Everyone was looking at Aoi, but she clenched her right fist and her face paled in anger. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, knowing that whatever she asked of Theon, he would give her. She felt the gazes of her kin and suddenly felt suffocating rage. Theon was right. After how they treated her, they still had the audacity to beg for her mercy. Something dark and ugly crept down deep inside her soul, growing stronger and stronger, until she felt the hand of someone powerful enclosing and supporting her smaller hand inside. She opened her eyes and looked at the calm and smiling face of a man who accepted her. The warm and shining lance pierced the darkness inside of her, leaving shame and guilt behind, before she realised that wasn't true at all. He didn't know her, yet he supported her. He lent her his powers without question; he shattered the chains that kept her in the darkness for so long. She felt her heart beat harder and felt a flame of passion inside her. She was never so sure of anything in her life as the certainty that she loved him. After taking a breath and smiling softly at her husband, she found a new strength to face the demons of her past.
"Loriana, why do you beg me? You know already what you need to do." Loriana twitched, surprised to hear so much iron in the voice of a sheltered princess. "I'm no longer Princess Aoi Sora Skadi Ivril, who admired the mighty elders or feared them. I am not a timid princess whose decisions you leveraged to your advantages. I am Queen Aoi Sora va'Theon. You stand in front of the Queen. I don't need you to beg. I can protect those who swore their fealty and I will exile those who did not."
The overwhelming power, the only thing that Dragonkins would understand and recognize, was right in front of them. No warrior could match King Theon Avalon and no Elder has ever been so majestic as Queen Aoi Sora va'Theon was right now. A man so powerful, he never craved what others had and a woman so powerless that no one took her seriously among her own kin. Yet, there she was, standing tall and proud, basking in her own power and glory, with a might that no one could take from her. One after another, the Dragonkins dropped to their knees, and finally, their haughtiness was broken forever. Aoi looked at her kin... No. She finally looked at her people and smiled.
"Welcome to Avalon, my people."
•••
Kneht was fighting waves of monsters, unable to feel that thrill he had felt under those fearsome walls. With the lazy swing of his sword, he split a Hobgoblin in half and looked around indifferently. Around him, the soldiers were fighting the incoming monsters quite successfully. He even heard amused remarks about how such weak monsters could make their brave king flee the battlefield. Kneht felt a boiling rage, but before the berserker state could take him over, he roared and threw his sword at the largest wolf, pinning it to the tree. What was that bastard plotting?! He smashed a goblin and stomped another flat. These weaklings were nothing like they had faced under those cursed walls. Kneht suddenly felt the gazes of the soldiers who followed him for so long and saw their amused looks.
The cold sweat dripped down his spine when he finally realised what that bastard Hero had done. He had ridiculed and discredited himself, as well as Korkas.
•••
We were returning to our home and Aoi was so much calmer now. She laughed and joked with Luna and allowed Amber to comb her blonde hair during the ride. She also decided to have her hair longer. Hestia sat near me and snuggled herself into my side while she looked outside the window at the homes and shops we slowly passed. She played with her long black hair and after a moment, she looked straight into my eyes.
"You saved her, Theon."
"That was a coincidence… If I had not taken her as my wife, the situation..." She put a finger at my lips, silencing me in the same way Amber did.
"You saved her soul from the darkness of revenge and hatred. You couldn't see or feel it, but I saw it when it happened." She rested her legs on the couch and leaned back over me. "You might not realise it, but you saved each one of us from the darkness. Even me. Yet, there are still problems and dark places inside our souls, except for Amber. She is like a roaring flame of purity, so powerful and bright… she is frightening."
"What darkness dwells in your soul, Hestia?" I asked quietly and put my hand over her head as if I wanted to pat her gently.
"I am afraid of the Void. I fear it so much..." Now it was my turn to silence her.
"I can see them, sense their schemes, glimpse their plans," I declared, which shocked her. "It was the gift I received from you." She tried to say something, but I just looked deep into her eyes. "But this is not what really worries you."
"I deserve that, I suppose..." She grimaced and hid her face in my clothes. "It's just the fear of an old woman that worries she will be cast away, Theon. And I am very old."
"So? I once was an old man. Now I am young again." I smiled and looked far away. "With our bodies, we are what we want to appear, Hestia. How could I ever cast you away? You are all special and irreplaceable to me. You are all my precious friends and wives."
"You are impossible..." She blushed and rested her head on my chest. "Let me stay like this for a moment."
"We will have all the moments in the world, very soon," I promised and felt her heart pounding.
"This brief moment will be fine for now..."
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
•••
My Queens explored the rebuilt Royal Suite with giggles and loud comments about how they loved the new arrangement. After they went to take a bath, I laid down in my lazy armchair and closed my eyes, entering the build mode. There were a few things I had to do. First, I focused on the new spawner of Legendary Grade Creatures, the Wyverns. They were considered to be Lesser Dragons, yet seeing their statistics, I couldn't see anything Lesser about them. Oh... They were as intelligent as my Eagles, so maybe that was the reason? The restrictions put on the spawner were also quite insane, but there was nothing stopping me from building it, anyway. I said farewell to ten million mana points and said hello to the new spawner.
