Heading over to the opening, I focused on the process I’d carried out once before with Sania. Focusing on the ground and the surrounding air, and essentially asking it to form into a rock for me. I could have used Ethereal energy, but I wanted to try tapping into the Neuma of the ground and the atmosphere with my own skill.

Nothing happened, but I persevered. After a long while, people were starting to notice me staring in a forceful manner at the open space, undoubtedly looking like an utter lunatic.

“What are you doing Clive?” Sania asked, moving silently down the stairs.

“Well, I was going to try and rebuild the walls with the power you showed me, but I got distracted trying to form them without using Ethereal Neuma.”

“Why would you do that?” She asked. Her brows drawing down into a puzzled expression.

“Just to test a theory out in all honesty.”

She didn’t reply, but it was clear she was waiting for more, so I embellished a little on my previously unspoken suspicions. For that matter, I’d barely given them a voice within my own mind.

“This Alo-im form can contain both Light and Dark Neuma, and after last night Nature Neuma, too. Danivra had never heard of it before and being able to use multiple Neuma’s is unheard of, unless it is power gifted from a god on top of the natural power already latent in the world. It got me wondering if I could gather all of the Neuma types of Falritas, would I create ethereal energy from scratch? I wonder if the Alo-im were the first Gods or something.”

“They can’t be,” Sania replied flatly. “You already know that Creation was the first god, otherwise nothing would have been created in the first place. Then you couldn’t have had a first race.”

I laughed at her undefeatable logic. “Yeah, that’s true. But there’s something about this form, this race, that’s different. And I intend to get to the bottom of whatever that is.”

“If it will help us to thrive, then I am fully supportive of your efforts. But building this wall is unlikely to have that effect when we have building teams far more capable of doing this?”

“Yep, but they have a full town to rebuild and even if I save them five minutes I’ll be happy.”

“I think it might be because you’re eager to start cooking?”

It was hard to fight a smirk at her completely accurate accusation. “Mal dropped some pans off for me this morning. I can’t wait to use them,” I mused. "Oh! And that reminds me, the Malatians soldiers are all leaving to their front lines across the border of the Forsaken lands later today. I’ve promised them a portal.”

“Has Darkness’s push for Malatia began?”

“Not yet. But I suspect it won’t be long.”

“What are our plans for helping them?”

“I suppose just portal out from here whenever we’re needed. I’ll send a few of my followers out with the Malatian army. Then they will be able to contact me, if for some reason Devotion can’t and we’re needed.”

Sania stared at the hole with me thoughtfully. “I suppose that’s a good reason to be practicing our powers. I’ve not attempted anything this large so far, but I can try and form the wall with my power if it will help.”

“Sounds good to me. I’m still not sure how competent I’ll be at it, but if you form the main missing section,” I said, indicating the eight-foot-wide gap which reached all the way to the roof of the building. “Then I can try and fill in the other section.”

She loosened up her shoulders as if she was about to do a deadlift. Moving her hands forward slightly she began her attempt to build the wall.

Watching her movements and how the Neuma reacted to her manipulations through my Singularity sight, I was fascinated as always.

A smooth rock wall began to sprout from the dusty ground as if it was a plant's growth being filmed with a time lapse camera. I could feel the slight strain coming off Sania increase as she began fusing the expanding the structure, into the existing block work where the two met.

She sagged a little as her work was complete, leaving only a three-foot-wide gap for me to work upon.

“Well done, Sania!” I beamed, as I ran my hand over the uniform thickness stone wall she’d just created.

“It’s your turn now,” she replied. “And I think you may have the harder part of the bargain as you’ll have to fuse both sides of the wall to the existing structure. It will be difficult, but I have faith in you. If you are unable to fuse both sides, then focus on fusing the corner to my wall as it is flat and will both be easier and benefit more from the strength. Then I think we can bind the other side together after you have finished.”

I offered her my serious, sensible face, before loosening my shoulders as she had. Obviously that wasn’t necessary, but I felt a certain relaxation as I stretched out the joints and muscles before copying what I had seen her do.

My own Ethereal energy flowed smoothly out from my hands, spreading around to draw in the needed elements to replicate what Sania had achieved. It happened far more easily than I had expected after fucking about with what I thought of as my Mortal Neuma. Fusing along both the existing brickwork and the edge of Sania’s wall, to form the new front corner of Clive’s place. Grinning as I completed my work, I turned and went for a high five. She’d been with me long enough now to know what was expected, and slapped my hand with a wide smile on her face.

“Well done Clive. We should probably offer our assistance to Joel when we can,” Sania rightly pointed out.

“Yeah, we could probably speed things up a lot. He might get pissed, though.”

“Why would he?”

“Well, he excels at one thing. Building. Might feel a bit impotent if we take that off him.”

“I see. He would still need to add his enchantments and important details, such as windows, doors, roofs, and a whole number of things I don’t even know about. That said, I have a great deal of other things to attend to myself.”

