Chapter 54: 52 – Arrangements

Seriously. Do the elves really need to all come fucking live with me? Their civil war has effectively ended. This is just so fucking annoying. I miss the dwarves. This side quest is fucking chaining into multiple parts... But it feels like this is the right choice. Call it instinct or a hunch, but I just 'know' that taking all of the elves will be the best for the long run. Fuck.

With the dungeon cleared, Talon and I left the hole. Nobody else can claim the core now, and I can just give it to Zahra later. Wait. Am I going to have to help them rebuild their fucking city? Nope. Fuck no. Drawing the line there. I refuse. Not happening. They can rebuild it their own damn self. 

Yes! That's it! Right now their magic fucking sucks. They have great capacity, supposedly, but like Chaos said, they all regressed. I guess that makes sense when essentially all of your strongest people died in a war, your one city was sacked, and your people scattered and fought each other. Makes sense that they would lose the knowledge of how to train it effectively. With no dungeon or monster cores to give even a little boost… Yeah. I can see why the magic they used against me sucked.

However, if I act as a fucking Library of Alexandria and spread some magical knowledge to the elves, then they can just come back here later with Zahra and rebuild the whole place! They could even pick up some building techniques from the humans and maybe some to the dwarves. If they get decent at magic, I can probably work something out with King Rancorock to trade some elven mages for showing a few of them the ropes. 

Also, I'll probably have to start coining more money soon. It's also really fucking weird. Iron is relatively easy to make with magic. Fuck, we even made that tungsten alloy. However, try to make copper, silver, or gold? Damn near fucking impossible unless you have a stupid amount of magic, and even then it's still fucking hard. It took Navi and I days to just magically melt some silver coins to do a thin coat over our family portrait frames. Did the gods build in a fucking anti-counterfeit measure in the [system]? Well, at least we got that mine. May have to start putting it to use before long. 

Wait. After the elves get better at magic and train for a bit, could I ship them and Zahra to that castle and have them mine and start rebuilding that city for me? Yes! I could fucking call it paying me back for taking them in and giving them food, water, shelter, equipment, and safety! If I paid them for it, that could jumpstart their own economy. It could even be a good mini-queen test for Zahra! She would essentially be a noble under me for a while, learn to govern, then I can fucking send her and the other elves to their forest to do their own thing! That might actually fucking work!

Alright. First step is getting the elves better at magic. With so many, my library alone won't be enough. I'll need more copies of the intro books. Erald still hand writes everything. It's a good thing they are all pretty short since they're just the basics of the basics, but writing them will just take for fucking ever. Fuck. I guess it's time for some Ascendance of a Bookworm. Looking at the time, I have spent a while just thinking through things and the sun is setting. 

(Anastasia, are you up?)

(Mommy Lia! Good evening!)

(Good evening to you, Anastasia! I have something I could really use your help with. Do you think you can give me a hand?)

(Yes! Definitely! Let me help!)

What a good kid, always wanting to help and do whatever she can. 

(Alright! I knew I could count on you. So, here's what we need to do. There are going to be a whole lot of elves coming to our town for a while, and we need to get them all good at magic. We don't have enough books for them to all use, so we need to make more magic intro books. It would take too long to write them all, so we're going to make a printing press.

(To have this work, we're going to need a whole bunch of little blocks that are all the same size, and then some skinny blocks. We also need tiny letters and punctuation marks that are all the same thickness. These then need to be attached to the blocks. Those letter blocks can then be placed with the letters facing up and arranged into words and sentences the size of a piece of paper.)

(Oh! Then we can cover the letters with ink and press the paper against them over and over and over to get lots and lots of copies of that page! Mommy Lia, that's so smart!) Anastasia said.

(Exactly! I think you're the smart one for catching on so quickly. I'm going to tell Aunt Navi to help you get started and then Steph and the other maids will help you print a bunch of books on paper Mommy Ailine will get for you. Can I leave you in charge of making the letter blocks, called type? To make it easy to make with magic, let's make them out of stone.)

(Sure! Yay! This will be so much fun!)

Sending off the excited little girl, I contacted the other parties.

(Hey, Navi?)

(What did you do this time, Lia? Should I expect a flock of gryphons to join us or something?)

(No, not that. I have a plan, but I need the elves to get better at magic for it to work. I just gave Anastasia the basic rundown on creating type and a printing press. Could you help her create the first set of type and give her more specifics since I'm not there? I'll have Steph and the maids help her run it. Should probably just take the night to explain it and help her make the first few letters?

