Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

Iona and I waited hand-in-hand by the gate leading to the coliseum, various speeches and a few initial games going on. The pre-show before the real show, entertainment for those who came early and grabbed a good seat.

Also, I mentally bounced around inside of [The World Around Me], a habit I’d developed over scanning around with my eyes.

“Where is Auri?” I asked, mostly knowing the answer but wanting to get some of my frustration out. “She said she’d be here.”

Iona squeezed my hand.

“She’s never managed so many people before, or been the sole vendor to an event this large.” My wife said. “I’d be shocked if something didn’t come up and delay her. I imagine the worst-case scenario is we’ll come out of the gates and see a flaming cake saying ‘good luck’ or something.”

I chewed the inside of my cheeks.

“Yeah. Ugh, I wish we could’ve figured out a way to get her to come along with us. Stupid vacuum. Stupid smoke.” I grumbled.

Iona squeezed my hand again, and waggled her eyebrows.

“Well, while you’re getting all antsy here, why don’t I try distracting you while we wait for all the stuffy speeches to finish up? Booo [Senators]! Boo long speeches!”

“Any hope you had of that went away when you reminded me [Politicians] existed.” I teased her.

I caught a faint rrrrr at the edge of my hearing, that rapidly got louder as Auri tore through the hallways, causing a huge ripple in the crowds as people flinched away from the tiny, devastating phoenix flying at high speeds right over their head. She blazed into the waiting room a moment later, her orbiting ring of Lava spinning at crazy speeds, a dozen caramel treats brought along with her.

“...rrrRRRPT!!” Auri’s wings flared with fire as she rapidly braked, heat washing over us all.

“Auri!” My face lit up. “You made it! Are you ready?”

“BRPT! Brpt?” She offered us the treats, and I happily took a pair, starting to lick it right as Iona downed hers in a single ravenous bite.

“Thank you!” I was grateful for the last minute sugary treat. “Everything going alright? Any fires you’ve needed to put out?” I grinned mischievously at the last part, still knowing how to rile Auri up.

“BRRPT!” She protested my idiom. “Brrpt brrpt BRPT! Brrrpt, brpt…”

Her quick and dirty version of the thousand moving parts that were needed for the day, and the various wrenches that had been thrown into it and how she fixed them were far more entertaining than pompous Senator #37’s speech, or whoever was up next. A poorly maintained road had caused a pothole, which had broken a wagon wheel, forcing several carts delivering supplies to Auri to detour, which had…

It was like listening to the longest story of ‘if you give a mouse a cookie’, except it was all real and live, a testament to fragile systems and a lack of redundancies. I was starting to sweat over the Argo II, our mission, and a few critical points where we didn’t have any redundancies.

“I’m disappointed that we’re not with the Argo II, checking it over.” Iona fretted. “We should’ve insisted. After what Arachne said in her letter…”

I put my hand on her arm.

“It’ll be alright. Everyone’s invested in this. In a few minutes we’re going to walk out there and get in the Argo II just like we’ve practiced a dozen times. We’re going to wait, then we’re going to lift off without any problems. It’ll work out. Even ask your goddesses! They’ll tell you the same thing.”

“Brrrrrrrpptt….” Auri was entirely convinced that I’d jinxed it with that, and we were going to explode in a gigantic fireball.

“How are we going to end up in a gigantic fireball?” I asked her. “There aren’t even any flames or explosives involved!”

“Brpt.” Auri knew what she said.

Iona half-lidded her eyes and tilted her head forward a fraction, praying to her patrons. A few fidgety minutes later - age had not helped with standing still at all damnit - and my ears perked up at the [Announcer].

“Vampires and mortals, ladies and gentlemen, bold citizens of Exterreri and foreign guests alike, it is time for the main event! The part we’ve all been waiting for! The bold ascent of Sentinel and Valkyrie alike, a testament to the power of Exterreri, complimentary names, a trip to the moons themselves, I am pleased to present - Sentinel Dawn and Valkyrie Dusk!”

