Adamant Blood

"I didn't know it was going to be like THAT," Sally said, after the party was over.

The buffet was demolished, with only a few small crackers and some cheese dip left, while the big containers of tea and drink were all reduced to half-melted ice. The room still felt energetic, even as apprentices were cleaning up and a few professors and otherwise remained in groups here and there, networking. Rekaro, Reeni, and Elaria were over there, alongside 2 people that Mark didn't know. Those others looked important, based on the vectors in that group and based on their expensive clothes. They had not spoken to Mark at all, and that was fine.

Mark and his team were at a table with Isoko making plans for a musical episode of some HVP show she wanted to do, Sally surprised that she had enjoyed all that, and Eliot with a flame reignited in his heart.

Eliot said, "I didn't realize Aethercalling was singing."

"It's so much more than that," Mark said, not sure where he was going with that comment. He was still trying to understand it all himself.

"You were so good up there, Eliot!" Isoko said, looking up from her tablet. "I didn't know you could sing."

Eliot grinned, acting demure as he said, "I dabble."

Sally snorted.

Mark said, "You do more than dabble. That was amazing."

Eliot was all smiles. And then he said, "I've never been that good! I've tried singing in a studio, you know, but it never worked out how I wanted— I wanted to be a bard in the classical Daihoon style, yeah? Viewer of history and writer of exploits? Grandma is kinda like that. She made me want to come over here to Daihoon to do all of that, too. But I got caught up in a bunch of bad shit— Well, you know. Goblin hordes, gate horrors, all of that."

Eliot's voice trailed away.

No one wanted to talk about bad things right now; Eliot especially.

"You have that channel, right?" Sally asked. "Very Human? You ever do a ballad on there?"

"Ha! Never… And I haven't done a video for Very Human in a while, but I'm thinking I want to. Maybe about the goblin war we're in? Maybe something else… I'm also realizing that Aethercalling doesn't work through screens at all. I've never heard a recorded Kaiju Call match even a tenth of the effect of a real one, and Grand Mage Rekaro's Call was impressive."

Mark hummed, nodding.

The guys looked at Mark.

Isoko was the first to say, "So, you did a counter-Call, right? That's what that was?"

Mark's face reddened. "… I was hoping you'd forget about that."

"Nope!" Isoko said.

Eliot picked up his tablet from the table and grinned as he pressed play, saying, "I recorded it."

Mark's finger went out fast, poking at the X in the corner of the recording, closing the window. "Nope!"

Eliot laughed.

Sally asked, "It's talzarki stuff, yeah?"

"Oh I don't fucking know," Mark said, exhausted by the question.

Isoko changed the subject, saying, "So if we want to have a musical episode of something then we have to get better at singing. All of us are bad at it, even you, Eliot."

"What! You just said I was great!"

"We're all shit, you're just smoother than the rest of us."

Mark laughed.

Eliot said, "You know… It's probably the lingering emotion of the day affecting your mind, making you want to do this. You know that, right? Like, to repeat: Aethercalling doesn't work through screens, so becoming a musical quartet on the HVP circuit doesn't matter, and without that we're all just bad."

Isoko said, "And I'm saying that it's important to be multi-talented and singing is important, and even if you can't Aethercall through videos you can certainly learn to sing better so that Aethercalling isn't the only way you know how to sound good. I'm sure at least 80% of the people we heard today would sound bad in a video. But we could all take singing lessons— and even dancing lessons! Mark still has to do more dance lessons with Sergeant Hamburger over in Memphi."

Sally hummed, nodding. "I know I sound terrible."

"You have a beautiful, deep voice," Isoko said. "People love your voice online."

Sally blushed a little.

Isoko added, "But yeah. You're terrible, too."

Sally snorted.

And then Isoko started outlining everything she knew about musical things in the HVP program. Mark mostly listened. Eliot talked about instruments he wanted to learn how to play. Sally didn't say much, but she kinda liked the idea of playing the drums. Maybe they could form a band? But, no. Mark wasn't into that at all. But it was a nice end to the day, even if the day wasn't ending for a while yet.

