The Power of Ten

I was better organized this time, and partway I stopped and had the students introduce themselves in English, what they did, and where they came from. They spoke in English, I converted it to Human, their word choices, accents, and dialects helping build the rapport and link with their genetic tongue.

They didn’t really notice when they started using more Human in their speech. I had them tell basic childhood stories, sing a favorite song, recite a favorite poem or saying, and recite the names of their relatives.

The time passed fairly quickly as I ran smoothly through nouns, verbs, sentences, descriptive terms, and so forth. We had a Q&A session, veering into weird territory as they talked about themselves and their lives here and there. I didn’t talk about myself, as I didn’t have the akashic link that made all this work. I could just learn the language ‘for free’, without it taking up a mental inventory slot, I couldn’t learn it this easily.

Inheriting it had been about the same thing, however.

----

I held up my hand as Shelly finished a tale about her grandmother and the Christian Church she used to go to.

“All right, we’re done,” I smiled. “You’re all talking in Human.” The Valence I Comprehend Languages lasted an hour per Caster Level, and was about to expire.

“What?” Mr. Harrison exclaimed in disbelief, and then blinked as he realized he hadn’t actually said what.

I turned directly to the cameras, ignoring the astonished guys behind them focusing on me. “And that’s all you have to do. Read along, talk along. An hour of your time, and you all speak the same language, read the same language, can write the same language. Note that if you don’t know how to read or write, you still know what the words mean, but you’ll have problems putting your own words down.

“Thank you for your time, and I hope I won’t have to learn too much Englits in the future.”

I shook hands with the three still-astounded students, who were exclaiming all sorts of things, experimenting with new words we hadn’t even covered, but that were miraculously there when they went looking for them.

----

Father Bower was shaking his head as he greeted me. “You do not know what a service you’ve done with this, Miss Traveler. I’m not sure we can repay you adequately.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “So, I might be able to ask for something from the coffers of the Church that might be of use?” I inquired directly.

He looked at me, coughed, and smiled. “Well, the goodwill of the Church is hard to put a gold value on,” he hinted strongly.

“I am about to go into town to spend a mildly obscene amount of money on what will no doubt prove to be a low-Quality Casting Implement I will no doubt have to trash and recycle, wasting everyone’s time. I don’t need a magical Staff, I can arrange for such things myself. However, a high-Quality item requires a fine craftsman, and the appropriate contacts.

“I would like the Church to procure me the material for a very high-grade Staff. It does not need to be Crafted. It can be bone, ivory, or wood.

“I will do the Carving and Crafting myself at the appropriate time, but I need the material to do so. Is that within the Church’s remit?”

He considered that thoughtfully. “I can certainly inquire, Miss Traveler, but I do not know if the Church can acquire what you need. It should not surprise you that the White Necromancers of the Church also have great demand for superior Staves.”

I inclined my head, and we headed towards the door... with the blouse and slacks returned to Shelly, and my other scavenged clothes swapped back in and re-fit with fingersnaps. She didn’t hide her envy as she rolled her eyes and shook my hand. I just winked at her, and strolled away.

“You have not yet spoken with Sir Pellier, or he might have passed on something else your Church does not seem to know about,” I told him after we stepped outside. I flicked my fingers, and brought up my Darts.

He studied them curiously, intently. “There is holy magic about them,” he judged after a moment. “And... I believe that is banefire against the undead, I have seen some Weapons set up with it. I am not familiar with the white fire...”

“Technically, it’s unwhite fire. It’s actually white, not a confluence of colors your eyes interpret as white. Spiritual aspect to it, you see. It’s the exact opposite of the utterblack of necroic fire.”

He shot me another intensely interested gaze. “That sounds either ominous or propitious...”

“This is called Vivic Fire. It is the unnatural energy of the Mortal Plane, the energy that denizens of other planes hate to see. If you are familiar with this symbol,” I whipped up a Holo of a tai-chi symbol as I let my Darts fade, and pointed to the little white dot in the black comma, “that is vivic fire right there, as that is necroic fire.” I pointed to the little black dot in the white.

He rubbed his chin, thinking. “That is very interesting, but how is it relevant?”

“Undead slain with vivic fire are not reborn under the Curse of the Shroud. They are consumed and fed to the Land.”

He stopped in place. I took another step, and turned back to him calmly.

He was staring at me in shock, disbelief... and hope. “This... vivic fire, can actually kill the undead?” he gasped hoarsely.

