Moonlight Relic, Ch 26: Family Trouble (Patreon)

“Not long enough.” Jeric’s nostrils flared as his hands tightened on his hammers. “The last time I saw you was enough for the rest of my life. Everything about Tower Reach is better left in the dust of time.”

“When was the last time we met?” Micas looked thoughtful as he tilted his head. “Some family gathering. The annual ball, right? I still remember your father claiming he’d nearly unlocked his class. Something about aura.” He shook his head.

“He was a dreamer with a cursed class. If it had been worth anything, he should have unlocked it. But it seems like you overcame the problem, even if it was a bit late, wasn’t it?” He set his hands on his hips as he gave Sam a watchful glance and then looked at Jeric again, his interest rising. “How did you do that?”

“I have no reason to explain it to you, Micas.” Jeric let out a low growl, his eyes flat. “I remember our childhood better than you apparently. We had nothing. That ball was only rubbing it in once again. We were dressed like beggars compared to everyone else and you were the first to point it out.”

“You have to earn what you have,” Micas said with a shrug and a smile. “It’s a family rule. How else would you know where you stand? It was just a way of motivating you.”

“Like you earned everything that you have?” Jeric growled back at him. “You were given it for making easy milestones. Gain a new level, practice a new spell, something anyone with a working class could have done.”

“If you’d been any good, you’d have had them too.” Micas’s expression hardened, his eyes thinning. He didn’t like what he called hard work being dismissed. “That’s how the family works. Wealth isn’t spent on those who don’t achieve.”

“Neither is kindness.” Jeric cut his hand through the air abruptly, bringing an end to the conversation. “But enough. It was long ago and I want nothing to do with it any longer. Why are you here?”

“Isn’t that the question? I didn’t think I’d find you here, but it does make things easier.” Instead of saying anything else, Micas turned to look up at Sam. “What would you like for him? I have all sorts of things I could offer.” He waved his hand at the peak behind Sam.

“A defensive ward for your peak, perhaps, to keep troublemakers away? Or is politics more to your taste? I can arrange for the adventurer’s guilds and all the local forces to leave you alone. I can even have this place declared off limits, under the Hasterns’ protection. There are very few people worth anything who would challenge us.”

“YOU CANNOT BUY HIM.” Sam’s growl filled the air as the storm surged, interrupting Micas’s words. A bolt of moonlit lightning cracked through the clouds as it slammed into the ground. His anger had been building as he listened. Now, he’d had enough.

Micas darted backward as a ruby-tinted shield appeared around him. The dagger with the yellow gem was in his hand again, along with a silver and ruby orb. He frowned up at Sam with a cautious look and then took two steps back before he bowed again.

“My apologies then, for making an ill-advised request. My old familiarity with your servant made me speak too quickly. May I start over?”

Sam glared at him as he floated there, his arms folded. His hands were gripped so tightly that it felt like dull spikes were hitting his bones. The storm swirled faster behind him.

It didn’t look like Micas recognized him, just his father. Given how different Jeric looked now, not to mention the decades since they’d met, he doubted Micas recognized him on sight. More likely, his Analyze was high enough to get a name or he had an artifact for it. After that, he’d connected the dots. But that wasn’t as important as the main question, which was why Micas was here.

He doubted the man would have come just to visit the ruins. The way he spoke about the area said that they weren’t very important to him. Jeric and the class change had caught his attention, but he must have come for something else.

He’d had a bad impression of his family for a long time, and Micas was only reinforcing it, but if he was Level 184, that meant the older people in the family were probably higher. Micas didn’t act like he was running things. He acted like a dilettante with no worries.

Everything he’d heard about Tower Reach told him it was a force to be reckoned with, and the Tower Magus subclass was prestigious and powerful. If the Hasterns were that influential within the city, and if Micas was already Level 184, then the older members of the family were probably in the Second Evolution or even the Third. That was a level that he didn’t want to take on right now.

