Hugo put his hands on his hips and folded his upper arms. He was inside the Koppel mansion and had been looking out the window while he waited for the master of the house to see him. He was here to discuss mana cores with Lenna’s father, and make sure they didn’t fall into Deva’s hands.

The easiest thing to do would have been to send a letter. If he let them know that thieves knew where their very expensive cores were stashed, the family would be sure to move them.

The problem was Lenna’s father, Mr. Koppel. Hugo had a sneaking suspicion that the reason he bought all of those mana cores in the first place was to sell them to Deva. It was incredibly illegal and shortsighted to sell mana to a country we were at war with. The man would have to be the greediest and stupidest businessman alive to do that.

On the other hand, the shimmer veins did explode last time. Alexandru said that hundreds of cores would be needed for a cascade failure of that magnitude. Hugo couldn’t imagine them succeeding without every available core. It was likely that Mr.Koppel had sold out his own country.

That led him here. He wanted to give the man a chance to do the right thing before he put things in motion.

“The master will see you now,” a servant said.

Hugo figured that the twenty minutes he had spent waiting was the maximum amount of time that a human felt comfortable making a nox wait in Paarl. That must mean that the man had an inflated opinion of himself.

“Hello, Xhosa, please take a seat,” he said, “I must admit, I am curious as to why you asked for this meeting.”

“Thank you for meeting with me, Mr. Koppel. I am here on behalf of my master. Grandmaster Dandre has been working on a personal project and he believes you can help him out.”

“I know a few grandmasters in town, but I am afraid I don’t know him. What would he like help with?” Mr. Koppel said.

“Grandmaster Dandre is a master of the runic domain, and many of his creations take a great deal of mana. He sent me all over the city looking for mana cores,” said Hugo, “No one has a spare core. Not even one.”

“I am sorry to hear that, but what does that have to do with me?” he replied.

“A rumor has been floating around that you have access to mana cores you would be willing to sell,” Hugo said.

“I am sorry to say that rumor isn’t true. I have been looking to buy mana cores myself, but sadly I have run into the same shortage you have,” Mr. Koppel said sadly.

“Really? You don’t have a single core to spare? My master can't offer more than the standard rate, of course, but we would be in your debt. The law says nothing about favors. I am sure you can see the advantage of a runic grandmaster owing you a favor,” Hugo said and leaned forward eagerly.

“If I had a core, I would be happy to sell it at the rate the law stipulates. But I don’t have a single core available,” Mr. Koppel said convincingly.

“That’s too bad. Oh well. Do let us know if you find a source willing to sell after you get your one core,” Hugo said and got up to leave.

“I will, you can be sure of that. And please send your master my regards,” Mr. Koppel and shook Hugo’s hand.

Hugo left with a smile on his face. He knew that the noble was lying of course, but now that he had given him the chance to do the right thing, he wouldn’t feel bad about what was going to happen next.

With a bit of perverse satisfaction, Hugo walked a few streets down hill and gave the young nox girl waiting there a handful of copper and some instructions. She was to head over to the nearby shimmer corps station and tell the knights there that she heard loud growling and snarls from inside the Koppel warehouse.

Last week he gave the same instructions to a human messenger, and two weeks before that it was a nox maid that visited the shimmer corps. He was pretty sure that the shimmer corps would take action today, but he had two more people lined up if they didn’t.

He followed her from a block and a half away. He was giddy to see three knights leave the station and head uphill. He slowly walked back towards the Koppel estate. When he was a block away he could faintly hear shouting and see people arguing in front of the warehouse.

A small crowd gathered across the street to see what the commotion was about. Hugo joined them in the back. Just as he expected, the shimmer corps were there to investigate reports of the Koppels housing monsters inside the city so that nobles could come and rank up easily.

Operations like that were very illegal because the monsters sometimes got out. Even tier one monsters could kill dozens of mundane people before they were killed. Shimmer corps took these reports very seriously.

Mr. Koppel was standing near his guards in front of the warehouse and yelling that there were no monsters inside. Normally, that type of denial from a noble would be enough for the shimmer corps to leave, but there had been three separate reports at this point. They had to investigate, and their bosses would back them up no matter what they found.

Eventually, the knights ignored the yelling noble and walked up to the warehouse. As per standard procedure, the three of them fired their shimmer casters into the warehouse. They needed any monsters inside to be disabled before they broke open the doors.

