Dark Elves II

"Then… I can speak to him if you bring me outside." Raima slowly slid her legs out from under the covers and tried to stand. Her legs wobbled and she nearly toppled over as Selene caught her and called for nurse assistance. Once she was helped into a wheelchair, they brought her outside to an inner courtyard with trees and flowers. A few stone benches and tables were set up, along with a chess board embedded in two of them.

The elf slowly lowered her hands to below the wheels and touched the grass, feeling it under her finger tips. She closed her eyes and concentrated, a slight green glow flowing and rippling in the area. The whole process took about a minute, then dispersed as Raima looked up at the empress. "It is done. He has agreed to allow you safe passage into the forest." The dev cocked an eyebrow.

That was very fast communications through nature, sending a message through the roots and nature itself to her ruler. Selene's {Communications Is Key} ability had the advantage of not needing to be touching or near to anything, she just talked inside her head to those she had connected to herself. Her automatons could easily chat at a moment's notice, with anyone else needing an earpiece. If one of them was ever somehow stolen, it would detect the wrong skin cells it was touching and… detonate. The resulting explosion was not conducive to one's health.

However, it might have been possible that Raima could speak to nature, to trees given her race. Selene couldn't really do that. Nature wasn't exactly her forte, automatons and steampunk were her area of expertise.

Elves are like the EPA on steroids, able to tell if something is causing damage to the environment or harming a biome. That is damned useful to keep an ecological balance in the area. Hmm… but she's a dark elf though… aren't they supposed to be destructive?

"Very well. We'll see if things will work out. I'm not about to guarantee anything, but we'll be cordial as long as he is."

"My king was wondering the same thing. It's… not every day that he gets the chance to speak to humans on civil terms."

"So, when is the meeting expected?" Selene asked.

"Tomorrow, when the sun is at its zenith." The dev crossed her arms and shifted on her hips.

"Hmm. I was kind of expecting to deal with… other things… tomorrow… let me see if I can shift my schedule around." The empress had multiple meetings for the next day, each with the mayors of her towns and cities, checking with Donovan and Melsia involving how to best move trade of spare supplies piling up in the castle. While the place was clean and proper, hidden underground were stores of silk, cotton, linen and even wool now. Metal ingots in towers were ready to be used with dried foods available to transport anywhere. The Rikter parents were a boon to figuring out how not to oversaturate the market with the quality goods she secretly had in abundance.

This wasn't all there was either. Brynhildr was going to commence her assault on Paldos City officially tomorrow, with a report provided soon after. There was also a symphony playing that night that Selene really, really wanted to go listen to and have recorded. There were only about twelve songs available right now at the castle, with nothing available, obviously, from Earth. She didn't have access to young country, rap, hard rock, jazz, etc. or any variations or new forms beyond the music she could get from the bands and orchestras living in the various municipalities. Gaining art in all forms to spruce up the castle made it less boring by leaps and bounds.

"He'll wait for you in the grand tree… what you lumber… er… humans… would call a castle." She was about to call Selene a lumber foot. Last time she checked, her Agility was at two hundred percent, further improved by the Epic armor she wore giving a drastic jump in all stats by a sizeable amount. Raima didn't know it, but the woman she was sitting near could easily dance through her arrows as if the elf couldn't hit the broadside of a barn.

"I would much rather meet in a neutral location… whatever. We'll see what he has to say."

22nd, November

Selene was about to cancel the whole meeting, as there were so many things she was trying to do right now. Bryn had started her assault on Paldos City, cutting off any hopes of escape to warn the king of Artinia they were under siege. Giles had worked on a new forge in his spare time in hopes it would be mass produced for all blacksmiths in the empire, with the empress's blessing. It allowed enchanting from magicians and wizards during the forging process, allowing stronger enchantments to be built into equipment and items via pre enchanted materials. This allowed magic casters to go do their own thing while not on a schedule to meet up with weaponsmiths or tailors. It also drastically dropped the cost of enchanted items, however there were massive restrictions on weaponized enchantments inside the empire now.

Skuld wanted to plan a temporary showing of what the students had learned, at least for an hour, to prove they were making gains in education for the people. Anyone who was at least somewhat wealthy in the empire was now sending their children to the academy to be taught by new professors barely found in time to help Skuld and Antoine teach them how to act, to break away from the corrupt views of Artinia and actually want to work to help the communities they lived in.

