Ruinous Return

Lyn woke up with a start as she felt something fuzzy across her face. She glanced sideways and grinned as she remembered who she had invited to her bed. She was good, she thought as she quietly got up and left the Vharthon woman in the bed. Going to the bath, she drew up the water from the inscription and luxuriated in the heat. Now…goals.

A meeting with the king of Trisk would take some time to set up and coordinate. She would let Vehenna arrange all of that with Rashanna. Her military had stopped growing and stood at 6,500 troops strong at this point. Duskari squadrons that she was equating to special operations units, and Newen archers. Which is fine for holding the Valley with the fortifications. But what I need is to bring more people here.

Lynhold could easily hold a few hundred thousand given her ability to use earth elementalism spells to carve out a deep, underground warren for housing. There was plentiful farmland and foraging in the forest, and she had already set aside zones that would not be used for timber and left as a nature reserve. Eventually, vassals outside of the Valley would provide most of the foodstuffs. But she needed a strong military core; relying on levies would be unwise. What I need to do is find groups of peoples that are willing to relocate.

The Ari were one of the obvious choices. They were heavily discriminated against in many lands, and only tolerated in Trisk. Most had moved to the Arin Isle off the North-Eastern coast of Ghomar. It was a harsh land that Lyn had been to once before. Life there was not easy, but it was manageable. And, even better, the Ari would naturally show her deference. They would be the most logical next addition to my forces. Skilled swordsmen who utilized both blade and shield, they would form a very strong front-line to her military core.

Then there were the Sloren. They would serve as good cavalry with their battle rams, and the mountain range they called their home was on the way to the Arin Isle. Thanks to the Archer core and its unique arrow transposition spell, Lyn could travel – albeit alone – and arrive within a few hours.

She got out of the bath and summoned her armor, opening the doors to find both twins present and on guard. She turned to Vael, "Fetch Finala, and tell her that I want to be bound to my raven messenger today. In a few hours." Then, she turned to Gael, "Wake Rashanna, and then I want you to fetch Vehenna. Coordinate with Vael so it's the same time."

The twins nodded and dipped their heads as they went to their duties. Lyn left the fortress and entered Lynhold, taking a deep breath of the clean, cool air coming off the mountains. Right. First things first. She pulled out Cataclysm and swapped it to the bow configuration. Reaching into the storage choker, she pulled out an arrow and aimed it at the top of Shiverburn Summit. Pulling back, the bowstring of mana went taught, and she let the wooden arrow loose. One…two…three…she kept silent count. The Archer core let her know exact distances to targets, and she could keep count to know when impact had been made – even if the shaft went beyond her sight. Nine…Okay, now. "Adhano na phain nin galu."

She felt a weird, sucking sensation at her feet – as if the ground had opened up and quicksand was pulling her down. But only for a brief instant, as a moment later she stood at the lip of Shiverburn Summit. That's so fucking cool. She pulled another arrow and aimed at the Northern tunnel to the Valley, loosing the shot, counting off, and casting the spell again. The Duskari and Newen stationed there were shocked when she appeared in their midst. "At ease," she stated. "I'm just here to improve the defenses."

She went to work using earth elementalism spells to create a heavily fortified and easily defendable bastion and wall on the Valley side of the tunnel, and then went through the tunnel to the Trisk side. She raised another fortification with a single gate, and then had the Duskari and Newen station a larger force at this outer fortification with a contingency to retreat and collapse the tunnel if overrun.

Looking up to the mountains, she loosed another arrow and warped once more. Her mana core restored mana at a fast enough rate that she was able to go from mountaintop to mountaintop, and then use an earth spell to create a sheer cliff along the exterior. She was quite literally reshaping mountains with each cast of a complicated, multi-verse spell. Granted, the shift took several minutes, and she had to sit down and rest for thirty minutes in between each spell cast to let her mana refill, but over the course of five hours, she had turned the Valley of the Volcano into an impenetrable fortification. The mountain tops had been transformed into a flat, crenellated wall with sheer, flat edges facing the exterior. However, the spell also shifted the rock-face towards the rest of Ghomar to be textured. Someone would have to get extremely close to see that it was, in fact, a sheer wall.

