by Marcus Sloss
“Excellent you made my year. Only the finest dvaren for you. Mind you, you were going to see them anyway. This does help appease my superiors. They have offered three percent off the rest of your purchases. You have taken two large expenditures off our balance sheets without the costly need to convert them to souls. It is so much easier to use goblins for such measures. They are even willing to march to be converted.” Wil said while smirked in happiness. A new shaman joined us on the balcony. “This is Braq, give him a location please.”
I waved the shaman over and thought of the coral reefs north of Goblin Isle. I felt the shaman wrap his hands over my head, get the information and then quickly release. I felt his fear of being near me.
“Order them to survive until I address them myself. Is that understood? Nothing but survive on small fish for now.” I ordered and Braq merely nodded before vanishing down to the harbor. I would need to establish a way to preserve what they caught before ordering them into the deeps.
“Excellent, to the dvaren now,” Wil said we followed him into a new portal. This one was far enough away for me to slip into the void.
∞∞∞
We arrived on a platform that was fifty feet above the ground. It was a solid stone of simple rock and there were nice metal railings to keep idiots from falling. I looked around and saw on the side of the platform was elevated train tracks stretched across the land. As far as I could see there were massive sections of land cordoined off mostly with wooden walls. There was a breaking mountain to the south and a river that ran east west across most of the pens. There were lakes created by diverting creeks to let water into each area. The train system was extensive as it swam over the landscape for hundreds if not thousands of miles. I decided right then I was going to get some help in selecting our purchases and only view a few slaves sections on display. You could probably eat a whole week of time riding this rail system.
Five hand carts were at the front of a lavishly covered carriage. On the hand carts stood orcs waiting for orders to move. The trailing cabin had a covered top, open cut outs, and lavish plush seets. Wil walked to the fancy booth and held the door open for us. For once I was decently clean, not that I cared if I dripped blood into some Horde plush seating.
As we were seated I noticed that Major Ista was still an old grizzled war veteran. Maybe he did not want to be a fresh faced looking recruit. When he eventually was healed he would de-age… Was that the right way… Regenerate. That worked. I regained my focus to study the train tracks and the upcoming tour.
The tracks were supported by a wall that snaked across the flat landscape. It was fifty feet tall and exactly wide enough to support the track system. As it covered the land you could see arched breaks in the wall to allow slaves free access under the train. The land below us was sectioned off by thin ten foot wooden walls. Each pen was a few square miles with structures inside. These provided basic housing, cooking, sanitation pits, and wells. It was much different than the temporary auction of Kikra. This was long term residences for sales that might take months or years to move. As I was observing the area a sheet was handed to me.
I shifted my focus and studied the list. It was an in stock sheet with pricing. We had a billion and fifty one million souls left. Each soldier had a unique value here. An average cost per battle trooper was worth seven hundred and fifty souls per. They were being sold in armies of a hundred thousand or divisions of ten thousand. Those were the only two types. There were fourteen armies for sales and hundreds of divisions. Wil was not jesting when they said they were overstocked. I did the math in my head and realized there were over three hundred million dvaren slaves here for sale. Again the madness of the number eluded me that this was normal here. I checked the back of the sheet and saw the dvarettes. There were three listings of dvarvettes each containing ten million with a long list of the groups' qualifications. It was almost as if they inserted a generic statement under what the females were capable of. They wanted fifty souls per female. Buying ten million would eat half my funds. They were so cheap though.
I handed the sheet to Major Ista who had been silent. “Study this while our host gives us a tour. Let me know what you think.”
Wil snapped his finger loudly. The orcs in the front pumped their handcarts in unison with a whispered cadence. We sped off the platform and the tour commenced. I was impressed with how smooth and quit the whole system was.
