Alo and Vice are clearly surprised to see us walk into the room where they’ve been left to rest and recover. It seems they’re not too frightened, but they are very much confused by the flowery room around them and the situation they’ve found themselves in.

“Where are we?” Alo asks, jumping at us the moment we enter the room. Her wilted petals and leaves show the depths of her stress, and compare unfavourably with the gardens surrounding us.

“A dungeon under the ruins of the Academy.” I say, looking between the pair of confused students. “We rescued you and brought you down here where the welfare officers shouldn’t be able to follow.”

There’s no reason to hold back, they’re not children and I shouldn’t have to baby them. I’ll give them the facts and leave them to sort through it all at their own leisure. I know I’ve had to deal with my fair share of issues that same way.

“Let’s walk while we talk, I’m sure that there’s plenty of things that you want to ask but my schedule is rather tight.” I say leading them out of the room.

Vice and Alo follow quickly, Nel and Adler step in to explain a few more things while we walk through the flowery and colourful halls. Loekan filled this place from top to bottom with a sea of colourful, fragrant flowers, and even now they’re still as beautiful as ever.

I’ll have to find someone to tend to them before they start wilting. Hopefully, that currency idea works out for us, and I can start employing people properly.

It’s a little difficult demanding people work without pay now that our situation has changed so much. We’re not a simple struggling tribe any longer, we’re building a proper city, and that means that we need to start paying people a fair wage, while giving them opportunity to survive on their own terms.

“This is a dungeon?!” Alo asks, still shocked by the revelation as she stumbles up to me.

“This is still the Academy world?!” Vice cries nervously, joining her.

“Yes, to both.” I say, leading them down a hall to a recently repaired elevator. I’ve been meaning to check, in person, the state of the buildings up there.

“It’s safe here.” Adler says, her voice quiet and gentle for the pair of traumatised students. Alo is still shaking, while Vice seems plain excited. “We’ve removed your collars, but I’m afraid that you’re now considered wild beasts to the Unified States. It’ll be impossible to return to your previous lives.”

The two don’t seem capable of handling everything at once, but that’s fine, they’ll have plenty of time to settle in.

As we ride the elevator up we get a nice view of the expansive city below us and the wider cavern beyond it. A place that’s becoming something of a home to us now.

It’s a shame that I still can’t feel safe here.

“Woah...” Vice seems the most impressed while Alo is still trying to absorb the situation, her head buried in her hands. I never really thought about it before, but does she even have a brain or some similar organ, or is her biology completely different?

“What’s out there? Beasts? People?” Vice asks, leaning forwards in the magical grip of the elevator.

“Both.” I reply with a shrug. “We’ve secured the walls but there are still plenty of beasts about. Our soldiers and the slayers are culling them rather quickly, though.”

“About that,” Nel speaks up. “We’ll need to meet with the Lords in the neighbouring caverns to negotiate hunting rights. I’ve been informed by some of the slayer teams that our current hunting will wipe out the local beast population within a few months, and we’ll need further hunting grounds.

“If we don’t get ahead of these things, it’ll cause us trouble later on.”

“Alright, we can schedule that with the Lord here? If anyone knows who to contact, it’ll be him.”

“I’ll set up a meeting.” Nel says, nodding her head. She’s already sending messages to relevant parties, no doubt.

“Who are you really? What is all of this?” Alo asks me, shaking with uncertainty.

“Kyra.” I say. “Student in the... Landra academy, strange that we never really say the name of it, and Empress over this tiny empire. This city, and this cavern, is my realm and my responsibility.”

“Empress?” She says, the strange gleam in her eyes expressing doubt. My lessons are helping with reading a person’s intentions without them outwardly saying it.

“Well, all it takes to be an Empress, or an Emperor, is to say you are and violently beat anyone who contradicts you.” I say with a shrug. “Loekan owned this city before me, and I got rid of him. People respect me for taking charge, and for the simple power that I displayed, thus I’m an empress.”

“I think there’s a little more to leadership than that.”

“Maybe, but I’m still working on the rest of it.” I say, gazing out over my city while my split minds race with thoughts. There is so much that I have to get done.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Fodder is meeting with us to introduce a pack of trained beasts. He want’s permission to keep them.” Nel says. “He’s ready for us. This way.”

With Nel leading us we cross into the lake on the ceiling. It’s been a few days and some things have settled down, while other issues have come to light. We’re busy, but disaster is yet to strike. I’m waiting, watching, and busying myself until that moment when it all comes crashing down.

Any day now.

The buildings on the ceiling, where the city meets the inverted lake, are flooded over. Whether it was intentional or not, who can say, but the result leaves us wading through waist deep water to wander the few streets and buildings up here at the towers peaks.

Nel confidently leads us to a room where we find Fodder and a few other gremlins playing with a group of tentacle cats.

That’s what I’ve taken to naming the beasts that we first encountered during the final battle for the city. They fought alongside the gremlins on the frontal assault against me.

The dozens of tentacles shift around freely but most of the creatures stay in the rough shape of cats and kittens.

Shen of all people is here ahead of us, playing with them and sharing her mantra of ‘together’. A slow but effective means of brainwashing them to our side.

“Greetings, your majesty.” Fodder says, bowing low. The other gremlins copy the motion rather more awkwardly, but with a terror that communicates significant respect. A holdover from Loekan’s leadership I expect, but also flavoured by a fear drawn from seeing my own power during the battle.

“Greetings.” I say, “This meeting is about these cute little creatures?”

“Can I keep one?” Eshya asks, leaning in and trying to get their attention.

“If you can tame any of them.” I say, returning my attention back to Fodder. “You want to keep up the taming efforts?”

