NEVRASAfter her collapse, we put Ambrosia in a bed on the 98th floor. There was a public rest space, but the area also contained rooms that could be locked. The public space was free, since the pilgrims who offered alms more than paid for it, and it was indeed a long trip up all of these floors. The private rooms, on the other hand, cost a pretty penny.

    The thing which I had shown to the merchant at the market earlier was my Royal Crest. The importance of this wasn''t to do with credit, since such no longer existed. Nor was it authority, as people since the Council was formed understood that leadership was a contract with the people, and thus I wasn''t telling her “do this by order of the kingdom.” All nations had a Mandate of Heaven, after all, not to oppress citizens.

    Instead, it was a mystical binding agreement that within the hour, any who cooperated in kind (giving us goods in a marketplace, letting us pass, or whatever else) would either receive money in their bank, or if no such bank account existed, money from our treasury would drop in bags from the sky. And yes, I could use this to drop money bags directly on top of creatures in battle.

    Of course, the authority of the leader was based on consent of the governed. So if they refused, no such good fortune would befall them. Phoenix received its money not through taxes or even voluntary tributes, but by divine right. It was fiat currency, but it was backed by being print-on-demand by God, in exchange for just and proper rule of our town and just relations with other countries. And there were no worries about inflation, since money only originated from this source. That is, unlike most towns even within the Council''s auspices, Phoenix collected no taxes ever.

    If someone were to be able to buy a house for 100 thousand Gold, the seller of the house kept that money in full to buy their own house, and that seller also, and so on. In fact, the only time money ever got out of circulation was either by breaking down from use (which usually didn''t happen, since God made it), or temporarily if they gave us tribute or bought from the Royal Purveyor. It was the philosophy of the first kings of Phoenix that rulers ought to be free from debt to its taxed, from debt to other countries, from federal reserve systems, and from lobbies or special interests. And so, most of my mom''s real money came to her from running this store, then the royal family regularly patronized local businesses. While normally such a store couldn''t turn a profit, she had set up an online store called collect and ship goods all over the world. In this way, she managed to

    There was a drawback of its use. Anyone who had seen it knew my face and name even while I was disguised, and they knew our current location each time I used it. If I was ever in any real trouble, royal guards would know my location... although they would need to travel themselves, I couldn''t drop them from the sky too. I was suddenly grateful I had not shown that alchemist my Royal Crest. Knowing that he already had sent two bounty hunters after us, I was in no hurry to let him know exactly who and where we were. My parents however would kill me themselves if I spent too much, so I was careful to properly use this tool.

    I saw the room when we checked in. It was a nice plus room, filled with the latest advances in thaumaturgy and alchemy. There was an Glow Orb? hanging from the ceiling, an alchemical advance of touch-toggle perpetual light system that I heard actually originated in the town of Opening. I wonder if Ambrosia knew the person. I did hear that there was some tragedy involved in its original production, though.

    They had food preservation cabinets. They had beds that were literally sculpted out of air. They had a food athanor, which created finished dishes from simple ingredients using advanced alchemy; at one point she asked for some flour, sugar, salt, butter and some apples to be brought up, then a couple of seconds later I smelled apple pie. They had a shower/bath which used custom runes to make sure the water as always the precise heat that the user wanted. I would like to say they had a state-of-the-art television screen, but this wasn''t quite true. We had definitely heard of TV. But several millennia had passed and nobody knew how to make it. People had managed to archive most of known film/television into a series of data crystals. But there were no new shows, just records of old movies, anime, and shows from around the 1940s onward. At certain points this was disrupted, like when television was banned by Ungorr on the grounds that he didn''t understand the appeal of shows like 30 Rock and they hurt his brain. There was also a fair amount of film destroyed during various religious conquests, because some of these groups objected to graven images. And still others were damaged simply because they got wet or dirty or were cut by the laser. What unreliable devices!

