Chapter 58 - A Daughter

Chapter 58

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

Dungeon Factory, CQ's Boss Room.

"Hey, CQ?"

Alexandra slowly entered the room, Emilia and Jared in tow, and then knelt next to her boss, who had very obviously been crying in a corner of her boss room, her golems gathered around her in disarray, somehow sensing her mood and not getting too close, but still loyally guarding her for anyone who wished her harm.

CQ started, and looked up quickly, before looking back down.

"I'm sorry..." Softly said the boss.

"Sorry for what?"

"For....for causing trouble for you and mommy."

"You didn't. It...it was going to happen sooner or later."

"I...I don't want to be trouble for you. If you want I can just....go away."

Alexandra froze, then grabbed the boss, and wrapped her in a bone crushing hug.

"Don't....don't say that. We don't want you to go." Alexandra looked up at Emilia, who knelt with her, and joined the hug. "It's going to be complicated, and there's going to be problems....but we'll figure it out."

CQ looked up, and met Alexandra's eyes.

"R-Really?"

"Yes, really. I promise."

The words resonated through their link with a weight no one else, bar perhaps Emilia, could have sensed. Alexandra never gave her word lightly, and when she made a promise, she kept it.

CQ slowly nodded.

"Okay."

They stayed like this for a few seconds, before CQ shifted, and Alexandra and Emilia backed off to give the boss some space. CQ took a deep breath, before getting up.

"So, what now mom?"

"Now? Well, there was something I wanted to give you."

The boss immediately perked up. For all her surprising maturity, she was still a kid.

"Oh? What is it?"

Alexandra chuckled, and gestured for the boss to follow her.

"Come on, let me show you. To the workshop!"

CQ practically bolted after the Earth-born, making Emilia giggle, before shaking her head as the boss looked at her sheepishly. The poor girl had enough of a roller coaster of a day to dampen her enthusiasm.

A minute later, they arrived in front of the workshop's door, briefly passing by Sarah, who was guarding the entrance to the communication room, as Ella was apparently making a report to Etheria, and, well...for all of their commitment to keeping Emilia safe, they were surprisingly perceptive, and had understood that Alexandra was equally, if not more, determined to keep the vampire girl safe, and after the discussion that just happened it was wise to keep a low profile for a bit.

Emilia nodded at her maid, while Alexandra made a vague hand gesture in her direction, before remotely opening the workshop's door, and stepping inside.

She took a second to survey the interior. It was....impressive. The workshop, which had started on the first floor as nothing more than 3 tables to hold her tools was now a near warehouse sized room filled with a vast array of prototypes, both old and new. It was organized to some extent, with a section dedicated to studying and dismantling failed prototypes for answers as to exactly why they had failed, another specifically made to allow for precision work, especially runic in nature -and probably the only one that could be considered remotely clean and tidy-. A third section was about as generalist as it got with tables, tools and a smattering of pieces and schematics, while the fourth and final section was a massive....storage space? It more or less looked like an overstuffed garage mixed with an experimental weapon stockpile from a mad scientist's wet dream. Shelves were almost bending under the weight of machinery, weapons, parts, and some more esotheric system. She was fairly sure she still had one of her first stone spikes from her first trap stashed away in the back. Which reminded her that she really needed an inventory system for this.

TO-DO LIST UPDATED

"Are you just going to stand here or...?"

Alexandra chuckled at Emilia's jab, and walked in, making a beeline for a particular table. It looked like it was covered in a chaotic mess of parts and schematics, but there was an order to the chaos....and it was the one table she'd warned her advisor to not even try to clean up.

The Earth born shuffled a few things around, including a runic wand and a cross between a grapling gun and a thumper, before taking out a simple, wooden box.

"Is it a new sword?" Asked CQ.

Alexandra froze.

"How-"

"You used the same box when you offered me my last one." Pointed out the boss, and Alexandra smiled.

"Fair enough. Yes, it's a new sword." She turned around, and carefully opened the box, revealing an almost delicate looking blade. The handle was made of onyx, with a guard of the finest steel she'd been able to materialize, and the sharpest blade she could make. What made it special however, were the runes wrapped around the sword and running along the blade, all carefully inlaid in silver.

CQ looked at it for a second, before delicately grabbing the handle, and weighing the blade, looking at the runes.

"That's..." She clearly hesitated, probably not familiar with the spells in play.

"Electric arcs, power beam, and flame. The flame spell is powered by a mana crystal in the pommel, but the two others are too high energy to make that viable, not without making the crystal too large and compromising the structural integrity of the pommel. The handle however is where it gets interesting." She tapped the onyx. "This is a short range teleportation spell, tied to this." She gestured at the teleportation pad she'd used to make their experiments with Emilia on the possibility of teleporting adventurers around. "If you fall in battle, the sword will automatically teleport itself here, so it is not lost."

"That's nice. I was tired of some adventurers taking mine. You kept replacing it but..."

"It was annoying, I know." Alexandra smiled. "Kind of pissed me off too. Now, however, there won't be a chance of that. Emilia." She nodded at the vampire girl, who nodded back. "Also helped with a lot of enchantments. The blade should be a lot tougher, hold it's edge longer, pierce armored targets far more easily, and act as a better focal point for your magic, so throwing spells through it should be easier."

