanted to be with Stoneweaver completely." Sacrifices to kaiju were rather common back then."

Of course, Okuana was looking for ways to harm the Empire, so perhaps they did something to Venchitter, to cause him to sacrifice himself. We don't really know how that truly ended, because 6 months after Venchitter was devoured by Stoneweaver, Okuana came in with their dragon strikeforce. Darvonika the Obsidian burned Stoneweaver to death before anyone could respond to that strike, and that was the end of easy cenote creation."

Mark watched the cenotes of Aluatha drift by under the tram's window as he listened to Addavein. Mark asked, "I know about Gedahowla the Bright being 'one of the good dragons', but wasn't Darvonika the Obsidian also considered one of the good dragons? But he was from Okuana? With the dryads? How did that happen? Or work?" Addavein said, "Okuana and Aluatha had been at war since before the re-founding of Aluatha, and though dryads are Okuana's main form of defense, they still had dragons. Fewer, to be sure.

I was mostly involved in Aluatha's business so I'm not sure what, exactly, happened to Darvonika. He did vanish, though." Aluatha killed Gedahowla and their Grand Draconic Coven, but Farhowla, Gedahowla's successor, got away. He's in Kabberjaw now? Not sure if I ever want to meet him, though he was a decent sort… or maybe that's just me seeing him from a different angle these days." Darvonika simply vanished, as far as I ever knew."

Knowing what I know now of Endless Daihoon and that Ice Wall and the kaiju-eating trees, and Dominant and the Dryads, it is very possible that Dominant decided that his dragons needed to get turned into trees, or eaten by trees, or maybe he ate them himself. Either for safe-keeping, for when he needed to bust them out later, as apparently kaiju can survive in a tree for a while, or… for whatever reason? To use them as living batteries?

Okuana had always had dragons, but they never used them like Aluatha did, so if they had some convenient way to hide them, then they probably did."" Darvonika couldn't have escaped? Fly up high enough and end up in Endless Daihoon?"" That's one of the theories, but I never believed that one." Mark had a sudden thought, "Do you think if we found Darvonika he would want to be an ally?" Addavein burst into a laugh, and then he said, "No no no…" He paused.

"I do not believe so, but it's possible?" And then he shook his head.

"No. Darvonika was a rather paladin-ish sort of dragon, though to call him that would be incorrect. He was a stubborn, full-citizen of Okuana, of Dominant specifically. The rumor was… You know Dominant refreshes himself every few centuries, yes?"" You're talking about the thing where he has his royal family and they join with the tree and become the dominant personality for a while?"" Yes, exactly.

Darvonika was a member of that Royal Cult of Dominant but he was much more magically inclined than others, so he turned archmage and then dragon. He still truly believed in his godking, though, even after he became a dragon. If Darvonika ever reappeared and he wasn't already fully against Dominant, then he would be an enemy of Aluatha." Mark huh'd, then asked, "Do you think Dominant has a house?""

There are likely many house-like constructions in the souls of many people and possibly even one godking in particular, but there's no way of knowing. Dominant has a rather unique blend of Necromancy, a Farmer-esque Skill, and Chlorokinesis to him that could have been a personal attempt at making what he knew the elves had, but which he was denied." Mark said, "But Wongod absolutely has a house, and Dominant absolutely tore into it."" And I agree with that.

Perhaps that does explain why Godking Dominant has always said that the only true solution against the goblins and Wongod has always been capitulation to him."" Holy shit… I didn't know that." The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon." Surely you heard of the methods for clearing the goblins permanently?" Addavein asked, curious, tail wagging very slightly this whole time. He was happy to be here.

The only time his tail had stopped slightly wagging was when they were meeting Doomo. Addavein added, "A certain witch told me she told you, too." Oh… Yeah. Reeni Thumb. Mark said, "That's where I heard it from, too, but she said it was more of a multi-choice answer. The gods could fix Wongod by working together, or Dominant could fix him, too."

Addavein explained, "Dominant told us at the start of our Empire Aluatha that he would clear the goblins if we broke what we found, if we killed our budding Empire, but he was a liar, of course."" Still a liar." Addavein grinned.

"Quite so." Mark decided to ask, "Are you good here? Have, uh… you been threatened, too?" Mark glanced at his tail, adding, "But it appears you're good?"" Yes, yes, and yes!" Addavein said, relaxing as he looked through the window, at all the lands beyond.

"When you're as scary as we are then it is good to have tells that show you're having a good time, like the tail, and I am rather okay with this one. Took some getting used to, of course… and the mental state has been even more of an adjustment. I never used to be like this; so easy-going. Whatever the joining did, however that really works, I truly do feel reborn and not as I used to be, and in a good way.

Kanda and I both shared a great love of people in many different ways, and I think the union of the two, and especially shrinking back down to human-sized, has returned color to my world. As for the threats, they're mostly of a magical nature and not that threatening, since I know this one. If you turn on your dreamsight, you might be able to see what I'm talking about."

Mark nodded a little, worried that he was being attacked right now in a way he couldn't feel, but Addavein didn't seem in danger or hurting at all, and no vectors intruded upon the area except for the hundreds naturally present all around. Mark's team was purposefully giving Mark and Addavein a bit of space right now, and that purposeful-distance was the only tell that actually stood out to him. Mark half-sunk into dream.

