The Restored: Chapter Forty-Seven

I cut the power to my spell, and lowered the piece of metal to the ground. Rhys gave me an approving nod, and I smiled at him. 

“For a first political speech, it wasn’t bad,” Rhys said. “It was a bit short, but I think that’s what the country needed right now.”

“Sir!” a voice called, and I turned to see a demon racing toward me. For an instant, I began to shape spells, before I relaxed as the demon slowed and bowed deeply. 

“The current Throne of the Throne of Sacrifice wishes to repay the debt incurred for the previous Throne’s unwarranted attack on the city,” the mantis-like creature stated. “As the  people of Elderglass have made sacrifices, our payment has come due.”

It took me a second to connect the dots. In my defense, I was still processing the fact that the Contractor had managed to take the Throne of Sacrifice for himself. Even the fact that the Throne of Sacrifice had been rebuilt was staggering in its own right – it was like learning that in addition to mass and velocity, that the ancient theories of forces being inherent material properties were also correct now. The world didn’t simply change like this, not this often.

“I have been authorized to utilize a significant investment of power and resources to the reconstruction to use as you see fit, and the local Ley Lines have been opened to create a portal in the Contractor’s manor that will direct you near the Throne’s throneroom,” the demon stated, nodding his bug-like head. “I understand that demons might have a bit of… personal relations trouble… through the city right now, but the Contractor has made it clear that this is a significant debt to be repaid.” 

“Thank you,” I said, nodding. “I will likely turn this debt over to the full government once it’s up and running again, but for now, I’d like your most humanoid demons to move through the city and find as many injured as possible, and bring them back here.” 

“Sir!” another voice called out, and I turned to see a group of constables approaching me. About half of them were clearly battle worn, which was disappointing – even I was exhausted right now. If these people had really been doing their jobs, all of them should have had some injuries, rumpled clothes, and more. 

“Organize a perimeter around the Central Aura Depository to do intakes," I told them. “We need as many hands on deck as possible right now. Organize people into groups and begin setting up hospitals. Right now, our primary goal is to treat as many injured as possible, to keep people alive, then ship them to the two-fifths of the city that weren’t completely torn apart by the spell. Once you have enough constables to manage that, start sending out search and rescue teams. There are humanoid demons sent by the Contractor who are already doing this, so warn people not to shoot.”

That seemed to give the man a bit of pause, but I was still rattling off orders.

“Have any engineers and volunteer enchanters gather in one area, and we’ll start getting them to work together on restructuring damage from here out through the rest of the city. And when the senators are assembled, come and get me.” 

“Yes sir!” the lieutenant said, snapping a crisp salute, but he didn’t rush off immediately, so I glared at him. 

“What?” 

“What should we do about the Concrete Crown and the Contractor? They’re still out there, and they’ve been a help. Now is the ideal time to take care of them. They’re blights.” 

“No,” I said. “As long as they’re helping rebuild and protect the city, we can use as many stone, earth, and metal mages as we can. We cannot afford to throw away a stone and metal archmage right now.”

“But–” 

“Let me be very clear,” I said, stepping forward and lighting my aura to let the five star-like structures swirl around my head like a crown. It was easy to forget, at least for me, but given that I stood over two meters tall, and that I’d reclaimed some of my musculature within the last few weeks, I loomed over the much smaller lieutenant. 

“I am not a politician, so I don’t know the right words and codes for this, but you will listen to my intentions and you will obey them. I am granting a twelve-hour general amnesty for anything that happened up until now to anyone who works in rebuilding and reconstructing the city, be it through magical effort, planning things, organizing people, or anything else. Anything that happens from this point on, we can treat as the problem it is. But I don’t care if you need to hold hands with someone who shot your best friend because he thought your friend was a demon. As long as they’re willing to help save lives, provide food, water, and shelter? You are going to hold their hand. Am I understood?”

“Yes sir!” the lieutenant said, going a bit pale, then turning to sprint away. I let out a long, tired sigh 

I knew it wasn’t a perfect solution. There would be crimes committed that needed to be  dealt with. There were always a few monsters that took advantage of bad situations to hurt people, kill off people they didn’t like, or do worse things, and that order had just given them amnesty. Indeed, plenty of people would say that Jessica, Devi, Kelly, and Jin would need to stand trial for what they’d done today.

It wasn’t perfect. But it was the best I could do. I just hoped that I wasn’t letting too many monsters escape accountability, and was helping more people who would have otherwise risked prosecution for taking lifesaving actions. That did bring to mind the contentious laws around saving people’s lives without consent, but I shoved them away. 

Instead, I turned to Rhys and Jessica.

“Can you help try and organize the senators? They might recognize you. And Jessica, right now, they’re going to need protection. Anyone with a grudge could use this as an excuse to kill more government officials.”

“Of course,” Rhys agreed. 

“I can do that. I’m no good at medical magic, but once I’ve got a safe area, I’ll join the engineers to add my expertise.” 

I nodded my agreement, but I was a bit distracted. In the back of my mind, the exhausted Odril prodded me, and I felt my stomach clench as I faced Rhys, and only Rhys.

“And… after the city is back in reasonable shape, do you want to go somewhere?  Just you and I. On a date, I mean. Together.” 

