Several days went by, and the people busied themselves, constructing infrastructure and other essentials that would help them grow and flourish. Fish were brought in from the river, and gobo berries were processed in more creative ways. A few hunting trips to the north brought in more meat.

  Gall was even able to round up a few horses that had escaped from Jardensvale the night it was destroyed by the Void. They used these to make regular trips to the north, scanning the skies and watching for potential void activity.

  But the winds had changed, and no longer blew down from the north. An occasional spore made its way into the area, but these were quickly and brutally dealt with.

  Vallnor had grown in a short time to a thriving, tier three [Homestead], with nearly thirty people living and working there.

  Claiming more tiles around his kingdom core completed a four more rings and gained him additional stat points. He also claimed four additional rings around the elven core, allowing him to grant another person the [Mage] class.

  He assigned Widan to work with Gaten as a [Mage] as well, and the two of them increased the rate of adding essence to the core. They had added nearly two hundred essence to the core yesterday—though that was an exhausting and frenzied effort that wasn’t sustainable. They had also experimented with sifting of various materials to try and squeeze more essence out of each [Sift], but so far their efforts hadn’t produced.

  Laryn watched with satisfaction as they increased the core’s influence over the kingdom. They soon neared 2.5. Work got easier, people moved faster, and projects sprang up like weeds.

  A smoke-house was set up, to preserve fish and meat. Residences and storage spaces were built higher up on the island, away from the river to stay safe from any flooding.

  A few of the men began working on improved bridges across the Ebil to the north and the south, sturdier, wider structures that didn’t require elven dexterity to cross.

  Laryn still chose to live on the beach, near the kingdom core. He still wanted to find a coresmith, but he no longer intended to return to Eltar. He just wanted to move the core to a more convenient place, away from the edge of the river.

  Watching his domain grow got Laryn thinking about the effects of exponential growth.

  He thought about Keldin, and the possibility of going back in time to save his brother’s life. Every second that passed moved him further away from that.

  Laryn began to see a path forward. Claiming more tiles would allow him to create more [Mages]. More [Mages] meant more sifting, and faster growth of the kingdom.

  “Hey Adi,” Laryn said.

  She materialized beside him, surveying the Vallorians going about their duties.

  “What’s up? Got your elemental foci scrambled again?”

  “Do you remember what you told me?”

  “Um, I’ve told you a lot of things. About what?” She gazed at him peculiarly.

  “About going back in time. To before Keldin died.”

  “Sure, I remember talking about that.”

  “I’m starting to think that might be possible. Now that I’ve got help, things seem to be moving faster. Can you check my math on this? Each [Mage] adds about 50 essence per day to the core. So if I had a great gross of mages—one thousand, seven hundred and twenty eight—I’d have enough to claim more tiles than seconds every day.”

  “That’s true…” Adi said. “You’d have to have a big kingdom to make that many mages, though.”

  “How big?” Laryn asked.

  “To get that many Magic Affinity points, you’d need…” She tapped her fingers onto her palm, starting off into the distance. “At least tier nine. A [Principality]. Nearly 144 million tiles.”

  “But what if I created a new class,” Laryn said. “One magic affinity. One spell: [Sift]. That would lower the size requirement.”

  “You’d need a new kingdom core to create another class. But yes. Then you could reach that number of mages with… Just under nine million tiles. A tier seven [City].”

  “Oh,” Laryn said, feeling discouraged. “That’s still more than I was thinking. I must have missed a couple of zeros somewhere.”

  “But I think you can do it,” Adi said. “You’re also forgetting that as your kingdom grows, you’ll develop industries that can produce more valuable goods for sifting. Then you won’t need as many [Mages] for the same output.”

  “That’s true, I guess,” Laryn said. “I was just playing around with the idea. I still don’t think it’s realistic. Besides… The way that voidclaimed tiles aren’t affected by the rewind makes me nervous. If I had enough tiles and skipped back in time that far right now, all the places that the void has claimed since then would be instantly claimed. People would die.”

  Adi nodded solemnly, but didn’t offer any further thoughts. Laryn sat for a long while, turning the future over in his mind.

  Gathering around the fire in the evening had become a tradition. Everyone would circle around, and watch the flames climbing up into the night sky.

  One night Hela pulled him from the circle. She walked a short distance away with him. Laryn eyed her cautiously. The woman was strong-willed, and could be difficult to get along with. She’d caused a lot of problems for him, but her understanding of the void made her useful.

  “We need to talk,” she said. “About the void.”

  “I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”

  “When you first connected with it, you were tempted, yes? You wanted to become one with it, to meld with the perfect essence of the void, and disappear into bliss.”

  Laryn tightened his jaw, remembering the moment that he’d first touched the voidheart. Even now, he could feel the song of the void, in the back of his mind.

  “The elf, she felt it as well. It was foolish of her to try to engage with it. It could have gone very wrong.”

