Those hopes rose from the ashes like a phoenix once he stumbled onto a directory which lead him to a variety of structures that Orison had hopes of finding something of value. Once again, he was disappointed when time after time, he was denied any meaningful interaction with devices or storage units. Giving up on the best possibilities, Orison held on to one last hope as he moved to the outermost ring of structures.

"Whatever crisis came to this place, the rich and the well-to-dos may have had the chance to flee or have their stuff safeguarded by the best available but every society, even if it"s just a big family, has their not-so-well offs," Orison reasoned.

With over half of his time gone before the council, Orison finally caught a break in a training device designed for children to learn the fundamentals. With the rush of information that his sub-mind helped him field to dump unnecessary clutter, Orison discovered the root cause for their destruction. Almost everything that they could do was interdependent on the spiritual essence powered devices even the children had. He deduced that their luck had finally ran out when they had met something that could disrupt their connection to those devices.

Leveraging against the knowledge he had obtained from the children"s trainer device and that he was considered to be equal to a lesser family member until the council session was over, Orison completed a request logged into the civil system. Picking up a parcel for an old fashioned "pile of dust" that liked to receive things manually for some reason, Orison delivered it to their home. Once the delivery was registered, Orison opened the package to find that the contents were a bundle of love letters and poems. Since the owner was dead, Orison turned them in at a security booth and earned a second civil reward.

With civil credits to use as collateral, Orison accepted more packages from the manual delivery service that some people apparently liked due to novelty. It was just busywork for children that gave small rewards but a few of the items thus uncovered were disturbing to think that a child was meant to deliver them. Orison actually uncovered a few valuable things that would have been highly illegal if there were people around to care. He got the impression that they may have been tests for the people who received them.

Taking the credits thus earned, Orison paid a registration fee for his current self to adopt his future self. It would have been a completely pointless thing to do if anyone but himself was the person who would be reviewing it. Orison briefly thought to himself that all bureaucracy ended up producing strange instances.

With the remaining credits and time, Orison purchased a provisional library pa.s.s. After a scan was performed to check his safe storage capacity, he was cleared for direct a.s.similation of two educational volumes approved for lesser family and could borrow up to three "manual" copies. With little time to browse before the council hearing, Orison chose summoning and healing theory which was intercepted by his sub-mind. To finish it off, the young mage checked out the first two books of a series on synthesis and enchanting along with an instructional handbook on family law and Osomo permissions which Orison would have sacrificed an a.s.similation for if he had known it existed first.

Quickly making his way back to the council room, Orison browsed the handbook for any useful bits of information he could use immediately. The most meaningful thing he discovered was that the legal shenanigans he was about to try to pull wouldn"t have worked the way he had hoped. Most of the overly optimistic ideals he had concocted would have to be dismissed entirely as Osomo was designed to close such loopholes to avoid the situation he was trying to start. Thankfully, there was one idea which would pry the stingy fingers of Osomo up a little and give some benefits, though not as many as the young mage previously thought it would.

While Orison continued to skim through the handbook, a feminine voice spread over the silence. "Provisional family member Orison"s council session is called to order. Honorable... provisional family member Orison, presiding. Secretary... observational sub-processes, recording..."

The voice droned on a litany of formal phrases that made the whole process seem asinine. Eventually it was time for the first proposal.

Having had a chance to revise his plan because of Osomo"s long winded introductions, Orison said, "Due to a decline in population, I propose all adoption requests by any level of family be approved until such time as the population stabilizes."

The voice chimed in. "Seconded... All... zero primary council members have abstained. Motion pa.s.sed. All... two adoptions will be automatically approved. The fees and additional requirements for adoption shall be waived until quota is filled."

With a boost of confidence from his easy success, Orison decided to take a risk. "Important administrative and executive positions are unable to be filled due to population decline and inadequate training. I propose that requirements of family status and training be lowered to the absolute minimum allowable in order to fill essential positions."

The feminine voice said, "Osomo votes against... Awaiting family member Duran"s mediation. Family member Duran has sided with pet.i.tioner family member Orison. Motion pa.s.sed. Council will reconvene after system updates. Estimated wait... one hour."

The young mage felt a beacon teleport aimed at him. With a bit of apprehension, he accepted. After the light cleared, he found himself floating in front of the mountainous crystal alongside Duran. There was no adjusting radiation or enchanted voice attempting to brainwash them this time, however.

A gentle but irresistible force pulled the two deep into the mountainous crystal"s depths. With a feather gentle landing, they stood before a pillar of invisible force, vaguely identifiable due to the bright nubs of light that floated in orderly rotations within. Two of those nubs broke free of their rotation to approach them.

