After their initial shock wore off, the Shapers started to crowd around me and Master Shaper Stand. A quick yell from the latter had them scattering, doing their best to leave the angry Shaper and the dock where he stood behind.

"Sorry about that Magus Protectus," he said, much stiffer than he'd been a couple minutes earlier.

"Percival's fine, long as we're not in some ceremony. Or Magus if that's too informal," I said, falling in at the end of the procession with Stand. "And it's really not a problem. Could've kept it to myself or introduced myself right away. Come on, Bevel."

The last was said in a near whisper, yet I was sure she'd hear me. If I hadn't put up so many sound buffering shields around our home, I'd be a little worried about her listening in one things she shouldn't. Was amazing how easily a shield designed to protect the ears could be repurposed to provide privacy.

At the edge of the dock, the group who'd been excitedly babbling near her seemed shocked when the anomaly moved then started getting closer. The nearly collapsed when the anomaly revealed itself to be a gangly teenager with scruffy hair who was flying through the air towards us. With a kick against one of the nearby branches, Bevel ping-ponged her way over to stand beside me. Brushing herself off, she tilted her head, brow scrunched as she asked, "They're kinda like Inertia, but less focused, aren't they?"

"That's certainly one way to look at them," I said, flicking a leaf out of her hair before turning back to the Master Shaper who'd handled her sudden appearance better than the rest. "Now, Master Shaper Stand, there's a lot I'd like to get your crews to do, but it sounds like you had plans of your own. What do you say we leave your people to settle in while we go grab lunch?"

Even as I spoke, over at the end of the dock the most adventurous Shapers were being herded by several former refugees Tamrie had arranged for the task. Technically, they were doing the official meet and greet, since I hadn't known if I'd have free time. Considering their scattered nature, I figured it was best to let the volunteers handle escorting the Shapers towards the Waygate then on to Esbee's.

"As you wish, Magus," Stand replied, giving me a short bow before waving away the few Shapers who'd attempted to stand around.

Instead of following the crowd, we visited one of the cooking stations that had set up in Verdant Point. It was on the verge of becoming a proper restaurant. Not an actual restaurant, since it was preparing food supplied through our greenhouses, which meant it wasn't actually charging anything, and the workers were getting paid by us.

Was amazing how many public services could be funded by simply using a small portion of the proceeds from monster parts sales. If things remained as they were, I wasn't sure we'd ever need taxes. It was a thing Thozgar had avoided, though he had a lot of simple services that the government charged for instead, such as non-life saving surgical healing.

It was amazing how much experimentation was going into the food. I couldn't have even imagined the bowl of mixed round root vegetables, meats, veggies and sauces back when I'd lived on Earth. And now we were giving it away for free.

Which only made me feel worse that people had been going hungry just one short Waygate jump away.

Shaking it off, I tried to prod Stand to tell me his plans, but he was incredibly stiff and retreated behind the food.

Then again, considering the way his eyes had opened after his first bite, maybe he was just enjoying it too much to want to speak. Either way, after an awkward first few minutes, Stand finally seemed to loosen up. Well, awkward for him. Bevel and I'd been pretty chill as we discussed all the places she was hoping to visit over the next couple days.

Seemed that book had really caught her imagination and now she wanted to go out and test herself.

I'd managed to extract a promise that she wouldn't go alone, and had been on the verge of offering to go with her when Stand had said,

"We're mostly wanting to spend our afternoons on personal projects. The High Shaper said that since we were volunteering, that you'd by fine with that."

"That's not terrible," I said, having honestly expected much worse. "I was hoping to get you to start laying down rails."

"Rails?" Stand asked, glancing over at the counter where we'd gotten our meals.

After he'd retrieved a second bowl, I set about explaining what we were trying to build, and the stresses likely to be involved.

"Not sure if you noticed, but Shapers aren't the most disciplined of people," Stand said, shaking his head. "Sure, we could do it, but they'd complain about it the whole time. Might even sabotage the effort. Might be better to set them on whipping you up Magits that mundanes can use to do most of the grunt work. Wouldn't be too tough to convince them to 'prove how it should've been done' after and get any mistakes fixed up."

