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Echos Chapter 2
🕑 Added 2023-11-08 19:58:01 +0000 UTCEchos Chapter 2
Jasmine was stirring her tea while she sat and watched the initial coverage of the Ascension ceremony with her delving team and a few of their closest friends.
They, like everyone else in the Empire, had used the occasion for an excuse to party. Anything that wasn’t a food establishment was shut down, and the restaurants and bars were packed to the gills.
They’d had some luck with their delving recently, pulling an impossibly valuable [Light Manipulation] from a rift, and there had been enough surplus from the sale that they’d been able to rent out the entire top floor of a fairly upscale restaurant. Part of it was the Ascension, sure, but they had an additional reason to celebrate. At long last, she’d formed her Concept, making her the first person in her team to truly outgrow the bottled ones. The lack of crowds made the celebration all the more enjoyable, and given how noisy the floors below were, she was really glad they’d splurged for it.
She had to admit, Marcus had been smart by inviting Lin and Bianca’s teams to this. They were friendly teams, and their additions had lowered the prices of the venue to something reasonable. It also helped that Felix was on Lin’s team. They had been circling around each other for the last few months, and tonight would be a good night to seal the deal.
Not that they would get married or anything— neither of them were even two hundred years old yet. And as Tier 9s, they were some of the strongest people in their age group, so something like settling down was out of the question.
Frankly, Jasmine wasn’t sure how much longer their team would even be on this planet. She had joined them after becoming friends with Jacqueline when her original team, the team she had been at the PlayPen with, had started to slow down their rate of delving below what she desired. Marcus and his team were far more driven, and like her, were willing to delve twice a month which kept them advancing at a damn good pace.
As one of the news anchors commented on some of the people attending the ceremony, a pair of nobles who had been in seclusion for the last millennia, she reflected that she wasn’t the actual fastest in her peer group.
Her musings were interrupted by Jacqueline, who came over with an entire bottle of liquor. “What are you thinking?”
“Just… a long, long time ago, I was trying to get a sponsor for the Path myself, you know? I thought I was pretty much assured a spot, with my grades and my delving record. I felt like I measured up pretty well to the Pathers I knew, and I had convinced myself that I could do it just as well as they had. But now…” She waved at the broadcast. “I’m just thinking about how Torch and Quill are basically my age, and it makes all of my accomplishments seem a lot less impressive, you know?”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” her friend reassured her. “Ascenders are freaks of nature. Focus on what you do have, what you did accomplish. You came from a tiny world out in the middle of nowhere, with no high-Tier sponsors, bloodlines, or long-lost treasures to your name. And now, still less than two hundred, you have a Concept, are closing in on Tier 10, and are one of the top delving teams on a Tier 9 world. There’s plenty of noble brats who can’t even claim that. Don’t compare yourself to the likes of them.”
Felix nodded as he sidled to her side. “Exactly. An Ascender is one out of a quadrillion. Quintillion. Sextillion. I dunno, some really big number. Even if you account for them, it hardly changes the average.”
“Median.” Jacqueline interjected.
“Median, yes. My point is, why compare ourselves to someone who might as well not exist? They’re freaks of nature who eat rocks for breakfast.”
“With no milk.” Jamal smirked as he cut in, but Felix just nodded.
“Freaks who eat rocks with no milk. Like think about it, how many people did you know before Awakening, or at Tier 1, are even still alive? For me at least, pretty much everyone I grew up with passed away from simple old age decades ago. Shit, the only reason my parents are alive is because I was able to pay for them to advance, and even they’re still getting older faster than they’re cultivating.”
Jacqueline snorted. “Way to get morbid, man. This is meant to be a celebration.”
Jasmine shook her head. “No, I get it. I dealt with that a couple decades ago, after my parents passed away. A hundred and fifty is old for Tier 4s, and they were basically content with that. And here I am, older than they ever got but looking younger than they did when I was born. But screw mortality! A thousand years or bust!”
Jacqueline raised her glass in a toast and loudly said, “I’ll toast to that!”
Everyone on all three teams raised their glasses, even as Marcus asked, “What are we toasting?”
Jacqueline smirked as her bait had been taken. “To looking young!”
“Hear, hear!”
Even as everyone else drank, Marcus grumbled. “Fuck you, Jacqueline. We didn’t all start advancing as teenagers.”
Jacqueline raised her glass once more and called out, “A toast to a midlife crisis that pushed you to start delving!”
“Hear, hear!” For all his bitching, even Marcus raised his glass and downed its contents with enthusiasm.
Jasmine smirked as Marcus started to tell Lin and Bianca’s interested teams the story about how when he was in his forties, he came home to his wife sleeping with another man, and instead of confronting them, had just walked away. Instead of drowning his sorrows, he had initiated a divorce and sold most of his belongings before joining a delving preparatory training center and beginning a life as a delver, never to look back.
By the time he was getting to the end of his story, the newest Ascenders had started walking down the lush-looking purple carpet, and everyone went quiet to listen to the news anchor.
“And here they are. Quill, Torch, and Scoop. If you haven’t bet on who the newest Ascenders are, you have just moments left.” As the commentator started plugging a few local gambling halls, Jasmine turned her attention to the zoomed-in images of the newest Ascenders.
She had watched the Light and Shadow ceremony, so she was filled with anticipation for when the trio would reach the middle of the throne room and unveil their true identities.
She wasn’t like most of the others who had gambled, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t interested in the real identities.
Zack Varon and Allison Spein had been the children of a pair of mortal nobodies and immortal nobodies, respectively. And though that didn’t really matter on The Path of Ascension, the fact that someone like Zack could have grown up in a city like her made her somehow feel closer with the Ascender.
Would any of the trio have that same connection to the lower rungs of society?
Despite her parents running a successful company, she had come to realize that anyone who was operating on credits was a nobody. After she reached Tier 4, she hadn’t even used credits unless buying a snack or street food. Even that had become rarer as she moved to a Tier 9 world when she reached Tier 6, and now that she was Tier 9, she made more money in a single delve than her parents made in a decade.
