Chương 22: Chapter 21

Selessa deflected the attack, before her own weapon struck like a serpent, jabbing between the armor plates of her target and disabling her opponent for a while at least. She kept constantly on the move, dancing around her opponents so that they couldn't properly gang up on her, despite their valiant attempts. Instead, they kept getting in each other's way, and even sometimes colliding into each other when rapidly changing directions.

"Can you keep perfect track of what's happening?" Anasterian asked, while squinting his eyes. He was standing by the side of the fenced 'arena' along with Talanas and Thelion.

"I can." Talanas confirmed.

"Only barely." Thelion admitted. His own training, as with all the Spellbreakers, was still ongoing and they weren't quite used to the practically supernatural speeds of the best Sin'dorei. The speeds weren't quite high enough that they disappeared from sight or anything, but details blurred. And in combat that mattered. Unlike the normal Sin'dorei, the Spellbreakers still had to spend a large amount of time doing their usual duties, while for the Sin'dorei in general, their duties were part of their training.

Watching over magisters wasn't the same as killing Yeti and other dangerous wildlife. Anasterian had it worse due to having no such training, just relying on his inherently high elven perception. Even so, he was someone who had lived his whole life in the city and court and didn't have the perception of a ranger.

"As a magister, I should probably be worried that potential enemies can move fast enough that I have trouble following their movements." He grumbled.

"Potential enemies?" Talanas asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You know what I mean. The Sin'dorei are loyal, no doubt, but if they can do it, someone else will figure it out eventually as well. And that someone might be less friendly." Anasterian elaborated. He knew the Sin'dorei were firmly under Selessa's control. In fact, there was a good reason to believe they, along with the members of the Church of Light, were the most trustworthy members of the Quel'dorei.

"Fair enough." Talanas said with a small smile, which turned into a sympathetic grimace as the pommel of Selessa's sword crunched into the helmet of another trainee.

"Is it just me, or does it seem to anyone else that no matter how hard everyone else trains, she just keeps getting further ahead?"

"Not just you." Thelion shrugged. Selessa was currently training with some the best the Sin'dorei had to offer, aside from maybe Sister Seraphina and Ophelia, the two paladins who were not present. And she was training them, practically toying with her opponents. Pacing herself according to her opponents. There was a rather simple explanation for the gap in performance, which the three were not aware of. Selessa had always had the skill to toy with any of her enemies, her body had simply been holding her back.

And the more her body stopped holding her back and started to keep up with what she wanted, the more she could display her skill.

"Is that a surprise to either of you?" Anasterian asked sarcastically.

"She's been the same her whole life." Both of the others were forced to nod in agreement. One of the Sin'dorei attempted to direct Selessa's movements by committing to a powerful overhead swing with his two-handed sword. Instead of obliging, Selessa created a shield made of pure Light on her arm to block the strike. The golden shield was much thicker than the simple barriers most priests could create, and even with the overhead swing, Selessa's arm holding the shield didn't even budge.

Instead, it looked as if the power of the attack was amplified and reflected, sending the attacker back with a golden shockwave. To cap things off, Selessa made a throwing motion, launching the shield at three other opponents who had been grouped up a bit too close to each other. Rather than slamming into them, the shield exploded with the same concussive golden force when it came close to the trio, tossing them around.

"That looks new." Anasterian pointed out. He had one of his rare free days, and he'd decided to use the chance to come check the Sin'dorei training, which in hindsight wasn't very relaxing.

"She developed it a few weeks ago. Not many have been able to replicate it yet." Talanas nodded. Eventually, her opponents all lay on the ground, either too exhausted, or too banged-up to continue. The Sin'dorei were all trained to fight for hours on end, but there was a difference between fighting standard enemies, and getting their shit kicked in by Selessa, while trying desperately to keep up.

"Right. That was better than before. Still not great, but better." She gave the blunt verdict.

"You're still not fighting together properly." She turned towards the first opponent to get eliminated.

"Alavea, you keep charging in like you're a troll berserker. In your desperation to hit me, you lack awareness of your surroundings. You also miss the openings I'm deliberately leaving to your teammates, thus sabotaging their attempts to exploit those openings." Despite her words, her criticism was relative. When she said lack of awareness, she meant that the poor Alavea was still more aware than most Sin'dorei.

"Yarel, you have speed but no patience. You see an opening, you immediately dive in without considering if it's a trap, and you don't coordinate with Alavea. You're both fighting the same opponent, but as if you're fighting alone, not together."

"Seryn, you rely too much on your powerful physique, but strength and speed without technique will get you nowhere against skilled enough enemy." She nodded towards the largest of the group.

"Vethalis and Lynathos, you're both the opposite of Seryn and you act too defensive. It's not a bad quality to have, but you're taking it too far. Alavea and Yarel were left hanging out there because you were not quick enough to move. It's not bad to be defensive when that's your role, but most fights are won by the one who hits first and the hardest." She told the pair of Sin'dorei men leaning on their shields.

"Thalorien, you were the only one showing tactical thinking and attempted to corral the others into working as a unit, and you recognized the issues your team had, but you couldn't get everyone to work together and you struggled to communicate your thoughts effectively." She told the only one that didn't seem completely spent. Now she looked over the whole group.

"You all share the same problem that you're too used to fighting lesser or at the worst same level opponents by yourselves. Your whole style collapses when faced with a superior opponent. This is something you'll need to work on. Dismissed." She turned on her heels and marched to the three waiting men.

"That was a bloody disaster." She exhaled, speaking low enough to not get overheard.

"We knew moving the training to the next level would be a challenge." Talanas placated her.

