"Let me guess." I sighed in the face of my grandfather's stern gaze. "They think that we're inherently evil and will want to kill us on sight?"
"Our unwritten histories go back farther than you can imagine, son," Grandpa growled back a cold tone. "One day you will learn, but it is not my story to tell."
"Right." I rolled my eyes and rose from my seat to leave with a wave over my back.
"Our lessons will begin once you arrive at my school." I heard him call behind me, though I took his words with a grain of salt.
Even if they were true, I couldn't have exactly looked forward to seeing his lousy teaching skills in action again. Yet, I was aware of the fact that I still needed a teacher. In particular, I needed insight into new spells. For the biggest lesson taken away from my years of training was that I was veritably ignorant in terms of magic and its potential uses.
Though I shouldn't have been surprised. Nearly all of my knowledge was based on science and technology, after all.
Sure, Telin's hint of magic being based on the caster's knowledge of the particular element or force at hand gave me a large advantage; but that was only manifested in the strength or effectiveness of a particular spell; denser, colder ice, or more control over electrical discharge or paper. Magic, however, was intrinsically about making things do the otherwise impossible. It was forming sentient shadows. It was raising the dead. It was making lances out of electricity.
It was a myriad of things that I had not the slightest inclination of.
I softly blew a raspberry to voice my frustrations as I waddled along the starboard side at a snail's pace and eventually stopped midship for a moment to breathe and take in the environment.
Within seconds, the agitation washed away and the gentle sounds of the waves lapping against the hull rippled into my ears. Salted spray danced through the air to land in my lips and mouth while the vacant cold winds brushed over my coat, gently brushing my hair over my face.
Opening my eyes, I was met with the same night sky that my forefather had been so intently focused on during our 'conversation.'
The canvas felt as strange and ethereal as it'd been the first time I'd laid my eyes on it- A veritable sheet of darkness that stretched from all horizons to my zenith. No moons or planets wandered around the sky and neither nebula nor aurora painted the canvas in any vibrant colors. There were only a couple of star clusters of about 30 or so stars total that collectively streamed enough light onto the Mortal Plane to mimic a full moon.
In other words, the Tiatus system was located within a void. A vast, relatively empty region of space with a radius of anywhere from dozens to hundreds of lightyear's across. Speckled with a few galaxies that were separated by unimaginable distances and filled otherwise with nothing but energy.
In the real world, that energy was composed of a little bit of electromagnetic radiation and a lot of dark energy; the mysterious force driving the acceleration of the universe's expansion. I was unsure if dark energy even existed in this world; in that context at least, but it was evident that a similar type of pervasive energy existed in this place: Mana. An energy that made the impossible, probable.
An energy that I was grossly ignorant of.
"The void. And mana. Magic." I commented aloud to myself as I recalled the vivid, repeating memories that continued in my trances up until this very day. Of a vibrant starfield of galaxies, nebula, and other celestial bodies being consumed by a cloud of dark energy.
These dreams; my Grandfather's words; Telin's comments; the text displayed to me before being reborn in this world. All of these things made it clear to me that my family history was extensively tied to that of the Mortal Plane itself. That it was tied to a history of war, draconic beings, and potentially a near-cataclysmic event that changed the very structure of the Plane forever.
'So many ambitions.' I chuckled to myself as I closed my eyes once more. Truly, there were too many ambitions; too many goals, contained in my frail body. Dreams to form my own guild, to take back Ulai, to grow as powerful as possible, to see and talk to a dragon, and now, to find out the true history of not only this world but of my lineage as well.
It wasn't that I was complaining, nor was I disgruntled with the situation in any way. I only felt that three to five centuries wasn't nearly enough time to learn all that I wanted to in this universe.
Meaning, I may have to become undead after all.
Bringing my eyes back to sea level, my gaze passed upon my vassals up on the flybridge. Watching the cityscape of Odissi grow closer with the passing moments. Pointing and commenting to each other about the strange landscape ahead that they were either seeing for the first time or becoming nostalgic over.
I decided to give them their privacy and continued up to the bow where my father was sitting and sat next to him in companionable silence for a few moments to take in the horizon until he eventually spoke.
"Try not to be too hard on your great-grandfather, Amun," He calmly said.
"He's a great man that I respect and admire," I truthfully said, shaking my head to remove any doubt from my father's mind. Then shrugged. "He simply has no talent for teaching, is all."
"No argument there." He chuckled into his glass and then took a long sip. "I understand you have no interest in politics, Son." He sighed out an alcohol-filled breath. "However, if you truly plan to one day form and lead your own guild and empire, it would be wise for you to at least get a taste of the political world before you attend the academy; regardless if you intend to have subordinates for such roles or not. As such, you'll be coming with me to court until we reach your Grandfather's school. And then you're to stay there until he deems it appropriate for you to return to the Ridge."
