Not (Just) A Mage Lord Isekai
Chapter 109 - New Fields

"Really? You missed me?" Bevel asked before Keria or I could say anything, she was still hanging from a rope that was tied to a frame on the ceiling I hadn't noticed when I first came in.

"Of course," I said, ruffling her unruly hair, sending her into a gentle spin. "You're my apprentice, aren't you?"

"Told you," Bevel said, giving her sister a raspberry as she spun past.

"And I told you, the Magus has more important things to be doing than wasting his time giving you lessons you can't even use," Keria snapped back with the tone of someone who'd had this argument before.

"Pretty sure the Magus should get a vote on that," I said, stepping between them.

"I… of course," Keria said, straightening from where she'd been reaching towards Bevel's line.

"Bevel's lessons are an important part of my day," I continued, though not harshly.

"Told you he wasn't too busy," Bevel repeated, crossing her arms and glaring at her sister.

"Definitely not," I said, before Keria could object. Then I turned towards Bevel, drawing several books from my inventory. "Speaking of which, we're rather behind."

"Not my fault!" Bevel said, jabbing a finger at her sister. "Ker wouldn't let me see you."

"Didn't really think you were the type to ask permission," I teased with a gentle smile even as I put away the book for the air filtration runes. Figured showing her how to incorporate them into a spell would be a good lesson for the day.

"I… I didn't want to leave," Bevel whispered as she slunk down beside me, letting go of her rope. "What if I'd gone to my lessons and she wasn't here when I got back."

"You're welcome to bring your sister with you, if you want," I said, struggling to keep my voice even. "And I'm sure she won't leave you."

"That's what she promised last time," Bevel said simply, her hand still pulling at my robe.

Just to the side, I saw Keria flinch at Bevel's soft words. 'Sorry,' I mouthed over Bevel's shoulder.

Keria just shook her head then went and grabbed a wooden log that'd been carved into the general shape of a chair. “Well, I suppose if the Magus has the time, might as well do it. If you don’t mind me sitting in, that is, Magus.”

“Not at all,” I said, realizing we were doing the lessons right there. So I pulled the books back out, handing Bevel several blank sheets and we started.

I ended up staying longer than I'd planned. It was only when Bevel started yawning that I realized how late it was. We'd long since finished designing the spell and the related enchantment Inertia would need. As we'd gone along, Bevel had wanted to know what the spells actually did, which led to me teaching her about the basic physical components that made up Ro'an.

The hardest part for her to wrap her head around was the idea that they could exist without mana.

Even as I was saying goodnight, Bevel nodded off, resting her face on her copy of the helium filtration enchantment, letting out soft snores. With a tenderness she hadn't shown since I'd arrived Keria kneeled down, scooping Bevel up. She carried her over to a hammock tucked against the side of the room, pulling it off the wall before laying Bevel within. She stroked her sister’s cheek, then turned towards me. She immediately looked away when our eyes met, but I waved her towards the door.

"We should talk," I said, leaning against one of the nets leading past her little platform.

She nodded, pulling the door closed but not stepping away from it.

"Bevel's… she's important to me. And I'm pretty sure Calbern misses her too," I said, forcing myself to uncross my arms.

"I… it's hard, letting her go," Keria said, shaking her head while picking at the driftwood door with one of her stone fingers. "It's tough, remembering that it's been years. She hasn't… she hasn't changed at all."

"No? She's always been so independent?"

"That's… no, I guess she's grown in that way," Keria said, slumping down into a squat her head thumping against the door. She glanced back in a panic but when Bevel didn’t stir, she continued, "But she… she looks exactly the same as the day he took us."

"I… I hate to ask, but do you remember where he took you? Neither Banya or Esbee seem to," I said, not enthused about having to ask, but knowing it was better for everyone if I could find the last of Balthum's research.

She let out a long sigh, not answering for over a minute. "You know…" she finally said, pushing out of her squat to stand straight, her dark eyes meeting mine. "You really aren't like him."

"Would hope not," I replied, scoffing as I crossed my arms again.

"I mean… he would've woven his magic around my mind and compelled me to spill the thread," Keria said, waving a hand in the air, circling her ear. "It's what he did with our parents when he couldn't find… Bevel."

"That's not her real name, is it?" I asked, once more forcing my arms to uncross.

"It's the only one she'll go by," Keria said, her face twisting into a grimace. "Says her old name was cursed." Then she let out a sigh. "Sometimes I feel like she's got the right idea."

"Can't say much about that, though a cursed name’s not something I've heard of," I said, taking the net behind me in one hand to stop from crossing them. "So, you do remember him taking you and your parents?"

"Wish I didn't," Keria said, shaking her head.

"If you can help me find his other labs, it'll help me understand what he did to you," I said, gesturing at… well, all of her.

