Chapter 98: Changing Relationships.(2)

Eli Pov

"Oi! We've arrived, quad mage."

I jerked up and took a moment to be bitter at Salamede's absence from my side. Then looking out the window, I saw the faint whisp of morning coming out over the night sky. Looking down, I could see some of the undead getting their heads bashed in by the dwarven guards while one of my minders stayed behind to sit across from me. From the local landscape and the river on my right, I could tell that we were a good bit upstream of the academy.

Our time together finished, I bid them all goodbye as the proper bite of winter clutched at my skin. I took my chest with me into the river. Cold and powerful, I used the supremacy of the river to guide me towards my destination. Using air and heating spells to ward off hypothermia and maintain an air bubble around my head put a considerable strain on my mental resources, but eventually, I passed under a large shadow that I knew to be the bridge.

After a few more minutes boosting myself around in the murky water, I came upon a few rocks that I knew held the hatch to my underground workshop and lifted the handle hidden among them. Some tugging and maneuvering, and I was up in the grotto section of my workshop. With the ever-present hum on the copper spheres fixed in the rack above the furnace on the opposite side of the room, I moved across the stone floor as the mana lamp on the central pillar bathed the room in its glow. Lugging my chest up the steps on the right, I worked open the hatch while only barely lifting it.

The dead silence that greeted me, paired with the still shut front door gave me the all-clear to enter the main living area. Pulling my metal armor out of the chest, I quickly put it on and opened the hatch. It doesn't look like anything had been touched in my absence as the table to my left and the couch to my right were in the same spot as always. Walking towards the stairs on the left wall and past my kitchen near the main door, I used an air spell to deaden any noise from my metal shoes hitting the floor.

Going over the copper floor of my 'workshop' and up to my main bedroom, it was the same as ever. A big bed of thick red blankets and soft white sheets lay in the back middle of the room with a nightstand to its right and a glass shower in the right corner of the room. What I was here for was the glass window above the bed. After a few more minutes, the guest of honor arrived.

The white bird landed on the ledge, its cruel-looking red eyes and fluff of feathers on its head marking it different than the scavengers who it mimicked. When I opened the window, it flew in with the blue stripes on its wings giving off some water mana. It must have been as eager to conclude business as I was because it immediately bombarded me with mental images in a spirit connection before it even landed on the bed.

Veronica, Eska, Mia, Andrew, his familiar, and Jeff were all in the yard behind the water scions house, practicing their spell work and various crafts. Disturbingly, it indicated that I was a rather constant subject in their discussions. And the rest of the students as well. Chattox quickly left the mental detour before getting back on track. The familiar quickly got to why it needed me. Andrew had been working on a fire beam, similar to the one I made of water. But when he tested it while pointed to the ground, that was when a stray water ball slammed into the table that he had it resting on.

It was the thrower of the water ball who suffered when the wide beam of fire blasted Veronica's right arm clean off. My tinkering nature couldn't help but note some probable inefficiencies in Andrews's design before taking in the rest of the story. Fortunately, Veronica just passed straight out from the pain while the rest panicked. A healing potion was applied which stopped it from being life-threatening. Which is when Mia ran to get help.

Or rather tried to.

Chattox immediately blocked her path and impressed upon the others to stay quiet, which was followed up by Andrews fire ape blocking any attempt to leave the house that the mages were quickly shuffled into. The two familiars figured out that there was no way to fix her arm as all the healing scions were on the central continent. All of them, except for me. Working out a plan with the firey ape, they forced the students, now thoroughly confused as they were seemingly being detained by two of their own numbers familiars, to stay in Veronica's house while they pushed the dwarves to get me. Andrew had been particularly upset about his familiars seeming betrayal, as was Veronica when she recovered from the shock.

Fortunately, she was angrier with Andrew than anything else, so she didn't press her familiar too hard. I stared at the bird for a moment, some notion of pleading in its eyes. After I asked about the local staff, it said they were starting to get worried about all the top students seeming refusal to leave Veronica's house. I took a deep breath and worked through the best-case scenario.

Someone was going to find out I was a scion today.

The optimal route was the only person knowing this fact being Veronica, who I heal and promptly leave to go back to Salamede and Gula. Worst case scenario, Chattox's already fragile mental state prompts him or Andrews familiar to spill everything, which means everyone knows I'm a scion, knows what my familiar looks like, and knows how long I've been a scion. Resigning myself to the best of the bad options, I told Chattox about a local tavern that would have the spare room for me to discreetly meet Veronica.

