Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 12

He walked down. Brycen extended a hand, "I am not my ancestors. I am on a very specific mission."

He sighed and shook Brycen's hand. He waved him back to see the forge. He looked at it and added his blood to it as did the other 3. They kicked it up to the right temperature; at least the new dwarven Paragon agreed it was right. The forge restarted.

They walked them out, "Close forge room."

He looked as Brycen pointed, "I wanted to show you something." He replayed the high definition on the display for him "Clear the Control Room. The King of the Golds and I need to talk for a second before they depart."

They all left. Brycen looked at him, "Those are three different species of metallics. I know that either you changed your ways, or you are hunting rogue elements of your own. You can tell me that is 'dragon business' because a duergar, drow, or evil human cannot be identified by this.

I just know slavery is an ugly business. Before you answer and by no way an admission of what my eyes are showing. If you have metallics who wish to depart this world. I could take a couple hundred with me."

He shook his head, "Your eyes are not deceiving you; it is accurate. We are not in control here. Our city's controls were destroyed in a civil war that brought it crashing down. After 500 years of searching and hunting. This is 'dragon business' to clean up. These humans, dwarves, and elves are millennium behind you in raw ability. They worship no Gods. They have no magic. I am surprised your ship flies here."

Brycen nodded, "We brought our Gods with us; a portion of their power anyway. The Silvertree upfront is a living relic. I get my people together. I will see what our Gods say about trying to come back and help out an old ally. No, you did not ask but I will pose the question when the time is right."

He nodded, "I see you are a cleric to your god. You a champion as well?"

Brycen nodded, "I have 7 Moon Blades aboard that will probably be destroyed when we build this bridge. Along with 7 on the other side. We need to go. Given time I could figure out how to communicate with my people but odds are it would do no good for the bridge coming here. For the best."

He chuckled, "You bluffed about that."

Brycen nodded and handed him the note, "Not about that."

The gold dragon read the note and nodded.

Brycen extended his hand and he shook it, "Thank you for showing me that location. Gives a point to strike and try and free some of those slaves. Maybe even educate them in the ways of magic and your Gods."

Brycen smiled, "I hope your God finds you again."

He walked out and Brycen saw 'him' again. Brycen jumped in front of the bolt. He pulled it out and healed himself up, "Want a human to educate?"

His action was not lost on the Gold Dragon King. He looked at Brycen, "You are serious?"

He nodded, "I told him if he left his quarters before we departed, I would leave him behind."

Brycen dimension doored behind him and punched him in the back of the head again. He manacled his hands together and walked over, "Open forge."

He looked at Patrick who was smiling until he saw his brother. Brycen looked at him, "There are other humans in this world. He might meet one sooner or later. He is a disruption who shot at the King of the Gold Dragons, a guest on this ship. Attempted regicide. He hit me instead when I moved in-between them."

He woke up his brother. He sighed, "Goodbye brother."

Brycen walked him over to the Gold King, "He is all yours for attempted regicide. Deal with him how you see fit."

He smiled and pointed up. Brycen took him and removed his manacles. He whispered to him, "He does not eat humans. Others might not be as nice. Fuck with him and he will turn you into a smoldering cinder. You thought I was a hard ass."

The King changed and picked him up in one claw and carried him away screaming.

Brycen looked at his brother, "It had to be done. I gave him every chance in the world or worlds."

Patrick chuckled at his comment and then sighed, "The loss of our father hurt him more than me. He should not have led the revolt against you."

Brycen nodded, "When he killed my wives, your sisters, and the coming children among them, he went too far. Calling their unborn children abominations. I was left with only one option with him, others I put off. I do not know why he did not leave with them."

Patrick pointed at himself, "He wanted me to get revenge for our father. I asked him, 'Who was doing it for our sisters? The ones I watched him kill and their unborn children.' That just pissed him off even more."

Brycen shook his hand, "You have another forge to work from. Each race can get an equal slice of time on each forge."

He smiled and nodded, "That dwarven King will be happy and pissed at the same time."

Brycen nodded, "True if that King were still alive I think one of his son's rules now or they elected another. I don't really care as it is not here with the dwarves on this mission. I don't keep track of the one back there. We have enough to worry about."

