When Leo returned to Elgin Isle, he was met with a welcome sight—the fleet under George’s guidance had started offloading, apparently hours ago. Twenty ships had arrived, bringing another eight hundred ex-slave elven colonists, as well as a few administrators whom George had convinced to come with. Each had been allowed a single backpack to fill with personal goods, and they’d stretched that definition in most cases.

The ships had also brought some basic tools—hammers, saws, measuring sticks, workbenches, clamps, and, most importantly, fishing rods and nets. Lastly, they had brought food. Not much food—Leo, Lily, and George had decided to take a risk—they had about a week’s worth of food, and were counting on the ships’ next run—already paid for—to bring the huge loads of hardtack, salted meats, and dried fruit to feed people.

            In order to pull that off on the galleys, people had slept and managed their goods in rotation, with the ships heavily weighed down. One-third of the people were sleeping, and the remaining two-third sitting and standing in shorter rotations, to rest and relieve stiffness respectively. The eight hundred who had come with George had known what to expect and were prepared for it, as a part of the price of freedom. But a week under that routine had still been extraordinarily taxing.

            The result was that the eight hundred were in nearly as bad condition as the rescued elves. It was twelve hundred bedraggled, exhausted, and extremely low-spirited elves whom Leo found, most of them haphazardly working at a snail’s pace under the direction of George, Meryl, and the soldiers of Cavendil’s Coterie. But they were working.

            But Leo had been prepared for this eventuality. You couldn’t just throw a bunch of ex-slaves onto an island, tell them they were free, and then work them like… well, like slaves. At least, Leo was pretty sure that wouldn’t work.

            But he knew what should work.

            A barbecue, a feast, a huge fiesta. Something to make these people feel like people again, and not cogs in someone else’s machine. Then an evening talking around campfires and making new friends, the ‘bosses’ going around, shaking hands. Perhaps making out if people were of the mindset. Then an early night, and all the sleep they could handle in the huge tents that had been brought.

            Then, when they were full and rested, he’d wake them up early, the pattern he hoped everyone would keep. Then he’d hit them with the real whammy. He’d let them know they were going to go and get experience from the Yggdrasil Seed.

            If freedom, being treated like a real citizen, working for their own land and benefit, and actual experience without killing people didn’t buy him six months of hard work through the end of fall, he wasn’t sure what would.

            He gathered with his ever-expanding ‘court,’ which now included George Orsini and two Earth mages, in addition to Lily, Hugh, Meryl, Laurel Whitewater, and the Belmoria siblings.

            They all sat down at a table brought over from Steelport, out in the open in front of the damaged admiralty building. A few guards kept the others away, in case they needed to discuss anything sensitive.

One of the new people was human, name of Felix de Medici, which Leo had expected. He was notable for the scar that had taken an eye and left a gouge back to his ear, cut nearly in two. The other, however, was an elf of a type Leo hadn’t seen, with brown skin closer to a tan Hispanic woman’s, dark-green hair, and almost-topaz eyes.

            “I’m sorry,” Leo said, extending his hand to her. “I’m Leo Evans. George told me he was bringing two of the House Earth users from the Houses of Steelport. I expected Mr. de Medici, but I don’t know you.”

            “I’m Mollynia Greatwillow, my lord,” she said, bowing ever-so-slightly. “Most of those around the Inner Sea refer to me as ‘Molly.’”

“Pleased to meet you, Molly.”

“My great lady, the goddess Iluvin Eturia, guided me to Steelport and instructed me to lend my services… and swear myself to you, subject of course to my goddess’s command.”

“Are you an actual priest?” Lily asked, clasping her hands in front of her chest.

Molly gazed at her indulgently. “I am.”

            George cut in. “The other Earth wielder, Vincent Colonna, is out working on the huge outhouse you ordered—he’s moving the rock away so that people will simply, um, defecate fifteen feet down into the river. Molly is a Wyld user primarily.”

            Not a bad idea on the drop, if it’s that easy, Leo thought.

            Felix de Medici also bowed to Leo. “I am pleased to meet you as well, and I was also pleased to receive your offer. I look forward to helping you establish your town. I studied the maps provided by Freeman Orsini on the way over, and I think I have some excellent ideas for you. If we could have a few moments once more immediate matters are handled, I can’t wait to tell you about the north bank road and the—”

            “This guy’s worse than you,” Hugh interjected, bumping Leo. “Talking about pointless stuff we can worry about way later.”

            Leo glared down at Hugh—who pointedly wasn’t looking at him—and then gave an apologetic glance to Felix. This guy is an engineer at heart, even if he’s a wielder of magic. We’ll see eye to eye, once we have some time to work out our ideas for projects.

            “Well,” Leo said to Felix, “I need you and Vincent to skip the festivities tonight and get the bridge to Calasti reconnected. We’ll need it the very first thing tomorrow morning—I’m taking every single person with me to the palace.”

            Felix nodded, one eyebrow raised, but Leo didn’t elucidate further.

            “We’ll get it done.”

            “For everyone else, is the rest of the plan ready?” Leo asked. “The good stuff made it over?”

            “‘The good stuff,’” George said, “did indeed make it over, although I had a surprise tiff with my sister Mavis, who tried to stop me from joining you. She’s always hated me, since I set Ola and my children free.”

George gave a sigh. “But enough of my drama. The setup is already underway. We’ll be finished unloading and setting up the tents by early evening, and we can start then. To really make this work, you’ll need to give a speech, by the way. Most likely at the end of the barbecue.”

            “Joy,” Leo muttered. He’d sort of expected the need for the speech. As to the timing, however… “Trust me on this—I’ll give it tomorrow morning.”

            “At least give a small one tonight.”

