Malevein Part I
Apr. 12th, 2005 09:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jessara40k_ljHere's some more of Malevein.
~~~0~~~
Danilo prepared to cast the first of the spells that Xander had designed for him the next morning. He was grateful that these particular spells didn't require the sort of precision that most of Xander's spells seemed to. He wasn't sure why they needed so little precision, but he was grateful anyway. And they didn't need him to make any adjustments to them to get the spells to work right, he didn't think he could manage to modify Xander's spells the way he could most normal magic. Then he realised why they required so little in the way of revision; they were old spells, spells Xander had created and used when he first started using his type of magic - or variants of them. And they were still more elegant than any spells Danilo knew or could create, even if Xander had been obliged to search out the oldest of his spells to allow for Danilo's inadequacies.
The first spell lit a constellation of lights on the illusion of Waterdeep, so many that the entire city was glowing, mostly yellow, orange and red, with the higher value colours towards the centre of Waterdeep and the richer sections.
"That's not going to be much use." Arilyn was laughing in honest amusement, and her humour had lost the edge of cruelty it had grown after the Malevein arrived.
"No, it isn't. But that's why Xander gave me the other spell." Danilo cast as he spoke, the spell changed the illusion, reducing the lights by about half, still too much for a search, but if the proportions of colours stayed the same it would swiftly mount up. After he'd cast the second spell ten times in total the only white lights were in the Malevein buildings.
"We didn't do too good a job yesterday then did we?" Arilyn seemed embarrassed, Danilo couldn't blame her, he was embarrassed too.
"Apparently not. If I'd ever bothered to learn a spell like this..."
"I'm an adventurer, I'm supposed to be better at finding treasure than that."
"You always were more about justice than lining your pockets. Elaira would probably have done better than we did, when she was Elaith certainly." Danilo cast the spell to shut off the light show as he spoke and in unspoken agreement they stood and prepared to go after the missing treasure.
When they got to the house Drachar had taken over Danilo cast the spell that would guide them to the most valuable cache of treasure and they followed the ball of blue light to what must have been a secret compartment.
"Let me." Danilo fell back when Arilyn asked, and let his lover take over figuring out how to actually get to the treasure they were looking for. To pass the time he tried casting the spell again, perhaps it would give Arilyn a clue about how to get at the cache they'd found. It didn't, instead it moved off and led him to another hiding place. Danilo wondered just why it had done that, and, marking where the new cache was hidden cast the spell a third time. But it just led him back to Arilyn.
When they finally got to the treasure it was composed mostly of gems and platinum, and they packed it in the first of the bags Danilo had brought for that. It took most of the day to go through just the one building, but at least at the end of the day they knew that Waterdeep would have money enough to govern until taxes started coming in again.
~~~0~~~
From what Elaira had said she wasn't going to need to visit any more of those harems after today, she'd be able to get to the last three today. Xander had no idea what she would be doing to keep herself occupied from then on, he wouldn't know what to do with himself if he didn't have the new spell he was working on to keep himself occupied.
He had spent the first hour or so casting the spells to allow his men to communicate with each other as they needed. They didn't have enough magic of their own for him to try anything too ambitious, but the copper disk would heat up when there was a message, and it would appear as green writing on the disk, if that was absolutely necessary - although that would be restricted to those who were literate, which wasn't something he usually had to concern himself with. For the others a series of colour codes would convey most messages. He hadn't entirely decided on the codes yet, but the colours could be selected by tapping the disks in different places and were green, red, black, yellow, white, blue and purple.
Then he began trying to work on the dimensional transport spell, only this time instead of focusing on the transport issue he concentrated on isolating the dimension he wanted to go to, and identifying it for the spell. That required much simpler mathematics and by mid-afternoon he'd figured out exactly which part of his energy signature identified his home dimension and could be used to give a destination. At least he thought that it did.
Rather than face the tensor equations the rest of the spell needed he decided to check in at the inn where he'd been staying. It had been six days since his men had been sent off looking for this Lord Piergeiron, and Danilo had said that the closest of the places he might be was three days travel away, so some of his men might well be back by now.
"You, take me to see Danilo." He grabbed one of the men that was standing near the entrance, basically gossiping - they certainly weren't acting as proper guards. If any of his men had returned Danilo would know, since they'd been ordered to report in to the older man upon their return.
"He's probably in his bedroom with that elven bitch." The man was trying to struggle free of the grip Xander had on his arm, without much success.
"You need to smarten up your act." Contempt laced Xander's voice as he threw the man away from him and stalked through the inn.
"Danilo?" He made sure that he was polite, after all he was interrupting whatever it was that the other man was doing.
"Oh, hello Xander. Those spells you gave me worked wonders, we managed to find what we wanted yesterday. I'll willngly pay for lessons in your form of magic, or trade for them if you'd rather once things settle down. What did you want to see me about?"
"Just wanted to check if any of the men I lent you had reported back. I'll do this again every day until I've got them all back unless you'll direct them to my new house."
"I can do that, no problem. It might be easier on you. And no, we haven't gotten any of the messengers back yet, perhaps tomorrow, we'll see. About your magic?"
"I won't teach you, you already know the system in general, you don't need lessons. What you need is practice with my spells, and in writing your own spells. I will sell you copies of my older spells. Not the newest ones, I don't think you're really up to the precision needed for my newer spells, and it will give you motivation to improve them yourself."
"Right." Xander noted the bitterness in Danilo's smile, and realised that he had to reassure the other man.
"You really do understand everything that I do about my style of magic, and more, you have an artistic flair that I didn't have before. But your style of magic never needed the precision mine needs, because you always had a decent sized power reserve, so you didn't need to get every last bit of use out of your power. Elaira is learning how to use my magic system more effectively, if you want then you could get her to help you, if you think you need it."
"And you'll probably have more important things to do than try to teach me to think in a different way. I understand." And this time it seemed that he did.
~~~0~~~
Elaira could feel the security spell that Lord Darkwolf had created washing over her senses as she entered their home. She found it a reassuring sensation, welcoming her home, but she had the feeling that others who used any form of magic would not, although she had no grounds for that suspicion and she knew that the normal people felt nothing. It didn't matter, she was home, and she'd freed all of those the Malevein had taken as sex slaves. She was a bit disconcerted to realise that Lord Darkwolf wasn't there, but after a moments thought she realised that he was most likely checking whether or not any of him men had returned.
It would have been nice to be able to see Lord Xander immediately, but since he wasn't here she could prepare a pleasing greeting for him. First, she was dirty, and most likely didn't smell very pleasing. But while she was correcting that matter...yes, Lord Xander was returning from speaking with Lord Thann, at a walk, and it would take him twenty minutes to get here.
"You can go back to general assignments." She didn't need the men assigned to accompany her any more. "Darksong," the green elf who'd become their steward had taken to greeting her as she returned unless Lord Xander had some other requirements for him, in which case Javander, the gold elf who seemed to have become her personal servant greeted her, "I want a meal ready to eat in an hour, something nice. And Lord Darkwolf will be returning in twenty minutes, I want him brought up to our bathroom immediately."
"Yes, Lady Silverhair." Darksong turned to do Elaira's bidding and she went up to the bathroom, washing herself clean as quickly and efficiently as possible before dressing in a dark green silk dress with gold embroidered around the asymmetric hem that showed her lower legs and the V-shaped neckline and exposed all of her arms. While she was dressing she let the bath fill, and once dressed she cast a spell to heat up the water before she quickly kenned a loose silk tunic and soft velvet trousers for Lord Xander to wear, all in black with some silver embroidery on the tunic.
"Hello Elaira, is there an occasion, or did you just want to do something nice?" A sardonic smile graced Lord Xander's face as he leaned in the doorway.
"The latter." Elaira glanced down at the floor, blushing, then looked up and reached out to guide him in. She undressed him as slowly and seductively as she could manage, then sat by the bath, teasing him as he bathed. Once he'd gotten out of the bath she led him through to the bedroom.
"These should be comfortable." She frowned then, considering. "I'm not as good at it as you are, but I could give you a massage after we've eaten?"
