Chapter 130: Smoothing Bumps

Chapter 130

Eli POV

Soft curves played across my bare stomach and thighs, pulling me from the void of sleep while still leaving the world black.

Oh?

I immediately prepared myself for the coming pleasure as a smile pushed past the morning grogginess. Seconds whittled away as I felt the feminine flesh pull to the left and the blanket resumed its position on my body. A disappointed sigh started at the base of my throat but a need to stretch forced itself to the front of the queue. An act I indulged in for a few seconds. This was perhaps the first time in days that the bed had been used for actual rest and I decided to indulge that lost aspect as clothes shuffled somewhere to the left.

"So that ship that's been delayed." Gula mused somewhere behind me. "Turns out it burned down in a mutiny."

To start the day on the promise of such a high note then orbital drop into this. I committed the first irrecoverable act of the morning and opened my eyes. Wooden ceiling greeted me before I turned my head upward to the source of this news.

"They what?" I asked as my eyes settled on the Orc slightly to the right.

Gula stared out the window behind her desk, taking in the waves just outside. The back of her midnight, bowl-cut hair didn't reflect the rising morning sun struggling to break through dark morning and cloudy sky. That muscular body beneath a white shirt and brown pants was a bit difficult to admire as a viewing demanded the highest raise of my head from my position beneath the bed sheets.

"Burned the ship right down. Some of my kind tried to make a run in an airship. It turns out the new airship that's been having so much trouble was working fine the whole time."

I pulled my eyes away from her head, down past her white shirt to look at the radio resting in her right hand with its bottom leaning against her right leg.

"I'm going to tell mom to pick us up. It'll be like our trip from the Coalition on that big mansion in the sky."

Spring was coming back into the air yet it was the blazing heat of summer currently working up my neck.

"Strange," I stated with restraint in every word, "I don't remember that trip ending with slit throats but memories are somewhat flexible."

"Oh," The Orc put in with a turn towards me, making sure to look at me with gold irises in black spheres. A smile hung above her sharp chin, a joyful look on her face that also stretched the vertical scar along her left eye and the horizontal one on her nose. "They're already dead. One of the women had their child killed in the attempt and her blade found all their throats."

A potent cocktail of anger and relief coursed through me, both feeding and dowsing the fire bubbling up. I closed my eyes before concentrating on my inner self. Trying to force myself to be happy at the threat being neutralized helped, but some ambient rage still lingered.

"All right, a quick trip north is in order." I offered to the air with a sullen tone I couldn't quite keep out.

Gula nodded before working the wooden box. I got up from the bed and changed from bare skin to a grey shirt and black pants. The green woman leaned her head to the right to get a better view of my bits before they were wrapped in clothing. An approving smile hung on her lips as she informed Durka of our sudden visit for only a few seconds longer. During which I fixed the face covering of brown cloth around my face to hide everything from the nose down.

"Finished." She stated before placing the radio on the desk. The green woman power walked to me before plastering her chest against my left side.

"You seem quite upset," Gula purred with a rest of that sharp chin on my left peck as the Orcs lacking six or so inches of height became quite pronounced. "Perhaps another round of instruction is in order."

I rolled my eyes at the impish smile covering her face as I retrieved my sack of clothes from beside the desk.

"The green women may have some taste that has been left undiscovered. I can't think of any other reason why all of yesterday was spent with you at my knees."

Her lips puckered, though those gold eyes had the same joy.

"And I didn't know a human face could get so red. Both our species have so many mysteries surrounding them."

A corrective swat on her bum was the only answer I could give.

With that, we approached the window almost fused together and made it out the left corner with a step onto the footholds left behind days ago. Salty waves pounded the ship while a sky sporting dark patches in the grey spoke of either a storm or a particularly cloudy day. I shimmied down the stone edges with as much grace as my overworked legs could give while Gula pulled back to retrieve the radio. Eventually, the boat with a dome in the middle of the solid wood construction was within reach of my feet. It would have been a treacherous proposition if not for the fact I used stone to fuse it into the larger vessel.

The waves gave it a small drubbing but getting the dome up was effortless. A casual toss of the clothes sack inside and I was soon standing in front of the chair with wooden panels around it. As I looked up to see Gula shimmying down, a thought occurred to me. I concentrated on my frontal lobe and sent the buzzing sensation outward towards her.

'Does the crew know of the trip?' I asked in a spirit connection.

'Yes. I told them before waking you.'

Content to keep looking at her maneuver down, the last stone foot hold was ignored by the Orc, who instead elected to throw herself to me with a childish smile.

Despite the difference in size, her kind was more physically dense than Human or Kelton women. This didn't change the fact that my dignity as a man was suddenly put on the chopping block. I caught her against my chest and managed it without so much as a sway backward. Which, between the weak legs and rocking sea, could only be interpreted as a divine sign that God's love was still with me.

The deep kiss of smoke, spice, and vinegar from Gula needed no such interpretation.

She clung to me as I used magic to pull the stone bits out of the shipboards. Green hands still squeezed my shoulders as I freed the boat and shut the dome hatch. Following the same pattern as my arrival, a magic spell was used to cover the ship in a blanket of water. Given the early hour, I doubted anyone could see us speeding north even without it, but caution was wisdom given time to act.

Unlike the arrival, this trek past the shore viewed through small slits in the dome was in good company. Gula still clung to my left, feeling my arms and chest with rather needy hands as her head rested on my shoulder. I was content to let her satisfy whatever urge was behind this groping until I felt a quivering chin through the grey shirt.

"T-Thank you, Eli." She sputtered with a press of her chest against my arm. Unlike these past few days, that section of her body drew my attention for its heavy breathing.

"You don't know, Eli." She continued, struggling to speak past tears. "To have a man love me in this way. You're more than what I dreamed of. I never dared even hope of having a man look at me like you do. Hold me like you do. Thank you."

I moved the ship a bit to the right so I could look away from the outside world. My head turned to the woman on my shoulder. Tears flowed from black eyes while those green lips trembled with the sharp chin.

"I only love you as much as you deserve." I offered with a small smile. "If you've lacked male attention before now, then that was the men of the world missing out."

She took my mouth with eager lips.

For a few minutes, my attention shifted between my wife and the boat. Eventually, she sated her need for my mouth yet those green hands still clung to me like a lifeline. We relaxed in our respective spots as coastline distorted by a layer of water zipped by through the slits in the dome.

A cave was eventually found in a section where the mole packs hadn't destroyed all of the greenery. We snuck in with a pronounced wave of water going up its entrance. A quick look around for predators was all I got before Gula took up the empty space on my lap. The second she was snug against me, she produced the radio from her right hand and clicked the speaking button on the side. An opportunity I took to pull the collar of her shirt down.

"Mom, we're in a green section north. In the first big hill."

If she had any other words to give, my kiss on her right collarbone smothered them.

"F-Finished," Gula growled into the box with a release of the button that matched my second blow along her lower neck.

"We'll be there. Finished." Durka's voice resounded in the wooden cave.

The Orc put the radio on the floor off to the right. An opportunity I used to kiss a bit of exposed shoulder. Despite expectation, her return to my lap proper was accompanied by her further pulling down the white shirt to just above the breasts. Gold eyes begged for more while her puckered lips demanded it with a pouty lisp. Without another word, I continued pummeling her jade skin with kisses. Each blow bequeathed a sharp breath from those delicious green lips.

"We're here. Finished." Durka's voice sounded out too soon.

If I was annoyed, the way Gula's lips were sucked in said stopping was almost painful for her. Still, she dutifully went to the left and out of my way of the controls. Not that she pulled those hands away from my pecks and shoulders. Soon, we were out of the cave and back on the open water with a layer of it above us.

"We're heading out to sea directly from the cave. Finished." Gula stated into the radio with none of her previous trembling.

The boat was driven through pounding waves until any remaining shoreline on the horizon was replaced with more endless waves. I nodded to Gula as I killed the water spell camouflaging the boat.

"Ready for pick up. Finished." She told the wooden box.

My hand went to the ceiling and pushed the dome hatch open. It was treacherous outside but not enough to smother the radio's response.

"We see you. Proceeding to pick up. Finished."

It was a second later that one of the grey clouds in the sky reached down with tentacles of water. Cloudy sky made it difficult to judge the distance but when the tendrils of water reached around the boat and yanked upward, height didn't really matter when put up against such speed. My stomach clenched for only a second before the tendrils pulled us into their clouds body.

Grey mist abruptly parted to reveal the wooden hull of my first airship. Large wooden tubes zipped down as the two Kelton men in leather armor worked long poles on tripods fused to the ship's railing, the tips of which had the long tentacles of water bringing up closer to the wide wooden floor. In the middle of the ship was the huge tube feeding heat into the white canvas above. We were brought a bit close to the balloon, but it was a smooth ride down.

