The Storm King

Chapter 1036: Arkhnavi's Bounty

When the ark bearing Nestor back to Stormhollow landed, Leon found himself both excited and more than a little surprised when the dead man and the giants accompanying him disembarked. Nestor came striding off the ark like he owned the thing, which Leon had been expecting, but as the giants came out behind him, Leon’s eyes widened further as each stepped out into the midday sun.

Nestor’s body remained about nine feet tall, and the first giant behind him was about average for their people at about fifteen feet. The next, however, was only twelve feet tall, the third was slightly taller, and then the fourth barely broke ten feet. The fifth and sixth were only about eight feet tall.

The giants, it seemed, were shrinking.

Other than their size, the giants were about the same as Leon remembered, with their bodies being largely made of bronze. However, with the decrease in height also came a lither and slimmer figure, and Leon couldn’t help but wonder if there was a practical purpose to this, or if it was simply Nestor or the Ravens skimping on bronze to save time and money.

Given what he knew about both, however, he more strongly leaned toward there being some practical purpose. Nestor and the Ravens both loathed budget restrictions and rarely kept cost in mind unless frequently reminded. Leon had already seen some of the proposed designs for new arks incorporating thunder wood and storm crystal, and he couldn’t help but wonder what fantasy world the Ravens lived in if they thought such expensive designs could be feasibly mass-produced.

Leon wasn’t given much time to ponder this development before Nestor strode toward him, somehow seeming even more businesslike even though his face was barely more than a vaguely face-shaped steel plate.

“I have returned,” Nestor dramatically intoned as he halted before Leon. “Let us get to work now.”

Leon blinked in mild surprise and glanced at those waiting next to him. Mari’Kha had come out to welcome Nestor, and Alix and more than a dozen other Tempest Knights had come to welcome the newest additions to their ranks. Nestor acknowledged none of them.

“Hold on,” Leon said with a thin-lipped smile. “I’m eager to jump into research, too, but let’s get all other business out of the way first so that we aren’t interrupted.”

“I will wait in the lab,” Nestor dismissively stated as he brushed past Leon.

For a moment, Leon thought about calling the dead man back and publicly castigating him for his rudeness, but all it took was a moment of silently wondering if it was worth it. He could, after all, punish Nestor for his lack of decorum later if he felt like it, and he wasn’t all that interested in seeing to ceremonies, anyway.

So, instead, he took a moment to welcome the giants back to Stormhollow. The giants were happy to see him, though he recognized none of them. They bowed and made a much more concrete show of their allegiance to Leon and his Clan than Nestor did, and it took Leon a fair amount of time to feel like he wasn’t blowing them off before handing them off to Alix for processing. He also had to almost literally hold Mari back from launching herself at the giants and inspecting them, but he was eventually able to get the ball rolling. The giants then followed Alix back to the Tempest Knights’ barracks while Leon and Mari made their way to Leon’s private enchanting lab.

Upon entering Mari almost gasped, seeing Nestor already standing on a step-ladder, examining her Ulta suit from a panel she’d left open.

“You’d better not be fuckin’ with my shit!” she shrieked, her increased proficiency with the Aeternan common language showcasing how long she’d spent practicing the Rumble Stone-imparted language.

Nestor hardly spared her a look, though he did call over his shoulder, “You take me for my wayward kinsman; I don’t touch things when I don’t know what they do! And when I do touch enchantments, I always make them better!”

Mari ran over anyway, launching herself at the step-ladder and all but tackling Nestor to get him away from the Ulta suit. Nestor wasn’t thrown to the ground, but Mari was still more than successful in dragging the dead man away.

“Why did you recall me here when you’re just going to drag me away from the purpose of my return?” Nestor demanded to know as Mari deposited him rather unceremoniously next to a table covered in notes and other enchanting documents that Leon and, to a much greater extent, Mari had made over the past few days.

Though Nestor’s question had obviously been directed at Leon, Mari was the one who answered first. “Cuz ya bein’ a dumb shit!” Mari shouted. “That’s my Ulta suit! Who the fuck said that ya can just look at it when I’m not around?! Huh?!” She got right up into Nestor’s face, which was a feat given his much greater size advantage. Leon thought he detected a hint of wind magic aiding her in this.

