Rebirth and Second Chances

Chapter 149: Finishing Touches

Once I had read the last System prompt, I scrolled back through old messages looking for the rewards I had received when claiming the territory. I was searching for those messages that would allow me to place the bank and portals I'd been awarded.

It didn't take long to find them, most messages had been stored to log, for those messages that required action, they were entered into a type of System mail, which made it much easier to navigate the remaining active messages. The quests related to the Kingdom's actions were separated from those that were individual. The City Building quest showed 95% complete. It was interesting to note that it had its own experience bar, a visual aid to make it easier for me to see how things were progressing.

I selected the Bank reward once I'd found it; the message had a hyperlink that when I clicked on opened the Kingdom management menu. A drop down of System rewarded options was displayed. I'd only received one actual building reward, but it was a major reward. The bank would allow me to connect to the network the Seelie and Unseelie operated and establish communications between financial markets.

The placement was easy, I'd included the bank during my City planning, so all that was required was for me to accept the reward and target the building that I wanted to designate as the hosting site. A prompt to name the bank and it was finished.

The banking information for my personal account and the corporate account I'd established, and that Brianna had been managing linked as subsidiary items on the balance sheet for the treasury once System had activated and set up the bank with the appropriate level restrictions to integrate and trade information between Seelie and Unseelie factions.

[Territory Announcement: Aingeal Geamhraidh has established a Bank linked with both Seelie and Unseelie factions. A.G. Bank and Trust is capable of transferring any money or investment residents currently hold between factions. All Tuatha de Danaan faction members are now able to open A.G. bank accounts by selecting the System option to create a new account and merge or transfer assets. Bank fees are waived when transferring funds for a year.]

That done, I made a mental note to discuss with my people what I should do with the corporate account. I wasn't sure I needed it anymore, but perhaps there were investments or opportunities I might want to make as Teigh and not King Teigh. Things that were politically sensitive and may benefit to be conducted behind a cut-out.

Everything had been progressing smoothly, so it shouldn't have surprised me when the first real hiccup occurred. It happened when I got to portal placement. I ran into problems, a series of System errors whenever I selected a location to build. Although I had been awarded three portals as part of a System reward, I only intended to claim one right now.

I still planned on placing two of them near the tier 9 dungeons, but I wanted to install one at the Capital to allow for ease of transportation between factions. It seemed no matter what position or location I selected restrictions prevented me from opening a portal in that spot.

[I think the problem may be the Sithern,] Caraid said offering a theory. [The Valley is part of the Sithern now, which means it is contained within a pocket dimension. Portals into these pocket realms seldom work.]

[The problem seems to be the evolving nature of the Sithern. It constantly morphs and changes to adapt to the needs of the people that live here. It's even more responsive to the unconscious desires of the person that has bonded with it. This very nature of adaptability makes it hard to establish a fixed location for a portal to work.]

"How is the World Capital portal constructed then," I wondered.

[The location for that portal is deceptive, it was placed outside of the Sithern, but as the City that has flourished and expanded, as new buildings were built, the portal was engulfed. It is an illusion making it appear that the portal is part of the area claimed by the Sithern, but only an illusion.]

"Why would they allow the city to expand like that? Wouldn't extending the sphere of influence for the Sithern be possible?" I asked.

[Because the Seelie and Unseelie can never agree on anything,] Caraid explained honestly. [The factions were forced to come to an agreement when the Sithern was initially created. A way was needed to form a bond between the Sithern and two factions, so an agreement was formed that disallowed any changes to the Sithern without a consensus between each side's faction rulers.]

[It became easier over time for those that wanted to establish themselves there to build in the surrounding area, an area that is unclaimed by the Sithern.]

[The portal was placed in that region, so they were able to ignore the issues with the Sithern skewing the location beacon protocols,] Caraid finished.

There was a certain elegant logic to how the City had developed organically, but not something I wanted for my own Capital. I doubted that would happen with Saor though. There was no need for it to expand beyond the Valley borders. I wasn't constrained by treaty to get approval from the other factions, so if I needed to expand, I would. The Sithern was able to create vast swaths of lands, and I could always tunnel down, utilizing the existing buildings.

