Xander:

  God how I hated the capital. Sure, it was nice and shiny. It even had some of the magical technology some of the people back in Gravepoint had managed to mass produce. Of course, none of it was of any military importance. I mean, you could use the engines to drive large masses of troops anywhere but there were various tamable creatures and spells that could do the same thing.

  Or at least that was what I thought until I saw just how massive the engines were. I doubted that there was a way to drive a vehicle with such an engine off-road. Considering that most of the nation was made of mud and dirt roads, they were pretty limited in where they could drive.

  Of course, those engines were not the only things we sold the nation. Hell, the most important enchantment slash spell that some early Earth-based politicians had sold to the capital was the barrier that covered the nation. You know, the one that should have been protecting the place from people that were too high level.

  Honestly though, mostly the barrier stopped Earth-born humans from being stupid. Considering that most people had insisted that this was a game, and refused to think otherwise, they treated the people of this world like crap. Why help a farmer when you could just take what you wanted? As a result, the capital kept sending people out to hunt those that broke the law as well as demanding that our government do something about those of us breaking their laws. This was the answer they sold to the king and his people.

  Now, I want to say that I had not been one of those people, but I had been. Especially early on. Thankfully, after seeing just how much my actions affected everything and everyone around me, I realized that my actions mattered. I wasn’t the only one to realize this either. Quite a large portion of the Earth-based humans had begun treating this place and its people as if it were real, even before finding out that it was, in fact, another world entirely.

  Which made the fact that the enchantment slash spell that had been worked into the top of the castle destroyed all the more disheartening. It wasn’t just cracked or anything so simple. That would have been easy to fix. No. Parts were turned to dust, others were melted, and yet more were exposed to so much mana that it burned them from the inside.

  Given that there were spell lines curving out from here, going out to the edge of the city, the damage was extensive. Some of which would have to be bypassed or completely replaced if the shield was to ever be repaired. Work that wouldn’t be all that hard given the artificer and mage that had been thrust upon me by the council.

  “I could repair it in a week, two at most,” Henrietta stated with her chest puffed out.

  “Hah,” Bradley snorted. “Take you that long? My artifact and I could get it all fixed in five days.”

  “So it is possible to repair?” I used the question to stop the two of them from descending into an argument over who would do the job better. Honestly, if the two simply got over themselves, fucked, and worked together, they would be one hell of a team. Which was probably why they kept getting forced to work together. As they were right now, their constant back and forth made working with them and keeping them on task challenging.

  “Sure,” Bradley waved toward me as he glared at the mage.

  She glared right back. “While the damage done to the spell is fairly significant, the original artificer and enchanter put in quite a bit of buffer and backups when they built the thing. Most of our work will be focused on repairing this hunk of junk and making it more robust.” Henrietta’s foot lightly kicked one of the melted pieces. It didn’t move.

  “But is it worth it?” Bradley asked the question that had been going through all of our heads. “I mean, won’t whoever destroyed this one just break the next one?”

  I smiled as I had asked the same damned question of the council when I reported the damage. Judging by how long it took them to respond, they had debated the issue for hours. When they did finally come to a decision, they had messaged me my orders at the same time they dispatched these two. My voice was a bit hesitant as I asked, “What did the council tell you both?”

  “Not much.” Henrietta shrugged. “Just that I had to build an enchantment grade spell into the structure here.”

  Bradley pulled something out and started to fiddle with it as he answered my question. “And that I had to embed it into a substrate capable of holding it for as long as possible. Other than that, not much.”

  With a sigh of annoyance, I pulled on my magic and cast Sphere of Silence. As the mana flowed out of me and into the sphere, shadows across the rooftop flickered as if they were being buffeted by wind. Given that the air around us was dead still and that shadows couldn’t do that, it confirmed that there had been someone listening in. Maybe even more than one person. Whoever and whatever it was, they would know that I had done something and would be working to counter it meaning I had very little time to get the information across to the two of them.

  “The council agrees with you. It is not worth the time and resources to create something that will be destroyed. So they have come up with a different plan. You will still create the shield but make it look like a rushed job. The spell you need to create instead is something to log who is going where and when. All of that information needs to then be sent back to the council in Gravepoint.”

  Both of their eyebrows lift at the new information. Likely as they realize just how much work they will have to do. There would be no way that one of them would be able to do this job alone. It was too big, too complex. They would have to work together.

  Just as Bradley was about to say something, a guard burst through the door behind me. I dropped my spell as he started to speak. “My lord, mage, artificer. Are you okay?”

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  My eyes narrowed as I turned enough to look at the guy. “Why wouldn’t we be?”

  Even though I could not see his face through the helmet, I could tell that his mouth was flapping as he tried to think about what he could say. I took the moment to get a look at the coat of arms on the right side of his breastplate. He was from a noble's personal guard, albeit such a minor noble that I doubted he had more than a dozen such guards. So why was he here?

  “There was a report of an escaped sprite heading this way.” The guy finally came up with an excuse and that was the one he went with? Fucking newbs.

  “As you can see, we are fine.” I flicked my hand at him. “Now go away.” Turning back, I continued as if we had simply been interrupted and nothing more. “If you both understand, get to work. You have five days to get everything done.” Hopefully, that would be enough for them. I would have given them more time but that was the most I could do given what they had said earlier.

  “Fine.” Bradley huffed.

