It was once again a sunny day perfect for sightseeing. I met the siblings in the common room after getting my breakfast. With how much the dwarves had drunk last night I was surprised to see them this happy and energetic. They could really hold their liquor.

“Morning, Fio!”, the sisters greeted me. The brother simply nodded, his mouth still chewing the bread and sausage from his plate.

I answered their greeting with a bob of my head while connecting to their minds.

“Good morning. How are you doing?”

The little sister beamed at me.

“Wonderful! Beds are the best!”

“Yup, pretty much. Camping is fine but beds are just that much better.”

The brother had finally swallowed his food and joined the talk.

“I have to admit, I don’t see the difference.”

The dwarves rolled their eyes.

“Yeah, you can sleep on a branch. I guess a stick on the wall won’t be more comfortable.”

I huffed.

“I do see a difference in the location, still. Weather can be quite annoying, sometimes.”

The siblings nodded as one.

“Mhm, that’s right. Where did you grow up, by the way?”

I considered the elder sister for a moment. It could not hurt to answer.

“In a cave on some mountainside.”

“Oh, wow.”

The dwarves were floored.

“And how did you get sapient?”

“I always was.”

The answer was truthful without telling too much. I pulled my feathers into a smirk. From the reaction of the dwarves, they took it as a ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ rather than the truth it was.

“Anyways! Let’s go show you around town! Everyone ready?”

The younger sister looked at everyone excitedly. Her siblings nodded.

“We’re ready.”

I gave a nod.

Soon we were out of the door and onto the streets proper. I had taken a look yesterday but the streets did not look much different than Borsdown. Sure, most buildings were one or two storeys taller but the materials and decorations were pretty similar. I enjoyed looking at the carvings on the sides of the buildings. Vivi would surely enjoy them more, pointing out the differences here and there but to me, they were just pretty. I wondered how they were doing over there?

I quickly discarded the thought before it could make me fly back. I wanted to explore the world. I could see my friends anytime. I had no need to rush back.

The siblings guided me through the streets pointing out some of the shops they frequented. They had been travelling with their father for almost a decade now and been here quite regularly. Though the shops were different from what I expected. The siblings went to places where they could get good deals or buy things that would sell well at their next destination, a city which I forgot the name of after less than a minute.

Then we had made it to the middle wall. It was apparently just called the City Wall with the one far out being the Field Wall. The inner ring containing the Guardian’s home was aptly named Guardian Wall. A very simple naming scheme but it worked so who was I to complain?

We took a look at the fields, the dwarves once again explaining what they cared about. Economics. Most fields around the city of Serrington were hops and wheat to use as a base for their ale. The ones closer to the city had some rotating crops, bringing in a good variety of vegetables. There were a few orchards here and there for fruit and, of course, tea. Though it was far less than Servin had made it sound like. The tea plants would not survive the snow so they had to be brought into warehouses for the winter. That meant only a few farmers worked with them. Still, it was the only place in the Dwarven Hills producing the supreme leaves so the merchant had not lied to me. Serrington was the capital of tea, there just was not as much of it as to be the main produce.

At least they were able to find one of the farmers growing the plant and asked if he could show us around to see how tea was made and grown. The dwarf agreed and gave us a quick tour for a silver coin. There was honestly not much to see. The plants were collected into a large room and closed off into smaller compartments heated with some advanced artefact. It was not very powerful but enough to keep the plants alive through winter. On the scale they were working the mana required to grow the plants in the cold months was not feasible. I took a closer look but it was more of an intelligently spread out variation on the heating plate sitting in my storage. A single dwarf could power a quarter of the warehouse without straining himself.

We also got a look at a factory for fermenting tea. There was still some work going even though the tea plants had been stored away. A whole bunch of leaves were not yet processed from the last harvests. The factory was pretty simple. They basically had a few dwarves sort the leaves onto slow-moving conveyor belts. Above, vents blew warm air onto the leaves to accelerate the fermenting. In the end, the finished tea was filtered by size and packed into large bags for shipping.

Again, some artificer had done some very smart engineering to keep the mana requirements as low as possible. The air was produced in one central location and guided to the belts which had a mostly mechanical drive. A few dwarves were shoving coal into a steam engine in an adjacent building to power it. The scale was too large for a financially reasonable use of mana, considering how little tea the dwarves actually drank.

We also got the chance to taste test some of the tea. This factory was producing black tea which I liked a little less than green tea. I had not found tea made from fruits yet. The foreman was confused when I asked him about it. Apparently, they had never considered making it. I told him drying fruits and mixing them with each other as well as tea leaves or dried spices could make some interesting tea flavours. After about half an hour of discussion, we came to an agreement. The dwarf would buy up several fruits and spices to experiment with some of the ideas I gave him. And I would provide the money but then get a discount when he found something worth mass-producing. It would take two months or more to just finish drying the fruits so I was having the merchants informed. I could just come back to them to see if the factory had some results.

It was time for lunch so the siblings went to get some snacks. I decided to tag along even though I was not going to eat anything.

They got some finger food from a little shop close to the merchants’ inn. It was some kind of baked vegetables with a creamy sauce. If I had any interest in non-meat, I might have been envious but my stomach was still sated.

We were sitting on a bench next to some fountain on a large plaza. The guy had finished his food fastest and picked up the conversation.

“So, where do we go next?”, he asked.

Looks were exchanged while I watched until finally I realized, they wanted my opinion.

“Can we just walk up and meet the Guardian?”

“Mmnwluag!”

