The Path of Ascension

Chapter 236

Matt opened the door of their house, allowing Liz to enter, drop two spatial bags packed with stuff on the floor, and dramatically fall into his hug with a sigh.

“Ugh, it's good to see you again, and even better to be home.” Liz teased, pulling him tighter into her arms.

With a parting kiss, Liz grabbed his hand as she took in the newly-expanded house. “Finally ate some other houses? Wait, don’t tell me... Bigger living room, bigger bedroom, ooh, is that a soaking tub? I need that so much right now. Catch me up on what else when I’m out.”

Liz darted off to the bathroom, leaving her clothes slowly falling through the air in her wake. Matt laughed, ducking around her shirt to see his wife dive dramatically into the empty tub, feet kicking the air. She started feeling around for a tap, then landed on the right button to instantly conjure scalding water over her. Bubbles followed moments later, and Liz’s red hair was swiftly lost in the mass of soap suds spilling over the edge.

Half an hour later, Liz emerged from the bathroom with a look of utter bliss on her face, dropping onto the couch next to him.

Matt set down the talisman he was working on. Stopping now would ruin it, but that didn’t matter. “Feel better?”

Liz melted onto him, pressing her face into his shoulder. “So, so much better! Oh, you have no idea. Can I just stay here?”

Matt shrugged and started running his fingers through her hair and down her back. “If you want. You’re taller, by the way. Don’t think I didn’t notice. It looks good on you, stately.”

“I’ve been planning it for a while. Most of my life, actually. It’s really nice that we’re bringing in so much money, because I’m going to need so many new clothes.” She turned to look at him with a dangerous level of focus. “You will be there. I don’t have any friends within a few months of travel, and somebody needs to tell me how good I look in a new skirt.” It didn’t take long before she grew restless, and pulled herself into a proper sitting position. “Tub’s amazing by the way. So glad you added it. How did that end up working, in the end?”

“About how we expected it to. It can eat materials at or under its current Tier, and it doesn’t have to be a house, but it helps. But we could, for example, change up the cabinets by feeding it the appropriate kind of wood, in sufficient quantities. Speaking of which, I think I want to change the countertops, but that’s another discussion. Houses work best, especially for general improvements. I fed it two houses with massive amounts of mana storage and improved our own by a substantial amount, for only a bit more crystal volume. Then a third for a bathroom, and a fourth for the living room.”

At Liz’s raised eyebrow, he explained what he had gone through. “So, I learned that the house really doesn't seem to care about the conditions of the houses it eats, and I can shunt mass off of it if I want, but that takes a while.” Grinning, he continued, “So I went to a recycling yard where they were stripping old houses of anything useful before dumping them in a rift for disposal. There, I was able to find ‘houses’ for really cheap. After buying them, I shoved a nice bathroom set and a nice living room set into one of each and then had the house eat them. When that worked, I did that a few times with the rechargeable mana stones too.”

Liz nodded. “Not bad. What if you fed it a rift mana stone? Or another growth item?”

Matt sighed. “Tried it, but it didn’t work. Or rather, the house ate it, but it didn't increase the mana stone we already had. It just wanted to add a rift mana stone somewhere, but I managed to just dump the mana into the enchantments to keep it from going to waste. The stovetop growth item was absorbed, but it’s entirely gone, no effect. Maybe if I was bound to it, it could work, but then, there’s no reason to add it to the house, and I can’t bind anything new anyway.”

Liz tsked in sadness as she pulled the house’s storage ring off of Matt’s finger to inspect it. “How much room do we have left?”

Matt patted her leg. “About two square inches.”

Liz quickly sat up. “What? That little? This is a Tier 17 ring already, which means we can't really upgrade the ring again without Tiering up ourselves.”

Matt nodded and shrugged. “Yes, but really, did we need more space? The living room and bedroom are the places we spend the most time. Our crafting rooms are a little cramped, but we don’t really need to expand there. We just need to buy new equipment and swap it out or absorb it.”

Liz flicked his side as she lay back across the couch. “I wish you would have saved some space for my input. I got a bunch of good loot on my missions.”

Matt paused, thought, and nodded. “Yeah, that’s fair. I should have asked you first, it’s your house as much as mine.”

