Chapter 565: Happy Birthday!

Chapter 565: Happy Birthday!

Sixty Two years after the events at the Phoenix Peaks.

I took a deep breath in, enjoying the myriad smells of life and mango. From the floral blooms to the loamy soil, the ripe mangoes to the morning dew, to sappy resin and freshly cut grass, my orchard was my happy place. My peaceful place. I’d cleared a small area in the center just for me, with a few benches to sit on.

I hadn’t let the looming threat of war stop me from living and enjoying life, and I was proud of myself for it. My decades-long project to create a grove of mango trees just for me had paid off, and the place was serene and beautiful. A place I could always go, no matter how bad of a day I’d had. The sun was on my face, there was a light breeze as a few fluffy white clouds passed overhead, and everything was simply perfect.

What day it was helped.

A trio of happy-screaming System-locked kids sprinted through the central area, playing ‘monster’. One of them was chasing the other two, and honestly, I thought they learned how to split up when running away as toddlers. The two zipped past me, but the ‘monster’ skidded to a halt and paled at me. He did his best kid impression of a bow.

“Prima Elaine! I’m so sorry, we didn’t know you were here. We...” He trailed off and flushed. I cracked open an eye and an indulgent smile, and flapped my hand at him.

“I’m pretty sure monsters don’t have manners that good. Plus, they’re getting away.” I said.

It took the kid a moment to realize what I was saying, and with a throaty ‘RAWR!’ and his hands curled up into claws, went chasing after his friends.

I smiled indulgently. Ah, kids. They weren’t usually allowed up here, and credit to their parents - they’d been pretty clear about where they were and weren’t allowed to go, and proper manners. Made me kinda wish I could be a godmother again or something. Someone who could see kids for a few hours, then return them home when I was done.

I held out my hand and [Teleported] my staff from where I’d leaned it on a fence to rest, almost a hundred feet away. I stood up, stretched, and started to slowly go through the meditative motions I’d learned at the Jakhong Monastery, all while keeping track of the kids hunting through my orchard through [The World Around Me].

I was halfway through my set when one of them, in the throes of trying to escape being eaten by the monster, looked like they were about to run into one of the low-hanging flowering branches. There would be a lot of crying on their end, and the branches would be ruined.

I [Teleported] all three of them out of the grove, having enough magic power to enforce my will on low-vitality children, and repositioned them such that the two ‘chased’ kids would be running back towards the villa, assuming the ‘monster’ ran right at them. Instead, they looked around, marveling and speculating on what just happened. I smiled and whipped up a quick spell to project my voice.

“Don’t monsters chase people?” I asked the three of them. Distractible kids they were, the monster started chasing the other two, and I settled back to finish my routine.

“Hey Elaine, everything’s ready here. Come on over when you want.” Iona said deep inside the villa, speaking at a normal volume. My ears perked up at that, and after looting all but three - errr, make that two - mangos for tomorrow, I skipped on over to the party.

It was our birthday! Iona and I had settled on ‘trading’ birthdays where one of us spoiled the other rotten - it just worked best for us - and I’d called dibs on the big 100. Iona had been completely fine with it - she’d gotten the 64th and was also the one getting the 128th, which I didn’t mind at all. She tended to have very specific ideas about what she wanted, and so did I, which made our system entirely harmonious.

I’d wanted it to be a small, intimate gathering of my friends.

I didn’t realize how many of those I’d gotten until I was staring at the pile of invitations.

Iona needed no invitation, but I made sure to include Titania and Skye. They helped run the household, but the invitation, to me, was symbolic that I considered them friends, and wanted them there as themselves, not as some of the people helping out.

Auri’s invitation was made out of a burning cake, clever enchantments on the icing making burning words, spelling out my request for her attendance.

She’d insisted on making me the best cake ever, and I wasn’t going to gainsay her.

Iona and I had giggled madly as we made a mystery for Fenrir, which in theory was going to culminate with him dropping in on the party. The invitation was the present, in many ways.

