Fred spent half the night just resting with Shelley. He didn`t feel like there was anything else to do. After midnight, Kumbanaka called out.

　　"I have some information for you, Fred."

　　"Okay, sure."

　　"First, the Priestess Sharfroen feels that the& everything you`ve done for her in the last two days was to bless and validate her and her team, and her intentions."

　　"I guess I kinda did," Fred answered.

　　"So she`s called for more of her order to come help her here. And the two white towers are now hers to control, and she`s using them to house the pilgrims."

　　"I assumed that. When will they get here?"

　　"More of her order should start arriving upon the gryphons almost immediately. Her order is an ascetic one, so they travel light."

　　"Ascetic means&" Fred asked.

　　"That they don`t like fancy clothes or comfortable beds. Personal hardship makes them feel more holy."

　　"Okay," Fred said. "What else?"

　　"The prince is now the new king. The prince that offended Priestess Sharfroen."

　　"Oh boy. That might not be good."

　　"It might not. But the prince never liked being here, and now that he`s the king, I`m not sure he`ll bother you or her again," Kumbanaka continued. "He`s already gone, back to his kingdom, for the funeral and coronation. This might mean that you never see him again, but you might also never see his army, either."

　　"How was this regicide business supposed to help anybody, Kumbanaka?"

　　"I meant what I told Martin, Spirit. It got the humans off his back, and too many leaders are inherently inefficient anyway. This will work out; I`d wager a great sum on it."

　　"I don`t& I can just create gold out of& dirt, so what`s the point in betting it?," Fred said. "Anything else?"

　　"The wizards in the Forest Temple are moving as fast as they can, to start the teleporter. They seem single-minded about it."

　　"Do you think they can do it?" Fred asked.

　　"With enough time, of course they can. Will they have enough time? That`s another question. The whole town is packed with rumors of war and marching armies. Even if the demon army never comes here, the town is convinced it will someday soon. That`s all I`ve found out tonight."

　　"Okay, thank you, Kumbanaka. I really appreciate it."

　　"Good night, Fred."

　　An hour before dawn, like regular, Fred replaced the token in Kumbanaka`s lair. That was the only thing Fred did for the rest of the night. As the dawn rose, Fred watched, enjoying the growing light and deep shadows, like always. Just like yesterday, the morning brought a thick covering of fog upon the eastern fields. But this time, there were some early-rising humans on top of the Town Wall, and Fred`s attention turned to them.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

　　A woman, in blue robes, stood atop the wall and started waving her hands and chanting. The wind around her quickly picked up, blowing her robes, and the clothing of the half-dozen people standing with her. Then Fred saw that her wind was affecting the fog. The fog was being blown away to the east, as her magical wind spell brought a breeze from upslope. For a few minutes, her breeze grew fierce, and Fred was amazed to see the fields completely cleared of fog.

　　When not a trace of the mist remained, the woman stopped her spell, and stood there panting from the effort. Her companions all shouted and congratulated her. They then led her away, presumably to do something more useful, Fred thought. "I mean, I guess everyone can see better, now. But the fog will just come back. If not today, then tomorrow," he said to himself.

　　Hello, Fred.

　　"Jim! Kumbnaka told me a lot of things!"

　　Fred proceeded to fill Jim in on the information Kumbanaka had given him during the night. Jim was interested, but also wanted to talk about the human armies that were attacking Earth Spirits. Generally speaking, these attacks were proving to be wasteful and pointless, since the Spirits were so powerful. Besides, the humans had a hard time vandalizing a place made out of rock. And they didn`t seem to have big bombs, so they had no real way of "killing" the Earth Spirit. Even if they caved in the whole place, the Earth Spirit could wait for them to go away, and then easily rebuild.

　　After that, Jim left, and Fred heard singing. Looking around, he spotted a group of the acolytes of the Healing Temple. They had gathered out in front of the new entrance to the Healing Complex. They joined hands and sang. Fred couldn`t understand the words, but they sang pretty well. The pilgrims, gathered around, were mesmerized. Fred thought it was quite lovely.

