On Cosmic Tides

It had been midmorning when Laurel hurried off from the sect compound, but she and Martin didn’t return to shore until the sun had already set. Harvesting useful parts from beasts they killed was a fact of life for cultivators. That didn’t mean it wasn’t disgusting. They hadn’t even gotten everything, but trying to dig out the bones without a team was not worth it.

Sinking the beast had been its own trial. They couldn’t find whatever organ or system was keeping it afloat, and resorted to drilling as many holes as they could with wind and ice until the water pulled it under.

They were absolutely covered in freezing-cold filth by the time they reached the shore. Without hesitation they both stripped and threw their clothes into a pile, which Laurel happily set on fire. Scrubbing with the harshest soap they had on hand and rinsing with a water crystal they were finally at least good enough to go back to the sect house.

An army messenger was just arriving at the same time. Laurel shook her head. “Tomorrow.” she said firmly. “We’ll do the full interrogation tomorrow, just send someone over with the location.”

The messenger saw the wisdom in choosing one’s battles, and left without saying a word.

Martin let out a low whistle as they approached. “You did good, L. I can feel some of the enchantments already, it would take an army to batter those doors down.”

“Thanks.” she replied. “The City Core obviously helps, and it could use a bit of decoration to make the outside look less like a prison, but for now I’m happy with it.” She paused for a moment. “Oh, do you speak Meristan yet? We should switch back to introduce everyone.”

“Of course I do, what do you think I’ve been doing for the last few months?”

“Taking your sweet time is what I think you’ve been doing.”

They were both laughing as the doors opened to reveal their sect mates waiting for them. A small cheer went up at the sight of them and they moved en masse to the dining hall.

“I’ve told a few stories of growing up in the sect. This is the man who had all the bad ideas in those stories, my brother Martin.” Laurel told them all.

“They may have been my ideas but she was the one that led the way straight into them.” Martin said. Laurel continued around the table making introductions. Once that was done Esther rounded some of the kids up to help her bring in dinner. What emerged was a veritable feast.

“Esther, you must have been working on this all day!” Laurel exclaimed.

“Yes, well,” Esther responded with a sniff, “fighting a sea monster is a special occasion, isn’t it.” They all tucked in, accompanied by what had become the standard chorus of compliments and moans directed towards the chef.

“You’re my favorite,” Martin said, staring at Esther with deadly seriousness.

The laughter and general cheer continued through dinner. Laurel hadn’t realized how concerned she was that the others would begin treating her differently after seeing her fight. Turned out it was a non-issue. Not even a spectacular magical battle could make Adam or Annette react with anything less than their usual curmudgeonly grumbles or polite formality. If anything, some of the younger members were too excited. Leander and Cooper wanted to know when they would be able to shoot lightning at things.

“Walk before you run” Martin cut into the conversation here. “Lightning is the element that hurts the most when you get it wrong. Most folks start with fire if they’re going that route.” That dimmed some of the urgency, if not the desire.

They migrated up to the lounge after dinner, spreading out on the various seating areas and poking at the small projects that had naturally accumulated.

The “grown-up table” as the students had begun to call it was in the center of the room, with a dedicated tea service and several plush couches in a rich cerulean. Annette, Adam, Martin and Laurel each took one of the couches, relaxing after the high stress day.

It was Martin who broke the contented silence. “So, I know you tricked these two into being sect officers,” he gestured at the others with a grin. “What horrible title do you have for me?”

Laurel had been brewing the tea and passed out the cups before answering. She pinned Martin with a hard stare and said “Elder.”

He bolted upright from where he had flopped across the cushions. “We are not that old yet!”.

“No,” Laurel acknowledged his point, “but we are the oldest.” When that clearly didn’t mollify him she changed tack. “We can add on Combat Master?”

“That’s much better” he said while laying back down. “I’ll whip these kids into shape faster than you can say Stormblade.” Laurel snorted and sipped her tea.

