[A Day in the Life of Aelryinth] - 0300 hours

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            -Let’s see the Allegiance,- Diana finally /told me, the time clicking down and something we could no longer ignore.

            I nodded to Diana, and began Casting the Allegiance Magicks, while she /tinged all the major Monarchs and Nobles in the Allegiance, including Briggs and Sama. The nightly Allegiance Council and information exchange of The Steel was about to begin.

            There were two dozen of these spells, and they made up a good chunk of my daily Casting expenditures. People /hooked in silently, polite acknowledgments and little more passing between them. They were here to see and learn how the Allegiance was doing, be it their own little part or the overall aspects of it. From Argos to Y’Gael, they hooked in and waited.

            Allegiance Locations was the first spell. It rippled out along the Allegiance Oaths, marking where every member under the Banner of the Steel was. It allowed everyone to check the distribution and whereabouts of their own people rapidly, that they were where they needed to be, helped coordinate meet-ups and transfers, and noted if people were severely out of place and alerting us to check on the why thereof.

            Allegiance Merit followed, building on Locations. The dots and geographic spread of the people grew sharper and more distinct, indicating Levels and Ranks in skills. The concentration of people with Levels was apparent, particularly around Whitestone, and most prominently, new promotions shone out, indicating people who had Leveled up and might be ready for reassignment elsewhere. Different areas needed different foundational skills and experts to help them out, and the quiet negotiating in the background for skilled tradesmen began quickly.

            Commune with Nature followed. Not technically an Allegiance spell, it was replicated by those with the Primal magic who could Cast it, meshing together with my own Casting and giving us an extremely good view of the Island of Michigan and surrounding territories. Ecological balance was the big thing, with instant flares of Elemental dissatisfaction manifesting where people were overcutting, polluting, abusing the land, overhunting, and the like. Some were carryovers from previous days, and we could instantly see if any progress was being made on fixing them up. It was a problem our Druids addressed firmly, Lady Green leading the way in such matters.

            It looked like someone had started dumping manure into a river on Baron Hida’s lands to the east abutting Duke Crag’s territory. Hida’s ire flared in the Markspace, but he said nothing as the guilty party was identified.

            Notes of work to be done on the waterways, roadways, and the spread of farms were analyzed and disseminated. Everyone could see what had been done, what should not have been done, and what needed to be done as far as working with the Land went. Michigan was generally pretty satisfied with us, and it showed in how well the crops and yields had been over the past years.

   Pay respect to the Land in a world of magic, and it would pay respect to you back!

Allegiance Motivation, Mindset, and Dreams flowed out next, building on top of one another. The spells were about what people wanted, if they had the proper mindset to do tasks we would like to assign them to, and what their hidden hopes and dreams were on the whimsical and personal side. There was nothing personal about the last, but simple things like wanting to see more flowers, missing a fruit or dish from the old homeland, wanting to know the final fate of loved ones, and things like that. Little victories of Hope sometimes sent people halfway across the world looking for vine cuttings from vineyards in Europe, a specific breed of potato from the Andes, or just planting wildflowers along a ditch to cheer up those walking along it.

            People who were very dissatisfied with what they were doing could be offered new jobs or duties elsewhere, or consoled to accept their current tasks and duties. Ambitious people could be sent along paths of study or work that satisfied them and they were suitable for, with others noted as being unsuited for work due to changing mindsets or circumstances.

            Allegiance management was very complex at times, and balancing the people was an everyday ongoing juggling act, although extremely stimulating as a key form of active resource management.

            The Allegiance Motto was quickly reviewed, reflecting the overarching goal of the Allegiance at this time. We work to save the world, to support and protect those doing that work, and to free those still in Stone Stasis and return them to life once more.

            Those were the goals of my Allegiance, and everyone in my Allegiance knew them. If they didn’t believe in those goals, they didn’t belong in my Allegiance. Over the years I had calmly moved out thousands of people who thought their personal ambitions were more important than those of the Allegiance.

            There were plenty of lesser Monarchs around the American Gulf who’d take the self-interested and personally ambitious in. They had their own goals, but they weren’t The Steel.

            The Allegiance Mantle likewise remained unchanged, reflecting the Motto. Those who worked towards the Allegiance Goals received a +1 to efforts reflecting those goals. Small, simple, but when multiplied by millions of people, it all added up to more. A little bit higher quality, a little bit more work getting done every day, a little bit more morale and motivation to stay on task.

