<~> Chapter 339My friends and I were nearly back at Traehall, and the rge procession of ex-Tamin priests and padins wasn't far behind us. While we were meeting with Corrine, Raksha'va had people inform everyone of our decision, so no one would be surprised when they saw the rge group of fighters entering the town. Before we even signaled for them to enter the gates, they began to open for us.

  "You guys go back to what you were doing. I can handle the rest from here," I told my friends. Their time would be better spent on other things.

  Tori and Lori gave me a quick hug each before heading back to the scout headquarters. Nelly and Kal'daeryn waved before heading back to our home early. Cecilia headed off to the stable by herself, but Morrigan and Mimi hung back with me by the gate.

  "I think it's probably more important for me to hang around and help you out since Raya is already handling a lot of my duties today," Morrigan said.

  Mimi shrugged. "I already closed up my shop. I don't have any pressing projects, so the clocks can wait too."

  I nodded and turned to the ex-Tamin people. "Considering how interested in the magic lessons they were, you two hanging around might be for the best. We should show them where they're staying first, though."

  "You're really going to set them up in the poor part of town?" Morrigan asked.

  I shrugged. "It's what's avaible. Our housing supply is limited right now, and most of the people who used to live there moved into some of the abandoned houses in the nicer parts of town after the siege, so most of those buildings are empty. I was thinking about offering them nd rights if they improve the area. It might be good motivation to improve things there."

  "And you realize that there are more poor beastfolk there than anyone else, right?" Morrigan asked while crossing her arms.

  I turned to her. "That's kind of the point. They need to prove they can get over any hang-ups they have and learn to work with them. If they weren't lying about being sympathetic toward the beastfolk, it shouldn't be a problem. The council is hoping that working with them as their neighbors will help integrate them faster."

  She sighed. "I just hope we're doing the right thing here. I'm worried that I made a mistake with my vote because of how I feel about Bel and Corrine."

  I put a hand on her shoulder. "I think it's sweet. Listening to your heart isn't a weakness, as long as you temper it with some pnning. We're increasing our guard patrols and making sure that the people in the poor part of town know to approach them if they have any compints. It will be a headache for a while, no doubt, but the food situation is a problem. We need them."

  Not long ter, Corrine approached the three of us. "Lilith, where should we be heading in town?"

  "For today, we're going to take you to one of the residential districts where your people will live while the three of us show you to a few notable locations in the city, including the gate where we're going to be setting up some of the exterior farms. We need to get some more crops pnted as soon as possible if we're going to have time to harvest before winter comes. Your people guarding the farmers from monsters and demons will be necessary for that," I expined.

  Corrine nodded. "I'll take a few people with me so we can see what we're working with. What about the lessons to relearn magic? Most of the former priests won't be much help outside the walls as they are."

  "We'll show you the magic school as part of the tour. This is Morrigan, the person I was telling you about. She's the primary magic teacher, though she has some aides and other teachers helping her out at the school," I said, gesturing to Morrigan.

  Corrine's eyebrows rose. "You had someone so important coming to meet with us?"

  Morrigan smiled. "I wanted to make sure Lilith was safe." She wrapped an arm around my waist and leaned into me to indicate how close we were.

  Corrine cleared her throat. "I see. Then a beastfolk teaching isn't a problem for the citizens in this city?"

  "No, of course not," I said with a frown.

  Morrigan patted my shoulder. "That wasn't a slight, Lilith. Some pces don't allow beastfolk to teach, either legally or informally." She addressed Corrine, "This city was founded by adventurers and doesn't have the luxury of being picky. The beastfolk succubi are some of the few people who are both willing and able to teach magic right now, so they don't have any other option if they actually want to learn magic again. That won't be a problem among your people, will it?"

  Corrine shook her head. "No. Some of the former priests haven't had much contact with beastfolk people, but no one among the people I brought with me will discriminate against the beastfolk the way most of the Tamin followers would. I had been selective about the people I chose to bring with me when we defected from the church."

  "Does that mean there are other ex-Tamin followers running around that would be less sympathetic toward the beastfolk?" I asked.

  She nodded. "Only a little over half of the people who were in Norta came with us, either by their own choice or people I didn't allow to come with us. It wasn't just about who would discriminate against others. I only chose to bring people with me who I thought truly wanted to help others. We spent a lot of time hunting demons in the countryside, but over time, we were worn down and surprised by how many people rejected us from even entering their settlements. Until now, we were limited to buying supplies from the few pces that allowed us inside and camping in the wilderness. It didn't seem that bad at first, but not being able to rest in a pce without the safety of walls starts to unbance you after a while."

  "Are the people you didn't take with you still in control of Norta?" I asked.

  "No, everyone in the leadership positions came with me. I had hand-picked them when I was given control of the city. All of us were forced to leave Norta together, but not everyone came this way," she expined.

  "Why did the priests come with you if they didn't have access to their magic anymore?" Morrigan asked.

