EG Book 7 Chapter 3 (Patreon)

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

Thanks for the thoughts! I’m running pretty ragged keeping up with writing and getting ready for the 20BooksTo50k conference, along with my day job being busy, so I haven’t had time to respond to them, but I’m loving them and they’ll definitely affect the second draft!

I’m over 21k words written! Let’s keep this going, woot! So you’ll be getting a second chapter this week too!

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

He was directed to a different dining room. It was much smaller, with only enough room for three tables of six. Vaya, Jamila, Leah, Lilianna, and Milenna were chatting quietly over cups of tea and coffee. Jamila saw me first, her beautiful, olive-skinned face lighting up with a grin. I waved and headed towards the last open seat, next to Vaya. Vaya’s golder hair glittered, silver and gold threads braided into it. I could see the Aether on them. “Neat hair ornament,” I said, sitting next to her just as she finished telling the rest of the girls about a carnival game.

“Thank you,” Vaya said, pulling me into a hug. I hugged her back, then reached over the table to squeeze Jamila’s hand.

“Your aura changed a bit,” Lea said, looking at me with a frown.

“Oh, I finally got a chance to look at the Legacy,” I said, then paused as a servant brought pancakes and eggs in. “Thank you. The first part I looked at was about Core Runes, and I found a really neat one for Fire. So I replaced my old one with it. Hurt like it always does, but I can already feel the effects. I was going to find another one, but my center was not ready for a new one. In fact…” I paused and summoned the Knowledge Stone. “Jamila, here. Find one that works for you, then give it to one of the others. We’ll have a lot of time on the trip back to Craesti, but might as well get started.”

“You are just giving us this?” Milenna asked. “I know you are generous, but we could pay you for access?”

“It is free,” I said, then looked at my finger where the ring rested. “I’m planning on going through everything that is for Aether Gathering level gatherers and distributing it to everyone in all nations. If we can improve the average gatherer's strength, I think it’ll help reduce the damage that is coming. The war will not be easy, and whatever Darkness summoned me here for will be worse, I’m sure of it. This way, less people will die.”

“Then I will not turn down your generosity,” Milenna said, “and will instead pay for this by charity work.”

I grinned at her, “Thank you.”

“Master Narwan told us that we should be ready to advance to Seed Core in a month or so,” Jamila said. “I would like to do so sooner, but he said it would require some rarer pills now that we have taken the ones from the Trials.”

“Well, I have something to trade for those pills,” I said with a grin.

“Ooh, what?” Lilianna said, leaning in. Everyone else turned and waited expectantly.

“Uh, I wasn’t able to get much detail, but the Legacy includes the path forward for everyone at Librarian Narwan’s level,” I said.

A burst of air threw my hair forward, reminding me that I needed to get it cut shorter soon. “It does?” Librarian Narwan said. Lilianna and Milenna had jumped, but the others didn’t, used to my master’s proclivities.

“Yes, Librarian Narwan, it does,” I said. “And of course you will get access as my master.”

“Good, but not right now,” he answered me. “Now you are called before Sultah Aleahil, myself, and the ambassadors and heirs that are present in the city.”

I looked down at my plate, and realized that he’d timed his arrival with the last bite. “I am ready,” I told him, and stood up.

“Then follow,” he said, and rushed out of the room. He didn’t vanish, but was moving fast enough that I had to push myself to keep up.

I waved over my shoulder to my friends as I hurried after him, my surroundings blurring slightly as I pushed Aether into Gusting Northern Wind. I tried to use the Voltage Differential Nerve Induction Technique, but I hadn’t practiced enough to form the attraction points fast enough, so I gave up. The Nerve Induction part, though, did let me turn corners a bit easier.

Librarian Narwan sped up more, making me push every bit I could get out of my two different movement techniques. I wanted to use the General Strengthening Technique too but running three different sets of runes was too much for me, right now at least. I need to put together the Nerve Induction with a strengthening technique, but I need time to figure it out, I thought, my mental voice panting.

We arrived in less than five minutes, racing up to and through a massive gate made of a gold plated metal. Two Ashkhas guards, both at Complete Core, stood aside as we ran, and saluted with the pikes they held. I gave a salute back, my right fist across my chest, and then we were past them.

Librarian Narwan finally slowed as we entered the main palace, changing into a brisk walk rather than a run. It was still faster than an Aether Gathering level person could run, but no one I noticed was weaker than Circulation Condensation. Even they were the few fourteen year old servants who’d probably only been gathering for less than a year.

A few servants looked like they were going to approach, but a single glance at Librarian Narwan’s face dissuaded them of the notion. He led me unerringly through the twisting maze of hallways for a minute, and then we arrived at a small, nondescript door. A single guard was a few meters down the hallway, in front of a more ostentatious doorway. “Go on in, Master Narwan,” the guard said with a bow.

