The Path of Ascension

Chapter 257

Matt stretched as he left the teleport hubspaceship travel around the Capital was regulated enough that it was faster and easier to make the jump from Wandering Fallows through the regular teleports than to sort out the paperworkand looked up into the sky.

Far above him, an enormous ring stretched across the southern sky, glimmering with every color Matts eyes could see and reflecting countless lights from its position above the equator. Matt and Aster drifted to a stop at the sight, prompting a bit of grumbling as the crowd parted around him, but they were too transfixed to care.

Hed seen the ring in movies, of course, but being there in person was just a completely different experience. It practically took his breath away, even as all of the sights and sounds and smells struck him all at once. At Tier 18, Matts senses were impressive, but he couldnt detect a single off-note from anywhere. It smelled faintly floral, with the musky undertones of enchantment-work, and the cacophony of the city seemed to strike his ear more like a symphony rather than a chaotic mess of people yelling, enchantments whirring, and mechanical devices clanking.

Liz tugged at his sleeve, a small smile on her lips. Cmon dear, stop gawking.

Matt began to protest, but Liz cut him off with a quick kiss as they kept moving and laughed. Im glad its a full ring right now. When its a proper moon, its still pretty, but this is just so much better, you know?

Matt nodded in agreement. While the Capital technically its name was The Sophron Imperium Maginex, but no one actually called it that may not have been the only planet with a ring, the Empire often encouraged the formation of an actual moon to help with weather pattern stability. But on the Capital, there was a group of incredibly dedicated Tier 40s through Tier 46s who volunteered themselves to not only maintaining the weather patterns across the planet, but also dismantling and reconstructing the moon itself every few years.

It was an utterly ludicrous feat, but the Keepers of the Great Circle Above had been filling their role for hundreds of thousands of years, and nobody really had a solid reason to actually stop them. On the other side, the magnificence of their moon itself undergoing such a metamorphosis gave plenty of reasons to let them keep going.

While all of the high-Tier worlds Matt had visited were unique in their own way, the phases of the moon corresponding to the different kinds of moons was a new experience for him. So was all of the paperwork theyd had to do, because entering the planet as immortals meant having to personally read and understand the laws as they applied to him. Sure, plenty of worlds had their own legal quirks, but they usually were given as a summary dumped to his AI. Only the capital required that he sign a legally binding document with him acknowledging that he was aware of how the planets laws impacted his ability to travel.

It outlined the details behind the different Tier zones for traveling, specifying the maximum and minimum speeds allowed in each. Unlike in the Seven Suns Kingdom that hed visited so long ago, the Capital didnt utilize heavy metal doors to keep low-Tiers out of areas they were too weak to be allowed in. The only public places off-limits to mortals were high-speed, high-Tier travel lanes which were usually in the air anyway. Thanks to some clever architecture and planning, there were very few places which a mortal couldnt reach if they were determined, though it wasnt always the most convenient.

In practice, of course, it wasnt nearly so rosy, and plenty of businesses simply didnt properly cater to lower Tiers. Training halls, restaurants, gyms, entertainment venuesthe list went on. A Tier 1 was allowed to enter even a Tier 43 training hall, but if they provided anything at all, the offerings for low-Tiers would be a pittance in comparison to that which high-Tiers could access.

Realistically, there simply wasnt much to be done. Plenty of what made the higher-Tier amenities so much better were things which mortals couldnt even survive. A botanical gardens flowers which merely smelled nice to Tier 20s could drive Tier 5s into a catatonic stupor, spicy food served in a Tier 30 restaurant would cause a Tier 10 who so much as touched it to burst into flames, and plays put on for Tier 40s would simultaneously be utterly incomprehensible to Tier 20s, and would last longer than a Tier 5 could go without food.

Considering it was the highest-Tier planet in the Empire, there were those who pushed for that fact to actually be utilized, and not require even the strongest in the Empire to travel no faster than a mortals walking speed in the lobbies of every establishment. They argued that even trying to cater to mortals was seriously hampering the ability of immortals to properly enjoy the one place in the entire Empire where they should have been allowed to not worry about their strength, and that mortal-oriented activities should be relegated to the other half-dozen planets within the system.

There was something of an equilibrium in place, Matt knew, but just how much the Capital made itself accessible to mortals ebbed and flowed over the decades. He wasnt sure where it was at the moment, but the few pieces catering to mortals were still leagues better than anything hed seen on most planets, let alone Lilly. The one thing that was constant, and immediately obvious, was just how much more the Capital was compared to any of the other local capitals hed visited.

Silverheath, Harpers capital, was perhaps the closest comparison, a relatively normal Empire city stretched out beyond all reason, but the Capital took that several steps further. If there was anything approaching a normal ground, Matt saw no sign of it. Walkways hovered in midair, flanked by hovering platforms going up, down and to the sides. Those platforms allowed easy access to not only the other walkways below and presumably above them, but also to the floating buildings on every side, equally untethered to anything beyond their own bulk.

