Chapter 88: A New Arrival

Eli POV

My wife and I, now fully dressed for the journey ahead, zipped forward with our leather sacks of mana lamps and travel meals. With the morning sun still shining down over the waking town, we moved through the early morning crowd on a relatively low speed as we moved through on our wheels. Coming onto the main gate, they opened it with the captain giving us a salute above as we activated all the boosters along our backs and went up to top speed with a screech of scorching air coming from the tubes on our backs.

The sacks swayed but our suits were so heavy that they didn't unbalance us at all as we zipped right through the gate with a whirlwind of dust and ash twisting behind us. Going out over the drawbridge and onto the dirt, we immediately took off down the main road until we got to the branch that took us to Bandits Grove. The waxy figures of the undead came to greet us, but they were no threat to us. By the time they registered and pinpointed the source of the noise or using whatever sense it was that let them know the living were in the area, we were already past them on the road.

The undead were now mostly forest animals, furless and featherless birds, deer, or bears that stuck out amongst the scars of bark along the barren landscape. Invigorated by the healing magic that they sucked in from a wide area around themselves, the undead were more muscular than their living counterparts but also much slower and now that the numbers were more even, the local wild dogs, bears, wolves and occasionally ants made meals of the waxy animals when they were too weak from absorbing and losing all the local healing magic to fight back, even as they were occasionally made meals in turn.

Rabbits scampered between bushes as a bear tore into the grey, bloodless flesh of a stag whose head had been removed with the birds nibbling and picking at the head as it tried to reform. Resting among the bushes or on the occasional step incline of a hill or boulder, these birds seemed to be moving in large flocks to and from the mountains to scavenge for scraps from such kills. A task made considerably easier with the flesh of kills regenerating over time. It seems that, no matter the horror or circumstance, life did what it always does and adapted to the world around it.

Cell would also occasionally send me an interesting image from his back view on my left shoulder blade, but the trip, as harrowing as it must have been for most, passed without much if any difficulty before we made our way northward and up to the wide palisade of Dunwhich. The river on the left side of the palisade ambled on in its typical slow pace but I wondered how the people of Dunwhich could secure the entrances of the rivers and the two main ones.

Their apparent solution was to not secure it at all.

As we made the bend around to the main entrance, the front was left totally open as the ramp to the right displayed where carriages got off the ground floor to the ring around the inner wall, which circled all the way around the town until it came back to the left side entrance. Scattered about was the shuffling dead meandering around the large square houses of thick dark wood. Over the rooftops on long planks were the citizens, moving goods and bartering in small stalls as they went about their everyday life. To the right and left covering the entrances to the ring were spiked gates reenforced with bands of iron, the right one of which had some guards that were working it open for us.

Zooming forward, we went through the space of the gate and went up the ramp. Aside from the occasional growl from the undead and our wheels knocking on the boards of the platform, there was pure silence as the surrounding guards, a mix of properly armed soldiers and peasants with spears, looked at us with wide eyes and low whispers. The increased height from our suits only made us more intimidating as the men pulled back as we walked up the ramp.

"The quad mage!" someone called further ahead.

Looking over the crowd, I saw a group of men with shoulder pads painted in the yellow and black stripes of the Holstead town guards. They were around an armored carriage further along the inner platform and the surrounding men gave us space as we moved through the crowd.

"Evening, gentlemen." I called. "Rand sent us to escort you back home."

One of the men with a plain white feather in his helm nodded but looked to the sky and turned his brown eyes back to us as he stroked his short brown beard.

"Good. But I don't think we'll be back in time. Besides I don't know if the men are well enough to move."

I looked up to the sky. The sun was still up but it was just past the mid-day position. That realization prompted a grumble in my gut.

That got a light smirk from the men.

"It's nice to see you are actually mortal. The tavern is serving good meals, but we're stuck here until the men get patched up and we get the supplies in order. Unless you would be willing to speed that process along." The leader said as the surrounding caravan workers looked on.

"Salamede, get us two a table at the tavern and see what else we can do around here while I see what I can do for the injured." I said with a look to the general direction of where I remember it was. From this vantage point, I could see the vast web of specially made walkways that connected all the square rooftops. Men and women were going about their day in a large section where the boards totally covered the spaces between the roofs off to the right, allowing a small market to be set up as people moved goods in and out of the hatches in their roofs. The main market center was were where the children could play without risking a fall to the undead covered streets below, throwing balls or jumping ropes while singing little songs.

When Salamede nodded and stepped forward onto one of the planks, her foot gave an ominous creek before she pulled back. Turning back to me, I gave a tired sigh as I motioned us both to go to the carriage. It took some struggle, but we got out of our suits and laid them on the benches as we retrieved a change of clothes from our bags. Closing the carriage door behind us, I dressed in my typical attire or a white shirt and brown pants as Cell wormed his way out of the main suit and into a small hole on the lower neck of my masks strap.

My task finished, I turned towards Salamede, who was now working her head through the green dress and straightening out her undergarments. Doing my husbandly duty, I made sure to keep a very close eye on her as she finished getting the dress over her body to make sure she didn't hurt herself. A duty that got a smirk from Salamede when she saw me staring with clear intent as she finally got the dress proper. A kiss and we opened the door, moving out into the sunlight.

The captain directed me back towards the church while Salamede made her way over the solid planks with small handrails. As we moved further along the platform of the palisade wall, a chill breeze blew over the rough edge of the sharp wooden stakes. It did nothing to hide the scent of decay in the air and only made me regret not bringing a coat along as we made our way to the section by the church. In between the space of the wall and the three large stone buildings that made up the church were placed several large wooden planks and from the blood on the wood it was plainly where the injured were brought in.

