Nails was so glad Inertia wasn't around to see his latest failure. And it was a failure. An entire sixteenth of an inch out of alignment. With the tools they had, that might as well have been a mile.
Well he technically hadn't done the work. He had been the one in charge. His failure had been in ensuring his workers understood how to use the machines. The presses weren't even that complicated. They did, however, require the occasional kick to make sure they stayed in alignment.
He was about to go explain that to his assistants when the lady Arizar stepped into the forgeworks, looking around. Her eyes fell upon him. Nails took a deep breath, swallowing as she approached. While he'd grown used to working with Inertia and even Master Percival, this was High Lady Arizar, daughter of High Djinn Thozgar, ruler of Spellford. The most beautiful elf in Spellford, as voted by his old cadre more than once.
Nails'd grown up practically worshiping Lady Arizar. Now he had daily meetings with her.
Today she was wearing a dress of black with golden accents, which drew his eyes to all sorts of places that were entirely inappropriate. Safer to stare at the ground or his work.
“Lady Arizar,” Nails said, bowing a few inches towards her as she approached. She’d insisted he stop bowing several times since Master Percival left but he couldn't entirely stop the reflex. This was the compromise they had quietly agreed upon. At least he hoped she'd agreed.
"How are the yards today? Any problems you need addressed? Material shortages? Issues with your workers?"
Nail shook his head. “No my lady, no issues today.”
“Not even with the new recruits? I imagine that you haven't had much time to train them up properly, with Inertia being gone.”
Nail swallowed heavily. How did she know? How did she always know? “I mean no more than expected, my lady. Nothing for you to concern yourself with.”
“So it won't result in a delay in your project? I know it's your personal assignment, but they are being built with Aeternia’s resources. And having those extra airships in the air will make a huge difference to our efforts pushing west. That means lives saved. Pride is hardly worth a few lives.”
“No problems at all my lady. If anything we're ahead of schedule.” At least that Nails could say with confidence. The constant influx of materials and expertise had slowed somewhat but their proficiency with using those materials had gone up a great deal.
There was a bit of concern about where they’d source their materials for the next set of airships but that’d already been passed along to the Lady.
Thankfully, both he and Bolt were well on their way to completing their project. Nails was ahead of course as he should be as the senior apprentice. He was sure he would hear about it from his fellow apprentice.
“Very well I won't disturb you further. Just do remember to contact me if you need me.”
“I will, my lady,” Nails lied, very much having no intent to do so unless it was an emergency. That’s what Vednil was for. The stocky elf might look a little weird, always drawing images of the Knight Exemplar, but he was much easier for Nails to talk to.
He made the mistake of looking up as she turned away and he couldn't help it as his eyes traced over her curves once more.
“Really need to find a woman of my own,” he cursed under his breath. Especially if she was going to be showing up every day.
Maybe once he wasn’t an apprentice, he’d finally have time to meet someone. If the Magus Protectus could do it, with all the duties he was constantly taking on, there had to be some hope for Nails, right?
…Magelord…
Ari suppressed a sigh as she left Nails behind. He was a good worker yet it was obvious he didn't know how to conduct himself in her presence. So much easier around Perry. She quickly put her paramour out of mind.
She'd been trying to grow a rapport with the pair of nearly graduated apprentices, yet neither of them could so much as look her in the eye. At least she'd gotten Nails to stop practically kissing the ground every time she showed up. That had been beyond embarrassing for a man in such a senior position.
Better than Bolts who was still bending himself in half every time she showed up.
Though she supposed neither had practice in such a high role. From her understanding they’d both done small forge works at the docks prior to their journey to Verdant Point.
Ari looked out across their industrial area, frowning. The next airships were coming together quickly. The frame was nearly complete.
As she’d been warned they would they diverged from each other. Nails was building one similar to the Iron Curtain. Across the ravine, Bolt seemed to have gone with the original design, the heavier shield class. She suspected they would end up needing two classifications for the ships, if they continued to diverge so heavily. Still, that wasn't really her concern.
That was more Perry’s department. She just needed to keep them on track. Thankfully Sidhe, Vednil and Alister kept her informed even when her supposed senior members didn’t.
