Amateurs talk tactics. Professionals talk logistics.

Pre-Fall General

“You’re heading out?” Johanna asked Madelynn.

“You’re saying it yourself, it’s going to take maybe three weeks to finalize the expedition. That means we have some time to scavenge, classic style. And test further how those dynamics between specializations work.”

“Don’t take risks.”

“Don’t worry, Johanna. We’re going to do some parts of West Cleveland.”

“We went there with Miles and Ulrich. That’s where we had those original books.”

“Then you know how it works. That’s not my usual area, but we’re not looking specifically for trouble, and the idea is to see how we work out. How we measure to you… the Ancient Exemplars.”

Johanna groaned before she spotted Madelynn smirking.

“Get used to it. And you need it.”

“Really? Because that feels like a joke.”

Cameron Scott had coined the term. Given that they were the original ones, they could show people Talents, and so on. An Ancient power made reality. Ancient Exemplars…

“You’re changing the world. That’s even what you said. People need to know you’re the driver of that change. They need to respect you. And titles go a lot that way. I mean, what’s more impressive, Jack Griffith or Burgher of New Sandusky? If you’re just Johanna Milton, how can people mark their respect for you?”

“We haven’t changed the world yet.”

“But you have. Right now, your Professor friend says there might be close to as many sorcerous or sorcerous-like Talents, concentrated in New Sandusky as there are spread over the entire Union. That’d be unimaginable in any other circumstances.”

“Okay. If you say so. Good dive then. But remember to be there!”

“I wouldn’t miss it. And besides, it’s easy for me, I mean, with me as the Fixer, I got a Guardian that can handle it, two Shapers, and a Battler. What could possibly happen to us?”

“Does Cameron…”

“He’s probably leaving soon. Same thing, even if their team is smaller. I mean, your own team wasn’t that smaller based on what you said.”

“True,” she answered.

Madelynn smiled, before standing and raising her fist.

“I go with the grace of the Ancients!”

Johanna groaned again.

The building was large, at the edge of the city. Three floors, and maybe some additional space under the roof. Large double doors under a porch roof, with a single but large side entrance.

“That’s the building?” Johanna asked.

“Correct. Lending you the money to purchase a bank asset is the most asinine thing I’ve ever done, but since nobody has been interested in buying it for more than five years now…” Georgy North trailed.

“It was on the cheap side. Besides, you have other guarantees,” Miles said.

“Trusting that this Maker set works as advertised and that you really can get more is not a guarantee. It’s a bet. I hate making bets.”

But you thought you’d get a lot out of it, Johanna replied silently.

What counted for her was that they had secured financing. The New Sandusky Bank was willing to open what Ulrich had called a credit line, the capacity to draw upon the bank for additional loans at any time, up to a limit of course. The interest was high, but the possibility was there.

That was on the strength of the sets Johanna’s team had made in advance during the expedition. She’d finally shown Georgy North those sets, to prove that the first wasn’t a fluke, and while he’d been unable to light the specialization-based ones, he’d experienced the odd sensation of waiting for authorization that came with some of the individual Talents. What had clinched the deal was the breadth of Talents that Ulrich could show. Johanna was an unknown, but North knew the accountant and having him now exhibit not just one, but multiple Wood Shaper Talents was far more convincing.

She’d reluctantly let him have the Maker set, as he wanted to truly test what came out of it. He was surprised that nobody knew exactly what the Talents that came with the set would be, but Johanna trusted the descriptive nature of the names. She had not disclosed how the parchments were made, just telling him they knew how to find them.

The Clarke’s building was fine, Johanna had to acknowledge. She wanted to check everything and discuss that with the rest of the team. Tom trusted her implicitly to make the right decisions, but Peter and Laura might point out other potential problems.

“So, you have this area as a reception. If this is to be the main office of your organization, it will be busy once you truly expand,” Georgy said.

“It’s almost as large as the High and Dry, just for a reception?”

“You’re probably going to have people coming and going at all times, or waiting.”

“Offices?” Miles asked, pointing out some doors.

“There are still partitions to adjust. Originally, those were various exposition areas interconnected.”

“We should check your plans,” Johanna said.

Georgy went behind the “reception desk” and pulled up sheets.

“Ground floor could be all work areas. Reception, management, and offices for interviews for customers or whatever you’re calling them. The first floor was workshops, and right now, you can probably use that as the storage area for your… parchments.”

“How so?” Johanna asked.

“Harder to get to. Those things are precious. I’d have offered the bank as safe storage, but you tell me the East Coast is going to have way more. So, once your expedition brings what you find, you’ll need a secure area. And guards…”

“We’ll hire some later,” Miles said.

Georgy turned back to Johanna.

“Top floor was a pair of offices and mostly living quarters. You can change it into whatever. Main office, or keep that as a home. Move in.”

She startled.

“Really?”

Georgy looked surprised at her question.

