The Dark Lord of Crafting

The gates of Nargul swung open with a low groan as trolls hidden in the walls turned the great wheels that operated them. We were coming in with the sun behind us, four riders, and a couple of packhorses, but they knew who I was. Zareth had sent a wyvern messenger ahead of us so this wouldn’t be a surprise visit. Someone on the walls sounded a trumpet, and there was a group waiting for us just beyond the gates.

“Welcome, my lord,” a soldier greeted me, placing his fist against his heart in a sign of respect.

He was followed by a group of his comrades standing in a row. Their armor was freshly polished, and I felt like Darth Vader stepping onto the Death Star. The only thing that was missing was the Imperial March.

I thanked them and dismounted, looking past the soldier to a man with a silver mane of wavy hair striding toward me with his hand outstretched. He had smooth skin and wore a dark velvet jacket over a high-collared shirt. A cape fluttered out behind him in a way that made me wonder if he had deliberately thrown it back for effect.

“All hail the Dark Lord,” he said as I accepted his hand. “It is an honor to have you back in our city so soon.”

“There are things I need to see,” I said, eyeing the man. He gave me serious Lucius Malfoy vibes. Was I supposed to already know who he was?

“Of course,” he said, releasing my hand. “The burdens of lordship are many and trying. I understand the circumstances of your last visit were not conducive to regular business, but if I can be of service to you in any way, you need but ask.”

“I appreciate that,” I said. “I’m here with my wife at the moment, and we are going to visit with her family, but perhaps we can meet at another time to discuss what you can do for me.”

“Your…wife?” The man’s gaze traveled behind me to Esmelda, Leto, and Gastard, who were still on their horses. He blinked several times, apparently at a loss, before recovering. “Of course,” he said, plastering on an uncomfortable smile, “there is nothing more important than family. If it would suit your darkness, I can convene a council meeting for tomorrow morning.”

“This is Esmelda,” I said, gesturing, “first lady of Dargoth.”

The man quickly bowed. “It is a privilege to be in your presence, my Lady. I am Count Varnish. Please consider me to be at your service.”

“Thank you,” Esmelda said, but she wasn’t looking at the count. Beyond the soldiers was a crowd of lillits, hundreds of them. Some of them were waving banners, and several cheers went up as we entered the city. Boffin and Brenys were in front, both looking in much better shape than the last time I’d seen them. They had on new clothes, and they looked like they’d had a few good meals in the interim.

“A council meeting would be fine,” I said. “I’ll see you there.” I could figure out where ‘there’ was, and why Count Varnish was important, later. This was the time for a reunion. The Count got out of our way as we approached the crowd and they surged forward to meet us. Esmelda and Leto were down off their horses a moment later, and she was in the arms of her father.

“I don’t know how this happened, but I’m glad,” he said, the wrinkles of his face softening. “A part of me thought I would never see you again.”

“Leto,” Esmelda said, “this is your grandfather.”

“You’re so tall,” Boffin said, who had to look up to his grandson. “How did you get so tall?”

“It just happened,” Leto said, and Esmelda laughed. Brenys came forward to give Esmelda a firm embrace before moving on to our son.

“It’s good to meet you,” she said. “You look a bit like your father, but not too much. That’s good. And you don’t smell like a human. That’s a relief.”

“Gastard,” Boffin said, as the templar approached. “I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done.”

“It was no more than my duty,” Gastard said, taking the lillit’s hand and giving it a firm shake.

I found myself swarmed by the crowd. I’d removed my helmet, and they were all trying to get my attention, some of them touching my armor, calling out thanks or welcome. I heard my name shouted several times, and I wasn’t sure exactly what to do. I patted shoulders and repeated a few phrases over and over.

“It’s good to see you. I’m glad you’re alright.” I had to have known some of them in my previous life, but their faces all felt new to me.

“William,” one man said, “I’m Dorn. You helped me build my cabin in Williamsburg. Do you remember me?”

“Of course I do,” I lied. “It’s good to see you.” He said a few more things but was quickly replaced by others, a seemingly endless stream of admirers. I caught sight of Count Varnish watching me from a distance, a calculating look on his face. I would have to learn more about him. Kevin had treated the lillits as property, rather than people, so the way they were reacting to me wouldn’t make sense in that context, even if he couldn’t hear what they were saying.

