[X] Go with Agneyastra's slightly-edited plan.
-[X] Switch from practicing Sleep to debating mana traits ASAP. If you're going to hurry out of here, you shouldn't waste time on something you can do on your own, if a bit slower.
-[X] When Nanoha wakes up, let her decide whether to leave or resume the shopping trip.
"Mom? I think your plan will work well enough for our purposes. Thanks for the help, everyone! If nobody minds, I might start doing this sort of thing more often. I mean, officially. I think I've usually been pretty good about asking what you'd like to do? Um. Well, anyway, I think I'll just ask Nanoha if she wants to resume our original shopping trip or just leave right off. Sidhe, could you stop the sleep spells for now? I'd like to discuss color theory with Magister Solus before we have to go."
Sidhe blinks twice before nodding. You turn to Solus together and find yourself faintly amused by his uncomfortable shudder.
"What do you believe the traits of colored mana are?" you ask carefully.
"I've noticed Magnostadt mages have a habit of personifying it."
Solus straightens considerably. You get the feeling he's more comfortable discussing this than he was with trying to teach you magic.
"As the Magi have reported vastly increased environmental mana in areas where humans gather, I do believe humans produce or imprint mana. This idea is further reinforced by the rare uncolored mana, which is usable for
any spell of sufficiently large size so long as it has a colored imprint to work from. Between that and the tendency of mages to produce one or rarely two colors, it's not unreasonable to believe mana is personified. We generate it by our very presence and color it with our actions."
You cross your arms and lean back in your seat. It fits, but not completely.
"Plants and animals will still produce Green mana in the absence of humans. Volcanos will still generate a small amount of Red, swamps continue to produce both Green and Black, and so on. Lesser amounts, I'll grant you, yet it's still present."
Solus shifts in his seat and leans forward, both hands clasped before him.
"If your senses are sufficient to quantify the mana produced by an area, what of Magnostadt? I'd expect this many magicians to produce a massive amount of loose magic, yes?"
You allow yourself a small smile before consuming his hopes and dreams.
"Actually, there are only five loose motes, or about the capacity of two mages. Black or White mana, Black or Red mana, Black or Blue mana, Black or Green mana, and Black or Colorless mana."
Magister Solus blinks and frowns, but his furrowed brow makes you think it's more from puzzlement than disappointment.
"What do you mean by 'or?'"
"It can be tapped for one mote of Black or one mote of White, one of Black or one of Blue, and so on. Incidentally, Magnostadt has the single most lopsided mana distribution I've ever seen. I don't think so much focus on Black can be healthy for the inhabitants."
Solus takes a long, deep breath, spends just as much time exhaling, and slowly inhales again. You can't tell if he's trying to remain calm or just wants to think.
"No. No, I don't believe it could be," Solus eventually admits. "Do you know of any safe method of bleaching our environment? If Rukh aren't Fate's only weapon, I'd prefer to defend against it as soon as possible."
You hurriedly shake your head. Best to kill that train of thought as quickly as possible.
"Colorless mana will accept an imprint. Devoid mana takes that further and actively pulls from people, but instead of taking on its traits, the Devoid will produce ever more of itself. I say that the lopsided balance is disturbing not because I believe the environment will affect you, but because you're clearly influencing your environment. Magnostadt's mass drain operation taints every other color and the unacceptably high levels of waste aren't helping any."
Solus looks ready to protest before visibly fighting down his protests. An awkward moment passes before the mage decides to change the subject.
"I see no reason why mana can't be generated by multiple sources. Heat from the volcano may have passively converted itself back into Red. The mass decay and rot in the swamp, Black. The growth of plants and animals, Green. I admit I don't know what natural sources would generate White or Blue, but color theory isn't my specialty. Did you want to discuss the traits of mana instead?"
You nod once.
"Start with Blue, please."
Solus flashes you a quick smile before creating a shapeless glob of the same in one palm.
"I assume you don't want to spend days on this, so I'll try to summarize. Blue wants to learn, to innovate, to improve. It's willing to try anything in its pursuit of that, but won't do much on its own. It'll try to slow down the other colors if it touches them, both so it can inspect them and so it'll have more time to think. White will protect it as it creates and Red will give it the motivation
to create. Green and Blue focus almost exclusively on their shared trait of
improvement and can easily produce biological wonders
or horrors."
Solus dismisses the glob and clasps his hands together.
