May 10, 624

After a good night’s rest that solidified my advancement from the day before, I went to visit the Magic Spire, the nexus for the Kingdom’s magical research and development, for the very first time.

For summoners like me, it would usually be the next step post-Magisterium. Those who were subpar were instead sent to the military to become intelligence personnel.

The Magic Spire was perfectly named – a monolithic spire towering hundreds of meters in the air, dwarfing all other buildings around it besides perhaps the Royal Palace, every brick humming with enchantments, pieced together into a singular device instead of an already colossal construction.

The money that went in and out of this place was responsible for a large portion of the entire Kingdom’s economy, and also a major reason why Magi held the vast majority of the monetary supply.

Sawn worked here. Since he ran Sawn Industries, perhaps the biggest magitech business in the Kingdom, if not the world, he naturally had a major place in the Spire carved out for himself.

I felt kind of bad walking up to the Spire; I hadn’t done anything for the man over the past year. I had gotten so caught up with issues at the Treehouse that I neither studied nor worked on enchanting. Even then, Sawn kept sending me money every week, even more than what the military paid me.

Well, I’d finally be meeting him in his natural habitat instead of a van on the side of the road. Our relationship was kind of weird considering how we met and how we interacted, but I couldn’t complain since it resulted in a relationship at all. I was just grateful that he thought highly of me.

I craned my neck to scan the first floor as I entered. It was wholly devoted to a lobby; floating crystal platforms brought people and groups to and fro the upper floors of Spire as even more people gathered in small groups – or in one case, a rather agitated forum off bracketed by pillars – all across the inlaid floors.

I was given instructions to head to the 76th floor and check in, so I went over to an elevator and took a glance at the list of numbers.

That seemed like the highest it’d go, so I punched it in, catching a few surprised glances from other people on the platform as they too walked up to the array of buttons.

It took a while to actually get to the top floor, and by the time I did, I was the only one on the platform.

I waited until it drifted to a stop before stepping into a nearly empty lobby with only a single desk at its helm, a young warlock girl scribbling away at some papers behind it.

I walked up to her, her head rising once I stepped up to the desk.

“Hi, I have a meeting with Sawn.”

“Name?”

“John Cooper.”

“C… Cooper… Ah, yes, we’ve been expecting you. Head into the teleporter and go to the 88th floor. He’ll be waiting for you there.”

“Thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

She gave me a smile before going back to her work. I went past the desk and found the teleporter. It was big enough for a small group of people, and inside its bulk I punched in the 88th floor.

To be so extravagant as to use a teleporter to traverse a handful of floors. These people really were rich.

It was simultaneously an indeterminably short and unfathomably long time until I remanifested on a similar-looking pad, another hall laid out before me. Bare walls and minimal decoration were my only accompaniment as I walked to a small pair of double doors I pushed open.

The smell of paper, ink, and metal instantly flooded my nose as soon as I crossed the threshold. Sawn’s office was a combination of an impressive library and an even more impressive array of enchanted devices. Multiple Orbs sat in cradles projecting their contents onto folding or rolling screens or, in one noteworthy case, a massive unfurled sheet of parchment, corners pinned with magic. Behind all these devices were people, so many people even the vast room felt small, behind desks, projectors, and piles of books as tall as they were, manipulating the Orbs or hastily scribing away on ever-growing stacks of paper.

Sawn was one of them. I recognized the lanky warlock instantly.

I took a few strides in before coming to a halt, simply looking around and not wishing to interrupt anyone with my presence. I didn’t exactly feel like I belonged, but I was called here, so I couldn’t make myself scarce.

I watched Sawn work on a massive workstation, and once I found a lapse, I moved in.

“Excuse me, sir.”

“Hm? Ah, Cooper. Congratulations on your advancement. Sit in that chair and give me 12 minutes.”

“Alright. Thanks.”

I did as he said and sat in the chair, remaining silent as I watched him work.

It looked like he was putting the finishing touches on a design. I couldn’t even guess what it was for, but almost exactly after the promised time had passed, he swiped it away and turned his attention to me.

“Come. We’ll talk in here.”

I followed him into another room. Sawn’s ‘office’ seemed to occupy the entire 88th floor, so it was massive enough to hold a dozen other rooms on top of the complex everyone worked at.

