Surviving The Fourth Calamity-Chapter 728 - 527: Suren Casually Giving Away Silverfire
But these things will have to wait until tomorrow.
Hill looked up and watched for a while longer.
It seemed that Suren really liked Agleya, behaving very properly in her presence, almost like a dignified and gentle noble mature lady.
Lansendel’s peacock was eating and glancing at her, completely unable to understand Silvermoon’s sudden composure.
Pride welled up inside Hill; his Agleya was indeed worthy of everyone’s cherish.
He was also relieved, if it were not for Suren pretending to be serious, then what Lansendel failed to do, she would not think herself incapable of.
At the very least, she would try to see if amplifying emotional illusion spells could get Hill to agree to give her the oil painting. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
This calm period should last until the end, Hill certainly did not want any disturbance at this time, attracting Suren to break her and AO’s agreement.
Hill said, "We also need to throw in some live animals like cattle and sheep. It’s better to base it on their food consumption, not to have them everywhere. If they want to eat, they have to go look for it.
Go to the merchants in Deepwater City and Neverwinter and gather more livestock, if someone comes from Baldur’s Gate, we want those too!
Welcome all, the price doesn’t matter. As long as they are brought to us, we will take them all."
Hill couldn’t help but snort coldly: it would be best if they could flip the meat prices several times over when they go back with gold coins.
"If we stockpile too much..." List asked hesitantly, "should we send them to that breeding farm of the Dragon People?"
"Terry and the other could eat more than six cows in a day," Hill said with a smile, "They eat less usually because they don’t move much. With a treasure maze, they only worry about moving too little and getting hungrier.
Moreover, we can’t really receive that much at the start, it’s not as quick as merchant convoys to drive livestock from those big cities in The North.
Velara Malendith may even arrive before the merchants do.
Don’t worry, just gather everything well, and if we really get too much later on, herd them to the mountains.
If the Dragon People want them, they can catch their own, don’t deliver it to them."
"Do we need to buy anything else?" List followed up, "Staple foods, fish, and some preservable vegetables and fruits."
Hill waved his hand: "Those who offend me are the meat-eaters; don’t harm those who can only nibble on bread. If there are some luxurious meats and fruits, then they can be gathered too."
"Alright, sir, then I will go and communicate with the merchants," List said, bowing slightly and vanishing into the air.
Hill looked up in the direction of the Sky Garden.
Before the attic, between the two towers, was supposed to be a place for guards to patrol, but Hill didn’t need that and simply turned it into a small garden where one could sit, complete with a winding waterfall and stream.
Agleya really liked it there, so Hill planted mostly light-colored flowers and cute little shrubs that little girls preferred.
Suren seemed to like it too, sitting happily by the pretty openwork round table eating cream fruit.
What surprised Hill was that Lansendel actually liked it too.
Hill thought that he who always preferred something bright and dazzling would like a place that’s more resplendent with gold!
He didn’t expect him to also like this kind of light and fresh style.
The beautiful bird wandered among the light pink, light yellow, and light blue flowers next to the stream, nibbling on fruit while spreading its golden tail feathers, as if searching in the water’s reflection for a clump of flowers that matched itself better.
Holding his pocket watch, Hill solemnly used a time-showing spell, checking the time, and found that there were ten minutes left until Suren absolutely had to leave.
He let out a silent breath, dealing with Lansendel who still had some rules to follow would be much easier.
Although Lansendel was capricious, if you explained things to him clearly, he could understand, as long as you didn’t offend him, he would actually abide by it.
As for Suren, she would elegantly listen to all the rules, but the frightening reality: you say your bit, and then I decide what I heard.
She would translate a set of words she wanted to hear on her own, and then say that you were the one who told her.
Sometimes, Hill felt that if it weren’t for the World Will of Toril favoring this Goddess of the Moon, she would have been the first goddess to fall.
But there was no helping it, Suren favored by Fate, could cause any trouble and get away with it, continuing to live her carefree days.
All reduced to lower rank strength, only able to seek protection under the red-haired Shuni, but Suren could return to Intermediate Divine Power amidst the chaos, dust off her bottom and go off on her own.
After some time, Shaer, with all her cunning, made the crazed Cyric kill Mystra, and as a result, Suren went straight back to being a strong deity.
The benefits Shaer got were actually less than what she herself lost.
The reason Hill held such awe for Suren was because he was very aware of what it felt like when the World Will favored someone.
That feeling where everything you wish comes true, where I feel as great as the heaven and earth, that smooth sailing made Hill shudder with fear; sometimes, he even thought that he could get away with tricking the God of Time and Space.
