“If there’s nothing else then I will return to my room to craft our gift to Mayoress Tine. Call me when Grego and Lars get here.” Regis noted before turning toward the stairs.

The spell weaver left the somewhat flabbergasted steward and the surprised merchant woman behind, slight murmurs filling the air behind him as he walked away. Once back in his room, he retrieved some of his bronze scraps from the chest in front of his bed. He then spent some time creating a thumb-sized hollow arcana crystal along with a cherry-sized light stone. When he had the necessary materials ready, he formed a ward depicting the transmutation circle responsible for item creation and placed the two crystals and the bronze scrap inside it.

He imagined a pleasant-looking wand which had the hollow arcana stone inside its handle like a battery while the light crystal was fastened to the tip of the wand. The result of the transmutation process looked quite decent, but it was only the first half of the job. Regis pulled out his ‘endless’ tome and turned its pages to the one that described the runic diagram necessary for a magic wand. After studying it a bit, he decided to meditate for a few minutes before he created a pea-sized arcanite stone to use as fuel for the enchantment.

The spell weaver then began to infuse the wand with the runes shown by the books before he added a link rune to connect it with the ‘copyright’ rune to mask the diagram in its entirety. As the last step, he cast minor healing while still infusing the runes. As he did so, a phenomenon occurred that was similar to the one during his elemental stone creation. The magic spell got syphoned away by the wand as tiny lines appeared near the tip of the wand just beneath the crystal. Not knowing whether he was successful or not, Regis cast ‘charlatan’s wisdom’ on the wand, a reassuring description appearing above it,

{Wand of minor healing}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Healing done: 15}

{Arcana charges: 0/50}

“Not bad,” he said while charging the wand. “Not bad at all.”

The dark elf drew his iron dagger and unceremoniously cut his left thumb before pointing the wand at it. A warm golden light shone on the wound from the crystal tip of the wand and the cut stitched itself together in a few seconds, leaving no scar behind. Since no one had come up to call him yet, he decided to spend his remaining free time continuing with his magic crystal lamp projects. He just finished enchanting his second lantern when somebody knocked on his door.

“Milord,” he heard Nina’s voice from the other side of the door. “Grego and Lars have arrived.”

“Right on cue,” the spell weaver sighed as he left the lantern on his table and headed over to the door. “You know, there’s no need to be so formal when we’re alone. You can just call me Regis like everyone else.”

“I... I wouldn’t dare.” The woman answered immediately.

“Nina,” the spell weaver sighed as they walked toward the stairs. “I’m not a highborn. It’s alright to keep up with the formal stuff when there are others around but to be honest, it’s bloody irritating that everyone keeps calling me ‘milord’ and ‘sir’ all the time.”

He heard a slight chuckle as the young woman couldn’t stop herself from laughing for a moment.

“It can’t be that bad,” she remarked. “Most noblemen I’ve met before enjoyed the attention.”

“At first people didn’t want to talk to me because I’m a dark elf and now they barely dare to talk to me because I’m a nobleman. Out of the frying pan and into the fire I guess.”

“Morning lad.” Grego nodded as the spell weaver and Nina reached the main floor.

“Good morning, milord!” The man beside Grego greeted him with a slight bow, earning an eye twitch from Regis and a knowing smile from the woman as she noticed the spell weaver’s reaction.

“Morning,” he responded after a second. “We have a lot to do so let’s not waste time on formalities. I was told that you petitioned for a larger house, Lars. One that has space for a workshop.”

“Yes sir,” the mason nodded fervently. “The houses around the village are quaint, but they weren’t meant for craftsmen. I need a place where I can work in peace.”

“And we also need a couple of other buildings as well,” Regis sighed. “Building materials are one thing, but do we have the men power for it?”

“We should have,” the mason hummed. “I am good at designing buildings, but I’m also well taught in building techniques as well and I don’t shy away from work. There are also a couple of strong lads in the village who are yet to find work for themselves so they volunteered to help out. I was also told that you can raise walls through magic.”

