“What is a court elemental?” Ben asked.

It was a great question. And one I had no answer to.

“It is a very important and prestigious job! It will involve a lot of blood and slaughter. It also allows me to bully other elementals in Amaya’s name. Hehehe.”

What?

“Ohhh.” Ben was clearly impressed.

“Anyway, Shani will now be around more often.” I said. She could actually still return to her home plane if she wanted to. What we created was a way for her to stay indefinitely, after being summoned. It also meant she no longer had to obey any commands. Although, I could banish her in the worst case, I suppose.

“My ladies' court and fame grows!” Lily said with a smile.

At this point, the gate opened and the commander returned.

“Welcome to the dwarven kingdom!” Leif said. “I have contacted my superiors and they have granted you all entry. King Dalroc would like to meet you personally and has invited you to the capital. Queen Solana and Queen Loriel are there as well.”

Interesting. Solana was the sun queen and negotiated the alliance between the Dwarven Kingdom and the Dominion. With Loriel there as well they might be discussing the threat of the Empire and the mind control.

“Sure. But we only have two weeks to replant Thessia’s tree.”

“I am sure the king can find a place for the tree, if needed.” Leif said.

I suppose she could temporarily plant her tree there. Or permanently even, if she wanted to.

“How far away is the capital?” I asked.

“With your caravan? About five days until you reach Mountainheart.”

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“I am looking forward to a proper city.” Lucy said. “With real showers and baths.”

“We do have great baths! Our water has special minerals that are amazing for the skin.” Leif boasted.

“Sounds great! Now, how do we get there?”

“Just follow the signs, they will lead you to Mountainheart. Also, the big roads are patrolled and should be safe. There are larger caverns in regular intervals where you can rest for the night. They will have access to water. We do have drains along the roads so you can use water magic safely. Our kingdom is a mixture of natural caverns, connected by tunnels we created. A number of creatures live down here. Quite a few of them are dangerous.”

He paused and looked at us. Then he chuckled. “Maybe not dangerous to you.”

“Things to slaughter? Yay!” Shani cheered.

The whole area sounded like the underdark I knew from games. There might be a whole ecosystem down here. Would there be light? I could see in the dark but not everyone had that ability. The dwarves placed lights on their roads but I wondered how the natural parts looked. Also…

“Are there any creatures down here that taste good? Anything we should keep an eye out for?” I asked.

The question caught Leif off guard. “Uh… Hm. Lot’s of poisonous things down here. You might be ok eating that but don’t feed it to those refugees. The undermountain is a relatively hostile place for those not used to it.”

That sounded like it could be fun.

“I shall happily cook anything you slay.” Lily offered.

“Can you slay some cookies?” Ben asked.

“Ben, you know cookies are made from flour, eggs, sugar... We have made cookies before.” Lynn said.

Ben seemed to consider that statement. “Flour! That is from the wheat we grow! We need to slay plants!”

Were there any plant monsters you could turn into flour? Actually, would it be possible to make cookies from a monster? He raised some interesting questions.

“We call that harvesting, not slaying.” Alister explained.

“Why didn't we have cookies more often? We grew flour.” Ben asked.

“Sugar is rather expensive and you need that too.” Lynn said.

“Can you slay sugar?” He asked.

Alister chuckled. “No son, that is grown too. But we did not have the right weather for that.”

Suddenly Ben’s eyes lit up. “Big sis can control weather! She can grow sugar!”

“We can also buy sugar,” Lucy said. “Money is no longer a problem.”

“We can buy all the sugar! We can have sooo many cookies!” Ben celebrated.

“No. Too much sugar is bad for you.” Lynn said.

“Yes, you need to eat them responsibly.” I added.

“Yes. Don’t be like Amaya, who constantly stuffs her face with food.” Lucy teased.

“It’s fine if you are an archfey.” I replied smugly.

“Ehrm.” Leif drew our attention. “I wish you a good journey. I must go back to my job and organise a bigger guard for the gate until the runes are fixed. Have a nice day.”

After Leif left we went back to the wagons. We informed the people that all was fine and we would be travelling to Mountainheart. Thessia was ok with the possibility of having her tree in the dwarven capital for a while.

“Once it’s replanted it has to stay for at least a month until I can move it again.” She warned us. “But you would not need to wait. I can make my own arrangements and follow you.”

“Can your tree grow without sunlight?” I asked.

“The artificial light the dwarves create is enough. And mages can provide the rain. I would not want to live here forever but it's not going to hurt me.”

That meant we did not need to hurry. Maybe we could even explore a bit on the way.