Draith
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Chapter 159 - The Nearest Tree
🕑 Added 2025-07-12 14:00:13 +0000 UTCConflict stopped, turning to look back at us after I’d asked if it had nabbed a person. Behind it, the rollerbugs remained still with what seemed to be a humanish body slung between them.
"It is one of the servant units," Conflict answered, turning away.
At that, the rollerbugs set the body down. Closer inspection with Eagle Eyes revealed that it was mechanical. In fact, I realized a lot of the parts in the rollerbugs were similar.
"Why do you need people shaped servants?" Vaserra asked, her brow furrowed.
"There are rules," Conflict replied, the words escaping with a grinding noise as it said them.
“Rules?” Nexxa asked “What sorts of rules? Couldn’t you just use your other units?”
Conflict didn’t answer.
After several more questions, with nothing further forthcoming, Nexxa and Vaserra grudgingly shifted their attention to exchanging their favors. Neither Calbern or I were planning to trade ours in, and Bevel wasn't even sure what she'd do with the rewards Conflict was offering. She'd come solely for the trial itself.
It didn't take long for Vaserra and Nexxa to complete their requests. Vaserra had arranged for a great deal of basic metals to be brought to the southern vale. She had plans for improved harvesting tools. Something she suddenly needed a lot more of, which caused me to smile. The rollerbugs were already loading up one of the heavier bugs to carry the ingots.
Meanwhile, Nexxa had requested a road built along the coast heading south towards her prospective new city. She still had to clear out the wildlife nesting there, but the actual location had been chosen after some discussion with Vaserra.
By asking for them to only build the main infrastructure, she'd gotten Conflict to agree to almost two hundred miles of work. One of us would need to smooth out large portions of the road ourselves, but it’d be a lot faster without having to build the framework for bridges ourselves.
The rollerbugs swarmed past us as Fang and Frost Lily moved to the surface.
"Probably should've warned Xoth," I said, shaking my head.
"I shall ensure we arrive first, master Percival. To ensure there is no miscommunication, of course," Calbern called out before laying in the speed.
One day, I'd remember that Calbern took it easy when he had passengers, and that when I wanted him to go fast, he had no problem with pushing me back into the now sufficiently padded seats.
He wasn't wrong. It didn't take us long to pass the rollerbugs who were rumbling down the road.
The speed made conversation impossible, but we certainly got to Verdant Point quick enough to head off the rollerbugs.
After we rolled a stop, I found myself pulling stray leaves out of my hair as Calbern addressed one of the sentries, informing them of the incoming rollerbugs. "Where did these even come from?" I asked myself, holding one of the oversize leaves in front of me. "The nearest tree is in Mistvale, isn't it?"
Bevel tapped my shoulder, pointing over to where the docks were. To my surprise, there were green leafy branches growing there. Hopping out of Fang, I took a couple steps closer, revealing that the trees I'd planted to serve as posts for the dock had continued to grow.
"That's unnatural," I said, mentally doing math in my head. If each of them had the same tier three heartwood as the behemoths in the forest…
Well, that was a lot of extra material.
Unfortunately, after a quick talk with Xoth, he revealed that several of the trees had been knocked over already, and while there was a small amount of tier one heartwood inside, it was significantly less than what had been there when we'd transplanted the logs.
Which, when I thought about it, made sense. The heartwood acted as a reserve that the trees could call on to restore themselves. We'd stopped that within the forest by harvesting it all. In the waters off Verdant Point we hadn't just left them alone, we'd stuck them in an all you could drink buffet of water mana while the storm howled overhead.
The trees had used every source of energy available to them to grow to their 'proper' size.
"We're gonna need new docks," I said, looking down. The trees hadn't been kind to the panels that had once run between them. "Surprised no one mentioned this to me."
"It was resolved long ago," Xoth said, his voice level and his hands folded neatly within his sleeves, despite the winds whipping around us. "Rebuilding the docks will be a minor concern. Hardly something we needed to bother the Magus Dominus with."
I winced at the title. Somehow, I'd managed to avoid being called that for a while.
"It's Magus Protectus, now," I said, deciding I might as well make it official. After all, it fit who I wanted to be better anyway. Going out and lording over people wasn’t my thing. "That's what the beacon says."
"Interesting," Xoth said, nodding towards me in an almost bow. "It shall be as you say, Magus Protectus. Do you require anything further, or shall I return to my abode?"
"We're putting in a road along the coast. Thinking we might scout out any good locations for settlements along the way while we're at it," I said. I hadn't forgotten Nexxa and Vetrov each mentioning the many refugees who were headed our way.
"That may be wise. It will not be long before Verdant Point starts to feel full," Xoth said, head held at an angle to keep the wind from blowing his hair into his face. "Perhaps we can even relocate the primary dock. Somewhere away from our critical infrastructure."