He would have to avoid them.

They had too much influence and power, and the arrogance to go along with it. Anything they heard about, they would chase it for the rest of its secrets. The way Micas was treating a supposed World Spirit was proof that they had little respect for beings of power in the world. He was only paying him lip service while pushing for what he wanted.

If he told them what was going on, they would try to find the source of power here, as well as information on his race and his father’s class change. They would want to study his essence, and they would try to take over. He had no intention of giving up control of the relic or telling them what it could do, much less letting them run everything else.

If Micas was an example, they would turn the area into a living hell where they walked around with their noses in the air and every hope for a pleasant life would fall to pieces. They would fill the ruins with so many people that he’d never be able to get anything done and they would want to approve all of his ideas.

He could already see it happening. They had no hope of controlling the relic or its core enchantment, or of interfacing with the power here, but they would persist in trying until the world fell apart, thinking they were better at it than anyone else. If they ever did acknowledge his ability, they’d try to take control of it, telling him what he could do or not. There was no way that he would allow that to happen.

It was more than that though.

They’d insulted his father. Micas’s words were a glimpse into what life must have been like for Jeric and his grandfather when they lived in Tower Reach. For trying to take control of the relic, he would have opposed them, but for that...he would punish them.

“ARROGANCE AND CONCEIT.” Half a dozen crackling bolts of lightning slammed into the ground as Sam let out another growl. “THIS IS MY HOME, HUMAN. YOU DARE TO COME HERE AND INSULT MY PEOPLE? TO BRIBE ME FOR HIM? PEOPLE CANNOT BE BOUGHT AND SOLD. UNLIKE YOU, I DO NOT BETRAY MY OWN.”

The storm surged forward like a hurricane as he unleashed it at Micas. Winds howled as they tore through the sky, twisting around bolts of crystal flame and chunks of ice. Moonlight flashed in the gaps, spiraling into long, cutting edges that sheared through space.

As he saw it coming, Micas’s eyes widened and he raised the orb in his hand higher. The ruby shield around him brightened until it burned like a gemstone in the night. The storm crashed into the shield, lifting it and Micas both. Moonlight and crystal flame exploded against the shield, throwing him backward fifty feet. His arms crossed in front of his face as he tried to brace himself.

The storm followed, smashing into the shield as it lifted him up again. This time, the storm had built up some momentum and was rushing forward with a gale behind it as it headed for the open skies. The ruby sphere looked like a red eye at the center as it was carried along. As it passed out of his range, Sam released his control, letting it fly away.

They were nearly a mile from the edge of the first layer, but it didn’t matter to the storm.

Before Micas could stop it, he was blown off the first layer like a leaf in the wind. The red shield grew smaller in the distance as it disappeared over the cliff. At the same time, the storm began to lose force, dissipating into the night sky.

A few moments later, Micas slammed into a snowbank on the second layer and the red shield buried itself half a dozen feet deep. All of it was depicted clearly in Sam’s mind as the star projected the image for him. He let out a low, angry growl as he watched with satisfaction.

“Sa..Hunter!” Jeric called up to him with a frown, clearly unwilling to use his name while Micas might still be listening. “Don’t kill him.”

“He’s not dead,” Sam growled back. “He’s just embarrassed. I wasn’t planning to kill him, just to send him off. He is related to you, even if it’s unfortunate.”

He continued watching as Micas pulled himself out of the snowbank and let out a string of curses. He was mostly unharmed. Only his clothes were in disarray. He looked up at the peak with a grimace and muttered something to himself, before he shook his head.

The air around him blurred and then he was gone, his form rippling away like a breeze. It wasn’t teleportation, which was blocked in the ruins, but rather some movement ability. He didn’t completely disappear. Instead, it looked like he was bending the air around himself to move faster as he headed for the third layer. Hopefully, he would leave and forget about all of this, but that was extremely unlikely.