She—
Jasmine’s brain froze as she tried to process the people who had just been unmasked.
Her eyes went right past the attractive redhead and went to the blond man walking down the throne room.
She knew him.
Except that was impossible.
But her eyes knew that jaw. It was a little older than what she remembered, more ‘early twenties’ than ‘mid teens’, but she knew that nose. Those lips. The small twitch of his cheek that said he was holding back a smile.
Except that was impossible.
Jasmine tried to process things as her eyes flicked around the screen looking for the information panel.
And there it was.
Elizabeth Moore.
Matthew Moore.
Aster Alexander.
Seeing the third name caused Jasmine’s mind to collapse.
What were the odds there were two blond, green-eyed Matthews who looked the same and were obviously connected to a fox-eared girl named Aster Alexander?
When the Commentator started reading out the information about the trio, Jasmine wanted to reach through the screen and get him to skip the information about the woman… until she realized that the woman was Matt’s wife if the new last name was to be believed.
The daughter of two royals, Matt had apparently married way, way up in society, but then the information turned to him.
Matthew Moore né Alexander, born on Lilly.
Aster Alexander, Winter Fox bonded to Matthew Moore.
Jasmine’s brain broke.
The rest of the world vanished. Colors washed away, sounds grew distant and muted, nothing but her and the broadcast existed in her mind. She unconsciously stepped forward towards the projection, eyes fixed on a face unchanged yet alien.
He’d barely aged. While she looked like a Tier 1 in their late twenties, he nearly still looked like a teenager. Early twenties if she was pushing it. His hair was the same sandy blond that it had always been, his eyes just as piercingly green as she remembered, though the spiraling galaxy that took the place of his pupils gave him an utterly otherworldly look.
Gone was the cute, slightly scrawny kid she’d known. A wiry frame had been supplanted by an absolute wall of muscle, the ever-present dirt and scrapes that came from him working himself to the bone, day in and out, had been replaced by the faintest echoes of long-healed scars. The goofy grin had been replaced with a confident smirk.
But underneath it all, he was unmistakable.
“-him, Jasmine?” a noise penetrated her mind, and Jasmine shook herself out of her stupor.
“W-what?” she asked, her attention still torn at Matt walking down the carpet as an Ascender, and her friends elbowing her in the side.
Jacqueline chuckled. “I said, did you know him, Jasmine? You’re from Lilly as well, right? He’d be about your age, did you ever see him at your PlayPen? Given your reaction, it sure seems that way.”
“Uh, um. Yeah, I knew him. I, uh, I dated him.”
“Sorry, could you repeat that?” Marcus prompted.
“I dated him. He was… he was my first real boyfriend.”
Marcus dropped his drink at that news, but Jacqueline shook her head as she clearly shared his shock.
Not really sure what she was saying, Jasmine added, “I met him not long after Aster hatched. That's how we met, Aster was being really freakin adorable at a party, and she was attached to this cute boy, and… I… I have no clue what is going on. What the fuck?”
As everyone crowded around her, Jasmine searched through her [AI]’s earliest pictures until she found one of the tiny ball of fluff she remembered. She connected to one of the bar’s supplementary screens and shared the picture for everyone to see.
Matt was there sitting cross-legged on the floor with a tiny little floof trying to get the toy he was waving in the air.
Matt and Aster.
Jasmine flipped through a few more pictures until she found one with her and Matt on a date, with Aster trying to sneak a bite of the food they had brought from the PlayPen’s cafeteria.
Jacqueline whispered, “What the fuck is right. How did you never tell us you dated an Ascender?”
Jasmine looked around and saw shock and awe in everyone's eyes. Holding up her hands, she shook her head, still a little unsteadily. “I… I didn’t know he was an Ascender. We… We basically stopped talking after I left my PlayPen. I haven’t thought about him in… well, over a century.”
Marcus had recovered his drink and was crowded in with everyone else around the table and asked, “What was he like?”
Jasmine nodded absently. “Nice.”
Jacqueline shook her. “No, you need to give us more than that. You dated him, you have to know.”
Jasmine shrugged, eyes fixed on Matt and Aster getting handed writs of nobility. “It was… a century and a half ago? Um, he was cute and fun, but kinda intense sometimes, I don’t know what you want me to say?”
Jacqueline grinned. “How was he in bed?”
Jasmine blushed as she felt everyone's eyes on her. She wasn’t usually prudish, but this somehow felt different.
Somehow, Matt becoming an Ascender had made what they had shared as kids far more personal.
Lin laughed and egged her own. “Come on, you have to share!”
Jasmine threw up her hands and tried not to pay attention to how Felix looked like he had been hit with a club. That potential relationship had been shattered, it seemed.
Oh well. The damage was done, so she might as well share a little. “We were young… but I’m sure his wife is happy.”
Bianca sighed. “Damn, I wish I could marry a princess. That must be nice.”
Karl nodded. “Anyone got a prince friend they haven't told us about? I’m single.”
That got everyone but Jasmine to laugh as they were all looking at her. “Hey, I know an Ascender, not a Princess.”
***
Griff sat with his wife Jessica as they watched the Ascension. They were mostly feeling each other up, having drank more than a little bit, and were about to get frisky when Griff jerked upright as he registered who was on the screen.
That looked like Matt.
Purging the alcohol in his system, he looked closer.
That was Matt.
“Mother fucker!”
Jessica poked his lowest rib. “Why are you yelling?”
“That's Matt!”
“Yeah, I can read?” The question in her voice told Griff that his wife hadn’t understood.
“Matt. The PlayPen kid who visited us near the end of our time working at the Lilly PlayPen.”
Jessica sat up, and Griff was about to say something when there was a knock on their door.
He was going to ignore it until the person messaged the house, “Delivery from Matthew Alexander.”
In a burst of speed, he was at the door and jerked it off its hinges as it would have been too slow to open normally.
His [AI] registered a Tier 15 courier who scanned him before proffering a small box.