Research had completed for Class III shields, protecting against up to nuclear levels of damage, roughly up to high megaton strength, which nothing beyond 9th tier magic or higher seemed to be able to drop on anything. If someone fired one of those off, they'd be quickly targeted and taken out. This also brought up tier 6 magic immunity, which was almost complete. The research on the samples from the faith eater was going exceptionally slow, with difficulties constantly found as to the composition of some materials. The claws especially didn't seem to match keratin or any sort of enamel layout, which seemed to tell her these weren't grown, potentially… grafted on. There were too many errors that kept popping up in the reports too.

Morlan and Elsei were going with her to the meeting, along with Hrist for support. While having two humans entering their 'grand tree' might come off as insulting, Elsei explained there wasn't really any animosity between dark elves and high elves, at least the ones that were above ground; there were groups that were banished long ago to the underground, however any elf that still lived in forests was almost always not hostile to another of their race entering. This worked differently from the stories she had read back on Earth, with the idea of 'Drow' being evil narcissistic elves that were matriarchal in ruling.

Technically, 'high elf' was another name for what Elsei was, and normally considered a little arrogant. Elsei seemed to be on the calmer somewhat friendlier side of how they would ordinarily act towards humans, with a warm personality whenever she was with Morlan. There were many different races of elves, just as there were many races of humans. Elsei had even said there were Avariel living to the far north east in the Kaldanas Mountains, hidden away.

Raima was asked the previous day if Drow was a name they had used. She got very angry once that word was used and requested that Selene not use it ever unless underground. It seemed to hit a nerve being called that, almost as if she had insulted her mother or called her a bitch, but far worse. The dark elves of her forest wanted to distance themselves from supposed underground relatives as much as possible.

Huh, ok, so different from what I thought was normal. Good to know.

Apparently, both elves with her in the helibot could trace their lineage back to a very high pedigree, though a long-lost cousin was now considered batshit insane and lived somewhere else in the world, supposedly an elf king of ill repute. The last they ever heard about him was he was just living a life of debauchery and pleasure, not even really ruling over his little screwed up kingdom, abandoning his subjects to the collapse due to his ego. There was a high elf hero apparently held in some sort of stasis crystal to the north by the high elves, the name almost lost to time it seems. The only letter they had for her was an A, whether that was used at the beginning, middle or end of the name was lost to history.

"Two minutes to LZ" Selene got a report from the helibot and checked her inventory for the small gift she was bringing, usually standard in human relations between nations back on Earth. It was a magnifying glass of the purest grown crystal, absolutely clear without a single imperfection. The handle was a golden lattice dragon hollowed out and climbing up to hold the lens. The quality of the whole thing was above anything Elsei had seen even elves create, which should impress the king. That was extremely high praise given what they tended to make being better than middle ages humans could ever hope to craft. Raima was surprised that this 'lumber foot' had access to techniques in crafts beyond her people. Besides Hrist in the transport, none of them had really seen the empress's manufacturing capability, and she didn't intend to show it either… she would be quite embarrassed.

The helibot landed softly just outside the grand tree, with guards rushing out to aim their weapons at the unknown metal creatures. They had no idea what to expect as the doors opened and the honor guards stepped out, four Mediums that all noticed the weapons trained on them and got ready to rock n roll. The dark elven guards had no idea how to really fight them, these ten-foot-tall mechanical soldiers that looked as if they could wipe out half the people in the city alone. Then Raima stepped out, with Morlan and Elsei right behind her.

Hrist came up and stood at the bottom of the small staircase that extended down from the raised transport, with Selene slowly stepping out into the shade of the leaves the grand tree provided. There were some rays of light through holes in the canopy, proving that these people didn't just come out at night or shun the sun. The trip had shown a massive section of the forest already cut down, probably by loggers or to build up open space for camps.

"High Ranger Raima, you live" one guard said in surprise as he saw the dark elf walk forward.

"Yes. I bring… a guest. She is here to meet with our king." The guards lowered their weapons quickly, not wanting to instigate a fight with the metal creatures guarding the woman that looked like she was royalty. They escorted the group inside and up multiple flights of stairs, directly into the throne room. It was circular with windows seeming to corkscrew up the walls, glowing runes etched into the wood. There were floating tapers in the air giving a soft light that was almost like a low powered LED. The dark elven king sat on his throne, warped and gnarled wood growing as if it was stone and metal mixed with antler.

