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Mark sailed from one talk to the next.
He spoke to Mayor Emilia Ramirez of Memphi again, talking about Mark making a public appearance there in a few days.
He spoke to the City AI of Orange city, Orange, and then Mark had a teleconference in Castle South with some assorted AIs of United Sapients to discuss Quark’s reintegration and the full establishment of his previous guardrails. That discussion took all of 10 minutes, and then Mark got another livium core for Quark to integrate, and that was that. Quark was once again locked behind official familiar guardrails.
Mark did about ten press conferences on the second day of being back, and he wasn’t sure when he slept between day two and day three, but sleep did happen in the rebuilt house, which had a lot of updated security, thanks to Eliot’s true Castellan. Mark ate when he could, but mostly he had a schedule both enforced and requested by Walaria and also Aurora.
When a herd of crocobulls each the size of a small house were spotted meandering down the Shine, toward the settlement, Mark thought he might finally get a break. A time to fight, and let off some steam! Kandon Valen, Aurora’s brother and the overall organizer for the troops of the settlement, had even recalled all teams when the crocobulls came through, which meant the big guns were requested. But no. Not Mark!
Isoko and Sally stepped out into the lands beyond the wall of the settlement and got to go mad wild on the invasive monster population.
Sally strode across the land, and like she was kicking puppies she kicked the crocobulls far away from their path toward the settlement. Isoko helped with taking away their ‘Weight’ and giving it to Sally, allowing Sally’s kick and Isoko’s guided tornadoes to send those menaces far, far away. The crocobulls weren’t a bad monster; they were actually great apex predators, mostly leaving people alone when encountered because people were too small to make a satisfying meal. But when a bunch of them got together in a migration, then they went after cities.
Thus, the puppy-punting.
Mark watched from the top of the wall, grumbling, and then asking Quark, “What’s next? It’s the Grand Mage, right?”
Rekaro Solari, Tartu’s father and the administrator in charge of the settlement’s arcanaeum, was somewhere on the list of people to meet. Maybe now? Mark wasn’t sure. All he knew was that it was going to be about Addavein.
Mark’s talzarki, in his human form, was nothaving trouble fitting into human society at all.
He was almost as popular as Mark.
It was sort of expected, really. Mark wasn’t sure why he wouldn’thave expected Addavein to be popular. Mark’s own relationship with the guy was weird and uncomfortable and getting better, especially since Mark regularly saw him around, often sitting at the other end of a conference table where Mark fielded questions from reporters. But Sloane was a Hero of Humanity, and every time a reporter asked Addavein about something only Sloane might know, Addavein easily answered, and in ways that tried to show he was a different person. Mark could barely remember all the times it had happened like that, but once stood out a lot.
Some guy had asked Addavein about ‘how could you be so irresponsible as to work to cause another Reveal, on purpose?’, and Addavein had said, ‘The Reveal was chaos. Now we know what is coming. Now we can prepare. All you see is the danger, but you don’t see the opportunity. The question should not be ‘is this too dangerous’, the question should be ‘how can I make sure I and my neighbor are secured enough to weather the storm, and then, when the rains clear, what are my plans to make a home in paradise.’
It had been a good rebuttal.
Addavein regularly walked the streets of the settlement, and got mobbed by people asking for autographs and asking if he was going to be in the HVP alongside Mark sometime soon.
But the established powers of the world did not like him.
Rekaro in particular was ‘reluctant’ to employ the guy. More like he was reluctant to straight up tell Addavein to fuck off.
Addavein was still a dragon, after all.
Mark easily felt Addavein’s astral body from the other side of the settlement, on the other side of the lake. It seemed like he might be buying something in the districts in front of the coliseum. Clothes? Maybe. That was the clothing district, and the guy felt distinctly giddy about something nice that was happening. He felt that way a lot. Most of the time, actually. The guy had turned pretty much all of his adamantium into goldleaf at Metallic Bank, or he had given it away, so he had a lot of money to burn and a lot of things to buy, and nothing to truly steal.
Addavein’s tower house had been broken into five times already, and probably more, though no one would ever know about those other times because the burglars were too craft. Addavein suspected the number of actual incursions to be something like 8 or 9; he wasn’t sure, exactly.
