The other guards noticed what was going on quickly, and she’d taken the time to pull aside each of them and explain that she was in shock from the attempt on her freedom in the castle, and was currently not willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. She didn’t explain Phynis’ frustration with the Queen, as that might cause even worse problems if anyone learned of it. All Desa could do was try to keep her safe, and try to think of some way to break Phynis out of her new shell.
But she also had to worry about the researchers and their escort, which was another headache that Desa hadn’t thought would be too bad before Phynis closed herself off. Her princess had always been so good at putting others at ease, but now Desa was having to deal with all the problems of the other group on her own.
There were a total of twelve royal guards aside from Desa and the guards who'd accompanied them on their previous trip, and Phynis’ maids had been increased to six, though the four new maids weren’t nobility. The four researchers were each accompanied by a pair of assistants, and they also had three servants who’d cook, clean, and do other basic tasks to help them. Their guards were two dozen strong, enough to punch through the region of the Godsrage Mountains they were aiming for, but they weren’t up to her own standards, either. The trip would be both interesting and more difficult with them along for the ride.
Or was it Phynis that was along for the ride? Either way, it was a headache that Desa didn’t need. She was honestly looking forward to getting to Sistina’s cavern, if only to have a little bit of a rest. The cavern had been oddly calming to her for being underground.
Chapter 27
“This tome is titled Melding the Rainbow: Six Colors Become One,” Jared explained, and Diamond frowned at the name of the book. The tome he was holding looked old and worn to her, but otherwise unremarkable. She hadn’t heard of it, which made her suspicious.
She and the other six priestesses were currently sitting cross legged in a circle, with Diamond in the center. Fortunately, there was a nice rug on the floor, or the cold stone would have been uncomfortable for all of them. Just as Topaz had warned, over the past few days, Diamond had found her memories of her old name fading. The previous night she’d found herself having to bed Jared, and she wasn’t happy with the fact that a part of her had actually wanted the experience. It made no sense to her since she’d come to terms with her celibacy when she’d joined the priesthood, and she’d puzzled over what had caused the reaction. It eventually occurred to her that it was likely some form of mental modification, and part of her wondered how the change had been made without her noticing it. Her name vanishing had been fairly obvious, but this change hadn’t been, which made her wonder if other aspects of her mind were being altered as well.
Nor was that the only thing that had changed. Each of the priestesses had been slowly transforming physically, growing curvier, all similar in height to Topaz. Their facial features didn’t change much, at least, though a few flaws to Emerald’s face had been corrected. But more dramatically, their hair and eye colors had shifted to somewhat match their new names. Diamond’s own eyes and hair were an almost crystalline shade of white, a dramatic departure from her old coloration. Even that coloration was slowly growing hazier in her memories.
None of which addressed Jared’s commentary, which continued as they sat there, listening. “The purpose of this book is a form of magic which no one known has successfully managed to use. I must admit that it was found in the ruins of a library which pre-dates the Godsrage, so it is possible that it was successfully used beforehand. But I digress. This magical formation allows seven spellcasters who are sufficiently coordinated to combine all of their mana and skill into one, allowing the use of spells which exceed the limits of all of them to a certain degree.”
The possibility made Diamond’s eyes widen, and she opened her mouth to speak. Others also began to murmur as well, but he raised a hand to forestall questions, speaking politely. “Wait a minute, please. I’ll explain why it’s so difficult to use and why no one has managed to use it to my knowledge.”
Waiting until they’d all calmed down, he sighed and tapped the cover. “This is the only existing copy of the tome, to my knowledge. And even it states that for this form of magic, it’s almost impossible to find a group of seven who can utilize it. The problem is that the users must be coordinated in mind and body to such a degree that it poses extreme difficulties. If two individuals attempting to use it have personalities that clash, it ruins the effect. Finding two people should be easy enough. Three, a bit harder. But with each person added, it becomes dramatically more difficult to use this formation. And even more particularly, it creates a permanent link between the participants. They cannot form a new group or dissolve the one they are in. Thus, it is not something one may enter into lightly.”
“On the other hand, all of you are different,” Jared spoke with a smile, settling into a chair. “The seven of you are of the same faith and religion, in similar positions of original authority, and in approximately the same mental space. Furthermore, although Diamond is more advanced in magic, that actually helps set the formation properly. Oh, and you’re all female as well. But Diamond is going to be the focal point of your formation. She’ll channel and guide the power, and also distribute the load of magic to the rest of you. The magic will still take the skill and cooperation of all of you at once, but she will be the conductor of the orchestra that all of you are going to become. Now then, as that’s the basic overview, do any of you have questions?”
“May I ask why I am the one who is the focal point, and not you?” Diamond asked softly, looking at Jared with narrowed eyes. While this sounded reasonable in most ways, she couldn’t see why he wouldn’t take advantage of the formation to increase his own power.
