A few days later, I found myself walking through one familiar spooky, dark-veined forest.

It was good to be back. In all honesty, it had been far longer than it should have been. I’d been meaning to visit Emer’Thalis at some point between semesters, but between my mini-coma and my training for my visit to the archmage, I’d just never found the time.

On the flip side, the extended hiatus had built up something of an energizing anticipatory tension. Last I’d been here, Tuk had been in talks with the head of Sylum’s Architectural Guild. I’d left before hearing the end results, but with how much time had passed, I was betting there’d be a shiny new building in the works, and I was looking forward to seeing what it might be.

On top of the longer preceding period of absence, there was one other factor that made this trip a bit different.

Namely, that I hadn’t traveled here alone.

“This entire forest has ingrained dark mana into its system? How- What- It’s incredible!” Emin’s head spun about at such a rate, I was expecting him to fall over from dizziness at any moment.

Things were still a bit tense between me and Emin after the library debacle, and the past few hours had involved quite a lot of awkward silence. Faced with an entire ecosystem loaded with dark mana, however, no amount of interpersonal issues could hold his curiosity at bay.

More than that, a large portion of the researcher’s annoyance with me had melted away the moment we’d arrived. Emin had once described being mana-shifted as constantly breathing in air that was far too thin, but, perhaps for the first time in his life, that was no longer an issue. With the amount of dark mana surrounding us, the normally frail looking man had puffed up, looking taller, surer, and more at ease than I’d ever seen him before.

When he’d accepted my offer, I’d been filled with equal parts relief and trepidation. Seeing him like this, however, made me feel better about my decision to bring him with me, even if it also compounded my guilt for not having taken him sooner.

We hadn’t gone straight from the steps of the library to Emer’Thalis -- for one thing, Emin didn’t have a spatial pouch, which meant he actually had to pack, and on top of that, we had to wait for the weekend so as not to skip classes -- but now that we were here, I was planning on making the most of it.

Still in child-at-a-candy-shop mode, Emin piped back up. “Tess! Even the herbs! The herbs have dark mana in them, Tess! Gods above, I could do so much with even a few samples. Can you imagine how much the settlement owner must be making off all this? Calling this place a goldmine wouldn’t even do it justice -- gold would sell for far less.”

I coughed, not deigning to answer. Should I be selling more of this? Equally importantly, would Elphaea murder me if I started some sort of logging operation? I’d already had some of the wood priced when I went into the Artisan District, but I’d never really sat down and done the math on how much money that was when multiplied by an entire forest’s worth of wood.

That, however, could wait. As Emin’s question had reminded me, there were still a number of things he didn’t know, and with any luck, we would keep it that way. Just because I trusted him and wanted to help him out didn’t mean I was throwing all caution to the wind. As we neared the forest shadow’s domain, I called back to quiz him.

“Getting close. Just to make sure, you remember all the rules?”

More dismissively than I’d come to expect from him, Emin responded. “Yes, yes. No prying for information about the settlement, its location, its owner, or anything else about it. Keep socializing with the residents to a minimum. No leaving the forest unaccompanied. No doing anything to the forest that might tick off a dryad. That last one in particular seems a bit silly, but I think you’ll find I’m far too focused on the forest to be getting up to any mischief while I’m here.”

The restrictions had felt a bit rough when I’d explained them to him, but I figured it was better to be safe than sorry. I’d simply told him that Suds would likely have a fit if he ever learned I’d taken Emin here (true), and then used that as justification. I’d let Emin’s imagination run wild with that one, but whatever story he settled on, I was pretty confident it wouldn’t be “Tess owns this settlement and is secretly a Protagonist with no relationship to Suds,” which was all that really mattered.

Thus assured, I felt mostly fine leaving Emin to his own devices for a while. Soon thereafter, we reached the main shadow encampment, and in short order, we got a tent set up for Emin. After drawing out one last round of promises from him, I bade him farewell, promising to come fetch him for dinner.

