First of the First Year

I watched the last bits of ink flow onto the last pieces of paper and with a little gust of wind, the intangible sealed itself into reality. Off into the neat stacks of tomes, it went before I turned to the pale face nestled between my shoulder and the pillows. "It's time to get up."

"Five more minutes." Came a dramatic groan.

"Right." I snorted. "You're not even sleeping."

"Mmm." She groaned. "Five more minutes."

'Ah well.' I shrugged, holding her tight before attempting some conversation. "So, can you really not eat? I'd like some breakfast."

"I can eat bloody meat. Or food from home." She muttered. "Other food just sits in my stomach and I get bloated."

"Would you be opposed to some raw steak?"

She shook her head in my chest.

"Great!" I shot up. "It's on the way."

She let out a groan once I got up and started getting dressed and spoke only when I gripped a feathered cloak and gave it a swift shake.

"Oh wow." She cooed in response to my lab coat, black with gold trim and a feathered collar. "So sophisticated."

"You know it," I smirked. And smirked wider once she got up and donned some light blue pants and a silver-hued tunic.

"I imagine we won't be able to spend much time together for quite a while," I said halfway through the meal. "The middle of the year, most likely."

"That's earlier than I thought." She plainly stated as she began to take a bite of her steak. Then noticed me staring deep into her crimson orbs. Then she stopped. Stared back long enough for bloody streaks to run down her chin.

"After this year, though." I finally said, smiling. "That's when the adventure begins."

She paused, bit the remainder of her steak from her fork, and wiped the blood from her mouth. Then looked at me with a million emotions burning in her eyes. Determination. Hope. Eagerness. As well as their opposites. And more. "Sounds like you'll be as busy as the rest of us.

"Busier." She added after a sip of blood wine.

"Yeah." I sighed. "I have a lot planned. For both here and back home."

"Well then." She stood, the fire still burning in her eyes. But a childish smile spread across her face that mimicked mine. "I suppose we should get to it."

"I suppose so."

With the last few bites wolfed down and the dishes Bamfed to the kitchen, we floated gently up through the floors of my world, stopping midway to hand over a chest of gold to Lily, with instructions to procure some land and staff to start franchising in the Peninsula below.

"I hate succubi." Zakira rolled her eyes after we left. "Incubi too!" She shouted over her shoulder. "Always charming people and shit. They can't do anything without it."

I couldn't disagree, and yet, I didn't have to agree either, for we came upon the transfer station in the next moment, pulling Zakira's attention to Nyella and the rest of their gathered members while my attention scanned over the Legionary Captains and their subordinates.

"Everyone, good morning." I nodded to them. "A few things before we depart."

I waited for their praise or conversations to die as I began pacing. Then took another moment to look upon the gathered crowd.

Eotrom was vast, but its population was relatively small. Only holding the roughly three thousand souls freed from the Darkworld and their descendants.

2,127 of them were split between Opal and Zakira. And yet, nearly each Captain had gathered at least 15 individuals- a squad's worth- from around Bithisarea. Though still, there were a few anomalies. The only one left without a crew was Urshure, but his crew wasn't to be beings of this plane anyway.

"Well." I chortled. "I supposed this means you've all completed your orders. Good work. You have your parties. Your staff officers. As such, you are all hereby promoted to the rank of L-6. Battalion commanders. Your pay will increase to a thousand gold per week."

There were a few whoops and celebratory remarks from that, but the silence soon returned.

"Your new orders are to have your subordinates fill out their ranks while you move further down your paths." I continued. "The deadline is the middle of the year when the first-year students have their matches. Whoever holds a sizable, trained force, a supporting industry, a civilian populous, and culture will have their subordinates trained under the divine tree here in Eotrom. When they graduate, you'll be promoted to a Legio Imperator and be granted your own Legion. Everyone else will become a General of a corps within one of those legions.

"The next training period will be at the end of the third quarter. Those who train at that time will be commissioned as officers. And those who train at the end of the year will enter the Legions as non-commissioned officers. With that." I paused, turned, and looked into as many eyes as I could. "I should tell you that the pay for Imperators is two thousand gold per week. In addition to a number of benefits and boons.

"Now then." I reached out and took back the undead shadows I gave to them, but not the ones their doppelgangers felled and had raised. In turn, I distributed the tomes and career paths I updated for them.

"Second item. Death and Undead. You will be receiving items that will allow you to take the strength or constitution from your opponent as a trophy. Adding it to your own. Through this, you can obtain super-powered levels of strength and constitution as recognized by the Guild Association.