He hesitated only long enough to return the door to its spot as best he could before rejoining his wife.
“A present from Matt.”
“This almost feels ominous. Did you piss him off enough to send a bomb or something?”
Griff gasped at the accusation. “Me? I would never!”
Jessica snorted. “Bullshit. It's happened twice now. Did you sign him up for some spam messages or anything?”
“Really, I didn’t. I swear.”
“Then why did he send us something?”
Griff shrugged, which left them at an impasse.
Jessica shimmied away to the other end of the couch. “Well, open it up. I want no part of whatever vengeance you brought on yourself.”
Griff really doubted that Matt would do anything like that, but he really didn’t know why else Matt would have sent him an express delivery.
Not able to do anything but open the box, he did so.
A screen popped out, and Matt, sitting there in an Ascenders uniform, grinned at him. “Hey Griff. It's Matt. I just wanted to say hi. Also, rub your nose in it a little.”
Griff looked at his wife, but she was glaring at him, clearly expecting something negative from the beginning of the recording.
“Remember after you killed that healer?”
A white-haired woman barged into the recording. “Thanks for that, by the way! I wouldn’t have liked living with her. I’m much happier being bonded to Matt!”
That must have been Aster, and memories started to flood back into Griff.
Matt had to wrestle the fox girl out of the recording, but once he did, he continued with a shit-eating grin that made Griff start to worry. That was the face he had when he was pranking one of his friends. “You said that, and I quote, ‘Matt, you are not better than the seven hundred and fourteen trillion people before you’. Well, as it turned out, you were wrong. To commiserate that, I sent you a bottle of wine and a whiskey. Now you and Jessica—” He waved. “Hi Jessica, I hope you’re well and have wrangled Griff a little— can toast to me proving you wrong.”
Griff was taken aback when Jessica reached into the box and pulled out the bottle of wine and exclaimed the label. “Ohh, nice! This is a super expensive vintage of Tier 18 pinot noir grown on East Flower.”
Griff grabbed the bottle of whisky and needed to search the name and brand to find out what it was. As his wife said, very expensive.
He was half tempted to put it on his wall and frame it, but as he smelled the surprisingly good smell of the wine, he knew he needed to open the bottle. He normally only drank wine when he couldn't get away with not drinking it, but that bottle smelled good.
The whisky smelled even better. Like fresh rain, freshly cut wood, fragrant fruits, mixed with just the faintest hint of a sweet caramel.
Pulling a glass out of his spatial ring, he poured out a finger of the whisky and sipped it.
The sip hit him like a punch in the gut, but in a good way. The whisky was Tier 18 and strong, but that just enhanced the flavors even further. He ran his tongue over his teeth as he let the flavors linger.
Damn, that was good.
Shame he wasn’t a higher Tier, or Matt might have sent them something better.
Hearing Jessica sigh, he looked up and she explained, “The wine is so good, but I had the thought it was a shame that we aren't Tier 25s or something. Matt might have sent something even more exquisite to us.”
Griff snorted. “How mercenary of you.”
Jessica laughed in his face. “Ha. Tell me you didn’t have the same thought.”
Griff shrugged. “Oh, I had the thought, but I didn’t say it. That makes me better.”
Instead of bickering with him, Jessica looked out the window. “With Cassy Tier 10 and established on her own, maybe it's time we got the gang back together and started back up with some serious delving? Not this half-hearted shit we've been doing.”
Griff thought about it for a moment and nodded. “But after we finish these bottles. If the others get wind of this, we won't get to drink but a few sips.”
Raising his own glass to Jessica’s, they toasted to a good idea.
Sipping his whisky, Griff corrected himself.
It was an exceptional idea that paired well with an exceptional whisky.
***
Miles was eating breakfast, picking at his french toast as he watched the Ascension half-heartedly. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the utmost respect for the accomplishments of what may as well have been gods among men, because he did.
Mostly, he just was glad he’d finally transferred out of Recruiting. His replacement would be up to her neck in new hopefuls trying to replicate the success of the Empire’s newest celebrities, but he was Tier 10 now and beyond all of that. Even as a relatively high-level manager, it had been an utter nightmare in the wake of Light and Shadow’s completion, and he was happy to be away from the worst of it.
And it felt good.
Really good.
The Masks fell away, revealing the identities of the new Ascenders, and Miles picked through their public profiles, wondering what new fads and copycats would sweep through the delving community, hoping to recapture the success of the best in the Realm.
Elizabeth Moore, a pyromancer warrior pretending to be a blood mage, daughter of two Royals. That would be amusing, but fire specialists were common enough it was unlikely they’d see too much of a resurgence. And maybe it would inspire some more savory folks to try out blood magic. It was always the most self-important and edgy kids who tried to go for blood, until they realized just how nigh-impossible it was to make it work. He wondered what had prompted the cover.
Aster Alexander, a winter support mage. That was interesting. Ice would definitely see an uptick in the next few years, and maybe the trainers would finally have an easier time of persuading people of the value of support, now that there was a support Ascender around to serve as an example. It looked like she was a beast bond to Quill, Matthew Moore, interesting.
Then there was Matthew Moore himself, a talisman mage slash endurance warrior. He was from… Huh. He was from Lilly? What were the odds? It had been a few decades since Miles had been on the planet, but he still remembered it fairly well. Matthew was something of a common name there, it being in fashion for a while, if he recalled correctly. Then… ah, yes, two hundred years ago would have been right in the middle of the Rift Breaks.
Terrible business, that. So many kids had been left orphaned and homeless, and Gavle’s Good Guilders had done their best to provide support and training to a bunch of the kids affected.
Picking through Matthew’s public history was a lot like walking down memory lane, being reminded of so many recruits he’d passed into the Guild. Orphaned as a kid, Awakened at thirteen to a Detrimental talent, that was interesting. Joined the Path at fifteen, and was off-world by the time he was seventeen.
Miles chuckled to himself softly. Pretty much every orphan with a half-decent Talent had been offered a spot at at least one Guild, and he wondered which Guild was kicking themselves for passing over one of the Empire’s latest Ascenders on account of having a bad Talent.