"Green wants to reproduce, grow, nurture, and
dominate. You'll seldom see a subtle Green effect and it will often try to bludgeon Blue or Black into submission. It
can cooperate with White and Red, but it usually just eats them if they're left alone together. Green effects are good for boosting living beings and destroying nonliving objects, but as far as I'm aware, they're rather limited beyond that.
"White wants structure and order, or as one of my friends put it, to
exist. Raw White mana is malleable when it's first generated, but will rapidly harden if it's left alone for any amount of time. This makes it excellent for defense and terrible for any job requiring ongoing changes. Blue can help shape White and White can help make Red more reliable, but White
really doesn't cooperate with Black.
"Black is ambitious. Black mages need to be careful with their color lest it rule over them; Black doesn't
care what it destroys so long as it can improve its own power. Combining it with Blue makes it more cautious, but also deadlier in the event of a screwup. White, it'll try to subvert over time until your supposedly White spell is really just a layer of White mana concealing a horrific mass of Black. Green it can help, but to the benefit of an individual instead of a group. We've practically had to
ban combining it with Red due to its tendency to burn that which is too strong for it to subvert.
"Red wants to feel and to act. Blue can help Red acquire some self-control, but there need to be good reasons for Blue's efforts; if the Blue isn't convincing enough, it'll just be ignored. Red will sometimes fight against White until it's destroyed; other times, it'll actually accept the constraints White is placing upon it. If it isn't fueling Black's rise to power, Red will violently fight against the other color to the detriment of both."
Once you realize Solus is done explaining, you silently consider your response. You'd been planning on
debating the traits of color with him, but if he's just going to brief you, it might be best to just let it go. You'll happily take a one-sided briefing over needing to talk to people.
"I hadn't had that much of an opportunity to observe Green, so its interactions with the other colors are news to me. Thank you for the information."
Solus doesn't seem even the slightest bit bothered by the one-sided trade.
"Any time, Princess."
Two minutes later, you receive rather welcome news in the form of a single word.
"...Jade?" Nanoha asks sleepily.
You wave Sidhe's newest spell away and form a
T-timeout symbol with your hands, mouthing Nanoha as you do so. Sidhe smiles brightly and continues tossing spells at you anyway, mouthing
shield practice back at you.
"Um, hi. Are you feeling alright? Mom said your soul tried to eat my gift and eating fire seldom really works out, so..."
There's a conspicuous five-second delay before Nanoha responds.
"I think I'll be okay. Just a little headache. Did I miss anything important?"
"Um. Okay, so that's a bit hard to answer? Two big highlights, I think. The first is that I basically had a series of quick, zero-context precognitive visions around the time you collapsed, including the knowledge that one of the other planes is gone. I'd both outgrown it and never really visited it to start with, so I think it got replaced with something more helpful."
"That's..." Nanoha begins hesitantly, then stops and seems to reconsider.
"Um, okay, I was going to say that seemed to be ascribing too much intelligence to a universe, but I guess we don't know how your world-walking ability really works. It could have its own directory or something."
"Actually, I think it might be closer to having the plane pushed out of my range while another was brought into the shard. As usual, I don't actually know where I got that idea, so I guess it's a bit unreliable."
"I think my middle school science teacher might foam at the mouth if she ever met you. The scientific method is practically your mortal enemy."
"The method does still work on magic, just not whatever I keep pulling ideas from. Anyway, the new plane is supposed to be pretty dangerous, including some anti-air weapons I wanted to steal and take back to defend our new kingdom. Still, it's not really something I should bring you or Sidhe for. Or anyone, really. I can always planeswalk away, but even if we waited until I could resummon you, there'd still be a delay. Not good."
"Haven't we been training to stop what would practically be armageddon?" Nanoha points out.
"I don't think 'safe' was ever really an option. We were lucky you could literally stop time as it is."
You rub your knuckles beneath your robes. You don't really like where this conversation is going.
"Nanoha, I'm talking about actual ship-to-ship weaponry and mind-scorching. Their favorite material is stupidly resistant to Linker Core energies, so we..."
You trail off as the implications of that statement prevent you from following the unknown path any further. If it's resistant in the sense of deflecting it, that's one problem. If it's resistant in the sense of refusing to be destroyed, that's another. If it acts like a superconductor to distribute the energy and stubbornly avoid damage, that's yet another issue, and if it consumes it as fuel,
another. On the other hand, if you can still maintain a Barrier Jacket while wearing some sort of unobtainium (name pending) armor, that might dramatically increase the difficulty of harming you using LC magic.