The others had been observing the exchange silently and Annette took the opportunity to join in. “We watched the fight, you know, using the far-sight enchantment in the glass. We had no idea who Martin was when he showed up, but I think if we could have heard you it would have taken about ten seconds to realize you grew up together.” The whole group laughed and they spent a pleasant evening getting to know one another. Eventually, despite the excitement of the day, everyone except Martin and Laurel went to bed. The two of them slipped into quiet cultivation until the sun rose the next morning. Recovering from the fight and preparing for what was to come.

They chatted as Laurel led Martin outside to the pavilion where they usually held cultivation practice. They were expecting about 20 students. The original 6 still attended, though Theresa would be leaving for Lanport in another week or so. Then there were the other dozen students the sect had picked up from their combined recruiting efforts, and a few extra soldiers the fort had been sending over.

“I’m thinking we split them into groups and have them cycle between cultivation practice and physical training. Eventually we’ll have to work out a schedule for more advanced lessons for the sect members, but that is still a ways off,” Laurel said. Martin agreed readily and they both started setting up any equipment they thought they would need.

**********

If any of the students thought an extra instructor might make things easier, they were mistaken. Laurel was fair but exacting. She would try different strategies if one wasn’t working, but she pushed them to their absolute limit each time. They should have anticipated that Martin had similarly high standards. His teaching philosophy seemed to be ‘run, and keep running, and if you get so tired you can’t run then you should probably be doing push-ups’. The students were all panting by the end, staggering around when they were finally sent inside to get lunch and go to the rest of their chores and lessons. The soldiers were eyeing the distance to the fort as though they wanted to cry, but gamely started off.

At about this time the messenger Laurel had sent off yesterday had reappeared. “An hour from now in the palace, ma’am.” she said, giving a small salute as well. Laurel indicated she’d gotten the message and the woman was off again.

“Do you want to come?” she asked Martin, with absolutely no hope of him accepting.

“Ah, actually I think I hear Lucy calling me inside, probably an emergency I should handle instead.” he said with the utmost seriousness.

“Well we can’t have that, I’ll let you know how it goes.”

*******

The beginning of the meeting with the king’s council went exactly as anyone could have predicted. What was that (giant monster), how did you kill it (magic), who was that guy (old friend), does he want to protect another city (no), are you sure (yes), what if we paid him (still no), how can our people fight that (magic practice, maybe magic guns), what will we do if another one shows up (call for help and/or bigger explosions).

After the council finished venting their helplessness at the situation they got down to the details. “That was beyond what we could have fought off on our own,” The king said flatly. “Maybe if we bombarded it with the artillery in the fort and on the cliffs, we might have eventually taken it down, but at that point the damage done to the city and port would have been catastrophic.”

“This was what we would call a master-level monster, because it takes master cultivators to destroy it. I admit, I was overly optimistic in my timelines when I thought it would take another couple of years for that level of threat to start showing up. I believe your forces will be sufficient for most of the threats you might face. Otherwise, this is why we made our deal. Maybe that’s worth focusing on instead of reinforcing nobles’ houses.”

Laurel tried to temper the anger but ultimately this is the way the world was going to be from now on, and they were right to be concerned. The feeling in the room dropped to frigid after her outburst, but they had already wrung enough concessions out of her with that ridiculous trial.

“What about shipping, what are we supposed to do if something like that can show up at any time.” Madam Curson jumped in with an actually valid question, though not as concerning as they might think.

“Spirit beasts, monsters, whatever you call them, they are all drawn to mana concentrations. Once they get that big they’ll rarely bother with individual ships. Maybe an armada, but they don’t tend to interfere on a scale smaller than that. The smaller ones you fight off or outrun. In time there will be enough cultivators that shipping companies will start hiring some of them as security, if we follow the patterns of the past.”

“Oh good” Curson replied in a dry tone, “It's only our large groupings of vulnerable citizens that will be attacked”.

“You make a fair point, Councilor.” Laurel said. “I do have a couple of ideas that might help.” The king waved for her to continue. “The first is a more expansive use of the sound crystals. You could set up a network among your more remote populations and army bases in order to respond to escalated threats.”

