World Seal, Ch 9: Family Arrival (Patreon)

At the Moonlight Relic.

Sam’s awareness spread out around the valley surrounding Highfold until he found the people he was looking for. He was standing on the peak of Sun’s Rest, but it was easy to see them in his aura.

Aldric and Jesai Hastern, his great grandparents, were standing among a group of their descendants, some of which he recognized from the previous meeting at Osera. They were riding across the valley on the way to Highfold.

Their procession was magnificent, at least in terms of Aster Fall’s nobility. Banners and golden accents draped their horses and clothing. Unlike commoners, they had no need to show off their extra baggage with carriages or wagons.

Everything they needed was packed away securely in spatial artifacts, which were woven into their clothing. For this group, it was too low class to show an obvious bag at their belt. Instead, they had spatial rings, bracelets, and necklaces, and their belts, boots, and even sleeves were enchanted in the same way.

Those weren’t the only enchantments they carried. They practically glowed with power. Weather wards, illusions, anti-scrying enchantments...Sam shook his head as he looked at them. They looked like gaudy nobles, but they were more heavily armed than an entire legion.

Each of them had at least three dozen artifacts and other enchantments in obvious view, not including what was tucked away in spatial pockets. Their family was well known as Dimensional Mages, and they had quite a few of those hidden in less obvious locations too.

He could see them like glowing purple areas. Since they were so similar to one another, it had to be a class ability.

Their horses were outfitted with dimensional artifacts woven into their harness and shoes, which warped the distance beneath them. Each step was worth a dozen normal paces. Their guards were similarly accoutered, and he had to wonder if the Hasterns saw much of a difference between the two.

Aldric and Jesai rode calmly at the head of the procession toward Highfold. Their features were composed, but the arrogance that rolled off of them was so strong he was surprised the grass they passed didn’t catch on fire.

He scanned across everyone present, recording their auras in his mind, and then nodded. There was one noticeable absence among them.

Micas Hastern, the mage who had once tried to kidnap Altey, was nowhere to be seen. Technically, Micas was his father’s cousin and of the same generation, but he declined to give him the title of uncle. He’d lost that privilege the last time he came here.

His absence was curious.

Perhaps he’d never made it home after Sam tossed him into the Broken Lands, or maybe Aldric had decided to leave him behind so he wouldn’t cause more trouble.

Either way, it was good that he wasn’t here.

It would be difficult enough talking to Aldric and Jesai without a more recent offense to complicate things. They’d undoubtedly been behind Micas’s arrival here, but in the interest of keeping the peace, it might be possible to ignore that...if they acted appropriately.

However unlikely that was.

The history between those two and his father was complicated.

Their actions had left his grandfather, Alister, and father impoverished and with a broken class. Both of them had the same Battlefield Reclaimer class that he’d had originally, but they’ve never been able to unlock it.

His grandfather had been heralded as a genius for having a Unique class at first, but when he never realized its potential, he’d been forced to the edges of the family. He was only in his mid-twenties back then.

By that time, he’d had a wife and a young son, Jeric. He’d chosen to work as a low-tier Arcane Scribe and make spell scrolls for a living, even though he was never able to level the profession above 9.

Until you unlocked a class, your General Level and Profession Levels were all limited to that. It was only afterwards that you could gain more benefits from them and the World Core would record your efforts, including with Traits, Profession Abilities, and more.

At the same time, that didn’t mean you couldn’t do it on your own.

He was nearly positive that his grandfather had broken through the level limits and attained far greater heights. The World Core had just never recognized them. There was no other way his grandfather could have made that old Aura Bolt scroll...the same one his father had given to him the day he turned 18.

He still didn’t know how his grandfather had accomplished that. The spell was based on pure Aura, something that was extremely rare for classes on Aster Fall. Some people could handle it with the assistance of Enchanting or Shaman class abilities, which allowed them to stabilize the framework of runes and other spells, but that was all.

He hadn’t yet run into a single class that used it in a pure way.

