Book 11: Chapter 31: Invitations

Book 11: Chapter 31: Invitations

31 – Invitations

“Well,” Victor said, gesturing to the ticket counter at the World Hall, “I guess this is it. Do you have enough funds to travel home?”

Vracia smiled, though her eyes were still troubled, even after their very filling lunch and plenty of time to absorb what had happened to her. Maybe that was it; maybe it was because of that time for reflection. She was probably remembering more and more regrettable things she’d done while under the influence of the mind magic. “I have the funds. Thank you again, Victor. I can’t imagine the turn my life was about to take before I met you.”

“It was nothing. Honestly, when I saw what you were going through, I couldn’t help thinking about my young ward and how I’d feel if it were her in your situation. There’s no way I could have not helped you.”

Vracia held out her slender hand, and Victor gave it a gentle squeeze. “I hope we meet again. If you ever come to my world, Greatboughs, I hope you’ll be my family’s guest.”

Victor nodded. “I’ll definitely look you up if I come through. Also, if you ever do some traveling out around Sojourn, you can find my holdings on Fanwath or Ruhn. If you’re interested in studying or sightseeing…” Victor shrugged, smiling. “Pretty much anything. I can help you out.”

That got a little more of her smile to shift into her eyes as she nodded. “Thank you. Until we meet again, then.”

“Right. Until then.” Victor watched her walk up to one of the clerks, and then he stepped up to another.

“How may I help you, good sir?” the man asked, speaking around a sage-colored scarf that covered most of his face.

“Ah, yes. You’re aware that Gloryhome is a world hub, yes?”

Victor sighed. “Yes. Why?”

“The fee for transport is rather extreme, that’s all. It’s 240,000 beads.”

Victor groaned. His journey was already over a million, and he still had to make the return trip with Florent. Even so, it was hardly a percent of his total wealth, and that wasn’t counting his regular income from Iron Mountain and his holdings on Fanwath, including Du’s dungeon. “Yeah, I can pay it.”

He dug out the beads for his fee, and the attendant handed him a smooth, reddish-orange stone token, pointing to a large arched exit. “If you walk that way, you’ll come to a hall where several circles of glyphs mark the flooring. Stand in one of the circles, and your transport will begin. Safe travels.”

“Thanks.” Victor picked up his near-empty bag of beads, sent it into storage, and then walked toward the archway. It was exactly as the man described: a large hall where more than a dozen circles of inlaid silver were arranged in two rows. Victor walked toward an empty one, and as soon as both feet were inside, his vision flashed with a hundred colorful spirals. A sensation of vertigo made him doubt his balance, but before he stumbled, it passed, and when he blinked, his surroundings were vastly changed.

He stood high atop a glittering white and gold spire, surrounded by dozens of others just as tall and just as magnificently aglow in the hazy glow of a reddish-orange sun. The sky overhead was cloudless, with a deep blue hue that was almost a shade of purple. All in all, the vista was breathtaking, and when Victor stepped toward the golden railing that surrounded the top of the spire to look down, he saw that the towers rose from placid blue water and that colorful boats of all shapes and sizes drifted among them.

Before he could decide whether to fly off the tower to investigate the strange city, a small voice spoke up from behind him. “Hello, traveler! First time in Gloryhome?”

Victor turned to see an impish, pink-fleshed man with batlike wings standing behind him. He wore a pair of blue trousers and a matching vest, but his feet were bare, exposing three toes on each that ended in long, sharp claws. “Um, yes. I’m just passing through.”

“Welcome, then, on behalf of the Council of Seventy-Seven. Would you like directions to the Travel Hall?”

Victor smiled, nodding. “That would be great.”

“Are you able to fly?”

“I am.”

“Excellent, but if not, I can direct you to the base of the spire, where you can purchase passage on a ferry—”

“I said I can fly…”

“Well, in that case, I am happy to guide you to the Travel Hall.” With that, the impish little fellow began to flap his wings and slowly lift into the air. He hovered at Victor’s eyeline, and it was clear that magic was doing the heavy lifting with his flight; those wings were flapping about once every three or four seconds.

