Amdirlain’s PoV - Outlands
Amdirlain paused with her mind outstretched to turn the time-lapse image of Quil Tris. The city''s ruins sat far from other occupied lands, cracked stonework peeking up beneath the layers of snow. The surveyor''s perspective had drawn Amdirlain’s attention to the regular formation beneath the snow. Yet it had only been at the end of the recording loop that a gust had cleared snow from a broken turret.
Isolating the song within the crystal took some effort to tweak; the music of old worked stone blended in almost seamlessly with the bedrock. Finally, the slain corpse of a metropolis showed within the hologram before them. The death notes of thousands of phantasms presented the progression of door-to-door street fighting. Amdirlain remembered such battles were supposed to be difficult and often bogged down. Yet this battle had swept across the expansive city in hours, showing the overwhelming strength of the attackers.
Livia’s gaze hadn’t left the images, and she raised a puzzled brow when Amdirlain cursed.
Amdirlain gestured to the lights among the collapsed buildings. “That’s a lot of people dying with enough rage to leave an undead behind. Who knows how many more died but couldn’t muster emotion besides resignation?”
“I thought you were looking for hospitable locations for the three of us to camp while waiting for you?” enquired Livia.
Shaking her head, Amdirlain smiled at Livia. “I retrieved the surveyors after I started back at Nolmar and found a range of camping regions the same night.”
“That was four days ago; why didn’t you show me them sooner?” protested Livia.
“You said you needed a week to transition students,” noted Amdirlain.
Livia nodded. “You could still have shown me the spots you’d found.”
“Not spots, regions,” corrected Amdirlain. “The main reason I hadn’t shown you was because I was looking to narrow the possibilities further. I also had other things I was working on. Among them, I added more surveyors to watch the regions I picked as possibilities.”
“Did you find anything interesting?” Livia asked, leaning forward curiously.
“No, these new ones are more like sentries; they’ll send alerts, not just watch. Though I do need to test them more, I want a reliable lookout for your campsite,” explained Amdirlain. “The area I’m considering is remote, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful. I got them working to transmit images—even across planes, so I don’t have to retrieve them—but also to watch for certain activities. Particular creatures or anything moving towards a specific location, that sort of stuff, lots of control layers to test.”
Amdirlain brought out the crystal plates connected to each surveyor and displayed images of the planet’s surface.
Have to see how fast the spy satellite upgrade decays the surveyors.
Tapping one image, Amdirlain caused it to zoom in and smiled at Livia’s look of complete surprise.
“This is happening right now?” gasped Livia. Her gaze danced between the five high-definition images displayed above the plates. When Amdirlain zoomed in on moving dots on an image, they became a goat-like beast grazing on a hillside.
“Two regions are along coastal zones, and three are inland on the continents,” stated Amdirlain. “You’ve got a river, lake, or hill region to choose from inland.”
Amdirlain was about to go into more details when a Message orb from Roher appeared beside her.
“We have the song ready and have tested moving a smaller structure with the same protections. Isa would feel more comfortable if you and Gail assisted her with the Anar parts.”
Banishing the orb, Amdirlain gave a dissatisfied grunt and frowned at the blade of emotions that twisted inside of her. Fighting with excitement at the news, anger and jealousy spat a molten venom through her being.
”Is something wrong, Móeir?” asked Livia, and she rested a hand on Amdirlain’s shoulder.
Exhaling slowly, Amdirlain smoothed her expression back into calm lines. “Roher thinks they’re ready to move the royal tower.”
“Then why were you scowling?” questioned Livia.
“It seems I have undealt-with emotions on the matter,” admitted Amdirlain. “I don’t know if the jealousy is mine or Orhêthurin’s memories coming to the fore. When I recall things from her past, it''s like I’m there, yet it’s the first time I’ve felt emotions that might be hers related to current events.”
“Are you sure they''re hers? You looked angry, and that’s not completely out of character for you. The royal couple committed to an agreement with Balnérith and won’t have experienced time’s passage. Their people were stuck slowly decaying in the Abyss because of the agreement, yet they got off easy,” proposed Livia. “Not to mention that once they’re released, the Abyss will still have its hold on you. How is that fair?”
Amdirlain started to protest but stopped at Livia’s understanding nod.
