Chapter 229: Future Duties_Millennial Mage

Chapter 229: Future Duties

 T didnt really know how to feel about the following two weeks.

 First of all, after seeing the ending-grove, Thron had informed her that shed somehow missed sleeping for the past few days, mostly due to her running around so much.

 Shed been understandably shocked, but when she and t had checked her memory, it seemed that he was correct.

 That means that I havent actually slept since the gate-breaking.

 -Thats probably not very good for you, honestly.-

 Her expanded flowrate was supercharging her inscriptions to the point that it seemed to be nearly negating her need to sleep. Even so, as soon as the wondrous act was mentioned, T felt her entire body sag in anticipated relief.

 That was how she found herself sleeping for nearly twenty-four hours.

 When she awoke, she felt renewed and invigorated like never before.

 From there, she dove into her duties as an Eskau of the House of Blood.

 As a new Eskau, most of her time was spent training or eating as more and more of the crops and other products of her sanctum were ready for harvest.

 Thron had to ughter the animals when they were ready and prepare anything that required more than simply picking free hanging harvests from a nt. Even so, overall, between Kit and Thron, it was trivially simple to keep T supplied with food.

 Beyond that, T was required to settle a few disputes between servants too high ranking to be ignored or diverted to Thron, but not of quite enough importance to take time from Be-thric. Blessedly, there were only about a hundred such servants in all of toiri. Even so, they seemed to be quitepetitive as often as not, leading to the disagreements requiring mediation.

 After listening to the first two, an owl beast-man and a gray hue-folk male, argue for nearly three hours, T refused to offer judgment and informed them that they had ten minutes to settle it themselves before she cut off a finger from each of them.

 Theyd joined together to rail against her after that.

 Then, the fingers had been taken.

 They settled their own dispute less than five minutester.

 Thron was oddly approving of her method in solving that issue, and T really didnt know how to feel about that. It didnt help that T felt like Tali would likely have handled it simrly, though Tali would likely have taken a hand rather than a finger.

 The second pair shed had to mediate between had each calmly exined their position in brief sentences, and the answer had been utterly obvious to T.

 No, it is not reasonable for Heart-Servant Vanlin to take over part of your duties, Arnor, even if he is faster than you. If you wish to forgo some of your duties, you must also give over some of your rewards, but you have refused to do this.

 Vanlin had steadfastly refused to assist Arnor at the end of each workday, even though Vanlin had finished his own duties and more, and Arnor had still not met minimum requirements.

 The two were apparently friends, and Vanlin had helped Arnor a couple of times, but when thetter came to expect the help, Vanlin had begun refusing.

 Honestly, it was a case of Vanlin still wanting to be friends, while not being taken advantage of, and Arnor not really thinking of it from his friends perspective.

 Idiocy

 Ts word wasw in this case, and the two were able to depart her sanctum as friends, because neither had had to give ground on their own.

 The Eskau was an Eskau. Who were they to argue?

 That second mediation set the tone for most of the others. At least, she didnt have to actually take any other fingers.

 In each other case, T simply had to tell them what they both already knew was the right course of action. The very fact that she spoke took the responsibility from the parties involved and allowed rtionships to function more smoothly.

 This is really, really weird. Just tell them no.

 -But then youre telling your colleague no. This way, they can both maintain the fiction that the asked might have been willing, but a higher power said not to.-

 T sighed. I suppose.

 Around training and seemingly unnecessary mediation, T asionally attended Be-thric when he met with those either outside the house, or only loosely affiliated.

 Those meetings were filled with negotiations, trade discussions, and the building of rtionships.

 No one engaged with her directly, as she was simply meant to be a symbol of the power of the House of Blood. That was more than fine with her.

 She always wore her iron paint, with the through-spike suppressed, while at these events, and no one ever gave Be-thric any trouble.

 I kind of wish they would Part of that was to give her something to do, and part was so that someone would make Be-thrics life worse.

 Her final duty was every three days or so. At that time, she simply walked with a servant of the House of Blood to each of their affiliated businesses and lesser houses to collect the portion of the profits which were owed to the major House supporting them.

 T quickly realized that she had three roles in such circuits.

 The first was simr to her task when apanying Be-thric: to show the power of the House of Blood to those in partnership or subservience to them.

