88 Chapter 84: Communal Gathering

"That was my fucking daughter!" Agatha half yelled in Tansen's office as the academy head spectated the event from his chair, wearing his typical black and sapphire kimono. She was to the left of his desk with the object of her rage in the middle of the room accompanied by her two pudgier parents in fine brown clothes; A petite blond with defiant green eyes in blue and white striped student robes that matched the rooms walls.

"I didn't mean to get her with a rock. I was aiming for that goat woman. At least we were doing something while you lot let a Kelton take the quad mage from us." She growled back. The pudgy mother and father behind her nodded.

Agatha took in a deep breath before crossing the distance and taking the students head in her black gloved hand.

"Little girl, it is not up for you to decide what happens in regard to that mage." Agatha was now a hairs breadth from the girls now sweating face. But there was still a bit of gusto in the girl as she scrunched her eyebrows.

"Well maybe if we had succeeded in sending the message, we wouldn't have woken up to that little bit of news this morning." She pouted with puckered lips.

This actually produced a moment of hesitation in Agatha, but she quickly quashed it. Her child had been hurt and Tansen could see the mama bear breakthrough in the end.

"What could have or would have happened is for the almighty universe to decide, not you. Five lashes and time doing kitchen pot scrubbing." Agatha let her cheeks go and went to stand by the desk. The only sound was the sputtering parent who now worked up the courage to object.

"Lashes? Have you gone mad? Cleaning pots? She is a caster mage." The mother spat in a storm of bile and outrage.

"And my daughter is a scion." Agatha said with pure ice in her voice. Her piercing blue eyes stilling the three. "You can take this punishment, or we can see just how harshly an attack on a scion will be punished in the courts."

A hard moment of resolve passed on the girls face but she looked back and saw she would fight alone if she pushed forward. After accepting defeat with a down cast look, the trio shuffled out of the door.

"I need some orders for the local discipline section of the Front." Tansen called through the open door.

A moment passed before the short haired brunette with glasses that was his secretary came through the door, her brown eyes and sharp chin sowing some irritation.

"What severity?" She asked, her tone not having the usual deference. Tansen sat there with his black eyebrows and forehead ridge molding into surprised look.

"Mild. Just five lashings and a stint in the kitchen scrubbing pots." He said.

"Sure," The secretary said quickly before shutting the door more harshly than was needed.

"Was something put in the women's side of the dorms or an outbreak of pins being put in bras?" Tansen asked with a look towards Agatha. It was the morning after Eli went on the expedition to get the peasants from the military base and since getting up and enjoying a quick breakfast from one of the dorm restaurants, Tansen noticed that all the women were highly irritable. From the staff to the students and teachers, every woman on the campus seemed to be in a foul mood.

"Pff. As if you don't know." Agatha scolded.

When she saw Tansen's unmoving goatee and uncomprehending brown eyes, she snorted in derision and put a hand to her hip.

"That little accidental wedding last night" She said like it was the most obvious thing imaginable.

This light provided no illumination for Tansen's ignorance. Rand had been in this office late afternoon while Eli had been out. Agatha spent his visit pacing around the room with every nervous tick imaginable as Rand explained that as long they didn't directly communicate and the ceremony was conducted with them 'accidently' dropping the pieces of paper, they weren't really associating. A precedent established when a previous censured mage gave a speech at a friend's funeral.

While not a clean comparison, the fundamental reasoning of the judge was that as long as they said they were just talking to themselves and didn't carry out any of the traditions personally, it did not qualify as association. An observer was keeping an eye on the couple and said they did not say anything to the crowd and they 'accidently' dropped the paper then picked up the discarded rope. Agatha had a fit over it but at the end of the day Rand's hand was tied until a more qualified legal expert was consulted and he could only reprimand Ryan.

"And?" Tansen asked vacantly.

"And?!" Agatha demanded with a scowl. "We give the men children day in and day out. We deal with the babies' poop and piss and crying. We are the ones having to juggle being parents while the men just fuck their way through all the women is sight. And then? We do it all over again when the next baby comes along. Do we get any dates or nights that don't involve sex with their fathers after that? No.

But that Kelton woman does. She hasn't had to juggle a career and being a parent. She hasn't had to put herself through dressing up to catch the men's eyes, constant pressure to have kids and hunt for magical resources, nights alone with no one but a baby to keep them company. But she did get a ring. She hasn't even produced a single heir for him, and she got a fucking ring. So, don't bring this up with any of the other women or they may just condense their answer to a slap or guttural scream."

"Oh," Tansen said as he finally understood. "But, all of the women? Do they all have to be jealous of Salamede?"

A prompt slap across the face was the answer he got before Agatha stormed out of the room in a rage.

Sighing at the pettiness of it all, Tansen got back to work while he waited for the two big problems of the day to walk through the door. A big meeting was being set up for every group in the region and Tansen had a list of items he needed to see to before his mid-day meeting with Eli. An hour or two before lunch, a minder for Eli came in with a message about him working some healing wonder in the Kelton quarter. Staring at the piles of paperwork, Tansen made the very un-adult decision to blow off his work for a bit and see something interesting.

Going down the tower and out onto the streets with pools of rainwater being evaporated by the shining sun, he took a left turn and went down the street until he came upon a small crowd. The Kelton community owned a warehouse and the surrounding houses, in between this warehouse and the house to its left was a stone platform with two wooden beds. The pieces of wood further along in a neat row showed the frames of three more beds with canopies of cloth over them. Along the sides of the completed beds were two armrests fastened into the frame and they had the rails removed at the bottom and tops of the beds. It was at the third of the five beds that Eli was putting in the armrests for another of these creations.

On the two finished beds were a Kelton man and woman. The man had long scratch marks across his face and the woman had several deep bite wounds that were slowly being mended into new flesh. The crowd around them just passed an idle eye at this marvel when they looked at it but seemed mostly intrigued with Eli, wearing an almost offensively plain white shirt and brown pants. When the man got up with a brand-new face, another man with a right arm that seemed to be barely held together with bandages sat down in his place. He took the arm rest for his right arm and took the top out. It was attached with some piece of leather through the thick molded holder and placed it against his chest before resting his left arm on the other. The mangled arm began reforming with the missing bits slowly shifting and expanding the arm beneath the bandages.

There were a lot of other students here as well, but they only had eyes for the man making the beds. Tearing his eyes away from the injured Kelton, Tansen looked further down the rows of beds and could see why the crowd was so preoccupied with the person making them and not the items themselves. Eli was working on the armrests, fastening the leather strips with glue, setting the wooden arm rests against the bed and nailing them in with screws. When he finished that portion, he set about making the healing enchantments which it could be easily surmised was being placed in the arm rests top. Running his gaze down the leather line, it could be assumed that he was setting up the lines for a mana battery.

