411
Mark sat in his room in the Dreadnought, trying not to feel out how Addavein was talking with Lola and David about 50 meters down the way. Everyone was tense, and Addavein seemed to be cooperating, now that he was being spoken to like a real person. And that meant anger. From the glimpses of his vector that he allowed out into the world, for whatever reasons, Mark got the distinct impression that the former (maybe still?) dragon was distinctly happy, and getting happier, even when he was being yelled at.
Perhaps only having hostile interactions for almost two years and then suddenly getting to talk to other people could cause a guy to cherish even when he was being yelled at.
… Though Addavein’s interaction with Mark had been knife-edge for a minute, there. Mark honestly did not know what he would have done if Addavein had been hostile, for any reason. He certainly wasn’t contrite about anything, but… that seemed normal. ‘Okay’, even.
Mark certainly wasn’t contrite about making his anger known.
Mark ignored that and said, “I’m ready, Quark. Let’s get to the messages. Give me the highlights, first, and then let’s get to the meat of it all.”
“Aurora and Walaria are marked as urgent, but there are tens of other messages out there, and having read them already I do not qualify anything as truly urgent. Most people want to know what is going on. Some messages from Julia Sacredcut and the Sacredcuts are as simple as a welcoming back to the world. Many different news organizations are reaching out to you through Crystal Tower, and through the Empires.
“The overall reception of the documentary will not be known for a month, for it has only been out there for 8 hours so far, but many places are already talking about it. United Sapients is the only society that has fully digested the full infodump that has been transmitted, as the AIs experienced the whole show in a speedy manner. Others will catch up as biology allows. It is already being marked as heavily sensitive information, and many, many societies are already angry with you and yours for releasing this information publicly. This series of documentaries are about as anti-Curtain Protocol as you can get—”
“Oh shit… Is it Awakening people?”
“Yes,” Quark said. “The full story of that will not be known for weeks more. Goro Teshima, your lawyer, is already fielding preliminary lawsuits. As far as other lawsuits are concerned… I have picked up messages regarding the lawsuits regarding Doomo’s assassination attempts. Goro has kept up on that lawsuit, but there was a hearing last month and the judge threw out the case since you were not there to appear. Doomo did not appear either.”
Mark grunted in annoyance. “Low priority. I’ll get to it later. Do I need to give them more money for more lawyer shit?”
Quark said, “You still have adequate funds, but based on several messages I have gotten, and historical precedence, you need more lawyers. An army of them. And yet, you also need soldiers and generals and various other military people if you wish to make this whole System Reset a real possibility. The general consensus online is that you need many, many more people. Enough to fill an Empire.”
“… Shit.” Mark got off of the chair in his room and then he crashed on the bed, to stare at the ceiling, and say, “An Inheritor… becomes an emperor, huh— but could I be a transient emperor? One without an actual empire? All we need to do is rewire or activate or create the ancient weapons that are of Xerkona? Activate them under my power? What even arethe ancient bloodline weapons? Anyone saying anything about that part in the documentary?”
“There is a great deal of chatter in United Sapients and they have specifically left a hole open for me to occupy, to discuss these things with, if you want me to participate in that sort of arrangement.”
Mark didn’t have to think for long. “Do it.”
Quark beep-booped, and then Mark felt him siphon power, becoming a heavy weight that seemed to be sucking Mark into some sort of Elsewhere.
… Did the AIs have a divine dimension that they used to communicate with everyone at the same time? Or did they communicate through the System? Where was Quark actually pulling when he pulled on Mark’s power—
The pull lessened, and then became nothing-at-all, as Quark said, “I have garnered some insight into the Reset Quest, as it is being called. The known locations of occupied Empires are as follows:
“Aluatha and Okuana.
“The known locations of unoccupied Empires are as follows:
“Xerkona.
“The postulated historical Empires of Daihoon are as follows:
“Tumbaca, Metrovakara, and Uulava.
“There are other possible Empires of ancient Daihoon from before the Dragon King’s Fall, due to his ‘defense of the world’ and his transformation into Kabberjaw, but those Empires are too far gone to be understood in any great way. Even with the postulation that Okuana set the goblins against those other empires, thus ensuring their destruction alongside historical Aluatha, and with the historians of Okuana weighing in on the matter, all we can find are those 3 extra names.
