With so much going on, Cain, Chen, and Archibald are invited to stay in the palace guest quarters for the evening, along with their entourage.
Packing seems to be going smoothly for the evicted Nobles as far as the reports that have come so far are concerned. Only a few Nobles got home and immediately started loading valuables and gathering troops. With input from the observers sent by the King, Cain is taking care of that using a locked transport circle within the Palace to send Oath Breakers to assassinate the ones trying to steal the confiscated assets and the few who killed their observer.
It’s a messy business, so he and Duke Archibald, who is taking the incoming messages from the observers, are pretending to be in a meeting alone, using the office where the circle is hidden. Nobody would question them needing a strategic meeting, and it’s better not to publicize that they’re killing off former Nobles who didn’t fall in line; it might cause another uproar.
Done correctly, with discretion, assassination is just a hazard of life in the Palace. Fortunately, most who are still thinking revenge are thinking long-term and plan to leave the country with what they can carry in their inventory and return later, if at all.
Shortly after dark, everyone expelled was either gone or making their way out on foot. That meant Cain and Archibald could end their supposed meeting and return to their visitor suites for the evening.
[If anyone is awake, I will need a coat of arms reasonably soon. I will be sending out summons on patrol, and people need to be able to identify them.] Cain sends a Guild message as he walks, getting an immediate response.
[How about the flag we made for the castle] a young recruit named Trevor suggests.
[No good. It’s too specific to Blood Sands Castle. What about that one we rejected. With the mismatched wings and the shield?] Char suggests.
The fact they’ve made flags for the castle is news to Cain. When Char puts one of the rejected samples in the Guild Bank, though, it’s close to perfect. One angel and one Demon wing behind a shield with a blood drop in the middle on a golden background.
[That’s pretty good. Do we have a tailor awake to make more?]
[I’m still up. I’ll make a bunch for you. Will two dozen be enough?] Misha sends from inside the suite.
[That’s plenty. Thanks for your hard work, everyone, and good job on the designs.]
Misha is already hard at work, using a Trade Skill ability to dye the cloth into flags and pennants. They’ll be able to add one to the mast of Queen Rose now as well.
With a territory secured and the canals dredged for cargo ships, Queen Rose doesn’t need to stay at the docks in the Capital either. Cain directs the copy of Nila that is on board to head back up the canals to Long Fang Valley in the morning and tie up at the docks there. At home, Svetlana and Damien can watch over the ship, saving Cain the summons that are currently on board as crew.
He plans to send even more pairs of Kone clones out with their summons to deal with the Gnolls and other monsters. Flying the flag of a Duke, they should be safe from attack by the locals, and they can clean up anything they’re likely to find except the strongest of Commanders if they’re traveling in pairs.
“What will you do if they run into something they can’t fight alone? Just drop what you’re doing and go yourself, or leave it to the locals?” Misha asks as she finishes making up his pennants.
Cain shrugs, then smirks at Misha and kisses her. “It is technically their job, but if it looks like the locals won’t be able to deal with it safely, I’ll send one of the Primal Echoes. They’ve got all my abilities at half power, so with Merger, they should be just fine.”
Misha frowns at that idea. One Cain loose in an area is bad enough. If he keeps the Primal Echoes active, it will be chaos, especially if they’re left without supervision.
With the essentials taken care of, the two can finally head to bed. The day of a battle is tiring, but the day after is always worse. Their only saving grace is that they don’t have any official duties this time, so the Nobles like Duke Chen will bear the brunt of it.
At first light, an announcement is sent to every noble. [An Emergency Session of the Court will be held beginning at noon, followed by a banquet beginning at sunset. All family members of Nobles are invited in semi-formal attire.]
“If you two don’t want to attend, you can stay home, and I totally wouldn’t blame you,” Cain tells Misha and Mythryll after explaining the situation.
“I for one would much rather explore Long Fang City. I got attacked enough times yesterday to earn a day off.” Mythryll states flatly, and Misha nods in eager agreement.
“I’ll send you by Dark Phoenix from the balcony. The travel circle in the palace is locked, and Duke Chen has the key. Plus, I’m not sure the city is safe enough to go to the public portal.” Cain agrees, not wanting to be here himself. But King James needs the allies today, and Cain made a spectacle of himself yesterday with the whole Seraphim transformation thing, which is guaranteed to be a topic of discussion.
Duke Chen arrives along with his two favored students and the breakfast carts only a few minutes later, looking especially bedraggled today. They finished their tasks before midnight, so it must be stress built up from this morning.
“Good morning, Cain. Young ladies. I had hoped you hadn’t left yet, and I see you didn’t upgrade classes yet either.” Duke Chen says in a cheerful voice that doesn’t match his looks.
