Chapter 117

The next morning, as I was heading out with my breakfast in hand, Bylura was waiting in the street. “Storme, I have the completed agreement for the Black Spire. I am to wait until it is signed.” She handed me a folder with several papers in it. “I also have the information from the investigation into the missing Heart Stone here.” She handed me a small pamphlet.

“Is this everything of the incident?” I asked suspiciously.

“It is. Minus your involvement and your acquisition of the runic mithril chains,” she said quietly. I was unfazed, though. Skyholme needed me more than I needed them right now. I started walking toward the Dungeon Academy, and Bylura fell in step. “You are not going to sing them immediately?”

“No. I need to read them in detail before signing,” I replied with a note of cynicism.

“Everything is as stated last night. Loriel would not try to trick you,” she said with exasperation.

“Only because she needs me, Bylura. I am more concerned about what the documents do not detail,” I said as I walked.

Bylura defended Loriel, “She is doing the best she can to accommodate everyone. She is under tremendous pressure to succeed as any failure in her plans would take her and Skyholme with it.”

“I have my doubts. I believe the Heaven’s Reach is her get-out of Skyholme card. How much debt does the Triumvirate have?” I asked conversationally.

“I thought she was being a little obvious last night. About three million gold currently. Half from the Bricios revolt and half from the rapid construction of the fleet. Her biggest concern is the annual deficit the kingdom is going to run, as current projections are terrible. Half a million a year if she can not start generating a trade surplus.” Bylura said softly, so only I could hear.

“And you offer this information so freely?” I asked, surprised.

“Most in the Citadel already now. I also know you will do the right thing even if Loriel is uncertain of your intentions,” she said.

“When I sign this,” I held up the paperwork, “The Spire and lands are mine? How much political capital is Loriel gaining by ensuring I remain in the Islands?”

“Yes, I am an agent of the Triumvirate. I have your seal and deed in my pocket,” she blurted, irritated at my reluctance. “Loriel needs you as a backer of her policies and the leverage you give with your skyship artificing work.” I nodded as I walked. I turned into a tavern and sat at a table. I carefully reviewed the documents, and the only thing I did not like was my 42-day timer would start yesterday and not today.

The wording on my guardsmen was also altered as it said they needed to have a minimum competency with melee combat. That was listed as the ‘equivalency of five years of academy training.’ I suspected this would happen as Loriel wanted to limit my options for recruiting in Skyholme. I signed the document, and Bylura exhaled in relief. I noted, “The two Harbingers requiring re-artificing can be docked at the Spire. I will get to them both on the sixth and seventh day.”

Bylura took a quick note. She pulled out my seal, a bronze stamp with the tower engraved on it. She also handed me the official deed. “Thank you, Storme. Here are your two required event invitations.” I narrowed my eyes. “Oh, calm down. One is for the first trade ship coming from the lowlands and to open the portal in Aegis City. The other one is for the New Year Festival at Skyhold. You can only bring one guest,” she stated emphatically.

“They are building a portal stone in Aegis City?” I asked, surprised.

“No, they are moving the one from Skyhold there,” Bylura smirked. “It will expedite trade and give Skyholme a chance to profit from larger cities in the Sphere.”

That was huge news. The portal that Aelyn and Niserie had used to escape was being moved to Aegis City. I laughed as I realized how mad Loriel was going to be when I demolished the warehouse. With the portal in the city, the land value would triple. Bylura was already leaving with the signed documents. I took out my comm stone and told Leda and Cilia I would be traveling to the Black Spire after lunch. I would do an in-person assessment of my new property.

I was late for spelling class and apologized to the instructor, who I held in very high respect. She was just as good a teacher as Selina, and I did not want to upset her. I spent the class spamming my arcane web spell.

Since I was now a recognized High Mage, there was no point in hiding the depth of my aether reserves. For the first level of the spell evolution, I had chosen to allow the castor not to get entangled in the web. The web was small, just five by five feet, and the strands were the thickness of a finger. Easily broken by someone with sufficient strength. But this evolution allowed me to cast the web on the ground in combat. I could then walk over it while my opponents would get snared and hampered by the sticky strands.

