Sunlight filtered into the hall through great windows that soared upward for nearly ten meters. Green plants grew in ornate vases placed in niches along the pillared wall. It was a peaceful setting for a stressful moment as Heather and Frank watched Gwen pace irritably.
“Why did she never tell you she was a queen?” Gwen asked.
“I am not certain she could,” Heather said. “She was under that strange limitation that was garbling her speech.”
“I think she might not have been a queen until Heather accepted the crown,” Frank interjected. “She evolved into what she is after Heather accepted it. Her evolution might have included a title change from chieftain to queen.”
“I suppose that’s possible,” Gwen agreed as she paused in her pacing to stare directly at Heather. “But all of this troubles me. More and more elements of Hathlisora’s past keep coming to the surface and circling around you.”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” Heather asked.
“Of course you do,” Gwen sighed. “Or you wouldn’t believe that you must have lost all memory of a previous incarnation here.”
“Look, I know this situation is difficult and uncomfortable,” Heather began as she leaned into Frank for support. “But I can't deny it anymore. If I am not Hathlisora herself, then I am at the very least deeply connected to her and was helping with whatever her plan was.”
“Do you honestly believe you might be her?” Gwen asked with a serious tone.
“I don't want to believe it,” Heather replied. “But Umtha is certain of it, and I can use things left behind for her.” She highlighted the point by holding up her hand to draw attention to the blue crystal ring. “Her panel, for example.”
“Put that away,” Gwen said and looked to the side. “I don’t even want to think about what this might mean.”
“Well, I have no choice but to think about it,” Heather countered. “The goblins built a massive machine to repair something so important to Hathlisora that she went insane over its loss. The doors and defenses were set to deny anybody but her access, and they opened right up when I approached.”
“And now they are building a fortress meant to repeal a devastating invasion,” Frank added. “Umtha is massing the goblins for a second war, and this time she will be vastly more prepared.”
“But nobody knows what you are or that you are here?” Gwen asked.
“Nobody outside our little group,” Heather assured her. “Oh, and Roric and his family.”
“What? Why did you tell them?” Gwen demanded.
“Because they wanted to settle in the hills along the swamp,” Heather countered. “They are going to be the doorstep to Umtha's goblin doom fortress, and I wanted them to know what they were getting into. I like them and don't want them to be blindsided by my chaos.”
“I understand,” Gwen sighed. “You care too much about others. I doubt you would have gone to retrieve my kingdom heart if you didn't. Very well, I will begin slowly upgrading my defenses and warn our allies to be extra careful. I suppose I should have been more concerned when I discovered I could add goblin NPCs to my lands. It was the first warning sign that anyone connected to you would be affected somehow.”
“You make it sound like I am a curse,” Heather said.
“I didn't mean it like that,” Gwen said and looked Heather in the eyes. “I am very grateful that you are here and that you are my daughter in this world. I am still grateful even after all you have discovered and the danger it might pose. I just wish your life could be simpler, and we could have more fun playing our roles.”
“We can,” Heather insisted. “We just need to lay low for a bit. We need your help coming home, and then we play the role of queen and princess.”
“Queen and Queen,” Gwen corrected. “Like it or not, you have a throne now, and you must sit on it to manage your kingdom.”
“Nobody else needs to know about that,” Heather insisted.
“But they will discover it,” Gwen said. “And when our neighbors learn a goblin kingdom is rapidly growing on my borders, they will wonder why I kept it a secret. It will cause suspicion and raise tensions. Better to put it all in the open, so they have no reason to believe I have ulterior motives.”
“Whatever you think is best,” Heather agreed.
“Let’s come up with the story that Umtha and you two were very close,” Gwen said as she began to pace again. “When you married, Umtha offered you her crown in exchange for a safe home as part of my kingdom. You two came to me, we debated the offer and ultimately accepted on the one condition that they cause no harm to our neighbors. So you two become King and Queen of the new goblin state, symbolizing the goblin's intentions to remain peaceful.”
“People will buy that?” Frank asked.
“What choice do they have?” Gwen countered. “I have never heard of a human and ghoul becoming the leader of a goblin kingdom, and I am pretty sure nobody else has. To help settle some minds, you two might need to take Umtha and visit the neighboring lands. You say Umtha looks pretty now, so show her off and make them understand this isn't so unusual. You might even offer them something unique to the goblins.”
“Like what?” Heather questioned.
