Chapter 18 - Engineers

Chapter 18

Salran Mountains, Starnor Imperial Border Territories

Slaver guild outpost

Nastros looked around the camp, and made her way to the slave master. He was east to find, with his gilded armor, and the small crowd of flunkies hovering around him.

"Ah, lady Nastros!" He called out as she came close. "A pleasure as always! What brings you to my humble camp this day?"

Nastros looked around. 'Humble' wouldn't be how she would call it, but for someone so high up in the slaver guild, it was probably accurate.

She ignored the cries from the coral where the slaves were kept, and some were disciplined. Which in the case of this camp, involved whips, and sexual violence. She wasn't a squeamish woman -most her qualms and morals were burned long ago during her service to the Republic-, but she still wasn't happy about seeing people beaten and raped meters away from her.

"Slave master Markan." She nodded at him, and stopped a meter or so away, the flunkies parting in front of her with almost indecent haste. The last time one had failed to move out of the way in time, he'd ended up needing a new arm.

She was a patient woman, but this mission tested even her almost legendary calm.

"The pleasure is all mine." She continued, but with a tone that clearly implied it was nothing of the sort. "My...masters have sent me to check on the status of your camp, and to bring news."

"Ah! I assume this has something to do with those crazy dragon rumors?"

Nastros nodded.

"Partially."

"Well, I can assure you they are nothing but hearsay! I've had my men conduct a few raids of their own, and they saw nothing unusual, on the sky or on land!"

Nastros frowned.

"Slave master, I thought we had agreed to have the bandits conduct the raids?"

"Of course! And my men did so with bandit escorts, and dressed as bandits! I am not stupid, you know."

That wasn't the point. Nastros debated pushing it, but shrugged internally. She wouldn't be able to convince the slave master to stop taking a direct hand into the acquisition, and as long as his men were taking precautions, it shouldn't matter. And even if they got caught, the baroness executed virtually every bandit captured on the spot regardless, so there wouldn't be any chance of the camp's location filtering out.

"Right. I also wanted to enquire about your defenses."

"Against what? The pitiful excuse for a guard that baroness has? Please, we'd crush them easily!"

"That guard is rapidly growing in numbers. Village militias are reforming, and a substantial number of veterants are signin back up. More importantly, I have reliable information that a skilled adventurer is now accompanying her forces."

That made the slave master pause. Adventurers, especially guild adventurers, were seldom to be treated lightly. Few survived long in that profession, but those who did became extremely powerful, and lethal beyond measure.

"An adventurer...of what rank?"

"Unknown. But from what I have heard? Steel, at the very least. But I would bet more on silver or even gold."

The slave master winced. Steel adventurers were good, but not that dangerous. They could be overpowered even by bandits. But silver and gold ones usually had powerful abilities and spells, and would cut their way through an unprepared force with ease.

"I...see. Thank you for the warning. I will start some preparations, just in case."

Nastros nodded.

"That's all I'm asking. Now, if you'll excuse me?"

"Of course! Ah, do you wish for some entertainment before leaving ?"

Nastros looked at the assembled horde of slaves Markan gestured at, then back at the slave master, and her control of her expression slipped for a split second.

The slave master raised his hands.

"I-I did not mean to offend you!"

Nastros stared at him for a solid second, before turning around and leaving.

Special agent Calliope 'Nastros' Ultima, of the Republic Secret Service, left the camp, the guards parting as she neared them without question. Everyone knew her reputation, and no one wished to incur her ire.

*****

Airah looked at the square. It wasn't hard to spot the engineers Lenna had gathered. First because they were assembled around a trio of sturdy looking wagons, but also because there was this strange air about them, like they were discussing how to dismantle and rebuild the wagons, but were only held up because it would take too much time.

Airah stepped forward, and waved at the closest one.

"Hello! I'm Airah Starfire, I assume you are the engineers lady Vostner gathered?"

"Ah? Yes!" The engineer threw up a salute, and Airah returned it with parade level precision, urged on by an instinct ingrained by six millenia of military service, before chuckling at the engineer's surprised expression.

"Sorry, old habits die hard. Can I see your commanding officer?"

"That would be me, I suppose." Said one of the engineers as he walked forward. He looked as old as the stones of the wall, and about as tough. He was also striking, if graying men where your thing. "Roland Greysky, at your service." He bowed. "A pleasure to meet you, lady Starfire."

"The pleasure is all mine, sir Greysky."

The engineer laughed.

"I am no lord. Still, I thank you for the politeness." He straightened up. "So, you are to guide us towards the building site?"

"Yes. If you're ready to head out? It isn't that far, but better to get started early."

"We are ready to depart at any time, lady Starfire."

"Excellent, then let's go!"

