The Newt and Demon - Book 6 Chapters 58,59,60 (Patreon)

Chapter 58

Something Below

Theo and Salire stood outside a set of barriers the alchemist had established. The lone centrifuge sat in the center. The pair had left the lab to take up a position in the fields behind Broken Tusk. He figured this would go one of several ways. The idea was to use centrifugal force to remove impurities from the mix. But that was a purely physical application. Most likely, they would need to run the resulting mixture through a still and a vapor pressurizer to get it to the second tier. But once they had that, he could make the potions they needed… Probably.

“Look at it spin,” Salire said, nodding with approval. And no explosions.”

“Yeah, I'm happy about the lack of explosions. Assuming we get this to the right level, I need you to work on something else.”

Salire withdrew a notebook, nodding along.

“I need some Intelligence Essence. I think we can use the old suffuse potions we have laying around.”

“Searing Regeneration and Intelligence…. Hmmm,” Salire tapped her chin. “I see where you’re going.”

Theo smiled to himself. As the days rolled on, he grew more proud of her. There was a point where he thought he was the only special boy deserving of Drogramath’s alchemy. Now he knew there were many people in the world who would excel if they just had the right tools. Salire’s curious nature did more for her alchemy than anything else, and the tenacity of a half-ogre didn’t hurt.

“We can expect the suffuse binding process to go wrong, though. Hard to say if Tero’gal would bind properties together the same way. And according to Tero’gal, the existing Searing Regeneration essence isn’t as good as it could be.”

“We won’t know until you blow us up!”

Theo did the math in his head. Assuming his stock of Searing Regeneration worked with his suffuse potion was wasteful. If he was wrong, he would need to wait another day to test this new potion. He had plenty of Troll’s Blood and a good amount of Veostian Karatan Cheese sitting around to do a limited run of both. He snapped his fingers, turning to Salire.

“Insurance. I need you to get a batch of Suffuse running from Veostian Karatan Cheese, along with a batch of Searing Regeneration from the Troll’s Blood. Do 100 units of each, dedicating any remaining stills to the Lightning Poppy.”

Salire performed a sloppy salute. “Yes, sir! What, uh… What will you be doing?”

“Consulting my checklist here… Goofing around.”

“Ah, yes,” Salire said, taking on a much more formal tone. “Goofing around it is, sir. Would you like some hot tea before goofin’ about?”

“That would be splendid. I’m sure we can hear this thing explode from miles away if something goes wrong.”

Theo joined Salire, heading back to the lab. She brewed some moss tea, which thankfully hadn’t suffered a change from their switch to Tero’gal cores. It wasn’t as good as the stuff Sarisa or Xam made, but it was still good. The alchemist enjoyed the calming moment as he thought about his next little adventure. Perhaps if Tresk and Alex could tear themselves away from running dungeons and finding dragon bones, they could help him with an issue. Probably not.

The alchemist felt Tresk in the distance, drilling Alex on various combat maneuvers. One side of the coin was Theo’s freedom from Tresk’s antics. The other was him missing her for being gone so often. But their connection transcended distance. Even if they weren’t together physically, most emotions were shared through the bond. That was a sense of constant comfort, her brazen confidence often bleeding into his mind without his command.

“Thanks for the tea,” Theo nodded, gesturing to the stills. “If you need help, let me know.”

Salire waved him away. “Begone, alchemist.”

Theo headed off from the Newt and Demon, wandering in no particular direction. Without the Dreamwalk to boost his willpower, he felt like he hadn’t been pushing himself hard enough lately. Even after they worked the kinds out of the alchemy process, there would be far less work to do in the lab every day. That meant more time for infrastructure projects. Especially now that Void had given him the green light to move most of a continent.

The alchemist felt the Shadow core in his chest. He reached deep, brushing his senses against it. After a deep breath, he spread his aura outward. It covered the local area immediately, racing out to cover Broken Tusk a moment later. It stopped just north of Qavell, refusing to go any further. Even without his Dreamwalker’s Core helping, he could interdict his entire town and Qavell. The worst case would mean he would bring along everyone from the alliance, just crammed into a smaller space for now.

Theo swapped his Tero’gal Mage’s Core for his Earth Sorcerer’s Core and headed over to the mines. Gridgen was taking a break outside, which begged an important question. “Are you ever not on break?”

Gridgen offered a sheepish smile. “This happens when you don’t have a taskmaster breathing down your neck.”

Theo cracked a smile. “I don’t plan to be that taskmaster. Anything interesting going on?”

“Not really. We’re working on a few tunnels is all. Hard work the lower we get, but we avoided the caverns on our way down.”