He told me he would bring Andrew first if the two familiars couldn't convince the others to stay behind and the monkey would meet back up at Veronica's house to give them the room number.

The bird then flew out the window, leaving me to get ready for things on my end. Putting my metal armor away, I put on my regular leather armor and a cloth bandana with the headcover. Heading back out the grotto entrance, I boosted myself upriver and onto the shore by the smaller left side docks. Using a water spell to un-soak my clothes, I quickly melted into the morning crowd. Walking past leather workers, smiths, and the occasional pile of snow, I arrived at the wide three-story tavern with a wide double door for an entrance.

Going in through the door, I saw it was crowded, but not claustrophobic. The inn's walls were dark oak while the floor was a decent grey stone. With two wide areas of tables filled with guests on the right and left, most people ignored me as the poor candlelight made it hard to see most of the patron's faces anyway. The main bar was directly ahead with a staircase to its right the former of which I quickly pushed towards as a pudgy man with a combover of black hair was washing a cup with a rag behind the long counter. I spent a few seconds maneuvering around one dock worker or Kelton merchant enjoying an early breakfast with water or ale as I approached the pudgy man. My destination looked at me with a scowl and furrowed eyebrows, but quickly became the consummate inn keeper when I put down a gold coin.

"One room," I said in a soft tone as I kept my head down, "May have a red head or a blond coming through asking for my room. I'd greatly appreciate you sending them my way."

"Indeed, good sir," The man said, handing me a wooden card with the number seven on it. Going up the oak staircase, I saw numbers along the various hallways and went down the one to the immediate right. Walking over the solid oak flooring, I found my room and promptly went through the wood door with the number seven on it. It was a rather large room that had the walls and floor being the same oak as the hallway, with a bed on the right, a desk on the left with a chair, and a window in between, through which I saw the night still held some sway as the soft blue of the morning was coming in.

Drawing the cloth that acted as a curtain, I sat in the chair and waited. It took ten minutes, but eventually, my first guest arrived. Though when the wild red hair of Andrew popped through the door, I had to stop myself from groaning. I suppose after being cooped up in Veronica's house, they weren't all just going to let this pass them by.

"Damn it, Gretton. What is-"

He stopped as his oceanic teal eyes finally found me. Which was fair because he had been distracted by his familiar on his shoulder beneath a grey cloak, a wine-red monkey with green eyes and lines of red mana coming out of its forehead. Though, it was a fair bit taller and more muscular now compared to our first encounter.

Andrew took a moment to rub his strong cheekbones and the silky red pants and equally fine red vest over a white shirt beneath the cloak that flapped with the movement of his familiar.

Puckering his lips, he stuck out his finger in accusation.

"Who the-"

I saw the moment where he recognized my purple eyes as his jaw stopped moving and he stood still, totally dumbstruck.

"Sit," I instructed with a pointed finger to the bed.

Andrew apparently wasn't in the mental space to argue, because he obediently went and sat down on the pale blue blanket. I spent a few minutes going over design flaws in his craft, but he clearly wasn't paying attention. After a few more minutes, the door opened again.

Eska, the librarian looking friend of Veronica came through the door with Mia. Her long black hair and sharp nose accentuated her glasses but her brown eyes looked to Andrew with anger.

"If this is some kind of prank, Andrew, I will put your head so far-"

She stopped when she saw me, though her caramel-skinned, muscular companion with choppy red hair kept her brown eyes on Andrew. They both had grey cloaks over what I now saw were their white and blue striped student robes.

"I would have thought you wouldn't be wearing the student robes now that you graduated. Please, come in before you draw more attention."

They both looked confused as they awkwardly stumbled to the right and closed the door. Mia gulped as her small chin had a bead of sweat fall along it before she spoke.

"They're more comfortable than anything else here. Besides, we can't leave until necrosis is over. What-"

I put up a hand for silence.

"I'll only explain it once, so let's wait for the star of this show to arrive," I said in a bored tone. Inside, though, I was sweating. There was going to be too much information floating around out there about my true abilities to be comfortable, but it was still better than Chattox having an episode and blasting everything he knew everywhere.

Eventually, the last two guests arrived wearing grey cloaks and student robes underneath. Jeff came in with a tired scowl across his face, pulling the skin on his slight chin as his oceanic eyes quickly found his brother and with a wave of his short black hair, promptly stood beside him, seemingly being told beforehand about my presence.