This all would not be so impressive if not for the sheer skill and smoothness with which Eli carried out his task; no hesitation when aligning the nails with one or two blows at the most to fix the arm rest holder into the frame or messy application of the heated glue that somehow always had just enough to go right beneath the leather pad that connected the strip.

As a mage, though, the most impressive part was making the enchantments themselves, a task he couldn't see but would know when it was done wrong. The arm rests were not made uniformly and had some uneven dimensions, but Eli worked over them without a single moment of hesitation. As the craftsman did his immaculate work, Tansen kept waiting for him to have to stop and go back over his craft due to a stray thought or bad path along the leather or wood messing him up but that moment never came as he set up the last arm rest and smacked it to make sure it was sturdy enough for the needed task.

With a nod he left the bed to start on the third. The crowd of mages started chittering amongst themselves and it was when Eli was in the middle of laying down a new enchantment for the right arm rest of the third bed that Tansen realized that he had been just standing there being sucked in by Eli's masterful craftsmanship.

"Damn, so that Kelton woman gets to watch this every day?" One skinny brunette student sulked to his left.

"Please. With hands as good as those, she probably can't get out of bed in the morning to watch him work." A muscular blond beside her pouted.

Squashing the rising feeling of inadequacy, Tansen turned to leave but coming down the road was Rand with a small squad of guards.

"Ah, Tansen. It's good you're here." Rand called as the crowd parted and Eli stood up from his work. Rand then turned towards Eli. "The weddings was allowed to go through because you didn't interact with anyone who wasn't censored and didn't really participate in the ceremony. But going through with what you wrote on the pieces of paper would qualify as having participated."

Eli took a deep breath and closed his eye above the steel mask before looking Rand in the eye again.

"I'm not fulfilling the promise written on the piece of paper. The limits are I can co-ordinate when matters of life and death are in play. Well"

Eli threw his hands towards the three injured Kelton's.

"I'd say this very much qualifies."

"You wrote down you'd make healing beds, then just happened to decide later to make them in a completely unrelated circumstance?" Rand said with a brown raised eyebrow and disbelieving green eyes. "I can't go for that, Eli. Making the beds and allowing them to be used would qualify as helping in a dire circumstance but tying them to the marriage makes the Kelton community complicit in what was supposed to be an 'accident'."

Tansen looked around to the human women whose faces all got a jolt of hope, hope that Tansen would sadly have to destroy.

"But what if it wasn't just in the Kelton quarter?" Tansen asked as he stepped forward. "Would making healing beds for the guard post and the academy mean what was written down isn't being followed? I know there are strict regulations on using healing crafts, but these circumstances certainly qualify for their use."

Rand strummed his fingers on his metal plate in thought for a long moment before sighing and nodding.

"Yes. That would go beyond what was written down."

"Excellent." Tansen said with a happy little clap as his black robes swished from the movement. "Eli, we need to talk about your schooling. To save us both the time, I will assist you in this matter while we go over the coursework."

Eli's silver eyebrows shot up in surprise, but he quickly squashed it before giving a light bow.

"Thank you, academy master. I appreciate the help."

Rand nodded towards Tansen before turning around and heading off.

After a few minutes of explanation, Tansen got to work cutting blocks of wood into shape with water blades. It took only a few minutes for the ambient Mana to start thinning so they had to move their work to a station closer to the main bridge. Over the course of cutting various wood pieces and installing them on the beds very eagerly brought over by guardsman, Tansen discussed the work Eli still needed to do. Once he finished a live demonstration of his ability to perform in a mana rich environment like the western region, a thorough demonstration of his magical talents would need to be conducted by a qualified panel of judges to officially certify him into mage-hood.

Fortunately, after the healing magic flooded the ground a huge caravan would go out to the western region to get the now more abundant magical pelts, meats, and other resources. If Eli was going to graduate in as safe a manner as possible, going on that trip would be the best opportunity for him, to say nothing of the potential connections he could make. Normally Tansen would advise a student to get an advanced mastery in one branch of magical study or ability before graduating as well but Eli obviously had no need for that even if he still wanted to take the advanced alchemy course.

The mid-day sun was shining bright over the town, although it now had a population closer to a city. Tansen was overlooking Eli put in the last mana battery for the last bed as the guards eagerly waited for the prize to be moved towards the wall at the front of the bridge. With a final nod, Eli gave the all clear to move the bed.

"There is going to be a big meeting on the academy grounds later today. I hope you will attend." Tansen said as he put his hand out to shake his student's hand.

"I'll think about it. Salamede was talking about the meeting but she knows how much work I have to do and hasn't insisted I go." Eli said with an idle look towards the direction of his tower.

"Eli, the plain fact of the matter is that even in the middle of situations such as these, you're still going to be the main subject at the meeting even if it doesn't take up the most time. Representatives from two of the most powerful mage associations got in with the last group and I'm not sure what their reaction to… your present circumstance will be. If they decide to go after the Kelton community, your absence will leave them vulnerable." Tansen stated plainly.

Eli's eyes above the smiling metal mask became irritated with a deep furrow of those silver eyebrows above purple irises.

"Fine. I'll need to be there to explain my solutions to the current crisis anyway. Oh, and Salamede said she wanted to talk to you after the meeting." Eli finally said.

Tansen raised an eyebrow but decided not to press his student on the details.

His main task for the day finished, Tansen walked down the side road of the Kelton quarter with Eli by his side. Rand had apparently run out of guards to tail Eli all day and allowed the two men breathing room. The lack of local guard personnel became apparent when a scream was heard. Running further ahead, Tansen and Eli came upon a small alley corner where a Kelton stall worker was having his clothing goods tossed in the mud as three thugs beat the prostrate man with clubs.

Looking on was a buff man with smooth black hair and a brown vest with grey pants. He seemed like a typical high-class thug and was currently giving out a swat with his spear to any passerby trying to intervene.

"Back you glorified farm animals. The Sesh family is laying down some new rules while we're stuck in this shit hole." He snarled with his strong jaw showing a smile while his green eyes showed nothing but contempt.

"Eli, if we-"

Before Tansen could finish the sentence, three long spears of stone shot out from behind him and impaled the three lower class thugs. Pinned to the wall, they could do nothing but scream like pigs as the leader looked behind him in confusion.

"What the…"

Eli shot forward and used a long thin blade of fire cut into the thugs from a yard away. But his skill didn't mean he did it quickly. The first man along the wall he simply disemboweled and left to clutch at his spilled innards before he went through cutting the heads off the middle one. The high-class thug looked on in outrage.

"Hey! Do you know who we are? You just-" A thick brick shot out from Eli's hand and took the idiot out at the knee while he removed the head of the last victim and the cries of the first man died out. Tansen and the crowd pulled back at the sheer brutality of it. Tansen had known the heat of battle, of long roads filled with the cruel pettiness of thugs.