Theo had a moment of hesitation. He was here to work on the path that led through the mountain and down the coast. With his insane willpower and Earth Sorcerer’s Core he would make quick work of carving a path into the stone. But he could use this obvious cheat to help the miners out. His only question was if they wanted that help. That was a hard question to ask, though. The alchemist imagined himself asking if the miners wanted him to trivialize weeks of work in about five minutes…

“Don’t you have fancy rock-moving powers?” Gridgen asked, putting an end to Theo’s internal debate.

“I do have amazing, overpowered rock-moving powers.”

“Wanna move some rocks for us? If you’re not too busy, that is.”

Theo nodded. “Yeah. Let’s move some rocks.”

The mine had become more of a honeycomb of random passages than a mine. The miners themselves were doing exploratory digging, chasing down every cluster of nuggets they could with no regard to organization. Although the chaos was clear, there were stairs that led downward. Someone had taken the time to carve simple ramps into stairs, making it less dangerous for one to descend. Although the leader of the mine was a short human, the passages had been hewn to accommodate people of all sizes. Even with that, the alchemist’s horns scraped against the ceiling a few times.

The sound of pickaxes ringing against stone soon met their ears. At the end of a narrow hall, Theo watched as a team of workers struck at the wall. They cursed, swigged from jars of booze, and were otherwise about as surly as sailors. Only when they spun to find the owner of the mine did they straighten up, striking at the wall with much more power.

“What’s the goal with this one?” Theo asked.

“We’re looking for a vein of something new,” Gridgen said, walking over to pat the wall. “Everyone has a good feeling about this path.

“A very good feeling… Sir,” a random miner put in. The others mirrored his tone.

“Step aside,” Theo said, gesturing for the miners to move away from the wall. They scampered back like frightened children.

Theo reached out with his Earth Sorcerer’s Core and his will. The Shadow’s Spirit Core joined with it, a shock of power flooding through his body. With a flick of his wrist, the alchemist sent a fissure rocking through the stone. He felt the weight of the mountain above him, and the stone below. Jabbing forward with his hand, he drove the fissure deeper. The stone cracked, chipping off in vast splinters. He jabbed his will as far as it would go, smashing the existing stone to either side. A endless, perfectly straight pathway appeared in a flash.

“Oh, yeah,” Gridgen said, letting out a shuddering breath. “That’s the good stuff.”

“Boss, is he gonna replace us?” one miner asked.

“The archduke is too busy to help you lazy lot,” Gridgen said. “Let’s see if we found anything worthwhile.

Theo found himself immensely entertained as he walked with the miners. The marveled at how perfectly ‘hewn’ the tunnel was. But the tunnel was a stark reminder of what he was fighting against. These kinds of powers needed to be plugged. The system needed a reset so no one could take advantage of such holes. These were holes left by the previous false gods. Holes that were nurtured instead of patched. But at least the miners thought it was cool.

“How about a few levels deeper?” Gridgen asked. “I got a good feeling about that.

Theo shrugged. A few more sharp gestures and a staircase appeared, leading them down even deeper. And deeper still when the next level produced nothing. This went on long enough that the alchemist became concerned about air quality. He ordered one miner to run off and request a ventilation system from Throk. But a few hours of ‘digging’ later, and the miners got excited.

“I got a good feeling about this!” Gridgen shouted, his voice echoing off the walls of the tunnel.

“You’ve said that for every tunnel I’ve created,” Theo said.

“But I feel really good about this one.”

Theo shrugged, walking down the dim corridor with nothing but a magical lantern to light the way. The group paused when the ground around them rumbled slightly. The alchemist shared a look with Gridgen, who shrugged.

“I’m wise enough to know that ominous tremors don’t mean good things,” Theo said. He spread his senses outward, piercing through the rock. He retracted them when he felt something beneath them. “Best be quick…”

“I’ve heard stories about this,” a miner said, bringing up the rear with his pick at the ready.

“You’re always telling stories,” Gridgen grumbled. “Maybe if you… Wait, I see something glittering in the dark.”

“Just silver,” Theo said, squinting against the darkness. “Looks like we went to the core of the planet for silver.”

“Not silver you fork-tailed idiot!” a miner shouted.

Theo turned to him and the man clapped a hand over his mouth.

“No, he is a fork-tailed idiot,” Gridgen said, rushing over to the nugget embedded in the wall. He smacked his pick into the wall, and the ground rumbled again. Everyone went silent.

“Best let the fork-tailed idiot take care of it,” Theo said, pulling the nugget from the wall. He handed it over to Gridgen. “Congratulations on your silver. Let’s go.”

“Not silver,” one miner whispered. “Inspect it.”

