Kiera said, “I have others cleaning up the barracks. After that we can work on restoring the Fortress. Worst case we can turn this into a Training compound for the Order.”
“I’ll recommend that to Queen Matilde, but our next step is contacting the queen. But, we need to make sure we get through personally to the Queen. It may not be safe to just return to the capital, with the spies there. Us doing this action, without any valid orders from the Queen, will surely raise questions. We need to make sure we get information straight to the Queen. Dee, and the rest of the squads will be coming here soon. Then, we’ll figure out our next move,” Fergus said.
“We can start moving prisoners, Darby,” Eoghan said.
“You’re done already?” Darby asked.
“No, but I think I can keep up, and be done soon,” Eoghan said.
It took Eoghan five hours to set up all the cells, and we had the cells full in a half hour. I arrived in the evening, using the trip to train the knights on driving the new carriages.
“So, we have fake troops here. Have you begun interrogating them?” I asked.
“Not yet. There will be time tomorrow. What should we do next? The Capital is probably on alert about us, by now,” Fergus said.
“Probably, but I have an idea. We likely can’t get to Matilde. So our best bet is her brother, Setanna. I’ll drop in on him tonight, in his garden. He may, or may not already be aware, but no one will suspect us attacking there,” I said.
“Think he’ll believe you?” Fergus said.
“He’ll listen and take my evidence. He trusts no one. He’ll take it to his little sister,” I said.
“This really is the most beautiful garden I’ve ever seen, Archduke Setanna,” I said, not even turning around to look at him.
“Have you come to attack my Keep?” Archduke Setanna said.
“Had I come to attack, your people would all be ashes now, this garden reduced to dirt, and the Keep would be mine. The reports of our actions have been greatly misreported. The Queen’s castle has been infiltrated, and you are all acting on a web of lies. I received this false order from the Queen shortly after leaving the Academy to spend time with my children. Someone will pay for taking me away from them to deal with this foreign plot against us,” I said, holding out a folder with the evidence we had compiled.
“You come here, expecting me to believe you, and go running to the Queen to plead your innocence?” Setanna asked.
“I expect you to trust no one, and to go running to your sister directly with what I have provided you, and then the two of you to find the truth for yourselves. We have restored, repaired, and improved an abandoned fortress for the Queen, at our own expense. We think it might make a satisfactory training area for the Queen to make use of in the future. We are currently housing two hundred visitors, who want to join the Queen’s forces so badly, they made their own uniforms and formed their own company. We are not accustomed to housing so many guests, and I’m afraid I might not be the best host. They are currently enjoying the new and improved mana-dungeon,” I said.
Setanna actually laughed.
“What a thoughtful host you are. Only the best accommodations, eh?”
“We do try,” I said.
“I hear a lot of ‘We’ in your speech,” Setanna said.
“Well, we are a Queen twice over. I was just trying it out to get the feel of it. I do need to visit my other domain soon. It doesn’t sit right with me to be an absent ruler. Even if it’s something I really never wanted,” I said.
“So, I have heard. I have always taken you as a serious and responsible person, I will take this to my sister, and hopefully we can figure this all out, peacefully,” Setanna said.
“That is my sincere hope, Queen Matilde will know multiple ways to reach me. Here is my token, so I know the messenger is real. Be careful, I don’t know how deep the betrayal runs in the Queen’s household. Our guests are all ignorant of their benefactor, so we can’t say where blame lies. It was good visiting with you again. When things calm down, I’d love to introduce you to my children, and show you the things I’ve been working on, Archduke” I said.
“I think I would like that, Captain Deirdre,” Setanna said.
I flew again into the darkness of the night. This was such a beautiful place, but it always gave me the shivers. The thrumming of the power beneath the altar always affected me. Something ancient, and powerful, lay sleeping deep within. Was a goddess truly sleeping down there, somewhere?
