We also had islands in the sky of the Broom Closet, now. Gravity fields cut out about two hundred yards above a plain here, so it was totally possible to place further areas up in the sky... or down below ground, if we desired, creating layers of possible living space.

The highest island belonged to the Ice and Fire Phoenix and Luan Emperors, who frequently popped in with others of their Tribes to oversee the weather and natural conditions. While Thunderbird and other Avian Emperors were also welcome at the High Island, they didn’t stay long enough to establish nests for themselves.

The central area for the Emperors was up to a solid ten-mile radius, comfortable enough for even a High Emperor who wasn’t going to stay here all the time, the lake there a mile wide and big enough for Leviathan Emperor not to feel too constrained, especially with how deep it was. The river bisecting the Closet was over a mile wide as well, constantly in motion in and out of the Closet so as not to get stale. Keeping it filled as the space expanded was a constant need, as well, and there were multiple levels of static reefs in place on the sides of the walls, suitable for all kinds of aquatic habitats, fish, and plants to grow on.

The rail lines going around the central area were now steady in place, and seeing a lot of traffic. Most of the lines were actually tunnels through the ground, so as not to break up the greenery above with any tech intrusions. Trains were running all the time, and the tunnels were the first things addressed with any spatial expansions, the additional tracks running towards the walls constantly being laid down right after each surge of expansion as we completed a new tier on the Pyramid.

The tracks ringing the Closet had to be lengthened at every expansion, too, breaking apart at key points as new space came out of nowhere, Tiles were laid, stone atop them, and rails atop those. A mile expansion in radius was six miles and more of tracks that had to be laid before the Rings were good again, so those crews were also on the job fast and furious.

The ‘Portal Cities’ didn’t move when there was an expansion, staying fixed relative to their Portals, while extra space filled in around them. The tracks and roads leading out were the only things that had to be fixed quickly, and were simple enough to address with the right materials stockpiled.

It was probably unsurprising that the asteroid we picked had a ton of Isotopic Ores we were smelting down and using or selling... as well as a lot of what was effectively Mindstone.

Meteoric rocks existed in quantity in deep space! Who’da thunk? Teleportation out of IX Valence Slots could reach throughout the solar system! Who’da thunk?

The reason we were on an asteroid instead of the Moon is that there were things on the Moon, and disturbing them was likely to be fatal. A rock floating out in the middle of nowhere had no native lifeforms on it. While there might be something out there that could sense the living where none were before... that was the whole reason the first thing we’d done is clear out a cavern inside the rock and line it with Runework designed to conceal our presence.

I hadn’t sensed anything out in the void yet when I’d been out there on that rock, and was plenty happy to not do so, too.

It was also why I wasn’t wandering around on Mars, or the moons of Mars. There was stuff there, Divination Magic had made that quite clear, and we didn’t need conflicts or malevolent interest from anything that was living there. Interplanetary conflicts were something for the future.

Maybe when the gods were actually here. Whatever was out in space probably didn’t like venturing into gravitational fields, and might or might not be wary of the High Emperors living here.

Briggs oversaw whatever Flowing Silver High Emperor did not, laying out the balance of civilization, rural, and wild areas with a master’s touch. The hills and trees ringing the central areas and their approaches were tall but not impassable, with trails, paths, tunnels, and stairs going through them which both Beasts and Humans could use, but it was plain the inner area was intended for the Beasts, and Emperors specifically, so Humans would be wise not to intrude without good reason.

On the other hand, the outer area covered a lot more territory and was only getting bigger. We had nothing to complain about, and it turned out mining asteroids the way we were was wildly profitable, keeping a lot of miner-mages fully employed.

The White Mana Zones here formed the most sophisticated magitech research and production sites in the world, and were growing slowly every day, be it up, down, or sideways. Getting the raw material to them was one of the bottlenecks, and absolute pollution control was the other. Recycling, breaking down, or outright disintegrating useless waste products was also going on, controlling another aspect of the cycle.

It was far more true area, and far grander and more self-sustaining, than the Pocket Dimension erected by that damn Pharoah, and it was only getting bigger.

It was a Good Thing. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people who just wouldn’t think so...

-------

Washington D.C...

I had never really ‘been to’ Washington D.C. in this world. Oh, Driver Sam and I had driven through it, so I’d seen the monuments to Washington, the Farmer President; to Jefferson, the Void President; and to Lincoln, the Earth President and Great Emancipator. The monuments to the wars fought on Terra-Luna were not present, subbed for by great conflicts against the Beasts in various areas, including the Boston War against the Aquatics, the Low Mountains War against the Rulers and Beast Tribes of the Appalachians, and the Great West War that had thrown Humans out of the middle of the Continent at the will of the Emperors there.

For all that, I had never visited here for business or pleasure.

Briggs and Sama came here occasionally when negotiating Federal contracts, or to meet with old friends here and there for whatever reasons. I was fully aware that hundreds of members of the Allegiance worked in this town, supplying us all manner of intelligence on what was going on in the political, military, intelligence, and economic circles. The two of them poked and prodded things along here and there with razor-sharp skill to get the things they wanted done, and sometimes used things more material than skill to punish those who thought they were above retribution.

It was an exciting town to work in, by all tales. There was generally a death a day by unknown means, or someone vanished, or this important politician was exposed doing something immoral and lost their seat, or this intelligence agent was ordering atrocities, or under the thumb of some Family, and so it went.

Exciting place, lots of tax money flowing through it, policies to make, laws to pass, and a whole lot of Mages who’d topped out and would never get stronger spending a lot of time trying to make themselves important and relevant by telling more personally dangerous mages what they could and could not do.

A lot of people called it the biggest collection of useless mages in America, and I wasn’t disagreeing with them. These were people who largely avoided and ignored combat duty like the plague; it was why they’d gone into politics.