Mr. Koppel fell to his knees, crying, begging them to stop. This only encouraged them and made them sure that there was something illegal inside. They finished sweeping the building with shimmer shots and carefully broke open the gates to the warehouse and stepped inside.

Hugo turned and walked away. The deed was done. The shimmer shots must have denatured all of the mana cores inside by this point. Without mana, the cores were just worthless crystals. Mr. Koppel couldn’t sell anyone his cores at this point.

The noble might try and track down who did this, but Hugo’s friends didn’t know his nox name. Mr. Koppel wouldn’t suspect him because the report was for illegal monsters inside the warehouse, not trying to sell mana cores above the market price. Even if Lenna's father did suspect Hugo, he was leaving town soon anyway.

He sent a few pulsenotes before he walked home. The first told Mia what had just happened and asked her to make sure that Lenna’s parents wouldn’t pull her out of school. The sentinels needed that shimmer blocking armor. The second was a coded letter to the sentinel general. He wanted some back up in case the colonel's plan failed.

...

The last night at home was bittersweet. He had told his family that the grandmaster was sending him to another city to learn from a different master for a few months. They took that to mean that Hugo was particularly gifted and they threw a going away party for him.

The shakshuka they made for him was so delicious. The machoke eggs tasted like the home he never had. He spent the evening playing games with his family, staying up late with Nobomi just to have extra time with her. Eventually, he had to go to bed.

The next morning Hugo picked up the response from the sentinel general and then met the harvester in front of the airship dock. It was a tall tower in the middle of the city with several airships moored to it. Many of the noble families owned a ship moored here as a status symbol. They didn’t get used often since the ships used mana shards by the bucket full. Luckily, the sentinels owned their own ship for use in supporting the other cities during monster waves and they had their own supply of mana stones.

The harvester looked the part. He had a set of mismatched armor and a long spear. The potion belt at his side indicated he was an alchemist, but the belt was empty.

“You Xhosa?” the harvester said.

“That’s me. What’s your name?”

“Baahir. Come on then,” he said and led the way up the stairs. The pilot met them at the gate and took them up the elevator to where his ship was docked. The three of them didn’t exchange more than a dozen words and they were on their way.

It was his first time on an airship and it was an exhilarating experience. The ship had four engines providing thrust, one on each corner of the main cabin. The envelope above them provided lift and housed a few casters to take down any flying monster that bothered them. They flew high in the air to avoid the attention of most of the arboreal beasts in the area.

Hugo felt his adrenaline rush as he looked out at the countryside far below them. The forest stretched out far ahead of them, like a green ocean. Behind them lay hundreds of farms, the different colored fields reminding him of children’s blocks. It didn’t trigger his fear of heights because none of it seemed real. It was like he was looking down at a painting, not real life.

They passed through a cloud and that flipped a switch in his brain. All of a sudden he realized just how high up they were. He got light headed and had to sit down. The pilot and Baahir laughed at his reaction and quietly chatted together for the rest of the ride.

He didn’t get back up after he recovered, having seen more than he wanted. To distract himself, he activated mana sight and tried to figure out how the ship moved. Every so often, the pilot would insert a mana shard into a container in front of him. The solution inside would cause the solid mana to melt and it poured into channels leading into each of the four engines.

There must have been some ritual involved because Hugo couldn’t see any runes connecting the controls to the engines. The engines themselves did use hundreds of runes. Many of them were the gust rune Hugo knew, but more than half of them were in a lingua he didn’t recognize. He wished that he had paid better attention when he had access to the grandmaster’s books.

The next hour was filled with anxiety ridden boredom.

“We are coming up on Deva soon. Where do you want me to drop you?” the pilot said.

Hugo risked a glance forward, but couldn’t see the city. The pilot must have the light domain.

“Swing us around north of the city. There is an abandoned quarry there. I left some stuff there we can use,” Baahir said.

When the harvester said they were close, the pilot replied, “Alright, undo the latch in the back and get ready to jump.”

“What?” Hugo said, panicked.

“I can’t land here, it would blow your cover. Light mages in the city are probably tracking me. If I land, they will send soldiers out to investigate. You have to jump. Don’t worry, you will be fine, just make sure to tuck and roll,” the pilot said as he got close to the trees.