“I am, at least when it comes to ground-level buildings. You would have to take over from there on.”

“It would still be of immense help.”

“Well,” Grego spoke up. “We won’t get anything done by standing around. Should we get going?”

“Might as well.” Regis nodded as the group left the inn.

“So where exactly did you plan to build the barracks?” Lars asked as they walked.

“On the other side of the river,” the dark elf stated. “I don’t know if you’ve had a look at it yet, but I already began to reshape the riverbed into a proper canal. The plan is to expand the village on both sides.”

“I see,” the mason nodded. “That would indeed give us plenty of space to work with.”

“I noticed yesterday that there is a fallen tree arching across the river.” Tristan mentioned as they reached the other end of the square.

“Good morning everyone,” Quentin greeted them as he joined the group for a moment. “Where are you heading?”

“We’re going to pick a spot for the new barracks on the other side of the river.”

“You should be careful when crossing the tree. It’s a bit slippery.”

“Thanks for the warning. What about you?”

“I’ll check up on the people on the farms then I’ll help Valerie check around the village.”

“Alright. By the way; could you pass these around for the team?” Regis handed over the handful of enchanted earpieces.

“Hearing aids?” The paladin looked at him confused.

“Far-callers,” the spell weaver remarked. “They’re enchanted with a ‘well-made’ quality communication enchantment. This way we can reach each other any time while in range.”

“That’s good,” Quentin nodded. “This should save us a lot of trouble.”

“That was the plan.” Regis agreed as the group headed out once again.

While they were walking, Grego and Lars kept bantering about what each of them thought to be the most important thing for a proper barracks. Tristan was oddly silent while Regis just enjoyed the morning air. As they reached the fallen tree, the dark elf had to admit that it was quite an impressive sight. The tree was wide enough that it would have needed at least three people to encircle it. Its crown and roots have been mostly chopped off and its top side got somewhat flattened through rough axe work.

“I guess it should do it for now,” Regis said while walking across the makeshift bridge. “But we’ll have to build a proper bridge later.”

“Agreed,” Lars hummed. “This thing will be quite annoying once we have to drag materials along for the work.”

“The ground is just as hard here as it was on the other side,” Grego said as he stomped his foot. “It should hold nicely.”

“There will be plenty of space once we clear the land,” the mason added. “But we will have to spend a lot of time on the road work. Building out the full section of streets will take... ages.”

As Lars was trying to speak his mind, he noticed the dark elf pointing his opened left palm towards the ground which began to shift and turn in a wide area. The small pebbles and roots sank into the hard soil that took up a tight cobblestone-like pattern before hardening into stone. In barely fifteen seconds, a nearly two square meter sized road piece was created in front of their eyes.

“Or we could just do this.” Regis said with a proud smirk on his face as he headed forward after shamelessly flexing his earth magic skills.

“How much of that are you are you able to create, milord?” Lars followed him with renewed excitement with the other two in tow.

“I managed to re-pave the village’s original paths in a few hours, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to create the proper infrastructure here as well once we have the paths marked out. The real time killer is building the wall around the settlement. That could take weeks if the others don’t help out.”

“Excellent,” Tristan spoke up. “Your road-creating magic should save us a lot on construction work.”

His statement earned him a rueful look from the mason while Grego and the spell weaver stopped.

“This spot should be as good as any other,” the guard captain remarked. “So how big do you reckon the barracks should be?”

“How many guards do we have right now?”

“I brought all of my people with me and you have that dwarf and his wife who already told me that they wanted to join, so... twelve.”

“Twelve people? That’s all?” Regis asked surprised before realising that he had no idea how many people they had currently.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to recruit more along the line.” Grego tried to reassure him, but the spell caster's attention turned toward Tristan at this point.

“Tristan, how many people are in Thornfell?”

“Including everyone? Sixty-two.”