            “Fine.”

            “What would you assign as my purpose, my lord? I don’t think your plans accounted for me,” Molly finished with an odd stress on the word ‘me.’

            “Um… I don’t know what use I would have for you at the moment, but talk to me after the speech tomorrow. I’ll have a lot of use for you then.”

            “You should talk to him tonight, when he’d have the most use for you,” Hugh said.

            Molly laughed richly, a sound that called for others to join in, and a few did chuckle along with her.

Leo, however, face-palmed. “Always with you.”

Molly’s laughter died to an appreciative chuckle. “The priestesses of Iluvin Eturia shy not from the necessity, and joy, of procreation. It is the most fundamental part of nature, the call of all life. But as well-taken as your suggestion is, dragon, I prefer a teensy bit more courting first before I’ll throw my legs in the air.” She paused and gave Leo the eye and then a wink. “Even for a king.”

“All right, enough of this talk,” Lily said, her face red as she glared daggers at Hugh, who rolled his eyes back at her.

Leo had a sudden inspiration.

“Can you call animals?” Leo asked Molly. “I mean, summon them to you across geographical distances, get them to do what you want?”

“Yes, to some degree. At least with agreeable ones.”

“Well, I’ll give you a ship. One of the empty ones, before the flotilla leaves. Also, two locations to visit. I’d like you to start a program of collecting these spiders for me…”

***

            The sun hung low in the western sky, giving a reddish, almost-bloody tint to the dirty marble ruins all around them. But a large square had been cleared, and around it the twenty-four tents were set up, and the first actual building had been assembled—the huge outhouse, to keep the smells and, hopefully, disease away and make this more like camping.

            But in the center of the cleared space, blankets had been set up, and ‘the good stuff’ had been broken out. Apples, lightly cooked, then sugared and lightly spiced to preserve them for the short time of the trip, made up the primary dish—it was elven food, apparently, and didn’t require a second cooking. To that, Leo had added an actual barbecue—bacon cooked on pans over open fires.

And he had two barrels of spiced and lightly alcoholic cider, and another barrel of cheap wine for those so inclined. It came out to about four glasses of something per person, and a little left over.

They had a low enough number of dishes that people had to eat in rotations and share drinking horns.

            For the humans, as well as Hugh and Leo, they’d brought steaks of multiple different types. A few elves tried them as well, but elves weren’t really fans on meat—a little bit went a long way with them, and the bacon paired better with the apples, regardless.

            And they had managed one tinier project—they’d made Leo a speaking stand.

            Leo got up on it, facing the huge crowd of elves in front of him, staring out at a sea of faces he didn’t know, all depending on him to rebuild the kingdom and give them a place worth living in. The weight of it was almost crushing.

            But Leo could give them a good day at least—and a promise of something more.

            “My new citizens!” Leo cried out. “I’ll not pretend we aren’t facing a very trying year ahead of us, and probably a lot longer than that. But tonight, I want you to put that behind you. Tonight is for relaxing, for shaking off the mindset of your enslavement, the stiffness of cages or the boats. Tonight is a night for making friends, for talking about your futures, and for remembering what it is to be a free citizen! Tomorrow will be for work again. Now… Now is for eating, for friends, and if you so desire, for drunkenness.”

            Leo got quite a few cheers at that.

            “And I promise you, tomorrow, you’ll all receive a gift, a gift greater than any you’ve received before, I’d wager. A gift that will give us all strength.”

The mutters began, people turning to those beside them and conversing.

Before anyone could direct their questions to Leo, he raised his hands. “But ask me not what it is, that is for tomorrow. For now, drink, eat, and be merry! We’ll be a community soon, so please, fulfill your roles. And your leaders will be coming around to speak with you as well, so don’t be alarmed if any of us come up to your campfire. You should have a chance to get to know your leaders, after all, and badger us a bit.”

There were a few more cheers, and a small amount of chuckling.

“Now… let’s feast!”

***

            The evening passed quickly. Hugh didn’t manage to get drunk, despite consuming the equivalent of about fifteen glasses of cider, but he got tipsy. Even though he was the son of the enemy of Averia, he managed the same ‘bro-dragon popular’ feat he had in Steelport. Leo didn’t manage to overhear anyone else, but Meryl spoke with giant gesticulations from time to time, George gave explanations accompanied by drawing in the dirt with his cane, and Lily held herself properly while talking to elves.

            Leo went from campfire to campfire himself.

Most of the elves were quiet and didn’t ask much. A few had even fallen asleep by the time Leo arrived. But Leo did get quite a few questions about how housing would be handed out, who would get what jobs, and who would be in charge of various things. Including questions asking him about who would be in charge of some things he hadn’t even thought about.

One elf, Corwyllin Darkrye, asked him who would head up the baker’s guild. He didn’t even know if he would have guilds in the land—couldn’t the bakers just figure that out individually?

            But the weirdest one was the request to be the royal jester, from an elf with bronze hair and a hook-hand named Wylwyn ‘One-Hand’ Riverkyn.

Royal jester was a position Leo swore to himself on the spot he’d never have. He also resolved to ask about why George had brought an elf missing a hand to the initial settlement operations, when bare survival was being eked out.

            And I’m going to be making all those leadership decisions as little as possible, Leo thought to himself. I have to lead during this period, but my goal is to give it all away and let these people form a real economy, and the government will just take small amounts off the top, for the stuff no one else can do like defense, and to maintain civil liberties.

            Eventually, however, the sun fell entirely, the moon rose, and it got cold. The elves retired—or were dragged in a few cases—to their tents, and Leo went to his, Wolten joining him.

            Tomorrow would be the day, the real chance to forge them all into a people. This was just setting up the stage.