Chương 376: The Iron Haven

The transition through the Spire-gate back to Bastion always felt like stepping into a cold bath after a long run in the desert. The moment the indigo portal-current spit us out onto the central plaza, the low, rich hum of Ferra's massive ley-lines vibrated through my bones. On Aetheria-Beta, I felt light, almost weightless. Here, the planet's dense, high-tier mana-density grabbed hold of my star-cores, anchoring my body with the heavy, comfortable pressure of home.

Jeeves was already waiting at the edge of the platform, his black shadow-tuxedo perfectly pressed, his expression a mask of impeccable, polite utility. Behind him stood two acolytes from Eliza's medical division, holding a soft, floating stretcher wreathed in soothing green restoration runes.

"Welcome back, Master," Jeeves said, offering a precise, shallow bow.

"I trust the local flora was as therapeutic as the pamphlets claimed?"

"The flowers were fine, Jeeves," I said, stepping aside so the medics could approach Talise and her brother.

"The locals, however, lacked basic hosting etiquette. They tried to overcharge us after learning we had access to some wealth."

"Ah. A common administrative error among regional nobles," Jeeves replied, his voice dripping with dry, clinical amusement.

"I shall coordinate with Silas to ensure our portal logs for Aetheria-Beta are scrubbed. The local registries will record nothing more than a temporary spatial distortion."

"Good. Let's make sure the trail is cold, though I doubt they have the will or resources to knock on our door," I said. Before heading to the Academy, I walked down the long, obsidian-lined corridors of the Sanctum to the Hall of the Chronicle. The room was cool, lit only by the floating, holographic maps of the cosmos that Kasian spent his centuries indexing. The elemental of knowledge was floating three inches off the floor, his translucent fingers tracing a stream of blue metadata.

"Kasian," I said, leaning against the uncalibrated magnet-slate doorframe.

"Double-check the records on the Sapphire Flock of Aetheria-Beta. I want to know if Lord Volarus has any strings attached to the larger players. The Synod, the Chorus, the Cinder Throne... anyone we made contact with, or that could be a risk moving forward." Kasian's head tilted, his empty, glowing eyes shifting to me.

"I processed the query the moment Jeeves informed me your spatial ripple hit the planet's atmosphere, Master. The Sapphire Flock is a minor, low-tier mercantile branch of an avian conglomerate. They have no sponsorships, no divine contracts, and their political capital does not extend beyond their own small ridge. To the wider universe, they are essentially non-existent."

"Excellent," I muttered, a knot in my chest unspooling.

"Then their Lord's disappearance is just a local tragedy. I can live with that."

"Enjoy the quiet," Kasian said, a thin, spectral smile touching his face.

"The ten-year silence is a canvas. You are allowed to paint it without constantly looking over your shoulder for another brush." The next morning, I took Talise and her brother Toby on a tour of Bastion. If Aetheria-Beta was a world of suspended, delicate grace, Bastion was a monument to unyielding, highly engineered prosperity. The streets were wide, paved with smooth, grey basalt that stayed perfectly warm due to underground thermal conduits.

Above us, silent, sleek light-rails hummed as they glided between the colossal, glass-insulated spires of the city. The markets were packed. S'skarr merchants in heavy, runic leather armor were laughing as they traded magnetic ores with Dweorg craftsmen. Human families, many of them refugees from the other Settlements and Nexus cities destroyed during the Kyorian War, walked with their heads held high, their clean, high-tier armor and refined clothing showing no signs of the dirt they had once lived in.

Toby has already recovered enough to be walking on his own, his hand tightly clutching his sister's. Eliza's restoration broth had done wonders; his skin was no longer skeletal, and a healthy, pale-pink sheen had returned to his fish-scaled ears. He kept stopping to stare at the floating holographic displays of the local toy shops, his mouth open in an absolute circle of wonder.

"Lord…" Talise whispered, her eyes darting from a floating fruit-display to a group of young elven trackers laughing near a fountain.

"Who... who pays for all of this?"

"The citizens," I said, taking a small, sweet pastry from a street vendor and tossing him a mana shard.

"But... the tax," she said, her voice dropping, her scales shifting to an anxious grey.

"What is the tax for living in a place like this? How much of their crop do they have to give to the local Lord?"

"Nothing," I said, sitting down at a wooden table outside a local cafe. I gestured for them to sit, sliding a plate of warm, caramelized spirit-wheat bread toward Toby, who immediately began to eat with quiet, rapid intensity.

"Other than a few trade tariffs and mercantile taxes." Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

"But how…? It sounds impossible," Talise said, her hand resting on the table as if she expected the wood to vanish.

"In Aetheria, if you do not pay the Lord, they take your land. If you cannot pay, they take your blood. A city like this... the magic, the food, the clean water... it must cost an impossible amount of shards."

"It does," I agreed.

"But Ferra is a closed ecosystem. Our agriculture is mostly automated by Leoric's golems. Our treasury holds more quintessence than this entire sector will see in a century. We don't need to tax our people for survival because we've already solved the problem of scarcity." She stared at me, her opal eyes wide and watery.

