World Sphere - 213 - The Rising Tide Raises All Ships

I landed the Maelstrom softly on the academy tower, disembarking with the cats. Bleiz was off to check on Freya, so I was alone this morning. I took a long moment to admire the view from the tallest structure in this part of the city. The foundations for some of the academy apartments were being laid ahead of schedule. There was also a lot of other construction going on throughout the city. The avian race that had once ruled the floating island had built magnificent tall white buildings. Many of these remained in the capital, but in Aegis City most had fallen in battles of been torn down to use the stone elsewhere.

I noted one of the new buildings might block the academy's line of sight to the Frost Vault dungeon entrance—the scaffolding was already getting close. That irked me a little. I descended to the Sana office. She was buried under a mountain of papers but broke into a grin on seeing me. I looked in the echo stone broadcast room, and Mera was announcing the daily news and waved. I returned the wave and sat with Sana. 

“I noticed the building going up on Angelic Way,” I said, somewhat disappointed. Kiara growled in shared displeasure, followed by Adrial, who didn’t want to be left out.

Sana threw up her hands, “I know! Someone is putting up a five-story apartment building!”

“Can we buy it and tear it down? Maybe we could have the city council establish some regulations regarding the height of future buildings?” I asked seriously. 

Sana laughed, “The hubris of the High Mage!” When she stopped laughing, she calmly informed me, “The city ordinances are fixed, but we can petition for future construction limitations. I enjoy being the tallest structure within three blocks. Your name will carry weight, but I will need to grease the wheels of bureaucracy.” 

“With gold, I assume?” I grumbled, and she nodded, grinning. I was hoping that was all I had done for the city and islands, my desires would not be met with resistance, but Sana had warned me that everyone knew I had the gold, so I wanted their piece. 

“Fine. Do it. And the building?” I asked.

“I was already considering purchasing it. It is four blocks from the academy, but it could be a satellite apartment building for instructors, and we can move the few left out of the Shiny Platinum—though they will not be happy leaving.” I waved off her concerns, as any instructor could eat free at the Shiny Platinum, although the food at the academy was just as good. 

Then I changed my mind, “Leave a few of the more competent instructors at the Shiny Platinum. My mother and sister…” I left the rest unsaid, and Sana nodded knowingly.

We quickly planned to purchase the building and limit its height to three stories, but like everything in Skyholme these days, it would not be a cheap purchase. I found Sana had her fingers on the pulse of a lot of things going on in Aegis City. It was the second biggest city in Skyholme and slightly more desirable because our port currently handled more skyship traffic. Sana knew the developer, one of Loriel’s newly minted citizens in the capital. He was planning to build luxury apartments, so it wouldn’t take much to convert them for academy use. 

The conversation then turned to Admiral Sebastian’s offer for me to accompany the assault fleet and my intention of selling my surplus skyships to Skyholme. Sana reclined in her chair. “The Bruton Orcs. I visited their kingdom once about one hundred years ago—brutal society. But not lazy and very competent fighters.” She seemed to be reflecting before continuing, “I think their weakness was a lack of mages. Yes, that is what I recall. They value strength and a warrior’s prowess over all else and suppressed their people who displayed abilities outside that sphere, pushing them into other roles in fear of them taking control.”

“Why were you in the Bruton Kingdom?” I inquired, curious.

Sana grinned a little, “Following a foolish man who thought he could change the Sphere.” She cut short her thought. “Enough about my past. When is the expedition to the Goblin Vault?”

“I will talk with Talia and Mia today to see if we have a crew and two delve teams. I still need aether crystals for the Bacon and Eggs. Do you still plan to attend the first runs and train the teams on auditing a dungeon?” I asked. Sana did not react to the ship’s unconventional name.

“Elijah, five promising students, and I are going to the Goblin Vault, and we thought we could turn it into a little field trip,” she said, holding back her smirk.

“Candidates for Shiny Platinum Delving?” I asked, interested. One of the reasons I was attending my own academy was to identify potential recruits and get their impressions on the education.

“You asked me not to pressure anyone into joining your Delving Guild.” She cracked a smile. “But yes, they are interested—they are all first years: two scouts, two front liners, and a healer. Once the recruiters start bringing in students from the lowlands next year, you should have a plethora of talent interested in your guild, Strome,” Sana patiently explained.

“Unless they are like Gareth,” I scoffed.