They shared a kiss, then Matt pulled away. “Though, if there’s something you really want, I can always shunt off some of what’s already here. And basic upgrades won’t make it take up more space.”

“We can discuss that later. How were your missions?”

Matt playfully glared at his wife. “Hey, no fair. I was going to ask that!”

Liz just wiggled her eyebrows. “Too slow. You’re first. Serenade me with fanciful tales of adventure and strife.”

He retaliated with a brief bout of tickling which led to a further distraction but when they settled back into cuddle as they recapped their adventures. They’d both had fun, and he was a bit jealous of her chance to delve into a mysterious vault, while she was jealous of the sheer quantity of low-level Republic spies he had caught along the border. Between their missions, they’d earned enough credit for a bunch of things from their wedding present pile.

In this, at least, he had waited for Liz to return before choosing anything.

That brought them around to Liz’s upcoming training with a Bondsman, and Matt had a moment of disorientation when he realized that he’d started thinking about three years in the future as ‘soon’. But that was how things went. She’d have to leave about a year in advance to make it on time, but Matt was glad that they were back together for the moment.

Which naturally brought them back onto the reason why they’d reunited, instead of carrying on with their solo missions.

Aster's time at Red Feather Academy was approaching the end of the first year, and they wanted to be together to see just how she was doing.

They had even moved into Mara’s kingdom, and were just a dozen jumps away from the system containing The Nest, so they could get her messages as fast as possible.

Matt had wanted to get even closer, but Liz had rightly pointed out that if they got too close, he’d find it hard to resist visiting Aster, which was neither allowed nor good for her growing into her own person.

With that limitation, they sat on an otherwise normal Tier 3 planet, waiting not so patiently.

Matt watched the countdown of the local time for Aster to get access to the EmpireNet and then watched a second countdown on the expected time for messages to arrive.

The twenty minutes felt like an eternity as the messages were transmitted through the Empire's information networks one teleport at a time. That was the reason they were on this planet. While not the closest system they would have been allowed to enter, it was the closest one that had a series of teleports that would lead back to Red Feather Academy when accounting for the teleportation cycles of each world.

When the first message arrived, Matt smiled, seeing Aster’s foxy grin as she yipped and chatted to the recording device about her first day.

Hearing that she had made not just one friend who she was rooming with, but three, took a weight off Matt’s chest. He happily listened along as Aster described the shenanigans she and her bird friend, Kelly, had gotten up to in the first few days.

The stories quickly branched out to include the other two roommates, Roody, a lion, and Juan, an elephant, in the adventures they got into.

Matt had to resist the urge to facepalm as Aster told him about them getting in trouble when they tried to break into a higher year’s library. They’d all been caught before they got tail, feather, or trunk into the library, and as a punishment, had to clean the dishes for a week. Not for the fact they broke in, so much as they got caught, which made Matt roll his eyes at how similar it was to Luna and her methods.

Still, despite that, she was more excited than anything else. Though that didn’t last too long, as during what seemed like the second week being at the Academy, Aster appeared to have a rough day and strong bout of homesickness as she sent her daily video. Thankfully, it didn’t last too long, and the shared environments with her roommates and thousands of other bonds going through the same things bolstered her.

Then, the video updates started to change as Aster learned how to morph her body and adjust it into a more human shape.

Aster endlessly complained about the difficulty of the procedure and seemed disappointed that it took her almost a full two weeks to get the technique, compared to some of the other bonds.

It was almost as unsettling as him having to watch her appearance slowly change and become more and more human in slow increments over the course of three months.

Aster would always be adorable, but there were times when her appearance was a little too uncanny for polite company in the process.

When she was done though, Matt knew in the deepest part of himself that they had shared that life as siblings in Minkalla, no matter what Luna or any of the other experts said.

Her body was exactly like it had been when she was born human as his little sister. Sure, this Aster had fox ears and a large bushy tail that she took pride in keeping well ‘floofed’, and fell into the habit of weaving ribbons of colors into. But that didn't change the fact she had the same cluster of three freckles right next to the ear lobe that she had had in the Folded Reflection life, or that she had the slight bump where she had fallen out of bed and broke her nose as a kid, which had never quite healed right.

She also just looked like his parents, and that caused Matt to tear up as it opened old wounds, but he had long come to terms with his, no their, parents' deaths.