Actually, not placing the portal inside the Sithern made more sense both militarily and economically. By placing the portal outside, I could still allow free access to the region, and still, control who came in and out of the Sithern. In the event of war or an attack, I could change that portal access to restrict the other factions. The ability to control who came in and out of the City by setting up checkpoints at the valley entrance and the dock, also made sense.

This was a way to register people in a more organized manner than just allowing a mass influx of people. And this would allow me to assign and sell housing and businesses based on ability and need, not have those with the most power appropriate an entire neighborhood.

I decided to put off the portal placement for now. I wanted to get my people installed first, the Duchess's Knockers and Blayney's herd arrival could begin immediately. I would need the help in organizing the influx of people if even a fraction of the people that my Population numbers showed, decided they were interested in becoming residents of my kingdom and wished to settle in the newly created Capital.

Additionally, I didn't want to leave the Roane hanging. I was furious about his actions. Mostly because he had forced me to kill hundreds of Lord Ranked Coinchenn. All those deaths directly attributed to his greed. Greed for power and Rank. Those lives could have become productive members of society. I needed Ranked Lords to help me manage the vast area that I had claimed.

What was most infuriating was that there was more than one way to Rank up. The Roane hadn't needed to spend those lives as if they hadn't mattered. As close as he was to fulfilling the criteria to level if he had simply approached me things may have been different. I may have invested him with the Duke Rank and had him rule the area he was already over-seeing depending on how his efforts and policies had been enacted. I wouldn't have left a tyrant in place, but if he had minimal efficiency, I could have worked with that.

A talented staff helped make up for most of the glaring inefficiencies a mediocre ruler could become inured in. I would have installed Irvin as a mediator, allowing him to get some seasoning and experience in his quest towards becoming an effective peace-broker, but that condition hardly worth mentioning.

The Roane was exactly where I left him, frozen in a block of ice so cold that the ground surrounding him had also frozen. That was the only sign a battle had taken place here. The bodies of the Coinchenn were gone, absorbed by the Sithern, the bio-mass recycled, most of it going to the plants and trees that had been force-grown. Any destruction to the ground had been repaired, appropriated for buildings, or made part of the City's gardens.

I was still uncertain where that mass swarm of Volar-fey had gone, or where so many had come from. Perhaps they had been force-grown by the Sithern in some manner. It was something I would need to explore. I knew that plants could be given the semblance of life by the Sithern, a pseudo-intelligence directed by the Sithern that allowed for limited mobility. It allowed for deadly defense measures to be used, as the Sithern could control the brambles, thorns, and poisons to trap or attack enemies. But I wasn't sure about actual intelligence life. It seemed likely, hadn't the Sithern created the first colony of Volar-fey on Earth when it had been formed?

Releasing the chains of power, the links that allowed me to keep the Selkie encased in ice, I retracted the cold, claiming back what was mine. The power flowed towards me, a river of ice that churned the ground as I regained what I had used to confine him. The Sithern responded instantly, repairing and smoothing what I had damaged.

"You are a coward," the Selkie said as soon as he was mobile, and his voice restored. There was no confusion, no need to process and understand what had happened. The ice I had encased him left his awareness intact. It was cruel in a way, unable to move, unable to free yourself, a kind of sensory deprivation as your thoughts worked perfectly, but everything else was suspended. It could leave you wondering if you would be trapped like that for all eternity.

"Show some respect," the Duchess demanded as she dashed forward striking the back of his legs and forcing him to kneel.

"You suggest His Majesty is a coward when you attacked with no provocation, no challenge or duel issued?" She sneered once she had him at her feet and could scowl at him, his height more on her level.

"Challenge? Duel?" He responded mockery evident. "I am an Unseelie. I'm not sure what he is, but Unseelie makes war against each other and those that are not Unseelie. Challenge and duels are reserved for the Seelie. For the Unseelie, for all others, honor and pretty words are ignored."

"So, you attack as Unseelie?" I drawled. "You hide behind your faction? And brand me a coward? I wonder what the Morrigu will say when they find that you felt emboldened enough to claim your actions were sanctioned by the strictures of war.

"I think I will present you to them in chains and call the question. Is it to be war? Or will they disavow your actions and allow me to claim you as the vile coward you appear to be."