Following the royal guards, I am guided through the twisting passageways of the castle. Of course, compared to my hive it’s all very straightforward, not that I am paying enough attention to where we are going for it to matter. Anxiety sits heavily on my chest.
We reach a set of wooden doors, which are pushed open for me, revealing the meeting room beyond. Several comfortable chairs are arranged around a low table, a fire crackles in the hearth, and best of all; no Gwyna.
King Danish inclines his head in my direction as I enter the room. Sir Taner gets up to lightly bow, and Andra smiles in my direction. The royal advisor, I forget his name, doesn’t look up from his writing. Sarah sits on a couch, so I take a seat next to her; Enna stands behind us.
I keep my head held high. I cried all night and now I’m ready to be done. I learned my lesson, don’t trust the humans, get more Vess to take care of the important issues, I don’t do well under stress.
King Danish is the first to speak up, “Good morning, Queen Renna, and thank you for meeting with us. I understand you are leaving for the Spinesnap soon?”
I nod my head. Not feeling confident at all, I really need to work on my frosty bitch persona.
The King continues, “Very well, perhaps it’s for the best. As you know, there has been some conflict in regard to your presence.”
Sir Taner finishes his drink, setting it down on the table, “Indeed. And not just Lady Gwyna, there are many who feel uncomfortable with the presence of the Vess. We have been trying to handle it, but…”
“We have failed.” King Danish owns up to it, “Magister Gwyna’s indiscriminate destruction killed many innocents last night, she is no longer welcome into my inner court as an advisor. Unfortunately, she is the highest-leveled individual in the kingdom, and she holds a large amount of influence in the court, the mage guild follows her loyally.” The King strokes his beard, “In time, you might come to be more accepted, but these days are rather stressful. The war has made people mistrustful; it isn’t a good time to try to gain their trust.”
Andra snorts, “Not a good time to gain their trust? I don’t think that time will come, my lord.”
I decide to cut through the crap, “So, you are unable to hold Gwyna accountable for her actions, even if you do not approve of them, and I just have to deal with it. Even better, I should leave.”
The humans all share a worried look. “Fine.” I say as calmly as possible.
“We are sorry, Queen Renna.” Taner gets up and does another bow. “Truely, your arrival is unprecedented. As a scholar, it pains me to let a whole unique culture slip through my fingers before I can even try to understand it.”
Andra smiles a thin, bitter smile, “The real tragedy is the spurning of our savior. There are some who would argue we didn’t need her help, those people aren’t generals, and they don’t know the bigger picture.” She inclines her head in my direction, “You saved a lot of lives, Renna. Thank you.”
I swallow a little of my bitterness. Okay, maybe these people aren’t completely horrible. Maybe I don’t need to join team Enna in hating humans.
King Danish folds his hands, suddenly commanding the room, a skill activating, “We are allies, you and me. I swear it.” The air of command dissipates somewhat, “I shall be watching the mage guild closely, they won’t lay a hand on you, not while I wear the crown.”
“If you should ever need help, guidance, or anything at all, please, contact me. I know the weight of the crown better than most.” He slides a scroll across the table, “This is my official recognition of your legitimacy and claim over the Spinesnap mountains, legally declaring you a monarch ruling over your own kingdom in the eyes of Lotheris.”
I open my mouth to respond, but King Lotheris holds up a hand to stall me, “I know, you don’t need it. You have hewn your kingdom out of that monster infested rock already, that is proof enough. Still, it might be of use when it comes time to negotiate with other kingdoms.”
“One last thing, I am not blind to the going ons in my court.” The King gestures towards Sarah, “Hero of Goldwall, I thank you for your service to the crown, and I release you from your royal obligations.”
Sarah looks dumbfounded but manages to get herself together enough to get up and bow, “Thank you, my lord.”
The King offers me a warm smile, that I actually return. “Thank you.” I murmur.
I leave the meeting feeling more conflicted than when I arrived. Nothing is simple, it would be so much easier if the humans were cartoonishly evil and all hated my guts and wanted to destroy me. Now, I have to think and figure out how I feel about all this and what I want to do about it. A lot of work that requires a functioning, healthy brain.
I am very thankful that the meeting was so brief. My head hurts.
Sarah is holding my hand, leading me through the halls of the castle. I tune into the conversation she is having with Enna, “-get her out of the capital. Right?”
Enna nods sagely, “I agree with this course of action. And, of course, you will get many levels out of it.” Her tone teasing towards the end.
“Whatever.” Sarah deadpans, “You said she was a lot happier before coming here, it just makes sense.” She glances down at me to meet my eyes, she smiles, “Enna thinks a part of why you are distressed is because you lost so many Vess recently and that's never happened before. So, we are going to go get you a nice big swarm, maybe a couple more hives, sounds good, yeah?”
Huh, I never considered that my Vess psychology might be messing with me, that makes sense. Something does stir inside me when I think about having a huge unstoppable swarm of Vess under my control. I nod my consent to Sarah’s plan.
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“Great,” Sarah stops walking, kneeling down to be at eye level with me, “I know we haven’t known each other for long, but I promise I am here for you. We earth girls have to stick together, yeah?”
I nod again, seems like solid reasoning to me.
“And I owe you too,” The hero declares. “Got me out of a lifetime of military service, wasn’t looking forward to getting married off to a noble either.” She makes a disgusted face, sticking her tongue out.
I giggle, “Mmm, you’d make a terrible wife.”
“Hey!” Sarah acts offended, mock indignation in her voice, “I’ve got a few tricks from earth that would have the men fighting over me. Easily, I could have any husband I wanted, I would be the best wife.”
“Sure.” I readily agree, “Hey, Enna. Do I have to get married? Is there supposed to be a Vess King?”
