Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

Auri and I never did get a solid chance to talk about her plans. I promised myself that we’d talk before the day was done.

We sat down to another lunch, the entire Eventide Eclipse, along with just Night and Arachne.

Iona and Arachne made various small talk while Fenrir took a few obligatory bites of meat. He then curled up to sleep off the large meal he’d had yesterday. Auri’s curse of gluttony came into full effect and she went utterly hog-wild on the food.

I was aware that we were going to have a big conversation, so I kept myself neat and clean, using my best table manners to make sure I didn’t drop sauce on myself or ended up with jam on my face.

Iona masterfully steered the conversation to more and more pertinent topics. Bless her heart, I’d been too tired yesterday but I was going to make tonight Special for her.

“Do you know anything about the [Playwright] of the latest theater play?” She asked Arachne.

Arachne hmmmed and tapped her lips.

“You’ll have to be a little more specific than that, given how many plays there are. Right now there’s three boys reenacting the siege of Cosa… poorly… in their own style. Which is technically the latest theater play to hit Sanguino, but I doubt it’s the one you’re asking about. Do you mean the Tale of Princess Kaguya, the one the two of you went to see?”

I didn’t know if Arachne was being totally open, or subtly reminding us that she knew everything that happened in the city, or if there were some layers to the game of subtext that generally went blissfully over my head but Iona caught, or what. It was a little spooky.

“All I know is that it came a few months ago from Nippon-Koku. There are literal hundreds of new items coming to Sanguino, and tens of thousands of old ones. I sadly lack the ability to track down and investigate everything; simply staying on top of what’s going on in the city is difficult enough. Why, is there a pressing reason that it should be high priority?”

“It’s from my world.” I briefly explained. “It makes me think that someone else has come over, and call me curious. I’d like to meet other people from Earth.”

Arachne nodded.

“That is perfectly understandable, and something I’ll be discussing with the others if we’d like to investigate or not. You revolutionized medicine, perhaps they could revolutionize some other field?”

I didn’t think the average person could revolutionize anything… but then again, I’d thought the same thing about myself.

“Yeah, that does sound possible.”

“Perhaps you could be the one to search for this mysterious [Playwright], with all the resources of the Rangers and Sentinels at your disposal?” Arachne suggested.

With that, we got into the meat of the conversation.

“The thing that’s bugging me the most about all this.” I started the discussion. “Is how badly you seem to want me to become a Sentinel again. It’s just not making sense to me, and makes me feel like I'm missing something big and important. Makes it all feel wrong, somehow. Help me out?”

Instead of directly answering my question, Arachne turned to Iona.

“How would you feel if one of the earliest Valkyries suddenly appeared? What would that mean for your Order?”

Iona chewed the question over - quite literally, as she’d taken a nice bite of stegosaurus - before answering.

“Ah. I see the issue. There’s a legitimacy question.” Iona said, and I opened my mouth in outrage, to protest. I was legitimate! We’d all proven it!

She shook her head, reading my mind.

“Not like that. Organizationally. Night’s a big part of the Sentinels, and why it’s got the weight needed to function, to offer the powerful skills and classes it has. The chain isn’t exactly unbroken over the years, yeah?”

Night nodded.

“Indeed. The Sentinels as a group have been shattered countless times, the organization founded nearly anew just as many. Yet, my presence assists in quickly bringing it up to par.”

“Right.” Iona said. “Now, take your weight. You’re just as much of a Sentinel as anyone else, come out of ancient history. You have a stronger claim to Sentinel than anyone but Night does. What happens to the organization if you declare they’re not the ‘real ones’ and you’re on your own, you’re the last one? That you are the superior Sentinel?”

I gave Iona a confused look.

“I… frankly have no idea. I imagine it’s bad.”

Arachne frowned, but made an assenting gesture.

“‘Bad’ is understating it. You could potentially move a lot of the ‘weight’ away, and that could have a devastating impact. Oh, nothing so large and obvious that you’d see right away. This is all going on at a very high level of analysis. I doubt anyone would notice immediately. But over time? Class qualities would go down, class skills would weaken, the general skill around being a Sentinel wouldn’t be as potent. Honestly, you’ve got us something over a barrel.”