"It's one thing to pluck out some of the best, and it's whole another matter for them to suddenly gel as a team and work together seamlessly."

"Especially since they weren't necessarily chosen with the idea of having the most compatible abilities of personalities in the first place." Thelion added.

"Fair enough, but it's hard to estimate their teamwork without throwing them in a team." She grumbled.

"True. It's just going to take more testing and iteration, until we find a group that works the best. Sometimes shared adversity works to forge a team together, and they just got a dose of that." Talanas responded with a chuckle.

"At least some of them showed promise." He nodded towards Thalorien.

"You're trying to form teams that could take on big opponents of superior quality, if I understood the concept correctly?" Anasterian asked.

"Yes. In case we run into another Loa, or something similar. We can't always rely on just throwing magic at the problem, and I can't be everywhere." Selessa explained the basic reasoning.

"The Sin'dorei are starting to get to a point where I could reliably pit them against any normal opponents, but they need to get beyond that. Seraphina, and to a lesser extent Ophelia, can already do some of what we need due to their strength in the Light, but I'd like to get some of the warriors to a similar level. The paladins have their own duties as well."

The Sin'dorei had been training for ten years now, and she was finally reaching a point in the project where she could move her attention to other things as well. She was no longer required to do all the training of the fresh recruits, as the more experienced Sin'dorei could now handle that with reasonable success.

Granted, she still trained the recruits sometimes as many joined specifically to get her personal training and she didn't want to create the same stratification she had done in the Church of the Light where those Light users trained by her were viewed as superior to those she had not. Her perks also affected the results. Still, she could now spend more time administering Alah'thalas, the church, and dealing with other issues.

"So, what are you doing here, uncle?" She didn't believe for a moment that Anasterian had come here just to slack around.

"Can't an uncle just come see his niece without ulterior motives?" Anasterian asked innocently.

"I know I'm easy on the eyes, but no. To be more specific, you wouldn't." She shot back.

"Well, you're mostly wrong, though I did have a slight ulterior motive." He admitted.

"Here it comes." She joked.

"I need you to create a sword out of that strange material of yours, and I need you to not ask further questions." Anasterian requested mysteriously.

"I'm going to have to ask a couple of questions. What kind of sword? For what kind of purpose? Just a plain basic one, or one that specializes in conducting magic?" She didn't like her creations getting out, but a single sword would be ok, and she felt Anasterian had some specific purpose in mind.

"I refer to your judgement when it comes to stabby implements. Just make it something you could see yourself using, and I think that'll be good enough. No enchantments, just the sword itself. Maybe, if you do have to choose, make it more friendly to large amounts of mana, but that's not the focus of our experiment." Anasterian refused to reveal anything further.

"Experiment, eh? Alright. I can handle it." She accepted easily.

[Your Body attribute has increased from 9 to 10! Body perk point gained.] [Your Athletics skill has increased from 9 to 10! Athletics perk point gained.] [Your Heavy Weapons skill has increased from 9 to 10! Heavy Weapons perk point gained.] [Your Durability skill has increased from 9 to 10! Durability perk point gained.] [Your Reflexes attribute has increased from 9 to 10! Reflexes perk point gained.] [Your Light Weapons skill has increased from 9 to 10! Light Weapons perk point gained.] [Your Nervous System skill has increased from 9 to 10! Nervous System perk point gained.] Yeah, this was proof positive that the System liked to group the improvements together and make the necessary changes all at once. She'd suspected for a while, but this just solidified things. She could feel the power in her body. Things had changed.

She'd been working hard on her physical attributes and it had taken a full decade of training with the Sin'dorei to get to this point, but she had a feeling she was now on the edge of something different. Her Charisma was already another matter entirely, but she had a feeling that getting an attribute and a Skill to level 10 was a demarcation point of some sort. [Good senses! You're correct. And yes, we do like to group changes. Although your hunch is a little bit earlier than expected. The upper limits on the attributes mark the limits of your race. As you'll recall, we use the humans as baseline, and the value of 10 in any attribute is their natural maximum.]"I still can't figure out why you'd use the Mon'keigh as the baseline." She muttered while sitting up from her bed. It was nice to sleep in a bed for a change, as normally she'd sleep in a cot along with the other Sin'dorei as they were camping out, but she was staying in the palace today.

[We use them as the baseline because they're non-magical and the most populous race. They also have the greatest variance withing their own race, so they make for great baseline. Anyway, as you surmised, going above 10 is a rather big deal, even within your own racial limit. Quel'dorei are inherently magical, hence their higher limits, which comes with the downside of dependency on magic. Your Kaldorei cousins have a similar advantage, while their lives are tied to nature and more specifically the World Tree Nordrassil. Should something happen to the tree, they would be in for a bad time.]"Why do I get the distinct impression you're not just randomly throwing out an example?" She narrowed her eyes while standing up and starting to stretch, testing out her new limits. [Purely your imagination.] She could feel the sarcasm in that otherwise emotionless statement.