But this.

There was a cold glee in Eli's every move and slash that set even his seasoned nerves on edge. Eli eyes showed plain joy as he walked toward the now crippled man as the blade of flame danced up and down with a sinister eagerness.

"You, you hit me! We're in the middle of the street and you killed my men AAH!" Eli's long twisting blade of flame flew through the air and cut off his arms, spurting blood in a wide pool as the man shook like a worm writhing in rising pool. But the spout of blood stopped as Eli used a healing spell on him. The man meekly held his head up as he repeatedly tried and failed to stand with no arms.

A stone shackle was summoned around the gangsters uncrushed leg and Eli used another magic spell to pull the shackle as the doomed man struggled to keep his face up. Eli passed Tansen with a nod.

"See you later, Tansen." Eli said with a skip in his step as the crowd parted way and Eli dragged his victim along the road to his tower.

Tansen and the rest of the crowd stood around awkwardly as they processed the fact that they had just witnessed three murders and a kidnapping in broad daylight while the accosted stall owner rushed about getting his goods. It took several more minutes before the local captain came by with three men. His brown eyes had bags under them, and his thick black beard was tangled. The metal helm with a white feather and leather armor were the only items on his person that seemed to be doing well.

"Tansen." He said tiredly as he looked over the bodies and splattered blood. "When I ask what happened here, you're going to say Eli did not just murder three men and brutally disfigure another in front of a huge crowd of people. All right. So, Tansen, what happened here?"

"Eli dispensed justice to four men in front of a considerable gathering of people." Tansen said casually.

The captain sucked in his lips as he stared at the academy head in exasperation.

"What am I supposed to… Oh" The captain looked towards the bodies. Then he turned towards the small group of guards he brought and motioned towards the bodies.

"Sesh family" He said as he used his foot to overturn a severed arm. The elongated S of a gang tattoo running along its middle. The other bodies had it on them as well as they were dragged to the pyre in front of the bridge. "Well, they were warned."

Tansen raised an eyebrow to the man.

"A family of thugs out from the woods who think bullying a few peasants makes them a force to be reckoned with. We've had to take a lot of the woodland gangs in and a truce was agreed upon. They would stick to a few warehouses if they don't make trouble and we would not try to run them in for past crimes, much to the bristling of the locals. Mighty awkward considering a lot of them have bounties, including the whole Sesh family, but they came in with the mad rush and reducing the town to a warzone helps no one.

Most of them have stuck to the agreement but one thug came by earlier to try and work over a Kelton shop keeper. Eli… well. I'm sure you can imagine how he took that." The captain said with a meaningful look to the bodies being lifted up. "I had a few people in the area at the time who prevented him from killing the man but apparently his people don't learn. I'll write a report, but they were told the next time it happens it will be treated as a case of self-defense."

The captain walked off leaving Tansen and the crowd to go about their day.

The sun rose to its peak and fell as the meandering activities of the academy took all of the academy heads time until a few hours before the big meeting saw the arrival of a white, magically enhanced hawk. The bird had two long feathers along its brow and had a size more comparable to a dog as it landed on the secretary's desk and dropped off its letter. When delivered to Tansen, he read it over with a sense of annoyance.

'The copiers office is inquiring into a report sent from this academy. As head of the Diamond academy, do you confirm or deny the presence of a male quad element caster mage name Eli?'

Tansen just clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth in exasperation.

'Good old central government. Still stretching underneath the bed sheets while everyone else is getting out the front door.' Tansen thought to himself irritably as he wrote out a piece of paper explaining Eli's abilities, got yet another copy of the previous report and testimony as well as another sheet of paper to explain Eli's more recent escapades. Leaving his office, he went up to his secretary's desk and tied the papers around the hawks near arm thick leg. A piece of beef and a pat on the head from the secretary and the bird flew out the far window.

During all that time, the magic association representatives did not show up. They didn't barge through his front door or start tearing into the staff even though he was sure they had more than enough time to become fully apprised of the situation with Eli, the only item that could possibly prompt them to make such a perilous journey. It made Tansen skin crawl as their silence was heard around the academy louder than any scream.

It was near dinnertime with a sky of clouds bathed in orange that the big event of the day finally started. Tansen was in front of the refreshments table overlooking the various personages and people coming in through the main dorm entrance. A wooden platform, like the one used to parade Ryan through the streets, was on the left side of the lawn with a long row of tables in front of the blocked off section for the scion houses. These tables were piled high with various breads, meats, drinks, soups, and other assorted goodies that Tansen was perusing.

Spending so much food for a meeting may strain the academy larder, but they were stocked well in advance and were filled to last well past Necrosis or even into the next year if need be. Having such a lavish display of food also helped set people's minds at ease since it showed how prepared the academy was, for to do otherwise would invite questions as to how they themselves would survive if even a bedrock of their society was so ill prepared for this disaster that it had to skimp on food for such an important gathering.

The first people in were the heads of the docks. Big men with leather vests and tan skin who coordinated the work of the ships and their cargo. One fellow, a bear of a man with a grey shirt, brown pants with a simple black cap, looked at Tansen with a nod of his thick eyebrows, brown eyes, and strong chin marking him the harbor master Lucius. But he did not approach and after a while the reason became obvious. As the rest of the interested parties came in, they eventually moved toward Tansen together.

The matron of the merchants guild, a stout, tan, red haired woman with a white apron and a green dress underneath, and the head of the craftsman guild who combined the tanners, blacksmiths, and carpenters into one tent, a man of average build with a green suit, black pants and combover of dark brown hair eventually joined the harbor master as a trio who then approached Tansen as he was at the table enjoying a cool glass of wine with a slab of seasoned chicken.

"Ah, academy head Tansen. So glad we could catch up with you." The matron said with amber eyes of desperation as the other two were in much the same state of need. The government had devoted every last resource to stemming the rising orc tide in the south and its new menace, a situation Tansen had made sure to keep informed on as much as needed. What was out there and if it was close to his academy were the two items he kept up on and he left the other details to the military people.

One of the details that he hadn't kept up on but had made itself known to him was the strain on the supply chain the chaos had, now aggravated by the early wave of undead. Space on the boats, the last cost-effective means of moving goods, was now at a premium as every last inch of every hull, deck and nook was being fought over by all the merchants, mages, and nobles who needed the supplies they carried. An accompanying spike in prices had given even the academy's generous finances a bruising, to say nothing of the pockets of the standard peasantry.

"We were hoping to negotiate some portion of the standard food and cloth shipments with you. I was hoping to get some more iron and coal in." The craftsman guild master, Panco if Tansen remembered correctly, asked desperately with green eyes that shifted back and forth nervously.

