MiP B2 Chapter 28: Matters of Nobility

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Kindar paced back and forth impatiently, as if his number of steps would end his wait sooner. He scowled at the older man who was simply watching him calmly. "You're certain this is where Mayor Stelras said to wait?"

Gevin, his flawlessly-formal advisor and escort - Kindar refused to think of him as a babysitter - just nodded and answered. "This is the Dramos teleport beacon house, as the mayor specified. Perhaps you should ask about incorporating a memory aid of some kind into your noble soul plan, if you need 6 confirmations of the same thing in as many minutes."

Kindar rolled his eyes and continued pacing. An eternal two minutes later, the ritual circle inlaid in the floor finally - finally! - flared with light, and someone appeared in the center of it. "Finally! Took you long enou-" He froze as he belatedly noticed the uniform the newcomer was wearing. A black robe with orichalcum-orange embroidery; the color scheme of the Crown's service. He hastily snapped his mouth shut and bowed deeply. "My apology, sir. I had not been informed that I would be meeting a mage of the Crown."

The black-robed mage smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And who were you expecting, that you thought such a reaction would be acceptable?"

Kindar stared blankly, and the mage chuckled at him. "If you had reacted like that to a mage serving House Carlos, I would not be surprised if Lord Carlos responded by sending you home and telling your father that the deal is off. I'll do you the favor of pretending it didn't happen this time, but I advise you to hold your tongue in the future. House Carlos has very little tolerance for disrespect from you. Now, if you're ready to go, step into the circle beside me."

Kindar opened his mouth, then reconsidered and closed it again without speaking. He nodded sharply and stepped into the ritual circle, flanked by Gevin. The mage cast a spell, white light momentarily obscured everything, and then they were somewhere else.

The first thing he noticed was the oppressive pressure of high-level ambient mana bearing down on him. It was uncomfortable, but not quite enough to hurt. Is that what took them so long? Getting to an area I'm ready for? Gevin gave him a sharp look, and he kept his mouth shut.

"Stay inside the marked circle if you want to live. Outside the circle, the aether will start eroding your soul."

Kindar belatedly started paying attention to his physical surroundings. It took him a moment to recognize the person who'd just warned him as the strange man he'd loaned a sword to in that dungeon just over a month ago. Amber sitting several feet behind him - Lady Amber, now - was of course a much more familiar figure. He quickly dropped to one knee and bowed. "High Lord Carlos, I thank you for entertaining my request."

Footsteps slowly approached, and a hand grasped his chin to raise his head up to face forward. Lord Carlos examined his face for a moment, while Kindar averted his gaze and looked at the ground. Lord Carlos sighed and stood up. "As gratifying as this display of humility is to see, it's not what you're here for. Stand up and face me."

Kindar obeyed, hesitantly meeting the high lord's gaze for a moment before lowering his eyes a little to look at Lord Carlos's chest instead.

"Just to make sure, do you understand the warning? That you must stay inside this circle to avoid soul erosion?"

Kindar looked to the side and noticed a line dug in the ground about 10 feet away, forming a circle 20 feet across with him at the center. Several tents, a campfire, and some tables and chairs were set up farther outside the circle. He nodded. "I understand, Lord Carlos. Though, if I may ask, what is 'aether'?"

"It is the proper term for what is more commonly called ambient mana." Lord Carlos clapped his hands together. "Now then, to business. Before we get into what new soul structures you should make, I have some questions about your current ones."

"I…" Kindar looked around. Besides the two nobles of House Carlos and the crown mage, there were about half a dozen assorted other people nearby. "I'm sorry, my lord, but I must ask: Do you insist on sharing those secrets with everyone present?"

"Everyone here is a sworn loyal servant of either the Crown or of House Carlos, and we consulted with them already about what areas of improvement are the most important for you. When we get to the point of using secrets of nobility, then we will discuss more privately."

Kindar hesitated again, but ultimately nodded. "Very well. I will answer freely."

Carlos nodded and let his hands fall to his sides. "Your first 3 soul structures, for strength, speed, and precision, are each specific to your arms and hands. Why?"

"Because the arms and hands are what wield the sword, of course, and focusing on them makes the effects more potent."

"Mhm." Carlos pressed his lips together and tilted his head. "Is that… standard advice that you got from somewhere?"

Kindar shrugged. "Those who described that partial soul plan to me didn't mention it specifically, I suppose, but it's obvious."

A tremendous thud sounded from the right, and Kindar turned to see a stout and heavily muscled woman leaning on the enormous hammer that she'd just slammed into the ground. "Then you're stupid, and you're lucky Carlos is here to save you from crippling yourself." She waved her hand at him. "Noralt, veteran adventurer. And I've fought things where if you try blocking a hit with only your arms strong, your legs would snap like twigs. Arm strength means nothing without the rest of your body to support it."

Kindar looked at her, then glanced at Gevin and at Carlos. He frowned, but didn't object. "Lord Carlos, your other questions?"

"Let's see, going down the list… Swordsmanship skill seems a good choice, no question about that. Spotting your foes' vulnerabilities: why only vulnerabilities, and not dangers to you?"

Kindar blinked. "I, er…"

Carlos chuckled. "Hadn't even considered defense? I suppose that and your grandiose self-esteem explain the last 2, draining strength from your foes and intimidating them. You envisioned yourself as an awe-inspiring figure who strikes down all in your path, untouchable by your cowering opponents as their strength fails them against you. Did I get that right?"

