Absolute power her tentacles, the queen was regretting her decision more and more with every document she had to sign.
The last three months have been hell as the councill found a way to take her power and sowe it up her ink sack by making her go through every. Documented. Action. committed by the military.
Everything, starting from the most petty theft, now had to pass her desk or, by her own words was declared treason, Queen Retvi really hoped that Hina was faring better and this whole thing paid of.
"My Queen?" came the meek voice from her side as her assistant walked in with another stack of paper, she could see how he pited her and it only made the Queen more frustrated. "I do bring good news my Queen." he said hasty as he saw her mood lowering.
"What about this stack of paper could possibly be good news?" The queen asked him.
"I have made a appointment for you with Hina, she asked for a extended audience." he explained. "Per your orders I have put everything on hold for it."
"Excellent." the Queen was already in a better mood. If Hina asked for that audience then she probably brought good news.
"When?" the Queen asked.
"In a few minutes actually, she and her… companion are already here."
"Perfect." The Queen stood up and started her march towards the throne room.
There as expected the Human and Hina already awaited her.
"Greeting Queen, honor to you." the Human said, copying the old traditional greeting.
"Honor to the Octarians." The queen answered playing along. "I see you better with our language now."
"I am, the hardest part was getting used to the new sounds."
"I would argue that the hardest part was your sense of humor." Hina commented.
"Oh, please it was hardly THAT bad." The human shot back.
"You tried to kill one of the guards!" Hina looked at him with a twitching eye.
"How was I supposed to know that the one thing that is the most essential to life is somehow harmful to your kind?" he argued back.
"Wait what?" The Queen could only ask shocked.
"Well, if you want the full story..." Hina started.
Hina and the Guards were looking for the Human, he let the door open by now allowing them to run around the rest of the facility. Many of the doors were closed of to them and some of them he strictly told them to never enter.
They chose to not test the boundaries of his patience. That said they optet to explore a bit on their own as they didn't find him in the main entrance this time.
"This place is insane!" the guard leading said. "I mean we explored so much and there are still so many closed doors."
"It was made to store the acumalitve knowladge AND feed and house around 50000 of his kind, have you seen how much he eats?" Hina commented. "I suspect that most of the rooms closed are storages of some kind."
"That only makes it even more insane." the guard said. "Also, where is our avatar of madness?" she asked referring to the human.
"It's not that bad." Hina said as they entered the room. What purpose the room had they couldn't even guess. It just had a massive amount of clear water in the center.
Before they could start voicing their minds they heard a sound and watched in horror as the Human jumped into the water wearing little to no protective gear.
They could do nothing and waited for what they believed to be the inevitable.
Only that a few moments later he again rose up from the water making various sounds.
"What, I don't, what?" the guard just said, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.
"Well, there are creatures that don't get harmed by water." Hina commented looking at the tanks of some of the guards that were filled with water, something that was very dangerous and deeply frowned upon, but something the operation leader insisted upon as a last resort should the human prove hostile.
Looking back at the cheerfully swimming human Hina deduced that it would probably be even less effective than their ink.
He finally noticed them and had this grin on his face, one that Hina would learn to dread.
Without any warning he splashed water at them.
Frantically the trained guards scattered, sadly their usual response was disrupted by Hina who somehow collided with all of them at once.
In the end from the expected wave of death just a few splashes hit them, it stung a lot but didn't splat them. They did have a respawn beacon nearby for emergencies. It still scared the ink out of them, literally in some cases as the guards tried to scatter ink in the panic.
During all that the human just was splashing around in the pool while laughing at their misfortune.
The guard that she was talking with a moment ago didn't like that at all.
To show her displeasure she started shooting him, she had a ink tank and while she knew that it wasn't any harm to the human he still found great fun in doging her shots and shooting water back at her.
Hina suspected that he probably didn't even know that he was attempting to kill her.
"What are you incompetent tentacle suckers doing!" a high pitched voice came from behind her and she quickly stepped aside as the team leader came in.
"Playing?" The human said without much thought.
"Playing!?" She shouted."YOU BOTH WILL STAND AT ATTENTION THIS INSTANT!" Surprisingly the human did as well.
What followed was a loud verbal beatdown while the guard stood straight at attention and was doing her best to look straight forward the human was rubbing the back of his head in honest confusion.
"Human." Hina interrupted earning herself a glare from the team leader. "Look." she said pulling of her gloves and going closer to the water.
She knew the pain was coming but she still flinched badly when she stuck a finger inside the water.