Theo did exactly that.

[Mythril Nugget]

[Metal Ore]

Epic

Quality: Perfect

A raw nuggets of Mythril. Needs refining.

“A dwarf would scoop your eyes out with a spoon just to touch that,” Gridgen said, his voice breathy and hushed.

“I’ve heard stories!” the story-telling human man said.

“He might be right about that, Theo. We should talk to someone about this. Maybe the old goat of a dwarf at the smithy.”

“What kind of stories?” Theo demanded.

“Demons in the darkness. Dwarves that dig themselves into caverns filled with demons.”

Theo gestured to himself. “You’ve found the demon.”

“Not actual demons,” Gridgen corrected. “Big beasties or something.”

“We’ll seal this tunnel off,” Theo said. He kept a straight face. That of an annoyed taskmaster. Not of a frightened dronon that had just touched something powerful with his senses. Whatever was below them felt powerful. The kind of powerful that would move mountains. He noticed the disappointed look on the face of the others. “After we gather the other nuggets in this tunnel. But you’re not to dig this deep again, okay?”

“Understood, boss,” Gridgen said, smiling the entire time.

After gathering the rest of the nuggets in the hall, the group headed to higher floors in the mine. Theo sealed the way behind them, intending to put as much rock between his miners and whatever creature lurked in the dark. They were extremely upset by this action, but there was nothing else to do. Until he knew more about what they might face, no amount of fortune would be worth losing the lives of his people.

Gridgen joined with Theo, heading off to the mine. Their resident dwarf might know something about the nuggets. And now that Theo’s bag was filled with those nuggets, it seemed like a kingly prize to present to Nira and her team of smelters.

“Thim,” Theo said, poking his head into the Blacksmith’s Workshop. “I’ve got a question.”

“I’m already working on your project,” Thim growled, holding up a plate of Drogramathi Iron for him to see. “Said it would take a few days…”

“That’s not it. I need some dwarf lore.”

Thim set the piece he was working on down, assuming a more relaxed posture. “What is it?”

“I’ve been told this is rare,” Theo said, producing a Mythril Nugget.

Thim raised a brow at first. Until he inspected the item. He stumbled back, almost falling into the forge. “What are you doing with that?”

“See? Beasties,” Gridgen said, nodding with satisfaction.

“Where did you get it?” Thim demanded. “And can I have it?”

“Sure,” Theo said, tossing the nugget over. Gridgen’s mouth fell open.

“What are you doing!? We gotta smelt that!”

Theo shrugged. “Payment for the dwarf lore.”

“A payment big enough to build a house, raise a family, send them off to the best scholarly cults in the world, and retire!” Gridgen shouted.

“That’s far from the mark,” Thim said, bringing the nugget so close to his face he had the tip of his nose pressed against it. “In the dwarven holds, you’ll hear about dwarves digging too deeply. But finding a Mythril Nugget meant you were close to the nest of something nasty. They only appear near underground pockets of magma, which are often home to fearsome creatures. Lava Hydras, Lava Dragons… Basically, any monster related to lava and magma loves living there.”

“So, we were inches from death,” Theo said, shaking his head. “I should have known better. We dug from above using my core. I have a feeling if we dug it manually, we would have disturbed whatever it was living underground.”

“Count yourself lucky,” Thim said, rubbing his thumb over the surface of the glittering metal. In the light of day, it had a green sheen to it. “The quality of the metal this produces doesn’t justify the price, though. This is more of a status item back in the dwarven holds.”

“Time to visit the smelter, I think,” Theo said.

Chapter 59

Entry Missing

The smelter buildings were also chaotic. Not only because of the people rushing around, avoiding splashing metal and shouting orders. But the heat itself was enough to make any normal person wither as they approached. Theo shielded his face as he waved his hands, desperate to get Nira’s attention. Between the cooling gel they wore on their skin, and some adaptation, thanks to the cores they used.

Nira waved him off, gesturing across the street before getting back to work.

Gridgens stuck around, waiting to see what the woman would say about the ore. It took a while for her to finish up, though. That led to the overly excited miner making predictions about the quality of the ore and what it would mean for the town. But Theo took Thim’s assessment seriously. It was unlikely to shake things up, even if it was cool.

“What can I help you with?” Nira said, sauntering over. She wiped a wet cloth over her face, removing layers of soot.

“Got something interesting for you to smelt,” Theo said, producing several nuggets from his inventory. He handed them over.

“Rare metals? I like rare metals,” Nira said, inspecting the nuggets. She held it up to the sun, bit it, and shrugged. “Seems slightly better than Drogramathi Iron. Not as versatile as Azrugium.”