“Thank you,” Librarian Narwan ground out, then opened the door and marched in. I followed nervously. The square room was fairly large, each wall around seven meters in length. Each wall had a different map on it. Straight ahead was a map of the Ashkhas Baqiya and Monster Island, to my right was a map showing the entirety of the Interior Sea and the countries surrounding it, and then to my left was a map of Borgby, the Illyrian fort city. That map was only partially filled in, with many areas left blank as we just didn’t know enough about the Illyrians.

A table filled half the room’s floor space and seated at the head was Sultah Aleahil. To his left was an older male Ashkhas who had streaks of gray in his brown fur, and to his right was a female Ashkhas with light tan fur and purplish eyes. Aleks was next to the female Ashkhas, and smiled happily when she saw me enter. Two seats were empty beside her, and then an older man in a keikogi was sitting stiffly next to Gunther, who gave me a brief nod. Ritter Felix sat next to him, and I felt the weight of his gaze evaluating me. Another Volk sat next to him. On the other side, to Sultah Aleahil’s left and across from Aleks was the Ashkhas heir, then the Topraki heir, an older Topraki male that made me think of Librarian Narwan, and a female Topraki who had a very large notebook in front of her.

After I was seated next to Aleks, I grabbed her hand under the table and squeezed it. “Now that we are all here,” Sultah Aleahil said, “We can begin our discussions.”

“Why is the boy here?” The Ashkahs sitting on Sultah Aleahil’s left asked haughtily.

“He is the possessor of the Legacy of the M’Zee, Councilor Darius,” Sultah Aleahil answered, “along with being an advisor to King Craesti. His presence is germane to the discussion.”

The look on Darius’s face was obviously condescending, but he didn’t say anything else. Ritter Felix spoke into the silence that followed, “Where are the troops now?”

“The first wave is still roughly a week away from landing,” Sultah Aleahil answered. “They have sighted the Primordial. The Craesti team herding it plan to direct it into the fortifications a day prior to our initial assault. We will not hear from them again until nearly a week after the assault begins. The second wave of ships will be launching from our ports in two days, with nearly a hundred thousand Ashkhas troops on board.”

“The Topraki Empire will contribute two hundred thousand to the second wave,” the female Topraki said, still writing in her notebook. “I heard back from Emperor Futuh, and they will be ready to launch in two weeks, joining your army.”

“The Weltreich has eighty thousand soldiers available,” Gunther said, not looking at his ambassador. “I will be joining them on the front lines.”

The Craesti ambassador added, “We will be sending one hundred fifty thousand troops in our next deployment.”

“We would send more,” Aleks said, “but we lack the ships to hold them.”

“Once the initial assault has created a beachhead, our ships will return to Craesti to move another hundred thousand people,” the ambassador continued. “Thank you, Princess Aleks.”

“Uh, sirs and madams, I may have something that will assist with getting information from the assault,” I said, then reached into a spatial bag Knight Kaminski had gotten me to conceal the ring’s effects. I summoned the Connecting the Myriad Peoples plate and pulled it out of my bag. “This is one of the items I received from Spirit in the Tower of Trials.” I popped off one of the medallions and tossed it to Gunther. “Once a month, I can use the plate here to connect everyone holding a pendant for a one-hour conversation. I do not know exactly how it works, but that should allow for slightly easier discussions and information sharing.”

“Who do you plan to give the pendants to?” Counselor Darius asked snidely.

I handed another to Aleks and then one to Izhade before sliding one to Sultah Aleahil. “My plan is one each to my friends that are heirs to their thrones, and then one each to the heads of each state. That way we will be able to communicate among the nations, and will allow me to further the next generations connections among our countries.” With that, I passed two to Shehzada Maayari and one more to Gunther and Aleks. “Please give the second one to your parents.”

“Thank you, Aiden,” Gunther said, leaning forward to look closely at the pendant. “I cannot even see most of the Inscription on this. Fascinating.”

“This will be very useful,” Maayari said, his voice rough. He gave a short bark of laughter, “I look forward to our discussions.”

“Aiden, that is a good segway into our next point of discussion,” Sultah Aleahil said. “How much are you willing to share from the Legacy?”

“And what will we have to spend to get it,” Counselor Darius added with a growl.

I looked at Darius, then over at Aleks and Librarian Narwan. He gave me a nod. “Counselor Darius,” I said firmly, “If you speak to me in that way again, I will ask you to leave. I have done nothing to earn your enmity that I know of and it is distracting from the purpose of this meeting.”