Mark eventually changed subjects, saying, "Can you help me make a centipede with a lot of articulation for Quark, Eliot?"

Isoko excitedly asked, "Can you have him play the violin, too? A centipede playing the violin would be awesome."

Sally grinned, joking, "Mark does love his 'violins'."

"Yes!" Isoko exclaimed, "You get it!"

Mark laughed.

Eliot smiled as he said, "I already have 4 prototypes ready for you to try out, Mark. They're already at the house. I'll have some crappy violins made too, by the time we get back."

Mark was surprised at that, because, "You have stuff getting made even when you're here?"

Isoko was interested, too. "Did you learn how to stretch your astral body that far when I wasn't looking?"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Eliot decided to straight-up lie, because he loved the lie. He said, "Yes."

"Fucking liar," Isoko said, friendly and disgusted.

Eliot snorted.

Sally said, "He just put in an order to his—"

"Oh come on! I like being thought of as powerful!" Eliot complained. And then he confided, "It's just some multi-functional machines in the warehouse."

"It's basic parts, right?" Mark asked, "And you have to finish them—"

A voice yelled something on the other side of the room, and the conversation at Mark's table collapsed.

All of them turned toward the noise.

The party was cleared out and everything was clean, though a few people still lingered. Rekaro and Professor Redline were pretty much the only ones aside from Mark and his team, and those two were having a quiet, angry conversation in the corner. They were keeping it professional, but emotions were running very high.

Mark was pretty sure he heard Professor Redline call Rekaro a hack, or something else equally unkind.

Rekaro was currently stunned.

Professor Redline was the same fancy-dressed professor, wearing a stunning red dress, like she usually was. Mark had first met her after that first meeting after the Union of Understanding parties for Sigaldry. She had liked Mark, but she was vehemently against these sorts of Understanding parties. She feared for safety. But she still liked Mark. Seemed like an honest fan, really. But then she had gotten a talking-to from Rekaro and probably others, and the next time Mark tried talking to her she hated him. Really, vehemently disliked him, too.

And now Redline had called Rekaro something offensive enough to cause Rekaro to pause.

Mark stood up, and said, "Maybe we should clear out. I need to sleep while I can, anyway. Quark? Timeline to assault on the goblin city?"

The guys started to stand, too, with Sally yawning and stretching wide as she stood up.

Quark rose from his seated position on one of Mark's black orbs to stand tall, on that floating orb, as he answered, "We have 32 hours before the assault, which will take place the morning after next morning." He added, "I would dearly like to try a centipede body, sir."

Quark's answer had been in a normal tone, but his talk of a centipede body was almost excited. He wanted that, huh? Well sure. Mark was glad to try it out, too. One more task before bed seemed fine.

Mark grinned. "Of course, Quark."

"But more importantly!" Isoko chimed in, "Can you play the violin!"

"One second," Quark said, and then his vector went elsewhere, his head turning away. He came right back to bow, as he said, "I can now play every instrument there is, Miss Kanno, provided I have one in my size."

Eliot said, "Let's go home."

They started walking as Isoko squealed in a little bit of delight, asking, pleading, "Can you do 20 violins at once, all down the length of the body?!" She tried to be serious as she told everyone, "Because it would play very well with all audiences, I am sure. We can get tee shirts made with a centipede playing violins, too."

"I can certainly try, Miss Kanno," Quark said, seeming quietly excited.

Mark grinned, trying to say, "Might actually use up some of his processing power—"

The sound of a slap filled the room.

Everyone looked over to see Redline's arm bent across her body, like she had just finished delivering a slap to Rekaro's face, which, according to the deepening red mark on Rekaro's face, she had just done exactly that.

Redline raised her voice, declaring, "Today was a death knell for the settlement, 'Grand Mage', but I seem to be the only one to get that! I am canceling my tenure and leaving, this hour."

