The Power of Ten

Eighteen volleys and a few shrieking ectos gone burning in vivus later, we were done.

“Commander, could I borrow your Baneskull and Token there?” I asked him calmly. He unclipped them and handed them over without a word, and I affixed them to Clavus.

My target was a spectre. With a Baneskull attached, I didn’t need to power up Banespell... which just told me I needed more damage Metas for flexibility.

Whatever, the unlucky fat fellow in the suitcoat ate seven full-force Shards, expending a vial of Alchemist’s fire for an additional slew of healthy damage.

7d6 for the Shards, d6 for the Vivus, 3d6 for Sanctified, 2d6 for the Baneskull, +5 for Clavus, +d6 for the Token, +2d6 for Alchemist Fire, +3/Shard for Augmented Healing and Power in the Blood, +6 for Foe Hunter and Ghost-Scarred, and +6 for my Warcaster Razor.

Seven jetsilver tears wound about with flames black, white, and crimson slammed into it and blew it out of existence faster than it believed possible. Everyone watching whistled despite themselves. One-shotting a buffed spectre was not a small thing, if you actually knew what you were seeing.

“And with Shards, no less,” mused Briggs after seeing that. “What’s the damage rating?” he had to ask.

“Something around 16d6+38,” I noted, checking the math.

He looked at me, I looked back, and he said helplessly, “And you’re a One?”

“Yes.”

He raised his eyes to the dark Shroud, and sighed heavily.

So did his shooters.

“But that’s not the GOOD thing,” I smirked. He gave me another hairy eyeball as I turned to Master Fred. “Ever use Eldritch Theurgy, Master Fred?”

I HAVEN’T EXACTLY WORKED WITH A LOT OF SPELLCASTERS IN THE FIELD, MISS TRAVELER, he replied with his normal calm.

“No problem. What is going to happen here is you’re going to be offering me your Wrath; I’m going to spin it about my Shards and send them out as a conjoined spell, just like an Eldritch Theurge would do, but we’ll be using a minor Ritual instead.”

He was interested, and everyone looked on curiously as I demonstrated the pattern of Wrath he should use, how he should spin it about and offer it to me so I could draw it in and apply it to my Shards smoothly. The Sanctified Meta actually took his Wrath rather easily, and would actually have added more damage if it wasn’t already capped.

And, of course, they all crowded to the battlement with the others to watch who I threw the spell at.

It was a platoon of spectral marines down on the ground, two hundred yards away... an elite swordwraith unit of undead, basically here to watch the damned civilian spirits flitter around, screaming and wailing at their fate, basically not paying much attention.

There were six of them, so they each got a Shard, with the Sergeant in charge getting two.

Explosions of flame in seven different hues blew through them, the Wrath using their own Unit Resonance to apply to each of them through their links, and the links of the Shards. Combined with the stacking damage of the Shards, it was enough to wipe the entire unit out instantly, acting like a no-save, pretty powerful AoE spell as it did so.

Normally, Master Fred’s Wrath would only have applied to one of the targets. But since swordwraith units were linked together in undeath, they all got to sample the damage via harmonic convergence between the Sanctified Shards, and they all went away in a very eye-catching eruption, dissipating to reveal nothing left behind.

“Now that’s a neat trick,” Commander Briggs noted, getting agreements all around. “Bet you can’t do that very many times right now, however.”

“That is correct... and it likely won’t even hurt someone who is magic-resistant, as I’ve not managed to work my way up that tree, either.” I unclicked the Baneskull and Token, and gave them back to him. Much as I might want them, as a Forsaken, he actually needed them more, and I did have Banespell.

“I’ll get the Slaughter on Boomer and Endure, and give you the Skull when I do,” he told me calmly. He’d naturally have little use for it once Bane/Undead was among those in the Slaughter on his Weapons. I was actually surprised he didn’t have it already.

I wanted a Token, too, but all things in time.

I turned to address everyone else. “Everyone should have Advanced their Weapons, and earned a little bit extra on the side. We’re going to be coming back tomorrow to follow up on this, and will continue for several days while I await word on a personal commitment. If this stops abruptly, it’s because I’ve gotten news and had to depart immediately.”

Everyone nodded that they understood, recognizing that people had obligations and so shit had to get done.

Fifteen minutes after dusk, we were on our way back down the Wall, to the amusement and chagrin of the soldiers stationed there. But we did let them know that, all things being equal, we should be back tomorrow.

------------

“Baltimore doesn’t want you running around all night?” I inquired, as I bounced down on the repaired couch, which Fred had purged of any remnant Scorn with his Wrath. As I’d been picked up right from the library and gone off to shoot, I hadn’t brought too many books with me, only a backpack full he’d stowed in Sleipner’s saddlebags.

I’d be going through them tonight.

SHE DOES, BUT I PROBABLY DID A MILLION DOLLARS WORTH OF BUSYWORK FOR HER TODAY, REMOVED TWO CLOGS IN HER SYSTEM, AND ADDRESSED SEVERAL MORE. SHE CAN WAIT. Obviously, he wasn’t going to feel too obligated to a Citypact he was going to drive away from sooner or later, so it couldn’t pressure him. That said, he knew his job and he was doing it, and it couldn’t fault him for being so good at it.

