Stronger Together chapter 101 (Patreon)

I looked at Henry questioningly "Ok so we have to do out part first,  how will she contact us when it's done?" Not that I was against visiting  Henry again but it seemed like a waste of time to go all the way to  Demonreach then come all the way back here. I figured a powerful  elemental spirit would have other ways of getting in touch though. Still  I did have to add one thing. "I see what you meant by the way about her  not being human by the way, I have to say its refreshing to deal with  someone so straight forward." The bluntness certainly was easier to deal  with than finicky faerie bullshit.

The  older man gave a fond smile "She's a bit like an avalanche isn't she?  But yes, I find it refreshing too. As for her methods of contact don't  you worry about that. She can get in touch whenever she wants.  Elementals have quite the tool box to play with in terms of power, and  Calliope is stronger and more clever than most. She might send an animal  to you, she might just come in person." If it was the latter I was  betting it would be either on the lake or when we reached shore, nothing  supernatural would willingly set foot on Demonreach.

I  dismissed it from my mind though, that would need to happen soon but I  was planning to talk to Cinder and Raven and maybe even Bob and get them  working on a few things for the trip before we went. Some kind of  negative energy shielding would be key. Some kind of scrying protection  and defense against remote viewing too, since that place was watched.  Odin was keeping us off the big boy's radar but I liked to have my own  insurance. Relegating those thought's to the later pile in my brain I  turned to Henry. "So, you mentioned showing us Safehold?"

Henry's  face lit up at the thought of showing us his bastion of protection and I  found myself glad. He deserved to feel good about what he'd done down  here. Most people would have just hidden away down here away from the  council, worked on their research and maybe hired a runner to pick  things up from the city. Henry had put himself at risk, albeit a minimal  one, of being caught and opened his sanctuary to hundreds of strangers  just because he thought it was right. Not to mention the magic he pulled  off down here, even with help, was impressive on a scale I could barely  comprehend. Even Harry seemed shocked.

We  headed back up into the church, stopping so Henry could greet a few new  arrivals and welcome them to St. Jude's before making our way across  the church to another door on the other side. The stairs leading down  this time were steeped and delved much further, and we spent a few  minutes on the spiral stair well. Henry had maid the stairs in a  separate space I imagined since I couldn't see anything but walls on all  sides of us but we walked for almost ten minutes so I was genuinely  curious to see how big this place was. We finally reached the base of  the stairs, and Henry flipped a briefcase style combination lock next to  the door and pushed a lever in the wall.

The  door swung open and I saw the combo held a giant bolt locked in place  the held the door shut, and the wheels with the numbers showed on both  sides of the wall so it could be opened from inside or out with the  proper code. It was a brilliant system. There were also two more combo  wheels that were only on the inside that held the same sorts of bolts at  the top and bottom of the large metal door. Whoever designed this thing  was innovative as hell, but I was quickly distracted from my musings on  door design by my absolute shock when I turned to face the room. This  place was...huge.

I  thought the lab was big but this was more like a fucking football  stadium, maybe bigger. No, definitely bigger, I turned to Henry with my  face a mask of gaping shock. The man smirked at all of us "Twenty five  hundred feet by five hundred. Nearly half a mile long. One thousand feet  straight up with small shafts up to the surface. I enchanted the  entrances to the air shafts with a purification and filtration spell.  Groundwater and rain is diverted by the magic through another  purification spell and into a tank we use for clean drinking and  bathing."

He gestured above us at a  ceiling carpeted in shimmering color. "The light source is a network of  enchanted lenses refracting sun and moonlight through the shafts and  into a carpet of prisms Calliope helped me set up on the ceiling. The  crystals are each enchanted with purification and vitality enchantments.  The light energizes and bolsters the people who live down here, keeping  them healthy and up beat. They're extremely compatible with nutrition  potions and the effects compound." He sounded gleeful discussing his  project and I knew why. This was fucking incredible. To be able to do  all this even with an elemental helping was staggering.

Harry  was thunderstruck at the scope of the work. "Hells bells Henry, this is  the kind of project an entire city's worth of wizards could pore over  for decades and barely get finished. How did you do this in just a few  years? I can't imagine the power and time that went into this. You must  have done literally nothing else almost the entire time you've been down  here. Especially with your lab being how it is, you're a genius. This  isn't a shelter man, this is an Arcology." His voice was filled with the  same wonder the rest of us were feeling as we stared at the beautiful  home this man had made. I was almost jealous of these people getting to  live here.

