The Power of Ten

Chapter 7-210: You Were Jealous!

Both of the boys were giving me funny looks when I rode up on the back of something that looked like it had crawled right out of the flaming pits of... hmm, what dimension had jetsilver as a theme? Even the ball of fire burning inside The Old Steed’s chest was edged in silver, Eidolons were pretty good with color schemes.

The Mick turned to Master Fred and just pointed, lifting an eyebrow at my fire-and-bones, black-and-silver ride, complete with a burning Sigla below the wicked flaming horns on his head.

NEUTRAL AND HAPPY ABOUT IT, Master Fred answered the unspoken question, without batting an eye.

“Steed, this here is Master Fred. As you can see, he’s a Four Pact Warlock, and could go Five at any time, but he’s patient.

“That there behind him is his friend Sleipner. I imagine the two of you might want to chat about things at some point.” Empty burning eyes in a supernatural skull considered the spirit unicorn, and his head dipped in acknowledgement. Sleipner’s alicorn gleamed in careful response.

“Over here is The Mick. He’s a Tome-Tainted Blooded, I’m not sure if you are familiar with his people. Go sniff him; his subspecies has some hard connections to vampires and the undead.”

The incredibly intimidating Old Steed trotted over to The Mick with a gait at once dog, horse, cat, and absolutely quiet and powerful murder-machine. Steed stuck an aggressively gleaming fanged maw into the Mick’s rather impressed face, and inhaled with a sound like a furnace opening and venting.

He straightened back up with a proud arch of his thick bony neck, dipping his head once.

The Mick just pointed at me. “Ye were jealous, and got your own ride!” he exclaimed knowingly.josei

I what-? Oh. “I so was!” I agreed without batting an eye, and as he grinned at me, I licked my finger, pulled out a couple sheets of paper with writing all over them, and held them out in his direction. “I also realized you were going to be VERY put out if you had the only Named ride that couldn’t fly. Perhaps you’d like to see some new plans for Bone Marrow, now that you’re stinking filthy rich, Lord Mick?”

“And why would that be important?” he laughed in exaggerated dismissal, before darting up, snatching the plans away, and retreating in under a breath, glaring at them urgently and with great focus, muttering to himself as he walked away.

The sky above was gloomy now, but there was a big white flame burning on a column at the end of a pier built out into the lava lake, the Node Tap blazing with whorls of pyromantic energy around the working area and forge built into it.

All in all, it was a good trade-off. The negative energy from all the undead had been blasted and burned away in a huge area by the Offering to Aru, and more of it would naturally be drawn here by the prevailing mana currents and burned away. Part of what I had been doing was setting up the ley line currents here to do directly that, the pressure of the pyromana chasing the necromana this way to get eaten up and extinguished.

The flow of pyromana through all seven volcanoes was now basically subdued and back to normal; four of them were cooling down now, and would start slumbering soon, but would still be Nodes of the power. ‘Soon’ in geologic terms was a mite longer than ours, and given how much lava had already been disgorged across the landscape, any pressure to vent was long since met.

I left The Mick to contemplating the imminent decrease of his copious bank account, swinging down off the Old Steed, who wandered over to communicate with Sleipner in whatever way old spirits did. Who knows, they might have known one another...

“How goes the world outside?” I asked him. With Sleipner’s Obelisk up, he’d have no problem keeping track of stuff via his Vaccine... and he was probably taking pictures of me manipulating a gorgeous firestorm of pyromana out there like the mother of all flaming floral Seals, just for aesthetics.

EVERYBODY AND THEIR MOTHER WANTS TO TALK TO YOU, he informed me blandly. THE UNITED NATIONS, THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, EVERY FOREIGN GOVERNMENT ANYWHERE NEAR A SHROUDZONE, EVERY NEWS ORGANIZATION THAT CALLS ITSELF THAT, ALL THE MAGICAL ORGANIZATIONS AND SECRET SOCIETIES. HEAVENBOUND HALL IS VERY HAPPY AND SOMEWHAT VEXED AT YOU BEING OUT OF CONTACT AND HAVING TO HANDLE THIS, BUT YOUR MOVES THROUGH THE ALLEGIANCE ARE TAKING SOME OF THE PRESSURE OFF.

I had no difficulties communicating with my Allegiance while doing all this, and explosive recruitment was now underway as the first true Shroudzone ever was destroyed... and most of it was caught on video.

The sensation of the Glory Award going off for all the people who’d helped, and that pillar of light going up and opening up the sky at the same time, was something they’d never forget.

There was a beep as a holo-gnome popped up, red hat firmly photonically intact. “Lady Traveler! The whole Council wants to speak with you!” Gregorigori piped up, illusory fists all clenched in excitement.

“Master Gregorigori,” I said calmly, soothing him down. “The members of Heavenbound Hall are the best in the world at their jobs. They don’t need to talk to me, they have far too much work to do. I will take their well-wishes, I can feel that from the others within my Allegiance, and I am sure it is being reciprocated and shared among people all over the world.

“It is a small start on the job that needs to be done.”

The Holo blinked at me for a moment, and sighed. “You do something that has never been done before, and it’s like nothing important. I don’t know whether to feel small or inspired!”

“With time and Karma, everything I did here, you could have done as well.”

