Making a point, he reached across and stole a strawberry from her fork and ate it, chewing it visibly at her.
Lauren scoffed at him and shook her head with a smile. “I’m going to have to assign Claire to teach you table manners.”
“Not really. I doubt anyone will come visit me now that you stuck your flag up my ass. Whatever value I had is long gone. But that’s fine. Don’t care either. Politics is for the birds. Give me a farm or a dungeon and I’ll be a happy man,” Ryker said, pointing a piece of bacon at the queen.
“I didn’t think you liked farming.”
“I don’t. But I understand it. It’s easy. Work the land, toss the rocks, plant the seeds. Then it’s just water and watch. Tedious but… understandable. With politics you get… well, you get Duchess Chas offering herself or her daughter up to me to see if I’d mount ‘em. I imagine that’d be the end of me being anything other than her pawn after that, too.”
“Quite right. And you didn’t want to?”
“What, be a pawn? Been there. Not that hard.”
“No, ah, you didn’t want to, didn’t want to mount her?” Lauren said, now using her fingers to quickly fill her plate with food.
“Eh… they were beautiful but… not worth the strings. They’d want to use me for god only knows what. I’m little better than a dagger. Sharp, to the point. I’m sure they’d have me doing some kind of political mucking.”
“I’m sure they’d spell it out for you. Maybe even give you step by step instructions?” Lauren said, smiling.
“Ha ha. I’m no good at politics. I don’t get it, I don’t like it. Just… ugh. If you’re going to throw me into politics just make sure it’s simple and to the point.”
“Perhaps it’s time for a subject change? One of your people arrived today. With multiple wagons. I believe his name is Edwin? I get the impression he came to help out here at the instructions of your Fairy assistant.”
Edwin’s here? Oh thank god. That’ll help. I can pitch some of this crap off to him, can’t I?
“Ah. I didn’t realize.”
“I had my guard give him directions to here. I’m sure he’ll be arriving after he finishes whatever it is he had in the market.”
“Probably buying cores,” Ryker said with a shrug.
“Goodness, that reminds me. I wanted to give you something. It’s a lovely spirit core that was sitting in my family vault for a number of years. My great-grandmother’s fourth husband owned it. She had a number of them, husbands that is. I’m afraid she had a habit of getting rid of them once they no longer pleased her. It came as a surprise to no one that her seventh husband murdered her in bed one night. We of course had to put great-grandfather into a quiet cell. One simply doesn’t kill the queen after all, but he lived quite fulfilled from the way my mother explained it,” Lauren said, her mind going off on a tangent.
“Anyways. It’s a lovely spirit core. As big as a fist and unparalleled in quality and clarity. It’s truly a wonder. I was wondering if you could hand it over to the dungeon on my behalf as a gift?”
“I can certainly do that. That’s not even a concern or a problem,” Ryker promised easily.
“Wonderful. I’ll have it brought in. I hate to eat and run, and I’d rather stay, but I do need to depart. Please, enjoy breakfast and be kind to my cousins. They were excited and appalled at the same time to serve you as a count.”
Lauren stood up quickly, and started towards the door.
“Your dress, Lauren,” Ryker called after her.
Lauren froze, then waved a hand back at him and continued on. “I’ll have a maid fix it. After the last time they already think you’ve had me. Dress was on backwards.”
Whatever.
Ryker was momentarily confused when a maid came in after that. She approached him, set down a spirit core in front of him, and quickly escaped.
“Damn, she was right,” Ryker said, peering into it.
The core was beautiful. It looked exactly like a dungeon core, but was clearly a spirit core.
Though when he touched it with his dungeon control spells, he found that the spiritual residue inside was mostly gone.
Apparently they have an expiration date.
The door opened again and his Fairy bodyguards marched in along with Adele and Claire. They collectively took a look at the food, and then started in on it without a word amongst any of them.
Ryker stared at Marybelle. Or more precisely, the spirit core that was in her head where her brain should be.
