It was around noon, but Leona couldn’t tell what time it was since the sky seemed to be the same no matter when or where she looked. Dark and gloomy, bereft of the sun's light as the thick clouds engulfed the whole Londrian kingdom in cold hopelessness.
After a prolonged discussion with both Athena and Lawrence, there was really only one option left for them and it was to gather frostburnt silver themselves from a nearby private mine. Of course it wasn’t the first course of action as the trio had been trying to come up with other ways to coat the engine mechanisms but alas, they couldn’t think of anything else that fit the bill other than the silver metal.
“I apologize for this Leo.” Athena lowered her head in a bow whilst apologizing. “I wish I could get these materials myself, but after what happened yesterday with the death angel problem, most of the miners that usually go in search of these materials are no longer willing to head outside of the capital.”
“No need to apologize, raise your head please.” They were riding a stagecoach towards the other side of the capital for a few hours now, the streets seemed to be quite busy even with such bad weather, Leona glanced outside the small window to her left as she continued. “If I was in their shoes, I would’ve probably done the same. After all, just how much coin is worth risking your life for?”
“Well… that’s a very good question.”
“Excuse me, Miss Athena, we reached your destination.”
A deep male voice came from the front of the stagecoach.
“This is where we get off.” The inventor opened the door and climbed down the wooden step before jumping on the snow, almost losing her balance backwards. “Woah. Careful not to slip.”
Leona supported her weight by grabbing on the sides of the doorway and slowly stepped on the snow. Athena went over the driver and handed him a few copper coins before turning towards the tactician.
“Let’s go rent some of the tools and head off.” She fixed the heavy-looking satchel on her back that was tied diagonally across her chest with a leather belt. “There should probably still be a pod available to take us there.”
By quickly looking around, Leona noticed they were in the more industrial part of the city with a few working chimneys and hot air exhausts in each building being the giveaway. Near the reinforced gate, there were two pods standing by with soldiers armed with sabers on their hips and bolt action rifles strapped on their shoulders with a leather sling. While it was a rather common sight for Athena, it still made the tactician feel a bit intimidated by the firepower they possessed.
Beside that, there were racks containing all matter of tools from pickaxes to shovels all neatly organized and to the immediate right of the pods, there was a huge stack of wood covered by a large tarp tent.
“Hey! Are you all still taking people to the mines?”
The inventor shouted over to one of the soldiers that was arranging the fuel for one of the pods. He turned at her and shouted back.
“That we are Miss! Where are you two heading?”
“A private mine! I got the deed on me, can we have a few pickaxes?”
She shouted as she pointed to one of the racks on the side of the checkpoint.
“Yeah! Pick what you need and I’ll charge later with the transportation fee!”
Athena gave him a thumbs up before heading over to the rack. Since she was clueless of which tools they needed, Leona simply followed right behind her friend.
“Have you ever mined ore before Leo?”
She casually asked as she was inspecting the pickaxes on the rack.
“No never. Have you?”
“A couple of times. Mostly we’d need a lot of iron to make gun parts so it was a common occurence back in Akrapocalis.”
“I see… while my mother was involved in the making of muskets, she never told me how they were made.”
“Your mother’s invention did give me the basic idea of how to make a firearm. I remember once me and my father visited Arcadia right after they opened the borders and there were a few knights firing muskets for the festival. Now that was a heart pounding sight.” She picked two pickaxes and gave one for Leona to carry. “There we go. Finally found some good ones. Oh yeah we need hammers as well.”
The tactician carefully held the tool with the pointy end downwards to avoid possible self injuries as she continued the conversation.
“You mean the coronation of the queen?”
“Yeah, my father was interested in the manufacturing process of muskets so he decided to visit as soon as possible. I believe he managed to talk with your mother.” She noticed one peculiar sledgehammer sitting against the side of the rack and took it. “Ah now this will work nicely.”
“Huh, that’s interesting, I don’t recall anything because I was too young back then, but to imagine that your father talked to my mother… what a small world.”
“That it is. I’m glad I got to meet you, even though the circumstances were a bit extreme.”
“Indeed.”
With both tools in each hand, Athena headed over the pod that was loaded by the previous soldier who greeted them. He was standing ready beside the vehicle with another soldier holding a clipboard and a feather pen. He began to inspect the tools as he jotted down on the paper on the board.
“Two pickaxes, one sledgehammer… alright, to which mine are you two heading?”
“I got the deed. The name is Lawrence of Astera, I’m Athena Kaiser, we are from the same research facility and we require frostburnt silver.”
“I see, thank you for your cooperation.” He gave her a short bow before looking at the soldier who loaded the pod. “Go start up the engine.”
“Yes sir.”
He went inside the pod, meanwhile the soldier with the clipboard was muttering to himself before turning to Athena.