The younger sister had trouble keeping the food in her mouth at my question. Her brother sighed.

“No, we can’t. The Nymph dislikes visitors other than her trusted friends. Or so I heard. I don’t actually know who those friends are. But we can go petition for an audience. She meets a few dwarves every two weeks to help them gain herba or arbor based vis enrichment. Maybe the Protectors will let us tag along?”

That last part sounded very uncertain. It was still worth a shot.

“Let’s ask. If it doesn’t work out, we can find something else to do.”

The siblings nodded, relieved I was not going to push it.

“Droy, let’s check by the library. I got some books I need to look at”, the elder sister requested.

With a look and a nod from me, we took off into the city once again. The library was not too far from the wall. I would have to take a look later. We dropped off the two girls before making our way to the Guardian Wall. There was a small gatehouse manned by four dwarves in full plate armour. I noticed the glint of metal from two slits on the second floor. Probably crossbowmen to reinforce the guards below. Even with this show of force, barely anybody paid them any attention. Besides the line of people leading into a side door of the building. There were a good dozen dwarves standing there, orderly waiting for their turn.

“That’s where we want to go. Any petitions or requests for the guardian go to one of the two gates which then forward them to the Nymph. Most cities have a system like this but for Serrington it’s especially strict since the Guardian doesn’t like being involved with many people. Even the clan-heads of the Convis and Karks won’t be let in without the proper procedures.”

That was interesting. Maybe this Nymph was a fan of mystery. Or she was less powerful than she projected.

We took place in the line, waiting patiently. Though we did not need much. Most petitioners left within a few minutes of entering the building. A lot of them looked dejected, though.

“They’re here to ask for updates on their requests. A dwarf getting helped by the Nymph with their vis enrichment has a much higher chance to hit medium. Those who don’t have a high standing in their clan sometimes try to find a quick way to improve.”

Greed was everywhere, even in utopia.

“They could just wait, though. The Protectors have their address and will notify them when something changes. Some people are just impatient.”

Soon, it was our turn. A dwarf opened the door to let the previous petitioner out and bid us to come in after a moment. He then took place next to the door while we found ourselves in a comfortable office. A table stacked with paperwork stood in front while a bunch of bookshelves and some flourishing plants lined the walls. Behind the desk, a well-fed dwarf sat on a comfortable chair. It was the first dwarf I saw that looked unhealthily fat. Sure, some were a bit more stocky here or there but most dwarves were fit if not downright muscular. Even the merchant’s apprentices had a decent amount of muscle.

The man waved us forward with interest.

“Welcome, welcome! Take a seat! Not often I see an animal come into this room. Are you sapient perchance?”

I nodded.

“Good! Great! Oh, where are my manners! I’m Banélin of the Serrington Protectors. What can I do for you?”

The dwarf smiled and shifted a pen on his desk to sit just right next to a stack of papers.

Droy spoke up.

‘That was his name, right? I think his sister said it earlier…’

“Thank you, Protector Banélin. I’m Droy and this is Fio.”

‘Hah!’

“My father, Servin Kinis, met and hired her in Borsdown. She’s been travelling with our caravan as a temporary guard until Serrington. Now that we’re in a proper city with a Guardian she was wondering if it was possible to meet them.”

He just went ahead and said everything out of the gate, huh? I would have held back some information to have a proper conversation. It had a much higher chance of getting one what they wanted.

“Ah, I see. Fio, is it?”

The fat dwarf turned to me. I nodded.

“Hmm. May I [Identify] you?”

Droy butted in at that moment.

“She has citizenship in Borsdown.”

That stopped the bureaucrat in his tracks.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Your token will suffice, then.”

I blinked at the budding merchant. It was pretty useful to have someone who knows the customs guide me through.

When I opened my storage to pull out the token, both dwarves stared. Droy found his wits a little quicker than the fat dwarf.

“Right, here.”

He picked up my token and handed it over. The bureaucrat put it into an artefact that lit up a few lights in response. It was almost like a primitive computer only able to output binary results with a set of LEDs. The dwarf picked up a tome and found the right page. After comparing the lights to some entries, he returned my token.

“Here you are. Now. This is really not a common request, even from dwarves. To just meet Nymph without any… purpose, I guess? I think… it would be best if you had some proper reason. Your status as a Citizen of the Dwarven Hills allows you to ask for a meeting but Nymph won’t accept a meeting just like that. So…”

He trailed off.

I considered for a moment. How should I word this? Then I connected to the fat dwarf’s mind. He did not even flinch in the slightest.

“Good. Even though your telepathy feels different, it seems to work just fine.”

Huh. He was pretty used to it.

“Yes. I made an item for it. It works but it can be a little exhausting for longer periods. Now, as for a reason to meet the Nymph. I would like to talk to a sapient animal with a bit more life experience. To know what to expect, what might come and what place I can find in society.”

The dwarf nodded.

“That’s all fine and well but there are a few sapient animals in town that are not Guardians. You would get far more useful information from them.”

There were? But…

“And how much do they know about magic? How many of them reached past medium enrichment?”

This time, I had him. I knew from the sharp look his eyes took on.

“I see…”, he spoke out loud, “Well then. Let me fill out this form real quick. I just need your address. It might take a week or two to get back to you. Even I don’t see Nymph that often. She very much enjoys solitude.”

Droy gave him the address of his clan’s inn and I added on I would leave right after Stormbringer passed by. The bureaucrat noted it down and told me it might be impossible to convince the Nymph again if I missed the first meeting. I would just have to be lucky, then.