Chapter 6.18 - Living with Nature

The hard midwinter had touched down across the continent of terra. Harder in some places. The winter bit hard for the few surviving nobles jailed in Ston, the lucky few that weren't executed. The winter bit hardest in The Ruins of Morat, where scuttling survivors tried to find safety in the monster infested toxic dungeon.

But there is a place in the terra where winter never felt. And that was the Grove. The forest elves had spent a lot of magic, a lot of time, and a lot of effort to create their home, their Grove. There home was a land of eternal Summer, and like the elves of old, the forest elves of Haven had followed the teachings. It was a place where the forest elves reunited with their past glory, not all of which was good.

The elves believed in living in symbiosis with the land, and the grove was Nature's response. Each grove was led by a main family in this case it was the Patriarch Isil Grier and his wife Matriarch Grier. Despite the results of a forest elf's plate, when a forest elf became an adult, they took on one of three main roles to support the Grove. The first was the caretaker, to nurture and live with the land, and provide the bounty for the grove's community. The second was the protector, charged with military service to defend the grove, allied communities, and the untouched wilds. The last was the seeker, which spent the majority of their lives outside the grove, sending home knowledge, trinkets, and strengthening the families from outside the grove's borders. Seekers were Elves that would not be permitted to create a home within their own grove, but were permitted to visit. The most successful Seekers were often chosen to be leaders of Groves that were far away from their home. Closer Groves developed would handed to those groomed from birth to be new grove leaders, either the eldest son of the current Patriarch, or the strongest branch family. In the case of the Eldest son of a patriarch, the branch family would assume the role of Patriarch of the grove when the Grove split.

The forest elves had adapted this culture to Haven. The Caretakers worked in both the groves and the botanical gardens, their druidic magic helpful in getting competing plants to work in harmony. The Protectors offered their shifts to the protectorate, and although they did not formally join, they were an auxiliary that assisted with guard duty of the dungeon, city patrols, and gatehouse duty. This was a privilege extended by Lord Serin to help with their adjustments to the new environment. Finally the Seekers, such as Vena of the Misfits, joined adventuring parties and explored the dungeons, or worked as wildscouts or diplomats. It was their job to leave the grove for the families.

The forest elves also inherently did not overpopulate. They kept their growth stable with the growth of the grove, and when the grove hit its limit, like a swarm of bees, the grove would split. This way they would not overburden the land and invite nature's wrath.

As of now, the grove was not at capacity, so there were no limits on childbirth. But with the addition of the Transmuted, that would soon change.

Few understood the sacrifice of the Elves, but by inviting the Transmuted to live with them and teach them their ways, they were sacrificing growth. Their lord Serin had promised them a grove, but another grove within the safety of the central 3 regions was not possible. Each region could only support one grove. The capital region was too well established infrastructure wise, and the foundry region, although mostly undeveloped, was under the sole control of Master Shurik of the Gole. Serin had made good on his promise of autonomy for his region, and he would honor it. The inventions and discoveries from his labs were well worth the sacrifice of an entire region. The elves could always live outside the grove, but it was like eating a meal without taste. It was a sad existence, necessary to continue the hope of a future grove. So for now they would wait and hope that another region was annexed by Haven so they could begin planning another grove.

And with most of the Transmuted choosing to stay within the safety of the grove, it was difficult to know when they would need to split. But it would be sooner than their previous estimations.

Urik was thankful for their help, but he was aware that his people were taking up space in a home not meant for him.

It was why he was thankful when a visitor came to the grove.

Usually the visitors to the grove were Academy students on field trip to learn of the elves' culture, or delivery homunculi coming to pick up or drop off various goods the elves produced and consumed and traded.

Urik knew of the Gole. This short man with bright colored eyes matching his hair was mysterious. His tattoos identified him as a mechanist. Urik wondered why a mechanical mastermind had come to the home of the biosynthesis.

Shurik smiled, and met with Isil, the master of the elves. Urik could hear the entire conversation, but he had been taught not to pry, so although he was hearing everything that was being said, he pretended not to hear it. Even if it was regarding one of his many children.

When they were done, Isil and Shurik approached Urik.

Isil began. "Urik, this is Shurik, the governor of the foundry region, as well as the director of Haven's office of special projects."

Shurik bowed. "Urik, it is a pleasure to be formally acquainted. I have been looking forward to this for quite some time."

Urik stood up from the small plants he was tending, "Mechanist Shurik, what can my people do for you?"