“Those are apparently expensive,” Theo said. “According to the dwarves.”

“Yeah, dwarves and their precious metals… I’ll cook these up for you,” Nira said, holding her hands out. “Assuming you have more than three nuggets.”

Theo gave her all the nuggets he had, and was unsurprised at her glib response to something a dwarf claimed was so precious. She worked with rare metals every day, stuff that would make the dwarves blush. But this was the only place these rare metals appeared… Unless there was a Drogramathi mine somewhere else. That got him thinking.

“Has the supply of Drogramathi Iron dried up?” Theo asked.

“Not that we’ve noticed,” Gridgen said.

“That’s curious… But I won’t complain. Keep an eye on it,” Theo said. “Thanks, Nira. You’re the best smelter I know.”

“Damn right I am,” Nira said, turning away and approaching her workshops. She yelled at some workers, flailing her arms. In the short time she had met with the pair, something had gone wrong.

Theo shook his head, walking off with Gridgen. “Make sure they don’t dig deep,” he said. “If I catch you guys digging any deeper than that last level, I’ll seal it up.”

“The miners are scared enough as it is. I don’t think you have to worry.”

Theo bid farewell to Gridgen at the mines. The workers were buzzing with the new information. The alchemist turned away from the excitement, heading off to complete his little adventure. In the past, he had used the Tunneling Potion to etch a passageway through the mountains, leading south to the coastline. He walked that path, coming to the end only to spot a massive drop. Reaching out with his Earth Sorcerer’s Core, he got to work on a path.

Carving a path in the mountain was theraputic. Theo fell into a rhythm of moving and removing material as he created a basic ramp alongside the mountain. He reformed it to hold the path better, making sure it was wide enough not only to hold people, but carts and trains if he needed. The original idea for this passage was to have a launching point for a train heading south, over the water and toward the lizard islands. That never worked, as the bridge had failed almost immediately.

Within a few hours, Theo was walking along the coastline to the south, angling himself northeast as he followed the curve of the land. He could see the harbor in the distance, but at least he was at the level of the water. The waves lapped against the rock, washing over his boots as he raised the pathway enough to account for the tides. He wrapped the path along the coast, leaving it where it was as he approached the beach area. The guards atop the waterborne towers waved after a bit of shock.

Theo waved back. “Yeah, I bet they’re wondering what the hell I’m doing out here… Just testing some bridges, guys. No need to freak out.”

With the coastal pathway done, Theo walked back to the massive staircase he had created and climbed it. Without his increased Vigor, the climb would have been daunting enough to make him give up. Once at the top, Theo pulled material from the mountain itself and sent it sailing into the sea below. The stone crumbled, tumbling end-over-end as it crashed into the sea. Waves radiated outward, white-crested and high enough to cause concern. At least the harbor was shielded by sturdy walls.

With enough rocks in the ocean below, he took the stairs… again. Would Throk be upset if Theo requested an elevator? Probably not, but it was a waste of his time. The trip wasn’t too bad, and it allowed the alchemist to mess around with causeway designs. He quickly learned the only way to make it work would be to pile material in a mound that joined at the top. Even in the shallow waters near the coast, the amount of rock needed to make the causeway was staggering.

But the waves crashed around the crude causeway, rushing up the scramble of rocks and failing to rush over the path. While this small test was interesting, Theo knew it wasn’t a seal of approval for the structure. Ziz’s version of the bridge didn’t fail near the shore. The structure he made failed out at sea, where white-capped waves slammed into the pillars supporting the bridge. Then there was the problem of depth. Again.

“Boats are easier,” Theo said, moving stone around to connect the causeway to his hewn path. “But at least the fishermen can head out and cast a line…”

From what Theo could observe about the open ocean outside the bay, the bridge idea was a bust. Boats were way easier, and with the amount of effort he needed to put into this project, coming up with a magic-resistant airship would be quicker. But he wasn’t undertaking these projects as a way to better the alliance anymore. That would be a lovely side-effect, but what he needed was to keep his willpower sharp.

Going through a list of buildings in his mind, Theo headed back to town. He could catch up on some things that had gone by the wayside during his mad alchemy spree. The first one that bubbled to the top of his thoughts were the smelters. Nira was doing a great job with them, so much so the alchemist had let them fall behind the other buildings. Getting them to Level 20 from 15 would be easy enough. If he had enough spare Monster Cores, he could even get them to 25. But one upgrade should have been good enough for the industrious woman.

“I haven’t smelted your fancy nuggets,” Nira said, giving Theo a flat look as he approached. She was taking a break outside the smelter, chatting with Alise and looking as dour as ever.

