Chương 529: BECMI Chapter 528 – We Have an Edge

I walked into the amphitheater that had been scooped out and formed for the entirety of the Delphan colonizers that had arrived here on Nown at the last, but several hundred years after the same kind of force had come to Nown on the Far Shore, fleeing the Worldstorm and Immortal Wrath for the civil war that destroyed the original Delphan Empire. The Doom that could overcome them now, forestalled a few centuries, would have been much, much worse.

It would have wiped out these colonists, and led the Carnifex back to Meandrel, bringing upon the entire Airworld utter annihilation. Entropics were pretty damn good at their jobs. Unfortunately, they'd run smack dab into powerful Sources bending Fate against them, giving the laugh to temporal resonance and not giving a crap for events that were supposed to reflect themselves across the temporal divide like this.

Some, like the Crimson Cataclysm, were so powerful they couldn't be stopped, multiple Immortals focused on one feat and going to bull it through regardless… but the events had still been altered, shifted, bent to benefit the will and power of the Sources working against Fate. One mere Immortal's manipulations, trying to alter the destiny of the Brightmoor Empire? It didn't stand a chance in Hell of succeeding.

Plus we really didn't like Immortals here, and the stupid bitch wasn't aware of just how closely we tracked Immortal Power here. An overconfident Avatar had no chance of sneaking past the Pyramids, let alone avoiding the notice of Thor within his own Source Sun! He had spotted her instantly, and Sif had moved into position quickly.

The Elemental Lord the Delphans had dealt with on Air was already dead, former Grandmasters teaming up to slaughter it for daring to work with an Entropic Immortal trying to bring devastation to mortals. With its death came control of the wormholes to Nown it had overseen, and absolute confirmation nothing was going to be coming back through them and using the Plane of Air as a shortcut to get back to Delpha via any wormholes there.

Our own Gates were placed on random asteroids of no other value scattered throughout the skyworld's atmospheric bands, the vetted immigrants transported there and the Gate opened just long enough to send them all through. It was one of the ways we contained the growth of the Delphan Empire over the centuries, as removing their non-magical work force both increased the value of their labor and decreased the population.

Delpha was still a magocracy, but favoritism to Casters wasn't quite so blatant as they had to acknowledge the importance of craftsman and workers who actually got things done there. The Empire was still in stagnation, and Entropics were doing their best to gnaw at the seams and tear it down with civil strife, the ambitious attempting to get into positions of power held for too long by their elders, nobles exhibiting ever-lesser moral standards, and the like. It was fine.

The Empire was expected to shatter and spread across the skyworlds and its many skylands, evolving into half a dozen or more competing magical states as disgruntled souls up and left to follow their own paths. Some would follow specific Elemental paths, others stay more balanced and mixed. Magical empires that did a good job and kept their people happy were staid and boring.

The Immortals wanted conflict and entertainment, in the end, so that they were called on and could show their own power and influence, so such conflicts were inevitable. I held the unique status of being the most powerful alien known to the Delphan Empire. My Unity of Elements speech and the countless intellectual derivations of it was mandatory study by every wizard of the Empire.

It had stood the test of time for nearly twenty-five hundred years of Imperial history, turned the Air/Fire budding conflict into merely contests of competency in arcane might between competing factions. It had raised the status of Earth and Water magic tremendously in doing so, as independent Wizards almost forced into one of the two main factions found far more opportunities by following the other Elements and as such built their own factions, with quiet support from my Sims helping them.

I hadn't returned there often, maybe once every hundred years for a visit, and I never let them know where I was coming from. When I visited, wizards from all over the Empire hurried desperately to hear me speak on what lay beyond, on fundamentals of magic that had escaped them, and to realize there were limits beyond even mere wizardry they didn't know about. Delpha's age of exploration had never really ended, and poking into other worlds and places along the few paths they could often ended rather badly…

but they never stopped trying. Today, I gave these people another treat: The Floral Song of the Lady Edge. They all noticed the song in the air, as much as in the soul as in the ear. Casters noticed it first, both Divine and Arcane, because their Valences sang along, echoing like threads on a harp as the Sublime Chord washed through and past them, magic responding to my presence and lighting up like nothing else they'd ever experienced.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Only half a dozen of them had ever experienced my Song before. Now they all jumped as roses unfolded on the lapels of every single man present, while they blossomed above the left ear of every single woman.

"The Lady Edge!" the disbelieving whispers spread like wildfire. Those archmagi who had not wanted to believe that another world had known of them before Delpha knew of us could only swallow their disbelief as they looked at me, just like how I looked in countless books, tales, statues, and paintings, and they knew. Because I had the Face of a Mage, and no one could successfully look like me. Even Immortals had tried to pretend to be me and failed, nobody believing they were actually me.

