Swarming Sovereignty

Fae walked up to the walled gates of the village, where a tall human-looking woman in her mid-twenties was waiting to meet her. “Traveler, what brings you here?” The woman asked guardedly.

“This is Miner’s Junction, right?” Fae asked.

“It is.” The woman confirmed. “Though if you’re looking for mines, the ones near here have long been mined out.”

“No, I was just confirming the accuracy of the map I received.” Fae replied. She hesitated, then decided to drop the pretense. “This village is part of the Swarm, right?”

The woman’s hand strayed to her sword. “Is that a problem?”

“Not at all.” Fae said quicky. “I’m Fae, and I am too. I’m here to check up on your village. If you like, I can relay any troubles you’re having to Duchess Zara or the Queen.”

The woman visibly relaxed, giving Fae a smile. “Sorry for the rough welcome.” She said. “The name’s Macy, head of the guard around here. Come on in.” She turned and pushed on the large set of wooden doors that served as the gates, opening them with some effort. “We’re still working on figuring out how to make these stupid things easier to open, but raw strength works fine for now.”

“So, these are new, then?” Fae asked.

“Them muscles, though…” Fae’s text to speech said.

“The whole wall is.” Macy confirmed. “Put it in last week. We’re not totally sure if we want it to be permanent, but it makes us feel a little safer while the country’s still not fully converted. You know, just in case the wrong sort of person happens to stumble upon the village and tries to attack us.”

“Is that why you were so tense?” Fae asked.

“Yeah. Fortunately, we’re pretty out of the way now that the mines are dry. Really, only the seasonal merchants tend to come through here, and the one that stops by with any sort of regularity has already been converted, so we’re not too concerned.”

“Abandoned mineshaft exploration? Please?” Fae’s text to speech asked.

I’ll ask later. Fae said, then turned her attention back to Macy. “Building a whole wall you don’t know if you want to keep seems a bit much, then, doesn’t it?” Fae asked, helping Macy close the gates behind them. “Surely you’d be better served by…I don’t know, making places to hide underground that wouldn’t draw attention if a traveler did come?”

Macy shrugged and began to lead Fae further into the village. “To be honest, it was more a project to give us something to do and to practice working with monsters and modeling wax. Turns out it makes for fantastic mortar, and it’s pretty easy to make. We’re going to use what we learned here to make all sorts of other things later. I know there’s been talk of a better smithy and a bigger church, but we’ll figure it out later.”

“Something to do?” Fae asked. “What do you mean?”

“I suppose you wouldn’t realize, being from the capital and all, but out here farming and defending ourselves from monsters were the only things most of the villagers really did with their day. Now farming takes barely any time at all, and monsters aren’t much of a threat anymore. So, a lot of us ended up with nothing productive to do and wanted to try our hands at new things.”

“Has that been tough for you?” Fae asked. “I know it’d be weird if I was suddenly out of a job, even if I didn’t have to do anything else to live.”

“Not really.” Macy replied. “It’s not like we can’t do those things anymore if we wanted, we’re just exploring new things. As for me specifically, well…look at me! I’m forty yearsyounger than I used to be, I haven’t felt this great in decades! And my marriage…well, let’s just say that this has reignited the passion in it.”

Chat, I see what you’re saying. Fae said. If you get like this every time an attractive woman is on screen then that’s all chat is going to be half the time. Knock it off.

“What downsides have you noticed?” Fae asked. “Anything you wish was different?”

Macy frowned. “Downsides? What are you talking about? Aside from the whole ‘nervous about travelers’ thing, which is going to go away soon, then this is strictly better than how we lived before.”

“Paid actor.” Fae’s text to speech accused.

I didn’t say where I was going to anyone except the stream, and if stuff from stream chat got to the Swarm, then that’d give people from World Saviors license to invade, remember? Fae reminded them. And I doubt Macy even knows what a stream is.

“Alright, then how could it be made better?” Fae asked. “I’m here to help relay your desires back to the Queen and Duchess Zara, remember?”

Macy rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “You’re going to have to ask in a few months, when things are completely settled.” She said. “We’re not quite sure since normal trade hasn’t fully resumed and we don’t know what we might want with our new projects. I guess, if I had to say something, we’d like to get…uh, what’s the word…trinkets? Random odds and ends that might make for interesting conversions.

“Oh, and maybe to be given a list of known useful or novel conversions every so often? We got the ones most relevant to us when they first converted us, but it’d be nice to know what else we can do if we ever feel like it.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard to arrange.” Fae said. “I believe the Queen already has a central repository of conversion knowledge, it’d just be a matter of putting it on paper and distributing it.”

“I think that’s it for now, then.” Macy said. “We’re pretty self-sufficient here, even more so now, so we don’t need much else. Check back in a few months, though, we may want stuff for our projects.”