Nestor finally seemed a bit flustered as he leaned away from Mari, his faceplate turning in Leon’s direction in what Leon took to be a silent plea for assistance.

He just shrugged and said, “It’s her property. Kind of rude to go poking around in it before she could give express permission.”

Nestor petulantly groaned. “Fine. I thought this was why we’re here—at least in part—but fine. Make yourselves clearer next time you’re insisting I return to Stormhollow.”

“As I recall, dead man,” Leon stated, “You were just as excited to return here as anyone was to see you returned. Don’t try and claim this is some great burdensome favor you’re rendering, here.”

Nestor darkly glared at him, his arms folding across his chest.

“But now that you are here,” Leon continued, “why don’t we start going over some of these designs?” He indicated the paper-covered table that Nestor was being pressed against by Mari, and Nestor’s attention shifted in the indicated direction.

To Mari, he asked, “Is all this the result of what we’ve been discussing these past few days?”

“Yea!” Mari exclaimed, any remaining ire she may have held for Nestor fading as they launched headfirst into their enchanting work.

Mari and Nestor then began working their way through the organized chaos on the table, with Leon largely playing a backseat, simply absorbing everything they had to say about the Ulta suit. For the most part, they were mostly focusing on the locomotion enchantments and materials used in its construction, which Leon understood given the Ulta suit was of an unusual size even for Arkhnavi and had such a skewed weight-to-power ratio that Leon wasn’t sure even the Ravens could’ve built one without decades of intensive study and an unlimited research budget. It was only possible thanks to centuries of institutional skill and knowledge built up by the Kingdom of the Blue Sky, which Leon now hoped to add to his Kingdom’s knowledge base.

He paid as much attention as he could, especially when Mari finally let Nestor start poking around in the suit, though only under her supervision. However, it took almost two hours of intensive study, during which Nestor took tons of notes detailing where he hoped he could make improvements with his knowledge of golem crafting before they finally came to the part that Leon was most interested in.

“… So, this is it?” Nestor asked, he and Mari having once more stepped away from the Ulta suit and to a nearby table. This table, however, wasn’t completely covered in various designs and other documents, but instead held only the black crystal that Mari wore on the back of her neck, and a relatively small number of inscribed designs relating specifically to it.

“Ya can bet your iron ass it is!” Mari proudly exclaimed. “My baby can be piloted solely using the controls in the cockpit, but no one’s gettin’ full control outta it ‘less they’re wearin’ this!”

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Nestor gently extended a hand out to brush against the flat black crystal smaller than Leon’s palm but halted before making contact.

Leon joined them at the table, no longer content to simply watch and listen as they studied the suit and talked shop. “It’s remarkable,” Leon said. “Until I saw this, I’d never seen a way to interact with enchantments without either going through a control console or by projecting magic out of the body and manipulating the magic in an enchantment directly.”

Nestor sighed audibly as Mari positively beamed. “Neither have I,” he admitted. “And I’ve tried before. Never could get any of my prototypes working.”

“Well, now ya see one workin’!” Mari enthusiastically said as she assumed a wide stance with her hands on her hips and a proud smile on her face.

“Now that you see it,” Leon said, “I have to ask, how does it compare to the way a wisp controls enchantments?”

“It’s… remarkably different,” Nestor admitted. “A delicate control scheme must be devised for a wisp to take control over even a relatively innocuous subsystem on an ark. I’d been thinking I’d have to make an even more complex one if the giants were ever to replace wisps in arks—or other vehicles, for that matter. This, however, doesn’t use that kind of interface. It instead uses darkness magic to directly connect a human brain to the enchantment scheme present in the suit…”

“Yep! Yep!” Mari confirmed as she furiously nodded.

“How does that even work?” Leon asked. “I had a lot of trouble getting my head around learning how to move after learning how to transform—”

“Still think it’s fuckin’ weird ya can do that, Lele,” Mari quietly whispered as Leon thought aloud.

