Stone Raiders' Return (Emerilia Book 6) Read online

  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

  Stone Raiders’ Return

  Prologue

  Bob sat on what looked like Dave’s back porch in Cliff-Hill, sipping on a glass of bourbon.

  Dave flashed into existence within the Mirror of Communication conference room. “You look like you have something on your mind,” Dave said. A pint of beer appeared in his hand as he sat in a muskoka chair near Bob.

  “The Dark Lord and his sudden power increase worries me. I don’t know where he’s getting it from but it’s a hell of a lot of power.” Bob sipped from his glass, looking out over Cliff-Hill but not seeing it.

  “While we’re talking about power, I was wondering about something.” Dave’s tone made Bob look over. “If I was able to make a nuclear power plant, what would the empire do?”

  Bob’s eyebrow raised in surprise before he chuckled. “I should stop being surprised by your actions at this point.”

  Dave might not be his child, but he was as proud of him as a father might be of his son. “The Jukal will look into explosions that are over a megaton. They will also look into any massive nuclear decay emissions. Even all of the armor dissipating at Devil’s Crater wasn’t enough to set off sensors, because they released so quickly and weren’t all at the same time. If they had been at the same time or a constant release over a few hours, then the AIs might have picked it up. What are you thinking?”

  “I could use runes to dissipate that energy and stop the Jukal from sensing it, though, right?” Dave asked.

  “Yes,” Bob agreed.

  “Okay, well, I’m thinking about a lot of things. The biggest one right now is that when I destroy one of my conjurations, it falls apart in nuclear decay. If I was to slow down the breakdown of that process, I could make a nuclear reactor. As I was thinking about that, I figured that I might be able to make a fusion reactor. Look, we know how it works—we just don’t know why. With the right kinds of magical runes and conjurations, I could recreate the conditions found within the sun,” Dave said with growing excitement.

  Bob rubbed his chin in thought. “Why do you need so much power? I know that Malsour completed the drop pad for the power station,” Bob said. “Shouldn’t that be more than enough power?”

  “The ley lines of Emerilia are a finite resource. If everyone pulled from it, then it would not be able to compensate for the energy loss. I know on Earth that we ran into problems from burning up our natural resources. The reactors will stop that before it happens. I also have different projects that I want to work on that will require power but drawing that amount of power from the ley lines will arouse the Jukals’ interest. I’m not just thinking of making fusion power plants either. With your help, we can maybe make Mana wells.” Dave held Bob’s eyes.

  “Mana wells?” Bob’s voice made his interest clear.

  “Nuclear batteries made from the waste of nuclear reactors,” Dave said.

  Bob sat back in shock. He knew something of the theory behind the nuclear batteries, but he had never thought of making them. He had just needed to manage Emerilia. It had been too long since he had really needed to think scientifically, making his problem-solving skills sluggish.

  Bob smacked his head. “Damn, that could work. They don’t give off radiation at levels that would be detected, but if you, say, rigged up a conversion box—maybe code in something that changed that decay, waste, heat and such, and turned it into Mana…” Bob whistled.

  “That was what I was thinking,” Dave said, getting excited.

  “So what’s your plan?”

  “First, I need to train up other people to code—doing this all by myself isn’t simple and I have too many projects. Why is it when I learn something, I always feel that there’s so much more to figure out?” Dave released a suffering sigh and leaned back into his chair.

  Bob laughed. “Ah, the age-old dilemma of those who seek to innovate and improve; there’s no upper limit, no end, though it is a hell of a lot of fun to just chase those ideas and dreams.”

  The two of them sipped their drinks and looked out over the peaceful simulation of Cliff-Hill behind Dave’s house.

  Sato appeared from thin air, wearing his normal attire: a white space suit with blue accents and an emblem on his shoulder that showed his rank.

  “Hey, Sato.” Bob conjured a seat for the man.

  “Bob, Dave.” Sato nodded and smiled to them both.

