Ah, Astra. Nathan grimaced.
“That’s not a nice face,” Narime said.
“Am I that easy to read?” he asked.
“The only time you looked that grim was when Ciana tried to ask you about herself,” she said. “I take it she died.”
“Everyone did,” he said darkly.
“Not like that.”
“No,” he admitted, dodging the question. “But you’re right, Fei. If I get the chance, strengthening our alliance with the dark elves is a high priority. At a minimum, they need to defend the Houkeem Desert when civil war breaks out.”
“And Nurevia?” Fei asked.
“That depends on her,” he hedged. “I’ll pick a fight with Tharban. But I’m not dealing with her dumb games. She’s a headache, and I don’t do a lot of the things she wants done to herself.”
Fei nodded several times, then smiled. Then she nodded again and finished off her sandwich.
“I’m sorry, I think I missed something,” Narime said.
Nathan mimed using a whip and made a whip cracking noise. “Like that, but on her. And usually with something much worse.”
Narime didn’t say a word.
“If that’s your plan, then I think my main priority will be identifying new Champions,” she said. “Seraph is practically sleeping in her office due to how much work she has, so I’ll spare her this job.”
He winced. “Thanks. I’ll try to take some work off Seraph’s plate.”
“You can try, but I doubt she’ll let you,” came the reply. Narime grimaced. “There is such a thing as being too driven, Nathan. You lead by example.”
He blinked.
For some reason, Kadria’s description of Seraph came to mind. The Messenger had described Seraph as a minion who reveled in everything he did. Narime’s words only proved that.
He had lucked out with Seraph. If there was anybody he needed to reward after this, it was her.
Actually, he should probably reward her during this. Unlike his other Champions, she didn’t share his bed, so she didn’t get regular “rewards.”
The next few weeks went by quickly. His plans were long term, and would take months, or even years. Hopefully not too many years. He needed Champions soon, and they needed training before they could use gems or safely accept enhancements.
Fortunately, Fei and Narime identified a number of beastkin knights that appeared to be suitable. Nathan let Narime conduct the enhancement training, as she had experience from her time in Kurai. He only needed to apply the mild enhancements every so often.
The mages arrived midway through summer. Surprisingly, Harrum led them. They came in a massive convoy, laden down with enough supplies that Nathan assumed they were coming to conduct war.
“Don’t you have a tower to run?” Nathan asked Harrum as the older mage approached him.
“I am running it,” the mage said with a smile. He pushed his glasses up his face. “This isn’t an opportunity to be wasted. The data you shared with us proved exceptional. Foundational, even. I believe an entirely new branch of magical science can be built from it, if we can expand on it.”
“Good. That’s what we both want,” Nathan said, although he was inwardly amazed at the size of the response.
Falmir and Trafaumh had taken years to get their magical scientists into gear, and much of their initial research came from refugees from the Federation and Arcadia.
“I can tell that you remain surprised. The fact is that you have the Emperor’s blessing and nobody has accused us of heresy.” Harrum stretched his arms out. “It’s a common saying to make hay while the sun shines. I’m not wasting my sun, and neither will the rest of the Lodge.”
Nathan nodded. “You’ll need a research base. While I can put you up in Gharrick Pass and have made extra space, I don’t think you want to work here permanently.”
“No. We prefer some privacy, and although you can rely on the binding stone’s power, we will need a cairn to conduct many of our rituals.” Harrum paused, clearly waiting for Nathan to suggest a location.
“There are two available cairns. Vera has recently left her tower, and she’s willing to let you use it. There’s also a cairn near Trantia. You might want to use both.”
“Excellent. We’ll set up in Lady Nair’s tower, given it will have defenses and facilities.” Harrum smirked. “I also suspect you desire for us to shore up your defenses. Officially, we take no place in the coming storm. Unofficially…” The mage shrugged. “If our collaboration proves fruitful, then the Lodge may carefully consider its position regarding the next emperor.”