"And the goods from the south." The matron cut in with a scowl. "I have several shop keeps in desperate need of needles and thread that would do wonders for the coming cold."

Panco turned on her with a cold smile. "Surely you would agree, dear Gloria, that keeping weapons in our soldier's hands and armor on their arms and legs is more important than some dresses and hats."

Her amber eyes returned the coldness in equal measure, but her voice was one of intense sweetness.

"And surely you would agree, esteemed Panco, that arming men in cold metal makes no sense when they will die from the snow and cold shortly thereafter."

"You would probably want to talk to the local captain." Tansen cut through the icy exchange. "The healing beds that got installed have lessened the need for bandages and healing elixirs so he may be willing to let go of a few spots."

Panco and Gloria looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but Lucius bit his lip and pushed forward between the two.

"It's true then? The quad mage set up a bunch of healing beds for the guardsman and the academy?" He asked desperately.

"And the Kelton quarter." Tansen confirmed with a nod as he took a swig of the sweet wine.

The harbormaster gave a silent thank you to the sky.

"Oh, what a relief! I have a younger brother who recently joined the guard and I've been worried sick that he would die from some undead out there but unless he really messes up, he should see this necrosis through just fine even with the worst injuries."

But Gloria pushed forward to look at Tansen with a raised eyebrow.

"The Kelton quarter? Would that mean the rumors are true?" She demanded.

"The rumors about his marriage to a Kelton woman are true." Tansen said, trying his best to maintain a neutral tone.

She got a pouty lip at that, looking more like a delinquent teen than a seasoned merchant.

"And just what is the academy doing to remedy this situation?" Gloria demanded.

Tansen merely put up his hands in surrender.

"It's not the academy's place to decide matters of marriage. The law may decide there is no situation to remedy."

Her button nose and tan skin crinkled in disdain. "If the law doesn't prevent things like that then what good is it?"

Tansen was content to look at her with a blank expression before returning to his meal. The trio, now given a new target for their haggling, headed off back into the growing crowd.

The next major group was a rather brutal group. While their clothes were decently kept and their bodies well washed, the group of men and one older woman had the strut of gangsters with equally uncaring eyes as some of the men followed a few as bodyguards as the leaders in question ate Tansen's food with gusto or pinched a serving maids bum.

As Irate as Tansen felt at their presence, it was an open meeting and he could throw them out if space became an issue. From there the rest of the major groups came in, the mayor in his white shirt with brown pants accompanied by three guards, guild master Mason with a buff man carrying a large sword and a woman in slimming leather armor with a bow and daggers, the Kelton patriarch as well as a few of their kinds prominent merchants and land owners. Four of which carried a large wooden chest though their contents were looked over by the guards and no alarm was raised so Tansen decided not to indulge his curiosity. Then came the newest arrivals to the academy.

The tall thin woman in a blue robe with white waves, Pisko, came through, her raven hair flowing over the sunlight. Beside her was Gertrude, a shorter, freckled woman with blond hair, thicker nose and well-defined body covered in red leather, was the representative of Ember, the most powerful fire mage association. From the blond's freckles to Piskos smooth porcelain skin, to the water mages button nose, the only common feature between these two was a look of simmering rage in their brown eyes directed at the small Kelton group by the buffet table.

Whatever they wanted or were going to say, they were apparently willing to wait until later to say it. It took a good while, far too long, before Rand and, oddly, a contingent of extra guards showed up. They looked like they were ready to murder the rough members who showed up but kept on the opposite side of the gathering. After the mayor came in to sample some of the goods at the table, the last and largest group trickled in, an assortment of local and high ranking nobles. All dressed in fine clothes and accompanied by varying numbers of servants with the local duke, Beck, even coming with a small train of maids and butlers following him and his wife though Tansen could not make out their looks as they were swarmed with sycophants. Once the needed number of chairs and drinks had been brought out, Tansen considered waiting a bit longer but it was at the last possible moment before propriety would be breached that the main show entered the arena.

Eli came in his full armor of steel and wood. The hawk look and height would have seen him stand out in a crowd of armored soldiers even if the maiden at his side hadn't drawn any eyes. The Kelton woman, with a human-ish head of grey fur with a snout and a white stripe running down the nose ridge, was wearing a purple dress with red vines running up and down it as the piece clung to her considerable bosom.

With bits of white embroidery and gold inlay, combined with the fine attention to detail, there was no doubt as to the dwarven origin of the garment. If Tansen remembered correctly, such custom jobs were among the most coveted of the dwarf's goods and even the highest ranks of the nobility struggled to get even one such item for their personal effects. The surrounding women were staring red hot murder at her, with even Agatha by the wooden stand getting a brief look of irritation before cooling herself to impassivity.

The worst of them was the two mage representatives and the now visible duke's wife holding her husband's arms by the front of the stage. She had a large bun of brown hair with a light green dress and a long trail of the dress behind her. The deep V of her chest showed the white embroidery of her dress. By the look of red heat in her smooth cheek bones and fiery green eyes, it was clear she knew the inferior make of her garb.

Some of the students were out talking with their parents but when Tansen made his way up onto the wood platform in front of the large square of chairs, they scurried off, totally uninterested in the 'mundane' work. Behind this large arrangement of chairs was a crowd of regular peasants and Keltons or low-level merchants, not important enough to merit a chair on their own but still interested in the proceedings.

"Dear ladies and gentlemen, we have many challenges ahead of us today. But I'm sure we will rise to meet the monsters we face." Tansen called over the crowd below as Agatha came up the stairs to the right to stand by him. A loud clap went out amongst the attendees.

Tansen pulled out a piece of paper and began reading the first item.

"The scarce space for the delivery of goods on the ships-"

"No!" A voice called.

Looking up from the paper, Tansen saw it was the raven-haired mage with her blond companion who spoke up. They were both in the front of the rows of chairs with the duke and his entourage and now stood up to look back over the crowd. Towards the back of the rows with the Kelton's and four chests, their eyes fell on the human and Kelton couple.

"There is only one item worth talking about." The blond mage said with a scowl.

"We are not the first item on the docket." Eli yelled back as the metal hawk stood tall from his seat. "Wait your turn like everyone else"

The three engaged in a staring contest for a long moment.

"My esteemed guests." Tansen said in his most respectful tone. "You can wait until we get to the item on the list to discuss it as was agreed upon or I will adjourn this meeting to then reconvene it with your item stricken out"

The two representatives looked outraged, but Tansen had the home turf advantage and the academy head was not known for making idle threats. With clenched jaws, they sat back down in their seats.

"Now" Tansen gave a light cough before continuing. "The roads are going to be impassable in the next few days except by the heaviest of guard, if they aren't already. Space on the boats is limited. As always, food, medicine and firewood is given priority, but society cannot survive on just those things alone."

