Orin leaned back on the couch, watching Archibald pour mana into his grandson’s stump. The sheer speed by which Percy’s flesh was squirming and regrowing under the Violet’s efforts was frightening.

  This wasn’t Orin’s first time seeing a healer restore a severed limb, but it was his first time observing such an experienced and powerful life mage at work. Percy’s body being merely at Yellow only made the process faster. It had barely been half an hour, but the grandfather and grandson duo had already reached Percy’s wrist.

  ‘What’s more impressive is that he hasn’t winced even once,’ Orin realized.

  Even regrowing a finger was a downright agonizing ordeal – let alone an arm. On top of that, the faster it grew, the more it was bound to hurt, yet Percy had appeared entirely unbothered. Orin didn’t think that his student was putting on a brave front – he must have experienced far more painful things in his life.

  The corner of his lips twitched as he watched Percy use his domain to casually lift his third Honey Roll from the heated plate on the table, bringing it to his mouth. The young man had already eaten half the stack by himself, and this was with him obviously holding back to leave some snacks for the others, though nobody else had indulged.

  Oddly enough, Freddy was here too, sitting next to Orin. The poor Red-born looked about as out of place as one might expect, though Percy had insisted on gathering all of them to his grandfather’s new residence, saying that the meeting concerned everyone.

  “Before we continue, I want to thank you all again for everything that you’ve done for me in recent years,” Percy said after swallowing. “It was slightly different for each of you, but you’ve all suffered a lot because of me. The first thing I want to do to compensate you for your trouble, is to pass you the Moirais’ Decree. Now that everyone on Remior knows about my second core, there’s no reason to be overly cautious.”

  Orin’s eyes widened, not having expected such generosity from his mentee. Freddy was the first to speak, however. “It’s too much! Even paying me elixirs for the Honey Rolls is more than I could have ever asked for!”

  Percy shook his head. “The elixirs aren’t as big of a gift as you may think. Once I’m done with this place, I expect everyone on Remior to have access to as many elixirs as they need. Hopefully, that will include the Aurora Dew. Don’t be surprised if their price plummets in the near future. Besides, giving you second cores isn’t that hard. It’s the least I can do after getting two of you imprisoned and tortured and the other scouring the Fungal Spire for my corpse.”

  “Are you confident that you can do it?” Orin asked. “It’ll take a colossal amount of nectar.”

  Even giving regular elixirs to everyone on the planet would require several times the hive’s current output. Once they made the switch to Aurora Dew, the cost would go up by another factor of six due to the brewing losses and consuming three doses per day. The new cleansing technique that Percy was going to spread would help a little, but this was still a daunting project.

  “Leave the hive to me.” The young man shrugged. “I’m more worried about the Guild. A lot of things will have to change if we want to process all that nectar efficiently. Grandpa? How long do you think we have before the noble Houses start getting impatient?”

  The Violet creased his brow, appearing to ponder over his grandson’s question. Archibald had shaved his scalp again since the last time Orin saw him, and he’d even mended the scars on his skin, leaving no evidence of the past couple of years on his body.

  “It’s hard to say. It’ll largely depend on the Order. In a world that made sense, the gods would have apprehended Machaon already, brought the kidnapped Princess back, and worked with you on this. If they did that, nobody else’s opinion would even matter.” He sighed. “Sadly, I don’t think things will be that simple.”

  Percy nodded, clearly agreeing with his grandfather’s conclusion. He’d already given everyone a brief overview of his experiences over the past few years, so they’d all noticed the inconsistencies in the gods’ behaviour.

  They’d allowed the Root to go after Percy, but they’d avoided attacking him directly. They’d been willing to let him or his crow die, yet they hadn’t interfered with him infiltrating the hive or creating his new familiar. The gods clearly had some plan for him, though it was difficult to guess with any certainty what exactly it involved. It was entirely possible that they’d sit this out, letting the mortals fight it out between themselves.

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  “There should be peace for a couple of years at least,” Orin said, drawing everyone’s attention. “The cleansing technique and the cyan paste will double everyone’s advancement speed at no added cost, which is especially enticing to the Yellow-borns who will suddenly have a path to divinity. Mastering the technique should also keep them busy for a while, and getting access to cheaper elixirs should placate them for even longer. On top of that, nobody will be in a rush to pick a fight with you now that the hive and the Guild are under your control, nor will they openly ally with Machaon.”

  “That won’t last forever,” Archibald said.

  “Indeed. It’ll only buy us time.” Orin nodded in agreement. “The excitement over the cyan paste will gradually die down. The knowledge that there is something even better out there will eventually rekindle everyone’s greed. Percy will have to figure out the Aurora Dew situation before that happens.”

