Adamant Blood 438

“It’s not trash, Mark,” Shawn said, holding the sword.

Tartu smirked as he said, “It’s worth negative 30 million goldleaf, so it’s kinda trash.”

Mark groaned and let his head loll back on the lawn chair.

Tartu laughed.

“You’re enjoying this too much, Tartu,” Mark muttered.

In the background, Lenny told Shawn, “Hand it over already. I want to try it.”

“You don’t even have TT, mageboy,” Shawn said, “How the heck are you gonna use it?”

“I’ll figure it out! Now give the trash! I want to try it out!”

Mark scoffed, Tartu snorted, and Shawn handed the sword over to Lenny.

Not really caring, but needing to see anyway, Mark looked over as Lenny raised a column of stone out of the ground, and then he planted his feet shoulder-width apart. He raised the sword up using both hands, and then he brought it down onto the stone column, promptly fucking up the strike, the blade’s side tinking off of the stone and then clattering out of his hands, into the ground. The blade didn’t even sink into the soil. Not sharp enough! Mark winced, Shawn laughed and told Lenny ‘I told you so!’ and Lenny shook his hands out.

“Rough to hold!” Lenny said.

It was a full-adamantine grip, so yeah. ‘Rough to hold’ was an understatent.

Tartu conspiratorily told Mark, “I am enjoying this the exact right amount.”

Mark leveled a glare at the guy.

Tartu grinned.

Shawn told Lenny, “You’re holding it all wrong!”

“I’m holding it just fine!” Lenny told him back.

Mark glanced back at the guys.

Lenny was holding it wrong.

Mark ignored that and the resulting thud/tink of the blade skipping off of the stone, as he asked Tartu, “So how’s the vine situation?” He glanced toward the house where Eliot was in a conference with so people, talking to businesses. According to his vector, Eliot was calming people down who were being threatened with legal action by Okuana. Mark added, “They’re going after your investors?”

“We don’t have investors. You’re our only investor at all. We have potential clients and they are pulling out on buying contracts.”

Mark saw the opportunity to be a dick, so he leaned back in his chair and put his arms behind his head, smiling as he flexed his bigger muscles, saying, “It’s okay if you can’t make money, Tartu. I’ll fund you forever.”

“Phhbt! Fuck you. And stop flexing. I know you’re inflating yourself.”

“This is all , ‘mageboy’!” Mark smiled wide… And then he said, “But seriously, though.”

Tartu frowned… and then he grumbled, “The clients are being threatened. So of them covertly, too, and in ways I can’t prove but which I can tell… Like, it’s almost paranoia to say this, but…” Tartu took a breath, then said, “We have this one client in the Californias. Their business is called Haleotopic, they’re actually one of the companies that make livium cores for United Sapients. Their CEO, Geraldo Burns, has so kids who really like the Spherix and Blackvein fighting videos, and they absolutely love the docuntary from Endless Daihoon. Eliot had been in contact with them since before the trip to Endless Daihoon. Eliot asked for so signed rch to give them before that trip, too, and I did more than that. I did a whole little ‘glad you like us’ package. When we ca back they were… WOW were they on board to start so mana crystal farming. They were planning on buying from us. A lot. They absolutely loved that Spherix and Blackvein were on the sa team now, in light of the Reset Quest.

“And I an they loved us a lot, Mark. A lot of money and businesses and whole economies were going to move. People were going to have to relocate. A lot of people.

“But it kinda fell apart, and it all felt natural at the ti. The thing with Nobody Important really sealed the deal.

“But —I only realized this after today— but I went through the public social dia of the company, and I stumbled onto their kid’s page. The one who I sent the rch to? That kid. He’s 12 or 13, I think. He was posting social dia from the Californias for the last 4 years, ever since they got him his first phone after he Knacked himself. Ineligible for Tutorial, so he might as well join the real world.

“The kid was posting videos every single day for years. Mostly with a few hundred views.

“And that’s the background.

“A month ago, the kid’s social dia went inactive. The mother’s social dia, too.

“And then 2 weeks agothey started posting videos of them in Okuana! Underneath a dryad in one of the northern cities of Okuana. A few different places, actually. They’re on a ‘family trip’ now.”

Mark’s eyes went wide. “Is it… It’s not just a coincidence?”

“I don’t know! Geraldohad beenreally excited to purchase from us, but he had been purchasing from Okuana. He didn’t like a lot of things about Okuana and the trip through Japan’s gate, and all of that. He was excited to purchase from the settlent.

