After the meal the team scattered to gather up their baggage for the trip back. The nuisance shook itself awake when Grandmother stood and ran up into her pocket. Grandmother returned to her room to load up her baggage, being careful not to disturb Squirrel. When she came back down to the common room she found Valin waiting for her.

  “Fa-Ray-Me is a spy for Whitewater,” Valin volunteered as he walked with Grandmother across the courtyard. She was on her way over to the magic shop to see the results of Kai's attempts at making a bottle.

  “Yes,” Grandmother responded. “I agree. We must be drawing enough challengers to our coliseum that they noticed the decrease. I fear Fa-Ray-Me is here to cause trouble. We will have to keep a close eye on all our selkie students, but especially on Enchanter and Me-Ti-Fa.” Me-Ti-Fa was the Seagrass elder’s granddaughter. If something happened to her it would have a negative impact on human-selkie relations.

  “Why are you allowing him to travel with us?” Valin asked. “There is nothing to stop him from violating his vow beyond the boundary.”

  “Whitewater has sent a crafter because they think we will not suspect him, but putting a skilled stone sculptor in my hands is an opportunity I don’t want to waste. I really do want a selkie instructor, especially in stone sculpting since that isn’t a craft humans have,” Grandmother responded. “If he violates his vow beyond the boundary, the Speedwell will deal with him. I’ve already seen to that.” Valin wondered what that meant. He had a strange desire for the selkie to break his oath, just so he could see what would happen. “I don’t think it will come to that. Your true appearance should make him think twice.”

  “You can limit the use of the transportation room to just members of the alliance,” Valin volunteered.

  “Can I?” Grandmother asked. “Can you walk me through it now?”

  “Yes,” Valin replied. Grandmother sat down on the edge of a nearby planter and followed Valin’s instructions. “You can set it to anyone in the alliance, or at a certain membership level and above. Remember that anyone that touches the crystal in your origin outpost is automatically added as an applicant, because of that you should set it to a membership level or you don’t really know who has access.”

  “I’ll set it to full member status. That should cover everyone,” Grandmother explained. “Is this setting just for that association hall or does it cover all of them?” Grandmother pushed Valin up from candidate to member. She didn’t trust the elf, but he was useful. She wanted him to be able to return to the association halls. Valin refused to touch a square’s crystal. Grandmother suspected there was some method his enemies back with his own people could detect it.

  “You have to set them all separately,” Valin responded.

  “Hmm… That is a pain,” Grandmother responded. She continued flicking through the interface. “This page under the glass doors looks similar. Does that mean I can control who can open them too?” she asked.

  “Some,” Valin replied. “Just as a high tier animal can push through the protection of a crystal, a high enough player can override the setting on the doors. The transportation room is much more secure.”

  “Does this setting cover traffic going in or out or both?” Grandmother asked.

  “Both,” Valin explained. “You can also make travel free for members. As long as the outpost has been added to the association. It doesn’t work with squares.”

  “Can anyone in the association add an outpost?” Grandmother said using Valin’s word.

  “Anyone who has the rank of Duke or above can join the crystals they own. They can also remove them at any time. The setting to make transit free has to be done by the true crystal owner, since it is the owner that loses the income.” Valin explained.

  “Walk me through that too,” Grandmother replied.

  “This is great,” she declared. She was in the back of the bookshop looking at Kai’s work. “I didn’t expect anything so small. Now I feel bad that I didn’t find anyone to make the wirework. I thought about asking the blacksmith, but I’d just paid him a fortune for the bowls.”

  “That iron bowl you were carrying at dinner?” Kai asked.

  “That was just the biggest one. I couldn’t get it to fit into my bag. He made me a set of different sizes down to the size of this tiny bottle in iron,” Grandmother reported. “He also made sets in steel, bronze, copper and aluminum, but he still owes me some of the sizes in the other materials.”

  “Are you interested in bowls?” Kai asked. “I can make them out of glass.”

  “Can you?” Grandmother asked. “That would be great. I was thinking the potter in Seagrass can probably make bowls too. The china set has fancy bowls for serving,” Grandmother commented, “but I bet he could come up with a mixing bowl set too.”

  Grandmother pulled the wire cage and gasket from her pocket and put them on the smallest bottle and cap. They fit easily. She filled the small bottle with water from the flask on her belt and latched the cap closed. She turned the bottle over looking for leaks. She left the bottle upside down on the workbench when nothing appeared.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “This really is excellent work,” Grandmother said again. Kai was happy he spent the day on it. “Except for Asher’s elixirs, I am not certain what you would use them for,” Grandmother observed.

  “Ellen thought Todd might like them for his spices,” Kai offered. Grandmother picked up the tall version of the smallest diameter bottle and considered it.

  “He might,” Grandmother said. “Can you make this straight-sided version in a larger diameter? That might be easier for him to scoop spices back out.”

  “I’m working on it,” Kai said. He directed Grandmother over to his work in progress. He managed to make one larger diameter straight sided bottle in the time since dinner, along with its cap. “This one is the same height as the tall small one, but twice the diameter. Next I’ll try twice the height.”

  “Yes, I think Todd would like that,” Grandmother observed. “How big a diameter do you think you can make?” she asked. “I have a huge pile of rat claws, a larger version of this container might be just the thing to store them.”

