Isaac passed out almost immediately after dinner. They had held off on eating until after he had finished all of his songs so as not to interrupt him. Isaac and Lenna both slept from just after dinner until breakfast the following morning. The music had been good for Lenna's soul, and Isaac's as well. Lenna could feel herself healing during soothing songs, feel her healing solidify during powerful songs, and feel the damage being beaten back during aggressive songs. Her twelve hours of sleep after that further smoothened out the edges of the damage her soul had received. The fact that she was home, and also in close proximity to her Fate Bound Companion, both seemed to help her heal faster as well.

By morning, Isaac's body was nearly used to its new operating temperature and he was well rested, Lenna's healing had been accelerated by around a full day from her original estimates, and the feel of the manor had lightened ever so slightly.

After breakfast, but before anyone split up for the day, Isaac turned to Margaret. "I am going to have more letters that will need to be delivered. One for Alexander, asking him about who would be the best person to enchant the black steel blade with nine levels of hardening, six levels of sharpening, and six dawn capacitors. One is for Eliza Thane requesting another mana sword, this one actually capable of handling everything I throw at it. And the last one is for Izen, requesting his assistance in bringing together a specific group of craftsmen using his influence and our absurd bank account numbers." Isaac explained both for Margaret, who was making sure that they got delivered, and for Lenna, who was his wife and should simply always be kept apprised of the goings on.

"I will contact the usual message runners, my Lord." Margaret replied with a seated bow as none of them had gotten up yet.

"Are you referring to the smiths and artificers necessary for my armor?" Lenna requested clarification.

Isaac nodded. "Yes." He confirmed. "Also, we need to go see Alice at some point. When do you want to do that?"

"Invite them over. If they can both get off work, then that would be great. If not, then we can see them in a few days." Lenna replied.

Isaac nodded again in acknowledgment. He knew, from a conversation that they had before breakfast, about how far along Lenna's recovery was so he still wasn't comfortable going more than a few dozen feet away from her, otherwise he would have just gone to each person to talk to them directly. "Beyond that, I think you should just focus on recovery and I'll keep working through whatever I can get done here. If you get stir crazy or something, let me know. I've been teaching Shamesh martial combat."

Lenna's eyes widened slightly. Isaac was not good enough yet, nor did he have a standard fighting style, to be able to teach another person the normal way. "How are you teaching him?" Lenna asked with only barely concealed incredulity.

"The sword dance you taught me, and trial by fire." Isaac explained. "I don't really know how else to teach him."

Lenna frowned. "I think you should wait until I am healed to continue." She told both Isaac and Shamesh. "I need to see what kind of bad habits he has picked up and try to train them out of him before they get too ingrained."

Isaac rubbed his chin in thought. "How often can we go to the orchestra hall? I need something to do that burns energy."

"We can go every day, if you want to." Lenna told him. "But I think we should be there for less than eight hours going forward."

Everyone followed the plan that Isaac had laid out, messages were sent, Lenna rested for a while, and then after lunch and until dinner they were at the orchestra hall. Isaac continued to play his favorites while Lenna and Shamesh listened and watched. When they returned, Isaac had received replies from each of his letters, including the one sent to Alexis and Alecia.

The twins rarely had time off at the same time, about as rarely as when they worked at the same time, which meant that they would need to coordinate a time that would work with the other guild receptionist. It would take them some time to sort that out but they would reply when they had something lined up. Otherwise, they would still be able to visit them separately.

Clayton wrote the reply letter for Eliza and had informed Isaac that Eliza did not want to make another version of the sword capable of handling the throughput that Isaac was going to hit it with. He would, however, do it for five hundred thousand gold, around three and a half times how much the original had cost. Isaac then sent a reply letter confirming the order and the price with the added stipulation that; if Isaac managed to break the weapon by pouring too much mana into it, then Eliza would make him another one that was even stronger, for free.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Alexander had mentioned an artificer that typically worked with the Heidenburg family and was willing to send in inquiry into whether or not the artificer would be willing to make the trip to Safeharbor to get a reading on Lenna's aura for the capacitors. Isaac had sent a return letter confirming that they were interested.

Izen agreed to help find expert dwarven smiths who would be willing to cooperate with Karthen Eidi'Diasta as well as leverage his noble rank and title to get the ancient spatial mage to aid in the construction of a legendary suit of armor.

In much the same manner, the following few days progressed. Orchestra hall from lunch to dinner with letters being sent morning and evening, Lenna recovering around those times and Isaac deep in meditation or contemplation. Two days in, Lenna started helping Shamesh, in the evenings, with his martial combat practice in an attempt to train the bad habits out of him. The artificer had agreed to make a trip to meet Lenna, as long as Isaac and Lenna paid for his teleportation. Eliza had begun working on Isaac's sword, which would take him somewhere between four and six months to finish, paid upfront, of course. And Izen was still working on putting the team together to make Lenna's armor. The following day, Lenna was finally comfortable enough to make the trek to the Adventurers' Guild without assistance from Shamesh's flight magic.

