MINT MT - chapter 2

  So everybody's asking at this point what's going on with the humans and the elves, and you would think that they've been doing nothing but far from that. First, the human, the general, he just took off to town. He literally took off and went directly to Port Town.

  Let me tell you about the general he had. seen almost seen almost all of his family die. All of his.

  That didn't make it. He was not gonna let there. sacrifice be in vain. He was the last of the old guard. They had done stupid **** Their fathers and their grandfathers and his generation hadn't committed a war crime yet And by God, he wasn't gonna start here and now. But at the same time, what the hell was going on in town The law was he had to talk with the Grey Council. That means the head haunchers of the Great Church And he had no problem with that. But he was going to town to find out what was going on. First had because the mayor.. I sent a message, and that was it. And he's only from the mayor who'd nothing else, except for the people of. the other government's sending in their information.

  If the general had just waited a day, maybe a day in a bit, he would have found out, because the Great Council themselves who were in the capital of the humans, they. basically were all humans. This Council of the grave. They for the humans. They were human Each race had their own council and each council had to speak. for the people of their race and it was just the way they did it so that that everybody had a voice. So the Great Council came and talked to the king and explained what was going on. And the king looked at this in two ways. One there could be no open war. That was not allowed. But if there was going to be an open war, they were going to be the ones that started it. That was the problem. Even if they wanted to start anything because the humans were the last ones to start a great war. They were the ones holding the torch of the honor to prevent any war You screw up, you're the guard for the next group. You can keep them from screwing up So yeah, that the general took off. It's good news, bad news.

  But the knowledge, the Grey Council brought made the king smile ear to ear. And I'm not a good person type of smile. I'm talking. He could see money. And the reason for this, he was informed of the glass, the. glass, the clans and the Declaration of 3 by 3 by 3 And even one more day later, if the general weighed, he would have found out. that people had already been sent. from the different races in force. But he didn't wait. And what he found when he got there was not what he was expecting. He was expecting a little port town. That's what it said. Like he had looked a little bit up upon it. But what? he saw was a town of stone is the nicest way of putting it where you would normally see wooden buildings. There was some but only like chunks of the roof. Everything else was stone there was at. every corner at least a group of five small humans. They were. kinda short for humans. Tall for dwarf but they were shaved and they smiled and they waved and they're all wearing these monk robes different colours but all the same type and yeah, this was not what he was expecting and he went up to 1 of them just asked are you with the great church.

  The man not even batting an eye to. the man. Welcome. to Portown. And no, I'm just from a monastery that has come here after we heard of the Great. opening of the Great Church. And we are. going to work around town to earn some money so we can be around for the blessing of the church. That's about it. Should end in about a year. Little less than a year.

  The man, the general looked at the man, the dwarf, and the two of them weren't pulling punches 1 bit. In the words they said, but they were not speaking openly. But those small hints of a year and the man not being afraid of the general giving off the magical aura that he is, realize something right there. First, the general would realize that his or didn't feel right here. It wasn't as strong like he felt weak here. He was. a normal man in armor. The man in front of him, on the other hand, was absolutely harmless. But the ore of this man gave off was that of pure joy, happiness and no fear. Just absolute contentment. So with the two of them sharing that moment, the. general said. Thank you and turn to walk away and the man. just yelled out to the general go see the mayor. You should go and open a bank account right away general.

  The general caught that and almost whipped around, but just started heading in the towards the city. hall where the mayor was. He had been made. They all knew he was a general. The man wasn't quiet about it. The dwarf and the general didn't deny it. So his march in armor that had no markings on it was already give away. He realized that he had already failed. So all he could do next was going to see what type of mess he walked himself into. And hopefully the king wasn't going to kick his **** or cut off his head. So let's figure out how to not cause an international incident because that was the original reason for coming here. He's now just well. ah, secrecy be damned. Let's let's. how can bad can this be?

  As he went up to the mayor's office, he walked in, and it had a brand new metal and glass door with ink. Very, very fine in lay of silver and steel, something that might look like a good breakthrough it, but and go through the glass, but no way in the hell you're getting through that. And it looked like it was a plant that had grown. Someone took the time to weave strands of silver and metal through this doorway. Double doors you opened up. It was well fancy kind of looking and it didn't match the rest of the building. It looked brand new too

  The general opened it up and walked inside and looked to the right, up the stairs, and he saw the. receptionist last assistant with two. short women. speaking behind her to her. And as the door opened, they all looked over. They all waved to him at the same time like it was rigged. Like they had been practicing this and waved him up and it was. It was hilarious. He he's like he had just walked into some. 0 he was so screwed.

  Before the general could say a word, as he approached the three ladies, two of the younger ladies, the shorter ones, bowed to him and the. mayor's assistant just stood up. She was a very beautiful, tall, skinny, but filled out in the right way. Lady that you did not screw it. She might be one of those ones that wears high heels at a pencil skirt. But you know that she's got a knife on her somewhere. You did not screw with this person. And for her to be polite and respectful and said the mayor is expecting you, general and welcome to Portown.

  He just kind of snorked and just. gave them a head nod and let himself into the mayor's office. And the mayor is sitting behind his desk looking at some paper. He took his glasses off and looked up at the Jones said. Good morning, general. Welcome to town. Come sit down.

  Being totally defeated and this. little bit of politicking spy work. Maybe spy craft even. It didn't feel like it. This felt like a kid playing out an adult's game. He just took a coin. I only had a gold. He threw it to the mayor and said I'm supposed to ask you to open an account and what's this about? Explain to me what's going on here, mayor And he was a little course at the end when he said that. But he didn't mean any harm. He was just upset that he was basically. on the train tracks and the train was going. He had no control. He had to understand where they were plodding to go with this train. If you would for a metaphor.

  The mayor literally just started laughing his **** off and said, general, I'll make this very simple. What would be the best outcome for you here and now, other than taking this all away from everybody? Because you can't. And I can prove you can. But let's say that's off the table. What's the next best thing that you could ask for? What's the thing that you will demand as representative of the king here, as representative of the army?

  The general actually had to think about that for a second. And during that time, the mayor took the opportunity to. open a drawer, pull out a box of cigars, open them, put a box of matches in front of the general. He actually went over to the little bar side there, put some ice cubes in some glasses, and the mayor now had these really nice pieces of glass work that had to, like, cross sections carved into the glass. So when you put liquid in it, it made it reflect a reflect.

  The mayor just took out some of the goods dwarven brandy, the sweet stuff, and just poured two fingers with that said over ice, put it in front of the general. The next thing the mayor did, the general was paying attention to all this, but while he was thinking, but it kind of kicked the general out of his thoughts because. there were certain things you didn't put in front of the official of the government and one of them was a type of narcotic that was called stink weed or memory weed. The mayor literally opened up a box that had a whole walk of pipes and a little pack machine and a whole nine yards and it had different types of the the more specialized weeds. before the general can even ask how the hell he even had this or how much this cost him the the trouble he could be in for having it. was making the general kind of think that this is one hell of a shady man.

  The predatory look. that the mayor gave the general did not. help the general's perception of the scenario but it wasn't until the mayor smiled and said to the general straightforward Sir. what I'm about to tell you, everybody I've told us to takes a day of drinking after this and if you're drinking on the second day, it's going to be the worst one because by the 2nd day something new will have come up. It's that chaotic here. So the marriage just looked at him and said, Sir, answer my original question. Other than annexing everybody here taking it over and owning it, what would you want to someone following the 3 by 3 by 3 packed properly?

  The general looked the mirror straight in the eye and said the following words that shook the mayor. But once he realized what he had been told, the mayor smiled ear to ear and said that we absolutely could do these were the general's demands.

  The first thing I would ask of any of my men when dealing with me, and I will hereby ask it of you, mayor, being a member of the Court of the king of the human race, is honesty. Don't lie. Don't leave pieces out. Be honest with me. And in return, I will be honest with you, good or bad, I will be honest with you.

  Second, I want a place on whatever council or roundtable or whatever is done in this town in this city. Based on this entire war, when the war is over, I don't want to leave this place worse than I found it. Does that make sense? And from what I can see, you're already on a path to making it better. Nice new doors.

  The mayor smiled and just said, yeah, they put him in this morning. I didn't even know they were doing it. They just started installing them. I love this place right now.

  The general wasn't expecting that honesty. So we continued with his demands.

  And lastly I want the law and the compact of the three by 3 by 3 to be followed to the letter so no one can say that the humans failed. We do not. we do not want to be the ones to cause a war or devastation. I want to understand right now what? we have to do to prevent a war. and solve this without any deaths. But also understand this is land owned by the human race in our. own land. Others are coming for it. Do we defend? except help attack. What is the purpose of what's going on in here? Tell me the story. I need to understand. what war I need to fight here.

  The mayor wasn't just lobby. He was crying at the same time because this made it really easy.

  The mayor just looked straight at the general, put his hands on his desk. That was between the two of them and looked at general directly in the eyes and said, would you kidnap and kill 3 kids over money?

  The general being an honest man, had to say, if it meant saving a lot of lives, yes, but for money? No, not for money. They would have to be. They'd have to have a reason to kill thousands of people for me to even think of killing children. No offence. Adults can do stupid things, and children can be given weapons to do stupid things too. But three children, have they killed anybody yet? The general asked the mayor.

  The mayor actually had to think about that. To his knowledge, the answer is no. They didn't know what the kids did before they came and they didn't know why they were hiding But after that they hadn't killed anybody that they they supposedly caused a bad thing where every. body was now infested with bats around town and well, wow. There was a lot of dead bats when people started hunting them down. But people got sick from some of that, but not dead. So the worst they did was cause a little bit of a pandemic but. it was going to happen sooner or later. There was a lot of bats like. at nights the sky would just darken in half an hour early for no apparent reason except the bats came out it was. kindness insane at night. The Magic was flowing into these bats too. They were. They were a little bit bigger than they should be, too little bit hungrier too.

  The mayor said

  General. Let me tell you a story. Couple of months back. in the middle of the day, three small children. No more than 8, 3. brothers came into town.

  They picked a spot for their new home when they could afford it. But until then, they took off up into the mountain And they honestly hunted and mind, and they came into town once or twice, and we had no idea what the hell was going on, because they were.. Really good at what they were doing up there. Enough that the local started to ask around and even the Great Church got involved to make a long story short, we found out they were of. age where they were being raised and they were raised in an orphanage. One of the churches they. left to come here and make a new start for themselves because they were told that their family was annihilated and murdered and their clan was gone. And the moment the mayor said the word clan, the general became very serious and put up a finger.

  Ok, the general had to know. So he asked our. these three boys human or dwarves?

  And the mayor said, I asked you before, did it matter? They're kids So when these kids came into town and the Great Church was sent after them, what do you think happened?

  Kids getting hurt. I would say the great church didn't, didn't like that very much. The. general would be right He would know how right, because that's what started all this. The Great Church. started the ball rolling to bring the three. by 3 by 3 compact into effect to allow these three children to claim land. and they were supposed to do it quietly. They thought until it got back what had happened to the original family. Their original clan.

