Gark overseeing the new sewer system. At the same time as the last chapter.

Gark was bored of watching the workers. He would much rather trust the foreman to do his job, but David had suspicions about the crews that did not work the day before. Something he learned long ago is when one has a bad feeling about something. Nine times out of ten it is nothing, but you never ignore that feeling because that tenth time is when your entire village burns. And as the day wore on he had grown to have a similar suspicion. Only five people know of the full sewer system map. Two of the city planners and the three councilors.

This is the fifth work crew he had watched try to pull something. The others had all been minor mistakes. Sloppiness due to laziness. A stone laid backward or the rune facing upwards instead of downwards. Simple mistakes. Easily fixed mistakes. This crew had just taken their lunch break halfway through their assigned stretch before trading off with another crew. But this crew had two people continue working while the rest ate. Gark had already passed on the info to the nearby Warden who had already detained the two. Not only the two but the foreman and the one that ordered the unplanned section of tunnel to be dug out and hidden had been caught.

Gark’s people do not easily forget and they built the houses the strangers stay in. Naturally, the lycans can listen in from the outside, even whispers. This man with a don title will be executed publicly for treason after his underlings. As David had explained it, the sewers were a national secret. Noone, save the council or the city planners, is supposed to know all the plans for it. And deviating from the plans means you have ulterior motives against the nation. Hince treason. This was explained to those working and the consequences as well.

-----

Silve Ironforge with his wives and council at the same time.

Silve sipped his ale as the dwarven council began to sit around the table. Each will eventually become the head of their own house in time, but there will only ever be one head bloodline for the dwarves if he had anything to say about it.

“ All right you lazy louts, get yer asses planted so we can start this so-called meeting.”

Silve watched as the last councilors stopped procrastinating and sat. Some sipped their own drinks, but most focused on Silve.

“ All right you louts, I shall make this simple. I and me clan were the first to start hollowing out this mountain under the permission of the lord who owns it. And before you get yer beards twisted with that pecker you think is magical, if Lord David wills it, he can and will remove us all.”

Silve takes his mug again to drink while thinking about what he didn’t say. That it would be unlikely he would do so unless the dwarves become a problem for the rest of his people or endanger his plans.

“ To slag what this lordling wants, he can only keep what he has the strength to.”

To that, a few others gave their approval and Silve held his tongue. Politics were nothing new to dwarves, but Silve never had been in a position of power when they happened and he did not want to fall back into old habits. Still, he remembered a few of the times he had been at court when his former king was in a similar position and decided to imitate him slightly. So he kept quiet.

“ We have been mining this mountain for the better part of a year. It is our stone that they builld their city. It is our iron they make their armor out of. It is our ale they drink...”

This caused an uproar to occur again. Silve closed his eyes and sighed.

“ Greedy louts, no wonder David is so worried.”

Silve’s whispered was drowned out by the others but his wife Marqe heard him.

“ Now dear, don’t burn your beard over it.”

Silve turns to her and smiles gently.

“ Sometimes a man has to let the children bicker so you can set them straight after they run out of steam.”

This time his words were not unnoticed.

“ What was that Silve, you calling us unruly children for saying what we know is right?”

Silve could not help but start laughing. This was not a gentle laugh but one from the gut that was mocking. Causing the entire table to go quiet.

“ Your stone, your iron, your booze? The fools the lot of you. Who do you think bought this land? Who do you think paid for the materials to make our tools? Who do you think provided the wheat for our meed? It was certainly not I nor any of you fools. I know why we are really here, one with the foreman caught earlier was a dwarf. You want me to plead leniency. And ye all can kiss my hairy arse.

That foreman has no ties to any of us but somehow managed to get involved with treason against us. Not just the humans or the lycans, but us as well. The plans for the sewer are just as important if not more so than the Warden Keep we have been tasked to build.

And lest ye ferget all the coin given to you for yer bloody work comes from that so-called lordling coffers. Fifty years of service, five years without taxes, and a wage for apprentice levels of work but a master's coin. Generous you may call the man, but any who thinks he a fool is one himself. Ye get what ye pay for, and Lord David has paid well. Remember that when it is time to collect, either the taxes owed or ye heads for rebellion.”