224 Chapter 224 Move to Trade Town

"Momma!" came a call as she went to activate the portal.

Turning her head, Aella saw the hydra dangling from the edge of a roof, held in place by the ring on their ankle. It looked like they were sliding down one of the slides, shot into the air, and hit the corner, getting caught by a hook.

"How long have you guys been stuck?" exclaimed Aella, taking them down gently without breaking the ring, then fixing the corner of the building so it wouldn't happen again.

"A long time!" sobbed Ruth, pushing Precious off Aella's shoulder to hide her head in the nook of her neck.

Precious glared at the hydra, but flew over to a ledge and lay down as if that had been his plan all along.

Taking the baby hydra, Aella returned to the portal and holding them with one arm, she finished the last of the runes to activate it. The moment it came alive, assassins began pouring through, with some giving her strange looks as the hydra snuggled in her arms.

"Are they here to play, too?" asked Frank, watching as a few brought family with them.

"If they want to play with you, they are welcome to," said Aella cautiously, noting the tiny babies some of them were holding. "But you can't hurt any of them, alright?"

"Okay!" exclaimed Ruth and Frank. Louie was eyeing one of the older kids that had come through. The boy had stopped to look around as his mother fussed with a small toddler.

"If they hurt us, can we eat them?" asked Louie, turning his head to look at her.

"No, I ordered them not to hurt you, so if they do, it would be an accident," said Aella. "If anyone hurts you, you are welcome to find me, or Firion, and we will decide if you can eat them."

"Actually, Aella," said Firion, stepping through the portal, "None of the assassins are forced to follow you, like I do. They merely do so because of fear of reprisal."

Shifting the hydra to her other arm, so she could get a better look at Firion as she spoke, Aella said, "That's probably well founded. I don't have anyone to run the trade town just yet so I would appreciate it if you could watch over things for me."

"Frederik and Seifer were announcing the change of leadership already, back at the palace," nodded Firion, watching the baby hydra struggle to remain in her arms as she set it down. "Do you have any other candidates for this position?"

"No, everyone else who came from the pits didn't feel right to me. I guess I'll have to oversee the trade town myself once I open it up to everyone," sighed Aella, not looking forward to the job. There were so many things she had to do.

"I hate to keep asking you to do things, though," said Aella, chewing on her lip. She was torn between saying yes and being done with the whole mess and saying no in order to find someone else. Firion was a little kill-happy for this job, she thought.

"I know that you have a lot going on," said Firion, moving up against the wall to let some of the people get past him easier with their belongings. "This will free you up to get the other things taken care of, and then if you want to put someone else in charge later, you can."

Aella watched the people flooding through the gates, overseen by some of the assassins, and finally nodded. It would still be a week or more before she had everything set up for the portals to start working. And then she had to babysit the godlings, though with all of these people in the town she wasn't sure if bringing them here was a good idea.

"Can we go play?" asked Ruth, looking for something to do now that Aella wouldn't hold her.

"Alright, but don't kill anyone," said Aella, finally turning back to Firion. "I have three children coming in a couple of weeks that I am to watch for a whole week. They are the children of gods, so I'm a little stressed about it. If you will take over watching the town for me, I will be able to focus better after that week is over."

"What god thought it would be a good idea for you to babysit?" laughed Firion, causing the assassins around to turn in shock and fear. They probably didn't hear him laugh often.

"Let's just say he can't visit right now because the realm can't handle his power," said Aella, regretting she had said anything.

"Fine, I understand," said Firion, throwing his hands up. His cheerful look dropped instantly as one of the assassins approached.

"Where do you want your wife and child placed?" the figure asked in a voice Aella couldn't pinpoint as boy or girl.

"I am to be promoted to mayor of the town, so somewhere in the middle," he responded lightly.

The assassin nodded and hurried away. Aella thought she could see the royal scribe moving down the street and wondered if her move would inconvenience Frederik.

"Margarhetta will appreciate the promotion, but she's still going to be ticked about moving. I should go and console her," said Firion.

"For someone who doesn't have normal emotions, you sure understand them well," said Aella as he went to leave, catching Precious as he landed on her shoulder.

"It helps when hunting your prey, if you understand them," he threw over his shoulder.

Aella shook her head, wondering if she had made the right decision, then checking on the hydra, to see them playing with some of the kids before teleporting to the human city.

"Alfred," Aella called, flying over to him as he left one of the buildings. "I've activated the portal at the demon city, do you mind if I go ahead and activate the portal here? I plan to go to the other kingdoms and ask them about activating theirs next."

"That sounds fine, I will send some guards to keep an eye on it," said Alfred, shuffling some of the documents in his arms around to carry them easier. "I already informed my head of guards on how to deal with it, I just have to let him know it's become active."

Aella nodded in relief that he wasn't going to argue with her, and quickly activated it. Nodding to the guards who rushed towards the portal as she finished, she teleported to the dwarven king. He was in the middle of a meeting with some of his nobles. She waited patiently, keeping herself hidden near the ceiling, as he sent them away so he could think on their proposal before turning back towards his bedroom in annoyance.

"Are they gone?" Aella heard someone ask from the other room sleepily.

"Fer now," he grumbled, reaching for the ties at his waist of his robe.

"I have a quick question," said Aella, landing behind him.

With a sigh, he turned back. "If you want to activate that blasted portal, go ahead. My guys would appreciate something to distract them from missing out on the party."

Aella winced and nodded, teleporting to the portal to activate it. She still needed to visit the elves, gnomes and halflings, but at least these portals were up and running. The elves would probably be busy with the party until the end of the week, so she decided to head to the gnome city next.

"They've really changed over the past year," muttered Precious.

"Yea, I'll have to see if I can meet with the council," said Aella, flying over towards where the council had been, but when she landed, she didn't think the council was in session. The building had been restored, but there were no lights that she could see from inside. Pulling on the door, she stepped inside and heard voices ahead.

With a sigh of relief that they were indeed there, only meeting with someone, she headed towards the light. However, as she drew closer, she heard a voice she wasn't expecting.

"I assure the council that I do not know what happened with the Bob bar. He refuses to answer my questions as well," said Jozef. "In fact, I have not been able to get inside any of his bars in the past couple days."

"That's because I closed them," said Aella, stepping into the light for the council of gnomes to see her. She turned to look at him, and saw the confusion and panic on his face at her appearance.