Chapter 268 - Headquarters

Nate sat across from Aisling, a piece of torn paper between them lying flat on the table. “Looks like it’s pretty far away,” commented Nate.

Nate sat across from Aisling, a piece of torn paper between them lying flat on the table.

“Looks like it’s pretty far away,” commented Nate.

“It is. Not quite the opposite side of Galle but still… a long way. Will you build a portal to get yourself there? Assuming you’ll answer the call. You will, won’t you?” asked Aisling, her voice tinged with worry.

“We will. And no, not a portal. It would take me too long to refine the coordinates for a portal stone without having visited the other side. Though if I had the time I would do it, just so you had a direct path to the Adventurer’s Guild Main Headquarters. Even if activating would be expensive.”

Aisling waved away his concern, “Another time perhaps, when we can afford your services.”

Nate looked hurt for a moment but Aisling continued, “You know I don’t mean it like that. You are right. I would love a portal to Headquarters. I would love it so much that I can’t hope to balance it with your… restrictions. So, maybe another time. If not a portal, then how will you get there in time? The Lord-Prefect was clear on the timeline.”

“You mean Wulfgar, The Bleeding Axe?” asked Nate with a cheeky smile.

“How do you even know that name?” grunted Aisling. “Don’t tell me. I can feel it. That pressure. How does it not drive you insane?”

“Why do you think I have been hiding in here?” countered Nate. “Anyway, yeah, we can get there in the time he wants, assuming Kiri is finished with the Dungeon in the next few days. Going to come see us off?”

“Depends,” hedged Aisling. “How long do you think you’ll be gone?”

Nate knew Aisling meant how long would they be gone handling this request for the Lord-Prefect of the Adventurer’s Guild. But the fact was, he wouldn’t be back in Etrua before they left for the Heartlands. And who knew how long he would be there. It could easily be years.

“A long time. Possibly years.”

Aisling nodded at his words, though a sad smile crept onto her face.

“That is often the lot of Adventurers. Well, you will be missed until you return. You will return, right?”

“Of course,” answered Nate easily. “This is my home. I’ll always make my way back here.”

And he meant it.

“Then it’s not goodbye. It’s just see you later. I’ll try to come wave you off, but no promises. The Etruan branch of the Guild is an absolute mess. Fortunately, I set aside a little longer for this meeting. What can you tell me about what you’ve been working on?”

Nate smiled and spent the next hour having a surface level discussion with Aisling about everything from the woes besetting the Guild, to his lacklustre lovelife. Even now, his mentor had a few pieces of advice to give, but ultimately she had agreed with his plan to keep Britt at arms length for now. There was no reasonable future with her so long as Reciprocity hung between them. The power dynamics of any relationship he might have would just cause problems. Maybe some people were into that, but he wasn’t, and he doubted Britt would be either. Especially given her Stalwart nature.

The next few days passed in a blur. Kiri made her triumphant return from the Etruan Legendary Dungeon. According to his sister the experience had been good practice for what was to come, if a tad boring. A small crowd had gathered to see them off and were arrayed outside the front of the house. Luc stood with Deverell on one side of him, Hildi on the other, who was then flanked by Morgane and a few guards. Kiri was off to the side hugging her mother and father. Nate had already bid Rania and Jorge farewell the night before at a quiet family dinner.

With everything prepared, Nate activated Conceptual Spatial Authority and Spatial Doors. Space rippled at his will, mana bleeding out of him. But it wasn’t enough to do what he wanted. The Skills themselves were limited in what they could accomplish. Adding a Space rune to the mix, he manipulated his own Spatial Door, expanding it till he could draw it down over his entire house. Like a whale in the deep, the spatial ripple swallowed his house, placing it back in his own miniature world.

He could hear the gasps and confusion from behind him, but he wasn’t done yet. The spatial ripple remained in place. Nate reached inside it, as easy as reaching into a cupboard, and pulled forth his ship. The anti-gravity runes activated instantly as Frick appeared by the control panel, keeping the ship steady with a practised hand.

Nate turned to give a last wave before he floated aboard using a Gravity Control rune he embedded into his Regalia. Kiri simply jumped, clearing the five or so metres to land aboard the ship. With a last wave, they rose into the sky before anyone could start asking questions.

*************

Luc was smirking ear to ear as he intentionally ignored Hildi tugging at him.

“He has a flying ship?” asked Morgane, her voice full of exasperation.

“He does. Good day for flying too.”

The weather was in fact perfect, with a gentle breeze coming in off the ocean and a smattering of fluffy white clouds above that kept the sun's rays from becoming overwhelming.

“I want one,” the ex-Princess stated in a demanding tone.