To satisfy a passing bit of curiosity, he pulled up for Gavle’s recruitment records from a hundred and fifty to two hundred years ago, looking for a ‘Matthew Moore,’ if he’d ever popped up. It had been a few years since he was recruiting director, but he still had the database access.
Nothing showed up, and Miles was momentarily disappointed before he realized that, of course, Moore must have been his married name. Searching just ‘Matthew’ turned up far too many records, and he was about to give up on the momentary fancy when tried ‘Matthew Alexander,’ on the off chance his bond had taken his original last name.
That returned a result.
Name: Matthew Alexander
Intelligence: Average
Drive: High
Weapon proficiency: High
…
Talent: Detrimental
Verdict: Applicant does not meet minimum requirements.
Recruiter’s Notes: Very promising candidate, offering ten-year contract. Addendum: Awakening tripped contract default clause due to Detrimental rating. Matt clarified his Talent forbade mana cultivation, and it wasn’t simply a technicality. I felt sorry for the kid, so provided him with a handful of EmpireNet brochures and some advice. -Miles
Miles blinked a couple of times at the notes with his own name attached, feeling slightly numb. Apparently… Gavle’s had had Quill cross their desk, and he had been the one responsible for rejecting the then-boy. He wracked his brain, trying to remember. At least… it sounded like it hadn’t been up to him personally, just the Talent scanner, so he couldn’t be truly blamed for missing the opportunity of a thousand lifetimes slipping through their fingers.
Miles’ french toast sat uneaten for quite some time, as he wracked his memory for his interactions with Matthew.
Had he taken him out to dinner once? It seemed unlikely, but sometimes former kids he’d recruited came back to meet up. Would someone he’d declined do that as well? He felt like he had, but he couldn’t remember for sure but then he found the memory saved in his AI.
Ugh.
Miles' face fell.
He was never going to live this down.
***
Wrangle smiled as he watched the news report.
He had been feeling good, and this revelation made him feel all the better.
Helping train an Ascender. Now, that was an achievement that few could match.
It was almost madness, but his spiritual damage had just healed, and now the children he had helped train were Tier 25 and that much stronger than him.
Looking inward, he felt good.
He felt ready.
Wrangle had originally wanted to make some more preparations before making another attempt at creating his own unique skill, but with the revelation the kids he had helped train were Ascenders, he felt energetic and ready.
Twisting and pulling, he gathered the small bits of information his spirit had created, solidified through years of practice and hard work. They weren’t enough to make a skill in and of themselves, but they were the precursor to a skill.
Few really pushed themselves that much, but Wrangle had done his research. New skills were rare because most things were already done.
There were two ways to make skills. The first was for the insane, and the second was for the persistent.
The first was creating an entire workable skill outside of your body, manipulating essence and mana into an intricate sculpture, and then pulling that active skill structure into your spirit without messing anything up. If you managed it, you would have a brand new skill, but one slip up, and you would shred your spirit as the foreign energies got rejected by your spirit instead of being assimilated by it.
There wasn’t a single person in the last million years who had been verified to manage that, and even Wrangle disregarded it as an option.
The second option was for the determined.
If you needed a way to throw a ball of fire you got a [Fireball] skill shard, you didn’t work on controlling your personal mana and converting it to fire mana while accelerating it away from yourself.
If you were crazy enough to do so for years, if you were willing to manually create the effect you wanted for decades, it would slowly engrave those movements into your spirit. If you were extraordinarily lucky, you might, might, one day, solidify the small pathways you carved into your spirit into a fully formed skill. The fewer skills you had, the more likely that was, which made that method nearly impossible for anyone in civilized society.
Unless you were insane, there was little reason to create a new skill while not using any skills.
No, that method was only possible for the forefathers who had come before.
Instead, if you wanted to make a new skill, you had to do all the same things and then manually consolidate those little bits of skill fragments into a skill on your own.
And that was dangerous.
As he damn well knew.
But Wrangle felt lucky today.
He felt good.
And he had never been one for waiting around, which had made the last two centuries awful.
The first skill fragments came easy. He had spent his entire life as a summoner and had been pushing his summons to be stronger every chance and skill he had. While most of those improvements were inside his already absorbed fully formed skills, some of those changes had been burned into his spirit itself.
Now, he gathered those bits and pieces.
The next skill fragments he gathered were about mana constructs.
Summons, at least the ones he used, were created from mana. They weren't the still living bodies of rift monsters like tamers gathered control of, nor were they the dead bodies of monsters necromancers like to reanimate, but something more benign.
Mana summons were mana given form and a small bit of intelligence. Most summon skills took a snapshot of a rift monster and used that to control the mass of mana and give it form. That intelligence and its accompanying form were locked into the shape of the monster before its death.
But why?
It was a question he had asked himself and anyone else a million times over.
The skill was creating something from data it gathered from the monsters. He wasn’t a tamer or a necromancer who used the monsters’ bodies, so why couldn’t he edit that data and merge the forms of monsters he recorded in his [Library]?
When he started looking into skills that could do that, he found there weren’t any. Not any that he could find for sale near him, not any that he could find in the Empire, not any that he could find in any of the other Great Powers; he couldn’t even find rumors of such a skill. Anyone who had done something similar, used either their Domain or Talent to accomplish it.
And that was unacceptable.
Once he gathered the fragments about empowering monsters, he gathered the next two ideas he had been working on.
Splitting the data about mana constructs and then merging different clumps of data together.
The fragments were scarce. There was no skill to act as a framework for his idea, and he had been forced to modify a few [Create Summon]s to conjure deformed monsters before he could even start to build free-floating fragments in his spirit, but he had done it.
Once he had gathered the fragments, he started pulling them together.
When they started to clash, he moved them into what he felt was the correct shape.
Creating a skill's structure was less a science and more of an art form.
Sure, there might be a theoretical best layout for the skill, but the skill fragments were just that— fragments. And no one would know the shapes they were in before they started pulling them from the background noise that existed in their spirit.
