World Sphere - 164 -

Chapter 164

It had been just over a year since the Black Mauraders had attacked Skyholme. The Night Moon, controlled by the Black Mauraders, had passed overhead with no retribution from the organization. Each of the twenty-three moons in the Sphere was the size of a planet and had its own set of ley lines, dungeons, and populations in the hundreds of millions.

The Sphere’s interior surface was infinitely larger than a single moon, so our insignificance in repelling the Sky King and fleet should not have surprised us. We still expected some type of retribution in the future. I was also planning my own quest to hunt members of the organization for attacking Skyholme and killing my father.

I was relaxing on the fourth floor of the Black Spire.  From here, I could see the tops of the buildings in Wolfsguard town, now named Wolfhaven.  All the Wolfsguard had been made whole with my lesser restoration spell in the months after the Black Maurader attack.  It was a very inefficient use of the spell, but I had evolved it for this specific purpose.  Regenerating an arm took nearly an hour and almost half my considerable aether core.  Still, I followed through on my promise to Asger and his people.  It had bought their loyalty, and they worked the orchards and the specialized aether fields for me.

The two skyship cradles below the Spire held the Dark Tide and Sky Wraith. Two Harbingers floated on the pond nearby. I was to refurbish both for Sovereign Loriel and the Skyholme Navy. Sovereign Loriel and Prince Consort Antioch now ruled the Skyholme Islands as a city-state of the Sadian Empire. The Triumvirate still existed but only to assist the two Sovereigns.

The Shiny Platinum II, situated between the cradles, had my Wolfsguard and Navy men mingling as they waited for me to service their ships. These would be the last two rune refurbishments I would need to complete before I left. I looked to the ascending stairs to my right. Above me were the ancient sealed chambers of the powerful mage who had split the islands. I was to meet Sana Vellin in the elven city of Myththorne.

In Myththorne, I was to forge an adamantine blade for the Elven Emperor to be his legacy for his successor. Myththorne had a deep dungeon on its fifteenth floor that produced adamantine in small quantities. After the task was complete, I was to meet an associate of Sana who needed to be convinced to come back to Skyholme to break into the sealed chambers at the top of the Black Spire.

My thoughts were interrupted as Freya came running up the stairs, “Storme!! I did it!! I learned my fourth spell!!”

I smiled at her enthusiasm. She had already learned cleanliness, privacy, and mend flesh. She had struggled with the mend flesh spell and gave up trying to learn dimensional pocket. Like Bleiz she had an aversion to space magic. She had been working on her fourth spell for almost five months. “Show me,” I said, giving her my full attention. She skidded to a stop as Kiara craned her neck back to see as well. Adrial, was too busy sunning herself on the balcony to be bothered with human affairs.

She focused on her hand, and a blue screen rapidly encompassed her body. It was a basic mage armor spell. Unlike my aether shield spell, which was tier 2 and much stronger, mage armor created a visible protective layer around the caster’s body. It would require a number of evolutions to become strong enough for real combat. “Impressive!” I noted, testing it by flicking her forehead.

She slapped my hand away, “Can I go into the dungeon now? Lorae is already going in with the Duskhunters,” she whined. Then she added, “Gareth promised to watch over me.” She was bouncing excitedly, and Kiara quickly stretched at the mention of the dungeon, getting herself limber. Kiara and Adrial loved hunting the blink bunnies and unihorn goats on the first level. Adrial had even attempted to fight the hippogriff once but instead had been caught by it, flown into the air, and dropped. Her collar protected her, but she never returned to the hippogriff’s lair.

“Gareth is heading with me tomorrow to Myththorne.” Her face fell at my words. “When we come back, we both will take you,” I said, causing her to smile. I rubbed her head, messing her hair. Freya had grown but was still only 5’3” to my 6’3”.

Talia came up the stairs, “Storme!” She slowed her excitement. “Oh, she already found you.” Talia had taken over Freya’s mage training after Sana Vellin had returned to the lowlands. She was a good teacher but liked to tease her like a younger sister. No doubt she had planned to include me in the teasing when Freya showed me her new imprinted spell. Talia was in charge of all my delve teams.

