Halcyon Rising_Bastion of Hope

by Stone Thomas

  During the battle, I said. I used a spirit animal potion. Did you see that?

  No, she said.

  It was a skylancer, I said. Your familiars bear a resemblance.

  A skylancer is a powerful force of nature, she said. I’m not at all surprised.

  “These seraph guardians are my first familiars,” Nola said. “I will continue to summon them to help protect all who seek to dwell in peace.”

  I took my seat and dug back into my dinner. Vix just stood behind me and put her hands on my shoulders. She leaned forward and whispered in my ear. “I’m too tired for an all-night feast, though I’m not planning on sleeping just yet.”

  “I hear you,” I said.

  She lingered for a moment while I took another bite of chick-hen. “Do you?” she asked.

  Think about it, Arden, Nola said. Thiiiink about it.

  “Oh!” I said, pushing away from the table. “Yeah, I do think it’s time I called it a night.” And with that, I followed Vix through the door at the back of the temple and into my private room.

  +42

  I closed the door behind me, shutting out the sound of our celebratory feast. Vix walked to the middle of the room, her back to me. She seemed to sigh with her whole body.

  “I can’t just sit there and act like everything’s normal right now,” she said. Her breathing was quick and heavy. “We almost died. We should have died. We were outnumbered, injured, out of energy—”

  “But we didn’t,” I said. I walked up behind her and squeezed her shoulders. I ran my hands down the length of her arms until my fingers found hers. “I thought we were doomed, but you told me to pull through. We made it, together.”

  I leaned forward to kiss her neck. She brought my hands up and pressed my palms against her chest. “I was selfish,” she said. “I didn’t want you to give up because I didn’t know what I’d do without you. Our futures are intertwined now, Arden.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I said. She started panting as I massaged her breasts. “You’re in heat again, aren’t you? It’s been a while since you’ve had all that pent up energy, just waiting for release.”

  “I’m… What if I went somewhere?” she asked. “What if you woke up one morning and I wasn’t in Halcyon anymore?”

  “I’d come find you,” I said. I pulled at the strings that held her top in place, then let it fall to the floor. I ran my hands down her body, tracing the sides of her breasts. My fingers slipped past her hips and into the waist of her skirt. “There is no Halcyon without Vixette Volpia.”

  She moaned as my hand found its way around to her front. She rolled her hips forward, then back, thrusting gently against my hand and then back against the bulge forming in my pants.

  “I know how much you like it when I can’t control myself,” she said, “but I’m not in heat. It’s…” Her sentence trailed off as she reached behind her and found the buttons that lined the fly of my pants. She started popping them open one by one.

  “Then we’ll go slower, longer,” I said. “Just tell me how you want this to go.”

  She turned her head back for a quick kiss. “You still smell like battle,” she said. “Muscle, power, aggression.” Her knees buckled slightly as my fingers pressed against her.

  A quick yip escaped her lips as she pulled my hand from her skirt. She pulled the garment off and stood there, still facing away from me. I pulled my own clothing off and stood naked with the foxkin girl that gave me my first hope that Halcyon could grow into something beautiful.

  Her small, pointed fox ears flattened out along the top of her head as her tail lowered to the floor. Then it traced up my bare leg, teasing me with its silky touch.

  “How are you so soft,” I asked, tracing her spine with my knuckle all the way to its base. “You spend all your time working, constructing, fighting. It must take its toll.”

  “You’re right,” she said. “My hands should be calloused, my muscles aching, my face worn. Maybe I don’t work hard enough. Arden, I have to—”

  “No,” I said. “No one works harder than you. Not even me.” She opened her mouth to speak but I kept going. I wouldn’t let her protest this. She was everything to this place, and she needed to know that.

  “You approach each building like it’s a small monument,” I said. “You sacrifice every ounce of energy to improve Halcyon for everyone else. When Halcyon takes its place among the strongest cities in the world, it will be your work that brought it there.”