"Go ahead, and I suspect you're better than you think." They made their way downstairs and ate together, slowly, enjoying the meal and the company, this was the prelude to a seduction, even if Elaira hadn't realised it at first. Then, once they were back in their bedroom Lord Darkwolf undressed, casually, no great display in it, and lay down on the bed, waiting for her. Elaira froze for a moment then, she'd learned this particular skill as a slave, but she was free now, and she was not going to let the Malevein control her in any way.
She worked on her lover's body for almost an hour, first on the back of his body, and then the front, until he was relaxed except in one area - and then she used her mouth to get that area to relax. He laughed then and pulled her into place against his chest, touching her until she climaxed herself.
~~~0~~~
Danilo read through his notes on the current state of Waterdeep's capacity for defence - or lack thereof - again, and cursed under his breath. There was no way they could protect themselves if they were attacked before Lord Piergeiron returned, hopefully with an army. Arilyn was out, patroling with some of the men, doing her best to replicate the function of the old Guard, the one that was destroyed by the Malevein. But she was just one woman, and the men weren't the most trustworthy, so he worried about her all the while she was out there. And neither he nor Arilyn were capable of defending the city alone, or even together, Danilo couldn't even set up an early warning of invasion and he was sure that that was one of the spells Uncle Khelben had running if not constantly, at least intermittantly.
"Lord Thann, might I speak with you?" But Elaira and Xander still had power to burn, and Xander probably had the expertise to set up a spell that would give them the warning he craved.
"Of course." He quickly pushed the papers out of the way, and rose to seat Elaira with all the courtesy he could muster. He knew that his behaviour would make her just a little suspicious, but he'd still try his best not to upset her in the hope that she'd at least listen to what he wanted to ask, and be more inclined to grant it, and pass his requests on to Xander.
"What is it that you wanted to speak to me about?" Danilo took a new seat opposite Elaira, with no desk creating a barrier between them.
"I wondered if there was anything I could do to help keep Waterdeep safe until things are more settled. I cannot aid Lord Darkwolf in creating his spells, and that goes hard for him, nor can I merely practise my skills at fighting, if nothing else the more extreme forms are too dangerous to perform inside a city." Elaira's quiet words were ever so slightly shaming, he'd been thinking of how to manipulate her and Xander into doing what she at least seemed ready to give willingly.
"I'm scared of what will happen if someone figures out how much we've been weakened, and try to invade usbefor eLord Piergeiron gets back." Danilo laughed then, bitterly. "Not that I think that will solve all our problems, but at least then it won't be my responsibility, you know? Anyway, I don't have the power to stand off an army any longer, neither does Arilyn, even together we're not strong enough to do that. But you are, and Xander is. C-can you do some patrolling of the country outside the city, and at least do something to discourage any attackers?" Danilo despised himself for the slight tremor he'd put into his voice and the stumble in the first word of his question. He hadn't planned it, but they seemed to be doing a lot to persuade Elaira.
"Of course I can, and I will, but Lord Darkwolf might not be willing to, he has other concerns, you know that."
"I know, and I respect that." What he wasn't saying was that he suspected that Xander wouldn't be able to leave Elaira to do this all on her own, without his help and protection, and he felt ashamed of himself again for thinking like that. "But there's another problem. One of my uncle Khelben's duties as one of the Lords of Waterdeep was to use spells to give an early warning of any invaders. I might just barely have the power to do that, but I don't know how. Do you think Xander could do anything about that?"
"Possibly, he might well have a spell he can adapt, but you will be asking him to take time away from something important to him." It wasn't a pitch for money, Danilo knew that, and he knew that offering money could well be seen as an insult, but if he used it in conjunction with other things...
"I understand that, but wouldn't it cause more disruption if Waterdeep was attacked and he had to deal with our attackers in the streets?" Danilo laughed again then. "I'm assuming that he'd be the one to deal with them, because if it gets that far I don't think anyone else could. I know that you've agreed to patrol for us - and we haven't agreed on what we should pay you have we?"
"No, we haven't." Elaira seemed to be a bit surprised by that, but she quickly rallied and named an entirely reasonable figure, about three times what a Cptain in the old Guard would have gotten.
"That won't be a problem. Anyway, like I said, I know you'll be patrolling, but a spell to give warning would make it a lot easier for you. And of course we'll pay Xander for it, a one-off payment of say 2000 suns?"
"I will talk to him about it, but he will have to decide himself." Elaira rose then, obviously ready to leave, and that was when one of the men he'd sent searching for Lord Piergeiron arrive.
"Lord Thann, I was unable to find Lord Piergeiron in my search. Might I return to Lord Xander's service?"
"Yes, Elaira can show you to where he lives now." Then Danilo realised that she might not wish to do so and turned to her anxiously. "That is, if you are willing?"
"It might make things a bit easier if I have an escort when I go back to our home. COme with me Restan." And the other man offered her his arm and let her guide him.
~~~0~~~
Xander cursed again, and carefully resisted the urge to throw his precious textbooks across the room. He'd only just got them and added them to his dimensional pocket when Danilo summoned him, and he was grateful to have them, really he was; they were his only chance of creating a spell to get back to his home dimension without resorting to 'All Hallow's Even', but they were just so hard to understand. He wondered if anyone had ever managed to master this particular aspect of pure mathematics just from studying these fucking books, and if anyone had he really didn't want to know, it would only make him feel inferior.
He wouldn't get any work done now, not when he was so frustratedly angry. He stood to go out into the grounds and train, without the use of ki or magic, possibly adding in weapons, when Elaira knocked on the door. Sensing her on the edge of his mind performed its usual wonders in lightening his mood, and he managed to sound almost pleasant when he told her to come in.
"My lord, the first of your men has returned. We thought that he should report to you." Or she'd thought that and Restan had gone along with it...no, his men were all as loyal to him as he had been to Buffy.
"Then what do you have to report?" And he listened as Restan gave a comprehensive report on how the country he'd been travelling through and the city he'd been sent to had viewed what had been happening in and around Waterdeep. He hadn't been able to find out what the ruling classes thought, but even the common people's opinions could be important. Elaira had quietly sat and recorded what Restan reported, and Restan had noticed that, slowing down to allow her to get everything down.
"Thank you. I'm sure Lord Piergeiron will find this useful when he gets here. Has Elaira told you that we have acquired consorts for all of you?"
"No, my lord. Consorts?"
"The elves that were enslaved chose to become consorts to my men, just remember not to abuse whichever one you choose. If you do abuse them then you will face my anger." Xander had called to Darksong as Rastan gave his report and the elf arrived before he finished speaking. "This is Darksong, my personal servant. He will take you to meet those consorts who are unattached."
"Yes my lord. Thank you." Rastan saluted Xander the way he'd taught his men, the way special forces did in the US Army.
"How is your work on the spell to cross dimensions going, my lord?"
"Not very well." Xander found himself scowling at having to admit that. I've gotten the simple stuff sorted out, how to specify the dimension we're going to, at least I think so, and I can certainly get us back here when we wish it. That's just a matter of building a receiving circle here and giving it the correct magical signal and a power source. But I just don't understand the math to create the main part of the spell, and I'm having trouble learning it. If I had the artistic gift to come up with the spell without the math, the way Danilo has the artistic gift...It doesn't matter. I wouldn't trust the spell if I couldn't figure out how it worked, if I didn't understand the logical basis of it. And if I had the artistic gift I'd have as little understanding of the forces that underlie magic as my friend Willow does."
"You seem very gifted to me, my lord, I think you might be underestimating yourself." Elaira's quiet voice was firm about that, and Xander smiled appreciatively at her. "But, Lord Thann has asked me to patrol outside the city, and I agreed, it gives me something to do and gives us money I do not have to ken. And he also offered to pay you 2000 suns if you would create and cast a spell to give some warning if a hostile force approaches the city."
"2000 suns, that would be enough to pay all of our staff for what, five months? I'll do it, but I don't think I can manage specifically a hostile force. Do you think he'll accept filtration by size?"
"He does not know any appropriate spells, I would expect so."
"Then I will do it. Has it been such a strain, kenning money for our use, my snowfalcon?" Xander hadn't thought about that, and the idea that he'd been taking advantage of Elaira frankly terrified him.
"Not too much of a strain, but it still tires me a bit, and there are other uses I can put that energy to."
"True. Would you care to spar with me, as we did the first time?"
"Oh yes." And they walked out into the grounds of the manor.
