Terra checked her map; Derek had placed an enchantment on it for her that was, frankly, incredible; it let her pinpoint her location on it with a glowing dot if it was within a certain range of the homing beacon they'd established at the Ixius Academy. She could trace the long lines of roads that the map showed around the newly built school, and the paths to all of the villages within her mother's... well, her... territory. And knew that one of the towns that was, technically, her property, was on the other side of the next hill. She sighed, and glanced back at her companions.

Kylie still wearing the beautiful silver armor that once belonged to a Paladin of light; a suit of plate that she'd accented with the remains of her old robes of House Eastwatch in red and gold. She had an actual shield, with the same Eastwatch colors painted on it, instead of just a borrowed one; and the spell framework Derek was teaching all of the spellcasters was solid; she was level 5, and 30% of the way towards level 6. Her helmet left her face exposed, and showed a puff of red hair expanding beneath it.

Derek's reading was a bit more amusing. He was wearing a simple metal breastplate painted black; with the black and gold colors of the Imperial Academy sigil on his shoulder. His robes long gone, his face and exposed hands both showing traces of blue scales down them; and of course a dull black flail hanging from his hip. His own reading was a bit amusing. Level 7; and negative six percent of the way to level 7. It was an error of sorts, due to the transformation that gave him those scales... and seemed to be causing him to slowly grow a tail. The familiar belt and band around his torso covered with pouches for spell components, potions, and the like; just like Terra's own; completed the picture of what he was trying to become now; a warrior-mage. He wasn't there, yet, however, and the 'walking stick' he used was actually a spear... with a dagger for its blade acquired off in Valdale weeks ago.

Terra herself was wearing the sort of outfit she often had here around her hometown; a brown cloak, some soft red clothing, her own spell component belts, a sling... and of course her own dagger to match the one Derek's spear held, with a red gem.

The trio looked like proper adventurers, in Terra's opinion. A band of strange, exotic folk, who might handle anything; and that was excluding the two towering rangers in their grey cloaks off to either side of the road; the blond sisters keeping an eye off to the sides, and behind, as they came over the hill and the town came into view.

Serpent's Tooth was an old village; it had been here since before there was an Empire, during the days elves still preyed upon men. The buildings were all solid stone, with a blend of hand-carved and magic-shaped walls; though the ancient stone wall surrounding Tooth had clearly been patched multiple times over the centuries.

She'd been here before, years ago; this place was filled with hidey-holes meant to protect civilians from marauders, and one of her mother's friends had lived here at the time. She could still remember the boy who'd won that game of hide and seek; and the almost perfectly concealed hatch he'd remained in for over an hour. It still seemed unfair; she was an outsider. She couldn't possibly know all the places to hide. But... she'd still won a couple times.

As they approached the gate, a guard; a massive, heavyset human wearing a simple bronze breastplate over his grey leathers; hefted a spear, and stepped forward. "Halt! Who goes th.... Is... is that little Terra? My word!" The spear was pointed back up at the sky. "Terraxius, as I live and breathe! I thought you were heading up north, into the Empire! What brings you down to Tooth?"

She studied the man for a moment. He was in his forties... maybe fifties. One of his daughters had played with her during his visit. "Mister... Garrote?"

He laughed. "Garret. Mister Garret. A Garrote is... you know what, it doesn't matter. Come on in. Who are your friends?" He stopped at the gate, and whacked his spear against a bell hanging beside it.. once... twice... three times... and stepped in alongside them.

"These are Kylie and Derek, friends of mine from the Empire, and adventurers with me at present. And the two giants in grey are Serra and Marie... my vassals."

Mister Garret stopped... and stared at her. Another guard was walking towards the gate; not in a particular rush; apparently the three rings was some sort of signal, but not an urgent one. "Vassals... Oh, lord. Did they finally elevate your mother? They tried your grandmother, and then her..."

"Well... no. They did it to me. Technically, mom's just a regent in my name, but we both know she's the one in charge."

He blinked. "Oh, good lord. The little girl who stole pies off the window sill is in charge of it all now?"

She laughed, and smacked him on the shoulder. "You know full well that was your son... not that I didn't have some. Come on. I've got some things for the mayor. Anything need to be handled around here? Any bounties, any warrants..."

She started heading towards the meeting hall where the mayor; Old Man Ames, the local apothecary; generally had his wife handle paperwork, as well as did a bit of research in the basement. She'd been there maybe once; but she knew the town well enough.

"Nah, not really. Peaceful enough; there's a pack of wolves out there, but the farmers have them handled, and your mom took care of the spiders back when they cropped up. I do think Eagle's Perch has had some problems though. A messenger from there came through yesterday, heading off to ask your mom for help, but he didn't say what it was... just stopped to sleep for a few hours and then ran off before sunrise."

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"Huh. Well, we'll head there next. I'm sure we can handle whatever it is."

The town hall was built of stone bricks, like almost everything else; and with an amusing picture of a one-fanged snake painted on the door; the 'town sigil' of Serpent's Tooth. The reason for the town's name was lost to time; but everyone had their ideas about it. Terra had figured a demon-snake had been killed here and only had one tooth, back in the day.

When she slid the door open, she could see Ames; just like he always was. Fat, bald, a huge grey beard with a few burnt patches. She wasn't certain if he slept; he was always either tinkering with some concoction or working on some paperwork.

