With Aeternia’s Shield in the air, it felt like the entire dynamic of our burgeoning nation had shifted.

A huge feat combining enchanting and engineering, with a fair bit of help from Conflict’s manufacturing base.

It hadn’t sunk in before, what we were doing.

Afterall, I hadn’t honestly expected us to be successful on our first attempt.

Even as the repair crew below ran towards the still malfunctioning filter enchantment, I couldn’t stop from smiling.

“We’re really doing this thing,” I said, stepping forward and placing a hand on the transparent hex-panel stone.

Inertia let out another rattling hiss.

“Inertia is honored to have broken the skies with you,” Tresla said, her voice taking on a more formal tone. “And would like to take the opportunity to make a request.”

I nodded. “Of course, go ahead.”

“When the next airship is ready, and the borders have been secured, she would like to make the journey back to the Forgelands. To the Spire,” Tresla said even as Inertia straightened up, her usual shifting and hissing nearly coming to a stop. “ We know that our contract has us bound here for another year and a half, yet there is much she wishes to share, to prevent it from being lost. And also…”

I turned to look at Tresla, who had both hands folded neatly in front of her.

“And also,” I prompted after a few more seconds of silence.

“And also, Inertia and I are worried about our peoples,” Tresla admitted, her hood hanging lower than usual, hiding whatever light might’ve shone within. “With the fall of the Pillars, the war within Terra Vista and the attempted rebellion against Althon.”

“Understandable,” I said, stepping over to squeeze her shoulder. “Might be a while. Even going light on enchantments, building the Shield used a lot of resources… but I think it can be arranged. Even if we can’t build another, we’ll figure out a way.”

“We’ll come with!” Bevel declared, coming over and hugging Tresla. “I’d love to see your home, auntie Tresla.”

“It would be my pleasure to show it to you, Bevel,” Tresla said, returning the hug. “And to you, Perry, if you were to make the trip.”

“Not going to be possible anytime soon,” I said, looking out through the hex-panels into the open bay. “We’re barely airborne. And like you said, the borders aren’t exactly secure.”

“We know,” Tresla replied, shifting into a one armed hug with the smiling Bevel. “And we have no desire to leave while Aeternia is in such a perilous state. But we would welcome your company, if you’re able to join us.”

“I’ll consider it. I have been working on my Worlds repertoire,” I said, flexing my hand and picturing the sorts of practice I’d need to do to be able to return instantly from so far away.

Inertia nodded, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Home.”

I nodded back, then looked out at the bay one last time. “Well, if we want to visit your home, guess we’d better get back to work.”

The whistle-hiss of Inertia’s laughter followed us as I grabbed Bevel and descended the stairs. Afterall, that auxiliary exit wasn’t going to fix itself.

…MLI…

With Aeternia’s Shield in the skies overhead, the entire mood on the ground seemed to shift.

I hadn’t realized how dour it had become until after it returned to a more normal cadence.

Honestly, more hopeful than it’d ever been.

The constant influx of refugees, the imminent threat of the Sahevin and the Unclean clans, all topped off with the news the Pillars had fallen.

Everyone knew it was bad.

Yet now we had a symbol proving that not everything was going wrong. One that represented the combined efforts of people from all across the Frigid Peaks.

Books had told me constantly how important morale was. How I couldn’t simply expect everyone to simply shoulder on like I was used to.

It was a lesson I seemed to keep forgetting.

Or maybe I just found myself focused on the goals.

Either way, their lifted mood buoyed me in turn.

With Aeternia’s Shield in the air, the Waygates stabilized and progress proceeding smoothly across most fronts, I found myself with time for experimenting with some of my new spells.

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First I cast Ever Expanding Imperium, both upgrading the quality of my Memory Palace while also allowing me to free up a second Order spell slot, since I wouldn’t need to keep Memory Palace perpetually slotted.

Next, I slotted in Recall, testing the mark ability in the central chamber of Mount Aeternia. With the Waygate network active and stable, it set incredibly easily, even though I’d placed it in a hidden alcove to the side of the chamber.

The ‘weight’ was apparently over fourteen, which was supposed to be impossible, according to what the spell’s notes indicated. Ten should’ve been the theoretical maximum, but it also didn’t account for the idea of creating an artificial nexus of density.

Which is what I thought was happening, from my understanding of the math.

There was a lot that, even with my increased cognitive abilities, I felt like I didn’t have the background built up to understand.

Plus side, it wouldn’t take much mana to Recall. Unfortunately, higher weight also increased the strain on the caster’s soul, with the spell specifically warning against any but the most experienced of users setting an anchor in a region with a weight higher than eight.

After some additional checking, I confirmed that anywhere with an active Waygate had a weight of at least eleven. To use Recall without crippling myself, I had to fly out to a region between several active Waygates.

It was little more than a jagged outcropping of stone. Just enough that I could find it again if I needed to.