 The second was as a guard to the servant collecting the payments.

 Finally, she was to ensure that that same servant didnt skim any off the top.

 Why T, herself, couldnt be the collector baffled her, until Thron exined.

 An Eskau lowering themselves to speaking with the merchants and nobles not actually a part of the House, would be unseemly. And you having to handle the payments yourself?He shook his head."No major House is that tight on funds or thatcking in servants loyal to them. Even my performance of that duty would imply that we were short on servants that we trust.

 The exnation did make a modicum of sense, T had to admit.

 All in all, those two weeks passed in an oddly mundane fashion, very simrly to how she would have spent her time if she were in the humannds, though her job was obviously different.

 And, you know, Im a ve.

 -I agree, but your very is mainly in the involuntary nature of your hiring, rather than how you are treated or what you are asked to do.-

 Yeah Which is why she was so conflicted. For the most part, her job wasnt objectionable, except when she was around Be-thricor when she actually gave a moment to consider the many, many founts around herself.

 Yes, this is a wonderful ce except, of course, the uncounted souls in eternal envement and torment.

 -Yes, its practically a paradise.- The sarcasm was thick in the sentiment, and T heartily agreed.

 Even so, time passed, and she fulfilled her duties and improved.

 Finally, the morning dawned on the day of her first duty shift as Guard of the City Lord.

 T had slept again the night before, but only for a couple of hours. She was down to only needing those couple of hours of sleep every second or third night since her day of rest allowed her to reset and limatize to her increased flowrate.

 The rest of the night, after her short sleep, she had trained, finally mastering her aura enough to hold it within the boundary of her skin full time, without the need of the iron paint.

 As the false sun mirrored the real one, T finished her training and began her preparations for the day before it began to light her sanctum.

 She bathed, painted herself in iron, and reshaped her elk-leathers to match their formal form, which shed worn to the feasts before and after her battle to be an Eskau.

 Now, however, the emblem was updated to reflect her increased rank. Like at the feast after, actually.

 Speaking of food, Thron had worked with a chef from the main hold to prepare Ts daily, morning feast earlier than usual.

 She had to admit, it was fascinating to eat the bacon with marbled magics running through it. It added an entirely new dimension to the already utterly sulent food.

 The fat contained magics to increase the caloric and nutritional capacity of that tissue, while the muscle within the delicacy carried power which mirrored the magics on her own muscles.

 Apparently, the livestock were deeply difficult to kill with anything mundane, so Thron had simply taken to severing their heads with a quick application of corrosion.

 Every part of the meal contained magics simrly paired with those within her body, and the results were showing.

 Her inscriptions, and her natural magics which mirrored them, both used more power and used that power more efficiently than ever before.

 Near the middle of her breakfast, T noticed Terry flicker in to eat a te of more mundane bacon and a steak set aside for him. That ingested, he flickered to her shoulder for a quick nuzzle, and he was off once more.

 He rarely killed the creatures that he hunted through the outskirts of her sanctum, but he enjoyed it, nheless.

 T had actually been able to determine that Terry seemed to be training and beginning to breed the beasts to be harder to hunt, simply so that he had a greater challenge in turn. Though, the reasoning was more a guess on her part than actual knowledge.

 It was an odd thought, and one that put Terrys intelligence in a far scarier light.

 From what shed been able to gather, he always ate the first one he caught, and rewarded thest one he found, slowly forcing improvement in the wild porcine herd. The process was simr for the other wild animals in her sanctum as well, with the rabbits showing the greatest changes from his ministrations.

 Even with the ability to seek them out directly, through her deeper connection with Kit, T often had a hard time finding the rabbits that were supposed to be there.

 Blessedly, she was able to find them on asion, so she knew Terry hadnt simply eaten them all.

 He does seem to enjoy the hunting andtraining quite a bit.

 T didnt think that the animals had been augmented to breed more rapidly, so it wouldnt be a fast process. Even so, the creatures didnt seem to be dying out, despite daily hunts, so she was left uncertain as to their true numbers and breeding rates.

 She almost wished that she could get an informational panel or something to disy the number of creatures within Kit, but she knew that shed very likely rarely use it.

 She didnt really care enough to even ask for specifics of the beasts, if she were being honest.

