“Nothing is eternal before the flow of the River of Time.” - Saying attributed to a pre-historic philosopher.

Time changed everything.

The saying could not be more apt than what Celia experienced when she stepped foot in the Clangeddin Empire once more, for the first time in four and a half decades. She and Aideen had disguised themselves as random travelers once more, something that was not hard to do. They entered the Empire’s territory from some less guarded areas like the dense forests that nobody cared to pass through and made their way from there to the main roads, looking to all as just another pair of travelers on the way.

Needless to say, the Empire had changed in the nearly five decades she had been gone.

Probably out of consideration for her, Aideen had chosen to enter the Empire’s territory around where the northern border of Lavinja County used to be. Except that there was no more Lavinja County. Like they had learned from some of the captives from the second invasion, the County was broken up into many smaller territories, with each new Barony distributed to new nobles more loyal to the crown.

The old Count’s family was placed into disgrace, with the fate of many of his descendants unknown. The few remaining knights of the County that had the fortune to not participate in the debacle were better off, as they at least found ready employment with the new masters of the land. Celia and Aideen took some time to track down and look for the families of Andromarche and a few other captives who joined Clan Bloodfang after the second expedition, just to ascertain their wellbeing.

A few of the families they failed to track down, as they had moved to other regions of the empire in the past few decades. A couple others, they found living their lives mostly the same way as before, their grief for the lost family members already mostly forgotten by then as they continued on with their lives. Andromarche’s family was one of the more fortunate of those families.

They found Andromarche’s family living a relatively well-off existence, as apparently one of her cousins grew up to become a knight for one of the new Baronies, and was fortunate to have worked for a liege lord who had not joined up with the second expedition. The rest of her family also opened a small bakery in the town that sold fresh bread and small pies to snack on. They were not rich, but they were quite well-off all considered, and had no fear of going hungry.

Aideen sent the news regarding those families with a messenger pigeon she had carried all the way from the prairies and kept carefully with her. It was a final token of goodwill from her end, to pass on the news to all the ones who had chosen to live in the prairies like Andromarche. The bird vanished from sight not too long after she released it, on its way to the prairies it came from.

The Clangeddin Empire itself seemed to have gone under a political upheaval in the past few decades. The Imperial family had centralized a lot of the power that used to be in the hands of the various nobles. Such a maneuver would have resulted in unrest and widespread protests from the nobles, but the Emperor had played their hand carefully before they made their move.

While they secured the support of noble clans whose loyalty were firmly on their side, the Emperor had then given his tacit agreement for the second northern expedition. The vast majority of the participants in that debacle were nobles who stood in opposition to the Imperial family, who had long hankered for more conquest and expansion to enrich themselves.

As such, the Emperor pretended to acquiesce to their demands and “allowed” them to gather the troops for the expedition. Then he just waited for their failure, which was far more thorough and destructive than even his best estimates, before he struck. Within a fortnight the families of the nobles that participated and called for the second northern expedition were demoted, some to lower ranks, with others sent all the way back down to peasantry.

Their lands were confiscated by the throne, split into smaller parcels which were then distributed to other nobles who were allies to the Imperial family, or granted to new nobles who had reached their high status but had yet to receive a land to govern. The decisive maneuver had simultaneously removed the most troublesome faction from the Imperial Court while also allowing the Emperor to focus on rebuilding the poorer areas of the Empire as he had wished to do.

The effects of such changes were noticeable.

While the territory that used to belong to Lavinja County was still rather poor in terms of land quality, there was far more liveliness compared to the time Aideen met Celia back then. Unlike the previous lord that tried to eye out the most value from the land without caring for his people’s needs and forced them to grow crops meant for export, the farmers now grew various food crops that thrived despite the poor soil of the region.

Vines of tomatoes and cucumbers ran along wooden frames made to support their growth, often growing next to fields of peas and peppers. Other sections of the field were reserved to grow cassava, yams, and even potatoes, which were first imported from Knallzog until the locals had enough to start growing them locally on their own.

Where there used to be listless, malnourished villagers that merely tried to eke out their living from one day to another, there were now healthy, robust people who took pride in their hard work and thrived despite their harsh environment. Aideen and Celia even visited the village of Azuleis where the latter was born, and saw a relatively thriving village surrounded by farmlands that spanned at least twice as far as it had been during Celia’s time there.

The sight almost moved Celia to tears on the spot.