At that, he glanced in the direction of the Waygate, catching a lock of his long dark hair in his face before shifting back.
"Yeah. That'd probably be for the best, for now," I agreed, stepping forward towards the cliff to look at the coast. "Anyway, we should get-"
A crack from nearby interrupted me. I was prepared to keep talking, since cracks of lightning were pretty common during the Howling season, except it turned out that the crack hadn't just been lightning. From my closer position, I watched as one of the monstrous trees started tilting towards the others.
The sentries were already calling out. Less than a minute later and a team of villagers came out of one the improved shelters nearby, loops of rope at the ready.
Xoth moved away, and I watched alongside Bevel in Calbern in relative silence as they secured the fallen tree, then started hauling it closer to the cliff face.
"This happen often?" I asked Xoth, watching as the top of the shattered tree slid out of sight.
"Once or twice a week," Xoth said, nodding. "We'll have plenty of materials for those new docks, come the calm."
“That we will. Good work,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder.
Then I waved at Bevel, who’d been watching the men work from the edge of the cliff.
After she came over, I let Calbern know we were heading back to the enchanting workshop via route of Inertia in case either Vaserra or Nexxa decided to hang around.
We were delayed by half an hour as I provided Inertia with my new set of designs and I answered questions. She finally let me go with the promise I’d be back to explain after I got one more invention working.
Once we got to the enchanting workshop, we were immediately greeted by Neta, who insisted on several minutes of scritches before letting us start on the scanners.
Unfortunately, we didn't have the higher tiered Sun and Moon affinity materials needed to build a full analysis device. However, there were several possible workarounds I'd come up with during my trial.
Each of them relied on doing the scan separately from the actual analysis, then delivering the scan to the beacon or the Golden Halls.
We built all of them, since even the failures should tell us more about what worked and what didn’t.
The designs weren't particularly revolutionary. The scan was based on a full second Order version of assess self, requiring not just five second order slots to cast, but all the first Order slots as well.
Nexxa was the only person who could even slot such a spell, and she already had access to the beacon. Still, I’d gotten her to slot it the night before, and she confirmed that it gave the same results.
Thankfully, since we were building it into an enchantment, we didn't need the target to have so many slots. It did require a lot of… interesting designs though.
We didn’t have any multi-limbed snake skulls, but we did end up with one scanner that required latching itself onto the target’s wrists.
"This seems like a lot of mana being stored," Bevel said as she looked over the designs. "More than it needs, isn't it?"
"A bit. But most of that is to make sure it doesn't run out of mana while its 'holding' the scan," I replied, tapping the section of the enchantment that would keep the scan which was engraved into the former Inferno drake’s skull. "This is going to be drawing mana constantly once we've done a scan."
"Right, but we could just use one of the memory jades, couldn't we? Aren't they similar?" Bevel asked, moving over to a drawer to draw one of said jades out.
"They… are," I replied, accepting one of the jade crystals from her. "Didn't have these inside the trial."
"Redesign?" Bevel asked with a touch too much excitement.
"Redesign," I replied with a wry chuckle.
…MLI…
Several hours later, we'd redesigned the scanners to work with the memory jades. Then we set to actually building them.
We were interrupted by a call for dinner, which was taken on the go as we returned to the lake. I'd wanted to get back out earlier, but with Vaserra and Nexxa showing up for the Conflict trial, and then both of them being busy for most of the day, it'd been delayed somewhat.
They'd joined us for our return.
Or, at least, what I hoped would be our return. And they weren't the only ones who'd joined in.
"Sure as anything, this is a terrible idea," Tamrie said from beside me, pressed close under my shield which held back the lightning and rain. Despite the fact I’d cast the spell on her too, she’d insisted it ‘worked better’ this way. And I wasn’t particularly inclined to disagree.
"It's not too late to change your mind," I said softly as we stood along the edge of Mistvale's lake, nothing stirring.
"If it allows me to try, I'd be a fool not to," Tamrie mumbled back. "And while I may play the part, on occasion, I'll not allow myself to be such by choice."
I squeezed her hand, receiving a sharp nod as we continued to stare at the choppy waters of the lake.
"Do you need to sing to it?" Nexxa asked, nudging me. "All the stories say ladies in the lake like to be serenaded."
"I believe you are mistaking ladies of the lake for ladies of the river," Vaserra said, chuckling. "Ladies of the lake prefer the soothing calm of a stringed instrument."
"Calm?" I asked, turning to look at Vaserra. "Have we been listening to the same stringed instruments?"
"Evidently not, master Percival," Calbern said, arching his eyebrow slightly. "Perhaps lady Vaserra meant drums? Or the famous horns that herald a charge?"
I chuckled at that, my gaze moving back towards the lack which still lay still. "Don't suppose Tender wants us to swim down? Maybe come to it and apologize?"
