For the Record

“Hello, Nerin.”

Olive teleported us here without issue; oddly enough, I could just send her a mental image of the place through our bond and here we were.

The eldra grocer reacts the same as usual – by flinging whatever produce they were holding at the time into the air.

For some reason I can’t bring myself to care this time and let the round plant things land as they fell.

Why did I care before? I’m pretty sure I didn’t... Well, whatever.

“Nemesis. You’re back.”

I lean on a nearby wall. “Yep.”

“And with a lot more people? Hello Izahne.”

My consort nods.

...

(They’re waiting for you to introduce them,) Nyx prods.

Oh.

“Anyway, you know Izahne. That’s Omorth, he used to be an eldra but now he’s a sword.”

Nerin’s eyes shoot wide, but I keep right on talking.

“The furry one is my attendant, Olive. Vivianne is the red one, and I don’t know why she’s here.”

The fox spirit offers a formal curtsey while the centipede knight bows.

I glance at my former Assistant. “Then there’s Nyx. Say hello, Nyx.”

She materializes just long enough to say, “Hello, Nyx,” before promptly vanishing again. Well, whatever, it’s what I asked for.

But I sigh anyway.

“That’s all my retainers. As for my party members, Abaris is a mage and our leader, and the healer is Pearl.”

I’m pretty sure Nerin just gave the two ‘normal’ people a look of sympathy.

“Anyway, on to business!”

The grocer looks confused. “Business? What business? Do you mean the ghost traps again?”

I can’t help but chuckle. “No, no. They’re much easier to deal with now.”

Focusing my will, I call my kin. I can feel those trapped strain against the barriers, but since my will can reach them, there’s more I can do. I channel Planar Detachment through them, pulling them viscerally from the devices’ grasp.

And promptly, we’re surrounded by a halo of wraiths, drifting lazily in a circle above us.

Nerin looks terrified – and so they should be! I’m terrifying!

Anyway, where was I? Oh right, ghost traps.

(That’s not what you were doing.)

Uh. What?

(‘Business’, remember?)

Oh right!

“Yeah so, those are my kin and a part of me or whatever. They’re not going to hurt you or anyone else here. Also if you’re that scared of them the next part is going to be difficult.”

The eldra continues to cower but at least answers me. “What next part?”

I manifest my throne and my retainers take their places.

And then I say, “Nerin, Eldra Grocer. I hereby recognize you as representative of this settlement. I offer you and your people a new life and all that it would entail, for I have reclaimed my home plane and seek to populate it.”

***

That went alright, I guess.

After convincing Nerin both that I’m in fact a god and actually do have a home plane, I got to repeat the same act for the rest of the humans that bothered to come to the assembly hall.

And of those thirty-some humans, twenty-two have agreed to come, including Nerin.

Well, that’s enough for one town.

“Olive.”

My fox spirit inclines her head. “This one serves.”

“Can you move all of them in one trip, or will it take more?”

She thoughtfully looks at me for a moment. “If her majesty would gift of mana, this one may increase their capacity.”

I see.

“Here, take it,” I say as I push around half of the mana required to form another homuncu-priest through our bond.

And of course, she makes sounds that cause Izahne to blush, and... ah, that’s envy.

So I gently – very gently – brush her with Consume. I’m still not sure why she likes it, but the envy immediately replaces itself with other emotions I’m never going to act on.

(Poor girl.)

Yeah, whatever.

Meanwhile, Olive has been standing patiently, waiting for my attention. I know what she’s after for once though.

“Take us to Darkwell.”

***

“Laws?”

Was I supposed to arrange something like that?

(Idiot.)

Fine.

Town Head Nerin waits patiently as I turn to Vivianne. “Here, make yourself useful. What were the laws under Astraea like?”

Hoo, that was a mistake.

An hour and a half later, the centipede monster finally finishes prattling off law after law after law, complete with precedents and exceptions.

Although I’m not shocked to find that a number of them were specifically regarding showing proper deference to me.

Astraea. I mean to Astraea.

Nyx sighs. (You may as well just give it up. You’re her. You’re you, and you’re her, and you’re the Queen of Hunger. There’s no point to all this denial, is there?)

Sure, but I’m not ready to deal with that yet. I’m busy with towns and laws and razorvines!

(Keep telling yourself that. Maybe you’ll have it figured out before I die of old age.)

...You’re a daemon, you don’t age.

