“Yes please,” I answer my divine sponsor.

  “Oh, and good job with the clones,” Death speaks softly, “that was the right call on the in-progress one. I'm looking forward to collecting him… and your mother added a few things that should make it easier. First off, we have Gactic Emissary: It makes you immune to anything that would get in the way of teleportation, and also reduces Starflight times, but you don't have that yet.”

  “That will certainly make it easier to get in and out, as Wuodrazed doesn't cast Forbiddance himself,” I nod while I keep working.

  “That's my take, yes,” Uncle C continues, “Next up is Seamless Guise, from the Dark Walker; it will let you pick how divinations ‘see’ you - pick what True Seeing returns, make Scrying spells show you as elsewhere, that kind of thing.”

  I consider that, “Good for tricking minions.”

  “Very, especially considering how many of them have True Seeing from items,” my uncle agrees. “We also have Primordial Lore from the same creature; that lets you bypass resistances and immunities, and use Mythic boosts on any spell you know.”

  I smile, “That will be good for finding the rat, as I don't need to worry about Mind Bnk anymore.”

  “Yes; it doesn't get around saves, and Scrying limits you to one try a day, so you're probably going to need to take a while at it.” Death keeps going, “Last up, he spent the feat on Extra JP again, and selected Dual Actions from the Serpentir.”

  “Isn't that the weird skeleton that's basically two skeleton torsos and heads glued together in a snake-like configuration?” Another thing from one of the esoteric books.

  “Indeed,” my sponsor agrees, “and that ability lets you act twice as often: Cast twice as many spells, run twice as far, hit twice as many times, and so on.”

  “Which will help with killing the monster,” I pause, “Once I find him.” Also cut the wall building time in half… nice.

  “The rest is just run of the mill things; basic numbers, really… saves, skill, hit points, that kind of thing.”

  “Thank you, uncle.”

  “You're welcome,” the death deity responds, “be seeing you.”

  As my uncle's presence fades from my head, I take a moment to try Scrying on Chard Wuodrazed… and don't get anywhere today. Still: It is just a matter of time.

  I keep going with the construction. Last Shadow joins and watches for a while; I call it a day on the outer wall once it gets dark, and we head back to the castle proper… where I start on a central tower for myself and my Companion. I use the same spells, but handle them differently: Carve Passage a few times to make a thirty-five foot deep foundation in a forty by forty foot square, False Gravity on myself so I can pick a different “down” and thus make “vertical” Walls of Force that are ft and level to the rest of the world. I do the same yering trick as with the outer wall, making thirty yers of Force and thirty yers of two inch thick iron sandwiched between them, making my basement a box thirty feet wide, thirty feet long, and thirty feet deep. I then start going up the same way, each twenty feet of height taking a little under half an hour. At forty feet above ground level, and every twenty feet thereafter, I put a set of Walls of Force in horizontally in the walls for support, heading outward from the tower five feet, and leave a ten foot square gap in one wall for an eventual door.

  At two hundred feet above ground level (about six hours in), I put a ft roof on it and mentally connect with Last Shadow, “How high do you want the nest?”

  “How high can we go?”

  I consider that, “I can arrange for us and our chicks to be fine at any height,” I can do Life Bubble now, and that solves altitude and temperature problems nicely… I just need to put it on the eggs as soon as she ys them, “but anything more than five thousand feet above ground level and I can't keep an eye on the town as easily.”

  “Do you really need to?”

  Hmm… I can pnt Telepathic Bond on some summons, and have them do the job… would also help while I'm elsewhere, so I may want to do that anyway, “Not really. It ultimately boils down to how high you want to fly to reach the nest.”

  “Please put it above the clouds, my love; I don't want rain on our eggs.”

  Not that she's watching, but I nod, “Will do.”

  I fly straight up until I can't see any clouds above me, go a bit farther, and start building. A Wall of Force gives me a surface for Subjective Gravity, which lets me then use more castings of Wall of Force to make an actual floor and ceiling.

