506
Aurora Valen sat at her desk, going over paperwork for 36 new High Skilled people, thanks to Mark’s efforts in New Tokyo. It irked Aurora that she had been subjected to a curse by Dominant, trying to turn the city against one of its most upstanding citizens, but seeing some of the new footage from Mark’s latest fight on the southern border, Aurora wondered how, exactly, she could have fought him.
In the recordings, Mark had looked like a spread of black eyes, mouths, claws, and various organic matter, all done in pitch black adamantium, covered by a sometimes-thick, sometimes thin plasma and Death mana. If it wasn’t for that uneven glow of purple fire, Mark wouldn’t have even appeared on the screens.
Mark vanishing from memory and then coming back was difficult to understand, because now Aurora was revisiting every interaction she had had with the kid, and it was hard to reconcile the boy who had come with them on the settlement project with the man he was now… though maybe not. He had grown up fast killing Goblinhome, and then he went right into Endless Daihoon, and then he came back with the Reset Quest and a fire in him that was only dimmed by the much, much larger fire of a Category 7 ancient god kaiju. But seeing that priority missive regarding all of Mark’s known efforts from New Tokyo, to the treaty with Wongod, and then to the fight just now at the southern border… Yeah. Mark was growing up fast.
Aurora had thought herself the rising star of the Empire years ago, back she was too stupid to understand how much of a curse that was, but Mark? Mark was absolutely the rising star of Empire Aluatha. It didn’t seem to be ruining his life yet, but—
She felt him.
She felt rage, cold and focused, but still rage.
Aurora detangled herself from her work, opened the door that was her giant window in her office before she took off into the air, lensing it properly so that she would be noticed before everyone else. Mark would see her now. Yoro, of course, noticed her first, as she flew over the top of Castle South. The spymaster was busy with his own paperwork and some rowdy young scions from a noble house, but he detangled himself from that work, too.
Yoro appeared in the air 15 meters from her, asking, “And we’re sure he’s not a threat?”
Aurora spotted the black, burning dot that was Mark in the sky, far to the south, and told Yoro, “He’s Mark Careed. He’s helped us a lot… And your mind knows this. That ritual cleaned out Dominant’s influence.”
“Could be a double-fake. The Empire might have laid off on taking you down quietly and propping up someone else, but they did not stop. The Empire has always been after you, and the witch girls are witches, and I know Curses now. Can’t believe that one got me, even if it was Outsider-empowered, but it got me, it got you, and it might have been a double-fake.”
Yoro prepared some dark blots in the air around him; some curses from the Natural Skill, Curse, that Mark had given him. Yoro knew he would die if he fought Mark, for real, but he also knew that he had to try, if Mark was an actual threat.
The results of Mind Control often lingered in weird ways, and this was one of them.
Yoro actually preferred it when his bosses used Mind Control on him, which had always been weird to Aurora and which she never did, but Yoro truly believed that a lot of people were going to Mind Control others in battle, all the time, if they could, and so he preferred the controlling to be done by people he trusted. That was one of the major reasons that Yoro even asked to be assigned to Aurora for this whole settlement project. Aurora could always sense what he was thinking, and if his thoughts were being handled by outside forces, then she would be the first to know.
Unfortunately, as recent affairs proved, even Aurora was not infallible when it came to mind fuckery.
Aurora was still not willing to control Yoro’s mind, but she could assure him, “If this is a double-fake, then we will deal with it, but it is more likely that Mark is the center of great deal of trouble, since he is an Inheritor of Xerkona, and Dominant targeted him for obvious reasons. You saw the reports from D’Australia, straight from Walaria. You need to be polite, if nothing else.”
Yoro said nothing, but he did hide his malice and worry better.
Not good enough, as it turned out.
Mark appeared, blasting the sky with a shockwave, right in front of Aurora and Yoro, and whatever he was going to say died on his lips. The boy truly did look like a man, and his mental defenses were adamantine strong. Aurora couldn’t read him at all, and she barely tried, for when Mark looked at her, his eyes full of black and distrust, Aurora pulled back all of her extra senses.
