Gûnd Hoglick was thinly built like a tall runner as he stood at around 1.7 meters tall with his slim long limbs now more properly proportioned for him. He was granted the title of Shade warden and was given a mix of assassin and ranger or hunter gear with a bow and a pair of hand axes and short swords sheathed at the back of his hips. His were made out of the Urgon leather with small plates of the Obsidium Mythril blend alloy inside it over his most important areas with an upper chest guard, greaves and plated leather gloves. Over this armour he was given a tunic that had twin ribbons with one in front and the other at the back reaching his knees like some of those Chinese dresses or tabards you’d see in videogames. This tunic also held a thick collar that would allow for cover over his lower face along with the hood attached.

Gûnd would become part time hunter but full time scout and half ranger over the lands that would become the tribes in the future. Leading a pack of his own from the population.

It would be his job to make sure no trespassing was done upon the tribes land's as well as foresee any attack coming from outside their lands. The troll-blooded goblin looked so proud as he looked down at the tunic and then noticed the twin purple mana crystals embedded in the forearms and looked at me with curiosity. “Those are attuned to shadow magic, might help you hone your own magic and abilities.” I answered with a smile and he almost vibrated as he moved out get dressed and try it out, after a bath as all of them needed.

Bûth almost looked half melted before I granted him my blessing, the melted candle type look accentuated by his wavy red glowing hair behaving almost like fire instead of hair. Once I laid my hand on him and the agony was over he became a well built broad shouldered troll with a more orcish build and almost as tall as Ar-Kaius.

I granted him a type of chain-mail with leg and arm guards and a Greek spartan style helmet with a faux Mohawk. With twin hand crossbows that while only capable of one shot at a time were so incredibly taught that they could easily pierce armour along with twin axes that had small channels of mana crysals that outlined the blades of the axes that were fire aspected.

Along with a forging hammer and Drake skin apron. He’d looked at me with wide eyes and I’d seen the biggest grin on his face as his hope to becoming a blacksmith seemed true.

“I saw your desire to craft and forge when I observed the tribes, would you wish to learn from Seker here and perhaps become the tribes smith?” I asked him and then I couldn’t breathe. The Fire-giant-blooded troll about as strong as I’d think captain America would be, just with a little less restraint. He looked at me with a sheepish grin when I obviously breathed in when he let me go and I just chuckled at him laughing at myself.

I had seen it, the rare occasions that they needed to repair or build a new hut I’d seen how Bûth had always wanted to help out and how he looked at the tools with sad eyes. He had also mentioned it out loud as being his greatest wish was to work a forge of his own one day.

Seker handed me the storage ring holding the gear for the rest of them and bowed to me as he then began to chat animatedly with Bûth that so didn’t live up to his title of the Infernal besides his fire like hair. Once they had left I looked over at those that remained and didn’t need a blessing as it were.

Karzâg, Kal-Gûl and Mozû stood there before me and I noticed that while Kal-Gûl stood there with a wide smile at what had been happening. Karzâg and Mozû were whispering between one another which made me curious but I decided to leave it for last as I looked up at Kal-Gûl and gestured for him to come closer.

“Are you certain you should grant us all such wondrous armours and weapons?” He asked me looking a bit worried and I just smiled at him.

“You noticed I had every one drop a drop of blood on their weapons and armour?” I asked and at his nod I smiled. “That makes it so that only they will be able to use the the full capability of the gear unless they allow another to inherit them. If the tribe is attacked and some of them taken I can destroy them with a whisper. These are my gifts to you and you alone.” I said and I saw how proud he looked, completely glossing over the fact I just told him I’d incorporated self-destruct mechanisms into each piece of gear for obvious reasons of practicality.

I was doing some rather interesting experiments in enchanting with this after all, I wouldn’t want someone else to gain something from my hard work after all.

I took out the large mask in the likeness of my elder forms head, made out of my own scales along with a plated robe using the same material. Him being my totem meant I would know right away when he’d have any rebellious thoughts towards me the moment the desire would manifest. Then I could either reconcile with him or strike first.

