Abyssal Road Trip

Amdirlain's PoV - Qil Tris

The eatery grew busy with the lunchtime customers as Mor'lmes and Wha'sin lingered over dessert. Amdirlain sipped a sweet drink she'd had frequently that resembled hot cocoa but had the caffeine hit of coffee. As she sat answering their questions and catching up on events from their perspective, Amdirlain reached through the links to her faithful in the city. It had taught her much about the state of the city and the individuals praying to her. While she had no problems with some of their beliefs, there were other situations where she needed to prune a bit.

"Have they changed the blend of these?" Amdirlain had already caught at the differences in the drink's preparation. The question was purely for making small talk as she tried to end the conversation gracefully, having now decided how to deal with the Eldritch infection.

"Brands are always refining recipes. I doubt you'd find any product beyond raw foodstuffs that still tasted the same." Wha'sin set her cake fork aside.

"Changes big and small sometimes creep in while other times pounce and roar." Mor'lmes's whiskers twitched. "You look ready to head off."

"Yes. I've got two situations to resolve that will attract attention. While the laws in your city no longer involve shooting priests on sight, they're still treated with suspicion that can cause them other issues."

"You're not just putting a stop to it?" Mor'lmes asked cautiously. "You stopped the Eldritch cultists."

Amdirlain raised an eyebrow. "What emotional response has you equating our followers with Eldritch cultists?"

"Fear." Mor'lmes swallowed. "Look, some places are an explosion awaiting a spark, and the outcome will destroy lives and perhaps society. Qil Tris hasn't had the best of history with faiths. You said you didn't need their faith, so stop it."

"I'm sorry, Mor'lmes, but what you want is a betrayal of those who trusted in me."

"That seemed to be the approach you took with other problems. You poked the Matriarch until she tried to strike out at the caster studio, and then you ended her."

"She was ruining thousands of lives. While some people have misunderstood my beliefs, they're not preaching for their benefit alone." Amdirlain frowned. "I agree changes are coming, yet they don't have to be destructive."

Though I may have to pick some people up by their scruff.

"But they draw power from you."

"They were. Now they're drawing it from my Domain. Regardless, I had plenty to spare and answering their prayers stretched the growth of a Power that generates Mana."

Maybe I should only refine my Ki pool into my essence reserves.

Mor'lmes lightly tapped the table. "Why support them?"

"The capacity for producing magic through faith is different to arcane arts. Why should I deny people a strength that can help ensure their survival? I've always believed in providing people opportunities to grow." Amdirlain set a crystal sphere on the table. "A gift to make it easier to learn certain desirable affinities. Will you deny others' growth just because it came from a source others disapprove of?"

She didn't take her gaze from them.

"Easier?" Wha'sin questioned.

"Easier. Unlike my training, it's not guaranteed."

"Why give this at all? Why give it now?" Mor'lmes questioned.

"Will you let the pain of your past determine your way forward or have hope?" Amdirlain asked. "Answer through your actions. Moving along, how can I get an identification chit nowadays? Can I still go to a law keepers' station?"

Wha'sin eyed the crystal. "Not after the three of you exploited the system. Now, chits get issued at birth, or you need verifiable evidence that you're changing residence from another city or township."

"Darn, and it's not something I can just fake up?"

"It's linked to a central system, and space travel agencies cross-check the traveller's ID. Why would you be interested in a moon trip? Surely such things must seem trivial to you." With a trembling hand, Wha'sin scoop up the crystal.

Amdirlain patted her forearm reassuringly. "I've lived many Mortal lives, and the closest I ever got to space during them was a planet's upper atmosphere. I've stood on thousands of alien planets but never ridden in a spaceship. Worst case, I'll make my own and learn how to control it. Take care."

Time to go before that mountain draws too much attention; the first investigation team is having fits.

The investigation team continued hammering against the barrier with assorted arcane weaponry, so Amdirlain appeared further up the slope. The sight of her in a silvery stage outfit with azure hair and fur ruffled by the wind froze them.

