Power Overwhelming

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She’d often seen the Starlight Tower from a distance. It was hard to not notice such an obvious landmark after all, and Karna was aware of the complications the tower and its inhabitant had brought to Arjuna’s life over the years. It was those very complications that had caused her to personally keep her distance from the tower. Well, in addition to her personal dislike for seers. She could also see the defensive formations around the tower, which were made in a way that practically screamed of the presence of a reincarnator to someone like her. Seers were already bad enough, but a seer that was also a reincarnator could be so much worse. They would know how to leverage their information. And since they were all crazy, they were also more likely to act irrationally. It usually took standard seers a long time to even consider making ‘predictions’ that were false, just for their own gain.

The tower itself was gorgeous of course. Starsilver was a beautiful metal, even if its uses were mostly limited to divination magic. The tower looked like stars were shining inside of it, which was rather appropriate considering the time of day. The metal wasn’t just reflecting the stars in the sky though, as the stars within were mostly different from those in the sky. It also seemed there was limited activity inside the tower this late, although a few customers were making their way out through the doors at the base of the tower. Those were the entrances for people who had not been invited and were simply customers seeking out the services of the seers for their own benefit. There was never a shortage of people that wanted to know the future, with motivations ranging from pure to greedy and nefarious.

Karna had been invited however, and there was a rather obvious gap in the defenses of the tower, right around the balcony that ringed the top. As she touched down on the balcony, she noted a woman dressed in such heavy robes that only her eyes were showing. The woman was currently pouring some sort of drink to a cup opposite to where she was sitting, signaling that the drink was for Karna. “Welcome Princess Ynnead Asuryan, or Karma if you’d prefer another Name.” The emphasis on the last word was rather obvious.

Karna wasn’t all that impressed. Even a half-decent seer would’ve found out that much by now. “I assume this is important. It’s somewhat risky for me to be here as you should be aware.”

“It is. Though, I should point out that the risk to your person is less than you’d assume. The Emissary is strictly neutral, and while he has his orders, he won’t go out of his way to fulfill them. So, unless you decide to announce your presence here, he will not be looking for you either. At least for now. He is also vaguely aware that taking you might not be quite so simple.” The woman, who Karna had identified as the owner of this tower, explained. “I’d also prefer it if you didn’t kill him, for several reasons.”

Karna sat down at the table and was unsurprised to see one of her favored teas. Still, it wasn’t her favorite, which suggested a few things. Either this seer was unable to see everything about her or chose not to. There were two main ways that seers could find out such things. The first one was to look into the various futures and check what kind of reaction each offering got. That only worked with people that were open with their reactions though. The other method was to scry the person directly to find out things about them. Karna had made sure to protect herself against such scrying, and trying to look at her future had always been challenging for any seer. Likely the seer had chosen to just glimpse at the future to see her reactions and picked something that was at least positive.

It would’ve been rather impolite to cast a poison detection spell right in front of the master of the tower. Not that Karna really cared about politeness towards the seer, but in the end, she simply took a tiny sip and decided to observe the reaction her body had to it to make sure the drink didn’t cause any undesired effects. “So, talk. I’m not going to be your new instrument now that Arjuna is gone if that was your goal.”

“That is always the choice of people I speak about the future to. I only tell what I see, and how it could be prevented. How everyone chooses to react to such news is up to them.” That alone proved this seer was experienced. She’d figured a great way to manipulate people, as no one could complain too much about simply being given the opportunity to prevent some dark future. And if the seer happened to be a little selective in how she phrased things, and the recipient didn’t realize there were plenty of other people that could act on said information, then it was hard to refuse.

“Still, I didn't invite you here to debate such things, so I'll get to the point. As you're no doubt aware, the most frantic phase of the Expansion is coming to an end. There are still worlds more than worthy enough that remain to be discovered, and there will be for hundreds of years to come, but the biggest surge is now over. Would you concur so far?" It seemed the seer had elected to approach the subject by leading Karna to the answers instead of just blurting out what she'd seen.

“I haven’t followed the situation that closely, but I imagine you’re not too far off.” She’d been busy cultivating and had even created a spell for Ysendra to try and find other pieces of the Crossroads. In addition, she was already mixed up in the politics of the Divine Plane and didn’t want to add the machinations of Higher Planes to the mix. At least not more than she had to. She was already involved in some things.

“Well, with the landgrab for free and important resources over, what do you think would be the next logical step?” The seer posed a question.

