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Chapter 136 (Draft)
🕑 Added 2021-05-31 19:45:01 +0000 UTCSeeing the Sky Continent again felt good, even if it also seemed like the appearance of expectations and responsibility to me. I watched the green fields unfolding in front of us, after the scraggly cliffs, and curled my fingers around my sleeves. Sometimes, it hit me like a sudden impact. All of this continent starting to spread out below us was mine in an intangible but real way. Thousands of towns and cities, millions of people. It was enough to choke anyone, and yet looking at the continent I couldn’t help but think of how much better it could be, one day.
We’d left Adzur by ship, then boarded an airship in a port city in an Imperial province on the southern coast. Crossing the ocean had been mercifully quick and carefree this time, with Aston gently nudging away the only storm that threatened to get close to us before it could really pick up steam. High-stage air cultivators could be pretty impressive, especially with help. I knew there was still more travel in my future, but I was really starting to miss just living in the Imperial palace.
Our first stop was in a medium-sized city in the northeast, going by the unfortunate name of Blackdown City. We set down at an airfield a little outside the city proper, though I stayed on deck and watched as servants, guards and others bustled about.
“Glad to be rid of the extra passengers?” Yarani asked, stepping up beside me.
I turned my gaze from the freed slaves who were assembling below. We’d dropped some off on our transit stop, but most of them were coming along to the Sky Continent. “Not really,” I said. “I mean, I didn’t mind their presence.”
“You never even talked to any of them except the one that sought you out, and you’ve barely even looked at them,” Yarani said, folding her arms.
I hesitated, then decided trying to argue that would be pointless. “And? Doesn’t mean I have anything against them.”
“Maybe not,” she admitted, “I just don’t understand why you avoid them.”
I suppressed a sigh and watched them again, frowning. After a moment, I reluctantly spoke. “I don’t really know, it just seemed better that way. In Adzur, I still legally owned them like they were pieces of furniture I could break if I wanted to. I thought they’d be more at ease if they didn’t see me.”
Yarani nodded, her expression echoing the distaste in my voice. “And after they got their freedom?” she prompted.
I sighed. “I guess I was just more comfortable keeping the matter abstract, to me. I mean, what if I had gone to them? Gone to bask in their adoration?” I pulled a face. “I didn’t do this just so I could feel good about myself. Making a point of how benevolent I was would have kind of cheapened it to my own mind.” I didn’t need that kind of hollow emotional boost, not that it would do much for me.
Yarani watched me for a moment with a complicated expression. She gave a little sigh and smiled softly at me. “It’s perfectly alright to acknowledge that you did something nice that helped people, Inaris.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “There’s no need to make that sort of face, Yarani. I really don’tcare, I’m not just saying that.”
She shrugged and leaned against the railing, then pointed out one of the people below. “That seventeen-year-old boy was sold into slavery at age ten, and ended up in a very dubious leisure establishment until he was sold to the company a few years later. He almost cried when he got the paperwork, and he’s shown interest in joining the Imperial army or other enforcement institutions.”
The wooden railing creaked loudly as my fingers dug into it at her first words, and I forced myself to relax my fists and calmed my spurt of anger. “Freaking hells. What do you want from me here, Yarani?”
She backed off, raising a hand. “Nothing. It’s alright. I’ll go make sure everything’s going alright.”
I shook my head and headed back into the cabin.
She’d reminded me to make sure they got the help they needed for their mental health, at least. For better or worse, I’d made them my responsibility, so I should take care of that.
We were soon in the air again and continued our journey. A few hours later, we reached lake He. I felt my spirits lift as soon as the airship slowed down. I’d finally get to see my siblings again, and maybe even others I’d missed.
From the air, I could see the landscape spread out below us, the lake bordering the meadows and fields. This far north, there was only a light dusting of snow on the crowns of a few trees and the lake hadn’t frozen over. The estate was in a secluded corner, far from the nearest town, but it had a wall around sprawling grounds ringing the central palace. It looked vaguely familiar, especially as we lost altitude and came in for the landing.
We’d called ahead and the airship wasn’t exactly hard to miss, so we were expected. Still, they’d at least halfway followed my wish to avoid making a large fuss. Which meant there were only a few dozen kneeling people waiting for me, not every servant and courtier in the estate.
