After Arizar got her misguided revenge by crashing the dune buggy, we finally turned to the reason we'd come inside the Memory Palace in the first place.

Law.

I'd thought Arizar would turn to her own tasks, since that'd been the reason she'd chosen to join me in the first place. Instead, she took the time to help me through the first of the lessons. Only after a few hours of guidance did she start on her own project.

Her project proved more distracting than if she'd been driving the dune-buggy through the shop's wall.

"Is that a variation on Eagle Eyes?" I asked, getting up and leaving the lessons behind after a casual glance recognized some of the structure she was working with.

Arizar looked up from her notes, blinking at me for a second. Then she looked back down, sliding a page over with a list of potential changes. "It is. Though technically its a variant of a variant of a variant. I'm mapping out ratios that will scale with constantly improving vision. My current variant doesn't account for the gains we've been making inside the underwater forest."

"That's… pretty clever," I said as I read over it. She was right, Eagle Eyes didn't scale that well. It always provided some effect, of course, because it was working to magnify distant objects.

But it was far from optimal, since augmented eyes didn't need the same focal points. Most wouldn't ever need to make the changes she was working through. Even if they were a Pegasus soul. The design was… very subtle work.

I ended up sitting down with her, and spent a couple hours helping her work through an improved version.

And thanks to Ever Expanding Imperium of the Mind granting us the ability to cast 1st Order spells we were able to test it immediately.

Which we did in combination with a set of Petal rods that had been modified to fire without needing the silly twirling motion.

Out behind the shop, contrary to how it'd been back on Earth, was a huge yard with a fence in the distance. Placing empty soda cans on that fence had been as easy as it had to place the street earlier.

With Petal rods in hand, and a modified spell shimmering over our eyes, we proceeded to take turns taking potshots at the soda cans.

"I can't help but think your trials with the machine-spirit have increased your control over this space," Arizar said, raising her rod towards the sky as I reset the distant cans once more. She was a much better shot than I was, despite the fact I was pretty sure my vision and agility were both better than hers.

"If you're talking about the cans, I've always been able to summon stuff," I said, lining up for my next set of shots. She remained quiet as I sent the razor sharp petals rocketing into the distance. "Just like the dune buggy."

"I suppose it makes sense that you were naturally talented," Arizar said with a sigh. "Father says I must stop comparing myself to others, yet it is challenging when I find myself coming up short so often."

Even as she said those words, she picked off every single can without sending a single petal off course.

"Yes, because you're so inferior," I replied, shaking my head.

For some reason, she blushed at that.

"Right. This was fun, but I should get back to the Red, Black and Blue," I said, stretching, more out of habit than 'cause of any pain or soreness.

"Sorry for distracting you. I shall do my best to keep my work from being so engaging in the future," Arizar said, though the twitch of her lips told me exactly how committed to her promise she was.

"Don't you have a city to plan?" I groused, though a chuckle betrayed me as I led the way back into the garage.

"That might be best," Arizar agreed, following behind. "You know, this is rather different than spending time in my father's Palace."

"Not as many fancy features?"

"Father's primary advantages over your space are the ability to craft higher tier spells and the higher compression. While those are certainly significant, they're hardly fancy," Arizar said, shaking her head. "No, it's… you know, never mind. The difference is interesting, yet not important."

"If you say so," I replied.

"Let me know if you have any questions. It seems we both work better with assistance," Arizar said as I settled down with the code again.

I grunted in response, giving her a nod. She sighed as she pulled out her plans for Overflow B.

Didn't blame her. Logistics for a place that big was gonna be a headache.

After another dozen hours, I had a much better understanding of Spellford's laws. Arizar had started helping out again a couple hours after our break, acting as a tester, which I'd appreciated.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

It had helped keep it from growing stale.

Instead of reams and reams of exacting laws, Spellford worked on first principles. Much like how her father had his core tenets, the laws of Spellford worked from clearly worded intent, then had guidelines on how best to achieve such intent.

A simple precept like ensure that no resident goes hungry would turn into an entire set of questions. Why might the residents be hungry? Is food stored ahead of time? Are the enchanted facilities sufficient for population growth? What happens if someone sabotages production?

And dozens more besides.

It was such a different approach from what both Perth and I were familiar with yet felt more intuitive. I liked it, and might've mentioned that I wanted something similar for Cape Aeternia.

Again, Arizar explained that it did require more judges and investigators. She also admitted it produced a lot of people like Alister.

That he was the norm and not the exception amongst those in such roles in Spellford was… well, I'd visited the city. And while it wasn't perfect, for eight million people living in such close proximity, it had been... good. I'd grown up in a town that had been around ten thousand people that was so much worse it barely deserved mention.

Most of us could've rolled up to Spellford with nothing on our backs and seen a better life inside a week.

As I sat staring at the code, I couldn't help but wonder. How different would my childhood have been if I'd been born in Spellford?

I didn't even realize a tear had slid down my cheek until Arizar placed her hand on mine.

