Surprisingly the next few weeks remained quiet. It had been the longest quiet phase they had experienced ever since they returned. It made Vuthe uneasy, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Despite that, she did make a lot of progress teaching both the aura apprentices and Scythe and co.
Two of the aura apprentices had to be sent home after they didn’t make any progress for nearly two weeks, but the rest came along nicely. While they would need years to reach the levels Vuthe was hoping for, they were leaps and bounds beyond their peers. Frankly, it was a dangerous situation for the government, but that wasn’t her problem.
The Loltharim siblings were of course at the forefront of progress, once they finally figured out the trick they were by far her best students.
In turn the training with Scythe and friends was a little slower, mostly because she had to beat the bad habits out of them. Scythe was the worst offender, stubborn as she was. But they did make progress, even if it was much slower than Vuthe wanted.
When she wasn’t busy training she spent her time both trying to build up the small town, trying to turn it into a small city, and spending time with Scarlet and her friends.
Of course, Scarlet still had a job to do, so she had to leave now and then, always filling Vuthe with a slight bit of paranoia that she would never return. She had talked with Vuthe about getting her own office in New Thelvadore, who was obviously happy to supply just that.
With the free time she had with Scythe and her sister the conversation obviously drifted to family matters from time to time, even if neither Scythe nor Vuthe was really ready to face that topic yet. They did decide to host a family meeting on Scarlet’s next birthday, which was six months out.
The city planning was surprisingly hard. They had asked Apocalyptica to work his runes into the buildings, and he had agreed, but it was also more than obvious that he was bored to bits. Vuthe just hoped that she didn’t have to kill him should he go off the rails in search of some excitement. He was useful to have around.
While the residents of the camp could of course put together their own homes, Vuthe wanted New Thelvadore to fit in better, so the mediaeval aesthetics didn’t really work well. So, in the end, they contacted the Paranormal council to hire some architects to help them.
After some back and forth they eventually agreed upon a favour in exchange for the work, although Vuthe did put a limit on what they could ask for, preventing them to do anything that would harm Thelvadore directly or indirectly, with an additional rule that prevented the families of her friends to be endangered.
She wasn’t entirely happy with the arrangement, but it wasn’t too bad so she did eventually agree.
The architects arrived two days later. The entrance to the small village had changed over time, the impressive gate Tizanta had put together when they had first met Blake had slowly been integrated into the growing wall around the village and had lost a lot of its blazé appearance, but it was still an impressive sight, although Vuthe was sure they had to redo most of it given time.
She was waiting in front of the gates with Scarlet and Scythe when the convoy of vans stopped a few metres away.
The doors of the first car opened and two men stepped out, one the burly type with enough muscle to be mistaken for a lazy body builder, the other a lanky, yet still athletic man who was very obviously used to carrying a lot of things around.
“G’day, mateys”, the lanky man said with a thick Australian accent. Vuthe was taken aback for a moment, a little surprised by that.
“Good afternoon”, she replied with a friendly nod.
Scarlet too gave the man a nod, while Scythe gave him a sloppy salute.
“We’re told ya want to build a city? Gotta admit, wouldn’t have expected a city wall. It’s a little mediaeval, ain’t it?”, he asked as he looked at the construction.
The city wall was put together from wood and reinforced with stone. It indeed gave the town an old timey look.
“It is, yes, from your perspective. My charges prefer the more close to home look, although I would guess they will adapt to a modern approach given time. Or most of them will”, she said with a smile, enjoying the slightly confused expression on the two men’s faces.
“Huh… Aight. Anyways, name’s Jason, Jason Kent. The big guy is called Detlef. I know miss Savart over there, of course, but I’m not sure who you are”, the lanky man said.
“I am Shade Dragon Vuthe de Thal, the Queen of this little town. No need to stand on formalities, however. This over there is Scythe, you could call her my twin. You will mainly deal with me or my friends during your time here. And of course, should some of my subjects have wishes or questions. I will warn you, we are from very far away and our customs might be… uncomfortable for you.”
Jason laughed, “No worries, mate. We’ve dealt with a lot of demi-humans in our time, I think we have seen everything that can be seen.”
Vuthe exchanged quick glances with Scarlet and Scythe, a bemused smile on their faces. She was pretty sure they would be surprised, and a small part of her couldn’t wait to see their reaction.
“Regardless. We have collected a few preliminary ideas, so we can go over them at your leisure. I expect that it will take a few weeks to be done, but there is no need to rush”, Vuthe said before inviting them inside.
Jason nodded to Detlef and followed her, while Detlef went back to the cars and started organising things.
“A few weeks? What exactly do you want to do? We were told you wanted to rebuild this entire village, don’t ya?”, he asked, a little confused.