Enna turns up her nose at my question, sounding very put off, “Ridiculous. If any man, human or not, tried to claim you and the title of king, I would rip him limb from limb and gorge myself on his insides.”
Sarah has to pick her jaw up off the floor as I laugh, I kinda expected that somehow.
The journey out of the castle is blessedly uneventful and before I know it, I’m back in the safety of my palanquin; on the road back to the Spinesnap.
I’ve been getting plenty of updates from my scouts this whole time. The dungeons are still being cleared nonstop, and several more have been discovered, waiting for me to return and fill them with Vess. I had sent scouts out to try and find the elves and dwarves, but they still haven’t returned. The other scouts I sent out to check out the rest of the world have reported vague unrest in most places, and significant fighting to the west, on the other side of the mountains. It seems like I should have time to rebuild my forces. I make sure to send a large swarm of scouts to watch the border between Lotheris and Isoban
Sir Oscar’s campaign is going well, he has already pushed the Karnakan army out of the first city on his tour, Goldwall. The invaders must be low on high-leveled fighters, because Oscar was able to simply leap over the wall with my knights and slaughter everyone inside, opening the gate and letting in his forces.
The battle was so bloody, I actually got another level up, pushing me to level forty nine.
With little else to do, I sit with Sarah, watching the world crawl by out the window. “Pretty hard to go from cars to this, although this beats riding a horse easily.” Sarah holds her head up with a hand, looking thoroughly bored. “Think you could invent cars, given enough time?”
I shake my head, “The Vess aren’t really suited to inventing stuff. Do you even know how cars work?”
“The basics, yeah. I had a real junker back on earth, had to work on the damn thing constantly; learned a lot.” Sarah takes her sword off, placing it against the wall and starts working on her boots next, “Problem is making the parts, also gas. I don’t know how to find or refine the stuff.”
“Enna told me the dwarves are pretty industrial, maybe they could figure it out if we pointed them in the right direction.”
“The dwarves disappeared a long time ago. Enna, any idea where they went?” Sarah looks towards my caretaker who has been busy making the bed.
Enna turns and tilts her head in thought, “They likely returned to their homeland. It is a long journey, and our scouts have yet to return, so we do not know yet.” She finishes fixing the bed, then walks over to me and gently lifts me to my feet, “Honey, your mana should be full now, it’s time to summon more soldiers.”
“Fiiiiiine,” I complain, “Gotta build the army, give me a second Sarah.”
Sarah watches on with interest as Enna opens the door for me. I stick my hand outside and focus, burning all my mana to bring a new batch of soldiers to life. Strong arms find me when my legs get a little wobbly and make sure I make it safely back to my chair.
“Huh,” The hero watches my little stumbles, with a small smile, “So that’s how you do it. Kinda thought it would be more, I dunno, grandiose?”
I don’t respond outside of a single shrug, so Sarah moves on to teasing, “You are pretty easy to read already, so it’s overkill, but your tail signals how you're feeling so loudly that even an idiot should be able to figure you out.”
My tail is drooping in exhaustion from the mana loss; it usually takes me a few minutes to bounce back. I manage to lift my head and pout at the hero, “I’m tiiirred, leave me aloooonnee.”
She relents, ruffling my hair.
“How about a productive conversation?” Enna suggests, taking a seat at the table.
“Sure.” Sarah waves to go ahead.
Enna crosses her legs, “Tell us of Karnaka. What do you think of them?”
“Karnaka, huh?” The human takes a minute to think, “Well, Lotheris would paint them as ruthless invaders. At least back on earth, wars are never black and white. War is a horrible thing, and both sides often commit terrible atrocities, good intentions or not. I know for a fact that during the battle for Goldwall-” Sarah’s words get caught in her throat and she stops.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to…” I offer.
Sarah smiles a tight smile, swallowing heavily before continuing, “A lot of people died. Young people, good people. And it was Lotheris’ fault. Look, what I’m trying to say, is that Karnaka has its problems, but they aren’t objectively evil or anything.”
“Why did they invade?” Enna asks, retrieving a blanket and wrapping me up in it. I guess I was getting cold, come to think of it.
“The great desert has been eating up their farmland for a long time. Apparently, last year was particularly bad for them, a famine. They were desperate for food and fertile land. At least that's what Sir Oscar told me, and I don’t think he is capable of lying.”
Enna fusses with the blanket, making a few small adjustments, “Sympathetic.” She doesn’t sound very sympathetic.
“Yeah, I guess.” Sarah’s voice is reluctant, “Still, their first action was to invade and try and take what they need by force, instead of asking for aid. Even Ren wouldn’t have done that.”
“Hey!” My voice accidentally squeaks, I blush and decide to cut my losses, hiding in the safety of my blanket.
“You know, I really do try not to baby you, but you make it so hard, cutie.” Sarah chuckles, reaching over to ruffle my hair again.
“S-so!” I try to move the conversation along, “You wouldn’t want me to invade Karnaka?” I was kinda considering it, in the future.
“Why would you invade them?” Sarah raises an eyebrow.
“Uh, to support Lotheris?” I try.
“To spread the glory of the Vess.” Enna corrects, sounding way too proud.
Sarah pinches the bridge of her nose, “I can’t believe I signed up for this.”
“The Vess shall outgrow the Spinesnap eventually, where would you have them go?” Enna addresses the hero.
“I don’t know, honestly. All this invading talk is above my paygrade.” Sarah gives up before the argument can even really begin. I feel kind of bad. Sarah is a really good person; I don’t want her to be a part of something she isn’t comfortable with. I didn’t realize how much I liked the idea of invading Karnaka until it was said out loud.
Enna seems unconcerned, “The future will reveal itself in time. You will have time to grow and find your place in the world, hero.”
