“Okay,” Adi said, “This is how this works. First, we’ll add them to the kingdom as subjects. Then we’ll sign a contract, allowing them to remain in charge of their villagers, and placing limits on you. We’ll grant them the class [Overseer], and that will give them access to a core interface for managing their people.”

  Laryn nodded.

  “Ask them to kneel,” Adi said.

  “Please kneel,” Laryn said to the two men. They did. Laryn felt terribly strange to have men kneeling in front of him.

  Adi fed him more lines.

  “Are you willing to join my kingdom, assuming we reach agreeable terms?”

  Tasam and Coril affirmed.

  “You will be temporarily added to this domain,” Laryn said. “And then we will establish a longer term contract.”

  Tasam and Coril acknowledged and agreed.

  Adi snapped her fingers.

  “Okay, thanks for that,” she said. “Please stand up.”

  Coril jumped, and Tasam stared, eyes wide. Adi had unfurled her wings, showing off as she stood beside Laryn.

  “I’m the kingdom administrator,” Adi said. “Nice to meet you both. You can call me Adi.”

  “Yes, Adi,” Coril said, remaining on his knees and bowing his head. Tasam simply stared.

  “Stand up,” Adi ordered.

  The two men complied.

  Adi conjured up sheets of parchment, which she distributed to Laryn, Tasam, and Coril. “A geas contract, enforced by the power of this kingdom core, binding on all of you. I won’t bother you with the details. It simply places Tasam and Coril as joint leaders of the people of their village, preventing Laryn from enforcing his will against them. It also grants you the right of free association. Tasam and Coril can chose to abandon the kingdom at any time, and likewise Laryn can chose to revoke and unbind you and your people at any time.”

  Laryn scanned the parchment, and found the agreement to be as Adi had indicated. He had signed agreements like this in the past; geas which magically enforced themselves. The contract sensed his agreement, and flashed brightly before disappearing. He was bound.

  Tasam and Coril also agreed to the contract.

  “Okay, as [Overseer]s you two now have limited access to core information. You can go get everyone else and accept their fealty, adding them to the kingdom.”

  A look of relief washed over Coril’s face.

  Tasam turned and began walking away.

  “Thank you,” Coril said to Laryn. “You should also know, we encountered the blight to the north east, as we were trying to journey to Townshold.”

  Tasam stopped walking away, turning his ear toward the conversation. Coril lowered his voice further.

  “We first saw your fire in the night, but pressed on the next day. When we came to the blight, we decided to turn back, and search out who had made the fire. I’m glad we did.”

  Coril shook Laryn’s hand and gave him a slap on the shoulder. “These people aren’t exactly a fighting force, you know. That’s why we were nervous when we found blight on the island.”

  “Thank you, Coril. Nearby blight is certainly a concern.”

  Coril nodded and turned. Tasam seemed satisfied and walked away as well.

  “Are they going to be trouble?” Laryn asked Adi.

  “People are always trouble,” she said. “But they’re also the best way to grow a kingdom.”

  “You’re right,” Laryn said. “And now that I have them, I might be able to find a way to get a coresmith.”

  He examined the pictures on the core, wondering if somehow Tasam had deciphered any of the core’s special powers.

  “I don’t like the arrangement that they made with each other. It seems like they’re always going to be arguing about what needs to be done, and have a hard time making decisions.”

  “There can be benefits to that method, though,” Adi said.

  “Perhaps. But I’m only going to leave one of them in charge. I like Coril. I think I could trust him while I was away,” he said.

  Tasam and Coril quickly added all their followers to the kingdom. The population was now twenty-one. And they set them to work, dividing up important tasks.

  Leading the gobo berry harvesting was Coril, and Tasam lead the berry preparation. A blazing fire roared in Laryn’s fire pit, and bushels of berries were first roasted, then boiled there.

  Coril brought two young men over and assigned them to help Laryn [Sift]. Together they improved the water diverting wall and channel, so that filling the barrel became much easier. At around fourteen or fifteen, the boys were still growing into themselves, but they were good workers.

  Midway through the day, the first batch of gobo berries was finally prepared. The Jardensvalers had mashed the fruit into a paste and flavored it with a herb found growing on the island.

  The mashed gobo didn’t taste good, but Laryn appreciated that it was at least palatable. And it seemed nourishing.

  As Laryn ate, using a small wooden bowl and spoon from his mess kit, he surveyed the villagers, who had made utensils from driftwood and broken parts of the wagon. Having this many people made the lack of conveniences more apparent, though they were making do. A few benches had been constructed near the fire, consisting of a board across a pair of crates. A large pile of firewood waited nearby.

