Chapter Ashborn 376: Recruitment Drive

“What is all this about, hm?” Saunak said. “Why won’t you just tell me?”

“Please, Saunak,” Vir said, nearly forcing the Thaumaturge to sit in his chair. Given Saunak’s obsession with magic, and considering his devotion to Ashani… Vir thought it best they prepare the demon for the news they were about to heap onto him.

With much grumbling, Saunak finally sat, and Vir and Ashani took seats opposite him, across his desk that overflowed with papers and schematics. Vir had chosen this location, hoping it would be a familiar environment for Saunak. Some place he might be more relaxed than usual.

“Saunak…” Vir said, bracing himself for a fight. “I’d like you to join my cause.”

“Your… cause?” Saunak said, looking very confused. “I don’t understand.”

“The Garga, Saunak. The Chits conquered our clan, remember?” Vir said, feeling more than a little exasperated.

“Ahh, yes. Something like that did happen, didn’t it? And you intend to retake it, I suppose? Well? Why should I care?”

“Why should…” Vir cut himself off. Forget spiting the Chits, Saunak had gone and forgotten his own clan had been sacked. “Don’t you care about the suffering of your own clan?” Vir asked. “Even a little?”

“Akh Nara… This was before your time, so I’ll forgive your ignorance. Do not make the mistake of thinking I left voluntarily. I was thrown out. By that very clan. Condemned to the Ash as a form of execution. Returning sounds like a good way to get myself killed.”

“I will vouch for you. I’ll ensure your protection,” Vir said, fully aware of the difficulty of that feat. It was no exaggeration to say that the entire realm wanted Saunak dead.

“Do you truly have that kind of power, Akh Nara?” Saunak asked, meeting Vir’s gaze. “Nay, I think not. Besides, what makes you think I want to return?”

Vir was about to call out how lonely it must be here, but Saunak clearly didn’t mind that one bit. No, if he wanted to convince the demon, he needed to speak to what Saunak cared about.

“Your airship. If you do get it working, what then?” Vir asked. “Without others to use your contraptions, without a country to spread them far and wide… They’re just hobbies, are they not? Experiments doomed to gather dust and be forgotten.”

Saunak said nothing, which Vir took as his cue to continue.

“Just imagine. Your inventions, used by thousands—millions—of demons. Ushering in a new era of prosperity. People would say your name, not out of revulsion, but reverence. Don’t you want that?”

Saunak snorted. “I’ve lived with my reputation for centuries, haven’t I? I couldn’t care less about what people say about me.”

“But you do care about seeing your inventions in use, don’t you? What Thaumaturge wouldn’t?”

Saunak didn’t immediately reply, instead staring off into the distance. Just what sort of future was he envisioning at that moment?

“Let’s say that naive and idealistic vision of the future does appeal to me for a moment,” Saunak said. “How do you plan to accomplish it, hmm?”

This time, it was Vir who shrugged. “That part is easy. Make sufficiently useful creations, and demons won’t care one whit where it came from. Or who made it. By the time they find out, it’ll be too late. They’ll be widespread and in use everywhere. They’ll have no choice but to use your designs.”

“And then, you reveal it was me,” Saunak said, biting on his thumbnail. “Interesting. Could work. It’ll take time, though. Quite a lot of it, in fact.”

Vir looked around the room. “Seems to me you’ve got time, Saunak,” Vir said, cracking a small smile. “Quite a lot of it, in fact.”

“Ha! You’re not wrong. And what would you require in return, hmm? I will warn you now. I refuse to be kept on a leash, like some Bandy. And don’t think of an instant I’ll allow you to meddle with my experiments. Laymen like you best stay miles away from any laboratory.”

“I’ll do nothing of the sort. You can even stay here in your tower, where no one will bother you.”

“Quite the inconvenience, yes?” Saunak said. “Undertaking a perilous expedition every time you wish to meet doesn’t sound very practical. No, I fear you will have to set up a Thaumaturge laboratory wherever it is you’re camped. And then, I’d have to deal with your brain-dead demons throwing me dirty looks and plotting to kill me behind my back. Sorry. I don’t think this can work, after all.”