            It was different from the Monarch’s Mantle, or the Noble Mantles of those under me, which were personal Buffs and boosts to those who followed individuals. Someone who didn’t invest in the Monarch Masteries didn’t have a Mantle, after all.

            My Mantle of a +4 bonus to Concentration tended to be the rote Mantle for everyone under me, particularly the civilians, and typified the focused mindset of the people of The Steel everyone outside the Allegiance observed of us. Noble Mantles often had greater combat focus, like Brekken’s Improved Teamwork Mantle, which was awesome for the soldiers serving under him.

            Allegiance Mercy was very specific, as it went looking for the weaknesses of the Allegiance, and where The Steel was vulnerable.

            The lack of widespread Divine Casters to support the population always stood out as the most glaring vulnerability, and the generally low Levels of the civilian populace were always another. Specific weaknesses in areas of skilled trades, lack of economic benefits and trade, infrastructure that was needed to raise living conditions, and potential conflicts of interest with other Allegiances over resources here and there and the like rolled past everyone’s views, all drilled down to the local level so the Nobles of an area could see what specifically they should be working on. Conversations immediately began in the background over this or that problem and its impact.

            We had a great and motivated populace, a strong military, and the numbers of our Powered and Primos were growing and gaining Levels, but we had a long way to go. The vast majority of people still didn’t have the motivation to break Three…

            Allegiance Mentor was about teaching the Skill Ranks and Levels we needed, working with the prior spells to make sure apprentices were being assigned, that people were not hoarding their knowledge and skills to benefit themselves at the expense of others, and that we were raising the floor of knowledge for everyone. The progress of the students in all professions, skills, and trades was tracked, and especially noted where people were good at other jobs and probably should be shifted to those endeavors, while others would be cycled in to see how well they did, especially if they had the appropriate Mindset.

            Good teachers were treated well and acknowledged for their skills, building the future one young or old mind at a time who was thirsting for what the Mentors knew and they could learn.

            This was particularly apt for Grand Central and all the students of magic there. Argos considered this spell his personal responsibility, with Mulcaster backing him up. Both were heavy into the learning, practical and theoretical, and never had enough good teachers for what could be taught.

            Allegiance Money was pure financial accounting and where the money was. Nobody was stupid enough to think that money and trade wasn’t important, and balance of trade was a huge concern for the Primos in a magical world. Our balance sheets were looked over closely, surpluses balanced out, debts tracked both owed and owing, and we paid on time and expected our external partners to do the same. 

            There were people trying to argue for deficit spending, but they didn’t get far in my Allegiance. It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to leverage debt and repay it, but I also knew how to totally screw people over who wanted to use financial products to make money just for themselves and siphon cash out of the system, and I was plenty willing to do that back to them, too, which they often didn’t appreciate when they went bankrupt.

            Among other things, this spell also addressed our goldweight reserve, which formed the foundation of our magical production. Given we could go through tons of gold a day, it was something we had to track like a hawk. Gold came in, some was made into jewelry or Craftcoins, it was Burned, and it flowed away and was gone.

            Allegiance Piety simply measured Faith. It seemed a minor thing, but knowing the spread of who respected what gods, and how deep that Faith was, was remarkably useful in anticipating problems and working towards greater harmony. Declining Faith in an area indicated that whatever Priest or Cleric worked that area was doing something wrong, and would either have to be removed or supplemented with lay people who had social skills that they did not. Not everyone was suitable to be a parish Priest, and not every god was suitable for every person.

            Flora, for instance, was not well-represented among the adventuring set, or even military Healers, but She was the fastest-growing denomination because of Her focus on agriculture and farming, so core to so many societies around the world coming together and meshing their efforts here. Sylune tended to have fewer followers, but they tended to be very motivated Powered Casters with Theurgies, and so powerful beyond their minor numbers. Mithar and Valus had great representation among career soldiers, but that fell away if and when the warriors returned to civilian life and non-fighting concerns.

Aru was followed everywhere, the Salute to the Dawn the single most attended Ritual in the world. So was Amana, the Gentle Mother being the Patron of the many new families and of Healers of all stripes.

            Strong Faith meant the Divine could quietly aid us more easily, in whatever manner they chose to do so. It also meant that Faith could aid others in distant places who needed it, much as the Divine had come to us and made their power available when we needed it. It also gave us a cohesive identity around a pantheon that had no historical bias towards one people or another, and thus united people who would have competed and divided over whose gods were best if the historical gods of humanity had been real.