Victor made sure nothing flammable was in the area and summoned his magma wings, launching himself into the sky. He hovered over the roof, watching the imp until he started to coast away toward the setting sun. Victor followed, glad that they were high enough that the droplets of magma his wings shed cooled as they fell toward the boats and civilians below. The imp picked up speed, gliding around buildings until Victor saw a tower with a broad, golden dome covering its top. The imp coasted toward a pier-like structure jutting out of the side of it, and Victor followed, landing on the white stone beside him, and then retracting his flaming wings.

“This is the World Hall, traveler. Thank you for your visit to Gloryhome.”

“Thank you, um…” Victor frowned. “I never caught your name. I’m Victor.”

“Pardons! I am Himpell, Emissary of the Council.”

“Well, thank you, Himpell.”

As the imp bowed, gesturing for Victor to enter, he walked past him toward the arched opening in the spire’s stone wall. Inside, he found a great hall that reminded him very much of some of the public spaces in Sojourn. Murals covered the walls, massive crystal chandeliers hung from the vaulted ceiling, and kiosks lined one wall, while circles of inlaid precious metal lined two others—teleportation pads.

Victor purchased passage from another strange, little bat-winged fellow at one of the kiosks, surprised to find the ticket to Sojourn only cost him 90,000 beads. It was even less than the guide he’d purchased estimated. As he walked toward an empty teleportation circle, he decided he liked Gloryhome; his experience there had been painless, and the beauty of the city was hard to beat, at least from what he’d seen flying among the glittering towers. He thought he might visit it again someday to see what else the world had to offer.

When he stepped into the teleportation circle, he wasn’t instantly transported. Instead, he was given a System message that read:

***Prepare for departure. Your transport will begin in thirty seconds.***

It was such a small thing, but so much more thoughtful than the other worlds he’d traveled through. It allowed people to step out of the circle if they weren’t ready, or to finish saying something if they were mid-conversation. Victor figured he’d try to implement something like that when he got around to setting things up on Dark Ember. Of course, he’d be making a permanent gateway to his palace at Iron Mountain, but he figured he could make the System’s teleportation feature a bit more pleasant for travel to other worlds.

When the thirty seconds ran out, his vision blacked out, vertigo washed over him, and then he stumbled into the crowded, noisy World Hall of Sojourn. It was a familiar scene, and he immediately began to relax, even as the attendant barked at him to clear the circle. Victor strode through the crowd, enhancing his size and letting his aura slip its leash, just a touch. People cleared the way. It was a very different feeling from the one he’d had his first time in the city. Back then, he’d felt intimidated and small when he stepped outside and saw the high, crystalline roads up among the spires. This time, he summoned his wings and launched himself up among them.

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He might not be intimidated, but he wasn’t foolish, either. The high roads were reserved for veil walkers, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t use the skies for travel. He poured Energy into his wings and blazed past the rainbow-hued, glittering roadways stretching like crystalline webs between the spires. Once he was in the open, twilight sky, he turned toward Dar’s lake house and streaked away from the city, trailing a plume of black smoke.

Of course, he wasn’t the only person in the skies around Sojourn—flying coaches were commonplace there, and so were winged denizens. Still, in the past, Victor had felt too intimidated to fly among those elite, but no longer. He made his own path, crossing the more common flightlines. It wasn’t illegal by any stretch, but it wasn’t polite, either. Even so, none of those flying nearby tried to confront him, and soon, he was gone from the city and soaring over the open grasslands and small, manicured forests of the Sojourn countryside.

It didn’t take him long, flying at his top speed, to reach the lake house—close to thirty minutes, perhaps. When he descended toward the pier, choosing to land in the back of the house by the lake, he was amused to find Lesh there, lying on the wooden boards, sunning his scales. “What’s this?” Victor chuckled. “Did I stumble upon a dragon’s lair?”

Lesh’s eyes snapped open, and he lurched to his feet, digging his hard toe-claws into a plank in his haste, shattering it. “Victor! You startled me!”

