Path of Stars, Ch 8: Early Convergence (Patreon)

Near the Peak of Sun’s Rest

“Resel, that’s going to fall!” Jeric’s shout carried across the slope of snow and tumbled stones that made up the edge of the second layer. His frown was deep as he looked over at the new addition to their work party. Then he headed that way.

Any moment now, if Resel didn’t pay more attention, the section of the tumbled building they were clearing away would collapse on his head. He shook his head as he came up next to the man.

A wave of Jeric’s hand sent a flurry of packed snow flying away from the stone in question. It revealed the sharp rubble that was concealed there, which made the footing treacherous. If a stone fell on top of someone and pushed them down onto those, they’d be lucky to survive.

Without saying anything else, he reached down and froze the stones in a wave of ice. Then he shoved them all to the side, clearing out the path to where a larger slab of broken greenstone stood, the one that Resel had been trying to pull on.

Once upon a time, it had been a main support pillar for the building here. Now, it was only one of many broken pieces. Nonetheless, it still had a shimmer of the relic’s energy in it, which was as clear to Jeric as the snow around them.

He hadn’t expected that he would see the relic differently after the Trial of the Moons, but as the Commander of the Frozen Peak here, everything about the relic spoke to him. He could easily see the light infusion of the relic’s energy. It was a faint silver sheen touched with moonlight that flowed through the rocks.

He stepped past Resel and the rest of the team of new workers as he picked up the slab of tumbled greenstone. His arms bulged with muscle as he let out a sharp breath and pushed it back upright. It moved slowly, a thousand pounds or more of rock shifting until it was standing again on its old base.

When it was done, he backed away and wiped a trail of sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. A cold wind dried the sweat away as a thrum of icy cold energy and enduring stone flowed through his meridians, pushing away the sense of sudden exertion.

The addition of his Bloodline of Frozen Earth was still new to him, but it was coming in very useful here on the mountain. The wind and cold were comfortable, even more than they’d been with Siwaha’s Blessing of Ice, and with the stone beneath his feet, his stamina was quickly restored.

“Be careful of the snow packed up around these stones,” he explained as he pointed at the remaining stones that were leaning towards them. His words drew Resel’s attention as well as the other half-dozen newcomers. “The footing is treacherous and there’s more pressure behind the stones than you think. They need to be dug clear before you move them.”

“Understood, commander.” Resel saluted awkwardly before he stepped toward the next area to clear and began to work.

From his background, he’d been a recruit in some bandit gang before this, one that had styled itself as a free army. He’d decided to run away and somehow ended up finding one of Aemilia’s books about the relic, which had guided him here.

There was probably more to the story, but Jeric thought it was best to let it be. As far as he could tell, Resel was sincere about his desire to be here, and that was what mattered.

Of course, Aemilia had also welcomed him, scrying more deeply into his past and asking questions of her own, but that was between the two of them. It was enough that Resel had gotten her nod of approval.

The division of responsibilities between him and his wife had come about naturally, although he still couldn’t help marveling at it. The relic had named them the Commander and the Guide and they had fallen into those roles far more quickly than he’d thought possible.

Both of them looked after the newcomers in their own ways.

He gave them a purpose and honest work in a place where they could thrive, and made sure that they were working within their capabilities, while his wife gave them a shared vision of what could be. Most importantly, she showed them what the buildings had once looked like and inspired them. Together, they made up the leadership of the relic.

They didn’t reveal all of the relic’s history or its deeper secrets, but it was obvious to visitors that it was powerful and ancient, especially with the intense magics on the peak over the last months, starting with those pillars of light that Sam had released. There was no hiding that something was happening here.

As a result, they didn’t try to hide its wonders. All they did was limit the true depth of its history and power. The stories of the relic’s past had been widely spread by Aemilia’s books, which was what drew most of the newcomers.

With that in mind, they did their best to make the relic seem like an ancient and damaged city that had once been home to marvelous stories. It was true enough, but framing it as an ancient city instead of a fortress made it less threatening to anyone who listened. It was better for it to be seen as just another place to live, rather than as an artifact that could change the balance of power in the kingdom.

Those who were drawn to it were usually of two types: researchers who wanted to know more about the ancient enchantments here or people in search of better opportunities.

It hadn’t taken them long to decide how to handle the first sort. Researchers had long tried to study the relic with no results, so they simply let them try again. So far, most of them had left in despair.

As for the other sort, those were the ones they recruited. Once they saw that it was under repair and they could make a home for themselves, that was enough for them to want to join up. The main advantage was well-paying work and protection, regardless of class, something that was in short supply in other areas.

