Chapter 112

There was something about having your own skyship. The freedom to be able to go anywhere at any time. This journey was not going to be as pleasant as I hoped. Cilia and Leda were on the bridge waiting for me. “Take us to the port nearest to the Naval Academy,” I said as I took a seat to the side.

Cilia had a guilty look. She explained, “Loriel gave the Maelstrom permissions to land anywhere in the capital.”

“Huh, then land at the Naval Academy docks. It should save time, but I probably will not do any shopping in the city then,” I said. It was not like I had any coin. I spent my coin on the spells, and all the gold I had would need to be used for Loriel’s old Harbinger. That enchanting work would take me a full day, but I planned to drag it out to two and half days, from 5th day to 7th day.

The ship lifted off, and the cats were at the window, focused on land disappearing as we crossed the edge of the island. They were fascinated watching as much as humans. I still felt my stomach drop slightly when the island disappeared. Cilia mumbled, “So much faster than a trader,” as she went to max safe acceleration. The trip would only take minutes at maximum speed. The capital island, Skyhold, soon appeared. A Harbinger ship swung to intercept us but stopped its efforts once their spotter identified us. It was not like they could have caught us anyway.

We approached from the Citadel side of the island as the Naval Academy was not far from it. Cilia slowed and waited for the signals to approach the port. Once the light flashed, a pair, a single, and a pair again, we moved to the dock. The Naval Academy was busy with dozens of men and women. Cilia noted, “Callem has recruited three hundred women into the service. An untapped resource he called them,” she smirked.

Cilia did not have fond memories of her time at the Academy. The Naval Academy had a large pond with five Harbinger ships docked there. The mass of the ships did better in water rather than in a cradle. There were also a pair of Wasp ships on land. We landed next to one of the Wasps.

An officer met us at the bottom of the ramp, “You are expected in General Callem’s residence.” He had strong discipline and led the way. We were led right in when we reached the small estate on the Navy campus.

A smiling Nisil met me. I had not seen her in a year. She had been the Wolfsguard assigned to Admiral Sebastian Woodcraft as his personal healer. She had even saved my life when I was attacked by a giant eagle out at Twin Rocks. “Storme! Oh, how you have grown into such a large and beautiful man!” She hugged me.

I was a little stunned and asked, “What are you doing here? I thought you would be with the Wolfsguard on Stonefell Island?”

She smiled and looked happy, “I am one of three healers at the Academy. I work for the General. I live in this residence with the other healers.”

“What about Sebastian?” I inquired.

She nodded in understanding, “He has a residence here. But he spends most of his time in the yards building ships,” she smiled, “but you already know that.”

The man who escorted me inside, seeing the conversation slow, “This way Storme Hardlight.”

Callem’s office was adjacent to the entry, and he was in deep discussion with two older men. As soon as I entered, he smiled and hugged me. He was losing weight, or maybe muscle. “Storme, it is about time you visited! The Lightning Drake sent a comm message your ship was approaching the capital, and I hoped you would see me. You always came to the capital and spent all that time in Sebastian’s yards but never visited me here.”

“I was too afraid you would have me run the recruit obstacle course,” I joked as we moved to sit, and the two men joined us.

“This is Captain Zephyr and Captain Esalin. Brought them out of retirement to captain the new Harbingers. We were working through the details of the security for the Ambassadors from the Sadians.” He smirked at my surprise. “Yes, Loriel is moving fast. Free trade could be established soon, with Titan’s Shield as the waypoint by the end of the year. We have been trying to minimize traffic to Skyhold until we can establish greater security. For the visit, we plan to keep a dozen warships in the air for the dignitaries to see on their visit.”

“That is good news!” Great news for me if the traffic to Aegis city was going to increase. The warehouse I was getting in compensation was going to be immensely valuable…too bad I planned to demolish it.

“So, Storme, what brings you to my office?” He asked in a jovial mood.

I just laid it out for him, “Gareth. He is heading down a terrible path, and I do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was hoping you could visit and talk with him.” Callem was figuring out my analogies, so I continued, “He is starting to drink regularly, womanizing, and being careless in the dungeon.”

Callem motioned the two captains to leave as this was a personal matter. After they exited, Callem sighed, “It would have been better for him if he came to the Naval Academy. But he wanted his adventure and dungeons,” he sighed again, “just like my son. I do not know how you managed to maintain such a high degree of motivation growing up, Storme. Gareth always followed your lead. Now that he is flying on his own, he needs to make mistakes to learn from them.”