He barely lived there at all, and wherever he slept was certainly not that tower.
Quark answered, “The meeting with Grand Mage Solari is postponed, for Addavein has requested a delay due to an unforeseen HVP visit. Crystal Tower sent a delegation and they should be stepping through the gate in 40 minutes. Ivona Gusca will be in the delegation.”
“Oh hey, I know her. Mind Dancer, Right?”
Ivona Gusca was a pink-wearing woman with the hero name of Mind Dancer. She was the Recruitment Coordinator for Crystal Tower. She had flown out to Citadel Freyala to personally meet with Mark at a party at Eliot’s home, to talk to him about the HVP. She worked with heroes, though, so she hadn’t truly been recruiting Mark at all. The villain Gaston Lussier, AKA Shadowlock, had been the one to actually recruit Mark, and to the villain program… At Addavein’s request.
Mark had forgotten about that.
Ivona had only met with him to act like they wanted Mark in the Hero Program, but really she was there to nudge him toward the villain side.
Hmmm.
Mark said, “I think I want to be in that meeting.”
Quark dashed Mark’s spur-of-the-moment plans, saying, “A conference with the Collective has requested your presence. It will take all afternoon, unless you wish to move on before it is over.”
“Ah,” Mark said, as he watched Sally kick a particularly large crocobull in the ribs, sending it flying through the wind. Isoko pushed it even further, sending it tens of kilometers away. The monster would be rather disgruntled after that, but it would probably be okay. Mark turned away from the event, asking, “At the church? Or the Inquisitor’s Hall?”
“The church. Inquisitors are the only ones who can speak, but for this meeting the normal Chosen are all allowed to watch. There will be news, and then a 10 minute break, and then they wish for your responses.”
“Okay.” Mark asked, “Where are Eliot, Andria, and Tartu?”
“Tartu is at the Farms, as usual. Andria is with Eliot at Eliot’s factory. Derek reports no incidents worth mentioning. All is good, as far as sensors can tell.”
Mark nodded, his vigilance abating slightly. And then he took off into the air, flying toward the church.
- -
A crowd of paladins and priests outside the white-steepled church was pushing through the doors. They weren’t getting anywhere. It was standing room only inside, and Derek was out front, telling people to stop pushing. Derek was cordoning traffic but he also instantly saw Mark from his other bodies standing around. One of them called out to Mark and pointed toward the back of the church.
Other people noticed Mark, and a whole lot of them had a lot of suddenly deep, profound moments. Mark didn’t know most of them, but they knew him.
Mark flew to the back of the church. Some Inquisitor Mark didn’t know was on duty, guarding the back ways. He noticed Mark, had a profound moment where his face turned red, and then he merely nodded, not bothering to stop Mark at all. Mark landed on a lawn with a bunch of other people—
Lola was there. She waved at Mark, and Mark followed her inside.
The church had been divided into two parts through the transept, with a waist-high glass wall separating most of the church from the chancel in back, where the priests usually gave their sermons. A bunch of choir benches had turned the chancel into an amphitheater, facing the pews, while that glass wall separated them.
Holographic screens glowed all across that separating glass, letting the inquisitors sitting down at the chancel talk to people in far off parts of the world on those screens, while also letting the people in the church look at the screens and at the local inquisitors sitting on the bleachers. The people in the church pew area could only watch.
5,000 people stood where the pews usually were, all of them watching and talking. The sounds of that other space were muted. Someone was using some Power to keep the sounds separated. Probably some Castellan ‘tech’, Mark figured.
Mark stepped into the chancel and he only heard the Inquisitors sitting on the choir benches, talking to other Inquisitors far away on the screens—
A person that Mark had completely forgotten about until that very moment sat in the front row of the bleachers.
Sentinel of Okuana and Executioner Walter Volkov.
The guy was one of Drakarok's elites; his main people. Walter’s face was as scarred and grey as Mark remembered, and his body was as bulky as before, but he was also deeply hurt and furious at a whole lot of things. Prior to the trip to Endless Daihoon, Walter hated that Mark would rather deal with life at the settlement than go to Okuana to fight the real fight against the demons, to work with the tech they were developing over there, to pledge to Dominant and eradicate demons with his adamantium.
