C_Mantis
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Chapter 411
🕑 Added 2025-03-31 18:59:01 +0000 UTCChapter 411
Emmanuel was surprised.
It was quite the strange feeling, given his frequent use of his father’s Tier 50 Talent for future sight, but he had been genuinely caught off guard when Carissa used the emergency contact while he was occupied. Upon returning to the Empire, he was immensely happy she had done so, but that only contributed to his surprise.
His Ascenders had created a mess.
No, mess was the wrong word.
They had done something unexpected and unaccounted for.
It wasn't what he had expected to happen. What he had seen.
When he had divined the future for the children and their conflict with the cabal, he had seen a fairly straightforward cat and mouse between them until the cabal was slowly unveiled and the battlefield shifted more into the open. And it had continued along those lines right up until the moment Matt and Titan’s Torch had released the information about the skill creation method.
Looking back, he could see how he had underestimated its impact, leading to his surprise.
The method in and of itself had limitless potential, and was guaranteed to change the Realm. That was hardly a shock, but its impact proved wider and deeper than his initial glimpses into the future had suggested.
The skills were always going to change the face of the Realm; they influenced the lower Tiers too much to not do so. But in his original predictions, while the skills ran rampant through the Empire, it was supposed to take longer for the results to truly show themselves.
In a vacuum, that might have held true, and yet the Realm was anything but, which was what made future sight so finicky.
Instead, the skills’ reveal had triggered trillions of individuals' futures to change, which, in turn, propagated further until the waves ruined nearly all of his past predictions.
The consequences of which would need to be teased out of the jumbled mess that was the future, but that was just a matter of finding the time and mana to spend. He had already checked, and both the best and the worst things coming were still on track, though their timings had shifted.
With Matt having Tiered up recently and having doubled his mana again, Emmanuel’s own theoretical maximal regeneration had increased; though he still desperately wished for Matt, Liz, and Aster to advance faster.
The selfish part of him was tempted to go and strangle their problems in the dark, ensuring they had nothing occupying their time and thus allowing them to delve, but he wouldn’t do so.
Even ignoring the fact the conflict had gotten Matt a possible Truth far earlier than he would have otherwise… if he did interfere, then how would he be surprised?
As a Tier 50, let alone a Tier 50 with future sight, there were few things that surprised him. The longer he remained in his position, the more he enjoyed the unexpected, good or ill.
He hadn’t foreseen ‘Marquess Galip’ being caught so soon. That whole fiasco had originally been slated to be the whetstone for one of the Empire’s next generation of Ascenders as the old dynasties shadow faction rose up and tried to maneuver themselves into positions of power, taking over several duchies and making a bid for a kingdom, similar to Frederic.
His Grandmother genuinely hadn’t been able to fully root out the old dynasty, but that was hardly a fault of hers, given the old dynasty’s ties with the Sects Tier 50 at the time, who sheltered them. That act of ‘benevolence’ had allowed them to spread through the other Great Powers and establish their own little shadow organization with the goal of reclaiming the Empire's throne.
In fact, there was still the younger sister of the former Emperor alive and well, pulling the strings from where she thought she was safe and secure.
Their plans might have worked if Emmanuel’s father hadn’t had the power of future sight and ensured they never got any true victories, any meaningful momentum, in their attempts.
Georgios had told Emmanuel his plans for the old dynasty and Emmanuel had agreed, continuing to allow them to seep into sectors of the Empire, particularly those of the Keepers of The Golden Age. Rot infesting and accumulating more rot, allowing for the entire mess to be collected and thrown out all at once, instead of needing several efforts, which would just splinter the groups further.
It would have been a marvelous stroke of planning and foresight but it was, at least partially, ruined by the efforts of his current Ascenders.
It wasn’t just Matt, though his contribution was outsized, but all of them working together which jumbled the future and bent it to their will.
If Matt hadn’t been so selfless with his releasing of the aura rifts creation method, Nardo da Molin’s Concept wouldn’t have shattered, allowing him to finally confront his past and see the error of his thinking. If they had confronted the version of Nardo who didn’t have his Aspect and his way out of the Realm to avoid the consequences of his actions, he would have never turned on any of the societies, let alone his.