Veronica was a wreck.

The blonde's blue eyes had dark circles and her heart-shaped face bore the hardest scowl I had ever seen on it, though the wild strands of blonde hair slightly obscured it. Her depression was such that when she registered my presence, she only managed a moment of surprise before slinking back into her despair. Not even the affectionate rub of her familiar's beak, sticking out on her shoulder beneath the cloak, seemed to penetrate those mental depths.

Jeff, however, was quick to voice his thoughts.

"What are you doing here?" He asked with uncertainty.

The three girls stood off to the right in seeming opposition to the two guys, with me being left as the mediator in the middle.

Instead of answering the question, I coughed into my hand and got to what I came here to do.

"Veronica, if you could take the bed."

"Why?" She demanded with a hiss as her jaw shook. "So Andrew can blast off the other one?"

She pulled out her right arm from beneath the grey cloak and shook the stump at the fire scion in accusation. It was a clean stump with slightly pale skin that only reached just above the elbow. Good, the hand alone was going to be difficult enough.

Andrew just seemed to withdraw into himself, but Jeff puffed out his chest.

"He had it on the table, pointed at the ground. It wasn't a wind blade or ball of fire that took out the table leg."

Veronica's bit her lower lip as fresh tears fell down her face.

"I-I'm not going to be able to go on resource expeditions. I could barely make crafts before, and now my good hand is gone."

She started properly sobbing but her two friends came to her side.

"It's ok," Eska said with a hug on her right.

"Yeah. Maybe we could go to the central continent and get a healing scion to-"

Veronica forced herself to stop crying as she wiped her eyes with her left hand's robe sleeve.

"Their time is ridiculously expensive," Veronica moaned "I'll be set so far back even getting-"

"Veronica!" I commanded. That snapped the three women out of their stupor as all eyes turned to me. I pointed to the bed and repeated my instruction "Sit."

They looked a bit hesitant but moved forward as the two boys vacated the bed area. With a flapping of wings and smack of a long-range jump, the familiars left their partners to sit beside me on the desk. The two groups looked confused while they continued moving around each other like they were magnetically repelled by the presence of the other. Veronica sat in the middle of the bed with Eska on the right and Mia on the left. When I took off my leather armor to strip down to the white shirt and brown pants, I moved my chair to the bed and started sucking in mana.

Eska just rolled her eyes as she saw what I was doing.

"Eli. No matter what talents you may have, only scions can restore limbs after they're gone."

Ignoring the comment, I made two, three-ring constructs of golden mana with the needed triangle outputs in my hands. From what I have read, bone and the surrounding flesh typically had to be healed separately and I didn't have time to go back and forth. The three women looked on with dubious expressions as I set off what was an invisible spell construct to them. While they still had eyebrows raised in doubt, Mia's was the first to fall before I leaned forward to get the two spells closer and kept my eyes on the reforming, pale flesh. There was the sound of footsteps behind me as I felt the presence of the boys leaning over me.

Aside from that the room was dead silent.

That utter void of noise continued for a few minutes as the arm had reformed near the wrist until the quiet was interrupted by Jeff when he finally spoke with a shaken voice.

"Eli, how are you doing this?"

I took a deep breath as I felt the first beads of sweat form on my brow. Of course, I also felt the intensity of their gazes burning into me. But aside from one snide comment, I was content to focus on the job.

"I find people so fascinating. Tell me, when you ask about something that you already know the answer to, do you think there is going to be some impossibly complicated answer that will undo what your eyes are telling you, or is it just the sheer force of habit that compels the question?"

With that, I got on to the hard work.

The joints were the hardest as I had to make sure the bone formed with the cartilage at the same time, but I was good enough that I never required a… fresh start.

I was near my limit when I healed the last digit, the thumb, but with sweat running down my forehead and back, I finally finished the arm. The muscles were noticeably weaker when looked at close up, but it didn't resemble an emaciated woman's arm either and shouldn't elicit any notice from passerby.

"Exercise with it daily. A day or two in the sun and I doubt anyone could see the difference." I said as I got up. They were all looking at me like I was a ghost come to chat but even as Andrews and Mia's jaws moved, no sound was heard. Walking over to the desk with my footfalls being a rather conspicuous interruption to the silence, I put on my leather armor. "Practice writing as well. I'm not sure about muscle memory but-"

When I got the armor top on, Veronica slammed into me as tears flowed freely down her face. There was a string of gibberish coming out of her, but one word from Eska cut through the noise.

