EG Book 7 Chapter 11

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

Busy, busy week. My boss’s boss’s boss’s boss was in town to talk to my team and examine a new site we’re building up, and my boss’s boss and boss’s boss’s boss stayed an extra day to talk about strategic plans to move the program forward. As one of the engineering lead, I got pulled into these discussions, which was really cool, but left me with little time this week. Anyway, I’m still way ahead on chapters, so y’all get another one today!

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

The next morning, I woke up in a pile of lounge pillows. My head was on Vaya’s lap, and she was stretched out over Jamila’s stomach. Aleks was sleeping on my right thigh, and my leg was numb. Huh, I guess I can still have body parts fall asleep, I laughed internally, then sent a tiny stream of Aether into my leg along the nerves. With a bit of effort, I was able to flex the muscle to allow my blood to flow better.

I thought back to the previous night, the party, and then the aftermath where Vaya, Jamila, and Hanna healed all of us from the impending hangover. Gunther was disappointed I wouldn’t show him the flying device, but I told him it was Librarian Narwan’s rule so he didn’t push it. “I couldn’t race you anyway,” I told him. “It’s designed for cargo capacity, not speed.”

“Ah, bummer,” he complained. “Fine. More (drink).”

I grinned while remembering, then grimaced. Gotta pee, I thought, looking down at my leg. I very, very carefully formed a thin film of Air Aether, my power responding easier than ever before, and put it under Aleks’s head. I used a second one to compress my leg down, and gently slid it sideways. I moved a pillow from under my back to under her head, and let her down slowly before carefully sitting up.

I looked around, surprised at the pile of people. Jon, Bridget, Xiao, and Lilianna lay in a group, while Hanna and Milenna spooned off to the side. Ming was sleeping in an awkward half-crescent, and the slightly open door to the kitchen informed me that Lea was cooking. She’d taken a liking to the culinary arts during our trip, learning how to purify and enhance Beast meat and Aether herbs.

I stepped around my friends and into my room, silently laughing at our silliness for not going back to our rooms that were only a dozen meters away. I quickly familiarized myself with the bathroom, then moved over to the kitchen where I found Lea frying eggs that gave off a slight hint of Aether. “Good morning,” I said, closing the door behind me. “Need any help?”

“Sure,” she said, then gestured with her left hand, which was holding a whisk, at a large, metal door. “Can you get out a kilo of Earthen Boar bacon? Should be a eye level on the right.”

“Got it,” I said, then went and opened the door. A blast of cold air, which I felt more as a knowledge that, ‘hey this is cold’, without any physiological reaction to the near-freezing temperature. I was surprised to find that the refrigerated area was the size of a walk-in closet, not just a normal fridge. Five shelves ran across each side and around the back, and they were all piled high with meat, fruit, and vegetables. I searched through the fourth shelf, the one at eye level, and found a box of bacon. I separated out about a kilogram of it, and brought it to Lea.

A streamer of Aether took it from me, and quickly separated it into strips and onto a pan on the stovetop. “Now, in the pantry, grab twelve Ground Potatoes from the bin on the floor, wash them, and put them in that bowl,” she gestured at a large, steel bowl that floated next to the sink.

I spent the next twenty minutes fetching items, and washing produce. “Is there anything else I can do to help?” I asked once I finished the most recent task.

“Would you allow anyone to help you make a pill?” She asked, flipping the hash-browns she’d made from the potatoes. Metal Aether from a peak Condensation level gatherer cut level two Aether Plants like a hot knife through butter, letting her expertly dice the potatoes in seconds.

I realized, watching her cook, that I’d been neglecting some of my capabilities while preparing ingredients. “Well,” I answered her, “only if they’d been trained on what I was doing.”

“I feel the same way,” she said. “Now, I do not need any more assistance.”

“I’ll go make the table,” I said, laughing while shaking my head.

“You do that,” Lea answered, and I could feel her grin from behind her.