The wider galaxy was no different, at least for human classes. Direct aura use wasn’t part of human racial abilities. That was why he hadn’t been able to unlock his class until his race changed and he was able to sense aura.

Despite that, Alister had somehow overcome his difficulties enough to become a well-renowned Arcane Scribe and was able to support his family. Sam didn’t know much more than that about his grandfather, except that at some point he had passed away and Jeric had been unable to achieve the same thing.

His father had tried, he knew that. It was the origin of the spell runes he’d taught him so long ago. But he’d never succeeded in crossing the level boundary to make a successful spell scroll.

He’d gone to ask the Hasterns for help, with that profession or learning a different one, but he’d been laughed out of the city and told to fend for himself, and that if he wasn’t able to achieve something, he had only himself to blame.

Although they had so much, they’d offered nothing.

They’d also told him that if he couldn’t make it on his own, he didn’t deserve to be a Hastern or to stay in their city, that he was only an embarrassment to their name. Micas had been one of those who mocked him back then.

If the family had been suffering, or had nothing to give, he perhaps could have forgiven them, but even the most useless of their descendants routinely received an allowance of gold coins that was a thousand times greater than Jeric would have needed to live on and raise his own family.

Aldric and Jesai had supported all of that, whether it was direct or silent.

As a result, Jeric had left Tower Reach and gone to find his own path, eventually meeting Sam’s mother and then settling down in Cliff’s End, on the far western side of the Storm Plains, which was about as far away from the kingdom’s main cities as it was possible to get, a region frequented by more bandits than city guards.

Sam’s frown turned deeper as he studied them, looking for insights into his grandparents’ character. Compared to his current concerns, they weren’t very important, but their arrival would have a large impact on his father.

That was why he was debating whether to deal with them personally.

He’d been expecting them to arrive for the Conclave, but he had been hoping they would keep it lowkey, if only to save his parents the trouble of meeting them. Instead, they’d decided to do it with their usual drama.

He could have resented them, but it had been nearly two centuries since he’d last thought about it much. He wasn’t the same child who was angered by their injustice. He was only interested in whether they would apologize now that they needed something.

At least the tables have turned. The thought sent a slight smile across his face. They were coming to request something from his father now, which was satisfying in its own way.

If they were polite, it might let his father forgive them and then be magnanimous in welcoming them to the relic.

If they weren’t, well...the Conclave of the Moons didn’t guarantee a place to stay. Without Jeric or Aemilia’s approval, the Ice Sylphs wouldn’t welcome them either. They would have to ask the local inns in Highfold for a place to stay, otherwise the wards on the valley would expel them.

Those inns were pleasant, but not up to the standard of the Hasterns. If they didn’t like it, they could go camp out on a mountainside and enjoy the icy winds of the Western Reaches. Imagining that made him chuckle.

A petty revenge perhaps, but satisfying.

All the same, he doubted they’d let it go so easily. Apologizing wasn’t in their nature. Plans for how to deal with them ran through his mind.

He couldn’t say any of the Hasterns had ever made a good impression on him. He’d run into a few of the family scions at Osera when he went to heal Ayala’s father. They’d been arrogant and blind to the world, resting on their laurels and family name rather than working to improve things.

This procession was the same. Despite the Flaws that were intensifying throughout the kingdom, there were no traces of recent Marks or battle on them. A quick check of the World Core’s records and a deeper Analysis of the members of the procession told him they hadn’t earned any for a while.

There were records of older ones, and his grandparents had apparently earned hundreds of Marks in their lives, but they hadn’t closed any within the past twenty-three years.

They’d apparently teleported here straight from Tower Reach, where they did who knew what with their time. Probably political games and elaborate balls.

It only took him a few moments to scan through all of them and to access their records, as well as to do a deeper Analysis. There were about three dozen Hasterns, with a dozen at the Third Evolution, and they had twice that number of guards, all of which were in the Second or Third Evolution.

Not counting Aldric and Jesai, over a dozen of them were at Level 399, three dozen more were at the early Third Evolution, and the rest were below that.

