Chapter 541: Book 8-21.2: Consolidation

The Weaver of the Warp and Weft of the World transitioned into the plane through the Chaos Channel. Well, one of him did. Of the other three incarnations he had, one was still in the Telurian Court, another was in the Asheron Court, and the third was in Baratrum, the fortress built upon the Chaos Rift.

His fourth and last incarnation accompanied the Wielder of Divine Flames, and a troop of the nameless. He stepped on top of the waves, the air within the plane pulled at him, drawing Chaos out of his Well. A barrier of Will formed around him like a shell, conformed to his body.

The nameless, a hundred of the latest batch, walked out of the Channel. The passage was halfway above the ocean’s surface and half underneath. The waves came from the Chaos flows outside, and the particles changed to become water. Some of what was in the plane left it, and in turn, was changed into filler particles.

The nameless. One could say they were better than Hunters, worse than actual barons. They certainly weren’t chevaliers, since that designation was solely for Chaos dwellers that rose from the merest swarmling nest all the way to Hunter, and was in transition to lordship. Of course, one could consider the chevaliers as nameless, too.

Until one earned a sobriquet, one remained nameless and at the bottom of the pyramid of power.

Ah, he still remembered the moment he earned his Sobriquet, one word at a time. It was as if a world of fog suddenly cleared. His mind had been cobwebs and darkness until there was light. Only instinct reigned in the nameless’ minds, but there was always the spark. And the hope of earning a title.

These ones were fresh off the forges though. They couldn’t even walk on the waves. Weaver snorted and extended his control over his surroundings. The plane fought him, of course, but he had something to counter that. Finally.

The waves and the ocean water in front of him froze. Not into ice, but simply, still water. The weight of his foot wouldn’t break the surface tension, and it was enough to walk on. He gestured for the nameless to march to shore. Watched as they moved past the wharves, ignoring the workers and sailors gaping at them.

The Wielder of Divine Flames snorted as she stood next to him. Her nose flared as she sniffed the ocean breeze, then spat to the side.

“I smell filth.”

Weaver looked at her oddly. “What, the fish?”

“This isn’t my first time near a wharf!” Wielder growled. “There’s something in the water.” She stared at the waves, but even to him, the water was opaque. When it looked like she was about to dive down, driven by curiosity, Weaver stopped her.

“We have a task.”

Hand half submerged, Wielder snorted. The fires on her head flared, rising several places above, before subsiding to its usual six inches. “Yes, we do. Burning away a few rats shouldn’t take much time.”

“If it were merely rats, then they wouldn’t have called us.”

“I prefer to return to the true battle,” Wielder snarled, “I’ve yet to earn a new title.”

Weaver snorted. Weeks of battle, skirmishes against the Imperial fleet and its battalions, and nothing truly changed. More of the nameless were sacrificed there than elsewhere, and Chaos relics used, devoured, or destroyed to keep the Waypoints hard enough to deny entrance.

But a threat to the ongoing supply of nameless wasn’t to be ignored.

“Well, now isn’t the time to be dawdling,” Wielder said while Weaver was lost in thought. “I’d rather go hunting,” she muttered.

Weaver smirked. “How’s that going for you? You’ve been looking for that Ancient for a while now, and you still haven’t found her. Maybe you should switch your quarry.”

“Never! I’d rather not earn a title for being fickle!” She swore as she strode towards the nearby city.

“We aren’t supposed to show ourselves,” Weaver coughed.

“To the Abyss with that,” Wielder huffed. “The humans follow their leaders like sheep. They know we are in alliance.” Her smirk widened.

“Mortals are sheep,” Weaver agreed, “but you never know if there’s a wolf under the wool.”

The Wielder of Divine Flames just snorted. The walk towards shore didn’t take much time. The waves flattened when they came within his purview, and resumed when he left. The water boiled and steamed under the Wielder’s feet, and after a time, dead fish popped out from the depths. It only added to the stinky fish smell. It seemed to amuse her though, and he noticed her sending spurts of white flame from her feet.

The bolts completely ignored the water and the wet, somehow continuing to combust, and just as importantly, to contain their own heat. It swooshed towards a school of fish, and even if the things managed to dart away from a direct hit, the heat suddenly expanded and boiled the water around and within it. More fish floated belly up.

Wielder kept her sport until no fish came within a hundred paces of them. Then she merely huffed and played with bubbles that formed when the water boiled. The bubbles rose up, but then, she suddenly took the heat from them, and they returned to the water, leaving small salt crystals behind.

Rolling his eyes at her antics, Weaver soon found a man standing by the shore, staring straight at them. Unlike the locals, he wore a coat that reached all the way to his heels, and it must be sweltering in the humid heat. He also had a wide-brimmed brown hat, dark leather boots, and grey trousers.

When they touched the sandy shore, the man took hold of the hat and swept it to his side as he bowed. “Welcome to Uaran City, Chaos Lords.”

Wielder just snorted and said, “Who are you?”

“An agent for the Primus. Salter Blume at your service.”

Salter’s hair and eyes were brown but other than that, his face and features were so unremarkable that it was a struggle to pick out details to remember. Weaver felt the pinpricks of mental Animus techniques. It would be simplicity itself to ward it off, but he decided to let the man play his games.

“What do you have for us?” Weaver asked.

