After leaving Devin’s bar Vuthe visited a few more bars and clubs, but nothing else interesting came up. She learned a lot about the newest fashion and whatnot, but nothing applicable to the current situation, nor to help with their plans for the future. For the most part at least. She was thinking about what to do to get a foothold in this world, be it a business or something similar, and for those she learned a little bit, which may prove helpful in the future.
The issue was that she didn’t know where to go from here, so she simply memorized all the little things that might be useful lateron. At the moment they didn’t really have any goals outside of finally relaxing a little and truth be told she did feel a little lost. The world she remembered didn’t exist anymore, and even then her memories weren’t complete. She did remember family and the general things of course, but the details were lost on her.
The Overwatch Program was what concerned her the most. Not that Vuthe and her friends needed to be worried about being constantly spied on, they had more than enough ways to render all those attempts null and void, but she was concerned about what happened when the people from the Overwatch Program realized they were being cut out. By the sound of things they wouldn’t take this lightly, nor as an act of friendliness.
While Vuthe brooded over all the different implications, Vixus returned to her. They had found out quite a bit more. The Overwatch program was a government-run surveillance that spanned the entire world, that much she knew. However, they managed to find out that everyone who asked questions about it mysteriously disappeared, which led Vixus to theorize that it was connected to the secret magic world, or rather the attempt at keeping it secret. They had figured out where parts of the hidden magical society were, like a part of town almost exclusively filled with those in the know, although it seemed that there wasn’t anything against demi-humans living with normal humans.
The biggest question Vuthe was left with was: Why was it suddenly so important? She would’ve guessed there had been a similar program for far longer, why only now? Devin had said it came into being in 2025, which was only 3 years after they were reincarnated into the other world. And while Devin had said that their disappearance had been the catalyst, she didn’t believe for a moment that that was the entire reason. Rogue spells like that had to happen more often, they were as common as background radiation hitting the atmosphere in the grand scheme of things. She also didn’t believe that this was the first time those spells were the reason for disappearances. Something was going on, something the people in charge didn’t want anyone to know about.
Vixus had figured out how long Vuthe and the others had been gone more definitively, however. „From the dates you told me, as well as numerous different time sources the time that elapsed has been forty-nine years, ten months, and seventeen days. It appears that some people know of your mysterious vanishing, but I have not been able to find out more“.
Vuthe nodded to their statement, „Yeah. It appears there are more things going on than we had anticipated. This requires a change of plans“
Eventually they arrived at the camp, where Calagrophy was already waiting. „What did you find out?“, she asked as Vuthe landed in front of her. She could’ve just read Vuthe‘s aura, all of the ruling council had long since achieved the level of control to unravel the aura of others, but she didn’t need to. Vuthe’s expression said everything that needed to be said.
„Vixus will give you a full rundown. Suffice to say, it appears fifty years have passed here. The government is running a big brother surveillance system called the Overwatch Agreement, and there is an entire hidden magical society of demi-humans living in this world. From what I’ve seen we are severely out of date. To the point we might as well be in a new world“, Vuthe said, feeling Vixus hop over to Calagrophy’s Shadow. She didn’t try to hide her own emotions from her friend. They had long since gotten closer than any family could ever be. It was more accurate to say that the five of them had become one over time. Each of them trusted the others with their life. And all of them had strong feelings toward each other.
That might have been frowned upon in other societies, but between them being reborn as dragons and the sheer amount of events they had gone through together, they were long beyond caring about what others might say about them. Each of them trusted the rest with their very existence and all they held dear. There wasn’t even a shadow of a doubt that one wouldn’t help the others when in need. Nothing was quite as important to each of them as each other.
Calagrophy frowned, „Well. That sounds troublesome. Anything else?“. It was clear from her expression that that wasn’t what she wanted to hear, although to Vuthe it was also clear that Calagrophy didn’t know what exactly it was she wanted to hear in the first place. Her second in command stepped closer and gave Vuthe a quick hug and a peck on the cheek, before letting go again.
„Well, I managed to contact someone from this hidden magic society. I told them we are present and don’t want trouble. However I also told them who I am, since the topic came up“, Vuthe shrugged and continued before Calagrophy had a chance to react, „I know, I know. We will talk later. Like I said, Vixus will fill you in. I need to talk to Tizanta“, Vuthe said, making her way to the command tent. Calagrophy followed as Vixus filled her in about everything they had learned.
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Arriving at the tent she found Castaphiel and Tizanta, deep in discussion. Both of them looked up as she entered. „You’re back“, Tizanta stated with a frown.
„What, unhappy to see me?“, Vuthe teased with a smirk.
„No, quite the opposite. We need to talk. Privately“, Tizanta said, walking towards Vuthe and giving her a long hug and a kiss on the cheek. Vuthe returned the gesture. Tizanta was the closest to Vuthe, even within their circle of reincarnators.