Rand gave a loud cough and raised a hand.

"Rand." Tansen said with a nod towards the right middle side of the gathering.

"With the installation of the healing beds, our orders of bandages and healing elixirs have been cut by more than half. After some discussion, the merchant guild will take up the pre-assigned space that has been vacated."

A smug looking Gloria and a sour Panco near the middle confirmed Rands assertion.

"Excellent!" Tansen said with a smug smile showing through the goatee.

"How did you get healing beds?" Gertrude asked.

"We have a healing caster here. I know all about the regulations of such items, but we will have all the paperwork sorted out soon enough." Tansen said matter-of-factly. Healing crafts were a highly controversial item as prolonged use of such items led to vast mana dead zones from just a handful of them being used to reverse aging. Selling them also undercut the easy flow of cash from marketing healing potions but no one was going to send out a legal team to fuss about it under such circumstances.

"Really?" Pisko said with a raised eyebrow. "I thought all healing mages were snatched up by the associations on the coast or mainland in short order."

"Well, he is also a metal mage, lightning mage, and a plant mage so they don't have as clear of a hold on him as other healers."

Her smooth skin twisted with a sour expression while Gertrude got puckered lips but neither said anything to that.

"My good man." Duke Beck called to their right with a nod to Rand. He was a man somewhere between chubby and average with sandy hair and a suit of black with grey pants, all of fine make with bits of gold in the wrists and shoulders to extoll his wealth. "My men got a bit scratched up on the way here, would you be willing to let us use them for a bit?"

"O-Of course, sir." Rand said, confused at the duke's concern for his own men. Tansen had heard the duke was typical of the nobility and used his underlings like cattle but the meeting had too many important issues to dwell on oddities. The harbor master spoke up beside Panco.

"All well and good, but the circumstances of this necrosis have pushed us to use every last bit of space on the boats this year. Especially with several warehouses unexpectedly taken up" He said with a meaningful look to the small gathering of gangsters off to the left side of the main group. "None of the other towns on the river did very well with the sudden rush of the undead that came by and the mess in the south is absorbing every last resource the central government can spare. Frankly, we're on our own as far as the coast is concerned." That prompted a wave of nods and agreement from the seated crowd. "Wheat and barley alone have doubled in price while metal bars and charcoal has nearly tripled. Even if the river merchants could buy more ships, there are few people with the skills to man them that we could employ on such short notice or entice away from the inflated government contracts."

Murmurs of worry went through the crowd until Eli sat up near the back.

"I have the solution. Rather I have four of the solutions." He yelled as he moved on the left side of the gathering with three Kelton men behind him, all four carrying a chest each. They came forward and placed the chests on the wooden platform.

The crowd looked confused but Tansen and Agatha got relieved looks.

"Ah, excellent." Tansen said. "How much could they fit in them?"

Eli looked up at the nearly black sky for a moment before he gave the figures.

"The two on the left have a 25-foot by 20-foot capacity while the two on the right have only 15-foot by 18-foot in space. It depends on how the items fit together, of course, but for grains it should almost double the capacity of a mid-sized ship." He said casually.

"Boxes of Holding?" Gertrude called in surprise, her brown eyes going wide. The two mage representatives got up and went to caress the chests with covetous lust.

"Yes." Agatha replied. "Caster Eli has the ability to use the space expansion spell by himself, a feat I have been a personal witness to."

The two representatives' eyebrows shot up with a guarded look towards the student who was now walking back towards his seat. Their faces showed the dawning comprehension that Eli was close to being a scion, a fact that only made them shoot a murderous glance at his wife before they sat down.

"I…uh." Lucius said, clearly dumbstruck as he looked at the legendary items. An expression being worn by everyone else present. "That would fix a lot of the space problems but…um. How much is master Eli going to charge for their use? Not to mention the security for using such items is going to have to be extensive."

Eli stopped before he got to his seat.

"The deal is going to be this: The two smaller ones on the right will be used free of charge in exchange for the two on the left being dedicated to Kelton orders, which will be transported at cost."

Lucius put a hand over his mouth in thought as he tapped his foot.

"A deal better than any could imagine. While the river merchants may come to blows over who gets to accept the proposal, security will be an issue. I can't begin to imagine what some people would do to get their hands on such items." Lucius said carefully, clearly humbled by Eli's generosity but trying to dance around the problems caused by it.

"That's easy enough to solve." Duke Beck called. "I'll have the ship given my coat of arms showing it's under my protection." A wave of nods went through the crowd.

"I'll provide a few bodies to stiffen the guard as well" Mason called from the back right, his lamb chops of black flecked with grey moving with his nod. "In exchange for some space to allocate our leather and food shipments."

Lucius gave a nod to both men and promptly sat down. Servants moved to install torch stands around the gathered seats and dining table, which was still being assaulted by servants getting snacks and drinks for their masters.

"Eli," Tansen said with a cleared throat. "How much would it cost to have another chest commissioned for the academy to transport its goods?"

The helmet with a hawk face turned up from the seat and the purple eyes shined as the first torch was set up behind him.

"You have been good to me and my wife, so I'd say you have earned one. I'll make one at the academy classroom towers." He said with a casual, off handed tone.

'Ah' Tansen thought to himself. 'That's one way to warn anyone who's thinking about going after Salamede.'

Looking out over the crowd, the faces of the women were like stone statues, with the representatives getting snarls that they forced down with a brief struggle. Tansen decided it was time to move on before the women made their displeasure known.

"The next item is the sewage situation. With our population now approaching a small city, the river has become almost unusable for fishing and the streets weren't the cleanest before the new occupants."

A light cough from the back drew gazes and they stayed turned as Eli once again stood up and gave his proposal.

"There are many solutions to this problem, using a space expansion spell on large tubs to serve as removable containers for sewage is one."

Everyone present, from those on the stage, to the crowd of seats, and the servants all over the lawn got a sour expression. Even Tansen sucked his lips to stop him from voicing the obvious objection with Salamede likewise trying to grab her husband's arm.

"But we can't do that."

A sigh of relief escaped the academy heads lips as the sea of faces softened and Salamede leaned back.

"That would be far too inefficient. As such, a means of transporting the sewage past the town section of the river with an artificial channel would do be far more effective in meeting this challenge."

'By the spirits, Eli!' Tansen internally screamed. 'Even if my academy survives you, my nerves may yet fail the journey.'

The mayor stood up from his seat in the middle.

"We've not had the funds and the means to make a public latrine with the river water. The warehouses all take as much space as they can and even if we had the space for such a large-scale construction before, we certainly don't have it now."