She smiled at him, “Well, yes. Did they not tell you that we have dragons?”
The look on his face was priceless.
It turned out that Jason and Detlef were really good at their job. After their initial talks with the Council and some representatives from the village they quickly hammered out the basis for a plan, even including enlarging the area they could build in.
Of course that plan had to quickly be redone when Tizanta simply expanded the initial area with a wave of her tail, stunning the architects. However, that did not mean they had to redo everything, the Council had agreed to not rely too much on magic and let the city develop organically over time, so outside the initial building area new space had to be prepared the old fashioned way, a task that her charges gladly helped with.
It was not surprising that most of her subjects had experience in farming, so it was decided to have at least a few farms on the spots that could support it, even if they would continue to import food from Essen.
For the rest, they would need to find new ways to earn their money, which of course also meant teaching them the new economy they found themselves in.
Tizanta was also adamant to add spaces for shops to be set up, even if it would take quite some time and work to get people for that.
The end goal, after all, was to build a town for her subjects to be integrated into modern society, while still having a safe space.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Keeping that in mind, Calagrophy had raised the issues with laws, which was something they had to look into. Some laws would meet heavy resistance from their people and Vuthe was not about to antagonise her people over laws she could no longer agree with either.
What made everything even more complicated, was that while Vuthe and her group was mainly beholden to the regulations laid down by the Paranormal Council, they would still have to fully obey German laws as they were still required to obey the government of the land their territory was located in. So there were technically three rulers in New Thelvadore, Vuthe in her position as the Queen, the Paranormal Council as the Overseer of all things magical, and in direct conflict to Vuthe’s position the German government.
Luckily Chell Bertner was still in town, so Vuthe, Scarlet, and Calagrophy made their way to her residence the day after the Architects had finalised their preliminary plans to see what could be done to alleviate those issues.
Perspective: Chell Bertner
Chell Bertner’s residence was a small wooden house near the middle of the small town. It wasn’t big, nor was it overly luxurious, but it was cosy enough. Normally she would have preferred to stay at her own apartment, but despite the rather rustic design it did offer all the necessities a modern human would expect in their home, including plumbing, magical lighting, as well as a nicely furnished, if slightly old school kitchen.
She had been promised a modern style office once the work was done, so she had put up with it for the moment. Normally she would have driven home each day, but her superiors had been pretty clear in their instructions for her to stay on site at all times, at least until they had a better idea of what Queen Vuthe had planned in the long run.
Personally she couldn’t share their paranoia, she had been treated quite nicely ever since her arrival, and while the execution was a gruesome scene to witness, it had been the only outlier so far.
Well, outside the quite energetic and open displays of pleasure. She wasn’t sure how she felt about those, on one hand she had been raised to abhor such things, yet she couldn’t entirely bring herself to hate it. A small part of her did enjoy the sight, not out of any form of sexual entertainment, but more out of the sense of freedom it sparked in her.
To know that these people didn’t judge you for what you did was a pleasant thought, yet she was unable to truly accept that into her world view.
Regardless, she was looking forward to her own bed, yet would hate to leave this little town permanently.
Lost in thought she nearly missed the knock on her door while she was cooking, and it took her a moment to recognise the noise.
She made her way over hastily, unsure of who it could be, considering she had been mostly left alone so far, and was quite surprised to find Queen Vuthe, her second-in-command Calagrophy, and her sister Scarlet Savart on her doorstep.
“Your Majesty. What can I do for you?”, she asked with a pleasant smile, although a small part of her couldn’t help but worry. Not that she had been mistreated, but whenever the leader of a group of people wanted something, chances were it was something unpleasant.
“Greetings, Miss Bertner. We wanted to talk to you about integrating our subjects into modern society. Calagrophy pointed out quite reasonably that a lot of them won’t like certain laws and regulations, and we wanted to talk about those issues before something unpleasant happens”, Vuthe said with a friendly smile that showed a hint of her tiredness. Chell wasn’t the only one that didn’t want to deal with this, yet was forced to do so anyways.
She spoke with a nod, “I understand. Please, do come in. I do apologise, I was in the middle of cooking, so it will take me a moment to finish up before I can join you.”
“No need to worry. Please, take your time”, Vuthe replied as she walked in, the other two women following her.
Despite Queen Vuthe’s words, Chell did hurry up with the soup she was making, sadly it wasn’t enough to serve her guests so she put it on small heat and made her way into the living area, which also served as her impromptu office.
“Okay. So, what exactly was on your mind?”, she asked as she sat down, already pulling out her laptop to take notes. Charging it had been an issue at first, until someone had delivered a small object to her house that she could simply plug the charger into. It was honestly a miracle, but a welcome one.
