“Sir Errant!”

“Highness.”

“Prince Estemar!”

“Miss Amber! And Miss Verd, and Miss Veis... Lady Hazé?” A pause. “Is Mama here, too?”

“Commander Briggs. It has been some time.”

“Pure Sword Errant? Damn, I was a still a noob when I talked to you last!”

“You know my sister, Highness?”

“I, ah, met the girls some time ago, Sir Errant. It never came up in conversation...”

“He’s just Sir Estemar, Errant. Don’t go giving him airs.”

“Apologies, Sama. Ah, Sage Sama. I heard you had a most interesting set of Titles revolving around Swords...”

“Says The One Sword, The Heavenbound, and The Purely Bound. The immortal Pure Sword Errant...” I answered with a snicker. Titles rang in the air.

“Yes, I’m feeling all kinds of immortal now,” he replied drolly, his eyes flickering over everyone. “I am to understand that you can give people a modified form of Succubus Blessing? And... something about a Diamond Vajra?”

I eyed my new sisters, who were all clustered around the modest and astounded figure of Prince Estemar, Paladin and all-around team player nice guy, naturally arriving here with Briggs. “How’d you meet our Paladin?” I asked, amazed that he had met everyone before anyone else. Mithar making chess moves...

“I am his senior in the Order of the Ruby Heart. He was my squire for a short time, in no small measure because his knight was a shapechanger whose head I ended up removing.”

“You Heavenbound, always picking fights with unlucky evil bastards.”

“Yes, a very sorry state of affairs,” he agreed, with absolutely no change of expression.

Great poker face. I was going to like him. “Let me get you Marked, and we can take this into Markspace.”

---------

-Damn, you completed the Heavy Gravity Training already? So unfair,- I /groused at him.

-You’ll get it in time. Now, some details. The Heavenbound, a Diamond Vajra, and your Titles, as a courtesy?- He was looking around the Markspace in fascination, his golden figure as pure as Estemar’s silver (who wasn’t in this private /chat), only brighter, the Pact on his soul visible in his Markform.

I /squirted him the details on a Diamond Vajra, and he /whistled to himself. -I would probably have stumbled across that before Sole, if I had not died...-

-Your Title of The Heavenbound was conferred upon you posthumously, after they founded Heavenbound Hall.- Hazé /nodded agreement, as she had told Errant this before.

-As for my Titles, my Grandmastery is: A Sword is a Shitty Weapon, but it’s Better than all the Rest. I can use any weapon-related Feat with a sword as long as the sword can sub for such a weapon, and I have Weapon Mastery in it.-

He considered that. -Your swordwork must be tremendously versatile?- he /hazarded.

-Well, think Spirited Charge lance, Hew axe, and Finish spear, among other things.-

He made an impressed face. -Very good. And Sage of Swords?-

-It played off my Grandmastery. Remember Profound Artisan?-

His mental eyes glazed for a moment. -Plus Synergy bonus to damage with a Focused weapon from a specified Skill?- he /remembered. Not a bad Feat, not a great one. +2 damage at five Ranks, +3 at ten.

-Uh-huh. And because of my Grandmastery, it applies to any Skill which wields a tool that can be called a martial skill. Thus, a Mastery of Skills applying to Swords, ergo, Sage of Swords.-

He mentally blinked, as everyone listened in. -Any Skill? Stacking?- he /asked faintly.

-Yes.- I /affirmed.

-That... sounds like a Warsmith’s Hammer bonus...- Hazé /interjected, amazed.

-Funny you should say that. Briggs’ Hammer Grandmastery works exactly the same way. Any Skill that uses a tool in the hammer/chopping motion...-

Many eyes turned on Briggs, who mentally shrugged. -Twelve of them.- he /admitted.

Errant and Hazé turned back to me, all their eyes wide as they did the math on that.

-Ah, twenty-some synergies, not all of them a straight +3. Riding only applies when mounted, for instance, and Stealth and Sleight of Hand only apply to Sneak Attack Damage.-

-So, bonus fixed damage bonuses of at least +70... in addition to all the other things.- He /sighed despite himself. -Okay, I finally believe what they say about Forsaken being the tool-users.-

-Which reminds me. Hazé, are you a Shardcaster?- I /inquired.

-Meta’d to the moon,- she /confirmed with a smile. -Why?-

-I heard that Weirdboy had managed to break down a +9 Meta called Perpetual Spell. A single spell in memory-only effect, Cast and the spell doesn’t go away.-

Her face made some interesting contortions. -Plus NINE?- She fretted for a moment. -How did he pay for it?-

-Anima Theurgy could reduce the cost to a manageable level, and then with a million Castings or something, Metamagic Efficiency would kick in.-

-No Divine Theurgy?- she /asked quickly.

-I don’t think he’d miss something so obvious, but that’s all I know. I do think that with your connections to Miss Silver Magic, you might just be able to get your mitts on that Meta...-

-And Residual Metamagic means rebound Casting at a significantly higher degree of effect,- she /continued, eyes flaring with stars. -I just have to get the modifier down to +4 base so it fits in Valence...-

-Effective Soulshaper at Eleven, Arcane Thesis.- Even I knew that much. -Totally doable.-

-And now I know in what direction I need to direct my Karma,- she /murmured, shaking her head.

