Chapter 50 - Geography

I was running around like crazy for the next few months getting ready for my trip. Despite already handing out linkpearls, my Kan-E was too spoiled and still demanded that I come back to Gridania every other day, even during my pilgrimage. I easily gave into her demands while questioning who kept giving my woman everything she wanted? Whoever it was, needed some backbone didn't he?

To compensate for the new demand, I created a Warp Marker and a Warpstone. As one may assume from the name, I could leave the Warp Marker, a small piece of lightning attuned crystal that was carved with half of the Return Formula, on the ground somewhere and achieve a dirty form of teleportation using the equivalent of a Hearthstone. Except, rather than attuning this Warpstone to an Aetheryte, it was attuned to the Warp Marker. With the modifications done to it, I wasn't sure if it could attune to an Aetheryte in the first place. The travel was unpleasant, it was impossible to land on my feet, I had no idea of whether I was going to end up on my stomach or on my ass.

But it was a pain that I'd just have to contend with. Suck it up Winter. You got this!

My Y'shtola was content with once every four days, saying "Too much is addicting" as her lucid reasoning. Seeing how my lovely Kan-E behaved, I was inclined to agree. Though it didn't stop me from tossing away her book and working on creating that addiction right away.

"I reeeeeally can't come with you?"

My Minfilia wanted to tag along naturally, and I almost said yes.

Zzz.

Adal was quietly dozing off beside us. I don't think a single day had passed since my return where I went to bed without being fully drained of seed and cuddling into a dense and warm mass of soft womanly flesh. Even now, I was sat up against the wall of my bed with my cock lazily leaking the last bit of cum out of the tip.

"Haha, kiss I'm afraid not. I'm sure that you could handle the trip just fine, but Master Matoya might blow her top if she had to deal with you as well as me."

Minfilia's hot body was wrapped around me lovingly, her womb was already packed full of baby batter, yet she found an extra pool of energy from who knew where to question me cheerily about the trip coming up.

"Hmph. Fiiine. But you'll still be back in Gridania every other day though? I'll see you then?"

It was true. The manor's construction was going well. I suspected that it would be totally complete in half a year at least. Normally, homes in Eorzea were built far faster, but knowing that my property was connected to the Seedseer, activated the guild's quality control standards. In addition to my Minfilia and my Kan-E personally stepping in to crack the whip, the home was set to be built with no outrageous flaws.

Minfilia had wrapped her arms around my neck tighter and pulled me further into her comfortable embrace. The familiar scent of wild berries made my body loosen and my heart comfortable. In fact, it made me slightly sleepy too. I envied Adal in that moment. 

"Of course~"

I gently planted my forehead against hers and and looked into her cloudy blue eyes. We stared at each other quietly and rocked slowly from side to side. A stray thought crossed my mind to get a Orchestrion. 

It was XIV's version of a Jukebox and the grind to get the various songs for it to play was almost as intense as the grind to obtain certain mounts. Some were unlocked from achievements, some from treasure hunting, and some even had to be crafted. Multi-disciplinary felt like an understatement, but it was the closest word in my vocabulary at the time to describe it. I always played my XIV music outside of the game, but I knew at least two people back when I played that swore up and down that they needed to knock out another rotation of FATE missions before logging off almost every night.

kiss

I got a kiss of reproach for not immersing myself in the moment, so I stopped thinking, letting the love in the air do all the talking for me.

---

"'ese'll do?"

Steel. It was better than iron at the very least, and could actually maintain its form while under the stress of Aether being channeled through it. Weaker blades would either warp, melt, or shatter from the stress, but those exact swords were the only things I had been using for all this time. Finally, I had a good excuse to splurge on something usable, hopefully for a long time. My plans for Gerolt were still very far away after all, and because I was unfamiliar with 1.0, I didn't know what equipment I could and couldn't expect to find on short notice.

I picked up the steel longsword that came paired with a steel short sword and carefully inspected them. The length wasn't perfect for the short sword. Perhaps it was because I grew taller since I last measured my sword arm?

"Perchance, do you have a short sword that's even shorter than this?"

"Less ye keen ta' wield a shiv, nay."

It would have to do. The longsword's sheathe was originally meant to be worn at the hip, but with a strong magnet, I could lug the stupidly impractical mass of steel on my back instead. I still needed to purchase some straps that would keep the magnet secured in a predictable position though. It wouldn't be funny for the sword to snap into place while the magnet was on my shoulder now would it?

As for the shortsword, I let its sheathe hang from the back of my belt, tilting down slightly to make it easier to take out. If it was shorter, maybe I'd put it on my hip, but I found that I needed to lift my arm up almost to my chest to get it loose that way. As the smaller and more nimble blade, I wasn't keep on its retrieval taking more than a second.