Skyscrapers raced as far down as they stretched into the heavens, perfectly cuboidal halls admitted people straight through their glass surfaces, mesh metal spheres jetted through the flight lanes carrying untold amounts of cargo without a pilot to be seen, and buildings outright vanished as his angle of view changed. It made him wonder just how many buildings should have obscured the view of the ring above him were it not for invisibility enchantmentsor spatial enchantments, Matt realized. The closest of those buildings only took up an eighth of the city block, but held a shopping center that stretched for miles thanks to a truly insane level of spatial expansion he had never seen before. Frankly he wasn't even sure how the space hadn't destabilized with it stretched so much.

Then, there were the people. While hed been long since inured to the unusual colors and body types of immortals, there was just such incredible variety on display, he couldnt help but double-take at the sights. A cactus dryad who couldnt have been older than eight tottled along next to a twelve-foot, red-skinned man rippling with muscle and with a beard that nearly reached his waist. An effervescent slip of a woman with almost translucent silver skin and eyes that glowed with pink and violet light hovered a few inches above the ground, passing by someone who just had to be a dragon in a humanoid form, covered in scales and with a draconic head.

Curiously, practically all the adults Matt could sense were at least Tier 5. While plenty of high-Tier planets had ambient essence high enough to let the average adult bring themselves to the peak of Tier 4 on their own, that was where most stopped. Developing your own Concept was hard, especially for the kind of person who cultivated almost exclusively for health benefits. And using aura to help make your own Concept, or purchasing false-Concept potions to bypass the issue were so expensive, few Tier 4s could manage it.

The price clearly wasnt much of a hindrance here, and while he wasnt allowed to pry too deeply into the Domains of people ten Tiers below him, he got the sense that most had utilized bottled Concepts. That wages were high enough on the Capital for the average citizen to get ahold of a potion which only a skilled craftsman with an Intent could make was impressive.

Of course, there was almost certainly some level of generational pass-along going on, where higher-Tier parents could purchase their kids, grandkids, or even great-grandkids the potions needed to give them a chance to reach a higher Tier. That, combined with the incredible number of alchemists who would live on the Capital and would be able to make bottled Concepts, no doubt lowered the average price.

While he couldnt buy a potion for the price that a Tier 4 would have to pay, he was able to look it up. As a Tier 18, he could buy one for just a couple Tier 18 mana stones, which seemed incredibly low. He checked the price that a Tier 4 would have to pay, and saw that it was only a few dozen Tier 4 mana stones. While he hadnt needed one, he did remember the Unbroken complaining just how pricey theyd been for them, and theyd been professional delvers on the Path. They could absolutely afford a handful of same-Tier mana stones without trouble, particularly since Path discounts would have made them even cheaper.

Matt stuffed the part of him that wanted to tear into the minutiae of the local economy to the back of his mind and turned his attention back to the marvels of engineering all around him. There was, as he expected, not a scrap of environmental mana to be foundit was all siphoned away by mana collectors. Essence, however, abounded. Hed heard that it was technically less abundant than at the other local capitals, but he couldnt tell the difference at his Tier.

He could, however, feel just how solid the reality was, with his Concept unable to find any purchase to enable him to fly. Even an Intent wouldnt solve that issue; only an Aspect would enable someone to take to the Capitals skies without a skill or enchanted item. For Matt, with no need or particular desire to save his mana, that wasnt an issue, but the limitation led to a truly unbelievable number of high-Tiers walking alongside mortals and even unawakened children. They walked together, talked together, lived together, and visited parks together.

Watching a man who was at least Tier 30 nod along as a young boy chattered away at him about all the local interesting bits during a lull of traffic was a new experience. The Tier 30 would have heard everything the kid was saying a thousand times over, but he kept the boy engaged in polite conversation, despite the child's mother looking mortified.

She wasnt scared or upset. Just embarrassed her kid was trapping someone with his energetic ramblings.

The capital was different.

Matt may not have known what the surface of the planet was like, if it even truly had one, but the surface wasnt needed to visit natural greenery. Spatial expansion was used and abused to such an incredible extent that a building only a few times bigger than his house on the outside contained an entire ecosystem inside, with all manner of low-Tier vegetation growing for the residents to enjoy. There were even some animals, something the outside was distinctly lacking, which were prevented from Tiering up thanks to impressive essence-blocking filters on the buildings exterior. A second look informed him that it was even more impressive than hed initially thoughtmultiple distinct parks overlaid the exact same space, each adjusted for a different Tier bracket through some spatial shenanigans he couldn't follow.

He watched as a group of kids, in what was clearly a Tier 5 meadow, flew kites in a wholly interior breeze. The cloth and string contraptions soared hundreds of feet in the air, rising less than halfway to the ceiling of the fifteen-foot park. When he looked again at the same spot, a group of Tier 15s watched as a pack of wolves chased down a fleeing deer. Looking again revealed a few flashes of what looked to be some kind of Tier 25 or higher bird as it flew around the base of a waterfall before he passed the building. There had been at least a half-dozen other biomes present of varying Tier ranges, making the single, objectively small park an incredibly dense haven of life.

