Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia sat at her new desk in the city hall. The decoration was still a bit lacking, but Ihuarah had furnished it with a lot of books, and everything from the floorboards to the bookshelves was made of varnished black primus wood, giving the place a dark and warm atmosphere.

Ihuarah was out contacting Leverle, Pareth had followed Bookie out to check out the city’s new shops, and Pestle took Elsep for some sightseeing. That left Sofia alone with Crowie, who was very happy to just sit on her shoulder.

Despite how Ihuarah had described the files on her desk as ‘just a few pressing matters’, there were three tall piles of papers on there, stacked high enough that they blocked the view.

“Now I understand why fast reading is the most commonly picked classless skill… Truly a life-saver. Let’s try to get through this before noon.”

Sofia picked up the first page of each pile to see which was which. The smallest of the three were the files on the ‘notable citizens’. The tallest was a detailed account of every new building sale, construction, and commerce opening during the last four months. The last one was more of a mixed bag, containing anything that required Sofia’s attention, from the dealings with liches to odd demands from citizens, business proposals, letters from powerful people and so on.

Sofia promptly decided to ignore the tallest pile for now, it was just reading, and she would rather see the changes firsthand instead of reading about it, although she would have to do it eventually. Instead she grabbed the first file for the new citizens.

“Hmmm, starts with the ascended? Must be in order of importance I guess. Is it someone I know?”

Sofia flipped through the pages, apparently the city now had an investigation team charged with vetting new arrivals, the leader of which, a certain ‘Jax’, wrote this report.

“Rebb, Level 500+ Oarf… A half dwarf half orc? Pretty rare, though there were a few in the sect… IDs as Warrior, exact class unknown, seems to be an agility fighter… No known track record… Paid rent for a small house near the main plaza for ten years upfront, mentioned wanting to open a shop but gave no details.”

The rest of the file contained details like a physical description, the opinion of his neighbors, and a record of his movements during his first days in the city before the investigation team stopped pushing their luck, ending with a clear mention that the Ascended was fully aware he was being observed and seemed not to care.

This made Sofia sweat a little. Just how much are we paying this ‘investigation team’ that they’re willing to follow an ascended around?

It felt strange seeing the city evolve so much without her, officials and teams being created and appointed without her knowledge, but seeing the current state of the city, she couldn’t really argue with their efficacy.

Sofia idly scratched Crowie’s skull, thinking that she would go check this Rebb’s shop when she was done with the paperwork, and grabbed the other ascended’s folder.

“Eltiel, IDs as a level 200+ supporter but confirmed as the ‘latest known ascended’ by Lady Erredis…”

Wait… Eltiel? Isn’t that… The teacher I was standing-in for at Brighthall?

The name was familiar but Sofia had actually never met that teacher she had been replacing for the ‘summoner combat strategies’ class, and knew basically nothing about her.

“Race unclear? What does that even mean? Arrival two weeks ago… Staying at the Booze and Bones inn? Oh, and she is the former teacher at Brighthall, not just a similar name. No formal reason for stay, seems to be mostly sightseeing at the moment… Visits the temple of Love daily???”

Is she friends with Zoth?

That was all the information on that one, so Sofia could only put the file to the side and go over the rest for now.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The fairies that had moved in was a family of ‘Diamond Ones’, whatever that meant, and they had declared upfront that they were ‘spies for the king’, before spending two months cooped up in their new house, which they then turned into a monster shop where they buy and sell monster parts.

They were all level 400+, and respectively named ‘Shining One’, ‘Hammer One’, ‘Carpet One’ and ‘Ribbon One’.

A peculiar group… Another shop to check out, I guess?

Then the dragons… Two brothers living near the temple district, and Zephir’s young cousin Lerdriss planning to open a restaurant by herself in the outer city…

Young in dragon years, I imagine? Reminds me I should go check Lina’s shop when I have the chance…

Then the Kleptra is… Oh, another known name. Er’Vord, that’s the one who complained about Gakk ruining the show. I guess he liked my performance enough and came here for entertainment?

Reading the details on that Kleptra, there was not much, aside from him being mostly nocturnal, spending a lot of time roaming in and out of the spirit forest, and interacting very little with the city itself aside from visiting the fairies’ shop every so often.

“We’re certainly attracting a lot of interesting individuals, huh… Hmm, what’s with this loose page?”

Sofia grabbed the next paper from the pile, which was the only one not neatly placed in a paper folder.

There was a single line of the page, handwritten in golden ink, ‘It’s not nice spying on friends, let’s talk business sometime soon: Ridoni’.

The ‘god’ was taxes? Sofia chuckled at the note, grabbed a pencil and drew Taxe’s divine rune on the page, tapping it a few times. “Hello, hello? Calling Halfsies, are you busy?” she asked, staring at the rune.

A tall ‘human’ in a clean brown suit with a thick beard appeared next to the desk.

“Familiar face, different body. Did you get tired of being a dwarf?” Sofia asked.

“Just adapting to my environment,” Taxes answered, walking behind Sofia to look out the window, “Nice city you have here, would be a shame not to have a proper renowned bank in there, don’t you think?”

“Right down to business, I see. Should I give you a spot in the temple district?”

“Well, that could work. I was more eyeing the commercial district forming around the city center.”

Sofia stood up, standing next to Taxes, looking outside with him.

“Hmm… This spot next to Erredis’ workshop seems to still be open, it’s right between the artisan’s court and the main commercial street,” she suggested, a finger pointing toward said spot.

“Not bad. I could go with that.”

Sofia nodded, turning back to her desk, “Let me just check that it’s actually still open, I just came back so I’m not too up to date…”

“Take your time, there’s no hurry. I’ll be going, got some breakfast to finish. You can just write next to the rune to confirm things.”

“Ah, wait–,” Sofia called out before Taxes could disappear, “Any news about Cinthia?”

Taxes shrugged, but his face showed a small smile, “Nothing much, miss streamer is sneaking around in a big city covered in pink stuff along with your sister. They spend a lot of time hiding, which is not the most exciting thing, I must say, but things seem to be going well for them, at least. Now if you don’t mind, I have a dwarven platter waiting for me.”

Just like that the god was gone, although, from the way his essence within her was getting pulled along, he probably was not all that far.

“That is one thing dealt with…” saying this, Sofia’s gaze fell back to the three piles of papers, a single one of which had barely decreased. “... just a few pressing matters…”

It took Sofia all morning to sift through the rest of the pile of notable individuals, which included not only high level people but also those with meaningful affiliations and connections. She felt that knowing who the powerful people in her city were was important to avoid issues in the future. There were many interesting profiles in there, including a few saints and heroes, but what really surprised Sofia was the number of people she already knew.

One of the receptionists of Drakron’s adventurer’s guild who Sofia had seen often had been sent by Kuli to open a branch in Ser’Extra. Tyrene, the mercenary beastwoman working for the Red Carpet that she had met with Alith on their way to the red sand desert years ago was now here as the leader of a small band of blades for hire who mainly did merchant caravan protection jobs. Altemir, the dwarf Clothier from Brighthall academy had also moved up shop here, apparently quite eager to return to a place closer to the dwarven isles. A few names she recognized from the people she had fought in the Ark. And, perhaps most surprising of all was a page near the very end of the pile that just said: ‘Beatrice Aurelia Skyreach - 22 years old - Level 28 Princess class Human - Unemployed - Outer city common dormitory 8, 34 Pesle Street’.

“Well well… Time to pay ‘Pesle Street’ a visit…”