“Ah, yes. That is a very good question, and I partially went over it in my explanation.” Jared paused a moment, then shrugged and sighed. “I’m male and power-hungry. On the other hand, you are all my slaves, which likely would create difficulties in cooperating with you. Plus, I’m not of your faith. But the most important reason…”
The Adjudicator hesitated a moment, then sighed and shook his head before speaking bluntly. “The truth is that I’m utterly abysmal at magic. I have enormous mana reserves for a non-spellcaster, and more than even most spellcasters, for that matter. But when it comes to spells, I am horrible. I never managed to finish my apprenticeship due to always making mistakes on how to gesture or how to speak the incantations. It’s frustrating, but I know my own limitations. I would be the worst possible person to actually try to lead this formation.”
“I see.” Diamond frowned, but went silent.
Ruby, on the other hand, spoke up. “Is this dangerous to us?”
“Oh, no. If you can’t form the connections necessary, you just don’t succeed,” Jared assured her, shaking his head. “After that, it’s all about building coordination. It’s about as dangerous as normal magical training at that point. However, the connections can be a little unpredictable, from what I’ve read. Sometimes it connects all of those involved telepathically, sometimes there’s no side effects at all. It never harms those involved, but it isn’t predictable what form the connections might take.”
“Okay…” Ruby replied, hesitating as if she was going to say more, then she swallowed and shook her head.
“Any other questions?” Jared asked. And when no one said anything, he smiled. “Good. I’m going to read this off, and I expect all of you to try the formation for me.”
Opening the book, he took a deep breath, then began to read.
* * *
Topaz took a deep breath again, shivering as she held the image of bright golden light in her mind. Forming all of her mana into the ‘light’ that Jared had directed was difficult, and she quivered as she felt the other mana pressing in around her. Each of the others in the circle had transformed their mana similarly, and the mana was so concentrated it was almost visible. The five other colors of the rai
nbow swirled around her, and she shivered as she felt the barely constrained power pulsing through the room.
“Now meld them together. Reach out to one another, and blend your mana together,” Jared urged quietly, watching it all. “Diamond, grasp their power. Take the light and merge it, turn it all into one. Make all the colors into pure, white light. A prism separates light into the rainbow, you are a diamond that reverses that process.”
Topaz felt the faint tugging of Diamond’s power, as the high priestess began to pull on the mana that the other six priestesses had manifested. And ever so slowly, she began to pull it inward, like a whirlpool at the center of an ocean of mana.
As the mana began spinning, threads of the other colors of mana began to whip through Topaz’s mana as well. One caught on Topaz and she gasped, nearly losing her concentration as it hooked into her.
The threads continued to form, and all of a sudden, Topaz realized that Diamond wasn’t a whirlpool. She was a spinning wheel, and she was weaving strands of mana together into one. Colors swirled together in a massive prism, slowly changing from a riot of color into a strand of glimmering, crystalline light. And the strands of each color, one by one, caught on Topaz and the others. A tangle of threads was slowly being pulled into that strand, as all of them were dragged mystically along with the mana.
“Let your magic become one, and let all of you blend your strengths into one greater whole,” Jared urged softly, but Topaz barely heard him over the roar of mana in her mind.
The threads dragged her inward toward the others, and Topaz couldn’t release her mana anymore even if she wanted to. She was being drawn in, caught up in the flow now, and she could feel the others in it too. Desperation, despair, and frustration pervaded all of them, but beyond all of that was their shared faith. Their silent prayers to Medaea that they would find a way out of Jared’s grasp, for Her to preserve and save their faith. And those prayers wrapped together, connecting them, and for a single glorious moment, all of them became one.
It was like the world snapped into focus. All the mana in the world around them came into stark focus, all of it at their command. A faint path could be seen, as if answering their prayers, and Topaz could see what had been done to them. She could feel it and understand it, and if she just reached out, she could—
The moment shattered as they were thrown apart again, and Topaz gasped suddenly as she realized she’d stopped breathing for a moment. And all of them collapsed in place, shuddering as they broke out of the ritual.
“What happened?” Jared asked after a moment, looking down at them in concern. “Did it work?”
“I…” Diamond paused, and suddenly Topaz felt the other woman reaching out to her. Reaching out to all of them. It was like they could hold hands, and be together in their prayers. She could feel Diamond’s mana and strength, and it would be oh so easy to just reach out for the help of the others. Diamond spoke again, her voice soft. “I think it did. We can feel each other’s mana, at least.”
“Excellent! That means we’ve managed a proper start to the formation!” Jared exclaimed happily, standing up as he grinned. “How do you feel?”
“Exhausted,” Diamond replied, and what Topaz could feel via their link agreed with that.
Chiming in, Topaz added in a shaking voice, “Really tired. Like a wrung-out dishrag.”
Murmurs of agreement came from around the room, and Jared smiled wryly. “I suppose I should’ve expected that. Everyone, let’s go up for dinner, then you can bathe or such before bed. Topaz, tonight you’re in my room.”
“Yes, Jared,” Topaz acknowledged, a sour part of her mind telling her that she should have expected that.
* * *
Diamond was just getting ready for bed when she felt the stroke along her side. She jumped, spinning around in her small room, her eyes going wide. “Who’s there?”
