Chapter 69: Thrust 6

Elania and Yolani followed the servant into the Purple Tower, ascending to the second floor.

As they entered a spacious room, Arlois, Lyra, Elysia, and Ember were already seated on their own couches. All eyes turned toward Elania and Yolani as they moved to the remaining empty one and sat together.

Lyra’s sharp voice cut through the air. “This is a Tower meeting,” she said, glaring at Elania and Yolani. “Do they have to be here?”

Arlois replied calmly, “It’s a Tower meeting, but we can choose who is present.”

Lyra’s irritation grew. “We don’t even bring our own oracles, so why is Elania’s an exception?”

Ember spoke up. “Yolani’s insights and assistance have been vital to the current efforts. She has her own important contributions to add, perhaps more significant than your own, Lyra.”

The Blue Tower’s face reddened, but she remained silent.

Elysia cleared her throat and scanned the room. “Now that we are all here, perhaps we can discuss something relevant instead of wasting time.”

Arlois nodded in agreement. “I’ll begin.”

She reported on the damage from the munition depot explosion, noting that repairs were complete with minimal casualties. “I want to thank Ember and Elania for their assistance in the reconstruction efforts,” she said, acknowledging their contributions with a nod.

Elania and Ember returned the gesture.

Arlois continued. “Our current ammunition stores have not been too severely affected. If we are attacked now, it might hinder our ability to withstand a protracted siege.” She paused, her eyes meeting Ember’s. “But that should be mitigated in the next few days, thanks to increased production.”

Ember grinned. “I’ve doubled the City Works’ output so far,” she announced. “Almost every person in the city with the [Artifice] skill has been employed. The first limiting factor is how fast I can develop new talent with the right abilities.”

Ember’s expression turned serious. “I’ve shifted production from weapons to ammunition, but raw materials limit how much of either can be produced.”

She looked to each of the other leaders. “There aren’t enough mana shards or crystals to speed up production further, at least not without better methods of synthetically creating them.”

“We cannot draw on the Celestial Engine. It would risk destabilizing the city’s flight,” Arlois said.

Ember nodded. “I wouldn’t suggest that, but there might be a solution.” Her gaze shifted to Elania.

She swallowed. Despite knowing it was coming, she felt put on the spot, all eyes in the room focusing on her.

Elania took a breath and spoke. “We found that the crystalline metal powder I recovered from the surface made an excellent catalyst for synthetic mana shard production.” She glanced at Yolani, who nodded more enthusiastically. “It should double the rate Ember’s artifice forges can produce them.”

Despite the support, Elania couldn’t shake the feeling of being a fraud.

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It was Yolani who had figured out the potential of the crystalline powder, not her. Her presence at the meeting started to feel like… padding. She didn’t really have anything of her own to contribute.

Arlois seemed satisfied, though. “Elysia?”

“The current flow of resources into the city has slowed to a crawl due to the constant modifications to our airship fleet,” Elysia stated. “Several foreign ships have been picking up the slack at the cost of currency, but it’s not nearly enough to satisfy the deficit.”

The city’s resource situation seemed precarious, and Elania wondered how they would address the issue.

“That being said, the current reserves in stock are high despite slowly going down,” Elysia continued. “I suggest we speed up several of the shipyard projects and utilize them as bulk carriers.”

Ember leaned back and narrowed her eyes. “That would require modifying their designs and would mean outfitting them into warships would incur significant costs.”

Elysia nodded. “But efficiency would be improved if we had specialized ships.”

Arlois looked around the room. “We’ll modify the under-construction shipping.”

Elania watched as the other leaders nodded in agreement, their expressions satisfied. She glanced at Yolani, who offered a small smile of encouragement.

Elania glanced between the Towers. It was hard to believe how casually and without friction they were figuring things out; they were too well-oiled and comfortable with the dynamic. It almost felt like their council chamber meetings were an elaborate dance or play.

Actually, maybe that was exactly what it all was.

Elania bit her lip. They had been doing this together for a long, long time.

Her eyes fell on Lyra, who was always the most abrasive. Even she was avoiding throwing wrenches into Arlois’ plans—at least not breaking them, anyway.

Lyra waved a hand as she spoke. “The current food supplies are in surplus, and we’ve stockpiled nearly a year’s worth, including several stasis cellars of meat and fresh vegetables and multiple internal silos of grains.” She paused, her expression turning slightly more serious. “The medical supplies are more strained.”

Lyra glanced at Elania. “The Neftasu mushroohum supplies have been helping and are a new source of extremely valuable potions.”

There was a moment of silence before Arlois looked at Elania. “You should complete your [Regalia] bonding,” she said.

Elania blinked at the sudden change in topic.

Elysia and Ember nodded in agreement.

Lyra’s voice cut through the air. “Until she does, she’ll be useless in an actual fight defending the city.”

There was a lull in the conversation, and then everyone slowly turned their gaze to Yolani, as it was finally her turn to speak.

“Yolani, I heard you have something important to share with everyone,” Arlois said.

Elania watched as Yolani stood up, pulling a board from her bag. With a smile on her face, she held it up for everyone to see.

“This is a receiver,” Yolani explained, her voice filled with excitement. “It can display certain information, including heat and [Power] density over a wide area.”

Elania recognized the function. It was the detection device from Hels! Yolani had got it to work already?

Yolani glanced at Ember before continuing, “With Ember’s help in managing the arcane sensor, it can detect things in real time and also be used to show historical data.”

Ember nodded. “While the sensor requires a considerable effort on the part of a mage or someone with the correct skill set in arcane magic, it isn’t something that a small group can’t handle, and I have already put them in place.”

Elania smiled as Yolani continued the presentation. Maybe her trip to Hels wasn’t entirely a waste after all.

Elysia leaned forward, her green eyes focused on Yolani. “What have you found on the detector so far?” she asked.

Yolani placed the receiver on a table in the middle of the room, then carefully set a small stand with a crystal top over it. As she did, a projection of blue lights appeared on the ceiling, casting a soft glow over everyone.

With a flick of her wand, Yolani highlighted specific areas on the projection. The blue lights shifted, transforming into various hues and gradients of red, orange, green, and blue.

“The blue represents null areas, with little [Power],” Yolani explained. “Red indicates high concentrations.”

She pointed to a massive red area on the projection. “This is Contia,” she said, her finger tracing the outline of the city. Elania nodded, recognizing the shape of multiple islands.

Yolani’s wand moved to several red spots moving nearby. “These are airships,” she explained, her eyes scanning the projection. In the distance, she pointed to drifting yellow spots. “Due to the distance, the pickup isn’t as strong, but we believe these are Lightbringer airships near the border.”

Arlois stood up, her eyes wide with interest as she studied the map. “This is excellent,” she said. “We will know when the enemy arrives.”