I went through the greetings mostly on autopilot, counting the seconds until I got to hug my little sister. When we finally did, with my guards around us keeping the rest of the people away and blocking their sight — I really needed to look into giving Aston a raise, he earned it — she clung to me like she never wanted to let me go. I was careful of my supernatural strength, but embraced her just as fervently.
“I missed you, Little An,” I said. “How have you been?”
“Fine,” she mumbled into my robe. “I’m glad you’re back, Big Sister.”
When we’d finished our greetings and the other people were dispersing, a familiar presence captured my attention, coming out of the main house. I sped up and felt a large smile settling into place as I drew closer to Tenira.
“Inaris,” she grinned, catching me in her arms as I came to a stop. “Welcome back.”
I kissed her, letting the other people around us fade from my awareness. It was a long kiss, passionate, but the romantic kind instead of sensual, like it always was with her. When we finally let go, I took a step back and looked around while Tenira greeted the others, exchanging hugs with Lei and Yarani.
“Al is coming tomorrow,” she finally told me, probably noticing my gaze. “Kajare might come too, or we’ll meet him at the staging point, depending on how things work out for him.”
I nodded and smiled. As a group, we made our way into the summer palace and settled into a sitting room where servants had arranged refreshments. I noticed a game table in the corner, and wasn’t surprised when Xiaodan dragged me there to a chessboard a few minutes later. While Lei and Tenira caught up and Elia poked through the Estate, we played and talked, mostly about what she’d been doing. An had gotten better, and I had to work to beat her. I gave her a proud smile and ruffled her hair, pretending not to know that her attempts to brush me off were just a pretense.
I wished I could just stay here for a few weeks, have a good time with my siblings and my partners and friends, but I knew it was not to be. Events were being set in motion, and the war didn’t rest, even if the fronts had been quiet recently. I wasn’t the only one aware of that, of course, and so no one seemed surprised when we ended up in a conference room decked out with maps and correspondence after a while. Kei Yating took Xiaodan outside, but I didn’t spare him more than a brief smile and a nod before I focused on the room and the others.
“What happened in Adzur?” Tenira asked.
I took a seat and leaned back in my chair, starting to recount the events of our trip with occasional help from Lei and Elia. Yarani seemed content to let us talk. I didn’t say much about my meeting with my father, since I wanted to talk to her more in depth about that in private later, but focused on the political parts.
“And what did you guys do?” I finally asked.
Yarani had a thoughtful frown on her face, but answered my question easily. “About what you would expect. I developed our projects further. Field testing for Smite and Radiant is finished, and we’ve made some progress with Warstar, but none of the other projects had a major breakthrough or are got ready for further steps during this time. We should probably go over our progress more in depth later.”
I nodded. I knew I’d left our technological efforts in good hands with her, but it would probably get too technical for Elia and Yarani quickly if we dived into the details now.
“Things also settled down on the Earth Continent, in case you haven’t heard,” she continued. “Kajare settled some matters and established a framework for coordination and a network of liasons. We also got confirmation that their warships are mobilizing. Most of the Terbekteri navy could join the fight within a few months, although I don’t know how many ships they’ll actually send here.”
“They’ll come in useful even if the Terbekteri act on their own,” Yarani put in, smiling slightly. “They could for example raid the Dominion’s more outlying colonies while we pressure them here at home.”
“That’s more or less the plan,” I confirmed. “Terki has been a little cagey, but it definitely looks like the Kingdom is entering the war more seriously now.”
“And just in time,” Tenira said. “This won’t be easy going, even with their support. And we can’t afford to keep all our attention on the Sky and Storm Continents, anyway.”
I nodded. “I know. Are you all comfortable with this, so far? I’m expecting you to come with, or at least contribute in other ways, but I don’t want to presume. If you have concerns, now’s the time to raise them, so we can talk about it before the inevitable meetings and war councils.”
I looked at the others, but it didn’t seem like any of them had something to add. Lei shrugged, Elia seemed more interested in the maps and only gave an absent nod, Yarani looked like she couldn’t wait for things to start and Tenira was simply watching me with a small smile. It looked like they were all on board. Good.
I took a large map showing the Sky and Storm Continents and spread it over the table. Someone had traced the current front and large troop concentrations with a marker, but it was focused on the geography, rather than a political map, and I paid attention to it as my gaze trailed down the map. Nothing there was new, but I found myself considering what I’d learned about the continent.
