"This is the new guard position?" Brutus asked, walking into the nexus room and looking around. "It isn't very defendable."

"Only that portal leads out of the fortress right now." I said, pointing to the two meter wide and tall doorway that had villagers carrying furniture through. "What do you suggest to secure the room? Keeping in mind that it still needs to be usable for travel."

"Magic doesn't work here?" Brutus asked.

"It doesn't." I said. "Physical effects made from magic will still be able to enter though. Like the winter priest's ice spells."

"Each portal should be separated by a wall, and they should all lead to a single guardable choke point." Brutus said. "And you will need a guard room for every five portals at a minimum."

That didn't seem very effective to me. Not how I imagined it working at all, I wanted a lot of portals around the world to allow easy travel. Which...

"Having a single guard point between two portals would be the best from your perspective, yes?" I asked.

"Yes." Brutus said. "A single gateway with prepared defences will always be easier to defend than multiple gateways. A fortress never has only a single point that requires defending, though... Except for yours, I guess."

I could build a separate solid stone room in my Pocket Dimension for every portal and place a presence in it. Then I would just have to move the origin and destination portals that the traveller desired to either end of the guard room. Then I could expand the portal network as much as I wanted and still be in complete control of it, and so be able to keep my people safe. But that was something to be added to my list of things to do. I started building more presences in the background.

"I think I have a solution." I said. "I will try it later. For now I will place the portals that lead out of the fortress along that wall. That is where you should be guarding against."

Brutus nodded, then called in the two boar men from the druid floor. Their names were apparently Den and Dan.

I moved the doorway that I had begun at Gerry's shop in the mountain city onto the wall next to the portal going to the old human village and got to work finishing it. Carving the Pocket Dimension symbols wasn't getting any faster, it took another half an hour of my time to finish.

I stepped through the portal and into the basement under Gerry's shop. I went up the stairs and knocked firmly on the door that led out into the shop. A few moments later I heard a female muttering on the other side of the door. I knocked again and a leprechaun woman opened the door. She looked upset and rattled off a string of words in a language I didn't know, ending with stomping her foot.

"Uh, hello." I said. "Is Gerry here?"

"He is." She said. "Go up to the third floor."

I went up the stairs, through the shop room of the second floor, and then up the stairs there to the third floor and knocked on the door.

"Lizzie?" Gerry asked through the door.

"No, it's C.C." I said. "We met... earlier today."

It really felt a lot longer than that. I sighed as that reminded me that I needed to sleep again before I passed out. Gerry opened the door and stepped back to let me in.

"I didn't expect to see you so soon." Gerry said.

"Quite a lot has happened." I said. "I came by to tell you that I finished that thing I started when I was last here, and to see if I could trade for more of that Arachne silk steel thread."

"That was my only bobbin of it, sorry." Gerry said. "Where does the thing go? You said you knew the Arachne, is there a safe way to trade with them through it?"

"It only leads to a few places right now." I said. "I haven't traded with the Arachne but it is on my list."

Or at least it was now. My list of things to do didn't seem to be getting any shorter as I completed things.

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"Come through whenever you'd like." I said. "I have some business in the city, then I'll be going back through myself. Oh, and perhaps mention it to the woman downstairs, she was upset when I knocked on the door."

Gerry winced. "My wife, Lizzie." Gerry said. "You're right, I should explain before she gets too worked up."

He led me back down to the ground floor of the building and I left through the front door as Lizzie started yelling at Gerry in the language she had used before.

It was just getting dark in the city and the traffic was easing up. The wagons on the streets were clearing up making for a much more pleasant walk. It took me twenty minutes to get to the random alley that I had left my thread portal in and collect it, and then twenty minutes back to Gerry's shop.

There was an even shorter woman leprechaun sitting on the raised stool behind the counter to the right as I entered. She raised a globe in her hand, pointing it at me.

"You are?" She asked in a high-pitched voice.

"I'm C.C." I said.

