Chapter 20-491: Epilogue VI, Part I |
Excerpted from The Last Decade... (which is not in public print yet)
Four years after Shroudbreak...
I came plummeting down the beam of light that had grabbed me as I arrived at the trans-spatial location, one boosted Pyramid’s power handing off to the next with some relief.
Wow, hadn’t this been a journey home. Zvei, huh...
I wanted to scratch my head, but that was kind of hard in mid-Teleport. I plummeted down through dimensions on the Beacon only another Pyramid could see, and felt reality harden around me as I arrived.
There was a pulse of really powerful magic rising up, then dissipating in equal measure as the dimensional velocity was absorbed and neutralized. It also generated a very bright burst of light as the excess quantum-kinetics were converted into light and vented away, basically announcing I was present.
Well, that shouldn’t be a bad thing...
I reached down mentally into the Pyramid beneath me, and nodded as I sighed.
The style and the handiwork were slightly different, but that was easily within allowing for deviations in Matrix conditioning, the local manasphere, and even the stone. It was like I had made this myself, with a touch more whimsy to it, and some extras that didn’t seem that useful right now, but likely had been before, when she’d been hiding it.
Hmm, it would be ready to send me on in a week by itself, unless I got a few hundred Warlocks or something to dump a lot of Wrath into it. It was still a long way to go, basically being on the edge of the Aruan Domain. Logically, I could Planejump up to Heaven, wander somewhere else, and then come back down on Terra-Luna, but that probably wasn’t a good idea, even if it was much faster now that I was truly back in the territory of the Pantheon and not just passing through those of others.
Still, only a week from home. Hop to Pantera from here, using the residual energy of the Death Gate, and then straight home a minute later.
Damn, I so missed my wife and kids. I sighed despite myself as I looked around.
The first thing that struck me was the big shiny hunk of meteoric metals, at least twice the height of this Pyramid, sitting in a crater of its own making over there, with lots of scaffolding, ramps, cranes, and people bustling around it.
Wow, that thing had SO many Energized Elements in it. The value of it... I just gawked at the swirling array of some Really Nice Stuff all melded and molded together on it.
Whatever had coughed that up had lost a LOT. Planetary wars had been fought for less wealth than that big lump of stuff represented!
It also explained the Breaking effect radiating through the Pyramid Power Field: +2-12 damage against objects with any appropriate weapon or tool. It was like granting every pickaxe and hammer the ability to chew through whatever that thing was made of, without having to spend Valences!
Clever...
The area around here was fairly flat and covered in relatively young greenery, disturbed only by the work area around the big E-E blob, the trailer homes of the workers, and the clear river in the distance. I could sense the echo of the Death Gate over yonder, but all that seemed to be left of it were two shining crystalline circles on the ground, fences around and between them with what looked like plaques telling a story.
There was also a lot of /tellepathic activity going on, at the levels of both Allegiances and Marks.
The area was Interdicted except on the Beacon level, but not Stillflighted, so I could get airborne with little trouble. The only thing was... where to go while I bummed around for a week?
Detect Location said I was some miles south of Moscow, but there really wasn’t anything built up to see that wasn’t an extension of the mining camp below, and the new, neatly arranged buildings extending out towards the river.
Einz, my first soulshard, or Traveler as she ended up calling herself, naturally hadn’t been able to give me a complete run-down on what was happening. Key elements, sure, stuff to take back home.
Ah, yes, I was supposed to make sure I met her Warlock, someone named Legion...
There was a flash of dimensional magic at the edge of the Interdiction, several hundred yards away; someone arriving via Teleport. They promptly spread a set of draconic wings forty feet wide, and shot into the air as if gravity and inertia were minor bothers, moving with some hurry-up speed that was very impressive.
The tingle as she drew closer lifted my eyebrows in surprise, as my thoughts started going down side paths that were not totally natural even before I had focused fully upon her.
Skin the color of glossy black ink; a Mask for a face bearing the colors of multiple Pacts, including the silver of a Heavenbound; a mane of silken white hair with rising spiked frills of multiple colors... and dark fox ears and nine silvery-white fox tails streaming behind her? With the figure of an Amazon... and more?
My heart was already starting to pound just watching her approach so swiftly. Everything about her was designed to draw the eye, every curve and play of muscle and leg and hip and, just, wow.
She alighted with the poise and ease of a hummingbird right across from me, kicking up barely the slightest hint of a breeze despite her speed, hooved feet more elegant than any high heels extending to show off legs beyond exquisite as she alighted silently.
I noted she had six eyes of different hues the colors of Warlock Pacts scattered across her forehead. They looked like burning jewels, and they were all very focused on me.
She moved like the most gorgeous incoming avalanche imaginable. There was so much strength radiating off her that all my hackles went on alert despite myself.
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And she was smiling. Sweet Nuava, was that a smile. I was so stunned by it that when she came right up, wrapped me up in arms the Hulk couldn’t have gotten out of, twined her legs about my waist, hugged me VERY close, and planted one on my lips, then my tongue, then down my throat, that all I could do was sit there and take it.