Surprising herself she actually held out a few seconds before she pulled it back out again.
As she looked back on her finger it was barely recognizable, pieces where missing, her nail was gone and it only was halve the actual size that it was.
She didn't leave it in for too long so it already started to regenerate back the missing part.
As she turned around to see the horrified faces of the guards. But the human one stood out, a expression of pure shock and confusion was visible.
A few days later the guards all have various little gifts and Hina found that the large water room was sealed shut and the human refrained from drinking in their presence.
"You didn't need to tell it like that." the human said with a grumpy voice. "Also I said I was sorry!"
"That I admit is true, however what about the fact that you admitted eating some of our kind?!" Hina shouted back.
"Wait, I, What?" The queen already had trouble following as Hina started to tell another story.
"Please this way." The old museums director said hurriedly. "Oh I can't tell you how excited I am!"
"I can imagine." The human said as they walked around the darkened halls."It's a shame I can't see the gallery in full light."
"Yes, but what can you do, power needs to be saved." he replied.
The human remained quite, Hina had yet to inform it about the whole situation with the power shortage but by now he probably suspected something.
"At least there is a silver lining." Hina said."We get to know first hand accounts on many famounse relics." It was interesting to see pieces of the past explained in detail, most things they guessed right as to how it works and what it was for.
Some more strange ones they got completely wrong. For example they found strage rooms with many pipes connected to it, apparently it was not a transportation hub but a 'Bathroom' where others of his kind liked to wash their bodies with water.
A morbid thought for most of them but it made sense with the resistance the humans had.
"I do wonder myself what the oldest surviving piece of literature is." The human commented.
They reached the main room and the director switched on the lights illuminating the room. There on a podest it was, it was a large thing for a octarian, not as large as the one she was gifted but still of considerable size.
"There are many theories running around as to what it truly is." the old squid explained. "The pictures are not helping much, as many as there are."
The human approached the glass and pressed his hand against the glass with a surprised expression.
"So, what is it, do not drag it out please, I might just get a heart attack." the director added jokingly.
"It's a cooking manual." He said quietly. "A cooking manual..." he said quietly.
He was greeted with a long silence before Hina finally spoke up."A cooking manual? Like, for food?"
"Yes, traditional japanese food to be exact, probably with lots of fish." he said.
"But… there are pictures of Octarians in there!" Hina shouted. "This better not be one of your jokes. " Hina warned him with a twitch in her eye already having developed a deep hatred against human humor.
"Honestly, I wish it was." he said with a smile. "Because it is the most brilliant irony I have seen in awhile."
"E-E-Excuse me..." the Old Octarina stuttered out. "But some of the pictures have been used as fashion, are you absolutely sure that this is what you think it is."
"I like to think I can read my own language, so yes." the Human affirmed. "Also I would like to correct you, those are not octarians but your ancestors, the Octopi. And yes we did eat those, keep in mind that we are talking about a time when you kind wasn't able to speak much less walk on land."
"I… how… WHAT?!" Hina said as the poor director fainted.
"Thinking back it does make sense actually." the human said. "Also stop referring to me as 'human' please, I have a name."
"To bad, you are the human, deal with it." Hina shot back. "And what makes sense?"
"That it's a cooking manual. Normally those are made out of tougher stuff so that they don't get damaged by the various things you find in the kitchen."
"That... makes sense actually." Hina admitted while the queen just looked back and forth between them with confusion plainly written on her face.
"Oh come on now, you guys hardly where the best guests." he said looking at her disapprovingly. "Or do I need to remind you how one of you got stuck in the toilet?"
Now it was Hina's turn to blush and try looking for excuses.
"What? Where is that story telling enthusiasm gone, you big mature Octoling, you had no trouble talking just a few moments ago." the Human said bowing down and looking at Hina from above literally staring her down as she did her best to avoid his gaze."No? Nothing? Let me then!"
"Why the hell would she do that?!" I shouted at them.
"Well, normally pipes are used to travel so maybe she thought that it led somewhere." Hina explained carefully while she watched me work with the pipes.
"So someone thought that it was smart to go down a pipe while not knowing where it led to." I asked her trying to calm myself.
"Yes..." she said carefully.
"Well, did you ever consider that the pipe might, just maybe, have even the slightest possibility TO LEAD TO A PURIFICATION PLANT!" I shouted while giving the pipe a last push to knock it out of its holder. As it did the insides finally spilled out those being a Octoling.
