Laryn had nearly reached Vallor by the end of the fourth day since he left.

  The adrenaline and excitement of his attack on Fort Envin had long worn off, and throughout the day he grew increasingly worried about what might have gone wrong while he was gone.

  And his legs were killing him.

  By mid afternoon, he started scanning the horizon for smoke. He reassured himself by noting that if anything damaged the core, he’d feel it. And nothing on his system interface gave him cause for concern either.

  He’d even used his mental link to check in with Adi. She seemed busy and distracted whenever she spoke to him, but she had nothing to report. That should have reassured him, but Adi’s quirkiness made him wonder if she was missing something big.

  The essence count of the core had steadily ticked upward as he was gone. By all indications, the kingdom was running smoothly.

  In fact, Widan and Gaten had managed to add 492 essence to the core while he was away, and keep the essence well balanced. Influence had risen to nearly 4. And they were a under one hundred essence away from being able to claim enough tiles to go to tier 4.

  Interestingly, the [Mage]s had sifted a lot of earth essence. Transporting quantities of dirt around was more challenging than moving water or wood, so they hadn’t done as much of it. Laryn wondered if they’d discovered an easier way to get earth essence.

  As the sun was setting, they rode their horses up to the bridges. They were greeted by two guards, and rode the horses across the water.

  Krupp’s cage was the first thing Laryn saw. The unfortunate creature groveled in the dirt. His prison was made of thick stakes pounded into the ground, with sturdy branches woven and tied between them.

  Normally insufficient to contain a goblin, the cage depended on kingdom influence strengthening the construction.

  “Let Krupp out!” the goblin demanded when he saw Laryn. “They torture Krupp here. Just little glimpses of symet fems. Always sending horrid men to pester and tease. Krupp do anything, please!”

  Laryn ignored the sad little imp and continued on into his kingdom.

  To his relief, everything was in place.

  Better, even, than when he left it.

  “This is what it should feel like to be a [Ruler],” he breathed.

  Their return attracted attention, and soon people were gathered around to hear the news. After a quick recounting of Hober’s escape and the voidling attack on Fort Envin, Laryn retired to his shelter to and received updates from his council.

  Everything had gone well during his absence. As that sank in, Laryn’s mind unclenched. He pulled up his interface and began considering their next move.

  ![[Where to find a Coresmith Kingdom Status]]

  “They’re growing fast,” he said. “They’ve already claimed some of the gold mines at the foot of the cliffs near the pass. But I don’t know if they know that they’ve done that.”

  Laryn rubbed his head. “I wish I had a better map of the region.”

  Adi skipped up to him. “You ready for tier four?” she asked.

  “No,” Laryn grumbled. “Not yet. Besides, they still don’t know where we are.”

  “Then I can’t help you with that yet.”

  Korwin could help with that, though. She produced a tattered paper map of the region. This she unrolled and placed on the table for everyone to examine.

  Some areas were blank, and regions around Orfswell and along the Townshold road were more detailed.

  “I’ve been working on this for a while,” she said.

  The island where Vallor’s kingdom core rested wasn’t indicated in the river, and the south bank of the Ebil—Elvendar—was entirely blank.

  “This is what I need!” Laryn exclaimed, excited to get at least some perspective on the terrain.

  He examined the map. Then he looked at Korwin, confused. “What’s the scale on this?”

  “The whole thing is around 5 kilometers across,” she said.

  That was how Laryn had understood the map as well.

  “So if we’re here,” he pointed at the map. “And Orfswell is there, we’re only around three kilometers away?”

  “Closer to four,” Korwin said. “But yes.”

  “Then why did it take us nearly two days to get there?” Laryn asked. “I know we didn’t take the most direct route…”

  “The actual route we take is quite circuitous,” Korwin said, tracing it out with her finger. “These ridges are impassible, so you have to go the long way around. And there are no roads between here and there. I’d guess we traveled more like… fifteen or twenty kilometers.”

