Mal'Thorn sent me an invitation to join him where he was in his simulation. I joined him, appearing next to him looking down into the representation of the Forest. He had improved the simulation since I had last looked at it, there were now statistics and graphs that were easily accessible, including a list of inhabitants and their designated areas. What caught my eye the most was an energy bar that was hovering above the entire forest, which was down at forty percent.

"Hello, my lord," Mal'Thorn said. "Thank you for coming to see me."

"Sure," I said. "What did you need?"

The display of the Forest beneath us changed to a simple white area with small green and red points all over it, and a line formed that was going from one point in the middle towards the bottom to the nearest green point and then back.

"My diplomat has left," Mal'Thorn said. "This is his planned route, the green areas are claims that have requested a meeting, the red are ones that have not. He will go to the closest one and return, either with the people if they seek shelter or to get our permissions if the request is something else. If he can handle it himself then he will move on to the next claim."

"Didn't I say that I would give you a portal to use?" I asked. "The Forest is no place for a people to be travelling right now, with it being permanent night, snow filled, and lethally cold."

"You were occupied," Mal'Thorn said. "And I didn't want to bother you with fulfilling my obligations when I can just as easily address them myself."

"It would have taken me less than a minute to give you a portal that you could use," I said. "And it would save a lot of effort on your diplomat's part, and a lot of pain and suffering of those you're helping."

"Should I send a guard to ask for my diplomat's return?" Mal'Thorn asked.

The Forest beneath us zoomed in on one of the green points and it grew to a small circle, there was a point of light to the west. If the circle represented my claim, one kilometer wide, then the point of light was only five kilometers away.

"There shouldn't be any need for him to return," I said. "I can give you a portal for your guard to take to your diplomat, and then your guard can return through the portal. I'll even put a presence on the portal so we can see and hear what your diplomat is doing."

"Where are you at the moment, physically?" I asked.

"At my office on the platform above the Heart of the Forest," Mal'Thorn said.

"I'll be there in a few minutes," I said.

I dropped out of the Forest simulation and back to my local simulation and began walking to the nearest interconnecting portal that would take me to the Forest Keeper floor.

As I was walking I pulled a thread portal that was already hooked up to a portal room from my pocket portal and reshaped it so that it was a circle the size of my outstretched hand. I pushed the exit of the portal against the presence in the portal room next to where the visual sensor was and adjusted it so that the sound projector would still be able to push sound out of the portal.

I exited the portal into the Forest Keeper floor and stopped to appreciate their progress. The whole area, as far as I could see, was covered in forest. The tree immediately to the north, twenty meters away, was the Heart of the Forest which had a clearing around it. There was a constant stream of Forest Keepers moving from the branches of the tree above me to ground level where the Fortress Presence was, arriving empty-handed and leaving with bags full of different materials.

I could just make out the platform in the branches above me, and the hole in it that Forest Keepers were going through.

I opened a communication channel with Mal'Thorn. "I can give you a second Fortress Presence, you know," I said. "It looks very inconvenient for your people to continuously come down here to interact with the Fortress."

"It's only busy like it is now for brief periods," Mal'Thorn said. "You've caught the morning rush, is all. It likely wouldn't be worth the extra cost to get another Presence, how much were you going to charge for it?"

"The druids have a second one in their storytelling room," I said. "The one at the stairway entrance of the floor is fixed, but I think all floors with a decent population should have a second one that is more convenient. And any one after that I would just need to be convinced of, though businesses could probably buy one for their stores or workshops. Twenty Fortress Coins would put it on the same level as a large Bag of Holding."

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"Thank you, my lord," Mal'Thorn said. "Having it at the Heart of the Forest would be the best primary location, then. It is the central piece to our small city."

I closed the communication channel and went back to assessing the flow of Forest Keepers heading up to the city. There were branches much lower down on the tree they were using, and they climbed up actively using their hands, feet, and tail even while carrying their bags.

I waited for there to be a gap in the Forest Keepers heading through the hole in the platform near the trunk and jumped to a clear branch ten meters up from the ground, and then jumping off of that to make it through the hole. I had to redirect myself with my hands as I went through, but I landed comfortably on the platform within the room. And had to immediately dodge the Forest Keeper who was about to go down.

I was in a guard room, the doors to the city thrown open and a small queue of Forest Keepers waiting to go down.

"Halt," a guard to the side said, levelling his spear at me. "You need authorisation before you may enter the City."

I connected to Mal'Thorn again. "Authorisation?" I asked.

