Once Stendahl was done assigning partners, he dismissed class and was the first one out the door. As everyone got up and began to meander their way to their assigned fellow student, I did the same. I…noticed that she stayed seated as I approached her, and didn’t look up when I came to a standstill before her section in the rows.

  I just stood there awkwardly for a moment, feeling that old-fashioned social anxiety try and creep its way up my neck. I squashed it, though, and cleared my throat to break the silence. “Ah…nice to meet you,” I said, extending a hand her way. “I’m Nathan Hart.”

  In response, she glanced at my hand, but didn’t take it. “I heard.” The Orcish woman said in a low, rough, almost smoky tone.

  I allowed a brief, frustrated breath to escape my nose at the near dismissal, lowering my hand. “And your name is...‘Itzelan’?”

  That earned me another glance, and this time I could see a small frown under the shadows of her hood. Strangely, I noticed her chin and mouth weren’t quite as…large and broad as most Orcish features I’d seen. She stood up, and I was a bit startled to find ‘Itzelan’ was taller than I was. Not much, but enough that I noticed.

  Still, her hood was obscuring enough of her face, even eye to eye, that I was pretty sure it had to be enchanted. I couldn't see much of her face beyond her grey lips and the small tusks jutting from them.

  Odd. It was hard to get a hold of something like that, even back when I was Nocturne. For a moment, my Core Ring considered just how to construct such an enchantment while I stared into the hood. It had to be relatively complicated because enchanting clothing wasn't a task for the unskilled.

  “…Meia.” The Orc woman eventually said, after her attempt to ‘stare’ me down didn’t work. “Itzelan is my family name.”

  I nodded slightly. “Nice to meet you, Meia Itzelan. So, Stahlbrandt expects us to complete a project together.”

  “It’s not urgent,” ‘Meia’ said shortly, her cloak shifting enough that I thought she’d crossed her arms. “I’m…too busy to start work on it right now.”

  “What a coincidence,” I said, smiling blandly. “So am I. Maybe next week?”

  “Or the one after,” The reply came. “This is only something a fool would struggle with. Are you a fool, Nathan Hart?”

  I let a short breath escape my nose. “I’d like to think I’m not.”

  Something that almost resembled a chuckle escaped Itzelan then, if not an incredibly dry one. “Wouldn’t we all. We’ll speak later, Hart. Much later.” Without another word, the cloaked woman nearly marched down the stairs of the classroom and out the door, her cloak swishing about her as she did. I don’t think she even noticed all of the people scrambling to get out of her way.

  I shook my head slightly. I suppose we would have plenty of time. The semester still had nearly three months in its course.

  I’d have plenty of time to wrangle this…charming woman into doing our project together.

  As I readied myself to leave the room as well, I cast one last glance over at the student from earlier who had interrupted Stahlbrandt. He was still sleeping face down on his desk. For a moment, I thought about waking him up, before deciding not to.

  It would be a good lesson for him.

  At least he’d get one at all.

  ………………………………..

  As usual, I found Grey inside his private lab after classes were over. The man was a bona fide workaholic, after all. If he wasn’t managing his institutions, then he was managing his projects.

  Too bad I had something else to drop on his lap.

  I waited patiently in the chair before Grey’s desk here in the lab, as he carefully read over Bleddyn’s scroll. I could see the point at which my mentor came upon my old friend’s request. His brow wrinkled ever so slightly, in a way I’d come to recognize as his ‘thinking face’.

  When he was done, he set down the scroll and pulled out his pipe in a manner that I hadn’t seen him do since we were in the thick of the fighting in the Construct war. I raised a brow at him as he filled it, sparked the leaf with one finger, and took a contemplative puff of the smoke.

  “We’re indoors, you know,” I said mildly, gesturing with one finger at the lab. “Tons of delicate instruments in here.”

  Grey snorted at my teasing. “As if I didn’t design this lab to handle smoke in the first place,” He said, in a mildly offended tone. “I know my vices. But enough of that. We have to discuss…this.”

  I cracked a smile at the exhausted look Grey shot the scroll, but sobered up. “It’s…quite the ask. Not the Bond Breakers,” I amended. “I could probably whip up two dozen of them this weekend, if I needed to. Scribing out new instructions for the design?” I shrugged. “An hour or so of work. But the slaves…”

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  “Indeed,” Grey said heavily. He took a moment to take another puff of his pipe before continuing. “Take it from me, Nathan. As someone who has not only overseen the resettlement of refugees in the past, but did so recently in the aftermath of the war, I can tell you that it’s no simple task. There is…a great deal that goes into such a thing.”

  “If it’s a question of money, I’m sitting pretty flush right now,” I pointed out.

  “No doubt you are,” Grey cracked a smile. “‘Kuroshō’ is the talk of the crafting circles, to my understanding. I do wonder just what you’re charging the nobility for your works.”

  “An arm, a leg, and at least one kidney,” I said with a completely straight face.

  Grey chuckled, and after a moment, I joined. It wasn’t very funny, but, well.

  We liked that kind of thing.