For three days there was complete silence from the Capital. Then a carrier brought a package on the fourth day. It did not come with the token. We set the package aside, someplace safe, and isolated. Three days later, the second Prince, Alexander, arrived with the token, and a platoon of knights, in Royal carriages based on our latest carriage design.
“Salutations! Prince Alexander, and welcome to the White Realm,” I said.
“Greetings and Salutations, Captain Deirdre. I have been looking forward to visiting this fascinating land for the longest time!”
“Well we will have to make sure to show you as much of the sights and sites of the city and realm as possible. Will you be staying long? Do you have an itinerary? Or would you care for us to build an itinerary, for you?” I said.
“Well, I don’t know how long I will be, I would like to visit Stormfell Fortress. I’ve heard you restored and improved the old place. I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing some of the City’s sights first though,” Alexander said.
“Then, I’ll have my staff make up an itinerary of some of the best spots to see in the City today and tomorrow, and we can make the trip down to Stormfell Fortress the day after. Our Page will show you to your room in the palace, and assist you with anything you need,” I said.
“Sounds wonderful! Are you going to be the one to show me around your city? I’d really enjoy that! How are your children doing? I understand you have three dragonborn and three dragonkin born? I’ve never seen baby dragons. I suppose you have to keep them under pretty tight guard? I heard they escaped their guardians once, and that’s how news of their hatching leaked out?,” Alexander said.
Sigh
“Does the Prince wish to meet our children?” I asked.
“Oh, can I? Is that even allowed?” Alexander.
“Well, then, please accompany us, it will be their feeding time soon,” I said.
“I wouldn’t want to impose,” Alexander said.
“This is no imposition,” I said.
“Follow us,” I said.
We went to the nursery, and I laid down on my lounge. The nursemaids brought out my dragonkin babies, and my dragon babies came down from where they were flying and playing.
“Salutations, mama.”
“Greetings and salutations my dearest darlings.”
My maids helped me open my blouse and handed me a child for each arm, and they began suckling. Alexander’s face went totally red, and tried to look away, but it seemed he was too fascinated, until he saw I noticed.
“I’m sorry for staring. I’m not used to seeing women breastfeeding. I wasn’t expecting that,” Alexander said.
“Yes, men are often taken by surprise by that. Do not be overly concerned,” I said.
“Is this a new daddy? Mama?” my eldest, Yuri, asked.
“No dear Yuri, this is Prince Alexander, a visitor and second son of Queen Matilde,” I said.
“Prince Alexander, this is my eldest daughter, Yuri,” I said.
“Salutations, Prince Alexander. I am pleased to meet you,” Yuri said, showing off her command of human speech.
“Greetings and Salutations, Honorable and Magnificent Princess Yuri. I am deeply honored at our meeting,” Alexander said.
Yuri, giggled triumphantly, and said.
“Silly prince, I am not a mere princess, I am Heir Apparent,” Yuri blurted out, before I could stop her.
“YURI!”
“Sorry, Mama!” Yuri said.
“Prince Alexander. Please ignore you heard that. The heir apparent is a state secret of the White Realm,” I said.
“Of course, your honorable and magnificent majesty,” Alexander said and bowed deeply to me. Then he turned and bowed deeply to Yuri, but said nothing.
When my two daughters were done suckling, I was handed my son, and my dragonborn son hurried up, to me and asked,
“Is it my turn, Mama?”
“Yes, my darling Yukio,” I said.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Alexander gasped seeing my dragon son take dragonkin form and begin suckling on my nipple.
“Your dragonborn also suckle? I thought dragons didn’t suckle?” Alexander said.
“Dragons generally do not suckle their children, but when my kits saw me suckle my three dragonkin, they asked to suckle also. How could I refuse, my darling children? They don’t suckle as much, as they have a regular diet as well,” I said.
“Wow. That’s amazing. You are such an amazing mother!” Alexander said.
“Thank you, prince Alexander,” I said.
“Please, just call me Alex,” Alexander said.
“Very well, Alex,” I said.
“I should let you nurse in peace. Thank you for letting me intrude on such a delicate occasion,” Alex said.
