Chapter 755: Welcome Aboard

The messenger device was an ovoid crystal held suspended in a rectangular frame of metal. The frame was some kind of magical brass variant, based on the colour and the magic Jason sensed from it. The crystal was very dark blue and perfectly smooth. The entire device was about the size of a bathtub.

“We have managed to confirm that the central part of the device is some manner of crystal,” a Magic Society official said. Jason hadn’t bothered remembering his name.

“You can confirm that it’s a crystal,” Marcus echoed.

“With a high degree of confidence,” the official said, his two flunkies nodding confirmation.

“Can you confirm that it’s blue?” Marcus asked.

“Not at this time. Initial assessment seems to indicate that, but until we apply spectral—”

“That’s it?” Marcus asked at almost a roar.

“We are also relatively certain that the framework is one of magical brass variants.”

“You’ve had hours to go over this, and that’s all you have?”

“If you would let us take it back to our campus—”

“No,” Marcus cut him off. “Out.”

They were inside a large tent in Marshalling Yard One on the Adventure Society campus. The tent was empty aside from Jason, Marcus, the Magic Society officials and the device. Marcus waved the officials out, their reluctance turning to haste as they saw his expression.

“Well,” Marcus admitted, “your friend Standish wasn't wrong about them finding nothing. I didn't think they'd be stupid enough to send their most politically powerful researchers instead of their most competent ones. Where I come from, Magic Society officials know how to let their skilled researchers do the work and then exploit them after. What kind of idiots try to do it themselves?”

“You felt their auras,” Jason said. “There's no way you missed that level of self-delusion.”

“Yeah,” Marcus grumbled. “I just needed to complain out loud. I detest incompetent people.”

“Then you really shouldn’t have talked Clive into leaving.”

Clive had an hour with the device before agreeing to let the Magic Society have a look. Marcus had convinced him to do so to ease political tensions, in return for placing Clive explicitly in charge of all magical investigation during the expedition. This had already been the case, but Marcus had now made sure that every member of the expedition understood the consequences of ignoring that directive.

“Standish only had an hour with the thing. Did he get any further than ‘it’s probably a crystal?’”

“I did,” Clive said as he entered the tent. “The device is very focused on astral magic, which is good for us. The only advanced magic from outside our world that I’ve had the chance to extensively study is astral magic, which also happens to be my specialty.”

“What do we have?” Jason asked.

“It’s complicated. Most of the device serves as what's called a dimensional differentiator. You see, there are a lot more layers to reality than most people realise. Jason understands this better than almost anyone, having spent a lot of time in the most fundamental reality layer of his home planet. That was the bottom layer, the most foundational, where the Builder — or you, in this case, Jason — can mess with the underpinnings of existence. The top layer is the world we know and live in, while everything in-between is where the material of reality comes from. If you think of the bottom layer of reality as a kitchen, the middle layers are ingredients and the top layer is the cooked meal.”

“Is that analogy even close to accurate?” Marcus asked.

“No,” Clive said. “But unless you’ve got five spare years to study astral magic, it’s what you’re getting. The cooked meal comparison works well enough, though. You see, the natural array taps into those middle layers of reality. Trying to access them from the completed layer of reality, though — the completed meal — is like trying to extract an egg from a cake that’s already been baked.”

“Is that something you do?” Jason asked. “Is that why you suck so much when you cook anything but eels?”

“Let’s keep on topic, shall we?” Marcus said.

“Thank you,” Clive said gratefully, giving Jason a flat look. “You have to remember what it is we’re heading into underground. Whatever the messengers have turned it into, it started as a natural array; a sequence of manifested essences and alchemy stones that, through wild coincidence, formed a naturally occurring magical pattern. A pattern tapping into those middle layers of reality.”

“Are you saying this device is designed to isolate the dimensional layers associated with the aspects of the natural array?” Jason asked.

“Exactly,” Clive said. “We know that the essences and stones that comprise the array are exactly what you’d expect from deep underground. Earth, fire, metal, etc. It’s as much as we’ve managed to sense from the surface, but the elementally-infused messengers that came from underground would seem to confirm that. The natural array is tapping into the layers of reality related to that. Primal elemental dimensions. The device is designed to isolate those dimensions, thereby removing the elemental aspect of the natural array, leaving only the underlying magical matrix.”