    We could play crystals by placing them inside of a wall frame of any mirror (all newer mirrors were fitted with such, called a Crystal Mirror?) which had a slot to store them, and the screen would change from an image of ourselves to display this information as originally intended. Even knowing how to print pictures on memory paper (allowing those who touched the image to recall the event), there was something we were missing about how the process of animating worked. The technology was simply too alien to how alchemy and runes worked.

    And so it was that Ambrosia after waking from her sleep, had locked the door from the inside, ordered all of her food in, and we could hear the likes of Starhunter and Starhunter2300 coming from her room. She slept late, and stayed up late watching shows, opening the door only to

    It had been a week. Rent was almost nonexistent, after the Council did away with credit and other usury, so rooms could either be used for the night or bought. Once bought, they stayed bought until the user left town or formally checked out. Most innkeepers developed a method of charging by the key, and they''d do some weird ritual called the Forging of Objects, where they''d basically sacrifice something valuable (usually 100 Gold) to create a lasting object, magical or not. For this reason, innkeepers could make money simply by charging for every visitor. Although this didn''t stop them from also charging for room service whether this meant fluffing beds up, delivering food, or giving other perks that guests wanted.

    However, given how much she was spending on perks, we might eventually need to think about possibly getting her out of the room sometime this month. Aqorm tried first, but failed miserably. Perhaps it was her rough manner, “How long around you going to stay in your room? Don''t you know how much it is costing Nevras and his family to put you up each night? And here you are, eating fine food, and watching crappy shows! I smell crab-stuffed lobster with hollandaise sauce and sautéed onions with a side of venison carpaccio! You should be ashamed! We have to walk all the way downstairs every day to get anything decent to eat, otherwise all that keeps up here is water and bread.” Honestly, it was fine with me, but one look at the amount of drool told me Aqorm''s real motivations. Ambrosia just told her, “Shut up already! I have eaten horrible food for years, I just found out my life probably has no point, and I''m bored and just wish I could die, but that happened already and God reset things. I know I want to behave better, but it all just feels pointless. I''ll be out eventually. Just after this episode...” She was midway through the Korean drama Legend of Qin, when Elias gave it a try. He offered, “I have seen this historical drama. You know the first couple gives up all their powers, and the second male lead dies in a hopeless battle, right?” Ambrosia said, “Get out of here! You spoiled it!” Outside the temple, it was raining, and had been for most of the week.

    Three days later, Zoe tried. “Look, I kind of just met you, and so I really don''t know what to say... but I was born with memory of my own reincarnations. Every time, I come into this world, I try and try to meet up with the one I love, but every time it''s cursed. And I know Gwen talks about how destiny is largely defined by our choices, but it seems like I make bad ones or have bad timing. I''m just tired of being the wrong girl all the time!” she sobbed. Ambrosia let her inside, “You need to come inside and watch Asian dramas with me.” I owed the price of a second key. Another week or so passed, and while Ambrosia was thankfully no longer alone, they were sobbing inside periodically, either from their own troubles or from the latest romantic or sad moment in the drama. I didn''t want to barge in, but it was kind of time.

    I said, “Don''t let that guy get to you! We believe you''re doing the right thing, even if he doesn''t. And I know it seems hopeless-” “Pointless,” she cut in. “Pointless,” I conceded, “but let''s see if we can do something fun or interesting.” The door opened a crack, “Nevras, I-” I ordered the others, “Now, while the door is open. Rush the door, grab her legs, we''re pulling her out. Like it or not, you can''t stay here.” She sulked, “I hate you guys... Not you, Zoe. You''re awesome.”

    After settling a bit, she said, “But what if he''s right? We have really no way of knowing, and based on how I''ve let my anger get the best of me, what if I am that type of brutal person? What if the only reason I brought everyone on this quest is because I let my blood lust convince me that God gave me this mission? It has happened before, after all.” Bah. I told her my feelings, “As your friends, would you expect it to really make any difference to us? If it will cheer you up, why don''t we search the monastery for our own answers to the question?” Her face briefly cracked a smile before darkening again, “Thanks, Nevras. You''ve been good to me.”

