Cato looked out the window and nodded to himself, "looks like they won against Light's Edge. "
"How..." Polankal breathed. Light's Edge was Rany's trump card. A powerful and expensive Em master. He wasn't supposed to lose.
"Minmay said that if you are told something as fact, it becomes hard to notice when reality turns out differently," Cato said, "truly, we couldn't have done it if Rany wasn't telling him everything. "
Polankal frowned, still not understanding.
"That wasn't Adest out there, being bait. Minmay told Landar, Adest and I in private about Rany being the informer and to change the plan without him knowing," Cato explained, "when Light's Edge was told Adest was the bait and an opportunity existed to kill one of us, even if Chakim uses his summoning stone, Light's Edge would just think that it was Adest who stole it to help run away. It would help too if Chakim didn't use his full power right from the start. And once he was baited into spending too much time trying to kill Chakim posing as Adest, Landar could circle around and prevent him from escaping. Light's Edge might be a bit stronger than each of them individually but both together? With two summoning stones that he wasn't expecting? We had a good chance and the gamble paid off. "
Polankal still frowned. It was all too complicated, this sort of twisty thinking.
Cato sighed, "Short version. Minmay is better at this than Rany. The end. "
Ah, that was much easier. Polankal nodded and sipped her tea again. "But what about me? Did Minmay see through my part too?" Cato's explanation didn't cover that part.
Cato shook his head, "Minmay doesn't know about this part. Landar and I did. And we would rather it stay that way. " He looked severely at Polankal until she nodded.
"I very much doubt Minmay will let you off lightly if he knew anyway, so it's also in your interest. "
"This is what you will tell Rany when you meet him after this," Cato continued, "you were caught sneaking into my office by me but managed to convince me that you were just curious. Moved by your enthusiasm, I have agreed to hire you as my secretary. There you will have a chance to copy the books. Which is exactly what you are going to do. "
Polankal had a different sort of frown now. "But I can't read or write well," she said, "just a little bit from watching my father. "
Cato raised an eyebrow. "All right, secretary in training then. For room and board only. And making two copies of the books on this," he pulled out a stack of grey paper, "is your writing practice that I will leave you to do. Of course, you will say to Rany that you pretend to practice while actually copying my books when I'm not around. "
She pouted unhappily. Would Rany even accept that explanation? She wasn't confident she could give it without appearing nervous. It was more of the same sort of twisty thinking.
There was something earlier he had said that was more important though. "You said you would get Landar to rescue my family," Polankal said, "what do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what I said," Cato leaned forward onto his desk, "it will be hard for them to leave friends behind, but at least your parents and siblings can come here. If Landar goes to them, I'm sure they can manage to escape Duport's soldiers. That's what I'm offering you. "
Offering her?! But she was just caught trying to steal his books! Polankal didn't much choice but cooperate if she wanted to keep fooling Rany into keeping her family alive.
"I do need a secretary to help me here to organize my affairs, and I would rather that person be someone loyal to me rather than to Minmay. I want you to trust me to deal with you fairly, I do not want to control you using your family like Duport does. The next part of my request for you is a hard one and I'd like you to consider this much compensation as a fair trade," Cato said, "Rany and your family is only the start. Here, let me draw this out for you. "
He took the top sheet of paper and started to talk.
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After he was sure Polankal understood and agreed to the plan, they sat in silence for a long while, listening to the rain.
Cato spoke up suddenly, "you know, you almost died back there. " Cato nodded at the bookcase in the corner when he saw her confusion.
"What do you mean?" Polankal asked.
"The bookcase is what I mean," Cato said, "When you tried to open it, if I hadn't stopped you, there's no telling what could happen. "
Cato looked at her bewildered face and felt a smile creep onto his face. "It's Landar you know?" Cato said, "even if I told her only to make an alarm, she probably also added a few more traps. "
And there was no need to say what sort of trap it was. Triggering a Landar-special placed on the important secret books? There wouldn't be an office left afterwards.
Cato turned back to his desk, there were certain guilds he needed to write to soon. He pulled out a quill and began to draft a letter, a small matter like Landar's craziness was nothing at all to worry about after all.
He heard Polankal faint away with a soft sigh.
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"So you see why enchanting a liquid is risky, it's too easy to lose contact with parts of the fluid and kill your enchantment. "
Cato nodded at Landar's explanation, "but if it is enclosed, then a liquid can be used to support an alchemy enchantment?"
Landar nodded back.