Walking up to the building, one large window in the middle was barred with a wood door and iron locks. A knock from one of the guards accompanying me led to a soft clack and slam of metal pieces as it swung open and an older friar stepped forward.

"What brings you lads here? No half dead men between you lot." The wrinkly man with bushy white eyebrows and a brown friar robe. I coughed before I stepped forward and offered my hand.

"I'm actually here to help you. I was sent from the academy town and I can heal the injured to get them back on their feet." I said as the man leathery hands shook mine.

"Ah. Good, good. Come in. We need as much help as we can get." He said with a nod to the opened door over what had clearly been a windowsill.

Following him in, there were bloody tourniquets and spots of bright and dull red along the floor of the square room but then he led me through a door to the left. This opened onto one of the walkways of the upper floors allowing me to see the rest of the building. Looking over the rail, I saw the undead, some human, most just smaller woodland critters and a few dogs, scurrying about the lower floor as the church doors were left wide open. The thought of them coming up the stairs occurred to me but a look to the back left eased my mind. On the opposite side of the bottom floor I could see the stairs had been removed with the holes in the wall showing where they had been affixed into the rest of the structure. Along the upper floors of the open space I could see nuns and friars moving back and forth carrying bloody bandages and pails of water.

Going further along the walkway, we came into the main room where the injured were kept. Men on stretchers, with a few women and children sprinkled around, littered the floor in any place they would fit.

"I don't know how many potions or herbs you may have brought but even rags at this point-" I put up my hand to silence the priest.

"We didn't bring any healing items." I said as got on my knees towards the first man with a bandage over the left side of his head. "Get me a few pieces of wood, healing magic is more powerful when casted but when you're going for the long term, it's a lot more inefficient than crafts."

The old man stood dumbstruck for a moment with a raised eyebrow before shuffling back through the door. I spent a few more minutes looking for those that needed healing first when he came back with three oddly sized boards that looked like they were left over from a carpentry project.

"Thanks," I said as I took them when he handed me them as I stood in the left corner with a man whose arm seemed to be more bandage than flesh.

It took a few minutes, but the three planks eventually got the enchantments they needed except for the initiation square. For those I summoned a stone blade and cut out a square on the lower portion as all those present stared with wide eyes. Once I was finished with that, I held a finished one to the man's barely held together arm. It took a few seconds, but the skin started reforming and a wave of ooh's and whispers broke out amongst the injured laying on the floor.

"Y-You're a healing mage." The old priest said with bated breath.

"Indeed. Pick up the other two and press on the square to turn them on and off." I said casually.

For what felt like an hour, I sat by people as I held a board to their injuries and watched as mana was sucked into them followed by the healing of scars and bruises. After explaining their use and how to operate them to several other church members, the priests got to work applying the crafts and spreading out the injured who could be moved when the local mana ran dry. Erring on the side of caution, I didn't use my mana generation to keep the crafts going. As I was helping move some of the people on stretchers around as more space was made, I asked for some advice from the elder priest.

"I have an issue of faith and body and was wondering about your perspective on it, as a man of the faith."

"Oh?" The priest raised a bushy eyebrow above his brown eyes as we moved a man to a corner of the room.

"I've been having some qualms with producing children. Everyone back at the academy is going on and on about obligations. Obligations to bring in mages for the next generation."

"Indeed." The priest said with sage nod as we put the stretcher down. "Being fruitful is one of our savior's commands."

I walked out of the room with him as one priest stayed behind to work the healing crafts.

"But inside marriage. Fornication is a sin as said by Jesus." I said, intoning my knowledge of the spirit codex as we stopped with his back to the railing as light filtered down from the windows.

"Yes. Indeed. And this is the thorn in your side? As surprised as I am to see a mage observing scripture, I'll not waste your time and ask how you came into the light of the lord." He crossed his arms and looked to the floor in deep thought before continuing. "In the days of Israel and the twelve tribes, the men of God needed to kill their enemies so that God's people could live in peace. Yet in time God's people were commanded to love their enemies. Yes, just because you love someone doesn't mean that they won't force your hand but there were great changes in commands from the old testament to the new and it is because, in my personal opinion, God is flexible.

Just as his people's commands changed to meet the shift from a single nation to a borderless nation of brothers, so too does his prerogative's in our world removed from the one Adia brought his word from. While mages are not facets of life in the Bible, they are here. As such there are different priorities at play. Over my years I have travelled far and wide, and aside from the Gospel, the greatest gift bestowed has been the spread of mages.

They make the world safer and bring prosperity to the world around them with their crafts and deeds. I myself have seen several villages no longer having to keep a separate section for children and toddlers because starvation had been staved off with the local earth mage making a damn to water the crops, a miracle for so many made from a married woman laying with a passing mage in years past. If you want my assessment, it is my personal belief that you should quell any guilt from your… vigor's. God is loving and I could not see a loving God damning you when a hundred different people would run to attest for the good you did through those acts."

I nodded before taking in a deep breath.

"Thanks, Father. I will keep that in mind."

He smiled and patted my shoulder, even as I nodded with a strained smile under my metal mask.

My question answered, though not in the manner he thought it was, I headed out of the church and to the tavern after informing the men to come get me when they were ready to leave. Hiking along the solid walkways, my silver hair, purple eyes, and mask drew a lot of attention, but the crystal-like head of Cell remained unnoticed as I made my way to the elongated wooden block that was the tavern, a larger rectangle of solid wood blocks four floors tall. There were several large walkways along the side as people came and went and I saw the roof had a double door hatch as people went up and down the staircase.