They’d come in force.

He glanced over their entourage and nodded at the presence of several Tempest Barbarians among their guards. It seemed like the class they were famous for creating was present here.

He’d never actually seen one before.

Tempest Barbarians were a Human prestige class that you could take at your Second Evolution if you met the requirements. Figuring out what those requirements were and a way to control the process was something that had made Aldric famous.

The class combined Wind and Storm elements with melee abilities, creating a mixed martial and magical fighter that was stronger than usual. They had a deadly reputation on the battlefield and counted some of the kingdom’s greatest warriors among their ranks.

Anywhere else, it would have been an immensely powerful gathering, but in front of the Legions of Ice and the power of the relic, it was only par for the course, more a sign of their strength to anyone else coming to the Conclave than a threat to Sam’s people.

The legions outnumbered them five hundred to one, even before Sam came into the picture.

After he scanned them all, his frown deepened.

Most of them were what he’d expected. They’d inherited their classes and done the minimal amount of work necessary to earn good Evolutions, whether that was leveling their Abilities or other methods. They were strong and they had some Marks and Traits to their names, but mostly just enough to help with their Evolutions.

These weren’t the type of people who went out of their way to close Flaws. Their histories said they had only worked to benefit themselves.

To an extent, he could tolerate that, since at least they had done something. It was self-serving, but to influence that type of person you just needed to dangle a piece of meat in front of them. They would chase it like starving dogs.

As long as you controlled their self-interest, you controlled them.

Even if they were his relatives, none of them were particularly interesting...except for his great-grandparents. What he saw from them made him do a double take, and then he analyzed them again just to make sure.

He’d expected them to be a stronger version of the rest of the clan, but they were something else entirely.

Aldric Hastern. Human (Other). Level 399. Lord of the Alabaster Tower-Hand of Seizure.

Age: 3,204. Special Circumstances: Fragment of World Authority.

Jesai Hastern. Human (Modified). Level 399. Lady of a Thousand Portals-Eye of the Shattered Storm.

Age: 3,109. Special Circumstances: Fragment of World Authority.

Sam paused and time seemed to slow down around him as he assessed the information. It seemed there was a reason they’d been able to claim Tower Reach as their own and support such a large clan.

Not only were their classes Lord-tier, but they were the oldest humans he’d seen on Aster Fall.

Or...humanish, anyway. Their races were not what he’d expected to see.

He frowned as he evaluated his grandparents more closely. He wasn’t sure what their racial status meant, but Human (Other) and Human (Modified) suggested they weren’t purely human at all.

“What happened there?” He muttered the words aloud, although no one else could hear him from where he was standing on the peak.

Somehow, they’d changed their race enough that the World Core recognized it.

Their ages weren’t impossible for a Third Evolution, so the shock of that wore off more quickly, once he accepted that they were simply far older than he’d suspected, and probably far more than they ever let people know.

His information from Analyze and the World Core was a bit of a cheat in that regard. It was easy to see what people hid.

Every point of Constitution was good for extending your lifespan. It had a reduced effect as you piled on more, but it was always essential.

A hundred Constitution was enough to get you 200-300 years if things went well, and a thousand was a guarantee of your looks barely changing as a millennium passed. 3,000 years would take at least 3,000 in Constitution, which was around the maximum that most Level 399 mage classes would have.

A general Level 399 only had 12,000-15,000 points spread across all of their attributes, and to have a quarter to a fifth in Constitution was reasonable for them. Even with that, however, a regular Level 399 reaching that age would look like they were on death’s doorstep.

His great-grandparents had no sign of age about them at all. They looked like they were in their early thirties. That meant their Constitution was either vastly higher than normal or their age was linked to the racial change.

He was betting on the latter.

Some of the Bloodline Clans had much greater longevity than normal humans, and it seemed Aldric and Jesai did too. Reaching that advanced of an age here meant living through hundreds of calamities and wars.

The Kingdom of Aethra itself was just a fraction younger than them. They predated it by a century.

