The discussion was enlightening, mainly because of Anna's experience with both the old enchantments that were on weapons used by the basic troops and her experience with the new enchantment. Her praise at its ease of use was well received by the old man, especially since she said that some of the men that could use them found the old ones tended to bend or warp after several uses.

The old man gave me a pointed look. “Yes, we've recently discovered that when a proper enchantment is given to a weapon, it shouldn't adversely affect the metal, unlike the normal enchantments.”

“It's the magic overload.” Black said. “If less is used for infusion, the effect is less on the metal, weakening the enchantment and letting the weapon last longer. With the new enchantment technique David showed us, it's the enchantment that gets empowered and not the weapon.”

Anna gave me an appraising look. “I assume you're keeping this knowledge very limited.”

“Only in the fact that I haven't told the Montgomerys the best usage.” I said with a bit of a smirk.

“All right, spill it.” The old man said. “I already owe you for the vial of potion. I might as well owe you for the information, too.”

“It'll help the military, too.” I said and Anna gripped my arm slightly tighter. “If my former XO would like to propose the idea to the right people...”

“All right, now I'll say the same thing.” Anna said. “Spill it.”

I had to chuckle at that. “You don't need to reserve the weapons only for people that can charge them.”

The three Montomerys, Anna, and Nancy gave me blank looks.

“All you need is a half-decent mage, not even a powerful one, assigned to whatever unit you want to give the weapons to. They could charge the swords up for everyone during the minute right before a battle or a skirmish, and the whole unit can get one or two strikes out of them before they become normal swords.”

“How much?” Anna asked and turned her body to look at me as her grip lessened on my arm just enough to not stop her from facing me.

“As long as the unit retreats a short distance or rotates new people in, the mage can charge all the weapons again fairly quickly and keep the whole unit going.” I said.

“No, David. How much to get that potion for the Montgomerys.”

I thought about that for a minute, then smiled. “I want an official commission for my ship.”

Nancy whistled and the Montgomerys were surprised into silence.

“David, that... you can't... you want a military registry for a civilian ship?” Anna asked, just to be sure.

I nodded. “I don't want to be classed as a pirate if weapons are found on board.”

No one missed the implications of that.

“David...” Anna looked like she was almost in pain.

“If my armament idea works, I'll also share it with the military.” I said and she took in a sharp breath. “Why don't you bring a few choice people down to the docks when I pick up my ship.”

Anna sighed. “You're going to do it anyway, aren't you?”

“Frank already has them mounted in the hull and the ship isn't even finished yet.” I said.

Nancy laughed. “All right, we'll get the word to the right people that there's going to be a demonstration that day.”

“Nancy, we shouldn't encourage...” Anna started to say and her friend pat her arm to stop her.

“Like you said, it's going to happen anyway.” Nancy said and looked at me. “I don't suppose you can give us a preview of what you have planned.”

“It won't work until the ship is done on the weekend.” I said with a shrug. “I won't even be able to check it myself until I go there to pick it up and then install the enchantments.”

“What are you putting on it?” Black asked immediately.

“A few things.” I said, a bit cryptically.

“Army skiff basics?” Anna asked and shook her head. “No, I suppose an enchantment that can move a skiff won't work for a full ship.”

I glanced at the old man and he had a knowing smile on his face. “Fire suppression enchantments, creature protection, a weight enchantment, and a few other things that I have to look up to see if they will work.”

“I didn't hear you mention a movement enchantment.” Nancy said and then her eyes widened slightly. “Don't tell me you have a different one!”

I diverted my eyes from hers and didn't say anything in response.

“I knew you handicapped the movement enchantments on purpose.” Black said with a chuckle. “How far would the kracken tubes fire if you didn't handicap them?”

“According to my tests, about three times farther.” I said and they all sucked in sharp breaths.

“Good lord.” Anna whispered. “How? How did you test...”

“This mansion is very well protected.” I said and they all looked shocked. “I'm very well versed in military defensive structures.”

