Chapter 202: Core of the Matter.

“I could just stay in my room until it’s time to depart,” Viv told herself. “I really could.”

 

Really really. Nothing compelled her to do anything. The core operation was scheduled for later today, if you could call it an ‘operation’ or even a schedule. Rakan was getting ready thanks to a group of water witches who’d escaped from Halluria. All was well.

 

Nothing could force her into an adventure and — oh, who was she kidding? This place reeked of potential. Who was this mysterious figure Lana thought she recognized? Why was this place falling apart when it was under the protection of a monstrously powerful mage with clear benevolent tendencies? Why even settle here, so far off the coast? Gods, even getting seaweed here ought to be super hard considering how far the ground had to be. Seaweed grew on the ground, right? She wasn’t sure.

 

“I am curious. Curious and bored.”

 

What a terribly dangerous combination. It didn’t help that Sidjin had decided to stay on the ship just in case. That bastard probably had heated water for his bath as well. The water in here was tepid. Also, her room was so damn small and she was pretty sure it belonged to someone. Too many signs of stuff that had been removed in a hurry. It also smelled faintly of perfume.

 

“Ok, we’re going,” she told nobody in particular.

 

Viv stepped out of her room, making for Lana’s den and ignoring the glare of the local blade master who had apparently decided to camp at her doorway.

 

She stopped in front of him. He glared, grayish features twisted with a deliberate attempt to look annoyed. He wasn’t really good at it. Viv had met plenty of people who could appear both polite and really condescending. It was a skill he hadn’t yet mastered.

 

“What’s your name anyway?”

 

He took a deep breath.

 

“My name matters not to you, for I find you — bla bla bla”

 

Viv tuned him out in favor of checking her surroundings. The Azure Lady’s presence was overwhelming around here, to the point that Viv wondered if the woman was at all constrained to her body. Maybe it was advanced elemental mage shenanigans?

 

“But you come here and expect all of your wishes to be fulfilled! Do you not realize —”

 

Well it looked like he was going to be at it for some time.

 

“I have been nothing but respectful,” she corrected.

 

“You didn’t even announce your coming!”

 

“I told you, Helock’s authority considers me a criminal.”

 

“You could have sent a messenger.”

 

“How would I have known without getting in touch with your office? Anyway, if you think the Azure Lady didn’t accept my presence, you are mistaken. She felt me coming from leagues away, yet she didn’t stop me. I also stayed in my ship until I was invited in. If she accepts me, why won’t you? Or do you doubt her judgment?”

 

This was obviously a sore point.

 

“How dare you imply I would question her? The Azure Lady’s mind is clear and sharp like a diamond!”

 

“Then perhaps you should accept her decision.”

 

That shut him up for a couple of blessed seconds, which Viv used to go on the offensive. She could have been nicer, but she was also out of patience.

 

“Look, I have shown deference to the Azure Lady and to you by asking your name. Would you at least consent to being cordial while we are here?”

 

He deflated. Gods, he was kind of naive and innocent, in the way very honest people can be.

 

“My name is Fantos Exile,” he finally blurted.

 

Viv decided to address the elephant in the room since he clearly expected it.

 

“Is Exile your family name, or?”

 

“It is now. Many of us are exiles. More so, recently.”

 

He blushed, embarrassed as if she had let on a secret.

 

“Can I call you Fantos?”

 

“Yes!”

 

“Right. Fantos. Since we are here, I would like to visit the palace of the Azure lady together with my friend Lana. It’s… very impressive.”

 

“The Azure Lady’s power is unmatched!”

 

Viv nodded. Because she needed to butter him up to make him less insufferable.

 

“Of course, I can show you around…” he added, eyes narrowing.

 

“No need to be suspicious. I’m bored, and a pretty good spellcaster myself. Shall we?”

 

It turned out that Lana was more than eager to visit the floating island. She hadn’t had her interview with the Azure Lady yet. Stress was making her go crazy. Fantos led them towards one of the water tendrils linking the smaller islands together. The more he spoke and the more excited he grew, though he still cast suspicious glances at Viv every five seconds in a way that irked her.

