The stench of the Epic Punishment War finally washed out of the valley, replaced by the ringing of hammers.
Bilal knew that survival was not enough. To prevent another coalition from ever reaching his gates, he needed a buffer zone that spanned the horizon.
He unrolled a massive sheet of rag paper on his desk. He drew the Stone Citadel in the center. Then, he drew lines extending outward.
The five original wooden outposts were no longer sufficient. He ordered the construction of three more, creating a perfect octagonal perimeter—an Eight-Pointed Star.
"We do not build walls to trap ourselves," Bilal told his foremen, tapping the map. "We build a net. If an army steps on one thread, the other seven close around them."
But with expansion came the threat of spies. The Jarls were sending infiltrators disguised as refugees.
Bilal countered with a bureaucratic weapon that was eight hundred years ahead of its time: The Yellow Paper.
No human being could enter the inner lands of Axiomra without it. It was a crude passport, stamped with the Damascus Steel signet ring.
It recorded a person's name, their origin, and their trade. If a man was caught inside the borders without his paper, the newly established Lag-Vördr (Law-Wardens) detained him.
The Wardens were Bilal's police force. They wore distinctive green cloaks, but Bilal refused to let them become thugs.
They carried wooden batons for the citizenry and steel only for the walls. They were legally forbidden from passing judgment; they could only arrest. Justice was reserved for the courts.
To keep his booming population disciplined without teaching them how to kill each other, Bilal banned combat sports among the commoners. There would be no drunken axe-duels.
Instead, he instituted mandatory "Civil Sports." Every morning, the youth ran brutal obstacle courses through the snow, climbing ropes and carrying logs.
It forged a workforce with the cardiovascular endurance of racehorses, but strictly reserved the lethal art of kickboxing for Bilal's elite bloodline and the 70 veteran guards.
Axiomra was becoming a machine of perfect, synchronized motion.