That meant once you had them gathered, you needed to start shaping things. And you needed to move quickly, because the spirit didn’t like foreign, unstable entities inside of it, and would quickly start to reject it.
The last time he attempted this, he had run out of time before finding a stable arrangement. But this time, things would be different.
He felt it.
In his bones.
In his spirit.
It felt like days, but was closer to two hours, before he gasped as he felt the fragments subtly shift and settle into their final placements with a snap.
Wrangle paused for a moment as he waited for the spirit wrenching pain he had felt once before.
But there was nothing.
Falling back, he started laughing even as the chattering of the news anchors washed over him.
Holding up an invisible glass, he mentally toasted Matt, Liz, and Aster.
Carpe diem.
They had all earned it.
***
Justinian watched the recording of Quill, Torch, and Scoop’s Ascension from a gorgeous mountain range that overlooked a mist-filled valley with a waterfall and stream that wound down to the plains beyond.
They had been the first shining light in an otherwise empty world.
Or at least, Torch and Quill had been. He hadn’t even known there was a third member of their team before now.
Still, when it was revealed that Scoop was Quill’s bond, things made more sense.
He couldn't wipe the smile off his face as he saw how happy they seemed.
Being an Ascender was a big deal. Even someone who had been trapped in a box knew that.
Legends of Duke Waters, Lila Worldwalker, or The Cosmos had filled his days of watching movies.
They were heroes for the masses.
And now his heroes could be heroes for everyone.
That felt right.
When things were at their worst, he knew that Matthew, Elizabeth, and Aster would be there to kick down the door and create a path to freedom.
Standing, he brushed the dirt off his pants and readjusted his backpack. He had another fifty miles to cover today if he wanted to reach the next valley before nightfall, but when he had heard the news, he knew this valley was where he wanted to watch his heroes' Ascension.
Justinian knew he wasn’t cured, but he was doing better with each passing day.
His hiking was still a bit of an emotional crutch, but he could now enter and spend a full month in a town before he got the urge to start exploring again.
He was even thinking about joining an explorers' guild to wander planets that flew past the Empire in chaotic space, but he couldn’t do that until Tier 15, and he wasn’t sure he wanted immortality yet.
That seemed like too large of a choice.
He could do it at any time.
Freedom was good for the spirit, it seemed, because not even a decade after he had been freed from his cage, he had created his Concept. Almost by accident.
I Am My Own Freedom.
He still wasn’t even sure what his phrase meant because he sure as shit hadn’t felt like freedom, but he liked it.
It sounded nice.
And his image was gorgeous.
A glittering starscape with a trail made from a denser path of stars that stretched out further than he could see.
Maybe if he kept searching, he’d one day find out exactly what his phrase meant.
But in the meantime, he was in no rush.
Nothing bad would happen to him.
Torch, Quill, and Scoop were there to protect him.
That was what Ascenders did.
Had done.
Would do.
Comments
-Sanguine-
One of my favorites. Wholesome af
John Gabriel Regier
I know I’m way late to comment but this is one of my favorite chapters so far.
Marcus
Justinian giving me the damn waterworks treatment😭😭😭😭😭
DiAlpha
The drama?
Richard Loveless
Justinians section almost brought a tear to my eye.
ThymEnough
I'm curious if you meant to name these chapters "Echoes" and misspelled it?
David Harr
She was on the ship with all of Aster’s friends, so was at the Ascension in Leon’s box. Her reactions are covered there.
Drakken17
If remember right they sold slots to the play pen for the rich and the nobles used slots assigned to them as bargaining. Also they assess them at the play pen and I think those with the right drive they try to find sponsors for.
Alex
Poor Jasmine though, she liked Felix. She'll actually have a more difficult time now finding a good boyfriend.
Alex
Makes sense I guess :)
Neil
Jasmine is only rich/connected relative to Lilly, which is to say not particularly at her current tier. Read the part about credits again.
Alex
Yes, Matt marrying a princess already threw her life into chaos a bit, but she was still multiple steps removed from royalty. Now with Matt being an Ascender it's gonna be soo much worse xD she'll be able to accelerate a lot of her plans for the planet though. I bet being the birthplace of two Ascenders is gonna do wonders for settlement and recruiting
Alex
Patreon app comment scrolling works normally again :) so nice, it was very annoying Jasmin should've had high tier sponsors or sth right? You don't get to be in playpen without being on the path if youre not rich/connected. The whole picking who gets to be on the path always seemed a bit biased to me. Detrimental talents get flagged by the AIs and if they fulfill certain requirements a potential sponsor tests the kid. If you have exceptional talent the same may happen. People with normal talents seem kinda screwed, they need to have connections to find a sponsor. Or connections to get to be in playpen and possibly attract a sponsor. I suppose Luck may also help, accidentally catching the eye of someone, but there never really seemed to be a proper system for people who want to join the path, no application forms or whatever, just luck.
Alex
I doubt it. She didn't seem like she really wanted to advance. She seemed perfectly content staying low tier. Same with the orphanage boss. She was still T2 when Matt visited before the tournament, the director was T3. Considering she's gotta be at least 10yrs older than Matt, that means she was 50+ and still T2, I very much doubt she suddenly tiered up enough to still be alive
KoZa
I’m really hoping that the lady from Matt’s orphanage got to a high enough tier to live to see this (I’m blanking on her name, but the one who Matt saw almost as a mother). I’d love to see her reaction
KoZa
Pinot noir is a type of grape, so it couldn’t be made into whiskey. You can make Whiskey in used Pinot casks but I think the Whiskey went to griff and the Pinot went to his wife. A ‘foxy’ reference would have been pretty funny
Markus
Oh god Jasmine have the ultimate card to play in any relationship drama she ever get into for the rest of eternity. "You are worse at this than my first boyfriend."
Mister Cakers
I’d figure the junipers are all mega-goners rn, I’d definitely want to see reaction of those in the same political party though.
