Pax jogged back up to the dining hall, where almost all of his friends were already eating. They spent the dinner hour reviewing how everyone was progressing. It turned out that having some time to focus on themselves was paying dividends, both as a group and individually. Despite wanting the committee to move faster, Pax was curious to see how much progress they’d make in the next week.

  As Pax walked by the end of the table with his tray of food, Turgan flagged him down with a cheerful wave of his fork.

  Pax stopped, giving the rest of his Tribal friends a friendly once over before looking at Turgan. “How are things going for all of you? Settling in alright?”

  “The wing next to yours is perfect for us, right?” Turgan glanced at the other team members sitting around him.

  Smiles and murmurs of agreement answered him.

  “Our sergeant helped the warriors get into some mid-morning training sessions, which lets us help with the Taming team before dawn and your other projects in the afternoon. We’re also organizing everyone into smaller crews to help explore and clear more of the base as soon as you get the go-ahead from the committee.”

  Pax gave Turgan an impressed look. He’d been busy.

  Noticing the look, Turgan laughed. “All of you put me in charge of our team for a reason.”

  “True. So, is there anything else you’ve already taken care of?”

  “Plenty.” Turgan paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. “So, our mages are getting on the rotation to train in the elemental rooms downstairs while the warriors do their training. Those are pretty incredible, by the way. We’re all still a bit stunned by our new elements.”

  The hint of amazement in Turgan’s eyes made Pax happy.

  “And we’ll finish picking our top choices for spell scrolls tomorrow, plus get you a tentative plan for distributing them when the rest of the mages here start unlocking new elements, too.”

  Pax let out a half-laugh as Turgan kept going.

  “We checked in with Edith about the unfinished area between our two wings. She said we could easily get permission to build it out as a practice area, especially if we want to put in some work ourselves.”

  “Nice.” Pax’s eyes lit up at the idea. “A private place to practice would be nice.”

  “Yeah, especially with all the new stuff you’re helping us learn.” Then Turgan glanced at Pax’s tray of uneaten, steaming food and flushed. “Oh, sorry. Didn’t mean to keep you from your meal. We’re just all so charged up by what we’re getting to do here.”

  “Me, too. And thanks for all your work. I’m learning that I can’t do everything myself. So, it’s great to have friends like you step in to help.” Pax gave Turgan and the other team members a grin before he hurried to the seat Rin and Amil had saved for him.

  Thankfully, this time, everyone let him eat his food while they updated him on their progress without expecting him to reply. He listened attentively, planning to make adjustments to his list based on their updates.

  “So, I’m working with the managers to track down which areas needed to be explored and cleared first, in order to reestablish the most important connections for the power system.” Tyrodon’s eyes lit up as he explained. “Even better, the rest of the secondary training rooms should be up by tomorrow morning.”

  That got an excited response from his friends, especially Dahni and Amil.

  “I think you already heard we’ve been helping all our mage friends sign up for regular training slots in their major and minor elements.” Dahni flicked a glance at the adjoining table. “Tansa, Kurt and the Tribal mages were all pretty excited to improve their new elements as quickly as possible.”

  “But the schedule is already getting pretty tight.” Amil looked thoughtful. “We might need to call in our promised slots we negotiated for back when we first shared the base with the rebels. Our friends should come first. Though people might get a bit upset about it.”

  “Well, they need to remember that the more we and our friends learn about how this all works, the better we can help them progress faster. Without the new stuff we’re doing, the rebellion wouldn’t even have this place,” Rin said before a wide grin split her face. “At least we won’t have to share the secondary rooms anytime soon.”

  “I don’t know about that.” Pax glanced down the table where Tansa had finished eating and was playing with air mana shimmering around her index finger. “Now that we figured out how to give you ice, I don’t think our friends are going to wait too long to insist on the same thing.”

  Rin followed his gaze and gave him a sheepish shrug. “True.”

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  “So, any news on the coin situation?” he asked her, moving onto the next topic before taking another bite of his buttered bread.

  “Oh, Kurt, Tasar, and I went with Incedis this afternoon to negotiate with the committee quartermaster. He works under Merchant Nightblade, but isn’t a committee member himself. And he’s a lot easier to work with.”

  “Incedis intimidated him,” Tasar said.

  Rin gave him a startled look before grinning. “That’s true. So, we’ve got a tentative agreement for the Glitterflare Hive and its treasures. We get any materials we need for personal crafting once Tyrodon figures out things to make with it all.”

  “I’m glad someone took care of that.” Pax didn’t feel so bad about letting the hive issue slip his mind now.

  Bryn nodded. “Also, Titus took charge of keeping the area under control. He grabbed some of his people, a few Tribal members and three rebels to scout out the situation. The rebels sent a crafter, warrior and mage. They were pretty excited when they brought back samples of everything. Plus, they captured two more glitterflare fighters, which we’re holding until we get more Taming candidates. They’ll be perfect to practice our new Taming methods on.”

  “It appears our leaders can move quickly with valuable resources at stake,” Tasar said.