Once she got her human form, Matt and Liz got to laugh at all the things Aster complained about. Apparently, human noses were awful, and now that she had created the baseline human form, she would be upgrading her nose back to fox levels of olfactory senses. Then, not a week later, she complained that half the other bonds couldn’t tell when they hadn’t properly washed, and then lowered her sense of smell into something of a middle ground.

Matt also found it interesting that while Aster made her human form reflect her life in Minkalla, all of her roommates spent more time tweaking and changing their bodies. Or at least, that was how it seemed in the short snippets he saw them in, when Aster grabbed one to say hi.

Kelly, the lightning bird, experimented with her hair, or rather feathers, for what seemed like two months before settling on a shorter configuration of feathers, while Roody the lion seemed to be trying to recreate the mane he had as a lion with a beard. But none of that compared to Juan. The elephant seemed to treat his body and skin as a canvas, and experimented with all kinds of colors, patterns, and shapes.

Aster and Kelly complained endlessly about that fact because, in their words, ‘He never matched his colors properly.’ That argument seemed to only end when the two of them had bought him a shirt and pants in every combination of color and shade imaginable, and he and Liz had to admit that Juan did look more put together when his clothes matched his coloration. There were even some really pleasing combinations that Matt and Liz found interesting.

While they wouldn’t transform their entire bodies as Juan did, they had masks that could do nearly the same thing when they were disguising themselves, and they decided to try a few out.

Matt and Liz were still reviewing Aster's stream of messages from her first year at Red Feather Academy together when Luna came in and informed them it was time to get to work.

Taking a few minutes to send her a video of their reactions to her messages, both of them spent a minute to shift mental gears from happy siblings to serious soldiers.

Fortunately, they were close enough to Queen Tur’stal’s queendom that their next trip wouldn’t take unduly long.

They were about to participate in an age-old tradition of the Academies. Academy Storming was ostensibly a challenge of prestige and honor of the individual academies in things like martial prowess, and could be expanded to other academic strengths. Or, that was how it had started. In today's day and age, it was most commonly used as a recruiting tool for the Academies in question, and a way to push their pupils into challenging themselves with an external enemy.

Pathers weren’t officially a part of those challenges, but historically, the Path was restricted to noble families who were the main backers of the various Academies. They used their Pather children as strong arms in the battles between Academies, which created a loophole. So while Quill and Torch weren’t members of an Academy, the historical precedent allowed them to participate in the open challenges and receive the same rewards.

Essence stones were part of the general rewards given out to the victors, along with things like priority access to their rifts and possibly skills and unique skill modifications. Those rewards made it so most Pathers at the Tier 15 to 20 range participated in the Academy Storming just as they did with local tournaments.

Frederic and Tur'stal had both wanted them to target a few academies in particular, as they had managed to earn their royal ire, but not to the degree that they would officially step in and punish them. And getting their pride crushed in a very public challenge by a duo of Pathers in public was the remedy that the royals ordered.

Matt didn’t really care, having not had any real interaction with the Academies. But Liz did have that experience, and had even added a few targets to their list, wanting to settle a few old insults and snide remarks directed at her in her youth from members of said Academies. A few of them had tried to goad the young Liz into joining their ranks by insinuating that she couldn’t make it on her own, which was a lesson she wanted to make them eat now that she was on The Path and strong in her own right. To not raise any suspicion for any spies watching, those Academies were sprinkled throughout the itinerary, and some were outright skipped for later.

For one year every decade, the Academies all opened their doors to challenges, and they intended to hit more than a few before taking them for everything they were worth.

The first Academy they went to was the Black Rock Academy in Tur'stal’s kingdom, right next to the border of Mara’s kingdom, but not too close to the Nest that they might get linked to the bond Academy. It was an Academy known for their earth and stone-hardened melee combat styles that served to make them impervious to most elemental or melee attacks.

Quill sauntered out of the portal with his signature swagger as Torch stalked behind him, and they came to a stop in front of the elegant stone wall and the two guards standing watch. After a moment, the guards confirmed their identities and the gates swung open, allowing them to stride inside the opening courtyard.

When students saw them, they immediately jerked in surprise. Some ran off, while others clearly spoke to their AI, while Quill whistled and waved to everyone he saw.

