I stop talking to Bella long enough to enchant Nala's tattoo so that she can go join Albion. By the time I am done, Lin has joined us and Bella has caught her up on our conversation. Lin seems happy that Bella isn't leaving just yet, but that isn't surprising.

Lin doesn't seem to have much confidence in her tattooing skills just yet. Having Bella around means that she has someone to ask for help if she runs into a problem. When Nala's tattoo is enchanted, she leaves and I go back to telling Bella about the elves.

That includes telling her how I rescued most of them and from what kind of circumstances. It is important for her to understand since she is human and some of the elves might react to her. Of course, it is understandable if they do, trauma isn't logical.

While I am telling Bella about the elves, I contact Athena and ask her to send Brightfire to me. I plan to explain the tattoos to Brightfire and then have her find out how many elves want them. Or maybe I will let her get them first so she can show others how useful they are.

When Brightfire shows up, I let Bella and Lin explain the tattoos and show theirs off. Unfortunately, that includes the wings which Brightfire wants as soon as she sees them. Before I can say anything, Brightfire has already stripped her top off to be tattooed.

Lin reacts quickly and covers Brightfire's front with a towel, but not before I see everything. Of course, I am not going to say anything, I am not that stupid, most of the time. We then relocate down to the workshop and Brightfire is tasked with picking her tattoos.

She picks a forest design for the ability tattoos and chooses the angel wings. As Bella starts working I grab some materials and start making a second tattoo gun. Bella is continuing to teach Lin as she works and after a bit they switch positions.

"Brightfire, how many of the elves do you think will want the tattoos?"

Brightfire says "Probably most of them. They are just too useful and they look good too. Especially the wings, I mean who doesn't want to fly?"

"I wasn't actually planning to give everyone the wings, but I guess we can."

Bella says "How many elves are there?"

"Several hundred?"

Brightfire says "Over a thousand."

Bella says "That's a lot of tattoos!"

Lin says "How do you not know how many elves there are, Ash? You saved most of them!"

"I wasn't trying to keep track. I was just focused on saving as many as I could. Oh crap, I forgot to ask Emperor Amn if he had found any more elves!"

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Lin says "Oh, I didn't think of it either! We will just have to go visit again and ask."

"We are further away, that means that it is going to take even more mana."

Lin says "Do we need to set up another relay point?"

"Yes, but the problem is that it would need to be in the demon's territory."

Lin says "Can't you just put it under the ocean?"

"I suppose that could work, as long as I shield it from detection. Alright, I will give it a try. Go ahead and have lunch without me."

Lin says "Wait. You need to teach me the enchantments for the tattoos before you go."

I obediently teach Lin how to enchant both the boost tattoo and the wings. Then I grab some materials from my stockpile, exit the castle, and jump into the water. Once I am in the water, I shapeshift into my meg form and start swimming down.

It doesn't take me too long to reach the bottom, the ocean here isn't all that deep. Now that I am here, I create a bubble of air around me and drop shapeshift. I have to dig my way through several feet of sand, but once I do I reach the rock I am looking for.

Using my mana, I start shaping the rock and create a tunnel down about ten feet. Then I create a small room, just big enough for a gate platform. Taking the materials that I brought with me out of my pouch I start making the platform.

Once it is made and enchanted, I place it in the center of the room and start working on the walls. I reinforce them and then carve several formations into them. These formations should hide the room from any kind of detection spells.

When the formations are done, I back out of the room reshaping the stone as I go. I completely close off the tunnel, leaving the room totally isolated. As long as something doesn't accidentally tunnel into it, the room should be perfectly safe.

In fact, I am not sure if I will even be able to find it again once I leave the area. Not that I would need to since it is only meant to be a relay point, not a destination. If for some reason I did need to, I can just gate back, I just need to be wary of the lack of air.

With my mission complete, I head for the surface and then fly after the ship. However, before I land on the ship I swing by the platform to check on how the crystals are doing. I know they won't be full yet, in fact they aren't even half full currently.

Mainly, I am just checking to make sure that they are all collecting mana properly. Which they are, so I fly down and land on the balcony, but I find my cabin isn't empty. Lin and Bella are there and they are currently tattooing Silverleaf.

Lin says "Welcome back, my love. Did you have any problems?"

"Nope. Everything went smoothly."

Silverleaf says "Really? That's not like you!"

"Hush you."

Lin says "Don't listen to him, but please stay still."

Silverleaf says "Sorry."

"It's the middle of the night, I'm surprised to see you doing tattoos already."

Lin says "It's not the middle of the night to us and she saw Brightfire testing out her wings."

"Oh, that makes sense. Where is Brightfire?"

Bella says "Still flying around."

"Really? I didn't see her when I flew in. I hope she didn't get lost."

*Thud*

Brightfire says "To avoid that, I flew ahead of the ship. I flew all the way to the island, then came back."

"That was dangerous. There are bound to be at least a couple of demons on the island and some of them can fly."

Brightfire says "I didn't fly to the island, just to where I could see it. Is there a plan for when we reach the island?"

"Considering the situation, I am expecting us to have to fight."

Brightfire says "Alright. Do we have a way to tell who is an enemy? Or are we just going to kill everyone?"

"Well, I would prefer to spare anyone who isn't under the demon's control. I will see about whipping something up to allow your warriors to see who is on the demon's side."