"Lower this barrier at once and identify yourself." The team leader snarled.

"I'm pretty sure it'll be clear who I am. This mountain has an infestation of dormant Eldritch that I didn't find on my last visit, so I'm cleaning it up." Amdirlain flipped her fingers casually at the team members. "Shoo."

The team vanished back to their assembly point, and Amdirlain took action to keep them there. The Wizard in charge of transport found that his group teleport wouldn't initiate, no matter the destinations he tried. "We're stuck."

"What do you mean?"

"The Spell is forming, but nothing happens. I've even tried moving us to our training site and a dozen other locations."

"Has the spatial barrier expanded?"

"No, it's like the dimension any teleport moves us through is no longer there!"

The commander looked over the team. "Someone else teleport us."

One by one, the other wizards in the team tried devices and spells to return to the mountain or hop from the city, but nothing happened.

With the lockdown effect blanketing their base, Amdirlain moved onto the next phase.

She shifted to the mountain's southern side, positioned upon a cracked glacier whose surface was the closest she wanted to get to the Eldritch infection. To distant observers, her Azure fur stood out from the white, powdery snow around her. With the light footsteps, she stepped forward, and the normalcy of the crunching snow helped her break through the loud distortion of the twisted material beneath the mountain.

I know why Ori made shackles with locks. There was a sympathetic link to track their decay. Which approach do I take, my new one or old school? I'll use the old approach for now and send the keys to the Custodian's care; I can change them later.

She filtered out the infected stone and isolated the divine suppression field to focus on the dormant Eldritch. The thousands of prisoners featured dozens of Eldritch species, but Amdirlain didn't probe their differences; instead simply concentrated on containing them. Tubes of crystal pressed the Eldritch into consistent shapes. She flickered each completed container away to a prison in the Abyss. It only took a few minutes for the last to vanish. Throughout her work, the wind off the Arctic Circle futilely battered at her lightly clad body, unable to draw a reaction from her.

A satellite observing the region from directly above triggered its full weapon load.

As the satellite's strike blocked its sensor gear, Amdirlain activated Phoenix's Trail. In a mission control room, dozens of people stayed glued to the displays as a mass of white Primordial flame turned the glacier into a steaming cloud. Yet it had barely started upwards when a rapid reversal occurred, the steam disappeared, and the disruption to the local weather was snuffed out. What had once been a rough glacier was now an ice sculpture of a nude female Catfolk lying across the landscape, with a white sheet draped over azure blue fur. A figure sheathed in white flames stood where the target had been.

"Only Sarah can get me hot and bothered. You should flirt with someone else." Am's recognisable voice purred throughout the control room. The scent of honey lingered as the last words rubbed playfully against the general's ears.

On the screens, the figure on the glacier's leading edge waved her arms flamboyantly at the mountain. A flash of white bored a gaping hole straight to the lower mantle, and a restrained ocean of lava glared on the satellite's sensors. The heat reading spiked hard, but the weather patterns in the region didn't shift, shielded by Amdirlain's songs.

Layers rippled into existence, from the depths of the planet's mantle to the lofty peak. Once Amdirlain had recreated what had been present before the Eldritch corruption, she and the spatial barriers vanished.

Gosh, that was easy compared to the nightmarish fights from my first visit.

Perched atop a skyscraper, she continued investigating the oath links to her faithful. Where before she covered Osaphis, she now extended her attention to neighbouring cities. It took her only minutes to identify the high priests who had been the most inventive in deciding her tenets during her absence. Though she felt like staging some direct interventions, two individuals deserved her attention. They, rather than the troublemakers, rated her time, so she waited out the afternoon until they returned home.

She gave them time to settle in and relax yet, when the news came with a report of the afternoon's events, she couldn't resist.

Amdirlain leaned over the couch between Jal'krin and Tulne. "Do you think the caster station will keep repeating it?"

