The morning was slow. I could have gotten some shopping done but preferred to rest. There was little I would have to spend much time on. Nymph and I had breakfast together where I showed her the silverwood wand. I told her how she needed a decent understanding of the thaumaturgical theory to actually move a node on her own. That toned down her enthusiasm a lot. Apparently, she had some bad experiences with flux and was not enthused to expose herself to great amounts of it. It took me almost an hour to describe how warp was something different.

“So you’re saying instead of temporarily having to use less magic or risking serious injury, which is the side effect of flux, I would ‘simply’ risk going insane?”, she summarized my explanation.

“Yes and no. The things you need to learn for the Node in a Jar are not very dangerous knowledge. You might get a little looser, at worst. Seriously, I’m fine, right? And I know a lot more about thaumaturgy.”

“Still. I’d rather ask you to do it. Maybe at some point, I’ll learn more about thaumaturgy but the risk is too high.”

I gave in.

“Well, that’s fine but you’re gonna rely on me for moving. I can’t ensure I’ll be anywhere near when you need me.”

“I don’t mind. I am very patient.”

Silence reigned for a moment.

“So, about going into the city…”, she asked, “When do you think…?”

“When I’m back, maybe. I can’t leave Alex behind for too long. She can’t move without me there or I might get flux poisoning. The first priority is gonna be solving the goblins’ food situation and disconnecting her from myself. Though, when I come back I’ll stay a little longer. I want to learn [Telepathy], after all.”

“That’s fine. Let me tell you about farming and magic to grow plants…”

Thus, our discussion continued until late into the morning. Nymph recommended some books I could read on structural analysis, especially ones for caves. I should be able to build something safe for the farm by relying on those. When I went to say my goodbyes, she brought forth the silverwood wand.

“Keep it. I’m happy if it’s with someone that can use it”, she said.

I accepted although I was not sure who to give it to. If even. Maybe having a second wand would be useful for me.

The first thing I did after leaving the Comraich was to find the tea factory. I ended up tasting half a pot of each sort, the foreman and assistant joining me. I had a feeling they were abusing my presence to get some extended breaks. The ginger and lemon blend was a little better than the pure citrus but my favourite of this set was still the berry tea. It was just too sweet and stimulated whatever human parts my mind still had.

I ended up getting half my tea as berry and a quarter each for the other blends. I would likely give away a good bit and told the foreman so. He was happy to tell me to come back anytime. They were also working on some new blends adding other spices or traditional tea leaves but had not yet found anything good.

The last part of the day was the longest. I met the merchants I had spent a few days with the first time coming into the city to confirm the progress on all my orders. The dishes and cookware were done but some of the tools had been problematic. There was little need for pickaxes in a farming city with not a single mine so nobody had any in stock. I would be able to get two thirds right now and the rest in a week. I ended up deciding to leave the tools for now and stock up on seeds for wheat as well as potatoes. Roguk knew mushrooms better and had a few to try for the farm so I did not bother with those. All in all, the quick shopping trip ended up taking a whole five gold, the same amount needed for the pickaxes once I came back to pick those up.

By the time I was ready to leave it was late evening. The sun had not quite set but it was already touching the hills on the horizon.

I found myself in Borsdown sometime in the middle of the night and simply shifted into the attic of Vivi’s house. She seemed to be sleeping in another room. I decided to get some rest before morning. Before I could fall asleep, I felt a slight tug on the bond with Alex. I pushed back into it and greeted her.

“Are you far along in your trip?”, she asked.

“Yes. I’ll get some more things tomorrow and then make my way back. Two days travel plus another day of reading up on digging up safe caves and tunnels is what I expect.”

“Good. I’m bored.”

“No more reading?”

“I can’t really see the letters all that well in this book. It’s exhausting.”

“They work on intent. Focus on a single language. That might make it easier.”

There was silence for a few minutes.

“Oooh! That’s much better!”, she said in English.

“Have fun”, I answered in the same.

Morning came around and Vivi woke me up. She had probably smelled my arrival.

We had another lengthy breakfast, enjoying some of the fruit tea. Safrah preferred the spicy version with ginger while Vivi was fond of the berry blend. I left enough of both for a few weeks.

My trip to the library could have been done in Serrington but despite the city having a larger selection of books, the Gurrin Clan had a higher presence in Borsdown. In that, there were dwarves of that Clan in town helping with the quarry management and preparing the stone for transport. I could ask them for pointers if I had questions. I also knew Borsdown had glassworks where I could get supplies for more jars. Or Node’s in Jars.