Brycen went back into the command center. "Clear system record of our surveys. All shields up."

He called out as Brycen pressed the crystal, "Prepare for the next jump." He gave them the standard 15 minutes. He knew the forges were secured to the nine hells with the design they put into place. He called out, "Brace!"

He reached over and activated the jump. This one was new. Very foggy world. Brycen activated interdimensional communications. "Eldar Base here, anyone hearing us?"

Brycen heard him sighed, "That was a long jump almost ten hours."

Brycen smiled, "Get a crystal up to both Kings."

The new Patron Jorman sighed and commented, "They are up."

Brycen looked at the crystal and tried to picture their faces, "We had two jumps during this time. The first one a human mutiny occurred that cost me 2 of my 3 remaining wives, killed by their father. Who also had a hand in killing my fourth wife Pelau.

The last jump I lost one human due to stupidity, that same man's youngest son. We had guests aboard our ship for once. He tried to shoot them. I turned him over to our guests to deal with. This was not his first offense. The guest was the King of the Gold Dragons. The Eternal Forge is activated."

He waited for his Patron to respond, "They both said congratulations on completing that milestone. They are also sorry for the loss of life and your wives."

Brycen nodded, "It was not all good news for them. They are stranded on that world and part of the population went rogue. Their city-ship crashed. Like some of the humans, I left in the previous world. Unlike them, they had human, elven, and dwarven slaves.

All indigenous to that world and millennium behind us in magic and talents. I told him I would see what my Gods have to say after getting you a new world to move too. I may return. Hard to say."

It was quiet for several minutes. Finally, his Patron asked, "The world you arrived at any good?"

Brycen smiled, "I cannot see the hand in front of my face through all the fog. We will get an idea in the next eight hours. We could be up high or really low and in fog or clouds. If it is the whole planet then it is probably a large rock. The breathable air keeps bouncing from yes to no. The poison is doing the same. I am not liking the looks of this one from preliminary readings. We will likely jump again in 8 hours."

Brycen went to the forge room, "I want all of the masters to help me build a longsword worthy of epic enchanting. I want it quenched in my blood with holy water."

Patrick looked at him, "I thought you did not want weapons made?"

Brycen nodded, "I do not want to waste ship resources on it. I have a private stash for the eventual arrival to draw from for this. I planned to find a world and I kept some items for establishing a town and then a city. I am building this for a contingency. The loss of Moon Blade got me thinking about this potential issue.

If I can build another relic then we have another option for the gate if we are a blade down for some reason. We left one spare behind, they have 8 to draw from. We only have the 7 with us. I want to add an eighth to this side of the bridge. In case we run into that problem."

Patrick nodded his understanding.

Deca 23rd 11702

The blade was finished. Brycen had melded a Silvertree root the length of the blade and the length of the handle. It had a red tinge to it from all of his blood. He had debated long and hard about this decision. He finally broke the gem for Charlus. He looked at him. "I have an enchanting project for you. I want you to enchant this sword with these properties bound to this amulet."

He looked at Brycen, "Why are you doing this?"

Brycen smiled, "An issue will arise that I have to address. Moon Blade was killed during a mutiny. If a blade is gone, unassigned, or lost when the gate needs to be activated then that blade and the Silvertree can take its place. It gives us the margin of error we need. We left a margin of one extra behind. We might need a margin in front of us.

That tree is as powerful or more powerful than my blade. This is the amulet to enchant it into. One of the holy symbols with you represented. It will get tied around the tree. The sword has to have voice activation for the transference ability."

He chuckled, "You have me doing it because the transference fusion kills the enchanter. I am going away to the afterlife already."

Brycen looked at him and nodded, "Everything you need is in this room. I put this enchanters' room into the design. Took two bedrooms but that is alright. You are remembered for your skill with a blade, spy, diplomat, freer of slaves, and most importantly a Master Enchanter that killed hundreds of dragons and thousands of half-dragons with his shield designs.

You opened the door for us back into the rest of the world. Also, the gods have to give you access to the spell as it is draconic necromancy. Else you are stuck with us. You helped to slow the chaos for everyone.