Liz seemed jaded to the sights, but Matt caught her sneaking glances at his and Asters open awe with a bit of a smirk playing across her lips. He didnt care, and just kept trying to take in all of their surroundings.

Hed never experience this for the first time again, and wanted to take it in without reservation.

They passed by a hollowed-out boulder that advertised itself as a restaurant, which despite the exterior appearance, was clearly quite a popular place. Floating right next to the walkway was a waiting area of sorts, a wardrobe-sized teardrop of stone and metal holding hundreds of patrons waiting for a platform to take them to the restaurant, which was packed with attendees.

That place smells good, Aster commented as they passed. Did you ever eat there, growing up?

No, Liz shrugged. Ive never even heard of it. Growing up, I didnt wander the greater Capital much; I mainly just stayed in Heartsword. Other than family outings, everything I needed was in there.

You never left the building you grew up in?

Not never, she defended herself. But look around. The buildings here are basically entire cities, and yeah, if I wasnt going on vacation, I tended to stay put. It had everything Id want. Parks, restaurants, theaters, school, my family, everything. Why would I leave, just generally speaking? Other than for vacations, anyway, and those were usually off-world. I mean, think about it, how often did you leave your home city growing up?

Matt frowned. I dont think that Im a good example there. I think my orphanage took a tour into the countryside twice? Well, one of those was to the beach, so I dont know if that counts, as it was still within city limits.

So your family just lived in Heartsword? All of you? For your entire childhood? Aster seemed stuck on that fact, but Matt broadly followed, thanks in large part to he and Liz having discussed their childhoods before.

Liz shrugged. I mean, yeah. Heartsword is a common enough place for nobles and general high-Tiers to raise kids, especially those who want to give their kids something of a more normal childhood in a mixed-Tier environment. Its got a bunch of apartments and estates set up to rent for a couple decades when you or a family member are about to have a kid. Its about the only way you can have sibling bonds when theyre all centuries older. After Leah was born, my parents just bought a house there and made it their primary residence on the Capital. They use it often enough.

That got Matt curious enough to look into just what was for rent in Heartsword. It was, as Liz had told him, a true multi-Tier housing development. There were tiny rooms at the bottom of the superstructure priced such that even a Tier 1 could afford one with a well-paying job, and it ranged all the way up to noble estates expensive enough that even most Tier 46s wouldnt be able to afford one.

That led him to looking at real estate on the Capital in a more general way.

Some places were for sale, but most places rented out anything from single rooms to entire mansions with varying levels of provided amenities. Some were as full-featured as any hotel, while others expected the renter to pay for everything, even repairs. Other Tier 15 and above rentals were no more than a walk-in closet with a meditation pad, some of which were fitted for long-term full-immersion gaming marathons. Many of those were inaccessible for massive periods of time, rotating through pods of immortals as though they were nothing more than stacked firewood slowly being cycled to the entrances.

It was a side of immortal life Matt only had marginal experience with, but he could loosely see why having a single room to sit in isolation for decades or centuries could be appealing to some people. They could work on portions of their Domain, cultivate ambient essence, modify their skills, wait for a delve slot, or just whittle away a portion of eternity consuming media via their AI while selling off their mana generation.

The various communal crafting halls helped with otherwise cramped spaces. Rather than residents having personal kitchens or crafting areas, there were scattered halls where people could rent out a station to do all their cooking, woodworking, enchanting, or other work, all with surrounding markets catering to the profession. With their abundant spatial storage, an immortal might rent a kitchen area for three days and make all the food they would want to eat for the next few years.

It still seemed insane to him, but there was undeniably some benefit to be had in training on the highest-Tier planet in the Empire, and most people didnt want to pay for any more space than what they needed for that.

Between him and Aster getting distracted by all the sights of the planet and the speeds they restricted themselves to on the walkway, it took well over an hour to traverse the distance between their teleport station and the transport hub that was their current destination. From there, it was two flying trains and one hired cab to reach Heartsword. Despite them actually crossing through the planets crust during one leg of their journey, Matt wasnt able to sate his curiosity about what the Capitals surface looked like. Their travel was hastened when they entered a spatially compressed metal tube designed to shorten their actual travel distance, and didnt see anything beyond gray walls until they emerged practically on the other side of the planet.

The cab dropped them off at a weirdly empty walkway near the top of Heartsword, and Matt had to adjust from the hustle and bustle of the Capitals public mass-transit streets to the beautiful, virtually deserted private neighborhood for the nobles and obscenely wealthy. When they saw other people on their walk, a group of Tier 15s flying by on a party yacht, they didnt get so much as a passing glance, which was odd. Despite their arrival, nobody seemed to notice their passage, which Matt suspected was Lunas doing, but he couldn't be sure.

As the estates grew larger and larger, Matt had to resist checking his [AI] for a map, but after what felt like a decade of walking through a building that, if he didnt know better, could be mistaken for a normal planet's surface, they arrived at an estate with its front gates already open for them.

