Chapter 536 - Alumni Visit III (Patreon)

The first thing to do was to test [Event Horizon]. 

I summoned the skill in front of me, a small black disk with glowing edges appearing in front of me. With a bit of practice and testing, I found I could change the size of the disk, making it larger or smaller, and I could summon as many as I could think about. I found I could either have the disks ‘hold forever’, put a timer on how long they lasted, or dismiss them when I wanted to. 

I could move them around, but it wasn’t nearly as efficient as dismissing it and recreating it in a new spot.

We all suspected that summoning the disks took a little bit of mana as it actively destroyed a bit of air, but my regeneration was so high I couldn’t tell if that was the case or not.

I couldn’t control the shape, just the size. It was always a flat disk of pure darkness, with the edges glowing. No matter what angle I looked at it, the edges were glowing while the rest was dark, which was weird but kinda cool.

Not nearly as pretty though, which was a vicious stab into the vanity. Most of the time, when the companion bond vanity was messing with my head, it came along with perfectly reasonable explanations. This time, it just grated like a loose tooth.

I could summon the disks inside soil and rocks, which put it firmly in the Darkness side of Celestial, as well as giving a really good reason why it’d been so hard for me to get the skill myself.

When Iona cautiously swiped a vitality-reinforced chair through one of the disks, they all vanished with a pop while my mana took an absolutely murderous hit.

“Interesting.” Artemis said. “While it’s something of a downside, it suggests that if you overpower someone enough, you could actively destroy their weapons or even their hand.”

[Event Horizon] being a set of disks was obnoxious from a full-sphere protection standpoint. I needed to make four spheres all around me, then one on the top. After that, I needed one on each corner, and at that stage I was annoyed enough to make them larger and overlapping, so I wouldn’t be endlessly plugging holes. It was going to be a little worse at stopping gas-based attacks, but my healing shrugged those off with a laugh.

When it came to protecting other people, men and women of the Sixth Legion, from various attacks and projectiles? [Event Horizon] promised to be king.

There was a fun ‘things come full circle’ aspect to the skill. It had started off, eons and a lifetime ago, as [Privacy], a dark veil that let me consult with patients without other people eavesdropping. With the newest evolution, it once again could act as a strong privacy barrier. Light, sound, air, nothing got through - although it was trivial for a person to walk through.

An interesting twist to the skill was it didn’t try to ‘eat’ people at all. A fist passed through harmlessly, without draining any mana, but a fist holding a skill-reinforced knife did drain mana until the skill broke. Trying to pass a knife through the skill without reinforcing it with a skill simply dissolved the knife, and let the hand pass through harmlessly.

All in all, some vague dissatisfaction I had with the skill was alleviated by the knowledge that it had plenty of room to grow and evolve as time went by.

=======================

The island was heading for the North Continent, but at its own sweet pace. It was going to take about a week to cross the ocean, and more than once I considered just flying as high as I could, then shooting around the planet to the Phoenix Peaks and going to find Auri now.

Iona and everyone else restrained me and counseled caution and research. I was persuaded to class up my second and third class, once I got a few things settled. In particular, a visit to the restricted section of the library could give my third class one final bit of oomph when it came to upgrading it. We spent our time going on nostalgia tours, seeing the places we’d been.

“This is so weird.” I said as we strolled down the roads, a great tiger in the night sky indicating it was ‘day’ according to the School’s own schedule. “Like, where is everyone? The roads are so empty.”

Yeah, there were two or three students running around, but that was practically abandoned. Iona laughed and patted my arm.

“I think you’re forgetting something.” She teased me with that voice that could drive me so crazy. I bit on the obvious bait.

“What am I forgetting?” I asked, ready to get roasted.

Iona delivered.

“You were always in class!” She gleefully teased. “The only times you were on these roads, you were rushing back and forth between classes, the cafeteria, our dorm, or the library! The busiest times of day! Of course it looks weird to you, you never stopped to stroll down them casually!”

I made a disgusted noise, and briefly considered retaliating by mentioning I’d made the most out of my time here. There was the potential that it’d go over quite badly though, and the insult might be too low of a blow. I was all for teasing, but not when it actually hurt someone’s feelings.