“We, we didn’t leak out the footage of how you were killing those flying Indians, Lady Traveler,” the gnome admitted quietly. “That was, ah...”

“Too frightening?” I asked quietly.

He made a swallowing sound. “Yes...”

“If it was a tight-packed March of weaker undead instead, the kill rate could easily have been a magnitude higher.”

The gnome made a sound like he was going to swoon. “That is going to frighten a lot of people, Lady Traveler.”

“Ask any member of my Allegiance if they fear me or my goals, Master Gregorigori. You will not find any. Those who are fearing are those who have reason to fear. There are massive changes coming, and perhaps they are wise enough to know it, or cunning enough to feel the shifting.

“Regardless, I am now at the point where I am no longer easy to get rid of, even with concentrated effort. They have lost any power over me they had. Naturally, there is fear when you realize your own power is gone.

“Keep that fear where it belongs. I am not a conqueror, nor a tyrant, and that is nothing but TRUTH.”

The Holo of the gnome trembled, and he let out a long, low sigh. “As you say so well, My Lady,” the gnome said. “What message will you have me pass on, then?”

“That I look like a boiled lobster, and I’m going to go chill out. I am in contact with my Allegiance, and if they want to know what to do, just ask them!” Or join up!, was the silent addendum.

“The real things are getting done are with them. I’m just a big gun being aimed at a target. Change comes at the fundamental level. Heavenbound Hall is where that is happening, and what it is meant to lead.”

“And which oh so many would love to knock off its path,” he agreed grimly. “Got it, I’ll pass it along. Nobody’s going to begrudge you a vacation...” He paused when I burst out laughing, and even The Mick, who was walking over, added a guffaw, while Master Fred smiled thinly. “I am out of the loop on a joke, I see!” The gnome sounded wounded.

“Aye. Ye’ll not pass this on, knee-biter, but she’s going to shut down the Antarctica Shroud as part of recovering her fair and priceless complexion!” The Mick was happy to inform him.

“She’s-!” the gnome started to say, and clamped up. “I didn’t hear nuthin’.”

“If she gives credit to any moisturizers, someone will make a bloody fortune,” The Mick continued piously. “We should be hinting to find what she uses,” he winked broadly.

“Effusive amounts of massacre and carnage?” I went along with him.

“Not familiar with that brand name, but I promise I’ll be an investor soon, fair Lady!” I rolled my eyes, now currently glowing a lot hotter than they had before. “Are ye going t’ be riding the big scary beastie down to there, Traveler? A convenient time for him to come along.”

“While the thought is tempting, did you know that Sleipner can do 400 mph in an all-out straight run, without using Veilwalking?”

He blinked, and gave Master Fred a moping expression. “That is so unfair!”

HE’S GOT LEGS, Master Fred replied solemnly. Both the Mick and I groaned together.

“If I had all the time in the world... yes, I’d actually ride him down there. He’s perfect for making a Lived-Line, and he’s faster on foot than I am. But it’s REALLY hard to compete with a top-end motorcycle that can ignore wind resistance and drive itself, you know?”

“A Lived-Line is that important, now?” The Mick wondered aloud.

“Only if you want to be able to Teleport wherever you want to on the planet. You can only do it by following a Lived-Line under the Shroud... even if you are Bloodjumping, instead of dimension-bending.”

“Noted. That means I should be taking a long and scenic drive all the way down to Buenos Aires at some point, does it not?”

“It means you should be driving across the Atlantic Ocean, too.”

His mouth opened, closed, and he pictured doing that. “I’ll invite ye along to go fishing out the back while I do!” he promised.

“I’m afraid of what I might catch.”

“Mmm. So am I, come to think of it.” He patted his breast pocket, putting on a depressed face. “Ye found a place to suck away me new fortune. I be horribly mad at you, Lady Traveler. How am I supposed to stay filthy rich being around you all the time?”

“Well, if you have a load of crappy gemstones somewhere, I told myself I’d take some time off, so I can do a whole load of the raw material, and then it’s just finding something entertaining while I make money...”

He pulled out his phone and started making phone calls on the whereabouts of some of the crap gemstones his people had been acquiring rather quickly, never one to let an opportunity go by... especially one that would generate so much goldweight in return.

The number of people that were moving in various ways was approaching seven figures now. After all, my mineral survey of the area had also turned up lode after lode of precious and not-so-precious materials, some of which it was best if I pulled it up, and some better to just do traditionally.

All such points were noted in military ten-space coordinates, plotted out, the hardest part of the job all done. All that had to happen was getting some adamant-tipped diggers here chewing through the cooled lava, and pulling the wealth out of the ground.

It was going to employ a lot of people, generate hordes of goldweight, fund the making of lots of craft-coins, and make monstrous amounts of magic items. It still wouldn’t be able to satisfy the demand, or the need, but it was going to be a lot.

That said, I was done here, I had most of a day left, and I had a bunch of V Valences to spend... and I was the de facto toothless Firelord. Which normally would mean much of nothing, but here, it meant I could pull spirits out of the buried manaflow, Elementals that hadn’t responded to the call of the dead god, and they would obey me, and when their time was up, actually go back and away, instead of sticking around.

It was time to start pulling up some raw money the fast way, in my down time...