Chapter 452

The Grand Ball of the Winter Ball was, perhaps, the most ornate and elaborate party that Mark had ever seen. It was held at the Grand Imperial Center, still located under the dome of Domal’Takela, and about 5 kilometers away from the public house of Aluatha’s Imperial Family. It was used for every large event of the Empire, and it showed. Towering spires of black and gold. The red flags of the royal family flying high. Bright lights everywhere, shining down on wintertime decorations and on major pathways into the party itself. In the distance the actual imperial castle lay, like a black and red beacon on the hill. You could see it from the entrance to the Ball, but you couldn’t go there unless specifically invited.

10,000 people had been invited to the Grand Ball, and many of them were praying that they’d be allowed a private audience with the Emperor or Empress or one of the Princesses or the Prince of Aluatha. For many, this would be their first time seeing any of the Royal Family in person—

“Oh hello… uh,” Mark said, to some bearded guy who came right up to him out of the tram station. Mark had no idea who he was, but he and his family were right there, and they were mixing with people already, and— Quark provided a name and a bit of other information. Mark said, “Lord Hammerstein of Redrock.”

The older man grinned wide, and started talking, “We just wanted to thank you, Mister Careed, for the donation to our coffers. We’ll be able to support the expansion of several hunter outreach programs now, and gods know we need them now more than ever.”

“I’m glad it’s working out, Lord Hammerstein, but the real people to thank would be my friends here, Andria Metallicmore and Sally Wuthers.”

Andria was right there, ready to go, bowing just a little, as one does in these situations, and talking about, “I spoke to your daughter on the phone just the other day. Is Alicia here tonight?”

Lord Hammerstein readily took to discussion with Andria.

And then Mark was in a conversation with someone else about the next topic.

Mark barely got to see anything at all before he was surrounded by people and walking rather slowly toward the party, talking up a storm and making connections, and trying to talk up everyone around him in order to foist off some conversational weight to others. Half of the party was outside, though, so this was expected, and tables and catering was set up everywhere. Mark ended up with a drink in his hand that tasted amazing and Lola handed him some treats that she had grabbed from the table which were even better, and then Mark met with some people from some place that matter, but which Mark could barely recall afterward. That happened a lot.

He got separated from his team, but they were all nearby, and Derek was with every single person, and also by Mark’s side. If something happened Derek would tell him.

The Witches’ Welcome was thicker than ever before, and if Mark looked even a little bit into the dream he saw fractured reality bending and moving around every single person in a complicated dance of fate and possibility. People met each other when they needed to meet each other, and relationships blossomed in the Empire. People separated before there were any real issues, and hatred was eased in the Empire. Charismatic people pulled introverts into conversations that the introverts could participate in, and more than once Mark saw a serving person get stopped by a lord or a lady because they recognized the serving person from somewhere, and yes, the serving person was from somewhere important. Mark saw at least two ‘extras’ he had been in an HVP production with, that he did not know the name of and who were serving food at the party, get recognition for that HVP production and thus make a connection with someone important.

Mark heard people talk about the upcoming war. He heard people deny that a war was happening, and that Aluatha had some special things in store if ‘that uppity tree’ got any ideas. He heard concerns over demons, and more than once someone spotted Mark and walked toward him with a vector of violence upon them, only to be met with a vector of cooperation from someone else also walking Mark’s way. A talk was diverted, and Mark was fine for that.

Some older woman in a floofy dress walked Mark’s way, some young gentleman —a grandson?— holding her hand to help her walk steadily. The Witches’ Welcome wasn’t fully touching her, which already made her rather suspect. She interrupted someone else, speaking loudly to Mark.

“What about the Reset Quest? I want it to happen, but you chickened out!”

“,” whispered/hissed the young man.

Other people around Mark got a distinctly uncomfortable feeling, but they wanted to know the answer as well, though Mark had given his answer to this particular question many times already.

Mark repeated, “We’re not pursuing the Reset Quest. We’re just not ready for it, and I doubt we ever will be.”

The older woman huffed, then she waved a free hand at the air, disturbing the Witches’ Welcome as it tried to latch onto her, to turn her away. She stared Mark in the eyes, unblinking, as she asked, “Are you for Aluatha, or yourself?”

“For the world, ma’am, and right now I’m helping out Aluatha.” Mark added, “I’d even give overtures to That Big Tree if he wasn’t such an asshole, but I doubt that will ever happen.”

Some people gave polite laughter to that response.

The old woman scoffed, not really liking Mark’s answer, but accepting it. She walked away, swatting away the Witches’ Welcome with a few backhand swipes.

Isoko stood beside Mark, asking, “Quark knows who that was?”