It took them another half an hour to walk down the entry path of the spatially-expanded estate, through the immaculate gardens that filled the grounds. With his spiritual senses, Matt could tell that most of the wildlife of the area was Tier 15, but that actually decreased as they neared the buildings themselves, until they came to some completely untiered animals right next to the house.

One particularly curious Tier 10 hummingbird darted onto the pathway as they passed, wings tracing out a path that Matt found endlessly fascinating, its iridescent blue and green feathers sparkling in a beautiful pattern. It must have decided it liked Liz, as it calmly perched on her shoulder, much to Matt and Asters amusement.

As they approached the main mansion, they were greeted by the front doors being flung open. It allowed a truly awful racket of out of tune, disharmonious, and out of tempo music to wash over them and chase away Lizs hummingbird friend. Mara and Leon strolled out a second later, beaming as they continued the audial assault with a half-dozen instruments both in their arms and floating around them.

Matt tuned out his in-laws antics as he moved to give them a hug. To his left and right, Liz and Aster did the same, and the duo each split into three to give them welcoming embraces. The instruments retreated into the house behind them, and the Royals pulled back and re-merged into a single body.

Leon ruffled Matts hair. It's good to see you guys! You look great, Matt. How have you been?

Mara puffed her cheeks, having clearly intended to ask the same question, but Matt just laughed. Im good. You Matt cocked his head as he inspected the two. Something about them was off. Something is weird with you two.

Mara clutched her chest as a dagger appeared out of nowhere and seemed to be stabbing her in the heart while Leon started fading into rain clouds.

Mara started to gasp as she fell to the floor. Betrayed by our own son. Oh, the humanity! Whatever shall we do? However shall we recover?

Leons cloud started to weep rain as he cried. I cant believe it. I really cant

Aster poked the rain cloud as it drifted around her. No, I think he's right, she agreed. Something is off, but I can't tell what.

Liz waved her hand, dispersing what clouds were bumping her. Theyre just [Clone]s. You must be busy, then?

Leon pulled himself back together before saying, Were delving at the moment. But yes, the war is keeping us pretty occupied, even considering theres little we can really do; but once were out well be back to watching the battlefields and encouraging military recruitment. Im sad you found us out so fast though! It was so much fun when you were just a little girl, keeping you guessing which was the real us.

Matt began to formulate a response, but was distracted by Aster pouncing on Mara, shifting into her fox form mid-leap. Mara responded by turning into a flaming chicken, and was desperately running away from the marauding canid. Aster was undeterred, and used an auditory illusion to scold Matts mother-in-law.

How dare you burn down the student council building and not replace it. That place was drafty, and boring, and plain, and dumb! We could have had something nice and fancy, but you ruined it and didnt even replace it.

Mara just responded by repeatedly yelling, Squawk! in her normal speaking voice as she and Aster ran in circles around their group.

Leon laughed. Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that. That was funny. You know they tried to send me the bill when that happened? I promptly threw it out. Maybe that is why it never got fixed. After laughing at his own joke Leon explained as he saw Aster's deadpan expression. Ok, fine. While that would be funny, no, the student council building was rebuilt after Maras little escapade. It was later burnt down again by someone else. Then rebuilt. I think the most recent destruction was caused by a botched enchantment, but that might have been the one before last. The student council isnt always very popular, and leveling a building is just good natured fun in some peoples eyes. After a while, they stopped making it fancy so it was easier to rebuild.

Aster made faces at Mara before turning back into a human and pointing her nose at the sky.

As Mara returned to her human form, Leon led them through what Matt had thought was the front door. As it turned out, that was simply the front gates, and they were only entering an entry courtyard. All of the gardens Matt had seen outside were nothing in comparison to the cobblestone courtyard theyd just entered. The ground was covered in dark gray pavers connected by golden mortar, and in the center burned a massive flame in the shape of a crowned phoenix. It wasnt Maras form exactly, but it was reminiscent of her in a stylized way. It flapped its wings and sent golden sparks trailing to the ground with each flap. Wherever they landed, the golden mortar glowed briefly, illuminating the stones from below in an almost haunting display.

Above them, lightning crackled and roiled, giving off just enough noise to not make the sight jarring, even as it shifted between a dozen different geometric and artful patterns like a living thing instead of an untamable force of nature. Dark gray trees lined the edge of the court, crowned with scarlet leaves and covered in golden blooms. The petals from the trees were constantly falling, blanketing the ground around them with just enough pristine petals that they nearly hid the stone underneath.

A small stream originated from above the true doorway and cascaded down in twin waterfalls on either side of the door into a pair of pools. The pools themselves were utterly still, the waterfalls not disturbing them in the slightest.

Gawking again, love, Liz nudged him, and Matt kept walking, though he was utterly transfixed by just the sheer magnificence of the home around them.

Youre just stone cold. This is ludicrous. You grew up here? I thought you said you had a more normal childhood. This is normal to you?

