Vivian bid us goodbye and, after we got the deed, I drove us straight out to the farm. The girls tried to comfort me, but I was in too much of a funk to care.

"I'm sorry Sorrel." Amelia apologizes to me again after I stop the car outside the run-down old farm. "I wanted to take your mind off of the situation, but I only made it worse."

"Not your fault." I walk towards the rotting farm house and launch an exploding fireball into it. Debris, mostly splinters, ping off the Barrier I erected around us. I see there's a wall still standing, so I summon a lightning bolt as thick around as my waist to vaporize it.

"Baby-" Amelia starts reaching for me only for Apricot to grab her arm and shake her head. "Just let him get it out of his system."

Yanking Blackthorne from my neck; I overturn the soil of the entire farm at once before raising it up into mud soldiers. Then, I use almost every single destructive spell in my arsenal, one by one, to coldly and calmly cut them down.

It's not until I call down a meteor swarm all around us that I decide I've had enough. "So, dirt bikes, yeah?" I say in a monotone and tap the ground with my staff making the track form around us.

"Not sure I'm in the mood anymore." Amelia says tiredly.

"Let's go home then, I've got shit to build." I start walking to the car only for her to grab my arm.

"I'm sorry." She holds onto me until I look at her.

"I already said it's not your fault." I say and pat her hand. "I'm not mad at you, I'm just mad. It'll go away soon."

"Please don't bottle yourself up like this." She begs and uses her other hand to wipe away a trail of tears that I didn't realize was leaking from my eyes.

"Did that look like me bottling things up." My voice starts to crack when Apricot comes up and hugs me from behind without saying a word. "Oh, who am I kidding? *sniff* I didn't even *sniff* use the *sniff* really destructive stuff. *sniff*" My words are punctuated by sniffles. "I don't want this stupid fucking war." I cling to Amelia and we all sink to the ground.

"Shhh, it'll be okay." Amelia strokes my hair trying to soothe me, and I can feel the wetness of Apricot's tears as she presses her face into my back. "Just focus on the good you can do for the people of Arcadia."

We sit there huddled together until the sun fades from the sky. "It's getting cold, let's go get some dinner." I say and levitate us up from the ground. "I bet Mittens is missing his mommies too."

"You doing better?" Amelia asks.

"Yeah, and I'm sorry for how I acted." I give them both a hug before we get into the car. "I was expecting to have some fun today, not get slapped in the face by reality. It kinda threw me."

"Mhm, it'll be alright." She pats my knee.

"Yeah, but if it's not." Apricot adds with a smile on her face. "Then you've got to remember to make some popcorn before you set off the fireworks next time. But, what I really want to know is if that hailstorm of fiery rocks wasn't what you consider dangerous, then what is?"

"Oh, you know." I shrug nonchalantly. "Really big fiery rocks." I laugh. "Okay, okay. But really, I'm only half joking about that, especially after reading some of the spells Lan turned over."

"You have to translate that stuff for me later." My pixie says in a commanding tone. "But, I know you, and that's not all."

"Well, It's mostly the magics I don't play around with a lot." I explain. "Tracking down Temmie's link earlier was probably the farthest I've pushed into Time or Space Magic, and those I've at least got some idea of what's going on. The more esoteric Magics have a lot of power behind them. But, I don't really know how to use it properly. I feel like a toddler that's been given a loaded ballista, sure I can pull that lever. But, then what?."

"You and siege weaponry." Amelia scoffs playfully.

"Have you seen his upgraded Wormslayer yet?" Apricot says in a throaty purr. "He won't even let me fire it because he doesn't want to clean up the mess it'll make."

"Oh, Sorrel. What are we going to do with you?"

"Make me dinner, so I can pet our invisible cat?" I start to chuckle before a thought pops into my head. "Man, we were really lucky he stayed at home today. Can you imagine if he picked up even a little of what I was throwing around out there."

"Nnh." Amelia whimpers. "I hope he settles down soon, I've been afraid to even cast around him."