  “If I may,” Coril said, walking up to Laryn. “Our work harvesting the berries is currently outside of the borders. I can’t see much information through the core interface, but I know we have a good amount of influence on these tiles. Would you mind claiming a tile or two of trees over there? I don’t want to stress the essence burn rate of the core, but it would make the gathering easier.”

  “Of course,” Laryn said, “I should have thought of that sooner. Don’t hesitate to come to me with requests, please. I’m sorry you had to work all morning without the benefit of influence.”

  He pulled up the core interface and selected three tiles, covering the area where the gatherers worked. He claimed these, and average influence dropped slightly.

  As he did so, he wondered if he would be able to hide the fact that this core lacked a burn rate. Did he even need to do that? It seemed wise. If word managed to get out about how powerful this kingdom core was, Laryn would have a much harder time investigating it. He could even create and sell more powerful cores, if he could protect it.

  “Of course with the help of your people it will be easier for me to gather essence to feed to the core,” he said to Coril. “The two boys who’ve been helping me this morning have made things a lot easier.”

  Coril looked over to the core, where the boys were using the new system to fill the barrel. He waved at one of them.

  “Good,” he said. “Gaten’s my son. He’s a hard worker.”

  Tasam must have noticed the two of them talking, for he walked quickly up, standing awkwardly a pace or two away.

  Laryn searched for a way to ask about the man’s family, but worried that they might have died when Jardensvale was overrun. Coril helped him out.

  “My wife Arda and our older son Hud were killed in the fighting.” Coril wiped his eyes.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Laryn said, trying to remember his training in dealing with grief. “It will pass with time.”

  A girl of about twelve walked over and tugged on Tasam’s arm. Laryn turned, inviting the man into the conversation.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “And this is your daughter?” he asked.

  Tasam nodded. “Her mother and three brothers were all killed,” he said, his voice hard. “Talia is all I have left.” The man gripped his daughter’s arm tightly as he met Laryn’s gaze.

  “Ouch, dad,” she protested.

  “Looks like they’ve almost filled the barrel,” Laryn said, indicating the boys working by the kingdom core. “I’d better go sift that water.” With people around to help him, sifting had become less of a chore, and was going faster.

  “Thank you,” Coril said as Laryn set down his empty bowl.

  He heard Tasam confront Coril as he walked away. “What were you talking about?” Tasam asked.

  Laryn did not catch the rest of the conversation.

  “Adi,” he asked quietly as he walked. “What’s the best way to pretend like this core has a burn rate? On the interface they can see the influence of the kingdom, and they’re going to notice if it never goes down. Should I claim and unclaim tiles?”

  “Oh, I didn’t think of that,” Adi said. “Are you sure that you want to keep it a secret from them?”

  “Yes,” Laryn said. “I am. A larger town or kingdom with an ambitious ruler could catch wind of this kingdom core and try to capture it. I don’t want that kind of attention.”

  “Okay,” Adi said. “Here’s an idea. I can change the interface, so that it looks like you’re burning essence.”

  “But the effects? Influence will keep increasing, so things will feel easier.”

  “It shouldn’t be that noticeable, for now,” Adi said. “Let me think about it. The truth is, you can’t hide your capabilities forever. It might be better to add a secrecy clause to the contract?”

  “Change the interface for them then,” Laryn said. “We can form a secrecy contract in the future.”

  He groaned, and clasped his hands behind his head. “Is that a good decision?”

  “You’re the ruler.”

  “It is harder than I thought,” Laryn said. “Maybe I should just go talk to Coril and see what he thinks. That man seems friendly, and reasonable. Tasam on the other hand… I’m worried about him.”

  “I might have a solution for you, let me do some math and get back to you.”

  Laryn reached the obelisk where Coril’s son had just finished filling the barrel.

  “Gaten, right?”

  The boy nodded.

  “Thank you for your help,” Laryn said. “Your father told me you were a good worker.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Gaten said.

  “And what’s your name?” Laryn addressed the other boy, who looked a few years older.

  “I’m Widan,” the boy said.

  “Thank you, as well. Do you have any family here?”

  “He’s my cousin,” Gaten said, but Widan’s eyes fell.

  “My parents are dead,” Widan said. “They were all killed.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Laryn said. He spoke the mantra of consolation. “It will pass with time.” The words felt hollow as he said them for the second time; wholly inadequate for their intended purpose.

  The boys nodded quietly.