From there, I went through my usual back-to-Emer’Thalis routine, hunting down Amak first. This time around, the recently elevated chief wasn’t in his tent, and it took some time before I found him and he had a spare minute. Eventually, however, he managed to carve out some time for me.

“Tess. Welcome back. It’s been some time. Allow me to catch you up.” His tone was warm and professional as always. Had Rock said the same, the note about how long it had been would have felt like an accusation, but with Amak, the comment was just that -- a comment.

Before I received any form of update, I did a quick rundown of the situation with Emin, all of which Amak had no issue with. Thankfully, I’d long ago convinced Amak to stop referring to me as “Protagonist” now that I knew how dumb it was to actively advertise that to the world, so as long as no one directly told Emin, it wouldn’t be something he just happened to overhear.

With Emin-related matters out of the way, though, it was time for the grand tour!

Or at least, the kind-of grand tour.

Ultimately, while the city was in flux, very little of that was visible from Amak’s end of things. The forest shadow portion of the settlement had grown a touch since last I’d visited, but we were finally to the point where no new shadows were being sent from the larger forest.

The only major updates Amak had for me concerned the “farming” operations, and our water source. The haphazard forest farm had expanded once more, the simple clearing he’d shown me a few visits back now spanning entire acres. Or, at least I thought it was: I didn’t actually know how much an acre was, but with how far everything stretched, I was betting there had to be some definite acreage happening here. The mess of squashes and peppers and herbs and tubers all grew over one another with no semblance of rhyme or reason, but if it worked, it worked.

Water wise, the makeshift lake that Amak had convinced everyone to build was mostly unchanged save for around its edges. The patchy botanical stubble that had grown on the otherwise barren earth had now matured into a lush, grassy beard, the metaphor made one more step apt by the grass’s dark hue. Much like had been the case in the forest, the plant life couldn’t help but suck up some of the dark mana in the earth. It was heartening to see that the mana wasn’t completely inimical to life -- it would have been a bit rough in the long term if nothing could grow here without Elphaea’s aid.

“I believe that concludes everything under my purview, but I imagine you’ll find me the most ‘boring’ of all the various faction heads this time around. I have no desire to spoil any surprises, however, so I’d suggest you seek out Carpin next.”

With some words of thanks, I set off, opting to do just that. As this visit took place over a normal weekend break as opposed to something longer, I wanted to make sure I got all the updates I needed as soon as possible.

I figured it might take some doing to track down Tuk, but once I managed to escape the confines of the forest, it turned out to be the exact opposite: It was clear as day where the foreman would be, courtesy of the active worksite.

Well off to the side from the housing area and the central mess hall, a flurry of builders worked on some sort of structure, the purpose of which was entirely unclear to me. It was, if somewhat predictably, largely made from the same darkwood which made up the bulk of the settlement. Despite that, the half-built building had a certain angular, polished look to it that managed to make the wood look more official than any of our other buildings.

Somehow, even with my freakish Perception, I failed to spot the foreman before he spotted me. This was made evident as, when I was only halfway between the forest and the new structure, a figure pulled away from the construction site and started sprinting towards me.

“YOU!” The foreman bellowed out across the distance, the force of his shout causing me to recoil. I halted my approach, unable to discern exactly why he was yelling and running. As he neared further, however, he dropped his voice into an almost normal range.

“You know how long it’s been since you last visited? I’ve been having heart palpitations all week! I was thinking we’d have to finish up this beauty of a building without that handy ability of yours. But here you are! Fresh and energized and ready to work!”

Figures that’s what he was most worried about. I supposed one seldom became a foreman without a strong love of building. My Lead From the Ground ability would give a solid boost to any building in my settlement’s quality as long as I worked on it. Still…

“Hi Tuk. Good to be back. I was actually just hoping for an update for now-”

At last closing the distance, he grabbed my hand and started pulling me behind him.

“An update so you can know what it is you’re working on, I know! Come on!” There was a sort of ecstatic bubbliness about the man that made him seem at least ten years younger, as if he were an elderly dog suddenly acting like a puppy again.

