The last portal was done early, but Pagailis had said the governor wanted to meet with us before I left, so I loaded my horse up for the trip and walked him to the governors mansion when my group went. Pagailis accompanied us, and we were waved through without delay, following Pagailis to the same room as last time. Governor Elestar was as straightforward as last time, just waving us to seats as we walked in. I chose a different seat just to be an ass, and caught his slight grin as he watched me do it.

"You are refreshingly unassuming, priest of Telina, but whether you wish it or not, you are a focal point for the changes occurring across Tarinath" he nodded to the rest of the group and said "as are you all. Empress Solain believes we will have a time of less conflict amongst the eternals as they learn there is limits to what they may do to each other, or to the people of Tarinath. She warns though, that when the ambitious strive for power and meet resistance, they will attempt to gain allies and bring forth greater force. The eternals will begin gathering, and the natural focus of their efforts for power will be the empire as we threaten their points of rebirth"

When he stopped talking and looked at me expectantly, I sighed and said "I think she sees true in this, but Telina is not interested in her champions becoming a force in the defense of any one government. Personally I prefer things as they are, but unless the eternals begin abusing others in their pursuit of power, I will not interfere with their activities"

The Governor looked pensive at that, but said "Both disappointing and reassuring at the same time. How will you enforce Telina's will if the eternals gather in larger groups?"

"The eternals, in general, do not play well with others" I answered "so there will be a period of conflict as they compete for leadership. I am sure the empress will be gathering intelligence on their activities, and Telina's champions will be available if the empire feels the eternals are violating Telina's command"

"Do on to others as you would have them do on to you" the governor said doubtfully

"It's actually a good rule" Maria said with a grin "You want to rule people, then you have to accept that you have to treat them like you would want them to treat you. You want to hurt people, then you have to accept that Telina's champions might come and hurt you. It's all about why you do things. It's easy to tell the people who do things from hate and greed, at least here in Tarinath where we don't have to deal with lawyers"

"Do not forget that eternals are bound by their place of rebirth" I said "And the empress controls most of those, something we have recently made very clear. You might talk with the empress about coming at this from a different direction" I paused, the idea one I had been considering for a while, but worried about the long term consequences. I finally shrugged as the governor watched me and I said "There's no reason the empress can't ally with eternals to protect the empire. They protect your people, and in exchange they receive your protection. The eternals pay people to guard their rebirth points, but what if the city guards did that as part of their duties for any eternal who allies themselves with the empress"

It got really quiet as everyone considered my words, with Susan being the first to ask "Allies?"

I shrugged and said "We might outlive the empire or even this continent, so it would be foolish to say it was anything but temporary. Otherwise you're going into the agreement knowing it is false if you last long enough" That was mostly BS, my real worry being that I didn't want eternals being seen as employees of any one government. If I got the idea set now it might become the accepted standard later.

"A disturbing thought" the governor said with a smile "but you raise an interesting idea. Offer to let them...help rather than hinder. Do you think this is possible?"

"Without a doubt" Ariel said, getting nods of agreement from the other women "Eternals seek security above all else unless they are cursed ones. It isn't something that would occur to an eternal...other than Jake" the last with a grin at me "but if someone who represents the empress offers, you can be sure you'll get a lot of takers"

"You do not think this will put the empire in conflict with Telina's law?"

"Not unless the empire decides to begin mistreating its subjects" I said seriously

"Not at this time" the governor said with a laugh

I rode out as soon as I could, leaving Susan and Ariel to deal with Empire related questions the governor might have, just telling them to do what they thought best but to avoid getting Telina tied into any formal agreements.

A lot of guards gave me waves or salutes as I trotted out of town, and I stopped at the bridge to lean down and exchange arm grips with the Captain, but otherwise didn't slow down. I blessed the horse, then cast a healing spell on him periodically, something that seemed to help keep him fresher. I actually dozed in the saddle, the small irritations and aches from the other reality not something that seemed to be an issue in this one. I had two fights in the thirteen day ride to Riverbend, once with two wolves and once with a pack of four goblins.

