Ryulo watched from the rooftop as a tail disappeared around the corner of the houses. Counting to ten under his breath, he dropped down the side of the house and landed in front of her.
"Where do you think you're going, madam?" the phrase was getting very familiar now.
Danine yelped in surprise and tried to pat down the fur on her bushy tail. "Not anywhere important," she said, looking aside.
Suspicious. "You've disappeared around evening every day for the last week," Ryulo stated.
"I just want to see the town," Danine made up an excuse lamely. Even he could tell she knew it wasn't going to get past him.
"Even if it has been safer recently, you should know that the humans don't like us," Ryulo said.
After the last major fight, the Red Water seemed to be leaving the Fukas alone now. Life was slowly getting back to normal and running the trade from his village through their quarter to merchants from the outside brought in some money.
"And every night you come back smelling strange," Ryulo said slowly, "where have you been?"
She looked away silently. Her ears and tail lay flat, as if expecting to be scolded or hit.
"Please answer me," Ryulo sighed, "your mother will worry otherwise you know?"
"Using her is unfair," Danine muttered.
"Not as unfair as you, going off to do something dangerous without telling anybody. "
"You don't even know it's dangerous," Danine said.
"If it wasn't, you would have told us already," Ryulo said, "Is what you're doing safe?"
Danine looked down without saying anything.
"Look, tell me what you're doing, speak to me," Ryulo urged her, "if you're in trouble or you want something, I'll hear you out. "
She took a step back and shook her head.
"Ryulo!" the shout from behind him made him turn around. A short scrabbling sound later and Danine had disappeared onto the rooftops.
"Aleas. " His fiance appeared around the corner holding two sheets of paper. "Danine's run off again," Ryulo said, "I can't imagine where she's going that she has to sneak off every day. "
"Are you sure you're supposed to be the best hunter of our village?" Aleas raised her tail merrily, "you can't even track a young girl for a few hours. "
"When your prey can run up walls and practically fly for tens of meters, I'll like to see you track her," Ryulo rolled his eyes, "what is it?"
"I found this in her room," Aleas held up the two papers, eyebrows knitted with worry, "they're letters. To Minmay. "
Huh. "What's that girl have to do with the chancellor?"
"She's warning him of suspicious movements on Corbin's part, something about how Corbin is raising an army," Aleas said flatly.
Ryulo spun on his heels to see the rapidly vanishing figure leap across the rooftops, "that sneaky little tail! She's taken the Ironworkers' request!"
He grabbed up his bow and caught Aleas's raised eyebrow.
"I'm going after her, we can't let her play with fire like this," Ryulo shook his head, "if Corbin raising an army is true, Danine is poking her ears into the Reki's den!"
Aleas nodded, "you chase her back, I'll get some backup, just in case. "
Ryulo nodded back and scrabbled up the wall himself. Aleas frowned and sighed as she watched his tail disappear over the side of the tiles.
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Danine spared a glance behind her. Nothing. Looked like she wasn't being followed.
Good. Even if it was for the benefit of the Fukas, she still felt guilty about disobeying instructions. Cursing her childishness, Danine sidled up the wall, tail held low, then dropped down her favourite hiding spot.
The soldiers drilling with their black cast iron weapons were intimidating and Danine stayed low behind the bushes lining the wall edge so as not to get caught. Most days, she went back with nothing, all the initial observations were merely being repeated day to day as the soldiers went through their drill. She could see them getting better and more terrifying but they were still ultimately the same hundred guys and girls in a field yelling their lungs out.
One got a little bored with that.
But occasionally, like it appeared today, she saw something useful. The mysterious messenger from the south had come up again and Corbin and him and Selabia were watching the drills again. The soldiers picked up the pace like they always did when the big guys were watching.
As the display ran down together with the sweat onto the floor, the messenger and Corbin seemed to be satisfied and left towards the gate to the messy common area of the town. As they always did when they wanted a little privacy, which they got, only with an extra tail in it.
She crept down the wall, tracking their movement through the market square's final hours of business. They had started to change their routine recently and if she didn't keep up, Danine could lose track...
She turned a corner and saw Corbin waiting in the middle of the street. Selabia was looking at a shop but where was the messenger?
"A little hanger-on we have here, hm?"
The voice made her jump. He was right behind her! She looked back and saw two of the soldiers behind the oily man. A quick glance out into the street showed at least three commoners were actually soldiers too, the misshapen lumps under their clothing were obviously swords and shields now that Danine was looking for it.
The man caught her glance and gestured with a look over her shoulder. Danine glanced back again and noticed a glint in the window across the street. A crossbow archer perhaps.
In a fix was not an appropriate description for her situation. In a pot of already boiling water was more like it.
