Ruthless V5Ch32-The Spirit of a Place

After giving Luna her pep talk, James used his Fisher King powers.

His physical body was boring, so why not leave it behind for a little while? His spirit floated above the Kingdom, watching all that was done on his lands and in his name.

After a time, James was able to reflect on what he saw and decide that it was good.

The Mages under the direction of the construction head, Steve, were already working on building a great wall that would protect the core of the Fisher Kingdom from outsiders, with the initial wall being constructed to face North, where the Panther Army were most likely to come from.

Rather than doing what James did and simply pulling buildings fully formed from the Earth using massive quantities of magic without much concern for durability against attack, James sensed that they were doing a lot with earth magic, focusing their efforts around density and durability. They shaped the stones of the wall individually like masons working rock into specific forms—in this case, forms designed and empowered to be stronger than nature itself had made them. They followed up the shaping of stones by using mortar to bind them to each other. There were a different set of Mage craftsmen working on the mortar. From what James could see, they appeared to be extracting limestone from the ground, pulling some specific mineral from the stone, and mixing it with sand in a specific ratio, then adding water.

Seems very scientific…

If they only had metalworkers to make steel framing, he imagined that this wall would be difficult for even him to break, unless he resorted to a barrage of heavy duty magical attacks. Even then, it would be a challenge.

Once he blessed it, James guessed that the structure might well stand for a hundred years or more.

There was something relaxing about observing people at work who appeared to be good at their task, and he remained there with the Mages for a while, watching them fit stone and mortar together on the border between the formerly haunted forest and the core of James’s settlement.

Despite the craftsmanship, James got bored of looking at wall construction after about half an hour—his patience seemed to have taken a real hit since he became bedridden, he noticed—and moved on to observing the school and daycare building.

Junior, Abhi, and the other children were there—Mina had apparently dropped their son off so that she could get some work done. James spent a few minutes watching Junior. He lay on a play mat and played with toys, mostly by trying to fit them into his mouth. And there were a couple of moments when James almost could have sworn that the baby knew someone was watching him. That was interesting.

But for the most part, watching a baby just roll around and play with whatever it could grab was just not very engaging.

James felt a little bad about not being more interested, but he quickly changed the metaphorical channel.

A few rooms over, Abhi was studying hard. Or at least he wore an expression of intense concentration as he listened to his teacher.

“—is why we organize the geography of the Kingdom the way we do,” the teacher finished.

James had no idea what the teacher had been talking about, but he took a moment to look around and gauge the situation.

Abhi was in a class of children mostly around his own size, although James noticed it seemed to be a little more age-inclusive than he might have expected from some random class. There were children who appeared to be as much as ten years old or as young as five. James looked up at the blackboard, and the words there seemed to explain it: “Etiquette of Interactions with Nonhumans.”

This is one of the “patriotic instruction” classes I forced them to offer, James thought. The teachers had prepared several different courses of study in response to his command, and this was one of those he had selected for inclusion in the curriculum. Teaching human students how to get along with monsters was an obvious necessity in James’s multispecies country. James had the idea that they would eventually pull nonhuman youths into the school system, too, though not until after he verified that the children of various Races could get along without violence.

This class was actually an important element in his process of building up the Fisher Kingdom and truly forging it into one country.

James’s interest intensified.

He had entered the room during a brief lull in the lecture, but as he reflected on the purpose of the class, the teacher at the front of the room began speaking again, and he sharpened his attention.

“What is the most important thing to remember about a territorial Race?” she asked. “Anyone? Please don’t be shy.”

To James’s surprise, Abhi’s hand shot up first.

I actually kind of thought he was shy. But maybe this class is a place where he excels?

The teacher called on Abhi, and he answered, “Don’t enter their territory without permission.”

“Very good,” the teacher replied.

Well, that was an easy one, James thought—though it looked as if several students were surprised, reflecting that they had not all had much experience of monsters, or at least they had experienced little of monsters outside of the Fisher Kingdom.

Then Abhi’s hand shot back up into the air once again. The movement was so sudden and quick that James almost felt as if the boy had been jolted with an electric shock. But James could read his expression, and he felt that this was something Abhi was forcing himself to do—as if the boy could not resist some urge that compelled him to speak up, even though he was, as far as James knew, actually a relatively shy boy.

“Um, yes, Abhi?” the teacher said uncertainly. “Did you have a question?”

Good sign that she knows your name—or a terrible sign. But I’m betting on really good!

In James’s own school days, he had been known to all the teachers for his high academic achievements.

“Ms. Welter, why do we have monsters in the Kingdom? I mean—not that I have a problem with monsters, but just—why? Um, didn’t some of—” He started to choke, sucked in a deep breath, and then continued, the teacher starting to redden as he spoke. “Didn’t some of our family members, maybe, get eaten by monsters? If we don’t know where they are, it’s possible that happened, right?”

