Long Live the Emperor: Chapter 25 (Patreon)

Finding Clover turned out to be surprisingly simple and easy. The servant’s quarters she’d been given were supposed to be those of the lady-in-waiting, the first servant to the lady of the manor. That meant her room was essentially Mabel’s closet.

“Yay, I’m so happy for the two of you. Marriages are nice. I remember you had a couple of good ones, Master!”

“A couple of them, huh?” Mabel asked curiously.

“Of course! A man like Master naturally had a massive harem. And he will again, given time! Don’t worry though, Mabel. You’ll always hold a special place in his heart as his first,” Clover explained.

Mabel had an indiscernible look on her face but said nothing more as the three of them gathered on top of Mabel’s bed, which was a bit small for so many, especially when Clover sprawled out in the middle and pulled Mabel and Alvin down to lie next to her in a heaping pile of warm flesh with Alvin at the center.

“So Clover, I take it you were listening while Mabel and I were talking?” Alvin began.

Clover nodded. She must have been thinking the same thing Alvin had been. “Yep! We need to reclaim Aldrich’s memories. We’ll look to see if he left any lying around, and if we can’t get what we need that way, we’ll poke him and steal some!”

“That sounds... difficult.” Alvin remembered how his last fight with Aldrich had gone. Not well. Even with his new understanding of Dreamwalking, he didn’t consider himself particularly lethal in the Dream realm. Maybe if he’d managed to save Magus Terrance’s laser beam fish crab thing, he would have been confident, but without it, he’d be completely reliant on Clover and Firebrand. That might not be too bad, but he still didn’t really have an accurate gauge of their power or Aldrich’s. Nor did the two of them seem particularly reliable. Who knew how they’d react to that earth-aspect spirit hanging around Aldrich? Or if they’d be able to even defeat her. She’d given Alvin quite a beating, and both fire and life seemed like bad aspects to fight an earth spirit with.

On the other hand, being able to pick up little fragments of memories without picking a fight sounded incredibly useful. If he could just jumpstart his learning by a few years, Mabel could probably teach him enough that he wouldn’t embarrass himself by holding a sword upside down or something.

“Let’s look for those memories lying around. However that works,” Alvin concluded.

Mabel wrung her hands together. “So... I suppose I’ll just keep watch and make sure nothing attacks you two while you go off to a magical world filled with adventure and otherworldly powers...”

Alvin turned to Clover with an idea. “Clover, how hard would it be to bring Mabel into the Dreamrealm?”

Clover shrugged. “Don’t know. Harder than for you, that’s for sure. But with three helping her, maybe we can force her to cross over.”

Clover’s plan was essentially for Alvin and Firebrand to work at Mabel from the Dreamrealm. Clover would try to usher her over from the waking world. They would pull, and she would push, and Mabel would just have to do her best to open her mind and not resist. It would take a bit of work, but the first crossover always did. Fortunately, Alvin had all sorts of special incense, candles, and other trinkets all stolen off Magus Terrance’s things after his death, so they could give Mabel the full treatment.

Alvin wasn’t sure if anything would come of this. Clover said Mabel likely wouldn’t gain the ability to see magic like Alvin could, nor was she likely to grow her spirit much with just one visit. Even if nothing magical came of this though, it would let Mabel see this hidden world with him and let them experience it together. If he didn’t show her this hidden world, then Clover and he would have something Mabel and he didn’t. Alvin didn’t want to encourage any feelings of jealousy, especially so early in their marriage, so he knew he had to make this happen.

It took nearly an hour to get everything set up, but given what Mabel had told her father, Alvin didn’t think anyone would be suspicious if the two of them stayed behind closed doors for the rest of the day and into the afternoon the day after.

So they lit incense and candles and drew diagrams left and right. Alvin even found a large glass bowl he was pretty certain he was supposed to rub until it made a low thrumming sound. With all that activated, Clover did her best to coach Mabel into the right state of mind for Dreamwalking.

“You have to make your brain go all mushy. Then be like a little worm wriggling through a tube. Except instead of a worm, it’s you, and instead of a tube, it’s like the world,” Clover unhelpfully explained.

Mabel just looked all the more confused for that explanation, so Alvin quickly came to her rescue.

