CoESC Book 18-14.2: Sagebright Archipelago (Patreon)

One would think that the remaining journey to Sagebright Archipelago would be quite eventful just from what happened during their first stop, but sadly, it wasn’t. Oh, something happened midway into the journey, about the time Augustus ended and Septembrius started. That was when they ran into bandits on ships that were plying the shipping route between Rakkisgrad and Sagebright City, which was at the centre of seven islands and the largest of them all. 

That wasn’t where Bellemer was located; however, it was no more than fifty longstrides south of the centre isle. The Sea Sage’s destination was Bellemer’s island, though Yuriko didn’t know if it had any other name. The Sagebright Archipelago was actually home to three different magi academies, though Bellemer was apparently the biggest. Or perhaps, it was more accurate to say that Bellemer was the only one headquartered in the Archipelago and the other two were offshoot branches of academies from other nations. 

Anywho, the sea bandits appeared out of a cove on several motorboats; each one could carry four or so of them. Yuriko counted half a dozen boats, easily with enough men to overcome the Sea Sage’s crew. Perhaps most tellingly, at least one man on each boat had an assault rifle, and they fired warning shots towards the yacht. The rounds struck the hull above the waterline, which had Magus Elaine running into the pilot’s cabin and hastily cast her Reinforce spell. 

It was apparently the general spell that Elaine had inscribed, rather than the specialised one, Yuriko learned when she remarked on the woman’s phenomenal control over the yacht during the volcanic disturbance. 

“The advantages of the specialised spell grow as the magus grows, but there’s still a limit. I believe versatility serves more than power, most times,” Elaine said softly. “But that’s just my opinion, of course.”

She went on to mention that she hadn’t influenced the other three apprentices, though serendipitously, each one chose a different variant anyway. Afterwards, she looked at Yuriko expectantly. 

“Hmmm, I suppose the generalised version is the closest one to my abilities,” Yuriko admitted. She could send her Animus into things using the Empower technique, but she certainly didn’t have the skill to infuse an entire yacht, nor was she used to manipulating infused objects in such a way. The most she’d ever done with the Animus technique was strengthen a weapon and endow it with the power to cut through an enemy’s Field. Neither had she ever used her Anima in a similar process. What she did was to build Animus constructs, then she’d infuse them with her Anima to control them. Later, she directly controlled things with Animakinesis, and she never needed to infuse her Anima into an object to directly manipulate it. 

… perhaps she should look into that? 

And the result of a couple of weeks’ experimentation was a bit promising, but with the major disadvantage of the item degrading as her Radiance-imbued Anima ate away at the material she imbued. It solved her problem of the plane pressing down on her kinesis, but if she imbued a pebble, she could easily manipulate it to the limits of her reach. Of course, that thing only lasted for several minutes, and the harder she pushed it, the faster it disintegrated. Otherwise, it was similar to using a Helpful Hand spell, which also meant that being seen by any uninitiated would build up a backlash, just as it did to any other magi using overt spells. Oddly enough, if she added a bit of Animus to an object, there would be a threshold where it would remain unharmed—depending on the lumens and the object’s mass—before it began to degrade. The backlash also didn’t build up until the degradation began. 

As for what kind of backlash Irisvaile slapped down on magi…well, the best way to describe it was a bout of extreme bad luck. The shorter the duration, the worse it was. The annoying thing, according to Elaine and Nemeo, was that it differed every time the backlash occurred. The threshold before something happened also differed, so one couldn’t really be ready for it. Elaine showed a puckered scar on her left side and said that was what happened when one pushed too much. 

Yuriko didn’t really care, mostly because she had probably drawn upon the backlash, but it had been too weak, or mixed in with her other encounters, to matter. In fact…perhaps it was the bad luck that actually drew those annoyances. Yeah…

Well, all things to consider. Either way, her physique was normally more than enough to handle most things she encountered. 

As for the sea bandits, Nemeo popped out from below decks brandishing his own assault rifle. When he infused it with his Reinforce spell, it also allowed him to be a bit more accurate in his shooting. His first salvo nearly killed the sea bandit that had been piloting the boat, and his second struck the gunner. 

They fired back, of course, but when Magus Elaine empowered the ship, the bullets bounced back rather than penetrating the thin hull. The younger magi ducked behind cover, and Yuriko ventured to the opposite side where the other set of raiders had circled. In her hand were a bunch of pebbles and stones she’d taken from the beach back in Brosmore. She infused each one with several lumens of Animus, then reared back and threw them at her foes. She didn’t adjust their flight in an obvious manner, but then again, there was little need to. Her incarnation body was nearly seventy percent refined with Radiant Physique, and while her Anima strength was limited, her body was not. In fact, Radiant Physique was the common factor in each body and the gap between the true and the incarnation was less than fifty percent rather than ten and five percent Anima. Which meant that she was monstrously strong—and heavier than she looked—so that each stone shattered the air halfway to their targets. Normally, she would then control the speed at which she threw the things, but they actually didn’t sound much different from a large-calibre bullet. 

