I thought about it a little harder, and sighed. "What two Rings were you looking for?" I asked, wincing despite myself.

"Telekinesis and Air Elemental Command."

I winced again. "Damn, you don't shoot low."

"They are two of the most broadly useful magical items anyone can possibly make," she replied without batting an eye. "I'm a big believer in utility magic items, being the tool-using twat that I am. I'll never be able to Siege or Reserve a Gust of Wind or Invisibility spell, or Fly, or Telekinesis at any level. Thus, must have them made. Right now, you're the only one who can make them, so I'm coming to you.

"And I realize the nobility of what you are doing, so I won't expect you to Invest them. Just leave them open and I'll take care of that end of things. I'll even make the raw rings."

I drummed my fingers. Shoving back everyone's Sustaining Rings two days for this… "You'll have to make nine of each of them. QL 40." I didn't doubt she could do it, but it would be required to mass Invest a bunch of them.

Time for her to arch an eyebrow. "I was actually planning on QL 50 so the TK would Invest faster, at 46k Crafting Value. I can certainly make a plain ring at CL 40 without issue. If you want 21k of Value sixteen times over, you're now talking about over a month and a half of my crafting time. I am considerably less adept at Crafting up jewelry than I am Arms or even Armor. So, you're also basically costing me about 3k in production value per day by making me work on lesser projects…

"So, if you think two days of your time is worth 45 days of mine, we are done discussing things, and I'll walk. I'm sure sometime within the next two years, someone else will hit Twelve and be able to make Rings, and I can deal with them on equitable terms."

Well, that certainly made me squirm. She was right, from her viewpoint. She wasn't asking me to spend days doing a full Infusion. I just had to do the initial spell formation, and she could plow gold into them day by day to finish them off… in addition to the Crafting Value that would already be baked into it.

Telekinesis was, as she said, a supremely useful tool, effectively an arm with no substance or mass, and a great long reach. It wasn't all that strong by a pure muscle standpoint, but it was flexible. Someone skilled at TK was a dangerous opponent, and having it baked into a Ring basically removed the main shortcoming of the spell, which was its short duration.

A CL 9 Valence V spell, command word usage, was 81k in Value, or 162 goldweight to Invest. Even with a Runesmith Crafting Value into it, she was still looking at weeks to get it working. If she wanted it literally at-will, that was base 90k.

And somehow, I doubted she wanted it at minimum Caster Level.

And she wanted a Ring of Air Elemental Command!… Damn. That was one of the great multipurpose Rings. Flight, invisibility, wind manipulation, barriers… in addition to some very dominating effects over air Elementals.

I'd like one for myself, even. Heck, I wanted both of them! The TK Ring was awesome, like having an unlimited Valence V spell around for use. The three months to make it could turn some people off, however…

I sighed. "It won't work. You don't have the Feat, and even being a Runesmith won't matter. You'll take a flat -20 on the Spellcraft Check to make the Ring, and we're talking a minimum of 40 for CL 10, 44 for 12, before you start stacking on multispell penalties. You can't Invest it, and I'm not going to spend months doing so for you."

"A -10 penalty per Level low? That is new, and pretty harsh. I wasn't aware of that." She considered that point, losing her hard edge. "So, it turns out I'm going to have be a Twelve to get the Rings I want..."

"There is a potential way around that," I pointed out helpfully.

"All ears, Ringlord," she replied with a head toss. How did she manage to make it look so sensual, looking like that? I really wanted to run my fingers through that hair. Concentrate, thank you, Sage of Focus...

"An Oathring could do what you want. That is basically how I do my Rings now. I Invest the Sustaining Feature during the initial Crafting., but I actually put in the outline for a considerable number of other features that have to be filled by Oathbonded Karma. They include a 1/week Ringjump to my Ring, up to +3 Protection, a Death Ward, and a Non-Detection that can scale all the way up to an Astral Ward."

She lifted an eyebrow. "That's at least a 100k gw-equiv investment in Karma. No… closer to 200k, by the time everything is said and done." She arched that eyebrow at me. It was like a raised sword. "Damn, Ringlord! Does anyone outside your Allegiance know that you're giving away Investable minor Artifacts to your Vassals? They'll go apeshit!"

"When they can hit a 75 Spellcrafting check, they can do whatever they damn well please with their toys, too,” I noted pointedly.

"So they can,” she agreed, just a bit more cautiously at that number. “I don't need a Death Ward or Protection, they are built into my Vest. I don't need Sustaining, the Ringjump is convenient, so the only thing is the scaling anti-div, and Divs are next to useless against a Null of my level.”