"I was beginning to forget the face that went with the voice."

My gaze went to the back of the ship and spotted the large green woman at the steering wheel. Her long brown braids played over a thick dark grey coat. The corn rows on the side of her face were gone, replaced with plain hair flowing to her shoulders at a length nearly half of the pigtails. Gula left the boat with a hop out of the hole while I used stone summoning to fix it in place. She talked with her mother while I went down the stairs below deck further behind the pilot.

An hour or so was spent going over the various fixtures and bits. There was no reason to think there would be anything out of place but idle hands only worked to feed frustration. Between that and Gula returning to plaster herself to my back, the air trip seemed to end almost as quickly as it started.

Standing on the deck, I could see the sharp rocks peaking out of the ocean along with the concrete that was plastered between them. The artificial floor was covered in pools of white, courtesy of the magic barnacles that forged the bulwark against the waves. A look up past the cloth and its skeleton of wooden boards revealed more clouds, one of which had to be an airship keeping watch. Memory combined with the lack of a camouflage cloud placed us at….

One of the sides of the jagged spikes pushed outward to reveal the side of a square room. The angle didn't allow for a straight shoot forward, so it took a minute of swearing from Durka before we were lined up for a descent into the underground haven. We eased downward on the right side of the skeleton of another ship. It was lifeless despite some boards being on the ground ready to be placed. As the bottom of our ship touched grey stone floor, I spotted a bunch of hammers and other tools among the debris while the workshop ahead was likewise lifeless.

A rope ladder was thrown over the sides, which I traversed into what had been untold months of grinding work. Gula followed soon after before the rest of the crew followed. The first thing I noticed was how salt filled every breath. It was always going to be the thing the senses immediately picked up but it was the figure emerging from the meeting room that drew my head forward.

A brown-furred Kelton man with jutting ivory horns came out between the various tables of the workshop at the front of the hangar. He had a metal breast plate over a white shirt and black pants. The armor piece had a sheen that matched the simple helmet covering the back of his head to near his eyebrows. He strode forward until he was less than a dozen feet away. The sideways head bob was his kinds replacement for a nod, though the nervous clasping of hands was not so customary.

"I am Illion. Elected to be head of security…. A position I accepted with all responsibilities. The men performed as well as any could demand. If any fault is to be found, it would be with the man who led them."

I gave him a human nod.

"One would think it is those who committed the crime who hold the fault. But they cannot work for their penance, so that leaves us to pick up the pieces. Was any metal lost?"

His his shook so hard it almost dislodged the metal helmet.

"Its copper and such had to be reforged, which took a fair bit longer. What no amount of time could replace was the space-expanded sacks in the copper spheres. I'm afraid they were all lost."

"Then I will have to rediscover them with my own hands and sweat. Have the needed parts been gathered?"

Another head shake.

"We would never make a presumption of your labor."

"Would you rather presume I waste my time making another trip up here?" I demanded between gritted teeth. "Or perhaps you've got a lost twin of mine skulking about that was going to do the job after I left?"

The Kelton's head went sideways as he exposed his neck to me. My own neck was getting its back massaged by supple green hands beating back the furnace coming up it. A deep breath of salty air was taken in.

"Get plant bags and copper spheres ready. I intend to make enough to make another ship but metals will have to be delivered. Some locks that require being pressed on opposite ends of the base will have to be fashioned, so plant fibers as well."

Illion bowed to the side before turning back through the shop. We took a right, with Gula still plastered on my left. The lack of life continued as we moved through the wide doors leading into the open room. Whirring copper spheres ready to charge heaters beneath giant stone molds filled the air and bowls along the right wall were ready to pour liquid metals into molds.

I flicked the switch on one of them and started retrieving copper bars from pallets stacked on the other side of the room. Three tables rested in the center where smiths would forge machinery from metal and magic. After a few minutes, a Kelton man came by with a tray of small sacks, which he placed on my work table before almost running out of the room like the very act of breathing would garner some great punishment. All the while, Gula stayed on me.

Despite her years of fighting experience, this was more proper dance than struggle. That difference left her unprepared at a few of my moves leaving us to bounce into each other. Each obstruction was met with a swat on the butt so neither party objected to the accidents. As I was at the table fastening one of the space-expanded bags into the sphere where it would help spin the inner disk with magnets for all eternity, I noticed a bit of green in the corner of my left eye. This led to me rechecking if Gula was hanging on my right shoulder and…. she was.

I turned to find an Orc child, no more than seven or so to human comparison. Her lips were puckered between chubby cheeks.

"Could you make those water squares again?" She asked with bashful sway that emphasized the sway of her golden pigtails and decent brown dress.

I opened my mouth to respond when another Orc in a matching brown dress from further ahead dashed up to the girl and yanked her up on the left hip.

"Apologies, great mage! Please forgive these stupid women." She pleaded with a deep bow that sent gold hair spilling down. Her apparent daughter was confused but she inferred from her mother's fear and matched the head bow.

"No offense taken." I offered with a pensive frown.

The women turned and fled towards the doors into the housing complex.

I resumed the work with a freshly soured mood. Gula only leaned against my right side as I molded a metal sphere from a craft board. Some innate sense told of her eyes looking at me but I decided to let her say what she wanted when she wanted. When those soft bits left my shoulder, a stab of worry came. It lasted only until I started hearing odd shuffling behind me.

The turn to see what it was revealed a rather harried Gula. Her bowl of black hair and bang swayed from some dramatic movement but her clenched hands were up in the air. She looked like she had just tried to leap forward but lost the nerve just before taking off.

"Eli, would it be okay if I put your head in my chest?" She asked innocently.

"Absolutely." I proclaimed, emphasizing the point by bobbing forward.

"No!" She scolded with a pouty lip and slap on my shoulder "Turn around."

The turn matched the roll of my green eyes. I only got to take in the unfinished work for a second before two soft weights burdened my shoulders. Their every inch had been seared into the deepest recesses of my lizard brain, so I knew Gula hadn't put me fully to her chest.

"You know, Eli, I think I just saw something new. Something more wonderful than any of your inventions."

"Oh?" I asked with curiosity more genuine than the situation would usually allow.

"A chubby child. A chubby Orc child. Baby fat stays on for a bit but meager food usually thins us out after two years. That was the first I've ever seen with plenty of cushioning."

"Not one?" I asked incredulously. Despite my sexual appetite purring to life, the statement still had enough punch to pull me up short.

"Not a single one. Until now." She mused as I felt her chin resting on my scalp.

Our bodies stood fused for a second before I felt those green hands run down my pecks again.

"And will our children grow so fat and plump?" She asked with a tone that sought assurance, not an answer.

I squeezed her right hand with mine. A speech about the challenges of prepubescent obesity danced on my tongue but scant social sense said she wasn't asking about engorging them.

"They're going to have that childhood everyone always wanted."

A deep breath was taken behind me before Gula pulled away, chest and all.

"Right," She said with only a slight tremble in her voice. "Come on."

She strode to the left in a direction distinctly headed towards the housing door. A green hand made a come hither motion to me, which I obeyed with a raised eyebrow. As we came up to the door, Gula took my left hand using her right while her left pushed on the wooden slab.

Through it was a short hallway taking only a few steps before taking a left into the much bigger version of it that held all the apartments. All around were small crowds of Orcs and some men, nervously standing below the railings that showed each row of rooms stacked on top of each other. On each of the nine floors were trios or duos of Keltons looking down on the nervous green crowd below.

Gula pushed past a few of the nervous Orcs, husband in hand. They looked ready to scowl but immediately put their heads down when they noticed who she was and who she was dragging. Some turned to see what their fellows had. Their partners then followed the newly quiet companion's gaze. Total silence eventually chain reacted up to the tallest floor and the far wall where the doors to another hallway stood.

No eye dared meet mine as mothers pulled their babes against themselves at our passing. My Orc wife continued dragging me forward until we were within arm's reach of the doors. Her turn to meet me held a happy smile, which her lips maintained for only a moment. That sharp chin pulled up with a rather forceful push of her tongue into my mouth. Green hands came up and pulled my shoulders. The preferred response of grabbing her butt was obstructed by Gula using it to open the door.

Don't worry, the chief is going to get some play. She didn't say these words, but they were heard by all clearly enough.

Spice and vinegar covered my tongue as we moved through the barely acknowledged stone hallway. It was enjoyable but some irritation marred the proceedings. Salamede and Gula thinking they could just sex their way through any rough spots wasn't a good impulse.

