Spellheart 10: Chapter 26 (Patreon)

Several steps needed to be enacted immediately to make full use of the Fairy of the Immortal Glade.

Most of the Sorcerer-level wisps had already been retrieved by the more powerful fairies in exchange for cakes, but I tested the full scope of her abilities on those that were still within the range of Mac’s scanner.

Just as I had suspected, the Fairy of the Immortal Glade had an ability set that worked much like Unearthly Movement. Only her ability to zip through ley lines wasn’t limited to earth zeal. She could travel through water, air, fire, or just about anything else.

She also seemed to need far lower concentrations of zeal than I did. Where I needed a river to go anywhere, a brook or stream was more than enough for her to squeeze through.

As a result, she could vanish from one location and appear in another in the blink of an eye. No wonder the jar the Satyr King had kept this fairy in had blocked out zeal so completely. Anything less, and she could have escaped as soon as it suited her fancy.

Soon, I was a dozen cakes poorer but a dozen Sorcerer-level wisps richer. It was probably the best deal I’d ever made. On their own, these dozen wisps would generate a huge quantity of zeal crystals, which could then be sacrificed to the Mana Generator for as many points as I needed to build new defenses and repair existing ones. Already, shimmering blue lines of energy covered the Hearthwood as Mac restored our walls to their original state.

But all that was merely getting a feel for what the Fairy of the Immortal Glade could do. So far, she’d proven herself so fast and nimble that nobody in the enemy camp had even detected her.

By the time she was done, many of my people hiding in the bunkers had come out and were ready to return to their homes and places of business. I found the owner of the bakery I’d raided earlier and commissioned her and a dozen others to make the finest baked goods she could create. Doing so would take some ingredients from the Primordial World and stuff from that utopian version of the World of Sanctuary and Serenity, but for a mission as crucial as this one, I was willing to pay any price.

We used those rare ingredients as base materials to make flour and dough. That I had to grind myself with a mortar and pestal, since none of the cooks were strong enough to grind grain from the Primordial World. I wore out several rocks pounding away at the stuff before Sam gave me some cooking supplies he’d purchased in the Primordial World on a previous adventure.

The real advantage we had, though, was the Hydroponic Farm. The many plants we had in there were of the highest quality. They might not be as physically sturdy as the things grown in the Primordial World, but everyone always said they were incredibly delicious.

“Remember,” I instructed Yavilla, who would pass my orders around to the array of chefs I’d hired for this task, “the Satyr King searched his entire planet for the chefs and the ingredients that finally lured the Fairy of the Immortal Grove into a trap. We want something that’s just as good, along with the promise of more.”

“I understand the gravity of the situation,” Yavilla replied. “The chefs know they are cooking for an eccentric Immortal Ascendant who could either destroy this city or save it. I’ve never seen them so focused.”

With the cooking done and several teams of people all dedicated to keeping the Fairy of the Immortal Grove happy, I attended to all the other tasks I had to do around the Hearthwood. Mainly, that was getting the prisoners set up and generating power, moving zeal crystals into the Mana Generator, and dual cultivating with my companions.

The dual cultivation especially took the edge off being under siege. The influx of new energy also helped me consolidate my advancement to the Mid-Demigod realm.

More importantly, Sava, Assyrus, Eltiana, Nela, Melise, and Illiel were now on the very edge of the Demigod realm. Pushing a single one of them over that threshold would bolster our strength dramatically. I couldn’t take all the credit for that, though. They’d fought very hard during the last battle, and for them, the pressure of battle had pushed each of them to new heights.

But even more important than having one of them break through was whether or not I could repeat what had happened with Tivana.

If I could get another concept out of them, then the Cult of the Unblinking Eye wouldn’t know what hit them.

***

Nela was the first to finally break through. She’d fought hard from the walls, and golden beams of sunlight had scorched more than one foe who dared attack our walls.