“And current rumors,” Mark added, to Isoko’s question.

Quark answered, “Grandmatron Rocktower, of the city of Rocktower, located on the Daihoon-side of Earth’s Mexico city. She is the mother to the king of Rocktower. Current rumors have her as seeking a wife or husband for her son, to be queen or king’s consort. There is no shortage of kids from the late Queen Rocktower, but the king was recently given 40 years of youth due to the oncoming war, and the need for stability.”

Isoko went, “Huh…” and then she asked, “What did you think could have been a ‘right answer’?”

Mark looked at the Grandmatron’s departing back and he sensed something in her vector that he usually failed to recognize unless he was focused. Grandmatron Rocktower was on the hunt for relationship matches… or maybe just sex? Or a good mind? Mark had no real angle to understand any of that, so he just mentally marked it as ‘not his problem’, and left it be.

Mark said to Isoko, “I think she wanted me to step in line with Aluatha, now and forever.”

Isoko nodded a little, saying, “They do all the army at Rocktower, you know? That’s where the Daihoon Kannos are, and where my cousins were until they signed up for the Grand Guard.”

And then the next person started talking to Mark.

The lawn party outside of the main party was expansive, and it touched the entire Aluatha Empire.

Slowly, meeting person after person, long after the sun and the auroras lit the sky beyond the glass dome of Domal’Takela, Mark managed to walk into the main ballroom.

Gold and mirrors. Glass and ice. People in dresses and suits from all ages and cultures danced and talked and ate little foods all around the main floor, and also on the three other floors of the main room. A giant chandelier made of rainbows glittered overhead as bands played music and bards sang songs.

And there was Emperor Salvation, sitting on a throne at the far, far back of the party, overseeing everyone from atop a raised platform. He wore white and gold and his eyes subtly shone with a blue light, while the Witches’ Welcome spun around upon him like he was the center of the entire magic—

He locked eyes with Mark, the Welcome snapping against Mark’s existence, but failing to penetrate Mark’s Clean House ritual. For the briefest of moments the Emperor’s vector was concerned, but then he looked away, registering Mark as Mark and dismissing him as an actual threat—

Some guy standing atop a small pillar, next to Mark and the entrance, lifted a trumpet and gave it two quick toots. He announced, “Inheritor, Kaiju Slayer, Tri-Talent, Explorer of the Endless, and Deep Seeker, Mark Careed, of Earth.”

The music never stopped. The party never slowed.

The throne next to Emperor Salvation was empty, as were the other three thrones that led away from that empty throne. On the Emperor’s other side was a knight in solid black adamantium armor that was so thoroughly enchanted that it would never qualify as adamantium ever again. Mark guessed that the other chairs were for Empress Cataclysm, then First Prince Doomo, Second Princess Walaria, and finally Third Princess Kalimara.

Walaria was nowhere to be seen.

Mark walked in, with Isoko on his arm, Isoko smiling brightly as she held a bit tighter.

“I wanna dance,” Isoko said.

Mark smiled and said to her, “Then we shall dance.”

The room glittered as Mark put a hand to Isoko’s lower back and took up her hand in his hand. She had taken dancing lessons as a child. Mark had been a rugby kid. She was much better at this than Mark, but both of them were warriors and both of them knew their way around each other.

They danced, gliding onto the floor among everyone else, the Welcome guiding the flow, taking Isoko along for the ride, Mark going with her. Every footfall was perfect. Every thrum of a drum caused a spin or a dip. Eyes locked with eyes, and for a long moment it was just the two of them, dancing to a song that surrounded them, buoyed them.

Breath came and went, shared between partners.

And then the song was done, and Mark chuckled as he walked with Isoko to the side and other people took the floor—

The Welcome shifted hard, knocking out the joy from Isoko’s face, filling her with confusion at the subtlety of the shifted moment, and then she was stepping to the side, not even aware that she was being moved. The whole dance floor was being moved. Redirected. And then Sally was there, standing with Isoko, having walked over here for some reason that she didn’t quite understand, with Uva right beside her—

Stolen novel; please report.

The black armored guard of the Emperor was there, standing silently and looking at Mark.

Mark assumed, “Ah? A meeting?”

The silent knight merely gestured toward the side, to a path that led to the Emperor.

Mark glanced to Isoko and Sally and Isoko almost went with Mark, but Uva softly told her not to. Isoko… sort of agreed to that. Mark kinda agreed to it as well.

Soon, Mark was walking around the party, to an open, white-carpeted pathway that wound around to the side of the large stage where the Emperor sat in his throne, beside four other non-occupied thrones. It was not the real Throne of the Emperor; that was in Domal’Takela, deep inside. This was just a replica.

