It didn't matter too much to Selphira who won at the end of this battle because she had both competitors under her taphorical "wing."
Ren had been a particular favorite since his unique capabilities had beco evident. The boy was a once-in-an-era talent, the kind that redefined what was possible.
But Liora was her granddaughter, even if she didn't carry Selphira's blood in her veins. The girl had been raised under Selphira's tutelage, shaped by her lessons, trained by her thods. Every victory Liora achieved was partially Selphira's victory as well.
Whichever one won would be a victory that Selphira represented.
It was a comfortable position to be in, invested in the outco but not anxious about it, interested in the result but not dependent on it. She could simply enjoy the spectacle without the stress of partisan loyalty.
She just didn't want to miss the grand finale of what promised to be, for her, the most morable battle of the entire exam.
She wanted to see exactly how the confrontation between the wolverine of supre elental control and the serpent of spiritual capabilities that defied conventional understanding would unfold.
She wanted to see if her decades of experience would allow her to predict the outco before it manifested, or if these young prodigies would surprise her with innovations her generation hadn't contemplated.
That was the beauty of reaching her age while maintaining ntal acuity. She'd seen enough to recognize patterns but remained curious enough to appreciate when those patterns broke.
And as the Bashe began to materialize on the field, massive presence becoming visible as energy solidified into physical form, Selphira leaned forward in her seat with genuine anticipation.
The crowd's murmuring quieted. Everyone felt it, the weight of the mont, the significance of what was about to unfold.
This was it.
The final confrontation.
♢♢♢♢
Liora straightened completely with a strong posture, the pain from the broken bond still visible in her expression but determination not diminished in the slightest.
Her jaw was set, her breathing controlled and the hand that had been pressed against her chest from the severed connection now dropped to her side, fingers curling into a loose fist.
She'd fought through worse. This was nothing.
Her Demonic Bashe was a serpent that Yano knew relatively little about in terms of comprehensive docuntation or practical experience with multiple specins.
It was a species more commonly used in Yino, where its habitat and available resources facilitated its cultivation in ways Yano couldn't easily replicate. Ren hadn't known the beast personally before his now unusual circumstances with Liora, but he'd known all about it during his ti with total access to knowledge… information that included many detailed descriptions of beasts that had beco rare in modern tis.
Beasts that most contemporary tars had never even heard of, relegated to his now more dusty mories.
And he'd suggested it to Liora for her second beast.
Really, only soone like Liora could take advantage of his advice.
Cultivating the Bashe had been appropriately manageable only because it was her.
But almost anyone else who didn't have the complete support of "semi-retired-but-not-really" matriarch Selphira Ashenway wouldn't have accomplished it.
It was a simple reality that even Liora recognized with genuine gratitude, even if she rarely expressed it so directly. Her grandmother had been instruntal in making possible sothing that otherwise would have remained an impossible aspiration.
So students had wealthy parents who bought them strong beasts. Others had family connections that opened doors. Liora had Selphira Ashenway, and that was worth more than all the crystals in Yano's treasury.
Selphira had taken charge of everything from the mont Liora expressed serious interest in cultivating the Bashe to even Gold rank.
Liora's cultivation wasn't a partial delegation or supervision from a distance but complete personal involvent that secured every aspect of the process was handled with standards that didn't allow margin for error. No half-asures. No compromises. No "good enough" when excellence was achievable.
And that dedication hadn't been a simple task considering the political context in which it had initially occurred.
Even during the worst problems with Yino, when relations between the two cities had deteriorated to the point where comrcial exchange beca almost impossible, Selphira had found ways to maintain the supply of necessary materials for the Bashe's cultivation to keep flowing.
She'd used personal connections, favors owed from decades. She'd called in debts that so people had hoped she'd forgotten. She'd negotiated deals that required concessions in other areas to ensure the specific materials arrived when needed.
"I need this," she'd told one reluctant contact. "And you owe for that matter in '03. Rember?"
They'd rembered. Everyone always rembered debts to Selphira Ashenway.
It was a type of managent that needed considerable political capital and willingness to spend that capital on a project many would have considered a simple whim of a favored granddaughter. The whispers had been inevitable… "The old matriarch spoils the girl," "She's wasting resources on a child's fancy," "This is why families fall when the old guard gets sentintal."
But Selphira had seen potential in the combination of the wisp and the Bashe that justified the investnt. She didn't make decisions based only on sentint. She also made them based on assessnts of future returns.
And when things had finally cald down enough for expeditions from Yano to Yino to be feasible again, she'd personally ford a specialized group to acquire the Gold-rank materials the Bashe would eventually need.
Not a standard expedition. Not a routine supply run.
A specialized team with specific expertise and explicit orders.
It needed extensive coordination, expensive high level tars and massive resources, the kind of undertaking that most noble houses couldn't even contemplate, let alone execute successfully.
Because acquiring Gold-rank materials from Yino in current tis cost amounts that vastly exceeded what materials of that quality already cost in normal circumstances.
Yino itself no longer had the capacity to produce or extract materials of that caliber independently, its high Silver-rank and above infrastructure collapsed and reduced population aning resources that once flowed freely now required extraordinary effort to obtain.
And the situation with mutants plaguing areas that had previously been relatively safe made long or particularly dangerous expeditions much worse than they'd been in the recent past.
Mutants drawn by the chaos. Mutants multiplying in areas where human presence had withdrawn. Mutants growing stronger feeding on the ambient that nobody had resources to fight anymore.
It was a combination of factors that converted obtaining materials for a Gold-rank Bashe into a project few people would have resources or willingness to complete.
But Selphira had done it anyway, because when Matriarch Ashenway decided sothing was important…
Impossibility was just a difficulty nobody had yet bothered to overco.
User Comments
0 comments from readers