The Way of the Blue [Lantern OC]

It's night time and I've elected not to head back to Durjak for this evening. It occurred to me while talking to Saan that if I want to find camps, flying around during the daylight or at night makes basically no difference to me with the ring. But I want to know where we are exactly and the first night I got here all I could think about was coping. The second night I had my hands full with Elise, who I nearly had to push out of my room to get any sleep.

Tonight I want to see the sky from the ground. Flying in space isn't the same as the night sky, really.

Although I located several groups of people none of them appear to be anything like the huge royal procession that apparently follows Noah around. I'm not in any hurry, though I do want to talk to the fellow, if only to introduce myself instead of reaching him by rumor of some crazy blue savior flitting about his country. Not to mention that he can probably direct me to the more pressing issues at hand.

Sitting cross legged in a field of flowers the entire plain is stretched out in front of me and lit by moonlight. Everything is traced out in silver shadows and the ring is enhancing my vision just enough that I can see clearly in the low light. A river is cutting back and forth across the plain as it heads towards the ocean to the south and I can see the flicker of firelight where a couple of groups are making camp. It's interesting to see the wildlife that's active at night. Bird analogues - or maybe bats? - are flocking high above us, feasting on insects that started becoming active as the sun began to set. A few of them are bio luminescent, giving the faint impression of ghost lights that sometimes show up near the grass or in the air, flickering in and out.

Ring, talk to me about the yellow light.

The yellow light is the light of fear. Its use is refined and controlled through the introspection of its user's fears and its construct strength is dependent on the level of fear the user inspires in the people around them.

So it's probably somebody... totalitarian? What would the mind of a person like that look like? They'd be a brute, a thug writ large. I have no idea how to find somebody like that. Ring, can you detect the yellow light?

Affirmative.

Well go on then, find it.

Only trace amounts of the yellow light can be detected on this planet. Analysis suggests that the yellow lightsmith has been here, but did not dwell for a specific period of time or roam widely.

Shit. That means whoever it is could be on one of the other two planets in this system. If I try really hard I can just about remember the major planets of the Sol system and this place has an extra. There's no asteroid belt, there's a whole planet there that looks a lot like Mars but where Mars should be there's a different planet in comparable size to Terra and 'Venus'. So not only do I have two worlds to search but I don't even have a rough idea of what one of them is like. For all I know they could be just as complicated as Terra is proving to be, so hunting this other lightsmith down is probably not happening today.

But that's alright because I have things to focus on, don't I?

I look up as a light catches my eye. Ah, meteors. Just one or two but picking up in intensity until, for several seconds, the sky is sparkling. Then a flare of light as something a bit larger than my head hits the atmosphere.

Ah, damn. So much for a peaceful night, I guess.

I take off from the ground with a thump as my flight path arcs to intercept the fireball before it hits the ground or explodes in the air. It's roughly the size of a wagon but probably enough to ruin somebodies day or cause a fire if I just ignore it.

Alert. Friction instability is about to trigger an extreme exothermic reaction.

Fancy way of saying it's going to blow up, isn't it? I create a construct cone underneath the meteorite and fly backwards ahead of it. The air is beginning to heat up on me too but a construct shield helps ease that off a little.

Detonation in three seconds.

What? That's an absolutely useless amount of t-

THA-KOOM

And then I'm flying backwards and everything is spinning and I've completely lost track oh there we go. Oh, look at that, I'm on fire and flying on a ballistic course towards the gr- ARHGHBLEHGBLEHGBLE.

Okay, note to self. Physics is still a thing. I had just enough time to remember who Isaac Newton was as the ring corrected my being stunned midair before I hit the ground. This is my second crater in the last couple days, I really need to stop meeting you like this, dirt. Ring, unfuck me.

Health reset to baseline standard.

Oh, wow. Okay, THAT hurts a lot less. I push myself up out of the crater just in time for some Tovari to climb the lip of it and peer down at me, one of them shining a hand lantern. "Hey, it's a person."

"Told you."

"No you didn't, you said it'd be sky iron!"

"No, I said it'd be valuable."

"You can't sell a person."

"Not all value is money, idiot." Then the... girl? Yes, girl. The girl hops the furrow I've cut into the ground and starts walking towards me. "Hey, blue guy! You alright there?"

"Yes, I am now. Are you?"

"Sure, but that was a pretty light show you put on. You a god or spirit or something?"

"No, just a guy with a savior fixation. Let me guess, you lost your cat up a tree?"

"No, he's right there." She sounds puzzled, pointing behind her to the boy who came with her but seemed reluctant to approach. I can see him facepalming. "We could use some help, though. We're getting visitors in about two days and frankly, we don't have the food to spare. We were out hunting when we saw you."

"I'm... not a trader per se but I can probably help with that. How many people are you getting? What happens if you don't have enough?"

"Several hundred. I don't know. They'd be displeased."

"Hm."

"You can see the problem."

"Why do you have several hundred people descending on your camp?"

"The king is coming to visit. Noah himself isn't so bad, it's the courtiers and generals and officers and all the hangers-on."

I blink hard, letting myself sway side to side a little. "...Yes, I think I can spare some time to help with that. My schedule just cleared up a bit."

 

I don't really like repeating mistakes. The thing with the meteorite? Was me being stupid. What I should have done is broken it up with an offensive attack of some kind at range. I tried to treat it like a ball to be caught when it was more like a grenade.

That's why I'm giving myself lots of time to solve this food issue. I could go hunting for Noah and probably find him now that I have a good idea of where he might be, but that won't solve the problem here and if his procession is eating the countryside as they go then I might need to do something about that.

