Jessica was in a meeting with Awen and Murder over the construction of more permanent residents within the barrier. They sat in the guild master’s office which was a large regal room that Jessica rarely used in the game so it still had all of the default items. It seemed like people were on a knife's edge between calm and panic. The last thing they needed was for the morale of the people to slip into hysteria. They also didn’t want anyone from Mighthand finding any of the homes and shops they abandoned in the forest.

The solution they came to was to expand the barrier’s perimeter one hundred meters then clear out the new area. They would then begin a deconstruction project of all of the homes out in the forest and use the materials to build new permanent residents. The project would put the artisans and skilled laborers to work and improve living conditions.

Jessica looked over the map the group had been discussing on her desk. The design Awen proposed was a radial concentric city with the guild hall in the center. There would be one mainstreet that would extend towards the grassland and six other smaller streets that would divide the city like slices of pizza. Each slice would essentially be its own district. Jessica could tell it was extremely well throughout although she didn’t really know what to say. All she could do was put on her best poker face, nod and pretend she knew what was going on but she had no idea about civil planning. She looked up at Awen who looked like she was expecting some sort of feedback.

“We alsso need to future proof our construction effortss. Although I would like to ssay we will get back home relatively quickly it could be sseveral human and elf generationss before that could happen.” Awen stated as she pointed at a map of the construction plans she and Pneuma created. “Thiss will allow us to grow outward asss the population continuess to expand. The guild hall will act asss the city hall and we will divide the clearing into districtss.”

“I see,” Jessica stated with a flat tone. “Is that all?”

Awen took in a shallow breath believing that she had offended Jessica by presenting her with so little information. She shuffled in her chair looking for some detail that would please the ancient demoness before her. However, there was nothing more she could think to discuss without sounding patronizing by repeating herself. Awen lowered her head in defeat feeling inadequate in the presence of someone like Lilitu.

“I know it wass a bit of a rush job but thiss iss all sstill in the planning stagess right now.” Awen said defensively. “I should have waited to show you this after I had more to report. Ssorry.”

This was a rush job? We have been talking for three hours. I am so lost. Jessica thought to herself.

“No need to apologize, this is an excellent start.” Jessica stated with what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “We can use the old bandit hideout as a staging ground for the disassembly of the buildings to the east. We need to have a focus on eliminating our footprint in the world as much as possible. The last thing we need is the Testial Empire to think we are annexing land. Create similar outposts in the three cardinal directions as well and hide them with illusionary magic to ensure the reclaiming of our resources goes smoothly. It will also put our men to work. Once deconstruction is done, destroy the outposts as well.”

“Of course lady Lilitu. Thank you for your time.” Awen said. “I will excuse myself and get started.”

Jessica stood up relieved that she was able to fake her way through the meeting. She walked Awen to the door and showed her off. Jessica then turned back to Murder having almost forgotten he was still in the room. The bug man was eerily quiet and his constant twitching was unsettling to say the least. She walked back to her seat and sat down.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Now that—that is done,” Murder stated as he clicked with excitement. “I wanted to present my findings on the magnificent pale moon wheat Harahel brought me…”

The meeting with Murder took an additional few hours as he went over the applications of the special wheat and several other herbs discovered in the forest. The most pressing issue facing everyone was the storage of food. There simply wasn’t enough to last for much longer so substitutes needed to be found quickly. While Murder’s findings were important Jessica felt more like she was in a lecture than a meeting on the application of his findings. When the meeting finally ended Jessica showed him out of the office as well.

As soon as Murder was out of sight Jessica rubbed her eyes and walked over to the balcony window at the far side of the office. She opened the window and let the breese fill the room. It was already noon and she knew she had even more meetings left to go. She then walked over to her desk and sat down. She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes for a moment.

Knock, knock, knock.

The soft pattering at the door sprung Jessica’s eyes open. She reached into her inventory and pulled out a sleek metal disk about the size of her hand. As she held the disk a user interface appeared across the surface. She scrolled through her itinerary and sighed when she saw that yet another meeting appeared on her schedule. She turned to look outside again before turning back to the door.

“Come in.” Jessica said with as much authority as she could muster.

* * *

Jessica left her office after her last meeting concluded. While she wandered along the halls she was followed by her personal bodyguards Cullen and Noah. She felt as though everyone put her on a pedestal and believed that she could do everything better than they could. She was uneasy giving advice to so many different people on such a wide array of topics she was definitely unqualified for. She was trained to be a business woman not a city planner and she knew very little on the ins and outs of civic planning. Although as a celestial she didn’t have to breathe she could not help but sigh as she walked down the hall.

She was going to use the guild chat to contact Kevin but knew he was out placing the divination nodes with Pneuma and probably didn’t need the distraction. She wanted to do something to get the blood pumping after sitting in meetings all day. She used her skill Lesser Teleport [Awakened] to appear in the training grounds with her entourage not far behind. The training space was nestled off to one corner of the clearing. The guards were put into a strict training regiment to ensure they would be prepared to defend the guild in the event of another attack.

As soon as Jessica arrived everyone stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to her. Twenty pairs of guards were sparring with wooden practice weapons. The drill instructor walked between the battling pairs and gave advice on technique. Jessica looked over the crowd, all of them were melee fighters with no mages or ranged specialists. All of the ranged fighters and mages were taken to another area to train their skills and were only trained together in exhibition matches at the end of the day or joint training every other day.

“Don’t mind me.” Jessica said with a wave.

The guards turned back to their partners to continue their training. They were more on edge and a few were trying to show off their skills taking more risky moves to be noticed. The drill instructor quickly put an end to the showboaters.

“Lady Lilitu,” Li called out.

Li ran over from her partner who she left in the middle of the training field. Jessica remembered the young saber master as one of the first NPC’s she spoke with shortly after appearing in the world. Li was in her fencing gear with her two training sabers in the sheaths at her side. She took off her fencing mask and bowed when she approached, sweat pouring down her face. Everyone was shocked that she ran over to Jessica and once again everything stopped. Even the drill sergeant was waiting in bated breath as everyone awaited Jessica’s response.