Pubton changed substantially over the next couple of weeks.
King Gok was informally stripped of his title in a small, private ceremony. Formally he ‘stepped down’ of his own accord, recognizing the sovereign rights of the original owners of Pubton. In exchange, the goblins were allowed to remain living in Pubton - though all those they had enslaved were immediately freed. To ease tensions between the goblins and the rest of Pubton’s inhabitants, a new, goblin-only section of town was established in the eastern quarter. Relations between the two segments were never friendly, often breaking out into arguments, brawls, and, occasionally, hushed-up murders.
Freshly released from prison to raucous applause, Harold was instated as mayor of Pubton. Evangelina, absolved of her crimes by Dragomir, promptly stepped down from her post as co-mayor. Everyone involved agreed this was by far the best idea, as Evangelina’s reputation in Pubton had suffered greatly. She refused to apologize for her actions, however.
“You threw people you knew off of a tower,” Dragomir noted, deadpan, during a private moment. “You killed Lonnie. Don’t you regret that?”
“No,” she responded, though she kept her eyes on her whip as she untangled its coils. “I did what I had to do. I didn’t take my job to be popular.”
“I bet you didn’t take it to become a murderer, either.”
“Executioner,” she corrected. “There’s a difference.”
Dragomir knew there would be a reckoning in the future, and Evangelina could very well end up in jail again - and perhaps never see the light of day. He secretly hoped she would flee Pubton long before that happened.
The rats, their work done, departed Pubton en masse. Only a few remained behind to monitor the situation and relay commands to Dragomir. The collective gave him only one instruction to start: “Build an army.” He suspected there would be many more commands to come, and he didn’t relish dealing with the regulators, even if there plan would save the world from Kierkegaard and his Non.
The bare-bones hull of her ship having served its purpose, Libby set about completing the Sky Bitch with her team of engineers. She was surprised it had flown in the first place, given its half-assed initial construction, and she wanted to set the vehicle to rights before it flew again. After three weeks of overhauls the great flying machine had almost doubled in size, tripled its flying speed, gained some significant creature comforts, and turned into a potent machine of war. Libby suspected they would need it sooner rather than later.
Logan and Jeffrey helped Libby with her airship, though neither man was an engineer. They knew the Sky Bitch was not only their best chance for finding Daena, but to quickly return to the desert to resurrect Celine. Jeffrey continued to train as a boxer under Antonio; Logan sought out all manner of information as Dragomir’s informal head of intelligence. That included spying on Dragomir himself.
Fynn, who’d largely stayed out of the limelight during the recapture of Pubton, kept to himself. He only used magic when he was alone, constantly frightened that his green aura would brand him an enemy and a traitor. He knew very little of his brother and sister, but he didn’t want to depart his mother’s good graces any time soon, and admitting to a potential bond with the Non might just cast him out of the family.
Bora watched.
And Dragomir… when he wasn’t busy with logistics, or turning down mayorships, or defending witches, or considering whom he might turn into an ally, or telling people that, no, the trip was not a big waste of time, though he couldn’t share the details just yet, so sorry… Dragomir was forced to introduce a long-lost son to his estranged parents.
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