You should be the one to craft this item to tie your legacy to saving the elven people one more time by coming back from the dead to build that holy weapon. Also saving who knows how many races when this bridge is finished if I have to use this."

He nodded, "You gave me one hell of a task to complete. I did not enchant swords in life, but this is a cross between a sword and a wondrous item. I can do this as the gods gave me the power to help you with one task. That power included access to those spells...just in case but they would have hardly predicted this action. I want you here when I finish it. I find your hilt design very curious."

Brycen smiled, "Like the Moon Blade but a pair of Silvertree seeds. Just like Starista with two children fused into one to create Nova Silvertree. The acorn has fallen from the tree. That seed will hopefully regrow the Great Silvertree when it is doing the fusion has to have something to fuse. Two children become one and it takes some from the mother."

Charlus nodded, "Now it makes sense to what you are trying to accomplish. Use the Great Silvertree as a relic potentially, tie it into the design if needed, and be able to regrow it in the future from the fused seed.

While planning for a possible loss of capability on this side of the bridge from a lost, broken, or missing blade. Very clever. You are looking ahead and seeing this possibility because of the mutiny you have already had to deal with."

Jula 33rd 11703

Brycen looked at him as he had thought long and hard about this. "I am naming the blade Charlus's Hiltannta (Salvation). Its enchantments are known only to us, and Nolla'Vasi who knows you well. Even better now."

He nodded and chuckled, "Her mind was like mine, yet she absorbed my memories at a very young age. Also my anger at the Gods at that time. The Lady of Dreams mostly. We forgave each other along time ago.

Nolla'Vasi has time to go before considering her own plans on that. How she came about was...well it was hard on the Gods as well as the Champions who watched her from the afterlife. She was a stubborn woman in life.

You forgave the enchanter much faster than I would have. You were suited to this role, yet I am sorry about the wives you have lost in this journey. Work to have more children. I know the options are limited aboard the ship. Time for that last spell. I was surprised by your choice, but now that I looked at it, you benefited from my knowledge as well."

Brycen smiled, "Like your communication crystal focus for teleportation, you talked with me about. When you used it to find your stolen gear for example. You taught me about that as none of us used it or tried to after you passed.

I have a feeling it might come in handy at some point. It is worth passing down that knowledge as you had not tried to teach that to your own children. Also, it has been a pleasure to get to know and learn from your experiences personally. The calmer Charlus that Nolla'Vasi got to add to the picture of you."

He smiled and nodded at Brycen as they shook hands. Charlus cast in the final spell and was gone.

Nola'Vasi thought to him, "I learned more about him through those exchanges. I can help to teach other wielders if I manage to survive. As you know it, then I know it. Was not something I could cast magically, but could through the sword and psionically, though I never tried to do it through a crystal with psionics.

I relied on the sword for that ability. I used so many different abilities in my life. I tried them all but saw no need for it because of the Moon Blade having it available. I had his memories of doing it and trying it. The aspect of teaching something I never could cast is now within me, as I know it from your learning of the ability from another."

Juna 18th 11931

Brycen dreaded this contact, "Eldar Base. Anyone there?" He heard, "Yes. It is Alurna, I have taken over as Patron; he will be dead soon and is unresponsive."

That made the fourth patron he had lost since he left. Brycen groaned, "The last jump we lost 12 elves, 30 dwarves, 86 humans and both elf-blooded people remaining. Before anyone goes crazy back there our disease detection did not pick this up. It showed a breathable atmosphere. The horses were unaffected.

Current crew. Elves are down to 240, Dwarves are at 200 with 1 birth on that jump, humans are at 640. No problems with this generation of humans noted. I squashed any talks of rebellion or mutiny by showing the new leaders the fact they could not control the ship and could end up trapped inside of it on a world completely inhospitable.

We just arrived at jump 19,874. I can already tell you this world is not looking good. Air and poison detection look fine but I am seeing no landmasses. None so far.

Massive water world. Will contact when we jump again."

He walked over to Gods' Eye, "Anything of note?"

He nodded, "Our diamonds picked up another diamond or something floating directly ahead. The planet core; what is not molten is iron, nice adamantium, and mithril. It is a trove of other minerals and crystals."

