Depthless Hunger

Despite Gunjin's impatience, even he couldn't push them along that fast. Kai had time to say farewell to Tusquo, promising to return in time for the incursion and making the Irunian promise to actually introduce him to his wife next time. Technically there was nothing stopping them from visiting again while they were still on Deadwaste, but Kai wasn't sure they'd have time for that.

So, in the end, they left Tusquo in Irun and returned to the Frontier. Not an outpost or the exterior wall, the Frontier itself.

Once there, they met the largest group of Frontier elites Kai had ever seen in one place. Most he didn't recognize, but Talndim Bundrin was back and waved at them. He also saw Sheiri Kagskan, the one who had sent them into Krysal, and she seemed focused on him. One of the others puzzled him until he recognized Aeglien of Torleen, who he'd briefly met after the battle over the abyss. The others were a mix of Frontier nations except for a lamia who could only be from Rosemount.

"This is as close to quiet as we're likely to see," Gunjin told them all. "So the plan is to send the acolytes into training seclusion to take a major step upward before the next emergency. For those of you who are new, we don't really manage a school here; everyone seeks the training they need most. So talk and get our plans in order."

Kai wanted to talk to Gunjin directly, but his former mentor was busy conversing with the elites. He wasn't a leader by any means, but they seemed to respect his role as a coordinator. Everyone else was splitting up, going with different elites for different purposes.

The Tonjin brothers were apparently going away with the lamia, who stopped next to Omilaena first. "Strange to see someone else from Rosemount here. I'm Plinkesa!"

"Yeah, there aren't many of us here," Omilaena said.

"I was the runt of my nest, so I came to Deadwaste to grow, but I... sort of fell in love with the place." Plinkesa twitched her tail in what might have been shame or amusement. "And those incursions... they can get bad. Bad as anything on Rosemount."

"So I hear." Omilaena folded her arms and looked north. "Do you ever get news from home?"

"Everyone is saying that the conflict in the Commonwealth is heating up again, and the Coiled Empire might get involved this time. But believe me, you don't want to touch that, because this one will be ugly."

Plinkesa took the Tonjin brothers away into another portal, creating a very strange trio. Omilaena glanced back at Kai, who could only shrug. They were missing events on Rosemount, but if they had stayed there, they would have missed everything they'd done on Deadwaste. In the absence of an immediate emergency, this was the power they desperately needed.

It looked like Inafay and Orotaisin were going to leave next, going with an elite man who was clearly Windborn by ancestry. But she stopped to hug Kai first.

"It's not that long a goodbye!" she said. "We can't use portals all the time, but we usually move around during training, so we'll see each other."

"Are you training phases?" Kai asked.

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"No, we still need to do more preparation. But we should be able to make a lot of progress with our core abilities. I doubt I can evolve to an Advanced Class yet, but I want to push closer."

"We should discuss that at some point," Zae Zin Nim said. She cut off as Inafay hugged her too, and Kai was surprised that she didn't flinch away. "There's more we never got a chance to cover."

"I'll miss you too, Zae." Inafay pulled back and grinned at them. "Just don't get involved in anything crazy and disappear before we can meet again, alright?"

She headed back to the elite and waved, Orotaisin nodded slightly, and then they were gone. The group was growing smaller and more scattered. Kai turned to see if Gunjin was available again and found Sheiri Kagskan in his path. He wondered just what her life had been like... an Irunian woman who had found elemental powers and yet also traveled in Krysal.

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"I owe you an apology," Sheiri said. "I thought you were an annoyance when I sent you to Krysal, and then I thought you were going to ruin things. And I underestimated you. Both your strength and your desire to help."

"How is Krysal?" Kai asked. "I can't justify going all the way over there, but I keep thinking about them."

"It's fine. Actually, your inquiry earlier got you some letters..." She raised a scroll and Kai nearly tore it out of her hands.

The longest scroll was from Krainuun, who laid out everything with precise administrative detail. There were some personal notes, but the rest was informing him about the new administrative council. Apparently Krysal was a bit splintered, with various cities under different ruling systems, and their armies were still recovering from the revolution. The fact that he could discuss everything so calmly meant that the nation hadn't fallen apart, though.

He also discovered a number of shorter letters, some of them just requests for help. There was a kind but slightly awkward letter from Yurwa, who told him about how Gundle was growing up but skirted around the uncomfortable end to their relationship. Maggle had scrawled a letter about how he was learning to write and hated it, then ended up drawing a picture of a woman with features that were improbable to say the least.

No letter from Nirka. Maybe that was just as well. Being with her felt like a lifetime ago.

"You can read those as much as you want later," Sheiri said, though she'd waited a long time to interrupt him. "I need to head south, but I wanted to talk first."

"Right." Kai shoved the letters into his spatial ring to focus on her. "What do you think? Will Krysal be prepared by the next incursion?"

"There's disagreement. It's true we lost a lot of strength in the form of crystalliers, but I don't see it that way. Many of them didn't actually fight in incursions, and we've seen how the Krysali system can lead to cascading collapse. Instead we have a lot of former miners at basically crystallier level, with more every year. They're having some trouble making higher elites, but their lines will be solid."

"That's great. I'll have to trust you to keep taking care of them."

Sheiri looked at him oddly and then smiled. "You realize that you've been to every Frontier nation now and left them all improved? You started a revolution in Krysal and now you've transformed how Irun builds its elites."

"Uh... I guess I have." Kai shook his head. "But I only helped out a little in the Elemental Nations, and I barely saved one city in Goralia."

"That's more than many could say. And beyond that... you've come back from Rosemount, which most don't. I honestly thought you wanted power over everything, but you've done so much... I apologize, and I hope we can work together in the future."

She stuck out her hand and Kai shook it firmly before they parted. It was so strange... her Power of 633 had been insane when he first met her, but now he'd surpassed some of the elites. He hoped to become even stronger, but when the incursion came, he would be here, no matter what it took.

Finally the group had almost completely scattered. Kai managed to isolate Gunjin, only for the older man to put a hand on his shoulder and shake his head.

"We'll talk later, Kai. For now, you need to focus on starting your training."

Now the only non-elites left were Kai, Zae Zin Nim, and Omilaena - stronger than most elites, and yet still missing some of the most refined abilities they'd seen. Hopefully those would give them enough of an edge to make a difference on Rosemount.

Talndim Bundrin stepped forward, hands in his pockets. "I've been checking and I think all three of you are ready to finish your phase training. But you'd better specialize. Like I said, this ain't like the other training you've probably done. It's a real qualitative difference."

"I suggest all of you work toward a half-phase in speed," Gunjin said. "It won't allow you to dominate the battlefield, but it's attainable and it will keep opponents with a speed phase from killing you before you can react."

"I've been giving this some thought." Omilaena stepped forward and raised a syringe to demonstrate. "Is there such a thing as a poison phase? Concentrating a poison so intensely that the result will pierce through other defenses?"

"It'd be related to a power phase, but sure." Talndim shrugged. "We don't have any poison specialists, exactly, but we have an old dryad who's a master at concentrating healing. That could probably get you there."

Attention shifted toward Zae Zin Nim, who looked skeptical. "I don't know how well this concept applies to cultivation," she said. "I accept the principle that a speed half-phase would be useful, but beyond that it's difficult to choose."

"I had a thought there." Aeglien of Torleen hadn't spoken before this point and now took a step closer. "Qi crystal cultivation isn't quite the same, but there are similar principles. We can work on the principles and you can find your way to the right path for you."

"Very well."

That left only Kai, so all the eyes of the elites turned toward him. He wanted to grin and forced his expression to remain deadly serious, because he meant what he was about to say: "I want to do them all."