Was still better than dealing with Falith, who was next on her schedule.
Ari made her way towards the train station, brushing her immaculate dress clean. Not that any of the soot and ash had gotten near her thanks to her Impeccable Dress spell. She smiled when she thought about how Perry had responded after she described it to him.
“So… Shield. It’s the Shield spell, just using your dress as a focus.”
“It’s a good deal more than that,” she’d argued, pointing out several points in the spell design that had relied upon the dress.
He’d spun up a similar design, only he’d anchored it to a glove of all things. “Should we call this Impeccable Glove instead of Iron Fist then? They’re both just specialized versions of Shield, that’s all I’m saying.”
Ari had laughed, then leaned over and kissed his cheek.
The train arrived, pulling her out of her thoughts. While she could’ve flown to visit Falith, arriving by train put the woman in a better mood. Besides, she could use the time in her Memory Palace to go over reports. It might not be as powerful as Perry’s, but it was still effectively free time. As Ari rode the train that went past their camp, she took the time there to work through reports Sidhe had provided her. More signs of foreign agents, and some sort of cult that worshiped the monsters from the sky.
At least Sidhe had dealt with the cult already. It helped that it’d failed to secure followers among their people, seeing as they were providing for their needs better than most were used to.
Having a proper master of information was a boon Ari simply could not believe Perry had been functioning without.
When Ari made her way into the camp, Falith was waiting for her, to no surprise. The Hydra-souled matriarch was always waiting when Ari arrived, fresh tea on and snacks laid out to the side.
“So good of you to make time for me, Lady Arizar,” Falith said, pouring Ari a cup of tea.
“Of course, Matriarch Falith,” Ari replied, accepting the tea and taking a single sip. It was, as usual, a truly delightful flavor that Ari had not tasted before. This one had a subtle floral aroma. The tea was the one good thing about having to come out to deal with the Hydra-souled matriarch. Honestly if she could spend her day without having to make these visits, she'd be able to get a lot more done. Yet being as Ari was only a Pegasus and very much was ruling from a position of inferior strength… well, compromises needed to be made.
“We have had some small success thanks to your suggestions,” the Matriarch said, after taking a sip of her own tea. “You were correct in that while very few had need of our greenhouses, the products of running our own greenhouses would allow us to trade for much.”
Airy nodded, looking around at the finished stone walls and down towards the open valley that lay below, covered by stepped greenhouses and the farms that lay within.
They had made a lot of progress in the time that they started trading. It seemed they'd even pushed into the mountain to do so, with a great deal of storage room. Sweets and teas seemed to be the pale elves’ specialty.
She was distracted from her next cup of tea when she raised an eyebrow, noticing Bevel charging past outside, chased by the three Fores'thall Apprentices, who were in turn chased by three of the younger Pale Elves.
“That child is a bad influence. She really needs someone to take a sterner hand with her,” the matriarch said, hand moving to a nearby staff. One engraved with far too many pain spells, in Ari’s opinion.
Ari nodded even if she didn't agree. Bevel was challenging at times, but given her childhood, pain and sterness were the last things Bevel needed. “I will talk to her when we return. Ensure she knows this is not the place for those sorts of antics.” Even if Ari felt the camp very much could use more of those sorts of antics. Even with their new upgrades, it was a dreary place.
“Very good, very good. I trust she will be on better behavior the next time you visit.” The elder matriarch sat back, retrieving one of her private candies and dropping it into her tea.
The matriarch hadn’t offered her one. Ari could admit she had some curiosity as to what those might be. Some, but not so much as to ask to try one. Her father had taught her the dangers of taking unknown foods from strange Hydra-souled. There was very little mundane food that could negatively affect her at this point but things made by those in the higher tiers could overwhelm even her enhanced defenses.
Especially when she was not Hydra-souled yet herself. If only, of all those monsters attacking the barrier, one that she needed were among them.
And if only she didn’t have to tip-toe around matriarch Falith.
The rest of their tea went peaceably, little of value being exchanged, with several small niceties and discussions of what the matriarch could do to further enrich her clan while ‘helping’ Cape Aeternia.
With the matriarch pacified for the day, Ari boarded the train once more.
