Swarming Sovereignty

Lucia, Regent of the Glens, was sitting at a desk that seemed to be too large for her, staring down at the paperwork in front of her. She had been given classes on how to rule, but she was coming to realize that they had been inadequate for preparing her for the real thing.

She was hoping it was just a side-effect of overseeing the conversion of the entire country, which was turning out to be more complicated than she had expected, Oath or no. There were just…so many things she had to juggle; she had to keep track of what places had and hadn’t been converted, get a list of any and all of their requests and decide what was feasible now and what needed aid from the capital, track down all of the Eckharts, Amelia’s old family, and, finally, respond to any people who had chosen to rebel and reject rule altogether instead of being subject to the Oath and send out task forces to deal with them before they got out of hand.

That last one was, fortunately, something that had only happened once. It was a little-known way of escaping Oaths, but it was one that not many chose to use; by choosing to rebel or renounce citizenship to one’s home country, one would escape the compulsion of the Oath, but it was a steep cost; you had to well and truly mean it, in practice meaning you would have to commit to a full-scale rebellion, become a bandit, or live as a hermit, never to interact with society again.

It was fortunate that next to no one knew of that exploit; the vast majority of Oaths did not affect anyone but people in positions of power, and coming up with the exploit independently within the five or so minutes it would take for an entire village to begin conversion was next to impossible. The one rebellion that had occurred was from a marchioness who had, apparently, decided that she was capable enough to rebel and not be crushed once news spread.

She had not been capable enough. Lucia had thought ahead when dealing with the nobles, and the delegations sent to them had been made up of experienced soldiers, made all the stronger by their conversion. According to the marchioness’s own report, she was jumpy because one of her most trusted aides had failed to report back from his latest errand, and when she saw a regiment of soldiers at her gates, some of whom had distinctly monstrous features, she began trying to escape.

At that point, the Oath activated, and she knew something was up. She had already been considering ways to expand her influence, and had a somewhat sizeable set of local troops, so when the soldiers reached the gate of her manor and converted the guard, she made her will to rebel and attempted to escape with some of her retainers in tow.

Fortunately, her path to her stables would have put her on a collision course with the soldiers, so she opted to flee out the back. She made it a ways out into the plains surrounding her manor, but she had quickly tracked down by specialists from the soldiers and converted before she could cause any real damage.

After some discussion with her mothers, Lucia decided not to give any punishment; they had unilaterally decided on the surrender and conversion of the Glens, and if people were strong-willed enough to take the initiative to fight back in what they surely saw as self-defense, then it wouldn’t be held against them.

Of course, this was bound to happen a time or two more; only about a fourth of the nobles had been converted, and about an eighth of the villages and towns. That being said, all the major population centers near the capital were converted, so about half the total population was part of the swarm now.

Still, despite the workload she was glad she had taken this position. Her mother was in dire need of a break, and it felt good to give her one. She stifled a yawn as she focused her attention back in on her work, being nearly done with the day’s tasks.

Unfortunately, she was interrupted only a few minutes later by a knock on the door. After she called out for them to enter, a messenger carefully opened the door, clutching an envelope in a hand. “Your Grace, the other nations have sent a letter intended for your mother. How should we handle this?”

“Through the priority channels, I assume?”  Lucia asked. The priority channels were a series of small holes in the teleportation wards around the castle, the coordinates of which were only given to select people in other countries. Nailah had introduced them as a way to have more secure messaging with other sovereigns, under the assumption that teleportation was harder to intercept than a traditional messenger, which was…normally true, were one to discount Amelia.

It was not without downsides, of course, you had to have a highly skilled mage to be able to teleport with that level of precision, and opening up holes in the teleportation ward was a risky thing to do, but Nailah had considered it worth it. Only a couple of their most trusted allies had these channels, of course, but Lucia made a mental note to have them closed the moment the conversion of the Glens was discovered.

“Yes, from the Sapphire Empire.” The messenger replied.

“And it’s been scanned for danger, right?”

The messenger nodded, and Lucia held out her hand. “Let me read it.” She instructed.

The messenger obediently handed her the letter, and Lucia opened it, scanning its contents.