“I don’t know,” Gwen said. “But surely they have something that might be of use to others.”
“I can think of something,” Frank said and looked at Heather. “They have lots of engineers. Look at how fast they build things. We could offer to build bridges, roads, or any kind of infrastructure they wanted.”
“Would people want that?” Heather asked.
“To get a major infrastructure project done without using points?” Gwen laughed. “They will jump at the chance to do that.”
“Fine,” Heather agreed. “We will offer people goblin manpower and skill to build things.”
“Then we might just pull this off,” Gwen said. “People already knew the goblins were building in the swamp. Now we can explain it and make its presence a boon to them.”
They agreed on the course of action and moved on to the next task, which was getting them home. Gwen went to her writing desk and took out a golden sheet of paper. She wrote a message to someone called Orman asking for his help in opening a portal to her city. She added a few personal touches and then placed a finger in the middle of the paper. With a command word, she ordered the letter to find Orman, and it suddenly began to fold up. To Heather's amazement, it turned into a paper bird and flew off, magically passing through the wall.
“He should receive that within the hour,” Gwen said, turning on Frank and Heather. “I am sure he will help.”
“You have no idea how much this means to us,” Heather replied with a smile. “We all want to come home.”
Gwen stood up and held out her arms, beckoning Heather into them. She wrapped her arms around the anxious woman warmly and held her tight as only a mother could.
“Come home, my daughter,” she whispered. “This is where you belong.” Gwen smiled as they embraced, giving Heather just enough time to relax before ambushing her with the next statement. “So, when can I expect grandchildren?”
Heather coughed and sputtered as Gwen started to laugh and turned her loose. She promised them they would have a means home soon and suggested they wait in the castle until Ormin arrived. Then she offered them tea and some snacks while they waited, escorting them to a garden balcony.
Heather looked out over her larger garden plaza below and smiled. This life felt right, a princess with an excellent prince for a husband living in a castle of white marble. What girl hadn't dreamed of a life like this at least a dozen times? All she had to do was keep her peculiar past a secret, but that might be hard considering her plans. Heather was determined to know more about her past and follow the threads to their ends no matter where they led. That goblin machine existed for a reason, and she was a part of it. One way or another, she was going to find out just how deeply involved she was.
Gwen sat across from them as servants brought tea and a three-tiered tray of sandwiches and little cakes. Frank settled right in, nibbling at a sandwich while discussing the borders with Gwen. Thankfully none of their neighbors bordered them directly, with many miles of land between them. In fact, it appeared the whole of the south area was wide open, with sporadic kingdoms and fairly sparse towns. Still, Gwen didn't want to ruffle any feathers, so she planned to be deceptively open about the whole thing.
Heather was pleased with how calm Frank was, which helped settle her nerves. She sipped a lovely tea and ate three strawberry cakes while Gwen tried to convince her to wear something other than yellow farmer's dresses. Heather agreed to consider something more befitting a princess but refused to fill it full of lace or make it revealing. Just thinking about how revealing Jaina and the others liked to be made her skin crawl, but she was beginning to understand that most people didn't care. This was a new world with new rules, and being so reserved wasn't necessary.
Gwen did eventually hit on the idea of Heather and Frank having another wedding to formally announce Umtha as a wife. This would allow them to reap the social points vital to kingdom building.
“Speaking of points,” Heather said as she set her tea down. “I never checked how many Frank and I got.”
“We did get a lot of gifts,” Frank said as he finished a sandwich. “But I never looked either.”
“After all the arguing you went through to convince me to give you a doorway, you never bothered to look?” Gwen laughed.
“Oh gee, I’m sorry,” Heather mocked. “It’s not like I had anything to distract me or keep my attention looking elsewhere.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“A valid point,” Gwen agreed. “But look now and let's see what you have.”
Heather rubbed at her tattoo and brought up the orange glow of her interface. She went into the social tab and struggled to find the points until Gwen told her where to see them. She tapped open the page and looked at a number that was meaningless to her.
“Forty-three thousand,” Heather said.
“Forty-three thousand!” Gwen replied in shock. “Are you sure?”
Heather got up and moved around the table so Gwen could see it for herself.
“I can’t believe it,” Gwen said as she leaned forward. “Pull the history open.”
Heather tapped the point history to see line after line of one to ten points being awarded for every goblin in her kingdom.
“You came with a ready-made population,” Gwen said as she looked down the list. “You have thousands of goblins right from the start.”