~~~0~~~
Danilo shook his head and decided that he might as well just give up on trying to work out any more ways to protect Waterdeep, they'd have to just rely on the scouting Elaira had agreed to do two days ago, and the spell she'd managed to persuade Xander to promise. Instead he decided to concentrate on studying magic, his own style, and more importantly, Xander's. He was embarrassed to have to acknowledge it, but Xander's style was vastly superior to his own style, and far more flexible, but it always felt strange to him, as if the rules didn't work right. Arilyn was working on increasing her ki reserves, using methods similar to the ones they could both remember from aquiring Vegeta's abilities. He'd need to do that as well, and perhaps it would also increase his magical power reserves. He wasn't certain, but he did know that in an emergency he could draw from his life energy, his ki in other words, rather than his magical reserves if they were exhausted. But the way that Vegeta had first sensed his ki was after he'd exhausted himself, and Danilo wasn't going to risk having both himself and Arilyn too tired to do anything at the same time.
"Hello, Danilo." He looked up from the book he was reading in shock when he heard Xander's voice.
"Xander, hello. I don't suppose you've managed to come up with that spell yet?"
"I have actually. I'll update the illusion map of Waterdeep first, then I'll cast the detection spell and tie it into the same key point. I've got four bracelets that will transmit information about any groups approaching Waterdeep once I've cast the right spell on them. What do you want me to use as the lowest number of people it will give an alert for?"
"Ten I guess. I don't think people are likely to approach Waterdeep much now, not after the Malevein." Danilo followed Xander to the illusion room as he spoke, and watched Xander change it apparently effortlessly with awe.
"Right, I can do that." Xander just shut his eyes and focused, Danilo couldn't even feel the spell being cast the other man worked so smoothly. Then he took four copper bracelets out of his belt purse and craddled them in his hands, looking down at them and they seemed to pulse then he looked up. "And the bracelets will get warm when a group that size gets within twenty miles of Waterdeep and appears to be approaching it, whoever's wearing them will know what direction the intruders are in from them. I'll keep one for myself," he was fastening it around his wrist as he spoke, beside a leather bracelet with a copper disk, "and give one to Elaira, you and Arilyn get one each too."
"Thank you. I take it if we need any more bracelets we have to pay an extra fee?"
"Yes, say twice what they'd be worth without the spell, and I strongly reccommend that you're honest about it." There was just a hint of menace in those words. "And just give my fee for this spell to Elaira, I let her handle the money for now. She knows what things are worth here, I don't, not really."
"What about if we need you to move this spell and set it up somewhere else?"
"Half the fee for setting it up now, because I'll have to cast it again from scratch, and I expect you'll want a new illusion map then, won't you?"
"Probably, thank you anyway."
"You're welcome. Any more of my men get back?"
"No, not yet."
"See you later then." And with that he just left.
~~~0~~~
Xander had decided to do as much as he could do without the tensor mathematics he didn't understand yet while he studied the mathematics in question. Elaira had committed to patrolling for eight hours every day, time he suspected she spent training in the martial arts as much as anything else, but he'd got her to agree to help him find a stonemason who could build the inlaid marble circle he wanted to use as the basis for his return point this afternoon. She'd also kenned the bronze sections that would act as an inlay and guide to make a mystic rose with eight points, six feet in diameter.
Xander had sent his men out to ask after who was still capable of doing stonework like that and Rastan had come back with a report of a dwarf with the skills who'd somehow managed to retain or claim a warehouse of marble in black, white and the shades of grey Xander had learned were so important to the real world, a lesson Buffy didn't entirely learn until possibly too late. She insisted on believing that anyone who supported her had to be good, and that her judgement was infallible, it had bothered him, particularly after he'd decided to give her the chance to screw up and figure out her mistakes and had let her lead them all into a trap as a result.
Xander spent the breaks he took from studying tensor mathematics during the morning colouring in the sketch he'd done of the mystic rose form to show Evernor what shade of marble he wanted where. He'd decided to use black, dark gray, light grey and white marble and considered two options for the pattern; a modified chessboard colouring, with the darker shades nearer the centre, or having only the very edges white, using black to form the innermost star of the design, the dark grey around that to from the second star and the light grey filling in the rest of the octagon. After doing sketches for each pattern he'd decided on the second option for the simple reason that it was easier to visualise.
He slipped down to the kitchen and prepared a simple meal as he felt Elaira returning to the mansion. He knew that their servants didn't exactly approve of that, but he really didn't care, sometimes it was less trouble for him to do something for himself than to tell them to do it. So when Elaira walked into his office there was bread, cheese and cider waiting for her.
"Thank you, my lord." She sat down and began eating with no further speech, Xander didn't blame her for that, her ki was lower than it should have been, she needed the food to rebuild it. He just joined her in her meal, leaving most of it for her, and eating what he needed since he hadn't been doing such strenuous training. When Elaira had eaten her fill she leaned back in her chair and stretched, exposing her muscled stomach temptingly.
"When do you need to see this dwarf stonemason?"
"About an hour's time. I'll let you handle negotiations as to price, but I'll need to explain the special requirements I have." He was going to put the receiving circle in one of the smaller rooms on the ground floor, he wasn't sure what it had been used for, but it was just large enough to accommodate the circle and he could spell lock the door easily enough.
"Whatever you want, my lord." They set off then, and took a slow walk to meet with Evernor. They were meeting at his warehouse so Xander could inspect the marble he had available to work with. Xander was perfectly prepared to wait for Evernor to arrive if they got there early, instead he found the black haired dwarf waiting for them anxiously.
"Lord Darkwolf?"
"Yes, and this is Lady Silverhair, my lifebonded and bride to be." Xander smiled at Evernor, trying not to scare him. "And you are Evernor?"
"Yes, sir. If you'll come with me..." He opened the warehouse and Xander followed him in, looking about at the shades of marble represented. There was more than enough black marble, the largest element in his design, for his purposes, and five separate shades of grey, along with white marble - and a fair amount of blood red marble.
Once he'd completed his inspection he returned to where Elaira and Evernor were waiting. "This is more than satisfactory. I want a room in my home refloored with marble, it's a bit over six feet by six feet, I don't have the exact dimensions, but certainly no larger than seven feet by seven feet. I want it done in marble, with this design as the centerpiece." He handed over the sketch then. "This diagram shows how I want the colourscheme, use that blood red marble for everything outside the circle. The circle is to be six feet in diameter, and we have bronze formed to use as a guide and incorporated into the design. The sections should be small enough that you can fill each of the openings in the bronze with a single piece of marble, eighty-eight pieces in total. When you are ready to actually mortar the marble inside the circle into place tell me, as I intend to use the circle for magic, and for it to work right I have to add my blood to the mortar. But only inside the circle. Will any of this present any difficulties?"
"No, but it will take at least two months, and which shades of grey do you want?" Xander picked a light and dark shade of grey almost at random.
"Elaira will negotiate how much we'll pay for it." Then he stood back to watch a masterful display of haggling.
~~~0~~~
Danilo came to attention in shock when he felt the bracelet Xander had given to him vibrate against his wrist. He spilled ink over the figures he was working on as he put his other hand around it, and learned that an army some thousand strong was approaching Waterdeep. He cursed aloud, righted the inkwell and dumped some rags on top of the paper to soak up the ink, and began to run to where the army would be. He knew that only one of Xander's men hadn't returned yet, none of the others had found Lord Piergeiron, and the last man was late, and he could very easily be returning from the same direction as the army, so he could hope that it was Lord Piergeiron returning with an army to back him up. But if it wasn't Danilo wanted to be there to do whatever he could to defend his home. He vaguely noticed that Arilyn was running alongside him, but he didn't have the breath to speak, and he was too busy running through all the spells he had available to think of anything else.
When he got there Xander and Elaira had already intercepted the army. They hadn't actually started fighting, instead Elaira had apparently cast a spell that created a barrier of ice, and Xander was feeding power to her.
"Xander, what's going on?" Danilo could see the strain on Elaira's face, he wasn't going to put her under any more by expecting her to explain things to him.
"Elaira thought she saw my man, Sernate, with this army, and Lord Piergeiron as well. But they didn't stop when she asked them to, so she did this. When I got here I started feeding her power so she could maintain it until you got here - as Lord Piergeiron, if it is him, will listen to you."