“Can you afford to run it?” Luc wondered out loud, his eyes tracking the flying ship until it disappeared into the clouds above.

“I’m the Minister for Etrua, of course I can! …Can’t I?”

Luc’s grin got bigger. Hearing Morgane’s lack of certainty was like a balm to seeing the kid flying off into the distance. Nate had only been back for a month and a half, yet he’d somehow managed to accelerate the learning of the Emporium’s Runecrafting school by at least six months. Jacque had been chewing his ear off about a whole line of new products, slamming down a stack of papers for the laymen before vanishing into his personal laboratory all the while muttering about resonance structures. Whatever they were. Luc had no idea. They hadn’t been covered in Weber’s Laws either. Luc knew. He’d checked.

Hildi’s swats had gotten progressively more violent and he finally decided to put Morgane out of her misery.

“By the Nine Hells woman! Leave off!” he grunted at Hildi, avoiding the latest strike at his arm. “Fine. Alright? Nate asked me the same thing when I said I wanted one. He was pretty dubious that I could afford the mana cost for upkeep and travel and I own a reasonable part of the Artist’s Emporium. You know? The wealthiest business in Asmuisil and Etrua. Probably Gashana soon as well.”

Luc had said the last bit as a clear misdirect. The fact that he’d been unsubtle about it didn’t stop Morgane from latching onto it.

“What do you know? He wouldn’t tell me anything, nor would that little blue goblin of his! Just something about revolution.”

Luc smiled at the now empty lot. He’d have to spend some money to have the walls raised around it. Sealed off for Nate and Kiri when they returned. As for Morgane’s question, well, he could answer. Nate had given him permission to share what had happened after he had left Etrua, and since the little artist that left a veritable trail of gold in his wake was gone, Luc was free to tell Morgane. But, where was the fun in that.

“Hildi for a week.”

“...what?”

“You never give her a holiday, and I haven’t had one in… a couple of months. I want Hildi for a week.”

“And if I and Hildi agree, you’ll tell me what he did?” Morgane asked dubiously.

“Of course.”

Luc smirked at her just to annoy the woman.

“And you do actually know what he did?” asked Morgane.

“I know everything that happened. I know what they tried to do, what he did in response, and how it all played out as though I was there to witness the whole thing.”

“How?”

“Oh, Nate was experimenting with a moving painting. It was quite good actually. He called it something else though. Movie. That was it. Sounds like he just took the n and the g off of moving to me. But that’s besides the point. Do we have a deal?”

Morgane looked at Hildi who gave the ex-Princess a salacious grin and a nod.

“Fine. We have an agreement. What did he do?”

“He made an item that removes Soul Bindings and then left it on the ground for them. A team of Nameless and at least one Binder were freed from their Soul Bindings and have fled back to Gashana with the item still in their possession.”

Morgane went white.

“Revolution… the little goblin was being serious? The slaves of Gashana will try to rise up, and if they gain a foothold, it could be a war between the cities of Gashana!”

Morgane was already pacing back and forth. Luc decided that was the best moment to put his arm around Hildi and start walking away.

“Hey! Come back! We need to make plans!” yelled the Minister of Etrua at his back.

“Can’t,” called out Luc without turning around. “We’re on holiday! See you in a week!”

He ripped open a rift before Morgane could respond, headed for the harbour where his own, more mundane, ship awaited. Or as Frick had called it, his love boat. He had also made a comment about the motion of the ocean but Luc wasn’t worried about that.

*************

Nate relaxed on the foredeck with Kiri next to him. They had been flying for almost a week and should be arriving at their destination in the next few hours. He’d expected the mana cost to be higher than it was to power the flying ship. While still mana expensive, the quality of the runes and the materials they were made from resulted in the entire structure being an excellent conductor of mana. 

The missing factor was of course the ambient mana. Galle had a much lower concentration of ambient mana, which meant that it reinforced the innate Concepts of Reality to a lesser extent. The end result was that his Gravity Control runes actually required less mana than they had in the Wild Realms to make the ship fly.

An important consideration for the future, as Nate recognised that he might actually need to make a flying ship for Luc. Or at least, design one for Jacque to make. Who knows though, he thought. Luc might just get Jacque to try making one without me. They have all the Sigils needed for it. One of Frick’s tasks had been to copy all of the new Sigils, including the Divine-tier ones, into the Sigil Tome in the Third Floor Vault of the Artist’s Emporium. Jacque and Luc were the only ones with access and Nate would love to see anyone try to break through the upgrades he had put on the place. Making a failed break-in attempt teleport a person into a runecrafted cell was a small stroke of genius as far as he was concerned. Maybe he shouldn’t have let Frick decorate the room though or at least looked at it after Frick was done.