  Laryn gaped.

  “I actually suspect that it would have been faster to cross over the Lewin river and circle past Jardensvale,” Korwin said, “I’m not nearly as familiar with this region, though but the land there seemed easier to traverse.” She pointed to a blank space on the map, west of Orfswell. “I think the Lewin could be a good river for trade. It’s calmer than the Ebil.”

  “So this is the Townshold road,” Laryn traced it, from the ford up north, curving around to the pass, and then west toward Orfswell.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “As the crow flies, we’re maybe five or six kilometers from Fort Envin?”

  “Seems about right,” Korwin agreed.

  “Fine,” Laryn said. “Got it.”

  “When we start claiming this territory, though, we’ll be able to build roads, and travel quickly along them thanks to influence,” Korwin said. “It’s great for trade.”

  “And moving soldiers around,” Laryn said. “As Fort Envin grows, they won’t have as many reasons to use these passes, or go around these steep hills.”

  “That’s right,” Korwin agreed.

  Laryn sighed. “The longer I talk to you, the closer Fort Envin gets. I just spent two days riding from there, and now you’re telling me that they’re hardly a few kilometers away!”

  Korwin laughed. “If they choose to expand this way, there won’t be much time before they’re knocking on our door.”

  “If they’re after gold, they will,” Laryn said. “The mines are all along this cliff. I’d be happiest if I could move the core. We could go up to where Jardensvale was, or beyond. That would solve so many problems.”

  “We haven’t tried the elves,” Thallon said. “They have coresmiths. We have gold now.”

  “I was thinking about that,” Laryn muttered. “They might object to the land we’ve claimed on the south bank of the Ebil.”

  “What if we sent someone to speak to Lawal? She parted from us on good terms.”

  “It’s probably worth a try at this point,” Laryn said. “But that’s the last messenger I’m sending out. We need people here, helping us to prepare.”

  He looked around the room, and his councilors generally nodded in agreement.

  “While there are benefits to growing the kingdom evenly on all sides, it might be valuable to send a narrow extension of Vallor over this terrain and start capturing goldmines. We need them if we’re going to pay a coresmith, and they’ll be easier to work with influence. I have no idea if Fort Envin is going to try to claim them or not. It will be easier to defend and hold them if we claim them first.”

  “I think that’s a great idea,” Thallon said. “We can work on building a road through there, and start mining.”

  “That’s spreading our influence out,” Gall said. “Might be better to keep it, in case there’s a fight.”

  “I know,” Laryn said. “You’re right. I’ll have to think it over some more.”

  He dismissed his council. Kenna remained behind. She hadn’t said anything during the whole meeting.

  “What is it?” he asked her.

  “I… I had an idea. I didn’t want to say it in front of the others.”

  “What?”

  “Well, I’m not very good at it, but I have the spark.”

  Laryn sprang to his feet.

  “You’re a coresmith!” he shouted. “Why didn’t you say something?”

  “Not so loud!” Kenna protested. “And I’m not a coresmith. I never completed the training. I have very little experience. Promise me you won’t tell anyone.”

  “What? Why on earth not? Coresmith is one of the best things a person you can do. Have you ever met a coresmith who wasn’t fabulously wealthy?”

  “No,” Kenna said, “I haven’t. And it’s a long story, but the point is, I have the spark. I have a little bit of training. I mostly worked with spell modules and upgrades, but I have disabled a core. Once. With help.”

  “Once?” Laryn said.

  “And your core is old. It’s different. I have been examining it while you were gone. It’s strange; has a lot of elements I don’t understand.”

  “You didn’t do anything to it, did you?” Laryn asked, suddenly stressed.

  “No, of course not! I’m asking your permission. I’m willing to try to deactivate it for you. I don’t think it’ll hurt anything.”

  “What other secrets are you hiding?” he asked, looking sideways at her. “Anything else you want to reveal? You’re also a highly trained bridge maker? Fluent in Elvish?”