“Listen here you,” Darius started to speak, then Sultah Aleahil slammed a fist into the side of his skull. The flash of Aleahil’s aura made my breath catch, and Darius was flung into the wall with a wet thunk sound. He groaned weakly.

“Leave,” Sultah Aleahil said. “You are removed from my Council. Your masters will have to appoint another to sit in these meetings to replace you.”

“You will regret this,” Darius said darkly.

“No,” I said, “I won’t.” I turned back to Sultah Aleahil. “I have not had a chance to look over the majority of it, yet. One part of the Legacy includes a listing of every single Core Rune that the M’Zee had discovered, I believe, including many more for those with lower Affinity levels than I knew of. I plan to make all of the single Element runes available to everyone, and I do mean everyone.”

I looked around the table seriously, then continued, “We need to seriously increase the strength of the average citizen in our nations. Right now, the majority of our populations cannot even clear the hurdle of condensing a single drop of Aether. Imagine what we could accomplish if every adult was able to reach Complete Condensation? Additionally, a cataclysm is coming.”

I paused to take a deep breath. Several of the people around the table opened their mouths like they were about to speak, but Librarian Narwan and Sultah Aleahil both motioned for silence. Aleks grabbed my hand again, and I continued. “A bit over a year and a half ago, I was extremely sick. At my worst, I found myself speaking with Darkness, who warned me that something was coming, and charged me to get stronger in order to fight it. One of my goals to do so is to make everyone stronger.”

“Is that why you precipitated the war with Illyria?” the Topraki Soul Strengthening advisor asked.

I almost bristled at the question, but the tone didn’t have any accusation in it, only curiosity. “No,” I answered, “I didn’t mean to do that, if my actions in the tournament are what sparked it at all. Defeating the Illyrians will make everyone else safer in the long run, but I worry that the short run we will be weakened. Chaos is coming, and Illyria seems to be allied with them. Maybe the war will cause their plans to trigger sooner than they want, or maybe this is exactly what they wanted. I don’t know.”

“Good,” was the response.

I smiled grimly, then continued, “Other than the Core Runes, I’m going to find gathering techniques, powder recipes, Inscriptions, and anything else I can discover. If it is for people at the Aether Gathering level or equivalent, it will be given away for free. Condensation level knowledge will be shared for a minimal cost, and a moderate one for Core level techniques. Soul Strengthening techniques, though, will be expensive.”

“What could they have that we would want?” Ritter Felix asked.

“Information on how to advance beyond where you all have stalled out, and how to ascend to the next level,” I said simply.

“What!” the Topraki advisor exclaimed. “How? Why? How much!”

“Uh, I haven’t decided yet,” I said.

“And do not be tempted to try and rob him,” Librarian Narwan said, looking at the others. “I and Sultah Aleahil will be watching.”

“That is the extent of what I’ve found in the Legacy so far. I will figure out prices and what is available in the Legacy as soon as I can,” I said.

“You said that you will make single Element Core Runes free,” Gunther stated. “Does that mean there are multi-Element Core Runes available?”

“Yes,” I said, “though they are a pain to engrave in your center.”

“We will talk later,” Gunther told me.

“Excellent, now that that has been discussed, we can move on to the proposed trade agreement from Princess Aleksandra,” Sultah Aleahil announced. The discussions continued for the next hour about various trade deals and other treaties. I managed to make a few poignant comments, but mostly sat and listened. Finally, the meeting was dismissed.

“Knight Aiden,” Prince Gunther called out, “wait a second please.”

“Sure thing, Prince Gunther,” I answered, stepping aside. Two pages had appeared, young Ashkhas standing just out of earshot from a quiet conversation. A third was already escorting the Topraki delegation away.

“I need a Metal, Earth, and Wood rune. We have not discovered a multi-Element of that combination suitable for those with Significant Affinity,” Gunther said quietly.

“Can you trade the next level of your people’s tempering technique?” I asked.

He looked up for a second, then nodded. “Yes, I can do that.”

“Then I will see what the Legacy has,” I told him.

“Ritter Felix and I will speak with you tomorrow,” Gunther said. “Thank you.”

“This is mutually beneficial,” I told him. “We both get stronger. You need to advance soon, or I’m definitely going to beat you into the ground when we next spar.”

“Hah,” Gunther laughed. “We shall see about that.”

“Well, bring it on,” I grinned.

He shook his head, then gave me a slight bow. I returned the gesture, and then a young Ashkhas girl in a formal uniform stepped forward.

“Knight Aiden, I am (Paige in Persian) (name), and have been tasked with escorting you out of the palace. Please follow me if you are ready,” she said, her voice high-pitched but steady.

“I am ready,” I said, “thank you.”