World Sphere - 228 - Ravenhawk

Chapter 228:

The cities of Skyholme seemed constantly changing. As we flew over Skyhold, new structures reached higher into the sky, trying to dwarf the older pristine white stone. It looked like my taxi-skiffs faced some new competition while we were gone. Remy pointed out two flashy red micro-transports racing just above the buildings. We had set our own traffic rules, but they were not following them. Our transports always went straight up until they cleared the highest building by at least a quarter of a mile, then headed to their destination and descended straight down. This allowed the pilots to see the traffic clearly. With the new magitech, it would be even safer, and I might take off some of the speed regulators to improve their speed.

Those red taxis were weaving between the buildings, which I considered dangerous. “Remy, submit a report to Sebastian on small transports. Let's see if we can get everyone on the same page. We do not have the warning systems in place in Passage cities to allow such reckless behavior. A crash would kill everyone on both ships.”

“Do you want me to find out who our competition is?” Remy asked, clearly curious.

“Go ahead,” I waved unconcerned, but I assumed it was Loriel. As soon as we started to turn a profit, I expected competition. I had done the artificing on my skiffs, which would have cost the competition tens of thousands to contract the work, so it was a bit early for competition. “Remember the seats in the wheeled transport? Let’s see if we can get the same cushions installed in our taxis. Do whatever else you think is necessary to give us a hint of luxury and status.” Remy nodded enthusiastically, wanting to stick it to our competitors.

We landed at the Black Spire to drop off Neoma and Thibault before heading to the Shiny Platinum on Titan’s Shield. Even Aegis City seemed more crowded after a week. At least we didn’t need to use the crowded skyship docks, as I had a private hangar in the back of the Shiny Platinum. I owned the plaza behind the warehouse, and I noticed more guards than usual as the doors were opened for us.

Mia greeted me as I descended the ramp. “Problem?” I asked, indicating the plaza as the doors were being closed.

“Just some wandering shoppers waiting for their transports. I have a request to wall off the part of the plaza you own, but it is being held up in review by the magistrates,” Mia said, annoyed. Mia and I had been friends since we fought each other in the pre-Annuals, and she even came to the First Year Academy in Hen’s Hollow to learn from Callem. Even being young, she was very competent as my guard captain. She trained her men intensely and expected cooperation and vigilance, but I allowed her to pay them well to compensate.

“In this situation, it is better to ask forgiveness than permission. Do it now. I don’t want to crush anyone wandering around outside the bay doors. When they ask for the bribe, use my name but pay it after it is down to something reasonable,” I said, walking past her with a nod.

I paused, noticing the stacks of dark treant wood boards. They had been harvested from the Goblin Vault Dungeon, and we planned to use them for the taxis. “Remy!” I yelled as he was still not off the Maelstrom. He came rushing down the ramp, notes tucked under each arm. I pointed at the boards. “Can we use those for the new ship?”

He went into deep thought. “It has excellent durability and modest lightning and fire resistance. This here is about a third of our supply. I was thinking bone ash for the skeleton—and maybe we could use the treant wood for the hull plating?” He put on a big smile, thinking about it. “It does polish to a lustrous black.”

“Do we have enough?” I asked as we only had two months to build this ship.

Remy took out a scrap of paper and quickly ran the numbers. “That is not all our stock. The rest is in the warehouses in Solaris City. If the delvers have been harvesting one log per delve—based on the number of days—and if we stayed at one-inch thickness, yes, we should have enough stock for one ship of the planned size. Maybe a little extra,” he said, beaming, as I imagined he was envisioning what his ship would look like.

“Build two if they will both fit in here,” I said, indicating the hanger. I would dock the Maelstrom on the roof.

“Two?!” Remy questioned.

“I cannot afford the metals for the artificing or get the crystals for a second ship right now, but I would want it available in case of an emergency,” I decided. I was thinking the Maelstrom was our only high-speed ship currently, and we needed more if we had dealings with the Sapphire Passage and maybe other Passages in the future.

Remy excitedly went to find Rippon to start working on the design for the new fast transport. I left on foot to visit Selin at the Dungeon Academy, leaving Kiara behind with Freya to work on her new body. Adrial, still confused about her sister’s changes, followed Freya.

I found Selin in the office, and the long-lived mage offered a smile on seeing me. “Storme, good to see you back with us and healthy.”

“I brought gifts,” I said as I produced stack after stack of spell books.

“Productive trip, I see! Did you find any codices?” she said as she started examining the books intently.

“No codices, but I set up a steady supply of books. If we get too many copies of one spell, you can sell them in the lowlands. I also bought some magitech and decided to train my own magitech engineers.” My statement had her pause and look up at me in surprise. “Well, send them to the Passage for training,” I clarified.

