Edgemont returned to his office, refreshed. Being away from the office had given him a renewed perspective on just how heavily he was out of touch with everything. Sure, he was deep into everything the Syndicate was doing and could tell you which asteroids were being mined in hundreds of systems or the shipping schedules of the slave races but had lost touch with his own consumers. There were more areas to exploit, and he would make sure Nonetes did just that. The grabbing up of the mech transports was a good start but all the other aspects of warmaking needed to be under their control as well.

  The trip from his private dock to his office took no more than ten minutes and Edgemont was eager to get back to work. His desk greeted him like it always did, with outward silence, but connecting him to the vast information network he managed through both technological and magical means. He noticed that Nonetes’ door was closed but didn’t think the man would have beaten him into the office, so he settled down at his desk to wait. There were thousands of things he could do in the meantime, and he set to them.

  Hours later, he realized that his charge was well overdue, so he checked his logs and found that Nonetes had actually returned to his office yesterday evening and had not left. Well, isn’t that commendable. Guess I should bring him a meal to keep him going.

  Edgemont retrieved the meal from the delivery service absently. He was focused on the door in front of him and how to set the appropriate level of obsequiousness as he entered the room. Nonetes was still new to him, and he hadn’t completely figured him out. He knocked three times on the door and waited for a response. Receiving none, he opened the door and stepped inside.

  The office was empty. The desk was still there, but there was no sign of Nonetes at all. Edgemont pulled up the logs on his internal display and triple checked them for alterations. They were clean and Nonetes had entered the office, never left, but was not here. He immediately moved to access the recording crystals he had hidden throughout the room and paused when they didn’t respond.

  Quickly, he realized that nothing in the room was responding – none of the hundreds of devices magical or magitech responded to his call. His eyes flashed up form his displays to take a closer look at the room and he instantly noticed the missing trophy. Had someone taken the trophy and kidnapped Nonetes? None of my locators are finding him so he must be well-hidden if that’s the case.

  Edgemont tore the paneling from the far wall to get at the implanted devices only to find them completely inert, drained of magic to the point that their runescripting was even gone. The recording crystals were just normal crystals with no more magical impact than simple rocks. The deeper he delved into this mystery, the more concerned he became. Who could have done this? None of my rivals could have – I have them too well monitored for that. An outside force of some kind? Some entity that wanted to start off an incident? Only one thing to do…call in a specialist!

  It took three full hours before the specialist arrived, but she was eminently efficient when she did arrive. The creature was short, only coming up to Edgemont’s hip and her green-tinted skin belied her goblin ancestry. But anyone who mistook her for such a lowly creature did not live for long enough to realize their mistake.

  Vaelith wordlessly looked up to Edgemont expectantly. He nodded and her account increased by a full million credits. Vaelith did not even begin for less than that and Edgemont was well aware of her rates and absolutely willing to pay them.

  “What is it you wish to know?”

  “What occurred in this office over the last day and a half?”

  “That is all?”

  “That should be sufficient for now.”

  “Very well, recording crystal?”

  Edgemont handed her a blue crystal, primed for recording and stepped back to give her room to work. She smiled at him, noting the flawless quality of the crystal. Working with such a high-quality material would make it easier for her to use. She appreciated working for clients who were so professional which is why she responded to Edgemont’s request so promptly. He always paid on-time and gave her what she needed to get the job done right.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Focusing her Abilities, she rewound a version of reality back a full day and a half and allowed it to fill the crystal held in her hands as reality rapidly caught up with the present. It took all of a minute and a half to fill the crystal with the recording. When she was done, she handed the crystal to Edgemont.

  “That was not a particularly difficult engagement. No additional charge.”

  “Thank you, Vaelith. Did you see anything in particular?”

  “I did not watch. You should know by now that I rarely do. What my clients use their recordings for is none of my business. It is simply better business to keep it that way unless my clients specifically need that additional service. You, however, are fully capable of reviewing the recording and coming to your own conclusions.”

  “Fair enough. Thank you for your prompt response and impeccable service as always.”

  “My pleasure.” She departed without another word.