I tended to think about it in terms of what I knew from Earth in my mind. The Sky Continent’s climate was similar to Central Europe in the southern part, and more like the Mediterranean in the north. The Yellow Graves had a jungle, but it wasn’t tropical, more like the forests that used to cover large parts of Central Europe before the middle ages. At least it would be without the qi. For the Storm Continent, the northern, or at the least coastal, part was very similar to its counterpart in the Sky Continent’s south. But the further you went, the colder it got. Eventually, the south of the Storm Continent was more similar to Siberia. Of course, the details depended on where you were compared to the sea, mountains and rivers, but this was correct in general. Maybe it’s no wonder why the Zarian have kept pushing north.
Obviously, the northern part of the Dominion was its breadbasket and also population center. That meant it would be over if you reached the Whitecaps and old core cities. Everything further south would either fall in line or get strangled.
“But first we need to get there,” I muttered to myself.
“Considering the campaign, or something deeper?” Tenira asked.
I looked up, realizing they were looking at me, so I outlined what I was thinking. “It does mean we have the most prosperous, and most heavily defended, part to deal with,” I concluded.
They exchanged glances, and no one spoke at first. Tenira looked at the map with a faint frown, Elia let out a little sigh, and Lei fiddled with something.
“What?” I asked. “Something the matter?”
“Not at all, Nari,” Yarani said, giving me smile probably meant to be reassuring. “We just weren’t sure of the scope of your intentions.”
“You just made it clear you actually intend to conquer the Zarian,” Tenira elaborated. “Don’t you? You don’t just want to push them back, maybe gain a foothold south, and settle things, I suppose? Some might expect that.”
I frowned and scratched my cheek. “Right. No, I want to finish things. Even if we didn’t have Jideia to worry about — and he’s definitely a problem — I don’t see such a situation being very stable. If we can gain the initiative, build and consolidate our advantage, I think it’s best to keep pushing now. Not when they’ve had time to adapt and build new defenses.”
“Makes sense,” Lei said, glancing up for a moment.
“Besides, a relatively swift win would help our position much more when it comes to other nations,” I said. “We’re about to show strength, and that means being a threat. Better to show enough of it, not give any potential enemies and vultures pause.”
“You’re right,” Tenira said. She looked concerned.
“Things are never going to go back to the way the used to be, are they?” Elia asked, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Probably not,” I admitted.
There was a moment of silence. As if by an unspoken agreement, the conversation then shifted to lighter topics. We talked about the past weeks in more detail. But no one seemed inclined to talk much, the conversation quickly faltered again, getting growing periods of silence. Finally, Elia stood up, and Lei pushed out his chair after her.
“Would you guys mind going ahead?” I asked, looking at Tenira and tilting my head to indicate I wanted to talk to her.
“Back only a few hours and we’re already being set aside,” Elia teased me, shaking her head with exaggerated sadness. “Yarani, you be strong now.”
“Glad to know you have such a high opinion of me, Elia,” Yarani retorted, rolling her eyes. Then she looked at me. “We get it, you have things to discuss with your right hand. Come on.”
They left, and I turned back to Tenira. I guess you could consider her my right hand, actually. Huh.
She watched me with a small smile that said she guessed what I was thinking. “I take it this is indeed business, Inaris?” she asked.
I took out a few sheets of paper and pushed them towards her. “I wanted to get your opinion on that.”
She took them and started reading. After a few moments, she glanced up, frowning again. “Inaris, this is … different.”
“I know,” I said.
“You’ll need to discuss this with Kiyanu.”
“I will, of course.” I sighed. “But I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I’m not proposing burning down any temples. Well, not here, anyway.” I waved that away. “Just some minor, basically legal moves to increase the pressure on the Storm and put a check on his worship in the Empire. Taxes, properties, PR. This is the best time for it, Tenira. With my connection to the Moon and his worship and popularity surging, we’re well positioned for it. Especially if we emphasize how the Zarian worship the Storm and hint at the deeper conflict causing this war.”
Tenira nodded slowly. “I see what you mean. I’ll consult with a few others and get back to you with comments on the practical details.”
“You’re not going to warn me against this course of action?” I asked, feeling a bit of my tension relax.
She smiled. “No. I’m glad you’re being more proactive and defending your interests, love.”
I returned her smile, then leaned over to kiss her.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time, and Tenira got up to get to work. I watched her walk out of the room and stretched before standing up myself. It was good to have her back.