The robe was made so that if he wished he could interlock the jaw of the skull into it for a visored helm. This allowed him to dance or act in my place as my totem as many of the ceremonies demanded, the totem actually possessing a living body was a first in their history after all. While not taking on the aspect then he could leave the helm open which sort of gave the impression of me sticking my tongue out but it was his head instead.

Then came a ceremonial dagger made out of Obsidian steel reinforced soul crystal dagger infused with shadows to blacken to looking like Obsidian rock. I then handed him a large staff of Elderwood carved and infused with runes and patterns made of soul and mana crystals with even some of my scales used in the decoration of the tribal totem of myself. “I recommend you practice casting your spells through this staff from now on, try to make sure to use all the types of magic you can on a regular basis.” I advised him, wondering if you could create a personalized mage staff that way.

He smiled and when he was done thanking me, he headed off to bathe and get dressed as many of the others in the tribe were doing. Vashanesh taking the initiative and handing out new clothing and organizing them into bathing groups of the same sex for privacies sake. After that the housing issue had actually been solved with Ashes, Dust, Ptah and Lady Weaver organizing families together and those that had already lived with one another to help save up space. They wouldn’t be the only ones calling Ilzkâl their home in the end.

Numiar had stayed with us learning and teaching what he knew for around a month before he went on to try and get in contact with the Changeling society as a whole and gather them together with my offer. I was simply waiting for an answer or meeting with the societies leadership.

Karzâg and Mozû both approached me next and I raised an eyebrow as I also noted that we were the last ones left on the square with most bathing or getting dressed and resting. I looked the two over as they got to just a slightly closer position to me to have a comfortable conversation in. “Can I ask you for a slight oath Void Dragon?” Mozû asked me and I couldn’t help a slight buzz to form in my ears as he spoke, I’d felt it back at the plaza but now that it was this close and silent around us I heard it a lot better.

“What oath?” I asked cautiously. I knew the power that oaths held in this world and was loathe to give out any more than absolutely necessary with my long term goals in mind. I narrowed my eyes at him and went through the types of visions I was capable of and I began to let out a low hiss when I looked at his circulatory system.

I rose while raising one hand up which created globe of shadow around us to hide what was about to happen while it was internally lighted by my mana. I then let the two feel the full force of my aura coming down on them like a wave as opposed to the tsunami that it was when I was fully fresh with a full mana pool.

“Do not think of deceiving me with that helm Mozû, remove it this instant.” I growled as both green skins before me stiffened and then fell to their knees. Mozû took off the helmet and the illusion inscribed on it fell away. Before me was an athletic woman with an inverted triangle type of build so she had slightly broader shoulders than usual and her amazon like physique had allowed the low ranked illusion to just push home the idea Mozû was male.

The grey green skin tone showing her as a black orc with a strange sort of bluish grey hair and a deformity to her face that left it misshapen. Her panic stricken face lessened as I relaxed and the pressure of my aura went away from them.

“H-how did you know?” Mozû asked a little frightfully while Karzâg was catching her breath.

I chuckled in slight amusement as I answered her. “Very few illusions hold up against the eyes of dragons.” I said with what I hoped was a mysterious smile as I offered her my hand to grip. “What is it that you worry about so much to ask an oath of me?” I then asked as I began to run a subtle scan through her body with the touch between our hands as the anchor.

I was surprised as she pulled back hand once I had done a thorough scan of her body. Her bones had slight spherical growths here and there even on her skull which caused the misshapen appearance to her face. As she touched her face almost subconsciously I realized it and simply sighed and shook my head. “I take it you wish to see if I can heal you?” At her nod I thought for a few more moments.

“I will have a task for you once you’ve gone through a bit of training in shadowmancy.” I informed her and at her firming nod I took hold of her and slowly began to work the last of my magic into healing her.

I took my time to allow for just a tad more magic to come to me and would let the healing cause as little pain as possible. At the end I was rather drained and I couldn’t wait to get into the keep’s bedroom to rest. I wobbled a little and had to sit back down on the empty pedestal to catch my breath as I looked at the rather objectively attractive with two tiny and cute tusks jutting out of her full yet thin lips that cave her a natural sort of cute pout.

I shook my head and rubbed it as I was realizing I was more exhausted than I’d thought. I was finding mortals attractive, the thought sent a chill down my spine. “Amazing.” I heard Mozû exhale in near awe, I felt very little awe at the procedure after doing it so often in one night.