  I then build a suitable aerie: A nice rge boxy area with low walls to keep the kids that can't fly yet in and some small gaps to let any moisture that accumutes fall through. I keep to the “five foot thick, yered iron and force” paradigm, and make about a quarter acre of nd up here. I also make a rger box underneath of a single yer of Force (leaving some small gaps between the walls and floor to release moisture buildup), and coverthe entire thing woth Mage's Private Sanctum spells. Anyone looking up at the structure will merely see a small cloud far away, it stops the vast majority of divinations cold, and anyone that climbs out but can't fly doesn't have far to fall. A casting of Secure Shelter in one corner, and I have a lockable area to pce the door to my Keyhome. Several castings of Minor Creation to build nesting materials, a few summons to keep house (and buffs so they'll survive the altitude), and I call it a day, heading back to ground level via Greater Teleport.

  Back on the ground after a moment of disorientation, I make a few parties via Summon Minion V (Druid, Rogue, Wizard, and Padin, all seventh level), buff them up (including with True Seeing and Greater Invisibility), and link them to myself via Telepathic Bond. I task them with keeping an eye on the town, and otherwise ignore them (the Druid in each party can handle feeding the others, no problem).

  The sun is rising, so I head to the guildhouse, where Aldamen greets me, “Okay, yes, the dungeon is handling the load OK with the extra trimming… quite well, the concern about my teleportation spell was completely unwarranted. But do warn me before you do that next time!”

  “Okay,” I chuckle at the half-orc, “I'm going to be doing the same thing today, and tomorrow, and the day after, until I've fully ringed the town. Then I'm going to do the same thing to speed up construction of my castle.” And with Walls of Force handling the actual structure, I don't need to worry about thermal cracking, "I expect to be at it for afew weeks."

  Aldamen takes a slow breath, “Okay. I'm guessing you're here to do a bit more than just tease these old bones?”

  “Yes,” I smile, “I’d like to put a few things up for sale, and pce a few orders.”

  The guildmaster nods, “I'll get the catalogs….”

  I ‘sell’ (really, register as avaible) several sets of Horacalcum Full Pte (which I make for free via the Create Armaments spell), and order some minor convenience magic items: eight Campfire Beads (they’re small beads that turn into campfires for up to eight hours at at a time, and are reusable after ‘cooling down’ for twice as long as they were burning; I will want three 'upstairs', one on my person, and fourfor the castle proper), a Mallet of Building (it is good for nailing things together), a Decanter of Endless Water (it does what it says on the tin: Produces as much water as I want, at one of a few specific rates), and a Lyre of Building (basically small harp that, once a week, can be used to repce a rather lot of mundane bor; I pn to use it for detail work on the castle). Once I get the money from the armors, I pn to buy some very specific magical books.

  Of course, as expensive as Horacalcum is… “I cannot believe you found those armors in this dungeon,” the guildmaster stares at me after I'm done using the catalogs and the crystal ball.

  “To be fair, I didn't get them from the local dungeon, but I did come by them via legitimate means.” Legitimate-ish, anyway. Bypassing components like I do can certainly be seen as cheating, but it's not really against any rules. “Nobody's going to legitimately say I stole them or anything, and I can assure you it's all real.”

  The half-orc nods slowly, “Of course. I'm guessing they're like those iron walls you're making around the town? I can't see the magic, but the closest match is a Wall of Iron spell, and you're clearly not going through gold like it's water.”

  I chuckle, “Yeah, you got me. Not only are my spells unlimited and unrecognizable as magic, but they don't cost any of the normal components. These armors are the result of a Create Armaments spell… they're fully real and can't be dispelled, disjoined, destroyed by Break Enchantment, or simir. I'm hoping to use the funds to purchase some Tomes and Manuals. Failing that, some Wish storage devices of whatever stripe to the same effect.”

  She considers a minute, “Mithril Chain shirts and breastptes will sell faster. Beginners buy them for the ease of use, experts buy them to enchant. You'll need more of them to get what you're after, but…”

  “...but that's not even slightly an issue for me.” I pause, “Thanks for the tip. Can I see the…”

  I trail off as Aldamen hands me the book and crystal ball back, then get to work with the hour-long activation on the crystal ball to contact the specific page listed in the book again, using the same to speak to the boy so he can do the work of registering what I have for sale… and also register myself as taking commissions for crafting armor, shields, and weapons, listing the many special materials I have avaible (everything except cold iron).

  When I'm done, I contact Last Shadow; I need to update both of our buffs, and show her our roost….