“That’s quite a bit more than what we originally planned to house in the short term. How are our food supplies holding up?”

“At the current rate, it should be enough for a little over two and a half weeks. From what I was told, your fellow outlanders have been spending a couple of hours on the farms these past few days, trying to speed up the growth of the new batch of crops. Harold claims that it should be ready for harvest in less than a week and the yield should be substantial.”

“That’s great news,” the spell weaver sighed relieved. “Finding a stable food supply from an outside source would be quite difficult right now.”

“About the barracks,” Lars dragged back the conversation to its original direction. “I believe it’s best if we plan for a garrison of fifty people at least. That should leave us with enough space for future recruits. The barracks should be at least two floors high with the base sitting at an area of fifty metres by twenty metres. How high can you raise your magic walls, milord?”

“A bit over two and a half metres, but I can re-cast the spell on the same wall to raise it higher.”

“In that case, I suggest we’ll leave that main floor at a height of three metres. That should leave us with enough space bellow the beams meant for the next floor.”

As he said that, the mason pulled out a couple of small wooden stakes and a ball of yarn from his satchel. He soon measured down and marked the area meant for the barracks before returning to the others.

“That should be it for now. I will draw up a floor now plan and some other details and bring them over to you this evening sir. Once you approve, we can start building the next morning.”

“Alright,” the dark elf agreed. “I’ll fix up a road and bridge tomorrow as well to make it easier for you and the workers.”

“We should head back sir,” Tristan cut into their conversation. “Miss Irene and Nina are likely already waiting for you at the gateway.”

“Ah, yes.” Regis sighed as he remembered his promised trip to East Fork.

“It sounds like you’re going to have a busy day again.” Grego noted while walking.

“Aren’t they all?”

“I guess.”

An uneasy feeling took hold of the dark elf as he crossed the makeshift bridge, his mind hopping back and forth between the tasks he would have to juggle and his long overdue training practice sessions. ‘When was the last time I had the time to train my staff skills?’ He asked inwardly as they entered the village, but he was disturbed yet again by Lars.

“I take it you will build the wall around the settlement yourself as well?”

“That was the plan.” Regis grumbled as he remembered the all too time-consuming task he imposed on himself.

“And what else are you planning to build in Thornfell, milord? The other side of the river has plenty of space to expand on and I was shown around outside the current walls. From what I’ve seen you plan to extend this side as well.”

“Apart from the barracks, we need a chapel and a couple of general buildings such as a bakery or the trade centre for Nina.”

“And we must not forget about your manor either.” Tristan added.

“It’s also highly suggested to have an artisans district in larger settlements so that the crafts-folk wouldn’t disturb others.” Lards remarked.

“That would only be needed in an ordinary settlement, not one with an enchanter as its lord. I’m sure sir Regis knows how to craft a ‘silencing’ enchantment that would prevent a smithy or a carpenter’s workshop from being too loud.”

“There was a basic noise-dampening enchantment in one of the books,” the spell weaver hummed absent-mindedly. “But I’m yet to test it out on an actual building. I guess it's just one more thing to add to the list.”

“Good morning, milord!” Irene greeted from beside the gateway as the four men reached the small market square.

“Morning.” He responded, noticing the two children still hiding behind their mother’s skirt.

“Looks like you’re ready to leave,” Tristan stepped closer to the woman. “Have you received the supplies lord Regis issued for you?”

“Yes,” the woman nodded with a slight smile. “Thank you for your generosity, sir.”

“There’s no need to thank me. While East Fork is now relatively stable, everything would still take some time to get back to how it was. It’s better to be prepared. Just give me a minute to retrieve some items from my room and we can go.”

With that, the dark elf headed back to the inn where he gave a slight nod to Fabien before going back to his room. Once there, he filled his satchel with the magic scrolls he crafted earlier along with the wand of minor healing and the book about golemancy. As he went down, he found Letty waiting for him at the entrance of the inn.