SS - Chapter 36 - Reunion

Surprise! I did another chappy today. Bonus!

I stared at the gate for several long seconds, half expecting it to flare back to life any second and an army of gilded knights to come storming through. As soon as I was convinced that wasn’t going to happen I glanced back at my system window, looking for a way to lock the structure down.

It wasn't as easy as I expected. I had the option to open the connection up again, but no other options. I wasn’t even sure how my mother had requested permission to connect the two gates in the first place.

As I was furiously flipping back and forth between my various windows, a familiar voice rang out from behind me. “Calm yourself child, they cannot follow us. Once a gate is disconnected it needs half an hour to recharge before it can create a connection again.”

I sighed, and slowly turned to face the woman. She looked much older, and more worn down than I remembered. I hadn’t noticed when she rode by, but her black cherry hair was streaked with grey, and there were huge bags under her eyes.

“That’s good to know,” I grumbled. “Did you really have to run off, and try to play hero like that? There must have been other ways to protect the people.”

“There were,” she smiled, “but they wouldn’t have been as effective. Don’t pretend you wouldn’t have done the exact same thing.”

I huffed, but didn’t deny it. 

A wide smile slowly bloomed across my mother’s face at the reaction, and she quickly stepped forward and enveloped me in a hug. 

“I missed you my dear,” she whispered. “I never thought I’d see you again.”

“I missed you too,” I whispered into her shoulder, pulling her closer.

Our emotional reunion was cut short by the sound of someone loudly clearing their throat.

“My ladies, I hate to interrupt, but perhaps it would be a good idea to lock down the gate before you get too distracted,” A gruff female voice suggested.

My mother and I sighed, nearly at the same time, and pulled back. I glanced over at the lithe woman standing a couple feet away. Her golden-orange hair was tied up into a neat, tight ponytail and she had an ornate black breastplate over fine chain armor.

“Lady Amber, good to see you again,” I said pleasantly. “Still haven’t removed that stick from your ass I see.”

“And I see you haven’t learned any manners,” my mother’s bodyguard replied, not missing a beat.

“All right you two, that’s enough,” my announced with a tiny snort of amusement. “Amber isn’t wrong, we should lock down the gate before it has a chance to recharge. Let's see your system.”

Grabbing the window from where it was still hanging, I turned it towards my mother.

Magic Available (100/120) [See current drains] [Display on all panels]
Construct Additional Gateway (Requires 60 magic - Enabling Requires 5 magic) [Construct]

Connect to Remote Gateway (Ashborne Duchy) [Requires 5 magic]

“Good, you’re still on the Gateway tab,” she said quietly. “Press down on ‘Connect to Remote Gateway.’ Whatever you do, do not stop pressing until the next page comes up.”

I did what she told me, and nearly flinched when I pressed down. I half expected the gate to instantly come to life, thankfully it didn’t. After a quick three count a new window popped up.

Magic Available (100/120) [See current drains] [Display on all panels]
Remote Gateway (Ashborne Duchy) 

Require confirmation for connection [Yes/No]

Forget this connection [Yes]

Block all connections from this gate [Yes/No]

“What’s the difference between blocking and forgetting?” I muttered, surveying the list. “Wouldn’t the results be the same?”

“The blocking function is useful once you build up a few allies, and trading partners. You’ll want to maintain those connections, but not give them unrestricted access,” my mother explained.

Nodding, I tapped ‘Forget this connection’ then confirmed the selection. The screen flashed, and returned to the main gateway page. 

Once I confirmed that the connection had been removed, I closed the window.

“With any luck that’ll be the last time we have to deal with Duke Landorous and the Iskel royal family,” I declared.

“I doubt it,” Amber declared. “There are only three things the Rothchild Royal family care about, their prestige, power, and reputation. Not only does the loss of a ducal house hurt their military power, but it’ll make them a laughing stock of the surrounding kingdoms. Once they rebuild they’ll start investigating.”