Most cities had long filled their ranks with crafters and guards, so unless there was a war to join or you wanted to become an adventurer, your only other option was to try and stake out an area of your own. Opportunities were limited. The kingdom was a dangerous place to be on your own.

Jeric managed the organization of their growing city, but Aemilia was the one who showed them what was possible and what it had been, which made sure that they were rebuilding it the right way. She also looked into the pasts of their recruits and made sure they were honest characters.

Her recommendation was the real test, and once they passed it, she arranged for housing, healing, and more. She also took the time to talk with each of them about their plans for the future and how they could fit in here. He did the same while he worked with them, but most of the time, he thought her work was more important than his.

Her approval was enough for him to treat everyone who came to the relic fairly. No matter what situation they’d been in before, whether it was a bandit army or the king’s legions, he offered them the same trust.

A commander’s job was to lead from the front, to plan for what might come, and to make sure people were trained for the task, but without her to support them in other ways, there was no way that the integration of the new people would be going so well. Over a hundred had already shown up and it looked like more would be coming soon.

According to the Ice Sylphs who had been scouting the mountain passes, more travelers than usual were making their way along the road to Highfold and they didn’t look like merchants. Their clothes were too tattered for that.

Given the frigid conditions of the peak, Jeric had arranged for some warm fur cloaks to be delivered along the road to anyone who needed them. Lesat was making most of them, which gave him a chance to put his recent subclass as an Arcane Leatherworker to work, but he’d already picked up a couple of younger leatherworkers to help him out.

So far, he wasn’t able to produce anything like Sam’s weather-warding belts, but he was able to make the cloaks more protective than normal, which helped to keep a bit more warmth in.

Jeric unconsciously reached out to touch the Belt of Climate Warding that Sam had made, as he wondered where his son was now. Unfortunately, he was still missing. It felt barren without him around, like something essential to his world had been torn away.

He still couldn’t believe that Sam had somehow left Aster Fall. Whatever the Path of Stars was, it was behind his comprehension, but somehow, his son was in the Void.

Jeric shook his head as the same confusion that had been with him for the past three months made him stare off into the sky, past where the moon Caelus was hovering near the horizon, marking that it was mid-afternoon.

When the Sky Guard that had been with Sam and Krana returned alone some weeks after Sam had set out, it had been a massive shock to hear that his son wasn’t on Aster Fall any longer. The only good news was that he was still alive somewhere. Jeric was sure of it, since he didn’t allow himself to think about anything else.

The exact events were a mass of confusion at first as they tried to put everything together surrounding Sam’s disappearance, but then the Moonlight Relic itself spoke to them and said that Sam was on the Path of Stars.

Whatever that was, the relic wouldn’t say except that it was related to Sam’s race and evolution. Apparently, it had asked the World Core about where its Architect had gone and it had received that information from it.

Until then, Jeric hadn’t been aware that the relic could communicate directly with the Core, but apparently now that it was awake, it was possible, if extremely rare. The relic didn’t have much emotion in its voice, but it had sounded disappointed when it told him the news.

The rest of the story had eventually come out, partly from the Sky Guards’ story and partly from Krana, who sent messages of her own from Runekeld with what she knew. She was still studying with the elder Seers and apologetic that she couldn’t return yet, but without any other information, there was little they could do anyway.

Jeric scowled as he walked to the edge of the second layer and looked off into the distance. Sun’s Rest was the highest peak in the area and the Western Reaches rose into the distance in front of him. They were vast spires of snow and frozen stone, all of them outlined with a faint tracery of icy blue and bright yellow, signs of the Ice and Earth mana that he could just barely see now, thanks to his bloodline.

According to what Sam had told him before, there were many other types of mana there as well, but those two were familiar to him now, like a wellspring of energy in the world. He let the sight of them relax his clenched fists a bit as he considered what else had happened recently.

A few weeks after the golems returned and they’d figured out the rough outline of events, a message from Sam had arrived. It appeared in front of him and Aemilia as a tracery of crystalline flames. As soon as he saw it, he knew who had made it.

That message had helped a lot to reassure them that Sam was still alive and well, but it had also told them of the threats to the relic and their family. Namely, this Lord of Wind and Water who had been behind the bellisagi attack on Sam and perhaps the bounty on him as well.

Jeric growled as he pounded his fist into his other palm. He couldn’t deal with that fellow out in the world yet, but if that self-styled lord came to visit the relic, he wouldn’t be leaving again. The relic was more than capable of trapping a Third Evolution within its defenses until they were exhausted.

Then he would be a Lord of Broken Bones and Frozen Blood.

