“Nyx is a Hierarch of Entropy. Will that affect Her status?” Sama asked quickly. The Mother of the Undead was a cool and distant Immortal of great power, who encouraged the idea of mortals entering their second life as undead as a form of lesser Immortality. If not for the fact so many of her ‘children’ were so unremittingly hostile to the living, She was actually among the most acceptable of the Entropic Immortals!
“She dropped from Hand of the Hierarch down to barely of Hierarch rank, a massive blow to her status. There is a lot of scrambling for position among the Entropics right now, or so they say,” Tek inford us calmly.
“Ouch. Going from second in the Sphere below Voxus, down to just one of the elders,” Briggs mused, but his voice held no sympathy. “It’s like the other Spheres don’t like the idea of Entropy judging their own for sins while ignoring their own culpability.”
“The mastermind of the whole plan was an Immortal from Energy nad Kryvonder, who actually seems to have no representation on Nown,” Tek went on calmly, which fact was notable. “Not only was he an advocate of the Immortal Superiority position, arguing for direct Immortal oversight of all mortals due to their clearly greater capabilities and status, but he’s also an advocate for non-Pri Immortals, feeling that other dinsions are not represented properly among the Immortals and desiring to fix that.”
Briggs’ expression was flat. “They killed only humans,” he stated with cold certainty.
“That is correct,” Tek confird coolly. “And no Entropic Aspirants. My guess is because he could gather information on those sponsored among the Four Spheres socially, as long as none knew what he intended. He was quite the socializer in Nexial, and it’s now apparent why. He wanted dupes for his sches. But the Entropics simply don’t talk about their Aspirants that way, for good reason.”
“The Epic Heroes would be assigned to hunt them down, at the very least,” Sama chortled knowingly. “And many rely on secrecy and treachery to do their work. Being outed is basically a death sentence for most.”
“They do have a remarkably high turnover in Aspirants. Doesn’t stop the new ones,” I observed dispassionately. “What of the rebels our slick mastermind convinced of their innate righteousness and godhood?”
“All of them had small churches overseas in other lands on Nown, without much success outside their hereditary peoples, it seems… and oddly enough, no Immortal Aspirants under them,” Tek inford us.
“More surprises!” scoffed Sama, rolling her eyes. “Ashad at not being able to grow their faiths conventionally, they try to do it by force!” she spat.
Tek just nodded. “Their churches are currently locked into a crisis of faith, typical since they can’t answer their followers right now after their losses at the Mount. All of them lost at least one entire immortal Rank in power and status, and of course, they can no longer enter the Pri Plane, the own Immortal Power prevents them from entering. Their superiors are very interested in that effect, by the way,” his android face half-smiled chanically. “That was very well done. They have no clue which of them managed to arrange such a proper fate, and underneath of what the Entropics were doing! They have no idea how it was managed or how to undo it!”
“Step one, set up a fantastic diversion to what you are doing so all the attention is elsewhere as non-Casters do the impossible and simply punch through an Immortal weaving of ti,” I said blithely.
Briggs and Sama promptly high-fived, leaned their shoulders into one another, tunked heads, and gave Tek and I big shit-eating grins.
Tek leaned over and mock-whispered to , “That might be the most difficult part of the procedure, Lady Edge.”
Utterly true. Both Forsaken bead.
“Mmm. Step two, have the planet below you suck away the extracted Immortal Power and use it to resonate against the Immortal Auras of the twats concerned. It helps to have them chained and being drained by Entropics while you do this, as another diversion.”
It took him a second to realize I’d known what was happening on the Mount. “You were talking with the planet and knew what was happening there!” he accused cheerfully.
“I admit to nothing,” I said with a perfectly even voice, and they all smirked at . “Step Three, instantly Shape a Rune at QL 42 underneath the existing Immortal Rune Pattern so as to use its energy-gathering effects after a mont of proper study of it.
“Step Four, blow the Immortals concerned apart, trusting them not to even attempt to resist since it will an their freedom if they don’t. Vivify the released Immortal Power, resonate it through the Rune, and effectively repel them from the mortal plane with their own power.
“Step Five, destroy the entire Mount and remove all evidence of exactly what happened in proper Immortal style, leaving it all quite mysterious and certainly beyond mortal ability to accomplish,” I finished up smoothly.
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“They did notice you used your Staff to empower your magic enough to harm Immortals, Edge,” Tek inford carefully. “They are also very interested in the magic you used to kill them. It seems they cannot duplicate it so easily…”
“True Theurgic Magic, especially with tas, crosses Spheres, and is effectively incomprehensible to Immortals beholden to one Sphere,” I pointed out to him. “That includes you as well, Jorg.” As well as all those Immortals of Energy, the majority of whom were forr Overmagi.
He just sighed. “Well, I’ll take the limitation if others have it, too,” he agreed, only a little regretful. “I have many gifts and blessings. I shouldn’t be envious that I can’t do EVERYTHING,” he said playfully.
