The Corbin mansion was unimpressive. A three storey stone building, cut much like the Academy's, with a flat facade that was supposed to be imposing and powerful, but came off to Cato as inadequate. Its aged unpainted surface was worn smooth and the balcony overlooking the approach through the garden was looking a little droopy. The flowers on the garden were just normal flowers, not especially pretty but not shabby either.
Besides, no matter how impressive the building appeared, Cato wouldn't be unless it had a flush toilet. This town didn't even have a sewer system. Cato sometimes wondered how these people put up with the stink, but perhaps that was why perfume of some sort seemed to be one of the first purchases of anyone with some money.
There were guards at the gates, armed and armoured with very much functional weapons. They were expected however and the two men waved Cato and Landar through with only a cursory check of their names. They didn't even look inside Cato's document case.
"You are expected," the maid at the front door said, "please come in, Mayor Corbin is in the drawing room and she expects your company before dinner. "
Cato nodded his thanks, Landar following silently behind him. The inside of the house was comfortably cool and well cleaned by the six maids who were even now still furiously cleaning every available surface. But the walls and floor were still just cut stone and the candles lighting the rooms were essentially just fancier ones than the single stick that Cato had.
Well, he was here to fix that.
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"Ah, you have arrived!" the woman who greeted him at the drawing room was presumably the Mayor of Corbin. There were two other men waiting in cushioned seats placed around a large table set with sweets and minty tea. The room itself was a touch more luxurious than the rest of the mansion, with a carpet spread under the furniture and soft candlelight oozing out behind shades.
All three of them wore the same ridiculous looking puffy sleeved shirts and pants, except for Corbin who was wearing a well embroidered ankle length skirt.
Mayor Corbin was a thin woman with a head of greying hair, and a sharp pair of eyes and nose. The wrinkles on her face told of her age but their gentle touch showed her a true woman of the nobility, untouched by hard labour or back breaking duties.
"I am Mayor Corbin, it is good to meet you at last," she said, nodding to Cato in the traditional greeting. Cato returned it and she turned to the other two men.
"This is Mayor Selabia," she introduced the first man. He was large and round, that reminded Cato of Kalny although Selabia didn't have black hair. Clearly none of them had any Tsarian ancestry. The man nodded at Cato, not bothering to rise from his seat, and popped another sweet into his mouth. There was a crunching sound as he crushed the hard sweet between his teeth.
"And this is my son, Horast Rui," she gestured at the other man. He had brown eyes like his mother, but the man looked bored and uninterested. He paid more attention to Landar and Cato wasn't sure if he liked the look in the man's eyes. Landar didn't either and frowned at Horast. He broke eye contact.
"I'm Landar," Landar introduced herself, "I appreciate your invitation for dinner. "
Mayor Corbin smiled and set about pouring them a cup of tea each as they took a seat. There were no servants in the drawing room.
Cato asked Landar, "why are the mayors called that? Were their towns named after their ancestor?"
"In Ektal, the noble who rules the land takes its name. So when Horast Rui inherits this town and its land from his mother, he will become Corbin Rui," Landar explained. She muttered to herself, "much good does it do to make them care about the land though. "
"May that not happen soon," Mayor Selabia said.
Mayor Corbin nodded, "let's talk about your recent achievements, Cato. Kalny is preserving food in glass bottles and Mason Muller is obsessed with building bigger and bigger bridges. Both of them point to you as a key factor in helping their work. And despite what the Ironworkers say, we suspect the new cast iron is yours too. "
Cato nodded, "that much is true. I also talked to a Mr Razzi about better ways to make paper. I believe he has started construction upriver of Selabia. "
"Indeed," Selabia said, "I am expecting much from him. "
"So, we would like to talk about what you are doing and how," Corbin continued, "it is clear to us that you must have uncovered a stash of knowledge from the First. "
Cato frowned, he didn't like where this was going.
"We want you to sell it to us," Corbin said, "it can be very worthwhile for you, without any of the risks of talking to the merchants. "
Cato raised an eyebrow. "But if it is not a stash of knowledge?" Cato asked.
"We are nobles you know, it would be to your advantage if we could trust your words," Selabia cut in.
"He means that you shouldn't lie to us," Corbin shot the man a look, "no one can create this many changes, improvements that change things as much as my father saw in his entire life. Unless you're claiming to be a genius. "
"Not a genius," Cato said carefully, "I really haven't got anything from the First, but let's say I do have some special knowledge that isn't written down. You couldn't buy the knowledge itself but you can pay me to help you. In fact, that's what I was going to propose over dinner. "
"Nonsense! You can't possibly-"
Corbin cut off Selabia's outburst with a wave of her hand. "Let us hear what you have to say first," Corbin said, "we should try to understand each other's position before negotiating. "
Cato nodded and took out his notes. The farmers here only used manure as fertilizer and irrigation was unheard of. Depending on the location and how hard the ground was, cast iron plows might help too, as would a double plow pulled by more one Reki. And the seeds of Wind Eyes were currently cast by hand, Cato could probably devise a simple seed drill linked to wheels on the plow itself.
