The kingdom core absorbed the spheres of elemental essence. Each sphere dissolved into currents of light, flowing into different channels of the obelisk. The pillar glowed with green and blue light for a moment, then it faded.

  “You’ve increased the influence of your core!” Adi said.

  Laryn grinned, feeling satisfied. In Eltar, his father’s mages worked constantly to feed the core with essence in order to maintain influence over the kingdom. The core in Eltar was efficient, but the larger the kingdom grew, the faster the core burned through essence.

  Huge portions of industry in Eltar were dedicated to producing and shipping enough raw materials to the capital to be processed into essence to feed the core.

  “What’s the burn rate?” Laryn asked, curious. Despite his dire circumstances, the opportunity to learn more about a legendary kingdom core was something he couldn’t pass up.

  “What do you mean?” Adi asked.

  “Burn rate? Of elemental essence. How much do you have to add to it each day to maintain influence over controlled hextiles?”

  “Is that a new thing? Why would you build something like that into a core?” Adi asked. “None of course. Once the core absorbs the essence, influence is maintained until something draws the essence out.”

  As that information sank in, Laryn’s jaw slowly dropped. “No burn rate?” he marveled. “Perfect efficiency?” He leaned against the metal pillar, eyes wide.

  Adi shrugged. “Yeah, isn’t that good?”

  “One-hundred-forty-four pergross…” Laryn could hardly believe it. As he considered the implications, his weary knees weakened, and he sank down until he was sitting in the shallow water around the base of the pillar. “That might be more powerful than the ability to rewind time. That’s incredible. You could hold so much more land that way…”

  “Seems like lifting air to me,” Adi said. “I’m not a coresmith, but why design a core in any other way?”

  “I don’t think it’s a design choice,” Laryn said. “If coresmiths could design a core like this, everyone would do it. The burden of maintaining influence and constantly feeding the core, especially for a large kingdom is, well, very challenging.”

  “How long have I been trapped in that thing? Your coresmiths sound… somewhat incompetent.”

  Laryn shrugged. “I have no idea,” he said. “But the legend of the Conqueror’s Cores are… grosses of years old, I think.”

  “We’re getting sidetracked,” Adi said, shifting uncomfortably. “So now you have five total influence and control over three tiles. That’s an average of one and two thirds influence per tile, which means—”

  “Yeah, I know how influence works,” Laryn said.

  “Okay then, sir-full-bucket. If you’re so smart you run the tutorial.”

  “I’m sorry,” Laryn apologized. “I normally do a better job containing my flame-tongue, but the circumstances…” he glanced over to where his brother’s body lay. “I’ve been rattled today. Forgive me. Continue your explanation.”

  “No,” Adi said, narrowing her eyes. “Go on, tell me. How does influence work?”

  “The more influence you have over your claimed territory, the easier things are to do. The land strives more to help the [Ruler] accomplish tasks. Earth becomes lighter to carry when digging holes. Tools become stronger and less prone to break. I become more… substantive. And for enemies, the opposite is true.”

  Adi glared at him. “And what happens if your influence drops below 1?”

  “Tiles may turn unclaimed,” Laryn said.

  “And how do you capture new tiles?”

  “To claim an unclaimed tile, you just have to have an influence above one—”

  “Hah! You’re wrong,” Adi said, eyes flashing with delight. “You can claim unclaimed tiles, even if your influence is below one. Attacking tiles adjacent to an unclaimed tile merely need to sum to one total influence, then you can capture it!”

  “That’s stupid,” Laryn said. “Why would anyone ever want to capture more tiles if their influence was already below one? You’d just be opening yourself up to attack, and you’d lose claims on more of your tiles.”

  Adi grinned, looking smug. “Wouldn’t you like to know? If only you were willing to listen to the tutorial.”

  “I said I would listen!” Laryn protested. “Please, enlighten me.”

  “Let’s claim some additional tiles while I explain,” Adi said. "Check out your map.”

  The map of claimed hextiles appeared in Laryn’s vision. It displayed only the three claimed tiles, outlined in a black border, and the set of tiles adjacent to them. Everything else was covered in a fog-of-war.

