Chapter 441: Home Sweet Home

I woke up cold.

Damn natural laws. No matter how much biomancy I had, no matter what my stats were, my surface area to volume ratio dictated that, at night, with minimal shelter, I got cold.

Also, wait, cold?

I looked with [The World Around Me], and spotted Iona on a stump outside, looking into the lean-to with her sketchbook and a quill.

I banished the thoughts of cold from my mind. I’d powered through worse, and I wasn’t in a critical life-or-death ‘oh gods I’m going to freeze to death’ situation. Simply uncomfortable.

“Like what you see?” I called to Iona.

She glanced up from her book and grinned at me.

“Morning, love! Yes, that’s perfect. Just stay right like that while I finish up.”

If I was going to be immortalized in one of Iona’s drawings, I was going to be immortalized well. I threw an overly dramatic pose I’d normally never make but Iona loved, then held it as Iona’s hand blurred.

Forwards and back, Iona occasionally flipped the quill over to ‘brush’ parts off, her skill acting as an eraser. She dipped the quill back in the inkpot occasionally, perfectly controlling everything such that no errant drops ever spilled.

“Annnnnnd done!” Iona blew carefully on the paper, then flipped it over.

It was our little home, with the stunning view behind it, and me posing in the middle of the lean-to. It was so lifelike I half-expected to see it jump off the page.

It gave me all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings. Which I needed, because I was still cold.

Our home.

“How do we preserve it?” I got up and walked over to Iona, then the second, more obvious question.

“Wait. How did you get your drawing stuff here?”

I was cold, and Iona looked warm. I snuggled up to her, then half as punishment for leaving me in bed to get cold, and half to warm up, I stuck my hands on her stomach.

Iona would’ve hit the roof if there was one.

“Lunaris’s tits THAT’S COLD!” She swore as I stuck to her like a bug.

“Well, it’s your fault!” I protested, flipping my hands over to warm the back of them.

Iona swore again, and stood up with me still glued to her back. I stuck my feet on her back, because it was warm, and just stayed attached as she carefully walked over to Fenrir, put her sketchbook in a bag near him, then walked back to the lean-to.

“Wait.” I had a sudden realization, filled with dawning horror. “Wait, no.”

“Too late!” Iona grabbed me in a headlock, started tickling me, and we fell back into our little home in a failing pile of joyous limbs.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeek!”

“How did you get the writing stuff?” I asked as I extracted myself again.

“Oh, that? Fenrir and Auri decided to make a trip back to town. They picked up most of our stuff, and brought it back.”

Wow.

“That was nice of them.”

Iona stretched where she was lying down, touching both sides of the lean-to.

“Well, it’s their home as well now. Speaking of, we’ve got to register that this is now ours, and other paperwork.”

“Sounds good. I can go talk with Night, and see about those introductions.”

Iona looked like she was about to say something, then closed her mouth and nodded.

“Alright, let’s do that. Don’t go making any commitments until the diamonds are in the bank though, I don’t want to end up making promises we can’t fulfill.”

“Sure, seems perfectly reasonable. Let me throw on some clothes and we’ll get going?”

“Right after I get a basic sketch of the mountain.”

With all the things to do, and with how bureaucracies tended to operate, I was worried we’d be in for a week of paperwork.

It didn’t take a week of paperwork. It took two hours.

Night was taking his favor to me seriously. The moment I mentioned ‘paperwork’, he was walking down the road.

“Come, my dear little otter. Let us see if we can not speed this process up.” Night said.

I smiled as I hurried after him, Auri clutching onto my shoulder. It felt like it had been an eternity since he’d called me an otter, back at Ranger Academy. An unexpected nickname from the past.

Then he just… made things happen. Gatekeepers recognized him and opened the door. Schedules were cleared, and Night was welcomed into any party or entertainment needed, smoothly inserting himself into conversations. We were introduced to Linus, the [Accountant], Mesophiles and his devilish firm of [Jurisconsults] - Exterreri’s version of lawyers, and more!