The person sitting on the throne was very much the real Emperor; Mark could tell because the Welcome twisted around him, flowed with his desires, and when the Emperor looked at Mark the Welcome snapped against him again, trying to sweep Mark into it. But Mark’s Clean House ritual kept it at bay. The Emperor didn’t look pissed that the Welcome wasn’t working on Mark, nor did his vector seem that way, either, but who really knew about these things.

Emperor Salvation was a lot less imposing than Godking Dominant, though, and that made this small meeting kind of a breeze.

The black knight guided Mark to step with him, to stand a few steps below the Emperor’s throne, and then the guy stepped to the side.

People were watching intently.

Mark almost felt that he should bow, or something, but he decided not to. He merely said, “Hello. I hope Aluatha is enjoying all that metal I got for you guys from the goblins, and all the other stuff.”

Emperor Salvation chuckled once, and it seemed real. Not just for politeness’s sake. He said, “I heard an interesting tale about a man doomed to death, yet you come along and save his life and grant him even more strength. In light of this latest strangeness, and for all your other accomplishments, I would grant you a boon on behalf of Empire. Ask, and it will be done.”

“I have no idea what I could possibly ask for at the moment, Emperor.”

Emperor Salvation arched an eyebrow. “I was told you desired something in particular.”

“Oh! Well…”

Was he talking about the three things he asked Walaria for? Crystal Tower to stop blackballing them, Resurrection from Jessie if Jessie agreed, and to help make powerhouses for the upcoming war to stop the war from happening and to prevent the need for Demon Contracts or dragons? All of that seemed like rather normal stuff that the Empire would agree to, anyway, except maybe the thing with Jessie. The Empire probably had very specific goals with Resurrection, and especially if Jessie didn’t want it anymore… which was a big ‘if’. Mark didn’t see Jessie anywhere around here… Wait a minute. Shouldn’t he be here at the party? Whatever! Not a concern right now.

Mark said, “I want a whole lot of things, Emperor, and I’m getting most of them. I did ask Walaria if she could help me get Resurrection from Jessie, to give it to Eliot, but Eliot has told me in no uncertain terms that he doesn’t want that, but I still feel bad for Jessie being locked up here in Aluatha like I was going to be locked up. So I’d still like to offer him a power-switch, if he wants, so he can go free and Aluatha can get Resurrection to someone who wants it.”

Emperor Salvation nodded, as this was the conversation he expected. “Your man Eliot doesn’t want it, then? That is a shame. I was considering that. This is a new development you are bringing me, so I will have to consider this. Would you like to speak to Jessie yourself?”

“Yes, Emperor.”

“You’re not to do anything without approval from me, directly.”

“… Yes, Emperor.”

Emperor Salvation grinned, easily noticing Mark’s hesitation. He nodded to the black knight beside Mark.

And then the black knight was guiding Mark away, down a walkway, past a doorway—

Addavein was there, leaning against a wall.

The black knight turned away.

Mark shuddered a little, the emotions of whatever had just happened back there catching up and then passing him by as he exhaled a little bit of Bad. He chuckled once, adding, “Okaaaay! Hey, Addavein. Did I do that right out there? I honestly had no idea what he was asking about at first, or if I guessed right.”

Addavein said, “Salvation is an easy going guy when he is allowed to be, so in that manner that was deftly handled. A lot of people will say you were not nearly deferential enough, but as the Inheritor of Xerkona, a lot of Xerkonan refugees among Aluatha’s people will see that as a good meeting. The specifics of the topics spoken about don’t matter all that much.”

Mark shook off a bit more stress that he didn’t realize he had been under until it was gone. Was everything catching up to him? It like things were catching up to him. Buckler and Lancer, the necromancers, the war, Cade Waterson and the Transcendent trio of Powers, Jessie the Resurrection guy, and then it was Emperor time. And now he was here, talking about ‘propriety’ and bowing and all that shit.

Mark felt like admitting, “Bowing to Walaria at the start was one thing because she’s my master in Mage Society, but Lola said never to bow to anyone— Gods.” Mark shuddered, leaving that topic behind. He looked around, sensing a mostly-bare hallway space and beyond with his Unionsense, asking, “Where is Jessie? And why are you here?”

“We’re going to be led to him, whenever we’re allowed. Or at least that’s what I was told by Iliandra.”

“Oh! Ambassador Iliandra… I haven’t seen her since we split at the start of the Ball.”

“She’s out there, mingling— Ah. Here she comes, now.”

