World Sphere - 219 -

Chapter 219:

I pushed the Maelstrom to return as quickly as possible to Skyholme. Partially, I wanted to impress our passengers, but also because we had been gone for three days. Wynna and Callem were wooing the five dark elves from the Quartz Creators Guild on the trip, and I thought to drop them off at the Black Spire first, since the Duskhunters frequently visited. Seeing other dark elves should make them feel at home. After a day or two to acclimate to Skyholme, they would be moved to Aegis City to work on the Dungeon Academy buildings.

Once we started receiving shipments of stone from Bherturm, the mages could start working on the Merchant Marine Academy. Remy would be the one coordinating everything, as I had plenty to do myself. As the Maelstrom settled outside the Spire, the tower’s attendants came out to escort them to their temporary rooms. They looked impressed with the Spire, and were obviously sending out their senses as their hands caressed the entryway.

“That group is on a one-year contract,” Callem said from over my shoulder. I turned to the old warrior. We had not talked much on the return trip. “If they enjoy their time here, they might sign an extension to their contract.”

“Do we need them past a year?” I asked worriedly about both the cost and the extent of the buildings Callem wanted.

Callem laughed deeply, “No. But you could sub-contract them out and make some serious coin. The short one is master Siora Norven. The other four are her apprentices. They are probably as good, if not better than, any stone mage in Skyholme. I am sure Remy has laid out plans to utilize their skills.”

“Or Selin or Callem will come up with more buildings they absolutely must have their academies,” I retorted good-naturedly.

“They are your academies, Storme. Both of us are just enjoying the ride—at your expense,” she clapped on the back with a smile and started walking toward the city with Wynna.

The ghost elves were waiting for me, and I planned to settle them personally. Nuvian, Kolvar, and Nuvian’s wife, Solana, seemed apprehensive in the new, strange environment. I had them on the bridge of the Maelstrom, so they could get a clear picture of the floating islands as we approached. I was happy they were sufficiently awed after spending their lives in the Endless Dark. 

Solana was holding her belly and looked the most dazed of the group. I wasn't sure how the people of Skyholme would receive their unusual appearance. I smiled warmly as I explained, “This is the Black Spire. The attendants will settle in. After a few days, when you are comfortable, you can tour the islands with Remy. He will give you a tour of the larger cities to help you decide where you want to set up your shop.”

“When do we start working?” Kolvar asked earnestly. He was the more skilled of the brothers.

“A week. All I am expecting is durability runes on weapons. Remy will get you new styluses capable of melting mithril, and he will supply you with stock weapons to enchant.” I replied. “Your quota will be very manageable to start.” The truth was they were going to be working on weapons for the merchant marines, so I didn’t need them until the first class graduated and signed onto my fleet.

“What about the rings?” Nuvian asked. I had told him about the feather fall and lesser aether shield rings during the trip.

“Just the weapons unless you can learn the tier-three metal shaping spell. Remy will get you both a copy as promised, and we can renegotiate your contracts once you demonstrate your ability to articulate them.” I was happy they were eager, but rings took a master enchanter with numerous supportive spells. Maybe the brothers were using me to learn all the spells they needed to advance their craft, but if I could get a few years' work out of them in the meantime, I would still save myself some serious time and gold.

A young Wolfsguard attendant led them into the Spire, and I finally had some free time. The cats were on the ramp of the Maelstrom, their tails twitching irritably. “Can we hunt now?” Kiara asked. By her tone in my head, I knew she was pouting as she had been bored in Llorth.

“After we check on Freya and visit the Academy,” I told her.

Our visit with Freya was enjoyable as Monty barked and teased the cats, attempting to get them to chase him. I think he was trying to lead them away from Freya, but I wasn’t sure. Monty was a large fluffball and outweighed me, while Kiara and Adrial were rapidly growing phantom cats that would weigh over seven hundred pounds as adults. I had to resize their collars twice in the past two months.

Freya was happily showing off her spell evolutions. Although she lacked a large pool of aether to evolve them quickly with repeated castings, her personal instructors were guiding her through unique methods to maximize each casting she was doing. Talia was one of her instructors, and she smiled proudly as Freya impressed me with her growth. After Freya exhausted her aether, she went to rest, and I had a chance to talk with Talia alone.

“How are delving operations? I thought you were going to supervise the expedition?” I asked, handing her some cold fruit juice.