With his control magic up it was as if it were a glowing ball of magic. And in that, was what made her.
Focusing on it, he pulled her blueprint up to view it.
It became a magical construct that he could see. It was laid out spectacularly in front of him as all blueprints did back in his dungeon. Each and every quirk and inch of her was displayed in intricate magical detail.
I forgot that they carried their blueprints with them inside their core. They have to rebuild their bodies from scratch when they die.
Though… this bit here shows where it’s drawing magic from. Could… I create an impromptu dungeon battery?
Or… a dungeon core?
Ryker slowly looked back to the core in his hand, his gaze having gone unnoticed by everyone other than the heavily blushing Marybelle.
Could I put a blueprint in a spirit core that mimicked a dungeon?
“Wynne?”
“Yes?”
“Ah, good. The reason a wizard finds a dungeon is because it draws in all magic, right?”
“Yes. It’s hard not to notice when an entire area becomes a magical void.”
“But small drains don’t show up.”
“That’s right. Mostly because everything drains mana to some degree from the world. Especially in areas with a high density of living beings.”
“Got it. Thanks”
Idly, Ryker began to methodically build a blueprint that would draw in part of the mana that was around it.
Though slowly.
He set the area of the draw as a function of its siphoning. The amount it drew and held in stasis in the core would directly relate to the size.
What spiritual residue remained he stuffed into the blueprint to power the initial run.
Then he closed the blueprint, stuffed it into the core, and fed it a drop of his own mana to kickstart it.
It sputtered to life and burned through the spirit instantly. Then it began to draw in mana ever so slowly, but remained on.
Functioning.
Ryker grinned, excited with the success.
“What’d you just do?” Wynne asked in his headspace.
“Uh… I was toying with a core… why?” Ryker asked as nonchalantly as he could.
“Because I can feel what you did and it feels like… it feels like a dungeon core just came to life but there’s… no soul.”
“Yeah. So. Surprise, apparently dungeon cores can be made out of high-end spirit cores? Or it seems like it. Guess we’ll find out if this thing doesn’t blow up.”
No immediately reply came from Wynne.
Ryker began to worry.
“You did what?” she asked.
“I made a dungeon core.”
“I see. I think… I think I need a better explanation. Now.”
Sighing, Ryker settled in for a lengthy description to her as everyone else ate.
After this, I need to go buy more cores like this one so I can make more dungeons.
Chapter 17- Going Easy -
The trip back to Dungeon was considerably quicker with Edwin driving the wagon train along.
On top of that, he didn’t get to spend any time alone with the Fairies since Adele and Claire had more or less claimed all of his time for themselves.
It seemed that they hadn’t been consulted on both becoming his envoys, let alone his employees. Ryker became the unhappy employer of two women who liked him, but hated the idea of working for him.
And they were determined to explain that t
o him the entire way back.
“Wynne. We’re about… five minutes out I’d say,” Ryker thought.
“An entire battalion of heavily armed cavalry rode in about a few minutes ago bearing flags I’ve never seen before. Maybe a minute later, a battalion of men-at-arms arrived. I have no idea what’s going on.”
“Err… what?”
“Dungeon isn’t under attack, but there’s definitely something going on. There also seems to be a cavalry group shadowing you,” Wynne clarified.
Frowning, Ryker peered out the window of the coach. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary that he could identify.
“Are they hiding?”
“Yes. Many of those on foot are up against the palisade and seemingly waiting.”
“Do they appear hostile?”
“No. But that’s no guarantee of anything. Though I’d suggest not attempting to run. Their cavalry will run you down in no time. Plan to make your way into the dungeon if you have to, but don’t run into the plains.”
“Great.”
Ryker leaned back in his seat and waited.
There wasn’t much else he could do until they made contact. If it came down to it, he could break contact with everyone, lead his Fairies into his dungeon, and survive.