Soul Haven washed over them as their fear spiked, calming them down. Its glow illuminated the crescent of chairs by the dining area, the wall units filled with stereo equipment, and awards for music and magic.

Tulne swallowed hard before she exhaled sharply. "You left a giant nude illusion behind. What do you think they're going to do?"

"It's evidence of higher beings. I was sure they'd never want it going out on the casters."

Jal'krin reached up and tentatively brushed back her azure fringe. "People sometimes do stupid things."

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Amdirlain rubbed their ears before she reappeared, sprawled on a single couch further around the crescent. "I'm sorry I was gone for so long. Did you miss me?"

"Yes. This isn't some shared delusion?" Jal'krin asked, waving at the screen as the clip played again.

"Most certainly not, but they left out the first lot of flames and me teasing the military guys that tossed it my way," Amdirlain huffed. "Incomplete reporting."

Tulne put the bowl of jerky onto the table. "How are you here? Sarah said she can't come to the planet any longer, and we've only seen her at the monastery in Outlands."

I might get asked that question a lot. Maybe I should prepare an FAQ pamphlet.

"I'm walking a different path, like the gods of Kadaklan's people who don't need worshippers but serve as an example. Except I'm not the best example for anything."

"Except you've frequently endangered yourself to improve the situation of others." Tulne countered.

"You improve the lives of others, even when it makes yours more difficult," Jal'krin added. "I still remember the day you walked into the Pride's music shop."

Amdirlain waved her tail reprovingly. "Don't go arguing with your elders."

"Is that a divine command?" Tulne's whiskers twitched upwards, and their gaze brightened with amusement.

"Hardly. I'm always arguing with my elders, and I've got a bunch of fights I will pick with some of them. Did Sarah set you up to ask that question?"

There are at least three wars on my dance card: Moloch, Tingeth, and the Formithian Pantheon. I need to break the Formithian's homogeneous behaviour. They see no value in other species, so they're just a creeping moss, consuming everything that isn't them.

Tulne's tail twitched with suppressed mirth. "Livia asked me to slip a few comments in if you ever visited."

"Why did both of you get involved with promoting my faith?"

"Originally, we avoided those trying to develop a faith surrounding your growing legend, but then we heard of those whose prayers were answered by calling on you. They were making up many things we knew were incorrect, so we got involved to steer things along a calmer course, with mixed success." Jal'krin gently squeezed Tulne's hand. "After our son Jal'sen gained the Cultist Class dedicated to you, our involvement grew. We weren't sure what was happening, then recently, all his classes morphed into new ones. His Skill told him that it occurred because some of his base classes changed to Priest."

Amdirlain coughed sheepishly. "I wasn't quite myself when he gained Cultist."

Jal'krin moved beside Amdirlain's spot and leant down to hug her. "It's great you're here. You look well, but shapeshifting, so of course you do. Sarah was so worried when we last spoke to her."

"Don't get all soppy on me, composer." She patted the top of his head. "Well done on your fame and Class progression. Though I don't understand why either of you believes in me."

Tears glistened in Tulne's eyes. "Sarah told us you wouldn't see it."

"Oh, I see it. I see both of you. Yet understanding differs from knowing, and my awareness of your belief is shiny and new."

"What can I do to help you understand how much you mean to us?" Jal'krin asked, letting Amdirlain go so he could lock gaze with her.

"Just remain my friend, Jal'krin. Though I certainly could use your help. Care to do some composing?"

Bright, joyous laughter erupted from Jal'krin. "I'd love to. How do you want to touch people's hearts this time? Or would you prefer to scandalise them?"

"Everything is subject to interpretation, but when coupled with music that supports a particular emotional tone, it's harder to misrepresent something. I want to ensure people know what pleases me over what breaks my heart."

Jal'krin nodded. "A worthy challenge."

"Should I return later?"

Tulne held up her hands in protest. "If you don't go to his studio room right now, he'll be unbearable."