“Yes. Some delvers want to prove themselves without any outside assistance. Gareth is a special case as well. He is trying to live up to someone he cannot,” Sana said a little pointedly. 

I dropped the subject, and the conversation shifted to the integration training with guards and the Navy for the defense of Skyholme. One thing that irritated me during the last two attacks was that adventurers did not always go out of their way to defend Skyholme when it was under threat. During the Bricio insurrection, it was somewhat understandable as they might not have been privy to what was going on. If they had supported the Bricios, things could have gone far differently.

However, during the Black Marauder, too few adventurers put their skills toward defending the city. I had taken a number of steps to change this. I rewarded those who did contribute to the defense with coins and even some tier-one dungeon essences in public ceremonies. Then, Sana introduced a mandatory course at the Dungeon Academy for defending Aegis City.

All students had to perform one of three actions in a defense: damage mitigation, protecting the populace, or attacking the enemy. I was extremely angry when Guildmaster Huckle refused to apply the same requirements to the Adventurer’s Academy in the capital. His excuse was that adventurers, by their nature, were not beholden to any rulers. It was just another reason that I hated the man.

After reviewing the city's defense schema, the academy’s charity healing work, and the progress with the new building efforts, I left a massive pile of echo stones for Sana before leaving. With the communication stone, I learned that Talia and Mia were at the Shiny Platinum, so the cats and I took the Maelstrom on the short hop. 

On landing, the hanger was filled with lumber for building the skiffs and taxis. Remy must have received a shipment. I found Rippon working with the black treant wood we had procured from the Goblin Vault. I paused to talk with him on the way up to the common room. The old shipwright seemed to get more enthusiastic every time we spoke—but his good-natured complaints about being too old to be working this hard seemed to double as well.

Remy was in the meeting room with Talia and Mia. They all looked haggard and offered me weak smiles as I entered and sat. Around the room were chalkboards of endless scrawl of fiscal calculations and notes—mostly by Remy’s hand. I smiled at my team, “So when does the first dungeon audit expedition depart?” I asked and Remy rolled his eyes at me.

“We don’t have the skiffs, gunners, or pilots trained to handle the bulettes. Talia is willing to station only one team there for a month for an initial survey. The Bacon and Eggs doesn't have an aether crystal power core, and Cilia thinks she needs four months to train a loyal crew for the dungeon hopper,” Remy said, exasperated. 

“So tomorrow?” They glared at me as they didn’t find me funny at the moment. “Well, Sana and Elijah plan to take a young delve team from the academy on a training field trip. I will find you some crystals after a little excursion to the Bruton Kingdom with a Skyholme-Sadian mixed fleet. As for the crew, we can ground one of the merchants.”

“No,” Remy said in a pleading tone. “The trade network is too fragile to miss any trade legs. We have contracts to uphold and deadlines for supply deliveries.”

He was sincere, and I know he was building a very interconnected trade network. I sighed, “Okay, we won’t do that. So, we are calling the Bacon and Eggs a dungeon hopper?” I asked to break the tension.

“I came up with it,” Talia said proudly. “A class of ship that just brings delve teams to dungeons and protects them before hopping back to unload their harvest.”

“I like it,” I said, nodding to her. 

I looked to Mia. I had been friends with Mia since I defeated her in qualifications for the Annuals. She had followed me to Hens Hollow to train under Callem, and we had gotten along so well I made her in charge of my guards at the Shiny Platinum. She was only a year older than me, but she was now one of Skyholme's most desirable employers since we treated our guards so well. “I don’t understand why we cannot recruit crew for the dungeon hoppers. I thought you had hundreds of applications.”

Mia flushed, “I do—for guards for warehouses, the academy, and other buildings. The local academy has a plethora of graduates every cycle, and we pay more than anyone else in Skyholme.” She took a deep breath, “But as Cilia has reminded me, skyships are vastly different. There is a shortage of sailors, navigators, and pilots. Running a taxi skiff from island to island is not the same as taking a hundred-ton ship into the sky and being able to defend against pirates, dragons, and other flying pests.”

“So, what do you need to make it happen?” I asked as I scanned the writing on the walls.

Mia looked at Remy for support, and he nodded. “If you want to crew a new dungeon hopper and trade ship every year, we need our own merchant marine academy.”

I rubbed my forehead; the Dungeon Academy was already a massive coin sink, but I was optimistic that there would be a substantial return for Shiny Platinum Delving and Skyholme in the new future. “I cannot afford another Academy. Can’t you just recruit from the lowlands?”

