World Sphere - 223 - Bad Day

Chapter 223: Bad Day

Kiara was racing through the city, causing a stir as her camouflaged form tried to reach me. I wasn’t panicking. The three half-orcs were competent fighters by their body language, but this noble brat clearly was not. “I forgot your name,” I stated with amusement.

“Lord Kyle Day of House Day,” he said, trying to sound important.

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance. Now, if you don’t mind, I have places to be and things to do.” I took a step forward and felt a pressure in the air around me. It wasn’t magic, it was aether tech, and I think it was coming from the gaudy bracer on the Lord’s arm.

I activated my lighting reflexes, and immediately the pressure subsided, as the spell had an evolution to resist such effects. Kyle frowned and tuned up the device, which caused his minions to step back as the field of increased gravity expanded. He really was a moron, but I didn’t think this constituted an attack on my person yet. I took a slow, deliberate step toward him. My body was heavy, but not crippling. This heavy gravity might be a good way to train. Kyle’s eyes narrowed, and he drew a heavy aether pistol from his belt.

The few people in the street scattered in fear as he leveled it at me. “You embarrassed me, and now you will lose an arm,” he spat.

“I like both my arms,” I said glibly. I already had lightning reflexes in overdrive, and as he squeezed the pistol’s release, I was already moving left. A thick aether bolt cracked through the air where I had been standing. I rushed the fifteen feet between us, moving at almost four times normal speed. I leveraged the pistol out of his hand and made it disappear into my dimensional closet. A souvenir for my trouble.

I probably could have killed him, but I thought it might cause more problems. His half-orc posse was rushing to defend their master, and I backed away. Two of them appeared to have a minor enhancement to their movement, but nothing close to me. I didn’t like the fact that the city guards seemed to be absent from this encounter. Maybe this lord had some sway with the local government.

I decided to take more drastic action. My blade appeared in my hand, and I entered melee with the orcs. Kyle yelled for his minions to injure me. “Make him bleed!” That irked me more than it should have. The half-orcs were not bad swordsmen, as good as any man in Skyholme, but my speed trumped their skill even with three of them. I quickly lured them into a false sense of superiority as I remained on the defensive and gave them a clear opening. They took it.

Lord Kyle Day gasped as his defenses flared, as two of his bodyguards struck him at once. I was standing where he had been after I exchanged places with him. Only one of the blades had gotten penetration through his clothing, and the half-orc’s eyes went wide in disbelief. I had made sure the young noble brat was susceptible to my exchange ability before opening myself to the attack. I was easily able to latch onto his aether core. There were not many defenses against the power tier three ability.

Kiara’s large form was thundering down the street, and she had picked up her own admirers in the form of six city guards chasing her. I didn’t run as I waited for them to arrive. Kyle was fumbling with a healing potion. At least he wasn’t wailing in pain, which told me he had some battle training. The guards arrived on the scene, and I had Kiara drop her camouflage and stand beside me. I hadn’t even needed to summon my lightning elementals.

“Arrest that mage for attacking me!” Kyle blurted, seeing the situation.

“I claim the right of imminent judgment,” I said calmly, and Kyle paled. I read the local laws. Imminent judgment required all parties to remain where they were while local mage justices were summoned to review the veracity of claims. The mages even had the spells to look into the past and see recent events as they occurred in the area. Although Kyle might be a local lord, there were dozens of Houses of nobles, and I doubted he could influence the justices in such short order.

The guards looked uncertain, but summoned the justice before talking with me. He eyed Kiara warily as he did so. “You realize that if you are found guilty, you will be required to pay recompense to the justice for his time and to him,” he indicated to Kyle Day. I nodded unconcerned.

The justice who arrived was a tall elven woman in black robes with silver runes. From the runes, I could tell they enhanced her spellcraft in some way. She looked briefly interested in Kiara, before talking with the guards to get the story.

She had a very stern expression as she set up a privacy screen and talked with Lord Day first. I could see the panic in his eyes, and he gesticulated with his hands and pointed at me angrily. His three half-orc guards look subdued as they had not only struck their charge but were also about to face judgment. After about five minutes, the justice dropped the privacy screen and approached me, her face unreadable.

“Name for the official records.” She stated plainly.

“Lord Storme Hardlight, High Mage of Skyholme,” I said formally. Adding lord to my title was a calculated addition, as I wanted to appear as if I were a visiting noble. I owned enough land in Skyholme to be considered a lord anyway.

“And your contest?” the justice asked.

“I won an auction for a pair of phantom kittens. Lord Kyle Day also participated in the auction for the same kittens. He apparently was not happy, and when I returned to your city, he attempted to get petty revenge. I defended myself,” I replied while scratching Kiara’s head as her rumbling purrs vibrated the air. I proceeded to answer her detailed questions about the encounter.