“Take slow and steady breaths. Don’t try to control them. Just observe natural breathing. It’s like meditation, really. Maybe partway between that and taking a nap.”

“Oh, I have one secret trick that can help!” Mabel reached for the hem of Clover’s pants, pried the lip up, and tried to stick her fingers between Mabel’s legs.

But Mabel reached out and grabbed her wrist first. “Thanks, but no thanks. I think that’d be more than a little distracting...”

Clover pouted. “Aww... oh well. I’ll win you over soon. Master, can do that part for you then, right?”

Before either of them could protest, Alvin found Clover guiding his hands down Clover’s pants. Her fingers rode on top of his, guiding them just where they needed to be.

Alvin’s first thoughts were of how warm she was. He could feel her heartbeat through her skin. His fingers traced over a neatly trimmed bush, and her folds were already slick when he touched them for the first time.

“Do a little swirl here, Master! And the other fingers go here. There you go. You always were good at this,” Clover congratulated Alvin as she pulled her hand away.

“L-like I said,” Mabel said as she bit her lip. “R-rather distracting.”

“It’ll help, trust me!” Clover said.

Both Alvin and Mabel put their trust in the giddy little nymph, and Mabel closed her eyes. He could only keep up his slow and gentle strokes for so long before he had to head over to the Dreamrealm himself. He was about to voice his concerns about the subject when Clover winked at him and dragged his hand out of Mabel’s undergarments before replacing it with her own. She held a finger to her lips to swear Alvin to secrecy.

With the problem solved, Alvin closed his eyes and began to drift off to the Dreamrealm himself.

When he opened his eyes, he stood before the broken castle once again. He stood near the firepit, which burned just like it had when he’d left it. The wood in the fire was different, and most of it had died down to embers. But that didn’t stop the flames that rose from it from towering into the sky.

They shifted and shimmered the moment they had his attention, and a tiny ball of flame shot out from the dense mass of fire.

“Master! You’re back! Let’s go burn stuff!” Firebrand giggled. Her happiness would have been adorably infectious if Alvin didn’t know just how deadly the little fire spirit could be. By burning stuff, she probably meant killing any monsters lurking in the woods around the castle. He was beginning to realize Firebrand had a bit of a bloodthirsty streak in her.

“Firebrand, it’s good to see you again. I need your help to bring in a human from the human world,” Alvin explained.

Just as before, the girlish little fire spirit took the form of a fist-sized ball of fire that soared through the air, leaving a trail of embers in her wake. She lit the dry grass beneath her on fire as she flew, growing a little bigger and brighter whenever she hovered over a burning patch for more than a moment.

“Ooh... sounds like fun. Is she pretty?”

“Yeah, I’d say she is,” Alvin chuckled.

“Yay! Thank you, Master! I can’t wait!”

A few minutes later, Firebrand and Clover had communicated across the barrier between worlds somehow, and Firebrand let Alvin a short distance to the area of space that corresponded to where Mabel’s soul was in the real world.

Squinting, Alvin thought he could see a faint outline that he never would have noticed if Firebrand hadn’t led him there.

“There’s something here...” Alvin muttered as he reached out and touched the empty space. He cupped his fingers and twisted, tugging at the empty space until he felt like he was digging into a pair of curtains. All he had to do was pull them open.

The actual force on his hands was negligible, almost as though he were pushing apart two curtains. But the strain on his mind was far greater, and beads of sweat trickled down his cheeks as he focused. But soon, the world bent to his will, and he opened a doorway just like that creature of Magus Terrance had. Only this one he’d opened up with nothing more than his own will.

“Yay, you can make portals again, Master! Being able to reach the girl’s inner world will make it much easier for me to possess her!” Firebrand said as she darted inside.

Firebrand whizzed inside, and Alvin followed. Standing like a statue in the center of an open field stood Mabel. Her eyes were fixed on a male opponent, though his face was blurry and indistinct. Clover wielded a wooden practice sword over her head with skill and precision, mere moments away from scoring the duel-winning blow.

“Firebrand, what am I--“ But as Alvin watched, Firebrand flew right toward Mabel.

“Oh, she’s a perfect fit!” Firebrand cried. Then she sunk into Mabel’s forehead.

