Asheron's Fall: The Power of Ten, Book Six

“Worse. Who are the people who are going to own the most and most potent magical gear?” I asked Princess Kristie Rantha.

“Ah.” That said a lot. “And they all die at basically the same moment...” Kris trailed off.

“Leaving only the weakest and most under-geared people alive, who are the least likely to survive the other effects of the tragedy.”

“So, why would they all wind up in the same spot? Some sort of Teleport Contingency?” she hazarded.

“It would play to the high magic vibe. Also, this is basically a rural town of overgrown farmland and orchards. Having a Teleport tie here probably means family in the area. If they have larger and more populous cities...”

“The number of dead there could be vastly higher,” she agreed slowly. “Which we won’t find out until we find said locations.”

“And if the olthoi and the shades are any indication, sticking around in these areas when all the elites of your population are dead was just not possible. Those who didn’t want to fight would be forced to, and the leveling grind re-started.”

“Without all the infrastructure to support magic use. I noticed you have no non-scarab components here, and I didn’t see any in the two mage’s buildings.”

I just nodded. “Scanned for both, saw none. It’s why I’m getting No Components active on the Isparian side. All the non-scarab components are ‘cheap’. I should be able to do without them, once I have the proper formulas.”

“Proper? You are only at Silver?” She held up a Gold scarab tellingly.

“Note the utter lack of tapers there to discover my patterns.” I looked away as Mira hurriedly brought up memories of her own in my Visual File, and mentally sighed in relief as they materialized in eidetic glory there. “I can recall the Twelve-Twelve Codex combinations, once I have the anchor tapers.” Those combinations of tapers being in Item Magic, considered the most basic of all the magicks. “But I need those core colors, and I didn’t have the Gold scarabs, except for those on the Disk there.”

“And these Crystal ones?” she asked, lifting up the most plentiful of them.

“I actually don’t know. You might not be able to feel it, but those have internal resonances six layers deep. I think they’ll work with the first six levels of Isparian magic, with those Air Gold scarabs forming the sixth, after Gold. I think the Platinum scarabs are for the seventh. Also, I believe they advanced the entire spellcasting structure to use copies of that one broken taper there.”

She reached out and plucked up one of the crystalline things, wound through with many multicolored veins within, turning it around and inspecting it.

“This... subs for ALL the other components?” she asked doubtfully.

“If I can do it with a Feat, certainly it could be done with advanced alchemy, right?”

“Magical infrastructure. I note I didn’t see any more of these, and you only have a broken one.”

“It’s like they were extremely valuable and everything possible was taken away.”

“So, I presume you detected the scarabs with the coins, and they were buried or otherwise concealed?”

“Most of them came off what I presumed were fertilizing corpses inside, but yes.”

She set the broken thing down. “That taper and the Crystal and Air Gold scarabs alone would absolutely revolutionize magic back on Ispar, Ryin.”

“Yes. Given time, I can probably duplicate them, too. My problem will mostly be raw materials.”

“Indeed.” Gathering the raw materials for magical use was basically a whole industry back home, and I doubted it had been much different here. “It would put a lot of people out of work, too.” Just the talisman-carving alone no longer being needed would destroy generations of families who specialized in making them. They’d only be needed for discovery Casting, finding the taper combinations, and then you’d only use them in classes to better understand how the magic worked.

“Isn’t there an advantage to working with components?” she asked me.

I thought that over, Mira also thinking on the subject, but having no point of reference. “Matrix Casting allows for extraordinary components to add to the magic. Holy Water and the Alchemical Fire stuff, for instance.” Mira promptly goggled at such basic things actually existing and enhancing magic. “So, my guess is yes, but I don’t know how much, and such things typically involve 100% consumption of the components, if they aren’t a simple enhanced Focus or something.”

“And you can’t afford to be so liberal with your components, I presume.”

“I have what I have, and it isn’t much,” I confirmed.

“How much longer on your Metas?” she asked calmly, clearly far more patient than most people would believe.

“Two hours.”

“And then, your Rep Counts for-?”

“Siegework and Reserves, particularly Detects for the one and Healing for the other, although I think having a combat Reserve could feed my mana pool in place of Cantrips, and at a much faster rate!” Anything and everything to not have to use up Valences!

Her smile bloomed again. “You will need someone to heal!” she exclaimed brightly.

“I’ve heard meat shields are extraordinary at the duty,” I replied wisely.

“Not if the local Summons continue to be so weak!” she muttered. “I suppose I can let them hit me...”

“Crystal Shield training when you need it the most!” I supported her decision with blasé encouragement.