"Your majesty… I bring you Empress Selene of the Clockwork Empire to speak with you" Raima shouted out proudly as she saluted and bowed to him. "This is King Weren, ruler of the dark elves of Olva'lore Forest."

"Raima. While you do well to bring this… empress… to speak, is it true what has happened to my daughter?" the king asked. He sat with a greying beard, still looking fairly young despite the crow's feet at the corner of his eyes. His age could have been anything, probably something over five hundred for all Selene knew, maybe closer to eight hundred.

"I'm sorry your highness, it is true." Raima kept her eyes down and staring at the ground, feeling guilty about what had happened. Weren sighed and closed his eyes.

"We don't have the numbers right now to mount a rescue…" he said out loud. "I cannot lose another… not so soon…" his hand reached up to an amulet and ran his thumb along the emblem on the front, caressing it as if there might be a picture of some sort hidden inside. It was doubtful the dark elves had even the means to create a silver graph or photographs, though there might be something with heliography used, somehow, with nature acting as the catalyst. Raima glanced over her shoulder at Selene, her eyes filled with sorrow. Something had happened that caused the ranger to run towards Glass Dale, something that involved the princess it seemed.

What is with princesses getting into trouble around here… I really didn't take the job of white knight, I'm pretty sure I'm the wrong gender…

"Perhaps… perhaps the empress might have something to offer to help while you speak?" Raima asked. Selene half closed her eyes in annoyance, the ranger speaking on her behalf causing her to clear her throat.

"Ahem." The ranger turned back around and looked at the empress. "I speak for myself, Raima, thank you." Ranger Silk root realized she screwed up and dropped her eyes to the ground, embarrassed.

"That will be all Raima, you are dismissed" King Weren informed her. She turned around and saluted then bowed. "My… apologies… if she caused any trouble. I understand you are human, the ruler of an empire that is at war with our enemy, Artinia. It… doesn't surprise me." A chair was brought forth from the ground, gnarled roots growing up and hardening. Selene couldn't figure out if these dark elves were part wood elf in some capacity given what they were doing with their druidic abilities. Elsei had informed her that all elves had at least some connection to nature in at least a minimal capacity.

Given that these dark elves were living in a forest, they might have nurtured their talents and abilities back to the strength of any other elf. The semi stone and metal architecture mixed into the wood, however, seemed to tell her it wasn't like any other druidic creation though.

"Doesn't surprise you that other humans fight each other, or doesn't surprise you that Artinia picks fights with everyone?" Selene asked, remaining calm and composed, wondering if he'd apologize for inadvertently insulting her like Raima did at the hospital.

"It doesn't surprise me that they strike out at everyone around them. They seem to govern themselves off of greed, expansion, taking what does not belong to them, like spoiled children."

"I would like to agree, however I'm probably in the same boat given we're taking what is theirs practically every day, including their citizens. They're quite happy to be out from under foot of the pay to be saved church and tyrannical rule of an insane king." Weren leaned forward in his throne and gazed at the empress, his silver eyes looking at her curiously without anger. While it would be understandable for his kind to be prejudice towards hers, he didn't seem to lump her into the same group as the slavers coming for his people in droves. His eyes seemed wise and calm, with an air about him that seemed far more noble than the members of the houses in Silvinholm, very similar almost to Donovan and Melsia.

"Somehow… I don't believe that is entirely true. You have an air about you as one who fights when she needs to." The dev chuckled.

"Should have said that line before I had an interesting trip just recently then." The empress was the main cause of getting into trouble in Silvinholm after all.

"Were the battles for righteous reasons?" Morlan looked at Selene, knowing that she had a good heart. She had saved his family from too many things to rip them apart.

"That I know of? Mmm… in my eyes, not really. To others…" the empress looked up at Morlan standing to her right as Hrist stood to the left of her chair. "Well… history books won't be written by me, so I probably shouldn't speak for others. They'll decide." Morlan smiled a little at that response. The empress didn't seem to have an over inflated ego of herself.

"A reasonable choice. When we are dead and gone, our mark we leave on this world will tell others whether we were good for the world or an abomination that needed to be snuffed out" Weren replied.

"Or someone that didn't do anything productive; there are those out there that perform in that regard, forgotten like a footnote at the bottom of a page" Selene added in. The king nodded. The honor guard surrounding Selene kept their stance near their empress, the guards in the throne room doing their best not worry. If there was one thing that the dev had brought to the grand tree, it was presence, and it was overwhelming.