Arachne shrugged. “Figure I’d tell you outright, since subtle hints don’t seem to be your forte, and you seem to value honesty and not keeping secrets.”

I appreciated that. She was right.

Hey! Wait!

Most subtle things went over my head, but I recognized that as the minor insult it was!

More seriously, was she trying to manipulate me? Well… she was trying to get me round to her way of thinking, so, like, in a way, yes, but was it still manipulation when people were completely open about their motives and explaining clearly what they did?

Eh. If it was, it was acceptable. I’d check with Iona after, she was much better at sniffing out underhanded dealings than I was.

“A more pressing, immediate rationale that I see as cause for concern would be morale.” Night stated, leaving a pause for digestion.

Literal as well as figurative for once!

“Go on?” I encouraged him.

“I know you as you are Dawn, ever since you were a scared teenager having freshly arrived at Ranger Academy. You know yourself, and are at times blissfully unaware of how the world perceives you. Let me set the scene for you, as the other Sentinels have just witnessed. They are aware that they are the latest in a long tradition of warriors. They are aware of the tens of thousands of names written upon the wall, and that it is only a matter of time before they join them. Yet, here comes one of the Sentinels of ancient times, a figure out of literal myth and legend, to stand beside them. Their senior, one who has literally shaped history, who strides in with a legendary phoenix perched upon her shoulder. One whose [Oath] and name is so impactful, it has shaped most languages upon the continent.”

Well. When Night put it like that, I sounded like quite the badass. I thought they’d look down on me, given my level and tag. There hadn’t been any other [Healers] in the room.

“Yet, you were lost. You too fell victim to a force beyond your control. If it could happen to you, oh, it becomes too easy to imagine it happening to them. Take the silver lining, the good that can come. If you return, reintegrate, take your position as the second-most senior Sentinel, it sends a clear and powerful message. There is a home. We support our own. No Sentinel will be forgotten. These are just three of a hundred, nay, a thousand different messages that are spoken loudly and clearly by your mere presence, your acceptance. It is powerful. It is invigorating. I hope that you can see the sheer value your mere presence brings, and why Arachne and I are so eager for you to officially, formally return to the fold.”

Okay, okay, I was buying what Night and Arachne were selling. It had been really weird to me at first how desperate they seemed to get me to sign up to the Sentinels again, no matter how far off I was from the rest of the current ones, but now it made sense. They had strong motives to get me to agree to join, and were letting me know just how strong my position was. Now I didn’t feel like I was being bamboozled in some way.

I was a lot more open to the idea.

“Tell me more about how the Sentinels currently work.” I asked, and Night beamed in delight.

Arachne and Night traded a quick look, silently communicating.

“You are the current commander of the Sentinels. While Dawn is one of mine, I will not infringe upon your leadership. I have already done too much.” Night said.

I guess… clearly telling us why Arachne was doing the talking?

Threads started to spin in the air, forming pictures and diagrams, making the explanation easier to follow.

“Sentinels, right. Forgive me for starting from the fundamental basics, enough has shifted from your time. We are our own organization in Exterreri, funded by the government. We handle problems that require precise amounts of force, both within and beyond our borders. We’re headquartered here in Sanguino.”

Arachne’s threads made a map of Exterreri, showing little red threads striking from Sanguino to all over the country - and occasionally past the borders.

“Problem solving starts at the guard level. Rangers don’t step in unless the guard asks them for help, and Rangers tend to be stationed in cities, one to four teams per city. We’ve got a couple of roving teams, including Team Gale that you encountered, who handle the trickier threats that would otherwise fall between the cracks. One nice benefit is that Rangers get to work closely with guards, and recommend the best of them to come join our ranks. The stability also allows them to have families, allowing us to draw upon a much greater pool of recruits than in your day.”

Night was nodding along.