Mark switched from worry to sorrow, and then his soul-deep rage roiled underneath it all, and Mark focused on Yoro.
Aurora said, “Welcome home, Mark. There was an issue with outsider influences when you were gone. Some of us are still dealing with it.”
Yoro glared lightly at Mark.
“I heard,” Mark rumbled, eyes flickering with hidden depths. He stared into Aurora’s soul, saying, “You’re not PL 100, huh? I thought you were and I just never noticed it, but you’re… not?”
… What a weird thing to think!
Mark was in a bad way.
Aurora saw the fragmented nature of Mark’s astral mind, even if he didn’t. He was putting himself back together and the jagged edges were hurting him. What had happened out there? Surely he had hit an eldritch problem, but, could it be mental, too?
Aurora asked, “What does me being PL 100 have to do with anything?”
She was PL 100, but this was strange, and Mark needed someone to talk to right now, so Aurora talked with him.
“That’s information that no one should have, General,” Yoro said, floating forward, just a little.
“Stop, Yoro,” Aurora said, flexing reality and pushing Yoro backward without actually touching anyone at all; she merely put more space between them, and kept that space stable until it became the new normal. Aurora told Mark, “I have crossed that goal, Mark, long ago.”
“You always avoid the scanners that I have around me, that the Empire put around me to see me Skill people and to see what happens to the people I Skill, but you stayed out of them? Why?”
Aurora arched an eyebrow. “Because, like Yoro has said, full scans of myself would be a strategic loss, and this city is a sieve, Mark. We try to plug leaks, but cities leak; it is what they do. And you do a lot of the leaking yourself.”
“… Yeah maybe, but what I’m seeing with you is different than those perfectly logical concerns. You thinkyou have reached PL 100, but you haven’t. I can tell because I have seen 2 people with PL 100s now, and there is a qualitative difference in them that you do not possess. Why do you think you’ve reached PL 100?” Mark frowned, staring deep into Aurora’s soul, reaching forward—
Aurora put space between them, breaking Mark’s reach.
Mark saw that, so he pulled back.
“You presume too much, Mark,” Aurora said. “Would you like to come down to the castle and we can talk? In a nice warm room, with coffee and cookies. My mother made me some extra ones, as she usually does the day before Gate Day.”
Aurora was rather sure that Mark didn’t even recognize her words, or her attempt to talk him down from whatever high he had worked himself into—
“Oh!” Mark exclaimed. And then he scowled and disgust colored his features. “They fucked you up! You’re an Inheritor of Aluatha so OF COURSE they cut you off at the knees. You don’t even know about the 100 Trial, or the demon creation.”
Aurora blinked. “... What?”
“Whatever. I’m not going to convince you of what I’m saying. I don’t need to be able to reach you to know that. So know this, Aurora Valen,” Mark said, voice echoing upon itself, eyes full of depth, “Your soul has been fucked with, and you can’t even see that you’ve been controlled.”
Aurora would have instinctively brushed him off, but it was such a strange angle of attack… and... was it an attack? It was an attack. Aurora was under attack now, wasn’t she, or at least she would be if she couldn’t manage this. But what a strange angle of attack! To claim that they cut her off at the knees and that she didn’t have 100 Power Level in at least her primary Skill of Supreme Telekinesis.
“You are unwell, Mark,” Aurora said, focusing on the allies she knew she had, which first and foremost meant Walaria. Second Princess Walaria was Aurora’s ally, and she always had been. Walaria said that Mark was okay, and so Aurora trusted that. Also, Aurora remembered Mark. A lot of those memories seemed suspect, but she knew him. One of the first times she met, back on the ship they all took to get here, Mark had offered her adamantium for the settlement. The kid was a good kid, but he was not stable right now. Aurora took a breath and calmly said, “You have experienced something traumatic, and Dawncoast, the city which you named, was recently under attack to make us hostile toward each other. Walaria and her witches fixed it, but there are lingering effects. Those effects will last for a while.”
“… Aurora,” Mark said, “You’re not hearing me. You were targeted by Aluatha to prevent you from ever becoming an issue, and always being a resource for them. Okuana is bad, but Aluatha has done horrible things for power, too, and I was deluded into thinking… But you can’t hear me, can you.”
