BECMI Chapter 158 – A Return to the Present

“He has knowledge of and has acknowledged the Code Black Protocols. If Elder Equavus cannot survive them, it will be because something personally stops him from doing so.” I glanced at the scattered elven families remaining here, eager settlers and explorers making ready to depart with all the others. They would move first to the Principality of Erendyl, accommodate themselves to the area and time, and then choose whether to move on to Eislas and the new settlements there, or to Sidheduiche or one of the other elven homelands. The introduction of a few hundred isolationist elven immigrants was something easily covered up in the forests. “Has he made his choice for colony in the present or in our timeline?”“He is burning much goodwill already in this era. He will commit neither way, but I believe I know which way his heart leans.”

A new road, a new love, and a new freedom from divisive politics from the local elves. We would be happy to have them, as excessively competent allies were always fun to have around.

Also, if he set out for Immortality in this timeline, he would be bound to it and never be able to reach our own. But that was a separate issue.

The Crystal Arch frozen to our timeline gleamed, and the settlers, immigrants, and colonists filed through, with packs and and a hope for a future without a Code Black looming over them. Fifty years of work on this side of the Portal didn’t mean fifty years to prepare on the other, after all!

I stepped through the Arch, and it unspun back into a floating Portal, then dissipated. With the control Amulet I could bring it back, and when I did, but ten minutes would have passed on the other side.

Sim Two, ‘Priestess’, was already sending off the elves and prospective Ranger recruits to Erendyl through the Mirror of Mental Prowess, Belle having gone ahead to prepare the way. She would have to visit the Cyapri elven clans isolated in Siricil to find out more particulars about the Ranger process, but more strong elven supporters among human allies was hardly something the elves were going to turn down.

The arrival of dwarves was considerably more contentious, of course, but they were immediately assigned to scout teams heading to the eastern border with the Bleaklands, and silence about their presence was a given.

My Free Company was going with them for the initial push, aiming to clear out some living space and start fortifications quickly which could be expanded upon. Zanzyran forces in the area might be suspicious, but the Erendyl elves were going to be under very, very strict orders to treat these dwarves as the best of friends and allies, and they had no overt connection to Rukheim.

The excessive competence of the newcomers was also going to be appreciated.

I had a great deal of things to do as well, but since only a day had passed since we had left (mostly because of the gradual shuffling of travelers here), my biggest thing was… I had to get back to classes at the Great School.

Which I found terribly amusing, but also appropriate.

Also, I had some history to catch up on.

This cavern system was a mile below the ground in the middle of nowhere and sealed, with no way in or out. There was a single point of entry that required knowledge of the Seal there to to, or you were shunted hundreds of miles below into the anti-magic flames at the heart of the world.

It wasn’t natural in the slightest, and the walls were all scribed with anti-divination Wards, as well as magic proof against earth-shaping and tectonic effects, so that the actions of Immortals glossed past it and had no effect upon it, and attempts to reach it via physically burrowing, dimensional movement, or incorporeality would be subtly directed around a fold in space and never find it.

It was the base of the Temporal Simulacra I’d left behind on my travels through time, located hundreds of miles from the Innspot, on a section of land that had never seen massive reactor explosions or meteor impacts.

I stepped off the Great Seal into the place, which glittered in recognition of my magical Aura. The wall ahead of me simply melted away, dimensional connections were made, and I stepped forward into the Twilight Libraries.

Plural, as there was more than one library here.

It was very quiet, and nothing pinged on the familiar and extremely complex weave of magic that permeated the place. The Wards here did nothing to inhibit my magic, embracing me warmly and giving me unstinted and instant access to the place.

The dozens of Auras that were layered into it were all very new, and very familiar at the same time.

The Sims I’d left behind in different times, starting at the end of the first three days of Portal-jumping, had all made this place, contributed to this place, and expanded upon it. The first of them to make this place had naturally been the ones I’d made before the night of the last jumps back in time, and the leap in time past the Doom of Darkmoor, when the Inn had just emerged from the waters of the destruction of the Doom.

Their mission had always been to monitor the world, to preserve what knowledge that would be lost that they could, and to quietly help rebuild and preserve what they were able to.

Also, to use the fact that they could Cast IX’s and turn themselves into living elves at some point, that they might know the joys of living and gain their own free will.

It appeared to have succeeded grandly. I had already checked, and only two of those Sims were still intact. The rest had taken that step into life, but unable to rise to Eternity, lived out long lives in satisfaction and many having passed on, loved by those worth loving, respected by those who knew of them… and feared by those who sought to take advantage of them, as they had reported to me from distant lands far from the nations and peoples I knew of here.

This was where their knowledge was collected and waited, to be dispersed to the world once more, a preservation of history and culture unmatched in the rest of the world, even by the Immortals, and usually because of the Immortals.