Before they got to the front hall, a group of Tier 15s moved to intercept them, but Torch moved in a single burst of fire and sent them to the ground with bumps and bruises already forming. Now that she was Tier 15 and had awakened her entire bloodline, she had enough control over her flames that she didn’t even singe their clothes.

Quill paused long enough to snark at the fallen students. “Sorry, kids, this isn't something Tier 15s can get involved in. Leave it to the big boys and girls, and just enjoy your nap.”

He conveniently ignored the fact that they were, in fact, Tier 15s as well, and turned on a heel while tossing out a few [Bandage] talismans.

They weren't even his own creation, at least not anymore. Instead of spending the mana to upgrade the runic formation to Tier 17, he had used one of the publicly available Tier 17 [Bandage] talisman formations.

After his little show at his Tier 10 tournament, the fad of creating variations of [Bandage] hadn’t faded, but instead turned into a point of pride, with almost every independent enchanter making their own variation and publishing it for free. Some were more or less specialized, but there were a number that were perfectly average and good at everything, which were the ones that Quill took note of for his own uses.

The copious travel time since his wedding had given him plenty of time to study enchanting, as he had little else he could do while cooped up inside his ship, feeding it all the mana he could. He had a passable understanding of Tier 15 runes now, at least the most relevant combat ones, and his newly merged [AI] had been able to find appropriate combinations of Tier 18 runes to update his signature talismans. But he still needed to learn how to enchant them himself before he would be entirely comfortable with using them frequently.

They could delve up three Tiers, but they were so busy with their missions that they only had a few dozen Tier 18 talismans; instead they had a more reasonable number of Tier 17 talismans for use in combat.

That was the curse and benefit of a talisman fighter. They could use higher Tier talismans than themselves, but they need either outside help, or needed to be able to delve up to that Tier and kill monsters to process into parchment. If that delving cost them more than they gained, they were screwed. But for Quill, at least he could delve with his full power set and not use a single talisman when he was gathering materials. Or, at least gathering materials for parchment. The talisman ink he needed to draw the enchantments was becoming increasingly difficult to make due to the more specialized inks needed for each enchantment, but he had been able to buy most of what he needed through the leftovers of his delving resources.

Tier 17 unprocessed metals weren’t worth a ton, but they were still in demand, and even a few tons of them could earn him a decent amount of money to spend on the ingredients he needed for inks.

That reminded him of something, and he made a note to ask Liz if she could use a bit of her growth garden orb to grow some herbs that were commonly used in those inks.

Refocusing on their upcoming fight, Quill laughed as Torch punched her way through two more groups of Tier 15s before a Tier 19 student came out.

“Leave them alone and let them enter the sparring ground.”

Torch nodded in thanks while Quill made a flourish. “How considerate of you, my dear host. I wouldn’t wish for Torch to dirty her fist so soon.”

Quill had to resist a snort as the Tier 19s face twitched at his comment.

Matt smiled. He had almost forgotten how fun it was to be a little bit of an asshole. It would grow old fairly quickly, but for now, he relished it.

Once they entered the hall, they found a number of Tier 16 through 18 students surrounding a large burly woman, Christiana, who was the founder of this Academy.

“So the two newest Pathers come to my humble Academy. I would have thought you two were too busy getting your movie events planned out to come to bother us.”

Internally, Quill growled at the reminder of their duo’s first movie, ‘The Scribbling’, and its awful take on his making the [Bandage] talisman.

“The movies have never been something I’ve concerned myself about. What I am concerned about is the genuinely shameful display your students have put on thus far. Is this truly the state of the Empire’s youth these days? I was hoping for a challenge, but I’ve had more trouble knocking down houses of cards than this lot.”

Christiana grinned right back at him. “How far are you challenging and at what age?”

Quill laughed, “I think we should at least start with your Tier 17s, given the shameful display everyone else has put on thus far, maybe we'll even push to the Tier 18s. And we'll take any fighters under a thousand years old at those Tiers, please and thank you.”

That earned him a small nod of what he interpreted as respect from Christiana, as they declared their challenge would only be complete if they beat all the Tier 17s of her Academy.