"Well. Now to speak of other matters."

"Yes. So, we flew here for… what exactly? Raima didn't quite give all the details… or any actually." Weren chuckled a little.

"She isn't the most diplomatic, or the most talkative. She is one of our best rangers, though even that seemed to not save my daughter." The king looked at the small steps to his throne for a moment, lost in contemplation. He quickly recovered and looked back up at Selene.

"Perhaps we can come to an agreement? I have been told that you are in… conflict, with Artinia."

"That's correct. They picked on the wrong village at that time." Weren's eyebrows both raised for a few seconds.

"Village? Your empire is a village?"

"Started out as a village. It's obviously grown since then to take control of quite a few towns and cities."

"I see." That information seemed to tell just how effective the metal soldiers guarding the empress really were. Expanding from one simple village to an empire in such a short time… the woman was not to be trifled with it seemed. The thoughts racing through his head were that she was either a brilliant tactician, incredible blacksmith or powerful witch with so much magic it could overflow into the oceans. He was counting his favors that she would rather talk than act like the aggressive cousin to the east.

"How long did it take for you, your… empire… to build up from that one village?" he asked, curious.

"Mmm… maybe… a month?" she replied. His eyes widened in shock, doing his best to control his surprised visage. He blinked.

"With these… automatons?"

"Yes. It's worked well so far, the people that lived in the towns and cities I've taken so far are glad to be in my empire. They've had their quality of life… oh, I dunno, tripled? Quadrupled I think?" she said, looking up at Hrist.

"They worship you as a goddess, your majesty. I would say you've done more for them than any ruler could ever hope to achieve."

"Ah, yeah… that… oops."

"They worship you?" Weren asked.

"Not from lack of trying to keep them from doing so. I've… finally given up." She clicked her tongue with her teeth closed, averting her gaze away from him and taking a deep breath.

"I'm sorry if I ask too many questions about your empire, empress. I simply wish to know more about our neighbors, given you are far more… agreeable… than another kingdom we both have issue with."

"It's no worries, I would like to ask some questions myself about your kingdom as well. Learning from one another mends bridges as they always say, gives understanding of our similarities and differences. The more one knows, the better educated we can be to handle new situations when they arise between our people." Weren smiled and nodded.

"Well said. I would like to offer a tour, if possible, except for the fact that the bone walls are a bit in… dire straits I'm afraid. Forgive me for not taking you there."

"It's quite alright. I take it Artinia has been attempting to cause undue damage to them?" she asked.

Bone walls? As in necromancy? No, that has to be wrong. I'm guessing more just a name of the material, like hardened vines or something turned into bone. Can't jump to that conclusion just yet.

"Yes, it has been difficult to repair them, our dancers have been exhausted as of late. This is the last city of my people you see… we have nothing left." That seemed to answer the question bouncing around in her head. They were calling forth something from the ground to build the defenses, hardening it, potentially sacrificing plants that voluntarily gave their lives to protect the dark elves.

"I see. How many subjects do you rule over?" she asked.

"I believe… at best…" he stopped for a moment, seeming to try and hide some embarrassment. For an elf, it was like he was being gutted telling her. To any human, it was like the high and mighty had been knocked from their pedestal given how elves tended to treat other races in mythology. Selene withheld feeling anything until she got more knowledge of how the elves on this world lived. "Seventy thousand."

That number meant they could last for a long-term siege, then they would be gone. While some might be ignorant and think that was a massive population, seventy thousand was about enough for the dark elves to rebuild their population if they could just stop being picked on by Artinia. Elsei had explained last night that her kind didn't reproduce nearly as much as humans did due to their long lives. That one hundred thousand might take a century or two before it gained another thousand citizens, and that was a best-case scenario. Dark elves would be rare from here on out it seemed, at least on this continent. The high elf next to Morlan had told the empress that her kind numbered roughly five times that in their massive forest.

Seventy thousand also meant that was all of the population, not just the warriors and guards trying to keep the slavers away and the sieges broken. It would be a shame for the city to fall, from what she could see flying in while looking through the helibot's cameras, the place was beautiful. It had a dark yet serene feel to it, calming almost, as if the city itself was softly crying due to guilt from a long-forgotten punishment.

