Vivid Stars Online

While I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, the palace hospital insisted I at least stay the night in case of any complications from my condition. The corruption shouldn't be able to have any effect on me without Psi energy, but it should also have been impossible for it to do so while I was medicated.

I had suspicions about why that was, but there was no guarantee it wouldn't happen again. I would have to be very careful next time I returned to Earth.

Linnea sat with me initially, chatting about harmless things that wouldn't matter if they were overheard. Thankfully, she was smart enough to get my vague hints about leaving other matters until later.

Being unable to sense technology was already beginning to drive me a little mad. I had no idea if my precautions were even needed; for all I knew, they respected my privacy and had no recording devices installed in my room.

That was even likely given my station, but I couldn't be sure without my powers. I would have to see if Elana could hook me up with one of those bug sweepers she'd used before; that would at least be something.

Eventually, I noticed that Linnea was starting to get antsy. I knew she tended to prefer to keep moving, and while I hadn't discussed it with her, I had a pretty good idea as to why.

After years of being bedridden, I could easily imagine that she wanted to spend as little time being passive as possible. I wasn't much of a fan either, but I felt it was much worse for her.

As touching as it was that she was sticking around to keep me company, there wasn't any reason for her to sit here and suffer. Instead, I asked her to see what the palace armory could do for me in mundane weapons and armor.

She was more than happy to handle that after making sure I was OK, and she'd soon darted out of the room at a truly impressive speed.

Having that sorted in advance would speed up our departure tomorrow, and I trusted that she would be able to make the best decision even without me there. Where I had spread my learning time over a wide range of activities, Linnea had maintained her focus exclusively on piloting and ground-based fighting.

Her knowledge of weapons far outshone mine at this point, and she was almost as familiar with my fighting style as I was. With a significant collection of cores from our months-long trip, she would also have the funds to get the best they had on offer.

Now alone in the room, I pulled up the reports I'd been getting from the town over the last few months. While there were few specific details for security reasons, they still held generalities that would be useful to cover again before I returned home.

Perhaps Linnea's right about focusing more on my responsibilities there. I sighed as I pulled up the first report from months ago. I really should have gone back at least once to see how everything was going in person.

At the time, the mission to secure the Resulum had just seemed so much more important and immediate than my responsibilities back there. I'd had competent people in charge, and I trusted them to handle things while I took on the more difficult task.

Or at least that was what I'd told myself. But with that almost handled, and in light of the discussion I'd had earlier, I could now admit that I might have also been using it as an excuse to focus on something I felt more able to deal with.

There was no reason I couldn't have let Linnea forge on alone for a few days while I returned. Just because she'd been entirely focused on moving as fast as possible didn't mean I had to be there every step of the way.

I'll do better from now on, I decided with a firm nod. There's no point worrying about the past, but I can learn an important lesson from it. As soon as we secure the Resulum, I'll spend as much time as needed getting my lands in shape.

Even with the Resulum, the remaining work would be primarily political in nature. While some dangers might still lurk down in the mines, they would be easily dealt with by taking a squad of soldiers down with Linnea, which was honestly something I should have done the first time instead of being so impatient.

The most significant difficulty would be securing the mineral rights now that we had confirmed it was an Arkathian ruin. Strictly speaking, that would have the land seized by the crown, leaving me with just a finders fee.

I was counting on the fact that it didn't seem to hold a ritual chamber as the balancing factor. With that, and it being enclosed within my lands, I had hope that I would be able to come to an agreement.

I'd been tempted to keep the entire thing secret a few times and hope they never found out, but that was likely impossible at this point. The knowledge that I'd been injured in a ruin was already out there, and I was bound to get some hard questions sooner or later.

For now, I turned my attention back to the reports, realizing that I'd quickly become sidetracked. Paperwork was never something I'd dealt with before, and I had to keep forcing my attention back to it.

I managed a solid ten minutes before a knock at the door drew my attention away again. "Come in," I called out, curious who would be showing up.

A moment later, Felisa walked through the door, dressed not in the mercenary garb I was familiar with but in a long, flowing dress reminiscent of the ones her mother wore. It was a good look for her and one she wore just as comfortably as the disguise I'd first known her in.

"Jared!" she cried with a broad grin on her face. "You're awake, I see. I hope you're not feeling too bad?"

"I'm not in pain or anything," I carefully responded with a shrug. While it was nice that she'd come to see me, we hadn't interacted since the mission the Duchess had set up. There was a good chance this wasn't just a social call.

"If only pain were the only thing that could be wrong with you," she said as she delicately slid into the chair Linnea had vacated less than fifteen minutes ago. "I can only imagine how rough it must be to be fully cut off," she finished with a gesture at the bracelet on my wrist.