"Why? So you can follow in his footsteps?" she snapped. Before I could process the sudden change in attitude, she put her face in her hands and sobbed. "Sorry, I… it's been hard, trying to adjust while looking after Bevel. I just… I miss my mom and dad."

"Bevel's not the kid you remember. She took care of herself for years before we got here. And Calbern and I are looking out for her now. She doesn't need you to be her mom," I said, stepping closer and putting my hand on her shoulder. "Just her big sister."

Keria wiped at her wet cheeks as she nodded. Then she held her damp hand in front of her face, letting out a soft scoff. "Hard to believe we can still cry. I mean, look at me? What sort of rock monster cries?"

"You're not a monster," I said, squeezing her shoulder. I grunted as she grabbed me and started sobbing into my chest. Was suddenly wishing I'd brought Tamrie or Tresla or… anyone who actually knew what they were doing. I gently patted Keria's back as I let her sob.

Finally, she pulled back, once more wiping at her moist face. "Sorry. I… sorry, I should go."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Right, me-" I started.

And then, for the second time since I'd arrived on their little platform, Keria slammed the door in my face.

"-too." I finished, shaking my head.

…Mage Lord Isekai…

After the unexpectedly tumultuous visit with Bevel, I found my way back to the galleon in a surprisingly good mood. Sure, Keria's struggles were unfortunate, but… I had my apprentice back.

Slipped into sleep like it was a well-greased wheel bearing.

The next few days were a flurry of activity as everything started to come together. Calbern and Inertia managed to finish reassembling Fang overnight and by the morning he'd set out to gather more of the scrapped rollerbugs. While he was starting out, I flew ahead of him to bridge the worst of the gaps. It cost me a day, but it meant Calbern was able to get out to Conflict's domain and back between sunrise and sunset.

While he continued hauling back scrap, I'd done up a pair of stone cylinders with the enchantments for what I was assuming were hydrogen and helium, letting Inertia use them to experiment with her balloons.

It turned out that helium wasn't as non-reactive as I'd sworn it should be. Either that, or the enchantment was filtering the wrong element.

Whichever it was, the first attempt had ended with an exploding balloon.

It was still smaller than half the explosions that tended to happen in Inertia's proximity, so it was more of a small setback than anything worse. And we did confirm that it was lighter than air, so it was possible I'd just gotten the gases backwards, since the other one didn’t explode.

With the filtration enchantments complete, I left Inertia to continue her exploration of lighter than air designs to start work on the next major infrastructure project with Tamrie and Vetrov. The greenhouses. Just before Calbern had found us to talk about… I couldn’t remember. The point is Tamrie and I had found a perfect gorge close to the bluff Waygate to put the greenhouses in.

With staff in hand, I led Vetrov out with us, so she could help me adjust the design based on the actual terrain. She'd been skeptical at first. Then I'd started pulling stone out of the walls to create foundations.

"What would it take for me to get that staff from ya?" Vetrov asked, biting her lip while gazing longingly at the staff.

"He's not into that," Tamrie said, not even looking up from her notebook.

Vetrov glanced in my assistant's direction, squinting. "Not sure what you thought I was suggesting, girl. I was talking trade. Ah, I know. What 'bout something like my mirror? I've got an old speaker's wardrobe back home I could get shipped up. And I could get you your own card."

"Huh, you know…" I trailed off as I thought about it. The staff was pretty useful, but I'd already copied all the spells to my grimoire. Hadn't been hard, since I'd had to figure out how they worked to even use the staff.

"It's a good start," Tamrie interrupted, finally looking up from her notebook. "But hardly sufficient for a full net. That’s a Tier 2 Shaper's staff."

"Ha, you're right," Vetrov agreed with a sigh, her eyes narrowed. Then she shook her head. "But I don't know that I've much else to offer."

"Course you do," Tamrie said, stepping closer and brushing that errant lock out of her eyes. "You could make your services to the Magus official. You're peak Astral, ain't ya? Three year term'd more'n like make up the weight of it."

Vetrov nodded slowly, still chewing her lip. "Aye, that'd be about right," she finally said, her gaze shifting to me. "Well, how about it Magus Dominus? How's that sound to you?"

It sounded like I needed to make sure that whoever made that dress for Tamrie knew to do a great job. And maybe I'd make her something to go with it. It'd be easy enough to fashion her a sapphire bracelet. I'd have to think about it.

"It sounds like you're going to be making a lot of bridges and tunnels. Though I don't feel comfortable with an absolute contract. Let's set out a proper budget and pay, and set a solid price for the staff. We'll deduct a fair amount for the card and wardrobe," I said, extending my hand. "Then if nothing changes, you'll pay it off in three years. If not, then we'll refund you half you've spent, the rest to be counted as rent. Sound fair?"

"More than," Vetrov replied, clasping my arm and squeezing tight enough to make it uncomfortable.