I asked about the delve teams, “How are the delves going?”

Talia kneeled by Adrial to pet the large black cat’s fur. The cat started purring loudly at the attention. “Aelyn’s team was first again this week. But it is just cheating when she has Hyperion on her team.”

The powerful and flamboyant elf had decided to remain in Skyholme. Hyperion had an ability that allowed him to capture an object in a field of force. It was powerful enough to hold a skyship or even a dragon. Most of his crew remained, and I paid off those that had bounties posted in the Adventurer’s Guild. The Dark Tide was Aelyn’s ship, and Hyperion served as her captain along with the five remaining minotaurs. Glint led the group of bullmen and was also part of Aelyn’s delve team. The minotaurs were a bit of a handful for the Shiny Platinum II staff when they drank.

Aelyn’s other two delve team members were Bleiz and Nisil. Nisil was a Wolfsguard healer who once served Admiral Sebastian but had retired to Wolfhaven to be their town healer. She delved to generate coin for the town. I paid all the Wolfsguard that worked on my estate, but it was not much as inflation had taken hold as trade was now flourishing across the islands.

Talia added, “My team was second, and Namira’s was third. Remy said the harvest was up 7% this week.” I nodded slowly and asked her to continue, “We only got one delve in the Frost Vault this week. The adventurers from the lowlands are hoarding all the tokens, and the new Guildmaster in the capital is allowing it,” she huffed angrily.

I rubbed my forehead in a migraine. The new Guildmaster was trying to leverage his control over the other dungeons in Skyholme to gain access to my private dungeon on the estate. The Progenitor Dungeon just offered too many unique harvests to allow others to cut into my profit. Already, the Duskhunters were over-farming it on their dungeon runs, and the dungeon itself was getting irritated with their efficiency by adding traps on the lower floors.

“See if you can get Gareth to get us some more tokens to the Frost Vault. They drink together all the time in Skyhold,” I advised. Talia nodded but knew it was probably pointless. The High Mage of Skyholme held no influence over the Guildmaster or the Adventurer’s Guild.

“Is Gareth going with you tomorrow?” Talia asked, somewhat interested.

I rolled my eyes and didn’t know how the gigolo Gareth had got Talia’s attention. Gareth seemed to have a new woman every week, and at least five angry women were cursing his name in the background. I had offered to bring in his team under the umbrella of Shiny Platinum Delving, but he wouldn’t hear of it. His delve team had started to make a consistent profit over the last year. But as with most delve successful delve teams, lifestyle creep kept them mostly poor, either with luxuries, new equipment, or repairing equipment.

“He is bringing his delve team to Myththorne to delve the Cavern of the Thunder Witch. It is an expansive dungeon with no limit on the number of entrants,” I told her. “And before you ask, no, you can not bring your delve team.”

“Is Aelyn going?” Talia asked with a smirk.

I bit my tongue as if I had not asked her. Did she assume she was coming? I should probably ask. “She hasn’t decided yet,” was my response. I took one last look out at the expanse and left Freya and Talia on the fourth floor to go to my suite on the floor below. The phantom cats were on my heels as I entered and went to the bedroom. “Are you getting up anytime soon?”

Aelyn rolled over in the bed and stretched like a cat under the sheets. “Ugh, I drank too much frost mead with Glint at the Shiny Platinum II last night after the delve,” Aelyn replied. I opened up the curtains to let in some light.

The room was a mess of dirty clothes, which she expected me to clean. I sighed and used my cleanliness spell to clean the dirty clothes from her late-night delve. Her delve team always took the time slot no one wanted and went drinking right after, well, everyone except Bliez and Nisil. Aelyn rolled out of bed and started to dress, “Can you?”

I used my neutralize poison and lesser restoration on her. The one thing I couldn’t cure was her mental fatigue. “I wanted to ask if you are coming to Myththorne with me tomorrow.”

Aelyn paused in dressing, “I thought I was. Did you think I was not?” Her blue eyes locked on mine. I knew better than to get into an argument about this. Sometimes, Aelyn started an argument for the fun of the verbal sparring.

