Time of Change (Emerilia Book 7)

  Want a bigger map of Emerilia and the continents? Check out http://theeternalwriter.deviantart.com/

  Character Sheet is located in the back of the book for reference.

  Emerilia

  Time of Change

  Chapter 1: Forward

  Josh looked around the table surrounded by Dwayne, Kim, Suzy, Lucy, Jules, Dave, King Alkao, Aleph Council Leader Hamdir, and Overseer Rendar.

  “Okay, so the first piece of business is what to do with the prisoners we have. Lucy, could you begin?” Josh looked to her.

  “We currently have nearly a hundred and fifty thousand prisoners who are to serve out a sentence for seven years and then pay for their freedom after the fact. We have gone through their contracts and magical bindings with Overseer Rendar and they meet with the mage’s guild and college’s guidelines. We are currently determining proficiency and skills to figure out where they would be best at. We want to extend their services to the people of Devil’s Crater and the Aleph. Spring is fast approaching and Devil’s Crater would be able to clear and farm more land with their assistance. They would be good for different jobs with the Aleph and we will make their information available to you if you would desire to have some of them to fulfill their contracts in your residences,” Lucy said.

  “Devil’s Crater would be very interested in taking on some of their contracts. However, it will take us some time to build the correct facilities for them to live in.” Alkao tried not to seem too excited by the prospect.

  The Devil’s Crater population had been cut nearly in half by the fight with the Demon Horde. They were now armed, armored, and better trained than ever before, but they had more people in the DCA than they did working in Unity or the different sectors of their crater.

  Having laborers and people who would be willing to work the jobs that Demons had been told were below them for years would be a great help.

  “I will have to bring this up to the council. As you know, we are pretty insular. Having people who fought our forces in our cities is sure to rub some people the wrong way,” Hamdir said.

  Josh nodded, expecting as much. The Aleph might be looking to make allies and get to know other people and races, but they were very careful about who they let into their facilities and cities.

  “Dave, how are we looking?” Josh asked.

  Dave made to speak, but yawned instead. “Sorry, uh, okay, so, we’ve been carving out homes and places all across Terra. In the week since the fight against Esamael’s forces, I think all of our allies have asked for a place in Terra. We’ve got most of their embassies up. The trading district is nearly complete and the industrial sector is coming online. The refinery is at full capacity and I have plans to add another power plant in the city for redundancy. The first green tower is complete and three others have been positioned and are being fed power now. They should be complete in a week or two.”

  “So, when can we start bringing more people in here?” Josh asked.

  “We can start moving them in now if you want. Shard?” Dave seemed to ask the air.

  A Dwarf and Elf Halfling appeared in the middle of the table.

  “Dave?” Shard asked.

  “How are we looking with our systems?” Dave asked.

  “I am eighty percent installed within Terra and everything looks to be going according to plan. I was able to speed up refinery times, as well as tweak power generation and better coordinate the underground traffic system.”

  “I thought we were going to build our own AI?” Dwayne said.

  “I thought about it, but instead I gave a binding contract to Shard. Even though he’ll be running things here, he won’t have complete access. The contract also creates some compartmentalization that will prevent him from sharing what he learns with those outside of the guild leadership,” Dave said.

  “It is also very difficult to make an AI,” Hamdir said.

  “Yeah, I went through the Aleph’s information on it.” Dave shook his head with a pained expression on his face.

  “We talked about it before and I okayed it,” Josh said. “You were still dealing with the prisoners.”

  Dwayne nodded in understanding.

  “Okay, Lucy, Suzy, how is the network coming along?” Josh asked.

  “We have been working with the Aleph. The onos and terminals are ready to go,” Suzy said.

  “Ono?” Josh asked.

  “One-directional teleport pads. We didn’t want to call them teleport pads because they’re very different, so we’re calling them onos and, before you ask about the terminals,” Suzy held up a hand to stop him, “we figure that we can do the same thing that we had with Devil’s Crater in the beginning. Hamdir can probably better explain it.”

  “Thank you, Suzy. As you know, the terminals are how we do most of our transactions, except more sensitive materials or larger contracts. With the terminals, it means that people needing just simple goods won’t need to go to Terra all the time. We will be providing the upfront cost as well as a fee for sending goods through your ono network. We will also be able to provide the services of a bank, holding onto people’s items for a fee or holding their wealth for withdrawal or use. However, our method of wealth will not be gold and silver, but rather soul gems. For us, we’ve got power plants and stations, but we’re using all of that power for various things. People who can produce more Mana will become richer. This means that there will be more power available and people will train to increase their Willpower and Intelligence to become stronger, making Emerilia and the people in it stronger. The terminals will also work as control panels for the onos. If someone wants to come through the ono, they pay the fee with gold, or soul gems, or other items. The terminals will notify Shard that a ticket to Terra has been purchased, and he in turn will notify the teleport pad’s controllers. As people travel between the two locations, they will be checked to make sure the trip was paid for and then be teleported to Terra,” Hamdir finished.

