Rebirth and Second Chances

Chapter 157: Ranked: Queen

We swore our oaths of Benefice on the beach, the sun beginning to set as words were spoken, it was a most auspicious sign for me as a Child of Beleros. That moment when the sun gave way to night and when night gave way to the sun were more than symbolic. Those moments were when the power of Beleros was most ascendant. I took it as a blessing that we swore oaths at that opportune moment. Even if our actions were not by design but happenstance.

The moment was still fortuitous, as events and changes increased rapidly once Liotonis and I exchanged Benefice Oaths.

"Your Majesty?" Liotonis asked once I had freed Lord Hugo. I would have allowed him to stay, but his pride was wounded, and once freed of chains, he escaped the Sithern, diving into the ocean as quickly as possible. "What can I do to help?"

"At the moment, I need people more than anything else," I answered. "Do you have any that might be interested in serving as Guards? The position can be temporary if they aren't interested in remaining in Saor long term.

"I'd prefer people that have had some experience in patrolling, but as long as they have been trained, the Sithern can help with policing and control."

"One moment," she said as she activated her M-AI. Those devices really were a technological marvel. Able to withstand the intense fires and extreme cold of my domain as well as the immense pressures that could be found deep beneath the ocean waters.

Her casual use of the device meant that she had her own communication matrix beneath the waves that allowed for connectivity, or she and her people had noticed the ley-line matrix relay that System had deployed when I established my Kingdom. Either one only served to increase my understanding and respect for the woman.

"Lord Garion, the code word is Orca, Bottlenose, Stingray," I overheard her say. A possible code that signaled to her people that she was safe, not under duress, or to stand down? I thought it worth 'borrowing' for my forces when I had established both a regular guard detail and a military chain of command.

"I will be broadcasting a System message informing our people that I have joined King Teigh. Right now, I need you to assign two regiments. I need one of them that have had some experience in guard duty, a duty that includes knowledge of land-based protocols. The second will be stationed to guard the newly created harbor and dock that abuts our waters and the newly built Capital."

I didn't hear Garion's response or his questions because the Sithern nudged my awareness towards the hill pass where people were entering. People that could only be part of my House or tied by oaths to my House.

Motioning to Liotonis where I was heading, I went to meet the group that was loitering at the border between Sithern and Talahm. My people's arrival allowed me to begin the process of organizing.

I had Ril and Gil each assigned to fortify and manage traffic at those points of entrance. The Sithern constructed Guard Stations and Registration Halls at each point. I wanted to know who entered my city and why. Requiring them to register as they entered would help with that.

Brianna and Basil assigned a staff of clerks, teams of ten people, that could monitor and process those that would enter the city. They were forced to conscript people that had no training, people that had were considered menial staff. If they could write, they were assigned. I wanted as detailed a census list as possible for those the desired to establish residence in Saor. Rank, level, profession, and what type of business they may be establishing.

I didn't care if an individual had been aligned with Seelie or Unseelie, as long as they shared their faction screen to show that they were now a member of Tuatha de Danaan, they could enter the Capital. The Volar-fey made their worth known at this point. Able to flit around, obsequious, and almost invisible without the aid of glamour, they could poke through skimmers, sleds, and belongings that people were using to transport possession. It might not have been ethical, but I wanted to understand what kind of items were being imported.

The Sithern could have tracked that information, but by assigning the Volar-fey, I freed up the Sithern to focus on the Guards and how they responded to events when needed.

After I'd gotten my people organized, I looked around the outside area; I had decided to place the city Portal near the entrance to the valley since it couldn't be placed inside, and was looking for a place that was open but could be defended. The ground slope was so gradual that there shouldn't be a problem if and when people decided to build up around the Sithern's entrance. I imagined a legion of warehouses built to store goods that would become part of a distribution hub.

There would be no need to build homes or apartments, the Sithern could expand if more living quarters were required, so I would zone this area for warehouse purposes only.

It took a half-hour at most once the portal was placed and opened before people began streaming through. A steady stream of Sidhe, most I thought encouraged and desperate to take advantage of the buff for fertility.

I instructed Basil to put any of those that had begun arriving, those with skills that would be useful, to work. Either send them to Gil and Ril to be assigned to Guard duty or fold them into his own staff and increase the number of people Registering new arrivals.

The harbor, by comparison, stayed relatively quiet. Shipping wasn't a major enterprise for this area yet. That would change when the level eight dungeon that was located on an isolated island in the middle of the sea was open for leveling and harvesting. Liotonis had agreed to supply the labor to build a Dungeon city once the exact location had been discovered. I would foot the cost of a Portal once she was ready allowing ease of access for those interested in delving, and the production professions that could utilize whatever was harvested.