"You... you give them everything? For free?"

"The basic necessities," I corrected.

"Standard housing, food, basic low tier potions, a small supply of mana crystals and some other essentials are provided to every resident from the Faction treasuries. If they want high-tier weapons, luxury estates, or advanced cultivation manuals, they have to work, trade, or clear the Towers or dungeons to earn the QS. But nobody starves in Bastion, Talise. Nobody has to watch their parents die because they couldn't afford a loan from a lord. And I will make sure it stays that way."

Talise looked down at her hands, then at her brother, who was currently laughing as Tink flew circles around his head, trying to steal a crumb of his bread. A soft, vibrant orange color bloomed across her face — the color of absolute, unburdened peace.

"A world without the worries of finding food or a place to sleep…" she whispered, a small, beautiful smile finally finding its way to her lips.

"I... I did not think such a place could exist."

"It didn't, as far as I know," I said, taking a sip of my tea.

"We had to build it." An hour later, we arrived at the Academy training grounds. The elite gravity-void class was already assembled in the central courtyard, sitting on stone benches or floating a few inches off the grass. When we walked through the runic archway, Kram and Bror — our tactical-caster Dweorg twins — instantly stopped their mana-bickering.

"Instructor's back!" Kram yelled, leaping off his bench.

"And he brought the kids Jared was talking about!" Jared and Vesk were already sitting on the grass, surrounded by a group of five other students, including Elyon, our frail elven space-walk prodigy.

"It was majestic!" Jared was currently gesturing wildly with his hands, his face flushed with excitement.

"The Lord Volarus was hovering there, boasting about his sky-vanguard, and Eren just looked at him and said,'Do it Jared. Cleanse the world from their filth!' So I flared my gravity-well, and boom! Five of them were pinned to the dirt before they could even draw their swords!"

"The instructor said no such thing. He's exaggerating again," Vesk drawled, not looking up as she sharpened a dagger on a whetstone.

"He only pinned three. I took the other two. And Rexxar basically turned the Lord into a very flat wall-decoration with one swing."

"That's not fair!" Kram protested, throwing his hands in the air.

"We've been sitting here for three weeks doing gravity-resistance exercises while you two get to go to Aetheria, eat sweet fruit, and dismantle local lords!"

"Highly unscientific," Elyon agreed, his silver-hair caught in the artificial breeze of the courtyard.

"Instructor Eren, we are bottled up. A lot of us feel the need to go on an expedition after Jared hasn't stopped talking about it. Could we maybe also go on a field trip?"

"A field trip?" I asked, sitting down on the edge of the stone well.

"Yes!" Bror chimed in.

"We heard the portal guards talking. The gate to Nexus Delta 3's Tower is open. The Floors are still not cleared this week. Even if we only stay on the lower floors like last time, we want to go show you what we've learned!" I looked at the group of eager, confident teenagers. They were monsters, capable of leveling small cities on their own, yet they still possessed that infectious, restless energy of youth. I looked down at Talise, who was watching them with a mixture of awe and growing curiosity.

"The lower floors of Delta 3 are mostly elemental stone-drakes and low-tier wind-spirits," Jared said, turning to Talise with a friendly grin.

"Do you want to come with us? You can watch from within Eren's barrier. It's really cool, and the ores on those floors glow in the dark."

"It might be too early," I said, raising a hand.

"Talise has only been here a day. She needs time to adjust, and Toby is still recovering his strength."

"I want to go," Talise said. Her voice wasn't a whisper this time. It was clear, firm, and her scales instantly flared into a vibrant, determined turquoise. She took a step forward, leaving her brother's side, her eyes locked onto mine.

"I have spent my whole life hiding in the dirt, Lord Eren," she said, her chest rising.

"I do not want to be protected anymore. I want to learn to stand like Jared and Vesk. I want to learn to fight for my brother so nobody can ever threaten us again." I stared at her for a long, silent moment. I saw the shadow of the girl who had survived the Sapphire Flock, but beneath it, I saw the first sparks of a Sovereign's steel. A dry, pleased smile touched my face.

"Alright. Toby can stay with Eliza and study the local flora, but you can go. Just stay behind my barriers at all times and follow the squad's assigned leader's instructions."

"Yes!" Jared cheered, leaping into the air with a tiny gravity-pulse. I turned my focus back to the rest of the class. Kram, Bror, Elyon, and the others were already grinning, their mana-signatures flaring with a restless, vibrant heat.

"Well?" I asked, my voice dropping an octave as I crossed my arms.

"What are you waiting for? Let's see if you've been keeping up with Jared and Vesk while we were gone, or if you've been slacking off and eating Masha's cakes in the plaza."

"We'll show you who's been slacking!" Kram laughed, already running toward the Nexus portal. The entire class followed in a rowdy, eager column, Talise walking right beside Anna and Vesk, her face glowing with the excitement of a new road. As I walked behind them, watching the blue hum of the portal prepare to take us to the Tower, the heavy weight of the Crown felt lighter again. The ten-year silence was ours. And we were going to make every second count.