Techno-Heretic

Chapter 129

Eli POV

For the first time in too long, I was sitting at the dining table and frostbite wasn't being served. Behind me was the door into the hallway and ahead was the kitchen. Despite the withdrawal of winter's murderous intent, my fingers strumming on the table were chilled and the fluffy leather coat was still required inside the house and for now, a brown cloth face covering. Even with the glow of a mana lamp above, winter was in the air and stone floor, if injured.

The house would be dead silent if not for the crunching of nuts. On the chair to my left was Cell. His black mass tinted with the colors of all the magical elements was currently taking in his favored treat while the crystal sphere, now a bit oblong, had a slit of those same colors which served as an eye. An eye currently shifting between me and the treats.

*Knock*

*Knock*

The expected drumming on the door to the right, which served as the main entrance to my home, made me suck in air while Cell used a wind spell to launch him and his prize under the stone stove along the opposite wall.

"If you are expected, please come in. Otherwise, wait until tomorrow." I called through the grey cloth face covering.

Despite the warning, the door was still pushed open to let in some faint starlight. Red hair came through the crack before the rest of Ashe's body followed. Her blue lips were slightly puckered as her green eyes took in the bare abode. That small nose sniffed the air and it was a testament to winter's retreat that no clouds came out of it to flow over her furry brown coat that covered everything up to her pale neck.

"Tilvor, I've often prided myself on not needing the luxuries of other rulers. But an existence that makes a beggar seem well-coined is beyond even my rugged pride." She put in as she walked across the room.

"Not waking up in fear of a Skinner attack is the greatest luxury of all. As you've seen out there, we've made good progress yet there is still more to do. Things that will require a full night's sleep." I said as she sat down in front of me.

"You think my time so free that I would waste it visiting on idle conversation?" Ashe demanded with a raised eyebrow.

I tried to not notice the light green wind spell forming in her palm. The hand was raised and the mana construct went off making the air compress as silence enveloped the outerworld. Her disdain for using spirit connections was well known, so that left such spells when she wanted to discuss items of the utmost secrecy. A clandestine item I had a good chance of already knowing.

"It's been a week since you've retaken that rock on the sea. Perhaps your plate isn't as full as mine with the pirates scurrying south." I offered.

A smirk of blue lips greeted my conjecture.

"Their mayhem pushed aside a lot of items needing my attention. Now that they're gone, that backlog is making itself loudly known. In all honesty, it was probably less demanding when people knew not to bother me as I was saving the North."

Salamede saved the North. I yawned into the cloth face covering to hide any irritation that may have shown up on my face. Ashe continued without any hint that she picked up on the emotion.

"But another…. Issue has arisen. Tilvor, I need to confirm some information Princess Palta gave me about certain…. Aspects. Of your…."

I molded my eyebrows into a V that would convey how annoying I found her stumbling words. The redhead got the message as she sighed before taking a deep breath.

"I need to confirm the condition of your manhood."

Eyebrows were appropriately raised for both of us. Of course, she would only be asking this if she worried about the green women getting my seed. A fear brought on by them taking magical crafts.

"Your ability is great, Lady Ashe. Our children would surely be of even greater ability, besides their magical gifts. I still feel such a coupling should require more time to consider."

Her blue lips soured into a pucker. Some red came up into her pale cheeks but she managed to keep her spine straight.

"I am not asking for your pulp. There is…. An issue a man of the Watch has brought to my attention. It involves the Orcs. Given that, I need to make sure that the green menace is not in reach of obtaining your magical bloodline."

This time I gave a curious furrowing of my eyebrows.

"If they could do it now, they could do it before. Why the sudden inspection?" I asked with the confusion the odd circumstance demanded.

"It involves an accusation too catastrophic to make, even behind a silence bubble. That is all that I can say. If it helps, I promise to coo at its size like in the dreams of all men."

Gula was waiting for me, so this conversation needed to end soon anyway. I rose out of the chair while working on the rope holding up the black pants. A second of fumbling cold cloth finally let me push down the needed bits.

Pants and underwear gave way to expose the flesh beneath to chill air. At the joining of my legs was a blank slate of skin where one of life's great pleasures had been. In its stead, a simple hole for the emptying of the bladder.

"Thank you. The inspection is finished." Ashe offered in a harried whisper.

As I was putting the clothes back in place, it occurred to me how disturbed she sounded at the sight of missing genitalia. That this world's people were so dedicated to their flesh provided some amusement at odd times. Not stupid when you've only got the one, but it tickled some part of me all the same.

"Is there anything else?" I asked. "It's been fun but sleep is calling. And she's a guest that doesn't demand much."

"Three questions," Ashe said with a sucking in of winter air. "I've been content to leave this project under your care in its entirety. And will continue to do so. But some have expressed concern over what exactly you're building. Most of the workers don't seem to know either. Something to ease their concerns and cull rumors would be appreciated as my project is dependent on this success of this one."

I collected my thoughts and spun together the needed information. Then I butchered it down until it was easily digestible for the general public.

"The portion at the outer walls will be structures for growing plants while the inside portion will be large blocks of buildings sporting walls higher and thicker than the outer one. These will shops, homes, smiths, and on, and on. Beneath it all will be tunnels, stores of siege equipment, and food stores. That is excluding many, many smaller details and makes it sound far simpler than it is, but that is the short of it."

Ashe gave me a slight nod as her red eyebrows came together.

"Given my house's underground structures, I have some familiarity with the challenges. If you have any concerns with protecting against fires and such, I will make our architects available."

I've spent more time going over safety specifications while taking a shit than any of you lot have been alive. A thousand times over!

….

My eyes closed as I sucked in winter. The heat working up the lower portions of my neck was relaxed. Pride was one of the great sins. And I shouldn't let it get its claws into me like it has every other craftsman who has ever existed.

"If it would soothe those with concerns, I can have your people look over my drawings. Getting Harrah's thumb proper was the hardest part and that's been seen too, so there shouldn't be any surprises to find."

She gave me a small nod before coughing.

"What defenses do you have against the undermining of the city?"

"Wood hardened to steel. Even a plant mage can't move it with ease and moles won't have a better time. That's besides the fact each section is designed to stand on its own. Most of the military equipment will be on the border wall, which I'm not willing to divulge just yet."

Another nod.

"Some time ago you had a visit from the leader of the Kelton mage clan." Ashe put in without stating the important question.

A pleasant memory came and went before I drew a long breath.

"Aye. Was I wrong to assume the bartering between mages was something treated with privacy?" I countered with puckering lips.

"It's the future exchanges I'm worried about. Will you barter for the reconstitution of your manhood?"

Many a lewd sayings danced on my tongue but her green eyes were too hard for playful words.

"You cannot regrow what was never there. As I told Palta."

Ashe sat still before taking a deep breath.

"She informed me in passing among a thousand other items. I knew it but this is not something I can leave to fickle memory."

A gulp went down the pale throat.

"In consideration for the…. Discomfort of this conversation, I'll have the kitchen send a meal of steaks, crabs, and our best drinks tomorrow as a thank you for your time."

Was I going to refuse? No. Not that the small smile beneath the face covering would let me.

"A pleasant evening to look forward to." I offered as Ashe rose from the chair.

She gave me one final nod before moving towards the exit. I followed suit with my journey taking me to the right door. Once she was gone and the front door shut, the hallway door was pulled open. The shaft of grey stone presented a door down both sides which a mana lamp above illuminated.