“Is this bad?” Heather asked.
“Bad?” Gwen laughed. “You got more points from that than I did. You could easily afford the doors you want to give to your friends. You could even afford something larger like a portal gate.”
“What is a portal gate?” Heather asked as her curiosity peaked.
“Think of one of the gates in my city,” Gwen said. “Now imagine that gate didn't go through the wall but went to another city someplace else.”
“So you could link two cities with a gate?” Heather asked as she tried to understand how bent the laws of physics were here.
“There are some limitations,” Gwen said. “The gate is expensive, and the distance isn't free. You will spend thirty thousand points to make the gate alone, then the farther apart you place them, the more points you have to spend to activate it. I have only heard of a few cities using such gates because they were very close together.”
“So if Heather and I build a city in the northern mountains,” Frank began.
“That would probably be close enough to link you to here without being too expensive,” Gwen said.
“This is what Jaina was talking about,” Heather mused as she looked at Frank. “Remember the Rajeen conversation where they mentioned linking the two cities with gates?”
“I do,” Frank replied. “It sounded like a good idea.
“Yeah it did, but How does that work?” Heather asked. “Would it be one big city?”
“It is still two separate cities,” Gwen corrected. “But from the player's perspective, the gate will make it seem like one.”
“Well,” Heather said and looked at Frank. “We technically already have a goblin city, and we have to found our royal city, so why not link it to here?”
“I bet the goblins could build an underground rail system to link their city with our new one,” Frank replied. “Then we could use the gate to link the new one to here.”
“Three cities joined as one,” Heather said. “But will people be alarmed by goblins moving freely about?”
“Hmm,” Gwen replied and tapped at her chin. “I could start warming people up to the idea. Place some goblin NPCs and merchants, maybe even a special goblin military unit to parade in the streets. You know, start showing that this land considers goblins as allies.”
“It could work,” Frank said with a shrug. “But there will always be some people who will refuse to accept it.”
“And I will purge them from my lands,” Gwen said as she took a few steps. “You know, it might even be a good idea to add a whole goblin quarter to my city. Just a small area where goblins live and work.”
“If you think that will help,” Heather agreed.
“You should add a larger one to your city,” Gwen suggested. “And if you can manage it, some kind of undead presence. We can't appear to be keeping Frank's nature a secret. People consider him a carrion knight and expect to see undead.”
“Hugh,” Heather said as she pondered the idea. “People know I am a recluse and have skeletons to blend into his graveyard. Too bad we didn't have more undead friends. We could give them a haunted quarter in the city.”
“Just a dozen undead guards protecting a gothic monument in your city will do,” Gwen said. “You know something to help players realize this is somewhat normal here.”
“Alright, I will figure it out,” Heather agreed. “So, how do we begin?”
“Well,” Gwen said as she smiled over her cup of tea. “You have to get home and find your city. Then you can use the city interface to purchase the gates and doors. If you go with the gate, it will leave you very few points to spend on other things.”
“I can expend gold to buy points, though?” Heather asked.
“You can buy the civil points, yes,” Gwen replied. “But you can't buy social points, which are required for all the magical things.”
Heather finally understood and put her mind to work. She could build the city easily, but if she wanted magic doors and floating towers, she was going to need more social points. Maybe the idea of holding a formal wedding for Umtha was a good one as it meant a surge in points. However, she worried it might upset Breanne and Quinny if the goblin woman was brought in first. But, on the other hand, how would Umtha interpret a formal wedding? Would she see that as an invitation to her bed? Should it be an invitation to her bed?
They sat and spoke about where to place the city and what to do with it. Gwen said it should be on one of the large plateaus in the mountains. Heather liked that idea, and Frank reminded her that the goblins already had a village up there someplace.
Next, they debated the name, trying to come up with something meaningful. Frank was all about strong names like the iron fortress or Stonebrook. Heather liked flowing names that had some softness to them. She suggested Sunhaven or Mistwillow. Gwen suggested they talk about names and maybe ask the others for ideas when a servant arrived to tell them Orman had arrived.
Heather was introduced to a noble elf mage who carried himself with the dignity of a high king. He bowed at all the right moments and spoke eloquently as Gwen explained the need for a portal. The man was all too happy to help and pointed out that he had been at Heather's wedding. Heather looked him over again and realized he had indeed been at her wedding. She had thanked him with a curtsey, especially for his wonderful gift of an elvish rune stone.
