Chapter 1 Part 1 of 2 (Patreon)

Vuzgal was gone.

Evernight shook her head as she folded the letter containing her orders and stored it away. She looked out at King’s Hill and took a deep breath. Time to do the job.

She walked down the corridor to Aditya’s office. The guards opened the door. Pan Kun was sitting with Aditya. They were eating while looking at the map on the main table. She waited for the doors to close before she pulled out the letter and put it on the table.

“Vuzgal has fallen. There is a change in policy. If anyone screws with Beast Mountain, we warn them once. If they do not understand it, we use force. Alva will continue to support us. Recruitment will be accelerated. Once the first line of defenses are created, a second set is to be created to increase our domain. The army will recruit and train its own members. Those that pass secondary selection will go to Alva to join their military.”

Aditya read the letter as he listened to her.

Pan Kun turned his eyes to the map, studying his army’s positions. “It’ll be tight, that is a lot of land to cover.”

“You can use Adventurer’s Guild members as mercenaries, if you need to.” Evernight said.

“Do they know about Alva? About all of this?” Aditya asked.

“We do not know. That’s why everything will keep going as it has already, except more quickly. Make it look like we’re consolidating our gains. Bring the kingdoms to the table and smack their heads together. Use Elise’s and Emmanuel’s support on the trade front to bend them over.”

“Use power of might over the seduction of words,” Aditya said, folding the letter slowly and passing it back.

“Doesn’t matter what we use as long as the Beast Mountain Range and Alva are secure from threat. Anything threatening either will meet the full fury of our forces,” Evernight said.

***

“So, we just keep working like everything is normal?” Elise asked.

“Since we got the news from Vuzgal we’ve been running around trying to put out fires. Many have lost loved ones or simply don’t know what happened to them.” Delilah’s level voice cut through the dungeon headquarter’s council room. “The plan that was created for such a situation is simple. Go to ground and continue activities as they are on the surface without disruption. Prepare for immediate attack on Alva, secure the Beast Mountain Range and increase the speed the drill works at. We need to let the dust settle and see where it lands.”

The room calmed down as Elise sat down.

“I’m sorry I just ...” Elise trailed off, showing the weight of the past days.

“I know, we’re all worried about our loved ones.” Delilah’s voice softened.

Jia Feng reached out and held Elise’s shoulder. Elise patted her hand and sat upright.

Momma Rodriguez stood up. “Let’s go for a walk,”

“What?” Delilah frowned.

“There are plenty of meetings to be had and a lot of paperwork to be done. Do you think you can get it all done from here? Or do you think the Alvans would like to see their council leaders out, doing things? Come on, Rugrat told me it is your tradition to have a meal during or after a meeting. None of you look like you’ve eaten much, so let Momma Rodriguez feed you.”

“Bu—” Delilah’s words died on her tongue as Momma tilted her head forward.

All Delilah heard was No one messes with Momma in Rugrat’s voice.

“Okay.”

Captain Arenson, Jia Feng, Taran, Evernight, Melissa Bouchard, Elise and Delilah bent their heads to Momma Rodrigeuz’s power and shuffled out of the headquarters.

They reached the street, where people were walking to and from work or tasks. There was a heaviness in the air. A shared worry.

“Come on, let’s get something to eat, Captain Arenson,” Momma Rodriguez put her arm in the Police Captain’s. “How is security?”

Arenson’s tired features smoothed into a smile. “It isn’t too bad. There are a few people that want to leave. We have some people working in the First Realm and other places. The fact that there are different rules for different people is making it harder.”

Delilah massaged the back of her neck. “It’s complicated.”

“Why not uncomplicate it? Trade is allowed, those with essential jobs in the realms can carry out their tasks. Others are advised to stay but not restrained,” Momma said.

“But then we have more people moving around,” Delilah replied.

“If you tell people they can’t do something, then they are sure to want to do it. Trust me, I had three children and a harassed cookie jar!”

Delilah smiled with the others.

“Though, people will run out of fear.”

“Better to let the fear go away than build up. These contracts stop anyone from talking about Alva, no?”

“Yes, but—”

“You’re overcomplicating it. Don’t make something that works in every situation. Make something that works for the situation.”

Delilah closed her mouth, thinking on it. It… well, it does make sense. “That should work.”

“Good! And Jia Feng, I heard there’s some discrepancies with the academy?”

“Attendance has dropped. They want to focus on training because it’s cheaper,” Jia Feng said.

Melissa stepped forward.

“Miss Bouchard?”

“We’re seeing a lot of people coming in to do training as well. We have a lot of training facilities and supplies. But it might be a problem if we have the military training more people.”

“Military always has priority for training rooms. People can make more if they want to as long as they adhere to our standards. Same with concoctions. If people are not studying, that is their prerogative. Make sure they know they will not be getting their money back,” Delilah said.

“Is anyone feeling like soup? Mister Yi has a great beast meat and noodle soup to die for,” Momma said as she led the group.

They nodded to people who looked surprised to see them walking through the city.

“How are things with our supplies?” Delilah asked Elise.

“We have more than enough. The other floors supply all we could need. Rugrat and Erik got a lot of materials from the higher realms and sent them here first. We have a lot of people here from Vuzgal though; all the admin families, military, crafters.”

“We have more teachers than students. Most of our people were in the Alvan reserves, it’s a bit of a mess,” Jia sighed.

“What about a job board like we had in the past? Have one in the crafter district. We can hold open the positions of the people that are serving in the military. We need to deal with the surge of people returning to Alva and plan for how to get them jobs,” Delilah said.

“Agreed, going to be a lot crazier with everyone in Alva,” Momma said as they passed through iron arches between buildings. The space opened up into a pond, with benches, trees and bushes positioned to create a weaving path through it all.

“Options?” Delilah asked.

“I hope the police force can get some more people. With the increase in population, we’re not as big as we need to be,” Arenson offered.

“Agreed, we need to make sure there is a service people can go to, if they are ever in need,” Delilah agreed.

“We can set up a tutor program. We will have more teachers going through the workshops, helping people refine their craft. That allows us to increase our production and put our teachers to work,” Jia Feng said. “We can also increase the number of teachers in the Beast Mountain Range Consortium, slowly.”

“Good idea.”

“The factories still require a lot of people to work in them. We can build more to fulfill our military’s needs. Now that we’ve gone through a siege, we know what kinds of items we use more and less of,” Taran said. “We should push for the development of civilian factories too. They would provide more jobs for our people. Create ad hoc production facilities. Factories that exist to create other people’s stuff. That way several companies can use one factory to produce their own items.”

“I like it, and we have a lot of raw materials stored up. But, what about material production on the other floors?” Delilah looked around but didn’t find Egbert or hear his voice.

Elise cleared her throat. “Production has slowed on the other floors. With the merchants held here, or in the backup dungeons, there is nowhere to sell the resources. There is one thing I haven’t touched on. The effect of our merchants not trading.”

“Go on,” Delilah prompted as they passed a burbling creek with water that ran down toward the pond.

“Our traders spread across five realms. In the higher realms their impact isn’t as large. But in the First, Second and Third Realm, our traders have become a vital part of trade routes and economies. They’ve been missing for a few weeks and it’s starting to show. I would think a great number of the merchants will be heading out. They have trade they need to complete.”