“The Bacon and Eggs and Night Wraith left yesterday. My team went with them, but I have too much to do here. I ended up putting three delve teams on board to maximize the harvest,” Talia said. “They will stay to complete seven delves. Maybe next round I can break away,” she said pointedly. She was hinting at being overworked, but I knew that was more because she was still taking classes at the Academy while running an expanding operations for Shiny Platinum Delving.

 I nodded slowly, “And Remy approved sending three teams?”

“I wanted our top teams to get familiar with the Goblin Vault. He hired Gareth to fill in on our delve slots in the islands. He also desperately wants those magic tier-one essences the Goblin Vault provides,” Talia said, a grin creeping on her face.

“For how much?” I asked, inquiring what Gareth’s price would be to help bail me out.

“An even split. It is better than not using the slots at all,” she defended her decision.

“Agreed. What about recruitment? How many teams can we add, and still not have Remy pull his hair out?” I said with a smirk.

“The Goblin Vault can only be trusted to loyal teams, so that is limited. I wanted to ask about letting the teams keep every other essence they recovered,” she asked tentatively.

I almost said no immediately because I planned to give most of the essences to my Skyguard. From Talia’s expression, I knew that was the wrong response. The truth was my delve teams earned twice what it cost me to support them. I did give them thousands of gold worth of artificed equipment, but they were risking their lives for me. Also, these essences would make them more effective. I guess I was worried about investing in them and them leaving my service.

“What about every third essence they recover, but they can choose which one they want?” I winced as I offered the compromise. Even though these were tier one essences, their rarity and ease of harvesting made them many-fold more valuable.

 Talia nodded, “Sensible. How are you going to distribute the remaining tier one essences?” Her eagerness gave her away intensions.

“Talk to Remy if you see something you like. Over the next year, I plan to give most to the Skyguard. A few of the affinity essences will end up in the Academy Store,” I said.

Talia’s jaw didn’t work for a moment, but she nodded. “Strengthening your most loyal forces. It is a smart move.”

“I count you and the delve teams among my loyal supporters,” I said, patting her shoulder. I stood and planned to meet with Remy the next day. I just wanted to check in with Selin before taking the cats for some exercise in the Progenitor Dungeon.

Selin’s office was suspiciously quiet, and the sound booth was empty. “The master stone was moved to the subbasement,” Selin said on entering her office and explaining the empty room. She must have seen the Maelstrom land and come up to meet me.

“Why?” I asked, sitting across from her.

“Security reasons. Loriel wanted it moved to Skyhold, since such a valuable tool was vulnerable in the Academy tower,” Selin said nonchalantly.

“So you secured it from her and thieves in one action,” I smirked. It was not the first time Loriel had tried to gain control of the master echo stone.

“I think she was probing you. Probably to get you to storm into her Citadel and confront her.” Selin said.

I sighed. “I am too busy to for politicking. If she wants something, she can ask. I think Aelyn went to see her when we got back, so I am sure I will hear whatever the request is eventually,” I replied. “Any other news?”

“Tarrant might fail out of his first year of classes,” Selin said jokingly. Tarrant was my disguise I used to attend a few classes.

“I am sure he will ace his written exams,” I retorted cheekily. “How are the students doing as a whole?”

“Excellent. Better than expectations. More importantly, next year’s class is shaping up to be exceptional. Our recruiters in the lowlands have already started sending up candidates and we are getting them acclimated,” she said happily. We talked for over an hour about the prospective next class for the academy.

As I was preparing to leave, I noted with a smirk, “I have been here for an hour, and you haven’t asked for more coin.”

“I will let Remy do that,” Selin said with a grin. “The only new expenses I have are for the skyship artificing classes you wanted to add to the Academy to be cross-trained at the Merchant Marine Academy. We have the funds to cover instructors and student scholarships, but we need to establish a budget for materials. As you know, enchanting is an expensive endeavor.”

“Why don’t we just go with silver and wood?” I asked, pausing my departure. Silver was the cheapest aether conductor, and wood was the cheapest insulator.

“We could, but then we are wasting marketable products. The Academy owns everything they make in their classes,” she said apprehensively. “Remy has some projections for you.”

“I am sure he does. We can go over them when I see him tomorrow.” I flew the Maelstrom to the Progenitor Dungeon, and after talking with the guards to make sure the upper levels were open, I entered with the cats to blow off some steam. Well, the cats did, anyway, as they raced through the floors, brutally hunting everything in their path. I sent out some elementals to help, but was primarily the pack mule, cleaning up the mess and harvesting with my tissue extraction spell. At least the reward chests were interesting, with some unique low-tier spellbooks.

