Augmented Aspects: Chapter 133 A Year and A Day (Patreon)

Chapter 133

A Year and A Day

(Mallory)

“Just what in the world were you thinking, attacking us here in our stronghold?” Mallory asked the now trembling guild dignitary before her­. The archmage, well former archmage, now just a man with a broken class was bound and chained before her. Though at this point the chains while dictated by laws and customs were completely unnecessary given the physical shape that the former archmage was in.

The man, once regarded as the next God of Lightning was little more than a trembling puppy. His once proud robes that seemed to billow with barely restrained power now lay on his torso like old rags of a beggar. His eyes that once seemed to showcase the very powers of the heavens now just showed a basic blue that was unremarkable in any meaningful way.

Seeing the once great mage that was brought here as a personal favor being cashed in by her once friend and leader of the Promethean Guild, her own son, made Mallory feel more than a little angry. As this was possibly betrayal at the highest level. Not that she would expect anything less from her estranged son at this point, especially given that most of her children had left her during her over two-year battle with the Blight, but to think that her offering of peace to her son would be met with such disdain, that was beyond comprehension.

“I didn’t attack, I was merely casting an enhancement spell, when that witch went crazy and attacked me.”  Jamies Fulgar-Rex, demanded.

Hearing that, Mallory just laughed mockingly. The entire thing was too much to believe. Especially as Gwen, the daughter of the very same witch had already explained her part of what she had seen. Her testimony, along with that of a dozen other witnesses who all gave various details that all amounted to the same overall story. This man, a person who swore he would do better, came back purposefully to disrupt the class and attack Cass.

The fact that his whole defense centered around stating that Cass attacked first, was preposterous. The idea that Cass would dare to harm anyone seemed utterly preposterous.

“You doubt me, when clearly I am the victim in this whole exchange!” Jamies continued, indignation filling his voice as she spoke.

At this Mallory smiled brighter.

“Oh, that you are a victim in this, I have no doubt. For I doubt you would have had the thought to come here and to try to cause trouble for our very special mage. Such thoughts are clearly beyond you. No, my question now is who was it that gave you the idea to come here and to try to test our own magical prodigy to a duel, when you clearly are no match for her?”

“What? How dare you, I am the Lightning King, Fulgar-Rex, as bestowed by the very world itself.” Jamies began.

“Yeah, how’s that working out for you?” Mallory asked, a note of condescension filling her words.

With that Jamies visibly flinched, as if he had been struck by the comment. Seeing him visibly twist up in anger at the comment, only caused Mallory to smile wider.

Seeing the look on Mallory’s face, Jamies who clearly was not used to being openly mocked grew increasingly angry.

“You think you are so powerful, having a Spiritlight? Well, I’ve got news for you. We have our own.” Jamies said.

“Robert?” Gwen asked, speaking the real-world name of her brother, a brother that now went by a different name. A fact that caused a moment of confusion to cross Jamies’s face for a second, then the dawning of realization struck as he looked at the beautiful elf girl and saw the same exact light blue skin and realized something.

“You mean Trenton, but yes, that is the same person about whom I am referring to.” Jamies said with a knowing grin on his face.

“What do you know about him?” Gwen asked taking a step closer to the cell that held the bound and chained former archmage. Seeing the emotions on her face, Jamies smiled wider as he knew he had her. That’s when Mallory reached a hand up, halting Gwen’s advancement.

“Well, it seems that we are at an impasse, as I can’t seem to recall much now that my core is shattered. Though I do think something could be worked out if my core was restored to be even better than it was originally.” Jamies said, with a sly smile on his face.

Hearing that, Mallory knew that information related to Cass being able to do more than just heal shattered cores had apparently made its way to the other guilds. Realizing this, Mallory suddenly felt like an external attack was immanent.

“You weren’t acting alone, were you?” Mallory cut in.

“No, I was here by myself. A lone wolf.” Jamies said, clearly trying to save the others that had traveled with him. Mallory of course had already managed to find all seven other operatives, not just the two other students that were in class with Jamies, but the five others that tried to blend in with workers trying to seek help.

“Spare me your lies and assume that we have found all your fellow conspirators, including those that came with you disguised as workers. No, what I am referring to is the fact that the Promethean Guild is now working with other guilds to combat us.” Mallory said.

Hearing that, Jamies tightened up his expression, as it was clear that Mallory had seen through the initial deception. Seeing the minor changes in facial features, Mallory pressed on.

“My only question is how many other guilds are conspiring with you to try to take down the Grand Healer?”

Laughing.

“The Grand Healer? That’s what you call her? The child who is on the pedestal? The one who is locked away by you and your guild out here in the middle of the desert. Here, this is where you keep the legendary healers who can both cure the Blight.” Jamies says, turning his head and directing his gaze squarely at Gwen who had proven that she both had the capability of and spells needed to cure the Blight from infected individuals and creatures alike.