  She looked back at me, worry and doubt written across her face. She tried again to speak, but I didn’t provide the opening. “You’ll master every builder skill, Vix, in record time,” I continued. “That nullified bastion stone is waiting for you to power it up again one day. This place will be impregnable.”

  “I’m pregnant,” she said. The words sprang from her mouth in a quick burst.

  I smiled. “No,” I said, “see I’ve been practicing. It’s im-preg-nable. I thought you knew this one.”

  “No, Arden,” she said. “The reason I’m not in heat is that I’m pregnant.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Oh.”

  I paused for a long time while that fact settled in.

  “It feels like you’re drifting away,” Vix said. “Is it Nola? Are you asking her what to do now?”

  “No,” I said. “It’s just me. How long have you known?”

  She still faced away from me as she spoke. “I realized last week. I didn’t want to say anything before the battle. I was afraid it would distract you. Or that you would cast me out. The last thing you need right now is children.”

  “Children?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Vix said. “Foxkin carry several at once. Litters can reach the double digits, though that would be uncommon.”

  This would take “Father Arden” to a whole new level.

  Vix knelt on the floor and leaned forward, resting on her knees and her palms. Her tail brushed to one side and fell against the stone floor.

  She was waiting to see how I’d react. Nothing would stop me from walking away, closing the door behind me and cursing this new development. I could run to Nola, or any of the girls still reveling in the glory of tonight’s success, and seek their comfort or guidance.

  She still wasn’t sure of her place here, but I was.

  I got on my knees behind her and pressed my hips against her. I leaned forward, touching my chest to her back and resting my palms next to hers on the floor.

  “I want you, Vix,” I whispered into her ear. “Not just for your builder skills or your wild imagination. Not just for your beautiful face or the way you work your body against mine when you go into heat.

  “I want you because you surprise me with every word you say. You challenge me to think on my feet. When the road ahead gets difficult, your determination only gets stronger. I want our children to know that Halcyon was their mother’s gift to this world.”

  “You’re not upset?” she asked.

  “Gods no,” I said. “I learned this past week that the empire forced my parents to abandon me in Meadowdale. I may not know how parents should raise a child, but I know I would never mistake the blessing of this opportunity for a burden.”

  “I don’t know why I was so worried,” she said. “I was afraid you wouldn’t want me to stay after I told you.”

  “Come here,” I said, pulling Vix back so that we rested on our knees, me sitting on my heels and her sitting against my lap. “Let me show you how much I want you, right here, right now.”

  +43

  I woke up on my bed with Vix, her long fox tail caressing my neck in her sleep. We were both still naked, too tired by the time we were finished the night before to waste energy on dressing ourselves.

  I slipped from the bed and pulled on my clothes and expansion pack before stepping through the back door into Nola’s temple.

  “I’m glad everyone cleaned up after the feast last night,” I said. The place was spotless.

  “It was a nice meal,” No
la said. “And even I got to take part, though I never did drain that nice big electric energem.”

  “No,” I said. “And try not to eat the ones we charged last night during the battle either. “We’ll set them up to keep us safe once we pick out which skills to use them with.”

  Nola glanced around a few times, her face slowly registering alarm. “Where did they go? The goblins brought all of the charged energems into the temple last night. There was a pile of them right here.”

  Nola closed her eyes for a moment, no doubt scanning Halcyon with her mind. Her shoulders slumped forward as she said, “It’s not just the energems that are missing. Brion’s gone.”

  “Dammit!” I yelled. “Brion took the energems, didn’t he? I never liked him. We shouldn’t have trusted him. I shouldn’t have let him in here so easily. How can I let people join Halcyon if there’s a risk of them doing this to you?”

  “You have to let your guard down sometimes, Arden,” she said. “And you have to let me let mine down. That’s how I found you, and Vix, Cindra, and Mamba. Each of you were a stranger, an unknown. Now I couldn’t imagine this temple without you all.

  “If anything, it’s my fault,” she said. “I should have realized something was off about him. His mind was active with the same kind of psychic link you and I share. Even though I couldn’t communicate with him telepathically, I thought that link was my doing. Maybe it was something else.

