The morning after the adventurers came and went, I ate a pleasant breakfast of sliced deer sausages in a yam sauce with biscuits. It was interrupted when the [Ranger] guard Eni presented an owl that he had tamed last night during watch. Apparently, it had just flown right up and landed on the edge of the tower, attracted to the wisps. The animal, its plumage orangish-brown with fine white speckles and a white face, wasn’t a beast or it would have been destroyed by the guardian wind elementals there. I finished eating while the others had surrounded the man, commenting on how pretty the bird was. Eventually, I’d had enough, and ordered him to keep it in the guard barracks until he could build a roost for it on the roof. They might be concerned about its visage, but I was concerned with stepping in its droppings.

After breakfast, Walker and Lilly went about their task in the dungeon, the young lady giving a resolute face with fearful eyes as she marched down the stairs in dramatic fashion with her brother chuckling behind her. Kine, I brought with me to the library. There, I took a piece of the quartz crystal he’d gathered the other day and placed it in a small box before instructing him to use [Earth Manipulation] to change its shape to a sphere, then a cube, then a pyramid, then back again. His given goal was to be able to do so within a breath each.

He took to the task right away, his head bowed in concentration. If I couldn’t sense his magic at work, I might have mistaken him for engaging in a midmorning nap. While he practiced, I set myself down in a chair with a sigh, staring apprehensively at the three scrolls on the table before me. I sensed an enchantment on one and decided to keep it for last. I grabbed one of the others, this one sealed with wax and an imprint of an ax or something that vaguely looked like one. I didn’t recognize the symbol, but I hadn’t kept track of all the noble houses and their coats of arms and silly sayings over the years.

To Teacher Fargus,

Thanks for sending my little friend back! He and I are both happy with his new toys. If I had known all he needed was beast bodies, I’d fetch them for him.

I haven’t met you, but I heard enough about you from Al. I still remember him taking a month to collect thousands of fleas to send you while muttering to himself about ‘experimental subjects’. When your return missive turned his skin green for months, both Nix and me got some real good laughs out of it.

Welcome to the hinterlands. Let me know if you have any monsters that need slaying.

Baron Llal

It was a simple enough letter, though the handwriting was atrocious. It seems that the necromancer made it back fine. I hadn’t really forgotten about my exchanges of magic tricks with Alred Froom, I just hadn’t considered it in a while.

He had the unfortunate circumstances to be my assistant right around the time I had fallen deeply into an infatuation with a young human woman. I had cut ties with her before my feelings became a romance and then shriveled in the reality of her aging. That she married someone else no more than a few months afterward left me feeling bitter, so I had thrown myself into experimentation, tasking my assistant to find more and more subjects for testing—if my longevity spell was finalized, we could have been together!

When I had eventually pulled myself back from the intense testing, I found my assistant worn and used, filled with resentment. Even guiding him to the fourth-tier class of [Elementalist] wasn’t enough to soothe his grievances. He had declared himself my rival immediately after achieving the class, and--with the pettiness only wizards are capable of--the tricks ensued. That assistant was now Baron Froom.

I glanced at the other two scrolls, now knowing who the enchanted scroll was from, and sighed deeply. I burned away Baron Llal’s missive, not wanting any documentation linking me to a necromancer, even one with noble support. I decided to save Froom’s letter for last.

To Renowned Wizard; Alderman Nemon Fargus of Lark,

I hope this letter reaches you well.

My companions and I have heard of your recent arrival in Eistoni, and I wanted to personally send greetings to Baron Froom’s mentor. Your teachings granted him the knowledge and power he needed to fulfill his role in our adventuring team, saving our lives more times than I can count.

While he has a complicated relationship with you, please know that when he speaks to other mages concerning you, that he brags about your tutelage.

I also received word from one of my representatives of your desire for ancient magical artifacts. I have no such items on hand but have communicated to my subordinates that should any such device be found, it will be delivered to your hands first.

In addition, I have contacted Baron Aide, my neighbor and ally to the east, who owns a gem mine. I know from my experience with Baron Froom, that certain gems hold particular value to elementals. One of his gem merchants should be making their way south to you in the near future. I hope that you treat this merchant with dignity and respect.

Cordially,

Baroness Nix

I tapped my fingers on the side of my chair in thought. Now I felt mildly shameful at the past antics I engaged in with Alred. Baron Froom. I rolled up the scroll and tapped it against one palm as I let the feeling subside. Eventually, I rose and placed it in the library, the section with mundane correspondence that I kept often for more sentimental reasons than the actual value. Then I sat back down and looked at Baron Froom’s letter without touching it.