We caught up with a training delve team from the Duskhunters Guild and exited on the third floor. They were actually using our delve time since most of my delve teams had departed for the Goblin Vault. The cats' bloodlust was sufficiently satiated, and I cleaned them with my spell as we returned to the Black Spire.

My routine would be back to normal tomorrow, with classes, weapons training, and artificing. As I was preparing dinner, Bleiz walked in. Kiara was delicately eating her plate, while Adrial had long since finished hers and was drooling over Kiara’s. “You are not invisible, so it must be important,” I noted sardonically.

He paused, considered my statement, and shrugged. “Not particularly, just interesting news. The Bruton Kingdom was attacked shortly after the Skyholme task force decimated their fleet.”

“Who attacked them?” I asked as I returned to making dinner, unconcerned about the orc kingdom’s fate.

“Their neighbors. Not only did the Bruton successfully defend themselves, but they also counterattacked and captured a significant amount of territory. The Brutons had powerful castors in their ranks who were not orcs,” Bleiz explained. That matched with what we found on their skyships.

That had me pause. Callem had said something that had me thinking. The shell of the Sphere was like an onion, with many layers. If those layers were populated like the inner Sphere, then their populations in the Endless Dark likely greatly outnumbered those in the lowlands. The Endless Dark was supposed to contain endless horrors and very difficult living conditions, but the prisoners had said some semblance of law and order was taking hold.

“Races from the Endless Dark?” I guessed.

“Human, kobolds, and gray dwarf mages mostly. But yes, from the Endless Dark most likely,” he said. “Found out about the attack in the Adventurer’s Guild in the capital.”

“What were you doing there?” I asked.

“Watching out for your interests. I have a few friends who keep an eye on Guildmaster Huckle,” Bleiz said, helping himself to the strips of marinated pork I was about to sear.

“And?” I asked, with a false sense of anticipation.

“He is preparing an expedition to the Goblin Vault,” Bleiz said without bluster. “A personal expedition. He somehow learned you sent two ships yesterday to continue your audit and is suspicious.”

“Can he afford a personal expedition?” I asked, not expecting Bleiz to have an answer.

“He is selling shares of the harvest. He probably thinks you stumbled upon some unlogged riches,” Bleiz said, chewing the raw pork.

“I did,” I retorted.

“He will never figure out the secret unless someone tells him,” Bleiz said as Aelyn walked in and looked at the dinner longingly. She kissed me and sat at the table to wait for dinner.

“Didn’t you eat at Loriel’s table?” I asked.

“I always have room for your cooking. We had some fascinating conversations with multiple ambassadors, and my dinner was mostly wine,” Aelyn said happily. She really enjoyed being at the heart of the political scheming.

“What does Loriel want?” I asked, not wanting to dance around the subject this evening. I just wanted to enjoy my dinner, do some artificing, and go to sleep.

“What makes you think she wants something?” Aelyn said innocently.

“She tried to take the master echo stone while we were in Llorth. It was just a token “give-me” to get me angry so I would storm into the Citadel to confront her,” I said. Aelyn frowned, and her mood visibly darkened.

Aelyn eventually chuckled, “It is the only thing she has found to get a prompt meeting with you. She likes playing these games even if you do not.” Aelyn sighed, “She didn’t tell the reason, but asked me to bring you to dinner tomorrow. I doubt it is important, if she didn’t tell me directly. You can let her come to you, and I will send her your regrets for not attending.” Aelyn said, supporting me. Aelyn was either mad at Loriel for not telling her what she wanted from me, or she was mad because Loriel was trying to leverage me again for something. I had definitely gotten the best in our last few compromises, so maybe she felt she needed a win.

After dinner, I returned to my artificing, focusing on feather fall rings and prepping some of the swivel cannons to artifice soon. I wondered if the brothers could possibly handle the artificing on swivel cannons eventually, since the runic patterns did not need to be that small. Even if they made a mistake, it would only take me a few seconds to recover and separate the mithril and gold. Aelyn greeted me enthusiastically in our bed when I was finished.

The next morning, my routine was back on track, with Bleiz waking me, attending classes, and then training privately with the weapons instructors before spending much of the day artificing. Sebastian had docked a Harbinger at the Black Spire that had some damage, which I quickly repaired. In the evening, I had my meeting with Remy, Mia, and Talia.