I took the one on the right. Inside was the bed against the far wall, a desk on the left, and a wooden plate on the immediate left of the door. All glowing under a mana lamp above. I pressed the wooden slab, to the sound of rushing water filling the air beyond that of the surrounding river. The explanation I gave everyone was that the layers of liquid currently covering the building, save key spots for ventilation, were to alert me to intruders and add a layer of protection against brute force.

True, yet its main purpose of letting me know nighttime visitors had come knocking when I was in the tunnel was left unsaid.

A press on the ceiling mana lamp plunged the room into darkness. Fortunately, memory remained undimmed as it saw me to the bed. When the cold wood smacked against my knees, I crouched down below the bed frame. This part was a recent addition, so recollection wasn't quite as clear. Seconds of groping over chilly stone finally produced the needed dip. A finger was moved north and another east.

Air rushed over my upper torso, relieving my skin of any warmth it had accumulated. With that wind came the almost imperceptible grinding of rock. Blind hands groped further down until the top of a wooden ladder was finally brushed. Practice made pulling my body into place over the hole a smooth affair.

Leather boots slapped against the ladder steps until my head was no longer cramped under the mattress. A few more steps were taken before I fixed the stone slab back into place. Seconds of climbing down passed before memory said the wood slab was on the right, prompting me to put out my hand to the right.

It lied.

I took three more steps down and finally my right hand felt the needed piece. The instant my thumb pressed the center, black void blasted away in a golden glow courtesy of a mana lamp behind me. Looking down revealed I was less than halfway to the stone floor. Time passed in the circular shaft without the expected creaking of wood, courtesy of the ladders magical strength. Each step came with a complimentary bit of pain in my feet, which arrived with every step.

Some impatience started setting in when my foot finally hit stone. Distance from the bed was always going to be an issue but I made this tunnel as short as I possibly could. Not that it made the travel any less irritating. As I turned around, the reason behind the addition presented itself.

Gula leaned on the wall to the left with her bowl of pitch hair swaying slightly from herturn to me. A leather coat with a fluffy collar and white shirt helped soften the stone wall behind her, though they couldn't bring down her tense shoulders. Black pants didn't take to the golden light as well but her figure in it drew my eyes all the same. The green woman had a bang of black hair on her right eye with an almost matching scar on the left one going over the pitch orbs and golden irises. A small smile broke out above her sharp chin as I approached while pushing aside the cloth face covering.

"What took-"

I silenced her lips with my own. Any distance between us was crushed as I pulled her into me and hot vinegar steeped in spice and smoke filled my mouth.

'Eli!' She scolded inside my head from a buzz along my forehead.

'What's the problem? You seem stressed. More than what my delay would deserve.' I asked in the spirit connection as I forced my tongue past her teeth.

'You're messing up my coat.' She pouted in an attempt to sound upset.

Seeing that we were at that stage of the game, I pulled back a bit.

"Hm?"

The disappointed moan from my Orc wife nearly shattered my heart, so I immediately went back in. When it came to Salamede, I could be a bit playful and circumspect with my affection. Gula, I found, needed her love dial immediately brought to ten with attending aggression. Part of that was no doubt the constant need for assurance of my consent but I sensed some pleasure at driving me to be a beast. So a beast she would get.

'Sally is waiting and she brought some papers.' Gula groaned as her golden eyes stared into mine with the horizontal scar across her nose prominently displayed.

'What for?' I asked as I forced her jaw to open further.

'It….She's….'

'Yes?' I asked again to an accompanying assault on her gums.

'It's hard to concentrate when I'm getting my tongue sucked out! Bastard.' The Orc scolded as she wrapped her hands around my neck to pull me closer.

The need for fussing had apparently been satisfied as the green woman closed her eyes and melted into my arms. Groping palms continued their perusing unobstructed and she even shifted her coat to allow me better access to her chest. With the prize in hand, I gave myself over to need.

Minutes of kissing and squeezing passed before oral motions became an appetizer to the main course. My right hand worked its way up her shirt to undo the bra beneath. Something about the tug on the inner cloth snapped Gula's eyes open. She then pulled her face away with a pop.

"The orphanage. They're having trouble getting it into a solid place and need your help getting some of the needed bits down."

Knowing her objection was sincere this time, I put a hand around her left hip as we walked down a crude stone hallway together. At the end was a wooden door, to which I paid little attention. The Orc adjusted bits of her clothing as we walked before fussing at some of mine. As she worked an errant piece of grey hair on my left temple, I decided to let my malcontent become known.

"And what have homeless orphans done for me?" I mused with puckered lips.

She raised a right eyebrow with her small smile. The swat across my belly was equally playful as she rested the bowl of black hair on my left shoulder.

"In fact, they've only taken. I was a hair away from getting that horrid bra off."

Her head turned up with a frown as the door came within a stone toss away.

"It doesn't look that bad. The tailor made it out of some good cotton."

"Anything that blocks my view of those most precious things is a work of unspeakable evil." I put in with an outstretched chin.

Those gold eyes rolled with the weight only a woman could manage. Her frown, however, turned to a smile. Instead of a kiss or teasing swipe, she broke free of my grasp on her hip and ran until she was in front of the door. The turn she gave on the spot made the golden light dance around her. More than that, her very being exuded happiness.

It was in the smile that reached her eyes, the casual swing of her arms with her turn, and buzz in her step. Twenty-some years of being ground to death under poverty, a sinful bloodline, and the constant drilling of being a rapist into her soul would never leave her, as things in the formative years never really did, but what was before me was a woman of happiness swept up in a moment more precious than any jewel to be found in this world.

Watching her, I decided here and now that it had all been worth it. The hell in the swamps, nights of worry over necromancers coming to snatch me back, all the backbreaking agony in setting up one massive project after the other. Having the scared and harried green woman I first met in that fort be transformed into this bouncing Orc of joy justified all of it.

"Well, I only ever wanted to do good." She announced with a wicked grin as her hands gripped her shirt.

The offending clothing was pulled up. Gula also made sure to catch the white bra in the tug. Green, palm-sized orbs plopped down on her ribs, exposing dark green nipples to the winter air. All the while a teasing shift of her hips made sure the two breasts swayed back and forth with the occasional push against the leather coat, lighting up millions of years worth of lizard brain like a galaxy of stars.

Oh, it was definitely worth it.

"Perhaps after I do enough of these good deeds- EEK!" She squealed with a big smile and pull backwards as I dashed forward.

I couldn't say for certain what I was going to do with my legs when I caught her, but my mouth and hands had no lack of ideas.

Gula tried to make a retreat while fighting down a laugh. She opened the door and slammed it shut but the green woman was too late, for I had seen too much to be stopped by any mere piece of wood. I stormed through with only a slight pushback from the woman on the other side. My entrance revealed Gula with her breasts still jostling about from the shove. I strode forward to bring my prizes in hand.

"Ahem,"

The voice came from behind Gula and memory instantly placed it. My wife's cheeks went a darker shade of green as the errant bra and shirt were adjusted while I fixed the cloth face covering. Beyond her was a long table of wood with matching chairs. At the opposite side of the room was another door sporting an oil lamp illuminating it all. The black shirt with a collar sporting a white square and equally pitch pants of bishop Sally sitting at the end of the table seemed to absorb said light.

