As Sammy dove into the clerical spell list, she was immediately happy to see a big pinnacle reached, in Seal Major Wound.

Yes! That’s huge. Even I’ve been hamstrung a few times — if temporarily — by physical Major Wounds. This is where one can say healing gets especially miraculous.

True to the assumption one would make after the Purify change, Lift Lesser Curse appeared in the list. Nearly all non-artifact ‘stuck with a cursed item’ effects were considered Lesser, even if the curse effect on an item was not, so it was good insurance in that respect as well as a counter to permanent personal curses.

In general, the power level of spells had boosted similarly to level 4 — illusions mimicked her own power capabilities better (if each spell was more limited), hard light constructs got more powerful and versatile, and destructive light spells caught up with her AoE deadliness via Light Manipulation. A level 6 [Cleric] of hers was capable of a similar ‘scale’ of destruction — if focused on one element — to a level 4 [Wizard].

One stand-out spell was Frenetic Weapon, which was basically a hard light ‘summon’ that would float around and operate independently, in mimic to her own recent upgrade therein. Though the duration was short — 15 seconds plus 5 seconds per caster level — she had to at least keep it in mind, since it would fall outside of her normal power limits and was more capable in its very narrow combat focus.

Another interesting one was House of Glass, which literally created a shelter made of hard light. It had numerous extras that made it well worth casting herself if ever needing such a thing, including separate furnishings, a magical security system, automatic heat and lighting, and an invisible servant.

It had two bedrooms and a bunk room that had five double bunk beds. It was difficult to detect from afar due to a mirrored outer surface. The spell did, however, require a material component: a small box of glass that was consumed in the casting to transform into the construct, which lasted 24 hours or until dismissed.

Fate provided a fairly nasty AoE buff/curse called Shadow of the Eye, which was a kind of 10-meter donut radius that could be adjusted. Those in the center received +2 ELs [Fate] bonus to all their actions for 5 seconds after they engaged in their next contest, and those in the outer circle had -2 ELs for theirs once they engaged in their next contest. Luminous or shadowy auras made it obvious who was afflicted with what.

Yep… a 4 level swing could be quite murderous, I’d say. One to keep in mind in a group battle, certainly.

Another strangely unique Fate-based spell offering was Twist Up the Sleeve, which upon casting did a triple draw of the Tarot, corresponding to a buff or curse equivalent to [Alter Fate: Dealer’s Choice] (something she hadn’t yet utilized but was increasingly worthy of consideration after stacking good duration levels). The caster could choose one and ‘hide it’ (one and only one at a time) for up to an hour, able to unleash it instantly at any point on up to three targets.

Ooh, I love new preparation layers! Gimmie, gimmie…

Another level 6 provision was Summon Servitor, which required a material component consumption (valuable dust related to Domain) but was a 10-second casting. It had a 3-minute ‘global’ cooldown on any Servitor summoning, making it useless to her who could already summon instantly for free, but it was quite useful for her priestly Followers.

There was a second version of the spell which required a circle and an hour ritual involving at least 3 but made it so that once any Follower traced the circle with the dust, a Servitor could be summoned, thus allowing a guarantee of protection for an area absent of a cleric, essentially.

A mostly amusing spell was Divination… which was a consultation with her for predictions and such, bypassing the limits of Grant Prayer. She could already consult with Fate herself, of course, and her Followers only needed to ask… right?

Surely I’m not big enough for this to be worth bothering with yet, but if that vision Lovie gave me was any indication, it might be difficult to get my attention one day. Crazy to think about, though.

Her thoughts strayed as she exhausted the notables she cared about on the list. She had been going, going, going since she’d received that vision, but it was something to contemplate more on, that was for sure.

The ‘Unblemished Throne in the Palace of Illumined Will’… a floating platform medical ‘stretcher’ artifact stacked with healing powers… a God of War assassinated early on in the struggles against her eternal enemy… and then that dead god’s former followers coming to Ishaterri for help. Their true identities felt inwardly but not capable of acknowledging within the vision nor ‘fitting’ into what came after in the struggle for Redberry’s soul…

It was fucking Dax and Canmore! Married in another life. How crazy is that?! Do I tell them about it? Aw man, how do I fucking not when I’m around them… geez… The Champion of Light. Is that unassuming farm boy one of the major players, then? Hard to say… but, shit, I’ve got to tell them something. The truth is the best policy, after all. Well. If it isn’t dangerous to reality, anyway.

When she checked on her body and Gabriel’s progress… there was land speeding below — she was in the Borderlands! Wildlands, anyway. Along the coast, as it was likely safer to dodge any chance at observation. There was a thick forest in evidence, so she knew she was south of Caneboro and within 20-30 minutes past the remaining castle-protected rustic territories that were ahead.

It was very early morning, pre-dawn, but some of her Followers were waking up and congratulating her on the level-up news. As soon as she noticed Azure was awake, she felt her lover pop into her mind like she was waiting for it.

“Missed you when I woke up, Chestnut,” Azure sent along with a mental hug, though more conversational than admonishing, “but I started in on some things. Congratulations on the level! And — wow! — a Pantheon?! Redberry is absolutely exploding out of the gate once unleashed. You know, I think you’re a bit lucky you showed up during summer. She normally changes with the seasons, at least according to legend.”