He glanced up... and rose to his feet, arms outstretched as he stepped around the table. "Why as I live and breathe! Little Terra, all grown up!" He wrapped her up in a hug. Terra blinked. She didn't think she'd known this man well enough for this much affection... but returned the hug anyway to avoid awkwardness.

She backed up a step, and gave a short nod. "That I would be, Mayor Ames."

"Though... I thought your mother said you'd headed off to the Empire, to join the Academy." He glanced at Derek; looking over the scales, then the academy logo on his shoulder, then back to Terra. "I take it things were interesting there?"

"I... don't think you need the whole story. The important part..." She handed him the scroll marked 'Serpent's Tooth'. "Is that right now, my mother is officially Lady Regent of the Xius County. She didn't want it, but she's the best one for the job, so...."

Ames gave a solemn nod. "She saved the Tooth once, you know. Some old golems went amok, and we had to use the hideaways from the bad old days. She and some knight fellow crushed the lot of them. Definitely the best choice for the job. Did she end up marrying him?"

Terra grimaced. "No, but you might be talking about my dad, or possibly my uncle. She's on her... third boyfriend since I was born, and I'm not sure which of my brothers and sisters are halves or wholes. Not sure if she considers marriage a thing at all, really."

"Ooof. Still, she takes care of her family, and she cares for the land, and every town fears or respects her. So. Aside from passing notice, what do you have for me? New taxes, new rules?"

A nod. "The county is required to levy a group of warriors of sufficient skill. While mother doesn't plan on raising taxes anytime soon, she assessed each town... and each will be required to send one or more men to the new school, and to provide them food, or pay for their food. For Serpent's Tooth, it's two men. Or women." She glanced back at Serra for a moment. "If you have any women who are so inclined."

Ames nodded. "...The new school?"

Terra sighed. "Mother is opening a new school. The two blond giants behind me will be among the teachers, but we've got a few local volunteers, mom herself, and a team from Rockdale that have sworn allegiance to house Xius. There's a high-magic area she's known about for years, and we recently finished building it out into a school. Since the county name will be Ixius, we'll be calling it the Ixius academy. She may also bring in spiders and other creatures to help with fight training... she hates having people just learn in high-magic areas. Says it makes them weak-willed, wants everyone to really learn how to fight."

"...Just how strong of a high-magic area are we talking about?"

A shrug. "The only one I know of in Serpent's Tooth who wouldn't benefit from it among your guards is Jaxon. Mister Garret would, about anyone else would. The Empire would call it a 'Level 4' magic area, which is.... higher than the one in Rockdale, albeit smaller, and lower than the one at the Imperial Academy."

The mayor set his paperwork into a neat stack beside him. "And if we wanted to send more? People who might come back and be better guards after?"

"So long as they swear to house Xius and they or you pay the teachers, if they want it? Sure."

The mayor glanced back at the two rangers, and leaned in close. "Just Xius, right? Not the kingdom? If they have to sign up for war against the Empire, you might not have any takers. We all know that's coming someday."

Terra grimaced. This sort of talk could cause problems, but wasn't unexpected. "If the King ever calls them up, we'll have to either cross that bridge or burn it. The ones from Rockdale were only sworn to lord Rockson, not to the king, but if the king sent out a call to war against the Empire, or someone else... either we'd go along and swear to the king... or be in rebellion."

He nodded. Glanced at the man wearing an Imperial Academy badge on his shoulder. "Well then. I think I know how that would go, and just to be clear, you'd have my support. I'll call for volunteers. When should they be there?"

"Every day counts. Send them as soon as possible. If they aren't part of the two for the county's levy, send them anyway and we'll haggle over payment for the teachers later. At worst they get a little training and get sent back."

A low chuckle. "Fine then. Will you be staying at the Maw tonight?" She wasn't old enough to go into the lower rooms of the tavern back then. The Kingdom didn't generally have any sort of law about drinking ale, but her mother didn't let her until she was a teenager. Part of her was tempted to just stay, drink, relax, maybe see if any of the cute boys she'd known when she was younger had grown up into handsome men.... but... no.

Terra sighed. "No... I'll go around and chat a bit. Plenty of people I can remember from here I'd like to see again, talk for a bit. But we'll be heading outside of town before sunset. We're setting up good encampments for ranger patrols all over the county, and I've unfortunately signed myself and all of my companions up to use our various magics to get one done every day." She nods back towards her friends. "We can take a few nearby trees and shape them into a nice secure building, get them good, clean, and protected from vermin, and leave some supplies there for emergencies...disguise it to look like just a big tree, and mark it on the map so patrols can find it."

"Fine, fine. Strange to see you all grown up and professional, like a real adventurer. Should we expect to see you again?"

"Actually, mom wants to hold a meeting back in Harmon's Rest. All the mayors are invited, on the last day of Summer. Its not mandatory to be there, but she wants to talk to all of you, so if you can't be there, let me know; she'll need to get some magic setup so she can speak to you, too."

Ames gave a slow nod, and smacked her on the back. "Well then, no worries, I'll be there. And my volunteers should be there in the next few days."

Terra nodded; and after barely escaping another hug, headed back out. This isn't what she'd had in mind, when she'd dreamed of being an adventurer. Schedules and plans and politics... she'd just wanted to go hunt monsters, after learning some new, cool things at the academy, and maybe meeting some good companions there.

She glanced at Derek, and Kylie as they headed out. At least it had partially worked out.