But then Mark and them came back from Endless Daihoon, and what should have been a celebration in Verdant Citadel became a warzone of Dominant’s own making. From there, the fallout got worse and worse.
A whole bunch of people from Drakarok’s clergy were there, sitting on one side of Walter.
Sentinel Inquisitor Saikou Jowa from Crytalis sat next to Walter.
Both of them had dual loyalties, first to their gods and then to their empires.
Saikou was still accepted by Aluatha, as far as Mark knew, but Walter…
Mark didn’t know exactly what had happened to Walter and the Executioners of Drakarok who had been over in Okuana, but he had heard a few things. He heard a lot more as he stood there, because the crowd went quiet.
The man speaking on the screens had a nametag of ‘Sentinel of Okuana, Navaloka Volkov’. That last name, Volkov, marked him as an executioner of Drakarok, and very high up. He had an asterisk by his name, along with a bunch of other people on the screen. Mark didn’t know what that meant, but Quark rapidly figured it out, adding a few details here and there to the screens.
‘(Ex)Sentinel of Okuana, Navaloka Volkov.’
A bunch of other people got ‘ex’s by their names, too.
Mark realized what had happened, why Walter and a bunch of other people were so distraught, why the meeting was happening now, and so publicly.
There had been a purge.
The people on the screens were the survivors.
Lola gestured to a seat up in front, and Mark sat down next to her, as she took the seat right beside him.
Navaloka said, “As I was saying, the church of Drakarok has been purged from Okuana, therefore it is time for a Grand Inquisition against Dominant, while he is drunk on fresh power. The need for discussion has passed. The Tyrant Tree has even killed the Fates and a number of our sworn brothers and sisters in Hearthswell!”
The crowd held a lot of people that didn’t know all of those details. Some people gasped. Mark was almost one of them.
Mark had heard about the Fates yesterday, though.
He still wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Sure, they had sent assassins after him, but then all of everything had happened, and now the Two Worlds were at this junction here, and the Fates had made sure as many of their people had gotten out before the hammer came down and the monstrosities came out of the ground.
Whatever his real feelings on the matter might become, Mark knew one thing. He felt pissed.
He was the Inheritor of Xerkona.
Those were hisFates… he supposed.
Mark abandoned his emotions to the side as he felt out the rest of the people. Most of them had not heard about the Fates, and they went silent. Most had not heard of purges inside Okuana. This, then, was the reveal of the real information, now that Mark was here. Mark certainly hadn’t heard about the purge of Drakarok’s church, either.
Sally hadn’t mentioned anything, but she had been busy, too. How was she going to take this? She had been positioned in the northern lands of Okuana with her previous team that all died due to Leash. That’s where she had become an official Executioner, too. How many people did she know that were gone, now?
Navaloka continued, “1,787 Executioners confirmed dead. Our main base of operations on Daihoon destroyed. A good 3,500 have been accounted for, but another 950 are missing. More and more of Drakarok’s Chosen leave Okuana every day, avoiding the hammer of the Offshoots of Dominant and his still-loyal Sentinels and his governors.” Navaloka’s voice turned hateful for a moment, but he pulled it back. He continued, “He asked us to lay down and die for him, to prevent our ideology from spreading to the rest of his Empire. Some of us… did. He says he won’t do anything to the other people of the Pantheon, but he has them all under observation. Dominant won’t even tell us why he is against the System Reset, but he obviously is. He is the epitome of what we Executioners must fight. And so, I repeat: The time for discussion has passed. It is time to do what Paladins should do: kill the tyrants and save the world.”
A bunch of other Inquisitors were already pressing the buttons on their screens, vying for a chance to talk. The moderator, some guy from Crytalis, let one of them speak now.