            Allegiance Martial was a specific measure of military and fighting strength of the Allegiance, sans all Casting. Levels, spread, types, quality, cohesion, morale, and numbers were all included, as well as supporting logistics, training, fortifications, and the like.

            The Warlords naturally loved this spell and its results, as it identified weaknesses in supply lines, noted where we were very strong, how we were building, how much civilian reserves we actually had, eligible people coming up with the proper mindset to fight, and how much fighting spirit as a whole the Allegiance had.

            Willingness to fight and stand tall in a world of magic was incredibly important. We had a whole lot of people who had fought, hated it, and yet would be willing to fight again. They knew we weren’t sending them out to secure pipelines of oil, to conquer foreign countries, or to play political games.

            They were going out to fight to protect humanity, to secure our world, and to reclaim that which we had lost… and those things they fought would keep coming until we actually secured our world, and even after that.

            The threats would never stop coming, so there was only to fight, and see how much longer we could extend the intervals of peace in between.

            The Warlords and officers of the fighting forces were conferring over the details as we moved on to Allegiance Morale.

            That spell summed up the people of the Allegiance believing in what we were trying to do, measured by their Loyalty.

            Loyalty was the bedrock of an Allegiance. Great Loyalty returned by great Duty could weather massive impacts, and benefited the whole Allegiance with its ability to be materialized as Crystal Coins. Loyalty was the free tax dollars of the Allegiance, spent to further the causes of the Allegiance, costing people nothing but sincere belief in one another and their Nobles and Monarch, cooperation, and esprit de corps.

            Problems with Loyalty indicated people who weren’t a match for their Nobles or the Allegiance as a whole, or who simply had selfish mindsets related to taking and not giving. Gaining Nobility was a big thing in The Steel, and if you didn’t have the Duty to take care of your people, your Noble Title was rescinded and someone else would be brought in to do the job instead. Absentee Nobles who just had the Title and flarked off to gain Karma on their own didn’t last long in The Steel.

            Likewise, if you were a cynic who gave no Loyalty and only took the benefits of the Allegiance, you could wake up to find your Allegiance Oath rescinded and yourself and your family headed out of our territory to someone else to sponge off of them. Civic duty and belief were actually very, very important here!

            Allegiance Health was how we quickly tracked plagues and the spread of disease, access to Healers in general and emergency requirements in particular, as well as the general age and welfare of everyone. Areas with failing Health often had pollution problems, no Healer around, were unsanitary, or a plague had come in and was doing its malevolent work. It allowed us to stay ahead of livestock infestations, blights on plants, flu bugs working through the population, and know the general age spread of the people quickly.

            It looked like there was a swine flu outbreak starting up in Ishpeming, a swathe of cold viruses around Port Huron coming out of nowhere, and that idiot dumping shit in the water system had started a bout of dysentery in Hida’s barony. Hida’s level of ire spiked further immediately.

            Allegiance Influence always raised some good-natured chuckles and ribbing among everyone, because it tracked who had Duty and Loyalty to whom, and in how much quantity. Thus, everyone could see who had real influence among the people, how many, how deep it was, and how much it was returned.

            It was all a mishmash of shared Loyalty overlaps, with the highest numbers going to me as the overall Monarch, but all of it was shared with the Nobles under me who had more direct day-to-day interaction with their people. Master Tomlins had a huge core of hyn faithful to him before anyone else, for example, just like Crag did with Clan Stone, and Briggs did with the Amazons and his people from Minnesota.

            I could also see their Loyalty to me, and they could see my Duty to them. All their own Vassals could subconsciously feel the same, and those bonds running through the Allegiance were what made it greater than the sum of its parts.

            Among other things, unnatural growth or reduction of Influence generally meant something had come in and suborned the minds of the locals through supernatural means. It would create an extremely rapid response from the local Nobles, all the way up to me if required.

            I did not appreciate fucktards coming in and using mindbending on my citizens to sway their minds. Once released from such Influence, neither did my people...

            Allegiance Magic was the flipside of Allegiance Martial, specifically addressing the spellcasting ability, magical resources, and Artifice construction capabilities of the whole Allegiance. This also naturally received a LOT of attention, especially with Grand Central there teaching students from multiple Allegiances.

