NOVEL NEXT 2.26: Delegate
In the end, Ember had made the execution quick, just like Ethan had asked. She didn't goad or gloat. She just elongated one of her claws and with a swift move, she cut deep into the man's neck before proceeding to incinerate his form until all that remained was a smoking black husk with a glittering golden light around the claws and chest.
As this had been taking place, Amanda and the other stood a few paces away, far enough from the heat and smell. Gerald looked a little pale, but he didn't flinch, though they all were already looking away from the flames. It was already done, and there was no spectacle to be seen. At this point, they were just waiting for Ember to be done to head back. As for Amanda, she was stealing glancing at him, seemingly already itching to get back to her responsibilities and duties though before they got to catching up, Ethan couldn't help but notice a face he would have expected to see missing here.
"Where's Diego?"
Amelie smiled as she still fussed over her sister's burns. "Jealously watching from afar, probably."
When Ethan raised a brow at that, Amanda explained. "I asked him to stay back, along with a couple of ours. He's one of our best warriors, and if someone had tried to sneak in behind us, we would have been wide open."
Ethan blinked, then nodded understandingly. "Yeah… yeah. Good call."
"I think we're done here, then," Amanda said after a couple more seconds. "I'm assuming you'll want to take a rest?"
Ethan nodded, glancing down at the flame still playing around his forearm. The wound was fully closed up, so he extinguished the fire.
"Great. Can we have a quick meeting before you take your rest? I think I've heard we've got a new settlement to work with? And Union captives?"
"Right. I did mention those," Ethan said, picturing the duo and the terrified girl in the ice-golem suit as he rubbed the back of his neck while Amanda nodded. Well, the girl was probably fine, and those two weren't tier-2 just yet, so they probably wouldn't be going anywhere.
Glancing to the side, he found Amanda scribbling away in her notebook.
Is she going to take this off my hands? That'd be amazing, Ethan thought as Amanda shut down the notebook and looked up at him with a smile. She'd already dismissed her eye-spellform and was back to her regular appearance, though she did look slightly disheveled. "Perfect. Then let's continue the talk in a… relatively better venue. I'll have something ready. Meet you at the entrance?"
"Sure?"
With that, Amanda bid them goodbye and leaped in the air, moth-wings unfurled as she floated away toward the settlement. They all stood and watched, with Ember sitting at their side as the winged figure landed back down less than a minute later. "She's really on top of … everything," Amelie said after a moment, and both Audrey and Liz nodded emphatically at that.
"Yeah… I wouldn't want to be doing whatever she's doing," said Ethan. On his way here, he hadn't had the time to check out everything, but even as he flew away from the pylon after having been teleported in, he immediately recognized the spike in organization the settlement had gone through in less than 24 hours.
"And she loves it," added Gerald as he dispelled his sword then rubbed his wrists.
With that, they all began walking toward the settlement as Ethan gave them a brief summary of what he'd been up to. He kept it brief as he didn't want to repeat himself and well, the entrance to the settlement was barely minutes away, anyway. They'd be getting the details in a minute.
Once they got there, they found Amanda waiting for them, speaking with a couple of people. They headed north, to what she called the business district and as they walked, she pointed away the zones she'd established in the town. As they made their way to their destination Ethan used [Detect Life] whenever it had been ready, though as expected, nothing showed up, and when she pointed out the direction in which he'd be staying, Ethan was tempted to go check it out.
He was looking forward to going there. He was due a break.
"And here we are," she said, stopping in front of a large cleared lot. The ground was plain packed soil and in the center of the space was a wide conference table and a mish-mash of desk chairs. When they all stared at it, then at her, Amanda explained. "I didn't want to commit to one of the only two kinds buildings we have at our disposal for this space. A barrack's too large and obviously comes with living furniture, and so do cabins. And while we could repurpose cabins for stores and small businesses, it doesn't work as well for what's to be the administrative building out of which this town would be run. Maybe even both towns. So… this'll have to do until we have more buildings. If none show up on the next upgrade, we'll just build our own."
