Spires

The line stretched down the block and turned at the corner.

Kynnro’s death was mourned by many.

Their ice cream shop a few blocks from Ranger HQ saw these lines every day for the past month and a half.

People had been posting tributes on their page on the Omninet.

A pseudo-movement had arisen.

They were calling it ‘248 Days of Celebration’.

One flavor a day until you had them all in their honor.

It made him angry at first. Irrationally so.

They didn’t know how Kynnro had spent their last moments of life.

Alin wondered what it was like for those on the outside insulated from the true terrors out there.

He had certainly taken being on the inside for granted.

Then again, part of him could acknowledge that there was jealousy in his heart.

He envied the people who didn’t have to face demigods for their safety.

Then again, again… that wasn’t fair.

They fought as well, manning the walls or rising to the challenges of random monster attacks.

Was it any less brave when they lacked his advantages?

Surely, they would say that having superpowers was better than 20 or even 30 levels in fighter or mage. After all, Level 30 in a primary class represented nearly a lifetime of work for the average person.

As for those that reached it quicker and gone beyond?

Well… they were the ones that had managed to survive.

Behind them lay a trail of dead family, friends and brothers and sisters in arms.

The spires desired conflict, demanded challenge.

Always inextricably linked with suffering and tears.

“Earth to Boy?” Kat knuckled him in the ribs.

“Huh? What?”

She wrapped her arms around his waist, forcing him to put one arm around her shoulders.

“This is a good thing.”

“I’d rather not wait an hour,” he grumbled.

“People are showing their appreciation.”

“I don’t know.” He kept his voice low. “It’s not like they knew her. It sort of feels like people are doing this trend thing because they just want to say they did.”

“Sure, probably true for some of them, maybe even a lot, but does it matter? I feel they’re still showing their appreciation for Kynnro’s work here.”

“Yeah, but they didn’t know her.”

“So? That doesn’t mean they’re not allowed to feel sad, mourn and celebrate their life. People without any connections to the rangers are always visiting the Wall. You don’t need to personally know the people behind the names to honor and appreciate the sacrifices.”

The line moved fairly briskly, so he couldn’t even be irritated about that.

Kids ran around, laughing while parents or babysitters stood patiently with more good cheer than him.

Happy was good.

That’s what he figured.

Kynnro wouldn’t want sadness.

248 flavors was about putting smiles on faces while pushing the boundaries in the process.

So, objectively, they wouldn’t have had a problem with any of it.

“Oh, so, I got approved for leave,” Kat said. “Family vacation’s on!”

“Cool. I mean, that’s great!”

She squeezed.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to force yourself to be excited. I understand.”

“Thank you so much for that.” He sighed. “I still feel bad about it.”

“You’re on your own timetable and that’s okay. Just know that I’m here for you. So, I’m really excited! The Fae Realm!”

“Technically, it’s a pocket within the Fae Realm, simultaneously part of it and not. Don’t ask how or why because no one can explain it.”

“So, your aunt, Wy—”

“Shh… don’t say her name. Aunt W. If you have too, but just to be safe, don’t.” His eye twitched as he scanned their surroundings. An alarm would sound if a Fae breach happened.

“Right, you know, I don’t think you ever said what her real name was?”

“That is her real name. I mean, I’ve only ever known that one. It keeps her safe and there was this thing with a name-eater. And no, I don’t know anything about that. I only just found out that was a thing, like, 2 years ago. I thought she didn’t go by her real name because of the first reason. Turns out she doesn’t have a ‘real’ name anymore. Or at least that’s what I think. My uncle was vague about it.”

“Wow…” Kat blinked. “That’s kinda horrifying.”

“That’s the Fae Realm. Which is why we’re only staying in her pocket realm. Things get fuck-y in the wider Fae Realm. Time can get subjective.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember that from the threat reports. An hour in there could be days out here and vice versa.”

“We might lose or gain time in transit, but it should only be minutes. Maybe an hour or two if it gets weird.”

“You know, I wouldn’t mind if we spent more time in there than passed out here. It’d be like that hyperbolic time chamber thing. A few months training and leveling and when we come back only a week passed.”

“Please don’t jinx us. Besides. My aunt’s realm is mostly safe. There won’t be any real leveling opportunities for you at your level. Plus, we’re only spending a week in there. Which will be a week out here with the minor difference from what we gain or lose in transit.”

“Do you think I could pick up a magical ferret like the one your cousin has?”