Since it'll be a couple days until that problem arrives, instead of hunting the area clean I've decided to go running about buying up whatever the various camps are willing to sell me. Live animals are a bit tricky since I can't stick them in the ring but having it work out a sedation mixture and then towing them in flight seems to work okay.

Yelin and Uter, the boy and girl from my unfortunate impact, had a bit of a start when I flew over with several jorka for them to butcher later. Credit to them though, they flew into action rousing the camp and now they have the whole lot of them sorting through the supplies I've been bringing back. It's been educational too, learning the local spices and food animals and the things that the Tovari value. It's not always gold. Sometimes they want to trade for the things I see reflected in their hopes, which is helpful for keeping down the inflation by spreading around gold I got from space rocks. Don't want to make too much of an impact on the local economy here, however the hell it's supposed to work.

I yearn for electronic records to use, but so far the only computers I've seen are the ones the Zerosi have.

Still, a bit of hope there. Being able to extrapolate new designs from the components of their equipment won't be easy but-

I stop mid-flight, jerking to a standstill in the air.

No. No way.

I'm a little reluctant to believe what I'm seeing. It's an elemental, it's clearly an elemental but it's got to be half the size of Durjak. I can see houses on top of it. It's stone and vaguely humanoid but it has no face, just a faint impression of a head. It's slow and methodical and I can see it making an actual effort to be as gentle as possible when it moves. It's walking on its knuckles at a ponderously slow rate, making its way east towards the mountains separating Tovalon from Eastern Tovalon.

That's pretty amazing.

But not the reason I'm out here. I drop down towards the border between Skal and Tovalon, a break in the mountains which is dominated mostly by swamp. I am immediately glad that the ring is protecting me from the swarms of insects because it's almost a cloud of them over the water and reeds here. The water itself is a sickly green-yellow color but the trees are vibrantly, violently green and the vines hanging from them are dotted with bright purple and yellow flowers. The lichen and moss growing on the tree trunks is glowing softly. A chorus of croaks, buzzing and chirps. I land where the mud road stops being road and starts being the rough boardwalk some poor bastard had to hang out in this area to build. They really wanted to know what was west of here.

Works out for me, though. I start zooming along the boardwalk at a hover, moving fast enough to make a good clip through the swam - with a construct screen in front of me because bugs, thank you - and see how long it takes for somebody to approach me about being a guide.

I spend almost thirty minutes cruising through the swamp before the boardwalk stops suddenly and comes into a clearing. As I enter it the ceaseless insects cease and I'm not sure exactly what's doing it, so I'd have to guess magic. I'm beginning to dislike that word. It applies to too many things which can be boiled down to just not knowing a thing.

The clearing itself filled with simple huts on raised stakes, a ladder leading down to the ground from each. In them are people very much like Khumu in stature, only they're not cats. They're a bit like frogs, if frogs were drawn by somebody who wanted to make them as cute as possible. Not just them either, it's a mixed population. A few more of those fish-people like that one fellow who was with the raiders.

As I approach they all stop to look at me in unison. It's a bit creepy actually.

"Hello. My name is Ainsley and I am a lightsmith. I'm wondering if you'd like to trade?"

"AAAAAIIIIIIIII!!" The frog people scatter in a panic and the fish people take that as their queue a moment later, after several seconds of initial confusion. It takes less than a minute before I'm left alone on the ground between the huts. Powers above, half of them didn't even climb the ladders, they just jumped and leapt the intervening space in a single bound. If it wasn't for the unnecessary panic, I'd be impressed.

As it stands I'm not sure what to do about that, until one of the huts opens and a frog-woman steps out. This one has war paints and a collection of jewelry made of local bits of wood and bone and reeds. Hm.

The woman hops down from her hut, apparently having no trouble with the landing. I start walking towards her but she speaks up first.

"When strangers come to this village, they come speaking Tovari or other languages. Never our own. How do you know our words? We do not teach outsiders our language, we seek to learn theirs instead."

"I have a powerful artifact which lets me talk to others. I'm a little surprised no ones mentioned it before now."

"Often others use spells to do this. Outsider magic has no power here. By passing through the swamp, you've entered Skal. To go further is dangerous, even deadly."

"I've passed over this area flying before, but I've come looking for trade partners. My... base, I suppose, is west of here on the other side of Skal."

"That is far. Guides are difficult. Barter must be made with the clans whose lands you must pass through to reach the other side of the region. There is no road, no path."

"Then I suppose I'll have to do that but in the short term, I'd like to trade for food. I have metals and a thing for helping people. Tell me what you hope for and I'll do my best to trade it to you for whatever food surplus you may spare."

"Come to my hut, Ainsley. This may be for the shamans to decide if it spans further than a single territory. Only they can convince the clans to allow safe passage on a permanent basis, but it will cost you. Let us speak with the spirits and see what they say."

 

The frog-shaman's hut is littered with hanging herbs, racks of them along the walls and the beams holding up the ceiling. The hut itself probably smells all kinds of strange but with the ring filtering my air, all I'm getting is a neutral sort of non-smell, like being in your own house. The floor has roughshod carpets laid over each other, thick enough that it's soft like a cushion, a hammock hung at the back and a small brazier in the middle of the hut on the floor. By the time I get into the hut she's already sitting on the other side of it, rubbing herbs between her hands into the fire.

When I sit down she doesn't react at first, humming to herself. I can't afford to wait forever since I'm on a clock but I can afford to be patient. When she stops she looks at me, blinking hard. "You must remove your ring."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"The glow prevents me from touching you. You must remove your ring. It's touch is woven throughout your mind."

I frown as I find myself almost upset at the idea. That's not something I want to do under any circumstance. The ring keeps me safe.

But...

