Chapter 161: Prep For War

"Aren!?" She's been screaming his name in outrage for quite some time now, "Of all the freaking people Asher, you just have to pick the person with the least qualifications!"

"I thought you got along well with Aren? Such hurtful words from someone he'd consider a friend."

Hand on her temples, massaging best as she can she sighs, "We get along just fine thank you, but that doesn't change the fact that he's wholly unqualified for the position you're trying to dump on him."

"Look at this place!" She urges, waving her arms out in an exaggerated manner. "It's an entire city with several nuances to pull through, policy to consider, expenses to manage and deals with other cities and villages to uphold."

Glaring heatedly at me she adds, "It is most certainly not a gate."

"Ha!" I laugh, "You're saying Aren isn't qualified because he's so far only worked as a guard for the gates, a farmer and as a human liaison to a group of elves with barely any legitimacy to the name they called themselves"

"The Elven North was very legitimate, and it still is, Gerin may be out of his mind now but the women are going to pick up the rubble and move on, like you're supposed to after a battle."

"And yes, I am saying he has no experience, none of what he's worked as gives him even the bare minimum of skills required to run an entire city!"

I nod, "Well, you have a point, he doesn't have what it takes to run an entire city, but from the tales I've heard about his adaptability to tough situations, I think he's just the sort of person I need behind the reins of Aste."

She looks flabbergasted, "What are you even talking about? That thing he does when he switches between his personalities? I can do that too, anyone can."

I shake my head, "Not very astute of you Kaylin, he is not just switching his personalities, he IS those personalities, his true self is the result of unbelievable pressure, what you see when he stops being timid and sketchy is what I want to have behind Aste."

Kaylin stares at me for a second or two before pronouncing with certainty, "That makes absolutely no sense. Why not someone like Yelenia then? If not me, why not her? She's an elf and you said this is about giving the elves a better, freer place to live. Nothing says freedom like an Elf at the reins."

"I've thought about Yelenia, but aside from the fact that she's far too rash and her background of being a…cap cutter, the population of Aste is more human and other than just elf."

"So, lead by Majority?"

"Yes and no, your mother is already taking some elves out to…somewhere, so the elven population is already taking a hit. Then you factor in the fact that racial tensions are still aflare, it's not like me being in charge will automatically make all the bad things go away Kaylin, because of that we have to accommodate the large Majority…humans."

She looks utterly disappointed, I doubt she even listened to my explanation, "So you're choosing Aren because he's human."

"I'm choosing Aren because he's also human."

"What's the difference? You're still choosing him because of that."

I open my mouth to explain but the large black doors leading into the furnished office fly open.

"Mayor!"

Our intruder is none other than a haphazardly looking Hastra.  Tanned skin, short hair and a peculiar dressing style.

"What is it this time, Hastra?"

She huffs, pushing her hair back and heaves deep, greedy breaths.

"Have you been running?" Kaylin asks.

"She does that." I mutter. Upon meeting the young, chipper Steward, I soon came to understand that her childhood vigour had yet to die down; the woman seemed to have an abundance of stamina.

"More complaints, as I'm sure you're expecting!" she near screams.

Right, she shouts too.

"The residents close to the North and many living within the North itself have sent several speakers to demand something be done about the bodies that still lay about the place."

Ah shit. 

"I'll get to it; I can get the bodies buried somewhere…though I was hoping for a certain something to happen before I moved them under." I shake my head free of the thoughts of proper storage for my hundred bodies. "Could you get someone to start digging? Deep and wide, enough for dozens."

Hastra and Kaylin look rightly disgusted discussing the matter.

I'm not. I wonder when I got completely desensitized to the fact that I mess around with corpses and I'm usually surrounded by spilled guts.

"Right, I'll get on that." Hastra murmurs, "They are also asking…demanding- yes, they said to say it like that, uh demanding that you rebuild the houses destroyed in your battle.

"Wasn't my battle…but I suppose that doesn't matter a bit to them."

Hastra shakes her head.

"Fine, get some people working on that too…wait…we do have carpenters and builders, right?"

She nods, a grin splitting her face and I know she's about to go into a long-winded explanation, "Yes, in fact we have an entire company under our employ, they won the bi-"

"I'll just take the yes, Hastra…thank you."

"That'll be all." She says, stifling a laugh.

She leaves soon after and once again I'm left in the room with Kaylin.

I get off the chair and get ready to go.

"You're running away aren't you." Kaylin speaks up before I can even get to my third step.

"No, of course not, we can talk all day if you want but I've got some other matter to attend to?"

"What other matter?" she prudes, following closely after me.

"Well, Hastra reminded me that I met some rather interesting folk while I made my way here to fight Serue. They're the ones mostly responsible for all that mess up North."

Kaylin hums.

"I made them a deal and I left Shaco to trail them, I think I told you about this?"

She merely shrugs as we step down the stairs and walk out the large hole in the Palace.

"Well, I left Shaco to trail them, they ran off and now I have to go put forth on my promise so they can keep theirs."

"Goodluck then, I'll see if I can help around up North." 

Surprised at her rather…not still furious attitude I can't help expressing my gratitude, "Thank you Kaylin."

She shakes her head, "Not for you, my people remember?"

Right…

With that she leaves me standing out in the excessively large courtyard of the Palace feeling a bit dumb.

"Ah, fuck it. Time to go torment some runaways."