Chapter 10-317: One Down, One to Go (2/2)

Jaelez Morningfire was finding it hard not to stare at me, and was much more subdued than she thought she’d be, heading out onto a great adventure with her family.

That included her younger brother, Sean Highsun; his wife Nakita Dreamingcloud, and both of her nephews and her niece: Gabriel, Patrick, and Imoen, known as Dawnsun, Fairsun, and Morningglory, respectively.

I was a little surprised to see them, but Morningfire’s ability to reign over her family was not to be underestimated, and so I found myself suddenly confronting literally the entirety of the Morningsun adults at once, all very eager to reclaim and retain their status as elites, and shocked to find that Lady Traveler was also Morningdark!

Then, of course, they all got my Blessings.

They were very, very used to being elites of the world, the only Nines around. They were looked up to, envied and admired for the power of their Bloodline, and for the strength of their mixed ancestry.

I had naturally blown that wide open, and every day word was coming of humans, dwarves, urukhar, dhatun, elves, hyn, and gnomes hitting Seven, even Eight, and staring at Nine but not taking that step as they solidified their foundations.

Highsun had hair every bit as flaming as Morningfire’s, but his wife’s hair was a silken, drifting black, and his children had dark blazes the same hue as their mother’s hair at their temples, quite the eye-catching effect.

All of this was very special, because I was always Lit by the Moon, which kinda put their special Bloodline effects to shame. They were also looking at me in Markspace, gawking. When they looked elsewhere, all they could see was the immensity of The Jet and Silver and some very, very dangerous Presences there, including the Angelos and Windgraf Mochtal, the brooding power of TWO Warlock Grandmasters already at Ten, and naturally Sama and Briggs and their burning lights.

Suddenly, they weren’t so special. They were at the very, very least in the company of peers, and there were a whole damn lot of people who were on the precipice of Seven, or even higher, just underneath them, and going to catch them damn fast unless they did something.

I kind of raised an eyebrow at them all as they all stared at me. They had all been Drained down to Threes, ready to undertake their Double Helix revisions at maximum speed under my protection.

One Level a day, for as many days as it took.

They had their magical Weapons and Gear; they had Named their Weapons. I could take care of food and water, so they only had minimal supplies of those in their packs, although they better have some emergency Healing with them.

Little sister/daughter/niece/cousin, the most powerful person on the planet. Woo-hoo, Go Morningsuns!

I sighed. Well, I was definitely going to know them all a lot better once this whole training shindig was over...

“Alright, we’re off to India. There are a great number of Shroudzones there, some of them made quite recently off the massacred people in the area.” Flickers in their eyes as they digested what that meant. “I’m sure I can find one with only half a million or so in it.” They all swallowed as they looked at me. “Your job, of course, is to clear the whole thing. Then you can actually start to work on something important and relevant.

“Let’s see those hands,” I continued, before anyone could comment. As experienced Casters, they instantly linked hands all around.

I hummed a Chord, and power built around me. I ignored the way they stared as my magic swirled around them, and we rode my Lived-Line three-quarters of the way around the world in the wrong direction.

----------

Legion stood up as I returned with a whole bunch of extra people, all of them halvyr. Dusk was coming up, and the Deadzones would start coming to unlife, as it was.

They looked at me and lifted an eyebrow. I could only shrug. “It wasn’t my idea.”

“And who is this?” Morningfire piped up promptly, sensing a quietly ominous aura about the tall woman there, and recognizing an Amazon immediately.

“This would be the Warlock Grandmaster Legion.”

Eyes flicked sideways to someone in the Markspace, and lips pursed all at the same time.

Yes, this was a full, true Ten Melee too, and a very, very dangerous person.

“Legion’s going to be doing a lot of the overwatch for you. Brutal combatant, very effective healer, excellent support, and extremely good at advance or retreat as required, as Azaia can confirm.” Azaia just nodded along. “Also, your ride is Sleipner, who is the spirit of a unicorn bound to their Alicorn, and runs a really fast bike.”

The nearby motorcycle tooted proudly, spinning up in a full circle on his front wheel deftly, startling all the Morningsuns nearby.

“You sound as if you aren’t going to be there, dear?” Morningfire asked alertly.

“Oh, my, no. My job is to kill things by the thousands. There’s a problem over in China they want me to crack open. I’ll escort you to where you need to be, and set a Focus up. Legion will be on overwatch, Sleipner is more than fast enough to get you out of danger, and I am literally one spell away. I’ll toss some Buffs on you, and then, I’m going to see about butchering a whole lot of Daoists.”

“What is that smell?” Glory piped up, making a face. “Is that the Qi you were talking about?”

“Oh, you can smell that? It’s so faint here, I almost missed it.” Everyone but Azaia got looks on their faces, because the smell here was only a little bit like standing over an open sewer, mixed with rotting eggs and old bird shit, and a whole field of weeds you were allergic to. “It’ll get much more noticeable when we move away from a combat zone where there’s no vivus.”

“Anything which generates this smell is going to die!” Mother Morningfire proclaimed, direly serious about getting rid of anything that could wrinkle her nose so.