"Ah," Eli countered "But that was with using the power of the river alone to move it along stone channels. I have the means of using a small pipe with water that will shoot out the sewage along a stone channel below a line of outhouses."

A local noble with a wiry build and thick black hair called from the front of the crowd.

"But how does that work? The river doesn't move nearly fast enough to shoot the water out of the pipe when you put the bottom in the river."

"A pump." Eli replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I will demonstrate it later, but it uses a special force called electricity to add pressure to the water that will make it shoot the sewage along the channel. I will, of course, need to get with the mayor to go over placements and dimensions." A light nod from the mayor affirmed his agreement.

As looks of intrigue spread throughout the assembled gathering, Eli sat back down. Tansen gave a light cough to draw the attention back to the stage.

"While there are certainly many more details that need to be worked out, can we consider this item settled?"

With the wave of nods, Tansen then moved onto the second to last item in the docket.

"There has been an increase of crime recently. I know that the local guard has been pushed to the breaking point so perhaps some of the local nobility might be willing to put forward the manpower to bolster their numbers?" Tansen said with an expectant look towards the front rows. The numbers involved had all been agreed to before hand in order to not make the nobles seem ungenerous when negotiating, so this was a mere formal recognition of that agreement.

While a number of nobles started putting forward their numbers, the group of rough gangsters stood up from their seats. Tansen gave light sigh and regretted giving into their demands for a special section of seats but Rand, oddly enough, encouraged it. The small square of seats was a bit away from the main group, but the action still drew everyone's gaze.

"Big talk about crime when we've been wronged right in front of the 'good' people of this town." A man with a strong jaw, grey streaked hair with black frills. His grey suit and pants had a fine cut but the scar along his left cheek said he did not start life in luxury, as did the other collection of well-dressed gangsters.

"I was there. They were accosting a street vendor and attacking some of the passerby trying to stop them." Tansen said coldly.

"Aye." One of the nobles near the front yelled. "Gods know I've lost enough taxes from my peasantry to your 'activities' over the years."

A wave of agreement went through the crowd but an older woman from among the criminals spat in their direction. She had a frame on the thinner side with her green leather armor done up with throwing knives on the shoulders. Her green eyes showed contempt as she dismissed the charge.

"And a lot of you were more than happy to employ our services when you wanted a rival's stores burned or merchants robbed." She said with a pointed look to some of the nobles in the crowd, all of whom were experienced enough to not even flinch at the accusation.

"We aint here to talk about this dumb shit." The buff man who started the conversation butted in "We're stuck in this shit hole because we didn't have time to hole up in our regular fort. The agreement with the stiffs was we settle down and not make noise. My boy was out having a little fun, rough as always, but you know how kids are. And that-" He turned towards Eli with a dramatic gesture.

But to everyone's surprise, Eli's seat was empty. Back further beyond the chairs was where the man in steel stood. He was placed between the gangster's chairs and the academy exit. The purple eyes showed sheer delight in the flickering torchlight as any servants or peasants between him and what now looked to be his prey scurried out of the way.

The worried looks on the gangsters faces only worsened as guards moved to surround the collection of chairs and, more importantly, provide a wall of bodies around the nobles as Rand took up position beside Eli.

"Heh." The buff gangster grumbled. "Rand. You must have gotten a little too friendly with the wine, old buddy. You" His face grew red and he puffed out his chest as he reached into his suit and pulled out a dagger from his suit pocket. Then he raised the pointed end towards Rand with a menacing scowl "Fucking forgot who we are. We got the boys to wreck this pretty little town and you'll honor the agreement."

Rand tutted with his lips as he wagged a finger at him like an errant child.

"And you forgot the terms of the agreement. Mind you own business and we won't try to bring you in. You violated those terms and now that agreement is void." The line of guards moved forward with raised shields. Off to their side, Eli summoned a small wall of raised dirt to block the civilians behind them.

"Woah now." The older woman called. "Burning an agreement over a scuffle involving a vendor? Seems like a bit much, don't you think?" Sweat ran down her tan skin, as it did most of the other men beside her. Rand got puckered lips as he looked at the group in contempt before he shattered their hopes.

"That isn't why we're voiding the agreement. We're voiding it because of the tunnels we found under the warehouses we loaned you. Couldn't be content, could you? Had to start working an angle and try to start a kidnapping ring. Tsk, tsk. I'd ask if you will ever learn but you're not going to have that chance now."

Sweat started running down the faces of the men now.

"Those disloyal dogs! How many of our men sold us out to you?" One of the gangsters in the back yelled.

"None. They're all dead. Eli used a massive air spell to suck all the air out of the warehouses and suffocate the inhabitants, one by one."

The nobles and peasantry kept their eyes on the gangsters, but all the mages looked towards Eli with impressed looks. Even using crafts, that had to be a difficult task. The mundane didn't understand the details involved in doing something like that but those with the knowledge to comprehend what would have to go into it got a good measure of respect for Eli's already considerable abilities.

"I gotta say, I never would have thought you'd have the balls to do something like this just on a hunch." The buff gangster said with a raised eyebrow. Rand just snorted

"It wasn't a hunch. Eli got the information from your son and used earth magic to expose the tunnel in your warehouse. From there, well, I have a lot of legal leeway when it comes to crises during necrosis and I wasn't feeling too generous when I saw what looked like future pens in that tunnel."

While his surrounding compatriots got murderous looks at him, the buff father just got a disbelieving face.

"My boy? No way. He wasn't the type to have loose lips, even with red hot pliers."

Rand whistled towards the academy entrance. Through the wide arch came a duo of men carrying between them a bloody wooden table with slabs of meat and wood on it. They moved forward and placed the table a few feet in front of Eli and Rand before pulling back.

No.

Looking at it closer in the torch light, Tansen could make out a human shape to the bones and wood. The skin was gone and, in the joints and muscle, were pieces of wood. Some were simple stakes while others were long half circles. It was an appalling display with the eyes sown shut on the scalped head and the arms missing.

"My…My boy. You killed my boy!" The gangster screamed with a red face of tears while everyone just looked on with queasy expressions.

"He killed himself when he attacked a citizen." Rand shot back as he made every effort to not look at the body. "This is all-"

"He's not dead." Eli said, his first words during the exchange.

Rand turned on his helper with a raised eyebrow as everyone else looked at the body then back to Eli in disbelief. Eli just huffed before he stepped forward and took out one of the stakes near the back shoulder. For a moment everyone looked on in confusion but then a piercing wail split the nights air. From the lipless jaws of the thing came an animal scream. It was hard to compare to anything for the notes of sheer agony contained in that blistering cry coming from the table struck something in the deepest wells of the soul. Everyone present shirked back in fear, even those far away and surrounded by guards.