A (current) Sentinel of Okuana, Vinceni Charo, of Hearthswell, said, “Perhaps Dominant is right in his unreasonable demands!Perhaps we shouldn’t pursue this System Reset! Hearthswell knows the true cost of breaking ultimate barriers, and that is what will happen when we engage a System Reset. I will not speak on the full matter in any public setting, unlike somemisguided youths in our presence, but a System Reset would not be a simple time of troubles. It would be opening the floodgates and washing the world away! Perhaps Drakarok needs to be more mindful of that fact and realize that the only true danger here is to pursue this craziness. We have so many other problems we could be dealing with! For starters, there is this idea that Okuana knows how to kill demons, permanently, floating around. That is muchmore interesting to me than opening Pandora’s Box.”
A bunch of people had little markers by their screens, indicating that they wished to be heard next.
A bunch of people in the audience were yelling out against Vinceni.
If looks could kill, Executioner Walter’s gaze would have killed Vinceni from all the way across the world.
Mark stood up.
The various Sentinels and Inquisitors and otherwise went silent and the moderator spoke,
“The Collective recognizes the Inheritor to Xerkona, Mark Careed.”
Mark said, “Thank you, Moderator.” He spoke to everyone, “Vinceni is right.”
Some people in the crowd knew that Mark was just speaking like a politician. He had had a lot of practice in the last week, and a lot of personal instruction from Doomo on what he had done right and wrong every time he spoke to a crowd. Mark wasn’t sure how Doomo had heard about every time Mark spoke, or why he felt the need to instruct Mark, or why, even, Mark started listening to him, but other people had begun to comment that Mark could have said things better in this way or that way. Mark hadn’t interacted with Doomo in person, yet, and Mark supposed this was how Doomo was going to interact with Mark until they actually did meet in person, because Doomo’s suggestions on rhetoric were good ones.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Picking up the good parts of the opposition’s arguments and then saying they had common ground was a great way to win people over from the other side, if they were capable of being won over.
These suggestions of Doomo’s were a disarmingly great way for Mark to learn not to hate the guy right off the bat.
As the crowd took in Mark ‘speaking against himself’, Mark hit them with a, “Because the System Reset will be dangerous. It will cause problems. But as we learn new truths, as we learn how the System actually works, and how the defense of Earth and Daihoon fits together, and why the demons are demons, the power that Dominant has will seem less and less, because it will be less. Dominant is a tyrant in all the ways that one can be a tyrant. He tried to lure me in with promises of how to kill demons permanently, which I don’t believe he can do at alland that it was always a lie. To me, based on the facts I see, what I KNOW is simple:
“Dominant wanted to kill me, to prevent us all from knowing the truth.
“The truth is this: Things can get better!
“But only if we’re willing to shoulder the burden of the coming troubles.
“It’s not like we’re pressed for time, so don’t go thinking I’m asking for a Grand Inquisition at this very moment. We got time. We can figure it all out.
“And I know exactly what some of you are thinking right now. That we have no time at all. That we have to go back to how it was, and that we have to prepare for terrible Cultist and demonic activities. And yes, we probably do. There is also talk of the demons deciding to go on an all-out war with humanity to erase this knowledge of demon-killing from our collective memory. That, right there, is the only truly pressing issue, as I see it.
“But as far as I know, Okuana and Dominant lie and hide the past all the time. They ‘tell the truth’ when it’s convenient for them to tell, to lure someone in, and then they silence them as they tried to do to me. Anyone who challenges their power in a real way is killed. Just like what happened to the Church of Drakarok. Just like what happened to the Fates.
“So there is likely not going to be a demonic war, because there is no way to kill demons at all. Not permanently. Hell! We can’t even kill some goblins permanently. It seems that the worst problems in the world need a lot more done to solve them than any of us ever expected those problems to require. About 10 Inheritors. 10 Empires. These are massive tasks. These are important tasks.
“For things can get better. A lot better.
“As long as we’re prepared to do the work to make the world better, it can get better. I know I’m putting in the work, and I know you are, too. All of you are paladins. Chosen by the Pantheon. All of you are strong enough to shield everyone around you, like you do all the time.
“And if a Grand Inquisition does need to be called, I know you will all stand on the right side of history.
“The only good tyrant is a dead tyrant.”
Mark walked away.
Someone started cheering, and Mark ended up walking away to the sounds of clapping and hollering.
In the back of the church, Mark took a breath in a hallway beside a door to the outside.