"In that case, this one should not pose a problem?" Cato indicated the delicate glass rod on its specially carved wooden stand.
The glass rod was the first of it's kind in the world, one that had taken the master glassblower a month to make. Inside, a highly purified alcohol was encased in the large bulb. The distilled spirit filled the bulb and a little portion of the extremely thin hole drilled through the rod. Once the glass device had been sealed, the entire assembly was carefully sterilized to prevent degradation.
In other words, a crude thermometer. And this one was paid for fully out of Cato's own earnings, not the budget for the mana tax education that he was diverting for the university.
The unevenness of the painstakingly carved glass column for markings made it useless for dividing fine gradations but Cato didn't need it for that. He had something much simpler and much more selfish than a temperature standard in mind. He only needed it to mark one temperature.
The wooden ring made to fit over the glass tube was already enchanted, only awaiting its sister enchantment on the thermometer. The enchantment meant for the liquid inside that Cato and Landar had designed would block magical signals passing through it, like the tiny signal the wooden ring tried to send across its hole. This allowed the liquid to act as a trigger when it touched the wooden ring, a situation brought about when the liquid climbed up the thermometer to the point where the wooden ring had been secured. This signal would then be captured by the wooden thermometer stand.
A thermostat. This entire elaborate assembly was then connected by one of Landar's threads and used as a controlling trigger for the main part of the magical device, a large hollow metal tube.
Landar nodded to Cato and he slipped the wooden ring down the tube to an arbitrary point just below the alcohol. An increase in magical signal from the metal tube indicated that its enchantment was also working, as of course it would. Landar had tested each part in isolation after all.
A chill wind blew out of the tube at the thermometer.
The alcohol level rapidly dropped and once it crossed the level of the wooden ring, the metal tube abruptly shut down.
The cheer could be heard from the next building.
"It works! It really works!" Cato grinned, almost jumping for joy.
"Of course it does," Landar puffed out her chest, "between the two of us, it's only a matter of time until we figured it out!"
"You have no idea how much I looked forward to this day!" Cato cried, dragging over a chair to sit in front of the tube.
The thermometer climbed up as the cold air settled down and the metal tube blew a puff of ice cold air into his face.
"Hey, give me a spot too!" Landar dragged another chair over and tried to bump him off. Cato held firm for a moment but was forced to relinquish half the air stream's area.
"Ah! To bask in the luxury of air conditioning once again!" Cato gave a mock sigh. The tube coughed once as the alcohol vibrated up and down through the wooden ring.
Landar frowned at the metal tube that couldn't decide if it wanted to be off or on. "Hmm, it still needs some work though," she noted as the cooler enchantment began to cough like a sick patient.
"Agreed," Cato smoothed over his wind blown hair. The joy of a new creation might have taken longer to fade for others, but these two weren't exactly... normal. Less then a minute after the first success, he was already spinning ideas for improvement. "For one thing, the wind is too strong and the temperature drop is too much. The thermometer also toggles the tube too quickly, I doubt letting it flip on and off like that is going to make it last very long. "
As if reading his mind, the tube coughed a few more times then went silent. They watched the thermometer climb for a bit before Landar held her hand over the metal tube.
"Yeah, the trigger for the power reserve is jammed. Probably because it toggled too fast," Landar said, "perhaps if we pointed the tube away from the thermometer?"
"And made the ring only change state every few seconds," Cato said, "if the tube didn't output freezing temperatures, I doubt this room could get very cold even if the thermostat was left on for an extra minute. "
Magic apparently didn't have any difficulty in reducing the temperature of an already cold object, as contrary to physics as that was. One of the dangers of having a cooling enchantment active in a room was that such a spell could quite easily freeze a person to death, or would run out too quickly if it was limited to a non-lethal power reserve. Without a thermostat, it was impossible to have an enchantment that would keep a stable temperature. Having an alchemist watch over it was defeating the purpose of course. One might as well hire a mage to use cooling spells, the traditional way for people with too much money.
"Mm, I'll see what I can do," Landar said, "we haven't solved the power consumption problem however. Since it's going to eat a firebolt's or two worth of magic every hour and every time someone opens the door, I will be spending more than half my power every day just to keep this room cold. That's quite an incredible amount of magic to be spending, and most of it because of the alchemy inefficiency. "
Needless to say, while cooling a room to lethally low temperatures was simple enough to do once for any semi-powerful mage, just keeping a small temperature differential all day was going to require a few times more going by their prior experiments. Insulation hadn't been heard of and the heat load through these wooden walls was terrible. Not to mention the temperature differential between Cato's idea of a cool room and the outside during the hot afternoon, when it was most needed. Cato cursed himself for not having foreseen this and insisting on brick walls. Well, wasting money on brick for Landar's workshop was not something Cato wanted to do, he was still surprised he hadn't had to pay for a new wall yet.
