Chapter 85: Champion, Chapter 18: Rebuild, Renew

Aidan

The Realms

Firstday, 3rd week of the 9th month, Age of the Chosen 1

Mid-Morning

Ceallach Macht, Mistvale Highlands

"Well, at least this place is less ominous than when I left it last," Anwn told Aidan, "and it looks like there is enough housing for everyone."

"That was my first priority, yes," Aidan agreed. "It will be a while longer before we're back to having an individual house for each family, though. I've got resources allocated and plenty of untiring hands to build them, but only one architect. Besides, I figured this was a chance to let everyone customize their homes."

"Hmm, perhaps. It would have been better to have permanent housing available, but I can acknowledge that the circumstances did not allow it. You realize that logic will not save you from the tribe's disappointment?"

Aidan grimaced. "Yeah, I know. It's not an ideal start, but it's what I could do. Once everyone is here and settled in, I'm going to throw a feast. I haven't been able to do much other than practice my skills for the last week and a half, so I've been going on hunting expeditions in my spare time. We've got a lot of food stocked up, and I'm going to spend some of it for some goodwill."

Anwn nodded. "That will help."

"Anyway," Aidan shifted the subject, "how about you? Is there anything I can do to help you settle in? I'm sure you don't want to live in the city proper, but I know that your home near the old village was not a small expense."

To his surprise, Anwn blushed. "Ah, no, thank you. We found ... suitable accommodations, although once everyone is settled in, I will have to contract Ceirios again for some renovations."

"Are you sure? This is, in large part, because of me. The least I can do is help shoulder the expenses..." Aidan drifted off as Anwn's open expression drew closed. "Nevermind," he sighed, "I won't push. But if there's ever anything I can do for you, you have but to ask."

Anwn gave him a sharp nod. "I will take you up on that, but not for this. I do not enjoy the game of debts and favors, but my home needs to be my home. If I could do the work myself, I would."

"I can certainly understand that," Aidan said with a wry shake of his head. "I'm not really cut out for politics, myself. But neither of us have many choices in that regard, do we?" He paused and looked over Anwn, taking in the dark circles under her eyes, the way strands of hair poked out of her braid at odd angles...

"Please forgive me if this is too familiar of me; I've asked this of everyone who was under my command in the raid, so I'm not singling you out. How are you holding up, mentally and emotionally? What happened was trying for all of us, but..." Aidan closed his eyes briefly, remembering a sheltered valley and a communal grave. "You suffered more than anyone else in my team." He opened his eyes again and fixed his gaze on Anwn's. "If you need to talk, I'm available, or I can find someone you'd be more comfortable talking to. I know I'm not your favorite person."

"You..." Anwn searched his eyes for a moment, then turned away from Aidan. "I have come to realize that my initial judgment of you was... somewhat hasty. I have no grudge against you, Aidan Lostlorn. What happened was... not your fault." She drew in a ragged breath. "The wounds are still fresh. I may seek you out at a later time, and I do appreciate the offer. But... right now... it would be too much."

"Of course. Whenever you're ready, just let me know. Until then, how far ahead of the main column are you?"

Anwn seemed to appreciate the move back into safer territory. "They should start to arrive this afternoon, and the stragglers should be mostly done by noon tomorrow." At Aidan's grimace, she explained, "The Council decided that it would be less disruptive to let people move at their own pace, more or less. It put a strain on the warriors, but they are up to the task. Forced-marching civilians would have eroded morale to an unacceptable degree."

"I can't disagree with that," Aidan conceded. "Alright. Is there anything else I need to know or anything I can help you with?" Anwn shook her head. "Then I have preparations to finalize. Thank you, Anwn."

"Of course." She gave him a nod, then turned and walked off. Aidan stretched and rolled his shoulders. Brighid worked late the previous night, so he hadn't slept as well as usual. He wasn't upset with her—in fact, he was happy that she got engrossed in her work enough to forget the time—but he'd gotten used to sleeping with his head nestled against her bosom and her arms around him.

With the stress of his responsibilities and worries, Aidan felt stretched and worn by the end of each day. He had an inkling now of what Bilbo meant by feeling like butter scraped over too much bread. There was only so much of him—his attention, his mental processes, his ability to care—to go around. He welcomed the influx of new residents in part because he was eager to delegate much of his authority back to the Starchaser Council.

At least he had reason to believe Sunnild was doing well. He'd missed her more than he thought he would or should, but Brighid reminded him of one of his newer spells, Shared Dream. The fact that he couldn't control the dreams meant that he couldn't use them to communicate with Sunnild, but he still got to enjoy her presence. To his surprise, her dreams of him had been almost strictly non-sexual so far. In fact, there were only a few that contained anything but long cuddle sessions, and in those, they played among flower fields that seemed out of place in the Highlands.

Still, there had been no nightmares. Aidan's intuitive understanding of the Shared Dreams spell told him that those were just as valid to share as the more agreeable types. Their shared nights had always been pleasant and happy so far, and that led Aidan to believe Sunnild herself was doing alright even though she had yet to return. That kept his concern for her to a bare simmer.

Of course, Aidan thought to himself with a smile, my new spell gives me some options. He woke up that morning with a few welcome prompts waiting for him:

He looked forward to being able to talk to his little dove again.

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Aidan

Mid-Afternoon

As Anwn predicted, the first Starchaser vanguard made it to Ceallach Macht's outskirts a couple of hours after noon. Fionn led them into the city, and Aidan was there to greet him.