Moving through the press of people, I went down the stairs leading to and from the doors and was back in a wide hall with a green carpet down the center and a stair case to the left with the noise of a full tavern sounding from below. Walking over the dark oak boards with an occasional creak, I moved down the stairs, past the other two floors until I was on the main floor. Ahead was a plain hallway while a wide door to the right lead into the main gathering area. Going through the door, the bar was to the right and a wide array of seating areas off to the left through the door.

While various patrons jostled about in a haze of smells ranging from tobacco, sweat, liquor and smoke from chandeliers and candles, I looked around until I saw the horns of Salamede in a left side corner by herself with a window looking out onto the street below. Pushing my way through the crowd, I got up to her table. She was holding a mug and looking out the window and didn't notice me until I put my hand on her green dresses shoulder. She turned around with a scowl and puckered lips.

"My husb- Oh! Eli! How was it?" She said in that rough Kelton voice.

"Good, good. How were things on your end?" I asked.

But her white eyes started darting around looking at the men and women stealing glances at us.

"Good. This place seems to actually be well run and… Eli, are you sure you're comfortable sitting here?" She asked with a nervous scratch on her mugs handle.

My head turned towards the main entrance behind the hallway as I strummed my finger on the wooden table.

"The door seemed secure, and that raised stone staircase entrance means that the undead can't swarm the door effectively. Nice bit of design, that. But if you're still worried I-"

"Not the undead. I mean are you sure you want to be seen sitting with me?" She said quietly.

I raised an eyebrow at her and leaned back into my chair.

"What?"

"I mean, back home the Kelton's made it easy but with no one aside from humans around, are you sure you want people thinking we're together?" She finished with an unsure lip bite.

Getting off my chair, I went around the table. I gave her a stern look before I grabbed her by the arms and pulled her up. She looked at me with questioning eyes, but they went wide when I sat back down in my seat and forced her onto my lap with her chest resting against mine. A few people raised eyebrows but Salamede just blushed along her cheeks as her snout flared before she put her face on my right shoulder to look out the window.

"Salamede," I whispered in her ear. "The next time you ask me to hide our relationship, I'm hiking your dress up and taking you right then and there. That will give the busy body's something to really talk about."

She gave a cute snort before rubbing my shoulder in appreciation.

"Ok. Warning received."

We sat there for a few more moments, taking in each other and rubbing shoulders as we just experienced the noise of the tavern as the inquiring eyes eventually moved elsewhere. After a good minute, Salamede spoke again.

"Like I said, this place is well run. Of course, there are things you could do but not during a single day here." She said with a happy beat in her voice.

"We've not been able to just rest like this for a while. Always some project I need to work on, or some guard duty Rand needs you for." I said.

"Yeah."

Eventually, a bar maid came by and took our orders before returning with two beef sandwiches, which we enjoyed as Salamede stayed on my lap. We stayed there for what felt like an hour or so, just enjoying the peace of each other's company with no other pressing concerns. The sun went over the mid-day point before the guards came back saying they were ready to go. We all got back to the carriage, now located towards the end of the palisades inner walkway and donned our armor. As I was getting my helmet in place by the right side of the carriage, Brother Bartholomew came through the inner ring of the palisade alongside other carriages coming in.

The middle-aged man with a black bowl haircut and slight beard was carrying the wooden pieces I fashioned into healing crafts.

"Lord mage. We at the church of Adia thank you so much for your allowance in the use of your crafts and didn't want you to think we would let you forget them." He said, offering the three wooden boards.

"It's fine. You will have far more use for them than I will." I responded as I put the helmet over my head and pulled the iron hammer out from the carriage.

He nodded and gave a deep bow with his brown eyes showing genuine appreciation.

"To think I once encouraged you to take up mining or lumber working." Bartholomew said ruefully.

I heard Salamede snort and look at the priest with raised eyebrows and an unbelieving face.

"Salamede," I chided in a lighthearted manner.

"No, she's right." Bartholomew interceded. "I should consider myself lucky sister Rachael isn't here to witness this conversation or else she would tan my hide anew."

I got a suppressed laugh at that, but he looked at me with a twinkle in his eyes as he continued in a sage voice.

"May God watch over you in these trying times." He intoned.

"And he over you," I responded with a nod.

Behind him came the rest of the men with yellow and black striped shoulder pads, all now dressed in full armor.

Bartholomew and a few of the onlookers pulled back or waived goodbye as Salamede and I moved towards the exit ramp of the inner walkway. The men at the gate waited until the undead wandered over to the men making noise at the opposite entrance gate before opening the exit gate. The creak of the exit gate drew back a few of the waxy, gray skin animals but the shambling featherless birds and muscular pigs were promptly blown apart by my hammer or Salamede's spear. The carriage horses took off with a loud thunder of hooves and clanking metal as the armor shod horses tore out of the gate and onto the main road.

We zipped up beside them, with me swinging and taking off the head of an undead deer who tried to bite the horses.

Fortunately, we made good time on the road back and the mana lamps I brought were unneeded as we got back to the academy town in the late afternoon when orange was playing across the sky. The wall of gray stone came into view as we sped along the side road and onto the last stretch of the main road. With a dull creak, the drawbridge was let down as the carriage zipped inside with a few of the grey forms of the undead coming in from around the hills.

We came in behind the charging carriage and stopped along the left side when the carriage slowed down.

"Wooh!" I said with a look around. "Glad to be back behind the walls."

Salamede remained silent though, looking around the edge of the wall and at the men working the ever-burning pyres.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I moved closer to her.