"So, picking one of the other Rings and tacking on the extra Ringjump is a possibility. Although, to be honest, I'm not sure anyone would want an Oathring of either thing you mention. Sustaining is too critical. I'd have dross sitting around doing nothing, since you can only have one Oathring,” I countered calmly.

"Is the Oath aspect an addition to the Ring, or central to it?" she inquired lazily. "They'd make nice presents to people who made Twelve."

They would. They'd cost me a Ring and eight hours once; I'd make a Ring for her and have eight partially-Crafted copies I could give away, telling a Twelve they could finish the Infusing at their own pace and cost.

"Which one would you want?" I asked her calmly.

"TK." I smiled despite myself. "VI Valence, double the weightload, max the potential Caster Level with upside for improvement as I Level."

She was going to start with 144k of work to do, 160k with a Ringjump. If the Caster Level could improve, she'd be treading on Minor Artifact Status at 15 CL, although at Valence VI it should top out weightwise at 20 CL.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Damn near six months of bonded Karma just to get the damn thing topped out. I whistled despite myself.

"Any chance you could graduate the effect by Caster Level and Valence?" she asked easily. "Since the only major effect should be the amount of matter it can handle."

I thought about that. A Valence V TK spell was something like twelve kilos per Caster Level. The weight limits of these spells tended to double every Valence. Valence I effects like Mage Hand could only lift a kilo or two. Cantrips couldn't even do that.

By graduating the Valences, she could empower it from I through VI incrementally, and have at least some access to TK during the duration of Infusting it. If she could Craft Value into it, 40k of Value would get her at least 10 kilos of weight she could work with right off the bat… Not a lot, but enough to throw a sword or something not too awful heavy around.

It would be a little more work, as I'd be effectively nesting five lesser spells inside the Valence VI, building up to the final form.

She was aiming for twenty-five kilos a CL, with a CL of 15, at least. 325 kilos was a lot of weight to be able to throw around with a thought.

"First, you must have never built an Oathring or a Class-centered item." She inclined her head. "No, it's not an add-on, it's a fundamental change in the empowerment qualifications of the item. So, I can't make you a Ring, and 'leave off' the Oath part of it. So, you're costing me nine Sustaining Rings."

"Eight," she returned without batting an eye. "I don't need one." She inclined her head slightly. "Nor would anyone else who has a Diamond Vajra. Or Four Pacts. Or Six Dragons."

I opened my mouth and closed it. She had a damn good point with that. The other effects were nice, and gave people something to work for, but could also be taken care of with other items, instead of one Ring.

So, like, right now, Seven and Sole could both get Rings like hers. All the Sources from Upper Valley might like one...

"I think I just hit something important in your head, there," she noticed gleefully.

"I've got two active Sustained Forsaken Vassals, and potentially a whole lot more soon. With Rings as an incentive, I could effectively bump them off the standard Sustaining Rings to one with other effects." It wasn't like Sole needed a Death Ward, or Seven needed Protection. They might lose a few days of Infusion, but so what?

I could always add a plain Sustaining effect to the Ring tomorrow, and the Ringjump, if I desired. Wow, now I was going to seriously have to consider different models of the Oathbound Allegiance Sustaining Rings. Some people would want the rote protective effects, and others would shoot for more versatility.

Still, constant Death Ward. Almost nobody was going to turn that down before we actually went after the Marches. So, unless they had a way of coming up with it for themselves, the standard model would stay the standard Model.

"You're debating what kind of Ring is best for Forsaken wielders." She tilted her head at me. "That depends. Seven would find the flight and air control abilities of Air Elemental Command far more useful than Sole, whereas TK isn't an ability any of his Pacts or Tats grant him. However, he's unlikely to find a use for TK given the sheer plethora of crap his Pacts grant him, and his default offense is using his Wrath, so your default Ring is great for him, despite the Death Ward he doesn't need as a Heavenbound," she analyzed perfectly.

"Cloudstepping Sandals are limited in speed, you've no invisibility or wind control," I noted, having taken measure of her Tats. "Why would you pick TK first?"

"Third hand. Reach. Multiweapon Fighting. Strength synergy and center of gravity abuse. Ranged attack without occupying the hands. Aid Another on yourself when crafting. Ability to hurl myself around, if I drop my Null. Ability to move others around, especially retrievals or removing them from danger zones. Manipulation of distant objects, which dovetails very nicely with Sleight of Hand, trap removal, and door opening. Ability to feel and weigh objects without making physical contact. Ability to assemble and disassemble objects extremely quickly. The ability to walk into a room and dust it with a glance, and shovel my driveway from the doorway."