Liz just shrugged and tugged him along.

As they neared the actual entrance, Matt realized that what he thought was simply a red door was actually made of red wood, mostly a deep scarlet color and with a dark, storm-gray wood grain pattern. The wood grain itself was artful, twisted into the form of flowers, trees, and more. At the heart of the door was an insignia very familiar to Matt, the same combination of Mara and Leons individual heraldry that hed worn on his wedding outfit.

The door swung open without a sound, revealing a massive circular foyer stretching up further than Matt could properly perceive. The floor was polished stone, marbled with brilliant gold, and in the exact center of the room the marbling coalesced into a rendition of the joint insignia that nonetheless still managed to look natural. Above the insignia, a stained-glass window cast an illusion of a phoenix silhouetted by a storm cloud, and Matt could hear in the distance an ever-so-faint background tune evocative of the fury of nature, of lightning and fire cast from the heavens and turned into something wonderful by those who found it.

While they certainly werent needed for illuminationmore than enough light streamed down from above, where the tower seemed to stretch to infinitya pair of lampstands flanked the entryway, seemingly carved from the same piece of stone as the floor and burning with golden flames, whose light never varied no matter how much they flickered and danced.

Ahead of them, an arched opening led into what was very clearly some kind of dining room. A table made of the same deep red wood as the door held the place of pride, large enough to seat dozens of people at the same time. It stretched into a stone hall marbled with gold and illuminated predominantly by that marbling. Golden light spilled across what could only truly be described as a dining hall without distorting any of the colors present. An unseen breeze carried small white clouds above the tops of the high-backed seats, and whenever they collided, golden lightning flashed with a faint rumble. Incredibly, each of the rumbles were perfectly in time with the background music, adding to the song without ever overpowering or clashing with the melody.

some family time after you left us alone for so long. You wouldnt deprive us of the love of our children would you?

Matt came back to reality to see his in-laws pleading with their daughter using massive, oversized and only just shy of hideous eyes.

Sure, mom, well join you for dinner. You didnt need to guilt us; we would have been happy to join you if you just asked normally. In fact, we intended to anyway. Liz sighed, prompting a once again overly comical celebration from her parents. She eagerly tugged on Matts sleeve, leading him to the side of the room. Stairs seemed to materialize under her feet, floating a few inches away from the curved wall but utterly rock-solid underfoot. They went up about a quarter circle, then broke off into a hallway invisible from the ground.

There, the floors were a different type of stone, once more ashen gray, and the glass wall to their left overlooked the gardens, allowing light to spill in. The other wall was an intricately carved wooden mural depicting a legend of how the first rifts came to be, in full color but completely unpainted. Instead of anything applied to the wood itself, it was composed of different colors of wood from green to gold to violet, seamlessly joined into a single object.

With every step they took, golden sparks trailed into the air like cinders, forming a wake of glittering, golden dust that drifted to highlight points of interest in the mural. Eyes were illuminated, representations of essence were highlighted, and spells glowed as they were cast.

At the end of the hallway, the corridor split in two. Liz pulled Matt to the right while Aster headed to the left, their respective doors swinging open before they arrived. When Matt got close, he could see Elizabeth and Matthew was written in the grain patterns itself instead of a stain or brand, but was distracted by the reveal of the bedroom beyond.

He really should have been expecting what he saw.

It wasnt a single bedroom so much as it was an entire suite, and the first room was a living room larger than their house had been when they got it. The floor was an actual pond with crystal-clear waters, revealing a beautiful mosaic of grays, reds, and golds at the bottom, and filled with gem-like fish and vibrant aquatic plants. It very distinctly was water, but even when he wasnt trying to, he didnt sink into it. Nor was any of the furniture so much as damp, and when Matt put his hand against the floor, he only felt a smooth, unyielding, and dry surface. When he pushed harder and with some intent, his hand passed through the invisible barrier and felt the cool, clean water against his skin. A particularly brave red carp even swam up to him and began to nibble at his fingers, clearly expecting some level of food. When Matt pulled his fingers back, preparing to wipe them dry, he found that no water had clung to them, and had to marvel at that level of enchantment.

A bank of low couches was placed in a lowered section of the floor, surrounding a whirring orrery of enchantments that Matt could have gotten lost in for hours if not for everything else in the room. Cushions and pillows lined the wall next to the front door, flanking a fireplace containing a sculpture of a flame that looked like it was carved from a red-marbled gold stone, dancing and flickering just like the genuine article. Over the fireplace was a bar, stocked with fruits, drinks, cheeses, crackers, and other lighter fare ready to be snacked on.

The far wall was a single pane of glass separating the room from a sizable balcony, with a view beyond the gardens, and then of the Capital itself. It was the same dark gray marbled stone as the entry hall, but not polished to the same mirror sheen as before. The couches out there looked to be made of actual clouds, with a few circular tables floating nearby made of a metal the color of dull brass, save for an iridescent sheen reminiscent of a storm cloud. To the side, a set of sleek and powerful-looking flying swords were arrayed next to a staging area for their flight.