Unlike last time I didn't need my horse to warn me, hearing the goblins moving through the brush beside the road where I had set up camp. I pulled Bruce and did my armor spell, followed by Fist, then waited. All four kind of stumbled out of the treeline, level 9 goblins with 85 health, two holding spears and the other two with axes in their hands. They looked like Betty, but were wearing raggedy leather armor, and when they saw me, charged enmasse, screaming like banshees. I laughed as I let out my own scream and did my own highlander charge. It seemed to take them by surprise, and they all sort of stutter stepped, giving me a chance to bring Bruce down on the head of the closest goblin. The lightning caused it to spasm, then fall to the ground, most of its health gone. I couldn't do a follow up as I had to dodge a spear thrust, then take a sword slice to my leg, but I connected with a side swing that caused another one to stagger backwards. I stepped back to gain a second, calling Fist again, then took a spear thrust to the stomach (hurt like a SOB), before hitting the spear wielder in the shoulder.

I dodged around a bit, trying to keep the goblins in front of me, managing to kill the first one I'd hit with a sudden thrust of my mace to its face. Another sword caught me in the thigh, a couple inches south of my man jewels, which got me to ignore the other two goblins until I had beaten Mr. junk jabber into a pile of equipment. I had a dozen wounds, most of them hurting pretty good, so I did a quick heal (sighing at the pain disappearing), but got a quick sword stab in my ass as I killed the third one. I was laughing as I danced around with the last one, but it wasn't really a contest as a final side swing with my mace caught him upside his head and ended the battle.

Kittens, Ha!

I was dead tired when I rode into Riverbend, but just exchanged waves with the gate guards and stabled my horse at the inn we normally used. A quick walk to the archway, a thought, and I stepped out into the Mudtown square. I was home.

A hew and cry went up and I was quickly surrounded by various townspeople, all giving some kind of greeting. Seth was working and only gave me a nod, but he had a big grin as he watched Mary about tackle me and begin kissing the daylights out of me.

I had a few tasks, like sending Mirabeth to the capital now that the portal worked, but I finished them as quickly as possible so I could have some me time. Mary and I had a very enjoyable few days, and I might have done more then a few healing spells on her. She found the whole thing humorous, and laughed whenever I snuck a healing spell in.

Andulin led me around the partial wall, and explained his plans. It actually wasn't visible from town, being a couple hundred yards beyond the existing clearing and in cleared strips of the forest. It sort of looked like one of the straight clear cut areas they did for power lines back in reality, but this one had a stone wall being constructed in it. Two towers were being built on the north and south sides where the existing road went through and the entry gates would be. There was an initial course of stonework all the way around, huge rectangular stones that were fifteen feet thick and ten feet high. I wasn't sure that would have worked in reality, but wasn't going to question it.

"We will not clear the forest inside the walls until necessary" Andulin said as we walked the perimeter "it is a weakness should we be attacked, but the people of Mudtown treasure the life they have built in this forest and do not wish to destroy the trees if it is not required"

I shrugged and said "That's fine with me. This all might be for nothing, so I'll be the last one to say they should give this up if they don't want to. If we are attacked, I'm guessing you'll have something in mind if they start lobbing fireballs into the trees" We had reached the southern road, so I stopped to look around and consider things. All things considered, it probably would have been better to have moved my spawn point and let these people live in peace, but I liked it here. This was my home now and I'd be damned if anyone was going to come and take all that away from me.

I realized I was nodding to myself when Andulin gave me a questioning look, so I said "I think this will work. Once this is finished you should be able to defend the town against everything except a major army, and do it with minimal impact on the townspeople. It would be nice if Mary never had to see the walls"

I did the blessing on the third arch, sort of anticipating the upcoming trip to Maria's castle, but feeling like I had gone through these arches a lot quicker than I had planned. Taking Mirabeth to Marisian city for her reunion with Susan, getting all the blessings done for the people who needed them, and spending some down time at home made the week go by quickly. I gave Mary another deep kiss, casting another heal for the hell of it, getting her to giggle, a fun sensation since she was still kissing me, then nodded for Bob to follow, and stepped through the Riverbend arch to meet with Maria and her gang. They had left the capital not long after me, leaving Ariel, Sienna, Susan, and Mirabeth behind, with Dalmar leaving with Maria. I was sort of surprised they didn't have anyone killed during the trip, seeing as they had a horde of level 1 people, most of them mages with 60 or less health, but all of them made it alive.

