On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

One Hundred And Eighty-One

Seeing all our forces arrayed under the light of the Anchor on the shrine grounds, our many buildings around giving off their own silver brilliance, I felt an unmistakable sense of pride and accomplishment. Beside me was Shaeula, equally proud, standing imperiously as though she was surveying her subjects, which I guessed in a sense she was. Behind Shaeula were her two weaselkin maids, for once looking happy, probably as Shaeula was acting like the princess they expected her to be.

Behind me, however, were my two attendants, Azuki, the small Zashiki-Warashi keeping her nervous distance from the smirking Hyacinth, the beautiful yet disturbing boggart. Yeah, I’m not sure who comes off worse… though if I had to put up with the glares from her maids every day I’d probably go insane so…

Hyacinth was muttering something disturbing about “showing the master just how clean everything is, every noooook and cranny” so I chose to interpret that as her talking about how clean the buildings were now and ignored her. Instead, I concentrated on our forces. There were Shaeula’s weaselkin, led by the three Kamaitachi, as well as the extra ones she commanded through the Barracks. The kobolds, of which even accounting for the ones from the Spawning Spire, there seemed to be a lot more of, seemed intimidated by the Seelie around them. Yeah, when they first met me, they said they had fled from the Seelie. Shaeula used to call them ‘dog-headed pests’ too. Still, Shaeula had grown, and no longer treated them poorly, which made me proud of her.

Then there were the trolls under Grulgor. They were few in number, but armed with my heavy steel armour and weapons, they were truly living forces of destruction. On seeing my gaze, Grulgor grinned, a mouthful of slab-like teeth grinding together as he rumbled his appreciation. I guess he has had quite a few decent battles recently.

The White Snake kami, owner of the shrine, and his attendants were next. Ixitt and his numerous ratkin family were beside them, and the other rats looked embarrassed as Ixitt was barely concentrating, his attention on the many buildings surrounding us, lenses whirring and strange steampunk devices clicking.

We then had the numerous weaselkin we inherited from Shaeraggo. There were archers, spearweasels and the heavily armoured knights. Danaera led her mages, while Tillyae marshalled the musicians, who were playing a gentle, yet regal tune, perfect for this occasion. Hovering above them was Haru-san, who had finally agreed to serve me, and the few remaining ghosts.

Lastly there was Ulfuric, standing there imperious, and the dwarf Bjarki, though they were only on loan to us for three moons. Still, they rounded off things nicely. I exchanged a look with Shaeula, and she grinned, perhaps understanding my thoughts. Yeah, we’ve come a long way. The Territory is Rank 3, we have decent ether coming in now, and in the Material, we’ve gathered money, property and made connections. All right, time for a speech. Damn, I’m nervous…

“Well, thanks for coming everyone.” I began, and Shaeula snickered. Steeling myself, I continued. “We survived our recent trials, and our enemies have been vanquished. Still, this is only the start. There are many other Territories out there. Those we can get along with, I’d like to ally with. Those which become our enemies…” I paused for a moment, before making my declaration. It’s too late to back down now. I’ve killed. My hands are already bloody to protect the Earth and those I love. “… well, if they aren’t irredeemable we can offer them another chance after we defeat them. But those that do evil… they will be destroyed, and what was theirs will be ours.”

At that there were cheers from some of our forces. Shaeula took my hand and squeezed it, conveying her approval. Once the noise died down I continued. “Now that we can expand our holdings, the priority should be to bring new areas into our control, securing resources. Still, we need to not neglect our defences. Soon I plan to add Defensive Emplacements at key points, and we will have more Barracks and Spawning Spires. I would like to push for Rank 4 at some point but… that is for the future.”

No shit. Just before the meeting I had checked the cost to upgrade, expecting it to follow the pattern to the prior upgrades, so being a million ether and a thousand astral days, but I was brutally wrong.

Upgrading to Rank four would cost ten million and take five thousand days! It was an utter kick in the teeth, but on reading the reasons, it made sense. Apparently Rank 3 to Rank 4 was a bottleneck, as when the Territory reached Rank 3, it had fully adapted to the Boundary, so Rank 4 pushed the Territory into the lower Astral proper, as well as sending deeper roots down into the Material. Yeah, I want that. I want that bad. But even though getting together ten million, while challenging, seemed far from impossible, having the Territory defenceless for so long was a total no-go. As for rush-building… yeah, the cost of that was also immense.

No, instead we’ll focus on upgrading and building as much as we can for now, and securing more overlapping property in the Material. “There’s a small Territory to our north. We should investigate that, and in addition…” as I continued to give orders, for the first time I started feeling, if not like an Emperor, at least a little like a noble…

********

Now that our forces were deployed, there was one last thing to do. Ixitt and Bjarki were still at the shrine, while Hyacinth was serving everyone drinks. “All right then.” I said, opening up the Warehouse and Treasury, which had been locked until the upgrade to the Anchor completed. “These are the materials and treasures we had stored. If there’s anything you can use, feel free.”

