by Eric Vall
“Is there any water nearby?” I murmured to myself as I walked alongside the building I had just created.
I closed my eyes and stretched out my senses to see if I could find a river or creek. There had to be something, considering a village had been built here. No one would build far away from a source of water. I furrowed my brow and concentrated, and a moment later, it paid off.
There.
Deep in the earth beneath our feet, I could sense a reservoir of water. There were also holes that reached down to it, wells built by the Asurans when they first erected the village.
More than a little curious, I followed the trail of the water and realized it stretched all the way to Hatra. At that point, along the border of the forest, my senses felt like they’ve been stretched too thin, so I pulled back to the village.
I returned to the area where I physically was and focused on the water. If I could force the water to the surface somehow, like a geyser, then that would solve the issue of running water.
The water was underneath what felt like a solid plate of stone, and there was enough pressure that if I forced part of the stone aside, it would rise up to the surface.
So, I did just that.
A moment later, a solid stream of water burst through the soft surface soil and created a geyser that shot into the sky.
Immediately, I pulled stone upward to form a giant stone tank around the hole. I could feel the constant thudding of the water as it hit the surface of the tank, so that meant there was pressure. Then I formed a tap on one side of the tank and pulled up a trough in front of it in order to catch the water released from the tap.
“That’s incredible,” Alyona exclaimed as she clapped her hands in front of her. “You are amazing, Evan. Pulling water out of the earth is a wonderful feat of engineering.”
“The guards here will be spoiled,” Laika snorted as she shook her head. “We should be heading back though, everyone is waiting for us to return.”
I glanced from my work and saw Natalya and Anton were sitting off to the side with evident curiosity in their eyes. I guess I had taken longer than I thought to build the stone house and water pump.
“Alyona, can you make a portal to take us back?” I asked as I glanced over at the divine princess. I may be a huge dragon, but I couldn’t fit four adults on my back just yet.“Do you have enough energy for that?”
The priestess nodded and opened a portal that linked the Asuran village with one of the town squares of Hatra. We stepped through the swirling silver energy and found ourselves back in our city, right in front of the building that had come to be considered the temporary palace.
The moment the portal closed behind us, Alyona quickly stepped away from my side.
“Where are you going?” I asked as I glanced amusedly at the princess and tugged her closer to me.
“To search in the archives,” Alyona replied, and there was a fire in her amethyst eyes as she clenched her hands tightly. “There has to be a way to bring someone back from being a demon. Those harpies didn’t choose to fall, they were dragged down into the brinks of hell and suffering.”
“Do you think you’d be able to reverse it?” I questioned with a frown as I remembered the despair that had emanated from the harpies.
“You mentioned once that the miasma was a sickness,” Alyona continued, and her voice was nearly desperate. “If I think about demonification as something similar, then there has to be a way to undo what has been done.”
“Whatever you need, I’ll give it to you,” I promised. “Just tell me.”
“I know, but for now, I need to do a little research on my own.” Alyona’s amethyst eyes softened before she slipped away with a delicate smile. “Thank you.”
“Laika, go speak to Daya and your grandfather,” I sighed as I watched my princess’s figure disappear in the distance. “Let them know about posting guards in the Asuran village and setting up a rotation to defend the mine.”
“Consider it done.” Laika nodded before she disappeared as well in a cloud of dust.
“And time for me to walk into the proverbial dragon’s den,” I joked to myself as I bit back a laugh.
I shook my head as I walked into our building, but the moment I stepped through the entrance, a voice drew me up short.
“So, you’ve finally come back,” Valerra remarked as she stood at the bottom of the staircase in a sleeveless blue dress.
I blinked in surprise. Just this morning, the crimson dragon could barely sit up without any pain.
“What are you doing out of bed?” I demanded with a frown, and I could feel a bit of a headache in the back of my head grow. “You are supposed to be resting.”
“I was bored and curious,” Valerra replied with a careless shrug of her shoulders. “I wanted to know what happened with the demon attack.”
“Well, I was on my way to tell you,” I muttered as I headed into the common area, “but I guess now you can just follow me, and you’ll find out. Better to say it once rather than twice, anyway.”
I walked into the common area of our building to find Ruslan, my adoptive father and the head of the ruling house of Hatra. He was a fox Demi-Human with crimson hair and emerald eyes that sparkled with mischief.
“Evan!” Ruslan exclaimed, and he stood up from where he was sitting when he caught sight of me. “What happened at the mine?”
Next to him sat the king of Rahma and Alyona’s father, Rodion. He was dressed all in white, just as Alyona had been, and his hair was the color of moonlight. His swirling amethyst and azure eyes zeroed in on me.
“Do tell us,” King Rodion added calmly. “We are both eager to know.”
I sat down at the table and launched into a quick explanation of what happened, but I kept the part about finding the charm to myself. I didn’t know if I could trust Valerra with that information, and I would wait until things were a bit more private to bring it up.
As it was, the topic shifted to the crimson dragon sitting next to me when she grimaced in her chair.
