Organization I

As soon as the mage tower was completed, Shane moved in. The chief mage's floor was divided into several rooms: a living room, reception room, and study. The council had been reasonably generous, paying to lay wooden floors and paint and wallpaper the walls on every level. But compared to other mages, his chief mage's floor was rather shabby. He had merely moved in the things from the outpost cabin, making it look like an ordinary home.

The first visitor was Sylvanas. She climbed in through the window and personally helped test the alarm ward. The moment her foot touched the fifth-floor boards, Shane caught her red-handed.

"Why can't you use the front door?" Shane asked helplessly.

"You expect a Windrunner to follow rules in front of a Dawnblade? Dream on."

Given the delicate nature of their relationship and Shane's own position, he found himself speechless.

As if returning in triumph, Sylvanas held her head high and strode into Shane's living room. With a single glance, she took in the entire arrangement. Finding the chair she often sat in, she nodded approvingly and sat down. "I didn't expect you to be so sentimental. I thought you'd replace everything once you moved into the mage tower."

There was a small tea table beside the chair, with two books casually placed on it. Sylvanas picked them up and began leafing through them. Shane had spent quite a while with her and knew many of her habits. With a snap of his fingers, a Mage Hand lifted the teapot and poured her a cup of tea. He then leaned against the other side of the tea table and practiced his spellcasting.

The room was quiet, broken only by the occasional sound of Sylvanas turning a page. Shane repeatedly compressed and released fire energy in his hand, keeping the spell perpetually at the verge of taking shape as the temperature gradually rose.

"I heard you can craft magical items. Is that true?"

Sylvanas broke the silence, though her hands and eyes remained focused on the book.

"Yes, I can make some delicate little things," Shane replied. His crafting practice was scheduled from two to six in the afternoon. He had improved somewhat since enchanting Vereesa's hair accessory. He could now do more than enchant items with strengthening spells; he could also add utility spells, such as night vision, illumination, and lightness.

"I was thinking we could work together. I provide the materials, and you help me make magical items. What do you think?"

"Hm?" Shane turned to look at Sylvanas. She was reading with her head lowered, her profile calm. Shane knew every piece of equipment she possessed. The Windrunner family had crafted a complete set of fine gear for her, and it was said her bow had been passed down from the War of the Ancients. Its magical radiance alone could blind plenty of people.

"We can sell them to the humans," she added.

Shane needed money. The few hundred gold coins in his purse would not even be enough to carpet the mage tower. As for his thirty-five percent stake in the ocean-going ships, he would have to wait until the next trade voyage returned before receiving dividends.

"So? Do you agree?" Sylvanas shifted positions, crossing her right leg over her left.

"Then it's a pleasure working with you." The mage tower needed to generate value of its own if it was to operate healthily. Producing magical items was a good way to do that, and Shane readily agreed.

Sylvanas moved quickly. Within a few days, more than a dozen luxurious accessories and enough magical materials for sixty enchantments were delivered to the mage tower. The accessories included hair ornaments, earrings, brooches, and rings. Considering cost-effectiveness, Shane enchanted each item with one strengthening spell and one utility spell, or two strengthening effects.

Strength was usually paired with endurance, while agility was paired with a lightness spell.

Enchanting three spells required several times the materials and placed greater demands on the item itself. However, Shane thought of brand recognition. He could sell the magical items he made in batches, with one or two featured products in each batch to establish the brand.

Among the dozen or so accessories, Shane selected a brooch: the Thorium Butterfly. Its surface was set with three hundred tiny Azeroth diamonds, while each of its four wings was decorated with an Arcane Crystal. It had already been enchanted with Strength and Endurance, and for the third enchantment, he chose another strengthening spell: Steel Armor.

At the enchanting table, with his ability to precisely control three groups of spell orbs in annihilation motion, the brooch devoured ten portions of essence and dust. Its magical radiance intensified, and the enchantment succeeded.

