Nate sat in what he assumed was one of the logistics tents of the Asmuisillan Army, under guard. His escort had handed him off quickly to someone of a higher rank, who had done the same, until Nate had found himself seated in this tent, surrounded by a squad of six mid-Golds. He’d already checked their levels and they were all in the low seventies with Epic Classes. That meant they had likely started at Uncommon. One of the guards had noted his assessment but hadn’t said anything, though that particular guard was one of the two that had lingered inside the tent with him. The others were all outside, standing quietly and surveying the night with an attentiveness likely driven by Nate’s sudden arrival. His presence was unexpected and, unsurprisingly, that had them on high-alert. Being from Etrua, as far as they could tell, certainly didn’t help. Using his sphere of awareness to monitor his surroundings, he waited patiently.

  The trip had taken two days, just like expected, and since he had left in the middle of the night, he’d also arrived in the middle of the night. The last half a day of the trip had blown his costs in mana out slightly as he’d added both Illusion and Obfuscation runes to his teleportations to try and hide himself from Bordain’s people. Still, the cost had been necessary. Now, he just needed to convince the Asmuisillan leadership to let him help them win this war. The little communication he’d had with Deverell indicated that the Princess was willing to take the proposed risk. Morgane couldn’t be seen to be aligning herself with Asmuisil, or else she would lose support from some of the Nobility who acknowledged her claim to the throne over Bordain. But, if Asmuisil won and took the Capital, they would effectively be able to slowly force all the Nobility into submission.

  The end result would be Asmuisil either annexing Etrua or having the country as a Vassal State. The latter was what Morgane wanted. A way to force through changes in Etrua to align with Asmuisil while having the power and backing to make the Nobility capitulate. The ‘or else’ in that statement was very clear. Capitulate or die. But for that to happen, Asmuisil needed to be strong enough to take Etrua but not so strong that Morgane wasn’t able to bargain. It was a tight line to walk, but Nate knew exactly how he intended to achieve it.

  Perhaps he shouldn’t have bothered, given the cost in time and effort for himself, but he didn’t want to be the kind of person who would abandon people like Cutter and his family to the depredations of a tyrant like Bordain. So, here he was, about to convince the General of an invading force to let him modify the enchanting ‘masterpieces’ that were the core of their combat capability. The price of power, he told himself, leaning back as he sensed three people approaching. He held off on trying to pierce their veils. Best not to get off on the wrong foot.

  The first to enter was a tall woman with a shaved head showing only short, black stubble and piercing, hazel eyes. She was wearing a set of Champions’ Armour which coated every part of her except for her head. Behind her came someone he recognised. The second woman was shorter, with flowing, black hair that for now hung limp. The first time he had seen her, that same hair had floated freely in an unseen breeze, as she fought one of Etrua’s Platinums. The woman was the Wind Mage who had helped to try and raid Morgane’s camp. Tried, and failed, thanks to Nate and Kiri. The widening of the woman's chocolate-coloured eyes was enough to tell him she also recognised him. Like the first woman, the Wind Mage also wore Champions’ Armour. The final person to enter was a short man. He wore fine, silk clothes in black and white, which matched his salt-and-pepper beard. The man's appearance screamed wealth, but he clearly deferred to the two women.

  While the Wind Mage remained standing, the first woman to enter took a seat across from Nate and he could feel her looking over him with an assessing eye. Finally, after a few uncomfortable seconds, the woman Nate had begun to suspect was the Commander leaned back in her chair.

  “You are not Luc Crozier,” she stated calmly.

  “No, I am not,” Nate agreed, waiting patiently to see where the conversation would go.

  Perhaps someone with better social or bargaining skills would know whether it was wise to try and guide or direct the conversation, but on that front Nate was out of his depth. Best to let them take the lead for now. Of course, there was also Frick, deep below them underground, carving a rune beneath the tent in case they tried to contain him instead of talk. His paranoia had never left him, after all. Whatever else happened, he would not be imprisoned ever again.

  “I recognise you,” said the Wind Mage. “You were part of Morgane’s Army. You nearly killed Agatha.”

  Nate looked from the Wind Mage to the Commander, who gave a shrug as if to let him answer.

  “I was. A part of Morgane’s Army, I mean. As for Agatha, if she was that Water Mage you used in the raid, you should’ve warned her and her compatriots not to go for the kill on a Guild member. I might have shown more restraint if they hadn’t been aiming for my head. Did she live?”

  “She did,” growled the Wind Mage. “Though unless she sees a more powerful Healer soon she will bear the scars from the acid for the rest of her life. You marked her. Perhaps I should do you the same favour? A mark for a mark?”

  The Wind Mage stepped forward aggressively, bumping into the Commander's upraised arm.

  “Now, now, Theora,” rebuked the Commander. “Let's hear what he has to say first.”

  “As you command,” replied Theora, stepping back.