Kindar flushed, but held himself in check. He's a high lord, far above me. He has the right to mock me if he chooses. He took a deep breath and nodded curtly.

Carlos shook his head, smirking. "You focused on the wrong things. Opponents who are strong enough to truly matter will resist artificial intimidation and draining their strength, and while being able to kill anything is fearsome, it is not the most fearsome capability."

Kindar eyed him skeptically. "What could possibly be more fearsome than that?"

"Invincibility, of course. Supreme defense." Carlos laughed at Kindar's raised eyebrow. "Against someone who can kill anything in one attack, their opponents can swarm them, attack from longer range, or just keep trying until they get lucky. Against someone who can tank any attack without fail, such tactics are futile and hopeless. Nothing is more demoralizing than seeing your strongest attack hit… and do nothing."

Carlos continued, blithely ignoring Kindar's nonplussed expression. "I don't expect just words to convince you, of course. We prepared a more practical demonstration. It will serve as good practice with using monsters for our friendly dungeon, too. When you're done with that, then we can talk about the soul structure you're going to make with what little is left of your inherited soul shell. Now get ready to fight, and remember: stay inside the circle!"

___

High Lord Recindril Tostral grimaced at the signal that yet another noble lord wanted to talk with him. I barely finished talking with Lord Plara a minute ago. How many times am I going to have to repeat this conversation? It almost feels like I should call for a conclave to announce it all.

He sighed, composed himself, and activated the mirror's paired scrying enchantment. His reflection was replaced with a view of a mature woman with short brown hair, a long nose, and a fierce scowl. Recindril reacted first. "Ah, Lady Lindoron. Before you ask, yes, I am aware of the recent arrests of various scions in connection with the rotation agreement. I believe every noble in the entire kingdom knows of those by now."

"I'm sure they do," Lady Lindoron replied acerbically. "And what do you have to say about House Golarn's report? You must admit, the timing of the incident in Dramos relative to the arrests is suspicious."

Recindril snorted. "There will always be events with suspicious timing. If Jamar is how the Crown discovered the rotation agreement, then she would have been the first to be arrested. Yet she is here at home, free."

"I'm not so sure of that." Lindoron glared at him accusingly. "There is too much still unknown about that incident, and especially about the involvement of as-yet-unidentified parties. Your scion could have bargained for amnesty in exchange for information, or the Crown could be waiting for other matters to play out before dealing with you."

Recindril shook his head. "You know I cannot conclusively answer such suspicions. Regardless, we must decide how to respond to the matter at hand. The Crown cracking down on the rotation agreement threatens to deprive us of the means to rapidly advance our scions to the level necessary to use our wellsprings. That is an unacceptable prospect, for all nobles, and if we can no longer conceal it from the Crown, then we must convince the Crown to permit it."

Lindoron's expression darkened further. "And if King Elston refuses to listen, as his ancestors did?"

Recindril locked eyes with Lindoron and smiled grimly. "Then we will have to make him listen. Let us hope that it does not come to that."

Lady Lindoron met his gaze firmly for several seconds, then slowly nodded. "Let us hope." She cut the connection, and her image was replaced with Recindril's reflection once more.

Recindril slumped and sighed. He muttered under his breath, "Jamar, what am I going to have to do with you? And what happened after you respawned?"

He picked up the report from the Black Blades, which had finally arrived days late, and read it again. Not that he needed to actually read it again. It was uncharacteristically short and uninformative, and he could quote the whole thing from memory.

Mission failed. Keep your final payment, we will not try again. Do not inquire.

___

Kindar sat in his tent and grumbled. "You could have skipped the pit trap. I remember the first one more than well enough."

Lord Carlos coughed, then cleared his throat. "You still fell for it, and that means you haven't learned to handle it well enough yet. At least this one didn't kill you. Now, imagine how much more intimidating you would be if you didn't fall when a pit suddenly opens under your feet."

"Yes, you've made your point." Kindar sighed and shook his head. "My apology, Lord Carlos. I am frustrated by my own inadequacies, but that is not good cause to disrespect you."

Lord Carlos stayed silent for a few moments, then finally nodded. "Apology accepted, and it's time to start working on fixing them. First up, the reason your soul plan is even salvageable at all without drastic measures is that nobles with high-tier soul plans get to make a lot more soul structures, so you'll be able to fix the various oversights in your soul plan by adding more structures to address each of them. However, you'll run out of soul shell essence to use for that after just 1 or 2 more structures, and making the rest the normal way by absorbing aether would take ages. Especially since you don't have a mana manipulator."

Kindar looked up and narrowed his eyes. "You're not going to tell me to make a mana manipulator, are you? I'm no mage."

Lord Carlos smiled. "No, not at all. You'll make a, hmm, let's call it an 'essence siphoner.' It will siphon essence - the solidified mana that soul structures are made of - from your existing soul structures, in order to make new ones in hours rather than days. Sure, it will stop being useful when you finish all your soul structures, but if you manage to finish all your synergies properly, you'll end up with around 40 or 50 soul structures total. How much does 1 no-longer-useful structure really matter in the end, out of that many?"

Kindar stared for several seconds, then closed his mouth with a snap.

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