  “I know it’s dangerous,” Laryn said. “We’ve been cautious. And we haven’t seen any void since we destroyed the bloom to the north.”

  “We’re in danger from the cult, still,” Hela said.

  “How?” Laryn looked around, suddenly suspicious. Had Void cultists infiltrated Vallor somehow? “You discovered something in your interviews?” he asked.

  “No,” Hela said. “I have completed the interviews, and found nobody of concern. But there is one who has not satisfied me…”

  Laryn’s eyes widened. “Oh?”

  “You. How did you resist the siren song of the void?” Hela asked, staring into his face. “I’ve heard you talking about killing the bloom on this island. You were totally unprepared for it.”

  Laryn thought back to that first day.

  “I probably wouldn’t have even seen the heart,” he said. “But Adi saw it, through my eyes. She had to pull me back from the brink…”

  “I see.” The explanation seemed to satisfy the woman. “I had worried that… never mind. That is good to know. I don’t think the cultists will attack us from within. But they know about the power of your core. The void knows the advantage it can gain, if you trigger your ability.”

  “I know,” Laryn said. “They killed me to try and force a reset.”

  “It is an opportunity I expect them to try to take again,” she said. “You’re in danger.”

  “I’m stronger, now.”

  “And less cautious, perhaps. Please, be careful.”

  Laryn nodded, slowly.

  “How do you know so much about what the cult might do?” he asked.

  Hela raised a finger to her lips. Bracelets slipped down her arm as she did, revealing a bony wrist.

  “I dare not speak of it,” she said, before turning and hurrying away into the darkness.

  Laryn scowled after her.

  He did take her advice, and assigned a few men to stand guard over his quarters.

  The bridge over the north fork of the river was completed first, since it crossed a shorter, shallower span. It allowed easier access to the resources in the wildlands. Wood, stone, and food was hauled in and stored on the island.

  As influence increased across the kingdom, Laryn considered what was coming next. He walked across the island to the eastern tip; the edge of his currently claimed land, and stared down the river.

  “Adi, I’ve got a question for you.”

  She materialized behind him on the beach and walked over. “How can I help?” she asked.

  “Every time the kingdom tier has increased, I’ve unlocked new abilities. What happens at tier four?”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Tier four is serious,” Adi said. “You move from a simple homestead to a hamlet. It means you’ve succeeded in establishing something, a place worth living in.”

  “And?”

  “You unlock new spells; [Survey] and Elemental [Bomb]. You open up the ability to add spell modules to the core—”

  “Spell modules aren’t going to be very helpful out here in the wilderness,” Laryn grumbled. “Even if we had some we have no coresmith.”

  “—You also unlock access to the regional map network, and can see settlements in your area.”

  “A map, huh? Wait, is Vallor showing up on any maps right now? Could people know that we’re here?”

  “No,” Adi said. “Only tier four or higher can show on regional maps. You won’t show on anyone else’s maps until you’ve reached that tier.”

  “Good to know. How many tiles claimed to reach tier four?”

  “1728,” Adi said.

  “What? That’s a ton. The other tiers were a lot easier to reach,” Laryn said. “We’re only at 395 tiles right now.”

  “It’s exponential,” Adi said. “Tier 1 is 1 tile, which is 12 to the zeroth power. Tier 2 is 12 to the first, tier three is 12 to the second. So 1, 12, 144, 1728, then 20,736.”

  Laryn nodded. “We’re adding about 100 essence per day to the core, between Widan and Gaten.”

  “They’re good [Mages],” Adi said with a grin.

  “So we’d be able to get up to tier four in about two weeks,” Laryn added, doing the math in his head. “That would mean gaining a lot of stat points for me, which would be nice. I’d could add more mages, and get there sooner. But I don’t want to pull people away from other important tasks.”

  “No you don’t,” Adi said. “You need to make sure you have enough people producing food, and enough people working on infrastructure that will pay off in the future.”

  “It’s always a balance,” Laryn sighed. “Not to mention maintaining influence levels.”

  “Tell me more about the map. Townshold will be on the map for sure, but I don’t know of any others.”

  “The regional map is quite large,” Adi said. “You may see elven holdings as well. I don’t know how populated this corner of Elvendar is.”

  “That’s good to know. We need to know where the other kingdoms are so we can start establishing trade. We have some promising potential goods in the area, and it would be better to buy things that are hard to make.”

  “It will also open you up to danger,” Adi said. “When larger kingdoms know where you are, you lose the protection of obscurity.”

  Laryn considered the theories and strategies for effective kingdom management that had been beaten into his head. He hadn’t always been the best student in the Temple of Ishtoran, but he’d liked learning theory.

  As work progressed in Vallor, he felt things sliding out from his control. People were taking on projects of their own initiative, and that worried him. What if they were directing scarce resources toward frivolous projects?

  He resolved to spend the remainder of the day checking up on everyone.