"What about you, Varnin?" asked Aella, turning to the military advisor."I have received word from my various contacts, that your generals have reached their locations," said Varnin, glancing at the crushed remains of the communications devices.
"Good! Anything else?"
"The generals to the south, Vesh and Morden? They reported heavy casualties when they arrived. Apparently, a human army was sent along the mountains as an ambush, and the troops stationed down there were too busy fighting a swarm of monsters to respond in time. We have very few demons left to guard our southern border."
Aella"s face stiffened in anger, but she managed to nod.
"There has also been an uptick in the human attacks all along the border. My reports are still coming in, but the troops that are stationed along there, are getting attacked almost on a daily basis. I"m not sure how much longer we can hold out."
Aella studied the demoness" face as she gave her report. A slight tick in her left eyebrow gave away her stress, but she managed to give her report without the mental breakdown Ernun had.
"Xathtak, do you have any good news?" Aella asked, turning to the blue demoness.
"I do, Your Majesty. We are moving along with the repairs and cleaning of the sanitation system in the city, and I see no current problems with completion by the end of the month. There are tons of people working hard every day, to clear the rubble and do everything that needs done."
"Orolon, how important were the positions of Jirga and Rannaun?"
The white demon rubbed his chin for a moment, then said, "I think I can handle all that they did, but I will need a couple of days to notify the chains of communication. I"m honestly surprised there was a position for water for Rannaun to fill, as the water in the city should fall under Xathtak. The same types of pipes and waterways are used for sanitation; thus, the same workers should be able to maintain it. With the influx of ready workers, there shouldn"t be a problem a.s.signing some of them to check over the water pipes for any damage or repair needs. As for the food, that will take a bit more work. I should be able to make a good report on it by tomorrow."
"Xathtak, you will need to look into the water, to verify his claim. You can tell me tomorrow, what you find out. Destov, how goes the money in my kingdom?"
"It appears to be working to increase trade, Your Majesty. My sources say that more and more people are using the coins you have reintroduced into the system, and less barter, though I"m sure that the bartering system is going to remain around for while. Too many people got used to using it. I"m not sure how it is working outside the city, as I don"t have many contacts out there, just yet, but I"m sure as more people move about, and resources become scarce, they will start using them more."
Silence settled on the throne room as they had all given their reports, and Aella was deep in thought. She was waiting for her two Regents to return so they could give her their reports.
"Clerk girl, bring me the notes you took over the meetings today," said Aella, suddenly very tired. She had lost so many demons in the south. That d.a.m.n demon trapped in the tower must have been telling her the truth about troops moving in the south. It hadn"t occurred to her that there could be a double attack like that. She had to do something about the church!
"Your Majesty," murmured the girl, handing her the papers and scuttling back to her table.
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Aella flipped through the papers, noting where the conversation had sped up by the hurried scrawl of the girl. There were quite a few n.o.bles that were seeing her regents on a daily basis. They really didn"t like being stuck in the warehouses. Maybe she could use that.
"Xathtak, how are the sewers looking under the n.o.ble houses?"
"My workers haven"t managed to get over that way, as they weren"t as dirty as the other sections of the city. There were less people to cause clogging in them."
"You said you had enough people, so I want special groups to start cleaning over there. The sooner we can get the n.o.bles back into their homes, the sooner they will be happy. The common people don"t enjoy being near them any more than the n.o.bles like being near the common people. I want someone to find out what each n.o.ble house does to be so rich, so I can figure out how to use them to improve my kingdom. They are unexploited to me at the moment."
Xathtak and the other Advisors nodded, as Frederick and Seifer returned.
"Ah, just in time. Do either of the two of you have anything to report before I am off?" asked Aella, standing up and going over to return the papers to the girl.
"The n.o.bles were whining about being crowded, but otherwise, not really," said Frederick.
"I"ve dealt with that for now," she said with a wave of her hand. "I"ll see you all in the morning for an early breakfast."
Without waiting for all of them to nod or bow, she teleported to Jozef"s room. She hadn"t seen the old king in a while, and needed to talk to him.
"Aella? What brings you here?" he asked, looking up from the chair he was sitting in.
"Do you know anything about the demon in the Spell Spire?" she asked.
"Spell…spire?" The recognition that had started to bloom in his eyes, faded as they began to glow. The same glow was repeated on the walls all around the room, and he ended up shaking his head. "I"m afraid I don"t know what you mean. The name seems familiar, but I"m afraid it"s been too long. I don"t remember."
Her suspicions were correct. There was magic keeping him from remembering things. That made this much more frustrating.
"What about your brother? I don"t remember you mentioning you had a little brother?" she tried again.
"Brother?" The same glow lit up the room, and she fought to keep her patience.
The same reaction came when she asked about the library, the communications devices, and the carvings being taken by the other races from the rooms in the north. It made her want to scream.
"Fine, you don"t remember any of that stuff, then I have another question. If I am being attacked by the human armies, and I don"t have enough troops of my own to deal with them, then what do I do? The common people are stretched thin, trying to survive a drought and a famine right now, so taking more of them to help with the military isn"t a good idea."
He looked thoughtful, and thankfully, no glow lit up the room.
"Why don"t you activate the energy field walls along the border? I remember there being a number of crystals needed to power it, but surely they would still be there after all this time?"
"What are you talking about?" Aella asked, both confused and excited. If there were some kind of magical barrier, she could erect to keep the human troops out of her lands, that would give her time to finish up with the harvest and dealing with the roaming monsters.
"I forget the exact name for it, but there should be a room in the dungeon where they were being grown. You can find the activation room, where the crystals are to be inserted, in a room down there as well. It can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days for the barrier to become fully activated."
"This sounds like something the church would have wanted destroyed a long time ago," worried Aella.
"Well, I never actually got it up and running, before I became king, and after I became king, very few people knew about it."
"So, you don"t even know if this will work?" she said, her hopes crashing.
"It should, though. And it would keep the humans from bothering you, especially since you can teleport back and forth across it."
She paced back and forth, thinking about that. She wasn"t even sure where the line would be, or the edges of this barrier. How could she figure that out, without causing harm to her people?
"Where are the edges and ends of this barrier? How do I know I"m not about to cut one of my towns in half when I activate it?"
"If you had wings, you could fly up and see the line where the barrier will be, using the magical goggles in the treasury. a.s.suming that blasted mimic hasn"t misplaced them again."
"Alright, thanks. I"ll check on that."
It was time to see if that mimic had eaten any of the chickens yet, or if she was going to be killing them for attacking her.