Short grey hair reflected some of the caged fire while her gold eyes took us both in. The sharp nose sucked in air while bit lips went white above a sharp chin.

"You are both married, correct?" She asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yes," We both answered at the same time.

"Ceremony and all?"

My mouth moved to explain but Gula cut in first.

"He asked and I said yes. Any ceremony we were going to have was delayed with us keeping everyone alive."

The bishop nodded with a casual shrug.

"The lord commands us to be fruitful and share in the bonds of all loves. Familial, friendly, parental, and sexual. He only asks that the latter be done in the bonds of marriage. I only ask it not be done on the table."

Despite the interruption, a smile still came to me under the face covering. Gula, if she was equally amused, did a better job of hiding it with puckered lips.

"Still," The bishop continued with a small smile, "I suspect we'll be having some additions to the Sunday school roster if you enjoy your coupling for so many hours of the day. Even during times when those hours have been designated for other purposes."

"Unfortunately," I interrupted before Gula could let loose the barb clearly poised on her tongue. "The woman who took your allotted portion of my time isn't here. Lady Ashe came by demanding those hours with almost no notice."

Any irritation in Gula or prodding from Sally evaporated. Both Orcs leaned toward me with shoulders that raised alongside their eyebrows.

"Was it about our expansion?" The bishop asked with a breathless voice.

I took a deep breath as the conversation was recalled.

"Probably. 'Two very powerful mage guilds just handed a trove of magic tools over to the Orcs' wasn't an accusation she was prepared to make, not in a spirit connection or a bubble of silence. But her questions made it obvious. She threw a big fuss about making sure my…. Male part was secure. If they suspect the extent of the compromise, I haven't been made aware of it. Which means I'll have every justification for fury and inability to fix it down the line."

Gula seemed satisfied but Sally's puckered lips didn't reflect that feeling.

"Then my task here is all the more vital. Our holding around your abode has been settled. Getting a housing section for the little ones while maintaining the structural integrity of the surrounding buildings has proven challenging. The architects could get it done but that would require time that is badly needed elsewhere."

The request now clear, I moved away from Gula's side towards the Bishop who produced the needed pages from a previously unseen sack on the floor. On it were neat lines showing a section between two other buildings and some figures on the sides. From these scraps, a mental picture was stitched together as I took a seat to the right of Sally.

"A three-story construction?" I asked without taking my eyes off the pages.

"We were hoping a fourth floor could be squeezed in." The bishop offered in a hopeful voice.

My idle head shake crushed that vision.

"With this much room and nothing but stone? Is the fourth floor important for a non-obvious reason or is it more space you're hoping for?"

"The latter."

I nodded to the scribbles.

"Using some arches on the back end will allow for a deeper cut into the stone."

From there the conversation ambled through a long negotiation between physical reality and the Bishop's vision with me being the mediator between the two factions. A settlement was reached in an hour or so with the vision of a three-story home etched with ink. Gula sat on my right the whole time, content to lean on my shoulder until the last moment when I handed the pages off to Sally.

"Thank you, mage. As odd as that sounds to say." The Bishops offered as she placed the paper into the bag.

"Is there any other news concerning the underground?" I asked with a lean into my chair.

Her grey hair swayed with her nod.

"We're officially neighbors. A drop in the sea of work waiting around every corner but an important drop. Getting the offshoots for the river is the next big project but we need to start moving in the people soon. I've heard talk of some of the city architects scoping out the slums. So far everything is going as planned. Nersa is in my office almost every day panicking about one item or another and Bellog, if she had any hair before, has surely lost it by now. Perhaps I would be joining the frenzy if I didn't know the plant scion we're digging under won't kill us. That doesn't mean I've been spared all the extra work."

The older Orc gave me a small smile as she picked up the sack before rising out of her chair. Sally regarded us both with slight nods as she moved away from the chair towards the door leading further underground. When her body was halfway out, she turned back to us.

"Not on the table, if you please." The bishop intoned before closing the door behind her.

My turn to Gula was immediate and accompanied by a lewd grin. What I saw on my green wife was idle interest as her eyes perused the contours of the brown wood.

"Anything wrong?" I asked.

An electric buzz played across my cheek before her gold eyes had even turned to me.

'I'm just trying to figure out…. Where's Cell?'

A blank stare was my first answer but I managed to get the proper one out.

'He's in the kitchen munching on some nuts.'

Gula's bit lip looked rather tasty yet I held it back as her gold eyes had some genuine worry in them.

'I just feel so bad. He traveled all over the south looking for me when I wasn't even lost. Poor thing.'

'Oh, poor nothing.' I scoffed with a roll of my eyes. 'Cell was riding a personal air craft soaking in warm southern sun while perusing coastal beaches. It was my hide stuck up in this frozen hell having to whip hundreds of peasants and magic into a city. He better send some gratitude through his spirit connection the next time he sees you.'

Green fingers glided over the contours of the table's wooden lines. Those gold eyes followed the fingertips while her lips puckered. All while making an effort not to look in my direction.

Ah, she must have a new task.

My hands took her fingers and wrapped them inside mine.

'Not on the table, Gula.'

A small smile broke out over her face even as she tried to pucker her lips.

'I'm trying to explain what's wrong but there's several issues….'

Not another craft, then?

'A wife shouldn't be scared of asking things from her husband.' I intoned in the spirit connection. Some thought of tamping down the exaggerated toil came to me but I knew my habits too well for me to waste effort on the notion.

'It's actually from Salamede. She had her airship deliver the message to me since I'm the one with a man monitoring the radio throughout the day.'

Her hands pulled out of mine to fumble around the inside of her jacket. From a pocket, she produced another page. I took it and found lines of various figures as well as descriptions of a section belonging to the snails. Though this one was of an empty bit of water among those rocks.

'She's asking if you could design a housing district that would withstand the water current. With an emphasis on keeping the mana usage as low as possible. Her hope was to ask this after the project here had been completed and she would have if her schedule allowed it. She'll be coming in with a ship for the transfer of iron but things worked out that the ship won't need to come back for weeks or even months after this city was finished.'

'Come in person?' I asked with a raised eyebrow.

'For sex,' Gula put in with a heated tone, slightly squirming in place as she did so. 'Salamede said to be as rested as you can be the day after tomorrow then sneak aboard my ship. Which-'

She hesitated as her head bobbed back and forth.

'It's just weird. We're planning sex. I always thought it was just something that happened. You know, a kiss in the kitchen leading to more or a waking in the morning filled with a night's worth of need being seen to.'

A smile broke out on my face, which made Gula's lips contort into a pout.

'What do you think will happen when we've got pups? We can't just plow away on a whim when little ones could come around the corner at any moment. The need for planning came on early because we're living in different cities. Cities we're spending all our time saving.'

Her head went up and down in a nod, making the bang of black hair along the right of her face sway with the motion.

'At least with all this strategy, I can get some as well.' She offered with a smile.

I raised an eyebrow at her.

'Do you want some?'

Her black eyebrows furrowed, a motion that did nothing to hide the look downward.

'Absolutely. When we're both proper. It's not fair without….him.' She responded with a look up to meet my gaze. Her concern about my pleasure warmed my heart.

'Well, it's a good thing all of my favorite bits are here for some sport.' I countered with a slow raise of my right hand.

