Lucas met Heidall soon after, he and Julian were talking just outside the room Lucas had first met Cardinal Simon in. He looked a lot like his father, but slimmer and fitter, with a hard light in his eyes, a much better first impression than the Duke to be sure. Heidall Are was talking casually to Julian, as Lucas might have suspected, they seemed to be close friends…
“Heidall,” Julian stepped in to facilitate the introduction. “This is the man I was telling you about, Lucas.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Saint.” Heidall bowed to Lucas, “it is good that you have come here, the Church is the true heart of this battle.”
“It is my pleasure to meet you,” Lucas have never thought his years of regarding etiquette as a waste of time would be so damaging to him… This was harder than he thought it would be… “As for the Church being the heart of the battle… I am trying not to be rude, but frankly, from my perspective you are not doing well.”
“Perhaps that is true,” Heidall agreed. “The leaders of nations have drifted away from the Church over the millennia… We may be the heart, but it is the mind that directs the body and a sick mind can only make the heart ache.”
A little overly poetic for Lucas’s tastes, but a perfect segue for the subject, so he’d take it.
“Not so much sick as inept,” Or perhaps just too drunk… “Which actually brings me to why I am here.”
“Lucas tends to run headlong into his main point,” Lady Versi sighed. “I hope you can ignore his rudeness…”
“Run? It is more of a breakneck sprint…” Lady Almistraus muttered under her breath and laughed quietly.
“Why beat around the bush?” Lucas asked, “imagine it this way, while we chat about the weather people die on your front line. Now, personally, that does not really bother me, or would not if they weren’t part of the plan to get me home. In other words, every peasantry I exchange delays me going home.”
“You are the first Saint that has wished to go home…” Heidall said curiously, “each of them had their own goals and desires in this world.”
“That is them,” Lucas waved it away. “Your next Cardinal should thank Gorn, because if he had given me a chance to get home I would not be that interested in doing more than I need to live.”
“I see.” Heidall paused, “So what can I do for you?”
“Become the Duke.”
Heidall sighed, “you know, I don’t actually want to be the Duke. My exile here is more my decision than my father’s, despite what he might think.”
“Look, Heidall…” Of course Lucas would hit a roadblock here, why wouldn’t he? “I have no talent, skill, or patience with politics, I am not even that good at dealing with people, but your ‘church’ took my life away from me, so I should think the least you could do for me is take the throne.”
“I do not-” Heidall began, but was interrupted by Lucas.
“You are taking the throne, Heidall.” Lucas said firmly, “The shock of this world is wearing thin, and my anger is only getting worse. You said that the Church was the heart of the battle and that the mind was sick, here is your chance to put your money where your mouth is.”
“You would force me into this?” Heidall’s eyebrows raised and he looked to Lady Versi, “and you approve of this?”
“No, I don’t.” Lady Versi sighed, “but he is the hero, and from what I understand of what he wants to do, he cannot show his strength without help from the nobles. He is not like the other heroes…”
“And how do you expect me to do this?” Heidall frowned, “neither you nor I have armies or allies of note here, and my Father would not leave his throne for anything.”
“With support from the mages, the Church, Lady Versi, and myself,” it was Lady Terrasin Alimistraus who answered. “We will co-opt his own forces and allies, we might not have specific power here, that much outside influence combined with Lucas’s own presence as the hero…”
“Why though?” Heidall asked in exasperation, “why is this even necessary? We should not be fighting amongst ourselves!”
“The rough answer is that I need someone to nod and say yes,” Lucas said. “I need to turn this city into a model that can be replicated elsewhere, and design a set of tools that people can use to modify that model to handle regional variations. That way, I can avoid wasting my time having to go everywhere and re-introduce this system a million times and instead focus on the front line and the demons.”
“I… I understand…” Heidall sighed and gave in, “if this is what I must do…”
“Wonderful,” Lucas was glad this was done, convincing people was a headache. “I suppose you will all need time to get this put together, correct?”
“Yes,” Lady Versi nodded. “Unfortunately, it may be a week or two before we can put this into motion…”
“That works out in my favor anyway,” Lucas was happy enough to hear that. “I will start designing the procedures that this duchy will be adopting. Ideally, all people will need to do is follow the instructions, though the ideal rarely happens in biology…”
“So then should we all meet again in a week to check on our progress?” Julian suggested.