"I was wondering how all our information always seemed to leak out to Minmay," the man said, "you gave us a lot of trouble you know? Combing our ranks for a bribe wasted too much time. "
Danine glanced up and down the street, looking for a way out. Was the pair of shoppers leaning against the wall up there actually more soldiers?
The man smiled nastily and raised a hand. Right then, time for desperate measures.
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Ryulo was still trying to find sight or smell of Danine's tail when the sudden screams from two streets over told him where she was. And that the trouble had found her first.
He shot a light arrow into the air, a bright flare at the blunted rubber head sending the signal across the entire of town. Now it was time to go save her.
With one single powerful bound, and a bit of force pushing cheat, Ryulo sailed across the three wagon wide street to the row of houses opposite. Nocking a killing metal arrow to his bow, he was ready to unleash death. With the new ultra precise micro-timer from Landar controlling the Resist enchantment, an iron arrow propelled at Em enhanced speed with a Resist enchantment timed to activate just after leaving the string was massive overkill for non-mages but Ryulo wasn't going to spare any mercy today.
He ground to a halt at the sight of the street below.
The screams had come from the soldiers surrounding Danine, judging from the two bleeding soon to be corpses on the ground. A soldier swung his sword downwards but Danine just slid to the left without even moving her feet, as if walking on air. A quick Em enhanced jab to the throat later and he was also rolling on the ground, getting in the way of the others trying to pin her down.
It didn't affect Danine, her Em boosted footsteps always seemed to bring her one step out of reach and the short sword in her hand, looted from one of the fallen soldiers, was just as threatening when the little girl had just as much strength as fully adult men.
There was a twinkling from a window and Ryulo's sense of danger spiked. Just then, Danine seemed to freeze solid and a massive crash of shattering metal cracked across the street.
The crossbow bolt simply shattered on her shoulder, gouging only a shallow wound to match the one on her other arm. Far too small for a crossbow bolt, it must not be one of those bowguns. In fact, Ryulo didn't sense any magic from the soldiers at all. They were just peasants. Trained peasants.
His ears caught the faint creaking of the bow wire and almost without thinking, he leveled his bow and fired at the shooter. The Resist arrow plunged through the man's breastplate and almost completely out the other side, sending the man staggering back.
Another clang from below sounded as one of the soldiers managed to land a kick to Danine's legs, only to find his armoured legs bouncing off her bare skin. Danine wobbled for a split second, giving the soldier coming up behind her time to grab her collar and haul the girl off the ground.
She regretted it instantly. Danine's hand clawed backwards, smashing the woman's jaw with a nasty crack while the other intercepted an oncoming shield with a solid punch.
Then Ryulo saw the formally dressed man in the alley backing away, clearly in charge and unhappy, and quickly drew a bead on him, shouting, "call them off if you want to live!"
"Ryulo!" Danine shouted happily, looking up.
The soldiers were less easily distracted however and one of them took the chance to draw his sword in front of Danine's neck. Then before she could react to that, another came up behind her to pin her arms.
The action came to a stop as the soldiers looked back to the unknown man for direction.
He shifted uncomfortably and cleared his throat, "well then, if you want her to li- aark!"
Ryulo's arrow came from nearly directly above into his right shoulder, shattering his spine and lungs in a single devastating blow. The Resist arrow was actually buried head deep into the stone paving below, having exited through his left hip. The man collapsed in a pool of blood and innards.
The soldiers shouted and rallied admirably. The sword holder thrust his blade forwards but Danine screwed up her eyes in concentration and the metal was barely able to scratch her throat at all.
Ryulo spun around, catching movement out of the corner of his eye. The second archer ran away from the window as his arrow shattered the woman's crossbow, a rare miss. Danine kicked away the threat in front of her, unbalancing the man holding her from behind as he was fumbling for a knife. Then Ryulo's fourth arrow freed Danine from her captor by way of exploding head syndrome.
The seven soldiers still alive were now cautious, some carrying their shields aloft to protect from Ryulo's deadly arrows. But they were still clearly underestimating the Fukas' Ems. Ryulo just aimed for the nice big target of the shield bearing the white and blue cross in the center. How nice of them to provide target boards.
After one shield was pierced the soldiers began to back away more now.
Then their imminent defeat by one hunter and a little girl was saved by the hurried arrival of a troop of Rekis, knights clanking in their armour on top. In their magic armour.
Ryulo paused to think rapidly. Now that the knights were almost here, the fighting would stop. But how to prevent Danine from being arrested by them?
The knights didn't approach her, looking up at him worriedly and for some reason, at the row of shops on the other side of the street. Then he caught sight of a pinch of red cloth.
Danine's friends had arrived. Aleas leading them waved at him from the rooftop, half hidden behind the crest of the building.
"You Fukas really like high places, huh?" the leader of the knight group urged his Reki forwards up to Danine.