The seizing of a green breast produced a delightful moan. Her mouth opened and some words were on the verge of coming out when she stopped to stare at my tongue. Some memory of our first venture together must have presented itself because an eager smile broke out above her sharp chin.

With the next hour or so of lives set, we proceeded to put the structural integrity of the walls to the test. Cold as it was, the heat rubbing skin together from the groping and open shirts proved a good remedy to winter's chill. The furniture was left unmolested and if there was any lack in that hour, it was the specter of pregnancy having no presence in the proceedings as we cavorted about like errant teens getting their first bit of play. Not that it undid the delight of having Gula plastered to my chest even if she was clothed.

Little coos and moans wafted up from the woman, acting as small prayers to my ego. After a minute the quivering subsided and the Orc took her face out of my pecks to look up.

"It's late," She offered with no accompanying move to leave.

I leaned down and took her lips. Vinegar, smoke, and spice played on my tongue for the last time tonight before I pulled back and removed my hands from her bum to stretch into the air. She took the opportunity to stand straight and adjust her coat. We nodded to each other before walking toward our respective doors.

The trek down the stone hallway wasn't nearly as pleasant as the first trip through it, but I managed to soldier on and make my way up the ladder to the bedroom. Near the end of the ladder, I had to turn off the lights. Only cold kept me company in the dark. It was relatively fast going until my mental map said I was reaching the top, at which point I had to outstretch an arm at each step to make sure I didn't give myself a concussion.

Eventually, the expected groping of open-air instead produced a slab of hard stone. Mana was sucked in and a simple red triangle was forged. A flame no bigger than a thumb lit up an inch from my mouth. It revealed a stone world, the most important aspect of which was an alcove behind the wooden ladder. Above the wooden box being used as a radio was another wooden panel. I pressed it with the impatience of approaching sleep.

Air blew down the tunnel as the sound-deadening enchantments took effect, though the sliding of stone was still clear from my position. From there, I retrieved the radio from the alcove. It was a routine done so often that I barely needed the brain power to form the words. Durka was fine, nothing to report. With that finished, the radio was placed back down into its hole.

I then pushed on and up until the wooden bottom of the bed greeted me. Practiced motions of moving the slab shut before sliding out went off without issue. Then I pulled myself across the stone floor with chilled hands. After a second of struggle, I was standing in pitch-black darkness. But this void of nothing had the advantage of being in the area my memory said was the bedroom.

I turned around to lean over the unseen bed. Shoes were kicked off and groping hands eventually found the blankets. A cocoon of blanket soon enveloped me. The pillow called for my head and I almost answered when I registered the faint spirit connection buzzing on my left shoulder. I concentrated on my frontal lobe and then reached out with that otherworldly sensation. Cell eventually revealed himself on the post at the foot of the bed, sitting still as a rock. With all things finally in their place, I slacked my neck muscles. Cold pillow held my head up and oblivion, true oblivion, took me.

*Thwap*

The sudden snapping told of someone at the door. It was the feeling of rest after a long night that said they were the maids with the morning goods instead of an assassin tripping an alarm. I moved out of the blankets as Cell sprung onto my shoulder. A feeling of happiness and curiosity was felt through our spirit connection along with a picture of Gula, which was followed by some curiosity.

'She's fine,' I responded as I moved through the darkness towards the mana lamp on the right of the bed. Smooth crystal was found at the expected place and a golden glow lit up the square room. The desk was at its place near the door while the bed was a mess. A job left for the maids.

I went through the only exit and took a right in the hallway. Cell sent me an emotion of happiness with images of the freezing coast to match. A simple nod was all I gave him before he blew off my shoulder towards the kitchen in the opposite direction as it was the only other place with direct water access besides the toilet. Morning needs were finished and less than a minute passed before I was following Cell's path.

The door to the kitchen/dining room allowed my passage without fuss. My familiar was nowhere to be seen and the spirit connection was reduced to a faint buzz. The important business was behind the big door to the right, so I hurried to get it open. Through it came maids bearing a basin, pitchers of hot water, and some trays covered in copper domes.

A morning bath was conducted and finished with some warmed towels. At the table was a chicken sandwich, formed of fresh bread still emanating the warmth of yeast, crisp lettuce, and sliced goat cheese, served with a side of hearty bean soup. It was beyond what the staff were expected to do but my patience through the worst part of the grind had paid dividends. When they couldn't keep up with the regular chores and I hadn't sent the maids back to the kitchen with black eyes or had the chefs whipped, they repaid the kindness in dozens of ways.

My meals had been mostly soups as that was the hardest thing to slip poison into. The procedures for testing other foods for poison were arduous and one I had been forgoing as it took time away from feeding the men. Pain they now went through on my behalf and would not hear of doing otherwise.

Oddly, the women were also showing some interest now. I had thought no manhood meant no more interest from the opposite gender. Contrary to evolutionary logic, and all my experiences in this world, the night the camp celebrated finishing the foundation, ostensibly the hardest portion of the job, one of the maids offered to get with the other women and spend a session trying to find ways of pleasuring me.

The blonde refilling my mug with hot cider even asked if I had a brother, that she might bear me a nephew in recompense for all that I had done. Absurd things I flatly turned down but it later occurred to me that I wouldn't allow a brother's child to ever go hungry, nor the kid's mother. Perhaps there were more wits behind that one's wild ideas than first appeared.

As much as things had improved, life had proven many times that things getting easier didn't mean things were easy. We had come off the peak and now merely coasted along a hard portion. Tens of thousands of people were coming in relatively soon. And unless they all stacked into barns and ate gruel, the next phase of the project now demanded action on smaller items. The smallest of which was the meal now finished.

I went to the door leading outside, leaving behind the maids to clean. Pushing it open presented a stone square for a floor, wide drawbridge directly ahead, and a grey rock shack on the mainland to the left. A new stone block seven feet tall and a foot wide was on its right. The addition had crafts that would lower the drawbridge from someone reaching inside and touching a wooden pad up the hollow interior. It was meant to produce a sound distinct from the one warning of a breach in the defenses but the 'alarms' ended up being almost indistinguishable. An error I assigned to the imprecise nature of magic crafts. As annoying as such oversights were…. God, I just couldn't be asked to do it over again.

Rushing sea water filled the air with the tang of salt as the endless stone floor ambled on for seeming ages until hitting the wall. To the left was a massive nine-plus floor tower with a trebuchet on top. It was the wooden bridge across the river cutting through the middle of my domain that drew me over the drawbridge and past the stone shack. From behind came men in red leather from around the front face of their post serving as a guard station. I paid them no mind as I continued walking alongside the artificial river. Most of my attention was on the gate farther to the right where a crowd was gathering for the new harbor being put in place.

Soon I was on the bridge and moving onto the other half of my land. Off to the left lay a small forest of tents spilling out from the huge pots and tables of the communal kitchen. At this height on the bridge, I could make out the people working the table with every need of the morning meal. Unlike the previous assortment of women in black dresses most of those moving between the tables were more plain and bearing the garb of regular peasantry. Their customers were likewise changed, from burly laborers to small children talking and playing, often between tables.

While it was only the single men being expelled from Crasden, the slum was still going to be given the ax no matter the status of the people living there. Rumor told of Ashe assuring the residents that their houses would be rebuilt at city expense. For now, not one board had been ripped up at this point. Either the redhead was learning patience or the sheer bureaucratic inertia to start was slowing her down. Whatever it was, some families weren't waiting and took up tents with their men.