I considered all of that, and realized she had a point. Free use of telekinesis was pretty freaking awesome. That's probably why it was so many superheroes' primary power. She didn’t want it for the power, but for the versatility. I was pretty sure that right now she could take 300 kilos and toss it across the room physically, she didn't need TK to do that.

She was making me rethink my whole paradigm of passing out Rings. Hah! So like Sama...

"Okay, I'll handle it this way. I'll make nine TK Rings, with Ringjump and Sustaining as add-ons. You can choose not to Infuse the latter if it's not needed, and it's a minor expenditure, Karma-wise. That way, I can simply announce them as variant Sustaining Rings for those who want something different, such as Artificers who can satisfy the other protections themselves."

She nodded, not disagreeing with that. "Is the QL on the rings going to be a problem?"

"No, I run them at 45+ regardless. Multiple spells and the high CL force it. I will have to make some schedule shifts so that those who want the TK Rings can get here and participate in the Ritual. Will that be enough for you?"

"If you make an Air Elemental Command Ring, I want one. #2 on the priority list, after yourself." I pursed my lips. That meant a non-Allegiance standard one. Which was doable, and tradable. I just didn't know what I would bother to trade it for, really, and it would have to be Infused the old-fashioned way, not through combat or Allegiance Karma.

Ehhhhh... I could have my Vassals cycle turns getting mine up, since my personal Investing time was totally taken up for at least two years for making Rings at this point, and likely longer...

"Granted." Terms settled, we both relaxed a bit. "So, tell me what I'm getting by welcoming you aboard, what you expect out of me, yada-yada."

"First, I expect you to give me your Primos military." I blinked at the pure chutzpah of that. I had a LOT of Primos military. "But only if you want Warlord bonuses applying to every soldier who can get a Mark from me, telepathic coordination and communication with them, possibly using a Ringlink to hook into the /tell system of the Powered.”

No, no, I couldn’t possibly want any of that for them, nopers, not me...

"Two, I can guarantee that any Primos who is Marked by me is going to reach Seven sooner rather than later."

Okay, my expression changed at that remark, it was pretty obvious. Of course, having direct telepathic contact with a Deep Ten of her capabilities was, yeah, insurance better than anything I could do just being a Monarch and radiating down on them from On High. Monarch’s Mantle only did so much.

"Three, I can apply a Mark in roughly two minutes. If you want to arrange for civilian Primos to get Marked, I can apply the Intelligence Mark and instantly apply any two Skills I know that you want them to learn. As for the soldiers, I generally apply the Constitution Mark, since I want them to become Forsaken and advance their Nulls.” And if they wound up to be Nulls, well, since she could put three on them at that time, Strength and Charisma would be #’s 2 and 3...

It also made great sense. Soldiers needed to be tough and live, and Nulls wanted Con before anything else. Skill and magic Weapons would make up the rest.

"Four, I can forge 12k a day in Swords or 11k a day in Armor or non-sword Weapons. My other work is a bit lower, in the 9k range."

"Waitwaitwait." I waved my hand and woke up again. "You can Value Craft 12k a day in Swords?"

She nodded slowly at my words. "Yes. I've an Anvil of Silent Thunder, Shaping Tools, and my personal Floating Forge. I've a speed Modifier in the 80's, a Quality modifier in the 60's, and x4 or 5 from Gear, with relevant Masteries, Feats, et al." She waved her hand lightly, as if it all was to be expected.

Well, holy shit! 12k a day in production! That meant she could take blocks of steel and pound out six +I Swords at QL 26 in eight hours, literally world-class quality pre-magic. Magic Weapons took two days to Invest/Infuse, at 1k a day of gold/Karma value for the 2k needed to become magical. We had a bunch of smiths who could pound out a QL 26 weapon, and a bunch of people who could Infuse 1k a day, generating a magic Weapon every 2 days.

She was doing both jobs. That was like replacing 24 people. Skilled people, too, as QL 26 was nothing shabby, and was pretty much the minimum we wanted anyone to be wielding if possible.

Or she could pop a +II Sword, and 2 +I's at QL 32. I whistled again. Right to a Vivic or Bane Weapon. Hells, she could pop the Slaughter and add the first optional Bane on it right then, or Arsenal and add an alternate!

I now intimately understood why certain master smiths were wooed so hard by ancient kings...