She pressed her green bust against my chest. Which was the only warning I got before she wrapped strong legs around my hips, leaving me to carry her. I was slightly hunched over now but that did nothing to dissuade her from grinding her crotch against mine. Whatever impulse I was thinking about earlier was immediately replaced by the one behind every living thing.

Some faint awareness that we were in the meeting room briefly intruded as I carried her through the door on the right to the bedroom. When we crossed the threshold into the tunnel leading to the bedroom proper, Gula pulled her right hand away from my shoulder to work the knot of my pants. As we went through the door, the pants were already falling to my knees. Not content with that, she started working the underwear and I consider it one of my life's great accomplishments that I managed to slam her into grey blankets just before she totally tied my legs up.

We both knew what we wanted and we took it.

….

Salt played across my nose and tongue as I stared at the stone ceiling above. Being constantly by the sea back in Crasden had made me accustomed to the taste and smell of that special rock. Here at the Base, however, the concentration was so high it almost choked without proper acclimation. Even the movement of the bedroom door did nothing to change the scent.

Fortunately, the bed I was resting on had a quite naked Gula moving to lay on my right with heavy breathing that matched mine. The Orc plopped onto her side baring all just as she had minutes, or hours, earlier. Golden eyes in black spheres watched on with amusement, pulling at the vertical scar along her left eye. That bowl of black hair and the accompanying bang near her right eye splayed across white pillows, though the grey blanket was pushed towards the front of the bed so as not to disrupt our activity. A smug smile above that sharp chin rounded out her display of satisfaction.

"So they're ready to put in that set of locks." She said with a slow rub of her right hand down her exposed breast.

"That wasn't the only failure." I put in with a turn towards her. "There should have been a watch on the ships at all times. If for no other reason than it's in the hangar where two of the three entrances lay."

Gula nodded in agreement though her smug smile stayed the same.

"But more than that, I should have been informed of this mess earlier."

That green right hand left the Orc's chest and went to my peck, accompanying a pouty puckering of jade lips.

"Salamede was going to tell you. She just got distracted by your massive penis."

"Pff," I scoffed back with an eye roll.

"But that's why I'm here." She continued with a serious look. "You've been very frustrated about it and I can help you regulate that anger with my body."

There wasn't a single word that hadn't previously occupied my Kelton wife's mouth. I'd bet my life on it. The entire idea of her accompanying me was probably Salamede's suggestion. Not that the Orc had any apparent objection to the scheme.

"I am thousands of years older than your entire species," I put in with a matching pucker of my lips. "I don't need help 'regulating' my emotions. It's just not a good feeling when mothers shirk back or children put their heads down in fear whenever you walk around because then I'm being the villain. Even when those same mothers' husbands slacked around and helped make this mess.

Which could have been avoided if anyone had been paying attention to the ships schematics and progress. And how does no one check whether the furnace or steering gears were actually working for so long? It's no mystery. We all know."

"We do?" Gula asked with a raised eyebrow and amused smile at my rant.

"Yes, we do. It's the same dammed story every time. 'Whelp, it looks like some people are saying we can't work today. I guess I'll sit around eating free food and drinking on someone else's credit. So unfortunate.' That's what let them keep the secret for so long.

It's-"

Gula interrupted by shifting herself upward with a hypnotic swing of her breasts.

"You need some regulation," She stated in a clinical tone that didn't match her gleeful face.

I closed my eyes as the sounds of moving sheets filled my ears. Some barb about how I didn't need managing like a toddler danced on my tongue. I opened my eyes and swallowed the whole speech. The green woman was on her hands and knees with a pronounced raise of her backside, like a cat presenting herself for mounting.

Goddammit.

I rose out of the laid-back position with resignation in the heart and sumptuous curves in the eyes. As I came up to match my hips to just below her inner thigh, a small hum escaped the Orc's satisfied grin.

"See? No matter how ancient or wise, we all need help getting the poison out. Especially you these past weeks." She prodded with gold eye's brimming in satisfaction.

A firm spank on the bum made her black eyebrows shoot up.

"If you had any idea how beautiful you truly were, you'd know being angry has nothing to do with why I need you. You and this intoxicating emerald skin."

That smug grin trembled with her quivering chin. Golden eyes froze with bits of moisture around the sides. Declarations of love were great but something about lusting after that green skin seemed to stir her emotions in a way nothing else did. Of course, prodding a woman's heart was a treacherous thing for a man, so I leaned down to deliver a kiss near the upper hip of her spine.

"I love you," I repeated alongside three moving kisses.

As I approached the bowl of black hair, I saw her chin still quaking but the rest of her face showed determination. Without a word, that right green leg raised itself up to give me full access.

Something I took to its full advantage.

Eventually, the time of stress testing the bed passed. A long soak in a properly warm shower, thank god for it, finished things off before we both headed back out into the stone hallway whose door was opposite our bed. We wore matching white shirts and brown pants, though Gula fashioned a fine red coat over hers and no brown cloth face covering covered her face. I didn't pay much attention to the surroundings as the green woman walked along my left with a distracting plaster to my ribs. Gula was quite content to keep being distracting until we reached the door leading to the meeting room, where she pulled slightly away.

A push on the wood slab revealed a version of the meeting room I had made. This twin of my work from another, gaudier, dimension had a circular table in the middle, complete with an intricate stone base made of waves and various fish rushing up to hold the stone circle upward. Even that circle was emblazoned with fish along the sides of the white stone and flecked with bits of gold. Evidently, some of the special metal was being panned for.

The chairs around the table were no less ornate, sporting rich red cushioning that the various lobsters and fish seemed to play around. Six columns hung around the walls and the doors on the left and right. Each of the pillars sported long stone vines etched into the surface. The floor was likewise embellished with the smooth stone sporting countless patterns of leaves, trees, and bushes.

None of it was taken in by the Kelton man sitting at the table opposite our entrance. A bulky goat man sporting brown fur that went over his steel breastplate. Judging by the sucking of his lips above a stubby chin sporting a tuft of brown fur, he was ready for a beating of either a physical or verbal nature.

Nothing was said as we approached the table and took the seat opposite of him. Gula got some stupid idea of sitting to the left. A firm seizing of her hips and pull into my lap corrected the foolish notion. When green flesh was comfortably resting on mine, complete with the annoyed smile women gave when they had to fuss at something they were enjoying, I coughed into the salty air.

"Now, Illion, there's some good to come of this."

The goat man sat so still that not a single brown hair shifted.

"You took responsibility for the failure in security. A mark in your favor. In the rush to save the wastrels south of us, there wasn't a lot of time to truly develop procedure, much less practice it, so I can't fault your lacking inspection. But as the man wearing the proverbial crown, at least for those with swords here, there is more you could have done and not just for this incident. Why are there no night guards?"

"Setting up for a night watch requires places for them to sleep during the day. We were supposed to have some set up for the rooms….then that ship came by and suddenly everything was focused on keeping the south together. Typically, those jobs would come with housing away from the rest. But…."

But you live in a cave.

"That is an acceptable answer," I offered with an under-the-table squeeze of Gula's bum. Her face remained passive but those gold eyes had some mirth in them. Which didn't stop her next words from coming out.

"Another issue is that all the guards are Keltons. You had good reason not to fully trust us-"

The audible gulp from the Kelton was acknowledged with a pause.

"However, the fact is we have better night vision. Putting a few Orcs on the teams will help cover a critical weakness."

His head dipped sideways.

"Every Orc proved themselves that night. They're also smart enough to not ask this themselves, but there is the issue of magical foods." Illion intoned nervously.

I raised an eyebrow for him to continue.

"It has been noted that mages bearing even the basic four elements could provide significant benefits for the work here. And the spreading of such talent would allow for us to help out in innumerable other ways. This would of course apply to we Keltons as much as the Orcs."

I closed my eyes.

Having mages about did nothing for our work. Heaters performed better than anything a fire scion could make or weave from mana and any plant or healing enchantments they needed could be easily made. That bit about Kelton mages was at best a distraction. Illion, Gula, and everyone else here knew who was at the center of this issue. Realizing Garren's vision for the green women was not a step taken lightly. Still, saying no would produce too much ill will and be so hypocritical I doubt they'd ever listen to what I had to say afterwards. Besides….

Fully grown men took a long time to develop magical pathways. Brute forcing it as we had with the magical Kelton city took meats and plants whose mana concentrations were hundreds of times greater than what they could produce here. That, however, was to get them all up to caster. In the Base, one man having a great aptitude for magical growth would move the timeline forward considerably.

