Now that I had spoken to Javier and Maria and gotten the initial work started on the new warehouse and drydock, I turned my attention toward my next goal.

Locating the Stygian Order was going to be difficult. I assumed they had spies I wasn’t familiar with keeping tabs on me. It was the only thing that made sense as to how they knew of the dwarves or where I was located after the attack at the Hornwell property.

Therein lay the problem. I had no way to ferret these people out, at least not yet. I did have one concrete piece of information and that was how they got around.

I hadn’t come across anyone that could create portals other than that man in West Exit that helped set up that return system. I wasn’t sure if that could be considered a portal though. That left me with two options; purchase a similar portal skill or create an item that could mimic it. With my access to the Bazaar in Houston and East Exit cut off, that left Biloxi as the closest available Bazaar and I wasn’t sure I wanted to go back there with that creep Lord Vik’t being around. That left Chicago or Durbinton as the only other locations I knew of that had a Bazaar.

I didn’t want to go back up there if I could avoid it, too many bad memories. That made the decision a bit easier. I would have to build a portal using runes. This wasn’t something I was planning on using to travel with. I only needed it to figure out the mana signature of a teleportation portal. Then I could create a device that could lock onto the signal. I had no idea if the signature would match a spell portal but it wouldn’t hurt to try.

It didn’t take me long to put together a half-baked portal. There were plenty of runic combinations that stood for a doorway or travel. And since I wasn’t planning on it lasting, they could be quick and dirty carvings. I used Metamagic and Earth Fist to form six sets of rings about a foot in diameter. These would be the apertures of the portal. I used different combinations of runes to see if the signal they gave off was different.

As to how I was going to measure this signal, well, that was easy. Turns out magic emitted waves similar to electricity so a simple oscilloscope could pick them up. Well, sort of. Magic seemed to function in more than one dimension in a waveform, each dimension having differing waveforms. I only figured this out when I hooked one of the devices up to my old railgun project. Depending on where you connected the probe you got a different signal. It had confused the hell out of me for days until I realized the issue.

The more complex the magic, the more waveforms came together to form it. So while I couldn’t measure all of the different waves, I could latch onto the pattern of the more important ones. I saved the last set of rings to create a measurement device that would be similar to the final product I would build to track my targets down. Its only use at the moment was for comparing my spells against the portal.

I did all my testing inside the warehouse after scouring it from top to bottom with my tattoo and sealing it off from outside intervention. An anti-intrusion ward went up along with a silencing array. Crafting those out of runes had taken some time but the effect was acceptable. They wouldn’t last forever though, being made of simple rock without any mithril pathways.

I first went through every spell of mine while near the detector. I memorized the results and shifted the position of the detector and ran through them again to get another angle on how the spell forms functioned.

The data I collected was rather sparse. Short-term spells really only showed up for half a second on the detector, not giving much of a reading. I ran into more luck with spells like Imbue, or even my healing spells. While the data was limited it helped tremendously. I could now rule out any reading that was less than a second long. That was over eighty percent of my abilities.

I moved onto the portals. The rock disks were set on metal stands and I connected two mana generators one on each end. The portals were power-hungry devices and the smaller gems were depleted within ten seconds. It was enough time to get a fair reading and analyze the effect of objects, both biological and non-biological going through the portal.

The rats I had captured didn’t appreciate me throwing them through the devices. Not that they could complain once they came out. My portals weren’t exactly… stable. I cleaned up the mess and prepped the next set of portal rings.

***

I spent the next two days running tests until I finally realized I wasn’t going to be able to pin down a certain waveform. My conclusion wasn’t all that surprising but I wouldn’t say the tests were a complete bust. I learned a few valuable things. Portals, at least mine, required a lot of energy. They also lasted longer than most spells and if something passed through, there was always a spike in the waveform. The size of the object didn’t seem to matter as the spike was always consistent. With those three key components, I could build the detection array.

That would have to wait though as I was expecting the barges to return soon.

I headed out of the warehouse after storing everything in my ring. I didn’t want the Stygian Order getting wind of what I was up to.

I walked down to the fortress to await the arrival of the barges.

***

It took most of the day before my keen vision spotted one of the barges, flying low over the ocean. The massive vessel was slow in its approach but it eventually arrived in the harbor. I went down to meet the captain.