"I understand." I politely bowed. Then turned back to the approaching cityscape to linger in the silence for a few moments before speaking again. "May I ask you a few questions?" I turned to him.
"Ask me anything you like." He smiled.
"Well…" I hesitated as I tried to find a way to word the questions. "How do you use shadow magic?"
"Hmm." He looked away with an inquisitive squint as he puffed on his cigar. Then he looked back to me, beaming wide with confidence; as well as something else that I couldn't quite place. "I prominently use our sorcery as a form of armor and as a second body. Thirdly as both a storage device and as a form of locomotion. And lastly for…" he waved his cigar in hand as he tried to find the word. "Environmental uses."
"Can you give me an example, please?" I hopefully squinted at him.
He eagerly set down his cigar and drink before rising from his chair and nonchalantly asking. "Do you have a stick?"
"Uh, sure." I drawled, reaching into my shade pocket for some tinder.
"Light it for me, please." Father calmly stated.
I did as told and lit the stick on fire. Then held the mini torch out at arm's length.
"Listen carefully, Amun," Father said in a much more serious tone. "The true strength of darkness stems from the fact that it persists everywhere. In all environments and in all realms. Even in the brightest light, there exists darkness.
"Look closely." He continued after a short pause. "Observe how the light spreading from that torch touches all that surrounds it. Your hand; your body; my body; all the furniture and the lines on the deck around us. From these objects, darkness is cast in the same way as light- just as fast as light too. They are similar, you see." He grinned maniacally at me like a conspiracy theorist connecting the strings on their chart. "One cannot exist without the other, Amun. For light and darkness are the same, yet different. Two sides of a single coin."
With that said, he focused on the flame and without a motion or gesture, the shadows cast under my hand darkened and swelled upward, consuming the torch in an instant and turning the warm, flickering beacon of light into a cold, lightless flame.
"What is this?" I stared in wonder at the abyssal flames dissipating, leaving nothing but the extinguished charred wood in my hand.
"The Flames of Moil." Father proudly smiled. "A spell with far more uses than what you've just seen."
"That was amazing, Dad!" I genuinely beamed at him. Though I also felt a bit of shame for underestimating him in the first place. As a politician, I assumed he never took the time to develop his magic. Naive or shallow as that line of thinking may have been.
"Oh, it's nothing." Father waved it off in a meek attempt at masking his pride and joy with humility. Then breathed a subtle sigh of relief at seeing my grandfather approach the bow with my vassals in tow. "I'll show you a few more spells during our travels." He reassured me with a pat on the shoulder.
"Very well." I nodded in excitement. Then turned with him to watch in silence as the docks came into view and the deckhands began scrambling around us to throw out the lines to the awaiting crew on the dock.
"Welcome to Thamestown." My grandfather grinned as a piece of infrastructure on the dock rattled to life and a mass of iron particles began aggregating and morphing into the form of a walkway that extended to the deck of our vessel. Then, he gestured for the rest of us to follow him onto the noticeably warm roads of black cobblestone and over to an elevator-like chamber that ascended us to the base of the cupcake's head; essentially the side of the mound.
The Twin Capitals were built upon a huge, round mountain of black iron and volcanic rock that was over 35 kilometers in radius and over 100 kilometers in height. Forming what could only be seen as an overgrown cupcake that protruded over the slushy sea below and allowing the elaborately expansive and artful quays and docks to be shielded from the near-constant downpour of snow from above; if not from the crashing waves from below.
Up here on the mound proper, iron walkways and catwalks served as railed streets that formed wide terraces on the side of the mound. Granting the inhabitants of the opposing side unbridled views of the southern sea and of Deap Ridge just beyond it. To the north; dug into the surface of the mound itself, were endless arrays of shops and malls and houses and apartments that were all walled off from the outside via glass panels and doored with artistically carved or painted planks of blackwood. Giving any passerby a clear view of the extensive greenhouses installed just inside the glass walls of each structure.
While the walkways were more than wide enough for heavy traffic, there were veritably filled on either side with citizens of the Empire. All waving as we approached, taking a knee as we passed, and rising to wave, cheer and praise our names long after we'd gone. The only ones among them that stood out from the crowd were the rare instances of an elaborately dressed individual or someone guiding an uncommon pet through the streets. Otherwise, everyone lived laughably better than in nearly every society I've ever resided in.
Though I didn't fool myself into thinking that this was the standard across our empire.
The most fascinating thing of all was the fact that no matter where I looked, everything was powered by enchantments.
Sure, my grandfather had said such things himself; but seeing was believing.