Both Misha and Mythryll chuckle at his attempt to lighten the mood, and Misha replies first. “We were going to do it after breakfast, the last thing before we leave. I’ve still got some skill point I wanted to decide about, and I believe Mythryll was saving a bunch of points for after her advancement.”
“Excellent timing then. We’ve got an hour or two before the King is ready to face the day. He’s still holed up in his rooms, and nobody but the cook can get in.”
Cain asks Gwen what happened yesterday in the Royal Suite, and his mind fills with laughter. “I’m sorry, boss, but I promised him I wouldn’t tell anyone anything. I hope you understand. But right now, he’s sleeping.”
Cain focuses on Gwen’s thoughts, seeing a flash of either memory or current events that only shows him the Beastkin slave maids giggling in the dining room. Not particularly helpful, but he’s not going to pry any further.
“My palace insider says he’s still asleep, probably mentally exhausted,” Cain informs Duke Chen, who nods.
“Expected. He was sheltered through most of the wars; this was the first large-scale battle he’s been in command of. It takes a lot out of you.” Duke Chen agrees, then turns back to the ladies.
“Eat, eat before it gets cold. It’s all from the King’s kitchen and tested for poison.”
To be safe, Misha uses [Cleanse] on it anyhow, before digging into the meal Duke Chen so thoughtfully brought. Both her and Mythryll are looking over their options as they eat, a few minutes in the interface, then a few eating, back and forth.
The extra delay proves to be a great benefit for Misha, but also Duke Chen’s downfall that morning, as continued messages start to pile up, and eventually, someone is sent to request for him to go down to the common areas of the castle to take care of business.
The one who comes to get him is a Royal Inscriptionist, a man with a wealth of knowledge about the system and how to tweak it to get specific progression paths that you want. Exactly the sort of person they needed right now.
His suggestion is to add at least one more holy flame type skill to her repertoire to get a more exciting class out of her unique class token.
To pick something mundane would be a waste of a unique artifact. Still, with a sufficient level of specialization in her chosen field, he’s confident she can get an actual Third Advancement class from the Unique Class token and not just a Second Advancement option that compliments her existing abilities.
His idea is to get her a book of [Second Life], a resurrection spell that requires level 200, and a Cleric book Affinity. It’s rare but not greatly popular, as most cleric types get it inherently at level 200. Misha doesn’t; her class is more of a combat priest.
That leaves them with just an unholy fire ability to add to ensure that she can pick something amazing. Since becoming a Dark Apostle, she’s gained Summoning abilities and an increase in Summon Quality, but nothing outstanding for her holy flames, just a variety of ways to use it.
When the inscriptionist leaves to find her the [Second Life] book, Mythryll puts forward the idea that Misha could take a modification as she did. Not to make her durable, since Misha has a Merger for that, but to increase her damage output.
They now know it can be nullified if it leads to an undesirable mutation, so there’s not much to lose, and Cain Merges with a Record Keeper to borrow its skills with Holy Flames.
Among its myriad abilities with the Holy Flame of the Dark Gods is a Demonic equivalent of [Judgement], the area effect holy light of the Seraphim that both heals and damages and applies Cleanse.
The Record Keepers’ ability doesn’t Cleanse. Instead, it applies that random buff that all Holy Flame spells grant to allies. The effects are outstanding when they’re compatible with the person getting them, though, so it’s a decent tradeoff.
The spell is called [Balance], which seems odd for Demonic magic but is still a reasonably accurate description. Misha has skills similar to the Record Keeper’s other flame attacks already, and that’s what the Inscriptionist thinks she will need to get a truly unique class, so Cain applies it to Misha and watches as the change settles into her body, making the skill innate and semi-permanent.
Unlike Mythryll, she doesn’t get off with zero noticeable physical changes. She has gained a pair of feathery wings in the same blue tones as the record keeper that shimmer in the light as if they’ve got pink flames dancing below the surface.
Cain inspects her Status, finding that she is still technically Human in species but has gained an additional line of description.
[Name] Misha
[Level] 201
[Class] Dark Apostle
[Race] Human
[Unholy Blessings] Wings of Flame
Misha and Mythryll disappear into the bath to check her whole appearance, as Misha doesn’t want to be interrupted while nude, and Cain knows he will have plenty of time to examine her features later.
“Well, what’s the verdict?” He asks when they come out a few minutes later.
“Just the wings and a pair of feather earrings growing from the bottom of my ears. But now, when I’m in the Magic type [Apostolic Transformation], I look just like a tiny Record Keeper.”
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