“Make them earn it,” advised Livia sternly. “You’re helping them get off lightly; make them earn it.”
The steel in Livia’s tone took Amdirlain aback. “Why?”
“Weregild is about restoring balance. Someone doesn’t knowingly have to have contributed to the suffering of others to need to make restitution. They, however, agreed to Balnérith’s arrangement, and everyone else suffered. Yet they will be free of their stasis and then free of the Abyss. Correct?”
“If all goes well,” agreed Amdirlain, and she placed hands atop the plates. “I’ll leave these crystals with you to check at different times. They’ll work for you, Rana, or Goxashru.”
“Don’t change the subject,” objected Livia. “Gail found the Andún? to be arrogant. Where would they have gotten that arrogance from?”
Amdirlain laughed. “They didn’t get it just from the Lóm?.”
“Yes, but right now you’re talking about royalty from what you called a decaying culture, having gone to seed from the heights of its power,” repeated Livia. “If you don’t make them earn it, do you think good will come?”
Livia reached out and meaningfully tapped beside the closest plate.
“They’ll need to move to a planet with a large enough civilisation that Balnérith can’t just go after them,” noted Amdirlain thoughtfully.
“Perhaps a shielded world under threat from Eldritch beings? They can at least isolate their locations for you?”
“They’d be able to hear the dissonance and construct barriers to restrain them without getting close,” agreed Amdirlain.
“And save you searching among the billion Catfolk yourself,” suggested Livia.
“How do you know I wasn’t interested in playing detective?” asked Amdirlain.
Livia shrugged. “In that case, it doesn’t stop you from participating in the search.”
“When moving worlds, the Lóm? and Anar normally migrated to warmer worlds. Moving them back to where they came from on Veht? will likely be easier since they grew the buildings there, and the crystal might retain some harmonics with the world.”
“The ancestral lands of the Roma and other cultures?” asked Livia.
“I don’t have enough memories to know exactly what region, but somewhere in what I’d call Europe,” clarified Amdirlain. Grinning, Amdirlain retrieved surveyors from one of the Formithian planets she’d been investigating and rapidly deployed them over Veht?. “Oops, I used gates.”
As the last Gate closed, Livia rolled her eyes. “You’re an unrepentant reprobate.”
“Gates created with True Song; the wards don’t even ripple when they activate,” advised Amdirlain.
Livia’s brow furrowed. “It''s the principle of the thing, Móeir.”
“I know, I’m breaking all the rules and it gets your judge’s hat bent,” teased Amdirlain.
“Judges don’t wear hats,” corrected Livia.
“I know. Anyway, have fun studying the regions of Qil Tris,” stated Amdirlain before a location’s theme took her to the Elemental Plane of Earth.
Opening gates above planets was one thing, but Amdirlain had no intention of targeting anywhere in the Abyss from Xaos. Her next Gate targeted the edge of the Grotto they’d used for decades, and the familiar cavern’s edge appeared. When Amdirlain stepped through, the purification field settled across her. This far from the Grotto’s centre, it was an easily ignored itch and Amdirlain advised Roher of her arrival.
When Roher appeared, he had Isa in tow. True Sight showed her angelic body compressed inside her Anar form. Before Amdirlain had a chance to greet them, Isa skipped forward to wrap Amdirlain in a hug. “Howdy, stranger. Sarah not with you?”
“She’s been spending time with Gaius, seeing if they can work things out between them,” advised Amdirlain, carefully returning Isa’s hug.
Isa grimaced. “I wish her luck with making that relationship functional.”
“Some people’s spice is another person’s vanilla,” noted Amdirlain. “Gaius has been speaking to Sarah since she went to help Gail, and they have time to figure it out. I’ve been trying to stay out of it, so let''s move on to the plan with the tower. How did the testing go?”
“Straightforward, we were all keyed up and ready for things to go wrong,” advised Roher. “None of us had moved materials both in stasis and out of phase before, but our only issues were early on.”
Curious about what they’d done, Amdirlain motioned for them to tell her more.
Isa nodded. “We tested the songs with some fractured walls I still had to replace, first out of phase, and then with both states applied. At that point, it needed some fine-tuning, but once that got resolved, we progressed to food supplies without additional issues. The latest step was using structures around a tree, and we moved both without issue.”