            Hitting Nine was the benchmark for most Casters, enabling IV’s from Secondary Casters and V’s for Primary Casters. Argos specifically geared his Oathring production to reward Casters hitting Nine, easing my load on the side, and additionally did not discriminate against those students from outside the Allegiance, making him the primary producer of Sustaining Rings to those outside The Steel.

            As production of magical items was of huge interest to anyone and everyone, this was another area of interest we paid careful attention to. The allocation of Infusing and Investment time was of paramount importance to everyone, where Naming Karma was going and making sure people had access to gain it if they wanted it, goldweight in all types and forms and how it was produced, how much Low Magic was being used to better general living conditions, how much High Magic was being bankrolled for huge projects and effects, who had massive amounts of personal Gear and wasn’t contributing to the overall magical condition of the Allegiance, and so on and so forth.

            I was utterly dominant in this area, both because I was the most powerful Caster,  and because my Pyramid construction swamped all other contributions all by itself, with my Oathrings coming in second. Everyone could see the layout of Pyramids across the continent through this spell, as they all were tied back to me in their interlocking Pyramid Power Fields, as well as how far I was along on the current one I was working on and where it was.

            Argos and Weirdboy had massive ties to the spellcaster students of Grand Central, while Mulcaster stood at the heart of Allegiance Artificing on all Levels. Briggs and Sama alike dominated a hard core of non-Powered Runesmiths, while Clan Stone had the largest number of Artificers by Allegiance size. The Eternal Helm were the biggest users of Allegiance Magic, making Constructs for mining and farmwork, and also installing Obelisks here, there, and everywhere with benefits to the surrounding areas.

            The two most common side jobs for Casters in the whole Allegiance were Infusers and Investors, taking the time to administer goldweight to magic items so the makers/Crafters could continue on doing other things.

            Likewise, the single busiest trade vocation nowadays was making Craftcoins.

There were three primary ways to Make Magic. Naming Karma was the biggest of those, just requiring a high QL item, usually a Weapon, and going out and fighting with it. Plenty of people had hundreds of days of combat behind them now, and bore Weapons of incredible power held back only by their Quality Level. Many of those people had branched off to Named Armor or Shields, too, and specifically because of me, their Oathrings.

            The second method was using Crystal Coins, Loyalty turned to Karmic goldweight which could be used to power spells or to make Artifice. From the simple Iron Coins used like pennies once were, all the way to Ruby Coins generally only used for bulk trades between whole Allegiances or Powered buying big ticket items, Crystal Coins were now a fact of life, and a very important way Allegiances and their people made magic.

The third was goldweight and its equivalents, of which Craft Coins were the most ubiquitous.

            The mechanics of magic and Crafting intersected at raw precious materials. Five pounds of pure gold was a goldweight, equal to five hundred Gold Coins, the normal maximum that could be Burned off and Invested/Infused into an item per day. 

            But if you CRAFTED that goldweight material properly into an artistic item, you could triple its value straight off! One goldweight turned into three!

            Thus, whitesmithing was a hugely popular primary and secondary job for a lot of people. A Craft Coin was a general term that basically included any type of numismatic object, as well as most kinds of jewelry. A simple Assay could determine the goldweight equivalence of any item, and higher and higher Craftsmanship leveraged more and more of the precious metals and gemstones, as well as allowing the maker to craft with greater speed.

            As such, all three methods were important factors in Artifice supply and creation, and that was before getting into Alchemicals, the Energized Materials that fed that particular branch of magic, and the harvesting of reagents and magical materials to make such things.

            Making Magic was big business, very important, and we watched it all like dragons.

The Goldweight Reserve was always depleting. The biggest force addressing that issue was the Eternal Helm, who ran a lot of mines of different materials for precisely this reason. Argos noted the shortages that were coming, and started passing on orders to locate more. If need be, I would Commune with Nature to help find them, but Summoned Elementals were usually adequate for the task.

            Allegiance Mystic informed us of the subtler, longer-term, floor-raising aspects of the Allegiance, as it specifically looked for ki and those who used it.

            Ki was absolutely the most fundamental profound energy available for people to employ, and even if they couldn’t ‘spend’ it, Primos and Forsaken alike could build up Ki Reserves and enjoy impressive passive effects from them.

            Thus, tai-chi and similar lessons designed to increase the spirituality and inner harmony of the Allegiance were extremely important elements to address, and part of the core educational standards.

