Blood Shaper

Book 4: Chapter 20

The site that became Avalon City was originally a small camp set up by Kay and Eleniah in the valley where a majority of the traditional buildings of Avalon City now sat. At one end of that valley was a large lake that Avalon’s small inland fishing industry depended on. The lake and the mountain it sat next to formed one of the two natural walls of difficult terrain that hypothetically defended Avalon City from attackers. Any invasion force would have to climb over the mountain and then head around the lake or over it to make it in striking range of any worthwhile targets, which most likely would be more work than would be worth it, especially with the warning posts and scouting parties looking for any threats to bring Avalon’s military against.

The opposite side was defended by the mesa that loomed over most of the region. Inside of it were tunnels that crisscrossed through the rock, some leading to the top of the mesa, some to various sides of it, and some leading deep, deep below. During the rushed adventure through those tunnels to find the eldritch cult under the city, Kay, along with Claudia, Stephen, and Chitel, who made up the rest of Cindy’s adventuring team, had found a number of deliberately carved rooms among the more natural looking tunnels, indicating that someone had lived in the area before and built into the mesa.

They still had no idea who those people had been, the archaeologists they’d tasked to work on it not finding anything useful yet, but Kay had decided their example was worth following. Inspired by those ancient strangers and by the various examples he knew from his Earth, he’d ordered new construction to start digging into the cliff face and eventually deep into the mesa. They had all that unused space, and by hollowing out sections of the cliff, they actually freed up building materials for other construction elsewhere. Why not go for it?

Even at that moment, more buildings and rooms were being carved out as Avalon continued to grow, and engineers and builders had been diverted to work on walls and defenses for the top and sides of the mesa in addition to the traditional walls being constructed to protect the valley.

Spearheading his own idea, Kay had his palace, which included both the administrative centers to run the government and his living quarters, built into the rock as well. The outside took liberal inspiration from Kay’s faint memories of pictures of Petra, and the entire outside was a massive relief, designed to be beautiful while simultaneously making the exposed stone resemble a building erupting from the cliff, as opposed to one carved out of it. At a certain time of day, the hanging edifice that was the meeting place of Avalon’s Parliament blocked the sun’s rays before the rest of the mesa did, sending the palace entrance into deep shadows a few hours earlier than the rest of the city. It made the entrance look somewhat foreboding and menacing, which was useful when Kay was having people he was displeased with brought before him.

Huge swathes of the palace were utilitarian, with very simple decorations around, if any. Kay’s living space, which took up more than just his own personal bedroom, was decorated in a number of ways to match various themes or functions and ranged from simple but tasteful to just below gaudy.

The public section of the palace, where Kay held court, dolled out punishments and rewards, and generally sat around, showing anyone who looked that he was Lord of Avalon, was grandiose.

A twenty-foot tall hallway led from the public entrance to what Kay privately called his “I am important throne room”, and the walls had intricate carvings set into them on both sides. Depicting scenes from Kay’s life so far on Torotia, specifically the noteworthy and impressive moments, the actual carvings didn’t go very far, but the open space had been left there deliberately to leave space for the future carvings that would depict Kay in his majesty and might. There was more of his story left to tell, and anyone walking down that hallway couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like and maybe faintly hope that they could be a part of it.

Finding and hiring a sculptor with the Class and Skills necessary to impart that particular feeling to people near the carvings had been expensive, but Amanda had insisted that it would be worth it, and so far, leaving that subtle impression on people that came before him, whether as messengers, supplicants, or, in a few rare cases, challengers had helped quite a bit. Anyone with the right skills or just enough power to resist the mental effect wouldn’t be affected, but it was also subtle enough that they shouldn’t notice it if they weren’t sensitive to that kind of emotional manipulation.

Lined throughout the carvings of the hallway and the decorations of the throne room was a deep red inlay, making it look as if the entire hall and throne room had somehow been coated in flawless uncut rubies. Until someone looked close, that is and realized that the inlay was slightly too deep red in color and was actually solid blood placed there through Blood Manipulation and Blood Shaping. To anyone paying attention, it showcased Kay’s position as Class Line Progenitor and added a certain ambiance and grandeur to everything. To people really paying attention, it told them the entire throne room was a massive weapon combined with a choke point that made being on their best behavior a fantastic idea.

Through the wide double doors at the end of the hallway was the throne room itself, which was simpler in design, with minimalistic decorations and carvings that worked together to draw the eye toward the throne. The throne itself was also simple, carved out of the same natural stone as the building, with thin inlays of blood to add visual depth and a few cushions to make it more comfortable to sit on.

Kay sat on said throne, waiting for the day’s events to begin while he focused on trying to level one of his Skills. Meld Blood was an interesting one to him, and he felt like there was much more to unlock with it. Why, for example, was it considered part of a Combat Class when it seemed to be only for crafting? He could use it to make items that passively increased the power of Skills by a faint amount, transform a magical item into something new and almost always blood-related, and potentially, through his current experiments, transfer magical properties into new items. The Combat versus Non-Combat Class designations were flawed, in his opinion, and the fact that there were some kind of Administrators as part of the System meant that the imperfection was explainable: error and perhaps a limited amount of testing. Why Blood Melder was a Combat Class was something he was trying to figure out, and he had a few ideas to test.