Stories, books, and classes covering expected magical growth from foods whose taste was magically influenced came to me with only vague outlines. The worst…. The most aggressive scenario was probably one man getting to caster in seven or eight months. A minor miracle but such cases had been heard of in one or two books going over the centuries. Of course, he would have to do the deed. Orcs struggling to conceive from magical men was never brought up as no one had been so stupid as to conduct such a study or lived long enough to be known for it.

"Gula, when do Orcs become semi-physically capable?" I asked with a turn to the green woman on my left leg.

"Three years or so. There's always some who get there quicker or later, but that's generally the age when we start really making a fuss. As far as labor goes, most wait until they're seven or so."

"Or later for ours," I replied with a firm tone.

She only gave me a small smile in response, which I took as a sign to retreat inward.

So three years after conception before the new Orc mages can sprint around and make trouble. Would that coincide with the blooming of their magical abilities? Like almost everything with magical growth, the answer was a definite maybe.

I wasn't going to say no. That didn't mean certain incentives couldn't be offered. Once things settled down and I was working on the computer, some massage beds could be fashioned and sent up here. Sure, there would always be the believer who forsook all comfort for their cause. Most, however, would never willingly say goodbye to heated baths and kneading water jets, even if the sire of their entire species bid otherwise. Doing so under potential pain of death? Only a fraction of that already small number would say yes. And those would have to find a way to hijack an airship. As their political forebears had recently attempted.

With all this thinking of Orc children, a wicked idea came to me. The workers here needed a correction for allowing the situation in the first place. Perhaps making the punishment through their offspring would do it. The notion was filed away to be completed later as I mentally returned to the meeting room.

"Fine," I announced. "Also, prepare some empty rooms similar to the canteen. I will be sending up some massage beds and heated baths to help ease the discomfort of those who already gave so much for our cause."

Illion's brown eyebrows furrowed for a moment before doing a sideways head bob.

"I will be returning to my labor then the less cold abode in the south if that's all."

"We could ask or expect no more from you," Illion answered with a rise out of the chair.

Gula moved to the left while I vacated my chair, a separation that lasted only a second before she was plastered back into my side. Illion took off to the left while we moved to the right towards the hangar. I pulled the door open and entered the workshop, which I skimmed past before taking a left to the forge area. It took a few hours before the constant hum of copper spheres from the furnaces was joined by several on the table.

Kelton men came by with thick leather gloves and moved them into the appropriate storage. Alongside them were several Orcs who had come to fetch the plates and mugs whose contents I devoured over the course of the work. I nodded in satisfaction when the spheres were laid to the left side of the forge area and made my way back to the ship with Gula hanging on my right. Work had resumed on the new airship with Orcs and men of both species placing planks into place. Apparently, I was now safe to be around as I was only given deferential nods by passerby.

"I need to see the Waveborn and the farmers. Get some figures for food flows and such." Gula said with a quick kiss before taking a walk to the hangar doors.

I could only nod at the retreating woman as work beckoned.

The needed length of plant fiber was produced for the new locks, which let me set up the fourth from the last item for this trip. Digging a small groove along the walls and covering it up was more tedium than toil. After confirming that the hangar wouldn't open without two people from both ends of the buttons pseudowire, the next duo of issues were worked on simultaneously. As I instructed the men in the needed schedules for checking and maintenance from multiple teams, I fashioned several noise-deadening enchantments for the night guards' quarters. A small chorus was conducted in the hangar as the men repeated back to me the words I had instructed them in.

The noise-deadening enchantments were handed off as the last few bits of instruction finished. With that, I headed towards the workshop to conduct the most arduous and second-to-final task.

Jeff was currently in the southern region working for the queen Verness. As dangerous as such closeness to the royal family was, it was unavoidable and came with a few benefits. The most important of which would be information. An advantage that required the ability to convey it.

For this, I set about fashioning a chest on one of the workshop tables. A simple thing with leather bands on top to hide inner antennas. Inside the left wall of the exterior would be a 'secret' compartment holding a sword with flame enchantment or mana crystals. A press on an unmarked indent along the inner top of the compartment would activate the radio by using magical enchantments to pull a stone spike out of a wheel in the back wall. This would be a two-dimensional version of the copper spheres and would power the radio portion hidden in the wood. If Jeff should be seen using it, any onlooker would assume he was working something inside the chest and air enchantments on the sides would keep any conversation from being heard.

All the pieces were simpler versions of what I had fashioned elsewhere, but custom work was the bane of all budgets and everything from the antennas to the power had to be personally crafted by me. The work was interrupted about halfway through by children of Orc and Kelton variety. A small sea of eager green and furry faces bid the most powerful man in the world to entertain them and I did as I was told.

Just outside the workshop, large cubes of water were occasionally penetrated by a missile in a dress with only the occasional Kelton boy interceding. This time no mothers fearing for their brood came by. If they knew what I was going to do to their beloved children after this task, they would have come screaming and pleading with more fear than the first woman had.

After the last bits of copper were fixed onto the chest, it was placed to the side as I focused my efforts on fashioning crafts from simple wooden tubes, hoops, and boards. A labor that took half an hour or so. At the last tubes completion I strode from the tables in the workshop with terrible purpose until I was just in the hangar section.

"All right," I announced to the children running about. "Come, I have an announcement to make."

The little ones gathered in front of me in a small sea of fur and green. Dresses abounded in the crowd with only a few sporting male clothing.

"This has been hard on everyone. Most of all your parents."

One black-haired Orc in the front puckered her lips.

"I don't know about that, mage sir. Dad seems to have liked spending time in the canteen when the ships was down for pepairs…. Repairs." The, to my human sense of child development, four-year-old said.

"Oh, I'm sure." I agreed with a clasping of hands, "But that doesn't mean it's been as easy on you. And I for one think you all deserve something to help you in these hard times."

Pudgy cheeks swayed with the crowds nodding. Their youthful faces in full agreement over their struggle.

"So, some entertainment for when I'm not here is in order."

I first fetched one of the wooden tubes. It was unremarkable, save for the square cut into one of the sides. When I pressed it, a small jet of water spewed out over the children's heads. Its water lasted only a few seconds before disappearing. That left those hit confused when their clothes suddenly dried but no less enthused for it. Several of its siblings were handed out.

Some got a pouty face at not having one but when I produced hoops that shot bubbles, none complained. Each sphere of water was almost the size of an adult head and produced a pronounced pop before vanishing. The assembled group immediately began dousing each other in magic water and giving the most delightful giggles at how their clothes instantly dried.

When I produced the boards, all eyes were on me despite the new toys at hand. A single finger was placed at the bottom of the palm-sized plank of wood, where the white line running vertically down the middle met a circle of the same color. I pressed a right index finger on the circle and quickly swung the digit up the white line.

The sharp note of a flute rang out from the end of the board. What made this special was the pitch changed as the finger was brought up and down the line before shutting off when the circle was touched again. A simple matter of changing airflow in an unseen manipulation field, yet I might have been handing them a block of solid gold for how reverently it was handled by the tiny hands who received one of them.

"Now!" I exclaimed with a pointed look at each section of the kids. "You can't be playing with these all the time. The biggest reason is that you could drain the local mana from the tools. That means you should only play with them away from the workspaces and during times when the main meals aren't being served or prepared. Of course, your parents are going to be tired after working the greenhouse or forges, so once their shifts are finished, you'll have to put them away. But besides all that…. Have fun."

Any interest in me vanished as a small tide of eager youth ran away to try out some new toy in various corners. I could only smile at the childish glee. Some of the older, more adult, sort in the left corner of my eye, however, didn't.

I turned to see several Orcs and Kelton men in leather aprons, workers of the various crafts I had made for construction rather than entertainment. They all looked at me like I had just run over a beloved pet, with various stages of shock, anguish, and even controlled anger on display.

"Is there anything wrong?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't-"

An older Orc woman in the back bit her lip for a second before continuing with a rustle of blonde locks.

"Don't you think that might grind the….Everything, great mage?"

"Why would it ever do that?" I asked again, confused at the absurd notion. "They're only using them in the canteen, housing, and hallway areas during your work hours. Of course, you'll all be in the forges, workshop, and such doing your duties away from them. So, how would they disturb you?"

That drew guilty looks and puckered lips as the impromptu days off were clearly being referenced. A chorus of squealing flutes and bubble-popping rose from the kids.

"Hey!" I called over the rising noise. "Not in here and especially not during work hours."

Bowing little heads greeted the instruction. A prepubescent tide moved out of the hangar and through the workshop toward their destinations. They flowed around adults who looked like they wanted to smash the various toys but knew what the consequences would be.

"If you would be so kind, my fellow craftsman," I announced to the workers. "Make sure everyone knows of this directive."

A few vigorous nods were all I got before I cleaned up any bits left from the shelves.

