Chapter 3 Part 1 of 2 (Patreon)

Chapter: Invitations to the Violet Sky Realm

Milo Leblanc walked through the halls of his home, the Leblanc estate, family members, guards and servants bowed to him as he passed.

Instead of Guards, Golems, of worked metals, wearing armor stood outside his office. They opened the doors for him.

"I am not to be interrupted."

"Understood." They sounded like the metal they were made from. Sealing the doors behind him.

Milo looked around the room, from the chairs facing one another near the fireplace and his desk set back, with windows showing the dungeon outside. The estate lay underneath Purkesh and the Sha clan's territory. He looked out at the other carved pillars of white-washed estates, the gardens that could be seen behind gates and hanging between the pillars, creating a multi-tiered growing area, the source of the Sha wealth as they produced alchemical ingredients and plants for others.

He pressed a formation inset to the wall, shutters closed off the outside light, mana light shining down from the painted ceiling.

Milo moved to the side of the room, he pressed a piece of molding, a section of the wall pushed backwards and to the side, revealing a small recess the size of a hand.

Milo took out part of a formation and put it into the recess, he shifted it around until it dropped into place, he turned it until it clicks, faint light emanating from the cubby. Formation lines traced through the tiles underground and reached a formation behind the couch facing the fireplace.

The formation filled with power, dimming once it did. Milo waited, looking at the formation expectantly.

Where is he?

He clasped his hands behind his back, looking at the door and the room. He pulled his arms around the front and started pulling at his embroidered suit sleeves, smoothing out his buttons, feeling his growing paunch.

The formation flared with power, Milo held his hands, standing straight as a man wearing a red shirt and black suit and leggings with much finer golden weaving stood upon the formation, wearing matchlock pistols on his hips that were as elegant as they were deadly.

He had a tanned complexion from working near forges most of his life, his brown hair showed streaks of white and grey, pulled back into a ponytail at the base of his skull with ribbon, his sharp green eyes took the room in, resting on Milo.

"Grandmaster Crox," Milo bowed.

"Milo, we have known one another since you were learning to walk, there is no need for you to call me grandmaster," Crox smiled, waving his hand and walking around to the couch.

"Can I get you something to drink?"

"I think that your news is all the sustenance that I require, what news Milo?"

"Through negotiations we were able to sway the Marshal," Milo's mouth twisted into a snarl merely at his name. "We were able to get the leaders of his closest allied sects invited to the Violet Sky Realm." Milo took a seat in one of the high backed chairs off to the side of the couch.

"Will they come?"

"He rarely allied himself with someone that is stronger than the clans. They are all small groups, for them this will be a great opportunity, they will not turn it down."

"What of the Alvans?" Crox's voice deepend.

"They ahve a lot of power in the lower realms but they have no place in the higher realms. They need to prove their position and this would allow them. I have learned through the Velten clan that the lords of Alva were wounded severly in the fighting in the first realm."

"I thought that they were seen in King's Hill a few times?"

"They might have been, but I have it on good account that they are heavily wounded and that they have lost most of their cultivation with no clear way of how they will be able to get it back. For all intents, their cultivation has been wasted."

Crox sucked in a cold breath as his eyes brightened.

"If we can remove their leadership in the same act, we will gain a greater position in the gun market."

"Grandmaster will dominate the newly formed market without peer. Finally your craft will no longer be sealed under the Sha contracts and you can freely make weapons and gain the acclaim you deserve throughout the realms!"

"The Marshal blindsided me as a child as he did with you, telling me that I would be the greatest gun smith the realms had seen. How can they see if I can only make weapons for the clan? No room for innovation, no way to express myself to others. Gun smiths! Bah we should be called slave forgers. Unable to do anything else." Crox waved his hand.

"Mister Crox, you were the one that showed me the truth, you showed me who the Marshal really is. I looked at him as an Uncle, but he was the one that killed my father, using his death to destabilize my family before they could take control over the clans. He closed down any routes for one to gain power, keeping it to himself. He enslaves us all and uses us for his own means. Now his tyranny will come to an end and we will lead the Sha into a better future."

"It is only as it was supposed to be, your father was supposed to be the next Marshal, but in the ambush, he was killed by Edmond Dujardin so he could hold onto the position. I do not know what magic he has used on your sister so to twist her mind. I am glad that you have at least seen the truth."

"I will be eternally grateful to Grandmaster Crox," Milo bowed in his chair.

"I saw your father as a brother, while I do not children, you are the closest heir I have," Crox smiled.

Milo's eyes shook and he bowed even deeper.

"I, I am lost for words, grandmaster."

"Ah, come on, let us not dwell on that. Once we have removed the Marshal, then we might finally set the clans to their correct purpose. What of Louis Gerrard, has he joined the cause?"

"He has been approached but he has not made it clear which way he will go." Milo pursed his lips. "With your skill with gun smithing and the crafters you have on your side, my legitimacy, the Velten's trade contacts, we need a strong Clan like the Gerrards to secure our position through strength. We have done well in pulling fighting clans to our cause, but they are all insignificant compared to the Gerrard clan and it will make things easier in the Violet Sky Realm."

"With the three strongest clans and the crafters backing them and our old allies cut off, then the other clans will have one choice, to stay with us or to be cast aside. We will be free of all the restrictions Dujardin placed upon us. Has there been change with the Black Phoenix Clan?"

"No, just as we have been conserving our strength for the Violet Sky Realm they have focused their people in defending what lands they have remaining, upgrading and arming their ships for the last three months. Their losses this time were impressive."

"All the greater reason to pull Gerrard to our side, his clan was able to lead our forces in a number of decisive victories, we cannot lose him."

"Do not worry, my wife is working to pull him to our side as we speak."

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