If Allie hadn’t been able to teleport the group across the Empire effortlessly, they would have been too late to even talk to Nardo, and would have missed out on the opportunity altogether.
If Liz hadn’t had the group pause as Nardo was reveling in the success of his Aspect’s creation, he would have Ascended before anyone could have stopped him, just wanting to leave before being confronted with an ill-spent lifetime's consequences.
If Aster hadn’t stopped Nardo for selfless reasons, he wouldn’t have subtly updated the information he passed on to contain the secret of Marquess Galip being a traitor, along with a few other key secrets of the Keepers of The Golden Age.
So many things had to go just the right way for Nardo to truly turn on his society so deeply. But they had, and so he had.
Which left Emmanuel surprised and amused.
Even Aunt Helen had gotten her dream of wholly repairing her Concept almost a full five years earlier than she, or he, had originally thought possible. The woman of the hour was now enjoying invites from everyone who was anyone, including a particular bird who still had a clone dancing on the border even after she had thanked him personally. But Emmanuel simply wished her well. She, if anyone, deserved to celebrate so much hard work.
Though he was really going to have to chase away that pigeon if he didn’t leave the border. It might be innocent in nature but having a Tier 50 so close to his space did not put Emmanuel in a pleasant mood.
Now he had to pivot his plans on the fly, but that was… workable.
The old dynasty would retreat into the shadows again. There were good odds they failed and their ploys were dragged into the light, but there was a thread of hope for them in the current iterations he had seen, though it was temporary. Even if they managed it, he would root them out when the inevitable true war happened, if it didn’t happen before that.
The odds were in flux, and with a Tier 46, particularly her, leading the effort, there was a good bit of uncertainty in the predictions, even without everything else being in such turmoil.
Either way, it would be fine. His father had already made ample preparation and he hadn’t slacked on his own.
This generation of Ascenders might just clear out the worst of the societies themselves, even if they didn’t take out the festering remnants of the old dynasty at the same time.
Emmanuel had originally planned on using that source of conflict a few more times, but as things were escalating, that seemed unlikely.
Executions, at least state done ones, were like celebrations, and that was reflected in the atmosphere simmering in the Capital. Every noble who could make it to the Capital in time did so, and that led to parties and celebrations, as people wanted to mingle and feel good about the triumph. Even if they hadn’t done anything.
Amusingly, his Ascenders, the cause of the event, were intending to arrive late, but a quick message solved that.
He didn’t order them to arrive early because of his future sight showing him anything, but because he wanted them to enjoy the celebrations. That, and if his plans were going to be ruined because of them, he was going to make them suffer a tiny bit in return.
A little harmless fun. The societies were too busy burning anything they thought might be compromised so the children would make no more progress on that front for a while. And given what he saw for the cabal’s eventual return strike, they could use the celebration.
Still, there was time.
On the scheduled day of the execution, the Capital bustled as people jockeyed to get a glimpse of the now-revealed Marquess Galip.
Personally, Emmanuel would have preferred to keep an execution quieter and more lowkey, but he had seen the old dynasty’s way of ruling and its consequences better than most.
When he fell off the Path and his father started preparing him to take on the burden of the throne, he had been forced to review every piece of media they had about the old dynasty. From documentaries about specific issues, diaries of the commoner serfs, to firsthand accounts from people of all walks of life who were still alive.
The old dynasty deserved to be eradicated, and so he’d allow the public to vent.
He was hardly present as he went through the initial motions, instead working on all of the paperwork he had missed while he was busy. But when the moment came, he brought his full attention to Galip as he changed his Talent set.
“Do you have any last words you wish to say?”
Galip glared up at him, venom in his gaze. “One day your dynasty will fall just like th—”
Emmanuel cut him off with a pulse that disrupted his brain enough to stop the words from forming, but without harming him. It wouldn't do to allow him to invoke the name and call her attention to them. It was almost a clever idea, but one that Emmanuel was long prepared for, and it would ruin some of his preparations, and some of his future fun, if she knew he could block her Talent.
Besides, he didn’t want her getting such an intimate glimpse of the proceedings. Better to let her stew on it all with only carefully curated recordings to satisfy her.