  “This means,” she said, “that I owe you an apology, Arden. My premonition about my head priest betraying me was never about you. It was Brion all along.”

  “We’ll get the energems back,” I said. “I will hunt him down, wherever he is.”

  “Let’s worry about him later,” she said. “We have adventurers now, Arden. Let’s give them a quest while the day is young.”

  “You’re right,” I said. “Can you call Megra and Jessip down here? And Yurip, to approve the quest contract, and Carzl, since he’s been working with Jessip. Oh, and Biddy, since she’ll want to say goodbye to Megra?”

  Nola reached out to each person and asked them to appear in the temple. Yurip was the first to arrive, so I conferred with him about the empire’s Dire Directive while everyone assembled.

  “Jessip, Megra,” I said. “As Halcyon grows, so grows our need for supplies. I’ve spoken with Yurip, and under the empire’s Dire Directive, any population center like ours can retrieve supplies from the emergency vaults buried throughout the empire’s domain. One vault lies in the mountains north of the Meadowdale ruins.”

  Yurip scribbled something onto a blank sheet of parchment as I spoke. “For Halcyon’s future, your quest is to retrieve the vault’s contents and return here with them.”

  “Take this key,” Yurip said. Jessip reached for it, but he ripped it away at the last second. “This is the only copy, do not lose it!”

  “We’ll guard it with our lives,” she said.

  I pulled the expansion pack from my back and walked toward Jessip. “You’ll need this. Feel free to take some supplies with you.”

  Jessip took the bag with wide eyes. She thanked me and pulled it over her shoulders. Yurip brought the quest contract he had drafted and I flattened it onto the table. “Am I supposed to seal it with wax?” I asked. I dug into my pocket for the signet I had brought back from Cahn’s office. “I have this if it would help.”

  Yurip snatched the item from my hand. “This is not a wax seal,” he said. “It’s a coin mold. These are highly regulated. Where did you get this?”

  “The head priest in Meadowdale had it in his office,” I said.

  “He should not have had this,” Yurip said. “But we can use this as a template to create casts for pouring gold, silver, and copper coins. I’ll get started on the paperwork for a new mint.”

  “Okay then,” I said. “No wax seal. But you have an official quest!”

  “Keep the sword,” Carzl said, handing his bronze blade to Jessip. She had used it during our recent battle, which meant she’d have a combat class now, though she still had no special class open.

  “Carzl,” I said, “I told you a while back that I wouldn’t tax your earnings, but I would ask you to contribute around here. I have an idea how you can do that.”

  “Oh yes?” he asked.

  “Sponsor Jessip,” I said.

  “The itemancer skill is best suited to shopkeepers and auctioneers,” he said. “It hardly helps in combat-oriented professions.”

  “If Jessip and Megra are out there, encountering potentially rare items, what better skill than the ability to appraise their value before carrying them all the way back here?” I asked. “You repair items, Carzl, but you said yourself, that’s not the only path an itemancer can take. If she can improve what she finds, or combine items to create new, powerful weapons, that may be an extraordinary skill for an adventurer.”

  “I see your thinking,” Carzl said. “It’s not a very exact class though. I get a feeling about certain items’ value, but that’s all. Misjudging an item’s specific properties is a more dangerous endeavor when relying on those items for strength and safety.”

  “I don’t mind,” Jessip said. “I know adventuring is risky, but if it helps make Halcyon a safer place for everyone, I’ll do it.”

  Let me help, Nola said. If I get involved during the knowledge transfer I may be able to improve how the skill works.

  “Nola,” I said, “the goddess of bright ideas, has a suggestion. Let her participate in unlocking your skill class.”

  “Is that normal?” Carzl asked. “I’ve never been a sponsor before.”

  “Typically,” Nola said, “no. And if you don’t want me inside your minds during the knowledge transfer, I would understand that. I don’t have a spotless record, after all. However, I have honed my abilities and I believe I can be of help.”

