Blood Shaper

Book 3: Chapter 40

"My lord!"

Kay glanced up from his thoughts in the middle of his walk. He'd taken some time off, just as a small break, and was enjoying walking around Avalon, just watching people and taking in the growth and change that had come as the town expanded again and again. Someone ran up toward him while he was stopped looking at a fountain, and his guards stepped in front of him protectively.

Stephen's head poked up over the two guards. "My lord, you need to come quick!"

Kay brushed some water off his legs and motioned for his guards to step aside. "Stephen? What's wrong? And since when did you start calling me that?"

"Um, it's about that thing I'm not supposed to be talking about." The tall human man looked skinnier without his armor on, but he was still muscular enough to dwarf Kay.

Kay's brow furrowed as he started walking immediately. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes and no? I wouldn't say it's bad, but it's not what we were expecting."

"Let's go, then." Kay gestured with his chin for part of his detachment of bodyguards to move in front. The Blood Guard had been expanding rapidly for some time, and they were up to almost thirty people at that point. Lauren had finally convinced him to start letting people be recruited and used directly as his guards before they started learning Blood Manipulation or other skills from Kay. He still took what time he could to train them up when everyone was free, but as more experienced members started getting to the point where they could train the newer members, Kay was acting less and less as a one to one instructor or people and more of a teacher of a large class. He got called in when someone needed specific work, but most of the time, his "TAs" did a lot of the work.

That was why he was surprised to see Lauren just outside of the secret area they'd worked up for "Cindy's project", as they were calling it.

"I thought you were doing training for the new Blood Guard today?"

"I was," She gestured into the building, "But then this came up, and the detachment we have running security came and got me." She nodded at Stephen, "I sent him and Amanda to run fetch you, Amanda, and Eleniah."

"Why us three?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Because you're in charge, Amanda is also in charge, and Eleniah knows stuff." Then she shrugged, "And Eleniah had just left here when I arrived, and it wasn't much work to bring her back. I decided that having her here was worth it."

"What's happening?" Kay demanded when they stepped inside the building.

"Wait until we're inside; this is that important."

Kay was opening his mouth to respond snappishly to that when his notifications lit up. He frowned. I haven't done anything that would cause that today…

[An Oath has been made to you.]

It was the same notification he'd gotten when each of the Ministers swore to him and to Avalon, and also when Cindy had sworn her Oaths that bound her tightly to Avalon's service. Kay stared at the notice for a moment, then focused on it trying to get it to give him more information. Who made an Oath to him? What was it about? After a few seconds, there was a slight shimmer around the notification, and something else appeared.

[An Oath has been made to you.]

(System Access Info: Balanced Oath, Energy Draw Minimum, Cost Deferred)

None of the details about the Oath appeared, but something about Oaths themselves did. Or at least that's what Kay assumed it was.

He had to look away from his screen to navigate the narrow steps underneath the hidden trapdoor, and then his attention was completely stolen away from the new information by the sound of belligerent shouting.

"I made the damn Oath and signed all the dammed agreements, now let me get back to work!"

"Sir, I'm just asking you to wait until-"

"Get out of my way, dammit!"

Kay turned the corner with Lauren in the lead and made it into the entry room of the underground workshop in time to see one of his Blood Guard very carefully try and keep an angry, flailing dwarven man from forcing his way past without hurting the man. "Quol, what are you doing?"

The dwarven man whirled around when he heard Kay's voice. "You! The busybody!" He pointed at Kay and scowled. "Your red idiots got all up in arms about my new Title and demanded that I stay put until you came by! Then miss busybody the second showed up and told me to agree to an Oath and sign more Agreements!" He angrily waved one arm in Eleniah's direction.

Eleniah gave Kay a short wave as they watched Quol's rant.

"And I did all the things she said to, and now they won't let me get back to work!"

"I'm not looking forward to 'red idiots' getting around as a nickname for us." Kay heard Lauren mutter.

