Should Have Let Me Die

I dropped down from the sky onto the metal plate of the wagon. I set Mishka down and noticed that everyone had gathered, good. Time to get down to business, AKA, pushing city building responsibilities to the rest; I had other plans that did not involve getting my hands dirty...with mud.

We walked over to a now larger table that was set up to accommodate everyone joining this meeting. I wanted all the people left in charge here; this also included the people coming with me when I left. I wanted most of the main details hammered out when we reached the site that we would choose—lots of things still up in the air, and the reason for this meeting.

"Alright, everyone," I said after sitting down. "It is time to decide where we want to set up the city. This part will be me telling you and you nodding your heads, but the rest will be up to you. I trust that all of you have some area of experience in running a city, maybe it won't be apparent at first, but we will figure it out! Can I trust you all to take care of this for me?"

"Wait, you're not staying with us?" Breth asked.

"No, you all will be heading to the center point."

I stood up and walked over to stand behind Alex and Kadence, putting a hand on Kadence's shoulder and then leaning down to kiss both their cheeks. I then used my other hand to point out a spot on Tescelle's three-dimensional map of the continent, Bjrothrone. The point was at the top left-hand corner of what we now called Hope; This point also shared borders with four other countries, really the perfect place to stir up trouble.

"This is where I want Dreams built."

"Dreams? Is that the name of the place?" Kadence asked, turning to me.

I kissed her and nodded my head. 

"Yeah, call me corny, but I like the sound of The City of Dreams."

There were some thoughtful expression and nods, mixed with a couple of confused looks. I the end, no one argued, but Alex brought up the question that was surely on everyone's mind.

"Where are you going and why?"

"I'm going to be taking you, Xelios, Mishka, Arrentia, Krya, and Buddy. We will start paying some formal visits to the kingdoms to talk about alliances or if they are possible."

"How will we get to each of these places? Xelios, Kadence, and you can fly, but what about the rest of us?" Krya asked dubiously.

"On my back."

"You can't be serious? we are going to go riding into the capitals on the back of the world's largest and most terror-inspiring predator?" 

Alex seemed quite stressed out by this idea, but there was a good reason for this. 

"I want them to see our strength and know that we come to the table with no false pretenses or fake threats if they need to be made. There are going to be some problem with the two empires; I can see that one coming from a mile away."

"First and Crashing Wave have been at a quiet war for the last two hundred years now over the port of Cathal. For now, we have the Karestia, home of the dragon, to prevent them from flooding down on us, but it isn't impossible," Mesh explain and then continued on, explain other problematic countries.

The entire time I had been in the world. It had really been just a path that I traveled and left the logistics up to everyone else. Now I was getting a real sense of how big the world really was; Tescelle enlarged the map for Mesh's explanation so, now I could see the entire world. There was even a vast set of islands on the southwest corner on the map that was unnamed, now that was interesting.

"There is the Tri-island in Gratos bay to worry about; they are three tribes focus on land, sea, and ground. We don't need to worry about them attacking us directly, but they are the central supplier for all vehicles, land, air, and sea. Making bad relations with them could have all other nations knocking at our doorsteps."

"What about Kalitia's mother's nation? From what I can understand, something weird has been going on to have a human queen live to be four hundred plus years. Any word on Ratiha?"

Markeye was the one that spoke up.

"Everything you know is what we know. Travelers are warned to stay out of the country, and merchants only travel inside the country under heavy guard. Those that choose to risk it end up missing without a trace. This is all we know, but we, well, I suspect she has become some sort of undead and uses the captured as lifeblood. All of this is just what I suspect, but nothing else makes sense."

"And the people of the country?"

"Again, hardly anyone is able to leave the country, so hardly any news travels out."

"Okay, they don't seem like they are going to make any fast moves on us; what about our other three neighbors? Any of them likely to try to jump us if we turn our backs?"

"Predi is the only one that might, but at the same time, we can fix that problem easily. King Ragna has eighteen daughters last I checked, so that will be an easy fix. As for the other two, Krya's father, Maxven, will keep things running smoothly with the Cresting Wilds, and Karst doesn't ever do anything unless the Dragons command."

Of course, Alex had this figured out already; I was actually surprised that she hadn't just taken over the trip and started giving orders. Maybe she thought she should show some restraint with me, but I was worried that it was boiling out and onto my other wives. Well, bringing Alex along would be good for Kadence, even know she looked tired. 

I stood up straight and looked around the table at some of my closest friends in this world.

"Before we were running to this point, but now we are here. Now, it's time for the hard work to start; I have given each of you a major boost in your physical and magical powers, so I want to see results when we return! I am sure that I will have a whole new group of followers and wives when I come back so have places ready to put them."

Everyone cheered, but I could see a couple of concerned faces. The faces belonged to the people who were coming with me. I knew why they had the looks, and I pushed down the disappointment that hit me when I figured out why they had concerned looks.

They were all scared of me.