Children, Dallion thought.

Gloria had agreed to the deal because of her children. As far as deals went this was the definition of perfect negotiation: both sides agreed to a compromise beyond what they were willing to accept and in return achieved everything they wanted.

You haven’t lost your touch. He looked at the overseer. For a single moment, a picture formed in front of him: that of the girl that had asked him to help her secretly increase her level. She, and later Veil, were everything Dallion needed to keep his awakened powers then progress to defeat the village chief. They had done a lot together, things that had seemed impossible at the time.

“You really can keep a secret,” Dallion used all his skills to appear happy. “Congratulations, you two. I can’t believe I didn’t hear about it.”

“I control the limiting echoes,” Gloria said, taking one of the children in her arms. “And everyone knows that an overseer can’t have children.”

Yes, everyone knows that. “Well, I think I’ll be going.”

“Already?” Surprise streamed from Falkner. “I thought there would be more to discuss.”

“We’ve already gone through all the important bits. If the opportunity comes, you’ll know what to do. Either way, I’ll do my best to keep the war from reaching Wetie.” He gave the children another look.

“You always were focused on your goals.” Gloria nodded. “Give me a moment and I’ll escort you back out.”

“No need. Just make an opening to the sky. Will be faster that way.”

No sooner had he said so than the ceiling twisted, forming a hole in the middle. Dallion quickly cast a flight spell and shot up like the cork off a champagne bottle. Gloria’s circumstances weren’t something he had expected, but even so there was a good chance that his message had gone through. After all, Falkner remained one of the viable heirs for the province. With the leaders of three major cities in a severely weakened state someone was going to have to take over and hopefully be more than a puppet for the Order of the Seven Moons.

Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Vihrogon commented in a serious tone. Smooth visit.

“Idiot.” Dallion let out a smile.

Takes one to know one. Seriously, though. Might have not been the best idea to leave the question hanging. Do you trust they’ll back you up when you need it?

“I trust them enough.”

There were no chainling sightings on the flight back to Dherma village. As a matter of fact, Dallion didn’t spot anything at all. Even the sky was void of cloud forts. Meanwhile, he had heard from Gleam that things in his two settlements were going on rather well. Hannah was keeping everyone in check, making full use of the imperial training she had suppressed for all those years. Making use of the Mirror Pool’s talents, she had sent off awakened throughout the area to act as scouts in case there were other nymph attacks. Simultaneously, she had assisted Diroh with fortifying Stone Circle to the point of it being a viable defense. It was all a good first step, but as Vihrogon liked to remind, it remained merely a step.

Veil had managed to brush himself into shape, at least externally, by the time Dallion made it back to Dherma. The same precautions were used, just like last time—Dallion dropped in invisible, found Veil, then flew out again. The difference was that unlike before, Veil was waiting.

Twenty minutes later the two of them were standing in front of the cave at Ogre Gorge.

They really are like colossi, Dallion thought. In the past he would never have guessed, but thanks to his perception and carving skills he could see it as clearly as if the creatures were standing before him.

“Are we just going to stand here?” Veil asked. “I thought you were in a hurry.”

“Give me a minute to reminisce.” Dallion kept on looking straight in. “You could have told me about the children.”

“Actually, I couldn’t have. Moon vow.”

There was no telling whether the blond was joking, but it was a reasonable precaution put in place. The less that was known about them the better. Dallion had no doubt that in another couple of years, there was every chance that Gloria would have to hide the fact she was their mother.

“Let’s go.”

The trip inside was just as dark as he remembered it, or at least it would have been had Dallion not cast a light spell ten steps in. With all the power he had, there was no point in avoiding a bit of comfort.

The altar itself remained just as impressive and abandoned as the first time Dallion had seen it. It didn’t have its own domain and at the same time it was the domain. The standard way of moving wouldn’t work here.

“Stay close,” Dallion said. “I’ll claim the area and then we’ll move back to your future home.”

“Optimistic as usual,” a new voice said.

