[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 107: Building a Home

Raiko sprinted across the Skyshard, dashing up and then across a gentle [River Tile].

Running was one sure way to get away from that situation. Not the most gracious of exits, but that was better than suffering further embarrassment.

Something dark swept down the water, bobbing in and out. Raiko glanced over, wondering if it was a fish.

A mandragora flailed helplessly. She wasn’t sure if they could drown, but it didn’t seem like it was having a good time, either.

“You alright, mandragora?” she asked it.

Chances were this [River Tile] fed the moat too. Not all rivers did, but anything from a Tile was just inherently stronger. That hardly took any investigation to figure out.

“I need a different water source for the moat,” Raiko muttered while scooping up the mandragora.

“▽◎△☆□◇✖?” the mandy asked in its strange gibberish language. The [Black Garlic Mandragora] blinked cutely at her, reminding her of Haman. The burning on her arms, however, did not.

Her heart ached. It was difficult to be without her soul companion.

Thoroughly distracted, Raiko went downstream to the moat, where many more mandys were floating about. Some had learned to swim, others could not be farther from the skill.

Worse, some of them were doing that stunning scream at random intervals. And she could see why.

A flying vulture-like monster passed overhead. It didn’t seem to be attacking, but it was also suspiciously close. A scout of some kind, perhaps?

A mandy screamed. Stunned, the monster seized up in the sky and plummeted to its swift demise.

In quick succession, this occurred many more times as Raiko moved alongside the moat, trying to determine if they were under assault while keeping well out of range of the effect.

Not one to pass on some Experience, Raiko quickly drew her blade to flick a number of Wind mana rifts into the monsters.

With a critical eye, the Ninja concentrated on what few were quick enough to begin swooping down at the mandragoras.

The rifts stopped them well short of that.

More and more flying monsters fell, and what ones remained were scared off.

Apparently, this wasn’t an easy target for them. Likely scavengers of some sort. They weren’t quite as bloodthirsty as those Zuu were.

Multiple mandragoras leveled up, growing considerably stronger.

Even the Skyshard gained Experience.

***

Sam looked at Komachi.

“Aren’t you going to chase her?” Komachi asked. “Thought I set that up real good.”

“You should know that I’m not. Especially since she’s way faster than me. Maybe if she wasn’t fleeing at Mach 1, sure. But… well, I can’t even see the woman anymore. How could I follow that?”

Komachi pawed her ear thoughtfully. “Dang, I don’t understand romance.”

“Besides, with her gone, we can’t make a decision on the faction. I don’t see a great problem with that though. I need time to think and I’m sure she does too. There’s no indication that it has a time limit, so whenever she… returns, we’ll pick up where we left off.”

Sam walked down the hill back toward the rest of the group, with Komachi and CC in tow.

“You really think Dream governs our sleep?” Komachi asked.

“No.” He wasn’t sure why, but he had a surprisingly powerful belief that he was right. “I don’t think the Kindred are… necessarily that involved in daily life. They’re more like….” Like what? How the hell should he know? Until a week ago, he was just a plain normal human working a shitty retail job.

“It’s deeper than that,” Komachi agreed. “Just like Machi. You’re a destroyer. She’s a creator.”

“Yes,” Sam said. “You have hidden depths, don’t you, Komachi? Very deep. Dark. Hidden depths.” His voice didn’t match the mirth in his eyes.

“I knew you were out there when I was a kitten, so I found you!” She nodded eagerly, then paused when she caught up with the rest of what Sam said, fussing her paws nervously. “Machi…?”

Sam ruffled her fur affectionately. “Just messing.”

That got her purring. “Just you wait, I’m gonna get an awesome Path that’ll blow ya mind.”

“I would be very proud of you if you did,” Sam told her seriously.

“So what,” Matt said, “are we all your peasants now? Do I have to bow and knuckle my forelock and say, ‘m’lord’?”

“Do you even know what a forelock is?” Sam asked him.

“No, but I’d take great relish in trying things out until they worked!”

Kai shouldered his way forward. “I have seen no notification suggesting things have been set. Where is Raiko?”

“She… ran off,” Sam said, chuckling when he realized how literal that was.

“Is something amiss?”

“No, Kai. Just Raiko being Raiko, I suppose.” Sam motioned to one of the dullahan and was about to ask it come over when it marched itself right in front of him.

Matt looked up grouchily as the dullahan had inadvertently shouldered him out of the way with its massive iron bulk. “What’re we doing then?” he asked, squeezing himself between Kai and the dullahan and coming out ahead of them.

“Look,” Sam said, “even if we were to go the monarchy route, I don’t think anybody here would be required to do any of the shit you mentioned. We’re just looking for a way to be able to govern as more people arrive that doesn’t tie our hands or make us into puppets.”

“Good luck with that,” Matt said with a snort. “As soon as we start getting a functional economy, you’re going to get merchants and people who want to sell shit. And they’ll want to do it without taxes, but they’ll also want all the amenities that taxes bring. If you can’t put your foot down and make it work, they’ll buy off anybody who dissents because that’s cheaper than paying up.”

“I would ask you how you know, but I think I already do.”

