Chương 69: AF Chapter 68 – It Matties to me, it Does!

There was a line of columns bearing signal flames downriver, leading to another of those merrily exploding columns of great age, the wording and artistry of the surrounding columns indicating they were places of celebration for some ancient event lost to history. The fact the columns helped tap and moderate the buried Wards under the river was conveniently hidden by their existence.

The tumeroks had set up fish runs between several of the columns, lightening the amount of work they had to do with opportunistic mindsets. Given the nature of it, I was pretty sure they'd been advised by others on how to do that, given it didn't involve casting a net. There was no permanent guard at the celebration site, the tumeroks seemed to honor the intent of the place, and the Summons didn't go near it, either.

We set up shop behind the temple-like structure with an actual ancient tree growing in it before the sun rose and we Saluted Aru. I noted that there was Natural Mana here, and that was why the tree was enduring. It seemed that this was a release point for the primal energies that couldn't be totally subsumed by the ley lines, and the tree was used as an engine to draw them out before they could destabilize the network underneath the land.

Bardic Heartsong made it easy to tap those energies, however, so the place was like a mana well to me... although it still didn't allow me to take Druid Levels.

"Boosting your Perform somehow?" Princess Kristie asked before we settled down to our Meditations.

"I noticed the range on your Salute went up immensely."

"Aye, I've taken Minstrel Levels for three days, prepping for the Sublime Chord. It's all Perform-related, so I have to boost that check as high as possible. Chorister and Maestro Feats, plus Perform Song Mastery/1, Skill Focus, plus The Voice Feat." Kris screwed her overly expressive face up, fingers working.

"Oh, mighty Mithar and his Mutt. What's that, like, +20?" I grinned shamelessly.

"You alternate between smoking-whiskey and nightingale with your voice, don't tell me you haven't juiced it, too." Just a flexing, and her entire posture and bearing went from casual goofball to princess super-model, Cursemark notwithstanding.

"Well, of course I have, dear. I am a princess!" She put her hand aloofly on her lack of a chest, which didn't detract at all from her. She was stronger than an ogre, and actually built leaner than I was, despite being taller and extremely physical.

"If I cannot address my imperial subjects artfully, whatever would they think of me?"

"I'm thinking abject terror, but I could be wrong," I sniffed.

"I can tell your Trembling Song is in the +40 area, thank you." She just laughed throatily. It was no wonder the knees of anyone facing her would shiver when facing a Hag Song at that level. Using it for Intimidation was just unfair!

Yesterday's Exemplar Surge spell had been Comprehend Languages, which accelerated my Polyglot learning to a fraction of the normal time needed if I could just sit there and listen to a natural conversation. Knowing the meanings made accessing the akasha to learn the language much, much faster and more organic. Today I went with Invisibility 10-foot Radius, as a subtler hand might be useful, and the natives didn't appear to have any more experience with true illusion magic than Isparians did.

The spell was big enough to cover the entire Wagon, which was the point of it. I also had to put some serious thought into some non-lethal spells, too. I would definitely have to dip further into that, especially since Heartsinger Class Levels were built around the idea of enthralling people. Kris was using Null Smithwork to pour value into her smithing set, which was coming along nicely.

She was also Investing Air Gold into her Bracers now, using Naming Karma for Land, her Buckler, when she went out and roved the area, looking for interesting things and maybe a little trouble. I chose Battledancer to complement my last Minstrel level, basically allowing me to internalize the effects of my Heartsong and double the Morale bonuses I got off of it. It turned practiced movements of my Staff to energetic and acrobatic flailing about, as Kris was happy to inform me after some enthusiastic sparring.

It didn't change the fact she was stronger than ten of me, but at least it made me more than a pushover if I had to beat on something... and hey, being me, I had plenty of ways to supplement fighting if forced into personal combat. It all dovetailed nicely with Song of the Heart and Lingering Performance from the previous days. I also had to pick up both Metamagic Song and Lyric Spell, both Theurgist effects. Metamagic Song allowed the paying of Casting Metas out of Minstrel uses of Heartsong.

Lyric Spell allowed one to Cast a full spell out of those same Minstrel uses... which meant Minstrel uses had just become a bridging effect to an Arcane Pool, built upon further with Metamagic Song. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Ah, Theurgic synergies. You had to love them! For now, I had to solidify that link with first Lyric Theurge Levels uniting the two Heartsong Classes, then Lore Theurge Levels linking them to Arcane magic.

Things would progress from there. I was getting further and further behind on my accumulating Masteries, but at least I wasn't increasing them in cost any more...

As normal, Kris had located something else of interest in the area. She'd gone back across the river toward the mountains, aiming to see if there was a trade road into them... which she had basically confirmed, a well-trod trail that was not one of the magical roads. She'd also located another native creature we'd not seen before.