“Wouldn’t that cause the matrix to collapse?” Jason asked.

“Yes,” Clive said, but—”

“Can we get an explanation for someone who isn't an astral magic specialist?” Marcus asked.

“This device is designed to extract the egg from the cake,” Jason said.

“That doesn't help,” Marcus said. “I'm not really tracking the analogy anymore.”

“Then stand there, be quiet and look like a total bad-arse,” Jason told him. “You’re super-good at it.”

“Thank you?”

“You’re welcome,” Jason said. “Now, Clive. This thing isolates the elemental aspects of the natural array from its core magical framework, leaving behind a neutral matrix. I assume the second function of the device is to use that matrix for something.”

“Yes,” Clive said. “I just have no idea what. It’s past my level of understanding, and I mean way past. Give me a decade with the material from the messenger’s study and maybe.”

“That’s alright,” Jason said. “I think I might know what it’s making. What the messengers were trying to make in the first place, and why Vesta Carmis Zell has been willing to put up with all the losses and resource cost operating here has been.”

“You know what it’s making?” Marcus asked.

“It's a guess, but a guess that fits,” Jason said. “There's a thing called a soul forge. I don't know what it is exactly. If it's an actual, physical thing or a loose magic matrix or something else. But every astral king has a soul forge. Every astral king but one.”

“This Vesta Carmis Zell doesn’t?” Marcus asked.

“No, she does,” Jason said. “I'm the one who doesn't. Which is why she is definitely going to try and have me killed before I can claim it for myself. Letting me get involved at all is a gamble, but she's been hamstrung by her own propaganda. If the messengers handed this device off to anyone but one of their own, she'd have a religious uprising on her hands and need to kill off her own army. I'm barely close enough to count as one of their own, being an astral king.”

“What are you basing this conclusion on?” Marcus asked.

“For one, the messenger commander I’ve captured. He suggested it as a possibility, as Vesta Carmis Zell is a practitioner of soul engineering. It's a crafting profession that is as ethically fraught as you'd imagine from the name. Having an extra soul forge would apparently be massively beneficial, although he wasn't certain as to how.”

“Can you trust a messenger as a source?” Marcus asked.

“To a degree,” Jason said. “He was far from certain, in any case. The other thing tipping me off was a gift I received from the Healer. It’s an item that I’ll only be able to use once I have a soul forge.”

“That is a more reliable indicator,” Marcus agreed. “Gods love to give hints instead of just telling you things outright. Except Knowledge. I’d take her as my patron deity if my entire life wasn’t built around violently destroying people and things.”

“Regretting your life choices?” Jason asked him.

“Absolutely not,” Marcus said. “Violence is the best.”

Jason and Clive shared a glance.

“Next question,” Jason said, “is what happens when the device goes off. In theory, it isolated the elemental aspects of the array and creates a soul forge. Will that stabilise the magic down there, prevent it from reaching critical mass and blowing up Yaresh?”

“That, I can’t tell you,” Clive said. “I’m not an array specialist, let alone a natural array specialist. And once ours arrives, she won’t be able to figure anything out until we get down there for her to look at it.”

“You do have one, then,” Marcus said. “I looked for one and the Magic Society said there’s no such thing. That natural arrays are too rare to be a specialty field of study. Then I went to the Church of Knowledge. They told me to leave that to you, Asano, and I trusted in that. I’m glad to have it confirmed.”

“We know someone,” Jason said. “When I mentioned this whole thing, though, she told me to let the city blow up and she had her own stuff to deal with. She’s done a lot for me over the last few years, so I didn’t push. Clive is the one that got her on board.”

“How do you even have a natural array specialist?” Marcus asked. “Without the Magic Society knowing, no less.”

“She spent several years studying a planet-wide array that operated on the principles behind natural arrays,” Jason explained.

“The adventurer you resurrected on your home planet,” Marcus realised.

“The Reaper resurrected her, not me. The World-Phoenix convinced him because she was worried I’d go nuts and let the whole planet die instead of saving it. Which was a good call, as it turned out. How did you get her to sign on, Clive?”

“Wait,” Marcus said. “Can we go back to the part about the great astral beings—”

“Nope,” Jason said. “Clive, what convinced her to sign up?”

“I asked her to.”