  As I turned and started for the stairs, I heard Henrietta slap Bradley. “You fucking idiot. There is no way we can get this done in five days.” A smile grew on my face as I pushed past the stupified guard. On one hand, the constant bickering of those two would keep the guards and spies confused as to what they were doing. On the other, I was five days away from returning to Kyren.

  The smile lasted all of five steps. Standing at the bottom of the stairs, clearly waiting for me, was Leonidus de Gaston, the Mage with aspirations of ruling. Everyone could see this except for his majesty who would hear nothing on the subject.

  “Did those two figure out the extent of the damage and the work required to fix it?” Every time I heard his high voice, I nearly burst into laughter. It just did not go with his well-built and refined body.

  Holding my laughter in, I nodded as I spoke. “They have. They also said that it should take about five days to repair.”

  “Good.” He pushed off the wall and turned to leave. “We can’t leave the nation unprotected for too long. It is bad enough that the spell will do little to those already inside its bounds.” Yeah, go figure that the one time a high-level person could be granted unrestricted access is if they were inside when the spell was cast. Maybe I should tell those two to add something like a deadman's switch to the spell. That way, if we are not given access or something happens, the spell will fall, allowing council troops to enter as needed.

  I followed him for a dozen feet before he voiced a question. “What else can I do for you?”

  “Nothing, just thought I would go inform his majesty and the nobles in attendance today about what is going on.”

  “No need. I am sure that you are quite busy with other duties so I can let them know.” What other duties? Plus, why would I want to miss everyone’s surprised expressions? Where else would I get such easy information on who might be working with the demons?

  “It is fine. Most of my work is paperwork-related. Much of which is already done.” I shrugged, not caring if he could see me or not. “The rest can wait until after my report.”

  “Do what you want.” He scoffed before increasing his pace. As I saw no reason to rush, I let him go ahead. It wasn’t as if he would be able to do anything to stop my report. If he tried, well, it wouldn’t end well for him politically.

  A few turns later, I found myself at a door large enough to allow a small herd of giants to enter with room to spare. While there were only two guards standing on this side, a swarm of them milled about the room. Each of them kept an eye on those looking to speak to the King and those in his entourage.

  The moment I passed through the door, a voice boomed out. “Kai Ravenwood. Shadow Blade Guild Lieutenant and Gravepoint Council Representative.” As usual, quite a few people turned to look at me. Likely trying to figure out what was so special about me that the system used in this room would decide I was worth announcing.

  “Ah, Kai.” A soft, teenage voice called out, cutting off the person currently speaking. Whoever it was would probably be pissed but what could they do? It wasn’t like they would backtalk the King. As one, the crowd parted to let me through.

  As soon as I was at the front, I dropped to one knee. Sure, as a representative of another nation, of sorts, I wasn’t expected to show such deference to another nation's nobility, but what did it hurt? “Your majesty.”

  “Enough of that.” The young King waved me to rise as he continued. “How goes the repairs?”

  Returning to my feet, I looked up at the kid who was barely of age to join a military, let alone rule a nation. “My people tell me it will take five days to repair and replace the spell.” As I spoke, I kept an eye on all the nobility I could see. Many of them looked happy, if a bit shocked that the spell could be repaired.

  Then there were a few who looked annoyed. Like it was an inconvenience to have the spell fixed. Unfortunately, there were more than one that managed to keep their expressions schooled. “Good good.” The King started to clap only for one of his advisors to cough. I suppressed a sigh at the reminder of just how young this ruler was. He should be out playing, learning how to rule from his father or grandfather, not forced to learn by the seat of his pants while surrounded by people wanting to use and abuse his power.

  The King coughed as he composed himself. “Good. Keep me updated.” I bowed before turning to leave the room.

  As I passed through the door, my AI chose that moment to speak up. “You have an emergency call from Ginger.” Fucking hell, what did she want now? Given that she labeled every call as an emergency, it could be something as stupid as her checking on me to her needing money. The only reason I didn’t dismiss it as I typically did was because she was watching over Kyren.

  “Answer it,” I grumbled.

  “XANDER!” Ginger’s voice screamed into my ear. It was loud enough that, even with the noise suppression my AI was doing in the background, I winced. “YOU NEED TO RETURN NOW!”

  “Why?!” I grit out.

  “IT’S KYREN!” Her voice cracked. “SHE WAS POISONED!”

  The shadows around me boiled and writhed as anger and fury fought for control. Small cracks in the stone spidered out from where the shadows snapped. Even here, the building was not strong enough to handle such power trained for fighting and little else. If I let my emotions continue to fight, let alone let one win, the people in the castle would pay a heavy price. A price that even the council could not protect me from. With practiced mental effort, I grabbed my emotions and boxed them up, stuffed them into a closet, and closed the door. The shadows around me stopped as my mind grew cold and my voice lost all emotion. “How?”

  “WE DON’T KNOW!” I could hear her practically bawling as she continued. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear her. I was too focused on calling for the mount I was loaned and sending messages to the people I had brought with me. They would have to deal with everything here without me. Fuck the council and their orders, I needed to return home and deal with whoever targeted Kyren.

  Within five minutes, I was out of the capital. I pushed as much mana as I could spare into my newest spell, Sacrificial Boost. I fed it my speed and my strength in return for boosting the griffin's speed and endurance. Still, the trip would take nearly a day. I just had to pray that she had the time. That whoever was after her didn’t return to finish her off before I could get there. It would also give them time to pray that I didn’t find them because, if and when I did, they were going to wish I simply killed them.