Lola caught up to him, saying, “Thank you. That was exactly what we needed.”
Mark nodded. “Do I need to be here for the rest? I got a meeting with Addavein and some HVP people to attend.”
Lola smiled softly, brightly, warmly. She stood proper and said, “We’re having a grand meal at the farms later. It would be good if you could make an appearance. 6:30 is meal-start.”
“I’ll be there at 6:25.”
Lola did a little curtsy, grinning. “I’ll make sure there’s some nice fish.”
Mark grinned. “Thanks, Lola.”
Mark stepped outside and took to the sky. He took a moment, floating above it all, watching Sally cleaning up on the horizon, feeling Isoko in the air though she was too far away to see without Quark’s help, and wondering what Addavein was up to right now.
Mark asked, “HVP and Addavein and stuff?”
Quark answered, “The Small Gate is opening in 3 minutes. Addavein is already in front of the gate, standing in the reception zone… Ah. He’s coming this way.”
Mark felt Addavein in that highlighted part of the sky, even before he saw him flying toward Mark. Mark waved, calling out, “Hey!”
Addavein hovered alongside Mark, asking “Hooo! How were the paladins? Do they want to kill me, too?”
“They didn’t even mention you.”
“An improvement!” Addavein asked, “You want to be a part of the HVP meeting?”
“Yes, unless you’re doing that alone.”
“I want you there. I wasn’t sure if you were going to be too busy.”
Mark flew to the reception zone of the gate, to the northern side, saying, “I tapped in for the Grand Mage meeting, so since that got changed I’m still tapped in for the time slot. Walaria wants me to meet some guys from the Grand Guard in a few hours, though. Isoko is going to be there with me. Her cousins work for them. They’ll be there, too. Some captains, or something.” Mark landed on the tarmac in front of the 500-meter-wide Gate, about 50 meters from the 10-meter-tall Small Gate. Addavein landed beside him. Mark continued, “We’re to discuss the defense of the land against dryad encroachment, and the breakdown of the ITLKR system. I’d like you there for that.”
“I wasn’t invited, but I will gladly shove in if you are requesting.”
“I am,” Mark said, “I’m still wary of the International Teleport List Kaiju Response system after I almost died the last time… but I’m not even sure if they can do anything to directly kill me with the system. Mostly I’m worried about that. I don’t want to accept re-baptism into the system if that sort of thing is possible.”
The gate techs were standing by underneath the Gate, waving at Mark and Addavein. Mark swore he knew their names, but the last week had been busy busy busy, and he didn’t know them— Randal and Josh! Two mages from the arcanaeum and from Memphi. Just workers. Not able to do much with the system of the gates at all except to press a button when the time was right.
Randal gave a signal for 1 minute.
Addavein took note of Randal’s hand sign, then told Mark, “The destruction of civility between Empires in this recent drama will take years to fully shake out because we adopted Earth sensibilities in the wake of the Reveal. Our enemies became our customers. Prosperity paved roads and made shipping lanes. But now Prosperity isn’t enough. We always planned for such a day, of course. I’m sure I know exactly what they’re going to say in the meeting, and the short version is this: Everyone above a certain power level is conscripted into the ITLKR system, and it will be a lot less dangerous and prone to infiltration. The current— the ILTKR system of last yearwould have sent someone like you anywhere on Daihoon, and on Earth, too. The current system will be scaled down and made as secure as possible, with only the military bases and major cities of Aluatha being a part of the system. The ability for anyone below a certain rank in the military to mess with the system will become impossible.”
Mark snorted. “That doesn’t stop the top from betraying you.”
Addavein nodded. “Doomo has been playing nice, yes?”
“He’s given me notes on every public speech I’ve given— Speaking of which. Quark? Did I get a message from him yet?”
Quark said, “Affirmative, sir. It’s waiting in your in-box.”
Mark told Addavein, “He’s usually right about these sorts of things.”