When she finished with me, she stepped back and went into a trance. The air around us hummed with energy. I was unfamiliar with the spell, and I was actually slightly worried the justice might have been bought as well. When she opened her eyes five minutes later, she nodded to the city guards. “Take Lord Day and his guards into custody.” She turned to me. “I apologize for the inconvenience. Open and safe trade in Elespolis is vital. I hope this incident does not jade you from returning and doing business in the Sapphire Passage and our cities. Half of the fines levied against the House of Day will be sent to your ship. The Maelstrom? Correct?”

I didn’t know how she got that information so quickly, but I nodded. “That is correct. What is your name, Justice? And how much should I expect?”

“I am Justice Faerael of House Harvestmoon. The fine will need to be reviewed by a Quintet, but you should expect between fifteen and twenty thousand gold since House Day is quite large and wealthy. Not only did the Lord intend to harm you, but he also bribed the guards who should have been patrolling this area of the city. The Quintet will make sure the fine sends a suitable message to their child’s antics.” I nodded respectfully to the Justice and turned to leave. She left me with parting wisdom. “House Day may retaliate, but will not do so openly. If you think you are being targeted, have a message passed to me.”

“Thank you,” I said politely, but was annoyed. I would have to do some research on how the politics worked in the Passage. I knew the conglomerates ran the Passage cities, but the Houses were part of the conglomerates. Justice Faerael vanished with a pop, and the city guards took away the Lord Day and his half-orcs in restraints. He wasn’t directing any malice toward me; instead, he looked pale and horror-stricken. I guessed he would be facing punishment both for his crime and from his family.

I didn’t return to the Maelstrom, but continued on my way and used my communication stone to explain the encounter to Remy, telling him to unload the goods more quickly than he would have liked. I reduced our time in Elespolis from five days to just two days. Remy would have to liquidate our inventory within that short time. He was not happy about it as he wanted to get a feel for the city and the value of the goods before making any transactions. He was also curious if he could get better prices in the city of Temescrest, where we would be acquiring our magitech. I still wanted to spend at least a whole week in Temescrest learning about and purchasing magitech, but I didn’t want the headache of any retaliation by House Day, even if the justice indicated she would handle any complaints.

After I cut communication with Remy, Kiara’s voice rang in my head. “Father needs protection. Not letting you wander off again.” She sent flashes of a protective mother over a cub. I chuckled as Kiara wasn’t even three yet, and she was trying to reverse our roles. I patted her massive white head and just agreed with her as I found my way to the spell repository.

The spell repository was a grand building with glossy white floors and metallic shelves filled with thousands of tomes. A smiling human clerk in yellow robes seated me in a private room, and I paid for a light meal for Kiara and myself while he brought the reference books I requested. Kiara wanted a massive plate of braised meat, while I got something like limeade to drink and crunchy vegetable rolls.

The aether affinity spell index was delivered shortly after the food, and I paged through to the descriptions of the tier three spells I had narrowed down. Although spell print was the most valuable and unique spell, I didn’t need the gold it could generate for me. It could be invaluable if I wanted to expand the offerings at my Dungeon Academy, but my plate was already full with artificing. I didn’t want to become a scribe. However, I did plan to purchase the spell and give it to someone loyal to learn. I was thinking Lana might be open to imprinting it if she had space. She was only on the delve team because of Sammie.

Aetheric anchor was powerful since it was undetectable by tier three and lower spells. It was the perfect spying tool, allowing a mage to place the anchor and view what was occurring in the area. After a few evolutions, you could hear what was being said and even what had happened in the past up to when the spell had been cast. It was another spell I marked to purchase, and maybe Bleiz or one of the Skyguard could learn it.

True sight was more powerful than I initially thought. Viewing aether weavings extended into dungeons and was invaluable in researching artifacts. It was a tool for researchers and artificers alike. I did not plan to purchase a copy of this spell at the moment, but it would be useful if I ever became a full-time researcher.

I discounted the temporary object, even though the evolutions made it extremely useful, extending the duration and strength of the object created. I didn’t see utility in it at the moment.

The fifth spell, aetheric tether, was similar to aetheric anchor with notable differences. First off, it tethered to an object or person instead of a location. All the evolutions noted in the reference book were geared toward an individual. The evolutions ranged from communication to instantly teleporting to the person’s side. I already had the adamantine rings with Freya, but knowing I could return to Skyholme instantly was a huge boon.

I was always anxious when I took long trips away from Skyholme. There were some drawbacks from the spell, one being that you only gained one tether at level one, and needed to use an evolution to establish another tether. The teleport ability also required three progressive evolutions before it was available to use.

