Nate sat beside Kiri, with Morgane seated across from them. The Princess, now Queen, though she would undoubtedly not be holding that title for long, had brought only Hildi and Baroness Olithia with her. The fact that the Queen of Etrua had deigned to meet them at the Adventurer’s Guild was already proof of her weakened bargaining position. Something which Kiri apparently had no issue taking advantage of.

  “We can agree to assisting with the repairs at these prices, which lets be clear, is a bargain for you since a lot of this is more than just repairs or adjustments but complete rebuilds from the ground up. But the clause you tried to slip in that requires Nate or I to be present at your meeting with Asmuisil to discuss the terms of Etrua’s surrender is a definite no. We’re staying out of politics. I thought we made that clear when you tried to give us the Desmarais Duchy,” said Kiri.

  “Ignoring the fact that I don’t understand your resistance to being granted a title, a title mind you that would see you become a Governor under Asmuisil which would allow your company to flourish. Ignoring all of that, I am willing to pay you, as stated in the contract. You don’t even need to speak. Just be present so that your status is added to ours to improve the terms we are able to reach with Asmuisil,” replied Morgane.

  Kiri glanced at Nate who gave a small shake of his head. He had no interest in being involved in politics. In truth, even this meeting was grinding against him. This was time he should be spending preparing for their departure, or spending with his friends, or teaching Jacque, or a hundred other things that weren’t politics.

  “We understand your position, Queen Morgane, but our answer remains the same. The Artist’s Emporium is willing to assist with the rebuilding, for appropriate compensation, but we will not be drawn into Etrua’s politics any more than we already are. This is not negotiable.”

  Morgane sighed loudly.

  “I did tell you”, interjected Baroness Olithia. “He has his love and it is not power.”

  Morgane shared a look with Olithia before throwing up her arms, “Fine. I’ll agree to the revised contract. Go ahead Olithia. Make your request.”

  Morgane stood in a huff after signing the contract supplied by Kiri, quickly exiting the room with Hildi in tow. Kiri smirked, seeing how Olithia waited, and gave Nate a small wink before leaving the room as well.

  Nate was left alone with Baroness Olithia, who looked at him the same way she had when she’d approached him in Morgane’s tent while they battled against Asmuisil.

  “I was hoping you could find time in your busy schedule to do a painting for me.”

  “Oh?” Nate asked warily. “What of exactly?”

  “Of you, of course. I’ll supply everything, I only ask that I get to watch you work.”

  Nate’s eyes flicked up in thought as he sighed internally. Kiri was never going to let him live this down.

  “I’d like that,” he answered.

  *************

  Nate smiled as he walked down the street of the newly named Resurgence District. It had been almost three months since the Battle of the Mythics, as the populace had come to call it. Word of Nate and Kiri’s status had spread like wildfire throughout the Capital and then beyond. No doubt helped along by Minister Morgane in her efforts to blunt some of Asmuisil’s demands. After Nate had denied the once-Princess’s request to attend the negotiations where she ultimately surrendered Etrua’s sovereignty, the country becoming a vassal state of Asmuisil. The transition would take years, but Etrua would slowly adopt more and more of Asmuisil’s policies, until it could be considered just one more state of Asmuisil. Of course, while Morgane’s supporters had been fine with the terms, becoming Governors of their various territories, assigned by the Minister-Elects of Asmuisil, the old guard of Etruan Nobility did not capitulate so easily. Even now an Asmuisillan army was besieging the Duchy of House Pleras, the one Duchy who had refused to take a side in the contest between the various once-Royals.

  Meanwhile, many Houses had lost so many of their people that they didn’t even have a member left to be raised to Governor. House Desmarais had been one such land, and under Kiri’s ‘advice’, Morgane had assigned it to the care of Cutter and his family. Many of those who had fought under Cutter’s banner had left the Capital, set to take over the lands of the Desmarais, with all that entailed. Kiri had promised them favourable deals with the Artist’s Emporium for three years, which would likely see the once-Duchy grow into a powerhouse in the new State of Etrua.

