Mark of the Witch

7

^^ Shadow Hounds ^^

My mild irritation at my camping companion's taciturnity sharpened to an icy fury all at once, when I returned to the city to find my Castle burnt down, and Rollo sitting at the front gate, head down in shame. He glanced up when he heard me arriving, and sighed softly before standing up slowly. "I, uh... I'm sorry. I said I'd take care of it-"

"Who did this, Rollo?"

He paused at the sheer frost that seemed to escape my lips with the icy daggers of my speech, and then carefully considered his next words. "Uhm... well... we don't know exactly who did it, but..."

"I see... I will handle it; return to your Alliance of Factions, call your people in, tell them to stay out of it, and tell the Civilians to remain indoors for a few days." I dismounted my horse, placing the reins in the hands of my rather confused grandson, and walked into the ruined castle while he mounted my horse and galloped off swiftly. Once inside the castle, I began to use Chaos Wave to destroy the rubble, regaining the Materials within in pristine form. With Mana Siphon activated, I regained more than I spent, even casting two different cones of Chaos Wave at once, so within around three hours I'd managed to recover all my materials and place them within the center of the now-empty castle walls. Next, I opened the blueprints and added in the Anti-Fire enchantments from the docks, as well as the Climate Control Enchantments and of course my entire 'Bureaucratic Nightmare' of review boards and forensic accounting and the like, this time housed underneath the Arcanum and designed to investigate other Factions' Finances for discrepancies as well as organize our own. I wanted to make sure that no amount of side-dealing and double speak and hidden fees were acceptable within what would soon by my own city. That finished, I clicked the 'Repair' function on the blueprints, and accepted the changes to the blueprints; the only time you could alter a building was during repair or Upgrading, after all, so in a way they'd done me a favor, not that I'd ever say that out loud, and certainly not to the perpetrators. Immediately after I pressed the button, a crowd of bustling builders appeared and began taking the stack of materials and rebuilding the entire Castle, while a timer appeared in front of me that said  '1:59:58... 57... 56...'.

Moving away from the builders to stand next to my silent Guard, I spoke quietly, but measuredly. "In the next Twenty-Four hours, you may see some things that may make you question my sanity, or you may think me unthinkingly cruel, but I assure you I am perfectly sane and of a reasonable mind, I am only infuriated and aggrieved at the destruction of my new Home, which I was looking forward to seeing in its Upgraded form for the first time... and the little firebugs that did it will pay the price of challenging my Faction, and, more importantly, Threatening My Family."

The stoic man spoke for the first time in five days, his deep voice very nearly making me jump out of my skin, if it weren't for how burnt out my nerves were from my volcanic rage. "Simply Obey the Laws of War."

"That, at least, I can guarantee." I nodded seriously, then began writing a Contract.

—

Sitting at the head of a long table within a Gazebo just outside the city, I carefully spread out a roll of parchment, using four small onyx statues to hold the corners of the scroll down and for presentation. Three Onyx Tigers, and one Black Dog. Upon the contract was a list of names, people who had agreed to meet and discuss merchant contracts with me now that I controlled the entire Surge City Port. Each was a Faction Leader in the Starter City, and only the members of the Roaming Willow Alliance had not been invited. Many Leaders had already arrived, with more streaming in as I waited patiently. Soon enough, everyone was present; while most of them had likely chafed at being summoned like this, the lure of money and trade and their ambition to perhaps take the Port from me all ended up making the most alluring of traps.