"So?" Nanoha prompts.
"I don't know how that was supposed to end," you admit.
"I've been having a lot of moments like that lately. Maybe something like saying we couldn't just blast first and ask questions later? Now I mostly just want armor made out of whatever that material is supposed to be."
"And you don't know any of its other physical properties?" Nanoha prompts.
"Like, if heat will just make it brittle instead of melting properly?"
"Um, I don't think that's how most materials work, but I think I understand what you were trying to ask. No, I guess Mom won't really know how to properly process it or if she even can with the tools we have."
XCOM takes commissions, kinda. They're perpetually short on alien materials.
Um, hi? Are you able to answer some questions, or...?
No answer is forthcoming. You suppose that's an answer in of itself.
"Buuuut that's okay since Neph says we'll be able to trade with something or someone named 'XCOM' for an armor commission," you finish.
"Also, apparently this new world has aliens since we'd have to pay XCOM in 'alien materials.' That's actually a little relieving; I'd been wondering why all the worlds seemed to be so human-centric. Even the Fade-plane just had native humanoids."
"So what I'm hearing is that you'll need to scavenge or steal significant amounts of material in a hostile area, contact a third party to have some of it turned into armor, and get all this done before the Jewel Seed disaster starts. And, um, knowing Agneyastra, she might have extra specifications so the armor isn't ugly. Jade, I do appreciate you trying to keep us safe, but I don't think that's really an option anymore. We're going to be fighting a bunch of mages during the disaster, right? And ships don't exactly sound stealthy. I think we could hide from foes long enough for you to resummon us."
"Can I at least scout it first?" you ask plaintively.
"Maybe secure one or two bases in the middle of nowhere? We still need to get you a colored mage-gift."
Honestly, half your request is for the selfish sake of your own sanity. You've had enough unexpected interruptions and plan changes to last you for the next week. You'd normally be happy to deal with those as they came, but so many of them decided to interrupt activities you were actually enjoying. Being surprised by something you'd known was possible is one thing. Being surprised by something out of the blue, like Neph, is just... You've hit your limit for a little while, okay?
"Um, yes? I'm not saying we should be reckless and everything, I'm just trying to say you don't need to leave us behind."
You abruptly remember a rather important counterpoint. Honestly, you're surprised it didn't occur to you earlier.
"Sidhe doesn't have a Barrier Jacket and she can't fly. You might be able to dodge attacks until I could summon-extract you, but Sidhe would be pretty much stuck. Leaving her on her own for days at a time while we go off fighting doesn't seem like it'd be healthy for her or the ferrets."
"Oh. Right. Never mind? I guess we can train more on our own while you're gone. Um, what was that second major topic you mentioned? The one I missed while I was napping."
You can't help but notice her understatement.
Napping. Almost as if she was avoiding the u-word.
"Long story short, there are a few hundred thousand mundane people beneath Magnostadt and a bunch of them aren't happy about it. Magnostadt is draining them for all the magical power we see them spending. Most mages don't see the 'Goi' as people, or if they do, it's as irresponsible children. I told someone from the local humanitarian movement, Sunlight, that real gods could hear prayers, and... um, he apparently sorta started getting a bunch of people to worship me down there?"
You mentally check the number of ongoing prayers. It's hovering at about 20,000 people, but you're starting to think that might be from cycling worshippers out instead of individuals actually keeping at it for that long.
"Like, twenty thousand or so. I can hear their prayers now and I miiiight have another divine Aspect working to keep them from overwhelming me. One that isn't Neph, I mean. I can still hear them if I concentrate on it, but if I don't, they're just a weight at the back of my mind."
Now that you think about it, you really do have to wonder what your Spark
is. With all the helpful assistants it's given you, it doesn't really seem like something that could've formed by chance. Maybe the original creator-civilization migrated away from Nanoha's plane and Sylvester found a Spark-granting machine later?
Ugh, I don't know. You suppose Sylvester might've just been born with a really weird power and decided to improve it before passing it on.
"Just out of the blue?" Nanoha presses.
"Well, they're mostly asking to be let out," you admit.
"Some of them are asking me to ignore those people, though, so... yeah. Anyway, um, I think Mom could do more to tell you about their situation than I can. We're not leaving them to suffer or anything, but it's not really a problem we can solve right this minute. In the meantime, do you wanna resume our sorta-shopping trip?"
