Chapter 29

I watched as an amazing site unfolded before me. As they got close to their floating dock, the fog began to lift, as if welcoming them to the city. It was amazing. I knew that Haven was a city of magical wonders, but in its own right so was Thul. As my shadowy form flittered in the wind I looked upon the amazing sights of the city in the cliffs and clouds.

At first it was obvious where the city was before Haven's intercession. There were still rope bridges and ladders in use. Although there was newer construction that was mostly floating buildings tethered to the cliffs, there were still hundreds of dwellings carved into the cliffside. Which made sense. I knew the history of this isolated land. Except for a small hidden exit at the bottom of the cliff that lead to their old land based logistics staging area, the entire base of the cliffs and top were swarming with monsters, and not of the weak variety.

Historically speaking, as silly as it sounded to setup a kingdom in the middle of a monster infested land, it did add immense defense to their lands. They did not have to worry about an invasion force from one of the big three nations, which as I recalled our history lessons, was the only reason why Thul was the only other small nation other than Haven.

Every other small nation had been systematically purged by either monsters, the GWA, or the Northern Kingdoms.

In a way, it made sense. I remember one of the books from Lord Harkonin's Handscribed library talking about something called the 'resource scarcity' theory. Prior to haven, there was only so much area where monsters and resources could be farmed. Every nation that came into existence threatened the ability of other nations to exist, as they slowly used up more and more resources.

However Haven had taken this theory and broken it to tiny pieces. While the GWA had focused on population increase to swarm its territories, and the Northern Kingdoms had focused on making their territories easier to farm, Haven had instead bet everything on dungeons. And it was a successful bet. The dungeons, although extremely dangerous, allowed for farming of otherwise finite resources. Coupled with Haven's ability to overutilize their space and efficiently use space, they were able to grow more food per square meter than any other nation.

Of course, when Thul partnered with Haven, it was to their benefit. After working with Haven initially to solve most of their immediate needs, Thul mainly imported Haven's floating stone.

Thus Thul had begun building into the clouds. This was not without its issue, as we noticed. I then noticed our welcoming party

Meeting us on the gangplank after it lowered was King Jeffrey and his wife. Standing quietly behind them was I think Sophia from the diplomatic read ahead.

"Welcome Sophia and Lark, and all honored guests from Haven! Welcome to Thul!"

"Greetings to you King Jeffrey" I bowed, and Lark followed suit.

"Please, call me Jeff" King Jeffrey remarked.

"Don't do that" the queen quickly said, as she not-so-playfully pinched the king. "And this is our Daughter Iris."

A girl, most likely plated in the last year or so, bowed. "It is an honor to meet you, Lark and Sophia. We have heard great things. Would you care for a tour of our home? I would be glad to give you one if you will excuse the construction."

Lark smiled as well and I nodded, "That would be great Iris."

King Jeffrey looked to his daughter, "When you are done have them meet us in the old cafeteria." The queen gave him a sour look.

I paid it no mind as I moved with Lark and began to follow Iris as she walked us through the main loop of the city.

***

As we walked, Iris gave the tour of Thul.

"Although my father likes to wonder at the floating stone that has quickly expanded our buildable area, my mother and I are fully aware that the most important change to Thul was the gate to the plane of water."

Iris motioned to a circular stone carving with water gushing out. "Before we would have to use dew collectors and rain to fill our reservoirs. It led to a very damp existence, as most homes had a room for water. Now we have limitless fresh water. The water not only feeds our homes from the micropump stations, but also feeds the three greenhouses Haven helped design and install."

Iris pointed to the three floating glass structures. They were glass walls and ceiling marvels of engineering, as water and light passed through.

"We are still getting the hang of our miniature recycling facility, so we still have an issue with wastewater, but I do have to say that water and food are important items number one and two taken care of."

Lark then looked at Iris, "Is floating stone number 3?"

Iris smiled, "In my opinion, it's number 7."

Lark was shocked. Iris continued as we walked, "Thul had many problems prior to Haven's involvement, and i am willing to admit we were in decline, and it would be 2 generations from dissolving as a nation."

"The number 3 item was new blood. Haven's allowance for Thul to participate in Harvest festivals greatly increased our fertility efforts." Iris motioned to new mothers. Not all of the children were human. "We of course welcome all children here." Then some older human children ran by, bumping an old man who proceeded to fall off the side of the cliff.

I was shocked, first at the occurrence, and then that nobody went to assist. It was then that I noticed he was floating in the air, roughly 100 meters off the ground. Iris pointed to her wrist which had an enchanted bracelet on it. I knew its magics. [Slowfall] and [tether]. A fairly clever device. Iris smiled, "Number 4 was these bracelets." She then called down to the older man in the middle of rescue, "That's the fourth time this month, Steve! You need to be careful or I will spread a rumor that you LIKE falling."

As we neared our destination, Lark asked, "What is number 5?"

"Ah, We have been given permission to send our children to Haven's Academy. We had issues with education here, you see."

"And number 6?"

"We have been given special permission to join Haven in its hunts in the dungeon. We as tamers need to access as many creature types as we can to build more and varied totems, which are our main export."

Lark nodded, "Haven's changelings have a diverse requirement when it comes to hunting and diets. I can see the importance of this arrangement."

Iris nodded. "Rightly so. It is a great agreement that heavily favors Thul, but if you ask the changeling representative at the embassy, we are a wellspring of gifts."

With that Iris led us to a fairly stately looking building. "This is the new assembly hall. It was previously a cafeteria, but since we have more food, we don't have to ration anymore and it has been converted. My father and mother are waiting inside to brief you on their request."

I did not know what would be asked of us, but I hoped that Lark and I would be added to Iris' top 10 gifts from Haven.

***