Chapter 24: Nobles

Chapter 24: Nobles

While Carlos pondered over the mysteries he'd suddenly been presented, Lady Telrar shooed him out of the ritual area, called Amber forward, and began repeating her inspection. Carlos shook his head and mentally put those mysteries aside for later. He could think about them anytime, but he likely wouldn't get another chance for a long time to observe this inspection process from the outside.

There was remarkably little to see with mundane senses. The only noises Carlos heard were Telrar's statements announcing the same structures as his own, and quieter speech in between that he couldn't make out but was presumably some kind of incantation. His eyes only saw Amber and Telrar standing in place, seemingly doing nothing. No, wait, there was also a faint glow from the metal diagram in the floor, and the light flared just a little brighter each time Telrar began scanning the next soul structure.

To his new mana sensor, however, Lady Telrar seemed an endless wellspring of mana. In his own inspection, being in the center focus of what she was doing had obscured all but the innermost layer of it. Now, from outside, he could sense her mana flooding into the diagram, and being projected into the scanning focal points from the eight points of the octagonal star. Smaller threads of mana came from each point of the star and coalesced into the final two focal points in the center, one above and one below.

Those ten focal points emitted powerful waves of mana many times denser than anything Carlos could produce, but when those waves bounced back and emerged from Amber's soul, they went right past the emitters without interacting with them. Instead, curved panes of mana shaped like miniature satellite dishes captured the returning waves behind the emitters, and did something far too complex for him to decipher. He guessed that was probably the analysis that told her what each soul structure's shape was.

It came as no surprise to anyone that all ten of Amber's soul structures matched Carlos's, though they were arranged in a different order. The four she'd had before meeting Carlos had once-compressed density, and the new ones were all still at initial density. Lady Telrar's announcement at the end of the inspection was almost just a formality. "Forty synergy links. First stage. Adamantium rank, tier 8."

Carlos nodded for a moment, but then did a small double take. "Wait, forty? I had only thirty nine."

Telrar glanced at him with a slight smirk. "It seems your genius is a little sloppy. You've apparently missed activating one of your potential links."

"Activating potential links?"

"It's not my job to educate you on the finer points of soul plan setup. Though if you're willing to share the secrets of those unknown structures of yours, I might be open to a trade..." She smiled.

Before Carlos could do more than begin to shake his head, Assessor Varlinden stepped in. "Attempting to swindle a new noble before he is even formally acknowledged reflects poorly on your House, Lady Telrar. Your task here is done. You may meet them again to negotiate a deal on your own time if you wish."

"Of course, Assessor." Telrar nodded politely to Varlinden, then turned and walked briskly away, her armed escorts falling into formation around her.

Varlinden waited for her to exit the room before speaking again. "Carlos and Amber, it is my understanding that your soul plan was primarily created by Carlos. Is this correct?"

Carlos exchanged a look with Amber, and they nodded together. "Yes, Assessor."

"Then I pronounce you Carlos Founder, and Amber Carlos, of High House Carlos. I will formally register your new house with the Crown. Ordinarily, there would soon be a public ceremony announcing your new house and showing you to the nation's established nobility. However, ordinarily new nobles come from influential families and have powerful backing to get them started. Without that, you would likely find yourselves quickly forced into submission to a more powerful house."

Carlos nodded grimly. "So what's happening instead?"

"Come with me." Varlinden began leading them through the large building's maze of hallways again. "While a poor and powerless individual becoming a noble is rare, it has happened before, and we have protocols for it. You will be given a period of time to establish your domain and build your power under Crown protection. Do not allow that protection to make you complacent, however. The Crown's patience is limited, and you will eventually be required to stand on your own power whether you are ready or not."

"Reasonable. What's that about a domain, and what are we supposed to build our power with, though?"

"Those questions conveniently have related answers." They arrived at a door with a small plaque on it showing Varlinden's name, and mana in the door did something when Varlinden turned the handle to open it. Varlinden closed the door behind them, marched over to the desk in the small room, and got out a map from one of the desk's drawers.

"Each noble house holds a region where they are responsible for governance, development, and protection of the area from normal dangers." Varlinden spread out the map over his desk. Carlos wasn't sure how its scale compared to various countries back on Earth, but it had lots of markers for cities, roads, rivers, mountains, forests, and more. He found the map's legend and noted one of the icons was for dungeons.

"That would be permissible, but any student who adds a ninth structure of their own to the eight learned from your house secrets would found a branch house under yours that you would also be responsible for."

"Hmm." Carlos shrugged. Realistically, he'd need to establish a reputation and learn more about magic himself before he could make a school actually work anyway. "Well, for now let's just pick a town with a good road so people can get to it easily. Amber, any ideas?"

"Well, yes, but it's..." She blushed slightly. "Kind of silly."

"Hey, all I've got is rolling dice to choose at random. Even a silly reason for choosing somewhere is better than no reason."

Amber took a deep breath. "Ok. So, supposedly Archmage Sandaras did some of his early adventuring in the Wilds near Dramos."

"And you'd like to follow his example."

Amber nodded sheepishly. "Yeah."

"Works for me." Carlos turned back to Varlinden. "We'll start with Dramos."

"Very well. Return here tomorrow at noon, and I will have your noble sigils and the Crown grant for Dramos ready for you. In the mean time, here's a small stipend to cover room and board for the night." Varlinden presented ten silver coins to Carlos, who quickly pocketed them.

"Ten silver seems a lot for one night."

"Prices in Kalor City are much higher than in Erlen. Now, let me take that mana sample from Purple, and then if you'll excuse me I have other matters to attend to."

Soon, Carlos and Amber were settling into a small room at a nearby hotel. The building was made of stone, there was a window with shutters in the outer wall, and the mattresses of the two beds were very comfortable, but it was smaller than the room he'd stayed a night in Erlen, despite being meant for two people.

"Hard to believe this cost eight silver for one night." Carlos grumbled.

"Hey, if we live up to what we're supposed to do, eight silver will be pocket change for us soon enough."

"Right. Taming the Wilds." Carlos shook his head. "I don't know if I'm ready for that, really. I need to learn a lot more spells, and how to make new spells of my own. How much can you teach me?"

Amber sighed. "Not enough. I know a lot about what's possible, but finding good information about how was a lot harder. I only know four spells, all of them minor. I tried to find more, but no one would sell for prices I could afford. The academy would presumably teach me a lot more, but..." She shrugged helplessly.

"Any chance the Crown would sponsor us to the academy?"

"I doubt it. We're supposed to be out taming the Wilds, not spending years in a cushy school."

"Hmm." Carlos frowned. "We need to figure out what we missed with our soul plan, too." He settled onto his bed and turned his attention inward to his introspector. Whatever the issue was, he really wished the introspector would have proactively brought it to his attention. Maybe he could change it so it would.