"If your morals do not allow for such things, you should know that the martial classes can receive boosts to their physical attributes by training them harshly between certain levels. These tomes will detail how you can train those attributes and they describe the effects of obtaining such levels of dexterity, agility, strength, or constitution."

"That's dumb as fuck!" Ed pouted. "Now I gotta take a fighter class."

"There are some unique ones available to you," I noted as he began flipping through his book. "You'll find more about that as well in your tomes. But aside from that, I require you to raise two undead. One, to be killed by your doppelganger if it hasn't happened already. Their connection to me will allow an undead shadow to be raised. The other should be killed by infusing your magic into them if you have any. They'll become unique types of undead. And will eventually become what Zaraxus is to me. Only… better."

"Do we have to?" Scarlett groaned.

"If you want to command a Legion." I nodded. "But even if you don't, you'll have something similar working with you."

"Okay." She slumped.

"It won't be that bad, I promise," I reassured her with a playful laugh. "They'll be holy undead."

"O- oh!" Her eyes went wide. "Uhm. O-okay then. What else?"

"That's it." I cheekily smiled. "Remember to use your doppelgangers to look over any civilians you have under your wing. Or to accomplish any other task if you're too busy training. And most importantly, have fun."

With departing nods, smiles, and a peck on the lips from Zakira, the Commanders and their staff stepped into the gilded shadows or glistening silver archways and emerged in various places across the Bodhi Peninsula, so far below. Leaving me, two humans, and several massive animals standing at the edge of the transfer station, looking down at the magnificent plane beyond.

I wasn't surprised to see them here. Though I was surprised to see the divine beasts huddled so close to them.

Skoll and Hati clung to me always. Though they denied being touched by moonlight or twilight, the energies of the realm flowed into them still. Albeit far less than the other creatures. Their offspring, Lycaon and Lupa, were born as colossal, divine direwolves and inherited the Silverstream Forests surrounding areas.

In turn, their offspring began following Doyle wherever he went. Indeed, they even went to live on his moon, in orbit of my world. Fenrir and Garmr were their names. Of a white and blue and black and gold hide like their progenitors.

Conversely, Pora Bora's owlets and some of Karu's chicks evolved into divine owls and aves of twilight: Dusk Owls and Astral Aves, they were, and again the other way around. Once Olga weaved her world and put it in an orbit along the terminator of my home, the soundless raptors and flightless birds could be heard competing with the calls ringing from Opal's world across the void.

More than that, however, being exalted citizens, my former teachers learned the truth of my past.

Naturally, they had many questions.

"So, no magic?"

"No." I shook my head. "And no dragons. No elves. No dwarves. Halflings. Gnomes. Dragonborne. Goliaths. Beast-kin. Tieflings. No giants. No goblins. No divine beasts, mythical creatures, or fantastical animals. No demons and no devils. No gods.

"Only homo sapiens. Humans and our abstract beliefs, our technology, and our endless justifications for hate."

"That… must have been horrible." Olga lamented.

"H- how… did... you die?" Doyle asked.

I paused, if only for a split second to find the right words, then turned to meet his silver eyes. "Assisted suicide," I said dryly.

His head hung. "I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"It must have been hard."

"Perhaps." I shrugged. "But it was that hardship that made me into who I am today. Or rather, it made me into who I was when I was planted within this fantastical universe. Those experiences, plus the ones I've experienced thus far, made me who I am today."

"And what is that, if I may ask?" Olga leaned forward.

"A selfish explorer who loves to learn and make things. And sometimes fight." I shrugged.

"And Telin gave you just that." Olga chuckled dryly. "The entire Mortal Plane is your playground. At least, that's how I see it."

'Yeah.' I silently lamented. 'Just like the Milky Way to the Starfarer.'

During that silence, though, I looked out on the lands. And through Mani's eye, I saw the Commanders- those I gave the power to be players in this virtually endless ground- going about their tasks diligently.

Through those silver streams of light, I could look down to Chor and spill through the windows to see Ritrix and Willard speaking with Sinestro about me and the musical instruments I brought into this world. And so could I see a winged woman luring people into nearby alleys. A greedy merchant, and a hopeful tycoon.

I could look a bit to the west and see a grand city of spires and abstract buildings that virtually poured magic into the sky. One of which held two dwarves and two humans speaking to an excitable gnome. In another, a desperate alchemist reluctantly gazed my way, hoping for what mortals longed for the most.