    While it was easy to promise this, actually doing it took more work. We had to walk all the way down to the 64th floor to listen to the woman talk. This time, we let her speak. “So let''s start at the beginning, why are you called Aiken?” I asked her. The woman smiled, “It''s kind of a weird explanation but... see this fist of mine?” She clenched her fist, flexing her muscles slightly. For a woman, she was more than a bit ripped, although not grossly muscle-bound. “What are you planning on doing with that?” Ambrosia asked. The woman ignored her, “Well, Aiken means ''love'' or ''loving'' ''fist'' or ''sword''. The idea is that the same hands that a person can use to hurt people is also used to hug or embrace a person, and that a sword can either be used to slaughter people or defend the ones you love.” Ambrosia asked the questions next, “So, you did you come about? Did God or the gods speak to the founder? Did they sit up on a mountain? Was the founder an avatar from another world?” This time, she giggled, “I''m afraid none of those things,” she said as she finished, “the founder was a person named Samantha Rinne Hooker. Sam was born in Connecticut, but moved to Virginia when she was four. After that, she moved every seven years or so, for quite a while. She was always an outsider, and always the weird one, so she sought out some truth to understand life. She had been raised Episcopal, but in high school had found a copy of the Tao te Ching, and in college had managed to take World Religions not once but twice, thanks to a clerical error. She thought about how her life had shaped together from her experiences, and she thought about the atheists who was all religions as made up by her founder. She believed it was more a matter of each religion having been inspired by the revelations, real or fake, of the founder. As in, a founder who was fake about their belief system would use their motivations to rule or control. It was a matter of personally wanting a relationship with God and a spiritual experience. Sam was a cold rational type and couldn''t accept anything without mountains of proof. So after she wrote the Mune Shinri, summarizing her own beliefs, and a roleplaying game version of this book, the Oracle of Tao, she had not expected anything profound to happen to her. But it did.”

    Ambrosia and I looked puzzled. What is she talking about? I thought. I withheld any remark though, as this girl continued. Ambrosia inquired, “So what exactly does the Mune Shinri say? What do they believe?” The woman took a deep breath before speaking, “On her life''s journey, moving from town to town, she held three things as constant or sacred: Love, Nature, and Family. She reasoned that even if all relatives died, someone''s family would still exist because of the past being part of who raised that person, and one with a crappy family could largely make ''family'' out of their friends. Likewise, love was something that was eternal, because each person met was actually part of a larger spiritual love, that separation was an illusion, but actually that people would always love different manifestations of that person. I didn''t understand this part as well. And nature was something that always repeated a pattern of growth, death, and rebirth. The Mune Shinri, means roughly ''Heart'' ''Truth'' conveying the idea that each person is guided by their own beliefs, their own core shaped by their past. The book taught the leader''s personal thoughts, though, including...” She rambled on but my interest only returned later, “Most Aiken believe that the Afterlife is completely subjective, and reshapes to the beliefs of the person living there. Pretty much all Aiken believe in bonds and boundaries, because it is understood that in order to live with others in a religion that is open-ended, one must respect other beliefs.” The woman inhaled.

    Ambrosia thanked her and walked off, letting her recover her voice. She said to me, “You know, I think this would be the religion for me. Not as a person living here, but you know, pursuing my own truth. When I was walking to that island in midair, the thing that kept me safe wasn''t belief in God or Jesus or anything like that. I just knew that the person I wanted to believe in most was you, and I started believing in myself too.” She grabbed my hand, “How about we go up, and try again?” After a long hike up several stories, we once again faced the Aiken leader.

    The Aiken master spoke to us again, “So, you''ve heard about our religion? Tell me your answer, do you still believe in your quest?”

