by Zack Finley
I talked to him about my experience knocking over the guard tower only to have the mage try to kill me. The king's guard had told him the person who liberated the camp nearly died, but he hadn't been aware it was Argon and me.
I was trying to distract him as I sent pulses of healing into his head. I left the jagged bits in the brain but banished a small ring of undamaged skull surrounding the dented section. I held it in place using force magic and slowly allowed the skull to lift up. I could see this relieved some of the pressure on his brain and was pleased when he said his head didn't hurt as bad. I removed incremental bone from inside this area, healing the brain tissue as I went. The final section required serious finesse as I banished the last needlelike shards of bone. I set up an auto-pulse of healing into the area designed to constantly repair the damage and dissolve several large clots caused by the injury.
Jeek knew I was doing something, especially as I had his head clamped in a force magic vise to prevent movement. I pulsed health magic into his brain until no further healing registered and then regrew his skull over the hole.
I sent a health pulse through him and healed damage caused by rape and beatings. While the death of his family was at the top of his thoughts, I was surprised he had already moved past the slavers' treatment of him. They were dead, and he was making a fresh start. He considered joining the king's guard, but his injury prevented it. He couldn't imagine returning to his destroyed village. The memories were too haunting.
For him, Toffad's Keep was a new start.
I released him. I suggested he clean up, have a meal, and take it easy for a day or two. I told him to let someone know if his headache returned or he had any new symptoms.
I messaged Cleon and Marfo that Jeek might be a possible leader in either our guard or a militia, though right now I was thrilled to have a blacksmith.
I rechecked Afleit, and my healing pulses had done their job. I eased her out of the coma and told her to take it easy on her shoulder for the rest of the day. I assured her we needed bakers and she should begin exercising her shoulder tomorrow to get its full use back.
We wrapped up the last patients and joined our management table. I was pleased to see everyone but Inoa, Cleon, and Capt. Malek was wearing livery. Argon and I were the only ones in battle dress. Everyone else had chosen patrol dress. I was happy no one was in formal attire. After all, this was a working meal.
All of our recruits, our new duchy guard, and about half of our refugees were shuttling gear from the delivery area to the new residences on the top floor.
"Findot has decided to live on the top floor with the refugees," Argon sent. "If it is good enough for the refugees she said it was good enough for her. I got the impression she was displeased with our treatment of the refugees."
"I, too, wish we had better quarters available for them," I sent back. "Besides, don't we want Findot to develop a robust sense of what is right?"
"True, but now she is so judgmental," Argon sent. "She behaves like we are abusing these people for some vile purpose."
"I need immediate help," Marfo said without preamble. "I need mages to help with communications, transport, and enchanting. I have a stack of resumes, but I have five I know very well and would like to hire them tonight."
"I have several apprentices who would like to join us, too," Clive said.
"I've interviewed a village full of farmers, foresters, cooks, bakers, blacksmiths, seamstresses, tavern workers and a lot more," said Argon. "They are ready to come when we can receive them."
I waited to see what Tobron would do.
"Marfo, how many mages have applied?" asked Tobron.
"About 200," Marfo replied.
This information stunned most of my team. I know I hadn't expected this many to apply this early.
"That's great," I said. "Are they all from Klee?"
"Mostly," said Marfo.
"How many mages do we think live in this country?" I asked.
"Nearly 20,000 in the country of Klee," said Jord. Most everyone around the table nodded.
"Hire the mages you've selected on a probationary basis," said Tobron to both Marfo and Clive. "Then begin interviewing the rest as soon as we get a little breathing room."
"I am reluctant to turn away anyone who meets our honor requirement," I said. "If they want to be a part of our family and are willing to work hard to make this a success, I want them, too."
"I also understand we cannot house, feed, or absorb everyone at once," I added in response to some panicked looks. "Everyone we bring in will be expected to be flexible, to pitch in the way a family does. Right now, our focus is on welcoming our new people from Augun. I hope we'll be bringing in scores of refugees from Ylee and Kavil as well. If we don't keep Losan from crashing, we'll bring in refugees from there as well. While we are feeling overwhelmed today," I pointed at our Augun group in line getting their meal, "I expect we will still be overwhelmed a year from now. Some things will get easier, but we will continue pushing our boundaries far into the future."
I asked for an update on the critical pieces needed to get all the Augun refugees settled.
"We brought about 40 in today," Jord began. "We are looking at about 200 more. It will depend on the decision people make on our last trip to a camp. Check your teleport assignments on the action plan; we'd like at least 20 trips tomorrow."
"Loma and I will complete the stonework and new appliances tonight before bedtime for the entire group," said Clive. "The Duchy Guard has been great, moving the appliances from storage into position. Local companies are delivering the last appliances right now. When we start our next building spurt, I suggest purchasing used units."