"He's doing better." Apricot says before I can. "Just give it another couple days, and he should be fine. Well, as fine as an invisible, tentacled kitten can be." The laughter snorts out of her as she fails to say that with a straight face.

***

"Buddy, did you miss me?" I bend over and scoop up my little invisi-kitty. "I don't think that's ever going to get old." I laugh as his illusion floats in mid-air a few feet to the side.

"Mreow." I don't know if he agrees or is just happy that we're back, but I'll take it.

"Wanna help me build some appliances?" I sit him on my lap and stroke his fur while going over what I can recreate using just Fire Mana. Sure, I can build convertors, and set up collectors around the tree, but I've got all this free Fire Mana, I might as well use it. "Let's see. Heating, and cooking obviously." "Mrow." "You're right, if I use an enchantment to move the heat away, I can cool stuff down too." "Mrr."

"Are you seriously talking enchanting with the cat?" Apricot sits next to me and starts petting him.

"He's actually quite helpful." I defend my silliness, and start projecting images of appliances. "See, I've already thought up an upgraded Runic oven, heaters and coolers, and a much better icebox. What else?"

"Mew." Mittens swats playfully at the floating images.

"Oh? You're right a water heater would be nice. And, if I'm heating water, I might as well make tea kettles and coffee pots. Hmm, wonder if I can use a percolator to pump water, was just going to stick an impeller on an engine."

"Grrr." He growls at the latest picture.

"You're right they do look too much like gears." I agree with the kitty.

"How did you train him to do that?" Apricot laughs.

"What training?" I put on my most angelic, and innocent face.

"..." She just gives me the side-eye and pulls the kitten into her lap.

"So, percolator." I move on without comment. "Actually a full blown distillation tower would probably work better and be safer over-all. And, since we're still on water. I shouldn't forget a clothes washer and dryer. I'll probably need engines for those, though."

"Anything else?" She asks with an amused smirk.

"Some smaller kitchen stuff, like food processors, blenders, and mixers, but those all need engines. Hmm." I close my eyes for a second and suddenly a light bulb appears over my head. "Oh, yeah. Lights, duh. I don't have a lot of tungsten, so I'll have to find another filament, that or just use plain fire. Wish I knew how those mantles on camp lights worked."

"I see you've got a lot of enchanting ahead of you." Amelia says after walking into the room. "But, it'll have to wait until after dinner."

"Most of this stuff won't take too long." I shake my head. "But, now that I see all this, and I'm sure I'll think of more soon enough, I'm wondering how people are going to afford it. Sure we can sell to the nobles and rich merchants and what not, but I want to improve the lives of people who can't afford this stuff. They'd have to serve in the army for a lifetime to afford even half of this."

"Enough brooding." She pulls me off the couch. "We'll figure something out, after dinner."

...

So, we eat. Dinner's good, but unfortunately my best idea so far is to pull a Henry Ford, and start industrializing the nation while paying the workers enough to buy this crap. I think I'm just going to have to dial back my plans, and instead of working with individuals, I'll work with villages as a whole.

Communal kitchens, laundries, and lights in exchange for providing a set number of people to the war effort. I should make some educational Runes too, I don't think the average villager can even read. The capital may be in an enlightened pre-industrial state thanks to magic, but the rest of Larendath is practically Midieval.

Too bad for me that Arcadia only has one city and one town. Well, there's Hedgecoast too, but it's a tiny fishing village down where the Janwick River meets the ocean. It's technically in my territory, but they're so far removed from Larendath as a whole that getting them to send troops may be difficult. And no one else is willing to live so close to the Deadlands desert, so I really don't want to pressure them.

It might be time to start turning some of those grassland waypoints into proper villages. That means finding people to live in them, which may not be that hard. Circle Orchard had such an influx of people looking for a new start that I'm sure I can find a few families that are dissatisfied living in a dungeon town.