  When the others scoffed, Dahni shrugged and said, “Well, using treasures found in ancient ruins is a much more accepted idea than the stuff Pax is trying to get them to do.”

  “True.” Pax sighed before finishing up the last bite of his steaming noodle dish.

  Rin gave Pax a nod before continuing. “So, the current agreement for the hive stuff is to give us a ten percent cut of any final products the rebel crafters here create or ingredients they ship out. That’s after taking out the cost for things like potion bottles and additional crafting ingredients.” Rin held up a hand when her friends frowned at the small amount. “Remember, we don’t have to do any of the harvesting or patrolling of the hive. We just show up and take our cut. And if they eventually produce enough product for the entire rebellion, ten percent will be more than enough for our crew.”

  “Except our group continues to grow.” Bryn raised her brows, eyes moving to everyone seated nearby.

  They and their friends had taken up four tables, and Titus and his crew weren’t even there.

  “Well, Pax is the base commander, so I’m sure we can renegotiate whatever we want if we decide it isn’t working out.” Rin grinned. “I love negotiating from a position of strength like this.”

  “And the rest of our coin?” Amil asked, greed in his eyes.

  “We should get a distribution within a week from what they already owe us and maybe an initial estimate about the glitterhive. It depends whether the crafters have had enough time to evaluate the hive samples and test what they can make with them.”

  “I can’t wait to see what they create.” Tyrodon's eyes flashed with excitement. “I wonder if they’ll let me come and watch their experiments.”

  “Just ask them.” Pax shrugged. “If they give you problems, just wait until next week when I’m on the committee, and I’ll make them let you watch.”

  Tyrodon laughed out loud at Pax’s response. When the others looked at him in question, he explained. “Pax isn’t just good at the magic stuff. He’s getting the manipulation skills down, too. At least he and Solani 2-nine are.”

  Pax gave him a questioning look, inviting him to explain.

  Tyrodon looked around with the glee of a storyteller who had something juicy to share. “So, the supervising crafter over the power room project is this bossy lady named Crafter Merrick. She kept messing up everything I was working on in the power room, questioning my suggestions and contradicting almost everything I said. Pax gave Solani 2-nine permission to help me deal with her.”

  Amil leaned in with an interested grin. “What did 2-nine do to the crafter?”

  Tyrodon’s smile turned conspiratory. “Oh, it was brilliant. Solani 2-nine didn't do anything harmful, but she sure made her point. First, she recalibrated the base’s doors in that section to close and play a silly jingle when Crafter Merrick approached. You know, the kind that’s catchy but incredibly annoying after the first couple of times? The doors would only open if she sang or hummed it back. So, every time Merrick needed to go somewhere, she had to belt out this ridiculous tune.”

  Amil raised an eyebrow with a considering grin. “That's clever and extremely irritating.”

  “Exactly. And that was just the start. Solani 2-nine also tweaked the lighting in the power room. Every time Merrick tried to work on something, the lights would dim, brighten, or change colors—completely at random. And the best part? She couldn’t figure out why it was happening. Since no one enjoyed working under her, the other crafters quickly joined in on the prank, pretending they didn’t see anything wrong. It convinced Merrick she was going crazy.”

  Rin chuckled. “Okay, now that’s funny. Anything else?”

  “Sure, Solani 2-nine got pretty creative. She’d echo Merrick’s voice in a mocking tone from behind her whenever she called out an order. Merrick would spin around and see no one there while we all kept pretending nothing had happened.”

  Pax shook his head in admiration for 2-nine’s tactics.

  “By the end of the day,” Tyrodon added with a smirk, “Merrick was practically begging to be reassigned. She was so flustered and embarrassed that she couldn’t get a single thing done. Now she’s assigned to a completely different area.”

  Amil laughed out loud. “Sounds like I definitely don’t want to get on 2-nine’s bad side.”

  “Smart move,” Tyrodon replied, still grinning. “And now that she’s out of the way, I can get some actual work done. So yeah, Pax and the managers? Don’t mess with them.”

  The rest of the conversation devolved into tales of other pranks, with Amil regaling the others with his favorites. When Pax finished his satisfying meal, he leaned back and let out a happy sigh.

  One table over, he saw Tomis and a handful of littles just finishing their meal. Seeing Pax’s gaze, Tomis gave him a cheerful smile, before Jules tugged on his arm and drew his attention away.

  Looking closer, Pax noticed Tomis’ hair sticking up in various directions. Combined with frown lines on his forehead, he looked frazzled from keeping track of all the littles in this place. Pax suppressed a chuckle, glad his friend had been willing to take the job. He made a note to see about sending Tomis out soon with Bryn to find a good beast to Tame. Having an intimidating pet might help wrestle the littles into line better. It could also motivate them to work harder to earn the privilege for themselves in the future.

  By the time they finished their evening meal and updates, everyone was feeling pretty upbeat about what they’d be able to accomplish in the next week. Pax was just glad to see that they’d made progress on most of the items on his list.

  The next step would be to cross some of them off.

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