Then again maybe it was just the exhaustion talking. I gently smiled as I took hold of her hands and looked down at her, her 1.9 meter height making her look just a little upwards at me. “Mozû, ravens are animals close to my heart. With your title I feel I should help you grow as the mistress of my ravens to come. Will you allow me to?” I asked as I spoke gently and I continued to slightly smile in a gentle manner.

I watched as her eyes sparkled with a variety of emotions I wasn’t quite sure I could tell what they were. I pulled out the raven helm and tough mytrhil plated hide armour fit to be used by any spymaster, ranger, assassin or scouts. Of course many adventurer rouges would also salivate over this armour as well. Along with this I handed her a hunting bow, hip quiver, a pair of daggers and a pair of sickles. She nodded at me and then left as I pulled back the barrier I had erected.

“My lord we did not wish to offend you-” Karzâg began but stopped when I raised a finger in a gesture for silence. I chuckled softly in a kindly manner as I brought my hand up to her shoulder and smiled.

“I will not feel offended if asked such questions when they are out of genuine worry or fear. I cannot know what you fear or worry about since I am not you but I can see if the request is genuine or some form of deception.” I said as I placed the ring holding her gear into her open palm while the two of us walked towards the keep. “It is arrogance and deception that offends me.” I finished.

I watched her eyes grow wider as she examined the contents of the ring in her hand after I’d shown her how. Inside was a spear, short sword, hand-axe and dagger for weaponry with a feathered scale coat under a half-plate armour fit for the valkyrie of a dragon.

There was something about the off hand gauntlet that allowed for a circular shield to spring out with the middle of her forearm as the core. We had put it together through artifice and some collaboration between different smiths so that it sort of functioned on a similar principle as the amulets that grew into full sets of armour as the base idea for it. It was a very lesser variant of the amulet but it was a shoddy reverse engineering of the amulets.

Looking up at me I smiled and gestured for her to go to her father waiting in the doorway of the house he’d chosen for them. “A den mother requires fierce claws and teeth to protect her den won’t she?” I simply asked with a mysterious smile which made her just nod at me and then go to her father while playing with the ring in her hand as she examined its contents further.

Thankfully I’d had asked Lady Weaver to escort Tûhorn into the top most suite at the top floor of the keep. This penthouse capable of not only housing myself, my children and the reincarnators but six more once Tûhorn chose were she’d rest for tonight. Along with those rooms was a lounge, sitting room and dinning room. Bellow the top floor was a private office, workshop, atelier and library with a scribe station I was using to pen a few tomes of my own. Fortunately human skin was easily capable of being used to make a tome and surprisingly it’s texture didn’t differ all that much from a normal leather tome making it so that unless told you’d never really know it wasn’t just like any other parchment.

Thankfully having ground up mana crystal along with a herb then this blend was then put into mana infused ink that made it so that I could manipulate it like I did mana. This made it so that I could easily make every page uniform, every drawing or illustration perfect like I pictured it in my mind. This had made my work on my own little introduction into necromancy come out rather well. I named it the Liber Mortuorum or the book of the dead. In this one I focused much more on the very basics of necromancy, mortuary practises and the use of some of its related skills and spells. However this was essentially a little of a long winded tone as I moved just a little into the spiritual aspect of necromancy and what each type of mortuary practice did to a body both long term and while raising it as this was not only to help train novice necromancer but also work as the first part of the education for Spirit doctors. Due to that I included sections on how the body worked, its organs, skeletal structure and even muscle structure. Along with this I included a section on healing and caring for the body that smarter students of the book might realize would also help out necromancers in their craft.

I’d gone over what the book would contain with the council so that what this tome would contain would serve the purpose I had for it. Creating a tome also allowed a wizard or in my case necromancer to set their basics down to see if their own understanding was as good as they thought by explaining it. Many mages and wizards did this so many had a few personal tomes solidifying what they knew about the contents of each tome.Of course the first one would be bound with human skin and enhanced with a saturation of soul energy and mana once I finished putting down on the pages what I wanted. I was certain that I’d put down to pen many a tome on necromancy and perhaps a few other subjects, this was both to help me distribute knowledge I might need to fuel a little cult to disturb or distract any kingdoms or areas I needed that way or train my own.