Victor grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him into a hug. “It’s good to see you, Lesh! I’ve been languishing amongst strangers for weeks.” They thumped each other’s backs a few times, then Victor released him, and they stepped back, eyeing each other up and down. “So? What level?”

Lesh grinned, baring huge, white fangs. He’d grown considerably, and his scales were everywhere now. He really did look like a miniature dragon. “I’m tier eight, but the tier nines of this city fall before me in our practice duels.”

Victor laughed. “That’s awesome, man. Fast growth! And your Breath Core?”

“Much improved, thanks to your gifts. My breath weapon is gaining a reputation, and the creatures of the dungeons in this place fear me!”

“Have you had a chance to work with your sword?”

“Much! It’s a mighty weapon but challenging to master. I still use Belagog when things are uncertain.”

Victor nodded. “Understandable.”

Lesh summoned a black leather vest from somewhere and slipped his arms through the holes, shrugging it on. It was studded with rune-stamped copper discs and looked, in Victor’s opinion, pretty cool. “Will you be staying long?” the dragonkin asked, nodding toward the stairs leading up to Dar’s backyard deck.

Victor threw a hand on his friend’s shoulder and tugged him along as he started walking up the jetty. “Not long at all, but I was hoping you might join me soon. I intend to open a portal gateway to Dark Ember, and—”

“Yes!” Lesh boomed, clapping his hands together thunderously. “You’ll open it here?”

Victor shook his head. “No, in Ruhn, at my palace in Iron Mountain. I’ll be making another portal from there to Fanwath, too. If you don’t want to pay for travel to Ruhn, I can take you with me using my portal array. I was going to extend the invitation to the others before I left. Are they home?”

“Edeya is, I’m sure. Lam may be, too, but I think Olivia is at the auction house. She’s managing the sales from our last raid and wanted to check their status.”

“And your fledgling?”

Lesh barked a short laugh. “Hah! He’s with his lady love in their new home. I can reach him quickly, however.” He tapped a small ring on his clawed pinky. It was gold, set with a dark black gemstone. “This is paired with another ring that Darren wears. We can communicate through them.”

By then, they’d reached the top of the stairs, and Victor stepped onto the deck. “Well, do me a favor and let him know he’s welcome to join the campaign. I mean, if he wants to.” Victor shrugged. “There’s no pressure, but it might be good for him.”

Lesh chuckled. “Oh, there will be some pressure. I’ll contact him now while you go inside.”

“All right.” Victor couldn’t help smiling at the big warrior’s ominous insinuation. He had a good feeling that Darren would be joining the war effort. It was true that Victor didn’t need him, but it was also true that Darren would learn a lot. With his levels, he’d be in a position to join or lead a cohort to help defend them from higher-level vampires. Leading soldiers into battle was an altogether different experience from adventuring in dungeons. Victor had grown a lot from the experience—the responsibility to his soldiers and their inevitable losses had changed his perspective on combat and life as a whole.

When he stepped into the central parlor, he saw Edeya immediately; she was lounging on a couch, her left ankle crossed over her right knee, as she thumbed through the pages of a thick, leather-bound book. “Hey, Dey-dey!”

She practically flew from the couch at the sound of his voice, her wings humming as they rapidly threw blue motes of Energy into a cloud behind her. “Victor!” He barely had time to brace himself before she smashed into him, trying valiantly to put her arms around his ribcage and squeeze him.

He hugged her back for a minute, and when they finally separated, and she was looking up at him, grinning like she was drunk, he said, “I’m just passing through, but this time I have an invitation for you and the others.”

“An invitation

“Yep. I’m going to open a portal to Dark Ember, and I want you all to know that you can come through it. I mean, if you’re interested.” He waved a hand dismissively, as though it wasn’t any big deal, and she immediately punched him in the arm.

“I was about to tell you that I was surprised you were back already! I thought your little quest to capture a city stone was going to turn into another years-long absence! And here you are! Offering to let us join you? What did you do? Try to imagine the most shocking thing you could do?”

