"What do you think our chances are?" The military man opens with a question so blunt that it might as well be a brick.

"Short term? It all depends on whether you can hold Riverton or not. Long term?" I shrug, looking up from memorizing a table full of maps in the library. "It's all still up in the air. You want my honest advice? I say send in the best assassins you can buy to wipe out the entire Cendassan royal line. Let their nobles fight each other for the throne and they'll be too busy to worry about Larendath and it's lone dungeon."

"Sorrel!" Amelia gasps from over by a bookshelf.

"That is a bit cold blooded, babe." Apricot adds.

"I'll play you some war movies later, let you know what this country is in for if it isn't stopped." I say colder than I intended to. "Sorry, but you really have no idea what's coming, and I would spare you from it if I could."

"He's right Ladies." The general hangs his head. "Cendassa is three times our size, with five times the population. And barring something like their entire royal line dying overnight. Or, some miracle weapons appearing." He sounds far too hopeful at that thought.

"Let me tell you this straight up before that line of thinking goes any further. I. Will. Not. Make. Weapons. Period!" My voice is as hard as I can make it. "I will, however." I raise a hand. "Provide as much logistical support as possible. I am already giving you the ability to communicate with your forces in real time. I will likely soon be providing the means to transport said forces across the country in a matter of hours instead of weeks. And, I can personally feed the entire country while you send it's men to war. Which skills do you think would be more useful... Your Majesty?" I ask the monarch that's waiting around the corner.

"We..." She takes a deep breath after showing herself. "I am grateful that you are on Larendath's side, and will gladly accept any help you are willing to provide. I will also take your suggestion under advisement, as distasteful as it may be."

"Just remember that if you're thinking it, then they will be too." I hold my hand out to the nearest window. "And you don't need to be an Archmage to bypass palace security." The book she had sitting on her nightstand floats into my hand. "Though it does help." I hand the book to her and watch her eyes go wide.

"This was on my bedside table..." She visibly pales as the implication hits home.

"That shouldn't be possible!" Sauer spits. "The enchantments on the royal apartments-"

"Are full of holes." I interrupt. "And the Court mages are as sloppy as can be. I'll look into the enchantments when I have time, but you need to beef up security." I take my own deep breath. "And, I hate to say it. But, take a close look at any Nobles that might cause trouble. There's always somebody who's greed outstrips their intelligence, and my appointment to Count may give them all the excuse they need to betray you."

"I'm beginning to wish you had destroyed the dungeon like you wanted to." Amelia says clinging to me.

"Well, then we never would have met Apricot." I give her a sad smile and kiss her on the forehead. "What's a little war compared to finding love?" I joke, but there's no humor in my voice.

***

"Is it supposed to be so loud?" Amelia Shouts before I shut down my latest experiment.

We left the castle shortly after speaking with The Queen and her General, and are now back in the courtyard of her parent's home. I did take the chance to copy the books I wanted along with a few about magic that weren't in the Guild library, before we left.

"No. But, at least that one actually worked." I've been tooling around with different basic engine designs, mainly working off of what I remember from engine oil ads. I need to re-create what already works before I can improve upon it with magic. "I'm really beginning to wish I was more of a car guy back on Dirt. Having a perfect memory doesn't help if you never learned something in the first place. I think I know what I'm doing wrong now, but I need more metal. You girls feel like visiting some smiths?"

"You mean the all powerful Archmage, with his cheat-like existence isn't perfect? Say it ain't so." Apricot mocks after unplugging her ears.

"Shopping's shopping, I'm in." Amelia ignores the pixie. "We haven't been to that part of the city yet either. We should get a carriage."

"I've got a better idea." I retrieve some cotton and a chunk of the altered cherry wood left over from when I made the vardo wagon from my inventory. Military matters still on my mind, I choose to make an old Willys Jeep from the wood. There's nothing under the hood, but that's what magic is for. "Want to learn how to drive? I'll be the engine, you just have to turn the wheel and push the pedals."

"Me first!" Apricot shifts to human size and hops behind the wheel. Luckily System-chan copied my idea of making her wings immaterial when she's this large, otherwise I would have had to remove the seat back just to accommodate them. "Umm, how do I make it go?"

"Ha-ha." I laugh and climb in behind her, motioning Amelia to take shotgun. "Gently press down on the right pedal to go forwards, the middle one will make it stop, and the one on the left is for later." No transmission means no clutch. There's no brakes either, but that's what magic is for. "Keep the wheel straight until we reach the road."

"Hey, this is easy."

"Yep, you're a natural, now turn the wheel to the right, we can take the side streets until you're ready to handle traffic. Uhh, a little more to the right, and ease up on the go pedal."

"I got it, I got it." She don't got it.

"Now even the wheel back out. No, too much. Try to keep to one side of the road." We would have crashed into the neighbor's wall had I not stopped us with an air cushion. "Let me even us out and you can try again."