She had created stairs going down to the Valley floor, raised and segmented portions of the interior-side of the mountains to allow for terrace-style farming akin to those in Peru. Perfect for Sloren, she thought. To those looking at the Valley from the outside, mountains were replaced with walls that were two and a half miles in height. The only entrances were heavily fortified, and she could create new entrances by tunneling through the mountain with earth magic if she needed to provide more means of passage.

Eight hours later she returned to Lynhold and entered the stronghold. A fuckton of work, she thought. But it was enjoyable. She loved feeling the raw sensation of mana flowing through her in such massive amounts. Being able to literally change the world to her desires, shaping it. These were massive spells that she could never have dreamed of using with her Scout core. I could literally reshape the world to my desires.

Once she had vassalized a territory, she could erect an enormous wall around the land to allow for easy defense. With a few days of work, she could slowly expand the mountains themselves. Raising them from scratch was far, far more mana intensive than the relatively simple molding and shaping she had done that day.

"Ah, my Lady," Vehenna said with a bow as Lyn entered the council chamber. "You summoned me?"

"Yes," Lyn said as she ascended the throne. "I wanted to inform you of the changes I have wrought upon the Valley."

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She spent ten minutes describing what she had done, and Vehenna's mouth was slack in awe as she spoke. When Lyn concluded, the councilor bowed deeply, "My Lady …that is incredible."

"Yes, it is," Lyn replied with smug satisfaction. "Have we found a suitable replacement for Bhelarm as Steward?"

"We have not yet."

"Keep at the search. The same goes for any empty position."

"Of course, my Lady."

"Send in Finala."

The Chancellor bowed and left. A few moments later, Finala entered the room with a covered wooden cage. "My Lady," she stated, bowing deeply. "You wished to bond with your raven?"

"Yes. Describe the process."

"This is a hatchling. I will perform an Animalism spell that will bind it to you. It will be able to speak up to three languages that you know. Then, after it has recovered from the bonding spell, I will use another Animalism spell to accelerate its growth and intelligence."

"How smart can you make it?"

"Ravens are very, very smart birds, my Lady." Finala's eyes gleamed with delight as she went on a five-minute deep dive into the various traits and attributes of the birds. Lyn had to raise her hand at a certain point, at which Finala quieted. "Forgive me, my Lady. I enjoy the company of birds."

"You didn't answer my question. Equate its intelligence to that of a person."

"My Lady, I would put their intelligence at around a child of twenty or twenty-one in Duskari years."

About twelve or thirteen in human lifespan, Lyn thought. "Excellent. And what spell do you utilize in this process?"

Finala reached into her pocket and pulled out a small spell book, flipping to the middle, and handing it to Lyn. "The top, ten-verse spell is used for the binding, my Lady. Below the separating line is the twenty-verse spell for the accelerated aging and intelligence."

Lyn nodded and reached for a nearby quill and ink, and she made several alterations to her own version of the spell. I may not be able to use animalism external spells myself, but I can use my mastery of Elenthir to improve my raven. The first spell was easy to alter, she only slightly changed the wording so that the bond would be unbreakable, and the bird would be fully thralled to her will. No one would be able to, say, capture it and use an Animalism spell to force it to reveal any information. That should be the standard going forward, and we should recall and update the existing ravens with this new variant of binding.

The second spell she made extensive changes to. The aging portion was fine – that was just accelerating the animal's body functions to allow for rapid growth. But she added an anti-aging component to the spell to ensure her bird would live for a long, long time once it was accelerated. She also couched in a spell that would enable the bird to speak every language Lyn knew – save for Elenthir and English, since those couldn't be added to the spell by their nature. She also increased the intelligence level to that of a thirty-year-old. And why not. Let's give it a personality. She pondered that for a few minutes before marking up the spell. "Utilize this altered set of spells. Let us begin."