  “Seems I’m not the only one who can conjure items.” Dave snorted.

  “I have a little problem with the fine control. Need to get a better sensory skill or spell for it.” Bob grinned and looked to Sato. “So, no Edwards today? What’s he up to? Hopefully not using those damned gravity spells.”

  “Ouch.” Dave winced and looked to Sato, who cringed.

  “That was last week. He overdid the area of effect, got most of the station with one point five Earth gravities.”

  “Well, that has gotta suck.” Dave shook his head.

  “It wasn’t the most fun, and we’ve put new rules on him using it in the station. He gave me this file, however.” Sato tapped something out on a screen on his arm. The Mirror of Communication received the file and transmitted it to Bob.

  “Got to love faster-than-light download speeds,” Bob said.

  “Wish I had that when I was playing games in my parents’ basement,” Dave muttered, drinking his beer.

  “How are things going with the Stone Raiders, Dave? It’s been awhile since we last talked.” Sato relaxed and let his upright military posturing fall away.

  Dave conjured him a beer and looked to the roof above the porch. “Well, we cleared out the occupied Aleph facilities. They moved in and started getting everything up and running. They’ve got a low population, so it’s taking them some time. They’re focusing on getting more automatons online. We saved the older generation of Demons and the Beast Kin. We’re in the middle of building a city for our main guild hall and we’re in the process of solidifying our alliances with different countries and groups.”

  “Sounds pretty impressive.” Sato sipped the beer and let out a pleased sigh. “Damn, that’s not half bad.” Sato looked at the beer appreciatively.

  Bob noticed the look on Dave’s face. “What are you thinking?”

  “Well, I’ve just started teaching people how to make magical code.”

  “You’ve taught one person,” Bob inserted.

  “Yeah, but it won’t be long till he’s pretty damn good at it and taking the responsibility off my shoulders. I still have a whole bunch of Aleph, Dwarves, Stone Raiders, my own smiths, and Devil’s Crater Army to teach…” Dave trailed off, deep in thought. His frown started to widen as his pursed lips turned into a grin.

  He clapped his hands together, jumping out of his seat, and looked to Sato and Bob. “How many Mirrors of Communication do you have?” Dave pointed to Bob.

  “Maybe a hundred of the smaller ones and twenty of the long-range ones like the one you have in the seeder.” Bob shrugged.

  “Sato?”

  “We have a few,” Sato said.

  “Ugh, fine! Keep the numbers to yourself; you’re going to be using them a hell of a lot more if I have my way!” Dave said, clearly excited.

  “Dave, words,” Bob said.

  “Okay, so I need magical coders to deal with the things I don’t want to. I have ideas I want to work on, but there’s also a ton of weapons, armor, walls, frigging toilets and showers that need magical coding as well. I can have a lot of them coming down t
o the city and helping me out, but that’s a lot of resources and things that could go wrong. The Mirrors of Communication give us a place where we can experiment with things without fear of blowing ourselves up. It also means that people from all over Emerilia, or even beyond,” Dave gave a pointed look to Sato, “can join in on the lessons, or work with others to gain the skills they need. My only cost will be that they either help with the city, that they continue working for me for two years, or that they make five short-range Mirrors of Communication and one long-range, which they are then to pass out to others who are interested in learning. We expand the lessons to include conjuration or other magic. Do you think we can rope Fire into having some of her professors teaching through the mirrors? I think I can get the Aleph college to join in. They want to learn more, but they’re kind of scared to go to the mage’s college. This bridges the gap,” Dave said.

  “So, we basically make an online and interactive virtual reality college?” The words spilled from Bob’s mouth in excitement.

  Dave clapped his hands, clicked his fingers and pointed to Bob. “Give the Gnome a prize!” Dave smiled, his excitement infectious.

  “An online virtual reality college, within reality being framed as virtual reality!”

  “So, my people could take lessons directly from you on how to use their abilities?” Sato asked.