Brycen nodded, "Give me a view above us." He threw it up and saw three massive moons with what looked like cities.

Brycen sighed, "Invert diamonds. See if we can pick up anything on our system."

He made the adjustments as they had on hundreds of worlds. He brought up what looked like a scene of chaos in one world. A 6-armed humanoid was fighting some insect-looking creature. They checked the other two. One had those 6-armed creatures and the other the insects. He sighed, "Take a scan of that diamond ahead of us."

He nodded and focused in on it, "Looks like a large net, a crystal of some type and not a diamond. It had metal running through it as well. With the shape of the net, if they are covering this world, then they have 240 of them in the sky of this world, assuming they function like our diamonds and cover the whole world."

He nodded, "All stop. We get attacked we will jump. In 8 hours we jump regardless."

4 hours later and they had 2 ships approaching extremely fast. They slowed and scanned Eldar Base. Brycen looked at Jericho, "Everyone, prepare for the jump. Focus Gods' Eyes at the ship nearest us."

They had something that blocked them from scanning. They picked up an image of a face. He called out, "Turn off sound blocking." They heard a chittering sound. He cast a tongues spell. They seemed to be alarmed at first. He pressed the crystal to broadcast, knowing everyone onboard would know that he was talking to another species.

Brycen said firmly, "We are explorers jumping randomly between material planes. We will leave shortly. We see 2 well-established civilizations and we do not wish to interfere in any internal struggle you might be having.

We are searching for a world suitable for our kind. This world is not it."

The voice asked, "Why leave homeworld?"

Brycen sighed, "Sun is dying, will be endless night soon. We cannot survive that way. I should say thrive that way."

The face responded, "What did you do to be able to talk to us?"

Brycen sighed, "I cast a tongues spell. I hear you in my language and you hear me in your language."

The face was shocked, "Spells. Magic is sparse here. You fly your ship with magic?"

Brycen smiled, "Yes, you do not?"

He heard a reply. "We use energy crystals harvested from the planet below. After we depleted the ones in our world. Same for the Aggrons, the people on other ship."

Brycen nodded, "Looked like a conflict between you 2 on that 1 moon. Peaceful on the other 2 but separate."

Brycen heard back, "You do not do this?"

Brycen smiled, "No. We have 4 races represented on this ship. One being our intelligent War Horses. They read our surface thoughts and respond. They can scan the surface of a mind when needed, as long as they know the language.

With the tongues spell your Aggrons as you call them can hear this conversation as well. At least my responses. Turn link one toward the other ship. See what we get."

Brycen looked at the image, "You are the Aggrons?"

He heard back, "That is a slur against us. We are the Hintra. Aggrons is a lesser creature in their eyes. Even though we match every move they make."

Brycen bowed, "I make my apologies to the Hintra. Did you have questions for us?"

Brycen heard back, "You offering aid?"

Brycen shook his head, "No. We are not involved in any part of your conflicts. We are just searching for a new world. This is not it. We will depart shortly."

He asked, "What do you call your race?"

Brycen smiled, "Elven for me, Human for the man in front of me, and Dwarven for the man sitting next to him."

She looked at Brycen, "Woman."

Brycen sighed, "My apologies, the woman next to him is dwarven. To our eyes, it is difficult to tell the men from the women on dwarves. Our issue, not their issue. We have interacted with them for over 10 millennia and we cannot tell that simple issue."

Brycen heard what sounded like a laugh.

He asked, "You breed with other races?"

Brycen nodded, "Sometimes. Family history has human and dragon unions being done to create half-dragons or half-elven. We call them both elf-blooded. Meaning if we mate with them, they would produce elven children. They would carry strong markers from the other parent and that helps to infuse our very blood with magic or psionics. The dwarves do not have magic.

They are master craftsmen for their people. Sometimes ours. Are you to at war? Conflict?"

Brycen heard a sigh, "On and off. The third world is contested ground. Our bodies require one environment and they can tolerate just about any. They try to change the environment to be unsuitable to us. They break easily."

Brycen asked, "By break you mean kill?"