"That is certainly worth considering," Calbern said, nodding in my direction.
"Well, probably best if we go together. I'll just swap a couple spells, then we can-"
Water sloshing to the side interrupted me as the entrance slowly pushed its way upward, sending massive waves rolling outward.
"Awesome," Bevel said just loud enough to be heard over the crashing waves.
Which is when Tender rode forth atop its forest-triceratops, flanked by its many other forest-dinos.
"You have returned. Welcome," Tender said, bowing its head. "I had feared that after how poorly the previous path proceeded, you had chosen to abstain from returning. It seems my fear was poorly founded. You have even brought new companions, including one of our lost guardians."
"Lost guardians?" I asked, glancing back at Vaserra. She was the only one I figured Tender could be talking about.
"One of the few who keep to the oath in spirit, if not in truth," Tender said, turning its triceratops the moment it was clear of the tunnel and starting back down. "Come, while the sun yet remains."
"That is… freaky," Nexxa muttered from her place on Frost Lily's back. "Like, I get the metal guy's pets, but these are worse than half the monsters on the front."
"I find it pleasing," Vaserra said, pushing Frost Lily to follow. "The forests near the northern vale look much the same."
"Maybe you've got secret monsters hiding in your forests," Bevel said with a great deal more excitement than was probably appropriate for the idea of having 'monsters' hiding near a large civilian population.
"Maybe we do," Vaserra replied, winking at Bevel.
The six of us reached the bottom of the stairs just behind Tender.
"I shall remain here, in case of any further incidents," Tender said, bowing to us. "Had I foreseen yesterday's unfortunate turn, I would have stayed. Please, accept my deepest apologies."
I stared at the being in shock. I'd known it was different from its brothers, but the idea it might apologize was just so… strange.
Especially since Bevel hadn't even been in danger.
"Apology accepted," Bevel said, nodding seriously while I was still recovering from the surprise.
"Thank you, little sprout. I hope your travels today will prove less troubling," Tender said. Then it waved its hand, and several doors lit up along the walls. "One good thing came of yesterday," it added, nodding towards the door to my left. I saw that it was marked for both Tamrie and I. "So long as you are at the same tier, and you do not forgo personal effort, you may walk the paths together. Remember, the paths are there to ensure you bind the Kinya correctly, which can only be done if you exert yourself appropriately."
We all nodded at this.
There was a minute of quiet conversation before we all set out for our respective doorways. I gave Bevel a hug, squeezing her tight. "Don't worry, okay. If anything happens, I'll come for you."
"I know," Bevel said, returning the hug. "And if anything happens to you, I'll make sure to eat your dinner."
Rolling my eyes, I kissed the top of her head before releasing her. "Brat."
"Bye Papa!" Bevel said, before turning and leaping into her door, only to get frozen in the air.
Which was when Nexxa chose to interrogate me, before I could follow Bevel’s example. "So… Papa? Thought she was just your apprentice?"
I felt Tamrie's grip on my arm tighten. I'd tried to bring up the topic with her, but she'd just brushed it off, saying it hadn't really changed much. While I'd taken her at her word, much didn't mean nothing.
"It… she's like family to me," I admitted. "Means a lot to me. I think, if you had a chance to spend more time with her, you'd like her."
"She's not bad," Nexxa said, waving her hand in the general direction. "But kids… not really my thing. Figure that's the one thing father got right. Wait until I'm at least two hundred before I get started."
"Say again," Tamrie squeaked, glancing in my direction. "Yer father's more'n two hundred years old?"
"Past three, a couple decades ago," Nexxa said with a shrug. "Anyway, not important. What is important is that we need Althon's approval to adopt."
"Really?" I asked, shaking my head while chuckling.
"What?"
"You've picked your beacon up and fled across a quarter of the continent with it. Monsters are escaping the Pillars in droves. You really think it matters if I get Althon's approval for taking on Bevel? There’s only one person’s approval I need to take into consideration, and she’s standing right beside me."
Nexxa stared blankly at me for a second before barking out a laugh. "Right. Old habits. Forget I said anything."
"Done," I replied, squeezing her shoulder.
"Good. Now, let's get on with these paths," Nexxa said, turning towards hers, which was at the far end of the room near Calbern's and Vaserra's. She took two steps before stopping and turning. "Oh, and Per Per…"
"Yeah?"
She flipped her hair over her shoulder, a giant grin stretching across her face as she put both hands on her hips, lightning crackling around her. "I'm gonna be her favorite Fronting aunt."
Comments
Alexander Belousov
TFTC! caused me to spile --> smile, presumably. Hoping out of Fang --> Hopping?
Julkur
*By asking for them to only build the main infrastructure, she'd gotten Keeper to agree to almost two hundred miles of work.* Shouldn't it be Conflict?