“Absolutely! When can you deliver and how many?” General Mansfeln was almost coming out of his seat. Being unable to hear what was going on in the fight with the leviathan had made an impression.

“You can coordinate details and payment with my sect Quartermaster. Since those will be made by students and not with the resources of the City Core. Now the other option is more complex.” She was rather proud of that little maneuver, making it clear they would be paid for their services, within reason, while shunting some responsibility to Annette, who might actually enjoy it. “You may recall from our initial meetings that City Cores need not just tending but also resources to grow. The arrival of higher tier monsters should mean natural treasures manifesting at mana nodes. These can be integrated into the City Core to open new functions. Put a water treasure in the network and the sewer system will improve. Put air treasures in and we get cleaner air and the ability to sound city-wide alarms. With enough natural treasures placed into the city’s mana infrastructure, we could manifest a defensive shield, among other things.”

“Why haven’t we been doing that from the start?” Theresa asked the reasonable question on everyone’s mind.

“We couldn’t have used anything at the beginning. The mana was already so volatile when I got here that trying to add in a natural treasure would have either ruined the treasure or caused a modest explosion,” Laurel said. “Natural treasures are also hard to find and even harder to harvest. Then they have to be transported carefully, like the delicate flowers they are, if they are to remain viable for integration.”

She gave them a moment to process before revealing the other catch. “My students aren’t yet advanced enough to go harvest by themselves, so either Martin, or I would need to be the ones to do it.”

The council debated back and forth for a while, with Laurel offering clarifications and details when asked. At long last, seemingly every angle had been explored, including ongoing rights on who would own the treasures, which Laurel convinced them should be whoever had the will to find and harvest them, and how to recognize one, which was mostly just about feeling the area and looking for something shiny. The king announced his decision.

“We don’t have the magical firepower to handle the threats we’re facing. We need the extra defense that building up the city core will provide. Theresa will be working to establish our other cities but we’ll need to plan to implement this same thing across the country as soon as possible. Laurel, while I am not in the habit of restricting the movement of free citizens, I would ask that either you or Martin remain in the area at all times.”

“That’s easily done, we need to keep training our members anyway. Though I won’t promise that will always be the case” Laurel reluctantly agreed.

“I would also ask that you take some of our new cultivator corps with you on these trips. They need to learn about identifying and transporting these resources. And they can assist under your command.”

Laurel drummed her fingers along the table-top. This was a concession she hadn’t anticipated. “Fine. However in compensation, the sect will have first right of refusal on any natural treasures we find under my leadership once they regrow. And I’ll have to insist that ongoing ownership does not default to the state. Finder’s rights.”

“We will agree to those terms. When you are ready to incorporate these treasures, we’ll call Theresa back to observe the process. Now, does anyone have any further questions before we adjourn?” The king made eye contact with everyone around the table.

Ridge jumped in, with a question that had been nagging him the whole meeting, if Laurel was any judge. “What were you doing all day on the leviathan, you and your friend stayed out there for hours?”

“Harvesting.” Laurel replied as though it was obvious (it was not obvious).

“Harvesting what?” General Mansfeln looked disturbed by the implications.

“The core for one. Beasts build up mana in a central core that is extremely useful in crafting and general cultivation. Then the rest of the usual things you’d take from an animal. Skin and scales mostly. We hacked off a good bit of meat as well though we aren’t sure yet if it's actually edible.”

None of them had any further questions they wanted to ask after that, vaguely afraid of what answers they might hear, and the meeting broke up.

That evening Laurel relayed the highlights of her meeting with the council to the rest of the sect. Namely that she and Martin would need to start traveling to find certain resources for the sect and the city. The apprehension turned to excitement when she revealed they would be taking a few of the initiates with them to gain experience outside of the sect.

“We have about a month to prepare,” Laurel concluded, “so if you thought training up to this point was tough, well, the next few weeks are going to be revelatory.”