“Magitech is very expensive to maintain and there are a number of spells that can easily disrupt it,” Selin said doubtfully.

“Not if the runes are encased in adamantine,” I replied.

“Like I said, very expensive,” Selin reiterated. “It is your coin, so spend it where you would. I suppose you are going to want me to find students capable of becoming engineers?”

“You know me so well. Remy has the materials for the entrance exams. We need to find at least a dozen people who can pass with decent awakened cores. If they have the mind and not the magic, then we will use the dungeon essences from the Goblin Vault o give them one. I am also going to build a ship as fast as the Maelstrom to get them back and forth from the Passage,” I revealed.

Selin frowned as she processed. Even though they were tier one, those dungeon essences were valuable. “Guildmaster Huckle is still upset that his expedition lost gold exploring the Goblin Vault. He’s trying to block us from submitting our report once it’s finished,” Selin said, and we both laughed. That’s exactly what we wanted—delaying our audit of the dungeon.

“He just thinks we are after the reward for doing the assessment audit?” I asked, and Selin nodded. “Good, tell Talia to be sufficiently outraged about being held up.” We already had Logan on board to slow the posting and hide the dungeon's true value. We discussed that briefly before I planned to check on the shield array I was artificing for this part of the city. We reviewed the clinics I had set up throughout the islands for free healing for the people. We required our Dungeon Academy healers to work one day a week in the clinics, and it was a massive boon to my reputation among the people. Selin had a list of clinics I should personally make an appearance at to boost my reputation. All the clinics were marked with the symbol of Shiny Platinum Enterprises—the seven-headed hydra.

Once our discussion was done, Selin reached into the top drawer and grinned mischievously. “Oh, Storme. I have your grades from the first semester.” I was confused as she handed me a slip of paper she had clearly kept easily accessible.

I took it and looked it over, mildly surprised. “I failed?”

“You have to take the exams to get a grade, Storme. We have strict policies at the Academy set by you. You have flunked out,” she said teasingly. I rolled my eyes as I had only been attending the academy to get a feel for the students and maybe socialize a bit.

“If I decide to attend again, I will just change my disguise. How are the students doing?” I asked.

“Well, the incoming class is going to put this class to shame, but we placed 2nd, 4th and 5th at the Academy Annuals this year. The 1st place swordsman is transferring in with the next class,” Selin started to explain.

“What? Who?” I asked.

“Ardent Torrent. A gifted swordsman with some interesting abilities and some low-tier spells. He was disappointed he didn’t get to fight the High Mage of Skyholme for the title,” Selin revealed with a smile.

“How would he know I was attending my own Academy…Loriel told him?” I guessed. Even though the old noble families’ power had been disrupted, the Torrent and Miaden families still held much of Skyholme’s wealth and continued to work together. I had also ignored Loriel’s requests for meetings with the excuse that I was attending classes many times.

“Indeed. Should I tell Ardent you failed out?” Selin said humorously.

“No. If I am around during one of his training sessions, I will allow him to test me,” I said thoughtfully. “Has he crossed blades with Gareth?”

“Not that I know of,” Selin said. “Do you want him to?” Gareth had his delve team in Aegis City delving for his benefactor, but he also helped with weapons classes to earn credit to delve the Frost Vault, which I controlled through the Academy. As long as he didn’t seduce the female students, I was okay with it.

“Yes, if he can beat Gareth, then I will give him the opportunity to face me. You can tell him as much,” I said. “Oh, you know what, I have a new student for the Academy as well, Kiara.”

“Kiara? Your phantom cat?” Selin said, scrunching her face. “She is smart, but I don’t know how…”

“She just took a new beast essence and can transform into a humanoid body now. She needs to get control of it, and I think learning to speak and socialize would be good for her,” I said.

“Interesting,” Selin said, tapping her desk. “I have a few shapeshifters among the instructors. I will help her adapt.” We turned to our other business of communication stones, which I was behind on, artificing, and expenses for the Academy.

Most of the expenses were for the Merchant Marine Academy at Twin Rock Lake, which Callem would be the commandant of. I would have to check on construction progress, but we were on track to open in the new year. “This can’t be right…” I said, following the columns.

Selin looked over my shoulder. “I am no Remy when it comes to math, but that is only this fiscal quarter, Storme. Don’t get used to it.”

“We made a profit on the Academy?” I said in disbelief.

“Well, it was actually the Academy Store that did the heavy lifting,” Selin said. “It always helps when you have a master artificer who works for free. There should be a list of runic items that need to be restocked,” she grinned, finding the sheet in the stack. I was actually looking forward to Remy going to school in the Passage, as he usually prepared these inventory replacement lists for me, but if Selin stepped in, then I wouldn’t get a break from this minor artificing.