Fae nodded. “I’ll pass the message along. Do you mind if I look around the village myself? I want to see how things are with my own eyes too.”

“Go ahead, just make sure to knock before you go into any buildings.” Macy replied.

“Could you point me towards the mines, too? Not to survey or anything, I just like exploring these sorts of places.”

“I can, but they’re dangerous.” Macy said. “Monsters like to make nests in there. How strong are you?”

“The Queen herself converted me with a particularly strong monster from the Spine and the corpse of the Lord of Monsters.” Fae replied. “I’m pretty confident I can handle whatever is in there.”

Macy’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know you were a big shot.” She said. “They shouldn’t be any trouble for you, then. Just follow the road out north of town towards the mountains, when you see the remains of an old sign just follow the path to the right and you’ll find them.”

“I’m not a big shot, not really.” Fae laughed. “I’m just someone who happened to fit what they wanted those things to be converted into. It was luck more than anything.”

Macy paused for a moment, clearly considering something. After a moment, she seemed to decide, and spoke. “While you’re there, would you keep an eye out for a locket with a small sapphire in it?” She asked. “It was an heirloom my father had on him when he had an accident in the mine.

“She’s fine, by the way, she might have been old and near-death when the Swarm got here, but her arm’s back and she’s feeling better than ever. Anyway, if you happen to see it while you’re in there, it’d mean a lot if you brought it back. No pressure, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if a monster took it out of the mine or something. Just thought I should ask.”

Fae blinked in surprise. She had forgotten that this whole thing was being framed as a game, and had been half-convinced that things like quests wouldn’t appear anymore now that she was part of the Swarm.

“Are you alright?” Macy asked. “You went quiet there.”

“Sorry.” Fae said hurriedly. “I got an important system message about something I’ve been working on. Yes, I’ll keep an eye out, thanks for telling me.”

“Well…I’m afraid I don’t have much else for you.” Macy replied. “Wander about as you please, we’ll have food in the inn just over there for when you get hungry.”

“Thank you very much, but I won’t impose; I’m only going to be here for a few hours until I leave for the mines. I’ll do my best to look for the locket, and if I find it, I’ll drop it off here, but other than that I plan to head straight to the next town.”

“Then call it payment from me if you manage to get that locket.” Macy said, giving Fae a smile. “Good luck.”

Fae nodded, said goodbye, then began to look around the village. She didn’t go out of her way to talk to people as she did, but she didn’t need to; people were naturally curious of the stranger in their midst, and they were far less shy about coming to talk to Fae than people had been in the other village Fae had been to.

After the third villager, some people in her chat seemed to have made the same connection. “The people here are really bold, aren’t they? Did their sense of danger get removed by conversion or something?” A text to speech message asked.

I don’t think so. Fae replied. It’s hard to describe, but you feel this sort of kinship with other members of the Swarm. You’re predisposed to thinking positively of them and more inclined to work together. I might have an issue with that if it wasn’t reciprocal and universal, but it is, so it’s really just helping people get over their differences, I think.

My longtime viewers have heard the speech before, but I think that, at the end of the day, people are people. It doesn’t matter what species you are, your gender or sexual orientation, or your culture or birthplace, everyone deserves respect. When you travel and talk with all sorts of people like I have, you find that, at the end of the day, everyone is just trying to live their lives.

There are rare exceptions for people like serial killers, but every society has their bad eggs. This sort of togetherness that the Swarm gives people is just an extension of that philosophy, and I approve. Basically, I wouldn’t be concerned about it.

Overall, the atmosphere of the village was just…better than the other one Fae had visited. Whereas the other one was sort of resigned, people just going about their day to day lives in what amounted to enforced servitude to whatever noble controlled the region, this village was upbeat and brimming with positivity. The people seemed like they had been given an entirely new lease on life, and were excited for trying all sorts of things they had never dreamed possible before.

After a while, Fae left the village and headed towards the mines. “Okay, so, my thoughts on that. And, again, remember that while I’m Fae I’m not completely neutral like I like to be, but I’m trying to think objectively as best I can. I think you’ll all agree with me when I say that it was much…happier than the unconverted village, right? The people just felt like they were eager to go out and do things, instead of just going through the motions.

“I feel comfortable saying that, even when I’m not part of the Swarm, I would think that the Swarm is best for this plane. As Fae, I’m now one hundred percent convinced that it’s for the best everywhere, but I can’t guarantee I’ll think the same when I log off. The main difference between this plane and the ones we’re used to is that this plane is still using more feudal forms of government, and the Swarm is bypassing that to…well, not democracy, but at least a system where everyone is more or less equal.

