"Keep your voice down; you're starting to attract attention," Emory hushed him, "Yes, I have been told by several people what a miracle it is. But I've only had it for a few days, so I'm still figuring out the ins and outs of it."
"Let's go explore the world," Soren said firmly and outstretched his hand to Emory, "We can go somewhere no one can overhear us."
Emory smiled as she looked down, and the pair sailed into the sky once again. Moments later, they zoomed out of the city and into the countryside. The area around Arcadia was quite lovely as well with calm meadows, rolling hills, and plentiful streams. Because of teleportation, there were no highways or roads connecting each of the cities which gave the countryside a much different dynamic than in the Sol System. Even in the habitat units, roads or pathways connected isolated parts of the dome to the main area, and each base was connected via tunnels to each other. Therefore, wildlife ruled the land outside of the cities with large herds of herbivores roaming the fields and packs of carnivores plotting from the shadows. Without outside intervention, plants of all sizes grew naturally and symbiotically with nomadic animals.
Since this planet was bigger than Earth, the biomes were much bigger. After an hour of flying around, they landed on a mountain peak to take in the extra fresh air. A calm, secluded valley lay outstretched below them with an abundance of wildflowers. Soren sat down and stretched out his body while Emory continued to survey the area. From the mountaintop, she could see a hundred miles in each direction except deeper into the mountain range. Finally, she sat down and crossed her legs. For half an hour, Soren just pointed out different parts of the land and told Emory about them.
Then Emory asked plainly, "Have you seen the war with the Apleem?"
"I just came back from the front," Soren replied solemnly, "I lead the main force most of the time. Why do you ask?"
"Most of the human leaders don't actually fight, doing clerical or organizational work instead. Even the ones who do don't fight very often anymore. Maybe if there was an occupation force, but since it's taking place millions of miles away, they're content to leave the fighting to someone else. I practically had to force the leaders to send reinforcements to the outposts my friends and I established," Emory groaned as she kicked some rocks off the side.
"I'm confused. Are you not the leader of the humans?" Soren's eyebrow raised, "I can't imagine any humans comparable to you."
Emory lifted a single finger, "There are two factions among humans, and I only lead one of them. You see, when your people taught mine how to use magik, the descendants kept the knowledge for themselves instead of sharing it with everyone. Most humans didn't know magik existed before the Mantoan arrived and the Witches, as they're called, were forced to come out of hiding to defend humanity."
"That is unfortunate. I assume you lead the group that didn't know about magik then," Soren inferred, "Since you lived apart from structured magik training, I assume."
"Actually, there was or rather is only one family of Hexbloods on Earth, my mother's family, and they are essentially royalty among the Witches. So, I leaned on my heritage to rejoin them and then beat one of the strongest leaders in single combat to lead them. The magik faction is led by strength while the non-magik faction is led by a bureaucracy and a rigid one at that. Though I do hold a high position in that faction as well, I'm not in charge," Emory corrected him.
"For what it's worth, I too share your distain for inaction. The Legion is very slow at responding to the needs of the people," Soren empathized, "If it weren't for the conquering nature of the Apleem, the population would have come out in droves against the war. That's why the Five can act against the wishes of the Legion, to act quickly when necessary. Have you faced any of the Apleem yet?"
Emory clenched her fist, "Right after I achieved level three on the Arcane sphere, I killed almost two hundred Mantoan and punched the head off an Uthid. But I'm anxious about seeing a full-scale conflict."
"It is unlike anything you can imagine. The Mantoan, even though they're much weaker than us, number in the millions. The Uthid are generally thoroughly armored and number in the tens of thousands," Soren grimaced, "Whole planets have been lost just from collateral damage. Between their weapons and numbers, they are a fierce enemy, one of the worst we've encountered. And that's without factoring in the Laxtros."
"What are Laxtros like? I've heard a lot of scary warnings about them but never seen one in person or photo," Emory questioned. She didn't know Soren very well, so she decided not to tell him about her other gift that had allowed her to see a Laxtros before.
"They're about the same size as Uthid minus the tail, but they all have female upper bodies. Like us, they have a magik core which allows them to both control and contain magik. However, their native sphere is the Void sphere, a perfect foil to the Arcane sphere," Soren carefully described to her, "They are few in number, maybe in the tens of thousands for a total population, which is our only saving grace. All the ones I've seen on the field have enormous mana pools, equal to all the Five combined. And every one I've faced is proficient in melee and ranged combat."
Emory scoffed, "And you called me a god? It sounds like they're the real problem."
"Indeed, they are. Unfortunately, they're behind an unrelenting horde of Mantoan and a brutal army of Uthid," Soren lamented the situation, "Though if you're here to help, I feel like we can end the stalemate. With your vast magik reserves, we could drive back the Mantoan with less forces and then concentrate on the Uthid. Have we become friendly enough to talk about our magik?"
"I suppose so, as long as you tell me first," Emory lightly shoved his shoulder.
