“Not really,” I said with a shrug. “My only worry with your plan is that we may attract unwanted attention with the signal fire.”
“We may,” the tan woman admitted. “But I have seen you sink ships with your ice magic and rip apart Hordebeasts with your fireballs and bare hands. Anything you do not destroy with your talent for raw violence, I should be able to handle with my own Water magic, since I will not be having to sail and fight at the same time. The only exception to that is the Nuckelavee, but the monster is also wounded, and beyond choosing not to burn any kelp, there is nothing we can do to prevent its appearing. So I think it best that we do everything in our power to make our location known.”
“I can’t really argue with that,” I said in agreement. Again, it wasn’t like I had a better plan. “If you don’t mind, I’ll take a bath, and then I can gather some firewood, or whatever you think we should burn.”
“Sure,” Via nodded quickly. “I’ll step out in a minute to give you privacy. But first, you should let me look at your wound.”
I shrugged, made sure my pants were still on correctly, then removed my blanket and stood up. Via blinked for a moment, then her eyes focused on the five red lines running diagonally across my chest.
“Good,” she said with a nod. “Still healing. Your vital guard can repair it without help. But just in case,” she placed her hand on my chest and muttered a healing spell I had seen Breena use often on me. The lingering soreness I still felt on my chest faded by several degrees. “There. That should speed everything along nicely,” she said as she removed her hand, still looking at my chest. “And lost Icons, Breena wasn’t kidding about your abs,” she said bluntly, before blinking in embarrassment.
I just said that out loud, didn’t I?
Yup. Appreciate you noticing, though, I replied, pleased.
You should bathe, and then put on a new shirt, she told me as she walked toward the cave’s exit. I will go pick out a place for the fire in the meantime. Don’t take too long.
“Yes ma’am,” I said out loud, smiling as she left. I turned my head before Teeth could comment on the view again and tried to figure out where Via had left the soap. Five minutes later, I was reluctantly leaving the gloriously warm water and checking the damage that the Nuckelavee had left on my armor. To my relief, the enchanted protection had already activated its version of a vital guard and begun repairing itself. My gambeson had repaired itself almost completely. The only real damage was the five claw marks on the leather tabard covering the padding. I mumbled in appreciative amazement and reflected that I should turn more dead Icons into protective covering. My Woad chain shirt was in worse condition, but at least enough of the links had riveted back together for it to hang on my body correctly. My sea-scalemail had taken the worst damage, though. After the script shield, it had been my first line of physical defense, meaning it had taken the brunt of the abomination’s blow. The front of it had pretty much been torn in half, meaning it would hang on my body awkwardly and probably hinder more than protect if I wore it.
I would have to try and fix it, I realized. The extra layer of protection had probably saved my life, and I couldn’t count on always being able to dodge the next lethal hit. I thought back to Eadric’s lessons on Shaping magic, the ones he had given for repairing an object that was already made. I poured mana into my hands and rubbed them over the torn front of the armor, energizing its vital guard. Some of the lost scales began to materialize, settling back into place. It took a lot of mana to make that happen, but I couldn’t afford to be stingy. I could always just rest to recover more mana later.
Finally, after about thirty minutes, the scales had repaired enough for the armor’s own magic to handle the process on its own, hopefully in an hour or two. I sat down, sighing in relief, and then realized I should probably work on my chainmail and padding, too. I swore and messaged Via about the delay.
It is fine, she sent to me in a slightly lofty tone. Even if you are lying and just spending more time in the bath. I forgive you, because I am noble and generous.
That was a rather odd thing to say, because I hadn’t messaged about the bath at all.
There, she sent smugly. Now he cannot get mad if he ever finds out how long I was using his heated water. There was a brief pause before she messaged me again. That last bit was an accident, and also untrue. You have heard nothing.
I smiled and went back to work.
Wait a minute, Teeth spoke up, making me sigh in exasperated regret. Are you paying attention here? Because it looks like providing warm water to non-dragon women works way better than offering the still-warm body of your freshest kill.
You are an obsessive idiot, I snarled back. But you have a point. Go ahead and do research on that subject. Maybe you can figure out the best temperature or materials to add to the water, or something.
Already on it! He shouted as he vanished happily into my subconscious. I got the impression that he was wagging a tail I never even knew he had. Then I realized I had actually told Teeth to research something on his own, and that I had chosen feminine bath products to be the subject important enough for him to spend time on.
I promised myself I was done thinking for today, and went back to repairing the rest of my armor. Counting the time I spent recovering mana, the whole process took at least another hour. I breathed a sigh of relief to finally be finished, reflected on the fact that my task wouldn’t have even been possible without magic, and then packed the campsite back into Breaker.
I left the cave and saw that Via was back down near the coast. She already had a large circle cleared for use, with a smaller circle of deadwood logs stacked together inside of it. She had also placed a small pile of branches and driftwood just outside the circle for us to burn.
“Finally! There are you are!” She said as I walked down the trail. “What took you so long? Did you try to give your armor a bath, too?”
“I did scrub and oil it, yes,” I answered honestly. “Sorry I took so long. How can I help?”
