“It is a blessing to not be forgotten by others even after a long absence.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

“You’re leaving again?” asked Celia when Aideen visited her at her place two weeks after they arrived in Tohrmutgent. Aideen came to her place to tell her that she would be going out on another trip later that evening.

“Yeah, not going to be as long as the trip we had in Alcidea, though,” replied Aideen as she sipped on the tea Celia offered on her arrival. “It’s probably just going to be a few years, visiting old friends and some distant… relatives in the Empire next door,” she added. “You interested in coming along? I wouldn’t mind the company.”

“Why, certainly,” answered the younger unliving woman with a firm nod. “I don’t think you’ve told me much about the Empire before… what’s it like there?”

“It’s more similar to your homeland in climate, I’d say, especially near the central region,” said Aideen as she thought for a bit on how to best explain the landscape of the Elmaiya Empire. “Far more jungles though, pretty much jungles all the way on the sides of the roads between cities once you get near the center. More plains and grasslands on the eastern and western end.”

“Sounds like a big nation,” commented Celia with some curiosity.

“By area? It’s the biggest in Ur-Teros, yeah. Even with the Western Isles seceding it’s still the largest by far. Not even all the Jarldoms on the east put together could compare in size,” nodded Aideen as she elaborated. “That said, much of the land remained sparsely inhabited, though. All those jungles also came with vicious wildlife, so pioneering a village there isn’t the easiest.”

“I can imagine,” noted Celia as she nodded in understanding. “Should I pack anything? You did say that you plan to leave this evening and I don’t want to be a delay to your plans.”

“Eh, we won’t need anything special, just pack your usual, maybe some extra spare clothes, since the wildlife can get pretty wild and we aren’t going to be traveling in a convoy,” said Aideen with a nonchalant shrug. “Definitely bring your weapon with you, though, and a few good pairs of sturdy shoes. The road there can be pretty hard to traverse at times.”

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“Got it,” Celia said in affirmation.

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Later that evening, Aideen and Celia walked out from the western gate of Tohrmutgent leisurely as they headed to their next destination, the two chattering as they walked. Since Celia was still unfamiliar with most of the southern continent anyway, she thought they should take their time traveling and seeing the sights, instead of taking a fast carriage.

After all, it was better to slowly walk through the lands rather than see the landscape roll by while traveling in a carriage.

It would be quite a long trek from Tohrmutgent to the Elmaiya Empire that way, as it would take nearly a month of travel on foot to reach the western border, and from there, another two months or more to reach Sabaya, the capital city of the Elmaiya Empire. Aideen naturally also had plans to visit Artair’s family lands further west later on, which would take another few months at the least.

While by now chances were that Artair’s family were practically composed of later descendants she had never met, the same should not apply to the few acquaintances she had in Sabaya. Lucea was after all from a rather long-lived breed of therians, which normally saw their third century of age, and she was only around two hundred by that point of time.

Similarly, her children would still be in the prime of their lives at their first century and a half or so of age, likely with children of their own by now, Aideen thought.

Since they left Tohrmutgent in the evening, they stayed at a small inn in a village not far from the city itself. Already Tohrmutgent was showing signs of continued growth, as villages sprouted outside the city walls and more people lived in the general area. Perhaps in a few generations, Grandpa Aarin would authorize another expansion, to move the walls so the areas outside could be incorporated into the city proper once more.

And the cycle would continue repeating itself as time passed.

Aideen had little doubt that after another millennium or two, Tohrmutgent would unequivocally hold the status of the largest city in the world, even if nowadays it was still a good bit smaller compared to the large cities like Sabaya or Levain. It was an inevitability, she thought, for the population growth in the Lichdom was quite high, and while it was well spread out over its territory, some people still moved to the vicinity of Tohrmutgent every now and then.

The vicinity of Tohrmutgent itself wasn’t the best, most fertile farmland or anything like that. Tohrmutgent was built where it stood because the place used to be an ancient animal graveyard, where old beasts went to lay down and die. The Bone Lord, many thousands of years ago, before he became so well known, took a liking of the land due to the strong death affinity it had and settled down there.

As for the rest, as they say, it was history.

At the present date, Tohrmutgent was relatively small, still, a city of maybe thirty something thousand people. It was already a large city compared to many others, but still smaller compared to the over hundred thousand people that lived in Levain and Sabaya. Part of it was also because unlike other nations, Ptolodecca’s unique qualities ensured that its entire territory prospered relatively equally, so there was less reason for people to head to the “big cities” in search for a better life.

What need was there to do so when their own home towns and villages already provided them with a life of plenty? In general, it was only the particularly religious ones who left for Tohrmutgent, as otherwise any place in the Lichdom was just about as good as any other.