“Just upgrading the buildings,” Theo said with a nod. “Let me know which one you wanna pick.”

“He’s bored,” Alise said, not bothering to keep her voice low. “Looking for things to do, you know.”

“Quite bored,” Theo said, approaching the smelter. “In a good way, though.”

Theo added Monster Cores to the smelter, watching as the level ticked up. It didn’t take long for the first upgrade option to appear. He saw the old Lightweight Crucible upgrade, the new one, and something strange.

[MISSING]

ENTRY MISSING

Theo had to think for a moment to figure out what was going on. The old upgrade was Fan’glir’s Flames. And Fan’glir was kinda dead. As dead as a fake god could be, anyway. He wondered if there were other upgrade selections in town that had suffered. He would need to check, searching for a solution if there was one at all. Instead of worrying about it now, he checked the new upgrade option.

[Cooled Workspace]

Any worker with a Smelter’s Core (or adjacent, aligned, etc core) will experience half as much heat from the smelter.

“Come on,” Theo said, reading the description for Nira to hear. “How could you not want that?”

“I get that, or lighter crucibles… I don’t mind the heat so much.”

“There’s not minding the heat, and then standing in the middle of an active volcano.” Theo folded his arms, shaking his head at her. She was tougher than most.

“That’s fine. I’ll take that one.”

Theo selected the upgrade, narrowing his eyes at the lava-girl as he added more cores to the building. The next milestone came, once again providing him with the missing entry, Light Crucibles, and something new. “This one is good, though,” the alchemist said, reading the latest entry for her consideration.

[Expanded Crucibles]

The generated crucibles within your smelter may hold more and retain heat better.

“That one sounds exciting,” Nira said, deadpan.

“Oh, yeah. Just let it all out,” Theo said, selecting the upgrade for her. “Unfortunately, I’ve only got a stock of Level 20 to 25 cores on me right now. I’ll have to grab some more high-level cores from the market.”

“The Cooled Workspace upgrade will be great for my workers,” Nira said. “Perhaps we won’t have faintings as often.”

Theo inspected the building before moving on. He smiled at the name Nira had given it. Long ago, he learned who the Midnight Damsel was.

[Smeltery]

[Midnight Damsel Smeltery]

Owners: Theo Spencer

Operator: Nira Weir

Faction: [Southlands Alliance]

Level: 25 (15%)

Rent Due: SUSPENDED

Expansions:

[Preservation of Heat]

[Pattern Alloy]

[Double Smelter]

[Cooled Workspace]

[Expanded Crucibles]

Applying the upgrades to the other smelters, Theo headed off for his next stop. Throk owned both the Artificer’s Workshop and the Blacksmith’s Workshop, and would have been mad if upgrades were applied. The School, Mudball Fundamental, was already at Level 30. While his Tero’gal Manor was at Level 20 and could have been brought to Level 25, he just didn’t have the desire to do so.

Theo wandered to the harbor, watching as a ship pulled in to moor at the docks. The waters here were calm and clear, not appearing as filthy as he remembered Earth harbors looking. There was a constant flow of water from the river, flushing anything foul left behind by the ships into the sea. He made his way to the marker, looking over the interesting wares people brought for sale. It wasn’t a seed core market, but it was fun.

After haggling with a merchant, Theo led a karatan away from a stall. The creature was of a variety he hadn’t seen before, and seemed well-tempered. Best of all, it was white with black spots. It looked too much like an Earth cow not to purchase, even with too many legs and the insect-like features.

Theo approached the paddock’s edge, watching the other karatan roam the open fields. Miana spotted him from afar, shaking her head and striding across the open fields of green. “What in the hells do you have there?”

“A big cutie, that’s what.”

“What are you going to do with a karatan?” Miana asked. She might have been trying to hide it, but she was smiling.

“I didn’t think past the idea of owning a spotted karatan. You want it?” Theo asked.

“Surely it cost you a few gold…”

Theo nodded. Five of them, in fact. He didn’t buy the creature intending to start a farm of his own. A merchant had gone through the trouble of loading a living animal onto a boat, sailing half-way around the world, and presenting it in a stall. Therefore, Miana should have it. He held the lead out, and the beast chittered.

“Thanks, I guess,” Miana said, opening the gate to the paddock. “She’s well-trained, isn’t she?”

The creature stomped off into the field, nibbling at grass as it went. Theo watched with pride. “I’m good at finding excellent quality karatan.”

“Are you really? Did you know it was a girl?”

“Nope. It was the spots that drew me.”

Miana laughed, her smile about as bright as the sun above. Her road to recover was long, but Theo was happy to see she was in a good place. Both her and the animals would come along for the ride through the void. He could imagine these karatan grazing the fields of Tero’gal, mingling with the creatures from Earth. What more could a cow-bug ask for?