“You can start by explaining which army you were expecting to fight right after breakfast, since you are already in full harness and we are alone on a deserted island,” she answered bluntly. “Wait,” she said suddenly. “Did we even have breakfast?”
“No,” I said. Because we had both gotten overwhelmed with all the sexual tension we felt earlier, like a pair of awkward teenagers. “I can pull out some rations in a few minutes.”
“Fine,” she said with a wave of her hand. “The point is, you have worn full armor the entire time I have seen you, except when you sleep or get injured. I want to know why. Are you trying to become a dwarf, or one of those knights in your ancient stories, or the ones in the Dawnlit Lands? Because even they do not kill themselves by wearing armor for the whole day!”
“Plate armor sounds like an awesome idea, but no,” I told her. “I keep getting smacked around by things like the Nuckelavee, and I can’t predict when they show up. I’m strong enough for it to just be easier to wear my armor the whole day, instead of putting it on and taking it off every time a fight comes around.”
“But you can just summon it from your invisible storage space, no?” Via pointed out. “Can’t you just make it appear on your body? I thought you said something like that?”
“Yeah but…” I trailed off. Because she had a heck of a point. I tried to remember if Breena or someone else had attempted to talk me into the idea before. “Hold on,” I muttered, closing my eyes and concentrating.
The next moment, the scale hauberk and leggings disappeared from my body, followed by my chain shirt, my tabard, and finally my gambeson. Then I repeated the exercise and summoned each piece back on my body. It wasn’t an instantaneous thing, but as long as I had a few minutes of warning, I could get my full kit on and be ready for a fight. Summoning just a few pieces of it would be even faster.
“Huh,” I said as I dismissed my armor again. “This is an extremely convenient and comfortable compromise to my own
earlier method. Thanks, Via.”
“You’re welcome,” she said dryly, staring at me with her arms crossed. “I’m glad I maybe saved you a lifetime of overstrained muscles and back pain.” She stomped over to the nearby wood pile, muttering under her breath. “Makes the first portable warm bath seen in centuries, and can’t figure out how to wear his own armor… gonna ruin a perfectly good set of abs for no reason…”
I chose not to comment on her analysis, and walked over the circle she had cleared.
“I’m thinking we could just put my heat stone in the middle of this, and then use Fire Magic to light whatever wood we use?”
“That would be a smart idea, yes,” the tan Satellite said as she picked up two thin branches to serve as kindling. “I am glad you brain has finished waking up.”
Is she mad at me, worried, or both? I asked myself as I set the heat rock down in the middle of the fire circle. I waited for her to set the kindling on top of the rock, then created a small flame to burn under the wood. The kindling caught mere moments later, and soon we had a healthy flame going.
“Good work,” Via said from behind me. “We’re fortunate that you’re proficient in so many types of magic.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “People usually give me grief about trying to learn so much at once.”
“You, too?” Via asked. “Stell always tells me the same thing. Says I keep giving her headaches.”
“Sorry to hear,” I told her, and meant it. “You and your primary body are under a lot of stress. I’ll do what I can to help.”
“Watch what you promise,” she said with a smile. “Or I’ll ask you for my own magic ship and warm bath.”
“I just might do that, for a beautiful woman of culture like yourself,” I said shamelessly. She smiled and rolled her eyes at the same time. “But for starters, I’d like to help you get rid of all the things trying to end your world. I figured we’d brainstorm while we wait for everyone else to find us.”
“Good,” she said with a nod. “I wanted to ask you what you’re still willing to risk for my world. Because I’m about to ask a lot from you.”
Her eyes were serious as she searched my own.
“I’ll answer you in a moment,” I promised her. “But first, let’s try the mindlink again and see who we can get a hold of.”
We closed our eyes at the same time to concentrate. I sent a greeting to every member of the mindlink within the planet, but got no response. I pulled on my connection with them, and felt some kind of gulf, like when I tried to use the link for someone like Virtus when he was on another world.
To my frustration, the link appeared to have some kind of range limit. We’d never really been able to test it before, because this was the first time my retinue was on the same world as I was, but over a dozen miles away. I wondered if there was a way to increase the range.
Then I recalled that the reason I had such a powerful ability was because of the Stellar War I was supposedly waging with the Malus members, a war somehow recognized by what I suspected were the automated remnants of the Stellar Council itself. Every kill I had performed somehow granted me the ability to requisition various resources and powers directly from whatever galactic body still pretended to care about the Expanse. My recent experience with said Council of dirtbags had made me extremely cautious about making any further use of their offered gifts, but I was once again in the position where I had to risk accepting aid from those who might be enemies in disguise.
I commanded my mindlink to reactivate the notifications regarding Stellar War, and whistled in surprise. I had killed, and helped kill, dozens of Malus members since retaking Avalon, and that wasn’t even counting the recent ship battle. All of the Malus members I had slain were considered to be a much higher rank than the half-crazed idiots unable to prevent my breakout. Furthermore, I had received more benefits from taking resources away from the Malus members, such as territory, captives, and all the equipment I had pillaged.