“Aren’t we worried about, you know, side quests?” I asked Iona. She chuckled.

“If he does fall into a side quest, he’ll have an even better time, and root out some problem. Isn’t that the best gift we could give him?”

She had a point.

Nina and Amber naturally made the list, along with Night and Susan. The semi-retired Katerina was sadly unable to attend, currently enjoying a much-needed vacation on the sunny shores of northern Exterreri.

Nina’s squire-turned-Valkyrie couldn’t make it, and Iona was endlessly pleased that the wheel had turned, as she was more of Iona’s mind on how to best operate. Iona had decided she wasn’t taking on [Squires] anymore. The wound from Nina’s ‘betrayal’ had long ago scarred over, and the two were on great terms - but the hurt echoed.

One burned, twice shy, and I didn’t blame Iona for not wanting to go through it again.

Night and Arachne were both going to be in attendance, which included their personal Sentinel teams. Event security basically - the sun was out, they were vampires, etc. etc. Frankly, I was touched that they were even willing to take the risk, as miniscule as it was.

Artemis and Julius had both been pried out of the School and were in attendance, along with one of Artemis’s favorite ‘gophers’.

“Because I’ve gotten too lazy to do things for myself.” Was her stated reason. I was pretty sure she was just soft on the student, and wanted to make connections and good experiences for her.

I was a little disappointed that I’d gotten Vitus fired from the School. Next on my ‘ways to fuck with Vitus’ had been to teleport out every single screw and nail from his office. Everything should remain standing until he touched it, at which point it would’ve all fallen apart.

Speaking of fucks - I was too old to give a fuck about any sort of group drama that could result from my invitations - and people not invited. All of the War Sentinels except for Calamity got an invite. We didn’t get along personally, and barely got along professionally. More than I expected accepted the offer, a few declined, citing work. A number of Sentinels I’d made friends with over the years, including Devour, Terminus, Springsteel and Skater, were in attendance, as was Atlas and his wife. Nix had retired - RETIRED, he was just a little kid the other day, how could he have retired already!? - to Ortus village, the rapidly growing community at the base of the mountain. Bless the original settlers, they’d made it clear which direction the community needed to expand in. Both Nix and Hasta were invited, along with a dozen other friends I’d made over the years.

Librarians I’d spent countless hours discussing books with over the years had gotten an invite, and since it wasn’t just about me, even though I was the focus, everyone in the slowly-growing Valkyrie Order had a letter written for them, along with a dozen of Iona’s closest friends.

Harper was retired from being the Ranger’s [Quartermaster], but was as lively as ever, and Marcelle held no grudge over the School stuff, and was quite happy in Sanguino, teaching and running her own questionable experiments.

I know the Rangers had been over for a ‘friendly chat’ at least twice.

The list went on and on, and it quickly became a bit of a joke between Iona and I. I didn’t mind - I was just happy to see all my friends and family, safe and happy.

I was no packrat, and while I didn’t pretend I was a minimalist or didn’t need tons of stuff, I was also pretty liberal with my income,simply... buying anything I wanted. It made gift-giving occasions hell on people, and I liked seeing people happy so... I twisted it. I gave the gifts! It was a TON of fun!

In no time at all, I was dressed in a really nice, tight outfit - one of the gifts I was giving Iona, at her explicit request - and partying in the little garden in the middle of the villa. We’d thrown a heavy canvas over the open-aired portion to make a ‘roof’ for all the vampires, an initial layer against the sun. Mystical flames floated around near the makeshift ceiling, courtesy of Auri. Fenrir had made a statue of us out of Ice near one end, the waves of cold radiating off of it a welcome relief from the heat. Tables groaned under the catered food piled high, delicacies prepared from around the world. I was feeling like Ralakar food today, the spices were simply divine.

It would burn horrifically on the way out, but that was the price of tasty food.

I waved to Iona as I came in.