“As for my Staff, they likely have long expected that fact with the way I have survived against other Immortal Creatures. Confirming that I can affect Immortal Creatures with magic gives them a reward for their cunning. They can pat themselves on the back for being observant, when it really is sothing they should have deduced long ago.” And definitely going to get out, so now was as good a ti to confirm what they expected. A secret strongly suspected would be guarded against, and now they’d know, I knew they knew, and I could plan accordingly.
“Horrifying, isn’t it?” Sama whispered loudly to everyone. “It’s like she thinks these things through, or sothing!”
The only way to restore Pri access to the nine twats would be to destroy the whole planet of Nown, thus dissipating the repelling resonance to their Immortal Power now dispersed through the entire world. I wasn’t going to tell anyone that, however, and Nown certainly wasn’t!
“You may have just completely revised their procedures on Immortal Shells,” Tek added. “Revealing the heroes were Immortal fakers and soiling their legends did not go well with their forr Immortal sponsors, and removing any hint of such impropriety was a strong incentive. While Entropy doesn’t give a damn about bringing back legendary monsters that way, disrespecting an Immortal’s own dead Aspirants is suddenly becoming very unpopular now, and likely will not be done in the future.”
“Largely unimportant, but honorable enough, if only because it was thrown into their teeth,” Briggs grunted in disdain. “If they want to show off the heroes again, then bring them back alive!”
“But that ans the Immortals can’t play dress-up!” snickered Sama, earning chuckles even from .
The true problem was that they’d been caught, and then had to pay to wipe all the mories of the affair away. Given the number of mortals, that had to be a permanent expenditure to have any teeth. It was a lot of IP to pay for prancing about in so other guise, and offending the Patrons of said heroes because of the revelation wasn’t worth it, either.
“I noted this had no real effect on the war,” Briggs pointed out grimly. “Just a lull in the action, before the mortals picked up and were right back at it, forcibly unaware of just what idiots the Immortals were in the interim.”
“It’s making it plain there’s a strong divide between factions of Immortals who deal with magic and those not so invested in it, among other things,” Tek agreed somberly. “Magic isn’t really truly necessary for the Spheres other than Energy, although admittedly it’s very hard to Ascend without it, and the whole reason Immortals are active here is because of the magic field around Nown. Using that ‘magic is eminent’ mindset to attempt to declare themselves the proper ruling faction among the Hierarchs and mobilize against Siricil isn’t winning the magic side any fans among the more Chaotic Immortals.”
“And of course they are both trying to court you, as you’re known to be established in Eismark, which has both great magic and decent technology,” I guessed.
“Of course. War machines are highly desired by both sides,” Tek admitted drolly. “But we’re not selling, citing lack of responsible use on the part of both parties, which is annoying them.”
Briggs nodded at that statent, and was about to say sothing when I raised my hand, looking sharply away. “Oh, wasn’t that clever…” I muttered to no one. “Delpha,” I said aloud, everyone looking in that ntal direction for information sources.
Sama’s eyes narrowed as word ca through to her, too. “They are a bunch of opportunistic arseholes, aren’t they?” she muttered in sarcastic approval.
Tek didn’t have the direct sources over there. “Mortal or immortal?” he asked calmly.
“There was a Zanzyran peace delegation sent over there, which might have actually been capable of acomplishing things if so many Delphan Immortals weren’t dead-set against anything resembling peace. Seems so mbers of the ruling Council have just been found dead in highly magical and varied circumstances… and they are tying the deaths to the Zanzyrans, as well as to the recently-slain Aspirants, who astonishingly enough were not resurrected…” I trailed off knowingly.
“Three random fence-sitters ignoring the conflicts, one radical warmonger nobody will miss, but enough to taint the pool,” Sama spat, eyeing the list of nas of the dead. “And four n going after Immortality, which ans being acknowledged as superiors by their fellow Overmagi. I’m sure that has nothing to do with them remaining dead.”
A blizzard of Wishes to that effect had probably ensured the n stayed dead. I could see why Wallisamp was making his try away from Delpha. There were simply far too many old bastards who weren’t going to acknowledge you as the most powerful mage within a thousand miles anywhere in Delpha, and they’d be plenty happy to make sure you stayed dead despite all your Contingencies if you failed, so you’d have one shot at besting them.
I wasn’t planning on letting Wallisamp succeed, either.
“It seems I am going to Delpha. One of Belle’s retainers was among the delegates, to give them at least so facade of legitimacy.” The Zanzyrans had considered it largely fruitless, more an attempt to gain so information on their enemies than any real shot at peace. That Tilian and Nerocuori had representatives among the team had basically made certain there’d be no peace, wrapped up in arrogance and hatred of all things Delphan as those families were… even if it cost them everything.
“Will they accept you, even as an elven monarch of the Eismark?” Sama asked speculatively.
“I will co as a guest of Windrose, if nothing else. They will have no choice.”
“This must be quite the fra-up if they believe they can get the Zanzyrans to take the bla for what has happened,” Briggs considered slowly. “But I suppose that even if it doesn’t stick, it’s still stirring up the pot and making the wizards realize they can’t sit on the side, they are still going to be preyed upon by soone. Naturally they’ll want to back their own side, if they have no choice.”
I nodded at him. “I concur. This is to save the innocent, nothing more.”
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