Chapter 257 – Shooting for the Moon

Late in the month of Merisheth, Mirian finished her calculations. She double checked her numbers, comparing them to Sio Jherica’s, then against Song Jei’s calculations.

She frowned. Even with all the extra time they would be getting from the Jiandzhi Gate being open, it seemed unlikely they would be able to construct something of the scale they needed.

Jei looked over her shoulder. “This is significantly larger than those other designs you showed me.”

“Yes. I hadn’t accounted for how much mass the Mausoleum was adding.” It had taken her two weeks to finish mapping out and measuring the inside of it.

“What will the other Prophets think?”

“Gabriel, Ibrahim, and Liuan will say it’s impossible. I’m already assuming Xecatl’s research on spirit constructs will allow us to grow part of the device. Zhuan… I don’t know.”

“She’ll try,” Jei said.

Mirian nodded. “Based on leyline stability, we only have a few days left this cycle. We’ll make it into the month of Berosan, but the Torrviol link isn’t the most efficient one. Not because the Jiandzhi is saturated, but because the Gate can only move so much energy, and too much has flowed south of us. I’ve already come up with a more efficient scheme, but I’m done with research this cycle. I’d like you to report back to Zhuan.”

Jei turned red.

Mirian looked at her. “Did she ask you to spy on me? So you already reported back.”

Jei swallowed. “I was… put in a difficult position.”

“No doubt.” Mirian didn’t see it as a betrayal, but an opportunity. “Should I trust Zhuan Li?”

“As best I can tell, yes,” her old math professor said.

“Then there’s no issue. Tell her what you will about me. I’ll fly us from the Gate to Benansuo.” Besides, it wasn’t purely benevolence. She’d had Gaius watching Zhuan and Gabriel, and needed to talk with him before the cycle ended.

“…You aren’t going to ask what I’m going to tell her?”

“No,” Mirian said. “I know you will tell her the truth, and truth is what I value. Prepare what you need. I need to finish memorizing some notes, then we’ll depart.”

***

In Benansuo, Mirian dropped Jei off in the palace. Gaius found her quickly enough, and brought her back to his quarters. They made sure his wards were secure, checked for eavesdroppers, looked for soul traces, then created a zone of silence before talking.

“Zhuan spent most of her time thwarting an Akanan coup attempt. She asked I not interfere so that her ‘experiment’ was more rigorous. Gabriel, to his credit, seems to have been helping her, even if they did have about twenty arguments about politics. But he did what he said he would, and talked with just about every important person he could get in the same room with. Both of them are developing long-term strategies that will be useful in future cycles.”

“Nothing unexpected, then.”

Gaius nodded. “Zhuan also spent a great deal of time surveying the productive capacities of factories and seeing how fast they could be retooled, as well as sending letters to Saising. She had me visit the city and do an ‘observational survey.’ I obliged.”

“I told her my estimations for the leyline regulator through the dream. Presumably, she figured out Benansuo alone won’t be able to build what we need, and is looking to cement a larger area of control. Now, we have the time to think bigger.”

“A reasonable assessment.” Gaius smiled at her, then couldn’t hold back. He drew her into a hug. “Naluri, you’ve grown so much. She’d be proud. She’d be so proud of you.”

***

Moonfall occurred three days after the end of Merisheth. Mirian immediately sent out letters asking the Prophets to convene on an island in the Tlaxhuacan archipelago for another Council for the following cycle, loop 242. Then she set about connecting Gates in a new configuration.

Energy was primarily moving from Akana Praediar eastward, then moved southeast towards Mayat Shadr. The longer she could delay the saturation of that region and the leyline eruptions, the better. Palendurio, she connected to the Jiandzhi Gate, using the Torrviol Gate to jump down to the jungle, then emerge from the cavern below Palendurio with her drilling spell. There, she left instructions for Zhuan on how to leave the Palendurio cavern without flooding the whole thing in case the Zhighuan Prophet felt like exploring.

Next, she flew back up to Torrviol and connected its Gate to Mahatan. That would allow leyline energy that bypassed the Palendurio Gate to flow back up north, giving it both another chance to be caught and sent south to the leyline void in Zhighua. That would also balance out the flows, so that instead of a strong leyline force hitting the northwest side of Mayat Shadr with nothing to counter it, there’d instead be a strong southeastern force.

That left the Alkazaria Gate unpaired. Hopefully, Xecatl would find the theorized Tlaxhuacan Gate soon.

With that done and leyline detectors set up to map out the flows, that left Mirian several uninterrupted months to work on her prototype. For a month, she worked on fabrication, which involved heading down to Palendurio to access the myrvites in the Jiandzhi so she could turn their souls into mythril. This gave her less than she needed for the final design, but enough to test the proof of concept. Then, she needed to test the Elder relics she was planning to incorporate.

And, she still needed more relicarium.

That meant plunging back into the Labyrinth.

She already knew she could retrieve the cube of relicarium in the depths of the Torrviol Labyrinth. She knew Gabriel had discovered a cube in the fourth level Vault near Urubandar. There was a second entrance further north of Urubandar, as well as another entrace just east of Alatishad, both of which Gabriel had only half-assedly explored, so she Gated down to Mahatan and flew southeast.

Gabriel’s description of the area wasn’t perfect, but a few divination spells narrowed down the location. The first three levels were barren of anything useful. The fourth level contained two different econodes, both containing creatures and plants she’d never seen before. One had rainbow colored birds that were too large to fly, more lizard-like than most avians she’d seen. Another had strange creatures made of root-like appendages. Selkus Viridian would have been fascinated by them, but Mirian could see no use for the odd organisms, so she moved on.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

She found a Vault entrance on the fifth level, then another on the sixth. When a swarm of centicerators attempted to surround her on the seventh level, she retreated, then began working on the Vaults.

The Vault on the sixth level had another cube of relicarium. The one on the fifth level didn’t. She noted it down in her soulbound book, collected the Elder relics for study, then flew on to Urubandar.

Mirian was relieved to see the Vault Gabriel had discovered still had its relicarium intact. She also discovered another Vault some three miles away from the entrance on the sixth level. This one had two of the cubes, the tantalizing liquid swirling in violet and orange.

As the month of Merisheth turned to Berosan, Mirian continued her exploration, heading to the northern Labyrinth. She discovered yet another Vault on the fourth level. This one had an antimagic area, but her practice in the Frostland’s Vault and her training with Ibrahim let her make short work of the swarm of labyrinthine horrors that attacked her. As Berosan turned to Nerevain, Mirian finished opening the Vault and found one more container of relicarium.

That gave her six cubes of relicarium to work with. She only needed five for the current design. That could let me keep the one beneath Torrviol in reserve, she thought. None of the other Prophets knew about that entrance.