“Sometimes, it’s best to not look a gift centaur in the mouth. Or something like that.”
-Quote from Baldwyn the Knight, believed to have been said during the year 199
*=====*
After Aetra’s sudden departure, the meeting was brief. They planned around the typical tricks of a Gribnik noble, ensured that both halves of Nolus played fair with each other, and reminded themselves that Nolus were basically thieves in waiting.
Mori followed Yutrad and Fara out of the room, heaving a mighty sigh, “Well, we’re basically ready for everything those dumbasses can throw at us. Do you think they’ll try to team up and work against us?” she asked.
Both Yutrad and Fara shook their heads, “No, certainly not,” Yutrad said, “Their goals conflict far too much. Gribnik wants to weaken everyone else to attain land, Nolus simply wants to make a profit off of this war, and the Affex sister states want to annihilate the other. There is little overlap.”
Fara nodded along, shaking her head at the last point, “There is some overlap. If, and only if, they meet in good faith they may be able to settle on a plan between each other. If Gribnik decides not to attack Nolus or the Affexes, Nolus strikes a business deal with Gribnik and Affex, North Affex puts aside its hatred of South Affex for a while and vice versa, then maybe they can ally.”
“That is a lot of if’s,” Yutrad commented, “Though I agree, I doubt it could happen.”
Fara shrugged, stepping out into the light once more, “I would not be so sure. When will each of our… allies arrive?”
Yutrad chuckled at her reluctant language, “Gribnik’s fleet is likely a day or so away. Granted, for modern skiffs it would be a half day, but they have very outdated equipment. The Nikolan fleet can be expected to arrive some time tomorrow. I have a sneaking suspicion, though, that the Mount Averus fleet will arrive with the Nolus fleet, the North Affex fleet, and the South Affex fleet. Within a few days, I would say.
“Now then, I need to get back to my fleet. There will be a lot of work to do, ensuring every man and woman has a place to sleep off of the skiff by nightfall. Goodbye, you two. I will see you at the meeting.” With his piece said, he walked towards the front gate of the fortress.
Mori sighed again once he left, “I hate politics. At least our project is going well.”
“Sure, it is, but we still have to hear back from Mount Averus,” Fara said, “They are kind of the deciding factor when it comes to technology level. With their help, we may be able to make the most advanced standardized weapon in history. Without them… we’ll have something comparable to Gribnik’s warcaskets.”
Mori snorted, “Sure, but ours will still be better. For now, though, we should make sure nothing caught fire while we were gone,” she laughed.
Fara shook her head, “Mori, the fact that a simple zombie caused a fire with nothing but a can of grease and a screwdriver is scary. Beyond the simple problem that, you know, they’re zombies and don’t really have creative thinking skills, having the urge to create fire while left alone is just…”
“Odd?”
“Yes,” Fara sighed, “Odd. I half expect one to make a gun out of an old can and some wire. The moment they do that, they would give some of the Vast’s most famous idiot savants runs for their money.”
“You have idiot savants?” Mori asked, “I would have thought that the system would have… I don’t know… eliminate things like mental disabilities.”
Fara stared at Mori for a while, “Mori, what are you on about now?”
“Okay, what’s an idiot savant to you? For us earthlings, they are people with a high talent for certain fields, but nonetheless have mental disabilities. You know, idiot, savant. It’s mean, and not a little bit mean spirited conceptually, but it still means what it does.”
“Yeah, no, that’s not what they mean here. Here, an idiot savant is someone who displays extreme incompetence in almost every field, but an extreme competence in a single field,” she explained, “Your zombies are idiot savants in that they are incompetent in any sort of advanced thinking, but they somehow manage to do stupid things like our little grease-fire firend.”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Mori waggled her hand, “Well, they can be idiot savants by both definitions. At least they haven’t had any grease fire moments lately,” she said as she began climbing the staircase to the Kharon.
“Nope, it’s going well. Well-ish.” Mori nodded and led Fara onto the deck of the Kharon, where the passengers were undergoing yet another training session. Instead of the free-for-all beat down she had heard was the first training session, the training had been split up into multiple categories. Mae and Crave were leading a group of people in learning some basic gun-related knowledge. Bullets were far too valuable at the moment to waste on target practice, so they went over how to manage recoil and proper safety techniques. Mori almost laughed out loud at the image of the passengers practicing gun safety, only realizing that few if any soldiers actually followed the rules. Most of the time, there was someone with enough magical or medical knowledge to take care of a gunshot wound, turning it from a weeks-long injury to a half-an-hour trip to the medic.
