.
I stared down at a forty five degree angle at the tower ruin. I had communicated with her only yesterday, so I still had a clear impression of her mind, and I knew she was down there. So I hardened my thoughts and addressed her sternly, with all the spiritual pressure I could bring to bear.
Áne of the Green Tower, cease your spell! Your fascination magic is useless on me!
When I arrived on this spot, the same broken remains of a green-hued stone tower had stood above the same eerie landscape of fog-shrouded hills when I returned, but a vapor-thin haze of Dark mana had faintly dyed the atmosphere as I approached it.
I had grown a thin smile as I recognized it, or rather, its vampire equivalent. Áne no longer assumed I could be easily overcome and had laid out a hidden net to catch me unaware. Sure enough, within seconds of encountered the Dark mana haze, a slightly stronger but still very stealthy Dark magic began surreptitiously invading my brain.
Last night, my very insightful former self had predicted this moment, and had bundled up in one of her spiritual seals a set of plans and methods to deal with Áne. She had also bundled a few of Senhion’s blood magic skills, so that I now had a few more tricks to fall back upon, in case Plan A failed.
Plan A blended Senhion’s knowledge of this world’s magic with Fan Li’s own knowledge of spiritual powers. It wouldn’t be reasonable for someone unfamiliar with this world’s magic to formulate an effective hybrid, but she had long since recognized the parallel nature between mana and Huajie’s qi. Although they arise in their respective universes via different means and require different techniques, the two are reflections of a Celestial Realm medium which one could rightfully describe as simultaneously mana and qi.
This meant they can hybridize with spiritual powers through precisely the same methods. As expected, being as they are ultimately born of the same Trichiliocosm.
As Step One in her plan, I had prepared a spirit craft in advance to respond to Áne’s invading touch. The technique wrapped my mind with a thin bubble of spiritual power portraying an image of my mind at rest, thinking about nothing much. The magic attacked it, uselessly bending its ‘thoughts’ into deep desires to explore the tower and disregard all other cares.
Her magic certainly worked. That simulation of my mind was eager to go enjoy itself. I found it more than a little embarrassing how it was considering that the carnal pleasures I had avoided all this time might actually be rather lovely diversions.
Fortunately, I could ignore its silly thoughts. I was only allowing the spirit craft a tiny portion of my mind, which had no control at all over my limbs. It wasn’t even smart enough to notice that, no matter how much it wanted to go visit the fairy waiting below, I never did actually begin heading that direction.
So, while it happily succumbed to Áne’s spell, I moved on to Step Two of Fan Li’s plan.
The day was bright and I was treading air well above the fog below, so I could have pulled the Light mana I needed out of the Sun, but Fan Li had deduced that I needed to immediately ramp the magic up well above ordinary levels, so she felt I should pour the mana forth from my core instead.
It wasn’t a spell. It was just pure Light, and it filled my body by employing the same procedure by which I used [Purification] on myself, filling every pathway and limb to the absolute limit. I dropped my Cloak in the same moment. As a result, I appeared like a winged Celestial Maiden shining with divine light.
Why fill myself with Light mana? My Huajie-born alter-ego had worried that an ancient fairy would have other spells to bring to bear, once her fascination magic failed. Mind bending spells use Light or Darkness, so my spirit craft mind shield and my sheer strength of Light Mana were my best defenses.
In the three elemental oppositions, Light opposes Darkness, Wind opposes Earth and Fire opposes Water. But there is also a circle of elemental influences at work.
In that circle, Light influences Water influences Earth influences Darkness influences Wind influences Fire influences Light.
Whether the influence is negative or positive varies with each pairing, and reverses when viewed the other direction. Thus the same circle can read, with the positive or negative nature of the ‘influence’ flipping, Light influences Fire influences Wind influences Darkness influences Earth influences Water influences Light
Exactly why this happens depends upon the specific pair. The ‘negative’ influence of Light on Water is due to evaporation, while the ‘positive’ influence of Water on Light is due to reflection and refraction.
Buried in this little magic physics theory lesson is the one flaw in Fan Li’s Step Two. Light helps Water evaporate, although not as fast as Water’s elemental opposition Fire does. That’s why I have to be careful to watch the Water mana portion of my body when I use Light to warm myself (because using Fire would be worse.) Worse, Light directly opposes the Darkness mana component of my body from my vampire half. Water makes up a lot more of my substance, but the Darkness is also important.
A real enigma, right? But Fan Li had taken it into consideration. Step Three was to use my Water mana coating technique, blending Darkness into it to protect my vampire side from the extreme Light levels.
Which brought me to Step Four, which I had just executed. Áne had shown a weakness to spiritual pressure yesterday, and I would exploit it today. I continued the pressure now and moved on to the purpose for my visit.
I have come to consult with your father. Please come out so I can pass my message for him to you.
For now, I received only silence in response. I didn’t let up the pressure.