Gula came back from the meeting room looking at the kids with an amused smile. Those gold eyes said she instantly guessed the bitter core of these sweet candies but no words were spoken as she walked with me carrying the chest to the side of the airship. We continued until the rope ladder came within reach. The new radio was left on the floor as we immediately started scaling the shaky rope and planks.

On my way up the ladder, I noticed one Kelton boy in the right corner between the forge and workshop run up to his fellow stragglers and conduct a run-by shooting with streams of water out of a wood tube. The others soon brandished their weapons and returned fire. Even if the water vanished in a few seconds, the collateral damage to civilians wasn't much appreciated.

That new chest for Jeff zipped past me, proving the men at the poles working the water tentacles quite adept at their post. Soon I was over the railing and standing off on the left side of the ship while Gula ran off to speak to her mother. Upon her return, she immediately pulled me away.

Any notion of us going below deck was cut short as she brought me to the boat. When we came up to its left side, Gula turned with an expectant nod at the boat too high for her to pull herself onto. I obliged her with a push on the dome's handle before cupping my hands together around my stomach to form a step.

"I never considered an on land boarding for the….vertically challenged. Another item for checking on any future construction."

Puckered green lips fought back a smile.

"I'm tall for a woman. Of all three species from what I've seen." She pouted with a placing of her brown right boot into the finger foothold.

"Tall for a dwarf still isn't tall."

A slap on the scalp was my reward for linguistic mastery before the rest of her moved onto the speed boat. I followed and set about placing the special chest in the back of the dark interior before moving to the hatch. I was stopped at the hole by a green palm bidding me to stay. Gula climbed down and immediately pushed me towards the control chair. She followed up by laying in my lap and resting that sharp chin on my lower right neck.

"I don't ever want them worrying or gossiping about my wifely skills ever again. The instant I get a whiff of such talk I'm thrusting my hips forward and asking them how many dozens of lives have theirs saved." She offered with a rather serious look.

I thought it was only disappointed faces. That bit was mentally stored away as I ran a finger down her spine.

"Hey, you saved the quad mage's life as well. That's bragging rights for life."

Gula raised a black eyebrow.

"For a minute back there, it looked like my stem was going to dry. Horrors beyond comprehension."

A snort escaped her before she could turn her turn her head down into my pecks. I stared at the bowl of black hair before she turned back up with a smile and a tight squeeze against me.

"I love how stupid I get around you." She purred with a contented sigh.

Green skin pressed against my chest as we both settled in.

A few minutes passed before a sudden pull downward told of the airship's ascent. Whatever sights were going on outside our box, none could compare to the woman on me. Idle kissing and rubbing went on for a few hours as we waited for the return of darkness. It was during a soft tasting of jade lips that I looked out the hatch slits and saw stars in a black canvas. My turn to the green face an inch from my own revealed golden eyes looking in the direction I had despite our tongues still dueling. Gula closed her eyes, let loose a long breath, and pulled back with a soft pop.

"Let me wish mom goodbye." She groaned with a rise out of the two legs that had served as her seat.

When the last Orc foot was out of the hatch and I heard a solid thump to the right, I immediately began massaging sore thighs with hands and healing spells. Green women had more heft to them than their human counterparts but the male spirit only cared for the curves and soft bits ripe for groping. Some thought of asking her to stay on the side came but was dismissed out of hand. Even if she atrophied my legs black, an hour or so of healing would set it right.

As if hearing the idle notion, Gula went to my left upon my hoisting her back up. The worried frown seemed to deny any telepathic ability she might have employed. I took her sharp chin with a pinch of my left hand. A smile broke out above my squeezing thumb while gold circles in black spheres seemed amused as they were worried.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Mother," She responded with a look to the back in the direction of the pilot. "She's been wanting to talk with me about something but then…. Everything that's been happening. Whatever it is, it has her more on edge than I've ever seen her."

Given their history and the new facts of the Orc's lives here, I probably had a good chance of guessing the topic. But that was a conversation between mother and daughter. I took a deep breath of chill air.

"We're ready to shove off!" I yelled through the domes slits.

In the dim starlight, tentacles of water moved around the boat before my stomach churned with a sudden pull upward. Stars whisked by as the sound of ocean filled the void left by the absent winds. One second the world was solid, the next we were bouncing around like a bit of driftwood.

A second was spent getting our relative position, which was a hundred or so feet from the cave we had held up in. Several swipes across the panels, a magic spell to pull seawater over us, and we were shooting southward toward her ship.

"Hey," Gula put in over the waves and the occasional bounce. "I can direct. It's decent outside for me."

She concluded the offer by turning around towards the slits and sending a spirit connection to my shoulder. I considered saying it was fine but her immediate move into my lap was too compelling a counterargument. Minutes came and went as ocean waves sped by through the dome slits. This idle company agreed with me and like all good things in this universe, it ended too soon.

"We're close now," Gula said with a shift to the left.

Sure enough, directly ahead starlight illuminated the outline of her ship. Plowing full speed into the back of the mansion on water wouldn't be a good end to our days-long cavorting, so I had to take it in slow. Getting up to the back side was a painful affair but once the boat was set in stone to the ship's rear, we were up and out the hatch with minimal fuss.

The method of climbing this wall of wood was the same as my first time, though I now had a few half-dozen vaguely remembered spots of where to put the stone footholds. Cold sea spray wafted high above the waves themselves, making the climb a bit risky at certain steps but experience saw me get up to the window without incident. After checking to make sure the various stone footholds sticking out of the wood beams weren't spaced too far apart for Gula, I carefully made my way down the shifting mass of wood.

When I felt my left foot hit the top of the boat, I moved back to allow her passage up. She stood off to the left like a statue. Those green arms in the white shirt and red coat clutched her sides like they were holding herself. Jade lips puckered as golden eyes looked me up and down with hesitation. Knowing what the problem was, I strode forward. Those green hands moved to hold my hips as I held her to a chorus of crashing waves barely seen in the starlight.

"We're having a meeting in the next few days," I whispered into her sharp right ear.

"But not tonight." She groaned with a pouty tone as she pressed her small nose up the brown cloth face covering to kiss my hidden lips. We enjoyed each other for a moment longer before moving a few inches apart in both mouth and body.

"Not tonight," I affirmed with some sadness coming through.

She simply nodded before releasing my sides and placing a foot on the first stone foothold.

"Love you," Gula offered to the wall.

"Same."

The green woman gave herself a good push on the stone lisp to send her within arms reach of the next. Up and up she went, the night almost masking her along the wood of the ship. Seconds ticked away before Gula reached the windows and slid inside. I allowed myself one long breath of salty ocean air before pulling the stone pieces out. It took three more breaths for me to fix myself upright on the boat's inner floor and break those stone holdings away from its larger cousin.

Wet hands pulled the dome down and I almost brought the boat up to full speed. Instead, I covered the backside holding the stone chest with a layer of stone to hide it. Something Cell would have to fetch later at night for Jeff's trip back here. Considering even the lightning mage didn't even specifically know where he was going, a letter from Andrew to bring him back would have to be fashioned.

Bumpy waves and an empty lap cared for none of that as I brought the boat up to proper speed. A shell of water was summoned to disguise the wood shooting through the ocean. All requiring no effort or concentration. Time passed with little thought until I saw faint torchlight filter in. Magical water was left to slip into the ocean to reveal the docks whose bones I had wrought from mana. A few swipes on the panels brought the boat into the wooden finger closest to the sea.

Getting out with the half-remembered sack of clothing was easier than fixing the boat to the pier, but neither was particularly strenuous. I took in the harbor as I trekked to see it mostly the same, though the harbor office near the very end of the wooden fingers now had a single layer of brickwork. Some night guards stood by the big double gates northeast of my position. When their torches came close enough to see who was casually strolling towards the gate, both heads went down in a bow.

I passed without comment or interest into the main section with its vast stone floor. The first thing I noticed was the vague outlines of rectangular buildings. They stood in a circle around the main center of my domain and were closer to the walls than any of their future siblings. No details presented themselves in the dim starlight and I couldn't be asked to fight for them. Instead, I moved at an angle towards the oval dome sticking out far ahead and slightly to the left.

Here and there guards stopped to see who would be approaching. Each followed the routine of the first two and I was allowed to walk to my abode on the river in peace. When I arrived, the drawbridge was still up, forcing me to reach into the stone shaft on the right and palm around its hole to find the wooden panel inside. Just as my fingers started to numb from the cold, the needed panel was found. Rushing water meant the slow fall of the big wooden walkway was barely heard. When wood finally settled on stone, I moved across and pressed another panel on the right pillar to bring the drawbridge back up.