She was shaking badly and whimpering a bit, I probably broke about 500 psychology rules or something similar but right now I couldn't get myself to care as I lifted her up with a hand and threw her into a towel.
The next thing I knew the alarm started to blare loudly with a automated message playing. "Warning. Leak in the sewage systems. Authorised personnel please go to the designated area immediately!"
"No really?!" I shouted back in rage. "I thought me ripping out a pipe was pretty obvious!"
"Is there someone else here?" Hina asked looking around in panic not expecting the sudden voice and the human just goarned.
"The alarm still goes off at random times." The human said while shaking his head in his hands.
"Weeeeelllll, we did help you with the facility to make it up to you." Hina said looking at him with a uneasy smile.
"That is true I suppose." he said with a sigh.
"Ok, I don't know what just happened but the two you you need some marriage counseling by the sound of it." the queen just said.
The Human just broke out into a fit of laughter while Hina stammered around with her whole face yellow.
After they all calmed down a bit the queen said. "But seriously, you guys sounded like you had a lot of fun."
"We did." the he answered. "It was also very interesting to see some of you customs and traditions."
"Although what was that with you eating our ancestors?" The queen asked now having properly analyzed the spoken words.
"In some countries the traditional seafood definitely did have octopy in it." he admitted nervously. "However that is not the thing that we need to talk about right now, is it." with the last two words he turned to Hina.
"Yes lets. My queen during our cultural exchange a topic the inklings came up and that eventually led to..."
"Cultural exchange?" the human aske her.
"Us talking about Octarians and Humans." Hina clarified and the Human noted the word down in a notebook he pulled from his bag. "Anyway, yes we talked about the power problem." The queen didn't like the sound of that also she was hoping she could talk about that with the human herself before anything.
"To make a long story short I am still having trouble believing how your species is surviving like this and still lacks a proper generator." the human said. "That and apparently the other race that stole your only reliable source of power, which is a gigantic electric eel apparently, and are using it to power what are essentially multiple cities."
"That is correct in a big overview yes." The Queen said carefully.
"Well I don't believe a damn word of it!" The Human shouted out. "This sounds like the fever dream of some brain tumor who slowly is drifting into madness!" he slipped over into his own language in the middle of that and Hina simply translated into 'madness'.
"Why exactly are you ranting about our species history?" the Queen asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because you're species apparently copied our technology that we made without the one basic thing that keeps the whole thing running." he said looking at the Queen in a way that made her uncomfortable, it could be because of the strange small eyes.
"Well why don't you share this obvious thing then with us?" she straight out suggested.
"I would love to." he said with a smile while rubbing his hands, during that the Queen lost her political mast for a moment and genuinely smiled. "However I first would like to meet your people."
The Queen's face immediately fell."What?" she asked carefully.
"I want to show me your people. I want to see how you live, I want to see the things you are most proud of, I want to see the things you're most ashamed of, I want to see what you love, I want to see what you hate, I want to see what you will do with what I can give you." The humans said in a speech like fashion.
The Queen looked at him from her throne with narrowed eyes, she had a few ways she could go about this. She doubted threatening him would work in her favour nor did she have anything to pressure him, she looked at Hina who understood the unasked question and nodded at her queen. Fine, she would play along and play the pity card then. "Very well. A ture it is. I hope you don't mind if we start right away." she said smiling at him. She already was forming a plan in her head.
A few minutes later the Queen stepped out of the place with Hina and the Human waiting for her. She had to guards with her, while she didn't think a attack would happen with this being such a random thing one could never be careful enough.
"...I still don't really understand." Hina said to the human, however the queen didn't understand it as it was spoken in the his language.
"It's a matter of perspective Hina. I can't and I won't until I have seen something I want to see. However I think now is not the time to talk about this." For the last sentence he switched to Octarian again and turned to the queen. "I assume we are ready?"
"Yes, let's." The queen said as they started the trip. "You want me to convince you that we deserve the technology correct?"
"Correct." he answered shortly.
"What I am interested in is why." the queen asked. "You clearly by now that we need it dearly, and you would only benefit from our cooperation, so why not just play the part?"
"Because if I did give it to you carelessly I could end up hurting myself, you and the rest of the world more than you probably can imagine." he answered flatly.
The queen just looked at him with a raised eyebrow for a moment before asking. "I am curious, you seem to be speaking from experience."
He looked at her with a look the queen had a hard time to read, when he spoke up again his voice sounded… regretful. "We humans had 7 big land masses that we called continents, one of those was larger than any map your people have shown me so far." he explained. "After a war there only where 6 left habitable."
