Aster Fall, Ch 2: Beneath the Triple Moons (Patreon)

Somewhere

In the layers of the dimensional barrier around Aster Fall, the Outsider man and woman were staring at their orange spell sphere, which was flickering intermittently. It didn’t look as robust as it had a little while before.

Their spell bubble was currently floating in the fifth layer of the Seal around Aster Fall, as it had been for the past few hundred years. There was a constant cycle of energy between the galaxies on either side that was pushing it onward.

Their efforts to break the Seal had resulted in some progress, but at the rate they were moving, it would still take almost four thousand years to be ejected from the other side.

Whenever the Astral Guardians caught someone who was too difficult to kill, throwing them into the Seal was an acceptable method of dealing with them. Once they were inside, they were like bubbles caught in a river.

The flow of energy between the galaxies would force them back out the other side eventually, and then it would take them quite a bit of effort to tear through the Seal to return. It wasn't perfect, but it kept them from causing trouble for a while.

In the deeper layers of the Seal, there were other forces sealed away, powerful ones that had been trapped there at the end of the First War when the Seal was formed. Few people remembered who they were, but the man was one of them.

He’d been young then, just old enough to travel the stars. 

He’d barely retreated before the Seal had snapped into place, but he still remembered the gleam of stars on the other side. Each one was a power source strong enough to turn an essence-based lifeform into a god.

All of them unclaimed.

The new galaxy didn’t even know what essence was, much less how to use it. It was a minor detail that to gather the essence, you had to consume the star and destroy the worlds around it.

Life was for those with the power to seize it.

“The World Core has limited our access to the outer layer.” The man with orange, slit-pupiled eyes frowned, lending his features an exotic, fierce cast. “We’ll have to work harder to break in again.”

“Khaes, I’m well aware of your capabilities,” the woman replied, shaking her head. She had eyes that were similar to the man's, but a shade more yellow. She stared unblinkingly at the sphere in front of her. “That will only slow us down for a while. Are you fishing for compliments, or for me to offer some incentive?”

“You have always been impatient, Yeria.” Khaes smiled, but his eyes grew dark with warning as he ignored her dig, focusing on the sphere. “Youth becomes you, but remember I am being indulgent. This could be a less pleasant experience if you would like...for the next four thousand years.”

“Just tell me about our progress then,” Yeria muttered, her voice dropping slightly. Khaes was a full evolution of her, so his threat was not easy to ignore, but it did nothing to curb her desire to escape.

“We’ll have to accelerate the decay of the Nexus itself and see if that opens any opportunities,” Khaes replied as he turned to look toward the dimensional walls around them. “The amount of energy we can gather is infinitesimal compared to the World Core, but the Nexus point has always been fragile.

"Think of the Nexus as the point where the two galaxies overlap. The World Core is like a diamond at the center of that, surrounded by dimensions that create a multi-layered sphere. The Nexus is the central layer. Aster Fall is the next as you head outwards.

"Beyond that are the other dimensional layers, somewhere between nine and thirteen, depending on how you count them. We are currently in the fifth layer.

"The World Core is still carrying out its original task to moderate the energy at the Nexus point, balancing essence and experience to keep the two galaxies from flowing into one another. That flow of energy is what powers the Seal.

"It will be a slow process, but if we shake the dimensional barriers in the right way, it will cause ripples to reach the Nexus, which will turn into flaws. Those will accumulate over time, and the instability will eventually create a systemic collapse.

"If we're lucky, it will also cause the World Core to lose control of the Nexus. That would destroy the Seal for good.”

“How fast can we work?” Yeria asked, her impatience rising again as she looked toward the damaged spell sphere. “And can you see where that World Forger got off to? It’s a pity we can’t enslave him somehow."

“That would be a source of power,” Khaes agreed, waving his hand through the air over the spell sphere as he caused it to flare to life again. His eyes narrowed as he began to examine the damage from the World Core’s attack.

The artifact spirit had shattered a third of their construct, which was going to be annoying to repair.

His hand flashed as he reached into the sphere and pulled out a broken rune. He compressed it between his hands, reshaping it into the correct form, and flicked it back in again.

“Remember that he is not a World Forger yet.”

—-

The Western Storm Plains

The world of Aster Fall stretched out in front of the Hasterns and their allies as they rode across the plains that surrounded Cliff’s End. The village was to the far southwest in the Kingdom of Aethra, bordering an area known as the Broken Lands.