[As you've already noticed, the higher levels of warriors already slightly move into the area of what could be called supernatural. You've witnessed it yourself in your own body. We'll return to that later. What you should know is that raising your attributes above level 10 is no longer a case of training. Not even for Quel'dorei, whose racial maximum is above that limit. It just so happens that you're meeting the requirements rather passively, as in your race's case you need large amounts of ambient mana to reach the last step of your Body attribute. After reaching your racial maximum, improving your attributes requires some sort of feats suitable for the attribute. For instance, to raise the Body attribute, you'd need feats of strength, speed, or durability. Or you need some external push, similar to what would be required for upping the maximum limit of the attribute.]"Feats like directing an entire nation and starting a religion for Charisma?" She realized. [Exactly. See, you do get it.]"Wait, does that mean that training until my Body reaches level 11 is pointless?" She noticed a detail about what the System had said earlier. [As you well know, training is never pointless, however, it will not meaningfully contribute to the attribute development. Constant training might speed up the process very slightly as you absorb more mana, but you'd get better results simply meditating in a high mana environment. Incidentally, you've been somewhat neglecting your meditation lately. What your Body needs for advancement for now is the integration of large amounts of mana, not training.]"What I don't quite get is, why? The feats I mean." She had suspicions. [Always asking the right questions. It's because you're reaching the end of being a purely physical, and to some extent magical, being. You're starting to gather metaphysical importance. You're essentially reinforcing your own existence, rather similar to how daemons in your old life can be stronger or weaker depending on the power of the Warp present in the area and the concept sustaining them, if they have one. When going above the threshold of 10, you're becoming something more than your physical shell, even while reinforced by magic. Something to note; you will not be the only one to benefit from a strengthened existence. The best example are the dragons and especially their Aspects. The Aspects are more than just the biggest and strongest dragons. They are empowered by their creation, and they are empowered by their mission. By extension, the entire race of dragons was changed and their existence reinforced by that purpose, which is why they are now diminished when their Aspects diminished. Despite being diminished, they're more than just big scary flying lizards. They're more. Their existence is stronger, more real. Certain beings can also empower others via this method, though I can't go into that any deeper before you find out yourself. You'll figure it out. Powerful and revered kings and warlords can also be empowered by the faith of their people and their own feats. Expect ever race to have some sort of representation like this.]"Very similarly to being a Saint?"

She asked, once again cottoning on to why her Charisma was so high. [Correct. Being a religious leader is in large part of what has improved your Charisma and allowed it to grow so grotesquely high. Faith could improve the attribute further, with time, were it not already capped.]"So, any qualifying feats I perform now will be wasted if I'm capped on my attributes?" She questioned while moving between stances that stressed and flexed her body more and more. [No. They will be remembered and applied if and when you raise the cap.] A thought occurred to her.

"Can I use the points I gain from leveling to increase my attribute caps?" [Yes, but it is not recommended. Partially because of the difficulty of raising the attributes after you've hit your racial maximum. The points help you get over that difficulty somewhat as you likely can't perform such feats for every attribute. Raising the caps won't help you if you can't improve the attribute afterwards. Besides, there are better uses for the points, even if you haven't done so yet. The price is also rather steep. Unless you're prepared to start murdering things en masse just to improve yourself. That's always an option, but it's a slow spiral into corruption.]"Fair enough." She agreed with the danger. She knew the risk of such temptations. The annals of history were full of monsters happily sacrificing others for their own power, and quite often those monsters had started out well-intentioned. She had to start picking some perks as well.

She'd been pushing many of those off mainly because she didn't want to rely on such nebulous abilities too much, especially when it came to her personal power, and because the perks at higher levels tended to be better. She also didn't want to retrain every time she got a perk point. Now she'd reached a point with both Body and Reflexes to start picking up many of those really juicy perks. Without pausing her exercising, she pulled out her full status.

STATUS: Level: 12 5000/12000 EXP 11 Base Points/2 Advanced Points/1 Mastery Points Mandatory Perks: Beauty Over Brawn Body: 10/11 (5 Unspent Perk Points) Athletics 10 (4 Unspent Perk Point) Iron Lungs Heavy Weapons 10 (4 Unspent Perk Points) Cleaving Strikes Durability 10 (4 Unspent Perk Points) Immovable object Reflexes: 10/12 (4 Unspent Perk Point) Light Weapons 10 (4 Unspent Perk Points) Swift Strikes Nervous System 10 (4 Unspent Perk Points) Keen Eyes Keen Eye for Hidden Subtlety 5 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Arcane Shots Charisma: 17/17 (+2 Max due to Eyes) Politics 17 Competent Underlings Superior Subordinates Shared Vision Intelligent Improvisation Unleased Potential Unlimited Potential Above and Beyond Inspiring Loyalty Improved Resources Rare Resources Treasure Trove Fertile Land Esprit de Corps Conflux Endless Plenty Hardy Stock Social 5 (2 Unspent Perk Points) Pleasure 1 Crafting: 8/12 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Magical Crafting 8 Master of Disassembly Superior Runework Talented Enchanter Master of Efficiency Creation 1 Nature 2 Eye for Errors Eye for Improvement Bonesinging 8 Difference of Kind Amalgamation Amplification Grand Amplification Great Works Regeneration Stronger Than You Think Discipline: 7/12 (+2 Max due to Past Experiences) (1 Unspent Perk Point) Commander 7 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Battlefield Awareness Ambush Expert Cavalry Tactics Squad Leader 5 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Sensei Soldier 6 (2 Unspent Perk Points) One With Your Steed One With Your Steed II Magic: 7/13 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Light 7 Severe healing Baptism of Light I Baptism of Light II Arcane 7 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Massive Spells Master Conjurer Spellbreaker 5 Magic Sight Anti-Magic Zone Projected AMZ That was a lot of unspent perk points.

She was the first to admit that she had not engaged with the perk system as much as she probably should have, especially when it came to physical attributes and the associated skills. Partially that was because she had confidence in her own skill and because she didn't want any of the perks to mess something up for her. Her body and her fighting style were finely honed, and even something seemingly innocent might throw things off.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. As an example, there was a perk in the Heavy Weapons skill that effectively made her weapon feel light as a feather. Her style relied on the feedback provided by the weapon without looking at it, and if the weapon was essentially weightless, that feedback would be off. The weapon would behave in ways that would not correspond with the real weight, as the weapons didn't actually become weightless.