"It's not my fault," Danine said instantly.
The man raised his eyebrows, "what isn't your fault?"
They shared a look down at the dying men and women around her. The knight looked back up at Ryulo on the roof, clearly eyeing the metal arrows.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Then he sighed, "I wonder how a young girl like you managed to become so proficient at Ems. "
Danine started guiltily and the knight shot another glance upwards.
Was he nervous about Aleas? He might be assuming that Danine's friends were all as good as her. Ryulo squinted down at the knight, trying to guess if he was guessing if they could win a fight. There were only six knights after all. And maybe Danine's friends were that good. And the Ironworker goon did say he judged Ryulo to be as good as a knight. Maybe they could win?
Ryulo wasn't about to make that gamble. And it looked increasingly likely from the uncomfortable battle of gazes down there that the knight didn't want to fight either.
"The Order of Knights will undoubtedly receive an arbitration request," the knight said with a nod, finally. "You best be prepared for it. "
With that, they rode off and most of the tension went with them.
Ryulo looked down at Danine who collapsed onto the ground in relief. She grinned up at him, a grin that slowly died as she started to realize just how much trouble she was about to get into.
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"We have been waiting for some time now," Duport said to the man standing in front of him, "when will your contact ever push that woman forwards? There's only so much training she can do. "
"The longer you wait for Corbin, the stronger a distraction she will make," the spymaster said.
"And the stronger Minmay gets," Duport growled, "that new spell cannon from their university is practically an artifact! If we have to face that thing in battle..."
"Minmay has attached it to his Guards, which of course he would," the spymaster explained, "so Corbin will be the one to meet that surprise, and however nasty it might be, it won't help when your knights crush his city. The worst thing for us Minmay could do would be to lend it to the Minmay knights, but I doubt that will happen any time soon. "
It went without saying that Minmay's attempt at skirting the Rule of Arms was becoming a symbol of Minmay's independence. Giving something like that spell cannon to the knights, no illusions on getting it back, would be devastating to Minmay's political control.
Duport nodded. This was all scenarios they had discussed before, but the spymaster knew that retreading familiar ground was needed with a man like Duport.
"The knights are getting restless here, keeping them on probes and minor raids is making them antsy when such power is concentrated," the chancellor said, grabbing and downing a wine goblet held by the waiting servant. She went to get another refill. "I'll give her another week and no more. The attack comes whether she's ready or not. "
The spymaster bowed as the man swept out of the room with a flourish of his long robe.
Frowning, he rang up the scribe boy to bring a message to the knights of his own game in the shadows. It was worrisome that his contact dedicated to managing the Corbin affair hadn't reported in since the reports of a fight between Corbin and a few slum Fukas.
Then again, if that man had managed to get himself killed by a couple of measly tails then he was probably more incompetent than the spymaster thought and deserved to be removed anyway.
He sniffed, considered the matter for a moment then wrote another letter detailing the unfortunate man's replacement. The first task being making sure the previous shoes were unfilled, and emptying them if they weren't.
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Dear Cato,
I have taken on a promising group of young independent blacksmiths. They have managed to build an airtight seal by carving close fitting threads and sealing it with rubber from my tins. I saw the benefit immediately and extended an employment offer that they accepted.
They assure me they can replicate the one way check valve you described and diaphragm air pumps with decent performance should become possible. However, apart from moving water and fluid around my factories, I cannot see any uses for a vacuum pump. Perhaps you have some ideas?
Also, I have found a fast growing Mirin bush yielding a leaf extract containing a starch breaking ingredient. It's not a high yield but it is the strongest I have seen. The activity is sensitive to heat so it is clear that this observation is an enzymatic reaction. Mirin leaves aren't edible so there are no records on attempts to farm this bush. I doubt it will be easy. Do you have any recommendations?
Kalny
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Kalny,
Vacuum pumps are very useful! If it's not too costly, I imagine you can use it for quick low-heat distillation. Pressure swing distillation to get much higher purities also relies on having a good air seal and pumps. The zero-heat distillation in particular gives you another food preservation method more suited for bulk transport, freeze drying, and if combined with canning can extend the shelf life of foods into decades!
It may come as a surprise to you, but at high vacuums, ice can boil directly into steam without going through the liquid water phase. This will preserve food texture and taste better, as well as reduce weight of most food drastically. Almost like transporting raw windeye flour. You may also attempt the same on seawater to purify salt although there are probably cheaper ways to achieve that.
In fact, I suggest that you help the blacksmiths create a partner company that you own a share of the profits, in exchange for seed money and consultation. I will write the sketches of how a limited liability company works and the concept of ownership shares and submit it to the Minmay Bank for consideration. Pump design is also required for hydraulics and the more advanced machinery, clearly out of your area of expertise. It would be better if you could focus on food industry while developing a more technology focused partner. There are uses to high pressure too.
