High Artificer, Ch 19: Faculty Responsibilities

“Faculty responsibilities?” Sam asked with a chuckle. “Is that so?”

He was amused that the board dared to try something like that. It seemed he hadn’t left enough of an impression. A silver light flared in his eyes.

He had no intention of cooperating.

As far as the rules of the academy went, only the headmaster had any direct authority over the faculty, and Asperio already did what Sam told him to, not the other way around. 

He was pleased the headmaster had given them a hard time. The new Lightning affinity was undoubtedly a part of it. The mage was starting to shake off the dust of years and politics that had kept his hands bound. 

That was as it should be.

If it had been something important and they’d asked politely, he might have helped them out, but if they were just trying to cause trouble, he would give them back more than they bargained for. 

“I appreciate it,” Sam said as his voice grew deeper. He clapped Broden on the shoulder. “I’ll take care of it.”

“They’re still trying to get you one way or another,” Broden said. “Looks like your duel and whatever Jasperi’s backers are up to has really stirred them up. There should be some messages for you, if you check your faculty medallion. I think they’re too scared to come in person.”

The dwarf’s arms were like gnarled tree trunks as he folded them across his chest and shook his head. Along with Harsen, he was one of the two head smiths in the academy and it showed. It looked like he could bend steel by glaring at it.

“I’m not sure what they’re thinking, bothering someone nearly at the Sixth Evolution. They’re barely into the Fifth themselves. More politics than brains, that bunch. Most of them are the heads of various merchant clans or old families here on Council.” 

Sam no longer needed to hold the faculty medallion to check its messages, but since Broden was there, he pulled it out. He glanced at the notifications, which had been trapped by the Titan Star, and then he dismissed them all. 

It was nothing important.

There were politely worded requests trying to pull him into their camps, slightly less politely requests that he work for them, vaguely threatening messages about the power of the academy, their family, or their backers, and so on. 

From one or two, there were private messages sent to him directly through the faculty channels, rather than the official ones. Those were outright demands that he make artifacts for them and promises that he would be ‘adequately paid’ for his work. 

Those almost made him laugh, since as he’d just told the students, the work of a near Sixth Evolution enchanter was priceless. 

Not to mention what he could do.

There were no direct mentions of faculty responsibilities yet, but if he had to guess, it would be something like more ‘work’ for the board. 

Their desire for high-level artifacts was outright greed. 

Normally, to get a crafter to create an artifact, it required at least double the materials that would go into the finished product and a payment on the side, which at his level meant powerful favors that could change the course of worlds.

The board was offering nothing in return, just this demand for him to work for them. It made him wonder where they found the courage.

One of them even mentioned he wanted Sam to work at his palace ‘for a friend,’ which suggested he was trying to sell the enchantments to someone or trade them as a favor.

Sam just chuckled.

Revealing his level at the duel had shown him to everyone as the strongest enchanter on the planet. It was no surprise that had gotten attention, but apparently the board thought they had some right to his work.

“Most folks wouldn’t have a choice but to cooperate,” Broden said as he watched Sam check the messages, “since they’d be afraid of the consequences or losing their position here, but I get the feeling you’re not inclined to play along.”

A craggy grin stretched on his face as Sam didn’t disagree.  

“What are you going to do?” Broden looked enthusiastic as he pounded one hand into the other. 

“I’m going to have a little chat with the board,” Sam said calmly as he tucked the medallion away. “They seem to have misunderstood our relationship.”

Any crafter would have been furious about this type of attempt to pressure them. If he let it continue, the board would think they could get away with it.

That last Winged Fury, Yuris, probably had something to do with this. He’d no doubt noticed Solecea and Jasperi had gone missing by now, so he was trying to stir up trouble.

“I don’t know where you get your confidence from, my friend, but I like it!” Broden laughed. 

“You’re a mystery. Even most Sixth Evolution fighters would be wary of the board and the High Nine behind them, but I see nothing of that in you. You have the courage of an honest smith. So you plan to bring the hammer down? When do we leave? This I want to see!”

“We’re not leaving,” Sam said. “They’re going to come to us. And now is as good a time as any. Follow me.”

He turned and walked back into his hall, followed by Broden, who looked surprised. 

“But the board’s meeting room is deep in the city,” Broden said. “Near the High Council’s chambers. It’s at least an hour walk unless you teleport there, and they have heavy wards to stop that. They’re like turtles in their shells, or maybe spiders in a web.”

“Don’t worry about that part,” Sam said as he waved Broden over to a seat at the stone table. “Just wait for a moment.”

He reached out to the astral stone that made up his hall and reshaped the seat at the center, making it larger and more striking. He had designed this to be a subdued seat for lectures, but for this meeting, his usual throne would work better.

Even so, it was a simple structure.

He settled down onto it and then looked up at the stars burning above his hall. His mind reached out, scanning across the world in the distance until he located the board’s meeting room.

It was a small palace inside the city, its walls ornately carved with grapevines and scrollwork. There was a large number of gems and mana crystals embedded in the murals that decorated it, each of them powering a complex system of wards.

Sam barely glanced at them.

