Luck be Damned

9

^^ Lukira ^^

— Alice —

With about two years of efforts, I managed to completely master the concept of creating Vampires. It wasn't that difficult to understand, but Runes... they weren't easy to create at all, even if you understood them. Still, I mastered it, to the point where Lady Yurin declared me almost on the level of a Vampire Queen, like herself. Her Apprentice/Lover/Servant, Lady Dewan, was wildly jealous of my progress and the praise I received, but was unable to make a case for why it was undeserved, and so was silent.

At the same time, I created a virtual compendium of Wood Golems, from the skeletons of nearly every type of animal in the entire forest, Magical or no. I made perfect wooden replicas of every organ and muscle, every fiber of fur, and sold them to Healers, Veterinarians, (those existed, thankfully,) and even rich people who wanted Golems to guard their properties. All of these golems were under orders to halt any violent crimes they saw, and if necessary, to kill the perpetrators and eat their Spirits, growing stronger in the process, because one very weak spirit controlled each golem, and slowly evolved.

Finding Spirits wasn't that difficult, but summoning the really weak ones was pretty hard, even after I'd watched a Spirit master summon them for ten years by then, and two years more had fine-tuned the ability. Once I'd figured out how to summon them, all bets were off. My Bulette and my Dragon grew back to their original sizes, as I fed them every single Spirit I saw that wasn't used in a golem, and both developed into nature spirits of sorts, with the Bulette leaning towards Earth Elemental, and the Dragon leaning towards Plant Druid.

Of course, I was respectful of the delicate balance of the ecosystem, so I didn't hunt as much, these days, instead choosing to open a small shop where I bought and sold pelts and hides from hunters at slightly higher rates than anyone else, and then made clothes and armors from them, selling them at a little higher than everyone else, but the quality of the leather armors that myself and the normal armorer, -who worked there when I was busy,- made were all definitely worth the extra moneys.

I also, when I had time, built more tunnels and roads, to and from a variety of places within the forest and out to the border; I didn't want to step on any toes outside just yet. Lastly, of course I made the ship from Zaire's hoard into a Wood Golem, -though it's outward appearance wasn't changed,- and began trading with the coast, just down the river from Ships' Grave. Not further than that, just yet.

I started a Guild, even, with the permission of the Merchant Lord Council, which handled all the requests that were flooding in, and overwhelming the local councils, as they'd only ever had to deal with a few dozen requests a year, cumulatively, not upwards of five hundred a piece! The cities still received half of the tax on requests, but with that and the roads, my little Guild grew quickly.

Determined to remain totally impartial, you might say, I placed a Tower made of a hollow Redwood in Zaire's old Lair, which contained a great number of things. The top portion was a lab, with every type of tool I could get my hands on, and the middle portion was an arboretum of sorts, full of a little of everything from the plethora of magical plants that grew in the forest, which I was studying the effects and uses of.

The bottom section, made up of four floors, was where the Guild made its home. The third floor was a shop where I placed my work that wasn't already sold to someone specific, and could be bought for 110% it's normal market price, while the second was a place to sell goods, such as pelts and plants you'd gotten in the forest, which I would buy for 110% market price. The bottom floor was half tavern and half lobby, where people could buy alcohol and food and get buzzed while they gathered members of their party, or after they delivered their contracts, as well as looking at the lists of contracts and accepting them. Below that, in the 'Basement' was the fourth floor, where the employees had apartments to sleep in.