  “I’m pretty sure I can make the bottle diameter,” Kai responded. “I can see how much larger I can get. At some point it will take too much glass to fit through the furnace door.”

  “Great,” Grandmother responded, “keep working on it. What do I owe you for these?” They used the shop interface to complete the transaction, for both the glassware and Ellen’s leather version of the gaskets. The little bottle was still holding its seal when Grandmother disassembled it so she could use the gasket and wire cage to reseal the chemical bottle. She slipped the bottle into the chemical bag, before adding the folded piece of vellum that held the crystals Kai brushed off from the outside. She used one of her new bags to hold all the glassware.

  There were half a dozen bags of different colors tied to the outside of Grandmother’s backpack when she joined the group at the back hall. Todd was wearing a modified harness that held a dozen small potted plants. Companion was similarly attired. Squirrel abandoned Grandmother for the two of them. The little animal couldn’t decide which one of them was better. She preferred Todd to Companion, but one of the plants on Companion’s back was a serious draw.

  Alex was not concealing his amusement. Fa-Ray-Me was watching the whole tableau with rolling eye astonishment. Ellen and Sarah looked entirely unsurprised. Grandmother assumed that they made Todd and Companion the harnesses.

  “Is that a violet?” Grandmother asked, indicating a plant with purple flowers that was in the front of Todd’s harness.

  “I hope so,” Todd replied. “It’s the same plant I took to Londontown. We gathered up every rare looking plant we could find. We also got a bunch of tubers, since the recipe Asher mentioned was dried tubers and rat claws.”

  “Did you get a sample of arrowroot?” Grandmother asked.

  “Of course,” Todd replied. “The plant the nuisance likes is berry avocado. There were a couple in my apartment left over from when I gave it as a gift to the selkie potter.”

  “She must like the high fat. That would explain her preference for the Speedwell travel bars. They are based on survival food and have a large fat content,” Grandmother observed.

  “Are we ready then?” Grandmother asked. Everyone agreed and they stepped into the back hall. Harry and Tina, the butcher, were in the center of the hallway standing watch on the transportation room doors. The multiple rooms that spawned on the first Challenge day lined the hallway. Grandmother assumed that Harry and Tina were the transportation room watchers for the night. She was surprised when Harry walked up the hall to join them. He was dressed in leather armor touched in blue with his customary sword at his belt. The sword was joined by a knife and water flask, a pack was on his back.

  “Are you coming with us?” Alex asked Harry, with complete astonishment in his voice.

  “Yes,” Harry replied, while giving Fa-Ray-Me a close inspection. “I am going to check the security arrangements.” Grandmother didn’t realize Harry meant he was coming back now to check the arrangements. She thought he would wait until after the Challenge.

  “Who will watch the square?” Todd asked with some alarm.

  “Everly can handle it for a day or six,” Harry responded. “After I get the path I can check in every day if needed. A good leader ensures that their own death won’t endanger those in their care.” Which Grandmother translated to mean he would check in every day and that Harry was a little worried about his age. Harry was in his forties, which was considered unbelievably old in the structure. Grandmother, now in her sixties, still saw him as young.

  His statement did make her consider some of her own actions. She made some arrangements for Todd, Alex, Ellen and Sarah to inherit her duties on her death. She needed to do more to make sure they knew everything that needed to be taken care of. She also needed to incorporate Companion better. The selkie was really the perfect heir for the academy. Even though she was working hard at passing off the running of it to her brother, he was six years older than her.

  Alex went through first, followed by Sarah, Companion, Fa-Ray-Me, Valin, Ellen and Todd. Grandmother paused before activating the transport map to send Harry through.

  “I’m not certain if you know this or not,” Grandmother said to the head of her guards. “Valin isn’t human. He is an elf. He is also a spy and a thief so don’t ever trust him. He usually dismisses his disguise when we get to the school’s association hall. If he doesn’t it will fail when we leave the boundary. I don’t want you to be surprised.”

  “I feel this is something you should have told me sooner,” Harry responded. Although Todd did tell him not to trust Valin. He described Valin as a spy, but Todd called Valin Grandmother’s spy. It bothered Harry enormously that someone was running around his square in disguise. He usually picked up on that. He could detect a kind of glow around people using camouflage spells. Harry thought it might be something like Grandmother’s bottomless bag perk since no one else ever saw anything.

  “Valin is the only member of his species I’ve seen. There is another non-human at Londontown. I don’t know what species she is, but it’s different from both elf and selkie. She calls herself Unkell. I tried to talk her into coming out to the Speedwell so I could make a translator for her, but so far I’ve failed. Valin has a ring in his ear that translates for him in the structure, but Unkell doesn’t have anything. She speaks very little,” Grandmother said. “I think she finds our speech difficult.”

  “Do you know of any other non-humans?” Harry asked.

  “Valin told us a story about a member of a flying species held as a slave by the king of his people,” Grandmother responded, “but I haven’t met any more. Humans are species forty two. That means there are thirty seven species unaccounted for.”

  “A slave?” Harry said. “I don’t like the sound of that. Are you going to do something about it?”

  “Yes,” Grandmother answered. “Valin’s people are well entrenched on one of the southern continents. They are skilled in magic. We will need to prepare.” Harry nodded his head in understanding.

  “Good,” Harry replied.