Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

25 years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks

Given my druthers, I’d stay locked away in my library, letting Skye and Titania rotate the books, happily devouring books as I nibbled on snacks. Maybe I’d occasionally meditate for the health benefits - the giants really knew how to combine the two - but all in all, I’d probably retreat deep into my happy little shell and isolate myself.

It was a good thing I wasn’t alone! After going to the moon, we’d taken a year-long break, but Iona was restless and filled with energy. Nina swinging by was a good reminder to break out of my shell and go explore the world, and to be fair, the most interesting things did happen when I was out and about.

Once my initial inertia was overcome, I was reminded of how many books were everywhere, and I worked on leveling my [Relentless Pursuit of Knowledge], nevermind that it was capped. There were people to be healed, and while all of Pallos was a tiny blue marble when viewed from a distance, it was a deep and complex marble, filled with joy and wonder.

Which is how I found myself on a caravan with Iona, slowly rumbling over the desert sands of Ankhelt without Fenrir or Auri. Fenrir wanted to fly and push himself when he wasn’t snoozing - that, and he caused panic everywhere he went - and Auri was having a grand old time with her bakery, and we did pop back frequently enough to not be missed. Also, when I was on-duty, we spent sixteen years in close contact, a little bit of traveling and separation for a few weeks now and then helped us stay friends, as odd as that sounded.

All the countries had a long history, but Ankhelt in particular had HISTORY. The shifting sands of the desert along with the construction method of their buildings made them particularly suited towards remnants surviving Immortal Wars. Entire cities would get swallowed up by the sand, regardless if a Classer was involved or not, only for the shifting winds to unbury them thousands of years later. Bodies would be preserved and mummified, and entire cities worth of loot were simply sitting there for the [Treasure Hunters] to loot.

Speaking of alternative careers I wanted to try out sometime - [Treasure Hunter] was pretty high up there.

The caravan’s path to Augustine was winding. The Blue Fire Wastes on one side, and wurm territory on the other. Most of the animals in the caravan had been hobbled as to not attract the fearsome beasts.

I, personally, was hoping we’d see some, and I knew Iona was itching to fight one. The creatures were rare and majestic, similar to the wyrm we’d battled but also completely different. They made vast swathes of the desert difficult to traverse - for those who couldn’t fly.

Iona had successfully argued that we should take the low road, the way most people travel and experience the world, just to remain connected to mortals and their woes. To see the nitty gritty of life, instead of darting from city to city, landmark to landmark. To be able to protect people on the road.

She spoke with such fervent ardor that I shrugged, paid handsomely to have a nice spot in the wagon, and cracked open the pile of books I’d gainfully acquired from the last city I’d been in.

The lack of discrimination laws was an utter outrage! They hadn’t wanted to sell to me just because I wasn’t a beastkin! So I [Teleported] in the middle of the night, looted the shelves dry, and left a large sack of gems behind to pay for it all.

It would’ve been larger if they had just SOLD it to me, but nooooooo, they…

I shook my head, thinking of Iona to distract myself and move my mind off the unhelpfully rage-inducing train of thought. Anger did me no good. Wurms! Big wurms! I’d love to - oh Ciriel damnit.

“Iona!” I screamed in mock-rage, shaking my fist at the canvas roof. My wife’s laughter echoed from the roof, where she was standing sentinel.

“It took you this long to catch onto the wurm jokes I’ve been making?” She laughed, and mimed one of her earlier jokes. “I’d love to wrestle a big wurm for a whole day and night.”

My cheeks flaming, I simply blew a raspberry in her direction, knowing I’d been utterly defeated in every way. I could retreat and claim I was doing what I kept putting off - reorganizing [Astral Archives] - or I could change the subject.

“I want to perform a ‘miracle’ at Augustine.” I said. “Should we do that before or after seeing the great pyramids?”

“After, we’ll see them on the way in.” Iona said.

I settled back into my cushions, readjusting some of the cooling runes. I’d made a lot of friends in this caravan by not only supplying the runes, but personally empowering them. Being a [Healer] alone would’ve gotten me quite a lot of grace, but the cooling was the final nail in the coffin. Nobody asked me to do a single chore, and the one idiot who’d tried to start shit suddenly discovered that everyone else was still getting a refreshing Icy breeze while his runes mysteriously went on the fritz.

Good times, good times, and nobody was harmed.

Iona, on the other hand, made herself friends with half the caravan with her silver tongue, and all of the caravan with her sheer willingness to roll up her sleeves and make things happen. Latrines? Done in a minute. Cleaning? Iona had half of it done in thirty two seconds. Looking after the animals? If I didn’t know her stat sheet, I’d swear she had [Animal Handling].

Sand also made for a fantastically smooth ride, and that was before [Wagoneer] skills.

A few days later Iona was poking her head in through the top part of the wagon flap.

“Elaine, Elaine! The pyramids!” She gestured, and I didn’t bother moving normally. With a simple [Teleport] I popped above to witness the pyramids in their full splendor, needing to cover my eyes.

“My eyes! They burn!”