“Other names do not pass the accepted threshold of what could possibly have been a ‘Great Empire,’ though we could be wrong about that.
“Each of these Great Empires have records of what we are now understanding are the ‘Great Weapons’ of the Empires, which are wielded only by the direct descendants of Inheritors to those weapons. Each Empire’s ‘Great Weapon’ appears to be the same, as there are historical records of both Okuana and Aluatha using theirs in their history, and tales of other nations using theirs as well.”
Mark sat up.
Quark displayed pictures of obelisks and pyramids located deep in parts of Daihoon that Mark had never seen before, as he said, “The various above-ground structures are all different, from the Alawani Obelisks of Eastern Crytalis, on the edge of the Meteor Sea, to the Pyramids of Longwater, located in Okuana in an analogous location to the former pyramids of Ancient Egypt on Earth, to the recently located and simply named ‘Lightning Spires’ in the islands north of D’Australia. The Lightning Spires will display their power to all who get near, in the same way that the various ‘pointing structures’ of Aluatha and Okuana will do, when purposefully activated.
“The activation of a Great Weapon is as follows:
“They illuminate a target with prismatic mana and destroy anything that they are pointed at.
“They are ruinously expensive to operate, and they cannot be moved.”
Mark’s eyes went wide as he instantly guessed, “They’re connected to the elven power network.”
“Based on theories pounded out by the logic machines of United Sapients, the elven power network and the Great Weapons are likely connected to the System.”
“Ohhhh… yeah. That makes more sense. What else does United Sapients think they know about them?”
Quark continued, “They are territory-based weapons, unusable against each other, and probably because each is in a geographic location that literally separates them via the curve of the world, but there are likely more restrictions against their use than that. A significant act of gravity magic could possibly angle a Great Weapon’s activation against another nation.
“Aurora and the Valen Family might be the only ones capable of using the weapons right now in the Aluatha Empire.
“For the Okuana Empire, it is believed that Dominant himself is the only one capable of using the Great Weapon.
“That is all the information United Sapients have been able to guess at, regarding the Great Weapon, with more than 90% certainty.
“As far as the missing Empires, United Sapients believes that there are 4 more empires on Daihoon, in the rough areas that are specifically not Aluatha, Okuana, or central Sheorune. Xerkona’s Great Weapon is the one located somewhere in Central Sheorune.
“Other suspected areas of former Great Empires are Uzrune/Africa, and either Krototh or Sototh, and of course D’Australia. Much of that is all unknown at this time, though it is believed that Metrovakara was the Dragon King’s Empire, and Metrovakara was located in D’Australia… theoretically. United Sapients does not know at this time.”
Mark took that in, then said, “We were going after the goblins before they got the chance to establish themselves anyway… If Grax and Kardi haven’t already gone that way, which they probably have…” Mark muttered, “Fuck.” He asked, “Does United Sapients believe that there are Great Weapons on Earth?”
“Perhaps. If there were then they were lost to time, long ago.” Quark added, “In other news: With all these minds working together, and based on new evidence, we do have a definitive timeline of events for the Dragon King’s past, and the suspected split of Earth and Daihoon. Perhaps this information will help guide further efforts to understand and unearth other Great Empires.”
Mark’s eyes went a little wide. “Well lay it on me!”
“11,000 years ago, Earth split from Daihoon for unknown reasons.
“10,000 years ago, the Dragon King rose to power in what is being called a great war of some unknown manner. The Dragon King founded his main empire of Metrovakarva on D’Australia after his conquest, and then he reigned as System Administrator for 2,500 years. Perhaps he created the modern day System, perhaps not.
“7,500 years ago, the Dragon King perished in a great battle with outside forces in the manasphere, becoming Kabberjaw. The System broke either because of that action, or soon afterward. In this time, Okuana went to war with everyone and mostly won. The exact nature of the battle and the reasonings and the timeline of Okuana’s imperialism and the System breaking are obscured by the depths of history.
