“Run it by me again, please. Explain, why isn’t this slavery?” Mirina asked, seriously. “No, don’t misunderstand me. I’m just, as you like to say, playing devil’s advocate.”
Slavery was a delicate subject in Windemere. Even the resident deity didn't have a free pass to commit that most heinous of transgressions.
We were on a field HQ tent outside Saegalla, the whole Silk Legion standing in formation outside. Once I explained to her the nature of the silk golem army, she became appalled. But she had a point. If I couldn’t explain the difference to her, the people would have an even harder time accepting the new army. My meeting with Mirina was assisted by our trusted advisor body who stood by the sides of the room, waiting to be called to give their opinion. Basically, none of them wanted to butt in our argument.
“They have a clear term of service. No less than one hundred years. After that, they’ll be returned to their bodies and let go. They were slated to die or already dead for ‘crimes’ they committed, condemned by state authority. They are being ordered to do public service that benefits the nation instead of an individual’s whims.”
The [Queen] kept staring at me, waiting for something else.
“And because I’m Batman,” I added with a chuckle.
“Goddess, you mean,” she deadpanned. I was sure I hadn’t mentioned Batman yet to her so she probably just disregarded it as nonsense, as usual.
“Yeah,” I shrugged and tried to wipe the smirk off my face. I failed.
After a slight shook of her head, Mirina continued, “Okay. They were criminals. What are their crimes?”
“Rape and plotting to attack Windemere. They were an enemy force. Leondirac’s mercenary corps. They were a threat to all neighboring kingdoms because the [King] didn’t have money to pay for them. He was totally defaulting that contract. And then the people would suffer.”
It was obvious she didn’t like my answer but accepted it.
“They were tried for their crimes, found guilty, and given the choice of just dying. Windemere law states these crimes are punishable by death. They get free after a hundred years of service.”
Mirina turned to her trusted advisor, “Okay. Julia, what do you think?”
The former auctioneer took a step ahead from the wall and said, “I agree with the Matriarch. They were convicted of their crimes and had a choice on the punishment. Add the fixed length of service and it is far from slavery.”
Thank you, Julia,” the [Queen] smiled and the silk-folk woman returned to the backdrop. But Mirina wasn’t done trying to find any chinks in our plan. “Why ‘no less than a hundred years?'”
“That’s easy. One, they need to perform exemplarily. Two, I don’t know if I’d be around to raise them in a hundred years but I’ll try to come back as soon as I can. Three, even though I can probably make a resurrecting enchantment, I want to be present to revive them so I can get back the golem bodies. Even if they gain Exp slowly, in a hundred years I’ll have some interesting specimens to reuse with another willing soul,” I put emphasis on ‘willing’. While I could coerce a soul to become a golem, they would always fight against my control. I didn’t want that and quite frankly, found it abhorrent. “Speaking of specimens, Vanagon, I think it is time for you to come back to the land of the living,” I said to another advisor watching in the shadows and stared at Marlowe. The [Archmage] golem smiled and shook his head. He wouldn’t ride the reborn twinkie train so soon.
“I am ready,” the former King didn’t convey much certainty. His golem body was powerful and carried tons of advantages. Despite that, it didn’t have any of the pleasures of the flesh, like eating, drinking, or sharing one’s body with other people. While the ornery [Wizard] didn’t care for that, Vanagon missed it.
I would try to recreate Vanagon’s body out of nothing. I didn’t have any sample of his body, not even a strand of hair in his crown or his furniture still in my item box. It would use a lot of Divinity but I had enough. Since I wasn’t hoarding it, I was even considering granting the priesthood an additional Perk again. Considering but probably wouldn’t go ahead with that. Compared with what the other gods granted, I was definitely spoiling them.
“Good. We’ll do it tomorrow. Now that we convinced Her Majesty that it’s not slavery, let’s move on to the plans for the new territory. We are moving the northern wall here, and we’ll give a strip of Leondirac’s former territory to both Ekar and Pruinvel so they share a border. We’ll keep to the Uroko and both walls will mark this inner portion of the gulf as our territorial waters...”
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Another year of hard work, another batch of Earth wands gifted to our students. The first teams already graduated and quickly found employ with kingdoms and wealthy nobles all over the continent, using their expertise in Earth magic to build sturdy and beautiful pieces of architecture. Windemere published a book detailing our sewer technology (but not the detailed maps) and how it would improve living conditions for the people, increasing productivity.
We were living a golden age. The people were happy, the children went to school at my temples, The new enchanted walls were almost five times stronger and safer than the “old Windemere Wall”. Immigrants and pilgrims flocked to see our wonders and seek a better life. We had a lot of lands to settle them in but it was a matter of years before we had too many people.
The species blessings of the Matriarch started to show as people ranked up. The older species entries remained the same but as new teenagers were activated... I mean, awakened and the others ranked up, we could see the results. The were-kin reported they had an easier time controlling their berserker rage. The silk-folk’s natural silk-spinning abilities yielded higher-quality products. The rainbow lamia and beast-kin had slightly higher Attribute values. I didn’t know what happened to the star elves because they had a longer birth cycle and seldomly ranked up.
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I carved the channel, splitting Ekar in half. I also build three mighty bridges with huge barbicans on each end from which archers could eliminate any enemy ships that dared to attack. It also linked one saltwater lake with the ocean. Before the channel, the lake only received water during the mighty duodecennial tides.
The Silk Legion hunted dangerous monster lairs in the formerly untamed Saegalla region and eliminated any breeding warrens. I convinced a tribe of mermaids to move into our private bay in the Uroko, settling in and cementing our claim to the waters. They also worked as a buffer against aggressive aquatic creatures and invading ships. Not to mention we got access to the resources from under the gulf. The waters from the rivers Lamheim and Snaketongue dumped tons of nutrients (mostly sewage) in the gulf, turning it into a perfect place to grow algae and coral.