"Scion."

I looked away from the crying girl to see the others staring at me. Andrew and Jeff were off to the right, while Mia and Eska just sat there still as stone on the bed. I prepared an air spell to block the noise out of this room as I started the real conversation. They were all wide-eyed and kept staring at me until Andrew looked to my left.

"Gretton. You knew. You both knew." The fire scion said in an accusing tone as I set off the spell with a rush of air.

The fire monkey's deep green eyes got a conflicted look before he tilted his head down. Chattox flew off the table and landed on Veronica's shoulder. The blonde was too happy at getting back the life she lost to care about the deception, though.

"Good thing they did." She said with a cheek rub against her now happy familiars beak. "Whatever happened before, I'm willing to move past it now. Though I am curious as to when you managed to ascend."

They were all looking at me now, but I just huffed as I put on my cloth mask and headcover.

"Pointless speculation on something that doesn't matter. With the closing of this incident, can I trust that you will keep silent about what you have learned today?"

"What?!" Andrew exploded. "You…you're… No. We can't fucking hide this!"

"Andrew!" Jeff scolded with an impatient stare and scowl. "How do you think it will look if it becomes known that your familiar was aware of Eli being a scion and told no one? Nothing good will come of us telling people about this."

Eska nodded before throwing her thoughts in.

"That would depend on how long this… arrangement has been going on."

They all looked at me again, as if expecting me to answer. Unfortunately, the musclehead Mia had an epiphany.

"Remember a while back, when the familiars started hanging around Eli? That must have been when he got a familiar,"

The revelation cascaded through the room like a physical wave as the timeline of events came into view. Eska bit her lip for a moment before standing up.

"No, that is far too long ago. We can't tell anyone. Our asses would be over a pit of coals before the day was up."

While the rest of the students were now nodding, it seemed to only goad Andrew further on as he stomped up to me and shoved a finger in my face.

"We have obligations as scions, Eli! You cannot shirk what you are."

I put out my chin and huffed.

"I have no obligations to anyone aside from those I choose to take on. Whatever societal duties I had died when they slandered me with child molestation and orc mating."

That seemed to deaden the room as the women bit their lips and the brothers just sighed and looked down.

"Now!" I said with a happy clap as I broke the air spell. "With us reaching a mutually beneficial arrangement, I bid you all good day."

With that, I turned and went out the door.

Walking down the hallway and the stairs, I pushed through the crowd and out the front doors.

Right into a line of guards.

The captain of the group had a white feather on his cap to distinguish him, but I was mostly looking behind him at several blue-robed women with some other women with green, brown, and red leather armor. Association members, if my memory fighting in the forests was anything to go by.

"E-Eli. If you would head towards a predesignated area, you are being put on an official watch under orders of the Quad Mage Correctional Committee."

I took a moment to think about blasting them all, but there were too many bystanders and, frankly, the local guard had been decent to me and mine, so I just put up my hands in surrender as I started walking to this new destination. The little parade followed me the whole way, making quite a mess as we moved through the crowded streets. People gossiped and whispered but I just casually watched everything happening around me until we came onto an empty area in the street near the border of the Kelton quarter.

Empty except for the circle of goat-headed peasants around a chair.

A petite blond with freckles and green eyes shifted her green leather armor as she took my hand and led me to the chair.

"Now, don't go running off until we figure out where to put you." She said with a raise of her sharp chin. The Keltons looked terrified and from the hammers and twine in some of their hands, it looks like they were pulled off the street at random to serve as meat shields against my magic. Using a heat spell to at least give them some comfort, I sat in the chair and stared at the sky as I mentally went over how they could have possibly found me.

The guards formed another circle around the Keltons with the association members, ten in total, hanging a bit further back even as this annoying fly stood directly to my left.

As I was blankly staring ahead and thinking over what to do, the buzzing started again.

"You know, it might not be proper, but I think sex would help relieve some of your stress," The blonde said, making no attempt to hide her intentions as she moved her hands towards my crotch.

"Stop," I idly commanded as I swatted her arm away. That got a light chuckle from the other mage woman, which only encouraged her as she got a grin.

