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To the Sevlin though it was unsettling for someone to spend time in the village of Bannian and have no signs of aging over a span of three hundred years, but here Alexandra was doing just that. That was the nature of the Dochani race though as they did not age like the Sevlin did. Sevlin aged badly if anyone could be said to age badly. At the age of thirty a Sevlin male would have heavily callused hands, dark weathered skin on their face and upper body and their usually lustrous dark hair showed signs of age by greying over the ears and temples and their beards would be nearly all grey.
The Sevlin women showed their age in similar ways, but at about five to ten years after the men. A fifty year old Sevlin male or fifty five to sixty year old Sevlin female would begin to experience arthritis in their joints. It was different for males and females because their occupations and what they did on a daily basis was different. Arthritis would show up in knees, hips, ankles and elbows of the males, but in the fingers, wrists, shoulders and ankles of the females.
Severe and debilitating old age would set in at eighty and above for both Sevlin men and women. Boltchovik and Katherin were the exception and lived twenty years after Alexandra’s hatching, but most Sevlin did not really live that long and were fortunate to live passed sixty five. Many generations passed away and were born of Boltchovik and Katherin while Alexandra stayed in the village of Bannian. The village contained more than double its citizens than when Alexandra had hatched from her egg at two hundred thousand people within its borders and was more like a city, although it still had that village feel.
Alexandra now owned the house that she had found herself in and she had added extensions over the years that included a library containing over seventy five thousand titles of various subjects. She also added a tower that served as guest quarters for scholars that came from all over Sevle to study in her library. It housed more than two thousand scholars with all the comforts and amenities possible all over Sevle, which extended itself far up into the clouds.
Yes in emergencies the entire town of Bannian could fit in the tower and when scholars were in residence the town of Bannian could swell to over four hundred thousand people. On the top of the tower was an observatory with a telescope that showed even the farthest star in the sky and the closest stars and planets could be seen as though one stood on a platform three meters from the surface looking down at it.
Currently the descendant of Boltchovik and Katherin was a young man named Kevlin, whom happened to be the mayor of Bannian. As mayor of Bannian he visited Alexandra often as any man would pay attention to a young twenty year old woman, even if Alexandra really was more than three hundred years old with the knowledge of someone far older and wiser. Kevlin was beyond middle age, but that did not bother him and did not seem to bother Alexandra. Alexandra liked the company of Kevlin, but was not interested in a physical relationship she had lots of time later for that even though Kevlin did not really have that much time.
It did not matter to Alexandra, after all why would she want offspring from a race so frail and soon to pass away leaving her nothing in return. The idea of family to her was to at least be able to see the children after they had hatched from their eggs and for a father to die of old age before the child hatched would be devastating. A Dochani mother was different in that she could pass information onto her child without being around due to the birdlike aspects of the Dochani race, but a father was needed because his knowledge could not be passed on without instruction.
Shortly after Kevlin’s fiftieth birthday and Alexandra’s three hundred and fiftieth or so since her hatching from the egg, Archamid, the king of Shizamid, met Kevlin. Archamid was very pleased with his skill in the craft of carpentry and the advancements that he had added to the city of Bannian with the assistance of Alexandra. About a week after the king’s visit he received a letter via a messenger pigeon of the king.
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That letter read something like this, “Kevlin, I, king Archamid of Shizamid, enjoyed meeting with you and learning of your great skill in carpentry and that of city management just a week ago. A carpenter and mayor like you are as rare as a green ruby from granite falls. That is the very reason I sent this letter to you. The palace and the buildings around the palace are in need of repair and a new mayor is needed for the capital city of my realm, which house's my palace,” The letter continued,
“Population of the city has risen to well over ten million citizens and swells to over fifty million in the summer during the opening of the grand bazaar from June to August. We have all of the carpenters and masons that we could ever need, but they are so unorganized especially during our grand bazaar.
“This is where you come in and the main reason for this letter. I want you to become the director of building my buildings in my kingdom as well as the mayor of the city Shizimad. I will pay you five times a master’s salary every year plus a mayor’s salary with all bonuses entitled to the elite.”
Kevlin was happier than he had ever been in all of the time that he was a mayor of Bannian. He accepted the offer and him and his family were due to leave one week after receiving the letter. Alexandra spent a lot of time with him and because she did not want to have a family with him, he had decided to marry and have a family with someone else. She was still his friend so decided to go on the trip to the kingdom of Shizamid with him after getting one of the scholars in her tower to take care of her home and library.