“And now his son and wife are in Okuana, and posting updates, and Geraldo pulled out completely, citing an unwillingness to participate in the Reset Quest since Nobody Important appeared.” Tartu frowned, looking outward, as he said, “I’d say I was being crazy, and that the stuff wasn’t connected, but only because the social dia is all sorts of ‘normal’, and yet… and yet, Mark, Geraldo and Haleotopic are not the first people to pull out, and since I denied those lawyers from Okuana absolutely everything they wanted, it’s gotten worse. The fallout is falling, and very little of it is people making their own choices in life—” Tartu scoffed, then darkly added, “They’ll tellyou they decided to pull out on their own, and that it had nothing to do with Okuana. But they’re all fucking liars.”

Mark sighed a little, hate boiling in his heart, as he thought of Dominant and that escape from Okuana. Dominant had fired on Mark and his people with kaiju-class death beams, and Mark had deflected a lot of that energy with a solid adamantine shell. Mark had died, but his house had saved him. But the fires had still burned in his soul. Thankfully, Aluatha’s anti-fuckery witchery had put out the fires on his dead body, allowing him to resurrect himself, and Addavein had co in and grabbed the team and Mark’s own sphere, getting them out of there.

A lot of people near Verdant Citadel had died when that death magic had scattered everywhere, when Addavein had deflected it away from them.

When they were still at the elven lands and Dominant dominated the sky beyond the portal to Okuana, Dominant had even done so mind fuckery to them, almost taking them unawares, but Mark had seen the degradation on Eliot’s Castellan shield. Mark had been immune and able to wake up the rest of the team from whatever srize had been going on… And then Kardi and Grax had appeared, and everything got very dangerous, very fast.

“Gods,” Mark muttered, “It’s all so fucked.”

“The world shouldn’t be like this, Mark,” Tartu said.

Mark nodded slightly, slowly, saying, “War in 18 days, if the prognostication is correct.”

“It’s not correct at all,” Tartu said, “As soon as soone foretells war at the level of Empire then both sides start reacting to that information, throwing off the prognostication. We’ve had world war scares before now. It’s always like this. Prognostications for war, and then posturing, and then backing off or… or stuff. You know. History.”

Mark wasn’t well versed in Daihoon history, but neither of them wanted to fix that deficit.

Tartu asked, “So I heard Addavein is gonna steal that house book out from under you. I’ll help you steal it for Eliot.”

From cold to warm, Mark felt better, and he smiled a little as he said, “Thanks.”

Tartu said, “I want you to make a Dynamo dagger.”

Mark laughed, then said, “Okay!” And then he retorted, “Can you make a Dynamo tree, first, so I can steal its Binding?”

“I have tried! I don’t know the thodology. Not knowing anything doesn’t seem to stop you, though.”

“Hey now! I have done many different Understanding Parties!”

“Did you learn anything at the last one? Or did you forget it all, like you forgot Manawork?”

“I rember the important parts of Manawork, like how osmium makes rich as fuck.”

“Ah, so you forgot it all. Please tell if we’re at least going to war with the goblins.”

Mark pulled back the sarcasm and started talking normally, since that’s where they were in the conversation now, saying, “We probably are. Or at least I am. Don’t know about you guys, but I don’t think you should even consider going with , anyway.”

“The People asked for you and Jessie, and the goblins are involved, and so Kardi and Grax are involved, which ans I am involved, Mark.”

“You don’t… knowthat,” Mark bargained, voice edged with epheral hope, though in his heart he knew Tartu was probably correct.

Tartu simply side-eyed Mark.

“… Yeah fine! They probably are,” Mark allowed.

Tartu nodded magnanimously, then he said, “I’ve been developing so luckfruit plants to try and counter her, specifically.”

Mark focused. “Really? Like… like how? Kardi listened to the demons in the mana talk to her, right? Are you listening to demons now?”

Tartu waved a hand, scoffing as he said, “Credenza from mphi doesn’t do it that way. Most Lucky people don’t. It’s just that…” He humd, then asked, “Do you know what the Binding for Lucky looks like?”

“No, actually.”

“Well neither do I, and neither does anyone else, because the second you look at it the Binding changes, making you unable to see what it actually does.”

“… That’s fucked? So how did you… manage anything at all?”

“I’ve actually been working on it for a long ti, but I didn’t want to say anything until I got actual results, and it was the Witches’ Welco that really helped to understand what I needed to do. Lucky is less about whatever the Lucky Binding says, and more about making connections between things and bending outcos to be Good versus Bad. I had already set up a fruit tree and I did a few things and before it wasn’t doing shit, but now it makes small fruits and you have no idea if they’re going to be sweet or sour before you eat one, but whichever one you get colors your luck for the rest of the day,” Tartu said, “I had a slice of one yesterday and it was a sweet one, and think that eting with Haleotopic worked out as well as it could have worked out.”