“Hey love!” I said, enjoying how her face just lit up at seeing me. Over 64 years of marriage, and we still had that impact on each other.

“Elaine! You look great!” Her eyes danced all over me, and I spun around, showing off a bit. I looked fantastic and I knew it. “Let me grab Nina, the two of us have something for you.”

“Okay! I can’t wait! I’m going to swing over to the buffet table and grab something before it’s all gone.” I said.

[Teleportation] was great for many things, but getting rice and curry out of a tray was not on the shortlist. Along the way I was greeted by a number of the guests.

“Elaine! Happy birthday!”

“Dawn, congratulations on 100!”

“Hey, the student that got me termin - I mean, got me a brand new job! Happy birthday!”

I stuck my tongue out at Marcelle’s good-natured greeting, who laughed with a mouth full of very pointy teeth.

“Marcelle, great to see you! Have you spotted the bloodwines yet? I got a nice bottle from Vesontio. How are the body modifications going?” I knew Vesontio’s vineyards produced her favorite vintage - at least, last I checked. Her pupils rapidly changed between a dozen different animal eyes before winking, letting me know exactly how it was going. I continued to slowly walk to the buffet table, a vision of everything vanishing as people said hi to me dancing through my mind.

“Excellent! This is such a marvelous event, thank you, and once again, happy birthday!”

I got to the buffet and started to heap my plate high with food, then navigated my way to the ‘birthday girl’ table we’d set up in a prominent spot. There were too many people for me to sit with everyone, but I had too many friends to pick and choose who was going to sit with me, and who was going to be relegated to a ‘second class’ friend. Our solution? One modest table with a few ‘guest chairs’ that anyone could sit in.

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Iona was making her rounds and chatting with people. She’d join me eventually, but for now she was having the time of her life with her friends. We loved each other, we were married, but we weren’t joined at the hip, no matter the jokes.

My ears perked up at the distant sound of Auri brrpting a dozen expletives, swearing on water and mouldy bread as something went catastrophically wrong in the kitchen. A few moments of sensing later, I relaxed.

Harper got a puzzle box made out of rare metals, with each metal containing a hint about how it was supposed to solve the greater puzzle. My mind had shorted out when the seller had explained it to me, but Harper seemed to understand my verbatim explanation.

“Girl! This. Is. TOTALLY AWESOME! Thank you thank you THANK YOU! This is the best present EVER!”

Harper had looked torn between continuing to be a guest at the party, and running away to a dark corner to start working on it. Iona managed to capture that moment beautifully on her paper, the delighted indecision immortalized.

Sentinel Devour got some unusual animal parts Auri had harvested from the North, and my little phoenix friend continued to be the MVP as she’d also obtained a pair of truly fireproof gloves from The Dungeon, wanting me to pass them off to Atlas for her. For whatever reason, it couldn’t come from her - proper boss-minion etiquette and all that.

Auri had been lurking around a corner until Atlas got his gloves, then she shot over to her rightful place on my shoulder.

“Brrpt!” I was pretty sure she was raising a protest just for the sake of looking like she was protesting. She’d gotten him the gift!

“Auri. I’m not spoiling Atlas rotten. Plus, don’t you want to know what I got you?”

“...Brrpt.” Auri tried to play it cool for half a second before furiously nodding her beak.

I [Teleported] it over - I could not get over how easy the skill made life - and presented it to an adoring Auri.

“BRPT! BRRRPT! BBRPPPRRRPT! Brpt?” Auri bounced up and down on my shoulder in approval, before flying off, wings buzzing.

The enchantments on the thing had been tricky. First was getting it to recognize ‘brrpt’, then keeping everything hyper efficient enough that a small trickle of mana from the arcanite inside was able to continuously power everything.

“Say ‘Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the prettiest of them all?’, and see what happens.” I encouraged her.

Auri shot me a burning stare, and I sighed.

“Yes, I know you don’t speak my language. Try it in brrpt.”

