Spellheart 9: Chapter 34 (Patreon)

My objective was clear. I had to figure out how to root out the agents of the Satyr King from my Sacred Grove. And I wanted to do it before the Sacred Grove reached the Mage Acolyte realm.

Right now, problems were easy to solve, but the further the Sacred Grove progressed, the more little problems would turn into big problems. I could crush a Maleficient Entling with my eyes closed if it was only at True Mage. But if such an issue lingered until the grove was at the Sorcerer realm, I would be in trouble.

For now, I was just thankful I hadn't planted anything in The Wanderer. I had been tempted to use the Hydroponic Farm as part of the Sacred Grove. That would certainly boost the rate at which plants grew. Either that, or try to see if I could get The Wanderer to cook up a special room for it. But if that happened I might have been dealing with a far stronger angry tree.

Despite the trouble I was having with my new Sacred Grove, I couldn’t help but feel a smile growing on my face. I’d pit myself against the Satyr King in one game of wits and won. I’d win again now. He’d be gnashing his teeth all the way in his throne room by the time I was done here. And I’d have a nifty new Sacred Grove to gloat over.

But before I could celebrate, I had to solve the problem at hand.

The obvious culprits were some of the elves. Some of the Fae might have also been guilty, but only as unwitting agents. They didn’t seem to have the cunning to cause problems intentionally for the Sacred Grove.

According to the Librarian of Sacred Groves, they couldn’t even leave its grounds, and if the grove died, so would they. Poisoning their own Sacred Grove would be like committing suicide for them.

Even if the Satyr King had blackmail or hostages suitable for convincing the Fae to give up their lives, they didn’t have long enough memories to matter. I’d asked a few of them and even poked around their heads with mind magic. They’d already forgotten everything they knew about the World of Woods and Wilds and its ruler. Unless I was missing something, attempting to use them in some far-reaching scheme would be an exercise in futility.

That only left the elves. Seeing how the traps had sprung up so early, the one behind it all was likely one of the Mage Acolytes or True Mages. The Heartwielders weren’t around when most of those seeds were sewn, so it couldn’t have been them.

I already had a pretty good idea, but it would pay to narrow down my search a little more.

The biggest problem was that I couldn’t trust anyone knowledgeable about this subject. The elves who worked the Sacred Grove could feed me false information since they were my suspects in the first place.

The Librarian of Sacred Groves was also suspect. She worked for the Cult of the Unblinking Eye, after all. And who knew what their plans were. But if she was working against me, it would be on behalf of Ethan and the Cult of the Unblinking Eye, not the Satyr King.

But perhaps I could play the two factions against one another. By comparing what each of them said and using my own knowledge of magic, I should be able to spot a lie when I found one. Especially if I did a bit of extra research on the sly.

For now, there was one surefire step I could take to get events moving in my faovr.

I tracked down Aelina, already hard at work in the Grove at dawn’s first light. I placed a hand on her shoulder as she bent over a tiny patch of ground. She breathed nature zeal into a seed she’d buried there.

I approached in complete silence and rest my hand on her shoulder so gently she didn't feel it through her shirt. I restrained the natural energy fluctuations from me so she didn’t notice me behind her until I spoke.

“Already hard at work before all the others, I see?”

Aelina jumped twice her height in the air.

“O-oh! Sir! Sorry... you... uh.. startled me...” Aelina clasped her hands behind her back, refusing to look me in the eyes.

“Sorry. I wouldn’t have disturbed you if it wasn’t important, though. I need you to compile a primer for me on how to run a Sacred Grove. It should contain all the information a new Heartwielder might need to know. Can you do that for me?”

"Y-yes sir!" she nodded vigorously.

I handed her a bundle of paper and a pen. I was wondering if she had any herself or knew where to buy it in the Hearthwood, so I provided writing supplies.

“You plan on acquiring more elves for the Sacred Grove?” Aelina asked.

“I plan on hiring more if that’s what you mean by acquiring.” I eyed Aelina. A Satyr probably would have captured or bought more wisps.

“Oh... yes, sir...” Aelina said, shuffling her feet awkwardly again. She was less enthusiastic this time, but her eyes darted between the ground and my face as quickly as her head had moments ago.

“Head into town for the day. The clan library is a great place to read and write. It’s quiet and has a quiet and diligent ambiance. There are also lots of spells and techniques available there, though you will need clan contribution points to access them.” I nodded at a tall structure just outside of Castle Mac.

Pretty soon, I had a dozen elves all working on the same basic Sacred Grove guide. All that was left was to get one from the Librarian of Sacred Groves back in the city.

“Certainly, Patriarch Theo,” the Librarian of Sacred Groves said as I made my request. “And here is the previous report of potential sabotage vulnerabilities you requested.”

Ethan smiled from his seat on the porch. He was rocking back and forth once again, eyes closed as he observed the city with mind magic.

“You certainly seem to like reports. I’m surprised. Most of us humans don’t have patience for bureaucracy,” Ethan said.

I chuckled. “I don’t either. But I have a few tricks for dealing with them.”

Namely, I forced Mac to read everything and tell me what was necessary. I didn’t plan to read any of the reports I was getting myself. Mac was the one who was going to go through them all, look for inconsistencies, and ultimately compile a cohesive guide for new heartwielders going to work on my Sacred Grove.