  As for the Artist’s Emporium, it was drowning in wealth. The reasons were simple enough. While there were the takings from the war from supplying Asmuisil with runecrafted equipment, that was only a fraction of the company's new wealth. Part of Asmuisil’s requirements were a reworking of how the mana pipelines and mana distribution was to be designed. The first part had been that the Capital would be covered by one barrier so that the mana concentration would be homogenous across the city, or at least as much as mana could be. It still flowed and drifted, much like water. The second was that the excess mana would be stored, to be sold by the State for any purpose that could be devised. Farming, training, magic, the army, crafting, maintenance or a litany of other purposes. That was how Asmuisil functioned, and now Etrua would match. That, of course, meant a reworking of the existing pipelines. Something that Frick had become very adept at handling. Coupled with Nate finally taking the leap and raising his Mana Sigil to Grandmaster, meant that the Artist’s Emporium was handling all the work, and receiving requests daily with future contracts to apply their improved ‘enchantments’ to cities within Asmuisil. There was no end in sight to the work and the mana and coin flowed freely into the Artist’s Emporiums coffers.

  Kiri, as promised, had leapt to the front, hiring every Enchanter she could find along with ramping up their training division. Where once the Artist’s Emporium had been only seven people, it was now more than fifty, and growing every day. Nate had even assisted by creating some of the runic templates that were now in use, though most of his focus had been on their new building, a monolith to rival the Adventurer’s Guild compound. Beneath the four-story building, in the third basement, Nate had been hard at work creating the portal that would take them to a Wild Realm. However, given his ability to split his attention, he had plenty of time to focus on other projects as well. Such as turning the third basement into a Mythic-tier Vault. This portal would be the secret of the Artist’s Emporium. A place for Kiri and Nate to return to, because they had both reached a simple conclusion. The most common work-around for the Law of Reciprocity was simply to have someone of the same strata accomplish your tasks for you. Of course, that meant there needed to be an exchange with the so-called ‘messenger’, but given this organisation belonged to Nate and Kiri, that would be easily accomplished. Kiri had done the math and she was confident that in a couple of year’s time, the Artist’s Emporium, with its tome of Sigils that included multiple Grandmaster-tier Sigils, would become the wealthiest company within ten thousand kilometres. It was notable or embarrassing that they didn’t know how far the continent they were on even spanned.

  Nate flashed a smile at some people who waved at him as he continued to walk down the road. The light-blue silk felt nice against his skin, but he still missed his robe. The Legendary robe had served him for so long. It had been the only thing he had worn for years, and now without it, even clothed, he felt naked. Though admittedly he was looking forward to seeing what he could make to replace it. He was however holding off till he achieved his next evolution. The next robe he wore, he decided, would be Divine.

  Thinking about his robe of course led to thoughts about that night, reminding him of what came after. Garnet, the Fire Mage that had caused so many problems in Helmfirth, had surrendered herself to Morgane. In the end the Princess-turned-Governor had bound the Platinum-tier Mage with a System Contract that would see her working for Etrua for the next twenty-years in penance to help undo the harm she had done. Nate was pretty sure the woman had been fine with that, especially since her sisters had offered to help as well, joining Morgane’s retinue. In what capacity, he didn’t know, and honestly didn’t care to know. It was no longer his problem, and he couldn’t be happier about it.

  Nate finally approached the head office of the Artist’s Emporium. Entering he was waved upstairs by Jorge, the ex-Royal Ranger smiling through his beard while wearing some fancy leather armour. Jorge and Rania had agreed to move to the Capital of Etrua, so that when Kiri and Nate visited, they would be close by to welcome their daughter and her claimed brother home. Kiri had even secured an estate for Rania that would be big enough to house a large garden, while Jorge had strong-armed his way into the Head of Security for the Artist’s Emporium. Or so the man believed. Kiri had been ready to beat him over the head with the job if he didn’t immediately accept. As for the estate, it was massive, and Rania had initially complained that it would be too large. Her complaints had ended after Kiri had explained the various runecraft Nate had applied to the gardening area. To say Rania had been delighted was an understatement and her joy had been infectious. The dinner that night might’ve been the best Nate had ever eaten.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  With a smile glued to his face at the memory, and taking the stairs two at a time Nate entered the office of the Head of the Artist’s Emporium. Kiri’s office. Nate was smiling even before he got inside, finding Luc sitting in Kiri’s chair, feet up on the desk, looking a mite too casual.