I sighed as I looked up at the keep towering over Starlight, then from there over to the first ring of walls that would spread out from the keep. We had not only put the ground work for everything we would construct down, marking off sections, flattening the ground as needed and the like but some structures had been put up such as our forge. We’d figured out how to melt metal ore by using black lightning as a form of induction furnace with a foundry bucket used to hold the molten metal that would then be put into moulds of ingots for storage and later use.

Quite frankly I’d been amazed at the sheer amount of work that had gotten done but then again between myself and Vashanesh alone we had a force of almost 128 workers that worked without tiring and always just as attentive as when they began. This had allowed them to work round the clock and with the overseers we’d made had only made it even more streamlined as the overseers controlled the work flow.

Following a mental thread I saw through Seker training Bûth a bit by telling him how the forge worked with the artificed machinery and tools I’d had made following what I’d seen. Through the videos I’d seen on the internet I knew a proper modern forge would have power hammers, belt sanders, grinders, dremels and a decent sized forge. We’d made magical tools made with artifice to mimic a few of the more modern tools to allow machining things better I’d seen in some of those forging videos I’d watched. I’d also had the aforementioned induction forge at another spot in the small compound that was the metal smithing area.

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It was there that we processed and stored a lot of the ore those small veins of metals we’d found that we had begun mining. Of course we had bought the basic tools we’d require to begin working like black smiths but at the moment we were working basic iron to create more tools we’d require. Different hammers, tongs, chisels, rasps, drill heads and the like would be forged until we reached a certain mastery with the basics and first made weaponry usually melted down once again to waste as little metal until we had reached a workable skill level.

I’d already begun to work in the smithy but with the closing in of the academy’s opening day I had gotten increasingly busier above ground with much less time to spend down in Starlight any more. With those thoughts in my head I looked over my shoulder towards the forge as I walked into the keep, the twin royal guard standing guard opening the large heavy doors for me. Seeing them I stopped and hummed a bit to myself.

The Ushabti didn’t really fit their name any more. In the lore I’d drawn from they had been just more powerful constructs controlled by elite warriors or archers but mine? They were mages, scribes, smiths, guards and so much more. “You all need a new name.” I hummed to myself as I stared at the near Anubis mummy looking royal guard who held the door open for me.

“You shall be named the Medjay from now on.” I said aloud at the royal guard and the notification of the renaming of my saved designs for the Ushabti being changed into Medjay not only there but even in the minion section of my status.

With a smile I continued into the keep and walked up the central spiral staircase that the original arena had become converted into. The very centre of it a web column made by Lady Weaver and the other spider undead I had at my disposal, I saw the many spiders run up and down it as I walked up the stairs. As I reached the second floor, counting down from the top that is, I made my way to the library to put in a few more pages into the Liber Mortuorum.

The magic I was infusing it with requiring me to pen no more than eight pages at a time. I worked in silence as being allowed to sit and not expending any mana while I manipulated what I got out of the air instead allowed me to rest.

It didn’t take much time overall but I took the chance to rest for half an hour while I worked and I soon left the library while the ink dried and the magic sank into the parchment of the tome. Only the original would require this much effort as a tome of my own making, after that I could have it copied with the use of some of the scribes we’d made just for such a purpose. Of course now they were in storage as the library they’d work at itself wasn’t finished being constructed.

“Ah, My lord.” A raspy voice called out to me as I had walked a few steps out of the library proper. I turned to look at the owner of the voice and realized it had been mind to mind communication.

I noticed the last greater undead I had created of late, he would become my head librarian at my final base. Dressed in a hooded black robe that had deep purple embroidery along with a silken sash around the hip area of the same colour. The overall look to the robe was long enough to cover the feet making him appear to glide over the ground rather than walk. With open long sleeves that allowed the two open sleeves to come together in a triangular shape in front of his chest.

The shoulders of the outer robe he wore were pointed and curves slightly upward with a tall collar that would normally fully cover the neck and a large hood over that. With gloved fingers making the only thing that gave him away as undead was the vampire skull without a lower jaw that was his head.