Burrowing down, I set my Recall point again, with a nice ‘low’ weight of 7.2.

With both those out of the way, I moved on to the actual experimentation. For the design portion, I moved into my upgraded Memory Palace.

The shop itself hadn’t really changed, though the second I was inside, I could feel the improvement to the temporal compression. Combined with my Neural Dynamics, the current compression was nearly thirty to one.

Frankly, that terrified me a little. Especially after what had happened last time I’d taken Conflict’s trial. If the compression continued growing, how easy would it become to simply live a second life within my Memory Palace?

Considering the lack of my loved ones… not as easy as it might’ve once been. Strangely, that reassured me.

Setting the thought aside, I pulled up the basic structure of Recall along with Secrets of Telthen and Dimensional Step.

Each of them used Worlds to skip through space in slightly different ways, and I wanted to understand it all better.

While I was at it, I brought up everything I knew about Waygates and the massive Gates that ringed the center of the continent along the Front.

Well, the former Front. I doubted it was anywhere as neatly contained as it’d once been, despite the Infinite Rift encircling it.

Despite my initial hesitation, I ended up spending nearly an hour of real-time working on my first self-made Worlds spell. Other than wishing I had Bevel there to talk to, I barely noticed the time slipping away.

It was a variation of Dimension Step, one that was designed to work with storm dancing. It was on the upper edge of what a 2nd Order spell could achieve, at least when only using a single slot.

Like with Dimension Step, the range was fairly limited. But I was able to take some of the safety and targetting mechanisms in Recall to allow me to cast it while only having a vague idea of where I wanted to teleport to, with the spell having adjustable parameters for the distance tolerances.

It would also take advantage of some of the theory behind the Translocation Matrix, allowing me to build up a map of the local dimensional space each time I cast it.

This would, in turn, help me move more efficiently the more I used it in any specific location, to a point.

One of the interesting side effects was that it left glowing motes of dark blue light behind, a sort of echo of where I’d just been.

Thankfully, the upgraded Memory Palace allowed me to set an alarm, so when the full real world hour I’d alloted myself had passed, I slipped out.

I’d made a surprising amount of progress on the spell, Dimensional Dance, enough that I only needed to tweak everything to get it working smoothly. I suspected I was a few days from being ready to test it, even if I spent an hour of real-time per day working on it.

And that was if I didn’t choose to work on a modified version of Memory Palace for Bevel instead. Something about what Arizar had told me about being able to link the Ever Expanding Domain’s had occurred to me near the end of my time working on my new Worlds spell, and I’d started exploring the idea of connecting her a lower tiered Memory Palace to mine, using the the higher tiered spell as the anchor point.

Honestly, Bevel would likely reach Pegasus before I could figure out how to make it work, but it was an interesting thought regardless. One I’d pass by Arizar, since I doubted I was the first who’d thought of it.

After my time working in my Memory Palace, I considered whether I was ready to visit Conflict again, and decided against it. From my perspective, I’d barely been back for a week after having been gone for nearly two months.

I wanted more time with my family before I submitted myself to that again, even if I hadn’t missed anything while I’d been inside. Still, Conflict’s favors were too useful to simply let go to waste, so I decided I’d enjoy a full evening with the others that night, then go again in the morning.

Instead of our normal gathering for dinner with lessons after, I enlisted the entire crew to join Bevel and I in exploring the depths under the crystal chamber.

Our progress was slower, despite the fact we’d reached chambers where there weren’t any of the skele-dinos to destroy.

That was partially due to the fact that we were finding so much of interest, and partially because everyone was visiting as much as exploring.

Inertia kept poking and prodding at each new device we found, even if it was completely broken. Meanwhile, Arizar and Tamrie were studying several of the carved engravings I’d dismissed as art, but apparently actually labeled what each room had been.

Bevel and I were mostly focused on the effort to keep us moving forward, but we joined the others as often as not.

And Tresla was… well, she was mostly being quiet, watching the rest of us, and slowly working on her needlepoint.

It was exactly what I needed.

After completing another round of Tender’s paths in the morning, which, even with the slower pace imposed by wielding our catalysts, only took us twice the normal time, I finally returned to Conflict’s trials.

Arriving by Waygate was unusual enough to leave me disoriented for a second. I was alone for once, since the others had all completed their trials a couple days earlier.

As I took in the chamber, my eyes settled on the door. It had already shifted to the familiar form of the Dauntless. Keeper’s face was no longer so dominant, but it still sat in the background, looking down at the ship.

Not allowing myself to put it off any further, I strode forward and laid my hand on the door.

Blinking, I found myself standing on the same platform where I’d arrived the first time. Was it really going to have me repeat the same test? Wouldn’t I be able to speed my way through?

“Ah, there you are,” Kezil called, getting me to turn. “Took your sweet time, didn’t ya? Hope you had a good vacation, boy, ‘cause its time for the Dauntless to earn her keep.”

“We’re going to war.”