“He is a great politician for a reason, and only half of those reasons are personal effort. He was manufactured at a young age to become who he is today; his Skills chosen, his astral body manipulated to purpose, his mind crafted to be strong. The First Prince was made; not born. All of them were.” Addavein added, “Doomo, Walaria, Kalimara; three children who succeeded where the others failed. There are some branch families out there that can trace themselves back to the rise of the new Imperial Family; branches established just to keep the blood stable. Those original generations lived and died, but their children live on… it might be important for you to know these sorts of things… What is taking so long? It’s been a minute, hasn’t it?”
Addavein had rattled off a deep history/secret like it was nothing, and then he got antsy because the gate opening was a bit delayed. He divulged a lot of secrets like that to Mark; interspersed between other events, when he could, when they became relevant. There was no telling when some information might be important, Addavein had told Mark a few days ago, so Addavein had started opening up every chance he got. Mark even asked a few questions now and then, and in particular he had asked Addavein about Tactile Telekinesis. Addavein’s answer had radically changed Mark’s view of TT and Body Powers in general, though considering Mark’s typical day these days it would be a while before he could follow up on that nugget of knowledge.
Mark took the Royal Family’s deeper history in stride, saying, “Quark. Update on the HVP meeting?”
Randal was nervous by the Small Gate; pacing and looking down in the control pit beside the gate, asking questions down below. Josh was shrugging, standing halfway down into the pit and on the phone.
Quark beep-booped. “Checking.”
A moment passed—
“They are coming through now,” Quark said.
Even as Quark spoke, the smaller gate flashed open and Randal stopped looking nearly so nervous.
The world ripped asunder in a small, controlled way, the Veil parting, revealing Earth beyond.
A pleasantly pink Ivona Gusca and somber black Gaston Lussier stood on the other side of the gate.
It was just about the simplest meeting that Mark had had in a while, which was nice. He even got to show off Castle South’s various coffee machines and talk about how he still liked his coffee with a bunch of sugar and creamer in it, just like how Gaston had served Mark back at that meeting in Citadel Freyala. Ivona liked her coffee full-black, though, and as thick as possible, which was a funny contrast in Mark’s mind, and which he mentioned. That earned the conversation a few polite chuckles.
Addavein knew both Ivona and Gaston as Addashield, but he didn’t know them as Addavein, and the pair from HVP were rather cold. Mark did what he could to warm everything up, but honestly…
Ivona brought up, “I am just not sure how the heroes of the world would want to interact with you, Addavein. Your predecessor was a Hero, but he also murdered Red Thunder and Mistress Storm while everyone was watching. I believe Mark was watching as well from the roof of a physical therapy center, yes? Not to mention all the other horrors happening right now. So as pleasant as this scenario has been here, it will be some time before we allow you to partake of the Hero/Villain Program.”
Addavein accepted that, but he also said, “Addashield always truly believed in the HVP, and in superhero culture. Superheroes doing super things was always a better way of being than the power-hungry dynamics and casual horrors of the stories of Daihoon. So I just want to participate in any way that I can.”
“We don’t let true villains into the system,” Ivona said, doubling down, locking eyes with Addavein.
Mark broke up the confrontation, asking, “Any official responses from Crystal Tower about our documentary?”
Ivona sat back in her chair, sipping on her dark roast coffee, glaring at Addavein.
Addavein pleasantly looked at her in turn.
There were vectors in the air, possibly Mind vectors, arcing between Addavein and Ivona and moving incredibly fast. Ivona wasn’t attacking Addavein, but they were doing… something. Hmm.
Gaston ignored that mind game, if he even saw it, and said to Mark, “The nature of the documentary is too large to understand right now, but it is all the rage online. How much of it was… real, if you don’t mind the insinuation.”
Mark was pretty familiar with this kind of conversation, because he had needed to defend the report in a thousand different ways, so he slipped into that sort of talk, fielding questions both broad and narrow, and straight-up saying that yes, there were some things that were left out and that formed ‘plot holes’, if they wanted to call it that. Mostly personal stuff.
The conversation meandered for a while, staying on light topics while Ivona and Addavein pretended like they weren’t verbally sparring in their minds.
When it was over Mark and Addavein saw Ivona and Gaston through the gate.
Flying toward the arcanaeum, to talk to Grand Mage Solari, Addavein said, “I’m glad you were there, Mark. They were supposed to brush me off, but they did not.”