“They don’t have magical ferret stores. And bringing one out here long term is a good way of attracting attention you don’t want. Remember, the Fae that tried to kidnap Lera during the festival?”

“Of course, how could I ever forget that. That was, like, my first truly traumatic experience. I thought for sure that you guys were going to die or worse.”

“Yeah… that’s what might happen.”

“What if I line my house with cold iron?”

“It’s like any defense. Nothing is perfectly impenetrable.”

“Fine. No magical ferrets.”

“There’s magical fruits and vegetables.”

“That’s not as cool.”

“I had a berry thing once. You see, they lose the magic pretty quick once they leave the Fae Realm, but we were waiting right outside the stone circle, so it was still fresh enough.” He paused dramatically.

“And?”

“It tasted like Casey sings.”

“Okay. That sounds pretty cool. Eat the weird fruit is now at the top of my things to do list.”

Sirens blared suddenly like panicked birds with a cat on the prowl.

The people around them were entirely too blasé.

They looked to the sky, but didn’t do much else, like, say head to the closest emergency shelter.

Tracers stitched overhead visible even in the sunlight.

Pin-point shields flashed, blocking the falling ovoids that the anti-air cannons missed.

Alin held off on activating his undersuit lest he drive people to panic.

The gray billowed out from him before he had even consciously pushed it.

Ever since that terrible day it had been quick to respond, as if it was still scared, like a hurt animal lashing out at any potential threat real or imagined.

The sirens stopped.

The all-clear sounded.

Leaving them alone once again with only the distant sounds of fire from the walls protecting their territory.

“Damn Americans,” someone in the line muttered.

Technically, it was the harpies dropping the monster egg bombs through portals tens of kilometers away to fall through a second set of portals a handful of kilometers somewhere overhead.

The countermeasures had been working so far, otherwise the enemy would’ve dropped the bombs much closer.

Only the demigod had been able to bypass the protections and he hadn’t tried since that one time.

Alin tensed.

Kat rubbed his back.

“It’s okay. They didn’t get past our defenses.”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “This time.”

Maybe a family vacation wasn’t the best idea despite the fact that his Uncle Eron was going to be checking in a lot more frequently while they were gone.

They continued to shuffle forward.

He kept the gray out, spreading it through the buildings and streets to his maximum range.

No one knew that they walked through a light fog.

Dozens of conversations, laughter and arguments swirled together into a cacophony in his ears.

Was it an invasion of the people’s privacy?

Yes.

But, it was to help keep them safe, at least that was what he told himself.

It was also part of his training.

There was no growth without exertion.

And the demigod had showed Alin his efforts to date had been lacking.

“Are you doing it?” Kat narrowed her eyes up at him.

“Why do you ask?”

It was easy to push the gray out, harder to do it subtly so that it remained unnoticed.

Stronger people, whether in terms of levels or superpowers, were harder to deceive.

Spells or Skills could allow one to realize they were in the gray.

Or simply instinct and luck.

“You have that look.”

“So, you’re just going by that? You’re not sensing anything?”

“Yup.”

“Can you try?”

Kat had a combat intuition Skill similar to danger sense. It traded much greater sensitivity for a narrowed focus.

“Okay… activating now… and… nothing…” she poked him in the ribs. “Seriously?”

He tried to will a threat toward her and failed miserably.

There was nothing in him, conscious or subconscious that would ever seek to hurt his love.

He considered the other people around them.

Strangers.

He didn’t care about them nearly as much as he did about her.

And yet…

He did what he did in large part to keep them safe.

Any thoughts of threatening them even as an exercise slipped through his grasp like wisps of gray.

“Ah… sorry. You can turn it off.”

“So, you are doing it?”

“Just in case one of those eggs got through and for the exercise.”

They reached the shop’s front windows.

People crowded the inside of the shop as if they were reluctant to leave. They lingered until the people entering forced them to exit and enjoy their ice cream elsewhere.

“All hand’s on deck, huh?” Kat mused.

It resembled ants exiting and entering the colony behind the counter as Kynnro’s apprentices filled orders and kept bringing new tubs out to replace the rapidly depleted ones.

Small batch.

Each made with fresh ingredients, meticulous care and Skills.

He thought of Kynnro and how their own lack of Skills had never bothered them.

Anything to strengthen the initiative.