It would hopefully knock out two problems at once. This would need to be done anyway, and if it revealed the Satyr King’s agent, that’d be all the better.

“You know, I’ve read a thing or two about Sacred Groves myself.” Ethan opened his eyes to cast a glance at me. “The Cult of the Unblinking Eye has one, though it’s since gone fallow after the elf we bound to it passed away. We made some interesting discoveries while it was active, though.”

“And what were those?” I asked.

“There’s a special type of fertilizer full to bursting with zeal. It’s called Graveloam. It works quite well for just about any type of Sacred Grove.”

“Graveloam?” I raised an eyebrow. “Sounds sinister.”

Ethan chuckled. “You want some? I know a guy.”

“How much?”

Ethan shook his head. “Consider it free. I’ll list it as an expense for my time here as an envoy.”

I shrugged. I wasn’t one to refuse a free gift. So Ethan sent his message and brought his Graveloam over to the Hearthwood. I had a few suspicions about it, but this would just be one more potential trap to figure out and defeat.

Two days passed with everyone hard at work, including me doing all my dual cultivation, and I was once again seeing real results.

Minerva had progressed quite a bit through the early sorcerer realm. My body cultivation had improved measurably toward the peak of the Gold Realm. My Earth cultivation had also progressed comfortably, deepening my already prodigious reserves.

I hadn’t yet mastered the two concepts I’d grasped already, Gravity and Identity, but I could feel like I could do more with each or even pick up a third if I so chose.

That was all sidelined for the time being, though. With my recent interactions with the Cult of the Unblinking Eye and now with Ethan staying in the Hearthwood, I pitted all my efforts toward one goal. And now I’d finally made it happen.

You have broken through to the Sorcerer realm in Mind Magic!

You are now a level 40 early mind Sorcerer.

“A round of applause, if you please!” I asked the women around me.

Minerva clapped in my head. [Congratulations, master!]

Unfortunately, all my other lovely cultivation partners were bound, gagged, or both. Their clapping was ineffective at best, but they were with me in spirit.

I threw a party in the Personal Chambers with my harem thanks to my progress, but even more impressive than my gains was the fact that Sava was nearing the Sorcerer realm. Pretty soon she’d break through herself. And the others were hot on her heels.

This was a much bigger deal than my breakthrough. After becoming a Sorcerer once, the second time was just more of the same. The pathways already existed. Now there were a little more of them, and they could carry a new type of zeal.

Tivana was also making good progress, and at this rate, she was liable to beat me to Demigod. The same was true of Illiel, though she was falling behind Tivana. Whatever the Witch of Frozen Blood had done to make Illiel her avatar had empowered her but left her cultivation destabilized enough that she could only begin progressing again.

I left my Personal Chambers in a good mood. By then, Mac had his report for me, compiled and comparing everything sent to me by everyone.

“What’d you find?”

[There were a few inconsistencies,] Mac said. [A couple of contradictory statements from several different parties. Assuming the bulk of them told the truth on any given subject, I have a good idea of who lied and what they lied about.]

My eyebrows rose, but I fought to keep my excitement down. I didn’t expect to catch anyone red-handed here. But it would certainly be a step in the right direction.

“And did any of the errors have a pattern to them? Or would they have come with particularly nasty side effects if followed?” I asked.

[Not from my limited data. But my understanding of Sacred Grove magic is only as good as yours. There may have been something I missed.]

I rapped my fingers against the desk with one hand, and the other held my chin. It was a step in the right direction, though not quite as much of one as I hoped.

“Create and organize a digital profile of every suspect. I won’t execute someone for a simple factual mistake in a hundreds of pages long report, but it bears further investigation.”

[Not to worry, organization is my second passion! After cleaning, of course,] Mac replied. He sensed the tension between my brows. [But what are you thinking about now?]

“How we’re going to finally catch whoever is pulling these tricks. I have a good idea, though. You know how big companies always forced everyone back home to take a vacation every few years? It’s really an excuse to force you to train your replacement. If someone is doing your entire job, they’re bound to notice money going into an account it isn’t supposed to. Or recurring purchases to a company you’ve never received products from.”

[In other words, uncovering fraud.]

“Exactly. I plan on doing the same with the next batch of recruits. Put up job requests throughout the Hearthwood. I’m sure plenty of people want a steady job from the Hearthwood Clan’s Patriarch. Ensure we’re offering twice the going rate for unskilled labor in the Hearthwood. I want plenty of candidates. I’ll interview them the next time I’m done with dual cultivation.”

[Consider it done.]

And so I returned to my room, forgetting my troubles for a while as I basked in beautiful and bountiful elven flesh. To the rest of the world, it probably seemed as though I’d completely forgotten about the outside world and was only concerned with my intense passion for cultivation.

With any luck, the Satyr King’s agents would get bolder, not sensing the noose getting ready to close tight around their necks.

<Note>

Whew. Exciting news for Amazon Apocalypse fans! I got final proofreading edits for Amazon Apocalypse back! I just spent all weekend reviewing and implementing them and now am doing formatting for the ebook.

This one is a tougher challenge than formatting most books thanks to some odd word glitches that keep cropping up, but I'll plow through it all soon enough.

Maybe a short 3 day preorder, with a release sometime in early July? I'm hoping for the 1'st, that way people can read it during the holiday weekend.