The queen slowly looked away after the explanation a lump in her throat forming. "Dose that have to a connection to why your people are no longer around?" in the background Hina was beating herself up for not asking the question herself.
"No." he then let out a short laugh. "You know it's funny. The majority of my species thought that we would die because either greed or our own stupidity, in the end it was something that we actually had no control over."
"That sounds like a bad assumption to make, and from my perspective makes your people look quite mad." the queen remarked.
"Your point?" he asked looking back at her with a wide smile.
"Ok, no stop." Hina said stepping in between them. "This is going into bad jokes territory that should not be made in the presence of royalty."
"Spoilsport." the human said with a frown
"I, what?" the queen asked with one eye twitching in confusion.
"His sense of humor is so bad it should be weaponized." Hina said desperately. "Please let's just show him what you wanted to, I will explain later your highness."
"Very well." The queen said carefully making a mental note to ask Hina exactly what this is all about. "Anyway, we reached out first destination, welcome to the main living area of octopolis." Before them a stairway stretched down into what could only be described as a slum. Buildings made out of everything one could find, metal, coral pieces, things that the human couldn't even identify, the only thing all of the things had in common that it was very colorful. And no matter where he looked it was alive. Octarians sitting around a fire warming what he assumed to be their food, people playing music and dancing. It was a strange thing to look at. "Come, allow me to show you around." The Queen said as she and her guards started walking again.
It was awkward how everything was so small, the stairs needed to be walked carefully so that he didn't trip and more than often he needed to duck to not hit his head.
"As you can see despite us lacking power right now the people still make the best of their time and thanks to the trade deals we have with the Salmons we are able to make just enough food so that hunger is not a problem, yet." she added. "Inspiring, isn't it? That even in bad times people still smile and laugh together."
"That is true, however I doubt that this is what you want to show me." the he answered while looking around.
"Correct." The queen said. "What I want to show you is this." and she pointed at the big building. In comparison to the rest of the place it looked near pristine. Solid walls, visible electronic, large tanks, it looked nearly modern.
A sigh in front of it read 'Health center'.
"A hospital?" he asked himself quietly.
"This is one of the last places with unrestricted power access after all." The queen commented. "Now let's not waste any more time."
As we entered the hospital the first problem was, again, my height. I had to duck under the door and the ceiling was sadly just a tiny bit to low for me.
It was strangely familiar in a weird way. I recognized most things like they used to be in a normal human one. The reception desk, the long line in front of it, the beds with people who had conditions I couldn't identify.
I promptly put my gas mask back on, better not take unnecessary risks with unknown biology.
As we walked around the feeling of familiarity only stenged, I was introduced to some of the staff, the equipment, some of the patients. Speaking with some of them was harder because of dialect or fast speakers, it made me realize how slowly the queen and Hina spoke to me.
One theme was all around us. Mainly that all of them needed electricity in some form or another. I understood now, the queen was trying to get my tear ducts to open and feel sympathy.
Not bad, it may even work but lets see what else she has in store.
The doctors gave me long explanation on the equipment and my questions and mistranslations were addressed mostly by Hina. The topic most interesting to me was the 'regenerators' as they called them, however I was not sure on the word as Hina was very much struggling with the translations and I was worse with Octarian then she was in English.
Their biology was a very interesting topic in general seeing as they are able to shapeshift in some way, are extremely light and als their body seems to be semi liquid. Something that this 'regenerator' or 'restorer' was able to take advantage of and take all their cells and force them back into one, basicly restoring them.
Hina didn't fully understand why the concept was disturbing to me but I let it drop choosing to talk about about concept existential dread later.
After a while we left the hospital again. As we walked through the living areas Hina said something to the Queen to quickly for me to understand but it had the word visit in it I think. The queen nodded and Hina left us for a while. I was a bit worried as I now lacked a translator but hopefully the queen would be patient with me.
We went back to the palace to a meeting of some sort, to talk to someone important. I suspected some historian or scientist.
We reached the Palace a new sight greeted me, mainly that of big metal plated fish. Honestly the only thing that pointed at them being fish at the time was the fins, it was about my height and on its head was something that looked like a opening for paint artillery, must have looked really scary for the Octarians as most of them made a wide circle around this strange entourage.
"May I introduce you to our trader partners, the Salmons." the queen said pointing at the convoy. from the middle of it one of them came out and approached the queen with what I can only assume is a smile.
