Swarming Sovereignty

Fae touched down at the gates of Ilex’s capital and walked up to one of the guards. “I’m here to enter the city.” She said, pulling out the small card that Zara had given her and showing it to the woman.

The woman looked over it, then gave Fae a nod. “We’ve been told to expect you, though you’re earlier than we thought you’d be.”

Fae gave a nod in return. “The situation has changed and I had reason to return early.” She said.

“Understood.” The guard replied. “Head on in, you shouldn’t have any trouble getting where you need to go.”

Fae walked into the city, chat abuzz.

“You were like a secret agent!” An enthusiastic text to speech message read. “So cool!”

Fae rolled her eyes. It wasn’t anything like that. She said. But…I appreciate the sentiment.

“Okay, but picturing you in a catsuit and heels, with a pistol held in hand…mmm…”

Mods, send them to horny jail. Fae chuckled. Come on, guys, my moms are watching.

“We don’t mind. We’re just happy to see that everyone understands the charm of our daughter .” Fae did a double take as one of her mothers utilized their rarely-used free text to speech, signified by a different voice.

Hey! Don’t embarrass me in front of the viewers! Fae protested.

“It’s them!” A text to speech message read. “Are you serious about this?!”

“Yes.” Fae’s mothers replied. “You’ve seen how much she enjoys this, we want what will make her happy and we think this is it.”

“There were other ways, surely.” Another text to speech message argued.

“We had a good discussion over it, and we came to the conclusion that, given current circumstances, this was, in essence, an inevitability. With that in mind, we encouraged her to act now so she could spend more time enjoying her new life.”

You know I’m here, right? Why do I feel like I’m playing second fiddle on my own stream? You can’t even use the excuse that I’m not a hot girl like you used to.

“So, you admit your moms are hot? Since that excuse is only used when hot girls are on stream.”

Conventionally attractive, yes. Am I attracted to them? Of course not. They’re my moms. Stop being weird about it.

The conversation fell into a comfortable rhythm as Fae approached the palace, and she was soon standing at the gates. The guards paused for a moment before recognizing Fae, and they opened the gates. “Queen Zara will likely be in her quarters at this time.” One said. “Ask a maid, and she’ll bring you to her.”

Fae thanked the woman, then headed into the palace and found the nearest maid. After a brief conversation, the maid began to lead Fae towards Zara’s chambers. A couple minutes later, Fae was being ushered inside, where Zara was waiting.

“Everything alright?” Zara asked, once the two were alone. “I thought you were planning to be out for longer.”

“Perfect.” Fae replied. “In fact, what I saw was enough to convince me to join the Swarm permanently. I came to seek passage back to the capital, as the Goddess of Hearth will be teleporting my mothers to me soon, so they can join me in this new phase of our lives.”

“I can’t say I fully understand what’s going on with you, but I’m glad you saw reason.” Zara replied. “I’ll put in a message requesting your pickup, you just stay here and they’ll get you as soon as they see you.”

Fae nodded. “Anything I can do for you in the meantime?” She asked.

“What places did you visit? If you could give a report on how things were and any requests that the people had, that would be helpful.”

Fae took out a map, and began pointing out her route to Zara. “So, I started from here…”

As Lia started making dinner, she was interrupted by Amelia. “Hey, it looks like Fae is coming back early.” Amelia informed. “Didn’t you mention you wanted to talk with her when she got back?”

Lia put the knife she was using to chop vegetables down. “I did.” She said. “Do we know what’s going on?”

“Zara isn’t totally clear on the situation herself, but from what I gather, Fae’s decided to join the Swarm permanently and wants to settle her mothers here.”

“Ah. Bring her here, then.”

“Let me know when you’re ready.” Amelia replied.

“I’m ready.” Lia said.

“Now? Alright, then.” Amelia said. There was a charge in the air, and a moment later Fae appeared in the kitchen.

“Hey, Fae.” Lia said. “We got Zara’s message, but it sounds like she’s not totally sure about the details. Uh come to think of it…are you streaming right now?”

“I am, do you want me to stop?” Fae asked.