“The first section is a retiring combat unit. Great warriors of renown, cheap too. We have a lot of these on sale for a steep discount. These soldiers could still be utilized for a few more years… Keep in mind they are here for sale for a reason though. Their beards are grey and their power reduced with time. These are four hundred per trooper. I have a few divisions set to retire with great records. We really have them for breeding purposes. Renowned warriors to create the next generation of warriors. Would you like for me to slow us?” Wil said and I waved him forward.
I did not want him to know we could restore the old dvaren to youthful exuberance so I feigned disinterest. I watched the first set of old soldiers passed under us to the left and the right. Sure enough, their beards were gray with age. They sat around campfires trading stories while sharpening weapons. There was no drilling or mock battle practice. I let my eyes shift to the city that spread out under us.
“Very well. Next is one of our three female cities. We cycle warriors in on random rotations to ensure the females have chances to couple and attach to males they desire. We found giving them lots of options resulted in higher impregnation rates.”
Ten million females and a few hundred thousand males were housed here in large tents. There were stone pads under the tents with only a pillow and blankets to show sleeping areas. Unlike the old soldiers, these women were hard at work. I saw a lot of dvaren that consisted of all ages including the young. There were so many doing so many tasks it was overwhelming. I did see the workers stacking casks of ale. I had forgotten about that. Ista peered over the sheet to gaze down at the collective women with a few men. He was ready to give his opinion.
“Halt us Wil. What are your findings?” I asked Major Ista.
“We can get the old soldiers the cheapest. For our needs, and with your skill, they are the most prudent to purchase… master.” Ista said swallowing the last word. It hurt his dvaren pride to address me as a slave master demigod of the seven. “These are the units I recommend and you should add one of these breeding cities for numerous reasons including to boost morale. Morale will be very critical in our long campaign. I expect the resistance to last a long time. Long enough we can worry about breeding the next generation to keep the rebellion down.”
The list had highlighted recommendations. I turned to Wil who was looking perplexed. He could see the highlighted choices.
“There are things at play only the gods are privy to. You may be confused as to our selection while we assure you it is the wisest course for us. This is ten million females and all your retiring soldiers. Then a few divisions of your fresh recruits. Finally two divisions of siege dvaren. One for catapults and one for ballista. I wish to see the engines in action before I purchase. Make haste to them.” I commanded.
A quick bark in Horde and a snap of his finger and the tour continued. We passed under so many dvaren it left me disheartened. I watched as we passed full armies drilling each other. Divisions playing war games. Another bustling female city. Then the catapults.
They had their own range for firing off to the right of the track. Ten thousand dvaren operated two thousand catapults. Four per flinging machine. The extras were handling wagons and ammo. “May I?” I asked Wil as we stopped.
“By all means Frundzy, it would be an honor to see them in awe of your might,” Wil said and was sincere.
I turned to Ista. “I will amplify your voice. Choose a song wisely that will stir them to preform their best.” I said.
I placed a cone of amplification of yellow magic in front of his voice. The first call out was to get t
he troops to attention. A signal of war. Barked out like he was a god himself. The troops did not hesitate and raced for their siege engines. Then a song erupted from the major. As one they turned in shock of the the words being belted out. I removed my sword from its ring and raised it to the air. The dvaren got the message as the song changed again.
The words were picked up immediately on this tune. The valley bellowed in echo. The sound danced to the neighboring pens and picked up more voices. Until all you could hear were dvaren all across Parxa signing with joyful spirit. Rocks lobbed downrange, they soared and smashed into hastily built target walls. The crews rewound the wheels to tighten the springs and latch the arms. They raced to meet the beat of the song. A thud from a foot stomp echoed across the lands the rocks were flung again. The next foot stomp and I had seen enough. The dvaren did not stop singing.
“Take us to the ballista division with speed Wil, before they tire,” I ordered and he had to alert the orcs with an air spell to get us moving again. The ballista were not far. Two dvaren per weapon with a third on ammo. There were roughly three thousand ballista firing with speed. I could hear the stomp, and see the snap of the bolt release. The targets downrange were dotted with long arrows. I had seen enough.
