Chapter 199: Airships
Evan, with four students in tow — Peter, Duva, Barbara, and Alexia — went to receive the guest assigned to him: Lady Lagrov of the dark elves, a strikingly seductive woman who looked no older than her twenties, though Evan knew she'd already lived past a hundred years. She wore a pale green silk gown, revealing yet somehow carrying itself with real regal bearing, her skin a healthy wheat-brown rather than the pale complexion typical of elves, her ears tapering to fine points. The women accompanying her, lovely as they were, faded entirely into her shadow the moment she appeared. All four students swallowed audibly at the sight of her — she'd clearly captivated every one of them regardless of preference.
Evan's brow furrowed slightly. Clearly these students needed some further work on their composure. He stepped forward at once. "Noble Sovereign of Darkness, Lady Lagrov, may your youth endure as long as the stars in the heavens. Evan Wang, sent to receive you. Please, you and your attendants, come with us."
"So you're Evan Wang. I've heard your name already — the Burk Town affair, quite the display of brilliance," Lagrov said, extending a hand. Evan brushed it with a light kiss, offering the proper courtesy. Her retinue, all women, dressed in revealing, flamboyant fashion, giggled behind their hands, casting flirtatious glances at the four students behind him, whose faces flushed crimson at once.
Evan replied smoothly, "You flatter me, my lady. I've only managed a small achievement under Hollingburton's own great name — hardly comparable to your own renown. A star cannot rival the brilliance of the full moon."
"You have a way with words." A laugh like ringing bells escaped her, her whole frame shaking with mirth. "I do enjoy such a sweet tongue. My handmaidens look ready to devour you whole. Old Ortlando finally did something right, sending you to greet us."
"Honored lady, this isn't flattery — merely honest observation. Please, this way," Evan said with a smile.
He escorted Lagrov's party to their lodgings, briefed the staff on a few points to keep in mind, and led his group back out — the four students still visibly dazed. Evan shook his head at the sight of them, their minds clearly muddled by the dark elves' charm, and gave a sharp word that finally snapped them back to attention. Barbara and Alexia flushed with embarrassment at once.
"Professor, the dark elves are... a lot," Alexia said.
"That's not their doing at all — it's that the four of you couldn't withstand the temptation. Everyone appreciates beauty, that's only natural, but falling prey to it entirely is a matter of your own self-discipline, not theirs," Evan said. In truth, even he had felt the pull in that moment — only his nature as a lich, stripped of such desires, had let him keep his composure. Some stubborn streak of pride had refused to let him falter either, which was exactly why the clever words had come so readily.
The four looked genuinely ashamed. "Never mind," Evan said. "It's only natural for young people to struggle against such temptation. As long as you keep enough of a grip on yourselves to avoid something you'd regret for a lifetime, that's all that matters."
Evan found himself thinking of Tina and Andrea, and let out a quiet, private sigh.
On their way back, they spotted Jessica leading the forest elves in. Elves and dark elves shared the same origin, in truth, having split into two branches over differences in belief long ago. These elves wore pure white, looking every bit like creatures from legend, including a scattering of male elves among them, golden-haired and blue-eyed, also dressed in white — unlike the dark elves, though. Where the dark elves radiated raw allure, these elves carried themselves like orchids in a quiet valley, flawless and utterly free of anything that might stir a darker impulse.
Spotting Evan, Jessica smiled. "Let me introduce you. This is Elf Princess Jona, invited to attend the floating city's maiden flight. And this is Professor Wang."
Evan offered a mage's bow, and Jona returned a curtsy.
"A pleasure to meet you, honored Elf Princess. Welcome," Evan said.
"A pleasure to meet you as well, Professor," Jona said.
Evan and Jessica exchanged a few words, and Evan took his leave — another guest still awaited him, though he had no idea which vampire representative had been sent.
They waited only briefly at the school gate before the vampire delegate arrived — a count, Count William, a courteous nobleman in a fine suit, his smile carrying a warmth that nonetheless kept people at arm's length beneath the surface. Evan exchanged pleasantries with him and led him toward the guest lodgings.
Hollingburton had taken real care in housing its guests, splitting them carefully across several locations — vampires, dark elves, and Druids together in one lodge; the Church and elves grouped together in another; and worldly political delegations kept separate entirely. Kept apart this way, the factions had little chance of crossing paths, minimizing the risk of conflict.
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One incident slipped through the cracks all the same, involving the dark elves and the Church. The Church's delegation included Cardinal Douglas Kenyon, whose retinue included a knight named Ryan Casten. Once Cardinal Kenyon had settled in, Casten went for a stroll through the school grounds — Cardinal Kenyon had, in fact, actively encouraged his attendants to do exactly this, hoping to gauge Hollingburton's true strength firsthand.