“Some caves have fairly large trees. We moved more biological material than represented by those in the tower,” stated Roher.
“Do you have a place to move it to?” asked Amdirlain.
“We expanded a cavern, laid out structures along the edge to ensure it would count as part of the settlement, and put in purification repeaters,” advised Roher. “How has your Power’s progression been going?”
“I’ll be able to contribute more than I could before,” replied Amdirlain. “I’ve gained a Power evolution.”
Roher gave her a brilliant smile. “Congratulations! Will you tell me which of the paths you earned?”
“None of the ones you told me about,” replied Amdirlain, and Roher blinked in surprise. “I’ll discuss it after we free everyone from the Abyss.”
“Everyone, including yourself?” enquired Roher softly.
Amdirlain nodded slowly. “Yes. Until then, knowledge of it might risk me. Do you have a crystal with the song on you?”
Roher returned her nod, his expression turning solemn. “I’ll keep any word of your evolution between us then.”
“Your species'' evolution will be interesting,” gushed Isa, and she gave Amdirlain a broad wink. “That’s what we’re talking about, right? The Power of your species evolution.”
“Yes, the Power of my species'' evolution will be substantial. I don’t think I mentioned the details Gideon provided me once I reached the original cap of levels he discussed,” agreed Amdirlain.
Roher presented her with a crystal, and Amdirlain quickly scanned through the song''s main parts before returning to review it? in full.
“We thought it would be good to get practice with a choir and shift some things about before we try to move the tower.” clarified Roher. “We’ll add wards like those we can sense from within the phased tower to the test structures.”
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“Alright, let''s get started,” said Amdirlain.
Roher hesitated at her proclamation. “I know you can’t come too close, so we’ve created a location that enables the choir to position near you while keeping you safe. I’ll do a last check and start gathering the others.”
Roher teleported away, leaving Isa with Amdirlain.
“How are you and Ilya doing?” asked Amdirlain.
“She’ll be happier once we’re not always underground. Ilya’s sparring at present, so good timing for this conversation,” replied Isa before a Message buzzed from Roher. “How about I take us to the cavern where we’ll get the tower to appear?”
“As long as the purification song is only as strong as here,” agreed Amdirlain.
Isa’s usual smile disappeared. “Yeah, no way I’m risking hurting you with the purification field. I’m unsure why Roher wanted to do a last check; we’d been over it half a dozen times.”
“Life for us got weird,” sighed Amdirlain, and she let Orhêthurin’s form come forth and noticed Isa’s gaze catch on her electric blue hair.
Her bright smile returned, and Isa reached out to tug a strand of hair. “Indeed it did little miss electric hippy.”
“I’m hardly a hippy,” snorted Amdirlain.
“Your hair colour reminded me of that album name but, except for the colouration, you look like Mori’s memories of Orhêthurin,” replied Isa. “Ready?”
“I’m in your hands,” agreed Amdirlain, consciously lowering her resistance as she felt Isa’s Teleport enfold them.
They reappeared on a ledge far up the side of a domed cavern nearly a kilometre high, and Amdirlain felt a light touch from a purification field buzz across her skin.
“We set this up so we’d be practising all our test runs in a chamber fit to recover the tower,” explained Isa. “The song ensures only the out-of-phase material is transported.”
“A few hundred demons appearing in the purification field would be a fireworks display,” laughed Amdirlain. “Once the Lóm? settlements are out of the Abyss, I might use purification fields across Moloch’s towns. I’ve still got to see if I can track down other transformation sites under his control.”
Isa hesitated and brushed a hand across Amdirlain’s cheek before surprising her with another embrace. “I got the news about Torm. I’m so sorry. Can you forgive me?”
“Forgive you for what?” asked Amdirlain.
“Not wording the wish better; I know you’ve got to be mad at me,” insisted Isa.
“I’m not mad at you,” protested Amdirlain sincerely. “They would have become demons if you hadn’t intervened. What did you hear? I told Livia and Sarah that Torm would get reincarnated.”
Pushing Amdirlain back to arm’s length, Isa fixed her with a serious look. “It’s not what I heard, it''s that you’ve barely spoken to me since you got free of the Planar Lock. I miss talking daily like we used to after work.”