"Queen Retvi!" it said with what I assume to be joy. "It is good to see you again." it then placed its fins on the queens head and clapped them twice, the queen in turn did the same but 3 times. "Hoho, why tree times dear queen, what is the ocasion?" he asked her.
"Because I have a special guest alongside me." she said pointing at me. "He is not used to our customs or culture, as such I ask you to be mindful of him not returning or understanding certain things." good, I actually got worried for a second I needed to understand whatever greeting they just did.
"Ah a new face!" he said approaching me, during that I was trying to find a funny way to remind him that he can't see my face because of my gas mask. "Greetings, I hope you have been a great company to the queen."
"I do like to think that I am a funny person." I replied.
"That is good, humor is something she definitely needs from time to time." he said smiling at her over his shoulder to which she only rolled her eyes, it was still very surprising how similar much of the mannerism was, I suspect that the cause of that was that they basically lived what was the leftovers of our culture. "Now, as pleasant as this is, I am here on official business. I hope the goods are ready as always."
"They are, please follow me." the queen said and then snipped her fingers, instantly marks appeared on the ground that glowed for a while. Then out of nowhere 4 octolings crashed into the ground into puddles before quickly reforming and taking a simple marching formation.
As one our groupe waked towards its destination while I was walking next to the queen, I wonder if that had any significance to them.
As I checked my watch I found that it actually was getting late, strangely it didn't feel like it, the light was still the same when I arrived. As I looked up I found the reason. I completely forgot that I actually wasn't on the surface and as such it took my by surprise to see huge spotlights mounted on the ceiling. Didn't they have power problems? Also what was securing them those huge things?
I decided to not devel on too much on that. We reached our goal as two of the guards went up to one of 6 massive crates and opened one of them. "Six full crates, just as promised ambassador." the Queen said and the ambassador immediately went inside and started inspecting the contents. Looking inside I found materials, bottled substances I couldn't identify but above all else stood a large amount of what I recognized as weaponry.
I really questioned what purpose showing this to me had.
"Yes, everything seem to be in perfect order..." The ambassador talked more to himself then to us as he checked all the contents, going around with his list from box to box. After he was done he came back to us and said. "I already signaled my man to pull the crates on land, if you would be so kind to return the favour your highness?"
"Of course." with that she pulled out a walkie talkie and spoke into it in quick and snappy octarian, a bit to fast for me to understand properly.
From the distance the strangest things flew towards us, the only way I could describe them was as flying noodles, after a closer look I noticed that it actually was flying tentacles with propeller helmets, which made it even ridiculous looking. The only way I could explain this was that they had so little wight that even this tiny amount of lift was enough for flight.
They attached themselves with suction cups to the containers and after a brief moment they actually achieved lift of and carried them away. For a moment I started doubting if the laws of physics still worked properly, because the only other explanation was that somehow earth's gravity was significantly lower than what I remember it to be. I gave it a few experimental jumps and I found that I was still as heavy as I remember. The queen only looked at me confused.
Without many more words we walked we started walking again, this time going lower and lower until we reached water. It was a underground bay with a few ships here and there, or at least I suspected they were ships by their shape, they had nothing on any kind of human ships I remember, historical or otherwise.
At the shore I again saw those hulking Salmon beast as they had chains attached to them as they pulled containers out of the water, they were very similar to those that just few away.
They pulled out twelve in total and as soon as all of them where on land the inspection started. The octarians opened every single box, I expected somewhat of a equal exchange but to my surprise most of the things that they opened up where food.
I recognized many kinds of fish, seagrass and many other things.
Immediately it was clear that this was a very bad trade, hard materials and weaponry traded for food, and not even that much. The Octarians where giving those containers practically away for nothing judging by the amount of people they needed to feed. I was no expert and had no close up look on how they worked, but this was in no way or form sustainable.
After they checked all the contents really thoroughly they gave their ok to the queen who then barked more orders. Instantly another large flock of the flying tentacles appeared and again carried of the containers.
"As pleasant as this Quen Retvi, the air is drying up my scales, and I am no longer the youngest fish in the water." the ambassador said again doing the strange greeting which the queen returned. After that the Salmons left.
The Queen beckoned me to follow her again and we started walking back to the place, I was curious what she would show me next, I hoped that I still would be ok without my tiny translator buddy. Speaking of which I wondered where she was.
Hina was happy, she wasn't able to visit her uncle since the assignment started. She wasn't even able to properly explain to him what she was doing.
