Elevation of Mana Chapter 193 Dusk

I learned a lot about our enemy, but sadly nowhere near as much as I might have liked. From the sounds of it they were almost dinosaurs, and for a time I thought they might be the dragons whose bones I found in that cave, or some related species. But they lacked wings, or the right kind of horns if the few drawings people made were to be believed.

However they still couldn't fly, and I could, so... air superiority it was I guess. This idea got a lot of traction, but though many of the people here could make their way into the air not all could. Even those that could often found it disorienting and slightly difficult, so I was happy I wasn't alone on that one.

Things like that seemed strange to me, like that almost nobody tried to learn to fly. Sure, it was hard, but the advantages were so clear. Wait, no, they were clear to me, I had come from a place where they'd been exploited for nearly a century by the whole world. Here, only a few people had magic, and they didn't always share, even of that few not all could even attempt the spells for flight. There was a hard cutoff, and not knowing meant nobody worked to innovate for it.

Paradigms were important, more important than technology. I'd been focusing on one, but the other was just as, or more vital to growing society. Perhaps it was time to try and figure a way to get those worked into my home now... whatever that might be.

“You look contemplative,” Chien said from his part of the cabin.

“Thinking about how to build better.”

“So nothing new then?”

“Haha.”

“Since you're back with me now, how many are here?” he asked, having mostly stayed with our blimp.

“All of them it seems.” He just blinked at my words. “The whole council is here, or at least all the elders, as well as every single one I know of.”

“Whoa, how did Rolan manage that one?”

“I suspect he made a lot of promises he knows he won't have to keep, as did the other old ones.”

“He won't have to keep?”

“Not everyone is coming back from this Chien. A lot of people aren't if even half of what I've heard and what he expects are true.”

“Boss, are you sure we want to be part of this?”

“No, but honestly we can't back out at this point. If we did we'd just be inviting someone to make an example of us. More than that though, we're going to be safer than any of them I think, and if needed we'll flee.”

He looked serious for once, and that was good. I wasn't sure what we were going for here, but I didn't really want to try bringing any more of my power to bear than I already had. It wasn't like I could fit much more into the blimp either way. What we had would have to be enough.

“If that happens boss, make sure you get out.” That comment made me turn and look at him.

“No Chien, you're the one who needs to flee first.”

“Wrong as you too often are. If I die nothing major changes, if you die everything falls apart.”

I frowned, not liking his words one bit. “Absolutely not, you're not expendable.”

“How about this then,” he tried with a smile. “We stick together, if we need to flee, we flee as one, if we need to fight, we fight alongside each other.”

“You're not giving up on this are you?”

“No.”

“Uggghhhh.” Isha was going to kill us if something went wrong, both of us, painfully, slowly. “Then we go back together.”

“I'm glad you agree with me, now let's try not to do anything too stupid and over the top.”

“Whenever have you known me to do things that are stupid and over the top?” I said, trying and failing to keep a straight face.

“Are you two done yet?” came the question from our door, an unhappy looking Jina standing there, well, more unhappy than usual. She'd shown herself right to our doorstep.

“No,” we answered in unison.

“Well put it away and come along you,” she said to me. “We need to discuss where we'll all be during this.”

“I will be near the clouds, raining death upon our enemy,” I said placidly, managing to actually keep my face straight this time.

“And you will still come to this meeting, now hurry.”

She reminded me of some of my teachers from my first childhood, the ones I didn't like. Now, Jina still did do some things I really liked her doing for me, but she was almost always sour. While her manner mattered less to me than her actions, it still could use serious improvement.

With a sigh I rose and followed after. We headed towards a platform above us, newly grown. No longer could the meetings be inside, for if we kept on like that we might well jeopardize the integrity of the tree, so this had been added for us, a place where we could all meet, all hear what was said at once.

At the front were Rolan and Neera, the two Ancients we had, the former clearly the leader, their pure white hair shone in the evening sun. At this point I knew enough about what the latter did to realize she as probably far weaker than her companion, but we needed her all the same. Before them I joined Jina and rank after rank of elders and soldiers, all with serious faces, all looking towards the two that would take us into battle. Below us I could see dusk begin to take the forest floor, but we'd have a bit before it rose to us.

“We leave at sunrise,” Rolan declared. “Here will be our groups.”