Savage Awakening 564. Leagues (IV)

One day around the 5th season of his time in the Pure Yang Lands, just about 10 years in, Zane was eating kebabs and watching league with Kain. 

Kain had fashioned some scrying glasses for them, so they could see the action up-close, which Zane was quite grateful for. With these things they weren’t just spectating flashing lights anymore—he could make out expressions and everything. It made for a far more immersive experience; it was much easier to get invested in your heroes. 

He offered Kain a kebab, which the man quickly declined. “Not my thing,” said Kain. 

“I feel like you say that a lot,” said Zane. He offered it again. 

“…” Kain eyed the kebab dubiously. “Perhaps I’ll try just one, then,” he said. “But I don’t expect anything will come of it.” 

10 minutes later, they were both happily munching on kebabs. 

“These really are quite good,” said Kain. He seemed surprised. “What exactly did you season them with? It’s excellent.” 

“Not sure,” said Zane. “It’s not mine. I picked them up last time I was in Astra, actually.” 

He explained how in his last Astra trip, he’d visited quite a few nice towns, especially seaside ones—towns with tons of good food. If he encountered a particularly tasty dish, he made sure to order a few to take on the road. He’d picked up quite a lot of food this way, including the steamed buns he’d gotten from that one seaside village, which was by far his most stashed food. The few years he’d spent there, he’d made sure to really stock up. 

They watched as Jaxarys decimated his Stone Axes, and then the Rune Wizards, both in quick succession. Zane had to say, he felt his stone axes might only have one more solid season left in them. They were getting to be in pretty rough shape after all these years. He still liked seeing them out there; they just kept holding on, which he could always appreciate. 

After the action died down that night, Kain let Zane know he wouldn’t be at the starfield tomorrow. He was heading off to do some scrying. 

“The highest peak on the Pure Yang lies in the Skysear Range, off in the far north of the continent,” said Kain. “It’s there I’m headed. The highest peak also makes for the closest point to the stars, the easiest place from which to scry matters of Fate.” 

“Any reason in particular you’ve got to go so far?” Zane had known him to do quite a lot of scrying from his home base, here on Mount X. 

Kain considered the sky in silence. Then, a few moments later—“There’s an … anomaly, shall we  call it? A fluctuation in space that shouldn’t be. Strange… tears of a kind, appearing, then disappearing, at the edges of this reality. It could simply be nothing, but I’ll still examine them. It’s always better than know, than not to know.” 

Zane nodded. It sounded pretty vague to him, but he assumed Kain knew what he was doing. “Sure thing. See you in a few, then.” 

*** 

Two days later, Kain returned just in time for morning starfield-clearing.

“Find anything interesting?” said Zane. 

“As it happens, yes.” Kain seemed a tad surprised. “But it’s nothing to worry about. I’ve taken care of it.” 

“Anything specific you can tell me?” 

“Someone thinks they’re being clever, attempting to mess with reality,” said Kain dryly. “They are not. It’s not entirely clear to me just what they’re attempting to do—it’s early stages yet. But I’ve taken steps to make certain it won’t be an issue.” 

“Fair enough,” said Zane. It sounded a bit vague. If something came of this thing, whatever it was, he supposed he’d hear about it in a few years. 

He just went back to focusing on his work. 

They moved onto their daily clearing. 

***

He also got a few brief updates from his friends. Reina was finally finishing up her spell list. She’d taken in four shards of Creation, which was about as much as she could handle right now, even with her blessing making her more amenable to Creation. She was starting to prepare for her third and final Ritual, which would require her to perfect herself as a vessel of the World Tree’s powers; then she’d be able to make use of a far greater portion of the World Tree’s reserves, up to a tenth of them at True God—a massive amount, relatively speaking. Though even little impurities would mean a significant chance of failure. She planned on asking her top alchemists to prepare more brews to strengthen herself, as well as communing with past Mistresses for tips. A

Then there was Avery. “I will admit,” said Avery. “I’m on the struggle bus.” 

Originally she’d tried to avoid procrastinating by getting in a solid rythym. She’d fought hard against her instincts to game. It was safe to say that at this point, she had lost the battle. 

She didn’t want to say she was giving up—she adamantly insisted she hadn’t—but she’d decided not to go that hard. It was a strategic retreat, she claimed. “One must go with one’s nature,” she said, nodding. “That’s the wise thing to do.” 

She was also convinced she gained buffs when she procrastinated. Things that would ordinarily take her a week to do, she could do the night before if there was a deadline looming. She planned on applying that same logic to her training. 

“I’m pretty screwed if this doesn’t work out, not gonna lie,” she said. “…But I’m convinced it will. I’ve got this in the bag.” 

She said it quite confidently. Then she promptly went back to gaming. 

…She’d figure it out. 

Evan, meanwhile, had made steady progress—clearing five more floors of the Delver King’s Tower since he’d last written. He’d gotten 9 ‘Trial Badges,’ from the Trial captains, he was happy to report. Chomper was doing great out there. 