"Right." Danilo nodded, then paused. "Er...How are we going to do this?"
"Elaira can hold that spell for at least a while without my aid, and even if she couldn't I can channel power to her without touching her because she's my lifebonded. I'll use my ki to fly over the ice wall and take you with me. I'll also put up a ki-shield, to defend us if necessary. You get to decide if it's safe to let them loose."
"Of course I do." Danilo didn't really mind taking that responsibility, but he felt a bit of complaint was in order, and he wished that Xander and Elaira had been able to get this mess sorted out before he'd arrived.
Then Xander swept him up in his arms. It was embarrassing, even more when Danilo found himself clutching at Xander's shoulders when he started flying. "Give it a few decades and you'll be able to do this too." The casual comment didn't exactly reassure Danilo, and it was nervewracking when Xander flew them through a rain of arrows, landing right in front of the army, and setting Danilo on his feet as if it was normal to do something like that.
"Stop!" Lord Piergeiron seemed to have realised that his army were attacking the wrong people. "Danilo, could you please explain...this?" He couldn't seem to find the right words to describe the situation, so he settled for waving his arms at the surrounding ice wall.
"This is Xander Darkwolf, I wrote about him in my letter remember? Since we don't have an army or any sort of organised defence at the moment I got him to cast a spell that would warn us if more than ten people in a group approached Waterdeep. And I got Elaira to patrol for us. We're paying her three time what a captain in the Guard used to get paid, but she could have killed you all because Xander arranged empowerments for her and himself. Xander gave me the spells I used to find what I think came from the old treasury. And I'm more than happy to let you take over and deal with all the problems we've got."
Danilo noticed that Xander was talking to his man while he was explaining things to Lord Piergeiron, and shrugged mentally, this wasn't Xnader's business, it was his.
"I can't do that unless I can get to Waterdeep."
"Xander? You can tell Elaira it's alright to stop casting that spell now."
"Already have. She's just getting Arilyn out of the way...They should be safe now.
"Fiery Power Blast of the DAMNED!" Danilo shouldn't have been surprised that Xander used a combat spell to melt a pass through the glacial wall of ice Elaira had created, but it was just a little unnerving, and he noted that all of the army Lord Piergeiron had brought gave Xander plenty of space after that.
"Why didn't you get this sort of power boost Lord Thann?"
"I did, and so did Arilyn, then we asked Xander to remove them. We were mentally unbalanced, Elaira has helped us regain some balance, but the power we were given was far too tempting and dangerous for us." Danilo led Lord Piergeiron to what had been his palace before the Malevein arrived, and was empty because the Malevein had taken it over.
~~~0~~~
Elaira watched Lord Piergeiron nervously. He'd been here for just under a tenday and so far he'd seemed more concerned about getting the internal workings of the city back to normal than defending it. He seemed to have been content to leave her in place patrolling the outskirts of the city, but now things seemed to have changed.
"Lady Silverhair, I understand that you have been hired to defend our city until we can form a new defensive force of our own again. Do you feel that you are capable of rebuilding the Guard under your leadership - Elaith Craulnober?"
She jumped in startlement at that, wide eyes going to Lord Piergeiron's from where she'd been focusing on a point just past his left shoulder.
"I'm not Elaith Craulnober." When that statement was met with a doubtful look she elaborated. "Not any longer at any rate. I'm Elaira Silverhair, and glad of it. Lord Darkwolf gave me this name, and I am his lifebonded, he wouldn't find me acceptable if I were male."
"You want to live with what the Malevein did to you to please this Lord Darkwolf?"
"No, but I find I prefer being female. Obviously I was always meant to be female, and it was a mistake that I was born male if my soulmate was born male and prefers his lovers female. I never particualrly cared about the gender of my lovers, and does this really matter?"
"No, I am sorry, it doesn't. You never did answer my question." Lord Piergeiron sat down then, not behind his desk, watching her as he did. "Please, do seat yourself." He waved at the chairs around him.
She obeyed, watching the man warily as she did. "Yes, I think I could rebuild the Guard as its leader. But are you sure you wish me to?"
"I do not think Lord Darkwolf has the necessary skills to do that, for all his power and leadership ability. And besides we need him far more desperately as a wizard. And I hoped that if you lead the Guard some of his men would be willing to join."
"I do not think that Lord Darkwolf would permit that, besides, considering how deep their loyalty to him now seems to go if he chose to leave Waterdeep, and the Guard had been rebuilt around them then you would lose not only the commander, myself, but also the core of the Guard."
"Then you will take the position?"
"Yes, what will my pay be?"
"An improvement on what Lord Thann has been paying you to patrol outside Waterdepp. Is that acceptable?"
"Very. If there is nothing else?" Elaira stood, ready to leave, she still had issues about being alone with a man she didn't fully trust for too long. Particularly when the man in question had guards outside the door.
"There is actually." Elaira remained standing, but didn't attempt to leave, she might as well hear him out. "Danilo mentioned the spell Xander cast that created a map of Waterdeep, and the second spell to give warning of any approaching armies. Can he recast them both in a room here?"
"2000 suns to cast the spell that warns of approaching groups - do you want the threshold number to still be 10 people, or would you prefer it larger?"
"Make it 50 instead if that is possible."
"Very well. And 400 suns for the illusion map of Waterdeep. You will also be charged if you want adjustments made to the illusion map or the warning spell. And the initial casting comes with 4 bracelets to convey the warning to whoever you choose."
"That sounds reasonable. Agreed."
~~~0~~~
Xander couldn't belive that Elaira looked uncomfortable telling him about the marvelous deal she'd struck with Lord Piergeiron on his behalf, but she did and he wasn't entirely sure why. He smiled at her, trying to make her feel better, and pulled her into a hug.
"You did wonderfully." She brightened up at that, and Xander realised why she'd been unhappy, she felt it wasn't appropriate for her to make deals for him. "So, now we have enough money to cover minimum costs for a year, right?"
"That doesn't allow for my salary, which should cover feeding everyone at least, or the cost of having the receiving circle installed, but we're still financialy secure for some time. And if we need more money I can ken it." Elaira pulled back a bit, and curled up on their bed, while Xander took a chair, to avoid the temptation to distract her.
"I'd rather we didn't have to rely on that." Xander frowned then. "I mean I appreciate it that you're willing to do that for us, but I don't want to impose on you that way, it feels too much like taking advantage of you."
"Oh!" Elaira looked happy at that, for some inexplicable, or not so inexplicable, reason. Everyone likes to know that they're appreciated after all. "You aren't taking advantage of me, my lord, but if you'd rather our money came from more mundane sources why not reopen one or more of the inns that belong to you now?"
"Will you have time to advise me while you're rebuilding the Guard?" Xander knew that he could tell which men would be trustworthy and good workers, he'd done it often enough as the foreman for his construction crew back in Sunnydale, but he wasn't certain about some of the things that would be outside of his experience.
"If you think you need it, my lord. But truthfully I do not have the experience to run an inn myself, I always simply chose someone suitable to manage my inns and other businesses and then made sure that they were not trying to cheat me." Elaira looked down to the ground then, unsure about something else now. "Are you displeased that I was offered this position, rather than you?"
"No, of course not. I wouldn't know what to do. You obviously do know how to build a force of disciplined men who'll fight for a cause, not for a leader." If she didn't then she wouldn't have been asked to do it, and he knew she had experience in a similar organisation on Evermeet. "My only experience was trying to turn a bunch of children into a fighting force in three days, and acquiring my men here. The children were fighting for their personal survival, and my men follow me, and you because you are mine."
"How old were these children my lord?" Elaira looked slightly shocked at the idea he'd been using children to do his fighting.
"Seventeen, eighteen, and while I know that isn't a child here, in my world they were still the emotional equivalent of children, expecting their parents to protect them and not really ready for the responsibilities of living on their own for the most part. I was the same age chronologically, but I'd been fighting vampires for three years, and my home life had forced me to grow up fast." Relief and revelation filled Elaira's face at that explanation.
"I see." She bit her lip, looking delicious. "My lord, you said that if you could not work out how to create that dimension crossing spell within a month you would use All Hallow's Even to gain the skills you needed to create it..."
"Yes, I did, and I do need to. But not now." Xander moved to the bed then, kissing Elaira hungrily and enjoying the way she arched her back, clutching at him as she gave herself over to him.
