Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

[Parallel Thoughts] was brilliant for situations like this. I split my mind in two, one focusing on the scribe, the other processing all the outrage and other feelings I was having. Much healthier.

I thanked the scribe, she welcomed me to Exterreri, all good stuff. Back to what I was feeling.

I was mad because of how easy it was. I’d spent two decades fighting to be acknowledged as a person, much less a citizen. It just felt so unfair that I could be declared a citizen within 30 minutes of meeting the administrator, while it was a big deal otherwise.

Then again… the fact that I was offered citizenship as well as being allowed to settle implied it wasn’t that easy. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was some arcane amalgam of my level and Immortality status, possibly with my profession, that had citizenship extended to me.

I noticed it wasn’t extended to Iona, but perhaps she’d need to show up in person?

In one sense, it was too easy. In another, I didn’t want to be the old grump who insisted that everything be just as hard for the people coming after me as it was for me. The whole point was to make things better and easier for others. I couldn’t exactly complain when it was exactly that.

I collapsed the thought process, bringing my full undivided attention back to what I was being told about the laws I needed to know.

“Brief legal overview. I’m not a solicitor, but one has prepared the following statement to read to new residents and citizens. Ahem.”

She cleared her throat, and started to recite from memory. Her quill started to work furiously on a scroll next to her. I wonder if she had [Parallel Thoughts] like I did, or a weaker [Multitasking] or similar.

“Whereas it is incumbent upon any society, regardless of its structure and constitution, to promulgate and disseminate its governing principles and statutes in such a way that its citizenry may be apprised thereof in no uncertain terms;

And whereas, the maintenance of public order and the promotion of the commonwealth demand that the subject matter of any given law be thoroughly and precisely communicated to the populace, so that ignorance and misunderstanding do not lead to chaos, injustice, or unrest;

It is worth noting that this summation of law represents only a small fraction of the total body of law to which each and every citizen is subject. It is the responsibility of all individuals, irrespective of their familiarity with these laws, to abide by the full extent of the legal code. Ignorance of any given law will not be accepted as a defense against any charges levied against an individual who has violated that law.

This is to ensure that all citizens and residents of our fair land are able to enjoy the full protections, benefits, and privileges that our laws and institutions afford, and that they may participate in the democratic process of governance with informed consent and understanding, as befits the dignity and worth of each individual being.”

Kill me. KILL ME NOW.

At the same time, this was critically important information. I pulled every single bit of willpower I had just to half-focus, while rotating rapidly between different thought processes.

[*ding!* [Parallel Thoughts] leveled up! 175 -> 176]

Condensing a small novella of legal half-truths and ass-coverings, it came down to a few relatively simple twists.

The usual laws applied. Don’t murder, steal, rape, commit arson, etc. The common sense laws, and even those were simply brushed over in a quick thousand words.

The unusual ones made me perk up and pay attention. They were twists on ‘normal’ living that I had to know, and frankly the heart of the entire conversation.

First, Exterreri didn’t tax income, they taxed wealth, and even then only certain types of wealth. There was even a note in the speech strongly suggesting I spend what I made on the excluded items.

Land, property, businesses, cold hard cash, and other income-generating sources were taxed at a higher rate… but that was the short version. The long version had small common-sense exemptions - a little plot of land to have a small house was free, the taxes started once we wanted something larger, they went down if it was a farm, then rapidly climbed to a level that was clear the Powers That Be wanted no one household to own lots of land. It was recommended I talk with someone ahead of time, because when the tax collector came around they wouldn’t have any mercy.

There were, weirdly enough, rules on expanding into the wilderness. I couldn’t just burn a swath of forest down, stick a sign down saying The Wyvern Bites, and call it home. Had me concerned with Fenrir. The rest of the Eventide Eclipse could be perfectly happy with a small space, but the wyvern needed significant room to hunt and stretch his wings.

I was vaguely regretting my choices, but no. I reminded myself that any society filled with Immortals who’d never die had to carefully manage resources, and the rules were hopefully there for a good reason. Regulations were written in blood. I’d done some reading before I’d come here, so not all of this was new, but there was only so much I could get with scattered reading from a distance. There was a huge gulf between academic research on a flying island, and living it on the ground. The theory, and the practice. There was an ancient law on the books about not tying giraffes to taverns, but given the lack of giraffes I’d found, it seemed like one of those laws that was a relic, instead of an active problem that was enforced. Nothing like living in the country to understand what the laws truly were.

