Chapter 507 - Poor Guests (Patreon)

I’d be the first to admit, I hadn’t exactly been the model of the perfect Sentinel since returning back to Exterreri and Sanguino. I’d basically shot right home, jumped into a bath, then tunneled under the covers of my bed and stayed there.

Three, almost four years deployed in the field, and I felt like I’d more than earned it. The Sixth wasn’t back yet, and I figured I had some time. What would they need me for anyway? What crisis, what issue, could possibly need Sentinel Dawn, and not one of the six dozen other active Sentinels? My job was being attached to the Sixth.

I didn’t groan as I got up from the dinner table, waving down Iona and Julius who’d started to get up to follow me. Artemis stayed seated, but had doubled the speed she was scarfing down food.

Smart woman.

“I’ve got this.” I told my friends.

“Thank you Titania.” I said, the woman nodding and bowing slightly. I mused over what the possibilities could be as I navigated my way to the entry.

My best case scenario was Arachne politely going ‘excuse me Dawn, I was hoping you’d report back in of your own volition when coming back home, and this is a friendly reminder that I’d love to hear what happened in the Han empire.’

I didn’t want to think what other scenarios could be. A plague was high on the ‘well thank fuck’ list, all the way down to ‘war’s broken out, everyone up and at them’.

A war wouldn’t be fair. I’d just gotten back home!

I’d just spent years getting the message ‘war isn’t fair’ ground into my face.

I didn’t flinch when I saw the [Courier] with a four-man escort at the door, but it was a near thing. The only time when a [Courier] had an escort was when the missive was of critical importance.

I wasn’t polite. I quickly scanned the missive in the fancy envelope before I even entered the room. Perks of [Manuscript Mastery] along with [The World Around Me].

Sentinel Dawn,

You are summoned to appear before Sentinel Arachne and the rest of Command on a matter of extreme urgency. Details are in the form of: Book by order of which we discussed, word number.

4-9273, 7-283, 11-33894…

Do not come before decoding the message.

Sincerely,

Sentinel Arachne.

PS: Bring Valkyrie Iona with you, I have some questions for her, unrelated to the above.

My eyes narrowed. Either this was the most elaborate ‘congratulations on getting married’ prank ever, or there was something so sensitive going on that even Arachne had to put it into code.

For fuck’s sake. I spun off three [Parallel Thoughts] to work on decoding the stupid letter.

Smoke and mirrors.

If something Major was going down, everyone would be looking to the Sentinels.

Well, mostly. There were a number of other bodies and-

I shunted the thought off into [Parallel Thoughts] to happily natter on about the various structures in Exterreri and who’d be looked to for leadership and support in various positions. The [Emperor] was a big one, but…

End of the day, I had to look good for appearances sake, especially if everything was going to hit the fan. Give people confidence that they were in good hands, no matter how true or false that may be.

“Thank you [Courier].” I tried to [Rapid Reshelving] the letter to my hand, showing off a bit, but the [Courier] had his own skills protecting it. I tugged on it a few times anyway, figuring it would help him level up if nothing else.

‘Protected a package from a War Sentinel trying to yoink it’ had to be good for a few skill levels if not class levels.

With a great deal of formality, bowing, and the whole nine yards, I got the letter at last. With a round of salutes, they all left, and I went back to the dining room, muttering curses at Arachne under my breath. I threw myself into my chair when I got back.

“Bad news?” Iona asked.

“Yes!” I complained. “Arachne knows I’ve got a perfect memory. She knows I’ve got every damn word of the damn books memorized. She interrogated me over my skills. She knows I don’t have a fucking counting skill! So. Damn. Stupid!” I swore.

I could think incredibly fast, and had every word of every book memorized. It didn’t mean I didn’t have to manually count 33,894 words deep for a single word!

And that was just one word of the entire damn letter! It wasn’t a short letter!

Fortunately, Arachne was concise if not short, with minimal wasted words and no flowery language.