Jeric growled again as he forced himself to consider the next part of Sam’s message: the warning of the Dimensional Convergence. That was why he was pushing the newcomers so hard to fit in and doing everything he could to speed up the repairs. If Sam were here, it would have been faster, but they were doing what they could.

The golems and the relic’s self-repair enchantments would be able to restore all the damaged areas, even without Sam’s help, but it would take a lot longer. The Second Layer here was somewhere between three years and seven years from completion if they left it alone.

Jeric intended to make sure it was on the shorter side of that. Time was what they didn’t have, so even if their efforts to put the buildings together and to clean up the rubble only sped things up a little bit, it was worth doing.

It saved the relic some time and let it focus its energy on fusing the greenstone back together. It also gave their people a sense of belonging. Helping to repair the relic got them invested in it and made them feel like it was their home.

They needed that.

Even though the relic was a powerful force, the world was a dangerous place. They needed everyone to be confident of its value and dedicated to preserving it. He was more than willing to protect those who came here, as were the Ice Sylphs, but he needed them to help themselves too.

Already, there had been a few outbreaks of Flaws along the borders of the relic’s influence, mostly out in the mountains and along the road that led to Highfold and the sylphs’ valley. The sylphs were out there even now looking for more and to make sure that they weren’t surprised by a sudden wave of invasions.

Fortunately, the hunting team’s efforts over the last months had done a great deal to level up his old friends, and they weren’t alone in that. He and Aemilia, as well as Lenei and Lesat, were all continuing to advance at a quick pace themselves. Every time a Flaw appeared, the sylphs were quick to summon them for support.

Thanks to their location-based classes, he and Aemilia couldn’t leave the borders of the relic so easily, at least not without sacrificing a large part of their strength and abilities, but the relic’s territory was vast and the majority of the Flaws were on it. As a result, their levels continued to rise quickly.

Right now, there was only a Flaw once every few weeks, but sometimes it was more than one. The last event had been a trio of linked Flaws that somehow appeared all together. He shook his head as he considered what that meant for the future.

His repairs on the relic and Aemilia’s work on the Hall of the Dawn couldn’t come fast enough. He was also hoping that Krana would return from Runekeld soon and bring that young priestess Ayala with her. It would be good to have another healer on hand, even if she wasn’t at the First Evolution yet.

Once she arrived, he was sure that deficit would correct itself soon enough. There was a lot of work for a priestess here even without the Flaws. The high mountains were a rough place unless you were an Ice Sylph or a drake and her healing skills would be valuable. Lenei was keeping on top of things with her healing-focused subclass, but the paladin couldn’t be everywhere at once.

Thinking of drakes, he scanned the skies for Elsanar, but he didn’t see him or his relatives anywhere, which was hopefully good news. Once the wyverns were eliminated from the nearby slopes, the ice drakes decided to show their thanks by increasing their patrols, especially of the areas they claimed as their own near the relic.

They had become their main scouts for trouble. Almost every time they appeared, they brought news that another Flaw had shown up. Nonetheless, he looked forward to seeing the great drakes flying in the sky. Their affinity to Ice spoke to him more than ever and he’d begun to see them as symbols of natural elemental majesty. They were an irreplaceable part of the peaks.

At that moment, he caught sight of a flickering white streak that was just coming around the edge of Winter Peak. His frown grew deeper as he watched it approached, but he didn’t hesitate to turn to the side and shout to his people, quickly assigning one of the more experienced ones to watch over things until he got back.

He wasn’t sure if that was Elsanar or one of the other Ice Drakes, but either way, he needed to go and see what had appeared this time. His frozen blue eyes hardened as he looked into the distance, scanning the slopes for any signs of a Flaw. Then a wave of snow exploded away from his feet as he pushed himself and raced toward the stairs to the third layer where he knew the drake would land.

He considered sending a message to Aemilia, but he knew it wasn’t necessary. She had probably known the ice drake was coming before he did. No doubt she was gathering up Lenei and Lesat and already heading to the meeting point.

Despite his speed that threw the snow away from him, his feet landed firmly with every step. His class came with an innate knowledge of his territory and that included even the loose rubble beneath his feet. It didn’t even require thought to avoid the treacherous spots.

At the same time, he focused on his innate awareness of his domain, searching for any disturbances. If the Flaw was small and far away, it would take more effort to find it, but it would be a good confirmation.

A few minutes later, he arrived at the other side of the layer, where Aemilia was already waiting for him. He slowed his steps until he stopped beside her, joining her in looking out across the third layer to where the drake was quickly approaching.