I sensed I wasn’t going to get much out of the man without complying, but more than that, I found it hard to let him down when faced with that level of enthusiasm.

And thus, with only the smallest of sighs, I let myself get roped back into construction.

Construction has reached level 8!

At first, Tuk seemed somewhat reluctant to give me any details of what I was working on, perhaps worried that I’d find an excuse to duck out as soon as I knew. Bit by bit, however, I got the full story out of him.

“It was hard, you know! Took more time than you’d think to narrow down all the options. Don’t know what sort of connections you have, but that guild of yours has a solid collection! Only reason I’m not still sitting in one place and pensively scratching at my stubble is that our choices are much, much more limited from us only being a Town instead of a proper City.”

Yes Tuk, thank you Tuk. Now tell me what the damned building does, Tuk.

“But I said to myself, ‘Tuk, what does this city really need, hmm?’ and after some thinking, two things stood out to me. First off-” A schematic suddenly appeared in his hands, and instead of finishing his sentence, he flicked it my way, interrupting me as I sanded some of the timber down. Curious, I stopped what I was doing to examine it.

Cradle of Life (Copy, x1)

A place of worship, at one with the nature that surrounds it.

Note: This schematic is a copy. Building quality reduced by 10%. A single building may be built from this schematic. After use, this schematic may not be traded, and any attempts to create another Cradle of Life with it will fail.

A church? Not exactly what I would have picked as an immediate “need,” but I could understand why he would have wanted it.

“A double win on this one. Took some talking, but the dryad gave her go-ahead for this plan, and the guildmaster confirmed it would work for that quest of yours too.”

By “that quest of mine,” Tuk was referring to the quest I’d received after finding the ruins of an old church basement with Cal and Hartha. Theoretically, we’d get a bonus if we incorporated the basement into a church of our own, but the quest had been sitting on the back burner for a good while at this point. It’d be nice to finally clear it out from my quest log, not to mention to see what bonus we ended up getting.

“That’s just the appetizer though. It may not be much of a looker, but this is the real beauty.” He yanked the schematics out of my hand, replacing them with a new set in a flash which I dutifully examined once again.

Vassal Spatial Trading Post (Copy, x1)

A trading post for colonies and vassal settlements. When used with a Settlement of higher rank that contains a compatible spatial trading hub, this building unlocks certain instant trading options. Trading post may only be linked to a single trading partner at one time.

Note: These schematics include a Tier II upgrade option - Spatial Trading Post. Tier II upgrade locked until Settlement reaches City status.

The same note about the schematic being a copy was tacked onto the end, and after reading it all, I couldn’t help myself from wincing. I was hardly against trading, but vassalage? What exactly had Tuk signed us up for?

Perhaps expecting just that reaction, the foreman only laughed at my expression.

“Not the best name, but the building is perfect for us. Despite the ‘vassal’ part, it comes with no strings attached and no expectations. It’s a bit limited in what it can do, but if you linked it up to that fancy city of yours, we’d be able to buy basic goods instantly, and with some finagling, we’d be able to sell some of all this wood and obsidian we’re building up. It’s also pretty much the only option that would let a Town like ours actually be able to trade.”

Well that was something. This far out, Emer’Thalis was essentially cut off from the rest of the world. That meant supplying all of its own food and all of its own creature comforts. I liked to think we’d done a pretty decent job of it so far, but if the Settlement was going to be around for much longer, we couldn’t keep relying on the shadows to feed everyone. They were only doing so in the first place as part of their agreement with Ftheran and Drawgin for sending over builders and citizens, but it was sustainable forever.

On top of that, Emin’s arrival helped to remind me just how much money we were sitting on here. I had to imagine that a lot of the fighters were sitting on stockpiles of mana-enriched obsidian at this point, but without any way to use it or anyone to sell it to. That went for all the darkwood at our disposal too.