Coming down the bridge, I could only ponder what the demographics of this city made out of mana and sweat would be at the end. Single men were the target of the coming purge but the details came with a snag. 'Men' in this case included lads fourteen and up. Apparently, someone in the decision meetings had some notion that men fell to depravity with puberty. That one bit assured a good number of families would be coming in. Not that they would stay away otherwise.

Of course, I knew what I was building. I could make a better house than any of them ever experienced in an afternoon. That rise in living standards would draw the peasants even if the father had not a boy to his name. Their highest standards, however, were a pale shadow of mine.

As heavenly as indoor plumbing would be, I couldn't quite explain how I knew all the ins and outs of making it work on physics alone nor would magic crafts for such purposes be viable in these densities. A large communal latrine with stalls along a hidden stream was widely known and would be implemented between the housing blocks. No heating to speak of either save a few kitchen stoves working meager warmth through pipes that thick walls would try to keep in.

And the pests.

Bedbugs were a matter of standard than exception for the poor of Crasden. Rats would flourish in the warm temperatures and excessive trash. All with no culling implements or poison traps to keep their populations under control. This place would be an ecosystem of urban parasites.

I had known this from the beginning yet these small facts grew in my mind as the day of the city's opening drew near. It was inevitable. But never, in all my life, had I come this close to putting my stamp of approval on something so lacking. Hell, I've dug out shelters that came with heated bead beds and massaging showers.

The source of this anguish revealed itself as a large rectangle of grey stone stuck out on the right near the sea wall. Around it scurried workers like ants, each bearing a plank of wood from which stone sprung to fill out an empty spot or curve that grey mass into a cohesive whole. Bits of wood were also being brought through the wide empty spot where thick double doors would be placed. Unlike in my magic-less universe, these pieces of coveted material would be fashioned for both regular flooring and the strengthened variety used in place of metal rebar.

Directly ahead was the trio of towers serving as guard posts. They stood ready near the gate leading to Crasden. Their older sibling to the left and behind the communal camp wouldn't be so lucky, with a teardown coming in its semi-near future.

From the forest of tents came my main point of contact with the regular citizens. The head of the guard, Kev, trekked to me in the same red leather garb of his men while sporting a shining steel breastplate. That large brown beard drifted over the armor with his steps, though his shaved head had only a steel helm for cover. A slight smile stuck out below his brown mustache with those mud eyes above a thin nose having an eager aspect to them.

"Greetings, scion Tilvor." He called with a slight bow before walking alongside me on the left.

My first response was a nod as we moved towards the rectangle.

"No matter the title, it should be I giving greetings. You may not have any magic, Kev, but these past weeks have shown a power beyond mana. The night shifts have certainly pulled through."

A pensive look from one of the guards to the right greeted my compliment. Only Kev, two other of his men, and a growing list of priests knew what was really going on. For the rest, they had to nervously bite their lips anytime something dealing with the Orcs below our feet poked into conversation. Kev ignored their worries as he continued.

"The Overseer was quite pleased with the speed of construction. That the lower sections were finished so quickly is something even I as the idea's advocate didn't anticipate."

Another nod from me ended the exchange of lies and nonsense. No amount of fidgeting with schedules could have allowed the underground's completion in mere weeks. An unseen army of green women helping with magic crafts, however, could. The only trouble was convincing the external persona I had presented to the world.

Kev had made a passionate case about allowing some men to work in the night at one of the meetings and I allowed it. It was ridiculous, and no one with a close understanding of the inner workings of this massive project would believe it, but fortunately, almost everyone involved in the intricacies knew of my true relationship to Gula, and all the others were just relieved that the great deception of the scion had succeeded.

"However, boons sometimes come with their own costs." Kev continued as we came within a stone's throw of the arched doorway of the apartment complex. "The smith and miner, shipwright, and tailor guilds are asking me to work out some issues. While they aren't a guild proper, the fishermen are rather clannish and have some concerns of their own but those are separate from the others. We were supposed to have a discussion of business proceedings before the buildings started going up but…. The night rotations proved too effective in that aspect."

I raised an eyebrow at him as we crossed into the rectangle, making several men wait to the side.

"And was I to be included in this discussion?"

In front of us were four widely spaced pillars which would be heightened with each new floor while the rest was mostly barren with some wooden poles being put into the walls for support. The regular wood was being applied to the floor in squares of varying sizes, serving as the patterns of the twenty-four apartments that would help establish the placement of walls. On the lower floors would be families while the upper floors would be for those with no children, be they couples or single.

None of which Kev seemed to notice as he turned to me with eyebrows raised in surprise.

"We thought to go over a few meager items. Mages typically leave mundane affairs to we low people. As long as the food comes in, the ships and walls are manned, and fire doesn't take half the city, they leave us to it. They also don't bring in fish for the local market, so the guilds shouldn't be too surprised. But will you be setting smithy rates or taxes for all the goods?" Kev asked with a dubious look. Even knowing the truth of my relationship with Gula, or at least thinking he did, the man still had some reticence in correcting me.

"Taxes and tariffs will mirror Crasden," I said as I walked between the pillars. "I won't risk putting sour words in Ashe's ears from the merchants. Aside from that, I'll occasionally come by with a bill of goods I want delivered. Some craft or another could be exchanged but I suspect nothing too burdensome will be on those lists. Otherwise, matters of coin shouldn't be different from what you're used to."

That all their labors and practices would be rendered obsolete in a few years remained unsaid. Which left the only other core issue. For that, I turned away from the grey stone shafts to make sure his brown eyes met mine. He immediately picked up on the seriousness of my next words and stiffened his back.

"Crime and corruption…. Will not be so unsupervised. I don't like criminals, Kev. And I'm not afraid to let it become known in very bloody ways. Anyone trying to extort, steal, rob, or rape in my realm will envy those pirates whose bones still shift in the ocean's sand. If any of your men have a penchant for pinching coin from the citizenry or demanding play from the women in various exchanges, do not bring them here. For cutting out their flesh and weighing it until recompense has been fulfilled will be the kindest of my punishments."

Color came out of thin cheeks but the rest of the man remained unmoved.

"I will make sure my future daughters spend their days here," He offered with only a slight dew of sweat across his brow.

I gave him a small smile beneath my face covering then moved on with my inspection.

None of the inner walls had been put in for the twenty-four families who would come to call this home. The outer walls were reinforced with steel-like wood to a degree far beyond what would be needed. These apartment blocks would be servicing large ballistae on their rooftops as well as taking whatever a catapult could send its way. Being on the outer ring, this structure was also to be fitted for an extra layer of stone on its sea-facing side.

Right now, it was four pillars, as many walls, and ambition.

An hour was spent quizzing the foreman about the procedures for laying the next floor, where the staircases were to be placed, and the mechanics of how the new elevator would work. That last bit was something they had never experienced, so I let his wrong answers pass. He and his men would only need to get the first two down without my constant supervision. Something their performance these past few weeks left me confident was within their ability.

As we left through the empty doorway, Kev coughed.

"Where would you like to meet the guild heads? Having them visit your house might give the impression you're more available than would be prudent."

