We docked at Camelot and had to anchor. There were 4 ships and another anchored. When I got on shore I learned Camelot had become a neutral trading port. The mayor had grown the town to just under 1000 in the 5 months I had been gone and he had 120 soldiers and constables for keeping the peace. Construction was everywhere. I knew this wouldn’t last. Once the English or Spanish decided it was too much of an asset to let go. As we unloaded and sent a caravan of goods to Avalon. I sent 4 of the 6 golems with them. I stayed in the city and watched for a few days. Everyone seemed to be behaving and colonists were moving to the city because of the low taxes and freedom from the crown. I saw a handful of English soldiers exploring the town. A storm was coming in so I left with a caravan of my goods and freed slaves. There were scattered farms all along the road. Most were clearing land in the cold weather. I needed to set up laws for land occupation soon. I wanted the native americans to not be displaced like they were in my timeline. Pendragon was also developing. I needed to get a mayor and city planner installed as I didn’t want it to be half-hazard developed. I also wanted a city on the other side of the Appalachians where Knoxville used to be.

Avalon looked marvelous. Amelia met me and I had to go straight to the clinic to cure 23 people of disease. She said we were over 500 residents before the new additions. We had a treaty with the Indians to build 30 miles north and south of the road as long as we didn’t evict any tribes and I had to father 20 more magic wielders. I said only if the women did so of their own volition. It was one of my goals to prepare for the invasion some 300 years away. I was then introduced to my new children, Dahlia born October 16th, 1668, Orion born November 11th 1668 and Violet born November 23rd, 1668. After a short two day rest playing and watching the babies I got back to work.

The next two months were a blur and the big thing happening was we got two printing presses, one for books and one for a newspaper. We were not producing a lot of paper yet though so no newspaper. The presses were from Spain, Amelia had purchased them with gems and some light stones. I went to my printer and got with an editor for my magic notes. I had 240 copies printed of an 88 page book. It turned out this knowledge catalyzed Riona who in March advanced her magic sense ability again. She described a person’s magic like a ball. The shell of the ball was a person’s ability to develop magic abilities. The inside of the ball was a person’s fluid magic for casting spells. Both could be increased by working them like a muscle. She was able to determine the magic ability pool and magic spell pool now. There was a growth factor for expanding both that she couldn’t quantify yet. The Indian magic children were away but she gave me this chart.

Ability Pool

Magic Pool

Me

105

170

Riona

15

13

Carina

6

4

Daphne

10

24

Caleb

34

60

Dana

37

54

Liam

18

30

Ava

2

14

Dahlia

62

48

Orion

7

27

Violet

9

29

She noted Carina’s children as being powerful. She said the aura I and Carina shone were very in synch and when we were close they harmonized. So our attraction was not natural? I didn’t care. She guessed the foggy colors she was seeing in the magic had to do with a person’s natural magic affinity but right now she couldn’t see them clearly enough, she needed time.

Once these kids hit puberty it was going to get crazy around here. I went with Carina to visit the Indian village on the other side of the dam. She whispered the children had between 5 to 15 ability and 14 to 33 magic. The Indians had a few stone buildings and a few wooden buildings. They had a council of 3 women and 5 men, all very old. I talked with them in their language about the land deal Amelia negotiated. They wanted twenty more tribe members with magic potential. I said they must obey the laws of Avalon and the land on each side of the road would continue to the west. They said I would have to negotiate with the tribes on those lands. That was fine. As to the 20 more mage babies I would come once a week and stay in the village overnight with a woman. I also talked about integrating into the culture of Avalon instead of living outside. They were not willing to give up their ways yet but seven of their tribe had married Avalon citizens already. So that was how I spent my Saturday nights. A nice cottage in the village was set with a bed. I would go there and find a woman, ask her if she consented. Usually I would do my best even though it seemed like a job to me.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

In February Renee and Ella’s parents arrived. They had just returned from France and instead of braving the cold waters of the north came to Camelot and traveled here. They had numerous gifts from King Louis the 14th. The parents were here to negotiate on behalf of the king. The king wanted an alliance against the Dutch, Spanish and English. I was only willing to remain neutral and not ally with anyone. We were eating pizza while we talked over shaping the political landscape. They loved the pizza, it had black olives and banana peppers. We were still working on good pepperoni but the bread, sauce and mozzarella were all very good now. They then presented the gifts, a full dining set for 40 people, crates of fine clothes, dozens of bottles of wine and liquor and four massive paintings from the palace. I would have to reciprocate. 100 light stones of varying colors and 2 specially crafted sabers. Even though we touched on French business the lord Phillipe and his wife spent time with their grand children and admiring the growing city. The theater was 70% done and should be complete by July. The wall for the mayor mansion was complete and the foundation was being laid. Avalon had only stone buildings with wooden roofs. The sewer was becoming imperative as the aqueduct was now complete. I modified a golem to specialize in digging. It would build a 20’ wide 8’ high sewer line under the streets. We would have 12” thick stone walls with an arched ceiling setup. Later we could add sewer pipes as the large tunnels were just for water drainage for now under the stone paved streets.