Eli's eyes seemed to get a bit of joy in them but after a few more seconds of that unholy racket he shoved the stake back into the shoulder with a wet squish and the noise died. He then moved back to Rand, who now regarded him with a pale face and took a step away. Looking at it now, Tansen could just barely make out a faint rise and fall of the skinned mans chest when he strained his eyes.

"Healing enchantments are put into the pieces of wood and have mana batteries, meaning they can run even when the ambient mana runs dry. So," Eli said with a tone as casual as one might discuss the days weather. "You can surrender now, or I will have you."

Rand took a deep breath before he stood beside his helper again.

"What?" The old lady said in a panicked squeak.

"You will surrender to Rand or… you will be delivered into my hands." Eli said with a gleeful tone towards the end.

Rand gave a quivering nod, his face saying he was having second thoughts about letting Eli have free reign to deal with them. They were a plague on society but… that… thing on the table was bit much, even for ones such as these.

The group of gangsters immediately dropped their weapons and got on their knees. Even the father took only a moment to make a decision before he put the knees of his fine grey pants into the grass. Guards moved forward to tie rope around their hands and lead them off as Eli merely made his way back to his seat. Salamede took his right arm and wiped some dust off his shoulder while the bloody table and the now trespassing guests were taken to prison.

Along his way back to the seat, Eli pushed down the earth wall he had formed to protect the crowd. Tansen gave a slight cough after a long moment to get to the most important article of the night.

"The next item for discussion," Tansen said with a wavering tone "is the matter of the quad mage in our esteemed academy."

As the unholy scream started to fade from immediate memory, the faces of the representatives regained their color and stood up from their seats.

"What discussion?" Pisko said with a wave of her long raven hair. "The joke marriage will be dissolved, and he will start siring immediately."

"I think he should start with us, to help us give a thorough report of his abilities." Gertrude said with a lustful look back towards the steel plated mage, seemingly unperturbed by the previous display.

A loud cough from the right drew everyone's eyes towards Rand. He stood up even as sweat ran down his brown mustache.

"The Censor would mean that any children sired would-"

"You think we give a FUCK what a bunch of line on maps and paper say?" Gertrude growled. "The Coalition tries to undermine his lineage and the Coalition will be relegated to the trash heap."

That drew a long silence as the stunned crowd processed what she said.

"Now, now Gertrude." Agatha said placatingly. "Such hasty statements will only make this process more difficult."

The blond bit her lip for a moment before Pisko retold her associate's statements.

"Rand, here is a bit of reality. If you think the Coalition government can impede these proceedings, then you are delusional. Even if the government doesn't recognize his children, the associations will. The central continent associations will. I think putting together enough funds to supplement the government's failure will be the least of our efforts.

We aren't telling you how to do your job. We're telling you your higher ups better be willing to censor all of the magical associations."

Tansen gave a light sigh as sweat started running down Rands face. But Rand turned towards Eli as he spoke.

"Him siring is not the item on the docket, the marriage is." Rand said with a nervous tremor.

Pisko just huffed in derision.

"What is there to discuss? It will be annulled, and he will go to the dorms to spread his seed."

Eli just sat in the back with a blank expression in his eyes as Salamede was content to thread her arm through his.

Rand whispered to one of his guards, who then immediately ran off towards the academy entrance. He came back with a black robed man who carried a book and several pages. The skinny legal expert from earlier had a brown haired combover and pushed up his glasses as every eye settled on him.

"Evening, good people." He said to the crowd. "After an extensive look at previous cases, I don't think Rand has sufficient precedent to render a judgement with the censor. As such, this case will be taken up by a lower panel of judges who-"

'That doesn't matter!" Gertrude exploded. "Censored or not, the quad mage cannot have a barn animal for a wife." Her brown eyes turned a hard scowl towards Salamede.

It was at this time that Eli stood up.

"It's getting a bit chilly." He said in an almost bored tone. After a few seconds, a sudden blast of heated air pushed back the chill night air. Around the edges of the gathering were faint ember's going in and out of existence. Tansen couldn't see the spell Eli used, but it must have been very impressive from the slack jaw of Gertrude as the toned blond stood there staring in disbelief above Eli's head.

"Now, as someone only peripherally involved in these discussions." Eli said sarcastically. "Let me give YOU a bit of reality. Salamede and I are married. Some court order isn't going to change that. Screeching about how I can't marry a barn animal will not change that.

You can accept this reality and do something productive with your time.

Or you can try to rip up a piece of paper. You can try and annul a marriage through some dumb court order. A marriage" Eli puffed out his chest. "that has already been consummated. Thoroughly."

A wave claps went through the Keltons, both in the seats and the crowd of peasants in the back. Looking over the crowd, Tansen even saw some of the human men clapping, seemingly out of principle.

"Really? All the things he's done tonight and that's what gets the applause?" Agatha grumbled with a sour face. A face shared by most of the women, be they mage, noble, or peasant.

A swat on Eli's thigh from a blushing Salamede got him talking again.

"and accomplish nothing. We can discuss this like adults or you can try to undermine my marriage, achieving nothing aside from the fact that I will remember the attempt."

A hard moment passed as Eli and the two representatives stared at each other. The flickering embers stopped, and it took but a few moments before the cold of the night fought its way back in, though it was not as cold as the looks the women were giving Salamede. A cough from Tansen drew everyone's eyes back to the stage.

"We are here for the item on the docket. Rand, what is the legal status of the marriage?"

Rand nodded to the legal expert who finished out the last item of the night.

"A panel of lower court judges will have to decide on the matter at a later date." He said in a meek tone.

"Excellent!" Tansen said with a happy little clap as he folded up his paper. "Thank you all for attending. Hopefully, in the next few days we will resolve these challenges and not only continue with our lives but also do even better than before." A few odd claps and nods was the response, which was good enough for Tansen as he did a light bow and went to the right to walk off the platform. Oddly, Ryan was by the check-in talking with Rand as Andrew stood off to their right. Agatha looked on with a curious expression as well and they both walked through the torchlight to the three men.

By the time they got close, Rand was walking off and the two students in white and blue striped robes were looking at the approaching Agatha and Tansen in the bright star light.

"He was warning you about talking with Eli?" Tansen only half asked.

"Yeah. I explained that I owed him a favor, but Rand made it clear that it did not matter." Ryan said ruefully.

"What are you boys doing out here?" Agatha said in a tired tone. "We've already got one problem male student; this is not the time for you two to start stealing from the check-in kiosks."

Andrew huffed in indignation.

"We were just curious about the meeting. I heard some of the staff complaining about the prices in the market and wanted to know what's being done about it." He said casually, even as the red heads tone made it clear he was worried about something else.

"I told you, Andrew, with the breeding stipends our mothers will be fine. Even without Eli's intervention." Ryan said chidingly.

Agatha raised an eyebrow at the statement.