“What I hear is a hurting man who has gone through a lot of shit in the last several days.” Aurora looked to the left, to where Isoko took to the sky and Eliot’s spiderhovercar lifted off, with Eliot and Sally inside. Aurora turned back toward Mark, who was now looking toward his friends, and said, “Take some time to heal. You do not have to be there for Gate Day, and I would prefer you not, but as you can see the docks are full. We’ve got people parked on top of the lake. All the city is full, with a lot of people who expected to go through New Tokyo’s gate, but they’re here now, and they’re using ours. So go home, soldier, calm the fuck down, and take a nap. If we need you, I will call.”
Mark faltered just a little, sparing one more glance toward Aurora, and then he said, “Okay.”
Mark flew toward his friends.
Yoro muttered to Aurora, “What the fuck was that about? 100 Trial?”
“I think my mother mentioned something about it long ago, but I can’t be bothered with dragonist stories right now. That boy is unwell. Keep an eye on him.”
“Yes ma’am.”
- -
Isoko rushed Mark, arms open, and crashed into him, holding him tightly, sobbing, “I knew something was wrong! But you’re here! You’re here.”
Mark hugged her back, and he was warm and strong, and it was good. “I love you, too.”
Isoko gasped and looked up into Mark’s dark eyes, and she started sobbing all over again, because she wanted to kiss him but she knew he didn’t want that at all. Everything was too much right now, but Mark was here, and he was good.
“We didn’t forget!” Sally said, hanging out of Eliot’s hovership. “Not really!”
“Sorry I, uh, hung up on you?” Eliot said.
Mark just laughed, something hard breaking inside of him and turning a bit softer. He had one hand on Isoko’s hip as he hovered there, Isoko supporting his rotor, as he called out to Eliot and Sally, “I knew you’d be okay!”
He was lying; to himself, to them, to everyone.
It was a comforting kind of lie, but it was still a lie.
Isoko held him close, whispering, “You okay?”
“No, but I’m getting better.”
Isoko nodded a little, and then she moved the sky, pulling them along to the house. Soon they were back home, Isoko gripping Mark’s hand tight as they landed on the roof. All of them could tell something was up. Something was wrong.
They went inside.
Eliot told Mark, “Spill it. What’s happening?”
“A lot,” Mark said, “But nothing that can’t wait. First, I need to know that this house is secured against void bombs and other such killing methods.”
Isoko tensed.
Eliot said, “We’re more secure than before, but defense is an evolving methodology; not something that you can just declare ‘done’. Void bombs, though? We’re good against those.”
Isoko said, “I told Eliot and Sally about those and they saw them at the blockade.”
Eliot stressed, “We’re good against Void attacks, Death attacks, and nuclear attacks. Outsider threats are apparently beyond me, even though Addavein was just here and helping with all of those once the Witches pried the largest offense off of our walls.”
Mark must have decided that was enough. He looked at the three of them, and said, “I think I know what it means to kill a demon.”
Isoko felt dumb. Also lost. Where was this coming from? Mark didn’t want to talk about Wongod or how Addavein had almost taken over his black dragon stunt at the blockade? What about the stuff that Dominant had done to Dawncoast, and that Pearl, Amy, and Uva had uncovered? Wasn’t the ‘demon killing stuff’ just another of Dominant’s lies? Oh sure, that’s what they had all decided was best because they didn’t need a world war with the demons—
“No, Mark,” Isoko said, brain finally engaging. She focused, “We’re not killing demons. They’ll align with Dominant, just like Nobody Important.”
Sally, however, said, “Let’s kill them all.”
“This place is secure,” Eliot said to Mark, “So talk more and nevermention this anywhereelse.”
Mark instantly launched into, “It’s like that story about the Dreamer who Dreamed of Demons. He met his demon in the dream, and the demon killed him, but Dreamer, his father Seed, and the elves codified all magic through the System. They made magic able to be passed down to others, through languages and otherwise. But how does that happen? It happens like this: You reach 100 in a Power, undergo a vision quest where you meet your demon in the dream, and the demon helps you make your ultimate form of magic. And then everyone else can eventually use that magic, too.