Leaning down, he spoke so only Galip could hear him, letting a hint of theatrics slip into his voice. “Don’t bother with your games. I already know it all. I know how the second one made you back out of every room facing them or they would attack you. I know how the fourth one made you serve in those outfits. I know that the first prefers orange juice to grape juice. I know she still burns with indignation that her brother was chosen to take over the throne instead of her, and then lost it all. I know it all. Now, any last words?”
He wasn’t intentionally cruel to just be cruel. Emmanuel wanted to ensure he got everything out of the man before he killed him and the Talent combination he was using was better with strong emotions and wandering thoughts.
Galip’s mouth moved before he croaked out one word. “Why?”
Emmanuel wanted to roll his eyes, but instead smiled. “A bogeyman is useful, but do you know what is more useful than something that goes bump in the night? The hero who slew said bogeyman.”
That proved to be the right thing to say, and his Talent combination was able to dig deep into Galip’s history, getting around the barriers she had created to ward off Georgios’ Talents.
Being used as a known stepping stone must have been a more prevalent fear in the man's mind than Emmanuel had expected, or possibly even the old dynasty loyalists as a whole, given the rush of information he received.
Standing, Emmanuel made the kill clean, disintegrating the man's brain faster than he could process, all while talking about the glory of the Empire and the Sophron dynasty.
When all of the Royals confirmed the burst of essence that signified the traitor's death, Emmanuel waved a hand and disintegrated the rest of the body.
Turning to his Ascenders, old and new alike, he smiled. “Well, haven’t you been busy?”
***
Melinda sat in the grass of the estate she and Mathew had been given once it became clear that finishing her Intent wouldn’t quite be as easy as she had hoped.
As the door to the courtyard opened and Mathew walked out carrying a tray of snacks, she smiled up at him. “Thank you.”
She wasn’t particularly hungry, but she knew if she didn’t eat now, she’d get distracted and find herself ravenous. But her husband always knew what she needed when she needed it. She refused to do the modifications that made her desire for food completely go away, instead opting for the one that turned it off for a set amount of time. But even then, she hated doing it. Eating was part of what kept her grounded to herself and to life itself.
Sitting next to each other, they watched as Palustris rotated above them.
Poking her husband, she asked, “What are you thinking?”
Mathew took a few seconds to chew as he thought before he responded. “Just considering life. Ours and others. A few hours ago I was hanging out with Matt, when bam! They’re off capturing traitors and making Tier 45s ascend. I know they are important figures, but sometimes it takes me out of it when it happens right in front of us.” His gaze turned strange as he added, “And even you. You’re being groomed to become one of the Empire's leading healers. It's just not where I thought we would be when we were younger.”
Looking into his face, Melinda tried to figure out if he was worried about them as a couple. Things weren’t always easy with the expectations the Empire put on her, but her main priority was her family.
Sure, she didn’t get to see the others quite as much as she’d like. Allie offered and did teleport her or them when asked, but it wasn’t the same, as none of them wanted to really lean on her. Allie never complained about helping them out, but Melinda knew the teleporter really truly hated to be taken for granted, and the others just weren’t familiar enough with her to feel comfortable to ask her unless it was important.
At least Mathew was generally kept near her and given rift slots when she was busy, when he himself wasn’t busy running his training hall.
He was actually Tier 24 and equipped with an Intent, ready to step through that barrier whenever she was, but he was willing to wait for her.
She considered trying to get him to advance further once more, but suspected it would be a futile effort, even with her making appreciable progress on her Intent.
Melinda well knew the Empire, or rather Moon, would be shoving her into another cleared out Tier 47 rift the moment she completed her Intent so she could pack as much medical advancement into her spirit as was possible, and she was not looking forward to the extended time again.
She couldn’t deny its usefulness, but it was brutal work that drained her.
Hopefully, she could argue for a slower pace to Tier 25. She knew the Emperor was hoping her Tier 25 Talent could heal spiritual damage, and was in a bit of a rush to find out without ruining her Tier 3. It wasn’t that she didn’t agree and didn’t want to reach Tier 25 herself, but she doubted her Talent would be so convenient.
The more she learned about overhealth, and her Talent in particular, the more she learned that it was about reading a person's spirit to heal the body, rather than interacting with the spirit itself.
A pity, but Melinda secretly relished the idea of a limit to her Talent.