I made a decision to trust Callem. “I already lived one life, Callem. One of my traits is past life knowledge. I have made my mistakes. But Gareth is not going to listen to me. He may listen to you.”

Callem let out a long breath, “I suspected as much. Or at least Wynna was sure of it. Whatever you were in the past is not what you are today, Storme. That is the best advice I can give you. Whether you were a dragon, elf, dwarf, orc, or some other creature, know I think you are a good man today.”

I was about to laugh but then realized that humans were probably in the minority in the Sphere, and I was likely not human in my prior life. I was not sure how much to tell him. I decided, “I was human, but I did not grow up in the Sphere.”

Callem was speechless. Then he asked slowly, “Are you sure?”

I was curious to know if I was treading on dangerous grounds or not. I answered reluctantly, “Yes. It was a planet orbiting a sun out in the greater galaxy. We had no space travel and were not even aware of the Sphere.”

Callem was silent for a very long time, “The cycle of rebirth happens only in the Sphere. But I am no philosopher or wised mage,” he brushed off his thoughts. “If you tell anyone you had a past life best to tell them it was somewhere inside the Sphere.”

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I nodded and felt like I should get more of an explanation, but a knock came, and an officer said, “The liaison from the Sadians is here to discuss security.”

Callem rose, “Storme, I will talk with Gareth soon. I am not sure how it will go.” He went contemplative, “Enduring friendships require compromise, especially when two men of gifted skill are involved.” I shook hands with Callem, and then we hugged.

Callem walked out first and went into another room. The officer was waiting on me and escorted me back to the Maelstrom. The activity was intense around the Naval Academy, and it was a race to create qualified crew for all the ships they were churning out.

I was not certain there was going to be a resolution. Maybe Gareth would think we were all teaming up on him. I had also considered asking his mother and father to talk to him, but she was busy raising her adopted orphan son,

I will say the trainees did look sharp in their uniforms. I briefly considered having my delve team get something like uniforms for when they were not delving. The look of envy in the eyes of the soldiers was returned to me, not because of what I was wearing but because the Maelstrom was parked in their sightline. It was guarded by two men and two women when I approached. “Sorry, sir. It was causing a distraction, so we were told to keep the cadets at a distance.”

I smiled, remembering the first time I had seen the Wind Splitter land at Callem’s farm. “Thank you,” I said as I walked the ramp and closed it behind me. On the bridge, Adrial had cut Leda playing too aggressively, so she was in time out in her cage again. I ordered Cilia back to Aegis City. This whole excursion had taken less than forty minutes. There was no point in even going to my cabin as the trip was going to be so short. Kiara had found a favorite spot—dead center of the forward bridge glass.

When we landed, Adrial was freed, and I followed the cats up to my room. My door was unlocked, and I found Freya on the sofa. “Storme!” She hugged me but was playing with the cats almost immediately. They really appeared to like which was good because I thought they would make good guardians for her when they were older.

“Freya, why were you in my room?” I asked, taking some cold tea out of the magic cooler.

“Mother finished your collars for Adrial and Kiara! They are on your bed.” She screamed in joy as the two cats each wrapped one of her legs with their tentacles. “I have been teaching them to do this, and when they get bigger, they each can wrap arms to immobilize someone.” She gave a command, and they released her instantly, and she gave each a chunk of meat as a reward.

I went into my room and found the collars my mother had made. Five sets, each increasing in size. One white and one black. I went to the desk and laid out the buckles and my enchanting books. The buckles were too large, so I would be using my skill and mithril wire to downsize the enchantments. I brought out the raw materials from my space and considered the enchantment I would put on the buckles for the cats.

I decided on a minor shield enchantment that would activate when they were about to be punctured. Their sister or themselves might set off this with the barbs on their tentacles, but it was some protection, and I could just recharge the crystal. The aether crystal I was using was only going to last three of four activations. The other enchantment I decided on was the feather fall enchantment. When the cat reached a certain falling speed, it would kick in. If my math was right, the aether crystal should slow them long enough to save them from heights or up to a mile.

The design was actually fairly intricate because both runes had to be linked on the buckle. The first attempt even failed when I tested it. I heard the door close, and Freya had left. The two cats were on the bed sleeping in a food coma. I looked at the runic patterns, and I think they were too close and interfering. Enough with gold insulation, the mithril, there was too much aether bleed. I either need to make the mithril wire thicker or just go with one enchantment.

