Zamor was walking the streets of Iluvatan City with a step that seemed calm, but was actually seething inside him. He didn't know whether to be furious at how events were turning out or if he was too tired to even get angry at life and the world. It seemed impossible to him that every damned time things finally seemed to improve, that a new problem would appear. He wondered if some god hadn't particularly picked on him or liked to make fun of him.
Carrion had come first and destroyed everything he and his people owned, and reduced them to a total state of slavery; then they had managed to defeat him and he had assumed that everything would be fine, instead in the middle of the desert Carrion had reappeared and Haku had to take care of him again; then finally they had arrived at the Thul Oasis, but there had been the food crisis and immediately after the blood death epidemic; and when at last all these problems had been solved and a calm and tranquil atmosphere could be breathed in the town, and Zamor had been persuaded that at last he could relax and enjoy himself in their new home, there sprang a people who lived directly next to them (indeed, below them) that no one was aware of and whose intentions they didn't know. In short, every time it seemed that Zamor could obtain serenity, something new appeared to make life difficult for him and to replenish his dose of daily stress. Sometimes he almost wanted to be like Brenno, who got drunk at every opportunity; at least in that moment he could have lived for a few hours in the illusion that in reality the arachnes didn't exist and that he was simply in an ethyl coma in his house, with Thora next to him who was only waiting for him to wake up to scold him and slap him for have gone too far on the beer. But unfortunately he didn't even have that brief illusory comfort: he knew that what he was experiencing at that moment was reality and that the problems he had to face unfortunately didn't exist only in his mind, and it was up to him to take care of them, whether he liked it or not.
Zamor shook his head. Luckily for the moment the arachnes didn't seem to have bad intentions, which was good… but having a very large, powerful and strong civilization directly under their feet was still a disquieting discovery for him. Even if they didn't plan anything bad against them at the moment, how could he know what consequences this would bring to Iluvatan City? A wolf could befriend a mouse, but the mouse would always live in fear of angering the wolf. When the disparity of forces was too great, this was the only possible relationship between two peoples. As much as the stronger people only wanted to help and live together, the weaker people would always be terrified of angering them and would maintain a submissive attitude towards them. Zamor was therefore worried, indeed, almost frightened by the consequences that the presence of this new unknown people would bring... and he was also worried by how this would affect Haku.
Dragons were the best defense in all of Thul Oasis; without them, the overall strength of Iluvatan City would not have been able to hold a candle to a strong nation. However frightening their abilities were, Zamor knew how to control them: since Haku wanted to create that community to give his siblings a normal life, then it was enough to please him to ensure that he remained faithful to Iluvatan City, therefore despite the disproportion of forces it was still a reliable ally. But what would have changed if Haku got a better offer? Zamor had noticed some looks that Arethar had thrown towards Haku; it seemed that he considered him not a dragon, but a normal person, or indeed, something even superior. And indeed it was to the dragons that the arachne had first shown itself. As a result it stood to reason that the arachnes didn't fear dragons like other races for some reason. Consequently, why should Haku have continued to invest energy and time with Iluvatan City, when underground there was an entire people who (probably) would have accepted the presence of dragons without problems? It would have made sense for Haku to move his family underground, and unfortunately Haku was a dragon who thought almost exclusively with logic. And in fact Haku hadn't opposed the idea in the slightest, but rather had proposed to be the first and of his own accord to visit the people of the arachnes as an ambassador; he was a dragon who didn't like to take unnecessary risks, so why do that? Zamor suspected that this was because Haku wanted to make sure that Arethar's behavior reflected the actual mentality of the arachnes and that therefore there really was a civilization underground ready to welcome his family. If that happened, then even if they remained on good terms with Iluvatan City the dragons would surely side with the arachnes in case of conflict; even if the possibility of war was very low, the prospect would be enough to tip the balance of power completely towards the Arachnes, reducing Iluvatan City to a mere protectorate or vassal state in all but the name.
Zamor could not allow this, so he would go with him. He would find out what Haku had in mind this time and would do anything to keep him on the side of the beastmen. However, he certainly couldn't go underground alone: even if he was an ambassador, it was still better to take precautions. Also, she knew that he wouldn't be able to notice many things that Haku surely would; unfortunately, a lizardman's ability to pay attention and gather information was much lower than that of a dragon, especially a dragon like Haku, whose mind seemed to be a gigantic container that everywhere he went sucked up thousands of notions and locked them up inside for the eternity. Zamor had no hope of matching Haku in intelligence gathering, not alone at least; if he was to be able to get enough of it to understand and predict the dragon's thoughts, he needed allies who were experts in this field.