“I’m not mad at you,” repeated Amdirlain. “You’re not a Hidden anymore, so if I share the weird things I’ve learnt, someone can read your mind.”
The serious look on Isa’s face transformed into an amusing frown of confusion. “What sort of weird things?”
Amdirlain kept herself composed and tried not to laugh at the emotions shifting across Isa’s expression. “I also can’t tell you that because someone can now read your mind. You’ve been busy shoring up the Lóm? settlements and working with Roher to rescue their royalty.”
“Paranoid much,” grumbled Isa.
“It''s only paranoia if someone isn’t out to get you,” rebutted Amdirlain. “If you’re not paranoid by now, you’re not paying attention.”
“Fine, then moving the tower is going to be a pain in the butt and not go smoothly,” huffed Isa.
Amdirlain smirked. “That’s not paranoia, you’re just trying to do a reverse jinx.”
“Critic,” retorted Isa, and she snorted in mock disdain. “Have you retrieved more memories?”
Lifting an eyebrow at another sudden topic shift, Amdirlain waited for Isa to continue.
“Some of Mori’s memories are weird; I’ve used meditation techniques that Roher recommended for recovering memories. Some memories were day-to-day life with a weird perspective of time, but I’ve gotten flashbacks of fancy court gatherings.”
“Remembering parties, that’s about right for you, Isa,” commented Amdirlain.
Isa frowned. “Except Mori was always assessing openings in people’s postures to use against them if it came to a fight. I felt she was doing it to keep her mind sharp instead of being bored out of her skull.”
“To see an opening through their eyes,” commented Amdirlain.
“Yeah, all the way to scoop out your brain,” snorted Isa. “Then there was you, or Orhêthurin, moving among the gatherings. A hunting cat with claws only restrained through her desire, not any respect for those present.”
“Orhêthurin feels like she was angry a lot,” agreed Amdirlain. “I’m sure her restraint at the gathering would have felt thin to those assembled.”
“I remembered that she killed her daughter at a court gathering,” blurted Isa. “ólneth had this haughty expression, and I remember she was speaking to the new King and Queen. I don’t know how many other kings and queens had been elected since Mori’s mother left the throne.”
“What?!” gasped Amdirlain. Suddenly the bittersweet memories of ólneth’s laughter sent a chill up her spine.
“I can’t even remember why; I’ve only recalled a fragment. ólneth’s lips are moving, but I can’t remember the words. Then Orhêthurin was suddenly there, and it stands out in the memory that her song was silent; even the wind caused by her motion. She’d stepped past two knights, cleaved her daughter in two, and then killed all ólneth’s knights before her body hit the ground.”
“Something must have made her furious,” murmured Amdirlain.
“No, she looked disappointed and resigned,” Isa reported sadly. “Mori’s feelings were faint, but she only seemed to be relieved. We need to discuss a few things while waiting for Roher.”
“Such as?”
“Stalker boy didn’t get collected by the effect I helped the choirs prepare in the crystals; Moloch’s picked him up.”
“Fuck! Guess he was going to stand out with no other damned around him,” muttered Amdirlain. “I did what I could to stop him from suffering further, but the Titan’s curse made it so that I couldn’t put him to sleep completely or collect his Soul.”
“Moloch’s got him stored in some sort of treasure house,” advised Isa. “The choirs’ songs have detected him rooting around in his awareness for information on Sarah and myself.”
“I messed up and didn''t keep it simple; I didn’t even try to move him physically. Why only you two?”
Isa shrugged helplessly. “No idea. Moloch said a few things to him, but he doesn’t speak Abyssal, so it was meaningless, harsh sounds. Moloch has been using images of the two of us that the stalker boy recognises as being from his memories. Each time Moloch visits, he’s been provoking more memories to the forefront. Besides digging up information on us, he’s also been probing our stalker’s brain about modern culture and technology.”
“Roher and the others can get through the wards?”
“Like a hot knife through butter, since he’s there to serve as an anchor point for the songs,” confirmed Isa.
“Then we’ll do something about Moloch’s trophy after we get through with the tower,” stated Amdirlain. “How long has he had him for?
“Not sure,” admitted Isa.
Erwarth and Gail appeared through a Gate at the cavern’s base, and Gail immediately looked their way and waved.