“While not strictly kept, we try to have a mental line between Rangers and Sentinels. Rangers handle mortal problems, and Sentinels are sent for Immortal issues. Now, there’s significant overlap between the two. Rangers who have the perfect counter to a problematic Immortal have free rein to try and tackle it, and occasionally some mortals will be problematic to the extent where Rangers can’t deal with the problem, and we need to send in one of the Sentinel teams. I’ll save my speech about levels, and matching the right person to the right job for another day.” Arachne said.

I’d never really been in a position to appreciate how badly Ranger life destroyed any ability to have a home or family life. Only a week or two a year in a fixed spot? Kallisto had gotten lucky, marrying the daughter of a powerful family, one with enough sway to very gently pull a string to get him one of the only permanently stationed jobs, but the rest of the Rangers? Out of luck.

Night jumped in.

“If I may add, the dramatically decreased casualty rate has done wonders for the organization. No more are we replacing Rangers before they can hope to gain any experience. No longer are they scurrying from fire to fire, extinguishing the greatest blazes before moving along. No, with the current structure and order, problems are handled before they can grow to a threatening size. Support networks are in place, ensuring that no team is ever without resources. Replacements are prompt, ensuring that no team is underpowered, and shall not enter into one of the infamous death-spirals of Remus. It is a far better environment in which we now find ourselves.”

The whole time Night was talking, Arachne was illustrating. A little group of eight standing on the walls of a city, the population of a city cheering them on. The same group breaking up at the end of the day, going home to their spouse, kids, and pet dinosaur. A big X over a large graveyard, with a mini-Night shaking his finger at me.

It suddenly clicked for me why Night had been practicing puppeteering. A sort of love letter to his wife.

That sounded amazing. I was a little curious about the anti-corruption measures, which was one of the main talking points about why Rangers kept moving around, but all in all it sounded much better than Remus. However, the bulk of the conversation was about Sentinels.

“Sentinels are called upon when the threat is too large, or when we need a single, powerful, covert individual. We’ve also rolled up the Legion’s movers and shakers, turning them Immortal if they wish, so they can serve for eternity.”

Arachne’s words were unintentionally chilling, and reframed my desire for Immortality in a different light.

Fundamentally, I didn’t want to die.

At the same time? It was like I had a mental sign going on in my head. Don’t forget, you’re here forever.

Something must’ve shown on my face, and Arachne hurriedly added.

“Naturally, service isn’t mandatory. People can quit and try to find other pursuits in life. Now and then some decide they’re done with it all and go live in a hut in the woods, or a cave in a mountain. We don’t bother them, no matter how dire the situation is. There are certain expectations that people will serve out a given term, but trying to force a Classer to perform is unwise.”

Arachne had more little pieces of art to accompany her speech, and there was definitely some bias going on. Two little vampires with cute fangs went to a mountain cave and a forest hut respectively. The one that went to the cave spent tons of time walking around, trying to find prey and staring ‘bored’ at the walls, while the one that went to the forest huddled up in a poor hut, shivering in the rain.

A little biased, a little cruel, but I couldn’t say Arachne was entirely wrong. Someone who was used to civilization, with skills focused and dedicated to fighting and killing, didn’t exactly have the best skillset to live in the wilderness. Granted, I’d been trained how to make-do, but that was always quick and temporary while I tried to get back to civilization. Nothing I wanted to live long term with.

“Enough with the basics. Onto the meat of the topic. Sentinels. Currently, each Sentinel works with their own hand-picked team, within a reasonable budget. We provide all the supplies, but virtually nobody arrives at the level and status required without assistance. We don’t mandate anything about the team, nor are they Sentinels, but we’ll help train and equip them. You will be provided a generous budget on top of your pay to provide for members of your team. It allows Sentinels to patch their own holes in how they operate without any bureaucratic oversight. It has its flaws, yes, but we’ve found the benefits outweigh the flaws. You’d be allowed to pick your own team as well!”

Arachne made a not very subtle image of the entire Eventide Eclipse flying together. I glanced at Iona, who looked interested in the little ‘show’, and Fenrir was practically hypnotized.

