World Sphere - 91 - Ripples of Trouble

Chapter 91: Ripples of Trouble

I was surprised at breakfast when Freya and my parents showed up, and Pascal sat with me. I hadn’t even realized it was my 16th birthday—my coming of age. I was officially recognized as an adult in Skyholme now. I received numerous congratulations from the other students in the Academy, but most were not present today, including Gareth and the twins. Mia flushed because she hadn’t known it was my 16th.

There was no big party like we had for Pascal. We just a meal together and my family gave me a leather chest piece that mother had etched herself. It was a fine piece of armor, but more decorative than functional. The etching was a scene of lightning drakes battling a skyship. It was some of the most detailed work I had seen my mother do. It was clearly symbolic of the night I was born, when a flight of lightning drakes attacked the islands.

After they left, I felt a little bitter that Gareth hadn’t been here, but when he returned, he made up for it. Gareth had remembered, and the entire delve team had contributed to getting me a variety of colognes. They were all sick of the vanilla scent I used from my cleanliness spell—but I think that was more Gareth than the others.

The rest of the second term was unpleasant. I struggled with using my aether. The discomfort gradually diminished as I digested the exchange ability, but it made all my efforts to imprint a new spell impossible for weeks. I could create and shape metal with my abilities, but spellcasting remained painful. Selina guessed it was because spells fed aether through my spell matrix, while abilities drew aether directly from the core.

Selina was worried that the changes might have affected my spell matrix, so she suggested I consult Ennet. I had Ennet review my spell matrix, which had improved from 32/109 to 35/110 just two days after consuming the dungeon essence. I had increased my available spell slots to 35, and my potential maximum had risen to 110. Although this was a fantastic surprise, it didn’t improve my mood, as my body continued to resist the imprinting process for new spells.

I could feel my aether core and matrix normalizing over time. I was hoping that rest would make the adverse effects disappear completely. How long this would take was a mystery to Selina. I was very hesitant to consider using  the other dungeon essence after this experience.

I remained in the barracks on every seventh day during the remainder of the term while Gareth continued training and delving into the Frost Vault dungeon. Gimble had left Aegis City as promised, and Ullmark was doing a good job leading the team. Gareth’s relationship with Fera had mended, and they were now a couple, doing everything together.

Mera still showed interest in me. Her recent efforts involved bringing me samples of her mead. We had supplied enough queen bee sacs and Broderick’s dungeon yeast for our Shiny Platinum brewery to be well into production and extremely popular. We charged a premium for the frost mead, and Broderick’s mead was regarded as our generic sweet pale ale.

I spent my time on the seventh day with Bleiz at Callem’s farm that he maintained. We sparred, and I assisted him with imprinting spells. After he imprinted the cleanliness spell and started to evolve it, he became excited at the prospect of learning more spells. Most of his cleanliness spell evolutions added to his stealth.

He could remove his scent, cleanse his bladder and bowels, and clear his tracks, and he selected three evolutions that had to do with grooming his fur. It was nice to see he had some vanity when it came to his appearance, and it helped me focus on my own. The grooming gave his fur a soft, velvety feel, which he was overly proud of, and, more importantly, it removed all loose fur, enhancing his stealth.

He was very frustrated trying to learn the dimensional box spell, though. The tier-two spell seemed to block him, and I even asked Selina to come and help for a few days. After a short time, Selina frowned. “Sometimes, certain spheres of magic are an anathema to people. A mage’s spell matrix resists efforts to allow a spell to be imprinted from certain spheres. It appears that, for the space magic, this is your case, Bleiz.”

Talia researched the problem at the Mage College and discovered that Wolfsguard usually had difficulty imprinting space, chronomancy, and divination magic on their aether matrix. It was possible, but it required five to ten times longer than usual. That only spurred Bleiz more to imprint the space spell. Since his aether core was still evolving, he could double the space it created like I was doing with my dimensional closet.

I also introduced Freya and Bleiz in case he needed to help her. After, Freya decided to come with us to Twin Rocks every seventh day. She loved the feel of Bleiz’s fur, which made Monty jealous. In return, Monty chose to bark at Bleiz whenever they joined us and was constantly trying to find him when he used his invisibility necklace.

I found it funny, and after a few weeks, Monty had calmed down enough to stop barking and simply positioned himself between Freya and Bleiz so she couldn’t reach him. Bleiz didn’t mind the attention since he had grown attached to my sister during his time watching her from the shadows. 