  Laryn studied the map. The kingdom core was marked on the map, with a spike icon. Even though the core was partially in the shallow water of the river, the tile was shaded brown, like the sand that made up most of the tile.

  The two other tiles were also sandy beach tiles. A few tiles adjacent to his kingdom were blue water tiles, but the rest were sand. The map didn’t show much; Laryn could see further away than the map currently displayed.

  “Anytime you want to claim tiles, you can do it from your map,” she said. “Same way you sacrificed tiles to use the time rewind ability. Just select the tiles that you want to claim, and make sure you have the influence necessary to claim them. Choose two that you think would be good to use your new influence to claim.”

  “It seems like I’d be better off not claiming more tiles,” Laryn said. “If I want to benefit from the higher influence levels on the tiles I currently control.”

  “Maybe, but for the purposes of my tutorial can you please just do it?”

  “Fine,” Laryn said, selecting two tiles at random. When he selected them on the map, the borders of the tiles glowed. When he looked around him at the beach, he easily spotted the two tiles he’d selected; highlighted by shimmering borders.

  Each tile was about 20 meters across, long ways.

  “Wrong again!” Adi said. “Stone-for-brains thinks he knows everything but he’s got his elemental foci inverted!”

  Laryn rolled his eyes.

  “Please, honored advisor, continue your tutorial. I want to learn from you.”

  “That’s better,” Adi said with a grin. “I’m really just kidding around, you know. It’s just so nice to talk to someone for once.”

  “What hextiles would you recommend selecting?”

  “What you apparently don’t know,” Adi said, “Is that you will receive personal buffs for each completed ring of hexagons around the kingdom core.”

  “Ring?”

  “Okay, we’ll make it realllllly simple for you. The hextile that your kingdom core is on? That tile is what we call ring one. You know how many sides a hexagon has, right?”

  Laryn rolled his eyes.

  “So each side of your starting hextile touches a hex tile. Those six tiles are the next ring. And then the twelve tiles that touch those are the third ring, and so on.”

  “Okay, I get it,” Laryn said, looking at the map.

  “As I was saying, completing these rings contributes to your personal buffs.”

  “Personal buffs?” Laryn knew most kingdom cores offered stat benefits to the [Ruler]. Generally some form of magic talent or ability, although some granted strength or endurance. “Beyond the benefits of influence?”

  “Yep,” Adi said. “Magical affinity, strength, and constitution.”

  “All three?” Laryn exclaimed, surprised.

  “All three,” Adi said, with a grin. She seemed proud of that information. “Starting with the central hexagon. You have one point in magical affinity right now, thanks to that. Again, there are six hextiles in the next ring. When you claim all of those, you’ll get a point in strength. The ring after that will give you a point in constitution, and so on.”

  “So I don’t get to choose?” Laryn asked. “I can’t dump them all into strength?”

  “No way,” Adi laughed. “This isn’t about minmaxing. It’s about creating a balanced kingdom. That’s what the core was designed to help you do. So you’ll be balanced too.”

  Laryn selected two hextiles that were within the second ring; two that he’d previously sacrificed to rewind time and heal his wound. He confirmed his choice, and watched as the two tiles were claimed, expanding the kingdom.

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  The faint, pale silver border that surrounded his claimed hextiles expanded to include the two new tiles he’d selected.

  “This is incredible,” Laryn said. “Everyone back home would go crazy over this. I can’t believe that they were just hiding this core in a warehouse. Did they not know what they had? What else can I [Sift] to get more essence? I’d like to close that ring and see what it feels like.”

  “You can [Sift] anything!” Adi said. “Some stuff gives you a much better return, though. And your ability is time locked. You can only sift things once every twelve minutes. Also, there’s one more thing that you should know. Balance, again, is the important thing here. Every tile you claim has a primary essence type. As you feed essence to the core, you should try to match the proportion of core essences to tile essences. Otherwise you’re going to be hit with debuffs on your influence.”

  “Another balancing mechanic?” Laryn said. “That makes sense, I guess.” He examined the map of tiles, and discovered a toggle, which replaced a view of the terrain with an indicator of the primary essence type of each tile. Every tile he’d claimed so far, and all the bordering tiles were all marked as water-type.