When I stop and think about the basic nature of hope it's not too different from faith. I have no use for religion or gods or... whatever, really. I haven't met anything yet I felt like I couldn't handle if it came down to a fight. But can I master a ring of hope without being about to bring myself to have the hope that I can regain the ring if I remove it?

...

Damn it.

I reach up with my left hand and pluck the ring from the middle finger of my right hand, tucking it into my belt. I was right, the smell in the hut is almost overpoweringly powerful. It's like air freshener almost, only it smells green.

As soon as I've tucked the ring into my belt she reaches up across the brazier and touches my forehead before I can react and then things get strange.

I can still sense the hut but my awareness has expanded beyond it and suddenly I'm able to get a sense of the entire region, though only in approximate terms. It's like seeing in your minds eye a map you've just been studying, only you've never actually seen it. I can sense the tension and conflict between different areas, the struggle of life and the shadow of-

**Turn your gaze aside before it burns your mind. Not even we look too deeply there.**

I can sense the frog woman - no, the shaman - as a flame of light which isn't light at all because what I'm experiencing right now doesn't involve my eyes in any way. I try to respond but just thinking at her doesn't seem to be enough. No time to mull it over however because we're being pulled-

What does direction mean when everywhere is always where you are if you want to be there? Really fucking confusing, that's what.

I can't get a good sense of the physical location our awareness has been pulled to but I can sense others like her. Other shamans, presumably. I'm not hearing anything but they feel like they're... resonating? It's hard to really even frame my awareness of them, let alone try to listen in.

**Seven clans must be negotiated with to clear a passage through Skal for outsiders. Many things lie in Skal which are dangerous and deadly, many things we do not have. What can you offer in balance to the disruption of seven ways of life?**

It's not the frog-woman's voice. This one is deeper, growly. Almost impatient. Instead of thinking I try to imagine projecting the thoughts instead-

**The ring makes me strong. Powerful. I can offer healing, resolutions, trade. I might be able to help with the worst of Skal's problems.**

**Skal exists as it has always existed. Struggle and blood shaped this land. Mysticism and magic shaped its people. We do not rely on outsiders.**

**In time, I can offer answers about this world that nobody has. I'm trying to build a web spanning this continent. Trade, travel, support.**

**Can you aid and remove those Lost who end up in our domain?**

**Yes. I can arrange - not immediately, but soon - for places to take them.**

**Their lives do not last here. They are not of this place and disrupt our peoples with strange ideas and soft-hearted madness.**

**Arrange for a route for them and traders passing through the area can take them. A single road through the region is a point of contact to the rest of the world.**

**Agreed.**

When I open my eyes the frog woman is breathing deeply, seemingly asleep. The brazier has burned down low and...

And the ring is rotating slowly in front of me, glowing.

"We have work to do, you and I." I say it quietly, holding my hand up as the ring fits itself onto my finger again where it belongs.

"We do not have food." The shaman hasn't opened her eyes. "Not to spare. But go south to the coastline of Skal and you will find clans there who may trade you for such. Outsiders often take boats to pass this region and the Starry Night and Diving Eyes clans are the ones outsiders deal with most. Others do not trade or gather supplies in that way." She holds a hand up. "Now go. I have a village to assuage."

I nod to her and stand up, drifting out of the door of the hut and rising up into the sky. Turning south and thump as the ring tears me through the air towards the coastline. Diving Eyes and Starry Nights... what kind of animals will they be, I wonder? It's hard to tell from the names.

Maybe I should ask if they've seen any pan birds.

 

As I fly in lower towards the coastal town, I can hear drums. Not marching drums but the kind of deep, bone-thumping drums where you know the thing is the size of a car. Probably more than one because they're putting out a proper beat to something.

As I get closer, I can hear the song. It reminds me of something... at the edge of my mind that I can't quite place. Frustrating. It's primal, thumping and from the sounds of it, basically everyone in the village is participating.

I swoop in over the town, making a wide circle and lowering down out over the water, giving them plenty of time to see me. I know they can because I can see them pointing but the song mostly continues on, coming to a crescendo as I approach their docks and a scream as I come in to land, all of them yelling at once and then falling silent. Really silent.

Why does this place keep trying to creep me out?

From the looks of it, the Starry Nights are skunks. They're about Khumu-sized like the frogs, only about as tall as my stomach. I can tell just by looking at them that they'd be comfortable walking about on all-fours but none of them are doing that, they're all standing bipedal. Some have colors dyed into their fur, others have jewelry, some wear clothes but mostly as a status symbol.

I'm really glad I'm not finding any of them attractive because it'd be really awkward and I would be seriously questioning myself. Not a single bra or loincloth to be found. Thank the blue light for shaggy fur.

"Welcome, Lightsmith Ainsley." The crowd parts for their shaman, a surprisingly young looking girl. I expected an old woman like Saan or the frog, but nope. This one has flowers in her hair. "We've been expecting you."

"Well that's news to me because I wasn't sure exactly whether or not I would come here first. But, you know me, I don't know you, so you're...?"

"My name is Kurishalia. Kuri-shal-ia." She enunciates it for me. "Outsiders struggle with it and inevitably call me Kuri, so I won't be offended when you do the same."

"Okay. So, how did you know to expect me?"

"I was there when you spoke to the others."

I tilt my head, hming at that. Some kind of shared telepathic thing? Instructions unclear, I'd like a refund please. "Well, I assume you know why I'm here then?"

"Yes, you want to trade for food. We can do that." She makes a gesture at the others and the villagers begin to disperse, going back to their daily stuff. The ones who pass by me all find an excuse to pat my arm. One enterprising child hugs the side of my leg and does a chirping sound before running off that I'm pretty sure would make my head explode from cute if the ring wasn't helping me out.