"Okay." She squeaks out. While Amelia is doing her best not to laugh.

I levitate us back and straighten the wheels out. "You're good to go again. Just ease in on the pedal. That's it, now try some gentle turns back and forth to get the feel for how it moves."

"I think I've got it this time." She's doing better, maybe a little jerky still, but not losing control either.

"Good, now try pushing the pedal down a bit more, and I'll increase the speed to match. Not that far!" I've got it capped out at a fast trot, and thankfully the street is clear, because she took it straight to top speed. "Try about halfway down. There, that's better. Now try the gentle turns again, but be careful. Please." I beg.

"Woo, this is a bit nerve wracking." She pants out. "I think it's Amelia's turn. I don't want to hog it the whole time."

"No? I suppose you were doing enough of that last night." I breathe into her ear, making her twist the wheel so hard she would have crashed us if I hadn't taken control again.

"Dammit Sorrel!" She curses at me, but Amelia and I are laughing our heads off at her reaction. "Don't distract me like that when I'm driving. Stupid Lunker!" She resorts to her favorite insult before shifting back to pixie size.

"Your turn, babe." I take her seat after she moves over onto the driver's side. "Just match what you saw Apricot doing, minus trying to crash us into the neighbors. Ow!" Apricot just did a diving kick straight into my forehead. "You're even worse than Amelia, at least she never goes for the face. Ack! Keep both hands on the wheel, look out for that dog. HAHAHA"

***

"Hey, look. We made it here alive, and in one piece." I say with a wide grin on my face.

"No thanks to you." Apricot refused to take another turn, so I made Amelia drive us the whole way. And I may have teased her a bit along the way. "Or, you." She points at the pixie who's sitting on top of my head. "You could have at least taken another turn behind the wheel."

"I've got you to do it for me, why should I drive myself?" The pixie says shamelessly.

"You did great, Babe." I try to hug Amelia, but she dodges me. "Oh, come on. I said I was sorry for that fake dog. How else were you going to learn to pay attention to the road."

"Hmpf." She folds her arms across her chest.

"Aww, I can't have my favorite merchant mad at me. What if the smiths all take advantage of me?" She just turns her back on me. "Oh, what's this? A sweet roll that I saved from breakfast? Well, I don't want it, better just toss it in that bin over there."

"Oh, fine. But you're still a jackass." She snatches the roll from my hand.

"Love you too babe." I go in for my hug again, and this time she lets me. "Just wait until I make a car that you can really let loose in. I should be able to get it up to over two-hundred kilometers an hour on a good straight away."

"Two-hundred?" She nearly chokes on her snack. "That's... No, nope, not gonna happen. I could barely handle it when it was going as fast as a horse."

"Yeah, you say that now, but just wait." I pet her on the head and walk into the nearest smithy.

"Good day sir." A teenaged boy greets me. "How can the Kernan Smithy help you today?"

"I need metal." I get right to the point. "All kinds. And, let me take a look at some ores too. Chances are I can pull some trace minerals from them."

"Sir?" He looks confused.

"I'm a Mage. I'm working on a big project and need a lot of metals." I explain my needs again. "If you can't supply me, then please tell me who can."

"Uh, let me go ask the smith." He runs off.

"You're being rude, Sorrel." Amelia chastises me.

"Sorry. I know, but I'm worried, and want... need to get this done. I know it's just my control issues acting up again, but I'm not going to be able to rest properly until we've got a proper escape method available. If we were by the ocean I'd have built a boat already."

"Oh, babe." She wraps her arms around me from behind. "You really are worried about this. aren't you? Was there a lot of war back you came from?"

"Not where I lived, but yeah there was always fighting somewhere, and we got the news about it daily. So much so that I, and most people, just tuned it out." Feeling safe in her arms, I take a deep breath and let go of some of the tension as I breathe out. "If it comes down to it, I'll fight. But if there's no other choice but to run, then we run."

"It won't come to that, because I know you won't let it come to that." She hugs me tighter. "Are you sure about not making weapons? I know you were pretty adamant about it, but if it would help Larendath."

"It would help. I could probably stop the war in a single day, with just a handful of weapons. But, then what? What if Cendassa gets ahold of them? What if after we win, the word gets out and a truly dangerous country decides they have to have those weapons." I pat her on the arm, and twist about to face her. "I understand that I may not be able to keep my hands clean of blood, but I won't stain them so freely."

"I'm sorry." She just hugs me even tighter, Apricot joins her. Sandwiching me between them.

"I love you, both of you. But I think we should watch some movies about what war where I came from is like in order to give you an idea of what I'm worried about. We should probably start with Iron Man, it's a bit fantastical but it'll show exactly why I don't want to make weapons. Plus, it's the start of a really good movie series." I lighten my tone.