“It’s traditional for businesses. Most people combine their business location with their living quarters. Shop on the ground floor, bedroom on the top.”

I never expected to open my own, she thought.

Laura raised her hand.

“If we abandon our current apartments, won’t that interfere with citizenship, since we needed to rent for a year?”

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“Moving from renting to owning is usually considered a better guarantee for residence.”

He laughed.

“My cousin will probably hate me.”

“Excuse me?”

“Cousin Wade. I figured out later you must be those new out-of-state recent tenants he told me about. If he hears about how I suggested you move out of his properties, I’ll never be safe.”

Johanna snorted.

“Let’s see if we trade up, then.”

They started climbing the stairs to visit those upper floors.

“Purchasing draft teams is not how I envisioned spending the day,” Johanna half-joked.

The banker had suggested limiting their initial expenses by renting the wagons, but that proved hard to achieve. Thanks to being a significant city on a trade road heading to the Marches of the Algonquin, you did have wagon makers and assorted businesses, but trying to rent wagons and draft beasts was impossible. Once the refurbisher who repaired and made wagons discovered they planned a three-month expedition… and where, it was over. She had tried to obfuscate their goal, but month-long expeditions locally did not make sense, and the man was certainly not going to loan them the pair of wagons they needed without a guarantee.

“In a way, that’s good,” Laura said. “We need to plan not just for one expedition, but the next. Even if there are only one million books left out of nineteen, we’re definitively not processing or hauling all of them at once.”

“Yes, but we’ll have to figure out what to do with them between expeditions.”

“I’m pretty sure he might have not wanted to loan the things, but he’ll be happy to have us rent a place,” Laura laughed.

She was probably right, Johanna thought.

The next problem was finding wagoners. As Madelynn Nash had said, the large oxen-driven wagons were a different thing compared to the sort of light wagons farmers and farm kids like her team had experience in. And of course, they couldn’t find such teamsters, at any wage level.

Almost all wagoners with experience were already employed by trading companies, following standard trade routes. Finding unemployed ones was hard, and once the prospective candidates heard about the expedition they all unanimously bailed out.

Johanna had offered to provide proof of their security, but nobody with wagon-driving experience was willing to go to the Coast. They didn’t even discuss wages, they all metaphorically ran away as soon as they learned where the wagons were headed to.

Before long, everyone knew what she was looking for, and more importantly why, as the rumors spread across the city, and no one even bothered to show up.

Two weeks in, a surprising figure appeared in town. A tall, horned person, reminiscent of the pair of Changed she’d seen back in Nedalshe.

“May I present you Julian Kartmann of Vernon and a member of my old team,” Ulrich announced.

“Hello…” she answered.

“Don’t be shy. I don’t gore people,” the minotaur deadpanned.

“I’d thought Sethek-Eshes would have been answered earlier, but the big one came first,” Ulrich told Johanna, much to her confusion.

“And if you hope for Keegan, you’ll be waiting for long. He’s in the Rockies… somewhere. You know, dwarf country. Mail doesn’t even go there,” Kartmann answered. “As for Sethek-Eshes, they have a family going on these days.”

“You too.”

“Bah, the kids can deal with their mother. And she can handle the business. Kartmann’s All Medicals can work even without me.”

“Who’s Keegan? A dwarf?” she asked.

“Keegan Vakanson, yes. You can find minotaurs like me everywhere, but for most Changed if you want more than a girlfriend, you tend to go home.”

She was reminded of that dwarf in Valetta, a year ago. Changed were different species, even if they were people.

“Until a year ago, I had never seen a Changed,” she admitted.

“We used to joke that our team was every single species in the North Americas. We stopped at taking in a Troll, not that we’ve ever seen one around,” Kartmann said.

“They’re from the islands, not the continent,” Ulrich countered, smiling.

“Okay. Point conceded. So, you promised me a team of powerful Talented to go where Cartaigh fell and beyond. I come and find that team now includes you.”

Ulrich shrugged, spreading his arms.

“Wait until you see Miles in action. That’s what you get for being late to the party.”

“Hey, Vernon’s not next door.”

“But Johanna can fix that, can’t you.”

“I’d need a few Ancient books. Or, we can test the stored parchments. Up to you,” she replied.

They had not moved the handful of parchments they owned yet to their brand-new headquarters, so they invited Kartmann home.

“Looks like you can get Explorer. Or Duelist,” Johanna noted.

The minotaur squinted, looking at the two specialization sheets set aside, then at the partial parchments.

“Or Specialist Battler. Like Tom,” she added.

“But you don’t have skills for that one,” Kartmann noted.

“No. There might be Talents in there that work for that specialization, but we have no way of knowing which. You can qualify for a Talent, but without a match with the specialization, it’s a very, very unpowered version.”

Kartmann looked at Tom.

“You know, you’re almost as good as being a minotaur. A small one. All you need is a pair of good horns.”