Opening the door revealed a black void. One groping right-hand feeling along the wall eventually found the mana crystal recently made for such entrances. Firelight illuminated the kitchen to the right and the table ahead. Magic light was used to guide me in fishing the dirty clothes out of the sack and setting them beside the main door. That minute was all that was needed before I shut the lights back off. Memory saw me to the door on the left wall and through to another on the right leading into the bedroom.

The sack was thrown to the floor and shoes soon followed. As my left hand moved to close the door, a pounding on wood sounded out. Almost a full second passed before I placed the likely source as being the front door. I closed my eyes, changing nothing in my view as I turned around and traced my steps back to the source. Slightly opening the front entrance revealed five women standing on the stone perch with the drawbridge now fully down. Their torches illuminated the faces of a few of my maids but two were younger peasant women in simple brown dresses.

"Lord mage," The blonde near the front asked with a smile. "We came as soon as we heard of your return. Perhaps you would enjoy some extra warmth on this chill night."

To emphasize the point, the women pushed their upper chests a half-inch or so forward. Not content with that, one of the peasant women on the left, a brunette with a mole above her right lip, pulled the strings of her dress so as to display the brown nipples beneath. The rest were merely content to have the deep V's of their dresses almost reveal such features.

Shit. I forgot to cut off my dick.

"A fine thing for any man to be greeted with," I put in with a small smile.

The blonde instantly got a pensive face while her companions seemed happy.

"But, I am quite content with the current state of my bed. Please bring the drawbridge back up on your exit."

Again, the blonde seemed the smartest of the pack as she immediately bowed before turning. The rest stood still with furrowed eyebrows as I closed the door. Nothing else came from the door as I left it. Memory guided me towards the latrine where pleasures stem was plucked and any residual bits of blood were washed away in the stream, along with the bits of ash burned from the severed limb.

It took only a second of moving through memory before I was back in the bedroom. None interrupted my arrival between blankets and sheets this time. The bed had even been cleaned to fill my nose with the smell of flowery soap. It was trying, poor thing, but no luscious curves or demanding lips accompanied. Compared to its ship bound companion, it could give me a decent sleep. A good night, however, was far from its grasp.

I placed my head on cold pillow and the ever-present void finally treated me as I had it and moved through me.

Morning came without cause. My internal clock simply decided it was time to get up. Hands groped for supple feminine flesh. A second passed before memory finally returned and I remembered the who, where, and why of my existence. The brown cloth face covering was fixed in place before I left the room. Despite not starting as well as the previous ones, the day started off well enough with the maids coming by bearing a tub and hot water.

Once that was finished, a hot chicken sandwich and bean soup were served with cider. For all the lack of bed time company, the meal made up for some of it. If the maids were upset at last night's refusal, their professionalism didn't let it show. Dirty clothes were whisked away as I fit on a fresh white shirt and black pants before fixing them with a brown leather coat. Warm clothing that saw me over the drawbridge and out onto the vast domain royal paper said was mine.

The rest of the day was equally uneventful. To my complete and utter shock, the tools I fashioned to allow the men to make apartments without any supervision did just that. Twenty three two-story apartment blocks ringed around the entire outer circle of stone wall which inspection judged as flawless. Now for the rest of it.

It was at the sun's dying hour as I was supervising the placement of an elevator on one of the seaward apartments that Kev, head of the local guard clad in red leather and a steel chest plate, came by. Any attention to give was spent on looking over the elevator system being placed in the center shaft in front of me. The brown-haired man with a matching mustache came up the staircase down the left hallway and the darting of brown eyes outside said these heights were not agreeable. If that didn't make it clear, the bead of sweat coming down the thin nose and cheeks did.

"Kev?" I announced as I inspected long thick ropes going around pulleys, all under the watchful eyes of my usual minders clad in red leather.

"Greetings, great mage. A matter of security brings me." He announced with an accompanying buzz across my left shoulder. Before I could so much as raise an eyebrow, his voice reverberated in my skull through an electric buzz on the left shoulder.

'It's starting.' He announced like a prophecy of doom.

The first guess was obvious.

'They're purging the slum?'

He nodded, sending some sweat onto the wood floor. The source of which seemingly wasn't just the heights.

'Not all at once. They're doing Fester's corner for now. I want to say they were waiting for us to start making the housing. Give us a kick in the bum to get it done once we started.'

'Then let's be worthy of their confidence in our ability.'

'Sally wants that meeting tonight. Gula included.'

Now that was truly outside of any guessing.

'Tonight?'

'Tonight.' Kev repeated with a desperate tone.

He bowed before turning and leaving.

Taking a deep breath, I turned back to the pulleys being hoisted up the shaft in front of me. Each of these apartment buildings would be eight floors. Magic paid its due in sheer mass, not intricacies. Which meant each wouldn't demand nearly as much mana as Harrah's thumb. Still, there were going to be thirty two of the things, though in different sizes.

"Tell the overseer it's time to start on the inner portions," I announced to a guard on the left.

Another bow from a man in red leather.

Looking over the pulley and ropes being pulled upward, a sigh escaped my lips. I indulged their fears with my personal inspections but time no longer permitted such indulgence. Time passed until the eighth and final floor was put in on this seaside apartment with my last bit of oversight being given to the elevators guts. But elevators weren't living quarters and there were no more for me to make here.

Leaving and going back outside, a construction site in full swing greeted me. There were so many torches about a case for it being daytime might be made if not for the sky. New stone rectangles were being summoned with large wooden slabs over the sections that had wooden supports beneath which were now being unearthed.

The faces in the flames held shades of grim determination, fear, and anger. News of the slum's first stones being pulled up had certainly become public knowledge. If the overseer was looking for me, it would have to be out in the rocks. Magic crafts were more mana efficient than human spell work, but cheaper didn't mean free. Everything was on full blast now and I doubt even the Central Continent's generous portions of those blue specks could keep pace.

Hours were spent sucking in mana from the outside rocky plain and spewing it into the center of the mayhem. A scions lungs were not to be underestimated and for a while, I was actually stupid enough to think my efforts alone would be enough. No undead bothered us nor did I see any gold specks of light. I had been toiling without any notice of Necrosis's end and acknowledged it with even less attention than previously given.

Not neglecting the basic facts of this world, just busy.

Eventually, those working the smaller crafts to forge the inner walls and furniture had to move out onto the plains under the protection of the guards while I recovered. The only other work for me was to look over the new towers in the middle. While their tools were uniform, the future lodgings of this city were not so rigid.

Inside the elongated ring of buildings, the seaside and opposite sections were almost solid blocks while those closer to the harbor and the entrance to Crasden had openings between the apartments for traffic or sections devoted to shopping complexes. The center was hard to pin down exactly as the wall wasn't a perfect circle but the position was mentally assigned to a section of river between the seas entrance and exit into my domain. That would be where the center of government was held, a few hundred feet downstream of my lodgings.

Time slipped by until I felt exhaustion seep in. Unless I wanted to have whatever this meeting was half-asleep, the night would have to be finished earlier than I would have liked. None of the foremen or guards objected to the plant scion retiring and I obliged their acceptance by returning home. Moving off memory brought me to the bedroom where the cacophony of construction outside could barely be heard.

Since everyone knew how tired I was, if anyone came knocking, I could feign heavy sleep being the reason I didn't answer. I commenced trekking down the tunnel beneath the bed after closing the bedroom door. An alarm for such circumstance was in order but that energy and time was needed for the city.

Such thoughts swirled in the darkness with each step down the unseen wooden ladder. Like the last visit, the lights were turned on during the journey and soon stone floor met the foot reaching down. Turning from the ladder presented a stone hallway. This time Gula wasn't waiting by the wall for me to sexually harass, so I walked toward the door at the end without distraction. Going through the door revealed a stone room with a table at the center, another door on the opposite end sporting a lit torch beside it.

At the end of the table was Sally the Bishop. Her short grey hair was much the same but her face sported a worried puckering of lips between the small nose and sharp chin. Some dirt was on the right arm of her black shirt and the white square on her collar was slightly to the left. Gold eyes paid such things no attention as they focused on me. Along with Gula's on the left side of the table.

I walked up to my wife before taking her by the hips of her brown pants and white shirt. The Orc knew better than to fuss as I lifted her out of the chair and took her place before sitting her back down on me.

"It feels out of place for a woman of scripture to scold the love between man and wife." Sally offered with a pointed look at Gula placing her head on my left peck. "Interfering to save tens of thousands of people could give some justification."

"What would it be interfering with?" I asked. The green woman on my lap, however, pulled her head up to give the Bishop a sour look.

