BECMI Chapter 465 – Heading Out

Our trip out of New Elysium was measured and steady. There was no real need to expand the demiplanes on the way out of there, only to reinforce and restrict them against outside influence and intervention as of right now.So, that was what the Pyramids were set up to do, but the option of expansion was on the table and in the circuitry for potential in the future. Fifty feet a day didn’t seem like much, but over years, decades, and centuries it did all the work that was needed, especially with Divine eyes monitoring and guiding everything.

Thus we all were involved in making Pyramids and Blocks, and/or working on alchemy or forging projects for fun and leisure as we went.

The burned world of the oards was not anything like we’d left. The clear plain of sands and circling hills was gone, the landscape twisted and molded by reality coming in to shred what should not have existed and twist it into plateaus and spires of heaving matter shaped and turned into forms that at the best were unsettling, and at worst were just plain nightmarish to comprehend just what might be behind them.

Fucking with Time and possibilities just wasn’t a good thing when the universe decided to claw back what it was owed. There was literally no sign the oards and their science-based civilization had ever existed here.

The Nested Realms below it had to be completely pacified and their inhabitants either eliminated or converted. Erecting the Pyramids there was a bit more of a challenge, as we faced attacks from the locals, and there was plenty of effort expended to keep the natives back and away as the Pyramids arose and cut off the Mythos or Entropic entities they beseeched for power. They were at best former humans of the colony that had existed here, twisted into madness and mutation, and at worst genetic experiments gone amok and given life in return for twisted faith and servitude.

Horrible times, and those who might be saved were spared, while those rich in the madness of their masters… were not.

Nine days after we had first entered the chain of Portals, we exited atop the plateau of the Isle of Kheper, the same dinosaurs and other primitive creatures still running around, the predators still considering us food, and no sign of anything like Firebase Dawn ever having existing here… save for a hole burned deep into the plateau with a heat and precision that definitely wasn’t of mortal origin.

Of any technology, there definitely was no sign at all. Even when we went to where the tunnel coming up had been in Shadow Kheper, that whole section of the plateau had fallen away and collapsed, worn away by more than time, and any evidence was reduced to the dust of the ages.

The Immortals definitely didn’t want any sign of civilizations that had existed before ‘recorded history’ to be found easily, and had even been quietly going around and further burying such things after the Doom at Darkmoor and what the technology and Immortal ass-hattery had made of things.

I sent the Gallivants off to the Arch of Eternity, there to take the first steps into quasi-deityhood, which would lead to demigodhood, and then up into Lesser Godhood, thereafter knocking on the doors of non-finity where the real gods existed.

Sif and Thor would step into Eternity, which basically just meant even more stuff to pour Karma into over the centuries, not any real advances in profound stature for the likes of them.

All in time, in time…

The war between the Delphan and Siricilan empires was still on, of course. Virtually no time had transpired between my leaving and returning, and the warhawks in both nations wanted a fight.

It was just… things were a bit awkward.

The overeager Delphan archmages going missing in Zanzyr were a warning sign, and the fact the Zanzyran government didn’t actually know what was intercepting most of them was only helping confuse matters when irate demands to return the missing started coming in through multiple channels.

Delpha’s edge in magic was telling, and they were pushing Siricil back and down across the island of Kheper. The navy of Siricil accounted fairly well for itself, but it didn’t have the airpower to dominate the skies, only threaten them with the brave Storm Riders and Teuthonic Order ships that arrived to buttress their numbers against the Delphan skyships in their fleets.

Still, nothing like a good war and invasion to unite what was left of Siricil after so many of their slaves disappeared!

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Many of those slaves were sent home by mysterious benefactors, as we didn’t actually want them up north in Eislas. Doors of magic dumped them in their homelands, where they would have wild tales to tell of magical folk and doors in space and generally confused impressions of everything that had happened.

Others were perfectly happy to get away from Siricil and find a new life elsewhere, often with a happy amount of slave-owner’s loot to give them a nice boost on a new life. The Eismark Federation was sizable and had a lot of territory for new farmers to settle in.

Eismark ships and forces refused all blandishments, threats, deals, and negotiations from either side in the fight, considering it all madness and idiocy on the behalf of idiots who wanted to know who the bigger bully in the room was. The Immortals concerned kept up the pressure on both sides, however, and there was no slacking in the fighting.

She had no cleavage to show off, but her hips and legs were perfectly capable of carrying the rest of her, and if her Hagmark was concealed, she was a stunning beauty in her own right.

Sama sauntered through the crowd with the confidence and ease of someone who knew her Night Rose. Somehow she fit right in and attracted attention while at the same time totally escaping the recognition of anyone and everyone concerned.

There were things going on with these parties that were definitely not proper, words being exchanged, people meeting, decadent pleasures indulged in, seduction and information trading going on, men and women alike tempted into doing things that weakened Siricil but at the worst were merely idle words spent, and at best could bring power and wealth alike.