  Edgemont returned to his own desk and loaded the crystal into his viewing crystal port and watched. What he saw was utterly fascinating. The recording showed the trophy’s power core shatter and the head fall to the floor. He watched, fascinated as Duke regrew his body and the events that followed took place.

  There had been rumors of this Duke’s ability to move quickly and there was clearly some truth to those rumors but Edgemont was fixated by the core forming in Duke’s hand and…did he plant the core against the door? Edgemont scrutinized the scene from every angle and became more and more sure of it. This man had created a Dungeon Core out of thin air. He was instantly torn between watching the rest of the scene and investigating to see if the dungeon was still there.

  Ultimately, he continued to watch, sure that knowing more about what happened would be more beneficial than a hasty rush to examination. When he saw Nonetes attempt to leave the office and open his door, he nearly jumped out of his chair when the hand reached out of the dungeon and effortlessly ripped Nonetes into the dungeon. Eying the door to Nonetes office, he became thankful that he hadn’t closed the door. That dungeon trap was too cleverly hidden. He did not hesitate to call in help for this investigation. High-Tier help was required, and he was not about to get his hands dirty.

  Duke arrived outside Cloudspire and discovered that things were changing. In the area around the Celestial Foundry, construction projects were spreading like wildfire. Workers were building multi-level warehouses close to the Foundry and across the road where there had been untamed land, now was cleared for kilometers. Just how long have I been gone? I know I was in some sort of stasis so there’s no telling how long. At least Teldin seems to be doing well still.

  He was greeted by two individuals he had not been expecting to emerge from the Foundry. Nystrial the Lightning Elemental floated near Ophirian’s head, and both headed for Duke with purpose. Duke readied himself for a dressing down, trying not to let his amusement show at their apparent annoyance with him.

  “So where in the Cosmos have you been hiding?” Ophirian’s greeting was very much to-the-point with no warm-up.

  “I was otherwise occupied for some time.”

  “Otherwise occupied? For almost four months? With no communication whatsoever?”

  “Is that how long it’s been? I suppose transit time for the distances involved could account for it.”

  “Where the hells have you been?” Ophirian’s voice now carried a timbre of hurt that Duke immediately recognized.

  “OK, so, here’s what happened.” Duke relayed the story of his time spent as a trophy and what he did on the way out.

  “You survived having your head chopped off? Really?”

  “Yeah, cool thing that. But there are some serious problems that are now out there.”

  “Such as?”

  “For one, I’m sure that pissed the Syndicate off even more.”

  “Of course.”

  “But more importantly, someone out there still has my body with my pouch of cores.”

  “Oh yeah, that’s not good. But you can make more cores, right?”

  “Yes, but one of those cores has Chopie in it. I have no idea if he’s still alive in there, but if he gets out, he could be yet another problem for us.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yes, oh. Now, what has been happening here? I see all kinds of construction going on.”

  Ophirian visibly brightened up and switched into a much more animated manner, “The Foundry is really an amazing place. Between that and the Academy, the Kingdom of Stormstride has become the center of everything for Teldin. Crafters are pouring in from everywhere to both learn and teach at the Foundry. The accelerated time has caused some interesting issues but nothing monumental other than the need to store all sorts of things. If the Syndicate comes for us, we’ll be ready for them!”

  “I suppose it’s my time to answer, oh?”

  Ophirian continued with a chuckle as Nystrial settled on top of Duke’s head, causing his hair to frizz out from the static electricity. “Duke, you should see what we have been building in the Foundry. We have weapons of war like you would not believe. Piles of them!”

  “Ships?”

  “Many. And they’re huge! Like twice the size of the Iron reaver!”

  Duke smiled to himself, trying to not step on his companion’s excitement, “You’ll have to show me.”

  “Oh, I will. And I haven’t even made it to the Academy yet, but they keep sending us stuff to use. It’s really cool but it takes forever to get between the two places.”

  “I can fix that for sure. How is the security here? Any issues?”

  “I told you we were making weapons right? Well, we now have a new Legion to wield them. They stay inside and practice here. Come on. Let me show you around. You are going to love it!”