"You can't do that!" Maeli shouted! Her dark hair shone bright as it caught the sun. At her back was her home, one of a hundred in the border village. A little one room place, clinging to her leg was her little sister, her spitting image in her oval face and olive skin. In front of her was a somewhat largish woman of lighter skin and with half elven ears.
The woman at whom Maeli shouted was looking at her cockeyed. "Sorry miss but… I don't rightly know what you mean. You're on His Majesty's land, that means you pay taxes here. You're a citizen of this country, that means you put into the national reserve like everybody else." Lila replied patiently, tapping her hand on the document in her left hand. "So, we're going to need you to give up one in every twelve stalks or the equivalent value in coppers. You should be glad I'm not imposing back taxes, your family hasn't paid a copper since this land was bought by His Majesty decades ago."
Maeli seethed and clenched her jaw, her hands balled into fists at her side. "I'm of the Ongeku, my father fought for the king, we've always paid to 'our' king. The rest of my village won't stand for this!" She shrieked angrily.
Lila took a deep breath, "They don't have to, it's just you. Yours is the only farmhouse on the Sorcerous Empire's side of the border. So, you're the only citizen of the empire."
Maeli felt her hazel eyes go wide open, her mouth mimicked her eyes, "I… how…"
Lila closed her eyes for a moment, 'Just calm down Lila, they obviously don't have much, I'm sure this is a big shock, but that'll pass. Just take a deep breath and let the olive yell at you for a bit.' When her eyes opened again, the small stone farmhouse with its thatched roof and rough stone looked even more crude than at first glance, the roughspun traditional cloth she wore was even more simple than those of peasants over the sea. 'I'll just explain this slowly and simply, then I can get on with my day. Damn, this is my first stop and I've got fifteen more at least… it's been an hour already.' She kept her grousing in the privacy of her own mind before letting herself speak.
"See, we have these people called surveyors, they work out exact demarcations, ah, lines, borders, between one place and another. The purchase was a big one and, well…" She pointed to the river. "See that?"
"Of course I see that?!" Maeli spat and set her hands on her hips while her little sister tugged on her impatiently. "What about it?!"
"When His Majesty bought this land decades ago, the river was set as the border, well, the river shifted, so we brought out surveyors to determine if the previous border or the new one is the more valid. As they determined that the new bed is actually 'older' then the last one, they recommended considering its current location to be the valid one. And that cuts straight through your land. Welcome to the Sorcerous Empire." Lila said with a genuine smile on her face.
Maeli however, felt her knuckles turn white, "How dare you!" She shouted and flung her hands up in the air, 'Who is this bitch to talk down to me?! Who the hell is she to tell me what kingdom I am a part of?!"
Lila kept her face carefully neutral, "Ma'am, per the treaty of acquisition, if you truly wish to reject citizenship in the Sorcerous Empire, I am allowed to offer you the chance to sell your land to us at a good enough price to buy another farm somewhere else." 'Olives are so damned emotional… I swear… even by human standards…'
Maeli felt her face faintly redden, "This is my HOME! I'm not selling! I'm not paying any taxes to you either! You bring monsters to our shores, steal our land… for your undead monster king..."
"Shut up!" Lila looked down at the olive woman with rage in her eyes, her quill snapped in her hand and the tall, bulky half elf woman took a step closer to Maeli, and her little sister flinched backwards behind her sisters knees .
"We didn't steal a damn thing!" Lila jabbed her finger towards the Ongeku woman. "We bought that land fairly from your own kind, land your kingdom had already let get ruined by raiders. We built it back up, and we've been nothing but fair to you people! You don't 'dare' insult His Majesty, my savior, in front of me! Don't you dare!" Lila snarled through gritted teeth, "He pulled me out of hell… you don't get to insult him!"
Lila cast her quill into the grass beneath her feet and put her hand to the sword at her side.
Maeli's hazel eyes turned hard, but fear lay not far behind the barricade of anger, her little sister whimpered behind her. 'This bitch… this… bitch…'
"I've been 'very' patient with you. But either you pay what you owe, sell what you have, or…" Her eyes fell to a tree not far away, it was unique in its loneliness, set apart from the house, it grew by the creek that flowed into the river, it was a beautiful looking spot, 'This should cover it, that wood ought to be worth quite a bit, and I won't have to deal with this one for a good long time.' She kept her sense of relief and anger contained and slowly removed her hand from her sword, she pointed over to the thick, tall tree swaying in the breeze, "How about we cut that tree down, the wood from that should be very good. I'll send some people to take that and…"
"NO!" Maeli shouted and snatched up her little sister, she put herself in front of the pointed hand of the large half elf, "Please…" She lowered her eyes to hide her shameful tears, "please don't, don't hurt that tree…" She bit her lip to hide the quivering.
"I'll pay… I'll pay… just take my money and go." Maeli felt her little sister's arms wrap around her neck, and she regained a meager composure as she felt the little girl bury her face into the crook of her neck. Maeli stroked her sister's back, 'Damn silk wearing cunt… how dare she… how DARE she…'
Maeli turned around and rushed the twenty paces into her home, went to the chest beside her bed, flung it open, snatched out a small coin purse and snatched ten coppers into her hands. Her fingers clutched them hard, her left hand rested on the lid of the chest. She remained bent over, looking into the nearly empty thing, she blinked her eyes to hold back tears. 'Rich bitch… probably going to take half of it for herself… threatening a sacred tree too… how low!'
