“I know we’ve talked about it before, and how it’d take years to repair it all. That’s fine for things we don’t need, but we need it to be safe, secure, and actually stay upright through storms and shit. What can you give me?”
“Well, the Tower is primarily my responsibility Jax,” Seneschal said, appearing to grow from the liquid silver of the table until he stood straight, and a half dozen inches tall. Heph appeared next to him, short, barrel-chested, and giving an impression of solidity, despite his also diminutive size. “Structurally, we have two choices, I can go floor by floor repairing to the minimum realistically acceptable level, then moving on. This would result in more livable areas being available quicker. The second choice, and this is the one I favor, is that I work on the most damaged and dangerous areas first, spreading out the work across the entire structure."
"This means you will see less effect, day to day, but there is a significantly reduced chance of the entire Tower falling over in a high wind.”
“Okay, ‘collapsing Tower’ is definitely on my list of things to avoid,” I stated calmly. “That said, we don’t need a great deal, Seneschal. How about a hybrid approach? You concentrate, say ninety percent on the overall structure, then put ten percent of your available mana into making the few floors we need more usable?”
“This is your choice, of course. Simply be aware that even with one hundred percent of the mana being invested, I cannot guarantee the Tower’s survival. I do not recommend resources be used elsewhere, but you are the Master. I will obey.”
“Look, Seneschal, I understand this, but had I not killed that thing and reawakened you all, the Tower would have collapsed anyway. We need to secure the walls and ground floor at a minimum. I want you to divert five percent to the ground floor, get the walls and doors back up and safe.” I said, determined to get on with things. “The other five percent I want you to use on the floor with the armory, where the ship is parked; it’s what, the twenty-third?”
“Twenty-sixth,” Oracle threw in lightly, smiling at me.
“Great, okay, the twenty-sixth floor. I want that floor repaired as far as possible. Not the general rooms inside, unless they need to be for structural reasons; just the outer walls, the parade ground or whatever it was, and the armory, and the interior cleared out as much as possible. I want to eventually be able to use that floor for more ships once we have them."
"For now, we just need some spaces cleared so that the ship, and possibly Decin’s as well, can fly inside safely. I want the parade ground converted into a proper landing area for the ship, reinforced and able to hold its weight and others. Once that’s done, I want the twentieth floor sorted out.”
“I know Cai is organizing the kitchens on that floor, and from what I remember, it was a couple of big rooms, with a few dozen or so smaller ones; is that right?” Seneschal nodded.
“Good! I want that floor sorted out, walls, roof, whatever other structural needs first, then the entire floor. Convert the larger areas that aren’t being used to eat or prepare food into barracks for now; if people have somewhere safe to sleep, it’ll help a lot.”
“And the smaller rooms, too,” Oracle said quickly. “They’ll need to be sorted out as quickly as possible, since it won’t look right for the people to see you just sleeping among them.”
“Hell, I’m fine with sleeping there; why not?” I said, my train of thought momentarily derailed.
“Jax, these people have to look at you as their lord, not the guy that’s snoring and farting the loudest,” Oracle said, closing her eyes and shaking her head slowly. “Please just trust me on this. The lord of the Tower and his closest advisors need separate quarters.”
I blinked and thought about arguing but considered how Oracle usually teased me. She was right; people didn’t need to see that. I’d take a room.
“Okay, then, but we get the safety issues sorted first. How long will all that take, Seneschal?”
I asked, turning back to the small figure clad in silvery armor, his cloak rippling in a nonexistent breeze. He stood there for a long moment considering, before finally responding.
“After reviewing the floors, I’d estimate nine days to secure and repair the twenty-sixth, four days to work on the twentieth, and forty-seven days to repair and secure the Ground floor.”
“Fuck, man, that’s insane! Okay, give me options here; what can we do to fix that? Make it faster, or whatever?” I asked sitting back in the chair and tugging on my beard, disappointed.
“There are three ways we could speed this up: first, we create more Golems and assign them to the task; second, we secure more Oath-bound members of the community, since they can assist in repairs and we can grant certain skill books and memories to increase production; and lastly, we could seek out manastones.”
“I’ve heard manastones mentioned before. What are they?” I asked, sitting forward quickly as a thought occurred to me. “I’m sure Oren has some on the ship; he said something about them being a fuel source?”
“That’s correct. There is a simple explanation, or a more complicated one that includes the formation of geodes, interactions of mana, and physics…”
“Simple! I like the simple explanation!” I said quickly, shaking my head in negation. “I totally don’t want the goddamn complicated one!”
“Very well…” Seneschal said, and I was damn sure there was amusement in his voice. “Manastones are formed from crystals that are found in areas of high mana concentration."
"Essentially, certain naturally forming crystals store mana as they develop. They can then be harvested, very carefully, and used to power devices or particularly powerful spells, or they can be created by someone with the right skills, but