“Sentinels are divided into several groups. The first is on-rotation and off-rotation. On-rotation means they can be actively called to any missions or duties that come in. Off-rotation means we almost pretend they don’t exist, unless we’re all going to die, or a harmless chance to level comes along and we’d like to offer them the opportunity. Off-rotation Sentinels are called up maybe once a decade, and it’s almost always optional. Unless, of course, the above mentioned ‘we’re all about to die’, at which point it’s less about having an option, and more that, well, we’re all going to die.”

I had a feeling this wasn’t the usual speech, or the knowledge was supposed to enter everyone’s understanding via cultural osmosis.

Oh! Or Arachne was sort of distracted by something else happening in the city that she was tending to at the same time. She had to have a super-powerful, high-level variant of [Parallel Thoughts].

Night chimed in.

“I am currently off-rotation, which is why Arachne is taking the lead on these matters. I am here due to our long history together, to better help reassure you and offer guidance as your mentor, along with the favor you requested of me. If these events were transpiring as I was on rotation, I would be doing the majority of the conversation, and Susan might not even find herself in the same room!”

Susan - Sentinel Arachne - nodded vigorously.

“Oh yeah, I wouldn’t be involved at all. I’d be on a boat in the Bloodmoon Bay, either fishing or swimming.”

Yeah, that sounded pretty good.

“Most of us currently do sixteen years on, eight years off, to get everyone a chance to work and interact with everyone else, while also having a nice break, and follow the laws around high level individuals not holding positions of power too long. That’s not including the significant downtime between missions, since the Rangers tend to handle nearly every threat before it becomes large enough to become a problem, and the right Sentinel to the right problem system we have going. Frankly, there’s usually some Sentinels who only do a single mission a year.”

Arachne continued her little puppet show, showing a Sentinel lying on a beach, drinking out of a flowery cup. Halfway into her presentation, a little bat appeared on the Sentinel’s chest… who just kept right on drinking.

I knew that wasn’t exactly how it went, but dang if it wasn’t a compelling pitch. Much better than Remus’s ‘you’re here till you die’. Usually violently.

The part about better low-level management of problems resulting in fewer high-level interventions required made sense as well. I’d even seen the long periods of downtime myself in Remus. A few months of being paid well to do whatever I wanted, two weeks of pulling as many people as I could back from the brink of death, repeat. It sounded like that was still the case when ‘active’, never mind the years of true vacation in the middle.

“The second grouping is the subcategory title. We’ve varied over the years, and right now we’ve got three groups. War, Shadow, and Core. The designation is almost purely internal, and Core doesn’t even prepend their title with the designation. They are most similar to the Sentinels you’re familiar with.”

Night gently coughed.

“In that respect, I must politely disagree. Dawn is familiar with the different types, even if they were not formalized at the time. Sentinel Destruction and Sentinel Toxic would both be classified as War Sentinels these days, while Acquisition and I would firmly fall under the Shadow classification.”

That helped a ton, and Arachne’s explanation clarified the rest of the details.

“Core is what you’re used to. Powerful Classers who can shine in specific situations, off to handle whatever monster or Classer is threatening the peace and prosperity of Exterreri.”

Arachne had a little picture of a vampire giving a devastating uppercut to a manticore. The description reminded me of the bulk of the Remus Sentinels - Brawling came first to mind with the punch, along with Hunting, Ocean, Sealing, Magic and Nature. The core Sentinels, so to speak, with the easy job description.

Night felt like he fit in there, but he’d described himself as a Shadow.

“War are the heavy-hitters, those who usually have an entire Legion as their support team. The line of where they’re supporting the Legion, versus the Legion supporting them, is blurry. Often, their skill set isn’t tuned to hitting harder than their level suggests and slaying problems bigger than they are, but instead are tuned to broadening the impact they can have, and hitting lots of people, fast and hard.”

Arachne had a little diagram of a bone tyrannosaurus rex stomping along next to proud [Legionaries], the two fighting together.

Night had mentioned Destruction as being a proto-War Sentinel, and I could see it. He was brought in to handle large problems of low to medium level people, not go after the biggest, baddest monster around. He probably could kill the biggest, baddest monster around, but there were better Sentinels for that.

