BECMI Chapter 547 – The Roses are Coming
We couldn’t reach them in person, but we were always there, in the Markspace. The art of Tatting others had been passed down, as had the Oaths of Fealty. The Marks reached across dimensions, and if we seemed to be moving glacially slow to them at times, we were always there.
I stood on the edge of Castle Doomrose, looking out over the dark fanged peaks rising from eternal rivers of lava that never went dim.
There were fewer dragons there than there had been a year ago. Many bloodlines had chosen to finally depart this crowded land, with the threat of the Carnifex gone, wanting to be free of the stifling limitations on who and what they could hunt, the reliance on conjured food, and the inability to do anything to the prey that lived at the base of the mountains.
The world was now open once again. The dragons could go forth and multiply… except the only lands that were fruitful were the ones that were being restored by Nature Elementals, 3.14 square miles at a time, and all of those areas had dragons or Archmages staying in the Pyramids that still wrapped them in protection.
A generation, two, and the young dragons would grow up without fear of Carnifex jaws in the night, and the adults would forget the fear and the camaraderie as their draconic nature to dominate and hunt took over once again.
They would become enemies of the Empire, looking at the mortals below as prey once more, the ecosystems being restored their new hunting grounds.
That was expressly true of most of the Chaotics, save those who absolutely loved the atmosphere here and didn’t want to abandon it, usually the older ones. A great number of the Neutral breeds left, too, even if Cirruluxul reigned as Dragon Queen here, simply because none could gainsay her.
But almost all the Lawful dragons had stayed, and the ones that hadn’t had moved into lands of the Empire, choosing roles as guardians, defenders, and advisors to the humanoids who lived around them.
“Today,” I said, and my Voice echoed over the whole of the Ringlands and further out, to every dragon who had laired here… which was basically every dragon still alive native to the planet, “we begin the end of the end. Twenty-five hundred years, and we have reached the last stage.
“Like those before it, this will not be over shortly. It will take iron will, iron resolve, iron discipline, the strength of stone and steel, and the power of fire and lightning. Our foe is vast, vaster than we… but it cannot bring all of its strength to face us.
“Now all of the might of mortals, dragons, and gods of this world of Nown is coming to bear. We will throw back the power of Dream and Nightmare, and this world will finally be our own once more, and our enemies banished to fear and shadow.
“Come. Doomrose goes to war!”
I lifted my hands, and Castle Doomrose rose with it.
Silently, fluidly, the mountain I was built atop unfolded along a narrow central shaft against the size of the mountain itself, twining vines rising underneath the foundation of the Castle proper. Around it, in every direction, petals and leaves unfolded in great living ripples of stone that was more than alive, a great massive blossom directly underneath the Castle it was in the center of, and dozens of others spiraling around the mountain.
Forming endless numbers of shelves and perches for dragons.
They came, because their Oaths to me demanded it, and they all owed me debts they could not repay. Many had fought on the side of the Empire and Heaven, many had died, and they had all watched their own die in those battles.
Lights flickered and flashed as the mortal forces of the Ringlands Teleported and Linejumped aboard. Nothing under a Ten was allowed to join this fight. The rest would remain behind to continue building a great realm at peace, as would the younger dragons.
From all over the Ringlands, dragons took wing and came soaring in to the floral landings as Castle Doomrose left behind an empty pedestal, one which was rapidly covered by gigantic living blossoms of crimson and cloud and obsidian, waiting for our return.
Below, the town of Doomroot and the adventurers there gawked up at us as a mountain moved away, and the Dungeon itself pulsed in farewell to our departure.
Clouds moved past us, dragons in their scores, then hundreds swooped in around the Castle. Cirruluxul was on my left, Duum at full size on my right, and there I stood as my Castle headed south, bringing all of the might of the Ringlands and the dragons of Nown with me.
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The Imperial, Nest, and Reacher Armadas caught up to me over the Sea of Strife. Given I was only doing about thirty miles an hour, that was far from unexpected. It was going to take me a week to reach Arktos down there.
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Since they couldn’t see me coming, it didn’t matter.
Metallic dragons in hues not native to Nown joined the swooping dragonflight exercising their wings around the Castle, earning a lot of attention from people and dragons alike. Roc-riding giants joined into the flight, finding the heated updrafts around the Castle hadn’t stopped, and gliding along leisurely was totally possible and effortless.
The Kite, the QL 40 personal shuttle of the Imperial family, swooped over next to the Throne room, locking into place with speed and alacrity. Sif and Thor hopped over the side without any decorum and headed over to us.
“Finally got to bring this old thing out, Aunt Edge!” Sif exclaimed, giving me a hug, while Thor looked out at the utterly incredible view of dragons, rocs, and skyships from multiple races and creeds all heading slowly south. The zipping crystal flower-ships of the elves were particularly eye-catching, and their butterfly-colored Flitters were going through aerial dances with some of the delighted smaller dragons.