Rekaro's vector was bubbling with hate after that slap. Incandescent, internally. Outwardly, he maintained as much calm as he could, as he said, "If I see you again it will be an honor duel."

"And when I see you next, it will be me in Memphi reading the obituaries!"

Redline swished her dress as she turned and walked away.

Mark went toward Rekaro to heal the Grand Mage's face as he quietly asked, "Something I should be worried about?"

Rekaro took a calming breath, and though his vector flexed angrier for a brief moment, that anger ebbed away, bleeding out, as he regarded Mark. His voice was calm, as he said, "She'll be hard to replace, but not that hard."

"… Er, I meant… Should I be worried about whatever that was regarding a 'death knell of the settlement'?"

Rekaro laughed. It was not a kind laugh, but it was not directed at Mark, either. He said, "The settlement is fine. Redline hoards many unfounded fears about a great many things. I knew her in arcanaeum and in Aluatha Imperial Society —she's a 7, so one rank below me— and I thought I knew who she was, but she's not nearly the person who I thought I hired. She is much too scared to push boundaries and to take advantage of opportunities that will literally never happen again."

Mark nodded a little bit. He knew these Understanding Parties were dangerous, but something had actually happened… So Mark asked, "What happened today?"

"Today was an excellent day, Mark! The assault is tomorrow, but after that, I hope we can have more regular Understanding days. Princess Walaria has tentatively put down an end-of-September timeline for visiting again, and she wants you knowing every magical language on your list."

Mark put Redline out of his mind, and said, "And I plan on that… Ah. Sorry about… Kaiju Calling you back? I'm not sure what happened there at all. The arcanaeum is your territory, of course."

Rekaro seemed fully calm and even a little bit happy, in an almost-curious sort of way, as he said, "Elaria believes it's that talzarki thing you have going on—" He put away his joy and added, "We're Imperialists, though, you and I. No dragons in charge here."

Mark huffed a little as he grinned, and said, "My high school books always talked about imperialism like it was a bad thing."

"Nonsense! The strong must control the world, or else we die to those who are even stronger." Rekaro made a dismissive hand wave toward the exit that Redline had taken, adding, "She seems to have forgotten that. This settlement, and Memphi on the other side, are cruxes of the Two Worlds, Mark. If some people get hurt by humanity pursuing power, then it is our duty and obligation to care for them, but we must not let them hold us back, either."

It was the first time Mark had heard Rekaro talk like that, but it wasn't the first time he had ever heard words like that. Tartu spouted stuff like that during their HVP shows all the time. Both he and Rekaro truly believed that.

And, well...

Mark kinda believed it too, he supposed.

Mark moved on, saying, "Another Understanding Aethercall in 2 days, then. I'll have to figure out something to sing next time."

Rekaro easily said, "We'll be doing more individual groups next time, so don't worry too much about putting on an actual show. I know you don't have stage fright with all that superhero stuff that you and Tartu do, but a lot of people felt that way today, so we're doing individual groups. The wards to contain it all barely leaked today, but they did leak a little, which— Well. Aethercalling is not a solo event! It's not just the person Calling out their truth, but also in the audience receiving that message. So smaller groups will stress the wards less."

Ahh…

Something did happen today.

Mark asked, "What happened?"

"Assorted injuries due to people hearing sad songs and jumping off of roofs. It was handled, and now some people know not to go poking into wards that they shouldn't poke into."

"… Oh… kaaaay."

"It's not a sad story, Mark. Everyone who has ever been to arcanaeum has a similar story from their time in arcanaeum. It's practically a rite of passage to get injured from doing magic wrong, or from looking where one ought not look! My own story involved me getting hauled before the local Inquisitor…"

There was some more small talk that was obviously engineered to put Mark at ease. He knew it, Rekaro knew it; it happened anyway. And Mark did feel a bit more at ease. Mark soon took his leave, rejoining his team. Rekaro bowed as he left, too.