The following days were bathed in the warm bivlight. The mornings were still a little chilly, as one would expect at the end of Blommer, but as Bivos rose into the sky, so did the temperature. The warmth has extinguished whatever reminders of the winter were remaining.
Brandt quickly found himself in a whirlpool of things to accomplish. First and foremost, since the expedition was certainly at its goal, and they were neither chasing nor being chased, it was time to turn his attention to more mundane things, like the state of his and Trawins’ wardrobe and equipment. The tanai procured one of Strettar’s robes for himself in the days following the assault, but those were large and called for multiple strands of leather strings to provide any sensible cover, which made the material fold weirdly and caused chafing. At least that was the chief complaint the tanai put forward. Even if that wasn’t an issue, if they were to spend significant time at the place, Anh needed more clothing regardless.
The state of his attire wasn’t improving as well. His things might have been of the best quality he could have gotten weeks past in Sheridawn, but they were not indestructible to the contrary. Everything required a wash and patching.
Thus, he spent significant time with a needle and string, turning animal skins and cloth he got from Hanne’s men into some rudimentary clothing. It certainly wasn’t following the latest trends from Usterl, or any trends really, but it was functional and allowed him to wash, repair and dry his and tanai’s clothing without parading around the compound buck naked.
Having that out of the way there was an issue of what to do with what they found. Brandt didn’t know what to expect from this expedition. In honesty, he wasn’t far from just returning to Sheridawn after he and Anh were digging around in the ruins near Katzburg.
In his wildest imaginations, he didn’t expect to stumble upon an almost intact precursor installation which, for all that it seemed, was still possessed by a daemon weeks before being discovered. That realization gave him a little pause when the battle dust had settled.
He wasn’t particularly religious, but he had to admit that there was something otherwordly about being to a place that not that long ago was touched by the divine. Alien even. As if he was never supposed to be even aware of this place.
He allowed these thoughts to linger for a little bit then quashed them, as rapture over the doings of the consciousness of the universe had a lower priority of a logistical problem that lay before him.
Namely, how to get as much of what could be moved from the compound to where it could be safely stored and studied. Initially, he thought of his residence in Sheridawn for this purpose. After ruminating on this concept he rejected that idea.
The compound was in the middle of wild, primeval forests somewhere between the Erendens and Hozant’s. The nearest river that could even be considered for transportation was flowing west, into the parts unknown and not east, towards Maargard. At least that is what Strettar told him. With no roads to speak of an attempt to move the compound anywhere was difficult enough. Getting it to Sheridawn, thus by necessity pushing this ‘heretical’ merchandise through toll gates of Isdelburg, would make everything into a logistical nightmare. In the end, he decided to, at least temporarily, get everything to his summer retreat on the island of Kan Dag Sori, far up north of the Sorian Sea, away from the prying eyes of the Church. Provided the place still stood, as he was there the last time two decades ago. Truthfully, invoices for its upkeep were still being processed, so it probably did. Probably.
Then there was the issue of getting the things to where they could be transported. Hanne committed his posse to aid but to get everything moving there would need to be a sawmill set up to make all the fittings and boxes necessary. Shipment of crowbars, hammers, saws, and Vhirs knows what else to make these would also become handy, which meant ‘critically necessary’. That was just the issue of getting it movable. Getting it moved was another issue altogether.
After a few days after the battle, numerous discussions with Hanne and Strettar,, some rough calculations, and numerous hours with the needle, Brandt finally formulated a plan to go forward. Firstly, he needed to return to Maargard and organize a hideout to smuggle his finds, crate by crate, to where at a later date they could be picked up. With him, he would take some of Hanne’s men, who would scour for a place to raid. The latter part made Brandt scoff internally at himself for getting involved in this guerilla war between the wildmen and the Paladinate. Yet he needed the assistance of the wildmen for the time being. To secure it he agreed to both lead feelers towards Maargardian territory and to facilitate the sale of the bluestone blades to whoever wanted them. Strettar wanted Brandt to purchase firearms, ammunition, blades, and armor with all the proceeds from the sale.
What were the tanai’s plans was the last issue Brandt decided to tackle. Anh’s contract has expired, for as little as it meant. It was clear to them that Nord couldn’t stop Anh from leaving, considering what they were doing. If it was up to Brandt, he’d prolong and expand on the contract, as ridiculous as it sounded, and maybe hire the tanai as a researcher.
That would require preparing accommodation for him on the island and, maybe, moving tanai’s collection of books from Sheridawn. Considering the entirety of the operation, that didn’t seem to be much of an issue. Provided the bookkeeper wanted to.