I and I alone knew my Truename, no one else could claim it while it was buried in my heart, and so my Face and Name were inviolate. They even knew Duum, riding on my shoulder and enjoying the attention, tipping his hat cheerfully to the children who waved eagerly at him. Of course, if Duum was here, did that mean-? With a clap of thunder that sounded like the massive peal of a great silver bell, Cirruluxul descended smoothly from above, and landed in the center of the amphitheater ahead of me.

The unique appearance of the Storm Dragon was also well-known, immortalized in paintings and illustrations in tomes and tales. She came with me, she left with me, but I was never known to ride her, a fact many an egotistical wizard had puzzled over while hoping they could be the ones to tame her. She ate them when they tried.

Cirru merely laid down at the rear of the stage, her head held high, sparks of pale blue lightning jumping between her crest, frills, and horns occasionally, and the steady, awesome power of the greatest of Wyrms slowly spilled out into and filled the sunken arena with an exciting charge and fresh air, like the aftermath of a summer storm. I glided up onto the stage before her, and she brought her head down and to the side, at my level, not above nor below me.

There was nothing submissive in it, but nor was there challenge. Cirruluxul the Storm Dragon was present. Duum was present. The Lady Edge was truly standing before them! I turned to face them all, a minor Illusion making it seem I was looking at all of them at the same time.

"Welcome to the people of Delpha. I see that you have managed to find my homeworld at the last," I said in Human, the common language I and my Sims had brought them long ago replacing Delphan among them, and my unique elven tilt on it commanding attention as something they simply didn't hear often. There was a murmur of embarrassment and excitement mixed at my words. They clearly hadn't intended to, but I was nice enough not to mention that.

After all, most of the Delphan Immortals didn't know I lived here, either, too wrapped up in their own worshipers.

"I am the Lady Edge. You may know of my Familiar, Duum," he flapped his wings and doffed his hat for all of them, and all the children cheered, "and my friend and companion Cirruluxul, the Storm Dragon." There were respectful bows and salutes in the direction of Cirru, who quietly huffed out a crackling cloud of lightning in return.

"I was asked by Emperor Thor to speak to you, given my knowledge of Delphan culture. I trust this does not disappoint you." Given how the average Delphan venerated magic and my place in it as a living legend, the prompt and eager smiles and comments coming back to me assured me that getting me instead of a massive and domineering brute in Armor speaking to them was truly no problem at all!

"Excellent. First of all, we are going to give you a look at this world and where you are." I flicked up a Holo well above me, more than large enough for all of them to pick out all the details, including the very interested and rapt archmages and archpriests who led them.

"This world is called Nown." Pronounced 'known', of course.

"It is a single world several times the size of most of the Skylands of Meandrel, from whence you all hail, including Delpha and Ciristi." The smaller sizes of the respective worlds came up to the sides.

"As you can see, this world is covered by oceans, deeper and broader than any upon your homeworlds, yet the continents still mass larger.

"We are here." The view on the Holo lit up, then zoomed in off to the side, clearly showing the isthmus between Oslo and Swahib, and the Great Wall clearly cutting right across it, a towering edifice of stone that many turned their heads to verify was right there. Further zooming clearly indicated the exact position near the western end of the Wall, and they could even see the moored skyships nearby, and the half-circle of the amphitheater!

"My personal realm is here." The view rapidly shifted north and east, and zoomed in on the Ringlands, with its triple rings of flame, unnaturally sheer fanglike mountains, dragons everywhere in the skies, settlements in the hills at their bases, and Castle Doomrose at the center of it, firefalls dropping crimson from great roses on massive thorned black vines stealing up the sides of its foundation, and the ornate floral palace and its towers at the top.

I could hear their collective sigh as they stared at it, radiating a living, breathing beauty that had defied the ages. So that's where she lives, I could hear them thinking.

"The Empire of Brightmoor is here." To the south and east of me, butting up against the ocean where I was mostly land-locked, the lands of the Empire, slowly being resettled after centuries of desolation and painful reclamation, glowed green and vital.

"To the west, the Island of Heaven's Reach lies as unbroken as ever." This glowed golden.

"The lands currently warded by the Empire, noted as the Pyramid Lands," most of the continent of Oslo and a good chunk of Erto lit up paler green, "and the Vanguard Lands," the borders area in which we were located and the edge of Erto closest to Rikada were both painted red, the swathe extending south to the east of us prominent.

"My homeworld is a world at war," I went on coolly as they watched in rapture as a wave of natural colors replaced the artificial displays above, and sights around the world of the wonders and glories of Nown, the cities of its peoples, the heights of civilization, the many species who dwelt here, and the creatures that filled its vast and diverse ecosystem played before them in living recollections from my own memories…