“It also introduces much more automation to the plane than it had before, and I expect to see some effects akin to an industrial revolution in the near future. However, both of those points don’t apply to our planes for the most part. We’re past all of that, and we have much more control over our lives than the average person here. I think the ‘freedom’ the Swarm gives isn’t going to be a selling point.

“There are other benefits, though; we can nigh-guarantee the Swarm will end war as we know it, which is huge on a societal level. It’ll probably eliminate most if not all discrimination, which I should hope all of you see as a plus, and conversion and evolution are incredibly powerful healers. If you remember, when we talked to Ophelia’s wife, she had a disease that current magical knowledge couldn’t handle, and conversion easily took care of that.

“If you recall, Ophelia also said that Lia had had half of her stats stolen by the Skill of this plane’s Gluttony holder, and evolution undid that as well. That’s going to make lots of previously expensive medical treatments free to the average person. Also, you’ll get pulled into this new system, and that’ll be either a plus or minus depending on what you think of your current system, but as far as I’m concerned, this is an improvement on Lim’s. I guess for now we’ll say I’m endorsing the Swarm, contingent upon my feelings being mostly unchanged on logout, but you’ll have to decide for yourself whether you think it’s worth it. Now…let’s go find that locket, shall we?”

The rest of the city’s conversion went relatively smoothly. There was token resistance, yes, the cries of kids who weren’t old enough to know what was going on, a few belligerents too drunk or stupid to realize that they didn’t have a chance at fighting back, but by and large it was…smooth. Too smooth, even.

In the back of Lia’s mind, she had expected some sort of…excitement, not hours of trudging along and slowly converting the city. This had been how they had hoped things would go, but a small part of her couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed that she hadn’t seen any real action.

She wasn’t about to go picking any fights here, though, so she just made her way back to the port, where she met back up with Harbormistress Anise. As Lia had suspected, Anise had been on board with the idea of becoming a shipgirl, so she took a detour to cocoon an appropriate ship and get the conversion going.

With that taken care of, she settled into the rhythm of visiting houses, discussing conversions with the people therein, then get those conversions underway. The task itself wasn’t particularly fruitful for her, the people here were low level and contributed relatively little to her experience total, but Lia wasn’t about to shy away from the task because it was dull. If she was asking her people to do it, then she had to be willing to do the same.

Still, it came as a relief when Amelia finally requested her presence back on board Septima that evening. Lia finished up the house she was working on, then had Amelia teleport her back. “What’s up?” Lia asked. “Is the army finished?”

“Just about.” Amelia replied. “What’s the status of the city as a whole?”

“I can only speak for where I was personally, but I’d guess we were about two-thirds of the way done?” Lia said. “If everywhere else was working at the same rate, then I imagine we’ll be done in a couple of hours.”

Rose nodded. “Good. I was hoping we could take some time and hash out our plan in a little more detail, decide which order we’ll take the towns and villages around here, that sort of thing.”

“That sounds fine to me.” Lia said. “Any news from the western front?”

“No.” Amelia said. “Marcus is holing up in his fortresses, no doubt watching for the opportunity to pounce if we show weakness.”

Lia nodded. “Just checking.” She said. “So, what are we thinking for the settlements around here?” She asked. “I think we can probably hit most of the villages in a day or two if we use the Scourge of the Skies, but the cities might need days of their own.”

“Not necessarily.” Rose said. “We’re only putting up these strong wards to prevent news of the surrender being a surrender leaking, so if we drop off large enough numbers of troops with a few high level people leading them, then we can probably do a couple in one day. We just need to make sure that they wouldn’t be vulnerable to a surprise attack from a max level person; we’re pretty sure most of them won’t be attacking us, but we can’t afford to be caught unawares.”

Rose pulled out a map, spreading it across a nearby table. “Specifically, I was thinking these two cities here are close enough that we can do them on the same day, and we can use that time to hit the nearby villages while staying within a distance that we can respond to unexpected threats quickly.”

“We might as well separate them all into clusters like that, then.” Lia said. “This one in the north is probably going to be the troublemaker, since it’s pretty far from anywhere else, but other than that we should be able to knock the rest out in three or four days. We’ll need to replenish our stores of modeling wax basically every day, though. If you’d like, I can head back to the capital and ramp up production again while you two work here.”

“As long as you’re okay with that.” Rose said. “I know you wanted to be out here on the front lines…”

“It’s not like we’re seeing actual combat right now, so it’s not a big deal. I’ll be of more use at home than I will here.”

“All the same, why don’t you spend the night with us here?” Amelia suggested. “Perhaps we could call in Connie and have a night at the hot spring in the Dimension of Discounts?”

“That sounds lovely, but we should finish up here first.” Lia said. “Now…as to the order of these clusters…Rose, what do you think?”