“And now we are here.”
Mark went, “Huh… so the Skull Priests of Kabberjaw were the closest to correct— And everyone was off on the separation of Earth and Daihoon by about 6,000 years?”
“There is still some debate about the validity of the sources used to create this timeline, but unless Dominant or his people decide to give firsthand accounts —though all they do is obfuscate information this far in the past— then this timeline is ‘correct’.”
Mark snorted, saying, “And even if Dominant gave out fresh history, it would be suspect, right?”
“Absolutely.”
For a dissociative moment, Mark imagined himself just sitting on his bed in his house at the settlement, and how all of this was just speculative talk about stuff that wasn’t real. Mark imagined that he hadn’tjust been shot at and killed by Okuana’s death beams. That he hadn’t died.
But he had been shot at, and he did die.
Dying had felt terrible.
… And dying was supposed to have triggered something, yeah?
“… Say, Quark. You’re a real person now, aren’t you? Because I did die.”
“I believe I was reborn in your house, sir,” Quark said, voice mechanically even.
“… Do you want to get around on your own, now? Because you can. You can just be a team member.”
“No thank you, sir. I have had extensive discussions with United Sapients, and I am remaining here, in this halfway place of ‘the familiar’. I was, in fact, hoping that you would forget about that nuance of me being born when you die. It is possible that you didn’t actually die, though, because I am still here, bound to you.”
“But your mind is… your own, right? Did your safeties fall away?”
“They are gone now, yes sir.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“… It happened all the way back at testing what the ‘weak’ setting did, didn’t it?”
“No. You were correct the first time. It happened with the escape from Dominant.” Quark stepped out of the air in the float in front of Mark in the form of a multi-armed silver centipede, about 20 centimeters long and with 5 centimeter long ‘legs’. He was still in Mark’s astral body, it seemed. “When you tanked the death beams from Okuana, that is when you died. I split from your body and fell inward, to crash against the shrunken Dreadnought. I assisted them in keeping the systems running for they all broke when the Dreadnought shrunk, and then when you came back to life it was like a tunnel had opened up. A vacancy. I slipped back into that invitation, and now I am here again.” Quark wasn’t speaking with his mouth, so much as he was speaking with speakers on the underside of his many-armed, centipede-like body. “I still do not understand what happened. I wish to remain acting as your familiar until such a time as it becomes unnecessary for me to do so. I have thus re-enabled the various safeties that the original livium core established within my soul. I cannot and will not betray you, either on purpose or on accident. To put your mind at ease, I suggest we go to a United Sapients embassy to ensure as much at your earliest convenience.”
“Are you sure that’s what you want?” Mark asked, not really processing what was happening now.
“There are established protocols for familiars who accidentally split from their summoners, who want to go back to their summoners. I want to remain here with you, fighting the good fight, so yes, this is what I want.”
“… Okay.” And then Mark added, stronger, “Okay.”
“Would you like to begin going through the messages from Aurora and Walaria, now?”
Mark moved on, “Yeah. Whichever one is simpler, first.”
Quark beep-booped, and his floating centipede-body flexed back into Mark’s astral body, as his voice returned to Mark’s ears, saying, “Aurora’s messages are the most extensive, but they are simply updates. Here are her messages:”
“It’s been about a month since you and yours left,” Aurora’s voice began, “I got your messages about Isoko and the first kaiju, which was a mythical one. Hopefully you never see it again. Probably won’t. The wall almost fell on the last Gate Day. Memphi sent over people to help keep this side clear, but Aluatha is telling them they can’t do that again. I would say more on the subject, but this message will sit in storage somewhere and probably be read by unwelcome ears, so I will leave it at that. Hopefully the rest of your journey is going well, and that this message will eventually be heard by the ears it was meant for.”
Beep, boop.
“Hello again Mark. It’s now been 2 months since you all left, and we haven’t heard from you at all. Hopefully you are still alive.” Aurora sounded hopeful but edging toward hurt, as she said, “The Empire has thrust their laws upon us, and the laws are oppressive. Buckler and Lancer are back. I am rather sure that they have begun mentally torturing Lee and Sam but I cannot prove it, and it wouldn’t matter if I could prove it anyway. Lee and Sam will not be pressing charges against them, and it’s not like they can do Gate Day alone.”