In class, I managed to reach level three with constant casting. At the second level, the evolution was increasing the size to seven feet by seven feet. At the third evolution, I increased the strength of the strands. I got a lot of envious looks from my classmates at my rapid progress.

Tier one creatures were also fun today, and we went over lightning wisps and kobolds. As class ended, Neelan’s secretary handed me three books. They were the first of the ones to be copied. I noticed the top title was the High Mage’s defined duties. Neelan was looking out for me, and it felt good to have someone backing me. The loss of Gareth was still stinging.

I walked back to the Shiny Platinum with some excitement for the inspection. Leda and Cilia were ready to leave. I collected the two cats, and we were off. On the bridge, Leda played with the cats as we flew. Cilia did not need her help navigating as she was extremely familiar with the route. Cilia asked, “So, will you move to the tower?”

“The Black Spire? Maybe. I still plan to attend the Dungeon Academy. The spell instructors and bestiary instructors are excellent, and I am learning a lot,” I confirmed.

“Why don’t you just transfer to the Dungeon Academy in the Capital or, better yet, the Mage Academy?” Cilia asked from the pilot’s seat.

“Did Selina ask you to convince me,” I asked jokingly. When they didn’t respond, I studied their faces, “Really? Did she ask you to? At the reception for the Sadians?” They both looked guilty.

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I didn’t know the education quality at the Academies in the capital, but I was fine with where I was. Also, if the portal stone was being relocated to Aegis City and most trade was passing through there, it would be just as important as the Skyhold City in the near future.

Our approach to the Spire was made away from the city so we would not disturb the defensive ships over the city. We still had one Wasp try to intercept us, but Leda signaled them, and they broke off. We circled the Spire once, and it looked like no one had been here in the months since the battle with the Bricios. The windows on the fourth floor were still blown out. It appeared the fifth floor, the sealed chambers of Kurota the mage, had no visible windows.

We flew over the cradles for skyships. One was smashed, courtesy of my own actions. The other one was overgrown with vegetation. The Maelstrom didn’t need the cradles to land, and I had Cilia land us near the Spire entrance.

The grounds were in terrible shape after months of neglect. I started to get a headache trying to figure out how many people I was going to have to hire to maintain the grounds and tower. The farms I was expecting, but this... The first floor of the tower was one massive chamber. The bodies had been cleared, but the blood stains were still visible. I cleaned them with my cleanliness spell as we walked. The cats were curious about everything as well, darting here and there.

Cilia asked of the first floor, “What are you going to do with all this space?”

It was a huge chamber. “I don’t know. There are two overgrown barracks outside. Maybe I will tear them down and move the guardsmen in here.”

“That is such a waste,” Leda said, looking around. “This would make a grand ballroom!”

“There is a ballroom on the fourth floor. The windows were destroyed, but it has amazing views from a hundred feet up,” I said, walking toward some descending stairs. I was wondering how much of the basement stores had been looted. As we got close to the stairs, the smell was terrible. Leda and Cilia remained on the first floor, and I went in alone with the cats. I pulled out a light stone as I went down. It was clear the runes to keep rodents away and preserve the food had not been recharged. Kiara and Adrial sprinted after some rats. As I moved through, I started charging the wall-mounted light stones in the basement.

Hanging meat was rotting, and other food had layers of colorful mold on it. I used my cleanliness spell to clean as I got deeper into the cellar. I found the crystals for the maintenance runes and charged them. There were two different anti-vermin, one rune against insects, an environmental room to keep the air fresh, and a temperature rune to keep it chilled. There was a small empty, and dusty armory except for a few shields. A corridor led to a prison with fourteen cells. One had a skeleton in it. Since it was a skeleton, I hoped whoever it was died before we attacked the Spire, and he was not forgotten about after the fact. Dying in here abandoned was a terrible fate.

There was a separate room with casks of ale and wine. About two hundred glass bottles also remained, but footprints in the dust told me someone had been there taking liberties. I closed the door and cast my arcane lock spell on it. I thought there might have been a subbasement, but I didn’t find any stairs down on my walkthrough.

Getting ready to return up the stairs I found the cats proudly displaying their kills for me. Four for Adrial and three for Kiara. Of course, they got help when I activated the anti-vermin runes as that would have repelled the rats and forced them to leave their nests. I still patted their heads, then used my cleanliness spell to destroy the rat bodies.

