Chapter 1410 (Patreon)

“Good morning, Mother,” Luna greeted me when I stepped out of the shadows into the main area of the Nexus Tower. “You look…” she paused, blinking in confusion. “You look wet and annoyed. What happened? Did you find something interesting?” she asked, a touch of disbelief colouring her voice, alongside a bit of longing. It seemed I wasn’t the only one who was getting bored by the lack of action. Other than Lia stalking people far beneath her abilities, things had been rather boring lately. Especially for poor Silva, our canine friend had basically set up shop near Jademoon Tower and was roaming the forest, trying to mark each and every tree as hers.

“No,” I grumbled. “Just, no,” I shook my head, reaching out with my magic to draw out the moisture from my clothes. I had no idea how it had managed to get there; the only explanation was that moisture from the air had seeped into my clothes, but that was about it. All liquid water should have been repelled, but that didn’t mean much when the humidity was high enough that one might try swimming through the air. 

“Too many boars, hares and other assorted critters, weirdly confusing plants that seem to blanket the entire forest with their effect and torrential rain make for an incredibly unpleasant time exploring a forest,” I complained, yet again considering in how many ways I could completely and utterly destroy that stupid forest.

“That sounds boar-ing,” she mirrored my earlier mental pun, making me groan just a little. If nothing else, Luna’s sense of humour demonstrated that she was my daughter; it could be just as bad as mine. “But then, you reap what you sow,” she added another porcine pun, making me groan a little louder.

“Really?” I shook my head. “So, should I stop exploring a place that we know has one dungeon nearby, and had another that might have been replaced?” I asked, amused by how quickly her interest was piqued. 

“Dungeons, you say?” She asked, pausing for a second, obviously thinking about my words, “Wait, you are close to the farm, right? In the first impossible forest, with the creepy hotel?”

“Indeed,” I nodded. “Are you interested in joining me when I go back? Right now, the area is being drowned by rain, so we’ll have to wait a bit, but you can join me,” I offered.

“Sure,” she immediately agreed, clearly very enthusiastic to go on another adventure. Not that I could blame her; we hadn’t done a whole lot since building the Nexus Tower, a little over half a year ago. Well, at least not a whole lot of fighting or exploring. She had been relatively busy with her experiments on creating life, and I was quite confident that Maggie’s community now hosted two thriving religious groups. One dedicated to the Mother, embarrassing as that was, and one dedicated to Lady Hecate. I wasn’t sure how the two groups managed the obvious overlap, but I was just happy that there didn’t seem to be any conflict between them.

“Want to go get Sister and Silva? Get the band back together, or something like that?” Luna asked, bouncing a little in her seat, showing just how bored my daughter had been here. I really had to figure out a good way to let her teleport without help. Or prod her in the direction of Lady Hecate; there was a reason why I had installed the new anchors after all.

“We can try,” I nodded in agreement. “Lia should be somewhere near Jademoon Tower, stalking some hapless fools, or was that some hapless food?” I shook my head for a second, a grin on my face. “And I’m pretty sure Silva is somewhere in that area, too. Maybe reconnecting with Alex; I’m not quite sure.”

“Sure, we can go there.” She looked out of the window for a second, a small frown appearing on her face. “Do you think they’ll be out and about right now? I mean, it’s…” she paused, clearly trying to estimate the local time up here, in the north, and translate it into the time at Jademoon Tower. “Well, it’s early; they’ll be going to sleep right now.” 

“True, knowing Lia, she has found herself some nice, dark hole to crawl into. But Silva can always sleep, so that’s not that much of an argument,” I grinned, an expression she returned.

“Yeah, there were days I wondered if that dog got up at all. She likes her naps,” Luna agreed, obviously thinking of one of the numerous rather amusing occasions with Silva. 

“Until something disturbs her watch,” I reminded her, “Then, Silva suddenly goes from sleepy and a little derpy dog to a beast able to match the hounds of Hel.”

“Even if that ‘something’ is just a figment of her imagination and she was dreaming,” Luna laughed, and I joined in. 

“Speaking of figments and imagination,” Luna changed the topic; the earlier amusement faded and was replaced by a rather serious expression. “Want to see what I’ve been working on? It doesn’t work as well as I want it to just yet, but I feel I’m on the right path. And, well, I’ll soon need some new feedstock; I’ve gone through most of what we stored already,” she explained, a slightly embarrassed smile on her face. 

“Already?” I couldn’t help but feel shocked, as I knew just how much stuff we had packed into those tanks, ready to be turned into the nutrients she needed for her creations. “How many rabbits did you breed? And what happened to them?” I asked as we walked towards her experimental chamber. It was relatively close to the main area, so the walk wasn’t far. Luckily, Luna didn’t use the original bio-lab I had made for her, with the numerous safeguards installed. Just a large, fairly simple chamber, filled with her equipment. 

“Well…” she paused right as we reached her chamber, and she deactivated the magic that sealed it shut. I could have done the same, but this was her place, and I was respecting her privacy.

“What in the world?” I burst out, blinking at the rabbit-apocalypse I was seeing within Luna’s laboratory. There were hundreds of rabbits in the chamber, hopping on almost every available surface. “Did they start breeding?”

“No,” Luna shook her head, “I’ve been experimenting. They’re all girls, so no breeding should occur, but, yeah, I’ve been busy,” she explained, a little embarrassed. 

“Well, I guess you’ve got the rabbits down. What’s next on your list, and how fast can you grow them? And into what stage?” I asked, curious how her experiments had progressed from making one rabbit in the same time a rabbit would carry naturally.

“I’ll show you,” she offered, carefully making her way over to one of the tanks, only to get swarmed by apparently hungry rabbits. “We’ll have to take care of them, too. Or find good homes for them, either in the wild or with people.” 

“But later,” she added, just as she stepped up to that tank. “Now, watch closely.” 

With that, she placed her hands against the tank, and I could feel some power swirl around her. Not a whole lot; this was clearly a precision task, but enough to notice. The tank, and curiously a few runes I had never seen before engraved into the stone, started to glow, the liquid inside shining with a faint light, switching through a few different colours. Then, the glow faded, and I could see a rabbit in the tank, just in time for Luna to pull the little critter out.

At first, the creature was completely still, to the point that I couldn’t even see if it was moving at all. Then, Luna came alight with a torrent of power, strong enough to be visible to the naked eye of someone without any magical ability. To me, it was almost blinding, and I was fairly certain that she wasn’t just channelling Astral Power, but that there was some divine power mixed in, too. Familiar divine power, familiar, to the point that I could almost grab hold of it and control it on my own. Likely because the entity this divine power belonged to used to be part of me, giving me a stark and very weird reminder that the Mother was its own entity now. 

Then, the flood of power abated, leaving a slightly winded Luna to hold a rabbit that was starting to get animated. At first, it was only breathing, but then, within the span of maybe thirty seconds, Luna had to set it down, and it was starting to hop about, looking just like all the other rabbits in Luna’s laboratory.

The entire process, from start to finish, had taken maybe ninety seconds, certainly not more than two minutes. 

“Impressive,” I complimented, already planning to perform some experiments that intersected with hers. “Would you be willing to let me join in on a few of your experiments? I’d love to figure out how the different steps work. And would you be willing to give me an idea what that last part was, when you channelled that much power?” I asked, quite amazed by my dear daughter’s progress.

Soon, I would be able to bring back Sigmir. I just had to do my own part.