BECMI Chapter 119 – An Expansion of Strength

“The cost of doing all this? Spreading the beliefs and lifestyle of the Sidhe elves, and opening your own hearts the way you want humans to do. Embrace the fact they are different and yet can be a strength, Belle, and great and good things will result,” I told her. “And Colorajo cannot do the same, because they do not have a Lumina Tree…” she whispered in realization. “That is also correct. They spread their culture and embrace interaction with humans, and it has benefited them enormously to do so. They are especially more popular with humans in the martial careers. “Most importantly,” and here I smiled thinly, which was enough to prompt her bending forward, knowing something juicy was about to happen, “the pool of humans you have to draw from is wider than you think. “Tell me what you think of the potential of a spell and two of what are known as the Animal Affinity spells, and ...” --- I laid out the Valence II spells to her. They were limited in high-end power, unable to raise a mortal past the cap of 18 to Stats… but what that meant was that they were very, very valuable to people with low-end Stats, especially those who were patronized by a powerful Caster who could make one of them Permanent. Thus, the need for both a 13 Strength and a 13 Intellect was actually only one of the two… and given that recruits were generally desired to be more exceptional individuals regardless, only needing a 9 in the other Stat meant there were OTHER benefits to following the life of a Ranger, namely having a lord who took an interest in you and helped you along in life! If those Rangers also learned One a Day, then they would start becoming true elites in the world, a cut above both the spellcasters and any warriors of Zanzyr, and the elven ability to wear armor while Casting would only drive that status home. The ability to qualify to use the magic of the elves would now entice the strong and true, and bring others around to that way of thinking! --- “Edge, this is indeed extraordinary. I will begin the process of implementing it immediately upon our return,” Princess Brittabelle breathed out, visualizing the possibilities, her sapphire eyes dancing. “If we could establish a dominion with a Ranger, that would be extraordinarily convincing…” I inclined my head. “You should also work at convincing dwarves and gnomes to come and be trained in Erendyl.” she repeated in astonishment, although she kept her voice low. She had seen how honorably and well the dwarves of the Free Company worked with elves. “Dwarves are very unwelcome in Zanzyr, Edge!” she hedged cautiously. “Zanzyr by definition welcomes all arcane spellcasters, and dwarves can become Artificers and Earthmages. Gnomes can become Artificers and Illusionists!” I informed her calmly. “If it starts turning away arcane Casters based on race, well, it’s not going to be a magocracy much longer, it’s going to be a human-dominated racist nation which exploits spellcasting to suppress other races, and all the elves should leave quickly.” I inclined my head slightly. “Really, I’m rather astonished that dragons as a species didn’t make a case for automatic citizenship in Zanzyr. They are arcanists, too.” She looked at me as if I were somewhat crazy, then thought about that. “That, that could be an argument for humanoid spellcasters, their wokani, to become citizens of Zanzyr!” she blurted out in shock and horror. “Absolutely,” I agreed with a cool nod of my head. “On top of that is another problem, and that is that you and Erendyl, all elves in general, and likely your Patron, are likely in conflict with Thaum, the patron of Zanzyr and protector of what you like to name as The Radiance… and that could be very bad in the future.” She tensed up again. “You are going into… the Immortal meta-game again,” she said softly, looking around. “This is dangerous territory, Edge…” “You know there’s no Day of No Magic here, correct?” I inquired of her. She blinked at me. “I… can remember a time when there was no such day in our own time,” she admitted cautiously. “It… is still unknown what caused it…” she trailed off as a shook my head. “It was the day that Grandmaster Nathanel Jean-Arc cast and walked through the Door at the end, becoming Immortal under his own power,” I informed her. She stared at me, looked around, stared at me again. “The Grandmaster… is Thaum?!” she asked faintly. “Yes. And He drained a significant portion of the planet’s manafield in order to become Immortal without a sponsor. He is the guardian of the incredibly powerful Artifact called the Furnace of the Spheres, which rests approximately two miles below Zanzyr City, and whose energies leak the gammathauma radiation that forms what you call the Radiance.” I inclined my head slightly. “It was once the power core and power supply of the , the alien starship that crashlanded to the south of us, altered by Immortal magic during the Crimson Cataclysm.” The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. She tensed again, glancing south behind me. “How do you know all of this?” she asked faintly, unable to believe it wasn’t true. “When I was traveling with the Free Company back in time along our own timestream through the Thisbean Inn’s temporal Portal, we were stopped at the Crimson Cataclysm. I spent forty years enduring gammathauma radiation leaking out of that thing, sent Simulacra out to investigate it, and watched Immortals doing things to it before they buried it and let it lie. “I had already stolen knowledge of some of the Radiant spells from the priestesses of Gaebrel of my homeland. I spent a chunk of those forty years working out many others. By temporal presence, I would be considered the first Grandmaster of the Radiance on our world. The spells they use actually follow the patterns I laid down in the field of magic for them.” She just stared at me