The early afternoon sun illuminated the mountain halls as Keria led me to Banya, who was in the old bath chambers where we’d first found her, Esbee and Keria. I’d almost forgotten about them, since I rarely took the stairs leading past them anymore. Not since remodeling the mountain.

Both Keria and Banya had long had Keystones that let them access the enchanting workshop, so it wasn’t too surprising that they’d taken over the space. It had become as much a workspace as a bath chamber, with notes and random enchanting materials scattered about.

It spoke to our abundance of materials that her leaving out hundreds of Waves worth had no impact on our supply.

And, of course, to one side of the room on a solid slab of grey stone was Barber’s silent body, the razor that had earned the golem attendant her nickname still held firmly in her grasp.

When we walked in, Banya looked up. She started to speak, only to cut off when she noticed Keria hadn’t returned alone.

“You brought the Magus Dominus,” Banya said, her voice terse.

“Yeah, ‘cause you wouldn’t,” Keria said, folding her arms across her chest with an audible clack.

“I told you, I’m not certain it’ll work,” Banya snapped, before glancing towards me. “Apologies, Magus Dominus.”

I raised an eyebrow, glancing towards Keria. “What’s with the Magus Dominus all of a sudden. Haven’t used that title in months. And besides, I thought we were on a first name basis.”

Banya stopped pacing, pressing a hand to her forehead. “Apologies again, Perry. I just… there’s been a lot on my mind and I…”

“Like I said, she’s figured out how to restore Barber and she’s been bugging me about it instead of just talking with you,” Keria answered for her. “As if I understand a tenth of what she’s been blathering on about.”

Banya looked like she was about to protest again, so instead I said, “I’m here, tell me what you’ve got.”

This seemed to bring clarity to Banya. “What I’ve got. Yes. I can do that.”

Keria and I exchanged a glance as Banya moved over to her table, collecting several pages, then putting some back. It took her almost five minutes to finish. During which time I had Vendil reschedule the rest of my morning.

It was the least I could do, after all the help Banya had given us over the months, never asking for anything in return.

“Okay, so, you know how mana-bodies work, right? What am I saying, of course you do, you’re the one that figured it out in the first place,” Banya said, pacing back and forth, holding up a diagram with several sketches of a mana body on it, though held so we couldn’t see it.

Truly, one of the strongest starts in history. I kept my smile from showing, nodding seriously.

“Anyway, so, I’ve mapped out her mana-body. And I’ve managed to sort through the old records you recovered. Went through and found old scans of her body. Along with before and after scans of the rest of us,” she said, gesturing at herself and Keria. “Using that, I’ve built models for the repairs required, tracking the decay backwards, adjusting for mana-drift, and, of course, weight loss of her physical body.”

“Weight loss?” I found myself asking as I accepted a page from her. “Damage?”

“Not normal damage. Accumulated wear,” Banya said, pointing to a number of observations on the roughness of Barber’s joint sockets. A problem the others didn’t have, I was pretty sure.

“Okay. So, you know what’s wrong. How do we fix it?”

“Well, that’s actually pretty easy. We stick her in one of the Establium, then we use her last stable mana-body records as a template, while using one of our body’s as the template for that, and then we just… wait.”

“Establium? Wait, right, forgot they were called that. I keep thinking of them as Ascension Sarcophagi.” Banya stared blankly at me at that, so I cleared my throat. “Anyway, that’s it? Do you know how long it’ll take?”

“No… but I don’t think it’ll be quick,” Banya said, glancing towards Keria. “That’s why… I know how important awakening people is. I want to wake Barber, but I was hoping I could figure out how to repair the last Establium first.”

“That would be more than fair,” I said, nodding. “Though maybe she won’t need that long. We can at least check.”

“I… really?” Banya asked, glancing towards Keria again.

“What are you looking at me for? I told you to just fraying ask him a week ago,” Keria said, rolling her eyes.

Banya nodded, and soon they were carrying Barber between them. I followed behind them, looking over the schedule for the upcoming Tethered awakenings. We’d gone through everyone who’d been less than a day, and were onto people who needed three or more.

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Another month, and we’d have worked through every Tethered who wanted to take part. I noted that there were a few new names who’d decided to sign on.

While I was glad more folk were taking part, it did mean that Banya was right that any significant delay would ruffle feathers. Not that the Tethered would complain, but silent upset was worse than vocal, most of the time.

When we arrived at the Golden Halls, I was reminded that this was technically hostile territory. The ocean above the dome was full of Sahevin. It was honestly amusing that they ignored the Golden Halls to climb up and camp on the shores. I suspected our vigorous defense of the coast had convinced them there was something precious we were protecting up top. If so, why bother investigating the random dome.

A happy accident.

Was just glad we’d already closed off the entrance to Overflow B. Between that and the fact the only other place of significance within a hundred miles was Conflict’s Infinite Furnace, it didn’t leave them much to really damage. Assaulting Conflict would simply fuel its own engine of industry.