If it did become weightless, then the perk would be even worse as the weapons weight was an important part of doing damage. Weightless weapons didn't have mass, and thus little to no force. And if her weapon did more damage than the weight implied, she might accidentally kill someone while sparring, or get her weapon stuck if it struck deeper than she intended. Such a seemingly innocent perk, and it would be a disaster for her. For someone else it might be excellent.

Her fighting style relied entirely on immaculate control. For someone who just wanted to swing their weapon as hard and as fast as possible, that perk would be beyond excellent. That all said, there were now several perks available to her which she could approve. The Athletics Skill was rather simple. The first perk she took was Strength of a Dragon. The perk was slim on explanations, as were all of the draconic heritage perks, but the name was rather evocative, and indeed she could feel the effects right away.

She could tell she obviously didn't have the strength of an adult dragon, but the power she could exert had clearly grown. Significantly. She was fairly confidents that swinging a huge two-handed sword was now as easy as swinging a slim scimitar had been before. Even easier. Even if she still wasn't certain about embracing her supposed draconic heritage, taking the constituent perks didn't seem to be harmful in any way.

She'd taken the strength one as a test, and it seemed like an example of her existence being reinforced, since her muscles hadn't grown a bit. Next, there was a perk that improved poise, grace, flexibility, and recovery from being off-balance, Body of Eternal Dawn. She was rather well covered on those fronts, but improvements couldn't hurt, and maybe it could balance her sudden changes.

Unbreaking Stride was a weird one where she wouldn't grow tired when moving long distances when not mounted or using a vehicle and also increased her speed over long distances significantly. On the note of speed, there was a perk similar to the draconic one for speed, simply called Eternal Sunstrider. Durability, despite being her least favored Skill, had a wealth of options as the perks were rather handy. These four were all rather obvious. Dragon's Fortitude made her feel more solid as soon as she took it.

She'd need to do some testing to actually see the effects, as the perk was scant on details. Unageing was also simple. Her aging was effectively halted, and as far as she was aware, she'd never had to be afraid of dying of old age. She was already likely to have a long lifespan thanks to the System and her race, but having to suffer none of the travails of age was handy. Regeneration apparently provided her regeneration similar to the trolls, which made self-recovery even simpler.

Healing Factor was a direct upgrade to Regeneration, making the effects stronger and faster. The problematic skill was Heavy Weapons, as expected. Blade of the Rising Sun claimed to channel the undying light of her people, which sounded fancy, but she'd need to see it in action. As she took the Perk though, she noted that wasn't the only effect.

It managed to increase her knowledge and skill with heavy weapons, something she had not expected, although the increase was mostly with weapons she wasn't familiar with, like heavy bladed weapons like axes and blunt weapons like hammers. Unyielding Vigil claimed to allow her to retaliate almost instantly, whenever she successfully defended against a strike while using a Heavy Weapon.

Fury of the Chosen, stated that she could deliver a singular shattering blow if she wanted to, once a day, supposedly breaking through most defenses. She could see there would be improvements to the perk in the future. The last perk was an odd one. It was called Bladestorm, and apparently it allowed her to unleash a storm of strikes either to those around her or direct them towards a single target. It sounded fun in theory, so she took it.

Somehow she felt like that one was important, as it was placed in a rather prominent place in the perk tree and was the capstone perk for reaching level 10. Time would tell. She still had five perk points from the Body attribute but decided to save them for the future. The perks did seem to be getting better at higher levels. The Reflexes perks were the next problem. The Nervous System perks were perhaps even more interesting than those in the Durability Skill.

The first one was the one part of the draconic set, Dragon's Perception. After taking the perk, she honestly didn't feel much of a difference, perhaps because she was in an enclosed space, and because elves already had great perception. Well, it was part of a set, and maybe it would show its usefulness later on. Sentinel's Eye was the capstone of the Skill, and according to the explanation it allowed her to see through all illusions, and time would seem to dilate when in danger.

Combined with Danger Sense, which made surprising her practically impossible made for potent defenses. Dawn's Reflex tuned her senses and nerves into perfect harmony, causing her reactions to border on precognition. As she was dreading going into the Light Weapons skill after all the bother of heavy weapons, a sudden knock at the door interrupted her. As usual, there were two paladins guarding her door.

"Yes?" She asked.

"Prince Nallorath is here to see you." Brother Vyas, who had pretty much taken over her bodyguard unit, called through the door.

"Give me a moment." She called back and straightened out from a one-handed handstand and put on a silky robe as she had been exercising in just her sleep attire.

"Alright, send him in."

"Selessa. I need a fav-shthhäkldmfjn." Nallorath's mind ground to a halt and he made a completely indescribable sound. After having his thoughts rebooted, he spoke again.

"I thought you were decent!"

"I am." She replied looking down at herself. Sure, she was showing a lot of cleavage and most of her legs were on display, but she'd seen plenty worse just walking around in Silvermoon. Sure, the robe was a bit thin, but it covered everything important. Mostly. Usually, she was the prude… Nallorath gave a sigh.

"One day we're going to have to approach the topic of what is decent for others and what is decent for you, but that's not for today. I need a huge favor."

"Sounds like a fun discussion. Fun for me I mean. For you it'll involve groveling. What sort of favor are you talking about?" She was going to tease the everliving heck out of Nallorath when they did talk about that other topic.

"You're going to have to talk fast since there's a meeting of the Convocation shortly, and I still need to prepare."

"Yes, that's what my favor is about. One of the topics that will be under discussion is about the emissary to the Kaldorei, and whether they should continue in the post or be replaced. Father will propose you to take over the job. I want you to accept, and I need you to take me with you as your assistant."