“I am taking the Maelstrom. Just make sure you are on board when I lift off,” I said, killing any argument. She put on her pouty face. “I also told the attendants to stop cleaning up your clothes. I will be artificing.”

Aelyn grabbed my arm and indicated herself with the other. “I will use the cleanliness spell on you when you clean up after yourself,” I said with a smirk.

Aelyn’s eyes were mischievous, “Fine, I will just shower instead—and you are not invited!” She stripped in seconds and was in the bathroom. It had taken a lot of artificing to get complete plumbing into the suites as the black stone the tower was made of was indestructible. But I had accomplished the feat. Aelyn knew she was pushing my buttons as the first time we had consummated our relationship was in the shower when she walked in on me.

I went to my artificing lab to work on projects. The material I had recovered from the wreckage of the Sky King had supplied me for months. The only thing I lacked was adamantine, and I was very inefficient in creating that metal. Most of my aether went to my free healing services. After I restored the Wolfsguard, I offered the same regeneration services to anyone in Skyholme.

Hundreds of people had been maimed in the attacks and lacked the coin to be restored by the three other mages in Skyholme that could regenerate limbs. So, once a week, I would go to the Shiny Platinum and restore one or two people. My mother was in charge of managing who was getting the healing every week, and she usually chose children or mothers. My uncle and cousins had moved to Aegis City shortly after my father’s services, and he kept badgering me about sponsoring my cousins to an academy.

I refused, and he started to work on my mother. My uncle and cousins couldn’t afford the costs of living in the city and eventually moved to one of the surrounding towns. Bleiz did not like my uncle, and I shared the sentiment. When I did my healing at the Shiny Platinum, my uncle always seemed to be there, and I never saw him with his wife after my father’s funeral.

I offered to resettle my mother another in the islands, but she liked the Shiny Platinum and was good friends with Ennet, whose business as a reader had exploded since free trade opened. She was an excellent reader even by the lowlands standard and had appointments booked out months in advance. The last reading she did on me revealed my own progress.

My spell matrix had improved to 44 with a potential of 110. I had learned two new spells in the last year: telescopic eye, a tier one air spell, and flight, a tier three air spell. My aether matrix had 36 slots filled, giving me eight free slots. This was just enough to learn Lightning Elemental, a tier-five lightning spell. I had been working on imprinting the tier-five spell for months and was making slow progress as my skills were needed everywhere else.

I was looking forward to having a surrogate fighter in combat. Tier five spells were extremely rare, and their power was always remarkable. They took a lot of aether to cast, but I did not lack aether. My recent aether pool reading had it at an incredible 11,208, and it had almost doubled in the last year. According to the joint reading by Wynna and Ennet, my maximum potential was 23,098. That number had only crept up slightly from 23,060.

I removed my compendium of from my dimensional closet. I was making my own runic drawings, adding in my signature style to the runes. If people did not know better, they would think the elegance of the runes was done by a dungeon and not an artificier. Over the last year, I had equipped my guards with a number of artifacts.

The number of Wolfsguard was in flux, but currently, I had forty-six Wolfsguard on the Sky Wraith and another twenty-two human guards at the Black Spire that all got the four pieces of runic equipment from me. Each one got a primary runic weapon of their choice with two enchantments and a secondary weapon with one enchantment. Everyone got the same shield rings, which had saved a number of Wolfsguard when the Mauraders had attacked.

Only the Wolfsguard on the Sky Wraith got feather fall rings as the fourth piece of their kit. The Spire guards instead got alarm rings. All the alarm rings were linked so the guards would be alerted if one activated. The guards patrolled the entire estate but were barracks at the Black Spire.

The silvery-colored guard uniforms were also enchanted to remain clean and resisted tearing and puncturing. I enjoyed practicing with the Wolfsguard when I had time. Pakkam always wanted me to go all out and would send seven or eight of his crew at me at a time to make it even. It helped me level and evolve my spellcraft.

Kiara’s head snapped up as I was working on a ring. A moment later, a knock sounded on my door. I was annoyed as I asked never to be disturbed when I worked on my artificing. Adrial was stretching slowly, but she had not heard whoever it was approach. Kiara was not excited either so I was guessing whoever was here I would not be excited either. “Enter,” I said, breaking the arcane lock on the door with a thought.