"Sorry. Just… this is great," I said, clearing my throat. Despite working with her for hours, I'd forgotten for a minute that I wasn't alone.

"If there is better, neither father nor I have found it," Arizar said, patting my hand awkwardly before pulling her own back. "Now, shall we return to it?"

"Yeah, let's," I agreed, thankful for the out.

Arizar ended up spending nearly two real world hours in my space before she mentioned feeling a slight tightness in her head.

Deciding we'd been inside long enough, longer than we'd initially been planning, we packed up our metaphorical things and ended our spells.

By the time I'd exited she was still struggling to open her eyes, so I cast a Restore Form on her, hoping to cut out any headache before it started. It helped her rouse faster, her eyes quickly blinking open. "Well, that was significantly more pleasant than when I overstay in father's."

"Yeah, we probably should've come back after an hour," I said, rubbing at my neck, realizing we'd just spent a full two and a half days together non-stop.

I'd never done even half that with Tamrie and I suddenly felt guilty about that fact. And for the fact I'd enjoyed the entire time. Arizar seemed to have a talent to get on other people's wavelengths. That was my only explanation for how easy it was for her to work so well with both me and Tamrie.

Had she learned that from her father? I'd been unusually comfortable around him as well.

"Shall we go see your councilor? I'm certain he'll be glad to know you've versed yourself so thoroughly," Arizar asked, pushing to her feet with a smile.

"I… didn't you have things you needed to take care of?"

"I do not yet have any residents," Arizar reminded me. "Though perhaps I should change that soon. Either way, until I do, the only one affected by my schedule is me."

"Fair enough," I said, not sure how I should feel about her apparently wanting to spend more time with me. I decided I'd be tentatively appreciative. She was my girlfriend's friend.

I also decided that I'd talk to Tamrie about it later. She'd tell me if it was a problem.

Thankfully, Alister had managed to make the transition to Southport while Arizar and I had been catching up on Spellford law.

Instead of moving directly to arresting anyone, as I'd originally assumed would be the natural path, the three of us sat down together to sort through what Alister had gathered so far. Then I went through what I'd learned, getting input from both of them on judgments and rewards.

It seemed that food had been getting hung up in logistics. Some of our less trained assistants in Southport had set aside several warehouses because of…

Well, it looked like they'd made some sort of mistake, then had been too embarrassed to report it, and it'd turned into a whole snafu. The assistant had already been talked to by Tamrie, and given new help, but it'd still happened.

The refugees hadn't been starving, but despite our surplus, people were having a hard time getting anything other than a couple kinds of roots and they'd all had to go with a single meal a day for three days straight. Amongst the refugees from Spellford were a few who were aware of the normal operating procedures for how they dealt with smugglers, and they'd started 'solving' the problem before Tamrie caught it.

Unfortunately, they'd brought in refugees who had no such background. That had led to… differences of opinion. The resulting deaths might've been lost amongst the noise, if not for Alister investigating the missing affinity materials. It was hard to keep track of our population with so many people moving in and out.

"You're certain, Magus?" Alister asked when we were done.

"If you're correct, then the only people who solely deserved punishment are already dead," I said, rubbing at my forehead. "And while I could just let those who addressed the issues off easy, they could've resorted to less lethal measures. That said, we're well aware of our shortage of capable police officers. Deputizing them, giving them training and imposing weekend community duty for the next couple years… is that wrong?"

"Perhaps some minor adjustments to each case, to ensure it's fair. But it is a solid base," Arizar said. "It recruits talent, acknowledges the good they did, and doesn't unduly punish them."

"Still feels weird to allow murder to be worked off with community service."

"It's not murder if done in defense of the community," Arizar said, brow wrinkled. "We went over this."

"Yeah, seems like a slippery slope," I said, rubbing my forehead.

"All law is, when applied effectively," Arizar said, patting my hand once more. "If law is a flat land, then most have already been pushed over the edge. A slope is tougher to dwell upon but allows for a fairer system."

"Fair enough," I said, chuckling softly to myself.

Arizar arched an eyebrow, but didn't comment.

After a few more adjustments, we set out. The leader of the smugglers was an older elf from Spellford. Deller, according to Alister's notes. He'd also been the one to kill the others in 'community defense'.

As I approached the gathering, the old elf looked up. He barely looked at me at first, locking onto Arizar instead.

"Shaper Arizar," he said bowing low to her. "To what do I owe this honor?"

"I'm afraid I'm here on behalf of our local Magus Protectus," Arizar replied, giving him a polite smile.

The older elf spat to the side. "To take such a title for himself when he can't even feed his subjects properly. A disgrace."

"Agreed," I said, only drawing a glance from the elf.

"So, what does our lord on high want?" he asked, still locked on Arizar.

"Hmm. I'm not entirely sure. Why don't we ask him?" Arizar replied, polite smile still locked in place as she shifted towards me. "Well, Magus Protectus? What did you want with this smuggler?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.