“You do?” I asked. Regretting the surprise that creeped out of my voice as I spoke. She raised an unimpressed eyebrow at me.

“Sorry that came out wrong. What are you up to, we haven’t had much time to speak lately.”

She smiled and relaxed a little at that. “I am organizing schools for… everyone, really. It was initially for the beast kin races as they haven’t had the opportunity to access the knowledge of the city dwelling races, like the Dokalfar and humans. But the Goblins and the Saleel are no different. I don’t want them to lose what they are, but I want them to understand the value of Intelligence other than the standard physical stats for survival that are ingrained in us all.”

“Fuck, that’s awesome Sania, and thanks for setting that up. Shit that’s really going to help Far Reach become something amazing.”

“There are a few incredibly learned among the Dokalfar and among the humans from Issel. The Drengalfar have some very knowledgeable people among them too, so I’m receiving a lot of help setting things up. I do need to go as I have people to meet this morning.”

“Totally. You do what you need to do. That’s exciting stuff.”

She turned ready to go, then stopped. “You still haven’t actually told me what happened last night. You have Nature Neuma merged with your Light and Dark Neuma now?”

“I do! And a point in Ethereal Awareness.”

I spent a few minutes talking her through what had happened, and she listened with a savage focus.

“So if you really want to increase your Mortal Core’s ability to use the other powers, you’ll have to increase your Ethereal Awareness further as one point won’t be of much use?”

“Yep. And therein lies the problem. Stat points are expensive as hell now. Would it be better that I rather invest them in boosting my already high stats as I can rely on Ethereal power? Or will there be some incredible advantage in recreating Ethereal power by absorbing all the Neuma’s of the land within my Mortal Core?” I said, blurting out all of my inner turmoil on the subject.

“I can see what you’re saying, but in our current predicament it does seem like a potential waste of time and points. That said, I’m sure you’ll make the right decision. After all, you’re the only one who knows what it’s like to be you in your new body.”

She was right of course, and I didn’t need to make a decision right now. “Thank you Sania. That’s probably exactly what I needed to hear right now.”

She offered me a wide and genuine smile and with a brief kiss, we parted ways. Sania to go and work on her schools, me to go and check our walls from the outside to see how good, or bad they looked.

Joel was marching over from the almost cleared castle area as we exited. Sania waved and headed off as he shouted over to me. “What the bloody hell’s going on here?” What are these walls?”

“Hiya mate,” I replied, offering a wave and a guilty expression. “Me and Sania just grew them with our powers. We only intended to help out a little.”

He ignored me, striding past and planting his hands on the new structure.

After a few minutes, he nodded to himself, with an appreciative whistle.

“It’s taken on the attributes of the buffs I imprinted the building with. Got some of their own, too. Resistance to all Neuma based attacks. 130%.

“You’re not looking to start doing my job, are you?” he said, eying me sternly as I’d predicted might happen. Thankfully, I could see the glint of humor in his eyes.

“Absolutely not mate. You’re the builder here. Me making a single stone wall doesn’t change that, and I’ve got enough to do. Like hopefully start cooking once you’ve pulled your finger out and sorted this shithole out for me,” I grinned.

His response was to offer a friendly shove to my shoulder, and I pretended it had an effect and took a step back.

“I’m looking forward to that, too. In fact, I was only up this end of town to tell you that I intended to start today. My plans have moved forward a little, seeing as we don’t have to rebuild any defensive walls anymore.”

“Happy to help, mate. You need any more quick stone walls up, give me a shout.”

He shook his head. “Should be fine for a while, but you have given me an idea for when we start the castle. Solid smooth walls like that going all around the base for the first thirty or so feet could be an awesome start. But for the foreseeable future, we have plenty of other work to be getting on with.”

As he spoke, a Nystiobek, two Krysan and a human, approached carrying packs filled with tools. Joel acknowledged them with a thumbs up. “Ready to graft lads?”

They all offered some form of eager affirmative before Joel produced a rolled-up parchment, which he rolled out to show the floor plan of the restaurant. The previously agreed up on kitchen and the seating area were clearly marked. Placing it on a pile of neatly stacked blocks, he pointed to the kitchen area. “We can’t do everything I would like to do. Not until we can get trade going with the outside world again. But here is what I have blueprints for,” he said, pulling out more papers from his Void Pocket and laying them flat. Each one documented a different design of oven from a traditional range cooker to a wide barbecue with smoker lid, and finally a pizza oven.

"So, I can’t do the range cooker yet. The barbecue, I’m waiting on the Dokalfar to make the grill and the lid. Three days on the lid. The Pizza oven I can have made today.”

“Today? That’s awesome. How long for work benches and everything?”

He chuckled. “Today as well. It won’t be perfect, but I guarantee that you’ll be cooking by tomorrow. As long as it’s pizza.”

I waved his words off. “We can cook a damn sight more than just pizzas in there Joel. I can do all sorts.”