I left the offices and worked on the shield array over the next few days. We had acquired all the necessary properties, and synchronization was gradually improving among the various points. I hadn’t seen Aelyn since I returned and was planning to make us a romantic dinner at the Black Spire since she was either in the Progenitor Dungeon or my liaison at Skyhold, but I was called to the Shiny Platinum by an excited Remy as they had finished the draft of the plans.

Remy excitedly handed over the schematics for the simple transport. “It’s bigger than expected, I said after giving a quick appraisal.”

“Slightly,” Rippon said pridefully, “but we kept the mass in the desired range, which is the most important factor for efficiency.”

The nose of the skyship they designed was a flattened cone. That eliminated the high ceiling for elevated bunks for the pilot and navigator in my plan. Instead, the bridge was narrowed to twelve feet wide and eight feet deep. Two chairs sat side by side on the bridge. Flanking the bridge were two small rooms, each four feet by eight feet. The curvature of the nose made them very compact spaces but gave the pilot and navigator a private space.

Behind the bridge was a small room, four feet by twenty feet wide. Most of the runic work would be done here, along with the aether crystals stored in the crawl space beneath this room. Making them difficult to steal was always a smart move. The mid deck was a long room, twenty feet wide and twenty-five feet deep. This was the common area for passengers to mingle during a long voyage. Aft in the shuttle were four rooms, each four feet wide and sixteen feet deep. Each room had two bunks.

It looked like they had flattened the shape of the skyship to reduce the mass and make it more aerodynamic. The height of the ship was only fifteen feet, with the interior spaces just under ten feet. The craft had an overall length of fifty-three feet. The outer hull had two dorsal fins, two aft fins, and two wings. I was confused about the wings in the plans until Remy explained. “They fold out by a mechanical winch. If needed, they can be deployed for combat or landing. I am still reading about aerodynamics, but this should help if the ship lost aether. We need to get some aethertech for backup propulsion and this space here will accommodate it.”

“What about the artificing?” I asked, since there were no runes on the plans.

“We just need to find a master artificer to figure it out,” Remy replied gleefully. “We added the mass projections for each section to help with your calculations. It will be more complex since when the wings are deployed, the mass profile changes.”

“Great, thank you,” I said sarcastically. We discussed the plans for two hours with Rippon, who was excited about the new project and wasn’t giving his usual “I am too old for this” excuses. The skyship, with a glossy black finish, would look impressive. The project name, Ravenhawk, was in the upper right corner of the plans.

“Start the build,” I said, giving them the go-ahead. Both men were out the door before I finished my sentence.

A few days later, I was reviewing contracts with Remy before the staff meeting with everyone at the Shiny Platinum when one of my guards knocked on the door. “There is a naval officer here to deliver a message, a captain,” she said formally. I think her name was Adelaide, but I was not certain. Mia had added so many guards, I was losing track. Outside the Black Spire, Mia was protecting the Shiny Platinum, the Academy, and warehouses dotted across Titan’s Shield. The Shiny Platinum was the premier assignment since they got to eat for free.

“I will be done with meetings in an hour. He can wait in the restaurant, Adelaide,” I said, dismissing her. She looked uncomfortable, and at first I thought it was because I got her name wrong, but I was fairly certain it was correct. “Is there something else?”

“***Regent Loriel Miaden sent the captain. It is important, so they sent someone in person rather than use the communication stones,” she said nervously. I had assumed it was a message from Admiral Sebastian with a request to redo the runes on one the navy’s skyships.

“Show him in then,” I confirmed and sat back in the chair.

Captain Liam Cloudhunter entered shortly after and saluted me. The captain had served as my liaison for some time with the Loriel, Sebastian, and Callem. The serious look on his normally jovial face made me pause. “High Mage Storme Hardlight, I am here to inform you that Skyholme is currently at war and your presence is requested at the war council in Skyhold.”

“War with whom?” I asked, surprised.

“The Sadian Kingdom has been attacked by armies of goblinoids emerging from the Endless Dark. Our alliance with them dictates we send aid,” the captain said stiffly. We had been at war with the Sadians for centuries, and the tentative peace was only due to Loriel taking Prince Antioch as her consort after the Sadians came to our aid when the Black Marauders assaulted the islands.

Some in Skyholme who had lost loved ones to the Sadian attacks found the alliance distasteful. By his reaction, I guessed Captain Liam was one of them. “I will leave shortly,” I replied. Once the others showed up in an hour, I would rush through our meeting and go to the capital.

***Need to check on the title Loriel is using to rule Skyholme, it is not in my notes

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