“Where in the HELL are you from, to be even thinking that it is less than a great honor to be summoned to meet Thunderbird Emperor, little man?!” I leaned forwards slightly, glaring at the twat. “I rather think, given your tone, that if you ever came to His attention, a moment later, you’d be dead. Perhaps you might think of moving back across the pond? I understand they treat the Emperors over there like nothing important, either... but then, they don’t cross the Alps, White Death Wolf Emperor basically ignores them, and they haven’t pressed any further east for over five hundred years for a damn reason! Napoleon tried making his name there, the White Death Wolf basically huffed a breath in his direction, and Napoleon lost his whole damn army to the weather, without ever finding anything to fight!” Which was basically unbelievable to armies made up of mages, but that was what had happened. They’d never found any of the Beasts generating anything, just going further and further into the lands as the weather killed them, then running for home as it killed even more of them!

Less than ten percent of Napoleon’s army had survived, and it had been his end as a ruler, for all practical purposes. Even an Archmage as skilled as him had never made it to Sagedom, and with the loss of Sage support from his disastrous showing (mostly done to appease the Great Beasts of Europe, I deduced) his final years had become just political intrigue, exile, and death far from home, never reaching Sagedom, although his earlier battles against the Beast-men, the Pharaohs, and other various Tribes were all well-known and considered legends of their own kind, as were his conflicts with other European nations.

Different world, some of the names still the same, despite it all!

“If you have a problem with me paying respects to Thunderbird Emperor, then I think the United States Air Force has a problem with you. Get lost, little person. I don’t want to learn your name, because I think you have some problems ahead of you for your inane words.”

That definitely wasn’t the sort of diplomatic language they were used to hearing out of a scholarly presentation like this. Someone was going to have a field day... but it was all going out on the internet, so let the pundits rage. They couldn’t misquote me, or Face and Name of the Mage would just shut them down. I didn’t give them permission to twist my words, after all... and they didn’t have the wherewithal to overcome such fundamental, subtle Identity/Truename Magic.

Regardless, the questioner got up and hurried out of there, trying to ignore a lot of angry glares being sent his way.

“Since Lady Fae is taking unrelated questions,” a more ponderous, older voice spoke up, “I was wondering if you had any success in unraveling any new Mage-tier spells?” Professor Hornabus of Yale asked hopefully.

“Ah. Prescient of you, Professor Hornabus. You are of the Lightning Element, and you know the Founders Fulgrum, I see.” He beamed at the recognition. “For those of you who are not aware, the Founders Fulgrum are the men credited with establishing the foundation theories and eventual Element of Lightning Magic, with Edison being the one to codify their contributions and make it ‘official’. They all share one fact in common. Professor?” I inquired of him.

“They all witnessed Thunderbird manipulating Lightning!” he declared enthusiastically. “All of the greatest Lightning scholars have met Thunderbird at some point in their lives, and earned new insights into Lightning! The Lady Fae’s additional spells seemed to have sparked even His interest. There are a great many scholars eager to see if you had gained new insights after meeting the Source of All Lightning!”

It was true. Thunderbird was indeed the greatest Lightning Master on the planet. Although there were other Beasts with Lightning Affinity, none had them like Thunderbird Emperor and the Eagles who were His descendants.

“It is fairly obvious knowledge by now that I am a Typeless Wizard, and have no preferred Element. Thunderbird Emperor was naturally greatly interested in this, and how different a perspective on magic there came with having no Affinity towards Mana of any particular type, beyond the Firefrost Seed I hold.” Also long sussed-out and gossiped about by those watching me. “We spoke at length on many subjects, and of course Human Magic was one of those matters.

“I also was privileged to watch Thunderbird wielding magic of the Lightning, Thunder, Air, and Void Elements, all the way up to Great Sage Magicks.”

The knowledgeable there all sucked in their breaths. The Fulgrum Founders had gained their inspirations just from watching Thunderbird wield Lightning. A Typeless, modern Caster proficient enough to create spells in multiple Elements, witnessing such a display?

“Thunderbird’s instinctive control and Affinity with His Elements is beyond that of any Human alive. Beasts have no Stars, nothing to organize, control, and stratify their Magic but instinct and power. Indeed, He could effortlessly duplicate any and all of the spells that I showed Him, and in the Enhanced Format, too, following the paths laid out and bringing the spells together with trivial effort.

“And He took them all the way up to Sagedom without effort, too.”

I looked up and away as the hall went dead silent in awe of the ability to do that. Sage spells were each and every one unique, and it sounded like Thunderbird had taken... a dozen spells of each of four Elements right up into Sagedom?

I waved my hand absently behind me, making sure to Illusion the Holo so that it couldn’t be photographed.

Thirty-six spells from each of Thunderbird’s four Elements and three Tiers of them overlapped one another in their blazing colors, stunning everyone watching. The pure towering glory of the Sage spells encapsulated all the others in a polychromatic display of magical grandeur behind me!

“Using my spells as a guideline, He put together these spells from the Raised versions of the Adept spells I showed Him.” I clenched my fist, and the images all evaporated, to little protests from those watching and trying to discern and decipher them.

“It was a very humbling display, as I’m sure you might imagine. But it was also something else.

“Allow me to display for you a Third Tier Spell of the Void Magic, Rampart of the Void. It is specifically designed as a Force Barrier spell of the most obdurate, immovable sort.”

I whipped up the full spell behind me. The mages present all leaned forwards eagerly, trying to memorize it.

There was a snap, and they heard the cry of an Eagle. It snapped at their eyes with Thunder as the lights of the Runes behind me seemed to sparkle and crackle, and they all cried out and jerked away, closing their eyes and rubbing at them.