Cato wasn't sure how much increased yield the farmers could achieve with these Earth inventions, for all he knew they weren't suitable for Wind Eyes. But the saving in labour would at least increase the farmable land area.
"But chief among all these ventures we can try is a laboratory," Cato explained, "too much of this is guesswork on my part, I don't know how much they will help, if at all. If I can get funds to perform experiments, my ideas will work better and help more. In particular, I know very little of magic and a laboratory would help a lot. "
The two mayors frowned at the papers spread across the table. Some parts contained more detail than others, projections of yield increases, animal driven irrigation pump diagrams and plows were well defined, crucial measurements made in Cato's own set of units were less detailed or even left out entirely. Landar had told him not to give away all his ideas when presenting them.
"But I also heard you can make steel," Corbin said, "I would have thought you would want impress us with that. "
Cato blinked. But the nobility were supposed to be more interested in farming? He shook his head, "I'm sorry, I didn't bring my notes for those. "
"What about this bowgun we heard about from Wendy's Fort?" she asked again.
"That rightly belongs to Landar," Cato said.
Landar stepped forward, "the bowgun is a simple mechanism but not many alchemists can make one. It takes some skill to be able to create the trigger block and there are deficiencies in the construction that make accuracy poor. Besides, I don't see why you would be interested in one, no battlemage would have any use for it. "
They sat there in silence for a moment, Cato had a feeling they were a little disappointed. "Give us some time to discuss this," Corbin said. She gestured at the door, "can you wait in the neighbouring room until we are done?"
"Certainly. "
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"Landar, I thought you said they would be more interested in farming?" Cato asked Landar once the servant had left them alone in the side room. "These two seem to want to make steel. "
"I'm not sure," Landar said, "the nobles back in the Central Territories where I grew up always complained that us Iris could never help in the farming. And the nobility are never interested in the Ironworkers. "
"So these two are different," Cato said, getting up to pace. What if these two nobles actually wanted to learn how to make steel? He might be able to sell them on the Bessmer furnace, instead of their impossible demand for everything he knew. That stack of books he had painstakingly written wasn't going to be easy to recreate, nor were they complete. "What do they actually want?" he wondered aloud.
"I suspect they're not looking for money," Landar said, "I was watching them while you talked and they only appeared slightly interested in increased yields. You may not have noticed Selabia's eyes when she mentioned steel, but they lit up with as much greed as I've ever seen in any merchant. "
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"To build a new industry from ground up is very difficult," Cato added, "much less if the Ironworkers are trying to sabotage it. I'm sure the nobility can protect their own operations better than Kalny but still. "
"They are concerned about something else," Landar said, "I don't know enough about the politics to say what though. "
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"What do you think?"
Selabia looked at the woman and just shrugged. Her son Horast said lazily, "I think he's telling the truth. There is no such stash. Either that or he has memorized it. "
It went without saying that memorizing the knowledge and destroying all copies was a perfect method to prevent theft.
"The bowgun could be a possibility," Selabia said, "together with steel, we could arm a militia. One that Minmay can't ignore. "
"Are you sure you should be having the paper mill? Its starting to sound like I should be making the paper and you the steel. "
"I'm the one with the river," Selabia grunted, "even if the iron ore comes through me, you still have nearby forests to make charcoal from. Razzi won't move to Corbin anyway, he has a sister here. "
"What about the grain?" Horast said, "those were ideas I've never heard of before. Not even in the stories. "
"They're no good," his mother said, "our farmland is too constrained. Corbin by the Death Marsh and Selabia by the Snow Wall. Minmay will benefit more than us. "
"So about the bowguns?" Selabia brought the conversation back to his preferred topic.
"They might work," Corbin said, "it'll be tricky, training bowguns to face off against battlemages but it could be done with enough people and arrows. The steel should help. "
"But how do we prevent Minmay from developing the same bowguns?" Horast said.
"We need him then," Selabia said, "we can't buy out the stash if it doesn't exist so we need to keep Cato to ourselves. "
They looked at each other. Then Corbin finally nodded and rung the bell for a servant.
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"The steel is very interesting," Corbin paused to wipe a bit of oily sauce from her lips, "as well as the bowguns. We would like to discuss more about that. "
"I don't see why we had to wait until dinner to discuss it," Cato complained a little but still ate anyway. The paka steak was quite delicious, a welcome change from the usual bread. Not that their bread wasn't better too, it didn't have those hard shells of the grain stuck inside. Of course, the nobility would have better food, although Cato winced at the thought of the cost.
"We had to make some arrangements and verify your claims," Corbin said, "you understand of course. "
"Perfectly," Cato nodded, "do you have an arrangement in mind or shall I start with our proposal first?"