“Lenei and Lesat are coming now,” she said with a smile that was just for him. It was almost enough to remove the lines of tension that had been on her features since Sam disappeared.

She had been spending nearly all of her time at the Hall of the Dawn recently, trying her hardest to gain information about what they were facing, and when she saw him, she didn’t hesitate to wrap her arm around his and tell him the latest news.

“Once the Hall is repaired,” she said, “it will be easier to scout out these Flaws that are appearing. The drakes might be able to relax a little then. I’ve been studying the scrying enchantments that they used. It is truly a remarkable place.” Then she paused, her voice trailing off. “If only...”

Jeric covered her hand with his without having to ask what she meant. The mention of enchantments had reminded her of Sam. It was a rare thing these days for her to show doubt in front of anyone except him.

It reminded him of simpler times in their past, before the Astral Guardian and World Core had pulled them all into the issues of the world. Sam had taken to it all like it was his second nature, but he was still young. It was a little harder for the two of them to adjust, although they were making strides. It helped that when they were young, their families had both been involved in larger politics.

“He’ll be back soon,” Jeric reassured her, even though he wasn’t sure he was speaking the truth. “His messages came steadily for weeks and the last one said he was approaching his destination. Hopefully, in a few more months, he’ll be home.”

“It’s hard to imagine that the time has stretched out so long for him, while it was so short here.” Aemilia bowed her head as she looked down at their joined hands. Her voice was sad. “We’ve missed so many years of his life. By the time he comes back, he’ll be older than we are.”

“He won’t see it that way,” Jeric insisted, shaking his head. “He said it only felt like a short time to him so far. We have to believe that. There’s magic at work here, something powerful and ancient. No matter what, he’s still our Sam.”

“Altey said almost the same thing earlier,” Aemilia said with a sigh as she looked back up. Her voice was stronger, but she sounded puzzled. “She thinks he’ll be back soon and won’t listen to any discussion about it. I don’t know how she is so confident, but I’m worried how she’ll handle it if he doesn’t come home on time.” She shook her head slowly.

“I can’t see anything about him. My sight doesn’t reach that far and everything related to his future is blocked. It’s like looking at the sun. All I see are flames. I feel that even when he returns to Aster Fall, things may never be the same again.”

Ever since she’d received her Seer class, and especially after her evolution to Seer of the Three Moons, she’d relied heavily on her sight to tell her about the world and the past. Even when Sam had gone out to Runekeld and then onto the Storm Plains, she’d been watching him. To not be able to find him now was difficult for her.

“Altey believes in him, just like we do,” Jeric said at last. “Every son has to grow up at some point. We just have to accept that he’s doing it faster than we expected. Remember when he started walking, and then a month later, he was running all around the house?”

“He ran into everything,” Aemilia let out a small laugh as she looked away.

“And he broke the rest,” Jeric agreed with a grin. “Not what we expected, but it worked out, right? This will too. He won’t forget us.”

“I suppose not,” Aemilia agreed, her smile growing wider as she looked at him. “But are you really comparing traveling across the Void to running around a tiny cottage?”

“Close enough,” Jeric agreed as he did his best to look innocent.

“Well, let’s see how many things he breaks this time,” Aemilia gazed upward, but she couldn’t help laughing as she swatted him on the shoulder. Her mood was brighter now, and the hit was so light that he barely felt it. It looked like she was going to say something else, but then she looked out at the sky and changed her words.

“We need to get ready. Elsanar is almost here and I can sense his concern. It looks like this will be more difficult than anything we’ve seen so far.”

*****

In the Chaos Wild

A prickle passed over Sam’s skin as a warm current of Fire energy from the small blue star in the distance swept through the pillars of his crafting hall. He looked up briefly to make sure he was alone. He’d been thinking about his family while he was refining the beast materials.

He couldn’t help but wonder what they were doing right now, but after a moment he shook his head and pushed the thought aside and went back to his work. All he could do to get home was finish the Path as quickly as possible.

He was sitting at the center of his crafting hall as he encompassed all the materials he’d just finished refining with Crystal Focus, examining them one by one. The focusing effect of his wounds was still with him, but it was less than it had been while he was healing. He had no trouble keeping his attention on the crafting, but from time to time, his mind wandered.

He wasn’t sure how long it would stay for, so he needed to finish his work while he had it.

Crafting was something that always kept his attention and he had no trouble keeping his mind on it, but the problem was that he wasn’t sure what he would try to make if his focus left. It might be something entirely useless.

As he was healing, an idea had occurred to him, and he wanted to put it into action as soon as possible. There were a number of weaker beasts in the Chaos Wild, and he planned to spend some time hunting them before trying something like the Firesail Void Lizards again.

