Our little trip had taken quite a bit longer than expected. But I hadn’t been expecting to sign up for a fighting competition and then be forced to fight off a group of religious nuts. So I guess three weeks being gone wasn’t so bad, all things considered.

I did notice that over half of the sensors had failed in the time we were out of Saint June though.

Ska decided to stick with me for now and I decided not to stop off near Houston. I did send Martin a message though so hopefully he could update me on what was happening.

As we approached the town, I only saw one of the barges. I had hoped both would be here but I would inquire about that after I landed.

“Is there anything to hunt around here?” Ska asked as we stepped off the ramp.

“I heard there were some elementals north of town. East just leads you toward the sulfur springs where we defeated the Jackals. I’m not sure if there are any dungeons near the mountains, but I would imagine there should be a few.”

Ska rumbled in discontent and I just shrugged.

“Very well, I will take the measure of these elementals. Are you busy or would you care to join me?”

“Not right now. I gotta talk to some people and work on my new armor. After that, I should be able to free up some time. I’ll send a message off to you,” I replied.

“I will return when I receive the message.”

“Have a productive hunt.”

He rushed off, scaring a few people as he ran through town. I groaned, knowing I would have to listen to Kurt complain about Ska’s antics. Then again… if I kept myself too busy to talk he wouldn’t be able to complain to me. Yeah, that sounded like a plan. I quickly hurried off to my warehouse to find out what was going on.

***

“What do you mean, you couldn’t find him?” I asked Maria after she told me she returned without finding Javier or the other barge.

“We did as you asked, Mr. Paul, but he was not on the route we had taken before. I talked with a few of the locals in the smaller villages and some claimed to have seen the barge but it was far off and never stopped in their town. One of the guards you hired said he would check it out. We waited three days but he never returned. We were afraid someone had ambushed him and decided to return for our safety.”

“Dammit!” I yelled, causing Maria to flinch back. “Sorry, Maria, I’m not angry with you, or the guards, you did the right thing. How long ago was this?”

“Well, it was about four days after we left that we got to the town that said they had seen the barge.”

I had to think back. She left about a week before I did, so the day I left they were returning to relay the information to me. I felt like an idiot, I wasted three weeks when I could have been searching for my lost employee and property.

“Alright, no trips out until I locate Javier.”

“What about the merchants, Mr. Paul, they have been quite angry about not being able to go back out?”

“Tell them if they have a problem with it, that they can come to see me or go back to the old way they made money. And tell anyone, that doesn’t raise too much of a ruckus, that the fees for the next trip will be reduced to a quarter.”

She nodded.

“Now I gotta go restock before I can head out. Is there anything else I need to know?” I asked, directing my question to everyone in the room.

Charles spoke up, “the wall is almost complete, the dry dock is ready for the next barge, other than that I think we are just waiting.”

I nodded, “Charles, go speak with Kurt and see if he was able to secure any mithril. Let him know I would come myself but I have to leave again. I will speak with him when I return. Also, Timothy, I want you to fab up two dozen of those rings I asked you about before we left, here is enough mithril to get you started.”

Timothy accepted the metal and looked it over. “I can try, but I haven’t ever worked with mithril, anything I should know?”

“It's pretty brittle after it’s worked but it's soft until it is treated. Similar to gold, although, I don’t think you can anneal it. If it cracks just melt it down again. When I get back I can show the four of you how to properly temper it, to bring out its enhanced properties.”

I looked at my watch, it had been two hours since I returned, so calling Ska back would take some time. “I will be in town for a few more hours before I lift off again. I’ll leave the rest to you.”

The four men nodded, leaving to go do their assigned tasks. Maria was still standing there, wringing her shirt in worry. I sighed. “Do you want to come with us when we search for Javier?”

Her face brightened at that, “if it isn’t any trouble, Mr. Paul.”

“It’s fine, come on. You can take Martin’s old room.”

She nodded rapidly and followed behind as I swiftly headed back toward the fortress. I sent a quick message off to Ska asking him to return as soon as possible.

“Maria, why didn’t you or the others send me a message about this?”

“We did Mr. Paul, did you not receive it?”

“No, I did not. When was it sent?”

“As soon as we returned to port and spoke with Mr. Charles. When you didn’t return we figured you weren’t too worried about it.”

So either Charles sent it and it was intercepted, or he never sent the message. I wanted to believe the former since Charles was an extremely competent foreman but I couldn’t rule out the possibility. Then again neither was a good option. There was a third option I needed to consider, thanks to the words from that Stygian Order man. The message tokens were enchantment items. Who’s to say they couldn’t intercept, disable, or redirect them completely.

