A day later at 1500, Nix ported back into the Lifestyle Village. Darsi, Dalton and five others were waiting next to the platform.

Nix held out a hand. “Everyone please join hands.” He waited patiently until everyone complied, then he activated Deep Blue and chose Jenzi.

Darsi stepped off the platform, she had been to Jenzi many times, so she wasn’t standing there gawking like the rest of her group. Her eyes were watching Nix. “This entire time, you have an artifact that can do what I spent the last few months trying to accomplish.”

“I suppose so, it’s not like I could just tell you that.” He glanced at the rest of the group, “tomorrow morning I’ll pick you up here at 0700 and bring you back to the hub.”

“Can I copy the artifact that you use for travel?”

“I’ll consider it, but first you need to show that you can make the daily commute work.”

One of the men who were in the group stepped forward. He was a thin Asian man with close-cropped hair. “So we treat the hub like a regular job, 0700-1500, and we can live anywhere in this world?”

Dalton Moore’s face showed that he was still nervous being around, but he could see the sense in the plan. “We meet our quotas and there are no issues from the Gladis Hub.”

Nix nodded, “you can make a lot of credits in Colonial while you are here. You can arrange to keep that so you have something put aside when you are done. It’s something to think about.”

Darsi smiled at him, her pretty face finally relaxing. “What about the island you mentioned?”

“We are building our own town, there is room for crafters.” Nix knew that most of this group would probably be done with their sentences in the next few years. Any shop you started, would still be yours after you are released.”

They were all still staring at him when he activated the Deep Blue and chose Cyphix. He couldn’t keep the smile off his face when he noticed the empty lot that had once been the Kindled Spirit. All he had done was mention moving to Glory Island and Hyai had jumped at the chance. Apparently she was tired of the cold and had been wanting to relocate to someplace warmer.

“Nix!” Hyai was walking down the street with Kyla, both of them were carrying glowing deeds in their hands.

Nix smiled at the pair, although Hyai’s hair was a shade lighter red, the two could have passed for mother and daughter very easily. The gunsmith was well known in Cyphix for doing quality work. “Did you recruit us a gunsmith?”

“Yep.” Hyai held up the deed in her hand. To complete the transfer, all Nix needed to do was to assign her a plot large enough on Glory Island and the Inn would construct. The build time was about four hours.

“Is someone going to come looking for me since I’m stealing all the business owners in Cyphix?”

Kyla nodded, “the entire town will be missing Hyai’s cooking.”

Hyai smiled at the compliment. “Are we going to be the only two business owners in town?”

Nix held out his hands, “let me show you the site.”

The Inn Site was overlooking the cove, Hyai’s eyes lit up the moment she saw it. Nix assigned her the plot and she activated her Inn Deed. The small grouped walked along the dock, most of the ten shops would be facing seaward, Nansu and Fajii were already setting up the Alchemy shop which was nearly in the middle of the dock area.

Nix pointed to plot just to the right of Nansu’s. “That’s where my Tailor shop is going, all you have to do is choose one that you like.”

He activated the town menu and assigned himself the plot after paying a hefty price. Kyla pointed to the one on the other side of him. “That one works for me.”

He nodded and assigned her the plot, Fajii and Nansu walked out of their shop when they noticed the newcomers.

“Nansu and Fajii, this is our new Inn Keeper, Hyai and our Gunsmith shop owner, Kyla.”

Neither Hyai nor Kyla seemed to mind Fajii being an Aquarion, they were both aware that Inferno was allied with the Souza Accord. Nix had already told them, that this would be an Aquarion friendly island.

***********

By the time Nix made it back to the Sea-World, most of Inferno was lounging on the third deck of his houseboat.

Shae smiled when she saw him. “Ready for action Nix?”

He leaned against the rail next to her and nodded at Mina who had been waiting for him so she could start her brief.

“Arcadia is the biggest Temple in Colonia. Capturing a Temple in Colonial is straightforward. Eliminate the temple spirit and kill the acolytes. You can then capture the Temple deed. Once you do that the Temple will automatically deconstruct within a few hours.”

Pon was looking at a map on his hud. “How many acolytes and what sort of spirit?”

“There will be six Aquarion Water mages serving as acolytes. The water spirit is a Lord class spirit. She is currently the highest spirit controlling a Temple in Colonial.” Mina shot a glance toward Shae, “at least for now.”

The old fire mage wrinkled his face, “Aquarion water mages are much stronger than their human counterpart.”

“Which is why you, Nix and Sharl will form a team of three to kill each of them.” Jun Li had taken on the role of Raid Leader since Nix had asked her. “The rest of us will ensure that you aren’t overrun by reinforcements.”

Mina nodded, “initially we can expect that there won’t be much reaction, but if they figure out what we are trying to do, we can expect to face an army.”

Shae had been listening to the raid brief. “The Water Lord there is quite old and very strong, we are each other’s weakness. If we can successfully take this temple, Mermaid City will be substantially weakened.”

Jun Li zoomed in on Pon’s map. “Mina has a portal point saved relatively close by. We shouldn’t run into any issues before we get to Arcadia. The Main raid group will hit the Courtyard next to the entrance. Here the Temple group of Shae, Nix, Pon, and Sharl will push in. Shae will directly access the elemental world anchored to the temple while the others move on the Acolytes. We will set up in the doorway to create a bottleneck defense. If we can’t win this fight in fifteen minutes, everyone will retreat back to Glory. Questions?”

Ronnie was studying the map, she had wanted to fight with her sister, but her lack of fire gear meant that she would have to be part of the defense. “What sort of benefits will the Temple bring Glory?”

Semmi had the most Colonial knowledge so she fielded the question. “We can expect a huge fire damage buff, probably thirty percent. Shae will be given an elemental world that is anchored to the temple, this will draw fire mages from all over Colonial. We will also be able to anchor a seed-world to the temple.”

Nix looked up when she said the last part. “Can we anchor the Sea-World to the temple?”

Semmi nodded, “In a round-about way. Temples come with a tiny speck of a seed world, this is meant for the Acolytes to reside in. Seed worlds all have one thing in common, no matter what their size is. They can be combined.”

“That’s going to be a fire seed world right,” Nix asked? “Won’t that be bad if we combine it with a water-world?”

“That’s something no one knows, but if we can manage it then the temple portal will become a private access to the Sea-World.”

**************