The sheer white limestone coatings on the massive tombs were reflecting the sunlight enough that it was painful to look at. I briefly debated seeing if sunbathing in or around the pyramids would help with my Radiance class before deciding that no, it wouldn’t help. I had too much going for me in the class in the first place. The top was a massive brass capstone, and my mind boggled at how they’d managed to get it up there in the first place. Physical labor or magic, it would’ve been a gigantic undertaking. Even if they brought it up in pieces then used magic to merge it, it was huge! The symbol of Ankhelt, the All-Seeing-Eye, was etched onto every side, symbolically ‘watching over’ the citizens.

I had to wonder if it was inspired in any way by the Dragoneye Moons high above. The eyes themselves were beastkin, and a brief glance at history suggested they changed with the ruling clan’s beastkin species.

My curiosity was itching at me, begging at me to go poke my head into the pyramids and do a bit of exploring. The only trap that could threaten me was a total collapse of the pyramid on my head, and I should be able to spy any trap mechanisms through the walls, thanks to [The World Around Me].

Except they were fairly recently tombs for the [Pharaohs], which begged the question - when did exploring cross the line from ‘disrespectful’ to ‘reclaiming history’? How long did I need to wait before it was socially acceptable to go tomb raiding?

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What if other people beat me to it, and there was nothing left to see? I didn’t want to raid or loot them, just… explore a little. As one does. I was no [Adventurer], hellbent on looting every last coin! My motives were pure and good. It was different. Somehow.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Cognitive Dissonance]! Would you like to replace a skill with it?]

Hey! No! That wasn’t fair! I wasn’t even asking for a skill! It was completely different!

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Utter Hypocrisy]! Would you like to replace a skill with it?]

I was in an argument with the System and losing. It was time to cut my losses and run away.

… I was not an [Adventurer].

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Not An Adventurer]! Would you like to replace a skill with it?]

The fuck would I even do with - you know what, it was time to walk away.

The great city of Augustine rose up behind them, filled with a riot of a thousand brightly colored silks, a grand city who’s sights I greedily drank in. A thousand and one words could be used to describe the bustling streets and the culture, but [Astral Archives] wasn’t limited to mere words, no matter how much I wrote in them. They were memories. Thoughts and feelings, senses and impressions, all could be stored, and I took a strong mental ‘snapshot’ of a good image of the city, and stuck it into my big book of cities. Then we carried on.

I withdrew my aura and tightened up my [Persistent Casting] zone as we arrived, not wanting to quite give away the game yet.

The gates were a fun time with Iona’s level over 1000, scary eyes, and not-beastkin nature, while I stayed very, very quiet about my true level and Immortal nature. Wasn’t technically supposed to be here and all that. I had to wonder if the Wardens were eventually going to track Iona and I down and have some impolite words with us. The nature of communication on Pallos and the difficulty of putting the pieces of the puzzle could be helping us evade their notice, or they simply had bigger fish to fry. I didn’t know, but poking the bear would just make it more likely that they’d want to deal with me.

We got in, found a clothing shop and purchased a set of the local clothing. White linen dresses with a strap over one shoulder, along with a shawl to keep the sun off our heads. I clicked my tongue at them.

“Do you think it’s worth getting them dyed?” I asked Iona as we left the store. She glanced up at the sun.

“Nope. Helps keep us cool, and I know you and dyed clothing. You’ll just complain that the quality is inferior to Exterreri dyes if you do dye it, or complain it’s not genuine if you use some from Sanguino. Come on, we’ve done this conversation before.”

I pouted prettily, then brightened up.

“Alrighty! Let’s go perform a miracle, eh, eh?” I egged Iona on, who only snorted at my minor blasphemy. Ciriel approving of my ‘miracles’ made it alright in the [Paladin’s] books.

She brightened up at that.

“Yeah, let’s go!”

The beastkin of Ankhelt took their religion seriously, and we had the pick of a half-dozen different temples near the center of the city. We skipped the Temple of Death, one of Thanatos’s biggest temples on Pallos, and elected to go for one of the smaller temples. I mentally reviewed my healing template for beastkin, making sure I was including all the species variants.

There was a tricky line to walk between being visible enough that people believed it was a miracle as opposed to other nonsense, and being so visible as to cause problems. A second complication was Iona and her [Vow] to never lie. She had to always tell the truth, and wasn’t a huge fan of deception, nor did she particularly like me lying. She understood that I needed to now and then, but whenever possible I liked to stick on the truthful side.

I approached one of the [Ushers] or [Priests-in-Training] - unsure exactly how Ankhelt did things - and made my pitch to the crocodile beastkin.

“Hi!” I said in poor Demotic. “I’m wondering if there’s a good place for me to entreat Ciriel for a miracle?”

There were thousands and thousands of gods and goddesses, each with a unique pietfolio. She was one of the slightly more popular goddesses, and in a temple I didn’t feel the need to clarify exactly what her domain was.

He nodded at us and gestured, giving me a toothy smile.