“You are welcome, Alex, we will send an escort once we are ready to begin your tour,” I said.
With that Alex left, and my Page led him to his suite in the Palace, for his stay.
“He was totally ogling you, the whole time. Did you tease him like that on purpose? He must be having a hard time walking with the erection you gave him, with all that flashing, My Queen,” Hestia said.
“Me? Teasing a man? I would never. It’s not my fault they only ever think of sex. Nor of their fascination with breasts. It’s not like I can feed my children without baring my breasts,” I said.
“He’s kind of cute, in an awkward youth kind of way, my Queen,” Kamara said.
“Yes, he is. I’m sure Matilde is going to try and fix me up with him. Especially given our ties to the Empire now. She’ll want to be one up over them,” I said.
“If you are not careful, you will have a huge harem, my Queen,” Hestia said.
“I am the New White Dragon Empress, of course I’m going to have a huge harem. I don’t really have a choice, do I? The Sisters and the Goddess have sealed my fate. Perhaps I will plant my seeds to every realm. Never again will the White Dragons be wiped out,” I said.
“We will defend you to the end, our Empress!” Echoed every dragonkin present as they knelt before me.
“Rise, our family,” I said.
Alexander stayed for seven days. He left most of the Platoon he brought at the Fortress to officially take control of it for the Queen. A larger force was already on route, as we had already observed through our own spy networks. With that, the crisis from the plot of the infiltrators was set to rest.
“Captain Deirdre, the Queen has set your Platoon a summer task. You are to spy on as many of our neighbors as possible, and see if you can ascertain who set you up for this little Fortress fiasco. If you can, repay them in kind. If you do, she would be most pleased. Now I must bid you farewell. Thank you for your amazing hospitality. This has been the most exciting week of my life,” Alexander said, handing me a sealed letter from the Queen, along with the signet, I had given her last year, when I decided she was a worthy ally.
“It shall be done. It’s nice to have official permission,” I said. Alex looked in my eye, and knew I was already planning to pay back whoever had threatened my own. I was not one to let such an insult, or attack, to go unanswered. I would crush whoever had done this. He gave me an uncomfortable smile, and turned and returned to the Capital with the Portal we’d jointly made.
“Are we ready?” I said as I turned to Fergus.
“As soon as you change out of that fancy dress, my Queen,” Fergus said.
I reached back and pulled the ribbon loose and slipped out of my dress. Checking over my adventuring attire one last time.
“Then let’s go, my King,” I said.
“Oh, I am a king now? King of what?” Fergus said.
“You are my First King. I thought it should be obvious. You are the King of me,” I said, as I kissed his lips.
“The King of You? I like that. Yes much more satisfying than some landed estate. Now I won’t feel like an invader, when I penetrate your defenses later,” Fergus said, and kissed me back.
“Do you mind? Or do you plan on doing it in the carriage the whole time? Please let me know, so I know whether to go in another carriage,” Rosie said.
“Sorry, I’ll stop,” Fergus said.
“No promises,” I said.
“Lovely, just fucking lovely! Lonely single Dwarf here without a single mate prospect. Maybe I can get Aoi to make me a sex doll,” Rosie said.
“Oh, that sounds like fun. We’ll have to discuss what your likes and dislikes are, later,” Aoi said.
“That was joke you perverted fuckwit! I’m not having sex with some damn doll. I’m still a virgin!” Rosie said turning red.
Aoi laughed.
“Ok, sorry for teasing you,” Aoi said.
“So, we are off for the Terranon Kingdom? That’s so weird having a territory where the rule passes down the male line. We’ll have to be careful, I hear it’s a very male-centered society that treats women as property, and second-class citizens,” Selene said.
“Well we won’t be there long. We’re just setting up a cover, for when we come back later. As you noted it’s male-oriented, and they have a deep bureaucracy. We’re here to handle the bureaucratic issues, so when we come back we’ll be able to actually investigate,” I said.