CQ nodded as she continued looking over the sword, before looking up at Alexandra and Emilia.

"Can I....?" She said, gesturing at an open space in the middle of the workshop, and Alexandra nodded.

"Of course."

"Thanks mom!" The boss rushed forward, and began a series of parries and attacks, running the sword through it's paces.

"Well, I'm glad she likes it." Whispered Emilia.

"So am I." Whispered back Alexandra. "But hey, kids like presents, and we were preparing it for her upgrade anyway."

Emilia snorted.

"Right."

As if the Earth-born hadn't rushed to upgrade the sword after the manticore fight. Actually, Alexandra had told her that she was planning on getting even better materials to upgrade the sword, as soon as she could get her hands on them, even if it meant using some of their....surface contacts to get them. Worrying but....she was the dungeon core. Besides, it wasn't like other dungeons didn't do the same thing whenever they could.

"Anyway. What's next on the list?"

Emilia smiled, and pulled out her notebook, opening it at the right page with the ease of long practice -and also not getting much stuff done these last few days-.

"Finishing the staffs."

"Right. About those..."

Emilia sighed, and rolled her eyes at Alexandra's sheepish expression. Her dungeon core had blown up something again, hadn't she?

*****

"So, Olstor....Numis, was it? It's good of you to have made the time to meet with me." Said Allya as the caravan master / crime lord entered her office.

The caravan master winced. The missing, but heavily implied 'at long last' at the end of her sentence was almost palpable. He bowed

"My apologies milady, but I was unavoidably detained due to some....irregularities concerning my caravan's cargo. I'm sure you've been advised of the matter."

"Indeed I have." Allya smiled coldly, and gesture for the chair in front of her desk. Éclair was standing by the caravan master's side, and his guards had been firmly told to wait outside. She was fairly sure the man wouldn't try to kill her.....but you could never be too sure. Hence why there was a squad of guards currently 'off duty' right around the corner of the hallway her office was in. Just in case. Allya leaned forward, joining her fingers together, and resting her chin on them. "Tell me master Numis, why would your caravan carry....what was it, 30 kilograms or so of eltherian dust?"

Olstor took a deep breath, before smiling derisively.

"If I told you it was a mistake, would you believe me?"

Allya simply deadpanned at him, and the caravan master sighed.

"My apologies. Still....you must know I won't give up my cargo, or my contacts. So tell me what you want now, so we can get down to business."

Allya leaned back in her chair, before smiling.

"Very well. Master Numis, I want some very simple things. In exchange for your caravan's....irregularities being forgotten, and me not blacklisting you from even coming to my city or principality ever again, I want simple information, as well as a....friendly ear."

Olstor frowned.

"What kind of information?"

"It's simple. Your next stop is Erakis, is it not?" The caravan master nodded. "Well, I want you to give me your impression of the city. Particularly relating to it's trade situation. The number of caravans there, airships....and the Republic's security for those caravans."

The caravan master had been nodding, and he stopped instantly at her last few words. It didn't take a genius to realize she wasn't worried about the units defending the caravans. But more in the forces amassed to, ahem, 'protect trade'. With ballistas and siege bombards, apparently.

"I...see. And as for the friendly ear?"

"There might come a time when I have need of your particular talents, or to...trade in some of the goods whose paperwork you seemingly keep losing, I would like to be able to call upon you, or people you see fit to direct me towards."

Olstor slowly nodded. She was essentially asking him to become her contact with the black market.

"Of course, that would be my pleasure milady!"

"Excellent. Then one last thing. I just need you to guarantee me one, single and simple thing."

The caravan master leaned back in his seat, his face apprehensive.

"Go ahead."

"Is this cargo of dust going for the Elkis Republican Army? I'm not asking for your contacts, just...yes or no? And don't try to bullshit me, I know my way around this kind of transaction enough to know that this kind of cargo is sold before it is even loaded, and that someone pulling so much of the heavy lifting would want to know who is paying, so that the money is good."

The caravan master opened his mouth, then closed it with a snap. A few seconds ticked by in silence, with him clearly weighing his words.

"It is not destined towards the ERA milady. You could even say that they would not be...enthused of it's eventual destination."

Allya smiled. That effectively meant that it was going to one of their enemies, which could only mean one thing: he was smuggling the powder to the Hegemony. And that was something she was more than fine with.

"Excellent master Numis. Then I believe we have a deal! Now, if you'll excuse me..."

"Of course milady." He got up, bowed briefly, and left.

Allya waited for a second, then looked up at Éclair as the soundproofing enchantment came back on.

"Your thoughts?"

The bodyguard sighed and shrugged.

"He seemed....honest milady. More than he should have been really. I think..." She thought. "I think he's afraid of you."

Allya blinked.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Some of the things you did were quite frankly as cold blooded as it comes milady." Bluntly declared the pink haired woman. "Setting up the caravan to be attacked especially. I don't disagree with the reasoning....but you put his people's heads on the chopping block. And when you got caught in the middle, you just blasted your way out and saved his own ass. He didn't get to where he is by being stupid, or by picking fights he knows he cannot win. Hence my assessment."

"Right....fair enough I suppose." Allya looked down at the piles of paper on her desk and sighed. "Well, back to work I guess..."