The Blacksite

After a hurried dinner, Kye brought Frey and his other two mothers out to see the Weavetech rifle in action. After going through an identical demonstration of the rifle that he went through with Kyla and Alicia, Frey looked at Kye with warm eyes. He pulled Kye into a big hug and swung him around in circles as he laughed loudly. Many others would be shocked that an eight-year-old would be able to create such a devastating weapon but Frey knew what this was. Kye was, deep down, concerned with the lives and safety of the people in this territory if only because Frey was. His caring disposition and militaristic tendencies had rubbed off on Kye over the past few months and Kye was slowly changing into a younger version of Frey. While he rather enjoyed how much his son was taking after him, his mothers were not so enthusiastic about it as they were all there to witness Frey's adolescence. They knew that while they couldn't stop Kye's changes, it was on them to stop him from being the same kind of menace Frey was at his age.

"Son! This is great, the power of these rifles is amazing! Is this what you had envisioned when you had created the Spellweave crystals?"

"Not just this father, I had envisioned a city powered fully by Spellweave crystals. I want to make more devices powered with Spellweave crystals and improve other aspects of civilian life as well as modernize our military! Sanitation, transport, security, and convenience! All of these can be improved with my technology!"

This was the first time the family had seen Kye so animated and excited about something since he woke up. It was of great relief to the family that their son could still feel so passionate about things despite his previous illness. Frey looked around before releasing Kye from his embrace.

"We should head to my office. Bring the rifle and you can explain the details there, as much as we're safe in our courtyard, this is important for your future."

Kye slung the rifle over his shoulder and followed closely behind his father with his mothers following behind Kye. Rose was particularly excited over the weapon's creating as it was the first time Kye had shown active interest in warfare and if he were to continue developing stronger and more advanced weapons, he would need military training which would fall under her domain. She hadn't interacted with Kye as much as she would have liked as she felt somewhat responsible for Signus's poor behaviour towards him. Rose also saw immense potential in Kye as she had purposefully set him training equivalent of knight recruits to see how far he could go. To her surprise, he had managed to not only complete it once but added onto it over the past few months.

While Rose was pondering over what she would teach Kye, they had arrived at Frey's study. Frey pulled out a four-pointed gold star around the size of a watch face and inserted it into a mechanical lock on the door. There were a few faint clicks before the door swung open revealing a large, well-furnished office. The desk was made of solid wood and had velvet upholstery on the side. The chairs were made of a darkened metal and had cotton-padded cushions on the seat and backrest. Kye placed the rifle case down on the desk and took a seat opposite Frey's chair. His mothers sat down on a couch that was placed against the left wall and contented themselves to be passive observers in the discussions until they felt their input would be valuable.

"So, Kye. What exactly do you want to do with the future of what you've shown me? It's pretty clear that you have some big dreams and visions for this technology but I want to hear the next step from your mouth before I suggest things."

Kye wondered for a few moments if he should go through with the plan he had envisioned or if his father would ever accept his proposal but decided that if he didn't express this idea, his possibilities in the future would be hindered greatly.

"I would like to establish a city with a massive workshop and foundry underneath it as a blacksite." Frey raised an eyebrow.

"A blacksite? What is that exactly?"

"A blacksite is something that doesn't officially exist. It would be like money from your report would be going into funding a new industrial city that would be governed by the territory and with an administrator of your choice. Now the funding would be immense but once we start shipping Spellweave crystals that shouldn't be much of a problem. Once the funding arrives in the coffers of the administrator, they write some papers that funnels it to the blacksite and give it some kind of sign that it's not to be audited by the administrators responsible for making sure there is no embezzling happening. No one formally acknowledges that the workshop exists and no one questions where the money goes. All that happens is that the city also rapidly develops and it is assumed by those who don't know about our finances that the massive amount of money sent to them is spent on the city's development."

Frey intertwined his fingers together and rested his chin on his arms that lent against the desk. What Kye had proposed would be a massive undertaking but the potential from an unregulated and covert factory and research centre headed by his son was massive and could not be written off. Frey looked at Layla for her input. Seeing his gaze, Layla stood up and stood next to Kye's chair.

