Chapter 57 - Meeting Crasher

Note : Chapter 58 has been written and added to the queue !

Well, the system is already working, I was able to effectively take today off for personal stuff without having to scramble around for more chapters. Also I'll need to do a pinned chapter with the patreon schedule for new patrons coming in.

Anyway, I'll probably pivot back to The Fallen World once my burst of inspiration on Manaforged Robotics is done, especially as we're soon going to have a greater backlog here than there and it's been a while since I've done a good, long streak on TFW. Not to mention a fair few of you on discord and here on patreon have expressed their dismay at the lack of The Fallen World chapters lately.

Chapter 57

Starborn Mountains, Starfire Valley

Tunnel Entrance

"Ma'am!" The militiaman saluted as Sapphiria exited the tunnel. "Another day of supervising?"

"...No." Said the AI as she walked into the fort, her helmet retracting into the armor. "Is Ramina here?"

"Er, no, not yet. I was made aware she was due by noon. Meeting with the town council back home. Is that a problem?"

Her ears prickled. A council meeting? Perhaps she ought to drop in.

"No. I'll be in Astralis before she departs. My golems will work in my absence."

"Oh." The militiaman wavered. "They're...nevermind."

Sapphiria raised her eyebrow, looking at him, and he swallowed.

"They're just weird. Ma'am. I mean no offense by that."

"None taken. May I ask why?"

"They just are. I mean I know autocarriages, and the golems carrying stuff is just one without a driver, right? But those, they're like...bizarre."

"Right. I think I know what you mean."

The mining and construction bots were outside of their expertise. For them cars, hell not even that, just self propelled carriages, were the height of wheeled transportation. What she had were autonomous wheeled drones.

That was why she'd insisted on humanoid bots initially. Even the riotbots were something squishies could humanize and graps on an instinctive level. Hell with magic they might assume it was basically an animated suit of armor.

But there just wasn't time to make squishie appropriate bots here.

"We'll deal with it ma'am." Said the militiaman, after taking a second to rally.

"Thank you. I appreciate it, Markos. I really do."

He beamed at her. It always paid to treat the grunts like individuals and not faceless goons. She'd taken the time to learn the names of everyone in the outpost yesterday, something she'd sadly been neglecting before.

She needed to get used to commanding squishies. Like it or not, these ones weren't putting their weapons down soon.

Nor should they. Fucking hell wasn't that a grim thought.

She wondered if her code donors had the same when war with the Theocracy broke out.

"It'd be churlish of us not to ma'am. You're the one helping us after all." He looked at the forest trail. "I'd offer an escort, but you're more dangerous than all my squad put together. Faster too."

"Perhaps not quite that fast, but I appreciate the compliment." She smiled, before raising her helmet. "Best be off, daylight's burning."

"Safe travels ma'am."

She nodded in thanks, and took off, the militia cheering as she just sprinted off. No point hiding that capability, she'd demonstrated it plenty during the ambush on the road with the Bane, in full view of half of Astralis.

Besides, it felt good, and it avoided wasting time.

*****

Sapphiria was scanning at...well, not full power, but as much as she could while she sprinted.

Nothing. No diffuse contacts, no pingbacks, just utter silence.

Either the creatures that had been stalking this trail were the ones they'd already killed, or the survivors had learned that it was a bad idea to get close. Though, given their seeming lack of survival instincts, that last one was something of a gamble.

How long that would last however, was another question entirely.

She arrived at Astralis with no notable incidents besides scaring the ever living shit out of the logging team. But that was quickly resolved with some profuse apologies.

Astralis itself had some work being done. Markers were being set down to properly delineate the settlement's limits, in preparations for her sentry guns and defense grid.

She slowed down, and went for a more leisurely jog through the...well town would be a great exageration, but village?

It was interesting how everyone turned to watch, and people poked their heads out of huts, but no one approached her. Ever.