  The general had to stop their merit. He said, don't don't tell me anymore. I gotta understand, there's a big problem here. These three. do they have the right to be there? And he said, ha, ha, the Great Church already figured that all out general. There is a member of the Great Church who has bought land and is allowing the three children to stay there. During their stay there, they have agreed to pay him in what they find in the mountain. And in return, he has offered them in one year for anything they find to give them the deed to the mountain, which is absolutely legal. Does that make sense? General,

  This is not OK Mayor you know that. Why would the well, the general just trailed off there? He realized these were kids they were talking about. He had to keep on thinking about the law. But then kids, and the law, when it came to kids, so you didn't screw around with kids. That's where one of the major wars was started over. Someone went into a village and used magic to annihilate the entire village. And this village, at the time, they thought it was a bad place, but it was actually a nursery village. And they. almost annihilated an entire race of people in one night by accident and on purpose. Some really bad people were involved. So they did not want to repeat that. So when children came up, the Grey Council were involved. You didn't cross that line and become part of the Black Church. They were going to kill anything that was Black Church affiliated. And by kill, I mean, make sure that no one ever knew it existed. They would have annihilated off the face of memory. The earth, whatever you wanted to call it, gone. You didn't. screw with kids, but you also didn't take kids in to become murderer. So there was another line you didn't cross. So the mayor looked at the general and the general. had to take a moment to think about this because were they taking this too far too quick?

  The mayor was almost ready to start smiling, and the general realizes that he said there's nothing good about this scenario. What could we make keeping you smiling? We have an international incident here, and I don't know how to deal with this.

  General the mayor said you do not. want a war of physical violence, do you? What you want is to win the economic war. You want. to. get lots of money and a retirement home out of this yourself. I'm guessing. Why not here at a port town? And I have yourself a little fishing boat and all the good stuff that comes with retirement in a couple of years. A stable government that has. an influx of people paying taxes every year And with one of the pieces of information I can also guarantee you that an influx of adventures making money in this town will then go towards the human economy in the human Kingdom.

  And if I want to Sweeten the deal right now, the mayor said to the general, I can guarantee you that attribute. of one to two percent of what. this mind and what's going on here compared to and give back to the government in taxes per year would be enough to build an entire new royal capital twice. Maybe maybe twice.

  The general understanding that they might have found some precious materials like managers and other things new that this was like a very expensive opportunity, but that much money he had to kind of wrap his head around that much like like Maniclass was expensive, but wasn't that expensive. Like the general knew he was being played here. He knew. So he knew he had to do something to flip the table, if you will, on the scenario. So what he said was.

  The general took the glass of alcohol looked over the cigars, dipped the cigar in the booze and let it sit there. The mayor realized it's not as a show of disrespect, but a sign that the general was going to enjoy a good cigar with the booze in a moment.

  So what the general said next didn't really put a smile on the mayor's face because he just realized as the mayor that he was playing a game of politics with the general of a coal country. And maybe he was a little out of depth.

  **** it. Let the lawyers deal with it then. I'm betting we can get a lot more out of them if they're dwarves and they want the land, then. it would be to just to have humans come here that didn't give a **** So as long as there's no actual violence in the streets and the Great Church is willing to work to keep the peace, I'm very content to keep the peace now. will you would buy whatever the lawyers say because I really don't want to have to be the violent one in this whole scenario. Does that make sense? And the general wasn't really asking. He was just confirming the mayor understood his position

  The mare realizing there was no more moves to make here, other than just to make sure that his intent was very understood by the general. And in doing so, the mayor had one last card to play

  The mayor had already gotten the paperwork all done, so he went over to his little cubby hole. That was like wine rack and pulled out the little rolled up piece of parchment handed to the general and said, general, just **** sign this. After that, I will give you every piece of information you want, as in, you are now part of the Great Church, and you are going to be given every piece of information that we have as it happens in real time. How about that? Would you like to be part of the team?

  Before he even looked at the piece of paper, the general stood up and asked, the mayor, are you asking me to portray my country? I'm not racist, but I pledge to the king of this country to take care of his assets and his responsibilities and letting. someone come in and take something that doesn't belong to them. Would. that be right in any other country?

  The mayor just started laughing his **** off. And I mean, he almost hit the floor. He was holding his knees trying not to. Well, not to puke and laugh at the same time, he says, well, he had been drinking just a little bit this morning. He'd stop mostly since the last couple of days, since everything be going weird, quick

  The general was definitely missing something in this conversation. And that was apparent by his stance being more attentive. He should be in the mayor's mind. So the mayor, just without even putting his head up, he just handed the piece of paper to the mayor really quickly as he was trying to control his laughter and the general took the rolled up piece of paper looked at it, looked at the mayor, looked at the portrait, read it again. And by that point, the mayor had composed himself, taken a pen off his desk and handed it to the General

  The general Reddit for a third time asked if he was absolutely being serious about this. And the mayor just started smiling like the treasure cat that ate the canary and just shook his head up and down said, absolutely 100 percent my life on this, sir,

  The letter was very simple it was. a contract between. the Klan of fire and coal. for services to the human kingdom for 1000 years. And in that time it was responsibility to protect and remove all the dangerous mammoglass within this mountain It would then be the responsibility of a 3rd party to any of the kingdoms to sell that mammoglass. They would own the mountain, but for that thousand years, the human Kingdom would have a contract to be able to give their get weight in any material the clan of fire and coal wanted and needed in return for that same weight in Manoglass. This is a one time offer This would not be given to any other to prove. to the loyalty of the human kingdom, that. friendships can be made with trust.

  The mayor took the paper away from the general, just as he was about to sign it. And the mayor at the bottom, he signed it himself. He handed it back to Darrell and go, go for it. I can have the three kids. They're guardian, sign this in under 10 minutes if I need it. I'll have a runner. Have it. You'll have it in your hand, and you can go back before. the American even same moment, the general put up his hand. He said, I'm not going anywhere. And he just took the penny. He signed it, and he said, I think I'm going to retire here right now.

  He sat down, pulled the cigar out, put it in his mouth, took a deep pole on it. and he didn't even light the cigar. He kinda just chewed on it and sucked on it. And he then went over to the. brandy and took a nice long swill of it. And wow, he just kind of melted into that chair.

  The general just looked at the mayor after a couple of moments of just kind of letting it all sink in. And was about to ask, and the mayor said, I haven't even told you everything yet. You have. no idea. Do you have the inkling, maybe, to go on an adventure? General, do you want to get your sword dirty, sir?

  This definitely got the attention of the general because the general had been on the battlefield for most of his life, and he had lost so many people, so he really didn't want to be there anymore. But to have a good battle, he he was addicted. Honestly, the adrenaline he was, he had survived enough to know that he could. know that he could take on whatever we needed, mostly monsters, some. bandits in his life and even some large battles.

  And with that, the general said, I've already signed it. Start talking.

  The moment the general signed it that was legal. But the moment he agreed to it, that meant he wasn't gonna deny it being under duress when he signed it. That right there was a big deal from the general of the human countries army. This was accepting a deal on behalf of the king.

  What the mayor having those words at him. He had a button under his desk, and he just gave it a flick. And the mayor's assistant got a signal. She popped her head in.

  Because the mayor wasn't speaking the generals waiting for the mayor to keep going. And as the door opened, the mayor just said, please let Larry know he has to bring three people to sign a legal document. And he introduced, and please let them know this is the general from the human army.

  When the general looked at her. she just asked one thing, and the look in her eyes was that of a beast, something that was eyeing up a piece of meat and not to eat it, but to how to shred it. She was. a mother panther protecting her young rake there. And he did not doubt she would annihilate him if he gave the wrong answer to what she was about to ask. And as she paused for a second to figure out what she was going to say, the general took a breath, and then she said,

  As part of the three by 3 by 3 compact. I hereby request parlay for. the ones known as the three children. Do they have safe passage from this building after. they have communicated with you no matter of the outcome of what the communication is free passage for them only.

  It wasn't until she kinda pushed her magic around, or whatever she was doing, that the general kinda figured that she wasn't normal. She had given. off that error when he had passed her and she was super polite. But this was not that same woman. This was the gatekeeper. The moment he realized respect should be shown and trust will be earned.

  The general put down his drink, the cigar stood up, looked the woman directly in the face and bowed half way to show the back of his neck to her. Unsaid while he was still bowing. I will not harm the kids no matter what happens. They are here to sign this piece of paper, and I want to understand what's going on from their mouths, not a representative. I want to understand what's going on. So they. can be a part of this. Whatever age they are. If it's this important, they are now adult in my mind. Do you understand?

  The smile and the. smile and the one tear that came down her eye. And she. just said I'll be right back. And with that, she just turned and left.

  Her assistance the two of the young dwarf ladies had already overheard everything where they saw that one tier rolled out their boss's face. It was like lady a small fuse in their soul Her magic in their magic as they've been working side by side in this building. They didn't know why, but the ladies had started to get magical flowing into them and they could feel each other. It was almost like the 3 of them together were becoming synchronized. Something was definitely up. But in this one moment, the ladies. they just needed to be told she looked at them and said please go get the boys and Larry bring them here immediately.

  One of those things that most people don't talk about unless you go back to school in this world is magic and how. it can be different for every person. These two ladies, even though. their magics may be synchronizing and emotionally they still were as different as light and day. I literally the two of them were 1 with night and 1 with day light and dark. They were sisters and this was their magic when the darkness was needed. The sad sister the one that would cry for you would come out of the dark. and the other sister when it was time to cry for happiness. She would cry for you. The two of them together had telephone. teleportation magic almost. It was more stepping through the veil into another place and then they would appear in another place. They would have. they would have to actually physically move through the other place. And you could see them. So they weren't off of our face. plane of existence. But using their magic, it wasn't stealth either. If you passed a blade through the air they were they would know about it and it would go through them and they wouldn't like it. Like it would interfere with them and they would have damage. Not a cut, but there would be interference in their body there. because of that. They had at a very young age. Learned how to protect the bottoms of their feet. Because stepping. in this state actually cause damage at first. Nowadays leaves and other small things. Even small twigs and branches wouldn't hurt them. But a blade that had an edge on it. You'd feel that.

  The two sisters at the top of the stairs got. their orders and. the look. of their boss's face. They're emotional residents. Say we're having with her The two of the girls. Women, if you will. Held each other's hands Other magics have the disappear right there in a puff of smoke. The smoke was of shadow and light. So it was just molds. of magic and manner. They appeared. out on the road Couple seconds later, they disappeared again. And you can see them appear down the road. They were doing small hops all the way. to the king's hold. The home they had made for themselves for now. The cabin in the mountain.

  When they arrived they banged three times on the door. And one. of one of the older dwarves that was standing guard came and asked what they needed. How could they help? The two girls were crying at smiles on their face. They said almost their unison somehow. almost in one voice, but definitely not one voice. It was harmonic. The dwarf that was there. Notice them as they were speaking. He got really wigged out because this is magic speak and he didn't know anybody in town could do this. The girls didn't know they were doing it when they were doing it. Honestly

  The three kings have been summoned to the City Hall, the general. the general of the human army is. in his office, and they made a deal to allow the boys to claim them outed legally. But they need the boys to come down & the paper if they agree to it. And Larry needs to be there for this and tell. the full story of what's happened to the general so he has a full understanding.

  The amount of magic that just came off these two girls was pal. palpable. They were on the mountain side. Dear one of the vents and they. were harmonizing the dwarf wasn't going to say no to start with. He really wasn't going to say no to them now because the Magic wouldn't let him. They didn't need to do that damn it. He didn't mind. He didn't. He didn't hold it against them. He understood and he respected and he understood but he wasn't fighting it. This was. something serious. I'd be taken seriously

  The days crew that went down had just left about an hour ago So he said, Don't move. Stay here to the girls. And he dove back into the cabin, into the very back, into the secret area in the back. And he kept on going, but on his way into the area behind all that, he grabbed one of the bells they had brought, and it was on a stick. And as he got past where they had hidden the secret area, the bomb shelter, if you would. He started ringing the bell. He just started ringing in the bell. After about a minute of ringing a bell, he stopped ringing the bell, and he listened. It was about 20 seconds later. He heard Bell ringing, coming from in the mountain. So he bailed back to the front door, and he said, OK, just don't leave. They're coming.

