A screaming arrow ascended into the sky, like a hateful phoenix, ragging against the world, and the blue ceiling that oppressively kept it down. The arrow was one of the prototypes that Merovic had developed and filled with one of the mixtures of gunpowder that he had formulated. "I call it a rocket arrow, or rocket for short, it is one of the applications of black powder that I am working on.
Merovic later fired a short beam of wood, from a brass cylinder attached to a stick; then he pointed to a ball and a bronze rod. "This is a fire lance it functions by firing a large bolt at the enemy; however, it can also be loaded with stone or metal balls. This is an incomplete prototype called a grenade, I haven't worked out the kinks yet, so I won't show this off, the other prototype is also still a work in progress, so what do you guys think?" Merovic proudly gesticulated at his inventions and stood with glee.
"I think these are very impressive toys young lord; however, I don't see how these would be practical in a real battle," Vitruvius stated diplomatically.
"Okay, I can understand that line of thinking, and it does look like a toy. However, do we not already use flaming arrows dipped in tar? The rocket is a lot like that, but I can make it combust after it has been fired, this alone makes it more accurate. The average bowman when firing pitch arrows, needs to guess at his target through the flames, the rocket on the other hand obviates that problem. With a little bit of effort, I can create something that can fire 100 of these projectiles at the same time, and it would only take a single person to do it. Imagine 500 arrows fired by five people simultaneously, that would free up the work with other combatants."
Vitruvius chewed his answer and said: "Okay I can see the value of that proposal, but what about your ahem, fire lance; how could that be better than just using a regular javelin?
"let's assume that it has the same power as a regular thrown javelin. How long does it take to train and strengthen a person to be able to kill a man with a single throw, or for that matter a horse?"
"Kill a horse that's a little unreasonable, but after a good regiment of exercise and exertion, it would take around 6 months to be effective and throw with some accuracy, to incapacitate an enemy with repeated effect it might take a year or longer," Vitruvius explained.
"One year to kill repeatedly with a good throw, compare that with the fire lance, might take two weeks to learn and operate my fire lance, and if the right projectiles are used it will kill a horse. Just think about it, it would cost around 130 denarii for the weapon and shot, you cost around 500 denarii, equipment might be 600 denarii, for a total of 1100 denarii; if I arm four people for 520 denarii, and you had to face them, what are the odds that they would come out on top? Just the value in money, training, and supplies outpaces the value of a regular soldier. I can field four times the numbers at half the price. That is the power of this invention, a nobody can kill a trained legionary or an eque's horse."
The ex-legionary understood the implications, and he wasn't sure how he felt about it. "That's... I don't want to think about the other toys you are making, but this is nothing short of one of Arteminus's devices of death."
"I wouldn't go that far. We still have a long way to go before we can field enough lances to make an impact on the battlefield. It is still a dream but it’s a manageable dream, I hope we can create enough in the next year, but I wouldn't hold my breath on it." Merovic stated humbly.
The youth then dispelled his staff and had them continue their assigned tasks. He double-checked his inventory and made some arrangements with some of his tribe's craftsmen. He then went to his father and repeated his original pitch concerning the rocket and fire lance. His father was stunned by what he saw and swore the boy to keep it a secret from the rest of the tribe. This is something that can only be worked on with his men, no one else is to know. He then promised him some aid with getting some of the components needed for their manufacture and gave him a few of the family's trusted slaves as exclusive helpers. Merovic pushed his luck a little further and asked for some manpower to build a small new building for refining metals, it would be only tangentially related to the work, but it would speed up the process. His father met him in the middle, and the son agreed that he would make up the difference.
He then went to the potter's worksite and reviewed two other projects: The two projects were a poor man's porcelain mix and refractory bricks. The creation of good porcelain goods is as much a science as it is an art, it is a labor, fuel, and time-intensive process. The materials that he had collected equated to about 50 pounds, the mixture comprised dried and ground kaolin, porphyry, and quartz, with the kaolin making the bulk of the weight. He was not a ceramics master or a potter in his life before, but he knew that kaolin was the most important ingredient. The temperatures needed to make it look good were just at the limit of what charcoal could produce as fuel, so he made a large batch of coke to mix in. Finally, was the messy and dirty work of making a special little kiln, just for the porcelain work, and made from the refractory brick mix that was also being experimented with in this run.
The process for the brick mix was only a little better than making the kiln. He needed to cook in a furnace, a base mix of his precious limestone with clay and sand, then grind it down to fine powder. Next, he took the mix and added ground perlite, ashes, and the majority of his kaolin supplies remaining; mixed with more ground quartz and granite. His arms hurt thinking about all the lifting, chopping, grinding, and mixing he had done in the past few weeks, but his figure was getting better, and people noticed. The mix was enough to mostly cover the area he needed to ensure an even temperature; he supplied the rest of the bricks with some of the local clay that the potters had used regularly for kilns. The resulting refractory bricks created had an off-white color; the importance of the brick was in reflecting the heat to the porcelain, reducing fuel consumption, and maintaining the internal temperature of the kiln at a consistent rate.