-In the meantime, you’ll just have to be the strongest just-turned-a-teenager Mystic Theurge in all the lands,- Briggs /laughed, and everyone joined him.

-So, what’s the agenda for what you are doing here? Endless slaughter and Karma until there’s so much vivic saturation the Warp Gods get sick of you?- /asked Errant archly.

-Well, yes, but we’re going to focus on closing the Rift as soon as we can, instead of endless harvesting of Warped. They might finally decide to stop Leveling up the lads and up the attrition rate via endless reinforcements, or something that forces Divine involvement,- I /sniffed. -It’s just that it takes a lot of damn vivus to do what we want to do.-

Hazé hummed, calculating based on what she had seen. -Quarter-million or so dead should do it, right?-

-If the Land and the general environment weren’t sucking half or more of it away. We’ve got the Obelisks in place and they are charging up, but the Veil and Land here is so stressed that it’s eating up huge amounts of the vivus. Every time they send out a Greater Demon, the Land is directly manifesting and ripping away ninety percent of the vivus like the glutton She is.- /snorted Briggs.

-And it doesn’t stop the Warp from sending out more. After all, there isn’t anyone surviving to be demoralized when the planet eats them.- I /sighed. -On the other hand, it’s a boatload of Karma, ripping down CR 18 to 20 Greater Demons, if you can do it. The Brotherhood is having a field day with them now. They only let me go out once a day now, greedy bastards.-

Everyone else /chuckled, making very unsorry conciliatory gestures in my direction. I /hmphed at them, sticking out my virtual tongue.

-What about the city?- Errant /asked. -I’ve been hearing about Yle Tyorm since I was a child.-

-Oh, there’s some nasty shit inside, and I intend to go in there and find some of it, and then put it in the ground.- I /smiled nastily. – My hagmom, for starters.- The image of her popped up behind me, mental spaces being convenient that way.

-Her?!- Hazé /blurted out. I blinked at her. -Um, I gave her a full Nova of V’s when she came to my shop when I was a child... and she lived through it! That Annis is your Hagmother?!- The whole incident replayed for us in startling detail.

-And you think it was coincidence you ended up there,- I /sniffed at her.

She started to say something, stopped herself. -She’s in Yle Tyorm?- she /asked instead.

-According to Noir Rabe, yes.-

-THE Noir Rabe?- Errant /blurted out, eyebrow raised.

-The Butcher of the Sidhete, the Raven Reaver, the Reaper’s Crow... yes, that one. He’s flitting around the battlefield, inspiring Greater Demons to manifest. I think he’s a bit perturbed that people want him around so monsters so much more dangerous than he is pop up. He drops in with your warband, you’re guaranteed an Eighteen or better popping up to mess with you.-

-Nice,- Errant /nodded, seeing the appeal of that. It was just like re-running a high Karma dungeon back in the game. –I take it that there aren’t a high number of people who can actually solo one?-

-No, but there are a whole lot who want to be able to!- I /laughed smugly. -Me, some of the Brothers, the team of the Sidhe Monarchs. There’s some Elevens who might be able to do it as a team, with emphasis on the ‘might’. They’re definitely soft on Gear. Briggs is close, just needs to ramp up his combat defense.- Briggs made a hand-wave of dismissal. He was doing plenty well just mopping up the mid-range Demons and commanders. He wasn’t even a Ten yet, so he didn’t much care for messing with Twenties.

-So, you need a team for a city sweep of a location with a broken Veil, and dimensional and temporal instability. Is there any leakage?- Hazé /asked reasonably.

-Chaos Storms?- I /supplied snarkily. She rolled her eyes and swatted her head, duh! -Beyond that, no. I think the Silver Worm neutralizes a lot of the stress. However, there are supposedly Primal ancient beasts in the city, drawn to the power there, and there’s definitely some nasty, nasty shit down Below it in the Felldeep, including a Mu Spore.-

-Before we go further, it’s time to come clean,- Briggs /stated firmly. -What did the Brotherhood tell you about the Empire? There’s a whole lot of shit going down with great speed, and I’m not even in Shadowvale or Branch to watch it all happen.-

I /cleared my mental throat. -The Shadowknife gave me a very precise date of when the Stars Will Be Wrong, and the Rosencrux Empire is going to die.-

The three of them went still. Crickets literally started playing, and then the Jeopardy Theme started sounding, and they all blinked at me.

-Well, that certainly does explain a lot,- Errant /breathed. -Can you give us the date?-

I /turned my head. -Brother Shadowknife, my fellow reincarnates want to know the date of the coming Fall.-

A Markdoor opened, revealing a small, shadowy form on the other side, Helices spinning about him. Unseen eyes swept over us all, and we all just looked back at him. Despite himself, he knew that he was in the company of peers, even the unknown Errant.

He spoke a few words, and the Markdoor vanished.

I looked over at Errant, who was extremely grim. He closed his eyes, fingers moving as if calculating something.

-I am going to be very busy,- he /observed, to no one in particular.