“Munchkin alert,” murmured Isa, and Gail’s wave turned into a raised middle finger.
“You still have big ears,” laughed Amdirlain, and the pair appeared on the ledge nearby.
“I take it we’re all singing from up here?” asked Gail, and she exchanged hugs with them.
“That’s the plan,” agreed Amdirlain, and a few more figures appeared in the cavern. “Looks like Roher is still gathering people up.”
“Herding cats. I bet some are arguing if we’re ready,” acknowledged Isa.
“Since we have time to talk, I’ve some news. Gail, you won’t be the only living Anar shortly,” advised Amdirlain.
“You’re going to be a mum,” gasped Gail excitedly. “When? Who? I can’t wait to tell Mother.”
Amdirlain sputtered and burst out laughing. A moment later, her arms wrapped around her sides as if to keep herself together against the force of the laughter growing louder by the second.
Gail pouted, but a glint of mischief showed in her gaze. “You could have just said no.”
Snorting back the laughter, Amdirlain shook her head, her eyes gleaming with glee. “Brat! The Titan has released six Anar souls to be reborn to Lóm?.”
“What?” gasped Erwarth, her expression flicking through a range of emotions.
While Erwarth started to look faintly appalled, Gail clapped excitedly.
“Oh, that’s going to pour salt in the wounds,” whispered Isa. “If the Lóm? hadn’t gotten themselves trapped in the Abyss, the Anar souls might have been reborn sooner.”
Foreign grief rose and shoved past Pain Eater’s control darkening Amdirlain’s vision. “Yeah, the Anar souls in the Titan’s care knew the Lóm? had given up on them. After being abandoned on the battlefield, they felt no obligation to stay and risk rebirth among their betrayers.”
Erwarth grimaced at Amdirlain’s phrasing, but then reluctantly nodded. “That’s fair.”
“None of it is fair,” rebutted Amdirlain. “We were all pawns in another’s game.”
Isa nudged Amdirlain. “Going to get big and strong so you can crush anyone that tries it again?”
“On that note, I’ve figured out a way to get to the Material Plane, and the device worked for summoning me. I can set one up for Ilya and yourself if she wants to visit where her family’s village was located.”
“You remembered?” breathed Isa.
“Of course I did,” said Amdirlain. “Forgetting is the problem now.”
Isa squealed and clasped Amdirlain’s hands. “Yeah, fine. Perfect memories are fine, but you thought about what I said.”
“Ilya’s important to you; that makes her important to me,” stated Amdirlain.
Stepping closer, Isa squeezed Amdirlain into another hug, making her aware of how much physically weaker Isa was in comparison.
“What’s wrong?” asked Isa.
“You’re being particularly clingy today,” observed Amdirlain. “Not getting enough cuddle time with Ilya?”
“Rude much? I’m happy to see you, that’s all,” protested Isa. “Why are you being mean to me?”
“Maybe because I’m a meanie?”
“No, no, that’s Ilya, not you,” laughed Isa, and she turned to Gail. “Is Nano? still being mean to you, Gail?”
“He’s a surly bear,” agreed Gail, and her eyes narrowed at Isa’s suddenly smug smile. “Hardly the same thing as Ilya beating you half to oblivion to get you to train harder.”
“How are things with the village?” asked Amdirlain.
“Usual fun with the council, though the new Guild Master will take some getting used to,” advised Gail. “Did you have to steal Alfarr away?”
“I thought Alfarr had trained a replacement?” asked Amdirlain.
“He did, but it''s not the same as working with Alfarr. While he’s not obstructive, he doesn’t argue when I can tell he disagrees; it''s frustrating,” huffed Gail. “I don’t know everything, and Alfarr used to catch things I’d missed or suggest improvements.”
“It can be awkward when a team dynamic shifts. Have someone drop some hints,” proposed Amdirlain.
Gail nodded. “Nikias has tried a few times. I’ll ask Phile if she’s got any ideas on how to get his attention.”
Roher appeared near them on the ledge and signalled the others at ground level to join them.
Once everybody had shifted location to the deep ledge, he turned to address those gathered.
