The lights came to a stop at the top of the nearest trees, about seventy meters away. The stairs on the outside of the sphere pointed directly north, but I realised in the dark there was no way for the Forest Keepers to know where they were. I would need to put in lamps or enchanted light sources so that people knew how to get to the entrance.

"Can I borrow your light stone?" I asked Chantelle.

She nodded and passed it to me.

I held it up and waved it to the Forest Keepers, they waved theirs back. I set off across the walkway to the outer stairs and started down them. The lights of the Forest Keepers followed me around the edge of the sphere. They reached me as I got to the point of the stairs that entered the forest, still ten meters above the ground.

I had cleared the trees that had branches that covered the stairs, so they followed me from above as I made my way to the bottom. I'd built an open pavilion there, a stone roof three meters above a stone floor, with pillars in all four corners. A place to meet people outside of my fortress.

The Forest Keepers came down to ground level several trees back, I assumed as a gesture of politeness so that I could see them approaching, rather than dropping down right next to the pavilion. I recognised Mal'Thorn as he approached, but I wasn't sure if it was the same two guards.

"Welcome Keeper Mal'Thorn." I said.

"Thank you, Lord C.C." Mal'Thorn said.

"What brings you to my area of the woods?" I asked.

"We were concerned at the rate that the trees of the Forest were being cut down." He said. "Though I see now that it was done to clear a space to raise your... Fortress. It is an odd thing, our Forest sense tells us that it's a perfect circle cut out. You've made a spherical fortress? And within the space of a day. Are you a god of some sort?"

"I'm told that wards are more efficient in a spherical configuration, so I followed that in my construction." I said. "As to being a god, no, I make no claim to godhood. I'm a Champion."

"That would explain it quite adequately." Mal'Thorn said, nodding. "It is good that you bring up wards, your claim has been... Flickering, is the closest word to explain it. It is sending uncomfortable ripples into the Forest."

"I invite you, and your guards, to come inside and we can discuss it." I said.

The only room that was set up, outside of my Pocket Dimension, was the warding room. I led them there, finding Chantelle watching the detection ward's display. I created three chair stands for the Forest Keepers, in the style I had made when I first met Mal'Thorn.

"Thank you again." Mal'Thorn said. "You have power over stone, I see. I admit that I thought you were simply an earth mage at our first encounter."

"Something like that." I said. "You remember my companion, Chantelle Warder. Mal'Thorn said that the claim ward was flickering. That's more your area, Chantelle?"

"I don't recover enough mana to keep it going steadily." Chantelle said.

Mal'Thorn looked at me in surprise. "She has been maintaining it alone?" He asked. "You haven't been assisting with mana?"

"She has." I said. "Unfortunately I have no ability with mana."

Mal'Thorn took a moment to absorb that, looking more impressed.

"We do have a ward that absorbs some of the ambient mana to charge a mana crystal." Mal'Thorn said. "We use it with peoples who cannot maintain the charge of a claim ward. There are some downsides to it, though. It lowers the ambient mana over the area it covers, which slows the mana regeneration of those within its effect. It also needs to be carefully calibrated to the ward it is powering, overcharging mana crystals can cause them to explode with extremely peculiar effects."

"That sounds ideal." I said.

If Chantelle could learn the ward then it would solve the mana problem.

"Let me see the mana crystal that the claim ward is tied to." Mal'Thorn said.

I nodded to Chantelle, who got it from its stand and placed it on the table in front of Mal'Thorn.

Mal'Thorn frowned. "What have you done to my ward?" He asked. "This isn't the ward I gave you."

"We had need to attach a detection ward to it." I said. "It has warned us of an attack by winter agents already, and it showed your arrival so that we could greet you."

"I can see how it was done." Mal'Thorn said. "It took a great deal of skill, and I don't think I could duplicate it on a running ward."

I looked at Chantelle, who just shrugged.

Mal'Thorn sighed. "I don't think I can just give you the recharge ward." He said. "Chantelle is obviously talented, and would have it figured out in short order. It is somewhat of a secret ward."

"You couldn't just give it away." I said. "But perhaps you would trade its secret?"

"It is possible." Mal'Thorn said. "It would cost a great deal, however, and I don't know of anything you would have that would equal it."

"Chantelle, may I borrow your mana crystal?" I asked her. "And could you entertain our guests while I work?"