She gives me the flattest, most deadpan look I think I’ve ever seen from her.

Anyway.

“You got all that, right Abaris?”

The obounis nods and says, “Yes, yes. Right here, all right here.”

“Good.” I take the bundle of pages from him and duplicate them on the... wait, I can do this better.

I focus my will and craft myself a spell. “{duplicate create book}.”

Why exactly I know the grammar for any of this is a mystery to me, but either way it doesn’t matter. A hardbound book of the laws as copied by Abaris drops into my free hand, and I immediately pass it to a dumbstruck Nerin. “These will do for now.”

They just stand there for a moment staring at it until finally snapping out of their stupor, then turning to run toward what was apparently once the town hall – now the eldra’s residence as well as local government.

“And that’s that,” I say as I activate my house key and enter the hazy portal it produces and the others follow.

After we take our usual seats, a loud rumble reverberates and Pearl blushes brightly.

I blandly gesture to my attendant. “Olive, would you?”

The fox spirit inclines her head and answers, “This one serves,” before taking to the kitchen and working through a series of ingredients with her usual practiced speed.

“Hmm, should we have invited Nerin for a meal? Not that it matters.”

Abaris raises his hand for some reason, so I gesture for him to speak. “We still can if you are interested.”

I cock an eyebrow. “If we invite them, would be need to invite the rest of the townsfolk? We definitely don’t have room here, and I’m not particularly interested in knowing any of them.”

(Ah yes, how very leaderlike of you.)

Oh shut up.

“Yeah, whatever. I’ll invite them.”

I keep forgetting that I can just project thoughts to people.

You are invited to join us for a meal, I project to the eldra. If you are interested, enter the portal outside of town hall. I will permit you entry.

At most a minute before Olive finishes her preparations, Nerin pokes their head in the front door and immediately projects surprise at what I assume is the normalcy of my choice of living quarters.

“Town Head. Welcome,” I say in greeting. Our table lacks the extra seating, so in addition to the one I usually make for Nyx, I create a plain chair from my ash and set it in place with a feeler. I gesture toward it. “Go ahead.”

Meanwhile, everyone is waiting for me to sit apparently.

And while it’s less annoying than it was before, it still feels annoying enough that I absentmindedly grit my teeth.

At least once I’ve sat, they all talk and eat and act like normal.

After some pleading from Olive through our link, I even bother to try a morsel of whatever this gooey stringy squishy thing she made is.

‘Steak with aged truffle vinaigrette served with a truffle pate,’ apparently. I get the impression that either Astraea really liked truffles, or the fox spirit simply has a lot of them in her dimensional storage.

It doesn’t really matter either way though, even I’ll admit that it’s good despite its lack of mana.

...

Wait, I ate the whole thing!?

I stare confusedly at my plate while Olive giggles quietly and Nyx outright guffaws. Even Izahne has a small smile.

The three humans-and-human-likes are busy with their own meals and mercifully ignore my bafflement.

Vivianne, meanwhile, has a knowing smirk –

“Wait, why are you here again!?”

***

After our meal and Nerin’s repeated and unnecessary bowing and scraping, we see the eldra off to their business.

There’s not much more to do tonight other than rest, although I guess I could keep moving. It’s not like I get tired.

Usually.

We all take our usual seats in the sitting area again, and the others strike up conversations that mostly trend toward our future plans for the town, as well as the other towns. I take a breath and choose to relax, letting them simply enjoy the time.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice our local orange fluffball creeping slowly from the hallway.

You know, I’d forgotten about His Highness Philip, Lord of All He Sees, Patron Saint of Hissing At Me. Which he’s doing right now, quietly, and creeping toward the table.

I pretend not to notice, but Olive definitely just subtly flicked a finger, moving a morsel of meat from the counter to the floor in front of him. He grabs it in his teeth and with a quiet growl turns to slink back toward Omorth’s room.

Or, his old room I guess. He doesn’t really use it anymore, not since he doesn’t need to sleep. Plus he always stands around outside my door during the night.

Maybe it’s Philip’s room now.

I glance at the former eldra. “He’s afraid of you now, isn’t he?”

From the sword’s vibration – which I can somehow tell is equivalent to a sigh, I can already tell the answer.

“Well, keep trying. Maybe you’ll get a Skill or something that will help.”

***

Half the night and only one attempted incursion by Olive later, I feel a jolt of elation through my bond with Omorth.

I guess he got his Skill.