“Speaking of the cafeteria, want to grab some food then go to the lake where we started dating?” I asked.

“Yeah!”

We picked up an absolute mess at the cafeteria. Blueberry waffles drenched with maple syrup, piles of cream on top of them with chocolate sprinkles so thick it turned it brown. We openly smuggled them out, knowing the disapproving glares had no power here, and used our dexterity to easily balance them while we headed over to the lake. We passed through the School’s center park as we did so, the eight central towers of learning looking almost exactly the same as when we’d last been here. Enthusiastic students had painted a mural on the Earth tower, and the Wood tower had a whole new set of blooming flowers, but the others looked mostly the same.

I stiffened as we got near, tuning down my hearing.

“Why don’t we find a slightly different spot to eat these?” I suggested.

“Someone’s already busy in our spot?” Iona asked with a laugh.

“Ahhh, young love!”

We sat by the lake, looking at the crescent moons reflected in the still water, stars scattered across the sky. My head was on Iona’s shoulder, and her arm was wrapped around my waist as we ate our delicious waffles.

“Let’s make a tradition of this.” I quietly suggested. “Every decade or so, let’s make sure we come here.”

“Yeah. Let’s do that. It sounds nice.” Iona agreed.

===============

Iona had a number of professors she wanted to swing by and say hi to, and so did I. I first went looking for Marcelle, my old vampire advisor. I checked her schedule, and nostalgically wandered around campus until she had office hours. She had the same office, so she was easy enough to find. I knocked on the door, sensing two people in her room but not wanting to pry too deeply.

College campuses were a bad place to have super senses. Kinda made me want to proctor an exam for shits and giggles, see how many people I could catch cheating. At the same time, I had a bit of a packed schedule. Lots to do. The idea of giving a lecture briefly flitted across my mind, but the time it would take to organize and arrange… I had a lot to do. Maybe another day. 

“I wonder who that could be…” She said quietly. “Excuse me. Come in!” The last part was much louder, and I entered with grace. Marcelle was sitting with another vampire, a mostly full bottle of bloodwine on the table, and two half-full glasses in front of them. It took me a minute to recognize the other vampire. Only ‘school’ and ‘vampire’ was able to get me the connection. It was the jerk who’d helped translate my entrance exams - Vitus.

“Elaine, my darling, my favorite student! Come on, sit down, take a seat! Vitus and I were just talking about the old country together, and last I remember you were heading that way! How have you been? Were you ever able to find Aulus?”

A few more things clicked, a note in my [Astral Archives] leading to another segment of memories, where I’d been with Arachne. Granted, I’d been tied up, hanging from the ceiling, so a little distracted. 

Vitus had been the one who sold me out! He’d sent a letter to the Rangers tattling on me! However, I was here, in Marcelle’s office, and he was a guest. The laws of hospitality ruled, and I wasn’t going to start any nonsense.

“Marcelle! Yes! That letter of introduction was perfect. It really helped me find my feet.” I warmly greeted her, and since hospitality ruled, I briefly, but coldly, acknowledged her company. “Vitus. Thank you again for translating when I first came here.” If I didn’t say another word, that’d be fine.

I sat down, Marcelle growing a vine that grabbed another glass and put it down in front of me. She rummaged around in her desk, grabbing a more normal wine - blood wine just didn’t do it for me for a large number of reasons - and poured me a generous helping.

Vitus narrowed his eyes at me, and opened his mouth.

“Frankly, I’m surprised to see you back here, alive, and not crucified along the main road. Impersonating a Sentinel is a major crime, you must’ve toned it down.”

Thank dexterity - without my dexterity being so much greater than my strength, I would’ve lost control and shattered the wine glass in my hand. Instead, I gently put it down, ignoring Vitus.

“Marcelle. I apologize, I need to visit my wardrobe for a minute.” I said, vanishing into [Vault of Ages] a moment later.

Vitus was going to be rude? Vitus was going to be a dick?

Fine. I didn’t start this, but I could finish it. Sentinels had broad powers and rights, which practically speaking only extended towards Exterreri citizens - of which Marcelle and Vitus were both one.

My armory was close to [Vault’s] entrance, for rapidly arming myself when needed. However much I wanted to, this wasn’t an emergency, and I took the extra minute to put my fancy School robes where they belonged, before suiting myself up in the full ‘ready for a fight’ Sentinel armor.

