Altura

I smiled as the convoy re-entered the Arch duchy. The journey had been massively successful, the merchants earning nearly two million gold in net income, and that was without the seventy million gold deal that had been struck.

“I greet the Archduchess.” Xerte said bowing. The greeting, I heard, was the traditional greeting of the Empire.

“And I welcome you back, Turquoise Adventurer Xerte. Congratulations on your breakthrough, Guild Head Xerte. The title comes with a stipend of ten thousand gold a year.” I said, I had planned it already and well, he had earned it. Xerte on the other hand seemed shocked at the sudden title.

“What exactly does this mean, your grace?” Xerte asked, his eyes squinting.

“Just that you now have a title to do what you were doing anyway. And some money, though I know you don’t need it.” I replied.

“Come, we can talk in the guard house after you get settled in.” I said, as the convoy dispersed, its members eager to return to their homes.

“I have to inform you, your grace, that there are five merchants that attempted to engage in slave trade. The merchants have been caught and held. A total of thirteen slaves have been rescued, along with a family of nine that were victims of an attempt. I have brought them all here.” Xerte said, retreating what I already knew from his earlier reports.

“I am aware. Aswelth will take the merchants to Norvithius. I shall deal with the slaves.” I said, reassuring him. The Kingdom had allowed us to continue sending our criminals to Labor, Xianxia jails were quite hard to build and costly to maintain. The fact that I had no idea how to make one added to my problem.

“Also, your grace, the old man there has something that you might like.” Xerte said, pointing to an old man as he went away. I looked at the man curiously, going in his direction.

“The houses are this way.” I said, guiding them towards the city. I knew better than to ask something that might be private in public.

“I would like to apologize for the actions of the merchants, and I assure you that they will face justice.” I said.

The reaction I received, however, was lackluster. “I doubt it.” one of them said, snorting.

“Oh? Why do you think so?” I asked.

“I will tell you something, child, these people ye see aren’t gonna do nothing for some slaves. Oh, they’ll put on a merry show and then let them go away with a slap on the wrist. I have been a slave for twenty-five years now. Do you know how many times I got rescued? A whole of fifteen times.”

“And each time I got sold back in again. The Kingdom, the Sect and this Archduchy, they all make a lot of show about banning slavery, but it still goes on. I am sure there's a secret market in this city too. Or maybe we’re lucky, and it hasn’t been built yet. I sure am ready to relax a bit. But remember, be careful and always ready to run.”

“The nobles ain’t your friends, dear, they’ll sell you in a heartbeat. The only reason a noble will rescue you are to get whatever reward money is being offered. And then sell you, so they can have more profit. ” a woman said from among the slaves.

What a pessimistic take. But it made sense. The woman had been rescued fifteen times in twenty-five years, somewhere along the way, hope gave way to resignation.

I let out my aura, floating in the air a bit. “ I assure you, madam that this will not happen. And in case it does“ - I removed a communicator from my spacial ring and gave it to her-“ use this to tell me. I will deal with it. And mind telling me who exactly is dealing with slaves? I know someone who will love to get his hands on him.”

The woman seemed wary, if anything. “And…who are you?” she asked.

I smiled, saying, “I am Archduchess Altura of the Arch Duchy of Alvere. And if you so wish, I can call the King, so you can tell him directly, or you can report it privately and remains anonymous. I assure you that you will be safe either way. The Arch duchy is not a place some nonsense nobles can make a splash in. As long as I rule, slavery will be absent to you and slavers will be persecuted.”

“I will take the anonymity, your grace.” she said, her tone stiff. I got the feeling that she didn’t trust me at all. But that was ok, trust would be built.

“I shall contact you later then.” I relplied. “Come, we shall have a tour of the capital.”

SCENE CHANGE

A few hours later, Altura

I sighed as I reclined on my chair. The woman, named Satere, had given me a very vast list of accused slavers. The list ranged from Barons to Marquis, and I knew that these people would never be brought to justice completely.

The Kingdom wouldn’t survive such a loss of manpower. Besides, all I had was the word of one woman, investigation had to be conducted. But that was not up to me, the one conducting them would be the King, who I had already informed of this development.

A knock sounded on the door, causing me to sit up. “Come in.” I said.

An old man entered, hesitantly.

“I was told to give this to you, your grace.” he said, holding a crystal in his hand.

“The crystal was given to me as a reward for my service in the Empire’s army, it is apparently from the Gorge.” he handed the crystal to me, causing me to look at it with curiosity as I waited for him to continue.”

“The crystal, um, lights up when you put Qi into it, your grace.” he continued. A submission for the million gold reward, was it? I pored a little Qi into it, and as the old man said, it did light up. I immediately lost all connection to the Qi too, making it even more of a curiosity.

I sent my will into it, trying to extract the Qi from inside, and found myself drawn into a very strange space. A space somewhat similar to my spirit space, but instead of a Treeling, a strand of Qi floated in the center. The space was also quite small. I attempted to pull the Qi out, but found that the walls did not allow it to pass through.

On a whim, I opened a hole in them, finding it particularly easy. The Qi strand was still reluctant to go, I could feel a resistive force acting against me, but in the end the strand emerged out. And the crystal stopped glowing. A real Spirit stone. Hmm, the name wouldn’t do, but I could think of one later.

And check if everyone could extract the Qi from it. But I might just have my power source. And that meant that someone had just one the million gold award.

I removed a hundred thousand spirit stones from my spacial ring and put them in a different ring.

“Here, the crystal is satisfactory. The ring contains a hundred thousand spirit stones, your million gold reward. Thank you for your help in finding this.” I said. The old man took it and left the room, likely celebrating his victory.

I got the impression that he did not value the crystal highly, but that was no matter. I did. Now I had work to do, first on the list, get someone to try to remove the Qi from the crystal and see how it goes.

“Hagril!” I called out to my assistant. The Plantling would suffice. Second, was trying to establish trade with the Gorge for this crystal. I would need information on the Gorge. Well, Lady Illiana hadn’t left yet, in fact she had been visiting Aswelth more and more every day. And third, I needed to break the seal on the staff.

“Yes, Archduchess?” Hagril asked.

“I think I found what I was looking for. Here, try removing some Qi from this.” I said, pouring Qi into the crystal.

Hagril nodded as he looked at the crystal in concentration, but then turned to me confused. I am sorry Archduchess, I can't detect any Qi in the crystal.” he said. So his senses couldn’t penetrate it?

Now that would be a problem. And there was the problem of automation, the crustal had to produce fuel in a way that could be used in machines. Hmm, how did you do that.

I looked at the glowing crystal intently, trying to figure it out. Wait. The crystal was glowing. As in producing light. The crystal was storing and converting Qi into light. I dived back into the crystal and yep, the Qi had reduced by a very small amount.

I poured more Qi into it and saw it increase in light, from the amount of light produced by a lightbulb, to become increasingly bright until I could barely see anything. I had my power source. Now to remember how photovoltaic cells were made.