I exited the kitchen twenty minutes after entering it to find Ming, Aleks, and Hanna groggily sitting up at the quiet click of the door closing. “Go perform your morning ablutions,” I told them softly, “Lea is cooking breakfast right now.”

Aleks got up and gave me a hug, then stumbled towards her room. I tuned the other’s movement out, using Earth streamers of Aether to pull the table pieces out of their storage location and insert the legs into their slots. It only took me a minute to put the enormous table together. The only suspect part of setting up was sticking a chair such that, when Jon sat up, he’d run into it. I quietly chuckled at that, then found where we’d stored plates and silverware in the cabinets that now lined the walls between the doors. Each cabinet was half a meter thick, and filled literally every centimeter of the available wall space, giving us a massive amount of storage.

Even my room had new storage, as we used as much space as we could to fit in foodstuffs and purified water. Water generated with Aether was great for cleaning off, but ended up only mildly satisfying for quenching your thirst, so we needed to carry some with us for drinking. Once we ran low, we’d refill by purifying sea water, but that wasn’t super safe, so we wanted to delay it as much as we could.

“We are returning,” Sia told me, his voice clearer than it had ever been. “The others learned a great deal, and we are ready to support the group as best as we are able. We will arrive in three hours.”

“I can’t wait to see ya, bud,” I sent back, grinning. Over the next ten minutes, everyone else slowly stirred awake, and then stumbled over to the bedrooms, or more importantly their bathrooms, to finish the getting up process.

About halfway through the process of everyone waking up, Lea opened the door to the kitchen with four large platters of food balancing on Aether tendrils. “Food is ready,” she said. “Thank you, Aiden, for setting the table.”

“Thank you for cooking,” I said. “It smells delicious. The Bonds are on their way back, so we should be able to leave this afternoon.”

“Awesome,” she said, “I cannot wait to explore that ruin we found on the way here.”

“I’m pretty certain we’re supposed to head straight home,” I told her.

“Do not be a fuddy duddy,” she said. “An extra day or two to get back will not kill anyone. Come on, ancient ruins from the same timeframe as the M’Zee people? Maybe there is a Geist tower there. Did you not say that we have a technique on gathering Geist that would work better with a source?”

“Maybe,” I said. “Let’s talk about it with everyone, especially Knight Kaminski and Librarian Narwan.”

“Pfft,” she said, “better to ask forgiveness than permission.”

“We’ll see,” I said.

“We will see what?” Ming asked, sitting next to Lea. I pretended not to notice him grabbing her hand under the table, knowing that he was very uncomfortable with public displays of affection.

“Let’s talk about that once everyone is out,” I said. “I don’t want to repeat myself over and over again.”

“Of course,” Ming said, overly gracious as always.

We waited silently for the next five minutes, as everyone filed out. Jamila sat to my left, and Aleks to my right. Vaya sat across from me, and winked while gesturing for me to grab both their hands. I was still getting used to having three girlfriends, and still terrified that I would hurt one or more of them by being an idiot. Ming and Lea served everyone once we were all here, and then Lea stood and said, “Light and Darkness, without you we would be lost. Thank you for your blessing, and thank you for your children’s sacrifice. Guide our lives, and let us do good to those around. Light up the correct path, and hide those we should not follow. Light and Darkness.”

“Light and Darkness,” Jamila, Ming, Jon, and Milenna echoed. I belatedly joined in.

“Thank you for cooking,” Aleks told Lea, then bit into her eggs. “This is really good.”

“You are welcome, Princess,” Lea said, bowing in her seat.

“None of that now,” Aleks said, then blushed and smacked my arm, “You have corrupted my speech. No bowing, not here. Here we are all equal in rank, having surpassed the Tower of Trials, survived the Divine Territory, and placed in the International Tournament of Champions. You all will be knighted, at least, upon returning. I would not be surprised if Aiden is raised to Baron, skipping Lord entirely.”

“Wait, what would I be obligated to do as a Baron?” I asked.

