Swarming Sovereignty
Chapter 181: City Leadership

Now that I’m thinking about it, how will we know who this bishop is? Lia asked telepathically. We can’t just ask…actually, no, we can! I can use that identity-hiding thing from Unassuming Empress to keep people from realizing who I am.

Good idea. Rose responded. No one is looking, so if you crouch down, you should be out of sight of the ground floor. Do you want me to undo the invisibility?

Let me just activate the thingy…okay, do it.

Done. Rose replied. We’ll follow you.

Lia stood and began to walk towards the nearest member of the clergy. This floor was far less congested than the bottom floor, so navigating around the crowds and making sure no one bumped into the invisible Amelia and Rose wasn’t too difficult. Soon, Lia found herself tapping the shoulder of the young woman in priest’s clothing. “Excuse me, do you know where Bishop Dalles is? I have an important matter I need to speak to him about.”

The woman turned, looking like she was going to object, but her demeanor changed as she saw Lia’s tails. Though she clearly didn’t know who Lia was, Lia was a foxkin with nine tails, and that almost always meant that she had a high level and was important in some way. “He is on the first floor, helping keep the people from panicking. Shall I lead you to him?”

“That would be great, thank you.” Lia replied.

“This way, please.” The woman said, turning and leading Lia towards a stairway.

Looks like things are going to get too crowded for the two of us to reasonably come with you. Amelia said. We’ll teleport to you once you’re in a private setting.

Got it. Lia replied, following the woman down the stairs. They weaved through the crowd, eventually ending up near a podium, where an older wolfkin was addressing a small group of people.

“I understand that this is a frightening, uncertain time for you.” He said. “However, remember that the Goddess of Hearth herself confirmed that you will remain yourselves. You will not, as the government had claimed, be made into slaves, or forced to work in awful conditions. Life will be somewhat different, and hopefully better for many of you, but life will go on. This is not the end of the world.”

The priest walked up to Bishop Dalles, whispering something in his ear. After a few moments she stepped back, and Bishop Dalles turned back to the crowd. “Forgive me, it seems that I need to deal with some business. In the meantime, Sister Black here will answer your questions.”

Bishop Dalles stepped down, then walked over to Lia. “I don’t believe we’ve met.” He said, holding out his hand and giving her a smile. “I’m Bishop Robert Dalles, but I’m guessing you know that already.”

Lia shook his hand. “A pleasure to meet you, Bishop Dalles.” She said quietly. “I’m Lia Yggdrios, Queen of the Swarm.”

Bishop Dalles’ eyes widened, Lia’s statement allowing him to pierce the recognition obstruction she had on. He rallied remarkably quickly, his face returning to the pleasant neutrality of before. “Your Majesty, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Do you have somewhere more private we can talk?” Lia asked. “This is a discussion I’d rather not have prying ears hear.”

“I understand, follow me.” Bishop Dalles replied, leading Lia towards the side of the room and opening a door. “This is one of our private meeting rooms, will this suffice?”

“It’s plenty, thank you, Bishop.” Lia said, walking through the door and taking a seat in the room.

Bishop Dalles followed, closing and locking the door behind him before sitting across from Lia. “What can I do for you?” He asked.

“One moment, please.” Lia said. “Amelia and Rose will be teleporting in in a second.”

And, as if on cue, Amelia and Rose appeared beside Lia. “Bishop Dalles, right?” Rose asked, sitting down next to Lia. “I’m Rose.”

“Amelia.” Amelia grunted, sitting down on the other side of Lia.

To his credit, Bishop Dalles took it in stride. “As Rose said, I am Bishop Dalles, a pleasure to meet you two.”

“Likewise!” Rose said cheerfully. “We’ve heard good things about you.”

“You have?” He asked. “From who?”

“Harbormistress Anise.” Lia replied. “We met with her just before coming to meet with you. I understand you’ve got your hands more than a little full here, so I’m going to dispense with the pleasantries for now; the former lord is currently in prison awaiting a full review of her conduct and any crimes she may have committed.

“We still want someone to take charge of the city, though, just for organization’s sake, and we’ve been told that you would be a good fit. And, hopefully, once things have settled down more, you and Cedric would be able to help us find the best person for the job, so we can relieve the burden on you. Or, if you prove competent and want to keep the job, then we could probably do that, too.”