“These one hundred and forty-four spells form the Grimoire of Thunderbird, and they may only be used at His sufferance.” I sighed as the very realistic illusion behind me, thoroughly informative and replicable, which had auto-Infused with Thunder and Lightning magic, faded away. “My apologies, everyone. Possibly I could have worked out this magic, given time and effort. It has been done now, but the spells are all tied to Thunderbird’s Name and Will.

“I literally do not have the power to release them to any of you; that privilege is limited to Thunderbird alone. I believe He ceded the right to release the Lightning, Thunder, and Air Spells of Archmage and below to any Stormcrown Eagle, as well, but as you know, the Noble Eagles are also incredibly proud and choosy.

“If you wish to learn these spells, you must pay your respects to a Ruling Eagle of Thunderbird’s line, earn their favor, and they may dispense the spells as they wish. There is no other way to gain them.”

More specifically, I’d left unsaid that if you wanted the Void Spells, you had to earn the favor of Thunderbird Himself... as well as any of the Sage spells!

I had also not mentioned that we were making up Bars designed to fuse to the beaks of the Stormcrown Eagles and Thunderbird Himself that would give them the ability to perform Aural Assays, and literally peer into the hearts and souls of those who would supplicate themselves, i.e., Know Alignment.

The Stormcrown Eagles themselves tended to strong Emerald, lofty and nuanced minds occupied with thoughts of the Elements and nature, not as involved with the affairs of their descendants as the White or Snowcrown Eagles were, protective and guiding where required, aloof if not.

If Thunderbird Himself had a trace of Yellow growing on the Green of His Aura, I wasn’t going to complain.

Designing the spells to do all that had been rather difficult, and we’d colluded on that while I was making Pyramids for hours and hours (Spellcrafting checks galore, as it were). He had no difficulties making false Stars and then matching them up to our spells, and even enjoyed the process more as it gave Him reference points for wielding some of His own powers with greater ease and power.

He had Named the Spells and bound them to Him. Anywhere in this Manafield, if one wanted to wield them, among other things, they would have to picture Him and His Name to do so! He would literally be unforgettable if you were using His spells!

My face was woeful at the opportunity taken away from us, but inside I was snickering. Who says I couldn’t control dissemination of the magic? I had passed it off to an entity who would be far more responsible about it than I could be!

And I was going to be seeing Fire Phoenix Emperor, who could do much the same thing with the Fire, Chaos, Blessing, and Healing Elements!

Queen Gichigumi was not a True Emperor, nor Eminent in any of Her Elements like Thunderbird and Fire Phoenix were. I didn’t trust any of the Emperors of the Oceans at this point, but then I didn’t know them all. Some of the Whales might certainly qualify, such as True Emperor Leviathan... we’d just have to see.

I had also given Thunderbird Emperor an unparalleled gift once He learned how to manifest false Stars, showing Him the basic Repetition Runes that simply doubled and redoubled the basic Novice Spell. Humans were limited by the Tier of the Stars involved in the spell... but Thunderbird Emperor was limited only by the amount of Mana He could command, as it didn’t matter if the False Stars He created were destroyed. He’d permanently lose a point or two His Mana, of which he had literally millions.

He had layered the basic Lightning Bolt spell twenty-one times, and for the cost of 21 Mana, less than a Mage spell, He had brought forth a Thunderbolt that was the equivalent of a Sage spell!

==========

Several weeks before...

We both watched the horrendously-powerful blast of purest Lightning, no deviations, no changes, just one massive moving field of plasma devouring everything in its way, shatter the sky as it headed out over the horizon and into outer space.

Thunderbird Emperor looked at me, and I looked at Him.

“You popped two of the one hundred and forty-seven False Stars, meaning You have to recreate the whole artificial Startrail, Your Imperial Majesty,” I told Him. “Either hold them all steady, or back it off until Your Majesty can.” The rifled identical Star Trails were still spinning furiously with the after-energies of the spell, but the wild sparks from the two Patterns that had lost a Star were obvious to us both. “This one thinks Your Majesty will be able to pound just about anybody to death with unlimited Sage Lightning Bolts.”

Literally. He should be able to shoot one of those things basically every six seconds if He didn’t pop a False Star doing it. That was an unbelievable amount of sustained firepower!

“THE FALSE STARS ARE SENSITIVE TO OPPOSING WILLS. FLUCTUATIONS IN THE MANAFIELD WHILE THE MANA MOVES THROUGH THEM WILL CAUSE THEIR DESTRUCTION REGARDLESS. HOWEVER, EVEN IF THEY ARE DESTROYED... I CAN CREATE THEM NIGH-ENDLESSLY. THE SIMPLICITY OF THE SPELL IS ALSO A WEAKNESS, BUT FOR THE CASTING COST...” He trailed off, still looking after the Raised Lightning Bolt which had likely terrified the shit out of every Beast who had seen it. His six Stormcrown Eagles had all been blown spontaneously back to the far side of the Nest, and were still staring after the display of power in awe.

I glanced over at His descendants. “Can they make False Stars?” I asked Him tellingly.

He turned His head ever-so-slightly to study them. “I DO NOT THINK SO,” He admitted. “BUT IF THEY CAN...” He trailed off thoughtfully.

“Then this one thinks your problems with Dragons will be over, Your Imperial Majesty.”

“INDEED...”

“This one will ask His Majesty’s permission to pass this technique on to other Emperors, then. Permission to do so for Queen Gichigumi and Fire Phoenix Emperors?”

He thought about that for a long moment, then slowly nodded. “GRANTED. LET US SEE HOW THE OCEAN TRIBES LIKE DEALING WITH A TURTLE WHOSE MASTERY OF WATER IS GREATER THAN THEIRS...”

=========