I hoped I was wrong and they were not involved in the theft of the barge.

Once back aboard the fortress, I showed Maria around quickly and pointed out where she would be sleeping.

“This is so amazing, Mr. Paul, to think you made all of this.”

“It’s not all that impressive, I just slapped some stuff together. It needs updating. You would be surprised to know the barge is actually a significant improvement over the fortress. The fortress just has more creature comforts. Make yourself at home, I have to do some work before we go.”

The awe-struck teen nodded absently as she roved around, looking at everything.

I figured it would be at least three hours before Ska returned. It wouldn’t give me time to complete my armor but I could get a good start on it.

I headed up to my workroom and unloaded my ring, setting the armor on a wooden dummy. I also set three new weapons into the weapon rack. They weren’t anything super special like my current ones but with some runes, they would add to my flexibility.

One of the items I had purchased was a dual-bladed sword staff. Yeah, I know how goofy that sounds but I tested the weapon out before I purchased it. My normal staff skills worked with it but I needed to work on aligning the blade when I attacked. The last bladed staff I had was more for stabbing, this weapon could be used for that but also for slashing attacks. Having come across opponents that needed to be hacked apart, it was an area I needed to fill. I also picked up a mace.

Consuming void had the function to reduce its length but I wanted a stand-alone mace. A purpose-built weapon would always be better than one that had to be modified to fit a roll. The other staff was just a standard quarterstaff, capped with metal. Simple and unassuming.

After setting everything out, I started laying out the runic design. Gone was the tree of life design, my new armor wasn’t going to be shielded like my old set. That being said, it was going to be much more complicated. With my high Intelligence and skill at creating a few masterwork items, I thought I could pull it off. Initial tests on the flight back from Vegas showed the idea was feasible.

***

My work was interrupted by a message popping up in my face. Martin had finally gotten back to me.

Glad you’re back. Events in Houston have taken a turn for the worse. Do you recall Fayline Rosewill? She is that girl that tried to control Ska. We are almost certain it was her father that gave the information to the dwarves. Probably as revenge for her death. We can’t prove anything though, but based on his actions since that day, it's the only plausible explanation.

Edward Rosewill – the father – is trying to get himself elected Mayor. Normally I would say he didn’t have a chance, but he is either paying people or threatening them to champion his cause. He is using the time-tested methods of fear to drive the populace to his side… and it’s working.

The Mayor is losing support daily as he hasn’t brought anyone to justice due to the attack. I fear he might throw me under the bus to appease his constituents. It’s time we leave Houston. Fiona and I will set up outside of Houston. If we don’t see you within a week we will move north to the Hornwell estate and wait for you there.

Don’t do anything dumb like attacking Mr. Rosewill. It will only cement his position.

Good luck, we will see you soon.

Martin & Fiona.

“Fuck, fuck, FUCK!”

Just when I thought shit couldn’t get worse, it did. Despite, Martin’s warning, I did want to go just end the man and the threat he posed. But I knew if I did that, there would be no returning to Houston, the alliance would probably come crumbling apart and I would be hunted down. Yet I still wanted to go do it.

I took a few deep breaths to get my anger under control. I needed to act more rationally. It was obvious the man had planned this all out in detail. The fact that there was no evidence to show that he was guilty meant there was little I could do but hope that the Marshall or that spineless Mayor could turn things around. Martin and Fiona disappearing probably wouldn’t help the Mayor’s cause, but it was better than having him arrested or worse.

I had an idea on how to change the tide. I pulled out another message card and sent it off to the Marshall. He was the last person I could trust to see it through.

As for Martin and Fiona, they were going to have to sit and wait. I couldn’t detour to meet up with them with Javier missing. They could take care of themselves though. I checked the time. Ska should be returning shortly.

I headed downstairs just in time to hear the door opening.

“I got the supplies you asked for and hurried back as quickly as possible. What's going on?” Ska panted.

“Javier is missing, along with the other barge, we’re going to go look for him. Put the food in the fridge and I’ll get us in the air. Oh, we have a guest, Maria. She is coming along to help us search.”

Ska just nodded as he headed toward the kitchen.

The trip to Vegas and back had depleted a considerable amount of our stored foodstuff. We had military rations and dried foods for an emergency, but I would prefer to leave them for an actual emergency. With Ska restocking the fridge, we should be set for a week between the three of us.