I shrugged.
“There are a lot and figured I’d save it for tonight.”
She sighed.
“Yes, they agreed to the standard fealty contracts.”
“How many people in total?”
“Over twenty thousand.”
I whistled. That was a decent amount. But small comparatively. The whole group had to be pretty tough to survive where they were. It was rough country out there. No surprise they wanted to align with Clan Howell, especially not that the Nexus had opened.
In a way it was like what Cristik had mentioned. The larger factions swallowing up the smaller when they got to the Nexus. Here, the smaller factions wanted to align with the larger, Clan Howell, so when they got to the Nexus they’d have better footing. A two thousand member faction wouldn’t make a peep in the Nexus. So by aligning with my faction, they’d at least be able to ride along with us. It was a little different from what happened in the NExus, because there the larger did it to take advantage of the smaller. Here, at least with Clan Howell, we wouldn’t take advantage of them. We really gained nothing from a Clan that small and with so little overall territory, but we did it to help them and their people.
Subatai would have just conquered them. Fred, and this was our main point of disagreement over beers, would have made the deal more advantageous to his overall faction. Me? I wanted to help people. The Clan Howell contracts were pretty lopsided, more advantageous to the smaller faction.
It made them far more loyal in the long run. And their people safer, which is what I wanted.
“We should look at forming mixed teams,” I said, still looking out over the lake. “Combine people from all the smaller factions, to get more ready to go to the Nexus.”
“With that group, it gives us three full teams close to hitting 100,” Kat said. “I think Tracy’s group will be ready in two or three weeks, they’ve been pushing themselves hard.”
“Did they get a healer?”
“Yes,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Finally. I kind of had to step in and force them to pick someone. The four of them were going back and forth non-stop for days. It was ridiculous.”
“They’re pretty tight, it’s always hard to bring in a new one.”
“True, but they didn’t need to make the healer their best friend, just find someone they can work with.”
I laughed. Kat wasn’t an Adventurer, and she’d done her share of Dungeon delving and fighting monsters, but it wasn’t in her blood. Not like it was for most of us. She did it because she needed to, in order to Level and to hold off the Challenge System. She didn’t do it because she liked it. All her groups had been pick-up groups, which was fine, but not what we needed to send to the Nexus.
Those groups needed to be able to trust each other fully. To know how each thought, how each would react. All that stuff. They needed to be battle tested.
Having groups mixed from all the smaller factions that made-up Clan Howell would help drive them to push in the Tower too. Their successes could be carried back to their home factions, helping overall Clan Howell and their smaller groups of people too.
“That’s a good idea,” Kat said. “We keep some loose records of the most powerful individuals spread throughout Clan Howell. Might need to start keeping tighter ones and mixing and matching where we can. The more parties we can get into the Nexus, the better we’ll be.”
I still looked out the window, focusing on one island that looked to have a lot of boats on the shore. It was small, mostly forest. I stood up, walking to the window, as if the extra ten feet or so would help.
“What’s up with that island?” I asked, pointing.
“If you would have bothered to look at your Notifications,” Kat grumbled, not bothering to turn around.
“Okay, okay,” I said, heading over to the cabinet against the wall.
I opened it, seeing shelves of glasses, a couple bottles of alcohol and a small crystal controlled minifridge. I opened the fridge and took out a bottle of beer, popping the top. It flew through the air, landing on the floor with a couple of little thuds as it bounced. I could feel Kat’s glare on me as I went over to pick it up. I looked around for a garbage can and tossed the cap into it, before returning to the seat.
“There’s a lot of them,” I mock whined.
“Read them.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
And so I did, opening the interface. I had a couple messages too. Those first.
Nick,
Tell Kat to lay off.
Tracy
Nick,
Kat was right, we just had to get off our butts and pick someone. So far, Kelly O’Riley, is working out great.
Nathan
I laughed, earning a raised eyebrow from Kat. I waved her off, reading the next message.
Nick,
Take me with you the next time you go to the Nexus. Kat doesn’t let me get away with anything. I’m so bored.
Jack
“Let the kid have some fun,” I said, not looking at Kat.
I could feel the glare.
Nick,
Found something out past the mine you might be interested in checking out. No rush.
Danny
That one was interesting. Danny Jacks was one of our highest leveled harvesters. He had some offensive and defensive Abilities, so he spent a lot of time at the fringes, working the new mines and harvesting nodes. Acting as a guard for the other crafters, muscle when needed. That kind of thing. Last I knew, he’d been at a new mine found at the far western edge of our territory.
“Did you get that message from Danny?”
“I did, and reached out. As he said, nothing urgent. No one is in danger. He wouldn’t tell me what they found, just that you’d love it.”
“Damn,” I thought, tapping my fingers on the table, working out my schedule.
There was one portal between here and there, leaving a lot of territory to cover. I could hitch a ride on an airship, but would still be a couple of days there and back, and depending on what Danny had to show me, even longer. As fast as I was, an airship was still faster.
“I told him it might be a while before you got the chance to get there,” Kat said, not looking up from her papers.
“Thanks. I’m really curious.”
She shrugged.
That was the last of the messages, time for the Notifications. There were a lot that I could just skim through. Updates on Solace, Solacetown and all the other cities that I technically controlled. Nothing major, just some minor things that Kat had taken care of. It was crazy how much went into running a territory the size of Solace, and we weren’t even the largest on Earth. But it was a daily thing. So many little issues cropping up, so much to review and adjust.
I was infinitely thankful for Kat and her team, and it was a very large team. There were probably a dozen Tammys scattered around Solace.
I concentrated on just the major Notifications.
CLAN HOWELL HAS ENTERED AN ALLIANCE WITH THE GRAY WOLF CLAN
I skimmed the rest. Just the normal contract details. Percentages of taxes, tariffs, what we’d get from them, what they’d get from us. The usual stuff that I always ignored. The part I concentrated on was the list of their assets and people pledged to the Clan. Especially their highest Levels.
MASON HAMPTON, LEVEL 98 PATH OF THE CROSSGUARD
BETHANY JENKINS, LEVEL 97 PATH OF THE TWITCHBLADE
SUSAN SAMS, LEVEL 97 PATH OF THE FLASHHEALER
And it went on for a bit. I didn’t go through all two thousand names. I did pay attention to the crafters and what their Paths were. If there were any that filled gaps in Solace’s overall crafting network, and any areas we could help shore up their gaps.
It took a bit to read through it all but I finally got to the end, dismissing the Notifications.
“Is there anything else?” I asked.
“Nope, all caught up.”
“Awesome,” I said, standing up and heading for the door. “See you at dinner?”
“Of course.”
As I got to the door, I stopped and turned back, smiling. She looked up, eyes a little nervous at my smile.
“One last thing,” I said, opening the door so I could dart out quickly. She was going to throw something heavy at me in a couple seconds. “I want to change the name of the Clan.”
I was out the door, closing it behind me as something heavy slammed into it.
“YOU WANT TO WHAT??”
