Chapter:
Petor let the ‘ dirt ’ run through his fingers and back to the ground.
Just a few days ago this was nothing but barren rock . He dusted off his hands and rose up to standing. Rows of the new dirt had been tilled into furrows, his senses picked up the seeds haphazardly sown among them.
Movement caught his eyes, making him turn, Rosalina waved to him down the rows he could see her smile from here as she hurried over to him.
He let out a resigned sigh even as a smile pulled at the corners of his lips and waved back to her. His gaze moved to the others about the fields.
A group of water mages were moving through a field, rain falling around them. Wind mages hung around the perimeters, guiding the wind and the water it held towards their fellows.
Farmers and their families hung with both groups, looking to learn and understand, some casting their own spells.
Other farmers were claiming more land with other mages. Fire mages looked for hidden pockets of molten stone, they ’ d found a pocket of fire crystals growing in one of the fields which had re-invigorated them.
A group was marking out a hotspot melting stone and raising it into columns around it. In the future the locals could use it to place one of the new steam engines.
After the fire mages went the water mages, marking aquifers like the hotspots were, the Earth mages went last looking for resources under the ground, making notes on the soil and stone beneath their feet. All of that created maps of the surrounding area which were brought to the farmer ’ s attention.
“ You ’ re out far today Mister Petor! ” Rosalina huffed, holding the straps of her backpack. It had been carefully repaired several times, the different color threads showing on the straps and its body.
She grinned up at him, her midnight black hair pulled back into a braid, her horns of black and purple creating a crown above. Her aquamarine blue eyes stole one ’ s attention, freckles of black and red ran under her eyes and across her nose, contrast to her purple tinted skin and Cinderborn tattoo that marked her as an Ember, the lowest caste position when Cinderstein had still stood.
His eyes flicked past her to what remained of the volcano.
A section half the size of the original still jutted out, some edges marking where the sides had been, a red glow covered most of the area, the heart of the volcano a large circle that was slowly cooling. Rocks from the volcano, from the size of dust to houses dotted the landscaped as one got closer to it.
“ You know you don ’ t need to do this everyday, ” Petor said.
“ Dad is out with the other farmers adding in some more plots, ” She jutted her chin out to the new fields that were being created.
Trees were being planted throughout the plot. Specially grown by the academy ’ s students, they excelled in the current environment, drawing in the fire element mana to power their own growth. Thin but strong roots that would work their way through the cracks in stone, opening it up and drawing on the nutrition they required.
They had arrived as big as one ’ s palm, now they reached Petor ’ s hip, those that were planted were has tall as his chest.
“ Why do they plant the trees? ” Rosalina asked shyly.
She was a bundle of energy and eager to help out, but held onto questions as if they were her last copper.
Petor hid his smile, not wanting to put off her questions. He drew upon the mana in the sky around him, it rushed towards him, spreading through his channels.
It had taken him a three days to be able to draw in and redirect the mana from one place to another. He pictured that he was breathing in the air around him and it spread through his feet into the ground like roots. It took him another three days to do it and move at the same time.
The seeds in the soil reacted to the influx of mana, their coatings cracked and radicles poked out, pushing into the soil, spreading into roots.
He made sure to spread the mana through the soil, enhancing it all and stepped forward, draw in mana, spread it through the ground and move. He took on a slow walking pace, Rosalina kept up with him, just one row over from him.
“ The trees help in a couple of ways. They create borders around the plots, making it so that the wind won ’ t carry the soil we ’ re working so hard to make. They ’ ll produce fruits for us to eat and create cover for the plants in the fields. While the water sails help us a lot, this region is naturally very dry being so high in the fire element. Ilus have made crops that will thrive in this environment, but they still require water. The tree ’ s coverage helps to keep the soil cooler, decreasing the amount of water that we lose. ”
“ Okay, I heard some of the mages saying that they were cracking the ground? ” Rosalina asked.
“ Water and earth mages draw up water into the upper layers of rock and stone, drill it into them. Then fire mages came along heating up the water. This cracks the stone and breaks it down. They repeat the process again and again, flattening the area and creating a mineral rich stone basin, ” Petor said.