I got Bleiz a fishing pole, and when we weren't fishing, Bleiz was teaching me in Wolfsguard combat techniques. I spent time training with my two-handed falchion but also practiced with my staff and the curved knives Bleiz preferred. Since my metal shaping and creation skills weren't affected by my condition, I had turned to crafting weapons.

All of Bleiz’s weapons now had the basic hardness and sharpness enchantment on them. I also started wearing a belt with one of the curved knives, replacing the first dagger I made. Was I subconsciously replacing Gareth with Bleiz by switching the blades?

Bleiz didn’t understand how he had lost to me so easily during the bonding ceremony. Since I couldn’t use my lightning reflexes spell without staggering from the agony, I had been training without its help. I was confident Bleiz would be a match for Gareth, but they didn’t get the chance to spar. Gareth left every sixth night for Aegis City to delve and returned early on the first day for the Academy. The difference was that Gareth was still improving rapidly, while Bleiz’s progress was stagnating.

Callem and Elijah came to Twin Rocks after I asked them to help Bleiz improve. Bleiz said that both of them were equals to the Blackguard Captains who trained him from a pup. Callem took it as a compliment, as most Blackguard captains have over two centuries of experience and spend most of their days training.

Our academy class went on two trips to compete in duels against other academies. The first event was a partner duel against a small city academy in the capital. I teamed up with Mia, and we easily defeated our opponents. Only three of the remaining twenty-eight pairs from our academy that participated in the tournament lost.

The second duel was a series of one-on-one matches, and we won every bout against another small-town academy similar to ours, but Callem had us help our opponents after the matches concluded. Hen’s Hollow was on everyone's minds, and recruiters from advanced academies and noble families visited daily, looking to sponsor my classmates for an academy in exchange for service after graduation.

Mia, Mera, Fera, and Gareth were already contacted. Mia had arranged for four other classmates to become future guards at the Shiny Platinum. I had the contracts drafted and filed for everyone, along with escrow deposits covering all years at the guard academy. The academy payments and escrow account were set up with Wynna’s name as the payee.

Other members of our class began signing their own contracts after talking with Callem. I was also regularly approached, and I managed to turn down no fewer than twenty offers.

As the second term progressed, my knowledge of artificing skyships made leaps and bounds. Remy and Rippon were slowly accumulating and preparing materials with Isla. Rippon wanted the ship to have a name as they worked on her, so I gave them one: Lightning Maelstrom. The name had a lot of vanity to it, as a maelstrom was a type of storm, and lightning reflected my affinity for that sphere of magic. I was footing the bill, so naming rights were mine. Maybe I would go with just Maelstrom.

We began the end-of-term testing. Enchanting was an easy pass for me. I was probably a better artificer than Instructor Aldon now. I knew all the propulsion, stabilization, anti-gravity, and inertia shielding runes for skyships. I could perform load calculations to determine the thickness of the runes, based on the size of the aether crystal power core. 

Of course, putting this into practice on a bathtub that weighed less than 100 lbs was different than a 340,000-pound skyship. I figured out the amount of mithril I would need to complete my runes for the Maelstrom. That was about as much as I had gifted Pomare Torrent—five million gold—at most. I had 18 mithril coins in my dimensional space, worth 180,000 gold. I had shifted my focus away from mithril and was now concentrating on producing platinum to buy the materials for the skyship. Mithril was too rare to spend in the city and would attract attention.

All the materials needed for the skyship was coming from dungeons. For the ship's frame, we planned to use bone ashwood, which was harvested from a dungeon in the lowlands still controlled by Skyholme. It was the most expensive part of the build.

The wood was pale white with tight white grain. It was extremely hard but not too dense. The only way to work the wood was with spell shaping. Our other primary wood was abyssal walnut, a glossy black wood intended for siding and decking. It absorbed enchanting runes exceptionally well and had high strength even being realtively thin. Red iron oak was the third type of wood stored in the warehouse, meant for interior walls and doors. It was strong and gave a beautiful finish when treated with an alchemist’s teak oil. The only problem with the oak was it was slightly heavier than I would have liked.

I also recently sent Rippon dimensions for a platform deck to install in my dimensional space. This would give me two floors in the space and make organizing and using it much easier. Rippon was planning to build the deck with red iron oak and assemble it in the warehouse. Because of its weight, I would have to wait until my condition improved before moving it into my dimensional space.