  It was almost about 40 minutes later when. Larry and the kids and one of the dwarf miners. came up and asked. that was the emergency bell. What's going on? What? What's the emergency?

  The oldest dwarf that was with Lawry's crew came and spoke with the dwarf at the front door and was. told very quickly to get the whole group. They had to get to town

  With that, Larry had popped his head out of the front door to see these two elf girls as a. bowed and literally started teleporting away and Larry hadn't seen this maybe like 1520 years. Like he hadn't seen teleportation in a long time. It was rare as **** for magic. And if you had it, you didn't tell no one.

  Seeing them disappear like that kind of put a little bit of a pep in his step. So there's like, hey, boys and girls, it's time for our show. So the generals in town, we kind of set this up that we offered them their their weight, or the same weight in whatever you guys asked. in return for managlass. They think we have a couple 100 pounds. They're going to try and get it all for they'll give you gold. Whatever you want for that. The best part is if you can get stuff that's rare. Honestly, if you can make a list of things that you can't get anywhere else, they will literally comb their entire country to get you what you want from out of class we offer this deal for 1000 years to them between you as a goodwill offer basically they have 1000 years to get a lot of amount of glass out of you so they don't have to try to steamroll you right now. They have 1000 years to make their money What do you say you think that's but right to have a 1000 year contract with the country

  Everybody kinda, even the older dwarves, kinda looked at Larry like, are you guys nuts? That's A and then they all kinda stopped and thought about it, and everybody was about to say something. Every once in a while, one of them would put up their finger and say something, then stop. And then another one would put up his finger and then stop. And there he goes, yeah, I know. It took us a while to figure it out, but we don't care, as long as they accept the kids as the owners, right? After that, it's all the lawyers, and we don't give a **** We just have to mine. We're thinking about this like the government. We don't care. We just want land. You want to keep your horde. That's it.

  They all just kind of went, we're done playing the same game. They are, are we?

  Larry just looked at them all and said now welcome to the chaos. Now you're playing the same name I'm playing. They're not even playing my game. You want to play with me and the look on his face as he said that the old dwarfs are like, oh, we like you. The young kids are like, this is our guardian. He's going to teach us how to get anything we want from the world.

  The group just took off the town. They didn't even take anything with them except a coin pouch. They're like, we don't need to bring anything down to town. We just need to bring us and Larry, being a little bit more sneaky, had a piece of glass. He had brought up just a moment ago in case of emergency in his pocket. He had actually grabbed just a piece of cloth that was good and dark and shoved it in his pockets and no light hit that and then zapped him and he slowly while they were walking, started rolling that little piece of glass. It's about the size of his big thumb. So bigger than a baby's arm. Holy crap. about two inches thick. It was a way of showing the king of the humans. They were serious.

  When Larry and the crew got to the City Hall. they were pointed directly into the mayor's office at the general. The mayor were actually a little bit tipsy because, well, they were on their second glass of booze and maybe a pipe or two of weed.

  The general realizing that he had to show some decorum here stood up, turned. and seeing Larry size them up stood forward and said, I presume you to be layered their guardian. Larry looked at him, nodded the general. put out his hand and Larry shook it the way that the church would shake it. And that's putting your hand over where your tattoo would be. So putting your hand over someone's forearm. General wasn't expecting and was expecting this. He didn't know what would happen. So when Larry did that, he didn't stop or prevent it in any way. He just waited for it to be done. And he said, OK, knowing that he was a member of the Great Church in some way, he had been told this, but now he understood that Larry was going in charge here. The general turned around to the desk and pulled the. signed document. The two of them had just signed and handed it to Larry and said will you sign this right now and before the general could even say the final words Larry had already grabbed the panel was trying to take it out of the general's hand to sign it

  After Larry had signed it, he took the boys, and he introduced to me said, general, this is one, 2 and 3. And yes, those are their names. That's what they were given. They are orphaned from the fire and coal clan. They had come to this town to start a new and start their own clan in family, their own little cave. And they had been trained by the. monks in another town that they will not tell us the name of out of protection for them and those people. taught them some of the basics, but they were humans, so they weren't raised. by dwarves. When the humans did find out a little bit about the symbol, but not the name, just at the whole clan had been murdered. That was enough for them to put the fear of the dwarves into these children. It wasn't till they came here and they met the rest of us. Did they open up and we understand what happened. One, two and three. Please look over this document And if you can understand it, I want you to ask me any questions you have. So the three of them took the document and started reading it. They know how to read.

  The three of them were aware that there were people in the room. But after reading this, they all just looked at each other, and we're having these conversations almost with their eyes. And then. there was just short conversation between the three of them, like 1000 years, too long. too short. Wait in what? are choosing.

  They didn't see anything wrong with it. In the end, it was in their minds a contract for their protection for 1000 years. They wouldn't live that long, so it was a protection for their kids. And there's kids, kids too. So as long as they had enough magic glass. to. sell to the country, wait for wait for whatever they wanted every year. A certain amount At least one person's way to work They could handle that. They think they could at least for a first couple 100 years.

  It was number two. who had the question and looked at the journal and said Sir if we find another cave of Maniglass and we. cut it all up and we sell it off and we don't have anymore. What is going to be expected of us?

  Call minerals anything that's down there that you want to sell. We have the right to sell it to you and trade for what you want and need. The idea is that we're always going to have a trade with you. So therefore we never have to worry about taxes not getting paid. Does that make sense? As long as you have something coming out of that mind, we'll ask for something. If you have nothing coming out, we can't ask you for anything. But first, it's managers.

  One just looked at Larry and said that that's not written here on this document.

  Larry looked at the general and the mayor and he said he's right on the mayor had no problem with this So there was a space that they had left just in case something like this. It wasn't very big, so they had to pick their words, right?

  The mayor's assistant popped her. popped her head in and said just put in a clause that states the amount of tax per year is based on the king's weight. In Manor Glass per year. And if that is not reasonable, due to lack of Maniglass. then the emperors. wait and whatever material is produced. and that will be exchange for products. that is needed by the Klan fire and coal.

  They all thought about it for a moment.

  The general said to her, II think that is a great idea, but I have one change. It will not be based on the king's weight or the emperors weight. It'll based on 100 lbs. Therefore, a king or emperor won't put on unhealthy weight, just get more. Keep it at 100 pounds per year. That's a lot of magic stone Magic glass.

  The general realizing this could be actually looked down as trees and said I. didn't just undersell us. I just don't wanna and then he was trying to backpedal right there and this is not a good look for him because he realized he had screwed up. But no one in the room said anything and said that seems absolutely reasonable and that was our idea from the start Ever been in the room just kind of smiled because Larry was being Larry causing chaos.

  Based on ￡100 a year in taxes of. managlass, or what? ever the mind is producing as taxes. Any extras The government has. the right to offer items on a list designated by the Clan. Of fire and coal.

  One, two and three. All witnessed the edits being done and the signatures of all three of the people that were already signed. Beside the new edition. And then they all look towards the kids. The kids looked at each other and agreed they signed it and the moment they finished shining it something special happened the whole. town took a deep breath and I don't mean metaphorically I mean literally all of a sudden the wind picked up but it was that everybody was breathing in the wind was coming into the city. The breath of life was almost flowing back into the city. It felt like it was eerie was a nice way of putting it wasn't bad it was just to have this feeling they knew something was going on here and the general had now come across. more than three of these phenomenons since he even just showed up. What the hell was going on and being already screwed because of what he said and then giving him the out he just said OK someone's going to tell me the story of what's going on.

  It was at this time that. there was this man with pointy ears. sticking his head in through the window behind the mayor's desk. They were two stories of how the hell was he doing that?

  He just tilted his hat and he said, good day, gentlemen. I am with the Alvin Expeditionary Party. We've come to let you know that more of our people will be coming and to find out what's going on in town here. And I think from the conversation I may have just overheard, I think this is a perfect time to. offer a piece of information that might interest all of you.

  Larry could feel the pull of chaos coming from this elf and. honestly, this guys sense of emotions was that of the Cheshire cat and the trickster, but not harm. not harmful. He had the feeling of a grandfather that would beat a living crop out of someone before he left any of his grandkids get hurt. Had that big bear feeling there, he would give you a hug and you may not come back from it. He met Larry's eyes and being a very skinny man. Him and Larry both knew they were the same. So he just said I was sent here to let you know that we will be starting an industrial Logging industry and food preparations. for this town today. We would hereby request to sign that document and return for lumber and we will do. 100 tons of lumber for one. for ￡100. of mana crystals. are also known as maniclass. Once every 10 years.

  The mayor, the general. Larry, they were all about to say something, and the three boys just didn't even have to look each other and just said no. And everybody just. turned to them and said what?

  One basically kind of stood a little straighter and said if we're going to pay this to our own king, the king of the humans might as well pay to the king of the elves. And then there's no problem with us. And that means you guys have to help us.

  The elf looked. at these kids like you, little **** What the hell? You got me over a barrel and this is what you ask for HM. He had the stupidest smile on his face. He's like you guys. You know what? I got one better for you. And he came in from hanging outside the window, which we still don't know how the hell he was doing that.

  When he popped in and he was solid. ground again, he. literally went to his wrist, just twisted the little dial on the top of it and then held it straight up and down so that the crystal was pointed to the ceiling and within about 5 seconds a hologram about two feet tall and about foot wide reminded me exactly of the Star Wars holograms. Obi Wan, you're my only hope.

  The elf spoke and said your majesties the humans, the dwarfs and the elves will all have a 1000 year contract And in return for. trade of 100 pounds of stones every year. The. clan, fire and coal get to choose what they want in return for that hundred pounds of managlass every year as a tax. In return you will give them things that they cannot get in return for that tax if they need help if they need food if they need advice. It doesn't matter this will be a 3 way compact. to protect this town. and allows all to work together. Will you agree to these terms?

  The elf then walked over to the desk and then held up the piece of paper they had all signed and showed it to the hologram who started reading it and putting on little glasses to read it. It wasn't until about a minute in the Queen of the elves pushed her husband all the way and just said sign the damn thing already. I hear my give you permission as the queen. Sign it. Sign it. Sign it.

  The king of the owls push his wife all the way and came back onto screen and said, yes, please sign it immediately. Thank you. And then they just ended the transmission.

  The moment that elf, who they didn't even know who this person was, that just talked with the king and Queen, signed it. He says, as the general of the elf and army, I have the right to do this. So I have absolutely no problem signing this.

  The realization that the war was just over. done. But then. the three boys signing it, I guess was the same as the king signing as they were offering it to the king.

  This is where the three older dwarfs that were standing in the background with the two ladies that worked for the assistant. This is when they stepped up and said, I can answer that. We've already been told that these are the three kings. They have the right to sign that document themselves. They don't need our old kings permission.

  The elf. and not heard that part of this and to hear them in actually front of 3KINGS. If that was true, the two of them looked at the three men and young boys, I guess, would be the accurate term and just bow to them 1 time and there was no more debate

  It wasn't like everybody went still, but the elf was just starting to hold back a smile. And then the smile came out, and he was like, Oh, wow. This is gonna be so good.

  The mayor handed the elf. A glass of dwarven brandy and said welcome but we haven't even got to the good parts yet. The three older dwarves just started laughing and said, yeah, holy **** We are so screwed.