"The men. They're all guards but they usually employ mercenaries and workers to keep the fires burning and to help out on patrols but there were none on our way here." She said worriedly.

I nodded but kept my eyes on the bridge and the harbor district, where there seemed to be men in suits running around the various offices in a hurry.

Our task finished, we headed back to our tower. But on the way over the bridge, the Kelton patriarch stood at the opposite end with his typical fat blue suit and brown fur showing sweat over his sharp chin and pronounced cheek bones even as the sweat stayed out of his white eyes.

"Ah master mage! We have dire news we need to discuss." He called with a bow of his head, though with his brown horns running along the back on his neck it made it look like he was going to ram us.

"What's wrong?" I asked, with a sorrowful look at my tower, and all its comforts, off to the right side of the town. So close, yet so far.

"It… Tansen said it would be best if we talked about it in his office." The patriarch said.

From there we headed towards the academy, along the way we saw a long line of workers doing nothing as they idled about the town. Salamede looked especially worried as we worked our way through the crowd, but we pressed forward through the streets. An air of anxious energy clogged the streets along with the people as guards shouted between themselves in the sidelines of the main road.

It took just a few more minutes but we got through the academy's main entrance and into the tower. Going up through the stairs, we eventually came up to the secretary desk to the right of Tansen's entry door. It took a few minutes, interspersed with the sound of a heated argument, but we were eventually let in. While the windowless room with blue and white striped walls was in its typical bare form and the plain wood floor was as well tended as always, the rest of the room was far tenser than it usually was. Rand was standing by the left side of Tansen's oak wood desk in his typical steel chest plate and leather pants and arm-length brown coat.

Tansen was sitting in the chair behind the desk with Aki to the left of him. The Academy head was in his typical black kimono with a wave of sapphires across the chest while his ever-present companion wore the typical white and blue striped staff robes. The three men had furrowed eyebrows and even Tansen's typically cool demeanor was compromised by the argument we interrupted with the party on the right of the room.

It was a man in leather armor with metal shoulder guards and another man with soot about his grey shirt, despite his obvious attempts to get it all off his shirt and brown pants. Tansen coughed into his hand before finishing the discussion.

"All right then, half from us and… Ah! Eli!" The academy head said with a wave to me and Salamede beckoning us to come closer.

"We were told to come in." I said casually as the patriarch came up behind us.

"Yes. Yes." Tansen said with a hint of nervous hesitation as he dismissed the two men with a nod. The new guests quickly moved past us with a respectful nod and shut the door behind them. But what drew my attention was the energy of the room. Rand was fidgeting with his brown mustache as his chestnut eyes darted around the room and the patriarch moved to stand to the right of the desk squeezing the lapel of his blue suit.

The four men were looking at us both and the trepidation was palpable.

"What?" I said with tiredness, bracing myself for whatever the new disaster was.

"We've run into some funding issues with the local mercenary and labor groups. The government has shunned all of its responsibilities in favor of dissolving your censure." Tansen said with a heavy tone.

My stomach clenched, both from the implications of the government essentially closing shop and from the fact that my excuse to not make children was going away. I stood a little more straight before looking between the four men.

"If there needs to be some funds appropriated, I-"

Tansen put up his hand.

"Those space expanded chests already freed up enough coin that we can more than cover the costs with the government contracts freezing." He said amicably.

"Yeah," Rand said with a bit lip before speaking up. "You've already done so much for us that we're able to bear the burden we typically look towards the central government to help us with."

There was a lot of gratitude in his voice but looking between the four men, there nervous twitches and air of anxiety spoke louder than their words as they stood in seeming opposition to me and Salamede.

"Good. But I'm sensing something else going on and I would appreciate you sharing it with us." I said with a tapping foot as Salamede made sure to stand on my right.

They all stood silent for a moment before Tansen leaned forward with the mana lamp above showering his and the other men in what now looked to be harsh lines of shadow.

"We've received a notice from a miss Koal. She is a correspondent sent from the Coalition government chambers to… monitor and remedy your situation. In addition, shortly after she left the coast to come here, a committee was proposed to specifically to legislate and look after congressional responsibilities concerning you. Part of Koal's remedy to the 'quad mages deplorable circumstance' has been to petition the local courts to annul your marriage."

The hair on the back of my head stood straight up as Salamede threaded a hand through my arm, suddenly looking a lot more vulnerable now than any time fighting with the undead that I had ever seen.

"Well, then." I said with a steely voice, "I will prepare for a legal dispute. When we-"

Tansen put his right hand up and leaned back with a tired sigh as he did his best to look me straight in the eyes.

"Eli, I'm sorry for misleading you. When I say 'petition the local courts', what I really meant was 'instruct the local courts'. It is already a settled matter as far as the law is concerned."

My wife and I both took a deep breath before Salamede spoke up.

"Is it gone? The rope with our promises tied on it." Salamede asked with a creaky voice.

"No." Rand said in a firm tone.

At that the patriarch stepped forward and coughed into his hand before speaking in that typical rough Kelton voice.

"We respect you both too much to just let you come home and find it gone. She has the backing of the mage associations and while our people are typically left without any thought by the high and lofty in her level of society, she made it clear that the Kelton community will not be held accountable if… if the proof of the marriage is done away with." He said with a final note of trepidation.

I gulped and started a spirit connection with Salamede to discuss this.

'How do you want to do this?' I asked with my thin patience shining clear through.

'For the community. The good of the community should always come first.' She said in a shaken voice, though a hint of steel still came through.

I stood still and looked between the four men and reminded myself that they were trying their best. For their people and for me. It still took me a solid minute of clawing for any other options before I sighed and admitted defeat.