"Thanks for dinner." I clear the table after we're all done. "I think I've got a plan that might work. Gonna need to make a call first, though."

"Who you gonna call?" I smile when she says that.

"Rea, over in Circle Orchard." 'And, we are definitely watching Ghostbusters tonight.' I add in my head with a silent laugh. "Selling to individual families isn't going to work, so I figure we provide communal Runes to a village in exchange for service or whatever. The problem is we don't really have any villages in Arcadia."

"You want to set some up along the road, but need people and well, she has people." She nods as she works it out.

"I'm hoping she's found some good families that aren't getting what they expected out of a dungeon town." 'And, I'm sure there's already a few dungeon widows that want nothing to do with it anymore.' I think sourly. 'Stupid hole in the ground.'

"Wow, look at you being all Marquis like." Apricot giggles, and teases me. "I like it."

I just roll my eyes and kiss her on the forehead before taking out my phone. "Hello Mayor Garman, I hope I'm not disturbing you."

"Not at all, Marquis Rumex." She stresses my title, but there's a bit of humor in her voice. "Is everything alright?"

"As well as can be." I reply. "The reason I'm calling is that I want to expand Arcadia. I'd like to set up a project village or two, and I'm hoping that you will be able to recommend some good people to found them for me."

"Hmm, should be doable the dungeon is growing by the day, but it still isn't what a lot of people were hoping for." She pauses and I can hear some papers ruffling. "Yes, I think I know at least a couple families that would be a good fit. May I ask what kind of project you have in mind?"

"I've developed a way to transfer Mana over long distances." I explain. "I'll be running the conduit out to Riverton for the army to use to charge the vehicles I'm making them. I want to build some villages with communal Rune devices in exchange for them providing soldiers or another equivalent service to the kingdom."

"Well..." She draws out the word. "That will make things both easier and harder. Easier because most will jump at the chance to live anyplace with Runes, and harder because most of the families I have in mind are ones that lost their men to the dungeon."

"I feared that might be the case, which is why I mentioned other services." My face scowls as I think about that stupid rock. "See, I've been keeping myself busy. It's still early days, but I'm working on some medical Runes. I'd like to create and train up a cadre of healers. And, the vehicles I'm making will need people to perform maintenance on them. Then, there are all the other support needs of an army."

"I'm not sure about the other options, but just the chance to become healers will have people knocking down my door trying to sign up."

"Yes, but like I said, it's still early days." I sigh at the thought of what's still ahead of me. "I'm sure there are other non-war related options, and I would dearly love to pursue them. But, we need to prepare for what we're likely to be facing in the near future."

"True, but even the possibility will still draw them in." She takes a breath. "I'll sound out the ones I'm thinking of, and see how they feel about it. Coen and Nicholas may know a few people too."

"That's good. We'll likely be passing through soon-ish, I don't know about the Crown's plans, but unless I do nothing but make conduit, it'll take days before I have enough to stretch to Riverton. Any questions before I let you go?"

"About the villages. I'm sure they'll want to know what to expect."

"True. I'm thinking a large, temperature controlled, lighted, central building. That will house a kitchen with magic cookers and coolers, and a laundry room with clothes washers and dryers. There will also be running water in the building. I may provide each house with the same, and possibly heating and cooling runes as well, perhaps as some sort of bonus. Haven't thought everything out yet; I pretty much called you as soon as I came up with the idea."

"I don't suppose you'd mind providing some of those for the keep here?" She chuckles.

"Anything for my favorite mayor. I'd planned to start there anyways, and I'm sure Coen will appreciate not having to fill up the keep's cistern or the bathhouse anymore."

"He doesn't really mind, says it's good practice to haul those buckets up from so far down."

"Heh." I let out a quiet snort. "Well, he can keep doing it if he wants, but I'm still putting in a water pump, and heater. Alright, if that's everything, then I will talk to you later, Rea."

"Yes, that should be good, thank you. And, I'll get back to you once I have word. Goodbye Sorrel."

"Bye." I hang up.

***