"How was the trip?" Aidan asked.

"Uneventful," the warrior replied. "Not much in these parts is willing to attack a group our size. We spotted a drake flying around, but those are smart enough not to pick a fight that they obviously will not win."

"Good to hear. We've got housing set up for the whole tribe with room to spare, although it's communal for now." Aidan waved a hand at a nearby cross-shaped building. "Each fits four families or other groups of up to six centaurs, with a shared kitchen in the middle. We built forty of them plus a pair of barracks that can house twenty soldiers each, bringing our total housing capacity up to a thousand. There are also two large barracks and some additional quarters in Caer Macht, although those are still in pretty bad shape and unfurnished. I'll leave it up to you and the other Councillors whether you want to take public housing or move under the hill."

"Hmmm," Fionn rumbled. "For now, I believe I will set up with the rest of the tribe. Once things have settled down somewhat, we can see about moving into your citadel."

Aidan snorted. "It's really not that much of a fortress. It has the capacity to be self-sustaining, but there are only a couple hundred feet of straight tunnel between the entrance and the Throne. I can't imagine it would be difficult to invade."

"True," the Councillor agreed, "but it is still the seat of power for the city. It looks like you have already begun construction on a structure at the entrance, as well; is that going to be the new government building?"

"Yep. It'll be another week before it's finished, but everything is proceeding on schedule for now. It won't add anything to the defensiveness of Caer Macht, though. I decided on an open-air design for the Council hall so that any and all citizens can watch when we're in session. The rest of the land around it will be reserved for art and culture—galleries, amphitheaters, statue gardens. I've already received communication from the Ash Shroud Sisterhood—we'll talk about it more once Eilwen and Gerwyn get here tomorrow—and I want to make sure everyone knows they're welcome here."

Fionn nodded along with Aidan's explanation. "I understand what you are trying for, but I hope you do not plan to ignore defenses entirely."

Aidan shook his head. "I'm no expert at military matters, so I wanted to wait for you to get back before I did too much planning in that regard. We don't have enough prepared stone to rebuild the original city wall, but there's enough to make a new one around the city core if we're judicious with it. I don't know what else to plan for, though. Also, one of the Ash Shroud harpies who came by has levels in the Engineering Skill; I'd like to add her to our planning once she returns. She's a pacifist, but I don't think she'll mind helping us plan defensive works."

"Oh?" Fionn raised an eyebrow. "Interesting to find a pacifist among the Sisterhood. Are you certain she is trustworthy enough to entrust with such vital information?"

Aidan sighed. "I'm not certain that anyone is trustworthy except for Brighid, Cai, and Llwyd. Ailis and I are working on it, but I'm not there yet with her. As for the spirit of your question, I trust her about as much as I trust you, and like I said, she's a pacifist. It would appear to be quite out of character for her to sabotage a city's defenses."

"Fair enough. Well, I need to get our people settled."

"Oh, I put some thought into how to assign housing, by the way," Aidan said before Fionn left. "The system we worked out is to let people organize themselves into groups of three to six people—fewer than three and we're likely to run out of space—and then they can draw numbers out of a hat for where they sleep tonight. Tomorrow when the stragglers get here, we let everyone self-organize again and draw their permanent assignment."

He shrugged and hedged, "Well, there's no reason not to let them trade numbers or whatever, but it will at least prevent any accusations of bias in the selection process. If we let everyone pick, the 'best' houses will be taken tonight, leaving the slower half of the population to pick over the scraps. Didn't seem very fair to me."

Fionn nodded. "Yes, that is similar to what I was thinking. I am glad to see that you gave it consideration, Aidan. I will discuss it with the others tomorrow, but I see no reason not to implement it for tonight. Thank you." So saying, he turned and moved towards the main plaza, where the healthiest and most active Starchaser villagers were gathered.

With his meeting finished, Aidan turned to Cai. "Now that the first group is here, I want you and Llwyd to start screening warriors to be part of my guard corps. In fact, I'm promoting you two to joint Captains of the Guard. I'll leave organization and such to you, but I want you to shift to a more administrative role. I recognize the need for me to have bodyguards, but I want Brighid, Sunnild, and Ailis guarded as well, and I don't want either you or Llwyd to be spending your time on that."

Seeing her start to object, Aidan held up his hand, palm out. "No objections, Cai. I know that you two are the only dedicated combatants pledged to me, which makes you the perfect bodyguards, but you can't be everywhere at once. Like I said, I want everyone I'm close to protected, and even now, that leaves the two of you to guard four people. We can supplement the guards with elementals within the city, so we don't need to totally deplete the Starchaser's veteran warriors for now. And once the harpies get settled in, I'll want some of them in the guards as well. Not immediately, but I can't be seen to favor any one faction too strongly if this is going to work."

Cai did not look pleased. "My Lord, please reconsider!"

"No, Cai, I'm sorry, but my mind is already made up on this." He gave her a lopsided grin. "Besides, it's yours and Llwyd's fault, anyway. You're the ones who said that I had the potential to make the world a better place, and this is one of the ways I'm going to do it. I'll lead by example. It's going to be hard to argue that I'm working against any faction when I have them watching me sleep. Again, though, I'm leaving recruitment and such up to you. Take whatever precautions you feel are necessary, within reason, and I'll back you up. I'm not going to mandate a percentage or anything like that so long as you don't make me. You know my goals, and I trust you to do your part. Understood?"

His vassal grimaced but nodded. "Yes, Lord Aidan. Thy will be done."

Zurai

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