“Oh. Well, if anyone else has questions similar to that, they can probably wait for the break between classes, but I’m sure all of you are dying to know the answer to what Abhi asked.” The teacher scanned the room, and the tension—and sheer enthusiasm—and desire to know the answer was palpable.

Kids are very strange, James thought. He understood why Abhi would want to know, but most of the other kids appeared genuinely excited over the question.

“I would ask you who suggested that to you, Abhi, because it’s not really a pleasant topic to discuss,” continued Ms. Welter. Abhi’s eyes noticeably slid to a certain student for a fraction of a second, James and the teacher noticed, although he did a good job of quickly refocusing on her. “More importantly, though, you need to understand that a lot happened when the System appeared. People—and the various nonhuman Races—were thrown into a difficult situation together at the same time. We all struggled in our own ways to adapt. Yes, some humans were killed and eaten by monsters. And some monsters were killed and eaten by humans. Believe it or not, there were almost certainly some cases of humans being killed and eaten by other humans, too. And monsters also kill and eat other monsters of different Races. This is just the circle of life as we understand it. The Fisher Kingdom is different, though.

“It is founded as a place where humans and nonhumans—we don’t really know if they even like the label of ‘monster,’ but that fits as well as anything—can live together in harmony. Otherwise, we would all be fighting for the rest of our lives. It would be us or the monsters. Instead, we have the Goblins and the Mole People living underground, the alligators living in the swamp, the bats and squirrels living in the trees, the wolves patrolling the surroundings, and the humans in the center. Everyone in their place. Everything in balance.” She twisted her fingers together, like a tight knot, then fixed her eyes on Abhi.

“I know it might be difficult to understand, because you probably lost some people to monsters. But think about it. If the monsters lived long enough to make it here, they have probably had to fight humans and other monsters just to survive. Maybe they have also lost people—fellow monsters—who were important to them. All of the monsters who live here are intelligent creatures. They have thoughts and feelings, just like humans. They might feel as much pain at their dead friends and family as any of us. But they have chosen to set that aside and live alongside each other and right next to humans anyway. In peace. Even though perhaps it goes against their nature. If they can forgive us for the monsters we have killed, can we forgive them for the humans? Are we the equal of the monsters in the ability to forgive? If we can’t, can we really say we are any more human than them?”

“Umm…” Abhi opened his mouth wide and looked stunned.

That was way over the kid’s head, James thought. But some of the older children seemed like they sort of understood. I think the sentiment carried across well enough. Maybe I need to come up with some kind of Fisher Kingdom Order of Merit or something, just so I can give it to this lady. She had done a far better job than she had any right to of articulating one of the core foundational principles of the Fisher Kingdom: forgiveness. Mutual understanding.

Only among citizens, of course. Filthy outsiders had to prove themselves first.

“Do you understand?” Ms. Welter asked. She looked a bit emotional now that she had finished speaking, though it was hard to tell if she was mostly moved by her own words or slightly embarrassed that she had said so much that she clearly hadn’t planned.

Yeah, this definitely requires some form or positive reinforcement.

“I think I understand,” Abhi said quietly. “Kind of. The humans have hurt the monsters too.” He nodded and seemed to withdraw into himself a bit.

I’ll need to talk to him later, James thought immediately.

The teacher seemed to have a similar thought, but the rest of the class was starting to fidget around her. She reluctantly stepped away from Abhi and back toward the chalkboard.

“I think the time we had for this lesson is almost over for today,” Ms. Welter said. “For a homework assignment, I want everyone to go home, ask one of your parents or your older brother or sister to join you, and try to meet one of the Fisher Kingdom’s nonhuman residents, okay? If your parents aren’t all right with that, please ask them to write me a note. For the next class, we’ll discuss what we learned about these other groups…”

James could sense that the class was about to move on to some other subject, and he figured that he had seen all he needed to see for one day. The teacher had done well enough. He slipped out of the building and into the sky again.

Just in time to see Mina walking across the courtyard outside, to his surprise.

Well, I knew she must be doing something with this time, since she has Junior in daycare…

As he watched, his wife stepped up to the Dungeon, which did not have its usual line—probably owing to so many people being away with the army and the expedition to Orlando—and ducked inside.

Oh, is she going to see about Carol lending us some support in case of invasion?

James was curious what that conversation might be like, and he wasn’t sure what else to do, so he tried to follow Mina and enter the Dungeon in his astral form. To his surprise, it did not work. His spectral body struck the outside of the building and simply bounced off like a pinball. It was as if the walls were actually more solid for him in this form than they were in his normal human body. At least if he was in his human body, he was fairly certain he could break down the material that Carol’s place was made of. But maybe he was wrong. Perhaps Dungeons operated by some strange logic that he could not quite comprehend.

He hoped that he might learn the answer soon, whenever the Fisher Expeditionary Force discovered the Dungeon that Moishe had escaped from.

For now, however, he returned to his own body. From his position in the air, he could see that there was a familiar visitor approaching the apartment.