(For ink we can probably just use some of those fertilizer goblins to make a crude gelatin and mix it with oil and charcoal. That should give us a basic ink if I remember correctly.)

(You know, Vamps. Fucking revolutionizing fantasy worlds doesn't always end well. But printing with movable type is just a logical connection of dots. I could probably rope in the library rat dwarves to help. Pitch it as teaching them a revolutionary way to create their own books or something.) Navi said.

(I could see them biting on that. Alright, I'll leave it to you. Anastasia is excited and expecting you sometime.)

(Yeah, yeah, I'll take care of the Rugrat. Just try not to drop more stuff for a while. Capiche?)

(I'll try my best.)

Letting Navi fly off to complete this, there are still a couple more I need to contact.

(Hey, Steph?)

(Yes, Your Majesty? Anastasia was just telling me about your plan for making books. Quite the ingenious idea.)

(Thanks. So would you and the maids be on board for helping her run it? Navi is going to try to get the dwarves that are in the library to join as well.)

(Of course,) Steph said. (We'll all help her as much as we can.)

(Thanks, Steph. When Navi gets there and describes the press components and the items needed for the ink, I'll leave that to you to oversee.)

(It will be done.)

Alright. Just one more.

(Ailine, you have a second?)

(Lia? Sure, what's the matter?)

(The elves are coming in much bigger numbers. Like almost their entire population. The first two hundred will be the same, but then thirteen hundred will come a month after. I have Navi and Elden working on housing, Anastasia, Steph, and the maids working on a project, James on security, but I need your help too.)

(Always. What can I do?)

(Anastasia is going to need a lot of paper, and we'll need a lot of food. Can I have you and Sara both do vegetable and paper runs, pretty much constantly? We're going to need mountains of both.)

(Of course, Lia. I'll get Sara and we'll do them as much as we can.)

(Thank you, Ailine. I love you.)

(I love you, too. Be safe coming home.)

(Definitely.)

Finally done delegating all of the tasks I needed, I walk over to Talon laying by the core. She's already sleeping soundly. Since we aren't outside, I unequip my armor for a set of casual clothes. I sit down and lay back in my normal spot against the hippogryph. She really does make a good cushion. Like a soft feathered bean bag chair. Falling asleep, I send a silent apology to Johannes Gutenberg for jacking his hard work. We'll fly back to the elves tomorrow and at least tell the two what's going on. Not sure what I'll say yet, though. Maybe I'll bring some gifts…Whatever. Time to sleep.

=====

POV - Dharma

Lia has been gone for the last few days. Ever since she arrived, these old bones have renewed energy again. From the moment she revealed her identity in a dazzling flash of fire, I knew this young woman would be what little ZaZa needed.

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That poor child. From the time she was born, she has been hunted by her own people. Ever since her father was young, I always acted as a sort of advisor to him. What a rambunctious boy. Giving me no end to his antics, and what a wonderful wife he found.

Neither of them deserved to die by the hands of their own people. And this child didn't deserve to be left with such a heavy burden to carry. It seems that she has begun to open up a little to Lia. That first day was very tumultuous. I was angry, as well as saddened, by what Lia put my sweet ZaZa through. However, as I thought on it, it was harsh, but would be needed.

Before ZaZa could be built up into a queen, she would need to see her own faults and what she lacked. But still. As her Granny, I was upset. Yet, the next day, Lia apologized for how she went about that and agreed to help ZaZa. 

That young vampire. I don't know her circumstances, but I couldn't get to be as old as I am if I couldn't see what makes people turn from looking deep in their eyes. That young woman has many internal storms raging. It seems like her heart and mind are two leaves connected by a thread, and blown around by a gale. Constantly jumbling and confusing each other. 

What she has on her mind, I don't know, but I can see she is trying her hardest to hold herself together to reach whatever her ultimate goal is. One other thing is for certain. She is a very kind person to her friends, even if she tries to mask it at times. Conversely, to her enemies, she's worse than any nightmare.

A person with nothing left to lose is incredibly dangerous. They'll charge forward with no concern for themselves, not even fearing death. Then, there is someone like Lia. Someone that has everything to lose, and knows it. To me, that's even more dangerous. They fear death, and know one mistake can cost them what they hold most precious. Thus, they are cautious and plan meticulously. They'll systematically destroy their enemies before they even realize what happened. They'll do whatever they can to change situations to benefit them. Add Lia's incredible strength to this? To be honest, I'm a bit frightened of Lia. 

