Chapter 68: Champion, Chapter 2: Fate Leads the Willing

Aidan

The Realms

Seventhday, 4th week of the 8th month, Age of the Chosen 1

Mid-Afternoon

Ceallach Macht, Mistvale Highlands

It took several hours for Aidan to confer with each of his specialists and assign them tasks and teams of automatons. The architect, Niall, was notable in his relentless need for ever more detailed plans. By the time he finished, he was starving and mentally drained. All Aidan wanted to do was have lunch and a nap, but the world wouldn't wait for him, so he settled for just the former.

When he walked into the altar chamber, trailed by Brighid, Ailis, and Llwyd, he found Sarpedon seated on the tile-mosaic floor. The gargoyle looked up at their entry and rose to his feet, surprisingly graceful for a ten-foot-tall granite statue. "Ah, greetings, Chosen Aidan. Are you prepared for your first lesson in managing your Place of Power?"

"No, but lay it out for me anyway. Time waits for no man."

"Indeed. Very well. Do you remember how you activated the altar previously to claim it?" At Aidan's nod, Sarpedon continued, "Then please do so again. The result should be somewhat less dramatic now."

It took Aidan three tries to channel his energy into the altar. When he succeeded, a new status window and prompt opened up before him.

Aidan accepted the new spawn point without hesitation; far better to return here, should he die again, than the little box canyon more than a week’s walk away from his center of power.

"I see by your expression that it worked. What you are seeing should be Caer Macht's status display. We can go over everything in detail later, but I believe you were concerned about defending the settlement? If you will direct your attention to the lower part of the display, then. Every Place of Power has at least two manna streams feeding it. In addition to filling the Place of Power's manna pool, they also provide an opportunity to enhance various aspects of your territory. Each of the streams may be devoted to one or more of four categories. The two most relevant to the matter at hand are Inner Defense—that is to say, defenses for the Place of Power itself—and Outer Defense—protection for your territory. You can combine the streams in any manner you desire, but splitting them across multiple categories will lessen their impact on each in proportion."

With four sources to choose from, there was a minimum of sixteen different combinations for each of the four categories, and two hundred and fifty-six ways to combine those sixteen combinations across the sections. Aidan's mind spun with the possibilities. "And what effect do the enhancements have? I assume they change based on the source or sources used and where they're assigned?"

"That is correct. I do not know how the esoteric schools manifest, but elemental schools like Earth and Air tend to create Elementals to act as guardians when applied to Inner Defense. If you were to devote the entirety of the Earth stream to Inner Defense, I expect that would manifest as a contingent of strong Earth Elementals that would answer to you alone. If you split the Earth source between Inner Defense and another category, there would be fewer or weaker guardians."

"And if I combined Earth and Fire, they'd be Lava Elementals, or something similar?"

"Yes, that is the general idea. I cannot confirm the specifics, but combining multiple sources in one aspect creates a result dependant on the combination."

"Alright, let's try this then," Aidan said as he assigned Fire and Dream to Inner Defense. "I want to keep Earth available for Resources, that sounds like it would—Woah!" He cut off as a shimmering pillar of flames erupted from the floor in front of him. The fire coalesced into a bird the size of a harpy eagle. Intense, eye-searing blue-white formed a core at its breast, fading to a warm orange at the tips of its wings and tail. The elemental shifted, flexing its wings; its every movement was trailed by a shimmering haze.

"That is not a standard Fire Elemental," Ailis asserted.

Brighid reached a hand out toward the fiery avian. It cocked its head, looking at her fingers, then its form rippled. Flames surged from it, then contracted again, leaving the elemental in a new shape. Brighid recoiled; Ailis hissed in shock. "This should not be possible!" Standing where the bird had been was a second, more literally fire-hearted Brighid. "Elementals are bound to the form they are summoned in!"

"Not Dream Elementals, it looks like," said Aidan with a faint air of smugness. He'd made his peace with Ailis for the most part, but it still felt good to do something that shocked her.

"Indeed!" Sarpedon agreed. "Fascinating. Oneiromancy is not well-understood even among my people; it is one of the rarest of the esoteric schools. To think that it would allow elementals to bypass the Strix-Lowen Monomorphic Effect!"

"Hmm, fancy, but I'm not sure how useful it is..."

"The primary limitations of elementals are the amount of power invested in them and their base form." Ailis settled into her lecturing voice. "Invested power determines their effective level and total attribute points; base form determines how those points are allocated and what other capabilities they have. The original avian form would have higher Speed and Senses, but lower Might and Toughness than this one. Additionally, the bird could fly, while the centaur can open doors. When a normal mage summons an elemental, it is for a specific, narrow task, because of these limitations. These... Dream-Fire Elementals?"

"Passion. They're Passion Elementals," Brighid declared in a voice that brooked no disagreement.

Ailis eyed her daughter for a moment, then resumed, "These Passion Elementals can shift their functionality at a moment's notice. That means they can adapt to meet any threat within the range allowed by their invested power. These are excellent guardians, Aidan."

"I wonder how many of them I have." He concentrated on the altar's interface again. "Hmm, looks like there are twenty available. I want to split the Dream source, though; I have a suspicion about what will happen if I assign it to Populace. And as I was saying, Earth sounds ideal for Resources; hopefully, it will either increase the fertility of the soil in the area or produce veins of valuable stone and minerals." He made those two allocations. "That leaves Air for Outer Defense, with the possibility of splitting another source into it. Any ideas what it will do on its own?" He directed the question towards Sarpedon.