Alvin was about to shout for her to stop, but the deed was already done. He worried for Mabel and rushed to her side. Pressing his hand to her head, she felt warm to the touch. He tugged on her body and patted her cheeks, desperate to get her attention and figure out what Firebrand had just done.

“Clover! I need your help on this side!” Alvin shouted. But then Clover opened her eyes, and he turned his attention back to her. “Mabel, are you in there? Firebrand, what--“

Mabel kissed him full on the lips without a moment of hesitation. She wrapped her arms around Alvin, holding him tight. Alvin was so shocked and surprised he didn’t even think to resist. Mabel wasn’t this impulsive, which meant it had to be Firebrand, but the words she spoke next muddled the waters once again.

“So, Alvin, this is your magic Dreamworld!” Mabel said as she broke off, not feeling the slightest bit bashful after the sudden kiss.

“Yeah... Mabel? Is that you?” Alvin asked cautiously.

“Yep!” Mabel replied cheerily.

“But Firebrand--“

“Right here!” Mabel said again.

“Wait. What?”

Mabel looked every bit as confused as Alvin was. Fortunately, Clover materialized in the Dreamrealm a moment later and explained things.

“Firebrand and Mabel are sharing a body. I’m surprised it worked so easily. Mabel must have an innate affinity for fire, which makes her easier to possess,” Clover explained.

“I’m possessed?” Mabel looked horrified at the thought.

A second later, Firebrand flew out of her forehead. “Thanks for letting me kiss master again!”

The moment Firebrand was free, Mabel’s face flushed red. “Wait... what did I just do?”

“You wanted to do it too!” Firebrand cheerily replied. “So I helped. Go teamwork! Yay!”

“Firebrand was sharing your body for a bit. It is harmless as long as she doesn’t stay too long,” Clover explained.

Alvin furrowed his brows. “You’re certain it’s safe?”

“For a bit. It would be safer if she had a stronger soul.” Clover shrugged.

“Yay! Mabel needs a big fat soul, just like Master!” Firebrand giggled.

Mabel checked her waistline.

“No, not that kind of fat, silly!” Firebrand chided.

Alvin rubbed his temples. This was going to take some time. Fortunately, he’d spent the past few weeks doing a little educational reading, and thanks to the information in the books that he recovered, he was able to make sense of what Clover and Firebrand were talking about.

“In that case, we’ll have to include Mabel in today’s hunt. Then after that, I want to sit down and get some actual practice done.”

***

The hunting portion of their journey into the Dreamrealm proceeded in much the way Alvin had grown used to, only this time he was splitting his meals with Mabel. Firebrand had fortunately grown a lot better at cooking things instead of searing them to ash, and not needing to double back to the firepit made everything they were doing significantly faster.

Altogether, the two allied spirits made quick work of a massive squirrel, a large fox, and something that looked like a snake with a tiny pair of wings.

“Bad baby dragon!” Firebrand declared. “I’m the master of fire here!”

Alvin considered the dead tiny snake thing. Before Clover seared it to a level of burned that could only barely be considered edible, Alvin snatched the body off the ground. There was something odd about the creature now that he had the time to study it. Something blurry and hazy emanated from its body.

Alvin squinted, fully aware the phenomenon he was sensing was magical in nature, and a squint wouldn’t help him perceive it in the slightest. He did it anyway and was quickly rewarded. There were little currents of red energy, almost like little heatwaves seen on a hot summer day. But these weren’t colorless. There was the faintest trace of orange-ish red gas, like flames licking up into the air. As they emanated from the corpse, the energy continued to disperse.

“Do you see this, Clover?” Alvin asked. Clover shook his head.

Alvin turned to Mabel, but she shook her head as well.

“I can!” Firebrand answered. “It’s fire!”

“Fire?” Alvin frowned as he examined the substance. He poked it. It wasn’t hot to the touch, nor did it burn his hands. But Firebrand was right about one thing; it did remind him of fire. It wasn’t fire itself, though. Instead, it was the concept of fire distilled down to its base elements and drifting along for anyone who could perceive it to see.

Alvin imagined it bursting into flame, and suddenly he felt his fingers grow hot. His hands blistered and the flesh around the corpse started to burn.