"Inspire me with the teaching you want to get across," Jal'krin purred happily.

Amdirlain flowed to her feet and looped her arm through Jal'krin's. "Choices, and individual growth."

She enabled Muse's Embrace and fed his flow of questions. Hours later, when Jal'krin was deep in creative mode, Amdirlain left him to it and returned to the living room to find Tule curled up with a grimoire.

"Tulne, could I borrow your likeness for a time?"

Tulne's ears perked straight up. "For what?"

Amdirlain clasped her hands together and smiled gingerly. "I want to fly to the moon. They require identity chits for tickets."

"You'll use Protean to copy me physically so the chit will confirm you're me?"

"And pay for it with a direct Mana feed," Amdirlain added. "Though I don't need your chit, I'll create a copy and recycle it afterwards. How do you know about Protean?"

"I met a few interesting people at Master Jinfeng's training site inside the local trial. If flying to the moon is something you want to do, then be my guest. I'll stay home for a day of rest and reading while Jal'krin composes, and you can play me in public." Tulne paused in thought. "The tour jaunts you sometimes have to book ahead. If your time is limited, you can charter a private trip with enough Mana or credit."

"I have a situation with the faithful that needs to be resolved before indulging myself."

"You should also consider if you want a simple moon trip or something more extensive?"

"Such as?"

"There are colony domes on two other planets. They've poured a lot of resources into them and attracted people from many cities."

"I noticed the transport network touched a few planets, but I hadn't checked for any tourist activity. Okay, I'll think about that in between getting other stuff done. Could you direct me to the right people to communicate my tenets?"

"Of course." Tulne set the grimoire memory crystal aside without hesitation. "Where did you want to start?"

"Not everyone responds the same way to music. What other ways would you recommend for getting my message across to the faithful?"

"You could just expose them to that Power you used earlier."

Amdirlain wrinkled her nose. "Not something I want to rely on. It would mean I'd have to visit each planet too frequently."

Tulne glanced towards Jal'krin's study. "You could expose other communications specialists among your followers to it and see what ideas they can develop."

"Good point, but that brings me back to finding the right specialists."

Those who won't seek to bolster their image.

"Your faithful cover a broad range of skills, but the best people for this might not be in this city."

"There is still so much for me to learn, and the people of Qil Tris deserve better." Amdirlain jerkily shook her head. "I wasn't expecting worshippers."

"Have you caught up with all your family and friends?"

"Some of them, but not all."

"Why didn't you take the time to do that first?" Tulne cupped her face. "Always putting others before yourself. I lost count of the times I asked why you saved my life. You gave Mor'lmes the tool to bring me back from the dead, helped me gain affinities and then saw to my education."

"A wrong had been done, and I could change the situation."

She leant forward and bumped foreheads with Amdirlain. "Klipyl is right. Her big sis has a big heart to worry about matters others see as beneath them. How is someone like that not worthy of our respect and prayers?"

Klipyl took the backseat for her children at our meeting. I need to spend some time with Klipyl and Rachel. There are so many things on my plate. I could make avatars to handle all my socialising.

"Getting inside information from my family is cheating."

"Guess I'm trying hard enough," Tulne quipped.

"You've done well for yourself, Tulne. You've pushed yourself and grown far from the traumatised university student I remember."

"Your memory crystal with all its lessons and tests gave me a way to take my mind off things when everything was overwhelming. You gave me the tools I needed to make myself a grand life. Thanks to your influence, your composer is a solid fellow. Jal'krin and I wouldn't have gotten on before you calmed his reckless self-interest."

"Give him some credit, I kicked him in the arse and pointed out how he'd been a dick. He did the rest himself."

"With the opportunities you offered by providing the time and reason. Jal'krin gives you all the credit. You inspired him to be better, and not just grow in his craft."

"It was a team effort."

"Then think of your faithful as part of your team to improve the realm; stop worrying we're there to bow and scrape."