Their age was only one of the mysteries around them, however, and perhaps the least important. The real points of concern were their classes and that “Special Circumstance: Fragment of World Authority” that he could feel from them.

There was a small amount of the World Core’s power on them and something that felt like World Spirits with a connection to the natural auras of Aster Fall, but it was obvious that neither power was natural to them.

“What is that?” he asked bluntly as he captured the sense of the trait and sent it to the World Core.

The answer was quick to return.

A Fragment of Authority is part of an ancient key created by Asenya, the World Core replied. Its voice was as powerful as ever, but there was a trace of irritation in it this time, one directed at the Fragment.

They are designed to allow surface access to the regulations of the World Core, to provide automated answers to questions, and to offer some assistance with Evolution and class construction.

The World Forger designed them to assist her future apprentices with their Evolutions. She also granted a handful to her allies, under the assumption that they might need my assistance when she wasn’t around.

Altogether, there were 12 fragments, which together formed a greater Key of World Authority, but the majority of them have been lost. Those two are the only ones active on this continent.

The complete key was intended to be used in an emergency to replace her if she wasn’t available, requiring a unanimous decision by those who held the fragments, but it never worked as she hoped.

The Builders did not make it so easy to copy the authority they granted to the World Forger. The key’s value was limited.

The World Core’s voice was almost smug as it finished its explanation.

“So those fragments are like my connection to you as High Artificer, but in a more minor way?” Sam frowned as he sent the question back.

Negative, the core replied immediately. They are far less. You have a true connection and authority, one that can allow conversations like this. Your title as High Artificer is a more complex sort of key.

Even that would not have been enough for my full attention, however, if you were not also an Astral Titan. You are a Builder. You have privileges that cannot be denied, as well as the ability to create a pure connection of astral energy, which is how we are currently speaking.

Without that, it would take a much greater effort on my part to converse with you, and it would also drain my energy.

Those fragments barely touch the surface operations of Aster Fall. They do not grant any access to the primal rules of my nature, nor do they demand my attention.

Additionally, after the damage I suffered in the First War, they barely function. The majority were destroyed or lost during that period, making it impossible to recreate the greater key.

Some of the automated features imbued into the fragments themselves should still operate to answer questions, and there may be some passive enchantments that Asenya left behind on them, but that is all.

Note that even if the complete key was reformed, it would only be similar to the World Core’s Favor trait you hold. It would get my attention, but it could not influence my decisions.

With those words, the World Core’s attention receded, leaving Sam frowning. He had a feeling the core had underplayed the importance of those Fragments of World Authority. It clearly didn’t approve of their existence.

He understood why.

In its mind, only Asenya or the Astral Titans should have the prime authority over it. It approved of his efforts to repair the World Seal, but it liked him because of the title she’d given him and because he was a Titan.

Without those two things, it had its own pride. It was a Divine-tier artifact with a fully sentient spirit, far beyond the more simple-minded Moonlight Relic.

It probably wasn’t happy she’d created that key in the first place, so it was trying to ignore it. And it was definitely happy that the complete one had been destroyed.

All the same, the information left Sam with a significant interest in finding out more. Those fragments were the first evidence of Asenya he’d seen since returning to Aster Fall. Even if they were old and created before she’d gone missing, they were worth studying.

Perhaps they would hold the key to finding her old workshops.

There might also be a more complete guide in them somewhere. The World Core had said they were designed to help with classes and Evolutions. If that was the case...it said a lot about where his grandparents had gained their abilities, and perhaps how they had become famous for creating classes.

It wasn’t easy to create a brand new class, but it was a lot easier if you had something like the World Core or Asenya pointing you in the right direction.

He studied his grandparents with an intense gaze, debating how to approach the topic. Those fragments might be the reason behind all of their accomplishments, so he doubted they would give them up easily. Even mentioning them might cause trouble if they were a secret.

Fortunately, he already knew what they wanted.

His avatar disappeared in a flash of silver flames as he teleported away from the peak, heading for the Second Layer.