“ Then they mix in all of the waste into that and the black gold, ” Rosalina frowned.
Petor kept walking, letting her work through her thoughts.
“ Its dirt from the Ilus greenhouses, the plants and trees my dad say are really incredible. I ’ ve never seen anything grow so fast here, but I don ’ t get why the dirt is gold? ” Rosalina worried her lower lip with her sharp incisors.
“ That soil is really healthy, it contains a lot of good stuff. Its so good that when mixed with other soil it increases its quality—its ability to grow things. ” Petor amended.
“ Its kind of cool all these things working together, ” Rosalina bounced ahead with her infectious grin.
Petor grinned back and kept walking.
“ My mom made you some overnight tea, want some? ” She asked, already reaching back into her pack, one eye closed in concentration as she found the bottle by hand.
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“ You know you don ’ t have to hang out with me all day, ” Petor said.
Rosalina had her tongue sticking out as she gave a victorious shout and pulled out the bottle, carved from obsidian and sealed with a top coated in wax.
“ The other farmer kids know about all of this way more than me, most of them are in the fields helping out. They think that I ’ m strange because I come from Cinderstein. ” She shrugged. “ The younger kids are nicer with my brothers and sisters. They don ’ t have their tattoos yet. ”
She held out the bottle to Petor and shook it.
“ Thank you and thank your mother. ” He took the bottle.
“ She says that you do so much work for everyone and barely take time for yourself. ” Rosalina squirmed somewhat. I think she said some more than that too .
He pulled the stopped off of the bottle and drank the tea, it was bitter, citrusy, spicy and chilled in its stone container.
He stoppered it and Rosalina held out her hand to take it back.
He ’ d tried holding onto the bottle for the day but she demanded that she carried it in her backpack, filled with drinks and snacks she and her family made.
“ Thank you. ” Petor said.
Most of the Cinderborn had headed to the Costal cities and towns owned by the Infernal Marauders, there Caste was thrown to the side. The Marauders were looking for people to man their ships and help to take on jobs being vacated by people that had fled to the cities to escape the drafts in the peninsula.
Others had found places among the farmers in the peninsula, being the ones to grow their food instead of relying on others appealed to them greatly.
The Embers had been the ones to leave in the largest numbers, largely disregarded as the Magmaist houses fought one another with Desari ’ s information creating rifts among them.
The Lavawalkers, those that had been born into the military were the second largest, escaping the machinations of others that would throw them at one another for their own pride.
The Infernist artificers and merchants had eagerly helped them get clear of the city for the right payment, their tuned senses warning them of the dangers to come.
Many had left the peninsula. Though the Embers didn ’ t have anything against the other groups, who understood that they had no power to change what happened in Cinderborn. The Lavawalkers respected those they ’ d fought beside and against. Many had taken up the promise of better training, gear and futures to join the military.
Others went to forge their own paths and destiny, no longer trapped by caste.
The Infernists saw the gold to be made, many continuing to trade without the previous restrictions of the sovereigns. Their crafters flocked to Ilus to learn and make use of their skills.
People are just people. As long as they and their families are safe, they ’ ve got food, water and a little bit extra funds to have fun with, they ’ re all good.
Petor looked back at where they had walked crops were already reaching out of the ground, leaves unfurling at visible speeds.
“ Are you heading to other fields soon? ” Rosalina asked.
“ I ’ ll be heading back into the city soon to help train up the fighting forces, ” Petor said.
“ Like you were doing? ” Rosalina asked.
“ Yeah. ” He hadn ’ t told her, but she must ’ ve got it out of someone else. All of the farmers and the mages lived together while they were working on the fields.
“ My dad said that you grew all of the food that we ’ re eating. ” Rosalina ’ s statement came out as a question.
“ We needed to quickly increase the amount of food we had. I worked with the people in the green houses in a day we could do a month ’ s worth of growing. It allowed us to produce enough for the city and the extra head out to everyone else and bring down the food prices. When I wasn ’ t working there I was training up troops with my friend Valter. ”
“ The armored giant? ” Rosalina asked in a rush, her eyes wide.