Bishop Dalles sat back. “I’m not the type of person who would be comfortable as a noble.” He said. “But I think I can handle the city for a few months, provided I can enlist the aid of others.”

“Harbormistress Anise has agreed to help, and I’m certain others would be willing to help too.” Lia said. “And you wouldn’t be a noble as such; we’re keeping the titles around for tradition’s sake more than anything, but you won’t be receiving any benefits aside from being allowed to do what you want with the lord’s residence.

“And, I suppose when we get around to overhauling currency, you’ll be paid more than most, but only in an amount proportional to the extra work you’d do. You won’t have extra rights or be considered better than anyone like nobles normally are.”

“I’ll…think about it over the next few months.” Bishop Dalles said. “How would you like to do this?”

“I was thinking we would start the conversions of people in this cathedral now, and before we leave the city, I’d make an announcement saying that you are temporarily in charge.” Lia said. “That should be enough to have everyone fall in line.”

“Very well then.” Bishop Dalles said. “Would you mind saving the conversion of the clergy and I for last here in the cathedral? I’d like us to be able to calm people as you work.”

“Will do.” Lia said, standing up. “While we’re doing that, I’d advise thinking about what you would like from conversion. We can do almost anything, so think about what your wildest dreams would be, and we’ll do what we can to make them a reality.”

“And take these, while you’re at it.” Rose said, passing him a basket of her fruit and giving him the explanation she had been giving everyone she gave her fruit. “Distribute them among the clergy, consider it thanks for your hard work.”

Bishop Dalles nodded. “I’ll do that, thank you.”

“We’ll be back here soon.” Lia said. “Amelia, will you teleport us away?”

Amelia did so, and the three wasted no time getting to work. Rose and Amelia left to oversee the army, stamping out what pockets of resistance remained and making sure no other fights broke out, and Lia took a small detachment of soldiers to convert the people in the cathedral. Knowing the chaos inside, she didn’t bother knocking and pushed the doors open, a hush falling over the crowd as they beheld Lia and her soldiers.

“So, there are a lot of you in here, which makes this a little more awkward than most places.” Lia began. “I’d like to do this in as organized a fashion as possible, so I’m going to be spreading the soldiers out, and I would like it if you lined up in front of them to discuss your conversions.”

“Please follow her instructions.” Bishop Dalles called out. “It’ll help avoid people getting accidentally injured in the confusion.”

“Thank you, Bishop Dalles.” Lia said. “Members of the clergy, would you mind helping organize people?”

“We will.” Bishop Dalles responded. And, with his help, they were able to get the process done with relatively little fuss. It took an hour or so just to get through everyone, but eventually everyone but the clergy had finished converting or were in the process.

“Thank you all for your cooperation.” Lia said, giving them a smile. “As a thank you, I’ll handle each of your conversions personally, and I have enough stuff in my storage to allow for much more personalized conversions. I’ll be starting with Bishop Dalles, would the rest of you speak with the soldiers about what you want? They’ll write it down and bring it to me to take care of.”

The clergy dispersed, and Lia approached Bishop Dalles. “So, what would you like out of conversion?” She asked.

He shrugged. “Not much, to be honest; I’m pretty content with my lot in life. But, given what I’ll be doing in the near future, something that would help me with paperwork and governing would be ideal. And, if you can strengthen my ties to the gods, that would likewise be welcome.”

“Easily done.” Lia confirmed. “Anything else?”

Bishop Dalles shook his head. “That’s all.”

“Alright. Shall I cocoon you now?”

“Yes.”

Lia quickly cocooned the man, then began to work on the rest of his cocoon. Paperwork and the like tended to give managerial traits to the result, and icons of the gods were an easy way to give things a religious bent. So, she set him converting, and began to work the rest of the clergy.

“Hey everyone, it’s your favorite former…I mean, elven explorer, Faelyn!” Faelyn said, trying to put more energy into his intro than he felt. “Sorry, I’ve been doing the other intro so much it just sort of slipped out.” He took a swallow of his energy drink before setting it back down on his desk. “I figured we’d start today with an ‘IRL’ section, so we can chat about things.”

He took another sip of the drink before he began to talk again. “So, what are your thoughts on that village we went through? It was like something out of a textbook, right? I’m curious to see how a converted village compares. If it’s significantly better, I think that’ll be my mind made up about the whole thing.”

“Does that mean you’ll become Fae full-time if it’s good?” Faelyn’s text to speech asked.