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I was in my room chatting with Gareth while we both studied textbooks for exams. We had three days of exams left before the term ended, and then we would have a week’s break before we started our third and last term of the first-year academy. I had already secured admission to the Dungeon Academy in Aegis City for Gareth, the twins, and myself. Mia had decided to attend the City Guard Academy instead.

Gareth asked. “When are you coming back to the Shiny Platinum? It has been weeks.”

I put down my book on gravimetric control runes. “My father and mother are moving to the Shiny Platinum in two weeks, at the start of the third term. Freya is going with them under protest.” Gareth chuckled. I added, “I plan to help them get settled in.”

Gareth rolled onto his side to look at me and asked, “Are you going to talk to Aelyn? She has been hanging out with Mia and Talia after the delves. I think she is no longer angry with you. But she might challenge you to one-on-one combat,” he joked. “She still wants to beat some sense into you.”

I grunted softly, “I will talk with her if she approaches me. But I have been more focused on what is going on in the capital. Isla has been relaying the stories to me when she visits Hen’s Hollow. I told you last week that the Miaden delve team in the Bricios old dungeon died?”  Gareth nodded. “Well, today Isla said it looks like there has been evidence found that the Bricio’s Wolfsguard were responsible.”

Gareth sat up quickly. “No way! Isn’t that a violation of the Triumvirate? House Wolfsguard can only be used for defense, never for attack.” Gareth’s eyes were intense. He knew this was probably the start of something much bigger.

“Yeah, Isla said the Bricios denied it, and the divination magic used to implicate them was flawed. But she thinks…” my communication stone buzzed in my dimensional storage. I pulled it out and opened the communication.

Bleiz has only reached out to me twice in recent weeks: once about Freya sneaking out to swim with friends, and another time to request more strawberry cheesecake from the farm. I had made the cheesecake for his birthday and told him to only use the communication stones in emergencies, so I thought this was important.

Bleiz’s voice came over the stone after I activated it, “Storme, two individuals are watching your house. They definitely have some skill and are using a poor version of the invisibility spell. Maybe it is just a potion.” Gareth was already dressing rapidly.

I swung out of bed and slipped on my boots. I pulled my staff from my dimensional space. I now had almost no feedback from the action of using my aether for spell magic. Selina and I determined it wouldn’t be long before it was gone entirely. I was even thinking of trying the exchange ability soon in the dungeon. Gareth was ready before me and waited so we could leave together. I talked to the stone. “We are coming. Are you sure it is just the two?”

There was no response, so I increased our pace to a jog. Then the stone responded. Bleiz said, “I have knocked them both out. We are on the far side of the maple tree by your house—the big tree I told you I like to perch in while I watch your house overnight.”

We arrived at the maple and found two gagged and bound men unconscious. Bleiz suddenly appeared. He kneeled, checking the bodies, “Still don’t sense anyone else.” Bleiz scanned the area on high alert, though.

I decided, “Bleiz, bring one to Ennet’s house. Gareth, you take the other.” I could have carried one, but I had two strong companions. Gareth had only met Bleiz a few times in passing. One was the infamous swimming incident with Freya, and the other was when Bleiz came to pick up new artificed weapons from me. Gareth got me to make the same weapons for him after he complained that I favored Bleiz.

I later learned that Gareth wanted the weapons to train with Bleiz’s preferred weapons. Gareth was clearly preparing for when he could test his skills against an actual Wolfsguard, specifically Bleiz. He was doing his best not to show his jealousy, but it was easily noticeable.

We got the men to Ennet’s house. Ennet was in Aegis City setting up her new shop for readings. Callem and Wynna were awakened when we knocked. Callem was informed about the men spying on my family’s house. He nodded, and we got them into chairs. Bleiz disappeared and went to resume watch on my house.

Callem slapped one of the men awake, and forced a potion down his throat as he coughed and sputtered. “Who are you two?” Callem asked in a dead tone.

Bleiz had hit him hard and it took him time to gain his senses. “Gryth, Gryth Riffolk and that is Lancer, my cousin.” He clamped his mouth shout, not believing he had spoken. The potion must have been a truth or compulsion potion.

Callem grunted unhappily, “Riffolk? One thing's certain is they were up to no good. The Riffolk are a minor noble family and what Skyholme considers organized crime. Before Sebastian became a mage, he was a Riffolk. They attempted to bring him back to the families influence by kidnapping his apprentices, resulting in the deaths of two of them,” Callem sighed. “Wynna, I think it's best if you are not here for this. It won't be pleasant.”