Luckily, there was a solution just ready for that.
"Well, we are having a mana tax for a reason," Cato laughed and rubbed his hands evilly, "I don't anticipate any problems convincing Minmay to power one once the magic starts rolling in. "
Landar joined him in his evil laughter. No, there wouldn't be a problem at all if they installed one in Minmay's house, Arisacrota would make sure of that. Mana tax or not.
Not to mention, most nobles and wealthy merchants could probably afford one too, once a market trading in magical power started. It would be a good source of demand for stored magic, if frivolous. Oh, and the device would almost certainly be an instant hit in the Tsarian summoner clans, at least the ones who weren't as uptight as Iris and wouldn't turn up their nose at learning a little alchemy to power it. Why, it was almost as good as a power training exercise!
"On the other hand," Cato looked at Landar with a knowing grin, "I'm sure you will be keeping this room cool at least. I'll be looking forward to doing all my paperwork in here. "
Landar scowled back but there was no denying that she would be tempted to just live in her workshop now.
----------------------------------------
"And so with Light's Edge in custody of the Order of Knights, Rany has failed to disrupt our operations. He will likely try to bias his reports to the King," Minmay explained.
It was three days after the battle, Cato was sitting on the opposite side of the desk from where he normally would. After all, the entire building belonged to Minmay. "Will there be any problems from that?" Cato asked.
"Not particularly," Minmay dusted his fingers off with a small smile, "the rivalry between Minmay and Duport is well-known to King Ektal, he will expect no less from Rany. Furthermore, Rany cannot risk being caught reporting outright lies because this is a royal investigation. Exaggerations and interpretations, yes, but not lies. "
"I think you better write one to defend yourself though," Cato said.
"I write one to the palace every week," Minmay smiled, "it's always good to appear cooperative with an investigation. "
Cato nodded in agreement. "What about telling the king that Rany is behind the attack from Light's Edge?" he ventured, "surely that counts for something. "
"We don't have conclusive proof, Cato," Minmay said, "frustrating as it may be, Chancellor Duport will never let me get away with accusing his son of a crime when he is sure we don't have that proof. Surely my good Arthur has told you that you can't just go around telling everyone everything you saw. "
Cato sighed but there wasn't anything he could about that. If only Light's Edge had kept something to identify his connection to Rany other than suspicions of a leak. And not telling everyone everything was obvious, the question lay in what was considered alright to talk about, Cato had never gotten a straight answer on that.
"Come to think of it," Minmay asked, "I haven't seen Landar and Chakim around. Do you know where they went to?"
Cato sighed and shook his head, "Landar left because she had to go look for someone. She didn't tell me who or where since, of course, I do not control her movements. "
"Oh, that's surprising," Minmay raised an eyebrow, "I would have thought you two were joined at the hip, what the two of your cooperating with her alchemy projects. "
"Haha, no, not really," Cato waved him off with a laugh, "I'm keeping the projects in her workshop for her, but they really belong to her since I can't learn magic. Landar works at her own pace, you should know her better than me. We're only cooperating because I am weird and interesting. "
"A pity you can't call her back," Minmay sighed with mock exasperation, "your little trick with the cold fan has Arisa asking me for one every day. I swear under Selna that you two are trying to squeeze my estate dry. "
"But of course we are!" Cato spread his hands with a broad smile, "money sitting in a vault does no good. It is our solemn duty to put it to work. More seriously though, I would suggest you wait until the mana tax is mature or you'll be paying far too much just for the magical power to run the cold fan. And of course, we can't do anything until Landar returns, only she knows how to make one. "
"And you're not bothered that she's gone? I thought you two were courting?" The mischievous twinkle in the noble's eye revealed that he was just joking.
Cato laughed again, "We're just friends. I wouldn't dare to get too close to an Iris princess. "
"A good idea that," Minmay said more seriously, "the Iris do not make the best neighbours. "
"Your other neighbour is Duport. That's no comparison at all. "
"Point. " Minmay laughed at the jab at their common enemy.