            Ideally, we wanted methods in place so that anybody could learn and gain some ki, if for no other reason than buttressing their own physical and mental health. Realistically, some people just didn’t have the chops to develop it, something disappointing to everyone all around, but we could only work with what we had.

            Those areas lagging in ki development were noted, many of them agricultural areas with long workdays and tremendous amounts of labor to do. Ki development was a big contrast to such places, yet would make their work all the easier to do if it was put into place. If it meant short-term losses of work time now for greater amounts of work per hour in the future, it was worth it, and training and teaching goals were adjusted accordingly constantly.

            Allegiance Materials was the opposite of ki development, focused completely on the technological paradigm. It was naturally of the most interest to Mulcaster and his crew of Alchemists and engineers, as it measured the technological development of every area of the Allegiance, as well as the presence and spread of scientific and technological knowledge, including the Weird Science that was Alchemy.

            As always, the White Zone showed up the brightest in this measure, as it was where everyone trying to adapt the high sciences of the old world to a magical world lived and worked, trying to preserve, teach, and re-task pure science to a magical realm that didn’t interact well with it.

            But every area under the Banner of The Steel had some people with technological knowledge, ranging from agriculture to zoology. The emplacement of civilized infrastructure, particularly water, sewage, roads, transportation vehicles and systems, health care, and food production and preparation all factored into this.

            We could see the areas that need to be developed to get a leg up on life, although thankfully most of them had been addressed in the most crucial areas. We could also measure the training of the students and workers who would be growing up and building the stuff to the new standards the world required, no longer held back by memories of a world with no magic.

            Raising the floor of a magical world from Third and Fourth World standards ever so gradually, making better lives for everyone with science!

            Allegiance Mental was a narrow and specific spell I’d not had to use until recently. The Mentos children who’d been left behind by their parents were not numerous, under a hundred in total, but they had the right to develop their psionic powers, and we simply weren’t going to let them NOT develop them if they wanted to become citizens.

            They were all still children, so now it was mostly a case of mastering their Wild Talents, increasing their education, and instilling in them the discipline they’d need to wield them.

            Recruiting a Celestial as a teacher was necessary, as no native of our world had true psionic potential. The Power of Ten had given us nothing to teach them, while none of their parents or teachers had been allowed to stay behind to instruct them.

Their improvements were tiny. None were over eight years old, but it was still something we were tracking.

            Allegiance Mundane was the opposite of Mental. From the tiniest proportion of our Allegiance, we went and looked at the largest… the Primos and Forsaken, in both people and mundane material resources.

            Men, women. Cultural breakdowns and the boundaries between them, which we were trying to ease and erase. Spreads of Levels, areas with families, and those without them.

            Food reserves. Metal reserves. Mines, fields, outputs, labor forces, availability, who was in what mundane careers, where more were needed, where there were kinks in the chains of logistics based around those resources, what needed to be watched and perhaps people moved around.

            98%+ of the population was non-Powered, so this covered a lot of area, a lot of data, and the biggest portion of work we had to do in real terms.

            The appalling state of Great Britain, Japan, and Australia, nominally held by Landbound and volunteer Nobles associated with us, always stuck out, but they had no civilian populations to speak of, only endless conflict and some occasional mines we were working if they were easy to secure.

            As always, it always ended with a focus on a very specific number of Primos humans: the families still in Stone Stasis after all these years, waiting for us to release them from their quiet dreams and return them to life and work in a new world.

            It had been eight years, and well over half of the families who’d been in Stone Stasis were out. It was a tremendous amount of work to prepare homes and jobs for those in Stone Stasis, but the Allegiance Spells told us what skills and Talents the people in Stone Stasis had, which helped tremendously. They could be released and immediately put to work at something they were either trained in or naturally gifted at, which helped in many ways.

            The Allegiance Map played against the previous information, but included ecological information and importantly, threats or dangers in our lands, drawing on the Commune with Nature for much of its information.

            The danger area for us was mostly across the Mackinaw Strait and the peninsula there, where too much goblin activity was present from transplanar Gates dumping thousands of them at a time into the world, often too near our settlements and mines. The northern end of the Mackinaw Peninsula was under the most threat from hordes sweeping in from old Canada randomly, Portals having manifested there half a dozen times so far, just outside the Pyramid Fields protecting the lands.

            I couldn’t put up Pyramids in areas we couldn’t hold against aggressors, as the things had to be protected. Happily, Pyramids also represented a border that could be pushed forward against invaders, which was the whole reason for me spreading out so many of them.