"That's…complicated. I'm assuming this is about your mother." She remembered that Nallorath had told her that his mother had been sent to serve in the staff of the emissary due to the scandalous nature of Nallorath's birth, and the affair she'd had with Anasterian.

"Not just that, but essentially, yes. I also think it would be a good opportunity for me to find my own path and make a name for myself. You'll understand better once you hear his proposal. He knows you have too many duties to just send you to another continent to twiddle your thumbs. In short, I think he intends for you to travel between there and back here when necessary, and it would be rather useful if someone like me was present there to message you when you're needed, and only when you're needed."

Nallorath made his case.

"Alright. I'll hear him out, but I can't promise anything. With the Sin'dorei becoming more self-sufficient, I have some freedom in my schedule, but I can't promise anything until I hear the details." She gave her provisional acceptance. If she could travel between the continents, she doubted she'd be spending too much time in Kalimdor, and it did offer certain opportunities. For instance, if they could establish a portal connection, they might be able to move the Sin'dorei there to train on the local wildlife.

"And now we come to the matter of considering the post of our emissary with the Kaldorei. The role has been fulfilled by…" Melevedon checked his notes.

"Findorei Spellmyst. Any relationship with our esteemed Grand Magister?"

"Not that I'm aware of." Ron'vith denied.

"It's a relatively common last name among those commoners with talent for magic. Not a house at least."

"Anyway, normally we could just have the old emissary continue doing nothing useful as we've been satisfied to do so many times before, but our dear Findorei has gone missing. Just him and not the support staff luckily." Melevedon added, still reading his notes.

"Thus, we need a new emissary. Who do we hate enough to saddle with the job?" The little jab elicited some laughs. Anasterian leaned forward.

"Actually, I think we should consider a significant policy shift towards the Kaldorei. They've thought of us as their lesser cousins after exiling us thousands of years ago, and we've always kind of accepted that without really voicing things out. Perhaps a bit of remorse for all that happened with the Sundering, and a bit of nostalgia for the old Kaldorei empire.

Either way, I believe it's time we got over it, as our new nation will be better than whatever we had before, and we need to make it clear to our Kaldorei cousins that we will no longer tolerate their disdain or being looked down upon. Nor do we tolerate their agents operating in our territory, making huge changes like creating new world trees without our say-so. For that purpose, and for many others that I will go into shortly, I propose we name Selessa Sunstrider for the role."

That caused everyone to go quiet and consider the implications.

"That would certainly be a statement." Melevedon finally said.

"Don't want to disparage our esteemed Saint, but she's not the most diplomatically inclined person I've ever seen." Rathuron Brightwing pointed out gingerly.

"Though I suspect that's the point."

"That is one of the points, yes." Anasterian nodded.

"We don't need a sniveling diplomat. We need someone who can stand up for us and tell the old bastards what's what. I do have further reasons to pick her though. I suspect she's already gearing up to refuse on the grounds of being busy. Well, part of the reason I want to send her, is because she is capable of traveling back and forth between the continents magically, even establishing a portal link.

And since I assume our cousins wouldn't appreciate that, she's also capable of hiding her activities from the Kaldorei. I assume you could somehow apply the effect of the runestones to smaller scale?"

"With a bit of time and effort, probably." She promised.

"And that's why it needs to be you. Ron'vith and your father are needed here. I suspect you can finagle a system where you'll be present on Kalimdor only when necessary, thus it won't be a huge drain on your time. Incidentally, I want you to covertly lead an expedition on the continent. We might want to eventually form a foothold there as well, similar to the Fortress of Dawn on the southern continent."

They'd named the new Ironwood gathering colony such, and the place had grown and fortified heavily enough to earn the name.

"The Kaldorei did banish us." Ron'vith pointed out.

"And we no longer recognize their authority to do so." Anasterian stated firmly.

"We'll be polite enough to not set up right on their doorstep, but they don't own the entire continent. We'll be making that very clear. That's also why we need to scout the continent out. This isn't a short-term project, but we need all the pieces in place before we can even consider it seriously. Before that, we can give the Kaldorei something to think about."

"When would I be needed?" Selessa asked.

"Well, we have no emissary at the moment, so as soon as possible, though probably there's no great rush seeing as they're not needed most of the time. Since you can't teleport there, having never visited, your ship is being built as we speak. It can serve as a decent test case for our new deep ocean vessels." Anasterian suggested.

"I think I can manage that." She agreed.

"I want Nallorath as my assistant." That caused Anasterian's face to twitch. His first instinct was to say no, as having both his potential heirs on another continent seemed like a potential issue, but if things went well they could return fairly easily. He also knew why she'd asked.

"Granted."

"That's a big boat." Selessa commented, looking at the large ironwood vessel designed for ocean-crossing docked at the relatively new harbor in Tyr's Hand, now named Sunspire Anchorage. The ship had been built in their colony at Fortress of Dawn, and the design had apparently been honed on for several years now. the ship in front of her being brand new and the newest iteration of the designs.

"Ship, if you would Saint." Admiral Goldleaf said with a grimace.

"Boats are what fishermen use. This is a ship." And it most certainly was. Several times larger than the earlier ships they'd used. She noticed they had built in a sort of gun deck with closable hatches for ballistae, with only three of the machines on the upper deck pointed towards the front. The ship also had three masts, instead of the one or two they'd used before, and those were only the most obvious changes.

"I see you retained the trimaran design." She commented.