It was a form of herbivore, although larger than an auroch, with a rounded head, forward upcurving horns, and a long body covered in downy white fur, with three hooved legs, two forward and one behind. The family unit of four we were looking at was grazing contentedly, occasionally looking up and around, but the local Summons seemed to be ignoring them as inoffensive animals, and it seemed the creatures knew the alien things of magic weren't going to harm them if they were not attacked in turn.

"They are called mattekar, and seem to be judged by their size. I'd posit that there are probably some very big ones around, as they seem to share some traits with the monugas and the reedsharks as far as magical ecologies go. They are just barely Magical Beasts, although their fur is very cold-resistant and is probably harvested for warm coats."

"One would think a useful animal like this would be domesticated." Kris wandered over to pat the head of the closest male, which gave her a wary eye, but didn't object to his fluffy ears getting a good scratching. The Whiskers of the Wild Soultat gleaming softly on her face was all the reason why.

"But they don't do well in captivity, according to the big guy here." The large animal snorted in heavy agreement with her words, raising its large head proudly for a moment. It certainly wasn't going to be bothered by the smaller predators, and even the larger ones were probably better off rat-hunting, all things considered. The big black beagle-sized mountain rats around here breathed fire! They were vicious little bastards even Kris didn't mind me sniping down.

I presumed a local reedshark or dillo swooped upon the easy prizes before too long.

"Well, the ecology is magically empowered, so it can support more of them than the landscape would normally allow." They dwelt higher in the mountains, where the air rapidly cooled. Less than a thousand feet above the ground was actually a permanent snow level, an almost mind-boggling contrast with what was real ecology. As it was winter-time and still cooler down here, they migrated down come the nightfall, detouring past any Summons in the way, ignoring and ignored by them.

The Summons hereabouts were obviously programmed to ignore non-sapient life. I surmised that shapechanging would get us past some, but the Summons who guarded settlements did not ignore wandering animals, effectively creating no-go zones to the local wildlife, who rapidly learned where to go and where not to go as they wandered around, also quickly learning that killing a Summons was a useless waste of time and no food was forthcoming, so getting into a fight with the unnatural-smelling things was pointless.

"Does anyone hunt you?" I asked the herd leader politely, and he whuffled and snorted and relayed that the gray ones and the three-eyes sometimes came around to take a member of the herd for their own, which was not appreciated, but they were generally unable to stop it. The creatures liked to throw rocks and clubs from a distance, and run away if they were charged, or use long pointy sticks the mattekars couldn't get past, sometimes even on fire!

"It might be fun to train them as warbeasts and give them some heat resistance, but it would have to be for another time," Kris said, giving the big fellow a last raking scratching he actually closed his big eyes to enjoy, hooting softly in enjoyment. With a final pat, the Hagchild sent the herd leader off, and it went trotting back down the hill towards the flatter scrub below.

"Anything else of interest?" I asked, flicking my hand as a nearby bright orange zephir turned around and thought we would make good entertainment. The damn sprite of a fey ran into a flight of silver-edged black Shards and blew apart in midair with a satisfying meep! Annoying little suckers. As bad as the rats, if not worse!

"Wisps of various sizes and types, some cold Elementals as you approach the snow levels, and wood golums with the same pyreal circuits as those of other substances. All the skeletons are human, and are on the other side or near the river. The tumeroks stay within five miles of the town behind us for the most part, with most of the trade running off to the west before turning north along the beach. I presume there's more tumerok settlements in that direction."

I reflected that meant she'd roved over at least thirty miles of ground without me while I'd been doing rep counts. Plenty amusing. Then again, if all she did was run, she could have easily made it all the way back up to Holtburg in a couple of hours.

"The star on the map sort of indicated it was the capital of the Sho on the island. Let's go see if it survived as well as the Aluvian one did." Kris looked at the narrow band of the river a few miles away, just barely visible in the sparkle of the starlight.

"Odds?" she asked me. I considered what I'd seen so far and knew.

"I think the presence of human skeletons close to the river is significant," I admitted. She glanced at me, exhaled, and nodded.

"I'm kind of thinking the same. The tumeroks are going down the road to the south, but not in numbers, and it's always the same group going and returning, by the tracks."

"The road isn't normally visible from the river. You want to stay on the river, or follow the road?" I asked calmly, quite satisfied with either route.

"I'd like to see what they are doing and running into," she admitted.

"They don't go down the beach more than a couple miles, and that includes them and the wandering mosswarts eking out a living at the fringes of their camps."

"So there is something down there they've learned not to mess with." I just nodded.

"It'll probably become obvious as we get closer to it, and they obviously don't stay out at night on watch against it."

"Shall we go see?"

"We shall, I shink. Shertainly." Kris laughed as she took off running towards where the Wagon was parked, and I rode alongside her, eyeing the long shadows under the starlight, and I wondered what we'd find this time.