“—but,” Leon continued not quite as heedless as he would’ve liked, “but… Damnit Mari’Kha, I almost lost my train of thought.”

She gave him a cheeky smile as he put his thoughts back in order.

“Learning to move about in my Thunderbird body was hard. How difficult is it to learn how to pilot an Ulta suit like this? Because it sounds quite similar in practice, if not in the details. You’re basically learning how to move a new body, right?”

“It’s hard,” Mari admitted, deflating slightly. “It… uh, requires being temporarily paralyzed below the point of contact…” She rubbed the back of her neck where the black crystal would be fixed when piloting the suit. “Gettin’ better at usin’ the suit lets ya tune the paralysis down, and eventually turn it off completely, but it can still be hard on the ol’ head sponge.” She tapped her head for emphasis.

“In the end, it leaves the user with the remarkable ability to pilot the suit like it’s their own body,” Nestor stated as he turned back toward the towering machine. “The enchantments within reflect that use, too, with them spread throughout the frame in no small part like nerves.”

“Makes it easier if the Ulta operates like a body,” Mari stated. “Less for the brain case to figure out if the suit’s like a fleshy body, yeah?”

“Indeed,” Nestor whispered.

Silence stretched for a long moment as everyone pondered those words until Leon broke that silence by asking Nestor, “Can this technique be integrated into any of our current projects?”

“By the Honored Ancestor, no,” Nestor said, sounding almost offended. His words caused an almost comical look of surprise and horror to plaster itself across Mari’s face before he clarified, “I’ll need to understand the effects of this magic thoroughly before letting it come anywhere close to an ark. That’ll take five years at least. Perhaps more.”

“It shouldn’t take that long,” Mari argued. “You’re not that dumb, Nes.”

“That’s not my name,” Nestor fluidly said. “Our current projects are in their final stages; we can’t just add a new element that we barely understand to them and expect it to function well at all. We’re lucky that the advancements we’ve brought to the Ravens have mostly been in the materials sector, and while they’ve been well integrated with current ark designs, much of their benefit is being squandered on enchantments that were never designed with these materials in mind. Adapting current arks to use thunder wood and storm crystal fully will take a lot more time. And now we’re also adding this? And maybe even building new suits like this? And possibly adding your MALLs, Leon? And working on making Void-capable arks, and working on repairing the old Clan’s arks, and trying to fix our few damaged wisps?

“Integrating any new enchantment technique is a tall order, boy. Five years to get this up and running is already a miracle, and it’s only because you have me here to do it. Anyone else would take longer than a decade, if they ever succeeded at all.”

“Hey!” Mari protested. “I could get it done! Don’t doubt it!” She poked Nestor in the stomach, which for her was just below eye level.

“We’ll see,” Nestor stated. “I’ve seen your potential in the past few days to be a truly legendary enchanter, but evaluating your skills will be a longer process.”

Mari stared at Nestor in disbelief before glancing at Leon. “He always this arrogant?”

Leon sighed and silently nodded. “He has at least some reason to be, but there’s at least a little bit of unfounded hubris in there.”

“No there isn’t,” Nestor stated like it was a fact. “My attitude is completely backed up by skill. Only those stricken with jealousy or by politics would say otherwise.”

“Mm,” Leon hummed, already dismissing his statement. “This isn’t all that I wanted to show you, either, Nestor. I bring other notes.”

“Yes,” Nestor said, his words coming out in a breathy tone of anticipation. “That anti-Primal Devil rune you were using, isn’t it?”

“That and then some,” Leon said as he waved Nestor and Mari over to one of the few tables in the lab that remained free of other papers or materials. He conjured all the notes he’d taken in Tir’Anu’s monastery onto the table for them to peruse, deliberately arranging them so that the rune that protected him from Planerend was detailed in the notes farthest from Nestor.

As Leon hoped, Nestor immediately began studying the notes closest to him, taking in their every detail. Leon almost thought he’d toss the paper aside, or at best give it a cursory inspection before moving on to the next page, but Nestor took minutes to study that one page before picking up the next.