The thought of doing anything that might interrupt my fun with Gula almost sent a groan out of my mouth. No matter what I wanted, there would be too many problems with them thinking I was just going to rule from on high.

"I'm going to be making several assurances and setting clear expectations. If they get the idea that I won't be personally making sure everything is as it should be…. Well, let's not allow temptation to take root. This one time, we'll have it at my home. After a town center has been set up, the meetings can take place there."

Kev gave me a small nod before moving off to the right.

"I'll fetch them at once."

I returned the gesture before leaving behind the first floor of the apartment building. Men in red leather walked around me, a small army of workers plied their trade at every turn, and children played about in the merely cold air as we passed the tents. None received any real attention as I went over various figures and plans. As I came over the bridge across the river, I took in the wide gate leading to the harbor off in the distance. Some notion of inspecting the work came to me but was dismissed. The buildings being put in the harbor were of Crasden make, with all attending mockery of modern visuals. Wasting time going over things they had made a thousand times before wasn't a good investment, so Imy feet took a right towards the half oval in the middle of a river serving as my home.

I gave a slight nod to the men ever present in the stone booth before reaching inside the pillar and pushing the wooden slab. The drawbridge creaked with a descent almost loud enough to be heard over the ambling water below. I quickly went over it and through the heavy door.

Inside was the same as ever with a table and chairs directly ahead, a door to the left leading further inside, and a kitchen to the right. Along the wall on the left was a mana lamp, which I pressed. Smooth crystal sent a blossom of fiery glow across the grey stone of the floor and walls.

Without the prospect of seeing one of my wives or tending to a needed task, the pain in my feet and back was now speaking rather loudly. The grinding weeks were finished but that didn't mean they were finished with me. I allowed them to make their case before the court as I closed the door and moved toward the table. The plop into a chair by the far wall came with a rather compelling agreement from my soles. I immediately removed my shoes and let wiggling toes feel the cold air.

When my feet were starting to get a bit too chill, Kev popped in the doorway with an expectant look. A single nod sent him back out the door and socks with attending shoes back over my toes. After a minute, three men came through the door.

One was a man who had the aspect of once being muscular, but grey hair on his head and a strong jaw along with wrinkles told of time stealing such vigor. The blue coat that covered everything down to his knees had a tied end for the left sleeve where an arm should be. He moved a bit ahead of his cautious comrades.

Behind him came a rather pudgy fellow. As rare as his physique was, his red vest, white shirt, and black pants were more of a standout feature as they were of a finer make than anything I saw on the street. Yet, they remained just a hair below those found on the nobility. His small chin wobbled with his nod to me as he approached with a swaying bowl cut of red hair.

The last member was an older man sporting leathery tanned skin that poked out of his plush grey coat. Bits of the fur around the neck brushed against a long nose that almost had a beak aspect, something his bald head and smooth cheekbones only emphasized. Despite his late start, he managed to arrive on my left at the same time as the other three.

"Greetings, Grand mage," The more portly member offered with a bow that the other two immediately took up. "We are lowly folk, so I can only ask indulgence if some aspect of mage etiquette is breached. Through sheer accident, of course."

I gestured to the table with a sweep of my left arm.

"Lowly folk aren't typically responsible for keeping an entire city running. Still, lowly or not, everyone works with the same numbers and I believe I was told of four visitors."

"Daniel is a hardworking fellow and diligent." The pudgy man continued as he moved to the seat on my right."A needed thing for catching fish, I'm told. He is not so steady when it comes to matters of paperwork and organization. The speed of this grand place's construction has caught us all sleeping and wrangling together his people for a common cause is not as easy as ours. He sends his warmest regards but wouldn't dare waste your time with half-finished exchanges."

The one-armed man moved to the seat directly across from me.

"Neither would any of us," His rough voice announced with his butt hitting cold wood. "I'm Gary. A smith by birth and trade, but now I just sit around working paper."

The last man moved to the left of the table, sitting at the chair farther away.

"Mason." The high-pitched voice offered through the coat's fluff. "I'm the one who makes sure we all have clothes, socks, and everything else involving a seamstress's needle."

"Yorson," The pudgy man put in with a smile. "I represent the harbor, its workers, and all the bits between."

I nodded before coughing into my fist.

"So what are these lists of concerns you all decided were beneath me."

The harbormaster, or whatever the title would be, took a deep breath.

"Mostly matters of poverty. Money makes everything move but these are coins of copper or at most silver. Certain taxes and tariffs between your realm and Crasden proper. We work on mostly third-hand whispers, but we were given the impression this is wholly your domain."

I nodded again. Being the man who works the docks, Yorson probably had the best chance of negotiating with needed tact given the constant negotiations demanded of his position. When I looked at the other two, their refusal to speak confirmed the unspoken arrangement.

"It is," I confirmed. "And any matters of coin will mostly be decided by what is least likely to draw Crasden's ire. Until they start charging to move goods between our cities, I won't. The tax on goods and rates for staying at the docks will likewise match theirs."

Yorson nodded with a small smile. Something he maintained as I continued.

"The matters I will be attending to will not be focused on the economic, but rather it is the criminal that concerns me. While bribes may have been a matter of expectation, here they will be heavily punished. I've made as much clear to Kev. But I know I won't get anyone to work here if the deficit isn't made up. So I'll have the men employed by the city given better wages to reflect the lost income."

They all went a bit pale at that, trying their best to look like they had no idea what I was talking about.

"Such a thing-"

"We would never-"

I put up a hand.

"Close your eyes," I commanded.

The two looked to Yorson. When they saw his eyelids were already shut, they quickly followed his lead, as did I.

"Good," I complimented into the void, "From now on, we're going to assume the magical scion isn't an idiot."

A pronounced gulp came from the left, though its precise source eluded me.

"No games of trying to avoid questions, pretending that everything on the ledgers is precisely how it all happens, or any such nonsense. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Yorson announced.

"Yes," The other two squeaked out together.

"All right. Open them."

I followed my own command to see Gary and Mason looking a bit reserved. The pudgy man, however, seemed more intrigued than anything. He leaned back on his chair with a raised red eyebrow as he licked his lips before putting them to use.

"There are certain extra benefits for working at the docks. Free drinks, the occasional meal, and such. I would say those come out to an extra…. Thirty silver a month. Depending on the position, of course." He said. His slightly puckered lips told of words wanting to be free.

I then turned to the other two. Gary gulped before taking a deep breath.

"Certain work can be….sped along with incentives. Most amounts to an extra fifteen silver a month."

Mason only nodded, apparently not trusting himself to speak.

"That can be brought above board with a preference list. Just have people pay upfront to get ahead of the line but guarantee the work will get done in a week or however long if they forgo the additional payment. Anything else?" I asked.

Puckered lips spread around the table, more in intrigue at the idea than doubt. Yorson leaned forward as his two companions nervously bit their lips.

"If it isn't too rude a thing, might I pry into the genius of a mage?" He asked innocently.

I crossed my arms as I leaned back into the chair.

"What advantage does doing away with bribes get you if the coin is going to come out of your pocket? I could understand making it cheaper to do business here in order to steal some of Crasden's traffic, but this merely makes the cost the same in one sum package. Of course, that's without considering that some captains will see the upfront expense, not realizing it comes without a bribe, and decide the other port is nicer."

"Sadly, it will possibly still come with a bribe. No matter how much you give, some people's greed is so inexhaustible that they would risk the mountain of gold for those few silver on the ground."