A knock on the door interrupted their merry conversation. A slim hand pushed it open to reveal a young girl with dark brown hair. She balanced a small tray with cookies and teacups on her hand and shut the door behind her.
"Oh, Polankal, good timing," Cato nodded at her. She set the tray down on the table and bowed at Minmay then at Cato. "Let me introduce her," Cato said, "my secretary in training. "
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Minmay raised the cup and sipped a bit of tea, "a secretary? Is that something like a private scribe? And why training?"
"Something like that," Cato said, "in my world, secretaries made schedules, took notes and similar organizational duties. Rather than trying to remember everything by yourself and forgetting what you need to do. I thought it best to train her to read and write myself, we can't trust the nobles or merchants to not steal our secrets. "
"I understand why we can't trust them of course. She's a peasant then?"
"Polankal was our first student who isn't from a wealthy or influential family," Cato said, "since the first three classes have covered most of the wealthier students in Minmay city, it would be wise to start lowering admission fees to further spread the education. "
Polankal bowed again. They acknowledged her and turned back to the discussion.
"The first group are already mastering the enchantment process and will be able to start teaching soon, and not all of them are rich nobles. The teaching fee will naturally decrease as the knowledge spreads," Cato said, "I know we have taken a few weeks longer than we planned but your mana tax is off to a good start. "
"Good work, Cato," Minmay sampled a cookie, nodding at the light sweetness, "I must admit that our arrangement is certainly more profitable than simply buying your knowledge like others tried to do. Only you, who understands all of it, could have implemented it so quickly and successfully. I hear the Recordkeepers are planning to borrow the lecture and classroom format as a new literacy training program. "
"But unfortunately, convincing the other guilds to run their own training and recruitment courses is proving more difficult. "
"Of course," Minmay waved a hand, "I don't expect the guilds want to give away their secrets after all. In fact the Recordkeepers are only doing that because I had a talk with their branch leader. "
"Ah, yes, I did think they were suspiciously cooperative," Cato smiled, "I am trying to convince them to combine the training in literacy with the alchemy and farming tools training. It would save time when we begin training the general peasantry and improve overall performance compared to just teaching a few village leaders. "
"I will see what I can do," Minmay nodded, "I don't expect to have to push them too hard. The Recordkeepers surely want to steal your secrets after all. "
With that, the weekly report was over and after a few exchanges of pleasantries about the competing cookie recipes between Kalny and the Minmay bakers, Minmay took his leave.
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The girl ran down the street, heavy footfalls from the Rekis close behind pushing her forwards. Her breath ran ragged, but she still clutched the heavy bag on her back with a death grip. The bag banged against the corner of the alley and she bit down a cry of pain as the straps jerked at her shoulders.
"She's down this way! Quickly!"
She wiped sweat from her brow and ashed forwards again. The bag rattled against her back again, the heavy solid mass inside did no favours for her exhaustion.
The light of the alley exit suddenly disappeared in a whirling mass of claws and teeth. The girl changed directions and dived down another branch, only to run straight into a large steel shield.
The knight reacted first, he shouted and swung his shield, bashing her to the ground. The girl slammed back against the wall and dropped the bag. The knight immediately pounced on her shouting, "found her! Over here!"
An archer appeared on the rooftops and readied his bow. Down the alley, a spellstorm in the characteristic starburst patterned robes sealed off any chance of escape.
"That's as far as you go, missy," the knight said, hauling the girl to her feet. She hung limply in his hands.
"I don't think she can hear you," the spellstorm said, walking over to him. More knights appeared around the corners, crowding the alley.
"That was easy, I wonder why the request was so urgent," the knight asked.
"Clearly because of these," the spellstorm picked up one of the fallen books and idly flipped through it. He snapped it closed and nodded at the knight, "looks like it, we'll settle this in the main street. "
After the unconscious girl was unceremoniously hauled into the central street over the knight's shoulder, the spellstorm shouted at the gathered knights, "we found her! It's ours!"
"That's only because we cut her off!" shouted back one of the Reki riders.
"But it's still the fact that we found her!" the spellstorm was confident that he could make the case. The finder and possessor of the arrest target was practically nine-tenths of the proof of request. He held the bag of books close to his chest.
"Make way! Make way for Chancellor Minmay!"
The cry came up from the side, parting the knights like a river around a rock.
The chancellor rode up on his Reki, looking down at the spellstorm, no the books in his hands. The six riders around him were all looking at them.