Rhys’ face broke out into a broad smile, and he leaned forward, gently kissing me on the cheek. 

“I’d love that.”

At that, he turned and went to go find a spot to hold the senate meeting, leaving me standing there, starstuck, a goofy grin on my own face. It didn’t last long, though, as Devi, Jin, and Kelly all swarmed me. 

“How can we help?” Kelly asked. 

“Was that because of me?” Devi asked. 

“What do we do now?” Jin asked. 

I sighed and looked them over, debating. The protective part of me wanted to order them to go rest, but I knew that they wouldn’t do that. Despite their relative youth, they were all powerful mages, with unique talents and powers. What could I do with them? An idea struck me, and I turned it over before deciding to go with it. 

“You three are going to be search and rescue. Kelly, you’ll be the scout, with your mind sense abilities. Devi, you’ll be the mobile one, as even without portals, you’re still a staggeringly good teleporter. Jin, you’ll be the extractor, since you can levitate heavy steel beams out of the way. Bring wounded back here, and direct non-wounded to the parts of the city that didn’t collapse.” 

That seemed to please my kids and they rushed off into the city. I paused. When had I  started referring to them as my kids? I shook it off. A thought trail for another time. Since nobody else was coming up to me right this moment, I turned to Hadiya. 

“Did you want to see the Throne I sundered?” 

At her nod, I raised my hand and levitated a metal chair up for her to sit in, so she didn’t need to hobble around without a foot. She leaned back in it gracefully, and we walked the few hundred feet to the area where the throne lay, broken and battered. Without any of the soulstuff or magic that had once made it up, there was nothing that needed to be returned to the Fallen Void, so the chair had remained sitting here in the wreckage. 

Hadiya flopped from her chair and started crawling forward on hands and knees, ripping the pages off of the chair. 

“While it’s possible the Arenamaster had practiced enough aura shaping exercises to use demonic spellcasting to full efficacy right away, I doubt it. Humans don’t have direct command over soulstuff or concepts or any of that extraplanar junk,” she said, pulling a dagger from her belt and starting to pry apart chunks of the wood. “I suspect that the chair had foci built in that allowed her to use the functions. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it would let her fight from it against the humans, and buy her time to learn. Aha, here!”

Hadiya lifted a chunk of the wood where the Arenamaster’s hand had been, turning it over to show the hundreds of demonic runes covering them. She studied them for a moment, and I was briefly pulled away to start organizing some of the medical issues, then to check on Rhys and Jesssica. One member of the Parliament and two senators, so I left to check back up on Hadiya.

“Now, I have a theory. It just doesn't make sense that, after having a chunk of your soulstuff and aura ripped out, your recovery spiked. Soulstuff doesn’t recover like that, and your aura doesn't either,” Hadiya said when I returned. She’d found paper somewhere, as well as some components, and had inked lines all over the wood piece she’d found so interesting, while organizing other chunks into piles for later study. 

“Some strange application of my third arch-star?” I asked.

“No. If it had been training your arch-star, you should have seen at least some degree of permanent enhancement. You haven’t, have you?” 

I reached for my archstar, then shook my head. 

“No, I haven’t. What do you think it does then?” 

“Here, catch this and read it,” Hadiya said, tossing me a metal device. I caught it and examined it. It was a pocket ambient aura unit measurement device. I’d never bothered using them before – the ambient aura in Elderglass was usually so thin that it barely mattered, and there wasn’t a consistent way to translate between ambient aura levels and the auric units of a person, enchantment, aura generator, or other active sources of aura.

“Seven and a little. Call it seven point two,” I said, reading the dial on it. 

“That’s what I got too. Now hold still, this might hurt a bit.”

She raised the plank of wood and blasted me with a bolt of red light. I felt a soul-rending flare, and another chunk of my aura ripped out. I let out a cry, attracting some constables, but I waved them away, keeping an eye on the ambient measurement device. Once I’d regained my composure, I looked at Hadiya, my eyes wide. 

“It spiked to eight and a half after the spell struck, then started to rapidly drop.” 

Hadiya began to cackle, the sound more like a mad storybook hag than a healthy adult human woman. 

“Hah! I was right. Aura doesn’t seem to follow the normal law of conservation of energy, so I was worried that it was just deleting the aura and soulstuff. But deleting things or creating them is… hard. Miracles notwithstanding. It was using your soulstuff to transform your aura into ambient aura, damaging both!” 

“Does that mean you can create ambient aura generators now?” I asked, my hopes soaring, but Hadiya dashed them immediately, shaking her head. 

“No, they don’t have soulstuff. But it does mean that when people pay taxes, if they can donate some spare soulstuff, it can be used to convert reserves of aura into ambient aura.” 

She jerked her thumb at the giant, towering aura crystal. 

“And I just quadrupled the city’s reserves of power!” 

She grew more somber then, tapping her chin. 

“It’s not a perfect quick fix for the city’s ambient aura problem. It will take time. And humans only produce so much soulstuff naturally. We’re going to have to slow down growth and expansion. Build our new buildings for sustainability and running off aura generators, built to be upgraded and re-used. But… If we can build with that in mind, we might be able to stop the city from collapsing under its own weight.”