Dallion burst into instances. The moment he did, he found that there was a star-filled sky above him. Also, the ground had turned a glowing green.

“What did I tell you about taking on Moon domains?” Felygn appeared right beside the awakening altar. He was in his dryad form. “Your realm is part of ours, not the other way around.”

I’m asleep? Dallion wondered.

“Nope. Since this technically remains a shrine, I can talk to you as if you’d sent a prayer. The advantage of being my favorite.”

Calling it an advantage was questionable in the current circumstances. One couldn’t ignore the facts, though.

“It’s not forbidden to transport altars. I’ve seen it happen before.”

“Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. I’m just here to offer some friendly advice.”

Whenever a Moon said that, bad things usually followed.

“It would be easier just to dig it up and transport it as an item. You have the skills for that, after all.”

“Why?”

“You’re on a battlefield for one thing. Messing with it might not be the best idea. Also, this is one of the better ones, so I don’t want you to destroy it by mistake.”

All that sounded reasonable, yet it wasn’t reason enough for a Moon to appear.

“How’s the Moonstone hunting going, by the way?” Felygn walked up to Dallion. As he did, a bench appeared at the spot. “You better not let the opportunity pass you by.”

“You’re saying it like the world is full of them.”

“At one point it was. We used to give them out like candy. Then again, those were different times. Even now there’s more than you’d think, scattered about. The greatest problem is collectors.”

“Collectors?”

“People obsessed with gathering them, but not intending to use them.”

Dallion was just about to say something, when a soft-drink can appeared, floating in front of his face.

“Given how poorly you handle alcohol, I thought this would be more appropriate,” the Green Moon said.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Hesitantly, Dallion took the can and opened it. The smell of cherry mango filled his nostrils.

“In a way, you’re a collector too. You have four, but you’re still missing three for your set,” the Moon continued. “I’ve just come to remind you that there’s a way to fill it up. Take this for example.” He reached forward. As he did, the altar instantly emerged a step away. “Many of the old altars have Moonstones. The only issue is that you never know what type it would be. Centor has been flooding the world lately, so odds are it might be one of his. Of course, you might get lucky and score Astreza’s. He’s the secret rare, as they say.”

“Break it up and find a stone,” Dallion repeated. “Just like that?”

“Yep. Like a divine gotcha.”

The comparison was painfully inappropriate, but if everything said so far was true, also on the spot.

“And there will be no punishment?”

“And that’s the reason I’m here in person,” the Moon said. “To assure you there won’t be. You already have the altar. What you do with it is up to you. Do you move it to your future capital or do you break it and take what’s inside?”

“What’s the real story with the Moonstones?”

“No spoilers.” Felygn smiled.

“Are you finding all this amusing?” Dallion asked.

“Now you’re just being nasty.” Felygn stood up. “A better question is, what would you like your story to be? You’ve achieved a lot so far. Others have achieved a lot as well. From here on, only one of you could keep leveling up. You’ve had it easy until now—you had a personal pool of levels to claim. Now there’s one common pool and competition is fierce.”

“What will happen when—”

There was a sudden flash of light. A split second later, Dallion was back in the cave.

“Claim how exactly?” Veil asked.

So, that was it? Leave it to a Moon to never finish a conversation. Why did he keep insisting on the emblem? Clearly, it was something important, but was it more important than anything else?

“It’s a magic thing,” Dallion replied, still considering whether he should smash up the altar or bring it along. A level five altar wasn’t going to grant a monumental advantage, but it was going to markedly increase the morale of his inhabitants. More than that, this was going to be his altar, not one belonging to the Order of the Seven Moons. “We’ll dig it out and then I’ll fly us to Sandstorm.”

“Digging up an ancient altar…” Veil frowned, then shrugged. “Why not? It’s not like I’m on the Moons’ good list, anyway.”

Bringing the altar out of the ground turned out to be a lot easier than expected. It could best be described as pulling out a tooth or a nail from a wooden board. Once in the air, it was extraordinary how small the object was, but with the power to change a person’s life.