I had to wait for the mass of people to step off the barge. It seemed like Maria had picked up people looking for a change. I spotted Timothy, the welder I had hired, as well as my other two earth mages. I waved to the three, who waved back and headed over.

“What brings you lot over here?” I inquired.

“Work, obviously. Look, Boss, we don’t care what you did to some lowlife dwarves, all we care about is steady pay and interesting work and you offer both,” Charles stated firmly.

“You all feel this way?”

The other two nodded.

“Well, alright then. I'll show you to the new warehouse. Darnell already got started on the dry dock but I lent him to the city to help build up the fortifications. I will probably split your time between the two projects. The dry dock isn’t much of a hurry at the moment with two barges.”

“As long as you keep us busy,” Charles replied. I guess that made him… in charge. “By the way, we have both work vehicles on the barge,” Charles added, pointing to two tarp-covered objects near the command center.

“Excellent. Once these people get off, I'll drive one and you can follow in the other.”

The others nodded as they walked off to the side to get out of the way of the people disembarking. I could tell most if not all of these people were not from Houston. Most were Hispanic and a majority of them were young. They also didn’t have the softness that came with being safe behind tall walls. They were rough and weathered, despite their young age. But that didn’t seem to dampen the spark I saw in their eyes. They wanted something better and had jumped at the opportunity.

I assumed this was the reason why Javier had not joined Maria on the voyage across. I would speak with her.

I walked past the guards with a friendly nod. They nodded back but it was more subdued. I assumed they had learned of the events in Houston. I imagined all kinds of rumors were swirling around about me. I was surprised that Ska, Fiona, or Martin weren’t onboard.

I waved as I approached the command cabin. Maria waved back excitedly.

“So?” I asked as I entered the cabin.

Maria looked a bit chastised but spoke up anyway. “They needed help, Mr. Paul, I couldn’t in good conscience leave them behind.”

It was the first thing I had heard her truly passionate about, other than being a captain.

“Alright.”

“… really?” she beamed.

I nodded, “is Javier picking up a load of people as well?”

“No, Mr. Paul, There was a line of merchants waiting when we returned. They convinced him to take them on the same route as we had taken the others.”

I scratched my head, “really? And you two had no trouble getting out with both barges?”

She shook her head, “nobody came to stop us, or even yell at us. After your speech, we were quite worried. Your friend Martin did give me a letter to hand you,” she said, digging around in her pockets for the letter.

She handed me the slightly crumpled letter with a wince. I accepted the letter with thanks.

“Once everything is offloaded, tie off the barge to the dock. The drydock won’t be finished for a week or so. You can ride with me and the others and set up in one of the offices in the warehouse. It won’t be very glamorous but it will be free. At least until you can find a place to live.”

She nodded excitedly as she rushed out the door to begin tying up the barge. I shook my head and powered down the barge.

***

Having capable employees was a godsend. I didn’t have to watch over them as they got their work done. Timothy didn’t have much to do but I still had him fabricate me a couple of items from normal steel, aluminum, and stainless steel. I was glad his skill set went beyond simple welding. He didn’t ask what the rings were for and I didn’t provide an answer.

The detectors were fitted to a device I was very familiar with. The football-sized top no longer contained a void in the center designed for dangerous toxins. Why three rings? Well, I wasn’t sure which would work best. I suspected the normal steel ring would rust or burn out the quickest, with the other two lasting longer. I needed dozens of these devices and I wasn’t willing to construct them out of mithril. So the six prototypes would have to do.

The activation ring on the bombs worked exactly like my previous model, but these new ones had runes designed to punch deeper into the ground and produce an effect that would hide their impact location. I knew the Stygian Order was going to try and follow me and see what I was doing. If they found the landing sites all they would find would be a scattering of fake debris and a shallow impact crater. If they already knew I used bombs, I hoped they would mistake them for another evolution. If they didn’t, I hoped it confused the hell out of them. Better yet, if they investigated more deeply, my detectors would trigger with each person they teleported in.

I wasn’t worried about the devices ending up in their hands. The quarter-pound of C4 and proximity trigger would take care of that issue. I had to thank Randy Cotton and his goon squad for the massive surplus of explosives I now had in my possession.

There was one final feature of the new device but that would only come into play much later, assuming the other portion worked as I hoped.