He recognized the window separating the balcony from the interior as passthrough glass, the same kind of glass as the resort where theyd gotten married had in place of some doors, but this one was far more massive than what hed been forced by Liz to steadfastly ignore. It was an alchemical substance capable, with a trivial expenditure of mana, of blocking exactly what was desired while allowing anything else through. That could include light, certain types of creatures, certain individuals, sound, temperature, or even gasses. From what he could feel wafting through the room, he guessed it was currently set to allow a breeze and light in, but not temperature, animals, or scents.

There were a few other rooms connected to their living room, including a full training area better-equipped than any delvers guild Matt had seen, a spa, and a pair of workshops. One was a luxuriously-stocked alchemy lab; the other was outfitted with industrial-grade enchanting tech. And all of it had custom framing to keep it in line with the red, gray, and gold color scheme the entire house was maintaining.

Then there was the actual bedroom.

It wasnt quite as large as the living room, but it was definitely close, and was nearly as elaborate. Just the two walk-in closets were each three stories tall. The main floor was set up for delving gear, the upstairs for normal wear, and the basement for everything else. Each floor was as large as their bedroom in their portable house, and was absolutely bedecked in display cases and cabinets.

Oh! Lizs eyes sparkled, then she schooled her expression back to the cool disinterest shed been maintaining.

Matt turned a questioning eye towards her, and Liz just waved her hand then pointed at a few circular divots set into their bedside tables. Oh, nothing. Just drop your rings here. The enchantments will make sure anything inside of them goes where it should. Armor on the mannequins, clothing in the drawers or in the closet, materials in the workrooms, weapons in the closet and the training room, that sort of thing.

Matt gave a nod of approval. Theyd come across similar things before, but splitting it across multiple rooms was a novel idea. He wasnt entirely sure how they worked, but they were always nice. Of course, their body doubles had already filled much of the closet with their own clothing, but Matt didnt look too closely quite yet.

Yes dear, Matt prodded Liz, and she glanced at him guiltily. Quite exciting, isnt it?

She looked away quickly. I dont know what youre talking about.

Come on, weve been to places with access enchantments, and youre clearly excited about something.

No, no. This is all perfectly normal for me and eeeep! Liz cut off mid-sentence as Matt tackled her to the ground and started tickling her.

After a minute, she managed to push Matt off and took a deep breath to focus herself. Matt responded by getting in a few more tickles, breaking her concentration once more, then pulled her onto his lap. She started speaking again, but Matt interrupted with a tight hug. The next time, he cut her off with a kiss.

Finally, Liz got to speak again. No, I... She stopped herself, giving him a suspicious side-eye. No, I guess its just Its weird to be home. I havent been around for so long, a lot of it just didnt seem like all that much. It was normal to me, and I never paid much attention to it. Then I was gone, and preoccupied with the Path, which is where you expect hardships, so the transition wasn't that bad. Now Im back, and Im able to use a lot more of this stuff. Like, I never had a spatial ring as a kid, so I just couldnt use the access enchantments. Now I can, and its just that everything is so different. It feels familiar, but now Im able to use it, really. Theres parts of the house I just couldnt get to on my own, and its big enough that simply exploring everything isnt practical. Ive never been in this room before, and now Im here, and

Liz rested her head on Matts shoulder, nuzzling into his neck and tracing his arm with her hand. Im glad youre here with me.

Matt intercepted her hand with his own, interlacing their fingers and giving her a tight squeeze. Lizs eyes lit up, much to his confusion. Oh, Bathroom! I want to show you something.

Matt hopped to his feet, following his redhead with a bit of confusion.

The first thing he noticed in their utterly enormous bathroom was a massive bathing area sectioned off with glass similar to their patios wall.

Is that also passthrough glass?

Huh? Oh, yeah. It works as a shower, bath, steam bath, all that. Storm cloud on the top will fill it or bring in air if you want currents, but thats not what I wanted you to see. Ummm Aw, its not here.

Matt turned to where Liz was poking around behind the sinks, leaning into a natural diorama filled with miniature plants and landscaping. Trees, bushes, grasses, and more tiny plant life started on the back edge of the counter, then extended into dark gray mists of stone, transitioning into the backsplash with beautiful precision. They were definitely there, though, as his wife had her head half stuck into the space.

What cant you find? he asked.

Oh, nothing.

Matt looked at her and moved to tickle her again.

No! No, its nothing. Like, nothing important. Look, if I dont find it when I look in the bathroom I first found it in, then Ill tell you, okay? But I want to surprise you.

Liz glanced to the side, Oh! Look there, the cabinets. Distraction, go!

Matt rolled his eyes but humored his wife- though not without just enough of a twitched finger to make her squirm- and took a closer look at the cabinets around the room. They were, of course, already stocked, and made of the same red and gray wood used so often throughout the house. At first glance, he thought the grain was some kind of geometric pattern, but with a bit of closer inspection he realized it was formed by countless repeating hearts with M+L written inside them. The walls were a kind of stone Matt was unfamiliar with, a gray-blue opal-like material filled with iridescent blue flecks. It was cool to the touch, in contrast to the heated, tiled white floor.