“Take us to the platform Wil. I am showing this will be one billion. If my portal fees are correct another three million to move them. I need the dvaren delivered to Uhara… Virtue?” The shaman was
Wil went from perplexed to baffled. The dvaren had probably never been seen acting like this before.
“Wil, that is how you inspire troops, simple songs. You may not disclose how the seven can motivate their slaves.” I said without actually holding him to that. I wanted him to spill that we were buying dvaren for a rebellion. That would hopefully put more on the market for me to buy up. “We are going to be at war for a long time, we need infrastructure. We will be back for more warriors later. We understand the pricing is nice at the moment with overstock.”
Virtue spoke to Wil. “This is what the gods have regulated their champion to. I recommended he setup a breeding farm and utilize fodder first before investing more into well trained troops. At least you move some less desirable dvaren right. Not so glum my old friend a billion souls sold in one day with wopax. I do believe you will be the top sales shaman of the month. And we will be back for more!”
Virtue extended my desired purchases to Wil who confirmed them. “Return us to the platform and send Dirq to deliver this order to the same location. We have a lot of dvaren to sort and humans to plan for later.”
Wil accepted this without a word of complaint. It was indeed true we were giving him a lot of business. As much as I wanted to drain our accounts buying more units, I think Major Ista left us reserve finaces for a reason. Feeding all these new citizens. I hoped Roz had a successful day at the animal markets. The orcs pumped us in reverse back to the station. We saw the ladies below us begin to gather belongings as their contract changed. Then the old soldiers were gathering weapons, supplies, and armor onto the few carts. It seemed across Parxa a lot of dvaren were getting marching orders. They were going to a new home. Vin.
We left the carriage with many thanks from our host. Wil promised us there would be more for sale anytime we wanted. The dvaren were overbred and with the space we freed up today… More would be arriving at our market. I merely grunted at this, not thanking him. It was part acting of a demigod, part aggravation that I was not making that much of a difference. I was also a tad stressed from the day of dealings. My day was going to get infinitely more complicated when I went home.
I needed to plan how to house fifty one million more citizens. I had just doubled the population of Vin. There were going to be some very upset leaders with the new workload.
“Take us to Uhara,” I said and Virtue created our portal home. I stepped in.
CHAPTER 4
I left the blackness to find myself outside of Uhara on the fields by where we buried Winst. I was overlooking the upgrades to the city, which were vast. When I had first seen this city it was a ruined mess. I remembered how nasty the Horde that lived here were. It had been almost three weeks since I had given it to Ponisa and Major Ista to manage. The most drastic change was directly over the city. Gone were the slums, estates, and business buildings. Now there only stood large portioned flat topped warehouses. They buried what used to be Uhara under boxy connected buildings that rose hundreds of feet high in a pyramid stack. The dvaren called them halls of the exposed hold, since the city was on the ocean. It was explained to me that the dwelling arrangements of the dvaren were based on living inside a mountain. Here there was nowhere to go down being so close to the ocean. So they went wide and high. Building their own mountain that resembled a pyramid to me on the shore. I knew from experience it was very easy to overbuild when you had near limitless aura of griffins and lots of catalysts.
The portal of the arriving dvaren from Parxa started as a tiny dot a few hundred feet away and grew until a thousand dvaren could mark across its width. This triggered Gaius, the on call griffin to fly out of the roost to land by me. His bulk shook the ground as I patted his red tip feathers.
“Emperor Gryff, it is good to see you here. I miss having someone to converse with. We have no elvath here and minimal griffins here in the roost. These dvaren are extremely efficient. Take Major Ista for example. I have found three small Horde cities and a few ogre caves. I went and circles some places on the map and sure enough, I was brought back hearts. They then told me what they wanted to be built, and then placed the hearts under my saddle. I think the human healers here have instructed them how we operate. Well… As you can see the results are epic. They are calling this the Uharain Hold,” Gaius said as he indicated the rising collaboration of structures. He then pointed to Ponisa with a talon. “She has been efficient and utilizing those yakin in preparing fields. They now stretch as far as the troops patrol. Every load of fish guts and our poo is used to ready the soil for the next cycle. Do not end up surprised if they request something to grow over the winter. This close to the ocean the snows will not stick for long during the winter.”