During the flight here, I had tried and failed to coax Lucy into acting as a scout for me. I still hadn’t heard exactly how Áne had frightened her so badly, but she had mostly stayed curled up inside her stone since then, and I couldn’t persuade her. So all I had, at this distance that was too far for me to use fairy sense, was my confidence in Fan Li’s deductions and the option to send out vampire sense.
Given Áne’s apparent skill with Darkness, I decided not to try that yet.
During the silence from below, Durandal commented, I’m somewhat confused as to why we are doing this, My Lady.
My spiritual skills weren’t polished enough to keep up the pressure on Áne while speaking normally in spirit voice to Durandal. I answered him audibly.
“Could you not hear what I told her?”
There’s a lot of directionality to spirit voices. It’s possible to direct them to one person specifically. But I thought I had only focused the pressure on her while leaving the voice more general.
I heard, quite well, My Lady, he stated, sounding amused, but that’s not my question. When I overheard you discussing things with Lady Dilorè, I understood that the opponents here are extremely dangerous, and stronger than you or she can handle. And I understood from what you told your other companions that your intention is to quickly retreat and seek the assistance of Princess Deharè. And mind you, I agree with that. My little sister ought to deal with this directly and not leave you in this dangerous position. I am currently quite concerned that you are not flying back to her as quickly as you can.
He was right, of course. And a very large part of me wanted to do so, immediately. My justifications for coming here might not be strong enough in comparison to the danger.
Was it Tiana’s bullheaded, iron-willed sense of duty that made me bridle at the thought of tucking my tail between my legs and running to Mother? At first blush, I wanted to say yes, but I knew better now.
Tiana had inherited that streak from Mother, who had a sense of responsibility that was almost freakish for a fairy, no matter how frivolous or playful she became about things of small importance, like my wardrobe. And Mother had inherited that streak from Oberon, who had shouldered the weight of being the first of his kind and the founding King of Faerie as a five year old, on the day his mother died and left him with that responsibility. And Oberon had, of course, inherited that streak from…
Me.
However, coming by that streak honestly didn’t mean it would lead me to good decisions. And in the back of my mind, I had a whispering demon called doubt telling me that I was currently being a damned fool.
Should I believe that whisper and leave? But I did have a reason to be here. Everything I did from here forward depended strongly on the answer to the question I wanted to ask.
At last, I saw movement below. A thin cloud of something condensed into the air from out of the fog-shrouded forest covering the lower half of the hill, then flowed upward, growing denser as it closed around the tower. It flowed up and over the walls into the structure, then Áne appeared from within as it lifted her into the air.
I had not paid any attention to how she had floated up into the air before. It hadn’t been odd after seeing Oberon and Lâsin walking in the sky over Tëan Tír. Now I was much closer to her, I could see that something was carrying her.
By the time she reached an equal altitude with me, I could see it was a swarm of butterflies, just like the swarm that Möemnen had employed to capture me. Was this a unique racial skill for the dryad tribe?
I felt the same thin haze of Light as yesterday fill the air around me, and then heard her voice.
“I’m begging you, stop the pressure,” she said, sounding outright haggard. “How is someone of your age even capable of such force?”
I slacked off the pressure, but kept my face steep and the voice of my thoughts hard.
I may be somewhat older than you realize, I answered. As you are the daughter of someone as ancient as your father, perhaps you know about the Xa-Ne? The Elders?
“I… Are you claiming you know about my father?”
I know about him, after a fashion, I affirmed, refusing to reveal any more cards just yet.
“Our Clan of the Green Tower is long forgotten,” she answered. “It crumbled less than a century after the great clans were born, and my father has been lost and forgotten along with it, ever since. As he is now, this tower might as well mark his grave. What can you possibly know about my father?”
I stared at her for eight or nine breaths before unleashing the analysis that Senhion had composed and Fan Li had sealed for me.
I know that a being capable of reaching the spiritual peak of the Mortal Realm and acting as the jailer of a primordial god cannot be an existence that cultivated from zero in this world of low spiritual level. Your father is a former Elder, isn’t he?
Her wide-eyed stare was as good as an answer.
I continued, When did he recover and achieve fairyhood? Did he suffer fewer injuries than most, such that he could recover to the equal of a fairy, while the Great War of Elders and Demons still raged? Or did he never suffer the Affliction at all? Did he make it possible for the Ancient Fairy Age to prosper by entrapping the god under this tower? Did he sacrifice himself, abandoning his non-mortality and initiating his Ascendance, in order to achieve the power necessary to entrap that god?
Her jaw had dropped open as I spoke to her. In the silence following my monologue, she gaped for several seconds before finally asking, simply, “How…”
I raised my chin slightly as I considered my various possible next words, and decided that only one option was practicable at this point.
Tell your father the following: Commander Senhion of the Third Legion has returned from Samsara and requires his attention.