This tale has been pilfered from NovelPhoenix. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“The demons make the magic, just like how everyone always said they do. The demons decided how magic works long ago! The truth is there in the story we’ve all heard.
“So, it makes sense that if you kill a demon that made a magic, that created an aurora in the sky, then you kill that magic.
“I want to destroy the Moon, all of Arakino, and all the demons, and rip away magic from most people. Maybe even Daihoon itself. It’ll be the first part of the Reset Quest, and I’m going to pursue it all in quiet, and I want you all to help. If we find out which Demon gives Dominant all of his base magic, then we can find that first and rip his power away from him. But conversely, if Dominant rips Union or Retribution or Castellan out of the sky, then he wins this war without doing much at all, and we can’t let that happen.”
Isoko had no idea what to say. She felt unmoored. Demons created magic, sure; everyone knew that. But… Did Mark have the full story? Seemed like he was going off half-cocked. And if killing a demon killed the magic it created then…
Did he say something about destroying Daihoon?
The room was silent.
“Mark,” Isoko said, “I’m sure at least half of that is wrong.”
Mark countered, “But some of it is right.”
Sally’s mind was deep inside of herself; Isoko didn’t need fine Unionsense to see that much.
Eliot looked away.
Mark seemed relieved and maybe even happy, like he had handed off a burden to others.
But this burden was too much for Isoko. All of this was too much. War? Genocide? Killing magic? Killing demons was an ‘oh sure, let’s do that’ sort of fantastic thing that was finein a vacuum, but this wasn’t a vacuum. If killing demons killed magic, then that would kill… Isoko had no idea how far such a ripple would reach. If anyone found the demon that made Union, then killing that demon would kill…
So, so many people.
Freyala’s Union was one of the only real reasons that humanity could survive the monsters at all. The ability to quickly recharge Powers on a team-sized scale, or larger scales, was immeasurable—
And he had mentioned destroying Daihoon!
Isoko was sure he had said that!
Isoko told Mark, “No. I can’t. No. We can’t do that. We can’t fight that war.”
Mark didn’t look deterred at all.
Eliot found his voice, saying, “It’s mutually assured destruction to go after demons.”
“Maybe so,” Mark said, “But we have to anyway.”
“I’m in,” Sally said, staring at Mark with golden fire in her eyes. “Let’s start off with a demon war before we decide to kill the Moon. Maybe killing enough of them will rid the worlds of magic that shouldn’t exist anyway.”
Mark started, “The problem is Magic itself—”
“NO,” Isoko said, air ripping through the small space, breaking windows. Her emotions were out of control and she knew that, but she couldn’t stop herself. “No. You’re not killing magic. You love magic! Why would you want to kill magic itself!”
“It makes perfect sense to me,” Sally said. “Kill the demons and the magic they create, like in that Dreamer story.”
“But you’re wrong. You have to be wrong,” Eliot said. “You won’t be killing magic. You’ll be… I don’t know! Opening the world to outsiders. So this entire idea is a nonstarter, Mark. And how would you even do it, anyway!”
Mark looked at Isoko and said, “I’ve never studied the auroras, but maybe ripping some auroras out of the sky would be a good start to removing certain magics from the worlds.”
“You’re clearly insane,” Isoko said, realizing what was happening. “You were awake for a few days, going through battle after battle, just like it was with Goblinhome, and now you’re doing that Dragon Wake thing again like on the Dreadnought, and this time it’s worse.”
“I am not insane,” Mark said, almost dismissive. “I’m seeing things clearly—”
“You’re not seeing things clearly at all!” Isoko said, and then she pointed out a window, at the dark sky and at the auroras overhead. “Those things are ephemeral as fuck! What are you gonna do to make them real—”
“That’s a good idea!” Mark said, “A Union of Adamant and Ethereal might make them solid, and then—”
“That is NOT what I meant at all, and you know it!” Isoko tried to think. This was not the conversation she wanted to have with Mark. Not right now. She wanted to talk about Gate Day and then about what all Mark had seen over there. Isoko knew he went to see the goblins, but that was it. And now he was here and freaking her out and talking about bringing down the sky— What the fuck was happening! Isoko tried, “Those auroras are just glimpses into Endless Daihoon. They’re not actually there at all. It’s a visual illusion. AND EVEN IF YOU COULD BRING THEM DOWN… where? Where, Mark? Where would you bring them down? Onto which part of the world?”