"Show me," the chancellor said, getting off his Reki. One of the riders from behind also unmounted. Wait, that was the royal observer that everyone was talking about! Rany, third son of Duport!
The spellstorm bowed. No point getting between two nobles like them, a small existence like his mediocre party could be crushed with a minor thought, and the... disagreements between these two often reached epic proportions.
"This seems like quite the find," Minmay said. The spellstorm was confused but he just nodded anyway. "Don't worry, I recognize your achievement," Minmay said.
The spellstorm smiled and bowed deeply, but the knights around him groaned. Minmay might think he was just giving assurance that he wasn't about to steal their credit but a statement like that from the chancellor was as good as the final word. The bounty was theirs!
"What was she stealing?" Rany asked, sidling up with that arrogant swagger he always carried. The spellstorm avoided his gaze.
Minmay looked lost for once, but eventually handed over the book with a reluctant face. Rany's eyebrows rose and rose as he read through a few random pages.
"This is quite a serious crime," Rany said, ignoring the unconscious peasant girl and focusing on Minmay. "Some of these might be considered national secrets. "
A murmur ran through the knights. The spellstorm blinked. The mission had political implications. He was starting to regret being so eager to take up the easy-looking emergency capture mission.
"No no, nothing of the sort," Minmay sighed, "surely you don't think that such amateur writings could be all that important?"
There was another commotion as a low ranking but much larger group of riders pushed their way through the crowd of knights.
"Chancellor," the leading woman bowed.
"Hino," the chancellor acknowledged her.
The spellstorm could see the sparks fly between the chancellor and the woman, leader of the Minmay branch Ironworkers.
"We received a report that sensitive information regarding our trade secrets had been stolen from your experimental university," Hino said coldly.
"Such rumours might be exaggerated," Minmay shot back, but there was no fire in his voice. His eyes swept over the assembled guild leaders and prominent wealthy merchants. There was no way all these personages could have been assembled if one started after the capture request had been issued.
"By the agreement, we have the right to investigate," Hino said, getting off her Reki and walking up to Minmay.
Her height only came up to Minmay's shoulder, but the weight of the assembled guilds behind her pressured the chancellor. He sighed and let her pick the book out of Rany's hands.
She looked up after a while, "the assembled guilds of Minmay claim these under the trade secret clause of the Nurren Agreement. " Her hands were shaking.
Another murmur ran through the knights. Invoking the Nurren Agreement in broad daylight?
"Wait!" Rany stepped up, also eyeing the books hungrily, "to claim such a thing based on your own assessment is too much. We demand that the council investigate them. "
"Such a council is not required, it would defeat the purpose of the trade secret clause-"
"I challenge your claim that the contents of these books are trade secrets," Rany said instantly, "the contents have to be examined by a chosen council in order to prove your claim. Of course, the council will destroy all copies if they are found to contain trade secrets. "
There was no way under Selna that all the copies would be destroyed. Even the spellstorm could tell that Rany was just aiming to get the books for himself.
Minmay sighed and looked up at the sky, muttering, "oh Cato, what have you done?"
Only the spellstorm seemed to have heard him at all. The fiery argument between a noble and the guilds in a very public area was taking up everyone else's attention.
The spellstorm kept his mouth shut.
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Just after the talk with Minmay
"Does he suspect anything?" Polankal asked as she swept the cookie crumbs off the table onto the plate and collected the teacups.
"No, almost certainly not," Cato said, "Minmay is always on the lookout for nobles and merchants trying to take advantage of him. Peasants are just a statistic to him. Landar tells me that he won't even remember what you look like unless he meets you very often, which we should avoid of course. "
"Statistic?"
"A way to analyze numbers. It's not important," Cato went around the table and took out a stack of paper and a book, "here, do another ten sheets for today's practice. At least. "
Polankal took the quill and ink from him, sat down at the smaller side table and began to laboriously copy the contents of the book. Cato himself began to tally up funding numbers on his own set of documents.
They were accompanied only by scratching sounds of quill on rough paper.
"I still don't understand why you will go so far to help me," Polankal asked suddenly, putting aside a piece of paper to dry.
Cato put down his quill, careful not to stain the paper. He looked at her for a long while. "I heard about how peasants are treated from Minmay and Kalny but it would be good to get a first hand account," he said, more to himself than to Polankal, "so tell me, how has your life been up until now?"
"Me?" Polankal looked around the room but found nothing much to say, "I don't feel my life is very special. "
"It's all right, just tell me," Cato said.