~~~0~~~
~~~0~~~
Danilo prepared to cast the first of the spells that Xander had designed for him the next morning. He was grateful that these particular spells didn't require the sort of precision that most of Xander's spells seemed to. He wasn't sure why they needed so little precision, but he was grateful anyway. And they didn't need him to make any adjustments to them to get the spells to work right, he didn't think he could manage to modify Xander's spells the way he could most normal magic. Then he realised why they required so little in the way of revision; they were old spells, spells Xander had created and used when he first started using his type of magic - or variants of them. And they were still more elegant than any spells Danilo knew or could create, even if Xander had been obliged to search out the oldest of his spells to allow for Danilo's inadequacies.
The first spell lit a constellation of lights on the illusion of Waterdeep, so many that the entire city was glowing, mostly yellow, orange and red, with the higher value colours towards the centre of Waterdeep and the richer sections.
"That's not going to be much use." Arilyn was laughing in honest amusement, and her humour had lost the edge of cruelty it had grown after the Malevein arrived.
"No, it isn't. But that's why Xander gave me the other spell." Danilo cast as he spoke, the spell changed the illusion, reducing the lights by about half, still too much for a search, but if the proportions of colours stayed the same it would swiftly mount up. After he'd cast the second spell ten times in total the only white lights were in the Malevein buildings.
"We didn't do too good a job yesterday then did we?" Arilyn seemed embarrassed, Danilo couldn't blame her, he was embarrassed too.
"Apparently not. If I'd ever bothered to learn a spell like this..."
"I'm an adventurer, I'm supposed to be better at finding treasure than that."
"You always were more about justice than lining your pockets. Elaira would probably have done better than we did, when she was Elaith certainly." Danilo cast the spell to shut off the light show as he spoke and in unspoken agreement they stood and prepared to go after the missing treasure.
When they got to the house Drachar had taken over Danilo cast the spell that would guide them to the most valuable cache of treasure and they followed the ball of blue light to what must have been a secret compartment.
"Let me." Danilo fell back when Arilyn asked, and let his lover take over figuring out how to actually get to the treasure they were looking for. To pass the time he tried casting the spell again, perhaps it would give Arilyn a clue about how to get at the cache they'd found. It didn't, instead it moved off and led him to another hiding place. Danilo wondered just why it had done that, and, marking where the new cache was hidden cast the spell a third time. But it just led him back to Arilyn.
When they finally got to the treasure it was composed mostly of gems and platinum, and they packed it in the first of the bags Danilo had brought for that. It took most of the day to go through just the one building, but at least at the end of the day they knew that Waterdeep would have money enough to govern until taxes started coming in again.
~~~0~~~
From what Elaira had said she wasn't going to need to visit any more of those harems after today, she'd be able to get to the last three today. Xander had no idea what she would be doing to keep herself occupied from then on, he wouldn't know what to do with himself if he didn't have the new spell he was working on to keep himself occupied.
He had spent the first hour or so casting the spells to allow his men to communicate with each other as they needed. They didn't have enough magic of their own for him to try anything too ambitious, but the copper disk would heat up when there was a message, and it would appear as green writing on the disk, if that was absolutely necessary - although that would be restricted to those who were literate, which wasn't something he usually had to concern himself with. For the others a series of colour codes would convey most messages. He hadn't entirely decided on the codes yet, but the colours could be selected by tapping the disks in different places and were green, red, black, yellow, white, blue and purple.
Then he began trying to work on the dimensional transport spell, only this time instead of focusing on the transport issue he concentrated on isolating the dimension he wanted to go to, and identifying it for the spell. That required much simpler mathematics and by mid-afternoon he'd figured out exactly which part of his energy signature identified his home dimension and could be used to give a destination. At least he thought that it did.
Rather than face the tensor equations the rest of the spell needed he decided to check in at the inn where he'd been staying. It had been six days since his men had been sent off looking for this Lord Piergeiron, and Danilo had said that the closest of the places he might be was three days travel away, so some of his men might well be back by now.
"You, take me to see Danilo." He grabbed one of the men that was standing near the entrance, basically gossiping - they certainly weren't acting as proper guards. If any of his men had returned Danilo would know, since they'd been ordered to report in to the older man upon their return.
"He's probably in his bedroom with that elven bitch." The man was trying to struggle free of the grip Xander had on his arm, without much success.
"You need to smarten up your act." Contempt laced Xander's voice as he threw the man away from him and stalked through the inn.
"Danilo?" He made sure that he was polite, after all he was interrupting whatever it was that the other man was doing.
"Oh, hello Xander. Those spells you gave me worked wonders, we managed to find what we wanted yesterday. I'll willngly pay for lessons in your form of magic, or trade for them if you'd rather once things settle down. What did you want to see me about?"
"Just wanted to check if any of the men I lent you had reported back. I'll do this again every day until I've got them all back unless you'll direct them to my new house."
"I can do that, no problem. It might be easier on you. And no, we haven't gotten any of the messengers back yet, perhaps tomorrow, we'll see. About your magic?"
"I won't teach you, you already know the system in general, you don't need lessons. What you need is practice with my spells, and in writing your own spells. I will sell you copies of my older spells. Not the newest ones, I don't think you're really up to the precision needed for my newer spells, and it will give you motivation to improve them yourself."
"Right." Xander noted the bitterness in Danilo's smile, and realised that he had to reassure the other man.
"You really do understand everything that I do about my style of magic, and more, you have an artistic flair that I didn't have before. But your style of magic never needed the precision mine needs, because you always had a decent sized power reserve, so you didn't need to get every last bit of use out of your power. Elaira is learning how to use my magic system more effectively, if you want then you could get her to help you, if you think you need it."
"And you'll probably have more important things to do than try to teach me to think in a different way. I understand." And this time it seemed that he did.
~~~0~~~
Elaira could feel the security spell that Lord Darkwolf had created washing over her senses as she entered their home. She found it a reassuring sensation, welcoming her home, but she had the feeling that others who used any form of magic would not, although she had no grounds for that suspicion and she knew that the normal people felt nothing. It didn't matter, she was home, and she'd freed all of those the Malevein had taken as sex slaves. She was a bit disconcerted to realise that Lord Darkwolf wasn't there, but after a moments thought she realised that he was most likely checking whether or not any of him men had returned.
It would have been nice to be able to see Lord Xander immediately, but since he wasn't here she could prepare a pleasing greeting for him. First, she was dirty, and most likely didn't smell very pleasing. But while she was correcting that matter...yes, Lord Xander was returning from speaking with Lord Thann, at a walk, and it would take him twenty minutes to get here.
"You can go back to general assignments." She didn't need the men assigned to accompany her any more. "Darksong," the green elf who'd become their steward had taken to greeting her as she returned unless Lord Xander had some other requirements for him, in which case Javander, the gold elf who seemed to have become her personal servant greeted her, "I want a meal ready to eat in an hour, something nice. And Lord Darkwolf will be returning in twenty minutes, I want him brought up to our bathroom immediately."
"Yes, Lady Silverhair." Darksong turned to do Elaira's bidding and she went up to the bathroom, washing herself clean as quickly and efficiently as possible before dressing in a dark green silk dress with gold embroidered around the asymmetric hem that showed her lower legs and the V-shaped neckline and exposed all of her arms. While she was dressing she let the bath fill, and once dressed she cast a spell to heat up the water before she quickly kenned a loose silk tunic and soft velvet trousers for Lord Xander to wear, all in black with some silver embroidery on the tunic.
"Hello Elaira, is there an occasion, or did you just want to do something nice?" A sardonic smile graced Lord Xander's face as he leaned in the doorway.
"The latter." Elaira glanced down at the floor, blushing, then looked up and reached out to guide him in. She undressed him as slowly and seductively as she could manage, then sat by the bath, teasing him as he bathed. Once he'd gotten out of the bath she led him through to the bedroom.
"These should be comfortable." She frowned then, considering. "I'm not as good at it as you are, but I could give you a massage after we've eaten?"
"Go ahead, and I suspect you're better than you think." They made their way downstairs and ate together, slowly, enjoying the meal and the company, this was the prelude to a seduction, even if Elaira hadn't realised it at first. Then, once they were back in their bedroom Lord Darkwolf undressed, casually, no great display in it, and lay down on the bed, waiting for her. Elaira froze for a moment then, she'd learned this particular skill as a slave, but she was free now, and she was not going to let the Malevein control her in any way.