Either way, her stones, subtly altered so that the hits wouldn’t pulp her targets, quickly disarmed and disabled the bandits. She left the pilots alone to allow them to leave, and once they were moving away and no more came, she hopped up next to the mast. Nemeo had killed or injured all of the bandits on his side of the boat, and they were soon in retreat. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the last bit of trouble they encountered of a similar vein. They were minor nuisances at best. Apparently, the route to the Sagebright Archipelago was well known and travelled, which seemed odd to Yuriko since it was a wide ocean after all. The Inner Sea was about three thousand longstrides across, and was nearly a perfect circle. But apparently, the underwater terrain shaped the currents in such a way that there were lanes that one could follow to reach different points in the Inner Sea. There was only a limited number of sea lanes that one could take to reach Sagebright Archipelago, which meant that bandits could hang around the lanes and ambush ships as they crossed the ocean. That was precisely what happened once or twice every week they were on the Sea Sage. Sea bandits attacked and were driven off, or just as often, schools of Mudkippers would attempt to board the ship to get at them. Ah, there was one time when the ‘kippers attacked while a bunch of raiders made their attempt, and they got boarded, swarmed, then devoured. None of the others was bothered by the attack, so Yuriko didn’t try anything either, other than defend the yacht anyway. 

How long had it been since they left Rakkisgrad? Yuriko’s sense of time was a bit off-kilter, and considering the true self just chucked the agreed synchronisation schedule into a blender, there went her sense of routine. It…might have been a month at sea already? It was definitely Septembrius, but wasn’t the projected travel time about sixty days? Or had it been ninety? She couldn’t recall. All she knew was that her true self had just moved to the second layer of Shangria, and was well on her way to the third layer. She recognised the advancement of Radiance to Colligia, and it cemented the idea of how much easier it was to advance with a Primordial Element rather than a tertiary one. The Sword was considered Tertiary since it was built upon by sentients rather than existing in nature by itself. There will always be Fire, Water, Wind, and so on even without people to witness it, but the Sword could not exist without wielders. 

There was wisdom in that simple statement, she was sure, but she’d gone over such things so many times that they became redundant and obtuse. Still, this incarnation’s path to enlightenment remained the same as the other incarnation, even if some things had been accomplished. They created and merged different Truths of the Sword, and the combined Truth was simply her Truth. Now, what was needed was to find more ways, more Truths of the Sword and combine it all with that singular, all-encompassing Truth. And she knew she couldn’t find those truths without seeing new things, fighting new foes, or even watching others flail about in their own way. 

But had she moved beyond the basics, she wondered. Her journey throughout the years flashed before her mind, of the varied stations of the sword she crossed and returned to. Of how her initial foray had turned out to be a mistake until she corrected her foundations. The three dances of the sword had been based on Intent and not in physical structure after all, and it was only when she went back that she was able to progress. New structures meant that Intent had more things to anchor to…

Well, not that she expected to find the way here. Nowhere in history did she find any sort of storied swordsmen, after all. Or perhaps, they were too well hidden to find. Something she had to consider as well was what she would do once she found her wayward children. She was also sure that they had guardians, perhaps those same people who managed to bleed her true self. Would she have the might to confront and defeat them? Would she have the strength to safeguard her children, and the strength to leave this place? For that matter, where would she go afterwards? 

Questions upon questions, and she needed answers now before she committed herself. 

She could rely on her true self to advance in power, as it was simply inevitable. How long before they achieved Manifestation? When she did, all incarnations would grow in power. Where now, her Anima could reach a bit over thirty paces; upon advancement, it would no doubt return to a hundred or more. Of greater import was the quality of her Anima and her general level of power. She would likely return to Transformation level when her true self advanced, which also meant gaining the power to throw off the yoke of Irisvaile’s restrictions. That would make things so much simpler, didn’t it? 

Another week in Septembrius eventually found them closing in on Sagebright Archipelago. Yuriko was on deck, and she saw the main island. Well, she saw a couple of other islands too, but she wasn’t sure what they were called.

Even so, the big, central one was quite breathtaking. She saw tall cliffs of grey and green, quite like the walls of a caldera, now that she had a bit more time to observe. The yacht was pointed towards a break in the cliff walls that looked quite like a harbour town. A couple of hours later, the Sea Sage docked, and it took another couple of hours before all the paperwork was done. Bellemer Academy wasn’t here, but on an island called Calanque nearly fifty longstrides south. Access was restricted, but it was those permits that the captain and magus Elaine had to arrange. Either way, it was closing in on midafternoon by the time the Sea Sage manoeuvred out of the docks, and it would take until dusk before they arrived.