 Besides, today is going to be busy enough without me digging into Terrys hobbies.

 T finished off her meal with arge pitcher of ending-berry juice.

 Throughout, she maintained a state of near meditation, moving the various powers into alignment with herpatible scripts and magics as she consumed them.

 It was an oddly calming process, honestly.

 As such, in seemingly no time at all, it was time for her to depart.

 She thanked Thron and the chef for the food, summoned the exit to appear beside herself and allowed the chef to exit before her.

 She had no interest in trapping the cook within Kit for the day.

 Thron stayed behind as he would spend the time reading through the books theyd been granted, searching for gaps in the knowledge contained within.

 Any Eskau rted duties around the House of Bloods hold would be taken care of by Paun, while T attended the City Lord.

 With Kit on her belt, hanging opposite Flow, T set off to fulfill her duties.

 When she arrived, T found that the City Lords residence was quite different from what shed expected.

 Instead of being a hold, it was a modest sized ce, set among a reasonably sized park, near the center of the city.

 This particr park had a heavily magic-imbued wall surrounding it, making it obvious that it wasnt a public space.

 The residence, itself, was an interesting mix of a fortification and an incredibly nice home.

 The aesthetic was that of the simple house of a wealthy family, while the power ingrained within was that of a fort expecting daily assault.

 T presented herself at the gate just as the sun peeked over the horizon, fully transforming the gray sky of pre-dawn into the blues, yellows, and reds of first light.

 The clouds overhead already zed with color, and that was only magnified by the arrival of the sun.

 Greetings, Eskau Tali. The gate guard bowed to her. He was a cat beast-man, whose aura was nearly to true green.

 No wonder he can guard the gate alone.

 T gave a nod in return. Greetings, Honored Elder. Shall I go straight to the main house? Or is there another ce I should check in?

 T briefly connected a void-channel to a path within Flow, and the world changed. She focused most closely on the man before her and noticed that his power was already circting in quick, whipping patterns within him.

 Already primed for a fight.

 -They likely have to be ready at all times. Plus, arcanes dont really seem to lose power from active effects, unless those effects are stressed.-

 The man didnt react, confirming what shed already known: The alteration to her eyes and surrounding features were hidden by the through-spikes illusion. And this man doesnt have any ability to pierce those illusions.

 The City Lord has requested your attendance in the highest tower. The guard pointed to the singr tower that jutted out of the top of the house, rising a good hundred feet above the roof of the four-story structure.

 A Mages tower, too. How had she missed that, earlier?

 The answer was quite obvious, now that she knew to look. There was a disinterested working, wrought around the entire tower. Unless a person knew to look, or were directed to do so, the tower would be so uninteresting as to not be seen at all.

 So much more effective than simple invisibility.

 Thank you, Honored Elder.

 The guard bowed once more and stood aside for her to pass through the open arch.

 As T walked underneath the stone gateway, and into the grounds proper, she passed through a barrier of sorts and almost stopped in surprise.

 The space within the private park was expanded to an insane degree. From the outside, it looked totally normal, and even the magics of the expansion werent visible to Ts sight.

 Maybe my void-sight would have seen this from the outside, if Id looked anywhere besides at the guard. She could check after she left.

 The home had not changed, but it was now at least twice as far away from her as it had appeared before, and the gardens were revealed to be extensive in the extreme.

 Their mastery of magic is She shook her head.

 -I know, right? Humanity has so much that we could learn from arcanes.-

 T found herself grinning. We still have so, so much knowledge to steal.

 She picked up her pace just a bit. After all, she was supposed to check in and assume her duties at first light, and she was still quite a ways from the structure.

 As she approached, she noticed various workers doing repairs or cleaning, or performing other tasks around the structure. Some were up on the roof, and one or two even seemed to be working on the tower itself.

 She came to the main doors, and she was met by a beast-folk woman who looked like nothing so much as a pigeon person.

 The being was odd to say the least, but T didnt stare too much.

 Eskau Tali? Her voice was surprisingly deep and melodic, indeed sounding a bit like a pigeons coo.

 Yes.

 Right this way, please.

 T followed the pigeon-woman inside, not really taking in the dcor as she was directed to a stairway a short distance within the house.

 T jogged up the stairs,ing to the top rather quickly.