I had no way of knowing who had seen Kevin’s face. There couldn’t have been many, but if the Count was as significant a figure in Nargul as he seemed to think he was, he was probably one of them. But he didn’t look like a man who had suddenly realized that the Dark Lord was no longer the Dark Lord, just a calculating aristocrat who was having to reassess his assumptions.

Announcing that Esmelda was my wife would give him and the other nobles of the city a reasonable explanation for why the lillits were now a protected class, which had to have baffled them when they learned that the Eternal Engine was no longer in motion.

I planned on showing my face all over the city because I wanted people to know what I looked like in case Kevin ever did escape and try to reclaim his authority. The fact that hardly anyone knew his face was part of why it was so easy for me to be accepted as the Dark Lord wherever I went. Agares had spread the word of Kevin’s usurpation to officers among the garrison, but part of Berith’s job had been to convince the soldiers that the story had been false, a part of the previous duke’s scheme for a coup. I wasn’t sure how much he had accomplished before we returned, but I wanted to put an end to any doubts and let people know that the lillits were no longer slaves, and were under my protection.

Apart from the soldiers, I didn’t see many humans on the streets. Kevin had not been a man of the people, but I saw them watching from windows and in small groups further down the street. There had been no general announcement, it seemed, but word would quickly spread that their Dark Lord was in the city and that he was suddenly very friendly with the lillits.

Keeping track of everyone who approached me was an impossible task, and I had to press through them to be closer to my Esmelda and our son. Boffin shook my hand, and Brenys gave me a wave.

“I’d like to invite you all to my apartment,” Boffin said, looking at me, “unless you have more pressing duties.”

“So they found you all places to live?”

“They did,” Boffin said, “though I fear your demon may have used too heavy a hand to do so. A family was living in my home before me, and they left some of their things behind. Our people are mostly all together, and I’m not sure what happened to the humans who occupied the buildings before we were there.”

That sounded like something a demon would do. I should have been more specific when I told him to make space for the lillits in the city. Displaced citizens would stir resentment, and make it harder to integrate them into normal society.

“We can talk about all that,” I said. “I’d like to see where you live.”

“This way, then.” Boffin led us through the city, and the crowd followed us.

The building he lived in wasn’t ostentatious, a large tenement many stories high. His apartment was near the ground floor, and it was comfortable enough, though the furniture was not sized for lillits. He and Brenys were sharing the place, and they hadn’t had much in the way of possessions of their own to bring to it.

They scrounged up a set of mugs, and Brenys busied herself boiling water for tea as the rest of us found seats around the table. There weren’t enough chairs for everyone, so Gastard and I remained standing.

“I’m not sure where to begin,” Boffin said. “Our lives have changed so much, but we are strangers here. Our people were kept apart from the human population, within the inner wall, and they don’t know what to make of us.”

“Some of them hate us,” Brenys said. “Others are afraid. They don’t know why we were freed, so that’s kept us safe for now, but if we try to make lives for ourselves here, there is going to be conflict.”

“I’ll see what I can do about that,” I said. “But it begs the question whether you should stay here at all.”

“You could return to Mount Doom with us,” Esmelda said, “all of you could. There is room, and William could make more to suit you. It won’t be the same town we had, but it will be safe.”

Boffin looked skeptical. “It’s hard for me to think of Mount Doom as a future home for our people. We have no connection to that place, and there is nothing there but a fortress. Are there trees or farmland? What has become of Williamsburg in our absence?”

“It’s different now,” I said. “The wall and the mine made it too valuable to be abandoned, and the whole place has been rebuilt. Your homes aren’t there anymore, and it’s full of people from around the border march. I’m not sure where they all came from, but I doubt your reception there would be any better than it is here.”

“There’s no need for anyone to go back to Williamsburg,” Gastard said. “Your mayor is now a king, and he can make you a place wherever he likes. From what I have seen of Dargoth, this city is not a bad choice. It’s well-defended, and the people will grow accustomed to your presence in time.”

“I want you to be close,” Esmelda said, placing her hand over her father’s.

“I’m going to go north soon,” I said, “and if you want to come with me, then Nargul will be as close as Mount Doom.” I looked at Boffin. “It depends on what kind of lives you want going forward. We could found a new town, but I’m not going to have much time to do the construction myself in the near future, not until things in Dargoth are more settled.”

“I’ve spoken with some of the others,” Boffin said. “Many of them are still afraid to leave this building. Their wounds are too fresh. Some want to take up their old trades, but there are guilds in this city, and we will have to work out some sort of understanding with them to do so.”