    AMBROSIA

    I so wanted to answer ''no'' despite the fact that honestly I was feeling much better now. Not because I believed it anymore, just to see what would happen. Probably, he would just answer “Hmph. I expected better,” and I''d have to tell him ''yes'' to get anywhere. But I didn''t feel that way anymore. Everyone has days where everything just catches up with them and they can''t deal with life right now. I''ve managed to hold on for quite a while because I always believed if I waited long enough, life would start going my way. And recently, I thought it did. Only, this horrible man''s questions cast doubt into any sort of purpose for my life. I''m fine now though.

    “Yes. I am ready to tell you,” I said. He inquired, “Let''s hear it then. Why are you so intent on becoming an Oracle?” I knew he wouldn''t go easy on me. He continued, “If you discard your ambition, you could be happy.” I thought of all the people trapped in Opening town, not because they were happy with life there, but because they wanted to leave yet were afraid to. They were trapped inside.

    I said loudly, “...” Seeing he wasn''t impressed with my answer, I continued, “I''ve seen people who have discarded their ambition. They seldom look happy. While it''s true I could probably have a better life if I were just a farmer or something, I wouldn''t trade this life for that.” The master grinned, “Hmmm,” he paused, “interesting. There might be hope for you yet. Please continue. What reason would you have for pursuing the quest of the Oracle?” I thought about the woman''s words downstairs. I knew now that it was time to pursue my own truth and not seek after another. I thought about my past as I said the words, “It''s true, there are people in the world that probably hindered me while I was on the street. But... On my journey, I met several kind people who have fought with me. I''ve grown to like them.” I saw Nevras blush at the words.

    The Aiken leader said, “This is all very well and good, but what happens next?” Huh? He continued, “After you get all the Crests and stop the great evil demon who returned, then what happens? You grow old and die, with nothing to show for it. People have been doing this since the dawn of time, and death effectively erases all. Everyone you knew, everything you loved, everything you made. Everything you value, all of it will wither and fade away like dust.” I felt my heart racing again. Here he was, trying to push me into a corner again. This time, I couldn''t give up. I had to determine how I was going to live my life, and not let someone else decide for me. I had to find meaning in my own life, or I would fall into despair. As I responded, I vaguely remembered passages about “God will give you the words to say” in religious texts. Instinctively, I said, “Not everything.” The Aiken master was caught off guard, and so was I. “Hmmm?” he said. Yet I had no idea where I was going with this.

    Somehow I continued, “I heard it from the woman downstairs. There are three sacred things in this life. Those things which are eternal since they renew themselves: Family, Nature, and Love. This is my reason for being an Oracle. I want to live to see a world where I can raise my own children and give them the family I never had. I want to settle down after my journey, and raise a farm that will yield land for generations to come, even those with no relation to me. And I want to... nah, it''s silly!” I looked at Nevras, and blushed some more. Any idiot could see what I wanted. The master said, “Hey, you! No blushing during deep religious discussions! But you are correct. This is the best reason to fight as an Oracle. The only problems facing you are whether these things will aid you instead of distracting you, and how to best help humanity with your powers as Oracle. But those are questions for another day. Congratulations! You have earned the right to wield the Crests. You shall travel the world and then return to me when you have seven other Crests. Remember, though, the answer is sometimes closer than you think. I''d suggest looking for the first Crest in our basement.”

    Back we marched down the temple to the bottom floor. After 100 floors of walking, we stopped for a quick bite in the kitchen they had built outside, then we told the man guarding the basement stairs to please stand aside. “Are you sure? You''re likely to die,” he said. Although we weren''t limited to a battle group of four people, Aqorm still elected to stay behind. She said, “Uhhh, guys, I have a long lifespan. It seems a waste to spend it, you know, dying. Plus, this place looks creepy. I''ll wait for you to come back up.”