And maybe we can finally buy more than two types of alcohol. Not that I’d be hitting up the bar any time soon, but still.

“And did you see they threw in the next upgrade too? You ever hit City status, then you’ll be swimming in different options.” He beamed, clearly pleased to show off what he’d managed to finagle out of Guildmaster Laurant.

And frankly, his pride seemed well deserved in this case. Thinking over the schematics we’d gained for essentially no real cost to us, I couldn’t help but feel we’d gotten the better end of the deal.

“Tuk, first off, thank you. You’re wonderful. The ‘vassalage’ part had me a bit freaked out, but I think I’m sold. That being said, how’d you even manage all this? Were two schematics really worth that much?” I mean, I figured the bathhouse was pretty nice, and the bar had to be pretty nice considering Elphaea had been involved, but it wasn’t even like we had a set of schematics for that one.

“Well, you might not ask that if you saw how badly your guildmaster friend wanted the bathhouse schematics, but it’s mostly a question of how Architectural Guilds work. You saw that the plans we have are all copies, right? That’s how guilds like that make most of their money -- all they had to give up was a copy. In return, they got the original schematics from us, which they’ll be able to copy and sell as much as they want.

“Great deal for them if you think about it. What they gave us was worth a lot more than what you could have gotten by selling that schematic, but they’re still going to make a killing off of it if they’re in touch with enough different settlements. Who wouldn’t want a self-filling, self-cleaning, self-heating bath? Especially if you charge for entry, considering you don’t need staff, that’s free money after you build it. Not that I’m saying you should start charging for entry, of course…”

Huh. More than anything, his words helped me realize that I was glad I wasn’t the one handling the ins and outs of negotiations. It wasn’t that I didn’t think I could do a good job if I really put my mind to it -- it was more that it sounded like there was a lot of background information I was missing, and it would have been a painful job for me to endure. Thankfully, when there were people that could literally live decades longer from building things, from dealing with logistics, from negotiating and handling trade, I doubted I’d ever have to delve too deeply into things I wasn’t interested in.

All in all, though, I was looking forward to the trading post’s completion. If for no other reason, it would probably lead to a better variety of food during my stays here.

Sensing I had food on my mind, my stomach grumbled angrily at me, and I realized I’d been working for far longer than I’d planned to. By now, I was confident that my Lead from the Ground ability would have activated, and it thankfully didn’t take too much effort to weasel out of further construction work. After another round of thanks, I left the builders to their jobs and headed back into the forest to fetch Emin for dinner. When I at last made it back to the forest and retraced my steps to Emin’s tent, I called out to him.

“Emin! I’m going to grab some dinner if you’re hungry.” I could always have food brought here instead of having him come along with me, but even as cautious as I wanted to be, full-on house arrest felt a bit mean.

My ears managed to detect some frantic scrabbling from within, and a moment later, Emin poked a particularly frazzled and bleary-looking head out of his tent.

“But… you just left, didn’t you?” Confused, he craned his neck upwards, noting the reduced sunlight filtering through the canopy. Tilting his head back down, he looked to his stomach which made its displeasure known with a loud grumbling. “Oh. Perhaps I got slightly carried away. But listen! Look!” He rushed back into the tent before bursting outside with a handful of various dark-tinged herbs. “This entire place is so fascinating! I mean, I could probably write a full paper just on what I’ve looked at today alone! You see-”

I forcibly restrained myself from rolling my eyes lest he misunderstand my reason for wanting to. Emin was, predictably, being very Emin-like. I ushered him towards the mess hall, encouraging him to walk and talk, and then once we arrived and got some food, to eat and talk. The talking part was non-negotiable, of course, as even had I not been there, I was fairly sure Emin couldn’t stop himself now that he’d begun. Not that I wanted him to -- truthfully, I only understood bits and pieces of what he was saying, but considering Emin’s usual somewhat nervous baseline, it was always nice to see him get so worked up about what he did.