“Works for me,” Lucas shrugged. To be honest, he would leave this to Lady Versi and Almistraus… This whole damned event had been one reminder after another that Lucas was inept in political situations… Instead, he would focus on what he could do, which unfortunately did not include writing in this world’s language… Whatever, he would have to learn later, he would find someone to dictate to.
Later, when they returned to the Inner city, he sent for a scribe having thought carefully about the most important points. The two ladies were used to Lucas’s rudeness, but Julian was a little surprised that Lucas more or less ignored him for the ride back. He would deal with Julian’s questions later…
“I am here as you requested, Lord Hero.” The scribe said nervously, “Lord Volen said you would be needing my services for the next week…?”
“Or thereabouts,” Lucas replied. “I cannot write in your world’s language, and it would take too long for me to learn and then give you this information, so this is the compromise.”
“I see my Lord,” the scribe sat down at a desk provided for the purpose and prepared parchment, ink and a quill. “I am ready whenever you are my Lord.”
Unsurprisingly, dictation was not as simple as people thought. Offhand thoughts and comments became part of the manuscript before Lucas even realized that he had made a mistake or had been unclear… This document would have to be edited, and he would probably have to be there for it to answer questions… Nothing was as easy as it seemed, a corollary to Murphy’s law was that if nothing was wrong, you must have missed something.
“Firstly,” Lucas spoke to the air, composing his thoughts. “We need to discuss four field crop rotation and how it relates to animal husbandry.”
Currently, they used the three field crop rotation system, where two fields would be sowed with crops and one would lie fallow as a way to recover from the soil degradation that farming caused. The four field system eliminated the fallow land by introducing clovers as nitrogen fixing agents and also allowed livestock to be grazed and bred year round. In other words, it would increase production by a third easily, and more as the practice of selective breeding took hold.
Choosing animals for their health and other desirable qualities to breed, and controlling breeding so that those desirable traits are passed on while undesirable traits are eliminated. Even people in Lucas’s world did not realize how modern the concept was. While it had been in practice in some form of another perhaps all the way back to neolithic times, it had been Robert Bakewell in the 18th century to codify the idea.
Lucas moved on to the tools of farming, describing, and drawing, them as he spoke. The swing plough and the seed drill had been introduced to Europe from China, and now Lucas introduced it to this world to make the planting season far easier and efficient. Mechanical reapers, animal drawn of course, would vastly increase the speed of the harvest, and threshing machines would dramatically and substantially reduce the labour needed for grains. Idly, Lucas wondered if this would cause another riot… Threshers caused a riot in England at one point, and all of the participants were either hanged or shipped to Australia. Which, as far as Lucas was concerned, was execution by poisonous animal.
Further, by introducing the concept of fertilization and preservation, there would be far more food for far less labor. Starvation and malnutrition would essentially cease to exist, presuming that Lucas could deal with distribution issues that would undoubtedly crop up. He also hated himself for the unintentional pun…
During this week, he also met with Julian for his first magic lesson.
“The first part of learning magic is actually fairly simple,” Julian lectured Lucas. “But although it is simple in concept, it is hard to grasp at first. You need to feel magic, I will guide you through it.”
Lucas would describe the feeling as… Electric. Actually, it was quite uncomfortable, almost as if he was wearing a fleece jacket over another one and every move was giving him minor static shocks all over his body.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Well, this is unpleasant.” Lucas frowned and Julian laughed.
“I know right? It does not get better, let me warn you…”
“Fucking wonderful,” Lucas muttered… “So this is magic?”
“Indeed it is, and you should feel something beyond it, creating it.”
Lucas focused on the feeling and did get the vague idea it was coming from somewhere, and he idly wondered what he was feeling it with… Feeling was a function of the nervous system after all, which was a mechanism that took place in a practical form… So if he could feel something, it implied that it existed in a way that caused his nerves to fire, and therefore if Julian was correct about the origin of magic… Souls must be physical things…
“You are losing focus!” Julian laughed, “distracted by a pretty face in your memories?”
Lucas scowled back, “No, I am not going to torture myself like that. Rather, a thought occurred to me… Souls are physical things.”