“It’ll be eighty coppers for the fuel and another sixty for the tools, so one silver and forty coppers.”
The inventor reached for the satchel attached to her belt and pulled out a sack of coins. Most of which was copper.
“I really should think of better ways to carry coins on me…”
She mumbled as she began counting the copper pieces. Meanwhile, Leona grabbed the tools and started to load them in the pod. She wondered how strong Athena was because she seemed to be able to lift the sledgehammer quite effortlessly but in her slender hands, said tool felt a bit on the heavier side. After loading the rest of the tools, she sat on the first seat to wait for the inventor to finish counting the coins.
‘A small amount of coins is fairly easy to carry, but counting forty coins seems a bit too much… not counting how much it must weigh.’ She wasn’t quite familiar with the act of carrying sacks of coins around as most of the purchases were made by loyal servants in the mansion, often enough they would carry coffers with the coins already counted in advance. ‘Maybe an easier to carry currency should replace this metal coin system.’
“Phew, finally over with paying everything.” Athena’s voice came from the entrance of the pod. “Carrying that much weight is sure bad for one’s back.”
She climbed up and sat across Leona and sighed in relief as her back leaned against the comfortable cushioned seat. The tactician offered her some water, but she shook her hand.
“Carrying that much coin is bound to be cumbersome.”
Leona commented as she put the reinforced glass bottle away.
“I wish we could use something else to pay other than valuable metals.”
“Then what would we use?”
“I don’t know. I’m no scribe.” The tactician chuckled. “Leo, don’t answer me if you don’t want to but, how exactly are you planning to take your status as princess back? I’m often thought that once out of the kingdom the throne candidates couldn’t claim rulership, is that not true?”
Her instinct was to scratch the side of her face as she thought how to explain it to her.
“In Arcadia we have three ways of obtaining the crown, four technically. The first and most straightforward is the previous ruler to appoint you as their successor, that’s what happened with Eleonora. The second is a trial by combat. Only nobles are eligible for that kind of approach. The third is the will of the people, if one gathers enough support from the populace, they can also become a ruler.” She had raised each finger on her right hand before lowering all of them and interlocking both hand’s fingers. “Now the unspoken fourth way to become sovereign would be to either assassinate other candidates until you are the only one remaining or somehow persuade the other nobles to concede their rights for the throne which would usually involve blackmailing or collection of a debt, though those are rare cases.”
Athena was stunned after the long explanation. She blinked a few times as she slowly digested all the information and after nodding a few times she turned to her again to ask.
“Hang on a minute. So it’s not hereditary?”
“It is to an extent. If the current monarch has a child, they usually become the next king or queen. However there are many reasons why that didn’t happen in the previous two rulers.” She raised her index finger while crossing her legs. “King Hector never had any children, at least none that survived the Great War and in Eleonora’s case, it was more of her sudden disappearance that ended her rule, so it left the noble families as well as the population in disarray.”
Athena also crossed her legs and interlocked her fingers on top of her left knee, she was genuinely interested in the conversation.
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“I know it makes sense that you’d know about these things because you lived through it to know, but just how much does the common folk actually know about this?”
It was like a hammer hit the nail on the head. Leona knew that much because she was taught so by her father, but upon thinking about it she realized there was no way the general population would know about those things.
“Excuse me ma’am.” The soldier’s voice broke the conversation the two were having. He carried a stack of logs in his arms. “I’ll leave this here.”
He settled the sizable stack beside Athena’s feet, after that he motioned for others to come.
“Hello Misses.” Another soldier wearing the full blue navy overcoat uniform with a balaclava for protection against the coat greeted them, his voice seeming somewhat young for his stature. “I was told by the sergeant but I wanted to confirm. Astera’s mine, correct?”
“Yes.”
Athena replied.
“Great, so let’s get moving. The path isn’t great lately because of the snow storm in the beginning of the week so bear with me. I’ll have another squadmate of mine to stay behind here to fuel the engine so you two can take it easy and relax until we get there.”
“I can fuel the engine if you need.” Athena said. “Unless the service is for free.”
He scratched the back of his head.
“Haha, I can’t possibly charge extra from someone from the army. Don’t worry, take it as an extra.”
“Thank you.”
The soldier talking to her headed to the cabin in front of the vehicle while the other sat near the boiler, tossing a few pieces of firewood inside the already burning chamber. Leona glanced at Athena to resume their talk.
“Thinking more about what you said earlier, I don’t think most common folk would know about everything I’ve said to you. Education is only limited to those that have the coin to afford it.”
Even though she had a serious expression on her face, the tactician gave her a puzzled look as she asked.
“What were we talking about again?”
Leona blinked a few times.
“Huh?”
“I’m so sorry Leo, I was thinking about something else. What were you talking about?”