Sadly, as much as he wanted to, sitting on his throne waiting for a group of dissatisfied whiners to be brought before him so he could lecture some of them and have a small number of them arrested was not the time to cut himself open, stick some monster blood in, and see if he could temporarily give himself some new magic or powers. The remainder of that hydra blood he had left in one of his expanded containers somewhere was very tempting, though. Instead, he kept trying to leech the magic out of a piece of dungeon loot and have it suspended in the blood he was using so he could do something else with it.

The thin wand that had dropped from the Many Trial Halls had the ability to shoot glitter. That was it, and it wasn’t even real glitter; it was just a temporary illusion. That made it perfect for experimenting with because even if he destroyed it, nothing of value would be lost. He subsumed the wand in blood, and with his Skills active, he could feel the magic of the wand, a faint glowing ember at the center of it with thin tendrils running through the physical makeup of the wand itself. He reached out through the blood, with the blood, as the blood, and took hold of the magic. He could sense the potential to flood it with his mana and the blood he controlled, changing it into something different. Distantly, he could also sense, through his connection to his Skill, that he could add more mana than was necessary and increase the power of the new magic, something he hadn’t been able to do reliably or on command with a lower level in Meld Blood.

That wasn’t what he wanted, so he set aside those sensations and began gently pulling at the magic, trying to make it one with the blood. Part of the blood. Of the blood itself.

The fingers of the hand he imagined to help him concentrate slipped off of the wand’s magic like it had been greased, and the connection between his Skill and the submerged wand broke. Kay opened his eyes to look at the floating red bubble, clicking his tongue in disappointment.

“Could you put that away, please?” Amanda asked from next to him.

Kay glanced over at his Prime Minister, who was looking at the bubble with thinly veiled annoyance. “Are they here yet?”

“They’re on the way, yes.”

Kay flicked his hand and focused his will, sending the bubble and its contents into his personal Inventory from the Novice Adventurer Class. He’d only gotten the Skill up to level eight, but the size of the Inventory had jumped quite a bit, the cubical pocket dimension coming in at just under two feet on a side. He mostly had it filled with blood as a backup, but there were random magical items he’d gotten one way or another and some survival essentials in there, too.

“Everything’s ready?”

Amanda was fantastic at her duties and also quite serious about them. She quickly ran through everything that needed to be ready, even though she’d already checked on everything before they’d even sent people to fetch the whiners they were waiting for, before returning precisely to her original spot and replying. “Yes. Everyone is in place and ready to begin.”

“Fantastic. Bring on the complainers and the ne’er-do-wells, the lazy fops and the schemers, the supposed revolutionaries and the want-to-be spies.”

Amanda gave him a polite golf clap. “That was wonderful, my lord.”

“Did you take lessons in snark? Because you’re the most serious person I have, and you snark better than anyone else.”

“The snark lessons were part of the ‘Cleverly Guiding Your Supposed Superiors’ curriculum.”

“Did you take any cleverly disguised scorn lessons from the ‘Politely Devastating Your Definite Inferiors’ classes? Because that’s what we’ll need in the next few minutes.”

Her mouth curled up into a small grin. “You doubt me? I can tear someone’s ego apart without a single person thinking I’m less than the most courteous lady they’ve ever met.”

“Good. Make sure I stay on track.” He requested, “I don’t want to get too into the lecture portion of this and keep haranguing them past when it would be useful.”

“It will be my pleasure.”

Fifteen minutes later, when the various “guests” were escorted into the throne room as a group, a combination of minor nobility from other nations, wealthy merchants, and various other individuals that saw themselves as budding power brokers and influence peddlers, Kay sat in the chair almost lazily, with one elbow against and armrest and his head resting lightly on his fist. It had taken him five minutes to get the pose right under Amanda’s patient guidance, giving off the right poise and air of annoyance, disinterest, and derision.

Kay waited until the small, quietly murmuring crowd of sapient minor problems had quieted down before speaking. “I hadn’t decided exactly how to deal with all of you until a few moments ago.” That was a bald lie; he’d planned out everything the day before during his meetings with Amanda and Isla.

The people with any level of intelligence above decent stiffened when they heard his words and tone.

“I could have been brief, handing out judgments and ending it there.” He sat up from his purposeful slouch and leaned forward on his throne. “I could have been merciful and given you chances to improve or to make amends.” He slowly stood up, forming a more elaborate version of the regalia they’d designed for moments like these onto his body out of seemingly nowhere, the blood seeping from beneath his skin and transforming into ceremonial garb fast enough that only high-tier people would notice.

Not every one of the living annoyances looked worried.

“Instead, I think I’ll use this as a teaching moment.” He looked from person to person, making sure to meet the eyes of every person present. “Which is a nice little gift to me from myself since I get to do what I actually wanted.” He paused for effect, mentally counting out the timing. “Treat each and every one of you like the fools you are while using you as examples for the fools that come after.”

And hopefully, distract the real threats with everything that’s about to come out of this circus performance.