“Hi, welcome!” a very young man greeted them just outside the door. “So, everything is free, like always, but if you’d like to donate anything will be appreciated.” He gestured to a table just inside where a large book lay. “For Kynnro. If you’d like to write a few words. We’re going to make copies to keep here and in any future stores. The original will go to the Threnosh world for their old teammates. So, they can, like, see how Kynnro touched so many of us.”

“You’re going to carry on with their initiative?”

“I was going to anyways. I turned my class into frozen cream confectioner just last week.” The young man smiled sadly. “I never got the chance to tell them. It’s my passion and now it’s a legacy thing, you know? I’m going to carry it to my end and, hopefully, leave it better for the next guys.”

“They’d like that.” Alin nodded stiffly.

He followed Kat inside when it was his turn.

Wrote a brief message in the book.

Took a few moments to read what the others had scrawled on the page.

“Maple bacon please. Just ice cream. No extras.”

The man who took his order had red-rimmed eyes.

He recognized a few of the people behind the counter, having made their acquaintances at one time or another through Kynnro. Some recognized him, so they exchanged knowing nods before the ebb and flow of the ant colony carried them away to their duties.

Kat took a double scoop of purple, ube threaded through with thin ribbons of fudge and liberally topped with small bits of flan and dusted with crushed Oreos.

Alin stared at the tubs behind the glass.

He had never had the desire to try the lemon salmon or any of the steak-based flavors.

“248 in 248,” he whispered.

He had already missed the first 20 or so days, but he resolved then and there to do the 248.

“We should do the 248.” As usual Kat seemed to read his thoughts as they sat on the curb and ate. “But on our own schedule, obviously.”

“Yeah. I was thinking about that.”

“Oh, we should bring some for your aunt and cousin. I’ll bet the witches would like some of the weirder ones.”

“I have seen some drink cauldron stew before.”

Kat looked at him expectantly.

“It wasn’t the good kind of stew. Less beef, potatoes, carrots and gravy, more… insect bits and lizard tails… and a beating heart.”

Kat blanched.

“It was a monster heart.”

“I’m not eating anything like that. I don’t care if that makes me a bad guest.”

“They wouldn’t serve something like that to guests. It was for a curse spell.”

Scotland, Summer 2053

Glasses synced to the Omninet as soon as Cal stepped back into the normal world.

3 days late.

Calls and texts began to pour in.

He quickened his perception and thinking to scan through the global situation and found nothing that required immediate attention. So, he pushed out a quick acknowledgment that asked them wait for a bit.

“Is this real, Love?” Nila said.

He carried her in his arms like a princess.

The northern isles of Scotland were cold, dark and very green.

The henge they had just exited was surrounded by hilly terrain with mountains to the west and a loch to the east.

Dark waters concealed the long-necked monsters cruising the depths with flippers and a long paddle-like tail.

Monsters and mutated animals roaming the highlands fled from his unconcealed presence, but not quickly enough as he killed them all with a thought lest their flight led them to one of the small, scattered farm communities.

“Yeah. They can’t fake the Omninet and I’m picking up real human thoughts.”

“Oh, thank Jebus!” Alin pumped a fist.

It wasn’t an uncalled for reaction.

It had taken them 2 tries and roughly 2 weeks subjective time to get out of the Fae Realm.

“I’m really sorry, guys. A vacation that was supposed to be full of relaxation and wonder turned into a 6 month siege. I suppose, I should’ve seen that coming.”

“It was terrible and horrifying, but no one got hurt… badly… and I gained 5 levels.” Kat tried to smile. “That’s, like, 2-3 years progress in less than a quarter of the time.”

“I promised your parents the exact opposite of what we got.”

Kat shrugged. “I’m cool with it. I feel like, well, 6 months better than I was and it only took 10 days. I even got an advanced class option.”

“Like, I said before, I don’t recommend taking it. It’ll draw Fae garbage to you.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s what the witches I talked to about what it was like told me.”

“Alright, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready to get out of here.”

“A hot bath and hot food would be nice,” Nila said.

“Same here,” Kat said.

“Uh… can you drop us off at Kat’s place?” Alin said.

He refrained from teasing his son.

Obvious was obvious.

Didn’t need mind powers to see it.

There hadn’t been a lot of privacy and time during the last 6 months of subjective time in the witches’ annexed pocket inside the Fae Realm. There had been zero privacy over the last 2 weeks they had spent trying to get back to the real world.

Thus, he dropped his son and Kat off first before flying north to the hotel-casino.

He situated Nila in her hot bath while prepping some food.