Tom snorted, then deliberately scratched his head. On the left, then the right side.

“And I admit the hammer stuff sounds awesome. I never understood why everyone says we Minotaurs have to use axes. Sure, to cut wood in winter, but otherwise, a good spear is enough for everyone…”

“You should have seen the flaming axe we got from Cleveland,” Ulrich said.

“Really? But if I want to contribute to that expedition, I need some Talents early. Or would it be better off waiting until Washington and seeing what your patron has to say about a minotaur?”

“Ulrich got an interesting set…” Johanna trailed as Kartmann put his hand on the Duelist scroll, which immediately activated again.

“May I?”

“We pulled them out for you now that you’re joining us,” she simply said, and the parchment spewed sparks as it burned away.

Curiously, not every Talent parchment lit up when the minotaur tested them. He could use Interrupt with Strength, and Gauge Endurance with Perception in addition to Block and Dexterity. The weird part was that Optimal Strike and Empathy lit up only after the first three had been used. The only Talent parchment that remained obstinately inactive was Disarm associated with Authority.

Johanna and Gomez had both noted early on that all six parchments generated for the various “spare” specializations featured one of each quality that the Talents apparently needed, but Gomez also could not activate all of them for the specialization he qualified for. She assumed that other factors dictated what was available. After all, Catherine’s Guardian did not have difficulties with Disarm back last year. She took notes for Gomez’s future studies.

“Five Talents is good,” Ulrich said.

“How many?”

“Okay, six. And yes, Miles has seven.”

The minotaur groaned.

“But I’m sure Johanna’s patron can fix you up with more once we get there. That’s just… a teaser?”

“And what does this make me?”

“Some kind of defender-fighter? The names suggest a lot of self-protection, and focused offense on a single enemy?” Johanna suggested.

“That’s why I picked it. Do you guys know a place where one can check how all of this works?”

Julian Kartmann

Male minotaur, 40 years, 2 months

Duelist

Level: 7 (21,000 XP needed)

Stamina: 1/199 (+17 per hour)

2 unallocated skill points

XP: 20,229

STR: 17 (2000 XP needed)

Interrupt (41)

AUT: 15 (2000 XP needed)

AGI: 17 (2000 XP needed)

Deflect (41)

PER: 16 (3000 XP needed)

Gauge Stamina (39)

DEX: 16 (2000 XP needed)

Block (39)

EMP: 16 (2000 XP needed)

Optimal Strike (39)

+8.0 Strength for skill checks

Unshakable grip on a weapon under 41 pounds

Perceive levels up to 13

Not what I’d have allocated if I had to shape his build, but that works out, if a bit weak. Authority is a pain for that specialization unless you get to add loads of stats first, Moore noted when the minotaur shook both Johanna and Tom’s hands.

Duelist is weird.

Money was flowing out, as Johanna realized that ten tons of food were not easy to get, pack, or store. And that was with the credit provided by Georgy North’s bank.

She wished the Skeleton would call back in her dreams, to explain further how she was supposed to control the distribution of the parchments he made through them, but for now, the Skeleton remained silent.

Bit by bit, the expedition came together. Tons of packed flour, grains, salted meats, dried milk – the hardest to get – and other foodstuffs stacked in the little corner of a warehouse they’d rented. The mixed Scott-North team came back early, in good spirits. They’d encountered no Changed beasts actually, but they’d taken care of a pair of mountain lions that had been prowling the ruins they were visiting.

Madelynn came back looking satisfied as well.

“I wish we had one Earth Shaper along, but we hold our weight without her. Of course, a single Canid doesn’t count for much, and I wish my team was immune to my Falter like yours, but we’re learning.”

“Fire and Water do mix then?” Johanna joked.

“Not that much, and I wish Jackson had your projectile stuff.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll have more possibilities when we arrive in Washington DC,” she replied.

“Jackson’s counting on it.”

Miles called out among the scavenger teams for people with at least some experience as a teamster and found three. By then, the rumors of the power obtained by the expedition had started to spread among the salvager community, and two of them were willing to go for a chance at power. She offered a pass at the stored specialization sets, but unfortunately, neither qualified for Explorer, Fixer, or Sentinel. The Monger specialization definitively did not seem to be very combat-oriented and nobody was interested.

The last scavenger, curiously enough, was willing to go, but for pay only.

“Power is nice, but I feel like it comes along with an obligation. I know, you say it’s not in any contract… but I guess that if you accept those powers, then you need to use them. I know I’m doing this for fun and money, but I can stop at any time. Can I lose those powers?”

Johanna thought about Petra’s removal of Frostbite.

“It’s possible. But it requires…”

The salvager raised his hand to interrupt her.

“It’s rhetorical. Of course, you’re not going to waste powers on me if it’s only to remove them later.”

He smiled.

“But I hear you can find Artifacts. That means there is good money to be made, right?”