“Then you charge us exorbitant fees, trying to get us to come out here where you control everything to be healed. Only to then shuttle us back, then charge us insane prices for magical skills that others would only dream of having. My question to you is, how long did you think such an existence would remain possible? How long did you think it would take before we all gathered together to share the very gifts that had fallen into your laps?” Jamies said, then as he spoke Mallory and Gwen both understood the implications of what he was saying.

Yes, the system messages would have been the first warning, but she had forgotten the importance of being apprised from the outside about events happening inside. Especially now that her most loyal provider of information was currently beginning the transfer portal process to the game world, her eyes and ears to the outside were cut off.

Deep breath.

Mallory forced herself to breathe, as she had figured herself invulnerable out here. And for the most part they were, but that all changed when they began allowing outsiders to come to their territory. Worse, Mallory knew that despite all of this, Cass would rather heal people than be secluded away with all her powers. Then she remembered her time in the Arcanarus Tower, a tower she swore she would go back to, in order to explore. Realizing that Cass could easily leave the world behind at anytime and head back to the tower to explore without her, well it hurt. Deep inside Mallory knew that if push came to shove, Cass would take it upon herself to end this conflict. A conflict that she no doubt felt would be related to her, and knowing her nature it would be rather easy for her to abandon everything and go on a private journey, than to remain behind and cause problems for others.

Then there was the issue of her son, someone who Mallory knew Cass would go after to protect at all costs.

Grr.

There were so many problems all coming out of the woodwork that Mallory felt her fists involuntarily clinch together as she tried to work out what she could. First, she needed more information, but she needed a trusted source. Then turning back to Gwen, she realized that a perfect source of information was right in front of her.

Mallory’s own children were in on this, meaning that any grandchildren she reached out to on her own side would likely be compromised. Yet, there was a chance to begin getting ahead of this situation, before it spiraled out of control.

“Gwen, can I speak to you outside?” Mallory asked, going over to the pregnant healer, who aside from growing with an even brighter radiance didn’t seem to show any sign of being nearly ready to start her second trimester.

“Sure?” Gwen said, suddenly confused by the sudden shift in demeanors by Mallory.

As Mallory began to leave, a guard came to her.

“What would you have us do with the prisoner?”

“Send all the prisoners back in chains.” Mallory began and then took a step to leave, before catching herself. “Also, have it be known that due to the Promethean Guild’s actions, no one from outside the guild will be allowed to come here for a year and a day.”

The tactic was subtle, and meant to drive animosity towards the Promethean Guild, rather than the Midnight Hunters Guild. While the effects would be short lived, it should cause a bit of tension between the Guilds that all conspired together, and hopefully give time for her own guild to strengthen their defenses. Right now they had the benefit of being secluded far away from everything, but that would soon change.

The guild needed to grow, not just in size, but in levels, skills, and abilities. Right now she was in the perfect leveling ground, given the average level of all the monsters being generated around them, all she had to do was get her guild members to follow suit and begin leveling up to meet the needs of their surroundings.

Of course, the easiest way to do this would be to utilize new powers and capabilities that no one else was able to. Not just having one expert, but having multiple experts. In her mind, Mallory came up with new instruction plans. Cass would teach twenty Qi warriors and twenty top mages. Those students would then teach the second generation of talent, and then only that second generation of talent would be used to possibly teach or interact with foreign dignitaries, or students from other guilds.

This was a wake-up call, one that showed how much she still had to lose, and showed her what she had taken for granted.

Just as these thoughts were building within her mind, Mallory found herself walking almost absentmindedly towards her room. Only upon entering her room, did the silent Gwen speak.

“You wanted to talk?” Gwen asked.

Hearing her words, Mallory blinked as she realized that she had been lost in her own thoughts. “Yes, how much do you converse with your daughter?”

“Converse?” Gwen asked.

Only after hearing the word did Mallory laugh at the awkward phrasing. “Yes, well talk.”

“I know what the word means,” Gwen said, crossing her arms across her chest and staring at Mallory with all three eyes glowing their faint golden honey color. Looking into her eyes, it was clear that her eyes were a gateway to her soul, but unlike Cass’s who were pure and vibrant green, Gwen’s were rougher, showing that she had done and was willing to do things that were beyond Cass’s comfort level. Seeing her eyes, Mallory couldn’t help but find herself being sucked in by those glowing spheres of brilliance.

“Sorry, it’s been a long day.” Mallory said, then looked down at the floor.

“I know.” Gwen said, taking a sauntering step forward, before resting her soft hand against Mallory’s cheek, forcing her to raise her head and lock eyes with her.

The two stared for a moment.