Still, it did make it hard to talk about anything else. Once we’d eaten our fill and started back, I finally managed to slip in a non-plant-related question.

“So? Everything is okay for you here? Nothing I forgot to set you up with, or nothing you need?” Just because I’d sort of imprisoned him in the forest for the next few days didn’t mean I couldn’t be a good host.

Emin shook his head as if suddenly snapping out of his researcher’s fugue state. “Oh, right. Well. I don’t suppose there’s… you know… any bathing here? Not that I’m implying anyone is dirty, of course! I can- I can go a day or two without a shower, but I just thought that maybe I’d ask and-”

I couldn’t help it. I burst out into laughter, both from how flustered the question seemed to make him and from the question itself. It was, after all, the same mistake I’d made so many months ago when Amak had very kindly told me I stank. Noting that Emin looked supremely embarrassed at my laughter, I did my best to reel it all in, giving him a serious answer.

“I made the same mistake once, so don’t worry about it. The gems inside the tent are a shower. Although…”

Ah, what the hell. He’d already seen the mess hall. What was the big harm in showing him one more building?

“Come on. If you’re feeling like you want to clean up, we can make a detour.” Thus said, I started dragging Emin off.

“Welcome to the bathhouse! Probably the nicest building the settlement has to offer.” I gestured broadly to the interior of one of Emer’Thalis’s only two Rare buildings. “Undeniably beats taking a shower.” I quickly showed him where the entrance to the main communal bathing area was, as well as the smaller private bath rooms.

As I was more comfortable getting undressed in the private bathing area and just throwing my clothes in my spatial pouch, I parted ways with him there, tapping on the door to one of the rooms.

“I prefer the private ones, so I’m going to claim this one. There’s a room down the hall where you can get undressed and stash your clothes, and then it’s up to you if you want to do communal or private.” I didn’t recall seeing any bathhouses in Sylum, so I wasn’t sure where he lay on the prude spectrum. Then again, if Verin and her drawings were any indication of people’s attitudes on nudity in Sylum, I imagined he’d be just fine with the public area.

Feeling the warm waters calling my name, I ducked into the room without waiting for a response. In record time, I disrobed and lowered myself into the water, only wearing the various jewelry I tended to never take off. Instantly, I felt the layers of stress soak out of me, and an audible groan escaped my lips.

I let my head completely empty itself, simply luxuriating in the warmth for a few minutes. When at last a thought managed to sneak back into my brain, it was a somewhat strange one.

Didn’t I read something about a breath-holding skill while I was in the library? If I recalled, it had been one of the Constitution based skills. It had struck me as odd, as I remembered you couldn’t get the skill just by holding your breath -- you had to do so in an environment you otherwise wouldn’t be able to breath, like underwater or surrounded by poisonous gas.

Could try it. No harm in trying.

It was almost too much work to even twitch a muscle at this point, but barely I managed to scooch a bit forward, letting my head sink into the bath along with me. It wasn’t overly hard to find the motivation to hold my breath at that point, as breathing would entail me moving enough to lift my head out of the water. Had someone given me gills at that very moment, I might have never moved again.

What was it? Two minutes? I was fairly certain it was one of those skills you had to practice multiple times before you received it, but my room in Sylum only had a shower, so I figured I might as well practice while I could.

Halfway through my self-imposed drowning session, I felt a few subtle vibrations, largely muted by the water encasing me. Mildly curious, after a handful of seconds, I managed to dredge up the energy to lift myself from the bath, cutting my skill training short.

I lazily opened my eyes and upon doing so, froze.

The relaxed, at-ease expression slid off my face, replaced in an instant with one of wide-eyed, speechless panic.

Seeming to register the look on my face, the room’s newest occupant stopped dead in his tracks as well, only to squeak out a few words.

“You- You meant you were claiming a private room… for yourself, didn’t you? It was- It was up to me to do communal or private… for myself.” Emin’s mouth hung agape until finally curling into a small circle, his soul seeming to escape from his lips, fueling a single last syllable.

“Oh.”