The room he led me into was somewhat bare, looking like a meeting room, but with a table that could act as a workstation. The two of us found seats as Sawn brought out a bottle of something.

He poured two glasses, handing one for me to drink. It tasted like pomegranate juice, not a hint of alcohol inside.

As he took methodical sips from his cup, he spoke.

“How has the military been? You’ve been there a year. I’ve heard there’s been some problems on your front.”

“I’m making do. I actually wanted to apologize in regards to that. I’ve been off base for so long that I haven’t even had access to the workstation.”

“Don’t worry about that. Your life is more important than anything else. However, I will extend my offer to you once more. You should leave the frontlines and come join me here. I’ll teach you, and you’ll help me develop weapons that can assist in the fights against the oncoming Scourge armies.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Well… It’s certainly tempting.”

I gave it some actual thought. I wanted to go out and fight a bit more, but I was also getting tired of the frontlines. It had taken a bit of a toll after a whole year. I hadn’t rested well at all for the past seven months, my days filled with constant analysis and management. While having that responsibility was nice, I also wanted a break.

Not to mention, enchanting would be a good way to educate myself on something valuable. I’d finally be able to put together some devices that could help both people and soldiers alike.

Just as I was about to respond with a weak refusal, Sawn waved his hand.

“Before you say anything, I’d like to change the terms. I understand that you want your place in the military. You’ve done great things in little time. I’ve been hearing a lot about you. So I’ve made some calls, including one to your superiors. I’m prepared to devise a special schedule. If you would look… here.”

He pushed forward a paper, which I quickly read.

“You will work for me in an on-and-off fashion. One month, you’ll be on the front lines. The next month, you’ll be working here. With things the way they’re going now, you can’t possibly focus on enchanting work. Even I understand that the Scourge is picking up the pace. But with this, you’ll be able to devote your time and effort properly. Not only that, but you’ll be able to avoid much of the danger since you’ll be gone half the time.”

“Indeed…”

I gave it some thought. There were a few upsides and only one substantial downside.

He was right in that I’d be avoiding a lot of danger and that I’d finally be able to work on enchanting, also getting more time off. But on the other hand, being gone for so long would reduce my presence and shift a lot of my work to other people. My value would fall, especially after all the effort I’d gone through to increase my contributions. I’d probably get sent right back to the sidelines since I’d be playing catch up every time I left and came back.

Question was, was it worth it to even care about that? My goal in trying to stand out was to get noticed by special operations and meet my friends there. But if I was being honest, intelligence work wouldn’t be the thing that got me noticed, at least not by those people. They cared about whether I could kill well. Analysis and such was secondary. I only had to worry about lethality.

To that end, perhaps it would be good to be sidelined. I wouldn’t be stuck behind a desk and could get out into the field more. Instead of giving the orders, I would be taking them. I trusted Polly and Jasmine enough to know they wouldn’t knowingly throw me into danger.

Not only that, I had a feeling that Polly would appreciate me getting out of her way. I wasn’t doing it maliciously, but my reports and recent contributions to issues regarding the Bombardos and diseases weren’t helping her in any way. That was contrary to the deal we made, so I was thinking that I needed to change course.

Maybe this was actually the perfect opportunity. Maybe taking the back seat was exactly what I needed to do.

However, I wanted to maximize my advantages while I had them. Since I was going to be taking a back seat, I might as well get everything out of the front seat while I was there.

I looked back up at Sawn.

“I’ll take that contract. However, there’s something I want to do first.”

“What’s that?”

“I’ve been trying to get promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. I want to do that before starting up that schedule.”

“Hm, that seems like a good idea. Do you think you can get promoted in a timely manner?”

“I think I can. I’ve been talking to a General about it, so I’m more optimistic than otherwise.”

“... Six months.”

He tapped the table.

“I’ll give you 6 months to do so. Otherwise, the contracted schedule will go into effect anyways.”

“That’s reasonable. Then…”

I reached out my hand. Sawn grasped it hesitantly, then squeezed with his hand.

“We have an accord.”

……

…

After clarifying some more details and signing a couple papers, I left Sawn’s office and headed toward the Polaris Headquarters to talk to Maxwell.