He moved to take his delayed tickle-attack on Liz, but shed already escaped back into the bedroom, and only took a single touch to make her collapse back into his arms.

Once they were ready to move on once more, Matt turned his eye to their actual bedroom, rather than its attached spaces.

It had its own balcony, this one somehow directly overlooking the Capital itself from far above, a sight further displayed by the two solid glass side walls. Stone columns, connected to the floor via a gentle slope, supported a circular ring above their heads, accessible by simply walking up the columns. Gravity shifted underneath their feet as they investigated, depositing them in a library well-equipped with weighty tomes, high-end tablets, connection points for virtual reality, and beautiful pieces of art, including some Matt recognized as Asters. There were a couple of hidden nooks tucked away from immediate view and even lightly shielded from spiritual perception, mounded with blankets and pillows, perfect for reading in. There was even one blanket made of solid fire that Liz recognized from her childhood, and Matt enjoyed seeing his wife hug the blanket like it was an old friend.

Then there was the bed.

It was made of an actual cloud, albeit one tightly controlled into the typical shape of a mattress, and with blankets made of heatless, solid flame. It was the single most comfortable thing Matt had ever felt, and from the moment he flopped onto it he could instantly feel himself relaxing and growing tired. The clouds were actually massaging him, tufts of cloudstuff seemingly buffeted by winds into every last sore point in Matts body that suddenly decided to be exceptionally sore.

This is the greatest thing I have ever felt, he told Liz, though his face was still muffled by fluff that he would never admit was softer than Aster, even at her most pampered.

He valued not being frozen into a Mattsicle too much for that.

I cant believe you grew up with this

Liz laughed and pretended to sulk. Oh, I wish. My childhood bedroom wasnt nearly this nice. I can show you at some point, but its not a suite, just a room. Just a plain, normal old mortal mattress for me, but I would catch naps on mom and dads bed sometimes. Because that makes sense. Give the best stuff not to the kid who spends half their life in bed, but the ones who have had sleeping be strictly optional for tens of thousands of years.

As Matt felt the bed start working at a muscle he hadnt manually untensed, he groaned. If your bed was this nice, you wouldve never survived leaving their house.

Liz snorted but didnt disagree.

It took almost five more minutes for Matt to get out of bed and feel his way through the room. Once he had escaped the clutches of the mattress, he more properly explored his closet. It was unusual to see all of his delving gear displayed so neatly on mannequins, in display cases, and on proper weapon racks, but it wasnt unwelcome. He also discovered that if he placed their house storage ring in one of the access enchantment slots, their front door appeared in his closets basement and gave him full access to the entire thing. He was really impressed that the access enchantments also applied to everything inside the house, giving him ready access to the same items inside both where it was normally, but also where it would be most useful in the room outside.

The weirdest discovery by far, however, came when he started looking through the upstairs closets. He knew that it was meant to be his closet, but there was no way that the outfits already in there could fit him. Confused, he pulled out a shirt that looked two sizes too small for him and sat on the bed next to Liz.

Am I supposed to wear this?

Liz didnt so much as open her eyes, but Matt felt her probe the garment in his hand with her spiritual sense. Ugh, please tell me the womens fashion is better than that. Is that seriously what the style is these days? But yeah, thats for you and definitely perfectly fitted. Pauls copy of you is too good for anything else. Its probably brand new, mind you. Dad can get weird around used clothes, believe it or not. One of his few hangups.

Matt, in fact, did not believe itbut he trusted Liz, and the clothes did look brand new.

Matt ventured into Lizs closet and, after a bit of rummaging around, emerged with a restrictive, full-length dress that he knew Liz would absolutely hate.

Even before he could say anything, she groaned and rolled over on the bed. Tight clothes that might have been made out of gauze for the guys and full-length gowns for the women. What the fuck, that is so unfair. I asked for better, not worse. Were going to have to get actual professional help to make sure were wearing this stuff right, you know. I just hope that this styles almost past its prime, because I dont think I can take more than a couple weeks of this.

Matt wanted to say Liz had it better than him, but he wasnt so sure. Hed first need to see if he actually fit into the clothes.

After a little testing, it turned out he did, in fact, fit in the clothes provided. If the clothes hadnt been high Tier, he would have torn through the almost see-through material the first time he took a deep breath, but he was pretty sure that even if he took his blade to the fabric, he wouldnt even have been able to remove a stitch.

As he studied the illusionary double of himself projected in the middle of the closet, Matt couldnt help but shake his head. It didnt look bad, and the outfit was enchanted to put his muscles in even sharper relief than they otherwise should be, but it just felt wrong for some reason he couldnt put into words. Perhaps it was the missing scars, which should have stood out in sharp contrast along his skin, or maybe it was just the absence of any kind of armor.