The gates rumbled open and the Classer responsible for the lights shone them on us. I smiled and practically bounced up and down as I waved to the crowd, enjoying how I looked and how I’d literally practiced how to do this once upon a time.

Auri came along with me, spinning around me in an orbit like her [Ring of Lava] orbited her, like the moons orbited Pallos. She eventually settled down onto my shoulder. We looked around together, and I tried to spot all my friends in the crowd. Queen and Depths were together, along with a number of their teammates, and I spotted Legion and Calamity clapping. Devour had a few flames going, and all eight members of Ranger Team Gale - a few had swapped around over the years - were in a line, digging into treats they’d bought from Auri’s grand bakery operation. I swear I saw Night deep in one of the shadows, but I wasn’t entirely sure, and Arachne was up next to the [Empress]. The Sixth Legion had a whole section to themselves, and I made some large gestures in their direction to draw attention to them.

Iona was all sparkles and smiles herself, only a vein in her neck betraying the tension she felt. I was sure I had a thousand tells on the kaleidoscope of butterflies my stomach was home to, and we walked out to the screaming crowd. The Argo II was being lifted up at the center of the arena, and my eyes caught the prior act that was now leaving.

“Wait - did they have a pair of [Gladiatrixes] dress up as us??” I asked Iona. She smirked at me.

“I did tell you to read the program. It wasn’t to torture you.”

I groaned.

“Fine, fine, I should’ve read more than our part. I thought it was going to be a bunch of boring speeches.”

I looked up, blinking at the stars, wondering why the night sky looked so weird. Then my jaw dropped as I realized why it was looking so damn odd.

Sanguino had dropped its Ash cloud for us.

Hooooooly Ciriel up in the pantheon. The city had dropped its vampire protections for our launch. Sure, it was nighttime, a ‘safe’ time for vampires, and I was sure huge amounts of Ash was being prepared to recoat the sky the moment we left, but the fact that they’d dropped it at all… damn. I just didn’t have the words for it.

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Iona elbowed me - mostly nudging me, given the suits we were wearing - and tilted her head towards the head box, where the [Empress] was standing up to give her speech.

I shut up and bowed my head slightly in her direction. She came with her own Classers, and an unnatural hush and darkness fell over the entire crowd, muffling and dimming everyone else.

“Today, two brave women are attempting the impossible. To go to the moon, and plant the standard of Exterreri there. They are going, not because it is easy, but because it is hard. It is in our very nature to strive, to reach for the stars, to challenge the impossible and to better ourselves, and today, two brave citizens of Exterreri are challenging the stars themselves. They are reaching into the great unknown, and we condone their bravery, tenacity, and courage as they embark. Yet, it is not simply the women piloting the craft that need to be recognized and thanked. Countless thousands of you all have been instrumental in making this happen, from the designers and smiths, the…”

The [Empress’s] speech was both long and gripping, and for once I didn’t find my attention drifting off. The part I’d suggested made it in! Shamelessly stolen - ahem, inspired - by a similar famous speech on Earth. Most of my… inspirations were classical literature, but one or two speeches had made the cut. Fenrir landed in the middle of the speech with a stadium-shaking thud, and shortly after the part of the speech we’d been waiting for came.

“... and now, our two brave [Celestronauts] will board the Argo II!” The [Empress] commanded.

I made my salute extra-large to be properly seen, as Iona’s was smaller and more discreet. Kneeling had been brought up at one point, but Iona had hated the idea. She was fine showing proper deference to the [Empress], but kneeling had all sorts of cultural connotations where she’d grown up.

The two of us started to spin the hatch wheel, while Auri started to fly around the Argo II. My original plan had called for me teleporting it onto Iona, but the weight and size had rendered that infeasible. Once it was opened, I glanced at the rubber rings lining it, checking on them one last time. Iona hefted the door up and down, doing her own last-second check on the hinges.