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Ethan stepped around the desk and pulled up a chair, and for a second, he was looking forward to having a seat. He realized he'd practically been on his feet ever since the day had started. He wasn't tired or anything, not physically, at least, but he did crave the mental unwinding that came with taking a load off. Which, he realized as he felt the chair collapse under him as if it had been assembled with spit and matchsticks, he had forgotten to do.
The chair collapsed, and Ethan found himself lying on his back.
"You okay down there," Audrey said, leaning over the arm of her own chair. From the other side of the table, he could hear Amelie and Liz laughing.
"Never been better," said Ethan, still staring at the sky. He let out a sigh, dispelled the [Draconic Skeleton], and found himself another seat, only for Ember to hop on the desk and sit in front of him.
"You got larger," Ethan told the yawning cat. "Congrats on tier-2."
"I know. And thanks."
She put her head down on her paws and closed her eyes, and Ethan noticed that he'd seen her fur in better shape.
She must be exhausted, he thought, scratching her behind the ear, and a purr echoed out of her throat as Amanda sat down in front of him, opened her notebook, and readied her pen.
"So. What happened?"
***
"And that's why the pylon screen says we have integrated three pylons but we only have two settlements," explained Ethan to the six people who were intently staring up in the air. Now that he'd finished recounting everything that had happened ever since he had left, he'd given them viewing permissions to see the faction details, showing both pylons and their unnamed faction's information. He told them about the administrator that had been taken over by the eldritch influence and warned them about picking such spells, which Amanda briskly added to the points the soon to be established council to discuss. He told them about the refugees he'd escorted to Wyldrock, then about the people of Wyldrock themselves.
Now, he was updating their access permissions. He'd just given them viewing access to everything he had access to, and after considering it for a few moments, he promoted Amanda. Because ever since they'd established their base, she might be the one who'd worked the hardest and what might have taken them days to organize and plan had barely taken her just the one. While when he'd first met her he hadn't trusted her much, she'd worked hard ever since to earn everyone's trust and frankly, looking around at how the city was shaping up, she clearly deeply cared about what she was creating. In a way, she cared more than he did.
He didn't know her that well to say whether that was coming out of the goodness of her heart or her ambition, but even if it was the latter, as long as it was checked, they would all benefit. So Ethan named her the first Vice-administrator of the faction, and that position will permit her to interact with both pylons; this one, and Wyldrock's.
He'd be keeping an eye on her, but she'd earned it, and honestly, this would let her do her job faster, which would make his own life easier and in any case, most decisions were going to be taken by the faction and cites councils anyway, so she'd only be one of the the administrators that can execute the councils decisions.
Amanda beamed at him, eyes nearly shining as she got up, then gave him a deep nod. "Thank you for trusting me. I will not disappoint you," she said. Sitting back down, she tapped her notebook. "There are plenty of pylon functions we should be exploring, and considering the possible upgrades I'm seeing… give me an hour. I'll take some notes to compile and make a priority list. And I see that the new communication module should allow us to talk with Wyldrock's people already? This was how you'd gotten the alert. Can be automated, too…" she mumbled to herself a bit, then she looked up, back on track. "Should I get started with Gavin? He's their past leader, so he'd be ideal in our high council. To take the big picture decisions when it comes to the faction in general. Like its future name. And how about the captives? Do I wait for you before I go and interrogate them or do you want me to get started on it?"
"I can come with," said Amelie. "Kinda want to see the cats. Sorry Ember," she quickly added, and Ember only flicked her ears at that, though she did crack an eye open.
I wonder if she wants to see them too, Ethan mused.
Amanda was nearly vibrating with excitement at all that she had to do. She was like a passionate hobbyist who'd suddenly be given access to unlimited and expert-grade resources. Ethan had begun considering her question when he paused. Didn't he just give her access so she could take care of this stuff for him?
Looking up at her, he shrugged, a little smile on his lips as he got up. "You do what you think is best. You guys discuss it, I'll be taking a rest. You can brief me later if you need my help."
Amanda's wide, unblinking smile nearly made him take her permissions away, but he resisted.
It was time to take his long awaited break, and time to look into some spell upgrades.