Lines of silver light flowed across the walls and stars flared in the center of the gems as his aura pressed down on the hall. A twist of his will crushed the wards’ control paths and gave him command of the structure.

Then he locked onto the nine board members that were in a room at the center. They were all gathered together around a table, arguing about something. A mix of snide and tired voices clashed as words flew back and forth.

Based on the messages he’d seen, only three or four of the board members had really tried to cause him trouble, but he was going to send a message to all of them at once.

He reached out his hand across the distance and a wave of silver light swept through the hall. Where it passed, the board members disappeared from their seats.

They rematerialized in his hall in spirals of silver light as he dropped them into the student seats facing him. He kept to his regular human height as he sat on the throne facing them, but his aura filled the hall, merging with the starlight and the silver forge flame that flared up into the heavens.

Silver stars burned around him like floating wisps, drifting through the dark Void above. 

Vastness extended in every direction, making the hall an island in eternity. The green plains and distant blue mountains that stretched out from the pillars seemed like the only safe land amid the dark and flames that stretched into the endless distance.

“Board of Archaios Academy,” he said, his voice infused with the heat of stellar flames. “Welcome to my hall. I understand you’ve been trying to reach me.”

“What...? Who...?!” 

“Where...are we?”

The words were a strangled babble as the board members tried to orient themselves, but the combination of the Void above and the strange hall towering around them left them confused. Their words were barely mumbles that faded into shock as they stared at Sam.

Sam took note of the few with deceit and arrogance written across their faces. He read their history in their auras as they gathered themselves. 

When they managed to stop trembling, he raised his hand.

Goblets of dark wine that sparkled with starlight appeared around them, accompanied by rare fruits and cheeses that radiated with natural energy. 

Normally, he served mead, which he preferred, but for these visitors he provided wine. They were more familiar with it and they hadn’t earned the right to drink mead with him.

When they hesitated to take a goblet, he floated them to their hands, followed by trays of delicacies.

“Let it not be said you were neglected here,” he said as he waved to the refreshments. “Now, let’s clarify a few things.”

He summoned a glass of wine to his hand as he spoke, his words measured and slow. There was plenty of time for them to hear his meaning.

“I am Sam Hastern, called the High Artificer of the Elements and the Lord of Silver Stars. I am the newest member of Archaios Academy’s faculty, the Head of Enchanting and Artificing.”

He paused as he let that sink in and he saw a few of them twitch with recognition.

“I am also the one that a few of you have requested to ‘work’ for you, with a mix of threats and promises. That is why I have brought you here. It seems we need to clarify our relationship.”

His words were calm and unthreatening, but he saw them flinch anyway. He turned his attention to the four who had tried to threaten him.

“Perhaps now you realize what you are asking and more importantly who you are asking.”

He raised his hand to indicate the hall around him and the Void above.

“You are no longer on Council. You are seated in a dimensional realm that I constructed in less than a week. It resides in the Void halfway between your world and the sun. That is because your world is too small and fragile to contain my work. The Void above you is my home and where I feel most at ease.

“I’ve pulled you from your council chambers to give you this advice, which I will only say once. I have come to this academy of my own will and I will stay here as long as I find it suitable. 

“While I am here, I will make the academy stronger and teach some students how to unlock their potential, including for Artificing, which is a poorly utilized art among you. You will not find another professor who can do what I can do, nor as well. 

“I will also provide more resources to the academy than I use, so you have no need to worry about the cost. Artificing and Enchanting are expensive crafts and with my help the academy will grow stronger and more adept in both.

“With that said, you should understand that I will teach as I wish, to whom I wish, and only in those ways that I find suitable. My work is not for hire, nor for demand.”

Up to now, his voice had been easy, but now it carried a warning note. The aura of heat in it increased, flaring like a sun.

“Understand that the Council of the High Nine does not have the ability to move me, nor is any power they possess able to change my mind, much less the members of your board.”

His eyes settled on the four who had insisted he work for them and the aura within his gaze made them tremble. 

Artifacts they held on their persons fractured under the pressure and enchantments laid into their clothing crackled as runes disintegrated into a shower of dull, fitful sparks.

“Should you attempt to do so again, you will not like the result. This is the one and only time I will warn you.”

The pressure faded as he lifted the wine in his hand, toasting them.

“Now, please, let us move on from this topic and discuss more important things, like the future of Archaios Academy and all your dreams for what it could be.”

The board members, especially the four he’d just spoken to, shook like leaves in the wind as they stared at him, their faces stark white with terror. Their eyes were locked on his hand and the wine goblet it held, as if they couldn’t bear to look any higher.

Sam let out a sigh, which helped to break the tension in the air. 

“Try the wine,” he suggested as he raised his goblet to his lips. “It will help to bolster your constitutions.”

Some time later, after giving them a chance to try all of the food and answering a few stuttered questions that they could barely force out, he teleported them all back to their board room.

“So, do you think they will take my advice?” Sam asked as he let the heat fade from his voice. 

He looked toward the table at the end of the hall.

This entire time, Broden had been concealed behind a veil of astral light, but now his form faded into existence as he stared at Sam. 