I held her tight in my arms throughout her breakthrough. The beams of golden sunlight were so bright that they tore a hole right through the side of my sex dungeon, but I was soon able to point Nela in the direction of our enemies. I hit a few tents and barricades belonging to our besiegers, but I was too focused on making sure Nela broke through safely to focus on hitting anything important.

My chief concern was taking her through the process safely. Nela had spent far less time in the Sorcerer realm than Tivana. In fact, I might even say that Nela’s natural talent should never have taken her to Sorcerer at all. She wasn’t lacking the drive or motivation, but a woman leading the shattered remains of the Songstone Clan could never have risen this high without a lucky encounter.

And her lucky encounter was meeting me. I felt her zeal bend to my caress. It was as familiar to me as her body was by now, so soft and pliable to the touch. On her own, her body would have torn itself apart. But that didn’t matter, with my zeal spreading through her and reinforcing everything from her bones to her skin with superhuman power. I could make her tough enough that even her own powers running rampant on the inside wouldn’t be enough to kill her. Not that I would allow that to happen.

Now that I’d done this with Tivana, I was a lot better at anticipating future issues. And being conscious of what I wanted to see most. Her concept.

Nela had spoken to me at length about what she wanted. Just like Tivana, her concept came to me in flashes of memory. I was prepared for it this time, so even though the images were duller and less refined, I caught most of them anyway.

There was Nela, clothes ragged and armor without its brilliant shine. She was fleeing through the wilderness while servants looked at her with just the faintest glimmer of hope in their eyes.

“Can you really hide us from the Sakaku Clan, lady Nela?” a servant asked.

“I will, for that is my duty.”

Just as soon as it appeared, the image was gone and replaced by another. She was standing in a circle with Melise on one side and several of her subordinates on the other. They were plotting together.

“Are you certain he was a chaka? Did my eyes deceive me? That could have simply been a hideously deformed elf.”

“His features were too regular for that, my lady,” said Ghessa. “He seemed reasonably handsome. We should definitely snatch him. It’s our best shot at preserving the Songstone Clan.”

I smiled at the memory. At the time, Ghessa and I hadn’t exactly gotten along. Little had I known she’d thought I was handsome from the beginning. I’d have to snatch her from wherever she was staying in the city and rub it in a little.

“If that is what we must do, then I will do the deed myself,” Nela declared. “For that is my duty.”

Another scene appeared this time, with Nela guiding several fresh-faced young women. One of whom I recognized. Comela. Elves didn’t really age, especially not when they’d advanced a bit, but this version of Comela had an easy-going and relaxed expression the current version of her had long since cast aside.

“You have a duty to my side of the family, Comela. But also a duty to everyone who follows your father and the entire Hearthwood Clan. These are not gifts we pass down to you but tools so that you may do what you must a little better. You are privileged, and with that privilege comes the burden of duty.”

“I understand, mother,” Comela replied.

In my mind, they really had just been gifts. But Nela had turned them into something that had probably shaped Comela’s understanding of the world from that day forth.

More images appeared before me, and it soon became clear what Nela’s concept was. Duty. A sense of responsibility had always weighed heavily on her shoulders, but it hadn’t been clear exactly how heavy that sense of responsibility was until now.

The idea that her position of privilege by birth came with great responsibilities had been core to her identity. And now it was the core to her power as well.

“D-did it work?” Nela asked. I opened my eyes. She was tightly bundled in my arms, panting and exhausted.

I would have run my hands up and down her body to check for any injuries, but I had been doing that the entire time we dual cultivated. She was fine. Better than fine, in fact.

“It worked,” I replied, pulling her into my lap. I ran my fingers through her hair. Moments ago, it had been splayed out all along the bed and should have been a tangled mess, but combing my fingers through it twice was enough to straighten her golden locks to a smooth silky curtain. I’d never get over that little oddity of elven hair. From the little pamphlet I’d recovered from deep below the world, the creators of the elves had worked very hard on it.