  “What’s the benefit of doing it this way?” Jessip asked.

  “Numbers,” Nola said. “Lots of them. I can provide you a menu like the one Arden uses to skillmeister, but you’ll view your itemancer abilities through it. It should provide very specific information about how you can manipulate items.”

  “It will cost each of you thousands of XP to make this transfer,” I said.

  “A small price to pay,” Carzl said. “I’ve seen the way this girl lights up when she studies the items in my shop. I’d like her to unravel the true mystery of itemancy.”

  “Thank you,” she said, “all of you.”

  “Alright,” I said. “Let’s do this.” I opened their skillmeister menus and selected the option to transfer knowledge. Their experience points dwindled as Jessip’s new special class opened up. Then, I got to work unlocking what skills I could.

  “You have enough XP left to unlock some basic skills,” I said, “but you’ll have to choose between Repair and Meld. You don’t have enough for both.”

  Jessip glanced at Carzl. “I’ve seen how useful Repair has been in Carzl’s hands, but perhaps I’d like to forge my own path. Let’s open Meld.”

  Δ

  Skillmeister View of:

  Jessip Dreen

  Base Attribute / XP to Next / Intended Change / Total XP Cost

  -

  1 Constitution / 25 XP to Next / 1 –> 3 / Total XP Cost: 75

  -

  1 Vivacity / 25 XP to Next / 1 –> 3 / Total XP Cost: 75

  -

  1 Strength / 25 XP to Next / 1 –> 2 / Total XP Cost: 25

  -

  1 Hardiness / 25 XP to Next / 1 –> 2 / Total XP Cost: 25

  -

  1 Focus / 25 XP to Next / 1 –> 2 / Total XP Cost: 25

  -

  1 Resolve / 25 XP to Next / none / Total XP Cost: 0

  -

  TOTAL BASE ATTRIBUTE XP COST: 225

  Stats Affected by Change

  -

  [Constitution] Health Points (HP): 100/100 –> 300/300

  -

  [Vivacity] Action Points (AP): 20/20 –> 60/60

  -

  [Stren
gth] Phys. Damage Inflict Range: 10-12 –> 20-24

  -

  [Hardiness] Phys. Damage Block Range: 5-8 –> 11-15

  -

  [Focus] Mag. Damage Inflict Range: 10-12 –> 20-24

  -

  [Resolve] Mag. Damage Block Range: 5-8

  Skills For Weapon Class: Sword

  -

  Locked. Stabblize 1. Stab your target to immobilize them while you retain contact. [6 AP / second to cast] [Requires: Focus 1, Strength 1] [125 XP to unlock].

  Improve to Stabblize 2 to reduce AP cost. [5.8 AP / second to cast] [Requires: Focus 2, Strength 2] [250 XP to improve].

  Intended Change: 0 –> 1

  Cost Subtotal: 125

  -

  TOTAL SWORD SKILL XP COST: 125

  Skills For Special Class: Itemancer

  -

  Locked. Evaluate 1. Meditate on an item for 30 seconds to sense its hidden properties. [Passive] [Requires: Hardiness 2, Focus 2] [375 XP to unlock].

  Improve to Evaluate 2 to reduce meditation time to 27 seconds. [Passive] [Requires: Hardiness 3, Focus 4] [750 XP to improve].

  Intended Change: 0 –> 1

  Cost Subtotal: 375

  -

  Locked. Repair 1. Rebuild a broken item into its perfect form. Total AP cost and meld time vary by item. [5 AP / second to cast] [Requires: Constitution 2, Resolve 2] [375 XP to unlock].

  Improve to Repair 2 to reduce AP cost. [4.8 AP / second to cast] [Requires: Constitution 3, Resolve 4] [750 XP to improve].

  Intended Change: None

  Cost Subtotal: 0

  -

  Locked. Meld 1. Infuse an item with the properties of another item. Total AP cost and meld time vary by item. [10 AP / second to cast] [Requires: Strength 2, Vivacity 2] [375 XP to unlock].