Vitus didn’t deserve the ‘nice’ ceremonial gear, and he knew enough about Sentinels to appreciate the message being sent by the distinction. I included my shortsword and tower shield, electing to skip the spear. Did not fit in the office at all. I finished it with my badges - the golden eagle of Remus and the black and red bat of the Sentinels. My helmet was on for maximum intimidation.

I spent a little bit of time considering how I wanted to handle things. There was a full range from ‘just show up and not say anything’, which was its own type of flex, all the way to defenestrating Vitus. Which would be admittedly satisfying, but in spite of his likely ability to be fine, was too close to violating the spirit of my [Oath].

I teleported back in, standing as tall as I could, staring at Vitus. Wish I could stare down at him, but I was too damn short.

“I am Sentinel Dawn. You had your chance to help when I was a lost stranger in a new land, and you blew it. I’ve been trying to be nice because of Marcelle and hospitality, but frankly, you’re a massive dick. Calling a Ranger squad on me? You know exactly what that entails, you basically tried to murder me. With your attitude, actions, and words, I’d be frankly shocked if hospitality still stands. Marcelle?”

She didn’t look too happy, and I felt a little bad. I’d basically put her between a rock and a hard place, and she wasn’t exactly all-in on the social niceties and navigating them. She was a [Biomancer] fanatic and teacher. 

Vitus looked a mix between furious and scared, and there was a large degree of satisfying schadenfreude going on. 

“I wasn’t wrong!” He practically spat at me. “Nothing about your story or situation made sense, and the odds were far in favor of you being an imposter! What was I supposed to do, turn a blind eye to a girl half the level she should be, the wrong race, on the wrong side of the world with absurd claims, when all the Sentinels know each other? Should I pat every [Charlatan] on the head and give them all my money? No! I-”

“Vitus, you should probably leave.” Marcelle gently suggested, pushing the bloodwine bottle towards him. “We’ve got quite a few more years together, but Elaine is only here for a short bit.”

He looked like he was going to explode, but instead took the peace offering and stormed outside the room. Marcelle watched with a raised eyebrow, looking at her glass of wine like she was debating pouring it out.

“Did he really try to murder you?” She asked. I sat down and waggled my hand.

“Kind of. He sent a letter to the Rangers describing me as an imposter, and I’ve been on those missions. We like taking people alive when we can, but if we confirm it’s an imposter and it’s too difficult? Rangers are empowered to enforce the law. I do wish I could do more than simply embarrass him.”

Marcelle shrugged and sipped at her wine. I took off my helmet and drank some. It was a lovely red with a pleasant, spicy tingle.

“Such is life and the price of power and responsibility. I have no doubt you could utterly ruin him if you wanted to, but I suppose you’ll have to settle for damaging him socially.”

I frowned. I wanted to do more, but… Maybe that was all I could do, and still be me.

Or maybe I could visit his office and [Rapid Reshelving] things around. 

Marcelle snapped her fingers, and seeing her cup was nearly empty, poured herself a large helping of wine.

“That’s what Sentinel Spark interrupted one of my lectures for! Okay, I’m starting to see it now. Why don’t you tell me everything?”

“It all started when we left the School. We were over Suen, and we hit upon a place called Osengard…”

======================

Linnet, the wonderful old lady was my next stop. I stopped by her place, knocking on the door. She’d really changed the look since I was last here! Less elderly grandmother, more energetic youngster.

Rapid footsteps made me re-evaluate that, and my face fell when a young man entered into range of my perception sphere. He opened the door.

“Yes? Can I help you with something?” He asked.

“No, sorry. I was looking for Linnet. Do you know where she’s gone?” I asked. An awkward look passed over his face.

“Did nobody tell you?” He asked. “She died two years ago.”

Oh.

========================

Land on the School was extremely limited, no matter the wide-open spaces the main campus tried to flaunt. It was an overstuffed, overpopulated island that only managed to feed the massive population via significant numbers of Classers. The earlier ‘attack’ on Iona and I via scam property had me thinking about it.

If I wanted to cripple the School, all I would need to do was kill a few select Classers that kept the crops growing, then burn a few storehouses of food. Done at the right time, as the island was heading north, and riots would break out before starvation hit most people. 