Orison started reaching out with his telekinesis to grab another when Duran raised a hand to stop him and said, "They"re too strong. That one"s... safe."

Unlike the first time, the crystal entered Orison calmly. His s.p.a.ce stirred at its presence but he didn"t have to stop his s.p.a.ce from trying to devour this new crystal. The brightly glowing nub didn"t resist being pulled from it"s trek to the spiritual seat and sat placidly at the center of his s.p.a.ce where his eternium formation once resided, having been displaced by the newcomer. A metamorphosis was taking place, drawing all the crystals and dust to the center. The only thing left in it"s usual orbit was the half-basketball court sized plane.

Relaxing his inner sight, Orison turned to Duran. "What did you use the badge for?"

The boy shrugged and said, "For Wick."

Confused, Orison said, "Wick signed you up for adoption?"

Duran shrugged again and Orison didn"t have enough curiosity to pursue it.

The two were ushered out with the same gentle yet firm force that brought them in. Not wanting to waste time before he"d be called back in for the final proposal, Orison used his new probationary authority to review pending decisions on royal family matters. Skimming through, Orison was disgusted at the sheer amount of violations that were logged. He was even more shocked to discover that it was verbal disrespect of the First Family that had caused every mark for over a thousand years. Due to every violation or reward requiring some form of review process except for verbal disrespect of a monarch to the First Family, crimes weren"t punished and loyal fulfillment of duty had went unrewarded for nearly 1600 years. The worst part was that the families that had fallen were typically the most virtuous of their time! It was their anger and despair at the corrupt ones that had spurned their outrage! The only royal family that had held the line between virtue and survival almost to an excruciating degree had been the Nunos family. Orison had to admire the wisdom and discipline necessary to be able to ride such a fine line for so long.

Orison thought to himself, "Well, every bill has it"s due date and 1600 years of backlog is going to be nearly apocalyptic. I wish I had the ability to pair down the punishments to only apply to the generation that committed them but if I did that then the rewards would as well which would be colossally unfair for the Draconos Skyward royal family and this human royal family of Shadow"s Reach... Oh, thank Bob. I can declare death as punishment and rest.i.tution served. That"s good enough.

"Holy c.r.a.p! I can pick the initial monarchs for families in pending reinstatement status!? Oh, not for Skyward... It"s Emris!? No wonder they were acting all weird... For the elf family it"s Mo, obviously... Who do I pick for Shadow"s Reach keep? I don"t know anyone over there. This lady and her husband look pretty solid. Let"s send her a message real quick to let her know where her brother and sister are. I can"t imagine how sucky it would be to get separated at an orphanage that young. Of course I"m going to be biased in my choice. What is privilege for?"

There was no way for the young mage to remotely deliberate every incident, not even if he had months. To do what he needed to, Orison absolutely had to finish all of it before his final proposal or the results could be unpredictable so he allowed most of it to default on Osomo arbitration and mainly focused on fallen marks and rewards for the two "good" families. He spent his last remaining minute of time making sure that Daub"s family returned and Nunos would at least break even. Mo was alright and his waning affection for Vivian extended that much.

Duran hadn"t been idle during the ten minute recess. The boy had appeared with him in the floating city and as soon as they arrived, Duran had taken off like a dart directly towards the library, barely making it back in time. The young mage made a mental note to do a book swap with him when they had time later.

Ready to be done with this, Orison said, "I propose that all administrative and executive decisions made by family members since the start of this a.s.sembly to be considered reviewed and accepted."

The feminine voice said, "Osomo votes against."

Duran said, "I... want time."

"Family member Duran requests deliberation. One hour of deliberation granted."

Orison wanted to ask what that was about but Duran had immediately sat on the floor with his eyes squeezed tightly shut, a fine film of sweat popping out on his forehead. Whatever Duran was doing, his free spiritual essence was drawing thin quickly and Orison could feel a faint, incredibly rapid tattoo of spiritual pulses coming from inside the boy. Although it was only an educated guess, Orison imagined that Wick was doing a lot of work really quickly. Unable to do much more than he already had, council opportunity wise, Orison sat behind Duran and gave the boy some essence a.s.sistance.

With a quarter hour left to go, even Orison was starting to feel strained and the rapid firing of weak spirit pulses lowered to the rate of a heart beat before Orison couldn"t feel them anymore. Once the time ran out, Duran voted in favor of Orison"s proposition right before a curtain of light pulled them to a platform at the top of a tower. A rough distance of a mile radius around the tower was a wall of rotating sand colored cloud, as if they were standing at the eye of a hurricane impossibly situated in a desert.