I just hoped that the rules were for the benefit of all, and Exterreri hadn’t reached the point where those in political power were making the rules to benefit themselves. The laws seemed fair, but there were loopholes. There were always loopholes.

There were a bunch of rules around blood and consent. In short, a vampire couldn’t feed on me without my permission, unless it was in a life-saving emergency. I didn’t get told what would happen after, but there were a whole hundred words reassuring me that it would be taken seriously and investigated, and that I’d be entitled to a generous portion of the fines.

And more. The poor scribe looked like she was suffering as well as she recited the entire thing from memory, and I wasn’t surprised. It had to be a whole book’s worth of content.

Hurray for the System! Hurray for memory skills!

I wanted to cut it short and spare both of us the misery of dealing with carefully crafted legalese, but no. That would be short sighted and dumb on my part. I was tired of needing to pack up and move, of needing to find and make new homes. I was determined to get a home, stick up a sign that said Beware of Hummingbird, and blissfully live there for the next dozen centuries or six.

There were all sorts of laws around finding old questionably-abandoned locations and salvage rights, and I had a brief guilty moment flash through me as I realized we’d broken like half of the short version of the laws when looting the Immortal hideout we’d found.

At the same time, they never knew, so… all mine?

Wait!

No!

That’s how adventurers thought!

Argh! But I didn’t want to get arrested and tried for doing mostly the right thing! The whole place had collapsed behind us! I saved and preserved countless histories!

I changed my thought process instead of admitting to myself once again that adventurers might have a point, and a reason why they acted.

Finally she was done, although it took me a few seconds to process it.

The scribe coughed into her hand, and I startled, jumping up as my eyes refocused on reality.

“I can’t answer any questions you might have, but I can repeat any segments.” She said with a tone that begged me not to ask for any repeated segments.

“I’ve got a perfect memory, I think I’ll spare both of us the pain. Do I need to do anything else…?”

She shook her head and gave me the scroll.

“Nope, you’re all set. Welcome!”

I was about to leave when a thought snagged me.

“Do you know any vampires called Night?”

She promptly shook her head.

“I know three vampires, none of them are called anything like that. Sorry!”

I staggered out of her office, a thousand thoughts and ideas whirling in my head. I wanted to grab lunch. Stop by the library, both to research Night and to drop off my loot. I wonder if they’d pay me for it? I’d have to keep the source a secret, but…

I should just get Iona to handle the selling and conversion. Also, needed to update her on how things were going, and I could grab lunch while I was at it.

Just hoped that being a citizen made getting in and out of the city cheaper. Didn’t want to keep paying just to check in with Iona. Maybe I could sneak over the walls? Easy enough to go invisible and…

No! That was more adventurer thinking! What was wrong with me!? I needed to go find another [Mind-Healer] like Linnet and see what was wrong, or check with a [Curse breaker] to see if someone had cursed me, or…

Hang on, we had just basically raided a tomb, hadn’t we? And sto- liberated - a bunch of their stuff?

Visiting a [Curse breaker] jumped high on my list of things to do. I hardened my resolve, and determined that I’d pay the damn toll every time I crossed the gates. Better than being an adventurer.

First! Iona!

“... and that’s the situation. Fancy piece of paper saying I’m a citizen, and we’re all good.” I told Iona, polishing off the last bite of lunch at the inn. “How about you?”

The poor windows in the inn weren’t doing much to let light in. The sky was too dark and overcast, but it was a nice effort. It did let us see people walking up and down the road, occasionally seeing an interesting skill in action.

“Ugh. Don’t ask. Short version, we’re good to stay here for a bit, but we’ve been politely asked not to fly over the city or through the Ash cloud. Since it sounds like we can stay here a bit, let’s talk finances and logistics?”

I nodded, and let Iona take the lead.

“Fenrir’s the major concern. We need a consistent source of food. Given Sanguino, that mostly means a consistent source of money. I’ve done some poking around.” Iona looked guilty, and almost nervous.

I reached out and grabbed her hand.

“Hey. Together. Always. Okay?” I reassured her.

She squeezed back.

“Together. Forever.” She agreed. “Onto the damages. Fenrir, without hunting, at the cheapest prices I could find in half a day, is going to be about 2000 coins a week in food.”

I pulled a face at that.

“Really got your money's worth out of the scholarship at the School, with them feeding him and all.”

