Stepping Stones
The four guilds were celebrating. After five long years of hard work, the guilds' communication and identification systems were active!
While each system could connect with the others if needed, each was its own internal network, specialized to the needs of the specific guild it served. Part of the celebrations was all the systems had successfully gone live in spite of the differences each held.
Kenneth made his way through the crowd filling the Merchants' Guild Hall, looking for a specific someone. He found him on a balcony, a bit away from all the noise and cheer.
"Looks good, Meinz. Shakedown and user checks have gone well, and no more than a normal amount of bugs. You all have done great."
"Mmm. They're as good as they could be." He pulled aside his veil, revealing a tired, drawn face, much leaner than the last time Kenneth had met him. "I added some secret programming for my -our- future. Programming a bit different for each guild. That couldn't cause problems elsewhere, or be easily traceable, even by someone who knows the system. But they activated safely in spite of that."
Nodding in understanding, Kenneth internally frowned. Meinz had been one of the hardest workers on the project, persisting even as other Tasnians dropped out. His lack of excitement was strange. "What's with the veil? I thought only priests in seclusion wore those."
"I can do what I want when I want. Including bending temple rules." Meinz smiled humorlessly. "As for the veil, I'm trying to get people to forget my appearance. Part of it is I'm tired of getting mobbed. If people forget my face, then if I take off my stole, I'll be able to quietly walk down the street for once."
Kenneth winced.
"It's also for our future." Meinz looked over his shoulder at the crowd just inside the balcony doors. "What isn't remembered isn't passed on. Elric pointed out art is moving from a stylized to a realistic style, and realistic art-"
"Got it." The banker stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I think the Edwards are going to become art connoisseurs."
"Heh." Meinz smiled a little. Tilting his head as though listening, he replaced the veil over his face.
"Someone coming?"
"Merridan. Ekozar is a mess of 'all the fighting,' as you might say. Ocheorea has suffered some losses, but the interior is stable, so she sought refuge here."
"'All the fighting…'" Kenneth looked down at his drink. "That's one reason the guilds are so happy. Being able to transfer information rapidly will help in restabilizing things. It's rough enough with half the teleportation gates down."
"We need to get them back up. The more time passes, the harder it will be."
"What are you two talking about?"
Meinz didn't turn around. The tiny redhead had gone from being an ally to an annoyance, her growing indecisiveness and desire to please repeatedly resulting in more problems than were solved, yet she never seemed to learn.
"We were talking about getting the out-of-service teleportation gates back up," Kenneth answered. "I was awarded a few, working and non-working, and the Merchants' Guild and various members have picked up some more."
Merridan chewed her lower lip. "Is that necessary? We need to take care of the kingdoms that are still standing."
"This will take care of them. We can put resources where they are needed, to strengthen those who are faltering and relieve their burden. I can't name the sites here for various reasons, but one region has had an excellent harvest, far more than they need. The gate there never shut down, and recently we were able to get the gate working in a region that was starving. We were able to transfer food from the first region to the second. That region will survive now.
"We can do this across multiple countries. Once they're stabilized, we'll be able to start revitalizing the lands."
"Well…" Merridan turned to Meinz, who hadn't bothered to acknowledge her. "I heard about the speech you gave to the Ocheorean Council. Meinz, what were you thinking? Just because you're a hero doesn't mean you can stir up trouble!"
"After seeing the time spell, you can say that?" Meinz glared at her, though his veil rendered it ineffective. "We are on limited time -we must prepare for the future where Chester is released from the spell, and be ready to stop him before he can gain strength and gather followers."
"But that's then. We don't have to worry about it now. Going around telling nobles and royalty they're thoughtless and short-sighted and everything else you said-"
"I told them we need to start on the foundations of a long-term plan! It doesn't matter if all they can do is write up some ideas and leave the rest to the next generation. The important part is to put 'the Demon King will be released' in their consciousness. To never forget. To constantly prepare." Meinz took a deep breath, calming himself. "But they don't want to acknowledge that. They want to believe the danger is over, permanently. They won't even assign the duty to one person, to remember, and to gather plans and resources and pass their knowledge on. If they continue as they are, the world will forget. The people of the future will be caught by surprise, just as we were."
Kenneth quietly backed up and leaned against the wall where it met the railing. The curly-haired mage was both smart and a knockout, but Meinz had bluntly told Kenneth to not recruit her for his long-term plans. He didn't consider her reliable.
The next words out of her mouth showed why.
"Does that matter? We won't be alive then."
Kenneth facepalmed.
"We can go settle down somewhere and live out our lives. Leave the future to the future." Her face crumpled up. "Please, Meinz, I love you."
"You-" Meinz began, and stopped. Taking a deep breath, he began again. "I had Jabari take a look at the time spell."
"What?" Merridan yelped. "You'll take one of those Summoned kids words over mine? You think I lied about how much damage it would cause, don't you?"
"Jabari said while the spell is holding together well now, trying to dispel it would cause more damage than you estimated." He looked at her sternly from behind his veil. "But it's interesting that that is where your mind went."
"Well, I mean- I was going to say- Wait!"
Ignoring her, Meinz swept past her and left the balcony. Kenneth moved to catch up. "What was that?"
"I almost said she was acting like Chester. But if I'd done that, she'd have thrown a magical tantrum that would have brought down the whole area."
Kenneth went pale. "No."
"On the positive side, I was able to soften my speech to the Council. My first version was really nasty." His light-voiced attempt at humor fell flat.
"Dammit. You knew the system would go live safely. That's why you weren't celebrating." He realized the priest wasn't following him. "Now what?"