In an alley of some nearby, much less impressive city, another pair of pleading eyes darted between me and a rotund kid with red hair before she pulled a glob of water over his head and held it until his legs stopped moving.

Further east I could see Roheisa, arguing with an orc about her not caring about some damned mushroom. She needed to be near a volcano, she declared before storming off. A half-orc with red-tinted skin trailing behind her. A half-high orc, who also screamed that she didn't need some stupid mushroom either. Only... grace.

I could see three vampires leading a caravan of snowmobiles, trucks, and vans across the mountains of Rhar. Trudging dutifully through the snow-lined lands towards the beacons of light their various faiths showed them.

East of that, I could see Mary, standing within a vast and verdant grove filled with mana that could only have been described as wild or primal. But only in some places. In others, the mana somehow pushed birds and beasts into becoming gigantic or in others, intelligent. And in one other place, the mana itself seemed… Blighted.

But still, there was life found within. And there was a life that seemed intent on living within.

That was hardly the most interesting sight, however, for I could see the rangers in Rhar, standing within a grove dissimilar to the ones the druids inhabited. One with far fewer plants and far more animals that had a sort of… industrial purpose.

And no Jaimess.

He was high up the mountains pursuing the path I wrote out for him, rather than the one Corym thought he knew. Relatively close by, I saw Scarlett and Phelia standing before a clearly disgruntled Archie and a blindingly eager Ferris.

A few ways away, in the Kasian Empire, the many fighters weren't fighting at all but were drilling their recruits in endless combat against their undead, just as they had done in Noctis Reach. Among them, separated by a few counties, was dear ole Borrowed Time, held captive by a band of goblins that were probing their young into torturing him.

And mostly succeeding.

Deeper in the heartlands were Toril and the other paladins, standing before a face I'd never before seen before, with no Titus in sight. What was in sight though, albeit a fair distance away, was a certain cursed politician, growing madder and madder as the days passed by.

Even more curious than that was Rua, Peter, and Veil of Shadows, standing before a perturbed Eiriol and several other dark elves who, like the Abbot, seemed uncannily familiar.

They were so curious and so uncannily familiar that I remained splayed across the cold floor of that hut to listen to her ridiculous claim. And then I looked elsewhere, to the largest city within that war-torn land to see something vile and sad. A drunken and enraged king throwing his daughter out into the snow to be at the mercy of the wolves while his son was taken to the dungeons at the behest of his wicked queen.

It was then I moved to a cold bog in the southeastern end of the peninsula and rode the lines of silver light down into a drainage ditch, where I saw a masked man turn to a young boy the moment he entered the hidden room.

"No faces!"

"Wha-" they looked around panicked and seemed to notice the many disguises worn within for the first time. Then turned tail and left with haste, shuddering as a gust of snow poured in through the door as he passed through.

The masked man then turned back to his business before the door swung wide again and jumped as he saw a masked figure in stark white clothes standing before him, an almost formless weasel perched atop his shoulder, and another masked man in leathers following close behind, all swaying their heads and subtly adjusting their gaits as they passed without a word.

Then, the man straightened his posture suddenly as if he sensed something uncanny.

Looking up, he saw an owl perched in the rafters. Black as night, its feathers were. And its eyes were like a dark night filled with a million twinkling stars that stared right at him.

How easy it was for him to get lost in those eyes. So like the eyes of the original dusk owl, perched atop my shoulder.

Seeing all I've needed to for now, I pulled my senses back to my body and turned to face Doyle. "I have three jobs for you. And though you said you'd like to retire and live." I turned to Olga. "I would like to offer you a job still."

"Okay." She slowly nodded. "I'm all ears."

"If you are willing. And only if you are willing." I assured her. "I'd like you to continue teaching as you've taught me. Both my Legions and the civilians."

"I-" she sighed in relief. "Yeah. I can do that. I will- do that."

"Thank you." I smiled. Then turned to Doyle. "You truly live up to your name now, Wolfgang." I gestured at the massive wolves and chuckled. "Doyle, I'd like you to do the same as Olga and train the Legionaries. Second, I ask that you defend this realm and its people from those who would seek to do it harm.

"Educate them. Train them better than any have been ever been trained before. Pass on the skills that made you pursued by the guilds of Polaris. Take these vestiges of my divinity." I held out my hand and poured the energy within. "Take this power, and become my first proxies."

They both hesitated before grabbing hold of my hand, glowing with divine light. Olga looked expectantly at Doyle. And he at me.

"What else is it that you'd have me do?" He finally asked.

"I want you to keep an eye on someone for me."