The train pulled her even farther from the heart of Aeternia towards her other major problem. This one she blamed Perry for entirely. If he hadn’t kicked the old man into shape, he’d still be grumbling and getting drunk in his hole.
Instead, Koachim, champion of Valos, and constant thorn in Ari’s side, was creating chaos amongst the very people he was supposed to be saving. As if fixing his back hadn’t been enought, the ritual combat with her paramour had resulted in Koachim pushing his way into the next tier. Which meant she had yet another person who outranked her in power among their subjects.
A boon in many ways but also another headache for her to manage regularly.
When Ari arrived at the crude mountain fortress, the blocky exterior something that very few of the artisans in Cape Aeternia would countenance, there was a crowd of several thousand gathered around a new pit.
One that hadn't been there the day before. Ari suppressed a sigh as she strode down, maintaining her dignity as best as she was able while doing a power walk. When she was close, she called out, “Champion Koachim.”
The champion in question raised his head, looking towards her from his great stone throne that watched over the pit. “Ah if it isn't little Ari. Come to watch the fight, have we?”
"Why do you have children fighting each other in a pit?" Ari demanded, pointing at the two teenagers who were both bleeding from multiple wounds, neither of which had been addressed.
“Better to have them fighting in the pit than out, wouldn't you say?” Champion Koachim replied, gesturing at the crowd that’d gathered around the pit. “Besides, it lets them work off steam, get out their aggression. A lot of these people have a lot of aggression saved up after losing their homes.”
“That doesn't explain why there's a tournament of half the children between the age of fifteen and twenty being held at each of your sanctuaries. Nor the grand tournament supposed to be held back in Cape Aeternia. Did you not think of informing me of these plans?” Despite her frustration, Ari kept her voice even.
“Seems you heard about them well enough, even without me sending ‘em along,” the champion shot back, giving her an arrogant wink.
Ari couldn’t hold back a small half smile. “It's hard not to hear about your plans when there were criers shouting about the tournaments. I certainly didn’t expect to encounter one wandering around Tetherfall. And I know they made their way to Southport and Verdant Point as well.”
Not to Overflow City, of course. For all the disruptions, she’d had time to set up proper administration there.
“Volunteers, one and all, I'll have you know.”
“Doesn't matter if they're volunteers. You didn't get authorization to hold a tournament in Tetherfall. I would’ve approved it if you would have just asked.”
“Not much point in asking then, was there?”
“It would have made it much easier for me to arrange for the tournament on our end.”
“I ‘spose there's that, isn’t there?” the champion admitted rubbing his chin. “Not very good with all that sort of thing. Used to just me and my tribe. We don't have many people doing this and that all the time.”
“If you had accepted the offer of an assistant then they could handle this sort of thing for you.”
“Having an assistant makes me look weak.”
She’d been expecting him to make a comment such as that. A smile played across her lips, gone as fast as she showed it. “Are you saying you're so weak you're worried about looking weak?”
Koachim’s face screwed up as he turned away from the kids fighting below. He pressed his hand into a fist, knuckling his chin as he looked Ari over. Then he let out a laugh that shook her bones. “Aha. ‘Spose you've got me there, haven't you?”
“So does that mean you'll accept an assistant,” Ari asked, crossing her arms while looking back towards where the fight in the pit had ended. They’d been pulled to the side and a healer was tending to their wounds. Mostly. It seemed they were leaving a few of the marks in place for whatever reason.
Probably some sort of foolish desire to show off. She'd been a teenager once. She could understand ill-considered actions such as those.
“Suppose I could accept an assistant, but...” He rolled his knuckles along his chin again, following her gaze to the fighters below. “They'd have to be able to hold their own in a fight. Can't be having some sheep who can't take a punch or twelve.”
Ari nodded, giving the man a smile. “That much I can do.” She had an entire compound full of Vox Knights. Half of them had requested duties that involved fewer inferno drakes and bog drills.
Much as he created chaos, Ari felt a certain kinship with Koachim. Honestly, if decorum didn’t dictate otherwise, Ari wouldn’t mind stepping into the pit herself.
Biting the inside of her cheek, Ari strode away from the champion. Dragons above, she needed Perry to come back.
Dealing with these people was clearly a bad influence on her.