Located safely away from Yaresh was an outdoor testing facility for the Magical Research Association. The Yaresh branch was one of the first, when the association was still looking to establish itself, and Clive had selected the location carefully. At a time when Yaresh was still rebuilding and struggling to trol the surrounding region, the guards proteg the testire were, by default, required to safeguard a wide area around it.

  Clive had situated the facility between two major trading routes; the river and one of the few intact major roadways. Having outside forces secure them whey was at its most strained for resources was a major boon. This, in turn, made the city look very poorly on any attempt by the Magic Society to undermihe association as it established itself.

  The testire itself was a series of reinforced buildings, underground bunkers and open ptforms, scattered across a wide area. The nd took minimal clearing for stru, as it had once been farmnd. The former ndowners were long dead, and the own was abandoned.

  One of several open ptforms at the facility was simple but very rge, designed for the maintenand modification e-scale vehicles. Right now, five people stood in the middle of the ptform, around a fsk.

  “Turned out not be as tricky as we feared,” Travis told Jason.

  “I have been doing this for many years,” the Cloudweaver expined. “I have created cloud vehicles and structures for several churches, and they like to incorporate the power of their god into the design. I suspected that your case might be simir, and while there were additional plications, the principles were much the same.”

  “What kind of plications?” Jason asked.

  “The power of a god is simple. . Focused. It doesn’t o be sophisticated because the power is, for practical purposes, infinite. Examining your effe the fsk, it’s obvious that your powers are messy. plicated. I am corre dedug that you are at least partly divine, am I not?”

  “Wait,” Hector de Varco said. “You’re part god?”

  “That’s ly accurate,” Clive expined. “It’s more a case that his transdent aspect has certain capabilities that funally operate in the same manner as gods perform simir tasks, rather than Jason being a god himself. Of course, with the transdent aspect of his being and his ability to uake the aforementioasks, the practical difference is—”

  “He means no, but kind of yes,” Jason said.

  “Jason,” Clive said, “that’s very reductive.”

  “Yes,” Jason agreed. “Clive, I don’t have time for the long version, and I’m immortal.”

  “Part god,” Hector said. “It makes me feel a lot better about you winning our duel just by looking at me.”

  House de Varco was one of the rger noble houses iorm Kingdom who did not have their family seat in Rimaros. As with any aristocratic family, they ted adventurers in their heir influend reputation, however, came from the stru and trade of magical vehicles. During Jason’s long absence, Hector had risen to prominen the family by championing a erprise: cloud struct modification.

  While cloud fsks were rare, less extravagant cloud structs were not. Small personal transports were retively affordable, after which things went sharply up in price. They still weren’t cheap pared to things like floater discs, but they were veo store in small vessels, like the amulet mode of Jason’s cloud fsk. They were also fashionable, with features like trailing sparks, shifting colours and other effects that led to very full coffers for House de Varco.

  “Your power serves much the same fun within the cloud fsk as a god’s, but with some key differences,” the Cloudweaver tinued. “Your power’s influence was not part of the inal design, so mapping out how that affected the funality of the fsk was difficult. Rather than a well of divine power for the fsk to tap into, your power affects the fsk in almost every aspect. This is why my override no longer works, and that’s how your structs fun as portable temples.”

  “Temples to whom?” Hector asked, then looked at Jason. “To you? Because of the part god thing?”

  “Yeah,” Jason firmed. “Did they not tell you about this stuff?”

  “They only just brought me in on this,” Hector said. “I’ve done some tract work with Travis on vehicle on systems, and he said he had a special project. Going back to the temple thing, is that something we could reproduce? I bet the number of churches looking for cloud vehicles will shht up, if that’s an option.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” the Cloudweaver said.

  “Now that we uand most of your cloud fsk’s underlying structure,” Clive expined, “we look at incorporating some modifications that Travis has been w on for years.”

  “It’s just a side project I’ve been tooling around with,” Travis said. “I’ve done ons for your cloud fsk before, but that was years ago. My magical knowledge was still very Earth-based, and I only tapped into a fra of the potential. Doing tract work with House de Vare thinking about it again. A lot of my work wound up in Emir Bahadir’s fsk, but obviously yours has some unventional properties. And many of the ideas I had weren’t viable, once we got a proper look uhe hood. Of the ohat were, we picked out a few that were extra special aor had his people put a rush on manufacturing.”

  “Just what we’ve learned from w on this makes it worth it for us,” Hector said. “Yoing to have the most personalised on systems on any cloud fsk that I’ve ever heard of. Anyone foolish enough to get in a fight with your cloud structs will definitely know who they’re up against.”

  “There are still a feects of your fsk we wereirely able to decipher,” the Cloudweaver admitted. “I’m still unsure exactly how it seems to have ranked up alongside you. No special materials, no upgrade ritual. The aspect we had the most trouble with was some kind of minor funality which seems lio external items. Without them, the fun appears to be lost.”