  Kenna shook her head with a laugh. “Only a few more secrets. I have to keep some things to myself.”

  “Well, if you really can deactivate the core, that might solve a lot of our problems.”

  “I can try,” Kenna said. “I make no promises.”

  “Adi!” Laryn called.

  The Lepidoptera appeared.

  “Are you hearing what she’s saying?” he asked.

  “Um… no…” Adi said. “But I think it’s a bad idea to let an untested untrained person who has the spark try to do anything to our core! It could end badly!”

  “So you were listening,” Laryn said.

  Adi cringed.

  “Fine. What’s the worst that can happen if I let her try it?”

  “She could break something!” Adi said.

  “What?” Laryn demanded. “Be specific.”

  “I don’t know. She might add a burn rate or something.”

  “What if I let her try it on the elves core?”

  “It’s… less risky,” Adi conceded. “But they are connected! She could break something important!”

  Laryn scowled. “What could she break?”

  “Anything!” Adi said. “Coresmiths can change things about cores.”

  Laryn looked at Kenna.

  “I will be very cautious,” she said. “If it even seems like things are going slightly amiss, I’ll back off and stop.”

  Adi folded her arms.

  “We have to try it.” Laryn said.

  Kenna insisted that they wait until dark, so that nobody would see what they were trying to do. All was still and quiet in the center of Annar, the abandoned elven houses filled with darkness.

  Adi, Laryn, and Kenna stood around the core as the moon rose overhead.

  “Okay,” Kenna said, taking a deep breath and flexing her hands. “I can do this.”

  She knelt beside the core.

  Adi stood beside Laryn, watching.

  “If this works, everyone’s going to be very surprised when they wake up in the morning,” Laryn whispered to her.

  “You should spend time getting ready to pack everything up and travel,” Adi muttered back. “Take advantage of influence levels before taking the core down. You’ll loose all your core essence when it’s deactivated you know.”

  “I know,” Laryn said. “You said that already. If we take this one down we just lose the [Mage] class but at least we know she can do it.”

  “Maybe,” Adi said. “This one is probably easier.”

  “Are you being serious or just negative?”

  “I can’t believe you’re trying to put me back in the box,” Adi said, sticking out her lower lip.

  “So just negative then. I promise, we’ll let you out again as soon as we can.”

  “That’s what the last ruler said.”

  They fell silent as a pale, opalescent light began shimmering around Kenna’s hands. The core flickered, pulsing softly in the darkness.

  Then Kenna gasped, and Adi squealed. Six swirling streams of essence began flowing from the column.

  Laryn held his breath.

  Adi started to fade.

  Then she screamed. Kenna screamed. Laryn grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her back from the core.

  She sprawled over backwards in the sand, shaking.

  Adi snapped back in full force. She paced angrily around. “I said it was a bad idea! We never should have even considered it! It’s bad enough with an experienced coresmith!”

  Adi continued ranting as Laryn knelt beside Kenna. She opened her eyes and grimaced.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “Are you okay?” Laryn asked.

  Kenna nodded, standing and brushing dirt from her dress.

  “I’m fine,” she said. “Just pins and needles everywhere.”

  “Adi, what happened? Was anything damaged?”

  Adi huffed. “Almost!” she said. “Everything’s gone all wobbly in there! I’m going to have to go clean up.”

  “But is anything broke?”

  “Nothing that I can’t fix,” Adi said with a scowl.

  “Good,” Laryn said. “Then fix it.”

  “But she did release about 100 of your core essence into the air.”

  “That’s all?” Laryn asked. “We’ll replace it.”

  He wrapped his arm around Kenna and walked with her. “I’m glad we tried it,” he said. “Even if it didn’t work.”

  “Please don’t tell anyone,” she said.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t.”

  “But I want you to keep trying,” Laryn said. “If we can move the core, we might not have to fight Fort Envin.”