Chapter 10-309: Stages of Development (1/2)
Azaia was naturally delighted to broaden my horizons for me. -She is playing in Nice. There will be a huge crowd, of course. You know who Sinead is, right?-
I /replied dryly, -I am not that out of the loop to not know who Morninglight is, Azaia.-
-Yes, Master,- she /acknowledged, only a little contritely. -She is probably the most famous bard on the planet!- Her admiration for our older sister came through clearly.
-Minstrel,- I /corrected her calmly. -I have listened to her music. There’s nothing of the Land in them, and her renditions of classical and folk music are entirely lacking in comparison to her more contemporary efforts.-
-Oh.- She was belatedly remembering that I had a LOT of Skill Ranks in a lot of areas. She had also heard me Sing the Sublime Chord at the Solstice, and realized that I was probably a better musician in some ways than her Sister, who was still a Nine... and likely was very reluctant to take the steps to move past that Level, achieving it as easily as she had.
-I am hoping you will release her from the Geas, Master,- she /said hopefully.
-That is not even a question, Azaia, but don’t expect too much from it. I expect that she hasn’t even considered my existence as something worth thinking about, like, ever.-
Azaia was painfully silent at that. -I think Mother told her and Fire that Elrii died as a babe, and since we could never talk about it...- she /admitted.
-It does not disturb me, and I am fully capable of judging her on her own merits. It may not surprise you that most entertainers are not all that impressive to me.-
She considered that quietly. Music was just another form of weapon to me in the greater fight, and while I didn’t disparage the need for entertainment... that didn’t mean I considered a Minstrel drinking in the acclaim of her fans as my equal, or even a peer, really.
We existed at different scales, in the end.
-You’ll still be able to enjoy it, right?- she /asked, wincing.
-Of course. She is very skilled within her area of expertise. I will enjoy seeing her live instead of listening to recordings.- I left aside the fact that I could simply request audio feeds from any Vassals who went to see her, and had more than once. Blessings of multiple thoughtstreams and all...
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Of course, getting to Nice was not so simple. Azaia thought I might Teleport there, and I had to inform her that it might have been possible, but Elrii had taken a flight and broken her Lived-Line when coming to America, so we would have to take a trip.
Which was totally fine, in the end. I had to connect up our Lived-Lines anyways, so riding Sleipner over the Atlantic from Long Island to France was totally within my remit.
It was also ten hours of downtime, rocketing across the churning cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean, then hitting France. Azaia was a little shame-faced to reveal that she’d undertaken a lot of her travels by flying or conveyances that wouldn’t extend a Lived-Line, and so was actually happy to draw a route and cross her functional Lived-Lines while riding on Sleipner.
We did take a short detour to touch land at Lizard in Britain, just in case I needed to Teleport there in the future, and Azaia certainly would, as our family was of Irish descent. Linking up Lived-Lines was very important for future mobility, she just hadn’t realized how much more useful they were then just the limited range of point-to-point. I could tell she was very excited at the thought of Teleporting without Error all around the world from a V+II Slot...
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“You are very grim, Trav,” Azaia said softly, looking down at me where I was stretched out and half-dozing while doing the Infusion on a delicate chain-link item of mithral, rubies, and diamonds, sort of like a tiara or diadem, but not quite.
I was also totally plotting out the ocean underneath us, and Briggs had reached out and made contact with certain people in certain places and given us possible areas to ride over.
Out in the distance, Briggs’ eyes had glowed when we passed over two sunken cities of Deep Ones, and some nasty retribution was in the middle of being devised. My Allegiance had already penetrated well into the military, moving in through the Blakhamars and other dwarven clans, Paladins and other Templar-types, and they couldn’t stop the process. Those who weren’t in Allegiances couldn’t easily tell if someone else had joined one, and the shake-out of conflicting loyalties and duties was already taking place.
Naturally certain generals and the like were already assembling Allegiances, as was the President... who had the advantage of going first and not restricting himself to military.
Intense negotiations about the national military were already underway, and the ground being set for a Constitutional Convention that would include both Canada and the United States... and the first stages of selecting a King who might be able to rule the continent and usher in a better, brighter future was also underway.
The President and Prime Minister naturally had ambitions for the job... but they didn’t have the strength to take and hold the position, even if they somehow managed to finagle the backing to make the attempt. Still, they were attempting to place themselves as Kingmakers, and reap the benefits thereof.
There were quiet things being done to make this difficult, and the faithful of Tiirith and Sune were having a particularly good time at the social warfare going on. Amana and Scriba were weighing in with their own influence, Harsites were naturally watching everything, and the Church of Aru had extraordinary influence at the grass-roots level.
There wasn’t anyone else who could motivate so many Churches and organizations to joint effort. Most other existing organizations were cracking as rivals created Allegiances within those organizations, and vied for power and control that way more directly than ever. The Magi and Alchemists had already split between continents, and the Churches of Uruth and Trose with them, among other things.
All this was going on in the back of my head, two thoughtstreams devoted full time to the games of state being played. If it wasn’t Karma as fast and direct as fighting, it was still Karma, and I had a lot of Vassals who were Leveling at a remarkable pace as they got into what was essential a battle to shape the future society of the world.