  “Yeah,” Jason firmed. “It’s part of a three-item set. I got this linking item back at silver rank when I killed this intelligent gold-rank dinuy and looted his body.”

  “You killed an intelligent gold-rank mo silver?” Clive asked.

  “I told you about this,” Jason said. “Most of the work was done when a proto-astral space closed with us i spat us back out, with him most of the way dead. I just finished him off.”

  “How did you survive?” the Cloudweaver asked.

  “Oh, I was all the way dead. But ing back from the dead is—”

  “Kind of your thing,” Clive said. “Yes, we know.”

  “I remember that,” Travis said. “You’re talking about Makassar, right? The footage was all over the news. Am I remembering you turning into a giant bird made of stars?”

  “The star phoenix, yes.”

  “ you still do that?” Travis asked.

  “This avatar , yes.”

  “That was sweet. Taika turn into a big magic bird, too. Maybe I should build a jetpack with wings, like General Hawk.”

  “From G.I. Joe?” Jason asked.

  “Are you people utterly incapable of staying on topic?” the Cloudweaver asked.

  “Yeah, pretty much,” Jason agreed as Clive and Travis heir agreement.

  “Well, the point is, I would like to thank you fiving me access to your cloud fsk. It took signifitly lohan I had hoped, but that was ultimately more valuable, given the effects of your current dition on it. I am curious about that other funality, however.”

  “Oh, it just lets me pull out a little bit of cloud stuff and use it to make shields and such. It’s only strong enough to be effective against things lower than my rank, though, so I usually use it to make chairs. I was inally disappointed, if I’m being ho, but it’s turned into one of my favourite things.”

  “I’ve been looking into cloud furniture,” Hector said. “I haven’t mao make it cost effective yet.”

  “We’re expeg the materials for the upgrades to arrive some time in the hour or so,” Travis said. “We’ll get them in, do a little testing, and then we finally get on our way. Everything else is ready to ght?”

  “Yeah,” Jason said. “We’ve just been waiting on a ride.”

  The Cloudweaver shook Jason’s hand.

  “I must fess that I was trapped in traditional thinking for a long time,” they said. “Failing to innovate is one of the traps that e with loy. Following the lead of House de Varco, the st decade has seen some remarkable leaps in — what was the term you used, Travis?”

  “Aftermarket modification.”

  “I still don’t like the phrase,” Hector said. “Yes, there are Adventure Society trade hall markets where you buy cloud structs, but that’s for the more affordable personal transports. Cloud vehicles and their modifications are a prestige product. The implication that you buy them from a kiosk doesn’t engehe kind of image my family is looking for.”

  “While we’re waiting,” Clive said, “perhaps you could answer another few questions I have about the system.”

  Jaso out a groan.

  “Fine.”

  “Excellent,” Clive said and plucked a notebook from a pocket from somewhere inside his flowing wizard robe. “Now, st time we were discussing the degree to which you were scious of the System as it operated in the viity of your prime avatar…”

  ***

  Jason’s first enter with a cloud vessel was Emir’s. It sailed into Greenstohe size of an o liner, not flying due the low magic levels. Now that Jason was gold rank, he could finally produce a vehicle of simir size, and it flew away from Yaresh alongside Emir’s.

  Both vessels looked markedly different from that first look Jason got of Emir’s. Cloud substance remained as the underlying structure, but signifit external panelling lihe exteriors. For Emir, the panels looked something like blue sor panels, letting off a faint glow. They drew on ambient magic to fuel Emir’s vessel more effitly, saving on spirit expenditure.

  Jason had the advantage of p his cloud ship with his personal universe, skipping that requirement altogether. The dark red panels on his vessel were more defence-oriented, in case of motack. As their route would be taking them just north of the Pallimustus equivalent of Australia, this was sidered a wise move. The isnd ti was known fh-ranking and dangerous monsters, and it was not unon for oo swim or fly northward.

  Jason and Danielle were on the open deck above the bridge where Shade iloting the vessel.

  “You know that you could portal around the world, right?” Danielle asked. “We don’t have to go the long way.”

  “Sometimes, the long way is the point. If nothing else, I o visit pces before I portal there. Same for Clive, and Humphrey’s teleports. I know they got the ce to travel a lot in my absence, but there is always more to see. And as for me, I didn’t get that ce. I’ve missed a lot, and I’m going to make up for it. I want to see the world, not teleport past it.”

  “I recall my son telling me about this exa a long time ago. Roaming around the world on your eventual way to Estercost. You didn’t make it past Yaresh.”

  Jason turo look behind them as they sailed over the trees. He could just make out the light gleaming off the Yaresh towers.

  “We have now. It took us lohan I expected, but here we go. I wasn’t expeg the great astral beings to show up and tell me I had to py IT guy to the os.”

  “IT guy?”

  “Yeah, they broke their magic throne, so I had to go turn it off and on again.”