Petor let out a laugh imaging Valter ’ s reaction to such an expression. “ Yeah something like that. ”
The day passed steadily, by the time Petor reached the end of the field, where he ’ d started was starting to slow its growth, another pass tomorrow and it could be harvested. Instead they ’ d leave it to finish growing on its own, it was better for the soil and they had time before the growing season wound down.
He walked the rows, the field coming to life behind him as he went. Rosalina chatted to him about everything she found interesting.
His range had reached a hundred meters in every direction, everything within the sphere he could pick up the different densities of mana. Up and down the fields he went.
At the end of his tenth row Rosalina called lunch, already setting out a picnic under the growing trees. Then it was back to wandering the fields once more.
It was tedious work but it would set up the farmers for the winter season and make them ready for the next year.
As he went Petor trained his leeching ability, spreading it further in the sky and through the ground, trying to increase his precision to reach out at the seeds directly.
His range had increased dramatically, and general transference was simple, tethering to a single point was easy enough, several dozen was much harder. In his training fights he was able to stop others from regenerating their mana giving him a greater edge, it still took a cut for him to be able to draw from them and reduce their internal pool.
Rosalina ’ s father walked to the edge of the field and called out.
“ See you mister Petor! ” Rosalina said.
Petor waved her goodbye as she ran for where her father was waiting, the other farmers and mages that had been working on the new fields heading in, clapping him on the shoulder. Some taking in the sight of the field Petor walked in coming to life.
It was good honest work, but it was like a steady pick at the back of his head, he wanted to be with Valter training up troops. Seeing them come together and turn into a team. The need for food had reduced over the last couple of weeks with everyone working together.
I ’ m proud of what we ’ ve done, but I ’ ve got the itch to do more.
Petor finished off the field he was in before heading for the farming village. It had been little more than a half dozen houses, some lean to ’ s and rough fields that were being blown away by the winds.
Now three dozen buildings had been drawn up from the ground. The road was still rough but showed good use, the crops over the last week had already had their first pickup, fattening up everyone ’ s purses.
The fields had jumped up in size. Each family getting their own plot one hundred meters by one hundred meters.
The first beasts were munching their way through several fields, pressing down the ground and adding their own additions to the soil.
If they can keep up the rotations this little farming village will never run hungry and feed dozens of other families.
Carts rolled up to the village, most moved to a large set of squat buildings with rounded tops. They ’ d been the first buildings created for the farmers.
They waved to Petor as they passed, offering him a ride, he waved them on with a smile. The carts picked up pace, farmers sitting on the roughage from the harvested fields.
The Harvested goods went ahead into the village.
Those with the remains of the harvested fields jumped off as they reached the digesters located outside of the village. They were stone buildings with a domed roof with conveyor belts running up to an open section of the dome.
Farmers activated the steam engines connected to conveyor belts. Gears were activated other farmers pushed the waste material from the field from the carts to the belts.
They carried their payload up to the top of the digesters, dropping them into shredders that broke them down, dropping them ontop of the organic material already inside the tanks.
Fans kept air circulating, while temperature runes drew in the surrounding heat. Black gold had been thrown into the digestors first as a starter. Two of the five digesters were already full. When the first ’ s top soil was ready to be removed some of it would remain behind to help out the next batch of organic material thrown in.
The farmers called out to one another, a few of Ilus students were there with them, shovel or fork in hand, helping out and getting the last of the day ’ s work done.
Water sails snapped in the winds, the harshness of the scouring wind had cut down with the trees, near the sails it smelled of fresh clean water. The condensate flowed into a basin through filters and into the aquifer below.
An older boy used a pump, filling up a container his younger sister was holding steady, biting her lip in concentration. Life moved at a different pace than in the cities.
His own memories when he had lived in a farming village were decades and lifetimes ago. Hard to know what happened and what I made up to have some good memories.
His crystal shuddered on his belt, he pulled it out and threaded mana into it as fast as it took him to raise it to his mouth.
“ Petor here, ” He said into the crystal.
“ Hey Petor, just got a job from Jaxus in the water plane. ” Mya said.
“ Valter here.”