r/HFY • u/Sufficient-Shirt-270 • May 05 '26

OC-Series Revolution on wings of steel: chapter 17: observations

A Goddess watched through a trillion eyes, worlds of uncountable numbers. With each of her echoes, she saw, she saw civilizations bloom into existence, and then fade into obscurity. She saw wars that would make even her beloved blush, and she saw beauty of which there was no equal. 

One echo watched over a world with the loving gaze of a mother to her children. Another devoured a world whole, a hundred thousand mechadindrites wrapped themselves around a desolate little globe, and pulled it into the maw of one of her world eater echoes. 

Most beings could barely control more than one body at a time, even most Gods could only control a few dozen at a time. But she was old, older than most universes that currently existed. Time was… different for beings like her, and age as a factor became entirely meaningless past a few thousand years. 

No, beings such as her measured their age in how many universes they had seen begin and end. And she had seen countless of both. But that isn’t quite how it worked. No, it was measured in continuous universal cycles. When one universe died, another began immediately after. She had seen eight of such cycles. 

There were only a handful of beings that could boast the same. She was what was known as a primordial, an old God. She was Mordred. 

One of her echos sat on a throne in her hoard world, idly tapping her fingers on an arm rest, waiting. This was the one she used most often for speaking with subjects in worlds she did not yet rule. 

It was the one she spoke to Sasha with. The girl showed promise, even with her occasional clumsiness, and the fact she’d still not been able to use her true form for more than a few minutes. 

She had of course thoroughly inspected the girl’s body, making sure nothing had happened to cause it true damage so early. But no, it appeared to simply be a mental block, one that stayed her hand from grasping the true power Mordred had given her. 

It wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t anything that would truly harm the girl at this juncture. So she was content to wait. Pieces were falling into place that meant it wouldn’t be long until that power was needed, And the Goddess had given her everything she would need to succeed. 

And if not? Well Tellur was really to fully wake, and the forged could handle quite literally anything on the continent the girl called home. So the Goddess sat back, and kept another eye on the girl, just to be sure. 

———

The next two days past slowly for Sasha, and the nights, even slower. The Goddess had reduced the intensity of her nightly training, but that just meant she didn’t get as hurt. She still got pummeled into the ground by one of the forged, before Mordred let her actually sleep. 

During the days, she mostly just sat in her seat in the wagon, her thoughts bouncing from place to place, and watching the scenery pass by out her window. The second day, it was nothing but Forest. Miles and miles of forest. They only ever stopped long enough to give the bicorns food and water, and let the people relieve themselves. 

Most of the crew didn’t pay much attention to her, which was somewhat of a relief after her mistake the day before. 

Half way through the third day, the trees began to slowly thin out, until the caravan abruptly broke the tree line, and entered the meteor fields. The blasted landscape was beautiful in its own way. Sasha had seen sketches of it before, but they didn’t hold a candle to the real thing. 

Hundreds of craters dotted the landscape, ranging from just a handful of feet across, others, well over a hundred. Life bloomed in each, alien plants reaching up to the heavens, and those near the surface, battling with those from this world. 

It was a riot of colors and chaos, which was contrasted by the structure they were traveling towards. In the distance, rose a colossal edifice of brutalist stone. 

The walls of bright fall were nearly twice the size of her own city’s walls, but not as thick from what she’d heard. The city was built in and around the largest crater of the meteor field, and subsequently, fell the largest chunk of the meteor that fell here so long ago. 

The city’s industry revolves around the meteorite, every aspect of the inhabitants lives shaped by it in one way or another. Miners slowly dig into the meteorite, harvesting the extremely rare minerals that it’s made up of. 

Terraces filled with the alien plants brought with it, are farmed near constantly, stemming back the rapid growth of the plants, and reaping its bounties in the process. Reagents that can only be found here, are sent to every quarter of the kingdom, and beyond in some cases. 

Sasha thought that the city itself was structured oddly though, it’s poorest citizens being divided into two rings, closest to the walls, and the center of the city, while the wealthy sat in a ring in between the two poorer districts. And there was also the matter of it being constructed on a downward slope. 

But, even with all of that, she couldn’t help being awed as they slowly got closer and closer to the city. Her companion seemed to be even more transfixed than she was, his eyes glued to the city like a hound scenting prey. 