"Now, now, it's rude to deny a woman. Besides, you shouldn't have-"

I swept her legs with my left leg and grabbed the back of her head with my left hand as she fell. When her face hit the stone pavement, there was a crunch as the woman's nose broke, though her lack of movement after I lifted my hand said she wasn't feeling any pain. That caused a lot of the guards, some of whom I noted was now the full-plated steel men like those I had killed in the south, to pull back while the mage women just looked furious.

"Silence," I proclaimed, and so it was.

After a few minutes, Tansen came down the road in the white robes with gold leaf embroidery as his black hair fluttered in the wind. Just behind him was Harold, the muscular man with a strong jaw and short brown hair, though his deep green eyes held great malice for me.

"What is going on?!" Tansen yelled to the guards and association members.

"Detention," Harold said, furrowing his bushy brown eyebrows at the woman lying face down to my left.

"Oh, shut it, Harold," Tansen spat, "He has done nothing to be legally detained. And I'm sure these poor Keltons haven't either."

"It was the only way to know he wasn't going to blast us," Harold growled back, thumbing his black vest and white undershirt.

A cough from me stopped the bickering.

"I would like to leave if it would please you all so much," I said respectfully.

Harold got a red face but Tansen stood still before stroking his goatee. After a minute, the academy head nodded.

"You can later today. There is a certain matter you will need to be in my office for just before dinner, which I would greatly appreciate you being there for." He said with a strained smile.

"And stay at the dorms." Harold put in, with the surrounding women's smiles making the source of the request clear, "We aren't done with this,".

I strummed my fingers on the chair as I contemplated what a mess I was in. Without knowing how they knew about my presence; I couldn't very well leave lest they follow me back to the swamps. Sighing as I put a hand to my head, I nodded.

"Fine, but I'm staying in the dwarf stalls."

The women started scowling but Tansen only nodded before turning to Harold.

"Clean this mess up. And don't try this crap with the Keltons again."

Getting off the chair as the rest of the captives quickly shuffled away, I headed towards the dwarf section of the main market. It wasn't quite as easy as it usually was considering the entourage of association members who still insisted on following me and had no problems shoving any peasant who slowed them down. As the morning sun shined down over the town, I arrived at my typical stall.

This time, however, I was provided a table in the back. My minders didn't like that but when they were denied entry, they fanned out to make sure I didn't leave through a back entrance of the big red tent. There was a fully working kitchen on my right as I sat in a small corner several feet from the entrance with an oak chair and table, taking in the sights and smells of the cooks and their craft as I pondered my situation in the private little corner of the world I found myself in. While I strummed my fingers on the table, my typical meal of steak and beer came. When I took the plate from the dwarf server, my stomach dropped when I felt the tell-tale texture of a letter underneath.

If Gula had anything pleasant to say, I was sure she would have wanted to say it to my face. The fact she also had to send it so soon after I left also irritated my fears, and when I went over the letter, my fears were confirmed.

'Eli.

The Phoenix Empire has taken the southern route, but apparently, high command wasn't as prepared as they said they were. A small town was overrun and enslaved. I'm going to get Cell and free them.

Love, Gula'

I felt a headache coming on as I put the letter down. After flagging down a server for a paper and one of those fine dwarven pens, I quickly wrote out my letter as he waited patiently in attendance on my right.

'Dear Gula.

I am sorry for those slaves and perhaps you could help some of those fleeing with food and clothing. But we have drawn too much attention to ourselves as is. I know this is a hard thing for me to ask of you, but ask it I must, for both our sakes.

Love, Eli.'

I handed off the letter to the server, who did a light bow and took off. The rest of the afternoon passed by with me sitting in the chair and working on some small wooden cards. I didn't know what would happen, but I wanted to have a few dirty crafts on hand as a backup. A few hours after lunch, a guard from Tansen arrived to bring me up to his office. A meeting I quickly left the tent to attend as I waved goodbye to the dwarves.

Out in the cold embrace of the elements again, the air was filled with a cacophony of haggling as we pushed through the busy streets. Eventually, we came up to the sheer white walls of the academy and through the main entrance. Going up the main tower and catching every side glance and lustful gaze along the way, I arrived in Tansen's main office. The wood floor and windowless walls of striped white and blue were illuminated by a mana lamp in the middle of the ceiling. The main difference from before was the line of people both in front of and by Tansen's desk. The former of which was comprised of my new co-conspirators.