He named it Brilliant Adamantine Might. Its effects were to strengthen strength and endurance and, when used, reinforce the wearer's armor. Most human nobles of this era were warriors, so Shane did not need to worry about finding buyers.

All the magical items were handed over to Sylvanas to be sold through the Windrunner channels. Once the funds came in, she placed two bags of gold coins on the small tea table where they usually drank tea. Shane saw that the tabletop had bent slightly under the weight.

"That much?"

"Yes. That much."

Sylvanas gave him a list. The total profit came to two thousand gold coins, split equally between her and Shane.

"Now that you've made money, you should spruce up this floor a little. Add some things."

Appearance reflected strength, and Shane did not want people to think he was weak or miserly to the bone.

"I'll write to the clan and have them purchase the supplies." The money might not be enough, but they could buy things in batches. Once the trade ships returned, everything could be completed.

The Dawnblades were no less efficient than the Windrunners. Carpets, desks, magical lamps, decorative paintings, potted plants, small bookshelves, and other furnishings soon arrived. The study was filled out first. Aside from a few inconspicuous details lacking trigger spells, and the fact that the everyday tools were not particularly luxurious, it now looked like the study of a chief mage.

Sylvanas was once again the first visitor.

"I think it feels a little strange. Here," she said, pointing at a wall. "There should be a bow there." Typical Windrunner aesthetics.

Shane thought she was joking, but the following evening, she put it into action. She brought over a bow and mounted it on the wall, then looked at her handiwork with great satisfaction and insisted it be kept. Shane was not so intolerant over such a small thing, but he added an unadorned staff crossed with the bow in an X shape. That satisfied him as well.

The second batch of materials Sylvanas sent was much larger: thirty accessories and enough materials for a hundred enchantments. Shane could not keep up by himself. For the mage tower to create value, it first had to become an organization. Members would contribute, with part of the results used to maintain the mage tower, part belonging to its master, and part used to meet the members' needs.

What was the greatest value of a mage tower and its chief mage? What could satisfy the members' needs? The answer was knowledge. But the mage tower lacked sufficient foundations and could only accumulate them gradually. For now, he would find a few mages who needed stable work to help.

Hawkins Firehawk came into view. He had returned after several months of adventuring. His dream of striking it rich had not come true, but he had become considerably rougher. When word reached Windrunner Outpost, Shane went to Quel'Thalin to see him. Learning that he was drinking in a tavern, Shane had barely reached the entrance when he heard Hawkins loudly boasting about his adventures.

"My dwarf friends and I discovered a Titan ruin in the south. You heard right, a Titan ruin. There were five of us: me, my two attendants Avril and Lumina, and two dwarf friends. One was a warrior, the other a hunter. We fought our way in from the entrance, because the place was full of troggs, but none of them were a match for us. What we didn't expect was that there were too many of them. We couldn't kill them all, and they forced us into a corner and surrounded us. I cast an illumination spell, and gods, the cave was packed with them—so densely packed that not even a rat could squeeze through. Just as we were about to be drowned beneath them, I stepped in and saved everyone. I unleashed flames, waved my hand lightly, and a rain of fire fell from the ceiling. The moment the troggs were touched by even a little of it, they were burned to ash."

"Wait, that's not what I heard from Lumina. She said you were surrounded shortly after entering and had no choice but to collapse the cave to escape."

"I'm not done yet. What's the rush? Interrupt me again and I'll blast you into the sky!" Hawkins Firehawk had grown somewhat drunk after several cups and shouted loudly.

Though drunk, he seemed more reliable than when Shane had first met him. But now was not the right time to approach him. He would have to start elsewhere. Shane found Hawkins's attendants, the two female elves he had once promised to marry. After hearing Shane's purpose, Avril and Lumina immediately sprang into action, dragging their master out of the tavern and taking him home to sober up. Shane glanced at the sleeping Hawkins Firehawk, then before leaving, specifically told them not to mention that he had come looking for him. He would pay an official visit the next day.