I let the link to Reynard fade with a smile. “Your Majesty, Reynard is enthusiastically on his way to seek permission to do this. This one does not think it will be a problem, but he will inform this one if it is so. This one believes him being a Winged Fox with a unique Bloodline will be sufficient to gain admission to the Phoenix Kingdom of the Beast Realm?”
“THAT SHOULD INDEED BE OF GREAT INTEREST TO THE KINGDOM, YES,” Fire Phoenix agreed gratefully. He seemed to think I should be asking questions of him, but I simply remained silent. If I were a Sage, sure I’d ask him for more details out of curiosity, but Beasts really take their instinctive ranking seriously, and I had hard-wired some mnemonics into my brain for whenever I was dealing with their Emperors. Nobles I could treat somewhat more loosely, but Emperors, nah, it was play it correctly.
“YOU HAVE QUESTIONS?” He decided to tease me.
“Such silliness from an Imperial Avian. Of course this one has questions. Is she not of the Monkeys?”
His liquid warble of laughter made the air bounce in delight. Fire Phoenix could be as haughty and raging as a Firestorm, but also as warm as a campfire in a snowstorm. “AH, A HUMAN WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR IN THE FACE OF AN EMPEROR! TRULY A GREAT PRIZE ELDER BROTHER FOUND!”
It hadn’t been hard to discern from King Dorado that Monkeys were expected to run a bit uncontrolled at the mouth. Among the Noble Beasts, Monkeys pretty much took up the position of Court Jester equivalents. Foxes were more like sly counselors...
I was Contracted to one of each! Even the rather stuffy Thunderbird gave me some leeway. The fact I could endure the Emperors’ default Auras and had a Will like a diamond only meant they gave me far more respect than my magical Power would indicate... and they were watching my magical power rise inside the Archmage tier with incredible speed, even for a Human!
“This one imagines the rampant fear and terror gets rather tiresome after a time, Your Majesty.”
“THAT VERY MUCH DEPENDS ON WHO IS BEING FEARFUL AND TERRORIZED, HEALER FAE,” He replied with a warbling chuckle, and I had to agree with that. Some things you just never made friends with. “IF THIS TOWER WORKS, I WOULD LIKE ONE ON MY LANDS AS WELL.”
“Of course, Your Majesty.” That was a given.
“I WILL HAVE SEVERAL OF MY SERVANTS WAITING. WE WOULD ALL LIKE TO SEE YOUR FIRE MAGICKS, AND TO BRING DOWN THE SUN AND MOON.”
“Of course, Your Majesty. This one merely regrets that His Majesty cannot do the same Himself. Although there are means to do similar things...”
That REALLY got His attention. “OH?” His voice was heavy with emphasis. “HOW WOULD I DO SUCH A THING?”
“Of all the Imperial Avians, it has always been the Phoenixes who are closest to Heaven. Bringing down the Sun and Moon uses all Elements because of MY weakness, not because it is necessary to do. His Majesty has more than enough raw power to do the same thing.
“His Majesty does not, however, have the wherewithal to call on the Grace of Heaven, and that is the most key factor of the spell, as His Majesty will soon see.”
He was silent for a long minute, weighing that and what He had seen of the energies I had wielded before. “ELDER BROTHER HAS SAID THAT WE ARE BUT PAWNS IN A GAME AT THIS POINT, AND TO BE PLAYERS, WE MUST PICK A SIDE.”
“A great, horrible, grand, ruthless, terrible, and magnificent game, Your Majesty. One that might well treat the fate of universes as minor pieces on its board.” I paused significantly. “This one spent nearly a year in the Beast Plane. This one watched the end of its invasion, and a Realm Lord of the Netherworld appear. Perhaps it was ego, perhaps just blindness, but that Realm Lord truly thought it was a player in the game, and had no idea of its true role.
“There is a current grandiose contest between Axiom and Sin being subtly and silently waged on our world, Your Majesty. Chaos has no champion here, and so is just in the background causing occasional havoc.
“Neither Sin nor Axiom care for the Great Beasts. This leaves but Heaven for them as a force to ally with, but Heaven is not active here.
“As this one informed Thunderbird Emperor, it is this one’s goal to bring the true power of Heaven to this world, and not some insipid Light that plays at illumination and diverts attention from its cold and uncaring heart.”
“THERE IS NO WAY TO STAY NEUTRAL, IS THERE?” Fire Phoenix Emperor sighed in a sad chirping.
“There most certainly is, Your Majesty. It means not making a choice, and it also means not making a difference. Thus, one can only accept what comes to be, and this one believes that of Dark and Light, whichever one wins means the extermination of the Great Beasts.
“If you wish to affect what is going to happen, you must choose a Side. The unfortunate thing is that they seek to limit the choice of sides to Light or Dark, when there are indeed more.”
“THE HEAVEN YOU SPEAK OF HAS NO POWERS HERE, THUNDERBIRD SPOKE TO ME.” I’d chatted a LOT with Him over this subject, of course, having no reservations.