"It's great for stability and speed as the ship doesn't have a large underwater profile and is rather narrow. I've seen some of the single hull ships the Mon'keigh use and those clumsy tubs have the problem of needing a lot of space for cargo. We can by-pass that with our enchanted bags. As a result, our ships are much faster and more agile, and the trimaran design grants them the kind of stability that their ships could only hope for in storms." The admiral explained proudly.

"The ironwood makes our ships quite sturdy, even without enchantments. Regardless, we took your advice and hired several enchanters to reinforce the hull. We might not be able to produce ships quickly, but they will be a lot stronger than they would otherwise be."

"Good. We are blessed with long lives and time, so we should use it well to create ships and weapons that last and perform as we want them to. What's the manpower requirements and capacity? I need to know how many Sin'dorei I can take along on the journey." She questioned, looking over the sleek design of the vessel.

"The ship requires 150 sailors to operate and we have the same number as marines due to the constant attacks by Murlocks. The ship also has four magisters and two healers as a standard complement. That's the minimum crew as we knew you'd want to bring your own people, and they're mostly there for the expedition and the journey home. Assuming you want to bring mounts for everyone, you can comfortably bring 150 of your own." The Admiral estimated quickly.

"We could squeeze in more, but then we'd be getting into increasingly cramped territory."

"That's fine. 150 Sin'dorei is enough to make a statement, and we can bring in more through a portal once I get one established. House Brightwing wanted to send along two of their Dragonhawk riders. Is it possible to have the Dragonhawks perch on the deck? They would provide scouting both at sea and on land." She asked. Getting the large flying beasts through a portal would be an issue.

House Brightwing had been allowed to send one of theirs to serve as the governor of the fortified harbor city now named Sunspire Anchorage. The Governor worked under her, but it had been decided to allow the Convocation houses some role in administering Alah'thalas, mostly so she didn't have to micromanage everything and to give them some illusion of power. In return, they had to support the formation of new cities with their own resources and people.

House Brightwing had wanted to insert themselves into this city because of the constant fights with Murlocks, and the ability of their Dragonhawk riders to watch over the trolls in Hinterlands. Melevedon and House Solaris had done the same with the city bordering Westweald due to trade and intelligence gathering reasons. Melevedon had outright purchased the right to name the city Golden Crossing, his price being financial support for Alah'thalas as a whole.

House Salonar had shown no interest, as they were focused on magical research, while House Carmine had shown interest in the Fortress of Dawn, which was understandable considering the proximity of two sacred nesting sites of the Red Dragonflight. Their influence would keep things peaceful with the dragons. House Drathir had jumped headfirst into supporting a mining and crafting town in the northwest, which was easily explained by the plentiful resources.

The city had been named Emberforge by the locals and Selessa saw no reason to interfere with the naming. Several other noble houses had expressed interest as well, but Selessa had shot them down to allow new fresh opportunities for the settlers to the new land to form their own houses and perhaps eventually rise to nobility. She estimated it would help break the Silvermoon-centric thinking of the Quel'dorei. Even the Convocation houses were not the rulers of the new cities, simply the governors and sponsors.

As a somewhat surprise, the church had, without her prompting, started supporting the farmers and fishermen in the central Alah'thalas, leading to the people there becoming heavily associated with the faith and the Light. The largest town in the area had been named Luminarion and was slowly developing into the spiritual center of the whole area.

It was also the place with the heaviest presence of magisters in the area, as the second Starwell had finally been placed in Sunspire Anchorage, and the effects of both Starwells overlapped at Luminarion, leading to the heaviest concentration of ambient mana. The combined effect was even more than that of the Sunwell. The city also had a heavy Sin'dorei presence since they could quickly respond to any problems around Alah'thalas from the central location.

In short, while still just a town, Luminarion was on track to become the central hub and capitol of Alah'thalas.

"It's going to be a bit of a squeeze and bothersome but we'll manage." The Admiral promised.

"What is the ship's name?" She asked, turning towards him. The Admiral blushed a bit.

"The Saint's Grace." She shook her head wryly.

"Of course it is. I'll go gather everyone then." She nodded before turning around. She'd brought a good number of Sin'dorei in preparation for the journey, having roughly guesstimated how many she could bring along. Half of those going would be paladins, while half would be Sin'dorei warriors and rangers. The paladin presence was another statement, but she wanted the warriors to be represented as well, while the rangers would be needed for scouting and prospecting.

She knew better than to assume the location the Kaldorei had granted for the embassy to be safe.

The ship was very fast indeed, especially with several magisters making sure there was a constant favorable wind at their sails, but crossing the Great Sea still took time. The Saint's Grace made the trip in three weeks, which the Admiral assured them was an excellent time for such a long trip. They passed some islands from a distance, which might be interesting later, but they didn't stop to study them for the time being.

She spent most of the journey designing the runes she could use to hide their magic and the presence of an eventual portal. Luckily, she had rather extensive experience hiding her Psychic presence in the Warp in her previous life. She'd personally created Ghosthelms and protective runes for that very purpose, and she'd studied the runestones created by the Quel'dorei for their methods. All she needed to do was to adapt and combine the two methods, for which three weeks was more than sufficient.

The new small runestones worked based off of Aeldari runes. Their journey took them to the region of Azshara which bordered the Kaldorei homeland of Ashenvale from the East. The whole region was shaped like a horseshoe or a sideways U that extended longer from the bottom. In the middle of the U was a large bay filled with ruins of Kaldorei buildings. Eldarath had been a major city, though now most of it lay at the bottom of the bay.

Due to the shallowness of the sea in the bay, the ruins formed a rather hazardous approach towards the landing site at the base of the bay. The roofs and towers of the larger buildings were jutting out of the water, some of the largest temples partially still on the surface, and just below the surface you could run into the roof of a random building. Finding a safe path through the treacherous waters took another day of slow and careful navigation.

