The matriarch exited the mound, having to push the spluttering chamberlain to the side who immediately leapt out of her way. She had her red hair braided and wrapped around her head with a thin gold crown pinning it together, and a ball gown on that looked entirely impractical. Ailfrid moved one chair to his left, leaving the central chair open for her.

"Welcome to my table." I said as she started to climb the stairs, causing her to hesitate with her foot above the first step, a frown settling over her face.

She only hesitated a few moments before continuing to ascend, taking her chair. She turned to Ailfrid, ignoring me completely, and began talking to him in the leprechaun language.

I looked at Gerry. "What are they talking about?" I asked.

"She said that you are insufferably rude, and Ailfrid is explaining that it was a measured insult in response to the idiot announcer." Gerry said.

The matriarch looked sharply at Gerry and said something to him.

"Lizzie, myself, and our children are Lord C.C.'s vassals." Gerry said, speaking in the common language.

The matriarch started scolding Gerry, sounding remarkably similar to when Lizzie was yelling at me.

She only stops when Lizzie sticks her head through the portal that was still on the table, shouting at the matriarch in turn. I looked at Gerry and raised an eyebrow.

"My mother-in-law." Gerry said. "She is upset that her daughter and heir has joined you. Lizzie is defending you, and me."

The matriarch made a cutting gesture with her hand, ending the argument between Lizzie and herself, and turned back to her conversation with Ailfrid. Lizzie ducked her head back through the portal, returning to the shop.

"Ailfrid is explaining about the end of the world, and that you are offering a safe haven for our people." Gerry said. "Liz questioned that, and he just said that you believe what you are saying, and that he believes you. If nothing else you are strong enough to enforce whatever you want."

The matriarch, whose name was apparently Liz, shot a sour look at Gerry and said something short to him.

Gerry sighed. "And she just called me a traitor to the People." Gerry said.

"She isn't making a very good impression." I said. "How much do you need your people saved?"

The matriarch shot me an evil glare before turning back to Ailfrid.

"My wife would never forgive me." Gerry said. "So quite a lot. Ailfrid is saying that the army to the north lends further credibility to your claims."

"Wait, army?" I asked. "That was one of my reasons for coming here immediately."

"There are thousands of them." Ailfrid said. "Several lesser dragons, ice wisp scouts, but the bulk of the army is made up of men of snow."

Men of snow. Snowmen. That name brought up an image of three large balls of snow stacked on top of each other with stones for eyes and a carrot for a nose. The way that Ailfrid said it though made me think they didn't match such a harmless image.

"The army is veiled in frost, the place where they are crossing over from the winter realm is substantially colder than the areas around it." Ailfrid said.

The matriarch snapped at Ailfrid.

"I want the leprechauns to have a good relationship with our future Lord, no matter how badly you are handling it." Ailfrid said, using the common language so that I could understand him.

The matriarch turned and addressed me directly for the first time. "Well you definitely have a talent for subverting my people." She said. "First my son-in-law and my daughter, then my elite scouts, and finally my greatest adviser, all have turned against us."

That really wasn't how I saw it.

"Gerry and Lizzie are the only ones who have joined me." I said. "And the only reason it is against you is because the choice is between saving the leprechaun people or not, and you seem to be on the side of your entire people dying. It is not a conspiracy against you, we will form a treaty, or not, and I will continue on my way."

"You speak of a treaty, yet there are no Keepers to authorise it." The matriarch said.

"A somewhat valid point." I said, and then turned to speak through the portal. "Lizzie, would you like to step through?"

"Thank you, but no." Lizzie said. "I am caring for the shop, and the children are upstairs."

I moved the Pocket Dimension side of the portal to the Mountain Keeper floor's portal and sent the Mountain Keepers of my fortress a quest to officiate over a treaty for one Fortress Coin. A few seconds later a Mountain Keeper stepped through the portal, one that I hadn't seen before.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"You're new." I said.

"Yes my lord." He said. "There are six of us now. I was closest, having come to deposit a load of stone. Most cannot tell us apart, how did you?"

"The pattern of your fur is unique to each of you." I said.

"You summoned a Keeper, those that arbitrate the world." The matriarch said. "Just like that. Not even a wave of your hand and they immediately leap to do your bidding."

"They are my vassals." I said. "Under our treaty they act for the benefit of my fortress. Though if I recall, new Mountain Keepers aren't bound by the treaties of those who came before them?"

