Chapter 608: Overthrowing the Tyrants I
Birthday time! Woohoo!
I’d had a big bash for my 100th birthday, and it was pure insanity to me that we were having our big 128th birthday bash in an entirely different era. Like. The world we knew had ended, and we’d clawed our way out of it in less than twenty years. I was used to the mundane use of skills and how Classers could change and shape the local environment, but I still couldn’t wrap my head around how the truly powerful Classers could reshape the world so much in such a short period of time.
28 years was nothing.
28 years was enough to destroy the world, and rebuild the basics of civilization. Rebuild it enough to throw a birthday party with cake. Sure, it was in large part because I’d socked away sacks of baking supplies for Auri that I broke out on special occasions, but the point remained! Cake was a damn miracle. It was like breathing - I took the ability to make cake for granted until suddenly I couldn’t. Until chickens and cows vanished one day, until sugar supply chains collapsed, until vanilla was suddenly a luxury spice, until the only way to make baking powder was locked in a book, not in anyone’s memory. Auri had checked, twice - nobody in Orthus knew.
Cake was as much of a miracle as the huge party Iona had managed to throw.
We did what I wanted for our 100th, we were all-in on Iona for our 128th. Which boiled down to inviting nearly the entire town, and me doing my absolute best to make her deliriously happy.
A wave of sadness struck me as we all laughed, ate, and drank at a grand table together outside, people dancing in a circle around a grand bonfire.
Almost everyone I cared for deeply and loved was here, having the time of their lives. My head was resting on Iona’s shoulder as I was pleasantly buzzed, the pipe left at home. My wife was holding two conversations at once, her warm arm around my waist, her eyes sparkling as she swam through her element like a fish. Auri was having a blast in the flames, making them leap and dart around to the great joy of the dancers, her [Mage Hands] handing out cupcakes. Nina was next to Iona, in an animated conversation with Raccoon, using her Mirages to tell one of her tales.
Heh. The tails had a tale.