Finala pulled the cloth from the wooden cage, and the hatchling peeped weakly. "Please, put your hand on the bird." Lyn did so, and Finala began reading from the multi-verse spell. Her mana poured from her, into the cage, and Lyn could feel the tingling of the magic taking hold under her palm. After a few minutes, the glow faded, and the bird quieted. "It is done, my Lady." Finala put the cloth over the cage once more. "It will take several days to recover. I will perform your altered spell afterwards.

"And" Lyn followed up, "I want you to eventually apply this spell to every existing raven. It will be a lengthy process, as you'll have to recall and slowly rotate through every squadron." Lyn handed her a shorter spell that would apply the unbreakable bond, force the bird to fly back to Lynhold upon the death of its master, and make them impossible to force information out of. Finala bowed deeply before leaving.

Lyn sighed and sank into the chair. Tomorrow, off to the Slor Mountains. A solo expedition, and she would have to be on top of her charisma-game, if she wanted to pull off what she envisioned.

Thomas stirred before jolting awake. His heart was beating hard, and he felt a stirring in his chest. What's happening? He thought as he kicked his legs over the edge of the bed. His heart raced faster, and he felt a searing pain in his torso. Out of the corner of his eye, spotted something fast. It slammed into him and he went sprawling onto the floor as a burning pain coursed through his chest. His face contorted into a silent scream as the agony filled him up.

And then, as quickly as it started, it ceased. His heart slowed and the beat relaxed. He took several deep breaths. The fuck was that? He laid still for a few seconds, flexing his limbs to make sure there wasn't any lasting damage. Okay. Nothing physical wrong with me. He felt refreshed…full. Next test. He closed his eyes and focused on his mana core, breathing slowly and entering a meditative trance.

My Knowledge core…it's back! He could feel it within, moving around like pages in a book being rapidly flipped through. He felt the mana begin to recharge within him, bubbling up and filling him with the ethereal, empowering substance.

And then the memories came flooding back. The Knowledge core granted perfect recollection of every event. And Thomas felt the pain in his back as the thoughts of James' blade piercing him came rushing to him. He lay there, paralyzed on the floor, as the memories of his entire existence flashed through his thoughts.

There was a knock on his door. "Come in," he said, weakly, as the vivid memories of the recent past rushed to him.

Stellas came in and knelt next to him, "Did you fall out of bed?"

"Even better," Thomas replied as the memories finished and he sat up. "I've got my old Knowledge core. No clue how, but it just…found me again."

She gasped, "Oh…that's great news, right?"

Thomas nodded, "Kind of." He groaned as he pushed himself upright. "I can't just stand idly by now," he muttered. "No retirement to teaching Ben's kids for me."

"What, then?" Stellas asked.

"I need to talk with them." Thomas went to the small bucket of water and splashed some on his face. Standing up to his full height, he took in a deep breath before leaving the guest house. It was one of several that was on a small row below Trisha and Ben's main house. He spotted the family in the flower garden, eating at an outdoor table. "Sorry for interrupting," Thomas said as he walked up and stood a slight distance away.

Ben smiled and waved him over, "Come, eat! You and Stellas both. We have enough extra."

Trisha nodded, "We have been talking about your offer to teach the kids. We would be happy to have you."

Thomas chuckled, "Well, good news and bad news about that. Echado i raum min nin alad / i garo i aew en-beriad a aer nedh rîn / a lhach in-glîr en-lugron." He lifted his palm, and a swirling vortex of wind and rain appeared in his grip. The entire environment was filled with the smell of freshly-fallen rain on grass, and the chirping of larks. He let the spell fade as the three children gasped at the display. "I got my core back."

"How?" Ben asked, flabbergasted.

"No clue. It just…came to me last night." Thomas looked to Trisha, "I have to rescind my offer. There's bigger things at play in Ghomar right now." He leaned back in the chair, "Valagonia on the brink of civil unrest, Khrelardia undergoing the same. Lyn's return as the Destroyer…"

Trisha frowned, "So what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to visit this Destroyer and find out if it really is Lyn. If it is, then I'll help her build this empire."

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