“Indeed.” Fodder replies. From my lessons on formality I can feel how he’s manipulating his intentions to sound more respectful through the translators.

“They have been well tamed and will serve you well. Few have intelligence capable of proper communication but with time and training they can grow.”

“What can they do?” I ask, “Apart from fighting, we have more than enough hunters our there already.”

“They have assisted us with farming when Loekan was King, and they harvest ores and mana crystals from the walls.”

I nod appreciatively. It’s more than I was expecting from them.

“Do you want to take responsibility for teaching them, or do I need to get someone to take charge of all this?”

“Me! Please,” One of the gremlins steps forwards, one of the tentacle kittens rubbing itself on his side. Fodder looks back at him, showing him a few teeth at his apparent insolence. I wave off their concerns, and Fodder continues.

“Goran here is best at taming the beasts.” Fodder explains. “I will take responsibility for him, if you would permit.”

“Just don’t cause anyone trouble.” I say, “But if you do, come to me right away and I’ll sort it out. At the very least make sure no one ends up dead because of this, okay?”

“I understand. Thank you.” Fodder bows and his tamer friend bows twice as deep.

“Will you need to claim more land up here for this?” I ask. “We can have that arranged if you’d like.”

Fodder nods seeming a little uncomfortable, but eager nonetheless.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sometimes the most surprising thing of all, is the ordinary continuing on uninterrupted. A week goes by with ordinary meetings that deal with the plethora of ordinary problems that have cropped up as we establish this city.

Giant needs stone to continue building, the farmers need tools, and the crafters guild is trying to squeeze the farmers for ridiculous prices. A little competition from outside trading avenues, and non-guild crafters deals with that problem well enough.

Ria is working with a few other apprentice enchanters to make currency out of crystals, the prototypes aren’t yet perfect, but it’s getting close. When finished it’ll give us considerable control over the markets and trade without causing anyone issues.

Wally and the other humans are excited at the idea of contacting people back on Earth, and the day is crawling closer that I’ll be given a ride back. Everything is just moving ahead as it should. There are no emergencies, and no disasters.

It’s unnerving.

I throw myself into my lessons, and squeeze some time here and there for dates. Nel is happy to cuddle in that basement as we watch the actors practice their plays and musicals; Vii takes me around to adventure through the cavern and see all the beautiful sights that we’ve missed while too busy fighting; and Eshya, well, we hunt a few of the dangerous beasts in the cavern and enjoy open conversation away from the others. There’s still a few things that Eshya would rather keep from the others, mostly to do with her violent tendencies.

I also notice Vii pulling Eshya up to the ceiling lake to dance under the surface, something we learned from the otters. I can’t join them because of my lessons with Arduelle, but it’s still nice to experience the moment through their eyes. Watching them enjoying themselves together without me stirs a little jealousy within me, but nothing uncomfortable. I just want to skip class and join them.

As the week ends, we’re sent out on another trip with the combat class, and of course Sedena is going to be coming with us again.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Unlike all the rest of our trips, this one is dreadfully ordinary. Green fields and a few sparse trees that most people couldn’t tell apart from those back on Earth. The locals are rather close to being proper elves but with a few aspects of bark on their limbs and long leaves in place of hair. That’s about as normal as it gets out here in the wide universe.

We train in combat movements and practice our Skills and fighting instincts, while repressing our ‘beastliness’. The largest difference comes from our spying on Sedena.

I’ve managed to put a tag on her, and I can see through her eyes and record anything she does, so if she gets up to anything, we’ll know it.

The locals are pleasant, but their homes are rather open. So it’s not really surprising to find that Sedena doesn’t get up to anything while we’re here.

We train, and sleep. I make the most of this time to work on getting my mana form back under control, and make some decent strides in that direction, but my anxiety keeps turning my attention back towards my lovers and my city, pulling me away from training.

A tight ball of fear still spins in my heart, startling me at times with painful memories, or imaginings.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“We have a number of problems, and some solutions.” Nel says, the moment we return. “There’s been some trouble in establishing the farms, and it might be best to look into it in person. The slayers and our soldiers are both reporting that they’ve been bringing back less meat, and there’s less to hunt.

“It’s not critical yet, but things are progressing a little faster than we thought they would.” Nel says, the shadows under her eyes telling me of an even worse issue.

“We need to get you some more assistants.” I say, “How have you been sleeping.”

“I… I’m not sure if there’s anyone we can trust.” She says, nervously tapping her foot. “Khet and his guild is already looking for ways to mess with us, and I’m sure they’ll try to get to anyone we hire.”

“Then we don’t trust them, until they earn our trust.” I say. “I can literally see through their eyes and record their interactions. I’m not overly happy with invading everyone’s privacy like this, but it’s not a power I’m ready to give up. I’ll monitor them, and make sure that they know it.

“They won’t misbehave.”

“I… I guess that’s acceptable.” She relents, “I’ll get some people together. Hopefully they’ll do their work appropriately.”

“Good, now is there anything else?”

“A few things.” She says, explaining the process that Giant is taking to reconstruct the city. Apparently, he’s not happy with simply rebuilding it into what it once was, and he’s been working hard to create something new. Something I can approve of.

We get back to work, settling issues as they pop up and trying to keep ahead of everything.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 6192 units

~Mana distribution:

Category Current Max. Defence 20% 100% Offense 20% 100% Mana Sense 20% 100% Recovery 20% 100% Gluttony 10% 100% Misc. 10% 100% Efficiency 100% 100%

~Favourited Skills:

-Tag and Film

-Trapping

-Stealth

-Mana surge movement

-Annihilation defence

-Annihilation flame burst

-Annihilation net

-Eyes of an Empire

Adaptions:

-Quick perception mind

-Annihilation Heart

-Clean bowels