“You didn't just rebuild this place, you made it a fortress.” Anna said with admiration in her voice.

“I did the same at the dorm mansion, only on a lesser scale.” I said. “There's only two hidden kracken tubes and a dozen personnel traps on the surrounding lands.”

“Damn.” Anna said and then chuckled. “If you have that at the academy, I really don't want to know how many you have here.”

“I also have weapon caches stashed in key areas.” I said with a small smile.

Nancy barked a laugh. “Ha! If I wasn't such a stickler for propriety...”

“I should add you to the list, then?” I asked and she looked confused, so I explained about the list of women that were disappointed about my betrothal. She laughed pretty hard and Anna looked amused as she laughed softly. Heather looked a little embarrassed, probably because of the enticement spell she had tried to cast on me.

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The old man looked pleased. “You should add my granddaughter to the list, young man. Believe me, I'll make sure she's thoroughly informed about you when she's older.”

Black chuckled and then sighed. “Grandfather, you're incorrigible.”

“That's why your grandmother married me.” The old man said with a cackle. “She was a spitfire!”

“By the Son's Light, don't get him started on that.” Heather said and took his arm. “Come on, take me over to admire the queen. If you're with me, maybe she won't glower at us standing nearby.”

The old man laughed and took her away.

“I better go, too.” Black said. “I'll remind them about the king's new sword to give them an excuse to talk to her without the old man embarrassing my wife.”

“If you stick around after this, I'll mix up a batch of enchanting potion for you.”

“A batch of...” Black stopped talking for a moment as he realized what I said. “A crate. You're going to give us a crate of 36 vials.”

“If you keep being stingy with it, that's 1,800 swords you can make and enchant for the military.”

“Sweet merciful god.” Black whispered and he just kind of wandered off without saying anything else.

Anna and Nancy watched him for a few moments, only to see the stunned man lean against the wall with a blank look on his face. He had completely forgotten to go with his wife to remind her about the king's sword.

“What just happened?” Nancy asked.

“He's counting how much money his family is going to make over the next month or so.” I said.

“Thank you, David. I really appreciate this.” Anna said as she turned back to face me again. “I'll do what I can to get you that commission to carry weapons.”

“Thank you.” I said. “Are they keeping you at the training base as the XO?”

“Yes, and still no promotion.” Nancy sighed. “She's still the 'acting' CO, however.”

“I'm already doing the job, why would they promote me?” Anna asked with a chuckle. “Free labour is free labour.”

“I hope you're using your status to benefit yourself as much as you can.” I said and she gave me a look.

“David, I'm trying to help the army, not undermine it.” Anna said.

“You can still use your position as the acting CO to make sweeping changes to the unspoken policies of the military.” I said and she looked thoughtful. “If the people in command are abusing your work ethic for the good of the army, it's only fair that you do the same to make everyone's treatment better.”

Nancy stepped close and nodded to me. “I'm glad someone else has a clear head on their shoulders.”

“Nancy, please.” Anna said with a sigh. “Now's not the time for a crusade.”

“All crusades start somewhere.” Nancy said with a grin.

“I better get her out of here before she commits me to any actions that I won't be proud of in the morning.” Anna said, which made Nancy laugh.

“Thank you both for coming.” I said and lifted Anna's hand to kiss the back of it. I made it tingle for her and she shook her head. I took Nancy's hand and gave it a kiss as well, then made her gasp as I silently used the cooling charm for a second and then the heating charm for a second on her hand. The quick temperature change caused it to tingle, almost as if she had felt pure magic instead.

“How did you do that?” Nancy asked as she rubbed her hand to try and get the tingling to stop.

“I just simulated winter and summer on your hand to make the skin tingle.” I said with a smile and put a few drops of healing potion on the back of her hand to rub it into the skin, then caressed it all over with both of my hands.

Nancy let out a satisfied sigh as the feelings faded.

“How did you know how to get that kind of a reaction?” Anna asked.