She nodded, hopping off the stool and coming to the door.

"Dad said to lock the store up behind you and to let you use the back room." She said. "Dad got in trouble, now they're making up. Through you go."

She ushered me through the door to the back room and went back to her stool, reading the heavy book that was on the counter. I went down the stairs, through the nexus room and then out to the druid floor. I nodded to Barr and Gaal who had moved to guarding the front entrance to the druid entrance hall and went through to Shawn's building, the summer temple. There were rumbling voices coming from inside that went silent at my knock on the doorframe.

"Come in." Shawn said.

I went through and saw Shawn and John sitting comfortably at the altar in the back of the room with what looked to be tankards of alcohol.

"Hello lord C.C." Shawn said. "I wasn't abandoned by my God, isn't it great news?"

"I'm happy for you." I said. "Though the fact that your god is imprisoned probably isn't so great."

"John has a plan." Shawn said happily.

"Shawn." John said. "Some things should not be spoken of aloud."

Shawn hung his head, it looked as though the alcohol was getting the better of him. Talking about thwarting the gods plans where they could hear you was never a good idea.

"John, I came to get you so that you could have some input in the design of your building." I said. "I also had some questions that you might be able to answer, if you wouldn't mind?"

"Certainly." John said, draining his tankard. "Lead on."

We said our farewells to Shawn and I led John to the third floor, which was a utility floor between the human and druid floors.

"I've heard from a few places that summer is when all of the dangerous monsters appear." I said. "I thought the god of winter was the evil one?"

"He isn't evil, though I will say that he is a treacherous bastard that will get what is coming to him." John said. "My God isn't good, either. There used to be gods of Good and Evil, but a Champion killed the god of Evil. Summer and Winter were then forced to kill the god of Good when he tried to force them into exile in their realms."

"And the monsters?" I asked.

"Life is a constant struggle here." John said. "My God isn't on the neutral realm's sentient species' side. Left to their own devices they would make it so that none of the creatures that shared His aspect could live in the neutral realm. It is survival of the fittest, and many of His creatures are more fit. Winter is a time when the neutral realm is given a chance to rest, the summer aspected creatures are taken to the summer realm to fight there."

While we were talking I had taken the output of my stone source away from building secure portal rooms for the portal nexus room and was laying out the outlines of John's building at his guidance. A five meter by five meter room with some narrow stairs at the back leading to an attic space that was a meter high.

"You mentioned species." I said. "I came across a reference that I didn't understand, it mentioned major and minor species. Beast people and humans were referred to as minor species, but it didn't mention any major ones."

"That's pretty simple." John said. "The major species are the Keeper species for each of the biomes of the plane. Forest, Mountain, Plains, and Ocean. If beast people and humans were listed as minor species then I would assume the criteria for that would be any of the sentient species, and there are dozens of them."

His explanation fit perfectly. Especially considering I hadn't mentioned that there were only four major species, or anything to do with biomes.

"That fits with the rest of the reference." I said. "Thank you. I haven't had much success with making furniture, you will need to trade with the other people of the fortress if you need any."

It wasn't strictly true, I'd made a bed and several chairs. I was happy to make buildings for people, as getting the raw materials into the fortress for it would be difficult, but anything the people could make amongst themselves I would leave them to do on their own.

I set my digital side back to making the stone rooms for portal exits along with presences and went to find Veya. She was on the human floor organising the flow of people and furniture from the portal and to the various buildings.

"Hello Veya." I said.

"Hello my lord." Veya said.

"I have a negotiation I would like you to do." I said. "Mal'Thorn is going to be becoming my vassal and he is bringing up to a thousand Forest Keepers with him. I want you to find out what he needs at a minimum and what would constitute a perfect place."

"And what are your requirements, needs, and desires?" Veya asked.

"Uh..." I said. "For my people to have the highest quality of life possible. Safety and self-sustainability."

Veya frowned at me. "It sounds as though you want me to negotiate against myself." Veya said.