"Why are we making him swear, Oaths?" Kay asked, ignoring both the muttering and Quol for the moment. The smith was one of the few elders that had left the Clans and come to Avalon, as most of the older members of the Clans had been happy, or at least willing to deal, with the societal and cultural mores that prevented change and new ideas. He was also a total curmudgeon who was always bitching when he wasn't working, mostly about how he wasn't working.

"Because you were wrong!" Quol crowed loudly. He started flexing and making poses. "I am the newest Class Line Progenitor in the world!" He paused with one bicep held up to his lips like he was going to kiss his muscles. "Well, I'm assuming that I am. Could be another one that shows up at any moment, but I don't think it's probable."

Kay stared down at Quol with wide eyes. "What?" He ran a hand through his hair, "That's…" He turned to look at Eleniah.

She just shrugged. "I agreed with you earlier, but I guess it's different enough to be its own Class Line."

Kay turned back to Quol.

The older dwarf grinned. "Can I go work now?"

"Sure…"

Quol grunted happily and walked off, deeper into the bunker-like area. The sound of metal being moved rang out after he disappeared out of view.

"He's a Gunsmith," Eleniah told Kay when he didn't say anything after almost a minute. "Non-combat production Class for making firearms."

Kay shook off his shock. "I don't have time to deal with this, we're leaving to take Darkport in less than a week, and I have to go do preparations." He pointed at Eleniah, "You're in charge of this while the rest of us are gone."

"I already was. We've had this conversation. And I still don't see why I'm in charge instead of someone else."

"This counts as education in my book, so you're in charge of it. Make sure that Cindy and now Quol get everything they need to keep leveling." He stopped mid-sentence, "Do I have to worry about Carrie making a fourth one?"

"No, she got 'Blackpowder Alchemist', but it's only a Class Creator Title, not Class Line Progenitor."

"Well, that's good; we don't need a another massive target on our heads." He turned to Stephen, who was now standing to one side with Amanda. "You guys know what you're doing, right?"

"You already talked to all of us about this," Amanda complained, "Quol being a Class Line Progenitor doesn't really change anything for us."

"Yeah, well, I'm a little flustered because of it, so let me just double-check things."

Quol's head stuck out from the doorway he'd disappeared through. "Oi, your lordship. If you want me to level faster, I'm going to need a lot of materials. And Cindy's going to need to spend some time down here if you want to skip all the trial and error that usually comes with making new products."

Kay rubbed at his face and sighed. "Who has my notes?"

One of the Blood Guard stepped forward with a small notebook.

Kay grabbed it and started writing. "' Get builders to make another-'… No, why would I put this off? Lauren, send someone to find Darten and let him know we need things added down here; I'll explain once he sends over someone trustworthy. Actually, make sure we use the same people as last time to be safe."

She nodded and gestured.

One of the Blood Guard hustled towards the stairs to the surface.

"Okay, so we add a firing range down here so Cindy can keep training, plus a secret way to bring in materials so we can keep things under lock and key…" Kay started thinking out loud as he tried to figure out the problems that needed to be solved. "… While I'm thinking about this, Isla's been briefed about this, right?"

"About Quol? Not yet; we didn't know where to send a runner."

"We need to train a deputy for her at some point, and some people to handle other jobs like this. Not to toot my own horn, but the leader of a town shouldn't be dealing directly with secret munitions projects." He sighed, "While I am dealing with the problems of our new secret munitions project, how are we going to source materials? We can run it through the treasury and make fake reports, but I'd rather we have a dedicated source to keep things separate."

"We could always ask Murunel." Eleniah suggested, "She already knows a bunch of our secrets, so what's one more?"

Kay turned and pointed at her. "Perfect idea. Someone go get her. Wait, no, she's out somewhere doing a prospecting run today." Kay tapped his finger against his leg before deciding. "I'll talk to her when she gets back tonight." He glanced around, then waved. "Alright, bye, everyone. I'm off to do more work for the invasion of a pirate port."

"Repeating it out loud like that, so it sounds weird, is only really affecting you and Cindy," Eleniah commented, "The rest of us are used to things like that happening. And yes, I do know you well enough to know that's what you were doing."

"Sure, but I still think this is surreal." He turned and headed for the stairs, "I'll talk to you later!"

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