She was constantly surrounded by great healers who were astounded by what she could accomplish, but the reality was they weren't impressed with what she could do, just her Talent. She wanted to heal, she liked healing, and she was grateful that her Talent let her do more with less. But she also wanted to show her own abilities.
She was a damn good healer. She had not only pushed her Talent, she had learned every skill that could be expected of a healer ten Tiers higher than her. Yet it was often overlooked or just entirely unneeded because of her Talent.
And so, a part of her wanted her Talent to be something else less perfect.
Melinda wouldn’t be mad if her Talent ended up being spiritual healing, but she wouldn’t be upset if it didn’t either.
Still, she kept that part to herself, knowing how selfish that desire was.
Even just the unfortunates Matt had sent her medical records of could use the help, let alone the countless others who had spiritual damage they either couldn’t heal or would take hundreds or thousands of years to repair on its own.
That had been a bit of an eye opening experience, even beyond the inspiration to her Domain, but seeing the reports of the other healers and their results had been inspiring. And once her Intent was created, she intended to leverage her efforts in the direction of less direct spiritual damage.
Still, none of that answered Mathew’s concerns. “I don’t think it's a bad thing. We are friends with them despite them being, well, Ascenders.”
Mathew nodded. “I just sometimes feel like we can’t repay what they give us. I know the arguments about it being easy or not costly for them, but I still feel bad sometimes. I know it doesn't make sense and they don’t see it that way, but any time I hang out with them I can’t help but feel they are wasting their time doing so, and could be doing something more important. It’s dumb but I… I just. Ugh.”
Melinda understood, as Mathew had said such things before, but she didn’t see it that way. Matt, Liz, and Aster, let alone Allie, Zack, Susanne, and everyone else of higher station than themselves, were their friends because they still treated them like normal people, despite their status. Mathew tried to understand, but having not really lived with that experience, didn’t realize just how valuable that was.
She deeply understood, but that might be part of the problem.
Rubbing his arm, she prompted him on one of the ideas he had been bandying about.
“What about your idea to expand the training hall with a skill creation branch? Dedicated trainers help a ton over self-study. At a minimum, the time savings are valuable for the kids and you might discover something yourself. How cool would that be if people started using a skill upgrade path thingy that you yourself made?”
Mathew shook his head slightly.
“I have b—”
Melinda knew what he was going to say and shoved her head into his broad chest, groaning playfully.
“Please don’t say you're not good enough.”
Laughing, he let himself fall to the ground where they were able to cuddle.
After considering her words, she said, “You're underselling yourself, honey. I won’t force it, but I really think you ought to pursue it.”
Mathew sighed. “Love, I know it's impressive I made all five skills in just seven years, but that's not the fastest. It's decent, but there are thousands of decent people with the new skills. Why do they need me to throw my hat into the ring? It’s better I keep quiet and ensure there is more space for the truly exceptional.”
Sitting up, Melinda gave Mathew a hard look. “Stop selling yourself short. I want you to go for it. I—” he opened his mouth to interrupt her, but she put a finger to his lips so she could finish. “You’ve gotten in your own head. I need you to trust me and just go for it. You have a lot to offer if you would just try. You don’t need to be the best, that's not what the people you help need. They just need help, and you are head and shoulders above that standard.”
Seeing him force out a grin, Melinda retracted her finger to replace it with a quick peck.
“Maybe you are right. I just sometimes feel like I’m out of my depth, you know?”
Melinda blew a raspberry on his neck, causing him to squirm. “Yes, doofus. I do know the feeling. And if you’d open up to Matt and the others, I’m sure they’d say the exact same things.”
“They would jus—” stopping, Mathew caught himself. “I’m doing it again aren't I?”
“Yes, but you are learning.”
“Maybe I should expand the school. I do think the skills will be impactful. Even now they are making waves, but I think it's only the beginning. In another hundred years I think things will really start to change, and I can’t even predict what low level delving will look like past that.”
Poking him in the rib, Melinda encouraged him more. “Then rise with the tide. Push the limits and then maybe you can even teach the guild something about the skills.”
Mathew cackled at the idea. “Now that would be funny. Could you imagine Matt’s face if I was giving a lecture on the skills when he came back.”
Together, they relaxed for a few more hours before she had to go back to working on her Anchor.