“I’m afraid I lost a pozwa a few days ago,” Miana said with a sigh. She jabbed her thumb back to the farmhouse. On the other side, Theo could see a simple gravestone. “Realities of ranching, I’m afraid.”

“Doesn’t help that no one knows how to care for them, huh?” Theo asked. “You have a breeding pair though, don’t you?”

“More than a pair. The population will stay stable for a while. Not forever, but long enough.”

Pozwa had always been interesting little critters. They were demon goats. That’s what they looked like, anyway. Feathered, horned, and cloven-hooved, they appeared to be some chimeric hybrid made by a mad scientist. And they could trace their original breeding back to Gardreth the Fallen Kingdom. Now that was a place Theo had heard little about in his time here. No matter how many layers he pulled back from the curtain of the world, he was doubtful he’d learn everything about this place’s history.

“How is the cheese business?” Theo asked.

“Everyone loves cheese, so business is good,” Miana said. She sighed, leaning against the paddock fence.

“I might need to buy more cheese,” Theo said. “Not as much as before, but… enough.”

“A little melted karatan cheese… some zee flatbread…” Miana trailed off, patting her belly. “Should’ve had more of that at the wedding.”

“More of that and less liquor,” Theo said, nodding. “Or a hangover cure.”

“How many people do you think live in the world?” Theo asked.

Miana blinked a few times, her eyes leaving the alchemist and tracing a line somewhere in the distance. “I really couldn’t say…”

The population of this world wasn’t vast. He was certain the Southlands Alliance was large enough to contain them all, assuming they had the accommodations. A plan formed in his mind. Something that might have been stupid, but fun.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to visit the market… I just had the dumbest idea ever.”

Chapter 60

The Seal of Passage

Watching how the market had flourished from nothing to a thriving sprawl of products and merchants was always amazing. Theo flitted between stalls, getting prices on food, spices, building materials, and seed cores as he went. He made a mental tally of these numbers, but they were incomplete. Prices would fluctuate by the day, depending on which merchant was in town from which other civilization. As always, Bantein and Partopour had the best prices while Tarantham had the best stuff.

The flow of merchant ships had become constant enough that at least one was docked in the harbor. Overland trade had been relegated to traders moving goods from Rivers and Daub and Gronro-Dir. That made up far more trade than Theo had expected, resulting in something of a boom of exports. There were some tax implications he didn’t care to think about. Alise could worry about who paid who and what it all meant. She was damn good at her job.

Tresk appeared from nowhere, joining the alchemist on the walls that encased the trade district. The tops of the tents were visible, creating a sprawling splash of color to offset the hard packed earth, cobbles, or gray stone of the walls. She had responded to a mental summons, appearing in a flash without her normal annoyed persona. Instead, she felt the request and responded without complaint.

“Numbers, huh?” Tresk asked, scratching her head. “I’m not so good with numbers.”

“You’d think the Tara’hek would have picked one person in the group that was decent with numbers…”

“So, we’re counting everyone in the world.” Tresk shrugged. “Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Come on. We’re counting everyone, but we need someone who is good at counting. And organizing stuff.”

“Alise?”

Theo nodded, turning away from the battlements. He found the nearest staircase, descending to the ground below. While he juggled other projects—things that would take a few days to move—he had time to plan for the future. The duo walked through the streets, heading for the town hall. Alex flew somewhere overhead, flaunting some new power she had gained. Perhaps she would become more dragon than goose soon enough.

The town hall was as busy as ever. Theo wondered what all these people were doing here all the time. Some administrative something-or-other. Alise was in a meeting, so they waited outside of her office for a while before being allowed in. For once, he didn’t barge in to demand her attention.

“What’s going on, Theo?” Alise said, looking up from a stack of papers with a concerned expression. “Did a dragon burst forth from the ocean? Perhaps a god has descended and we all have five minutes to live.”

“Those would be interesting, but no. I’m wondering if you have a headcount for the entire world.”

Alise looked down at the stack of papers in her hands, letting them drop to the table with a thud. She pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes at the alchemist. “Why do you wanna know?”

“Just curious.”

“Yeah, right,” Alise said, standing to shuffle through some papers on a different table. “I can smell one of your schemes from another continent… While the request is weird, I have some basic numbers. The entire world?”

“Break it down by continent.”

Alise shuffled through some papers, shrugging as she held up a tally sheet for the Southlands Alliance. “Everyone here is dead or in four cities. That makes it easy. The Southlands Alliance contains about five- to eight-thousand people.”

“That’s a lot of people!” Tresk shouted.