"I told you I was taking my husband away for a week or so. You didn't object then so you better not be getting ready to now." She offered in a sharp tone my hand trailing down her spine barely dulled.

"There was no objection to be had until Nersa and Bellog made them two days after your departure."

I raised an eyebrow along with Gula's.

"They're panicking and demand assurances. How a plant scion won't be able to crush us all when he discovers our existence being the most pertinent."

I took a deep breath and somehow managed to not roll my eyes.

"I was originally going to make it so I couldn't make any great digs without collapsing all the buildings. A mark of poor planning I no longer have to indulge. When everyone in the slum is cooped up in the apartment blocks, I'll say there are too many people to move out for a wide dig and it doesn't matter anyway because they waited too long.

The Orcs now have the means to effortlessly carve into my domain at any time. Something I suggest you remember."

Sally nodded with a sway of grey hair.

"I have. I've tried to have the architects explain it to them but charts of pressure points and structural loads don't soothe. A more thorough understanding might let me break through to them. However, that is not all that brings me. We're near the end of this road now. Nothing to do but take those last few steps. Save for you." She stated with a meaningful look at Gula.

Another duo of raised eyebrows demanded she continue, which she did.

"Kev wanted to say this but events demanded him elsewhere. The humans, the ones trying to kill all our kind and our husbands, are going to evict your ship from these lands."

"Oh?" Gula asked with no emotion.

"You are a smuggler dealing with Orcs. Even if none of our kind are found on your ship, you still bear the mark of our dealings in Crasden. It has been tolerated until now because you were a source of food in a siege. Now that the pirates have been seen to…."

Gula took a deep breath before slowly releasing it.

"I suppose receiving a medal in the town square isn't being offered." She grumbled bitterly.

"The metal of an executioner's ax is all that you would receive in such a gathering." Sally put in with a small smile. "But destitution is not in your future, even without considering your choice in husband. Kev has assured me there are many smugglers eager to reapply their trade. Food is the hot commodity right now and these men have the deniability you lack. Setting up a supply line to them would be easier than conducting business here."

"And what of my promised abode here?" Gula put in with a rather put off tone as she sat up a bit straighter.

An indulgent smile came across the Bishop's face as she leaned back into her chair.

"Your ship has been marked. Your person has not. Understand, they don't want you here but hunting down smugglers who braved siege for profit would set a bad precedent. Not a soul above ground would ever say it, but if a cloud should ever fall on Crasden again, they'll be more than happy to keep their eyes away from your ship delivering goods. Just come in on one of your future associate's ships. They won't be looking for someone that brought in so much food when it made the difference."

At least Ashe is retaining some sense in her anti-Orc crusade. Or, at least one of her juniors is. Gula looked a little miffed yet offered no objections as I continued stroking her back. Sally rolled her gold eyes as a huff escaped her lips.

"Kev has a list of contacts ready. Men who will get you a mountain of gold if you would provide them wood to repair their ships and food for storing therein. Things in infinite supply with your husband's talent."

"Abundant supply," I corrected with a cough. "Mana is not without limits."

"The money isn't the point." Gula cut in. "Getting here will take so much work that I'll hardly ever get to visit."

She finished with a wonderfully possessive hug around my chest. Contrary to expectation, Sally gave us both a small smile before shrugging.

"The wives of sailors know of such tribulation, so Lord Tilvor will have some company who understands his loneliness. Besides, I'm sure getting food from the Coalition takes long enough that you could stay for an extended period every now and then. Leave the captaining to the first….officer? I'm afraid affairs of the sea aren't my expertise."

I looked into Gula's gold eyes. There were words wanting to come out but this wasn't the time to give them life. We turned back to Sally at the same time. My wife coughed before speaking.

"Fine." She huffed.

"Good," Sally extolled as she reached down to her left. "But some questions remain."

The Bishop produced several papers and laid them on the table. Lines and figures of my designs were obvious even when upside down. For an hour, I reiterated the points in the city where digging into them would compromise the integrity of the surrounding buildings. It wouldn't, in reality, but the figures I wrote down would give such an impression to anyone who could parse an architect's language.

I didn't have that ability to peer into the mind from subtle twitches and involuntary body movements like some could back in my universe, but the way some questions were more aggressively asked or followed up gave the impression they came from Sally rather than others. Playing therapist using numbers was rather irritating and if this didn't mean I had Gula on my lap, I might not have been so indulgent. It was at the finish of the apartment's load-bearing foundations that the Bishop leaned back in her chair with a nod.

"All right," Sally said with a long sigh. "That's as much as I'll be able to convey to my fellow council members. Do you know how much food you'll be able to bring in from whatever magic farm in the north you two have?"

Gula bounced her head back and forth for a second.

"I could give a figure if I was using my ship. Since I have to start using couriers, that will depend on them. Why? Won't we be taking some of the stock from Tilvor's farms?"

"Fools are not long for this world. If not for your shipments many would have starved and the council is not satisfied with depending on a smuggler's charity should we fall under another siege. A stockpile of preserved foods is being prepared. After we've made sure there's going to be anyone below ground alive to use it. And since we don't know how much of the magic crop we'll be borrowing-" She took a moment to look my way, "Outside sources may be needed even more than before."

"Borrowing implies an eventual return," I put in with a smile. "Unless you count using my sewage system as somehow paying me back."

Sally pursed her lips like she was fighting a smirk. The Bishop shrugged with a rise from the chair.

"Well, it's a good thing I've recently been convinced to be more flexible with my morals. Otherwise, stealing from you might have induced some crisis of conscience."

Gula pressed her face into my chest, the slight rumbles from her head coming clear through the shirt.

"That should be enough for the council." Sally offered as she took the bag beside her chair. "Is there anything you would require from me?"

"This meeting came about from your invitation. As long as you don't knock anything down again, I shouldn't need you."

This time Sally gave me a proper smile before turning around and going out the door. The second wood slammed together, Gula stretched like a cat as she sent her green arms above my head. Her muscular release finished with a long purr as she wrapped around me like a second skin. I enjoyed the warmth as the mass of dense woman was spread out enough to not cut off blood flow anywhere. Time passed as I stared down the backside of the white shirt while making future plans.

'Eli.' A familiar voice echoed in my head from an electric buzz in my right shoulder.

I pulled my eyes further down to meet her gold ones. Despite her sharp chin on my collarbone and chest laying on mine, those gold pools drew my attention for the worry in them.

'You look distant.' She mused.

A sigh escaped tired lips.

'As reluctant as I am to create yet more work…. We need to start making plans for a new base. Things are settling down because we played most, hell, everything we have. If something else happens in these lands another miracle mage dropping out of the ether to fix everything isn't happening. The first round forced our hands because we didn't have time to prepare. Time we've now bought. Once we've got airships to babysit everyone, another will be dispatched to check promising spots for a hideaway in case this region finally succumbs.'

Another perusing of those green features left the impression there was more she wanted to say. After a second of silence, she did.

'Do you want to-'

Her quick look down and suggestive tone made the offer clear. Equally as apparent was her reluctance in the voice that couldn't quite be kept out.

'You seem tired, love.' I inquired with a raised eyebrow.

'Any time, Eli.' She put in a defiant raise of her chin. 'If at any time your release….needs worked on, don't hesitate to say so. Whatever my body can give you, please take.'

Salamede, this time at least, didn't seem to be the one producing these words.

'I never refuse what you offer. Not to my recollection, at least.' I said with a quick kiss of smoke, vinegar, and spice. Pulling back revealed some dark green cheeks beneath those black spheres and a stretch of that vertical scar on the left eye.

'I know…. But I want to make sure you know what you're doing…. Bastard's beard, what you've already done, means to me. A silly little girl in the swamps had some silly little dream of making things right for her people. And now it might very well happen.

It means EVERYTHING to me. What you're doing. Just…. Don't ever think I'm not….'

Her words were lost for a moment until she craned her neck up and kissed me again, a few salty tears falling down her cheeks to distract from the sharp spice on my tongue.

'I love you.' She moaned in the spirit connection while only just keeping her gaze on mine.

'The-'

'I love you, Eli. I need you more than air. More than life. I dream of you in my sleep. You were my first wet dream. The first fire in my loins. Before we had even kissed my body ached for you.'

I was a bit taken aback at the sudden dumping of pre-marriage lore but said nothing as she vibrated on top of me and squeezed various corners of my body. Gula needed emotional release at times such as these. And if it meant I listened to how I drove her crazy with lust….Male pride could endure.

Minutes passed before Gula finished with a pop of our lips and severing of the spirit connection. The green woman immediately turned her head down onto my chest with a heaving breath I only matched after climax. Most of my view was the bowl of black hair and the sharp green ears protruding. Usually, the latter would not be noteworthy except they were so dark and warm from blood that I felt her left one radiating heat through the shirt.