Maria did her normal boneless flop into the seat next to me, giving Bob and Dalmar a nod of greeting before snagging my mug of ale and drinking from it. I chuckled as I waved for Rissa to bring another round, then said "So what's been happening?"

"Teams are working themselves out" Maria said with a shrug "with twenty three of them we couldn't do a standard two and two grouping. No real opportunity to do any leveling, so it will be interesting getting them all alive to my castle"

Dalmar and I exchanged grins at the casual mention of her castle, but I didn't comment, just saying "What's the force mix?" at her confused expression, I added "how many warriors and mages?"

"More mages than we need" she said with a shrug, offering Rissa a wave of thanks as she gave me my empty mug and took a full one. Luckily Rissa just grinned and handed me another. "Nine warriors and fourteen mages. We ended up with five teams of three, and two teams of four"

"Be tough to run a single tank and two mages" Dalmar said doubtfully

"I don't think so" Bob offered, getting Maria to give him an interested look "Since I heard about Sienna, I've been thinking that mage defender thing would be the best class outside of the healer priest. That defender shit is versatile as hell, and seriously dangerous"

"I agree" I said "a good tank with two mage defenders would kick some serious ass. Yeah, it would be better with four if you're doing dungeon crawls, but otherwise I wouldn't want to face them" I gave Maria a questioning look and asked "are they mostly planning to do the defender route?"

Maria did a hand waggle and said "the smart ones. Got a couple hung up on the whole fireball, lightning bolt thing, but the majority will be doing the defender route"

"Make a seriously badass army" Bob said, giving me hard look "ten of them on a wall throwing missiles at you would make for a very ugly day" We tossed the idea around a while, with Maria laughing at the idea of shooting a dragon out of the sky with a dozen mages. I gave Maria a questioning look and asked "How do you see this working out? In the long term?"

She seemed confused, so I added "You planning to level them up and send them on their way, or do you have something else in mind?" That got a shrug from her as she said "Not sure yet. They're all pretty angry, but I've been pushing them to start planning to look out for each other long term. I was thinking if this castle thing works out I might see about paying you to set their respawn points there"

"What I thought" I said as Bob gave Maria a small grin and said "So you are building an army?"

"Maria's Marauders?" Dalmar asked with a chuckle, getting a matching one from Maria before she said "Maybe"

"What do you guys know about the other goddesses?" I asked, drawing a crop of surprised looks at the conversational shift. It took a moment, but Dalmar finally said "Like what?" I shrugged and said "Anything? I know Telina and your goddess Tarra, but that's it"

"Hmpf" Maria snorted, leaning back to give me a suspicious look as she said "Well, there are supposedly ten of them, all women. Each of the humanoid races has one, again supposedly. Telina for the half-elves, Tarra for the dwarves, Tyra for the humans, and Tonalia for the elves, though I'm not sure if that last one still holds true. Tanira is supposed to be goddess of battle. Tia is the goddess of thieves and rogues. Tessa is supposed to be the goddess the druids and rangers worship, foresty stuff I guess. The orcs supposedly have one, but I've never heard her name, and the other two I haven't a clue" she gave Dalmar and Bob a questioning look. Dalmar nodded and said "Pretty much what I've heard, and from what I saw when I was being sent here, most of the goddesses appeared either human or elven except for the orc one and Tarra"

"Yeah" Bob said with a nod "but when I asked Tennant about them he just said something about only being able to pick certain classes and the rest weren't active, so I'm guessing the others might be other races we haven't met, or aren't programmed"

"Ever get the feeling this place was built by the low bidder?" I asked, getting nods from the whole group