It would have been better to eliminate him, but he was still some form of distant family and Sam wasn’t willing to go that far, if it had even been possible. He’d felt the strength of that shield, and it would have been hard to break it, not to mention whatever other artifacts he had, although he probably could have gotten through it with Shatter Aura.

Here in the relic, while the moons were up, he had a lot of power. He was fairly confident in overwhelming Micas eventually. The problem was what else was connected to him. Killing him or leaving him alive, neither had been a good choice.

Perhaps he should have played along more and tried to deflect attention from his dad. Then he shook his head. That probably wouldn’t have worked either. Micas wasn’t going to leave it alone. Information on a class change was too tempting.

“The question is still why he’s here,” Sam growled as he floated down to the ground and turned to his father.

“That’s what we need to know.” Jeric nodded in agreement. There was a deep frown marking his features. “I never spoke much about my family, because they’re all like him. Arrogant elitists who look down their nose at everything else in the world.”

“How powerful are the Hasterns?” Sam grimaced. “Whether it’s bad luck or throwing him off a mountain, I might have just pulled all their attention here.”

“My great, great-something grandparents are the true powers behind the family.” Jeric frowned as he thought. “They probably won’t move over something like this, since it’s far beneath their notice, but my best guess is that they’re over Level 300. They don’t announce that type of thing in the big families, but everyone has a general idea, and they’re famous for a reason. I never spoke about these things before because I hoped they’d stay far away.

“That Alabaster Palace that Micas mentioned? That’s the Hastern family home, and also the main school in Tower Reach for Dimensional classes and the Tower Mages. The instructors are all in the Second Evolution. I never studied there, since my class wasn’t working, but Micas is a chip right off the old block and exactly like the rest of the family. The matriarch is the strongest Dimensional Mage anyone’s ever heard of, and the patriarch...well, he founded the Tower Magus subclass and might be stronger than her. He’s at least four hundred years old and he looks like he’s thirty.”

“That sounds like trouble,” Lesat rumbled. He had been silent through the exchange, but now that there was a potential threat, it got his attention. “What do we need to do?”

“And what is this about a class change?” Lenei’s eyes were wide next to him, but then she shook her head. “Never mind, that’s something I don’t think I should hear about. It’s already going to bring you trouble if that fellow knows about it. Better to keep that for a place with heavy wards.”

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t change anything.” Lesat looked a bit curious as well, but he shrugged. “There are lots of things in the world that I don’t understand and that’s just one more. How can I help? That fellow doesn’t look like the type to let it go, so we’re going to need something to make sure it’s all safe when he comes back, much less if he brings anyone else along.”

“It would be better to move everyone into the first layer,” Sam started, before he shook his head, “but the defenses won’t be ready for another 118 days, at best.” He grimaced as he looked around, tracking the position of the eight remaining monsters that had taken up position in the ruins. They were still hiding as they stared at the peak. As much as he wanted to, this wasn’t a place he could bring his family yet. He couldn’t imagine Altey up here, hiding in a ruined shack while monsters roamed around outside. No, he was going to need to do something else.

“What’s the range on that spying artifact or whatever that he had?” He frowned as he looked toward Jeric. “Are you familiar with it?”

“It was that crystal disk,” Jeric nodded. “Things like that are common in Tower Reach. It’s a game there to see if you can spy on someone else. It should only be good within the same distance as speaking...say a hundred feet. After that, apparently there are too many things interfering.

“There’s also the question of what Micas will do now that we’ve met.” Jeric frowned. He was punching a clenched fist into his palm, but he seemed to be unaware of it. “If he’s still the brat I remember, he’ll be reaching out for instructions. He was never an independent sort, not when he got handouts from people stronger than him.”

“That’s better than it could have been,” Sam muttered as he added it into his plans. “We also have other problems. There are a couple of hundred monsters and forty adventurers still heading up this way. They’ll all be trying to see what’s happening on the peak. They shouldn’t be able to harm it...but I don’t like the idea of them trying.” He was torn between staying up here to defend the peak and leaving, but it had survived for thousands of years.