Sammy sent back a hug, a kiss, and a big image of a heart. “She might’ve been lost to us if it was already winter, yeah. I’ll add it to the count of my blessings, eh? Along with these sick power upgrades.”

“And me, of course.”

“And you, of course.” She snickered. “You missed a bit of a party. Dancing. I showed off some of my Earth moves.”

“A tragedy I may never recover from. You still owe us girls a pool party, however, so your dancing debt shall be deferred to another time. At least the delays have seemingly scored us more targets to invite.”

“Dancing debt, huh?”

“Mm-hmm. Would you deny me and your beloved Followers the glories of Earth?”

“I… uh, well. When you put it like that-”

“Excellent! You’ll dance for us and show us how it’s done.”

“I feel like you have other motives. Call me crazy.”

“Crazy.” A mental smirk.

Sighing, Sammy decided to move on from the subject. “I’m quite close to Caneboro now. I’m sure people would love to meet you in the flesh, too, so feel free to switch over if you’re up for it.”

“Yes, I’m drained but functional. I noticed immediately that your range on [Mirror Walk] improved significantly, so I have arranged to help place mirror relays to get us back to Geirkos quicker. Michael has switched back there, but another flyer is handling it. You can travel to the last one placed when you get to it then summon an Angel to travel the rest of the way.”

“Oh! Hey, that’s good thinking, yeah. I guess when we-”

She was interrupted by the Faerie Dragon mastermind Aramis communicating directly. “Apologies, Your Majesty, but there is a developing situation at the Redwood Estate that you should get involved with imminently. Our best spy within — Eremina — has been working diligently and effectively, though sadly the hedonistic angles did not snag our culprit directly. Numerous rumors lead us to suspect another, however. Nestaire Linateri, brother of Ikaros Linateri, Councilor and Cantarch of the Bank of Geirkos.

“Nestaire does not live in the Estate but has frequent dealings as a bank liaison — officially. Rumors are legion about his handling of the dirty work for the bank, keeping his brother’s hands clean. Nestaire has an office within, generally kept locked up tight.

“The short of it, Madam, is that time was ticking and we arranged to gamble and break into the office with the aid of items provided by Zephyr, in the ungodly wee hours. The good news is it was a success and something damning was found in a secret compartment: a magical booklet of multiple runic tattoos. A few were detected as explosive.”

Sammy gasped internally. “Like the one on Bagatta Meritosi?!”

“Exactly. Like copies.” He left a dramatic pause. “Now for the bad news. Time spent was not as efficient in acquiring this confirmation, and Eremina was caught red-handed by the majordomo herself, who was becoming increasingly suspicious and disapproving of Eremina in the first place. So. She has been caught — as of some minutes ago. She’s being questioned — and keeping her composure so far — but presumably, Nestaire has been or will be alerted about this.”

“Shit, shit, shit! Alright, no time to lose, we have to get her-”

Aramis cut in apologetically but smoothly. “There are two things to resolve imminently. Extracting Eremina and hunting down Nestaire before… Well, I don’t know what he’ll do. But I would bet on him either heading to the estate or having her brought to him. I imagine we’re looking at an hour or two at best before things… progress. Or regress.”

Sammy took a moment to process it all, then said, “Okay, start in on whatever you feel is best for the extraction and otherwise — secondarily — finding Nestaire, with full authorization, while I switch fucking Avatars and high tail it back to Geirkos.”

She got an affirmative even as she was commanding Gabriel to land immediately on the beach-like coast below so that she could dematerialize. It wasn’t nearly fast enough for her, so she used Create Illusion to make a disk, then unstrapped herself mid-air. She let herself fall to the ground, slowing gradually as she got closer.

At least, that was the plan. She was no paradrop expert. In addition to being completely disoriented initially and spinning uncontrollably, even once she got a handle on it she wasn’t really prepared for how quickly the ground came up or how much she needed to slow herself.

Whoa, whoa, whoa- shiiiiit!

She smashed into the sand hard at an angle, the hard light platform shattering under her as she embedded past it, making a small hole that quickly collapsed. Fortunately, a goddess body of level 6 was quite tough, and she did in fact slow down her momentum before impact. All she took was a full-body Minor Wound.

She only crawled up out of the hole enough to lift her head out of it and ineffectually spit sand out of her mouth.

Fuck, that was dumb. Oh well. She dropped her head, closed her eyes, and began dematerializing.

In the minute or so of being projected into her realm awaiting dematerialization, she scoped out the response Aramis had begun, which was to wake up her Geirkos crew and begin sending Servitors of all kinds live into the city. Eyes and ears and backup.

Orswyth was already up and getting everyone moving while emphasizing disguises. He noticed her noticing him and sent a surge of comfort and confidence. “Your Majesty, we will rescue our girl without fail, rest assured. I think it’s high time you got to see what we mere mortals are capable of in your service. I have a suggestion: let us take care of our own while you nail the bastard that got us into this mess in the first place.”

Samantha set her face with grim determination. “Agreed, Hierophant. Agreed.”