Chapter 10: Zan's Apprentice

~~ November - Week 46 ~~

Sean had asked Zan about possibly getting some more Airships.

He was organising overland transportation between the different villages. He had decided that a lot of the lighter goods and people they needed to transport around would be better off in using the Airships.

They had decided not to go to planes as the Airships were more environmentally friendly and the locals already made them. The fact the faeries hated planes were also part of his decision. They also moved around fast enough for the locals with a few modifications.

Queen Yelena de Wahl, who controlled the district of Dinas specialised in building Airships. Her daughter Uren was sent to negotiate with them. Zan already had contracts with them for supplying many parts for his boats so any decisions they made also affected his people.

Zan had to do the whole Court thing to welcome Uren to Ogilhinn. He was surprised by the exotic beauty that he was introduced too. Uren wasn’t much taller than Dye. Zan knew her father was half Pix. Many had been surprised when he had managed to get her mother pregnant.

He had been one of her concubines, and her husband had been off visiting when she had finally fallen with a child at sixty. Uren was her only child. Zan knew there was something special about her the moment he set eyes on her.

While Zan was perfectly happy to screw women, he did tend to like guys more. Essco fucked Dye far more that he did. Mind you, Essco was happy to service him just as often and had become very willing at bending over for him.

Essco particularly liked being, ‘Piggy in the middle’ and he and Dye were more than happy to accommodate him. Dye didn’t seem to care whose cock was in her or which hole as long as someone’s was. She had been particularly horny since falling pregnant.

Zan did love working with Dye. She had become his right hand, and they often found they were in agreement, both in and out of bed. So, all was good for the three of them.

Zan was amused when his youngest brother Xavier seemed to take a fancy to Uren. Zan was perfectly happy to encourage the budding romance, and as Xavier had an interest in the Airships, he bought him in on the negotiations. He was also happy to palm most of the negotiations and organisation of the plans onto his brother’s shoulders. He had more than enough on his plate.

Uren’s people also grew a lot of shukra. Zan had a feeling the humans would like to purchase this product. Her region was the main area for growing it. He also believed they would need it for their chocolate-making process and apparently, the humans used it in a lot of their cooking as well.

So Haf, Sean and Lee had turned up to get things rolling. Zan explained he was handing the running of the project over to Xavier and Uren. So, Lee and Sean took them and Haf back to Dinas to see what Uren had set up for both industries and what needed to be changed or upgraded.

It didn’t take them long to get the company set up, so it followed similar protocols to the other companies. They also collected Aeron and then nutted out agreements for the shukra for making the chocolate and for providing shukra for the humans otherwise.

Uren and her mother were all for the new ventures. They had been having problems with gangs due to their unemployment being so high.

To provide the amounts of shukra Lee and Aeron were looking for, they would need to get the Genteli and Burgis who owned the farms to increase their crops and probably start new farms too. They would also need to get at least one new Shukra-mill up and running.

Uren had complained when they discussed the enactment of the new charter. Some of her people were not happy about the ‘no new slaves’ and having to pay the workers. She said it was all right for them as wizards, but Zan wasn’t here to enforce the rules she was.

“Well,” said Lee. “The question becomes, do you wish to be Zan’s apprentice or Aeron’s?”

“As if I’m apprentice material,” she scoffed. “If I was, then I suppose I should be Zan’s since Aeron is Davidian. It probably wouldn’t go down well if I were his apprentice.”

“I agree,” said Lee. “Since you’re going to marry Xavier, it probably would be better if you become Zan’s apprentice.

“Hang on who said I was going to marry Xavier?” Uren said in surprise.

Lee just grinned at her and Xavier, “I think we need to go see Zan again.”

“Look I know you’re the Lord Wizard. But you can’t tell us who we will be marrying,” flared Uren.

“Uren I would never force anyone to be with someone they didn’t want to be with,” Lee said.

Xavier looked at Uren. He’d had the hots for her since he first laid eyes on her. He knew his brother would approve of the match as well and he had no problems with her having Pix blood. His brother had also said that Lee could prophesy things. He grinned at Lee.

He would have to work on Uren, but he had a feeling he could overcome her resistance. He didn’t think she was totally immune to his charms. Unlike Zan, he generally preferred women for his lovers.

“Have you found someone for me?” Aeron inquired.

“No, I’m still working on that one. But I’m sure you will like the outcome,” Lee grinned at him.

Aeron shrugged he had been having a lot of fun with the girls over the last couple of weeks. But the last week or so, he had noticed he tended to gravitate more to Yuko. June also seemed to be away more on her new projects with the Trinity State.

He had a feeling June may not stay in the triad. He was surprised that this didn’t worry him, but he didn’t want Yuko to leave. He would have to think about it he decided and tuned back into the conversation.

They decided to go see Zan. When they turned up, Lee asked Zan to get the apprentices box, and he happily gave it to Uren. She was the only one in the room surprised when it opened. Zan told her about what was in the box and what it did. She was apparently the Tin Wizard. Her primary discipline was Physics.

Zan gave her the primer and the diary and reminded her to talk to him or one of the other wizards if she needed help. Lee explained that they were all still learning.

