I stumbled out of the library, still stretching as I made my way through the portal. There was simply no time to do my normal morning beauty routine. I just used a quick spell to achieve my morning beauty routine, which normally took an hour. The plan for today was to get things sorted out with Firth. I was up to what I thought was rather early, but as soon as I left the doorway to the portal, I was greeted by the hustle and bustle of my people getting their mushrooms.

Hmmm, that name seems rather plain. What about shrooms or mush. The former was lacking, but the latter seemed gross. MUSHIES! That had a nice ring to it, Lady Astrid’s Mushies. A meaty mushy, veggie mushy, medi mushy. Too cute. Firth will have to be updated on the name change before we go to sell them.

People looked at me as I passed by, but no one really stared or gawked, so I maintained complete calm. These morning walks did good for my practice of being around many people. Next up was to talk with them! I decided to give that a couple weeks, though. Once I got things figured out in Astraville they wouldn’t need me, so I didn’t want to get too close.

“The Shut In Workbook” is where I got some good ideas, like talking to one random person a day and journaling about it. I was worried I would scare people if I did that, though, most people seem to be on edge around me. There were probably people that wanted to meet me, so I could probably have Liz or Firth start a list and they could come to me. It’s tough being in the position I am in to start small talk.

I saw Feinna as I walked around a bend. She had her eyes closed as she was stretching and yawning. She hadn’t seen me, so I trailed behind her like she was one of the bear guards I would hunt before glomping.

“Morning Feinna, what’s up?” I said plainly, hoping she wouldn’t notice my voice. I mean I could have changed it but where is the fun in that? If I did that, I may as well have just disguised my entire identity.

“Morning, I have been up all night working on my book for Goddess Astrid. I haven’t been able to sleep a wink. I am just too excited to do anything else.”

I grinned at her slip up of my title change. She hadn’t realized it was me yet. Who did she think I was? I continued with the ruse while my prey was unaware. “Oh really? You must have gotten a lot done. Staying up so much.”

“Yah, I have, like, seventy thousand words down. I want it to be long and great for the goddess. My dad is worried about me, though, because I am not sleeping enough. He will get over it.” She said, still yawning constantly, trying to fight off sleep. She turned around and stopped mid yawn when she recognized me. Her face turned bright red, mouth moving up and down like a fish out of water. Her ears and tail were stiff, pointing straight up, hair bristling.

“HAHA, Hi Hahaha” I said giggling, unable to control myself.

“I am s- so sorr—” she stuttered out, her ears drooping.

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t care that you called me by the wrong title when you are getting so far in your book. Though you should stop worrying your dad and go get some sleep right now before you turn any more red.”

Her eyes bulged even wider, realizing how she was acting. She squeed like a confused animal and ran off out of sight.

I continued to laugh for a moment before taking a deep breath and continued on. That really made my morning! Hopefully she will survive the embarrassment.

The citizens had kept the path to the council room clean. They probably wanted to keep this place even cleaner since the recent upgrade. Most archwizards kept their towers clean with daily spells, but they had to do it by hand, which seemed tough.

While on the way I kept on spotting new and different otherkin types. There were all sorts of different tails and ears with all sorts of different colorations. Some people even had different eyes. With all these differences, there could be even more fashion choices.

A plan started in my head on how to replicate the ears and tails on myself, but I wasn’t sure how they would take it. Even if I asked, no one would tell me how they really felt. I didn’t even think an anonymous vote would work.

When I arrived in the council room there were people arguing amongst each other. The place was a disaster unlike the rest of the tunnels. I could swear a wind spell had been cast in the room with all the disjunct placement of papers all over. It reminded me of when I would make an interesting discovery through research with notes plastered all over my room and hanging in midair with a gravity manipulation spell. They couldn’t replicate the in-air part, but the walls and tables were definitely covered so that not a speck of their original surfaces could be seen.

I placed my hand behind my back and walked into the front of the room. Still, no one had noticed me. *Cough*I coughed loudly to get everyone’s attention. It worked, and they froze in place. “Busy? I can see you are working hard on your tasks. Thank you for your hard work.” I said, remembering that “Raising Radiant Retainers” had said to frequently compliment your people.

Firth stepped out from the back of the group, holding some papers in his hands. “Lady Astrid, you are back. I didn’t receive another divine message.”

“Not a divine message, just an advanced message spell that is great for properly conveying the meaning of what you want. I decided to slip in, not wanting any sort of return party.” I knew he would misinterpret that, well at least he didn’t have a heart attack.

I saw two different counselors trying to stealthily hide papers away from my vision. I knew they would plan something!

“We are all glad you are back. We have made significant progress on what you have asked of us to do. This is our chance to really grow Astraville in your glory.” Firth said, still alluding to the belief of my divinity.

“I can see that you're working hard. There are some fresh faces here. I noticed some other ones missing.”

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“Yes, Lady Astrid. The scope of this project is very large and we need to rapidly expand our counsel with the best experts we can get. Don’t worry though, they will continue to speak through me like you have asked.”

I was confused at what he said during the last bit. So I tilted my head and asked, “What do you mean only through you?”

“Well, you said I am your voice when you are not around. We don’t want to waste your time with the random thoughts of others. This is how royalty/corporations like it.”

“Not a royal or in one of those corporations. I really prefer to hear what everyone has to say, not just one speaker.” I said, realizing that I had made a mistake in the way I had phrased it to Firth.

“Council Members, please introduce yourselves to our wise leader, Lady Astrid.” Firth said, trying to make a grand gesture out of it. He was way too formal sometimes and perhaps a little brown on his nose. I am sure it was from his previous job. That was one thing I was glad I didn’t have to do. Kneeling down beneath people was always so tedious.