"Fine."

The men all gave a release of breath as the tension came out of their shoulders before I continued.

"Do I get to keep it, or does it need to be destroyed?" I asked in a deflated tone.

"I'll take it down." The patriarch said. "The order says the marriage is to be dissolved and the evidence removed but I'll keep it in my house for when this issue is resolved."

I nodded while Salamede squeezed my side with her hand. I looked to the floor as I made sure not to indulge in my anger as setting Cell off was not a good idea no matter where he was.

'Eli, let's get something to eat at the dwarves stall while…' She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, so I patted her arm before turning to the portly Kelton man.

"We're going to get dinner while you do what you need to. Oh, and when Koal gets here, do tell me where I can find her." I said with a light smile that probably didn't show behind the mask.

Tansen had a slight gulp before nodding in agreement as the rest of the men seemed to hold their breath. Turning around and out the door, we headed down the tower staircase and out into the main market. Despite achieving what we set out to do, and more, there was an air of sadness between the two of us as we picked at our meals of seared fish and water. The sun was totally faded as we came back to the tower in the near pitch black.

Walking over the light stone yard with its angles flowing from the tower like a river, we both stopped at the double door entrance. Above the iron banded doors was the blank space along the blackened marble entrance that used to hold the rope with our promises to each other tied around it. There was a moment where we just stood there but I quickly moved forward and opened the right part of the door with my key for the lock.

"As far as I'm concerned, nothing has changed." I said to my wife.

She gulped and got a little smile before going inside. Washing up and going to bed on the top floor, we both slinked into our sheets on the large oak bed covered in a red blanket and white sheets. As we snuggled together, Salamede pressed herself up against my chest. The mana lamp above our bed gave a golden glow across our skin as we lay snug against each other with only our bare, white underwear on.

'So, what now?' Salamede asked in a spirit connection as she rubbed her snout against my nose.

I stole a quick kiss and stroked the grey fur of her cheek before talking.

'I could try and finish the air ship, but that would probably backfire. Science and all its wonders are far too intricate to make a case for replacing their entire way of life with it in a matter of weeks. Which is what I would be asking them to do if they held off on the breeding tenant of magical ability. Given enough time and resources I could wean them of their hyper focus on magic, but if I bring out an airship that uses little to no mana right now, the most likely outcome is that it will be another achievement the 'stealer of the quad mage' is denying humanity.' I said ruefully as I pulled Salamede flush against me, wrapping my legs around her thighs and putting my other hand across her back.

'Yeah. You're far too good of a mage for them to let go of. Maybe they'll go the sweet and sugar route with you at first, but they're bound to bring the whip eventually.' Salamede said, a note of pride coming through despite her obvious anxiety. I huffed in response as I did a deep squeeze along her bum.

'They don't have anything as sweet as my wife.' I said as I kissed her.

Surprisingly, it took her a moment to respond after my tongue left her mouth.

But when she did, she pushed me fully onto my back and pressed me into the soft white mattress.

'You're damn right I'm your wife.' She said with a determined tone and gritted teeth. Laying atop me, she worked off her bra and panties before standing up and turning off the mana lamp above. My last vision that wasn't faint blue shadows from the window above was the full, naked beauty of my woman looking down at me with raw hunger before the day's real work began.

For the next few days, nothing really changed for us, aside from fruitless musings on trying to wiggle out of the vice we found ourselves in. We had an unspoken agreement to not let anything that happened alter our routine. A clinging grasp for control over our lives that only showed its insecurity in the bedroom. While she wouldn't say anything to the effect, Salamede becoming 'un-wife-d' only made her more ferocious in her wifely duties, be it taking even more care to clean the house or go over the top in our meals, she seemed only more determined to embody the role that was ripped away from her.

Despite our best efforts, one day the disruption in our lives came again. It started with a quick rise in the morning with me heading to finish out my classes while Salamede went to help with guarding the town. On this particular morning, as I walked through the biting air towards the line of carriages by the gate to the classrooms, I was going to have my magical abilities tested. The sun was low in the sky over the empty plains over the land. Gold mana flowed in the dips of the earth as a light breeze stripped me of any warmth my robes offered.

Going up to the line of carriages and getting in the one furthest to the back, I was quickly followed by the group of women. Unlike the first time, it was quite orderly as the women filed in behind me. They had made it abundantly clear to any of the other men that any carriage I was in was to be vacated so they could crowd in and the back carriage was now routinely left empty for me. Also, the girl's interest in me became more complicated. They still pined to bear my children, but they would also approach me for advice on crafting and on the trips in-between the town and the classrooms, the women would unconsciously move towards me whenever the guards had to stop to kill some undead animal.

Apparently, the girls on the first trip spread tales far and wide of my 'heroic and powerful skills' after the first carriage ride. But the most noteworthy things happening for me were the magical slugs.

While the Advanced alchemy classes were half done, I had already gotten a good paste from the fire magic aligned slugs. With work proceeding apace on the dirigible, the slugs special heat resistant properties would let me safely use a high temperature system for heating the air in the balloon. But that was still for a future time. Today's main event was the examination of my general magical ability.

Even with that, another item was on the local gossip menu in the carriage this morning and this one didn't involve every miniscule thing that I did. The expedition to the more mana rich region in the west was being planned and in the first stage of being carried out now that life had finally settled down into its regular pattern after the mayhem at the start of Necrosis. A few scouts had been dispatched several days ago and with the selection of a campsite, the process of deciding who belonged where had begun.

