Ch 84. Integration (Patreon)

I awoke to my father smiling down at me and shaking me by the shoulder.

"Come, my little arch-cendai," he said, looking over me with eyes like molten gold. "The tribe needs your guidance and blessings."

I stretched and followed him out of Galissi. The glider was parked inside one of the large caverns facing the chasm. Glowing clouds rolled behind me.

Hundreds of chimera greeted me in the cavern.

I greeted them back and sat on a large, moss-covered rock. One by one, they started to approach me, offering me their trimmed-off hair and asking for things that they required.

Alessi stepped to my side, writing things down in a leather book. Hours flew by as I listened to my people. My father brought me a little dragon baked on a fire and I ate quickly as I interacted with yet more chimera requests.

[I hope you're memorizing all of this because I am staring to forget their names and faces,] I thought to Junezia.

[I am,] a brisk answer came. [Organizing memory is my specialty.]

At some point, my mother came to sit by me, bringing me fruits. I reached out with a hand and we briefly embraced each other.

"You're doing well, my little sunrise," she said, squeezing my hand. "I'm proud of you."

I smiled and continued on with my work. As I processed yet another chimera family, my mind clicked - my father brought me meat! I stared at him and he winked at me. It made sense, I supposed since I was the new candai and cendai didn't have stupid limits imposed upon them. Now that everyone was living under the protection of Lomb, once the hex-beacon was repaired by Antoine chimera girls could start eating meat too.

Organizing two thousand chimera wasn't easy or fun. At times my mind started to wander, but thankfully my family chimed in, keeping me focused. Alessi's notebook was rapidly getting filled with vast notes about each family. I was glad that I taught her how to write in Basq, glad to have a perfect chimera secretary even if meeting Alessi was part of Eunice's machinations to turn me into a key.

In another few hours, Antoine had come by with Anniya.

"How's the tower?" I asked the artificer.

"It's in very bad shape but the defense system is holding up in basic mode thanks to the numerous redirectors buried all over town," Antoine said. "We had to stop doing mountain tours because the repulser no longer works. Thankfully, I designed the shields to function even if the tower fell."

"Glad to hear that," I smiled at him, relaxing. I had been very worried that Lomb would come under attack from dungeon monsters or Astral Phantoms due to its hex-beacon being inactive.

"Got the stuff?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's in Saccy," I said, opening up the petals of the folding Seed.

Antoine went into Saccy to collect all of the gathered up chimera hair into his own folding bag so that he could start turning it into artifacts. He emerged out of Saccy and grinned at me.

"Got everything?" I asked.

"Yep," he nodded. I couldn't see his eyes behind his magitek lenses but there was a huge smile on his face. "I think... I'll open a second shop."

"Where?" I asked.

"Illatius," Antoine said. "As soon as the Lomb's shield is fully repaired we'll have to open a shop in the capital. There's just not enough demand in Lomb for overpriced artifacts. I need to start turning the shiny crystals into shiny cash pronto. To start I'll turn a lot of the stuff into mag-power cells."

"Do you think it will be safe to sell artifacts with chimera gems in them?" I asked.

"I'll market them as dragon-heart-shard everlasting batteries with a warning not to open up the containment cage. The cell empowers its own protective hexagram," Antoine said. "If anyone tries to meddle with it or compromises the cage it warns the manufacturer and then implodes on itself. This is common practice amongst expensive power-cell artificers."

"I see," I said.

"The gems are suspiciously similar to that of dragon heart bits but with far better magical resonance," Antoine said. "I've had plenty of time to compare the two. In fact, my most advanced Identification artifact quantifies the crystals as modified arcane dragon-heart shards. My biggest issue is quickly finding sales and security personnel for the new shop that I can trust as I'll be working in the back on crafting new batteries."

"Alessi," I turned to my sister. "Once the tribe is sorted, would you like to come work for Antoine in Illatius?"

"Oh?" The silver-haired chimera turned to me.

"I'll be studying in Illatius and if you're there we could see each other daily," I smiled. "The protective barrier of Nemendias won't permit you to get into the Arcanarium but if you're nearby we can hang out often."

"Sounds good," my chimera sister smiled at me.

"Antoine, how would you like a shop in Diamondias?" I asked.

"Diamondias?" Antoine's mouth fell open. "The most expensive shopping district in all of Illatius?!"

"That's right," I said. "Diamondias."

"How?" Antoine asked, colorful lenses clicking at me.

