“So, yeah, I think you and your assistants should come to check out the lab. I’m cool with you guys working there as much as you need. Seriously, man, the equipment I uncovered is way beyond anything you guys are using. It’s beyond anything at Tarn’s Crossing, even.” Morgan was leaning against Boris’s workbench. He and Issa had just had breakfast at Alec’s Tavern, and she’d gone to visit with Maria, saying she wanted to talk to her about human wedding traditions.

“That’s really generous of you, Morgan. You sure you want a bunch of crafters traipsing around your home?” Boris sat back, lifting the strange, glimmering spectacles he wore up to his forehead.

“Well, I mean, let’s start with just you and your team, all right? I can set permissions on the stairs, so, no offense, you guys can only access the floor with the workshop and lab.” Morgan chuckled, imagining one of Boris’s helpers stumbling into his master suite.

“Ahh, that’s cool! I’d give my left arm,” he laughed, glancing at Morgan’s perfectly whole arm, “well, maybe not! Anyway, I’d love to see the enchantments on that tower. I wouldn’t know where to look, though. Maybe when I level up enough.”

“Yeah, the tower is something else, for sure. I’m not sure where I’d begin trying to figure out where all the enchantments in it are. I sort of gained a connection to it when I beat the final guardian, and I still don’t know how it all works. It’s like getting the operating codes to a new interceptor, you know, being able to fly it and work all the fancy equipment but having no clue how it all works.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. Well, here’s hoping I can learn as much as the guy who built it, eh?” Boris absently tapped one of his fine, metal inscription tools against the piece of steel he’d been working on.

“There are some things he knew that you don’t want to know, my friend. He did some messed up things while he was around.” Morgan shook his head, his eyes going distant for a moment, and Boris cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“Right, well, you know, I’m just trying to learn how to make life easier for us on this planet.”

“Of course! Anyway, I’ll need the names of your assistants. Actually, to make this easier, can you all just come by the tower first thing tomorrow? I’ll give you permissions with the door and the stairs so you can access the labs.”

“Hell yeah, Morgan! Thank you! Is there something I can do for you?”

“Yeah, actually, there is. I was hoping you’d ask! I knew if I offered you access to my labs, you’d feel obligated, muahahaha!” Morgan mock laughed and rubbed his hands together. Boris laughed along with him, and Morgan reached out to clap his shoulder, saying, “So, are you good at making rings?”

“Man, I’m an Enchanter, not a jeweler! Why?”

“Well, I proposed to Issa and sort of did it without a ring,” Morgan rubbed at his head, sighing. “She’s the best thing in my life, and I want to make sure I do things right, you know?”

“Well, I can help you, buddy. Several jewelers work in the crafting pavilion, and I’m pretty sure they all owe me favors. Let’s start with the best, though, Gina Brooks. If we get her to craft the rings, I’ll do some enchanting for free, right?”

“That’s great, Boris. I have some materials I’d like to use. Is she here yet?” Morgan glanced around the pavilion, and Boris turned toward the far corner.

“Yep, there she is. Let’s go talk to her. Congratulations, by the way, Morgan! That’s great shit!”

“Thanks, Boris.” Morgan clapped him on the shoulder again as they started walking. Boris reached up to pat Morgan on the back but stopped short.

“Dude, the wings, how am I supposed to pat your back?”

“Sorry, Boris.” Morgan shrugged. “They get in the way more than you think, but I’m getting better at living with them.” As he spoke, they approached Gina’s table, and she lifted her head from her project, large magnifying lenses making her eyes look huge. She was a small woman with short, curly, black hair. She tucked a tiny pair of pliers into one of the dozen pockets on her gray overalls and smiled broadly when she saw Boris.

“Hey, cutie! Coming to try to make another deal, hmm?”

“Oh, gosh!” Boris actually blushed, and Morgan snickered. “Come on, Gina, don’t embarrass me in front of my friend! This is Morgan, and he happens to have a commission for you!”

“The Morgan Hall?” Gina asked in a mocking tone. “You think we don’t notice your big friend coming in here to make secret deals with you, Boris? About time you shared some of the attention!”

“Uh, nice to meet you, Gina,” Morgan said, offering her a hand to shake.

“You too, Morgan.” She took his hand and squeezed, her short fingers only making it halfway around his palm.

“I need some rings made. I have the materials, and I can pay. That sound like something you could do?”

“Straight to business! I love it—Boris usually bores me with a story or two about his latest achievements before he tells me what he wants.” Her voice was high and a little scratchy, and Morgan found her demeanor instantly amusing. She reminded him of someone he’d watched on VR, but he couldn’t quite pin down the memory.

“I’ll pay extra, but I need at least the first ring done, like, as quickly as possible. You see, I proposed to my, uh, girlfriend, and she said yes, but I don’t have the ring yet.”

“Oh, an engagement ring, hmm? And you’ll be wanting wedding rings, too, I suppose?” She grinned at him, and Morgan noticed a wide gap between her front teeth, though he found it hard to see anything other than her enormous, magnified eyes.

“Yeah, that’s right. I have this metal I want to use,” Morgan said, pulling out the bar of Amber ore he’d been hauling around. He figured he could spare a tiny portion of the ore for some rings and still have enough to use in a new blade if he wanted to. “This is Amber ore. Have you worked with it before?”

“No, I sure haven’t,” the woman said, picking up the heavy bar. “God, it’s dense! Feels similar to gold, but,” she set it down and scratched at it with a sharp metal tool, “hard as hell!”