in disbelief, and I just gazed back. She even had the grace to swallow. “And so we are here, on the other side of Time, in a different timestream completely, where the Immortals do not know us and cannot eavesdrop upon us...” “Yes. I do not think I need to tell you how dangerous the Furnace of the Spheres is to a race as deeply intertwined with magic as ours… and in the possession of an Immortal who drained our entire world of some of its magic to become what he is, uncaring of its effects upon others. “I do not think Corellin Himself is unaware of it, either, nor is Gaebrel… but Gaebrel also allows His servants to use the Radiance, ignoring the fact that any use of the gammathauma is eating away at the magic of the world, convinced that He has overcome the problem with His soul crystals.” “What will the effect be?” the wide-eyed Belle asked. “In time, the Day of No Magic will become Days of No Magic. Then Weeks, and the overall manafield will drop disastrously. Magical creatures will begin to vanish, go dormant, or die. Only the most gifted students will be able to Cast spells. Elves will start to starve of mana-deprivation, lose our longevity and ability to Cast, and will have to flee this world or go extinct. Dwarves, hyn, and gnomes will likely follow, as will several of the humanoid races, giants, dragons, and the like.” “But not humans…” she said softly. “No. The decline of magic will spur investigations into science, the technology you witnessed among from the aliens who took over the Batrachian Basilica, and which they are now studying in Darkmoor energetically. It is another path to power, one often overshadowed by magic… but you have seen what it can achieve, and that is a mere fragment of what is possible. “Indeed, it is extremely likely that this world saw a high-technology civilization in the past, but existence of it has mostly been wiped away by the Immortals. The Azure Knight’s robotic steed is a thing of high technology, not a magical beast, and it is far, far older than the arrival of the Palace of the Gods, such as it is.” “I have spoken with Lord Equavus, particularly about the history of the elven clans here, much of which is completely unknown in our time, as my ancestors came from elsewhere. Neither of us remember any history with high technology like that…” she murmured. I flicked something out of my sleeve and held it up, an Amulet of unique and twisted design. “This is something used by the Ei of Hazz to mentally enslave and control its agents. I have spread knowledge of it among all Casters, so it is somewhat easier to find them and those who wear them.” I held it out to her, and she took it cautiously, lifting it up to examine. A couple murmured spells later, she lowered it back down. “It is a type of magic I have never seen, nor the style of Artifice, either…” “It is magitech, technology made to run on magic, and it is very different from similar things from the .” I flicked out another Amulet and held it out to her. “This is of pure technology, from the Basilica.” She took it to examine again, having seen one before, and looked over it in detail with glittering, spell-enhanced eyes, at last shaking her head. “I can see some similarities, but this one is made with a level of skill and finesse which is difficult to imagine. The first one… borrows some of this, but then veers off into a very different direction.” “Yes.” I held up the Ei’s Amulet thoughtfully. “This Amulet also happens to be over a thousand years old.” She flinched in surprise. “By the Tree!” she murmured in shock. “There are no Lumina Trees here. Corellin did not introduce them to our world until after the Ruin of Darkmoor, possibly as a reaction to the technology here, trying to keep His elven followers away from the path of science… for elves have the time and intellect to master science and technology most readily, and can appreciate all its mysteries and the knowledge that it represents.” I coughed slightly. “We also have impulses to try crazy risky things with time, convinced that our greater age and experience can handle them, often to disastrous effect.” Belle shook again, visualizing the paths the Immortal of her people wanted them to take, and the steps taken to manipulate them into doing so. “But… the Ei of Hazz has not been known for that long,” she said slowly. “Even the humans with their poor history have records of a time before its lands rose from the waters of the Dark Sea…” “The most important part of that statement being ‘rose from the waters of the Dark Sea’,” I said calmly, earning a blink of comprehension from her. “And after a mere century or two, it is a forested and green island replete with vegetation and life, where once it was the bottom of the sea,” I noted with thinly-disguised resignation. “Meaning great magic was at work there, able to alter the very environment,” she nodded slowly. “Magic beyond mortal work...” I held up the Ei’s Amulet a moment before stowing both of the two away. “Magitech a thousand years old, at the least. I do not think I need to tell you how dangerous that is with power so old and mighty… and complex.” Belle put her fingers to her temples and began to rub them. “I am seeing why you brought me here. Not just for a vacation, or training, but to learn things the Immortals do not want mortals gazing upon…” “We know of no Ei of Hazz in our time. Its island would be where Corunglain is now, approximately, at the edge of the Bleaklands, which themselves are effectively the lands of Darkmoor reshaped with impunity and fell purpose by the Immortals. Clearly the Ei perished under the Doom of Darkmoor, and Darkmoor was buried entirely and became the preferred home of hundreds of thousands of humanoids, as if someone wanted to be absolutely sure all traces of it were expunged.” “Except some strange Inn that kept being rebuilt by Time itself…” she whispered. “Indeed.”