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Salter reached into his coat and pulled out a brown envelope, which he offered to Weaver with both hands.

“There’s been trouble. Someone is stopping the shipments from Kadrac and Haveena. There was a flood which didn’t help matters, but the last caravan they sent out never reached us here.”

Weaver took the envelope, opened it and withdrew the paper inside. He stared at the written words for a long moment, before managing to access the part of his Anima that had the memory of being literate. “You suspect Verdanians?”

“Yes. And a Knight Captain at least.”

“Oh?” Wielder grunted. “One was allowed to leave their cities or legions?”

“Yes.”

“This…” Weaver said slowly. “The Golden Terror?”

“We only suspect. Several weeks had gone by and the battlefront had not revealed her presence.”

“A fitting quarry, Wielder?” He turned to the other Chaos Lord.

She shook her head. “I still prefer hunting for that Ancient. Why don’t you go and reconnoiter?”

“It would be better that both of you go and eliminate the threat,” Salter said mildly.

Wielder growled. “Don’t give me orders, mortal.”

Salter held out his hands placatingly. “I apologise, but it is our lord’s will.”

“Who, your mortal lord?”

“No, of course not. I pledged my allegiance to the Watcher, forswearing my old oaths to the Federation.”

Wielder and Weaver’s eyes widened. “A cultist of repudiation.”

Salter smiled as he bowed once again. “I pledge to the Return.”

The two Chaos viscounts exchanged glances, then the Wielder looked at the man with newfound respect in her eyes. “So let it be.”

_____________

Several days had passed since they settled into the deserted oasis village. It was named Purebowl, as Yuriko found out from one of the refugees. Supposedly referring to the amazingly pure water that came from the oasis spring.

Staring at the brownish water, not just with her eyes but with her aura, she couldn’t quite agree. But maybe it was off Season for pureness? She didn’t quite get it. Anyway, the water from the spring was barely enough for the group’s consumption, much less for farming. The four farmers who were also spirit binders were able to revive and refresh about half of the communal crops, but couldn’t do so for the private gardens. The desert crops consisted mostly of carrots, some strange grain or grass that looked more like tangled hair than anything else. Sam, the farmers’ representative, said that the lucerne grass was mainly for livestock consumption, but could also be eaten by humans.

As for the trees, they managed to make a few begin flowering and fruiting within a few days. Doing so often would kill the plants, but they also buried compost and other food wastes next to the roots.

For the most part, Yuriko spent her time training and ruminating. Damien piped in now and then, but he didn’t speak of anything really worthwhile, mostly to tease Yuriko about her roommates. As she somewhat expected and allowed, Gwendith and Desire ended up sleeping in the same room she did, with Saki attending to all of them. That wasn’t to say that Asami slept in a different room since the dwellings only had a communal bedroom each. The boys took one of the other dwellings, while the refugees crammed themselves into the remaining houses and wagons.

Her Anima reach had grown by nearly eight inches, capping out at three hundred thirty-five. Nearly eight and a half paces from her skin. It was rather evident that the stronger her Anima grew the longer it took to improve, but only if all things remained the same. Her adventure southwards evidently helped greatly and she could feel her Anima continue to grow stronger, inch by inch. As for her Radiant Body Refinement, it had only grown by an additional one percent.

Suppressing her body with her own Anima had finally reached its limit and she had to determine a better way to improve. Or, she could simply proceed as she were and improve slowly. While it had reached a limit on improvement, it was only with speed. Minute increases in strength, agility, and resilience built up. If she kept doing what she was doing, she would reach the threshold of ninety percent in a couple of years. Quite a bit faster than Damien’s original prognosis. But she wouldn’t be satisfied with just reaching the threshold. She wanted perfection. However, she couldn’t think of a method and thought that one wouldn’t present itself until she reached that point anyway.

So. She wanted to focus on her other skills and techniques, ones that she hadn’t had the luxury to do in the recent past. Well, beginning with what her Ennoia changed for her.

Radiant kinesis wasn’t something she had experimented with at all, considering her Animakinesis was just as useful and, well, she was used to using it. She’d noted the differences when she first managed to use the other, and now, she set about exploring the differences.

A few days ago, the refugees, former guards, and Yuriko’s team held a council to determine their future path. Heron had asked her why she bothered asking, and she answered, “It isn’t just our lives on the line, it's theirs too. And I’m not about to force anyone to do something they don’t want.” After which she blushed as she realised that her Mien was doing exactly that anyway. Still, if she could help it, she would take their desires into consideration when making broad decisions. Anyway, the first major point was that they would stay in Purebowl for a while, at least to harvest what food they could.

In that case, the village needed some defences built while they stayed here.

There were few rocks nearby, and the village was mostly surrounded by sand. As she pushed her perception underground, she did find gravel and pebbles, but it was more than five paces deep. Her aura penetrated the sand substrate easily, considering there was enough space between the particles for her to slip through rather than forcefully going through it. Still, she was wary of bringing those rocks up, as that might cause a collapse, a sinkhole, or something else. The spring was also above solid rock. The water source was something deep underneath her, farther than she could reach at the moment.

She chose not to touch that block either as she didn’t want to mess up the spring. So, instead, she observed the building materials used for the dwellings and found them to be bricks.

She infused her Radiant energy into the sand just outside the building and began to melt and shape the stuff…

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