Linnet’s grave was a single brass metal nameplate, just barely large enough to hold her name, on one of dozens of filled pillars on the second level of the tabernacle in the School. That, and a dozen fresh flowers placed near the pillar, were the only physical traces left of one of the warmest, kindest person I’d ever known. My fingers hovered over the plate, not touching it at all, too aware that touching it would wear it away.

I intended to live for a long, long, long time, and I didn’t want Linnet to dry up and blow away on the breeze, as so many others had. 

I had my mental Book of the Dead in [Astral Archives], a memory, a reminder, of everyone I’d known who’d been embraced by White Dove or Black Crow. Knowing Linnet, it had been the first, and I cried as I wrote her name in, simply the latest in a long, long list.

I traced a mental finger over all the names, remembering each person. How they had smiled, how they’d laughed. Memories we’d made together, that now only I had. Bringing them forth once again, granting them one last bit of life.

Everyone died twice. Once when their soul left their mortal coil, and a second time when their name was spoken for the last time.

Word by word, name by name, I listed them off.

“Mom. Dad. Lyra…”

It was a solid reminder that not everything lasted. I was Immortal, I had the long view on things. But if my view was too long, I’d miss life. I’d miss what was right in front of me. 

I should make sure I didn’t lose Artemis and Julius to something stupid. Once I was done here, I was going to march right back up there, and politely insist that they let me make them young again.

Iona somehow knew where I was, what I was doing, and that I needed some emotional support. That, or I’d been here so long she came wandering over to find me.

====================

Julius and Artemis took a bit of convincing. Artemis wasn’t entirely on board to become Immortal herself, but the two of them kept arguing who I should make Immortal first. I could only make one of them Immortal right now for a variety of reasons. The cooldown on the skill combined with the window for getting Auri were big ones, and the few gems I had in [Vault] all had the Amber-recommended amount of time on them, which would turn Julius or Artemis back to 8 years old - not something either of them were willing to go through.

In the end, Artemis won - the one-two punch of her somehow having more vitality than Julius and my earlier threat to make her eight again being the critical tiebreaker - and Julius was first up. It was only us - Iona had offered to make herself scarce during the event, and fend off anyone who might interrupt us.

We sat down in their living room, all three of us holding hands.

“You want 24?” I asked.

“24.” Julius confirmed. “Seems like a nice number.”

I wanted to barf when Artemis made a rowr noise. I knew the two were together, but I really, really, did not want those images in my head.

“Please have mercy on me.” I begged.

Artemis looked like she was going to fuck with me more, but a warning glare from Julius shut her up.

“Remember, she can turn you into a kid.” He said.

“Alright, here goes.” I activated the skill.

The room faded away into darkness, motes of starlight appearing all around us. The cosmos spun, and we went on a journey through space, passing by glorious nebulae, burning stars, gas giants with beautiful rings, and multi-colored planets in orbit. Finally we settled down on a meteor blazing through space, a brightly burning tail trailing off to the side, away from the sun. My skill took.

The meteor reversed direction, and started to ‘suck in’ its tail, growing larger and larger as it spun round and round the solar system. Another large chunk came round and slammed into it, easily doubling its size. I judged with my skill level and experience that Julius was roughly the age I was aiming for, and I dropped the skill, reality fading in once again.

[*ding!* [The Stars Never Fade] leveled up! 55 -> 56]

Julius looked fantastic. I felt like I’d nailed it, and wow, I realized I’d never seen Julius this young. He’d been much older when I first met him. 

Goddess. How time flew. 

White Dove flew in through the window.

There weren’t any windows in the room. 

She alit upon Artemis’s head, giving me the stink-eye as I glared at Artemis, hoping she wouldn’t try to do anything unutterably stupid in defense of her husband. We’d talked about it before, but there was no telling with her. Her orbs didn’t react, but there was no telling with the twitchy mage. 

White Dove spoke, rattling the very island itself. Large waves from the lake crashed against the walls of the villa, and the furniture rattled.

I suppose this was one place in the world that never got earthquakes.

