53 Upgrading a Princess to a Goddess

Their next incursions into the ant lands turned out to be relatively unspectacular. Their last battle made it obvious that they would not be able to get rid of this new neighbor and the ants had obviously decided to leave their future kingdom's area alone.

It was just a tiny part of the region and they had still many other alternatives for expansion.

The archers were in a good mood when they returned, after their unexpected short stop in the capital. Good food and drink, as well as a night in a comfortable bed instead of a barrack in the middle of a frozen tundra seemed to make a lot of difference.

When Myra and Aaron finished with setting up all the formations, the area for the future kingdom was finally secure, at least from the threat of ants.

"Phew, done here as well. I think now that all of these are placed, we can soon start building the mage tower." Myra already considered the next steps.

"Long term we need at least some security, water, food and a place to live as well as protection from the cold. I don't know of many plants that would survive in this cold and yield enough harvest to produce proper food, so we either have to import it or build enclosed spaces to plant our crops."

Aaron made a short list of things he could think of right away.

"I think we need a road. We cannot simply produce all goods ourselves at the beginning and we will need a way to import things. It would also be nice to have a city wall and a proper government building. It doesn't have to be a palace, but some sort of castle might be good."

Myra agreed to all of these things. "I think whatever we do, we first need to find a way to protect people from the cold and once that is done, we can get workers on the various building projects."

"How do you plan to get rid of the cold? Didn't you say it will take years for it to change the weather properly?"

"Yes, but I was mostly talking about crops and the like for the whole kingdom, we should be able to stop the freezing cold in the city area within a short amount of time after the mage tower is built."

Aaron had never before seen or even heard of a mage tower. With the little bit of information Myra had told them about it, he was still not sure what these buildings would really do.

"What do these towers do exactly?" he asked Myra, wondering why she was so focused on such a thing.

"In the past, powerful people used it to break through the world barriers and elevate their status from a purely physical to a spiritual being." Myra started to explain.

"Eh, that sounds, obscure, what does that actually mean?"

"Well, you have a physical body. If it dies or gets destroyed it's really hard to not die."

"Thanks for bringing that up, I feel my mortality as never before." Aaron rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't that apply to everyone?"

"Nope. It wouldn't." – "How would that not apply?"

"If my body gets destroyed, I just make a new one. More time and effort, but I'd be far from dead."

Aaron considered that information again. "I think you mentioned something like that before. That's what these towers are for?"

Myra nodded. "I think people would call it ascending to godhood here. It's probably the explanation that comes the closest to the real thing, although gods in religions and gods that are just powerful beings are not the same."

"They are neither the creators of the world, nor do they get any benefit from being worshipped. Some obviously abused the power to get worshipped, but it doesn't really help them, unless they also use some sacrificial rituals and they gain power that way."

"I see, so I didn't just decide to marry a princess, I decided to marry a goddess. Fine with me."

Myra smiled and blushed a little bit. "Either way, what these towers do, is circumvent the limit that a physical body faces. You can't really use more than a certain amount of power with an untrained body."

"You can slowly improve it to the point that it really makes no difference, but for a normal mortal being it can be really hard to reach that far to be able to turn themselves into a spirit form before they die."

"The towers help take a lot of the burden, mortals can break through to a spirit form way faster that way, because they are no longer as limited by their body."

Aaron finally started to understand what this was all about. Myra no longer needed to ascend, as she said, she already had a spirit form, somehow, somewhere, even though he didn't see it. What she wanted the tower for was to no longer burden her current body as much and use more magical power.

"Does this mean you can use the transfer array more often?" he asked, curious if this way of transportation was a viable option.

"Not only will I be able to use it more often, with a mage tower around I will be able to keep a gate open all the time and still have more than enough power left for other tasks, like changing the weather."

Aaron had a hard time believing that a simple tower would have such a huge influence on their plans.

"This sounds really powerful." – "Mhm, it is! That's why I want to have one."

The question of the tower and their next steps solved, there was another big topic that was in everyone's minds.

"Myraaa! Come over, let's look through the decorations for the wedding." Alyn was happy to use every break she had to help plan the wedding. If Myra and Aaron didn't decide to have their wedding this quickly, she would likely already plan for her own, even though Liam didn't even agree to marry her yet.