Trio of phoenixes looking for Auri. High level, temperamental. Appear to be under the impression that we’re holding her captive? Don’t let others know. We don’t want a panic. Strong chance that they’ll attempt to inflict harm on you when you arrive. Don’t want you thinking I’m leading you into an ambush. Come from the tunnels. Bring Auri.

[*ding!* [Luminary Mind] leveled up! 476 -> 477]

Huh. Interesting that simply thinking very hard was enough to level the skill now. I was now even more certain it could merge with -

[*ding!* [Parallel Thoughts] leveled up! 294 -> 298]

Annnd there it was. Excellent! Two more levels until I could think seven different ways.

Okay, fine, it wasn’t that many words, but when I needed to count to 16,392 to get one of them, it was a goddamn eternity. At least I could see a solid reason for putting this into code - ‘phoenixes are thinking of burning down the capital’ was something to keep under wraps at all costs. The panic such a rumor could cause could be more devastating than any fire. Part of me wanted to analyze how well Arachne could, on the fly, make up a cypher that wasn’t easily broken that just the two of us would understand.

The PS at the end was also interesting.

Julius coughed significantly.

“Summons from Arachne.” I idly responded. “I’ve got to go. Iona, she’s also asking if you’d like to tag along on a separate matter. Interested?” I wasn’t going to tell my girlfriend - fiancee!!! - what to do.

I grabbed what leftovers I could as I stood up, briefly wondering if I should wear armor and deciding against it.

I was immune to fire, but I had no idea if the protection extended to my clothes or not with [Etheric Aegis], and I didn’t want to find out as metal melted around me. Sounded painful.

“Of course. We’re leaving now?” Iona asked, grabbing a pair of dinner rolls off the table. I threw half a block of cheese in my mouth.

“Yuhf.” I tried to say, not succeeding too well.

She got the message, and trying not to choke, we left at top speed back to Sanguino. After I finished chewing, I quickly gave Iona the rundown in English, fairly certain nobody could overhear us.

Not as certain as I’d been before meeting… what was his name again? I’d done my best to purge it from my memory, and the less I remembered, the better.

We found the ‘secret’ tunnels outside of Sanguino, and I unceremoniously teleported in, backtracking to open the door for Iona. The two of us wandered, hand-in-hand, the tunnels below Sanguino.

“Left.” I said, able to see Arachne’s tiny threads forming into an arrow, guiding us through the city. I tugged Iona along, enjoying our walk together and how she let me direct her.

“Do you think she wants me to spy on the phoenix’s skills?” Iona speculated, running her calloused thumb over the back of my hand. It tingled in the most pleasant way.

“Mmmmm.” I made a disagreeing noise. “She said it was for a different reason. It might be worth checking their skills for Auri though. See if there’s anything neat she can work towards.”

We continued to speculate what Arachne wanted to see Iona for as we navigated our way through the endless maze of tunnels under Sanguino. Our general consensus was Arachne wanted to ‘borrow’ Iona’s blessing to see status and skills to check up on someone.

The two of us made it to Arachne’s underwater lair without any issues, the door silently opening as we approached.

Once again I was struck by the sheer aesthetics of the place. It was a large dome of thick green glass at the bottom of Bloodmoon Bay, light barely filtering in. Fish swam by and crabs scuttled on the dome. Arachne got up from her chair, the center of the gigantic spiderweb that covered all of Sanguino. I Radiance-focused in on her neck tattoos, studying them with one part of [Parallel Thoughts]. Would neck tattoos look good on me? On Iona? Was there any inspiration to be taken there?

I was engaged! Thank fuck for [Parallel Thoughts], I’d never get any work done otherwise.

“Sentinel Dawn. Valkyrie Iona. I am so pleased to see the two of you back alive and well. No Auri?”

