Chapter 697: Free Real Estate (1/2)
Chapter 697 Free Real Estate
The Fae watched Aki walk into the Soul Forge with cautious steps.
“Why are you so interested in him?” Ilea asked.
Magic
Imitating
Essence
New
Information
“You could tell from just a look?” Ilea asked. “What do you think about it?”
Intelligence
Real
Form
Irrelevant
She smiled. “Yeah, I think so too. One of our enchanters helped him stabilize a bit more too. I don’t think he’ll get influenced anytime soon, not more than anybody would be susceptible to mind magic or other spells.”
Caring
“He’s a friend. And even if he wasn’t, he deserves to have his independence just like everyone else,” she said.
Understand
“I’ve come to accept that I might’ve died a while ago, and this is the fever dream I came up with in my last waking moments,” Bralin said, his smaller armor on as he looked at the cube.
“Let’s see what kind of knowledge your subconscious thinks the great Joggoth has hidden in his Soul Forge,” she said and went inside. Ilea left the two armored ash copies where the Tuned Soul Wardens had stood before. The Soul forge is under new management.
She didn’t bother joining the largest group in the central hall, instead taking the steel stairs up to the fourth floor where she had seen a cozy room with a small kitchen adjacent. A glance through her dominion showed Pierce going through various storage rooms, picking up treasure as she went. Ilea used her fabric tear to save a few more interesting chests for herself. They were stacked up on the red velvet carpet in front of the cold hearth, coal the only thing that remained within.
Ilea raised her hand and moved some of the old wood into the opening. A bit of lava came to life a few meters away from her before it floated between the logs. “Any clue how we can get rid of the smoke?” she asked, looking at her floating Faen companion.
The creature moved towards the hearth before it touched the frame, tapping it a few times until something lit up.
A series of enchantments were activated within the vent. The smoke was pulled in and replaced with fresh air entering through a nearby opening, all likely intertwined with the magic mesh protecting the cube in the first place.
The rest of the room housed three comfortable leather armchairs, two large bookshelves filled to the brim with thick volumes, and a polished wooden coffee table with an artistic base of curved steel. Warm magical light came from a spherical orb connected to the ceiling by a thin strand of metal.
Ilea added some more lava to the logs and went to the small kitchen. The various compartments and tools were likely enough to create an absolute feast but she wasn’t exactly a master chef. Instead she checked the extensive selection of teas, smelling on each until she found something to her liking. A mix that reminded her of black tea with a hint of cinnamon. “How do I cook water?” Ilea asked as she checked the steel plates. This kitchen looks more modern and earth like than half the shit I ever had.
She looked up and checked the wall. Everything was clean, well sorted. Ilea watched the Fae fiddle with the stove until it jumped up, having stood on the plate that now started glowing.
“Thanks,” she said and touched the familiar water collection enchantment before she filled a small ceramic pot with a small crown on it.
“You would dare drink from MY TEA!?” demanded Khan.
Ilea looked at the Fae. “It’s not like you need it,” she said. “Is he just straight up trapped in there? Conscious and everything?”
No, the Fae replied before it thought for a few seconds.
Essence
Only
Echoes. Of. Memory. If. Outburst. Takes. Control. Cognitive. Function. Active. No. Outburst. Dormant. State. Lacks. Capability. Remain. Conscious.
“Hmm,” Ilea mused as she waited for the water to boil. She filled a spherical metal sieve with tea and put it into a black mug. “Still seems unnecessarily cruel. Can you not just kill him?”
Agree. Amusing. First. Century. Removal. Dangerous. Requires. Soul. Magic. Lich?
“Owl could probably help at some point, sure. But she’s not very experienced with her magic,” Ilea said.
Cannot. Return. Foreign. Influence.
“You can’t go home with the soul in there?” Ilea asked.
The Fae nodded.
