M49

Morgan spent the next few minutes showing Issa and Ykleedra around the tower, at least the parts he had access to. Both of his guests were impressed when they saw the atrium, but Ykleedra scurried into the thick foliage with a squeal of delight. Morgan could hear her moving through the hedges and trees, and though he had spent a lot of time cutting back the overgrowth, there was a lot of shadow-dappled space for her to explore. After a time, she came back and asked, “Morgan, is that bright sun always there?”

“No, Tiladia says it follows a day-night schedule.”

“I’d like to stay in here for now, if you don’t mind. There are even fruit for me to eat, though I wouldn’t mind some small animals or meat if you get a chance to bring me some.”

“Um, yeah, you can stay in here, but not all the time, Ykleedra. It’s important that you have company. If I’m not home, spend time with Tiladia, and after you’re more comfortable, I’d like to introduce you to more colonists.”

“As you say, Morgan. Thank you!” With that, the smallish Yovashi scuttled back into the shadowy depths of the atrium.

“Well, Issa, are you ready to go and meet a bunch more humans?”

“Yes, but Morgan, I think it would be nice if you could clear the way to your bedrooms sooner rather than later.” She smiled coyly, and Morgan didn’t have to use his imagination to wonder what she was thinking. They’d definitely grown closer since he found his way to Tarn’s Crossing. Plenty of hugging and kissing had taken place, but neither of them had pushed things farther than that. Part of it was that they’d never been really alone; all the way back to the colony, Olivia had been with them, and Morgan felt awkward enough trying to put the moves on Issa, not knowing her cultural norms, he certainly didn’t want to add making Olivia uncomfortable to the mix. He could take a hint, though.

“Yeah, I’ll make that a priority. After we meet with the council, let’s come back here, and I’ll see what the deal is with the fourth guardian.” Issa grinned, took his hand in hers, and led the way back down the stairs.

It was a short walk from his tower to the cobbled road that led to the center of town. Morgan walked confidently. He wasn’t wearing his armor, but he was wearing some of his new clothes, and he knew they were quite a step up from the simple outfits most of the colonists purchased from the Contribution Store. Issa walked beside him, holding his hand, and garnered even more stares than Morgan had when he’d first come back to the colony. Many people shouted out greetings, and Morgan and Issa waved and replied. Morgan didn’t remember people ever being this friendly to him in his old life, but he had to consider that things were different. He stood out like a professional athlete would if they walked around in a small town. Issa was strikingly beautiful, at least in his mind, but even if he were biased, there was no denying her blue skin and bright yellow eyes.

In any case, they’d drawn a small crowd by the time they reached the cluster of buildings near the Colony Stone hill. On this side of the hill, Morgan recognized the smithy, but there was another large workshop next to it, and an open-air market had taken shape on the other side. Several stalls were set up, and Morgan could see people perusing the wares of the fledgling artisans and other entrepreneurs. “Things are starting to take shape around here.”

“This is new to you?” Issa asked.

“Yeah, there weren’t as many buildings and roads and stuff when we left.” Morgan gestured around. “Let’s take a right around the hill; the tavern where the council meets is over there.” They walked along the road that curved around the hill, and Morgan noticed that a set of stone steps had been built into the hillside, creating an easy pathway up to the Colony Stone. When they came around the hill, and the tavern and pond behind it came into view, Morgan was surprised to see a crowd of around fifty people standing and sitting on the hillside looking toward and listening to a large, red-haired man. He looked vaguely familiar to Morgan, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint how he knew him.

“The time for waiting is over. This supposed Urghat army that will invade ‘any moment’ may never come. Meanwhile, we have unelected people making every important decision for our community. What have they done to earn that authority? Most of them aren’t even on the leaderboard anymore. I’ve been at the top of the leaderboard since almost the beginning. Even after being awarded my home, I’ve worked to improve this community. You know I have your best interests at heart! How many of you have eaten food that I’ve hunted? Had homes built from wood that I’ve gathered? Been saved because I killed dangerous beasts? Shouldn’t someone like me be helping to make decisions about the future of the colony?” Each time the big man made a point, he hammered a fist into the palm of his other hand. Several audience members responded with affirmative exclamations, backing up his claims. By the time he finished speaking, the whole crowd seemed agitated, and Morgan could hear echoes of his speech in their conversations.

“That seems like trouble,” he said quietly to Issa.

“Who is that?”

“I don’t know, to be honest. I think he might be the guy that owns the big house near my tower.” Morgan gripped Issa’s hand more tightly and led her past the crowd to the tavern. He couldn’t help notice the large, red-bearded man turn and watch him as he walked by. Morgan returned his stare until he had to turn to open the door. The inside of the tavern had an entirely different mood. People sat around talking, drinking from mugs, smiling, and laughing. Morgan saw Alec behind the bar and called out, “Hey Alec, is the council meeting yet?”

“They are, but hey, who’s your friend?” Alec’s grin was infectious, and Morgan walked over to the bar with Issa in tow.

“This is Issa - she’s an Ardeni. They’re going to be helping us with the Urghat.” He noticed a slight frown on Issa’s face, and he continued, “Um, she’s my girlfriend, too.” He was dimly aware of the absolutely ridiculous fact that his face flushed a little. How could a grown man who’d been battling for his life over and over again suffer from such a juvenile response? He glanced down at Issa and saw that his words had brought the smile back to her face.