“We shouldn’t do this.” Mallory said, a note of regret and tension filling her voice.

“I know.” Gwen said.

“She’s not dumb, she will find out.” Mallory said, her hands trembling at the thought of betrayal.

“You think she doesn’t already know?” Gwen asked.

Silence.

A momentary pause, as Mallory’s face filled with regret, doubt, pain, before finally settling on resolve. “I need you…”

“I know.”

Mallory shook her head. “I need your daughter’s help. We need an outside informant that can be trusted.”

With that Gwen paused, as she looked at Mallory. There was a moment of silence as the two just stared at each other, before Gwen smiled widely showing a set of sharp canine teeth. “Very well, what do you need from her?”

***

(Cassiopeia)

“Phew. Nothing like reading to make the troubles of your day go away.” I say, as I close the last few pages of the books I am reading.

With my personal relaxation time taken care of, I decided to do a quick scan of the base. From here, I am slightly further away from the center of our territory than I would normally be, but that is fine as this perspective still shows me how much further we must go as a guild to reclaim the surrounding territories.

I pause, trying to see how my Qi cultivation level is doing. There was a bit of concern with the whole Coreless Qi Cultivation skill not being applicable, after I got a core. But that does not seem to be the case, as I have an excess of Qi, despite having both a core, and not really focused much on how to cultivate energy using my core.

I am almost tempted to jump straight into using energy from my core, but then figure it would likely be best to go slowly. You know the whole crawl, walk, run thing, just like using scissors.

Getting up, I do a few quick stretches, only for my movements to awaken the two slumbering dire phase wolves.

“Oh, you two are awake?” I ask.

Sniff.

Kujo comes over and sniffs me. I would say he tried to aim low but given that his snout easily comes to my mid-stomach, while he is leaning down, it is hard to say exactly where he is trying to smell.

“Yeah, yeah.” I say, petting his head, and scratching him gently below the ears, while casting a bit of healing magic on him.

I don’t know why, but pets that can take care of themselves, let themselves out, hunt their own food, and only come back for care and acceptance, those types of animals are the best.

“Thank you Kujo,” I say, giving a few last minute scratches to Kujo. Then turning to Ms. Kujo, I cast a wave of healing energy at her, “Ms. Kujo, always a pleasure as usual.” I say, then bow to her. She still seems skittish around me, which is fine, as I don’t mind being avoided by animals. In fact, I prefer that type of response than being covered in Kujo fur.

“All right, I am about to head out, you two can stay in the empty cave there,” I say, pointing to the open area that is remarkably clean of books. “Also, feel free to clean out more rooms of dirt and debris.”

I say, then pause to see if they will begin digging. Not that their digging would really help anything at the moment, but I can still hope they dig out this place from the top. That or suddenly find some dire phase wolf space storage spell. I am at that thought, when I realize that I likely could create my own type of spell that would do the same.

I would need to change my initial resonance to be that of the surrounding dirt, then create an attraction spell, no wait a gravity spell that would pull the attracted dirt in. Then open a pocket dimension to a spot that Icould send the dirt to.

Chuff.

Kujo snuffles me and presses his cold nose against me.

At that, I am pulled from my overly complex cleaning spell idea. I look up, and realize that apparently Kujo wants me to leave? What? Then I realize the way Ms. Kujo is lightly sauntering over to Kujo.

“Oh, right. This is me being a third wheel in my own house. Got it.” I say, then muttering under my breath, I continue with “read the room, why don’t you.”

Then I realize I am apparently surrounded by horn dogs on all sides, Kujo and Ms. Kujo here, then my best friend and my daughter at the main compound, along with all of the other guild employees who often sneak off to have intimate relations with other members.

Shaking my head, I realize that I still have a long way to go until my sex drive will be unlocked. Not that I miss it, as I have so much more time to focus on different tasks. Like the disappearing dirt spell.

Then with that, I Teleport out of the underground book sanctuary and appear in my own open aired training pavilion.

I am about to train when I feel the sudden swelling of mana in the air.

Thunderclap.

Yep, now when I want to train, this is the time when the mages decide to begin casting their first of three daily Cleansing Rain spells.

I almost wanted to complain, but then realize they are finally being useful, so I decide to stay and deal with the rain as it comes.

I am so lost in my own thoughts, that I almost missed the one student who was already running around the outer tracks of the school yard. I only notice him, thanks to how unique his golden Qi signature is compared to the others.

Huff, huff.

He comes into the main compound, with the rain mostly washing away his sweat. It is clear that he is going to his spot where he left behind a few items.

Oh, I guess he wanted to get the items out of the rain.

He heads over to his spot, or is about to, when he realizes that I am there.

“Master?”

With that, I instantly know who this person is. “Good morning, Johnny.”

“You’re here?”

“Where else would I be?”