Probability of the users head spontaneously detonating are-

Yes, thank you, you have no sense of humor, glad we cleared that up.

I take a few steps towards Kuri, who seems to be studying me rather than watching me. "You don't like to fight. Good." She gestures and starts walking. "Come with me."

"You shamans do like to be mysterious, don't you?"

That gets me what I think is a smile. "It's one of the perks of the position. Skal all feel obliged to take you seriously, even when you're not being serious. You eventually end up in the habit of just being hard to read all the time so the others don't misinterpret you somehow."

"You hold a lot of authority here, then? You're the clan leader?"

"In a sense. It's the hunters who make the big decisions, but it's the shamans who guide those decisions. No clan does anything in Skal without the approval of the local spirits."

"What was that back in the other village?"

She's leading me to a longhouse, ducking into the door. I'm not crawling on my hands and knees to get inside so I crouch down and have the ring transition me into it. Heavy cloths hung along the walls, a stone lined firepit in the middle of the room with a small open flame. Bedrolls, a few of the other Starry Nights resting or talking quietly.

One bedroll away from the others that she's leading me towards.

I move carefully so I don't hit or knock anything over, sitting down beside the lone sleeper. Ring, gimme the low-down.

Subject is currently suffering from a metastasized tumor of the liver.

Oh. Well, that's no good. I reach over towards the sleeper-

"He is my creche brother. You said you could heal. If you-"

-and I'm already repairing his body and erasing the malfunctioning cells.

"-heal him, you will have my clan as an ally for as long as I live."

"I would have done it regardless." I put my hand on the top of the boys head, using my thumb to rub behind one of his ears. "The food isn't for me. I'm trying to help somebody else so that I can get access to somebody else that I want to speak to."

The boy is stirring, Kuri sitting next to him. "Rest now, Sama."

"Mmnnn." The boy tucks his eyes against her hip and curls up on himself, hugging his own tail.

"You want to make allies." She says it quietly, stroking the top of her brothers head. "You made one today. I've hated seeing him suffer. Thank you."

"You can thank me with provisions." I chuckle without humor. "I'm trying to put a king in a good mood."

"That is no easy task to do." She nods. "My people can provide, at least in some ways. We fish, collect herbs and fruits. More the latter than the former but we trade with the Diving Eyes."

"They're next on my list, actually. I intend to visit them as well."

"How many are you intending to feed?"

"A whole royal gang of nomads. It's really their king I want to talk to, but that'll be easier if his camp is fat and happy."

She nods slowly. "Sounds important. I'll come with you."

"What?" I blink at her.

"I'll come with you. You can take me, I'm not very heavy. You want to build allies, don't you?" She nods again. "The clan is used to me taking off for long periods of time on shaman business, I won't be missed too hard for a month or two. Time enough to travel."

"Okay, but I should warn you about Elise..."

 

The Diving Eyes turned out to be otters who, unsurprisingly, had a large stock of fish. A little more surprising was finding that they'd learned basic water elementalism from some Tovari travelers and had been using it to make stockpiles of frozen fish specifically for trading with the Starry Nights for land vegetables and meat, as well as passing ships that come through the area. It didn't take long to negotiate a settlement since they were quite happy to take metals as currency, with a curious mix of gold, platinum and silver. They didn't want just one, but several different kinds. Maybe they plan to smelt them for themselves somehow?

I'm sitting with Kuri in the grass between the campers yurts where Yelin has Uter helping her set up a large cooking area. They're lining a fire pit with stones, working with some of their friends to build what will probably amount to a very large wood fire barbecue. For her part, Kurishalia seems to be relishing the chance to... well, not boss people around, but she sort of mom's people. She stuck around camp here after negotiating with the Diving Eyes for me and is pretty much the reason most of these people are fed, watered and bathed all at the same time right now.

It's funny, I wasn't all that surprised by the amount of pull that she had in Skal as a shaman, given her description of their role in Skal culture as both heirophants and grand tribal council. I find I'm very surprised by the amount she has even here in Tovalon. Despite how small she is, the Tovari take her seriously and treat her with respect. She's been nothing but warm to everyone she meets so maybe that's part of it, but it makes me wonder just what Skal shamanism can do that it's earned that kind of reverence from a people who aren't even politically engaged with them.

Right now she's chowing down on some meat jerky she brought some home and hitting me with her tail every three seconds or so as she waves it side to side next to me. I wondered if she was trying to bug me at first but now I suspect she's barely aware of it doing its own thing.

Alert. A large group of people has entered the proximity detection range specified.

Oh good, they're finally here-ish. I hop up off the grass, making Kuri blink. "Looks like they're here. You want to stay here, or come with me while I plow my way through red tape to the king?"

"Will it involve violence?"

"Not on my end. I plan to just ignore everything they throw at me and go talk to Noah."

"Why?"

"I don't want to get stuck talking to some junior nobody for days while they work out whether or not they think I'm important enough. I have too many things to do to waste time like that."

"You're being ridiculous." I raise my eyebrows at her. "I'll come with you, if only to keep you from making an ass of yourself. They'll take you seriously if I'm with you." She pops the last of the jerky in her mouth and gestures at me like she's waiting on me.

It was really hard not to treat her like a little furry kid at first but it's getting a lot easier the longer I spend time with her.

I pick both of us up and rise about two meters off the ground, moving forward towards the incoming nomads. Kuri's doing a little dashing pose and enjoying herself far too much to let it show on the surface. I suspect half the reason she wanted to come with me is that she just plain enjoys flying around next to me.