"That is correct." The Keeper said. "We swore on to the treaty afterwards. We, the six, are your people."

I nodded, accepting it. "There is an incentive system in place to reward people for helping the fortress." I said. "It is not expected that people work for the benefit of the people of the fortress with no reward. The terms I offer are the same that I offer to all of my people. You, and your people, will work in the best interests of The Fortress and in return I offer a safe place to survive the end of the world."

All of the treaties were worded differently, but they all amounted to the same principle.

"Food, water, living space, transportation, responsibilities." The matriarch said. "There is much that you have left vague."

"A base amount of food and water is provided, none of my people will go without." I said. "Living space will be on one of the floors of my upper fortress, a cylinder ninety eight meters wide and four and a half meters tall with a five meter by five meter stairway in the center. A Fortress Presence and portal shall be provided for your floor. I will aid in the initial setup of the floor, providing construction and materials to house all of your people. How many of you are there, by the way?"

I probably should have asked that before assigning them a floor.

"Less than six hundred." Ailfrid said.

That would be... Over twelve square meters per leprechaun if they split it up evenly, and probably triple that as they could fit three levels in the four and a half meters.

"Right, that's good." I said. "Transportation, I will be providing a direct portal to your new floor that all of your people can use to leave, taking whatever they require with them. Furthermore I will leave a portal here as a destination that can be travelled to at the cost of a Fortress Coin. Responsibilities... I don't know. I will assign you a quest for you to submit a report on what your capabilities are as a people."

"So essentially you will be acting in good faith to assist the People." The matriarch said.

"Yes, my aim is for my people to have the highest quality of life I can manage." I said. "As a small thing, the druid beastpeople that are already a part of my fortress call themselves the People as well."

"It is short for People Under the Hill." Ailfrid said. "Though if we are to live in your fortress it will be even less accurate than it is now with us building mounds on top of the hills. And our name for ourselves is in our language, Aes Sidhe, 'People' is just how it translates to this language. I expect the others are the same, so there shouldn't be any conflict."

"What happens if I accept your terms?" The matriarch asked.

"If you accept my terms I immediately make a portal to your new floor, you and your people get a general quest to provide new raw materials to the fortress, and I give you markers for you to show where you want walls on the floor." I said. "Then I go and see the winter army for myself and after that I head to the plains to speak with the Plains Keepers, who are the target of invasion by the army."

"And if I reject your terms?" The matriarch asked.

"Then I go and see the winter army for myself, then to the plains to speak with the Plains Keepers." I said. "And you all die, either when winter gets around to targeting you specifically, or when the temperature gets too low for you to survive. Or maybe you will starve when the plains are destroyed. If you aren't my people you aren't my responsibility."

The matriarch looked at Gerry, then at Ailfrid, then at each of the scouts at either end of the table.

"Are you truly strong enough to protect people from the end of the world?" The matriarch asked.

"I don't know." I said. "But it is my task as a Champion, and I will do everything within my power to achieve it."

"We agree to the terms of the treaty." The matriarch said.

The Mountain Keeper nodded. "If that is all, my lord?" He asked.

I nodded to him and he stepped back through the portal to his floor. I moved the exit of the portal back to Gerry's shop and sent Gerry through it. And I moved a thread portal to the new leprechaun floor and placed a presence outside of it.

"This is a quest?" Ailfrid asked, gesturing in front of himself.

"It is." I said. "It's only visible to yourself, though, and each of your people should have received it. One second."

I created a quest for the matriarch for a report on how her people could contribute to the fortress and another one for the whole leprechaun people titled 'The Evacuation of the People Under the Hill', flagging it as mandatory. Which just auto-accepted the quest. Then I pulled up my goal progress window.

Goal progress Species with which you have a treaty offering sanctuary from the end of the world. Major species 2/4   Forest Keepers   Biome Forest   Population 1,612   Minimum Viable Population 200   Mountain Keepers   Biome Mountain   Population 2   Minimum Viable Population 2 Minor species 3/5 (3/4)   Beastpeople   Biome Plains   Population 109   Minimum Viable Population 60   Humans   Biome Mountain, Forest, or Plains   Population 209   Minimum Viable Population 120   Leprechauns   Biome Mountain or Plains   Population 585   Minimum Viable Population 90