“Damn, this is strange talking shop with someone who isn’t family!” she muttered, shaking her head.

“Strange is running into a template-clone of someone in my copied memories on a random world out in the arse-end of Creation in a whole different multiverse, as I understand things!” I rolled my eyes. “The Hag Curse must be freaking everywhere...”

“Can’t speak for it,” Kris just grinned. “If there were Hags on Ispar, they kept themselves hidden. Maybe on other continents.”

I thought about that. There were always stories about magical crones and witches and the like, but in a world with mages, those were just descriptions of despised female Casters...

“Huh. You know Nuhmudira and her daughter were Milantians, right?”

“Of course, that’s...” she trailed off, going after that chain of thought. “You know, Mom didn’t really know a whole damn lot about them islands, and they have a really nasty recurring rep about delving into dark arts.”

“I am now interested in seeing if there’s a Hag bloodline in that bitch’s ancestry.”

Dazzlingly wide and savage double canines gleamed. “Me, too. If she’s here, we’ll track her down. How are you going to regain your spells, assuming you don’t get a huge number of them by default?”

“I can access the whole cleric list one by one as soon as I get Mystic Theurgy going. Otherwise, hitting Five and getting Exemplar Surge means I can grab one spell a day from memory, every day, of the Valence it is Cast at or lower. It starts at III.”

“Another time-dependent thing, slowing down my wild and crazy exploration of the world just so I have a mage to drag around with me!” She shook her black-nailed fist at me. “Hurry up and Level!”

“I’m already four Masteries in arrears, given the Levels I’m taking. It’s just going to get worse the longer I delay taking them.”

“Ugh. Karmic efficiency. Do we really have to worry about it with potentially unlimited Summons supplying lots of Karma?” she asked rhetorically.

“Are we in so much of a hurry as to ignore it?” was my reply. “I will always have things to do for my downtime. Are you so confident that you don’t?”

She crossed her arms, frowned, and looked away. “Ahhhh, up yours. You know how much crafting I should be getting done. I went through with only Quaver with me, just so I wouldn’t disrupt the Portal even more. I’ve got a ton of stuff to make up, sure.”

“But you need raw materials,” I noted.

“And tools,” she agreed.

“Limited to Rune Weapons and Armor?” I asked her.

She gave me a look both smug and annoyed. “Looking for a decent Implement?” she asked knowingly. “I can work in metals black and white, leather, and wood.”

“You can’t Name an Implement unless it’s at least Masterwork. I’m already three days behind!” was my response.

“Can’t argue with that. Just need to get some tools and raw materials,” she half-smiled.

I had to sigh. “I have three Ranks in Woodcarver, but only one knife to do the work, and I’d have to find the wood,” I admitted.

“Isparian Magic does not work through traditional staves,” she reminded me, not that I needed it.

“Isparians aren’t familiar with Wand Chambers.”

She blinked at the casual rebuke, then rolled her eyes. “Riiiiight. Nice workaround.”

“Magic is different here, but add a little Chaos, and you can still stretch the rules,” I grinned impishly. “I really want a proper Staff and Stave, thank you!”

“Wasn’t the ideal a Staff with a Wand Chamber, a Cap, and an Orb on that Cap?” she remembered.

“Indeed it was. Still is, actually. We still haven’t worked how to tie a Tome to it without looking quite ridiculous and really compromising its weapon integrity.”

Isparian Magic was centered on wielding Wands and Orbs. There were rare Tomes rumored to serve as Implements, but Mari had never personally seen one, and they were likely unique. The idea that I could actually make one of them was surprising her again!

So was the fact I could take a full Staff and make it a Casting Implement!

“Actually, much of the no-staves problem is cultural, rather than actual. I can’t remember anything of Isparian Artifice that denies Staves. Staves are simply big, clumsy, and not easily wearable in polite society. That just fed across as carrying a weapon when you needed a weapon, and a more discreet Wand or Orb if you needed to Cast.”

Kris rubbed her forehead. “That makes too much sense. Quit being reasonable and let me mock our inferior magical traditions alone, thank you.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” I drawled back, and she just grinned again.

“Just remember I was born before I became royalty, so its Princess by conquest, not inheritance!” she reminded me sternly.

“I’m sure if I run into any Aluvians, they’ll be skeptical just the same. The idea that there is someone above a High King will just irritate whatever remnants of national pride that remain here.”

“NO clan politics!” She jabbed a warning finger at me. “NONE! I don’t want to hear it!” she ordered.

I smirked and continued with my Rep Counts.