“Not really,” Alise said, shuffling to another sheet. “Bantein has at least fifty-thousand. These are estimates, by the way.”

Alise went through the rest of the nations. There were fewer than a half-million people on this planet. Theo took those numbers in as the administrator went on, talking about how she had collected the information. She wouldn’t stop reinforcing the fact that these were estimates, not exact numbers she had gone to check herself.

“Earth had a few billion people at one time,” Theo said, breaking out of his thoughts. “We were down to about one-million at the end, but this is strange.”

“I’m not sure how so many people could fit on one planet,” Alise said, tapping the end of a stack of paper onto the table. She stored it away with other, similar stacks.

“The point is, that’s not a lot of people,” Tresk said, reading Theo’s thoughts.

“No, compared to your old world. But what does it matter?” Alise asked.

Theo rolled his shoulders. This was the part where Alise got mad at him for coming up with a stupid idea. There were going to be some problems with bringing the Shards back to the mortal plane. Kinks he had to work out in Xol’sa’s inventions. He couldn’t estimate how long it would take him, or how long after that the gods would glassify the planet. He couldn’t bring everyone, but why not try?

“You know my plan to bring the alliance to my world,” Theo said, shrugging. He had explained the entire plan to her.

Alise blinked slowly, as though the slower the action the more her thoughts had time to catch up. “You wanna bring them all?”

“As many as we can.”

Alise sighed, shrugged, and grunted. “Yeah, whatever. Let’s do it.”

“Really!?” Tresk shouted. Perhaps a little too loud. “You’re not gonna yell at him? Call him an idiot?”

“What’s the point?” Alise asked. “He’s going to do it anyway. He likely wants to house these people while they’re here, claiming the spaces between the three towns for them to stay. Which is why I saw him walking over to the market earlier. Yeah, we started getting a stockpile of food. If we focused on that, we could feed an endless field of people for a few weeks.”

“Wow. You’re on board?” Theo asked.

“Yeah, why not? Let me run the numbers on half the world’s population agreeing to some nut-brained idea to hang out in the Southlands Alliance until the end of the world.”

Theo’s intuition said far fewer than half would show up. But planning for half was a good idea. It was hard to tell how things would turn in the coming weeks, and there was nothing wrong with the older Broken Tusker tradition of over-preparing for everything.

“How long will that take?” Tresk asked.

“I dunno. Get out of my office and it’ll take a far shorter time.”

Tresk and Theo shuffled out of Alise’s office, heading out into the town hall aimlessly. A quarter-million people seemed like a lot, but they only needed to support them for a bit. As the alchemist considered this, he felt something strange tug at his chest. When he searched Tresk’s feelings, he felt that sensation mirrored in her.

“What’s going on?” Tresk asked, pawing at her chest. “Feels like someone is tugging on my cores from the inside…”

“Just the one core, actually,” Theo said, focusing on the sensation. His Dreamwalker’s Core was vibrating in his chest. Rushing outside, he turned his gaze skyward, unsure what he was expecting to see. But it wasn’t what he saw. Instead, he felt something. “A change in the system.”

No one else in town had felt the change. The alchemist felt something vibrating in his inventory, a haptic buzz that filled his mind. He withdrew his communication stone linked with Fenian and squeezed it tightly.

“I’m guessing you felt that,” Fenian said.

“What the hell was that, Fenian?” Tresk shouted into the stone.

“That’s… not the way the stones work,” Theo said with a sigh. “Something changed with the system.”

“Yes, but what?” Fenian asked. “I can’t… Oh, there it is! Did you get the message?”

Theo locked his jaw tightly, gritting his teeth. This was bound to happen… A message had appeared.

[Dreamwalker’s Core Message]

A seal has been set in place. A recent intrusion into the heavenly realms has forced a change with the Monitor System. The Seal of Passage has been set in place, making it impossible for any being—no matter their station—from crossing the boundary between the outer and inner realms.

The message appeared as general information, as though anyone who got the message would know what it meant. Tresk’s excited blustering meant she didn’t get what it meant. Theo let the communication crystal fall to his side. He was relieved. All the information he needed to weather the next phase of the storm was locked in his mind. Both Hallow and Void had given him the tools required to heal the space elves and bring the shards back to the mortal world. This was thanks to Twist and whatever strange plot he schemed.

“Well, I had no plans to go there anyway,” Fenian said, seeming arrogant with his words. “So, take that. You stupid system.”

“Anything else to report?” Theo asked. “What are you doing, anyway?”

“Snagging a few things from Tarantham right now. There are several artifacts I don’t want to be without when you steal me away to your world. Oh, are you going to buy me dinner before you kidnap me?”

