As the silvery sound of the morning bells echoed throughout the city, Lirisel knelt before the altar of Medaea, praying fervently for both her goddess’ personal safety and for the success of Beacon. Her world had changed immensely in the last year, and yet the priestess found her personal faith had grown only stronger. Some of the other priestesses were having more difficulties with their faith, but by and large, the stress of being captured and enslaved had tempered their faith instead of destroying it. If the temple hadn’t been primarily staffed by priestesses who’d been in the faith for decades, Lirisel suspected that more of them would have turned away from Medaea. Regardless of what the others chose in the end, she would understand and support their final decisions.

Lirisel’s prayers took a good ten minutes, since she wasn’t rushing herself. The airy temple was calming and relaxing, especially once the sound of the bells had died away, and finally she opened her eyes and stood to leave. She smiled at several other priestesses as she exited the temple and paused, staring across the landscape with a smile, though she shivered in the cool breeze that was nearly constant at this time of year.

The temple of Medaea was located a few hundred feet below the peak of Beacon, which meant that almost a full quarter of the city was laid out before her in all its majesty. Granite-walled houses and stores with slate roofs lined the streets that spiraled their way inward, while the city walls were thick and strong. Certainly, the city looked almost deserted with only about five hundred inhabitants, but it was there, solid and new, where a week before there had been nothing but a mountain with a small town at its foot.

From the temple, they could clearly see the dawn every day, allowing the sunlight to illuminate the stained-glass windows and send rippling color throughout the chapel. It also gave a commanding view of the forests and hilly plains that lay to Beacon’s east, causing Lirisel’s smile to widen. There wasn’t the slightest sign of any of Kelvanis’ armies or scouts, which meant they still had time.

With that in mind, Lirisel murmured another prayer, turning the elegant copper bracelet on her wrist so she could touch the ruby bead and send a thread of mana into it. With every drop of mana the priestesses gave Sistina, the dryad and dungeon could add a little more to Beacon’s security.

Finally satisfied with her actions for the moment, Lirisel let out a sigh and headed toward the lower tiers of the city. It was her turn to help in one of the farming caverns that Sistina had built underneath the city’s surface.

* * *

Pulling her attention from making final adjustments to the dungeon, Sistina was relieved when she noticed that several priestesses had given donations of mana. While she was no longer at the point where she couldn’t easily keep her body fully animated, her mana reservoir was more depleted than she would prefer. Still, at least the lowest water level wasn’t steaming anymore.

Sistina had heavily revamped the dungeon as part of her construction of the city, mostly making it more compact. The dungeon was primarily near the eastern entrance of the city, and most of the first few floors were still plant-based, like they’d been before. However, she’d also seen no reason to keep everything the way it had been, either. She’d labeled her sign’s rewards for more than a hundred floors, so by all the gods, she was going to make more than a hundred floors.

The first five were plant and animal based, just like most of the floors the adventurers were dealing with before her renovations. After that she changed to a water theme, which would most likely unnerve them, after which she was using fire, air, and earth in order. The fire levels were also where she’d placed most of the old dwarven foundry, since she didn’t want to only use fire on those floors. Part of the foundry had been relocated back to near her own cavern, which she was using to create the golems. Those were going to be the largest mana expenditure in the city for a while. Plus, there was the worry about a demon lord or goddess… all in all, Sistina had her hands rather full.

Still, she slipped her awareness into her body and opened her eyes, considering how she’d arranged things. For the city itself, she’d retracted her domain from everything over the surface except the palace, extending upward to envelop the air node that floated there. That included the basements of the buildings, but after some thought, she’d chosen to keep the sewers as part of her domain for maintenance. The caverns she’d created for the people to grow food were also no longer part of her domain, which she felt was necessary to keep the eventual inhabitants from draining her dry of mana.

Phynis and Desa were finishing up their plans for taxes at a table, the laws they’d worked on sitting in a neat pile next to them. As though she could feel Sistina’s presence, Phynis looked up and smiled. “Sistina! Did you finish what you were working on?”

“Yes. Dungeon fixed,” Sistina confirmed with a smile. Standing from her chair, she circled the conference room to give Phynis a gentle hug. Her beloved smiled broadly and hugged back for a minute. Finally Sistina asked, “Things going well?”

“They are,” Desa confirmed. “The books in the library on Everium’s laws and taxes helped immensely. While both of us knew a lot about Sifaren’s laws, we’ve been away for a long time and having a reference helped. Are we essentially done, Phynis?”

“I think we are. Just a few minor details left. But with all the slave brands running around, we had to make certain to keep anyone from trying to discriminate based on them. In either direction,” Phynis replied, the recently crowned queen not bothering to let go as she snuggled into Sistina. “I do think that my own status will help with that, though.”

“It should,” Desa agreed. “It’ll take some time to get everything right, though. Since we desperately need more people in the city, having things nice and clear will help with immigration.”

“Agreed. Which means we need to finish those last few things,” Phynis replied, sighing as she slowly let go of Sistina. “Sorry, Sistina. We’re going to be a couple more hours. At least.”

“Is fine,” Sistina assured her, smiling. “Can wait.”

Moving back to her chair, Sistina sat down and tried to relax a little. Things could be a lot worse, but for the moment, they were going well. That made Phynis happy, and when her Queen was happy, the dryad was happy.

* * *

“This is absolutely amazing,” Daniel said, looking around the small store in awe.

The store wasn’t the biggest one he’d ever seen, nor the fanciest. It was relatively small, honestly speaking, but it was extremely well-built. It had indoor plumbing, something he’d only heard of, plenty of sturdy shelves, and was built of granite with slate roof tiles. Even Darak had admitted the building was an incredibly sturdy structure. But best of all, the building had a second floor that was perfectly set up for someone to live there. At least according to Sina.

“Isn’t it? And Queen Phynis gave it to me!” Sina replied, the dusk elf grinning like a loon as she spun around in the middle of the shop. “I never thought she’d give me a store! It’s right next to the Adventuring Guild, too!”

“I know it is. Why did she give it to you, anyway?” Daniel laughed and moved to embrace her from behind, hugging Sina gently as he smiled. “I didn’t know you were on that good of terms with her.”

Leaning back into him, she turned her head and smiled. “I’m not, really. But I was one of the three first inhabitants of the dungeon. I think it made her think better of me, and you and I helped pretty much all of the slaves get freed. I think she appreciated that.”

“Ahh, that could explain it. So what are you planning to do with the store? All you said was that you wanted to show it to me,” Daniel asked, giving her a quick kiss.

“I’m figuring I’ll sell vegetables and the like, just like before,” Sina replied, grinning slightly. “And I may, just may, see about joining the Adventuring Guild myself. I hear there’s a handsome young man who might be available there.”

“Oh? Who might that be?” Daniel teased her in return.

Sina just giggled and gave him a quick kiss before breaking away. This may be the calm before the storm, but at least she was happy. Daniel smiled and followed her upstairs. He was curious what the living quarters were like.