I stepped out into the central chamber, overlooking the main library dealing with the Known Lands I came from, with several other chambers flowering off of them dealing with other lands, special libraries devoted to alternate races… and even one devoted to the Hollow World.

After all, once they had gained lives and souls, nothing said my Sims couldn’t make Sims of their own to expand their information-gathering. Even if they could not change history, just witnessing so much of it, or doing things with no record to be changed, was not only possible, but to be expected!

Many of the books below were preserved originals of authors long since perished. Many had been written by my Sims or grand-Sims, records and histories no other eyes had ever read or seen.

Sins of the Immortals witnessed, written down, and damning pretty much all of them.

The Theurge Libraries were particularly impressive, as I made my way to that section, which split off the main Twilight historical libraries into a grand pattern of its own.

Hundreds of spellbooks from archmages long dead slumbered on shelves, their contents long read, condensed, refined, and the truths of them laid bare on other shelves of silver-lined ebony with gleaming black tomes awaiting perusal. Chambers led off them with symbols for each of the Elements, Alchemy, Witchcraft, Cryptomancy, Halcyon magic, Druidism, Clericism, Wokani magic, and the mercantile Traditions of plutocratic Federyn and sea-faring Chimaro, among others.

My Sims had been the first Grandmasters of each of Zanzyr’s Traditions, before each Tradition had even existed, and likely been so for over a thousand years, each.

I had already proven that if I was circumspect, now that I had completed the loop, I could carefully go back in time and act. The Rune of Time allowed me to do so, although I had to be careful to be discreet, and leave no personal impact upon history of myself. My Sims would have things to show me, and I to show them.

The largest of the Theurge Libraries was naturally the Cryptomancy one, because it had formed the foundation for all the others. My forty years of Rune research had been taken and amplified many times over by multiple Sims, grand-Sims, and nearly four thousand years of layered time to work with.

I walked into the chambers, feeling the power of rendered Truths acting upon reality, reinforcing it to levels even the mightiest of Immortals would have a hard time playing with. There were thousands of tomes and folios about me, bearing renditions and versions of Runes simple and complex many times over, each with a slightly different take and perspective over time, both within a Valence and increasing by Valence.

“I goddamn love leveraging the power of Time,” I said to nobody, my eyes doubtless glowing as the fruit of many Sims and four thousands years of time waited for my attention.

Yeah. And this was all a result of my machinations… so every Rune I learned I was going to get full Karma for, exactly as if I had researched it myself!

It was also likely the finest magical library on the face of the planet, given that I knew some of my Sims had gone over to Delpha and perused their magical histories there, plundering their lore.

Yessssss, a good student should study. Even if they are a Rank M Elven Wizard Twenty and Master Mystic Theurge…

Today’s guest lecturer was Prince Mahar Tilian, the master of House Tilian, and not-so-secret Grandmaster of the School of Fire Elementalism. He was coppery-skinned, fiery-haired, and imposing, with a bloodline that was not native to this planet. He was also rabidly anti-clerical, despising the idea of serving any Immortals, and also highly opposed to any and all elves, because said elves disputed the Freir being the first race of intelligent life to discover the existence of the magic under Zanzyr and so were the first settlers here.

Strangely enough, I happened to read up on my Sim who had been there to witness their arrival, and followed their gradual migration over the years.

They were the last surviving magical adherents of the Tradition of Fire on the Delphan homeworld in another dimension. That magical realm had given all the human children born there magical ability, and so wizardry had been capable for a good half of the population, if only at the Initiate level.

What that had meant was rapid growth of the magical arts, with dominance by the followers of Elemental Air (for they lived in basically an air-filled supergiant planet with floating continents within it) and Elemental Fire, representing the sun blazing at the heart of their magical system and keeping it warm.

The original followers of Air, the Delphans, had expanded and conquered one of their neighbors, who eventually assimilated into them as the Low Delphans, and who showed aptitude for Fire instead of Air. The High Delphans still had power, but the influence of Fire grew over time, until the Delphan Emperor himself was a Follower of the Flame.

The conflict between the Elemental Schools mirrored that between the Elemental Planes, contending with one another over which Element was mightier. The debates grew increasingly virulent over time, but never passed into open violence… until the Emperor published a paper that ended the debate as law, favoring Fire.

A civil war erupted almost instantly, and tore the magical empire apart. Floating continents shattered, millions died in a windstorm that encompassed the entire empire. The Followers of the Flame were mostly annihilated by the superior coordination and discipline of the Followers of Air, who quit their homeworld and plane in outrage and disgust to find another world to settle on.

That world ended up being this one, Noum. Guided by their Immortals, they came here and established yet another magical empire with their incredibly powerful foundation, quickly took control over an entire continent, and were expanding to others when the local Immortals and dragons started getting involved, stirring up their followers to oppose the magical immigrants, harassing them back, and the native tribes founded the Empire of Siricil on treachery and rebellion against Delpha a thousand years ago.