Joshua Jernigan
So need a reaction of baroness thresh just absolutely going crazy
Jaklelope
Tyftc
Havokk
I think he meant savory as typically the people who try to become blood mages arent the best people to do so. so he hoping some people who are better individuals will try it
Jonathan Campbell
Yea, I’m just having to fight the cognitive dissonance, especially since they had been almost completely focused on figuring out which Pathers were behind the masks. I’m a bit disappointed now that I realize that they’re just Light and Shadow, I had enjoyed the little glimpses of perspectives that might not be the same as for the citizens/agents of the Empire. Although I now want to know if Zack told their handlers about the dueling sphere’s vulnerability so it could be fixed.
Alex
Yeah, it was light and shadow. Zack and Allie. He planned to reveal that pretty much the first time they showed up, but people made so many fun theories that he let it stew for a while :) I didn't connect them to it too until their Ascension xD. It was them though. Allie teleported stuff, zack was ocd. They intercepted some message from the sects that light and shadow were coming, that's when they stopped doing spy stuff (cause they were helping out with the tournament) they also did some mission with stick and stone (Eric and Dena) sure their chapters, especially the first few gave a lot of misdirection and could've been interpreted as them being from another power or simply corporate spies, but it also works with path managers and spy mission handlers :D MLA did the same
Josh
Did you mean to say savory or unsavory?
Jonathan Campbell
Ok, I just went back to check, that whole thing makes practically zero sense if they were actually Light and Shadow, I get that the names and even the personalities match. But I definitely recall the duo talking or thinking about other assignments and how long they could take. If it was actually Light and Shadow it makes me wonder if I remember correctly or if that whole thing was massive misdirection.
Jonathan Campbell
I think this is showing that most of the public information is speculative in thinking that the whole blood awakening scandal was a ploy and that she was hiding her fire Talent.
Quixotic
Elizabeth Moore, a pyromancer warrior pretending to be a blood mage, daughter of two Royals. Shouldn't that be the other way around? blood mage pretending to be a pyromancer?
That was Light and Shadow they weren’t from another great power it was only made to look that way.
Jonathan Campbell
No these were a pair of spys from a foreign great power, it even went into detail about how they took great pains to make the enlarged spaces for their hideouts. They were the pair that I believe it was the guy who found the vulnerability in the dueling spheres to get the unfiltered view of what was happening regardless of if the participants choice to allow the real events be shown to the public or not.
James Faulkner
The OCD “crafter” was light and his female partner who antagonizes him is shadow lol
Mashiara
That Justinian part hit me hard in the feels. Good job
MikeL
No it seems right, as it’s meant to be Griff commiserating that he is wrong.
Jonathan Campbell
No I remember that bit, especially how they met up with Eric and Dena though at the time they were only called Stick and Stone though I already thought that's who they were before it was confirmed. 😁 I'm referring to the foreign spy duo also at their T10 tournament who also had a brief scene at the later tourney either when they went to see the sponsee circus pair or when they came back as Quill and Torch and appeared on stage with Queen, or both. The male spook is really OCD and apparently might have had some sort of crafting Talent while the female was extremely random and fly by the seat of your pants and did things like rearranging the pens and other little things to bug the crap out of his OCD. Also I think that he might have rigged her chair to dump her on the floor when she went to lean back or something like that. I'm not sure but I think they might have been Federation or Republic in origin.
Austin
Spy duo? From the tier 10 tournament? That was light and shadow... We've seen their reactions in the main chapters.
Arataumaihi
Ooooof. Justinian's made me tear up a little.
Mistfate
Really enjoying these side perspective chapters. It’s nice yo get reminded that all of these people exist, and getting to see their reactions is always fun. Still want to see what Talous thinks, but I would also love to see the other people from the kingdom v queendom stuff. The prince and princess, their subordinates and the like.
JonO
I would love a montage of characters who were important enough to be mentioned but not enough to merit more than a few sentences or paragraphs. Like Talous foamed at the mouth in shock. The junipers estate was found empty and ransacked as no one could find them anywhere, as if taken by a thief in the night. (You know cuz they suck and are afraid of vengeance mwahaha) Or the anchor lady from the tier10 tourney who badmouthed bonds turned in her letter of resignation immediately following the reveal and such lol
Jonathan Campbell
I'm really enjoying these, I can't hardly wait for that spy duo to react and for both of them to go positively apeshit in their own unique ways! I think if it ever gets included in future books or echoes that Griff and Jessica should have chosen to save enough of the wine and whiskey for each of their teammates and maybe their daughter to have just a small sip or two from each bottle. Just to make sure they know just how jealous they should ACTUALLY be, or even an edit to add that to their part of this echo when published.
Lucas
Great chapter! I forgot about his old girlfriend but loved the pov
Shmigit
Fantastic set of characters to highlight reactions for. I'm absolutely loving these side chapters. I'm looking forward to the reactions from the various Pather War participants, as well as the noble asshats from Liz's "coming of age" event.
David Stifter
You are not alone.
Luna_1001
I really hope Talous makes it in really want to hear even a small thing from him
MikeL
I’m sure when Miles tells the story, he will be “of course I remembered him, he even visited me once”
MinE
I remember tier fives can live around 200 years, 10s can live 700, and 14s can do 1440 years. Regular healing magic can extend the lifespan by a few years.
Dillon lay
This guys writing is just so good. The amount of joy you get from reading 276 was out of this world and it has been going great since. Summoner dude succeeding is a blast I wonder if we’ll see him in the MC chapters soon. I know torment could make unique use of the new skill.
Kelsey
In Griff's section, should "commiserate" be "commemorate"?
1FantasyFanatic
The end to this chapter was brilliantly written.
Nathan Sto
I remember that the people in minkalla were able to spend thousands of years at their tier without being at risk of death, so assumedly it's a very broad distribution.
