Chương 35: Updates

Cyrendale sat in his armory trying to clean the purple gunk off his once shiny armor.

"Brother are you here?" Cyra calls out from the entrance hall before entering. She was quite a sight. Having grown into her role as leader of the planet sized kingdom, Cyra stood with a confidence born of years of leadership during conflict.

"I am sister, tho I worry your seeking me out is a bad sign for someone." He replied with a smirk.

"Oh hush Cyrendale, can't I just want to visit my beloved brother after such a battle?" She replied while she picked up a shiny piece of plate armor, made of some blue crystal intended to dispel mana on contact, and threw it at his back. Nobody was worried about the fastest celestial ever recorded being struck by such a mundane throw. So when it bounced off his back, Cyras smile faded.

"Brother?"

"I'm sorry little sister, I'm just…." Closing his eyes for a second before opening them back up and turning to face his Queen, his leader, his sister, his shoulder.

"I think I am going to travel for a while."

"Brother, don't you think I already know how your brain works? Of course you will go, I'm surprised you stayed on the front line as long as you have. Fastest doesn't mean strongest, and while you have been a great benefit to our people, we both know you could achieve more out there. What is your goal this time?" She speaks softly as she approaches and places a porcelain hand on his shoulder. He reached up and covered her hand with his palm and met her eyes.

"This war is our planet versus how many? We have no knowledge of their home world. With the numbers we have seen, this horde must come from more than one planet. I feel we need to start reaching out to other worlds and warn them. If not recruit some. I don't like the idea of dragging others into our conflict, but if our intelligence is correct, and these creatures are just a well advanced invasive species it will eventually become everyone's problem.

Once a planet develops the means to travel to others they will inevitably be found. The mana it takes to travel the void all but shines a beacon for these beasts. I may have been the one to lead them here, but I doubt ours is the first world attacked, and if we had any warning of the dangers we wouldn't have been caught so by surprise." Cyra nods slowly. Then she adds, "how long?

We can hold probably indefinitely at the rate we are going, tho raising a new generation in the midst of a planet wide conflict will bring challenges, it will bring the next generation a strength we never needed in ours. Like the history books. There were some generations that heralded hundreds of celestials simply because of the fighting over the years."

"I could make a guess, but I doubt I could be accurate. There are hundreds of gates already active. I plan on starting with the most advanced worlds. I'll eventually make it to the less developed worlds to push them to advance if they can. I almost regret hiding all the gates so far from them. It will limit how fast they can grow together with their new neighbors." With a pat on the head of her older brother Cyra consoles him.

"At the time it was for their safety. Things have changed. They will have to make do." Cyrendale smiles at his sister before picking up his last piece of armor and moving toward the entrance hall. Looking over his shoulder "I think I'll just place a beacon on each one as I pass. That way I'm not gone too long. I'll meet with the leaders of the most advanced races and give them a brief before leaving the rest to them. We are going to need a way to gather any volunteers in the coming years.

Another problem I'll have to solve in time. I'll be home as soon as I can little sister." With a sad wave Cyrendale walks slowly away holding the weight of more lives than he has a number to count.

The large, dual mast ship docked with a large commotion as the messengers prepared to run to their destinations ahead of the first of its kind delegation. Eight young men and women sprinted off with coin and scroll to make reservations for food and lodging at the finest locations in the city. An honor guard marched down the docking ramp first to secure the landing area. With the all clear signal sent back to the ship the group of five began to depart.

A well built tall man in a military uniform with his hair slicked down with some kind of oil held his elbow out to aid his counterpart with her long black hair draped over one shoulder wearing a form fitting light blues dress matching the sky. The two had spent the weeks traveling from their home continent to a new one in hopes of expressing the importance of this new discovery. Hoping their presence would disparage any doubt about how serious the potential of this discovery was.