It sat in an ornate scroll case, the sides embedded with gems, three of them the size of a fingernail. Layers of wards and enchantments made it glow under my mana sight. I picked at the layers of enchantments to see what they did. The first, a simple ward, to keep the scroll locked against anyone but him and me. The second, an enchantment to keep the insides dry and safe. Both would have faded in a year if I left the missive untouched, but that was common among mages. The next enchantment, tied to one of the gems on the side, looked to be a summon for a tier-one wind elemental. Likely something that would return to Froom to notify him that I had received and opened the letter. Another enchantment to keep anyone from removing the gems. Was that to prevent theft or to keep me from simply disconnecting the gems from their enchantments? It was tied to the scroll in a way I couldn’t tell until I opened it, hidden beneath and inside other enchantments. From there, the other spellcraft was woven together tightly in a way that reminded me of the intricate knots sailors used.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t pick the spells apart one by one until I was certain it was safe, I could do that. It would just take a day or two. I didn’t see it as a test of my patience; Alred knew me better than that. The working itself was a poke in my side, a way to waste time that could be used experimenting. Or teaching. Or working on my tower. Or sleeping. Or any number of more important things. It was a way to ask if I valued what he said more than I did my time experimenting. It did make me glad that I had already sent the Bents his way if we were going to continue the minor tricks.

I smiled to myself and simply left the letter there on the table. I might open it next month if I felt like it. Instead, I patted Kine on his shoulder as I went downstairs to the first floor and began working on the copper ore left there. Purifying it was simple with [Earth Manipulation] at the level I had it, and soon the raw metal was shining brightly as I placed it into the grooves around the fireplace, molding it to follow the etching I had made there.

After I was finished with the fireplace, more than half of the copper I ordered remained. Following the designs I made on the fireplace, I continued them into the ceiling. When I felt satisfied, I flowed the copper up to fill those as well. The copper inlay became thin towards the edges of the room, but I managed to use it up. When finished, I nodded to myself and turned to leave, only to find nearly every resident of the tower standing behind me with looks of awe.

Mena was the first to recover, “Boss, I came to get you for lunch, but got distracted watching you work.”

A few of the others commented something similar and jumped with a cringe when Chelsea called from the dining hall asking what was taking so long. I don’t normally let myself indulge in feelings of satisfaction, but the awed looks I’d seen on their faces did make me feel warm inside. It had been a while since I experienced that emotion, and I smiled softly until I reached the bottom of the stairs.

There wasn’t room around the table for us all to fit, so some of the guards chose to stand. I resolved myself to order a second table when the next merchant came around. Lunch was recooked leftovers all jumbled into a thick stew with a side of rolls. While the main fare wasn’t anything special, the rolls were delicious. Chelsea was quite the baker.

Afterward, I summoned Kine, Walker, Meathead, and Tond to outside the gates of my tower. There, I gave them new instructions, “I want you to begin surveying the bog. Kine and Walker, you will take turns, Kine in the morning and Walker in the afternoon. Start with building pathways using [Earth Manipulation], while the guards escort you.”

“As part of your duties, any stone you pull up you should remove any crystals from and return them to me. Crystals that don’t have any magical value, you may keep to do with what you please. The most important rule is that you don’t ever draw stone from too deep. Do you know why?”

I didn’t think their powers could reach into the parts of the earth that led to the subterranean world, so I wasn’t too worried about that. I didn’t want them to accidentally drain the bog. Not only would that ruin my reflection lake, but it would also attract all manner of farmers to try and take advantage of the good soil underneath. That, and I didn’t know how stable the foundation was here. If they accidentally sank the entire bog and left only my tower standing, that would be fine, but I imagine it would take the road with it. That wouldn’t work well for me at the moment. Maybe in the future.

Kine answered first, “You don’t want to risk another Pestilence.”

I smiled and nodded, “Correct. The Underneath is an entire world filled with monsters that escaped even the cataclysms. So vast, that even the seagods' wrath couldn’t flood their tunnels. I fought the Pestilence when that beast escaped the ground. It destroyed three cities before the armies of Sena put it down. Even with the heights of my power now, I would only think to escape.”

Both Walker and Kine gave me serious nods of understanding. Meathead picked his nose. Tond, though, asked, “Sir, what’s the Pestilence? I ain’t ever heard of it.”

At first, I thought he was joking, but the serious look on his face told me otherwise. “Tond, imagine if you will, a snake the size of one of the trees back at Woodhoot.”

“Okay.”