And that was precisely why he was now heading towards a strange building that soared above the ordinary houses. It was a circular building at least three stories high and with a domed roof, full of windows and balconies; round it was a clearing where stood four trees which cast a placid shade upon it, exactly positioned to be each towards a cardinal point. Among the trees there was a very beautiful garden surrounded by a low wall and a small road that led to the entrance of the building. The end result was an almost perfect fusion between natural and artificial that gave the building an almost fairy-tale appearance. The most interesting thing, however, was that it stood where Isaac's laboratory had been until a few months earlier. Now, in its place was a school of magic.
After the blood death epidemic and the food crisis had finally ended, the work that Isaac had to do had practically dropped to zero, as a result the mage had decided that now that the city was stable he could concentrate on his original project: build a new school of magic there, as he promised Maldor. To convince the Council to give him permission, he had reminded them how difficult it had been to counter blood death due to the lack of personnel; if instead there had been more mages in the oasis, it would have been much easier to counter a possible new epidemic, and this would also have increased the possibility of finding a cure more quickly; there would also have been further advantages, such as the reinforcement of weapons, greater capabilities to counter emergencies such as fires, easier construction, and so on. The Council had let himself be convinced and had allowed Isaac to start his project, to the great joy of the mage, on the condition, however, that he would suspend him and go to their aid if ever a new emergency appeared during the building. The Council obviously expected Isaac to take months, if not years to erect such a construction… but they hadn't considered that there were numerous dragons ready to lend a hand. They knew when Maldor held that school, so when Isaac asked them for help they were happy to help; a combination of avatars, runic magic, Inpu spirit powers, and a good amount of physical strength too had done the rest. There hadn't been a need to wait weeks for the lime to dry, as with a rune of water they removed the humidity in an instant, and they didn't need to fire the bricks because thanks to Inpu they could produce quantities of them in a few moments . Thanks to all these factors, the building was completed in less than a month and a half. At that point it was enough to furnish it and announce to all Iluvatan City the opening of a school of magic.
And so Isaac had then started teaching the new generation. It hadn't been difficult to find the necessary personnel: while none were as skilled as he was there were some mages among the beastmen who were currently unemployed as a plan to give them a role had not yet been implemented, and as an economic system was now present they needed the money, so they had all been hired by Isaac much to the delight of the Council who therefore would not have to think about them for a while (although in the future there would still be a need to create jobs for all the new mages, but for a few years this was not a problem). Having obtained the staff, only the students were needed, and they too had been easily found: in fact, normally the peasant children would have worked with their parents from an early age, but given that the available fields were currently limited, there was no place to everyone; parents would be forced to leave their children unattended at home, so it was much better for them to send them to school, where they would also get free lunch (a courtesy of the Council to Isaac); and finally, of course, the children didn't mind it at all, in fact they were enthusiastic about it. So, the students were there and the teachers were as well, so the magic school was officially up and running. Isaac had had some problems getting started, mainly due to the fact that they didn't have any books on magic and above all that the students who didn't know how to read and write couldn't take notes, but fortunately a few extra lessons had been enough to literate all the classes and therefore make the students capable of writing down what they learned in order to be able to study it well later; a little organization had done the rest. While it certainly couldn't hold a candle to the schools of magic that existed in the big nations, this one was still pretty good then. Now only the official name was missing, but Isaac had wanted to wait for Maldor's return to let her choose; there weren't many magic schools nearby anyway, so no one was likely to get confused.
As he entered the garden surrounding the school and later inside the building, Zamor could see many students busy studying from their notes and reading entire pages without any effort. This pleased him very much: the magic school was not only increasing the number of mages in their community, which was already extremely positive, but it was also exponentially increasing literacy: in fact, after having learned to read and write, the children taught it to their parents , and they in turn taught it to others. This was proving to be very useful as it had now become much easier for citizens to know the laws and rules, as it was enough to write them on paper and stick it on a public monument, and the transmission of orders in their armed forces had also become easier. Anything that improved the community was welcomed by Zamor, so obviously he was pleased to see that; within a few years it was likely that Iluvatan City would go through many changes that would transform this remote corner of the desert into a thriving and secure nation.
In any case, now he had to concentrate on the most imminent problem, namely that of the arachnes. So he made his way to the top floor and there he reached a door slightly larger than the others, and knocked vigorously. From inside a voice gave him permission to enter, and Zamor didn't let him repeat it and threw open the doors. "Hi, Isaac. How are you doing?"