I swear, if Iona’s interactions with Arachne hadn’t capped all of her social skills, watching Night at work would’ve finished it, as we picked her up along the way.

Or rather, not Night, but…

“Nyx! You old bloodsucker, I didn’t know you were still up and kicking!” A decently high-level vampire gave Night a hug, slapping his back with great gusto.

“Vitruvius! I hear you’re planning another city, do you have a place in mind for it, or are you just letting your imagination run wild?”

He snorted.

“The crusty farts in the House of Blood don’t see the point, and the young idiots in the House of Bone don’t want to spend the coin. Bah! I’ll stick it in my notes, and maybe one day it’ll see the light of day. It’s all about water. Water for streets! Can you imagine it, everyone uses a boat to get everywhere? No need to carry things, everyone’s got a boat!”

The [Architect] went on a long, passionate rant on the subject, a mad gleam in his eye as he detailed all the ways such a thing could work. Looping streams, easy waste disposal, and a thousand and one other interesting aspects to such a city.

Such was his passion that we found ourselves being sucked in, Iona, Auri, and I all nodding along.

“Vitruvius, such a project sounds fascinating. I would love to see it come to fruition one day. Do you believe a river, a bay, the shallows of a sea or the depths would be best?” Night - Nyx - asked.

Vitruvius did a double-take, and smacked his forehead.

“The depths of the sea! Why, I never considered such a thing, but yes, it would be possible. I’d need to redesign half of it, but yes…”

Nyx politely coughed.

“I have a small desire of mine that I wish you could fulfill. My friends here have recently completed a minor conquest, and would like your advice and expertise on the best place to build. Indeed, it is ideal. A pair of clients with significant funds, a land practically untouched, and a modest set of desires. I believe this is a most excellent chance to allow your creative wings to soar, with the added knowledge that your creation will see the light of day.”

Vitruvius gave Nyx a flat look before breaking into a huge smile.

“Ah, Nyx, you wily old fox! Alright, alright, I’ll do it. What have you got? Location, budget, style, requirements.” He asked Iona.

She grabbed the map out of her bag, shoved a few cups of wine over on a table, and unraveled her drawing.

“We evicted a wyrm from this mountain and the surrounding land. Budget is 2.5 million arcs for the home, we’ll handle the road. The nearest roads are here and here. We’d like to have a quality villa in the Exterreri style, enough room for an orchard, a lavish bathing room, a training ground - if you think [Gladiators] you’re close enough - and enough rooms to shuffle around. Slightly related, Fenrir, my bonded wyvern, would like to dig out a cave in the mountain, but we simply need a location for that, we’ll handle the digging on that ourselves. Thoughts?”

Vitruvius pointed over the map, and it seemed to grow, a Mirage forming over Iona’s paper.

“Is this an accurate representation?” He asked.

Iona pointed at a few spots, having him raise or lower them, and we started to draw a crowd. Vitruvius working in public was something of a spectacle.

Auri, of course, thought it would be great fun to try to get the crowd to admire her instead. At least she did it in an unobtrusive mode.

“You’ll want to focus on this area.” Vitruvius highlighted a portion of the north side of the mountain. “Build here. Grove here. Cave here. Road like this… the perimeter of the villa should look like this…”

I was good at healing, and could fix hundreds of people at once. Iona was good at archery, and could pull off the craziest trick shots.

Turns out, a high-level [Architect] could completely design a house, innards and all, in just a few minutes, and I strongly suspected most of that was explaining it all to the client.

The biggest, most obnoxious issue was water. We weren’t near aqueducts, we didn’t have a stream, and a well was going to need to be dug deep into the ground. Conjured water was right out, it was no way to live long-term, and rain collection would require enormous catchers.

“... and this tower here houses the water. I will leave filling it as an exercise for you, as there are nearly as many ways to fill it as there are skills in the System. Is this satisfactory?”

I looked at Iona with my jaw open.