“Tiberius Julius Lepidus. [Ranger-Commander]. [Cutting Breeze of the Rangers]. You have chosen to deny me forevermore. For this, I curse you. Oh mighty warrior. May every weapon you pick up carry the weight of all those you have slain.”

I was expecting the full 3-in-1 curse that White Dove usually did, but she vanished after the simple pronouncement, leaving behind only a single white feather, drifting down onto the table. Julius looked a little worried.

“Why do I have the feeling that I’m going to have problems with dinner knives?”

I knew perception could shape a lot of things, from skills to curses. I decided to fuck with Julius just a little.

“Why are you worried about the dinner knives? I’m pretty sure you taught me how to use forks and spoons as weapons as well!” He’d taught me the philosophy of ‘everything can be a weapon’ after all, it wasn’t like I was truly messing with him. Artemis would’ve reminded him about the idea ten minutes into their conversation about it, if he hadn’t come up with it in two.

“You little shit.” The words were mean, but the tone?

Pure affection. 

=====================================

Iona and I were visiting the library, working on checking off everything we wanted to do. Vitus’s office was officially checked off my todo list - for this visit. Iona had a vicious streak in her - it was far better to fuck with a single important thing than to toss over his entire office. It might take some time for him to notice, meaning he wouldn’t be on guard for the next few visits.

Plus, it tended to take shrimp a few weeks to properly ripen, and they were inside the curtain rods. 

I loved my wife.

Medium-low on our list was investigating the Pekari, to better prepare ourselves for after this trip. Iona wanted to see if she could significantly cripple, or even outright destroy their operation.

I set my goals a little lower. There had been millions upon millions of Classers ever since the Pekari started their activity, untold centuries ago. In all that time, none of them had wanted to wipe out the Pekari? Nobody had Iona’s level and drive, and wanted to fight them to the bitter end?

But, just as Iona vigorously supported me in everything I wanted to do, I wanted to support her. 

A familiar blue-robed demon was at the front.

“Martin! How are you?” I asked him.

“Elaine.” He didn’t miss a beat. I was guessing being a [Librarian] included supercharged versions of my memory skills, among other things. “Welcome back. Are you here to return the books you checked out?”

I froze, my mind racing. Wait. What books? Had I checked something out and committed the cardinal sin of not returning it? Oh gods, how high were the fees? Wait a minute…

Martin grinned.

“Just messing with you! Here for anything special, or just looking around?”

I leaned in with Iona and dropped my voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

“Ah, well, you see, while I was here, there was a certain book in the section that doesn’t exist that I saw, but never ended up reading. I was wondering if I could be allowed to take a look at it?”

Martin went from affable and friendly to on-guard in a heartbeat. He glanced at Iona and back to me.

“It’s going to strongly depend on which book and why.” He said. “Follow me to my office.”

We found ourselves in his sealed stronghold a while later, Martin sitting behind his desk with his hands folded on his desk.

“Now. Make your case.” He said. “You are not here as one of the [Students] working in the library, but as an outsider requesting access to otherwise forbidden knowledge.”

I straightened up, silently communicating with Iona. I was taking point on this.

“I’m a [Loremaster] now, although I’m unsure for how much longer.” I started. “I’ve got access to vast quantities of information, knowledge, and dangers already. I’ve already been trusted to read the contents of the library in the past. We’re looking to read The Secret of the Pekari, to better fight them.”

Martin looked like he wanted to laugh when he heard the title. Instead, he shook his head.

“I’m not going to flat-out deny you, but please trust me when I say this. Reading that book will harm your ability to combat the Pekari. If you wish to learn all about them, there’s a section dedicated to the Pekari in the library, which I will be happy to guide you to. However, if you insist, I will let you read it.”

Iona and I traded another look. Knowledge was power.

“Why don’t I go read that book, and you start digging through the standard knowledge section. We’ll meet up in a bit and trade notes?” I suggested.

Martin sighed.

“Your loss. Come on.”

He nabbed a student and had her direct Iona to the standard section, while he took me to the forbidden section. I shamelessly used all my skill in combination to speed-read as many books as I could, absorbing cursed knowledge from tomes I’d found too boring back when I’d been a student here. In no time at all I had the book in my hands.

The Secret of the Pekari.

I wasn’t big on author names, but this one caught my eye.

By Susan Weaver.