  Laryn thrust his hand into the barrel of water, trying to move past the uncomfortable tension. He sifted the water.

  The boys watched, wide eyed, as the water swirled, condensing down into whisps of essence and forming a sphere in Laryn’s hand.

  He pressed the sphere into the core, and the boys got back to work, refilling the barrel.

  “I’ll come back in a dozen minutes after the cooldown expires. You’ll fill it up for me again?”

  “Yes, sir,” Gaten said. “And we’ll keep working on improving the water channel.”

  Laryn walked a short ways off so that he could talk to Adi more without being disturbed.

  “I didn’t realize that letting Coril and Tasam join the kingdom would give them access to a core interface,” he said. “Does everyone have access to an interface?”

  “No,” Adi said. “Just Coril and Tasam. They’re [Overseers] in your kingdom, which allows them to manage the people beneath them. They need to have a core interface to manage that. If you want to create new roles you can, but they’ll be largely limited unless you capture additional kingdom cores.”

  “That makes sense,” Laryn said. “I thought I had a good grasp on kingdom management, but the priests didn’t really teach me the details. More big picture stuff, I guess. Can we talk about my plan?”

  “Sure,” Adi said, though she raised her eyebrows and he thought she was going to make a quip about listening to her tutorial.

  He hurried on.

  “This is incredible luck for us,” he said. “I can put Coril in charge of watching over the kingdom core while I go to Townshold for help. I don’t want to just outright make him [Ruler], though. I think having the stat buffs would help me get back to civilization. If there’s as much void out there blocking the way as they say, it might be a tough journey. And I also just met him, so it would be a bad idea to just give him all the power of the core.”

  “It is very powerful,” Adi agreed.

  “But geas and roles are also powerful. Could I make a [Steward] role, and assign that to Coril? Or maybe I should just send one of them to find a coresmith for me.” He thought about this idea for a second, then shook his head. “I probably have to do it myself, don’t I? If any coresmith can be found willing to venture with a stranger into the wildlands, that would ease things along. But what sane person would do that? I’d need to draw on my family’s reputation to gain payment as well.”

  “Even with a geas, you would have to trust whoever you selected.”

  “I would,” Laryn said. “It will be dangerous to go looking for a coresmith. But it’s dangerous here too. I want the core in a better place.”

  Later that day Laryn walked through the trees with Coril, who pointed out to him some peculiarities of the gobo tree, and the berries they harvested.

  “Coril, I need to trust someone. Can you keep a secret?” Laryn asked.

  Coril nodded, turning to Laryn with a serious gaze. “Anything you tell me goes to my grave,” he said. They stopped in the trees, a short distance from the beach. Laryn looked around, searching for anyone who might be in earshot.

  “Listen, this core is a valuable one. A powerful one. I want to put it in a better place, but to do that I need to get a coresmith. I think that we could potentially learn from it’s secrets and make better cores. We could be wealthy.”

  Coril nodded. “What kind of powers?” he asked.

  “It’s worth studying. If coresmiths could recreate some of what that core can do, it would change the world.”

  Coril looked through the trees toward the silver spike on the beach. “And you erected it here?

  “I was desperate,” Laryn said. “And I misunderstood what the core could do, but it did help save my life.”

  “And now you want to remove it,” Coril mused.

  “Yes,” Laryn said. “And you seem like a the kind of person who can help me. You have leadership abilities, and I’ll need someone who can manage the kingdom in my absence. I can reward you; I have the wealth of Eltar to back me up, if I can travel quickly. But I know you and Tasam have some kind of agreement…”

  Coril waved a hand in the air. “Ah, just something we worked up in a state of emergency after Jarden was killed. Tasam is… well, he’s particular about rules, and he’s quite paranoid.”

  “I haven’t spoken to him yet,” Laryn said. “I wanted to get your reaction to the idea first.”

  “I understand your situation,” Coril said, “And I’m happy to help. I’d advise not mentioning it to Tasam at all, because, as I said, he can be… odd about things like that. He’s a great man, and he helped us through some challenging situations in the woods, but still… he has some tendencies.”

  “I’m not offering you anything right now,” Laryn said. “I’m still trying to figure out how to manage it, and we’ll have to write up a contract. Please keep it under wraps.”

  Coril mimed locking his mouth and throwing away the key. A flash of movement in the underbrush caught Laryn’s eye.

  He shouted, drawing his sword and striding forward. A scared girl burst from the shrubs and ran off down the beach.

  Laryn recognized her: Talia, Tasam’s daughter.