“Ah, your previous question was if the populace knew about the intricacies of politics back in my kingdom.”
“Oh, right. I asked that because in Akrapocalis, we have a public committee that decides who should be the next ruler. King Barbarossa was assigned to the throne for his extraordinary management skills and most people know why he’s king.”
Leona held her chin with her left hand whilst closing her eyes.
“A public committee huh? Now that’s something I never thought about…” She seemed lost in thought while mumbling to herself. “Surely, some of the noble families have a political background so it shouldn’t come as a surprise for them but the more warfare focused ones would look upon it as a means to exclude them from the power struggle…”
Athena was fiddling with a hand sized derringer of steel color, she was loading a green shell casing inside the single shot sidearm. She glanced at the tactician who was still mumbling to herself.
“Leo, have you done any maintenance in that derringer I gave you?”
“Maintenance as?”
“Checking if the ammo isn’t wet for instance. Normally I’d have a few storage containers made to resist cold but all of that was lost when me and my brother were captured by bandits.”
“Ah, now that I think about it, no I never even touched it.” She reached for the side of her leg and pulled out the two shot derringer. “Might as well do it now.”
“Uh, wait a moment, just for safety.” Athena reached for Leona’s right hand before she could pull the firearm out. “But you do know how to handle a firearm, right?”
“Oh I’ve read my father’s own manual, don’t worry about it.”
After saying that, the inventor leaned back again on her seat and watched carefully as she pulled out the weapon. Whilst aiming at the floor, Leona broke the barrel open with the click of the lock and pulled both bullets one at a time.
She placed the first one in the bullet strap on her right thigh and inspected the second one she pulled out. Although the casing didn’t present anything different, Athena asked her to hand the projectile over to her.
“Hmmm…” The inventor rotated the ammunition between her fingers and decided to pocket it in her own bullet strap attached to her belt. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you some of my own rounds, I still don’t trust Akrapocalis’ production yet.”
She took two shell rounds off the strap and gave them to her.
“Wait… this seems different than that one.”
Leona pointed out the notably different casing, whereas one had a bullet, the other seemed more of a shell carrying multiple shots.
“It's grapeshot ammunition, some cannons use this type of bullet in order to have a better area of effect. Normally you wouldn’t see this in a firearm, but I took the freedom of the workshop tools to make them for my derringer.” Athena showed her the single barrel handgun while pointing the barrel towards the floor. “Anyway, the point is that you can use this one as well since it has the same caliber and I’d rather have you using working ammunition rather than a dud. Oh just remember that it’s only effective at close range, grapeshot isn’t meant to be fired from too far away anyway.”
“Well…” Leona took the shell and inserted it inside the firearm. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
After discussing gun safety and maintaining their weapons, both of them kept talking about how to improve the engine’s efficiency through the use of the frostburnt silver ore they were about to gather. If anything, Leona knew quite a lot of valuable information regarding how mana and metals interacted and how they could best use said metal.
Regardless, the soldier fueling the engine didn’t seem too interested in the conversation and left them mostly alone until the vehicle began to stop and the driver popped out of the main cabin with his head sticking out in the doorway.
“Here we are. Astera’s mine.” He looked to the other soldier standing by the exit. “Can you open it for them? I’ll try to get some z’s while we wait.”
“Yeah.”
The soldier then proceeded to close the door to get some rest. Meanwhile the other one standing beside the pod’s exit got his hands on the hatch and began to open it.
Leona grabbed the pickaxe beside her while Athena made sure to not forget the sledgehammer and the other pickaxe.
“Alright, we should take about an hour or two.” The inventor warned the soldier standing by as they walked out. “Keep an eye out for wolves, I really don’t want to come back to a pack waiting for us outside.”
“Don’t worry Miss, we brought weapons for a reason.”
Athena nodded and headed out in the snow. The moment Leona stepped out the warm interior, a bone chilling cold hit her face making all the hair follicles on her skin stand up in response.
“Brrr…” She instinctively shrinked inside the fur coat but not even the thick fabric could protect her entirely from the sub zero breeze. Although when she mustered the courage to step out of the vehicle completely she could see where exactly they were. “Wow…”
It was a deep forest, many trees surrounded them in a seemingly infinite dark green white landscape, while mostly were tall pine trees, the sheer amount of snow piled up on the branches made the forest look much more cluttered than it actually was.
“Come on Leo, let’s get out of the cold.”
Athena was already moving ahead of her, only turning back to see where her friend was.
“Coming.”
The knee high snow was offering much more trouble than the tactician expected, not only was it her first time trudging through that much snow, but the sharp temperature drop made her feel weaker.
“Careful to not fall, you don’t want snow getting into your coat.” Athena almost tripped as she tried to climb over a fallen tree. “Ah dammit, I should’ve rented a shovel.”