Things were going the way of Delpha a bit too much here, although frankly Siricil’s conquests of its neighbors did mean it deserved to be checked. Still, having two Immortals revealed among its own had been a devastating blow, and an enforced silence for a full month after Tenya’s reveal and death had driven the point home and really hit the hearts of some of the most aggressively fanatical supporters of More War, War is Good!

Sama didn’t have a lot of sympathies for them, but it was time Liisana’s infiltration of Siricil came to an end.

Her Avatar of Lady Torilsa was ostensibly from the island of Kheper, where mixed-blood and the resulting exotic features weren’t uncommon. Nobody tried too hard to investigate her background, because she was simply so charming, understanding, wise, and had rapidly turned into one of the finest matchmakers in the city. Her talent for guiding lovers together brought her a great deal of influence… and had sent many an otherwise loyal Siricilan officer or hero over to the Delphan side after suitable introductions.

She affected purple hair and a bronzed skin tone, was known to have magical skills, and was a superb dancer and musician, sponsoring many such artists in the city, although the subjects of their art were often quite edgy, and downright revolutionary in many cases.

Lady Torilsa was also the primary importer of yyota fruits into the empire, artfully introducing them to the stubborn and the weak-minded to get them addicted, sapping them of energy and vitality, and rendering them vulnerable to blackmail and worse in order to support their habit.

Well, it was time to end all of that.

Sama made her way through the crowd with an ease that would have totally startled anyone who knew her and not seen the same thing, yet she was as invisible as the waiters and maids serving the guests and cleaning up after them, belonging and yet not worth lingering on, body language and aura meshing perfectly and rendering her invisible in plain sight.

Her target was mingling and mixing freely with others, hungry eyes following the woman around the room. Lady Torilsa was known to have taken many lovers, but never accepted any offers of marriage, although proud nobles across the empire and some of the wealthiest and most powerful merchants and generals of the Empire had all proposed to her. Her turn-downs were considered flawlessly artful and matchless in her refusals to be so tied to any man.

Admiral Korfios swept into the Thomier Veranda, so named for the artist who had painted the sybartic yet not decadent murals on the walls here. An offer for a private meeting with Lady Torilsa had been on his agenda since the first time he had returned to Siricil from Ausingport and beheld her. That she had romanced many of his fellow officers over the years hadn’t escaped him, but their expressions when they spoke of her indicated none of them had held it against her.

He definitely wanted to sample all of what the exotic Loving Lady of Siricil had to offer.

He froze when he entered the room, gaping as Sama Rantha pulled a long Dagger out of the back of the skull of the beauty in her arms, then let the body fall.

His shock was so great, his dreams and desires crashing, even as he froze up under the searing blue of the eyes of the Golden Hag, Grandmaster of the Sword!

“Admiral Korfios. Excellent timing,” Sama purred, but the guard at the door heard nothing. Indeed, the Admiral suddenly couldn’t hear anything of the party behind him at all, perhaps because his heart was beating too loud!

“G-Grandmaster,” he gasped, eyes on that too-perfect Dagger, red with blood. He almost jumped when unwhite misting fire spurted out the wound at the back of Lady Torilsa’s neck, and began to grow with vigorous, unnatural speed. “W-why did you kill Lady Torilsa?” he managed to stammer in disbelief.

“I? I have killed nobody, Lord Admiral. You, on the other hand, have killed a very deep and very effective Delphan spy, who also happened to be an Avatar of the Immortal Liisana, who happens to very strongly back the subjugation and conquest of Siricil by Delpha.”

The admiral swallowed loudly, trying not to waver on his feet. “An, an Immortal?!” he squeaked, recalling the fantastic tales of this woman killing an Avatar of Tenya herself… the very consort of Emperor Magni himself!

Somehow he was not frightened as Sama Rantha’s Dagger dripped free of blood and was sheathed behind her back, out of sight. She made a gesture as she glided towards him with perfect grace, and a leather folder dropped out of nowhere into her hand, which she held out to him.

He took it warily and uncertainly. “Inside you will find proof of the yyota fruits she has been smuggling into the capital and beyond, as well as the names of men and women she has addicted to them and been extorting for information and influence. Also, the names of Siricilan officers she has married off to agents of hers and induced into the service of Delpha thereby. Several of her priestesses in the city have been active in supporting her in this, of course.

“If you doubt my words, well, her priestesses in the city aren’t going to be able to Cast for a month.” She smiled, and eight canines gleamed at him in a predatory manner, bronzed beauty now feral and predatory. “Quite an intelligence coup, Admiral. I suggest you take your information, so painfully gained, and hurry on over to Emperor Magni with all speed, even at this late hour.

“If you care to tell him, and only him, that I was involved, that is up to you.”

Sama patted his cheek and glided away from him, vaulting the delicate railing of the veranda effortlessly. Admiral Korfios found himself racing to the edge to watch her go, but when he reached it, she was nowhere in sight…