Reading up on cave structures and how to dig a stable tunnel was enlightening, if dry. I had a hunch stabilizing with wood supports would be important but the real issue was water. Everything got wet in caves since there were always tiny gaps in the surrounding stone. Without any sunlight to evaporate it, the liquid simply flowed downwards. Proper drainage would be important. I could possibly even guide it into a cistern. That would reduce the goblins’ reliance on the river. For the actual structure, I mostly had to look out for larger gaps in the stone and find a way to stabilize or close them. Other than that, a simple domed roof would stay up unless an earthquake hit. I was not sure if that was even a risk here but I could ask the goblins about it.

I turned in for the night at my friends’ place once more and this time took off early without a lengthy breakfast.

Two days of flying at top speed was very relaxing as well. I took a stop at my workshop and toured the nearby nodes to refill my wand. There was no perfectly fitting node nearby to use for the goblins’ farm so I had to look for one near the village. If there was nothing there, either, I would find one on my return trip to get the pickaxes and another delivery of food.

When I finally arrived at the ork valley, I took a look at their reaction. The little town was completely flattened as were most plants and trees nearby. There was a group of orks in a small camp a little south. Around their temporary residences, I spotted several piles. One had weapons, armours and anything resembling usable materials. Another had everything broken that could only be trashed. The last was dead bodies and currently on fire. They had set up not too far from the node, keeping a guard close by. I wondered if ork society could be changed more towards the positive if they were less in fear of thaumaturges.

I tugged at Alex’ bond as I found my way over to the ravine. She responded with a quick surge of happiness. When I made it down, she had drained a decent amount of my energy. I saw her running around the buildings. Why a golem would need exercise was beyond me but I decided to let her be after almost a week of no real movement.

As it was early in the night, the goblins were just getting finished with their breakfast. I saw the newcomers had been accepted into the community pretty well by now. They mingled and mixed with the original villagers and I saw smiles on everyone’s faces.

I found the boss group and saw the big brother from the newcomers had joined them.

“Alex, you might want to join this”, I sent to the golem before connecting everyone to the communication centre.

She arrived shortly after, draining another bunch of vis from me.

“And please calm yourself. I don’t have endless power.”

“Sorry. I was a little excited.”

“Now, what do you have for us, Fio?”, Roguk asked.

“I have a few things. First I need to know your immediate food situation. Then, we can plan around that.”

“Right. Chef?”

“Aye. We got a bit of hunt saved up and preserved. And there’s ‘ome leftovers from your last trip. I’d say we got three weeks including hunting if we don’t ration.”

“That’s good. You won’t need to ration. I need to find a node to supply the fields and get your pickaxes which will mean another trip to the dwarves. Before that, I want to figure out how to separate Alex here from me. If I need any additional materials I would like to get them on the same trip.”

The golem nodded.

“Thank you.”

“So what do you have for us right now?”, Ira asked.

“I brought all the cooking stuff. Dishes and pots, the whole deal. I also have a whole bunch of wheat seeds and potatoes. Technically you could eat the latter but I want to grow them. Roguk, could you get together some samples of edible mushrooms you believe are easy to farm?”

“Of course.”

“The last thing, for now, is going to be to find a place for the farm. We should think about where it would be accessible but not too close. It needs to be kept warm and wet. Maybe a bit lower than the village? The place also needs to be secure enough to not collapse easily.”

“How large do you want to make it?”

“With the lamp of growth I plan to make and a herba node to supply vis permanently we won’t need a lot of space. Maybe as big as the village? Twice that, at most.”

“Since it needs to be wet, should we put it near the river?”, Roguk asked.

“Wet, not flooded. Caves will naturally fill with water, as you probably know. Though we should not go too far from it if we do end up needing extra water.”

“I have no clue how digging works but I’ll help”, big brother said.

“Alex, do you know anything about caves?”

“A little? Not really…”

“Well, I guess then we just dig where it looks good. Once I figure out how to supply her with vis without relying on me, I’m going back for the picks. With those, you guys can help and we’ll be a good bit faster.”

Everyone nodded. I emptied my storage of supplies and even pulled out some of the tea. Boiling water was easy and soon the whole village was drawn to the sweet smell. It looked like the amount the factory promised me would not last the expected five centuries. Maybe I could stretch it to one, at least?