Resurrection (The Stork Tower Book 7)
Page 48
They talked for another half an hour, then Kaiden said, “I’ll get these ideas drawn up and get them to the number crunchers later today. I suspect they’ll send an invoice tomorrow sometime. Once you agree, then I’ll start production. I’ll add a timeline to the quote, but we already have most of the components for the three largest models. We’ve never configured them like this, but it shouldn’t take long, maybe a week or two.”
After Leah had thanked him, she logged out.
STORK TOWER
Back in the Tower she asked Géng to draw up the design to send to Stephen and the Emerald Trustees with the request for a patent. She’d asked Géng rather than Three because the patent would need to be in both their names, Gèng having come up with a number of the suggestions in the earlier design phase.
Leah still had almost an hour virtual before she was going to head back into Dunyanin and went to sit by the river to think through her next few steps. She found the gentle ripple of the water as it played against her skin to be soothing. She asked Three to equip her bathing suit instead of her everyday clothes, and she wandered out into the river. She enjoyed letting her feet sink into the sand and the slightly muffled impressions as the flowing water interplayed with the images being portrayed against her skin. Finally, she let herself float gently downstream towards, and under, the various bridges. As she reached an area of rapids, she sat on a rock and let the water build up against her back and force its way around her. She finally let most of her cares slowly fade away.
She felt Gèng floating towards her and shifted over so they could share the rock. Gèng said, “4: I’ve never seen you do this. It was different. I hadn’t really considered swimming in the river, but it was calming, once I got used to the cooler temperature.”
“I’ve never done it before. Mum wasn’t keen on us swimming in the Brisbane River. I read about people doing it, and you’re right, it was calming.”
“4: Did you reach any conclusions in your musings?”
“Was it that obvious?”
“4: It was to me, but don’t forget I live in your head. Three gives me access to the different measures, and your serotonin levels are high.”
“I’ve been pondering who to ask to join me in Dunyanin. I talked to Thad, Amy and Wisp and while they would love to, they suggested they don’t have high enough levels. Thad and Amy are about the same and Thad’s almost at level three hundred. Granite, Jack and his group come to mind, but they were only thirty or forty above that, last I heard.”
“4: What was the conclusion?”
“To invite them anyway. I have four spots to use for entering dungeons, but there will be lots of other things happening. I like being pushed, but I think the last two dungeons were really prepared with eight people in mind.”
“4: Eight seems strange with the line in the poem mentioning five.”
“I know. I think it has to do with something later in the larger quest and not so much with who travels with you. Either way, I decided to invite Thad, Amy and Wisp. I could ask Zack and James, but neither of them has really worked hard to get a high enough level to make me very confident that I’d ever choose them. The others I was thinking about were Jack and his group. I kind of gelled with Granite and Mist. Smash would be helpful. Most of them would work well, but I’d need to get the mix right of scouts, mages and tanks.”
“4: So invite them all and explain what you are thinking. Just from the number of people headed your way, I think an army wouldn’t hurt. Do you have a preference who joins you?”
“With Ming, Orta and Küçük, if I ever find them again, that leaves four places. I think it would be good to have a scout slash ranger like Amy or Mist, a dedicated mage like Wisp or even Nemo, and a couple of tanks. Thad, Granite, Smash or Jack would work.”
“4: You could advertise like some of the others are doing.”
“I know that might make sense, but I like these other people and miss playing with them. I’ll send the message and work on potions and defences today. I’ll use Lady Serseri’s Chest of Communication to get the ingredients from Peter and see if he can work out a way to get Thad and the others closer to me.”
“4: Ask if you can use Lord Seyahat’s Artefact?”
After a few more minutes of just sitting, Leah and Gèng left the river and wandered up to the Tower in the moonlight. Leah got changed, and after double-checking everything Gèng had prepared, she sent the messages and a list of ingredients to Peter. Then, she entered Dunyanin.
68
December 26 2073 - 6
DUNYANIN
As Leah felt Dunyanin form around her, she could sense both Yürek and Melez were nearby with the others, including Sevelin outside her range. As she came to her feet, she felt Yürek approach and take up a position to one side.
"Good morning, Yürek. I suppose both İşaret and Yüzük are keeping watch for those who would seek to attack us?"
“Y