“Well, at least it’s you,” Adele said suddenly. “It could be worse. You’re rather handsome, you’re nice, and you don’t fault me too badly for not being a lady.”
Claire sighed and gestured towards him with one hand.
“She is right, truth be told. Being assigned to you as bride-candidates isn’t the worst thing in the world. As Adele pointed out, you don’t hold me to my deficiencies. You even forgive me for them. I appreciate that about you.”
“You mean being a two-faced backbiting bitch who would blow him for a new dinner set when you’re happily married?” Adele asked.
Claire stared at her cousin for a few seconds. Then she smiled at her. “Yes, that I’d do. Or that you’re a nose picking alcoholic with a mouth dirtier than her rear end who would pull her dress up in public for him to get a look at her undergarments.”
“I think,” Ryker interrupted, “any talk of marriage is premature. Besides, Lauren told me you worked for me, not that you were bride candidates.”
“That’s how it always goes,” Claire said, smoothing her dress out over her knees.
Adele laid her head back against the inside of the coach. “It is. The hope is you’ll pick one of us and make your choice. We’d go from working under you to working you from underneath. Using royal princesses is new though.”
“Hold there!” shouted a voice up ahead. They’d just gotten within thirty feet of the gate.
“We’re here to escort you to the royal mansion,” said the voice again.
“What’s going on?” Claire asked suddenly, her fingers digging into her dress.
Adele reached to her side, gripping the hilt of her sword.
“I don’t know. But I don’t think fighting them is a valid option,” Ryker said, peering out the window.
“Why do you say that?” Adele asked, angling herself in the seat so she could draw her blade.
“Because I already see at least a hundred soldiers in… what looks like the colors of Duchess Chas,” Ryker explained.
Now that he could see the emblems over the hearts of the soldiers, he could tell they were all wearing the crest of Chas. He’d only seen it once, when he was made a count, but he was fairly sure of it.
“What?” Adele squawked.
Shoving Ryker out of the way, she glared out of the window towards the gate. “Damnation. It is. Is this her move then? Is she attempting to take over Dungeon?”
“Quite possible. Ryker is right though. Put your sword away. I think the Duchess will use us as political pieces before causing us harm. We should probably consider ourselves high value prisoners,” Claire said.
The coach grew silent at that.
“I had the girls pull out. They’re heading back to the dungeon to regroup. I’m pulling everyone together to get a rescue force ready if we need to come get you out,” Wynne said.
“Do we even have the mana for it?”
“Doesn’t matter if we do or don’t, we’ll make it happen one way or the other.”
“That’s… fair. Alright.”
“Do you want us to pull Adele and Claire out if we need to get you?”
“Huh?”
“Do you want to take them with us if you need to get extracted. It’d reveal a bit more than you’ve wanted to up to this point.”
“I…”
Ryker thought on that for a few seconds as the coach continued to roll down the street. Towards a destination that would probably be problematic, to say the least. Did he care at all about Adele and Claire? He could probably escape and leave them to their fates. They didn’t mean anything to him.
Or do they. Ryker chewed at the inside of his lip in thought.
“Yeah. Take them. We can always kill them later if we need to,” Ryker said.
“Good thought.”
Coming to a slow stop, the coach door opened. A gray haired officer held it open, staring up into the coach.
“Count Ryker, Ladies Adele and Claire, the Duchess has invited you to a meal. I’ll escort you there now,” said the man
“Of course, thank you, sir,” Claire said easily. She got up and moved to the exit, stepping down lightly.
Adele followed, with Ryker being the last out of the coach.
The streets were populated as they normally were. Though the city guard was nowhere in sight. It seemed that they had either been given orders to go away, or had decided discretion was the better part of valor.
Not that he could blame them.
They weren’t soldiers.
“Sir,” said the older soldier. “Might I compliment you on your city? For being so new, it’s incredibly maintained and well put together.”