There's a multi-second pause while Nanoha digests the change in subject.
"We won't be able to safely share senses, will we?"
"Yeaaah, we're just vetoing that project on general principles," Mitra interrupts.
"Principles like concern, love, and not poking the hot glass a second time. Nanoha, you'll have a mage gift soon, so don't worry about it, 'kay?"
"That's... I mean, it's actually my point," Nanoha admits.
"It was a nice preview and I enjoyed spending time with Jade, but I kinda don't want to reward them for using people as batteries. I'd also kinda like to learn how to see magic with my own senses instead of leeching off Jade. Jade, would you mind if we just finished ferrying people to your kingdom, then left to go get me some magic of my own? I'm sure this won't be the only marvelous place in the multiverse. Maybe we could go to a magical amusement park or something."
Your dismay (briefly) wars with your glee. Glee wins. Nanoha might not want to continue your shopping trip, but she
did ask you
out to go with her for a replacement run. You'll happily accept an entire new trip over finishing one you'd already started.
You do realize you could've just asked her out again, right? Your math is off.
Unfortunately, Terry's report to you an hour later amounts to
"We don't actually have any ideas that would survive enemy action." Useless, in other words. You make sure to graciously thank him and the rest of Sunlight for their efforts. They might not be making huge progress in the realm of civil rights, but at least they're
trying. That's better than you can say for the monsters opposing them.
While you're leaving,
Agneyastra Mom once again manages to convince you that subtlety is not her strongest trait. After reuniting with Nanoha, you simply glide over Magnostadt's streets and back through its exit tunnel without even saying "
Goodbye" to its leaders, examining the Red
Crush enchantment on your way out. You'll be able to examine your memory in more detail later on, but as far as you can tell, all it would do is move sections of the stone tunnel to crush intruders. Maybe you could use the same concepts for larger scale geomancy later on?
(Ability Discovered: Move [Rank 0])
Another five minutes pass before a Seeker and twelve Parasite droids walk out of Magnostadt's gates in a slightly odd zigzag pattern. A minute later, a thirteenth Parasite skitters after the rest. The implications are not lost on you:
I can control Magebane Golems from a distance and undetected. This message is further reinforced when you actually make your mass broadcast, once again from outside the walls.
"This is Princess Jade Agni. Magnostadt is killing its underground citizens by degrees and a majority of its Council has elected to continue doing so despite my warnings. This needs to stop. Slow improvement and few concessions are of little worth when I know you could be doing more. Your cooperation with the recoloring of the potentially worldkilling Devoid Rukh has been noted and is largely responsible for the chance I am giving you. Fix your country or be fixed. However, I have no quarrel with the average Magnostadt magician, only those who knowingly oppose better care of your nonmagical citizens. Be a positive force and receive rewards, but don't fear the consequences of being a bystander or deciding to help rather later than most."
Another pair of Parasite Droids
clink out of Magnostadt's gate.
"For those of you in Magnostadt's various lower floors, rest assured that your prayers have been heard and you will not be forgotten. If the mages of Magnostadt have been paying attention to mythology, they should know better than to ignore the warnings of a deity when she is warning them about an ongoing mistake, hubris, or both. Mages of Magnostadt, please don't join those who insist they should ignore any threats implied simply because they're threats. You are not the biggest fishes in this lake, but if you stop acting so wasteful and set up proper sustainable mana generation, you can at least be a shark."
You switch channels and speak directly to your friends and family.
"Did I get everything?"
You receive a chorus of vaguely uncertain agreement in return.
It takes you about three hours to fly to the site of your new kingdom. For your kingdom, Mom seems to have picked a rock-covered collection of hills, patches of grass, and the occasional family of goats. It isn't the most inspiring sight. Rather more satisfying are the hundreds of droids (if mostly Parasites) engaged in active construction, already having built twelve one-story stone buildings and working on yet more. Four hundred-meter glass greenhouses contain plants that you're
sure Mom didn't pull out of herself.
You... don't actually greet "your" people despite spending the rest of the day there. With over ten thousand people still praying to you, it's easy to justify not-quite-hiding in the only two-story structure in your as-yet unnamed kingdom. The rest of the day is spent on simulations, ferret playtime, giving Nanoha a primer on colored mana, and mana practice. With Sidhe's help, you're able to finish getting Sleep to work. Unfortunately, it's hard for you to progress past needing around eight seconds to assemble the packet of cold Blue. You
could make an overcharged version of the spell within five seconds, but that might send targets into a comatose state of unknown length. Maybe days, maybe weeks.