Shurik smiled as he saw the tuning fork that Urik wore on his shirt. In reality, it was not pinned there, but rather stabbed into the gelatinous body of the Transmuted. It just looked pinned for the benefit of the elves.

"I have a rather special project I am working on. For now, I would like to employ a few of the Transmuted as members of my lab."

"What kind of work?"

"We need to assess the viability of a certain pet project of mine. Should my calculations be correct, I can offer full employment to your race."

Urik looked at Isil, who smiled, "Urik, you and your children have learned to live with the land. But part of our path is to let our children experience the world. You make excellent caretakers and live with symbiosis with the groves we build. But your people must learn the other paths. This is an excellent way to learn the path of the Seeker."

Urik nodded. "I have two. Each level under level 10. They can assist you, but Master Shurik I leave their protection and growth in your charge."

With that two of the transmuted came over. Neither was in a humanoid form. They each carried a tuning fork jammed into their gelatinous blob of a body.

Urik motioned to Shurik. "These two are my children. Please care for them as you would your own." Shurik took a knee, bringing him near to the height of the transmuted in their natural form. "My name is Shurik, and I am here to give you jobs. Hopefully we will discover many things together. What might I call you."

The first one vibrated with the melodic voice of a young female elf, "My name is Marlian."

The other one vibrated to the sound more like that of a human, "My name is Thanatos."

Shurik smiled. "It is nice to meet you two. I look forward to working together."

***

Serin had seen the plans, had it been before the cannons were built and before the flying airships, Serin would have felt that such an endeavor was a waste of material and effort. But as Serin reviewed jobs, most of the menial labor was now either obsolete or handled by Homunculi.

In fact, the most labor intensive jobs belonged to the teamsters that worked to harvest raw materials, plants, and minerals from the dungeon, or as they were commonly referred to, as 'miners' and 'haulers'.

Other than that, Serin looked upon the city in wonder. The effort to harvest the mountains for rock had ended, as it was harvested from the first levels of the dungeon now. Not only did they have housing and infrastructure to support almost double their current population, a smaller version of Haven had been constructed in the regions just outside The Foundry Region and the Capital Region. These were the first two sites for Vassal states, and they were built to just be like Haven, with a dense population and low ecological impact. They would not be protected by walls, but should there be a threat serious enough to threaten the city, Haven would respond.

In all Haven was growing. There was the capital region, the Biome Region, the partially formed Foundry Region, the Dragon Preserve, and two small empty communities ready to be populated by the refugees and emancipated slaves of their two neighbors. In fact, his government office had to constantly reassess housing requirements for people. Housing was first offered to those based on proximity. Dwellings above or below shops and restaurants were offered to employees and family of those shops. Then it was based on Merit. The houses were built almost identically, and by the time Serin had created the houses, he had to establish guidelines for people who wished to make changes to property. Houses were split and combined, layouts changed, windows added and removed. As long as it did not negatively effect the ecological stability of the town or the placement or ability of the guard or custodian homunculi placed throughout the town, Serin did not care.

As for the two groups of refugees enroute to Haven, Serin was glad that they would be having an influx of untrained people. It was getting expensive to hire laborers, as the daily wage of a child caretaker or a dungeon miner was beginning to exceed what an average adventurer could bring home.

Why was the price of childcare something that came to mind?

Olma was again pregnant. As was Avea, the construct registered to Serin. Serin could blame the harvest festival, or his own weakness, or the tenacity of his Beholden, or the simple logic that Avea would excel at childcare is she was caring for her own as well. But there was more truth to it. His son Nok excelled in the beginner courses at Haven. He had his mother's tenacity, as well as his yearning for the unknown. He knew that he wanted a large family, and although it deviated from what he was raised to believe what family was, Serin couldn't ignore what he saw. Olma held no jealousy towards Avea, instead treating her like a sister. Avea's normal expressionless demeanor hadn't changed to the casual observer, but Serin could see. At times, Avea touched her belly absently, and the other night when Olma and Avea were getting ready for bed, Avea cut her hair. As she did so, she hummed a soft lullaby. Had Serin not been passing by, he would not have believed it. He had never heard such a song, and its beautiful melody came unprompted to Avea.

It was beyond a doubt that outside their initial parameters, constructs had emotions, however dampened. He had heard of rumors of such, but he had previously dismissed it as barroom talk.

It was now apparent. Constructs could feel. Serin *knew* Avea wanted to be a mother.

***