Before I could respond, she was gone into the building where Hek materialized from a moment later, sweat beading his forehead and wearing a leather apron.

“Lord Clive! We are almost finished with the weapons for you to return with. A little further honing on the last hundred and they will be ready to go.”

“The last hundred? Damn Hek, How many and what exactly have you made?”

“Seven hundred fine steel Vala. They will serve your Goblin folk well.”

“Seven hundred in three days! That’s crazy, mate.”

“All of the Dokalfar have invested themselves fully in the crafting of the daggers in the hopes that they will see you and the others home safely.”

“I’m sure they’ll help massively.”

The door creaked open behind Hek and a head poked out, “Ready, lord Hek,” he said briskly.

Hek smiled. “Please. Bring them out then.”

Minutes later, Hek presented me with a two-foot squared, smooth wooden box. I eyed it speculatively and the stats popped up.

Medium box of Haulage.

I flipped open the lid and put my hand in and mentally selected one of the daggers. It appeared in my hand as I withdrew it from the box. It was a beautifully crafted knife, despite the time constraints under which the Dokalfar had worked under. Its straight blade was around 14 inches long, with an almost imperceptible pattern of changing shades where the steel had been folded multiple times. Its smooth wooden handle was the color of ebony, with a swirling pattern like a figure of eight, inlaid in silver, providing extra grip. It was tiny in my hands, but there was no doubt it would be a sizeable and deadly weapon in the hands of the Goblins .

Rarity: Rare

Damage: Pierce: 12 Slashing: 10

Weight: 1.5 lbs

Durability: 100%

Rare Attribute: Successful slashing blows increase wielder's Speed +1 for 5 seconds. (Stackable) .

Named attribute (Redoubt): When wielders, health falls below 20%. Successful strikes stun opponents for five seconds.

“Holy shit, Hek! These are some badass weapons. You have powers attached…”

“They are worth the effort and while it feels peculiar to produce them for goblins, they are our brethren now, and I am sure they will put them to good use.”

I put the dagger back in the box, and smiled gratefully. The other Dokalfar who had been working inside had come outside to watch the exchange.

“Seriously,” I said trying to look at each of them and convey the gratitude I felt. “You guys fucking rock. If there is anything I can do to repay you all, I will do it.”

“Bring back our queen,” Hek said with real emotion.

“And yourself,” another Dokalfar said. From behind him. “We’ll be happy once you and our queen are back safe among us.” There was a subdued cheer about that.

I thanked them all again, and said my goodbyes.

Back up at the castle, there were a lot of people moving around very busy. I headed toward Joel who seemed to be coordinating them and found a table with a box on top. It was much larger than the one I currently carried under my arm.

Master box of Haulage.

“You really pulled out all the stops. Who made this one?” I asked. Joel thrust his thumb behind him, and I saw Mal and Elsbeth standing in the shadow of the castle.

I waved them over.

“You donated the box?”

“We did,” Elsbeth said lightly. We do not need it at the present moment. It is how we brought our luggage here, but I feel feeding a starving fort full of innocent people will be a far better use of it than storing some clothing.”

“I can’t promise I’ll be able to get it back to you guys, but I’ll try.”

“You bloody better,” Mal said. “You know how much those things cost?”

“Two and a half thousand lives?” I replied.

Mal blanched a little. “Smart arse. You know what I mean.”

As he spoke, Elsbeth touched his arm.

“Mal, Elsbeth, I assure you that the value of this box isn’t lost on me, and I’d hope to use it for a couple more trips like this. However, we’re under siege. We may have to leg it while fighting at some point. So it may not be possible for me to carry this beautiful box under certain circumstances.”

“Don’t worry about the box, Lord Clive,” Elsbeth said. “We can have another one sent up should we need of it.”

“Thanks for the understanding,” I said and gave Mal a friendly punch in the arm, which sent him staggering back a few paces. “You need to invest intelligence. Trust me. It will help you level up much faster in the long run. If you listen to nothing else I say Mal. Listen to that.”

He looked annoyed that I’d knocked him back, but nodded without reacting badly. “I’ll think about it. I need more physicality first. I’m already way behind the Paladins I’m supposed to be leading.”

“Even more reason to pick intelligence. Anyway. That’s my advice from power leveling and I hope you listen. Intelligence first, then Constitution.”

