For a moment, Sera didn’t know what to say.
“…Tiriana said she’d never met a mistwalker before, so I assumed we were rarer than that,” she admitted after a moment, glancing at Tiriana for confirmation.
“Yes, but I’d never met a heesu before either, and they actually have a population here,” the elf corrected, shaking her head. “And I only knew you were one because you’d just arrived. A mistwalker that’s lived here for a while would look the same as anyone else, and there’s too many species for me to assume I’ve heard of all of them.”
“I arrived over a decade ago, so I’ve had more than enough time to become a mage by now. I was taken in by the Aegis Company at the time. I believe the reports said you arrived out here?” Cadenza asked.
“One moment I was fixing a fence and the next I was in the woods. I walked for hours before I ran into Tiriana, and it wasn’t until after I got attacked by a wild animal,” Sera reflected, thinking back. It was hard to believe she’d been here for nearing on two months now.
“She actually killed it on her own! What are they called now? Gobshites?” Tiriana added.
“Don’t remind me…I picked the name thinking I’d never have to look at one again,” groaned Sera, burying her head in her hands.
“It was much less dramatic when I got here. I popped up in a closet someone forgot to ward properly.” Cadenza paused for a moment, an introspective look on her face. “You know, I don’t actually remember what I was doing before it happened anymore.”
“…what was your home like?” Tiriana asked gently.
“Bright. The light was so intense during the day that Omichlódis seemed eternally overcast by comparison. My people were less advanced than the Armistice Alliance, but electricity was becoming widely available at the time. It wasn’t perfect, but it was home.” The other mistwalker smiled sadly at Sera. “I became a mage hoping to find a way home, but…it hasn’t worked out that way. I’m sure you’ve had the same thought- that if you try it yourself, maybe you’ll be able to make it work. I won’t discourage you from trying, but…don’t plan your future based on it.”
Sera looked down at the table. It wasn’t as if Cadenza had just ruined her dreams, as Sera had already considered the possibility, but it did hurt to hear from someone in the same situation. Still, the same logic applied- Sera had no reason to blindly trust Cadenza on the subject. She had to try for herself.
“I’m sorry for bringing the mood down,” apologized Cadenza. “Why don’t you tell us about your home next? It…helps to remember, if you talk about it occasionally.”
So she did. Sera spent the rest of the time it took to reach the fortress telling the two about Earth- the little corner of the United States she had lived in, the beautiful sights she’d seen, and the great cities. Her family. She didn’t have time to go into much detail, but she had to admit it was cathartic to share some of what she remembered.
“We’re about to land,” the attendant who’d served them their tea and snacks announced as she returned to clear the plates. Tiriana snatched one last cake and stuffed it into her mouth before the platter was taken, staring Sera in the face as if to dare her to say something. Sera just gave her a bemused look, not sure why Tiriana thought she’d care.
“It’s going to take some time to get everything unloaded. I’ll get you some mapping materials so you can draw up some plans for the first camp, and we’ll go over them before our mages start pulling the buildings up,” Cadenza told Sera as she rose from her seat. “Just wait by the ramp and I’ll have someone deliver them.”
“Thanks, I’ll try to be quick. Tiriana, do you have anything you need to do or can I consult with you about magic tools?” Sera asked, knowing she didn’t have the slightest idea how they would handle sewage with magic but assuming they weren’t using a mundane solution.
“Most of our people don’t listen to me anyway and I think Broviss can bully Layla into finding him a workshop all on his own. Ask away,” Tiriana answered as they headed back towards the cargo bay.
“Well, there’s a few things I need to know, but I’ll start with the most important: do I need to plan for sewers or septic tanks, or is there a tool that handles waste?” Sera followed up, wanting to get that out of the way first. Of all the potential issues this one would change her plans the most- even with magic it would probably be a pain to put in sewers after the fact, so the need for them or lack thereof would form the foundation of her plans.
“Not a tool, really…but the expedition probably brought a supply of slimes for waste disposal. They’ll be placed in all of the septic tanks. I wouldn’t worry about it too much because the tanks aren’t all that big,” Tiriana explained.
Stolen story; please report.
“Slimes? Are those animals or monsters here?” Slimes had been depicted in all manner of ways in fiction on Earth from harmless to menacing. Some would die to a light poke, while others were disasters in their own right.
“Technically they’re monsters, but they’re pretty harmless. You’d practically have to put one on your own face and let it smother you for them to be dangerous,” Tiriana replied while checking signs in the corridors to make sure they were heading in the right direction.
“If they’re that harmless, how do they even survive?” Sera wondered. It was a question that had occurred to her in the past when reading about the more helpless varieties of slime.