"You are authorised to access all areas," Mal'Thorn said. "The guard mustn't have recognised you. Tell him your name and he should let you through."

"C.C., Lord of the Fortress," I said to the guard.

"Do you have any proof of that?" the guard asked.

He had raised his spear slightly. The other Forest Keepers had left the room and were waiting outside in the city for the situation to be resolved. The guard's partner approached to back him up, and began whispering to him, though I was easily able to hear.

"Are you crazy?" the second guard asked. "You've heard what happened to Gerald. And now he worships the human lord. Who would be stupid enough to claim to be our lord's lord."

Gerald was Mal'Thorn's head guard, though now that I could understand the Forest Keeper's naming language it translated better to Razorleaf. My automatic translation for him was still enabled, so I turned it off.

The second guard had lowered his spear, backing up his partner despite his reservations. I sank my power into the wood of the platform below me, surprised for a moment that it worked as I expected it to be enchanted, and dashed forward using half of the energy in my legs. I ducked under the two spears just as both Forest Keepers were beginning to react, coming to a stop between them, and took both of their spears away from them.

"Proof enough?" I asked, holding both of their spears.

"Yes," the second guard said, whipping his tail past me to hit the first guard in the back of the head. "Please be welcome in our city, we apologise for the delay."

I nodded and handed both of the spears to the second guard. Walking through the doors into the city I sent Mal'Thorn a ping requesting directions, even though the Heart of the Forest was just down the wooden street in front of me. I headed down the street at Mal'Thorn's direction, walls made from interwoven branches forming up the sides five meters apart rising ten meters.

The entrance to Mal'Thorn's office was down the street and to the right, Razorleaf was waiting at the door and bowed to me as I approached, leading me to Mal'Thorn.

Mal'Thorn's office was much smaller than I was expecting, a three meter by three meter room with two Forest Keeper chairs separated by a one meter square desk, which was empty.

"There is a more ostentatious meeting hall," Mal'Thorn said. "This is my preferred study. I do almost all of my work within the common simulation, so I don't need much. Having a digital copy of each sheet of the paperwork required is a great boon, the place was a mess before I became a Demi-AI even with how short a time I'd had it."

I handed Mal'Thorn the disk of the portal that was intended for the diplomat, only then noticing that the back of it led to the empty portal room which I then filled in with a layer of stone. Mal'Thorn handed the diplomat portal to Razorleaf who left with it.

"Where would you like the new Fortress Presence?" I asked.

"You have it done already?" Mal'Thorn asked. "The best place would be out on the street, that would give it the best access."

Mal'Thorn led me back out of his study and the two guards flanking his door fell in behind us.

"They take some time to build, as they include portals, but I always have some spare just in case," I said. "I have three extra portal rooms with Presences in them now, with one being used for the diplomat portal and another for your new Presence."

Mal'Thorn stopped us in the center of the crossroads just past the trunk of the Heart of the Forest and I brought out the thread portal for the new presence, placing it in the middle of the road. I began pulling stone from my stone source to fill in the rest of the presence into the two meter stone pillar that people were used to seeing.

"Fascinating," Mal'Thorn said. "The pillar itself isn't a part of the Presence at all?"

"It isn't, it's there to give them a solid feel," I said.

I dropped into Mal'Thorn's Forest simulation and sent him an invitation to join me.

"If you'll give me write access to the simulation I will share the three feeds with you," I said.

"Done," Mal'Thorn said. "You couldn't take write access yourself?"

"I could," I said. "But this is your work, it would be rude to add code without your permission. Here are the diplomat, floor, and crossroads feeds. You have write access to the presences if you would like to speak through them, though I make it a point not to disturb my people by doing it when they're using them."

I sent Mal'Thorn a data packet on creating sounds through the presences.

"Thank you, my lord," Mal'Thorn said. "There was another reason for my contacting you, we gathered enough Fortress Coins and bought the Demi-AI conversion for my wife, the Fortress Shop said that there would be an indeterminate waiting period between batches and that she had been added to the next one. When were you planning on doing the next conversions?"

"I haven't automated it yet," I said. "And there is a limit to how much it can be automated, I think. But I could do it after I finish with the Presence. I have five-" I looked up the list of Demi-AI candidates again. "- Sorry, six candidates. A new person purchased it since I last looked. It's a Forest Keeper I don't know, actually."

I shared the details of the sixth candidate with Mal'Thorn who began scowling.

"She's a criminal," Mal'Thorn said.