  Which he probably could have guessed, since he was literally standing in water.

  Another indicator nearby the map showed that the core currently contained six water essence and one life essence.

  “So I shouldn’t have put the life essence into it?” Laryn asked. “It’s out of balance now?”

  “That’s not significantly different, so it’s fine,” Adi said. “You have to get more off than that for it to matter. If you went and found two or three life essence, then you’d start getting the influence debuff.”

  “Interesting,” Laryn said. “So the move would be to focus on getting more water essence then.”

  “Like I said, don’t worry about it too much. I can keep things running properly if the ratios are reasonably close. It’s more of a safety thing, and as long as you’re thinking about keeping things in balance, you won’t have any problems with it. I’ll tell you way before it gets out of hand. Also, we’ve been chatting for a while and your cooldown on [Sift] is up, if you’d like to try it on anything else.”

  “What could I [Sift] to get water essence?” Laryn mused. He thought about the kinds of things that they used in Eltar, exotic and rare materials that produced larger quantities of essence for his father’s mages to reduce and feed to the core. “Can I just [Sift] water?”

  “Sure!” Adi said. “You can totally do that.”

  “So what if I just stick my hand in the water and—”

  “No, that won’t work,” Adi said. “You can only [Sift] a limited volume at one time. If you tried to sift water essence directly out of the river, the volume of water would overwhelm your spell and pull the essence out of your hand immediately. You also can’t sift a hole in this big sandy beach, for the same reason.”

  “How do I do it then?”

  “Well, given the equipment you have on hand, I’d recommend using a large barrel, to separate the element you’re trying to sift. Just don’t fill it with wood or you might sift the barrel by accident.”

  Laryn walked over to the wreckage of the wagon and surveyed his supplies. He was going to need a lot of this food to make it back to civilization to find a coresmith. He needed to get everything out of the water at some point. But right now… He couldn’t help but be fascinated by the powers of the kingdom core.

  Maybe he was just seeking something to distract him from the horrible situation he’d found himself in.

  He found the largest intact barrel in the wagon. It had once been filled drink, but this one was now empty. He set the barrel on end in the shallows. Then he walked along the beach shore, and found a large rock. Lifting the rock up over his head, he brought it down with a crash, splintering the top. A few more solid blows broke the top wide open.

  He’d have to keep track of this rock, incase more voidlings wandered along. Wrapping his arms part way around the barrel, he picked it up.

  Dragging the barrel back over to the kingdom core, he noticed the impact of the core’s influence. Empty, the barrel wasn’t too heavy, but it was awkward to hold due to its size, so Keldin had always worked with him when they moved it. But now, he was fairly easily able to move it on his own.

  He placed it beside the kingdom core in the shallow water, and it rested on the silty sand. He laid the barrel down, and let water run into it. Then he tipped it back up. Water filled the bottom sixth of the barrel.

  “Is that enough?” he asked.

  “You probably need to fill most of that barrel up if you want to get any essence from it,” Adi said.

  Laryn went back to the broken cart and found broken pieces of a smaller cask and used it to scoop water into the barrel. Again, the benefits of influence helped him. Exhausted and injured as he was, the work was challenging, but the task was easier than it should have been. He soon filled the large barrel.

  “Now I just [Sift] it, like I did the voidling?” Laryn asked.

  “That’s right,” Adi said. “But don’t be surprised if you don’t get anything. You generally have to sift a lot of water to get any significant amount of essence.”

  Laryn stuck his hand into the barrel. He reached out with his magical affinity—which he now knew came from the kingdom core—and triggered Sift.

  The water swirled around his hand, glowing blue. Most of the water in the barrel coalesced into one shining blue sphere, which Laryn pressed into the kingdom core.

  Average influence increased over the five tiles he now owned; from one to one and a fifth. He pulled up his map. “I have two tiles left to complete the ring. If I get one more essence, I can claim them, gaining me a point in strength,” he said. “But that would also bring influence back down to one.”

  “That’s right!” Adi said. “So you have to make a choice.”

