A whispered spell closed the wound on Princess Brittabelle’s finger as she stared at the five SLA Tomes in front of her. She could hear them whispering stuff in my voice, little images ready to make sense to her on her own time.
“Can these be taught to others?” Princess Brittabella asked, staring at the books and holding herself back from snatching them up.
“Yes, but how well is completely based upon your teaching ability, as well as comprehension of the techniques themselves,” I replied to her. “The Book of Runes here is a resource I wish to make available to Cryptomancers in good standing with Erendyl. It will save them time and gold, the same way that having access to a proper spellbook would. It does, however, come with a Geas to add discovered Runes to the greater library of Erendyl in return. We will know who wish to support the Craft by their contributions.”
Princess Brittabella shook her head in disbelief at what I had done. “This is an extraordinary contribution by any means, Edge. Certainly something worthy of a fellow High Cryptomancer… something I had never thought I’d be saying.” A bemused smile lit up her classically beautiful face. “You… seem to have more?” she inquired hesitantly, almost cringing at the debt she’d be owing me.
“I have a very personal offer to you.” She blinked at me. “I have access to a Portal through time, to a separate timeline beginning four thousand years ago. Naturally, no one there has heard of you, Erendyl, Zanzyr, Sidheduiche, or anyone or anywhere else in this day and time.
“You could leave with me, spend decades in the past, and return home ten minutes after you left, as if you had not left at all.” I gave her a firm look. “And you need that time.”
She came to a halt again, and this time I turned to fully face her. “I am among the strongest mages in all of Zanzyr,” she defended herself, and I just shook my head, cutting off her defensive remarks.
“That is indeed the foundation which every elf in Erendyl leans upon, Belle. But the fact remains that the majority of your followers prefer the path of the warrior, not the elven mage… which is why your opposite in the Zorozo is so very popular with her people. She is their Grandmaster with the rapier, her Witchcraft and magic are secondary to her image, and you have no such skills to fall back upon.
“You probably do not know it, but it is completely possible for you to also take up the warrior’s path. However, like magic, it takes a great deal of time and effort to master the skills of the warrior, and so you set them aside long ago to focus on your magery.
“I should like to propose a working vacation into the past, where you work on mastering the traditional weapons of the elves, and return to the present as a Grandmaster of the sword, the bow, the knife, and the spear, as well as the traditional skills of a huntress.
“The effect this will have upon yourself, your people, and your realm will be astonishing… and soon enough, no elf of Erendyl will hesitate at all to duel an elf of the Zorozo!”
She stared at me, emotions roiling in her eyes. She had come young to her station, her husband dying in a raid of humanoids from the Bleaklands, pressured to gain power quickly in the chaotic and lethal politics of Zanzyr, and from the ongoing feud with the Zorozo who had once ruled over all the elves of Zanzyr.
This was like a dream come true to her, a chance to throw all her responsibilities away and simply enjoy herself, potentially for years!
“Can I trust you with such a thing as this?”
“Yes, and that is Truth,” I said softly, and she nearly fell down when she heard it, all the colors becoming brighter and crisper, magic gleaming as if ready to yield up every secret to her.
“What must I do?” she asked, staring wide-eyed at me as she recovered her composure after the Word, completely rattled by what she was dealing with.
“There are nine elves I met during my troubles heading into the past, trapped like I was, and now cut off from their clan and families as well. They have all been personally tutored by me, and they would like to be initiated into Cryptomancy, which can only be done here in Zanzyr. They will accompany us into the past, and we can continue their training there. They have already voiced interest in becoming citizens of Erendyl, as well, and would be fine additions to your fiefdom.”
She did not hesitate. “I will take care of their initial training and initiation myself,” she stated firmly. “What would you have me do to prepare for a journey into the past?”
“What you bring along that is magical should return with you. That which you acquire that is magical should remain behind, unless you make it yourself. I would bring along two magic Rings, one of which should be Protection, the other as you like. A Bag of Holding, or a Portable Hole, filled with supplies you can work on as a Crafter while you are there, or some magical resources you may want to refine or make use of, like books, ink, and paper.
“A suit of fine elven mail, worthy of Enchantment. A fine elven sword and bow, worthy of Enchantment. A spellbook with your favorite spells, most expressly including Wish, for you will be making frequent use of that spell.
“The rest we can gain in the past. With our skills, wealth will not be an object.”
On that point she agreed. “Frequent use of Wishes?” she asked, interested in why I’d be needing such powerful magic.
I just looked at her. “For yourself, and none other. When you return, you will be the equal of any elven queen who has ever lived, and the Zorozo will mess with you only at their great peril!”