  “Even if he fails to deliver, would anyone risk attacking him directly?” Freddy asked, though he swallowed hard once everyone’s gazes landed on him, the poor Honey Roll vendor clearly regretting jumping into the conversation as soon as the words left his mouth.

  Orin patted the plump Red-born’s shoulder to calm him down before answering. “Not at first. However, I expect the lesser Houses to grow bolder the longer Machaon remains unpunished. Eventually, they’ll assume that either Percy has lied about his crimes, or that the gods don’t care. They’ll ally with the Great Houses and start putting pressure on us.”

  “Do you think they’ll risk attacking the Guild?” Percy asked. “They’ll still need our elixirs, and the hive’s future ultimately rests in my hands.”

  Orin shook his head. “They won’t do anything too drastic, but our leverage isn’t as one-sided as you think. We need them to keep supplying us with secondary ingredients as much as they need our elixirs, so everyone will be forced to keep up the appearance of an amicable collaboration on the surface, but they’ll be scheming in the shadows to reclaim control of the planet. Perhaps they’ll threaten your family or try to establish a new hive with Machaon’s help.”

  Percy frowned, clearly not thrilled about any of those possibilities. A couple of minutes later, Archibald was done healing his hand. The young man clenched and unclenched his new fist a few times before putting it to the test by plundering the fourth steaming-hot Honey Roll from the enchanted plate.

  “Okay. Here’s what we’ll do. I expect to be busy with the hive and my own personal projects over the next year or so. We’ll need more nectar before we can do anything else, and I also need to keep working on my artificial advancement since my lifespan won’t wait for me to get the situation on Remior sorted out. Orin, can you work with the elders to make some preparations around here?”

  “What preparations?”

  “Train more alchemists – ask the noble Houses to send more people to the Guild, expand the settlement, build more labs, give everyone free lectures. I’ll figure out a way to get us nectar directly, so we won’t have to actively hunt the wasps. That should free up more people to practice brewing.”

  Orin furrowed his brow. “I’ll do my best, but I’m not sure how much success we’ll find in a single year.”

  “That’s fine,” Percy said. “Producing Aurora Dew for everyone won’t happen overnight, but the cyan paste is already enough to turn Remior into a greater spring. As long as we show constant growth in our output, the nobles will be forced to shut up and wait. Try to get a dozen thousand new apprentices to a brewing yield of around ten to fifteen percent by next year. Even if it’s inefficient at first, we’ll probably have more than enough nectar to squander if everything goes to plan.”

  Orin nodded, tossing his former mentee an appraising look. To think that the boy who had learned to brew under his supervision would grow to this extent in just a few years… Percy was planning to completely revolutionize the field of alchemy as a whole, and to restructure the entire planet into something that worked better, for everyone.

  ‘It appears I’ve made the right call to teach him and keep his secrets,’ Orin thought, suddenly realizing that suffering a little in Deimos’s hands had ultimately been a small price to pay.

  Oblivious to his thoughts, Percy turned to Archibald next.

  “Grandpa, I’ll need your help too. Our House needs to grow stronger so that they don’t get any thoughts of bullying us. After I teach you the Dance and give you a second core, you won’t be any weaker than a White. Do you think that you can reclaim the rest of our province and expand our influence?”

  “I’ll make it happen,” the Violet replied, his voice brimming with confidence.

  “Great!” Percy exclaimed, his lips parting into a grin. “Then, that only leaves one final item on the agenda.”

  He summoned a strange object seemingly out of thin air, using his willpower to keep it suspended above his palm. It was an indigo ball about as large as a peach, covered in thin hairs that stood on end like needles, sparks of electricity jolting between them.

  “It’s like the Lotus of a Myriad Rivers, though this one grants a lightning affinity and can be used on much fewer people,” the young man explained, answering the obvious question hanging off everyone’s tongues. “When I got this, I hadn’t expected to return to the Guild this soon, so I only wanted a treasure with three uses left. Luckily, I ended up getting one with five, so we’re only one use short if we include the original recipients I had in mind, plus everyone in this room.”

  Orin’s eyebrows shot up, having not expected his student to surprise him yet again.

  “You can leave me out,” Freddy hurriedly said, clearly terrified to receive any more benefits from Percy. “The second core and the elixirs are more than enough!”

  The latter chuckled. “It might not be necessary to skimp on any of you. Let’s wait a few days and see if any of you awakens a lightning affinity naturally in your new cores.”

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