Deadtired

It was curious that the dwarves hadn't mounted a more concerted effort against the mantis goddess but... well, perhaps they had and it had failed? Or perhaps they were enjoying their isolation? They were famously good at minding their own business, and made for fantastic neighbours.

"What makes you think that I'd want to meet them, though?" I asked.

Cinder hummed, then gestured back towards the lake, and the world past it. "Your little little little limpet. The one leading your forces, and who you put in charge of Yu Xiang. She is building a nation on your behalf, no? The aid of the dwarves, though unpopular among the common folk, might be of great assistance to her."

That... was a spectacular point. The Limpet was growing an army, and a nation. Nations needed tools. Armies needed arms-and I didn't just mean the body parts. These were things that the dwarves were notoriously capable at producing. Even in my younger, fleshier days, all of the very best scientific tools were made of dwarven craft.

"Yes, I suppose that this would serve as a good opening diplomatic act. Ridding a mutual ally of a mutual pain in the rear does tend to encourage a fair amount of favour."

"I could make them a small welcome present," Alex said. "I have some spare material for wrapping, and I could cover it with a little bow."

"Hmm, yes, I think that could do nicely. The Limpet would owe us for the idea and effort, but it would advance her... current state in a satisfactory way."

Cinder bowed. "I appreciate you listening to my suggestion. If we're to visit the dwarves, we're going to need to find our way into the mountain. I know of one such entrance, but it is somewhat less hospitable than merely climbing over the entire mountain."

"That's fine," I said. "I prefer being indoors in any case."

Rem chuckled. "Gooder for ambushes."

"Now now, Rem, we're not trying to ambush the friendly dwarves. We're trying to convince them to join into a multinational coalition destined to topple the current reigning power. As a butler, seeing the wider picture is one of your most important tasks!" Alex said.

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Chapter Nineteen — Dwarven Door

Chapter Nineteen — Dwarven Door

It had been several millennia since I last visited a dwarven city. The last time had been... hmm, I think it was to visit a library. At the time there was a great dwarven nation that spanned several mountain ranges and whose control sunk deep into the earth. This nation's centre of power was a golden city atop a small mountain, more or less within the centre of the dwarven world at the time.

It was an interesting place, to say the least. Dwarves are not necessarily agoraphobic-that is to say, they're not naturally afraid of great open spaces, but it was nonetheless a common phobia among their kind.

It was as common as claustrophobia is amongst humans. Something like a third of all respectable dwarven fellows has a healthy fear of open spaces, roofless expanses, and the very idea of a room without a roof above it.

Flying is right out. Only the truly insane amongst the dwarven people enjoy having their feet leave the ground.

So it was always a little strange to me that the dwarven capital at the time was above ground. A great pyramidal structure sitting atop a cold mountain, surrounded by towers and pillars and immense walkways and bridges that interlinked an entire city.

Perhaps it was for sheer intimidation? A capital built in a place where most people would fear to walk was quite the statement.

I had visited shortly before my full rise to power in order to reference some architectural texts. I was in the midst of creating a world-spanning nation of the undead (with room for some living, of course, I wasn't going to be accused of being life-o-phobic!) and needed to devise a system for the construction of sturdy and logical buildings for my future developments.

Plenty of cities grew and expanded organically, which only meant that they were horrifically inefficient, dirty, and poorly planned. I wanted something far more organised if I was to create a fresh new world, and that meant having a proper understanding on construction techniques, architecture, and city planning.

Hence, visiting the dwarves to borrow some of their hard-earned knowledge.

"Bone Daddy?" Alex asked. "Are you lost in thought?"

I glanced around myself and took in my surroundings more properly. Alex stood right next to me, looking properly demure and careful, while the rest of our rag-tag little band was spread out a little more. Cinder was at the head, blazing a trail with Mem a step behind her. Rem was at the rear, trudging after us rather reluctantly.

"Ah, yes, forgive me, I was reminiscing."

"Oh, that's okay. Did you want to go back to it? Or would you like to rant about how things were so much better in the past? I'm always willing to listen."

