Her name was Jessica, and Isaka knew she was WAY too young to be in the military. “You’re sure you’re eighteen years old? They didn’t kidnap you?” Isaka glared at the man in the combat uniform who had shadowed the young woman the entire visit. He didn’t respond to her death glare. The African American girl laughed.

“Well, they did kidnap me. Kind of. They conscripted me. But I am eighteen years old. The System Integration actually happened on my birthday.”

“No kidding. So, that guy isn’t threatening you? He’s not here in case you go insane, or try to run away?” That made the girl laugh even harder. The hard-boiled soldier even cracked a smirk.

“No! That’s my uncle! He’s my bodyguard.” Jessica’s face was bright red and her eyes were filled with laughter. “Uncle Max is a great guy. He’d never hurt me.”

“Is it normal for someone in the magic corp to have a bodyguard?”

“Not exactly. I’m pretty young, and he was getting reactivated. So they let him stay with me. The big wigs think I’m super important to their training program, and so they allow it.”

“And why are you so important?” Isaka asked, as she lifted the box of binders out of the back of the four person rover that had picked them up that morning. The binders contained detailed lists of requirements for every building in the academy. Lists, the experts in her ‘founders’ team, had created, and then promptly ignored the day before in their mad build-a-university day of fun in the sun. She was going to hand each of them a list of deficiencies their buildings had, and make them fix it. But that required her to audit every building on the augmented reality campus. The only binder that was pretty sparse was for the magic school. Which was why Jessica was there.

“Well, I have this ability that makes it easier for me to teach other people magic.” Isaka pulled the nearly empty binder from the box and stood up, facing the girl.

“No kidding. So, can you teach me magic?”

“Sure, but only if you have a few weeks to train, and already have access to your mana pool. If you don’t have your mana pool active, you’ll need to talk to the remedial team.” Isaka had access to her mana pool. But it was only because she had the Giant Slayer title she had earned from defending a family friend’s farm. She really didn’t think she qualified.

Shrugging, Isaka handed over the practically empty binder to the young woman. “Maybe when I’m done building the town, we can make time. But for now, let’s focus on getting the training programs up and running.” Jessica opened it, and scanned through the list.

“This is actually pretty good. Particularly if no one on your team is in the magical corp, or a mage. Hmm. . . Uncle Max, what do you think? We should add a couple of mana batteries, and some training rooms, right?” Max grunted in agreement after glancing at the list briefly. He returned to watching the empty savannah around them for dangers.

Isaka pulled out two headsets and a handful of the projectors. While Jessica went over the binder, and went on what looked to Isaka as a mad spree of note taking in the empty pages at the back — Isaka laid out the projectors at each corner of the marked off lot designated by the construction team for the building. Greg and the rest of the team, not struck down by heat exhaustion, were nearly half a mile away, laying more and more flags down, marking off different building lots as they went.

When Isaka got back to the rover, Jessica was almost finished. “Add a first floor magic suppression field, a dampening field on the second floor, and then three rooftop practice fields. That should give people plenty of room to practice on the top floor. Places to train their mana manipulation on the second floor, and then a safe space on the first floor for academic theory, medical, safe storage, and living quarters for the instructors.” Jessica added a little doodle drawing at the bottom of her notes that looked suspiciously like a pyramid.

“Why is it a pyramid?” Isaka asked.

“We are in Africa, aren’t we? Home of the pyramids?”

“That’s Egypt.”

“But Egypt is in Africa, right? Why not? Besides, it looks all mystical, doesn’t it?”

“It’ll be killer on the knees though.”

“Only if you don’t build, and or refuse to use an elevator.”

“True.” Isaka looked at the design again. She wanted it to fit in with the eclectic aesthetic of the rest of the campus. Each building was going to add its own unique flavor to it, but they would still be somewhat modern designs. “Here, put the headset on. I have an idea.”

The two worked together for the next hour, laying the groundwork and shaping the outside of the structure. When Isaka’s version of the ‘pyramid’ was complete, it was more like a three tiered shopping mall with the top layer having a mix of a sports arena and a small walking park. Nothing too massive, just a few square yards of green space people could use to enjoy the sun.

That was when Jessica had the idea to add a type of ‘porch’ to the second floor, and add meditation and relaxation areas that surrounded the space. Again, not massive, but spread out enough to give people their needed space.

The bottom floor Isaka expanded out to better support the ‘porch’, and to keep the pyramid esthetic. It was all right angles, requiring only simple construction. The headsets said the 3d concrete printers could create the shell in a little over a day. Though, to Isaka and Jessica’s frustration, the system automatically added four massive support pillars to the center of the building. Needed to support the equivalent of a football field that rested atop the structure.

They built around it though, making the central part of the building open to air flow. It gave the entire building an aesthetic that was a bit US mega mall, three story office building, and ‘apartment complex’, all wrapped up in a mix of a South American step pyramid in the front, with the sheer back of an egyptian pyramid.

“Cool,” Max said when the two women pulled off their headsets. He was looking through a tablet and was sitting in the rover out of the growing heat.

“Be even cooler if we could add a waterfall,” Jessica said, smiling at Isaka for all she was worth.

“No.”

“But why not?”

“We’ll be using well water at first. At least, until the town’s sewer and water system are finished, and connected with the infrastructure town’s water reclamation plant.” She was talking about Town 3. On the opposite side of the fortress. Each support town had its primary mission to support the fort, but they also had duties in providing services to each other. “At that point, maybe. But until we have a steady way of cleaning our water supply, we’re not using some of it to make things look pretty. And trust me when I say, you wouldn’t want gray water in no water fall. The entire campus would reek of brine and sewage.”

“What if I made it using magic?” Isaka opened her mouth to respond, but a loud squawking noise came from Jessica’s bag. “Oh, sorry, I forgot to feed Peep. One second.” The girl reached into her bag and pulled out a feathered lizard with wings and a forked tongue. The creature looked perturbed. “I’m sorry, Peep, I forgot to feed you. I hope you’re not mad at mommy.”