When the formalities were done, Heather and Frank led the way, taking him through the magic doors and explaining the various places of interest as they passed. He seemed amused that she had a hidden tower surrounded by an elaborate graveyard. He admired her use of the magic doors but paused in the room to look at her bone champion with a scrutinizing glare. Heather had forgotten all about him and now wished she had tucked him away someplace safer. She explained him away as a high-level guardian gifted by the recluse class and placed him at the secret backdoor to her tower.
He seemed to accept that explanation without a care, and they proceeded out the final door. Now he showed keen interest as she explained the palanquin and the use of the doors to keep in touch with home. He thought it was a brilliant idea, but his gaze was distracted by the naked fairy woman fluttering about as she spread glitter and sang.
“Who is that fascinating creature?” he asked, causing Heather and Frank to look back and take notice of her.
“That’s Gisley,” Frank said nervously. “She’s a friend of ours.”
“I would very much like to meet this friend,” Orman said as he smiled slightly.
“Uh, maybe you should meet them all,” Heather said with a funny expression before turning to the camp and shouting to announce her presence. As expected, people began to gather from all directions, and before long, they were standing in line with Quinny, Breanne, and Umtha standing behind blackbast while Evalynn, Gisley, and Jaina stood behind Roric.
Heather did the chore of introducing them all formally, starting with Blackbast and then her girls. Orman noted the slave collars on Quinny and Breanne but said nothing about it. Heather then introduced Roric as a conqueror and the rest as his slave girls, naming them one at a time. Orman seemed displeased by this outcome as he looked at Gisley's collar with disdain.
“You are too lovely a creature to wear such a thing,” he said to Gisley.
“Oh, aren't you a sweetheart,” Gisley cooed in her musical voice as she fluttered a little. “But I love being master Roric's slave girl. He takes such wonderful care of me, and we have the most amazing adventures.”
“But you are a child of the fey,” Orman insisted. “You should be free to run wild and spread your magic.”
“She is free to run wild and spread her magic,” Roric interjected. “I would not keep her any other way.”
“But she wears a collar,” Orman protested.
“And I command her to be free and play,” Roric replied. “She sings, dances, and loves just as freely as she always did. All that has changed is she calls me master and looks to me for protection.”
“I see,” the noble elf said as he stepped back. “Well then, let us not waste any time. I hear you have been away from home much too long.” He then stepped to the side, beginning a spell to open a portal. It only took a few moments, but he had to use a magical stone to boost the spell and make it large enough for the palanquins.
Heather's heart fluttered when the blue circle began to open, and she could see Gwen's city on the other side. The trip that had taken weeks was going to end in seconds, and they would finally be home. She waited anxiously for the mage to finish, looking forward to the building that would soon begin.
“The portal is open,” the man announced with a bow and a gesture to the doorway. “Welcome home.”
Magical disks were summoned, and the group rapidly walked through the portal arriving in a city beginning to thrive with new activity. Heather stepped onto the cobbles of Gwen's portal square and wanted to jump for joy. People immediately pointed and called out, announcing that Princess Hannah had just come through a portal.
Blackbast and the others followed, slowly filling the plaza as people watched. They were home at last and being greeted like a rock band that had just gotten out of a limo. Heather and Frank waved as Roric and Jaina followed, joining Heather's family to see the reception.
“People really like you here,” Jaina said as she stood behind Heather.
“For now,” Heather replied. “But if my secret ever gets out, that could all change.”
“Nobody is going to change this,” Roric said. “Your story of rescuing Gwen and restoring the city is widely known now. People see you as an honest-to-goodness hero.”
Heather went to reply, but Orman finally came through and closed the portal behind him. He announced that his task was done but gave Gisley one final bow, promising to visit her in the near future.
“Somebody has an admirer,” Jaina teased as the man vanished in a flash of light.
“It's not like he's the first,” Gisley laughed. “But he might be fun to find wandering in the forest.”
Heather wasn't sure what that meant, but she didn't want to ask. Instead, she waived to the crowd again and suggested they get moving before anyone started asking questions. Since the palanquins wouldn't fit through the magical doors, they would have to take the long way home through the swamp. They quickly mounted and hurried into the streets, putting on a small parade as they rushed for the gates.