She worked on her lover's body for almost an hour, first on the back of his body, and then the front, until he was relaxed except in one area - and then she used her mouth to get that area to relax. He laughed then and pulled her into place against his chest, touching her until she climaxed herself.
~~~0~~~
Danilo read through his notes on the current state of Waterdeep's capacity for defence - or lack thereof - again, and cursed under his breath. There was no way they could protect themselves if they were attacked before Lord Piergeiron returned, hopefully with an army. Arilyn was out, patroling with some of the men, doing her best to replicate the function of the old Guard, the one that was destroyed by the Malevein. But she was just one woman, and the men weren't the most trustworthy, so he worried about her all the while she was out there. And neither he nor Arilyn were capable of defending the city alone, or even together, Danilo couldn't even set up an early warning of invasion and he was sure that that was one of the spells Uncle Khelben had running if not constantly, at least intermittantly.
"Lord Thann, might I speak with you?" But Elaira and Xander still had power to burn, and Xander probably had the expertise to set up a spell that would give them the warning he craved.
"Of course." He quickly pushed the papers out of the way, and rose to seat Elaira with all the courtesy he could muster. He knew that his behaviour would make her just a little suspicious, but he'd still try his best not to upset her in the hope that she'd at least listen to what he wanted to ask, and be more inclined to grant it, and pass his requests on to Xander.
"What is it that you wanted to speak to me about?" Danilo took a new seat opposite Elaira, with no desk creating a barrier between them.
"I wondered if there was anything I could do to help keep Waterdeep safe until things are more settled. I cannot aid Lord Darkwolf in creating his spells, and that goes hard for him, nor can I merely practise my skills at fighting, if nothing else the more extreme forms are too dangerous to perform inside a city." Elaira's quiet words were ever so slightly shaming, he'd been thinking of how to manipulate her and Xander into doing what she at least seemed ready to give willingly.
"I'm scared of what will happen if someone figures out how much we've been weakened, and try to invade usbefor eLord Piergeiron gets back." Danilo laughed then, bitterly. "Not that I think that will solve all our problems, but at least then it won't be my responsibility, you know? Anyway, I don't have the power to stand off an army any longer, neither does Arilyn, even together we're not strong enough to do that. But you are, and Xander is. C-can you do some patrolling of the country outside the city, and at least do something to discourage any attackers?" Danilo despised himself for the slight tremor he'd put into his voice and the stumble in the first word of his question. He hadn't planned it, but they seemed to be doing a lot to persuade Elaira.
"Of course I can, and I will, but Lord Darkwolf might not be willing to, he has other concerns, you know that."
"I know, and I respect that." What he wasn't saying was that he suspected that Xander wouldn't be able to leave Elaira to do this all on her own, without his help and protection, and he felt ashamed of himself again for thinking like that. "But there's another problem. One of my uncle Khelben's duties as one of the Lords of Waterdeep was to use spells to give an early warning of any invaders. I might just barely have the power to do that, but I don't know how. Do you think Xander could do anything about that?"
"Possibly, he might well have a spell he can adapt, but you will be asking him to take time away from something important to him." It wasn't a pitch for money, Danilo knew that, and he knew that offering money could well be seen as an insult, but if he used it in conjunction with other things...
"I understand that, but wouldn't it cause more disruption if Waterdeep was attacked and he had to deal with our attackers in the streets?" Danilo laughed again then. "I'm assuming that he'd be the one to deal with them, because if it gets that far I don't think anyone else could. I know that you've agreed to patrol for us - and we haven't agreed on what we should pay you have we?"
"No, we haven't." Elaira seemed to be a bit surprised by that, but she quickly rallied and named an entirely reasonable figure, about three times what a Cptain in the old Guard would have gotten.
"That won't be a problem. Anyway, like I said, I know you'll be patrolling, but a spell to give warning would make it a lot easier for you. And of course we'll pay Xander for it, a one-off payment of say 2000 suns?"
"I will talk to him about it, but he will have to decide himself." Elaira rose then, obviously ready to leave, and that was when one of the men he'd sent searching for Lord Piergeiron arrive.
"Lord Thann, I was unable to find Lord Piergeiron in my search. Might I return to Lord Xander's service?"
"Yes, Elaira can show you to where he lives now." Then Danilo realised that she might not wish to do so and turned to her anxiously. "That is, if you are willing?"
"It might make things a bit easier if I have an escort when I go back to our home. COme with me Restan." And the other man offered her his arm and let her guide him.
~~~0~~~
Xander cursed again, and carefully resisted the urge to throw his precious textbooks across the room. He'd only just got them and added them to his dimensional pocket when Danilo summoned him, and he was grateful to have them, really he was; they were his only chance of creating a spell to get back to his home dimension without resorting to 'All Hallow's Even', but they were just so hard to understand. He wondered if anyone had ever managed to master this particular aspect of pure mathematics just from studying these fucking books, and if anyone had he really didn't want to know, it would only make him feel inferior.
He wouldn't get any work done now, not when he was so frustratedly angry. He stood to go out into the grounds and train, without the use of ki or magic, possibly adding in weapons, when Elaira knocked on the door. Sensing her on the edge of his mind performed its usual wonders in lightening his mood, and he managed to sound almost pleasant when he told her to come in.
"My lord, the first of your men has returned. We thought that he should report to you." Or she'd thought that and Restan had gone along with it...no, his men were all as loyal to him as he had been to Buffy.
"Then what do you have to report?" And he listened as Restan gave a comprehensive report on how the country he'd been travelling through and the city he'd been sent to had viewed what had been happening in and around Waterdeep. He hadn't been able to find out what the ruling classes thought, but even the common people's opinions could be important. Elaira had quietly sat and recorded what Restan reported, and Restan had noticed that, slowing down to allow her to get everything down.
"Thank you. I'm sure Lord Piergeiron will find this useful when he gets here. Has Elaira told you that we have acquired consorts for all of you?"
"No, my lord. Consorts?"
"The elves that were enslaved chose to become consorts to my men, just remember not to abuse whichever one you choose. If you do abuse them then you will face my anger." Xander had called to Darksong as Rastan gave his report and the elf arrived before he finished speaking. "This is Darksong, my personal servant. He will take you to meet those consorts who are unattached."
"Yes my lord. Thank you." Rastan saluted Xander the way he'd taught his men, the way special forces did in the US Army.
"How is your work on the spell to cross dimensions going, my lord?"
"Not very well." Xander found himself scowling at having to admit that. I've gotten the simple stuff sorted out, how to specify the dimension we're going to, at least I think so, and I can certainly get us back here when we wish it. That's just a matter of building a receiving circle here and giving it the correct magical signal and a power source. But I just don't understand the math to create the main part of the spell, and I'm having trouble learning it. If I had the artistic gift to come up with the spell without the math, the way Danilo has the artistic gift...It doesn't matter. I wouldn't trust the spell if I couldn't figure out how it worked, if I didn't understand the logical basis of it. And if I had the artistic gift I'd have as little understanding of the forces that underlie magic as my friend Willow does."
"You seem very gifted to me, my lord, I think you might be underestimating yourself." Elaira's quiet voice was firm about that, and Xander smiled appreciatively at her. "But, Lord Thann has asked me to patrol outside the city, and I agreed, it gives me something to do and gives us money I do not have to ken. And he also offered to pay you 2000 suns if you would create and cast a spell to give some warning if a hostile force approaches the city."
"2000 suns, that would be enough to pay all of our staff for what, five months? I'll do it, but I don't think I can manage specifically a hostile force. Do you think he'll accept filtration by size?"
"He does not know any appropriate spells, I would expect so."
"Then I will do it. Has it been such a strain, kenning money for our use, my snowfalcon?" Xander hadn't thought about that, and the idea that he'd been taking advantage of Elaira frankly terrified him.
"Not too much of a strain, but it still tires me a bit, and there are other uses I can put that energy to."
"True. Would you care to spar with me, as we did the first time?"
"Oh yes." And they walked out into the grounds of the manor.