We appeared in a flurry of golden light within a chamber that was significantly cleaner than when we’d first found Balthum inside.

There was even a small rest area set up on the far side of the room from the Establium. Not that there were any Tethered waiting there. With three day or longer shifts, it saw a lot less use than it had in the early days.

While I reflected on the changes, Banya and Keria laid Barber down next to the Establium we hadn’t managed to restore.

Considering Banya and I had both advanced significantly since then, as had my available supply of materials, I was optimistic about our chances.

It took us a couple hours, but soon it was throwing up green across the board.

“I didn’t think that would work,” Banya said, sitting down next to Barber. “This is really going to happen, isn’t it?”

“You did good,” Keria said, hand on her fellow golem’s shoulder.

“She’s right. Barber’s got you to thank for this,” I said, wiping a bead of sweat off my forehead. The room was more humid than I was used to. A side effect of some of the awakenings currently underway. “Well, shall we get her loaded up?”

They waved me off, handling Barber personally. Each movement was slow as they laid her inside the sarcophagus. Finally, Banya started punching in all of her adjustments. When she was done, the screen went blank, displaying a bar as it started performing scans of Barber.

“What do you think her first words are going to be?” Banya asked, looking down at Barber’s still form.

“You’re all too tall, let me cut you down to size,” Keria replied, face as smooth as the stone it was made of.

“Nah, she’s clearly too straight-cut for that,” I added, though I wasn’t able to keep the smile from my own face.

Keria raised an eyebrow. “Wit’s not sharp enough.”

I raised one right back. “Walking the razor’s edge, there.”

Banya looked between the two of us, eyes wide as we silently stared at each other. Then she broke into a rough laugh, rubbing at her face, tears beading beneath her hand.

“Sorry, not good at serious stuff,” Keria said, walking over and awkwardly laying a hand on Banya’s shoulder.

“It’s fine. Appreciate you getting Perry for me. Don’t know how much longer we would’ve been waiting if you hadn’t given me the push.”

“You were getting- forget it. Glad I could help,” Keria said, giving Banya a weak smile, glancing towards me.

I just offered her a shrug, my attention moving towards the display. It had finally updated with a timer. One for when the scan would finish, not the repairs. “Well, looks like it’s going to take at least another fifteen minutes. I’m going to take a look around the room while we wait.”

Really, it was just an excuse to give them a moment of privacy.

Still, I found myself inspecting each of the other sarcophagi. Not seeing anything out of place, I moved on to the other devices in the room. They’d been neatly packed up and cataloged, then left in the corner. I actually recognized one as a non-mobile catalyst, similar to the ones we took into Tender’s trial except too heavy to carry. Studying it, I was pretty sure it was meant to be used with the Kinya bath, though it seemed poorly designed.

An earlier model of the catalysts, maybe.

Which had me looking back at the Establium at the far end of the room. They’d been designed tens of thousands of years ago. We already had enough understanding to repair them. If we were able to acquire the incredibly high tier materials that acted as the core of the device, we could even build more.

So… how long before people started working to improve them?

I really wanted to establish a research complex or similar. Somewhere that was dedicated to learning and research.

There was an argument to make that I should deal with our current threats first… except, I thought about the Dauntless. There was a lot of knowledge out there already. I needed more people finding ways to use it.

Maybe I didn’t need a research facility. I needed to empower the people in the field to be able to contribute.

When I returned to the others, the timer was down to less than a minute. We waited the last seconds in mutual silence.

The scan finished and a new timer appeared, along with a long list of options. Banya stepped forward, slowly tapping through the many options.

“Well, guess I wasted time. Should’ve stuck her in one of these months ago,” Banya said, sighing. “It has a recommended upgrade that’ll fix all the physical issues better than my idea would’ve.”

“Unfortunate,” I said, looking over her selections and the new timer. “Two weeks and three hours. Faster than I expected, honestly.”

Banya nodded. “It’ll be better for her than I’d been hoping. I… thank you.”

“No need. You’ve more than earned this much,” I said, shaking my head.

“Not for this… for freeing us. For taking the time to care,” Banya said, wiping at her eyes again. “It’s… you’re changing things. You don’t even see it, but you are.”

“We’re all changing things. No matter who we are, we all have an impact,” I said, patting her shoulder, every bit as awkward as Keria had been.

Keria snorted and Banya smiled.

Luckily, they allowed me to take them back without anymore of such talk.

I left them with Esbee, feeling oddly light on my feet. When I bumped my head against the roof, I realized I’d relaxed my flight muscle.

Vendil was, of course, waiting with another list of small items to go over. Alister was waiting with him.

Despite my raised eyebrow, Alister waved me off, gesturing to Vendil. So, I took the time to work through everything my assistant needed before turning back to Alister. “Everything okay?”

Alister wrung his hands, his voice steady despite the motion. “It’s not urgent, but I wanted to know how you wanted to handle the black market and smuggling ring.”

I stared at him for several seconds.

“I’m sorry, the what?”