Cass finally managed to send us a message from Ermendal. Didn't expect the council would already allow personal messages to be send through what is essentially a magical video call or that it would already be this wide-spread. I wonder if there will be a technology that would make me call BS on its existence. Anyway, in her message she said she is fine, she arrived safely and the usual stuff you write when you send a letter like this. Honestly I would have cared more if she didn't exclude one thing or if this was sent after her first action as the mayor.
Apparently during her tour of the city a supposed kobold raid happened on the outskirts of the city. But rather than wiping out the raiders she had decided to grant them asylum. There was so much confusion about this decision that rumours started flying around even before more information came from the north and, honestly, I don't think they helped much. A kobold tribe was spotted almost too late as they approached the city. Before the garrison could respond the kobolds responds had actually called for negotiations. Their representative revealed that they just lost their home and that they were on their way to beg Frostlings for any help. Cass in exchange for their cooperation has granted them a refugee status and an asylum in the city.
Now everyone has been wondering why she has done that. I even had several archivists asking me if I knew what she was thinking. I can't blame them since this is supposedly an unprecedented move in history. For the longest time intelligent races have been spilt into two groups. Imperial races for those that came from the old elven empire and the monster races that inhabited other lands such as Fey and merfolk. Of course the discovery of Tigrans made some confusion about this distinction, but that's not the important.
What is important is that kobolds have been a part of monster races since forever. Technologically they have been stuck in Bronze Age and refused to adapt to the modern times. They managed to avoid getting extinct by living underground in towns across the continent and the archipelago. Since the dwarves became connected more with the ocean rather the earth in this world for some unknown reason, kobolds don't have anyone disrupting their lives. As such there are a lot of kobold towns across the archipelago and you can even find some back on Locrum. Something that isn't shared with the rest of the monsters. So now the fate of this tribe is unclear. I am sure the people would have given her more grievances about this if the news from the south weren't true.
It has been really busy in the council these days with the Longsong expedition finally starting. It looks like they have managed to deal with the main enemy already. Sadly so far the public has only seen the drone pictures and they have been taken from afar so I can't examine what these black soldiers are in detail. Whatever they are, they are using bronze weapons and tactics from ancient times. Apparently their skin has been dried and for whatever they can't be brought up from the dead. The people keep saying they are intelligent, but considering they were wearing black clothes in open savannah on the scorching sun I have some doubts.
Anyway the main point of this expedition was to liberate a Fey city from this menace. Like kobolds the Fey were considered as monsters and they were driven to extinction on Locrum. However no one is advocating for such actions against them in Metzaca even if we are responsible for the destruction of two cities. The debate had ended with the approval of the official annexation of the city. Now we have to see if Fey will take it too. I guess Cass had decided to use this situation to her advantage. I don't think it's a coincidence that this happened during the Longsong expedition, especially since she is one of the few people who believes the destruction of the mermaid settlement was a real loss. Others have been picking on it too. Now I wonder if this will benefit or hurt her in the long run.