  The two generals, not knowing what w.... and they brought them the three doo The two generals, not knowing what was going on, watched as the dwarves just shut the door and they brought them the Two dwarf ladies in and. basically just said this as a bit poured themselves drink and went into the bar fridge and grabbed some snacks and they had. food and booze in their hand as they said the following words that froze everybody in their tracks that didn't know which is the two generals

  We have a Mountain Dew that's infested with some sort of creature. We don't know if it's sentient or not. How many pounds did you want? Because we can give you a couple of tons within a day. We have too much man a glass. We are literally going to be shipping it to you somehow. Just get it from here, from blowing up. So, yeah, we just fulfilled 1000 year contract in a week. Thanks for the mind. Thanks for everything you guys are going to be able to turn on all your old machines. We have to keep everybody away from there right now so we don't have a Mount Doom happen. We have over 1000 people easily coming if not over five to 10,000 dwarfs that have signed on to be the family of fire and coal. The clad is coming. You have no idea by signing this piece of paper you guys have just ended the war. The Tibus of all dropped they will be coming. get ready

  It took time for that to sink in the general. and the elf literally after a couple seconds of thinking their legs kind of got a little wobbly and they found themselves places to sit down with glasses put back into their hands. General even had a cigar given back to him. They just sat there and. Larry the boys, the old timers were telling the story to the two young ladies. They were old. er than the boys by about 10 to 15 years But even the boys were kind of like hi ladies. They were not realizing they were doing it and everybody was laughing. These kids were so young, but there's cute women and most dwarves look at the women with shaved faces and we were like, blah, no way. They're not shaved it. But these boys have been around humans their whole life. So for them it was a thing So they well, yeah, let's put it this way. They. were kind of lost talking to them and everybody was listening to the stories they were telling them how they found the chandelier room and how they saw the legs of the spiders or the bugs or whatever is down there how. Larry had found the little room above their home and blew it up. He just started telling all the stories and that one glass of brandy was too much for both the elf and the human general. They just as the stories went on they would get paler and paler and paler until honestly the elf just leaned out a window and then puked his guts just had to give up because he was going to freak out on the general said he'd be right back went to the bathroom and he was back about 15 minutes later, saying O. K. I'm better.

  So it was simply put that the general needed to communicate with their people. So they said go I see you can communicate with the elves and I have to send a message. because our communication crystals been dead for a long time I'd love to get it up and running, but that won't happen today.

  Larry thinking. that he wanted to do something really stupid and cool here, said general. How about this? Don't you have to go back and tell the king in person because you don't have a crystal? What if you brought a gift to him? Would that go over well? And you think that's the right idea? And then you can come back here and then? Well, we do have another surprise for you after that. Well, I'm going to tell the mayor. Can I? Can I tell them? And the mayor looked over at Larry and go, yeah, sure. Tell them.

  While Larry was telling them that they had. already picked out certain buildings for the Owls and for the humans and for the doors, so each one could have their own building and have their own representation in town right around the City Hall here. The mayor came and handed the kids One rolled up piece of paper. The human general and the elf general each one piece of paper and it was AV to a building and they asked, please make sure this is passed on to your government so they understand that they will always have a place here in this city.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Larry. disappeared really quick and headed to the vault where he knocked on the door, walked. in letting himself in again, walking to the wall, picking up one of the boxes and putting the little bit of cloth that he had in his pocket in the box.

  He then went back to the mayor's office before anybody noticed it even gone. And then. walked up to the general and put the box in his lap and said lap and said this is for you, the king. I think this would be an absolutely perfect tribute to show that we're serious about all this, along with a copy of that document and a fast horse to get you back to the Capitol. What do you say

  The funny thing is, the dwarves had brought these super fast horses. So to give one of them away, the mayor could probably pull that off. The doors didn't care. They had basically sold them back to the town already because, well, they weren't leaving. So when the general opened up the case to see a piece of red, green, blue, multi-colored managers, about 2 to 3 inches long and almost two inches thick, it was just a chunk of round man of glass. It was almost a crystal had been chopped off. It actually had a tip on one end. It was a crystal. Holy crap, this is a huge crystal. The general realize what it was and try to quickly as they were in a room with light And that was enough that the cloth that it was wrapped in got a little bit of light into it. He made sure it was. wrapped and then. looked around. Larry had already thought he might do that, and a little bag was being handed to him that he could put it into so it didn't open accidentally The general tightened up the strings on the bag and looked at that and said I think this would be absolutely perfect. How quickly can we have a copy of that document made?

  This is where the two assistants to the assistant came in. The two of them walked in tandem, almost hand in hand, to the mayor and asked for one of the blank. pages that had the seal on it, and after they asked him he went over there and pointed. So they pulled one down. They literally started both of them using the left on 1 person, the right on the other person hand in two different pens. The 2 of them quickly. having a blank on one side and the real one on the left side. They started to literally copy it out and it only took about a minute and 1/2 and they had it all perfect except for the signatures. They looked it over. They handed it to the mayor and he signed it and they passed it around till everybody had signed it properly and yeah. it was. a copy.

  The general said you might make one more for the elf general. I'm thinking he's probably going to want it and. do you think you guys can do the same gift to him? So we don't think that we're being rude to anybody.

  Larry, while he was down in the. vault had actually broken the crystalline 2 parts and had a second little bag. He couldn't find a good box for it, but a bag and. he walked over to. the elf general handed him the bag. The general looked in, just shook his head and said all you shouldn't have. Thank you so much. We're the most sarcasm you could have said and a giant smile on his face.

  The mayor said, I believe, if that's the case, I'm gonna wait for the Kings of the elf dwarf in humans to complete the compact. And we'll go from there. I think it's time we just let the lawyers take over.

  This was so nerve wracking for the boys. So the moment it looked like they could have run away. Larry's like. And with that, you guys have a great day. We'll be up at the mine. Goodbye. And the boys didn't have to be told twice. They were out of the room before anybody even noticed Larry finish saying those words. And Larry closed the door behind them before anybody could just say no. They all realized that this was very stressful. on those three kids being named King's in front of the generals of other kingdoms and agreeing to it. He realized he had no hotel the king and the human. general just kind of slunk into a chair and said you think you have a bottle all that booze to go. I think I'm going to need it for the trip home.

  The mayor put the Cork back in the bottle, took his little box with some pipe weed in it and put that in a bag. And a couple of the things that he had in his bar fridge that they had just loaded up earlier that day from the bakery and Brad and some cheese and some other foods and said, yep, here. And he just loaded up the general. before the elf general could even sa.... handed him another bottle of the el

  before the elf general could even say something. But he was going to. He was opening his mouth. The mayor literally just did a spin to the shelf and handed him another bottle of the Dwarven Brandy. It was funny because he was already halfway out the window when he accepted it, and he just dropped out the window and he was gone. No one really looked because he knew better to look for the magic after it happened. It was just cool that he had done it that way. And with his copy that the girls had made while they were hanging up the booze. He took that and went to talk with the elves.

  The older dwarves told the general that they would get his horse ready if he was good.

  He agreed, saying it would better be out on the road and he could sleep when he was dead And he just said that with a laugh, because he was really drunk at this point. This was good shed. So he needed to work that off. So they made sure they got him on a horse and not a town. Then everybody kind of went back to what they were doing, knowing that soon a message would come with the war being over. But then an actual, true war would be started against whatever is inside the mountain. No one have to worry about a fight of the nobles. They would just have to worry about what's in the mountain and not blowing up the mountain.

  **********

  The elf general went for a little walk, let's say, outside of town. Basically tried to get away from as many people until he knew he was absolutely alone. And then activated. a gem encrusted metal plate that he had in his pocket, kind of like a coin, but it was just square piece of metal with gems on it as he ran his fingers across two of the gems and passed his own manner into it. A small. feel. of energy came around him and he realized that the Magic he had tried to use to make it so that no one would hear him worked.

  He then opened up. a communication with the king and queen of the elves with his with his bracelet.

  All the general herd come through the connection was report.

  The general started to speak.

  Your Highnesses. You're not going to believe it. They have given you as a gift, a large piece of managlass. When he paused for a dramatic effect & ed. a 100 pound gift of maniclass a year in return for 100 pounds of some other material as a trade. They understand the trade is not equal and that's why it is also the taxes to each country and they've made sure to do this for all three of you so that none of us can say they were being favored by the others. I'm going to be coming back immediately with this gem because I think what needs to be done is we need to go in and start turning on the really old machines if I'm correct your majesties.

  The Queen just asked what did you have to give up to get this deal?

  The general, with a smile in his voice, could hear it. How about house? Why did his smile was he said. all he said was honesty. We had to be honest with them. And then the kids made sure the 3 KINGS the three kid kings, made sure that you were included and retreated respectfully. I'm going to say this very politely. Your majesty's do not harm these. kids. This was punctuated every word so that they understood the one thing that would start a giant World War were to be attacking these 3 new kings.

  The general. just said is a is there anything you want me to do before I leave and come bring this home?

  The king and queen. Both said no almost at the same time. But the queen did say that they would be allowing the last use of the teleportation system. in the kingdom to bring the general back immediately and the general knowing that this hasn't been used in almost 70 years because only had one more charge left was very let's put this way, the general. He was very respectful and honored to work for the King and Queen. He showed his respect by pushing a small button on the metal slab that had made the bubble of secrecy

  The moment he pushed that button, he disappeared, but the plate just dropped to the ground and one of the gems actually cracked in half. He knew if he came back this way, he'd pick it up. So he remembered exactly where he was standing. Hopefully it would still be there even as a material. It was expensive.

  ****

  The next day was basically getting everything ready for the simple fact that they had so many dwarves in town that were actually on the mountain looking for the holes that they had to put time aside just to answer questions. about all the stuff that they were finding around the mountain.

  It was the day after the generals left in the morning during breakfast when not came to the little door leading up. leading out of the king's little cabin in the mountainside.

  The three senior dwarves who had first arrived had settled in well. They had taken charge of communications, ensuring a steady flow of information between all teams. In fact, they were the only ones who truly knew how many dwarves were working in the area.

  A young scout from the logging-mining camp came in with the morning report. He pointed to a single line in the document, catching the attention of the eldest dwarf. The old dwarf’s thick eyebrows shot up as he read it. Without a word, he nodded, thanked the scout, and took the report inside the cabin to brief the others.

  Once seated at the heavy wooden table, he motioned for the rest of the senior team to gather around. "You lot are going to want to hear this," he said, tapping the paper. That was enough to get everyone's attention. Even the dwarf lounging on his bunk sat up, muttering, "Go on, then."

  "Forty tunnels," the old dwarf began. "That’s how many the teams have found so far—forty main ones and over a hundred smaller ones. Every time they find one, they test it by tossing in some damp, flammable wood. It smokes like hell but doesn't burn much, just enough to see if smoke comes out somewhere else."

  A few of the others nodded. Standard procedure. Smoke testing was the best way to find hidden connections between tunnels.

  "They’ve sealed up every one they've found so far, but that's not all. Bones. Lots of 'em. Some old, some fresh. They stored what they could back at camp—some for scrimshaw, some for alchemists, and mostly to keep them out of the hands of necromancers. Because, well... no. Just no."

  That got a few grunts of approval.

  "But here’s where it gets interesting. One of the caves had a grave. A proper one, with a headstone and everything. Out of respect, they didn't disturb it, just marked the location. We might want to get a priest from the Great Church to check it for magic and bless it."

  He paused for effect. "Now, the name on the headstone? 'Thumper was here.'"

  Silence. Then a snort. "What kind of name is Thumper?" one of the dwarves asked.

  "Probably an adventurer," the old dwarf shrugged. "We’ll check the records when we get back—see if we can find a Thumper from the guilds."