Brom, I hope this missive finds you well. The letter read. While I and everyone else are appreciative of your aid, some valid concerns have been brought up regarding your Oath. We are aware that you are unable to give much information on the terms, but it does seem that it is far more liberal in its enforcement than normal, and as such we would like you to, insomuch as you are physically able, tell us what is and is not covered by this Oath, and, if possible, for you to withdraw from this alliance should the terms potentially require you to do something that would harm everyone.

I understand that this is a letter you do not wish to receive, and I am sure that you have your reasons for entering into this Oath, but this is truly an issue that we cannot afford to overlook. I personally do not have suspicions, but this is for the peace of mind of the others, and for the unity of our alliance. I hope you can understand, please respond to us at your earliest convenience.

Lucia set the letter down, frowning. She would have to get her mother to pen a reply, and pray that her now having smaller and slimmer hands hadn’t affected her handwriting too much. Not giving a response or giving a suspicious response would blow their cover, and while she had no intentions to hide what was happening forever, she would at least like to wait until both Aura and the Glens were completely converted.

“We’ll have to get Mom involved.”  Lucia sighed. “Please draft a letter appraising her of the situation and leave it in the overnight mail spot along with the original letter.” She handed the letter back to the messenger, who gave a quick bow and withdrew from the room. Lucia sighed, looked over the last few documents, then stood up and left the office, off in search of her general.

She could have just sent the messenger looking for her, but Lucia needed to get away from the desk for a bit and stretch her legs, and this was the perfect opportunity. They needed to increase the speed at which they converted the nation, so they weren’t vulnerable if the other nations tried to “save” the rest of the civilians or something. They wouldn’t see much success, of course, they would have to go through Aura and the eastern side of the Glens to get to anywhere they could “save” people, but it would be an annoying distraction during a time when they were supposed to be comforting their people and focusing on their wellbeing.

And that would be her last task for the day; she had seen how this job had run her mom ragged, and she wasn’t going to go the same way. Perhaps she could head out of the palace and to the nearby dungeon to find some monsters to hunt and convert, or blow off some steam at the archery range or…something. Just as long as it was physical and she could blow off some steam. She wasn’t going to let herself make the same mistakes as her mother.

Lia had just returned home after a day of training with Rose and Amelia when Alisha spoke up. My Queen, do you have a moment?

“Sure.” Lia said. “What’s up?” Alisha generally stayed silent unless she felt she had something vitally important to say, so Lia was more than willing to delay her relaxation for this.

I believe we are ready to begin the conversion of Aura in earnest. Alisha informed her. All of our out of the way villages have been converted, almost every woman in a position of power and over three quarters of those who aren’t have been converted, and the army has likewise been almost entirely converted. If we could borrow Mistress Amelia to deliver an order to the entire country at the same time, that would be preferable, but otherwise I will have my people on standby to deliver the order as best they can.

“That’s great news!” Lia said enthusiastically. “Before we do, let’s check the status of the Glens, though; we were going to send out an announcement once Aura’s conversion had finished, but if we could announce the conversion of both nations, and particularly that the Glens willingly surrendered, I believe it would strengthen the message. What do you think, Rose?”

“I agree.” Rose said. “At the very least, it will keep some modicum of unwanted attention off of the Glens, where they would otherwise be expected to provide some sort of aid, or would help defending against a hostile neighbor.

“I can put you in contact with Lucia now.” Amelia offered. “She should be just finishing up her day, I believe.”

“If you could, that would be great.” Lia said.

“One moment…” Amelia said, waving a hand. A second later, an image of Lucia appeared in front of them, seemingly in the middle of walking judging by her posture.

She visibly flinched as the connection was established. “M-my Queen, you startled me!” She said, placing a hand over her heart. “But…you have good timing. We just received a letter from the Sapphire Empire, and we were sending it back for Mom to look at. We’ll need her to pen a reply so they don’t get suspicious of us before we’re ready.”

“I just teleported it next to her.” Amelia said. “I’ll leave the reply on your desk the moment she’s done with it.”

“Thank you.” Lucia said. “Now, what can I do for you, my Queen?”

“We were wanting an update on the progress of the conversion of the Glens.” Lia explained. “You don’t need to speed up or anything, but Alisha just informed us that she is ready to begin the full-scale conversion of Aura, and we wanted to wait until you were ready so both finish at the same time. We’re going to release a bit of a propaganda message at the time, and we feel that giving the circumstances of the Glens at that time would strengthen the message and help keep some heat off of you.”