  “If I’m going to be your political advisor, I’m going to need you to start talking to people in ways they uand. Especially me.”

  “You uood. text clues.”

  “Jason, you wao instruct you on matters of diplomacy, yes?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I’ll try to expin things as we go, sielling you to do the opposite of every instinct you have might be sidered hurtful.”

  “So, you’re not going to tell me that?”

  “No.”

  “Somehow, it still feels hurtful.”

  “Then you o harden up. I remember when you arrived ione. I remember the furnace of fear and panic burning at the heart of your aura, hidden uhe bravado and the strange behaviour. But those days are long behind you, Jason. Back then, you were a boy with potential. Now, you have to be a man who lives up to it.”

  “My first day in this world, Rufus straight up told me that I had to choose if I was going to take responsibility of my own fate. Thied a bit more thaher of us anticipated. I was never ready for dealing with all these entities who were so much more powerful than me. Now, I’m not ready to be the oh the power. It feels strahat I o learn to be more diplomatic to avoid using it. If I just haul off on everyohat tries to treat me like they did st time I was oh, I’ll end up going to war with the whole p.”

  “The good thing is, having that power and not using it will be a valuable asset. Diplomacy is a war, and like any war, it involves influence, positioning, allies and, yes, power. Of many kinds. You gather intelligend hope you know more about them than they know about you, without ever being truly certain. Everything is an advao be won and lost. If yoing to annoy someo o be for a purpose. Deliberate. If that purpose is your personal amusement, yiving away advantage for nothing.”

  “There’s a part of me that wants to mar and demonstrate that there’s no one oh that stop me from doing whatever I want.”

  “I imagihat would be very satisfying.”

  “Yes. And it would start going wrong almost immediately. But I know it’s going to be hard restraining myself when I see something I ’t abide. I know that having the power to make ges isn’t the same as it being a good idea, not when my uanding of a situation is too shallow. That doesn’t make holding back easy.”

  “I said that diplomacy is war, Jason, and wars have objectives. It seems that, right now, you’re not thinking beyond a desire to avoid causing problems.”

  “I think that’s a pretty valid desire.”

  “Yes, but it’s not a goal. Is it something you holy believe you hold yourself to? you stand by as some travesty takes pd just leave it to the people of Earth to handle?”

  “Probably not, if I’m being ho. Here, on Pallimustus, things are simpler. No one is going to look at it as a challenge of snty or a viotion of local culture if you punch a monster until it explodes. Even when problems get political, the people here uand individual power. Oh, they don’t uand the ramifications of people like us existing. They think of them as extraordinary threats, rather than the new way of the world. And when they realise that it will be a new way, the people who like things the old way will start getting nervous. Desperate.”

  “Is that you’re objective, then? To help Earth smoothly transition to a new paradigm of power?”

  “No. That will take time, and it o be the people of Earth that find their own way forward. I’m not one of them anymore, not really.”

  “Then you o find what your objectives are, even if only preliminary ones. It will focus your efforts, a you go to Earth with more than ahat you’re about to break it.”

  “Danielle, I feel you pulling me by the owards something. Just spit it out.”

  “You want to ge things, yes?”

  “Yes, but don’t tease me, Danielle. I’m not a quick learner, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to get the idea of unintended sequehrough my skull. I’m not just going throw that out the window.”

  “You really aren’t a quick learner, are you? Yes, if you bolt off with no real uanding of what you’re doing and try to fix problems, yoing to make even more. But why am I here right now?”

  “To help me with the things I…”

  Exasperation at his own stupidity crossed his face.

  “…to help me with something I don’t properly uand.”

  “There is yoal, Jason. You want to use the power at your and to address problems that others ’t or won’t. You o find the people that help you do that without making things worse.”

  “This sounds suspiciously like what Dominion suggested about taking over. Or a Team America: World Police situation.”

  “Jason, what did I just say?”

  “Right, sorry. What you’re talking about is a sophisticated uaking, though, with a lot of steps. We’re talking about establishing somethiween a think tank and an intelligence agency. And that isn’t me making strange references, by the way. I’ll expin the cepts to you ter, because they’re going to be important. And even assuming we make that work, we’ll have to deal with the sequences of doing so. iate how and when we intervene when things happen. And what happens when we go back to Pallimustus. We’re going to be visitors oh, not residents. What happens if we build the Justice League and then run off back to Palli?”

  “Jason…”

  “Sorry. But politically and diplomatically plicated doesn’t begin to describe what taking this approach would entail. And once we navigate them fearing us, they’re going to try and exploit us.”

  “That sounds familiar. Perhaps politics aren’t so different over there.”

  “What’s our first step?”

  “Aside from me teag you to avoid spouting a stant stream of nonsense? Information. Always information first. If you tact this person you want to recruit oh, you should do so with haste. Before anything else, we o uand what we’ll be walking into.”