  "Now, this next part is what really caught my eye." He leaned forward. "They found a big cave, a real big one, about a day’s walk from here. Said the whole place was scorched. Fire damage everywhere."

  That got a reaction. A few exchanged glances, while one dwarf let out a low whistle.

  "That close to the old hoard entrance?" someone asked.

  "Day or two’s walk," the old dwarf confirmed. "Now, when the kids heard about this second big entrance, they wanted to set up a secondary camp there—maybe even use it as a main access point down the road to keep our current entrance quiet."

  "Smart thinking," one of the dwarves muttered.

  "Aye," the old dwarf agreed. "Except… well, the team was already ahead of 'em on that. They’re working on getting a proper door installed. Plan is to keep a guard there for a week, see if anything starts banging on it. If it's just beasts, fine. If it's something smart—well, we’ll deal with that when it comes."

  He turned the page. "Now, this part… this part ain’t good."

  The room quieted.

  "Someone didn’t listen to the damn rules," he growled. "Three of them found a big cave. Two wanted to play it safe. One decided he was smarter than the rest and went in with a torch."

  A few groaned.

  "He didn’t touch any mana glass, thank the gods. But what he did notice was worse—no soot. The floors were clean."

  The room fell into silence again. Then, after a long pause, one of the younger dwarves muttered, "Meaning something walked through recently."

  "Aye," the old dwarf said grimly. "And if something’s moving around in there, that second entrance might not be such a good idea after all."

  One of the dwarves finally broke the silence. "Are we sure something came out? Not in and never left?"

  The old dwarf studied the paper for a moment before shaking his head. "No clue."

  8888

  The three Kings later that day. Were informed. Of all the little weirdnesses that people have noticed when? King Three had the question. Lately I can smell more stuff, and these smells give me information, so it's kind of weird. It's like I know. And he points out one of his brothers saying I can smell on your breath some of the harder whiskey you've been sneaking. Two looks around, and then he sees one who kind of has his eyes down to the left. He's like, really, you've been into the hooch and they all start laughing. But the point is, and he says. If I can taste mark two, can you see more magic?

  It took two not the second to figure it out, but a second to figure out what to say. Because until that moment, he thought he was. Doing something right and he thought it was only him. He's trying to figure it out himself, not thinking it was something in the environment. Kind of made sense now that you think about it. Overthinking Was to fault in life.

  The two of them looked over at one and asked straightforward. Has your power been getting stronger? What have you noticed?

  One's just like nothing. II. Don't. I don't got anything different. I haven't been healing people, so maybe I should be healing people. But there's been no injuries, so that's a good thing. But wait for it. Maybe down the road when there's people hurt, I'll be helpful then. For right now I'm more worried about feeding all the people that are showing up. Like have you guys actually looked outside? And the two other dwarf kids just looked up and said no, why would we? We don't want to see how many people are out there. We're safe in here for now.

  Larry laughing in the corner and they all like, snap at him. What are you laughing at?

  They've explained it to the kids three times, but they still don't get it, so Larry just says bluntly.

  For right now, until we get told by the lawyers who are in town right now with all the different parties how this will go down unless something goes horribly wrong. This is over the big compact, it's done. The war is over. You can walk out the doors shortly. We just got to make sure the lawyers sanctify everything and then after that we can get really into work.

  Did I forget to tell you kids that the mayor of the town paid to have a platinum lawyer sent in to take care of your everything? We're we're talking. The King's lawyers basically think of it like that. Men and women that know the law so well because they probably wrote it.

  That shut the kids up. Larry's just smiling like he's listening to a music in his head they no one else can hear but him. He's just. Boppin Long.

  Everybody's watching Larry be a little weird. But as he's kind of just moving his shoulders very gently and then his hips, he's just like dancing in spot and they're like, Kate what? And then Larry just looks at them and says these magical words.

  I'm so hurt that you haven't even asked me if my powers got stronger lately. And before they could say anything, they could hear a beat of music coming from down the hall. It was a woman's voice. She was just singing in a high vocal and then another person's voice comes on and it's a song Larry has heard and he's sharing it with them and he's just remembering a song, but he's dancing to it now. They can all hear the song.

  For the next minute or so. They all start to just moving a little bit with the song. And you could all see that they are listening to the same song. But if you were in the room together, you'd hear no song. And one of the older dwarfs that was in there, he could barely hear the song and he would made this comment, he goes, I can barely hear this song, but I can see you all moving to it as you get attuned to the mountain, I guess. Or the more time you spend in it, the more. It affects you. It's like. Are you guys feeling OK like you've been in the mountain the most of anybody? If something weird's gonna happen, it's gonna be the you guys. And that I can already hear. It means that it's affecting me so. It's probably adds up over time. Like radiation. Do you feel OK?

  The look on the older dwarf's face was understanding, but. Because he could barely hear the music, it was still a little disconcerting to see them all dancing to a music and barely hear. Some beats didn't come through, maybe the higher or lower tones or something, but you can only hear very small percentage of the song.

  Having them dance to a song they can only hear was. A trippy experience and Larry felt. The older dwarf. And through his connection to the older dwarf, he. Figure it out what sense in his own mind he was sensing and hearing, and he then understood what little muscle to try to pull on or push on or twist and as Larry did that. The volume for everybody went up, but the strain on Larry also went up until one of the kids said hey, that's too loud. And Larry turned at the exact opposite way and it actually became easier. So he said OK. Tell me when is a good volume to be able to hear me OK and he kept on turning it down and down and down and down. I just got to this one little point and all of them put their hand up and they there was like they could hear him normally. Turned it down just a tiny bit after that so he didn't sound so loud and he said OK, this is my normal voice, how's this sound? And I went OK but your lips aren't moving. He goes yeah I know, isn't that freaky?

  Larry, we need a favor from you and before Larry even had to say anything. The kid said. You know what, we're going to ask do it.

  Larry just smiled, tilted his head, and said one order of chaos and reconnaissance coming up. What do you want from town? I'll bring back something.

  Beef jerky apple wine. Candied fruits, cheese, meats. Fresh bread danishes. Lots of danishes. Everybody, even the older dwarfs, pirped up and said yeah, bring more danishes.

  As Larry was heading out the door, he just tilted his head back and said, I'll get you your Danishes, but I can see them all starting to solidify around your middles. I'm going to have to work it real hard on that mine before I have to give it up. Are you ready to go into the mine tomorrow 'cause I think if everything goes the way it is. I'm going to have to bring someone up here to verify what we've been saying. It's either that or can you bring a chunk of mana glass up that's about the size of well. As heavy as you can carry.

  The kids did not want to bring anybody in that they did not have to, so they said we'll give up a piece of glass, we'll have it ready. But you ought to get someone to get me a box, 'cause I got nothing that will stop all the light to get through, and you got to make sure it's real good and tight. Even if it falls off, it can't open up. I'd rather it break than for it to open up and explode.

  The kids had been getting the teachings of the older dwarves, and by teachings I mean being told straight and forward how to deal with explosives so they didn't destroy themselves or other people. These were rules not to ignore and this was one of them. If you knew the rules to the holding of material, make sure it was double reinforced and then double that. Make sure whatever you're doing it was made sure that wouldn't hurt the people carrying it or the people in the area if it broke open. That was rule number one for transporting explosives.

  Roger that, Larry said. And then he just ran away, basically.

  As he strolled into town, the amount of. Short humans was amazing. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

  Larry having his power turned up to 12. As he walked honestly, almost like a line in the sand into the town property. The amount of people in the buildings under the ground, everywhere around him overwhelmed him and he just stopped. Not too many people really noticed at first, but when a man of Larry's size, that of met a lot of other people. They see him freeze and then all of a sudden not move. Let's call it 20 seconds. That's that's different. 30 seconds people start to stare. 40 seconds people start coming over and by a minute people are almost ready to touch them. Well, one of the shopkeepers that was right there got to them first. And as he touched Larry 1TEAR came down Larry's eye and Larry just looked over to him, said sorry, I just a little overwhelmed. I'm fine, I'm fine. He put his hand up.

  Larry. Didn't mean to, but he basically tapped into the whole town's mental wavelength, which is basically like an. Intercom that everybody fed into. It was everybody's emotions, and the ones that were the closest or the strongest would come on the the hardest, so people would make waves. And the moment he went in, he wasn't like a solid object like AA, lighthouse. That would break the waves. He was more. A Whirlpool, except that what he did is he said, I will allow these emotions to thrive and I will suck in the motions I don't like. And by sucking in the emotions that he didn't like for the next 40 seconds, he was listening to the internal, not monologues, but the immersions of people in the city. So he. He was feeling a little bit of anger and pain. But then when he. Had the shopkeeper touch his arm. It was still there, but he wasn't focusing on it anymore. And that whole thing about pulling it in and sucking it down, that actually affected everybody around him, the entire town. It was like having your heartbeat just increase a couple of beats a second, and then maybe a couple more and a couple more and his blood pressure would rise. And that's because he was getting angry. But all the people in the town felt was the love that was there. The the negative bit had been removed. And this thumping to Larry's heart was getting faster and stronger. And they felt it. And it was something to galvanized their feelings for the rest of the day. Their emotional selves, their chemical selves, their magical selves were in harmony even for a short amount of time, less than a minute. Enough that. That made the energy of the town. On the edge of the water. Affect the waves. As the waves would break, they wouldn't. They would come close to the river rocks along the the shore not. Pebbles and not boulder, and those rocks were repelling the water. The water would come in if it was slow, but if it had energy. And forced to make a white crested wave crash against a rock and crash one inch before that on an invisible barrier. It was amazing. And that little bit of magical force meeting with the physical force, those two energies meeting made this fog and this light fog of magical energy. And that's what was in there. It was energy from the dissipation of the water, which was force, and it was magic from. The energy field being harmonicized. That's got to be a word, right?

  It was no more than 10 or 11 in the morning and the whole town was. Just having the clouds above disappear.

  These are the events that. Started. The magical day that Larry had going forward first. And foremost. Larry just made an entire town beat with his own heart. That beating then created a magical fog along the docks. That went out only about 100, 200 feet out and was very thin, but the moment it touched the land, the land was warmer than the ocean. So it traveled in the warmth. Has travelled into the city, into those heartbeats for those 40 whole seconds. It did something to the town that they are still trying to understand at the end of the day, but they think it made. Harmonic magic. Be breathed in by the people and then out with their own magic, infusing it every time someone took a breath in the city. Now you would think that would end after 40 seconds, but because everybody was breathing, everybody was reinforcing the harmonics in very small amounts and because they were all so. Driven to protect and make a beautiful home for themselves, they had hope and a drive. That was the feeling that that heartbeat and the fog was now giving hope and a drive. So for the rest of the day, only about an inch off the ground, this almost clear white fog. Very, very, very clear. But it was there. The closer you got to the ground, the thicker it was, but as it reached about an inch it would disappear. It was throughout the city. As you moved around and you just moved your feet, you would see it be disturbed and it was beautiful, bright sky out, and your feet felt cool to the touch.

  One of the first things Larry noticed after coming out of his little bit of a fugue state there was how internally angry he was. So he went directly to the inn and said without even doing much other than poking his head in. Yo old dwarf, I need you outside here for a minute. One of the three dwarves that was staying up in the cabin that was on duty came out and asked, what do you need, Larry?

  So I just use my magic without knowing it and I just got a feeling for the whole town and I have two houses that have people crying in them. I'm not happy and I would like you to just knock on the door and deal with whatever the problems are, so they go away. Would that be OK with you? And then I'm just gonna not worry about this 'cause I know for a fact there are two dwarf families. Whatever's going on, I'm mad.