"Sister…" Maeli felt a small tug on her rough spun brown dress and looked down and behind her to Melin. "What's wrong…?"
The question was innocent, but the little girl shook with fear, so Maeli closed the chest slowly then turned and knelt in front of her little sister. "Nothing Little Me, I just have to make the bad lady go away before she hurts grandpa's tree. Just stay here." Maeli drew her sister into a gentle embrace, her slender but strong farmer's fingers gave warmth and comfort, and Melit returned the embrace.
"OK…" The little girl said, and Maeli stood up and strode to the open, ramshackle door of old, thin wood.
"Here!" Maeli snarled and threw the coins at the feet of the towering elf and stared up at her. "Go buy something nice with it… fucking thieving silkies! Now get off my land!"
Lila didn't get a chance to respond as the peasant woman immediately withdrew back into the house and slammed the door behind her, a fragment of the door broke and tumbled into the dust of the little path that led to it. She rolled her eyes when she was alone, 'Damn… that was uncalled for. I'm just doing my job… it's not like 'I' get any of this.' She cursed and muttered as she crouched down and picked up the coins one by one, and going back to her undead horse where her escorts in black chainmail waited, she flung her leg up over into the saddle, swung the skeletal mount around, and made to leave.
"Problem, Collector?" Her half elven companion asked sarcastically, a laugh barely restrained as he once again underestimated everything by a bowshot. His companion at her right hand let out a barking laugh as they spurred their own horses along as soon as Lila's mount began to move.
"No, nothing, maybe?" She shrugged her shoulders, the coins jingled alone in the satchel, faint 'pad' like sounds mixed with the clinking noise of Ongeku coppers. "Don't worry about it, just an emotional peasant upset over nothing. Not like she didn't pay taxes before." She sighed and rolled her eyes, "If we're lucky she'll be the worst one we deal with for the day. What the hell was it with her and that tree?"
"Don't you understand?! I NEED this..." Changati punched his left hand into his open right palm. "There's nowhere else!" His digitized blue eyes glistened and his words caught in his throat.
"Yes we get it!" Mendoki snapped as she played with the dagger in her hand, "I'm just saying that if we wait for everybody, we won't get to do any exploring at all!" She spat into the dirt and watched the 'poof' of dust rise up at the impact. 'So real...' She thought sadly. She wrenched her eyes away from the 'clean' dirt and the tiny puddle of elf spit and glared at Changati.
"I get it, you want one more round of exploration with the guild, but so far it's just US, and either we go now or we might not get any at all, face it, this is all that's left of 'The Kingless'. Our guild is gone, and soon this world will be too. I want to see what I can, what nobody else did, before the chance goes away. I don't want to waste it on ones who didn't give a damn!" She snapped and threw her dagger down in frustration, balling up her fists, she shook with wrath.
"No, they'll..." Changati shook his head vigorously and they were about to shout over each other, when another voice caught their ears.
"Be a little late!" Mina said with a happy wave as she finished the sentence for their guildmaster.
Changati grinned as he saw the doppleganger girl, and behind her, Raolius, Brytius, and Semagos... but no more.
His face fell, "What, we're not enough?" Raolius asked with a cocky grin lighting up his red tiefling eyes. "We tried to get more, but..." He shook his head, "Life, you know..." He said without meeting Changati's eyes.
"But we're plenty, enough for one last round of exploring the unknown of Yggdrassil! We may not be 'all' the old glory of the Kingless, but we're the ones who came when the guildmaster called! And that should count for plenty!" Brytius said, crossing her one handed axes over her abundant minotaur breasts.
"It counts... it counts for more than you know." Changati whispered in a hoarse voice, and drew out his sword. "If you're all that came, you're all I want."
Semagos barely rolled his eyes, in his dragonkin form, his eyes moved little, but he let out a harumph, "Yeah yeah, cut the sentimentality, gate us to the passage you found, and the Kingless will go to one more place unknown, before the server shuts down and we're lost to one another forever. And if we get cut off... you all have been the best of friends... it's been, really great, these last few years, thanks for everything." Semagos kept his voice gruff and was glad of the avatar's innately gravelly nature that hid the tone intended behind his words.
Changati grinned and opened up the gate, "Got the world item, and we're ready to roll out, we've only got a few hours, but let's see what we can see before it all shuts down forever!"
He rushed through with a swift swing of his arm pointing to the gate, "Forward to our last adventure!" He shouted with exuberance.
'Go first, sound loud, so they don't see the face I really made when I said that.' Changati thought as his heart skipped a beat.
Mina lingered a moment, shaking her head at her companion's theatrics. "Last again." She said to the empty guild base she was leaving behind, their NPCs bowed deeply.
"Have a grand adventure." The lines of code in the forms of faithful human and human-like servants said in unison.
She smiled at them in spite of herself and said to them, "We will, thank you for everything, but would you believe that showboat? He never lets me have the spotlight." Mina snickered, and followed after her friends, and behind her, the gate closed up, leaving their creations behind.