"How so?" She asked coldly.

Ryan furrowed his black eyebrows as his green eyes above sharp cheek bones showed some confusion. Agatha crossed her arms and looked between both of the students.

"Boys, the stipend gives the mothers and children money."

"and food and housing, right?" Andrew asked with a worried expression.

"No, just money. An absurdly generous amount of money, but if food and housing prices rise fast enough, that money will not be enough."

Andrew got puckered lips as Ryan furrowed his eyebrows. After a moment of processing those words, Andrew took a step forward.

"Woah. What do you mean 'not enough'? Andrew asked in a pissed off tone.

"What do you think that means?" Agatha asked.

"That wasn't the agreement." Ryan said with a scowl as he also stepped forward. "We get the women pregnant and the women and our child get to live in luxury till the day they die. That was what we agreed upon." Ryan now had an accusing finger pointed towards the Front woman, who actually regarded the two with a smile. After a moment, she took the two in a hug before pulling back.

"Boys, it's real sweet how worked up you are about this. But I would like to think I know more about these matters than you do." She said placatingly.

"Look at it this way." Tansen said with a wave of his hands "If they go hungry on the amount of money they get, everyone else in this town will have long starved to death."

That didn't seem to comfort them. After a few seconds of processing the never before considered possibility that their children might go hungry, Andrew looked towards the retreating back of Eli as Salamede held back by the kiosks waiting for a meeting with Tansen. It took but a moment before he took off for the leaving quad mage, with Ryan right behind him.

Tansen chuckled as he and Agatha walked back towards the tower. After a moment, Tansen made a decision.

"I will put out the word that the academy will be keeping tabs on mage sired children and open the larder to them if they can't get sufficient food." He said with a look upwards towards the star-studded sky.

"Good." Agatha said. "But the big item is Eli's soon to be children." Tansen shook his head in disagreement.

"The central government is just now confirming his existence. We have to figure out how we're going to maneuver through this storm."

Agatha turned to him with a quizzical look.

"What do you mean? Eli will put out; the real issue is making sure this censure doesn't further damage relations between the associations and the government."

Tansen regarded her with a raised eyebrow for a long moment.

"You seem awfully certain about Eli's inclinations." Tansen said with a suspicious tone.

"He is a man. Get a beautiful woman in front of him and he'll hop to it. The biggest trouble spot will be that Kelton woman. If she continues to induce him away from the mage associations, that attack won't be a onetime thing." She said dismissively.

Tansen thought on that statement as he opened the main tower door. There was something that felt…wrong. Of course, Tansen only knew that Eli loved that goat woman enough to not come out as a quad mage. Maybe she was a malicious influence on him, tying him around her finger in his moment of weakness, but that didn't feel right. Tansen had seen too many little signs of what seemed to be genuine care and affection between the two and Eli's indifference to those around him was completely genuine. The academy head would stake his position on the latter, which he absolutely was if he played this wrong.

"Agatha. We need to coordinate on this. Everyone is going to drop the hammer on him, and we need to be there to make sure things don't get too crazy." Tansen said sincerely as he held the door open.

She stood there in her black work dress with an impassive face for a long moment before speaking again with crossed arms.

"Fine. I'll play along if you tell me what actually happened before Eli took off and why you seem so concerned that a man won't rut like you do, like every other male mage does."

Tansen ignored the sting as he stood there in silence. Confirming he knew Eli was a quad mage and told no one would be a death sentence for his career but that was also why he and Aki knew what Eli was going to choose if forced between the mage world and Salamede since he had already made that decision. A long moment of uncomfortable silence passed between them before Agatha sighed.

"Good night, Tansen." She said as she walked through the open door as Salamede broke through the crowd and came up to them.

"Good night, Agatha." Tansen said as he went up to his office. Salamede followed in behind him, which prompted a tight look from Agatha, but the two women moved past each other without a word. Tansen silently walked up the tower staircase until he moved past his secretary's area and went into his office. Sitting down and starting the mana lamp on the middle of the ceiling, Tansen sat in his seat as Salamede stood in front of his desk.

"Eli said you wanted to talk to me." Tansen said as he leaned forward against his desk.

"Yes." Her rough voice responded. "As we talked about his situation, Eli said that he would not be spreading his seed outside of his marriage."

Tansen gulped and pinched his nose in exasperation before he proceeded to respond in the most respectful tone he could manage.

"If you have told me the grain stores were devoured by rats and all our walls were undone with magically gifted moles, that may yet be better news." He said, unable to keep the last bit of pouty sarcasm out of his voice.

"I know." She said sympathetically, "But he is open to expanding the marriage to other women. Also, while I'm not 100 percent certain on this, I would bet he would be willing to get a woman with child if it was what kept her alive or her family from starving."

"Well, that should be easy. There are plenty of peasant women who would do well with the stipends the government would provide them as mothers to a casters child, that's even if they don't make a special stipend for his progeny."

"Ah," Salamede put up a finger. "But that's only if the money from selling a bag of holding would be blocked or unallowed somehow."

Tansen leaned back into his chair, causing a ripple in the wave of sapphires on his chest as he crossed his arms.

"Nothing can just be easy with him, can it?" Tansen said irritably.

Salamede furrowed her eyebrows and put her hands to her hips.

"I'd imagine it would be far easier if people hadn't branded him a child molester and scorned him for daring to be a successful crafter."

Tansen looked at her for a moment with a raised eyebrow. Being branded a child molester was a great stain but being an orc mater was generally seen as the greater offense. One was a pervert against decency and everything good, but the other stood against all of that and the very existence of humanity itself. One student at the diamond academy had been caught amongst such dregs of moral depravity and his station had not nor would ever recover. That crafter John had been basically written off by all of the associations and him passing as an official mage made no difference to his prospects.

The academy head just put her not mentioning the orc mating offense down to her being a Kelton and not really getting the importance of such matters.

He closed his eyes and turned his head up at the ceiling for a long moment before giving a tired sigh and agreeing.

"Yes, that certainly didn't help matters."

"What is it like on your end? With the other mages?" Salamede asked with a sense of trepidation.

"Not good. They seem to think that either you're the reason he's not spreading his seed or that it's just some problem that's going to solve itself. Or both." Tansen said as he turned his eyes down to the Kelton woman in front of him. "We need to mend this rift soon or it may linger in any of the mage associations he goes on to join."

"Or he may not join any of them." Salamede said worriedly.

Tansen nodded with a grave face.

"Yes. If it comes to that, it won't be him that they lash out at." Tansen said with coldness.

She got a light smile and gave a bow.

"Then we shall not let things come to that. I'll keep an eye out for any opportunities when I'm not working. Good night, sir."

Tansen returned the gesture with a nod and she left his office, with him following soon after to go to sleep.