“Good... I... need to get to the... walls... and...” Nela’s voice trailed off as I withdrew both myself and my power from her body. Weakness overcame her, and she slumped into my arms, unconscious. The World Titan Fiendbody had kept her from taking any damage and ensured a perfect breakthrough to Demigod, but she had still exerted herself tremendously.

I hauled her off to the nearby bed, where many of my other companions were waiting. They glanced at me expectantly.

“Success. Nela is a Demigod. Now, let her rest. I will rejoin the rest of you shortly. I have a bit of business to attend to outside.”

A chorus of cheers rang up from my companions, and they hugged one another. We were nothing if not a team, and I was glad everyone was so pleased to hear that one of their number had reached the Demigod realm. Sooner or later, all of them would if I had anything to say about it.

***

I showered, dressed, and was out the door at Demigod speeds. Before long, I was standing before the big tree. Though it was as tall and as imposing as always, now there was a bustle of activity around it. Comela was there organizing bakers and chefs the same way she’d order troops on a battlefield.

Flashing back to that memory I’d seen of her from Nela’s breakthrough, I realized how proud I was of the woman she’d become.

“Comela, how goes the project?” I asked.

“Father. The lesser fairies have brought us more than five thousand wisps, all at least at the True Mage level. I’ve already requested that Mac expand the dungeons. When these wisps are generating zeal crystals for us, we’ll have as many as we can use,” Comela proudly announced.

“And hopefully, many powerful new allies when the room clears up to treat them for their mind control,” I added.

“That too.”

But out of all the fairies we were teaching to be tiny flying kleptomaniacs, there was one in particular I was most interested in. The Fairy of the Immortal Glade. I glanced around, and Comela seemed to realize who I was looking for. She pointed me in the right direction.

Sitting on a tree branch, the Fairy of the Immortal Glade was happily munching on a pastry as big as her head. Each bite she took from it seemed supernaturally large, like she’d employed reality-warping magic just to stuff herself with more snacks than should have been possible for her tiny frame.

“Hey there again. It’s me.”

“Snack man!” the Fairy of the Immortal Glade waved to me. “I found one of the other human’s shinies. I got a pastry for it!” she held up the pastry proudly.

“I see that. Mind giving it to me?” I asked.

She rummaged around in her clothes. I noticed someone had given her actual clothes. The patchwork leaf kilt she was wearing before was nowhere to be seen.

Eventually, she tossed me something that clearly didn’t belong to the world of the elves. “Here you go!”

As soon as she was done, she went back to munching away. But my attention was on the item now in my hands.

I knew what it was right away, a locket, and from the coolness at my touch, it was made of silver. The craftsmanship was also fine. Too fine to have been made by elven hands. As good as they were with wood, elves would not have made a thing like this out of silver. No, this was an artifact from Earth. But was it the kind of artifact I was looking for?

I clicked the latch, and the lid slid open, revealing a picture of the Hearthwood. An odd thing for either Ethan or Louis to hold precious...

Then I looked closer. The image of the Hearthwood was moving. This was no picture, this was a magic spyglass.

After a bit of fiddling, I figured out how to turn the camera around. I zoomed in on myself, then looked around. Despite my best efforts, I could not sense myself being observed in the slightest.

Satisfied, I turned it on the Cult of the Unblinking Eye camp outside our walls. I soon found the nearest tent and looked in on Ethan. He was scowling to himself as he flipped over cushions and blankets one after another, likely searching for the very locket I now held in my hands. A magnificent device for spying on my enemies had suddenly found its way out of my enemy’s grasp and into mine.

I grinned, rubbing my hands together all the more.

“Like it?” the Fairy of the Immortal Glade asked when she saw my expression.

“Oh, I don’t just like it. I love it. Now, let me show you some images of a few other things I’d like you to swipe for me...” I shifted the locket around so the fairy could see. This was going to be good.