Book 3: Chapter 45

Book 3: Chapter 45

“Alright.” Kay nodded to Curcius, who nodded back before sitting down. “Does anyone have any questions for Commander Mapsight before we move on to the next topics?”

Kay’s gathered advisors, who were more and more becoming a ruling council, as his “advisors” were quickly becoming ministers and government officials themselves, all shook their heads or said “no” in various ways.

“Great. Overall, before we move to the next topic: We took the port, with little damage on our side, and freed all the slaves that were there. A large portion of them chose to return to their lives, but almost as many chose to stay and become citizens of Avalon. Enough of them have experience in running a ship that we can probably get a few of the ships we kept up and running in a short time.” He pointed at his Financial Minister, “That’ll give us some options for trade to the north, so see if we have anything that might be worth sending that direction.”

Cyrus nodded and started making notes.

“We’ve already sent a group of people from our architectural and building people down there to start making the port into someplace worth trading in, and they should get there a bit quicker than the last two trips in that direction since the road in that direction got started before the expedition left.” Kay glanced down to consult his notes, “We’ve also managed to hold onto a number of skilled people from the freed slaves that I think would work well in leadership positions, so we’ll need to see if they’ll work for that. Otherwise, we left a group of mages and manipulators to clear another channel out of the bay. Based on their projections before we left to come back home, they finished it while we were still in transit. That means that anyone that wanted to leave has probably already left with their ships and what cargo they could take with them.” He checked his notes again, then looked up with a shrug, “That’s the basic overview of the things that didn’t get covered. Since we’ve still got some travel time in both directions, we’ll leave those topics until we have more information about any of them.” He looked around the room as he asked, “Any questions or comments?”

Amanda leaned forward from her seat near him, “I also sent some of my more promising subordinates along with our builders to take over any administrative duties and to organize and record any of the goods that we kept following the departure of anyone that didn’t want to remain with us. Once we have regular message traffic, they’ll send missives about anyone they think should be recruited for certain Ministries or recruited to other positions.”

Murunel drummed on the table with her fingers for a moment. “Has the group we’re sending already left?”

“They should have set out... two hours ago?” Amanda answered after checking some papers.

“Damn,” The current Minister of Resource Acquisition muttered, “I just realized we should have sent some of my folks with them to see if there’s anything on the way that’s worth anything. I’d be good to mark down spots with useful resources to set up villages or towns or the like in the area.”

Kay looked over at his friend, “They can’t have gone too far in only a couple hours, especially with the supplies we sent with them. Couldn’t you fly some of your folks to them, then head back?”

“Really?” She perked up from her mild slump. “If that’s alright, I’ll run do that now.”

“Anyone have any topics that we definitely need Murunel for?” Kay asked. No one replied, so he nodded at her. “Be safe.”This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

“I will!” She rushed out the door. Murunel hadn’t wanted a leadership position when Kay had first offered, but she’d ended up in one anyways. When he started looking for someone to fill the position she’d ended up in, every other candidate had turned it down, citing the huge gulf in experience between them and the gold dragon. Since no one else would do it, Murunel begrudgingly accepted to post, at least until Kay found “some other sucker that wants to sit in meetings instead of getting real work done”. As much as she grumbled about the position, though, she was really serious about doing a good job.

“Anything else relating to the port?”

“Do we have a name for it yet?” Someone asked.

“No. I think it’s best if the people who actually end up living there name it.”

“Are you sure?” Cindy asked with a sly expression, “We could call it ‘Camelot’.”

“Think you’re funny, huh? Do you and Eleniah workshop together?”

“No, we’re just spiritual twins.” She smirked at him while she elbowed the elven woman next to her. “We both love taking you down a few pegs.”

“Right.” Kay turned back to Amanda, “So then, Prime Minister, when would you have shared with me that you went to that town that was giving your village trouble thanks to a pro-Nelamian mayor as part of an anti-slavery group?”

“I wasn’t ever going to say anything like that since it’s not what happened. I truly went there to try and learn as much as I could about the people that were harassing my home.”

“Then why-”

“I was recruited by the anti-slavery group after I’d already been there for some time.” Amanda’s lips curled up in the tiniest smug smile Kay had seen.

He had to repress the urge to facepalm. “... And when were you going to bring that up?”

“When I had to.” She gestured at Isla’s illusion, which nodded back at her. “Certain people were aware of it,” She also traded a nod with Eleniah, who Kay turned a glare on, “And we decided to give you plausible deniability like you guessed. We were certain that we weren’t doing anything you’d actually dislike, so...” She shrugged. “We’re certainly benefiting from it.”

Kay sighed. “Right.” He very deliberately looked around the room at everyone. “The government of Avalon is not officially supporting any anti-slavery groups that are freeing Nelamian slaves and smuggling them here. Officially we denounce slavery, and it is a crime in Avalonian territory. Any slaves brought into our lands are automatically considered freed, all government officials, guards, and soldiers are to free any slaves they find, and there will be no discrimination against former slaves tolerated in Avalon. All of that being said,” He made direct eye contact with Amanda, “We will not officially support any organization performing acts in other countries that are considered criminal in those countries. Because of that, no member of our government should be seen associating with any such organizations, regardless of personal feelings.”

Amanda bowed to him. “I understand, my lord.”

“Good.” He sat back in his chair. “Any more topics.” He went around the table looking at people, and they all responded negatively until he came to Cindy.

“Actually,” She said, “If no one else has anything, I think it’s time you come visit my area of responsibility.”

Kay raised one eyebrow. “Well then, does anyone have anything else? Then I’ll call this meeting adjourned. Good work, everyone.”

People started heading out of the meeting room, and Kay felt a small weight drop on his shoulder. “That was a bit obvious.”

“I hope so since I was trying to be. We’ll be covered against any truth-seeking shit this way as long as no one can recreate the tone I used.”

Invisibly on his should, Isla chuckled. “It’s not perfect, but like I said, we’re going to be in conflict with them anyway, so it’s fine.”

“I’d prefer not to get into any wars just yet.”

“Oh, it shouldn’t get that bad. Most of the people coming here are gathering from various safe places there were before this; no one is actually coming straight here.”

Kay grunted and mentally made a note to “lose” a bag of money where Isla could get it. “Right.” He looked over to Cindy, who was still sitting. “Any reason we’re waiting?”

“Everyone is sworn to keep what they know a secret, but we’re keeping as much as we can locked down anyways.” She replied. She stood as the last person left, “Right, let’s go walk in circles till your little see-through friend tells us we’re clear.”

“I’m not see-through; that’s a different kind of invisibility. I’m actively showing an illusion of what should be there.”

“Whatever. Let’s go do some spy shit.”