“Valerra, what are you going to do once you’ve recovered?” King Rodion asked as he tilted his head and leaned forward with curiosity. “Are you going to seclude yourself once more in your canyons, or are you going to take part in this world of ours again?”
“You can stay here in Hatra, you know,” I offered as I smiled at Valerra. “It would be fun to have another dragon around here.”
“Stay in Hatra?” Valerra didn’t seem thrilled at the idea, and her face clearly showed it. “Surrounded by humans and their petty disputes? I think not. Once I am fully recovered, I will take my sister’s egg and return to my canyons.”
“Think about it, you were alone in the canyons, and you almost got killed.” I shook my head as I leaned back in my chair. “What would have happened if the demons had gotten their hands on your sister’s egg?”
“I do not wish to imagine such a thing.” Valerra’s jaw clenched as her claws scraped the wooden armrests of her chair. “Nor will such a thing ever happen. What occurred with those demons was a fluke, and it will not happen again. I will not fall for the same trick twice.”
“Still, it’s better to be two steps ahead of them,” I pointed out. “They won’t expect you to be allied with us.”
“I tire of this conversation.” A scowl crossed Valerra’s face as she stood promptly. “I shall be returning to bed.”
The crimson dragon stalked out of the room, and I clearly heard her go up the stairs.
“Well, she’s a stubborn one,” Ruslan chuckled as he shook his head.
“That’s putting it mildly.” I frowned as I thought about Valerra’s reaction. “I’m not going to give up on this, though. I just need some time to make her see things my way.”
“You’ll be playing the long game with her,” King Rodion remarked as he leaned back in his chair and glanced at me.
“Yeah,” I sighed with a nod, “I’ll keep working on her. There’s no way I want her to ever side with the demons
or anyone else. I want her in Hatra. But speaking of enemies turned potential allies, what do you know about the Green Glass Sect?”
“That’s a dead sect,” King Rodion replied with a frown. “Supposedly, they were wiped out close to a thousand years ago due to an accident during a research experiment. Why do you ask?”
“Because they aren’t dead at all.” I gritted my teeth as I remembered the jade charm I’d found. “They’ve attacked Hatra before, and we have some of them imprisoned in the Blue Tree Guild airship.”
“We even welcomed one of them into Hatra,” Ruslan added as he tightly gripped the armrests of his chair. “Then he dropped a horde of Corrupted Corpses into our midst.”
“How disturbing,” King Rodion murmured as he closed his eyes. “I will have my people look into this matter.”
“Good,” I replied and forced myself to relax. “I won’t have them hurting my city or my people ever again.”
“As we’ve come to the subject of Hatra, I’ve arranged for architects and their workers to arrive within one week,” King Rodion said as he easily changed the topic and stared right at me. “You’re free to order them as you will. They’ve been instructed to bring materials and supplies. This includes things such as food, cloth, furniture, and medicine. Is there anything you would like me to add to that list?”
“Sample products of what’s on the market right now,” I replied quickly. I was probably jumping the gun, but this was a wonderful opportunity to start setting the path for the future. “I want to figure out a product that can propel Hatra into becoming an economic power. We’re figuratively and literally stranded when it comes to the rest of the cities, and actually the rest of the world. Books, too. Have them bring enough literature that it covers everything that’s happened over the past thousand years in Rahma and the other countries.”
“If I may be so bold as to point you in the right direction,” King Rodion began with a cheerful tone in his voice, “Hatra was once known to produce the finest moonstones. As it stands, there’s been a high demand for them in the market, especially among jewelers and cultivators.”
“I can understand jewelers, but why cultivators?” I asked as I tapped my fingers on the table in front of me and frowned.
“Moonstones augment inner growth and strength,” King Rodion explained carefully as he took a moment to consider his next words. “They soothe any instability in one’s spiritual sea and provide calmness. Such things are essential for any cultivator attempting to break through to the next ranks.”
“Is that why the Moonstone River House is full of them?” I asked. I’d been wondering why there were so many of those stones around the city.
“Yes, a sound construction if there ever was one.” The king nodded as a proud smile slid onto his face. “It’s a fine example of a space for cultivating power and learning how to control massive amounts of it.”
“I’m sure you’ve noticed the rest of Hatra is full of moonstones as well,” Ruslan chuckled as he rubbed at the back of his neck. “That’s what helped Julia, Moskal, and I to become so strong. It’s granted us some protection from the miasma, too, not as much as the princess’s barriers, but enough for us to stand a bit more of a chance.”
“Why are moonstones coming from Hatra, though?” I asked as I glanced between the two older men. “Aren’t those mined from mountains?”
“They typically are,” King Rodion confirmed as he shared his knowledge of the ancient past of our city. “However, Hatra was built on surprisingly fertile land when it comes to such gemstones, there’s nothing but moonstones underneath the surface’s bluestone. Deep mines reach underneath the city and spread out through the desert.”
“Has anyone from the city ever mined anything other than moonstones from the desert?” I questioned, and excitement filled my voice at the confirmation of treasure existing underneath those golden sands. “Things like rubies, emeralds, or diamonds?”