"We would like an exclusive agreement," Corbin leaned forward on the white tablecloth, "you work for us and no one else. Apart from the three partners you already have, you keep your activities completely secret. Let us handle the Ironworkers. "
Cato raised an eyebrow, that was a condition he hadn't expected. Not even Kalny expected him to keep everything to himself. "And what are you offering?" he asked out of curiousity. He couldn't agree to it of course, Cato intended to spread most of the initial inventions as widely as possible. It was essential to advancing as quickly as possible.
"Funding of course. We will allow a laboratory, as you call it, six rimes per week. If you create an easy way to make bowguns, or improve their accuracy substantially, we will buy those for twenty rimes each," Corbin said, "you will also be on retainer to Corbin and will be paid a rime per week. The arrangements for the steel can be discussed when you have collected your notes but we are prepared to be generous there as well. "
Cato sighed and shook his head. This was far too low. Even his half a rime per day income from the three merchants was half what they were offering. And if he managed to optimize the bowguns, the spin off advantages of standardized construction would make their offer of twenty rimes look puny. He couldn't accept this even if they didn't want exclusivity.
"I can't agree to this," he said, "your offer is too low by far. By your interest in the bowgun, I suspect there is a market for it, just not with the order of knights. And the exclusive agreement simply isn't possible. "
"We do insist though," Corbin said, "the exclusive agreement is the most important part. What can we do to make it worthwhile?"
"I aim to spread these inventions as far as I can," Cato said, "especially the plow and seed drill. The main problem the Inath federation has is the huge numbers of people dedicated to farming. To support more industry, you will need to make farming more efficient or there simply will not be enough people to make things. I trust you see how having an exclusive agreement makes that difficult. "
"Even so, those inventions will spread anyway," Corbin pointed out, "you may still do the same through us. "
Cato shook his head, "I don't think it will be the same. In any case, I would prefer to retain our independence. "
"Is there no possibility we could make this agreement work?"
"Not with the exclusive agreement," Cato said firmly.
They stared at each other over an interrupted dinner. Next to them, Landar chewed on another forkful of paka patty, still watching the three nobles. Mayor Corbin looked at Selabia for a moment, who shrugged back.
With an exaggerated sigh, Corbin picked up the servant bell from the table and rang it twice. "In that case, I am afraid that I can't let you leave. "
Two magical sources appeared outside the room at her signal and began to move towards the door.
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Danine crept across the roof slowly and carefully, her furry tail sticking up from the tiles like a giant question mark. Below, in the alley, the three rather familiar bullies were passing around a few stolen chokos and generally having a laugh.
Their banter drifted to the mention of Fukas and Danine's ears flicked. That was the only outward sign of distress she gave.
"That little girl kept mewling, like some kind of animal," the big leader boy said.
"My papa always said they weren't people. And he's in Redwater," the smallest of the trio added, "What did you do after you got her?"
"She was good for nothing," the big boy spat on the ground, "No matter how I nudged her, she just wouldn't do anything. "
"Did you push her down?" said the other boy. The fat one, Danine liked to refer to him, even though he was more bulky than fat.
"Ew, no. Who knows what sort of monster diseases they could have?" the leader spat again, "I hoped to get a show, what do animals need clothing for eh? But she wouldn't listen no matter how many times I hit her. I got nothing but a couple of Telins. Couldn't hold her down with less than both hands. "
"We should have been there, then you can get some action," the fat one said.
Danine crept away in silence.
Her heart was not silent however. Not as she beheld the small girl trying to squeeze herself into the gap between the roof tiles, a ragged tail wrapped around her bruised neck and arms. Tam hadn't had much success trying to approach her for the last hour, which was what sent Danine out to track down the bullies.
More like little gang members in training, she thought.
"You'll be fine here," she said gently to the girl, not daring to approach too close, "I don't think those boys can climb up here like we can. "
"I'm sorry, I couldn't even get her name," Tam apologized.
"It's all right," Danine said, "we shouldn't push her too hard. Come, follow me. "
They left the Fuka girl on the roof as Danine lead Tam over the rooftops whose handholds were becoming rather familiar now. She pointed out the ledge just below the edge of the roof tiles on the opposite side of the alley. She hopped across and hit the ledge with a foot. A pivot and roll later, she was beckoning to him.
"Where are we going?" Tam asked as he followed her across.
"Just a little hunting," Danine said with a deceptively flat voice, her tail puffed up in anger. They crossed the town again to where she had last seen them then a glimpse out of the corner of her eye caught them lounging in one of the side alleys, laughing at each other's jokes. No doubt planning further nefarious acts.
"Wait!" Tam tugged on her sleeve, "what are you doing?!"
Danine looked around the roof and spotted a loose tile. She pried it out of the roof, silently apologizing to the owner. Well, it was for a good cause. She looked over the edge again, they were still there right below.
"It's all right," she grinned as she pitched the tile over the side, "we have the high ground. "
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Note: Hooray for cliffhangers!