  “Yes, though those who don’t have the implants would only be able to learn the magical coding. But those with abilities could learn every type of magic with enough knowledge, and even conjure items,” Dave said.

  “Then, as more people learn, more Mirrors of Communication are passed around. Maybe the mage’s guild could run it; anyone who wants to learn can go to a mage’s guild and learn anything. We could teach farming and agriculture, or even how to control a ship,” Bob said.

  “And the Jukal won’t be able to see a thing.” Dave smiled.

  Bob’s face went slack, his eyes glossy. “With just learning any of that, the median strength of a person on Emerilia could skyrocket.”

  “Yes, and what would happen if we were to have lessons after the basic studies to teach people how to gain classes? Kind of like a Master’s Degree program on Earth, but instead of getting a piece of paper, they get a class that only takes time and effort.” Dave held Bob’s eyes.

  “It’s so simple, but the impact it could have, giving education to any and all that desire it—I can’t even try to guess what will happen,” Bob said.

  “A revolution.” Dave looked over to Sato.

  Chapter 1: To The Grind

  Suzy got out of bed. Walking to her balcony, she looked out over the Per’ush islands. They truly were beautiful. Even though the sun had yet to fully rise, people were already moving around in the early morning. There was a kind of energy to the place that was hard to find anywhere else.

  A sense of excitement, hope, and opportunity, as if anyone and everyone were just on the cusp of some great achievement and were pushing themselves and their peers to new heights.

  Induca made sleepy noises, stretching in the large bed the two had shared. Suzy smiled and looked back to her girlfriend. Induca was flighty and seemed to be something of a rogue, but when Suzy and Induca were alone, they had shared their fears and insecurities. It had made them stronger in their relationship and as people.

  “Earth wasn’t all that great,” Suzy muttered to herself, wandering over to Induca, who rolled over, still not ready to embrace the coming day. Suzy took a few more minutes looking at her girlfriend, studying her body as if to memorize it forever.

  “Close the blinds,” Induca complained.

  “Come on, baby. Time to wake up.” Suzy moved over to Induca.

  Induca pouted and buried her head under a pillow. “It’s dark now,” Induca said in a proud voice.

  Suzy let out a long sigh, a smile on her lips at Induca’s antics.

  ***

  Induca toweled off her hair as she walked back into the room.

  “Goddammit, Dave, what the hell were you up to when I was gone?” Suzy yelled.

  Well, I guess the vacation is over. Induca pulled on her clothes as Suzy continued to have a one-sided conversation with Dave.

  “All right, since we’re in Per’ush right now anyway, I’ll see if I can get a meeting with Deia’s mom and run this by her,” Suzy said, defeated.

  “Yes, I know, you wouldn’t be able to do anything without me. I swear, anytime I get even a few days off you go and turn the damn world on its head!” Suzy sighed. “Okay, go and make your power station. I just got your file; we’ll talk later.”

  “Everything go well?” Induca wrapped Suzy up in a hug from behind.

  “Well, it seems in the time we’ve been gone: Dave has spent millions of coins worth of gold in order to increase his mining manager class level, he’s come up with several new patents, and founded a new school for people to learn anything they want. He’s also figured out how portals work. Oh, and he somehow got his hands on more materials than the Dwarves have.” Suzy sighed again as she leaned on Induca.

  “So, where do we start?” Induca asked.

  “We talk to Deia’s mom to see if she and the mage’s guild want in on the online school. Having more educated mages is something they’re all about and I know that they want to learn this new way of magical coding. We get a whole damn flock of birds with one stone with just that. Going to be a pain with the contracts and trying to figure out how to manage it, though right now we just need to make sure that the POEs are strong enough that they can defend themselves and their families. Dave is overworked with it and if we can get more people to understand magical coding, then we can increase production and maybe make some real factories, not just one of Dave’s conjuring thingies. Might also get him to make that summoning hall,” Suzy said.

  “You’re smiling,” Induca said into Suzy’s ear.

