Draith
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Chapter 96 - Surprisingly Fragile
🕑 Added 2025-05-11 14:00:08 +0000 UTCAuthor's note: Sorry for the unannounced break from chapters. Had an unexpected disruption in my living situation. Needed to find a new place without much notice. Made it kinda hard to concentrate on writing. Should be sorted soon. I'll get Patreon back up to full strength soon as I've got an extra day to focus on writing.
...Mage Lord Isekai...
There were no lessons for Bevel that night.
Nor was there dinner with Calbern, unlike what I'd told Keria, since I'd forgotten he wasn't back yet.
Not feeling comfortable sitting in on their reunion, I excused myself before it got awkward. Seeing them together made me wonder what was happening with Nexxa. That she'd left me behind meant she'd probably been safe, at least.
But the fact she hadn't stuck around or even left me a proper message…
I sighed, gripping the rope behind me, looking over Tetherfall.
With Nexxa, I'd gotten too comfortable and revealed something I shouldn't have. Was I doing the same thing with Tetherfall? Getting too complacent? It was no secret I had no real idea of what I was doing. A few lessons and a bunch of things I read from a few books did not a leader make.
Still, I had no doubt I was better than Grivis or Balthum had been. Neither had set that bar particularly high.
Lost in my thoughts, I almost didn't notice when Selvi walked past on the far side. She was muttering to herself under her breath, her arms wrapped around her. I almost called out to her, but I hesitated when I saw the glower on her face. She was gone before I could figure out what to say.
Still, the sight of her was enough to kickstart me into motion. I headed to the arch I'd assembled during the storm. It had kinda gotten put on the back burner, but I'd always meant to use it as a main brace for an elevator. Something that'd be more important now that we had several rather heavy golems wandering around.
Even as I approached the arch I could see Banya and Soap Bottle accompanying Tanis down on one of the lower levels. They were all gathered around one of the lesser lifts. Might be wrong, but I suspected it wouldn't be enough to lift them. Banya was standing near the canyon wall, one arm wrapped in the net, her free hand reaching back with every sway of the net as if afraid that would be the moment the nets gave way.
Soap Bottle had no such concerns. She was practically leaning over the edge as she talked loudly with Tanis. Loud enough I could hear her voice, even if I couldn't make out the words.
Disregarding them for the moment, my gaze shifted to the night sky above. Which reminded me that maybe it wasn't the best time to be making changes to Tetherfall's infrastructure. Still, since I was there, I took measurements for the beams we'd need. I'd taken them before, but I wanted to make sure they hadn't changed.
After I had the numbers, I found myself taking a seat on the arch, staring down over Tetherfall. The sight of folded up ships connected by ropes and walkways, all of it interspersed with tangles of thick vegetation still struck me as strange at times. But it was also starting to feel like something else. Something I didn't really have words for.
A sort of warm feeling, one that had nothing to do with the actual warmth that emanated from the stone.
For over ten minutes, I simply remained there, taking it in even as I envisioned what would become of the town as my domain grew. And I realized I wanted to preserve Tetherfall. At least the organized chaos of the nets below. There were literally hundreds of miles worth of empty land that could be developed instead. No reason to spoil such a unique culture.
With that thought, I turned in for the night.
When I returned to the galleon, Bevel was curled up in her sister's lap. Keria was staring down at her little sister when I walked in, her hand gently stroking her sister's hair. The former attendant looked up at me, her smile surprisingly fragile for a woman made of stone.
I gave her a simple nod as I moved past her, collapsing into bed.
Morning came as it usually did, with Calbern helping me get dressed. It took two sleeves and nearly a minute to register the fact he hadn’t been there when I went to bed.
"Morning Calbern. Take it you didn't fall in any ditches on the way back?" I asked, smiling.
"None that I couldn't get myself out of, master Perth," Calbern replied while adjusting the same robe I spent so long fighting the other day in mere seconds. "It seems miss Tamrie has been executing her duties on a satisfactory level."
“Yeah, she’s been great,” I agreed, trying to figure exactly what he’d done with the robe. It’d been too fast. I was almost tempted to muss it up, just to get another chance to figure it out. But there was always tomorrow.
“I noticed that lady Bevel’s sister has recovered, to a degree,” Calbern said as he stepped back, giving me a quick once over before nodding to himself. “I trust there were no issues, given that she has been allowed to watch over her sister unsupervised.”
I felt like he was implying something, but I wasn’t sure what. “The one attendant didn’t wake up,” I replied, frowning. “Not sure what’s going on there. But she’s the oldest of the attendants. Could be something Balthum screwed up.”
“Unfortunate. On another matter, it might be a couple days before Fang is ready for another excursion,” Calbern said, falling in behind me as I moved into the main room.
“Did Inertia decide to take it apart again?”
“Thankfully, no,” Calbern replied, gesturing for me to sit as he slid a bowl in front of me. Tamrie was waiting at the table, paging through her journal with one hand while eating her own breakfast with the the other.
“So, what happened?”
“The front wheel had a minor case of accelerated expansion,” Calbern answered, even as he stepped back.
“It… what?” I asked, squinting at him.
“He means to say the snake circle went boom,” Tamrie answered for him, not bothering to look up from her notes. “Right as he rolled into town. Shook the whole damn net.”
“Just so,” Calbern said, inclining his head slightly. “It seems that I may have stressed the components beyond their breaking point.”