Everything from the streets themselves to the clothes people wore was enchanted. Mostly to fight against the biting cold, but mainly as a form of transportation. Like the platforms we've used thus far, nearly all of the latter enchantments were composed of black iron; either in a particle form or in the form of cables, walkways, and elevators that connected the different parts of the metropolis together.
Much like the rails in Deap Ridge, other locomotive enchantments heavily relied on magnetism, and every home and the streets around them were heated either through magic or a natural geothermal system.
After a few minutes of wandering and admiring the sights, we arrived at a level on the mound high enough for the first buildings to be erected, if at strange angles relative to the road and reinforced by thick supports of iron and volcanic stone. Instead of continuing our ascent, my grandfather guided us down a deep staircase that extended farther than my superior darkvision allowed me to see.
After checking on my now-blind vassals, I relaxed into my thoughts and began thinking about the geography of the lands I'd be exploring.
Based on what I'd read, Thamestown was the port city of the Deapou Empire that stretched across the vast majority of the surface of the mound. As one would expect of a port city, it was a hub of both shipping and manufacturing and served as the largest source of income to the combined Empires.
Odissi on the other hand…
A deep rumble that reverberated off the walls ripped my wandering thoughts back to me before they could wander astray. And looking forward to the platform at the base of the stairs, I saw a hollow chasm expanding at a crawl at the edge of my vision. Pained with the vibrant colors of visible light.
The ruble came again as the light and color returned. Revealing a vast and voluminous cavern that shouldn't; and probably wouldn't have been stable if not for some unknown type of magic or enchantments.
The platform the staircase we stopped at was only one of many such structures set upon the towering arched ceilings of the subterranean complex. Elevators and extensive walkways and staircases that appeared much the same as the ones outside twisted and turned and wound along the walls from floor to ceiling to connect such paths to the expansive and bustling cityscape below. While above, the unmistakable aggregations of condensed water we gathered near the ceiling and caused to glow a dawn-like light from the massive growing stones embedded into the ceiling.
I couldn't help but visibly gasp in awe at the sights, sounds, and smells that loomed into my senses after we entered a lift and descended towards the surface. The smell of fruit and produce wafted through the air from the open markets sprawled out in the different districts from below, adding upon the melodic cacophony of ambient voices, the constant bustle of society, and the nostalgic sound that I now found myself hearing for the first time in this new life.
Seeing was truly believing, after all
Odissi was situated in the voluminous underground caverns and hollow lava tubes within the mound, an area so vast that it had its own self-contained weather system. Like the surface above, the subterranean metropolis was geothermally heated, naturally creating the only place in the empire with liquid precipitation. Thus forming the cornerstones of the Odissian economy: Leisure, Wellness and Tourism.
The entire city was a famous tourist destination for things like spas, hot springs, or elaborate restaurants and served as a proverbial playground for the many visitors and travelers who came from the warmer parts of Maru.
After traveling through the streets of Odissi and enduring much the same treatment as before, we arrived at a keep-like structure in the rear-center of the metropolis and entered an elevator that took us to one of the large castles that sat at the top of the mound.
My vassals and I split up after exiting the lift and I soon after found myself drifting through the Shadowfell in pursuit of my forefathers and later stepping out into a hall filled with roaring trumpets, dancing jesters, plush carpets, and rows of individuals lining the walls on either side of the expansive dining hall.
After reaching the end of the hall and seating ourselves at a table, four individuals marched in and receive the same treatment as we. Only they halted before our table and took up a knee like the other nobles around them.
"Welcome, your Imperial Majesty, Your Highness, and His Grace." The man and woman in the middle said in near unison. "We of the Noble House of Fulgum are honored to have you in our presence."
A long awkward pause stretched between the words of the nobles and any other sound. And in that moment I saw the unease; the fear in some cases that my grandfather's death mana naturally brought out of the crowd.
"Rise and be seated." My grandfather elegantly grunted out in his usual tone after the long moment had passed. And everyone pounced up at once and scattered to the arranged tables.
The Fulgum family moved to the seats opposing ours at the table while my vassals and who I assumed were their vassals occupied linear picnic table-like seats on either side of os.
And from there, I turned on my proverbial autopilot and made sure to hear and see as much as I could for the sake of my Eternal Eye while letting my mind wander about whatever it pleased. Tuning in only when something interesting caught my ears or when I was forced to socialize with the Fulgum's.
Through the surprisingly tasty dinner of whole-roasted fowl and vegetables, I learned several things. Mostly about the family of lightning witches and wizards that stood below my father in our political hierarchy.