“Kvasir… What can I do for you?” I asked with a slight smile, I was mentally exhausted and really wanted to just get a nap.

“I’m sorry Lord Carstein, I am simply here to inform you that your personal forge has been completed and has enough ingots stocked of every material we’ve collected so far for your personal use.” He said bowing his head a little. Like Ptah and seker his eye sockets held a mana crystal and soul crystal with shadows filling in enough to make their shine his pupils.

“My what?” I asked with a raised eyebrow as I began to suspect some plans had been snuck inside the overall construction blueprint of the keep.

“Your personal forge.” Kvasir said and I got the distinct impression of him smiling. “The floor we are currently on will house your personal library, forge, alchemy lab, workshop, office and atelier. I’ve already taken the liberty of taking out and setting up those minion ideas you’ve already begun to create prototypes for. Unfortunately we are still working in the protective wards and sigils into the walls of the alchemy lab so it won’t be available for your use for the next forty or so hours.” He then continued and nodded his head towards me.

I was a little dumbfounded and followed him into my personal forge, it was a pair of large rooms. The first one reserving half of it as a storage area of woods, metals and other materials needed for forging and the other holding sanders, grinders, drills and machining tools to use for both wood and metals.

After that came the forge itself, holding a large goal like forge with a vent above it, a simple anvil, power hammer, quenching tank, a mini induction furnace and racks and spaces to hold tools and equipment.

Immediately I felt my palms itching to begin forging something but I held off on actually starting in my current state. “Why did it take so long to make this?” I whispered to myself as I ran my hand over the simple anvil I’d most likely use to forge it’s replacement. I already knew the alloy blend of metals I wanted my personal tools to be made out of. Orichalchum as the base with an equal mix of mana crystal and the corresponding metals to the elements of fire, ice, lighting, light, dark, shadows and death. These would all need to be the exact same weight, mass and shape before they’d be melted into the Orichalchum to be made into ingots to make my tools with.

I almost ground my teeth as I’d ordered all of the metals I’d need to create the base alloy ingots and even knew the magic's needed to make the alloy what I’d need it to be but I was just missing the materials to start. I sighed again and looked over the forge and then looked back over to Kvasir. “Once we have all the materials needed for the nethmerite alloy let me know. I wish to make my personal tools out of that metal...” I paused as I noticed the wards, sigils and spells woven into the place. It was not only made to funnel mana and soul energy from above ground into the room when I wanted but also was sound proof and even explosion proof.

Kvasir only nodded to me as I trailed off while looking at the intricate interwoven magic in the room. “I shall see it done by the time you wake up. However, might I suggest you eat someone before you rest.” He said and I was a bit taken aback by his choice of words but ended up only shrugging.

“I have no need to eat someone.” I said as I sat down on the anvil and pulled out a waterskin filled with fresh blood. I had to admit the stasis of the spatial storage devices was a blessing for keeping things fresh as they came out just like they were put in. I pulled out the plug with my teeth and drank deeply of the container. Feeling how the warm freshly spilt blood invigorated my vampiric side after starving it for so long. I hadn’t really indulged in drinking blood until now, I figured it might be due to how much I’d put into the vampiric abilities I had starved that side of me due to quick advancement without ever fully sustaining it before suddenly upgrading it again.

I ended up draining six waterskins, each containing 1,8 liters of fresh blood. I was panting at the end of it and felt rather blood drunk as I almost swayed before washing it all down with a small canteen of water. I still breathed heavily for a while as I felt my fangs as extended as they could get from my open mouth as I simply held it open to take in deep lungfuls of air.

I then felt how my veins extended all throughout my body like they were greedily taking in all that I’d consumed. My blood feeling like it was an acid burning through the blood I’d consumed leaving only what my own blood needed from the other.

Steam slowly rose from me, like I was slightly wet and had an extreme body temperature out in the cold. I continued to pant for a while more before my breathing got under control and steam stopped rising from me. I put a hand to my neck and began to think that perhaps Kvasir had the correct idea… perhaps I should figuratively eat someone.

I can drink human blood, I can turn their skin into parchment or leather as I require but even with all that in mind I’d still draw the line of actually eating someone. I‘m a vampire for fucks sake not some ghoul, I just hoped one of the bloodlines I’d eventually make wouldn’t succumb to cannibalism.

