I could see the early birds getting their worms from the altar bridge the morning after next. A group of five people wearing lidded barrels on their backs were slowly fighting their way up the sheer and uneven mountainside. If I flexed my eyes and scanned the sloping further down I could pick out the vanishing remains of campsites around the lower falls.
Today was finally the day when the village would start officially integrating the serpents. Today might also be the day that the Guild officials arrive to evaluate the insect situation. I would have liked to be gone for this but I really had no choice in the matter.
My expectations were not high to begin with but it still took the villagers almost two hours to finish climbing up to the steppe where the serpents and I patiently waited. I greeted the exhausted young men and women who were the first to arrive by taking off their barrels and offering them a granite bowl of blessed mountain water. Only after they had all started drinking did I check the barrels just to see if the two dozen or so fish inside were still alive.
After confirming that the fish were still mobile I dumped the barrels into Sili's small basking pond. Over a hundred fish entered to waters and gradually received the health and immunity benefits of the holy water.
A hundred fish could feed most of the young water terrors. The next group would roughly feed the young rock terrors… I could only hope there would be three more overall shipments like this. Or more.
Grimm and shade could cover the difference in less than an hour but it would be rude to do so in front of the guests. So, hoping to make a show of the event, I did not let the snakes start eating yet and simply introduced the cave terror youths I did not personally pick for Templeton. I also hoped to keep everybody here and mingling as long as possible hoping the Guild would make note of it.
The Guild was essentially is own branch of both imperial military and law enforcement that was maintained by the people of the empire through use. I was trying to throw the weight of religion around when cutting corners and coming up with plans regarding the situation. Because I had Templeton I really did have some firepower and sway but they were not here and could not be deployed for at least three days after notice.
I was not even a real leader in the religion, my anointed rank was Adjutant. However, I was here under the orders of some serious religious firepower. With my parents supporting from the side, that alone could buy me all the time I needed.
Just so that I could say I did it if it ever came up I had already sent several grass golems to different people of note in the form of birds bearing shortly written reports seeking advice days ago. Whether they would actually reach anyone or not was unknown. I can simply say I did it.
Food was later served in the form of wild grain flatbread with steamed jerky and wild vegetables on the side and not long after I spotted the next shipment halfway up the slope. This team was a few short of ten people- barrels- and further down at the immediate bottom by the lake was a third team of six waiting on another smaller team climbing up from below the lake.
The fish would be plentiful, it was my food for the guests that might be lacking even more than it was. Salt was hard enough to transmute from the rocks and soil and make safe for consumption. How was I supposed to know this would happen?
It looked like all the working men and women in the village had come up the mountain, leaving behind only old men in boats on the ravine as well as children and a handful of parents in the village.
Even the way I planned to pay everybody for the fish needed to be reconsidered because of all these people. I might have to give out gold blanks to impress people and cover the long term debt. Hopefully the villagers would not have any problems being paid in blank coins.
Under imperial law, a non-magical disc of copper, silver, or gold of the appropriate weight and could be used in place of actual coins. The only issue was that the center of the coin must be exposed from both sides to prove the authenticity of the metal itself. Once in circulation, it would inevitably end up in a noble or official treasury of some sort and be properly minted thereafter.
Deep within the confines of my main voided purse I was already cutting out sheets of gold to press out blank coins from. For the exposure of the centers I would just put on a show for the crowd. Which was steadily growing but getting along well with the hundred or so young ten-through-twenty-foot serpents.
Not only were the younger generation more open to interacting with strange creatures but they were also the ones I would rather get rid of. The adults were all the ones I planned to use in combat. Under methodical care, these young serpents will grow faster under human care than in the wild and usually live longer if the masters have aptitude in magic.
The pool Sili usually sunbathed in was now getting slightly crowded with fish after the large middle group finally reached the top. Even the food that was still cooking became scarce after they arrived, leading me to become a stingy host to make sure the late arrivals got something to eat.
Somehow, there was still no sign of the Guild or even my parents.
When nobody else could be seen coming up the mountainside behind them after I dumped their barrels, I went ahead and let the younger generation of snakes eat their fill before letting bigger serpents take turns diving through the basking pool in groups to catch fish one or two at a time.
After the young ones came back from their frenzy that left the pool with bloody water, I started asking the villagers about their snake preferences and which serpents they had become familiar with. The serpents themselves seemed to know what was being discussed because as they were singled out with gestures they would come forward toward the speaker.
This could also be an affect of Sili's communication exercises.
Because they came forward the process of picking familiars soon simplified to a literal point and pick. Most people already knew most of what I knew about them by now and were happy to get the young ones. Still, there were some early on that asked for larger serpents.
If there reason was good, such as being an older man in the hunting teams keeping up with youngsters, I would spare them one of the numerous adult male rock terrors. There were far more males than females and I needed all of the females I could for induced breeding before I left. Other than the village's hunters, only the children and elderly would be getting rock and water terrors already old enough to lay a clutch.
Everyone was then gathered together with their chosen magical serpents and I performed a simple ceremony of having the mortals and serpents touch their heads together. With the assistance of Gryn only supporting the flow of her mana, Sili would then tap into first the serpent and then the person who was open to the connection.
I was once told by a group of random and paid people that the sensation they associated being tapped into with was the feeling of having something open in their mind that allowed them out and something else in.
For the duos it was a link sustained by their own mental energy that could function over much greater distances than their meager powers would normally allow. The serpents were much more simple-minded and thus the initially fifty-fifty link would be dominated by the naturally stronger human mind. At this point it would be the blessings of the area, altar, and Sili herself as an anointed being that sustained their bonds.
The bond itself was a simple compiling of impressions and intentions suitable for the serpent mind and a spoken translations on the person's part about pledging to fight what the other fights and protect what the other protects as well as their homelands. The link between them not only allowed for the sharing of mana but some psychic information transfer that allowed them to communicate what was what to one another.
The process of touching and proximity was just for Sili's sake after I guided her through the first few bonds.
Since Sili first learned how to move her mana on her own it was a slow but steady process to learning how to connect not only one but multiple minds together. It took her the better part of a week to do what took me a few moments of wondering and then attempting on my parents. While we were both geniuses I could not tell what level of genius which of us was because of this.
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