“Probably establish a town,” she answered. “That is usually what dad tasks new Barons with. We have too many people in the cities, and only with extensive Aether techniques can we support them all. Every new farming community established allows for more people to be supported, for more soldiers to be supported, and more power able to be projected on our enemies. Usually people are not raised to Baron until they have proven their ability to protect a town, or have reached Perfect Core.”

“So winning the tournament means I can protect a town?” I asked.

“Not necessarily, but it does mean that dad will gamble on you being able to,” Aleks said. “He also loves raising people to higher political ranks from those who held none in childhood, hoping to help break the noble council’s stranglehold on the kingdom’s politics.”

“Should you be saying this?” Hanna asked, “I know our families are with you, but what about the Lo or Volkovs?”

“I will not speak out of turn about things spoken in confidence,” Ming said, and Xiao gave an enthusiastic set of nods. Vaya looked conflicted for a second, before agreeing with Ming.

“So, to distract from the political discussion that shouldn’t be talked about, I have presents for most of you,” I said. “You know, once breakfast is over.”

I have never seen people eat that fast. A few minutes later, we’d cleaned all the dishes, dried them, and stacked them back in their cabinets before putting away the table and congregating in the lounge area. I summoned the (name shield), and said, “Jon, you need this. Maybe if you had had this I wouldn’t have been brutalized in the Tower of Trials.” I paused for a second, then laughed, “Sorry, I don’t think that’s really true. Still, as the only shield user in the group, I wanted to give you this. It’ll help you protect all of us.”

“Thank you,” Jon said, examining it in awe, “I do not think I’ve ever owned anything so valuable.”

“Use it well,” I said. Then I pulled the spear out. “Jamila, my heart, I believe that this is the best item I can give you.” I held it out to her.

“I will have to get used to using a short spear, instead of a staff,” she said, “but I can tell that this will enhance my healing ability as well as combat. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I said. “It should also help with growing your garden, as it enhances any Wood technique used through it.” I turned to Ming. “You have stood by me, and helped me as best you can. Now, I can return the favor.” I held out the (sword name).

He took it reverently. A gentle flick of the blade made the air scream, and he looked at it wide eyed. “This is amazing. Thank you, Aiden,” he said, standing and bowing a full ninety degrees to me.

I nodded at him, then pulled out the cloak, “Bridget, as the sneakiest among us, I gift you this, to let you be even sneakier. Trick Jon all the time.”

“Of course,” she said, taking the (cloak name). She slung it over her shoulders, and then I had a hard time focusing on her, even knowing that she was just sitting, right there. That (name) is amazing, I thought, then shrugged. I already took the best items, the Skysurfer and Portable Home. I can share the wealth of these amazing items.

I pulled out the (breastplate) and (helmet), then turned to Aleks. “These are supposed to be a set, so I want to give them to you …” I started.

“I am going to refuse them,” she interrupted, her voice oddly formal. “I will have access to the entire palace armory when we return, and my mother has already commissioned a set of armor for when I advance to Seed Core. Please, if you must gift it, give it to someone that needs it and cannot afford something of this quality.”

“I will not accept,” Lilianna said.

“Me either,” Hanna chirped in, then Milenna shook her head when I looked at her.

I frowned for a second, but nodded, “Okay, then Lea, would you accept this set, to keep you safer?”

She nodded, then put the helmet on her head. “This burns!” She exclaimed, excited, “thank you!”

“You’re welcome,” I said. I looked back at Aleks. “I am going to insist that you take this, though.” I accessed my ring and retrieved To Call The Heavens. “This Inscription will kill Librarian Narwan, so keep it handy just in case. Your enemies will be stronger than mine, and vastly stronger than you for now.”

She took it reluctantly, folding it and slipping it into her belt pouch. “Thank you,” she said, her voice husky.

I grinned, then pulled out the (necklace), “So, I’m not giving this away, but for the journey home I want all of you to share it. This is the (name), and it allows you to gather significantly faster while wearing it.