His mouth was hanging open in shock, as it had been for most of the meeting. A plate of food and mead was beside him, but it was barely touched. 

Now, the dwarf raised his mug as he took a long drink and then came up spluttering.

“Who...are you?” he forced out as he stared at Sam. “None of that should have been possible.”

“I am an artificer who is becoming tired of hiding my strength,” Sam said with a chuckle, only half answering the question. 

“It seems that the more I hide it, the more people believe they can take advantage of me. Hopefully this one at least is settled.”

“Settled?” Broden asked with shock. “You cursed drove it home harder than a hammer to the skull! If they can’t figure out what to do now, they might as well just kill themselves by slamming their heads into a wall!”

“How’s the mead?” Sam asked to distract him. “I made it myself.”

“I appreciate a fine mead as much as the next dwarf,” Broden said as he refused to budge. “But that was not normal! Even for you at level 577 or whatever you are! I’ve seen plenty of Sixth Evolution beings, including all of the current High Nine. None of them have that aura of power when they speak!”

He pointed at Sam with his half-empty mug. His gaze was intense.

“You. Are. Not. Normal.”

Time passed as the dwarf stared at him stubbornly and Sam just gave him an amused smile. Eventually, Broden’s scowl turned into an annoyed grumble.

“I suppose I can live with that,” the dwarf grumbled. “Not like I can beat the answer out of you if you don’t want to tell me. I already saw what you can do.”

Then he turned serious.

“If you need help...,” he said, “with the High Nine or anything else, you come and find me. I’ll do what I can. I’m not without allies. I don’t know much, but ever since I saw you that first day, I knew you were worth knowing. Now, I’m just more convinced of it.”

He looked around the hall then, staring up at the stars and the sun.

“And this place...I don’t even know where to begin. When you showed it off the other day, I knew it was something special, but I didn’t realize we were standing in the Void outside the world.”

He frowned as he stared at the Void and then at mountains in the distance, shaking his head at the contrast.

“But I’ll figure it out,” he declared as he raised his mug to salute Sam. “Sooner or later. You can count on it or I’m not a dwarf! Now, since you’re brewing all this mead, let’s drink it!”

He raised the mug and buried his face in it, draining the rest of the contents in a single gulp.

“Let’s see if you can keep up!” Broden shouted as he slammed the mug down on the table with a massive ring like a gong had struck through the hall.

Sam grinned at him as he tossed his goblet over his shoulder, where it disappeared into nothing. 

A golden mug of mead appeared in his hand and he raised it in salute to Broden before he drained it in a single gulp. Then he slammed it onto the table in front of him.

“If you want to outdrink me,” he said with a laugh, “you’re going to have to do better than that.”

Hours passed as he joked with Broden. He avoided some of the dwarf’s questions and answered others, freely discussing anything that had to do with enchanting or the academy. 

Before long their conversation was focused mostly on crafting, mead, and runes. 

The dwarf was a fountain of information on his people’s crafting heritage and as soon as he heard that Sam had worked with dwarves in the past, his eyes lit up.

If Sam had been anyone else, Broden’s enthusiasm might have been overwhelming, but he met it with just as much interest. 

The two of them spoke of secrets whispered under stone and between the stars, of crafting with raw elements and hammering ingots, and of golems and primal forces, until finally the power of the mead turned the evening into a drifting golden river.

Some time later, Sam hauled a half-comatose dwarf to one side of the hall and created a minor dimensional realm, where he left him in a well-appointed dwarven-style guest room.

Then he returned to his seat and looked up at the stars, his thoughts turning toward Yuris and the High Nine. No doubt they would hear about his encounter with the board soon enough.

A slight sense of amusement made him shake his head as his fingers tapped on the arm of his chair. He wondered what they would do next.

With his refusal to let them walk all over him, things were accelerating. Before long, the High Nine would be pulled into this game. Their political connections ran too deep for them to ignore it.

Even if he seemed good for the academy, he knew they wouldn’t allow a powerful force to do as he wished here. Sooner or later, they would try to suppress him, to make sure he wasn’t a threat to their status quo.

If the board kept their meeting a secret, it would take a little longer, but he doubted they would.

Half of them might be wise enough to stop it here, but those four cronies lacked too much of a spine to keep things to themselves. Now that he’d terrified them, they would go to their masters to lick their boots and plead for revenge.

Then they would come.

He could have done things a different way and hidden his power more, so that he didn’t terrify them as much, but frankly, it was beneath him. 

He raised his mead to his lips as he looked out at the stars, his thoughts turning to plans for the academy and how to settle the affairs of the council.

It seemed his time as a human was drawing shorter by the day. He refused to change his appearance any more. Limiting himself to this form was enough.

That meant it was time to visit Alora. He wanted to tour this world with her before his disguise ran out.

He set the empty goblet to the side, where it disappeared into nothing, and then he stood up. A series of sigils burned in the air as he left a message for Broden, as well as an enchantment to leave the hall.

Then his eyes turned to the distant star that marked Alora’s world.

He disappeared in a flash of silver light.