Looking faint and sounding out of breath, Duran said, "Call them here."

The young mage invited Rithus and Gan. With a short hesitation, he invited Ivan too.

Amid a flurry of questions, Duran flashed a rare smile and said, "Just wait."

A few seconds later, Orison received a message letting him know that Duran wanted to invite three other people who he"d never heard the names of but didn"t see a reason not to allow it when he didn"t even know what was going on. Once the three people appeared, Orison gave them a once over as Duran told them the same thing he"d said to everyone else, "just wait".

The first was a girl whose age was hard to verify due to being heavily scarred. It was easy to understand why Duran would fill one of an eight person maximum team with her if there were benefits to be had because the girl was obviously in a bad way. In her one remaining arm, she clutched onto a wide and shallow basket half filled with wild vegetables as if she was brandishing a shield.

The second stranger was a dirty middle-aged man in mining gear. His eyes were dull with a kind of numbness to the cruelty and vicissitudes of life. Despite that, he still projected a kind demeanor and his aura was relatively clear for a person his age.

The third person was a rough and surly looking old woman. It took all of three seconds for Orison to pull a comparison with Medea. The young mage would have been disturbed by the spatters of blood on her smock if she didn"t smell of herbs.

In the group of silent but confused people, it was the old woman who wasn"t content to take Duran"s word as enough. "I got a young man being held together with some strips of cloth and a prayer. If this is going to take longer than a few seconds, I"m going back."

Looking sad, Duran said, "Forty-three minutes."

Without waiting for an explanation, the woman uninvited herself and disappeared. With a heavy sigh, Duran sent another member request that Orison approved. A shifty-eyed, poorly dressed boy with a broken sword in his hand took one look around at the situation. Before anything could be said, the boy uninvited himself and disappeared.

Looking shocked and a little hurt, Duran looked at Orison and said, "You can have it."

Unsure of who to give a dubious, unknown benefit to, Orison pondered out loud, "Vivian, Ruby or Mylar?"

After a round of input from his party, Orison found out that Vivian already received something similar to whatever this was going to be when she was appointed an heir. The young mage nearly lost it when he found out Ruby was essentially a serial killer. That really only left Mylar. For whatever reason, Rithus was content not to offer any other suggestions for consideration and Gan didn"t really feel like anyone he had met could be justified as important enough to consider over Orison"s choice. Feeling somewhat ambivalent about it, Orison invited Mylar.

Once the wild haired man appeared, he looked around in curiosity before he cut off Duran"s trademark two word explanation. "I thought the Tower of Bestowal was a fairy tale, something the southern desert tribe cooked up to make idiots march to their deaths in the Sea of Sand."

Breaking records, Duran smiled a second time as there was now a person who could answer questions. That smile turned into a scowl as the boy realized that Mylar was under the impression that the tower granted a wish. By the time a few minutes had pa.s.sed, Orison was genuinely grateful that he wouldn"t have to be in a party that contained both Duran and Mylar for long. By the time Mylar"s irritation at Duran"s stubborn silence had turned into wild conjecture that had the boy looking like a volcano right before it would erupt, Orison had the bright idea to distract the older mage with questions on progress with the elementalist"s Children companions.

For all the build up, the actual bestowal event wasn"t that dramatic, at least not for his main group. For the add-ons it was life altering. Under the intensely bright beam of light that fell on them, Orison felt something enter him that he reflexively sent to his s.p.a.ce. Duran leaned in to whisper a warning not to open the crystal capsule until they were in a different reality.

Orison realized that whatever it was Duran had accomplished, the Tower of Bestowal"s light baptism was just a cover for it. Under the intense bombardment of purifying magic, life essence and a trace of some strange energy that Orison could only register as "making something more real", Osomo couldn"t detect the special delivery Wick had staged. The young mage finally understood why Duran was even tighter lipped than usual and why Mylar had managed to get under the boy"s skin so badly.

Once the light had cleared, other than Ivan looking a couple of years younger, no major changes had occurred in the "climber" group. Mylar and the middle-aged miner had regressed to their early twenties and looked worlds better off, especially Mylar"s soul which no longer looked faded. The one who had benefited the most from the bestowal was the girl who was somewhere around her mid teens.

Whole, healthy and cute as a b.u.t.ton, even Mylar"s jaded countenance softened a little at the girl"s emotional sobbing. Everyone except Rithus and Orison gave Duran a trollish face of one kind or another when the girl rushed in to give Duran a hug for all she was worth as she burst into a second set of sobs into the fl.u.s.tered boy"s chest. A round of heckling and cat calling had the girl retreating fairly quickly, leaving Duran looking relieved and disappointed in equal measure.