The smell still hung in the air as I only cleaned about a quarter of the larder’s spoiled goods. The more mass I purged, the more aether it cost me. Even with my deep aether reserves, I wanted to hold most in reserve in case we found squatters. The residences were on the second floor. Luxurious rooms that smelled stale from a period of non-use. Surprisingly, I did not see signs of anyone using the rooms recently. We checked each room, and Cilia and Leda were impressed. Leda voiced her mind, “At least the Bricios had good taste. These rooms are perfect, and the views from the windows are amazing.”

I was surprised the Triumvirate didn’t come in and take everything and sell it. There had to be thousands of gold worth of furnishings. Maybe there was no market for the luxury goods in Skyholme. The ruling families were in disarray after the Bricios, so maybe there was not much free coin around. The third floor of the tower was the Bricio offices. This is where Callem almost died. A lot of the offices were looted. I guessed they had the paperwork for all the assets the Bricios owed. There was even a small vault that was completely empty on this floor.

The fourth floor had the ballroom with it’s charred floor and blown-out windows. The stone was undamaged from the blast as it was some type of aether-reinforced material. Some birds had nested in the ceiling already. Cilia asked, “This is a lot of space. What do you plan to do with it all?” She was inferring the entire tower.

“It is a lot of space. The true prize is on the top floor but I can not access it yet. Lets go look at the other buildings and the farms,” I led them down the stairs.

The other buildings on the estate were hidden in the nearby woods. Two small wooden barracks for forty men each and a third structure to house the serving staff. All the buildings were abandoned but in good shape besides the creeping flora. The only other building was an armory that appeared empty. The cats explored the buildings but did not find any victims to use their hunting skills on while we walked. They had been locked and secured.

The first farm we visited was the aether fields, which looked terrible. The indentured men and women who had worked the fields had left when they were released from their contracts. The fields had not been rejuvenated in that time with fresh aether soil, and nothing useful was growing as the crops had been picked clean. The farmhouse did have some evelopes of seeds, but nothing was labeled.

The white barley had a crop but numerous weeds growing among the grains. It was a mess and needed to be sorted out sooner rather than later, or the entire crop would be lost. The associated farmhouse was barren. Whoever had lived here had taken everything.

The last stop was the green apple orchards. I pulled one of the apples from a tree and bite into it. It was extremely tart and sweet. It had a very high sugar content. It was good for desserts and spreads. I munched on the apple as I walked in the lead toward the last farmhouse. I could already see the Wolfsguard in the assembling. I assumed no one had told them that there was a new owner of the tower.

I counted twenty-seven as we approached, and one graying Wolfsguard stood in front of everyone. I scanned the others behind him. Most had visible scars, a missing hand or arm, an eye, and poor posture that indicated a poorly healed back. They wore old Bricio uniforms that were somewhat threadbare. The old Wolfsguard spoke when we were within talking distance, “You do not wear any house colors. Who are you, and why are you visiting us?”

I put on my best friendly smile as I spoke, “I am High Mage Storme Hardlight. The new resident mage of the Black Spire.”

I thought I sounded assertive and friendly, but the reaction was not as expected. A few Wolfsguard started chuckling and laughing. The old Wolfsguard silenced them, “Forgive them. My name is Asger. They do not think someone so young could be named High Mage. I recognize your two cats as young displacer beasts. I am guessing you are more than you appear to be. Let’s talk inside further as I am certain your tale will be an interesting one.”

Asger had a strong presence to him that reminded me of Callem. As he walked, I noticed he had all his limbs but a slight limp. He was also the oldest Wolfsguard I had ever seen. His residence was utilitarian, and his furnishes were rough wood and polished. I sat at his table, and he took a bottle of wine and poured it. “If you are the true lord of the Spire, then this is your wine. One of the younger and foolish Wolfsguard went inside and took some. He has been punished, rest assured.”

He sat across from me with his own goblet of wine. Leda and Cilia remained outside, but the cats were exploring the small room. The icy blue eyes of Asger locked onto me, “So, High Mage Storme Hardlight, what do you plan to do with the lost Wolfsguard of the Green Apple?”

I smiled, because I had some ideas.