On my way back to the palace I stopped off in Galand to meet with the first of the dwarves that had arrived in the kingdom. Around five hundred dwarves had arrived from Theran and were in the process of getting settled in Galand. This first group of dwarves had been led to Galand by Brumli, who had been the king of Grunheim at the time of its fall. I had specifically asked for him to come up first so that I could speak with him about the dwarves' future in Aseron. The dwarves that had arrived had gotten themselves settled in Galand and were already working on expansion plans for when the rest of the dwarves arrived. Outside of the town was a large stockpile of rocks that they had quarried and there were plots that they had prepared for new construction. I had Myra land in the town and I walked around taking in everything that the dwarves were busy with. The stories that my father told me about the dwarves' industriousness were no exaggeration, at the rate they were going Galand would soon be unrecognizable. Brumli came to meet me while I was walking around the town. Like all of the dwarves he was short and had a beard and a bulbous nose, but only he wore the gold pin that was the symbol of the king of Grunheim.

"Are you Queen Alegra?" He came to me and asked.

"Yes, I am."

"My heartfelt thanks to you for opening your kingdom to us," he got down on one knee and said to me.

"It is unseemly for you to kneel before me, Brumli, after all, you are royalty as well."

"I am not royalty, I have no kingdom," he raised himself and said.

"As long as you have your people and as long as they look to you as their leader then you are their king."

"That's very kind of you to say, but without a throne I am no king."

"If it's any consolation I hardly ever sit on my throne."

"It's not, but thanks."

"I noticed a large pile of rocks outside of the town; tell me, how were you able to quarry so much in such a short space of time?"

"It's easy with dynamite."

"Dynamite?"

"An old invention of ours, using it allows us to excavate in the mines a lot faster than if we were using hammers and pickaxes."

"We've been having some difficulty melting down coins and minting new ones, the process is taking far longer than we'd anticipated, is that something you could help us with?"

"That won't be a problem, we can have that done for you in no time."

"There are other areas where I believe your expertise can be a great help to us, if I should call on you, will you be as generous with your help as you're being now?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"If we can help, we will, all you have to do is ask," Brumli averred.

Giving sanctuary to the dwarves was going to be a huge boon for the kingdom, I could feel it. I left Galand tingling with excitement at the thought of how much progress the kingdom could make with the aid of the dwarves' ingenuity. I also felt a growing determination to restore what the dwarves had had taken away from them by liberating Grunheim from Kandalar so that they may return to their home. But that was far in the future. Upon returning to the palace I was informed by Ferland that there were a number of diplomatic fires that needed to be extinguished. The other kingdoms weren't happy with the amount of power that Dranii had gained as a result of our victory over Volstaff and me slaying their king. Dranii was viewed with great suspicion by their neighbors who didn't appreciate the role that we had played in enabling Dranii to take control of Volstaff. Some were threatening retaliation against us, hence the urgency with which Ferland wanted me to address the situation.

The kingdom that was the most concerned about Dranii's increased strength was Gornden, the kingdom to the south of Dranii who had in the past gone through the experience of being betrayed by Dranii with whom they'd thought they had an ironclad alliance. Distrust of Dranii ran deep, especially amongst those that had had direct dealings with them who now saw Aseron as a threat because they believed us to be in league with them. I had Ferland summon the Dranii ambassador first and I told my Chief Ambassador Boris to start working on a proposal that we could present to the kingdoms that were concerned about our relationship with Dranii that would make it clear to them that we had no outward ambitions and put them at ease.

"We expected this, it's only natural that if a kingdom makes a big move like we did that other kingdoms would have a problem with it," ambassador Wilhelm said to me.

"The main reason why they have a problem with it is their past dealings with you, they don't trust you to have as much power as you've accumulated."

"We've never entered into direct conflict with another kingdom, if that's what they're afraid of. In fact they're safer than they were before, direct military confrontation was King Anua's style, it's not ours."

"Be that as it may, all of these rulers have anxieties and those anxieties need to be assuaged."

"That's easier said than done, as you've correctly observed, the distrust that the other kingdoms have toward us is deep, assuaging it, as you put it, would be next to impossible."

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't try."

"You can try, but it will be an exercise in futility; we know what the other kingdoms think of us and we don't care, we always pursue what is in our best interest and we make no apologies for that, to do otherwise would be a betrayal of our citizens whose expectation of their rulers is that they always work toward furthering the glory of their kingdom."

"I invited you here to talk about how we might cool the tensions that have arisen in the wake of your conquest of Volstaff and your response is to speak the language of empire; I believe I understand why the other kingdoms are so on edge."

"Like I said already, there is no reason for them to be on edge, but if you wish to push forward with some kind of effort to calm everyone's nerves then please go ahead, and if we can be of help, we will be."

"Does that mean that you will support whatever proposal I put forward."

"No, I didn't say that, but if it's a proposal that makes a decent amount of sense I can see us getting behind it, of course to be sure of our commitment you will have to talk with someone higher up than me."

"You're saying I need to speak with your king?"

"Yes, and you'll have no trouble securing an audience with him, he's actually dying to meet you."