It was about thirty seconds before she was done. The Wrath of Heaven was singing over her, as Pure as my own despite being mixed with so many Pure others, and all my magic was going off in delighted response to it, filling the air with gold and silver and rainbow lights around us.
“Haaaaaaah...” I exhaled long and slow, trying not to taste her on my lips and tongue and throat and skin and everything after she released me. “Please don’t do that again, or I won’t be able to resist.”
She was harder than steel and felt as weightless and soft as gossamer against me. I was also aware her tails were holding me upright, because my legs were ready to give out.
“She said to greet you this way, Master Aelryinth.” I swallowed at her voice... no, their voice. I could tell there were at least ten thousand subvocalizations going on behind every syllable. “You do not disappoint, and you weren’t even trying. That must be the Soul Magic that does not manifest here naturally.”
They had no normal eyes, but the magic whirling on that Mask was more expressive than any eyes to me, and more hypnotic. Her nose was just, just touching mine, the mane of her white hair against that jet skin filling my vision.
“A Hello, Sailor! at +60 at least in the Night Rose. Touch of a nereid. Beauty of a nymph. Glamour of a Fey Queen. Power of an Amazon. Aura of a celestial. Majesty of a dragon. Softness of a sirine, temptation of a succubus...” I swallowed despite myself. “I’m guessing you must be... Legion?”
“Indeed we are.” They made no effort to extricate themselves from me. “And you are Aelryinth of Heaven, the Ringlord, the original soul from which our Lady Traveler was spun off from.”
I could only nod confirmation. “Um, I’m guessing you and she had a special relationship?”
Oh Nuava, what a smile. “Indeed we do. She still Sends to me from time to time, as she does you, when she can Crack the Sky of a Shroud. In time, we will go to her, but we cannot now, as there is still too much to do here.”
“I see.” I went still as strands of her hair reached up, and gently lifted the dark glasses I was wearing away. Her Mask stared at the hollow pits of my eyes and the pinpoints of silver there, and the air dropped one hundred degrees instantly.
“What did this to you?” they demanded, and even more voices were under those words now. It was almost a divine command, and a killing wind started to blow.
Okay, that is a LOT of Charisma...
“Calm,” I stated evenly, and there was only a moment before it all dissipated, gone even faster than it had arrived, and if anything, was even more serene now.
That is also a LOT of emotional control.
“It happened at my eventual destination. I ran across something in astral space mortal eyes should not see, and they turned around and tried to eat me. I had to burn them out. If I regenerate them, they try to do it again,” I explained evenly, having long gotten used to my situation.
They stared at me for a moment longer, then tilted my head down to administer a very chaste kiss on my forehead that nonetheless had my blood singing happily to receive it, and our mutual Wrath sparking off it. They unwound themself from me, not that they seemed to weigh anything, and stepped back to give me space.
They still smiled when I sighed in relief, however, and that Mask was very intent on me. Their hair and tails started to reach out for me, and to my own amusement, had to be snapped back.
“Your Aura is beyond tempting, Master Aelryinth. So much like hers, but without the touch of the Shroud upon it, and even Deeper.” They licked their lips and looked away, folding their arms and tapping their fingers as their cloud of silken hair blocked their sight of me for a moment. “Our apologies for having fun with you. It appears Our Lady was also having fun with us!”
“Were I not a happily married man, I would not be averse to fun at all.”
Their Masked face snapped back at me, biting their lip so enticingly, and they looked away just as sharply. “Well, that is not surprising. We know that we are very difficult to resist!”
“If you’ve got the twenty Ranks in Courtesan for Night Rose that I think you do, in addition to everything else, that is totally by design.”
They partially glanced back, smiling with just a hint of a promise. “Indeed! There are many of us, and we wish to be beautiful, and so we are!” Their hair swirled as if alive, mane and cloak and silken-snowy backdrop, and combined with those tails and those curves, I just had to look away again.
“You’re going to give me a nosebleed if you keep doing that,” I warned them.
“You should be proud to know that you’re the only male we have met who didn’t have one by now.”
I was amused at the thought. “And except for Traveler, I imagine the women, too!”
Their laugh was serene and had fifteen thousand layers to it now, shaking my blood again. “Yes! One could say the most beautiful women in the world call us their favorite lover!”
I just arched an eyebrow. “And the most handsome men?” I had to ask.
“They tend to fall unconscious with nosebleeds, pretty little things that they are. We have to look for other things in our male lovers.”
“Like, not breaking?”
“Yes, which does limit their numbers,” they agreed calmly, seeming to have regained some inner balance. “So, how long do you intend to remain here? We were told that it was not far to... Pentara, we believe?”
“It’s still a full Pyramid jump. It will take a week to power this pile of stone up enough to send me on the way. From Pentara, I can get back home in seconds,” I answered easily.
“Well enough! We think we can keep you occupied.” Oh, the meaning in those words, the sleek poofiness of them tails, and that... ahg. They didn’t have to flirt to flirt. They were all the women at the same time!