For the next ten days, Amriel had become incredibly busy setting up his affair in the clan.

It turns out that his next door neighbor in the plot of land given to him was no other than Tyler himself. That made it simple to plot markers in their adjoining lands (Tyler actually have 3 kabuk of land for his years of labor for the clan.) and everything is finished by the end of the second day.

After that, Tyler and some friends help Amriel to set up his new home. Gathering fine woods in the forest, they were able to erect a two-room cottage in a span of two days plus an outhouse ten meters away from the hut. The frame of the house is made from the ancient redwood, abundant in the forest, but the wall is made by pack clay dirt, mix with a peculiar purple sticky plant called ‘Shalagoo.’ The grounded plant leaves and flower create a paste-like quality that hardens mud and makes it quite durable. With magical runes, the walls can last decades.

In the next few days, Tyler will show his expertise in wood crafting when he deliver to Amriel a wooden bed, a small table and a few chairs.

“What’s this?” Amriel asked, showing a small rabbit sculpture.

Tyler shrugged. “Navina bought that from a passing merchant once, it’s just stuck in a barrel now so I thought I bring it here, put some character in your home.”

Amriel turns the rabbit over and etched below it reads: ‘Made by Weed.’

Amriel shrugged and put it in a corner window, forgetting all about it.

Tyler manhandled the wooden door and place it properly in the opening of the house. “I just need to buy some fasteners and latch bolts and everything should be finished.”

“I’m really grateful for this brother,” Amriel said.

Tyler waved him away. “Think nothing of it, we’re family remember?”

Amriel smiled at that. “Indeed, we are.”

“So what’s your plan after this?”

Amriel scratch his chin while looking outside the window. “Well, first of all, I need to fix my land, and then see Master Abishi and find out if I can get my old job back.”

Tyler frowned at him. “Then I’ll come by early tomorrow and help you cultivate your land.”

“Get going you fool!,” Amriel said laughing. “I don’t need your help digging dirt as well. I know you have lots of work back home, so do that instead.”

Tyler looks at him seriously. “Old Ergo screwed you over when he gave you this plot of land. You should have received one of the newly cleared lands beyond the river, but he gave you this forested land instead.”

Amriel smiled affably. “They are planning to send me to the clearing crew anyway, now I just have to clear my own land first. Two birds with one stone.”

“I’m serious little brother,” Tyler said frowning. “I’ve been in that clearing crew and what you got here is serious work. The land is full of hard rocks and there are more than a hundred trees dotted your place. These are ancient trees with roots that go for miles underground. It won’t be easy. You need to start fixing your land now or you may not be able to plant anything this coming planting season.”

Amriel nodded soberly, showing his big brother that he understood the importance of his words. “I understand your words, brother. And I thank you for your concern, but you seem to forget that I am an ex-soldier. I’m used to hard work. Digging up holes in the ground is something we do in the field on a daily basis, and I think can manage for now. If I learned that I bite more than I was able to chew then I will ask for your help again. But for now, I don’t want you to worry about me. Worry about yourself.”

And my daughter.

Tyler thought about what Amriel had just said, then nodded. “As long as you are aware of the danger,” He said. Tyler patted Amriel in the back and started to live.

“Tyler, wait,” Amriel said. He grabbed his old knapsack and pulled a small pouch inside it. He then pushed the pouch to Tyler and said, “Here take this.”

Tyler looks inside the pouch and paled. “I can’t accept this!” He said, looking again in disbelief at the ten emerald pieces inside the pouch. “This is yours! How the hell did you get that in the first place?”

Amriel laughed. “Soldiers can only spend his money on either women or drinks. I have no need of either and so I have been able to save this much in my stay in the army.”

Besides the ancient Elagani Empire, the monetary system is not yet fully integrated into the economy of the rest of the world, including the kingdom of ollagon where the clan of twotree resides. At the far reaches of the kingdom, bartering is still the primary form of the trading system. In the capital and the rest of the major cities, however, the kingdom is slowly introducing a new system of coinage that the rest of the people are beginning to accept.

A small crystal known only as quartz is now being distributed in the kingdom’s economy. The royalty owns the only two mining facilities in the entire kingdom, and besides its simplicity and easily transportability, the quartz are naturally made and counterfeiting it is next to impossible. Eventually, the quartz becomes the standard payment for wages and has become an acceptable replacement for products and services rendered.

However as time passes, banks and merchants found out that it becomes harder and harder to calculate, analyze and store vast quantities of quartz especially if hundreds of thousands or even millions are involved. That is when they started using another natural mineral to augment the quartz, and that is the emerald.

Unfortunately, the green gemstone turns out to be very rare and it’s hard to come by. That is the reason an imbalance of emeralds and quartz immediately affected the economy. At last count, each emerald is an equivalent of a thousand and two hundred quartz. Putting it in perspective, a worker in the kingdom who works all day will be paid a standard 5 quartz a day on average.

This is the reason why Tyler’s mouth gaped open when Amriel offered him 10 pieces of emerald.

“I cannot possibly take this.”

“Why not?,” insisted Amriel. “I’m a single young man who just receive a plot of land, a home and work opportunities. You, on the other hand, has a growing family, and we both know that you can put this money to good used. Take it, brother. I don’t need it but you do.”