The bay itself was surrounded on three sides by rather steep cliffs, with the only real path up at the base of the bay. At the base they found rather a rather promising beach and a road leading upwards. As their ship was larger than usual and because the beach had no pier, they had to create a magical bridge from the ship to the beach to allow the landing.

"You'll scout as much of the continent by sea as possible before returning?" She confirmed with the Admiral as the mounted Sin'dorei were disembarking.

"Of course. We have some preliminary information from our earlier trips here, but it's horribly out of date, and I must admit that my predecessors lacked the curiosity and sense of duty to do real exploration." He grumbled. He might have been similar before the Troll Wars and the appearance of the Saint, but now he was different. A changed man.

"And the sense of adventure. Don't forget that. It might be a duty, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it." She pointed out with a smile, which seemed to perk him up.

"It is a pleasure indeed. I estimate our supplies to last for four months without conjured food and rationing. We'll likely return a little before then." He patted the single use communications stone she'd given him in his pocket.

"Good. It would be the best if you managed to locate a good place for a new colony on this continent. Resources would be a positive surprise, but not a requirement. What we need is a foothold here that the Kaldorei can't whine about. They're going to throw a tantrum if we build a colony right here on their doorstep." Azshara was not strictly considered to be Kaldorei controlled, but it was a borderline case, and as they were still officially exiled, some among the Kaldorei could make a legitimate issue out of it.

"Your will be done, Saint." He promised. The group of 150 mounted Sin'dorei rode up the road deeper into Azshara.

The terrain started out as the slightly dour and brown pine forest dotted with the occasional ruins and old outposts, before slowly transitioning towards the evergreen lush forest that was more typical of Ashenvale, though they would need to ride several days before they reached the real border between the regions, signified by a large river running down from the mountains surrounding Hyjal and down south towards whatever lands lay there.

They'd only ridden a few hours before they started noticing they were not alone, though they didn't react to that discovery in a visible way, keeping a moderate pace through on the road paved with loose stones. Instead, silent hand signals alerted everyone to the presence of their new guests. Eventually, a trio of purple-skinned women dressed in rather skimpy leather armor riding three large Nightsabers, feline beasts big enough to be formidable foes on their own, waited them on the road.

'That's not armor. That's a leather bra and a flimsy loincloth.' Selessa mentally commented to herself, while signaling the whole column of riders to come to a halt within easy hearing range of the waiting Kaldorei. The lead Kaldorei woman stated something with a snide tone that she didn't understand, something the Kaldorei woman seemed to realize as well as nobody reacted to her words. Selessa just signaled for her to keep talking, and with a frown the blue-haired woman obliged.

"... woods…many…noise…" She started making out the first words, and she motioned for the woman to keep going.

"…would they send…who can't even…language?" The woman seemed to be questioning, the pieces of the language falling in place in Selessa's mind.

"Because I can learn languages fast, as you can see. I simply need to hear it spoken for a short time." She shot back in perfect recreation of the Kaldorei language, which she'd heard was called Darnassian. The word darn having a meaning similar to thalas, meaning home in Thalassian. It amused her a little that both languages were named after the word home.

"Well, well. So, you can do something besides stomping through the woods, making a huge ruckus." The woman mocked, repeating her earlier snide comment according to Selessa's memory.

"Well, considering we were not trying to hide, but in fact be found, I'd say we did a good job. Unlike your little band of soldiers that are currently making a feeble effort to hide all around us. What's your excuse?" She shot back, her helm luckily hiding her grin, even if her tone revealed it anyway.

"Bold words for someone surrounded." The Kaldorei woman threatened.

"I think you're under a misapprehension. You think we've walked into a potential trap unawares. No, we walked into a potentially target rich environment, fully aware of your pathetic attempts at trying to surround us.

"That's enough Shalar." Another voice spoke up, and a more seriously armored woman riding a much larger black Nightsaber rode out of the forest, observing Selessa and her forces, who were all primed and ready to kill the Kaldorei surrounding them. It seemed the new arrival noticed the complete lack of fear or concern on the faces of the Sin'dorei, their posture only signaling complete confidence in their own strength.

"Quel'thalas was supposed to send an emissary, not a small invasion force." She commented finally.

"Well, considering our previous emissary is either dead or missing, it seemed you're either unable or unwilling to protect our representatives, so we brought our own protection." Selessa responded, not fazed by the judgmental tone.

"This was not approved by us." The Kaldorei woman apparently in the lead pointed out.

"That's a toughie, for you that is. I might as well get this out of the way now. Quel'thalas no longer recognizes your authority on any matter pertaining to our people, land, or possessions. Thus, your approval was not, and is not sought or expected. If you have an issue with our presence, you can try to expel us forcefully, but I would advise against it." She didn't bother mincing words.

"That's not a very diplomatic approach for an emissary." The Kaldorei woman commented.

"You might be used to dealing with deference and representatives that value your opinion. That time has passed. You exiled us thousands of years ago, and now we are telling you that such decisions have consequences. Such as no longer getting a voice in our matters. We are not looking for conflict, but we are not going to go out of our way to avoid one if demands are made from us. Now, are we done with the posturing? And do we have to locate the staff of the previous emissary ourselves?" She demanded forcefully.

She knew this was not a great way to form alliances, but the Kaldorei needed to be taught that things were no longer the same. This was just the start. She wasn't planning on starting a war or intentionally turning the Kaldorei against them, but she wasn't going to do any appeasing either.

The abode of the emissary was not far from the river separating Azshara from Ashenvale. The building was a rather mediocre construction in the Kaldorei style, which meant blending into the surroundings. There was enough room for a small staff, but certainly not for over hundred soldiers and their mounts.