Mia updated me on the registration for the new Merchant Marine Academy. We already had over two hundred applicants for the first class starting in the new year. We had only planned for classes of one hundred, but Mia petitioned for a larger first class. “Storme, most likely most of the class will try to sign on to your traders or with Shiny Platinum Delving. With a larger class, you can be more selective.”

Remy added, “There is a massive shortage of qualified crew in the islands. Only the Naval Academies typically train skyship crews and require a term of service. It is going to be a popular option for many young men and women who want to leave the islands and explore the Sphere.”

“What about instructors? Does Callem have enough to handle such a large class?” I asked, thinking practically. Once all the infrastructure was built, it would only take a few gold to train each crew member annually.

Remy shuffled his stack of papers and slid me an expenditure report for the construction and operation of the new Academy. He had his own copies in front of him and went to a line item. “Callem has only hired two men so far. Retired Admiral Oberon Slade and Captain Remzus Sagra. He plans to have a total of twenty course instructors and twenty drill instructors. Supplemental staff…” He scanned down the sheet. “Forty total for administrative, clerical, groundskeeping, and the kitchens.”

“Okay, let him know he has work to do as the first class will be capped at two hundred,” I said, and Mia shifted uncomfortably. “Two hundred fifty?” Mia gave a slight nod. “Two hundred and fifty it is then. We need buildings, though. How long until stone shipments start arriving?”

Remy shuffled his papers excitedly. “I talked with the dark elf mages yesterday. We should have recruited them long ago! They are more skilled than the mages from the Sadian Empire. I am chartering a heavy merchant to make constant trips until our next trade ship is completed in Bherturm yards and we can take over shipments.”

The discussion turned to dungeon harvests, and Mia excused herself. Talia and Remy then went back and summarized everything I had missed over the last week. Most of it I had already discussed with Talia upon my return. The only concerning note was that frost mead production was down 20% while demand was up 50%. Since I had frozen prices, others were moving in to capitalize by buying the dungeon honey at higher prices than Remy was willing to purchase it for.

Since we controlled access to the Ivy Vault Dungeon, it just meant we needed to send in our own delve teams, which were currently in short supply. That turned to Talia having to interview and audition more delvers and finding the medium of teams we could support with Remy’s input. The meeting ended up lasting much longer than normal but it gave us direction. Soon, Callem would be part of the daily debriefings, but he still had obligations to the Naval Academy.

After the meeting, the cats accompanied me to check on Nuvian, Kolvar, and Solana. Remy had ordered their styluses, but it would be a few days before they were delivered through the portals. I left them with some silver and the runes for the swivel cannons so they could start practicing the patterns.

So far, the ghost elves seemed in good spirits and were deciding between settling in Aegis City or Solaris City. When Remy had explained the cost of living in the capital, they decided on one of the smaller cities.

One of the Spire attendants came to get me as Loriel had arrived to meet with me. I met her in one of the reception rooms in the tower. She was not alone, with Aelyn, Sebastian, Callem, Prince Antioch, and two others from the Sadian Empire. “Sorry, I missed dinner,” I quipped.

Loriel pursed her lips. Prince Antioch spoke since it was clear Loriel was not happy. “It is fine, High Mage. Admiral Sakis can give you the briefing now.” He nodded to one of the Sadians I did not recognize.

He placed an opaque crystal down on the table and began talking while a three-dimensional image played out above the crystal. “Two days ago, the Adventuring Guild received this from a gold adventurer. The city of Aloron was attacked. Although it is some twenty thousand miles from here, the Guild’s expecting more attacks since the city is now very difficult to reach with the destruction of its portal by the recent World Walker attacks.”

I watched the crystal intently as the scene played out. It looked like an ant hill had been torn open in the center of the city as thousands of creatures, goblinoids and humanoids, poured out from the earth. It was fascinating to watch, even knowing hundreds of people were dying. The image zoomed out, and it was clear that whoever was making the recording was fleeing the area. As the image froze, I looked up.

“Yes,” Loriel said a little conceitedly. “The Sphere is about to enter another Age of War.”

© Copyrighted 2024, 2025 by AlwaysRollsAOne

No Permission is given to translate, copy, or repost this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon it has been stolen without my permission and is a violation of DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or alteration of this notification is an acknowledgment that you are aware you are in violation of DMCA.