“Any plans on sacrificing live animals, or anything —---?” He asked. I tilted my head towards Iona a bit, not quite catching the last word.

“No, we’re simply praying today.” She answered.

“Right this way.” He started to lead us down the bustling halls, and thought about hamming it up a little. Talking a bunch about the miracle I wanted to perform. My Demotic wasn’t that good, and I decided to keep my mouth shut for now.

“The word was problematic, but in Demotic it’s a specific type that refers to divine offerings that could be messy for the temple.” She quietly murmured. “All the different types of messy, from political to physical.”

It took all types, I guess. The words a culture had were a fascinating look into their mind. As the Modu giants had fifty different words for snow, describing all the characteristics, Ankhelt had quite a few words around gods, offerings, and the divine lineage of their [Pharaoh]. Given how none of the gods objected to the claim of divinity, it made me think some gods and mortals had gotten busy quite a few years ago, which had its own whole set of implications.

Iona had never seen anyone tagged as a [Demigod], but I had a running bet that one day we’d see it.

We were led to a smaller side chapel, where a few other people were praying in the pews or offering sacrifices to one god or another. Iona bowed her head slightly and started to pray, staying aware enough of the world to shuffle forward with me as the line moved. I could’ve just gone to the pews, but this was part of being slightly visible.

Offerings were placed on the altar, and usually vanished in a small sparkle of divine light. Everything being offered was neither a live animal, nor were they problematic.

Occasionally, an offer wouldn’t be accepted, and the [Priestesses] there whisked them away for the temple’s benefit. Iona raised an eyebrow at the practice, but restrained herself to an evil eye. I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t approve of the practice, but it was the current culture, and there were a number of interesting arguments for and against it.

I reached the front of the line, got on one knee and started to silently pray. I was trying to give the picture of faithful, devoted prayer, an [Adherent] or [Zealot] throwing themselves at the goddess’s mercy. Trying to invoke a solemn occasion. I sent a modest amount of mana Ciriel’s way.

Heya Ciriel!

I’m pulling the ‘divine miracle’ prank again. You still cool with it? Do you want to make a show of it, or…

Elaine! Yes, that would be great! Can you give me a moment to prepare an appearance?

Sure! I replied back, all excited to see Ciriel again.

It was a fantastic win-win for both of us. Ciriel got most of the credit for the ‘miracle’, and I got to stubbornly help as many people as I could without throwing the local Healer’s Guild into utter disarray. It was a way I could catch the people who didn’t know they were sick, or were too poor, discriminated against, or were just otherwise slipping through the cracks. My tolerance had gone down with age, and while I still sympathized with the plight of other [Healers] needing patients and to grow, healing people was more important.

The lights in the chapel flared with divine presence, and I released my aura and my healing. At over 10 kilometers in range, [Aurora Curialis] was more than hitting the entire city, but that couldn’t fix all ills. [Universal Cure] could hit right around a mile and a half. I felt a nudge in my skill as gasps echoed through the chapel.

Many people petitioned the gods, but it was rare for them to answer in such a public fashion. Chatters, gasps, and a quick reshuffling of favorite gods occurred as Ciriel was recognized. Iona was a big help with that, promptly bowing deeply with her hands in front of her. My wife’s clear tones dominated the space, projecting her voice in a way that most people could hear her.

“Honor and respect to holy Ciriel, Goddess of Healing!”

The best part? Iona truly felt that way, holding the gods in high esteem. There was no deception, no attempt at concealment, just pure honor and respect for the goddess. Her voice was probably pitched a hair differently than if it was some other random deity that was being manifested, but that was it.

My mana dropped like an anchor into the ocean, then abruptly stopped as I healed nearly the entire city in a single stroke. I’d probably need to skim around the edges of the city to catch people I’d missed on the first go through, but I could do that while running around invisibly.

“My miracle upon the city.” Ciriel proclaimed, then vanished in a sparkle of divine lights.

Thanks, Elaine! This was a ton of fun! By the way, I nudged your skill a bit. It’s covered the whole city, no need to do anything else! By the way, there’s some FASCINATING drama going on between Edor and Elarin that’s got me reaching for the glazed nuts. You want to know?

Oooh! Yes, please, dish! I replied, a part of me loving gossip when I wasn’t involved at all. It was like a story, except I knew some of the people involved. Vaguely, at a distance, where it probably wouldn’t spill over into my life.

They were gods, so there was no promise on that front, but it was unlikely.

Iona helped hustle me out while I heard the next few prayers go loudly to Ciriel, and a number of [Priests] and their ilk tried to descend upon me. That was a whole mess of politics I didn’t want to get into, and even Iona was tired of dealing with them.

Bless her.

“I saw a little bookstore on the way over, next to a coffee shop.” She quietly muttered to me, her bulk and level opening a nice hole in the crowd. “Want to go there?”

Bless that woman, I loved her so much.

[*ding!* [The Arbiter of Life and Death] has leveled up! 925-> 926. +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!* [Aurora Curialis] leveled up! 920 -> 926]

[*ding!* [Persistent Casting] leveled up! 802 -> 803]

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