"Ah, it's fine, if I'm gonna rant, then I'll want to make a proper monologue out of it, and it's no fun to monologue to an audience of one."

Alex carefully placed a hand on my shoulder. "It's okay, Papa. I'm sure you'll find people to monologue to soon."

I sighed, rather dejected. It had been a while, hadn't it? I felt like I had at least one good monologue in me already. It was a very peculiar mood, that.

"Miss Cinder, are we close to that entranceway you mentioned?" I asked.

Cinder glanced back, then nodded. "We are," she replied, voice still muffled by her mask.

Now more than ever, the choice to wear a mask made sense. The Ashen Forest had plenty of ash, of course, but it was mostly settled, and when it rained down it did so very lightly. Here, the ash was coming down in thick sheets. Visibility was quite poor, even to my magical senses.

The ash itself had some small amount of magic tied to each flake. Not much, but enough to interfere. I suspected that this would actually make for a fantastic barrier against certain types of spells.

Divination magic often required that the caster make a connection between themselves and their target. Having a haze of... what felt very much like necromantic magic in the way would certainly prove to be an obstacle for lower-tier casters.

Certain evocation spells would be weakened as well, I suspected. And it was entirely possible that the weak magic in the air would be enough to set off some spell prematurely.

No one wanted to be in the centre of a premature conflagration.

"I wonder if all of this ambient magic has been weaponized by the locals," I said.

"To a degree," Cinder replied. "We've long suspected that the Jade Throne's... alliance with the Mantis Queen is partially upheld because the throne's more powerful cultivators are uncertain of her true power."

"Oh?" I asked. "That implies that if they knew, they might be tempted to fight her."

"There are some cultivators in the capital and in the service of the Emperor who are said to be at the stage where they are defying heaven," Cinder replied. "And there are stories of these same cultivators fighting lesser gods and prevailing. It is not impossible that they would be able to take on this goddess and win."

Mem hummed. "Mom mentioned some scary cultivators. She said that sometimes we had to be nice to them, and not try to eat them. Some were scary-strong."

"Bah, they were just full of themselves... and of delicious cultivator meat." Rem made a rather disturbing sound as she brushed her mandibles.

"In any case, that is interesting to know. Once I see how powerful this Mantis Queen is, it'll give me a decent point of reference for the level of power I'll have to expect from these so-called heaven-defying cultivators. Do they often work for the Jade Throne?"

"No, they're... difficult to convince to do any work, as far as I can tell," Cinder replied. "I have had the good fortune not to encounter any of these cultivators myself. It is exceptionally rare that they'll be deployed on the behalf of the Empire."

"I see, and if, say, hypothetically, there were to be a sudden rebellion that springs up in one of the less populous and less popular corners of the Empire, would these cultivators be the ones sent out to subdue it?"

Cinder looked back my way. I think she suspected something, but she had the good graces not to point it out. "If that sort of thing were to happen, then no, it's unlikely that they'd be sent. Not for a mortal uprising, not even for a mortal uprising led by a few cultivators. For that, it's far more likely that the Empire will put a price on the heads of the leaders and some young and enterprising cultivators will travel from their sects to take care of the issue. Yes yes yes, young cultivators love this kind of quest."

Ah, yes, the 'go kill the evil bandit leader' sort of quest. Then the poor adventurers would inevitably discover that the bandit leader was actually a very well justified revolutionary and that the person that hired them was a comically vile and evil person.

I sighed. That always led the adventurers to storm whatever fortress I was in, demanding justice for the people they had killed. It was nonsensical. One should do one's own research before taking on a quest that involves any sort of assassination.

In any case, it was interesting to perhaps be on the other side for once. Or at least on the periphery.

I was certain that the Empire wouldn't take kindly to the Limpet installing herself as de facto leader of an army of the undead invading their easternmost province.

Hmm, perhaps I should increase her guard? The newly-promoted Seventeen was quite competent, but I didn't think he was quite ready to face a strikeforce of adventurers, or young empty-headed cultivators, not when they were unlikely to approach his position in an asymmetrical way.