  “Does Kiri know you’re sitting in her seat?” Nate asked.

  “It’ll be my seat while you’re both gone. I was just seeing if it cupped my ass just right or if I would need to invest in a new one.”

  “Speaking of ass-cupping,” Nate quipped, turning to face a cupboard that hadn’t been in the room yesterday. “Shouldn’t you be overseeing the rebuilding of the palace…I mean the Governor's Administration Building, Hildi?”

  The illusion of a cupboard vanished and Nate noted a new illusion was in place, concealing Hildi’s apparent nudity.

  “She gave me the afternoon off. I thought I would see how everything was going on your end,” Hildi replied with a smile on her face.

  “Are you going to constantly let spies into our building while we’re gone?” Nate asked Luc.

  “Only the ones that’ll give me five minutes of their time, my beloved pupil,” answered Luc with a grin.

  “Two minutes,” interjected Hildi.

  “One minute,” stated Kiri as she appeared in the room, a frown on her face as she looked at Luc. “One minute to clean up and get out. And you better not have been doing it on my desk!”

  Luc’s eyes widened and a moment later the man was gone, vanishing through a rift.

  “That bastard!” Hildi yelled, a moment later dashing for the door herself and slamming it closed behind herself.

  Kiri strolled over to her desk, checking it over for any issues, or more likely, fluids, before daintily taking a seat.

  “What’s new, little brother?” she asked.

  Nate rolled his eyes, “It’s ready. We’ve got a week left till the deadline. How close did you want to cut it?”

  Kiri looked thoughtful, “Four days. So, we’ll leave in three. If that’s okay with you?”

  Nate nodded.

  “What about everything else?” Kiri asked.

  “I finished the Sigil Tome. It’ll remain in the third basement, accessible to Jacque, Luc and whoever they deem suitable. And on your end?”

  “I made multiple copies of all the details we discovered. About The System, the stratas, how to ascend and the requirements. Everything we have confirmed and all our suspicions. I’m bartering with Aisling to give the Guild access to it, but she’s having to go through upper management to get a deal approved.”

  Thinking of Aisling made Nate smile. Another piece of their victory in Etrua, Aisling and Evindal had been made Prefects of the Etruan branch of the Adventurer’s Guild. The third Prefect ended up being Null Raoult. Even after Null’s father returned from the Kirshell Mountains, upper management within the Guild had decided he would not be reinstated as a Prefect. Instead, due to the Null’s higher tier Classes and his adherence to doing the right thing and fighting for the Guild, Null had been raised to Prefect while still Gold-ranked. Though, the news made Nate believe Null would be a Platinum by the time he and Kiri returned. Britt had remained with the Guild and while their time together remained a fond memory. Nate had come to accept that as he was now, he had no way he could think of to let Britt keep up with him. So far, the only ones who could were Kiri and Frick, the latter mostly because he couldn’t die and was connected to Nate via a System Contract, though Nate had ideas about that particular problem.

  “Can the vault you created keep anyone from getting to it?” asked Kiri, interrupting Nate’s train of thought.

  “It should be able to,” answered Nate, knowing what Kiri was getting at.

  When the battle was done, Morgane had given Nate the Orb from Bordain’s corpse. Unfortunately, it had been a Skill Orb, though of the Mythic variety, that contained the Skill Aura of Supremacy. While the Skill might be modifiable, the very idea of the Skill had disgusted Nate. A reaction mirrored by Kiri, who had refused it for herself. Instead, they were sealing the Skill Orb away in their vault where they intended to keep their most dangerous and most precious things that they didn’t intend to take with them when they left Galle.

