The Runic Alchemist

“..And so from here on I entrust my position as a Flamewarden and The Keeper of the Sanctuary—to Damian Sunblade, our brightest hope for a prosperous and safe city.”

Applause and congratulations came; Damian remained seated. Einar sat down, and it finally started.

“Lord Keeper, how would you like to proceed?” someone asked.

Damian smiled, seeing the face of the man who had.

It was Yovan—the mage boy from Pyron City who had joined the Eldoris army camp with them. It wasn’t only him—a white-haired young man was seated beside him. Damian was surprised to see him—it was the same kid from the camp.. What was his name again.. Right, Theren. The older Einar must have invited them to Sanctuary once they had separated after the war. It was good to see them.

“Let’s put the current circumstances around the world aside and start with what are our Sanctuary’s needs,” Damian said after nodding at the two old friends.

“Excellent,” Einar said with a smile, and then added, “We don’t have many sources of revenue. Most people here came to take shelter after losing everything, so we kept the taxes as low as possible. The trade with Fayenjin City, ruled by Lord Goldfist, earns us most of the funds. We had some treasures—selling them was the only option if we didn’t want to be indebted to Eldoris. We already had enough help—but those funds are also near the end after constant battles.”

Lord Silas added, “If it’s just running Sanctuary, we can manage that with the tax money. The trade is flourishing with low taxes and less demanding ruling authorities. Even the fields of all villages are producing better with our low-tax promise. Lords of each region are not permanent—we keep them based on performance and governing ability. It has shown good results so far.”

Prince Leon spoke after her, “Only after we deal with the Faerunians invading this land can we heal in peace.”

“Anything else?” Sam asked.

“Hmmhh..” Baron Goldilocks coughed a little to get attention. “Lady Einar signed a mana contract with Eldoris stating we can’t raise weapons against Eldoris no matter what, for a century, in exchange for support and military aid.”

“It was necessary,” Souldealer said rather defensively.

“I know, my lady,” the Baron said, bowing a little to show respect. “And I support the decision wholeheartedly, but the new Keeper should have all the information that might affect his decision-making.”

Damian did not miss two groups of Dawnstar nobles crossing eyes with each other once the Baron was finished. If he had to guess, there were two groups of people in Sanctuary: one who considered it their home and another who wanted to continue the fight they had lost, as long as they had the means. That was to be expected.

Humans were weak—all they cared about was their own survival in a difficult position. But once they were safe, the thoughts of revenge or going back would always linger.

“I have no interest in listening to your business,” suddenly Land-breaker’s heavy voice cut through the murmurs. His eyes were focused on Damian himself.

“This land was given to us by the Highswords. Worry not—we care a lot about the Highswords’ revival. If your vows do not change much from before, you will have my full support. Consider it a first gift from the independent land of Sanctuary in support of your cause,” Damian said.

Land-breaker stared at Damian for a second, then nodded. “We are not allies of your kingdom. Understand that well.”

“We are aware,” Damian replied, then looked at the full room and continued, “What else needs to be discussed?”

Grace spoke up, “The pigmen in the dungeon. Sooner or later, we will have to do something about them—they can’t build a lasting civilization in a closed dungeon.”

“They can’t leave the dungeon—what can we even do?” Maelor asked.

Damian said, “We should at least leave one person inside who can help them travel and get monsters—we will do it in shifts so no one has to stay there for too long. Who will go first?”

“No need,” Mindseer said. “That’s our home. I will look after them until you decide where they could go.”

Damian nodded. “That is really appreciated.”

Mindseer nodded. She was the one who had lived the longest among the pigmen. She knew them the best. Damian once again looked around the room.

Einar said, “There are issues of bandits and some beastman rebels causing damage to spread fear—we can handle them later, just something to keep in mind. I did assign more soldiers; the city has barely left any patrolling knights—they work in double shifts.”

Funds, internal struggles, security—lack of manpower was the root issue for most of it. And then came international issues and war efforts.

“What will be our stance in the double-front battlefield that has been going on for far too long?” Prince Leon asked.

Damian looked at the guy—he wasn’t an immature brat anymore, but he still wanted to fight. His people considered him the leader even after they had accepted Sanctuary’s authority—he wanted to prove himself.

“How is the situation?” Damian asked.

Many answers came, informing him all about tricks, weapon progressions, and strategies the long war had seen. Demons had the best runic weapons—not because of better knowledge, though—the element of chaos was simply too destructive, and weapons made from that were vicious in nature.

The Empire’s bioweapons were not that level of fucked up, but they wouldn’t lose to them in destruction either. They didn’t have enough resources and time to replenish their empty wares, though, after constant battles. The demons knew exactly how to keep them on their toes—demons had a lot of spies in human kingdoms.

Compared to them, Eldoris—still sparingly using his morphing potions—was quite clean. They too had invented some light-element weapons, though—they weren’t on par with his lasers, but still something like an energy sphere of light and sharp wind: quite mana-efficient and long-term usable. The research division had indeed done their job.

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