The aether requirement for the teleport was relatively low unless you were hundreds of thousands of miles apart. There was only an approximate formula in the reference tome, with the scribe noting that the cost was 100 units of relative aether plus approximately one unit of aether per ten thousand miles. With my aether pool, it meant I should be able to return from almost anywhere in the Sphere.

They had copies of the spell available, and I planned to purchase this spell to inscribe next on my core. I turned to the tier five lightning affinity spells, as the list in the book supplied was more complete than what I had access to. It didn’t take me long to find what I was searching for. A spell that had excellent range and could be cast from the bridge of the Maelstrom in a fight.

Thankfully, it wasn’t even a rare spell that would only be found in auctions. The spell was called plasma lightning. It was a bolt of lightning contained in an aetheric cage that could be hurled at your enemies. The integrity of the cage only lasted a few seconds, and the bolt would dissipate quickly after the cage broke down. For evolutions, you could increase the speed of the bolt, or increase the integrity of the aetheric cage to increase its range.

This was an attack that could kill dragons at close range. Even though the aether investment per cast was high, I could quickly evolve the spell to make it extremely useful. Maybe I could study the spell forms and try to incorporate them into a new type of aether cannon.

I handed the attendant my requested spells: plasma lightning, aetheric tether, spellprint, and aetheric anchor. He looked them over and nodded. “I will return in a moment with the cost. If we do not have a copy, there will be a small transfer fee to acquire what you desire.” He left in a rush.

“Father is excited,” Kiara said, yawning. She had taken a long nap while I had paged through the reference books for hours.

“Maybe less so after I receive the bill,” I muttered. Although the costs were listed in the books, they were all noted as: prices subject to change based on market availability.

The attendant didn’t take long to return with a completed order sheet, and it was not as terrible as I had thought it would be.

Plasma lightning         tier 5, lightning           15,500 gold     +250 gold transfer fee
Aetheric tether            tier 3, aetheric            1,200 gold
Spellprint                    tier 3, aetheric            6,350 gold
Aetheric anchor          tier 3, aetheric            2,500 gold       +100 gold transfer fee

Common tier three spells were usually around 500 gold, so these rare aether affinity spells would cost more. I wasn’t even that spellprint was so high. If it had been in an auction in Myththorne or Llorth, I could see it going for twice as much.

I started to pull out mithril coins to pay for the spells, but my attendant held up his hands. “Your spells have already been covered, Master Hardlight. Your patron only wishes to meet with you for a few minutes to discuss a few matters.” Kiara looked up, matching my surprise. Twenty-five thousand gold for a meeting? I had an inkling what this was concerning, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to become involved in politics in the Passage. I had minimal involvement in Skyholme politics.

“Who wants to meet with me?” I asked reluctantly while still counting out mithril. I could buy my own spells and ignore the request.

“Lady Elowen of House Day,” he replied with courtesy.

“Do you know her relation to Lord Kyle?” I asked, still counting out mithril.

“I believe it is his mother,” my attendant said without expression.

“How much influence does House Day have in the Passage?” I asked as I stopped counting.

“They are the eleventh merchant House in prominence in the Passage, Lord Hardlight,” he replied unhesitantly. Eleventh might not seem important, but the Passage has tens of millions of people, and I didn’t know how many Houses resided within the conglomerates.

“I will meet with her, but I am paying for my spells,” I said after a brief moment of thought, and finished counting out my mithril. I didn’t want to owe any favors to anyone, and I also did not want to disrespect a woman.

“Very good,” he bowed. His tone indicated I had made a wise choice. “She has been waiting on you for an hour, and I can bring you to her. While you are meeting, I can collect your spells.”

I followed the attendant’s yellow robes to a small glass elevator. The elevator quickly ascended to the top floor of the spell repository, a significant height. Kiara’s tail twitched, revealing the nervousness I was hiding. When the elevator stopped, there was only one room on the floor. An expansive room appeared to be a massive restaurant or conference room, with only one occupant.

The woman was seated, facing away from me, and staring out across the tops of the buildings in the city. I could see a few people using flying spells to move among the buildings and small skyships ferrying passengers as well. The woman stood and turned, a pleasant smile on her face. Her beauty was unnatural, and she appeared to be the same age as Kyle. Her eyes only briefly drifted to Kiara before locking on me.

“Leave us,” she ordered the attendant, who scrambled back into the elevator. Once he was gone, she addressed me, letting out a tired exhale before talking. “I am here to clean up the mess of my son. Please sit,” she gestured to a seat near her. I nodded and walked forward, slightly apprehensive.

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