I popped into existence on Thunderbird’s Eye, kneeling promptly as I ‘ported into His Nest. “Healer Fae pays respects to Thunderbird Emperor!”

He nodded just slightly. “I SEE THINGS WENT WELL, HEALER FAE,” He murmured, just a touch of TK encouraging me to rise. “ARE THOSE FOR THE COUNCIL, OR FOR YOU?” He asked calmly.

Four new Tokens of Will - one dark ivory with milky streaks, one a polished black Rune-carved sphere of hardened ambergris, another a paler blue, and the largest was a round aquamarine - all of them glittering like the Water Magic used to condense them, hung from Noble.

“They are for the Council, Your Imperial Majesty,” I replied calmly, spreading my celeste-and-silver Wings and flitting for the chamber. The gargantuan form of the Imperial Eagle rose, bounced once to the side of His Nest where the Chamber was placed, and reached down to pluck off the stone dome delicately so I would have access.

I descended into the array of Wills hanging there on their posts, the Wills stirring just slightly to acknowledge my familiar presence among them. I could feel the peripheral awareness of the Emperors as I pulled up new stone posts and hung the four new Tokens among the others.

Four Emperors of the Sea had joined the Council here! Tellingly, they were Emperors who had no interests in invading the Land at all...

I was sure there was going to be some ire there, as Heavenly Fire Emperor wasn’t above preying on Whales at all, but that was a matter for the Emperors, not for me. Whales naturally weren’t above shooting down Dragons, either...

“Any other Humans dare to visit You personally, Your Imperial Majesty?” I asked as I rose from the Formation. He calmly placed the multi-ton lid back on, as easily as capping a teapot.

“NO.” He was dryly unsurprised at the situation. “ALTHOUGH I UNDERSTAND SHATTERSKY IS STAYING QUITE BUSY IN MICHIGAN WITH NEW SUPPLICANTS.”

“Yes, especially from the military. All the elite Whitecrown and other Raptor riders are falling over themselves to meet a representative of Thunderbird Emperor. The ones who have the nerve to actually travel here and meet Your Majesty, outside of our Allegiance, is not high, however.”

“AS IS PROPER, AND THE CONDUCT OF YOUR HUMAN SAGES HAVE NOT BEEN ENCOURAGING.”

“Your Imperial Majesty is most polite about the failings of our elites,” I acknowledged. The American Sages did tend more Neutral than Evil, a step up from the international standard that seemed to dominate, but one could hardly call their actions benevolent on the whole.

“DID LEVIATHAN AGREE TO TAKE UP A DOMAIN?” Thunderbird asked, very interested in that outcome.

“This one believes the fact that we recommended it is spurring Leviathan Emperor to consider it truly and deeply. He gave this one no definite reply, however, Your Imperial Majesty.”

“TO BE EXPECTED. THE WHALES PONDER DEEPLY ON MANY THINGS. THE MATTER OF THE BLUE OX?”

“The Array is filling nicely, and we have been allocating multiple Salt Seeds, which have been seeing considerable use in the littoral zones under attack. Their anti-Water boost is proving most helpful in both defense and offense.

“Babe is steadily accumulating the refined Mana we are providing him, but he is still a considerable distance from a breakthrough, Your Imperial Majesty. He, Queen Gichigumi, and Elder Shattersky speak frequently on matters of the Void, as well as Air Magic. It has proven quite fruitful for all of them. They’ve been busy puzzling over some interesting Star-based Void puzzles this one has posited for them. As they’ve all very different understandings of the Void, their multiple approaches to the puzzle have been quite enlightening for each of them.”

I’d been a little surprised at how closely Thunderbird Emperor monitored the Rulers and Emperors in His lands, looking for signs of improvement or breaking through. As a True Emperor, He was above such struggles, but He took a keen interest in the improvements and evolutions of all the Beasts of His chosen land.

A good steward, as it were...

“Elder Shattersky has related that the Refractory Tower outputs are working wonderfully for the younglings, and they’ve only had to kill a dozen or so Humans whose greed overcame their reason.” Said Humans reduced to vivic dust and their deaths not marked publicly at all. The Archmage of the lesser Family that had sent one team of them had, however, been fucking obliterated by a lightning storm that had totally destroyed his Family’s manor, most of his Family, and him in a dance of voltage and Thunder that had lasted an entire night and day, and made all the national news.

That had been six months ago, and there’d been no thieving, chick-stealing attempts, or idiots trying to infiltrate the White Zone Tower areas since.

“YOUR WHITE MANA ZONES CONTINUE TO BE EFFECTIVE?” He inquired.

That was one of the things that really indicated a community was under Coralost protection. A Refactory Tower on its own was nothing truly special, as it didn’t actually produce much unless it was set up for it.

Or, you know, something decided to nest in it.

The Imperial Beasts had declared that there’d be no help by Beasts against the Aquatics. That was totally fine, but it didn’t stop the Beasts from defending against, oh, other Humans.

When five Imperial Avians are friendly associates of a certain someone, there are minor strings that could be pulled. It wasn’t Phoenixes or Luans nesting in the Towers and covertly getting themselves some Heavy Mana feeds, but Commander Birds were plenty powerful for keeping away brigands, politicians, and criminals. If someone powerful enough to fight them actually came to pick trouble, well, there were Marked on hand who could warn us.