“Good enough. I am going to read through these books here very quickly, getting ever closer to the normal things a ten-year-old knows, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of the fact she grew up in France.” I had to roll my eyes. Aelryinth had learned French via Polyglot, because it only took an hour and so why not learn a dead language? I was a few Int points and languages shy of doing the same.

YOUR HUMAN LANGUAGE IS ALREADY CAUSING MASSIVE DISRUPTIONS ON THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL... SOME GOOD, SOME BAD.

“How very unexpected. Are the archconservative language adherents so terrified we all might speak the same language and their heritage will be lost?”

CHINA HAS BARRED IT COMPLETELY...

My eyes narrowed. “That’s because transformed Daoists aren’t human and can’t understand it. They have to learn and memorize it like any other language, and they won’t sound human unless they invest a lot of time and effort into it... and you’ll still be able to trip them on vocabulary.” I inhaled sharply. “They being able to do that means they dominate the whole country. Has India? Other nations?”

MOST OF SOUTHEAST ASIA, BARRING AUSTRAILIA AND PARTS OF THE ISLAND NATIONS...

“Clearly showing the limits of their influence, and they are probably fanning the flames elsewhere...”

His fingers began to tap. I WILL NOTIFY THE HALL OF THIS...

I let him tap away before asking, “So, how many views does that video have?” I had to ask.

974 MILLION, he replied promptly, and I had to blink.

“Uh, wow?” I had to say. That was a lot of people... in a very short period of time. My computer knowledge was not extensive, but that sounded like something that could have melted a bunch of servers. They would have had to ramp it up VERY quickly to keep up with the demand.

Then again, they probably expected it to explode right from the beginning...

THE HARSITES DID IT RIGHT, MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE TO COPY AND TIED TO YOUR IMAGE, SO IT CAN’T BE CUT OUT OR SPLICED, ONLY WATCHED IN ITS ENTIRETY. AFTER THE FIRST FIFTY THOUSAND, THEY CHARGED A PENNY TO VIEW IT, AND ARE PUTTING IT INTO AN ACCOUNT FOR YOU, AFTER MAINTENANCE COSTS AND THE LIKE.

I lifted an eyebrow in chagrin. Okay, trust the Harsites to act above board on something like this. My face was going to be known everywhere. If it lasted longer, that Disguise Self spell would actually be useful...

“Let me guess that there are now some really powerful movements to require the Human language for international travel, uniform standards to be made up for all countries, and some wags are even calling for a world government?”

AND ALL THE SIGNS SHOULD BE CHANGED, he agreed, as unruffled as ever. ALSO, THERE’S ALREADY CLASSES FOR OTHER RACES TO LEARN IT SPRINGING UP TO MEET THE DEMAND. HALF-BLOODED LIKE YOU CAN LEARN IT EASILY, AS DO THE HYN, BUT THE ORCS, ELVES, DWARVES, AND GOBLINS ARE FINDING IT SOMEWHAT HARDER, AS ARE OTHER RACES.

“The funny thing about magical creatures is how fast they can pick up magical changes to languages.” He thought that over, and just nodded slowly. It certainly wasn’t going to discomfit the ex-human undead long, as their thought processes were centered in Necrus anyways, and dumping knowledge of a stylized and inefficient language for a universal one with a magic hook to it was not a problem.

“I’m sure all the book publishers are going nuts wondering exactly what to do. It is unfortunate that using computers to translate Human isn’t going to work too well...”

THEY’VE NOTICED, AND ARE VERY ANGRY ABOUT THAT. THE FLEXIBLE SYNTAX AND PUNCTUATION ANNOYS A LOT OF LINGUISTS WHO WANT ADAMANT RULES. CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG, BUT THE CENTRAL PRECEPT OF THE LANGUAGE IS ABSOLUTE CLARITY OF MEANING, RIGHT?

“Ideally, yes. It’s not as multi-level meaning as Elven or as mechanical as Denthek, or as precise as Gnomoi. You can tell just by how Human addresses slang and multiple meanings, as the tonals indicate whether the words mean what they say, or are a slang reference. Not using them means you are deliberately trying to mislead people... which you can do, but it’s in the language.”

I NOTICED THAT THERE IS A GREAT ALLOWANCE FOR SLANG, BUT IT’S CLEARLY SPOKEN AS SUCH, he agreed. IT DOESN’T FORGIVE ACCENTS VERY WELL, EITHER.

“Nope,” I agreed. “Accents are generally a sign that you aren’t human. The nature of the language means that you’ll be able to speak it quickly if you are human, simply because you know how it is supposed to sound and how to make the sound. Accents are glaring. Human is one language, not a language with variable pronunciation.”

IT’S A DEFENSIVE MECHANISM AGAINST INFILTRATION AND SUBVERSION, he deduced, his silver pupils visibly glowing as he realized that.

“Very good. Not perfect, but it’s there. Spread the knowledge that Daoists can’t auto-learn the language because they aren’t human anymore. The truth is going to hurt.”

He started tapping buttons again...

“How long before they get you a new Vaccine programmed in Human?” I asked, amused, and he just smiled slightly and kept at it. Always things to see on the internet, I remembered that much...

“Master Fred,” I said suddenly, and he looked up sharply. “Does my video have comments?”

YES, he confirmed.

“Can you go through the old comments and parse out those who actually knew who I was from here in America? If Complareao saw that vid, he or his associates would recognize me, and they might bite on the comments...”

He blinked, and started tapping again...