    The cave was pretty dank and creepy. The cave was basically a raised winding path with open area and ravines and such. No wonder the Aiken temple was hard to enter. I had serious trouble understanding how such an area would exist without the whole structure caving in, even if the soil was hardened, until I saw them. There were several pillars made from dense mithril metal. Mithril is an alloy of copper, tin, zinc, iron, and lead which is also known as bell metal. It is suitable for pillars supporting massive amounts of weight and like the name, is rather sturdy against strikes. It''s a bit of a heavy alloy though, so it''s hard to make into a weapon for anyone but dwarves. Near the bridge, these were braced with silver chains, preventing supernatural creatures from crossing. In the distance, I saw a gray tunnel mouth. It looked oddly superimposed, like a painted-on background, yet I paid little attention to it. There were things demanding more of my attention here. Sёar?h the novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    I don’t mean figuratively, like pressing concerns, I mean literal things. When we entered, I immediately spied a large number of odd one-eyed crawlers, giant centipedes, bats, and other creatures. It wasn’t just crawling beasts either. Off in the distance, the underground path crossed a wooden bridge. On the other side, the dead were rising in a very unsatisfactory way. There were zombies, okay? Zombies were crawling out of the ground, breaking the soil, and shambling towards the bridge in question. I said, “Use your special attacks, Nevras! Take them all out at once.” He shook his head. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “My techniques, they don’t work when it’s difficult to see. I have to be able to clearly visualize my opponents or all I can do is use basic attacks, and not very accurately,” he explained. I began to sweat, while I worked through plan B, “Okay… Aqorm is gone, Elias can use light/dark effects but he’s also an expert at healing and we wanna save him for the zombies, my power is very slow, ummm… Zoe, what exactly can you do?”

    Zoe gave us a quick rundown of her abilities, while I vetoed them. “I can use a scythe to swing at a lot of creatures…” “It’s dark, and if you miss, you’ll get bitten or eaten.” “I can fire a bow…” “Same as above.” “I can use healing…” “Good, but you''ll be backup to Elias.” “I can cast effect stuff like vines or mist or poison…” “Good, but let’s save some of that for when we can see.” “I can do a Sage form, which gives me a super-healing body, high strength and speed, high senses, and I’m generally awesome.” “That’s great!” “But I haven’t learned it yet, only that I’m destined to learn it…” “That’s less great.” “And I have to be strong enough to use it without turning to stone.” “Uhhh, that’s actually… kinda sucky. Anything else?” “I case use some elemental magic.” I sat and thought while creatures were closing in. Nevras swung his sword, but he was largely just dealing glancing blows in this darkness. Finally, I told her, “Okay, new plan. Elias, you use holy prayers when we get close to those undead, and try to heal when we don’t. I’ll pass out these mana potions that I kinda sorta stole from the hotel room…” What? Everyone steals from hotel rooms. I continued, “Nevras, since you can’t see well enough to attack, just whack stuff that moves with the flat of your sword. Zoe, you can use magic, but not anything that can mess with the bridge until we cross.” Zoe nodded. Unlike me, she didn’t seem to be impulsive. But then, I was a terrible judge of character.

    The creatures edged closer. The eye creeper things appeared to have some sort of paralysis gaze, but in the dark, gaze weapons were kind of limited. The bats were more of a problem, blasting sound waves at us and we had to take cover so they wouldn’t bite us. Zoe turned out to have thought this through after all. She avoided using earth, because it wasn’t good on flying creatures, and might shake the bridge loose. She also avoided fire and lightning, for obvious reasons. She cast a low power Ice spell, causing the air temperature to lower to just below freezing, and snowflakes formed from the moisture in the air. The bats, shocked by the sudden drop in temperature, were out cold, some of them falling to their doom in mid-flight. The insects went into diapause mode, becoming sluggish but nonetheless surviving the frost. The undead didn’t have complete sensory systems, and the cold wasn’t quite enough to actually turn bodies brittle, so they were almost unaffected at this temperature. She then made a gust of wind to blow insects and bats into the gorge along with the snow.

