Once the land had been claimed, the ley-lines forced open and energies restored, the areas that had withered became flush with the bounty of fertility and given fresh life. I thought the process was finished, once the dams were destroyed, and the Land was System recognized as mine. I knew it was just the first step in the formation of a Kingdom, that I would need to build and create the infrastructure a new country required, but I thought System involvement was complete.

There were still decisions that would need to be made in the future, decisions about how to run my territory, decisions I hadn’t made yet, but would have considered before claiming land if there hadn’t been a perfect confluence of events and Thom’s death to use his death and the blood of battle as a sacrifice. I wasn’t ready, but maybe that was the point, no one who worries about the trappings of power would rush, I would have waited until Irvin, Lohne, Uron, and Cedric had been freed.

Those micro-decisions I thought could wait, began to demand my attention and decisions. System was still opening status screen and prompts demanding I further define the territory that had been designated as mine.

The most pressing decision was the territory’s name, System refused to move on or let me close that screen prompt until I had made my choice. I had originally planned on borrowing from Ireland and naming my kingdom, Belfast, in honor of Beleros, but now that I had awakened my Unseelie bloodline, it seemed disrespectful not to acknowledge both halves of my heritage. Instead, I chose Aingeal Geamhraidh. It translated loosely as Winter Fire and I thought it à propos, embodying the domains of both originators of my bloodlines nicely.

Once the country was named, System projected an image of the lands I know controlled. The map was scalable, and I could enlarge and view areas with a bird's-eye view. Anytime I paused to examine an area, System offered to designate that area for as the Capital. I had hoped to view the area my team, and I had considered before making a choice, an area Cedric, Uron, and I had identified as the best place to host the seat of power for a new country.

We had decided on an area in the northern part of the continent. Not on the border of the three nations, but far enough north that travel was possible without the use of portals. The area was stationed directly over the largest convergence of mapped ley-lines, ley-lines that had been marked and certified as true with an Abhaic seal of investiture.

The area was in a large valley, that formed from a series of hills. Not mountains, nothing so drastic, but with enough of a rise to offer some protection. Additionally, there was a natural inland sea that had formed and offered a natural harbor. The waters were teeming with both plant and animal life. I had hoped to entice Blayney to accept those waters as the new home for his Kelpie Herd.

The inland sea was connected by two large rivers that emptied freshwater, diluting the salts, creating an area of brackishness that allowed a diversity of life that proliferated and enjoyed the brine of semi-salt waters. It would make travel and commerce easier within my territory. Portals and spatial items made barges and ships obsolete for the most part, but only when Portals were constructed and economically viable. For those rare items that required special attention and were not well suited for spatial anomalies, shipping was still preferable.

The harbor would allow for a commerce center to be constructed with piers and port authority, businesses established that would allow passenger ships and freight barges to traverse the waters easily. It would make access to the river helpful and allow a flow of goods and services to proliferate. I would model factory and construction templates on what the Seelie and Unseelie had done, using the benefits of dungeons to contain harmful pollutants. But if I wanted to establish off-world trade, I would need a transit point, and the Capital I envisioned would work nicely.

The map projection that System had created updated, changing the status of that valley, designating it as the Capital of Aingeal Geamhraidh. Once the System recognized my claim, I was able to adjust the focus of the map. It took me a few moments to find the location I wanted, but finally, the ley-line cluster that Lohne had identified as an ideal area to establish my first city was highlighted.

The System Status page gave me access to placement and distribution of resources so the first thing I did was select the Sithern seed that had been incubating and bathing within my mana stream and highlight the place where the ley-line cluster was most prolific.

A System prompt began blinking as an icon hovered over that point on the map. A drop-down menu listing what items I owned and were available for placement at that location became available. The list was bereft of any choices other than the Sithern, the only real resource that I owned. That was fine since that was what I was after. Selecting the Sithern, I agreed to placement.

The removal and transition of the seed that I had been hosting since returning to Talahm was disconcerting. A splintering of my focus as a part of me remained locked in the embrace of the newly planted Sithern. My personality and the Sithern’s becoming an amalgam for the rebirth of new life.

New options became available once the Sithern seed was transported and planted. I selected the options that established the newly placed Sithern as my seat of power and named my Sithern as the Capital for my kingdom establishing the name for both as Saor o Shlabhraidhean. Translated loosely as ‘Free of Chains’, I hoped the name would be more than symbolic, a fortuitous promise, a city of hope for those that had been shackled too long under the yoke of Seelie and Unseelie oppression.