Why was I here, then? Well, I was summoned to appear before a Congressional panel, of course. The reason they wanted to see me? Quite reasonable, actually: I was a Sage, and I was moving around all the time without permission or being tracked. I didn’t inform anyone of my movements, I came and went as I pleased, and I tossed around powerful magicks no one else had without oversight or restraint.

This was a clear challenge to the law and the power of the authorities, but seeing as how everyone had been busy the last year or two, they’d let it slide considering how I was always flitting from battlezone to littoral raid to checking on the Floodbreaker Ritual Sites, to maybe doing stuff at the behest of Beast Emperors.

But now, now the end of the Edict of the Emperors was only a month away! The Floodbreaker Sites were ready, only needing to be fully staffed, and the seas were caught up in their own civil war, easing tensions and the amount of bloodshed.

It gave certain forces room to flex, and exert their influence.

I sighed as I stepped through the Portal, ignoring the alarm that started blaring as I did. I let the Portal close behind me as I looked around, the spatial Ward that was supposed to stop this kind of thing happening so close to the Capital Building kind of convulsing as I let it do its job a bit late.

There were mages closing in on me from all directions, many of them wincing when they recognized me. I got a lot of press time, even if I didn’t do many interviews. I’d been told it was because I was ridiculously photogenic, and more because photos of me could only be published if I allowed them to be. So, whenever they got a new published photo, the papers and media tended to run them.

I sold a lot of magazines and newspapers when I allowed such things.

The accompanying articles DID have to be approved by me if they involved me, which, while they didn’t need to be fawning or even complimentary, had to at least be honest, something I could tell quite easily. Misleading, ambiguous, hateful, or simply wild-arse nonsense about me never made it to print or pixel, much to the dismay of many propagandists.

It kind of horrified the press that they had to run their stories about me past me. I was generally quick about getting back to them, I was very insistent on details being accurate, and I didn’t allow floods of article spam. One article about event so-and-so was basically all I’d approve, so whoever wrote it got a fat payday as the other services had to buy their work.

“Lady Fae,” sighed the officer in charge, as the gung-ho collapsing on the person intruding on the Wards of the Capitol Building became kind of an awkward shuffling around and a lot of people staring at me and Noble and its Tokens.

“Sergeant Blake?” I asked in return, and he flushed as I got his name and rank correct.

“You’re, um, not allowed to Blink into the government district of the city, Lady Fae,” he said awkwardly, rubbing his hands as he wondered what to do. Technically, what I’d done wasn’t even supposed to be possible!

“I am outside the one-hundred-yard radial limit of Interdictory Wards,” I sniffed calmly.

His face twisted, and then he sighed resignedly. “The entire central district is under Ward, ma’am,” he admitted helplessly.

I lifted an eyebrow archly, glancing up and around once. “Wellllll,” I let the word drag out, as they pondered the fact I could break the Ward and hadn’t really acknowledged it was there. “Perhaps you would like to escort me out of the Warded area, and then escort me back in for my Congressional hearing, which begins in ten minutes?” I inquired diplomatically. “Failing that, I could return home and take a car, at which point you can expect me to arrive in approximately twelve hours. I do hope the Congressionals will still be waiting.”

I wasn’t trespassing, I was invited. I’d politely skirted the traditional Interdiction Wards, and simply punched through them without really realizing it was more than static, courtesy of my overwhelming Caster Level. Tch! They should have paid us to upgrade their Wards...

Sergeant Blake just sighed in defeat. “Back to your stations, officers, and no asking her for an autograph.” A few hopeful sorts digging for something to write on promptly cursed him, so I simply waved a hand and bestowed a few cards on them, complete with ‘To Officer Soandso, Healer Fae,’ written out in front of them.

There was no thought of arresting me as the very happy officers headed back to their stations, clutching their prizes.

“How about I walk you in, ma’am,” Sergeant Blake offered gruffly, and I inclined my head, caught the crook of his arm in my hand, and we headed for the steps as he proceeded to get very red in the face.

“I do apologize for the trouble, Sergeant,” I told him kindly. “I generally have very little free time, and prefer to arrive and depart from my appointments on schedule.”

“It’s no trouble, ma’am!” he reassured me eagerly, scowling grandly at the media trying to get in the way, suddenly aware he was probably going to get his mug plastered all over the papers, and enjoying every second of it. “Though those worms inside are going to jump all over you for pulling this, sure as shootin’!” he murmured out of the side of his mouth.

“Worms is most apt, considering who I serve, Sergeant,” I half-laughed softly. He thought about that, and had to valiantly hide a snigger behind his stern face.

“I got a boy who served in Philly, might not have made it if you and those Redshore Marines didn’t show up a couple years ago. You give ‘em what you have to,” he growled under his breath.

“Well, Sergeant, I expect it isn’t going to be pretty,” I replied lightly, keeping my own calm face for the cameras. “Thank you for both your service and your common sense.”

He puffed up so much he might have fallen over if I hadn’t steadied him. “My wife is going to be so mad at me!” he confessed as we entered the Capitol Building.

“I can leave a kiss on your cheek to really rile her up if you like,” I replied in a low voice, and he would have tripped and fallen right over if my TK hadn’t caught his feet and kept us on pace.

“Now, don’t tempt an old mage like that, miss!” he huffed without exaggeration as we neared the doors to the hearing chamber.

I just laughed, bent over and kissed his cheek for him as I let go of his arm, and he wavered in place as a lot of cameras snapped at the moment. “The mark will last all day, don’t wipe it, and make sure your wife kisses it tonight,” my Voice whispered in his ear.

His gloved hand reached up to touch the white lips tingling on his cheek that weren’t going away, and he couldn’t keep the smile off his face, despite trying really, really hard.