We’d checked and rechecked every part of the Argo II dozens of times leading up to today, of course. But there was always the risk of something happening at the very last moment. We traded looks, and satisfied, entered the Argo II. Auri settled on top of the ship.

We each had our own spot, designed for our bodies and our skills. Iona had a half-chair molded to her body, with a few flourishes and details to make it look like armor. That half-armor chair was directly and wholly part of the Argo II’s hull, letting her armor skill expand and protect the clear steel. Gems of every type studded the hull. The more important they were, the bigger the emergency they were supposed to fix, the closer to our hand’s resting position they were.

My spot was all the way on the other side of the Argo II, and it was mostly a pair of gauntlets melded to the hull, with the rest of my body supposed to be sticking ‘straight out’. There was exactly enough room for me to beat my wings.

A few basic supplies were at the bottom of the Argo II, but the bulk was inside [Tower of Knowledge]. It was going to be tricky flying and resupplying, and it was one of the few things we hadn’t been able to fully practice.

Iona’s chair was at the ‘bottom’ of the Argo II, and my gauntlets were at the ‘top’. In other words, Iona would be spending the bulk of the trip looking at my feet.

Gems were embedded all over, but right in front of my face only had paint on the clear steel. We’d calculated the primary trajectory - TRAJ-17-v26.79.603 - that worked for this specific date, then endlessly iterated over it. To keep our lives simple, we’d carefully measured, then painted the exact star chart needed on the window, along with a series of rings.

For the navigation, in theory, all I needed to do was to line the stars painted on the Argo II with the corresponding ‘real’ stars, and fly forward. The rings painted all over the ship were ‘timing’ rings. When the moons and Pallos were all exactly filling their corresponding ring, we would know an entire day had passed. Rinse and repeat for all the remaining rings. Day 1, day 2, day 3… all the way up to day 11, at which point we’d be on final approach and more concerned with matching our velocities up - an exercise that could be eyeballed.

A second set of rings were painted in a different color for our return trip, but when we left would dramatically change our flight path, and they were much fainter as a result.

I hopped up and grabbed the gauntlets, slipping my hands into them then hanging from the ceiling, like I was resting between pullups. The scales of my spacesuit perfectly aligned with the gauntlet, and quite a few iterations of the design had included a paste to seal it all shut. My suited legs dangled.

“Thank goodness for the System, otherwise I don’t think I could stay here while they finished all the speeches.” I joked. Iona snorted a laugh while she carefully placed the candle in its holder, then she spun the door closed, sealing us in. I eyed the candle, burning with divine light of two colors, then wrinkled my nose. Iona noticed.

“We need to hope their speeches don’t take too long, otherwise they’ll smoke you out entirely!” She teased as the smoke tickled my nose.

“We did not test this part out.” I eyed one of the gems near my hand, a powerful atmospheric saving gem. It would purge everything currently in the air, then replace it all with nearly pure oxygen. Less than fantastic, but my healing would fix any issues, and it was better - and easier! - to go pure oxygen than the ‘proper’ mix.

Auri hopped around just an inch away from my hands, and I smiled at her when she pressed a burning eye up to the steel to see us better.

“Hey Auri!” I smiled brightly. “You ready for this?”

“Brrpt BRPT!” She was getting some last-second worries and concerns.

“We’ll be fine! I promise! Love you! We’ll miss you! Be good while we’re gone! Don’t give Fenrir too much trouble!” I shouted at her.

“Brrrpt!!”

The speeches went on for quite some time while I hung unhappily in a slowly growing cloud of smoke. We had multiple plans and redundancies for dealing with it, but most of them involved being up in the air, off the ground. I sighed.

“Using one of my worst smoke spells.” I communicated to Iona. “Page 44.”

“Aye, smoke spell is good. Page 44.” She confirmed.