Mark’s eyes were a little wide. “I’m… impressed? I guess?”

Tartu snorted. “Don’t be impressed yet, but doknow that I’m working on stuff to take Kardi down permanently, or to allow an easier takedown. No idea what to do about her Gore Body or whatever shit Thrashtalon gave her…” Tartu’s eyes seed to darken as he looked away, to the side, saying, “And who knowswhat else she can do, and especially since she can revive in whatever house Grax has set up…” Tartu eyed Mark, asking, “Can you do that, yet?”

“No, and I have no idea how Grax does it, though he probably has more of a house size than ‘several bricks’.”

“Yet another reason for us to co with you to kill the goblins and talk to The People. They know all sorts of secrets. You know there are no records of The People before they appeared after the Reveal, after humans from Earth brought out their radar and planes and nuclear bombs?”

“Yeah I heard that before. They were so hidden society… But you think differently?”

Tartu shrugged. “They claim a long history of living where they’re living now, talking about how Water People saved them from discovery by monsters and kaiju and everyone else, and maybethat’s true from their perspectiveas well, but from an over-reality perspective… The Reveal could have popped them out of Endless Daihoon onto Daihoon, fully intact as a people and culture.”

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringent.

Mark had heard that before, but only in rumors and fiction. Mark said, “The only problem with that is that New Guinea is an island that also exists on Earth, and the People have big wrecked monunts all over the place. So they’ve been there for a while.”

Tartu shrugged. “Maybe.”

… Mark suddenly had a weird question. “Do they have a real na for themselves? They can’t just be ‘the People’, right? And ‘Water People’ is a weird na for a language, too.”

Tartu started, “Well…” He paused, thinking, then he decided to start at, “We’re speaking Xerk right now, and we speak Xerk most everywhere we go. They speak Xerk, too. It’s one of the most prevalent languages on Daihoon and in the Two Worlds because of the Settlent of Xerkona, who reached out to everyone and brought a lot of people together. They reached out to The People, as well, and The People nad themselves as ‘The People’. I think The People are really about a thousand-or-so tribes, each with their own na, and so collectively they decided to translate their na for themselves from their own language into Xerk, and to speak Xerk most of the ti.” Tartu added, “Quark probably knows the original nas for them?”

Mark asked, “Quark? Do you?”

Quark said, “The people known as The People have no singular na for themselves, for when they appeared on Daihoon a great many defensive monunts and even their entire culture was fractured in the Reveal. Their language itself, the magical language known as Water People, was also broken in the Reveal. These days, most People speak Xerk, though there are so phonetic records of the original language and the na for themselves, and the na of their island. In those original records they call themselves ‘Picory’ and their island ho as ‘Vaka’. Vaka occupies the sa land mass on Daihoon as New Guinea does on Earth.

“These days, they call themselves The People, and their ho as Unknown. Mostly, The People live in either the main city of Crash, or among the rain forest in tribal tree houses that protect them and all of their family from being sensed by most monsters. Before the Reveal, so of the People are said to have called their lands the Sideways Land.”

Mark nodded a little, saying, “Thanks, Quark.”

Tartu said, “The city is called ‘Crash’! That’s a major point in the ‘crash-landed-Endless-Daihoon-humans’ column. Not to ntion that ‘Sideways Land’ thing.”

Mark almost rose to the taunt because it was fun to fuck around with Tartu. Or at least it was, now. At the beginning, Tartu had been a complete asshole. Mark was very glad that was over and done with. Tartu was actually a really good guy, once you got past the prickly imperialist bits. And yet, the imperialist bits were pretty necessary to what needed to co later.

The Reset Quest still needed more Inheritors. Sure, Mark wasn’t doing the Reset Quest as it was. Not right now. He had spoken about that a lot yesterday at the Swords of Empire after party. A lot of the people who had been on-board with the Reset Quest were suddenly not at all on-boardonce Nobody Important had pulled that Molten Titan shit. But…

Hmm.

Mark looked at Tartu, gauging the guy.

Tartu had been a little bit mirthful, but now he knew he was being gauged.

In the background, Shawn and Lenny were still playing with the sword, and the Paladin of Drakarok was now showing the Mud Mage how to hold the sword properly.

Mark asked Tartu, “You wanna be an Inheritor, too?”

Tartu’s eyes dilated, just a fraction— He looked away. “N…” His denial faded away before he finished saying the word. Instead, he asked, “Why?”