"Actually, if you can get a second card and a more portable way to use it, that'd be worth a lot too," I said, flexing my hand after letting go of her tight grip.

"Might need some Waves or dust for that," Vetrov said, scratching her chin. "Especially with the way things are down south."

"Right, I'll get you whatever you need. Hopefully before the Howling season hits," I said. Would like to have it before Nexxa showed up. Then I turned back to the gorge. "Now that that's settled, what do you say we get back to the greenhouses?" I asked while handing the staff over and pulling out my grimoire.

Vetrov took it with a degree of reverence I'd never felt for it, running her hand along the runes. But then, I had an Earth affinity. From what I understood, despite her field of expertise, Vetrov only had a Water affinity. All because she'd never had access to the right spells when she'd been Mage-souled. If only affinities could be added after getting to Astral.

After that, it took her a little while to get the hang of using the staff, while I started casting the spells directly from my grimoire. While it took longer, and added a degree of complexity, I felt it was a worthwhile trade.

Especially if I could send the second device to Nexxa. There was a good chance I'd be able to fund something, though Terra Vista's normal trade with the west end of their territory had been disrupted with the ongoing conflict. Which meant I wouldn't be able to ship it through then up past Althon's capital.

Couldn't justify the number of Waves it would cost to get a properly equipped group to make the journey west either. Not for something so… not-mission-critical.

Still, with the way we were developing our air force, it might be possible I'd be able to send Calbern and Selvi together.

Or I could just wait for her to show up with the next storm.

A thought for another time.

The work was a great deal more complicated than simply creating a solid floor. The first step wasn't the greenhouses themselves, it was the large reservoirs for storing water. It was easy but tedious work, since they only had to be sealed, not neat. Most of the reservoirs were already there, but were a bit of a mess when we started. They were still uneven blobs when we were finished, but they were waterproof uneven blobs.

With the first few reservoirs complete, we cut channels that would slowly but steadily drain into the buildings, providing low effort irrigation. Due to the nature of the gorge and its not so straight orientation, the greenhouses were staggered. Most sections of the gorge were perfectly situated to allow a full day of sunlight, but not all.

The first set of greenhouses were done by the end of the day. Three of them in total, though a lot of that time had been spent teaching Vetrov the tricks I’d picked up for using the staff.

The plan was to create nearly two-hundred of the things over the course of the Howling season.

Currently, each was roughly half an acre in base coverage, which didn't count any stacking that the gardeners might implement. While we hadn't gotten to it yet, the plan was to augment each with between one to four of the lengths of tier-3 heartwood, which would be slotted into the ceiling, a bit like a heating lamp. Once the accompanying enchantments were completed, each greenhouse would be under a near perpetual Bloom effect.

A common arrangement back in the Aranor family's domain.

Most of the greenhouses wouldn't be enchanted for a while, though that didn't mean they wouldn't be put to use. Even without the enchantment, once the heartwood was locked in place, they'd help with the growth of any crops tended in the greenhouses.

The ability to use both Sculpt Stone and Compact to create strong transparent surfaces meant the greenhouses were a lot sturdier than usual. Teaching Vetrov how to do that had been what had eaten up so much of our time. Similar transparent material had actually been one of the bigger expenses for Perth's family. To the point that his father had kept a Pegasus-souled Earth specialist on staff.

Not that Perth had ever met the mage.

Once we were done, it was obvious we'd added three new buildings to the gorge, the transparent surface almost seeming to absorb the light.

"Time for em to get started then," Tamrie said, when I gave her the tentative go ahead. She waved, and soon a group of refugees started making their way over from the Waygate, despite the late hour.

They were talking excitedly as they looked over the enclosed space, already talking about what'd grow best and what they'd need to bring out the next day to get started. They'd been promised half of any crops they grew using the greenhouses, and to my surprise, most of the refugees had jumped at the deal.

Just like Tamrie'd said they would.

I intended to look after several greenhouses myself, once we had extras, specifically to get the special crops I'd brought from Aranor growing. Most of them required an ensouled with Nature magic to thrive outside their native environment. And the Frigid Peaks weren't a native environment to most plants, nevermind ones as sensitive as the family specialized in. That wasn't the only reason I intended to grow them myself. I was also now keenly aware of how valuable nature affinity ingredients were on this side of the continent.

Over the next week, I continued helping with the greenhouses, getting them setup for future development, while Calbern hauled back scrap and Inertia continued her experiments.

Finally, the greenhouses were done. They were scattered all around the bluff, having expanded well beyond the initial gorge after Vetrov had pointed out that we only needed a short spit of sheltered land to work with. The whole area was a lot flatter, after our efforts, at least at a glance.

Vetrov was going to spend another week getting the reservoirs up to a decent level, but other than a few enchantments, my work on the greenhouses was done.

Finally, it felt like our food was secure.

Which was good. Cause Calbern and I had a certain demon to visit.