The first to speak up was an older woman named Peri who had floppy iron-grey ears and a long thin tail of the same coloration. “I am the head of human resources here.”

I tilted my head in confusion at the phrase ‘human resources.’ “What is that? I haven’t heard of it before, nor have I had time to read, so I haven’t been able to pick up on any new jargon. Please explain your title.”

“Yes, sorry Lady Astrid. I am basically good at putting people where they need to be put to maximize their potential and our benefit. We use the same terminology the corporations came up with. It has become the common format, so we all do it even if we don’t like them.”

They really like apologizing, don’t they? I nodded before looking around for the next person.

The second was Mais, he appeared to be a Middle-aged sturdy human. Which felt odd to say. Human prime, or original? Meh, I will think about this later. “I am Mais, head of trade. I am a former merchant from the kingdom. Since I was a little boy, I have been orchestrating deals.”

I nodded, realizing I would need to have him in on my talk with Liz and Firth about what to sell. Mushies and Hero books to start with, then we could expand from there.

Next up was Dontas. He was a huge black bear eared man. His muscles were showing in his every movement. He could probably give Highthorn trouble. “I am Dontas, head of agriculture and food distribution. I used to tend to our farms till they burned down, but now I manage the flow of people in and out of your farm.”

Then an adult man named Lukius spoke next, with his long disheveled charcoal hair covering most of his face. He was also a prime human. No, that doesn’t work. “I speak for the humans here, though I don’t see a need for my position since we are all human in my eyes. Firth said it would help keep possible tensions low if non-otherkin had representation here.”

Wise choice: “A puppet can always serve a purpose as long as it moves correctly when its strings are pulled.” - Gimmels Guide to Garnering Gold, I thought, remembering a quote from the book I had read while looking into economics.

A young adult cat-like woman named Meeri introduced herself. I didn’t even notice her ear color. Her bright yellow cat-like eyes with a split iris grabbed my full attention. “I am Lukius opposite Meeri. I represent the otherkin. The otherkin here wanted me on this plebeian council.”

A taller foxlike man with a huge bushy orange tail that I really wanted to floof spoke next. “I am Kobric, head of public relations. I basically work on our image of how we appear to people in the kingdom and elsewhere.”

Then a middle-aged woman with peanut colored floppy ears spoke, “I am Minnette, I am the town planner. I have been keeping track of designs and locations inside and outside of the hill. I am working on expansion as well.”

Her and I would probably be in contact a lot up front while we expanded but then never again, at least until another expansion. I didn’t think there was much for a planner to do after everything was done.

Lastly, a young man with carrot colored hair and furred ears with snow white insides, and a long bushy carrot colored black-tipped tail stood up. “My name is Guye, I am the only source of medical knowledge here. I haven’t been formally trained but I am the most well read on the topic and have been getting by here. I guess you could call me a medic.”

I almost giggled out loud at the thought of a guy with the name Guy. The medical situation needed to change. We needed a healing gem. I would either need to acquire one or make one.

We talked for over three hours, going over what their positions meant and what each position entailed. Last, we went over their experience so I could get a better idea of who would need some study material from the library.

“So what is the general plan, Firth?” I asked after all the introductions wrapped up.

“We were discussing the need for expanding the protection force. Especially with the influx of new people likely to come.”

Oh, here is Highthorn's chance! “I suggest we put Highthorn as the head of protection. He was wrongly exiled and has to be good, having worked for King Al’ Don’s guard.”

Everyone nodded. “That is a good idea, Lady Astrid, but are you sure you can spare him? He is your guard, after all.”

“No, it’s fine. I want him here to be closer to his kids. Family comes first,” I said, everyone smiling when I mentioned family. “Oh yeah, I moved them into a place next to mine.”

“Thank you for telling me. I will add them to our registry.” Peri said. Wow, not even my original home had a registry. They just loosely kept track of how many people were around so they knew how much to tax.

“What's next? We should have Highthorn here before we go in to deep on his protection force.”

“We plan on expanding into the adjoining hills behind us as well as expanding underground. Can we get your approval for that?” Minnette asked, looking hopeful.

“Yes, please draw up the plans,” I said. She was absolutely glowing when she heard this and began furiously scribbling notes. Possibly faster than Mezzis the other day.

Speaking of Mizzis. “So we are starting the school and I noticed we don’t have a head of education. I think Mezzis from the noble brat school in the kingdom should have some good input when she stops by.”

“Yes, she is great. We actually wanted to convince her to move here. She has always been so wonderful and helpful to us. Sneaking food and medical supplies in while delivering reading material from your church.” Firth said, almost jumping for joy at the idea.

I felt a huge pang of guilt at what I had said to her the other day. I was just so angry and disgusted. It would be good if I talked things out with her later.

“That sounds good to me. If that is what all of you think.” I said, knowing that they knew what they were doing. It is good to trust your people according to most of the books I read. “If you don’t let your leaders stand on their feet, then they will forever need your approval.”- Lirthem Leadership.

“Mais, I have given Liz the ability to come and go to my library so we can start the book copying. We need to get together later and discuss that, as well as some other trade Ideas I have.”

Everyone’s faces were full of jealousy. Even Firth couldn’t cover it up. I understood how they felt, but I didn’t feel comfortable flooding the world with forgotten magic. Some of which should be forgotten, like how the calamity beasts came about.

“What were you arguing about when I came in?” I said, trying to move the meeting forward.

“We were arguing about what needs the most focus next.”

“Well, I will choose that, since you all can’t agree,” I declared. We needed to keep the planning moving forward. I wanted to get things setup for the otherkin in the kingdom as soon as possible.