"Already on it, uncle," said Marfo. "One of our biggest challenges is getting deliveries into the inner city. We now have a traffic jam at our delivery door; several of the Duchy Guard are in the streets directing traffic. We've got even more supplies in the warehouse on the docks. We'll be moving a lot of these overnight during delivery hours. We made the conscious choice for many vendors to deliver bedding and other household goods directly here. In some ways getting deliveries to the keep would be easier, once we move there."
"The folks who came today will be spreading out in the upstairs residences in the morning, prepping areas for the next arrivals," said Jord. "Some of the younglings will come here tomorrow. Alba, some of the most injured people will be in this next wave. We recruited the first group of leaders, now we want to get our most at-risk people here soonest so we can care for them. I also have a stack of letters already from today's group to take back with us. I suspect these may prompt more applicants to join the keep."
"Security continues to be a concern," said Inoa. "We have pre-scanned most of those coming here, but scan them before bringing them here. If in doubt, leave them until last. We have so many things in motion we may miss someone, so be alert for signs the wards are affecting someone. If you think someone is struggling, let Marfo, Argon, or myself know immediately. It may be necessary to stun them and return them to Augun. For all others we need to administer the oath of fealty promptly, this will protect us all. No one who has taken the oath should leave our facility without a mind shield. We don't have enough mundane mind shields for everyone. That may take weeks, although Marfo is working on it. In the interim, if someone must leave our facility give them a loaner shield, they can return it when they get back inside our wards for the next person to use."
There was plenty more to discuss, but it felt we had made tremendous progress. Our group was gelling well. I was happy to see Capt. Malek talking with Marfo. He was volunteering several of his crew to help in the warehouse.
We stood in line to get our meals and chatted with those in line with us. Everyone had a sense of purpose. No one was dawdling; most were wolfing their meal so they could get back to their tasks. I scanned several of our earlier patients to see if they were feeling okay. They were regretting our light duty restrictions, but I was happy to note they were still pitching in w
here they could.
Argon and Inoa sat together over dinner to prepare for tomorrow’s meeting with King Arvich.
Tobron, Cleon, and I discussed glappners. I shared my tactics, and we discussed other effective close-range combat techniques. One of Cleon's favorite weapons was a force edge on his right-hand claws. He shared his sheathe design, which prevented them from cutting him. Tobron preferred turning his whole hand into a force blade. They thought I could turn my hand into a fire blade. Both men looked at my kukri and thought I should order several on a trial basis.
I was bemoaning having blocked off all the corridors in the port building. If they'd still been open, we could just fill the place with seawater for a day or two. Tobron reminded me if we hadn't we would have hundreds of loose ghost glappners to deal with. He thought it was likely a few dormant glappners reacted to having something alive nearby. Tobron hoped stone walls kept the glappners insulated from our life energy. He also thought we should flood the central area with seawater to kill any dormant pods that hadn't hatched yet. He was worried they would keep hatching and we'd have to kill more and more of them if we didn't. He said we should be able to banish small sections of the stone we placed between the floors without going back in.
"We need a tavern," announced Tobron. "Argon, should we send for your tavern crew to set up ours?"
Inoa and Argon came over to sit with us.
"The man and wife are ready to come when we want them. She is a great cook, and he is a fine brewmeister. They have two sets of twins who help out around the place," said Argon.
"If we prioritize it we'll never have time for a tavern," said Tobron. "I think we need a place inside our wards where our people can have some fun. This is a safety issue."
Inoa looked at him with an indulgent smile. "You mean you want to have a place you can go and drink faral with your friends."
"Very true," Tobron admitted, "But, I'm hoping to recruit most of them to our cause. A tavern could also be a recruiting tool."
Argon said she'd find out when they could show up.
Alba spent her meal consulting with Loma. She and Loma brought Argon and me a large armful of depleted healing amulets and asked us to charge them overnight. Loma then left to help Clive.
Inoa and Tobron still had to move in; as did Alba and Cleon.
Argon and I still had a lot of force magic available. We asked the team what we could do to help get everyone settled. Marfo handed us a crate of mind shields to charge overnight. There were also several crates of bedding in the warehouse; we could take directly to the new residential area. She sent us both ends of the teleport, to speed things up.
We were exhausted when we finally got to bed, but our new residents were sleeping in their new digs. Volunteers were standing by all night to receive shipments from local vendors and from our warehouse with members of the Duchy Guard providing security.
Today had been a good day.
◆◆◆
Chapter 18
The bustle at breakfast reminded everyone it was going to be another big day at the downtown HQ. There were a lot of bleary eyes, and chee was extremely popular this morning.