“Shadows are the sneaky ones, the ones that are off-the-books. The ones that don’t regularly attend meetings, that I’ll subtly let know what they need to do. They take care of the things that need to be done, that we don’t necessarily want people to know we’re doing.”

Arachne mimed Night slipping into a tent and quickly, cleanly beheading a sleeping figure there. A little gruesome when she could’ve picked planting a letter as a much more innocent use, but hey, she wasn’t trying to shield things from me. We all knew Night was my mentor, we all knew what he did for a living.

I was no stranger to black ops and sneaky Sentinel things. There was a naive part of me, the Healer Elaine part, that protested that assassinations in the dark weren’t good.

I reminded that part of me that patients with gangrenous limbs needed amputation, and just how many people had tried to murder me in my short lifespan. I could absolutely believe that cold pragmatic math dictated that someone knifed in their sleep saved hundreds more.

I wouldn’t - couldn’t - ever give that order, but I wasn’t going to balk at the Sentinels doing it.

“Historically, we’ve experimented with various other titles. Logistical. Support. Defensive. We’ve found that it doesn’t work terribly well, and it splits the ideal and focus of the Sentinels a little too far. We are a military organization. We slay the enemies of Exterreri. We leave disaster and recovery missions to the other organizations dedicated to that task.”

That made me feel like something of an odd duck, and it was clearly on my face.

“You would not be the only misplaced Sentinel.” Night said. “We have a few other Sentinels who would be considered to be more in the utility segment of the Sentinels, who in the current era would not find themselves among our hallowed ranks, but historical weight permits them to still be in the organization. We do not remove our own, we do not say ‘thank you for your service, but the door is located over there’. This ties back into our desire for you to formally and officially rejoin our ranks.”

Who was - oh.

Arachne was one of the other not-direct-combat Sentinels. From what little I’d seen, she was all about knowledge and information, and less about directly fighting. Was also nice to see that I wasn’t being given super special treatment because that also felt weird.

“Alright. I’d be a Core Sentinel then?” I asked.

Arachne looked excited.

“Oooh, I was thinking, if you were alright with it, that I’d love for you to be a Shadow Sentinel. You’re almost the perfect candidate that I’ve theorized about! Loyal to Exterreri, although I’ll accept mere devotion to the Sentinels, come out of nowhere, with minimal traces or connections to the organization that others can divine, powerful, qualified, with strong training and background, and independently wealthy to boot? You’d be perfect! Nobody would figure out you’re one of us, giving us an ideal card hidden in a boot to - why are you all laughing so hard?”

Night had lost his composure halfway through, and started to chuckle. That had set Iona off, who’d gone with a throaty, full-body laugh, and even Auri had gotten out of her food coma to start brrpting with amusement.

Adding insult to injury, as she was rolling on the tabletop, she made a few [Mage Hands] and started clapping at the ‘great show’ Arachne was putting on.

“The lot of you are traitors.” I pronounced.

Night regained control of himself.

“I apologize Dawn, but the thought of you acting as a Shadow Sentinel was far too amusing. I would place a large bet on the Shadow designation not standing up until your first mission, and I am certain that it would be completely blown by the end of it.”

He turned to Arachne.

“No, dearest love of mine, declaring Elaine to be Shadow Sentinel Dawn would backfire in the most spectacular fashion. Unless you wish to deliberately undermine the public perception of Shadows - which we still deny exist - Sentinel Dawn is one of the singularly worst Sentinels to have as a Shadow. If I may politely suggest, however, Sentinel Dawn would make a fantastic War Sentinel. While she lacks the ability to rapidly eliminate large swathes of enemies, no soldier under her aegis can die while she still has mana. It is less conventional, to be sure, but I believe it neatly leans into her skills in an optimal manner. Any failing in personal power, any issues with assassins is easily handled with her support team, or the Legion’s own guards. The only other aspect is her mana regeneration, which can be further augmented by adding a [Battery] to her team, if that is her desire.”