Nobody ever said that mages were stupid.
Before he left, Harrum produced two small boxes and handed them to Nathan.
“Two sapphires,” the mage said, tapping the left box. “And several amethysts and diamonds in the other, although of slightly lower quality than usually set aside for Bastions. My apologies for that, but not everybody in the Lodge agrees with this.”
“Hence why the deal was leaked so fast.”
“Indeed.” Harrum sighed. “I will continue to search for an onyx. Now that I’m here, I suspect I will have better luck talking to my colleagues in the… Amica duchies? I believe that is their official name now.”
With that, the mages left. Although they left behind enough magical catalysts for Nathan to do some work of his own.
He added a gateway to Castle Tartus. To celebrate its creation, he spent the night with Anna. Once again, he felt that strange feeling of being spied on. This time, he didn’t even find Fyre lurking outside.
Kadria’s door continued to follow him into Anna’s palace in Tartus.
Now that he had the gems and the catalysts, Nathan realized he couldn’t put it off any longer. When he returned to Gharrick Pass, he took Fyre with him.
The time had finally come for him to take control of Fyre.
More importantly, he needed to give Fei her second gem.
Chapter 15
Fei stood in front of Nathan, her bushy black tail wagging back and forth. They stood at the far end of the courtyard behind the castle. Nobody else was outside, and the nearby sparring circles and training yards remained empty.
The morning sun glittered on the nearby mountaintops. At this time, only the guards on patrol would be out. Everybody else was still inside. The cooks prepared breakfast around this time, and everybody generally trooped down for their morning meal before beginning their day shift.
Nathan usually joined them, but he wanted to take care of the gemming ceremony first.
Two horsegirls sat nearby at a table. A tray of fresh food had been dug into by Ciana, and she prepared breakfast for the four of them. Fei’s tail wagged as she watched the other beastkin, her eyes on the mouth-watering food.
The first harvest had passed, and a lot of the grains had been processed. Freshly baked breads and pastries became a common sight at meals, and the castle’s bakers experimented more. The first apples had come into season, replacing a lot of the berries and forest fruits from spring.
And, of course, there was a lot more meat. The days of endless smoked meats were behind Nathan.
Today’s spread looked larger than it was. Most of it was for Fei, who would probably go into the dining hall for seconds anyway.
Of note were thick slices of pork belly, a dozen eggs, thick brown bread, and a huge apple pull apart loaf drizzled with a white glaze. Nathan felt that the apple loaf was a bit too much for dessert. If he ate any, he’d probably fall asleep when he sat down in his office.
Given the way Ciana eyed him, he wondered if that was her plan.
Fei kept throwing glances at the food, while expectantly looking at the glittering sapphire in his hand.
“We can eat later,” Nathan said. “Ciana is still preparing things.”
“Fine,” Fei whined. Her ears and tail drooped despite her words.
Ciana was actually preparing the food. A magical device powered an open flame, over which she placed a f
lat steel griddle. Then she laid out four slices of thick brown bread, and covered them with pork belly and cheese. Finally, she cracked four eggs beside the bread. Some of the egg white ran into the bread, which soaked it up.
Breakfast promised to be very unhealthy, Nathan noted.
“Before you get your next gem, we need to discuss what ability you get,” Nathan said, drawing Fei’s attention from the food.
“Eh? We’re not talking about the gem itself? Don’t I get to choose?” Fei tilted her head to one side in confusion.
“No. That’s why the decision for your first gem mattered so much. All gems must match for a Champion. You can’t mix-and-match,” he explained. “There’s been theories about how to do it. Unfortunately, they’re only theories.”
Like the idea of changing a Champion’s abilities or finding a way to turn one back into a normal person, nobody had ever found a way. Nathan did wonder if he might be able to do something himself using ascended magic, but meddling with his own Champions was dangerous.
The gems linked with the minds of Champions. If he made a mistake during a gemming ceremony, there wasn’t a second chance. The Champion died if they were lucky.