“HE didn’t look convinced, and that wasn’t really my concern. What was my concern were over five hundred people who had sworn to me, and I hadn’t really spent much time with. I resolved to go and speak with as many as I could until I had to return.

Around midday, I felt some tension through the bond with Sania.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Justice… they’re in,” she said, distractedly.

“What happened?”

She didn’t reply for an eternal moment. “One of the Drengalfar holding the shield passed out. It caused the whole shield to drop. We have…”

She was gone again. God damn, this was both terrifying and frustrating. I was a few hours away from being able to return with the food, but…”

“I’m coming back!” I said.

“NO!” Danivra said loudly into my mind. “We can hold. If you fail with the food, then these people will not survive. We can deal with this, Lord Clive.”

“I’ll hold off, but I’m ready to come back at any second. Don’t leave it too late for me if it’s getting out of hand.”

“We won’t,” Sania said, and I flooded with relief that she had spoken again. “I stood in the middle of the street focusing on all of their bonds. Letting the feel of their battle wash over me and trying to get a feel for it.

Tilius, Aspirant of Clive, is about to expire.

Expire Restore

I mentally smashed option B. Restore, to get Tilius, one of the first Dokalfar to become my followers, back on his feet. I then had to do the same to four others in quick succession, feeling a small amount of energy drain from my core each time. It wasn’t costly to me, and it gave me some solace that I was still helping them in some way, and obviously saving lives.

I waited with bated breath, oblivious to those now standing around me watching with concern.

“It’s okay,” Sania said. “Five paladins got in and started firing their powers off from above. We’ve lost a lot of defenders, but none of our people died and we managed to bring them down between us all.”

“Thank fuck for that. You had me worried.” I replied. “I won’t be much longer.”

“Good,” she replied sounding exhausted. “You are missed.”

I finished my rounds of the followers until Joel came and found me.

I know it must be getting close and Zeine has just brought up all of the bow staves. Thought you’d want to see him.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I do. Lead the way mate.”

As we approached the castle, All of the Fensalfar were there, talking amongst themselves.

“Heya guys,” I said as I passed through them, eyeing the array of bow staves stood leaning against the table next to the box we’d put all of the food in.

“You will have made 96 very desperate Fensalfar extremely happy today.” I said touching one of the staves, and then looking at them with my singularity sight active.

I could see the green glow of their nature neuma and the tiny tendrils of power leading back toward the Fensalfar part of town.

“It is an honor to enable them to connect with us here. By the time you return with them, it will be as if they had lived here the entire time, as they can now connect to the Hearth tree directly.” Zeine said proudly

“Fucking awesome. Will they go in the box?” I asked, wondering about the transportation situation.

“They will. We will place them in now. Only a little pride made me leave them there. I wanted you to see them.”

I laughed. “I like your honesty Zeine, and I don’t bloody blame you. I saw you working on them this morning and it looked intense.”

“You came by?” Zeine asked curiously.

“Yeah, I didn’t want to disturb you. Saw Solla though, he said he’d let you know. He must have forgotten,” I said knowing full well the pompous arse didn’t forget.

Zeine knew too, judging by his expression. “We will store the bows for you Lord Clive.”

I thanked him and moved to stand next to Joel and the councilors.

“Good luck until we meet again. I’ll get back as much as I can, though I may be coming begging for food again,” I grinned.

“And we’ll have food for you,” Joel replied, slapping me on the forearm. “And I hope you’re not even bigger when you get back.

“I might well be, mate. Two more levels and I hit my Baatazu evolution. “I haven’t got a clue what I’m going to do,” I laughed nervously. “Probably just try to get to level eighty as quickly as possible so I can potentially shrink again.”

Joel just laughed. “It really is the most random thing ever, mate.”

As he talked, I felt the change in the protectorate power. Like someone flicking a switch inside my head and the transport power was alive again.

“Well people, that's my ride back here.” I said loudly. “I can't thank you all enough for everything you’ve done and I know all of the people with me can't wait to be back among friends.

As a roar of cheers and goodbyes washed over me, I smiled, but the Medium box on top of the master box. Picked them up and prayed to the universe that I would arrive with all this gear. Otherwise I was just going to go outside of the fort, and start lashing Ethereal energy about like a mad man. Admittedly I might well do that anyway, but I’d rather the people had full stomachs while I did.

Focusing on the fort and Sania in my mind, I transported.