“They’ll figure something out together. The Meadow will want to talk anyway, two birds with one stone,” she said and poured the water into the mug. She closed her eyes and smelled the strong scent slowly spreading through the room before she sat down in one of the armchairs. Flames had started consuming the wood, the fragrances mixing to create a downright Christmasy feel she hadn’t remembered in a long while.
‘ding’ ‘You drank tea from the famous personal collection of Khan Joggoth while the remains of his soul are within a Fae sitting on your shoulder – One Core skill point awarded’
How very specific, Ilea thought and relaxed into her chair. She summoned a comfy looking blanket from a nearby room before snuggling into it, her eyes focused on the crackling fire as the mug warmed her hands.
Relaxing, sent the Fae before it drooped down into the blanket.
Ilea patted it with a gentle touch, her perception still active to see the happenings within the cube. She displaced more of the treasures and artifacts Pierce was about to find, the pile next to her armchair growing in size. The enchanters and Aki were reading through the notes and books in the central hall, talking to each other with excited and energetic gestures.
Bralin in the meantime inspected the soul wardens, specifically interested in the large crowned model. The Shades had joined the group in the main hall, open books in front of them.
Verena seemed a little lost, the woman looking at some scientific tools before she sighed.
Ilea formed a gate next to the woman and one in the cozy room. “Tea?”
The woman smiled and stepped through the slightly fluctuating air. She appeared in the room and smiled. “Better,” Verena murmured and walked to the kitchen to check the various teas herself.
A minute later, she sat down in one of the armchairs, a mug in hand with steam rising from the liquid within.
The Fae glanced over but remained on the comfortable blanket.
“This place is pretty well equipped,” Ilea said after a few minutes of silence. She moved her hand to bring a few more logs into the flames, adding a little bit of heat to the present ash to strengthen the flames.
“The tea selection is exquisite,” the woman confirmed, closing her eyes as she sipped on the liquid.
“Hmm,” Ilea mused.
Verena glanced over. “What are you planning? A base down here?”
Ilea smiled. “No. Not exactly. The location will be found by the delvers of the Pit soon enough. And with the defensive enchantments destroyed, it might as well just be a chunk of metal.”
“Think it’s possible?” Verena asked after a while.
Ilea patted the Fae and shrugged lightly. “Plenty of geniuses around. And it would be nice, to have some facilities in the north other than a field of black grass.”
“You know, the Meadow could just build something. It did for Iana and Christopher,” Verena said.
“Yeah, but not something quite as… luxurious,” Ilea mused. “Not instantly at least. And well… it’s all here already. All we have to do, is move it.”
Verena smiled to herself but didn’t say anything. She raised a finger, a pulse of magic making the flames in the hearth flare up.
Ilea finished her tea and stood up. She moved a bit of ash through the mug to clean it before she displaced it into the cupboard. “Want to stay?” she asked the Fae still wrapped into the blanket on the chair.
It moved more of the fabric around itself, only half of its large white eyes visible.
Ilea smiled and teleported down into the main hall. She stretched and shuddered lightly at the sudden change in temperature. She did resist the temptation of forming heat within her, only to prevent important research to be set ablaze. “Interesting reading?”
Iana looked up from the notes in her hands, a serious expression on her face. “Yes. Very. What might interest you is the fact that Khan Joggoth had trade relations with the Taleen. Shared research projects and exchanged technologies,” she said and tapped her head with a meaningful glance to the Shades.
Ilea raised a brow. “Don’t trust them?” she asked, using telepathy.
“I do, with what we find here. Not with the conclusions. Khan and the Taleen worked together on something the call the Ascension Project II. And yes, it has to do with the Ascended themselves. Apparently they managed to gather quite a bit of knowledge and technology from their attacks on existing Ascended facilities. You don’t look surprised,” Iana said.
“Keep this to yourself, Chris, and the Meadow. Ascended are those of their species who managed to attain the bodies they now have. They were a biological species before. It’s no surprise that the Taleen tried to get their hands on that process. But it doesn’t look like they succeeded,” Ilea said.
“What makes you think that?” Iana asked.