Her vain hope that she’d just run into the perfect monster or something like that hadn’t panned out.
All of the monsters felt partially right, but none of them were perfect, which told her she was once more close to the right idea, but not quite there yet. With that in mind, she had recently been considering different Anchors.
Her current idea was a seed that blossomed into whatever she needed, but it still wasn’t quite right.
The second half of the idea, her Anchor being malleable, felt right. But the first half, the seed, was only close— not exactly what she needed.
Flying down to Palustris and donning a mask to conceal her identity, she visited random seed and flower shops, just trying to see if any of the new stock called to her. But despite visiting over fifty shops, nothing clicked.
She contemplated visiting Aster’s capital, weighing the discomfort of the architectural designs the Federation had made with her effort levels.
Eventually, she forced herself forward.
Aster’s capital was objectively fine, and neighboring Palustris, as well as five other Empire worlds, was leading to distinct changes, even less than a hundred or so years into the integration process. But everything still felt slightly alien.
Making her way to a local flower shop, she was distracted by a small healing clinic with half a dozen people inside waiting to be seen.
Unable to stop herself, she entered the clinic and stepped into the back, waiting for the healer, a Tier 8, to finish with their current patient before introducing herself.
She was looked at with suspicion, as she didn’t show her Tier or real identity, but rather one of the many false healing identities she had, not wanting to get too entangled.
After proving she was competent and able to prescribe the proper medicine to a father and his daughter who had both come down with a variation of whooping cough that had lingered for two months already, she was given leave to see patients so long as she ran her diagnosis through the healer.
Internally amused, she didn’t complain and just fell into the rhythm of being a local healer.
It was nice. She wouldn’t say she preferred it, but she didn’t mind it. Hospital work was frantic, with something new every day as injuries and rare cases were sent to them, which kept things interesting. But it was sometimes nice to just help people by prescribing a new diet, suggesting a new workout regime that would be less impactful on their aging joints, or just walking a young teen through the embarrassing facts of puberty and how best to handle all that was coming.
While she wanted to be able to heal the worst of the injuries, this was also an important part of being a healer.
When the backlog was cleared up, she quietly slipped out, looking while she went to check a few flower stores.
In her walk, she paused as her gaze was caught by one of the Federation playground devices. Someone had gathered a tube of algae that absorbed sunlight and released it at night for a soft but inviting glow.
She had considered algae before and discarded the idea, but seeing the functional art piece, she reconsidered.
Still not perfect, she continued on until her eyes were drawn to the small expansion joints in the sidewalk, where small amounts of life thrived even under the feet of thousands. A few hardy grasses, but mainly the fungi and mosses.
Both were part of the ecosystem just as much as flowers and trees.
Why should she choose?
She wanted life, not a specific kind of life. She had seen the many things life could form from death in the rifts Matt was kind enough to build, but it was as varied as the real world.
Maybe her answer was as simple as that?
Life was life and propagated and spread in all manner of ways and forms.
Stepping to the side, she held out her hand and pictured a seed— not a particular seed, but a generic one, the idea of a seed, which could birth anything from a creeping moss to a towering tree.
Melinda didn’t instantly form her Anchor, but she felt—no, she knew— that she was on the right path.
It was now just a matter of time and effort.
She had never been afraid of those though.
***
After chapter author note. Originally there was a third POV slated for this chapter but it was over 4.5k words itself and so became its own chapter. I'll see you all on the 11th.
Comments
KnightRider007
One good thing (among many!) about this series is how often the need for therapy gets mentioned and normalised.
nicholaus perry
Just had a thought about Manny’s foresight. Why doesn’t he use it to find out what the Minkala layout was going to be? Wouldn’t that be a huge advantage for the Empire?
Julie Smith
Nice end to the book. I don't recall having Melinda's POV before. She's had her own pressures and problems. I'm glad to see her moving along.
