Chapter 227 Important Decisions

"Aella, how are you going to handle issues if you don't know about them?" asked Precious after she was done discussing with Jozef the situation with the halflings.

"I plan to get the communication devices from the gnomes," said Aella flying above the ocean, watching the giant otters play around the turtle.

"I thought those devices only worked when there was a hub, or whatever they called it, nearby," said Precious.

Aella scrunched her brow. That was right. The gnomes had told her about that when they were setting things up in the demon city before the storms started. She was still thinking about the issues with the other races, too.

"You forgot about that, didn't you?" asked Precious with a sigh. "It's a good thing you have me around to remind you of things."

"I probably need to talk to someone about how I can know things. Surely there's some way to know how to do that," grumbled Aella.

"Who do we know that could do that sort of thing?" asked Precious, scratching his ear with his back foot, then looking at it suspiciously, as if it might be contaminated.

Aella leaned back and floated with her face towards the sky, prompting Precious to scramble onto her chest and belly.

"Jozef's evil brother could know things because he had those magic lines everywhere. But I don't think I want to run magical lines all over the world."

"Would that make you some kind of magical spider?" asked Precious, tilting his head sideways to think about it.

"Probably," agreed Aella with a grimace. "Bob knew everything, but he was a god of information. And with him gone, I don't think I can ask him about it. I don't really want to become a god or deity, either, like Joseph and Stella."

"What about the world tree?" asked Precious. "It's supposed to help regulate the magic in the realm, and it's been adding creatures too. It needs to know what's going on everywhere to know how and when to do that."

"That's a good idea," agreed Aella. "I can ask it about the lands I brought the demons and humans from. It would know if there were any threats to the kingdoms south of the mountains, and if the fairies have come back."

"When do you want to go see the tree?" asked Precious. "If it has an idea on how to know about dangerous things happening on the realm, it would be a good idea to talk to it sooner rather than later."

"Alright," she sighed, grabbing Precious. "You don't have to guilt me into it. I was just trying to figure out if I could talk to the harpies without them trying to kill me."

"Maybe," shrugged Precious.

Teleporting to the tree, Aella swallowed the lump that suddenly appeared in her throat. The tree seemed to have grown a lot since she was here last. Did it have anything to do with that dead god she had seen Stella burying?

"Aella, it's nice of you to visit," the tree said, seeming to lean in towards her, though Aella knew it hadn't moved.

"I was wondering if you knew how I could know what was going on all over the realm?" she asked. "I want to be able to react to things quickly when they need me."

"I'm afraid your mind couldn't handle that ability just yet," said the tree gently. "Maybe in a couple hundred years, you can, but right now it would make your mind explode."

Aella swallowed again and shook her head in shock. "Well, since we don't want my head exploding," she gave a short laugh, "do you have any other ideas?"

"I think you are trying to manage a lot when that wasn't intended to be your job," said the tree. "Are you sure you want to stay involved in everything?"

"If I don't stay involved, I won't care about the people as much," said Aella, having already thought of this. "I need to feel invested in them, and care about their safety, otherwise, why protect the realm? Just because I live here shouldn't be all."

"There are plenty of realm guardians who sleep until they are needed, then wake just to protect the realm," said the tree.

"I don't want to be like that!" exclaimed Aella. "I fought too hard to be king! I want to stay the demon king!"

"King over the demons? I thought you gave that up?" asked the tree confused.

"No! I'm the Demon King!" she said, shaking her head. "I'm not king of the demons, I'm the Demon King of the Realm!"

"Ah, I understand," said the tree carefully. "If you wish to remain active among the people, your desire to be able to communicate with them is understandable, and there are many ways to go about this. One that has been used before, is a magical rune of communication given to each of the leaders of the various people in a realm, that allows them to speak with each other when there is sufficient magic to allow it. Another is a form of technology that allows instant communication among the people, but it can be rather difficult to use that method here, where the technology isn't as advanced."

"What do you mean about the rune?" asked Aella curiously. She would have to give the rune to each new leader, but it should solve her problem.

"It is a rune very similar to what you have used to make your portals," explained the tree. "Your Bridgette should be able to find it for you. The rune would need to be tattooed on each person you would want to be able to communicate with, and then they could activate their rune when they wanted to contact you."

"When I used the runes on the portals, they were already active. How would you make these communication runes not be active all the time?"

"It's in the magic of the runes, to have a trigger that activates them. The runes you used in the portals didn't have this trigger, which is why they are active all the time. Ask your friend, and see if she can answer more of your questions. I still struggle with getting through the barrier around the realm to speak with my other selves."

"Barrier?" asked Aella, confused.

"Yes, after the realm eaters attacked, the realm placed a very strong barrier around itself, which is why it hasn't made itself apparent very much and has been allowing me to do so much in bringing creatures and creating them. If the realm lowered the barrier it would be much easier for me, but could allow further attacks in the future."

"So, the realm is busy protecting us?" asked Aella. "I thought that was my job?"

"Well, it is," agreed the tree, "but with the storms and the instabilities created from the initial requirements of the realm, it has been quite difficult to keep things all together."

"I don't understand," said Aella, shaking her head. "Are you saying that because of the requirements for having gargoyles, the realm has been busy keeping itself together by sheer force of will?"

"Something like that," said the tree. "I offered to give birth to the gargoyles in your stead, but the realm wasn't sure it would work. The children would be clones of yourself, without males available to make the children unique."

"Wait, wait, wait," said Aella, holding up her hands. "The realm had said I had time to allow the gargoyles to reproduce, that it had found and brought over, but you make it sound like I don't have that time."

"My sense of time is vastly different from your own, but if you would allow me to create children using your genetic material and that of those the realm brought over, I could quickly produce hundreds, if not thousands, of children to help stabilize the realm. It would be better to use the genetic material of pure gargoyles, rather than any half-breeds that may be produced from the breeding between the demons."

Aella stared at the trunk of the tree in front of her. How could she possibly deal with so many children all at once? She was dreading watching three in a week or so, and here was the tree offering to make thousands!

"I don't understand what you mean by genetic material, but I am not going to raise any babies!" said Aella, stepping back away from the tree and shaking her head, feeling her anger flare up. Despite her anger, she wasn't about to attack the tree. Stella would slaughter her, then probably bring her back from the dead to still watch the kids.

"Oh, they wouldn't be born as children," laughed the tree, "They would be born as almost adults."

"How, exactly?" asked Aella.

"Well, I can pick what memories to give them, from your memories and those of whoever is the father," explained the tree.

"There is no way I am going to let anyone have the same memories as me!" gasped Aella, thinking about her time in the pits.

"I said I could pick them, which means I can also choose not to use them if you prefer," said the tree.

Aella shook her head and paced back and forth in thought. This would solve the problem the realm was having, but it was taking away her choices again. Or was it? The tree was offering, rather than insisting and forcing her. She could give blood, or whatever, and then be done with it. What should she do? If the realm was suffering in silence when she could do this to help, as was her job, was it wrong? Her head was spinning as she finally turned to the tree with her answer.