While all of them might as well be considered one entity, of course they had their own dynamic between them. Calagrophy and Castaphiel were quite openly together, even going so far as having two children. Tizanta and Vuthe were together, although not in monogamy, Tizanta did have three children with different partners, while Corellanium kept to himself by choice. Each had shared a bed at one time or another, yet that did not happen often outside their pairings.
At Tizantas words Vuthe frowned, „I had the same thought. Something came up?“. They separated and Vuthe looked the taller girl into the eyes. Tizanta only nodded, before pulling her Queen out of the Tent and outside of the camp. Once they were out of earshot of everyone else Tizanta turned to Vuthe, an unhappy expression on her face.
„I did some scrying as you told me. What I found was… Let’s just say unusual“, she said with a difficult expression, as if trying to find the words.
Vuthe raised an eyebrow, „What is it? Spit it out.“
Tizanta sighed and began to speak, „Well… First of all, I figured out how long we were away“, she began, but Vuthe cut her off.
„Just shy of fifty years“, she said simply, already knowing the details and much more curious as to what had Tizanta so worried. Her girlfriend was usually quite grounded and very hard to upset, so this behavior was unusual.
Tizanta looked at her, then nodded, „Now for the bad news. It appears that the government changed quite a bit. And by that, I mean globally. I checked Switzerland as well since you know, I’m from there. And… it seems after our vanishing from the face of the planet, governments have become more controlling. A lot of democratic countries aren’t really democratic anymore. Most of them are run by a bunch of magicians from what I could see. I don’t have the full picture yet, so I won’t be trying to draw any conclusions just yet, but I don’t like the implications. Especially since they already knew of magic as it seems“
Vuthe mouled it over in her mind. What Tizanta found was indeed troublesome. But she just couldn’t see such a drastic change occurring globally so quickly. Fifty years, in the grand scheme of things, was nothing. Something was up. She sighed, deeply, shaking her head. „And here I thought we could go back into a more peaceful world…“
While Vuthe didn’t know what they should do from now on, she didn’t like external factors influencing their lives. They had enough of that on Satien, and she had hoped to get some breathing time here. She was sure the governments wouldn’t come to them or make trouble immediately, but they would definitely be interested when they learned where they had been. Knowledge was power, and it was a general rule that governments were always looking for more power.
However, before she could continue getting lost in her thoughts Tizanta spoke up once more.
„That‘s the other thing. We had monsters we had to defend against. Nothing much, honestly for us they are little more than annoying pests, but when we keep in mind the weakness of the humans… It could spell trouble“, Tizanta looked at Vuthe with a serious look on her beautiful face, „Vuthe… I fear that it had been a bad idea to return. Sure, we can start overtaking all the other governments and reinstating democracy, but… I don’t wanna go to war anymore. All of us are done fighting. And we only have so many men“
Vuthe shook her head, „No, no more wars. Don’t even start thinking in that direction. We all went through a lot, but we can’t think like that anymore. Open violence won’t get us anywhere. If, IF, we decide to change something here, we need to go another route. Politically or economically. I promised our people that we won’t fight any more wars. And I’m not about to break my word.“
Truth be told, Vuthe was saying this more for her own benefit than Tizanta’s, as she too was already planning possible battle strategies, deployment plans, and fighting capabilities.
The problem was that they had been stuck in a war too long, and their default reaction to anything was open combat. It had been a great help in the other world, often saving them and their people from disaster such as the Siege of Paluun, a Fortress at their border. It had only survived because the Council‘s immediate reaction to anything had been all-out war. However, now they were on earth, and while she could remember tensions being high, open war was not something they were used to in the grand scheme of things.
And that meant they had to be careful not to fall back into the warrior mindset. Something they had to be very careful about.
Tizanta nodded, „Sorry, Vuth… With everything going on, I just don’t even know what to do anymore…“, she said quietly, hanging her head. „Sure, I’m more cut out for the more political intrigue approach, but all we have done so far is fight and fight. And I wouldn’t even know where to begin building up a sufficient power base“
Vuthe stepped toward her friend and gave her a hug, „I know Tiz… We all need some time to wind down. I just hope we can get that here before anything else gets flung our way. And I might have a starting point on that. We need to talk later, all of us, I’ll explain“
For a few minutes, they just stood there, embracing each other, enjoying each other‘s presence. All of them, the council and their people, didn’t have any break for the last few centuries. All of them needed a break. Vuthe knew that, and as their Queen, she felt responsible. But at the same time, she couldn’t let them rest if they were in danger. It tore her apart, wanting to do the best for her people.
Eventually, they separated. Tizanta smiled at Vuthe, „Thanks, Vuth. We will get through this as well“
Vuthe nodded, „Yeah, we will. We always do. Let‘s get back to it. I’m sure there are still things to do before we can have a break“