New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Singing Grove didn't wait to hear Phoenix's reply and swung her arm in a wide arc. Almost instantly, all three of them disappeared from the throne room, and reappeared into the sixth-floor room, startling the gnomish mage who resided and worked there.

"What in tarnation?!" the old gnome exclaimed, dropping the papers he had in hand.

He brought a hand over his heart, trying to calm his palpitating heart, as three people appeared on his floor unannounced. To make matters even worse, two were the monarchs, and the last was a councilwoman.

"We are using the facilities," Lady Grove said, her face still in a devilish grin.

The gnome's face fell, his mouth dropping low, as the words stunned him.

"I… I… What?"

Astaroth wanted to laugh at the situation, but he was already thinking about the Fey's powers, and what to expect.

This was a situation where the councilwoman had an advantage over him. Most of the kingdom knew about the king's and queen's power.

But he knew next to nothing about the strengths and weaknesses of Singing Grove.

Astaroth could guess she hadn't become a guild leader by being weak. But weakness was relative.

One could be called weak in a mage context, and still be able to smash a boulder bare-handed. Or have the constitution of a sickly child, but be able to cast spells at the highest level.

Not knowing the skills, spells, or physical abilities of his opponent, Astaroth was going in blind. And he loved it.

Already, he could feel his blood pumping loudly inside his veins, as the excitement was spreading through him.

Phoenix dealt with the gnome mage, as he was confused about the situation, and Astaroth was already lost in thought.

'Battle junkie,' she thought, looking at him from the corner of her eye.

"We need to use your services. Lady Grove wants to spar, and it seems only appropriate that we do so in the safety of the training grounds. Would you be so kind as to give us a room?" she asked, smiling warmly at the gnome.

The old gnome finally regained his composure, hearing the queen's words, and nodded his head.

"I can, your highness. But there is one issue. The last time you came here, you tested the room's resistance against the commanders. And then, after reinforcing them for the king's sake, he still almost crumbled the walls to another room the next day.

"I am afraid having both of you in the same room, in addition to our esteemed Lady Grove, would take a massive toll on the palace's mana resources. And I would also need to empty the other training grounds, to ensure a maximum of the resources go to your room."

The gnome looked perplexed at the thought.

In front of him, four screens were displayed, and in them, a few of the off-duty squads from the different regiments were having some training sessions, and interrupting them seemed rude to him.

Phoenix understood his reticence. It was out of his pay grade to order around the soldiers of the kingdom.

"Patch me into the rooms. I will ask them to leave," she said, walking forward.

The gnome sighed in relief. Since she was willing to tell them to leave, he wouldn't have to attract their ire.

He drew a few magic symbols directly on the wooden table in front of him, causing a few lights to glow lightly.

"All done, my queen. They can now hear you."

Phoenix cleared her throat before speaking to the soldiers, who she could see on the projected screens.

All of them had stopped their training, as a sound had alerted them to an incoming message.

"Good day to you, soldiers of Stellar Woodlands. This is Queen Phoenix speaking. I know it is at the last second, and quite abrupt of us, but the king and I would like to request the use of the training rooms for ourselves. And we are being told that requires all the other occupants to leave them, if only temporarily. If you would be so kind as to postpone your training sessions to later, Astaroth and I would be very grateful."

Inside the four rooms, all the soldiers looked at each other before chanting almost all at the same time.

"Yes, my queen!"

With their approval, the gnome could pull them out of the rooms they were in, without causing discourse or anger. The old man wanted to avoid a confrontation with the commanders at all costs.

With all four rooms emptied soon after, he could divert all the resources to maintaining a single one. With a few strokes of his fingers on the wooden surface, the gnome also diverted a large part of the magic crystals' power to the room, as well.

He would have to explain this to the mage's guild, later on, since they were in charge of the crystals, but he didn't mind. He worked for them, and explaining this would be a trivial matter.

As soon as he was certain enough power had been diverted, he turned to look at the three VIPs.

"Are there any preferences for the room's layout?"

With how much power at their disposal, he could mould the room into anything.

Astaroth opened his mouth to speak, saying it didn't matter, but Singing Grove beat him to the punch.

"Yes. Make it into the maze forest of the Fey wild."

Astaroth and Phoenix both frowned at the request.

"Yes, ma'am," the gnome replied.

It took only a few seconds for him to modify the appearance of the room into the requested one, and immediately after, he spun his arm into a large circle, making the portal appear before the monarchs and councilwoman.

"The room is all yours. I hope the power I diverted is enough to contain whatever you throw at it. If not, I will have to put in a request to have a mana font built into the room itself," the gnome said, chuckling to himself.

Astaroth looked at the portal, which was flashing in a myriad of colours, and his face twitched.

'What kind of alien place is she sending us to?' he wondered.

But seeing the councilwoman step right in, his pride wouldn't let him think about it twice. He stepped forth, walking into the portal, followed by Phoenix, who had a look of defeat on her face.

'I wish he wasn't so reactive, sometimes…'