“Ow!” Alvin dropped it in a hurry, and Clover was quick to heal his wounds. “That hurt.”

“Master, you burned the food. If you wanted it cooked more, you should have just asked!” Firebrand said before torching the dead snake until what remained of its scales glowed cherry-red.

“I don’t think that is edible anymore...” Mabel said. “Also, what did you just do there?”

Alvin grinned. “Magic.”

As they explored, Alvin continued onward, poking and prodding everything around him with his mind. Between the books he’d been reading, his lessons and experience with Clover, and witnessing Magus Terrance’s abilities, he was starting to make sense of everything he’d learned.

The Dreamrealm was filled with different kinds of energy. The word his textbooks used sounded ancient and borderline indescribable, so Alvin decided he’d just call it mana. All this mana tended to come in certain aspects, which often manifested into the natives of the Dreamrealm, like Clover and Firebrand.

All this had been explained to him in the textbooks and lit lined up with what he’d observed. And yet when he watched Magus Terrance fight, he’d never once gripped the natural magic of this place with his own hands and willed it to move as he wanted it.

Instead, he collected various creatures, each meant for a specific task. Could he not work with mana himself? Or was he simply afraid of doing so?

The books he’d been reading said nothing about manipulating mana directly, and yet somehow, Alvin felt certain that doing so would be the key to figuring out what he could really do. It would also do a lot to prepare him to fight the real Aldrich when it finally came to that.

He experimented with several other creatures’ mana, one a frog, another a bird, and finally, with some of the power emanating off Clover.

Clover’s had been unexpectedly powerful, allowing him to make a blade of grass grow into something the size of a tree, hardly even thinking about it at all. He still lacked control over the powers as yet, but now that he knew what he was looking for, he felt like his affinity for the Dreamrealm had grown at an exponential rate.

Before, he’d needed to eat the local residents here to absorb some of their mana, but now he breathed it in, just like they did. Only there was one crucial difference between him and everything else around him.

“Why are all the things we’ve fought composed of only one element?” Alvin asked.

“That’s their aspect,” Clover explained, as though it were obvious.

“But why?”

Alvin had to prod her a few more times to get a proper answer out of her. It turned out that was just how things worked here. Besides rare cases of unique lifeforms like the laser fish crab thing of Magus Terrance, the spirits that lived here had one element each. They breathed it in from the air or by consuming lesser spirits and taking their power for themselves. It was a bit like a bunch of ecosystems all crammed together and existing in the same space at the same time.

There was one crucial difference, though. Humans were at the bottom of it all. A natural human spirit on its own would produce unaspected mana, a rare and delicious treat for any spirit, regardless of their own aspect. It meant any human unlucky enough to be found hiding in their own inner world would certainly be devoured by these wild spirits. Most couldn’t even resist except sub-consciously. They’d simply start feeling weak or depressed, like something invisible was sapping the life out of them.

The death could also be more sudden if something bigger god ahold of them. Alvin was certain that some of these larger creatures could gobble a human soul down in one bite, which would probably produce an effect much like a stroke or heart attack.

There seemed to be one saving grace for humans, though, and that was exactly what Alvin had just discovered. Being unaspected meant that he could use any type of mana freely, though unlike other creatures, he seemed to need a source of mana to manipulate first.

Fortunately, Clover and Firebrand both seemed to fulfill that role just fine.

Regardless of what he chose to study, though, he knew he’d need a lot of practice. But there was no time to start like the present.

Note:

I’m still sorta toying with exactly how the magic system works. This ability gives Alvin a little more self-direction by letting him use the powers himself. I’ll rewrite it if I have any better ideas, but I think it would be nice for him to have his powers of his own since this is turning very strongly into a magical power story rather than the empire builder I had initially planned.

In other news, I have had to get used to typing while standing. I heard standing desks are trendy now, but it’s mainly because while I was looking at my beehive (while wearing gloves this time!) I was stung repeatedly on the ass. Oh well.

In other news, I'm switching over to Amazon Apocalypse. I still have a few more chapters of this, but I'm just going to use that time to get a bit of a head start and redo my outline (again). This is the last time I redo the outline though, I swear!

I'm a bit behind schedule, so I'll probably have to do Amazon Apocalypse 1 at four chapters per week or more to catch up. We'll see.