Besides ZaZa, none of the other elves know where she went each night. She would tell me bits and pieces of her actions. Even this most recent mission she went on. Knowing that someone is in possession of that much power is terrifying. Were it not for the genuine kindness I can see within her, I would take ZaZa and run as far and as fast as I could. 

She's very much like her hippogryph. Both have monstrous strength and aren't afraid to use them at the drop of a copper. They'll defend what's theirs with everything they have. Even so, they're held back by their intellect and a sense of right and wrong. So much so, that they can lull you into a sense of contentment, forgetting what can happen to enemies in the dark or behind closed doors. 

My mother told me stories from her father of the times before the Vampire War. Even as elves traveled across the land, very few ever ventured into the vampire lands. When they did, the stories all say that their cities were beautiful, but incredibly eerie. That you could walk through town during the day and not a sound is heard, but you could tell people were around or that eyes were watching. 

Then, after one went to bed, the cities awoke. Voices and commotion could be heard all around, but when one looked outside, all was as dark. No torches, no magic. Just voices and sounds in a black void outside. The stories said that even happy laughter becomes eerie when you can't see where it's coming from.

Even before the Vampire War, the elves and other races held the vampires at arm's length, simply for the differences of their race. From the stories I was told, almost no elf ever made friends with a vampire. There were a couple stories that mentioned when a vampire would help kill a tough monster or some other task. All had one consensus. That the vampires held enormous physical and magical capabilities. It's no wonder the races were afraid of them.

Even with Lia. Creating a city that is for all of the races to interact. It's similar to putting a collar on a wolf. You soften it, forgetting how powerful it is. Until it needs to bare its fangs. At that time, your only hope is that you aren't who it has bared them against. No matter how grand the collar is, it doesn't dull the fangs. It honestly wouldn't surprise me that should Lia ever want to exterminate a race, or a ruler, or take anything she wants by force, that very little, if anything, could stand in her way. Thank you, God of Order and Goddess of Chaos, for sending Lia to us as a friend and not an enemy. 

I can only pity the remaining elves and hope that as many as possible don't catch her eye, and are lucky enough to avoid her wrath. She told me she wouldn't kill more than was necessary, but how many will ultimately survive is up to her and the gods.

"Granny! We're stopping for noon."

"Alright, ZaZa."

These past few days ZaZa has been much more proactive than before. I saw her speaking with Lia. I wonder what was said.

During the break, I walk up to her. "ZaZa, you seem to be doing well. Did Lia talk to you about something?"

"She did!" ZaZa exclaimed. "I asked her what made a good ruler. She said, 'The support of those you lead. Appear virtuous to those you lead. Fear of you, or at least the repercussions of going against you, if you cannot also be loved. And be intelligent.'

"She gave me examples and talked about each in much more detail! You were right, Granny. She really is a great ruler. She also helped me see how a lot of the current situation of the elves can be traced back to my great-grandfather and the choices he made as ruler. I really look forward to learning more from her!"

As the excited girl smiles brightly, I can only do the same. I'm so very glad that there's someone that can teach her what I could not. And that she is embracing it. But even still. Somewhere deep down, there's something inside me. Maybe it's because I've imagined Lia behind her curtain, and seen the shadow of what's hidden.

There's some primal instinct I have to eliminate a potential danger. Is that what caused the ancestors of the races to attack the vampires? Did they see behind them at their power? Did they become so frightened that the vampires might one day attack, that they struck out preemptively? If I was in their situation and didn't see Lia's kindness… Would I have also struck early to avoid the vampires becoming untouchable?

Like a sleeping monster, Lia should never be poked. Be feared if you cannot also be loved. How true that feels right now. Were it not for my healthy fear of her and if I was a few centuries younger and snapped to judgements, I may have made an unforgivable choice. It's good that the 'Dalia Midnight' that she shows to the world is the refined, kind, smart, yet steadfast, and stern, Queen of the Vampires. She's not an enemy someone wants to have, but one of the greatest allies imaginable.

Around the end of our break, I heard some shouts. Looking up, I could see Talon and Lia descending towards us. As they landed as only a hippogryph can and came to a stop, I had to wonder just what has happened. They came back sooner than what she had expected.

I see ZaZa go up to her, so I follow. We're away from the other elves, so we can speak more casually. Many elves still don't want to approach Talon. 

