Once the Pioneer Three was moored, the mages inside began to disembark, carrying heavy wooden boxes with them, which soon started piling up on the harbor.

The boxes were black, completely sealed and with a faint mist emanating from them, even under the pressure of the sigils and seals covering their surface, which made their contents obvious. Those boxes carried Permafrost’s ice.

Yes, Velvet was right, most of the stuff brought from Permafrost was ice, but that was because ALL Permafrost was ice. What else could they bring? It didn’t take a genius to deduce that!

Was Tristan’s opinion.

To add information, Permafrost ice couldn’t be stored inside magic containers, in fact, it couldn’t be stored at all until several years ago, when they finally discovered a sealing formation that worked.

They as he, since those boxes were discovered, invented and made by Hasdrubal, who was the first mage to receive a box.

The reason was that, not only did the ice never melt under normal means, but it also kept expanding if left unchecked. Which was one of the reasons for most official mages to be present. Every mage that investigated the ice could only take a single box, which meant a lot of moving, and, if an accident occurred with the boxes, having most mages capable of dealing with it in the same place was a blessing, since all the ice had to be destroyed by magic to stop it from expanding.

Also, when the boxes were taken by the mages to a different place, each mage got assigned a group to supervise and help if something happened during transport.

Tristan wasn’t one of the researcher mages, but those were only a single type of member.

Another mage walked down the ship, looking around. Her clothes were those one would expect of a ship captain, with a long blue jacket made of leather, same as her hat, which had a white feather on it. Boots that reached up her knees, with white pants.

Her hair was long, dark brow, tied up at the neck, and her eyes were blue, marking her origins as Charlampian.

That woman was Fermidia Sarcos, captain of the Pioneer Three.

Fermidia walked down, towards a group of noble mages, exchanging pleasantries. She did the same with several others, making sure to speak in order of most influential to less, lest any family could complain.

When she was done, and almost half an hour had passed, Fermidia finally turned around, walking towards Tristan and Ceres.

“Saving the best for last.” Ceres said, grinning when Fermidia frowned at him.

“Don’t say that, if they hear it I will have problems later.” She said, taking a rolled up paper from her jacket and giving it to Tristan. “The list of artifacts that got broken and need replacement.”

Tristan unrolled the paper, looking at the names and numbers. “That’s a lot…” She wasn’t going to make them all, since there were more artificers on the Mergifari asides from her, but she got to pick the ones to make, at least.

“We had to replace everything on the Agrana Base, so we need to refill the next batch of replacements.” Fermidia explained.

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“How much time?”

“Three days until the Pioneer leaves again, but I will stay for a month. Thereus Tarius’ crew will replace mine during then.” Traveling close to Permafrost took a toll on any mage’s mind, so they circled between months to recover.

“Hmm…” Tristan looked back at the list. She had already made and stored some of the artifacts on the list, exactly for this moment. She would pick the ones that matched, get paid, and work on whatever she wanted.

That was what most artificers did, truth be told. She simply got to call dibs first. “Oh, by the way,” She started, “Ceres got a selected.” Even when she wasn’t very expressive, a faint grin grew on Tristan’s face at being the one giving the notice.

Fermidia’s mouth and eyes opened in surprise. “No way! Is the world ending?”

“That’s not something one of the big faces of the Permafrost thing should be saying.” Ceres intervened. For some reason, Udulluay had been sneakily moving towards them, and was now on Ceres’ arm, which was resting on the railings.

Ignoring that comment, just like Ceres was ignoring Udulluay, Fermidia continued, intrigued. “And who was The One who managed to convince you?”

“Guess.” Ceres said.

Fermidia turned to Tristan, to which she said. “Don’t look at me, it’s not my place to answer that.”

But you were the one who started it… Clearly being mocked by both of them teaming up, she sighed. “Oh, right, there’s something for you this time.”

Ceres looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “I hope so, with so many mages demanding my presence.”

“Well, you should be here even without that, to welcome me.”

“I can welcome you at the bar.”

“I will be busy. This month is not a vacation.” She then grimaced. “The Mergifari doesn’t even have a bar.”

Ceres didn’t answer that. “Anyway, when is that present for me coming out?”

“Oh, you know I’m…” Fermidia imitated his voice. “Saving the best for last.”

…

Ethra looked around expressionless, his mother, Adeline Graham next to him. Every now and then, some mage approached them, exchanged pleasantries and some small conversation with her mother (Ethra added comments every now and then, when he felt it was needed), before moving to another group.

That act worked until a member of one of the family's subsidiaries to the Graham’s arrived, looking at Ethra up and down. At first Ethra didn’t remember his identity, but that was before the mage opened his mouth. “It’s truly a shame what happened. Cornelius had so much potential…”

Oh, it's that asshole Leur. One of the Leur, since Leur was a family name, not an individual one, but Ethra had forgotten which one.

“Indeed.” Adeline said. “Rest assured, that his murder will be repaid.”

Leur gave a slight nod. “I hope so, the Roppertis keep getting bolder with each passing day, and that… Siberiald… has no control over the “children” he keeps popping out.”

It’s not that simple, you imbecile. Ethra groaned in his head. The Charlampian families are weaker than ever, and you want to provoke an inside war? No wonder you only take orders, not give them.

“I am aware.” His mother said. “And I will have measures in place.”

“Good.” Then, Leur got closer. “I have information that the Roppertis have started building connections with Mirel’s Inquisitors.”

“What?” Escaped from Ethra’s lips, before he managed to stop it. It wasn’t a surprised sound, but an annoyed one. As annoyed as a Graham could sound, which wasn’t much, really.

“It’s not that strange. A family that deals with killing mages and the group that pursues their annihilation. The mutual interests are already on the table, it was only a matter of time. Maybe Mirel even plans to invade Charlampia.”

You made up the last part just to push your agenda. Ethra realized, not considering Luer a very smart mage.

“Those kind of accusations should be brought to the Mergifari’s High Command, not to me.” Adeline said, also realizing Luer’s intentions and putting a stop to them.

Of course, it wasn’t all his fault, but the Graham’s Paradigm's own effects that made his mind unstable.

The Pride Paradigm not only served to give orders and bend metal, but also to make lesser mages ‘revere’ them. As a family’s head, Adeline possessed at least two opened Esca's, which made weaker mages instinctively lower their heads, trying to please them.

It also made people very prone to babble when trying to cheat them.

One feared the consequences of lying to their ruler, after all.

The sudden string of orders and shouts back at the Pioneer gave Luer the perfect reason to change conversation. “Finally it's coming out…”

Ethra didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of asking what that thing was, and Adeline was a patient woman, crossing her hands behind her back and waiting.

From the ship, a completely covered thing was being taken out, around three meters in size. The cloth covering it was fixed by ropes wrapped tightly, showing a humanoid silhouette on top of an altar.

Ignoring the two Graham's prideful reactions, Luer continued, even when a slight sweat covered his neck. “I think you two are already aware, but…”

“We found a statue of an unknown deity.”