Out popped a few wyrm and other monster materials, as well as a scattering of jewels, rough stones and some of the strange ores we got from the cavern where the Foehn was in Las Vegas. Also out popped a small hand-mirror and a white, flowing vestment. Oh yeah, forgot about them. If Shaeula’s knife and bells are anything to go by, these should be powerful too… Thinking of the strange Boundary shadow of Takakura antiques, where the black ooze-and-eyeballs monster guarded all these treasures like a dragon on its hoard, I considered a return visit. Just… I’m seriously too busy. Damn, my schedule is packed.

On seeing the ores from the desert, Bjarki picked a few up, humming to himself. “Interestin’, for sure.” He muttered, tapping them gently with a few small hammers, listening to the ringing noises. “Ack, this’n be some interesting metal. Where’n did ye find this?”

After explaining that I found it a long way away, he looked disappointed. Still, he was going to experiment on what we had. Ixitt, meanwhile, was observing the small hand-mirror. “Keh-keh-keh. Now isn’t this interesting?” he coughed, gently probing at it with a thin needle glowing with jade wind energies. The needle shattered, and the wind was reflected. He then tried with a ruby earth needle, to the same ends.

“Keh-keh…” he coughed furiously, orange and yellow needles meeting the same fate. “Master Bjarki, keh-keh, what do you think of this? I think it, keh, has some elemental properties, though what, I, keh-keh-KEH, do not know.”

The dwarf put down the ore and went over. Shaeula and I moved in too, as if we could work out what they did, that would be a great advantage. Looking at the wood-framed mirror again, I noticed it had two layers of wood around the glass, making a double frame. They were carved elegantly, in two different types of wood, one black and the other white.

“Huh, is it me or are the frames misaligned?” I observed, noticing it for the first time. The wood had patterns, similar yet somehow opposite in style. One seemed to be a series of notches and rays, the white outer layer, with a round circle that was at the top, while the second, lower black frame was a series of smaller star-like objects, again with a circle, yet the circle was paired with opposing crescents.

“It’s nae álfar craft, though there’n be similarities.”  Bjarki mused. “The elves, they’n be fond of mirrors, f’sure. All light worships ‘em, they say.”

“Try turning the frame.” I suggested, and Ixitt slowly moved the inner layer. As I suspected, it did move, and as it did, the white outer layer also moved. There was a series of clicks, and as the lower black circle reached the top the white circle made it to the bottom.

“Fascinating.” Shaeula suddenly piped up, her eyes glowing. “The mirror, it is drawing in the scattered dark-dark elements in the ether around us.”

“Keh-keh. I knew there were elemental factors in play here.” Ixitt crowed, excited to be proved right. “The mirror, keh-keh, it is not Fae make either. Perhaps, keh, something from this land?”

“It could be.” I agreed. “Mirrors are pretty sacred in Japanese myth. I think one of the Imperial Regalia is a mirror. The carving style looks a bit Japanese as well. So… what does it do?”

“I cannae say.” Bjarki mused. “Maybe if’n we fill it, the truth will out?”

We all nodded. It seems as good a plan as any…

********

“So, it is drawing in the darkness energy.” I mused. Here, close to the Rhyming Tree where the dark element hung clearly visible in the air, we could see it with our naked eyes, the dark blue motes being drawn into the mirror. The glass was now starting to fill with deep azure light, the reflections within strange and unnatural.

“Indeed.” Shaeula confirmed. “Within the glass seems to be a distortion. It holds-holds the darkness within.”

“So, what do you think the other frame does?” I asked, and Shaeula offered a suggestion.

“Perhaps… light? If these crescents here represent the phases of the moon, then-then this must be the sun.”

“All right then.” I turned the white frame, and as soon as it started moving the other frame misaligned, and the darkness vanished, the mirror reverting to plain glass. The flow around us stopped as well.

“Keh-keh-keh. Try turning it back.” Ixitt asked, and I was way ahead of him, having had the same idea. As soon as the black frame clicked back into place the mirror-surface darkened, and it once more began drawing in the surrounding elemental energy.

“Good, it didn’t disappear.” I observed. “But what is it used for? I don’t see how to make it do anything.” Turning the white frame once more, once it clicked in at the top the mirror simply sat there, idle.

“If’n only we had some of the light element…” Master Bjarki mused. “This’n be fine crafting, it be a shame t’leave mysteries unlearned.”

Shaeula raised one hand to her mouth and laughed in the ojou-sama fashion she had copied from various anime. “You think we have no light element? Think again-again.” She pulled free the dagger of light I had returned to her earlier and concentrated her aether. Light blazed, and she swung it at the mirror, which was in my hands still.