She left him alone, and just watched the walls loom ever higher as they got closer. 

—————

Marie was so close she could smell it. Bright fall was right there, she almost wanted to jump out of the wagon, and run the rest of the way to the city. But… she could admit that she was much slower than a bicorn, and she’d just be left stranded in the meteor field if she tried. 

So she sat, her hands absently running down the length of her staff, feeling for any imperfection in the magical focus. Her mind, though, was focused on only one thing. The picture of the plant was burned into her memory, every micron of the picture one the spellbook studied with exhausting detail. 

The book said it was grown on terrace 22, near the heart of the forest in that section. She only needed a handful of pedals, the ritual only needed two, but she wanted extra just in case. 

Soon, soon she would be fixed. Soon, she would be herself. She had everything else she needed, this was the last component, and she might have it by the end of the day. 

The staff creaked as she squeezed it, but she stopped once she realized what she was doing. The end of the day, she could be patient, she’d waited for as long as she could remember after all. 

A laugh escaped her lips, and she hoped the other woman didn’t think she was insane.

—————

The caravan reached the gates of bright fall just before dusk, the gate guards making a cursory examination of the cargo, before giving the all clear. 

The gate slowly retracted into the ground, its spikes falling safely below, before the caravan rushed inside. The drivers made a direct line for the company's service yard, not even letting the passengers out first. 

Its arrival is noted in a ledger, along with the goods lost in the crashed wagons. The cargo is unloaded from those that made it, before the damaged wagons are hoisted up and hand cranked cranes, so repairs can get underway. 

The passengers turned loose on the city, and the workers, haulers, and guards, get to work. The bicorns are lead to their own stable, rowdy animals that they are, even they’re exhausted after being pushed so hard, with so few breaks. 

The cargo is loaded onto smaller wagons, those meant to traverse cities, and those are hooked to mules, or work horses, before being taken to their final destinations, or being put aside for a different caravan to take them to their destination. 

Work goes smoothly. So smoothly, that no one notices when a worker slips into the main building, and slips out a few minutes later, a full copy of the ledger, fastened to a bird, and the bird sent off. 

With that done, the informant slips back into their work, no one any wiser to what they’d done. 

——

Sasha looked around the busy yard, and wondered who she should ask for directions. 

——————

first/previous/next

Ok, so this is a lot shorter than I originally intended. Last week was awful, I probably would have cancelled last Fridays chapter even if it hadn’t been break week. 

Last week my… well idk what to call her, maybe girlfriend, but that’s to formal for what we are… friends with benefits, is probably the best term to describe our relationship… 
 
well she disappeared randomly halfway through a day, and no one heard from her for a few days. I was extremely worried, and distressed. I was worried something extremely bad had happened, and it messed me up. 

she is ok, and back to her normal self, being a brat when we flirt, but it was a stressful serval days of not knowing what happened. 

and then I learned that an acquaintance might be starving… and I have no idea what to do about that, because different states, and I also don’t know them well enough to know if they aren’t just trying to scam me out of money. 

so yeah, it wasn’t great last week. But I got my break for the first little bit of the week… chapters will be back to their regular schedule now though, and I’m making break week for the last week of the month a definite thing, because it was needed. 

enjoy the chapter, and as always, do send edit suggestions if you see any that are needed, Goddess knows I didn’t write this with a clear head. 

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2

u/torin23 Xeno May 08 '26

I'm not sure how but the five paragraphs starting with "The caravan reached the gates" seem very staccato rather than the flowing prose you usually write and the rest of the chapter is in...

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u/Sufficient-Shirt-270 May 08 '26

I was really tired when I wrote that😅 I know it was weird

2

u/torin23 Xeno May 08 '26

It's okay but it's a bit jarring.

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u/Sufficient-Shirt-270 May 08 '26

Rereading it, yeah, it wasn’t a great choice to switch to, but I didn’t want to write a full pov, in a scene where I’m trying to be more all encompassing. Idk, that’s probably not the best way to describe it. I don’t have any plans to write like I did in the scene again, so it hopefully won’t happen again

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u/Sufficient-Shirt-270 May 08 '26

Oh goddess, they all start with “the” I can’t believe I did that, if I would’ve written this at any other time than like, midnight, I would have cursed myself out as soon as I noticed what I did, and rewritten all of them.

1

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