She bowed her head. "I'm the third child in my family. I have four siblings, two brothers and two sisters. My father was the mayor of our village. My mother is... she passed away more than ten years ago. "
"How did she die?" Cato asked.
Polankal looked away, facing the wall. She stayed silent for a long moment before answering, "I was six then, I don't remember much. But I do know she died during childbirth. Fourth sister died together with her. "
"Fourth sister?" Cato asked again.
"I had eight siblings in total, including fourth sister. Only five of us have names," Polankal fell silent, unwilling to elaborate further. She hoped he could guess what happened to her unnamed siblings.
"We never really went hungry," Polankal said, "despite the tax, my father is the mayor after all. But it also meant that I never had many friends where I grew up. "
"Because the other villagers sometimes did not have enough food?" Cato asked.
Polankal nodded, still looking away, "we... we have to give nearly half our village's grain to the lord. Without some special position, like my father, it's impossible to grow enough food. "
"What about medicine?" Cato asked, "is there-"
"There isn't, not really," Polankal replied, "the nobles might be able to buy some, but ever since the Order of Pastora left Ektal... my second cousin was the only woman who could help my mother. "
"What about other things? Surely it's not all bad," Cato asked, trying to be more gentle.
"Yeah," Polankal smiled, "there was the Cel Inci two years ago. That was the first time I ever tasted a yama jam cake. My father bought it for us using most of our savings for that year. I will never forget that sweetness. Imagine my shock when I see you put it in your tea every day. "
Cato smiled back. "For all those reasons, is why I am doing this," Cato explained, "no, I'm not pitying you. Doing this won't make you rich, at least not more than being my secretary. But I do this to solve the fundamental problem, that life is hard. To make it so that there can be enough for everyone to eat, for people to learn how to heal, to make things like sugar and yama jam something everyone can enjoy. To stop the monsters from killing us all. "
Polankal sighed, "no lands holds such a paradise. Only in stories does the land yield us so much food. "
"It can be," Cato insisted, "simply through improving the amount we can produce with our hands. If right now, one person can farm enough land to feed two, what about if we can feed four from the work of one person? The people who don't have to farm just to survive can now be soldiers and doctors. Or they can make yama jam and even more delicious food. And why stop at four? Why not eight or a hundred people? And if it takes one person making yama jam for ten people to have sugared tea, why not improve that too?"
"There's no way one person can plough that much land," Polankal sighed again, "I've watched wind eyes grow all my life. It is not possible. "
"It is possible," Cato said, "all you have to do is learn and understand how things work. How the wind eyes grow, how do you make them grow better? I brought with me knowledge, here in those books, that is the first step to making the tools that can do this. "
He got up to open the book in front of her to the drawings of farming machines. Ploughs, seed drills, threshers and mill stones. Magically powered or otherwise. Theories and hypotheses on plowing and seeding geometry, fertilizers and the charting of potential crop cycles other than the current two-field system. There was even the preliminary results of a test field divided into tiny plots investigating fertilizer and irrigation mixes and schedules.
This much at least, she could relate to her experience. Even if most of the ideas were incomplete and probably not workable, Polankal could see the effort that had gone into studying the plants. And some of the ideas looked to be real improvements.
Duport had already tried to kill to get these books and now Polankal understood why. And if this one book was only about growing crops, then what about the other four Cato was giving her?
"I... this is too much for me," Polankal shook her head, "I can't do this. The nobles will surely take it away. So will the guilds! How can a peasant like me-"
"You can," Cato said, "the books here contain the knowledge you need. With education, you can improve your life. When all peasants can read, when everyone thinks and works for themselves, you will not need to let them take it away. "
"But there are the knights? If we don't pay the taxes, they will come to take it from us!" Polankal could hardly believe Cato had not thought of that.
But of course he had. "And why can the knights use force to make you pay these unfair taxes?" Cato spread his hands, "because they train in magic. They train in fighting. Each knight is trained to be strong and powerful. But as knowledge of magic advances, personal strength becomes less important. Eventually, your magical tool will determine how much power you have. "
But to fight them! The knights! How could peasants resist the knights, no matter what magical items they had? No, how would peasants get magical items anyway?
Cato laughed at Polankal's incredulous face. Making magical items that would let a peasant fight against a knight?! But how could it be? She looked up at Cato, as if seeing him again for the first time. Just what was this man trying to do?
She must have said it out loud. Cato replied, "I'm trying to change the world. "