Mark solidly said, “Onto Okuana.”
Silence.
Mark said, “I recently heard that Dominant targeted this place. He targeted you. He wanted us to fight and kill each other. But I’m not doing that. What I am doing, is telling you that the very fact that he can do thatat allis fucked up beyond measure. If we have to destroy Daihoon itself, then maybe we should, just to get rid of that kind of power.”
Sally said, “And I agree.”
Isoko said, “That’s… that’s crazy talk! Both of you! You’d kill so many people. I’m… Don’t fight this, Mark. I’m gonna put you to sleep, okay?” Isoko began to thread Sleepiness and Wakefulness through the sky, through the holes she had cracked into the windows with her earlier emotional movement, slipping into Mark’s Union like hands reaching out to hands. “You’re safe here and—”
Mark shocked Isoko’s wind with black knives, cutting her control, his face full of worry… And then he looked at Isoko with pity. “The Empire has soul controls on Aurora. She wouldn’t let me remove them, but I can see them now, clear as day. Maybe they put those controls onto you, too, alongside whatever Outsider bullshit the witches probably faked.”
Isoko stared, heart hurting—
“Hold on a fucking minute,” Sally said, face going crazy with too many emotions. “Uva and the girls saved us from some bullshit magic— BUT! Isoko? The fuck? Did you try to fucking SLEEP him, Isoko? Is that really what just happened?!”
“I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!” Isoko pleaded.
Eliot stepped in, voice cracking as he said, “G— go to the church, Mark. Talk to other people. Get talked down from this cliff.”
Mark looked hurt again. “I thought I was talking to ‘other people’, dragging you onto this cliff with me so that you can also see the abyss, just like I can.” He glanced at Isoko, who was trying to hold everything in, and his glance pierced right into her chest. “I’ll show up for the Gate Day, but I’m not sleeping here. Check your wards again, Eliot, because there are influences on everyone everywhere in this city, and figure out how to help Aurora with her issue. She won’t let me, and I’m not about to do magic on her without her consent.”
And then Mark left, out the door, and into the sky.
Isoko crashed against the wall, and then onto her ass, onto the tile, as Sally roared at her about stupid decisions and Isoko tried to understand why she had tried to manipulate him, to Sleep him. She looked up and saw Eliot. Eliot stared at the door where Mark had gone. Sally wasn’t here anymore, either. Oh gods, what had just happened?
- -
Addavein stood on the roof three doors down from Mark’s team house, which was rather far away. This was the noble district.
It was still in Mark’s range.
Mark left his house, obviously furious, exactly as Addavein expected him to be when he saw him talking to Aurora like that. Addavein’s talzarki took to the air for a moment before turning toward Addavein, and then he rushed him, stopping only 5 meters away, black flaring from his skin like solid black flames and veins of thick miasma. His voice rumbled, “Why didn’t you protect them?”
“A valid question. I have no answer.”
Mark roared, “Isoko just tried to fucking Sleep me! The fuck happened here!”
“A lot happened, and also nothing at all.”
“… Why are you so calm about this? Why are you standing here, anyway?” Mark looked at the position Addavein had taken up, and then glared, eyes black and full of quiet rage. “Are you planning on attacking me, too?”
Addavein had been through situations like this before, with his best friends, his family, and more. Many lovers had been turned against him over the centuries, through one means or another. Mark had never experienced this before, and it showed.
Addavein said, “I’m here peacefully because I can tell a great many things happened to you while you were gone and this was not the reception you were expecting. So how about you go ahead and leave town, bunker down somewhere that no one can find you, and sleep it off. I know I have to do that every now and then, otherwise I get very loopy.”
“… I’m not suffering from Dragon Wake.”
Addavein said nothing; he waited.