“Anytime. I suspect this next conversation will be similar?”
“Oh yes. Solari doesn’t want me teaching here at all, but you’re down several professors, so you need the help.”
Mark recalled, “We’ve lost a few since the Understanding parties. Professor Redline left when some kids almost killed themselves after some wards failed at the Aethercalling party. The kids got so sad they almost jumped from a building, if I recall correctly. Past that there have been a few more losses that happened while we were gone…” Mark added, “There was also a changeling scare in the background with House Exatech. Not sure if that went anywhere.”
“Professor Redline came back a month ago, killed several people in several houses, and then uncovered a few of those same people trapped in a hole in the ground in the west. It was a changeling plot, and Redline was that white woman who did the illusion against you when Buckler and Lancer tried to capture you for Doomo... which was really a capture attempt for Dominant, now that I think about it,” Addavein said, as though he was describing the weather last week. “I believe Doomo orchestrated that, too.”
Mark sighed…
Mark continued flying forward next to Addavein, to fly through the dome over the mage society of the settlement. As he landed on the grassy ground of Magic Street, he asked, “How many people know what you just told me?”
“I doubt many know the truth of it at all. Probably not even Aurora. Redline is a Sentinel of the Empire and it took me a lot of digging to find that out. She’s a very accomplished illusionist, but I had very little to do besides spying on everyone everywhere.” Addavein ignored all of that, smiling as he strode forward, toward the arcanaeum, toward some guards standing on the steps. “I have a lot to do these days!”
Mark… slotted that information away, for now.
If he ever spotted Buckler and Lancer again, then he would probably ask them about all of that, including why they had maimed Sam. They’d probably reply that they maimed the leader of the settlement’s Kaiju Squad ‘because our Contract demands it!’ and that would be… a choice of theirs, he supposed.
Mark got his head in the game to talk to Rekaro Solari, who was inside his office, along with Tartu, who was also in there.
There was too much to do, and not enough time to do it, but Mark would find downtime soon enough. He’d even do some house work, eventually.
Not today, though.
Mark was digesting an orb of orichalcum in his guts, so at least that much was actually happening, for real. He had been digesting orichalcum whenever he could. All of these meetings? All of this talking? None of it was action. None of it was solving any problems. The world was currently full of a lot of scared people, a lot of heads of state posturing around each other, and a lot of rumors and a trillion small, moving parts, all gliding past each other. Detangling, in the case of ITLKR and a thousand spread-out Mage Societies and international shipping lanes and the Pantheon’s mortal churches and a whole bunch of other stuff, and coming together, in the minds of many.
What were the sides of this war going to look like? Was this war going to happen?
Was the Reset Quest going to happen?
From the naysayers: When would more sensible ideas come forward and calm all this turmoil?
From the progressives: What will happen when we establish other nations and Dominant goes to war with us?
Perhaps, if Fates were still around, they’d know the answers to these questions.
But Dominant had killed the Fates.
The people who wanted ‘Everything to just stop! Stop dammit! Stop happening! No more happenings, please!’ were shit out of luck. Or else they were deluding themselves successfully.
Everyone with a brain and the willpower to see what was happening, to know what these steps meant, knew where this was all headed.
A World War.
Not today, though.
Maybe not for years.
They had time… for Dominant, anyway. Who the fuck knew about the goblins, or Thrashtalon.
And the nations of Earth also wanted Great Weapons like Aluatha and Okuana and Xerkona, though no one knew where Xerkona’s weapons were exactly. Mark didn’t really know where Xerkona’s former capital was, either. No one did, because people from a whole bunch of nations had gone looking and they found nothing but ruins that weren’t where they were supposed to be and a fight with each other, and with some of Dominant’s Dryads hiding on the scene.
The Diaspora Of Xerkona, the associated embassies that had placed themselves as neutral people in order to facilitate talks between nations, were recoiling from the murder of their Fates, and from the desecration of their holy lands.
A bunch of shit was happening everywhere, and Mark barely kept track of the big stuff.
The small stuff was falling through the cracks at an alarming rate, but Mark had given Andria 3 billion goldleaf, so she should be managing some of that small stuff well enough.