Will the enchantments be alright on their own? He sent the thought to the Guardian Star as he looked up at the silver-laced peak. It was a graceful beacon in the night, shining like something ethereal had descended to the earth.

Unless something at the Third Evolution attacks it, the greenstone is unlikely to break. The transfer lines will be fine. Any scratches that appear will be corrected by the repair enchantment now, so it has some capability to withstand damage.

Once the defenses are repaired and protecting it again, a Third Evolution won’t be enough to even scratch it. The shield on the peak is far stronger, even in this state. You should be able to leave it on its own.

What if something tries to take up residence on the first layer? Sam frowned as he thought about it. He didn’t want to leave this place undefended. He still needed to touch the peak at the center of the first layer in order to teleport up to the top, or at least to climb it. If Micas has some sort of defensive ward to put here, like the one he was talking about....

The area is flooded with astral energy. No ward placed here will survive long, not with the relic operating, and especially not with the moons so close. The star’s words were reassuring. They would be sandcastles on the beach as the tide comes in. If something tries to live here, just wait for nightfall and then remove them when you come back.

“Alright,” Sam muttered as he forced himself to turn away from the peak as he came to a decision. “There are still two bounties out there to keep an eye on, but we’ll let the monsters and adventurers fight it out on their own up here. We have other things to do.”

“We need to get back to the village,” Jeric agreed. He punched his hand again, harder this time. “The Hasterns don’t usually leave Tower Reach and I can’t think of any reason for Micas to be here that makes sense. They all like their comforts too much and see other cities as backwaters. That only leaves reasons that don’t make sense. We need to check on Aemilia and Altey and make sure they’re alright.”

“The village is hidden, but it needs more defenses,” Sam growled in agreement. It was something he’d been planning on, and now it was fully on his mind. “We can’t leave it alone like it is right now, but we also don’t want to lead him back there.”

It would be better to move everyone to the first layer once it was fixed, but he knew the sylphs wouldn’t agree. They wouldn’t leave the slopes of Winter Peak. It was too important to their heritage.

As he looked into the distance, he began to consider exactly how he compared to regular wizards. Inside the relic, he had a lot of energy to call on, but once he was outside of it, would he still match up to Micas?

He had 276 in both Aura and Intelligence now, for a total of 552. Compared to a Wizard at Level 100 with perhaps 210 in Intelligence, and with the advantage that essence had over pure mana, that left him at least three times stronger in a straight confrontation. If he added the concepts he knew, rune formation, infused auras, his Epic abilities, scrolls, the focus boost from his bracer, and his racial Evolution...it was a lot higher than just three times.

Unfortunately, Micas was nearly twice his level and had plenty of artifacts of his own. He had to assume that some of them boosted his strength, like that shield. From what he’d heard, levels at the First Evolution added more attributes, but it depended on your class. If Micas was getting 4 Intelligence per level now, he could be at 546 Intelligence, or even higher. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good news, and Micas wasn’t the strongest of the Hasterns.

He felt exposed here, like the walls of his home had been ripped away. It was strange to think of his extended family as the enemy, but that was the hand that fate had dealt. Now, he was going to have to see how well he could stack the deck against them. He needed the relic to repair itself faster, so that he could have a real defense, but that wasn’t going to happen on its own.

Either way, he needed to keep his father and the rest of his family safe, in case Micas tried to pry information out of them.

“We’ll take out some monsters on the way down,” he growled. “Quickly, but a lot of them. I need some materials and you need a few more levels. We’ll check in on the amulet, and if the village is alright for now, we should go after the last two bounties. That should push me to the First Evolution and you’ll be most of the way there. The stronger we are, the better.”

He didn’t know what Micas wanted in the valley, but he would do his best to make sure that he didn’t get it.