“William can set the terms,” Esmelda said. “If you stay here, no one is going to interfere with you doing business.”

“I’m not sure what my role would be,” Boffin said. “Our people are not much in need of an old man who was once a mayor.”

Brenys began filling cups and handing them around. The tea was weak, and nothing like the fermented stuff they used to produce for themselves, but it seemed to soothe them, nonetheless.

“No one ever needed you before,” she said, “but you stuck around and kept talking, and for whatever reason, they listened to you.”

“Setting up a guild of your own may be the best option,” I said. “You can help with that, and I can make sure you have the resources you need. I haven’t met the council yet, or whatever passes for nobility here, but I can give you a pin or something and you’ll be a Count. It will give the lillits a voice in the city.”

“I’m sure the humans will love that,” Brenys remarked.

“It’s within his authority to do so,” Gastard said, “and they will have to make a place for you among them. If they don’t, then they will answer to their king.” Gastard had never referred to me as a Dark Lord, and that was probably for the best. The title had been an affectation on Kevin’s part, encouraged by the demons, and it certainly had to give people an idea about what kind of leader I was. Given that the custom had been in place for centuries, however, it wasn’t obvious how to go about changing it. That was a detail to think about after my hold on the nation was secure.

“Speaking of guilds,” Esmelda said, “there are certainly other lillits qualified to manage things. What about Perrin? A carpenter can work in a city as well as the country. And Quad? He could begin training apprentices again. There won’t be much farming in Nargul, but our people can take up other trades.”

“Who’s Perrin?” Leto asked.

Boffin’s expression darkened. “He was a master carpenter, but he is no longer with us.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“There was an attempted uprising,” Boffin said, “ five years ago now. He led it himself. It did not accomplish much but the loss of more lives.”

Perrin Perrinson had been a proud, serious man. I wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t taken bondage lightly. I saw Esmelda’s face fall. They hadn’t exactly been close, as I could recall, but Perrin had been a figure in Erihseht for her entire life, and she had to have spent a long time wondering what had become of the people she had known in her youth. Leto looked more concerned than upset. He hadn’t known Perrin or any of them. They would just be names to him, but he could see how the news affected his mother.

“And the others?” She asked, “Who else have we lost?”

Boffin sighed. “More than I could name. Quad is alive, the man may have been a horseshoe in another life, and he is much the same as you remember. I’m sure he would be happy to get back to work. The Darfur family disappeared, and I don’t know if they died during the round-ups or if they were never captured. Tipple is around. He misses his books, but he’s been a comfort to many who would have otherwise lost their faith over the years.”

Esmelda was visibly relieved to hear that the pastor was alive. He had been a mentor to her, and I was glad to know he was well, or as well as any of them could be, after what they had been through.

“It’s hard to be sure,” Boffin continued. “We have been trying to take a census of everyone since we gained our freedom, but I’m still not sure that all the lillits in Nargul have been found. I think that some may have been taken as servants by the nobles early on. And then there were the mines.

Those who weren’t suited to work on the train were sent to work with the human slaves there, your order would have applied to them as well, but I have no way of knowing if everyone was returned.”

If lillits were working in the households of Nargul’s nobles, then I doubted they would have been released along with the rest. Count Varnish hadn’t struck me as someone who would give up something he thought of as his if he wasn’t forced to. All the more reason to meet with his council in the morning.

“There are other slaves in Nargul?” I asked. “It wasn’t just the lillits?”

Boffin nodded. “The practice is widespread. It is common for people in Nargul to be indentured for their debts, or as a punishment for crimes.”

Gastard made a disapproving noise low in his throat.

I set my tea on the table. “I’m going to need to see Berith about this. If any more lillits are being kept around the city, something has to be done. As for the rest, I’m going to have to make changes to the laws.”

“The nobles will be thrilled,” Brenys said.

“They won’t have a choice,” I scratched the side of my head. I needed a haircut. “Will you all be alright here while I go see Berith?”

“Do what you can,” Esmelda said. She met my eyes. This wasn’t something that could wait.

“I’ll be back soon,” I said, touching Leto’s shoulder. He glanced up at me and nodded.

“Shall I accompany you?” Gastard asked.

“No, keep everyone here safe while I’m gone.” It wasn’t that I thought they were in danger, but I felt better knowing that the templar was close to my family. He couldn’t help me with the demons, who he hated, and his presence wouldn’t add anything to my authority when I met the council. I didn’t need a guard, but they did.

We bid our goodbyes, and I went to see Berith.