The  look of pride was more obvious than ever on the older mans face  "Basically all my time yes, not just that, Calliope was instrumental in  every step. She did most of it, I was mostly doing the enchantments and  hammering out the design and aesthetic. As for the carpets and furniture  that was mostly done by others. Everyone pitched in to help the new  residents move in and find them clothes and appliances. There's a  laundry area in the back with a drain where people can hand wash their  clothes and clothes lines to hang them on. Everyone writes their names  on their clothes pins. Bathing is done in a natural hot spring Calliope  somehow managed to make down here, I put several magical filters on it."

He  had addressed so many things that would stump most wizards. There were  thin stone walls about eight feet tall forming individual rooms about  ten feet across where people could put their beds and lay down carpets  and have some privacy. Some of them put up curtains across the front of  their walls or set press board on top to make doors or rooves and some  didn't even bother, just trusting their fellow residents to keep them  safe. Between the curtains and press board I saw flickers of candles,  which wasn't shocking considering the sheer amount of ambient magic in  this place would probably fry a crank operated flashlight never mind a  light bulb.

People  swarmed up to us to greet Henry, all of them well groomed and bathed  and in patchy but well cared for clothes. I could smell fresh bread and  grilling meat down here too and saw people passing out bread and skewers  to neighbors. As we passed by the guy handing out the meat kebabs  passed us all one, earning a thanks from Henry, which elicited a huge  grin from the man. People down here took care of each other, and it was  really beautiful. People who would be sick or hungry were in great  health and spirits, anyone who needed to be alone could retreat to their  own room and not be bothered.

Henry  took it all in with a look of pure joy. "We have a few people with  medical degrees and I keep an infirmary stocked with some antibiotics  and medical supplies just in case. Some things we cant handle of course  but there's always the hospital. A few people are stylists or tailors  and they practice their craft down here mostly for free, but sometimes  someone buys some meet or something, many people down here have some  savings from panhandling. I even have a room here, though I mostly just  sleep in my lab."

Harry  was right, this place was a miniature town. An Arcology away from the  hustle and bustle of Chicago. Sure they had no wifi or cell phones or  video games, but I saw kids running between the rows of rooms playing  tag and giggling. I turned to the others. Yang was looking on in  happiness, but Barb looked floored, her eyes were a bit wet. She saw me  looking and smiled tearily as everyone else noticed and turned to see  what was wrong. "I'm sorry. It's just that I'm from a city like this  one, I just wish someone had made a place like this there. I remember so  many people suffering that could have used this kind of help."

I  winced at that. Gotham was corrupt and horrible for a number of  reasons. A haven like this would not have survived a day there. Between  the Court of Owls ,the curse Barbatos engineered on the city, plus all  the built up horror and death and depending on the story line the demon  that lived underneath Arkham Asylum, that particular dumpster fire was a  lost cause. I couldn't help but be selfishly glad Barb was away from  that hell pit. Sure Dresden Files was dangerous, but it was more quality  than quantity of monsters. Gotham just had both. That place was the  fucking Comic Con of evil.

Despite  that I knew it was her home. I pulled her close and put my arms around  her, Yang joining in to glomp us both, then elbowing Harry so he got in  on the group hug albeit very uncomfortably. It was tough not to laugh at  the big man putting his arms around us all like he was trying to hug a  nuclear bomb. Harry clearly didn't get enough hugs. I'd always been a  very huggy person, with friends and family as well as any girlfriends so  I was fine with the group squeeze. Barb sighed and snuggled into all of  us, clearly happy to be surrounded by people she could trust.

We  didn't say anything, we didn't have anything to say. She was never  getting back to Gotham most likely, and this was just a reminder of  that. We released the redhead, who gave us a grateful smile, and Harry  gave her an uncomfortable punch in the arm, which had Yang trying not to  burst out laughing behind his back. I let him flounder, figuring an  apprentice was like a kid and getting some dad practice could only help  the guy. Henry was smiling softly at us all, clearly staring right past  us as he remembered something from his past. Maybe he was thinking of an  apprentice of his own.

We  finished the rest of our tour of Safehold in a wonderful mood. We'd  solved out problem, albeit by taking on an only slightly smaller one, we  met a powerful and friendly wizard, and we got to talk to an elemental  local to the area we might be able to work with in the future. Calliope  had a massive amount of power in Chicago and Henry was an amazing source  of information both magical and mundane.

I was reminded of Sherlock Holmes and his Baker Street Irregulars.  Henry was tapped into the pulse of this city and if we ever needed to  track someone down we could always ask him for help. that was a win.  After a brief discussion about Demonreach which mostly amounted to "I  can't talk about this when we aren't under powerful wards." I agreed to  catch Harry up at our place the next day. We would need Raven's cone of  silence for this one. I knew Harry needed to be the Warden but I wanted  him to go into this with eyes open. Tomorrow I would tell him all about  his island.