I turned on both {Royal Exp Tithe} and {Matriarch’s Aura}, giving me two sources of Exp from the people of Windemere. It was a steady trickle but also a force multiplier, as all Windemere citizens suddenly gained the x3 multiplier from my Perks. To increase profits even more, the priests revealed it was one of my blessings, increasing Pandora’s faith income.
Another quirk the Matriarch church picked was the Fur Tags. As I instructed my priesthood, they should collect a lock of hair from every new anointed priest and bind it to a wooden tag with the species, place of birth, and the names of the priest and both parents. This way I can easily find the correct tag to raise them when I need it. So far, none of them died, thankfully. The tags were placed in a silk bag woven by the priest for safekeeping.
However, some family members of a new priest saw it and asked about the custom. When they learned what the Fur Tag was for, they begged the priest to make one for them. Seeing no harm in doing so, the priest started to sell the tags to raise funds for the construction of the church. As news spread, the other priests also started to sell tags for the faithful. One silver coin each. They also started to write a wish on the back of the tag, thinking that I might grant them.
Salia asked me if I was okay with the thousands of tags that arrived at the central cathedral and I could only laugh. I sent out a divine message to make the custom official and introduced a new one. If the parents of a newborn child asked for a baptism for the kid, the infant’s tag was free. I had ulterior motives. It allowed the priest to check on the child’s health, nutrition, and to create a sort of census.
In the first months after this became commonplace, wagons loaded with tags were shipped to Windemere from everywhere in the kingdom. It was rather chaotic but within the year I had hundreds of thousands of them. Julia estimated it accounted for about eighty percent of the population.
The remainded of the population were followers of other deities. And there is where it wasn't all roses.
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I was home when I sensed an {Assassin Contract} flicker on and off in the city down below. It was the way Kazuyran’s agents had to signal something using Morse code. I taught them. I paid attention to the code and teleported down to the rusty fig behind the cathedral in the main square.
One of my priests, a silk-folk man, was arguing with a group of civilians. As I approached, I heard what it was about.
“You can’t have a tag if you don’t convert!” The priest barked.
“I don’t see why not! Isn’t this a service your church offers? I never heard of a church that refused services to followers of other deities.”
I learned my lesson with the mercenary camp. I could use {Cosmos Within} on a crowd without spending my whole daily allotment at once. I just needed to concentrate a bit more and then use one minute divided by the whole crowd if they numbered more than sixty. I found I could use less than that only if the number of people was less than that, one second per person.
I did it, enveloping the whole crowd with a sudden urge to look at me and the ominous System message. I was growing fond of it.
“What is happening here?” I asked as I walked slowly toward the quarreling group. People parted, giving my tails a wide berth. I stopped hiding them long ago. The glorified duster was quite impressive. The wings were on and off depending on my mood. They got in the way sometimes. As I remembered them, I polymorphed them back. The [Hero] Perk {Molding Armor} created the proper slits in the back of my clothes to fit the wings through. I spread them out and used {Light Elemental} to make them glow softly.
“Matriarch!” The priest fell on his knees but still glared at the other group.
“Stand. I asked, what’s happening here. And be polite with each other. Windemere is a place where people of all sorts gather to live together. We can’t get to know each other if we argue and curse at every corner,” I stared at the priest who promptly avoided my gaze. But the people watching us would surely keep this message until they reached their graves.
“These citizens wish to purchase a Fur Tag,” the priest explained. It was called Fur Tag even if the person didn’t have fur. “But they are not followers of the… your followers, Your Majesty.”
I was still a [Queen], and Mirina’s lover. I nodded. “And why didn’t you perform your duties?”
“The tag is useless to them,” he replied straight away.
“Did you bother explaining it to them why?”
One of the guys on the other camp snorted and I silenced him with a glare.
“No, I didn’t,” the priest admitted.
From behind me, Salia entered the stage. At this point, it was more a theatrical scene than a real argument, “That’s why the Matriarch had to be bothered into coming here. Listen up,” she said to the crowd. “Anyone that wishes to make a Fur Tag has the right to purchase one from a priest. However, the Matriarch cannot bring you back from the dead if you are not a follower as your soul will go to your own deity’s afterlife.”
To be wrung out of all your Experience and Status, turning that power into Divinity for the deity. Only the level 200 Perks remained with the soul in their next incarnation. By resurrecting people, I was denying that burst of power but it was a long-term investment. A living believer generated Faith passively, and one that was brought back from the dead would have no reason to switch into another deity. The priests also warned people that the Fur Tag was a one-in-a-lifetime deal. While I was sure people would make another tag, I would only raise people a second time in the twelve-year interval if I had a good reason for that.
"Windemere will never demand people to convert to this or that faith. You are free to worship any deity you want," I told the crowd, then turned around to address my most faithful follower.
“[Pope] Salia, would you please take this group of gentlefolk to the cathedral and make their tags yourself?” I asked. “Priest Timmons, you are to re-read the Litany on Civility (one of the “Holy Books” I drafted with the first batch of priests) once every day for a week. This shall be your punishment.”
“Thank you for your mercy and infinite wisdom, Matriarch!” Timmons bowed deeply and rushed into the cathedral. Seeing that the show was over, people went on with their day.
Satisfied, I used {Ground Repulsion} to take off like a VTOL. That’s when I felt a terrible omen and something gripped in my chest.
Ridel Lilac had just died. North. I quickly sent a {Messenger Bird} to Mirina and shifted into the Ethereal, going at full speed after his ring’s signal.