“I was heading to meet with my general now to ask them to speed up, actually.” Lucia said. “Just in case this doesn’t work out, I want the duchy unified and ready to defend itself if need be. But…if I may be so bold, having the help of Amelia, Rose, Ophelia, and any other powerful person would help speed things up significantly, particularly in regards to rounding up Amelia’s family.”

“That’s fine by me.” Rose said. “It’ll take a day or two for Aura to finish once we give the order, and with Amelia’s help I’m sure we can cover most if not all of the Glens in that time.”

“I can teleport people places, but I would like to focus on tracking down my ex-family.” Amelia said. “They’re rather scattered and will likely be difficult, since I asked them to be gathered and not converted until I can do it myself. I have a few…choice words for them.”

“Thank you.” Lucia said. “If we’re doing this, we probably won’t need Mom’s reply; the message can wait a day or two, and by then the announcement will be made and a reply will be superfluous.”

“What if we have Nailah write a personalized letter explaining her thought process behind surrender, instead?” Rose suggested. “It might help give our public message a bit of an edge if people other than the higher-ups read it.”

Lucia nodded. “Very well.” She said. “I will begin making plans immediately. Can I help you with anything else before I go?”

“That’ll be all, thanks, Lucia.” Lia said. “We appreciate it.”

“I’ve sent an update to Nailah.” Amelia said. “The reply will still be teleported back to your desk when she’s finished.”

The communication winked out as Amelia stopped the spell, then stepped into the portal to their house. Lia and Rose followed closely behind, and as they stepped through Lia was shocked to see Connie waiting for them, a blush on her cheeks.

“W-welcome home.” Connie stammered. “I-I have some dinner ready, if you w-want to eat.”

Amelia twirled a finger, magically cleaning herself and her lovers off as she rushed to Connie and caught her in a hug. “You are the cutest thing!” She said. “I’d love to have your cooking!”

“I-it’s not very good.” Connie said. “I, um, made it by hand a-and I d-don’t do that often.”

Amelia just hugged Connie tighter. “I’m gonna eat it all.” She said confidently. “You tried your best, and that can’t go to waste.”

“U-uh, I m-made enough for everyone.” Connie replied. “You should let them have s-some if they w-want.”

“Of course we’ll have some.” Rose said, walking over and giving Connie a quick peck on the cheek. “Thank you, I’m really happy that you went out of your way for us. What’d you make?”

“N-nothing fancy, just pasta. N-not all by hand, of course, I just boiled the noodles and microwaved the sauce, so it can’t be messed up that badly, but…”

“Then I’m sure it takes perfectly fine.” Lia said. “Only one question, though; what’s a microwave?”

Connie blinked. “R-right. Um, it’s a device from another world that helps cook things by heating them up. I-it just makes things simpler when you’re not very good like me. I, um, h-have some in the Dimension of Discounts if you want to see. I’ll give you a good deal, too.”

“Not too good, okay?” Lia said. “I want to support your business, too.”

“Well, I mean, it’s not really m-my business, I just…t-took over. So, I’m j-just –”

“It’s your business.” Lia said firmly. “I’m assuming you take a little extra off of the top, but that’s okay, it’s worth it for your presence. If I had to choose between paying more than I do now and having you staff the thing or paying the original price and having you not be there, I would choose paying more every time, even if we weren’t in a relationship; you’ve been a great help and more than make up for any extra extra cost.”

“I-I, um, well,” Connie stammered, face growing bright red. “R-really?”

“Really.” Lia said. “I don’t know what we would have done without you.”

“Okay, enough flirting.” Chrys said, poking her head out from the dining room. “I’m hungry, and I don’t want to eat alone.”

“R-right!” Connie said quickly, giving Amelia a quick squeeze before disengaging from the hug and heading towards the dining room. “I’ve kept the food fresh using magic, so it should still be just as g-good as it was the moment it was done cooking. J-just…don’t expect much from it, okay?”

Fighterman481 Don't have too much to say about this one, honestly. Mostly that I enjoy writing Connie all embarrassed and shy while she's trying her best.

Anyway, next chapter will probably be the announcement and maybe some other stuff depending on how long that takes, so...look forward to it, I guess.

And, as always, thanks for reading!