“We’ll run through the tests we conducted previously to ensure everyone is on the same page and to allow Amdirlain to run through the songs with us a few times. If everything goes smoothly with those, we’ll discuss whether we proceed today, or conduct further testing,” stated Roher. “If it doesn’t, we’ll have some repeated tests and discussions before we continue. Questions?”
After some initial timing hiccups in the first song that were easily managed, one test after another proceeded smoothly. The anticipation was high when they returned a looming tree to its starting point without a single out-of-phase leaf left behind.
Looking between them, Roher opened an elevated scrying window and displayed the interior of the out-of-phase tower to aid their focus. “From the top.”
As the Lóm? choir began, the energy of their sturdy notes ran up Amdirlain’s spine. Gail tapped her foot to the tempo of their audible notes and nervously interlaced her fingers with Amdirlain’s.
One moment, the domed chamber was empty, and as the last round pressed itself into the Plane''s reality, the royal tower was there. Its state created the slightest speckling of haze in the air, but Resonance allowed Amdirlain to hear the crystal walls and temporal confinement—along with the key.
“Do you hear that?” asked Amdirlain as she passed her insights to Gail’s mind.
“I had made out parts of it; thanks for the rest,” replied Gail. “By my Royal Authority as Anar Queen, ‘Unseal’”
The others had been holding their breath at their success, so the words echoed within the silent chamber. Fractures of energy and space rippled through the haze. The words and authority of Gail’s Class bounced through the long-activated protections, setting off a chain reaction.
When it at last came to a halt, a pristine tower of midnight blue and silver trim stood revealed, its peak just below the dome’s arch. The air thrummed with the slowly ebbing forces that had held it locked outside the touch of time’s decay.
[Achievement: Royal Vault Cracker
Details: You have contributed to retrieving the Lóm? royalty from where Balnérith stashed them.
Note: Loyalists and traitors alike can now roam the tower’s halls.]
Despite only a hundred Lóm? having gathered, the cheering of those on the ledge with them was a deafening roar. With Gideon’s warning, Amdirlain’s attention wasn’t on the celebrations. Seeking confirmation, Amdirlain tuned Resonance and listened for what she hoped wasn’t there. She quickly caught a multitude of sour notes from pride turned bitter within the tower.
“Will you wait for us to talk to them so they might express their thanks?” asked Roher.
“Aren’t you assuming they’ll have thanks for me at all? They don’t know what has passed, nor do they know me now. The protections were activated during the tower’s original Planar Shift, so they’re unaware of Balnérith''s betrayal. Please explain the situation to them and get them to annul the agreement with her,” said Amdirlain, with her attention fixed on Roher.
“Amdirlain, please stay,” requested Gail. “They know who you used to be, but they’ve never met me in any lifetime.”
“You should also leave, since we don’t know the loyalties of all those inside. We should let Roher or someone else talk to their royalty for now,” advised Amdirlain. “This part isn’t for us to sort out.”
“What do you mean?” asked Roher.
“I know it''s not normally good manners to listen to another''s song, but Gideon says: ‘Those loyal and traitors alike can roam the tower’s halls’. These are not kinfolk that have shared your struggles and sorrows. What were you all like half a million years ago?”
Her words had troubled glances exchanged between the Lóm? close enough to hear, and dozens of messages went out. In moments, the chamber’s floor was awash with armoured knights.
“Our thanks for your help. We’ll investigate and be in touch,” advised Roher.
Gail''s gaze fixed on the tower, and her expression twisted in dismay. “So many sour notes could be from the losing battle, Auntie Am.”
“There are too many notes of long-soured pride among them,” disagreed Amdirlain, and her statement caused Roher’s brows to furrow in concern.
There wasn’t a further objection before Gail transported herself away, and the song’s echo signalled the Elemental Plane of Earth.
Amdirlain gave Roher a respectful nod. “I’ll be dealing with an issue on a planet for a bit, but let me know when you’re ready to move the settlements.”
“We’re thinking of leaving them behind and only taking our possessions. The buildings have been in the Abyss too long, their foundations are rooted in its soil. We might get you to help on another matter if Isa’s aid isn’t enough,” advised Roher.
“I’ll need your help to deal with the stalker at some point. Just let me know when you need my help, and we can do that afterwards,” replied Amdirlain before Planar Shift moved her to Limbo.
The eerie maelstrom of its sky was a suitable dark backdrop for her mood.