When the groups vanguard spots us there are calls to halt but I basically just ignore them, swooping above them and heading for the center of the caravan. It's not hard to make out where Noah probably is. There's a large floating platform made of wood and metal bracing being pulled by what I can only describe as a car-sized armadillo thing. A yurt is set up on the platform itself, presumably Noah's. I bring us down to land in front of the animals, soldiers trying to work their way up from the vanguard to give us hell but too many others in the way for it to be effective. Once the caravan has stopped I lift us back up, floating us towards the platform where a Tovari with goat horns and a really big axe is standing in front of Noah's tent. He looks to be spoiling for a fight but then he spots Kurishalia and just looks confused.

"Sorry about the alarm, I wanted to come straight to the point so I can get back to my work. I need to speak to King Noah."

"Not just him." Kuri pipes up, tail doing this weird... wavey thing behind her with my flight aura. It's kind of neat, actually. "I'm a shaman of Skal. This matter concerns both of our regions."

The goat man doesn't look happy about this. "Amadeus, you catch that?" He's speaking behind him despite the fact he's keeping his eyes on us. A rumble comes from inside the yurt.

"Let them inside. If they wanted to attack, they'd be attacking."

The goat bites back a protest and huffs, gripping the axe a little tighter. But he steps aside, eyeballing me like he wants to change his mind. I bring us both down to land on the platform and release Kuri from my flight aura, keeping the environmental shield on her for the sake of the translation effect.

The inside of the royal yurt is pretty much like every other yurt I've seen so far, but with better quality stuff. The wall hangings are tapestries, clearly telling stories. Ring, scan those for me, would you? I want to study them in detail later.

Confirmed.

Instead of a fire pit in the middle of the yurt there's an actual oven. There's lights too, strings hung up on the beams of the yurt with small bulbs of a warm, yellow-white. I'm not sure how they're powering it but there's probably something around here somewhere.

A small antimatter battery is housed directly beneath the platform. It is currently powering the repulsors holding the lift up as well.

No kidding. Ring, you know what to do.

Scan completed.

Good, good. Kleptomania never felt so applicable.

The man himself is sitting on a small raised 'throne' at the back of the yurt, but it's really more of a couch in truth. Noah himself is a youngish man with tattoos down his arms that I strongly suspect have some kind of magical property. Intricate symbols lining his upper arms, shoulders and chest. He's clean shaven, the first Tovari male I've seen do that. His animal trait appears to be canine but I couldn't say what kind. His wife appears to be a feline, slender. Both of them are wearing what might be taken as adventurer's costumes save for the lack of dirt, grime and washed out blood.

Noah appears content to watch us for the moment and it's his wife who speaks up first. "Hello. It's very unusual for a shaman to leave Skal."

"More unusual for a human to fly, heal with a touch and deal fairly with us." I blink, looking over at Kuri. "He didn't ask for anything when he healed my brother. He simply did it because he could."

"I'm Saxali and this is Noah. What are your names?"

"I'm Lightsmith Ainsley."

"Kurishalia."

Noah nods and sits up, gesturing to us. "Come sit with us while Amadeus gets the caravan moving again." Amadeus himself seems to appear out of nowhere to our right. Ah, he's the goat-mans brother. I think.

I've never broken bread with a king before. This should be interesting.

 

"Believe it or not, we've already had word of you." Noah is rolling a local herb into a cigarette as he speaks. Saxali is off in one corner talking to Kuri. I think the two of them are comparing home-life stories between each other, the differences between Tovalon and the Starry Night clan. "Our people don't have high levels of technology. We never tried to develop it the way the easterners did. Preferring to live as agriculture-based nomads doesn't make us wholly ignorant, though."

"The anti-matter battery powering this platform suggests that, yes."

"Oh you know of it? Are you familiar with the technology?"

"Only in the sense of recognizing it. I know what anti-matter is and how dangerous it is, but my memory is..." I make a motion at the side of my head with my hand, grimacing.

"Something's damaged your mind?"

"I can't even recall my home life. Only bits and pieces of it. I know I came from a technological society, that it was human and that science was a big deal to us, but so much context is missing that I'm really just making educated guesses. I don't truly know."

"That's disheartening. I'm sorry to hear it." He lights his smoke - Oh, it's cannabis. Interesting that it managed to make the journey here. "We heard of you from a small camp to the west. They sent a messenger to another, larger camp that was one of the ones which held a radio."

"So, what did they tell you?"

"That a blue, glowing human wants to build a trade network with us and started their introduction by healing an old woman. Not because she asked, but just because." He shrugs. "Then Kuri shows up and mentions you doing the same for her. Are you a healer?"

"Yes and no." I pick up one of the cushions, leaning sideways on it. Surprisingly good quality, actually. I think it may have been hand-stitched. "I'm capable of healing, sure. But I'm empowered by hope, both inspiring it and having it. Healing people, mentally or physically just feels... right. Building trade between Skal, Tovalon and Durjak feels right. I've only been in this world for a few days and I can already see so much potential..."

"Such as?"

"That battery of yours, for example. I've already scanned it and now that I have, my ring could probably fabricate more."

Noah goes still. So does his tail, for the first time since I've met him. When he does that Saxali sits up a little, suddenly paying us a bit more attention. "You can copy high technology?"

"Yes. More than that, the ring can analyze it. Extrapolate from it. It's a super tool, not a weapon or a medical device. It just does those things too. I want to build a trade network so that we can gain access to these things, make life easier for everybody."

"There are sometimes devices we do not understand, ones which are dangerous. Would you be willing to take these as well?"

"Devices like what?"

"Machines which eat people and turn them into more machines. Stones and devices which cause those who go near them to wither and die in horrible ways. Substances which... the effects can be horrifying. Especially with alchemical substances."