"Why the interest?" Maria asked, her eyes sharp as she studied me. I drank from my tankard to hide my grin, then said "Paladins. You have probably the greatest concentration of potential paladins left on this world, so it might pay to have them study up a little on which goddess they might be interested in supporting"

"Isn't that kind of working against your own goddess?" Dalmar asked, looking between Bob and I. Bob shrugged and said "Nah. None of them are supposed to be outright evil, though Tia and Telina supposedly don't agree about much. Eternals and the undead are the big threats here, and the best way to stop them is paladins"

"What he said " I said "Goddess knows I have no intention of being the go to guy for dealing with the idiot eternals, so we need some other people interested in keeping the peace" I nodded at Bob and said "And I don't want Telina's paladins stuck doing eternal bullshit all the time and not getting a chance to do any fun stuff or leveling crawls"

I had been sending 'got a minute to talk?' signals to Telina, so when I dreamed myself back at my table in the Inn, I wasn't surprised when Telina walked in and took a seat. No Mary this time, and Telina was studying me pretty hard.

"Despite what you may think" she said "I cannot read your thoughts or see the future. Your emotions and projected thoughts or dreams are available, but I find myself confused on your intentions my priest"

That got a nod from me as I said "Understandable. I have a general idea of what I want to accomplish, but the details are open" I gestured to encompass the inn and said "I moved against the eternals because they threatened my home and I didn't want to wait until they ran over my family to decide to stop them. Right now we've established your power here and in the empire, and I've maneuvered the eternals and empire into dealing with each other rather than with me. That's sort of my short term goal, but I'd like to put in place something else that threatens them, but doesn't reduce our power"

"The paladins?" she said thoughtfully, then focused on me to say "how will paladins that answer to my sisters aid us in maintaining what we have gained?"

"Because they can't talk directly to them except at first, and if we do this right we can set in place who they answer to" I said. I paused, then added "Maria has 23 people who have every reason to want to make the world safer, and nine of them are potential paladins. I don't know how you goddesses determine who gets to offer the position, but if you got three or four of your sisters on board, they might be willing to help set this up. We push to form this group into a neutral force with it's own leader, but make it someone other than me, someone your sisters won't object to"

Telina laughed as she leaned back and shook her head at me "You speak of my ranger. You would do this to her?"

I shrugged and said "We would do this to her. It has to have the approval of the other goddesses or it will just be me creating an army. Make her the queen of 23 people, and only that. No lands and no subjects to rule over. If we have a few other goddesses involved, they would be guardians of Tarinath, but how they do it, or where, would be up to them"

"You do not fear they would turn on you?"

That got another shrug from me and I said "You and I control the portals and healing potions. The portals all go to your shrine, and anyone who wants to use them can't be a threat to you. The empire is backing you as the final say if an eternal is deemed anathema and gets the pit yo-yo, and we can keep it that way if you want. I'd prefer to let Maria's group have that power also, but it's your call" I leaned back to match her pose and said "I want to enjoy this world, but know that my home is safe. Dalmar's quest is the kind of stuff I want to spend my time on, but do it without worrying about Mary and Mudtown"

"This may be of interest to my sisters" Telina said thoughtfully "I will discuss it with them" her eyes drifted back to me as she asked "How would you make this work?"

"Don't know" I answered "If the goddesses tell their paladins that will reinforce it, but we need something official seeming to put Maria in charge. I could maybe do a ceremony of some kind, but it would need to be obvious that it wasn't just you and I setting it up"

"I will consider what can be done" Telina said as she stood up. She didn't leave, just stood looking at me for a moment before saying "Tyra, Tanira and Tessa would support this I believe, but I am unsure if Tarra would countenance a non-dwarven paladin. Tessa would require her paladin to follow in Maria's footsteps and become a ranger, so it would be worthwhile to inform the warriors of the choices they face so they might prepare" She didn't smile as she left, and when I woke up I wondered if I had pushed things a little to fast.

Hey all,

I do appreciate any and all feedback, but I have a lot of the story written (up to starting Dalmar's quest) and am doing formatting and gap filling right now, so I probably won't implement any major rewrites but hope to improve the later chapters.

Again, thanks for the interest.