If they were unlucky, their mind was melted, and they become a toy for their Bastion. Nathan refused to go down that route or be responsible for that.
“Didn’t you choose my ability last time?” Fei asked. She touched the sapphire implanted in her collarbone and smiled.
“I did, but I also told you that you chose it this time. The reason I picked was because your first gem ceremony is always the riskiest. Now that I know how your body and mind react, I can safely give you a far wider range of abilities,” he said. “Not anything, but I have a pretty good idea of what will and won’t work.”
“Huh.” Fei narrowed her eyes. “So, what abilities I can get depends on my Bastion?”
“Yes.” Nathan chuckled. “If it didn’t, there would be a lot more trigems in the world. Most Champions are held back by the potential of their Bastions. But even then, many abilities are… esoteric.”
“What’s that mean?” Fyre asked from nearby, her ears pricked up.
Nathan frowned. He needed to be careful about how he explained this.
“Gem abilities are powered by the binding stones, which means they can do anything that a binding stone can. That includes ascended magic.” Nathan paused, trying to think of good examples. “Sunstorm’s onyx gem uses spatial magic. Narime’s second sapphire gem interferes with magic directly. And, of course, there’s the legend of Astra.”
“The dark elf,” Fyre said, her red eyes almost razor sharp. “I heard she’s part of a train of Champions from the Spires. Because she’s always covered up, nobody can tell when they replace her with the next Champion. She’s a symbol.”
Nathan tried to not laugh. He believed that stupid propaganda story once.
“No, Astra is real,” he explained. “The specifics of her third gem are unknown, but even Ifrit agrees that she likely has some sort of ability that grants her eternal life. If a gem ability can transcend the limits of mortality, there’s not much they can’t do.”
Except prevent death, Nathan thought darkly. Not even Astra had survived the fall of the Spires.
Fyre stared at him with wide eyes. Then she scowled. “Then why don’t we all get eternal life?”
“Because nobody knows how to create the gem ability,” Nathan said drily. “If the Empire knew how, it would have a dozen legendary trigems like Astra.”
“Is it her gems?” Ciana asked. “The stories get them mixed up. Sometimes she has amethysts. Other times diamonds or emeralds. One of them gave her a rainbow gem, but I felt that was cheating.”
Nathan nearly told them what gem Astra had, but stopped himself.
He hadn’t seen her gems, for one thing. Astra never showed anybody during her visits. If he got it wrong, because something was different in this world—just like how Narime’s abilities had changed—then he’d look like an idiot and make Fyre suspicious.
“Well, maybe we’ll find out when we visit the Spires,” he said, then changed the subject. “But my point was that the research that a Bastion does determines what they can do for their Champions. I’ve been doing a lot of esoteric research myself, so I think I know a few more things.”
Fei nodded enthusiastically, while the horsegirls simply eyed him curiously.
The eggs had cooked, so Ciana slipped them on top of the cheese, which had begun to melt. She cracked some pepper on top, but continued to wait. While she did, Fyre began to make some simple porridge.
The horse beastkin loved porridge. Fei destroyed entire platters of meat, although she ate basically anything. But Nathan never underestimated the ability of horsegirls to make entire bags of grains vanish if you gave them something to mix it with or as some sort of ration.
“Um, do you have some ideas for abilities? Because I have one that I don’t think you’ll like.” Fei pressed her fingertips together and gave him an upturned look.
Nathan had a pretty good idea what ability she would propose.
“There are three main approaches you can take,” he explained. “The first is to double-down on your current ability and its strengths and weaknesses. The second is pick an ability that broadens your skill set. And the third is to use an experimental ability that tries to cover your current weakness, but doesn’t broaden your skills.”
Fei made an o-face. “I can’t just get stronger, can I? Because it’s a sapphire.”
“That’s right. Sapphires only provide gem abilities. That’s your weakness, actually. You’re a greedy little kitten that sucks up my magical energy as though there’s no end to it,” he said with a smirk.