  Suzy looked to Induca and then back out of their room and out onto Per’ush. Her smile grew as she placed her hand on Induca’s encircling arms. “He might be half mad and drive me up the wall, but he knows how to light a fire under anyone’s ass, including his own. It’s going to be a lot of work, but damn if I’m not excited to get started.” Suzy chuckled.

  “Well, let’s go change the world.” Induca kissed Suzy’s head.

  “Back to the grind,” Suzy agreed.

  ***

  “Let’s start, shall we?” Hamdir, the leader of the Aleph Council and a Half-Elf, Half-Human asked, looking to the rest of the Aleph Council. “So, Meda, you said that you have something important to tell us?”

  “Yes,” Meda said. She was also a Halfling, but Half-Elf, Half-Dwarf, and the council member in charge of managing food within the Aleph cities, from the various greenhouses and vertical wall gardens to their distribution. She looked as if she were about to jump out of her seat in excitement. “Dave sent over a plan he came up with to improve our growing abilities. I had a look at it and, while we would need to change a few things, once we adapted the various magical coding systems, we could be growing a full harvest of foods faster than ever before!”

  “How much would these plans cost for us to use and how fast are we talking?” Hamdir asked.

  “We could half, maybe even quarter, the growing time and the plants would be healthier and better than any other we can grow. For cost, I don’t know. Dave hasn’t put a price on it; he gave us the plans to test out and tell him what we think. Instead of just focusing on one area, this system works on all aspects of what the plants will need. It uses different magic from all of the Affinities. Combining them is hard, but Dave seems to do it seamlessly.”

  “Why don’t we ask him if we could maybe build one of them at cost to test it out?” Koza, a Half-Human, Half-Elf, and the leader of the Aleph’s security, asked.

  “Maybe offer our help in their attempt to create a true factory at Zol’Ord?” Frenik, the Dwarven council member in charge of Aleph’s mining, forges, factories, and all manner of building and expansion, added.
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  Hamdir nodded. “I agree that sounds like a good plan. Meda, continue with your best judgment. I know that with winter coming, people across Emerilia will need food more than ever. If we can supply them food throughout the winter months, we can start making trading partnerships and growing our alliances.”

  “I’ll see to it,” Meda promised.

  “Good. Sela, I heard that you had something to share.” Hamdir addressed the only Gnome in the room.

  “The Stone Raiders are building a power station. They have created a drop pad where they want to put their teleport pad. Josh is pulling funds together and it seems they will start building immediately. I have also been told that they are nearly ready to start spinning their city.” Sela, who looked after the various Aleph power systems, looked to Frenik, who nodded.

  “Dave has been in the city for just three days, but he and Malsour have been doing the impossible. Dave’s been mass conjuring and destroying, carving out the city. Malsour has been emplacing the rollers. The other Stone Raiders have been helping out; they could have it spinning within the week. Then, their only problem becomes power. They need that power station up to keep the city spinning. That, or they keep powering it with their vault-classed soul gems.” Frenik shrugged and looked to Sela. “I don’t think many groups could meet the power needs of a spinning city, but I think they might have enough to keep it going for maybe a month or two.”

  Sela nodded in agreement.

  “They’re damn fast.” Koza leaned back in his seat and tapped his hand on the table.

  “That they are. I expect that they’re going to be changing quite a few things as they build their city. How are we looking for security?” Hamdir asked.

  “We’ve got more automatons up and online. Ela-Gal has been training and testing out our controllers. Josh sees the Stone Raiders’ Guild Hall as a hub, a place for Players and POEs to meet and fulfill any need that passerby’s had. It’s also clear that he thinks of it as a staging area for the coming war. That said, I think it’s clear that our role in the coming fights will be to move troops and supplies. For that, I think we should focus on trying to learn magical coding to improve our factories and production times. Just like with food, we’re going to need bandages, arrows, spears, Health and Mana potions. All of that is going to be our contribution.” Koza looked pained to admit it, but it showed an inner strength that few military people had: knowing when to back down.