Night knew me. Not as well as Iona did, but ‘your job is to keep thousands of people alive who would otherwise die’ resonated with me. I wasn’t a fan of the ugly implications that the army would be deployed against other armies, other people, but I wasn’t naive enough to believe that they wouldn’t be deployed if I wasn’t there. But as a War Sentinel, I might be able to mitigate some of the harm.

Keep people alive.

Nobody said anything for a minute. Iona broke the silence.

“Is that your final pitch? Or do you have anything else to sweeten the deal?”

Goddesses, I loved Iona. Always looking out for me. I might’ve accepted as-is… except I was so fucking bad at negotiating.

I mean, I wouldn’t have accepted here and now. I wasn’t going to do anything without Iona’s buy-in. I frankly hoped that she’d be part of my life forever, and if she didn’t like it, well. Between the current generation of Sentinels and Iona, I knew who I’d pick in a heartbeat. Wasn’t even a question.

“If we’re having you be in the more utility role as Night mentioned, your third class has an interesting usage I’d like to propose. A second part of the job, a fairly easy one. At the same time, it has the weight needed to offer you a powerful class on your next class up. Might be able to bump you to dark purple or further, while still keeping the aspects you enjoy.”

My ears perked up at that. A more powerful version of [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm]? Yes please!

“I propose that, on top of your duties as a War Sentinel, that you become one of our [Loremasters].”

I tilted my head, offering her to continue. Night did instead.

“Over the course of history, we have fought endless powerful beings. Great cities have risen and fallen, towers have been built only to vanish overnight. The most powerful of beasts build nests and establish territory not marked on any map, entirely ignoring the conventions of elvenoids. Our [Loremasters] learn them all. They learn the deep secrets of Exterreri, where cities have been buried, where dragons make their nests, the bindings placed on otherwise-unkillable monsters, and how they can be rebound should some fool unleash them. They must study the ancient treaty between the Wardens and the Kirin, the [Oath] of the last giants, and the hidden redoubts of the vampires. When Immortals are no longer content to live their lives, when they choose to unsheathe their blades at each other once again, these secrets must be preserved and remembered, to help avoid the very worst. As the pieces fall, it is incumbent upon the [Loremaster] to mark the forbidden places, to steer nascent civilization away from unleashing horrors that would wipe them out. I can see why Arachne believes you are perfect for the job. A class dedicated to knowledge and learning, combined with Immortality and being exceptionally difficult to kill for your level, your odds of surviving an Immortal war would be excellent were it not for your [Oath] to heal. Regardless, you are a strong choice to take on the mantle of [Loremaster], and I personally recommend it.”

That had started off sounding super cool, but Night had a way of adding gravitas, of making it clear what the stakes were and how important the job was.

I was fascinated that he was willing to mention dragons. It didn’t pass my notice that he only said it once, otherwise dancing around the word and topic.

Knowledge was power. It was better to know that a particular mountain was home to a dragon and completely off-limits, rather than innocently try to mine it. I had a feeling more than a little of the knowledge was completely cursed, and would give me unending nightmares at everything that was out there and could end me. Ignorance was bliss.

But knowledge was power, and I had a weird relationship with secrets.

Secrets, secrets, they’re no fun,

Unless they’re shared with everyone!

“What’s the full breakdown of pay and responsibilities?” Iona asked as I mulled over everything Night said.

“War Sentinel Dawn. Same budget as any other War Sentinel. I am unsure which Legion we will attach you to, if any, and might rotate you through. [Loremaster]. Pay is 50,000 arcs a month, with another 100,000 arcs a month to manage your team. Runners will be sent when War Sentinel Dawn’s assistance is required, so no daily stand-up. It is strongly recommended, but not mandatory, that she practice with the other Sentinels and [Trainers] we have. It will be required that she become familiar with the standard codes and laws of the Sentinels of today, but all other training can be waived. Naturally, all the privileges and powers of a War Sentinel will be made available. How does that sound?” Arachne offered.

Iona and I traded looks, reading each other’s mind.

“We’ll have to talk about it.” She smoothly said.

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