“I just recreated something I'd do back in the marsh during winter. When I go outside to work in the cold to get firewood, I'd have to almost stick my hands into the fireplace to warm them up again when I was done.”

“Now I don't feel disappointed at your attempt to make me feel it.” Nancy said, in reference to my lack of attempt previously. “It was nice to see you again, Lord Drake.”

“Aren't you staying here for the week like some of the others?” I asked.

“We've made arrangements at the nearby army barracks.” Anna said and let my arm go to shake my hand. “We'll see you again on the weekend.”

“All right. I'll see you both then.” I said and the two women walked away. I could swear I saw Nancy's hips sway a lot more than I had previously.

“I'd tell you to stop staring, only I know you're not staring like other people do.” Gillis said with a grin.

I turned to her and accepted a hug. “I'm sure she did that for my benefit, so I had to look.”

“Okay, maybe you are staring like other people do.” Gillis said with a laugh. “I'm glad Helen trusts you so much.”

“Says the woman I bathed with for almost three months.” I responded and she let out a snort.

“That was the best three months of my life. By the end, I was so relaxed around you that I had no problem with being naked or seeing you naked.” Gillis said, wistfully. “It was an amazing experience.”

“Was it because I was nearly completely ignorant of your womanly wiles or that I never had an erection from seeing your perky breasts every single day?” I asked blatantly and she laughed pretty hard.

“B-both!” Gillis said and had to use a napkin to dab at her eyes to stop the tears. “Oh, oh, that's funny.”

“I'm glad my flaccid state amused you.” I said and she kept laughing. “Do you want to sit down?”

“Please.” Gillis said and took my arm and I brought her over to another couch. “A drink, please.”

I nodded and went to get two of them, since my own wine glass was long empty. I handed her a glass and sat down next to her. “How have you been?”

“I've been all right.” Gillis said. “My father's forgiven me for my foolishness already.”

I had to laugh at that. “He wouldn't let you stay as Sandra's aide.”

“No, the bastard.” Gillis said with a huge smile. “He wants me to stay in the capital for a while.”

“A while?” I asked, hearing the firmness in her voice.

“He said that after my last little foray into the wilderness as a pawn of the army, I'm grounded until I'm fifty.” Gillis said with a haughty air, then she laughed and leaned against my shoulder to rest her head on it. “I agreed, of course. I love him.” She let out a sigh. “He accepted my decision to join the army, foolish as it was, and let me try to find another way to live my life. I never expected that he was right and that I was wasting my time.”

“He wasn't.” I said and she lifted her head to look at me. “If you hadn't tried to do things your own way, you never would have accepted the way things were at home. You would have been resentful and probably angry at him for holding you back.”

Gillis blinked her eyes for several seconds. “I... well...”

“Instead, he let you make your choices, let you realize that you made a mistake, then helped you get out of the army.” I said and she put her head back on my shoulder. “By the way, you didn't waste your time.”

“If I only look at my time in the army, it was a waste.” Gillis said and held a hand up.

“You're forgetting what I said during the opening toast.” I took the hand and held it tenderly. “If it wasn't for you being there during basic training, I would have had a very different experience.”

“Will the Drill Sergeant was such a jerk.” Gillis said. “He wouldn't stop picking on you.”

“He was apparently upset that he couldn't break me.” I said.

Gillis let out a little laugh. “Boy, were his expectations too high! You were swallowed by a goddamn dragon and it still didn't break you!”

I chuckled. “It would take a lot more than that to make me give up.”

“I know.” Gillis said and let out a long and drawn out sigh. “Well, I've taken up a lot of your time. You need to go visit a few more people before going back to your wife.”

“You're not moving or letting my hand go.” I commented and she laughed softly. I glanced around and saw the people around us were having polite conversation and seemed to be fully engaged. “It looks like I have a few minutes more to spare if you want to just sit here.”

“Thank you.” Gillis said in a whisper.