“Hey guys, I think we should have a wizards’ meetings at least every two to four weeks. To see what we have learnt and to generally keep up with each other,” Lee suggested.

Zan and Aeron agreed. They thought while they were all still learning the basics, at least fortnightly would be good. Lee seemed to pick things up more naturally than they did. It would also be nice to have others of their kind to talk to regularly. They didn’t think Allan, Kyle and Tony would be opposed to the idea either. So, it was arranged.

Lee decided to set up a couple of prefab homes with a shed on Watson Island. That way, they wouldn’t be bothered by other people, and if they did strange experiments, they needed a safe place to work.

Later, she had a talk to Jim about what she wanted. He asked her if he built it in Futura could she transport it? She didn’t see any problems as she had plenty of help these days. He said to give him a week, and he’d have something sorted.

He didn’t tell Lee that Sean had already approached him about a holiday home a few weeks before and it was almost finished. They had been building it out at the mines, so Lee hadn’t seen it as she didn’t tend to spend a lot of time there.

Zan was delighted that he now had an apprentice. The wizards taught Uren how to transport herself and others and to move objects. Aeron taught them how to erect the sound shield. Lee taught them how to construct an energy shield to protect others.

Then she taught them how to do an immobilising spell that can stop someone from moving. These were new to the others, so they were happy to learn. Sean had worked out how to make himself effectively invisible using a glamour with Sparky’s help.

Xavier had a lot of fun telling them if they had achieved this or not. As it didn’t work on other wizards as they could see through the glamour. Interestingly he could see through some of them, particularly Uren’s and Zan’s, but he could never find Lee or Sean. He only found Aeron if he moved.

“Hey guys I have been reading through some of Rah’s books, and he mentioned that in the past they used to have special mages they called Shields. They had limited abilities, but essentially, they were Special Police Officers.”

“They are used to investigate crimes and find people and generally protect people. I think Xavier here has the abilities to be a shield. What do you think of the idea of me finding out more and setting up shields on each continent?”

“How does this affect the soldiers from UNSEC?” Sean asked.

“Well I’ll check them as well, but it’s more the leaders or a specific member of a team that they used to activate these abilities in. They have to meet a set of criteria, and ultimately they report to us,” Lee said.

“What happens if they become corrupted? Can they actually kill people with these skills?” Aeron asked with worry.

“Well anyone can kill, special skills or not. But there are limiting factors, which should help stop them. They lose their mage items for one. Plus, if I find out their arse is mine,” Lee said.

Xavier decided by the looks on the other faces that her threat was the best deterrent of all. Zan had told him Lee had a low tolerance for people misbehaving. Zan had also told him about what happened at the Coronation. His carriage had been around the corner when the shooting started, so didn’t see what happened.

If Lee made him a shield, he had a feeling doing the wrong thing was definitely not an option if he wished to live a long life. He liked the idea of being able to protect Uren and help her make Dinas a safer place. He planned to be moving there to help with the projects and to win Uren.

Uren wasn’t really sure what she was getting into. She never had in her wildest dreams, expect to be made a wizard’s apprentice. She smiled and wondered how many of those stuck up bastards who wouldn’t even think of marrying her, even though she was a crown princess, would react when they found out.

Uren took Xavier back to Dinas.

Xavier found himself installed in the palace.

They were set up to work in Uren office in the Palace. They spent a couple of days ironing out the details of the modifications required to the Airship factory.

Haf already had the new B&C Office set up, and it was making Xavier’s life easier. He had been Zan’s business manager for many years. This was the other main reason he had been picked for getting the new projects up and racing.

Uren thought of Xavier as she watched him working beside her. He had made it quite clear he wanted to get into her pants. But she wondered how much that had to do with who she was rather than who she is.

Though, the de Nar men did seem to have a thing about Pix females. Zan was married to one, and so was his other brother Nat. While she was more Genteli than Pix, she still had a very distinct Pix look about her.

Lots of Genteli men had been happy to fuck her, but none of them had proposed anything more unless their motivations were less than honourable. She had had a few that were purely after her position but cared little for her even though they professed otherwise. She had no trouble picking the bad apples out.

Xavier was busy on the pad he had working out some of the logistics involved in getting the modifications to the airships made. Lee and Sean were providing a replicator to help them, but most of the construction would still be labour intensive.

“We are going to need to expand the shed space so we can work on two or three at a time. You still have three outstanding orders to fill. So, if we get the construction of the new shed under-way as soon as possible, we can start getting set up for building the ships Sean and Zan want.”

“Allan said he would wait for his. Since two of the orders outstanding are his anyway. He’s happy to wait for the modifications to be included,” he told her.

“Okay, but it could take six months before the new shed is built?” she said.

Xavier grinned, “Nope, we are going to get the wizards to throw it up. Lee and Qu said Jim could get the parts made and Lee and the boys are going to erect it with a bolt-down crew.”

“We just have to get the pad down and the plumbing in. We should be able to do that in four to five weeks. Lee said the new shed will be ready in about four weeks at the most due to their other projects.”