“Okay, so we go find some of this first kind, and boom, you can use them to speed up the repair of the Tower, right?” I said, getting excited.
“Hah! Aye, ye jus’ tell ‘im how much you be needin,’ an’ how expensive they be!” Heph interrupted, instantly dropping my mood.
“Crap. Okay, Seneschal, give me the bad news…” I sighed glumly.
“They are both rare and expensive, Jax, or they were, in our time. If they’re being used to power ships now, they may be cheaper, but they are more likely to have climbed in price. Also, to repair the entire Tower fully would take hundreds, possibly thousands, depending on their size and potency.”
“Well fuck me sideways, that’s unlikely to help, then!” I muttered, sitting back with a thump.
“Possibly, but maybe not, Jax,” Oracle said, and I regarded her questioningly. “You let me search your memories, and I’ve had time to think about things. After all, I don’t need to sleep the way you do…”
“Go on,” I said, shifting in my chair and watching her as she brushed her hair back and smiled winningly at me.
“Well, we’re at war with Barabarattas, right?”
“Uh-huh?” I said, raising one eyebrow.
“We haven’t got enough of a force to go toe to toe with him. Not yet, anyway but he doesn’t know that. He’s at war already with Narkolt, so he can’t dedicate too many ships to come for us yet. He’s probably still thinking his Warship is on its way, after what he said yesterday, right?” I nodded, and she grinned at me.
“What’s the saying you like, the one about being outnumbered?”
“That it’s the ideal time to charge in and bite their cocks off?” I asked, confused.
“Oh… no, sorry, it was Tommy’s saying! It’s your memories, they’re a bit… messy… sorry,” she said, shaking her head.
“Oh…ah!” I said, grinning and nodded at her. “’It’s guerilla time, motherfuckers’?”
“Exactly! They don’t know how many of us there are, but they can’t afford to send more ships until they’re sure Narkolt won’t attack.”
“So, if we can get in there somehow, we can nick the manastones and give their guards a good kicking. Then if we pull back, we can probably gain the time we need to get ready properly!” I said, grinning evilly.
“Exactly!”
Chapter Four
Oracle and I sat there, staring at each other. It was madness. We didn’t even have a fighting force yet. They’d barely survived the Tower assault, and that was with me doing most of the work, but if we could pull it off?
“We could put his ships out of action; he wouldn’t be able to launch an assault against us or Narkolt until he’d gotten more stones! We’d solve two problems at once; hell, if we include getting people’s families out of the city and to safety, it’s three!” I said, my mind spinning with all the possibilities.
“We could buy the stores we need or steal them … we’d need wagons to get them out of the city…” Oracle mused; her eyes alight. “We could use Oren and the crew’s families to drive the wagons, but we’d need to convince them…”
“Hmmm. Maybe steal the manastones, but hire the wagons and buy the supplies; don’t want to make enemies of the ordinary people, after all…”
“How much gold do we have?” Oracle asked me with a raised eyebrow.
“Okay… plan ‘B’. We steal everything,” I said, shrugging. “It’s a shame and all, but to hell with it. Our people are my priority. I need to speak to Jenae, though."
"She said she could give me quests and information. I need to check on Tommy; if he’s nearby, I need to get to him, and bring him here.” I felt terrible that I wasn’t already headed to wherever Tommy was, but I needed to make things here as safe as possible. Add to that, I knew Tommy. If anything had tried to hurt him, it’d be pulling back a bloody stump with no body attached.
And if he were dead…well, then I’d tear this realm apart until I found whatever had killed him, and I’d fuck it up, big style.
“Okay, my next task is to communicate with her, but before I do, Heph, we need lots of Golems, buddy, fast as possible.” I commented to the stocky figure that was idly kicking the quicksilver liquid mana about like a child in a puddle.
“Wha…? Oh, aye, right! I canna do it, laddie,” he said, shrugging apologetically. I frowned and he went on quickly. “I’m no sayin’ ‘no,’ I’m sayin’ it canna be done! I would iff’n I could. We need more Cores! We also need t’ repair the Chamber.”
“We need to make a decision, basically,” Seneschal interrupted smoothly.
“We can build, say, three more Servitor class Golems, then shut the Genesis Chamber down for a full repair and rebuild. That would take three Golems a week to do, but the Chamber would then be able to build class two ‘Simple’ Golems.”
“Each class two could be given orders to repair, clean, build, or for the War Golems, to stand watch and defend the Tower."
"The Golems wouldn’t have to be directly commanded anymore, and that would in turn allow us to concentrate on the repairs themselves, which would speed that process up.” The caped wisp gestured toward the Tower as it slowly spiraled around on the Creation Table. “Alternatively, we could produce two Servitors and a Construction Golem. The Constructor could continue to speed up repairs to the Tower, while the Servitors could search for more Golem Cores and materials to continue making more. It would not have as big an increase in the repairs as the first choice, and we run the risk of the Genesis Chamber breaking down, but…”
“Could we have the Golems make another Genesis Chamber?” I asked hopefully, but all three wisps were shaking their heads before I even finished speaking.
“Nay, laddie. To make somethin’ o’ tha’ complexity needs at least ‘Advanced’ or Level Four Golems. We could try, but I dinna
