Tammy and I stepped through the portal to the Compound. Fields was staying behind in the shop. The Market District didn’t have set hours, it was open pretty much 24/7. With Adventurers hopping in and out of the Tower at all hours, the District had to be open that often. Something to think about with the stall. We’d want to make sure it was manned all the time, so hungry Adventurers would always have somewhere to go.

  I looked around at the little compound, surrounded by trees, the brook flowing through, the portal looking like a mine in the side of the hill with a watch tower on top, the little crafting building, the long hall and the barracks. It looked cool, but I was now wondering about the crafting building. Did we need it yet?

  Could something else be more useful at this stage?

  I looked up at the watch tower which was completely useless and would remain so. It’s not like we’d have to deal with attacks at the compound. Right? Something to ask Stylo. The watch tower was just cool, except I hadn’t even been up it yet.

  “Come on,” I told Tammy, walking toward the path up the hill.

  The hill was steep, covered in grass, some exposed rock around the portal arch. The steps were cut into the side, snaking their way up to the flat top. Stone steps, laid irregularly, which was awesome. I hadn’t even noticed that detail. It felt real, like this was a place actually built in viking times.

  Reaching the top, there was a mix of grass and rocks. Some formations around the perimeter, some stones laid as a path to the stairs of the tower. The tower itself was about three stories high, long and thick poles in the four corners, crossing braces for support. Landings at each story. The wooden stairs were steep.

  The landings had no railings around them, just wooden platforms. In ye old viking times, and yes, I knew I was mixing cultures, there would probably have been archers or ballista on the landings. Stepping out onto the top I was happy to see railings.

  A wall about four feet high ran around the perimeter, poles extending up to support the four sided roof. It was nothing fancy, just a functional watch tower.

  “Why are we up here?” Tammy asked.

  “I hadn’t been up here yet,” I replied, walking to the edge that overlooked the compound. “And wanted to see what the view was like.”

  And it was a surprising view.

  I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting. I remembered what I could see when I’d been walking down the paths of the Faction Area. And I was kind of seeing that, but so much more. I could see lakes, forests, other compounds and how unique they all looked. There were mountains in the distance, with more compounds visible on them. I saw great birds, even a dragon, flying through the sky. There were carriages on the road, some horses.

  It was kind of weird since I didn’t think a lot of that existed.

  It was similar on the other sides. More forest, with compounds visible, along with ruins and towers. More lakes and even a vast plain.

  “Stylo,” I called.

  “Yes?”

  Tammy jumped. I smiled. She smacked my shoulder.

  “Is that all real?”

  “Yes and no,” the guide replied. “The compounds you can see are real and in those relative locations, but the Nexus fills in some of the rest. Yours is not the only Compound to have a tall tower in which to view the surrounding land. It used to be that there was nothing to see so the Nexus created things to view. To make a reason to come up to the viewing platforms. As your Compound expands, you will be able to adjust what you see.”

  “We could watch events on Earth?” Tammy asked.

  “No,” Stylo replied. He paused, not moving, just staring out into space for a moment. “I apologize, but I went and searched the data the Nexus as on Earth for the appropriate comparison. Think of what you are seeing as a screensaver.”

  I laughed, Tammy looked confused. She’d been pretty young when the Celestial Challenge System integrated Earth. Screensavers might not have even existed at that point. I’d kind of forgotten about them until Stylo mentioned them.

  “Background images that computers used to use to keep the monitors from burning out when the computer was on and not being used,” I explained. “The early monitors would end up getting burn spots on the screen if the computer was just left on. So they came up with screensavers, a way to keep the pixels or whatever of the monitor moving when it wasn’t in use.”

  “Why not just turn it off?” she asked.

  I shrugged.

  “The early computers took forever to boot up.” She still looked confused. “It’s a background image, just something to look at, with some moving parts to keep it interesting. So eventually we can change what the image looks like, but it’s still some preset image.”

  “That is a good explanation,” Stylo said.

  “Okay,” Tammy said. “I think I get it. Kind of like…,” she paused, tapping her chin. “What was that thing my grandmother talked about? We found some old ones in some ruins about ten years back? Tried to get them going with our crystals?”

  “Televisions?” I answered, groaning.

  Damn, she made me feel old.

  “You were alive when televisions were still in use,” I pointed out.

  “I was three,” Tammy answered. “It’s too bad that it’s not live and we can’t see into other’s compounds.”

  “That is why it is not live,” Stylo answered. “Too much chance of spying. Compounds are supposed to be places where the factions can relax and not have to worry about the politics of the Nexus.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “That’s good,” I said, walking around the top of the watchtower. “I’m already tired of the politics.”

  “There are just beginning,” Stylo said.

  I groaned.

  ***

  “Sit down,” Kat told me, pointing at the chair in her office.