We made it to the border of Terranon, and we started off with a bit of trouble.
“Destination, length of stay, purpose of visit, number and gender of guests?” The guard spat out.
“Diterra City, One week, registering to take j...”, I began.
“You! There, Mister! Is this your woman? Who among you is responsible for this female?” The guard asked.
“Excuse me,” I said.
“Silence female, know your place! Who is the guarantor of this woman?”
“I am her husband. What seems to be the problem?” Fergus said.
“What is the problem? She spoke to me! She spoke to me without permission. If you can’t manage your women, we can’t grant you admission to the Kingdom,” the Guard said.
Fergus looked at me. I shrugged.
“Yes, sorry. Woman issues. What can you do? Go rest in the carriage, Dee,” Fergus said.
It took us nearly an hour to get through the bureaucratic hurdles of just getting an entry permit. We learned, that women spoke, only when spoken to. Doing otherwise was considered a crime.
“They expect us to just be silent!? Fuck that!” Selene said.
“We’ll just have to put up with it for a bit. Do try to put up with it. We should only be here for a few days. So try to remember to not start any conversations with men. Only if they specifically speak to you first,” I said.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Eoghan said.
“What, a party with the six most powerful women in the world visiting a regime that suppresses women. What could possibly go wrong?” Cathar said.
The men started laughing.
“Well, in the end, they let us in,” Rosie said.
“That was their first mistake,” Tomás said.
“Excuse me!?” Selene said.
“We’re going to last two minutes,” Tomoki said.
The guys laughed again.
“We should take bets, on how long the ladies can last, without provoking an International incident,” Fergus said.
“That’ll be a tough one,” Cathar said.
“Having fun guys?” Rosie said, cracking her knuckles.
Everyone started laughing. We drove on straight to Diterra. Then we had to go through the entire process again, to enter the city.
“Let’s get registered with an Inn first. Then head to the Adventurers Guild,” I said.
“Got it,” Fergus said.
It took half an hour to register at the Inn, because of questions to be asked, forms to fill out, inspections to be made. But we still weren’t prepared for what was to come.
“I hope, the Adventurers Guild isn’t as bad as this,” I said, once we were outside.
It was a vain hope. When we entered the Adventurers Guild, all eyes turned to look at us. Then the stares came. A guild representative came up to Fergus quickly, and whispered urgently,
“Get all the women in the back, we’re in the Terranon Kingdom!”
“Guys to the front, now,” Fergus said turning his head.
We gals looked at each other, and drifted behind the men, as they came forward. Then we looked around and noticed we were almost the only women in the hall.
“Thanks,” Fergus said to the representative.
We approached the front desk, and Fergus went up to the closest open clerk. They were all males.
“We’d like to preregister for work,” Fergus said.
“Tch. How many in your party? How many females? Fill out this form with your ranks,”
“Twelve in the party and six are females,” Fergus said, as he slid the form to me.
“Tch, as Party leader, you need to fill out the forms,” he said as he snatched the form from me and put it in front of Fergus.
“Sorry, she’s such a faithful wife. Always trying to take any burden off of me. She gets carried away,” Fergus said, as he filled out the form.
“I need to confirm your ranks,” The representative said.
We pulled out our Guild IDs.
“Just the males, please,” The representative said.
We looked at each other, shrugged, and we ladies put ours away.
This went on for almost two hours.
“Thank you for your application. The fee is two gold.”
I reached into storage and pulled out a purse, and pulled two gold from it. There were gasps and stares. The rep’s eyes were almost bulging out of his head. Fergus seeing the reaction quickly turned to me and snatched the gold from my hand.
“Thank you, dear,” Fergus said.
“Here you are, sir,” Fergus said.
“Thank you, here is your authorization to work. You may begin taking jobs in one month,” He said, staring knives at me.
“If I may offer a word of advice. You’d be better received if you left your women at home. They are very poorly behaved. They are shaming you,” He said.
We returned to our Inn, and went to our suite of rooms.
