"Father!"
The piercing shout greeted the man as he was leaving his coat at the door. A ball of high-energy girl barreled down the stairs in a most unlady-like manner, making the maids around the man sigh in exasperation.
"Father!" she shouted again, springing off the bottom step and coming to a screeching halt in front of him.
The man smiled indulgently and handed his heavy streetwear to the butler waiting to receive it. "Yes, dear, I have kept my promise. The glass is outside with the carriage. "
A hand snaked out from the butler at his side and caught the girl on the shoulder as she tried to dash past him. "Young mistress, please don't try to play with the glass while it's being fixed," the butler said, holding on to the squirming girl with practiced ease, "it will be installed in your room and you can play with it to your heart's content later. "
She, at once, turned to her father with her sure-fire puppy dog look. Under the threat of being overruled, the butler shook his head with a smile, "if you promise not to touch it, you may watch the alchemists install it. "
With a squeal, the girl dashed out. One of the maids had to quickly step forward to catch the swinging door lest it hit the child.
"Arthur," the man said to his butler, "what news from the land? A short summary will do, the senate has taken me away for far too long and I need to leave soon to keep the neighbours happy. "
"Wendy's Fort has been hit by another army of zombies. Michi sends his regards and says he has repelled it with minimal losses. He also reports that the zombies have a new ability, something called a black mist. "
The man shrugged out the sleeve of the inner shirt and wrinkled his nose. "The bounty is paid? We have received it from the senate, yes? Good. Put the full report in my luggage, I will read it on the way to Greenspring. "
"Your instructions regarding the tax rate on grain carts moving south are meeting some delays, the Greenspring towns aren't cooperating. "
The man handed off his shirt to the maids and sighed, "good thing I'm headed there already. Chancellor Duport must have been working on them again. " Now changed to his indoor dress the man walked towards his study.
"Also, there is another matter. I heard the Ironworkers guild have suppressed a competitor in Corbin but it seems more complicated than that. "
The man stopped in his walking, "really? The Senate squabble over the cast iron never mentioned anything about how it came to be. Does this rumour have substance?"
"Apparently it does, the Ironworkers guild in Corbin has put out a new product. But far from congratulating them, our Minmay branch is claiming they stole it. This could get messy. "
"If it bad enough to need me here, send for me and I will come at once," the man paused then asked, "Did they find this cast iron in a First ruin somewhere? "
"Not so. The Corbin Ironworkers are claiming it is an original invention but I have two independent sources that claim that there was a scuffle in Corbin town recently, and they acquired it from the merchant who supplies Wendy's Fort's food, Kalny. I doubt they managed to suppress whoever is behind this invention, because Kalny is now working on something he calls tin food. "
"Tin food," the man turned it over in his mouth, "a strange name, I was not aware that one could eat metal. Do you have more information on this cast iron and tin food?"
"I have taken the liberty of acquiring samples in your absence. They are in the study ready for your inspection, together with the claims made by the craftsman. "
"Good work, anything else?" they continued to walk through the mansion.
"There is also a new type of brick made by the builder Muller, and a radical new theory of construction. He has appealed to you for funds to build a bridge with them, but I must caution that his plans appear far too grandiose. The bricks are proven on a new bridge in Selabia town but now he wants to throw a bridge across the Tine river at the crossroads, says that he can do it if you can give him six hundred Rimes. "
"Six hundred?!" the man shook his head, "nonsense. The Tine is huge, twenty lengths wide at least. A bridge would help immensely but there's no way we can spare that much coin. How does he even think he can do it with only six hundred? They said last year we would need an iron bridge at least and no one can afford that much iron. "
"The new brick, he says, contains cast iron rods inside. He claims to have built a bridge across the Tine at Selabia big enough to permit carts two abreast, and it has support columns less than a shoulder wide. He also claims to have enough clearance to allow barges below it. "
The man reached his study and paused at the door, "Very impressive, if true. But this is so preposterous I have to see it for myself to believe it. If the iron in his bricks get cheaper, and we don't pay his workers, then maybe we'll consider it. You can tell him that we are interested but funds do not permit. Anything else of note?"
"The Iris have also re-acquired a lost Ritual Stone. It is already enroute to The Great Yang. That is the end of my report. "
The man nodded at the butler, "Thank you, I have much to think about. It seems that this region has been extremely busy while I have been away. "
"Indeed, Chancellor Minmay, makes the petty land disputes between the farmers seem rather insignificant. Allow me to prepare the evening meal with Kalny's new tin food. It does not make for good eating but I thought you might be curious. "
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"This man, Cato, seems to work miracles," the burly man said to the thin woman, "I told Razzi to chat with him and now Razzi is building a new paper workshop upriver. "
The room was well equipped but still showed its functional roots. The cushioned chairs and woven cloth carpet was luxurious by the standard of any merchant, but it was considered poor for a noble. The right to collect taxes from land and custom netted one a comfortable life even out here in a dead end town like Corbin.
"So you believe me now, Mayor Selabia?" the woman said, leaning forward. The Mayor of Corbin was an old woman, almost forty years, but despite outliving her husband, she still maintained watch over her domain like a hawk. Sharp-eyed and sharp tongued.