She was on a pedestal. Even worse than when she'd been touring the border worlds. There she had been the stern representation of the Federation's benevolence, but people still came up to her. It was unbelievably hard to overcome the human impulse for curiosity. Squishies got killed all the time doing stupid stuff to sate it, though admittedly walking up to the most important person your world had seen since the colonization ship landed wasn't likely to kill you.

But here...Here she wasn't exactly sure what she was to them. They called her a 'Hero', but she didn't fully comprehend all of its connotations. They weren't truly looking at her like an heroic figure, even of legends.

The civilians were gazing at her like she was a Goddess.

Before long she stepped into the innermost sector of the settlement, with the old Imperial outpost, and walked into the central building unchallenged, though one of the sentries raced ahead, most likely to warn the council of her arrival.

*****

"I'm sorry, she what?" Asked Kalia.

"Dug, and built, the foundations of the whole workshop in a single day. Without lifting a finger, I might add." Ramina shook her head. "It's exactly as I'd theorized. She has...so many golems down there we haven't seen. She just called a swarm of them and bam! Done. Calvones is stumped." She snickered. "Ah, stumped." She coughed as everyone gazed at her, confused. "Sorry. My point is, she has resources to spare. I think we need to worry a lot less about the snowpiercer. A lot of her stuff doesn't seem to have combat applications, which may be why she's struggled compared to what she can do."

"But why hasn't she offered those to us?" Asked Malry, looking disturbed.

"Wouldn't be able to get them through the forest, is my guess." Answered the artificer. "Also paranoia. Which given what we are currently discussing and what I have done to the technology she has graciously offered us, I cannot blame her for."

She emphasized the last part to hell and back, and received a chorus of winces as an answer.

"I'm not arguing that it may be justified." Said Kalia. "I would, however, dearly like to know if they could be used to help us. Her promise of buidling materials is great, but winter is fast approaching. It's already a minor miracle it hasn't snowed again." Her shoulder sagged. "We need help. More than she has given us yet."

"You should ask her then." Softly answered Ramina, before cutting off the mage-magistrate as she tried to retort. "No. Not me prodding her. I've already done that, she's made promises but no concrete action yet. You should ask her. Directly. You are the person most likely to get the best answer out of her. Be genuine. I think..." Ramina frowned. "I think she's very human. That she really wants to help us. But she also has a lot on her plate."

"She has exacted a steep price for her help." Said Malry, before shutting up as the artificer glared at her.

"Don't you start. And we all know that those 'prices' were all things she knew would not impact us all that much. Not to mention, mineral rights for mount Nebula? Yeah, right, who's going to wrestle the mines from her if she's down there? No. I think she's trying her best. Maybe all we can do is offer our hand."

Kalia looked pensive for a moment, before slowly nodding.

"Very well. I'll try my best." She sighed. "But first, what the hell is that I heard about spices?"

"Oh. That's, ah..." Ramina coughed. "So you know how she's been down there a while? No doubt this is how she made her nutrigel palatable. Her spices...it's like getting punched in the face with flavor and then kicked in the groin by the aftertaste. It's almost dangerous. And horrifying."

Kalia's eyebrow rose, before she laughed.

"Oh ancestors! You liked it, didn't you? The nutrigel with the spice." Ramina looked away, and Kalia started convulsing with laughter. "Ahahahah! Of course you did! How does it feel, loving this stuff, oh ye of many criticisms of my taste?"

"W-Well at least it had taste!"

"Yeah, of getting punched in the face." Kalia shook her head, drying a single tear. "Oh that's precious. Adorable."

"Shut up."

"Make me."

Malry leaned forward, and tapped the synthesizer, which was in the middle of the table. Partially to take a good look at it, but mostly for safekeeping. Ramina literally hadn't let it out of her sight since it had been formally delivered into the outpost's custody. She'd gone to sleep with it under her arm and done her...necessities with it in a corner of the room.

It was a testament to how worried Malry was about it that she hadn't bitched about the former.

"As interesting as your antics are ladies, can we please refocus? Or are we just going to gloss over the fact that she not only synthesizes spices, but does so with a device the size of my chest at a rate I'd flatly call impossible if I hadn't seen her nutrigel vats."