“It’s been waiting to be used,” I agreed. “I think it’s going to save us about twenty years of work when I set it down.”
That earned Thor’s attention, and Cirru’s. “No shit, Aunt Edge?” he had to say, this being one of the few places he could let down an emperor’s mien. “What are the specs on it?”
“It’s the equivalent of a hundred-step Pyramid.”
They all blinked at me.
“And you can just set it down anywhere…” Sif breathed, her eyes dancing.
Thor looked south, I could see his thoughts churning madly. “Damn it, Aunt Edge. We won’t have to do the grind for the first three Pyramids at all?” he had to ask.
“I intend to set it down in front of each of the Maws in turn, then build out the Pyramids around and behind them,” I informed them.
“That…” I could see him throwing out all the battleplans he’d made. “Oh, so glad you kept this totally under wraps, or they might have seen it coming…” he mumbled under his breath.
“What they will probably do in desperation is start building Pyramids of their own to try and stabilize and keep the border. So what we’re going to be doing is putting up Pyramids of our own, defending them, and swatting down their Pyramids in the end.”
Thor frowned at that, realizing the implications. “As long as they have a complete Ring, they can counter every Seal and we can’t close the border. As long as they have a Domain, they won’t suffer any planar weakness or instability from our own Veil…”
“Correct.” I let that draw out. “You didn’t figure they’d have Pyramids of their own, did you?”
His shoulders slumped slightly. “I was figuring Obelisks, using them like nails to hold the planes concurrent against the open Veil. Pyramids…” he looked up suddenly. “We didn’t have a chance without you doing this, did we?”
“No. They can manipulate time and space. It’s likely they already have several inner rings of Pyramids up further in, keeping the border stable, and believe they are just toying with us. I can’t fly my Castle into Leng, but I can extend its Domain into any area they keep open along the Veil, and that includes the Maws.”
The Maws were the canyons that led out of Leng, and the holding points for both the Leng natives and the other species which occupied the mountains and frozen wilds of Arktos. They were often miles wide, as if made for disgorging numberless hordes, and there were nine of them around the central plateau that formed the hole to the Hollow World, and the way up to Leng.
To go overland to the Hollow World now, you actually had to travel through Leng along the Veil to reach it. The only way to reach it from space was a single mile-wide Anti-Magic cylindrical zone in the center of the Dead Magic Zone there that would avoid Leng if you dropped straight through it into the Hollow World… meaning the only way to do so was with advanced technology.
Nobody had made the overland trip for twenty-five hundred years. While magic could probably divine it, nobody knew the route to get to Leng on foot, and it could literally be tens of thousands of miles long, or a hike over the next hill. Both. Neither.
Leng not being friendly to most sorts, trying it was probably a death sentence, especially since this border zone was permeable by Far Realms looking for an easy way into Creation.
Fucking Leng.
And the King in Yellow, a genuine Avatar of an Old God, sitting there at the middle of it. Somethingthat probably knew who the originals of the Gallivants were, if not who these new gods who’d gained all their power on their own merits were.
“We’re going to be killing a lot of shit for a long time again,” Thor sighed. “And if we bring in scrubs, they are just going to die a whole damn lot.” Which was why he’d de-mobilized so many of them. It was better having them back in their communities in case random shit came up rather than out here emptying a magazine into a Leng ghast horde and still dying when three shots to the chest didn’t kill them.
Shit from Leng was as tough as all the other crap out here, which was why nothing bothered to invade Leng.
“You care what Maw we put you down in front of?” Thor asked cheerfully, getting that special smile he got when planning how to kill a lot of things that needed the killing.
“Wherever it is most useful, my Emperor,” I replied kindly, watching two of Cirru’s third brood arc slowly in front of us, Briggs’ son Modi and daughter-in-law Caitlin waving at us.
Nobody rode Cirru, but her brood were the dragons of the Imperial Family and the highest nobles, warriors, wizards, and priests of the Empire and the Reach, and make no mistake about that!
“The hardest part will be holding the other Maws against the pressure that will manifest as soon as we get one Pyramid in place,” Sif scowled. “Technological mass AoE’s only go so far, and we can only make them so quickly, even with the production capability of the Nests being so high. We are facing literally infinite numbers, the only difficulty being mobilizing them and getting them to the battlefield.
“And the likelihood high tech doesn’t function overly well in Leng?” I pointed out.
She gave me a side-eye. “That just means we need more Planar Bubbles active if we need to deploy there.”
“Also true,” I agreed. “Expensive, but not a bad idea for a fusion warhead targeting the Black Pyramids we’re sure to see up there.”
“Noted and sending it out as a modular attachment to the warheads they’ll be putting together,” Sif acknowledged.
“Mmm. Now shut up and enjoy the grandeur of the moment, dear.”
“Yes, Aunt Edge,” the Empress sighed.