Sir Edvar says "The empire appreciates your assistance. I have reported directly to the emperor and he is very happy with everything that you have done. If there is any reward you might want, I am pretty sure the emperor will agree."

"There is no need for that. The emperor has already promised the reward that I want. Besides, I have gotten several benefits from my adventures into the desert. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to contact my wife and check on the situation in the north."

Sir Edvar says "Of course. Please let me know if there is anything at all that my men or I can do for you."

"Sure."

Sir Edvar heads over to the mages surrounding the corpse pile and I find a quiet corner. I sit down, open up a soulscape, and invite Lin, then I wait until she appears. It takes her a few minutes, but I don't mind, it is earlier than I normally open the soulscape.

Lin says "We need to make this quick. I am in the middle of the elves' welcoming party."

"Alright. I just need to know what you found out."

Lin says "According to Zachariah, the delegation did not change directions and will be here in four days at most. He also got me a description of the delegation's leader."

"Do you know him?"

Lin says "Of course I do. It is the son of the leader of the Magic Kingdom."

"The one that caused you a ton of problems?"

Lin says "Yes. He is the one."

"Am I still not allowed to kill the delegation?"

Lin says "Are you wanting to start a war?"

"To be honest, I have no problem starting a war for your sake."

Lin says "That is sweet, but there is no need to start a war when we can just leave."

"Alright, since you insist. I will return soon. Is there anything else I should know?"

Lin says "The council has decided to destroy the wall. However, they are nervous about it and want to wait for you to return and have you do it."

"They are such a pain. Alright, I guess I will deal with that tomorrow. Enjoy the party, I will be at the castle soon."

Lin says "You aren't going to join the party?"

"No. I still have a few things to handle and I don't want to disrupt the party. The only one I want to see right now is you. Before you leave the party, tell Stillwater we will be leaving in two days."

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Lin says "Alright. I will tell him. Are you alright? You seem anxious."

"I am ready to evolve, but I don't know what will happen when I do. I need to wait until I can be in a safe place and it may take a few days. I really want to see what will happen, but having to wait is really annoying."

Lin says "Ah, now I understand. You are many things, but patient isn't one of them. Especially when your curiosity is aroused. So, what's the plan then?"

"We will settle things in the city and then we will leave. Once we are safely away, I will evolve in the cabin. Oh, I asked Zachariah to arrange for some supplies, did they arrive?"

Lin says "Yes, they did. Even with the extra mouths, we should be good for at least a year."

"Good. One less thing to worry about. Alright, if there is nothing else important I will let you get back to the party."

Lin says "Okay. I will see you tonight."

I give Lin a nice long kiss before she leaves and then I end the soulscape. I kind of want to hunt in the desert some more, but until I evolve there is no point. Besides, I don't dare to leave Lin in the city when the delegation is so close.

Just because Zachariah said four days doesn't mean that they won't show up sooner. If something were to happen to Lin I would absolutely lose my mind. At that point, I can't even be sure what I would do, I don't even want to imagine it.

Just thinking about it is depressing, so I force my mind away from the idea. Instead I try to think if there is anything left that I need to do while I am here. Luckily, I remember what I forgot to do and head over to talk to Sir Edvar.

"Sir Edvar, here take these. They are scanners that will detect a worm if you get within fifty feet of one. Unfortunately, things up north require my presence so I won't be able to offer anymore help."

Sir Edvar says "Understood. Thank you for all your help. You have done more than we ever could have hoped for. I will report everything to the emperor. If you need anything, anything at all, go see him."

"Alright. I wish you luck in dealing with the desert."

Sir Edvar bows to me as I open a gate that will take me back to the castle. Just before I walk through the gate, he leads the soldiers in cheering for me. This trip has somewhat restored my thoughts about humans in general.

It is one of the only times I have had dealing with nothing but good people. No one even tried to kill me on this trip, I don't think that has happened before. Not once while I was in the south did I have the thought of killing a human.

Then again, I didn't interact with many people, but it is still worth thinking about. I need to remember that not all humans are bad, there are still good ones worth saving. That is the main reason that I agreed to ally with the empire and helped them so much.

Jarvis says "Welcome back, Maker."

"Hello, Jarvis."

Jarvis says "I trust that your trip went as planned. Was it profitable?"

"It was extremely profitable."

Jarvis says "That is good. Is there anything that you require of me?"

"Ah, yes actually. You can save me some time and merge some stone into the castle."

I take out the stone that I got while I was in the southern castle and pile it up. While Jarvis is working on absorbing it into the castle, I head down to my workshop. Once there I start taking out the metals that I acquired and organizing them.

After that is done, I dive into Jarvis' programming to see what has changed. A lot has changed over the days that I was gone and I quickly lose myself in it. The next thing I know, Jarvis is interrupting me to inform me that Lin has returned.

I drop what I am doing and rush upstairs to welcome her home properly. It is a little scary how much I missed her, but I am not going to think about it. After kissing for a while, we sit down to have dinner and I introduce her to the southern recipes.

While we are eating I tell her everything that happened while I was gone. Once I am done, she tells me what has been happening in the city in detail. We already discussed most of it, but this way we don't miss any of the details.