“Brrrpt?” Auri asked the foggy mirror. It cleared up and showed... Auri!

“BRRPT!” Auri was delighted. She had a whole collection of mirrors, but this was a magical, enchanted mirror, one that would show who the prettiest person in the whole world was.

In reality, it was a simple fogging enchantment that was designed to lose power when the passive ‘listening’ enchantment picked up some specific brrpts. That had been crazy hard to do. Of course, since nobody else besides Auri could trigger the mirror - in theory - it would only ever operate properly for her.

Iona’s sketch of the moment included a shit-eating grin on my face that I was sure didn’t exist.

The elderly Titania came up next, and her present was a big one.

“Titania. If I’m not wrong, you’ve wanted to become Immortal, right?” I asked her. She hesitated a moment, glancing quickly between the three of us before nodding.

“It’s been a hope of mine ma’am, but-”

I cut her off.

“Nonsense. You’re practically part of the family, and I can’t have you go dying on us. Come on, let’s go to a private room for this.”

Titania wasted absolutely no time in rushing over, primly sitting on a long low chair the moment we got into the room.

“Is there a target age I’m going for?” I asked her.

Titania’s vitality hadn’t been nearly as high as the rest of us, and time had hit her hard. Not so much that we were worried for her health, and this was a good time to do it.

“My early thirties were a wonderful time, if you could aim for that?” She asked.

I placed my hand on her head, and with minimal fanfare, activated [The Stars Never Fade].

The world faded away, and a lush forest faded in around us. Tall trees reaching for the heavens, laden with fruit, and berry bushes were scattered all around. The cycle of life and death repeated all around me, a tiny sapling growing into a mighty oak on my left, a bamboo thicket being sucked into the ground and returned to seed on my right.

There were no animals, from insects to raptors.

The spinning greenery ended on an empty patch of land, surrounded by vibrant trees. A thousand little pieces of dust gathered together, creating a single tall mushroom in the center of the glade. Then the image faded out, and reality snapped back.

[*ding!* [The Stars Never Fade] leveled up! 511 -> 512]

I braced myself for the appearance of White Dove, the avatar of death, to descend upon us and issue her pronouncement. The curse Titania would have to live under forever more.

It never came.

After a few minutes of awkwardly waiting, Titania got up and stretched.

“Thank you again, ma’am. Should we get back to the party? I’d hate to keep you from your celebration.”

To say I was concerned was understating it a little... but what could I do? Titania had never been anything other than exemplary, no matter how odd that was, and I wasn’t about to poke White Dove and say ‘excuse me, you missed one.’

How... odd.

We returned to the party, and I leaned over to ask Iona a question.

“Titania’s marked as a human in her System, yeah? There’s nothing weird with her status?”

Iona peeked over.

“No, everything looks normal to me. Why, was there something odd?”

“You could say that...” I said.

Nix and his wife and young son swung by the table next. He’d been one of the kids playing ‘monster’ earlier in the grove.

“Nix! Great to see you! I can’t believe you’re retired. It’s unbelievable.” I shook my head, my long hair waving in the breeze.

He chuckled as he sat down.

“Can’t believe it myself. I’d always heard you were Immortal, but seeing it with my own eyes? Seeing everyone get older while you stayed eternally the same?” He whistled. “That’s some trick. How’ve you been? I feel like we haven’t gotten a chance to talk in ages.” He chuckled at his own joke, while his son rolled his eyes.

“Oh, good, good! Thank you for the socks you sent last winter Hasta, I love them! They’re super comfortable.”

We continued to shoot the shit for a while, his son looking more and more uncomfortable, eventually poking Nix.

“Ah right, I should get to it.” Nix straightened up, attaining a military bearing.

“Sentinel Dawn, would you be willing to take my grandson Primus on as an apprentice to learn the healing arts?”

I nodded, figuring out his question six words in.

“Of course I would - wait, grandson!?”