"You must forgive me for being skeptical when you first told me of this one man who has gotten Kalny and your branch of the Ironworkers... what's his name, Elma? They're making money by the barrel-load. " The burly man nodded, taking another swig from the large goblet of wine on the side table. "So yes, I believe you now. Cato must have discovered a First artifact, perhaps even the secret teachings of one of the guilds in that era. It's the only explanation. "
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"We need to keep him," Corbin said, "he may be here now, but once the bigger nobles get wind of this and work out what's going on, everyone is going to want that artifact. And word's already spreading, Minmay is looking into this man and you surely remember the vicious fight we had in the Senate to defend our right to not give away the cast iron process. "
"Thus," Selabia put down his goblet and wiped his chin messily, "you called me here for a visit. What is it you want from me?"
"Minmay is going to come sniffing around," Corbin said, "I want you to help me keep Cato away from him. "
"Why?"
The woman leaned forward, hands curling on the armrests, "Minmay may be the Chancellor now, but if we become stronger than he is... how do you like the sound of Chancellor Selabia? If we play this right, Corbin will supply the steel and Selabia the paper. They say the sword is weaker than the paper, but having both will make us more than important enough to get out from under his thumb. "
The mayor of Selabia nodded slowly. "Agreed. "
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Cato got dressed with more care that day. A Rime or two had been spent on acquiring properly aristocratic clothing. Landar had her own set that she said she was bringing to the meeting. Cato hoped that it wasn't another battlesuit. Landar knew the customs better than he did but she also liked crazy ideas and wasn't too keen on sticking to formalities.
"I don't care what is in fashion but you look awful in that," Danine said from one corner of the room.
Cato shook his head at the puffy sleeves around his upper arm and the frilly row of buttons down the front. "I think so too," he said, trying to imagine what he looked like. Ridiculous definitely. The shirt was even bright red to make things worse. Oh, what he wouldn't give to show up in a formal suit and tie, but the tailor told him that the suit design was going to take them two weeks.
He tried to adjust it into something less ridiculous, letting Danine be his mirror, but they were cut short by Landar's knock on the door. And he had completely failed to get the frills tucked in. "I've got to go," Cato said, "we should be back by tonight. You have enough money for food?"
Danine nodded and sent him off.
Landar turned up in a completely normal looking set of robes. Thick and heavy cloth that draped over her hands, leaving huge gaps in the sleeve under her arms. The body part was cut more like a bathrobe, folded across her body and somehow held closed by a cunningly tied bow at the back. The dark blue cloth didn't have any overt patterns but there were cunningly hidden lines where the surface gloss was different and only visible from certain angles of light. Her movements seemed to make the lines move around her body.
Together with her long black hair, Landar was looking much fancier in Cato's opinion. And also saner.
As the door to their rented single floor house shut behind him, Cato could hear snickers and then outright laughter coming from inside. Landar raised an eyebrow at Cato, who could only shrug. Well, at least someone was happy he was wearing this.
Landar led him down the main street of Corbin, towards where the Mayor had invited them for an evening meal. And a discussion about the incident involving the Ironworkers. The sun overhead was still bright and hot, Cato wondered what his shirt was going to look like once they had walked across town. Then there was a small flare of magic beside him that settled down into a slow burn, followed by a sudden chill in the air around and under his clothes.
He looked at Landar, who winked back. "Don't get too far away or I won't cover you," she said.
Cato grinned and they started the long walk in a private bubble of indulgence.
"How come our clothing are so different?" Cato asked after a while, "the tailor didn't have anything like yours. "
"This is a Tsarian formal style," Landar said, "my mother gave me this set when I reached my full height. Very expensive, it takes a master months to make one. "
"It looks very nice on you," Cato said. It looked more cute than formal but he supposed that was fine for women. Not that Cato was looking very formal himself.
She nodded in thanks.
"I had been expecting the nobility to start paying attention, but this is rather quicker than I expected," Cato commented, "do you think they will be interested in some projects too?"
"Maybe," Landar said, "the nobility don't have much to do with the merchants in towns however, even if they live here. Traditionally, most of a noble's income is tied to the land and taxes on food grown. The guilds are the ones who own the production of craftsman. So if you're thinking of another machine, or waterwheels, then you need to know that the nobles won't be as interested unless they have a personal reason. "
"So they would be interested in a farming project?" Cato asked, "I'll have to know how farmers do things in this world and I don't know how my world did farming enough to talk in detail. And your crops are different. "
"The nobles may know, if they pay attention to the land like they're supposed to," Landar sniffed, "but they prefer to distract a famous knight alchemist from her important experiments on glittery toys. "
"You say that, but you still spent a lot of time on that window, didn't you?" Cato pointed out.
Landar smirked, "well, a certain famous knight alchemist can always see a military application. "
"As long as it doesn't kill the nobles you made the window for. "
Landar paused for a tiniest moment then laughed, "oh come on, I wouldn't make a mistake like that. "
Uhuh. Well, Cato wouldn't want to be the noble who had commissioned that window.
"A-Anyway, I think we can give them a little bit more credit than that," Cato said, "they at least noticed that we're doing something. Perhaps I can find something I can help with. "