With a sudden jolt, she flew off me while making sure to not let me see anything but her backside. The poor woman was clearly embarrassed beyond speech, so I opened my mouth to return the exchange of loving poetry.

"Goodbye." She squeaked out with a full sprint out the door to the rest of the underground.

Slamming wood rang out before the words could come up my throat. I sat there with a smile, wondering how women managed to be so captivating no matter their mood. Time spent here, however, was time not spent recovering with sleep. Following the motions of the two women left some pain in my soles as I hefted this tired body out of the chair.

The trip back above ground was a bit slower than usual but the steps were as routine as breathing. Getting to the top of the vertical tunnel ladder, I fetched the radio from an alcove behind the ladder and crawled out from under the bed. This time, no surprises came from the box and I was allowed to commence with the checklist of hygienic needs before turning in.

Morning came with another pop from the front door and ended in the same manner it had many times before. Wearing a grey shirt, black pants, and leather coat matching the brown face covering, I walked over the drawbridge with ears filled by running river. Coming onto proper land presented a field of grey rectangle walls where empty stone plains had been. Workers swarmed around trying to complete their future homes. A few in the crowd worked crafts to form the apartment blocks while others plied boards, furniture, and ropes through the main doorways for the interior.

Hours passed as I went over the new buildings. In spite of….everything, some begrudging respect for the project took root in me. This place was going to be a rat den, but every apartment block had five floors when bedtime came. Their interiors were almost entirely hollow as the need to put the wood and furniture crafts out on the rocky plains more than tripled delivery times. Still, this place visually going from mostly bare stone floor to a small city in a day was an achievement even my standards couldn't deny.

The next morning showed the promise of equal achievement. As I sat down for a breakfast of eggs, cider, and ham steaks, a knock at the door drew a black-haired maid away from the food cart. At the same time, I was lifting a fork of ham from the plate, with special care that its juices wouldn't fall onto the fresh white shirt and brown pants.

"Ah! Lady Ashe!"

Some quick mental calculation said I wouldn't have time to make the bite before they came in. Another round calculated if I cared enough to commit to basic manners. For the leader I needed to realize my future vision here….Fine. With a tired sigh, I placed the fork back down with a clink and fixed the brown cloth face covering over the preciously waiting mouth. Turning to the door revealed three guests coming through.

Front and center was Ashe, her red hair playing over a gold thread dress and white scarf. Her blue lips were thin with a stone face, which almost resembled marble from the pale skin. The small nose was likewise unmoving. This statuesque appearance only made the jerking back and forth of her green eyes more pronounced.

On the left was a woman in a green robe. Her skin was so brown from sunlight it was only the lighter portions around her grey eyes that clued me into the fact it wasn't her natural color. Gold fringes and leaves throughout the robe made it clear Percy's attire was more uniform than personal taste. Long black hair moved with her look around the room. Puckered lips above a sharp chin said she didn't approve of what lay before her.

The right held a muscular woman, again with a leather top and pants dotted with various jewels and a mountain peak on her chest. This one, unlike her predecessor, sported a full head of luscious brown hair. Sadly, it seems the gift of full locks did not translate to a better attitude as green eyes regarded my home with open disdain.

As the trio approached, the maids moved into the background with their pitchers of cider and spent plates. From behind the mages came a small squad of the lion guards sporting gaudy metal and gold accented cloth decorations running along their arms. They performed their only real purpose by pulling the chairs at my table back for their betters. On the opposite chair was Ashe, while the left was taken by the, presumably, plant mage, and the right sat the brooding brunette.

"Tilvor, we come on an urgent matter" Ashe intoned with a nod to one of the lion guards to her right. The man took out a pouch and from its depths produced a single blank page and a sealed glass glass jar of black ink. Both items were set before me before he provided the needed quill and politely unsealed the jar.

"An urgent counting of all your crafts is needed. I do not fault your ability to maintain security but some people need assurances over their use considering how many different people have been using them." She finished with a smile and warm tone. Her body, however, was closed in and the cross of her arms told of a defensive mindset.

This conversation had been played out a hundred times in my head. Pride as a mage would demand certain biting words and I might have to play a bit of the fool when it came to architectural design depending on her choices, but nothing could overcome the fact it wasn't my symbols on the crafts the Orcs were using. That Ashe indulged such nonsense spoke ill of her future dealings with these useless associations. Still, them revealing the true depth of the problem to me now could create an uncomfortable situation.

"If an accusation is being made, then let it be made clearly." I shot back with a stiff spine. "I've kept track of every last one. I will put my neck on the block to say not a one is missing. And none have fallen into the hands of the Orcs."

That last word hit the room like a crack of gunfire despite being no louder than its predecessors. Both new mages jerked their heads back while Ashe remained as still as stone.

"We are not." Ashe put in with a stiffening of her own spine even as she leaned back. "Certain concerns merely need addressing."

"Why-"

The voice of the green-robed woman faltered in a cough for a moment before she resumed.

"Why would you think the green menace is involved in this?" She asked with a raised left eyebrow.

"Pff!" I scoffed with a dismissive wave of my left hand. "I know the men who've helped build this city lay with that filth. It would be the purest delusion to think otherwise. Which is why I was so personally involved in the construction. There would be no other way to keep it out of the green hands."

"We are not accusing you of such neglect," Ashe said stated with a set jaw. "Matters of security, however, require a full accounting of your stocks."

My gaze held hers for a few seconds before I huffed. Brandishing the quill, I set about jotting down the figures. Fortunately, they were all of standard sizes, and counting them up should be an easy task. The direction of the conversation, however, demanded a dangerous turn. No man in my position would accept this sudden scrutiny without question and the presence of the two new guild representatives presented the thread of thought too clearly for the character I was playing to ignore.

"Hm." I hummed when I got halfway through the list.

"Tilvor?" Ashe asked somewhere above me.

I turned up from the paper to see the leader of Crasden. She looked at me with puckered blue lips and green eyes wearily taking me in.

"Does this have anything to do with our agreement with Percy and …. that bald woman for crafts?"

All three thinned their lips as their eyes dared not move.

"Why would you ask that?" Ashe asked in a tone that was trying to not sound measured out down to the letter.

"Partly it's because I never got a single craft. Mostly it's how we have new faces for the guild and none of them came by to see how their predecessors held up to our agreement." I mused with an appropriately raised eyebrow at the sudden, and totally inexplicable, tension.

This is it, Ashe.

Tell me about the problem right now and I'll have to pretend I didn't anticipate having to pull the entire foundation up. You could spin that as trying to work between three factions of incompetent mages. Blame would be apportioned equally to all parties.

A quick perusing of the two other guests made it clear they were trying to not make the conversations being conducted in spirit connections so obvious.

Or you can keep buckling to the association's demands. Stall their coming humiliation. Give the Orcs enough time to render the barriers I put in place too compromised for me to fix the problem I was never informed of. That leaves me unblemished and you and those two gangs of wastrels to deal with the verbal bludgeoning.

"At this late hour, we merely want to make sure all precautions have been taken." The redhead announced with a small smile.

It's not every day you get to see the future so clearly.

I looked back down to the page, finishing the last few lines. Another inspection of the figures and I deemed the list sufficient. Ashe subtly nodded to the guard who had given me the page. The man with a metal lion head took his goods with a respectful nod before moving backward. Something his master took as a sign to speak.

"A proper count will keep the lion guard busy for several hours but I've instructed them to keep any inconvenience to a minimum."

I shrugged with a lean back into the chair.

"The big ones we're using right now aren't easy to miss. All the others are either turning out wood for the furniture or stored in my workshop. I believe the Overseer has as good an idea of all their places as I do."

Ashe gave me a slight nod as she rose from the chair with slow grace. Her companions tried to imitate those motions but me coming so close to the truth had rattled them enough that bits of sweat beaded at their foreheads as their shaky legs brought them out of the chairs. The trio shuffled off, leaving me to the unfinished ham and eggs. When the door was shut, the attending maids came closer to the table. They looked happy to have the three guests gone as they went about attending to the various bits of the morning routine.

A feeling fully shared.

Something about not having the show of admitted incompetence hanging over me made the cider swirl better on the tongue, the ham juicier, and the eggs more sumptuous. Whatever shame followed the associations or leaders of Crasden from the coming scandal; my hands were washed of it. That lent an extra bit of goodness to the final bite of the meal. With breakfast finished, I stretched in the chair before making my way to the front door. Ashe and her ill company might be finished with me, but this city wasn't. I headed out into a chorus of construction and running water to see me off on yet another work day.