“As enticing as that sounds, no.” Faelyn sighed. “I’ve got family and friends here that I’d like to stay in contact with. Also, if I do that, I lose the ability to be neutral on the topic of the Swarm, and I’ll lose the ability to compare my mental state. But…I won’t lie, it’s seriously tempting.”

“When are you going to convert something?”

“We’ll do it when we’re near a converted village.” Faelyn replied. “That way it won’t accidentally mess anything up.”

“Don’t you miss your thing when you’re Fae?” Faelyn’s text to speech pressed.

“Not in the slightest. It’s like…look, I’m totally fine being a man, I normally don’t think about it at all, and when I do, I feel safe saying I would prefer to stay as I am now. But, while I’m Fae, I’m actively happy to be a woman. The thought of being a man again is even more off-putting than the thought of being a woman is while I’m a man. I’ll be happy whatever sex I end up as, so that’s not really a consideration for me.”

“Don’t you keep talking about how much better Fae’s body is?”

Faelyn sighed, taking another sip of his energy drink. “Yes, but not to the extent that I’m going to betray everyone if I decide the Swarm isn’t good for people. It’s really, really nice, but those of you who’ve been watching me for a while know that I’m not the type to be swayed by that stuff.”

“Are you okay? You don’t normally drink stuff like that on-stream, did you pull an all-nighter editing again?” This time, the message came from one of Faelyn’s mods, using their free text-to-speech privileges.

Faelyn guiltily pushed the nearly empty can away. “No, nothing like that.” He admitted. “I’ve slipped into bad habits this past bit. My body as Fae is just so…full of energy and life, and I can’t help but feel tired by comparison when I get back. It’s like being on a constant caffeine crash.

“And, again, let me reiterate, it’s not any sort of physical backlash or even mental dependency, it’s just a pure comparison. Honestly, I should be retooling my schedule so I go to sleep as soon as I log off, then head to the gym when I wake up. It’ll make going back less painful.”

“What do your family and friends think of this?” Faelyn’s text to speech asked. “Have you been harassed at all for what you’re doing?”

“Good question, and the answer is that most people in my life understand what I’m doing and trust my judgement. From time to time, I get dirty looks at the gym or at the store, but I’m not worried about anyone actually trying to hurt me.

“I have the backing of the Goddess of Hearth, and, absolute worst-case scenario, she transfers me to my other body permanently to save my life. So, no, small-time harassment won’t get past the increased security she’s given my place of residence. People who can get past that security will understand that hurting or ‘killing’ me won’t lead to me stopping what I’m doing.”

Faelyn chuckled. “But let’s not dwell on that, okay? It’d be really embarrassing if I called Lia’s culture less mature than mine and then I was a victim of a violent crime. Now…I think that’s enough of that, let’s get into what you actually came here for, shall we?”

Faelyn logged in, a rush of relief filling her as her energy returned. “I’ve been looking forward to this all day.” She said, gazing down the slope of the rocky valley wall in front of her. “We’re going to test this out live.”

She jumped off the small drop off she had positioned herself on, applying the gravity magic needed to make her “board” with barely a thought. She took the hill at a speed she would have previously called dangerously reckless, but felt completely manageable to her now; her dynamic vision was far better, her control over her magic more instinctive and natural, everything just worked. This difficult terrain and incredible speed felt as easy to her as taking a completely empty hill at a normal speed did in her other body.

She couldn’t resist letting out a whoop of joy as she sped through the terrain, hair waving in the wind behind her. “This is incredible!” She yelled, hitting a small jump and using a combination of gravity magic and a single, powerful, flap of her wings to propel her across the length of the canyon and to the upper part of the other wall, where she continued her surfing.

In no time at all, it seemed she had reached the end of the canyon, and with some reluctance she maneuvered herself to the very top, ending sprawled out in the grass with a goofy grin on her face. “Okay, that was…way, way better than I thought it would be? For those of you who are new here, go watch some of the videos on my channel showing ‘insane stunts’, and compare it. Those feel like child’s play now.”

“Are you sure about not transferring?” Her text to speech asked. “I’m new here but it’s pretty obvious which body you prefer.”

“Less so now, but I’m always less sure in this body.” Fae said, standing back up. “But that’s neither here nor there; we’ve got a village to get to and monsters to hunt and convert. So…let’s go!”

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