I shrugged again, trying to be nonchalant. "I'll manage somehow. How have you been?"

"Busy, busy. I'm sure you've realized by now that the work of a noble is never done," she said with an airy laugh. "And with Mother away at the capital, there's even more to be done."

That was something I hadn't known, but probably something I should have. You know, If I'd actually been paying attention to my responsibilities. However, I tried not to show my ignorance, simply nodding along with her.

"That's actually why I'm here, other than making sure you're OK, of course," she continued, turning serious. "It's not every day one of our most important nobles gets so severely injured. And when it's you, Jared, well, one has to wonder just what you found this time.

Ah, I realized, again trying to keep the surprise off my face. So I'm not going to have time before having this argument after all. It made total sense with everything I'd found before. Of course, the Duchess would be interested in anything new, particularly after such a long break.

Even if she was gone, I was sure she had a hand in sending Felisa. "It was an old mining facility," I said after thinking it through briefly. Lying here would only make this harder later, so I might as well go for it.

"At first, it seemed fairly safe, but once we got the power running, a swarm of crystal spiders attacked us. We barely managed to hold them off, and I pushed myself too far."

Felisa blinked in response, looking quite shocked, before she leaned forward. "That must have been terrible; I'm glad you made it out alive."

She looked genuinely concerned, and I found myself giving her a more detailed rundown of the events at the mine. She proved to be a good listener, asking insightful questions at just the right moment to draw out more information.

I still managed to avoid telling her about Broker or why we were there, but I still told her more than I would be comfortable with later.

"Then Linnea dragged me out of there and got us flown back," I finished, wincing at the memories.

"Only for you to wake up here to the terrible news," she sighed with an understanding nod. "Though at least you emerged with your lives. After quite a find, too. More mineral resources are exactly what we need to support the build-up."

This is it. I need to get in ahead here if I'm even going to have a chance. "About that," I interjected quickly. "I was thinking that it might benefit both the Duchess and myself if I maintained control of the mines."

"I would finish clearing it out, of course, and fund the entire operation. Then she would receive her usual tithes without requiring any investment." I was actually willing to go quite a bit further than the usual tithe percentage if needed, but I wanted to start low and be argued up.

Felisa's face had been entirely neutral during my pitch, giving me no hint of her feelings on the matter. "If it's a ruin, then it belongs to the crown, as I'm sure you know. I take it that the mines have something particularly good if you're asking?"

I barely suppressed a wince at the cold start, not to mention her direct query about the mine's contents. I'd been hoping to gloss over that. Resulum was extremely important to me for several reasons, but I wasn't sure how widely it was needed in the rest of the Kingdom.

Hell, I wasn't even sure if it being valuable or worthless would be better. Either could influence the negotiation for better or worse. In the end, though, this was another situation where lying would only cause problems later.

"From what I understand, it contains Resulum," I responded, being careful not to specify exactly how I knew that. "But I don't know how much is left."

"Resulum?" She responded, tapping the fingers of her left hand against her leg as she glanced at something on her watch. "Useful in certain advanced technologies while being quite scarce."

"Not the most significant metal you might have found, but a very nice addition nonetheless," she finished, continuing to tap her fingers while looking off as if in thought.

"I suspect you must have a use for it beyond what we normally understand for you to be this eager for it, but I'll leave well enough alone. Our nobles are allowed their secrets, after all."

"The ruins, and thus the attached mines, will be seized by the crown as normal," she said, only to hold up a hand as I opened my mouth to argue. "But, we would be willing to lease the mining rights to a noble in good standing."

"As you suggested earlier, you will take on the full responsibility for upkeep and security as well as providing your usual tithe of the output."

"Just like that?" I asked before I could stop myself. I'd almost thought it was over there, only to come out of it with exactly what I wanted.

"Just like that." She responded, her mouth widening into a small grin. "It's not hard to imagine this has something to do with your wonderful stealth ship. We need it at full capacity for the struggle ahead, so a slight bending of the rules is acceptable.

"Thank you," I said, bowing from my seated position to her. While I could have done without the reminder of how important it was to get the ship fixed, I was very thankful to have the situation resolved.

She only nodded in response before gracefully standing. "Of course this will be counted as your reward for finding the location. After all, we have to give some reason to the other nobles."

I nodded my understanding even though I'd still been half hoping for another reward. Not that there was much I could use in my current circumstances.

"Excellent work as usual," she continued after I remained silent. "And I do hope you recover in full. But unfortunately, I need to be off," she finished, turning to the door with a final nod.

Then she was gone, leaving me to slump back in relief. Despite the very significant interruption to our mission, it seemed it was going to all work out after all.

We'd finally be able to get the critical information we needed from Broker.