New Times, Old Problems

Anrosh sat at her desk, sifting through papers, always papers. A mountain of them high enough that her view of the door was obscured. Sometimes, she wished that she had never accepted to be a Sect Leader. It was an overwhelming amount of work, and all just to keep the sect running. Which was no easy feat for the second largest Sect in the world. The last decade had been… chaotic, to say the least. So many smaller Sects on the Frontier had thrown their lot in with the Twilight Melody Sect just on their fame alone. That wasn’t that surprising, it happened often enough, weak follow the strong. And the Twilight Melody Sect had several power houses, Erdania who everyone had started to call Gravity Titan, Anatalien the Ruler of the Empty Sky, Nayra whose name had changed, much to her chagrin, to Daughter of Dawn and Death—Anrosh liked it a lot more than the name that they had given to her, as if she deserved such a thing. They called her the Cold Hound of the Undying. She didn’t know whether to be flattered or insulted. No, it wasn’t just Ryun’s name that was whispered in taverns with trepidation and awe.

The Sect had grown, had allied with many larger sects and absorbed others. The actions during the war had just served to increase their fame, which brought even more Sects under their banner. They called them one of the big three, the successors to Zenshuen. Which was… true, to Anrosh’s eternal hate. It only meant more work for her. Because it certainly wasn’t going to be Ryun who went around making sure that their relations with other sects were solid, that they had trade agreements and alliances set up. No, of course not. It was all on her.

And she had to make sure that everything was running smoothly, they had work to do. Three years had passed since the Ninth and the last Iteration had arrived to the Infinite Realm, and the world was very different than it had been before the war. The Sects had expanded, both in the frontier and toward the core, some Classer factions had even allied or completely joined with the Sects, most of those had been absorbed by the Dragon Heart Sect, but it was the first herald of great change. The Triumphant Hive had expanded and ramped up their training of the younger generations, while the Exalted Empire conquered or allied with most of the other important factions. The world seemed split between the three, the Triumphant Hive, the Exalted Empire, and the Sects. And for now at least all three were focused on the common goal. Defeating the domes. It had taken years for them to prepare, and they were preparing still, but it was… so much work. Growing the Sect in power, size, and influence, all the while keeping everything whole.

She wouldn’t have survived if she hadn’t acquired several teams of talented individuals with classes geared toward diplomacy and management. Even with them, she was always swamped. There were big decisions that required her to sign off on, too many of them. Like the one that she was reading at the moment. It was a proposal from a new builder that they had let into the sect, fairly high tiered, Verdon was his name. She remembered meeting with him just a few days ago, the surprise at learning that he was a Ranker. He was going to be a great asset, Anrosh could tell. And if the plans in front of her were anything to go by she was right.

The redesign of the city was… substantial. It was almost too much, but she knew that they couldn’t delay it any longer. Currently, the city was just a huge mess, buildings built wherever there was room, the original walls had been exceeded long ago and new walls built around the expanding city twice already. Traffic jams were a constant nightmare, even with some ideas that Ryun had told her to implement like the traffic lights and people to regulate the traffic. She had even invested in more air ships to combat the issue, but it worked only for a time. Consequence was turning into a hub of the entire Sect Frontier.

Verdon’s plan called for tearing down a lot of the city, then rebuilding it almost from scratch. It was a multiyear plan even with powers such as his, and the more she read, the more she realized that what he wanted would cost them a fortune. They would need enchanters and formation makers to put the things he wanted straight into the walls as they were being built. The sewer system which would replace their current combo of dumping half of it into the river and purifying the rest with powers. It was a full redesign from top to bottom.

Anrosh sighed, it was going to be a headache that would last her years, less than a decade if she was lucky, more if she was being realistic. In the end, it was necessary. Consequence had to evolve, and become a proper defensible city.

She signed it just as one of her assistants knocked, then walked in through the open door.

“Sect Leader, we have an issue,” she said, only slightly winded. But looking nervous, which immediately told Anrosh what the issue was regarding.

“What is it now?” Anrosh asked

“The Sect Head and Sect Leader Jhan-Ekoa are—”

Anrosh groaned and interrupted her. “Just bring me the cost of the damages, I’m not going to try and stop them.”

Ryun and Erdania had turned into the biggest menaces to the city. Especially recently as their other paramour hadn’t yet returned from the afterlife. Anrosh understood, but their… outings had started to get out of control. They, and by they Anrosh mostly meant Erdania—the woman was a terror—started drinking contests that lasted for days and demolished entire taverns, and Ryun then indulged her when she inevitably wanted to celebrate her victory. The last time their coupling had leveled the inn they had stayed in, Anrosh had to apologize to the owner and pay twice the amount of what the inn was worth just keep Ryun’s image intact, she even allocated her best builders to build a new inn at a fraction of the time it usually would take.