“Cilia thought loyalty would be an issue, especially with the value of your skyships,” Talia replied. I nodded in agreement as the mithril in my artificing would make them a tempting target. Loyalty was not guaranteed from training them ourselves, but one thing Skyholme had always excelled at was taking impressionable youth into academies and instilling loyalty to the Triumvirate through them.

“It would also solve our shortages for our traders. Cilia and Leda have been pulling their hair out training unqualified crew,” Remy offered with some muted excitement. I frowned at him as he was always tight on the purse strings, and now her wanted to sponsor an entire other Academy—well, he wanted me to sponsor it.

“Tell me what you came up with,” I relented. The truth was I had thought this was a real possibility, just not this soon.

Remy excitedly dove in, “Three skilled positions are needed on a skyship: a navigator, an artificer, and a pilot. It typically takes three years of academy training to be deemed proficient. In addition, I was looking at your swivel cannons. I think we can train gunner and spotter crews in six months, but since they would be targeted in a fight, you would have to add hazard pay.” I was curious how Remy went back and forth with using we and you. When something needed to be paid for, it was you—as in me. Otherwise, he used the term “we.”

After listening to his pitch, I wanted to object, as a navigator could be taught in about three months as long as they had solid math skills and an understanding of the Sphere maps available in the Adventuring Guilds. A pilot could be trained in an afternoon if the ship was well-artificed. Aether cannon gunners could be trained in an afternoon.

“What about artificers?” I asked about the missing part of the equation for a large ship. You needed to have one on board in case something went wrong with the runic script or the ship took damage.

“They would need four tier-two spells to be effective,” Talia said. “That is eight precious slots on an aether matrix for a mage. It also takes a certain amount of patience and steady hand.”

“Your solution?” I asked, starting to get a little impatient.

“The Mage Academy in the capital allows you to sponsor mage candidates, pay for their spells, and require a term of service,” Talia offered.

That was how Skyholme used to function. Poor youths with potential were identified in their first year at the academy, and then the nobles would swoop in to offer to pay for their advanced training in exchange for a term of service—slavery in my mind. This was why I established the Dungeon Academy as I did—everyone was on full scholarship and advanced based on their own merit. 

“We cannot wait five to seven years for them to graduate from the Mage Academy. Talk to Sana about setting up a special department for artificing at the Dungeon Academy to fast-track skyship artificers. Just like other students, they will attend for free. As for the spells—” I tapped drummed my fingers on the table, doing the math in my head. It would be about two hundred gold for the simplest spells to help in artificing. The tier three versions of those spells would make much better artificers but require 16 slots on their aether matrix and cost quadruple the cost of the spells themselves.

“We will only accept those willing to imprint the tier three spell versions for manipulating metal, wood, recall, and a steady hand. That puts us at an investment of around one thousand gold per mage?” I asked, looking at Remy.

“Good. Tell Sana to limit the class to ten per year. We will use the instructors from the Dungeon Academy, but I will pay their tuition and fees myself,” I said determinedly. “Sana can set up a two-year course to help them gain competency.” 

“And you will require a term of service?” Remy said excitedly.

“No. Skyholme desperately needs specialized artificers for the Navy and trades. I hope we can offer them a fair wage to serve aboard our dungeon hoppers and trade ships, but I will leave the decision to them,” I said.

“That’s ridiculous,” Remy said, exasperated at my generosity.

I shrugged, “I hope they will feel appreciative and become part of Shiny Platinum Delving. But having employees who are resentful of being forced to service is worse. I am sure you can put together an appealing employment offer.” I looked at the three people at the table and wished Cilia was also here. They all slowly nodded.

We then shifted our discussion to the Merchant Marine Academy, which I decided would be located outside of Solaris City, near Hen’s Hollow. I now owned several plots of land there, including Twin Rocks Lake. Construction would begin immediately on a small Merchant Marine Academy on the shore of the lake. Remy was confident it would be finished by the start of the next year and the start of the new term.

Remy also had an update on the skiff-taxis. We experienced our first day of breaking even, largely thanks to a grand formal ball hosted by Loriel. Although it was just one day of positive revenue, I considered it a promising sign. 

I stood. “Good. I will talk to Callem about instructors. Many of the old guard who came out of retirement to defend Skyholme have since retired again. Maybe they would be interested in guiding the youth.” Besides having a skyship at the Merchant Marine Academy and artificing the swivel aether cannons, it was not going to be a large investment as it was only going to be a two-year academy with classes of a hundred. Remy thought we could source stone from the dwarves cheaply for most of the construction.