“So, what you’re saying is you’ll do it if you can stay in this tower?” Vir asked innocently.

“Hmm? Yes, yes I suppose I will.”

Vir’s smile grew until he was grinning from ear to ear. “Then there’s no issue. Like I said, You’re more than welcome to stay here. For Ashani and me, you’re no more than a step away.”

“A step away, is it?” Saunak asked, raising an eyebrow. “Explain. And also, I’d like to know how you located my tower. Even with that Artifact, it could not have been a simple affair. The Ash is vast, after all. Vast… And broken.”

“Well, it was simple,” Vir said, placing his hands on the table. “You see… With Ashani’s help, we can now create Ash Gates.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

If Vir was hoping for a reaction, he was sorely disappointed. Not a ‘You’re out of your mind!’ or a ‘That’s impossible!’

Saunak simply stared at Vir, as if looking into his very soul.

“Show me,” Saunak said.

“Er, okay… Ashani?”

“Would you like me to create one here?” Ashani asked. “Or somewhere more… practical?”

“Yes, yes. Here is fine. If you please… Madam Goddess,” Saunak said. Though his voice was neutral, the small cracks in his voice showed the Thaumaturge was fighting to keep it that way. His suspicion warred with his excitement, and all of it was on full display.

“Very well, then. I shall create a Gate back to our base. Will the Nexus do?”

“That’ll do just fine,” Vir said.

Then, just as usual, with nearly no fanfare, the Gate popped into existence. When the oval-shaped portal had stabilized, Vir reached a hand out, feeding his own prana into it, thereby relieving Ashani of her burden.

“Walk through it,” Saunak said, staring at the Gate with so much concentration, Vir thought he might burst a vein.

Vir obliged, walking through and then back again.

“What are the restrictions with respect to Gate placement?” Saunak asked.

“Anywhere Ashani has been before,” Vir said. “Her memory is perfect, and so any location she’s seen, she can create a Gate to.”

“Only, I cannot travel through my own Gates. Vir, however, has solved that particular issue.”

“H-How long does it remain stable?” Saunak asked hurriedly. His voice was more frantic now. More unhinged.

“It depends on the ambient prana,” Vir said. “Anywhere deep in the Ash? Almost forever. In the Demon Realm… Perhaps a week or two before I have to inject prana of my own to prevent it from devolving into a Tear.”

“And how many can you maintain at once? Is there a limit?”

Vir shrugged. “If there is, I haven’t found it yet.”

Saunak backed away unsteadily, hands clutching his stark white hair. His eyes bulged nearly out of their sockets, and his jaw hung agape.

“Do you realize what this means?” he whispered.

“I do,” Vir said. “Revolution. Of industry. Of military. Of the entire realm.”

Instead of replying, Saunak made a strange wheezing sound. But before Vir could ask the demon if he was alright, the genius, Thaumaturge, master without peer, being who’d lived for centuries… crumpled to the ground unconscious.

“I admit, I certainly wasn’t expecting that reaction,” Ashani said, looking over the demon with a concern.

Vir scratched his nose. “Me neither. Didn’t think anything fazed that guy.”

Saunak came to a moment later, sitting up with a jolt. “Wha—Where am I? Gah, passed out again, didn’t I?”

“Does… That happen often?” Vir asked.

“Sometimes. Only when I’m absorbed in my—By Adinat, Ash Gates!?”

Saunak sprung to his feet and slammed the table. “Do you have any idea what this means!?”

Vir suppressed a sigh. “Yes, Saunak. I do. And yes, you may study them to your heart’s content. Yes, you may use the Gates as you wish. And no, I will not restrict you in any way, so long as you swear your experiments will be ethical.”

“Done. I’ve already experimented to my hearts desire on demons, anyway,” he said dismissively. “Consider me joined at the hip to your cause, or whatever it is you’re fighting for.”

Vir rolled his eyes. It was so typical of Saunak… He could’ve been fighting for an Ash’va rebellion and Saunak wouldn’t have batted an eye. As much as Vir loathed Saunak’s past, he’d resolved to look past that. That was all in the distant past. Saunak seemed to have changed his ways, and more importantly, Vir needed him. If he had to choose between the success of his rebellion and not interacting with a known criminal… He’d choose success every time.