    As we made it across the bridge, our job got tougher. The zombies slammed hard at us. Elias used some Protection prayer, but the attacks seriously bruised us. Without his support, I was probably looking at broken bones instead. It wasn’t really that they were any stronger than humans, but they had no sense of pain and no physiological restraints, so they pushed their body past its normal limits, risking breaks or tears of their own muscles and bones to deliver hits far beyond what were normal. Zoe finally used her Fire spells, to burn some of these to cinders, which ordinarily would be enough, but there seemed to be something continuously reviving the dead. I looked around and saw that a tablet nearby had glowing bluish-white letters. I couldn’t read it at this distance, so I focused instead on the battle. “Elias,” I called out, “can you use an Exorcism?”

    ELIAS

    There are many stages of Exorcism, but to be a strong exorcist requires principles that are outside my knowledge. It could be compared asking a mathematician if he could compose a symphony. This skill is technically under the subset of math but not all math-types were naturally any good at them. Exorcism is based not on spiritual strength, but some idea that eludes me. The master exorcists seem to be more charismatic or faith or something. I''m pretty much stuck at ghost sealing, and cannot get any stronger. “Not really,” I said, “you''ll need to burn the bodies to ash, and then maybe I can stop the ghosts. The zombies and ghosts don''t appear to be able to cross the area, so something tells me this was set up, because the Aiken feared the spirits almost as much as invaders.” I recited the Exorcism aloud, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. Blessed is His name, whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever.” Unlike other effects, Exorcism had no set words, as it was more of an art, yet I chose this one over the more popular Kuji-in. Undead, as everyone knows, are part of the dualistic old world where we view life and death, good and evil, as separate things. They are restless beings, kept alive by unfinished business. They are exorcised precisely because these words remind them that we believe in a world where such separations do not truly exist. I only regret that these words were not as effective as they should have been. We instead burned zombies for hours, and Ambrosia took a nearby torch to aid in the process.

    The undead continued to come. This area on this side of the bridge may have been their burial site, and some force was raising massive amounts of dead. Scanning the room, I told Ambrosia, “Hurry to that monolith! I''ll keep you covered.” I decided to use the Sunrise prayer to dispense with the zombies as well. I was quickly becoming spent between this and treating bite wounds. Nevras couldn''t help much, I would be out of mystic power in roughly five minutes, and Zoe was showing signs of strain now too. If Ambrosia failed, all was lost.

    AMBROSIA

    I hurried over to the tablet thingy. I went with the flow, and even though I could barely see these undead, somehow that didn''t matter. They couldn''t seem to touch me, as I sidestepped around everything in the room. Honestly, I don''t know how I didn''t instead step off the edge of the path into the pit below, but somehow I managed. I was in front of the tablet. Only... I couldn''t read it. “I need some help here!” I said, waving to Elias. But he was stuck casting prayers against bodies that kept appearing no matter how many he cleansed away with his faith. “I''m stuck here!” he screamed. “They just keep coming...” He was breathing hard from the exertion. I imagine he had been a typical temple priest before all of this, but now he had to adapt to the rapid use of prayers in battle. “I''m all used up,” he said, “I might be able to use a healing prayer or so, but no more holy attacks.” I looked at Nevras in the dim room. From what I could tell, he was shrugging. “I can see shadows and such, flickers of motion, but I can''t do more than graze things in the dark. Sorry guys, I feel so useless,” said Nevras.

    Zoe, who had been freaking awesome for all this time, groaned, “We may be in trouble. I have maybe three or four uses of my power before I''m out too.” From what I could tell, Zoe''s power was extremely efficient. It was versatile, allowing her to focus on a single target or fan it out and it became stronger over time, but this was also its drawback. If she was inexperienced, she could expand and fan out her elemental attacks all she wanted but she would barely be able to light a candle. She had definitely trained a long time to even do this much. I watched her incinerate a few more groups, then the last spark of her power snuffed out, leaving us in complete darkness. Uh oh.