“Well, they’re pretty much undetectable in water. They’re essentially single-celled organisms holding themselves together with mana, so since they don’t have any real way of detecting their surroundings, they just sit still and let food be carried to them by the current. They’ll eat anything organic,” elaborated Tiriana. From that, Sera could extrapolate that slimes probably divided themselves to reproduce, so all anyone needed to do was open the tanks on occasion and remove the new slimes so they could be put to use in new tanks. A self-replicating waste disposal system, in other words.
And since their natural feeding method involved just sitting still and filter feeding, they stayed put in the tanks. Slimes seemed much more convenient than the sewer systems she was used to, not to mention more hygienic since waste never came into contact with any water supply. There was little need to recycle water when it could be generated by tools on the spot. Sera had to imagine the slimes produced their own waste, but Tiriana didn’t mention anything about that, so it was likely accounted for somehow already.
“So I just need to plan out the streets. What about vehicles? Do the streets need to be wide enough to let vehicles through?” she queried next.
“A wide main street leading towards the keep should be enough. We can run public transportation along the main roads and people can walk the rest- honestly, most people wouldn’t even both riding for these distances.” The two women reached the ramp leading from the cargo bay and headed down amid a flurry of activity as people prepared to offload cargo. Layla had already retrieved Broviss’s box and gotten quite a bit of a head start, her figure receding into the distance.
Sera almost asked how people with disabilities would get around, but she realized it was a moot point. Anyone with such a condition would need only to see a cleric from the right temple and receive literal divine intervention. And even if someone couldn’t- or didn’t want to- receive that type of care, there were likely magic tools far more convenient than wheelchairs. Translations spells literally involved projecting one’s thoughts; surely that could be applied to mobility devices.
“I’ll plan around walking room only for the backstreets then…maybe a little wider in case someone needs to squeeze a cart or something in. Would be nice to have some actual measurements, but I can probably use the elevator itself as a landmark and scale everything relative to it,” she said to herself while they waited for the promised mapping tools. An image was starting to form in her head when a young adventurer, an atlantean, rushed down the ramp with a box and some paper.
The man, barely more than a boy by the looks of him, looked around frantically before his eyes fell upon Sera and Tiriana who were, it had to be said, standing in plain sight to begin with. He rushed over as soon as he spotted them and thrust the box out towards no one in particular, the paper on top shuffling in the wind and almost blowing away.
“Mapping supplies, courtesy of Party Captain Cadenza!” he declared, using what Sera assumed was the woman’s official title. “Please confirm everything is there!”
Thanking him, Sera took the box and handed the paper to Tiriana so she could check the contents. Inside were pens, pencils, and tools like a protractor, a compass, and a ruler which, Sera noted, used units that were completely foreign to her. It definitely wasn’t a foot long, either, though it wasn’t like feet as a unit of measurement were universal even on Earth.
“I think that’s everything I need,” she confirmed, and the adventurer was gone in a flash, off to do whatever other tasks were assigned to him. Was his workload that heavy, or was he simply overeager? Moving on, she turned back to Tiriana and accepted the sheets of paper back. “Let’s head over to the elevator and get a better sense of the size. It’ll help me draw the rest.”
“We never did look at it too closely last time we were here. Not that there would have been much point with it unpowered,” Tiriana noted as they headed off. The airship had been landed a fair distance away, likely so that it wouldn’t need to be moved when they started putting buildings up. It took several minutes to reach their destination, which was similar in appearance to the gazebos above the stairs to the workshop level.
The elevator was better protected from the elements than those staircases had been, but its shelter had the same shape: a pyramidal roof like a gazebo, although with walls this time instead of isolated pillars at each corner. It looked to have at least a dozen sides, but they would probably need to do a full circle of the structure to get an accurate count. Sera didn’t recognize the material the walls were made out of, a gray and bumpy surface that was somehow glossy at the same time. For it to have survived, it must have been built with the same intentions as the central keep, a permanent installation the inhabitants never intended to replace.
Sera and Tiriana took a glance inside, but the interior was too dark to make out much detail at the moment, so they would need to return later with flashlights or Vivi, the resident living multitool. Instead they walked around the exterior a bit so that Sera could get a sense of its size.
“Do you think we should leave the elevator isolated, or construct buildings to the side of it?” Sera asked while they walked. Tiriana took a moment to think it over, checking the surroundings thoughtfully.
“Let’s leave it alone and build everything in front of it. That would make it easier to secure, since it would be harder for anyone or anything to slip around the sides if they’re exposed and well lit,” she decided in the end.
“In that case, all I need to do is start drawing- oh, but I’ll need you to help me figure out what buildings go where,” Sera said as they headed back towards the front.