“Figured we needed better tires,” I said before turning my attention to my food. Fang having difficulties wasn’t too much of a worry for me. Better here than with Calbern stranded halfway to town with the wyvern carcass still out there.
Actually…
“You did get the wyvern back, right?”
Calbern’s minute pause before he answered was enough that I didn’t actually need to hear his answer to know I wasn’t going to like it. “I’m afraid that the trailer is stuck. It is only a few miles away from Tetherfall. I had intended to enlist help to free it then return with Fang, however…”
“However, Fang gave up the ghost right as you got back,” I said, rubbing at my forehead.
“I am not familiar with that particular idiom, but yes,” Calbern replied, once more inclining his head by a fraction in agreement.
I was struck by the fact he didn’t know it. The idiom was one that was pretty common in Elinder. Then again, Calbern had only studied the language with the assistance of a single cast of the Tongues spell. He hadn’t had dozens of books in the language shoved into his brain like Neo in the matrix. I supposed that comparison wasn’t fair. Didn’t remember Neo getting a headache when he learned martial arts.
Didn’t matter. What mattered was getting the wyvern back and processed.
“Selvi was dealing with that mess last night, weren’t she?” Tamrie asked, finally deigning to look up from her breakfast. Her pencil had already replaced the fork she’d been using as she returned her attention to her journal. “Recruited those fancy stone ladies and went for a hike.”
“Miss Selvi did say she would ‘rope someone into helping, even if I gotta net em myself,’” Calbern replied, turning slightly towards Tamrie, his hands held behind his back. “Though she insisted I retire for the evening, as I was rather overdrawn at the time.”
“Sure as kelp, she got ‘er done,” Tamrie said, scratching at her chin with her pencil for a second. “Either way, you’ll have time to drown that yourself, aye? No need for the Magus to get involved?”
“You are correct, miss Tamrie,” Calbern replied, a small frown forming even as he inclined his head in her direction.
“Good. And don’t need none of that miss Tamrie stuff. My name is my name, I ain’t a high and fancy lord like Magus Perth,” Tamrie stated, pushing away from the table. “Reckon we’ve got quite the day ahead of us.”
“Oh?” I said, looking up from my half-finished breakfast. Calbern had kept it light.
“Mhm, first, we’ve got dance lessons, then we’ve got time slotted for checking over your work on the attendants, assuming you still plan to do that. After that… well, it’ll depend on how much time you need to spend with the attendants, but you did mention wanting to get that spell from Keeper for accessing Tier one storage rings.”
I nodded along, until the first item actually registered. “Dance lessons?” I asked, blinking.
“Aye, you don’t wanna be unprepared for the festival, do ya?” Tamrie replied, looking up from her journal. “It’s customary for the High Shaper to acknowledge the youth crossing into adulthood. Heard it wasn’t all fun and games here, since the old Magus’d take his chosen away to do depths knows what with them, but back in Spellford, the old man would give gifts or dance. Figured you might want to put your best foot forward, as it were, what with being new to the region and all. Course, with all your mage-power, I ‘spose it might nay be a concern to ya.”
“Yeah, no, can we back up a step?” I asked, holding up my fork and rolling it in a rewind motion.
“That’ll be up to Myris. She’ll be in charge of the lessons, though she asked me to come along to take notes.”
“I… that’s not…”
“Master Perth has been educated on many styles of dance, I’m sure he will have no trouble adjusting,” Calbern said, his chest puffing out slightly. “Especially since he has been keeping up with his storm dancing.”
“Storm dancing, huh? That what ya call all that leaping ‘bout in circles you two do every other morning?”
“It was Lady Nexxa’s designation, though I find it quite apt,” Calbern answered, somehow managing to find another fraction of an inch to stand even straighter.
“Hold on a second,” I finally got out, causing them both to look at me. Tamrie tapped her pencil once, while Calbern arched his eyebrow at me. I waited for half a second, to make sure neither would interrupt, then asked, “What festival?”
Calbern blinked once while Tamrie squinted at me before glancing back at her journal, flipping pages. After flipping back several pages, she chuckled as she tapped a section that hadn’t been crossed out. “Ah. Seems I never did tell you about the festival. Got interrupted by Egerta, I think. Back in Spellford, we called it the Summer Tide, but your people call it the Last Calm. It’s to celebrate the last days before the Howling season is upon us. Marks coming of age, back home. Sounds like your people do it the same.”
“Oh. That’s…” I wasn’t exactly sure what I thought about it. Festivals were good. People could use the distraction though I was hoping it wouldn’t get in the way of the construction efforts too much. “Where does the dancing come in?”
“Well, I talked to ser Calbern, and he said that back in your home, you’d have fancy dances to celebrate the harvest and whatnot. That it was one of your favorite things. And… well, I mighta got it into your people’s head that they could do it with ya, to say thanks and such,” Tamrie replied, using her pencil to cross something out then wrote a new line later in the journal. “‘Spose no one thought to ask if that’s what you wanted.”
“I…” I didn’t really know how to respond. Perth would’ve been honored. Dancing had been something he’d been quite good at. He’d developed the skill mainly to get attention from women, but he’d put in the work. For me, though… well, storm dancing was all I’d ever done.
“Myris is hoping you’ll be able to get them started right quick. Wants you to show them how to step about and such. They’re hoping to hold the festival before the next big one hits, so in a week or so,” Tamrie said, using her pencil to push her bowl away before standing up.
I nodded, even as I processed the words. Then they hit me. “Wait… she wants me to teach them to dance?”