It was a big and deep cave, far in the mountains of the Tenth Zone. I skimmed through and then focused fully on the rather short upgrade tree, adorned with a big, red UNACCESSIBLE banner blocking every evolution path except just three. Before I decided to spend my mana on anything, I looked at the blocked options. Truth be told, I wasn't so sure I wanted any of those blocked Wyvern paths. While I couldn't argue they were powerful, they were far too specialised, and except for limited usage, I couldn't shake the feeling that it would be a huge waste of potential. Instead, I focused on the other two options. The one that was locked was the highest option for wyvern evolution, a Noble Wyvern, but the second one was even more intriguing; changing the monster spawner into a War Beast spawner. That last option would drastically reduce their stats, but I could have far more wyverns.
Wait a second... Why not both? I could unlock the Noble Wyverns and commit them all as the familiar-mounts for a new kind of Mortal Troops. Now I would have to find matching raiders. But first, the upgrades... This was the first time I had to use something more than just mana. This upgrade required rare materials counted in kilograms, some even in tonnes. While getting one and a half tones of silver and half of a tone of gold was doable, obtaining a hundred kilograms of each of the gemstones would take a while... Hmmm. The grade was not mentioned, so maybe I could use the most trash-grade gems, like the ones in which my jewellers learn how to cut and polish gems? Ohhh! Maybe even leftovers would suffice? I would hold my breath if I could in RTS mode, but since I couldn't, so I simply marked the leftovers and raw trash-grade gems to be used instead.
It worked! Yet now it asked for about one kilogram of A or S-grade gems, but that was far more doable. With a happy smile, I posted a mining request for the Guild and looked at the other options that were unlocked after I married Hestia and Aoi. I stopped for a moment, pondering what I just said to myself. I noticed that with each next wife, my feeling that I was doing something bad kept decreasing. I sighed mentally; I couldn't deny that I loved them all, even Aoi, whom I barely met. In her case, that was just a spark, but with time and patience, I knew our feelings would bloom for each other. Anyway… The new buildings were simply a type of mountainous structures, so I could build a village for the Dragonkins in the mountains of Zone Ten. There were a few interesting looking houses which could be easily adapted into the architecture of Avalon's Middle Castle, so I would give them a try later.
I prepared myself for an enormous investment that entailed buying all the upgrades for my existing spawners, but that might take even months. I must balance my expansion costs and keep reserves big enough in case of an emergency. I bought Health Point and Defence upgrades for all of my spawners and decided that was enough for now. After taking one more look over Avalon, I switched quickly to look at Demesne and Bob. Demesne was so focused on managing encounters in her dungeon zone that she didn't notice me at all. Bob bowed to me mentally and told me that he wanted to change the focus of his spawners. I curiously looked at his plan and mentally raised my brow. According to him, he wanted to replace half of the Goblin spawners with the Cave Kobolds and Spiders spawners. Goblins, however, would stay as the most useful monsters for training purposes and as diversion troops right now to keep the Cridians occupied.
Bob was changing, but at a much different pace than Demesne. While she almost switched her behaviour overnight, Bob needed a few long weeks, but once he decided on something, he was adamant in his change. At this rate, I could soon lift the exploration ban and even establish a small village near the entrance to caves. I couldn't deny that his underground labyrinth would be perfect for various mining nodes. Bob was silently waiting for my answer, and I agreed. His mana allowance from the poultry farm was good enough for changes, but I decided to gift him more mana as an appreciation of the changes in his behaviour. That really surprised him, and I noticed that he started thinking even harder about his own development. Before I left, he asked me if he could receive some reports on how Demesne was dealing with Mortals and I agreed, curious how he would use that knowledge.
When I opened my eyes, I realised my Ladies finished their bath a long time ago and I could hear their voices from one of the new rooms. There were now three new rooms available from the living room. All of them were smaller than our living room, but they were all rooms I should have built a long time ago. One of them was a cosy room where they could play their musical instruments. It was an activity that Amber, Irene and Luna found fancy in lately and they were practising with devotion. Another room was our private library with comfortable chaise lounge sofas, fluffy armchairs, and short tables, perfect to put a snack or drink on during reading sessions. The last room was a gaming room where we could play various board games I had brought from the old world or ones known here, an activity we all liked. The room itself was cosy and my Ladies were lying on the large cushions near the fireplace. They were wearing bathrobes and eating pastries- it was a picture I always imagined a girl's sleepover would look like. They were telling each other stories about their past. Sometimes they were laughing and sometimes they looked at the storyteller with compassion. Before they noticed me, I fell back and walked towards the bathroom to take a shower.
•••
The region's capital city of Oakengate was just one week from Ebonrock. Ebonrock was located on the road towards the borders of the Hilgvar kingdom, overseeing the border pass that ran through a narrow valley among treacherous mountains full of monsters and bandits. According to the last reports that came from Ebonrock, the traffic from the Hilgvar Kingdom was a bit higher than usual, but nothing was truly alarming about that. What was alarming, however, was the army that was approaching Oakengate from inside the Cridian Kingdom that bore the unknown banners.
"Who are they?!" Captain Wasker asked his scout, who brought the news.
"We don't know, sir! They ignored all our calls to identify themselves and they are closing fast."
"How many?"
"At least three thousand, sir!"
"Why?! Why now?! How do they know that the King ordered us to leave only a skeletal crew in the fort?! What's with other fortresses in the north?"
"Lost, Sir," the scout replied quietly. "We tried to contact the capital, but no luck so far, sir. This army ignores civilians, but intercepts everything even remotely connected with the army."
"What is going on?!" The Captain leaned heavily over the wall and the dark clouds of first spring rain or perhaps the last snow of winter swirled over his head.