~~~0~~~
Danilo shook his head and decided that he might as well just give up on trying to work out any more ways to protect Waterdeep, they'd have to just rely on the scouting Elaira had agreed to do two days ago, and the spell she'd managed to persuade Xander to promise. Instead he decided to concentrate on studying magic, his own style, and more importantly, Xander's. He was embarrassed to have to acknowledge it, but Xander's style was vastly superior to his own style, and far more flexible, but it always felt strange to him, as if the rules didn't work right. Arilyn was working on increasing her ki reserves, using methods similar to the ones they could both remember from aquiring Vegeta's abilities. He'd need to do that as well, and perhaps it would also increase his magical power reserves. He wasn't certain, but he did know that in an emergency he could draw from his life energy, his ki in other words, rather than his magical reserves if they were exhausted. But the way that Vegeta had first sensed his ki was after he'd exhausted himself, and Danilo wasn't going to risk having both himself and Arilyn too tired to do anything at the same time.
"Hello, Danilo." He looked up from the book he was reading in shock when he heard Xander's voice.
"Xander, hello. I don't suppose you've managed to come up with that spell yet?"
"I have actually. I'll update the illusion map of Waterdeep first, then I'll cast the detection spell and tie it into the same key point. I've got four bracelets that will transmit information about any groups approaching Waterdeep once I've cast the right spell on them. What do you want me to use as the lowest number of people it will give an alert for?"
"Ten I guess. I don't think people are likely to approach Waterdeep much now, not after the Malevein." Danilo followed Xander to the illusion room as he spoke, and watched Xander change it apparently effortlessly with awe.
"Right, I can do that." Xander just shut his eyes and focused, Danilo couldn't even feel the spell being cast the other man worked so smoothly. Then he took four copper bracelets out of his belt purse and craddled them in his hands, looking down at them and they seemed to pulse then he looked up. "And the bracelets will get warm when a group that size gets within twenty miles of Waterdeep and appears to be approaching it, whoever's wearing them will know what direction the intruders are in from them. I'll keep one for myself," he was fastening it around his wrist as he spoke, beside a leather bracelet with a copper disk, "and give one to Elaira, you and Arilyn get one each too."
"Thank you. I take it if we need any more bracelets we have to pay an extra fee?"
"Yes, say twice what they'd be worth without the spell, and I strongly reccommend that you're honest about it." There was just a hint of menace in those words. "And just give my fee for this spell to Elaira, I let her handle the money for now. She knows what things are worth here, I don't, not really."
"What about if we need you to move this spell and set it up somewhere else?"
"Half the fee for setting it up now, because I'll have to cast it again from scratch, and I expect you'll want a new illusion map then, won't you?"
"Probably, thank you anyway."
"You're welcome. Any more of my men get back?"
"No, not yet."
"See you later then." And with that he just left.
~~~0~~~
Xander had decided to do as much as he could do without the tensor mathematics he didn't understand yet while he studied the mathematics in question. Elaira had committed to patrolling for eight hours every day, time he suspected she spent training in the martial arts as much as anything else, but he'd got her to agree to help him find a stonemason who could build the inlaid marble circle he wanted to use as the basis for his return point this afternoon. She'd also kenned the bronze sections that would act as an inlay and guide to make a mystic rose with eight points, six feet in diameter.
Xander had sent his men out to ask after who was still capable of doing stonework like that and Rastan had come back with a report of a dwarf with the skills who'd somehow managed to retain or claim a warehouse of marble in black, white and the shades of grey Xander had learned were so important to the real world, a lesson Buffy didn't entirely learn until possibly too late. She insisted on believing that anyone who supported her had to be good, and that her judgement was infallible, it had bothered him, particularly after he'd decided to give her the chance to screw up and figure out her mistakes and had let her lead them all into a trap as a result.
Xander spent the breaks he took from studying tensor mathematics during the morning colouring in the sketch he'd done of the mystic rose form to show Evernor what shade of marble he wanted where. He'd decided to use black, dark gray, light grey and white marble and considered two options for the pattern; a modified chessboard colouring, with the darker shades nearer the centre, or having only the very edges white, using black to form the innermost star of the design, the dark grey around that to from the second star and the light grey filling in the rest of the octagon. After doing sketches for each pattern he'd decided on the second option for the simple reason that it was easier to visualise.
He slipped down to the kitchen and prepared a simple meal as he felt Elaira returning to the mansion. He knew that their servants didn't exactly approve of that, but he really didn't care, sometimes it was less trouble for him to do something for himself than to tell them to do it. So when Elaira walked into his office there was bread, cheese and cider waiting for her.
"Thank you, my lord." She sat down and began eating with no further speech, Xander didn't blame her for that, her ki was lower than it should have been, she needed the food to rebuild it. He just joined her in her meal, leaving most of it for her, and eating what he needed since he hadn't been doing such strenuous training. When Elaira had eaten her fill she leaned back in her chair and stretched, exposing her muscled stomach temptingly.
"When do you need to see this dwarf stonemason?"
"About an hour's time. I'll let you handle negotiations as to price, but I'll need to explain the special requirements I have." He was going to put the receiving circle in one of the smaller rooms on the ground floor, he wasn't sure what it had been used for, but it was just large enough to accommodate the circle and he could spell lock the door easily enough.
"Whatever you want, my lord." They set off then, and took a slow walk to meet with Evernor. They were meeting at his warehouse so Xander could inspect the marble he had available to work with. Xander was perfectly prepared to wait for Evernor to arrive if they got there early, instead he found the black haired dwarf waiting for them anxiously.
"Lord Darkwolf?"
"Yes, and this is Lady Silverhair, my lifebonded and bride to be." Xander smiled at Evernor, trying not to scare him. "And you are Evernor?"
"Yes, sir. If you'll come with me..." He opened the warehouse and Xander followed him in, looking about at the shades of marble represented. There was more than enough black marble, the largest element in his design, for his purposes, and five separate shades of grey, along with white marble - and a fair amount of blood red marble.
Once he'd completed his inspection he returned to where Elaira and Evernor were waiting. "This is more than satisfactory. I want a room in my home refloored with marble, it's a bit over six feet by six feet, I don't have the exact dimensions, but certainly no larger than seven feet by seven feet. I want it done in marble, with this design as the centerpiece." He handed over the sketch then. "This diagram shows how I want the colourscheme, use that blood red marble for everything outside the circle. The circle is to be six feet in diameter, and we have bronze formed to use as a guide and incorporated into the design. The sections should be small enough that you can fill each of the openings in the bronze with a single piece of marble, eighty-eight pieces in total. When you are ready to actually mortar the marble inside the circle into place tell me, as I intend to use the circle for magic, and for it to work right I have to add my blood to the mortar. But only inside the circle. Will any of this present any difficulties?"
"No, but it will take at least two months, and which shades of grey do you want?" Xander picked a light and dark shade of grey almost at random.
"Elaira will negotiate how much we'll pay for it." Then he stood back to watch a masterful display of haggling.
~~~0~~~
Danilo came to attention in shock when he felt the bracelet Xander had given to him vibrate against his wrist. He spilled ink over the figures he was working on as he put his other hand around it, and learned that an army some thousand strong was approaching Waterdeep. He cursed aloud, righted the inkwell and dumped some rags on top of the paper to soak up the ink, and began to run to where the army would be. He knew that only one of Xander's men hadn't returned yet, none of the others had found Lord Piergeiron, and the last man was late, and he could very easily be returning from the same direction as the army, so he could hope that it was Lord Piergeiron returning with an army to back him up. But if it wasn't Danilo wanted to be there to do whatever he could to defend his home. He vaguely noticed that Arilyn was running alongside him, but he didn't have the breath to speak, and he was too busy running through all the spells he had available to think of anything else.
When he got there Xander and Elaira had already intercepted the army. They hadn't actually started fighting, instead Elaira had apparently cast a spell that created a barrier of ice, and Xander was feeding power to her.
"Xander, what's going on?" Danilo could see the strain on Elaira's face, he wasn't going to put her under any more by expecting her to explain things to him.
"Elaira thought she saw my man, Sernate, with this army, and Lord Piergeiron as well. But they didn't stop when she asked them to, so she did this. When I got here I started feeding her power so she could maintain it until you got here - as Lord Piergeiron, if it is him, will listen to you."
"Right." Danilo nodded, then paused. "Er...How are we going to do this?"