“No, that’s fine.” Lia said. “I just won’t ask you too many personal questions, then. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“It’s fine to ask me whatever.” Fae replied. “I’ve already shared most of that stuff with the stream by now. Basically, my moms saw how much I was enjoying myself, and when I saw how things were with the Swarm compared to without, I decided I’d be supporting you. When my moms figured that out, they convinced me to make the switch permanently.

“They said they’d follow me in whatever choice I made, and the Goddess of Hearth said she would teleport them next to me when they were ready so that they could join me. I was just hoping to get them settled in my house here in the capital before I headed back out. I figured you wouldn’t mind, but…is that okay?”

Lia smiled brightly at Fae. “Of course it’s okay!” She said. “And I’d be happy to do their conversions myself. Do they have any requests?”

“They want to become griffinkin, like me.” Fae said shyly. “Um, I know that you probably don’t have griffins on hand, so it’s okay if you can’t, I’ll just hunt some down at some point in the future.”

“Well, I don’t have griffins, but I can still manage griffinkin, I think.” Lia replied. “I’ll just need a couple lions and a couple of eagles, and I’m positive we have monsters that are close enough to get that result. I’ll go check our cocoon storage after dinner, and whenever you’re ready just come give a knock and I’ll take care of it for you.”

Fae’s eyes strayed to the half-cut carrot next to Lia. “Oh, were you in the middle of making dinner? Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“We could have waited, but I told Amelia to bring you now, so don’t worry about it.” Lia replied. “And to your viewers, yes, I cook. The five of us who live here take turns, and today was mine. Anyway, it’s not like you’re gonna delay us much, we’re still waiting on Connie and Chrys to finish their business before we can actually eat. So…do you have time for a couple of questions?”

“Of course.” Fae replied. “What do you want to know?”

“Just your thoughts, mostly. Is there anything we’re lacking, and what could we be doing better? And were there any requests from villages you visited?”

Fae thought on that for a moment. “Well, I can’t say I’m too knowledgeable about ruling, especially in an environment that’s not as technologically advanced as I’m used to.” She said. “But I think that if you want to achieve the quality of life you’re hoping to bring to everyone, you’re going to want to revisit transportation of goods and information.

“You’ll need to have quick ways to get resources to people who have fallen victim of a natural disaster, and quick ways to receive news and requests from places. This is a bit of an awkward time for major infrastructure overhauls, though, because I think much of what you do now will be obsoleted when you start gaining the tech from Yasato.

“Still, having nice, and, more importantly, smooth roads, isn’t going to be obsoleted, and will be very helpful in the future. I’ve seen what you can make with modeling wax, you should be able to connect places relatively easily. If I were in your shoes, I would make that and physically connecting the capital to the rest of the world my priorities.

“You can still make other minor changes, but I do think anything truly big should wait until you’ve got new tech. Ask Izumi or Connie, as otherworlders that are more used to these restrictions, they’d probably be more aware of what they can safely say."

“I’ll do that.” Lia said. “Connie will probably know exactly what you’re referring to, and will be able to give a better idea of things. Anyway, continue.”

Fae gave a nod. “As for requests…I only really got to one town, but they didn’t have too much to ask for yet. They wanted to be asked again in a few months when they had a better idea of what their new needs would be. In the meantime, though, they were hoping for random odds and ends that would make for useful or interesting conversions, and a list of notable conversions results.

“I’ve told Zara what village it is, so if you could just send a list her way, she said she’d take care of getting it and the trinkets to them. But…if I may be so bold, I have a suggestion on the matter.”

Lia raised an eyebrow. “I’m all ears.” She said. “What’re you thinking?”

“Well, my understanding is that you have some sort of tablet that’s like a central repository for everything you know about conversion, right?” Fae asked.

“I do, but I’m afraid I can’t easily replicate it.” Lia said. “As much as I wish I could.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary. I just think that you could make a sort of…newsletter or magazine using what you learn.”

Lia paused. “I’m afraid I’m not super familiar with either of those.” She said. “I know what a newspaper is, but I’ve only read a couple.”

“Think of them like very short books that gets written and handed to people every so often.” Fae explained. “In this case, you’d make, say, one every month with all the latest stuff you’ve learned about conversion, and some sample interesting things you can make. And, year or so, you could release a big one that’s sort of like an encyclopedia of what you know about conversion and has a list of the most helpful common conversions you can make. Then people would have something they could reference whenever they want.”