“So, what did you keep for yourself?” Jon asked, looking at me from over top his new shield.

“Well, the house we’re in right now!” I said excitedly, gesturing around, “plus the Skysurfer. I still have the plate from Connecting the Myriad Peoples, and a belt that increases strength, but I can’t use that safely until I advance a lot more.”

“Why did you not keep everything?” Milenna asked.

I blushed and scratched my ear, “Well, I’m going to be even more stupidly wealthy once the payments for the Legacy knowledge I sold arrive this afternoon, plus all the gems I’m sure Da has created and sold in our absence. I can afford to purchase armor and weapons to my own specifications, so I wanted to help out my friends.”

Xiao pouted, then Lilianna spoke up, “Well, I will have to have my mom make an armored keikogi for you.” She poked the young man, who perked up immediately. Hah, I bet he’s just happy to spend time with her, I thought, then grinned, Of course.

“Sorry Xiao,” I said, “but it seems like you’re getting a better consolation prize anyway!”

The door opened behind me, and I turned to find Librarian Narwan holding a crate as he maneuvered through the doorway. “Ah, good, take this from me,” he commanded.

I hopped to my feet and grabbed the crate, nearly staggering under the weight. “Uh, sir, what is this? I’m not sure we have room for much more.”

“As your master, I was planning on gifting you a much more capable travel Alchemy set once you reached Seed Core and I could teach you the finer points of potion and pill making. Because you have this house, I was able to scale the equipment up drastically! Inside, you will find a significant amount of herbs for Ice Flower Tempest Pill, and a book with the recipe included. I expect you to have mastered the recipe by the time you arrive in Craesti,” he answered me.

I smiled hugely, my cheeks hurting a bit from it, and I hefted the box. “I cannot wait, Master Narwan,” I said. I rotated towards the Alchemy room to find that Jon had already opened the door. I hauled the box over, a bit of Aether running through my muscles to assist with holding it, then carefully set it down next to the workbench. A quick jab of my fingers pried the lid off, and I found a second small box, an Auric Gold encrusted pestle, a Volcanic Iron pestle, an Ironwood Bark pestle, and six other pestles along with four mortars, one each for the Air, Fire, Water, and Earth Elements. The other half of the box was a massive pill furnace, heavily Inscribed with a silvery metal I’d never seen before.

“The different mortal and pestle sets can be combined to enhance, counteract, or diffuse the properties of the ingredients prepared in them,” Librarian Narwan explained. “The set I had planned to provide would only include the Auric Gold pestle and a Spiked Basalt mortar, as the combination is the best for the Affinity Powders. The pill furnace is Inscribed with Elemental Palladium, an extremely rare Aether-infused metal. It allows for near-perfect control and transfer of Aether along its runes, which will be necessary as you advance.”

“Sir, why use the metal in a pill furnace, and not a weapon?” I asked.

“It is too soft and is easily damaged,” he answered. “Additionally, it is best used for moderate amounts of Aether over longer periods of time, not large bursts.” Librarian Narwan straightened out, then looked over all of us. “I am proud to have taught you. Be safe, and return. You may explore the ruins if you wish, though you will have to convince Knight Kaminski that it is in your best interests. I will neither help nor hinder. The Bonds will arrive within the hour, and your delivery is just outside the privacy zone. Be ready to leave as soon as the Bonds arrive. I must leave as soon as possible.”

“Uh, Librarian Narwan, can you not just leave now?” Jamila asked.

“I do not trust the other Soul Strengthening gatherers to not move on you if I was to leave,” he said. “I know there is much more knowledge in Aiden’s hands than he has revealed, or even seen himself, and so do they. You do not dangle meat in front of a starving Beast without protection.”

Most of the crowd looked moderately scared at that. I just shrugged and said, “I guess we need to get stronger, then, so that no one can take our things without payment.”

Librarian Narwan boomed out a laugh, and then vanished.