“It also holds enchantments really well, Boris,” Morgan added, turning to his friend.

Boris whistled and said, “Well, do you think you can work it, Gina?”

“Oh yeah, I’ve learned a few spells for cutting and shaping metal. If anything, I might have to use a power stone or two to supplement my Energy.” She looked up from the bar of metal to Morgan, squinting. “Where’d you get it anyway? Seems like it would be valuable, even in this magical world.”

“Adventuring, and yeah, it’s damn valuable, so I’ll need most of it back—I’m going to have a sword or something made with it eventually.” Morgan didn’t mean to let some steel enter his voice, but it did, and Gina physically flinched at his change of tone. “Sorry, I don’t mean to sound threatening. It’s a byproduct of my class and titles and racial advancements—you get the idea.”

“Sure. Sort of. Anyway, if you let me keep enough of this metal for just one extra ring, I’ll make yours for free. You’ll still be getting more than ninety percent of this bar back.”

Morgan thought about it for a minute, then nodded, “Deal.”

“Nice! Payment all sorted! Now let’s talk about the style of the engagement ring. Are you thinking you’d like a stone in it? Simple band? Delicate flowers? I can do all sorts of fancy work!”

“I have something,” Morgan said, scanning through his storage ring. When he and Olivia had been preparing for the portal spell in the dungeon, he’d noticed something about the stones from the gem-snake. Of all three hundred plus stones he’d gathered from the creature, only one was colorless, and it had reminded Morgan of a diamond when he’d first seen it in his pile. What was more, it had held quite a lot more Energy than any of the other stones. He set the gem, about the size of a golf ball, on the workbench. “This is a rare stone from a rare animal, and I don’t know if it can be cut, but if it can, I think it would be nice to use.”

“Let me see,” Gina said, lifting the gem and holding it in front of one of her lenses. While Morgan watched, the lens in front of her left eye turned opaque and started to sparkle with silvery motes of Energy. A moment later, Gina smiled and set the gem down. “I can cut this. I can cut several large, beautiful stones out of it. When I’m done, they’ll each have the Energy storage potential of the parent gem—a byproduct of my gem-cutting skill.”

“You can tell all that with your lens?”

“Sure! Combined with my Analyze skill, these lenses allow me to see more about gems, metals, and other stones and materials than any set of microscopes or even a mass spectrometer could tell me back on Earth.”

“All right, one more request,” Morgan said, waiting to continue before Gina nodded. “You know what the flowers in the Chebli Sea look like?” Morgan produced one of the flowers he’d picked and stored in his ring during his last journey through the sea with Issa. “I’d like one carved from the Amber ore on either side of the stone.”

“So, like the flowers are kind of holding up the stone?”

“If you can do that, so it looks good, yeah,” Morgan replied.

“All right, can do. The other two rings are just bands, right? One to fit your huge finger and one for your bride’s?”

“Yeah, that’s right. You can measure my finger now, and I have this ring,” Morgan pulled one of Issa’s rings from his pocket and continued, “for you to measure Issa’s size. She let me borrow it this morning.”

#

“Sister,” Tkron hissed from his dark corner of the burrow. “What goes on without? The noise has increased tenfold. How am I to concentrate and gain my full strength?”

“Morgan is having a new home built for me and my sisters, Tkron,” Ykleedra said, looking to the ground, afraid to make eye contact with the large, pale Yovashi, worried that her answer would enrage him again.

“Why indulge his fantasy? We’ll all be leaving soon.”

“How soon, Tkron?” Ykleedra asked, knowing the question would lead to him dismissing her in an irritated huff.

“Again, you ask?” His voice clicked, indicating he was speaking with emphasis from his nether beak. “When I’ve gained enough strength to break free of this prison!”

“Tkron, why won’t you let me speak to Morgan on your behalf? I’m sure he’d allow you to leave?”

“Wouldn’t you like that? Wouldn’t you love to see me slink away into the forest while you and my sisters play nice with the humans, forgetting your history, forgetting your culture, and abandoning your people? The five of you are important for our race! Our numbers dwindle!” He lurched toward her on his long, black and red chitin-covered legs, looming over her, already nearly twice her mass.

“Tkron,” Ykleedra said, shrinking back, afraid he’d strike her or worse. “I’m sorry! Of course, we’ll slip away as soon as possible. I only allow Morgan to build this home for us to keep him happy and to avoid causing suspicion. How strange he’d think it if I insisted I didn’t want a house modeled after my mother’s and that I enjoyed living in a filthy burrow!” Her words seemed to calm Tkron, and he moved back to his dark corner.

“Enough, I need to cultivate. Your contributions to the compost pit are starting to bear fruit—the levels of decay Energy are rising in this ‘filthy burrow.’ Begone, now. See to your sisters, for I need peace to accomplish my drill.” With that, Ykleedra was dismissed, and she knew better than to linger around him when he’d made such a declaration.

She exited the burrow and followed the winding path through the ferns to the large clearing where Miss Washington’s people were working. Her sisters were obsessed with the activity, and she’d left them playing nearby. As she walked, she let her mind wander back to Tkron—she’d stopped thinking of him as a brother—and his behavior.

He was becoming more and more brooding, and his attitude and language toward Morgan and his people were increasingly hostile. Ykleedra had struggled with the problem for a long while, but the more he changed, the more aggressively he acted, the easier he made things—his hostility, his threats, especially toward her sisters, were pushing Ykleedra to act. She’d already decided what action she would take: she’d seek out Morgan and tell him everything. Morgan could solve this problem.