            Allegiance Might was a summation of all Levels of all people in the Allegiance, a breakdown of pure raw Levels, allowing us to measure everyone and everything as a whole, and compare it to others, to threats out there, to our foundation.

            The Nobles and other Tens naturally radiated the strongest, with far more Depth and Width than was typical of other Allegiances as one delved deeper. Polymathic training gave us wider resources and ability to address more problems with fewer people, but the result was that our overall Height was often below other Allegiances in many areas.

            The military was not one of those areas, as our fighting people faced plenty of activity to drive their Class Levels, and those Levels always included Trade or Profession training to support the Allegiance as a whole if and when they mustered out, or during their downtime.

            We maxed out our rote Levels with full Purchased Feats and Masteries if at all possible, we didn’t strip and Ironskull for Height if we could help it. The Steel had Deep and often Wide Foundations, if not so many specialists and Height as other Allegiances built toward. They could make better stuff often, but we could make a LOT more good stuff, and that was more important for building a foundation, especially if you were only going to reach Three, Four, Five, or Six anyway.

            It was best to get that Width and Depth while younger, and have that solid foundation for later. Specialists and great Height were a luxury for the future when the planet was more secure.

            Allegiance Mercantile was a bit of a misnomer, because it included political and mercantile arrangements in its analysis of the overall economic power of the entire Allegiance, building on Allegiance Money and other spells. It let us know who we had good relations with, formal relations with, and cool relations with. Hostile relations were pretty uncommon as far as fellow humans went, although there wasn’t a single invading alien force we’d met so far that was even neutral to us.

            Our economic ties were tightest with Sir Justin’s Thunder Knights Allegiance and Jordan’s Lanterns, the three of us supplying most of the Primos military forces that were active in North America. While other Council Allegiances occasionally supplied men, they more often had volunteer Powered, or focused on supplies and support functions. Economic ties with some of those places could get strained as greed tried to rear its head, but we’d walked away from disadvantageous terms in the past, and we’d continue to do so in the future when profiteers started salivating.

            The very last spell was always Allegiance Management. In the quiet of the night, Vassals and Oaths were moved quietly between Nobles, the people involved would wake up to find they were being transferred to places they were needed more, why, what they needed to do, and how long it should last.

            That clear explanation and understanding solved a lot of complaints and grumbling before they started, as there was no mystery involved in why such disruptive moves were being made. People were informed, places they were coming were told why they were coming, and everything was as coordinated and informed as possible.

            High Morale and the Allegiance Motto drove everything. Everybody was sacrificing in some form or another. There was no way anyone could pay me enough for what I was doing, for instance. Some would point fingers and claim that me being on top and being in power, able to command thus and so and do whatever I wanted, was reward enough… right up until they realized what an immense hassle it was to do what I did, how much time and effort it required, and that power they desired so much for themselves was utterly necessary to do what had to be done, all without me dipping my hand into the pot for personal profit beyond what was basically the most basic compensation for my time.

------

            The nightly/daily Allegiance Council broke apart as smoothly as it had come together. It had been held thousands of times now, addressing the objectives and plans of the Allegiance as a whole. Horse trading and individual plans and aspirations of Nobles and Tens were a completely different matter, and took place between individuals, not in the Council.

            No other Allegiance I knew of went to the same lengths that The Steel did. The Allegiance Magicks were a key bedrock of our long and short-term planning. Resource management problems furthermore had human aspirations and emotions behind them, and we had to take those into account.

            Diplomacy Ranks, high Charisma, and social skills were all tools in the arsenal, greasing the process along, especially the transfers of people here and there.

            Diana was rubbing her temples as we came out of the Council, shaking her head as always. “Demand for Awakened Animals never slacks off. I swear some of Melody’s requests are for carnival horses and parade teams…”

            “Yeah, I saw just how bloody low she is on the priority pole. Just above people wanting them for plowhorses.” 

            “Well, trying to get an Awakened Horse to commit to a lot of plowing would be very difficult, and might end up with said requester getting his skull split by an angry hoof.” A fact that had proven true on a couple occasions on idiots who just refused to see a Horse as more than a horse.

            Well, stupidity and greed made for great examples of what not to do at times.

            “Shoo, off to make your Rings.” She offered me a fine cheek, I kissed it properly, bumped noses with her, and headed back to the Ringsong Pavilion.

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