She nodded, handing me her small mana crystal.

I reshaped the walls in the corner of the room to form a standing desk, placed the mana crystal on it, and sank my power into it. I couldn't sense the mana in it at all, but that shouldn't matter. I duplicated the mana crystal, using the stone of the table as the source material. It used more energy than I was expecting, about ten times as much as my reinforced stone material. Not that energy was an issue in any way, but it was interesting that there was more going on with the structure of mana crystals.

I duplicated another crystal, so I had three of the same size, and then duplicated the material of one of the duplicates. I grew it to twice its size, roughly the same size as the claim ward mana crystal, then put it in my pocket.

Walking back over to the main table in the center of the room, Chantelle and Mal'Thorn were talking about warding. Mal'Thorn's guards were on their chairs keeping an eye on the room and watched me approach.

I handed Chantelle the two smaller mana crystals. "Could you check those, please?" I asked.

She nodded, focusing intently on one and then the other. "This one is about half full." She said. "And this one was completely empty. It accepts mana readily enough."

I turned to face Mal'Thorn. "How many mana crystals would it cost for the secret of the recharge ward?" I asked.

"I would estimate it at one hundred at that size." He said. "But we don't have any need for that many small mana crystals. Mana crystals are formed from the crystallisation of pure mana. They're traditionally formed by concentrating large amounts of mana, flooding a small area, and keeping it at that concentration for years. Larger mana crystals require longer to grow, and take a higher concentration of mana. We have batches of small mana crystals that mature every year, and our production matches our needs."

Yep. Matter Manipulation was an overpowered power to have. I brought out the larger mana crystal and passed it to Chantelle. Mal'Thorn gave me a shocked look.

"Empty." She said. "And four times the capacity of the small mana crystals."

"How many of that size?" I asked Mal'Thorn.

"Ten." He said immediately.

"How large of a mana crystal would it take for a direct trade for a recharge ward?" I asked.

I couldn't help but smile at Mal'Thorn's expression of shock, which included his tail pointing straight.

"You can truly make mana crystals at a whim?" He asked.

I nodded. "My power seems to have no trouble with it." I said.

"A mana crystal twice the size of that larger one would easily be worth a recharge ward and the small mana crystal its attached to." He said.

I went back to the desk in the corner with the larger mana crystal, more because I didn't want to absorb a part of the table in front of them than for any need for secrecy about how my power worked. It only took me a minute more to double the size of the mana crystal again. It was so simple I decided to have some fun with it. How the material expanded wasn't terribly important to my ability to duplicate it, so I formed the mana crystal into an orb. Taking it back to the table I rolled it across to Mal'Thorn, who picked it up in shock.

"How... This... You..." Mal'Thorn said.

"That should be big enough?" I asked. "Orbs seem to be becoming a theme, I'm not sure why."

Mal'Thorn nodded mutely, pulling out a small mana crystal and staring at it for a minute.

I couldn't see anything happening, but Chantelle seemed to be following along. After they were finished, Chantelle and I escorted the three of them back outside, down the stairs to the pavilion.

"Thank you for coming, Keeper Mal'Thorn." I said. "It was very helpful. I welcome you to stop by any time you would like."

"You are very welcome yourself, Lord C.C." Mal'Thorn said. "We may come to trade with you again soon. There are other groups that we have treaties with that are also being harassed by the winter god. Would you be open to offering shelter to them?"

"Depending on what they can offer, sure." I said. "I don't think I want to provide food for a large population, so they would have to have some way of providing for themselves. At least the first group would."

Mal'Thorn nodded. "I think there are some beastpeople druids that fit that requirement." He said. "I will see if they still require refuge. Thank you for your hospitality, Lord C.C."

They walked a short distance away and then ascended into the trees. After they'd left Chantelle and I went back to the warding room. A twenty centimeter wide orb was counted as a large mana crystal. I spent some time and made Chantelle a mana crystal pillar next to the table, one meter wide by one meter long, from floor to ceiling, four and a half meters tall. She looked more and more shocked as I built it up. Once I was done she kissed me soundly.

"Thank you." She said. "With this and the recharge ward I will be able to run all of the wards I can think of... Though each ward should have its own mana crystal..."

I smiled and made her twenty small mana crystals.