Wynna grimaced and nodded. We got to see another side of Callem. It was not a side I wanted to see. The men in the chairs were bleeding and blubbering in twenty minutes as whenever they resisted the potion effects, he got physical. The potion only compelled you to speak the truth, but you could resist saying anything.

“Why are you in Hen’s Hollow?” Callem asked calmly.

The men said some incoherent words, but Callem voiced his displeasure physically at their stalling. Finally, one said, “We are to watch the girl in the house. We were to use her to bring him to the capital in five days.” They indicated to me with a jerk of their head. I understood Freya was leverage to get me to cooperate.

Gareth pushed forward, ready to punish the men, but Callem held him back. “Who were you bringing Storme to? Do you have the means to contact them?” Callem asked. When they didn’t talk, he stamped his heel into the closest man’s foot, who screamed in response. I was surprised, but I felt no remorse. To me, this was not torturing someone. When you went after my family, you lost the right to be treated with dignity.

The man, not screaming spoke before he got the same treatment, “We were hired,” he rasped. “We were to deliver you to a Harbinger skyship, the Phobos. They didn’t give us anything. We are to meet them when they arrive and help them get you on board.” Callem was pulling out his communication stone for Sebastian.

Looking at the mess, Callem asked, “Storme, can you clean up the floor? I feel guilty about soiling Ennet’s floor.” I was slightly ill as I used my cleanliness spell to clean the blood, urine, vomit, and teeth. Callem stood in front of the two men.

Sebastian was quickly informed of the situation. These two men were actually his nephews. He had no sympathy for them, though. “The Phobos is one of the new harbingers. It was assigned to Abaddon Bricio, who is its captain.”

Were the Bricios finally moving against me? Pomare Torrent’s protection had apparently expired. My blood heated in rage. They had chosen to go after my sister to get to me. I felt the urge to kill both men. I didn’t catch the last few words Sebastian had told Callem. I looked up, the blood pounding in my ears lessening.

I asked, “Are more coming, or are you alone?”

Gryth looked at me pleadingly. “There is a skyship coming. They are coming to create a distraction for the abduction. We were tasked to bring the girl when they arrived to them. That is all! Just deliver her to the skyship. We were not going to hurt her!” Callem stepped forward and, with a blow to the head, knocked out the sobbing man. The other looked ready to continue to cooperate.

“The Riffolk are petty thugs and thieves. They do the dirty work of the Inquisition, and the Bricios run the Inquisition.” Callem offered his perspective. “Most likely, this is part of some plan by the Bricios. The capital has been simmering under the surface for weeks. It is ready to explode.”

I thought out a plan, “Callem, can you sneak my family to the Shiny Platinum? They should be safer there with the guards.”

“It shouldn’t be an issue. These two have some invisibility potions on their belts. I can use them if needed.” Callem said, taking the men’s belts. I looked, and there were six potions in each belt bandolier, each marked with the runic symbol for invisibility. I took two potions, handed them to Gareth, and kept two for myself. That left eight potions for Callem. Gareth added the two potions to his delver belt, which I got for him during the New Year gift exchange.

Gareth asked, “What is the plan?”

Callem glared at the two men, “I can take these two to the farm and stash them in the basement and then get your family to safety, Storme. I still have six burgers on your menu that I have left to try before deciding on my favorite,” he added, trying to make some light of the situation. I could tell Callem was torn, though. He wanted to stay with us.

“Thank you, Callem. Gareth, Bleiz, and I will wait. When they arrive, we will subdue the men on the ship and get more information,” I said, finally calming down.

Callem seemed to consider, “If you decide to go after Abaddon, wait for me to return from the Shiny Platinum. The four of us will have a higher chance of success. Do you want me to ask your delve team if they want to join us?”

I hadn’t considered using my delve team. “Have them guard my family at the Shiny Platinum. Here is my communication stone with Bleiz,” I said, handing it to him, though I had no real intention of dragging Callem into this mess. “Let the delve team and guards know that I want them to help watch my family. Father is probably going to ignore warnings and start his new guard duties at the docks,” I said, sounding clearer than my racing thoughts.

“Unfortunately for the Bricios, they don’t know half of my secrets and have bitten off more than they can chew by coming after my family,” I added coldly. I was going to make sure it never happened again, damned the consequences.