The one thing he was worried about was challenging the ‘Elite Eight,’ and especially the Champion, who used some kind of fearsome ground-dragon. Evan was trying teach Chomper an ice-type move, the one thing it was weak against, but Chomper wasn’t really interested in learning anything, just sitting there and panting, and occasionally chomping something. 

*** 

Nothing much else ended up happening that season. They went through the end-of-season as usual, and when the shards he got then were added up to the shards he’d found during the rest of the season, he netted a solid 13. Which meant his Destruction shard stockpile had gone up to a total of 61. 

That was nearly double the requirements to hit T1 Empyrean… though it was still just half of T2’s requirements. Still, he felt like his stockpile was growing pretty damned hefty. 

One night just before the end of the season, eating their buns and waiting for league to spin up, Zane and Kain started talking about how they’d come to be on that mountain to begin with. 

By this point Kain had worked out Zane was from the future, and that he practiced a path kin to his own. But he requested Zane didn’t share too many specifics, just to avoid any time shenanigans, which Zane agreed to. He pretty much just outlined the forces he was up against, and why he was fighting—these days, mostly for his friends. Kain nodded. 

“I fought a lot more for myself, earlier on,” said Zane through a mouthful of chicken. He swallowed. “I still do fight for myself, but not just for myself… I think it’d be fun to get back to that, at least for a while. At the moment I’m mostly focused on the snake.” 

“Certainly a wise decision,” said Kain, nodding.

“So what’s up with you?” 

Kain stared into the distance for a long while, then spoke. 

“I come from a lost civilization, in a land which has long since ceased to exist. Its name was Catalia,” said Kain. “It was a civilization which loved knowledge, prizing it above all else; a land of great vaults, rife with vast libraries. A land where even the streets and the buildings were works of art, where master sculptors and builders were celebrated as much as any warrior…It is not a particularly remarkable land, on a Galactic scale. Neither is it unique. I’m certain there are lands like that where you come from.” 

Zane nodded. It kind of reminded him of ancient Athens, mixed with renaissance Italy or something. “Sure.” 

“There is nothing truly rare about it, other than that it was my home,” Kain concluded. 

“You remind me of a friend of mine,” said Zane. 

“Really.” Kain arched a brow. 

Zane remembered Noughtfire talking about another Empire he’d visited a few decades ago—an empire outside this Galaxy which also had tons of libraries, which Noughtfire had lauded. Sometimes it felt like Noughtfire’s measure of how valuable a civilization was was how many big libraries it had. 

Zane’s brow furrowed. He was struck by a sudden, rather irksome thought. He remembered the look on Noughtfire’s face when he’d tweaked Zane’s disguise. 

“Say—you wouldn’t happen to go by any other name, would you?” 

Kain blinked. “No.” 

“But if you became a Sage one day,” said Zane. “What Sage-name would you give yourself?” 

“Hm. Sage is an informal title, representing the mastery of a certain path,” said Kain, stroking his stubble. “It… can be rather nebulous. Though I suppose my path is to the end of Stormfire… more specifically, to the fire that is closest to Destruction. Something related to that, I suppose.” 

Kain paused. “…Why are you looking at me like that?” 

“I’m going to give you a wedgie,” Zane informed him. 

This freaking guy. 

“What did I do?” Kain looked genuinely baffled. 

“You’ll understand in a few hundred thousand years,” said Zane, waving a hand. “Anyway. Keep going?” 

“Very well, then. I am the last vestige left of that kingdom. Catalia was annihilated. Not even by a Monster horde, but by the neighboring empire—a far more warlike land. It is a very common story in this Galaxy.” 

Kain stared into the campfire flames. “My mother, and father, and older brothers all perished in that final siege on Catalia’s capital... So, too, did my master. The only reason I remain is that I was traveling far abroad, as a scholar. I only learned of their demise when I returned… by then the winds had blown their ashes to the four corners of the Galaxy. Nothing remained but the ruins.” 

Kain was silent for a little while. “I didn’t even know where any of them perished, where I ought to set their graves… none, but my master’s. He was the archmage of Catalia. Merely a Nascent Soul. But when he perished he called upon powers far greater than himself, and destroyed three Ascendants as he went. The marks were the only thing I could recognize. I should have been there with him, by right. That would have been my duty. To my family, and to my master, and to my home—to defend it, against all that threatened it. Instead I chose the selfish route.” 

“You couldn’t have known it was happening,” said Zane. 

“Perhaps not. But to live that way—a life so cut off from those that matter to you that you won’t be there, to help them in their suffering… is that not selfish? All obsession, is, at its core, selfish.” 

“I’m not sure I agree,” said Zane, who considered himself a pretty obsessed guy. “But go on.”

“Then let’s simply say that the pursuit of knowledge—my pursuit, is a selfish thing,” Kain concluded. “It’s why I live today. I don’t tell you this to gain your sympathy. It’s simply to help you to understand… if that is the reason I am alive, I may as well see it through to the end. I don’t mean this in any self-pitying way—it’s simply a fact. I have nothing else to live for, nor do I particularly want anything else to live for, Jack. I’m perfectly happy this way.” 

“That’s fair,” said Zane. “You were perfectly happy before discovering seasoned kebabs too, though.” 

Kain smiled. “… True enough.”