“Bring your own food. Just don’t bring anything that could damage the world… Okay?”

“Sure, sure… I was thinking about making my own world! Wouldn’t that be lovely?”

Theo imagined the kind of world Fenian would build. “Hot elven women only, right?”

“Theo! I didn’t know you knew my type!”

Theo hung up before Fenian could say anything else. If he remained on the line, things were going to get weird. The alchemist didn’t want to know what the elf was doing, but at least he was regularly returning to Broken Tusk at this point. That just left him with the message driven by the Monitor System. Tresk was confused, so he needed to explain it.

“We’re sealed off from the gods,” Theo said, tapping his chin. His mind rolled over the information, tumbling them until he decided if it was a good thing. “We wanted this, actually. This is perfect.”

“Are you sure?” Tresk asked, raising a hairless brow. “Feels like we leaned on them for a lot of stuff.”

“That was before the thrones. This is the system as it was meant to be. The gods should have been sealed away entirely, only acting through agents. Instead, what we had was a gentleman’s agreement not to mess with the mortal world. We all know how well that went.”

“Yeah, but still…”

“And this means the gods would mess with us when we’re doing our job. Void can kick rocks if he has a problem with any of my plans… even if he has some command over the void, I don’t think he can leave the sun-like area in the middle of our new galaxy.”

“The what?” Tresk asked, regretting her decision to ask immediately.

Theo slipped them through the veil. An instant later, they were floating in the void, looking off into the expanse of spiraling nothing. The alchemist pointed to the center of the formation. “The gods all live there. Each of their worlds exists within the sun.”

“Ah, yes. Existential dread like I never expected,” Tresk said, nodding along. “Can we go back to land? I don’t like the void.”

Theo shook his head. “This is important. This is big, Tresk. Come on.”

Tresk groaned as they shot through the void, angled directly for Khahak. A blink later, and they were standing in the Arbiter’s Citadel, overlooking the endless metropolis of a world. Khahar’s top-floor office was a sprawling thing of ornate decorations, Khahari influences, and plush seats. The man himself was standing behind his table, turning to offer a smile at the alchemist.

“Didn’t take you long to come knocking,” Khahar said. “What are your impressions about the change?”

Theo nodded, a smile spreading across his face. “I’m very excited. Less oversight from the gods.”

‘Yet we’re sealed from their heavenly realms.”

Theo thumped his fist into his open palm, nodding. “Exactly. Mortal, Ascendant, God, System, Monitor System. That’s the pecking order, right? They need to leave us alone to do what we need to do over here. Same goes for them on the other side.”

Khahar turned, looking out his window. Theo could feel something of regret coming from the man. He tried not to think less of his old friend, as he knew what was making him feel this way. There was a long pause before anyone spoke. But it was the person the alchemist least expected.

“You gotta get over it, man,” Tresk said. “Just because you’re no longer Mister Know-It-All doesn’t mean you can’t make informed decisions.”

“What, like Theo’s plan to throw an end of the world party?” Khahar scoffed. He shook his head, turning back to the pair. “Sorry. I’ll admit, I’ve felt adrift recently.”

“Why don’t we pull Fenian in on this conversation?” Theo asked.

“Can you interdict him from…” Khahar trailed off.

A swirl of black appeared, Fenian stumbling out of the portal a moment later. He was wearing nothing but his underwear and smelled of Qavelli Berries. “Okay, that’s illegal,” he said, making an X with his arms. He turned, grabbing at the air as though he could rip the portal open with his hands. “You send me back this instant, alchemist. Do you know how hard it was to woo that elven princess? Do you!?”

“Not that hard for you,” Tresk muttered. “Guy sleeps around more than a Marsh Wolf.”

“I heard that!”

“This shouldn’t take long,” Khahar said, waving Fenian’s concerns away. “Only a few moments should pass on the mortal plane. Unless they adjusted the time again…”

“Oh, yes. I’ll just explain to her how I blinked out of reality for a moment. That won’t ruin the mood or anything!”

Theo pinched the bridge of his nose. After releasing a heavy sigh, he looked at the people gathered in Khahar’s office—including himself. Four unlikely people had taken thrones of power, becoming true ascendants. They held positions that equated to power, no matter how strange and chained that power was. Each had jobs related to keeping the world safe. Following the system’s rules was paramount.

“We’re the authorities, now,” Theo said, folding his arms.

Fenian yanked a blanket from a nearby sofa, draping it over his shoulders and pinching it closed in front. “Fine. Make it quick, or you’ll ruin the magic.”

“I call to order,” Khahar said, a smile spreading across his face. “The first meeting of the true ascendants.”