“Pleased to meet you, sir. I’d love to try some of your wares. Could you suggest a drink?” Thankfully, Alec had eyes only for Issa and her exotic appearance, so he left Morgan alone. He turned around and filled a mug from a tapped cask on the counter behind him.

“This is a honey mead that I think is quite delicious. I wish I could take credit for it, but our own homebrews are still fermenting. Still, it’s a cut above the cheap stuff available on the Contribution Store.”

“I, uh, I’ll take one too, Alec,” Morgan said, finally having found his voice. Alec handed him a mug, and Morgan took a deep drink. The mead was sweet, but it had a solid kick to it. Morgan cleared his throat and said, “Hey, what’s with the dude outside riling everyone up?”

“That’s Reggie, um, Gandry-Thule, I think it is. He’s been bugging the council to hold elections for a couple of weeks now. He’s starting to get a lot of people to agree with him. Arthur told me they’re thinking of going ahead with an election soon because of the pressure that guy is stirring up.”

“Huh. Alright, well, let’s go meet the council, Issa.”

“It was nice to meet you, Alec,” Issa said, following Morgan to the door leading to the back room. Morgan opened the door and walked into a lively conversation. Everyone stopped talking, though, when he came in, staring as he and Issa walked over to the table. Not everyone was present. Morgan saw Bronwyn, Olivia, Arthur, Dr. Kerns, Maria Rios, and Tanya Delgado.

“Hey all, this is Issa. She’s here ahead of the other Ardeni Hunters to help with the Urghat.” Morgan gestured to Issa. She smiled pleasantly and waved. “Maybe you all could take a minute to introduce yourselves?” Morgan pulled out a chair for Issa and sat down next to her while Arthur spoke.

“Of course. Olivia has been filling us in about your journey - it sounds like a great success! I’m Arthur Ballard, Issa. I was selected to lead this colony back on our homeworld, but the System had designs that made our preparations moot. Still, I’m doing my best to help coordinate things here.” Morgan relaxed and drank his mead while the rest of the council members introduced themselves to Issa. They all had additional comments or questions for her, and Morgan could see that they were fascinated by her. He supposed it made sense; this was the first meeting they’d had with a friendly, conversant non-human.

After introductions, the conversation drifted to preparations for war, including a report from Tanya Delgado about the new cannons they had mounted strategically along the wall. Morgan was interested to hear about their iron supply - it seemed that some of the colonists had gotten “quests” to find ore in the hills east of the forest. That was where they’d found caves with plenty of naturally occurring sulfur and potassium nitrate, in addition to the iron veins the System had sent them to find. Several dozen colonists had started mining the iron ore for rewards and had gained non-combat skills that sped up the process remarkably, so much so that the smelter had been running non-stop for almost two weeks. The iron, combined with the ingots that came with the smithy, proved to be sufficient for creating several hundred blunderbuss and musket barrels as well as five cannons on each side of the colony.

“Considering the relatively low level of most colonists, I think it’s great that you’re working on black powder and projectile weapons, but I think we might have a smarter way of melding our technology with Energy,” Olivia chimed in as Tanya wrapped up her report.

“What do you mean?” Tanya asked.

“Well, barrels and lead balls are great, but the black powder is messy, slow to load, and proven to be unreliable. What if we were able to use Energy as a power source. What if we could create power-stones and attach them to an Artificed barrel?”

“Hmm.” Tanya drummed her fingers on the table. “We don’t know how to make power-stones. The ones we have came with the buildings we purchased. It would take a lot of experimentation.”

“Well, it’s an idea, and yes, we should do some experimenting,” Arthur interjected, “but I want us to focus on what we can do for now. Keep making the black powder. Also, now that we’ve purchased the Alchemy shop, I think the priority should be making a smokeless powder variant.”

The discussion continued in that vein for a while, but when that topic died down, Dr. Kern spoke up with a question that interested Morgan, “Issa, do you mind if I ask you a few questions about your racial anatomy? I assume some of your people might be injured in the fighting that seems to be imminent, and I’d be interested in knowing the best way to treat you.”

“Um, is this really the best place to talk to her about her anatomy?” Bronwyn spoke up from the far corner where she’d sat, mostly quiet for the entire meeting. Dr. Kerns’s face reddened slightly, and Bronwyn snorted.

“Oh, of course, I’m sorry. The scientist in me got out of hand. Perhaps I could meet with you later, Issa?”

“That’s fine with me. Maybe you could come to Morgan’s tower to speak with me later?”

“Very good, thank you.” Dr. Kerns smiled and nodded.

“One final matter,” Arthur said. “Like we’ve discussed ad nauseam over the last week, we’re going to have to have an election. Bronwyn, can you set it up on the stone?”

“Yeah, I looked at it when I gave all of you permissions. It’s simple to set up, but it’s permanent - once we put in the candidates and everyone votes at the Colony Stone, the changeover will happen automatically.”

“I think it’s safe to assume that at least some of us already acting as council members will win a spot, even if it’s just based on name recognition. That being said, if we want to avoid some kind of riot or mutiny, we’re going to have to go ahead with it. Every day I’m accosted by more people, and the mood is getting downright hostile out there,” Maria Rios added.

“Yeah, Issa and I heard that Reggie guy giving a speech outside the tavern just now.” Morgan gestured toward the door behind him with his thumb.

“Alright, I move that we hold an election in three days for ten council positions,” Arthur said, a dour expression on his face.

“I second,” Maria said.

“Any objections?” Arthur looked around the table. No one was smiling, but no one spoke up.

“It’s settled then. Please set up the election, Bronwyn.”