"Sounds like it'd take a lot of materials."

"Not too many. Can always make that part of the challenge. Shapers love a challenge," Stand said, a small smile tugging at his lips.

"I can appreciate that," I said, nodding in agreement.

"It's good, you know. To be able to offload the work to the mundanes. Lot more of them than us," Stand said, gesturing towards the nearby kitchen.

I traded a glance with Bevel, both of us looking towards a nearby sentry who'd recently awakened. Deciding it was a bit early to mention the fact that we were awakening people by the half-dozen, I moved the conversation along to a few details about himself. Turned out he, like half of the Shapers who'd volunteered, didn't have family in Spellford.

The rest had brought their families with them, though they'd remained on the boat. It sounded like most of the Shapers intended to stay, even after their initial contract was over, so long as I kept giving them materials and challenges aplenty.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

An idea that once might have excited me, but now seemed like it might be more headache than it was worth.

Once our meeting was over, I ended up bumping into Tamrie, who'd come over to ensure thing were going smoothly with the Shapers. When I mentioned Bevel wanting to go on her trip, Tamrie surprised me. "More'n like, you should go with. Things are settled, such as they are. Do you good to spend time with her."

"Not that I don't want to go, but…" I trailed off as a group of Shapers walked by, laughing, holding a device between them that was reshaping the nearby stone into a solid rail.

It'd been less than half an hour since I'd asked Stand to get them working on something that could create heavy duty rails.

"You know, maybe you're right. It'd do me good. And I can recall back every night to keep a certain someone company," I said, pulling her into me and giving her a passionate kiss.

After a moment, we broke apart, Tamrie leaning back and playing with my ear, hand still woven in my hair. "Not that I wouldn't miss you, but wouldn't it be that you'd make better time if'n you weren't returning every time the sun dipped into hiding?"

"Yeah, but… well, we'll talk to Inertia and Nexxa first," I decided, leaning into her hand. "I think Bevel will be excited."

"More'n like," Tamrie agreed, grabbing my chin as she brought her lips close. "Now one more of those toe-curlers an' I'll be back to it."

I obliged, thoroughly ruining any sense of propriety within any who saw us.

Only after we each brushed ourselves off did I seek out Bevel. Who was, handily, already chatting with Inertia. From the sound of it, she was trying to convince Inertia to go with.

"It'd be fun to have you," I said as I walked up. "Though I understand if you're too busy with Aeternia's Shield."

"See, Papa thinks you should come with… us…" Bevel trailed off as she turned to look towards me, eyes widening. "Papa? You're coming? I thought you were too busy?"

The last was said with the sort of wavering worry that made me regret turning her down earlier. "Turns out I'm not quite as irreplaceable as I thought."

Bevel scrunched up her face at that, turning towards Inertia. Inertia rumbled, hissed and rattled and Bevel's eyes went wide again.

"You're not replaceable to me Papa," she said as she tackle-hugged me.

"Oof. Thanks kiddo. Wasn't complaining," I said, ruffling her hair as I returned the hug one armed.

Inertia snorted, stomping off a few paces whistle hissing at one of her workers.

"You can help me finish my Wind Palace while we're traveling too! Then you don't have to be alone," Bevel said, not quite unlatching, but giving me enough space to stand.

"Wind Palace, huh?" I asked, glancing down.

"Mhm. I was talking to Ari and she said that since I'm so in tune with the Wind, my home's probably attuned to it, so it'd be a good idea to make some changes to Memory Palace. She says our unique bond and the nature of my magic might let me visit you too!" Bevel said, smiling.

"That sounds great," I said, only then realizing she'd been serious about me not being alone.

"Yeah, and if we work on it together, then she says that'll make it even more better!" Bevel said, practically hopping in place. "Oh, we should ask her if she wants to come with us."

"I'm not sure she'll have time," I deflected, glad the Shapers had shown up for a whole new reason. Arizar would be kept quite occupied with them helping sort things out in Overflow B.

"Aw. I like her. She's funny and smart and soooo pretty," Bevel said, "You should date her instead of Tamrie."