If the worst happened, and Christiana’s Black Rock Academy lost, they could chalk it up to them simply not being as good as possible Ascenders, as the news started calling Quill and Torch. If Christiana’s academy won, they could then use that fact as leverage to increase recruitment and bolster their publicity, and the two of them could just say their opponents were strong for their Tier and congratulate the academy.

At the same time, if they won the challenge, Black Rock Academy would owe them essence stones equal to half the number of challengers they defeated at the challenger’s Tier. So in this case, Tier 17 essence stones.

It led to an interesting balancing act of pushing as high as possible, but not failing and then becoming in debt to the Academy as they labored under the same restrictions.

Quill was pretty sure that if they had chosen Tier 15 or Tier 16 fighters, Christiana would have suddenly come up with an excuse to withdraw, but with them wanting to fight up two full Tiers, she was confident enough to agree to the challenge.

The first man came into the fighting platform and turned into an onyx mass of rock and muscle that towered over Torch and Quill.

“Let's see if you can be the first one to burn through my armor.”

The comments caused cheers from the man's fellow students, but that didn’t last long.

Torch proved that seemingly impervious rock forms were only seemingly impervious. A blast of heat fueled by a number of concealed runes in her armor and thrown out by Quill engulfed the battlefield before Torch drove her spear through the man's flank and sent him stumbling back.

To his credit, the man was good to continue the fight despite taking that hit head on, but as he fought in close range with the ball of fire that was Torch, his onyx form started to show signs of stress.

Quill nearly paused halfway through throwing a talisman, wondering how well Torch could handle the man alone. Between her potions, skills, her Concept, and his Concept, she was certainly strong, and could probably win given enough time, but it would be close.

This man wasn’t like the random Tier 17s she had been able to wipe the floor with in the vault. He’d been trained in a Tier 20 Academy, and had the skills and money to make him a dangerous opponent. Of course, with Quill assisting her, it was only a matter of time before they won, and overwhelming force was what they were here to mete out.

When the man ducked a massive [Mana Spear], Torch’s knee was positioned to catch him in the ribs. When he dodged Torch’s spear thrust, he could only move into the path of Quill’s [Ice Lance] array.

No matter what he did, the two of them were always in sync and had every exit covered. Even then, it still took them almost five full minutes to batter the Tier 17s defenses down to a level that the flames started to melt his onyx armor.

That set the tone for the rest of the battles, as they faced predominantly solo fighters, but there were a few duos and even a few full groups. Those were harder fights, but for those, their opponents had to face a seemingly unlimited number of Tier 17 talismans of every type. Eventually, they too gave up or were outright defeated.

Christiana wasn’t happy after they worked their way through more than a dozen Tier 17s, but paid them and sent them off with a quip to never come back. From the way she immediately started explaining to her students how they could have better used the strength differences to their advantage, he knew there was no actual grudge formed between the two groups.

With Black Rock Academy defeated, they moved from one academy to another, garnering a reputation for fighting up two Tiers and never even being touched. A few academies even outright closed their gates in a shameful display when word arrived that they were in the area, but that served to humiliate them even more thoroughly than fighting it out and accepting their loss with grace would have done.

They were taking a break between academies and unwinding together when Luna materialized in their room, wordlessly dropping two folders on the table.

Matt and Liz broke apart, an illusory outfit shimmering into existence around Liz as Matt pulled on a shirt. While they were both aware Luna was always watching, it was rare that she actually interrupted their private time together, which meant it was something urgent. The moment they were presentable, they grabbed the folders and began to read.

The first thing both of them noticed was the target. A Tier 19 noble house, House Gerble.

Liz immediately looked up and asked Luna, “A Tier 19 noble house? Can we even handle this? That means, at a minimum, one Tier 19. That’s a hard proposition without Aster, and in our personas.”

Luna pointed down at the paper, and Liz returned to reading, but Matt was far ahead of her, and she moved to the deeper portions of the file where he knew the reports on House Gerble’s combat power, resources, and contingencies would be.

Matt started with the finances.

From doing a mission in the Empire for the last year, he had learned most stories could come down to one of two things. Control and power. Both were only possible through money, and by following the money, you could tease out most hidden schemes. That was why he started with the tax reports, and his hunch was proven correct almost immediately. Most of the reports in the file were tax reports from the Imperial Auditors Bureau, going back a little more then five hundred years, and the accompanying notes and reference numbers where he could get more information if he so desired.

