As you might have noticed from the title, Unliving Volume 1 is going to stub for KU next week. Release date is estimated to be around the 26th of April, if all goes smoothly. Later volumes would likely stub as well at a pace of one volume every three months. While I am a bit sad about taking down the first volume, its content has been available for free since December 2021, so nearing two and a half years now. I figure by this point most people interested in reading it have already done so, so the switch to hit the KU readership shouldn't hurt anyone.
Also, since I saw some readers being concerned about this story coming to an end, yes, I have written this story with an end in mind, from the start, even. Rest assured, however, that the end is still some distance away. I am currently writing volume 8, and the ending is planned to be no sooner than volume 12, so you're all just past the midway point at the moment.
Many thanks for your support and understanding, and once more,
Thank you for reading!
Avitue.
“Things that are worth doing are often worth doing more than once.” - Old folk saying.
Aideen couldn’t help but sigh with nostalgia as the carriage – drawn by necromantic constructs, of course – that carried her, Celia, Kino, and the three siblings rolled through the gate of Port Lif once more. It felt like it was only a brief moment since she had last met with Arquivaldo and talked long and wide about her future plans, but in actuality, three years had already passed.
She had spent a good couple of years researching everything she could think of in the Forest of Shadows back then, even trying out and learning about the various types of shelter that would be easy to construct in such an environment and living in them to experience the whole thing first hand. It was probably a bit superfluous, but Aideen felt that it was only right that she did things as meticulously as she could.
The four seasons came and went twice over as she tested various things under an environment that was similar to her intended destination, which was expedited quite a bit by the cooperation of the local elves and other people she knew. All considered, Aideen had truly prepared herself to embark on the expedition she planned, to the most minor detail.
Her road back to Tohrmutgent had not taken long, but once she returned to the capital, she wrote down her plans and double-checked them for errors or discrepancies once more. She also listed out all the things she could feasibly do in order to make the city’s founding smoother, the sorts of things she could get the local powers to cooperate with, and the likes.
Of course, many of those noted would not be actionable until she was actually in the northern continent in person once more, which was the reason for her current trip. Other than the part where she would try to arrange things with the powers near the Forest of Despair, Aideen also intended to survey the rest of the continent once more to get a better grasp of the current political situation.
Some might have considered it folly to do such a survey many years before the intended time of action, but in general, nations whose populace was dominated by long-lived races tended to be slow to change, so they could be reliably expected to keep a stance for centuries on end. Knallzog was such a kingdom since its populace was predominantly dwarves, and they had a good relation with the Lichdom, which served as a bit of a political buffer to the other nations nearby.
Amongst other things, Aideen also planned to see if she could establish some contacts with some of the other nations, especially those dominated by long-lived people like the elves and the dwarves. The Merfolk technically counted as well, as they tended to be conservative and slow to change by nature, but the Forest of Despair was landlocked deep in the continent, so there were no dwellings of the aquatic folk near there.
As such, other than Knallzog, Aideen also intended to make some connections with the people in Alfheim, as well as see if she couldn’t get any headway to the Great Emerald Forest or the Kingdom Down Under. The situation of the human nations tended to be far more volatile, so those would probably have to be checked again closer to the actual date of the founding.
Besides those nations, she also planned to visit the north once more to see if the orcish tribes still remembered her after so many generations. Perhaps some of those with elven blood might, but she had no idea how the general populace of the tribes would think of her after so long. That was more of a moment of curiosity than anything, though.
Before Aideen brought the group to Port Lif, she had naturally sent a letter – delivered via undead messenger bird – to the port’s current governor to pass on to Arquivaldo, should his ship happen to arrive sooner than usual in the year. The letter was mostly to ensure that he would wait for her to come along, since she planned to also experience the route herself along the way.
This time, the precautions she took turned out to be unnecessary, as Arquivaldo’s ship happened to arrive a week later than its usual date. Rather than have the captain wait for her, she ended up waiting for his arrival instead, though only for a few days, since she had timed her departure for the same general time frame as when the captain was in Port Lif three years ago.
When the Captain’s ship arrived in port, Aideen led her group to watch the ship dock at the berth it was assigned to under the captain’s skillful ministering, the large ship gracefully gliding into its spot without any hitch, controlled merely by the careful lowering of sails and a few gentle turns. It was almost as if it was a living creature returning to its burrow at the end of the day.
The good captain himself noticed Aideen amongst the people at the port and waved at her from where he stood at the ship’s bridge, as he personally steered the ship to its berth. Aideen returned the man’s wave and signaled to him that she would like to meet and talk at the same pub they met the last time. It was easy enough to convey that through gestures, as she had learned them from him in the first place.
That evening, they met up and talked as they drank, and the captain agreed to take them as passengers to the northern continent on his return trip. The group waited for another couple of weeks for the captain to finish his business in the port, offloading his cargo and loading a new set to trade up north, before they stepped up the walkway and into the ship.
Their next destination, Alcidea in the north.
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umbrellluck· Apr 12, 2024