“That would do it, yeah,” Jason said.

“That’s it?” Marcus asked. “You just asked?”

“Do they not have friends where you come from, Mr Xenoria?” Clive asked.

“You think it's strange that I don't have a friend who is a specialist in something no one is a specialist of, and is willing to drop everything and follow me into the bowels of the planet to an unknown and extremely dangerous situation? Just because I asked?”

“Yes,” Jason and Clive said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Wow,” Marcus said. “I may need to get better friends.”

“I’m sure yours are fine.”

“I have a friend who won’t let me forget about the time I took his slice of pie. That was three years ago.”

“At least your friends didn’t all sleep with your imaginary wife,” Clive grumbled.

“What?” Marcus asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” Clive said, looking defeated.

“Uh, alright,” Marcus said. “Make any final preparations tonight. At first light, we'll do the final briefing and go. Make sure that friend of yours is here.”

***

Farrah was portalled in by a Rimaros gold-ranker arranged by the Adventure Society. The society was under instruction from Marcus to accept any reasonable request from Jason and most of the unreasonable ones no questions asked. She arrived at the Adventure Society campus portal square, the portal closing immediately behind her. One of Jason’s portals opened up next to her immediately after and she stepped through, arriving outside the city in front of Emir’s cloud palace.

Most of the adventurer’s not native to Yaresh were set up outside the city, and many of the native ones as well. They had their own portal square in front of the cloud palace that was the centrepiece of the adventurer camp, and Jason, Rufus and Gary were all waiting. Night had fallen hours ago and lanterns staved off the dark.

“I thought you already agreed to go on this expedition,” Gary told her. Her response was inaudibly muffled through his fur as he pulled her into a devouring hug.

“It was up in the air,” Farrah repeated after being released. “Are you going?”

“Gods, no,” Gary said. “You may have only semi-retired, but I’ve committed. I’ll get back to fighting monsters in the next monster surge.”

“You’re not going?” Jason asked him.

“No thank you,” Gary said firmly. “I’m going to stick to my smithing.”

“And where is your forge?” Jason asked

“Uh, you know that, obviously,” Gary said. “It’s in…”

Jason grinned as realisation struck.

“…your soul space,” Gary finished limply.

“Welcome aboard,” Farrah said, reaching up to slap him on the shoulder.

Gary hung his head back and sighed. Then he perked up and started laughing as he pointed at the sky. Everyone's gaze followed his finger and spotted a bright red light in the sky. An airship that looked like a water vessel except flying and on fire was moving through the sky, leaving a sparkling trail behind like a comet. Rufus groaned and slapped an exasperated hand to his forehead.

“You’re burning through spirit coins you idiot,” he muttered.

“You know who that is?” Jason asked.

“Yes,” Rufus grumbled. “Please let mother know that my father is about to arrive.”

***

Gabriel Remore plunged out of the sky, trailing fire the same way his airship had. Jason stood off to the side as he reunited with his wife and son, laughing quietly as Rufus acted like a surly teenager. Gabriel exchanged greetings with Gary and Farrah, his son’s old team, before wandering over to speak with Jason.

Gabriel looked a lot like Rufus, tall, dark and muscular, but with hair. He wore it in colourful beads, but instead of tight to the head like Emir wore them, his trailed down to his shoulders in chains.

“I like your hair,” Jason said as they shook hands.

“I like your ludicrous power and ability to come back from the dead. Do you have any idea how crazy the stories about you are?”

“Honestly? The reality is probably more absurd than what you’ve heard.”

“I can’t wait to hear all about it on this expedition.”

“You’re coming along?”

“I asked Marcus to keep it a secret so I could surprise Roo.”

“Dad,” Rufus called over. “I told you if you call me that, I’m going to tell mother about the cooler box under the deck at—.”

“That’s fine!” Gabriel hurriedly choked out. “Understood, son. Not a problem.”

He leaned closer to Jason to whisper conspiratorially.

“He can be so ruthless. Doesn’t care about his old dad at all—”

“Silver-rank now,” Rufus called over. “My hearing is very, very good.”

Gabriel grumbled under his breath as he placed a hand on Jason’s shoulder.

“Never have kids,” he told Jason.

“What was that?” Arabelle asked in the tone of a gun being cocked.

“Nothing, dear. Love you.”

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