With a thought, I pulled out one of my endless spellbooks out of my [Repository], and Iona grabbed it with [Telekinesis]. Hovering in front of me, she flipped it open to page 44, and I tilted my head forward, pressing my nose against it. My hands were a little busy keeping me hanging, and it was good practice for what we were going to do.

The spell lit up, and the page disintegrated as the smoke cleared.

Then it got quiet. Real quiet. Ice formed up and around the Argo II as Fenrir coated us with a solid layer, creating a pair of wyvern-sized handles. He flapped over and grabbed them with his hind legs, and my breath hitched as the first number lit up the sky.

10.

I’d insisted on a countdown from 10 instead of 8, claiming it was good luck. Night had snorted in amusement while Arachne and Iona had laughed themselves sick over it all, but in the end, I’d gotten my way.

9.

Levels, levels, everywhere. To nearly everyone, mortal and Immortal alike, this was a major event. It had weight, difficulty, freshness, uniqueness, and every single other thing the System enjoyed when determining experience. The only thing it was ‘properly’ missing was ‘mortal peril’, and honestly, Iona and I were going to be staring that aspect right in the face for quite some time. Getting the government interested was another major boon. They’d tacked on enough pomp and ceremony to the entire thing to give more weight, and it wasn’t like there was a limited amount of experience to go around. The more people that were involved in various aspects, the more experience they could get. For example, Auri’s baking. Her classes only had baking tertiary to them at best - more things to do with Fire, mostly - but it WAS part of her class. Us simply going to the moon was the same amount of experience, pomp and ceremony or not, but the pomp and ceremony also gave Auri a chance to push her baking and skills to rise to the occasion, and now she could tap the experience as well. The same went for the [Announcers], the [Gladiatrices], heck, even the [Empress]! The Sixth Legion supporting their Sentinel was a boon to them, and the list went on and on and on.

8.

The crowd had figured out the countdown, and even with the steel and enchantments all over, we could hear them counting down in unison.

7.

6.

Most of the dings! - or whatever other sound people had customized their notifications for - would hit when we launched. There would probably be a second set when we landed, then a few more when we finished the temple, and a third set when we landed back on Pallos.

Of course, the degree of the dings! Would heavily depend on how successful we were.

5.

Auri fluttered low down, and with exquisite flame control, lit up the bottom of the Argo II like a rocket, but keeping the heat from touching Fenrir’s Ice. It wouldn’t do for it to get melted on takeoff, we’d all look bad and get flung all over.

4.

There wouldn’t be any dings! on [Erudite Archmage] - it was capped, and I was hoping this mission would give enough weight and experience to the class for a good evolution. It wasn’t directly linked to what the class wanted to do, but there’d been enough scribbling in dusty old tomes, research, and the creation of magical spells to work it.

3.

Auri and I would be splitting the experience, but we were both getting differently distributed experience in the first place. It would ‘even us out’, getting all our classes a little closer to each other.

2.

I expected more levels off [Seraph of the Dawn]. There was still the ‘go to new places and explore’ as a minor aspect thanks to [Butterfly Mystic], and I’d explored a lot of the world. The moons? Completely new, and I ran the very real risk that my eyes wouldn’t be starry at the end of this, but glowing with golden light.

That would be very bad.

1.

LIFTOFF!

Fenrir flapped his wings and effortlessly picked us up, shooting high into the sky.

[*ding!* [The Arbiter of Life and Death] has leveled up! 906-> 908. +400 Strength, +400 Dexterity, +800 Speed, +800 Vitality, +1600 Magic Power, +1600 Magic Control, +1000 Mana, +9000 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

[*ding!* [Seraph of the Dawn] leveled up! 885-> 888. +512 Speed, +512 Vitality, +1024 Mana, +1024 Mana Regeneration, +1024 Magic Power, +1024 Magic Control per level from your class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Strength +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

We were on our way to the moons.

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