　　A normal day started in Fred`s domain. Fighters fought monsters, bought lunch from Front Step vendors, got their weapons sharpened, and got back to it. Meanwhile fighters and pilgrims were healed, gate guards demanded papers, officials demanded taxes, and humans jumped in the heated pools for a quick bath.

　　Fred watched some battles (he really liked the antics of the mummy and Mr. Box), and noticed that the humans were especially pleased with some of the popped Treasure Sprites. Looking closer, Fred saw that these items appeared to be fancy armor pieces, with lots of inlaid gold and infused magic. "Oh," Fred thought. "These are the armor pieces from the king that Martin killed. I bet they are specially nice."

　　Just after noon, there was a big bang at the Forest Temple. People in town could hear it, and they all turned their faces up towards it. Fred turned his attention there, and watched a big greasy smoke cloud rise in the air above the teleport stones. Fred saw that all the big wizards were there, apparently working on the teleporter.

　　The humans that had been standing closer to the teleporter were scattered about, flat on their butts, and covered in soot. But as their colleagues came to their aid, Fred was happy to see that none of them were badly hurt. "Don`t get discouraged, guys!" Fred thought to them cheerfully. "You can do this. I have faith in you. Keep at it!"

　　That was the only excitement that day (though Kumbanaka was killed again). At dusk Jim checked in, and then some deep drum messages were exchanged. Nothing exciting was reported. Fred watched the people, and spent a lot of time with Shelley. When the night was half over, Kumbanaka spoke up.

　　"I`ve learned something I want to report, Fred."

　　"Sure, go ahead," said Fred.

　　"The A`wheriwe prince is back home in his castle," Kumbanaka reported. "But it was a close thing. He survived an assassination attempt. Rumors abound that the king of Riversond was behind it."

　　"Shit!" Fred said. "Does this mean war?"

　　"Most likely. Trying to assassinate a prince is automatic grounds for war, on this continent."

　　"What do we do?"

　　Kumbanaka spoke reassuringly. "Nothing. I said that it will work out, and I meant it. And none of the humans want war with YOU. You aren`t a party in that dispute."

　　"Except that Martin killed their king, and started the whole process. I`m a party to that." Fred was feeling frustrated. "This is exactly what I didn`t want to have happen."

　　"Peace, Spirit," Kumbanaka replied. "You were never responsible for the actions of these kings. And yes, spare a thought for Martin. Since his victory he`s been preening atop his tower like an emperor himself. I`m sure you prefer that above the whiny little worm he was before."

　　"Yeah, I want him happy, but I don`t need human troubles. The demons are the enemy, right?"

　　"Yes, they are. Now I need sleep. Good night, Fred."

　　Fred didn`t like Kumbanaka shutting the argument down, but he also didn`t feel like pressing the issue more.

　　The next two days flew by, and were almost identical to the last one. Humans fought, healers healed, merchants sold, all the normal stuff. Fred did notice brand new members of the Healing Complex team, though the gryphon traffic was so constant that Fred didn`t really see them arrive. The acolytes would sing near the entrance each morning, and the sound seemed to please everyone.

　　On the second day, Fred watched a large group of fighters and mages attempt to attack the Celestial Wurms. This could not have gone worse for the humans. The narrow, confusing tunnels were terrible for people casting spells or swinging swords. The tunnels only helped make the terrible breath weapons of the wurms even more directed and deadly. The wurms ended up killing every human in the attacking party, without even suffering a wound themselves. Fred felt sorry for the humans, but had seen it all before, and wasn`t overly affected.

　　When told of it, Jim reassured Fred, and talked about how humans got stronger as a group, and sometimes the weak were culled, and that was okay in this case. It didn`t really make Fred feel better, but again, he no longer felt much of anything when humans died.

　　Another curious thing caught Fred`s eye on the second day. He looked down into the Tree Zone. There he saw the JorMgumo and the naga, each at their lair entrance. They were looking at each other. Just standing, and staring. Fred wondered if they had some bad blood, or were otherwise mad at each other. They just stood there, for most of an afternoon, until some human groups came down the ramp to attack them. That was just business as usual.