The brats extremely stressed me out, furious at the nobility inside of the dome. Part of me wanted to go back there and re-instruct them right away but calmer thoughts prevailed. As I exited the emergency room, I put up a distortion field so that people couldn’t see what I was doing. It would appear to them as though nothing was going on. That was one problem of putting the emergency contact node and my room so close to the mushroom farm. Even though it was such a popular place. It was easy to expand on, so I decided to also put the entrance to my library there.

I created another doorway near to the emergency contact room and put a large metal door with a lock on it and made a few keys for the Valwrecks. Inside of the door, I hollowed out a small sized room. I put in an archway and cast an attunement spell to prepare a permanent connection between Astraville and the library. A gray blue mist formed that, when stood in, would take you to the library. I set the spell to only form when my magical signature pass-through or the Valwrecks. I would probably add Fienna later. I went in and was taken to the library. As soon as I got there, I created a podium with a button that would trigger the spell to activate on this side so that the magicless Valwrecks could come and go as needed.

With that out of the way, I went to find them. I found them in the children’s section, reading books in the play area. Some archwizards scoffed at the idea of having a children’s play area in such an important library, but not all wizards were lonely old codgers; some had families. There was a bear in the area supervising the children, which was perfect because I needed something to floof. I sprinted towards it, noticing my intentions. We had been playing this game for a long time, and it tried to dodge. It should have just accepted me. It didn’t though, so with a quick dash charge forward I tackled it to the ground and gave it an enormous hug, sighing in relief. The cozy fur calming down my soul. It must’ve sensed my frustration because it patted me on the head. It was really strange because they had never shown this level of intelligence before. That just gave me another thing to do for my research list. I sighed again before getting up. Maybe I will try to have a conversation with them sometime. To see if they are actually sentient.

“Awwwww I can never get them anymore, they just doge me or run away.” I heard Tara jokingly whining from behind me.

I spun around and did a victory pose. “You will become a professional one day like me, little sis.” I said, trying to emulate the big sister energy that I had read in stories. It must have worked, because she just started giggling. 

Thun dashed towards the bear, but it rolled away before he could even get close. This caused both of the kids to laugh. 

“So are you two ready to go to Astraville? Did you pick out what books you wanted?”

“Yeah, Mom said we could only take five books at a time,” Thun said, while Tara nodded in agreement.

“What are your favorite colors?” I asked them, trying to figure out what colors I should make their protective amulets.

“MINT!” they cutely shouted at the same time.

“Why is that?” I asked, confused by their hasty reply. Weren’t children supposed to be more indecisive? I sure was, it was so hard for me to pick which book to read next when I first came here. It took me a few hundred years to stop worrying about that.

“Because it’s the color of the delicious sounding ice cream from our favorite book Mimzy’s Ice Cream Surprise. The bear that gives us food can even make it. It is so yummy.” Thon said while Tara smiled, nodding her head up and down furiously.

They were right. That is one of my favorite flavors as well. “Well, get back to reading. I need to talk to your parents,” I said, and they ran off back to the books.

I headed over to their parents who had a serious look on their faces. They must have something important to tell me. “What's going on? Is something wrong? Do you want to stay?” I asked, thinking the latter may be the reason for the looks.

“No, no, it’s just that interaction sealed how we felt. We were wondering if something were to happen to us, if you could take care of them.” Liz said in a serious tone. 

It took little thinking. They were close to me now and Tara see’s me as her big sister. How could I abandon her? Not that anything is going to happen to the Valwrecks. “Nothing is going to happen, but of course I’m already Tara’s big sis.” They sighed with relief at my response. “Now, what colors would you like your amulets to be?”

“You can take this one. You are the fashion designer,” Highthorn said to Liz, tilting his head at my outfit. He was definitely right. I really enjoyed wearing this outfit. It felt good, and I looked great in it. As long as my people liked it, I didn’t really care what anyone else thought about it, especially those noble brats.

She thought about it for a moment, then asked, “Could you do a white gold chain so that it looks similar to your colors and do them all in mint green gems so that we match?”

I already had the skills on hand and made a show out of it. “Hey kids, come look, I’m going to make you guys some presents!” I said excitedly, getting their attention. They quickly scurried over, closing their books and setting them down in front of them. The metallurgy spell that I had learned from the gemstone creating book for making the brooch came to mind first.

A white gold liquid metal ball popped into the air and strung itself out into a chain one link at a time with an empty amulet holder at the end. While that was going on, I popped the tiny mint green gems into existence with geomancy. They swung over the base of the amulet and the metal formed up around them, locking them in place. Next I pumped it with my mana, causing it to shine with a green light. I then thought about it for a moment, figuring out which enchantments to put on them. A mid tier protection spell wouldnn’t suck up all the magic I had put in it in one go. I also added the ability for it to pick up ambient mana. Lastly, I attached an emergency alert that triggered when the protection spell was used. I would know exactly where they were when triggered and could teleport to them instantly.

The amulets lowered themselves around the necks of the Valrecks. They all lifted them up and stared into the gems.

“They are so pretty!” Tara said, staring into the gem.

“That was really neat!” Thon said excitedly

The lights faded away, and the children looked up at me, confused. “If those ever shine, know that I will be there as soon as they do.”

“Okay!” they replied simultaneously.