All the intrigue of who was going into the vanguard, doing the further scouting, and who was going to be the main hunters was on every tongue in the carriage. When I got into the main grounds of the classroom towers, I immediately went to the garden beds behind the main tower. After a morning of taking in instruction on various cultivated garden pests and their preferences, I headed up to the main practice area in the smaller tower.

Along the way, women shot me heated looks or got a rub in, the distinction of teacher or student mattered little as neither showed much restraint, but I eventually arrived on the towers roof. With the arrival of the bitter cold, the metal mushroom skeleton that ringed the towers top was now filled out with smooth stone of the typical white. While quite thin as far as construction materials go, it was more than enough to stop the wind with only a few holes on the top and bottom for air and some enchantments around the holes seemed to blow out mana sucked in from outside. This left the ambient mana particularly thick as faint blue particles could be seen in the air and along the ground.

To the right was a table with several staff members and along the sides were various casters and the academy's other special students. Veronica was in her typical leather armor with metal chest piece and shoulder guards, now with white accents in the edges to go with the rest of the blue colors. Ryan was in his rocky metal armor, deep browns with hard edges that made it hard to distinguish from stone, with the lion's head hammer and Andrew was in his deep red armor of interlocking plates covering his whole body. To his right was his brother, Jeff, in a twin set of armor with a color of yellow.

This group of elite students was meandering in the middle of the large brown square that made up the practice yard with the other casters milling about the side lines. A hush came over the precious chatter of conversations as everyone turned to me. Everyone.

"Ah" Aki called as he pushed through the crowd blocking my vision of him as he came from the right. "Eli, we are going to start the examination and placement trials soon but considering the… special circumstances this year, there has been a change in how we conduct it this time. This time we'll pit you against four other students" He said with a suggestive wiggle of his thick grey eyebrows towards the center of the practice yard.

I crossed my arms as I looked over the sea of faces.

"They have their weapons and armor, which certainly has me at a disadvantage." I said.

Aki nodded.

"This isn't totally about the expedition. We also want to have a better idea of how a quad mage performs in combat and you having crafts undermines that. I figured doing it now was better than forcing you back here to do another examination. But you're right, them having crafts and armor would be an advantage. Oh, and no need to hold back on account of the building. We've practiced slamming house sized blocks against this towers head, and it's held up just fine." Aki said with an expectant look at the four center students.

The four promptly got out of their armor and set their weapons aside as they slipped on their regular blue and white striped outer robes. Though Ryan took special care as he stored his hammer down by the bench off to the left where the rest of the gear was stored.

Positioned in the center with a thick crowd spectating, the four elite students then spaced out to face me. I looked towards Aki with a raised eyebrow before rolling my eyes and walking up to face off against the quad team. From left to right it was Veronica, Andrew, Jeff, and Ryan. A hush fell over the already light whispers of the crowd as Aki walked over to start the match as he sat in the middle of the judge's table.

It only took him scooting forward in his chair before he yelled "No kill shots, you're only try to knock them out of the brown tile square. Begin!".

Veronica hesitated while Andrew and Ryan rushed at me headlong with blades of flames and a stone club and shield. They blocked my vision of Jeff, but I could see bright yellow mana forming a spell construct in front of him. Using a wind spell, I leapt up into the air and summoned a slab of stone to fall in-between the two men charging me. The huge block of grey stone forced the two to dodge out of the way, leaving the path to my true target wide open.

I summoned a thin water bubble around me that absorbed the sudden bolt of lightning that shot out when I was clear of Jeffs allies. The sizzle and steam whirled around the bubble as I quickly condensed it into a solid block and threw it at Jeff, knocking him clear off to the side and nearly out of the match.

A block of water flew in from my left as I was coming down from my high jump. Rather than dodge it, I summoned a solid cube of stone in front of me which took the blow. But now Andrew and Ryan were catching back up to me as Jeff was getting up. Rather than try and dodge the two men again, I surprised them by using an air boosted jump to meet them head on while I summoned a thick band of water around me and some lightning spells.

The two men seemed to anticipate me jumping again and didn't have enough time to react before their midsections were covered with water followed by their bodies seizing up from the voltage flowing through it. A blast of wind and water flung the two men outward and sent Andrew out of the arena. Veronica made a dive and managed to save Ryan with a water cushion, but Andrew's fall was mitigated by a staff members water bubble as his trajectory had him going clear out of the brown tiled square. Jeff had the good tactical sense to distract me with tongues of lightning coming out his hands while Veronica worked Ryan down from her summoned water pad.

He had too much reach for me to get in close to him, so I summoned a few quick and crude slabs in front of him. They didn't box him in, but he now had three slabs in between me and him. I heard the slapping of shoes on stone coming from around the right side, so I broke the slabs into fine chunks mixed with water to topple them onto him in a semi mud wave. The yell told me he wasn't expecting that, and the momentary confusion gave me enough time to manipulate the water in his clothes and toss him out of the combat zone.

He tried to use an air spell to change his momentum, of course. But he only got one going before he landed on the ground and he was well past the point where it would have done him any good. A big wave of water then rushed towards me, leaving me no time to escape with a skyward leap.

I pushed back against the water with a spell of my own. Summoning a huge wave of air bubbles out from my fists, Veronica lost control of the wave and had to cancel the spell before she exhausted herself trying to stop all those bubble from changing the shape of the water. Getting a sense of my bearings, I was a few steps away from the edge. But I was now dealing with the two students whose elements were more defense focused and that I had a good means of easily dealing with.