Agatha was on the far left while Aki was at his usual place, the right of his charge who was sitting in the leather seat of the desk in them idle of the room. The newcomer was a pudgier man in brown pants, bald with a double chin and big nose, though his green eyes spoke of a predator. Rubbing his hand on his green vest and white undershirt, he stood between Agatha and Tansen and nearly hit the Front woman with a grand sweep of his hand.

"Ah, at last. The quad caster comes to visit those who are overseeing his welfare."

To Tansen's credit, the dramatic roll of his eyes said this decadent display was not previously agreed upon. Agatha just adjusted her blonde hair past her sharp cheekbones and straightened her black work dress before cutting off any more ceremony with a cough.

"Yes, you have been quite missed," She said in a stern tone as she beckoned me forward. In order from left to right, it was Jeff, Andrew, Mia, Eska, and Veronica and the available space saw me put between the two redheads. "But we have some questions."

I felt some sweat trickle down my spine as I quickly tried to make up a story in the seconds I had left.

"Are you a scion?" The blonde asked with a casual smirk like she was asking a trick question to a naieve child.

I took a moment to get my thoughts in order and was about to throw out a probing question when Mia went off.

"Fucking shit, Andrew! Could you not keep your fucking mouth shut for one damn day?!" She growled as her two companions also turned on the fire scion with furrowed eyebrows and pursed lips. Even Chattox on Veronica's right shoulder puffed out its chest in indignation.

"I didn't say anything!" Andrew spat back with a matching snarl, a face matching Gretton's expression as the monkey sat on its companion's left shoulder.

Interjecting myself between the two groups, I just stood there staring at the three women before turning to Andrew, treating both parties to the coldest death glare I could manage with my cloth mask on. The realization of what they just did washed over them, but it was far, far too late in coming. The opposing side was stunned, sitting or standing, with open jaws and wide eyes. Agatha was the worst off, having the smirk blasted off her face and now had a coloring of red in her cheeks take hold. A feature that quickly spread to the rest of her face.

I took this opportunity to tell my companions variations of 'not a word' and 'say nothing' in spirit connections.

Tansen and Aki looked to be only shocked as they processed what they had heard, but Agatha and the man with delusions of grandeur only got redder and redder as their jaws tried to find what it was they wanted to say with their eyes looking between all of us. Tansen moved his hand to press something on his desk which sent off a wave of air. From my own spell usage, I guessed it was a sound-dampening craft. It took only a few more seconds after that for Agatha to properly explode.

"Eli! You… What's going on?!" She yelled, surprisingly turning to Veronica. The mother approached her daughter with a stuck-out jaw as she stomped up to her. Hands on her hips, Agatha stood in front of Veronica with a tap of her right foot, even as her daughter couldn't look her in the eyes. Staring down, the younger woman just bit her lip and stared at the floor.

"Veronica! I asked you a question,"

Agatha took her right hand to pull her closer, but the look of shock said she felt what was wrong. Pulling the pale, weaker arm up for everyone to see, it took a second of Agatha looking at it in confusion before Aki spoke with a rustle of his grey beard and mustache.

"Healing. When a limb is lost and restored with healing, it looks like that. Though… only scions can perform such feats," Aki said, his wide brown eyes shifting to me. Something that was quickly followed by everyone else. Agatha's blue eyes only stayed on me for a second before they shifted back to her daughter.

"What is going on, Veronica?" Agatha said in a firm, now calmer voice even as she puckered her lips.

Her daughter looked up to meet her eyes for a moment before the water scions nerve failed and she went back to staring at the floor.

"I cannot say," Was all Veronica could bring herself to give up, in a tone just above a whisper.

Agatha took in a deep breath and looked down the line, skipping me as she did so. When she got to the end, the pudgy man spoke up again.

"What a fortuitous turn of events. With this, we can pursue certain legal avenues to expedite the spread of his seed. Though, that shouldn't have been an issue in this first place." The raise of his right eyebrow and puckered lips made it look like he was speaking to an errant child. Taking in a deep breath, I simply huffed before folding my arms together.

"If it wasn't Andrew, then how did you find out? I can imagine how you could have pieced it together if you knew about the arm, but that wasn't what got you on my trail."

Tansen bit his lip while Agatha, worryingly, went deathly pale. It was the blowhard, so determined to control the conversation, who again spoke.

"It was due to a certain… accusation. But it can easily be explained."