(Ability Improved: Sleep [Rank 0 -> 4])
Hexproof is much,
much harder to figure out. Oh, you can spend an hour enchanting for each square decimeter of an object and be rewarded with the effect, but you don't get how it
works, nor how you can get your own spells to continue targeting items you've enchanted.
(Ability Improved: Hexproof [Rank 0 -> 1])
You doubt it'll be easy for you to figure out. One of the things Hexproof blocks seems to be your mana sense. In fact, you're starting to suspect you won't even be able to approach any sort of understanding until your mana sense is even better.
Once your mana has recharged, you give your friends hugs, stow the Stalker back in subspace, and planeswalk away.
The new plane is rather easy to find. All of the other planes feel sharp and distinct, beacons of their dominant colors that beckon from within Eternity's confusing twists and turns. The newest plane is distinctive because of how strong it
isn't. If you didn't know any better, you'd say the Endless Hunger had already eaten much of it. Since it's still there, your assessment is obviously incorrect. The Hunger doesn't stop eating until a plane is dead
. As for what you find there, well…
A weakened world of
White, and... honestly, it's a weird one. Aliens — and not of the human variety — seem to have conquered this Earth some few decades before, instituting a global government known as the ADVENT Coalition. Despite their rather dubious methods of initially asserting control, they actually seem to have been doing a pretty good job —
mostly. The alien spiritual (and effective) leaders, the Elders, seem to be outright
dead. The Elders are,
of course, refusing to properly acknowledge this fact and are doing everything they can to prevent their proper passage onward. As expected, their continued efforts to cling to (un?)life have rewarded mixed results. Their mastery of soul magic may let them offload the damage of transfer onto the bodies they migrate into rather than doing further damage to their own souls, but dodging said damage leaves their vessels as withered, dying husks.
Unfortunately for the human race, these transfers mean taking
human vessels. The Elders do, to their credit, seem to be working on a more permanent solution, but in the meantime, they basically require sacrifices of some two thousand humans every single week. Oh, they hide the disappearances under the guise of permanent military service with invasive adjustments, terrorist attacks, or "leaving the cities on relief missions," but you can see where their victims are actually going. The soldiers allegedly join the faceless masses of genetically modified soldiers and the volunteers are "killed by dissidents."
Fortunately for your state of mind, the Elders aren't operating unopposed. A rebel (
or possibly terrorist if you believe ADVENT) group known as XCOM (
Extraterrestrial Combat Unit) is doing their utmost to not only violently oppose the alien threat, but also learn from their technologies and mastery of soul magic. You can't tell if the Elders are leaving XCOM alive simply so they have high-profile scapegoats or if XCOM is genuinely competent enough to avoid destruction. Either way, XCOM honestly doesn't seem to be accomplishing all that much in the way of solid victories. Ones good for morale, sure, but they haven't done
real damage since they lost the support of Earth's old governments two decades ago.
You think Mom might actually want you to visit this plane, albeit maybe without all your friends. You wouldn't have technological superiority there, only the results of a separate technological path. Although their path looks like one of the ones that ends in self-destruction, you can steal the stones from their road to improve your own.
However, it doesn't look as though you'll be able to just waltz into an ADVENT city and grab anything shiny. Identity scanners are as common as lightposts and obtaining ID requires, among other things, a brain implant. Or the implant might
be the ID. It's hard to tell, honestly. It's a good thing much of the human race still lives outside ADVENT's cities; them, you'll be able to roam freely among. Well,
mostly. Some rather unpleasant groups have formed in the absence of governments to stop them. XCOM does support order in some areas, but only in Europe and northern Africa. Their efforts to expand further are ongoing.
There are also six other major resistance factions, albeit ones which aren't as individually powerful as XCOM — which is a bit sad, actually, since XCOM isn't doing too well either. Anyway, the Templar are soul mages willing to embrace madness and other assorted side effects in the name of unlocking further power, EXALT is obsessed with general improvement of human bodies and views the Elders as selfishly interfering, the Skirmishers are those few people who were modified for military service before managing to fight off the accompanying indoctrination, the Pilgrims spread resistance propaganda within ADVENT cities and help extract rebel sympathizers, the Council is a loose network of spies working within ADVENT while feeding information to the other groups, and the Reapers are expert scouts fond of sneaking in and blowing things up.