These advancement formations were getting to the point where I needed to understand more than just the bare definitions of the symbols and arrays. I needed to know why things were working the way they were.

Maxwell had no qualms filling my head with everything, even things I didn’t understand. He said that so long as I could recall it, I’d be able to use it, if not now, then in the future. I agreed with him on that point, but it was still a bit overwhelming, even with my new and improved mind. No amount of intelligence work could compare to the complexity of the fruits of Maxwell’s intellect. If there was ever a genius, Maxwell was the perfect picture.

The goal of this next advancement was to create the second Spark. However, the Spark had to be based on something. The first Spark could be said to be composed of what was considered my computational ability, or at least a portion of it. It simply drew on the natural abilities of my mind, which was why the formations to make it weren’t that complex.

However, this next Spark would be taking my memories, my being, and condensing it into another Spark. It would be the other half of the coin, and it would be what truly made my memory infallible.

The trick would be doing this while also accommodating the new structure of my mind, courtesy of the Mind Palace. It shouldn’t be that hard but I’d definitely have to improvise a bit. At the very least, the second Spark was already started, its kernel sitting in my Grand Library.

In fact, depending on how I used this, the Mind Palace might actually make this next advancement easier. It would still take considerable time to get through the advancement formation, at least as long as the previous, but the Mind Palace’s visualization would make comprehending things much easier. I wouldn’t have to deal with potentially progression-hindering abstractions.

This advancement formation, that might otherwise take years to not just study but implement, may take but one or two years to complete.

I already had ideas, but this wasn’t something to tackle overnight. Ironic, because it was often during my dreams at night that I made the most progress.

……

Things were annoyingly uneventful for the rest of my time in the Capital. I would spend my nights simply looking out the window of my hotel room, overlooking the entire city beyond with a hint of melancholy. The only reason I did that was because I didn’t have anyone else to do it with.

Umara and I were still pissed about her being unable to get leave. Her mother was keeping a tight leash on things, and, if I was being completely logical, I could begrudgingly admit I understood why. That certainly didn't mean I liked it. My first break in a year was supposed to be a bit nicer, not lonelier.

Sooner rather than later, it was time for me to leave again. After giving my goodbyes to friends, I was on a Rail and heading back to Stronghold Charlie.

I was in contact with Jasmine since I had nothing better to do most nights. It felt wrong to completely waste away so I kept up to date with some brief reports that she collected. She took on most of my responsibility while I was gone and was eager to have me back. That would have to change before I went under Sawn’s special schedule.

Turns out, big things could happen in a week. It seems my report compiling all of Chief Reginold’s intel scared the right people, because we were getting even more reinforcements for the Treehouse. More base expansions were underway, and tens of thousands of soldiers were slated to arrive in droves. It seemed they really didn’t want to lose the Treehouse, using it as an example in a way. They wanted to prove that they could handle the things coming their way.

Truthfully, I still didn’t think it was enough. From my perspective, throwing bodies and numbers at the problem wouldn’t solve it. Perhaps it was just my perspective on modern warfare, but at some point numbers meant nothing. It was all about sheer strength. In Earth’s case, that was money and weapons technologies. Here, it was high Authority warlocks and knights.

I hoped we would be getting more strategic reinforcements soon. I didn’t know what was going on at other bases but it wasn’t like they were my responsibility so it was difficult to care. There was a very real threat on my doorstep and I wanted the tools to deal with it now, not later when it would already be too late.

Whether that was a special operations team or more Brigadiers and Marshals, we needed something to secure our spot on the map. The Scourge was moving in the heavy hitters and we weren’t responding in kind. I knew the Generals were aware of that, but whether the others beyond our base would accommodate them was another question.

To me, it seemed like the Kingdom was stretching thin. Perhaps I was wrong and they really were hiding a massive amount of strength. Until they proved otherwise though, I’d err on the side of caution. I was thinking in more defensive terms and that usually wasn’t a good sign, simply because that meant there were extremely few avenues for offense, even with more reinforcements.

I arrived back at the Stronghold with those thoughts in mind, watching as hundreds of people gathered into the car around me, all headed for the Treehouse.

I was but one in a sea of many. As the gentle swaying of the train rocked me to sleep, I hoped that I might not be swept away like so many of those around me would.