"When I returned home to Ptolodecca once more, two decades after my husband's passing, that was when the idea first struck me. The idea to find a place for people like me, one which we all could call our home once and for all time.

Grandpa Aarin had been most kind and accommodating of course, and his people most accepting of us unliving, but ultimately, Ptolodecca is *his* land and *his* home, not ours. Such desires were the first seed of the idea that would eventually lead towards the founding of Paradise by our own hands." - From the diary of Aideen deVreys, the Silver Maiden.

City of Tohrmutgent

Lichdom of Ptolodecca

Southern Ur-Teros

4th day of the 1st week, 1st month of the year 180 VA.

Shortly after the year turned, Aideen returned to Tohrmutgent. From Istberg in Istria to Tohrmutgent in Ptolodecca was supposed to be at most two or so months by carriage, but she had taken the scenic way around, on foot at that.

She had traveled through most regions of Istria, before she left satisfied that her actions would not have left the people affected by the war under worse hands. The young Jarl she saved seemed to be a rare benevolent ruler, so she could look back at the call she had made in good conscience.

Once she crossed the border to Ptolodecca, she headed northwards, and discreetly entered the lands that now called itself Vitalica. What she saw there thoroughly disgusted and angered her, a sight of the peasantry wrung to their limits by the new nobility that had risen from the rebels back then.

It had sickened her, and made her glad that her family had come to the decision to become vassals to grandpa Aarin instead back when they reclaimed their home. The border with Ptolodecca was quite tightly guarded, but not so tightly that a single, skilled intruder couldn't get through quietly. Aideen knew the Death's Hand had several agents in the country anyway.

After that short jaunt, she returned to north-eastern Ptolodecca just across the border. The border security on that side was even tighter, with skeletons to keep watch eternally, as they needed neither food nor rest. Of course, she was let through easily once the necromancer on duty saw her face.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

The contrast between the two lands, both of which used to be Junoran territory merely a little over a century ago, could not be much starker. While both territories had started as downtrodden slaves who had received new masters, the Vitalican side had changed little, all the good done during her parents' time pretty much erased, as the new higher class opressed those below them for their own benefit.

On the Ptolodeccan side, she saw idyllic villages - if not for the presence of skeleton soldiers on every intersection and guarding around the perimeter of the lands - where plump, healthy, and active children played around happily, not a few of which used the guarding skeletons as platforms to be climbed on.

An older woman in the telltale black and purple robes worn by the clergy of Tohrmut and many necromancers besides was sipping tea while she knitted what looked like a scarf, completely relaxed on a rocking chair alongside many of the village's older women.

Another necromancer - this one a young man, probably just out of his teenage years - was manipulating a skeleton and made it take various funny poses as the giggling children around him cheered him on. They only dispersed when one of the village matrons came over to scold them and even rapped the young necromancer's head with the wooden ladle in her hand.

Aideen watched with a smile when the young necromancer tried to argue just to get smacked with the ladle again and again, before he sulkily withdrew to one of the houses. Many of the children that cheered him on had of course turned their backs and laughed at him over the ordeal.

Not that it stopped them from playing with him again the next day. The young necromancer seemed to have a soft spot for children and quickly got himself into trouble once more.

By the time she left the village a few days later and headed back to the south and west, where Tohrmutgent lay, Aideen was in a better mood. She passed by La Fiachna along the way, and said hello to Grainne, Maebh's daughter who now administered the region.

She spent a couple weeks there, chatting with her grand nephews and nieces, and playing with their younger grandchildren for a bit. With each generation that passed she felt more distant from them, something she lamented, but also understood as just how it would likely be.

After all, she had felt the same way with the descendants of Artair's siblings as well.

When she reached Tohrmutgent again shortly after the new year, Aideen noticed that there were huts and houses built outside the walls. Not that many, but the beginnings of a new outer city. Given the history of the city, they would likely expand the walls once more to include these new buildings in due time.

Some patrolling cavalrymen in the Wings of Night's attire passed by, and apparently recognizing her, saluted smartly when she walked past, a salute she returned in kind with a smile and a nod.

The city itself seemed peaceful, nothing particularly out of place, other than a rather ramshackle hut made out of branches and straw that was located far away from any other buildings, or the walls themselves for that matter.

Aideen had just started to wonder about the odd location and purpose for such an isolated hut when it went up in flames.

A large explosion engulfed the hut in its entirety, but nothing else was damaged due to its isolated location. From where she stood, Aideen could see two badly burned bodies that still moved in the hut's remnants, so she quickly rushed there, intent on helping those survivors of the flames.