“Most studied mages and the Church agree that they are not,” Julian said curiously. “What about this would make you think it is physical?”
Lucas explained his logic and Julian thought for a second. “I can see your logic, but it is the soul…”
“Is a soul all that special?” Lucas asked a question that clearly shocked Julian, and he had to clarify and explain the question. “Studies indicate that who we are is dependent on our genetics and our experiences, which one takes precedence is up for debate, but that those are the factors are not. Further, studies with people involved in various injuries or strokes that your personality are strongly affected by damage to our brains. In short, we are our brains, which are our genetics influenced by our environments.”
“So to explain my question,” Lucas concluded. “What precise purpose does the soul serve? And why would that elevate the soul beyond the physical body?”
“I don’t actually know,” Julian admitted. “I would ask Heidall about that to be honest.”
“I see.” Lucas put that question away for now, “well then, please continue.”
“You need to focus on that source, and imagine pulling that power into you…”
Lucas did as Julian asked, and focused on that ‘somewhere’ and tried to imagine pulling this static feeling from it… Though he had no idea if he was succeeding…
“You are doing well,” Julian encouraged him. “With this much I will be able to see what your potential is… It is… Well, to be honest, it isn’t much. Just barely enough for you to be useful trained, but you’d be among the weakest of mages…”
“Enough to be useful is all I need.” Lucas said, “if I can understand this I might be able to use it with my own science. Without the tools and machinery of my world, much of what I can do is limited… I will admit, I don’t have any good reason to hope that magic will replace those things, but I might as well find out.”
What Lucas did not mention was that he also needed to know what not to tell these mages… For all he knew he would casually give information that would allow Julian to produce some sort of magical plague without understanding the consequences of his actions. Lucas doubted that was possible, but his ignorance left him feeling vulnerable and worried.
Before he knew it, the second meeting was at hand. Lucas felt a bit of anticipation and anxiety as he considered what he had gotten himself into. On his way there, he considered what he had to do next. The dictations were done, and with Heidall on the throne it could be spread to all the farms in the duchy. After that, he needed to focus on medical improvements and do something similar… That would be more difficult, but more immediately noticeable rewarding to the people around him…
“Don’t move.” Lucas stopped as he felt a blade against his throat.
“What do you want?” Lucas asked, standing perfectly still.
“Not asking who I am, oh great Hero?” The voice was cool and amused.
“Perhaps it is a stereotype, but I would not expect someone who would appear from nowhere and hold a knife to my throat to answer that.” Lucas’s heart was beating wildly… He did indeed want to know who the hell this was, but what they wanted was more important… If they wanted him dead, he was already fucked, but then if they had wanted him dead they could have slit his throat and been gone already.
“Fair enough…” The voice was still amused, “what do I want then? I want in.”
“This may not be a good time for me to ask,” Lucas skipped bothering to ask how the person knew or pretending not to know what the person was talking about… “but why would you expect me to honor that kind of deal when there isn’t a knife to my throat anymore?”
“My associates and I can offer certain services that won’t be found in allies who only consider honest means…” The knife pressed slightly closer to Lucas’s throat, giving Lucas a clear example of what kind of ‘services’ they provided. “And of course, I have associates who would be happy to avenge me…”
“And thereby doom the human race,” Lucas countered. “Killing me would fuck you all over, so presumably if I just started walking you would relent.”
“Want to test that?”
Lucas sighed, careful not to move his head too much with the action. “Damn you, no I don’t. So what precisely does this entail?”
“First would be me joining this meeting…”
“First implies there is more,” Lucas growled. “If you expect me to join in a contract where what I owe is completely open ended…”
“We will discuss that later,” the voice chuckled. “Don’t forget your situation.”
“Yeah, and I am quite aware that there are worse things than dying from a slit throat.” Not much, but some, and dealing with these people might expose him to it. The Greek golden bull was something he specifically wanted to avoid.
“True, but that would leave us at an impasse…”
“Fine…” Lucas agreed grudgingly, “but don’t expect your threats to hold much weight for long.”
“All they need to do is last long enough.” The knife pulled back from Lucas’s throat and he turned to see his assailant. Except he saw nothing under the full body robe with the hood up.