"What's this nonsense?" A gruff voice calls out. "The boy said you wanted to buy some metal, not to cuddle in my damned shop." We separate and turn to look at the newcomer.

The smith is short. Short enough to make me think dwarf, even though he doesn't have a beard like in all the stories, just short brown hair. He's stocky, but no more so than I'd expect from any other smith. Otherwise, he just looks like a short human.

"Hey, man. Sometimes you just need a hug." I put my arms around both of my girls' waists.

"Hah!" He snorts. "Fine, I'll give you that. But you're here to do business, so let's do business."

"Right down to it, then? That works for me." I materialize a bag of gold. "I need metal, mostly iron and copper, but I'll take whatever you've got. For a reasonable price, of course." I disappear the bag while giving the merchant at my side an extra squeeze. "Ores too, and let me take a look at your slag, chances are you been scooping off something I can separate and use."

"Well, at least you're not completely clueless about metalworking." He gestures for us to follow him.

"Thanks. I had actually dreamt about being a smith as a kid, just could never get used to the smells though. Magic makes things so much easier, and less smelly." I use magic to filter the air around the three of us.

"You are a strange one, lad." He shakes his head. "Well, here's my stock. As you can see I mostly work in copper and bronze, but I can spare a few bars of iron. No ores though, cheaper to have it smelted on site at the mines and shipped as ingots. Old Hayes down the street might have some though, he's always tinkering around with different processes and alloys."

"I'll take as much copper and iron as you can spare, at say ten percent over what you paid for it. Fifteen if you give me a good contact at your wholesaler, I'll need a lot more iron. Do they sell the limestone too?" I ask after silently Identifying a grey stone.

"Deal." He immediately begins separating out a third of each stack. "I need this much to deal with my existing contracts. I'll have to boy take you up to see Sig, my wholesaler."

I pay for the metals and put the iron away but begin making wire from the copper right away. The smith takes it in stride, but his assistant nearly fell over himself when the metal fused into a sphere and levitated over my shoulder.

"Close your mouth boy, it's just magic." He hands him a note. "Here, take them to see Sig, and show them Hayes' smithy while you're on the way."

An hour later and I've got all the metals I should need for the foreseeable future, but I decide to stop by this Hayes' place before we leave.

"Hello? Anyone here?" I call out to the empty front room. "I can hear hammering in the back. Should we just go on through?" I ask Amelia.

"Fine, but please leave the haggling to me." She sighs. "You know that you over paid at the smithy, right?"

"I know, but it's not like we can't afford it." I shrug while walking through a door behind the counter. "Besides, the prices are going to go through the roof as soon as word spreads about Cendassa. The Crown can foot the bill once I begin making the troop transports, but this is all for personal use. Oh, looks like we found him." I say after spotting an old man at an anvil.

The old man, presumably Hayes, is busy pounding an ingot into shape. "Be with you in a moment." He calls without looking up. After a minute of hammering, he seems to find the results acceptable and sets the work piece aside. "Name's Hayes, what can I do for you?"

"Hello, I'm Sorrel and this is Amelia and Apricot. I'm looking for some ores, and even some slag if it contains what I'm looking for. Kernan said that you like to dabble, and would be my best bet to find such in the city."

"Heh, slag I've got; there's a small hill of it in the back. Can you really get something useful from it?" His bushy eyebrows raise up.

"I'm an Awakened, I can break it down and pull out what I want with magic. Been using the same process to pull pure silica from the soil to make glass." I explain. "I'm hoping to find some aluminum. And, unless you have some bauxite, then looking for traces left behind while smelting other ores is my best. At least I'm hoping it's better than pulling minute traces from the local granite."

"You know how to process aluminum?" His eyebrows go even higher. "Never heard of bauxite, but I believe most people use alum to get aluminum."

"I did not know that. Yes Apricot, there are things I don't know." I say to my bride before she can even open her mouth. "Makes sense though, now that I'm hearing it. But, since I'm already here I'd like to have a look anyways, and at any other interesting ores you might have."

"I don't see why not." The man chuckles. "Hell, it'll be worth it if you can shrink that pile, even a little bit. My ores are through here, please follow me." He leads us off into a side room filled with bins, barrels, and boxes full of different ores.

"Now, this is what I'm talking about. I can already sense a lot of minerals that I haven't come across yet. Identify!" I walk up to the nearest bin containing an unknown mineral. "Huh, well that's a name alright, also somewhat less than useful since I've never heard of it before. Hey Temmie would it be better to upgrade Identify, or purchase Analyze?" *Ding* "Analyze, unless I want to waste a bunch of points? Okay, hook me up. Analyze!"

I can now see what the rock is made of instead of what it is. Normally, I would just separate the individual parts and use identify on them. But, these aren't my ores, and it's like like I was using the skill points for anything else anyways.