The wildmen’s wounded were on their legs a week after the battle, to the surprise of everyone and no doubt thanks to the great, daily care of the tanai. As such he became a local hero to the wildmen. So much so that every time he appeared on the compound’s premises, he would be greeted with smiles, weaves, nods, and other displays of respect.
Brandt suspected that the tanai didn’t appreciate his newfound fame. The tanai was courteous to others, and dutifully tended to the men in the lazaret, but otherwise was disappearing into the depths of the compound only to be seen during meals. After a few days, the Nord had to, with reluctance, admit to himself that he got used to having the tanai around.
The complex was quite extensive. Brandt didn’t appreciate just how much. Initially, he assumed that whomever was doing so, was continuously maintaining the place. Such was the order they found on the first venture. This impression disappeared after exploring the place in more depth. Some buildings were inaccessible because their doors and gates were jammed, rusted solid, or blocked by debris and rubble. Two lesser buildings, despite being seemingly open, proved impossible to explore further than a few steps due to blockage. Precariously, tunnels were dug between many of the buildings and it seemed a much later addition. Due to this labyrinthine arrangement, when it came to talking to the tanai, he was surprisingly difficult to find. It took a better part of one foggy morning to do so.
Brandt was wandering fruitlessly the compound, from building to building, ending in one with three internal stories. Each comprised several rooms connected to a common corridor terminated by a staircase on each end. All the rooms seemed identical, save for minor size differences. Each was empty, save for dust, crumbling gravel, and flaking paint barely visible in the blue-tinted artificial lumehex. None of this particular building was interesting, and he almost decided to give up on it, and on attempts of finding the tanai. After all, he would show up for a meal. As a last-ditch effort, he descended into the basement floor.
-” Mr Trawins!” - he shouted, not expecting a response.
-” Here!” - came one after a drip – “at the end of the corridor, there is a machine room of some sort here!”
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
-” Finally” – muttered hoomin and directed himself toward where he presumed the tanai would be. It took him a little less than a triskol to reach the place.
It was a large room, at least twenty mers wide and long and five, maybe six in height. There was a metal catwalk around the perimeter on which Brandt just was. The catwalk descended by a set of stairs to the room’s floor.
The main objects inside were two gigantic… barrels, which someone decided to put on their side. Each was at least two mers in diameter and three in length and secured on a pedestal reaching half their height. Boxy structure of similar size stood behind, connected by a thick round casing. Around the room were other cabinets, not too different from those they had already seen, at least in the dim glow of the hexergic light.
-” I wonder how are we going to get these out?” – said Brandt loudly, mostly to gain the tanai’s attention.
-” You aren’t” – calmly came the response - ”I don’t know what these are, but they weigh several tuns, I estimate at least ten each.”
Anh was floating a mer in the air and was hunched over a rectangular hole in one of the devices with his hands floating casually in the air as if they were gimp. His lumehex was glowing from inside the hole and spookily illuminating his face. Brandt descended the stairs and headed toward him.
-” What makes you think so?” - he asked while raising his head.
-” Because” – answered the tanai while still staring into the item – “about half of this thing is made out of copper and half of steel. I am astonished just looking at it.”
Brandt climbed onto the thing. He noticed a rectangular, curved cover which the tanai likely took off. He came closer to the hole.
-” Can I take a peek?”
- ”Sure” – the tanai floated away, allowing the hoomin to lean over the hole. In his lumehex he saw a piece of what seemed like a stack of cylindrically arranged metal plates with clearly copper bars, arranged neatly inside a channel cut along the cylinder’s axis. At the edge of the hole, he noted a neatly arranged … nest or bundle made of the same copper bars as they emerged from the channels in the plate stack.
-” What is this for?”
- ”Why ask me? I have no idea. I think that the inner part, the cylindrical one, can rotate.” – shrugged Anh – “I also estimate there is more copper in these two devices alone than entire Maargard smelts per annum and it is a conservative estimation. Steel, I don’t know. I shudder to think what else is here.”
Brandt at first thought nothing of it. Then what struck his mind was a realization that the Church might be harvesting the artifacts of the precursors for raw materials. Whether they did, he decided to investigate at a later date. Maybe next year.
-” It is indeed impressive. But I’m here for a different reason.” - the hoomin jumped off the device, raising a little cloud of dust into the air from below his boots – “I am preparing to push this expedition further”.
The tanai floated towards the hoomin, stopped at arm’s reach, and tilted his head.
-” Go on”
-” Well. I think your contract has been concluded. I wonder whether you want to extend it, maybe even expand its scope.”