Sinagang.

Sour soup perfect for cold bones.

At the same time he read through 10 days worth of reports displayed in the middle of his living room by the holographic projectors.

Domestically, the war had remained the same.

Monster eggs rained down periodically despite the harpy losses inflicted by the skyships.

In turn, skyships rained fire down on military bases all over the continent with near impunity. The old Americans had yet to decide that repairs were just a waste of Universal Points.

The rangers’ tactic was simple.

Do damage and leave the base alone for a few days after it was repaired before coming back to ruin it again.

As for the south?

There had been a sudden uptick in observed movement to the old American’s staging areas north of Atlanta. Mostly soldiers and smaller assets because a certain someone had destroyed any armed vehicle that stuck its neck out of all, but the best hiding spots.

Fiercely independent, Atlanta had rebuffed all his attempts at mutual aid.

What was once Florida, now Richellia, was preparing, but they had time and a buffer.

He wondered when Atlanta would reach out.

Probably, when things started getting bad.

There was only one path that led to that future.

A golden one.

He made a note to keep a closer personal eye on the city to prevent those ritual circles from being drawn under their noses.

No ritual barrier to keep him out meant that the demigod wouldn’t make an appearance.

Speaking of whom… sightings still stood at zero.

The war, if it could even be called that, wasn’t turning out like the old Americans had imagined.

It was a nonexistent march westward to reclaim their ‘Rightful Destiny’.

All their old toys had been tossed into the free basket at a garage sale.

They could do nothing but watch wing-armed women from different worlds fight and die without achieving anything substantive.

As for the worldwide situation?

Mixed.

He tentatively marked several spots that he’d need to put a thumb on the scale.

The one thing they had in common was the local leadership’s unwillingness to work with him.

Sometimes it bothered him that fellow Earthians would rather throw their lot in with outworld invaders.

The shortsightedness was irksome.

Then again, some had argued that he could’ve gotten ahead of it all long ago by simply taking control.

“Food me!” Nila called out from the bathroom. “… please!”

He checked the kitchen with a third eye.

“10 more minutes! And you’re not eating hot soup in a hot tub!”

“Why?”

He didn’t need to peek in on her, though he was tempted, to see the furrowed brow and pout.

“Who eats soup in a hot tub?”

“Someone who can’t walk!”

“I’ll carry you!”

Her hover chair had been destroyed during week 19 of the siege.

Self-destructed to maim a Baroness of something pretentious.

“Fine! But you can’t use your powers! You have to do it with your real hands!”

“I was going to do that anyways!”

“Any excuse to perv on me!”

“You know it!”

“Gross!”

He sped up his review.

Once dinner began, Nila had his undivided attention.

After dinner, he tucked her into bed where she’d read for a few hours before sleeping.

He checked on their son to make sure Alin was safe before sweeping the entire region.

A call to his brother was next.

“Dude.” Eron answered on the first ring. “One sec…”

Something screeched in the background.

Followed by a wet explosion.

Words he hadn’t had occasion to use during his pre-spires lifetime.

“Blegh… it gets everywhere.”

“You need time to clean up?”

“Nah. I’m good. Stuff just slides right off… eventually.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Brief overview. I already got a quick message from Wytchraven and Lera, so I know they’re alright, but what about you guys? They didn’t say much, but I do know that Nila’s awesome chair got blown up. She’s still not walking after 6 months? Boy and his girl alright? Cause if it was me… well… that’s like the worst first trip with the in-laws, you know? Then again, Wytchraven’s family… yeah, I guess that’s hard to top when it comes to nightmarish in-laws interactions.”

“My fault. Fae reacted to my presence like I was another lion pride coming into their territory. Lots of casualties. No deaths, mostly injuries. A few bad ones, but nothing life-ruining. Lots of levels. Honestly, I felt worse with how no one was pissed off at me.”

“Wytchraven was.”

“True, but she’s too polite to say anything not couched in niceties. Anyway… let me think what highlights you’d be interested in… your daughter took a challenge from a prince of summer something or other despite everyone telling her not to. Duel to the death. She looked me in the eye right after I told her not to before accepting.”

“Yup, that’s our Lera. Do me a favor, don’t share these details with mom, dad and Rayna. I’ll need to get ahead of the story. I don’t want them to be mad at me for months again like from the whole tepuis thing.”

“I don’t know, man. She’s got the whole teenager thing where she thinks she’s invincible, which is worse because she sort of is.”