Mantiqore
Really nice ending :)
Havokk
Okay I still really want to see the look of horror on the junipers, if they still live, faces when they realize Matt came from their planet and was a victim of the rift breaks, can you imagine the fear that and ascender may come for revenge for their lost parents... Id also love to see the reaction of the noble who at Matt and Liz's wedding implied Matt wasnt good enough for Liz and she was wasting herself
hachetnif
Thank you for the snippets is a lot of people that I love to see the reactions for some of these weren't on the list but they're good some of them were thanks
Violet
So, this is a really weird question, but what's the age distribution for people reaching Tier 10 and 15?
Patrick Schuldt
He is the mage who summoned the training beasts and the first 'training' planet after they got Luna. He shattered his spirit while trying to create a new skill. I'm not sure if its the same planet Matt experimented on Rifts with Kurt.
Wool
Minor catch: “The whisky smelled even better. Like fresh rain, fresh cut woody,…”. That sounds painful and bloody. 😂 I think you meant “fresh cut wood” or “woody”.
Hellhound
I love this chapter, it really puts everything into perspective to see everyone’s reactions to their ascension.
Sean Jennings
I had honestly forgotten that Jessica even existed. The I am my own Freedom guys concept and image really strike a chord with me.
Greg Lambert
I really enjoyed this chapter. .
Kelly Bryan
He got a tomato that would heal his current damage or could be saved to help make his next attempt less dangerous, doesnt seem like he used it.
Clay Smith
Yea that’s him. I remember he fought them in the 10 year as their masked identities and compared how Matt and Liz would get beat by them lol.
Alex
Talous. He only tried to annoy Matt though to bait him into a duel because Matt refused him every time he asked normally. He touched upon his concept the first time they fought and needed a second fight to form it.
Alex
After the vassal war, he was their first training stop with Luna. I reread the story a few times, but I still forget about him :) Erwin was just so much more memorable with the rift experiments. He had summoned beetles that they had to fight and Luna made them an obstacle course and stuff.
Bob Bryan
One reaction we still definitely need to see is that planet that was attacked by that enemy group that matt, Liz, aster, Luna helped protect. Wonder how they will react knowing matt lived through something similar.
Dion Crump
I love chapters like these. It can be really easy to get caught up on the OP powers of our MCs but these are touch grass moments. I remember all these characters and how they impacted Matt’s journey… except for Wragle, where did we meet him and who the heck is he?
Knightfire
My favorite not main character chapter ever. Jessica, Griff Matt hilarious
JaceNight
I assume that's all the information they have on Quill, Torch and Scoop. They're not taking into account the abilities of their actual personalities because those are supposed to be stuck at T15, and hide a lot. Also why would the empire allow for actual information to be on their profiles? Better to just hide it until they show it to the public.
Discordian23
Got my Crying with that ending. Shit hit me as hard as some one piece notes, I'ma need you to chill.
Keith Coffey
Thank you for the chapter :)
Alex
I love the reaction chapters so much. The rest of the story is fun too, but the reaction chapters are even better. So fun to read, I actually have to take breaks sometimes for laughing
Very satisfying chapter! Just one question didn’t Wrangle get a flower as payment for training them so he could use it to help form his new skill or heal him?
C_Mantis
yeah that was just how Miles read the situation
Alex
I want to see the Baroness of Lilly. Matt marrying a princess already threw her life into chaos a bit, but the connection to the royals was a couple steps removed. Now her planet is the birthplace of not just one but two Ascenders (and melinda, but she's secret xD) :D
Hectorbeserk
Somebody who helped train them right after the pather war
Alex
Ohh, she will probably regret it even more. She already got punished for it a bit and she did apologize, but this will probably drag it up for her a bit again xD
Alex
Makes sense. Blood magic is rare. I doubt there's an "official" version, but I believe the majority probably think that her fire is her real style. Even one of the other T50 leaders was wondering if the blood stuff was a lie, a talent that fucks up your bloodline is rare and the trauma cripples most of them. Much more likely that its fake and she got a fire talent to fit her bloodline. (from an outside perspective at least xD) I wonder what people will think of Matt. Can't have an Armour talent AND a talisman talent.
Alex
A lot of people think that her blood magic is pretend. She's way too good a firemage. Even JR(edit: just rechecked, not JR, Tobias, T50 of the monster collective) wondered if she lied about it and her fire stuff is the real part. Talents that block your bloodline are rare after all and those that get them often don't recover from the trauma and never even form a concept. Even Zack and Allie weren't sure which persona was the fake one, from an outside perspective, blood is more likely to be the fake part, fire is far more common and it fits her bloodline and she's a very good fire mage Edit: Now their progeny was just as impressive. He’d heard tell that Elizabeth had undergone a fairly unfortunate Awakening, having broken the connection to the element in her blood. Such things were blessedly rare for the trauma they inflicted, and few who underwent such experiences ever fully recovered. Most never even formed a Concept, their sense of self in such disrepair that they were forever barred from immortality should they even muster the fortitude to progress. He’d been proud of Elizabeth, for overcoming that and even reaching Tier 15 entirely of her own merits. But now he was somewhat uncertain if it was even true, or simply a cunning ruse to disguise her all-the-more potent fire magic. He doubted it was a cover-up, but he wasn’t certain yet. If she legitimately had Awoken a Talent largely barring her from all but blood magic, that made her accomplishment all the more impressive. A Concept and Intent before the age of 200 already spoke of a tremendous self-confidence and ability to know one’s proper place in the Realm, and to do so with a broken-off bloodline? Toby could only stand in awe at the girl’s resilience.
Eofad
I loved this! Every POV was great!
Clay Smith
So I think that is most of people I thought of to see their POV. The only couple we haven’t seen are the Royals from the Vassal War and the guy who fought with Matt and kept hitting Liz in the same war. (don’t remember his name) I will say my favorite one was Jasmine and I didn’t remember who she was for the first half of her section.
Eric Alex
I think Miles was assuming that blood couldn’t be her main style because it was so uncommon and not usually THAT powerful. I think this is an example of someone uninterested in the whole thing having information cascaded down, and interpreting it his own way. Like rumors about a celebrity, Marilyn Manson couldn’t have really have removed his ribs right?
