[Hlaeth] Ch 35 - Heading into Town

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            I had nothing else to spend my time and money on, and a horde of Phantasmal Servants with half my Skill Ranks could get a LOT of stuff done if I directed them to do so. Making up cooking facilities that could feed an army actually wasn’t all that hard to do, and growing the produce and storing it in Preservation Silos inside the mountain of my growing realm was just a convenient place to store extra production until I needed them.

            Had a winery, a brewery, and other production facilities for various kinds of booze all going up in there, too, and with Chemistry, Alchemy, and Brewmaster Ranks all working together, I could make some really good liquor. I normally didn’t because there were a lot of civilians who did some brewing as part of their livelihoods, and I didn’t like to step on them.

            Good booze opens a lot of doors.

            I was an Alchemist and an Artificer, with Skill Ranks up the kazoo. I could do all that shit, and expanding my Sanctum Sanctorum meant I had things I could play with, so I was going to do so now that I didn’t have my entire work day spoken for with Allegiance projects all the time.

            Going Home projects, yes, but that was a different consideration.

            Hordes of Permanent Greater Phantasmal Servants were an excellent way to get started on that stuff, as were Simulacra. They might only have half my Skill Ranks, but that was absolutely fine for most of the stuff they needed to do.

            The fact I could only have one Simulacra per Primary Caster Level was a limitation I didn’t much like, but eh… as was the fact they all turned into females with dark skin and white hair, or pale skin and very black hair.

            Sylune messing with me.

---

            Kord and Hano pointed out that there was a town at the end of an inlet on the horizon there. I asked if they wanted to tag along for my visit; they were a bit surprised at the offer, but agreed cautiously after asking how long it was going to take.

            They were clutching their Disks for dear life for the entire trip, given how fast I was moving. Hills and rivers and forests swept past in blurs of motion, since I had no hesitation of going above the trees to avoid obstructions, and hopping over canyons and crevasses and down sheer cliffs was nothing to someone who could fly.

            They’d never moved so fast in their life. I didn’t bother to tell them how slow this was to me, but the idea that someone could hop around continents easily once Teleport without Error and Linejumps were online wasn’t something they had been exposed to and had time to digest. Travel for them was walking or jogging somewhere at speed, tests of manly endurance and speed, not casual use of four or seven Valences of magical energy.

            So, I flew with my celeste Wings out, zipping along at a really high rate of speed that would put magically enhanced horses to shame, and they whooped and screamed as I swooped and dove and skimmed along, pulling occasional loop de loops and spirals and other stuff for them to scream like little kids about.

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            The town was called Hriegard. It was not much more than a fortified village by my standards, but actually was one of the larger settlements in the area with several hundred people calling it home. The lack of developed farmland or trade seemed to be the cause of things, as well as being a frontier area that had never been properly developed. It did have docks that could take deep-water ships, the inlet being deep and stable, but there didn’t seem to be much traffic, and no such vessels at the docks as I came to the top of the hills a mile from the town and settled down.

            The ogryn and dhatun were definitely a bit green in the face, despite their enthusiasm, and wobbled as they got off their Disks and tried to walk normally. I waited patiently until they’d patted the ground and assured themselves it wasn’t zipping by at such speed.

            “That was the most terrifying experience of my life,” stout Kord stated emphatically. “Can we ride back with you, too?” he asked in cheerful counterpoint to the serious words.

            “Of course.” I started strolling down the dirt road to the walled town below, although my boots didn’t quite touch the muddy ground.

            On the other hand, stones flowed up out of the ground and turned the muddy stretch of earth into a smoothly ridged and layered expanse of road worthy of a master engineer as I went along. It was barely enough effort to qualify as relaxing, but their eyes still widened as they watched a full stone road spring up around and behind me.

            “Lord Magos, this, this is…” Kord tried and failed to say anything as the stone flowed up under his feet and around the two of them.

            “Something you should be able to do?” I finished for him.

            His mouth opened in shock. “Me?” he almost squeaked, but his voice was too deep, so it sounded more like a choke.

            “It’s Earth Magic. You’re a dhatun. Earth Magic is in your blood. So, yes?” I offered him.

            His dark eyes almost popped. “Earth Magic is in my blood?” he asked, stunned.

            I inclined my head slightly, since I couldn’t meet his eyes. “Please tell me that you are not surprised by that.”

            “I, uh…” he managed to not say.

            “So, you just haven’t had any decent teachers around.”

            His mouth worked for a moment, before finally squeezing out, “No, no teachers…” in kind of a gasping whisper.

            “And you. Have you been tapping your racial magic, big fellow?”

            The white eyes of the big skinny ogryn blinked in as much shock as his smaller compatriot. “R-racial magic?” he repeated in shock.

            “You’ve got horns, which means your forebear was an ogre mage, who are oni. Thus, inherited magic.” I pinched my nose as I walked along, ignoring their stares. “Nobody bothered to teach you either, did they?”

            He coughed deeply. “To be fair, there aren’t any known ogre mages around who would be so inclined, Lord Magos,” the very well-spoken ogryn replied smoothly.