  The older dwarf was upset that there was a problem. Happy Larry came to see him, and honestly, to fix a problem, he was rip rear airing to go. He just said keep it down. I don't want too many people hearing about it. Whatever this is, until I know more. I don't want someone doing something stupid. I got enough hot heads in town with Boo so let's keep this. Well, shut up. Lead the way, Larry lead the way

  One person who was in the inn near the door actually overheard what they just said and two other tours that were down an alley. So as Larry and the older dwarf started to walk, these 3 dwarfs literally got in line right behind the older dwarf. And as the older dwarf look back, the three of them just gave him a head nod and that said nothing more than that. So the old dwarf now had some bodyguards.

  Larry didn't even have to look back to notice. The three of them catch up to the old guy and he just smile. It's like, this will make it easier.

  Larry. Walked to the far edge of town, where there used to just be farmland and some basic. Long huts for group sleeping had been set up. As he walked around the back of one of them you could hear a little girl crying. Larry just pointed in that direction and the the 4 dwarven men literally walked over to her and after she. And almost tried to shut up. One of them said something into her ear and then pointed at Larry and he just said something. And then she started talking and Larry wasn't needing to overhear it. One of the dwarves heard the little girl knocked on the long Hut. Someone opened the door, they had a couple words, then the door closed. Couple seconds later an older lady came out. The dwarf had words with her. She then closed the door with her on the outside and then walked back to where the dwarf and the little girl were talking. The little girl at this point had stopped crying and. After a couple minutes of communicating between the mom, the daughter. And the older dwarf there, the dwarves all came back and Larry could feel that the little girl had stopped being sad and crying and was actually really happy and the mom that come out angry, but when she talked with them she got happy. And then she started crying, happy, and she was hugging her daughter. Something was so, so simply fixed with words, what the heck was going on? So when the dwarfs came back, Larry asked exactly that. What's going on?

  Dwarves just explain that the little girl was extremely upset because her dad wasn't allowed to come yet. She didn't think you'd be there for a very long time. He wasn't supposed to be there until. Month 4 and. She missed her dad. And when she tried to talk to her mom, her mom was upset too, because when they showed up here, the job that she thought she was able to help with, there was no need for. And that's being a nurse because right now there had been no injuries or hurt or anything and. They found out she was a nurse instantly, the old dwarf said. Want, what's your name? You're not on any of my list. I don't have you as a nurse. Why the hell didn't someone tell me? We need people. OK. Hold on, hold on, hold on. And within a minute and 1/2, he was almost giving her a building for a hospital. Here's gonna be in charge. Like the communication just needed to get better and people didn't need to cry. And the little girl was happy and her mom didn't worry about a job anymore. And they just said yeah, no. They come to the end every day. And until we have some place set up the, where you're gonna be a mobile hospital, you're gonna be asked to get everything set up and be ready to move out. Do you want your daughter to help? Because, well, we need everybody to help. And if she can help too. And with that. Have to worry about food or lodging or anything. They just had to go to do a good day's job, which exactly what they wanted. And their dad was going to be showing up shortly anyways because without telling them, the old dwarf was going to put in a note to have her dad brought in sooner than later.

  That kind of just made Larry smile and said hopefully the next one's that easy too, but I really don't think so. This next one. Someone's happy they killed someone. And not in the good way. Not I defended myself. As in they are happy that that person will never be around to get in their way. The I'm an **** i'm happy, and I'm not too sure if this is good or bad. So let's go for a walk. And it's a it's a man, a dwarf. He I think he might have. I don't know why he's got this feeling. I don't know who he killed. And I know killers, this doesn't feel normal.

  Well, it was a good thing that Larry walked over to this one. Area where guys were cutting down trees and Larry just pointed out one of the guys by the colour of a hat. They went up to talk to him before they could even get within a couple feet. The guy just smiled and started coming towards the dwarves. This is a dwarf on dwarf fight here. There's a joke there, but don't make it.

  It wasn't. That Larry didn't see the weapons in everybody's hand. But it wasn't until Larry saw the lights go out of this guy's eyes that he realized that this guy wasn't all there in the head. I don't mean like crazy, I mean magic. And Larry just said **** it. And he pushed as hard as he could on that little muscle, the one that made him louder. And he said stop so loud, everybody. The ground, I mean, everybody in the area just hit the ground. Larry was barely standing. He did it to himself too, but he sent out such a pressure wave of mental strength. The guy. Stop moving. And twitched.

  It took about 20 to 30 seconds for everybody to get their sense about them. That really all knocked them for a loop. When Larry looked over, everybody was getting up except the one person they were coming to see. That person was still kind of writhing on the ground. Larry could hear his own voice in this guy's mind saying stop at something else, saying kill, kill, kill. Larry could tell there was a difference. So this time when he said something, he almost put his hand on the guy and he not powerfully. And not quietly, he. Turned up the power but turned down the volume. And he hadn't tried this on anybody before, but he thought, well **** you, you **** **** **** And he said die. And he pointed it right at the voice saying kill, kill, kill. And nothing happened.

  The guy was still twitching and Larry, it sounded like the same thing coming off this guys mind. So Larry just punched him. In the head, kinda a cheek shot from back to front, so he punched his face on the side and punched him into the ground. It rocked his jaw just in the right way to knock the guy out. And the moment that happened, all you hear is in the guy's mind. Larry could hear the guy go. Stop. Kill. Stop. Kill. Stop. Stop, stop, stop, stop. Stop. Stop, stop. It all just stopped and it was the guy was breathing and he was out cold, but he wasn't freaking out anymore.

  Larry, knowing that he had to do something, said get him tied up and bring him to the City Hall, but don't take him inside. By the time you get there, I'll ask the mayor what to do with them. And we may need to find a building that we can turn into a jail and we have to figure out what magic is doing this. And I would say be very careful that there's not a medallion or weapons on them, but don't really take anything off them unless you want to be cursed too, if there is something on him. It may have become alive because he's here in this area and not realize what it is. So if this is something that we can control or figure out, we need to, because I don't want to kill this guy if I don't have to.

  The two dwarfs that were near him holding the guy down felt what Larry had said when he said the word die in his head to that guy and it stopped those guys heart for 1/2 second. Truthfully, they they had their heart miss a beat. It was that powerful of a suggestion. It wasn't pointed at them, but they still heard it. They. Would later that evening in the in. And around camp fires. Stories would be told to have Larry tried to stop. The murderer's heart with his mind that would give. Larry a little bit umm of mysticism and legend in the town, among other things, that people were quite scared of that he is like 2 dwarves big.

  After that, Larry just basically ran ahead of them to see his uncle, the mayor, and indeed. So. Remember that there used to be a room in the basement of the the. Gray Church's building. So instead of going directly to his uncle, he popped his head in and told the receptionist to have his uncle come over to the church real quick for a meeting. It was important there was an incident.

  He was yelling this across thirty, forty feet, so he wasn't being secretive in any way. So that the two dwarf women that were working with the assistant heard this. And honestly, it was like blowing dust in the wind. They just kind of disappeared gently

  She gave a thumbs up to Larry and he dipped his head back out and she went and told the mayor to get his **** across the street to the church.

  As Larry got to the front doors of the church, he knocked and went in and there was people in there. They were giving a sermon, and Larry wasn't really realizing that they were going so much. But yeah, there's all these dwarves, and they're just listening to the preacher, and the preacher was talking about how the great church allowed you to do whatever you wanted until you harmed it. They emphasized all the time what you weren't supposed to do with little kids. What you're not supposed to do to the old people. How not to be an **** This is their mission in life, to prevent you from being a total **** **** ****

  A priest that was actually kind of standing guard. Within the front area of the church heard the knock and as Larry came in he was introduced and said yes, Larry, how can we be of service to you today

  Larry didn't mince his words, he. Said directly, you need to get someone. Ready. We have an infected person or someone that has a magical. Curse on them or something. He is trying to kill everybody and it's something in his mind. So I don't know if this is biological or what it is, but I think it's magical. So I I'm coming to see you for help. We've got him coming right behind us. Do you have a room where we can put him

  The monk. Just smiled at this toothy grin. Turn to the whole group of like say 40 people at a monk speaking and raised his voice and said.

  Excuse me one and all, I apologize for interrupting your sermon, but we need all hands on deck for a possible infected bring. Brought in. All people that are not monks, we are going to ask you to leave immediately and all monks get everybody into this room right now.

  He then looked over to two other monks that were against one of the walls. He said and he pointed to them. He said get the room in the basement ready and make sure the door locks are properly done up and there's rope down there, a chair, a bed, a pot for pooping and **** it. Make sure that it's all set up. We don't know how strong this person is and what they're infected with, magical or non.

  It was like a madhouse. All the dwarves got up and they just filed right out and they said good luck and they got the hell out. There was enough monks in there. They knew what they were doing. The dwarfs did not step on their toes and the the monks didn't step on toes of the doors. When they're doing their jobs, they knew better.

  40 Dwarves evacuating the church makes a spectacle. So within about five minutes the whole area outside the church had people from. All over the town coming out, some of the vendors even moved carts out and we're doing food sales right there, almost. Every single one of them had either an axe or a hammer on their hip. Like if something was coming out of there or going in, they were going to be there. After an hour, everybody dissipated because nothing happened because well. Couple of moments after this whole thing started coming through, the back was. Larry. With the infected person and the mayor had already gone through the front who was waiting inside the church. They took the infected dwarf down to the basement and handed it off to the monks. Within three minutes, one of the monks that put a lot of crystal put it to this guy's shoulder and it started to go to it. He's got mana infection. Hold on. Let's see. Oh, hold on. And as they went around his body they found an amulet that he had wore it no bigger than the bigger than his stomach. A very small, very small little one. And it was a dwarven symbol for one of the gods, but someone. Had desecrated it in the smallest ways. You may not even notice it if you had looked hard, but it was enough that it changed it from one symbol to another 1 and then, well, when you give any deity of really rare. Standing AK. No followers, even a little bit of energy. They give their heart and soul to you, so whichever God this was. Yeah, it was hungry for kill, kill, kill. That's about all they could tell.

  One of the monks with wooden sticks took. The necklace off with great difficulty. So he didn't touch it. And then they took a wooden box that they brought. They put it inside and they took it and they went outside and they burnt it. And then once they had burnt it, they burnt it some more. And after they burnt it, they burnt it some more. And then then they burnt it was about three days before they cleaned up the pit and found a small little chunk of metal and it was gone now. The door that was a problem.

  The moment the necklace is off, Larry listened to him. He didn't hear anything like the stop sound in his mind that he was hearing before had gone. The kill kill was gone. He just. All Larry could feel was snoring from his ears. Like there was no mental like, and the guy didn't wake up. They they tried waking him, but he didn't wake up. He was just sleeping. So they didn't want to hurt him or try anything. So they just didn't give him a day or two to see if he woke up on his own. They kept an eye on him and made sure that he had proper blood pressure and they gave a little bit of water by setting him up and making sure his mouth was not parched.

  This was just a start of the day. By lunchtime, Larry was on his balcony with the monk and the librarian, and he was asking him, so when are you guys going to get your name?

  They explained the deal was that they were going to get their name and family name when. The war was over and they were officially posted here and that was what they were told and they were super happy with that.

  Larry. Notice the fog earlier and ask them, is that normal to have the fog like that? I think that's new, isn't it? He had been noticing it and they noticed it too, but no one had brought it up. You could almost not see the road. It was almost like there was just a little haze to it.