Still, while Saunak might have promised not to experiment on demons, animals were another matter. “I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to cease whatever it is you do to those poor animals in those cages.” Vir detested the practice ever since he’d laid eyes on those poor beasts. “Let them back out into the wild, where they belong.”

“Consider it done,” Saunak replied, surprising Vir once again. “I take it you’ll be leaving now, yes? Er… Before you do, would you mind reforming that Gate somewhere more… practical?”

Vir looked at Ashani, and this time, both of them shook their heads in exasperation.

“Well then, I s’ppose you’ll be off…” Saunak said.

The three were gathered in a room in Saunak’s basement, having just performed another surgery... Not on Vir, but Shan. Now that Vir had survived the process himself, he felt he could trust Saunak to at least remedy the issues Shan had with his tattoo.

With much grumbling and ridiculing, mostly of Aida's incompetence, Saunak made a few alterations. The demon was beyond fascinated with Shan, and spent almost as much time on him as he did on Vir's tattoo. While he couldn't promise that Shan would leverage the changes, he'd told Vir to document everything about the wolf and to relay everything back to him for further analysis.

Which brought everyone to the current spot. According to Saunak, and verified by Ashani, the room had the most defense mechanisms in the entire tower. Whatever the Imperium had been doing here, it was something even they felt was dangerous. The square room with white walls, ceiling, and floor, and save for the dozen holes in the wall—which Vir knew from experience allowed Saunak’s army of spider minions to emerge—was devoid of any other features or furnishings.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

In other words, it was the perfect place to house Ashani’s Gate, which sat in the middle of the room. It was an oversized Gate, large enough to fit the airship, which Vir planned to have his demons help carry back. Even broken down, it was nevertheless a rather large contraption.

Despite being no further than another room in his own tower, Saunak had opted to provide a list of instructions for how to re-assemble the thing. Even with that, Vir didn’t doubt he’d end up coming back to the tower to consult the demon.

“You’re welcome to stop by anytime,” Vir said. “The nexus where this Gate leads to is in a fortified part of the camp. From there, you can even head to the Demon Realm if you like. You there, and you won’t even have to deal with other demons, aside from my guards. They’ll know to expect you. I can’t promise a warm welcome, but they’ll at least tolerate you. Those who don’t will answer to me, personally.”

“Incredible,” Saunak said in awe as he peered through the Gate. “I think I can see one of the Gates leading to the Demon Realm from here. An incomprehensibly vast distance… now reduced to a dozen steps. Akh Nara… When you get a chance, we should discuss the ramifications of this network, and how best to deploy it. I’ve a few ideas of my own, but I’ll work on organizing a proposal for your review.”

“Thanks,” Vir said, somewhat shocked at the demon’s diligence. “But don’t forget about that airship. The Gates are useful only for crossing the Ash, and for locations in the Demon Realm very near the boundary. The rest of the realm needs something else. Something they can use to quickly get to one of the Gates.”

“Yes, yes. I’ll work on it. With your Lighten Load inscription, I’m sure I can at least match what the humans have.”

Vir nodded, and turned to usher the wolves through the Gate. By all rights, this mission was a success. At long last, he’d obtained Balancer of Scales, and he’d recruited Saunak to his cause. Whether the Thaumaturge would be the death of him, or the realm’s salvation, remained to be seen. But at least progress was being made.

But as Vir stepped through the Gate, his joy was quickly washed away when he thought of all he had yet to accomplish. He still had to learn how to master the Ultimate Art. He had to open his next Chakra, and most importantly, there was still the recruiting problem that loomed like a Wyrm above his head.

A flustered guard rushed up to Vir the moment he was through.

“Akh Nara! When we saw the new Gate, we hoped…”

“What’s wrong?” Vir asked. “You look troubled.”

“Yes! We’ve visitors. At our Gate in the Demon Realm. They’re asking to speak to you, and to you, only.”

Vir frowned. He wasn’t expecting anyone.

“Did they say who they are?”

“Yes, er… They call themselves the Garga Lavani. And they claim to number over a thousand.”