“Walaria wants to put a geas on to never hurt the royal family of Aluatha. To turn and whatever I make into a vassal state of Aluatha. She promised a lot of funding and probably a whole lot of other stuff, too. I didn’t get into it. I didn’t know what a ‘geas’ was, so I asked about that, and she told , and I said ‘no’. She said ‘okay’, then she moved on. I was almost angry at being asked to do that to myself, but then we went on to the rest of what we did. I didn’t have ti to get angry.” Mark added, “But it occurs to that you might want that opportunity andshackle. So I’m asking if you want it, instead.”

Tartu was very quiet, and deeply interested, his eyes staring at Mark while his mind was a thousand kiloters away. But he was still looking at Mark. Thinking.

Mark waited.

Tartu said, “No.”

Mark arched an eyebrow. “… You sure?”

“Yes. Can’t tell you why because I don’t know why. But… no. Doesn’t feel… right.”

“Okay! Then sure… Say, so…” Mark moved on, saying, “So could I put a Binding into a sphere of adamantium and let soone use it as a secondary Talent? Rylan and Tulo spoke about that so, but you, with your skill with external Bindings, would know how that works best?”

Tartu took a mont, switching gears, and then he started, “That’s how most magical items are made. Language set down in power and allowed to be accessed by the user. Doing it with adamantium is the easy way because adamantium sticks around and doesn’t degrade when used like everything else. Adamantium accumulates charge, as opposed to being degraded like all other mana types. You’ll still need to put mithril into it to give it bridging functions, though.”

Mark nodded. “They talked about mithril growth plates, too—”

“That’s advanced shit,” Tartu easily said, “I an mithril coatings to allow for an interface towardthe adamantium binding…”

Mark and Tartu talked about Bindings and magic item creation for a while.

And eventually, Shawn and Lenny were done with the sword.

Mark handed it right over to Tartu, saying, “Here you go! Break it if you want.”

“... You’re serious?” Tartu said, holding the sword.

“Yes.”

Tartu smirked. “I accept!”

Shawn reached out, saying, “I wanna use it more before then.”

Shawn got the sword.

- - - -

Eventually, Eliot ca out, his eting with his newly-forr clients going about as well as Tartu’s eting with Okuana had, yesterday. More people were pulling away from Tartu and Eliot, and Blackleaf.

That night, Mark got a call overseen by Walaria.

In a private room, Mark had on a nice shirt and jacket, so he appeared proper on the screen.

Walaria was voice-only, and to the side.

The other people on the screen were ones Mark had helped yesterday, who had sohow started this whole phone call conference. He forgot their nas, and though he learned their nas now he would probably forget their nas after this, too, but Quark wouldn’t, and Mark rembered their issue, anyway, and that’s what this was about. The two n were just as nervous now as they were the other day, when they approached Mark after he had written them a blank check for 1.5 billion, for a new water treatnt plant and whatever other infrastructure they needed.

Mark happily said, “Hello, Ambassadors from D’Bolivia. Is the grant for the water treatnt plant going well?”

“We’re sorry, but we cannot accept your money,” said the first guy, and then both of them bowed.

One of them reached forward to turn off the cara—

“Not so fast, Ambassadors,” Walaria said, “Keep that cara on and explain yourselves.”

The ambassadors froze, both of them practically flop sweating.

“Now,” Walaria clarified.

The first one closed his eyes hard and rapidly stamred out, “Okuana is threatening to invade us first if we take your money.”

“Then that’s a good thing, and now we know where to reinforce,” Walaria said, easy as cheesecake. “Thank you for your honesty, gentlen. You will take the money, and you will build yourself up properly. Aluatha will be sending more funds and soldiersyour way soon. Do you understand?”

The ambassadors bowed all the way to the floor, the cara panning to catch them on a carpet, like they were praying. They said their thanks, and that they understood, but it was almost too quiet to hear.

Walaria ended the call with the ambassadors and then she must have flicked a switch or pressed a button because her image appeared.

Her red hair was in a towel, a green clay mask adorned her face, and she held one cucumber slice in one hand while the other remained on her face. Her eye was bright red and her countenance was serious, while her breasts floated in the steaming water in front of her. She kept her face still because of the mask, even as she said, “We’re at 40% chance of war, Mark. I need you to stay at the Winter Ball for at least this weekend, for the major festivities, but chances are you will have to leave. Are you willing to accept ITLKR transport, if necessary?”

The International Teleport List for Kaiju Response?

Mark asked, “Can you even still call it the ‘international’ list?”

“We’ll rena it to ‘Intercontinental’ if this war truly does happen. Filing paperwork and changing nas is too politically bleak right now, so the na holds.”