Bylura, the white Wolfsguard, and servant to Sovereign Loriel, entered. She offered a smile, “Storme, you look well this afternoon.”

“I am going to refurbish the Harbinger’s before I leave,” I guessed on why she was here.

“Good. But not why I am here. Princess Amelia has requested an escort home,” Bylura said with a smile smile. Amelia had not given up on her odd way of courting me until I plainly told Aelyn and I were sleeping together. After that final rebuff, she put her energy into establishing strong trade relations with the Principality of Marstom.

“She can use the portals and be home in a day or two,” I said dismissively.

“She purchased and refurbished one of the crashed Black Maurader skyships. She is seeking an escort home,” Bylura explained. I nodded as I knew the two Navy skyships from the Principality had returned home months ago. I could see why they were coming to me as I pictured the lowland map in my head. It would not be far out of my way. Of course, the Maelstrom was much faster than any other ship in the region. All six aether crystals from the Sky King now powered my little ship, increasing its top sustainable speed north of 4000 mph.

I had spent a lot of time reworking the runes on the ship, and once you passed the 2000 mph speed threshold, the aether cost went up exponentially. Fortunately, I could travel at 4000 mph with the six powerful crystals and still regenerate aether. It made flying the little ship enjoyable.

I debated the request for a few moments. I didn’t dislike Princess Amelia. It was just that escort missions sucked. “What is her best? The Princess’ ship, that is,” I inquired.

Blyura twitched her nose, “About 1,100, I think.” That was not too terrible. I did the math in my head, so it would take three days to reach the Principality.

“Okay. I will escort her home if she is at the Spire in the morning, ready to leave,” Bylura’s eyes went wide in surprise. I was not known for doing favors without being compensated. Before I could change my mind, she left.

I stopped my work on some experimental rings and went to finish the two Harbingers. The two cats followed me outside. The two Harbingeres were flowing on the T-docks on the small pond I had excavated. Six soldiers were on deck and vacated the ship as I came aboard. The cats leaped up as well. I liked to work in quiet.

I spent most of the night finishing the two ships for Skyholme. My compensation was that any Wolfsguard that wished to could their Wasp assignments and move to Wolfhaven on my estate. After I finished the second Harbinger, I returned to the Spire and went to the basement. My alchemist, Otto, worked here. He was sleeping but had a number of potions ready for the trip. I rarely used the potions, but it was always better to have them and not need them than it was to need them and not have them.

I recruited Otto from the lowlands, and he was probably the best alchemist in Skyholme. The aether crops were grown almost exclusively for his work. Most of the potions went to my three delve teams, and the overstock was sold in Aegis City at the Shiny Platinum.

I returned to my suite and found Aelyn already asleep. I didn’t disturb her as I got into bed and got a few hours of rest before the morning. Kiara and Adrial lounged out at the base of the bed, guarding my rest.

In the morning, the Maelstrom landed at the Spire. Remy was flying her. Cilia and Leda were not coming on this trip. Walking up the ramp, the cargo hold was full of crates, and I shook my head. Remy had caught the trading bug. I didn’t need any more coin, but he enjoyed trading. I still had platinum and gold left from salvaging the Sky King in my dimensional closet. Neoma and Tibault, two of my Wolfsguard were in the cargo bay. They were coming for the sole purpose of guarding the Maelstrom.

Bleiz was on the bridge and ready to leave. Kiara and Adrial went to the forward window and lay down, waiting for liftoff. Aelyn arrived on the bridge a few moments after me. “You could have waited for me, Storme.” I was about to remind her that she told me not to wait for her just ten minutes ago but decided the effort was not worth it.

Remy was excited to leave until I told him we were headed to the Principality first. As if revealing this information summoned her, a black skyship splashed down on the pond where the Harbingers had been until last night. It was a medium ship, and I could see the Princess on the deck waving at us. My forward glass was one-way viewing, so she could not see us. Aelyn volunteered, “I will go talk with her. When are we leaving?”

We were supposed to take Bleiz, Remy, myself, the cats, two guards and Gareth’s delve team. I looked around and asked, “Where’s Gareth?”