Calagrophy cleared her throat before she spoke, “There are a few things we need to talk about, maybe most importantly the laws regarding carrying weapons in public, as well as physical displays, both intimate and competitive. I’m pretty sure that you noticed this, but those things are rather important in the culture of our people, and while we could try and enforce the rules, neither of us thinks that would be a good idea, nor would we be happy about the need to do so.”
Chell nodded, taking notes as Calagrophy spoke, already having thought about those issues herself, not that she had a perfect solution for it. Things like that always were a problem when two cultures met, especially if these cultures had rather strict regulations about certain topics.
“I see. I can definitely see issues popping up, should you try to measure your people by our laws, but at the same time I can’t and won’t advocate for the demolishing of those laws. We all have rules to abide by, and that goes as much for humans as it does for interdimensional draconic beings.”
She could appreciate their issues, but at the same time she really didn’t know any good and easy solution to these problems. She wanted to help, and she also wanted to keep them happy and docile, yet at the same time she knew that her superiors would tell her to set more firm boundaries. Easy for them to say, they didn’t sit across a being that could make them vanish without even twitching.
Queen Vuthe cut into her musings, “The main issue we are facing is the dichotomy between the German government and my own position as the Dragon Queen of these people, a position I might add most, if not all of them, are supporting. If we do nothing it could mean a potential splintering, or in the worst case even riots, against the German Government and your people. While I personally do not agree with your governmental structure it is neither my wish nor my intention to start problems, nor do I wish to simply take over your land. I cannot, however, simply hand over my crown and be done with it either. In the eyes of my people that would look like I’ll be handing them over to the same fate I have protected them from so far. It is a betrayal, and I will not suffer such an accusation. That leaves us with the option of me buying these lands from you to act as an independent city state. But I don’t think it needs to be said how well that would go over with your superiors, now do I?”
Chell thought for a moment. “Would it be possible for us to install you as a Mayor or Governor of this town? That way you would retain a semblance of rule while still satisfying the higher ups.”
It was a long shot, she knew, but it was an option. And she wasn’t surprised when Queen Vuthe shook her head.
“Not really, no. I would guess around half of them would be able to accept it, but the rest, especially those who I have bled with for close to two millennia now, would not take this well. And while I am sympathetic to your issues and the desires of your superiors, I am first and foremost their queen. It is my duty to keep them happy and protected.”
There was a long moment of silence, before Scarlet spoke up, “If it helps anything, I am willing to use my own resources to keep them in check. Maybe that will-”
Before she could continue Calagrophy interrupted her, “No.” There was a certain finality in her voice. “I appreciate your will to help your sister, but all you would do, would be throwing yourself into a meat grinder with no escape. There is no power on this planet, no weapon or institution, that can keep us in check. We are, for all intents and purposes, at the top of the food chain. You have no resources, allies, or weaponry that could stop us if we intend to move. If the governments cannot live with that fact, they will be the ones to ruin themselves trying to change it.”
As she spoke a cold shiver ran down Chell’s spine. There was no hostility in Calagrophy’s voice, no threat, yet she couldn’t help but feel vulnerable. As far as she knew that statement was correct, however neither she nor any of the people in power could correctly guess at the true might of Queen Vuthe’s army. She just hoped that they didn’t have to find out the hard way when the government inevitably buckled against Queen Vuthe’s proposition.
The dragoness in question sighed heavily, rubbing her temples, “I don’t think I need to list again what we can do in payment for this. So I’ll keep it brief. Should they be willing to officially recognise us as an independent city state I will repay that with a favour. Of course, there will also be some limitations on that favour. And because I know it will come up, we will still abide by normal rules between two nations, such as no expansion without their permission, trade deals between us, and whatever else they might come up with, should it be within reason. We don’t want a takeover, we want a quiet place in which we can recuperate, live, and get our people used to modern times and technology, without needing to worry about them doing something incredibly stupid, or someone else doing something incredibly stupid. Trust me, you don’t want a dragon feel cheated at a card game, things can and will end very badly for the city involved.”
Chell didn’t doubt that statement. If the stories are to be believed, Dragons were natural disasters. And while she was by no means an expert in magic, nor able to give any informed opinion on another’s strength, she did not doubt that the dragons in this little town were far more powerful than most of the stories depicted them. She had heard about the size of them from Major Blake’s first meeting, and she could very well imagine them using their size alone to trash any city.
The only problem was that the magisters, and especially Magister Schürfer, wouldn’t take kindly to this. They were incredibly protective of their office and their station and she would be very surprised if they would take this lying down.
It appeared that things once more got more complicated.
“I will relay your concerns… But just between us… This will not go over well, I think. I don’t think it will come to open blows, but you will have your work cut out for you.”