Though, as he joined Liz in her closet where she was still struggling to get into her cumbersome, multi-layered dress, he did conclude he probably was better off.

Hey Liz, cant we just wear shifting outfits? I've seen them before, and are stupidly expensive. Seems like something the noble scions would love to flaunt.

Liz snorted as she flailed, trying to sew up her latest layer of clothing from the inside without letting any of the thread slip out of place. And not spend a fortune on each new outfit? No way. Liz tilted her head up and said in a stuffy accent. Those shifting clothes are for those who cant afford to have an actual wardrobe. Returning to her normal tone, she continued, That said, they sometimes come into fashion, but it's rare and never for long. Would sure be convenient right about now. Or if we could just do what my parents do, and completely ignore all the fashion trends since their favorite one three thousand years ago. But this is all about not annoying the nobles, so

Lizs control over her dress literally frayed, and the stitches shed made came undone, setting off what seemed to be a chain reaction that had Liz lying almost completely naked in a pile of loose fabrics and thread by the end of it.

She rolled over and looked at Matt with a pitying gaze. Could you ping my parents dressers? I was really hoping I would be able to get into this myself, but I give up.

Matt snorted and passed the request off to the houses AI system.

The dresser in question, Lotus, was a young-looking Tier 16 woman with green hair and irises that looked like a pink lotus, who arrived to help after just a few moments. With her help, it only took a few minutes to get Liz fully inside the dress, though the woman mentioned that Liz had chosen one of the simplest dresses available, and that shed need far more time and possibly additional assistance when Liz was planning on actually going out in something more elaborate.

It was incredible watching the dresser at work, though. It was a completely different profession than anything Matt had seen before, but even so, he could tell how skilled she was. Fabric seemed to weave itself whole-cloth from nothing but air and loose threads, then took on a particular sheen. By the end of it, Liz almost seemed comfortable.

She also worked some magic on what Matt was wearing. He couldnt tell a difference between before and after she was done, but hed apparently been completely incorrect in basically everything to do with his outfit. She also applied a few decorative skill effects directly to the outfit itself, most of which seemed utterly pointless, like making sure the light coming off his outfit was correctly polarized.

Once they were both dressed, they investigated Asters whereabouts, as she hadnt been responding to their messages.

Her room was fairly similar to their own, but had several concessions to Asters preference of all things cold. The spas sauna was replaced with what essentially amounted to a freezer, her attached bar was well-stocked with ice cream, and her workshop was a massive artists studio. Her floor looked to be made of leaves instead of a pond, and Matt could see birds fluttering beneath their feet.

To no real surprise, they found Aster basically comatose on her bed and only capable of putting up nominal resistance as Matt first dragged her off by one foot, then slung her over his shoulder and carried her into her closet.

Her complaining about the rough treatment instantly morphed into complaining about the dress she was expected to wear. Of course, the spies pretending to be them had worn them without complaint, so she was forced to only lightly pout as they called Lotus back to help Aster get into her own dress. By the end of the process, Aster seemed almost content with it, and she settled into the knowledge that it was how a proper queen should dress.

The three of them had come to grips with their respective outfits, which were at least moderately comfortable, until they joined Mara and Leon in the foyer for dinner.

What the-

Fuck.

Matt and Aster came to a standstill as they came face-to-face with Mara and Leon, while Liz just shrugged defeatedly. The duo were dressed in baggy, exercise-like lounge clothes that couldnt have taken more than a single hand to pull on or take off.

Leon shrugged. This was a trend a few thousand years ago.

Mara nodded with a smirk flirting around the edges of her lips. Was it a trend we funded? Who can say? But it sure is convenient to wear one outfit whether youre on the couch or going to a ball. Crazy how that works out.

Matt shook his head but was quickly distracted as Leon [Teleport]ed them to a proper Tier 45 restaurant floating on the very edge of the ring, with the planet to their left and the iridescent sheen of the ring to their right.

The food was beyond fantastic, with technical quality far beyond anything Matt had ever tasted. Though, that was partially because it had been several Tiers since he last tried Aunt Helens cooking. He wasnt sure how they compared side by side.

And, as they ate, the five of them swapped stories. Mostly it was Mara and Leon telling tales, but it was fun nonetheless.

The story of Mara and Leon chasing each other around the atmosphere, letting fire and storm mana manifest as they played, had clearly contributed to the two of them being perceived as hating each other, but they refused to acknowledge it, saying everyone should know that had just been some playful banter before they went on to actual foreplay.

Or the time Leon kept sending thunderclouds to hover over Lunas garden and then blamed Mara once caught. The latter pouted that she was then turned into a heat lamp for a week.

The mental picture of chicken Mara being tethered to cat Luna like a balloon was hilarious, and Matt hoped hed get to see it again someday, having only seen it at his wedding once.

The dessert was just as fantastic, and Matt found himself in a nearly catatonic stupor between the food and the utterly divine bed. He could have probably slept for a year if they didnt have a job to do.