Mari, too, stared at the notes, but she clearly saw less than Leon did, if her confused expression was anything to go by.

“Nestor?” Leon asked as the minutes dragged on, the dead man still studying the second page so intently that Leon almost thought the man’s golem body had run out of power and left him paralyzed.

“Leon,” Nestor breathed. “You found this on Arkhnavi? In a cave?”

“In a monastery, yes,” Leon confirmed. “Is… what is it? Can you tell?”

Nestor went silent again for a long moment, his near-featureless faceplate seeming to stare holes into Leon’s head. Then, in a slow and deliberate cadence, Nestor said, “These enchantments appear to be experiments with space magic.”

Leon, wondering if he’d heard Nestor correctly, stared back at him, his eyebrows slowly rising as what Nestor just said sank in.

“Space magic?” Leon asked.

Nestor nodded.

“Space magic?” Mari inquired, her tone much more curious than Leon’s.

“Yes,” Nestor confirmed again.

“The kind that can let people teleport?” Leon asked. “The kind that had hallways looping back on themselves back in Xaphan’s prison?”

“Yes to the first, no to the second,” Nestor stated. “This enchantment, if I’m reading this correctly, seems to be trying to devise another way of moving across the Void than using the currently-understood teleportation tunnels. A faster way. A less power-intensive way.”

Leon stared at Nestor with immense skepticism. “Are you… you’ve looked at two pages. Don’t get me wrong, Nestor, that sounds incredible… but what?”

Nestor ignored the question and instead began tearing through the rest of the notes Leon had taken, reaching the anti-Primal Devil enchantment in only a matter of minutes.

“Yes, yes, yes,” Nestor repeated almost madly. “This is brilliant!”

Leon and Mari shared a look of anxiety as Nestor began laughing aloud as he held the anti-Primal Devil rune up to the light.

“This is it! This justifies EVERYTHING!”

“Nestor!” Leon shouted, though his exclamation didn’t seem to reach the dead man’s ears. So, Leon reached out with his elementless magic and physically shook Nestor’s body, finally getting his attention. “Explain!”

Nestor excitedly chuckled before saying, “This could’ve only been found here! In the Divine Graveyard!” he shouted. “This rune wasn’t meant to protect from Devilish power, but to channel it! To use it!”

Leon’s eyes turned back to his notes, his alarm growing rapidly.

“Whoever was studying spatial magic was also studying Devilish power,” Nestor continued. “Tring to use it to grant a greater degree of control over space! Leon, if we can further this research, then we’d have a mastery over the Void that no other power in the universe could match! Our fleets could travel between planar clusters as easily as our Honored Ancestor flew through clouds! Nowhere would be beyond our reach!”

Leon’s apprehension grew proportionally with his excitement. “That sounds… impressive,” he said as he desperately tried to moderate his tone. “But… we don’t have Devilish power… Does this research still hold promise?”

Nestor waved his hand dismissively. “The Devilish power was used because it was abundant and exotic. We have the results right here, though it could use some refinement in certain areas… Regardless, we can still use this! Maybe it won’t be quite as potent as it might be without Devilish power around, but it would still make any Void-worthy arks that use these principles faster than any others that are currently built!”

A smile began spreading across Leon’s face. “You’re sure, Nestor?” he asked, his attempts to moderate his tone now failing.

“I’m sure, Leon,” he said with complete unabashed enthusiasm. “Come here, look at this!” he demanded as he slammed the paper he was holding onto the table. He waited only long enough for Leon and Mari to crowd around him before launching into his explanation for the enchantment, with Leon and Mari even able to contribute in some areas that Nestor’s hurried analysis had overlooked.

By the end, Leon was grinning just as madly as Nestor had sounded. This was promising, indeed, but if he had to be honest, even five years to integrate these enchantment techniques into existing arks was generous. Still, he was more than happy to wait however long it might take to figure this enchantment out and make it practical. Years, decades, centuries; it didn’t matter. He considered the fastest arks in the universe to be more than worth the wait.

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