We traded looks. Auri obviously wasn’t around, but just as clearly I wasn’t acting like my heart had been ripped out. Arachne was practically omniscient within the boundaries of Sanguino, but didn’t have feelers all the way out to my home, so she couldn’t have known Auri wasn’t around yet. Well, technically, I suppose the phoenix not visiting her bakery was a bit of a clue, but then again, I’d dove under the covers and hadn’t done a thing.

“Auri elected to stay with the Sixth as they returned home.” I reported. “Additionally, I would like to apologize for not immediately reporting back in. I-”

Arachne waved off my explanation.

“Dear, you don’t need to explain yourself to me. I’ve been in more wars and campaigns than I can count. I completely understand the need to just… exist after such events. Night would like to swing by if you’re alright with it. He’s got some experience in these matters. I suggested waiting until you came out on your own. For that, I would like to apologize, but the situation here is delicate.”

Arachne started to pace nervously back and forth. I’d never seen her in anything but utter control of the situation.

“We can speak freely here.” She said. “First off, I would be utterly remiss for failing to congratulate you on classing up. You have successfully passed the great divide, and at your age, can be counted among the elite of the elites. If things go wrong, Dawn, know that this is a safe place. They won’t come down here, not with so much water that can threaten them. In the worst-case scenario, if you manage to get them down here, break the glass. The entirety of Bloodmoon Bay crashing down on their heads might be enough to permanently kill them, but I would not want to find out. I don’t believe it will come to that. They are an eclectic, touchy lot, with a non-stop stream of obnoxious demands. Nothing too serious. They are quite determined to talk with Auri one way or another. I believe the best course of action is to send Sentinel Spark to the Sixth Legion, and have him retrieve Auri. She is your bonded companion. Thoughts?”

I couldn’t see any reason why I wouldn’t want Auri back home sooner. I glanced at Iona, who wordlessly divined my question. She nodded.

“Sure, let’s do it.” I said.

Arachne nodded.

“The message has been sent. Hopefully Rolland has not lost an entire army.” She said dryly.

Arachne then stepped in front of Iona, half-bowing before her. Her words and tone went super formal, reminding me strongly of Night.

“Valkyrie Iona, great [Paladin] of the moons. I wish to beseech Selene and Lunaris for a small fraction of their wisdom, praying that they will grant me with an answer to a small question of mine. A question that is potentially lethal to speak, a question that is dangerous to know the existence of, and even more dangerous to know the answer. Yet, despite all this, I humbly ask for you to become a conduit between me and the goddesses. Are you so willing?” She asked.

That wasn’t what I was expecting at all. We were sure Arachne wanted Iona to peek at someone’s stats, not directly make a request of her patron divinities.

Arachne’s door opened again, and a sword was carried along by her endless threads.

“Do not think I am so crass as to ask without offering anything in return.” She continued. “Please, take this offering, for yourself or the goddesses. Forged of an alloy of Skyte, Glacium, and Starsteel, the elements of Gravity, Ice, and Celestial, a blade fit for a [Paladin] of the moons, humbly offered up to the goddesses so they might consider my question.”

Now I was getting worried. The blade was beautiful, with delicate filigree dancing around the blade. I suspected it was far more dangerous and practical than it looked, and alloying magical metals together was something only a master [Smith] could do. It didn’t come cheaply, that was for sure.

The style was in the typical short sword that the Exterreri legions favored, and wasn’t a great fit for Iona. I suspected it was an acquired blade, not one forged special for the occasion. The alloyed elements implied it was though… ah well.

Iona nodded and outstretched her hands, accepting the offering. She had to be getting some solid [Paladin] experience, if not levels, from all this. She held the blade up high in two hands, kneeling down to the floor.

“Oh Selene and Lunaris. By right of gift-giving, of offering, of possession, I offer you this blade. Take it, if you should have use of it.”

In a sparkle of divine energy, the blade vanished, little motes of blue and yellow scattering and dancing around Iona in a non-existent wind.

Arachne took a deep breath in and out, then asked her question.

“Is the [Illusionist] behind the images laid upon the moons also behind the Moon Cult?”