Uh, that’s reckless…

Before I could respond the light struck the mirror, only instead of shattering it and potentially injuring me as I expected, the indigo light sank inside, the glass surface now shimmering with a faint radiance.

“Hey, if that didn’t work you could have hurt me…” I warned, a little annoyed.

“I had confidence you would not-not have been injured from such a small strike.” Shaeula looked away though, and she did seem a bit guilty, having got carried away.

“So, is it some sort of defensive device?” I asked, putting down the mirror. “Try shooting past it. Carefully, this time.”

She apologised, and once more her dagger lit up. This time the bolt burned a furrow in the ground. A little light was pulled in, but the majority bypassed it, moving too fast.

“If so, it be not so impressive.” Bjarki observed.

“It is a battery, is it not-not, Akio?” Shaeula said, just before I was about to air the same thought.

“Yeah, it reminds me of the bluesteel batteries I made, though only for light and darkness.”

With the mystery solved, at least until we could find any other features, Master Bjarki was inspired, and taking some ore from the kobolds, he melted it into the carvings, filling in the gaps in the white and black frames with the blueish-silver metal, and channelling his own aether in to work some sort of artifice. I watched with great interest, as I was going to train my own Ether Crafting, and after a while he allowed me to help supply his arts. Channelling in my own aether, I ran into the delicate web of aether that he had spun within the material, binding together the original craftwork and the new, added bluesteel enhancements.

It's beautiful. I couldn’t see it, as I didn’t have eyes like Shaeula, but I could feel it, a matrix of shining aether which not only held everything together, but somehow interfaced with both the used materials and the wider Boundary. For a moment I felt a prickling pain in my right wrist, as all my Examination skills were feeling out the craftsmanship. My eyes also burned, a faint amber light seeping from them, and I was seeing it as well, the mystical world that Shaeula could see.

So, that’s how it works... I had made quite a few items that had enduring presence in the Boundary, the Pinwheels being a notable triumph, but in that moment I could see the difference between them, the dagger and bells Shaeula carried, and the mirror Master Bjarki had worked on. My crafts are only surface level, concentrating on the physical nature of the materials, with only a little notice paid to deeper matters. It makes sense, as I don’t really understand aether and elemental essence yet…

The glow in my eyes faded, the sensations in my wrist diminishing, and once more my sight was back to the mundane, the wonderous images of the underlying reality fading. Still, I now knew there were deeper arts to crafting powerful equipment, and even as I thought that…

Your Skill, Ether Crafting has increased from Rank 3 to Rank 4. You can bring out the strength of the materials used more effectively, and find it easier to alloy and merge various components. Your crafts will show greater abilities, and you find it easier to repair and upgrade equipment.

You have gained a skill, Dvergr Techniques Rank 1. You have caught the merest glimpse of techniques used by the Dvergr, who blend spiritual and physical crafts to create miracles that even the gods have envied. You can apply aether webs to strengthen the inherent characteristics of an item by a small amount, and equipment wielded by you will naturally draw on your aether, being slightly strengthened.

Yeah, that… makes sense. Even though I couldn’t see the work Bjarki was doing any more, my Mystic Eyes I had gained from my bond with Shaeula still stubbornly remaining dormant at Rank 0, I could still feel it as I supplied him with aether, and now it was even clearer than before. Seeing my sharpened focus Shaeula asked me what I had seen and felt, and when I explained she nodded.

“Indeed, when I gaze upon his work, I am most-most impressed. Before, I had never considered what it took-took to craft such wonders, merely considering it my due to possess treasures due to being a princess of the Seelie. Still, in time I trust that you shall-shall surpass him. After all, your Pinwheels are already a marvel.” She stroked them tenderly.

Now well used to Shaeula’s faith in me, I merely shrugged. “Yeah, I’m a long way off from that. Anyway, I can at least tell that the mirror has been strengthened.”

“Aye, yer eyes be not wrong.” Master Bjarki agreed, having finished anchoring all the disparate strands of aether that bound the normally incompatible crafts together. “This bluesteel be mighty fine at drawing in elemental essences, so paired with t’original mirror, now it be far superior.”

Indeed, as he twisted the frame to the black, the rate of drawing in the darkness energy was massively improved, the mirror glass shining darkly, blue lights shining within the reflective surface like dark stars. Shaeula decided to practice with her dagger of light, training her aether handling skills, and she dumped light elemental energy into the mirror until she was exhausted, then reset the mirror so it could draw from the Rhyming Tree while she recovered.

While she was doing this, Master Bjarki and I tried to understand what mysteries the vestments hid as well… but alas, it ended in failure, and we couldn’t discover anything of note. A significant amount of time had passed, so with that we returned to the Material, leaving behind our troops to carry out our orders, and our freshly full build queues to tick closer to completion…