As for how it wasn't slipping out while I walked around, one could once again thank magnets. These things were far more advanced than I knew possible. Unless I started crazily spinning, I couldn't feel the short sword budge one bit out of its sheathe.

"Then, this is fine."

I handed the blades back for packaging and loitered with no particular objective in mind.

"Hello Mr. Modi!"

"Greetings."

I waved at the passerby that I didn't immediately recognize. Even after we had a small chat on the street side, I still couldn't remember their name, but my friends all called me Winter. Mr. Modi was my title for Ul'dahn business associates. Momo-nee had quite a bit of pull and sway despite not being in the Syndicate, as far as I knew anyways, so I tended to use my title to grease the wheels on many different things.

"Interesting times we live in, no? Primals walk the lands, the Empire sharpens their blades, and things most Ancient seem to stir within the darkness! How exciting!"

"Haha, are you a fan of the stage, sir?"

"Gasp But of course! Only on stage can one see such thrilling dramas unfold! And yet this very star has suddenly become the stage upon which a play of an infinite caliber seems to be commencing! To be able to witness it all unfold from the sidelines, watching the forces of light and dark collide and clash, you and I are blessed, old friend!"

I seriously didn't know who this guy was. He was taller than me, with a mop of dark hair with light hazel eyes that seemed to glow with energy. More energy than me at the very least. He had the clothes of a merchant, but a few frivolous ornaments that dotted him here and there made it obvious that he came from some amount of wealth. Perhaps he was a friend of Rowena?

"Well, let us be careful not to get sucked into the play when our intention is to remain on the sidelines, yes?"

"Mhm! Indeed indeed! The stewards of this star mustneeds show their worth without us! How spectacular the rise or fall, no one will know!"

After the stranger departed, I turned back to the weapon stall and retrieved a box that was taller than I was. Within were my steel longsword and steel shortsword. Plain in their looks and not especially durable nor unique. I didn't expect them to be strong enough to withstand normal combat, inscription, and Aether channeling at the same time, so I chose not to add any runes into the blades. With that compromise, they were barely passable.

I turned again to see the stranger chatting up a different merchant, gleefully exchanging words while the merchant had a rather dead-pan face on. Sometimes, when facing someone with infinite energy, it could drain even more of yours. I ignored Rowena's friend and turned my thoughts back to other matters.

I wasn't especially excited to go back to the Gladiators' guild to train, but I similarly wasn't excited to go back to the Thaumaturges' guild to re-read the same passages within the Coerthas Bestiary. After a lot of studying and even more sitting in on Hunting Lectures, featuring the man with the most drone-like voice that could put a Dragon to sleep, I believed that I had a solid grasp of what to expect on the trip to Ishgard.

But what about the trip into the Dravania?

Get this.

It's a complete fucking warzone.

To be fair, I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but in Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, not only was it reasonable to simply walk outside of the aggro radius of any mob, but after you unlocked flight, there was nothing to contest you in the air. For some reason, I didn't think that the Dragons would descend into Western Coerthas and launch offensives that Ishgard had actually taken the responsibility of fending off.

I couldn't tell if their reasoning was just, but the Western Coerthas offensive was zone that sat on the brink in-between a Draconian invasion into Eorzea or another day of mercy. Until Hraesvelgr gave the go ahead, the Dragons wouldn't invade, but I couldn't rely on his temper and mercy to stay static for all this time.

Without the Echo, I couldn't communicate with the Dragons, and even if I could, why would they let me pass through especially? I wasn't a Warrior of Light nor some holy emissary. So what was to be done?

I carried my blades back to the Quicksand, greeted my little big sister, and walked into my workshop.

'Yeah, that'd be difficult.'

I had two objectives to fulfill, each were dangerous, though getting to the Moogles was probably the worst.

Matoya was located within the Ruling Quarter of the Dravanian Hinterlands. I only had two ways to get there on foot. Through the Dravanian Forelands or through the Coerthas Western Highlands. In Heavensward, a band of treasure hunters, goblins, and scavengers banded together to found the small settlement of Idyllshire, but as of right now, those factions continued to squabble and kill each other instead of setting up an Aetheryte for me.

Bastards.

The map in my possession wasn't all that detailed, so I was guessing from my fading memory and trusty notebook just which paths I could use. I traced my finger carefully along the parchment to the East of the vague map that showed the Dravanian Hinterlands. The South-East area was the war-torn Coerthas Western Highlands.