TwoMoreYears
As always I love seeing the Manny POV. Definitely a great way to set the tone of where we are. Definitely enjoying this phase of the story, seeing the characters grow I to their place in the Empire and Realm. It was really nice to see Cameron, while I know there’s only so many small arcs like cosmind you can fit into one book, but seeing Asters college best friend reminded me how much I enjoy seeing people who see important to Matt/lizz/aster show up from time and have them hang out like in the real world. One of the things I’ve loved seeing is lately is the seamless foreshadowing of important moments to come. Dropping the line about the next generation of ascenders made me realize that they’re likely on the horizon in the relatively near future. I imagine it will be when the gang is in the tier 30s but it’s just one example of all of the very cool storylines I feel we’re getting. If I were a betting man, I’d even bet that the next ascender will have used one of Matt’s skill trainers or something derived from it. That was a very long way of saying I loved this book and look forward to the next.
Matt Brown
As a person named Matt I appreciate how there are multiple people with that name in the book and how it’s addressed. I’ve rarely been with a group of people where I don’t have the same name as someone else and one of us is either called Matthew or addressed as our last name
Leander
End of this current book. Next Friday will be the start of the next one. That chapter will be another alt pov.
DowagerOfVeils
It's the end of the book, not the series, yeah. Mantis ends each book with a Manny PoV
Paul West
So I am a recent addition to this sub. This is the end of the book not the series right?
Sean Shivers
is the 4.5 k 3rd pov chapter the start of the new book? Maybe i misunderstood, i thought it was this week.
Desidia
Are we going to find out what Emperor Emmanuel was doing?
C_Mantis
Fixed ty
C_Mantis
Thats clever and I didnt think of that.
Trevor Mergen
Thanks!
Xarow
Thanks for the chapter. “people wanted to mingle and felt good about the triumph. “ Should this be ‘feel’ rather than felt?
Zed
the ending was nice but i was expecting something like stem cell / cancer like how any cell can be anything with a mutation just like how rifts can change.
john smith
Oh THATS what the pigeon was about! Thank you I was so confused. Slightly difficult to keep up with so much varied info.
Etoyrt
This chapter is I think a good look at an important truth of the realm again: Tier 50s are at the top definitively. It is incredibly rare for there to be any sense in which someone is overall greater than a Tier 50. They have the most impact on the state of the realm as individuals, even by their mere presence and inaction. Yet, Tier 50s are not better at everything than those under them. Someone can be better than a Tier 50 at things at a Tier way lower than them. Mastering everything is way too difficult, it is practically not done. Enchantments, skills, talents, and domains below Tier 50 can also block a Tier 50 in certain respects. The fact that other Tier 50s exist then also changes the game. With everyone being immortal past Tier 15 and the political machinations of Tier 50s being the background state, the plans of those below that Tier can matter a lot too.
Isiah Debarros
I mean it doesn't affect skills it affects domains
Jonathan Robichaux
Great chapter! But I feel like we were robbed of our first 12k chapter now lol
Rev
Enjoy your vacation/break thanks for the chapter I'm excited for this other POV
Spencer Needler
I’m sad we’re gonna have to wait till the 11th for the Aunt Helen POV chapter
Sean McClain
I wonder if Matt's blended domain where he shuts off active skills (basically turns off magic for a second) messes with future sight, in that it creates blindspots and time perdiction shadows where it's hard to perdict the future with a skill of events immediately afterwards
Alex
He probably WASN'T: 1. Creating a massive stockpile of mana crystals. Manny's mana output will be so much higher when Matt gains a few extra Tiers that going M.I.A now to make a mana stockpile would be an inefficient waste of his time. He also doesn't appear to have been in his Tier 47 Rift base, which is where he'd go if he was just trying to pump out as much mana as possible. 2. Sneaking into the other Great Powers. The Tier 50s can sense anyone who's Tier 46 or above from anywhere in the Realm, and they'd be keeping constant watch on the other Tier 50s to make sure they weren’t going somewhere they shouldn’t. Manny says that he can defeat Tier 50 senses for a little while, but he also says that it's such a pain in the ass that it isn't really worth it, and it would be suspicious on its own if he dropped off the radar for long periods of time, so it's completely implausible that he's been hiding from the other Tier 50s and sneaking around in their back yards for as long as he's been gone.
Ves
Wonderful chapter 🙏
Adam
Do we know what Manny was doing while away?