  When he was done, Grey let out a long breath and regretfully shook his head. “Alas, gold isn’t enough. I’m afraid an operation of this scale is more of a matter of logistics, in the end. You cannot hope to resettle hundreds, perhaps thousands, of poor and mistreated former slaves by yourself. Not even with two of you, and if you recruited all of your fellows, would you be able to do such a thing. Personnel is required, which isn’t even mentioning the facilities you need to house them. It would take months to settle all of those unfortunates into new housing and seek employment for them.”

  I sighed, reaching up to massage my forehead. I could already feel a headache coming on. “Why did Bleddyn ask me to do this? I’m just a small crafter in the grand scheme of things. Sure, I may be a Knight, but that doesn’t translate into vast resources. It’s just a formalized series of obligations, really.”

  Grey hummed and studied me carefully. “Perhaps…he was counting on your relationship to me,” He pointed out wryly. When I blinked at him, he smiled. “If you remember, Nathan, I do possess all of the infrastructure to facilitate this course of action. The Order has mostly returned to pre-war activities and has stepped down from its previous battle-ready state. I have a great many people who are simply taking monster extermination missions and training to maintain readiness. There are currently no active conflicts in which we have…leave from the Crown, in which to intervene,” He finished carefully.

  I think Grey was a little surprised at the frown that grew on my face immediately at his suggestion.

  No.

  I really didn’t want to rely on the resources of the Order of the Eclipsed Dawn to do this. I’d been very careful since my return to Herztal not to lean too heavily on Grey and his generosity to me, as his personal apprentice. I think there was a general understanding in Herztalian society that an apprentice would carry on not only the work of their master, but their business as well. I think the public perception of me was that I would one day lead the Order, the Academy, or even both.

  I had no such ambitions. I’d done my time in the Order during the war, and I had no intention of returning to it. And while I wasn’t opposed to perhaps taking on a Professorship at the Academy whenever I graduated, I wasn’t looking to take over the Headmastership. Perhaps it was prideful of me, but I wasn’t interested in being handed the reins of organizations simply because of nepotism. Not when there were people with far greater seniority and ability within them capable of doing so. I hadn’t seen or spoken to Marshal Leopold since my return to the mainland, but I’d never forgotten the large, leonine man, and I was sure there were people among the staff of the Academy Grey could appoint to succeed him.

  I wanted to build my own legacy, here in magical fantasy land.

  Not inherit one.

  “I’m sorry, Grey, but no,” I said, shaking my head. “I’d…like to go about this my own way.” I started drumming my fingers on the desk in thought, struck by a sudden idea.

  Grey’s mention of the Order…while I didn’t want to rely on them, it had reminded me of something. I knew people. I’d worked with a number of different people who had also decided to leave the Order with the collapse of the Nocturne Division, after we had been devastated by Nerexxa. That wasn’t even counting all of the different connections I’d forged, either through my work as a crafter, or…anything else, really.

  He was right, after all. If I was going to help all of the former slaves that Bleddyn has saved in the Principality, then I was going to need people. An organization.

  One of my own making.

  The problem, then, was tracking down all of the people I needed. Some, I think, were likely somewhere in the city. Some of them, though, it was a toss-up. I'd need help even finding the people I wanted help from.

  Luckily, I knew where to start.

  I was knocked out of my thoughts by the sound of Grey clearing his throat. Looking up from my contemplation, I found a surprisingly stern look on my mentor’s aged features. Catching and maintaining my gaze, he carefully folded his fingers into a bridge before his face.

  “While I have in the past allowed you a great deal of leeway in terms of your development, Nathan,” Grey said in a calm, even tone that nonetheless caused the hairs on the back of my neck to raise. “This is an entirely separate matter. The decisions you make now could potentially impact the lives of thousands, and I am…wary of weighing their prosperity against the pride of a young man. I acknowledge you have shown both reasonable judgment and ability in the past, when it has come to matters of equal import.” He ‘graciously’ allowed, before his gaze sharpened. “But if at any time this task comes to overwhelm you, at the expense of those who have suffered the same scourge we have, then I will intervene. At that point, the Order shall…preempt this task from you. I would have your word that you are refusing my resources because you have an actual plan to help these people, and that you shall treat it with all due gravitas.”

  Despite myself, and in direct contradiction to the tone Grey was laying down with his heavy-handed ultimatum…

  A smile crept across my lips.

  I think, in the past, I would have been offended by the implication that I couldn’t handle this. I would have balked at the implied belief that such a task was beyond me and grew furious at it. God knows I’d sometimes been monstrously angry since I’d come to Vereden, at the injustices that seemed to infest every corner of this world.

  Now, though, I’d like to think I’d matured. Just a tad.

  I was happy with the implied safety net, instead. If I failed at the mere whispers of an idea that had just bloomed within me, then Grey would be there to help. He was right. The well-being of all of those people was more important than my pride.

  But that same pride was telling me I could do this better.

  “I understand,” I said, inclining my head gratefully, to which Grey’s eyebrow quirked at my easy acceptance. I just smiled at him and stood up from the chair. “Then I’d better go and get started, yeah?”

  Grey studied me for a moment in silence before his stern mien slipped, allowing a slight smile through. “I suppose you should.”

  I nodded at the scroll on his desk. “Dispose of that for me, would you?” Without waiting for an answer, I turned around and left the lab.

  I had a Gnoll to find.