Victor laughed, reaching out to gently tweak one of the tiny antennae sticking out of her coppery hair. “I didn’t want to tell you I was planning this, just in case things didn’t go as I hoped.”

She slapped his hand. “Those are sensitive!” Her smile didn’t falter, though, as she added, “How long do we have to prepare? We’ll need to let our adventuring group know—”

“Invite them, too. There should be plenty of conquest to go around. I mean, it’s an entire world of undead tyrants.” He shrugged. “Judging by the one small city I captured, the Energy gains and treasure should be worthwhile. As for how much time you have… Well, I’d say a day or two. I still need to go to Iron Mountain to pick up the portal expert, then we have to travel back through the System Stones. He’ll make the portal, we’ll travel through it back to Iron Mountain, and then we’ll start the troop transfers.” He smiled and nudged her chin with one big knuckle. “And the friend transfers.”

Again, she slapped his hand. “You’re so annoying!” Before he could respond, she hugged him again, murmuring, “But I love you.”

“All right, all right.” He unpeeled her from him again, then said, “So, why don’t you spread the word? I’ll come back here in two days or so and open a portal to Ruhn for anyone who wants to come, ’kay?”

As he was speaking, Lesh came into the house. “Did I hear that correctly? You’re leaving already?”

“Yeah, but just to get things in motion.”

Lesh nodded, his scaled snout emitting a pale green curl of steamy smoke. “I heard that. This is good. Darren will arrive tomorrow.”

“And, as I told Edeya, if you have friends here who’d like the experience, there’s plenty of room for high-tier adventurers. If we build up enough strength, we can try to push the campaign along more than one front.”

“You have many soldiers from Ruhn?”

Victor nodded. “More than a thousand high-level iron-rankers. I’ve got some veterans from Fanwath, too—maybe three hundred or more.”

“And how was your success on Dark Ember so far? Did you save any locals?”

Victor smiled. “Oh yes. Already more than three cohorts, but they’re relatively low-level. I figure I’ll spread the veterans out among five or six cohorts before we move on to the next undead kingdom.”

Lesh shook his head, his strange scaley countenance registering something that Victor thought might be disbelief. “And these undead lords—they just let one another fall without joining forces? How will they stop you if you continue to build armies after each victory?”

“I don’t think it will be that easy. I think when a few more fall, the others might begin to take notice. Not to mention, there are bound to be more powerful lords than the one I killed.” As he spoke, Victor reached into a storage container and began withdrawing the pieces of his portal array.

“Was the lord you slew a veil walker?” Edeya asked.

Victor looked up, grinning as he met her eyes. When he only winked, she stepped forward and wound up her fist, ready to punch his shoulder again. He laughed, holding up a hand. “Easy! Yes, he was, but I don’t think he was a particularly strong one. Remember, the old lords on that world came into power without the System, and the strongest five among them are called ‘Great Masters,’ and I think they’re on a whole different level.”

“So, will you bring anyone else capable of slaying a veil walker?” Lesh asked, watching as Victor put out the last portal array stone.

“I’m not sure. I haven’t seen exactly who Bryn has gathered at Iron Mountain, but there might be some steel seekers among them.” As he gripped the control stone for the array, he turned back to his two friends. “So? Any other questions before I leave for a couple of days?”

Edeya pouted, shaking her head. “I wish I could go with. Can’t you tell Lam and Olivia the news, Lesh?”

“I can…”

She held up a hand, forestalling his further words. “No, I can’t do that to Lammy.”

Victor shrugged. “I’ll be back soon, Dey-Dey.”

She nodded, and Victor looked at Lesh, expectantly, waiting to see if he had anything more to say. When the dragonkin only stared impassively, Victor nodded and activated the portal. It crackled to life, splitting the fabric of reality with a magenta tear that widened into a doorway-sized aperture. “All right. On to Iron Mountain, then Fanwath, then back to Dark Ember. After that, I’ll return!”

“See you soon!” Edeya cried as he stepped into the portal, and Victor did his best to wave before he was snatched away, sent hurtling through the space between planes of reality.