“Now, cover it with spiked armor that could stop any sword, and instead of two fangs, it has a maw with more fangs than anyone could count. Multiply this snake by a hundred and tie all their tails together into one beast. That is the Pestilence,” I finished my description with a small illusion spell of how I remember the monster. The knee-high image of the horror even now making my skin crawl.

“That’s what’s underground?” He whispered, with a quiver in his voice.

“That might be the least of what’s down there,” I answered, turning back to give both of my assistants a meaningful look. “Today, you will go together. Kine, if you would, show Walker the exercises I had you performing earlier today when you return.”

My assistants gave small bows and the guards saluted before I watched them depart. Tond took the lead, with my assistants walking side by side behind him using their [Earth Manipulation] to forge the trail. Meathead followed a few more paces behind the two, swinging his hands at a buzzing insect.

Returning to the tower, I met with Lilly to continue her tutelage. I was explaining her afternoon assignments to read at least two books from the bookcase where I kept my tomes and scrolls of general knowledge when she interrupted me.

“But master, this is so much!” She said, stretching out the words and trying to give me a cute look. Something that a girl much younger would do. I had let the behavior slide in the past, as I knew it was something that the orphanage actually rewarded, because I hoped she would grow out of it on her own. Now, it seemed more likely I would need to do something.

“Young lady. Is that the behavior a pupil of a powerful wizard should demonstrate? Are you intent on remaining a child, or do you want to be one of the few women who can claim to have personal instruction from a name known throughout the kingdom?” I wasn’t truly upset or angry, but that didn’t stop me from feigning it. If this tactic didn’t work, my next one was to feign disappointment.

“Sorry, master,” She said, her shoulders drooping.

“Now how should my pupil behave?” I asked.

She straightened her back, and lifted her chin in the air, “The pupil of master Nemon Fargus should behave as if everyone else is beneath her.” Her voice did a fairly good impression of my own, and I had to struggle to keep a straight face.

“Rightly, so,” I answered, and turned to continue pulling tomes from the shelf for her assignment. I may have purposely given her a few tougher works as petty retribution, but that should have been expected. Her eyes bulged when I set them on the table.

“There you are, young lady. This will be your week’s studies. Our sessions will be changing to every three days from here on,” I informed her and patted her shoulder as I left the room. I hadn’t even glanced at Froom’s scroll the whole time I was in there and was proud of myself for that.

I was considering my options for designing the third-floor basement laboratory, but there were several things I needed to do first. One of which I headed to do now. In the second-floor basement, in my Hall of Valor, a beast tooth lay on the floor. It wasn’t from the Pestilence. I chose no trophy from that beast, the vile thing's memory more than enough. No, this was from a warbeast from the jungles of Tervan. I was one of the few men that slew one of their creatures, an honor that few could claim even among that southern kingdom’s own champions.

I lifted the tooth, and stepped back outside the room, using my magic to turn the rectangular doorway into an archway. Above that, I mounted the tooth and etched the words ‘For the Glory of Sena’. I could have done so in a few minutes, but I spent nearly an hour working on getting the curves of the archway and the words to match the curve of the tooth. It left the entrance to the Hall of Valor a little wider than I would have normally cared for, but the look of it made the difference. Pride, in my kingdom. Pride, in the battles, regardless if they were victories or defeats. Pride, in my fallen comrades. The feeling welled up inside me when I looked on at my Hall.

The feeling only faded when I took in the Book of the Dead, sitting like an offering in the center of the far end of the room, right beneath the symbol of Bi. That book, and the people recorded within, radiated sadness and loss in my eyes. I almost couldn’t bring myself to look at my creation. The Book of the Dead.

I shook away the serious emotions of the room, sparing only a glance for the guards’ quarters. Eni was sleeping within, his new owl perched upon his head. I imagine that will be odd when he wakes for the night shift. I found myself standing on the landing between staircases for that floor, considering what I wanted to do next when Chelsea called for dinner.

Goat ribs in a pear sauce. I didn’t imagine it would have tasted as good as it did. It didn’t look appetizing. But she had added some sort of spice to it that paired the two flavors perfectly. A leafy green vegetable boiled with onions was served on the side. The plant tasted buttery but was a little stringy.

Walker, Kine, and their two guards had returned while I was working, but they only said they didn’t find anything of note today. I imagined they focused on building the trail more than searching the area. They’ll find themselves surprised when they say they’ve finished mapping the bog only for their next task to be cataloging its plants and animals, beasts and monsters.

After dinner, I retired to the rooftop to watch the sunset over my lake. The beauty was still marred by the darn beast pits, something I should set about moving tomorrow if no other more important tasks arose.