That was a range of shattered mountains that had somehow been crushed down into the earth. The land there was a chaos of ravines, sharp peaks, and twisted cliffs that suddenly ended. Travel through the area was nearly impossible by foot, at least for humans. If you wanted to cross the area, you needed to fly.

The Broken Lands stretched in a long line for nearly three thousand miles to the north and south, creating the western border of the kingdom. Cliff’s End was nestled near the middle of that range, about a hundred miles to the east and a little to the south.

Twelve hundred miles farther south, there was the Inner Sea, an enormous body of salt water that took up the southern portion of the kingdom. That area was filled with seafolk, sirens, and shipping.

To the east of the village, where they were riding, there were the Storm Plains, a broad area of rolling hills and scattered elemental forests that densely covered a large portion of the western provinces of Aethra.

Cities dotted the area here and there, but none was closer than a few hundred miles.

The location of Cliff’s End was remote in the kingdom and not favored by merchants, but there was one main road that led across the western Storm Plains toward Ebonfar, the first city on the way. If they proceeded in that direction, it would take them about two weeks to reach it.

There was a branch in the road halfway to Ebonfar, where they could turn toward Highfold instead, which was in a low mountain range a little over a thousand miles to the east. If they went in that direction, it would take them nearly a month.

Even these areas were considered to be the western edge of the kingdom. The world was vast and Aethra was only one of the middle-sized kingdoms in it. Starting from the Broken Lands and the Inner Sea, the kingdom stretched thousands of miles to the east and north. All around, it was bordered by kingdoms and empires that were even larger.

According to what Sam had heard, the world of Aster Fall was theoretically about a hundred and fifty thousand miles in diameter, but there were strange effects when you tried to cross over it. Travelers routinely went missing in dimensional gaps that could spring up closer to the edges of the world.

For that reason, most of the stable kingdoms were located on a vast continent near the center of the world. Aethra was to the southwest of that cluster.

They’d been riding out from Cliff’s End for several hours now and the sun was moving toward noon, radiating down through the sky. He could feel the complex energy from it sinking into the earth all around him. It was fire, life, space, and more distant things.

The sky was an intense blue, like an ocean that became deeper toward the horizon. All across it, light pink and silver clouds were drifting, marking out the flow of Aster Fall’s mana through the air.

“What’s that?” Altey was riding in front of him, happily asking questions about everything that she saw. At the moment, she was pointing to a grove of trees to their right, which they were about to pass.

“Lightning oaks,” Sam replied with a smile. “You see the little elemental sparks running along their leaves? The white and blue ones? They’re difficult to cut, but I hear they make good timber.”

“Can we build a house out of them?” Altey was bouncing in the saddle between his arms and he had to adjust his grip on the reins. Her excitement at leaving the village was overflowing.

“Maybe,” he replied as he reached out and mussed up her hair, which got him a discontented pout. That made him laugh again. “But we have to reach our destination first. If there aren’t lightning oaks there, I’m sure there will be something else interesting. We’ll have to hire a good builder.”

Just in front of him, his parents were riding. Krana was to his side and Lesat was behind them, as usual. As Sam spoke, Jeric turned his head to look back at his son and daughter, his eyes shining.

He had never been happier to be back with his family, especially when life was looking up.

“We’ll stop tonight and discuss it, sunshine,” he grinned. “We have some ideas, but we need to decide together. Now that we’re out of the village and no one’s listening in, we can figure it out.”

Krana turned her head to look at the exchange between the family and Sam caught her quick grin before she hid it again. She liked Sam’s family. They were honest and forthright, and they knew where their priorities were.

When she’d told them about her vision, they’d only been afraid for Sam, not for themselves. Now, they just needed to work together to figure out how to get strong enough to make a difference.

She’d been helping Aemilia with her Seer subclass, teaching her how to use her abilities, and she’d also been teaching Sam what she knew about smithing and enchanting, from a dwarven perspective. She was going to do her best to get them into shape for what was to come.

Behind them, Lesat’s eyes were also sparkling. He’d grown up alone for the most part, and being surrounded by the Hastern family was making him sentimental. They were a good family, something worthy of being protected.

He was glad he’d decided to come.

