“What do you think?” Ajax asked his friends after his grandfather had explained the situation to him and he in turn explained it to his friends.
“Either choice is viable as far as Gryndor is concerned.” Xavier was the first to answer. “While such a large working force would surely help you, it would only take you a bit more time to get something only slightly inferior if you were openly hiring.”
“You should free them.” Tom gave his own opinion, his was not based on what would gain House Hearthbound the most however but purely on what he felt should be done.
“I also think you should take the slaves and ruin House Septimus.” Arianwyn said. “You might lose out on the amount of direct benefits but your reputation would stand a lot to gain.”
Ajax’s reputation was not something Elija could take into account. While he knew something about maintaining a good reputation that was only as far as a merchant was concerned. The reputation of a House among nobility was not something any of House Hearthbound had yet had to deal with as all of their dealings so far were based on Ajax’s reputation as an individual or their previous merchant reputation.
“You’ll find it will be a lot easier for your House to secure delves in the Republic, Sylvanthal and Brightstone.” Elara nodded in approval. “They might not come any cheaper but with something like this availability would be a lot more of an issue than price, especially for you.”
“Wouldn’t that also mean it will be much harder to get delves in the Empire?” Ajax asked, not opposed to the trade off but wanting to get all the information.
“No, it shouldn’t affect you.” Anna answered him. “Nobles in the Empire are a lot more vindictive and eager to tear each other down, though that does also make them more resilient. House Septimus and their allies won’t look kindly upon you and might even look for a way to get some manner of revenge but most others will respect you.”
“You also have the emperor’s consent to make whatever choice you want.” Benedict pointed out.
The discussion continued for a little while longer before Ajax let all of them know that he decided to not take House Septimus up on their offer. He did however agree not to personally get involved in how the mass slave exodus would affect the market in the Empire as that would almost universally make him a target for all the nobles in the Empire. He would leave it to House Goldmancer, Steelblade and Silvertongue to put further financial strains on the Empire.
“You were rather quiet.” Ajax mentioned as he and Lexi were getting changed for bed. “That’s not like you.”
“I already knew the choice you would make.” Lexi answered with a smile. “There is something else I am more concerned with that will come as a result of your choice. Something I couldn’t mention to everyone.”
It was here that Lexi’s childhood among nobles showed. While she trusted her friends she still drew a line between the information that should only be discussed within a noble House and information that could be shared outside.
“You see this going wrong?” Ajax asked, slightly concerned but fully trusting in his fiance's insight.
“ I see this coming back on you.” Lexi nodded. “In about thirteen to fifteen years.”
“That’s not that far off.” Ajax’s voice held a little trepidation. “Why not mention it before?”
“Because it would only be an annoyance.” Lexi explained. “One that you might grow to resent however.”
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“How?” The explanation eased Ajax’s worries, now he was interested in what he missed. Despite not enjoying politics he was very much open to learning.
“It all comes back to how effective the school program is.” Lexi said as they both cuddled into bed. “I have to admit the results shocked me. I knew there was a lot of potential left untapped in commoners but I didn’t think it was to this extent.”
“I thought I would be a clear example of that.” Ajax chuckled as he embraced her.
“You’re an exception.” Lexi shook her head. “I always thought that nobles had better prospects than most commoners. It seemed obvious based on lineage that they would have a step up, and they do, but it’s much smaller than I initially thought. Small enough that it becomes meaningless when you account for how much more dedicated commoners are in comparison to nobles in general.”
“That is something I expected.” Ajax was serious. “How would that become an annoyance for me? I still haven't made the connection.”
“We agreed we would let the royal family know just how big a difference the school is making in ten years. That would give us enough time to properly record the results of the current six year olds.” Lexi explained. “Despite people naturally keeping their Skills secret I doubt it would take longer than twelve years for other nobles to pick up on how much of a difference there is between our people and theirs, the results would be obvious. They will want to not be left behind by commoners.”
“That doesn’t affect me personally but us all as a House, and it doesn’t tie into the decision we made today.” Ajax said.
“But it does.” Lexi sighed. “Twenty thousand slaves, none of them human. Do you know how many kids that is? Kids with a fair chance to unlock the use of their Mana. All of them going to school.”
“They would claim I’m staging a revolt.” Ajax’s eyes widened as he realized what Lexi was getting at.
“Exactly.” Lexi nodded. “The royal family would know that isn’t the case but they wouldn’t be able to just dismiss it out of hand. My guess is the nobles would focus on regaining their advantage over the commoners in a way that doesn’t require effort. You might be asked to personally teach in the capital.”
Lexi didn’t have a solution to the problem she already saw coming. Both her and Ajax agreed to discuss it further with their family after the imperials and the elves left but for now they would sleep.
The following morning saw Ajax making some slight progress in the use of Gravity Mana. Instead of trying to generate his own Gravity Mana to use Ajax instead decided to focus on using [Manipulate Mana] to try and use the small amounts of Gravity Mana released in an effort to get a better feel for how it worked. Progress was still slow, while he was able to grab a hold of the Gravity Mana in half the attempts he made, he still hadn’t managed to get it to do anything other than move in the direction he indicated before it dissipated.
“I’ll have to ask my father-in-law if he knows any spells that crush the enemy to the ground.” Ajax muttered to himself. “Maybe that will give me a template for how to use the Mana.”
Following his experiments with Gravity Mana Ajax moved on to the next part of his morning. Training with Fluffy.
“I think Kate is right, trying to use Void in a spar won’t work for you.” Ajax said and Fluffy gave a said meow in agreement. “Instead we will focus on having you generate it for a single attack.”
With that Ajax pulled a solid stone target dummy out of his special ring, more than that the stone was Mana infused meaning that even Fluffy would have to work to scratch it.
“Inside of this there is a bell.” Ajax explained to Fluffy. “I want you to swipe at it, focus on using void to get through to the bell.”
For the next two hours Fluffy focused on swiping at the dummy. She put her weight behind each of her attacks. She hadn’t really given it her all for her first swiped but when she saw that even clad in Shadow Mana her claws hadn’t even left a mark on the stone she stopped holding back.
“Keep trying.” Ajax encouraged the feline, while at the same time providing her with a clear example of Void Mana in his right hand as well as a continuous loop of turning Shadow Mana into Void Mana with his left. “Try to visualize sending the blow past the stone shell rather than through it.”
The stone dummy was scarred with one inch deep claw marks from both the left and the right as Fluffy had been swiping at it continuously, then it happened. Ajax felt the middle claw of Fluffy’s paw was suddenly enveloped in Void instead of Shadow like the rest of her claws.
In his excitement for the shadow cat’s success he hadn’t been quick enough realize what something like that would mean.
Ding!
“Wreow” Fluffy hissed in pain, one of claws left bleeding and almost detached from where it had stopped dead while the rest of her paw moved on with her attack.
“You did it!” Ajax cheered as he threw his arms around the neck of the giant cat. “That was Void.” The sound of the bell echoing Fluffy’s success.
Ajax quickly got to work healing Fluffy’s wounded claw but both of them had a hard time concentrating on the superficial wound in the shadow of the success it represented.
“Is everything fine?” Tom asked from the door, having felt an echo of Fluffy’s pain through their bond followed by excitement and joy.
“It’s better than fine. We did it.” Ajax had a hard time containing his excitement. “Owe! Okay we did have a slight injury but I’m fixing it.”
Fluffy gave Ajax a small nibble in protest before purring deeply as Tom stroked her head as he congratulated her on her achievement.
“You do know that this is only the first step.” Ajax said after he finished healing the claw. “You still need a lot of training before you can even attempt to use it in combat.”