I deferred talking with Callem to try and solve one of my other pressing problems—aether stones large enough to power skyships. Liberating them from pirate ships and others dumb enough to attack the Maelstrom had worked so far, but we needed a reliable supply of quality stones.

I landed the Maelstrom outside the Duskhunters Guildhouse near the progenitor dungeon. The cats thundered down the ramp ahead of me, and the large gates were already swinging open. Marigold, the dark elf illusionist, greeted me as we entered the fortification grounds. “High Mage! Business or pleasure?”

“Business. Is Relik available?” I asked as we shook wrists. She was one of Relik’s team members, and since she was here, it was a good possibility he would be as well.

“He is watching after a few novices in the dungeon. They should be back soon as they are only clearing the first level. Can I interest you in some Dorian wine?” We walked into their hall and up the stairs to a common room. 

Jasper lounged with a cup of amber liquid and toasted me as I entered, “High Mage.”

Jasper joined us as we waited for Relik’s return. “Is there anything I can help with?” Marigold asked.

“Say no,” Jasper said snarkily. “Last time she offered, I found myself two weeks on the smallest skyship in the Sphere, going to a dungeon no one had ever heard of.” Jasper kept speaking but he had been silenced by the illusionist. He threw up his hands in defeat and sipped from his cup.

“I was hoping to contract the Duskhunters for tier seven aether crystals for skyships,” I said.

Both delvers’ faces went placid before Marigold answered. “While we do regularly harvest tier seven crystals from the depths of some dungeons, they are much too small for a skyship, and we have long-standing contracts for any such crystals over 100 units.”

“I just assumed,” I gestured at their opulent guild hall.

“The Duskhunters are one of the strongest guilds in ten thousand miles, but crystals that size—very few dungeons offer them, and they are deep in treacherous dungeons. A delve for one might take a week or more,” she explained.

I knew even the Cavern of the Thunder Witch, which had 20 levels, didn’t even offer crystals large enough to power a large skyship. I just figured the Duskhunters could be contracted to go to a dungeon that did. Relik took this moment to return. He thundered into the room, “Storme! Saw the Maelstrom outside! I hope you have an interesting reason for being here.”

Jasper, whose timeout had ended, spoke up, “He was skyship grade aether crystals.”

Relik blew an uncharacteristic raspberry as he sat, pouring himself some wine. The dark elf took a long pull. “Unlikely, unless Galaeron approves an expedition. Even then, it would cost what it would on the open market in larger cities. Unless you are looking for harmonized crystals...”

As Relik drained the bottle, he explained that the creatures that dropped tier-seven aether crystals were immensely dangerous. It was easier to obtain such powerful crystals from a dungeon reward chest than to kill the monster that would yield such a prize. Unfortunately, all dungeons that rewarded such crystals regularly were controlled by conglomerate guilds that had widespread influence in the Sphere—some even rivaled the power of the Adventurers Guild. Most of those crystals were destined for sale in the Outer Sphere.

It made the set of six harmonized crystals I had on the Maelstrom even more valuable. The only way to obtain harmonized crystals was by defeating the same creature in a dungeon when it reset. I thanked the Duskhunters for their time. It was going to be a long while before Shiny Platinum Delving had a team capable of farming such crystals.

Aelyn was back at the Black Spire when I returned for the evening. I cooked her a romantic dinner while she told me what was happening in Loriel’s Court. It was hard to pay attention to things I cared nothing about, but I made the effort. Aelyn seemed to think that understanding the fashion trends in the court was an indication of who was gaining more power. 

The only troubling thing she mentioned was that some of Loriel’s new citizens were becoming more frequent visitors and gaining some influence. I didn’t like that outsiders were already trying to leverage their gold politically. Skyholme had always been an isolationist kingdom, and we had enough politics with the Triumvirate. Now, dozens of new citizens wanted to press their influence on decisions.

The meal was bacon-wrapped chicken filled with sharp and mild cheese topping. I had made enough to feed ten people, so the cats could share. A naval officer delivered a message while we ate. The fleet would sail tomorrow evening for the Bruton Kingdom. Bringing a fleet together in two days indicated it had been in the works for some time. 

“What was the message?” Aelyn asked.

“Just an excuse to miss classes tomorrow,” I smiled back.

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