As I walk up, I greet her. "Welcome back, Lia. Did something happen? You're back sooner than expected."

"I'm glad to be back, Dharma. Everything went well and I finished all of my business."

I can't help myself from asking. Even if they tried to kill us, the other elves are still our people. I truly believe that they are just frightened. 

"May I ask what came of the other elves?"

"Oh, them? Well, the elven civil war is all but over. The General and his elites are dead. All the remaining elves are terrified that the 'humans' attacked. The 'human' also told them that getting the Godsword and killing the royalty was just a lie to make them kill and weaken each other. 

"With their leadership gone and their reason for attacking not valid, they are almost all coming north to my town. The 'human' may have cursed that the Queen of the Vampires had a city that even the strongest in the Empire couldn't breach and that she welcomes all races. Honestly, it was a bit over the top, but it worked. thirteen hundred elves will be a month behind us."

Unconsciously, my eyes went wide with my mouth ajar. Did she just end a centuries old conflict in a matter of days? Could this all really be over? ZaZa is just as shocked as I am. Right as I come back to my senses and am about to say something, she continues. 

"Oh, yeah! These are for you, Zahra."

She hands a large sack to her. Peeking inside I see more monster cores than I have ever seen at once before.

"After killing the General, I decided to find the old Elven Dungeon. Talon and I found it, cleared it, and claimed the core," she explained nonchalantly and turns to ZaZa. "As soon as you're able to earn your queen title, I swear I will transfer the dungeon over to you. Then you can rebuild your city!"

I'm even more shocked. How in the world does this woman accomplish things that are as large and significant as these in a few days and act like she just got back from a relaxing walk? Again, right as I open my mouth, and before I can say anything, she continues.

"Once we arrive, Zahra, I'm going to need your help," Lia said. "The elves are your people. They're just seeking asylum inside my walls. I'll help you how I can, but this'll be the beginning of you becoming a leader to your people. I have a way to contact my people from here and I have already discussed everything with them and plans are in motion.

"Inside of the walls, we're making a large section that'll be primarily for the elves. We're building longhouses that can house twenty to thirty people each. We'll provide the initial food, any weapons and armor, and any other necessities. You'll have to lead your people in contributing, and eventually, making your people self sufficient. 

Lia continued. "The section for the elves will stretch to the southern wall. We're going to make a new, smaller gate for you. You'll see it when you get there, but we have wooden palisade walls around our farms. The elves need to both hunt and create farms so we can sustain everyone.

Pausing for a moment, Lia continues by saying, "I'll need you to lead the elves in this. We have enough surplus for everyone to survive for a while, but you'll all need to work to eat, as they say. In addition, when the larger group comes, I want you and Dharma with me as we negotiate with them. After clearing the dungeon, Chaos sent me a letter with some info. The de facto leader of the other group will be trustworthy, and the elves are sincere in wanting to rejoin. Although, grudges aren't easily set aside.

"You'll need to be on the forefront of leading your people to reconcile with each other. While you're in my walls, you are my people temporarily, and I don't appreciate infighting. Murder is a capital offense in Midnight, and should I find groups planning something against others, I may just eliminate more than you want me to in order to keep other problems from arising."

Lia stares at ZaZa for a few seconds, hammering home her point. "I also want the elves to get better at magic. In all honesty, their capabilities right now are pitiful. Being isolated and at war for so long, they've lost many of the basics. I created a way to make copies of books, so we'll distribute introductory magic books to your people. Not to each individual, but a copy for every few. 

"You need to make sure these are distributed and learned. I know this all sounds like a lot, but these are things you will have to deal with as a ruler. I want you to find multiple people you trust that you can delegate tasks to.

"Look at me right now. I'm not even near my home, yet I have capable people that are all working to reach the goals I set. You need to one day do the same. You can't do everything by yourself. Find those people to take pieces off your plate. Well! That's about it for me! How was the trip?"

"Ha. Haha. Hahahahaha!" I can't help but burst into laughter! 

Oh, God of Order, Goddess of Chaos, thank you a thousand times for sending this supremely powerful, smart, and frightening person to us. I know I'm coming to the end of my life in the next couple decades, and I'm so very happy that I know my sweet little ZaZa will have someone to rely on once I'm gone. With Lia's help, I doubt there's any way she won't become an amazing queen and leader to the elves. Thank you, gods. Truly, thank you.

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