There's an irritatingly complicated web of who dislikes who, too, which mostly seems caused by their tendency to trip over one another. The fact that ADVENT can tear intelligence from the minds of their captives makes the various factions fear sharing operational details with the others, but in the absence of such? It isn't unheard of for Reapers to assassinate Councilors, Skirmishers to inadvertently draw attention to areas Pilgrims were canvassing, Templar to eliminate alien-modified humans EXALT wanted to study, and so on. You think it'll take you time to puzzle out the full web of likes and dislikes. The various factions are sometimes willing to put aside their differences for sufficiently large operations, but XCOM is usually used as an intermediary and the cooperation is
always temporary.
If you want to be absolutely honest, you're not sure who or what you should be helping here, if anyone. The Elders are responsible for some genuinely horrifying atrocities, including ones which filled Earth's old cities with hordes of non-infectious zombies, but ADVENT is, for the most part, a successful post-scarcity society. If you can help the Elders sort out their whole undeath issue, they might create a genuine utopia.
...Well, maybe. The Elders do have a seven-member black ops group comprised of ludicrously enhanced former humans. You don't think their artificial vessels are better than yours, but they might be
equal and the effective range of their Soul Obelisks(???) lets them maintain control across the continent they're stationed on. At any rate, this group is known as the Elder's Chosen, or Chosen for short. They're all religious fanatics, sociopaths, psychopaths, megalomaniacs, battle junkies, or some combination of the above, with individual kill counts in the hundreds or even thousands. You're not sure if their insanity is due to the slow soul degradation from their vessel swaps, which they seem to get about a dozen of, or if the Elders decided to upgrade a group of crazy people. Maybe both? Either way, they tend toward being rather territorial and don't team up even when their Obelisk-ranges overlap.
Most importantly, the Chosen have been promised personal rule over large swaths of Earth once the Elders sort out their whole
death problem. You think the Hunter would turn his territory into some twisted human hunting reserve, the Missionary would cheerfully twist and rewrite the minds of her victims until they unknowingly reenact various stories, the Warlock would have much worse views on religion and respect than even Mom started with, the Scholar would perform all manner of gruesomely unethical experiments, the Seer would make personal freedom into a... wait, never mind, she died instantly after attacking the Elders or something. So make that
six Chosen. Anyway, you have trouble looking at the Assassin and the shapeshifting Sleeper, so you're not sure what they'd do.
You
can see that the Sleeper has already made it difficult for you to help XCOM; in Sleeper's early days, it posed as a humanoid (female) envoy from a star-spanning civilization willing to discreetly help XCOM as part of its cold war against the "Ethereals," the alleged true name of the Elders. The damage Sleeper did upon betraying them immediately reduced XCOM from seven bases to five, which soon dropped to
four due to supply issues. Sleeper hasn't done anything quite so overtly damaging since then, but it does seem to extract particular delight from attacking XCOM recruitment drives. The various resistance factions may have melee-range (and for XCOM & EXALT, drone-mounted) scanners capable of detecting the nature of Sleeper, but they're exactly that: melee range. If Sleeper spots one of the scanners, it usually just tosses a plasma grenade at the closest group of sympathizers, shoots the scanner-wielder a few times, and runs like hell. At least the Sleeper has died a good seven or eight times so far, the highest out of any of the Chosen. Sadly, the resistance doesn't realize the Sleeper has a limited number of vessel swaps and views it as an undying bogeyman.
It doesn't help that the previously mentioned scanners seem to use the presence of a soul to determine whether a given person is the Sleeper in disguise. You think it could detect your Soul Gem if you were to show it to them, but they'd probably be shooting by then. XCOM and EXALT have even started designing their drones to immediately attack or outright
detonate upon detecting someone without a soul. You can't even go to an outpost beyond the Sleeper's range since it is the only Chosen to appear all across the globe. Maybe because the other Chosen view it with scorn and don't view the Sleeper as a real competitor? You're still not sure how its Obelisk is supposed to move, though. It has to be a different design, you're sure of that much.
On a related note, XCOM is now down to two stationary bases, both of which are closer to supply depots (or expendable bait), and a flying command cruiser — the Avenger — stolen from the aliens, which is stealthed and most definitely
not expendable. If the Avenger falls, XCOM would be left headless and helpless. This, more than anything else, makes you suspect the Elders are deliberately leaving them alive. XCOM was dismantled with brutal efficiency initially, but the Elders were stopped just short of the death blow? It just smells fishy to you.