  “My guards tell me your name is Nate and that you claim to represent The Artist’s Emporium,” said the Commander, and Nate noted how the wealthy man on the woman’s left looked at him intently at those words. “My name is Kalista, Commander of the Third Army of Asmuisil. What brings you to our bloody doorstep?”

  It took Nate a moment to realise she meant the battlefield, rather than cursing at him.

  “I’ve got a delivery of another Barrier array for you. But, the main reason I came is to try and help you defeat Bordain and his forces,” Nate answered honestly.

  “And how is a Gold going to do that?” demanded Theora, her tone demeaning.

  Nate suppressed the urge to prove anything right now. After all, actions spoke louder than words. So instead, he smiled at all three of them and stated calmly, “By fixing your Champions’ Armour and Empowerment Arrays.”

  The silence was deafening for a few seconds as even the guards looked at him in disbelief. That silence was broken by a scoff from the wealthy man, a snort of derision from Theora and the squeak of groaning wood as Commander Kalista shifted in her seat looking at him consideringly.

  “You’re not even a Platinum crafter, child, yet you think you can improve on designs that have lasted us for almost a century?” spat the man.

  Theora was about to add her own thoughts when Kalista raised her hand and silenced them both.

  “Why do you think you can improve upon them?” asked the Commander. “Mikael is a Master Enchanter. In Guild terms, he would be considered a Platinum. He has an Epic Enchanting-based Class and has been building and maintaining our Champions’ Armour and Empowerment Arrays since he was a Journeyman. That makes him very knowledgeable about them. You are not even from Asmuisil. You should have almost no exposure to our most tightly held equipment. I can acknowledge that you must have some skill. The Barrier Arrays the Artist’s Emporium has been supplying us are beyond a doubt an order of magnitude more efficient than anything we’ve used in the past. But this isn’t an efficiency problem. Our Champions’ Armour and Empowerment Arrays are the works of generations of refinement. Even if you could improve their efficiency by an order of magnitude, something I doubt, to be clear, that wouldn’t stop us from losing to Bordain. Our issue is one of power. Not of efficiency.”

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  “May I?” Nate asked, indicating the table.

  After a moment, Kalista gave him a nod of affirmation and Nate extracted the Champion’s Armour he’d brought with him from his Runic Gallery, dropping it on the table.

  The reaction was instantaneous. Kalista’s eyes widened in surprise, while Mikael’s hands were already on the armour, looking at the minor modifications Nate had been making. However, Theora’s reaction was the strongest. The Wind Mage’s eyes flicked from the armour to Nate.

  “You’re the one who raided our camp!” she stated, some anger leaking into her voice.

  Nate didn’t try to deny it.

  “I am.”

  “Arrest him,” ordered Theora, her eyes going to the guards.

  “Hold!” interjected Kalista, ignoring Mikael’s muttering. The Commander stared intently at Nate for a moment. “There were two taken. Where is the other one?”

  “Elsewhere,” he answered. “Would it make a difference? My understanding was the number of Empowerment Arrays was the limiting factor in how many Champions you could field.”

  “That is true, but having more Champions’ Armour means we can cycle the Champions out more, helping them rest and recover and assisting in wearing down our enemies.”

  “That makes sense, but is irrelevant if I can make your Champions competitive enough to win without needing to drag the battles out for so long,” countered Nate.

  Kalista paused in thought and Theora used the opportunity to make her own arguments, “You’re a Spatial Mage.”

  Nate didn’t bother to deny it, giving a slight nod.

  Theora spun to Kalista, “He could be Bordain’s pet Spatial Mage’s apprentice for all we know!”

  “Unlikely,” replied Kalista absently, the woman clearly doing some mental calculations. “He’s with the Guild, it seems. If he really is a part of the Artist’s Emporium, they have been supplying us despite being based out of Etrua, which puts them at risk. And you yourself said he was part of Morgane’s forces.”

  “Commander, none of that is proof he hasn’t been working for Bordain all along. We cannot confirm if he is part of the Artist’s Emporium or a member of the Guild and he could’ve been placed with Morgane’s forces as a spy. We saw what happened. He may have even been one of the assassins!”

  Commander Kalista listened to the tirade without showing any sign of her thoughts. Instead, Nate’s rescue came from the remaining non-Guard member present.

  “Why would you divert the pathway through this section and create empty slots?” asked Mikael curiously.

  Nate smiled brightly, “To remedy the flaw in your thinking about how the transfer array works.”

  He paused for a moment and glanced at Kalista, “May I?”

  The Commander waved him on, much to the consternation of the Platinum Wind Mage.