  “If there’s only a few days to go, you’ll handle the food supplies we are taking with us?” Nate asked.

  “Already done,” Kiri answered. “Should be enough to last us six months, even if there is nothing to eat on the other side. Though it might get a little bland and boring.”

  “Better than starving.”

  “Agreed. Dinner tonight with my parents?”

  “I’ll be there,” answered Nate.

  “Off with you then,” Kiri replied with a knowing smirk, kicking her feet up on her desk in a mirror of Luc’s earlier pose.

  Nate sighed, “Who told you?”

  Frick appeared, using Conceptual Spatial Manipulation to teleport to them. Above the blue goblins head fireworks went off, forming the words ‘Congrats on the sex’.

  Nate sighed and looked at Kiri who smiled, then lightning quick punched the little goblin spirit across the room.

  Frick, who couldn’t feel pain, just cackled as he took on solidity just so he could impact the door bodily, sliding down it to pool on the floor.

  “Thanks,” Nate said to Kiri as he watched his traitorous little familiar pretend to be blue goop on the floor.

  “You’re welcome. I’ll see you later. Enjoy your little ‘painting’ date with Baroness Olithia. I’m sure she’ll want to reward you again.”

  Nate smiled slightly as he headed for the door. Kiri wasn’t wrong. He had somewhere to be. A painting to complete, and maybe a little something else.

  *************

  Kiri watched her brother leave before looking over the changes to her Status. She was now a level sixty. On the cusp of an Embodiment, Lesser Divinity, and all the Skills and changes that would come with it. An evolution, and arguably the biggest one she would ever go through. Her newest Skill, Soul Dancer’s Weapons, added some penetrating power to her daggers so long as she sent her soul energy into them. It was a Rare Skill and she expected she would synergise it in the near future. In addition she had evolved her Soul Rebirth to Divine, allowing it to draw even more Stats out of people when she drained them.

  But those weren’t the things that were concerning her. Nate knew what he was going for with his Tertiary Class. He hadn’t revealed all his reasons, but he was set on going for something with a Life affinity. She trusted he had a plan and that he knew what he was doing. The same could not be said for herself. As a Reborn Soul Slayer and Reborn Soul Dancer… she already felt complete. What more was there? She knew of a third possible part to herself… but was that really the path she wanted to go down? Casting her only spell, Wisps of Shadow, she watched as it cloaked her arm in shifting darkness as though she were beneath the moonlight. Shadow, her highest affinity after Soul. She supposed in four days when they finally ascended, she would find out.

  *************

  Nate glanced at his Status, recalling his newest achievement.

  Congratulations on defeating an opponent in a strata above you.

  Your achievement has been recorded.

  In the end, Bordain had been considered a Lesser Divine, and Nate’s defeat of him had warranted an achievement from The System. Up until now, Nate wasn’t sure what the value of such an achievement would be. He was already guaranteed a Divine Class at his next evolution. What else would an achievement give him at this point? The surprise had come when he had gotten a sense that The System would answer his question, if he so desired. The cost of course, would be some of the favour that it owed him and Kiri for agreeing to Arikanvil’s offer. For now, he would hold off, but the fact that Achievements might serve another purpose weighed on his mind. He’d know soon enough though. He had also levelled some of his Skills of course, both in the battle and the months following.

  Conceptual Insight 57 > 60

  Multi Conceptual Material Shaping 45 > 52

  Conceptual Spatial Manipulation 52 > 57

  Conceptual Amplified Magic 51 > 56

  Conceptual Spatial Authority 38 > 40

  Spacetime Control 1 > 11

  Gravity Manipulation 1 > 6

  None of his Divine Skills had levelled, missing the secret sauce that was Divine Energy. He was looking forward to seeing what he could do with them, but that would be coming very soon. With a smile he continued on his way to Baroness Olithia’s villa.

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