Even before they got truly desperate, XCOM fell firmly among those believing the ends justify the means. They're not above using a combination of torture and mental deconstruction on human ADVENT officials in order to obtain information, to say nothing of what they do to captured aliens.
...Which ADVENT apparently does right back to them, or maybe even did
first, but...
ugh. You don't want to think too hard about this, but you suspect you will anyway. You can at least give them credit for not taking the easy way out and only
calling it necessary; they're not above incorporating alien genetic modifications into volunteers with the assistance of nanomachines known as Meld. Not to the experimental extremes EXALT goes to, mind, but you still respect the courage involved there. If EXALT's means weren't even worse than XCOM's, you'd respect them, too; some of their volunteers replace their entire bodies from the neck down with robotic parts just so they can better fight ADVENT.
The mana levels of this third Earth are, for most of the world, rather abysmal, but you think it's worth noting that the Avenger somehow produces somewhere between four and eight motes. You're not sure why you'd be able to bond to it when the same doesn't hold true for your pendant. If it's a mana generator, why can you bond to it? And if it's a land, why can it
move? Should you blame the fact that so many exotic alien alloys and Elerium went into its construction? And speaking of mysteries, why would Elerium apparently be effective at harmlessly redistributing Linker Core energy? You know ADVENT and XCOM often use it for wiring and energy generation, but you're used to Linker Core magic having the ability to destroy
everything.
You shake your head and move on to Velgarth. You can take a second look at the alien plane later on.
Aiming your planeswalk is surprisingly easy once you manage to push away the puppylike enthusiasm of the
Realm of Fire or whatever Velgarth's natives call it. North of the southern country of Karse acting as a beacon of
Black,
White, and a bit of
Red. North of one beacon of
White. Southwest of a second,
literally repulsive White beacon. Between that and the respectably large size of Vanyel's Forest of Sorrows, you're able to find your way without too much effort.
Honestly, between your surprisingly effective aim and how thorough your scouting of Ethereal-Earth was, you think you might've severely underestimated your own skill at planeswalking. Or maybe some of your other skills helped it along? You don't really know.
(Ability Improved: Planeswalk [Rank 5 -> 9])
You step out among dark, gloomy trees wider around than you are tall. This part of the forest feels
much less welcoming than the core was, you notice. The name even feels appropriate, a clear contrast to the bright and happy haven around where you met Vanyel.
(Land Discovered: Forest of Sorrows, North [B/WWG])
You aren't left waiting for long; a small, misty sphere forms a few feet to your left within two minutes. Vanyel's (surprisingly exasperated) voice emerges from it moments later.
: You know, I do have shields put up to keep out intruders. Approaching from the wrong realm could leave you with the brief sensation of catastrophic astral scattering. :
"Why, yes, Vanyel, it is nice to see you," you return tartly, only barely remembering to sing your words.
The mist turns an amused pink.
: I see your trip out did your confidence a good turn. Now, what can I do for you? I notice your friends aren't— :
Mom's avatar materializes beside you, cutting off Vanyel and returning his orb to its normal white coloration.
: …I really should've expected that,: Vanyel sighs.
:If this old warmage still had a beating heart, you would've just stopped it.:
"Isn't there some edict against Heralds lying?" you half-joke, genuinely curious.
You're rather surprised, and a bit unsettled, when your question provokes rumbling laughter from the centuries-old spirit.
: Good gods, no,: he chokes out, apparently having trouble controlling himself despite his lack of lungs.
: Princess Jade, we're the arrows of Valdemar's monarch, and arrows are tools. We'll do whatever we damned well need to in order to ensure the safety of what Valdemar stands for. :
"Not Valdemar itself?"
Vanyel's laughter trails off uncomfortably. After a few seconds of hesitation, he sighs and resumes speaking in a rather more somber tone.
: That's what most Heralds and citizens believe, but no. Companions and even the Heralds would abandon Valdemar in a heartbeat if they were forced to choose between championing Karse's miserable excuses for values or becoming an 'Enemy of Valdemar-not.' A nation is more than its borders, its flag, or even its people. A nation is an agreement. We agree to champion justice, defend against tyranny and abuse, respect the religious practices of others, to do no harm. In return, others are expected to return the favor. If everyone leaves the world a better place than they found it, Velgarth and the Havens may eventually become indistinguishable from one another. :
Vanyel doesn't actually sound like he believes the last part, but it
is a nice sentiment. All you can do is shrug and change the subject.
