Vahe the Fae

Eaira tanks slash after slash behind her conjured wood armour, Hstane growls back slashing and poking holes in his beast but it is as resilient as the rest of them. Earth, wood, ice and wind rumble groan crackle and whirl making a clearing of what once used to be forested as the elements are cast about the field unchecked. None of us now holds back anymore even fighting these lowly creatures. They are resilient, more resilient than they should be and are definitely more powerful than creatures of the 1st and 2nd mana Awakening should be.

Sawa manages to finally take another down the multiple open wounds it bubbling but another is there a moment later to take its place. 10 others were drawn to the fight with 5 joining and the others circling with yawls and growls of what has become the periphery of the fights. I cut into my opponents flank the wound opening from behind the armpit to the hip yet I hardly get a flinch in responce before the beast is slashing at me again.

I don’t understand this at all, first my Examine hadn’t told me anything about them until I had my last opponent down to its last drags of internal energy. Then when it was exhausted and easier to deal with my mana sense told me it was a 2nd level awakened same as me. But the 2nd level Awakened of a Gaian beast should not have given me that much trouble, they shouldn’t have given us much trouble at all in fact considering we fae are not as frail as mortal creatures.

I hiss taking down my own opponent with a Grass Tendrils, a spinning air flip and a blade buried in its clavicle at last, yea its 1st level awakened I feel as its life winks out. They die, we’ve all eventually taken one out after hours of struggling. The problem is they take too long to die and it isn’t any mana ability any of us can sense so how is a level 1 existence this difficult to kill? It defies reason and with that thought another is rushing at me. They don’t even have any mana ability, but even if they used their meagre Awakening Mana for their particularly strong auras and physics it doesn’t add up. Another slash that i dodge still manages to do damages as I feel my Bark Skin take damage

‘’Anyone figured out what we are fighting yet?’’ I project to the others Anchoring myself with earth as the beast launches crashes into me, the impact taking my breath from me.

‘’Never heard of anything like them, think they’ll give up soon? The air is getting heavier to wield,’’ Vehema projects not giving his opponent much breathing room, literally.

A howl type sound pierces through the sounds of struggle and fighting taking place. Its enough for me to get a good opening on my startled opponent and open a deep cut along its chest. The creatures disengage, leaving their dead and the carcasses some of them where carrying to run like the gates of Shoal have spewed out their Tormentors to chase them.

I take a deep breath, following their progress with Farsight now that I don’t have to narrow my attention. Why did they run like that, they were clearly wearing us down and they still had others in reserve watching the fight.

‘’I think we scared them off,’’ Vehema says with a shrug not believing his own words.

Then I spot something with my Farsight, ‘’there.’’ I point it out to the others.

‘’A wolf?’’ Sawa asks using his skills to try and assess the creature from a distance, its at least 2km’s away moving towards the fleeing creatures casually but covering an incredible distance with each step of those big paws.

Then it stops to glance at us and suddenly I can’t move, my mouth dries, my heart-rate picks up. Some sort of chemical reaction is happening within my body, I resist it, I try to resist it but those eyes. Black as night, soulless orbs that take take and take. I know fear for the first time since leaving the Cort, there is an end in those eyes, a final end and that terrifies me like nothing ever has.

I try to move, t flee, to yell for the others but nothing happens. Then the beast looks again at its fleeing prey and gives chase. Like a puppet with its strings cut I slump with an exhale. I can’t stop myself from shaking, ashamed at what the others will think of me now but one look at them lets me know I’m not alone in my... disability.

‘’We need to kill that think,’’ Sawa whispers with chattering teeth. I swallow but I already know I’m not going anywhere near that thing.

‘’We need to report that thing, it isn’t natural.’’ Eaira says more reasonably.

‘’Think Daoine Vevina will forgive us from letting her spawn go on ahead without protection?’’ I ask balling my shaking hands into fists.

‘’We aren’t going to report to Paradisum,’’ H’anael says recovering first. ‘’We are going Home.’’

*

Luthando

I fly low through the darkness stopping every now and then to make sure I’m not followed or the land surveilled. I already have a tenuous Claim on my area why wouldn’t Noluvuyo have something similar on hers? And there could be sensor nets thrown all over the place if whatever they found is valuable enough to warrant the using those resources.

They almost had me going but then he had to call me a ‘genius’, I know Lukhanyo to be cunning and when was the last time his Household agreed to anything with the KwaMashu? As the 89th or so son he will likely never inherit anything from his progenitors when they go mummify. Out of that lot he isn’t even average when it comes to personal cultivation and would never concede without as much if not more to gain from any compromise.

And Noluvuyo, well Noluvuyo is a mean snake and one I would never wish on any man. I’m not surprised she’s a torturer I wouldn’t be surprised if its all bullshit either, the dramatic storm-off was a nice touch. I probably wouldn’t really be surprised if she was here in there darkness right now watching me wondering whether or not to kill me either, dangerous woman.

I condense my mana, spread my senses far ahead then Blink appearing 4km further before having to do it again. I move from dark crevice to dark crevice, shadow to shadow as far as I can in a zigzag in case they know to watch for me. But then most people in the clan don’t usually ward against mana but I’m still being careful, especially since I’m part of this exhibition and everyone knows I can’t use chi.

With the occasional backtracking and changing means of travel I eventually reach a mine of rare metal that is in the shape and size of a mountain, a small mountain but definitely a mountain. Infusible tools or weapons can be made from this, they don’t like enchantments much but they can grow with time and become very powerful tools if used in incredible feats over time. I keep moving as I’m sure Noluvuyo used her 100 hours of exploring much more productively than I did and extensively explored her given area.