"That first one I would need to see for myself, I think. The second one sounds like radiation, which I should be able to deal with. The third... probably." I nod. "But I would need more information. Which is also part of trade. Do you have a library, King Noah?"

"What is a library?"

"See? That's exactly the kind of thing I mean. A library is a central location for gathering knowledge, books, scrolls, poetry, literature in general. I know the Skal don't have one, five minutes of talking to Kuri made that obvious. But we could. Imagine young Tovari who want to learn magic or engineering being able to travel to Durjak and become students. A city not at the center of civilization on this continent, but a linchpin holding the machinations of society together so that something more, something better can be built on it."

He's leaning back and giving it serious thought. "You're right, we don't have places like that. We've been carrying on with our way of life ever since Tovalon was pulled into this world. Aside from the ongoing conflict with the easterners, not much has changed in our daily lives."

"Has anyone ever told you about evolution?"

"No, what is this?"

"Evolution is the process by which all the various life comes about. Or at least, that's how it worked at home. Probably the case here too, but..." I shake my head, trailing off a little. "Anyways, it works like this. In any given population you have members trying to reproduce. Predation, accidents, bad luck and stupidity get eliminated from the gene pool by dying, which means that only the most successful survive to reproduce. Given a long enough time, it produces very refined forms of life. Complex animals. But that basic premise of 'adapt or die', it's central to the whole thing."

"When I arrived here and started to learn a bit about this world, I realized instantly that the ones who end up on Terra -"

"Terra?"

"No one's given me a name for this world, so I'm calling it Terra."

"An odd name."

"At least I'm not calling it holy." He looks confused. "Long story. Anyways, from what I understand, others keep ending up here like me. New arrivals, no idea where they are or whats going on. And that's a problem for me."

"Why?"

"I'm a living agent of hope. It's simply not acceptable to me that people be so helpless or endangered. A trade network across the southern end of this continent would create a web of interconnected resources to help situate people safely. Tovalon is strong, sure. But with allies, it could be better."

"You know of our ongoing conflict with the east?"

"Yes. They were my next stop but I might hold off a little until I've scanned enough technology and had time to fabricate something properly protective besides my ring."

"You don't trust it?"

"Oh, I have faith the ring will protect me. But it'd be kind of stupid to assume that would be the case forever. I've seen too many different things here to think that there might not be some way to disable it or me. I'm no fool, I know I have weaknesses. I just need to identify them and close them."

"I'm having trouble seeing a reason not to agree provisionally. But as you said there is no centralization in Tovari society. It may be some time before word of this spreads."

"Noah, come with us." He blinks. "To Durjak. I could transport your whole caravan if you needed it. There's enough food here to feed all of you, I made sure of that. You won't be an imposition on Durjak and I'm pretty sure the nomads here would rather your court move on. They like you, but not your nobles."

"Understandable. They've rather got their collective heads up their asses sometimes. Very well, if you're willing to transport us, we'll visit this town of yours."

"Excellent."

 

This is going so well. Beyond even my own expectations.

I'm sitting on the roof of one of the houses, sort of lounging as I watch the Tovari wander through Durjak. Colonel Ren and Commander Mason seem to have taken to running the show together in my absence, which is fine by me. The two of them are a good team. Not all of the Tovari are being allowed into town all at once and that created a little resentment in the court until Noah publicly announced it to be a good idea, at which point the overt grumbling stopped.

The Tovari 'nobles' actually turned out to be something closer to a vizier or regional governor. Each of them has a region they hang out in at a small permanent farming settlement, the kind they use to resupply their nomadic groups. They're only riding with Noah because they intend to be at the southern elemental shrine in a few days but that won't be a problem with me moving them back to Tovalon. Might even attend it myself to see what that's all about.

The sun is starting to set and it's right in my eyes but the ring is compensating for the glare so I'm actually finding it quite pleasant to sprawl out in the sunset like this. Durjak as a cleared treeline and the whole space between the walls and the forest is filled with Tovari campers which are beginning to light their nightly campfires and stoves. The smell of woodsmoke is heavy in the air here but the only reason I can smell it at all is that I specifically asked the ring to do that. It doesn't seem like a good idea to just completely ignore one of my senses if I'm in a place where I don't feel like I need armor anyways.

Using a construct I'm designing myself armor, using the genkit design as a template. There isn't much I can really do to make it better at the moment besides upgrading the power source but I'm a little reluctant to put antimatter anything into a combat suit, even if the battery is powerful. My design upgrades are little things like transmutation of the material itself. Why settle for layered ablative armor when I can make the outer layer pure diamond and reflective? Ren pointed out to me earlier that a blue laser would just walk right through my environmental shield. She's right, too. So long as I'm not too banged up that trick won't work so well with this suit.

Instead, I'm powering the armor directly with the ring. If something takes the ring out of play, I still have the augmented muscle enhancements and the mobility of the suit itself, as well as its original power source. Those big, lunky boots of theirs turned out to be big and lunky because they have a system to somehow reduce the friction between the ground and their feet, or raise it accordingly. Same thing on their gauntlets. The result is that they can scale walls like a gecko or skate around on pretty much any surface so long as it's sort of solid. Learning to use that will be a comedic act but it is what it is, I suppose.

The color scheme for it wasn't too hard to work out.

Rise off the roof and transition to the smiths courtyard. This is where the majority of the ingots I left ended up. Blue filaments fan out, subspacing ingots I'll need and with the silica left over from mining all this stuff in the first place... Ring, fabricate me some armor.

Fabrication in progress. Fabrication successful.

