“A person tends to be a smart individual, but even so, people will remain foolish, panicky animals with a tendency to react at the slightest stimulus.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

After they finished their vacation and the visit to La Fiachna, Aideen’s group headed back to Tohrmutgent, where they parted ways once more. Coincidentally, the Bone Lord had also returned by then, the conquest of Vitalica posing him no trouble whatsoever, with all that remained being the gradual assimilation of the land and people to the Lichdom as a whole.

Aideen went for a quiet, private meeting with the Bone Lord soon after her return to Tohrmutgent. The meeting itself wasn’t important, as it was mostly just formality. The Bone Lord was in full support of her dream, and they met just to get his official permission for her to recruit people to aim towards that dream, an official permission that the aging Drietven soon presented to Aideen in written form.

It was pretty much a writ that empowered Aideen to recruit people for her project anywhere in the Lichdom, provided that the people in question agreed to help her, as well as a note that the activity had the Bone Lord’s blessings. As a bonus, it also allowed her to requisition supplies as needed, she only had to ask.

As for Aideen’s own plans, they were for the longer term. She planned to make some preparations and arrangements first about transportation and the like, which needed to be done ahead of time considering the scale that would be needed. Part of it she could do in the present, but some she would only be able to do on another visit to Alcidea as she would need to clear things and get permits from the local powers whose territory they would pass through.

She planned to visit Alcidea again at least a century or so before the planned exodus, to both get a better glimpse of the present situation of the northern continent and to ensure that whatever permits she got wouldn’t have been forgotten or expired when she needed to use them. Given the location of the Forest of Despair, she would need a permit from either Posuin or Knallzog, if her planned expedition would take the most expedient route.

The closest ports to Ur-Teros were the ones to the south of Alcidea, with the major ones being Meergant in Knallzog and Aluvo in Posuin. Of the two, Meergant would be closer to her eventual destination, as Aluvo was far on the south-western tip of the continent. More conveniently, Aideen and the Lichdom also had more connections in the dwarven kingdom, as Ginnie’s descendants should still be around, whereas the connections she made in Posuin might have been long forgotten given the centuries that have passed.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Transportation itself was a serious problem, if the number of people who would join her proved to be significant. It would take multiple ships, the larger ones at that, to transport so many people from one continent to the other. Aideen thought back to her acquaintances and connections and recalled a certain unliving captain that might prove to be a promising lead, so she thought of contacting the man at the earliest convenient time.

If she remembered right, Arquivaldo ran the intercontinental trade route on the regular and favored selling directly to people on the southern shores of the continent, so she might be able to find him easily enough that way. She was uncertain if the captain had taken his business as far south as Ptolodecca’s own shores, but it was worth inquiring.

For the time being, Aideen spent the following week asking the other Unliving who lived in Tohrmutgent whether they would be interested in helping create a place to truly call their own or not. Some were content with their lives in Tohrmutgent, but nevertheless pledged to support the cause in whatever way Èthey could, like Mallard and the Hornswoggles.

Many were ambivalent and undecided, which was understandable. For most, being able to live in peace was already a blessing, and they would not see a need to have a place that truly belonged to them. That said, most of the unliving who were more ambitious or had goals of their own to achieve proved to be quite interested in Aideen’s plans, especially those who used to be mages and researchers while they lived.

Out of her own personal circle, Celia and Kino naturally offered their full support, as did Mimia, Èirynn, and their children, who happened to have heard of her intentions as well, not that Aideen kept it a secret to begin with. Mimia and Èirynn were growing older, and to be honest, Aideen wasn’t even certain if she could embark on the expedition within their lifetime, but she welcomed their support nonetheless.

She had no need to worry about supplies, as Grandpa Aarin’s promise of support on that field meant that she only needed to ask and she could receive as much as she needed. Besides, if the expedition would be mostly if not entirely comprised of the unliving like she planned, they might not even need that much in terms of supply.

After all, the Forest of Despair had such dense ambient mana that it would be trivial for their kind to survive there just off the mana alone.

All in all, after she asked around Tohrmutgent, Aideen received confirmations from around two hundred other unliving, with at least twice that number giving a tentative reply. It was a good enough start, one she could definitely work with. For the time being, though, said people would have nothing to do unless they happened to know something that could help her.

And help her they could, indeed.

A middle-aged unliving human man named Garth, who still worked as a merchant and trader as it was his passion, informed Aideen that he happened to run across Arquivaldo’s ship at the south-eastern port of the Lichdom, Port Lif, almost a year ago. Given that sailors like Arquivaldo typically tried to set a schedule to visit their partners at the same months each year, Aideen immediately decided to travel south once more in case she could catch the good captain in port.