"You ready for this Jules?" He whispered to his counterpart using her secret nickname. Then he chuckled as she responded with a swift elbow to his side and replied, "Yes and we talked about this. We must refrain from sending the message that we are one singular kingdom. If they believe me your wife then we will lose bargaining power. We need to maintain two kingdoms in a joined mission." This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Taking the admonishment with a grace only befitting a lord, Hesties shrugged and released her arm when they crossed onto solid ground with a wink. Julie couldn't help but smirk at his overt playfulness in such a serious public situation. This man was her problem now. They had grown far too close during their travels. He was intentionally charming and she was not fighting it near as much as she pretended.

She found herself torn between her duty to her country and her feelings toward the lord of their only real rival kingdom. He had complimented her many times on being strong enough to face potential death to ask a question for her people's sake. She didn't see it that way, but the lord insisted she was stronger than she understood. The constant reminder had led Julie to standing taller and being more upfront with her demands.

It even frustrated her to no end that he just smirked and told her yes so often when she made demands. Even in getting her own way she felt like she was playing into his games. Oh how she hated that she enjoyed his games. Lady Julie made her way over to walk next to her honor guard wearing her own kingdoms uniform. With a red flame embroidered on his left shoulder and a Black cape on the other to hide his weapon and hand placement he wore the traditional attire for a military man of his position.

From an outsiders perspective she would likely be mistaken for being his escort, but her home tradition held women as strictly not military. A woman's status was displayed by the rank of the man escorting her, not her own attire. She enjoyed this quirk of culture because she could wear anything she pleased and was still honoring tradition so long as her most trusted guard followed. The grey beard in such a clearly military outfit forced respect. An old soldier was dangerous.

While her larger male counterpart brought regular looking young men and established his respect through his own image, she brought along the single most honorable man she could to establish herself. Neither being wrong while both approaching the same problem different. The first ever delegation across the waters of the world proceeded down the cobble stone road. It smelled because of the fish, but it was a site to behold because of the thatch roofed houses built nearly on top of one another in near lines.

This city was well planned. In the distance she could see what she assumed was the groups destination. A large cliff with a staircase cut into the side winding up in a zig zag pattern. Resting atop the cliff was clearly the local lords home. With three tall spires and the beginnings of a wall on either side the home looked elegant and war ready. Hesties was impressed by the design.

Having reached the inn and talking with the locals while they waited for their messengers to return with an invitation he had asked around about the castle atop the cliff. Apparently what they couldn't see from the sea port was the huge wall that wrapped nearly half a mile out on the other side of the huge home. It ended at the cliff to allow the lord to view his subjects and for the subjects to always see the beauty they had helped create. Initially finding a ship to charter the distance was difficult.

Their content had several port cities along the coast but most never went so far as another content. There were rumors of two ships that had made the trip but the other was not meant to return within the month. Hesties and Julie had hardly debated before deciding to use what was available and offered to fund the voyage and cargo for the captain and his crew.

The captain and first mate had given them a quick understanding of the culture on the other content as they traveled so they wouldn't be caught completely by surprise if they weren't seen on the first day they arrived. It would in fact be a tall ask for them to just show up being from two kingdoms. The local lord would need time to understand the situation before seeing them. Not intending to be on the back foot should some negotiations occur.

Hesties and Julie had both understood and respected that position, so when they docked they sent runners to find food and entertainment for the group for the day and into the evening. Being off the ship was worth celebrating.

"You're claiming there is a gate to another world somewhere on your content and you want to set up a search for one on ours?" With an extremely skeptical look the lord of Port Nordem looked between the two people standing before him.

"You realize how ridiculous that sounds, right? I mean this is quite possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard. No gate can cover the distance between our kingdoms. There's no way one would ever make it to another world." Hesties looks over to Julie and shrugs.

"Lord Packstin, I would like to remind you that we already have a force staged in front of one such gate and have had contact with another humanoid species. This would be the worst use of our kingdoms respective resources. Sir… if we found a gate what's stopping whoever is on the other side from finding theirs? And what happens to us if they gain control of that corridor?" Julie added with arms crossed and a single eyebrow raised. The older lord took a moment to think on that point before responding.

"I will concede that makes me a bit less reluctant. What aid would you need?"