He was an officer designed and trained for traditional, full-scale warfare. Not subterfuge and anti-assasination and pest-removal. For that, the Limpet would need a Death Knight, or a butler of her own.

I glanced back at Rem. The mantis was using the sleeve of her well-tailored jacket to wipe ash off of her face.

Maybe... one day.

"It's here," Cinder said.

We had been walking along the edge of the mountainside for some time, pushing away from the coast and into a forest of dead trees until we were right up against an almost sheer wall of stone at the foot of the mountains.

Cinder had stopped before a small depression in the wall that was quite easy to overlook. Now that she'd brought some attention to it, however, it was clear that this wasn't entirely natural. There were some old grooves cut into the stone in an arch that reached to about three centinecrometres over my head.

"Well well," I said. "Looks like the dwarves are still up to old tricks!"

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Chapter Twenty — From the Observation Logs of Fenfang — Day 100

Chapter Twenty — From the Observation Logs of Fenfang — Day 100

Fenfang Fang's Observation Log | Day one hundred

I had a meeting with the city council today. It was very productive!

Seventeen suggested that, since this would be my first formal attendance at one of their meetings, I should arrive appropriately attired and accompanied by an honour guard. I, of course, didn't dress the way Seventeen wanted me to.

I really respect him, but his sense of fashion is... I don't know if it was in fashion even a millenia ago. I am not walking into an important meeting in shorts held up by suspenders and with a bow-tie on. I don't care how traditional the garb is, there are lines no self-respecting women should have to cross.

So I woke up very, very early, skipped my morning magic practice, and instead cleaned all of my clothes as best I could so that they wouldn't smell like zombie.

I miss Alex so much.

Anyway, we came to the city hall with an escort of the biggest, strongest undead we have, and I think it really helped to make an impression. The entire council was in attendance, and they did more bowing and scraping and begging for my attention than I think was strictly necessary.

Is this why cultivators allow power to get to their heads? Because I have to admit, it is kind of nice being the centre of so much positive attention.

I was given several gifts, received no less than seven marriage proposals, and was offered the use for several mansions, ladies maids, and the personal attention of a lot of relatively powerful businessmen that have their operations based out of the city.

It's very flattering. I think that if I wasn't so enamoured with magic and the idea of getting my violent revenge I might be more tempted. I'm... not the prettiest girl around, I know, so I never got this much positive attention before.

I know it's all fake. They just don't want me to set my army of undead on them, or they think that I'll be taking over the entire world or something and they want to get in on it early, but still, it's nice.

It's too bad that not all of the news I received was as nice.

But I'm going to cover the positives first.

Merchants have arrived from Lava Fist City and from Seven Hills. This is fantastic, because it means that trade is resuming. Yu Xiang isn't doing that badly at the moment, but a lot of that is because a small chunk of the population has died, and the food reserves we have left aren't as taxed as they might have been.

Freeing up the Hungering Inferno's stores has helped too. The sect was hoarding a lot of food and non-perishables. My army doesn't need them, so I decided to sell most of it back to the city for more money. I kept a supply of it for my own, personal use, but that's all.

The ginseng that I found in the sect master's personal stores is really yummy!

Anyway! Trade being active again is only a good thing. The merchants that arrived were a little worried about the undead, but we welcomed them with open arms and they're making a good profit, so I think they'll be back.

Merchants care more about profit than they do about danger, so we should be safe for a while.

The farms are starting up again, and I've gotten Seventeen to set some undead to tilling fields and preparing some larger farms. We'll be hiring some older farmers to help. They might not be able to do all the manual work themselves anymore, but they can watch the skeletons at work and show them what to do.

Anyway, I think we should be okay with food once things start going.

The other trade is going well too, but I don't care quite as much about it. Our army doesn't need clothes much, and while workable metals are nice, they're not a necessity.

More good news is that the council seems to have shifted things around a little. The leader spoke to me in private and admitted that he used the current shift in leadership to make some much needed changes. Basically, a lot of people that were dragging things down and who had only been in place because of the sect were now booted out. Some representatives of the throne were kicked out of their seats, and a lot of old legislation had been removed.