Iona nodded.

“Yeah. He’s slowing down in his growth rate, but he’ll probably need more in the future. Did you get anything on the legalities of hunting? I was surprised to hear that wilderness territory was protected.”

“The short version I got told said nothing about the hunting laws. I know we were a little cavalier on the way over, but we didn’t know. Something for us to look into. Do you have all our coins on us?”

Iona shook her head.

“Another 15 ruby coins upstairs. Everything else is on me.”

“Brrrpt!” Auri flew over to the bar, was given a single obsidian coin, and flew back with it, dropping it on the table. She puffed up, pleased as punch with herself. “Brrpt!!”

It was a drop in the bucket. 10 arcanite coin equivalent, or arcs.

I did a quick scan, totaling up everything Iona and I had on ourselves, and adding in the rubies.

“154,281 arcs total.” I surmised, the vast bulk of it being in Iona’s 15 rubies. Usually just called coins. A large chunk of money when home purchases and feeding the voracious maw that was Fenrir wasn’t included, nor the high prices of an inn. It was enough to get various enterprises off the ground, and someone living frugally could survive a few years on that amount. “This isn’t counting selling any of the loot we got from the Immortal hideout, but let’s not sell the dreamsteel blades.” I was still waffling a bit on the books I’d acquired.

“What’s the plan?” Iona asked.

“Well. Best I can figure is I start working as a [Healer] to start. That’ll slow the bleeding, and if I’m lucky, turn us around. If we make enough money off that, great. I sent a few letters off to Amber, and I hope she’ll come around soon. I’ll need to talk with an [Accountant] or something to see if my stake in her business is taxable or not. If she comes soon, great! I think I’m in a position to sell my skill. Why not, right? Exterreri explicitly protects people like me, it can make us money. I don’t want to put you on the spot, and it’s fine if you don’t have a plan, but what are you thinking?”

“Brrrpt!” Auri jumped in, and started to regale us with her plan.

“Brrpt brpt BRrrrrrrrrrrrrpt! Brpt, brpt!”

She went on and on, laying out one of the most detailed business proposals I’d ever heard. In short, she wanted to grab a prime shop location, open up a bakery, and sell goods by the thousands. She had fantastically precise costs, from rent, to supplies, a good portion on overhead, estimated costs on ovens, pots, pans, and the like, to foot traffic, marketing, advertising costs, and sales. She laid out the profit per good, and even had a small allowance for food waste!

It was almost perfect. Just a few small issues with it.

“The percentage of our starting capital as an investment is a little too large to be comfortable.”

“Brrrpt…” Auri pointed out that if it worked, all our money troubles would be solved.

“... and I don’t think you’re going to make 10,000 sales a day.”

“Brrrrrpt…” Auri was doubtful, given the foot traffic projections and how her stuff just smelled that good.

“I’m no expert, but I’m going to agree with Elaine on this one.”

Iona took a breath, then continued.

“The way I see it, I’ve got a number of options, all of which I’m willing to entertain but none which happily click. The best of the lot is joining the Hunter’s Guild like your friends did. Plenty of targets to go after, most of them in the wilderness, gives Fenrir and I a chance to stretch our wings and eat plenty. Gives me a ton of freedom, I don’t need to swear allegiance to anyone, and even if I only manage to keep Fenrir fed, that’s 100,000 arcs a year in expenses we avoid. Primary downside is it's a huge sidetrack from what I want to do in life, and I’m not sure if my [Vow] would be content long-term. Working as a guard would fix that, but I’d need to swear allegiance and Fenrir probably wouldn’t make it. Joining the army, or heck, the vaunted Rangers you’re always talking about would let Fenrir stretch his wings, but tie me tightly here. I’m a Valkyrie, first and foremost, not a Ranger or legionnaire. No disrespect.”

I nodded.

“None taken. I’d have the same reaction if the shoe was on the other foot and my main option was becoming a Valkyrie. I’m not a Valkyrie, I’m a… well, you know.” I was mindful of Livia’s stern warning about not calling myself a Sentinel.

Which was something else to check on. If Night was still around, he’d probably be near the Sentinels. Find the headquarters, sneak around, find the meeting room, boom! 50-50 chance of finding him. He’d be there or he wouldn’t be there.