I understood there would be a lot of work to live up to that name, but I hoped to build my Kingdom so that a real choice was offered to those that had been persecuted, neglected, or whose worth was trivialized. For now, I set the Sithern to restricted so that only House members could enter. Until I took physical possession and increased the guards that patrolled and protected, I would minimize the Sithern’s population to the Volar-fey that had hibernated.

[System Announcement -Kingdom, Aingeal Geamhraidh, established.]

[System Announcement – Capital, Saor o Shlabhraidhean, established.]

[System Announcement – Faction, Tuatha de Danaan, established.]

The world map updated again before a slew of new System messages obscured my vision. I received them even as System processed the changes my choices and selections had made, changes that would define the lands I claimed, and the framework for the beginning government I was establishing.

[System Announcement: The Talahm Capital, Cathair-bhaile, will be modified within two weeks updating the infrastructure and adapting to changes in the World government. Talahm has grown from a duality of opposing factions between the Seelie and Unseelie to a triumvirate of power with the new faction, the Tuatha de Danaan, established as a co-equal branch of World government. All treaties and alliances with extra-planar governments and civilizations must be ratified by a two-thirds majority of the Seelie, Unseelie, and Tuatha monarchies.]

[World Announcement: Ranked King Teigh Mac de Beleros y Cyronax has claimed Land and territory to form a kingdom. He has named this Kingdom, Aingeal Geamhraidh. The Faction for these Lands has been selected and set to Tuatha de Danaan, any previous faction - Seelie or Unseelie residents will be allowed one year’s grace period before those residents must either convert to the new faction or move to the Kingdom based on their established default faction.]

[Local Announcement: Lands are available to establish Fiefs and Demesnes for any Sidhe, Ranked Duke or Lord that are willing to give Oath and acknowledge King Teigh Mac de Beleros y Cyronax as Monarch of Aingeal Geamhraidh.]

A Kingdom Status sheet became available after the announcements. A sheet that displayed the metrics of my new Kingdom and allowed me to make some choices that affected the kingdom easier. I began filling in those choices as they were presented and became available.

Some of my choices weren’t as simple as setting an arbitrary number or definition. Tax rates were a simple number. But I had plans to create a new monetary system, one that could be used in an inter-planetary exchange. For now, I set gold as the nation’s monetary system and a uniform tax rate of 5%. I set that rate to only affect sales, all sales transaction ignoring, for now, business profit and payroll taxes. The topic would have to be revisited but for now, it would do.

The National treasury began increasing immediately. System acted as a tax collector so there was no way for individuals to cheat or scam the amounts they owed. It would make things like audits unnecessary. There was a workaround for those who were inclined to do most of the legwork, things like barter could still allow individuals to get away without paying taxes since no monies were exchanged. I choose to ignore that activity; it was something else that would be addressed when I had more of an understanding of how the economy evolved. For now, I didn’t think the country was industrialized enough to cut off or limit bartering or trading.

Finally, the System displayed a new Kingdom menu, a separate function that organized specific data in an organized fashion.

[Kingdom: Aingeal Geamhraidh]

[Monarch: Ranked King Teigh Mac de Beleros y Cyronax]

[Capital: Sithern Saor o Shlabhraidhean]

[Faction Selected: Tuatha de Danaan]

[Current population: 12,322,154,893]

[Current population Ranked Duke: 275]

[Current population Ranked Lord: 11,007]

[Number of Fiefs claimed: 0]

[Current areas classified as Villages, Towns, or Cities: Pending]

[Ratio Seelie faction vs Unseelie faction 1:3]

[Dungeons: Rank 9 – 2]

[Dungeons: Rank 8 – 4]

[Dungeons: Rank 7 – 15]

[Dungeons: Rank 6 – 29]

[Dungeons: Rank 1 to 5 - 476]

[Alliances: None]

[Enemies: Olympus]

[Enemies: Asgard]

It was a start. One that I completed seconds before I was blasted across the garden, destroying the brick wall of the house I had leased, as the wall crumbled on impact. The sonic bombardment had been one of a two-pronged assault, the other had been a spine coated in poisons that began coursing through my body, slowing my reaction time down immensely.

I thought I would have more time to consolidate my position before I was challenged. I was wrong.