“Aemilia,” Krana spoke up with a smile. “Why don’t we practice with Far Sight on the road? We can probably find a good place to stop for the night. It’s one of the reasons that caravans always ask a Seer or Visionary to come along.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Aemilia replied, turning from where she was riding behind Jeric to look back at the dwarven Seer. She and Krana were quickly becoming friends. Their ages were similar, which wasn’t what she’d expected when they met.

Aemilia’s eyes turned a light golden color as she turned back to the front, her arms wrapping around her husband as she began to search the distance.

In the middle of it all, Sam looked around him with a sense of satisfaction. This was how it was supposed to be.

---

The rest of the day passed in a combination of rolling hills and Altey’s questions, each of which Sam tried to answer. He was enjoying himself. All of them were slowly relaxing as they put more distance between themselves and Cliff’s End, even as they kept an eye out for wandering monsters.

Most monsters on the Storm Plains were under Level 40, and more often around 20 to 30. They usually hunted alone or in pairs. There was a chance of stronger monsters, but most of those had their own territory and wouldn’t come too near the road.

If they wanted to find them, they’d have to go looking.

There were also beasts, which were generally more cautious than monsters. They were less likely to attack a party of travelers, so they didn’t need to worry about them too much. A single traveler alone might have looked appetizing, but their party was large enough to scare away the normal ones looking for a meal.

So far, no monsters had appeared either, but Sam kept Crystal Focus flowing around him as they rode. Altey stayed with him at the center of the group, where their defense was the strongest.

As evening approached, the triple moons of Aster Fall became visible. They were light green, soft blue, and dusky purple, the colors accenting the heavens in their separate orbits. He’d never noticed the colors too much while he was growing up, but now they radiated unique energy signatures to his eyes, making him aware of exactly where they were.

All around them, the Storm Plains were full of energy if you knew where to look. Mana gathered like rivers in open areas, flowing across the plains in streams of mist. Most of the elemental groves around them, like the lightning oaks that Altey had pointed out, grew within those streams.

The mana rivers were best visible from above. After they rode down onto the plains and into the midst of them, they became more transparent, but Sam could still see where they were.

He’d only been able to see energy like this since his transformation into an Outsider.

As evening approached, Aemilia and Krana located a campsite that was inside an elemental grove and they headed off the road toward it. It was about a mile away, close enough to the road to reach easily, but distant enough that they could set up camp and keep watch without being bothered by other travelers.

Not that there was anyone else on the road right now.

They were too close to the Broken Lands for travel to be popular. There was a chance they’d see a rare traveler or merchant, but for the most part, it would be a week or so before traffic picked up, once they got closer to the road that led to Highfold.

The campsite that Aemilia and Krana had was located in a grove of wildthorn trees, a type of tree with a long, narrow trunk that rose up into a canopy of slender green leaves and light blue flowers. Long vines with thorns that were three inches long wrapped around the trunk and draped down from the branches, swaying in the air.

They settled down in a clearing between the trees, using them to block the view from the road. Making camp was a familiar matter for most of them, with Altey tumbling from one area to the next as she explored the camp. Her voice sparked answering calls from the birds in the branches.

Before long, stray branches were gathered for firewood, a few small tents were erected, and Sam ignited the fire with a wave of his hand, encouraging it to settle into a cheerful blaze. The sky above was just starting to darken as the light from the moons became brighter.

The conversation turned toward their destination.

‘Ebonfar or Highfold, do you think?” Sam asked them, as his attention flowed around the campsite. Even now, Crystal Focus was still active, tracking anything that came too close to them.

There was a half-completed set of warding stones in his bag, which he intended to finish soon. He’d settled on using some of the horns from the Horned Water Lizards for it, the ones they’d killed in the tunnels under the Abyssinian Plains. When it was done, it would create a defensive Water barrier around their camp that could be activated.

Over the last couple of months, he’d been working on that and other projects, from his amulet chain, to improving Lesat’s armor, to making new spell scrolls. With Krana’s help and some examples he’d acquired in Osera and Ebonfar, he’d managed to improve his Enchanting to Level 23, his Smithing to Level 14, and his Essence Scribe profession to 21.

Among other things, he’d finally managed to create some healing scrolls, which were carefully tucked away in everyone’s dimensional bags in case they were needed. They were a standard adventuring item, and one that was absolutely essential.

Right now, the main problem was the lack of resources to advance his professions. He still had some materials, but he would need a lot more, including some rarer ones as the professions continued to increase.