By contrast to the purely knowledge-based lessons handed out by Mae and Crave, the close-combat area was filled with sparring and fighting. Fury, Idle, and Ally oversaw a large group of people grappling and dueling each other with dulled knives too blunt to harm anyone.
Mori averted her attention to the third group, taught by an energetic Jel and annoyed Pride. They were playing with magic. Playing, Mori decided, was the proper term to describe what Jel was having them do. She would have them juggle mana balls filled with different mana types, then expand them all at once. It was good practice, but proper spellcasting was just as important.
The final group was solely led by Avar, who showed a small group of, presumably, mechanics various mechanical parts and blueprints, showing how they could be put together. Mori thought Crave would be good for that type of teaching, but he was free to do as he pleased.
A few of the passengers took notice of her, but they simply went back to their own business. Over the week of travel, Mori had made a point of visiting the joint meals and the passengers had become much more used to seeing both her and the other undead. In fact, some of them had formed friendships with the death knights. The memorable man Kevin had befriended Avar while Natalia had befriended Ally. The two women seemed to get some sort of enjoyment out of teasing their respective counterparts, Natalia trading verbal jabs with Kevin and Ally doing the same with Avar.
There was also, to Mori’s endless amusement, a sort of relationship going on between a human woman and Desire. From what Mori had heard, Eva had shown interest in Desire and her death knight had sought a way to be more physically intimate with the living. Jel had taken the problem as a personal challenge, to her and everyone else’s confusion, and promised a solution soon enough.
Mori simply nodded to the gathered people and followed Fara to the second deck. In the dining hall sat Mokan and Norta, pages of rough paper sprawling out all around them. “Hey there,” Norta said, “Fancy seeing you here.”
“It’s almost as if this is my skiff,” Fara joked, “So, do you think you’re ready to fight against the Clockworks?” she asked. The paper pages were, in fact, diagrams of different, well-known Clockwork models. There was a Soldier model, a Scout model, a Crasher model, a Sniper model, which was just a Scout with a really big head, and a Transport model. They were all drawn to extreme detail, so much so that Mori was yet again impressed with Crave’s skill with art.
Norta held up the model of the Crasher, “Alright, I know we practically begged to come along, but I doubt we could take this on, even if we worked together. I… think we’re a bit in over our heads.”
“Look,” Fara said, “I know for a fact you couldn’t take on a Crasher, but what about a soldier? Or a Scout? Or even a Sniper? Could you take out, or at least survive any of those?”
Norta, showing an insulted face, scoffed, “Survive a fight with a metal kobold with a gun for an arm? Easily. A big metal man with guns for arms? Yeah. I think Mokan could take either of those if he actually bothered to get a weapon.”
Mori chuckled, unstrapping her trusty revolver —the one she chose to ignore was Fara’s— and handing it to Mokan, grinned, “Well, now he has something to defend himself with,” she said, ignoring Fara’s light glare, “I personally think you should a hammer and chisel or something.”
Mokan tilted his head, Fara rolled her eyes, and Norta raised her eyebrow, “Why, exactly?”
“Because I doubt a knife would punch through a layer or five of Clocksteel.” Mori grinned again and sat down beside Mokan, “Now that you’re here, I guess I might as well ask if you want to find your own room and board…” The twins shook their heads, “Never mind then. Alright, different question then: do you think you’re ready to fight? I doubt fighting Crashers is all you’ll do.”
“Actually,” Fara chimed in while sitting beside Norta, “Crashers are relatively rare when it comes to Hives. They are just below the totem pole from Headhunters, just deployed in massive numbers. I’ll be honest and say that you mostly need teamwork, good sense, and thoughtfulness when it comes to fighting with an army against a Hive. You could probably find a good place with another team of Hunters, but, honestly, now that we have our little…” Fara trailed off, turning to Mori, “Project, a few more hands would be nice. And eyes. Mokan.”
The young man tilted his head again, before Fara’s idea seemed to dawn on him. He nodded, snapping his finger and becoming invisible. Fara nodded to the seemingly empty air while Norta’s eyes went wide. She turned between the empty air and the two others at the table, “First of all, since when could he do that!?” she asked, “And secondly, what in the Creators’ names are you having him do?”
“Oh, I can answer the first one. He came in a day into the journey here looking for my book on light mana types. He must have figured out how to do that with it.”
“And, as for your second question, I asked him to spy on the other parties around here. With him there, we know what everyone is doing… and we can… learn what they are doing…” Fara face-palmed, “I just realized that he can’t talk to us…”
While Fara held her head in her hands, Mori snickered, “Who’s the idiot savant now?” Fara glared and Mori knew that it was time to run. She took off down one of the corridors, cackling as Fara chased her. Mori decided she should tease Fara more often.