C_Mantis
There shouldn't be. I was talking about a yet unmamed HER. (but I could have messed up but im pretty sure I didnt)
Alex
I think Virgil was the one who said plans within plans when Manny reveals that the Empire’s ‘unethical experimentation with mortal populations’ was a setup to divert attention and make the other GP’s waste resources. Virgil’s also a paranoid lunatic who massively overvalues future sight because she’s constantly expecting betrayal, so she probably thinks that anyone who has future sight would be a Machiavellian manipulator because that’s what she’d be if she had that Talent (I mean she already is a Machiavellian manipulator without even having the right Talents for it).
Quixotic
Galip's gender flips back and forth.
C_Mantis
It sure is. But hes comparing himself to people who had it at less then 200 where in lies the problem. Comparison is the theft of joy.
Tyler Owens
It might just make her aware but I’m all for speculating how it works
Tyler Owens
Plans within plans within plans, Aofie (clans T50) was spot on. It also shows how much of a multiplier Matt’s talent is to already powerful people with Manny able to spam futuresite
MikeL
I can understand that Matthew is overwhelmed by his more successful friends. But he actually has his Intent already. That is truly impressive, before Melinda even. Isn’t less than a 1000 years considered great?
A Flashy BR
Tyftc so excited for the new book
Havokk
great chapter and Im really happy to see Aunt Helen getting all the celebrations she deserves. And the thought of JR having a clone just doing a happy dance because Aunt Helen thanks him is as unsurprising as it is smile inducing lol. I love that Manny aint even mad at the Ascenders tossing a lot of his plans away instead he seems happy for the excitement. Yay to seeing Mathew and Melinda again hopefully we will get an update on the rest of their friends soon. And it would be fantastic to see how the training hall has developed as well as how much it has impacted Lily
Alex
A Talent that lets a person utilize the senses of anyone who invokes their name? Not a bad power for a tyrant. Edit: Bet if she had of been Empress should would have required people to say a pledge of allegiance which included her name at least once a day.
James Skinner
Thanks for the book!
C_Mantis
He brought a pretty rock!
Ray S.
Anyone want to bet that the third pov was a certain bird as he hilariously bumbles around ineptly trying to court Aunt Hellen.
Domy
Thanks guys enjoy the time off
Ryan Berends
Thanks for the chapter and see ya on the 11th!
Aiden Bishop
Thanks for the chapter!
Kasamuri
Thanks for the chapter
nolan saylor
Thanks Mantis! Thanks Dae! Kinda fun to see quantity beat the Quality of a T50. Manny not able to outmuscle the change in fates of trillions of lower tiered people having a new chance at life. OOOH! "Next generation of Empire Ascenders?!!" -I wonder if we'll ever see MAL letting something pass as it will help younger people strive against something. Maybe a Pather, maybe their own kid. -Janet was right, Manny sees everything and Georgois totally planned DW. ;) A sister... you have a sister. Obi Wan was wise to hide her. Sorry, wrong story. I am curious to see how this younger sister will play into the story. Maybe they will be the power that arises to take the place of the Feds? Or they at least show how a group may exist to replace the Feds. More confirmation Nardo was genuine. I do enjoy some karma occurring. Good people getting good in turn, and the occasional douche getting what they deserve. I'm sorta rooting for JR and Helen. He may be a bit greedy, but they just seem a fun pairing. The old Dynasty seems almost useful. A whetstone for the Ascenders, old and new! As well as a smokescreen for what is happening with Matt's mana. Maybe encouraging the other GPs to let the Empire, seemingly, weaken itself with its own fallen faction. Maybe let Harper practice some assassinations. oof, a return strike already planned. Allowing the execution to be a celebration also works as a moral blow. Encouraging any younglings see the old dying as a good thing. Making the old pretend to celebrate their own defeat for any outside observers. A hint at a Talent. Maybe even a useful Talent... one that Manny probably has. Multiple people or multiple heads? Hail Hydra? (I still want a hail element hydra) Congrats on Matthew already having an Intent. Melinda should chat with Matt more, he understands how it feels to be valued for their Talent more than their talents. Though Matt has worked to overcome that by being an Ascender. So maybe not perfect. Needing therapy sucks, but needing it and not getting it sucks worse. A less exciting anchor, but still fun. A fun chapter even if we apparently missed a third PoV. I'm curious of who. The Cabal or a GP leader are options, but I am curious if that would've been our intro to the Former Emperor's sister.