The first reports noted that the Gerble family was selling more essence stones than normal, but also noted that they were paying their taxes on the sold stones, and the rate they were selling them was consistent with the normal patterns of a large noble family generating some more liquid assets. The only reason the agent had noted the oddity was that they were selling low Tier essence stones with only a smattering of higher Tier stones.

That pattern continued in small waves for the next dozen years, with more or fewer essence stones being sold by the Gerble family, and it was mostly ignored by the IAB until someone noticed the median Tier of the essence stones being sold by the family had risen from Tier 2 to 6.

That prompted a further investigation into the issue, but the Gerble noble house had their ducks in a row, and were able to show they had opened a now long-dead family member's storage ring, and were liquidating the plethora of essence stones they had found. The given reason for their slow-selling was so they didn’t flood the local market, and kept the value of the essence stones high. That explanation had passed muster, and the Empire had left them alone for the next three hundred years, but once more, someone had noticed the average essence stones they sold had risen all the way to Tier 14.

With the issue now escalated to a much higher authority, the IAB secretly reopened the investigation and dug much, much deeper, spending almost a decade building their case, which was noted to be suspected of collusion with a foreign Great Power or the like. After all, they had to be getting the seemingly endless stream of essence stones from somewhere.

It was during that time the investigators noticed that the Gerble family had bought large numbers of essence stones close to five hundred years ago through a number of black markets, but they had been a smattering of all Tiers.

Cross-referencing the information they had with the reported tax records, they discovered if they removed the bought stones, the Gerble noble house had been selling mostly essence stones of a single Tier, raising up one step at a time.

Matt felt his mouth go dry, and he came to the same conclusion that the IAB had come to.

They had someone with a Talent to create essence stones and were keeping them hidden.

That in and of itself wasn’t illegal, but if such a Talent was being used by them officially, they would have simply reported the essence stones were of a Talented nature to explain the sales, but instead, they hid them through a dozen layers of subterfuge.

The last straw was when the IAB found five hundred year old records of a recently awakened Justinian Miller going missing after delving into a local rift alone and unguarded with his newly purchased skills.

A Justinian Miller whose official Talent rating had been Exceptional.

A Justinian Miller who records showed had sold three Tier 1 essence stones to a local broker one week before his disappearance.

A corporation that House Gerble had a majority share in.

Everything pointed to House Gerble having kidnapped someone with a valuable Talent and black bagging them for more than five hundred years.

Matt felt his body heat up even as Liz confirmed that the head of the house was a strong Tier 19 fighter, and suggested they might not be able to handle this mission on just the pure difference in combat prowess alone.

He didn’t care if she was a Tier 19 or a Tier 50. He would not let someone rot in the same conditions he had been subjected to in the Folded Reflections.

“Liz, check the tax records.” Looking to Luna, he continued, “Is your conclusion the same as I think it is?”

Luna tossed the cover sheets to the desk, and just as he suspected, the Empire had come to the same conclusion.

House Gerble had kidnapped Justinian Miller and was using his Talent to enrich themselves.

Matt had to rest, letting out a growl even as Liz sucked in a breath.

“When are we leaving?”

Luna raised an eyebrow and caught his eyes. “Do you think you two can handle this mission?”

Matt shook his head. “It isn’t a question of ‘if’, but how quickly.”

Liz poured water on his rising anger and asked. “Why us? This seems both out of our reach and personal.”

Luna just looked to Matt, and he answered for her.

“Luna wants to push us and show how seriously the Empire takes these matters.”

Luna nodded. “Mostly correct. This mission was going to go to the army, but I intercepted it. The Empire and the Emperor’s eyes are on this mission, and nothing is allowed to go wrong, which means there is a risk of us taking it. That said, I believe that you need to see what can happen in real life to those who aren't strong enough to protect themselves. Beyond that, I think personally freeing someone in your worst-case scenario will give you some closure on the entire issue. After all, if you are strong enough, no one can box you, and you can make sure no one else is caged in the future.”

Pausing, she looked between the two of them. “Do you accept this mission?”

Matt grabbed Liz’s hand even as she opened her mouth. “When do we leave?”

“Now.”