Yorson only nodded without denying it.

"Cracking down on bribery won't stop it, and it doesn't need to. It only has to make it clear to everyone that even this level of criminality, so banal and pervasive it barely counts as a legal offense, is not tolerated. Tell me, if word gets around that large amounts of subterfuge are needed for such a simple thing, how quick will people be to pursue other unsavory endeavors? How many criminals will go out of their way to set up their trade here when even the port officials are skittish about merely taking a bribe? That thought is the point."

A wave of nods went around the table.

"And part of enforcing that will be my own schemes. Tell your people that I will occasionally dispatch sea captains and wagon workers to move goods about in order to see if any official tries to pilfer their purse."

"Will you be going to such lengths?" Yorson asked with an askance look.

I gave him a smile.

"Yes. If you have any doubts, just wait until I storm into your office one day with one of your men in hand and a whip in the other."

His smile had enough width to push back the pudgy cheeks.

"So it's Crasden rules all around then?" The pudgy man asked with an air of finality.

"Mostly. Admittedly, I've spent more time planning out the physical city rather than thinking about how to run the people in it. I'm afraid it will be mostly dependent on how much of Crasden decides to move here, which people make that decision, and how meshed our two economies become. Things totally outside of my control. Crime, no matter the situation, will not root. Beyond that, I have few answers at this point."

They all seemed satisfied with that. My rise out of the chair was reflected by the three men. Gary and Yorson started moving away from the table but Mason's grey coat didn't shift. The man's large nose sucked in air before he coughed.

"If I could be so bold, grand mage." The leader of the tailors squeaked out from the grey fur.

The pudgy man on the right bit his lower lip and looked like he wanted to snap his compatriot's neck as bits of red colored his pudgy cheeks. Gary, being the closest, sucked in his lips while standing rock still.

"Yes?" I asked.

"My people have worked with some of those plant fibers. Excellent quality and they work with the needle as well as anything else we have. If some arrangement could be made for a consistent supply, my tailors would be most eager to secure it."

Ah. A mundane man asking for crafts like that would require untold gold coins. Something I was pretty sure lay beyond any of their purses. Fortunately for him, saved time had a value beyond the monetary.

"Tell me, where do the orphans of Crasden go?"

His grey eyebrows went up in surprise, though a cough quickly recovered the man's tongue.

"The church, great mage. I know of your disdain for them but they take in those too young to work and give them what they can. Several of their wards do some odd bits and ends for all the guilds to get some spare coppers."

I kept my eyebrows from furrowing. When had I shown disdain for the church? Then I remembered how the one in Dunwhich was held in contempt by mages. Something about a power greater than magic pricked the temperament of all those who cast spells and I did have mana veins.

"Whatever my feelings, in this we have a common cause." I countered. "I do intend to have a bit more of a cushion for those low on luck here. If I set up a fiber-growing warehouse for your people, would you be willing to dedicate a portion to providing clothing for those orphans?"

The man's beak nose swung up and down like a piston.

"Absolutely! Though how much would be charged by the square foot for the material would remain in question."

Free would be my first answer. Something that allowed me to focus my efforts elsewhere would more than justify it. Infinite clothing could create issues in Crasden, however.

"Not scraping Ashe's backside is still the big focus. What would the wool merchants say about such a thing?"

The corners of a smile stuck out over the fur to rest beneath the smooth cheeks.

"In truth, cloth is an annoyance for everyone. All the merchants would rather be moving food or metals and it's only the requirements of the subsidies that keep them coming in. I can't speak for every single captain out there, but most would be happy to see the procurement of such goods hoisted onto someone else's ledger."

Finally, the universe opened its fist to give me a hand up rather than the usual beating.

"Excellent," I responded with a smile hidden beneath the face covering. "Exact quantities will have to be given at a later date when I have a better idea of what the local mana can sustain."

Gary's right hand lifted to cover his mouth as he coughed.

"During the siege, you provided wood for some of the smiths. Often times its getting enough coal to keep the fires burning that's more trouble than working the ore. I can't begin to say what a reliable supply of fuel would do for our projects."

I gave a more restrained nod.

"Do the people who make those shipments do so with great profit? Enough that they might complain about their customers getting alternative sources?"

The man's grey beard twitched with his puckered lips for a second before he sighed.

"Yes. My pockets always feel quite light after meeting them. But it shouldn't be a problem. Even with what we buy, they can't supply enough, what with all the profit to be made in the south and better weather."

My lips puckered as I tried to wrangle the imprecise mana demands of such an operation.

"Plant fibers aren't terribly demanding. Wood in the quantities you're asking for very much is. Again, I can't commit to any hard numbers before I get a better idea of what the mana demands will be just to run the city itself. When that time comes, we can discuss this again in the town hall I've yet to build."

All three men gave me a slight bow.

"A thousand thanks," Yorson intoned with a smile my meager social sense deemed genuine. "If all negotiations could be conducted so reasonably, the world would be more pleasant stroll than death march."

His companions nodded in agreement. I returned the gesture as they filed out of the door. Sore feet demanded I sit back in the chair and I obliged. With nothing physical demanding my immediate attention, I pulled the page Gula had given me out of my coat pocket. Ideas came with the mental landscape the numbers provided. Notions were either culled or bloomed into full ideas. Architectural evolution continued for a few hours until Kev came by to inform me of the men being ready for inspection.

An announcement I greeted with the enthusiasm most had at their own funerals. The plans had been laid out down to the last corner. Hell, getting all the rooms and tunnels set below ground was more technically challenging than this simple placing of floors. The overseer and foremen were not so confident in their own abilities. So, despite not being needed, I agreed to oversee the construction of each apartment layer.

A quick jaunt over two bridges and a chilly plain of stone was all it took to be back at the rectangle.

With my arrival, the men started up their work proper. The four central pillars were extended a floor up using a long wooden craft designed to cling around the edge of the pillar and keep the new extensions of consistent length. Once that hollow rock was in place, a piece of strengthened wood for their core was fixed in place with additional stone summoning to fill any air pockets. A large grid of wooden rebar was fastened to their sides before being plastered over with freshly summoned grey rock. In mere hours, a new floor was added to the apartment. However, unless the residents were fond of having no walls, the job hadn't reached its finish line .

A long slab of wood with legs on the bottom was brought in. The piece was fixed into the groove left behind by its work on the first floor. A white square on its left side was pressed. Almost immediately, it sucked in all the surrounding blue specks and summoned a foot-wide slab of stone perfectly lining up with the lower edge but still a good foot thinner than the wall below it. Once the men got a large piece of hardened wood with hooks on its sides snug against it, a white square on the right of the huge board was pressed. Soon more stone wall was summoned from blue clouds and this time it completed the previous summoning to perfectly match its lower sibling.

This was repeated thrice over with some fussing for the placements of windows. I inspected everything to make sure the men knew it was all up to standard. That I had measured the tools and their stone workings specifically so that they could work them without my guiding hand was left unmentioned.

I had no load testing nanites nor any help from the eye sensors to give rough estimates, leaving generous overcompensation to make up the gaps. The structures wooden components, serving as replacements for the iron and steel, were probably twice as thick as needed. And that was before considering how much lighter it was compared to metal. My exit from the construction site was greeted with smiles from the men who could be bothered to stop looking at the structure they had just forged from nothing.