"I must admit I am not a master like your friend Athos. My Arcane is only level four and my other sphere, Necromancy, is only level three," Soren bit his lip, "And that rare gift of mine is called Forecasting. Basically, up to a certain skill level, I can see every attack someone makes against me a few moments before it happens. But against the Laxtros, for example, it's next to useless because they overpower my guard most of the time and it's not always soon enough to dodge outright. What about you?"
Emory smiled helplessly, "I actually only have the one sphere, but it's also level four. Since I didn't know I had the Arcane sphere until a couple months ago, I focused on general magik because I didn't know what sphere to pick then either. Permanent choices give me anxiety!"
"You're funny," Soren laughed heartily, "It's good to know you're still just a normal person. Well, are you leaning one way or another?"
"I think I'm leaning towards Chaos or Luck or Summoning. My best friend has Shifting, so Summoning is really appealing, but Chaos or Luck would be more practical against stronger opponents," Emory giggled uncomfortably.
Soren put his hand on his chin, "No Spirit choices? That's fair; it takes a high level to really see any benefit in warfare. Chaos and Summoning are both Dark spheres, so it seems like you're leaning that direction. Then you just need to decide if you want to call upon other creatures or create a disadvantage for your opponents."
"Which one would you suggest?" Emory asked genuinely, "I'm a close contact fighter normally, and given my background, I have very limited knowledge about either of them."
"If you'd consider yourself a short-range combatant, like you just indicated, I'd learn Chaos. Summoning is generally used in medium-range attacks by long-range fighters while Chaos, though not in your case, only works in a small radius around the caster and moves with them. It gives me little excited chills thinking about how powerful your Chaos could be, like stronger than Petrine's even," Soren pursed his lips in a devilish smirk.
"Is Petrine a strong Laxtros?" Emory, feigning ignorance, questioned, "For an enemy to have a memorable name, it usually means they're a well-known opponent."
Soren looked into the sky, "Petrine is the leader of the Laxtros and the most powerful by some margin. The stories go that she's only even been hit in combat a handful of times, though she has a large scar on one of her lower legs from an unknown source. Since she got the wound, she hasn't fought anyone in close combat. Which is strange considering she once led the main army quite frequently. Still, she can slay an entire platoon of us without a scratch even from a distance. Our orders are to turn and leave as soon as someone recognizes her."
"She's that strong? How terrifying," Emory changed topics, "What does this seven-day commune look like? What are we really going to doing for that many days?"
"Well, it's a lot of ceremony like all the first and last day. And if the first day carries into a second day, we'll start the closing ceremony on the sixth day. Otherwise, most of the time is for the Legion, not the Five since more voices mean more time needed. We largely present our research to each other and discuss the plan for war, which almost always ends in an argument. Athos has been working on the same project for a hundred years with very little to show for it before today. Your presence will certainly make things interesting this quarter," Soren jested. Emory blushed and looked down at her wrist; since they were so far away from the rest of humanity, Jask was barely functioning as a VI, let alone an AI. But it still told time, and they had been on this mountaintop for nearly two hours. In the distant horizon, the star had begun to set, causing Soren to stand up with an outstretched hand to Emory.
"Come on, let's get some food," Soren requested sweetly, "You do eat, don't you?"
Emory stuck out her tongue, "Yes, I eat. I hope you have some meat; the last place I was at didn't eat meat."
"What kind of food do you like? Sweet, sour, spicy, or bitter?" Soren grinned, "I promise we will have an array of land and sea animals to eat."
"Anything will be fine, though I guess sweet and sour sounds the best to me," Emory fidgeted a bit as she too stood up.
"Perfect! If you'll accompany me, I have just the place in mind," Soren happily replied, "I will warn you: it gets a bit chilly after dusk here."
Emory kicked off the ground a little, floating just over the edge as she turned back to Soren, "I'll race you back to the city then." Then, like a master bird of prey, she tucked in her wings and dropped down the sheer mountain face. Soren smirked and dove after her until she unfurled her wings and took off into the sky. As they blasted off into the dimming light, a tail of glittering particles trailed behind them and lit up the darkening sky. Their dazzling bodies spun around each other like a dance of lights. When they finally arrived, it had gotten dark and, like Soren said, the temperature dropped at least thirty degrees. But they had no problems seeing the city at night as the pearlescent stone illuminated the streets, buildings, and inhabitants. Emory felt like she had truly been transported to a mystical land as the prismatic lights made it look like an enchanted city of legends. Finally dismissing her cloak, she took Soren's arm as they walked towards the front of a small food stand with only a dozen seats and an open store front.
All the chairs surrounded a raised bar that separated the customers from two chefs and a makeshift kitchen. One was a young man near Emory's age with blonde hair and a normal Elandrian build while the other was an older man who was bald and a head shorter than the young man. Two sealed pots rested just on the other side of the counter, and three large woks sat above green flames while sweet, sour, and salty smells wafted into the sidewalk. Despite the pleasing aromas, only two other people were sitting at the counter. They sat down on the opposite side of the other people, waiting patiently for either chef to notice them. Finally, Soren cleared his throat which caught the young man's attention.