A better workshop would help too, but for now he was able to make do with the tools he’d acquired so far. Krana had helped with that, giving him a connection to a dwarven smith in Osera. Most of his gains from up to that point had gone into them.

Now, he had a compact forge that was similar to the one Krana had let him use, a good range of small and medium tools, and a dimensional vest full of pockets to store it, with its own runes for durability and self-repair. It was a good purchase, especially since he could study how it was made.

The runes from it had given him a number of ideas that he’d applied to Lesat’s armor on the way home, enhancing the durability and repair of the Guard’s full plate. He’d also taken the opportunity to extend the enchantment on that across the entire set of armor.

Now, using the enchantment wouldn’t stress the metal so much and it had the ability to repair itself if it wasn’t damaged too badly.

He had a large list of other projects in mind, including making new armor and weapons for his father, more weapons for himself, and more, but he needed more materials first.

He also wanted to alter the wand from Nelgen into something Altey could use without a mana skill and to create a defensive amulet for her. They would both need to have stored mana, since she didn’t have much of her own.

“Do you think Nelgen will be a problem?” Lesat’s question brought Sam’s attention back to the present as everyone gathered around the campfire.

“It’s possible,” Jeric replied, a brief frown flickering across his face. “He does have some connections with the local bandits. I’m not sure how deep they run or if he has any influence with them.”

“I’d like to think better of him, but he’s very petty when he’s angry,” Aemilia said as she joined in, sitting down next to her husband. A smile flitted across her face as she looked at Altey.

Sam’s sister was playing with a translucent, blue horn that looked like crystal. It was one of the remaining horns from the Horned Water Lizards, and Sam had given it to her to study on the road. The ripple of Water energy around it was still there, flowing over the surface in a spiral as she tilted it one way and then another.

“He’s someone who doesn’t have much of a conscience,” Aemilia added, her expression becoming more serious again. “He’ll easily do something to harm others for the sake of his pride, or because he wants to get back at us for a perceived slight.”

“The fault was always his own,” Krana shook her head, joining in on the discussion. “It was clear that he’s a small-minded individual. I’ll keep an eye out behind us for anyone coming. I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries something.”

“The group he’s connected to is called the Silver Vipers,” Jeric said, giving his wife a nod. “They’re a group that’s been in the area for a long time, since before we moved here. I’m not sure how strong they are, but they have to be at a higher level than most in the village.

“We’ll have to keep an eye out. Hopefully, we won’t see anything more of them, but there’s only one main road that leads away from Cliff’s End. Going through the wilderness directly isn’t an option.”

Jeric looked back toward the road and then shook his head as he continued to think about which way they should travel. “The world is very large. It shouldn’t take us too long to put some distance between us and then it will be a moot point. For now, however, we need to decide which way to head.”

“Between the two options, Highfold would be better,” Krana suggested as she looked toward Jeric. “Have you ever heard of the Festival of Three Crowns?”

“What’s that?” Sam asked, turning toward her with a puzzled look. The name caught his attention, but he’d heard of it before.

“Something useful to us and to many crafters,” Krana replied with a grin as she pointed to the sky above them, where the light of the three moons was growing stronger. “Do you see how close the moons are now to one another?

“In a little over two months, the triple moons will align for the first time in seven years. That alignment will last for a week, and it will be celebrated heavily by the sylphs and mountain dwarves who live in Highfold.”

Krana’s grin grew bigger as she looked around the group, taking in the confused expressions. She’d been thinking about this for a while and it was the best plan she could come up with based on their current needs.

“A few thousand years ago, the citizens of Highfold discovered a set of ruins with some enchantments that awaken during the triple alignment. In particular, there are three giant peaks, called the Three Crowns. Each one of them aligns with a moon.

“No one ever figured out how to use those enchantments, but a thriving population of crafters has grown up around them. They study those old ruins and trade ideas. During the festival, there will be a large influx of visitors. The guilds there invite everyone to come and see the ruins and to contribute their theories.

“As a result, Highfold itself has become a popular area for merchants who want to buy interesting enchantments.” Krana smiled as she looked toward Sam. “Your class is unique and the description is connected to ancient enchantments. Between those ruins and the monsters in the mountains nearby, I can’t think of a better place for you.

“Hiding your features will be a problem, but privacy is valued by the crafters there. We’ll just have to keep you away from the crowds.”