“Unfortunately, the expansion to the desert happened toward the end of Lord Tristan’s reign,” Rodion replied, and the faint cheer that had been in the king’s face faded away when he mentioned my grandfather. “Very little of it managed to reach the market, making those desert gems even more of a commodity, perhaps, than the moonstones. Hatra produced high quality jewels in the past, it only stands to reason those within the vicinity of the city would share a similar quality.”
“I see,” I sighed as I ran my hand through my hair. “That actually works in our favor. That means those mines are completely untapped, and whatever we get out of them will have a higher value.”
“If I remember correctly,” the king continued in a distant tone, “in the past there have also been merchant caravans that went missing in the deserts outside of Hatra. There are a few cities and settlements directly after the desert, right on the western sea, and traveling through the desert cuts the journey time in half when reaching the eastern side of Rahma. With Hatra fallen to miasma and the canyons ruled by Valerra, the only safe route for them to travel by was destroyed. Then the desert claimed the merchants and their wares.”
“Looking for those lost caravans could be worth a shot.” I recalled the dig sites of Egypt and the Middle East back on my old world and grinned in triumph. “The aridness of the desert would have preserved most of their goods as long as they weren’t food. Maybe if there’s spices or things like honey, those could have endured all this time.”
“I am certain there are records of the missing caravans.” King Rodion tilted his head to the side and closed his eyes in thought. “Those documents would list all their cargo and their destinations.”
“We’d even be able to guess at what route they would have taken.” A spike of excitement went through me, and I was eager to dig in the desert for the cargo of those missing merchant caravans. “How long would it take to get our hands on those documents?”
“It doesn’t matter how long or how many people it’ll take.” The king shook his head, and determination filled his dual colored eyes. “I will ensure they arrive with the coming architects in one week.”
“Awesome.” I grinned back and pointed at the papers spread before us. “We’ll deal with those records when they arrive. I think we can assign Leon to assist Julia in looking through them. He was the one who was able to assemble all these reports and plans on her orders.”
“These are rather impressive if one considers he has had no formal training,” King Rodion remarked as he pulled one of the papers toward him and nodded in approval.
“Hatra only produces the best.” Ruslan matched my grin, and I could see his tail waving rapidly behind him.
“Indeed.” King Rodion bit back a smile and glanced up at me. “So, tell me, Lords of Hatra, how are you going to continue rebuilding your city?”
“I already rebuilt the aqueducts and the walls surrounding us,” I explained as I pointed at the schematics of the aqueducts and city walls found by my mother. “Right now, they’re only stone, but I want to have orichalum inlaid in them.”
“Is it for the same reason you have begun to plant dragonsblood trees along the walls?” the king inquired as he tilted his head to the side and stared right at me.
“Yeah.” I leaned forward in my seat and began to explain. “Alyona found out dragonsblood was capable of keeping miasma away and had the potential to ward against demons, so I ordered for the saplings that survived the attack on the Asuran village to be brought back to the city. We started planting them along the walls once we had healthy saplings. Ideally, I want to have all the streets of Hatra lined with them.”
“We use dragonsblood in the Breach to help contain any escaping demons,” King Rodion replied thoughtfully as he shrugged. “Few of the trees managed to take root due to the tainted soil, but we have filled in the spaces with incense and oil made from the plant.”
“Has orichalum ever been used in building materials?” I asked. If I was on the right track with the dragonsblood, maybe I was right about the divine metal, too.
“How did you do it?” I questioned as I leaned forward. I was eager to learn more about the sacred metal from the very man who had conquered it.
“I simply created the structures of the Breach with my power using the orichalum,” Rodion replied, and eddies of power swirled in his free hand before it disappeared from view. “It takes fine control as well as a body that can handle its immense and divine power. Thousands have been ripped apart by the sheer power of the orichalum when they’ve tried to mold it as I have.”
“I see.” Such a thing was beyond me at the moment, but I had modern knowledge at my disposal and could find ways to work around it. “Would inlaying it in the walls work the same way?”
“Do you mean using it as a decorative embellishment rather than something structural?” King Rodion tilted his head again in thought as he looked between the schematics, Ruslan, and myself.
“Yeah, I’m thinking that would be faster for everyone involved.” I nodded quickly as I pointed back at the defense schematics. “That is, of course, if it would still have the same effect of strengthening the walls.”
“The power of orichalum is great,” King Rodion replied as he stared at the blueprints. “Using it as an embellishment would be more than enough to strengthen the walls of Hatra a hundredfold.”
“Does it hold enchantment well?” Ruslan asked from where he had been thinking quietly.
“As if the gods had created it for that purpose,” Rodion answered, and a bright gleam entered his eyes. “Commonly, metals tend to shatter or become far too brittle depending on the amount of power poured into the enchantment and the amount of enchantments layered into the metal. Generally, the limit is seven at most.”
“Then how many can orichalum hold?” I questioned with a frown. Seven enchantments wouldn’t be enough for what I had planned for the walls and aqueducts.