‘Sneak into the headquarters of the nation’s special forces’ was such an astoundingly bad idea that I was saving it for when I got truly desperate. I also had no way of knowing if the current Sentinels did anything like the old bunch, and if there even was a secret meeting room or anything.

Heck, I didn’t know if Night was in Sanguino or not! All in all, not the best of ideas.

“It gets worse from there. Private security for the First Bank or similar isn’t the best pay and would be mind-numbingly boring, before my job and my [Vow] conflict when I need to save someone from a banker or some nonsense, private investigators don’t get paid, private enforcer would run into my [Vow] issue even before they inevitably dragged me into shady business.” Iona drummed her fingers on the table.

“I suppose I can ask the local temples for assistance though. I’m one of Selene and Lunaris’s [Paladins], that’s usually worth a small stipend, and keeps me doing what I want to do. Yeah. Maybe mix in some Hunter’s Guild work into that… and I won’t need to sign up as an adventurer.” Iona gave me a cheeky wink at that last part, and I mock-gasped in horror.

“We’re entitled to a share of the ruins we found, especially if we can mark exactly where it is. Do we want to get a small finder’s fee, or sit on it to excavate later?” I asked. “I’ll be honest, I want it all for myself if I can manage it. I’m struggling to figure out how.”

Iona frowned.

“Let’s stick to what we’re good at. I could easily take a trip up north and show a team from the Delver’s Guild or - and don’t give me grief, it’s exactly what they do - the Adventurer’s Guild exactly where the ruins are. It won’t fix any of our problems today, it’s not long term, but for a day or two of work we’ll get a nice payday down the line. Do we really want to spend months digging, or organizing and paying a team to dig the ruins out?”

Blah. I hated the idea of not getting all that money, but Iona had a point. Damn logic! Damn common sense!

I suppose I’d make more money for the effort working as a healer.

“Alright, let’s give it to the Delver’s Guild.” I agreed. “We seem to have a plan for money and the short term, any thought to where we’ll live and settle down?”

“Nope. I’ve got some ideas. Clearly not in the city itself, so we’ll have to be nearby, but I think that’s putting the cart before the dinosaur a bit. Let’s figure that plan out after we know we want to live here long-term? Like what if Night is living somewhere else?”

I frowned at that, mulling it over, but Iona had a good point.

“You’re right. We can start imagining what kind of place we want, yeah?”

Iona grinned at me, and pulled out a notebook.

“Well, I’m no architect, but I’ve got a few sketches of ideas…” She said, flipping open the first page. A dazzling castle with a keep, walls, spiraling towers and more was beautifully sketched on the page.

I lifted an eyebrow.

“A castle?”

“Hey, I’m having fun. Yeah, a castle, why not, if we can afford it?”

I laughed at that.

“Alright, sure, shoot for the stars and all that. A castle, why not, if it works it works. What’s next?”

“Well…” Iona turned the page to a tower, reaching for the clouds, and I leaned in.

“Brrpt brpt BRPT!” Auri had her little chef hat of flames on for some reason, while she officiously pointed to various points on her flaming structure. She’d gotten enthusiastic about the planning, and at this point none of it was practical, but it was fun. Auri was showing off her latest idea, which involved a mansion made almost entirely out of glass built directly over an active volcano, and clever tricks with light and refraction to make it both incredibly hot, and shimmer with all the color of the rainbow.

We’d determined long ago the answer to any issue in structure or habitability was ‘magic’.

I could still see the crowds moving to and fro, and I kept a half eye on them, looking out for cool skills or interesting magics, still filled with wonder and fascination for all the things the System could do.

Light was a common one, the great Ash cloud throwing everyone in shadow to start. Someone was laughing with joy as they exactly paced a courier, the two flashing by in an instant. A Mirror element letting him copy someone else’s speed? Cool! A wagon made entirely of Ice, a sphere of silence, Steam coming off of clothes, the road fixing itself under the slow-moving footsteps of an entire crew of workers, and more!

A limping woman flipping a coin caught my eye, and my mouth dropped as I recognized Amber. What was she doing here?!

I got up to leave the inn and call her over, but she stopped of her own volition, looking at the coin in her hand, then abruptly turned and limped across the road to the inn.

“Amber!” I called out as she came in, wildly waving my arms so she’d see us. “Hey! Long time no see!”

Her face lit up as she saw us, and she limped over at full speed to our table, her mismatched eyes gleaming with joy.

“Elaine! Auri! Iona. It’s so nice to run into you here!”

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