The lord and his wife eyes popped during one of my trips curing disease at the clinic. This ability alone could earn me the favor of the French king. Children dying to disease was so common and as well as adults. I was glad when they left after 6 weeks. They were headed back to France with my gifts which included two massive rubies. I asked them to send 100 theater performers that could perform Shakespeare.

I decided to layout the school of wizardry. For my concept I used Hogwarts. It was a castle south of the dam with six towers linked by a wall overlooking the lower lake. Each tower would be a dorm with eight floors and 12 bedrooms per floor. I was figuring 8 years of magic education, age 13 to age 21. So each tower floor would house 1 year…96 students per year…576 total. Double if each room had two students. Inside the walls was 12 acres of land populated with gardens and buildings. A 400’ wide massive tower reaching 400’ high had classrooms, labs, a library, offices and bedrooms for 90 professors. There was a separate square building that was two stories and had the dining hall on the first floor and food storage on the second. Outside the walls was a stable and guard barracks for 72 men that graduated from the magi knight school. It was a massive complex and would hopefully be done in 12 years. Right now Riona was running magic classes for the 9 women in the city that had a spark of magic.

I turned to the regular college on the relief map. It was massive with various campuses with specializations. It was my pride and joy, even more so than the magic school. I needed to accelerate technological advances and the best bet was through this college. The performing arts section would be first and those buildings were well under way, followed by the botanical, mycology, zoology and biology departments. Next would be the cultural and languages. Then the math and engineering. Then chemistry and microbiology. Then social science and education. Then business and communications. Finally would be law, philosophy and religion. One addition each year, 7 years to build…first was to open the performing arts next year…I hoped the lord Phillipe delivered on sending 100 actors. The museum was also currently groundbreaking but I moved the group to the dormitory buildings.

In April of 1669 it was warming up and it was time to take a trip. I was heading west this time. I planned to bring 37 volunteers to establish a new town, Lancelot. I wanted to extend the road at least 90 miles west as well. My plan to tunnel through the mountains was put on hold.

I took just 4 golems, leaving the rest to continue construction. We made about two miles a day, clearing and laying broad pavers. We crested the mountain and looked down the valley, majestic. As we started the switchbacks down a runner came and called me back to Avalon. The 37 men and golems continued the work. The emergency was 80 settlers from Spain. Not a big issue but over 20 were sick. I cured everyone and helped get them established over two days before returning. The group had 28 men which would be a great addition to the workforce.

By June the rough road was done with the one major bridge done. I left the settlers with three orchards of 60 trees each. This group had a town layout I hoped they would follow. Returning to Avalon I found the Theater was done and the work on the interior was well underway. Another 210 settlers arrived, half from my ships. 62 travelled onward toward Lancelot. We were having trouble keeping up with housing construction and municipal building construction with the constant influx. I pulled all my golems and we built a new road to the east of the park and put up 39 stone houses in a week. They were simple 25’x25’ two story open boxes but could be finished in days and get us caught up. Amelia had a massive chart that listed all the professions in the city, the number of people in the profession, and how many people were needed in the profession for each unit of population. For instance she had Baker, 4 employed, and 1 Baker per 250 residents. Most of her estimates were per 250, 500 or 10,000. The only issue I had was for Police, we had 8 employed, and she wanted 3 per 250 people. I had her change that to 2 per 250 but to add Detective 1 per 500 and Rangers 1 per 500. We talked more about specializations on other jobs and she was off. She also mentioned the mayor of Camelot had visited to get educated. He had a request of me, well two requests. He wanted another pier and a breaker wall for the bay. The other request was Avalon currency. There were now 6 different countries trading in Camelot and the city was exploding in size. He guessed in five years they would reach 10,000 if not more. Amelia slid me a sheet. It listed the 221 thousand coins I had made so far.

Count

Face

Total

82,560

1

82,560

60,780

5

303,900

43,128

25

1,078,200

26,734

100

2,673,400

5,200

500

2,600,000

3,000

1000

3,000,000

9,738,060

I would have to equal the amounts for Camelot and it would need 150,000 coins annually, probably more. I called in my banker. Together we worked on exchange rates. Camelot would have to come to Avalon to exchange silver and gold for Avalon coins. I pulled in my coin mold pressers and we spent 16 hour days making coins. I didn’t like using my magic pool so but it was necessary. We could make 8,000 coins a day with focus, but usually came in at 7,600 or so. I made 30k at 1, 30k at 5, 15k at 25 and 7.5k at 100. We loaded it all into chests and I left for Camelot with 8 golems.