“Brrrpt!” Auri was all about the ‘room of mirrors’, and hey, I had nothing against it. We all needed something for ourselves.

The house was fucking amazing. She looked at me, and I started to nod furiously, remembering to close my mouth.

“Vitruvius, you are even more talented and skilled than I’d heard. I will sing your praises for as long as I live, and I will see what I can do to make your dream of a floating city become real.” Iona praised.

He looked as smug as a peacock, and the entire Mirage warped, sinking back into her paper. Instead of Iona’s original drawing, however, an intricate and detailed set of blueprints was left.

How did that work!? I mean, skills, obviously, but I wasn’t aware Mirage could make lasting changes like that!

Well, we had a blueprint now.

Night said his thanks, and we were off to the next hurdle to easily clear, the next barrier destroyed.

Mundane administrative barriers weren't the only thing Night handled. Apparently, Arachne’s meeting with Command went quickly and well, the same day we found ourselves deep underwater, in Arachne’s… control chamber? I wasn’t sure what she called it, but it was the lair under Bloodmoon Bay that she’d dragged me to.

The view was still amazing, and if I had the funds, desire, protection, and ability to easily escape, I’d love my own underwater lair.

Wait, no.

I was going about this all wrong.

This was just like a boat.

I didn’t want an underwater lair.

I wanted a good friend with an underwater lair. All the fun, none of the hassle.

Focus.

I held Iona’s hand, and Auri was on her traditional place on my shoulder. Night was standing slightly behind me, a pillar of reassurance. Arachne’s eyes were slightly glazed over, and I could see why she situated herself in such an isolated spot when doing her… spymaster? Thing.

She had to be doing a lot. Normally, it looked like she could handle a dozen conversations at once while tracking everything, only showing the briefest of distractions.

Or maybe it was some sort of social power play thing?

Ha! I was utterly immune to those! I couldn’t be weirded out or analyze dynamics if I had no idea what they were!

Less than a minute after we arrived, Arachne ‘snapped’ back to the present.

“I’m so sorry about that, the [Lord Commander] of the Bloodsworn order was causing a minor spot of bother. It’s all resolved. Now, Iona, I believe you wished to know about Shadow Sentinel operations over the last 20 years?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Iona’s fingers slowly curled up.

“Yes.” She said.

“Good. Here are redacted copies of the records. Unfortunately, I can’t let you leave with them, and the Sentinel’s name, title, and abilities are redacted, but they should be sufficient for your needs. Oh! We also need to burn them before you leave,”

Auri looked way too excited about that, stars practically gleaming in her eyes.

“But feel free to review them while I give the quick rundown.”

I relaxed. I didn’t think they’d bump us off if we said no, and redacted records indicated that they’d be fine if we said no.

I split off a [Parallel Thought] and started reading through all the detailed records. Hey, I had a reading class, why not abuse it to sneak a peek at super confidential information? I was at a class-up point, every little bit that could help my quality was nice.

“First. Faking Emir Sahar’s great-to-the-seventh granddaughter’s death. She’d fallen madly in love with Emir Ramil’s great-to-the-fourth grandson, and the two families hate each other. Half the people involved were utterly incompetent, and if we just let it all go, they’d probably end up warring in such a way that had an unacceptably high risk of triggering the next Immortal war. Framing Patriarch Penpa for cultivating demonic techniques. The man was a warmonger, his sect destroying its rivals and quickly growing. In a hilarious twist, the Shadow Sentinel in question reported that he didn’t need to frame Patriarch Penpa, the man was already cultivating demonic techniques according to the Monasteries own definition!”

I chuckled slightly at that one, and Arachne continued giving us the list.

A stolen ring, intended to frame someone, returned to its rightful owner. A rigged election. A subtle nudging of a powerful Immortal who’d lost it all to seek forgiveness and help, instead of directly seeking revenge. Sabotaging a budding relationship that could’ve made a superpower. Detouring a religious order. Smuggling out a town’s worth of Ekada Ruh changelings. A rebellion neutered in its infancy by one Shadow, who apparently kept them all busy bickering among themselves instead of executing any plans. A young Void mage, who was deliberately trying to trigger one of the city-ending explosions.