"I certainly don't want that last part." Pieces and understanding clicked into place within Amdirlain. "You and Jal'krin spread the idea about me being the Lady of Creation."

Tulne nodded. "Along with Jul'iane. She works with Jinfeng, who tells tales about you creating stars during martial arts demonstrations where you humbled the mighty and arrogant."

"Do you have any recommendations for what specialists I should talk to about clarifying my tenets?"

"I'd start with prominent companions within the faith; they can either ensure your message gets understood or know the right specialists to handle facets of the PR. Some of the best I know live in other cities, so I'll get them to come here."

"You didn't suggest going through my high priests directly."

"Some of those prominent companions are high priests in your service."

"My tenets have little to do with sensuality," Amdirlain cautioned.

"I felt it from your energy. Creation, change, and improving lives. Yet, isn't how they express themselves in those areas their choice?"

Amdirlain laughed merrily. "Too true."

Things in that respect are much wilder for me than they used to be.

Tulne patted her hand. "You came back to us. It's odd how you seem young and ancient simultaneously."

"It's odd to me as well. How long will it take to get time?"

"Seriously, Am, news from you, they'll make time." Tulne retrieved her trace unit and started sending out messages. "Is there anything else you need?"

I told Tinu I'd try to arrange her being summoned.

"I've got a daughter who'd like to visit this world. Would you use a device to call her to the Material Plane?"

"Absolutely."

Amdirlain stood. "Let's hop somewhere away from the city's sensors. They might pick up on the planar energy involved."

"Speaking of planar energies, would you have anything to do with a bunch of alerts triggered from ley line surges this morning?"

The innocent look Amdirlain adopted set Tulne laughing. "I know nothing about such alerts."

"You had a bunch of military types from dozens of territories having kittens, and it's probably why they fired at you on the glacier."

"If the military is involved, how did you hear about that?"

"With my reputation, I'm consulted on various arcane matters. What sort of spot do you need?"

"Anywhere remote from sensors."

"That's hard with satellites, but I know a spot we can blend in at least. It won't be in use this time of day."

"Let's go then."

Tulne shifted them to a rolling grassland to the northeast. "Our teams come here to practise drills outside the trials. No one official will blink at any Mana spikes on the sensors in this region."

Tinu enthusiastically acknowledged a query about meeting Tulne. Keeping a smile for Tinu's squeals in check, Amdirlain handed Tulne a limited-use True Song summoning crystal.

A brief rush of Mana from Tulne set the attunement and activated the crystal. A mithril circle appeared stamped into the grassland before them, and a glowing line split the air in the circle's centre. From it, Tinu appeared in her bronze-skinned elven form with rainbow wings folded tight to fit inside the circle. With a wink, she released a quick song that cracked the mithril circle. Her rainbow wings disappeared, and she shifted into a Catfolk form with a marmalade colouration.

"This will be so much fun. I can't wait to see your world, Tulne."

"I do not know how we'll get you usable identification, so you're going to be limited in what you can get up to," Tulne cautioned. "What name should I call you?"

"Darlin Ambertooth, I have a chit," Tinu reassured, waving an identification tag from a storage ring.

"How?"

"She tortured and killed the rest of her team in the trials. Her theme was awful, so I killed her and brought them back to life. Since then, I've met them several times and used their killer's identification for cover in the havens. Unfortunately, I've had no way to meet up with them on Qil Tris."

Tulne's whiskers twitched curiously. "You don't mind using such an individual's name?"

"I'm putting it to a nicer use than she did. Her family has disavowed her because of her vicious tendencies, so they've never tried to get in touch."

Tulne glanced at Amdirlain. "Stepping in to help others runs in the family."

"You never mentioned it," Amdirlain noted.

"It was sad, and there were many happier things to discuss. Sarah helped me send that Soul to Atonement." Tinu extended a hand to Tulne. "Tulne, will you accept an Allegiance Bond with me so I can stay awhile?"

Tulne clasped her hand firmly. "Agreed."