"I am friends with the local Inspector," I grinned. "I am certain that I can arrange a space for you there."

"Surely, all of the available spaces are taken up already?" Antoine asked.

"I didn't see any empty shops," I said. "But that's what magic is for. I looked at the map. There are more shops in Diamondias than could physically fit into the space. I'm certain that the mall's backrooms use folding magic. I'll call up Inspector Pomegrad and ask him to add a new shop. We'll house enough chimera hunters in it for night and day rotation. I'm sure that the Diamondias inspector is very worried about the mall's safety since the mind-erasing incident in the catacombs. It won't be an issue for me to convince him to make a space for extra security personnel as an excuse to patrol the catacombs!"

"Your resource-management creativity continues to surprise me," Antoine laughed.

. . .

Calling Pomegrad and shaking a shop space out of him wasn't hard. He didn't even charge me anything for the space, considering the fact that I offered to buff up security of the catacombs and Diamondias with the extra hands and artifacts.

Pomegrad sounded very nervous during our call. He was undoubtedly terrified of Baroness Amadea and worried that memory-erasing cultists were plotting dark deeds and infesting the vast catacombs beneath his domain.

From our conversation, I learned that Diamondias was co-owned by Nemendias and numerous baronies, nobles and even the Emperor and that there was no single manager for the shopping district. A committee of owners met once a month in Diamondias and took what they were owed in rental income. The Inspector said that the reps were so disorganized that they would hardly notice an additional shop listed as a "security and artifact storage".

Having procured a space for Antoine to make cash at for our enterprise, I returned to sorting chimera families. With my chimera family assisting me I interviewed hunters and hearth keepers, choosing the most capable candidates for our 'outpost' in Diamondias.

The sorting and interviews took almost the entirety of my day. When it was done, I indulged in walking through the caverns and directing setup of various residences, storage areas, communal spaces, bathrooms and... shops. That's right - I was setting up shops closer to the surface for sale of chimera-made armor, tools, furniture and medicine. I chose the brightest, chattiest and most friendly chimera females to become shop salesgirls. Given enough time they would learn Basq very quickly.

Laying the foundation of my own town right under Lomb was a lot of fun since I got to walk around and to adapt all of the caverns I had explored earlier to legitimate use.

Taking a break from town-building, I went to a healer in Lomb to deal with my broken wrist and ribs. The local healer was pretty good at his job and a friend of Lambert. He did healing spells on me rewinding the damage and didn't even raise an eyebrow at my chimera body.

When evening fell I took a large group of chimera girls, dressed them in hats and costumes of my design and took them to the city. In the center of town thanks to Anniya's assistance I organized my first fashion show for the small, gathered crowd.

The citizens of Lomb had already seen me, Emerald and Agatha on the streets and inside various shops. They had no issues whatsoever with the group of pure-blood chimera. If anything they were extremely excited to see biomancy-modified models show off clothing. Eunice's lies that 'dastardly humans will kill you on sight' fell apart in an instant when the gathered crowd applauded and cheered the arrival of chimera girls.

"Look, Katracii... they're not attacking or killing us," I heard a chimera girl whisper to another as she cradled a rose offered to her by someone from the crowd. "Eunice has been lying to us. Humans are so nice!"

"I cannot believe it either," her companion replied in Tokimorimïtul. "All I see are smiles and laughter. Look, they brought their children to greet us! They're not afraid of us at all!"

I turned back to the crowd with a victorious smirk.

"Please welcome my sister Alessi," I announced. "Her unique, hand crafted armor made by me survived a trip to the Folding Forest!"

Alessi walked to the fountain at the center of town and back, her mirror-surfaced armor made from beetle carapace sparkling in the setting sun. She struck a few poses with a brilliant smile, a shining helmet covering her gemstone hair.  She turned around to the applause of the gathered crowd.

“Thank you for welcoming us,” I bowed as my first fashion show on Andross concluded. “We’ll be seeing a lot more of each other, now that I and my biomancy-modified warrior-tribesmen have relocated from an expanding Magogenic zone in the distant reaches of Basq Empire to your lovely town.”

"Thank you, Lady Juni!" Anniya said with a big smile. "As the new Inspector of Lomb I hope that we shall have a long and fruitful relationship and that your people will fall in love with Lomb as quickly you have!"

"They merely need to taste Mrs. Pompermint's crepes for this to happen," I laughed. "You know, I'd never leave Lomb's Creperie if I didn't have the weight of estate management upon my shoulders."