 

“This island is called the haven. Most of us live here,” he said.

 

Too many people clogged the narrow stone alleyways. What had started as a stone settlement had grown through the addition of log houses with a strange shape — Viv was pretty sure they were made out of ship planks. Other stone structures showed the ochre of the nearby Hallurian wastes, all consorting to give the place a mismatched, completely nonsensical look. She passed a group of bored children being taught basic writing by a mage shaping water as letters. The poor teacher completely lost the children’s attention when Viv walked by.

 

Fantos kept explaining things too fast, an embarrassed host caught in a dirty house. Viv politely accepted the explanations on which specific group built which house and when. Now that she was paying attention, it was true that the island’s population was pretty eclectic. Beyond the fact most were at least half decent mages, they had little in common. There were ashen-skinned Shadowlanders, northerners, Hallurian, even a couple of Baranese. It was all pretty interesting.

 

“Are you interested in anything specific?” he finally asked.

 

“I would like to know how you fish,” she replied.

 

“Oh yes, the Azure Lady has blessed us with powerful magic… and an ingenious system. Let me show you.”

 

Viv forced herself to use the water tendril transportation, though she would have very much preferred to fly instead. It wasn’t a good time to stick out more. Every pair of eyes on this overcrowded place followed her with a mix of terror and curiosity that pressed against her soul like a stranger in a crowded bus. She could almost feel their breath on her neck. One bit of good news was that people here appeared well-fed and free, which was always good. They were just having to do a lot with very little.

 

Fantos led them to a distant section of the compound, far from other structures. It consisted of a smattering of wood sheds surrounding a large disc of churning waters. While the surface was as smooth as a mirror everywhere else, here, they bubbled and moved in a more natural manner. An old shadowlander directed a group of younger people with crisp orders. She didn’t understand what he said, but when his keen eyes found them, he addressed them in northerner.

 

“And you must be the visitors who have our community in an uproar? Are you here to see the farm?”

 

“A farm? Yes, I am here to ask about fish.”

 

“Then I’m your man. Harbormaster Kif is my name. I oversee the fishing, fish farming, seaweed farming, shellfish farming, and recycling here. Didn’t think some fancy mage would be interested.”

 

“You are doing a lot with very little,” Viv frankly said.

 

“That we are!”

 

He rolled his eyes at Fantos’ accusatory glare.

 

“Oh, enough. The lady has eyes, no?”

 

Just then, a young woman’s head pierced the water. She swam towards the platform they were standing on, speaking a few words as she approached.

 

“Ah, she’s telling me it’s starting soon. You’re right on time for the fishing!”

 

“Eh?”

 

“Well, you see, there isn’t much fish to be had here on account of being almost on top of the abyss. The floor is really, really far away, yes? We still get the occasional weird creature from the depth and they tend to be tasty. We also move. The Azure lady carries us to and fro.”

 

“Why not get closer to the coast, then?” Viv asked.

 

This time, it was Kif’s turn to be a bit embarrassed.

 

“We are here at the Azure Lady’s sufferance, milady. She meditates on the abyss and the entities that live there. It is not our place to tell her where to live.”

 

“I see. So how do you feed yourselves?”

 

“We have stone beds for suspended forests under our feet! We grow seaweed on top and shellfish on the side! Elevation is maintained thanks to magical ballasts,” he said, not a little proud.

 

“Wow.”

 

“We had to work hard to design it. There are some small fish farms as well. For compost, we use fish remains and… human excrements.”

 

He waited for Viv’s reaction. She felt obligated to comment.

 

“It makes a lot of sense. Are you slowly building up… a mass of biological matter?”

 

“Yes! Absolutely, but not fast enough… Oh, it’s starting!”

 

The water’s bubbling turned into a boil. Viv felt something coming, a massive surge of mana as powerful as some of the strongest arrays she’d seen. Fear chilled her spine but her instincts were silent, and nobody else looked worried so she relented.

 

The circle turned into a geyser. It just happened like that. One moment, it was placid and the next, Viv was facing a wall of white. Droplets wetted her face. By her side Kif was smiling.