—

Lord Ashborne, Walter Walker, and Xlen Dra'Als stood side by side in front of the king. His royal majesty looked like he was about to explode. Walter had seen Fireballs more stable right before they blew up in his face. The utter fury in the man's face turned his pale skin red like the berries used to make peach flavored tea and treats.

"I should have the three of you executed!" The king berated them.

Lord Ashborne and Xlen took the verbal beating like stones in a river while Walter did his best to not look like he was entirely tuning out the idiot who had gotten himself glued to a chair for all of time.

"Give me one good reason why I should not!" The king demanded.

Walter finally couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer. The king had just finished ranting and raving about his subjects not bowing to his will or whatever and Walter really couldn't be bothered to endure the verbal lashing for any longer than three minutes. It had been four. " 'cause you can't." Walter told him directly what no one else would. "There ain't nobody in the city who can handle the three of us at the same time. Nobody that would actually listen to ya anyway." The only one who could was Lady Ashborne and even then, 'Handling' them would not be any worse than a scolding for Xlen and Walter anyway.

"Insolence!" The king bellowed. "If you will not accept your punishment as a loyal subject, then other arrangements must be made."

"Like what, Your Grace?" Walter added the last part almost mockingly.

"Turn the abomination into scrap." The king ordered the current captain of the guards.

"If even one soldier or guard so much as touches Gypsy, I'll drop the spire on your head." Walter told the king coldly.

"You would not." The king replied. "Because I would not be the only one affected and I am the reason why you have a noble title to throw around at all."

"Fuckin' try me." Walter told the ruler of the nation of which he and his adoptive family resided.

"Ashborne, restrain your heir at once." The king ordered Lord Ashborne.

"I will not. If he had said anything false, I would have corrected him, Your Grace." Lord Ashborne replied in his normal flat and uninterested tone.

"And seize Lady Ashborne if thi-" The king didn't get to finish his sentence as there were already two swords pressed up against his throat. Twenty feet meant nothing to a blade dancer who could teleport. "You will be executed for this. All you had to do was not stand up for the wretched human and fallen sister. You and your adopted stray. You forget, Ashborne, but I cannot die on this throne. You have just threatened an immortal being with more power than you can even comprehend."

"Threaten my mate, or do not take back the order that you just gave, and I will sever every pipe leading to your throne, shatter every enchantment and slay every servant who makes your miserable life a little less pathetic." Lord Ashborne told the king without a hint of hesitation. He was a reasonable man, unless his mate was involved, then he was more ruthless than anyone else Walter had ever met.

If the passive protection that the king's existence gave all of his subjects from the monsters inside of the kingdom didn't exist, then someone would have surely killed him by the time he had picked a fight with the Ashbornes and Dra'Als. He also couldn't be forcefully removed from the throne and could not be killed while on it so that certainly helped. Those few reasons were why the same pompous ass had ruled the kingdom for so long. It didn't help that, with the exception of Material de la Celestia, the cities and towns were all self governing. Because that was the case, the rest of the nobles didn't have that big of a reason to pick a fight with the immortal bastard. Well, until Lord Ashborne put a sword to his neck which was grounds for execution in any kingdom.

Xlen stepped forwards to draw some attention to himself. "In hopes of sparing further bloodshed, I believe we must all come to an agreement." He spoke and looked directly at Lord Ashborne and then the king. "First, Lady Ashborne is not to be touched for any reason. Second, once her services are no longer required, she and Lord Ashborne will return to their territory and never return to Material de la Celestia. Third, his Majesty is not to attempt to interfere with Master Su'Sol or the Ashborne clan. Fourth, The Ashborne's will leave matters of state entirely alone from here hence forth. Are those terms acceptable?"

The king and Lord Ashborne stared deeply into each other's eyes for a long moment. Both men were looking for a sign of weakness but only Lord Ashborne found any, and they were all obvious already. "These terms are acceptable." Lord Ashborne spoke without even turning to look at Xlen. He didn't bother keeping an eye on any of the royal guards because Walter was standing there staring each one of them down. Everyone knew what the outcome of a clash would be and no one wanted to see gallons of blood flooding out the front door of the spire.

"Ashborne will also pay for any damages received during his and the foreigners' stays." The king added.

"The king will also be providing our return travel and can only offer promotions to Philia who is still directly in his service." Lord Ashborne tacked on his own addendum. After that day, the question of whether or not the king was truly immortal started to circulate around. Because if he was not, then many would believe that the only reason the king agreed to such a random and pointless deal was because he was afraid of Lord Ashborne. Even if he was immortal, it was a fear that no one could truly fault him for. That old blade dancer was scary.

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