With those sobering thoughts I stood up and rubbed at my forehead. “Kvasir… I’m going to be selective of those I drink from directly, I can handle the blood of the freshly slain that we’ve stock piled but I do have a bit of taste for who I actually drink from.” I cleaned the blood magically that we collected so its just enough to work as sustenance but missing some of the vital elements that will cause taste or effects it might have on me.

It was essentially the purified water of blood as the magic did prevent it to have and thereby prevent me from imbibing any kind of disease or other things that might be transmitted through blood. I had been told by Verona that once I came to my sort of sense for blood I’d be able to more easily find those whose blood I favoured the taste of.

With a slight sigh I gestured for Kvasir to leave and go do his other duties as I continued to look around the forge. I hummed and then walked into the storage part of the forge’s secondary room and took out a bar of ironwood. With it in hand I moved over to the lathe we’d created and worked it down before moving over to the grinders and shaping out the curved handle sized for an axe usable by either one or two hands.

I fell into a sort of trance as I moved on over to the dremel and began to slowly put in engravings of knot work and even a Viking style rams head as the pommel of the axe haft. I added in a few deeper cuts of different sigils and runes used in enchanting to strengthen the haft and its coming connection to the axe head I’d forge.

I took out a thin wire of glow steel and hammered it into the sigils and runes to fill it up with the softly glowing white metal. This added a mystic type of feeling to the handle as it was essentially done and would only require the head and finishing touches for enchantment.

I left the axe haft leaning against the anvil with an ingot of steel on top of the anvil I’d forge into the axe head later. I’d found it rather funny but the only modern tool I’d had to have built was the lathe and power hammer while the others already existed. They even had this hand held plasma torch thing that requires massive amount of mana to operate properly.

This world wasn’t nearly as undeveloped as many of the reincarnators thought upon first coming here. With artifice and magic a lot of modern tools could be made to help craftsmen further their craft yet somehow the world still continued with its middle medieval era look to most of the civilizations that called the continent home then again perhaps magic was an equalizer of sorts?

While I did compare them with civilizations from earth it was mostly because it was my only real point of reference to describe it to someone from earth. For example those I’d call Egyptians here held elements of architecture from both Persia and Greece while forgoing the triangular pyramids to a more tiered version like seen in Asia but a style all of their own.

Leaving the forge I made my way up to the top floor and headed into my personal chambers. On the way there I saw Lady Weaver leave Tûhorns chosen room. The woman sighed and looked at me with an expression both annoyance and fondness. “She had a lot of questions.” She sighed as I walked passed her which made me chuckle a little.

Once I’d gotten into the room I quickly fell asleep. That night we focused on blacksmithing, enchanting and alchemy with Sutekh, Németh and Zalruk along with a little more in terms of vampire lore from Verona and more lessons on necromancy.

I had needed the alchemy lesson as it allowed for different oils to quench and elements to add into any metal I was melting into ingots to allow for better products in the end with the metals. Not only that but some of the forging techniques, magics and enchantments that could be placed on your own tools made the objects forged better than a similarly forged blade of the same metal from earth.

I knew dwarves had firearms but I’d figured it wasn’t as wide spread on Imerith due to the powerful weaponry and armours that could then be further enhanced by the massed knowledge of both smiths and enchanters. I was rather certain that what was forged here in Imerith would be better than what would be forged back on earth using it’s knowledge. Magic was just that much of an equalizer.

What this did I think only made firearms just another type of ranged weapon. With armour capable of standing up to muskets I figured that along with dwarves jealously guarding the secrets of their firearms which out perform those I’d seen used in Veta as it had units of musket marksmen in their military along with archers and other weaponry.

The usual tactic was for the musketeers to fire upon cavalry, monstrous units or lightly armoured units outside of targets of opportunity for those with mana crystal infused powder for added range. It made those marksmen capable of shooting at any vulnerable spot at range with a musket or pistol worth their weight in gold at times.

Though that same logic applied to every individual with some level of mastery with their chosen weapon or weapons.