“I’ll be honest.” Arachne said after detailing that one. “That one was me, and we’d usually let the local Ranger team handle it. I didn’t want to run the risk.”

Iona looked briefly unhappy, then nodded.

“Completely understandable. I would’ve taken the same action.” She said.

Iona was a little frustrating at times. It wasn’t okay to execute someone like that… except when it was. I got that there was nuance to it, and I imagined I had to be just as irritating when I looked like a hypocrite with my [Oath]. Let’s blast the adventurer! Wait, no, never mind, let’s heal him and save him. The ruleset was internally consistent, and I knew what was going on in Iona’s mind, but that only helped with the frustration a bit.

“... and, lastly, we had to lightly poison one of the elven clan leaders. Given how upset they’d be over the incident, I hope you understand when I say I can’t tell you who. They needed to miss an important meeting, and that’s all I can say on the topic.”

Iona nodded.

“All this seems more than reasonable. I’ve got no issues with Elaine joining, I just need to do some thinking if I want to be on her team.” Iona started to pace back and forth, reading over the detailed notes of each operation Arachne had shared.

Auri started hopping around in delighted little circles on my shoulder.

My reading speed was unfortunately high in some respects. I was already done.

“Honestly my dear, you don’t need to make a decision now. Indeed, while Sentinels operate as the head of a team these days, the members of the team are a little more on the flexible side. Whatever assistance and help you give to Sentinel Dawn is between the two of you, on a case-by-case, mission-by-mission basis. With that said, while I have you here, I’d like to propose a special job just for you, my dear [Paladin] of the moons.”

Iona stopped her pacing, put the papers down, and looked at Arachne.

“I’m listening.”

“As you can see, broadly, we aim to uphold stability and peace, not just in Exterreri, but in all places that could end up spilling over to our Empire. There are a number of people I would like to get your eyes on, that I suspect have skills that are massively destabilizing, or are primed and ready to flat-out murder hundreds of thousands. I’m not asking you to spy, you’ll never be asked to give details on political opponents or people of that nature, I’m not asking you to report every detail of what you see back to me - although, I won’t lie, that would be appreciated - simply… take a little peek at people who could be an issue, and confirm if they are. Much better than simply wandering around, hoping you encountered an [Assassin] in the wild, no?”

Iona gave a little jerky nod, and Arachne beamed.

“Excellent! Again, I’d like to reiterate. If at any time you don’t want to participate, or if you feel what you see is harmless enough, you don’t have to tell me! Simply looking at the person is enough for me. Ah! Remuneration. How does 10,000 arcs per person sound?”

“I’ll need to think about all this more.” Iona said. Under her breath, in English - still loud enough for everyone to hear what she was saying, but the tone was clearly private, along with the language, she muttered to me.

“What was that saying you told me about again? The road to hell is paved with good intentions or something? Yeah, I’m feeling that pretty hard right now.”

I doubted Night or Arachne knew what Iona was saying, but there was always a chance, especially with Arachne’s ability to cold read. Then again, that was more tone, body language, and general feelings rather than deciphering new languages… I hoped. If they did, they didn’t say anything, and were polite enough to pretend Iona hadn’t said a thing.

Arachne clapped her hands together.

“Wonderful, simply wonderful! Now, Dawn, I must ask formally. Would you like to be formally instated to active duty, to once again take up the mantle of Sentinel Dawn?”

I didn’t need to know what Auri was thinking, she was throwing a silent fit on my shoulder, bobbing her head furiously, jumping up and down. Staying remarkably quiet, she knew it wasn’t her moment.

Iona though?

I looked at her. She locked eyes with me, then gave me a grin.

Goddesses, that grin.

She nodded once, and I turned back to Arachne, saluting in the ancient style.

“Of course. What happens next?”