Sure enough I come across a quiet village of little mortals; first I don’t see the significance here until I pay close attention to the weapons. Every single villager has one, even the children's toys are weapons; What the fuck?

In my defence we don’t really use weapons as they will always have less potential than a being of flesh. Weapons are things that are mostly given to slave warriors and the mortals so they can govern each other in our stead so I can be forgiven for not sensing it as soon as I saw them.

‘Are those scalable weapons sentient?’ I try to pay particular attention to a passing pair but one of them keeps looking around like they sense my prying so I back up to think more about this. I turn around and get away from here.

According to rumour there are a number of legendary or mythical level artifacts in the family vaults that serve as deterrent but not so powerful that they would put an unnecessary target on our backs. The bantu-jin and the Nguni in particular generally don’t fight with weapons because very few weapons can kill a true cultivator unless the wielder follows a weapon cultivation technique, which we don’t. But what if someone found a cache of weapons that could harm even cultivators, that would change the whole game and millennia of doing things or it could make someone very wealthy.

I bet there are much more applications I haven’t even though off for using weapons like that, the posibilities and their implications play out in my mind as I watch the people about their nocturnal business for a little while. Satisfied I make my way quickly back before the light of dawn kisses the horizon.

‘’I will agree to the proposed split if we help each other conquer the local inhabitants,’’ I say as we are gathered around the portal getting ready to choose a representative to go make the first official report to the family.

Luvuyo snort, ‘’you can’t handle yourself 'Thando? I imagined even you wouldn’t have much trouble in this world with such sparse ether density in the environment; surely the local inhabitants are anorexic enough for even you.''

Luvuyo stands over 2me tall and weighs over 160kg before breaking a fast on dragon flesh, Lukhanyo weighs over 120kg and is a sleek athletic build that is practically lean for someone with a tempered body. He also stands just barely over 2metres and so does Noluntu with her girlish figure and long legs, and so does Noluvuyo with her exaggerated curves and enticing body.

The levels of ether here are much sparser that they are back home which just makes me more curious how these people achieved all they’ve achieved with what they have to work with. But the mystery of why they had to leave this world when they reach higher tiers of mana evolutions I think I’ve figured out. Yes, I could only reach the 4th tier mana evolution here before I’d need to find a much more ether dense environ in order to progress further, I’m not sure how that local I fought was 6th tier but it must have been very old.

‘’There are a lot of locals here and if we unite our forces it will be a greater show of strength that will qual them easier, unless we plan to slaughter them all...’’ I trail off. Reminding them that we are here for resources and conquering the local inhabitants is part of our mandate if we so choose.

‘’No, this is a mission to subdue and conquer not annihilation. Unless they refuse to kneel after we’ve swept through their forces there won’t be any need to kill all the local inhabitants.’’

‘’You just want more pets,’’ Noluvuyo accuses Noluntu who just smiles silently at the comment.

‘’It isn’t just about keeping a zoo of locals,’’ I say watching Noluvuyo and Lukhanyo discreetly. ‘’We will need to bring in less slaves or mortals to do our menial tasks if we use the locals which translates to less scrutiny on us the less we use of the Family resources. Besides, there isn’t much in the lands I’m to control and boredom would drive me crazy if I had nothing to do everyday here.’’

‘’He says a point,’’ Luvuyo says quickly. ‘’I can’t even cultivate here and supervising the building of an outpost is not very interesting, I want to go conquer.’’

‘’Fine, but we agree that we keep all the resources in our area to ourselves.’’ Noluvuyo says with a humph.

Noluntu frowns, ‘’no, you control the resources in your area but looting is looting and I’ll take whatever I want from whoever I kill or my Faceless kill.’’ took the words right out of my mouth. I can almost see the gears of suspension turning in her head now that Noluvuyo is trying to keep everything in her area to herself.

We talk for a while hashing out the details with only the occasional creepy smile from Noluvuyo directed at me. I hope I’m not actively on her bad books, I wouldn’t survive long there, not yet. Lukhanyo is to make the report and will return with builders, artisans both mortal and cultivators, and slave to start the construction of an outpost to secure our hold on these mountain and portal region. We will try to restrict assess to this world as much as we can and only release to the family 10% of all that we farm for the first 5 years.

We plan it all out and everything looks promising and might actually give us assess to more resources. I’m eager to learn about this world’s magic and maybe here I can accumulate enough wealth to eventually find a cure for my disability. Currently the only way to reform a broken core costs more than all the clans make in a decade, not something I could have ever afforded before. I sigh with both anticipation and shame, I can’t believe I’m reduced to being a merchant. But soon, soon.

Not long after Lukhanyo with an escort of 5 Faceless has gone through the portal gate opens again showing a view of the other side. I gawk then get a hold of myself as the denser, richer Omegian air diffuses in here full of mana and traces of chi intent. The denser ether coming from the other side is substantial, scathing against my senses like windblown desert sand against my skin.

‘’I can see to the other side, the portal wasn’t like this before. What did you do?’’ Noluntu asks me accusingly and I just shrug.

‘’The portal membrane just burst,’’ I say confused as well.

We move away, Noluvuyo doubling her efforts to secure a barrier around the mountain by activating the cornerstone shields. I take a deep breath and the ether comes easily into me, filling me and all the space around me. Previously the was a membrane around the portal gate, now its a gaping hole into which I can clearly see Newb Valley and the Faceless guarding the barrier on the other side.

The denser ether of home comes in invasively, cutting between the air particles, seeping into the stones, distorting the light, empowering the air with potential. I take a deep breath, my mana sense going crazy, power and vitality filling me like gardening elixer to a growing plant.