"It doesn't work like that. Doesn't matter how great someone is when you're in love with someone else," I said, ruffling her hair. "Now, did you talk to Inertia about places to visit already?"

Bevel shook her head, so we spent a few minutes with me standing around while Inertia and Bevel chatted, Tresla sitting nearby with her needlework though not taking part.

I added making one of those smoke-blades to my tentative list of projects. Would be nice to be able to understand my large friend better.

Also… chainsword.

Who wouldn't want a chainsword if they could make one?

Unfortunately, Inertia really wasn't willing to leave, at least for the next week.

So we went to Overflow B to find Arizar, ostensibly so Bevel could get more ideas about where to stop off, though the little brat's true intentions were revealed by the time she'd gotten her second full sentence out. "Hi, Ari! We're going on a trip to check out places like in the book you gave me. You should come with us!"

Arizar stopped where she was directing one of the cadres. There was signage nearby declaring it as the new Esteemed Shapers Primary Guildhall. Seemed she'd decided to provide a headquarters for them while they were in Cape Aeternia. That was a relief, since it meant she'd be keeping them out from underfoot, for the most part.

"Oh, hello Bevel," Arizar said, turning towards us. "I suppose I could be convinced to join you now that I have experienced Shapers with working speaker-artifacts. I hardly think they'd appreciate me looking over their shoulders. How were your efforts with Inertia? Did you convince your friend to join you?"

"Nah, she's too busy making sure her new ship doesn't go boom," Bevel said, arcing a hand forward then making an explosion motion with it.

"So who is this we, then? Oh, hold on, dear," Arizar said to Bevel before turning back to one of the Shapers, who'd come over with another question. After addressing them, she looked back towards Bevel. "Sorry dear, who had you convinced to join you?"

"Papa is going with me!"

"Ah, well if Tamrie and your Papa are going, I'll certainly make time to join you," Arizar said, reaching forward and ruffling Bevel's hair. I smiled when I saw Bevel lean into it.

Only other person I'd seen Bevel do that with was… well, me.

"Tamrie can't spare the time, unfortunately," I said, nipping that in the bud immediately. "She also suggested we stay out for a couple days, so we could hit more spots faster."

"Oh, she did, did she?" Arizar asked, her green eyes shining with a spark of mischief. "I do believe I shall need to talk to my friend about why she might want time away from her dear man, before I agree to join you."

"I don't think it was anything like that," I said, frowning.

"I'm certain you're correct," Arizar agreed, though that sparkle in her eyes didn't go anywhere.

"See you at dinner, Ari!" Bevel said, waving at Arizar.

Meanwhile Arizar returned the wave, still smiling as she turned back to her crews with a new energy.

I decided not to worry too much about the implications of her statement. At least, I tried not to. I hadn't thought of it as Tamrie wanting to send me away. Afterall it hadn't been her idea.

Right. Wasn't her idea. It was Bevel's. Who'd gotten her idea from Arizar. Who was quickly becoming Tamrie's best friend.

Best not to go too deep down that thought funnel.

The evening came quickly, and the topic of Bevel's trip dominated conversation as we sat with Tamrie, helping her work on her own magecraft while Bevel worked on the beginning of her Wind Palace. Most of my attention that evening was dedicated to helping her with her spell-scribing. She had excellent penmanship, but the actual act of merging the silver with the page was…

Well, not everyone was a born welder, and that was even more true for enchanting. Required a sort of finesse and understanding, to get it right and proper.

"I think it's a good idea," Tamrie said, after Bevel had mentioned that she was trying to convince Arizar to join us.

"You do?" I asked, stopping my examination of her latest attempt at the Mana Draw design to inspect her.

She ran a hand through her hair, letting it rest on the hairpin for several long seconds before nodding her gaze drifting to the east, as if staring through the blank wall. She remained silent for a second before nodding. "Sure enough, I do. Be good for all of us, more'n like."

"I… if you really think so," I said, once more feeling like I was missing something.

She pulled her hand down, then rose out of her seat, pulling me closer to lay a kiss on my lips. "I really do love you, you silly man. More'n I ever thought possible. Whatever happens, never forget that, aye?"

"Love you too," I said, finally smiling.

At least that part I understood.

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