“Great Goddess! How do the females of this realm put up with this?” Rosie said.
“Well, we may get a chance to find out, soon enough,” I said.
When it was close to dinner, we approached the dinning hall with the men in front, but were stopped at the entrance.
“I’m sorry sir, but we do not allow females in te public dinning hall. You may rent a private room, the ladies can eat in the women’s hall, or you can have food delivered to your rooms, if you desire to eat with your females,” The host said.
“Oh, right, sorry. Can you please send someone to our rooms for service?” Fergus said.
“Of course, sir,” The host said, sounding rather put out.
Back in our rooms.
“I think, after dinner, you guys should go out and get a feel for the place. Talk to the staff of establishments. We keep committing cultural mistakes. Make note of any females and how they are acting,” I said.
“Good idea,” Fergus said.
We spent three days in this realm, and Fergus contacted our connection, with only the guys present. From there we went north to the Queendom of Prittoni. Crossing the border was easy, and we noted they had all female guards. They must be taunting the Terranon realm. The girls all giggled at the obvious taunt.
“Good to be back in a sane realm,” Rosie said.
We headed straight for the capital Arvenor. We booked a suite, and headed to the Adventurers Guild. We went up to a clerk and registered. Then we examined the board for quests. I grabbed one wanting monster materials, we could do in a day, and we left. Eyes were watching us the whole time. We were all using glamoury arts, as we were trying to hide who we were. The guildmaster came out of her office while we were at the board, and she didn’t take her eyes off of me.
“I’m pretty sure the GM saw through us, some of the others in the hall were paying much closer attention to us than we earned, Let’s go take care of this quest, and then get to work,” I said.
“I’ve been itching to have something to swing my hammer at for days,” Rosie said.
“Totally understand,” Selene said.
We spent four days adventuring and partying in the capital. Then we headed north to get Selene and Darby to Selene’s home.
“That city was a nest of spies! What in the Goddesses name is up with that?” Kiera said.
“I know, that was really unexpected. Our cover may have been blown there. We need to talk to Queen Matilde’s spymaster,” I said.
“Even if our cover was blown, we’ll be alright. We didn’t get into any of the inquiry we are aiming at. So we won’t have raised any alarms, other than we are out traveling, and possibly spying for upcoming trade negotiations. We may have drawn more attention to ourselves by having come out of Terranon,” Kiera said.
“Hmm, yeah. Good point. It’s such an isolated Nation. Anyone coming out of there would garner closer attention. We should make sure to return to one of our realms, first, in the future,” I said.
We arrived in the Viscounty of Direwood, the next day, and were received by her Ladyship Viscountess Nerise,
“Salutations, Queen Deirdre and distinguished guests. You have my eternal gratitude in returning my untoward and wayward brat home.”
“Greetings and salutations Viscountess Nerise. We are deeply honored by your gracious reception. We are only too happy to escort your daughter home,” I said.
“Greetings and Salutations, Mother. It is such a joy coming home. Especially to formally introduce you to my magnificent, victorious, and fearless fiancé Diarmuid Ó Neill, Baron of the Northern March of the White Dragon Realm, whose fame and accolades are known far and wide,” Selene said.
Darby bowed to Nerise. Nerise locked her eyes on him with a grim grin. Darby gave only the slightest shiver. Which Nerise noticed with satisfaction in her eyes.
Nerise approached her daughter and pulled her into a fierce shaking hug, “Welcome home Selene, my darling, impetuous, third daughter, and first to set a wedding date, engaging without our prior consent. With such scorching romantic flames of youth, I am sure you will be the first of my children to conceive, and grant me grandchildren.”
Not skipping a beat or giving her daughter a chance to respond,
“Welcome, my new son, Diarmuid. We have been enthusiastically awaiting our meeting! Your fame and accomplishments serving our Queen Matilde, by the side of your once rescuer Queen Deirdre, is well known to us. We have all been anxiously, and patiently, awaiting your arrival.”