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

Our investigations into the buildings revealed that they had indeed been used as shelters after they were abandoned, simply by the locations of nests, abandoned supplies, fires in the wrong spots, crude storage areas, and ruined basic furniture.

The ones that had the most charred and ruined walls and ceilings were the ones that looked to have been defended the most strongly. Alas, without magical reinforcement, the buildings people were fighting in were blown and blasted apart by repeated combinations of Elemental and Force magic in great quantity. There were plenty of scattered bones and blasted remains among such locations, and refuse piles near them.

Notably, none of them were human. Kris even tasted a bunch of them just to make sure. Different bone matter and marrow taste.

At least four different living species had fought over this place and been evicted mercilessly. Kris indicated remains from what looked like a larger version of the mosswarts and banderlings, and the purple-skinned elves, along with an amphibian race like reptilian bipedal frogs that we hadn’t seen examples of.

Assay said the race was called the Burun. No other information forthcoming, except that whoever slaughtered them was stronger than they were.

No sign of whoever said attackers were. That wasn’t comforting, although the best explanation was the shades, whose bodies would naturally decay before their spirits reformed another at a locus, if they could do so.

Regardless, it seemed to have stuck. None of the remains was less than months old.

Still, we sat down in one of the better buildings, with one mostly intact wall and stone foundation, and no major holes blown or burnt into the cellar, and did our downtime.

---

“-behold the New Day!” the Salute to Aru finished, with its gift of vitality and easement of the spirit, combining with the rush of Natural Renewal to gift those who began the day with the dawn with energy and vigor.

And I blinked, and looked at the sun. Devasight meant I could not be blinded by the light, just like Devilsight allowed me to see through darkness and shadows.

“Something is coming...” I said to Kris, who was probably tinking over her own mental levers.

Both of us looked at the ruined buildings all about us. We hadn’t left any tracks to be followed, and the trails left behind by random predators prowling about dominated any that we might have accidentally disturbed.

Princess Kristie Rantha unceremoniously pushed me onto a Disk and booked it for the edge of the town’s southern border. More trees and cover in that direction.

“You can come back if you’re Levitating and Invisible, but we have to get the Disks where they won’t be found,” she said, as we zipped along above the snow, leaving no traces of our passing, save some startled rabbits and mice escaping from us.

Her head inclined slightly as we entered a particular area of the brush, under some of the taller young trees, giving us visual cover from every direction, including above.

“No problem, I want to see what is keeping this place clear.”

“There’s something approaching in the subsonics,” she stated, pulling her raven hair back over a very slightly pointed ear. “A grinding hum.” She looked east. “You picking up anything magical?”

I had lowered the Disks and thrown my mats of interwoven grass over them to make sure they weren’t picked out, completely covered. “Get me to cover along the banks and I’ll see what I can.”

A minute later we were in the scrub along the banks, me Invisible and Levitating so I wasn’t on a towed Disk. Kris was as silent as the wind, seeming to bend and flow with the natural world, such that I forgot that she was there if I wasn’t looking at her.

“Something is indeed bending the magic over there... and it’s at least a PoT Ten in magical power,” I said softly. “Moving at a good clip. I don’t want to get closer... fuck! Null up, full power!” I dodged behind her quickly.

Startled, she nevertheless flared her Null, and my spells all broke under the force, turning me visible and dropping me into the brush.

“The fuck?” she asked calmly as I stayed behind her.

“I’m not looking at them. I need you to carry us away from here, now.” She looked back, to see me with my eyes screwed shut.

She grabbed me up in a princess carry and zipped away, completely unperturbed by the additional weight... and kept her Null up.

“They are going to be coming to investigate the flash of magic. Get a healthy distance,” I said into her ear. She nodded and concentrated on speed and haste.

I could hear the edge of a hum now. I didn’t have the Sublime Chord yet, but something was echoing along the Chords, like a hideously untuned guitar, a discordant hum that was completely alien to this world and reality.

“You’re right. They are getting closer,” Kris ground out, veering gently away.

I reached out mentally and clutched my hand. “I just dispelled the Disks. We’ll have to restack the stuff on them, but they’ll zero right in on the magic otherwise.”

“They can see magic?”

“And me without my anti-divinatory spells.” Which was now priority #1. I closed my eyes and flipped the levers I’d held off for a moment.

Karma to Zeks. Karma to Crown. Karma to Mark. Mira running down the whole list of Isparian stuff, one dot at a time.

Sage Sorcerer to goddamn Five! One Valence III Spell Known, plus Bloodline Spell, plus Favored Class bonus of a II.

Favored Class, grab Non-Detection!

New Valence III Rune Engram, Exemplar Surge!

Take a point of Health! Take a point of Soak! Take a Paid Feat! Take a Paid Mastery! Note to the bright shithead attracting so much dangerous attention that she can now take /3’s!