Once outside, Legeis used the door to return with his armor while Blackbast rode with Roric on his disk. Then Gisley spread her beautiful butterfly wings and took the air, fluttering along with both disks chasing her. She was able to fly in a straight line, racing across the swamp's dark water unimpeded. They saw a few of the dangers that lurked in the mists and tall grass, but none of them could catch the nimble fairy. It wasn't long before the cliffs that marked the upper swamp came into view, and Heather started to feel the journey was well and truly over.
They had to slow down to use the twisting cliff path, but once they were on the higher plateau, Gisley flew fast, following the eastern trail. Before long, the hills that would become Roric and Jaina's new home came into view and everyone grew even more excited. Finally, they reached a point where Roric and party were ready to stop, so Frank took his ghoul form, and Blackbast sat on his shoulder. They waved and wished each other well as he ran off, carrying his family for the rest of the journey.
“I can’t believe we are finally home,” Quinny said as she looked out the window.
“We have been coming home almost every day,” Breanne reminded.
“Yeah, but not to stay,” Quinny sighed. “It never felt right to be gone so long.”
“We are staying for a good long time,” Heather said as they passed the road that would take them to Umtha's goblin fortress. “I just want to be still so I can think.”
“It would be nice to be still,” Breanne agreed.
“But there is so much to do,” Umtha urged. “You need to find out what the machine was meant to repair.”
“It can wait,” Breanne interjected as Umtha looked sour. “Please, Umtha. Heather has been through a lot of turmoil the past few weeks, and your crown only added to it. She does her best when she has time to sit down, clear her head, and think. We need to give her time.”
“I understand,” Umtha sighed. “I just want to do my best to help, and I feel like only now am I free to act.”
“Speaking of the object the machine was meant to repair,” Breanne went on. “I recently remembered that Umtha isn't the first to mention it.”
“She isn’t?” Quinny asked.
“No, Viylah mentioned it days ago,” Breanne pointed out.
“Viylah,” Heather repeated and tried to think back.
“She told us that Kevin broke something that left Hathlisora crying for three days,” Breanne reminded. “She said it was like taking away a part of her soul.”
“She did say that,” Quinny added. “Maybe she knows more about it?”
“I wish to speak to this Viylah,” Umtha said. “She seems to know Hathlisora as well as I do.”
“If you speak to her, you should know she considers Hathlisora her lover,” Breanne said. “Is that going to be a problem?”
“She does?” Umtha replied and then thought about it. “I suppose Hathlisora and I were very close, but we never used the term lovers. But she promised to return for me, and we hugged many times.”
“So you lied about having a relationship with her,” Breanne said.
“I didn't lie,” Umtha countered. “I loved her, and she knew it. We hugged and shared a few kisses, but Hathlisora was always so busy and on the move. It was hard to build anything, and to be honest; I was sure we were going home soon. I think neither of us wanted to get too close when it was about to end.”
“Wow, my life really does repeat,” Heather laughed with a pained tone.
“Oh, don't say that,” Quinny urged and rubbed Heather's back. “It makes perfect sense to think that when you care about somebody. You don't want them to hurt when you're gone, so you avoid getting too close.”
“It is odd that Umtha and Viylah were both so close to Hathlisora, yet they didn't know each other,” Breanne said.
“I didn't know a lot of her friends,” Umtha interjected. “As I said, she was always too busy.”
“We know she had relationships with other people as well,” Heather said, feeling odd to be talking about Hathlisora like it wasn't her. “And we know one of them was King Kevin.”
“I don’t think that one was romantic,” Quinny said.
“Why do you say that?” Breanne asked.
“Because Kevin had the dragon, and Hathlisora was involved in its becoming undead,” Quinny said.
“We don’t know she had anything to do with it,” Breanne said.
“I may be making a guess, but we know she was working with the necromancers. I think what they discovered together gave them the ability to kill that dragon and raise it as an undead. From what we know about Kevin smashing something vital to Hathlisora, I bet she did that to his dragon to get back at him.” Quinny finished the story by saying she would have done the same thing under the right circumstances.
“That's a little grim,” Heather said but began to wonder if it was accurate. Kevin inflicted a terrible wound on Hathlisora, and she may very well have inflicted one right back. Of course, they had no idea in which order the events occurred. For all they knew, the dragon died first, and the object was shattered in retaliation. Heather would give anything to know what that object was and why it was so important, but that secret would have to wait. She leaned out the side to see the distant falls and silhouette of her tower rising out of the fog. They were home at last, and it was time to settle in for a well-deserved rest. Tomorrow they would begin their role as king and queen, building a city and a home for their growing family.