"Elaira can hold that spell for at least a while without my aid, and even if she couldn't I can channel power to her without touching her because she's my lifebonded. I'll use my ki to fly over the ice wall and take you with me. I'll also put up a ki-shield, to defend us if necessary. You get to decide if it's safe to let them loose."
"Of course I do." Danilo didn't really mind taking that responsibility, but he felt a bit of complaint was in order, and he wished that Xander and Elaira had been able to get this mess sorted out before he'd arrived.
Then Xander swept him up in his arms. It was embarrassing, even more when Danilo found himself clutching at Xander's shoulders when he started flying. "Give it a few decades and you'll be able to do this too." The casual comment didn't exactly reassure Danilo, and it was nervewracking when Xander flew them through a rain of arrows, landing right in front of the army, and setting Danilo on his feet as if it was normal to do something like that.
"Stop!" Lord Piergeiron seemed to have realised that his army were attacking the wrong people. "Danilo, could you please explain...this?" He couldn't seem to find the right words to describe the situation, so he settled for waving his arms at the surrounding ice wall.
"This is Xander Darkwolf, I wrote about him in my letter remember? Since we don't have an army or any sort of organised defence at the moment I got him to cast a spell that would warn us if more than ten people in a group approached Waterdeep. And I got Elaira to patrol for us. We're paying her three time what a captain in the Guard used to get paid, but she could have killed you all because Xander arranged empowerments for her and himself. Xander gave me the spells I used to find what I think came from the old treasury. And I'm more than happy to let you take over and deal with all the problems we've got."
Danilo noticed that Xander was talking to his man while he was explaining things to Lord Piergeiron, and shrugged mentally, this wasn't Xnader's business, it was his.
"I can't do that unless I can get to Waterdeep."
"Xander? You can tell Elaira it's alright to stop casting that spell now."
"Already have. She's just getting Arilyn out of the way...They should be safe now.
"Fiery Power Blast of the DAMNED!" Danilo shouldn't have been surprised that Xander used a combat spell to melt a pass through the glacial wall of ice Elaira had created, but it was just a little unnerving, and he noted that all of the army Lord Piergeiron had brought gave Xander plenty of space after that.
"Why didn't you get this sort of power boost Lord Thann?"
"I did, and so did Arilyn, then we asked Xander to remove them. We were mentally unbalanced, Elaira has helped us regain some balance, but the power we were given was far too tempting and dangerous for us." Danilo led Lord Piergeiron to what had been his palace before the Malevein arrived, and was empty because the Malevein had taken it over.
~~~0~~~
Elaira watched Lord Piergeiron nervously. He'd been here for just under a tenday and so far he'd seemed more concerned about getting the internal workings of the city back to normal than defending it. He seemed to have been content to leave her in place patrolling the outskirts of the city, but now things seemed to have changed.
"Lady Silverhair, I understand that you have been hired to defend our city until we can form a new defensive force of our own again. Do you feel that you are capable of rebuilding the Guard under your leadership - Elaith Craulnober?"
She jumped in startlement at that, wide eyes going to Lord Piergeiron's from where she'd been focusing on a point just past his left shoulder.
"I'm not Elaith Craulnober." When that statement was met with a doubtful look she elaborated. "Not any longer at any rate. I'm Elaira Silverhair, and glad of it. Lord Darkwolf gave me this name, and I am his lifebonded, he wouldn't find me acceptable if I were male."
"You want to live with what the Malevein did to you to please this Lord Darkwolf?"
"No, but I find I prefer being female. Obviously I was always meant to be female, and it was a mistake that I was born male if my soulmate was born male and prefers his lovers female. I never particualrly cared about the gender of my lovers, and does this really matter?"
"No, I am sorry, it doesn't. You never did answer my question." Lord Piergeiron sat down then, not behind his desk, watching her as he did. "Please, do seat yourself." He waved at the chairs around him.
She obeyed, watching the man warily as she did. "Yes, I think I could rebuild the Guard as its leader. But are you sure you wish me to?"
"I do not think Lord Darkwolf has the necessary skills to do that, for all his power and leadership ability. And besides we need him far more desperately as a wizard. And I hoped that if you lead the Guard some of his men would be willing to join."
"I do not think that Lord Darkwolf would permit that, besides, considering how deep their loyalty to him now seems to go if he chose to leave Waterdeep, and the Guard had been rebuilt around them then you would lose not only the commander, myself, but also the core of the Guard."
"Then you will take the position?"
"Yes, what will my pay be?"
"An improvement on what Lord Thann has been paying you to patrol outside Waterdepp. Is that acceptable?"
"Very. If there is nothing else?" Elaira stood, ready to leave, she still had issues about being alone with a man she didn't fully trust for too long. Particularly when the man in question had guards outside the door.
"There is actually." Elaira remained standing, but didn't attempt to leave, she might as well hear him out. "Danilo mentioned the spell Xander cast that created a map of Waterdeep, and the second spell to give warning of any approaching armies. Can he recast them both in a room here?"
"2000 suns to cast the spell that warns of approaching groups - do you want the threshold number to still be 10 people, or would you prefer it larger?"
"Make it 50 instead if that is possible."
"Very well. And 400 suns for the illusion map of Waterdeep. You will also be charged if you want adjustments made to the illusion map or the warning spell. And the initial casting comes with 4 bracelets to convey the warning to whoever you choose."
"That sounds reasonable. Agreed."
~~~0~~~
Xander couldn't belive that Elaira looked uncomfortable telling him about the marvelous deal she'd struck with Lord Piergeiron on his behalf, but she did and he wasn't entirely sure why. He smiled at her, trying to make her feel better, and pulled her into a hug.
"You did wonderfully." She brightened up at that, and Xander realised why she'd been unhappy, she felt it wasn't appropriate for her to make deals for him. "So, now we have enough money to cover minimum costs for a year, right?"
"That doesn't allow for my salary, which should cover feeding everyone at least, or the cost of having the receiving circle installed, but we're still financialy secure for some time. And if we need more money I can ken it." Elaira pulled back a bit, and curled up on their bed, while Xander took a chair, to avoid the temptation to distract her.
"I'd rather we didn't have to rely on that." Xander frowned then. "I mean I appreciate it that you're willing to do that for us, but I don't want to impose on you that way, it feels too much like taking advantage of you."
"Oh!" Elaira looked happy at that, for some inexplicable, or not so inexplicable, reason. Everyone likes to know that they're appreciated after all. "You aren't taking advantage of me, my lord, but if you'd rather our money came from more mundane sources why not reopen one or more of the inns that belong to you now?"
"Will you have time to advise me while you're rebuilding the Guard?" Xander knew that he could tell which men would be trustworthy and good workers, he'd done it often enough as the foreman for his construction crew back in Sunnydale, but he wasn't certain about some of the things that would be outside of his experience.
"If you think you need it, my lord. But truthfully I do not have the experience to run an inn myself, I always simply chose someone suitable to manage my inns and other businesses and then made sure that they were not trying to cheat me." Elaira looked down to the ground then, unsure about something else now. "Are you displeased that I was offered this position, rather than you?"
"No, of course not. I wouldn't know what to do. You obviously do know how to build a force of disciplined men who'll fight for a cause, not for a leader." If she didn't then she wouldn't have been asked to do it, and he knew she had experience in a similar organisation on Evermeet. "My only experience was trying to turn a bunch of children into a fighting force in three days, and acquiring my men here. The children were fighting for their personal survival, and my men follow me, and you because you are mine."
"How old were these children my lord?" Elaira looked slightly shocked at the idea he'd been using children to do his fighting.
"Seventeen, eighteen, and while I know that isn't a child here, in my world they were still the emotional equivalent of children, expecting their parents to protect them and not really ready for the responsibilities of living on their own for the most part. I was the same age chronologically, but I'd been fighting vampires for three years, and my home life had forced me to grow up fast." Relief and revelation filled Elaira's face at that explanation.
"I see." She bit her lip, looking delicious. "My lord, you said that if you could not work out how to create that dimension crossing spell within a month you would use All Hallow's Even to gain the skills you needed to create it..."
"Yes, I did, and I do need to. But not now." Xander moved to the bed then, kissing Elaira hungrily and enjoying the way she arched her back, clutching at him as she gave herself over to him.
~~~0~~~