No one was in evidence, but a faint pressure was along her side, and suddenly it felt like someone was kissing her gently, even though there was no one there, and there was no physical presence against her skin. The spectral attention began to continue, and her eyes went wide as she realized what was happening.
She could feel what Topaz was feeling, even if it was only a faint fraction of the sensations that Topaz must feel. And that meant that tonight would be much different than what she’d expected, where she’d thought she’d have a night of rest. She had to wonder if all the others were getting the same feedback that she was. A soft yelp, barely heard through the wall connecting to Ruby’s room, confirmed that they were.
Diamond hoped, with a sinking feeling in her gut as the sensations increased in intensity, that this wouldn’t happen with all the other priestesses. But she doubted she’d be quite that fortunate.
Chapter 28
“What in the hells? What happened here?” Desa murmured, looking over the ravine leading down toward Sistina’s cavern. The once-verdant forest filling the ravine had been largely destroyed by what had to have been a massive rockslide, and it must have happened not long after they’d left. She was stunned by the devastation, and shook her head in disbelief. They’d been fortunate not to have been caught in the slide.
The rock slide would have been enough to startle her, but what was truly surprising was the broad clearings she could see near the base of the mountain. The clearings were filled with camps and what looked like buildings under construction. Several of them were mostly built, though they were simpler construction than she was used to, some of them even appearing to be log cabins. But seeing that, coupled with the dozens of soldiers and workers she saw milling about, and she couldn’t help but sigh. “Well, shit. This complicates things.”
* * *
“So, the barracks should be done in about four days at the current rate. Damned pansies can’t make even halfway decent shingles, or it’d be three,” Graystone told Evansly, shaking his head. “The inn should take maybe a week more, but the tavern will be done sooner. Not that it’ll do much good until we get proper beer up this way, but it’s a start. I hear a few mages are working on expanding the trail this way, but it’ll take a few weeks for them to get here, and even then I wouldn’t put a lot of faith in it if it rains. We’re gonna have issues for a year or two until we can get the road properly paved.”
“What about water?” Evansly asked, frowning slightly. “We’ve got the stream coming down the ravine, but it’s just far enough out of the way that it’ll be awkward, especially once the town starts to grow. Hells, we’re already spending a lot of time on refilling barrels and the like.”
“Well, we’ve got two options. One is to try drilling a well. We’d want to get an earth or water mage to give us an idea of where would be good.” Graystone pondered a moment, then shook his head. “The other is to use that rockslide to our advantage.”
“What do you mean by that?” Evansly asked dubiously, as he thought about the masses of rubble up the ravine. They were building the town out of the way of the worst potential landslide zones, and Graystone had gone up the nearby mountainsides to check them and make certain that they didn’t appear likely to collapse sometime soon.
“I’m thinking that we could build a reservoir and dam. Use the water for an aqueduct and to power a wood mill or the like,” Graystone explained. “All that rubble is broken up, so it isn’t perfect, but there’s enough to make a decent dam with some good mortar. I’m not saying it’ll be the best structure ever, but depending on how much work we want to put into it, we could even try stocking it with fish.”
“That seems like a lot of work, Graystone.” Evansly frowned, tilting his head. “I’m not sure how long that would take, and I’m also not sure how long you’re supposed to be out here.”
“It would take a while, that much I’ll admit. An easier task would be diverting some of the stream through an aqueduct, which would be simple enough. Could be done by fall, I’m sure,” Graystone offered, tilting his head as he considered. “And I wasn’t given a specific timeline, really.
It’s a project I enjoy.”
“Hmm…” Evansly looked at a map of the area and debated for a minute. The map was next to a stack of sketches of the buildings that Graystone was going to be supervising the construction of. He was looking forward to having a proper office in the barracks where he could store all of this. After a few minutes, he nodded. “I’d like you to start on the aqueduct idea, if you would. And if you’d also draw up plans for two or three dam projects, so that I have some options to pitch to the Adjudicator? I’ll see if he wants us to build a dam instead. Better yet, if you can incorporate the aqueduct into any potential dam it might be even better. That way we don’t waste effort.”
“I’ll do that. I’ll get started right away on these dam projects,” Graystone replied with a grin, and they both chuckled at the play on words.
* * *
Helia took a deep breath as she crept toward the entrance to the caverns. She was on a mission to find Sistina and see if there were any other ways into the mountain, now that there was a Kelvanis force outside the only entrance they knew of. Helia was one of the guards who’d been with Princess Phynis on their ill-fated expedition and been branded, and thus she knew Sistina at least a little, which Desa obviously hoped would be enough for Sistina to recognize her. Besides which, Helia was the only person who’d met Sistina and also had enough skill at stealth and light magic to hide herself from the guards that were watching the cavern entrance.
So Helia drew on her magic gently, wrapping herself in a bubble that would make her blend into the background. She slowly moved forward toward the cavern entrance, moving just slowly enough that most people wouldn’t be able to see the distortion in the air surrounding her body, but just fast enough that she wouldn’t run out of mana before she reached the cave.
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