Noticing there was a clear path from where Athena walked, Leona decided to simply follow the trail left behind her.
“When I read about how cold it is in Londria, I wasn’t expecting it to be this much.”
“I know right? The books often don’t make justice to just how brutal it truly is out here.” Athena pointed to a mound suddenly forming out amidst the trees. “It’s right there.”
“Huh?”
Leona saw the strange small hill formation that broke out the plain snow scenery, but couldn’t exactly see how that was a mine. Athena on the other hand began to run towards it, hopping with large steps in order to avoid most of the snow and once she reached the mound formation, she kicked it sideways to remove the sleet.
After kicking about three times, she got the pickaxe handle and used it to push the loose snow out of the way, revealing a dark wooden door with a metallic handle.
“There we go. It’s a hassle to do this when it snows.” She grabbed the handle and pulled the door open, more snow fell from the upper part of the doorway inside the mine. “Careful where you step, it is quite slippery.”
Leona lowered her head to pass through the doorway as Athena already climbed most of the way down whilst carrying both heavy duty tools. The first it came to Leona the moment she stepped in was the smell of mold and rotten wood then the obvious lack of interior light which made her wonder how the inventor was managing to climb down without seeing anything.
“Are there no lights?”
She asked while taking one step at a time to make sure she wouldn’t fall face first in the staircase.
“Not here, a little bit further and we’ll get to the main tunnel, we’ll find some lamps there. Hopefully.”
“You don’t sound so sure about that.” Before climbing further down, Leona flickered a flame into existence with her left hand, but despite the scorching hot temperature of the blue fire, it didn’t do much in order to light up the interior. “Hmm…”
Her humming caught Athena’s attention, who looked back up in order to see what was happening.
“Is that a blue flame?”
She monotonically asked.
“Huh? Ah, yes it is.”
“Did you make that?”
“With magic, yes. Why? Shouldn’t I?”
“No, no, it’s not a matter of should or shouldn’t, the fact that you made that is a feat in itself!” She tossed the tools down the staircase and quickly climbed up, slipping once but catching herself in the steps as she reached for Leona’s left arm, inspecting the fire spell just close enough that her hair didn’t catch fire. “Oh my… it really does exist…”
Her eyes seemed to sparkle with a passion beyond what Leona imagined possible.
“W-why are you so enthusiastic about this Athena?”
“You do realize what you have here right? The theoretically hottest a flame can get can be observed by its color and you just happened to achieve a miracle with this.”
“A miracle? Why are you over exaggerating about it? It’s just a flam-”
“It’s not just a flame!” She repeatedly pointed at the tactician’s hand. “This proves the very existence of ultraviolet light! I knew my professor at the academy was right!“
Leona glanced sideways as she said.
“Huh… I’m not following what you’re saying.”
“Just listen to me, can you change the color of the flame?”
Athena’s eyes seemed to sparkle even more brightly than the flame the tactician was holding.
“Y-yeah, a bit.”
“Turn it towards the orange to red color.”
“Alright…” Leona closed her eyes and began breathing slowly, focusing her mind in feeding the spell more of her own mana. She felt the intensity of the heat die down but in exchange it was putting more strain in her mind. Once she opened her eyes, she noticed the bright orange flame lighting up the interior of the mine. “Wait a minute… how is this…”
“AHA! I KNEW IT!” However the moment Athena shouted over her lungs a noise of clanging metal came from down the staircase. Instinctively, she pulled out the derringer from her holster and aimed it downstairs. “Did you hear that?”
Leona charged the spell back into a small orb of blue flames ready to fire.
“Yeah…”
“I think it was just the tools that I threw down there, but can’t be too careful.”
Athena climbed down the staircase while aiming the firearm ahead of her and the tactician followed closely behind.
Upon reaching the ground floor, they attentively looked around for anything out of the ordinary, but the weak light that came from the entrance could only light up a few meters ahead of where they were, leaving the rest of the mine with an eerie atmosphere as there could be something hidden in the shadows not too far from where they stood.
“Strange…” Athena muttered as she slowly walked forward. “I swear it came from down here.”
It was a rather spacious hall of stone, some barrels with lamps were settled against the walls and a minecart track was laid on the ground, albeit most of the wood was rotten and the metal rusted.
“Doesn’t seem like it was a person.” Leona muttered before she turned the spell back into the orange roaring flame, illuminating a wider area around them. “Unless…”
Her instinct was to look up and the moment she did she noticed a distinct metallic glint coming off the ceiling, but instead of the usual rock formation that one would find inside a cave, it was a bulbous ever moving gelatin like surface.
The moment Leona's eyes locked onto the familiar texture hanging from the ceiling, she screamed out her lungs to the inventor.
“ATHENA ABOVE YOU!”