As for the Mirin bush, I have no farming expertise and can only give general suggestions. Other than the basic fertilizer and water tolerance experiments I did with windeyes. From my knowledge of Earth, a deliberate breeding and mutagenesis program can improve yields drastically. You may wish to create a list of desirable traits that will make farming the bush easier and manually create crosses and clones to encourage those traits. Be warned that this will be a long project however, possibly lasting many years.
Of course, there's no reason why those techniques are restricted to Mirin. I was considering starting one for windeyes, which suffer the same long stalk problem as wheat and thus might support better yield with a dwarf variant. I eventually decided not to do so as there were faster payoff projects I could put my attention to. Don't let that stop you however.
Unfortunately, I am heading out on an expedition to the Snow Wall soon and correspondence may become unreliable in this period. I hope this does not pose too much of a problem for you.
Cato
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"And we think Corbin is making waves to the north," the captain of the Guard began his final point in the summary review.
Arthur nodded his thanks and elaborated, "her metal working industry has been getting more intensive and the Ironworkers there have made complaints about her governance. The strength of her soldiers is unknown but the Knights are clear that they can defeat her easily, even if the Corbin knights decide to back her, which is not certain. "
Minmay rocked in his chair for a while. "Any more news from our little informant?"
"I don't think we're going to getting much out of her anymore," Arthur explained, "last I heard she hasn't sat down for the entire of this week after that spanking. "
Minmay shared smiles among the three of them, "I shall mourn the loss of a good pair of ears. Selna knows she was certainly daring enough to try to steal the secrets of iron. "
"A bit too daring, if the rumour of her killing six soldiers is true," the captain added dryly.
"So what shall we do?" Arthur asked.
Minmay rocked in his chair for a while, thinking and staring at the ceiling.
"Reiga, what do you think of the knights?"
"Whose knights?" the captain of the Guard asked.
"Ours and Duport's. Can we hold him off if he tries to attack us?" Minmay clarified.
"No,' the captain shook his head, "I may not be the most well studied in battle magic but we simply don't have enough knights. Not since Ektal convinced the Central Territories that their knights should sit this out. "
"So its a gamble then. "
The two men looked at each other as Minmay continued to study the stone above.
"You can't be thinking of pitting the Guards against Duport's knights?!" Reiga exclaimed.
"I am indeed," Minmay said, "I have seen your drill. The real drill, not the one you stage for everyone else. Cato's tactics are well suited to the weaknesses of the knights. And we always knew that you would be tested at some point. And without the Guards, there will be no Minmay in any case. "
"We're not ready," Reiga shook his head.
"We never are. "
They looked at each other.
"What do you have in mind for the knights then?" Arthur asked.
"Corbin of course," Minmay shrugged, "Without Landar around, there are no key summoners in this battle and I'd just as soon not get Iris involved. Who knows which way they'll fall. Without her, we have no chance with a conventional battle of knights. I don't trust the knights enough to handle the spell cannons, and the most we can do is attach some extra knights to the Guards to serve as a flanking cavalry force. "
Reiga still tried to protest, "we don't know if Cato's theories of war even work. "
"Duport won't know how to fight it either," Minmay said, "and I doubt waiting until we have to deal with Ektal is wise. There is the benefit of experience to be gained. Remember that we still have to win the wider war. And Corbin is closer than Duport. "
"It's still risky. "
Minmay nodded, "that's what I said. If you win, there are many advantages, but if you lose that battle, we also lose. But our knights don't have a chance anyway. "
It placed a lot of expectation on the Guards but they had been preparing for months now. That and the spell cannons just had to be enough.
"Arthur, place the contract," Minmay decided finally, "I'm starting the war with Corbin. "
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Queen Amarante,
I hope this letter does not find you in too much of a shock. It has come to my knowledge recently that a series of books has been circulating in Inath for some time and only just now reached me here in Illastein. By the time this letter reaches you, I doubt any part of the Federation will remain untouched by its influence.
I am almost certain that the writer of these books is from Earth, there are too many cultural references in these books that I recognize. You may be asking yourself where they are, which only underscores the strength of this evidence. As queen, you surely must have some idea who that person is and I would like very much to have a chance at meeting them.
As I have not heard of any new Heroes being summoned, I do not think this person was summoned at First Landing like I was. Given that my position is well-known, this person has most likely already known of me and has judged contacting me to be too risky. Why this should be so is beyond me but perhaps they are simply being cautious and staying out of your sight.
Please reassure them of their safety and allow me to meet them. This writer clearly knows much of Earth's science and engineering they have written into these books and I am certain that they can and already have greatly helped the Federation. Let us work with this person, with magic and science, Inath will gain strength enough to push the monsters back and win this war.
Morey