"If we're talking about the logistics, Kye is right in saying that this would be a massive undertaking. Not only would the workers have to either be sworn to secrecy or kept in the dark about what it was for, but the city above would also have to be unaware of what it was for. The easiest way of doing this would be to open up parts of the underground as a front for its actual purpose. Maybe have one or two self-contained civilian factories running as well as whatever Kye is going to make at his as well." Frey gave a small smile.

"The plan going ahead wasn't a question at all huh?" Layla gave Frey an annoyed look.

"Of course not. The number of benefits gained from having our son here doing whatever it is he has planned far outweighs the risks of it. What Kye has demonstrated to us already in such a short period is nothing but revolutionary. If we were to not fund his development further, we would lose out in the long run."

"I think there are other ways of funding him without this plan though."

"Yes there are, but Kye wouldn't suggest this unless he had some type of idea that wasn't possible to complete in his current situation." Layla looked at Kye. "Right Kye?"

"Yes mother Layla, if we are to properly mass-produce Weavetech devices then I will need factories that can be tooled and changed according to what I need. With a bigger workspace, I can also work on the main project on my mind right now." Frey lent forward and focused on Kye.

"And what project would that be?"

Kye reached into the rifle case and pulled out several rolls of blueprinting sheet. He had many projects on these but he sorted through them quickly and pulled out the sheet he was looking for. Shifting things off the desk, he unfurled the blueprint sheet and displayed it to Frey and his mothers. What was detailed on this sheet was a device massive in scale, capable of continuously condensing Spellweave energy and using it to power devices connected to it. With this, Kye could run all the magical devices in a household for an entire city.

"I want this city to be my proof of concept for what I'm calling the 'Weave Generator'. If this city can run completely off of this generator, then we can use these to bring forth a new era of sustainable living for all citizens. A world in which running the magical stove doesn't cost a disposable fire mana gem but is instead directly run off of a self-sustaining generator maintained by us. If we have each household pay us a small fee each month as part of their taxes and we guarantee that they will never have to buy another magic gem again to run their appliances, imagine the opulence we could live in!"

Frey looked with pride at his son as he espoused his grand ideals for a better future for the common people. If Kye was not the kind-hearted boy he was, after creating a weapon like the magical rifle, the next step in anyone with power-hungry ambitions would be to arm a nation and use them to conquer as much land as possible. Instead, Kye thought first of increasing the standard of living for the common folk, and this left Frey with a profound sense of pride in his chest. As warm gazes fell on Kye, Frey spoke again.

"Alright Kye, I'll run with this plan. It will take some time to get this organized and I want your involvement with it to be balanced with your physical training. We will send this rifle prototype to a trusted arcanist affiliated with the family and have them produced as quickly as we can. Then we will train up squads of foot soldiers to use these rifles to better protect us on the western border. From there, we will begin the process of excavating an area under the planned city site." Layla spoke from there.

"You might not like this Kye, but you're going to fall behind on other subjects if you just devote yourself to Spellweave at this early point in your life. If you leave detailed enough plans, we will hire trusted arcanists and mechanists to build your devices and set them up appropriately. For now, you should ramp up your physical training and begin studying more worldly subjects before your tenth birthday. The first princess will be having her fifteenth birthday party a few days after your tenth and you will be attending. This will be your first public appearance since you have woken up so it needs to be amazing."

Kye realized that he was falling back into his old mentality and Layla was right in saying he had to refocus his efforts on improving himself in other areas. He nodded in agreement and Layla ruffled his hair.

"Okay. Why don't you go up to your room and get some rest while we discuss who we should bring into this plan."

Kye nodded and left the office and gently shut the door behind him and quietly made his way to his room. Although he was silent, he had a large smile on his face as he stepped ever closer to his goal of improving the lives of regular citizens. Though Kye was an idealist, he wasn't divorced from reality either and knew that this technology would garner the interest of those that wanted to exploit it and turn it against the people as a way of maintaining their grip on power. To that end, Kye knew he would need to raise a force to defend his ideals, a peacekeeping force that he could use his technology to provide superior technology to ensure the safety and livelihoods of the Runewalker citizens.

This was Kye's goal from the start. He struggled when he was young with only his father being alive and he hated how the opulence of The Magos Tower and all the aristocrats wasn't shared around to those who desperately needed it. Those that were starving on the streets, those that had been displaced and left for dead by war and those that had been squeezed of everything they had by those who had more. This was Kye's moment to make the world a better place and he was going to achieve his goals.