            “You do know you’re quite a bit brighter and built a bit different than most ogryn, right?”

            He gnashed his teeth audibly. “I had noticed I seemed to possess more cerebral qualities than many of my brethren, yes,” he admitted carefully.

            “Right. And judging by the looks of this town, the number of spellcasters around is few and far between, and the dwarves don’t send out their Healers to help others, I take it?”

            “Uh, no, Lord Magos. Sometimes a Mystic of Rai-Ar will come through, but the few Druids stick to their groves and woods. Best most folks will ever do for true Healers is an Herbalist, or a passing Bard,” Kord said carefully.

            No Divine magic. No gods rewarding charitable help, encouraging such. The best Healers around were likely Druidic Shamans, but their business was with the Land, not with the people who lived on it and were trying to build up their civilizations. Indeed, they had probably celebrated the vanishing of the gods as an unnatural influence and the fall of civilizations as just desserts, deserts?, upon those who failed to follow the land.

            Which likely had led to a lot of harsh words, vindictive strikes back and forth, and deaths on both sides, given the nature of people and the smugness of the ‘One True Faith’ that had probably come up.

            Druids could be total idiots, too, but that was the nature of Faith, bending wisdom and charisma into fanaticism and intolerance with nothing to counter it.

            “Well, let me be blunt and to the point. The two of you not knowing your natural magic is extremely insulting in my eyes. I’m perfectly fine with giving pointers to the two of you as regards them. Also, I’ll be announcing my intentions as a Healer when I walk into the town.”

            “Just… a Healer, sir?” Kord asked, looking down at the road meaningfully.

            “I might take a walk around the town first,” I admitted in some amusement. “Surely that would be okay with you?”

            “Ah, yes, sir, that would be fine. Erm, do you have coin for the gates?” Kord asked, glancing ahead at the two bored guards watching us from the distance as we came down the road.

            “Do you think any of them will dare charge me a copper?” I replied honestly.

            They looked at the stone beneath my feet, where had only been a rutted dirt path before. “N-no sir,” Kord admitted hastily, staring at the stone flowing up out of the ground and resolving itself into the best road he’d ever seen.

            “Your goal is one day to be able to do this, master Kord,” I told him, and the hunger in his eyes was almost palpable. “Any other minor problems I might be running into?”

            “Uh, well, you talk like a southern human, except your accent is different.”

            “Ah, and those southerners have a bad reputation.”

            “Slavers and raiders, sir, of the worst kind. They treat all non-pureblood humans like utter shit.”

            “Is that so?” The dangerous lilt to my voice made both of them whiten. “I’m afraid I’m not quite so biased. My treating like shit tends to extend to people who treat others like shit. If we run into some, there might be some excitement, lads.”

            “We will endeavor to remain out of your way if that happens, sir,” Hano the muscled beanstalk said fervently.

            “That’s probably wise, but I’m usually pretty good at working with others when needed.”

------

            The bored expressions of the guards had quite changed by the time we reached them. The matter of a road flowing into existence and staying behind us was rather daunting a prospect, especially when they saw the two following me.

            Both humans, neither seemed off-put about the two Hillguards behind me at all.

            “De, declare yourself?” the human guard asked weakly, trying to puff himself up and unable to take his eyes off the way the stone kept flowing out and under and up, expanding out in every direction, turning the chewed mass of mud and water in front of the gate into a clean, neat, bricked plaza with the water flowing smoothly off to the side down a gutter.

            Kord stepped forward quickly. “This is the Lord Magos Aelryinth, Stoneshaper and Healer, looking for entry into Hriegard.” Everything about his manner screamed ‘let him in, fools!’

            It was rather a relief for the two of them. “A Healer! Hriegard is open to you, m’lord!” the second stout fellow there exclaimed quickly, gesturing me in. They just stared as the flowing stone preceded me, and the muck and the mud went away in front of me as I strolled on in.

            Kord and Hano quickly found themselves the center of attention as they escorted me, playing tour guide and pointing out what sights there were to see, waving greetings to the people they knew, and generally enjoying the gasps and shock as wherever I went, a street of stone replaced the mud and less clean stuff around me. Actual gutters, runnels for the water, curbs, even walkways up to the businesses and houses slid smoothly out to all sides of me as I strolled along, not really looking at anything, Feature on my shoulder peering at everything and not really impressed.

            Looked like it had been a while since good lumber was available here, judging by the cut of the homes and the wear and tear on them. Quality level was down, not much painting available to treat them, which meant they wore out quicker. Wooden shingles contributed to making the place a fire hazard to a dangerous degree, although I didn’t know how much it rained to offset such things.

            Medieval-level tech with some magic thrown in. There were at least a few Eternal Lights placed on poles here and there for light at night, mostly at crossroads, and the houses were built close together to conserve space and form breaks against the wind. One or two-room places for small families, I gathered, guessing most of them were in the fishing trade or support for much of it, with the usual array of crafters any town needed for leather and metal and the like.

            Well, whatever. It cost me nothing to give them decent streets, and if a crowd started following me, that was fine, too.

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