The big question was: Where would the Free Hive hide a stash of stolen combat cars?

Arthur had a pretty good guess.

It would have to be a place that was fairly inaccessible to the hive civilians and yet reachable by the council. A place nowhere else would go, and unlikely to have someone stumble upon it. Most importantly, it would have to be somewhere protected.

Arthur would bet money – and indeed he was about to bet his safety – that this location would be either in or near the underground prison complex.

He hadn’t been back there since that initial visit with the would-be assassin, but he’d made a point of mentally marking where the entrance had been on top of the Mesa.

The only problem? It was underground. That meant it needed to be accessed using Earth powers.

None of which anyone had.

Luckily, both Arthur and Brixaby had the solution in their heart decks.

Over the last couple of months, both had kept an eye on who had the most interesting cards. Arthur, out of more scholarly curiosity, and Brixaby out of greed.

They both knew just the person they needed to visit for this task.

It was a green dragon who had muddy brown splotches covering the bottom of his belly and up his neck. It had the unfortunate side-effect of making it look like a disease. He wasn’t pretty, but he was pleasant enough to talk to. He was also one of the many dragons who had his own crafting booth, including several employees.

Since he was a green, his core card should be some kind of nature-based ability. But neither Arthur nor Brixaby knew what that could have been. Instead, this green was obsessed with pottery. And he had an Uncommon Earth Manipulation card he used to make his wares.

It was a simple task to stroll down to the crafter’s cave in the evening, stand beside the open-air booth, and watch as the dragon smoothly crafted a vase made of expensive white clay on his pottery wheel. Two apprentices – both human – sweated as they ran round and round in a circular pit, pushing bars that linked up to the giant wheel above. They must have had endurance cards because they were able to maintain an even jog for hours at a time. Meanwhile, the dragon’s claws seemed to coax thin walls to spring up out of the clay like magic.

New Counterfeit Spell: Basic Earth Manipulation

Time remaining: 11 Hours 59 minutes, 59 seconds.