The trip itself had been well spent. The beautiful sight of the land and sea rushing by below would never fail to take his breath away. After all, what was an artist that couldn’t stop to appreciate the natural beauty of the world. On top of that, Nate had been experimenting with a few new runes. Kiri had opted in to assist him, if only so she could try and Endure them. 

At first Nate had been hesitant about using them on Kiri. But after the fifth comment about how she would make sure she lined up a few crones for him in the Heartlands he had relented. Frick’s cackles hadn’t helped.

Of course they hadn’t gone completely unharassed. A flock of second evolution birds had decided they looked like a tasty treat. Frick and a smattering of cannons had dealt with them, their Orbs added to the growing pile of wealth they were accumulating. While they might not be worth a lot in the Heartlands, they would definitely be worth something.

Then a gryphon, not unlike the one they fought in the Dungeon with Null and Britt, decided to try and pick off Kiri. His sister recreated her original takedown off the same beast, riding it into the ground below. They’d decided to keep the entire carcass in case someone at the Adventurers Guild Headquarters would buy it. The feathers and claws seemed useful and the beast had been a level ninety, so it wasn’t a complete waste. 

Frick had complained endlessly that Kiri had ruined the gryphon's head in the gravity-assisted kill and that he couldn’t mount the mess it had turned into onto their ship. That had given Nate an idea and he had used Multi Conceptual Material Shaping to carve a small dragon spreading her wings onto the prow of their ship. Kiri had loved the little rendition of Luci and made a good argument to name the ship after the baby Solar Dragon. In the end they had settled on the ‘Solaris’. Nate was happy with both the name and the addition to the ship's prow.  

Finally they could see a mountain range rising in the distance. According to the map they had been given, the Guild Headquarters was housed within its snowy domain. Guiding the ship into the range they were quickly surrounded by mountains on all sides that rose into the sky, their peaks hidden among the clouds.

Nate frowned, “The ambient mana got even weaker.”

Kiri glanced around, “Something to do with the mountains?”

Nate spent two points of Divine Energy on Conceptual Sight of the Runic Artist, expanding the size of his sphere of awareness while increasing the summoning range. With his sphere now covering a diameter of four-hundred-and-fifty metres and the ability to summon it at over six-kilometres away, he quickly scanned the mountains.

He let out a low whistle.

“What?” asked Kiri.

“That’s a fuck-load of Dungeons. The whole place is seeded with them. Must be over a hundred.”

Kiri shrugged, “Suppose that’s one way to control the ambient mana in an area.”

Flying around the side of one of the mountains they finally spotted their destination. Nestled halfway up one of the slopes was a small city. The city itself seemed to be surrounded by walls of stone and had paved streets of the same material. The buildings however were all wood with snow covered rooftops. It gave the city a warm appeal despite the chill of the air. At the heart of the winding streets and at the highest point sat a huge lodge with over six stories. The Adventurer’s Guild Headquarters.

Nate nodded to Frick who brought them in slowly. Below them there were people in the streets rugged up in furs and hardy clothing, pointing up at the ship as it sailed over them through the cool mountain air. Nate could sense them all within his sphere, able to take in a good portion of the city. Even the Headquarters itself was no barrier to his senses. Well, mostly. A few rooms that might have been vaults and the top floor seemed able to keep him out. For now, anyway.

As the flying ship settled down in the courtyard outside of the Guild Headquarters, Nate and Kiri leaped down.

A large man with a bushy, black beard walked out of the doors of the Headquarters, glancing at the flying ship as he came to stand before them.

“So, you two are the new Gems Wulfgar’s been barking about? Look like a couple of toothpicks to me.”

The man sneered, placing a heavy hand on Kiri’s shoulder. Then the man was flying through the air, launched into the nearby mountainside.

A second later Wulfgar was exiting the building, “You came! Good! Good!”

The sound of falling rocks and a man's angry yelling echoed across the mountainside. Wulfgar turned to look at the noise before glancing back at the pair knowingly.

“I see you’ve met my youngest son. Feel free to knock some sense into his dense head. Seven Heavens know I have failed at it. Come. Come! Tonight, we feast!”

“Son? I didn’t think you had any children. You know?” asked Kiri, making a very clear point towards Wulfgar’s balls.

“Not of my loins, lass. Son of my heart. An Adventurer through and through, just like the two of you! Now come! We have much to discuss and plan and such things are done best with plenty of meat and mead!”

Nate glanced at Kiri and shrugged at her before they followed the old Lesser Divine into his home. Tonight they would eat, drink and make merry. Tomorrow they would plan. Then, they would go cut out the cancer that had kept other Lesser Divines from rising on Galle.