  "As I said, there wasn't much choice. Leaving Norta was the only way we could stop the citizenry from rioting and attacking us after Sorsette's global message. The Allerel, Moira, and Tamin churches were burned down within hours of the message. The priests have been helping in other ways, either using their other skills to maintain our camps and equipment or using bows and crossbows in combat instead. It was the best we could do after we lost our magic. Will we have to learn magic from scratch, or will our previous experience with it help?" she asked.

  "Your magic isn't gone," Morrigan replied. "You just don't know how to access it anymore. All of your previously most used spells can be relearned, and your mana pool is still intact. There are just a few new fundamentals that are required to learn now. Most notably, mana sense and internal mana manipution."

  "A few of us had mana sense before system's end, but skills don't always return," Corrine said.

  Morrigan shrugged. "It takes application and effort now. System skills don't just return without practice. The more you try to rely on the system that no longer exists, the harder it will be to regain what you lost. It requires a mindset shift. Before most mages let the system do the heavy lifting for them, now you need to learn what the system was helping you with, and learn to do it on your own."

  "I see. I am very interested in getting started on that, though I will need to focus on getting everyone situated first. Where would you have us stay? I'm afraid we no longer have much money for pces like inns," Corrine said.

  "We're going to be setting you up in some of the abandoned houses in the poor part of town. It's all that's really avaible. In the coming days, we'll talk about ownership rights on the nd. If your people choose to develop some of it, we can discuss transferring the deeds to any individuals interested. Be aware that there are some poor beastkin in that area that will become your new neighbors. Please stress to the others that they need to be treated with respect. We're not going to tolerate any issues that stem from discrimination," I expined.

  Corrine nodded. "What about issues in which we're discriminated against? After system's end, not many people look favorably on ex-Tamin followers, even if we left for the same reasons they hate us."

  "You can bring any compints to the city guards, Raksha'va, or myself, and we can figure something out. Things might be hard for a while, but I hope that you can integrate into the city without too much trouble. I think that buying new clothes and armor might be a good way to distance yourselves from the Tamin church. Dispying ex-Tamin banners still makes people think of the Tamin church, after all," I said.

  "I will pass along the advice," she said.

  "We've stood around long enough. Have your people follow me, and I'll show you which houses are vacant."

  We spent the next few hours walking through town and getting everyone settled into the run-down houses of the poor areas of town. To me, the houses still looked quite nice, considering they were made of solid stone and well insuted against the weather. Despite being considered 'the slums,' all of the houses were still made using terra magic and were quite sturdy. The single-story buildings weren't the most spacious pces, but they were comfortable enough and could be expanded ter using the same magic. I wondered if building a rger apartment complex would be a better use of the space than individual dwellings, but I would have to bring that up once things settle down. Once everyone Corrine had brought with her had cimed a vacant house to live in, she had chosen a few people to come with us on our tour of the city.

  I brought the small group up to the crenetions near the gatehouse to see where most of them will be working. "First stop is the east gate. We'll need you to use this gate to protect the eastern fields. Tomorrow morning, have everyone who used to fight with martial csses gather in the courtyard behind us, and we'll have Brominn and Dominik create a pn with all of you to prepare an area where we can have our farmers work outside the walls."

  There was a short conversation between the ex-Tamin about who they would bring and who would be in charge of them for this project. Once they worked things out, we got moving again. The next stop was the magic school that Morrigan ran near the park that repced the old svers guild building after the ruined building was torn down.

  Morrigan stepped forward and pointed at the small collection of buildings that made up the school. "These are the buildings we're using for the magic school right now. There's been some talk about moving to a different part of town, but this is what we're using for now. Csses begin at the second bell, and they go on until around the eighth bell, though I often end up staying te while helping individual students."

  "How many of us will be permitted to join these csses?" one of the former priests asked.

  "As many as you like. The mana sense and mana manipution csses have the most people since it takes a while to get past that stage for most mages. Once you get past that stage, we'll set you up in smaller groups with other mages of a simir kinds so you can help each other recim any lost spells you have. Raya and I spend most of our time in the afternoon giving advice, but those groups will usually have better insights on how to pick things back up. If there's too many people in any of the csses, we might move some of the csses to the park for a while, but I don't imagine it'll be an issue. We'll see."

  We walked them to the adventurer's guild next, which was still active at this time of day. Once there was a solid pn for guarding the farmers, they would be free to take missions here as well, since we still needed a lot of help. I also showed them to the scout headquarters, since their scouts could work here instead if it made more sense. They could make that determination tomorrow when they met with Dominik in the courtyard near the east gate.

  "Last stop is the Succubus brothel," I said as I stopped in front of a decorated building near the edge of town.

  Corrine froze. "Did you say brothel?"

  I ughed and nodded. "Yes. You see, there's a few things we should tell you about Succubi..."

  Saine

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