  “Well, that certainly fixes a lot of issues we’ve been having,” Dave said.

  “Exactly. In major locations, we will have Florence’s people and the terminals. In remote locations, we will have just the onos and terminals,” Suzy said.

  “How are we looking for time scale on everything?” Josh asked.

  “Right now, our production capacity is of five new ones a day. The most time-consuming aspect of this whole thing is going to be actually going from town to town and placing drop pads.” Lucy looked to Suzy, who nodded.

  “Okay, let’s get that started as soon as possible,” Josh said.

  Dave raised his hand.

  Josh pointed to him.

  “In the beginning, we’re not going to be able to have that many teleport pads here to take in people, so it will be easy to manage the people coming in.” Dave gave Josh a look.

  Josh hid his wince. It was a good cover while there were other people around, but the truth was that even with all of the resources, they were going to get from Selhi and Gudalo, the costs of making Terra and the ono network wasn’t small and teleport pads still cost nearly ten times the price of one ono.

  The treasury was looking pretty scarce. Getting the various allies in their embassies and traders renting their spaces and selling their wares would bring in some much-needed wealth.

  With the Aleph using soul gems as currency, we can build up some wealth there with the power station facility and the secondary power plant. Also, food always sells, so the greenhouses will be good. Having the free labor from the prisoners will allow us to build our reserves a bit more, Josh thought.

  Rendar raised his hand.

  “Please speak, Overseer Rendar,” Josh said.

  “Thank y
ou for letting me sit in on this meeting and overlook the transition of the prisoners to their new accommodations. I have been greatly impressed with the way in which you have handled everything,” Rendar said.

  A pop-up blurred in Josh’s vision.

  Your standing with the Mage’s Guild has increased from Neutral to Friendly.

  Your standing with the Mage’s Guild has increased from Friendly to Ally.

  “Thank you for your kind words.” Josh bowed his head slightly.

  “I was wondering what you mean by this ono network? My curiosity has been piqued and I’m always interested in learning more.” Rendar smiled.

  “Well, I guess the rest of the world is going to know soon enough. The Aleph have been making simplified versions of the teleport pads, which we are going to be placing in every city, town, and point of interest across Emerilia. Terra will act as a hub to move people and goods across Emerilia at great speeds,” Josh said.

  “That is quite the undertaking,” Rendar said. “Will it not disrupt trade?”

  “It will disrupt some trade. Big items such as crops will still be cheaper to move by wagon and ship. We are also going to be needing a lot of people from those shipping and merchant companies to be assisting in moving items around Terra,” Josh said.

  “It seems that Emerilia will become a much smaller place.” Rendar had a thoughtful look on his face.

  “The mage’s guild and college are both welcome to make an application to rent residences here. It will probably be easier for the office of the Overseers to be in a location that they can move across Emerilia in a matter of seconds,” Josh said.

  Rendar nodded. “That would indeed be beneficial. I know that there are many contracts with the mage’s guild that I could pass along.”

  “I know that someone would be interested and we are going to have a number of Players and adventurers coming through here,” Josh said.

  Rendar nodded his head.

  He’s seen the possibilities. I have no doubt he’ll pass the information up higher. Josh hid his smile.

  There were no other large discussions for the meeting, so it quickly ended.

  Some guild members went off to deal with their different jobs, or talk to various people. Josh went to his office where he found Cassie waiting for him, looking out over Terra.

  “Hey.” He closed the door behind him.

  “Hey, Josh!” Cassie looked away from the window.

  “Enjoying the view?” He gestured at the city beyond.

  “It’s nice, but we might need to slow down on increasing the size of the place. I know you’ve got plenty of plans, but with everything, we’re very nearly scraping the bottom of the guild’s coffers,” Cassie said with a severe look.

  “Lucy tells me it enough for five people. I don’t need you to tell me as well,” Josh complained, moving to his seat and slumping into it.

  Cassie sat on his lap. He made to kiss her, but a finger stopped him.

  “Business first,” Cassie said.

  “Okay, business first.”

  “You have Suzy and Dave running the business and development side of things for the most part. It’s mostly a cover for Lucy, who is using it to manage her spy networks. They might be great fighters, but how do they know how to run all this? It’s getting way too complicated.”

  Josh snorted. “Trust me, Dave and Suzy aren’t even going full out. Dave’s ideas might be a bit expensive up front. He was the one who talked me into making Terra what it is and not just some two apartment blocks. Though, look at his growing towers, the power station he and Malsour made, or the refinery. We’re generating more power than ever, power that the Aleph just said that they would accept in lieu of gold and silver. The gardens are coming up on their first harvest. We’ve already got buyers interested in Devil’s Crater. Cliff-Hill Industries, from their smithies to their factories, will be putting up places in Terra to sell products and services. Florence has the Exdar’s trading halls ready to go. The last piece is the onos and terminals. Once those are in place, then we can wait and build up our reserves.”

  “Why do you have so much faith in Dave and Suzy?” Cassie asked.

  “They’re good friends of mine and I know that on Earth, they’re really good with managing these kinds of things.”

