I slammed my hand on my desk. Which hurt. Nevertheless, the worn paint exactly where I slapped and the familiarity of that pain reminded me that this was not a new feeling. Worse, I knew it was one I would experience even more in the future.

“They expect me to pay them?! For information like this? Preposterous!”

The shadow cast by the Rotor overhead finally moved out of the way. Finally, some sunshine. Not that it did much to lift my mood. No, it just served as a reminder of what had needed to be done.

I was surrounded on all fronts. The stress was far too intense. I cast a disgusted look down at my body. By all accounts, I was a strapping, strong young lad, once. Those days were long gone. But even then, the weight I had put on and the shedding of my hair these past few weeks went beyond the point of comfort.

“I already expressed my concerns to the team leader, but she was insistent.”

What was this secretary’s name? I did change secretaries often, but the last weeks had seen a turnover rate before unseen.

Irrelevant. My safety measures were no longer relevant whatsoever. If it wasn’t the King, it would be the mercenary companies. Or the Yiwi Fighters, those nefarious fools. Sending a fake secretary to spy on me would be the least of my problems.

“Sir, if I may. Souring our relations with the mercenary companies at this time would be a critical error. They are our only potential allies.”

“Fool. Those bastards are unwilling to work with me. If the higher ups want to stay neutral, that is all well and good. But the individual mercenaries will end up doing what they desire. And many of them are already siding with the Fighters, you know that from our reports.”

She put her hand on her hip. What was her name…?

“All the more reason to stay in the good graces of small, reputable teams like Miss Yelah’s. Our information suggests she owes a considerable amount of debt, so paying her the full sum would be sure to maintain a good relation.”

I let out a sigh. She was right, of course. I wasn’t thinking straight. While the monetary sum was high, the information was far more valuable. Valuable and infuriating.

Nothing? The Vultuous Forest, completely and utterly empty? It was impossible. No animals ran away and returned? Nothing but those nasty squirrels? What of the Fernen? The vultures themselves?

“Tell me. Do you believe the mercenary’s report?”

“I would simply say that Miss Yelah has seen a meteoric rise in the ranks as a mercenary. Forming a team as successful as hers at a young age is uncommon. She came recommended from Mister Jorn himself. If the head of an organization as large as Hayrey and Sons’ Mercenary Company takes notice of a promising talent, I would be inclined to believe them.”

Was that all I could expect from this one? No matter. There was no doubt in my mind that the information was wrong. It had to be. I was one of the few entrusted with the revelation. If it weren’t for that, I would have never shaken the nagging feeling that all people had been feeling for months. And that many still felt.

When the Knights had arrived and told me of the revelation all those fateful weeks ago, I screamed. I decried them as morons and villains and nearly turned them away on the spot. Destroy the forest? Because of a silly dream the King had? Were they idiots? I didn’t care if the King himself came and bowed at my feet; there was no way I could allow such a thing to happen. It felt nice to be supported by the citizens, for once. It was a sense of power and accomplishment I hadn’t felt in ages. Perhaps ever.

But before I could tell them to fuck off, it all clicked into place. The uncomfortable nagging that had appeared nearly a year before their arrival. The shifts in the Shroud and forest. The disquiet and unrest. Direct contact with the Fernen, of all things.

Everything made sense. And thus came my decision, one I would regret to this day. I moved aside.

That was all it took. Instead of blockading the Knights, I allowed them through. After that came the storm. Days on end of standing at the window, staring at the glowering flames that ravaged our forest. Days of the cries of the citizens outside my office, often drowned out by beastly roars, rolling thunder, and swirling flames.

The King considered me untrustworthy after blocking his knights for so long. The citizens rightly saw me as a traitor. The merchants were beside themselves, and the mercenaries were on the brink of mutiny.

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“Pay her.”

What choice did I have? I had nobody trustworthy by my side. And there was no chance I would venture into the forest myself. Especially not if there really was something lurking there.

No, I would have to focus my energy here. Here and now. The Yiwi Fighters were becoming a tangible threat. Their sponsors, or in other words, wealthy merchant companies, were looming. And the mercenaries? They would need to be kept neutral, at least. I had to bring Yiwi under my control. Something that drastic had only been seen in the days of Yiwi’s foundation.

It was the only way I could fight. To oppose the King and his revelation. Neither the Knights nor the monsters in the forest would be able to get to me. I would be safe. Finally.

________

Well, who knew what the City Lord was thinking. For now, I was staring slack-jawed at the interior of the huge circular building.

What the hell was I even looking at?

From what I knew of Beatrice’s map, the big river flowing through the central plaza into this building and out the other side was the same that passed next to our central hive. Enormous rods extended down from above, steadily turning. The rods must have been connected to the Rotor’s shaft, and those rods were subsequently attached to various machines. Gears and rods and screeching metal filled this factory. Some even went underground, their paths marked on the floors and walls, meaning that they continued underground outside of the building.

“What am I even looking at?”

“Well, this is what the Rotor is for.”