"That does not look very secure." Brother Vyas additionally commented.

"No, it does not." She agreed fervently. Security had not been even a secondary concern apparently, as the building was rather open with as few walls as possible. She turned to the Sin'dorei behind her.

"You know what to do." The mounted soldiers saluted her by hitting their breastplates with a fist, and dispersed to build their own shelters and to fortify the area. At the same time Nallorath, the only one of them not wearing armor, rode to the front. He'd been safe in the center of the formation just in case they were attacked. If he'd been at the front, the Kaldorei might have assumed he was the emissary with his attire usual to magisters.

"Is it wrong of me to be nervous and afraid?" He asked, his feelings clear in his tone.

"No. When did you see her last?" She asked sympathetically.

"It's… by the Sunwell, it's been almost a hundred years." His eyes locked on a particular Quel'dorei woman as the staff came out of the building to meet the new arrivals. They were clearly shocked by the number and equipment of the Sin'dorei, which was fair considering they likely hadn't gotten much news since the Troll Wars. Nallorath's mother looked a bit haggard, but seemed to recognize Nallorath straight away.

Selessa could easily read from the woman's bearing that she wanted nothing more than to rush to embrace her son, but was holding back partly due to decorum, and partly because she didn't know what kind of reception she would get. Selessa left the two to their reunion.

"Autarch." One of the heavily armored Sin'dorei approached her. The gold-haired blue-eyed man was someone she recognized not only from training but also from serving under her during the war. He was also one of the elites she'd picked for the squad to face greater threats.

"Thalorien. Report." They'd been escorted here by the Kaldorei, but the entire ambush group had not followed them, and some of the Sin'dorei rangers had managed to slip out to do some preliminary scouting. Thalorien Dawnseeker was one of the Sin'dorei warriors that had shown the greatest potential so far, and Selessa suspected he had talent for the Light as well, though he'd never tested. Just a hunch on her part.

He was the leader of the warrior contingent of the Sin'dorei that had come with her, while Brother Vyas led the paladins.

"While the location for our current abode is rather well chosen, there is a rather large group of ruins nearby. The ruins seem to be inhabited by some kind of spirits, and deeper in the rangers spotted something they described as demonic. From the description and my own studies of history, I'd guess we're dealing with Satyrs. The scouts will be ranging further from our location next, but these are the immediate threats." The man explained.

"Is that so? I'll need to have a word with our hosts." She directed Onyx towards the still waiting and observing group of Kaldorei. Those that had followed them were the four mounted on Nightsabers.

"Are the accommodations satisfactory?" The leading Sentinel, as that's what she was, asked with only a bit of sarcasm in her tone. Despite the rocky start, she seemed to at least be trying.

"Not yet, and not for these numbers, but we were expecting such and can make the necessary changes. What concerns me more is that our rangers report the presence of what has been tentatively identified as Satyrs in the vicinity. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you do not condone the presence of such creatures." The woman's eyes sharpened.

"No. No we do not. I will lead a group of Sentinels to get rid of them if you'll point the way."

"No need. It sounds like a nice opportunity for our forces to stretch our legs against opponents we haven't tested ourselves against just yet and we've been trapped on a ship for weeks. We are sadly short on proper enemies currently, so this is a good opportunity. Maybe they'll have an explanation for our missing emissary." She decided. Questions were in order. And her troops did need training against opponents that were not so simple to face.

STATUS: Level: 12 5000/12000 EXP 11 Base Points/2 Advanced Points/1 Mastery Points Mandatory Perks: Beauty Over Brawn Body: 10/11 (5 Unspent Perk Points) Athletics 10 Iron Lungs Strength of a Dragon Body of Eternal Dawn Unbreaking Stride Eternal Sunstrider Heavy Weapons 10 Cleaving Strikes Blade of the Rising Sun Unyielding Vigil Fury of the Chosen Bladestorm Durability 10 Immovable object Dragon's Fortitude Unageing Regeneration Healing Factor Reflexes: 10/12 (4 Unspent Perk Point) Light Weapons 10 (4 Unspent Perk Points) Swift Strikes Nervous System 10 Keen Eyes Keen Eye for Hidden Dragon's Perception Sentinel's Eye Danger Sense Dawn's Reflex Subtlety 5 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Arcane Shots Charisma: 17/17 (+2 Max due to Eyes) Politics 17 Competent Underlings Superior Subordinates Shared Vision Intelligent Improvisation Unleased Potential Unlimited Potential Above and Beyond Inspiring Loyalty Improved Resources Rare Resources Treasure Trove Fertile Land Esprit de Corps Conflux Endless Plenty Hardy Stock Social 5 (2 Unspent Perk Points) Pleasure 1 Crafting: 8/12 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Magical Crafting 8 Master of Disassembly Superior Runework Talented Enchanter Master of Efficiency Creation 1 Nature 2 Eye for Errors Eye for Improvement Bonesinging 8 Difference of Kind Amalgamation Amplification Grand Amplification Great Works Regeneration Stronger Than You Think Discipline: 7/12 (+2 Max due to Past Experiences) (1 Unspent Perk Point) Commander 7 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Battlefield Awareness Ambush Expert Cavalry Tactics Squad Leader 5 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Sensei Soldier 6 (2 Unspent Perk Points) One With Your Steed One With Your Steed II Magic: 7/13 (2 Unspent Perk Point) Light 7 Severe healing Baptism of Light I Baptism of Light II Arcane 7 (1 Unspent Perk Point) Massive Spells Master Conjurer Spellbreaker 5 Magic Sight Anti-Magic Zone Projected AMZ