Sama usually came back an hour later with a severed head, expression frozen in astonishment and disbelief. There were questions for said head, and then she went out again, and sometimes she came back with more heads, sometimes not, but there were usually news items about certain Families or famous individuals found abruptly dead here and there, with no sign of who’d done the dirty deed, them rotten assassins, them.

The biggest benefit of the White Mana Zones was that Aquatics didn’t like them any better than most Beasts did, and generally speaking they’d shun the area. The Refractory Towers also coincidentally drained the effect of The Great Flood in their areas, so the shores near those towns weren’t rising precipitously.

It wasn’t a true Village Ward sustained with an Earth Pistil or something, but it was something, and having a Commander Avian in attendance certainly didn’t hurt matters!

The fact those places were EXCELLENT places to Awaken kids, mages to Meditate, and the Zones were highly suitable for making ammunition for firearms, well, that didn’t get spoken about much, either. Getting paid a decent wage, being able to buy firearms to protect themselves, and their children getting a far greater level of magical exposure than they might have dreamed was far more than those people could have hoped for. We were still getting recruits from them, people who wanted to get stronger and return to continue uplifting their people.

Also, most of them had seen a Redshore Marines team come in and tear into something by now, and if not, they were kept in the loop and had heard or seen them in action elsewhere.

“They are indeed proving somewhat effective, Your Imperial Majesty, although they are not often loved by the governments that claim authority over the lands those communities dwell in. The Aquatics are leery of being unable to wield their magic properly in them, and even those wielding Sound or Psychic Magic are unable to do so properly against an area so protected. Simply having Typeless Casters around who can still throw a few spells at them has proven remarkably effective at making them withdraw, as well as sniping a few from sufficient distances.

“We have still had to abandon many coastal areas as the raids have broadened and increased in area and frequency. We simply cannot be in so many places at once.”

“ALWAYS THE GREATEST PROBLEM IN DEALING WITH THE TRIBES OF THE SEAS,” He noted to me. “YOUR PROGRESS WITH SEEDS?”

He had never forgotten that He had offered me a Thunderheart Seed, and that I could not take it, rather than I would not take it.

“Given the high demand for and rarity of a finding Air Seeds, this one has opted to make her own, Your Imperial Majesty.” He tilted His head towards me in a manner I now knew indicated dry amusement at my surprising approach to things. “Your Majesty was correct in inferring that a Heavens-grade Salt Seed would be gathering in the Michigan Formation, and Babe has agreed that this one may have it when it matures.

“This one went to the Andes Mountains of South America and decided to exploit their relative impassability to the weather and airflow. This one drove a convoluted tunnel through one of the mountains not far from the Machu Pichu Death Zone. There is a tremendous amount of air pressure flowing through the stone at all times, its passage amplified by and resonating with the stone, and this one erected a Vortex Chamber within the mountain that is essentially a howling tornado condensing Air power at all times.

“The Chamber is intensely concentrating the Air Mana, while blending in Thunder, Cold, and Earth Elements for a possibly unique form of Seed. There is already a Spirit Seed in the Formation there, and it is growing steadily under the pressure of the western winds trying to get through the mountains.

“Given its location, I do not expect any Beasts of the Air to even sense that it exists, and no Beast of Earth would desire it, even given the relatively Mana-poor area it is in. I doubt a Human Archmage of Air could even find the tunnel, so it should be able to grow to power in relative safety.

“Given the power of the Formation, Your Imperial Majesty, this one should be able to grow a Soul Seed in two years.” Without a Pyramid, no less!

“IS THAT SOMETHING THAT COULD BE DONE IN OTHER PLACES?” He asked reasonably, obviously interested.

“In all honesty, Your Imperial Majesty, this one could probably make a hundred such Formations up and down the Andes. The wall they form against the western winds is a mighty source of potential Air Seeds.

“The peaks of the Rockies are not nearly so disruptive, and so the Winds are freer, more chaotic, and not as constant, all of which are things that encourage the growth of Elemental Seeds.

“I might be able to erect Formations on the highest peaks or narrow valleys which would help condense such Seeds, but they would be fairly obvious and thus vulnerable to those who would take them, be they Avians or others.”

Naturally including Humans, who hunted for the things even more fervently than did Beasts. Air was not an uncommon Element among Humans, but Seeds for it were actually not very common, and had to be fought over far more frequently.

“INFORM THE LUAN EMPERORS OF WHAT YOU WILL DO IN THE ANDES IF YOU WANT THEIR GOODWILL. HEAVENLY JUDGMENT CONDOR EMPEROR IS A DIFFICULT FOOL TO DEAL WITH, AS IS HIS TRIBE.

“I WILL SEEK OUT PLACES YOU CAN ERECT THESE FORMATIONS OF YOURS IN MY MOUNTAINS. IF SOME SEEK TO STEAL FROM FIRE PHOENIX AND I, THAT WILL BE NONE’S FAULT BUT THEIRS.

“WHAT OF A HEAVEN-GRADE AIR SEED?”

Him granting me one such Seed was a gift. He likely knew where an Air Seed of such power could be found, but that was on me to attain.

He didn’t miss my smile, however.

“Above the Nest of Ice Phoenix Emperor, so deep in the lands of Ice Emperor, She has carved a visage in the Eternal Ice there, a sculpture and statue of Her beloved Fire Phoenix Emperor. The cold and lonely Winds play about Her work in an eternal melody of love and longing that rides the wind for timeless distances.

“Beneath the crest of Her tribute to Her mate, a Lovelorn Seed grows, sustained by the heart and faith of Ice Phoenix Emperor!”