I pulled another map, almost just as useless as the first, but I could still remember the places of key Aetherytes. Falcon's Nest was directly East of the route into the Dravanian Hinterlands. So I wouldn't technically need to cross the entire warzone in order to get to my destination. I would simple need to hug the mountains and tread West on Chocobo for a couple of days.

Falcon's Nest was an outpost set up by the Holy See of Ishgard. It was a village that was carved into the mountain and paved with its corpse, much like all Ishgardian architecture. The route to Falcon's Nest was clear of beasts and well-trodden. One could walk directly from Ishgard to Falcon's Nest and encounter no real trouble as long as you weren't on an Inquisitor's watch-list.

I turned my focus to the second map, the lands directly East of the Dravanian Hinterlands were the Dravanian Forelands. In this place, one could find wild Chocobos roaming. These lands were the home of much of Eorzea's stock. They continued to be sold to the lower lands until Ishgard left the alliance, leaving Eorzea with a limited number of the large birds. Each one lost was another pain point as it wasn't simple to gain another. If one was especially foolish, they could invade this forest to attempt the raid of a Chocobo Nest, however things like that seldom went well. Only with careful guidance from the hunters in Camp Tailfeather could one expect to find success, but they were naturally hesitant to share their knowledge.

Camp Tailfeather had an Aetheryte, and I could warp to it from Ishgard, but the path from there to the Dravanian Hinterlands was sitting along side 2 horrible pains in my ass. One was the beast tribe, Loth ast Gnath. The Gnath were insect looking beasts that dug massive tunnels and built spires made of a strange hive-like material within the Smoldering Wastes. They had a secret that allowed them to ward off Dragons with a certain kind of smell, but as I couldn't communicate with them, I had no way of knowing or bartering for that scent. Would I need to take my Minfilia there on a trip? I preferred not to. The years ahead promised to be hard on the young woman as I expected Louisoix to prompt my Minfilia to start the Path of the Twelve soon.

The other big issue on the route from Tailfeather to the Dravanian Hinterlands, was a large spire built by human hands and Dragon Breath. Anyx Trine. Once a monument to the collaboration wrought by man and Dragon-kind, now turned into a sober reminder of mankind's betrayal. In this place was many of Hraesvelgr's kids. None of which would be friendly to a mob character like me. Especially considering that, once again, I couldn't understand their language.

I stretched my arms above my head and felt my back pop with satisfaction.

It seemed like the Coerthas Western Highlands were the answer to my first problem. But then I had to reach the Moogles for the sake of gaining Daemon Glass. While it was possible that I could persuade Matoya to help me teleport there, then I could set up a personal Aetheryte with their permission, I still had to reach the Zone that those bastards had setup in. And I needed a translator to communicate with them and facilitate a deal.

Moghome sat just within the entrance of the Churning Mists. I probably didn't need to walk all the way to the glass fiber merchant, but to get to the Churning Mists, I still had to traverse the Dravanian Forelands. In particular, I had to go THROUGH Anyx Trine. Such a thing was obviously impossible. Even more crazy, was that Moghome sat atop Sohm Al. The nesting place of Nidhogg and his manic Dravanian Horde.

If I flew by Airship or Chocobo, I would get cut to ribbons by the Dragons that insisted on protecting their motherland. Or even worse, captured by Nidhogg and tortured slowly over the course of many years. So I only really had 2 ways to get my god damned Daemon Glass.

I stood up and paced around my workshop.

One was getting the special scent that the Gnath used to ward off Dragons and flying directly into the Churning Mists.

Two was to drag the Merchant Moogle out of the Churning Mists and to at the very least, Camp Tailfeather for trading. I could send a Moogle from Gridania in to lure him out. Though I'd need to trade Kupo Nuts, a commonly found type of acorn that fell out of Kupo Trees in Gridania. I supposed they couldn't grow their own up there in the mountains. I had been hoarding them for months and now had a basket or two of the things. I wouldn't be taking them with me on this trip with me however.

'...Or...'

I could just purchase the method for spinning these glass fibers by myself. It would cut down on a lot of headache. I might be the first human that the Moogles of Moghome have seen for the past decade or so. It might even be the first time a Moogle of the Twelveswood met its people from the Churning Mists. Perhaps I could direct that enthusiasm into a marketing pitch for the manufacturing method?

Limsa Lominsa had taken their special methods of metalworking from the Kobolds, so perhaps I could replicate their negotiations with the Moogles. But this time with less genocide involved?

Whatever choice I made, I wanted to make it sooner rather than later. I looked out of my window into the dusty skies of Ul'dah. On this trip, fraught with danger, I would come out the other side alive and well. I had to.