Today was the moment of truth, to see if his efforts on the porcelain project would pan out, it was at the end of its second firing and his nerves were jittery. The kiln was a large angular dome, all the bricks were stacked in a circular pattern, and all of the gaps were filled with clay, leaving the inside of the kiln in a near airtight condition. The potters chipped away the cooked clay from the bricked entrance of the kiln. Merovic subconsciously bit his lip, as he watched the men work to reveal the final product.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
In the end what was unveiled was a crude collection of porcelain cups, plates, and bowls. The amount of it was enough for a set of six people. Merovic was ambivalent at the results, the surface was glassy, and the natural texture had a pleasing feel, but the resulting colors were less than what he had hoped. However it was sufficient as a proof of concept, and it would buy him both more reputation and influence. He kept a set as a trophy memento, gave two sets to his parents, and had his father present the products as a gift to the king and his son. Hopefully, he could get them to be angel investors in this new industry to the Gauntal.
He packaged the remaining set as a present to Matilde and made his way to her family’s estate. The estate had changed in the four years following her birthday; her powers had grown considerably formidable, disguised as an overindulgent green thumb, she had grown panoply of strange and exotic plants that stretched across the estate. The small fruit-bearing trees had grown to twice their original size and had the interesting characteristic of having multiple variations of the fruits they grew; for example, a single apple tree would carry apples for eating, apples for cooking, apples for brewing, and special seed apples that would spread the strange medley apple tree. The orchard part of the estate contained chestnut, pomegranate, olive, and pears which had the same medley characteristic.
The herbal plants that she cultivated contained both a strengthened variety, and plants that had been bred to contain only a specific effect: Poppy plants with strong analgesic qualities, or grown without them, or could only be used as a sedative. Her family estate was the most bountiful farmland in the entirety of the Gauntal, it’s produce remaining unmatched, in either size or flavors. It also was home to varieties of plants whose purpose was known only to Matilde; these had the haunting characteristic of ever so slightly moving in the direction of the people around them. The only people to “discover” them, were either unimportant or had no one to care about if a sudden event happened to them; they would faun and care for them to the detriment of their own health, and then conveniently disappear never to be seen again.
Merovic was oblivious to the existence of the mysterious plants; when he arrived, he was guided to their usual meeting ground in her garden. Merovic smiled at Matilde as she gave her customary cheek kiss, and then they sat on the ground and drank from a pot of herbal tea. The boy excitedly presented her with the gifted porcelain, and she politely examined and offered him praise on the work and effort. They then chatted amiably about the current events of the estate and Merovic’s successful presentation of his prototypes, and he made a promise to show them to her later.
They sipped their drinks in a pleasant silence for a few minutes, and then Merovic searching for a topic asked “I realize the request I made to you earlier might have been a little difficult, but have you made any progress?”
Matilde smiled warmly and said: “Yes, in a few months, I will have cultivated enough of the plants that you require. However, these are incredibly dangerous to animal lifeforms so they must be handled very carefully. It's also important to remember that you must prepare each of the plants in the order that I have prescribed. I hope you don’t have to handle these plants personally because they do carry long-term side effects, so I request you use personnel that you are not going to miss.”
“I understand, and thank you for your hard work, it means a lot to me to have your support.”
“It's not a problem, just don’t forget that I am looking out for you, and remember I expect you to do the same for me.”
“That goes without saying, I’ll be there whenever you need me.” They gripped their pinky’s together in the form of a promise.”
They lingered for a moment before releasing each other: “So what was the solution that you came up with regarding the plants?”
“Merv, I’ll try to keep it simple for you to understand. I took a couple of the samples of refined copper, bronze, and iron that you gave me; then I checked which plants could produce acid that would melt them, and which ones didn’t. Then I took a couple of samples from the raw ores they were refined from and did some tests on how well they could be absorbed by some of the plants as food. I then cultivated a few plants that could house the bacterial organisms that lived in and around the ore; and started to crossbreed them with mycelium and some of the woody plants from my estate.”
Matilde then continued: “The result is that the bacteria will eat the non-metallic parts from the ore; the mushroom tree will consume the waste products from the soil and the bacteria; and the metals will be absorbed by the tree and should end up in the fruits. It’s the best solution I could come up with to help separate the metals and the ores that wouldn’t be entirely dangerous. You will need to burn the ground after harvest to make sure the plants don’t germinate and spread to the surroundings. On that note, you will need to figure out a way to cook the soil and then till it with lime. If you can do that, I have a special onion variety that should be able to consume the rest of the bacterial growth. If everything is done properly you should be able to plant the ores and harvest the faux trees in three months, and the onions in three months afterward, all together, the process will last six months.”
Merovic looked at the teenage girl, “that is rather thorough, no wonder it took so long to develop, here I thought you could just make a plant that would supply me with the acids necessary to acid bath the ores.”
“I wanted to originally, but the problem is the food it needs to produce the acid was high in energy requirements, and all the varieties that I could cultivate needed to eat a lot of meat… So… you might understand why I avoided a straight acid solution. The other problem is that those high acid-producing plants also consume the metals you want to refine, so there is that issue as well. Regardless, in this case, you should have a higher purity metal, if you break up the ore before you do the process.”
Merovic nodded along and said, “Well that makes sense I suppose”, his fingers taping along the edge of his cup. A nervous energy jittered at his legs, his heart experienced light palpitations, and the sound of Matilde's voice developed a musical quality. He idly wondered if he was experiencing teenage hormones, a crush, or some other flight of fancy. “Well, I guess I should be hurrying along now, I have a few other stops to make before nightfall”.
Matilde’s shoulders drooped slightly, and her smile was tinged with a hint of melancholy, she nodded and gave him a peck on the cheek goodbye, and they lingered like that for a moment. Neither wishing to break the silence, they stood in a light embrace for the longest brief moment before they parted. The girl watched as the boy walked away from the estate, the light sensation of infatuation coiling around her beating heart.