Dashing towards the two now side-by-side scions and sending white-hot bursts of wind-enhanced flame, they both did what anyone else would do in their situation and formed two shells, the outer one a wavy bubble of water and the other a shell of stone with a few holes. I leapt into the air and summoned another slab of stone. Using the natural momentum of the newly materialized weight, I let it fall into their defenses and take out the water and stone shield with ease as the horse-sized boulder punched through the two shells with a loud crunch..

That didn't end the fight, but from then on, my advantage became too much for them to have any hope of countering. The huge momentum and speed afforded to my boulders from my aerial acrobatics and the low strain with which I could use those spells meant that even the scions couldn't properly defend against it. Jeff and Andrew had been helping keep me out of the air, but with them gone, Ryan and Veronica didn't have a prayer of knocking me out of the skies and their elements and way of thinking were far too defensive to have any success when I could summon and drop boulders with such ease. It only took a few more minutes before both of them put up their hands in surrender. A gesture that was met with applause as we made our way to the judge's table.

"Damn." Aki said behind me as we five sweat covered students were served cold waters and moist towels. "I can see why earth and air didn't mix before you came along. That was just bullshit."

A few nods were seen around the crowd with the women biting their lips and grinding their thighs together as they looked at me with newfound reverence. Slinging the towel around my neck, I was directed to the local shower room. Going down the staircase and the floor below the waiting room, I went left into a room with seamless, blue stonework along the wall and floors like small waves directing the water from the showers into pipes to flow down the back side of the tower. The stalls were cubicles of wood with shells along the walls to give the place a nautical theme.

I got a new set of unisex robes from a dresser to the left and headed into the first open stall on the left row, stripping and placing my old robes in a basket hung on the door while the new ones were placed in a box on its left. The shower head on the far wall was a circle of wood with red painted dots on the outside showing how hot the water was going to be above a fine wooden bench and it was sucking in the faint blue particles to replace the mana from its previous user. After placing my mask on the bench and rubbing myself down with some of the soap that was laying on the bench, I decided to wait and reflect on things until the showerhead was fully charged. One more minute of standing around waiting for the craft to absorb all of its mana and I heard footsteps coming from the entrance but paid them no mind until there came a knock at my stall.

"Sorry, occupied." I called as I started the shower head on its middling section.

A shake at the stall door made me look back and I saw someone with feminine legs crouching down. There also looked to be a good four other pairs of womanly legs crowding around the entrance. Sighing, I prepared several earth spells but then I heard Andrews voice break out over the muttering beyond my stall.

"Sorry ladies, but we scions and dual elements aren't in the mood to hear his balls slapping against your asses. Out!"

That sent the women scurrying as I heard some people getting their robes out of the dresser. I put myself under the shower of hot water, letting it wash away the sweat and some of the constant stress I was under.

"What the hell was that Eli?" Jeff called from one of the stalls to my right as the sound of the other shower heads spattering water on the stone floor started rang out.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The water ring. How did that ring of water stun Ryan and Andrew with the lightning spells?"

"The lightning travelled through the water, allowing the lightning to get around any stone or robes that might have taken the hit for them."

"I thought water absorbs lightning, like dirt?" Ryan called somewhere behind me. The steam from so many showers was leaving a slight haze of steam around the room now.

"No. It just provides another place for it to travel through besides air. Although for magical purposes, as long as the water never touches anyone and is dissipated, I suppose the difference is null."

It took a long moment of silence before Jeff talked again.

"If it travels inside the water, I suppose that's why it didn't just punch through the bubble in one spot."

"Still," Andrew said, a bitter undercurrent coming clear through. "I suppose we didn't have much of a chance. The enemy summoning boulders while flying means any defensive position is untenable. "

I took a moment to consider giving tactical advice on how to defeat such a tactic, but I wasn't sure I wanted to give out such information. Erring to caution, I stuck to a tact silence. It was Jeff who broke the silence though.

"Well it looks like this place will have four scions soon. The way you were throwing out spells, you must be close."

"Part of that was me having so many elements. Preparing spells beforehand is a lot easier when you know who can and can't see which mana constructs." I offered meekly, desperately trying to avoid that thorny subject.

Andrew gave another huff.

"Well at least we'll have a good harvest this year. They'd be crazy to not make you a hunter."

That got grunts of approval from the other men.

My body washed, I put on my new robes and my mask before heading out of the stall. My main task for the day finished, I headed out to the main shower room hallway. The dark oak floor of the room was packed with women of both student and teacher variety as the main staircase upward was in the middle of the room. Aki pushed himself forward before the lusting of the women could lead them to acting on their desires.

"Ah, good. I wanted you to know that Koal has arrived and has been told to wait at Tansen's office." The old man said with a dreading tone, but I only smiled under my mask.

"I will see her immediately." I said with a happy tone, but before I could move through the crowd a middle-aged woman and someone who was obviously her daughter came forward and blocked my way. While the mother had black hair to her waist, the girl had hers only to shoulder length. Thin with sharp chins, their pale skin only emphasized the purple of their lips and eyelids.

"But you can't leave just yet." The mother said before rushing forward and gluing herself to my side. "Such a powerful performance would wear out even the scions. Come to one of the rooms and my daughter and I can help get that pain out of your limbs." She bashed her long eyelashes at me below her thin eyebrows as did her daughter. Though the mother exuded heat and desperation, the daughter was clearly lost and taking ques from her mother.

"Hey!"

"Don't hog him!"

Aki took their momentary distraction as the other women pulled them off me to push through the crowd with me going in right behind him. The collective moan of disappointed women blocked out all other sound, but I still kept up a good pace as I went upstairs and into the side tower. My main task for the day seen to, I headed back downstairs to get home. As I walked over the red carpet of the central staircase in the main tower, I looked down to the exit and, sure enough, Beth was there.