“Sect Leader,” her assistant said. “It’s not… they are in the forges; the Sect Head threw everyone out.”

Anrosh’s response froze on her tongue. The forges were another thing entirely. She grimaced and then stood up. “Fine, I’ll deal with it.”

She could immediately tell that this was serious when she approached the crafter district. The smiths and their apprentices were outside on the streets, some barely conscious, but still standing in as close to the entrance to the great forges as they could. The air was thick with Qi, and heavy with willpower. Even Anrosh stumbled, then had to equip her armor and make it nullify the Qi. She walked through the throng and glared at the smiths.

“What are you doing? You know that you can’t stay near when he does this!”

“Forgiveness Sect Leader,” the lead smith said, breathing heavily. “But it is a chance all of us would gladly risk our lives to get. The inspiration…”

Anrosh grimaced and shook her head, lunatics, all of them. Hoping to glimpse something to help them advance in this madness. She opened the heavy doors and the wave of Qi washed over them all, she heard groans and people tumbling to the ground behind her. This was… beyond serious.

She walked briskly toward the main forge, where she knew she was going to find him. The doors to the main forge were closed, but the Qi emanating from there was intense. One side was an absence of everything, drawing you in, almost as if it wanted to erase you and all that you ever could be. The other was sold as the earth, no, more than that. A promise that you would never break in its embrace. Worldstone Qi, Anrosh knew.

She prepared herself to storm in when the Qi intensity lowered, and then the great doors groaned as they were pushed open and a naked shape walked out.

Erdania was a tall woman, fit and lean, her muscles clearly defined and her body made even more impressive by the series of silver-white tattoos that covered her dark skin. Right now, what made her even more impressive was that she was glistening with sweat.

“You were not just doing that in there,” Anrosh glared.

“What, of course not,” Erdania scoffed. “Forges are not the place for sex. Wait, ignore that, I forgot that one—”

“—Stop,” Anrosh interrupted her. Vile woman. “Couldn’t you have at least put some clothes on, you knew that I was coming.” There was no way that she didn’t. Both her and Ryun were powerful enough that they could tell what was happening anywhere around them.

“Like what you see huh?” Erdania raised her eyebrows.

“Don’t play with me,” Anrosh told her, feeling the air around her shimmer as her power cooled it.

“Oh, I don’t think that Narya would mind that much, where is she? Out and about, training soldiers and forgetting about dear old you.”

Anrosh’s glare intensified, and the air chilled around her.

Erdania laughed and raised her hands in the air. “Peace, forgiveness. It is scorching in there,” Erdania waved her hand. “I was not about to ruin my clothes.”

“So, what happened? Why is he doing this now, here, and why are you enabling him?”

Erdania grimaced in shame. It was apparent to Anrosh just how much Selia kept the two of them from going overboard, she couldn’t wait for her return.

“Well,” Erdania started. “He got a missive from the Exalted Empire.”

Anorsh tilted her head. “That isn’t enough to do this.”

“It was about his order, the ore had been delayed, again.”

Anrosh sighed. Ever since their return from war, Ryun had thrown himself into smithing. In his words he was yet to touch on what he and Selia had achieved together, but he had made great progress in his craft. “That shouldn’t be enough to make him do this in the middle of the city.”

“The missive was from the Herald of the Machine himself,” Erdania added.

Ah, that would do it. Anrosh still didn’t quite understand the rivalry that the two had, but it was… intense.

“I am going to assume that the wording of the missive was less than… diplomatic?” Anrosh asked.

Erdania snorted. “Ha, oh no, it was all prim and proper, with all the respect due and all that crap. But it still boiled down to the Herald gloating about how he decided that the ore intended for our Sect was better put to use in one of his new weapons projects. He confiscated it from the merchant house Ryun ordered it from. He said, and I quote “The Twilight Melody Sect will surely be willing to wait for the ore intended for trinkets in light of the recent discoveries that might prove a valuable weapon against the Domes.” It’s just him being petty,” Erdania waved her hand. “The merchants have already reached out and told us that the shipment will be coming next month. I still think that all of this stems from that one time Ryun unknowingly insulted the Herald’s mech design.”

Anrosh sighed. Then opened her mouth and spoke. “I know you can hear me,” she said to the air. “If you want to vent your frustrations with your rival buddy from across the world, do it in your own forge. That’s why you built it, the sect is losing coin with every moment our smiths aren’t in here working.”

A few seconds passed with nothing happening, and then the weight of Qi winked out.

“Do try to keep out of trouble, please,” Anrosh told the other woman.

Erdania dipped her head in genuine apology. “I’ll make sure of it, I shouldn’t have let it get this out of hand.”

Anrosh closed her eyes and muttered curses to herself as she turned to leave. Sometimes, she really hated her life.