“Go back to reading.”

“Okay!” they replied simultaneously again. It was so cute how they matched their speech timing.

I turned back to their parents. “So now that your protection is dealt with, did you think about what kind of layout you wanted for you home? Feel free to go wild with it. You are my retainers.”

“Well, we talked it over and based on what you said, we would like to have five rooms, a living room and two bathrooms.” Liz said, trying not to lose her courage towards the end.

There were a lot of rooms. I couldn’t really figure out why they needed so many rooms. “Wow, that is a lot of rooms. Why do you need so many? I mean, I get the bathrooms and living room plus a room for each kid and a room for you two.” I thought about it for another moment. “Wait, are you having twins?” I asked for the likely solution. More rooms, more kids, right?

Liz blushed immediately, shaking her head and hands. “No, no. No more kids. No, thank you. We just figured as your retainers we could keep our offices in the home so that we could be around our kids when they need to. It would be a great place to keep our gear and paperwork,” she said quickly, explaining their plan. It was a really good plan, especially since I wanted Highthorn to stay here also and collect info for me.

“That is a brilliant plan. Did you do the design sketch for the room already?” 

“Yes, would you like me to go get it?”

“Sure, why don’t you and your husband get it as well as your belongings? Including your kids’ books. I will stay here with the kids.”

They nodded and left, giving me time to relax and think about what to do about the villainous noble girls. It seemed like I was going to need to do a cultural revolution. Don may get on board because he was still sending supplies to Astraville while he could. He had also seemed reluctant to push punishment on the Valwrecks and was following the letter of the law, not making it personal. I would need his help to push change into his kingdom. I should probably consider giving him an amulet of protection because if Donna takes over, it would get worse than what it is. She has already shown she is willing to kill. 

For now, though, it would be best if I spend some time building up my domain and get things settled down here. There will probably be a wave of refugees if the otherkin like those under the noble brats hear that they can come freely. I hoped Firth had come up with a good plan for expansion. There would have to be a lot of expansion to handle a larger amount of people. Possibly a second mushroom farm. The dome technology is what I really wanted so that people could leave this mountain. Hopefully Firth has some connections.

Liz and Highthorn made their way back with their bags. “We are all ready to go.” Liz said loud enough for her children to hear.

The children looked pensive then they spoke up, “We haven’t finished our books yet and it will put us over the number you said mom,”

“That is okay. We can just bring it back as soon as you finish.” She replied smiling.

She has administrator potential. Maybe I can find a way to make it so she still ages while being here. OH, a life span sucking spell from the dark magic section should have something. I now had an idea to get an administrator. I just had to run it by her once things settled down and I decided to open up the library.

I used a low end prestidigitation spell from “The Lazy Wizard Vol: VI” to make the bag float and follow behind us as we headed towards the portal. “If you press that button, it will open a connection to Astraville. Go ahead and try it.” I said, pointing at the button.

Tara sprinted over and hit, causing the portal to open. She smiled and said, “OOOO so pretty.” 

She had really warmed up, which made me super happy as her big sis.

Once on the other said we made our way through the portal. I went down the hallway to my room. I had left the distortion field up so that people wouldn’t know I was back yet. We went into my room and dropped their stuff off.

“So this is my place. What do you think?” I said, wanting Liz’s approval.

“It’s so big!” Tara exclaimed.

“Isn’t a little small for someone in your position? I like the setup. It is an interesting style with where you have the bed.” Liz replied.

“I thought about that, but I will only ever be passing through here. My actual room is in the library. It is very similar to how my home was before I went into the library. With us just having beds above the common room.” 

I turned to Highthorn. “Can you stay with the kids while I barrow your wife and build your new place?”

“Yes, of course Lady Astrid.”

I took Liz’s hand, and we went further down the hallway. She needed to help me with design choices and to keep an eye out if I lost focus of the design.

“I, ugh, can’t help you. I don’t have any magic gems that do excavation.” She said, sounding out of place.

“Oh, no, don’t worry, I just need you to guide me while the work is being done,” I said, going into focus mode and started carving out the house. Liz and I discussed the plan as I built her a two story inlet house into the hill. We ended up having the common room and a bathroom as well as the offices on the bottom story and the bedrooms with another bathroom up one level. It was a really neat way to separate work life and a living space inside of the house. I decided to also add a kitchen and connect it to the existing line I had made for the mushroom farm’s kitchen. 

When I was finished, I wiped my forehead like I was tired even though it hadn’t taken much mana.

“Thank you very much for the home! You even added a kitchen!” Liz said excitedly.

“You are welcome. Now all that is left is to furnish it. That is where you will come in handy since design isn’t really my thing.”

“No, no, please let us do that on our own. You have already done so much for us. Please let us help you out for a while first and if we still can’t get the supplies on our own, we will ask you.”

“Oh okay, well, let us show the kids and your husband.”

We went next door and brought them over. Tara and Thon went running through the house wildly, giggling in excitement. It was just too adorable of a scene. Highthorn stood there, beaming. They all thanked me repeatedly until I managed to slip out of the house. I went back through the portal to the library, getting rid of my distortion field along the way. Plans needed to be made for the next day. I also wanted to think over what to do about getting the otherkin equal treatment. I needed to spend some time searching through other stories of oppressed people and how they rose up or gained acceptance.