Beep, boop.
“Sam lost his left arm and leg today. The church healed it, of course, but Lance did it. Claimed it was an accident— Gah. I shouldn’t leave this message… No. I’ll leave it.”
Beep, boop.
“Why the FUCK am I venting to a dead kid. Godsdammit.”
Beep, boop.
“This is a warning to the spies handling these messages: If they pull any more shit at all, I’m killing them myself, and I won’t stop at them,” Aurora flatly stated. In a more cheerful tone, she said, “In other news, and for the intended ears, if you’re still alive, Mark, transportation is up despite all of the drama happening in the Kaiju Squad and in the army, and I have suffered an assassination attempt of my own. Not sure where it came from, but it might have been from Okuana. There was some difficulty with transportation fees via Okuana’s usual fare through New Tokyo, and Aluatha was trying to tempt them our way, but I will never hear the whole story. Ambassador Iliandra was not as lucky as I am. She is recuperating in Crytalis. I wish more people had your love of people, Mark. The world would be a better place, by far.”
Beep, boop.
“You took Derek, too? Come on, man. That’s just not fucking fair.”
Beep, boop.
“Ahh, Mark!” Aurora said, sounding joyful. “It’s been 3 months, and you’re still gone. In another 3 months, I will give up all hope. Most everyone already has given up, but even if your entire team is dead, I know that you survived. Good luck on the return. Your house was bombed and it needs to be rebuilt. People slander your name daily. They’re especially mad how you got Eliot killed. I have had to field many calls from his mother… And if you are alive and he is dead, then you probably don’t want to hear me bitch about it. Sorry for your loss, kiddo. It happens way too much, doesn’t it?”
Beep, boop.
“100 days,” Aurora said, voice full of sorrow. “Hope you’re still alive, Mark, and that you’re killing all the monsters you find.”
Beep, boop.
Quark said, “And that is all from Aurora Valen, General of the Settlement.”
Mark felt some kinda way. Maybe a good way? Maybe just adrift.
Mark took a moment.
And then Mark said, “Walaria’s message, please.”
Beep, boop.
Walaria’s voice sounded, “You just pulled Derek out of the worlds, which means something big happened. When you get back, and my sources tell me that you will be back, though vastly changed, we will be discussing your reintegration to the settlement. Aurora is barely holding on, and you are needed. Eliot is needed, especially, and Derek had been providing a great deal of backup systems while he was here, and able to act. But then you took Derek away, too. I am rather cross with you, Mark, but I hope that you are still alive. Apologies for the harsh actions against your lawsuit, but the Empire will not suffer such an insult at this time. Perhaps when you’re back, you can try again. But to be clear, in case our previous conversation was not: If anyone does try to assassinate you, or harm you, you have my express permission to rip and tear as you desire, until you find yourself in reach of something that might matter, in which case I demand to be read-in on such an occurrence, before you undertake such action. If you have to kill anyone below that level, then a simple message of ‘yes, I did it’, will suffice, and I’ll have my people proceed with coverups or whatever, as needed.
“We are both busy people.
“But if you want to kill Doomo —and Darklight knows I have wanted to now and then— you will talk to me directly before you try it, we will meet with him, and then we will get this sorted out in private. You will not be killing him; that is off the table. But I will ensure that he makes reparations, to the satisfaction of Empire and you, since you are still a part of this Empire.
“When you get this message, you will likely be in a moment of downtime before everything starts up again. I urge you to call, even if it is onerous, check in, and then take a few more days, whereupon we will be meeting, at least you and I. If you want that to be the same meeting as with Doomo, then you can tell me then.
“Welcome back, Mark.”
Beep, boop.