The delighted expression on her face didn’t fade as we continued our walk, going into more particulars about the how and the when. Indeed, her excitement continued to rise and to bubble as we went along.
The Thisbean Inn, Present Day…
Making a working smelter and forge for the dwarves was actually quite simple, given my ability to manipulate stone and metal. I could also provide a magically-fired heat source far more stable and much, much hotter than they were used to. Acquiring the raw metal wasn’t that hard, a simple side Teleport to Rukheim procuring me eight thousand cubic feet of high-grade ore with little problem, the Clan Brukkard dwarves rather astounded when I shrank it all down into a roll of cloth and took off with it.
The goal was to provide the humans with workable arms and armor of quality, worthy of being improved into something magical, meaning masterwork+.
The dwarves had been somewhat awed at my display of Quality Levels. I’d had to show them in bone and wood and gemstones, as I wasn’t a smith, but they’d inferred the rest, and were aching to test and display their skills.
The Marks were all in place, Tatted and placed. Many of the men had chosen to increase Constitution before all else, as high Health, Soak, and survival were important, and increased Strength could come from other sources. Many were looking forward to their first giant kills, to gain the materials needed to make a Girdle of Giant Strength.
Easy enough to Sound Bubble to the outside, extend the illusionary cover above, and start the beginnings of a subterranean home for the dwarves, as required, and clean any fumes from the air. Any tailings were converted into bricks for anything the dwarves wanted to build outside, although they were relishing making their own underground complex and fortifications in the walls of the crater.
The flash of lightning in the sky during the day was enough to draw attention and raise an alarm on the Marks. I walked outside as the sentry up on the rim called out that Cirruluxul was returning… and she was bringing a guest.
A guest who was much larger, and had a hide like polished amber, irritated flames coming from his mouth as he tried to catch up to the smaller blue dragon ahead of him and failed to do so.
“I trust,” I Messaged Cirru, “that your pursuer is not coming here invited?”
“Mistress!” the dragon replied instantly, unable to keep her relief out of her voice. “This is the dragon who was occupying the caves of my family. By his words, he killed my brother and his mate, although he claims a mage from the west came and killed my parents, their heads hanging in his tower even now, and he wants to devour me as he did my kin!”
And probably would have without the flight-enhancing magic I had taught her.
“Bring him down towards the courtyard.”
“Yes, Mistress!”
Everyone working had hurriedly grabbed the Weapons that were not far away. Monstrous creatures, including dragons, flew by at least once a day, so if they wanted to work outside, they had to be ready to fight.
Nobody really wanted to work inside the Inn if they could help it, so the bottom floors were transitioning to more relaxed uses and an impromptu barracks. Instead of trying to fit on armor, they lined up quickly and received Mass Force Armor, then Mass Greater Magical Weapon and Mass Magical Vestment on their shields.
An Amber Dragon meant Elemental Resistance to both Fire and Acid/Poison, too.
Cirruluxul swooped down towards the broken stones that formed the illusion over the crater, and the amber dragon quickly followed, seeking to pin her against the ground, get her in range of his breath or spells, and end the hunt.
He was not prepared for her to plunge right through several of the columns as if they weren’t there, then vanish from sight just a couple scant seconds before he himself instinctively followed her body language and kept after her.
He came through the illusion with both surprise and supreme confidence, sure that there could be nothing down there he couldn’t handle, especially from a young blue dragon. Even a couple other blues from the family he had slaughtered should provide little challenge to him…
The elf in front of the very out-of-place human building sitting there in the middle of a barren rockscape was very much not what he was expecting.
Nor were the two Rays of utterly lethal cold that came streaking up to slam into him.
He had not used his magic to defend against any elemental attacks, dismissive of the young dragon’s threat potential, and he especially was not expecting an attack of the magnitude that struck his wings and instantly froze them into sheets of unresponsive ice.
The crack as he tried to flap his wings and they broke right off his body raised a scream of rage and horror from him, and his swoop down became a plummet from the skies… right into the middle of dozens of humans and dwarves bearing glowing Weapons and obviously braced to attack him!
Cirru winged around and behind me with a lightness and agility impossible for a flier of her size, touching down at the same time as the massive amber dragon crashed to the ground with a bone-crunching impact and bounced and slid a few feet out of control, its frozen wings flipping through the air and away behind it.
With a roar, the humans and dwarves surged to the attack.
The dragon did get off one breath, a spewing cloud of vile brownish-green stuff that tried to rot their skin off their bones and failed miserably. In return, a lot of sharp swords, axes, and spears hacked into the thing with excellent timing and teamwork, cutting through its tendons, slashing wounds opened up in the gleaming hide for spears to plunge in deeply, looking for the heart.