"I need to summon my friends and scout out another plane, preferably in that order. Could you help keep them safe while they're incapacitated? We're in a bit of a hurry these days."
The orb turns an unhappy grey.
: Gate-travel is seldom easy for those unused to it. I can't imagine cross-dimensional travel would be any better. Yes, I'd be happy to keep them company during their recovery. :
"Um. I actually just meant safe. We were going to put them to sleep until they're better."
The sphere turns yellow. You don't know what to think of that particular color.
: Princess, I assume you know the risks of keeping someone down while the contents of their stomach are trying to come back up? :
You lightly bite your lip to avoid insulting him. Mom quickly comes to your rescue.
"We are aware of both the potential risks and how to keep them from being problems. Could you adjust whatever spells you need for us to enter your inner sanctum?"
: Already done. Sigurd is on his way back from a hunting trip, though, so he'll be a few hours. :
The orb begins to drift off, returning to a misty white over several seconds. You use a quick flight spell to avoid the underbrush and glide after it.
"Speaking of searches, are there any Adept-potentials in Valdemar you can point us toward? I'd like to trade a fortune to one in exchange for safely transferring their gift to Nanoha."
The orb quickly jerks from side to side.
:Maybe one day, but for now, the gods have been avoiding giving such harmful 'gifts' to Valdemar's citizens. I'd recommend searching Karse or the Shin'a'in tribes. The first views magic as tantamount to witchcraft – except in their corrupt priesthood, where they insist it's really just 'miracles' – and the second sends away magicians who don't directly serve the Star-Eyed. Whether you'll find an Adept-potential among those groups is difficult to say, but it would certainly be easier than searching random villages.:
"I notice you did not warn us about the dangers of Karse," Mom remarks dryly.
Vanyel snorts.
:You can fly and Sigurd told me you have an affinity for fire. That means you can simply float above their demons and redirect their flames. Really, if you want to topple their theocracy while you're over there, I doubt their absent god would complain should He eventually awaken.:
"He's asleep?"
:Who knows? It's as good an explanation as any for why V'kandis Sunlord hasn't intervened to fix his own priesthood. Deities still need to rest and recover, same as us. If they put it off long enough? That's how you get the legends of gods sleeping for hundreds or thousands of years.:
After returning to the center of the Forest of Sorrows, summoning and sedating your friends, and leaving them with two Predators, a Seeker, and forty Parasites as guards, you planeswalk away once more. You still want to learn more about the new plane…
What do you want to look for? You think you could manage two or maybe three subjects before deciding whether or not you'll travel there immediately or return to Velgarth. You think it would also be a good idea to pick carefully; the world is getting blurrier and blurrier the more you try to scout it. You might not be able to do so again for a while.
[] Find out what Internet equivalent(s) this world has, whether Mom would be able to establish supremacy over them, and how normal people would get access.
[] See if you can pinpoint the HQ of one of the resistance factions.
-[] XCOM's Avenger. It'll probably move after a few days, though…
-[] The Templar, moderately mad soul mages.
-[] EXALT, an extremist transhumanist group.
-[] The Skirmishers, former ADVENT soldiers who fought off indoctrination and mind control.
-[] The Pilgrims, nonviolent infiltrators who bring rebel propaganda to ADVENT's doorstep.
-[] The Reapers, expert scouts and saboteurs. You don't think they have a real HQ, but you can at least find one or more of their camps.
-[] The Council, a loose network of spies within ADVENT. They have no official hideout to speak of.
[] Try to find the highest concentration(s) of reusable Elerium on the planet.
[] Scout out an ADVENT patrol. You don't need to look for one of these; they're found on every city street. If you decide to contact ADVENT, you're pretty sure all you need to do is planeswalk into one of their cities and say "Hi!" in their language. If you just want to spy on such a patrol, you can use the stealthed Stalker to travel from outside a city to inside one.
[]Look for a low-risk outpost you could steal some technology from. Preferably one ruled by a gang; you don't want to alienate any of the Resistance factions. You can probably find these with just a few hours of effort.
[] You think this option will be harder, but try to locate the fortress containing the Sleeper's Soul-Obelisk.
[] Alien motivations. Aside from stealing a bunch of human bodies, what are the Ethereals after? You suspect finding out might be rather difficult.
[] Write-in
QM's Note: This chapter was beta-read by @Nixeu, @Vebyast, and now @Nachtigall. Thanks!
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