Alba left first, but her departure precipitated a mass exodus. Capt. Malek and Clive were off to see the wharf at Toffad's Keep. They promised to stay away from the glappners. Marfo and Jord sat with their teams of workers. Marfo had already contacted her new hires; some were due to arrive this morning, with the rest due by tomorrow.
One of Marfo's first priorities was to set up a communications hub. One of her new people was already on site for that function. Ellte was a talented mind mage. Her job was to be the communication hub, linking all of our sites via com-cards with our mundanes and directly with our mages.
Jord would need her help today.
Argon left to pick up Virn, the man she'd recruited to run our tavern. He would come first and get the ball rolling. Argon would bring Virn's mate and younglings when he felt the time was right. She left his mate a com-card dialed to Ellte.
Argon introduced Virn to Marfo and Ellte. Argon gave him the oath and handed him a mind shield. She took him down to look over the tavern before providing him with several precious metal bars to purchase supplies. Virn had been to Klee many times in the past to purchase supplies with his father, and he felt he could open for a modest business by nightfall.
Tobron was pleased to learn this.
Loma was eager to talk about my batteries. She was close to initiating a force battery at the downtown HQ to power teleport services between the warehouse and headquarters. She wanted to start with a teleport for small amounts of material from the warehouse. Depending on the outcome, she would expand it to include teleporting people and larger quantities of goods. She wanted to work out the details before we expanded to include the keep.
She collaborated with Alba to begin harvesting excess health magic as soon as the force magic battery was operational. Loma could see a variety of future benefits, but initially, Alba would use the magic to bolster her own healing activities and to recharge health amulets.
Loma was planning to implement a battery for the remaining magics next. She wasn't sure how she would use them but imagined them powering the wards, our appliances, and enchantments. She suspected we would have to maintain a registry of devices and was already being challenged to get our new mages hooked up to the management system. She was talking with Inoa about establishing a duchy sigil. This could have some benefits, but it wasn't something we should deploy without thinking through all the ramifications.
Loma also had her eye on several former employees at her appliance company who seemed interested in joining our enterprise. I agreed she needed help and told her to hire as needed on a probationary basis, but to let Marfo know.
I popped up to the new residential floor to see what was happening. There was still a lot of bare stone, but we now had signs of habitation. Pillows and rugs were the main features in the common areas. While I preferred chairs, I recalled from Inoa's dining room that many Jaloans prefer pillows. As Marfo had reminded us, pillows and bedding are a lot easier to acquire in bulk than real furniture. I noted someone had positioned chairs, water fountains, and plants from the other residential floors strategically around the area.
No solid doors on the bedrooms, but the plush drapes in their place seemed a better choice in this open environment anyway.
I greeted several of the crew folding and stacking towels and other toiletries in the communal shower areas and toilet facilities. Clive and Loma had done a great job in the layout and with their choice of appliances. My mind reading app confirmed how pleased our new residents were with the facilities.
By now, Argon and I were getting antsy about our upcoming meeting with King Arvich. Orik notified us the meeting was set for an hour before noon. We had time to help Jord but not enough time to tackle the glappner infestation before the meeting.
We shuttled 21 recruits from the camps to the downtown keep, dropping them off for orientation in the food court. We cleaned up and prepared to 'port to Jorvik's location to set up a few minutes early.
Jorvik showed us into a small office next to the conference room. I promised to apprise him of our findings. We agreed to join them in the conference room as soon as we knew anything. Argon cut a small eyehole into the corner of the room with a good view of the conference room. We'd brought several sets of mage cuffs and sat down to await King Arvich’s arrival. Inoa was on standby.
King Arvich and his party arrived right on time. Jorvik met him at the customer lounge of the armorer's guild and escorted them up to the meeting room.
Jorvik sent us the names and titles of those accompanying the king. The king’s escort included a transport mage, Commander Allixon of the king's guard and two guard attendants. Inoa teleported in to join us.
Argon and Inoa began breaking into the two mage's mind shields. I started working on the two guards.
The mind shields for the two king's guards were better than average but
no match for my current skill level. The two men were recruited for their weapon skills, not their intellect. They were also loyal to the king. I went deep enough to verify they were not mages in disguise before advising Inoa and Argon they were fine.
Argon had broken through the transport mage's shield using her erosion technique. I couldn't see her on my mind reading app but could read her clearly in Argon's mind. She seemed a good person, loyal to the king and not involved in any plot.
Inoa was still working on the commander as Jorvik escorted the king and his entourage into the conference room. Argon broke through King Arvich's mind shield and failed to detect any complicity in any of the plots.
We sensed Inoa was struggling to break through Commander Allixon's shield. I sent a message to Jorvik to ask whether the commander was a mage and received a message back that Allixon was no mage.