"Hmm. I would ask how Artinia has gotten the best of you, but I don't want to insult you obviously. I also believe I already know the answer. Quantity, right? Throwing bodies at you until you can't fight back hard enough?" Selene asked solemnly. She remembered what Melsia and Elsei had informed her about how quickly humans could get masses of soldiers to come crashing down on their small numbers, despite being equal to ten of their footmen or knights. The king didn't seem to want to answer. "I understand, I'll take that as you would rather not speak of it."

"I thank you for that. I… would like to say I hope your battles are going better against our common foe, but I can probably already guess." Selene did a facial shrug and glanced up at the ceiling, conical in shape with a few open windows with guards staring down through them at the group.

"Well, I might be able to show you how well they are doing if you wish." The empress put her hand into her inventory, disappearing into the portal that comprised all of her equipment and items, accessible at any moment. He gawked at her, surprised at what she was capable of. A small square slate was pulled from inside, with what looked like black glass on the front. The dev quickly tapped some buttons and brought up an aerial view from an ornithopter, seeing the one-way battle that Brynhildr was fighting with her army given. "Please, come. I'll show you."

The king stood up from his throne and stepped down the few steps circling the raised area, walking to her slowly and with a grace usually expected of his kind. She turned the slate over and showed him the scene, with Paldos City being utterly torn to pieces. His eyes widened at seeing one of the tanks open fire with its cannon, reload, then fire again, rolling on treads and charging forward with infantry covering with rifles. It wasn't a battle the way he knew it… it was an absolute slaughter. It was also giving him some immense satisfaction seeing that city be taken down. Weren noticed on one side of the small screen a line of slaves being escorted out of the area, all of them elves. The automatons were covering their escape, keeping anything human away from them so they could get medical attention. They didn't care what race the slaves were, they were held against their will.

The man was awe struck and just how much power her army had, controlling the ground, air and probably seas for all he knew. Artinia wasn't a threat at all, it bit off far more than it could chew by a long shot. He was looking at the military of a super power.

"I forget who once said this phrase, but oh well. 'Pity is for the weak, this is what strength really looks like'" Selene told him quietly as his eyes were glued to the tablet. A missile flew in and disintegrated a slaver running for his life with a flail in his hand. A small object was thrown by one of the automatons into a building with the soldier waiting outside; there was an explosion, followed by the two automatons breaching and entering. This was very advanced combat tactics in his eyes. They swept and cleared areas quickly, set up checkpoints, covered their retreats and moved as one, with backup provided by the metal boxes with turrets on top. He had never seen such an effective fighting force before. It was like a divine army coming down to smite the slavers for all the evil they had done.

The speed at which the automatons moved was incredible. They walked around like humans, but then suddenly had bursts of speed creating shockwaves in their wake to reach another location. A ballista bolt somehow was fired out of view, slamming into the energy shields of one Light auto. It promptly returned fire and ended the threat, unaffected by the primitive projectile. It didn't try to dodge the attack, just ignored it as a combat ineffective weapon. For all he knew, if it any attack could be considered effective against it, the mechanical soldier would probably move deftly away and counter.

Weren's eyes broke away from the tablet, not due to needing to look at the empress, but because she finally put the tablet back in her inventory. He was stunned. No words could form in his mind other than "incredible."

"Perhaps… perhaps we could… come to an agreement?" he asked timidly. Somehow, he went from wise and calm to acting as if she would squash him like a bug.

"You want me to not attack your people I take it? You know, there is something I remember hearing once. 'Always remember that diplomacy is above military action.' My armies are not here to start wars, but to end them. You aren't a threat to us, and I don't intend to start something with so few of your kind around; it would be just malicious intent." The king stood there, staring at the woman sitting down calmly and gazing at him. He could see why her subjects considered her a goddess… no, from what he saw, she was stronger than a god even.

"I… was instead going to… going to…" he didn't know what to say. "Please… I know I have no right to ask of this… would you… be able to, find my daughter, bring her back?" Selene was surprised he started begging right then and there. The guards looked at each other, seeing him almost acting as if he was beneath this human.

"I… don't… I mean, what would-"

"If you do this, I'll make sure we have a shipment of mithril as a reward."

"Oh, almost forgot, that reminds me…" the empress pulled out a small case strapped together holding the magnifying glass. "I know I should have given this at the beginning, my apologies. It's usually customary to provide a gift to the host when visiting their home." She completely bypassed the request and reward offer for a second. He tentatively took the case and looked at her, a smile on her face as he opened it. As his eyes laid on the craftsmanship of the tool, even if it was simple, made him realize there was only one thing to do. A plan was hatching in his mind.