“Yes. As they feed on life, vivus feeds upon death, and creates new life. The Curse has nothing to restore.”

He was almost hyperventilating. He closed his eyes and clenched his hands hard to control himself. “The Undead... they can finally be killed permanently...” He shuddered in a mixture of anger and relief.

His eyes snapped open, and he looked at me with rather frightening intensity. I looked right back at him. “Miss Traveler, do you have any idea how valuable such information is?” he asked, despite himself.

“I am fully aware that the entire world would be in debt to me, yes.”

My reply calmed him down somewhat. “And you seek compensation for this knowledge.” He was not a fool.

I waved my hand. “You cannot pay me what is worth. As long as you can recognize that, I am perfectly willing to enlist the Churches of Good in spreading knowledge of vivus as wide and far as possible. But there is a problem.”

“A problem?” he asked, calming down his excitement.

“Yes. Normally, you would have been directly contacted by the divine and knowledge of vivus made available to you.” I pointed up at the haze above. “I am inferring that you don’t have direct contact with the servants of the heavens.”

“I... no. No, we do not,” he agreed, after staring at me peculiarly for a moment. “We can feel guidance on doctrine when we Meditate, see the course before us, know what our gods endorse and do not... but we don’t actually talk to them.” That I was inferring that they should be able to was another cause for excitement. To actually be able to talk directly to a Divinity, or even their servants, was a wondrous thing!

I nodded slowly. “Then I will have to actually teach you this, without akashic resonance. That requires me to be at least a Five. I am still a One... and for whatever reason, this Shroudborn affliction of mine keeps sending me sideways instead of up. I need to Level, and survive while I do.

“That means that knowledge of what vivic fire actually is should not be spread at all... until it is spread very widely, indeed.”

He stared at me for a long, careful moment, and then sighed as he digested the implications of that. “Any leaks would mean something that realizes the implications will come and move against you... and you probably won’t survive it, if they are powerful.”

“That is correct.”

“So, we’ve got to get you stronger, and protect you in a casual manner, while keeping this under wraps until you’re tough enough to take an attack.” He gestured for us to keep walking. “That’s not as problematic as it might be. You are, after all, in the middle of an armed camp.”

“I had noticed,” I agreed. “The first thing you can do to help me is get me a wizard’s staff. I will either replace or return it when I am capable of doing so. If you could have such waiting in Riverhead when I go there, I would be obliged.”

“A minor enough thing for your contributions so far... and in the future,” he agreed. “Allow me to make some calls. That should not be difficult to take care of.”

“Thank you.”

Should I have just totally shut up about it? Sure. There were hundreds of thousands of incorps out there. I could have plinked them off every night until I reached the Level I wanted to get to, and nobody around would have really noticed that there were fewer of them every night.

Hells, I could have sit somewhere and done absolutely nothing, and as long as I was willing for my Ring not to grow, I could have just waited out a huge chunk of this stuff, and quietly Leveled my way into power.

However, I had some major expenditures ahead of me, and simply put, the Karma I had wasn’t going to be enough to address them. So, I had to accrue more.

And quietly building up tons of merits of undead-killing while I did so, perhaps...

-----------

“Sir Pellier?” I inquired curiously, as the Paladin came up to me.

“I’ve heard that you’re going into Riverhead. It was indicated in broad terms to me that someone a bit more responsible than a certain flighty sorcerer would be a better escort for someone with special knowledge.”

Well, it was true enough. I myself was a bit dubious on Helix’s reliability, and he wasn’t the brightest candle in the room. Him getting off-track was practically to be expected if it wasn’t something he was personally interested in.

“Are you driving?” I agreed implicitly.

“I think that would be a good idea for all concerned. Helix is known to frequent some, ah, edgier places for excitement...” he said politely, having a pretty good idea of the nature of the sorcerer.

I narrowed my eyes. “And doubtless he wanted to introduce me to them,” I sighed, having an idea he’d try to move things in that direction. Also, he wanted to go dancing, without a doubt. He’d probably forgotten I was pregnant three days ago, and had a lethal c-section. He could show me off to all his friends, and maybe that asshole who had given him such screwy advice...

I could only sigh. He wasn’t a bad person, but he was Chaotic Good, and so he was the center of the world and its most important being. It was only right that he show off his new advisor like a piece of arm candy. After all, he was the powerful Stormblood, and I was still just a One, even if I had the nastiest Shards ever...