Pellex was marched back through the complex, one turn once outside of the prison sending them into a wildly different area. Pellex recognized absolutely nothing from his earlier trip, and couldn’t understand why the arder hideout was so large – he hadn’t seen any of the pirates in the halls on either of his two trips through, and none of the rooms ever seemed to be occupied. He tried to ask, but the arder escorting him refused to say anything. Questions, small talk, and even humming completely failed to elicit a reaction. His escorts the first time had been quiet, too… but as that thought ran through his mind, Pellex and the arder came to an ornate set of double wooden doors.

The arder knocked, and the doors swung open, into an ornate wooden hallway, with grandiose pillars and masterful artworks. As Pellex and his escort continued through, Pellex looked around for the person who opened the door, but the doors smoothly swung shut themselves. Pellex really hated this place. It was a fairly simple piece of artifice, but why was it here? Who had built it, and why? The rest of the complex was as bare-bones as possible, why had the pirates had an [Artificer] install fancy automatic doors for this section? If this way led to Julian, then whoever he was, he didn’t settle on his personal accommodations.

Relative to the rest of the arder headquarters, the luxurious hallway Pellex was being led through was not that long at all. After a few minutes of walking down the hallway, and three turns that Pellex couldn’t fathom the purpose of, they came to another door, this one smaller than, but just as ornate as the section’s entrance. The arder knocked, and the door opened onto a palatial room, six massive stone pillars holding the vast space open. There were some murals on the walls, but Pellex couldn’t make them out, and so saved his attention for what waited at the other end of the room. The one-third semicircle stage of a traditional Collect.

Pellex was marched across the room, and the five people seated on the platform all stood up. The four to the sides bowed to the central figure, and Pellex took a look at the person who was going to such lengths to play High Collect. Tall and wiry, with dark skin, warm, golden eyes, and dirty blonde hair curling down to his shoulders, the man wore a set of mage’s soulbronze armor, the eerie metal extremely strong, but, used properly, fluid enough for complex physical thi-casting, and Julian, for there was no doubt that was who this was, was using it properly. On his chest was a pin like the rest of the arders wore, but not of silver or bronze. The white metal seemed to glow the faintest amount whenever Pellex wasn’t looking directly at it, and the way it slid off the mind just served to confirm that it was ithium. There was enough of the ultimate metal in that pin for Pellex to build constructs that a Facet would directly manifest in order to destroy. How was this man still alive? As Pellex got closer, he knew. Still nearly ten feet away, his soulshell collided with the arder’s, and the weight of the man’s power forced Pellex to his knees.

“Hello, [Artificer].” His voice, a crystal-clear baritone, thrummed with power, and Pellex felt that sci-skill Holia had mentioned tickling at his mind. Despite that, Pellex felt hopeful for the first time since entering the prison. Julian didn’t know his class. He wasn’t infallible or omniscient. Though that was, viewed objectively, quite obvious, hearing the man actually make a mistake was an incalculable relief after the anxious buildup.

“As I doubt any of my fellows have formally welcomed you, I will. Welcome to Julian’s Court, home of Julian’s Eagles. The greatest arder organization in the history of the Scourge, if not the entire Peacejoined States. Now, for introductions. I am Julian. What may I call you?”

The pressure eased slightly, the pirate shifting his soul around to accommodate Pellex. Shakily standing up, Pellex responded.

“I am called Pellex. Nothing named after me, I’m afraid.”

“HAH!” Julian’s laugh was deafening, the genuine emotion giving the bandit no time to restrain the power of his apparently very high Physical stats.

“You are quite brave, Pellex. Though, I believe I already knew that, from Yerrel’s account. Speaking of which, Yerrel, you may enter now.” Pellex looked around for the person Julian was speaking to, and saw the arder that had knocked him out after class selection step from a hidden door in the wall. Yerrel walked to the closer end of the semicircle and bowed to Julian before turning to Pellex, the eerie grin from before slowly crawling across the man’s face. The bandit wore the same outfit as before, but with one small change. His previous bronze pin was now silver.

“Now, Pellex, I do not mind that you killed Orlin. Self-defense is an unassailable motive, after all, and you made up for it by entering class selection in Yerrel’s presence. However, I do have a few questions for you.”

“Wait, how did entering class selection ‘make up for it’? What did Yerrel do? How did he bypass class selection?”

“I will answer that as soon as you answer mine. Firstly – Yerrel says that you killed Orlin with a runed bullet, one that seemed to eat his phi reserves off of him. Why have I not heard of these? How many can you produce daily?”

“Well, uh, answering the second question will clear up the first one, too. Assuming a perfect work environment and top-end tools, I can make about one, because the first one I make will eat my phi reserves and kill me, the same way it did, uh, Orlin. Assuming my phi was depleted, like it was on the airship after I was thrown into the wall, I could make hundreds, but they would have to be kept 3 and 2/16ths fesures apart or the runes would feed off of each other and explode. If those precautions were taken and the bullets didn’t enter anyone’s phi other than the target’s, they’d melt in twenty minutes from the instability of the rune.”

“I see. Unfortunate, but ultimately nothing was lost. Now, you are an [Artificer], yes?”

“…Yes.”

“Good. You will be repairing and upgrading our armory, starting tomorrow.” The words were accompanied by Julian’s soul resuming its pressure, the vast energy of his soul tightening its grip on Pellex’s own. Pellex had to start hyperventilating in order to keep standing, but he looked up and met Julian’s eyes. As Pellex refused to kneel, he raised one of his eyebrows and smiled, before motioning to Pellex’s escort. As Pellex was led out of the room, he called back to the pirate leader.

“Wait, you didn’t answer my question!”

“You are absolutely correct, Pellex. Perhaps next time we chat.” And with that, the doors swung shut.

Pellex was swiftly led through the tunnels that comprised Julian’s Court, taking yet another route through the complicated maze. This time, the door used to enter the dungeon was different as well, and Pellex was escorted through an area he hadn’t seen yet. This section of the prison was far more impenetrable than the part Pellex was housed in. The walls were made of thibronze, glowing faintly in the dark, and the doors were astral electrum, the most Pellex had ever seen in one place.

The thing Pellex found most interesting about this area, however, was not the doors themselves, but what held them closed. His cell had a simple deadbolt, but these doors weren’t as easily entered. On the contrary, these sported Messer phi-thi relorum chamber locks. Pellex’s father was a Messer fan, and proudly collected every one of their models. His interest was understandable. He was an [Artificer], after all, and Messer locks were extremely impressive constructs.