Gnarl watched through the scrying orb as Rose stood by the Overlords body. He didn't know who the man with Rose was, apparently some lord of something or other called to be a champion of good. He was glad that the Overlord had died, he'd become for too complacent, only venturing out of the tower when he was tired of Fay's nagging, although even Gnarl had to admit, she had become a lot crankier than usual. He let out a sigh and walked to the library, giving the other minions a slight nod as he passed. The door gave out a creak as it swung open slowly and Gnarl started flicking the cobwebs from the black wooden shelves, cursing under his breath for allowing the greens to keep their spiders in here. HE reached through a gap between two scrolls and pulled out a small, rolled up piece of parchment, about as thick as his bony arm. He rolled his eyes and went to the throne room. Fay was sat there lounging in the seat reserved for the overlord.

"You should not be sat there, mistress" Gnarl added at the last second.

"Why? There is no overlord to sit here, so I shall, anyway what is it you have there?" She pointed to the scroll."

"It is the overlords will."

"The fool accepted his death the day he wrote that thing."

"Anyway, I think you shall want to hear this."

"Why are you no longer addressing me as Mistress, Gnarl? Did you forget your place? Remember what happened to the last time the minions rebelled?" Fay gave the sly smile that usually accompanies lightly veiled threats.

"If the blue's had been allowed to return then the overlord may have survived, and with his death he cannot have a mistress, I am no longer tied to his or your service or any others and telling you what his will states merely out of courtesy."

"Get on with it then." Fay spat.

"The will states ... two seconds, need to skip past all the unimportant parts." Gnarl unravelled the scroll the bottom reaching the floor. "Ah, here it is" Gnarl cleared his throat, "My title, lands and all possessions are all left to my unborn son unless my death is due to mysterious circumstance, my mistress may reside in the tower until the child is sixteen and then her fate will be decided by him." Gnarl gave a slight towards the elf's swollen belly and then his eyes moved upwards to where her breasts had swelled...

"I swear, if you continue staring I will rip out your entrails and feed them to the salamanders." Gnarl shook his head and wiped drool from his chin. "That was all it said? What else could he have written to take up that much room?"

"It is a twelve verse poem saying how large and annoying you became and cursing the length of elven pregnancy. It begins" Gnarl cleared his throat again. "Rounder than an elven priestess, larger than the devourer, your nagging ..."

"Shut up Gnarl." A blue light shot out of Fay's hand hitting the ground next to Gnarl and leaving a small crater in the obsidian floor.

"I always preferred mistress Kelda; she didn't try to kill me and gave me a scratch behind the ear every now and then."

"It's too bad she somehow fell over the balcony then isn't it."

"Yes and the same happened to the minions that the overlord had look into her death."

"If the area's unsafe then maybe it should be closed off, although the view is brilliant, maybe you should spend some time admiring it" Fay tilted her head and gave another smile.

"I doubt you'd be able to reach around that stomach" Gnarl whispered under his breath.

"What was that Gnarl? I'd hate to think you were saying nasty things about me."

"My apologies I have a cough at the moment." Gnarl spluttered at the end, trying to add to the effect.

"That's what I thought, I hope you feel better soon, I'd hate for you to die in your bed."

"As would I, Fay, as would I."

Gnarl held the child in his arms, when told that it was a daughter Fay had refused to even look at her and ordered it be abandoned, it had been twelve years since he had read the overlord's will and like him, he now cursed the length of elven pregnancy. The girl's skin may not have been purely blue like her father's, but there was still a slight tinge on her pale skin and the narrow, vine like patterns that ran down her arms as well as the slight amber tinge in her eyes that contrasted with the rest of her grey pupils. He placed the child on the ground of the jungle and there was only one thing he could be certain of, the next overlord would be interesting, very interesting.

Baleon looked at the chessboard, his advisor was playing well, he'd never understood how this was meant to help in battle, you couldn't move one platoon at a time and horsemen could move in any direction and bishops didn't fight and castles didn't move. "Are you sure this will work" he said, his voice accompanied by a slight click as he moved one of the ivory pieces across the board.

Rose gave a faint smile "You need to show the more magically attuned species that we wish to friends, marrying your son to the elf girl Crasius found should help, and the fact she was raised among your nobility should stop the other nobles from complaining."

"She's barely a year old, we shouldn't be playing with the Child's life while she still suckling on her mother."

Rose gave out a sigh. "When I helped you defeat the overlord thirteen years ago did I ever give a piece of bad advice?"

"No"

"This is the best solution, we've already befriended the dwarfs, picture it, the entire world united in a single day."

"But what if the overlord returns, we're spending so much on building that we won't have enough to fortify."

"Assuming the new one was born the very instant the old one was slain, there's five years till he's eighteen and only then will he be a threat and even then, we decimated the minions so he'll need to build up their numbers, hopefully by then I'll have found him."

"What is it, two days till you leave?"

Rose gave a slight nod "I'll start at Nordberg, that was where the last was born and I'll work my way south from there."

"If we receive news of him I'll have it sent to you."

"See that you do, and checkmate."