  It was on the top level of the Town Hall. I had one next door but it was probably covered in dust as I never used it. I think there was a desk and some chairs. Maybe some shelves. I don’t know. It’d been awhile since I’d stepped foot. I’m sure it wasn’t covered in dust, there were people that worked as cleaners. Their Essence Abilities really came in handy. Would have loved to have some of them when I was cleaning my apartment back in the old world.

  Kat hadn’t even looked up when I walked in, just pointed. Her office was decent sized. She was a fan of paper files, so still had a lot of those, even though the System could handle a lot of it. The rear wall was a large window looking out over Solacetown. It faced the lake and the docks, giving a view across most of the lake. It was pretty big. Her desk was plain, made from one of the local crafters, same as the leather chair she used. There was a low bench against the window. No one really sat on it, Kat would spin her chair around, put her feet up on the bench and look out over the lake. One sidewall was nothing but shelves. The other had a couch facing two chairs. There was a little cabinet with some drinks and glasses. Over the couch hung a map of Solacetown. On either side were paintings and tapestries. She commissioned them from artists all over Solace, regularly trading them out.

  I’d heard that it was a mark of honor for the artist to get selected to have their work hanging in Kat’s office.

  I took one of the two chairs facing the desk.

  “Morning Kat,” I said merrily.

  She glanced up at me, then back to the paperwork.

  “It’s afternoon,” she said, making some notes.

  “It was evening when I left the Nexus.”

  “I wouldn’t know. I still haven’t been.”

  “When do you want to go?”

  “You know I won’t for avwhile,” she said with a sigh, closing the notebook, finally looking at me. “Since you can only have two non-Adventurers there, we need Mike and Tammy. And I can’t leave here, not with you hopping back and forth.”

  “It’s not like I did much.”

  “True,” she said, smiling. “I hear you’re making friends over there.”

  I shrugged. Across the lake I could see the many islands that dotted Maer Ursine. Most hadn’t even been explored. Some were only a mile long, others half that. A couple were large enough to house settlements. The biggest was called Moonshae. It was about eleven miles long, eight or so at the widest. Roughly the size of Martha’s Vineyard. We’d established a small village, which was growing quickly, on it. From where I sat, I couldn’t see it. But there were plenty of smaller ones. Lots of small villages along the shores. Lots of boats out fishing. A small airship was lifting off.

  It had floated out from the docks a couple hundred feet when it activated the lift Arcanum. Pretty quickly, it rose out of the water, drops falling down onto the surface of the lake. Rising higher and higher until it was at its peak altitude, a little above the treetops. Our airships didn’t get up into the clouds like old airplanes, but they were still a pretty fun way to travel.

  I didn’t recognize the markings on the ship. It was small, maybe twenty or thirty feet long. Really just the crew and a small number of passengers. We used a lot of those style in our fleet, mostly as ferries to take people from one town to another where there weren’t portals.

  Portals took up a lot of energy so we didn’t use them often. No one could afford the energy costs. So we used them to mostly go from major area to major area, with carriages, walking, horses, other assorted mounts and airships to cover the rest of the distance. They’d wanted to give me my own personal airship but what was the point? I used one a lot, but not often enough to have a dedicated crew. They’d be bored most of the time.

  The one taking off had a flag, the wind blowing just the right direction that I could barely make it out. A wolf or fox head, gray on black, with crossed spears behind it. I didn’t recognize the symbol. Kat turned to see what I was looking at.

  “The Gray Wolf Clan,” she said, turning and pointing at the map. “They have a couple cities to the northeast between our territory and the northerlands. They have access to a wide river that connects directly to the Atlantic.”

  “How strong?”

  She lifted a hand, waving it back and forth.

  “Weak compared to us. The Ranking Boards have them around one hundred and fifty.”

  I nodded, remembering that it had been a while since I’d looked at the Ranking Boards. Just like how there was a ranking of Adventurers in the Infinite Tower, there was also a ranking of Adventurers on Earth. There were two, individual rankings and faction rankings. Being one hundred and fifty put this Gray Wolf Clan a little above average. There were a lot of factions on Earth, some tucked away in corners that no one had encountered yet. New Earth was huge with lots of territory to explore. Clan Howell, new name pending, had a bunch of smaller factions within the ranks. We made them play nice with each other but sometimes they didn’t.

  “How close is our border to theirs?”

  “Getting closer,” Kat said. “Which is what prompted the meeting yesterday.”

  “Was I supposed to be here?” I asked, panicking a little.

  Kat chuckled, enjoying my discomfort.

  “No. They wanted to meet you obviously, but understood that with Earth newly opened, you were needed in the Nexus.”

  “There anyone of note?”

  “Yeah, a couple people. There’s one major team that is high 90s and they have three Adventurers in the low 90s. I sent Henrik Rudolph and Leslie Barringer back with them to train with their three. See if can make a full team to send to the Nexus soon.”

  “So we’re officially allied with them?”

  Kat glared at me.

  “You didn’t read the Notifications?”