Workers wearing goofy little metal helmets scurried about, often walking around Grehn without sparing so much as a glance at the big mercenary. Mercenaries really did have some status in this town, because they let Grehn in here without question.

As for the factory itself? It was really something to behold. The machines were all powered by the spinning Rotor, which just seemed inefficient and inconvenient. For all the advanced technology present in here, they still relied on the motion of the Rotor to power machines. Surely they could have figured out a way to use the Rotor’s motion to create a more efficient mechanism, or even a way to store energy. Like electricity.

But the main question: what did any of these machines do? I was immediately drawn to the transparent tubes that left from under the building. The machine the tubes were attached to occasionally pumped some pistons or something. It was the only place I could see where stacks of scrolls were piled up nearby. And then a technician walked up to the machine, grabbed a scroll, and tossed it into an open tube where it got sucked away.

Ooh! Some kind of pneumatic tube system!

“Is that how you guys transport scrolls?”

“Oh, yes. Yiwi has its own advanced delivery system for scrolls. There is a dedicated building for the system; this place just provides the required energy or air or whatever the system uses.”

“And everyone has their own tubes?”

Grehn barked out a quiet laugh. “How silly. Installing a tube in your house costs a fortune, and forget doing it in an apartment. No, residential buildings like where Yelah lives sometimes have some tubes in their basements. Otherwise, only important places have tubes.”

“So, ordinary people have to go to the main office? What’s the point, then?”

“There are small offices scattered around. But yes, it is not a perfect system. It’s presented to us as a convenience, and admittedly, it does have its moments. Unfortunately, I don’t think it had the monumental impact its inventors were expecting. Well, it was brought to us long ago, before even the previous City Lord. And it doesn’t need too much to keep it running, at least in terms of the Rotor. I never saw issues with human scroll runners, but Somuians can be quite unusual sometimes.”

Whoever created this system must’ve been good friends with that City Lord, because geez. What a use of resources. What got me is that there is no clear incentive. It was clearly a passion project, because the pneumatic tube delivery system was apparently just a perk of the Mind tax. There had to be something more important the tax was needed for.

“What are the most important things the Rotor does? If Yiwi is completely maintained without monetary taxes, this thing must be amazing in some other way.”

“Well, it does wonders for many public services. Some of these machines are dedicated to sewage treatment. Many treat the river water. But the majority of the Rotor’s usefulness is for machines used by merchant companies and their factories. In return for money, the city allows those companies access to the Rotor.”

So any money the city needs is provided by large companies? Sounds like a recipe for disaster. But I didn’t know much about that, and frankly, I didn’t care. Bees had no use for such things. Though there was something interesting Grehn had mentioned.

“Treating the river water, huh? Makes sense. I guess eliminating all possible toxins would be important in large cities. Is that what those sheets are for?”

I pointed out some machines arranged neatly in and around the river, some of which had metal sieves and other various sheets.

“Oh, those? I think those are usually for controlled fires. I guess they were put there some time ago in preparation for the ash runoff after the Burning.”

Hm, that made sense. I mean, who wants ash in their drinking water? Though, the runoff must be minimal. The river still looks clear, after all. Not to mention the fact that no rainfall had been happening anywhere in the forest. Despite that, the sheets were being inspected and moved around by the machines and technicians. Was there something wrong with the water?

“Its odd, though. As far as I know, we haven’t gotten any warnings about possible contaminants in the water. So why…?”

Grehn called over a technician and asked him about the water sheets. According to the guy, a few days ago, they began detecting stuff in the water. Which was why they were closely monitoring the water in preparation for a public announcement. Thankfully, their machines were experienced with this sort of thing, so as long as precautions were taken, there would be no issues.

Hm? A few days ago? Something strange was happening to the water?

Uh oh.

I tore my attention back to myself. I was still in the isolated room, along with Belle, Bella, Beau, Beck, and a bunch of warriors. Ah shit.

“Beatrice, bad news. There’s a possibility that the water is contaminated.”

Wasting no time, Beatrice appeared outside the isolated room. “Truly? In that case, things could be good or bad. If we know the source of the illness, we can at least prevent it. But dangerous water will be difficult to combat.”

“At the very least, there’s a possibility the illness isn’t contagious. We need to figure out a way to erase any contaminants from our drinking water. Could it be ash?”

“I… am not sure, Mother. There still hasn’t been rain in our area, so whatever is happening would need to be occurring much further upstream.”

At least now we had a lead. With this, I could try to figure out a way to clean the water. But as I shifted and experienced a wave of nausea, I knew that something else had to be done. Who knew how long this sickness would last? And in this state, I couldn’t experiment with water cleaning measures.

“Um. Hello?”

“Sorry about that, Grehn. I’m going to be distracted for a bit. Just go back and keep an eye on your friends or something.”

As interesting as Yiwi was, our hive was infinitely more critical. I’d monitor things to make sure Ben’s group fares alright when they enter the city, but for now, I had to focus on things here. And focus on not throwing up.