--

"Myra, I think there's something you need to look at!" Nell handed Myra a crystal with some sealed information on it.

"It's from the palace. Looks like there will be some sort of meeting or party or whatever and they want you to join. At least that's what I've been told."

Myra quickly took a look at the information provided by the crystal. It was indeed an invitation to a banquet at the royal palace, with several different representatives of other empires and kingdoms.

"Oh, daddy Emperor asks for my help with some of these visitors. I think he is worried about facing some sort of invasion because we usually don't care about expansion and are just a very peaceful empire."

Nell coughed and had a hard time not laughing when she used the words 'daddy emperor' but did his best to calm down soon after. Tia next to him on the other hand burst out laughing, making all his effort go to waste.

Myra rolled her eyes and smiled at Tia in a self-mocking way. "Well he is daddy emperor after all. He decided to adopt me on his own."

There was never really any open hostility between Myra and Tia, otherwise Tia would never have made it this far into their ranks. The initial grudge she had against the assassin, that started to burden Myra and Nell's relationship seemed to be finally resolved.

With Myra's open and honest nature, once they had a 'girls talk' it really turned her initial anger into curiosity and then into understanding. Tia's life didn't seem to have been easy and even though that could not forgive her misdeeds, Myra still accepted them in the end.

Tia nodded after she managed to calm down. "I think it would be really helpful if you could help out a little and … I don't know, intimidate those ambassadors. No one really likes having a war just because of these jerks."

"Sure, but you are going to be my escort!" Myra decided all of a sudden.

"Who?" Tia was confused.

"The one who asks. Aaron is busy, making sure the workers can return to warm up after some time and transfers them to the tower that is being built and back again, Nell is busy training this group of sneaking people and kitties."

"Alyn is training the Celestial Archers and Liam is busy making sure that the tower they are building doesn't fall on our heads, because it needs a lot of fortification magic. That leaves you."

"Not to mention that you were trained as an assassin and spy, you learned all those things like how to talk to nobles, who is who and what to say at the correct time. I don't even know what silverware to use for various dishes, without someone to help me I'd be totally lost."

Now Tia's earlier laughter was frozen and she looked rather grumpy. "Why do I have to join you on your palace tour, that's not fair."

Myra smirked at her. "See it as punishment, you tried to harm Nell, now you have to join me for palace visits."

"When will this slavery end!? I'm still young I cannot waste my whole life away in such a place!" Tia's overdramatic voice made all of them laugh.

"Go marry Nell and have some kids then you're excused." Myra replied with a laugh.

"Damnit, I'm stuck with this for life!"

--

Soon Myra and Tia started their 'training'. While Myra had some basic etiquette lessons at the academy, they were mostly tailored to commoners or military related topics. What Tia was now teaching her on the other hand, was totally different.

Table manners, forms of address, polite speech, all kinds of things Myra hated as much as not being able to eat good food. Well, maybe not as bad as not having any good food, but it was pretty bad nonetheless.

"No, that's the wrong glass, you can't use this to drink wine." Tia was already exhausted barely two hours into their training.

It seemed to her as if Myra was a lost case. The young woman did what she wanted, when she wanted and all of the formal things, simply didn't really make any sense to her.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I honestly don't think this will work. Using their approach will just make you appear odd, but you will never really fit into that royalty or even nobility crowd."

"What should I do then?" Myra was a little bit sad that she did not manage to learn these things as fast as others, but she understood that Tia did her best.

"Just, be yourself Myra, the only way you can make them back off is overwhelming power anyways. They won't take you seriously if you just ask them nicely or tell them polite words. You are unknown and have no serious backing other than the Emperor, who is their target anyways."

"Fine. I will just do that then. You still have to come with me though and translate."

"Translate? Don't they all speak the same language?"

Myra shook her head. "You have to translate from stick up their ass speech to regular speech." she explained happily, causing Tia to laugh once more.

"Fine, I come with you and help you translate. I'll also be your guard if any of the weaklings decide to cause trouble. It is not fitting for someone of your standing to act directly for the small fry."

"Mhm, thanks Tia!"