Meinz had stopped a few feet behind. He appeared very interested in one of the paintings lining the hallway. "It's gone live safely four times now.
As a tiny dart bounced off his mana shield, the chant of the spell was rewarded with the thunk of a body hitting the tiled floor, it having fallen from one of the buttresses lining the high ceiling.
The drop hadn't quite killed the would-be assassin. "
What followed was several minutes of quite the ruckus as the assassin was taken away and the guild heads assured themselves Meinz and Kenneth were safe. They insisted the two men wait in a secured room while appropriate transport back to their lodgings was arranged.
"So," Kenneth counted off, "Merridan's tantrum once, and the assassin twice?"
"Yes." Meinz tasted the mela that had been served, grimaced, and poured himself some tea. "Although each round kicked me back to somewhere during the morning of the day I spoke to the Council."
"That sucks. So you've lived the last two days in a repeated loop. No wonder you seem so old." Kenneth's forehead furrowed with thought. "Do you mind if I fund research into Regression? Hidden as part of larger research into Birth Talent and Skills in general, once things stabilize a bit and we have that kind of money to spare. There has got to be some magic on this world to control Regression timing. And if not, we'll make it!"
Meinz was about to say there was no way to manage Talents and Skills like that, but he stopped at a sudden thought. What if the reason there was no way was that everyone assumed it couldn't be done? Then the only research done on the matter would have been done as side interest projects or poorly funded experiments by investigators presumed to be crackpots.
Energy could be interrupted or altered, though not destroyed, according to the Summoned. "Magic as energy… energy as magic… if Talents are some manifestation of energy and energy can be changed…" Meinz put a hand to his head. "More than a way to control the timing, I want a way to do what Chester did. Create what Elric called a 'save point'. It's extremely annoying to get something done perfectly and have to do it again."
"That would likely tie into the timing research…" Kenneth looked thoughtful, then blinked. "Just a minute. How does your item box work with regression? Are Talents inherited?"
"Unless something's completely unique and not made by me, it stays in the item box through regression, independent of when I received it."
"We can use that."
"Birth Talents can be inherited, but it's iffy if they will be. Especially the very rare ones like Regression or Remembering when Reincarnated."
"Wait, that's actually a thing?"
"That's how we priests know the gods reincarnate people, so we can tell the faithful, and that other worlds exist." Meinz made a shushing gesture. "Only the highest hierarchy of the priesthoods know that talent exists at all. It's why-" his voice grew bitter "-the intelligent and precocious children are gathered up from everywhere, no matter how remote, and tested for that skill." He looked down, his hands gripping the knees of his robes tightly. "Even if they don't pass, the temple keeps the children. Only those with power can contest it."
Kenneth studied the ceiling. "You know, on Earth, a lot of knowledge and traditions tend to get lost during tumultuous times."
Meinz sat up and looked at him sharply.
"Just a thought." Kenneth stretched and looked at the time piece on the table. "Our ride should be ready soon. I wonder if that assassin will break."
"Oh, we broke him already. He managed to get in a hit with magic-resistant poison, so we opted to drag him into a room and question him." Meinz stood up and shook out his robes. "It's not someone you can touch at the moment, unfortunately."
A knock at the door announced the arrival of their guard down to their carriages.
As they headed down, Meinz felt the weight of the dagger hidden under his robes. He was glad Kenneth had not asked which of them had been poisoned.
*******
People mentioned in this chapter:
Meinz
Kenneth
Merridan
Assassin
Jabari Mabaso: Seventeen when Summoned. A South African, summoned with four of his friends. His group was one of three Summoned by the Kiron Kingdom. Never got along with Chester. He possessed non-Elemental mage powers, including an understanding of time magic, though not as good as Theo's almost instinctive ability. Used his magic to help others after the demon citadel was sealed. Blessing: Inanimate summoning. If he can visualize the storage area, he can summon any inanimate objects within to his current location. The amount summoned depended on the level of the Blessing; he maxed out the skill within ten years of the citadel being sealed while working with relief and rebuilding teams. Kingdom: Kiron (fallen).
Spells mentioned:
Paralyze: A spell that shuts down all voluntary movement of the target. Only involuntary functions like breathing, heartbeat, and digestion continue to work.
Items, magic:
Teleportation gates: A teleportation gate is a large arch or rectangular structure made of metal and stone. It provides instant transport to any connected gate. Ones with more complex controls can be set to announce if a specific person is coming through. This requires having a hair, a few drops of blood, or something else from the person's body. When setting a gate to check if a specific person is coming through, items like hair pulled from the scalp or blood works better than fingernail clippings or dropped hair.
The gates are structures at least a thousand years old, possibly more. The story is they're left over from an old empire that once spanned the largest continent in the north and traded all over the world. Even the smallest and simplest contains instructions on how to repair and maintain it; there's only a problem if the gate goes completely dead. Ownership of individual gates has changed frequently over the centuries. Kingdoms that try to declare ownership of all gates within their borders tend to make the Merchant and Adventurers Guilds very unhappy.
Kingdoms:
Ekozar: A medium-sized and fairly wealthy kingdom that had existed for two hundred years prior to the Demon War. Mutual distrust of other kingdoms, which everyone involved was responsible for, led to them having their head archmage Merridan Summon over a hundred people from another world. The Summoneds' ultimate distrust of their self-proclaimed "masters" led to several sneaking off before the Demon King was defeated, and others rebelling afterwards. Combined with existing factors and tensions, Ekozar fell to both interior fighting and exterior attacks from opportunistic neighbors.