“Heh, I blame Edwin. He’s the city overseer for the most part. I just own all the land. Makes it easy for everything to be orderly when they have to have permission to build, let alone try and buy the land,” Ryker admitted.
“Ah. That’s a good point, Count. I’m sure the Duchess will appreciate hearing you tell the tale of how you managed that,” said the man with a smirk.
Ryker nodded his head, falling silent.
The front door to the royal mansion, which wasn’t done, was opened and they were escorted inside.
Originally it had been planned that Lauren and her cousins would use this place until the palace was done. It had been started up and planned to be finished in the next month.
Right now it was about halfway there with much of the bottom floor done. The second floor was where most of the work was being done now.
Walking behind him, the older soldier was obviously making sure everyone kept on the path. Up ahead, another soldier kept them moving.
Adele and Claire were peeled off and taken to a separate room, causing Ryker to immediately worry.
He was taken down a different hallway, and brought into a formal receiving room.
Sitting at the table was Duchess Chas, and her daughter. They were more lovely than the last time he saw them, and were dressed in flattering dresses that befit their station.
“Duchess Chas, Miss Chas,” Ryker said, bowing his head respectfully to them.
“Count Ryker,” they said in unison, their eyes latching onto him.
“Please, have a seat, Count. I hope you don’t mind but I assumed you wouldn’t mind taking a meal with my daughter and I,” said the Duchess.
“Why not. And please, call me Ryker. The whole Count thing is as new to me as being born,” Ryker said. Taking a seat in the only other chair at the table, he smiled at the two women.
“Ah, then please, I’d be delighted if you called me Veronica,” said the Duchess.
“Diane, please,” said her daughter.
Ryker looked from one woman to the other, and then felt his lips turn into a sm
irk. He assumed this was a military coup. And that he was a piece both sides would squabble over.
Ryker wasn’t about to die for a queen he barely knew. He’d happily switch to Lauren’s side given the chance, but this was a well thought out ambush that he wasn’t going to escape.
“So, I’ll not beat around the bush. I’m not one for politics. I’m a simple wizard turned farmer. That obviously changed recently. I’m about as direct as a knife and as blunt as a sledgehammer blow to the head,” Ryker said. “To just… cut through the bullshit. I’m assuming I’m in the middle of a play for the throne?”
Veronica’s eyebrows rose ever so slightly, but otherwise her face was impassive.
Diane on the other hand didn’t have her mother’s experience. Her mouth thinned out and her right hand clenched into itself.
I may suck at politics, but I understand people. That was a dead-on theory.
“I’m going to guess you’re here to recruit me?” Ryker asked when neither responded. “Either through offering yourself, your daughter, or other favors?
“Haaaa…” Veronica said, deflating a bit. “Spoiled my plans completely. How am I supposed to coerce you into anything when it’s all already laid bare? You didn’t even leave me room to build up to my deal. Straight to me or my daughter.”
“Sorry. I mean, it’s easier this way, isn’t it? We can get to what we both want out of this to make the deal happen, and there’s no charade behind it,” Ryker said.
Several servants came in with various finger foods. It was almost the exact same spread Lauren had laid out for him. Without waiting for permission, or even a response, Ryker began taking all the same things he liked from the last one. Deliberately shoving the fancy foot cheese to one side.
“Wine?” asked an attendant.
Shaking his head, Ryker swallowed roughly. “Water please.”
Once all the servers cleared the room, he looked back to the Duchess.
“You were going to start us off with what you’re willing to give me, I think?” Ryker prompted.
Veronica shook her head once, her mouth hanging open.
“Me,” Diane interrupted. “We’re offering me as a bride, and everything that comes with me. Our children would be the rightful heirs of my line as well as your line. I’ll put no restrictions on you ruling as Count and assisting me as my husband when I become Duchess, though as the Duchess I would hold that title until we pass it to our children. I swear to be loyal and faithful to you in our bedroom, providing you cause me no harm.”
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