-” I don’t think”- the tanai wiggled his earlobes a little -” I don’t think this contract of ours has any worth.”
-” Obviously, but I think that giving it a closure is a courtesy that ought to be extended. Even if only symbolically”.
-” What follows, that the next one would also be ‘symbolic’?” - Anh’s eyes turned into slits when he uttered the last word. This gave Brandt a little unease.
-” Yes” - he finally said diplomatically.
In the bluish hexergic glow Brandt noticed Anh’s sight became a little blurry. The tanai absentmindedly stroked his goatee.
-” Out of the question.” - finally came the answer -” I’m taking whatever supplies I can get and once this week concludes, I’m returning home. To Sheridawn.” - the tanai floated at a spitting distance to Brandt – “And I never, ever want to hear from you or about you!” - he hissed at him, then, without waiting for a response from the surprised hoomin floated into the direction of the exit.
-” Why?”
Tanai stopped and tilted his head somewhat toward Brandt.
-” Make a guess.” - he hissed
Brandt said nothing, for a good few drips. The tanai floated back to the hoomin.
-” We see you don’t know. So let us give you a hint.” - he spouted at a spitting distance -” Who are we?”
-“ Anh Trawins, a bookkeeper from Sheridawn.” - cautiously replied Brandt
-“ Precisely. We are a bookkeeper!” - his voice intensified, and he began to float back and forth. Brandt followed him with his gaze – “ You know what we do? We keep books! We buy books, we sell books, we copy books and we read them! And this Divinul forsaken sump is not a library!”
-” It's not about this place, is it?”
-” Of course, it's not! ” - came a hiss – “ It is about what dealing with you made us do!” - Anh floated back to the hoomin - “ You!” - he poked his chest – “You made us watch people get murdered! You made us murder some more people! Murder one of our own! You made us steal, rob, and watch death. Lots and lots and lots of pointless, gory, and gruesome death! We are sick of it!”
-” I … understand.“ - said Brandt apologetically - “ As little as my opinion may matter. I think yous have done a tremendously impressive job so far.”
-” No, you singleton, it does not matter, at all. What you just said confirms that we are becoming something very much like you! Excuse us, if we don’t wish this cynical, manipulative existence on us!”
Brandt lowered his head a little, for a drip, then gazed back at Anh.
-” I’m staying here for at least a few months. I will move as much of this compound as possible to my retreat on Kan Dag Sori. Far from prying eyes of the Church.”
Anh froze, confused, and yet still angry.
-” Why are you telling us this!? You expect us to stay?”
-” I invite yous to, yes.”
Tanai’s eyes glazed over and his float became a little unstable. He remained such for an uncomfortably long time, during which Brandt watched him unsure how the tanai would respond.
-” We are… conflicted. Some of us want to stay and work here, reluctantly. Others certainly don’t. Try to convince them.”
Brandt propped himself on the enclosure of the device behind him and exhaled heavily.
-” I’m not going to lie to yous. Getting everything boxed and shipped from here… is a daunting and complicated logistical task. It is also highly illegal and will take several months to achieve. Things can, and will, likely, get dirty. I don’t expect yous to take part in it though.” - he leaned his head a little – “ Should yous wish to return to Sheridawn and join me later, once everything is set up, I’m fine with it. At this point yous are the most qualified people on the Continent to study these finds, thus I would like yous to come once everything is safe and away from here.”
Anh’s mood lightened, a little.
-” That, Mr Zerster, is … reasonable.” - said the tanai.
-” Just… Brandt, after all we have been through in the recent weeks ... just Brandt.”
-” Yes. Brandt.” - the tanai smiled weakly – “ Your suggestion is reasonable, we certainly don’t want to smuggle things under the noses of the Church.”
-” I’m happy yous think so.”- the hoomin also smiled -” In a few days I will be organizing a trip to the nearest Maargardian town to organize supplies. I’ll escort yous there, and from there ought to be able to travel to Isdelburg and Sheridawn. Should yous want to remain here, I welcome yours stay. I would, frankly, prefer yours stay as Hanne’s men are not, I think, the most scientifically minded of hoomin.”
Anh’s eyes glazed over once again, this time, however, it took just a few drips for him to respond.
-” We… we are going to reconsider. At this moment this is the most we can commit to.”
Brandt nodded and smiled courteously.
-” I’m happy to hear it.” - he corrected his jacket a little and rubbed some imaginary dirt off the sleeve – “ Now excuse me, but things need to be organized.” - he left Anh in the machine room and headed to the corridor leading outside. When he finally left the labyrinthine tunnels, into the daylight, he smiled, as he knew that Anh had already made up their mind.