I changed the Sithern settings to allow any member of the Tuatha de Danaan faction entrance once I was satisfied that I was as prepared as I could be. At least until I had more people to draw on for help.

The System announcement that the city was open, generated a quest for the entire population of Aingeal Geamhraidh no matter their current faction. They would have to join the Tuatha de Danaan, but the quest rewards were tempting.

[Regional Quest: Help Aingeal Geamhraidh prosper. A new Kingdom needs the support of its citizens. Offer that support and help the Kingdom prosper.]

[Rewards: Ten Sithern Seeds to place and build a Kingdom City. (Note: Must enter into oaths of Benefice). Fiefs, Demesnes, and Provinces (Note: Must enter into oaths of Vassalage). Business Contracts. Distribution Contracts. Bureaucratic and Court positions. Military and Guard positions available (Note: Service awarded double experience, double fertility rates, and higher loot drops in Dungeon delves.)]

The Slaugh were the first to test my sincerity. The Regional announcement had been made after full night fell, and the Slaugh had always taken advantage of the cloak of darkness. A Ranked Queen Slaugh and her escort of Night-Fliers buzzed the valley before approaching the guard station, testing the limits of the Sithern barrier. Her ability to hide in plain sight, cloaked in the darkness made the sudden appearance of a thirty-foot flying tentacled stingray, a monster that was more teeth than flesh, unsettling.

Surprisingly, it was the Volar-fey that were the most unaffected. They were magic made manifest and were able to see all the permutations and uses the Sidhe made of that resource. They knew the Slaugh were there before the Queen revealed herself. And made that knowledge obvious when they began buzzing and circling the other two Night-Fliers that remained hidden, those tasked as her personal guards.

Caraid had mentioned that the lesser-fey had Kings, Queens, and courts, but he had only been speaking of the Seelie faction. To find out that the Unseelie lesser-fey were also highly Ranked made sense, the Morrigu seemed to mirror policies the Seelie instituted. But her appearance seemed to knock Caraid off-kilter, he found it almost impossible that the Unseelie would allow the Slaugh to harbor a Ranked Queen.

His disbelief could be directly attributed to factional bias and bigotry. The Seelie considered the Slaugh monsters. Vanguards of the Unseelie army. They were responsible for war atrocities and horrors. They were creatures of nightmare, that struck from concealment. Tentacles and barbs decimating entire phalanxes of Seelie soldier.

Caraid had thought them barely intelligent beasts, controlled and directed by the Unseelie Ranked. More pets than people. Controlled by their baser instincts, animistic, and feral. That they had intellect, voice, and used strategy and methodology in their duties, conflicted with his belief that they were relentless and mindless in the pursuit of prey. It was this animalistic behavior that made them the most talented hunters on the planet.

Aside from the Wild Hunt, no other Sidhe enjoyed such a fierce reputation. They could not be summoned by anyone who had been wronged, but once on the trail of an enemy they could not be bargained with or turned from their purpose.

They were nigh unto indestructible, their regeneration abilities almost godlike in effect. To kill a Slaugh, you had to almost atomize them. And if you were successful, you had better hope there were no witnesses to carry tales, for the Slaugh held grudges. Vengeance and retribution for slaying one of their own was the stuff of legend. Bloody terror that conditioned the Sidhe to respond with bone-chilling fear when encountering the beasts.

And for all their horror, they were still beautiful. Sidhe, even monstrous Sidhe, could be nothing else. They didn't represent the beauty of form and perfection that the Seelie and Unseelie venerated; they represented the beauty and horror that only an alpha-predator could display. They attacked with subtlety and skill that was a work of art. Perfecting the macabre flight of death.

This Ranked Queen. This Unseelie monstrous caricature had risked much to approach Saor. She was testing the truth of my intent. She would know if the Tuatha de Danaan meant that all were welcome. And what treatment those considered lesser, the fodder sacrificed to the vagaries of battle and war, would receive in this new faction.

Finally, she would test if true equality between those considered Seelie and Unseelie would be possible. If the flowery words and quest notifications might be the light of change that all those that had become nothing more than slaves to the self-professed superiority of Seelie and Unseelie could be true.

And so, I offered and accepted Oaths. I joined in Benefice with the Queen of Slaugh and installed her as a House and member of my Court. I ceded her areas of brackish water and swamp. Areas that were suitable for her and her subjects. The stagnant water allowing her to release swarms of larva that would be tempered and tested from birth. Only those strong enough, ruthless enough to survive this tempering would earn entrance to Ascension Chambers and Ranks.

And demonstrated to the world that when System proclaimed all were welcome, that proclamation held true.