It took another 15 minutes for Amriel to bully his brother in accepting his money. But in the end, Tyler took the money, albeit unhappily. They said their goodbyes and Amriel watch his bigger brother as he disappeared inside his own house. Amriel sighed and continued to work.

Amriel carried all the crates with his supplies given to him, inside the house. Amriel look around him then his eyes begun burning in blue light. He kneeled in the dirt and by igniting the radiance in his fingers, he began to write runes in the air. The Runes who started out as either a square or triangle or diamonds with specific numbers of dots inside, evolve into a much more complicated graphics, then they began to intermingle with each other until they created a completely different complex rune. Amriel raised his left arm and a red radiance sphere started to form from nothing. It crackles with power as it spins faster and faster on top of Amriel’s head. When he was ready, Amriel guided the sphere and slammed it into the complex rune he just created. Like a virus, the red radiance spread throughout the Rune just as Amriel somehow maneuvered it down into the ground.

The moment it touches the dirt, the radiance flash outward into the ground and a small tremor rage around them. Slowly, the ground shook and then suddenly the floor started to go down. But it turns out that only thing that is going down was a circular patch of ground about five feet in diameter that includes Amriel himself. They went down and down into the earth until they reach about fifty feet underground, then the magical flatform stop, only to expand in all direction in a fifteen feet radius where in Amriel is the center. Once it finishes expanding, Amriel already has another rune glowing in his left hand where he slammed it to the ground.

Runes of all shapes and sizes in magnificent gold color raced out of Amriel hands and spread throughout the walls positioning themselves in a pre-designated area. “Haaph!” Amriel cried, as an even more unbelievable amount of radiance poured out of him and alighting the magical circuitry created moments ago. The runes in the walls exploded like fireworks and even more runes and circuitry covered the entire room from the ground, wall, and ceilings. Four pillars made of unknown metal, also covered in complicated glowing runes rose up in the ground until it touches the ceiling, then covering it up with more earth magic.

The runes glowed in an unprecedented heights and the entire room was bathed in a blinding light for several moments, and when they diminished the place was now filled with a circular granite table and an even longer L-shape table in the middle of the room, plus the edges of the circular room is now filled with shelves filled with books and scrolls. Both tables are covered with other scrolls, alchemy tools, experiments, and magical devices. On the north side of the room even including its own furnace complete with a fan blower and a smith anvil. Next to it is a half-buried massive cauldron filled with coals for the furnace.

On the left side of the furnace stood a silent 12 foot Mithral Golem, eyes scanning the room for any unwanted intruder. Its glowing purple eyes rested on Amriel for a second, recognizing its master, then continued its sweep of the room.

Amriel remained kneeling for a second more, before collapsing to the ground, exhausted. His aspects meanwhile were roaming the room.

Tubby was smelling the scrolls in the table. “Seems like everything is the same as we left them…”

Simon perused one of the open books, and nodded. “Indeed. I guess the spatial teleportation rune you made works perfectly. You should thank Shayla then for teaching it to you.”

Amriel’s eyes rolled to his brain, and Daniel appeared.

He did the ninja flip and he was on his feet, stretching. “I told grumpy this will work,” Daniel said. “Only he is skeptical from the beginning.” Everyone nodded.

For some reason, even both Daniel and Amriel never notice directly, but Daniel actually has 2 more aspects normally around him than Amriel. One is the British girl with blond ringlets skipping around the room named Lizzie, and the other is Greg, the drunk bum, who smack the girl’s bottom when she pass him near the table.

“Kyaaah!” Lizzie screamed, before smacking Greg with a karate chop in the forehead. She ran behind Daniel for cover, glaring balefully at the drunk.

“Why in the source name do you need to bring all of this from Helix anyway?” Greg asked as he drank deeply in the paper bag –covered vodka he always seems to carry. He is sporting a huge bump even bigger than his head, tilting it to one side due to its weight. Aida, behind him, is placing a cute but completely inadequate pink band-aid in the enormous red bump.

Daniel didn’t answer. He just smiled and tap his foot. The ground rose to elevate him back and when he reach the ceiling it opened up so easily like a ripple in a water and Daniel was back to his little hut. He sighed and went outside and for the rest of the afternoon he continued to cut trees, pull giant roots, dig out rocks and small boulder out of the soil.

At night, he is part of a volunteer group of militia who patrol the clan territory, since the full-time guards had their hands full in guarding the clan merchant convoys. As the newest member of the group, he gets the graveyard shift that patrols early morning until the crack of dawn.

Daniel didn’t mind really. Since this is the time that he can think and plan for the future.

See, unlike Amriel, he is not content with the status of their child. He agreed with him not to tell the child that he is the real father because Ella is already attached to Tyler. But that is the extent of their agreement.

For one, he did not accept Ella’s condition in Tyler’s household. And Ella has talents.

Amriel is content in letting his only child work hard in the time of peace. To grow up, meet someone, get married, have children, and die in old age with her family surrounding her. But Daniel has a different Idea.

He wanted Ella to at least taste everything that is good that life could offer. For her to achieve all the opportunities that she might want to explore in the future. And then one day, she might find what she is truly looking for, and finally be truly happy.

“Why in the name of the source do you need to bring all of this from Helix anyway?” Greg had asked him before.

He did not answer before but now he can.

“It’s all for my preparation. If the world does not accept my child, then I will change the world for her.”

This he promises himself as he continued his patrol.