“That’s a good idea.” Rose said from the doorway. “Let’s talk with Lily about it later, she can help organize the production of something like that.”

“Rose?” Lia said, turning to her wife. “How long have you been here?”

“Since I heard her talking about people’s requests.” Rose replied. “I wanted to hear what they had to say.”

“Right.” Lia said, turning back to Fae. “Any other suggestions? I’m open to everything.”

“That’s basically it.” Fae said. “Um…anything else you wanted to ask me?”

“No, you just head to your house and I’ll see you in a couple of hours, okay?” Lia replied, giving Fae a smile. “Thanks for indulging me.”

“My pleasure.” Fae said, walking towards the kitchen door. “Uh…the portal out’s to my…right, right?”

“Yup. Just past the living room, where I was reading just now.” Rose said. “I’m headed back to the sofa and my book anyway, I’ll point it out to you on the way.”

“Thank you.” Fae said, smiling at Rose. “I appreciate it.”

“No problem at all.” Rose replied. “I’m glad to see you doing well, and happy that you chose us. As one of the only people who’s had the privilege of doing so with firsthand knowledge of what you were getting into and an entirely unaffected mind, it means a lot.”

Fae blushed as she left the room, and after a moment Lia turned to Amelia. “Did Connie say when she was getting back?”

“No.” Amelia said. She paused for a moment, likely waiting for Fae to leave, then continued. “I’ve just been assuming that it’ll be soon, since it seems she tends to keep an eye on the house and build her schedule around us.”

Lia nodded. “I’ll get back to making dinner, then; we’ll ask her about it when she gets back.”

Amelia was right; in only a couple of minutes, Lia heard Connie greeting Rose out in the living room. And, a few moments after, she peeked her head into the kitchen. “I’m back!” She said happily. “Anything I can do to help with dinner?”

“It’s my night, silly.” Lia replied. “But we were hoping to talk with you about some business. Would you mind chatting while I cook or would you prefer to have the discussion after dinner?”

“I’m not doing anything right now.” Connie said, sitting down on one of the kitchen counters. “What were you hoping to talk about?”

Rose stepped into the kitchen, growing a wooden chair out from the floor in the corner and taking a seat. “Want a chair, Connie?”

“I’m fine with the counter.” Connie replied, giving Rose a mischievous smile. “Unless you don’t like me sitting on you.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “If you’re going with that, then you’d be sitting on me either way.” She chuckled. “But, no, I don’t mind.”

Lia giggled a little at the lighthearted exchange. It was nice to see Connie letting her hair down more around them, and the more Lia was away on business, the more she came to miss these small moments. “Okay, so we just got done talking with Fae. I’m guessing you knew she decided to join us permanently?”

“Heather mentioned it, yeah.” Connie replied. “I assume she said something that got you thinking?”

“Yeah.” Lia confirmed. “She wasn’t sure how much she could say, so she suggested we talk to you or Izumi about it, since she thought you’d be more experienced with the restrictions. I think she thinks that we’re banned from knowing anything about other planes, not just…whatever’s happening? That’s not quite right, is it?”

“Kind of.” Connie replied. “Basically, I can tell you anything Izumi would have been able to tell you before she returned to Yasato. Broad details, but I wouldn’t be able to help you implement specific technologies or give you information or militaries unless you paid me. But there is a lot I can tell you for free.”

“That should be plenty.” Lia said, casting a quick spell to fill the pot with water, then set it on the stove. “Basically, I was asking her for opinions on what we could be doing, and she suggested making smooth roads but holding off on any other sweeping infrastructure changes until we had technological advancements from Yasato. What are your thoughts?”

“I can see why she’d say that.” Connie said. “A lot of the technology there requires significant infrastructure that simply doesn’t exist here. And you might find that changes you make now would be made irrelevant by new technology or would be made significantly easier with those technologies. Want to hear specifics on what kind of things are out there?”

“Yes, please.” Rose said.

“Okay, so a lot of this tech revolves around electricity. You can use it as a form of power, making mechanisms seemingly move by themselves. There’s also a way of making what is essentially a highly-concentrated Mana potion and figuring out how the Mana can be extracted from it without a person’s involvement, allowing for more autonomous magical devices…”