It was also this feeling that made Hill particularly reticent in the last few years in Teraxil, not daring to do anything, trying to speak as little as possible.
He understood the World Will’s favor for him, but it truly was a bit too much.
Hill insisted on leaving Teraxil to travel the outer world because he did not want to end up living a mindless, heartless life like Suren’s.
In those last ten minutes, Hill saw Agleya calling out to List, who then brought out a small basket of milk fruits for Suren and gave the goddess a small box filled with pearls of various colors.
Suren, who readily accepted the gifts, took off the circlet she was wearing on her head with one hand and lifted her cup with the other.
The mead mixed with milk fruit juice had been infused with Moonfire by her, turning into a glowing, milky-white liquid that flowed like silk.
Suren laughingly poured the liquid over the circlet.
The circlet, made of light green grapevine, immediately turned silvery white, gently emitting a warm radiance.
Suren placed the circlet on Agleya’s head, then giggled and turned into dancing light dust.
She was gone.
But the countless specks of light she left behind danced throughout the small garden, falling on flowers, bushes, and even the stream.
This garden could henceforth be called ’Tears of Suren,’ where every petal and leaf could be made into the finest healing potions in Toril.
Even if one was not on the brink of death due to severe injuries, just staying in this garden was enough to recover, without the need for any potions.
Hill looked on, dumbfounded—wasn’t Suren being a bit too generous with her affections?
Luckily, this garden was at the top of the Floating Castle and not just anyone could feel it.
The Great Peacock, saddened, dropped the berries in front of him, and Hill could guess what was on its mind.
Lansendel, aspiring to be the Sun God, barely had any healing spells, not to mention being compared with Suren who liberally uses Moonfire.
His so-called banishment of evil is actually a complete annihilation from the soul to the flesh, not the same thing at all.
So, if the Lord of Dawn wanted to give someone a gift, he really had to think it through, given he seemed better at creating bombs.
However, Lansendel quickly cheered up—Suren had left, after all~
The matter of gifts could be thought of at the last minute; happiness was what should be pursued now.
His tail feathers instantly opened, and his wings started flapping, as he beautifully flew into the loft to continue dreaming with his paintings.
Hill walked out of the study and saw the faint white light beginning to show on the horizon, then suddenly turned his head in disbelief for a glance at the loft.
Lansendel had gone to sleep before sunrise!
’Watch every sunrise and make sure your actions yield the best and greatest rewards. Stay away from negativity until life reaches its end. And after each setback, there comes another successful dawn.’
Were these not the teachings of the Lord of Dawn himself, and did he no longer care for his own doctrine?
Hill’s understanding of the deities of Toril became a bit clearer, perhaps because the two he had encountered were both Ancient Gods with a lower dependency on faith, hence their more whimsical behavior?
That was the only way he could console himself.
Then, taking advantage of the arrival of dawn, he went to build a forest maze for Terry.
During Hill’s bustle, Silverywing did not even manage to open the door.
Even Hill found that he had reverted to his original form, perching on the top layer of the Dragon Nest that opened automatically, seemingly ready to abandon his son and flee at any moment.
The Silver Dragon’s reaction was a bit excessive, and he almost recognized Suren at a glance.
He must have felt the brunt of a blow from Suren to be so sensitive.
Hill recalled the stories from The North; Silverywing had been mated with the Silvermoon Dragon Queen for over 1000 years, so he indeed could have witnessed Suren’s grace firsthand.
Velara Malendith probably felt the same.
He sighed, working hard to build the maze tall and deep, then unhesitatingly inserted several Illusion Magic Arrays into it.
Some spots were prone to flaws and needed an Illusion Technique to cover them up.
Although Hill was not particularly skilled at Illusion Techniques, he was quite good at deploying Illusion Magic Arrays, as he just needed to remember the nodes; he had plenty of blueprints — the Goddess of the Silvermoon from Teraxil gave him many interesting ones to use.
There was no need to tweak the content; he only had to change the protagonist of the Illusion Array to Suren, and he knew some Silvermoon-type spells anyway.
But he had to be careful to change the weapon into a heavy scepter with a head adorned with four crescent-shaped blades.
He initially thought of using Tyr, but then discovered that Silverywing was more afraid of Suren.
That worked out well; Hill smiled as he arranged the treasure spots in the maze, relieved that he did not have to contend with creating such a stern, serious image.
Chaotic and unpredictable thoughts? Hill was quite adept at that, guaranteed to make these Giant Dragons retreat at the sight of a woman with snow-white hair.
Hill carefully placed larger pieces of Mithril after the Illusion Segment to comfort their wounded hearts.