  “You’re not going to tell me who they are on Earth, are you?” Cassie asked.

  “They left that life alone to become who they are now. They’re E-heads to the core.”

  “Well, ready to add another E-head to that roster?” Cassie smiled.

  “Are you sure?” Josh asked, holding back his excitement. Becoming an E-head was a big deal.

  “I’m bored of all the publicity, the damned meetings, wearing skimpy clothes to get more followers. This is where you are and I prefer to be here with you.” Cassie blushed and looked at her hands.

  Josh laughed, hugging Cassie to him, and kissed her. She didn’t stop him this time.

  ***

  Dave walked into the training area. It had some of the strongest magical coding written into the walls as some of the most powerful Players on Emerilia duked it out here.

  It didn’t take him long to find Deia and Anna fighting it out. They were using swords and magic. With their Abscondita armor, a full-powered blast could take out half of their power reserves. With a charge of two million, their strength was becoming scary.

  And we haven’t even reached the level of some of the more famous POE adventurer groups. Dave smiled. There was always someone stronger. He had but stepped upon an incredibly long path.

  The Council of Anvil and Fire had been meeting nearly every day with the ongoing Dwarven tournaments. He had been watching some of the fights that his fellow Master Smiths talked about. It seemed as if the hidden stars of Emerilia had come out to show off their strengths.

  Some of the arenas had needed to be rebuilt after some of the preliminaries.

  Dave had wanted to join in on the fights, but he had too much work to do and he didn’t want to give away his new fighting style.

  An orb seemed to materialize in his hand.

  He had multiple metal orbs circling him at all times, but with their stealth runes, he was the only one who could sense them. He’d been working on the magical coding more and more, trying to reduce all signs of them.

  The orb disappeared again, floating around Dave as he once again looked to the fight.

  Some of the Stone Raiders had been able to get into the tournament. Steve, Kol, and Gurren were off watching it while Malsour was working with Dave on their secret projects with Suzy. Induca was off in Devil’s Crater visiting with Fornau, Quindar, and their children.

  Alkao entered the side of the arena. His eyes found Dave and he waved to him. Dave waved back to the large Demon King. He waited at his spot as Alkao made his way over.

  “Come to see your girlfriend duke it out?” Dave asked as Alkao got close enough, the two of them clasping forearms.

  “It’s fun to see her beating up other people.” Alkao grinned.

  “Yeah, I’ve heard that you two have been having private training sessions.” Dave grinned.

  “A man has to keep some of his dignity. She beat my red ass across the damn arena.” Alkao sighed.

  Dave clapped Alkao on the shoulder. “That I can understand—the trouble with going out with a strong woman. Damn stubborn and one hell of a fighter!” Dave laughed.

  Alkao chuckled. “The strength of your partner reflects well on you. Better to rise together than dominate the other.”

  “Damn, looks like she might have actually knocked some knowledge free in there, or do you have a concussion?” Dave looked at Alkao as if he were injured.

  Alkao rolled his eyes. “I saw that you are now making those floating orb items. What are their uses?”

  “My cast time with complicated objects takes a long time, like with the armor. Hell, nearly fried my damn brain making everyone armor back in Devil’s Crater.” Dave’s voice turned sober at the thoughts of
all those who had died. If only I had been faster—if I could have come up with the idea before…

  “It was a great loss, but without you, many more of my people would have died.” Alkao seemed to read through Dave’s thoughts, his voice neither condemning nor carrying pity.

  Dave looked to Alkao. The two of them shared a moment before Dave turned to the fight.

  “Well, much like the bracelet, I needed to have things set up that I could call in an instant. I used the idea of Shard and Steve’s runed spheres. With a little movement, the orbs can carry out multiple different spells and orders. With the originals, I conjured them.” Dave had one of the orbs appear. “These, I made out of real materials and placed a soul gem core at the center. All I do is conjure metal inside, move the inner parts to the correct formation and send it off to carry out what I want. Instead of memorizing and casting a huge spell, I just need to change a few runes and move a few pieces.”

  “Never fight Dave, even when it seems there’s nothing around. Got it,” Alkao said, releasing the orb. It faded into nonexistence.

  “We’ve fought some powerful enemies and I’ve recently figured out just how powerful some of our opponents are going to be.” Dave turned thoughtful. “Our path moving forward is not going to be easy. We’re going to need every trick that we can come up with.”

  Alkao nodded in silent agreement.

  They watched Deia and Anna fighting. Their powerful attacks cancelled each other out. The air around Anna was distorted, taking on the white windy appearance of the sky guardian that she had used against Esamael’s forces.

  Deia’s flames seemed to make wings from her back and under her feet.

  After seeing the strength Anna gained with augmenting her body with Air, Deia had been working harder on her augmentation. Denur’s lessons had sunk in: use less Mana, but in a focused way, to alter her battlefield and the way in which she fought.

  “Deia is powerful when attacking, but lacking in defense. Whenever her momentum is halted, she tries to attack harder instead of waiting for an opportunity to regain the offensive,” Alkao said.