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The gargoyle shook his head. "Alas, no. The other three categories tend to have variable effects from Throne to Throne, even using the same sources. The Steel-Wind Throne lies at the heart of a perpetual hurricane, while the approaches to the Throne of the Crystalline Caverns are filled with pockets of poisonous gasses."

"Wait, what's all this about Thrones?"

Ailis answered him. "It is a colloquial term for Places of Power. Places of Power are the seeds from which nations sprouted, so people began to call them Thrones and their controllers Sovereigns."

Aidan growled. "I'm beginning to smell a set-up. First, I get an Ability from my Class Talents called Crown of the Exalted, now I'm pushed into claiming a Throne and becoming a Sovereign. It appears that the Brighaid had a plan for me from the start."

Brighid walked around the altar and wrapped her arms around him. "Have They done wrong by you so far, my love?"

"Not that I know about, but I'm a little sensitive about being treated like a playing piece at this point."

"I understand," she soothed. "And as you may recall, I had some choice words to say about your Patron's actions in the past." Brighid nuzzled his hair and teased, "I believe it was you who convinced me to release my anger then; allow me to return the favor. So far, unlike certain others, They have placed you in situations that will empower you. It is doubtless true that the Three Flames have plans for their Chosen, but have They not given you free rein to act as your heart wills? To my eyes, They are not moving you like a piece on a board, but rather guiding Their champion to the tools that he will need. Yes, those tools have labels that you are uncomfortable with, but that proves your worthiness. 'Trust neither a thin cook nor a fat king.' You, my love, will worry and fret too much to ever grow fat under the crown."

"'Uneasy lies the head who wears a crown,'" Aidan agreed with a sigh. "I'll suspend judgment for now. Back to the matter at hand, since we don't know what form the Outer Defenses will take, I'm going to hold off on assigning anything to that aspect until the rest of the tribe arrives. The last thing I want or need is for the defenses to attack them. That still leaves me with an Air source sitting around unused, though. Is there anything to prevent me from assigning it now and then changing it in a week when the rest get here?"

Sarpedon nodded. "Once assigned to an aspect, sources cannot be changed for some time. Higher-level Thrones have tighter restrictions on changing their aspects, but I am unsure how long the delay is to start with."

"Should be easy enough to check..." Aidan attempted to remove the Earth source from Resources.

"Looks like one month. I'll leave Air alone for now; it can't hurt anything, since they've lain fallow for thousands of years at this point, and over two weeks since being re-awakened."

Sarpedon nodded. "As you say, it will not hurt. Prudence and caution are admirable traits in a new Sovereign."

"Agh! Enough with all the Lord Aidan this, Chosen Aidan that, Sovereign that other thing! Please just call me Aidan. Unlike the rest of this lot, you aren't bound to me by any oaths."

The gargoyle shook his head. "I will refrain from calling you Chosen or Sovereign if you insist, but you are a Lord, Aidan, and I am your advisor. Regardless of your personal distaste, if your allies do not respect your station, your enemies will do worse. Disrespect, in turn, will sow the seeds of rebellion. People will not suffer a ruler who they neither fear nor respect, and I do not believe you to be the type to rule with an iron fist."

Aidan let his head sink back into the warm softness of Brighid's chest and let out an exasperated sigh. "No, I'm not. Fine, have it your way." He didn't let himself wallow for long, though. "Now, what was it you were saying about a Quest to upgrade—oh, nevermind." Asking about it seemed to be all that was needed, as a new notification appeared in his mind's eye.

Well, that all seems straightforward enough, except... “What is the Labyrinth?"

All four of his companions perked up at that. "A Labyrinth entrance here? Marvelous!" Sarpedon exclaimed.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure it's wonderful. What is it?"

"My pardon, Lord Aidan. The Labyrinth is a dungeon that spans the entire world. Each Labyrinth entrance has its own unique strata—groups of floors with a similar theme—but as you go deeper into the dungeon, they begin to share with other branches. Before you ask, you cannot use the Labyrinth to travel from place to place; no matter what exit they use, a party will always return to where they started. The Labyrinth cannot be used as an avenue of invasion. It is a source of limitless resources, however, to those strong enough to harvest them."

"That is how the Taig maintained such a huge army!" Ailis exclaimed. "It must have found the Labyrinth entrance and used it as a source of corpses to animate."

"Yes, that seems likely. Even I did not suspect there was a branch here; this is fortuitous. And by your words, Lord Aidan, the quest to upgrade Caer Macht involves the Labyrinth in some way?"

He nodded. "Yes, I have to defeat the boss of the first stratum. How difficult is that likely to be?"

Sarpedon shrugged. "It is impossible to tell without venturing inside. It should be achievable with effort if it is part of your quest, however. From what I have read, in the majority of branches, the first floor of the first stratum is tame enough to be handled as long as everyone in the party has a combat Class."

"Well, then!" Aidan clapped his hands together. "It sounds like we have a plan for what to do while we wait for the rest of the tribe to gather, don't we?" A grin spread across his face. He had always been partial to a good dungeon crawl.

Zurai

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