Fei gave him a seductive look. “I can suck up some other things like there’s no end to it.”
Silence. Nathan nodded his head at the peanut gallery, and Fei rolled her eyes.
“I’m allowed to flaunt my status,” she declared. Then she pointed at Ciana and Fyre, who stared at her. “You’re not allowed to be greedy.”
Nathan rubbed the bridge of his nose, then moved on. “Your current ability is extremely powerful. Focusing on it isn’t a bad idea, but it limits what you can do. In serious situations, you can’t be far away from me. Refilling your energy takes hours at a binding stone.”
Truthfully, he had never had a powerful Champion like her in his original world. His three trigems had been largely independent, and almost all his duogems had been the same. Those that did burn out fast tended to be used in specific tactics that favored their abilities.
But Fei was Nathan’s leading Champion. He wasn’t going to shove her in the back because her gem abilities required babysitting. At the same time, he didn’t want to tell her to choose another path because that’s not the way he did things.
After all, the way he did things had failed horrifically in his world. Slow and steady had not won the race. Maybe he needed Champions with far more power that burned out fast, instead of those with a lot of independence and endurance.
“Focusing on my flames…” Fei trailed off as she tapped her chin. Her tail wagged behind her slowly, pausing at the end of each motion. “My biggest weakness right now is range. If I can’t get close to somebody, I’m useless. Could I teleport? Or shoot lances of flame like Sen?” Her eyes lit up. “Or maybe summon pillars of flame, or huge explosions like you did in the invasion or—”
“It sounds like you get the idea,” Nathan said. He pressed down on her head to shut her up. “Let’s talk about the other option. You can take an ability that uses less energy, so you can operate independently or for longer without needing a top up.”
“Boring,” Fei said. She grinned. “I like being the one who charges in and turns the demons into a puddle of goo. You have Seraph, and Narime, and Sen, and you, and… basically everybody else to do the boring part.”
“You are in command of the knights,” he pointed out.
She pouted and looked away. For some reaso
n, both horsegirls perked up and their tails wagged.
A moment later, Ciana looked down at the open-faced sandwiches she was preparing and removed them from the griddle. They still needed a minute to rest.
“Maybe I could use Tarako’s ability, the Nine-Tail Slash,” Fei mumbled. “One swing, and send out nine slashes at once.”
Nathan tried not to groan and failed. He had been right. Her idea had been from that supposedly fictional trigem Champion.
“The last option is the experimental one.” Nathan coughed. “Normally, this should wait until your third gem, but…”
“But?” Fei asked.
“Your current gem is much more powerful than I expected. That implies you’ve acclimated to the binding stone extremely well,” he said. “It might be worth the risk to do something more interesting.”
Fei waited patiently.
He sighed and gave in. “Your flames currently consume magical energy in a rather violent way. What if we make your new gem ability one that interacts with it and lets you absorb magical energy?”
To him, the idea had been a natural one. Fei could power herself using her enemies. Given the magical nature of demons, she might literally be able to run forever during an invasion.
The downside was that it didn’t strictly make her more powerful. An ability that let her vaporize a column of demons from halfway across the battlefield made Fei into a true duogem Champion. Becoming a magical vampire kept her at her current strength—above a monogem, but below a duogem.
“That’s… Wow,” Fei said, eyes wide. “So, I could go absolutely crazy with my flames so long as I’m burning things?”
That sentence sounded wrong.
“I don’t think you should say it like that,” Fyre said with a sharp smile. Her red eyes curved at the edges. “What an amusing idea.”
Nathan gave her an odd look. A moment later, Fyre’s face lit up, and she turned away, her tail wagging violently.
“You could, yes,” he said to Fei. “But all the same problems you currently have apply.”
“Maybe. But it means I can cover myself in flames way more often if I know it’s easier to top up.” She grinned. “How efficient would it be? That’s the important part?”
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