“Your Aura just popped,” Kris informed me as we spun into heavy brush cover, backing in under the pines and tough winter growth, her taking all the scratches. “What are we dealing with?”

“I didn’t get anything more than a casual glance before the one I was looking at rounded right around on me, sensing my Vatic Gaze. Didn’t get to Assay it,” I reported quietly.

She wasn’t slow. “Aberrant, sensing your Div-sight? That’s bad news.” She had her head tilted, and was listening closely to the hum. “They’ve reached our spotter position. The hum is discordant, but layered harmoniously, as if they are all on the same chaotic pattern.”

“They are some form of magic Elemental wearing constructed suits of metal and white masks. The ones I could make out were levitating in a manner similar to the Disks, although it could have been flight or some form of reality manipulation. Drop your Null enough so I can Cast. I’ve slotted Non-Detection, which should shield me from their passive magic sight.”

The unresponsive magic around me softened up just enough for me to get the Non-Detection off, wrapping me in obfuscation and blankness specifically designed to foil any effects which duplicated Divs of Valence III or less. The blanket senses of a magic-Element Aberrant would fall neatly into that line, although if they went for higher Valences they might be able to sense the spell.

Which is why I Cast it out of a III, so it could defeat IV’s.

I let loose a stored breath, and Cast my Exemplar Surge, grabbing for the Extra Spell Known Feat, which gave those who took it a spell up to the highest Valence I Cast the spell from.

Normally, the choice was permanent, earning a Sorcerer a new spell forever, taken out of limited Feats. For me, this brought forward a spell Aelryinth had known, which I could then immediately Write to the spellbook inside Zeks, while the Feat itself would fade away shortly.

If I tried Casting the spell again, I’d get the same Feat until Natural Renewal. So, one spell a day.

Fly seemed particularly appropriate at this time. It flared into existence, I Wrote it off to my Ringbook, and then deposited it into my Sorcerer III Valences as a temporary Rune Engram.

It was the only result I’d get from the spell until Natural Renewal wiped away the record of it, and the +2 Dexterity in the meantime was just a temporary benefit.

“I’ve got potential Fly on tap, and I’m Warded against their passive sense, but I can’t Cast outside your Null without them potentially sensing the draw on magic. I don’t know the range of their sensitivity.”

“They are buzzing around the town like busy bees right now,” Kris related, her ear cocked. “You can’t hear that?”

“I can feel a discordant thrum on the Chords of magic. Hear, no, below my range,” I said, carefully Casting minor Mana Boosts to regain my mana.

I’d also purchased two Reserve Feats today, instead of a Crafting Boost. Cold and Force Blade Reserves!

Snowcasting meant all my spells were Cold Spells, regardless of anything else, so I had the Reserve Counts in them. So I had the Counts, and now a +1 to my Caster Level for Cold spells basically affected ALL my spells.

Ditto Force Blade Reserve, which I was finally kicking in. The Blade’s bonus to melee damage and ability to change damage types on a whim were highly valued in combat, and it could sit on top of Crown and instantly make it into a spear on demand.

It also gave another +1 Caster Level to all my Force Spells, too, which would boost my Shards further.

The Mastery I took was Lightning Mastery/1, Born of Two Thunders. Apply Lightning and Thunder/Sonic descriptors to any spell, and it cost +1 Valence.

Today I was going to go through five hundred levels of lightning spells, AND I was going to Meta the cost of the Two Thunders down to +0 for I’s, and if I could, II’s.

Tomorrow I was going to take the Lightning Reserve for Bolts, which would generate 5’ per Caster Level bolts for d6/Valence of highest Lightning Spell in memory... and give me +1 Caster Level to all my Lightning Spells… which I could literally turn any spell into for no cost, in time.

Stacking Caster Level modifiers for the win!

Snowcasting was more powerful and cost me nothing, but I could Meta the Two Thunders all the way up to IV’s if I needed to.

I was so behind in my Masteries. There were just so many things I needed to take..!

Well, whatever.

“The Marks are magical, so no telepathy until those things are gone. You’ll be practically invisible to them with your Null, so you should be able to scout them out with no problem. If they even see you, they should think you’re a corpse or a statue or something, totally inert and thus not alive.”

“Well, that’s nice,” she murmured, her violet eyes flashing. “I suppose I get to suss out their weaknesses, too.”

“Killing one will just mean they stick around longer, even if they don’t feel it die.”

“I want to see what vivus does to them.”

I smiled slightly. “Then get moving, and see if they are inspecting the pit. There might still be vivic residue in it.”

“You going to be okay?” she asked me directly.

“I’m going to retreat another mile behind cover and be real discreet about practicing magic. One of them moving through the brush will silence a huge section of the forest and alert me they are coming. I’ll be fine.”

She nodded once, and turned to force her way back out of the brush, the sticks and branches grinding against her skin and leaving not a mark on her or me. I brought my Force Armor and Shield back up, another sacrifice to her Null, and this time, let Mana Renewal replace what I had spent.