I had the idea of trying to make a magic pistol type weapon in the future but I’d just put it aside for now until I could actually devote enough time to craft one. Then with a groan I woke up, rubbing at my face as I shambled around the room like a zombie while I got dressed and did my daily necessities. Taking a bit of time to devour the mana of a fully made mana crystal to help my stores of mana.

I yawned loudly as I left my room and saw Tûhorn in much the same state as myself. She wasn’t a morning person apparently. “How did you sleep?” I asked stifling a yawn as I spoke and the two of us joined up on our way to the dinning room.

With a slight sniff Tûhorn yawned and rubbed at her eyes before reaching out with one to grip my hand once at my side. “I slept well… just wish I could sleep for longer.” She muttered and I chuckled as I agreed with her. A thought came to me then, would I be capable of sleeping years or centuries away now that I was essentially a vampire dragon? Well maybe once this was all over I’d indulge in sleeping in for a few years or decades. I chuckled to myself at the thought of by that time I’d definitely be the grumpy and sleepy grandfather.

When Tûhorn and I entered the dinning hall we were both surprised to see Lady weaver there, in an apron and a dress made of raven feathers I had no idea where she’d gotten. “Ah you are both here.” She said smilingly as she moved the small serving cart she had to the end of the table, were cutlery was laid out for me and Tûhorn. “Please take a seat, I have prepared a hearty breakfast of diced potatoes, along with an assortment of meats all diced as well. We have smoked bacon and ham with a bit of onion some herbs and spices along with fired eggs.” She said as she put down a dish filled with cubed potatoes and meat all mixed together with little cuttings of herbs, onions and spices with a crowning of the eggs on top. I felt my stomach rumbling and looking over to Tûhorn she was just as shocked at the spread before us as I was.

I felt my stomach grumble in need and looked over at Weaver as curiosity grew in my gaze. “Did you look through my memories for this one?” I asked her and she made a rather clear attempt at avoiding my gaze. With a chuckle I simple went on to enjoy three full plates of the food.

Tûhorn had two plates for herself and by the end of it both of us were leaned into our chairs and sighing with content expressions on our faces. “Do you always eat like this?” The little half troll asked with while she rubbed her belly in a rather clear indication how content she was.

I laughed a little. “Not every day but I think given that I spent quite a bit of power for the gate last night and it seems Lady Weaver has grown rather fond of you to cook so much for us.” I said with a smile as I sighed from the contentment of having a full stomach after a while.

“You will have to study today with Kvasir. I’m afraid I might be a little busy with the tribe today to get it all set up.” I told her and she scrunched up her lips a little as she eyed me.

“Don’t I get to meet... my siblings?” She asked me and I smiled at her gently as I reached over to rub the top of her head, ruffling her hair a little in the process. She giggled at the action and ran her fingers through her hair to get it in order again when I pulled my hand back.

“You will meet them. They know that I won’t be home over this weekend as it was the only time I could put aside to help the tribes outside my other responsibilities.” I said and went on to explain what she’d have to live as and who I was in the Alocian empire at the moment. Then I also went on to explain that Kvasir would be teaching her the basics she’d require to live in the empire as a noble like she was now. It would also move into the Icelandic runes which I’d adopted as my own written code after he’d made sure she could read and write.

I knew that these two days we had wouldn’t be enough to teach her how to read and write if she didn’t know how but it could help speed the process along if we went slower into her education after the fast track Kvasir had apparently planned for her. I mentally commanded him to be gentle but firm while teaching her to lessen any trauma that his appearance might cause. “Tûhorn, you will be taught by Kvasir today while I’m helping the tribe. He might seem scary but don’t worry, he won’t hurt you.” I said right as Kvasir opened the dinning room doors.

I saw how Tûhorn tensed at the sight of him but the curious cock of his head caused her to do the same. Kvasir slowly walked towards her and leaned down before he chuckled a little and looked over to me. “Do you sense it?” He asked me curiously and all I did was respond with a mysterious smile.

A smile that caused Tûhorn to raise her eyebrows at me before suddenly being whisked away by Kvasir as he whistled a tune. I suspected it was a part of myself that had influenced him, specifically as he was whistling Giuseppe Verdi’s libiamo ne' lieti calici. I wondered if I shouldn’t see if he didn’t wish to learn some instruments of his own but I decided against it.