The few remaining hours of the day were spent in my home on the river looking over the figures Gula had given me for an expansion into the snail's domain. Eventually, soup was brought in and dinner was soon followed by sleep. Thankfully, routine had been established and the morning went like the last one.

As I stepped out onto the drawbridge, adjusting the brown leather jacket and black pants with each step, the first thought was how clear the blue sky was. A few smattering of white clouds left it feeling more like a painting than any natural event. The air blowing through my coat seemed a bit warmer, almost merely lukewarm.

Perhaps it was the pirates finally being gone, Cell's return, or Spring flexing its muscles. It was probably my two wives' imminent, days-long nudity. But whatever 'it' was, the world seemed a bit more inviting. As I moved left along the river to continue yesterday's work, the overseer came up from the bridge with two other foremen in tow.

His cap was removed revealing thin black hair that matched his mustache. Those brown eyes immediately spotted me among the red leather, followed immediately by a smile above that sharp chin.

"Ah," He announced without the usual white cloud coming out of his mouth. "Greetings. I heard the men did well yesterday."

"Better than," I returned with a few steps up the bridge's arch. "Well enough that they can put in the next floors and stairs without my direct supervision."

The residual joy blasted off his face as quickly as his muscles could perform the motion.

"But-but-"

I put up a hand.

"All the tools have been made so that little to no measuring is needed at the point of application. It's like children's blocks but scaled up in size for those a few years older and the complexity for adults."

"Such blocks wouldn't crush our families if laid wrong." He put in with a bit lip.

It was the closest thing to defiance he had ever shown. This lack of confidence in their own skills was starting to make my teeth clench. Especially considering I helped grow those very skills. If I misjudged their ability, then why would they trust my judgment of the buildings?

Still….

They were worried about their families, both human and green. A feeling I couldn't bring myself to slander.

"I will be going away for a few days. In that time, work on the first and second floors of the other complexes. Get a few fully furnished with inner walls and stairs then we can sort out any issues on my return."

Any surprise the man was going to show at my mini-vacation was blotted out by relief.

"The men will be relieved, grand mage." The overseer intoned with a slight bow.

I took a deep breath before walking down the bridge with the entire gang in tow.

"Have you secured a supply of torches?" I asked the overseer accompanying on the right.

An eager nod answered.

"Really?" I asked with a raised eyebrow as we walked along the opposite side of the river I had just trekked down.

"Your crafts, as always, are the backbone. After some experimentation, we found the magically enhanced seaweed burns with little smoke and more than twice as long as the regular rags and pitch."

Gula had described how the Orcs used the light from above to light some of their portions of the city. Given they were going to be significantly deeper into the rock here, that wasn't an option for them. Instead, a massive and steady stream of flaming torches would have to be used. Smoke would be a concern with enough flames, but the green women had far better vision in darkness than their human counterparts, so the torches would only have to be used sparingly in their domain.

Our walk continued in silence as we approached the sluice gate allowing the sea water to flow into the city. We moved past my abode which was a bit closer to it than it was the proper middle of the city. A decision made so that it would be in the sewage-free section.

On the right of the gate was a square of stone railing with an open end facing the wall large enough for a carriage and a half of traffic. The entrance leading into the underground wasn't visible from our angle of approach. As we rounded the corner to reveal double doors of wood and iron straps at the end of a downward stone staircase, the nervous twitches in the men started revealing themselves.

They had certainly been on edge since this waking. As they were every time I inspected the underground. The why of it eluded me as all the designs the church and I worked out wouldn't reveal anything from the perusing I was going to do. Sure, at some point I would discover the horrifying revelation that Percy and his friend allowed the Orcs to snatch a hundred-plus crafts. But nothing on the path of today's checklist would bring that about.

My steps on the stone stairs were a bit slow to allow the guards time to get ahead and pull the doors open. Two managed it and swung the doors inward without making the sweat on their brows too obvious. As we walked through, the soles of my shoes were shallow enough to allow me to feel the less-than-an-inch wide grooves on the floor. They were more than a foot deep and acted as channels for any rainwater, which would flow into a small shaft in the wall before a craft sucked the liquid out into the river.

Along the walls and ceiling were lines of square boards plastered into the rock. These were independent crafts that kept the structure around them in place and would only activate if the surrounding stone shifted. A torch was produced and lit, which illuminated the long hallway ahead with its dots of brown squares.

On the immediate left was an open, arched doorway. Inside were more of the wooden squares in the wall though the wide room had nothing for them to protect from a cave in. Each section of the wall was getting an underground storehouse for ammunition, bandages, and barrels of pitch. This one, however, had an additional function. We continued down the stone hallway until the black nothing outside the torchlight finally revealed the splitting channel.

At the end of the hallway, a lisp of stone reaching from the right of the wall to the left with the smoothness of a bathtub presented itself. It reached up to my waist and beyond it was the darkness of empty void where the flame couldn't reach. The floor and sides of the walls past the lisp had a tube aspect though the middle of it was flat.

On the right wall was a round slab of wood, and unlike the structural reinforcing boards, it came with a handle on its right side. This was the plug for this sewer line. Perfectly fit into its stone hole, a single tug on that handle would let loose a torrent of seawater that would sweep away the final resting place of all chef's work. It sported a white square beside the handle, though that enchantment only came online for the plugs closing.

"Double-check to make sure no one's down the tunnel," I announced to the group.

One of the red leather men, a blonde man with green eyes, gamely hoisted himself over the stone rail before walking down the dark tube with only a torch for company. The glow of orange continued down the shaft with the distance eventually reducing the flame to a firefly's speck. Minutes passed before the man below the flicker came back.

"Clear," He announced as he scrambled back over the stone rail.

The second his foot hit the other side of the divide, I yanked on the plug's handle. Seawater sprinkled around the spongy plant fibers meshed along the sides of the obstruction before another tug finally brought the plug up on its hinge. A small river poured down the shaft and followed the ever-so-slight incline. Given the possibility of unprecedented rainfall or some other unknown variable, the water sections were totally independent of the rest of the underground, so I had no fear of leakage. I turned away from the empty tube to look at the guards.

"Watch it run for a good twenty minutes. If the water starts to fill the room ahead, that means a long trip down the pipes is in our future. I hope I don't need to tell you to shut the plug if that happens."

Two of the men simply nodded before the rest of us moved back to the exit, leaving three torches for them. Getting back above ground was easy, but the constant switch from cave to clear sky was going to test my eyes throughout the day. We headed back down the river towards the bridge.

The trip ended in a similar spot to the one we had just visited, only on the opposite side of the river. These two channels would serve the communal latrines that would be placed on opposite sides of the proper river. A river that was probably due for another means of crossing. An idle thought that persisted even after the next test was set up and we moved on to new items.

Most of the remaining day was spent going over the various underground warehouses near the two main entrances to the city and taking measurements for a more efficient logistical system.

Elevators were an item that would spare the men hundreds of trips up the walls of the fort for supplies and ammunition. In a pitched battle, saving that manpower would make a huge difference. Even better, Rodring had already provided a convenient explanation for how I would devise such a system by having already established it in this world. Now if the bastard had invented a train system, even a neutered magical version, we could be talking about serious throughput gains. Alas, I was bound by the decisions of men centuries dead and the consistency of my own fiction.