Alex
Jasmine is right, many people from their early life are gonna be dead by now. The orphanage people, his old boss, they were all super low tier and had no interest in advancing further. It is fun to see "normal" people their age. They're usually surrounded by other Pathers, or at least people who made it quite far on the Path. Definitely disconnects you with whatever is normal. :D even Liz's older brother and his husband were already a match for them back at T14ish with a multiple tier deficit. Keith and Travis are T20 tops. And now his little sister is T25 already
Michael Rabe
I really hope we get that girl from the vassal war that Liz sent to the academy, where she then started working for Aster.
Zack
It felt like it was more that Miles interpretation was backwards instead of an error on Mantis' part.
Neil
This is great, it's nice to see such a significant event being treated as such, rather than a "that's done, now move on" attitude. I found Jasmine's part hilarious, it took the mention of playpen to recall her, but the moment I did I was excited for what was about to happen.
Abriel Blauer
I was wondering if this was voluntary or a lapsus: Elizabeth Moore, a pyromancer warrior pretending to be a blood mage, daughter of two Royals Liz is a Blood Mage pretending to be a Pyromancer. Was this voluntary, meaning even at the reveal they are hiding her true style ?
Azulmar
Great chapter. You forgot to have Wrangle use the plant Luna paid him with though😉
GuyWhoReadsALot
I'm really enjoying these echo chapters.
Alex
I want to see the Baroness of Lilly :) Matt already messed her life up when he married a princess, but that connection is three steps removed. Now that Matt is an Ascender though? Her life is gonna be a mess :D she can go commiserate with Cameron
Tommy
Mantis is the rare prog fiction author who weaves emotionally impactful beats into his stories 👍👏
Alex
Oh man, yes, that would've been perfect. Not sure she remembers it though, it wasn't anything weird when they last met, she was just a bit confused "yes, I'm still a fox"
Tommy
Ooof powerful ending, knowing what happened to Justinian. Fucking GREAT chapter! Thanks!
Namorat
Very satisfying! Two things: is how Miles described Liz the official version? Do people think she is just pretending to be a blood mage? Considering that she never used those powers openly, it feels odd to me. Plus, can someone remind me who Wrangle is? I cannot recall for the life of me.
Vayash
That reporter from the t10 tournament that suggested bonds were combat tools and arctic foxes werent that great. Wonder what this reaction would be.
Alex
Yup. Even griff barely remembered him. Matt was just one kid out of many. Jasmine remembering him makes sense, he was her first boyfriend, you don't forget that, but Miles only met Matt a couple times. Matt wasn't anything special. Wrangle remembers them, he was with them for a while and also met Luna through them, that's not sth you forget. He knows about Melinda too. Good enough to be somewhat memorable. I want to see the Baroness next :) she should remember Matt. He was just one of many when he first came back to Lilly before the tournament, but she was at his wedding, she knows he married a princess. The royals and an ascender attended his wedding. Not sth you forget.
William Johnson
Jasmine's bit was great she was only in the book briefly but that's definitely what I want to see in these side chapters, people who I've almost forgotten about and their take on the ascension. The other thing I want is lovely moments like Justinian's section, which was great and thank you.
Pararably
Practice does make perfect. You have become a truly excellent writer in the last few years.
The Grey Mage
Wrangle’s skill sounds super cool, I hope to see it in the future!
Havokk
each reaction was fantastic. Jasmine can lay claim to being the first real girlfriend to an ascender. Griffs reaction was as priceless as Miles realizing who Matt was. The fact that Wrangle used this to spur himself onto something great.. excellent. But the kicker has to be Justinians reaction "And now his heroes could be heroes for everyone." thats just damn good
Aurora1325
she would have but matt got her out of the recording to fast. this my head cannon
Aurora1325
i forgot who miles was.
Alex
No :( I want more xD the echoes chapters are awesome. Waiting for another week sucks :D
Gavin
Justinian's portion felt particularly poignant for some reason
Avery Aderyn
Justinian's bit made me cry.
MagicWafflez
I'm so glad that miles didn't remember him... so often main characters are the center of the world, and matt was such a small part of his life... it makes it so much more realistic
Bob Bryan
1 found out today pinot noir is a type of whiskey and not just wine. 2, glad we got to see jasmine perspective and it also put a lot into perspective as well. The only other people we've seen from their age group is team buckets. Seeing one who is almost normal was interesting. 3rd, aster should of asked Griff if he though she was foxy enough.
Orims
Fuck yeah, Wrangle! I was wondering how that crazy dude was doing, maybe Luna should grab him for a lecture or two again? And Justian's stuff was both sad and beautiful.
Vayash
I reread the entire story recently and still forgot who jasmine was. That was perfect. Griff was the best reaction yet. Miles made me a bit sad. I would love to see reactions from royals e in the vassal war and his opponents their, assuming those guys are even still alive.
Sezra_
Thanks a bunch! ʕ•ᴥ•ʔゞ゛
MikeL
This was a great chapter! THANKS. these were the top 3 I wanted to see, all in 1 chapter, nice!
Kasamuri
Thanks for the Chapter :-)
SodaBoBomb
Good chapter!
lockx
It's definitely a new echoes, and unrelated to the previous echoes
Mackay Buss
Haha! Suck it Griff!
lockx
Thanks for the echoes! Glad to finally read Griff's reaction 😂
Sam Irvine
Justinian’s one hit me so hard! Beautiful sentiment though, glad that character is finding their peace.
Alex
Took me a while to remember who Jasmine was.
C_Mantis
its the right chapter
Miguel Canarte
thanks
C_Mantis
no echo 1 and 2 were the epilogue and prologue but that was confusion so i started counting at 1 instead of 3
C_Mantis
no echo 1 and 2 were the epilogue and prologue but that was confusion so i started counting at 1 instead of 3
Avery Aderyn
Don't want to read until confirmation that this is the right chapter.
Observer Whimsy
Was this actually chapter 4? Title and other title don’t match
Avery Aderyn
Wrong chapter?