“I would imagine that many great powers have been building their forces in preparation for taking some of that new land by force.” Karna pointed out the most obvious path. Many of the great powers hadn’t even bothered doing their own exploration, finding it easier to let others do the dirty work for them, and planned on just swooping in and grabbing the spoils. That risked losing some of the more immediate gains like artifacts and consumable items that would’ve already been used, but most of the big powers were looking at things long-term. A single Divine item might upset the balance of power between factions but such items were rare, and having a replenishing source of an important resource for tens of thousands of years to come was much more useful in the long run. Being able to control and draw power from multiple worlds was even more so.

“And with Arjuna gone, and Ashanti about to follow, what do you think are the odds of our world appearing like a juicy target?” The seer finally seemed to get to the point. The two men were not the only rank 9 beings the Magocracy and the Aegean Empire had access to, but they were the most powerful and most well-known. Just because you were at the same rank, that didn’t mean you had equal power.

“The Emissary would prevent any direct threats against the Magocracy and the Empire. No one would Ascend willingly if the countries they left behind would be crushed as soon as they were gone.” Karna voiced her thoughts. Such aftercare was one of the most important reasons for the presence of Emissaries in the Higher Planes. The Planes below were too low level for the same to apply as their wars were less about individual power and more about numbers. “However, that protection isn’t a blanket protection either, and likely doesn’t extend to newly established colonies.” She realized where this was likely going.

“Exactly.” The seer nodded. “And to be specific, while the Emissary wouldn’t let the Magocracy or the Empire fall, that doesn’t mean they will stop any and all hostilities. For instance, attacks that are made for the sole purpose of keeping us from sending all our military to protect those new colonies. The Emissaries won’t allow their aid to be abused either.”

“I see. And I suspect you’ve seen something like that as well.” Karna could put two and two together. “You want me to handle the protection of said colony? No. That’s not it, is it? Or not all of it at least. You didn’t need to invite me here for that. I was already on that world and would’ve obviously protected it from attacks. And there are the Sentinels as well. There’s something more to this, isn’t there?”

“In a sense. Just by informing you, I’ve already made sure you and the others will not be caught unawares, and that alone will make the attack harder. I needed to inform you of the attack for two additional reasons. The first reason is that you don’t always stay on that world, and your tower is rather easy to notice coming and going. Much like yourself, it’s not exactly stealthy. The informants of the parties that will be attacking would make sure the attack is timed so that you would be gone. It’s not that they fear you exactly, but they don’t quite understand your tower’s functionality, and they are aware that you often travel with three other powerful individuals. With your tower and you four gone, taking the world would be much easier, and they would be able to do it before you return. Whether you’d be able to retake it is another matter, but the losses would be quite significant even if you did.” The seer was clearly somewhat familiar with tactics, as her analysis was basic but accurate.

“Secondly, there are certain parties working behind the scenes to make sure this attack both happens and succeeds. I’m not entirely sure yet what those parties are or what their motivations are, but they seem to be interested in your group in particular. From what I’ve seen, unless you fight seriously from the beginning, meaning using your Domain, then either you or one of your group will end up either seriously injured or dead. And when I say seriously hurt, I don’t mean something that you’d recover from in a few weeks or a bit of healing. There are assassins and magical poisons involved, which are not my forte. I’m not sure of the exact reasons, but apparently, a large enough show of force will deter them from acting." It was clear that the Seer's visions were incomplete, and she was working with several possible futures that were in flux.

Her instinct was to state that she wasn’t all that afraid of assassins anymore, not unless they were at least immortals, but she knew the danger of such hubris. There were plenty of abilities that would allow someone to hide even from her senses, and battles often came down to who could get the first serious enough strike in to do real damage. There were ways even she could be injured that would be hard to recover from, even with her bloodlines. That didn’t mean she would take everything the seer said at face value. Just being aware of the danger would allow her to come up with countermeasures, and she had no doubt the seer was playing some sort of game as well.

She was more concerned about the fact that the Sentinels had proven less useful in this potential future than they had hoped. One of the reasons the Magocracy had so eagerly gobbled up such a valuable world like this was because it had the capacity to defend itself. Gem had found out that Ysendra was behind the Sentinels, so they shouldn’t be something so easily dealt with. The crazy Faerie Dragon was many things, but incompetent wasn’t one of them.