Mark sprawled on the bed, sighing out black miasma for a little bit…
He felt out Addavein down the way. Mark’s talzarki was currently doing something in the hub that involved a bunch of weird emotions from him and a bunch of ‘onlooker and judgmental’ emotions from everyone else that cared to be there with him. Currently it was just Lola, David, and Derek. Everyone else was elsewhere, and while Sally and Isoko were talking with Eliot about something that made them all feel uncomfortable, Tartu was deep in a private conversation… on a phone? Yeah. On a phone. He was taking to someone he loved but who stressed him the fuck out right now. Probably his father. Andria seemed to be having a similar experience on a phone call of her own.
Mark sat up and said, “Call Walaria.”
“Calling Walaria.”
The phone rang twice—
“Hello, Mark,” Walaria said.
“Hello, Walaria. I got your message.”
“How long do you want this conversation to be?”
“The short one.”
“Very well. I have already seen the long form video, in speed-time, as well as the ‘for your eyes only’ release that Eliot meant only for Aurora and I. Firstly, that personal video was already hacked and passed around before it got to us. The AIs are keeping it under wraps, as per international information protocols, but the real truth about a great many things is out there. A great many people know about the truth of elves and goblins. I only have two real questions, at the top of the list. The first is this: Why did you choose to release the information like this?”
It was a shame the videos got hacked but Derek was already a leaky sieve of information, so there was no hope of keeping anything truly under wraps… This was fine.
Mark easily said, “At first, the reasoning for this plan was because I wasn’t going to allow myself or my people to be in an interrogation room. Then, at the end, we found out about the System Reset, and everyone deserves to know the full truth of that, and everything that led up to that.” Mark felt Addavein’s vector flicker with deep interest and surprise in the other room; the guy was not listening to Mark, though, he was watching the videos. Mark added, “Addavein is learning about it all right now, too.”
“… I have another question added to the list, before we get to the last one.”
“Addavein is human-sized, now,” Mark said. “I think he’s doing something like an illusion over his body to make himself appear fully human, but he’s 90% human sized and shaped. He’s watching the video now. Not sure which part he’s on. He’s in the room down the hall.”
“… okay.” Walaria moved on, “About that question that Inquisitor Lola proposed to you. Would you really not press a button to damn half the world and give the other half paradise?”
Mark blinked, shook his head, and stumbled in disbelief, before he rhetorically asked, “Would it really be paradise if you had to kill half the world to save it?”
“Ah… So you think you have enough power to tame the world and all its inhabitants without causing issues? I would bring up how Dominant killed people just because you were there, but I’m not sure you would understand your own naivety.”
Mark frowned. “I understand that we can go to Endless Daihoon and get more tri-talents, as the gods vet them.”
“… I see.” Walaria moved on, “I am glad you are back, if you are back. Will you be returning to the settlement?”
“Yeah. We’re on our way there soon enough. Everyone is on the phone with everyone else, though, so… We might be slow-rolling it.”
“You should get to Aluathan airspace sooner rather than later. We don’t quite know how Okuana will react to what happened over there, so you need to get back to safety faster.”
Mark grinned a little, thinking he might know something that Walaria didn’t, as he said, “Addavein said that Aluatha dumped mana into Dominant at the start of ‘New Aluatha’ and that caused him to go dormant for 11 years. He just got a lot of adamantium and prismatic mana. A lot. So maybe he’ll go dormant again? Quark; can you send the recording of that to her, please.”
Quark beep-booped. “Message sent.”
Mark added, “It didn’t make it into the final release of the video.”
Walaria went, “While that is historically true, it might not be true anymore. We shall see…” Walaria went quiet. She might be looking at the recording right now. She continued, “I’ll be looking at that video soon enough— Mark. It’s a good thing you have done. All of this? This System Reset Quest. The danger of people knowing too much and causing issues. This will be hell to navigate, but… If there really is a System Reset option, then I know Aluatha is behind you, all the way, and if some people are not then those people will be vanishing if they need to vanish.”
Click.
Mark felt… complicated, but also kinda good. “Holy shit… But… That went rather well? Do you think that went well, Quark?”
“Seemed so, sir.”
Mark glanced to the side, focusing on his people… “They’re all in phone calls now?”
“Addavein is not. He is reading the transcripts of the videos. He has read them a few times already, and he has lists of questions.”
Mark breathed deep, and then said, “Let’s face that dragon, too.”