Walking down to the main floor, I moved past various students and teachers to get to the line of armored carriages. The caravan was only a few minutes from leaving and Beth made sure to make good use of it. Everyday now she would come to the classroom towers dressed in a revealing red or green dress with a smug smile of her thick pink lips and wavy brown hair to accompany me back to my house.

The other women hated her for her seeming closeness to me and how she didn't even have to contrive an excuse to be in my presence. This time she just waited off to the right side until the call to head out was given, then she zipped right up to my side and pressed her chest against my arm with a cocky look in her purple eyes as she puckered her mouth with a mole above the right lip.

"I have to head to the Dorms tower when we get back to town." I said casually.

"Oh?" Beth said with a raise of her thin right eyebrow. "Well I'll tell Salamede. That sowing for the new beds will give us all the time we need to gossip about you."

And that was why she got to hold my arm.

Beth noticed, perhaps she was the only one who noticed, that my love of Salamede came before anything else here. Of course, she used this to ingratiate herself into my wife's, damn what the courts say, my WIFES'S good graces. Salamede, for her part, was positively glowing with the attention. Having a noble woman, even one of middling standing, try to suck up to her gave her an elated happiness I had not the heart to deny her.

That Salamede was also sizing her up as another wife for me to take was also obvious. My objection that she was already married fell on death ears though. Salamede acted like it was a fly buzzing around and would go back to making dinner or working on any of a dozen projects needed for the Kelton community. Something that would have been troublesome if Rand was still enforcing the censure but he swung by one morning to inform us that the censure was effectively dead with the arrival of a letter telling him to enforce it only if there was absolutely nothing else to do. And there was always something the law needed him to do.

I hadn't put out since then for the cloying women, much to Agatha's chagrin, and it was becoming increasingly clear to everyone that the censure wasn't responsible for me rejecting the women's advances. As I guided Beth towards the carriage and opened the back door for her, I felt oddly grateful for her antics. I'd probably be getting a lot worse treatment from the powers that be if they knew there were no human women I was interested in.

The carriage ride back proceeded in the normal way it always did through the soft rolling hills of grass and bark scars with the occasional grey skinned animal or human undead shambling about. When we got through the gates and the carriage came to a stop, I shuffled out of the carriage with Beth still holding my arm. Once we were back on firm soil, she slowly let my arm go before heading towards my home. Walking on towards the academy and through the main gate, I calmly made my way through the tower's doors and up its side staircases until I got into Tansen's office.

While the white and blue striped room was the same as ever with its mana lamp in the center of the ceiling and plain wooden floor, a new presence was to the left of the academy head sitting at the desk. Wearing a red robe with a gold sash was a woman of mid-30's with short black hair. She had lightly tanned skin and strong cheek bones with two moles along her left jaw. Her light green eyes immediately went to me and her regal air got a dent in it as she looked me up and down with a frank interest.

"Well, he doesn't seem to be unattractive, not to say that has ever been much of an issue when getting peasant girls to spread their legs for a mage." She said with a bite on her dark lower lip. Tansen was sitting in the desk chair wearing his typical black kimono with a wave of sapphires across the chest. While he didn't make any movements in his chair, his forehead ridge still scrunched up from him rolling his eyes.

"He could have a face that looks like it got a hammer taken to it and that would matter very little in these circumstances." Tansen said irritably.

"Indeed," Koal said before walking forward and put her hands up to take off my smiling metal mask.

"Woah now," I said as I put up my hands to stop her. "I'm not here to give you a little peep at my face. I'm here to discuss the stupid decision you made to annul my marriage."

She raised an eyebrow but pulled her hands back.

"Had to be done. The poisonous atmosphere lingering in this academy that has failed to see you provide your due for humanity needs to be cleaned out." She said like we were discussing the weather.

I stood there for a moment as I crossed my arms making sure to look as opposing to her proposition as possible. Tansen took that moment to cough and lean forward in his chair.

"Miss Koal, I don't believe you were properly informed as to his present circumstances. Consulting with me in the future would be extremely advisable." Tansen said with a strained smile. Koal got a puckered lip as she seemed to go deep into thought on the subject before reaching into her robes pocket. From it she pulled a wrapped package tied with rope that smelled of seared meat.

"Know this, Eli." She intoned with smug confidence. "If you insist on this ruinous path then these will be denied to you. A portion of meat from a lightning Zigga-rat. I don't need to tell you about how close you are to reaching the rank of scion. A lofty life of unfathomable luxury and prestige, I assure you." There was a rustling on her shoulders as a red snake with flames along its eyebrows showed out of the robes head. The look of smug conceit in its amber eyes was undeniable. "Continuing along this path will see such gifts out of your reach as, even if they let you hunt, these prizes are from the central continent and there's no force in the world that would bend the Coalition's higher ups to allow a trip there."

I stood still as my mind struggled to comprehend what she was saying as she held the package of meat out like it was a family jewel of the finest craftsmanship. Closing my eyes, I turned my head to the ceiling as I tapped my right foot.

"You annul my marriage and your make up gift is a rat's ass soaked in mana?" I then turned down to Koal, who was looking at me with wide eyes and a slack jaw. "I'll be honest with you, I'm not even mad. I'm genuinely impressed at the sheer optimism of the gesture. You get points for that at least." I said with a mocking little clap before turning out the door. "Go after Salamede again and we'll see if a scion's legs can function better than a regular humans when they're bent the wrong way."

"I didn't hear that" Tansen shouted in a sarcastic jest as I left the room behind and went back to my wife. Fuck what the courts, the government, the world says, I went back home to my WIFE.