 She hesitated before the doors on thending at the top, taking a deep breath to slow her heart before she knocked.

 Come. The very air vibrated with the single word.

 The door seemingly utched itself. That was not an analogy. Without any exterior magics acting upon it, nor any power acting within that T could see, the door utched and swung open.

 What?

 Before her was another section of stairs that let up and out into the center of the room above.

 T climbed them quickly, thest few allowing her gaze to sweep most of the room as she reached the top.

 A man sat at a reading desk off to one side, arge tome open before him.

 His aura was, indeed, more than halfway between blue and indigo, and power practically hummed around him, though he did not appear to be using magics at the moment.

 You are a bitte, though Ill grant that you arrived at my gate at the appointed time.

 T gave a hesitant bow, not excessively deep but a bow, nheless. My apologies, City Lord.

 Arrive on time to fulfill your future duties, and all will be forgiven. He still hadnt turned around.

 As you say.

 Now. He finally moved to face her, giving her her first good look at him.

 To Ts eyes, he looked to be in his mid-twenties, though she knew that wasnt correct. His skin was a deep crimson, his hair was shockingly white, and his eyes were a burnt orange, no pupil in evidence.

 T almost expected to see horns on his head, to match him to the mythos of demons put forward in some ys back in the humannds.

 He might actually be the origin of those myths. The City Lord was old, and she would not doubt for an instant that he was around before therge section of humanity had broken away to achieve their modicum of freedom.

 His build was lean, like a sprinter, and his clothing was simple but obviously well made. At the moment, that meant a in shirt and pants, hanging loosely around his well-muscled frame. He wore no obvious weapon, but with the power at his disposal, she doubted he needed any.

 All this, she took in as he spun around. She felt his eyes move across her, the pressure of his gaze greater than the power behind Cerdais magical scans.

 You really are human, and gated at that, fascinating.

 T felt the through-spike being suppressed by an outside power, even while it stilly solidly inside her aura and control.

 The illusion faded, and she was rewarded by a slight widening of the mans eyes. Incredible density and resonance. Were you of proper, unbroken stock, you might signal a long-looked-for uplifting of your race.

 He shook his head sadly.

 s, you are of the broken ones, a vestige of mistakes made long ago.

 T didnt know what to say. So, she stayed silent.

 -Wise choice, in my estimation. Well done.-

 T held in a smile as she fought to not roll her eyes at t.

 The City Lord didnt seem to mind theck of a response, as he continued, Now, to business. There is an assassin climbing my tower, bent on ying me.

 T frowned. What?

 Look down over that balcony, there. He pointed to one of the doors out of the tower room, out onto an outdoor space.

 T walked out and looked down. All I see is a window washer.

 Ahh, he is clever in his disguises. Please y him, that we may get on with the day. The tone was light, but the City Lord seemed utterly serious.

 T cocked an eyebrow. Are you sure he is your would-be assassin?

 Of course! You doubt the word of your City Lord? Should I kill you and him, myself? There was no heat in the voice, just seemingly genuine curiosity.

 No doubt or disrespect intended, but your window washer is decidedly female.

 The City Lord blinked at her a few times, then burst outughing. Oh, that is a horrid mistake on my part isnt it.

 He continued tough, T standing awkwardly on the balcony, not sure what to do. Theughter caused the air to visibly shudder as it reverberated with the mans power. Blessedly, the tower seemed to be magically reinforced, because it didnt move or sway in the least.

 Finally, he got himself at least a bit under control. To think, I set up a silly test to see if you were a thoughtless killer, or an easily cowed sycophant, and I get the sex of the target wrong.

 He startedughing again, shaking his head.

 A test? What sort of nonsense is this?

 -Paun did say that the City Lord would want to see who you were and get to know you.-

 But who tells a warrior to kill a servant as a test?

 -He could have saved the woman, likely, but maybe he doesnt care? There are a few dozen founts in this room alone. He isnt exactly a beacon of morality.-

 The City Lord finally stoppedughingpletely and was nodding to himself. Well, if nothing else, youre observant. Ill give you that.

 Thank you?

 Oh, youre more than wee, Eskau Tali. Now, let us be about the business of the morning.

 T could already tell; it was going to be an interesting day.

MillionNovel

Chapter 229: Future Duties