Filled with excitement she knocked at the door. "Yes? Who is this?" came the soft voice from the inside.
"It's your favourite niece!" she shouted out.
"Hina?" the sound of hurried footsteps and the door was ripped open. "Hina!" the old Octarian who opened the door used two tentacles to hug his niece as strong as he could.
"Uncle!" Hina shouted and returned the hug.
"Come in, come in." the old octarian said after a while and practically dragged her in. "It has been so long. Where were you?"
"I'm fine, I have been busy with this really big project, sorry I wasn't able to properly talk to you." Hina explained shily.
"You and your important government stuff." he said while preparing some tea. "Can you talk about it or is this one of those secret ones?"
"I… am actually not sure." Hina admite after thinking about it for a while, she was of course still too tall for the table and chair since she became a Octoling however she wouldn't dare to complain about a single thing, even if he always made her tea to sweet still making it like when she just had two tentacles.
"Well, then let's not speak about it." he said sitting down in front of her. "What have you been doing that you can tell me about."
"Well, I made a new friend, I think..."
He looked at her with a raised eyebrow before asking. "How can someone be your 'kinda' friend?"
"Well, I am not sure if he sees me as a friend, you see it's actually about the thing I do for the queen, you know, it will probably have huge impacts in the future." she explained.
"How big of a impact are we talking about here?"
"I am honestly not sure myself."
Anything else they tried to talk about was interrupted by someone shouting from the outside.
"Food delivery!" Quickly both of them shoot up and left the house, they weren't alone as the whole neighborhood quickly left as well. "Food delivery! Come and get it!" Came the shout form a Octoling as it was flying in on a huge container.
"The next delivery is here, quickly, lets get it." Her uncle said as he rushed to the designated landing spaces. Those food deliveries where a blessing for the people. while octarians didn't have much body mass and as a result didn't eat much however the food they had right now was still very little.
"Careful, not showing, everybody gets some. Move it you already got one. Hey, I saw that!" The Octoling soldiers made sure everything was orderly and that everybody got one.
Hina watched the whole thing from the side with sadness in her eyes, she really hoped that she would be able to help her uncle, she wasn't someone pure hearted who wanted to help the people, not after what she had to deal with growing up, but if she just could help her uncle she would be happy.
Meanwhile up top at the palace the queen and the human watched, it was unnerving to the queen that she wasn't able to see his face since they entered the hospital because of the mask, Hina, via one of her many letters and reports confirmed that they had very similar facial reactions like Octolings and she would have loved to at least get a hint what her actions where doing.
They were observing as the food was given out among the masses.
The queen hoped that her plan worked, she wanted hook him with sympathy and pity. Show him how bad the times where but that she was doing everything to keep her people alive.
"You are ruining your empire." he said after a few moments. The queen was already cursing inwardly at herself. "Those trades will sooner or later drive you to bankruptcy, not only that but your people are incapable of making any kind of proper trade of for the food you are buying. All that you have you dearly need to survive, your whole people live and die with the electricity you have."
The queen vinced at the full explanation, she was curious as to how she got some of those details but she sadly had to agree to most of it. "Yes, I hope you see now how desperately need it."
"I do see it, however I have a few questions." he said still fixated at the different districts, each one getting a container. "First, what will you do with the Inklings?"
"It depends on them. If they try to steal this from us, I will fight." No point in hiding that.
"Understandable, my last question then." he stood up and walked towards the queen then going down so that he could look her in the eyes and took off his mask. "If I help you with this will you in return help me?" he quickly interrupted her as she opened her mouth to speak. "I don't want any political promises or thoughtless actions, right now I need you to understand that my people are facing a problem worse than yours, I am with very high possibility the last of my kind, the last who is capable of doing anything at least. What I want from you is that in return for helping your people, you will help mine as if they were your own and even if I should die somehow you will take care and try to help them as if they were your own."
The queen looked him in the eyes, it was still strange those small eyes where like steel drilling into her own. Nevertheless she returned the look with the same steel. "I swear it by my people."
"Then we have a deal." he said standing up and look back to the district. "Tomorrow we will start with the planning and building of the probably first ever generator of your people."
"A what now?" the queen asked carefully.
"It's a human machine that generates electricity." he explained. "This empire of yours has a good amount of workers, we will need them if we are to change something." the human said with a smile on his face, plans already forming in his head.
"Thank you human, you don't know how much this means to me." the queen said allowing herself a moment to smile.
"Call me David." he said smiling broadly at her.