His body remained standing while the shadows turned dark and indistinct and the light spread and mixed like ink in water. Addavein stood before Mark, happy and eager to be here, but the dream intruded upon him like someone pulling blankets over him, trying to wrap him up. Addavein held the blanket at bay, keeping it about 20 meters away in every direction. But the intrusion was never-ending, and it was hitting everyone on the train. Most everyone was already wrapped up, including Mark.

Mark looked up and out and he saw Empire Aluatha pressing into the train, pushing into every person, establishing itself as a… a something. What was Mark even seeing? It was inside of his friends, and that jerked Mark right out of the dreamland." What the fuck is that?" Mark asked, the edge of his worried-vector plucking on Lola's senses most sharply, though Derek caught it, too. Isoko was a moment behind, and only really catching on because of Lola and then Derek.

Lola looked over at Mark, wondering if she needed to prepare for something." It's the Witches' Welcome, and it is nothing to fear," Addavein said, speaking to everyone. The servers in the tram edged away, because they could tell something was up.

Addavein stepped toward one of the servers and happily plucked a toothpick-treat off of the plate, waving it a bit as he said, "It's the Witches' Welcome, and it's in the food, in the decorations, in the very event itself, and to simplify it a great deal, it's the karmic retribution that they're imposing on the whole Winter Ball, and the real reason the Ball is such a safe event. Sally, you would do well to see if you can feel it all out, see if you can understand it all, but it's nothing to worry about."

Mark, and pretty much everyone from Earth, was deeply worried. He had heard Andria talk about this before, but he must have been thinking about other things. Rylan Drakemore and Andria both said small words of surprise, but only because they were surprised other people were surprised. Walaria had mentioned it, too, Mark thought." You didn't know?" Andria asked Isoko, almost privately. Isoko shook her head, saying, "I might have heard about it, but… no?"

Addavein explained, "The Empire is binding all of us and itself with a karmic balance. The effects are simple: We will not want to fight, and if we do hurt others, then we will be hurt in turn, and not always directly. Most often the karma is a direct physical backlash, but sometimes the Witches' Welcome is rather inventive in what it does to even the scales of injury." With half his sight in the dream, Mark looked at Addavein, at the encroachment Addavein wasn't allowing to wrap around himself.

Mark asked, "If it's a good thing, then why are you keeping it away from yourself?" Addavein grinned a little, saying, "I helped to place the binding stones and did the initial work centuries ago, excluding myself in the process, for sometimes I was an enforcer at these sorts of events. I'm honestly surprised it's still working since so much has changed. I'm rather sure that the effect will slam onto me when we get closer, but maybe not!"

The depth of history happening here once again felt too deep and Mark wondered, for not the first time, how much history he would have to fight to get the world into a better place.

'Too much history' he concluded, yet again. The conversation sort of changed, and Mark looked out of the window, watching the world roll by, the ground seeming to suddenly open and then close when the tram went over the cenotes, while huge glass pyramids grew all across the land, and green roadways, framed by tall walls, seemed to separate everything from everything else. Aluatha looked beautiful, but only from afar. Everything here was separated.

Travel was easy if you were rich or powerful, like Mark and his people, but if someone like Shawn or Lenny got separated from the group they'd have a tough-as-shit time getting back to the group, and Lenny more than Shawn, because Shawn was a Paladin of Drakarok and those guys had some respect to them. The people of Aluatha didn't truly care for the New Pantheon like the people of Earth did, but of all the gods welcomed into Daihoon, Drakarok, the God of War and Murder, was the most welcomed of all.

Shawn would be okay. Lenny was just a mage and so he'd have… well, actually, maybe Lenny had some Mage Society levers he could push on to get back to the group— Sally and Isoko came over to Mark, with Sally asking quietly, "So… how was it, really?" Isoko asked, "Did Doomo really threaten you?" Both of them were angry on his behalf. Mark smiled a little, genuinely, and said, "Of course he did, but I think we're good. I'm kinda worried about what happens if any of us gets separated from anyone else, because, like…

both of you and Andria want to go to that spa treatment thing, right? And that's not the full group at all." Isoko shook her head slightly, saying, "We don't have to do that." Sally put a hand on Mark's shoulder and seriously said, "If they kill you while we're at the spa, then I will avenge you." Mark burst out laughing, Sally grinned, happy that her joke had landed.

Isoko scoffed and complained about poor taste, but then a server came over with a big plate of an amazing meat/bread/cucumber-like-vegetable/thing and Eliot was there, and Isoko made a joke about how things were tasting a lot better, and it did. Everything felt better. Of course the Witches' Welcome was thoroughly flowing through the entire train by then, the sky thick with easy times and good moods, except where it parted around Addavein like he was a rock in a river.

Mark watched Addavein a little bit, as he talked about something with Rylan Drakemore and Lola, and a little bit with the goddess Freyala, too, for she stood there behind Lola, watching through her eyes. Freyala seemed interested in whatever they were talking about, which seemed to have nothing to do with the Winter's Ball itself, or whatever was happening around them with the Welcome. Mark grabbed himself another little snack and decided that he'd deal with issues as they appeared.