A few people in the crowd laughed.

As the sun set, Lomb became lit with crystal lanterns. A magical firework shot out from the station's tower painting the sky over town in cascades of raining sparks. The citizens of Lomb began to disperse, walking towards the food vendors. A few of them approached our group to chat with us and to welcome the new highborn Lady and her subjects to Lomb, praising my designs. My plan of chimera and human integration was proceeding full speed ahead without a single hiccup.

For dinner we filled up the Lomb's Creperie to bursting, with the waiters having to fetch extra chairs to accommodate all of my companions.

"That was a really fun show," Emerald commented as we waited for our orders. "Can't wait to see your other designs at the gala! Come on, Aggie give us a smile." She elbowed the sullen-looking Agatha.

The eldest Amadea Princess simply sighed as a response. I decided not to tell her about my mental companions, as such would most likely freak her out.

Looking at her depressed face was tugging on my heartstrings so I decided to uplift her with a conversation.

"Hey, Agatha," I said.

Weary silver-blue eyes came up to meet me.

"I've leveled up, but my armacus spells are still at level one," I said. "Do you know why?"

Agatha blinked at me.

"You seem to know so much and yet you ask such a basic question," she finally said.

"First of all, I don't know everything." I rolled my eyes. "I'm utterly clueless when it comes to a lot of magical things - I've only been four years on Andross."

"Right," the eldest Amadea daughter brushed her silver-curls aside. "If you want to raise the level of your armacus spells you have to practice firing them."

"That's it?" I asked.

"That's it," she shrugged. "Practice makes perfect. Fire more spells and you'll be able to bring your spell-work to your current level, but not higher."

"Got it," I nodded. "Is it possible for someone to fire spells from an armacus beyond their level?"

"With modifiers, affinity specialization and a battery it is possible to fire spells beyond your level," Agatha replied, looking at me like I was an idiot. "You've cast a shield way above your level. The whole point of an armacus limiting a user's spell to their level is because then the spell won't use up all of your mana and make you faint."

"Why don't more people carry mana batteries to power up their spells?" I asked. "Why aren't all spells powered from the towers in Illatius the same way repulsor spells work in Undertown?"

"The armacus is just a focus, a safety mechanism. A talented wizard can fire spells from their fingers," Agatha explained. "Power sent from the beacon towers actually flows directly through your soul. Magic currents passing through a person in large amounts does a bit of damage to the soul and body. This damage inevitably accumulates over time."

"Hold up, so the people who fire repulsor rays in Undertown..." I mulled.

"Damage their cores a little bit with each spell," Agatha said. "Sin and vice has a price."

"So when I cast an absolute shield with the dragon-heart..." I gaped at her.

"That was incredibly dangerous and reckless. I didn’t think you were unaware of the risks. Some magicians completely burn themselves out and lose their magic by repeatedly pouring too much power through their bodies."

"I was not aware of the danger at all," I sighed.

[You know, this explains all of the the extra decay in here,] Junezia commented.

I gritted my teeth. Bringing Eunice down had a price.

[Is it fixable?] I asked my mental companion.

[Probably? For now, I would advise you not fire spells above your level, unless you want to shatter your core. Like I said before, your soul looks like it's held up with hope and duct tape,] my Organizer commented and fell silent.

I slumped into the table.

"It was stupid and it was dangerous," I sighed. "But it needed to be done. Just like I need to deal with your mother and the other six."

Agatha eyed me.

"You know... now you really seem like a young girl that's trying to take on far too much responsibility and is making mistakes," she said.

"You're right," I sighed. "I'm flapping around and surviving by the barest margins. I don't even know who the Seven Heroes are."

"Oh," Agatha perked up. "Mother spoke of them often. There's her... baroness Georgia and... uhm... uhhh..."

"What's going on?" I looked at her confused face which went through several shades of embarrassed to suddenly worried.

"I think that some kind of a powerful edict is in place," she said. "I can't seem remember who the rest of the Seven Heroes are."

"This does seem like a big problem," I uttered.

I looked at Anniya, hoping that the power of the constabulary had my answers.

"We don't know who they are either," Anniya sighed, rubbing the back of her head. "Our inquires hit a dead end. Only Baroness Amadea and Georgia have been seen in public this century. Everyone knows that the Seven exist, but nobody knows who five of them are. Any mention of what they look like and even their names have been purged from the records."

I gulped. If I didn't even know who my enemies were, how could I even stop them?