I walk to the open seats with morgan. Taking the one on our right as we see a great variety of food on the table.

[hidden monarch] “please, enjoy the meal. It’s good to think over some well tasting sustenance”

Slowly I reach out and starting adding food to my plate. Morgan follows my lead. His smooth baritone voice has a slightly singsong quality to it. It’s definitely more pleasant than most soft-skins, their singing was always something that could be enjoyed… I could never say that idea back with my kin. Why is my life so strange?

[hidden monarch] “-t’s why I’m seated where I am. One to publicly rule and another to rule through agents. My scions are quite capable I assure you, and the magic I grant them is not to be trifled with.”

[morgan] “yes I could tell. My training in the arcane is limited, but I recognized the high level teleport effect.”

What had I missed of him talking? Was it unimportant? Hopefully it was, I’d have to ask morgan later.

[hidden monarch] “Yes I’m surprised the tower mages of Aush-kira would take in an untrained outsider so readily.”

[morgan] “I trained myself while I was made to serve under the warbugs, your majesty.”

[hidden monarch] “there’s no need for honorifics in private so long as you can remember my station young one.”

[morgan] “I- uh, yes y-, yes I will keep that in mind.”

[hidden monarch] “so my guests I’m curious about the warbugs on the northern side of the continent. Why they are so brutal and savage. Tell me of your people's beliefs Moonshadow.”

[morgan] “I don’t recall telling you his name.”

[kobold] “I overheard it before.”

I begin the tale over again this time working to keep things to the point and brief. Telling him what the tower mages had learned and seemed most interested. He occassionally would ask for clarifications but otherwise listen intently.

“So, what do you think of my kind now?”

[hidden monarch] “I am less surprised than many would be as I had parts and pieces of that ancient history. I’m long lived and come from a very old legacy. Your kind are understandable… still troublesome but understandable, fortunately things are changing. New souls should truly change your society in about four or five generations I would guess. As the both of you are guests, I’m happy to have you stay for a month or two longer for in-depth discussion but I have another possibility for the both of you. I’d like to make you both agents of mine, Shall we say arcane investigators.”

[morgan] “I, we’re honored to be asked to fill such positions.”

“what would we do?”

[morgan] “investigate, like go check things out for him.”

“oh, so we’re his problem solvers.”

[morgan] “uh, some of the time. We’d be able to call in help if needed.”

[hidden monarch] “yes and if you accept I have a couple minor magical items to give to moonshadow along with medallions marking you both as my agents.”

“I don’t think we’ll find better offers.”

[morgan] “Agreed. It seems we’ll take you up on that offer.”

[hidden monarch] “Excellent! You’ve made a great choice.” Motions a hand at the kobold who trots off out of sight. “Now one item is to change your appearance moonshadow and the other will be to translate your words into common. Of course it isn’t perfected yet so miss morgan will have to help with it acquiring new words and phrases. You will retain the dwelling you already have stayed at and receive a solid stipend for your efforts. The new medallions will allow you to place an order for any basic materials you may need, such as reagents.

“that’s-”

[morgan] “generous. Thank you.”

[hidden monarch] “well I like to gather in the unusual and capable. The kobolds are hated everywhere else on the continent but I happily have them in my personal employ as well as citizens of my kingdom. I have ensured that petty and useless hatreds do not reign here and my country is better for it.”

“why then should I hide my appearance?”

[hidden monarch] “you don’t need to, but I believe it will help keep you safe my friend.”

the kobold returns and hands us the new medallions taking our old ones and then handing me a ring.

[hidden monarch] “the ring is to mask your appearance. The medallion has the translation magic in it. Now I want you both to get familiar with the city for a couple days and then I’ll send you out on a mission for me. We’ll see how you do, oh and I want to be clear while you can call on me do so as a last resort. I bring agents such as you in so I don’t have to be everywhere at once, I don’t want to be unexpectedly disturbed unless truly necessary.”

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[morgan] “yes, sir?”

The monarch nods and I catch a glimpse of his orange hair… why did the soft-skins call such people red heads? We finished off the food we wanted. It was unique and delicious but I barely noticed as the conversation had taken my focus. Soon we were led out and brought back to our house for the rest of the afternoon and evening to enjoy.

[morgan] “alright so… that worked out.”

“and you healed well.”

[morgan] “huh? Ohh right, yeah his strikes were getting worse as it went on. I don’t have a large selection of known spells so thanks for keeping me safe from our former body guard”

“yeah. For one lifetime at least… anyways you want to help get this understanding the second language?”

[morgan] “yeah, though maybe it should be called something else… trade click?”

“horrible name. Let’s just get it working.”

We spend the rest of our day working on the translating magic, getting it to the point where it does the basics well enough, I could make requests and carry on a basic conversation with anyone now. After that we slept. Woke the next morning and went for food then returned home to continue our work on the translation. In the night went out and walked around the city. Getting to know the place. One thing I hadn’t noticed about the place was that the ground level wasn’t the bottom. In most places there was one to three levels of stone structure underneath. Halflings, kobolds, and lizard-kin moving about freely. The two scaled peoples leaving me a bit confused.

“why did we not see any of their kind before?”

[morgan] “what kind?… oh you mean all the scaly people? Well they’re hated by most.”

“I can see that they are significantly different but hated to being killed off?”

[morgan] “yeah anything with scales is considered inherently evil since the dragon war.”

“the dragon war… I never got a clear idea, your kind fought the great beasts of the skies? The ones that would kill mine and keep my kin from challenging yours because they were evil?”

[morgan] “all I really know are the old tales and nursery rhymes. So yeah, it was said they all had insatiable avarice and will to dominate, that they wouldn’t respect our lives so we, our kind sacrificed lives innumerable to bring them down in a bit over a millennium. And by killing their young we ended the dragon threat.”

“and they didn’t destroy your civilizations?”

[morgan] “oh the tales say entire peoples were destroyed, cities burnt to the ground, but we just didn’t stop when that happened.”

“humans alone did this?”

[morgan] “no it was most all peoples, dwarves, elves and others aided or joined in… sooner or later.”

“that’s, impressive. We never developed a solid way to destroy the dragons… at least from what I know.”

[morgan] “yeah well crazy hate can get people to do things you didn’t know were possible.”

I nodded and the rest of the conversation was more meandering, smaller and less important topics being discussed. Mostly we were testing the translation as we walked. When we returned to our house, I went to the mirror we had and checked the false image, a human with deformed arms that were partly fused to the body to match my true deformation forced onto me. A tan skin with dark brown hair and brown eyes. Aside from the deformity I looked unremarkable for a human. I went to bed and the next day played out much like the last. Getting to know the city better and learn its streets. I was going by the name Mianshal, an orphan made agent of the hidden monarch… this seemed to make sense to those that heard the story. It seemed odd to me how the people here all got along when from morgan’s words they were hated, killed? Exterminated? Now I had to see how they interacted with the rest of the world, was it as bad as she was told?

On the third day as we were working on the translation the medallions emitted his voice.

[hidden monarch] “well my agents I have a straightforward task for the two of you, I’ve been notified of an unusual trend occurring within state orphanages for the past several months. Normally there are short-lived oddities as the orphanages are voluntary for the young within. Sustained anomalies are odd and I would like the two of you to go check in on it for me, just figure out why the anomaly is occurring and report back through your medallions.”

then his voice was gone.