Mark glanced to the door leading to the main party, and sure enough Ambassador Iliandra Snowstepper’s vector was flowing this way. She appeared beyond the door—

Walaria opened up a side door and stepped into the space, kitted out in her full witch regalia with all her hanging silver charms, right as Iliandra appeared.

Iliandra froze, like she had been preparing to do something she didn’t want to do, but now Walaria was here and—

“Do you know of the Alawani Obelisks, on the edge of the Meteor Sea?” Walaria asked.

“Ah, fuck,” Addavein softly said.

Iliandra instantly went to a knee, prepared to do whatever needed to be done.

Mark recalled Quark talking about those, but with the severity of everyone’s sudden attention, Mark had to Union with Alacrity/Slowness to try and remember it quickly enough.

With the publishing of the gang’s documentary of their trip to Endless Daihoon, United Sapients had told Mark, though Quark, that every ‘True Empire’ had a Great Weapon of Empire, and every Great Weapon was the same:

A source of Prismatic Mana that would become a solid line of destructive power to annihilate anything that stood before it. Each Empire had different ‘tuning methods’ for that power, and it was very possible that the so-called ‘Great Weapons’ weren’t actually ‘weapons’ at all, but instead the geographical ‘locks’ or ‘source nodes’ for some sort of System-based connection between Earth, Daihoon, and Endless Daihoon… or something like that. Something that pinned Daihoon and Earth together, and formed the basis for the System itself.

No one really knew what they were, except for maybe Godking Dominant and he wasn’t talking.

Okuana had the Pyramids of Longwater.

The Dragon King’s theorized former empire, Metrovakara, had the currently-sparking (and broken) Lightning Spires on the northern coast of D’Australia. The goblins were unearthing those right now, as far as Mark knew.

Xerkona had something, but no one knew where it was, except that it was ‘somewhere in central Sheorune, in the old homelands of the Xerkona Empire’.

Aluatha had the Alawani Obelisks in Eastern Crytalis, on the edge of the Meteor Sea. It was about 130-ish kilometers north-east-ish from Domal’Takela, from right here.

If Okuana wanted to strike the Alawani Obelisks, to kill Aluatha’s ‘Final Line’ defense, then that would be a pretty big opening move in a war. The Obelisks were pretty damned close to the capital, as well, and they were tied into the whole system of magic that kept the Empire’s Death Beam crystals operational… or something like that. Mark didn’t know exactly how it all worked, but that’s what he assumed to be true. Whatever the Obelisks actually did, aside from killing anything that came their way, that Aluatha targeted, if Okuana managed to destroy the Obelisks, it would show a great deal of capability on their part, and be a huge threat for the rest of Aluatha.

The only reason Domal’Takela was where it was was because of the Obelisks. They were far beyond the horizon at the moment, but they still protected a very, very large swath of the Empire, and Domal’Takela was inside that sphere of protection.

Comparatively, the Pyramids of Longwater were about 2,600 kilometers away from Okuana’s Verdant Citadel. Mark wondered if Godking Dominant even used them as a Great Weapon, at all, or if they just sat there doing nothing. But that line of questioning didn’t really matter at the moment.

“I recall the Alawani Obelisks,” Mark said, coming back to normal time. “Is there a strike force to repel?”

And then Walaria terrified Mark, saying, “Dominant has set up relay stations across the ocean and the outer islands that can bend the beam from their own Pyramids of Longwater all the way to here. It’s an 11,000 kilometer strike. I’m going to send you out to someplace in the middle of the ocean. You have 2 minutes to prepare—” Addavein tried to speak, to try and be assigned alongside Mark. Walaria told him, “I want you at the Spires. Right now. There is a strike team as well. They’re trying to take down the shields and induce vulnerability. Don’t make a scare. Just go and deal with the strike team.” She said to Mark, “You’re going to a node over the ocean. Ready?”

Mark cut down the sides of his suit, stepping out of the cloth to stand in his already-repairing webweave, saying, “Read—” His voice cracked.

He was going to have to kill people.

“Do not hesitate, Mark,” Addavein said, and then he flickered, his human-coloring vanishing under the strength of his power, turning him silver as he flowed away, down the hallway, turning invisible before he got fully out of sight.

Mark pulled his aura all the way and told Walaria, “Ready.”

“You must negate this surprise attack by destroying enough of the hovership so that they cannot bend the path of the Great Weapon enough to matter. Most of the bending comes from the Pyramids themselves, but the nodes are absolutely necessary to lay a path for the beam to take. Expect two teleports, for we can’t have them tracking back to this location that easily. Expect heavy weaponry and gravity-based Skills. Expect to kill another ship after the first target is down.”

And then the world blipped.