“Let them look,” I spat. “I crossed multiple kingdoms to find a quiet place to stay, and there’s no way their agents will get permission to come all the way here. By the time they hear about us, they won’t be able to do anything.”

“I’m not quite sure about that,” my mother remarked, slowly shaking her head. “Even though the Rothchild’s have fallen over the last few generations, they still have a number of competent houses under them. There’s a reason why Iskel has managed to stand for so long.”

“Even if they do start hunting for us, we have some far more pressing issues,” Selena announced from a top of the earthen ramp up to the meadow. “Perhaps we should see about getting the refugees settled first?”

My mother shot me a questioning glance. “She’s one of the elf blooded refugees, and a friend of mine,” I said. “And she’s not wrong, we should see to everyone up there, before they start getting antsy.”

“That’s a good idea,” my mother agreed. “I’d also like to check on Emil. I assume he made it through safe and sound, since Argus is here.”

“Yes Ma’am. He’s with Lady Camille, up at the camp.”

I caught the briefest wince pass over Lady Amber’s face, and turned towards her. “What’s the matter? Don’t you miss your daughter?”

“Of course I do,” she replied, her expression and tone softening for the first time since arriving. “It’s just been… hard… to connect with her.”

“I believe that, I still can’t believe the two of you are related,” I replied. 

Stepping down from the dias, I glanced around the area. Despite the fact that several hundred maids had rushed through the gate to help protect my mother just a few minutes before, most of them had already disappeared. “Alex?”

“Hup!” came the reply from right behind me, so close I nearly jumped. 

“Don’t do that!” I snapped. “Can you please get a few maids to do a full inventory of the wagons, and start setting up the tents? Actually… can you set up a few guards around the wagons too? I’m sure people will be getting hungry soon, but if we let them just raid the food supplies we won’t make it through the next few months. We’ll have to set up a cook tent to dole everything up.”

“Hup!” the little maid declared, shooting me a quick salute before running off.

“Do you talk to your Constructs often?" my mother asked, a smile growing on her face.

“The maids aren’t like the Gilded Knights, or any other construct I’ve ever encountered before. They’re intelligent, and capable of performing various basic tasks without supervision,” I explained.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” she muttered.

“Well then, prepared to be surprised,” I said, offering her my arm. She chuckled as she took it.

When we wandered up the shallow ramp up to the plain I slowly became painfully aware of the massive entourage we’d picked up. Both groups of knights, a small group of horse riders, and a number of maids. I’d forgotten how many retainers my mother had hovering around her, protecting her and performing work for her. I’d gotten used to doing most of the work, with only one or two friends, and I found the attention suffocating.

“You’ll get used to it,” my mother whispered, patting me on the arm. “Just as you protect your people, and work to make their lives better, they’ll want to protect you. It’s one of the things you’ll have to deal with as a leader.”

“I didn’t ask for this,” I grumbled. “I ran half way across the continent so I wouldn’t have to take responsibility for people.”

“That’s not true, and you know it,” my mother said. “We worked to get you exiled so that idiot Archibald couldn’t take advantage of you, and force you to run the kingdom while he played around like his father. Even though those two don’t have a clue how to run a kingdom properly, they are smart enough to do everything they can to tie the great houses to themselves.”

“So they’re still idiots, just shrewd ones,” I hissed.

“Absolutely. We were both blessed and cursed that their ancestors did everything possible to permanently tie the other houses to their will. The system may prevent us from betraying them, but it also prevents them from betraying us. That’s why Archibald was forced to exile you in order to break your engagement. He couldn’t kill or injure you without risking the system penalty, which meant there was only one possible loophole in the laws.”

“How fortunate that his minions just happened to stumble across it, once he started looking for a way to break the engagement, huh?” I smirked.

“Indeed,” my mother replied. She increased the length of her stride, pulling me towards the top of the slope. “Enough of the past, let’s see to the future.