The more they flew, the more convinced Dallion was that he had made the right choice and kept the altar whole. Of course, the Green Moon had omitted to mention that an altar had a strong effect on every creature within miles. Star-spawn avoided it like the plague, while other creatures were strangely attracted even after Dallion cast a series of illusion spells on it.

It was a real relief finally arriving at Sandstorm. The town remained as crude as before, but at least it was safe. Dallion noticed several of the outlook pairs. On the whole they were well hidden, but the old habit of wearing disfocus items had made them easily noticeable.

“This is it?” Veil looked around. “I see why you need my help.”

“Very funny.” Dallion placed the altar on the ground. Veil was going to find a better spot for it. “Want to look around? Hannah’s in the other settlement, but she’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Nah, let’s go through the motions. I’ll be seeing a lot of everyone later.”

“Sure.”

AREA AWAKENING

Dallion ventured into his domain. Taking a deep breath, he then pulled Veil in. In all honesty, no one had told him how to create an overseer. All he knew was that the platinum blonds were predisposed to take on the role.

“Was that it?” Veil asked. “I don’t feel different.”

“Just a moment.” Dallion didn’t want to openly admit that he had never done it before, so he followed his intuition.

Can’t be much different from familiars, he thought, summoning the glass colossus.

The ground shook apart as the giant entity emerged. It wasn’t anywhere near the size of the other guardian, but enough to get Veil to summon his weapons.

“Chill it!” Dallion said in a warning tone. He was looking at Veil, but the warning was to both him and the guardian. “This is the current guardian.”

“Quite the big fellow.” Veil let out a vicious smile, but lowered his swords. “What does that make him? My assistant? My second in command?”

Ignoring the question, Dallion transferred the guardian to Nerosal arena.

SANDSTORM guardian has been added to the land of ARENA.

SANDSTORM has no guardian!

If a new guardian isn’t found, the land of SANDSTORM will collapse.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Blobs of fear the size of oranges appeared within Veil.

“It’s fine. Just link your personal domain to mine.”

The fear within Veil grew.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? The Moons told me that they stop protecting awakened after the fourth gate.”

“Veil, if I wanted to invade your realm, I—”

“It’s not about invading! There’s a lot of bad stuff within me. If we link, are you sure it won’t spill over?”

That was a surprisingly good point. Dallion had the ability to destroy any void matter, should it flood his realms, but if he were to resort to that, he might very well destroy Veil’s ability to become an overseer.

Okay, then we do it the other way. He bent down and took a thread of magic from the ground.

You have created an open link from the land of SANDSTORM

“Here,” he offered the thread to the blond. “Take this.”

Veil looked at his hand.

“Take what?” he asked.

Dallion sighed. It was natural that Veil wouldn’t be able to see it. Such links were only visible to mages and domain rulers, and currently his friend was neither.

“Sorry about this.” Dallion grabbed the other’s hand, then shoved the link into the palm.

You have opened a link between SANDSTORM and VEIL LUOR.

If the link is established, VEIL LUOR will be designated the land’s new guardian.

Do you wish to force the link?

Force? That meant that overseers didn’t have any choice in the matter; rather, they only had a choice should the domain ruler grant them one.

No, Dallion replied mentally. “Veil, you might get a rectangle. If you do—”

VEIL LUOR has acknowledged the link.

VEIL LUOR is the new guardian of SANDSTORM.

VEIL LUOR’s new level is 50.

Three blue rectangles popped up.

“I guess you did,” he smiled. “How does it feel?”

“Weird,” the other replied. “There are lots of new powers I must get used to.”

His clothes darkened, turning pitch black. Apparently, he had gotten an idea how to use void matter, if nothing else.

“Well, you have all the time in the world, overseer.” Dallion gave him a pat on the shoulder.

“Maybe, but you don’t. The way I see it, half a legion attacks this place and you’re done for.”