I watched as his expression soured. “If you want this done today, then you’ll damn well cook me a pizza, Clive. I’m serious.”

I burst out with laughter. “First meal from Clive’s place, Pizza all around. If I can find the ingredients.”

“Good. I’m glad that’s settled,” Joel replied. “Now, I need final decisions on counter space?”

I pointed down at the plans, drawing a line with my finger. “I want an L-shaped island to work on around here,” I explained. “And I’m going to need access at both ends. Around that,” I said, moving my finger to draw out an identical shaped counter with the same access. “I want another ring of counters for serving. Everything should be open, though. I want to feel like I’m with everyone when I’m cooking.”

“Are you sure?” Joel asked skeptically. “I’ve seen you in the kitchen at work a few times. Can you remember when you lost your damn mind over a cheese and ham toastie? You threw it at the other chef.”

“I’m calmer now. And that was different. He used the wrong cheese and it wasn’t even melted!”

“Okay mate. If that’s what you’re going with, I’ll get everything in place. You go and source your ingredients or whatever it is you're planning to do. Just stay out of our way for the day.”

“That’s fair, I suppose,” I grumbled. “Are we producing cheese here, do you know?”

“We aren’t. There should be plenty of cheese from the dwarven reserves. Don’t know what animal it’s from, and I didn’t see no cows or goats down there on our travels. I do know it’s cave aged though,” he added with a proud grin.

“You need kids mate,” I replied. I wasn’t prepared for his facial expression to change as it did.

“Why do you say that?” he snapped defensively.

“Because of the shitty dad joke, but… congratulations to you and Lierin,”

His eyes widened, darting to the other workers who were in turn pretending to put their attention elsewhere. “How did you know!” he demanded, returning his full focus on me.

“You just told me mate. Eyes, body language, response. You know my Intelligence is over three hundred now don’t you?”

He looked annoyed. “No, it’s still hard to tell to be honest.”

It was hard not to laugh at his sarcastic reply. “I won’t tell anyone. But seriously, well done. I’m happy for you both and Lierin is awesome. I really do like her.

“She didn’t want to tell anyone. I think she’s worried about not being able to carry it. You know, after everything that happened to her… before.”

I nodded with understanding. The poor lass had had a rough ride before we pulled her out of Faray. “Elsbeth healed her, right?”

“She did, but Lierin’s still worried and doesn’t want anyone to know.”

“Fuck that mate. She needs to go and see Danivra or Alial the healer. Actually, it might be better if she went back to Elsbeth if I’m honest. Just to make sure she’s okay and everything. I assume you want it?”

“Of course I want it,” he snapped in an uncharacteristic way. “I’m also shitting myself. The only reason I’m not a sobbing wreck is because of this shell you put around the place. It’s permanent, right? As long as Lierin doesn’t leave, she’s good, yeah? Safe?”

I slapped him on the shoulder, pulling back at just the right time to stop myself slapping his shoulder off. Control was as important as strength at my current level. It was hard to manage sometimes, but with the boosts I also had to my Perception and Intelligence and probably in this case, Dexterity, Joel’s shoulder stayed safely where it was. I met his eyes. “She’s safe, Joel. I promise you.”

“Good. Though I still don’t know how to feel. It’s not something I thought I’d ever have to think about.”

“Really?” I asked. Feigning confusion. “What did you think happened when two people had sex? Ten in Intelligence should be able to work that out for you, mate.”

“So… then… Sania?”

“Nah, she can do something to prevent it. And to be fair we haven’t had any fucking time! Pun intended.”

“You’re probably in a different position to me, seeing that you’re both immortal.

“Well I don’t know this for fact, but I think Natom has an Immortal soul from reaching Seraphim Level combined with his link to Hakan. And Grimstrom got an Immortal soul from reaching Nidarak and Darkness somehow circumventing the rules on that too. So I assume as a follower of mine, I’d like to think we can find a way to keep you all around a little longer.”

“Chance’d be a fine thing. Does that mean Grimstrom is still alive?”

“Worse than that, he’s friggin linked to me.”

“So will he come back like Natom? He’s not spying on us?” he said, looking around nervously.

“The little prick can spy all he wants,” I said loudly. “He’s stuck with a soul servant bond till the end of my days!”

“Can you speak to him?”

“Yeah, I can. Though I’ve muted the asshole since the battle. But let’s not worry about that traitorous shit, eh? Let’s focus on the important stuff like my pizza oven and cheese supplies!”

“Fair enough. But let me know what he has to say for himself when you do talk to him.”

“Of course mate. He let us all down massively.”

“He did. I genuinely liked him. Thought he was a true friend. Now go on, get the fuck out of here,” he scolded. “Give us a chance to get some work done.”

“Happily! I need to go see the baker about some bread starter first.”

“You mean sourdough, right?”

“Whatever mate. It was just bread starter way before it was ever sourdough.”

“I’ll leave that shit to you,” he grumbled and headed off to talk with his team.