“It has only this one,” I confirmed, which earned me a glance back again. “The greater forces who could ward off the powers of Axiom and Sin have not seen this world, such as it is, or recognized it. This one believes that the machinations of Axiom and Sin actually conspired to divide the Faith of the Good, which by now should have drawn the attention of someone or something, and rendered it a more pragmatic Neutrality, or diverted it to the positive side of Axiom. Without focus or illumination, Good has not seen this world truly, yet, and so cannot move here and balance the other forces.”
“HAVE YOU A PLAN FOR DOING SO?” the Fire Phoenix asked alertly.
“Yes, Your Majesty. This one must make Sage, then have enough backing and power to lay a foundation for Good. Call to Them. Once they are here, the lies and misdirection Axiom and Sin have laid down will be exposed, and matters will change. The Great Beasts will actually have a choice, and even if it is not Neutrality, at least it is not slavery. Good values its own, it does not dominate them.”
“THE PHOENIXES OF OTHER REALMS STAND WITH HEAVEN, THEN...”
“They are the greatest Healers and Cursebreakers Heaven can field, Your Majesty. Even the foulest of Sin’s many sorrows flee before the Dance of the Phoenix!”
“CURSEBREAKERS...” warbled Fire Phoenix, savoring the word. “I HAVE NO DOMINION OVER THE SOUL...”
“Respectfully, Your Majesty is absolutely wrong. Healing is not a force limited to merely the flesh and bone.”
Flames shot from His beak to His long trailing tail instantly, and He laughed. “AH, I HAVE FORGOTTEN WHO I WAS SPEAKING TO, A HEALER EVEN THE BEAST REALM ACKNOWLEDGED!”
“If His Majesty is amenable, this one hopes He might be open to establishing a Healing Formation in His lands, open to all Beasts who have suffered spiritual injuries. His descendants would be fully capable of administering to them.”
Waves of flame washed through his feathers, embers within metallic quills, fanned by emotions. “THIS FEELING OF RIGHTNESS, OF HOPE, OF A BETTER WAY... AND YOU ASK FOR NO RECOMPENSE FOR THIS...”
I did laugh a moment. “This one does have a personal desire, but it is minor,” I spoke up. “I was gifted the eggs of a newly hatched Ice and Fire Luan in the Beast Realms, and it formed the Seed I carry.
“To evolve this Seed, it needs be exposed to purer fire and cold. This one would ask the Fire Emperor to experience His flame, and moreso, for an introduction to the Ice Phoenix Emperor, to experience Hers and keep my Seed in balance.”
A shudder passed through the Fire Phoenix Emperor, and there was long silence. I had some idea of what this was about, asking Thunderbird if this was feasible or would be offensive to Fire Phoenix.
“I... AM NOT PERMITTED TO VISIT THE ICE PHOENIX, NOR IS SHE PERMITTED TO LEAVE THE LANDS OF THE OLD THING AT THE POLE.”
“This one may have a solution for His Majesty’s woes.”
Phoenix Flame blew over the great Avian, smashed into me, and exploded through my Seed. Behind me, cold flames blew into the sky, and I shuddered as some of the goddamndest pure Fire in all of existence roared through me. My Firefrost Seed was screaming in ecstasy at the touch of it.
His cry had tons of intense emotional pain behind it, and I was aware He just might kill me if my explanation was not satisfactory. “HOW? HOW WOULD YOU BID ME MEET MY LOVE AGAIN?!”
Of course, when He looked back and saw me literally lolling there as His Phoenix Fire blew through me, and behind, rising up as the other half of my Seed reacted to Him...
His Phoenix Fire slowly died down as great burning tears fell from His eyes, scattering to the winds below. Whoever found them was going to gain a great treasure, indeed...
I slowly reclaimed my thoughts as the inferno of glory abated, gasping a bit and glancing at my Seed in Assay.
Even the limited contact with the Phoenix Flame had popped my Affinity with it to 175%, and my damage multiplier with Fire to 3.25. The Ice side of it was still at 125%, of course.
I gasped a few times, breathing deeper as the out-of-balance energies surged, and I was not at all surprised to see floating strands of my hair had turned pink.
“This one thanks His Majesty for His gift,” I finally got out. “She did not quite catch what He said?...”
“YOU HAVE A MEANS TO ALLOW ME TO SPEAK WITH MY LOVE?” He asked, His warbles tight with shaky control.
“Ah, but of course. His Majesty needs merely have a method where She does not leave the Ice, and He does not enter it. What could be simpler?” I detailed how to go about that, and He listened very intently, indeed.
------
A moment before the Fire Phoenix had shed tears of grief, but now His Cry of Joy rang out to the whole of the world, and even Thunderbird turned in the distance to hear it, identifying a sound that had not rung out for countless years.
Healer Fae has done something once again, Thunderbird considered, and raised His golden eyes to the skies above. A Servant of Heaven, who can make Fire Phoenix call out for joy...
How long had it been since He had last heard His old, old friend cry out like that? Not since before...
His head turned to the south, and the Elder who had casually wrought His Will upon the world for so many epochs.
Her questions about the Ice Phoenix Emperor had not been without reason. What exactly had the little Human done now?
He supposed He would find out soon enough... and found Himself hoping rather strongly that a Monkey’s penchant for tricks was enough to annoy the Ice High Emperor Himself, for the old thing certainly deserved that and more...