“He is right,” Kai said. “I… cannot say I am comfortable with the fact that you and Raiko might become a king and queen. Especially since you are not married.” He looked especially dour at that. “But as you know, our people were originally a monarchy. It is in our blood, and a good king is better than the best politician any day.”

“You’re going to get married?” Komachi asked Sam.

“No, Komachi, we’re not.” Sam pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes and sighed. “Let me get this straight: you both are in favor of being ruled by a monarchy. One, a woman whom we barely know anything about other than she has a Skyshard three times the size of my own, and is an Incarnate of a Kindred. And the other, a beach bum from Hawai’i whose only steady job was a retail stocker.”

“What’s the alternative, getting governed by a musical chair of politicians that just get bought out every term by the highest bidder?” Matt asked.

“You are not incorruptible,” Kai agreed. “But you are the best we have. Should we wait until something better comes along and suffer without any of the benefits of proper rulership? For now, what do you have to lose by being a king? You are already one in all but name. We follow you where you go, do what you say.”

“I told him, Sam’s a King!” Komachi said.

“That’s because you agree with me,” Sam told them. “If I told you to go jump off a cliff, I wouldn’t expect you do fucking do it!”

Kai shrugged. “Immaterial. A good leader does not make his people do things they should not. If you had proven yourself as trustworthy as you have been all the years I have known you, then I would jump off that cliff, expecting you to have a plan.”

“You already lead us into battle, man,” Matt added. “How’s this any different? I’d definitely screw it up.”

Sam threw up his hands. “You’re all insane.”

“Typically,” Lenal said sheepishly, “Incarnates wield massive power. On Islegard, they were conscripted as powerful advisors to the most influential rulers as a means of… controlling their influence. Nobody wanted an Incarnate to start their own country, so they gave exceptional leeway to them throughout the centuries. That is, if they were not already born into a royal house.”

“They were afraid of them?” Sam asked.

“Indeed.” Lenal nodded. “Incarnates are, as you may know, very influential people. Their very presence is a weight on the Fabric of reality. They are an order of beings called Sa’vren. Events warp and twist themselves around them like water circling a drain. They cannot help it. It is not a conscious thing that they can control.”

“So normie Kings and Queens have no chance against Sam and Raiko,” Komachi announced proudly.

“Where a normal person might make a trek along a lonely road, an Incarnate is likely to get caught in a mudslide, wash away off the road and into the countryside where a bandit king’s buried treasure is half revealed from the floe. Chance… twists itself in odd ways. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but events never retain their original arc of causality when they encounter an Incarnate.”

“And that gives Incarnates power?” Sam asked. He could sort of see it. A lot of things that happened to him were… well, bad, but they ended up being better than he could have ever hoped.

Darren cutting the rope to that bridge should have been the end for him, but it instead allowed him to kill the golem that he otherwise had no chance of fighting one-on-one.

And then down in the ravine he found not only all those [Dungeon Ingresses] but also the Dark Vault.

That, in turn, led him to the Greater Blessing and… so much more beyond. He wouldn’t be on this Skyshard if not for Darren’s betrayal, something that should have killed him.

I can’t think that every bad turn will come out for the best, though. If I do, then I’ll never try to stop anything from happening to me. There has to be bad along with the good.

He was separated from his best friends, but all things considered, Kai and Matt had become far more trustworthy than he would have ever thought possible.

Another twisting of fate, or did I just misjudge them both?

Sam wondered something else as well. Did two Incarnates together have an even greater impact upon the Fabric of reality?

“Raiko garnered a great deal of goodwill from the people, as well, when she became a Sage and revitalized the ailing land,” Lenal continued. “Similarly, when the two of you saved Islegard. Even those, like me, who were not present at the Shard’s End, were made aware of your glorious victory. The two of you would be regarded more favorably than even other Incarnates, should there even be any others around.”

“And yet they still were wary of her, I’ll bet,” Sam said. “Because the rulers had their little kingdoms and didn’t want the balance of power upset.”

“It was quite a bit worse when they discovered who she was the Incarnate of, but yes. Raiko was never merciful towards corruption.”

Matt raised his hand. “Kai and I are both sort of in the dark about this whole, saving Islegard business. What exactly did Sam and Raiko do? You treat them like they’re gods made flesh and I’m not sure whether that’s because of the whole Incarnate thing—which I also don’t get—or this Shard’s End business.”

Lenal looked uncertainly at Sam. He nodded, and she relaxed. “I would be glad to regale you with the tales, as I have heard them. No doubt they would be better from the mouth of one of the Incarnates themselves, but I understand they do not wish to discuss it themselves. But, if you would not mind, I require the proper place to tell this story.”

The Analyst motioned for them to follow. With a look at each other, Kai and Matt followed her into the domed abode that Raiko and Kai made the previous night.

Komachi double-tapped CC with her back paw and the mimic trundled on after the Analyst.

Before Sam knew what was going on, every dullahan but the one that Sam had beckoned over was inside their shelter to hear Lenal’s story. A story, Sam noted with irony, that was secondhand at best.

Then again, secondhand from the Shard itself has to be pretty good still.

With a shake of his head, Sam motioned to the dullahan. “With me, big guy. We’re going to see if I can’t fix you up, then we’re going to fell some trees.”