"As for the mithril, um… I… I'm sorry to say this, but I believe I already have stronger available."

"Adamantite."

"Not exactly." Weren cocked an eyebrow, trying to regain a little composure in front of his guards.

"Something I would consider better right now." His jaw dropped. She had materials stronger than Adamantite, one of the strongest materials he knew of. "Um… that shipment would kind of go to waste. Thank you for the offer though." She had the look of someone wincing at refusing his request.

"Please… save my daughter… I… I'll give anything…" he said as quietly as he could.

"Anything?" she asked, a smirk playing onto her face. He already knew what she might ask for.

"We… this pains me to even attempt to say it…" he stopped and looked at the guards.

"No… sire… we're stronger than this… we can… to bow to humans…" one guard spoke up.

"So, we really are surrendering…" one of them in the upper windows grumbled out. "We'll never be treated as equals…"

"I wasn't exactly going to go that far honestly… especially since this is our first meeting and all… you're not surrendering, I have no idea why any of you would think that. Seriously? King Weren, would you be so kind as to order your guards to gather here? I can see they're angry due to very little information. Perhaps I can assuage their fears and answer questions about what I'm offering in exchange for our assistance in this matter."

"All of you! Come down here right now." The guards walked in and lined up behind the king, with Weren not yet hearing the offer. He already knew she was going to ask them to join her empire.

"Now, the offer I am providing is for the Olva'lore Forest to be integrated into the Clockwork Empire. That means, as far as you are concerned, being citizens of the empire as well. No slavery, I already told Raima that was abolished and never allowed. You'd be afforded the same rights as anyone else, it doesn't matter your race."

"Equal to a human? Have we fallen so far to be on that level?" one of them asked.

"Do not insult the empress with those slurs! You did not see the power she has at her fingertips! Her armies could wipe us out! She is offering a chance to be members! Not slaves! Besides, these people aren't the same as Artinia!" Weren yelled at him.

"What… sort of rights?" One female guard asked tentatively, the others looking at her. Selene explained the different benefits provided to each citizen, the chance to get an education easily and learn about the world, to build new lives.

"We have a connection to the land you walk on, even if less than our kindred to the north. Can you truly tell me that you'll keep the balance?" another guard asked.

"I've already got a national park near the castle already, remember Hrist? The lake area?" Selene asked. The Valkyrja nodded in agreement. The guards whispered something to each other. "I'm pretty sure there will be other areas deemed protected under my rule. Gold Pine forest hasn't been touched, um… I believe the Eld Horn forest, the… the one that has those special deer…"

"Eld Horn I believe is the name for the whole area" Morlan interjected.

"Ah, sorry, sorry. My mistake." She pointed at him for a second and waggled her finger, nodding at his help. The guards started to whisper even more.

"All of this seems… too good to be true…" another female guard said, worried her hopes were being gotten too high hearing of this place.

"Is what you said all true?" more asked. They were in agreement. They had been whittled down so much over the years that a respite from the fighting just to survive, even if it was a part of an empire with humans, made them at least listen to what she was saying. The high elves would most likely be much harder to even attempt to get into the empire, probably taking weeks or months, maybe years to get them to wonder if it would be better to join up. They were easily protected by the Kaldanas Mountains after all, with dwarves living in those mountains adding an extra support line. From what Selene saw of Elsei, even when she was among humans, she was still calm and collected.

"Ahem… if I may speak, your majesty" Morlan asked. She nodded and motioned for him to step forward, Elsei by his side. "I was a citizen of Artinia. I was… one of their heroes…" the guard started to whisper but quieted down as he continued to speak. "You all might even have seen me fight at one point… I'm not proud of my actions due to orders. However… my family was rescued from the clutches of a corrupt government. I was not a citizen of the Clockwork Empire at the time. Now my family and I are. There is not a day that goes by that I am not glad to be here."

The man coughed a little, slightly embarrassed. "Unfortunately, I do not know how much my words would carry weight in this endeavor to sway you, due to only being in the empire for five days… but I can tell you this. Being given this opportunity, you may think it is a poor choice on your king's part. I am telling you, by far and wide, you are completely wrong. The empress is giving you a chance to be a part of something incredible. I have seen it with my own eyes. If given a chance to come back to Artinia" he said a he glanced back at the dev still sitting. He smirked at her, a gleam in his eyes; "I would decline immediately."