  The librarian was the one that shocked everybody,'s telling them, have you guys not seen it yet? And she just pointed over down the street and she said, see that alley? Look at the edge of the alley between that pillar and that post there. So you would go down the aisle if you took a right right there, look right there and just don't, don't blink basically is why I'm trying to say keep an eye on that area and Larry's like OK. So after the first minute or so, both of the guys are like, what are we supposed to be? She's like, just keep watching. And they were waiting. And she's like, it'll happen. And just as she was saying it was about to happen. As the P and happen happened she. Said there. And as you watched the fog. Literally took a deep breath in and it you would see a Whirlpool and it was about 3 to 5 feet across in the fog and you could see the bricks perfectly and then all of a sudden it went exact opposite, like it was someone breathing in. And then out. And a funnel of fog about 10 feet tall, only about an inch in diameter, went up, and as it got higher it just dissipated, and that was a really, really cool effect, she said. I can see it in five other little places all around the room. They're all connected when that. One over there goes off. The ones over there go off the same time. The whole city is breathing.

  The boys were like, we love that idea. We want that to be real, but that can't be real. And then. She was timing it. 60 seconds on the nose.

  Every 60 seconds, those little. Fog geysers, we're shooting off more fog around town. That's why it was getting denser throughout the day.

  They sat there for the next hour watching these geysers, and they noticed that they were getting shorter, but at the same interval that they were before. So they were getting lower and lower. After about an hour, they went for me like 10 feet tall to like three feet. So they realized that it's all dissipating. So whatever this is, it's it's magic and it's cool. But they now have to check people for magical items when they come into town. But I'm guessing they did that thing wasn't. Had been drained of juice for so long that when it finally got some juice. Oh, then Larry got it. Larry just was laughing, kinda, and was kind of groaning. Realizing what was going on.

  He looked over at the Monken Library and he said I know why. The lumberjack. Gotten affected so quickly?

  Larry started telling a story, and he's like, when I was younger, I was able to do a trip into another country. This country was just coming out of winter, going into spring, and when that happened, an area that was super dry got. Flooded, just absolutely flooded and I have to travel through it. So we grabbed the boat thinking that would help. I know it wasn't bad, but we didn't realize is that trees actually absorb the water from the bottom and they push it up to the Leafs when a leaf. As too much more water, it drips off the leaf in the smallest droplet you'll have ever seen, which we would call mist. So think of an entire forest crying, misting well. Take the same idea and do magic with that. It's coming out of the ground into the trees and they're cutting on these trees, which is making the mana start dissipating out of the tree from both the roots which are now flooding their feet with a liquid version as it's dying and the tree itself is giving off its last of its story. Energy. And in doing so, it's hardening its own wood.

  The drying and hardening process after cutting will make it even stronger, but a lot of the magic may be gone if that's not preserved by people that know how to use magic and wood, but because it's already heavily saturated with magic, it should make wood manipulation easier.

  That made sense to everybody. The medallion was literally getting rained on by magic, so yeah. No. If that's the case, maybe the dwarf was in mana overload too. So a couple of days and maybe he'd wake up and they could check him out. Hopefully he didn't have any mental issues because of that medallion.

  Larry. Wish the librarian and the monk well and headed back to the great church to give them a quick FYI what he just thought of and figured up and then went and sat down with the mayor and explained the new wrinkle in their little fun house of fun.

  Larry loved his uncle when he said these lines. So you're telling me we have magical fog that can make you go nuts? Every morning. Or put you into a coma.

  The mayor just looked at Larry and said we've lived here our entire life. Why is it not until the kids came? And then Larry just smirked and said, really, you haven't figured that one out?

  The mayor just looked at Larry and said, what am I missing? They showed up, they set the mountain on fire. That cleared out all the bats. It was the bats, right?

  Larry smirked at his uncle. And said you're almost there, I'll give you a hint. The bats cause one of the problems. The boy solved that problem, which then caused our problem.

  Larry lost the mayor. So Larry just said the boy set the guano on fire. Think of 100 years of guano that. Hundred years of guano was protecting any of the glass. From whatever was on it, from getting light. When that guano filled every cavity, it took small amounts of that glass. With it infusing the entire mountain, the bats and everything they touched in the forest with little. Dust molecules of managlass.

  We're getting sick because people that come from someplace else and have magical ability and they use it. Our materials in this town are so densely packed because of the extra mana that they try to touch that material and it's like them touching stone for the first time. They can't move it, but people that have lived here and actually are covered. And have enough time to absorb it. Start being able to. Use magic around here. I bet you anybody from here that leaves and goes someplace else will still have the amount of control, but it'll just be less mana to use. It'll just high control with high cost. We're making the powerhouses here of magic.

  Larry said that's not at all the bats. They come back and they roost now and they're covered in magic dust. Do you think they don't get some magic on them? So now they have these little magical lanterns literally living in The Cave? Lighting each other up everywhere in the forest if they go hang their bodies for the night and eat bugs is now in Butte of magic because of these little magic flying lanterns. We've infected the entire environment with magic to the point where II know things are going to start changing like we're seeing it happen every day.

  There was a knock on the door in the mayor's office and the mayor just yelled come in

  The mayor's assistant. Introduce. With only a look and he gave her the Get On with it motion and she introduced the lawyer that represented the city. Now technically port. City or port town? We haven't figured that one out yet, and this came from a little goblin. What I mean shorter than the dwarves. Green skin, pointy ears, bad complexion in a three piece suit carrying a briefcase. It was amazing. He spoke like a fine british man

  But he talked like a sailor.

  We had to up your town to a city so we could have the rights of a city. We. Now have two cities, which means that we have. A city state with those rights. We can expand. Into a naval city state, allowing us to have a naval army if we need and protect ourselves. I needed that in our negotiations with the capital.

  By this point, the mayor had already waived the. Goblin to come sit down and was pouring him a glass and but before the mayor could pour the goblin just waved him off from the booze and then put his briefcase down, opened it up and there was a cocktail kit built into the top of it and he put drops of certain chemicals and liquids in the glass. Then ask for two ice cubes. The mayor handed him the bucket of ice with the little tongs, and he put two ice cubes into his own little shaker, shook it up. Poured it into a glass he had in his case, put everything back, pulled the glass with him, shut his case and said to you gentlemen, you. Are now the proud owner of a Naval academy. A castle. A mountain horde. A city port town. And the rights that that give us. You also have a new Duke.

  **************

  Duke Herald Had shown up a couple days ago after meeting with the human general on his way back. They crossed paths and. The general explained everything. And let him have a hard swig of the dwarven Brandy when he was halfway through to calm the man down.

  So he was ready to go and fight the good fight and all that jazz and whatever he had to do, and this district took the wind right out of the Duke sails. So the Duke looked at Larry and asked straightforward, what the hell am I going to do there? Am IA glorified figurehead or. Where should I point my? Sword, if you know what I mean, other than the monster.

  The general looked him straight in the head and said you have the job of making money. Good luck. And with that, he literally rode off into the sunset. Leaving the Duke high and dry, if you will, only about six hours from. His new home. What he didn't know? Was over the next couple days, he would become the Duke. Of a city state.

  The day the Duke got into town, he listened to Larry and went right to the end, got himself a room. And then popped his Head in. At the City hall. Gave the mayor. One gold coin to open a bank account and said when the lawyers get here they can find me around town or in the pub.

  When the lawyers showed up, they grabbed him, they threw him into the meeting and it took about six hours and. Basically it was a free for all. They said that we're not going to have any restrictions other than you don't try to blow up the mine, you don't attack it. Basically everybody was free to trade with no real taxes other than what you pay to your kings. Now they all agreed on a really bad tax that no one wanted, but they would just be part of what the seller of the item had to pay. And what that meant was if you were already paying the Dwarven King, but let's say you're in the Earth King 's. Realm. Then you're supposed to pay. The king for selling on his land, and you pay the dwarf king for his cut of what you make. No one wants to pay two taxes. So what they said was when you come into the. Market. You pay for a ticket. But then someone shot that down and said no, that won't work. How about? Everybody just pays one tax. And at the end of the year, everybody's taxes are divided between the three kings. Of each. Race. And it took a minute for everybody to kind of understand what they were asking. Or saying to do because they had to explain it once or twice to make everybody understand. They were saying the great church had a council and it was three humans, 3 dwarfs, 3 elves. They were all normally kings in their own right so the three kings would get paid in each country. So everybody paid their countries three kings and that would get split up and they would do that. And then the kings of each country could divide it equally at a meeting.

  This way could be tracked equally and everybody was paying the same tax, not more than one tax or two taxes or three taxes. And there was no paying one tax one time, another tax the 2nd time. You didn't have layers of taxes on it every time you moved it. And once you paid your tax, you took that tax receipt and you put it with that product until it made it to the other destination. It was tax free for whatever you were doing. Now if someone bought it, I wanted to resell to someone else, well then they have to pay the taxes. They are king. It was a complicated mess, but in the end the Duke was happy because he would get a budget. The three human kings would get paid. The Dwarf King and their 3KINGS would get paid and the Elves getting paid. They had a representative there but the representative. Was nobility, but low nobility to the point where he just sat in the back and went. And. They noticed he had this really nice earpiece slash headphone. It was on one ear and every once in a while they would ask him a question and they would take a couple seconds and then he'd give them an answer and it was so absolute, like he didn't have to worry about if he was getting it wrong. Someone realized he must be having someone talk into his ear with magic and. They were right.

  The elves were the easiest because they just wanted more tray, which all the different cities across the continent wanted more trade. So this was a no brainer. This they made this easy and by having lawyers for each group there, the lawyers didn't screw around. They just told what they wanted and they figured out how to get it for each other. In the end it felt a little like everybody lost a little bit, but that's how you know you got a fair deal, they would say over and over again. In the end, the Duke was told that the. Elves, humans and dwarfs. We're going to build a castle on top of the mountain. And the Duke would have residents in their castle.

  The Duke's like I get to live in a castle but I don't have to worry about and it's going to be up kept. I think this is looking pretty good for me.

  The lawyers all kind of snickered. But when it came to the laws with the kids and how they were dwarves, the human. Lawyer and. The representative. From the dwarven country. Looked into each other and said. Larry keeps it for a year and then the kids get it for that year. We pay the Earth government. One ton of Earth crystals for you guys to look the other way. With a guarantee from the Earth government. Human. That these will not be used as weapons and any explosions from them. They will take full responsibility for financial restitutions as punishment. And if they sell it off to someone, that's person's responsibility, this law and. Contract follows these items. They are considered weapons of mass destruction if used incorrectly. Will you agree to that?

  The lawyer for the kids, who was also the earth lawyer and the dwarfs were for the kids, so it was a dwarf lawyer. They both I think had already figured this out and just said yes. It was almost like this was pre planned or they just they read themselves so well. Once that was out of the way, everything else flowed so quickly. But the Earth lawyer did make one stipulation. They had to pretend like they were still. Humans until the end of the year, even though everybody knew it. So just keep them out of the public's eyes. And then after one year they were going to start following dwarven traditions to verify they were really dwarves. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

  The elf lawyer just rolled his eyes. Guys, it's just the 34 of us here in this room. Hi, Duke. I'm not really that worried.

  Once they got, that'll taken care of, the ELF representative said. I hate to be the one to bring it up. What about the declaration of war? How are we going to handle this?

  What do you mean?, the dwarven lawyer said

  The other 2 lawyers looked at the 3rd.

  The human lawyer. Said. An act of war against another race? That's a big deal.