Hopefully, that would be enough to get his level and Charisma up high enough that he had better control of himself. If he could hunt beasts that had minimal essence, then theoretically it would only take twenty levels or so until he could raise his Charisma enough to forcefully balance his essence.

He was determined to try.

You know that will not be enough to finish the Path, now that you are here. The voice of the Titan Star resonated in his mind, sounding exasperated. It had already told him several times that the idea was unlikely to work, but it seemed to have acquired a new habit of repeating itself. The Will of the Path has your best interests in mind. It will not allow you to pass back through the Divide to the stable part of the galaxy until you do it properly. Forcefully controlling your essence is a temporary solution at best.

“Perhaps, but it will let me keep my mind clear while I work on whatever else I’m supposed to be doing here,” Sam muttered back. He was only giving the star a fraction of his attention. The rest of his efforts were focused on the materials around him. “I don’t suppose you learned about that from it?”

The Will of the Path gave me a great deal of information, but the only thing I know about the Path is that you are cycling your essence in some way here. I believe your imbalance is partly due to the origin of your essence as well, since you gained the majority of it from Outsiders. Being here will help you to resettle it.

Even more importantly, this is your chance to understand your race’s past and to master your heritage. You can’t leave without doing that.

“Alright,” Sam said as he pushed the idea away. “I’ll figure it out as I go. But I’m still going to try to get experience with minimal essence. If I stick to the edge of the Chaos Wild, near the Borderlands, it’s more likely that I’ll encounter some things there that don’t have a lot.”

That is also closer to the hunting zones favored by the younger races, the star replied. Are you certain of your actions if you encounter them? The Path warned you they might see you in a negative light, depending on if they blame the Titans for anything in their lives.

“That’s why I’m working on a few things,” he replied. “Now, stop distracting me and help me figure out where to go next. Show me the map of the Borderlands and the Chaos Wild nearby.”

A sense of doubt rose up from the Titan Star, a sign of its changes ever since the Will of the Path had altered it, but it did as he asked. The star flickered and, a moment later, a rainbow map of the Chaos Wild and the Borderlands formed in the air in front of Sam.

His current location was marked with a small blue dot that was deep inside the Chaos Wild.

He studied the map as the materials in the crafting hall floated in the air all around him. On one side, he was refining several types of metal ore that he’d gathered from the nearby asteroids, while on the other side, there were materials from the beasts that had attacked him. That collection wasn’t just bones and pelts, which made this far more interesting. The beasts in the Chaos Wild all had their own unique nature.

There were gleaming dark fangs from the Darkscale Hunters, special metallic claws from the Ironclaw Wildlings, burning red gems from the heads of the Fireshadow Stalkers, and much more, including brilliant blue scales that shone with ice, long tendons that were stronger than any metal he’d seen on Aster Fall, and other, even stranger things, like the glowing yellow eyes of a Soulseeking Shrike, which looked almost like topazes except for the gem-like irises and the innate runes that were still glimmering in the pupils.

The Chaos Wild was a wondrous place and he intended to take full advantage of it.

There was a broad stone table in front of his seat and in accordance with his old habits, he was idly drawing runic enchantments onto it as he studied the materials and thought. The map of the Chaos Wild floated above his drawings as he worked.

Some days or perhaps weeks later, the table was covered in intricate, interlocking enchantment patterns. Runes flared at the intersections of spiraling connections. All across the surface of the table, scattered in and around the designs, he had set pieces of rare materials. He was especially focused on the massive enchantment design at the center.

He studied the result as he tapped his talons on the table, leaving deep scores in the stone. Sometime in the midst of his work, his hands had reverted to their standard talons and since it was useful for carving the enchantments, he hadn’t bothered to change them back.

After a little while, he reached out and carved a few new runes into the enchantment, subtly altering a few lines. He examined it, checking it over half a dozen times to make sure the concepts wouldn’t clash, and then a slight smile curled the edge of his lips.

He reached out and picked up a roll of tempered and blue-scaled hide that was sitting just inside the enchantment pattern, at the center of the main design. It was one of the rarest materials he had, the hide of a Frostscale Cloudwolf that tried to sneak into his hall. It was called a wolf, but in reality it was more like a mass of fangs and claws with a large, flat expanse of stomach in between.

It had been one of the more difficult fights here, nearly damaging his defenses before he went out to deal with it personally. Its hide was especially attuned to Ice and the Void, and nearly immune to Fire. It was an excellent fit for a cloak.

“Let’s start with this one.”