“… Yeah, I’ll be ready— But.” Mark frowned. “But if shit happens in the transport, then I’ll get mad.”

“I’ll be throwing you directly into a warzone, if I need to,” Walaria said. And then she moved on, “What is the next language you wish to learn? The next one on the list should be Greenspeaking, but it doesn’t have to be. The only real Greenspeaking I suspect you will engage in anyti soon is burning the green down. Basic Enchanting is a few languages ahead, but all of the experts in the world are here in Crytalis at present, and a Basic Enchanting Understanding Party might be useful.”

Mark let his feelings be known, “I feel like I didn’t get to learn Water People properly, but they invited to Unknown for that… So Basic Enchanting seems useful.”

Walaria simply said, “Then we’ll do Basic Enchanting on Thursday. It’s not as good as Goobersmithing, but that’s advanced studies. Basic Enchanting cos first.”

Walaria killed the connection.

Mark took a breath, and then he asked, “Was Walaria at the spa with the girls, Quark?”

“The architecture in the back of her conference call is similar to that to other pictures taken at Sofri’Ether, and the girls’ last check-in was an hour ago, saying how they would remain till midnight as there were guests of honor there. It is possible. The news or royal movents are censored by oversight AIs in Crytalis, when those censors are turned on.”

Mark humd, wondered about Walaria talking with the girls… But Mark decided that if sothing bad happened and if it was Walaria’s fault, then Freyala would tell Mark. Lola was there, after all, which ant Freyala was there.

Mark put away his fears, and said, “Pull up the Basic Enchanting books, please.”

Mark read about Sigaldry in items, how mana flowed from one location to another, where it bunched up and spiraled out, how mithril aliorated and transford most written magical language into magical action, and a whole bunch of stuff that helped him understand much of what Rylan, Tulo, and even Tartu were talking about.

Eventually, around 4 AM, the girls got back, talking about a fantastic ti. They practically bubbled as they ca in, glowing and smiling joyfully, all their faces seemingly softer, all their vectors tired but happy. Walaria had showed up, as Mark had guessed, and then there had been a party. It had been great.

Mark smiled as he told them, “I’m glad.”

And then Andria smirked, Sally laughed, and Isoko said, “You didn’t even react to seeing her in water up to her tits, man! And just water!”

“Great tits, for sure,” Sally said.

“They seed okay,” Mark easily said, but he did smile a bit wider.

Sally laughed.

Andria exclaid, “And what about those goblin-shits from D’Bolivia!”

“Scared as fuck!” Sally proclaid.

“Walaria is going to have them replaced as ambassadors,” Isoko said, “And she’d be right to do so. The fuck kinda shit is that? Getting scared about Okuana?”

“It was terribly unbecoming of them,” Lola agreed, and then she said, “And now, I must sleep, girls. It was a lovely night.”

They all wished Lola a good night.

But the younger crowd stayed up, the butlers made a very late night al for everyone, and the girls talked about their day at one of the Two Worlds’ fanciest spas. Mark was glad to share in that story, and he was even happier to stay up with Andria far into the morning, talking about enchanting and weaponsmithing. Andria’s entire apprenticeship with Rylan and her goals in life had been in that direction, after all, before Mark and the settlent project ca along.

Andria waved her mimosa under the mid-morning sun, eyes half-lidded, saying, “Pretty much all of enchanting is just writing down magic and using if/then statents with so mithril as a bridge— Oh! And figuring out how to handle dissipation and accumulation. You gotta… gotta do the thingy. Make it balanced or whatever.”

She was a little loopy.

Mark smiled, and said, “I think you should go to bed now, Andria.”

“Noooo!” Andria whined. “We’re having so much fun!”

“We are, but I’mgoing to bed, and you should probably crash, too.”

Andria sighed and whined at the sa ti, playfully saying, “Liar! You’re gonna stay up and work on stuff without ! You’re gonna do an Understanding with Master Rylan and Tulo!”

Mark grinned. “I promise I won’t do that without you. Now… Bedti. Would it help if I carried you to bed?”

Andria blushed hard, then proclaid, “I will allow it!”

Mark laughed, and then he picked Andria up with his arms, Andria’s heart beat hard, and Mark eventually put Andria to bed, tucking her in with a quick Union of Purity and then a Good/Bad. Andria mumbled only slightly, and then she was out, exhaustion finally claiming her. Mark smiled.

… And then Mark went and started crafting in his soul house, and also in reality, bouncing back and forth, transposing diagrams from the enchanting book into dream.

Quark helped with all of that, because helping his summoner create and alter Bindings, seeing them in whole and in part and assisting with creation, destruction, and alteration, was one of the primary functions of a familiar.