I tried the adamantine in place of gold first to see if it was that much more effective. It took a lot of effort to coat the mithril, and the cats wanted breakfast as I was finishing the first collar. It must have taken me five hours to coat the mithril runes finely.

Testing the new collar, it worked remarkably well. I could even use a higher-tier aether crystal if I wanted. This opened up a lot of possibilities. Not just for the cat collars but all my other enchanting work. The problem was the small buckle had taken nearly six hours to complete. I put the new buckle on the white collar and fastened it around Adrial. She initially disliked it, trying to use her tentacles to get it off. I attached a plain black collar on Kiara, who didn’t try to remove it but gave me sad eyes. They would get used to them eventually.

We did our morning routine, and then I was off to the Dungeon Academy. The rest of the week proceeded rapidly as I prepared to work on Loriel’s ship and experimented with adamantine. I did not see Gareth or hear that Callem had visited. I assumed he was busy with the Sadians arrival. In the evening on the fourth day, on getting back from the Academy, Ullmark found me.

“Storme. Just wanted to let you know that Namira did well enough. I don’t think she should be on the same team as Gareth, though. Seems there is some bad blood, and something is brewing. Did you hear about an incident a the Academy between Namira and another woman?” Ullmark said seriously.

“No. I can ask around tomorrow. Should we pull Namira?” I questioned Ullmark.

“I think she will be fine on our mid-week delves. Talia, Sammie, and Lana all seemed to like her, and she was competent,” Ullmark said. I really did not want to play referee in a drama situation, so maybe it is best to let Namira go. But then again, Gareth had caused friction with Talia.

“Who is on the seventh day delve?” I asked, having not looked at the posting in the training room.

“Gareth, Talia, Sammie, Lana, Kindroth, and Lorcan.” My confusion had him elaborate, “Kindroth is one of the new healers, and Lorcan is a scout. I dropped the harvester Sable after the last delve. She was not going to work out,” he mussed.

“Ullmark, it is your decision. Just keep the frost mead flowing,” I encouraged the man. He may have looked in his forties, but he was much older.

“Thank you. I think if Naira joins permanently, she may have some friends at the Dungeon Academy who can fill the roles out the way I want them,” Ullmark said slowly. “She has mentioned a few, and I would ask you or Gareth to check them out first by talking to their instructors.”

“Get me the names. I will do it through my advisor,” I said without hesitation. He left after.

The next day at the Academy, I was healing with Neelan in the duel-fighting class. Neelan was not aware of an incident involving Namira. I had a chance to talk with Namira when she took a slash to her temple. After I healed her, I asked, “Heard things went well for you on the delves. Is there anything I should know about that happened at the Academy?”

She almost didn’t say anything. “I was talking with one of the fifth-year porters. Ullmark said we needed someone competent who could be a porter and harvester after the issue on the delve.”

“What issue?” I asked, concerned that Ullmark hadn’t said anything other than saying he fired Sable.

“The harvester, Sable, he kept rupturing the queen sacs when harvesting them. He told Ullmark he was skilled enough to do it and definitely was not. I talked to someone I knew who could do it, and Gareth’s new friend, Gwenyth, took exception since he was on her delve team. Gareth stepped in to defend Gwenyth. It was a mess,” she informed me. “We both got reprimands for fighting.”

“You and Gareth?” I said, surprised.

“No, Gareth tried to separate me and Gwenyth. I think everyone thought that I was jealous that Gareth was with Gwenyth,” she finished. The instructor called her to her next match. I hoped Callem hurried up and came to talk with Gareth.

After the healing class, I returned to the Shiny Platinum and loaded the cats onto the Maelstrom. Cilia, Leda, Remy, and Rippon were flying to work on Loriel’s Harbinger ship so I could get the deed to the adjacent warehouse.

The flight was quick, as Leda knew where to go. The ship was moored on a dock near a small estate. The ship was a luxury retreat for the head of the Miaden family, which was now Loriel. The ship had been stripped of its runic enchantments, and I would have to do everything from scratch. As we landed on a patch of grass, a dozen Miaden wolfkin were guarding the ship as two dozen men worked on refurbishing the old ship.

I approached the ship expecting to tell everyone to get off and found Loriel on the deck. I bit my tongue. I just wanted to do the job and leave, and Loriel obviously wanted something else. I was not having a good week.