Mark told him, “Aurora has controls on her via Aluatha. I can’t tell what they do, but there is something eldritch in her, and she thinks she’s reached PL 100 but she hasn’t.”
Addavein arched an eyebrow, curious more than worried, now that he knew Mark wasn’t being paranoid without a reason. He imagined there was something to PL 100. Maybe there was, beyond the normal cap of strength that the System imposed on a person. Mark was getting mixed up with very, very old people, after all; perhaps the goblins had told him something. Addavein was only 350 years old… or rather, Addashield was that old. Addavein felt that old, too, though, so he counted 350 as his own age, as well.
What had Mark found out?
Addavein asked, “I’m not sure why PLs of 100 matter? PL fluctuates points at a time for many different reasons.”
“PL 100 is different,” Mark said, emotions crashing, black ebbing into his body. He stared at Addavein with pity, asking, “And you didn’t know that.”
“Did the goblins tell you something crazy, Mark?”
“… I don’t think they lied. I saw an elf, too. Saved him from himself, though he’s now a goblin. Kialo of the Plains. He said the same thing but not… directly. PL 100 is the Trial. A vision quest, and a demon creation, like in the myth.”
Addavein frowned a little, trying to keep most of his emotions off of his face, but not all. He said, “I know there are some dragonist mysteries regarding demon creation, and the Dreamer’s story is one of them, but as far as I know, PL 100 is just the cap that the System imposes on people, or maybe it’s the maximum it can support. I’ll do some research and have it ready for you in several hours, after Gate Day at noon. About 7 hours away, now.” He glanced at the horizon, at the brightening sky that was still twilight purple and aurora-rainbow’d. “Maybe 6 hours.” And then he pointed down the street, at a person rushing out of Mark’s house and growing taller. “Sally wants to go with you.”
Mark turned. “… Yeah.”
Mark went down toward Sally.
A moment later and Sally rode upon an adamantium seat as Mark whisked them out of the city, a black orb coming into existence right behind them. That would be Quark’s orb, if Addavein recalled correctly. Sure enough, Quark started casting spells in that orb and they vanished from sight, and then from heat signature, and soon they even faded to Addavein’s astral sense as they passed beyond the walls, toward the north.
Addavein was sure that Mark would double back or something, so he was fine out there, wherever he was.
Now, about this PL 100 nonsense, and Mark’s concerns about Aurora…
- -
Sally breathed deep as she sat on a rock about 5 centimeters across in an almost-dark cave.
She felt weirdly good about all of this weirdness with Mark, as trickles of sunlight flowed into the cave entrance. Black sigils inlaid into the boulders around the cave entrance drank in the rest of the light, and most of the sound and color of the world. Sure, Mark was strung-the-fuck-out and they’d talk a lot later, but right now he was crashed out in the back of the cave and wrapped in an adamantium membrane that flexed a little as he breathed below the surface. It didn’t flex much. Honestly made him look like some sort of cocooned monster.
But that was fine.
The world was full of monsters, and sometimes you needed to be a bigger monster than the rest in order to survive and save others.
Sally looked at Mark and his cocoon with her Retribution sense, and Mark still shimmered with that characteristic glow of a truly good person. There was something almost too-much about it. Something big had happened out there, to him, especially when he came back talking about killing demons and ripping apart the sky and destroying the Moon and Daihoon.
Sally understood, logically, why Isoko tried to Sleep him, but she was still furious at Isoko. What the fuck was up with her trying to Sleep him! That was, like, Powers 101. Don’t use your Powers on the people you love, or even on other people. Powers were loaded guns.
… And if it took destroying a world to remove the loaded guns from the hands of people who couldn’t be trusted with them, then maybe the world needed to be destroyed.
… But also, Mark was obviously suffering from Dragon Wake.
He’d be more coherent when he woke up.
And so, Sally sat there on a tiny stone, watching the warded entrance while Mark slept, happy to be here. It was like that time when she was in that molten layer of Endless Daihoon, getting her second ascension. Sally felt satisfied that she could do this for him.
… Sally turned and looked at the black cocoon.
He was gonna be okay, right?
- - - -
Mark dreamed of demons.