Chapter 234 – Reliquary

Eventually, a bulky carduk turtle arrived pulling an ornate carriage. The carriage was nothing like the steel-framed spellcarts of Baracuel or Akana. Instead, it had a nest of living vines on the roof. They had draped themselves over the sides, forming leafy doors. The nagual driver—an honor only an Emperor could have—touched her jade focus briefly, and the vines lifted, revealing a plush interior.

They traveled with a large honor guard. Xecatl had said ‘prepare a carriage,’ but what she’d really meant was ‘gather a small army.’ As Emperor, she was followed around by nagual, servants, and now, soldiers. Three more carts pulled by carduk turtles joined them, the beasts snorting as they walked at a steady but relentless pace.

As they moved up the stone road alongside the river, Xecatl briefed them. “Myrvite attacks in Tlaxhuaco are rare, but not impossible, hence the guard. I also take precautions any time I take major deviations from timelines. My political position is not so unassailable I don’t have enemies.”

They bumped down the road. Tlaxhuacan suspension systems needed some work, Mirian decided.

“How far is this Veiled Temple?” Jherica asked.

“Two days. We’ll travel through the night. There’s fresh carduks at Oliutlan, and we’ll change this carriage out for a larger carriage with beds. There will be runners already moving ahead with my orders.”

“No zephyr falcons?” Jherica asked.

“We don’t use them. Too easy to capture and intercept. There’s a simple enough spirit-construct that can lure them in, and then the message can be read and changed out.”

“Oh. Oh! You can do that?”

Xecatl smiled at the wizard.

“Of course, Prophets can just intercept the message before it’s sent,” Mirian noted. But that’s an interesting capability. It might have been useful when she was iterating on the Battle of Torrviol, but it didn’t seem like Baracuel or Akana had the capability to take down zephyr falcons. There was no reason to change their communication protocols. That will mean keeping Xecatl informed will be annoying, though.

Mirian passed the time by looking for spirits in the myrvite flora they passed. The countryside was mostly full of farms, though Tlaxhuacan farm practices were drastically different than the monoculture fields she was used to.

Xecatl was happy enough to discuss it. “There’s an abundance of insects here, and the worst of them aren’t actually myrvites. Those pitcher-plants lure in one group of insects, while the scent of those white flowers over there repel another. Each field is ringed with briars to keep larger herbivores from wandering in. I’m told our farming is more labor intensive than yours, but our agriculturists say each field is more productive than its Akanan equivalent.”

The ecology seemed interesting, but Mirian didn’t have the slightest clue about farming. Still, one thing stood out to her. “None of these farming practices can be copied by any of the other countries,” she said. “The climates are too different. Most of the myrvites you’re using here wouldn’t grow in open fields.”

“Well, we have the spellwards,” Jherica said cheerfully. Then after a moment of thought, “Oh, right, we need to stop using those. Hm. That is a problem. Do you think that Viridian fellow might know a thing or two?”

“He does, but the farming practices would need to be changed across two continents. How fast can an agricultural revolution be spread?”

Jherica considered that, even though Mirian had meant the question to be rhetorical. “I think it took about a hundred years for Akanan agriculture to be modernized, and it’s still a process.”

Changing agricultural practices is also dangerous, Mirian considered. Screwing up something like that could lead to famines. Land reforms in Baracuel had kicked off at least two of the many wars in the decades prior to Unification. She’d also read about some crisis during the early Triarchy where administrative changes in the bureaucracy had combined with a minor drought to cause a terrible famine.

“We have time to test it,” she said. “We can use greenhouses like Viridian’s to simulate the climatic conditions. We can gather soil samples from all across Akana, Persama, and Baracuel to use. We can test what plants best repel the local myrvites. Then, the reforms can be staggered, just in case.”

Jherica raised an eyebrow. “You know how much time that sort of research would take?”

“A long time,” Mirian said with a sigh. Just like all the research I’ve done. When only a handful of people can remember the progress, everything takes far too long.

Xecatl said, “It’s a good idea, but you’d only have two months of growth data at best. That wouldn’t uncover problems such as soil depletion. It might also miss certain insects with hibernation cycles, parasites with longer life cycles, and migratory birds. Ever seen a flock of wisp-crows pick apart a field?”

Mirian had not.

The nagual Emperor continued. “Confining the experiment to a greenhouse also would mean not studying the effect of any populations you didn’t bring along.”

Mirian sighed. “Another intractable problem. They seem easier to gather than breath.” Her tone was more bitter than she had intended.

“If we can find a Gate…” Jherica said, then became lost in thought.

“The leyline detectors will be useless for finding it here. The Elder Gates seemed to be in pre-Cataclysm cities, but most of them were buried by the Cataclysm. I don’t suppose you have extensive historical records you can search?”

“We do,” Xecatl said. “I ordered the search to begin last cycle.”

“Ah, good,” she said. I didn’t even have to tell her, she just picked up on what to do from my explanations of discovering the Gates. So what’s Gabriel’s excuse?

The carriage continued as the conversation tapered off, and Mirian turned her attention back to the souls and spirits they passed.

***

The river by Oliutlan was full of picturesque waterfalls and cascading rapids. The smaller city also had its own network of canals. They only stayed long enough to refresh their supplies and swap carriages, though.

The larger carriage was much nicer, though Mirian was awoken by the jostling as they moved from the paved road along the river to the dirt roads of the countryside. She spent some time listening to the sounds of the Tlaxhuacan jungle at night. It was surprising how noisy the jungle was. There was some sort of insect that made a constant racket, punctuated by the periodic calls of nocturnal birds and beasts. As she looked out the carriage window, she’d occasionally see a flash of magic as some myrvite used a natural spell.

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She eventually went back to sleep.

The next day found them winding up switchbacks of mountain roads. The countryside was nice, but Mirian had begun to grow bored of how slow the travel was. Levitation and trains were so much faster.

Eventually, the trail became too steep and rocky for the carriages and they proceeded on the back of some sort of strange beast Mirian had never seen or heard of.

“Wikpaquas,” Xecatl said. “Don’t challenge them to a staring contest and you’ll be fine.”