Marquis Raiga Fulgum was a man in his forties with bark-toned skin and gray streaks of hair creeping along his temples, but was otherwise a man as tall and solid as the great trees that populated our empire. Marchioness Lilinoe Caglia-Fulgum was a tall, petite, and curvaceous woman with straight blue-black hair and penetrating eyes; she was just as old as her husband but looked just as young as the twenty-something-year-old Countess Rachel Caglia-Fulgum and the Count Liam Caglia-Fulgum standing by her and her husband's side. All smiling amiably at the lot of us.
In terms of magic, the Marquis and his daughter both had lightning magic while the Marchioness and her son both had mist magic. More impressive to me, however, were the reports they gave to my forefathers.
Through them, I learned that the two heads of the noble family were responsible for all that occurred within the Odissian Empire, except Koka, my Grandfather's county in the northwestern region of the mainlands. The count and countess both had their own counties that were each relatively close to the capital city. Though each of them held much the same conditions.
Because of the wealth of enchantments, our empire was privy to, each settlement in each county was reported to have an abundance of food that they could harvest year-round; obvious results of having each and every structure containing a greenhouse, though each region still specialized in a different industry. Liam's city-state of Lalande specialized in ranching, hunting, and agricultural artisan goods like wine and cheese while Rachel's city of Cagliostro grew and bred cotton and silk-producing insects that turned the relatively small city into the fashion hub of the empire.
Regardless of where each civilization was located or what they produced, they all were linked via the enchanted bullet trains that stretched across the mainlands. Forming an efficient logistics system and allowing a healthy trade-based relationship to develop across the city-states. Further fueling the economy.
Most shocking to me of all was that neither my Grandfather nor my father imposed any tax on neither the citizens nor any business. They and the nobles below them were open to paying a tribute if they so wished. Though if they did, it was implied that my Grandfather would deny the offer while my father wouldn't.
From what I could gather, the deal was that my grandfather; being the warrior-emperor that he was, would protect each city or settlement with a dead zone and grant them an undead militia to protect their lands with. My father on the other hand; being a politician, imposed a tax only on imported and exported goods and invested the majority of that money, the money from tributes and a lot of my grandfather's wealth into things like urban development, education, and healthcare.
It was because of those things that every Odissian and Deapouan citizen had the freedom and rights to not only grow their own food but to receive a free education and healthcare system as well. Allowing everyone to live a lavish life in such a hostile environment, regardless of social class.
Though in my skeptical mind, I knew it wasn't sustainable. And it was made evident that the empire wasn't a utopia. Crime still existed, for one. If barely. And whether to mine, forage or hunt, people had to venture outside the dead zones and face the wild beasts of the expansive frozen plains.
The last notable piece of information that I gathered from the dinner came from the fact that the siblings; the Count and Countess, were both eying Toril strangely. Contemptuously. As if they were simultaneously jealous of and looking down on him. Conversely, Toril seemed visibly uncomfortable. His eyes were practically glued to a plate that looked like it belonged in a display window rather than on its way to his stomach.
Looking back, I had my suspicions when I learned the Marquis and his daughter had lightning magic like Toril. But I hardly expected that he could have been of noble blood.
Though that wasn't what astounded me, it was the fact that I knew next to nothing about him. It was the fact that I knew next to nothing about any of them. Granted, we all met when we were five. But that didn't mean that they didn't have their own pasts, interests, and dreams; I realized.
And then made a point to find out what they were, for each of them.
After dinner, much the same process of our entrance was repeated and I found myself huddled in a private chamber with my forefathers, the Marquis, and his wife. Where he gave my dad a massive chest of coins and jewels that my father casually kicked into his shadow.
"Again." Raiga bowed as my father turned back to him. "It was my pleasure to host the esteemed Royal House of Cole."
"As always, Raiga." My father grinned at him while patting his shoulder. "I look forward to my visit next year."
"As do I, Your Highness." He bowed again. Then turned to me. "And I look forward to my venture to the royal capital in a few years to see Your Grace take the next step on the path to mage hood. And above all, I look forward to seeing the magical prowess I've heard so much about."
"As do I." I bowed to him. Then gave a dismissing nod to the Marchioness before turning about to throw somewhat contemptuous looks at the back of my father's head, disappearing into the shadows.
"Jeez. That was a nightmare." My grandfather's groan echoed out towards me after I fell into the umbral dimension. "I'll be taking my leave now," He then said, turning to us.
"So be it." Father abruptly nodded. "We shall retire for the morning and set out at sundown. Expect us in Koka by the following morning."
"Yeah, yeah." Grandfather impatiently waved over his shoulder as he continued down into the Shadowfell. Past the dilapidated streets and buildings and through the semi-solid surface of concentrated darkness.
Where he disappeared entirely.