 

“Impressive, isn’t it?”

 

“I’m more impressed by the fact that the rest of the palace remains completely unaffected.”

 

“This is the sort of control centuries of practice can bring! Not that… I can lecture you on magic, milady. Obviously.”

 

Viv waved his embarrassment away. The geyser stopped as abruptly as it had started, and a good ten seconds later, the fish fell down. Viv had to admit that a rain of fish was up there in the list of weird magical shit she’d been subjected to on this damn planet. Viv noticed some tentacled things and some really weird shit that looked like badly folded origami. None of those were very large though, so she assumed the Azure Lady filtered what went up. The men and women around Kif used basic manipulation spells and a couple of metal poles to drag the poor fish to the shore before killing them. The creatures barely offered any resistance. That tended to happen when one fell for long enough to reach near terminal velocity.

 

“A decent haul!”

 

“Don’t you ever get anything bigger?”

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“The Azure Lady no longer brings those up since the accident. She is so strong that sometimes, she forgets we are not.”

 

He smiled bitterly.

 

“Do not speak ill of the lady!” Fantos warned, but Kif remained unimpressed.

 

“My nephew died that day. I will speak of that mistake if I deem it necessary,” he told the younger man.

 

There was a moment of silence while tension remained between the two. Viv saw it as an opening for the questions she was waiting to ask herself. Clearly, Kif wasn’t caught in hero worship. He might be the source of information she’d been waiting for.

 

“There’s a lot of people here. Is that recent?”

 

“Yes,” Kif said, “Well, not too recent. ‘Bout three seasons since the last ship came. She’s been turned into two houses now.”

 

“You speak with the outlanders too much!”

 

“And you think you speak for the lady,” Kif retorted.

 

They argued ferociously in their tongue while Viv waited. Meanwhile, Lana was busy checking the various enchantments and making notes. Eventually, Viv grew a bit tired of the fussy blade master.

 

“Excuse me, Fantos.”

 

“What?”

 

“Do not take that tone with me. It feels to me that you are very protective of your benefactor, the Azure Lady. You have built something wonderful here, but it is quite clear you are under significant pressure. Perhaps I can help with —”

 

“We don’t need help from some foreigner upstart!” Fantos roared in her face, spittle and everything.

 

Rude.

 

He planted his finger on her sternum, just above the core.

 

The violation felt like a slap. It was all Viv could do not to dust him right here and now.

 

“You’re going to return to your —”

 

Viv grabbed her soul, caught the part that others could feel and wielded it like a scalpel. She directed it at Fantos, and only at Fantos. The air stilled as she shoved the full horror of everything she’d inflicted upon others into the mind of the daring little shit.

 

[Aspect of the Paragon]

 

He froze. She enunciated her answer with very crisp, very slow syllables because she was this close to losing her patience.

 

“Out of respect for my host, I will forgive your transgression. Just remember that the laws of hospitality protect you as much as they protect me. If you touch me again, you will lose a limb.”

 

She released him. He staggered back with a look of shock. Damn pre-internet civilization meant they hadn’t heard about her out here, or at least not yet. Some people were taking liberties, and they were doing so with the well-dressed outlander lady with the ship, and the elemental eyes. It was as if the lack of information made people delusional about their chances of success. Maybe that was the case?

 

“Go away, boy. You’re not protecting anybody. You can’t hide with words what she sees with her eyes.”

 

Fantos grumbled. For a moment, Viv wondered if he was going to try something. Fortunately, he managed to calm himself down into a sulky retreat.

 

“Forgive him. He means well, but his pride is all he has left. He would rather starve than ask for help. Young ones…”

 

“I know the feeling well,” said Viv, the retired combat medic.

 

“As to the difficulties we are facing… What do you know about the Shadow Lands?”

 

Viv got the feeling he really wanted to tell her about the damn Shadow Lands, and she had no interest in interfering. News from that place was rare, its people never seen on Param. Lady Azar would never forgive her if she let precious information like this slip through her fingers.