His three compatriots looked a bit dubious at that, something that did nothing to deter him from plowing further ahead.

"However, with this most joyous of occasions, your familiar can be presented at the academy tomorrow evening for the official documentation."

"Oh?" I asked with a raised eyebrow, "What makes you think I'll let you see it?"

His jaws wiggled as he sputtered from indignation. This time, however, Tansen finally threw himself into the conversation.

"Eli. I understand how you feel, but you have another life that you are connected to on a level most people could never comprehend. You need to at least allow them to socialize with the… the other…" Tansen's line of thought came to a screeching halt as he stared between the two familiars in the room. Leaning back in his chair, he put a hand to his mouth before he leaned forward again and rested his elbows on the desk.

"You've been a scion for a while, haven't you?" Tansen asked with a playful smile like he was a school kid with a hot secret to tell.

"What?" Agatha demanded, turning around to look at Tansen with furrowed blonde eyebrows. Tansen just snickered before he casually strummed his fingers on the desk.

"Of course, I went over everything I could find about Eli to the finest detail. One interesting tidbit was the amount of interest the other familiars showed in him before that disaster of a censure order was handed down. They must have been attracted to the newest addition to their ranks. Well, I must congratulate you on hiding it for this long," Tansen said with a small smile, looking quite impressed.

Agatha now turned her attention properly on me, as did Aki and the fat newcomer.

"Well?" Agatha demanded as her eyes took me in like a hawk would regard a mouse.

I stood totally still as the pall of nothingness strangled the room. The damage had been done and there was no maneuvering the ship off the rocks now.

After a solid minute of silence, the blowhard huffed.

"No matter. We will need a full inquiry into this matter by the committee. It goes without saying, you are all under a gag order. Eli will be moved to the dorms, of course,"

His show of confident bravado was undercut by the beads of sweat falling down his forehead. As he took a moment to take a handkerchief from his green vest pocket and wipe his brow, he took a deep breath before resuming his little speech.

"I'm sure there is some kitchen wench or local noblewoman who can sate you in the meantime to spread your magical power. Until-"

I shook my head.

"I don't care about power, especially magical power." My voice was as tired as I felt whenever this subject came up "I want people who love me, I want to work, and I want to start a family with those that love and appreciate me the person, not me, the ball of magical potential that they can use to get ahead. This swarm of sycophant women following me everywhere like a pack of starving dogs disgusts me and I want as much to do with them as the pig wants to do with the butcher's knife. If that is all, I will be heading back home."

"Are you joking?" He sputtered with a slew of spit coming out.

A cold stare from me stopped him dead in his tracks.

Tansen, looking like he was thoroughly enjoying this whole affair, just put up his hands in mock surrender. That drew positively murderous glares from Agatha and the pudgy man.

"Hey," Tansen said defensively, "This isn't my show anymore. He's not my student and, if I may say so, you have no authority to detain him. As far as I'm concerned, we brought him here to ask a question and we have an answer, filled with holes and rotting at the edges, but an answer just the same.

Though I will offer some advice,"

He raised his chin to me at the last word, which I nodded back for him to continue.

"Being a scion changes things, Eli. They will come down far more harshly than they have been, with whatever thin veneer of civil reasoning they were feigning stripped away. Just a bit of warning between two scions.

You're all free to go."

Tansen gave us all a little wave before he started taking reports out of his desk while the pudgy man and Agatha moved closer to him.

"Now listen here, Tansen."

"Of all my years in congress, I never-"

I didn't stay to hear what else they were going to say as I immediately turned around and ran out the door at a sprint until I got to the window and jumped out. Using an air spell to roughly glide down, I hit the ground just before the wall entrance and made a mad dash towards my tower. The association members still stalked after me but without any official orders, they kept their distance and watched. Dashing over my stone lawn and through the front door, I closed it with a slab of stone after locking it to make sure it couldn't be forced open.

For the next four days, I did nothing but complete the airship through long days and lonely nights as I waited for what was going to happen next and thought having another escape route for the worst-case scenario was a good idea. The task, after the third test in cold air, was finally completed when the wide balloon came near the ceiling and did a midair turn around to come back around and using the momentum to land near where it took off.

Getting down, I took in the object of so much of my labor. A long, single piece of wood a bit bigger than the boats delivering goods on the river, the balloon was more than twice the size of its cargo. Along both sides were two long tubes with air enchantments to push the whole vessel forward. As I was preparing the ceiling to pull back to allow the airship to get into the air, a knock from my front door interrupted me.