  “Is it better to have one and a fifth influence and zero points in strength, or one influence and one point in strength?”

  “You’re asking me?” she said, with a shrug. “That’s up to what you prefer.”

  “Which will make things easiest? Probably having the extra strength?”

  “Probably,” Adi said. “But it would be good for you to learn how changes in influence affect things. Once you start adding people to your kingdom, influence will help them. The strength buff is just for you.”

  “Okay,” Laryn said. “Then I’m not going to claim another tile right now. I’ll stay at one and a fifth influence, until I have enough essence to complete the ring and get +1 strength.”

  “That’s right,” Adi agreed. “Managing a kingdom well requires strategic resource usage. Make sure you’re claiming the right tiles at the right times.”

  Laryn looked into the barrel. Sifting the water had consumed most of the liquid. A few centimeters of water remained at the bottom of the barrel. He got back to work refilling it.

  Paying close attention to how the task felt with a slightly higher influence level, Laryn refilled the barrel. He thought he could notice a slight difference in the difficulty of the task, but it might have just been his mind wanting to feel it.

  He threw himself into the work, grateful for the way it drew his focus, taking his mind off of everything else. The rough wood of the broken cask rubbed his hands raw, and the cool, shallow water of the river wetted everything, running through cracks in his makeshift ladle as he scooped.

  He soon refilled the barrel. “There’s got to be an easier way to do this,” he said, leaning on it. His stomach growled.

  “You still have a few more minutes before you can [Sift] again,” Adi said.

  “I’m going to find something to eat.”

  He returned to the damaged wagon and began collecting the least wet rations he could find. He lost himself in the work again. A few unbroken barrels, some damp sacks, and a stack of other salvage soon sat higher on the beach, out of the water. To Laryn’s surprise, most of the stuff from the wagon had survived the waterfall and washed ashore here.

  Unfortunately, he did not find his sword.

  He snacked on some hard tack and sat on a crate, looking at the silvery metal spike standing in the shimmering water. The noonday sun shone down overhead. He didn’t look toward Keldin’s body.

  “Maybe I should have sifted more water and increased my influence more before doing that work,” Laryn said. “Made it easier on myself.”

  Adi grinned, raising her eyebrows. “For someone who claims to have been educated in kingdom cores, you sure seem to be learning a lot today.”

  “It’s all theoretical stuff,” Laryn said. “When you actually have to get out and do it, well, it starts to feel different.”

  “Ready to sift some more water?”

  Laryn sifted the water in the barrel, and again a small orb of blue water essence formed in his hand. He pressed it against the core, feeling a rush of excitement as the core absorbed the essence.

  He quickly pulled up his map view on the core interface, and selected the final two tiles in the next ring, then confirmed his decision.

  The two tiles were claimed and added to his kingdom. A thrill ran through him, and he felt… stronger. His tired, weak muscles hardened slightly, and he knew he’d just received the point in strength.

  “This is so cool!” he exclaimed. All his life, Laryn had never expected to actually experience managing a kingdom core. That wasn’t something that second sons got to do. It was a responsibility reserved to first sons, to [Rulers].

  He flexed his muscles and laughed aloud.

  His gaze fell on his brother’s body, lying on the beach, and Laryn’s enthusiasm died out like a candle flame under a wet blanket. He dropped his arms, and gritted his teeth.

  “Laryn you stone-head,” Laryn hissed. “Keldin, you never should have trusted me.” A lump formed in his throat.

  He stumbled over to where Keldin’s body lay. “Oh, Keldin,” Laryn choked. “You would have loved this.”

  Then, perhaps because he was feeling safe for the first time, the thought occurred to him.

  Adi appeared beside him, looking concerned. Laryn followed her gaze. Vultures circled overhead. “[Ruler],” Adi began. “Perhaps something should be done with the body? it would be an honorable gesture to [Sift]—.”

  “No,” Laryn said.

  “At least until you claim enough tiles to undo his death?”

  “I’m not ready to do that. Please go away.”

  Adi wilted, her antanae drooping and her wings folding up behind her. She whirled on her heel and stomped off across the sand, heading back toward the core. Her passing left no footprints.