“Wonderful, a literal cloak and dagger act.” Lucas sighed, “just save me the trouble of having to find out and show your face.”
“That is a rather blunt request.” The person was still quite amused.
“Look, we both know how this is supposed to go,” Lucas countered. “I don’t have time for it, you probably don’t have time for it either.”
The man laughed and pulled back his hood to reveal…
“A mask?” Lucas laughed, “why double up with a hood and mask? Essentially this changes nothing.”
“You really must be from a different world,” the man laughed again. “Because this mask would tell you all you need to know about me.”
“Well I guess the people I am meeting will explain then.” Lucas also added a note in the back of his mind to find out who this person was and all his associates, and have them all killed at some point. It was self-defense essentially, people who would hold a knife to a throat would do it again when they felt they wanted something, and eventually they would pull the knife across. The reactions of the people he was meeting told Lucas a lot. The ladies screamed and Julian and Heidall were on their feet preparing to fight.
“So I met this fine gentlemen in the corridor,” Lucas’s voice was dripping with sarcasm. “He made a very persuasive argument for why I should ‘acquire’ his services and so he will be joining us.”
“That is a member of the Demon Adders!” Lady Versi shrieked, “He isn’t even human!”
The masked man just laughed, “Because humans are so great, right?”
“He doesn’t look like a demon to me,” Lucas’s experiences with them led him to believe demons were more monstrous.
“Well,” the masked man clarified. “I am actually a half-demon, so i mostly appear human.”
“We cannot trust him,” Heidall growled, flexing his hands. Lucas wondered if the monks learned martial arts like monks in some countries from his world… “He is tainted and evil…”
“Demons hate us too you know,” the man answered seriously. “We prefer that humanity win by a long shot.”
“To be honest,” Lucas mused. “This raises a lot more questions than anything else I have heard in this world… You wouldn’t realize what this means, not at your level of biological understanding… However, if he had wanted me dead, I would be dead right now. So at the very least he isn’t absolutely our enemy, well minus threatening my life with a knife, of course.”
“You would trust this… Thing?” Heidall spat.
“Well, no.” Lucas thought that was a silly question, the guy had held a knife to his throat for fucks sake. “But I don’t mind using him.”
Lucas wanted to keep them near… If some demons could breed with humans that would essentially mean that they were closely enough related to people to create viable offspring, or perhaps that demons had a very strange form of reproduction… But the first was more likely, and that raised a lot of questions.
Actually, he would probably need to find out how closely related demons were to each other. It was possible they were simply monstrous in appearance and little more than animals that a more intelligent creature domesticated and used as weapons, in which case there would be nothing stopping humans from doing the same…
“What is your name, anyway?” Lucas asked, so that he could stop referring to him as ‘man’ and stop his co-conspirators from referring to him as ‘thing.’
“You can call me Blade,” the man said with a slight bow.
“Because that isn’t cliche at all,” Lucas sighed. “Can’t you drop the act and give me an actual name.”
“Why would I ever do that?” Blade laughed again, he seemed to find Lucas quite amusing.
“Well if you need to wear a mask to hide your face then presumably you have visible demonic features,” Lucas thought aloud. “Therefore, your name would be useless in finding you because anywhere your name and face would be associated together would be a place where people knew and trusted you…”
“And I neither know or trust people here,” Blade replied smoothly. “And you neither know or trust me.”
“Fair enough…” Lucas sighed, “Blade it is then.”
“Saint Lucas…” Heidall seemed very against this and everyone else seemed uncomfortable, well Lucas could not blame them really. He did not feel comfortable about this either, but then he did not feel comfortable about much in this world, so what was a little more discomfort at this point…?
“Look, bluntly, Blade here claims that if we just killed him now and refused his offer that his friends would kill me.” Lucas revealed, “so in short, we can either let him be here and quietly investigate in the background and hopefully find an out, or we can kill him now and risk them fucking with our plans and killing all of us at some point.”
Blade raised his eyebrows at the ‘investigate’ part of Lucas’s comment but said nothing as the others had that sink in.
“I see.” Lady Almistraus took a deep breath and sat down again, “well then we don’t have much of a choice, do we?”
“For now, anyway.” Julian growled, also returning to his seat.
In the end, everyone sat down, and the meeting began.