A blue wave of light creeps out from the sigils at my shoulders, covering me in a construct armor version of the suit I designed. The construct brights, shimmering like light in water for a moment before dropping away and leaving me wearing the armor. Link the ring to the power systems and activate.

A HUD appears around my face, digitally displaying the environment around me instead of forcing me to rely on direct line of sight. An overhead map in my peripheral vision, proximity sensors, suit diagnostics... All good.

Excellent.

I activate the boots, sliding forward and having the ring correct my movement when I lean too far one way or another, for now. I have it displaying how I should be moving in one corner of my HUD but it'll clearly take some practice. That's alright, I'm sure some of the genkits will be happy to have a laugh at my expense while they teach me. I don't mind that too much, I'd probably find it funny too.

Sliding up next to Ren, Mason and Elise I give a thumbs up, then subspace the suits helmet. "I like the armor. I'll probably modify it about a million times as we find new stuff, but it's a good start."

Ren is chuckling. "You made it reflective."

"Yep."

Mason doesn't seem to have much to say but Elise is circling me and looking it over. "Oooh, it's like our suits but made out of something else. Why does it have glowing lines along the seams of the armor, though?"

"No idea, the ring just kind of did that on its own."

"It looks really cool." She play punches my shoulder, then shakes her hand out. "Ow, that hurt."

"Not bad for a first attempt, blue. You got the hang of the friction skids?"

"Pffft no, I just cheated and had the ring control my movement for me on the way here."

"Looks like you get to join my morning drills then. Won't that be fun?" Ren is grinning at me in a predatory kind of way. "I can already tell you've never been a fighter but boy, I'm gonna turn you into one."

"Yay. I can barely contain my excitement." I say it in a complete monotone, making Elise giggle until Ren looks at her sideways. She gets as serious-face as she can but is only partially successful.

"Enthusiasm like that's gonna get you double laps, Ainsley." Ren thumps my shoulder and it actually makes me sway. It's like having a tiny giant tap you. "You just wait until tomorrow. It's gonna be an interesting day."

"What, this place has other kinds?"

 

[Dreamscape]

The conceptualization/dreamspace begins with the blue sigil. I know with the dream-logic that it's a platform in space. I don't see any stars but it doesn't matter very much.

When I look up I find I'm sitting on a ridge above a valley despite the lack of seam between the change. It doesn't look familiar but I know there's something there I should see.

Something important.

The impetus to move forward results in me flying in the dream, the trees blurring together. When I stop I'm above a clearing, lowering down into it. I walk into the trees and
**I see you.**
something changes but it's not important because I'm in a hallway. I recognize this place. I know it's a house I grew up in, walking from the stairs down the short hallway into the living room. It's an L shape, sharing the space with the dining room and the kitchen in walled off space. It's to my left but that's not the focus.

Kuri is sitting on the couch. "You're not familiar with this, are you?"

"I know this place."

"Yes. You called us here. Some place you felt safe in instinctually. What is it?"

"A house. I lived here as a child." Where dreams tend to flow from one thing into another, her being here is stabilizing this, somehow. I've become aware that I'm dreaming, something that's never happened to me before. Despite that, I don't feel like I really control anything. Powerless.

"Not entirely. Dreams are shaped by magic which is shaped by dreams. Both of them are shaped by minds. You feel weak in magic, your presence is barely there. Wispy, like a child's. But your mind is strong."

"So what does that mean?"

"Your dreams can effect your mind and vice versa. Have you ever had a nightmare and woken up feeling shaken?"

"You know my memory is a scattered mess."

"Not in this place, it isn't. Look around you. Your mind is filling in the details of the room the longer we stay here."

The television against the kitchen wall, the couch she's sitting on... the rocking chair. That belonged to my great-grandmother and was kept by my mother. So was the cabinet in the dining room. The oval table next to it, the stereo...

She's right. In the time I've been here, I've never thought of these things.

"How do I recover my memories?"

"I don't know. Your spirit is shaped in a way that I would expect to see in somebody who had been attacked nearly to death by magic or madness. You're clearly neither dying or mad."

"But the key is my dreams."

"Yes." She stands up, running a finger along the coffee tables glass. "Such opulance. What is this? Some kind of crystal?"

"No, just glass. It's made from melted sand."

"It would be useful to us."

"Yeah. And I never thought of how to try making it before this." Hm. "Is it you doing this? Making me aware of this?"

"Only partially. I'm asleep too. Part of what makes me a shaman is mastery of this place. I'm not actually doing anything to you, you're just benefiting from the stability around me."

"How do I learn to do this on my own?"

"You're already taking the first steps. What's outside?"

I turn around, walking back down the hallway to the front door. Opening it feels almost like reflex. Then we're outside, standing next to the crab-apple tree I always hated on our lawn.

"Oh." Kuri is looking back at the townhouse. "They're all connected. All built together?"

"Yes. Blocks and blocks of houses divided by roads for those." I point at the burgundy Reliant my mom used to drive when I was a child. "It's like a wagon but moves without being pulled."

"How?"

"I never really studied it. That was my dads thing. Not mine."

"I felt that. A strong emotional resonance."

"This place is in a city far larger than anything you've seen. I know that but the truth is I don't think... I ever really traveled outside it. Not in person."

"Limiting. Strong emotional memories are better. That one you just had was strong but it felt very negative."

"I don't think there's good associations there."

We've changed locations, going from standing on the grass in front of the house to standing in a field. Hay bales are lined up against a fence with a treeline along it. A large driveway divides the field from a white farmhouse with a large garage and a smaller structure behind them at the trees. All of the buildings look old.

"This looks more familiar to me."

"Does it? I think of this place as The Farm when I look at it, but..."