  The dwarven lawyer just smiled and said we don't even know if they can talk yet. If they're just violently creatures that have gotten zapped with magic, they might be lightning bugs that could ZAP us all. We've dealt with that before and we'll make rounding armor if we have to, but we still haven't even talked to them and tried our test. We have tests with lights to tell if they're sentient or not. We haven't even done that. We can't worry about trying to kill them yet. First we get to them. We're not allowed in the mine yet. And because we have to go through this legal crap, all we have to do is put it in a piece of paper saying that all three governments agree to come back to the table. When something like this goes down. And it'll be the duke will be in charge of protecting the city till the the council can make a decision or whatever the governments want to do. But the dukes in charge, they've got enough fighters in town to pretty much deal with anything they could need. And I, from what I, from what I understand, what I understand. A lot more dwarves coming, so.

  The elf and human lawyers both looked at the dwarf. And what do you mean? There's a lot of dwarves coming.?

  The lawyer not really giving a **** anymore because the game was already won, let loose some information that was kind of under wraps. It wasn't really a secret, but I guess the E who didn't know about it yet.

  So yeah, when the Dwarven King figured out what was going on and he made the call out for help. That about 2000 of the teachers and guardians offer to help and they put most of them said no, don't worry about it, we got a lot. But then he offered. The UN clan, the ones with no clan. And. Yeah, we didn't realize how many unclanalists we had working for us and how much we were. Magically. Mentally. Pushing them down. As a group, because the moment they were offered. Not to jump ship, but to join the Clan of Fire and Coal. The mood in the entire mountain range in under a day changed. And some natural magics that had died have come back because we haven't been focusing on the mental part in the background anymore. And people that were all wound are relaxing and magic's flowing better in the mountain already, like the the clan of Harmonics actually gotten a little bit of trouble because. The king was like, why didn't we do this before? And truthfully? The head of the clan harmonics asked for a Ledger for the last like 10:15 years on these dates, and he pulled out a book and read them off. The king understood what he was talking about and just said to have the scribes verify that the other suggestions were in there, and to put all the suggestions found by. The scribe in the old books from the Clan of Harmonics onto 1 parchment and bring it. To the king.

  The King. Was said to have read the list of things that were recommended. And directly after that went. And pulled out the document that the House of Harmonics had signed for a birth extension in the royal lineage and crossed out 200 years as. The head of the Clan of Harmonic saw this started to hyperventilate until he saw the king replace it with 400 years. And then sign right beside it and offer the pen. To the head of the house.

  The head grabbed it, signed and then bowed to the king.

  The king just looked at him and said I honestly should be the one. I should be apologizing for not listening to you. I didn't understand, and my father didn't understand what you were all talking about. You are wiser than we could be some days. Thank you for sticking with us all these years.

  When the lawyer finishes a little story the other two his mouth had dropped and asked so how many un-clannad lists? Or clanless. Do you guys have coming here?

  This is where the dwarf lawyer started laughing and just sit straight forward with the most honest face he could say no menace, no, no nothing. We don't know.

  The two other lawyers have said. What do you mean you don't know?

  They tried counting three times and they've lost count every time. We're guessing under 100,000.

  The wheels in these two lawyers went into full bore and. The two of them looked at each other and the human one said hey, can we pull I right back? And he bailed out of the room. They are in the City Hall in one of the the side rooms. So he ran right up to the mayor's assistant and said I need to buy a building for the law firm, the human law firm, can I get that from you right here, right now?

  By the time he had finished saying it, the other two lawyers had followed and were putting up their hands because they were going to she just said stop. The mayor has already figured this out. Pull on a second. Knocked on the door for the mayor. Mayor said come in. She popped her head in the 2 of them said something. She walked in 321 she walked out holding a piece of paper and handed it off to the three men who then opened and read it. It read.

  As a mayor of Port Town, I hereby for the price of three gold, one gold from each. Races government appointed lawyers will be given. Building 17 that is across from City Hall. Off to the left. Of the great Church's church. Building.

  The guys looked out one of the windows to what building they were talking of, and the building had 3 floors so they each got a floor.

  In front of. The Mayor. Who is standing in his doorway watching the three dwarfs with the assistant and her assistants saw the three of them going, who wants top? Dwarf said. You can have top. If I can have the bottom, I want to turn it into a pub.

  The human and elf lawyer looked each other and said would he'll give me for the rooftop? The elf asked.

  The human looked at the elephant said. I want you to furnish the whole building. For all time, for free.

  The elf do something that they didn't know about them making a wood factory. So he was like, yeah, sure, not a problem. It wasn't until they shook on it. At the Dwarf made the comment. Thank God you're gonna be making bar stools for me.

  The human just smiled as the elf's eyes went to realization. This basically the the colour drain from his face and he just looked down at the dwarf with these like you **** **** **** **** eyes and then looked up at the human and pointed. You got me good you prick. You owe me a bottle for this.

  The human looked at the dwarf and said you go on a fix it up, but what do you want for the bottle?

  The dwarf looked over at him and said, hey, I know you got some of those singers and you got a couple of those old wizard guys. We could really use them here.

  Music and magic. I think I can get that coming in on a regular basis. We we can stop if it doesn't work or change it up, but I think I can help with that. Get some entertainment in here for your pub.

  All of them looked over at the elf and said hey. Do we get to share the roof?

  They all kind of looked at each other and said sure. We've had nods and smiles

  This happened very quickly enough that the mayor and everybody that was watching kind of just smirk. And then they looked at the mayor and they just all bowed and they said thank you, Sir. We are almost done with the. Three by three by three, packed, and we'll have the paperwork by the end of the day on your desk for copying. And they did. They left to go inspector building two hours later and the war was officially over.

  When the lawyers left, the mayor and the Duke had a talk, it was very short, but the duke basically told him that he could take care of everything and as soon as they gave him a place to sit and rest his hat in town, that he would stay there and he would be around to fix any problems other than that. He'd probably have to go to the capital once or twice. So he'd be coming and going.

  The mayor said. That's perfect. Don't forget you have mail

  The Duke wasn't ready for that, but Larry and some of the other people that had start setting stuff up had left the Duke a list of things that they needed to get done, and it was stuff that only the Duke could actually do.

  As he started reading through the list and finds items like get more trade for food coming in. Make sure that the proper processes for. Currency are being followed. Things that were a Duke's actual job were put on this list and he was having actual high hopes of this job now. So he left with a smile on his face and. He didn't feel like he was being told what to do. He was being told where to put his energies to best help everybody. One of the things that caught his eye was. A castle to be built on top of the mountain. That was, he thought, a joke. But I guess they were all taking it seriously. They were going to build a castle on the top of the mountain and turn it into a city and a school.

  And the last thing on the piece of paper that threw the Duke for. A loop was, the last line was. We'd like you to take the responsibility of being the king of this small town slash castle on the mountain Duke. Let us know what you think. And it was signed Larry and the boys.

  The Duke was on Cloud 9. He just floated his way out there. He was just. You couldn't take the smile off his face if you tried. Nothing was gonna make him have a bad day. And he left town Hall.

  Before Larry could even say anything, he had turned to tell his assistant. But she had already sent. The two dwarf ladies off to inform the right people and have copies made. Because the papers were already gone, and so were the dwarves. So before the mayor could even say anything, he turned around and noticed all that.

  He just looked at it and said they'll also tell the three kings and the assistant just nodded in approval. And acceptance.

  There were still a couple hours left, so they went back to their desks and got back to work.

  **********

  When the two girls showed up at the cabin again, Blurry came out to talk to them and they handed him copies. Of the ceasefire, the contracts. All the documents. He went to go hug the girls and them not being very touchy feely when he hugged them, there was a connection between all their brains and the both girls at the same time. Push on Larry's mind and said get out of our head Larry, but with a small. Mind and they were showing Larry that they got stronger in their mind games

  When Larry took his arms off them from the hug and looked at them, he said. You two have grown so much. I'm so proud of you. He didn't know if they were older or younger, but he looked after them like he looked after the boys

  The two girls. Took off. Larry went in to talk to the boys and explain everything and let them read over everything. And with that, he was going to have a long night of eating food, drinking and having long, boring conversations. Oh goody. Larry was so enthusiastic to have to explain this a dozen times. The boys weren't slow. There was just a lot of information

  It was about 5 minutes after the talk happened when 2 of The older dwarves. Came while shambling back in would be a nice way of putting it. These two had been through something. 1 was pretty hurt and the other one was the. Carrying the other one over his arm and helping him along. Getting through that little hole was a pain in the **** Something was wrong with one of the old guys's legs.

  As Larry and the boys notice them, Larry was like, what happened? Do you need anything?

  The dwarf that was hurt said, hey, I've got my honor and all that jazz, but I wouldn't say no to some heels from my number one king. He said it was such a deadpan and a smile on his face, trying to not wince at the pain. He winced a couple times while saying it.

  They all just moved them over into one of the cut out areas where people would lay down and it was his left leg so when he fit in he had his leg was on the outside. Young boy dwarf king number one. Came over, put hands on the leg and started mending. It was kind of cool. A little bit of light came out of the fingers. The whole nine yards that dwarf just relax as well. The skin knit itself back together, which wasn't a good feeling. The depth of the pain started to go away as it started to knit itself back together, so kind of negotiating, and then it felt better.

  One realized he wasn't going to be able to finish it all, so he then grabbed the legs and pulled on the skin. And then with his last bit of energy for right now, he allowed the skin to be knitted back, but the material underneath was very there were still holes between the two pieces.

  He was almost out of breath. He was just winded. So he said to her, but give me a minute, I just gotta catch my breath. And he was having trouble saying those words. It was just he pushed himself a little too hard, a little too fast. But in doing so, he stopped major blood loss and major artery damage and oh, some good stuff. They have time now. It's it's **** but it's better than it was.

  Larry looked at the door of that well, was screwed up, but wasn't bleeding. And it looks like. Their armor was hit by something and it burnt them, so he looks over to the dwarf and goes, so what'd you guys find?

  Honest to God that the old dwarf looked very dead in the eye and said we followed number 2's path, but we kind of went off grid. When I felt a breeze, we went down five chambers. We thought, hey, it'll get us down to the ants or whatever down there. Well, what we found is a room polished smooth, and it's a tube. The moment you step in it, if there's any light, it reflects, reflects back on you. And I said that right reflects and refracts. So your little bit of light goes into all these old nice cool lights. It's the black light that burns you. I don't understand that. It just the you could see everything and there was these lines of black and if you touch them, oh, it was the worst.

  Larry looked over the king one and said you're gonna have to do some healing on him after two. So take your time and do it right. These guys can hold up, but you've got lots of work ahead of you. I hope you don't mind leveling up on these guys.

  With that the other kings Larry started helping the dwarf that could still stand out of his outfit and once they realized that he had a couple burns on him and he looked like he had gotten his **** kicked. So probably a little bit of broken bones. Some places they said lay down on the other one of the beds the the cut outs of the rock and just don't move. The king will be with you shortly. Larry had not a smile on his face. He's but he's like **** We found something deadly down there and I'm the kids didn't find it. Sorry guys. Thanks for not dying. So it's it's kind of like a really bad situation, but the best possible outcome to a bad situation in Larry's mind. So they marked it and they had a map. They were going and it was pages thick.

  So he went and he marked it on one page and then he went to the next page and next page so that you could see if you went down 10:00, 20, 30, 40 or 50 feet what you'd find. And it wasn't a great map, but it was a starter of a map so that people didn't get too lost. And if we found something exactly like this, we could say do not go through there. So someone would have to go put a rope or Larry was thinking he might try his stone touch and put up a Barricade.