“Well, that was part of the reason I took her to the tepuis. Figured a bit of humbling would’ve been good. Had the opposite effect. Maybe you can scare her a bit, like those scared straight videos they used to show as back in school?”

“I’m not traumatizing my niece.”

“Yeah, sure, I get that, but it’s just a bit of mindscape-y. Like a really real nightmare at worse.”

“It would have to be indistinguishable from reality if you wanted it to leave a lasting effect on her attitude.”

“I mean, terrible, sure. Child abuse? Probably, but, again, not real. I’d take that any day over her picking a fight she can’t win next time. Just think about it.”

“Okay, I’ll think about it.”

It made sense from a logical, emotionless standpoint.

If he didn’t do it and the worst case scenario happened down the line then he’d regret it.

Then again, that could happen if he did do it.

So, what was the best way to prepare his niece for a long life?

Destroy every potential threat as soon as they popped up.

One had to be realistic about these things.

Like that prayer said.

Control what you could, accept what you can’t.

Killing the Fae permanently didn’t seem possible.

By all accounts they either eventually came back or were replaced by another, sometimes exactly the same, sometimes slightly different, sometimes completely different.

“I killed the Summer King. Shredded his consciousness. At least that’s what I think I did.”

“Cool. Hopefully, that sticks more than the last time I killed the bastard. I guess we’ll find out next summer. If we’re really lucky, you might’ve destroyed the concept of a summer king.”

“That’s what the witches theorized. In any case, we killed or maimed a lot of the summer court.”

“Courts… yeah, I know it’s confusing, but there’s more than one court.”

“But also only one court depending on how you’re looking at it in the moment.”

“The most important thing is that you guys got rid of a lot of them. That means the rest of the summer should be impossibly quiet.”

“If it turns out to be worth it in the long run. I’m open to going over there every season and shredding Fae consciousnesses. My only concern would be the time fuckery.”

“Time doesn’t mean much to you with how you can play around with your perceptions.”

“That’s not the problem, I’m worried about losing time from the real world. We got lucky that we only lost 3 days. What if it had been the other way around? Too many things rely on me out here.”

“Fair. But, time is mostly synced between the pocket realm and here. If they figure out a way to make the transit time stable would you be interested?”

“It’d have to be a real strong guarantee that I won’t come back to a few years later.”

“Awesome! If you can crush the Fae then they’ll be able to spend more time out here.”

Cal knew what his brother felt.

It was always tough to be separated from your loved ones when there was nothing you could do about it.

Doubly so when one was powerful enough that there weren’t many things he couldn’t do if I wanted.

He wanted Eron to be able to spend time with Wytchraven and Lera here in the real world without always looking over their shoulders for the sudden and inevitable Wild Hunt attack.

“You should go over there. Take a week off. Remy’s not leaving for the Threnosh world until next month. He can keep an eye over Manila and the rest of that region. I’ll do my best to cover for you. I just need to give that demigod a reminder that I’m around so that he’ll stay in hiding. That way I can be more international until you get back.”

“Really? They delayed again?”

“Megan’s reluctant to leave without getting Nila walking again.”

“She’s healing though, right? 6 months in the Fae Realm and she’s still not walking?”

“Same old, same old. Witches tried, but the healing just bounces off. Everything in there is in physical working condition.”

“Magic bullshit.”

“Yeah. Only explanation at this point. Well, the exoskeleton’s ready, so she won’t have to use a chair.”

“Yo, what if it’s one of those conceptual things? Like, you have to kill the guy that dealt the injury?”

As if he needed more justifications on the pro side of that internal argument.

“Not that you’d be killing him only so that Nila can walk again. I mean, it’d be mostly to stop all the future evil stuff he’s going to do.”

He didn’t want to go down this conversation tree with his brother again.

“Listen, are we still on for next week?”

“Yeah.”

“Can we move it up?”

“To when?”

“Tomorrow night. Midnight. Eastern time.”

“Hell, we can go tonight. I’m always up for ruining a few jets or tanks.”

“Not tonight. Nila’s in bed already and I want her to at least get a full night’s sleep in our bed before I take her to Manila tomorrow morning.”

“Sure, bro. Just let me know if anything changes. I’ll let you know the same on my end. Otherwise I’ll be ready.”

The first try at cracking the demigod’s defenses.

He hoped it worked because he had already mapped out the path if it failed and the thought of having to travel further down filled him with heart-clenching fear.