  Nate stood and moved around to join Mikael, running his finger over the changes he had made to the armour through Multi Conceptual Material Shaping. There were mana channels present in the armour, made of the hardened gem dust used by Enchanters. Nate had been very impressed with how many there were, in fact, as they created redundant pathways in case the armour was damaged, while maintaining efficiency. Four receivers for the mana transferred from the Empowerment Arrays. The armour could likely be half-destroyed and it would still function at almost full capacity. It was cleverly done. The changes he had made were small, mostly focused around the connections to the final step of the enchantment. The most protected piece, inside the chest and over the heart, where destruction of the piece likely meant death anyway. The part that took all that processed mana provided by the Empowerment Array and directed it into the individual wearing the armour, to be distributed by their Class Core. In that spot, he had created a secondary layer, without any mana channels yet, since he was no Enchanter. What he had done instead was create pockets for gems to be added. Five in total.

  “The reason is why I think I can improve on your designs. I want to be clear, I think the overall design is ingenious. It’s efficient and resilient. The flaw isn’t in the existing design itself, but the understanding that led to the design.”

  Mikael’s eyes narrowed but the Master Enchanter said nothing, waiting for him to continue.

  Nate obliged.

  “When you temporarily transfer processed mana through the Empowerment Array to the armour, what happens to it?” he asked Mikael.

  “It is used by the Champion’s Class Core to empower them,” Mikael replied, his face less curious at the question and more annoyed at being asked a redundant question. But, Nate wasn’t done. He was building to the answer.

  “Which Stats does it empower?” he pressed.

  “All of them,” Mikael replied and his eyes started to narrow in consideration.

  “You’re on your way,” Nate continued. “But, let me hasten your arrival. The flaw in thinking is that because the processed mana has been transferred, that it will be directed by the Class Core of your Champion. It certainly diffuses through their body to enhance them. It, however, is not being directed by the Champion’s Class Core. It’s following the same directives as its source. Because once the transfer is cut, it returns to its source does it not? The individual providing the processed mana is only temporarily providing their processed mana. It remains connected to their Class Core. You're providing your melee fighters with magic stats and your mages with stats like Strength. Inefficient. Incredibly so given, unless I miss my guess, you’re also not controlling what Stats your Empowerment Arrays are targeting. So you’re pulling evenly from the individuals linked to the Empowerment Array. So you’ve got waste on both ends of the pipeline.”

  “By the Gods,” muttered Mikael, who began pacing back and forth.

  Theora looked confused, but it was Kalista that Nate focused on. The Commander was watching the Master Enchanter and he could tell that his point had been well received. Mikael was already muttering.

  “Speak up, Master Enchanter,” ordered Kalista.

  “Apologies, Commander. He…he might be right. There is some evidence that what he says is true. We can even test it…but…”

  “But what?”

  “But, to get the kind of transfers he is talking about, we would need Epic materials. If we truly wanted it to be efficient, we would need Epic materials with Stat affinities. Those are rarer than roc eggs.”

  “And without them? Without the affinities?” pressed Kalista.

  “It would still work, assuming he is right, but the gains would be significantly less. Maybe a twenty percent improvement instead of…” Mikael paused and Nate could tell he was doing some quick math. “Instead of eighty percent improvement. Roughly.”

  “Is it worth testing? In the field?” asked Theora, finally rejoining the discussion. “Can we afford the mana cost?”

  Nate smiled and extracted a mana gem, calmly placing it on the table.

  “I might be able to help.”

  “How much do you have?” demanded Mikael, and Nate could see the excitement in his eyes. A crafter at heart, just like himself, Nate could tell that the man was keen to see if they could do what he had proposed.

  Nate glanced at Kalista and the Commander gave a small, amused smile, “Well?”

  “Enough to fund the changes and testing,” Nate explained.

  “We would be down an Empowerment Array,” warned Theora.

  “We would,” agreed Commander Kalista. “But this is worth it. We would have had to flee anyway in another week at most if nothing changed.”

  When Theora went to speak the Commander locked her in place with her eyes, “I will take to the field myself to make up for the lack of a Champion.”

  Turning to Nate and Mikael she stated firmly, “You two had better work quickly.”

  Nate grinned. It was time to put the nail in the coffin. Time to make sure all his demands were met. He extracted a gem calmly from his Runic Gallery and placed it on the corner of the table. The gem was cut differently to a mana gem, sharper, smaller and not hollowed out. He felt Mikael’s identification Skill fire as he assessed the gem he had laid out on the table. The man’s gasp was all he needed to know it was a done deal.

  “What is it?” demanded Theora.

  “Epic Strength Affinity gem,” whispered Mikael.

  Nate made the mana-gem and the Epic Strength Affinity gem both disappear as he resumed his seat.

  “So, I have a few requests,” he stated calmly.

  The three Platinums eyes fixed on Nate, but he didn’t care. He’d shown his cards, and they were all aces. It was time to make sure he got everything he wanted. Because even if he wasn’t convinced he had a future on Galle, his friends did. It was time to set them up for life.

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