According to the notifications, the Stellar Council had promoted me to the rank High Captain, whatever that was, and further recognized me as a notable leader of my faction. My base of operations was listed as well, including details like the number of inhabitants living there as well as the resources my territory was generating.
“Holy heck,” I said out loud. “Hey, Via, remember that Stellar War thing I told you about?”
“Yeah?” she spoke up, opening her eyes again. “That thing where people you haven’t met pay you to kill the people from your world that you also already wanted to kill? I need to ask you how I can sign up for that as well.”
“According to the notes here, you signed up as soon as you joined my mindlink,” I told her, still scrolling through at least a hundred notifications. “You were credited as part of my faction when we killed the jerk on the Horde ship, and you also got credit as an ‘allied native’ when you finished off that Malus ship.”
“I did?” she asked brightly. “Do I maybe get free stuff as well? Or did I just make you look like you were some kind of amazing leader that deserves all the credit instead?” she added darkly.
“You get free stuff,” I said quickly, not mentioning that I did, in fact, get benefits for what she did as part of my team. “I’m sure of it. Check your version of the mindscreen.”
She blinked and began staring off into the distance. A moment later, she shouted happily.
“Aha! You are right. Therefore, I am not mad.” She went back to staring off into the distance, looking pensive and muttering to herself. I caught phrases like ‘good deal’ or ‘can do better than that.’
I left her to handle her own shopping and returned to browsing my own options. Most of it was suspiciously basic. I suspected the Stellar Council didn’t want to give away anything too good. I could have ordered a couple thousand more militia spears, or rations, or basic clothing, but these were all resources that my faction was beginning to create on their own, and it wouldn’t help me right this minute anyway. I did find a number of higher quality items at the back, but none of them were on the same level as the tribute I had received from the Woadfolk and Avalonians. The only possible exception was the mace I had also gained from this place, and even that still felt like a waste of credit. But apparently my rank as High Captain wasn’t high enough to unlock the really good stuff, and those items, again, were only a little better than the looted items I had gained from the Malus members and the Hoarfolk, and not anywhere near the level of a weapon like Toirneach, Shard, or Breaker. Even the suit of ‘High Captain’s platemail’ still wasn’t as good as the layered armor I was currently wearing. I suspected that was intentional as well.
“Stingy bunch, aren’t they?” Via muttered as she examined her own invisible list. “Can’t help but think they’re trying to cheat me.”
“I hear you,” I answered, giving up on getting better weapons and armor. I did see a couple of magic carrying bags, but even the best one would eat up most of my credit and still only come halfway to the limit of Breaker’s storage space. I gave up on personal items altogether and just scrolled down to find anything regarding the mindlink.
That was a much more encouraging experience. In the first place, I found that the range would increase automatically due to my new rank, but the systems protocol had prevented the upgrade from occurring until I read all of my current messages. As far as I could tell, said protocol had triggered when the genetic bombs the council had crafted kept failing to go off inside my body. Their failure to kill me has somehow caused a backlog in all the automatic Stellar War upgrades, and I hadn’t caught them because I had stopped trusting the Council enough to pay attention to them at all.
But now that I was High Captain rank, and a more powerful leader in my faction, my range for the mindlink was well over a hundred miles. That made me both immensely happy and mad that I had not checked for these details sooner, but I still held off on activating the upgrade. The mindlink was an incredibly powerful tool, but it was supposedly given to
me by the same people who had betrayed my entire race, locked a hostile Cosmic Wyrm inside my planet, sponsored the invasions of planets friendly to us, tampered with my people’s genes to try and limit our potential as much as possible, tampered with my own mind directly to the point of nearly killing me several times, completely squandered all the progress and wealth my people had achieved for the rest of the Expanse, and finally, hired the creepiest, most abusive, most sadistic freak of a monster I had ever seen, to do all sorts of horrible things to the little girl that had grown up into the woman I loved, and had scheduled those things to happen to her even before she was born.
So, fuck those guys. I shouldn’t touch any tool they gave me without a ten foot pole and every other precaution possible. And since the mindlink was already in my head, I needed to figure out a way to limit any backdoor access it might secretly be giving those assholes to my mind. Even if that was impossible, it would be irresponsible of me not to check.
I switched back to the requisition pages, searching for anything that affected my ability to communicate with the Council itself. To my pleased astonishment, I actually found something: a whole list of ‘nonsanctioned’ upgrades. These were located on a special page of my mindscreen, and were the least noticeable, stuck at the very back of all the other information regarding upgrades for Stellar War. When I opened the page, it came with a special warning.
CAUTION: The Stellar War Participant is viewing a page regarding items that the Council has been forced to offer under protest, based on agreements made with Starsown and Earthborn contractors of the previous Stellar War. The Participant should be advised that these items will be inferior in quality and utility to the other awards that the Stellar Council has painstakenly created for the Participant’s use. It is entirely possible that the Participant has arrived on this page by accident, and will not wish to visit this page in the future. Would the Participant like to disable access to this page? Please select Yes, so that the Participant may have more time to view and select the Council’s sponsored upgrades.
Lighting Distant Shores (Challenger's Call Book 4) Page 49