With my typical white shirt, brown pants, and smiling metal mask, I came up the hatch and opened the front door to see a rather pale Gigan and three guards. His face, from his pudgy cheeks to his emerald eyes, had the look of a man who just saw his death as even the assortment of gold bands in his copper beard and lamb chops couldn't provide any radiance, not that the grey cast sky had much to give. As I moved to let him in, I noticed he was idly thumbing his rich, red vest replete with gold buttons. A bad sign of things to come if someone of his caliber was feeling the heat.

Moving to the right side of the kitchen table, the dwarf diplomat sat idly as I plopped in the chair opposite of him.

Taking a deep breath, he put his hands on the table and took out a letter which he read over.

"We know of your involvement with the pandego's. Get us a meeting with them where Gula first met them, or the use of the craft you used to make them. Failure to comply will see the ones you were trying to protect killed."

He handed it off to me and he continued talking as I read the lines over and over.

"It was in the stump where Gula puts her letters. We checked the two houses where they were staying, both ransacked and turned upside down with no one inside. Where did you first meet Gula as a pandego?"

"The remains of the crypt base," I said idly. A wave of ice had taken over my body and mind as I coldly took in all the facts, scarce as they were. "I guess we don't need to ask who is behind this,"

Gigan just shook his head as he bit his lip.

"Sorry, Eli. We've been playing it close being this involved. But slugging it out with the orcs and frojan is not what we signed up for. Sad to say, they were far more expendable than you and the higher-ups are debating right now, with the money on them cutting our losses."

Ah, yes. This was a nice little conclusion to things on their end. All the troublesome questions about Gula and Salamede, the potential for loose ends, were now dealt with. And it was in such a way that I could never blame them. There was no telling if this a small band or the official government of the swamplands, and I couldn't expect them to march armies and wage wars based on my goodwill. I nodded and got up from the table.

"Well, Gigan, I understand your position. But I hope you understand that I need to be alone for now."

The dwarf nodded and left as quickly as he had come.

I sat there for a moment before rushing downstairs and getting into the wide expanse of the workshop. Seconds could decide if Salamede and Gula live and I had no time to work on an elaborate entry and exit system for the airship. Donning my metal armor with motorized wheels and the metal war hammer from the chest near the pile of rejected planks of wood, I headed upstairs and peeked out my front door.

Ever present, the association members and soldiers were keeping an eye on my house at a good distance, but none of them were anywhere close enough to fall into the workshop. Sprinting downstairs and sealing the hatch behind me, I made sure to mold the surrounding stone to cover the grotto entrance before going past my ever-humming forge and into the vast emptiness of my main workshop with its corners being black as mana lamps dotted around the room lit up as much as they could. Turning to cover the door behind me as well, I then sprinted up to the airship.

It was a struggle to get up the ladder on the left side in the armor, but my mind was going fast enough to make a trip around the solar system in under a minute and I didn't even properly register when my metal foot went up and straight through one of the steps with a loud crack. Finally, on the flat deck of the ship, I released two different spells. One pulled down the thin ceiling into two different pieces that crashed on opposite sides of the airship with a sound the resembled a mountain tripping. The other flooded the surrounding air with mist, which quickly flew out of the hole in the ceiling. Taking the steering wheel and levers, I silently rose into the air as this work of love took its maiden voyage.

I could faintly hear screaming from above, but I redoubled my mist spell and used another spell to make it wrap around my lawn in a sphere. It was dirty and sloppy, but I didn't have time to do anything else. Coming out into the cold grey sky, fog covered everything, including the tower. Pushing the ascent lever as hard as it would go, I formed the fog around the ship and several other empty spheres of roughly the same size. This much spell work was tough, but the light nature of the material made it less arduous than it looked. Having the spheres lift in odd patterns and directions with the ship, I peeked through the fog until the town looked more like a toy version of itself before I stopped the spells and just focused on making clouds along the flat bottom of the ship.

Releasing the fog spell, the balls dissipated and below me was a wide patch of grey cloud covering the bottom. The vast landscape opened up around me as I took in the empty green plains with the river snaking through it and the dull sky above. Feeling like I was the loneliest man in the world, I pulled up a lever on my left. The ship heaved with a slight groan as the thrusters on the side went on full blast and I sped southward towards destiny.