“And when is all this supposed to take place?” She asked. That was a rather important detail, wasn’t it?

“The enemy forces are still gathering their strength, making their plans, and choosing targets, as we’re not the only possibility. The news about Arjuna won’t spread for a while yet either. The same for Ashanti. You are well aware that the future is always in motion as well, and the smallest decisions could have huge consequences. The earliest I’ve seen the attack happen is four months from now, and that was an extreme case with you leaving the world. With you sticking around, it could be anything from eight to eleven months.” The seer responded.

“Eight months is a lot of time. You can prepare all sorts of things in defense, and I don’t see any reason to keep this information a secret. You’ve informed the council and our elven allies, yes? Good. In that case, I feel like some preparations are in order as well.” Karna drank down the last of her cup and got up to leave.

“As I said, that was also one of the reasons I invited you here. I know that with enough preparation time, you can accomplish many things that will reduce our losses. I would focus on the world you’ve made your base at. The attack here will be dangerous, but it’s not really meant to be too dangerous due to the Emissary, just enough to hold most of our forces here. Oh, I should remind you again. Please don’t get into a fight and kill the Emissary. If he’s dead, then we won’t be able to rely on his protection.” The seer felt compelled to repeat. “And Karma, do be careful in the future. I like the life I’ve built here, and we’ll all soon find out why all these reincarnators have been brought here. I would greatly dislike it if your actions forced me to relocate somewhere else. I don’t mind helping you when appropriate, but I can just as easily help your enemies if it's necessary.”

Karna grimaced a bit. “I do so wish you hadn’t said that. Now I have to make plans for dealing with you.” She retorted heavily.

“We both know you made those plans as soon as you saw the defenses around my tower. Besides, I did mention I’d rather be an ally. Otherwise, I would’ve told Prince Tethrine where to find you when you were still powerless to oppose him. I’ve already covered for you. It is important for you to remember that my aid isn’t unconditional though.” The seer revealed some of her reasoning behind saying something that wouldn't be received well.

"If you're expecting repayment for inaction just because you see things, you're going to wait a long time. It's hardly my fault you choose to wield your ability to peep on people. If you happened to learn something dangerous in the process, then that's the price of your actions. And I'm not going to be paying the price of other people's reckless actions. I have enough work to cover the price of my own mistakes. I said it before, I won't become your new problem solver. I appreciate this warning but don't pretend you did it purely for altruistic reasons. You yourself stated that you enjoy your current position here. It's only expected that you'd also have to protect that position. I'm not looking to become your enemy, but I won't be your weapon either." Karna's tone was harsher than necessary. Her dislike of seers was causing her to act in a less polite way than usual. It was also a fact that having power meant that she didn't need to tolerate others trying to manipulate her either.

Everyone had to deal with attempts at manipulation. Only with enough power of your own could you prevent that manipulation. As she was now, she wouldn’t have to go along with the machinations of people like the Elven Queen anymore. That didn’t mean she could lash out every time someone tried, as that would only create too many enemies, but at least she could make a stand when necessary. Even now, she was thinking of ways how she could turn the information the seer had provided her to her advantage. The problem with seers though, was that they could predict such attempts, and their aim could be to incite a reaction like that. And that dilemma, in a nutshell, was why she hated seers and tried to stay away from them.

“I am already doing my part. I was doing my part long before you were born. Even if you don’t like it or want it, I’ve already hitched my wagon to your success. Why else would I be here in the Magocracy? I could’ve Ascended a hundred years ago. But I know that this war is simply the first of many more to come, and we all have to pick a side or get caught in the middle. I’ve made my choice. Whether you choose to take advantage of the benefits that come with that decision is up to you. I know the trouble of trusting a seer. And I am The Seer. You shouldn’t trust me. That doesn’t mean you can’t use my talents regardless. Just think about it. I could help you in locating the quarry you seek, just to name an obvious example.” The seer didn’t seem to mind Karna’s hostility. She had likely expected it. Seen it. Which only annoyed Karna even more. Not that she would allow that annoyance to affect her actions further.

There was also something that she had paid attention to earlier. The seer had mentioned that the attack would happen when she was gone if she allowed it. There weren't all that many reasons for her to leave her current home. One was to locate and capture one of the people abusing the elemental planes. Another was if one of her friends or family was in danger. Both options had their own detriments. Maybe she should swing by Arjuna's tower, and move her family to her own until the attack passed?