"No crops, yes. Animals, though." She points to the hay bales. "And a barn. You're not entirely off the mark."

"No, I suppose not."

"Why is this place important to you?"

"I don't know. Links without context, that's how it's been since I arrived. I don't know how to force it, how to do it consciously."

"Give it time, Ainsley. There will be other nights." She drops down to sit in the grass, plucking at it and chewing thoughtfully. "Your clothes are different. The quality is impressive. Not just of your clothes, but all of what I saw. You lived like a tiny prince and I thought you might be rich until we stepped out and saw so many other houses just like yours."

"No, not rich. What you saw was just stuff my mom had accumulated."

"Your society must be very prosperous."

"Compared to Skal? Yeah. We had stuff to make stuff that..." I shake my head. "We'll have it in Durjak too. Someday."

"You wish to attract artisans and have them develop ways to teach others their craft."

"Yeah. I do. I want everyone to be able to have that, or at least something like that. Security, comfort, peace."

"When you awaken, I will find you. We will discuss how to prepare you for this tomorrow night. One piece at a time we'll recover what is locked away here. Also, I think I like this grass."

"How? You've never tasted it for real."

"It's the enthusiasm which counts, you know."

 

I've been doing some light reading. 'Light' because the ring doesn't have a lot of information in it. Asking the AI what it knows wasn't very helpful until I made a computer screen construct and started browsing through it in a text-based format. Every time I found something interesting I'd have the ring focus on that thing and work its mojo on my brain to download it into my head or whatever the hell it's doing.

That's how I got the instructions to make more rings. But doing that requires the person doing it to focus really hard on their hopes while doing the work, which is why I'm building my workshop inside a mountainside. I need a workspace I can secure and it's pretty hard to break into a mountain face. I'm using the ring to tear out rock, subspacing the slag material for later use. Maybe I'll combine it with the asteroid slag and build somebody an island or something.

The rock face I'm working on has quite the view, actually. It's on the border between Durjak's lands - I really need to think of a region name for this area - and Skal, on the western side of the range. I can just about see Durjak if I use the ring to enhance my vision so I'm not too far, but high up enough to limit access and still give a beautiful view of the valley below stretching out to the horizon. Not all of the trees are the same uniform green either. Some are darker, some lighter, some with various kinds of purple leaves and some with bright gold ones. Some of the trees have flowers in them ranging from blue to purple to bright yellow. The area is gorgeous, really.

"Wooooooow, you're just really tearing through that, huh?" Elise is here with me, sitting up on a jutting rock above the space I'm excavating. "Are you like, half badger or something?"

"No, I just really need this workspace. Doing this is going to be a long-term thing at best, even if I began the work today it would still take months, maybe years to build a copy of my ring. I don't even have the tools or anything yet. The ring can make construct tools for this but having stationary work spaces for manipulating the blue light will help me conceptualize what I'm doing better. I can understand forges."

"So who you gonna give it to?"

"I haven't made that decision. It won't be a pressing one either, having a second ring supposedly gives me a bigger charge pool to work with. Even if I don't have anybody in mind right away, the effort still helps."

"Sure but look at all the amazing stuff you can do. You're eating a mountainside. That's pretty awesome, y'know."

"I'm cutting out foundations. Speaking of which, you're going to have to move from there soon. Can you come down to this spot I've already cut out?"

"Shu-werrrrr." She hops up, shifting her weight to her hands and leaning forward and the rock, balancing her center of weight on her wrists while moving her legs behind her so she can kneel and stretch while standing up. She kind of eyeballs me when she realizes I'm not looking and hops down off the rock, sliding down on her feet and walking over to me. "So this is gonna be your secret hideout, huh? You gonna make the mountain into a skull? You should totally do that, it'd look so cool."

"Wh-? No." I side-eye her, giving her a funny look. "I'm not an evil overlord or something, Elise. I'm trying to inspire people, not menace them."

"Why not both?" She shrugs extravagantly, doing a little bounce in her step while she says it. "Oh come ooooon. So what are you gonna build, then?"

"A castle."

"Whaaaat? Okay I take it back, that's a great idea. What kind of castle?"

"The kind I can live in comfortably with a small retinue, probably. Durjak is still just one town and this region is pretty big. It'll become a center of trade for this area soon and a castle overlooking the area is a statement. Not to mention I want a comfortable, defensible home. With it up on a high ledge like this the only way to get up here will be through a portal or lift or something, which is a choke point easily defended. Portcullises can be broken, but what do you do when they just remove the door?"

"Make a catapult!" She grins at that, wagging her tail.

"What, not a trebuchet? You monster."

"I know. I'm branching out into new forms of evil, the classical ones get boring after awhile." She's halfassedly pacing around while I tear out huge sections of the mountainside, digging a rectangle shaped cut into the rock face. Then I begin building the foundation, a heavy wave of blue light forming the shape in a construct before the light-through-water shimmer follows, solidifying the rock into the shape I want. Adding a mix of asteroid slag is changing the color of it so that the resulting brickwork is actually slightly more blue-ish gray than the rest of the rock, making it stand out a little. "Ooh, it's theme-colored too. Niiiiice."

"I didn't actually plan that, interesting. I wonder if I can find some marble or basalt to work into the design here?"

"Yes! You should totally make the castle in your colors. Oh! If you go to a volcano can I come with you? I wannaseeavolcanosobad."

"Well... I'm not sure where to find marble but I can probably get quartz instead if I burrow deep enough. As for basalt, you get that from volcanos, so yeah. But only if you make us lunch when we get back."

She grins and grabs my arm, leaning into me. "Deal! Now c'mon, I wanna see lava go all FWOOOOSH!"