As luck would have it, Casten crossed paths with Cynthia, one of Lagrov's attendants among the dark elves. The two locked eyes at once. For Cynthia, it was purely calculated; for Casten, it was entirely genuine — years of repression within the Church's ranks finally boiling over all at once.
Cynthia kept him at just the right distance, drawing him in and pulling back by turns, and poor Casten fell hopelessly into infatuation. No one else knew of it at first. He returned to Kenyon's side clearly distracted, and though the cardinal found it a little odd, he thought nothing further of it. And so October first arrived.
That day, in the great hall, distinguished guests filled every seat — though the atmosphere among them ran anything but warm. Fortunately, Hollingburton had seated rival factions carefully apart, avoiding any open spark.
Ortlando delivered the opening address, thanking the assembled guests at length with proper formalities before finally moving to the matter at hand, while murmurs rippled quietly through the crowd below.
Cardinal Kenyon murmured to the knight beside him. "Is everything arranged?"
"Rest assured, everything's in place. The moment the floating city takes to the air, it will lose control entirely and come crashing down."
"None of our own people involved?"
"None. It's Tony Shulman — ranked forty-second on the heretics' list. Our people reached out to him. In exchange, we've agreed to stop hunting him."
Cardinal Kenyon nodded, settling back into his seat, resuming his proper posture, listening with feigned attentiveness, a small smile playing at his lips. Among the assembled guests, Evan noticed something strange — hardly a single delegation seemed to genuinely wish Hollingburton success, not even the elves. Most, it seemed, viewed the floating city as a threat of some kind, a disruption to the balance of power they preferred to keep undisturbed.
Evan wondered whether someone here might actually be planning sabotage. Of course, whatever occurred to Evan had surely occurred to Ortlando as well. As far as Evan understood, defensive measures had been steadily reinforced ever since construction began, to the point now where not even a fly could slip through uninvited — barring some betrayal from within, no outsider should have been able to breach it at all, especially with the floating city's internal detection arrays capable of scanning practically every stone in the structure.
The ceremony didn't run long. Once the guests filed out of the great hall, a fleet of airships already waited outside. Ortlando, it turned out, had planned this from the start — he'd originally intended to build a dedicated transport array, but Evan's airship project had caught his eye, and he'd thrown considerable resources into production instead. Dozens of airships now hovered outside the hall, lavishly finished both inside and out.
While the ceremony had been underway, two or three dozen airships had arrived silently, and their sudden appearance genuinely startled the guests as they emerged. Ortlando gestured for everyone to board. The vessels, built entirely of oak, gave no outward hint of their true nature. Guests boarded in turn, each ship seating ten, finished in fine leather seating with small tea tables and other lavish touches.
Evan accompanied Lagrov aboard, seating her comfortably. Her handmaidens chattered and giggled in a boisterous cluster, and Lagrov made no move to quiet them. Evan felt a private twinge of exasperation, though he kept up a properly deferential manner throughout.
"Lady Lagrov, is everything to your satisfaction?" Evan asked.
"Very much so. Hollingburton's had no shortage of new inventions these past couple of years. This ship's quite fine — could I purchase one, perhaps?" Lagrov said.
"Give me a moment, I'll inquire," Evan said with a smile, opening a communication device with practiced ease — after all, these were built entirely from his own designs, dressed up in finer trim but structurally unchanged.
He reached Ortlando and explained the request. Ortlando laughed heartily. "Sell her one, then, Wang — our very first sale, and you're the one who's made it happen." With that, he named a price.
Evan turned back to Lagrov, who smiled. "Very well, agreed on your terms. Send someone once it's settled, and have them teach my handmaidens how to pilot it."
"Congratulations, Lady Lagrov — this airship now belongs to you. Let's get it moving, so you can properly experience it," Evan announced. The mage at the helm received the signal, and the sails snapped open at once — the ship had no real need of sails, technically, but people's mental image of a ship demanded them regardless, so sails it had, the array running smoothly across the canvas, generating its own wind to drive the vessel forward.
The other ships lifted off the ground one after another, each fitted with large portholes of glass. Barbara poured coffee. The ship ran remarkably steady, cruising at a modest height — barely two hundred-odd cubits off the ground.
Lagrov gazed out the window, sipping her coffee. "Not bad. The technology itself isn't especially advanced, and yet Hollingburton's gotten the jump on everyone else with it."
Her handmaidens crowded at the portholes, chattering excitedly among themselves.
Evan smiled. "Lady Lagrov, the technology behind these airships isn't particularly sophisticated, true enough — but it needs more than just a mage to run it. What it truly requires is a magic core or magic crystal. Without one, even a mage alone couldn't sustain it. And magic crystals, or cores of this quality, are exceedingly rare. If Hollingburton hadn't discovered a proper vein of them, these airships would never have become a reality at all."
Lagrov studied him. "I see. You're hoping to sell me crystals as well. Fortunate for you, I'm not short on funds — I can afford to keep an airship running."
Both of them laughed.