Ramina nodded.

"Sorry, yeah. It's, uh, concerning. Because I thought she could make nutrigel because it was just the basest, nutritional slop, but if she can make complex spices...where's the limit? Condensate? Starmetal? I mean how do you-"

"MAGE-MAGISTRATE!"

The messenger that came through the door came to a dead stop, Gregor's gladius on his throat, before any of them even had the time to rise from their seats.

To his credit, he simply kept speaking.

"Mage-magistrate! Lady Sapphiria is here!"

They exchanged a look. Speak of the devil...

"Here in Astralis? I'll go meet-" Started Kalia.

"No, she's-"

"Hello!" Came a voice from down the hallway. "Sorry for popping in unannounced." Sapphiria jogged into the room, stopping to watch Gregor withdraw his sword from the guard's neck, and simply electing not to comment. "I heard there was a council session, and I needed to discuss a few things. Is this a good time to join you?"

"I, uh..." Said Kalia, her mind reeling. "Sure! We were just talking about you, as a matter of fact."

Sapphiria smiled, and Kalia felt warmth coursing through her like an electroshock.

"Why, it is nice of you to think of me. What was it about me you were talking about?"

Oh shit.

*****

Sapphiria snuck a glance at Gregor as the rest of the council seemed dumbfounded by her question, sneaking glances at each other, each waiting for one of the others to speak up.

Damn, he had reflexes. More importantly, he'd only withdraw his blade once the messenger's words had been proven true. Though maybe that was just to avoid looking like an idiot after she came in.

She waited for a couple of second as the silence dragged on, and was on the verge of speaking when Malry spoke up.

"The spices."

The AI grimaced, flicking a glance at the synthesizer on the table.

Of course it would be the spices.

"...Right. I assume, given Ramina's reaction to them, that it is an issue?"

Malry met her eyes, and started laughing softly.

"An issue? An issue?!? Lady Sapphiria-"

"Just Sapphiria. Please."

Malry almost snarled, before visibly stopping herself.

"Fine. Sapphiria. Do you have any idea how valuable this is?"

The AI shrugged as she took a seat.

"I believe Ramina mentionned something about a King's ransom?"

The alchemist snorted.

"Sure. That's a good starting point. Do you know what the most powerful merchant Conglomerate, and thus political force, in the Kingdom is?"

"Malry. I don't know anything about your Kingdom besides its geographical location and what you told me."

"They're the Malpys Conglomerate. Built upon long range, blue water trade. I'm sure despite your lack of knowledge you can guess what they carried back then to make them so rich, and what still forms the bedrock of their financial power."

Oh hell.

"Spices."

"Exactly. Spices! And you, not only have the means to somehow make some out of thin air, but also make ones so potent, Ramina is floored by them! So much so she actually finds nutrigel with it palatable."

"Well it's why they were made..." Muttered Sapphiria. Shed have added that technically, it needed biological material, not air, but it didn't seem like the time.

Malry opened her mouth to speak, then her glance flicked at Kalia, and she visibly took a deep breath, calming herself.

Sapphiria took a look of her own, and she almost fell out of her chair.

She realized that she'd never actually seen the mage-magistrate angry. And here she was pissed.

"My apologies." Finally let out the alchemist. "I let my...astonishment get the better of myself."

"I understand." Sapphiria looked at her. "Many of the things I can do are strange, and very out of touch with this time." Suddenly, it hit her. "Perhaps we could...solve that?" She proposed. "We could speak of the Kingdom, the Magistracy...the continent, what has happened. I would welcome the conversation and it might help me avoid such...blunders in the future."

"That would be delightful." Said Kalia through gritted teeth. "But we have more urgent items right now. Lady Sapphiria, could you...excuse us a minute? I need to have a talk with our dear alchemist."

"Of course." The AI got up. "I will return shortly."

She did not want to be there when the mage-magistrate blew up.