I remembered when Ponisa was a gray haired old dvarette. She was now bouncing with energy and her auburn hair spun. I saw Ponisa go from watching the arrivals to looking at us. She skipped our way and I greeted her when she neared.
“Lady Ponisa, looking lovely as always. It is encouraging to see all these changes. You have done me very proud.” I said and she blushed.
She curtsied in her mix of a corset top and flowing dress. “My Emperor, you do me a great kindness. We have been aggressively hunting the Horde where we can. Those griffins sure make it easy to slay our foes. Rarely allows all those handsome young dvaren to stay around to court us ladies. I even went to Iceshore. Too cold for my taste but lots of ladies went. Did you get my requests for seeds?”
I had not seen a list of desired seeds. My wives probably had. I happened to know a god who probably could fill infinite bags of seeds and was an ally. “This is important Ponisa. I need you to get me every empty sack and bag you can. Get Betsy or Yexica to handle that while you get me a full list of seeds for winter and next spring. Go now. You only have limited time. Once the dvaren are through I have to leave again and where I am going I may be able to fill your order.”
I turned to Major Ista who was watching the first set of troops march through the portal. “I take it you will no longer be the ranking dvaren here. How does the structure of power work for your species?” I asked the gruff soldier.
“We have a civilian hierarchy not dissimilar to yours. The names are different, but the results are the same. A ruling family for an area. Then our ranks are the same for the military. If a general becomes the next dvaren hold master then they surrender the military title for a civil one. Unless you promote me to general I indeed will no longer have to answer your summons or questions. It is distracting and I have lots of work to do.” Ista scoffed. It was a standard male dvaren thing. The o
nly joyful dvaren I had ever seen was Snomer realizing he found a plethora of excess ice creatures to farm. “Speaking of which, here comes a general and a female hold master. You would call her a queen here. She may actually be a queen.”
I watched as a long grey bearded dvaren escorted a wrinkly dvarette. The male wore a sturdy set of simple metal armor, you could see it was worn over the ages with battle. It was not decorative or for show. It was like the dvaren himself. Old, tested, and solid. The female sparkled with jewelry and you could see a cuteness lost with age. She was wearing a long flowing dress of black with sparkling gems. The lady was taller than most dvarettes at almost five foot three inches. The general had a trailing of soldiers in his wake. While the hold master had a routine of ladies and servants following her.
They knew exactly where to go as pulled them my way through the slave contract. The massive griffin did help make me easy to find also. When the general arrived Ista slammed his fist to his chest. The general merely nodded. When the female entered our space he kneeled. Nope. I was not having any of that. I pushed him with my boot until he fell over. He grumbled and muttered curses.
“How dare you cause such offense in the presence of our Queen Nautica? She endured centuries of siege successfully while commanding her troops to countless victories. She managed to stave off countless attacks on her hold while managing her people effectively. You will face me while I claim a grudge.” The general bellowed. Me kicking over my subordinate had stirred him right up. The anger turned his face a flush red.
Nate rolled his eyes so hard his head rotated. Ista was waving the general off, but the general was set in his challenge. The queen or hold master was amused. I think she wanted to watch a fight. I laughed heartily.
“Clear the space!” I demanded. I removed my sword and slid my shield off my back. I equipped the shield to my left forearm and tried to fling it off. Nope, the shield was firmly on my arm. With a few warmup jumps and sways, I was ready. “What are the rules for this grudge challenge… old dvaren? I can make you young if you think it will help you survive.”
