Celestial Hymn 41 (Patreon)

Celestial Hymn

Chapter 41

-VB-

Robb Stark

“I refuse to believe it.” Lord Marris looked surprised and then pleased. “You seem pleased.”

“I am,” Lord Marris replied as he crossed his legs and clasped his hands together. “You are the second lord paramount to question my capabilities.”

He stared at the mage lord, hinting at him to continue with his silence.

“So of course I will be more than happy to show some of my power,” he grinned.

He was confident in his magic, and Robb knew that he was more than a little curious about it as well. He’s heard and known about the more subtle magics that the man and his acolytes have performed, but the magic gate connecting Winterfell in the North to Brownspear in the Stormlands was …

Technically speaking, Robb already knew that the mage lord would be devastating as an enemy simply because he can send any armies back and forth at will, striking his enemies’ weak points at will. Hell, if he was a particularly dishonorable character, then assassins could reach everywhere, strike at the same time … and leave him the sole victor.

“How would you show me?” he asked.

“Why, I would show you a few things I can do.”

“And your magic gate isn’t one of those?”

“That?” Lord Marris smiled. “I consider that basic.”

Basic, huh. Is that why the acolyte needed help? He didn’t voice this, of course. He did, however, ask something else. “And what would you consider advance-?”

---

“-d?”

“Yes, advanced, not master or grandmaster,” Lord Marris replied.

Robb turned back to look at the forest that Lord Marris had “shown” his expertise in “war magic.”

Or rather, Robb now looked at what remained of the forest in that area.

A crater had replaced a thick forest, sitting at some quarter league in width. If this “spell” landed at the heart of a battle formation, then that was both the battle and the enemy army done.

“And all of your acolytes can do this?”

Lord Marris snorted from where he stood next to Robb on top of this hill overlooking the forest. “They wish they could do a tenth of what I can.”

But a tenth of that was still good enough to completely wipe out an army’s command structure.

“... No, if I am being honest-”

“Why would you be honest?”

“... Sorry?”

“Why do you say that you are being honest? Isn’t it possible that we will be enemies?”

Lord Marris looked at him with pity. “Lord Stark, I have no worthy enemy. All I have are distractions, my students, my studies, and a betrothed.”

-VB-

Alan Marris

Robb agreed to participate in the Great Council, and after having seen what I can do, his vassals didn’t speak up against it.

What Robb didn’t know was that I had used more or less all of the mana I had gathered in the past week for that little stunt and had just enough to reopen a gate back to home. Hell, most of my gears had their manas drained, too, for that stunt.

But I knew I could depend on the famous hospitality of the North because despite the grumbling of a few lords, Robb let me return home unharmed.

I knew that the North would show up. Even if I didn’t know the specifics of my magic, I would show up to, if only to find ways to fight around my magic rather than dive head first into a conflict with that magic on the other side.

No, Robb - the young man, not a boy, who would have trounced the Lannisters over and over again - was smart and wise. It took a lot for a young man who was raised to have pride to lay down that same pride instead of drawing sword or stabbing someone in the back.

But I’d counted on that.

Unless Robb does a pony express, it’ll take him weeks.

Weeks that I was spending modifying the hull of my soon to be spaceship.

See, I have spent a lot of time around people, and realized that, hey, there’s a group of people who weren’t absolute assholes and could use a ride out of here. Those people were my students, of course, and also my betrothed, Myrcella. To fit their crew compartments, I just needed to reduce the cargo hold.

Once that modification was done, then the normal building schedule should be followed through, which meant that I was still six months off at least from my ship’s completion.

I paused as my Celesital Forge reached out again, and then missed. I shrugged. Just another miss.

“Master.”

I looked to my left as I walked out of the portal, and saw the acolyte who’d been sent to the North.

I grinned. “You were brave.”

“Yes, master,” he bowed.

“And you know the reward.”

“I am thankful.”

I reached into my robes and pulled out a bottle filled with a shining liquid.

This was … Well, it was a variation of the intellect raising potion from Warcraft. Since I had the ingredients, it hadn’t been too hard to recreate it. Unlike that potion, this potion permanently raised “intellect,” which was less about actual intellect and more about increasing one’s mana capacity.

It also took all of my Azeroth garden’s lesser herb.

For the manaless mages, this potion was perhaps one of the few ways they will be able to naturally grow mana.

The other acolytes watched enviously as the trembling student took the potion and drank it there on the spot.

“Alright, chop chop! We still have work to do and research to perform!”

The crowd at the portal site dispersed, and I too went to my “shipyard” to help with the construction.