The engineers began running around, with a healthy amount of shouting and cursing, universal to militaries getting underway everywhere. Airah watched them with a strange sense of nostalgia. It was like her subconscious remembered this kind of thing, despite the memories being long gone, erased by the same process that had kept her from madness. Mostly.

She shifted, and smiled as the armor didn't grate her. She'd picked it up at Victor's shop, and it now fitted her perfectly. She didn't even feeling like her chest was being compressed that much anymore, which was a definite plus. She could have just ignored it of course, but if she was to use her human form so much, and in so many combat situations, she might as well be comfortable in it.

It was a matter of minutes to get the convoy moving, and Airah leapt onto the lead wagon as they moved towards the gate.

"Alright, so where to?" Asked Roland as he drove the wagon.

"Take the western road, then we'll head north."

"There are no roads north milady." Said the engineer as they passed the gate.

"Oh I know. I hope you aren't afraid of a little forest delving."

"I'm not, but the wagons..."

"I have my ways. Tell me, they are sturdy enough to resist being lifted into the air, correct?"

The engineer opened his mouth, then closed it with a snap.

"Yes, yes they are. Sorry, I guess being told your, ah, particularities hadn't quite registered. I assume me and my men wouldn't be transported the same way, since you mentioned forest travel?"

"No. I don't have the equipment for you to ride me safely." That felt odd to say. "Or carry you. If I squeeze the wagon too hard it's some bend wood. If I squeeze you guys...."

Roland winced.

"Right. I'd rather not end up as pulp."

"Exactly. Still, I'll be watching from high up. If anyone is somehow stupid enough to attack an armed convoy, I'll come to the rescue." Airah smiled. "It has become something of a speciality of mine."

"So I've heard. And I am grateful for that. I have some relatives at Klareswasser, you know."

"Oh really?"

"Yes! My brother married a woman from there. They have a few children, all of them old enough to have left the house by now. Frederick, Narva, and Eloise. Did you meet them?"

Airah licked her lips.

"I, ah, had the honor of meeting Eloise yes."

Roland gave her a strange look, then laughed.

"Well it seems that kind of thing runs in the family!"

"What does?"

"Let's call it 'directness', and leave it at that."

Airah chuckled.

"I suppose you could call it that."

"Let me tell you sometime how my sister in law got with my brother."

"Why not now? We've got time."

"Sure. Alright, so it had started at the summer festival in the town-"

*****

Unsurprisingly, the journey was uneventful. Bar the attack on Lenna's convoy, the bandits seemed to be sticking to easy targets, and didn't tangle with even the village militias when they could avoid it.

It was also very relaxing. Airah had always been a loner, although if it was by nature or necessity she didn't know. Besides, she literally had another person living inside her own head. But it didn't mean she disliked the company of others, and hanging out with the engineers was very nice. Plus, while they mostly specialized in buildings, they were very knowledgeable and educated, and she could bombard them with questions about technology, with Stellyra pitching in from time to time with suggestions.

"No, no, no. The steam locomotives are Empire built. We might have imported the first ones from Albion, but that was back in the day." Said Roland as he cradled his mug. "Nowadays we even export some of our own! Not to the Republic, of course, not that they'd be transportable over the border anyway, but there are a lot of princedoms and petty kingdoms who don't even have power plants that are delighted to buy them off of us."

Airah nodded. The kingdom of Albion was some kind of analogue to England. A maritime power, who conquered and pillaged everyone they could reach, and traded with those too powerful for the former to be suicidal. But they were getting bolder every year, and were a gigantic center for innovation.

"So the Republic has its own industry?"

"Oh you bet. Their army isn't as modern as the Imperial Army, but they're hellbent on catching up. Same for their industry, although they are having some...corruption issues."

"How so?"

"The Republic might make a big show of showing how equal everyone is, and how the people decide, but truth is most of their government is controlled by a few powerful dynasties that formed after they toppled their old nobility. Oh yes, the president and the ministers are all elected quite normally, but the ministry's 'secretaries' are all hereditary positions that run the entire government. The rest are figureheads, and scapegoats if something goes wrong."

"You sound very knowledgeable about the Republic honestly."

"I lived there for a bit. Back when the Republic was trying to get in the Empire's good graces. It was a long time ago though. I still keep in touch with people on the other side however. Fellow engineers mostly, and they aren't exactly discreet about what they see as the failings of their homeland."

Airah nodded. Engineers here were about the highest level of education you could get without getting into the arcane arts, which made them the intellectual elite of the mundane, and those were never very quiet, historically, part of the reason oppressive regimes kept a close eye on them. The engineers were the highest mainly because weren't really doctorates yet, beyond some extremely selective universities. The only ones that went further were magical academies and the various guilds. It also explained why the technological growth was so slow. After all humanity on Earth had built the first fission reactor less than a century and a half after the first steam locomotive. Magic monopolizing the brightest minds made sense, and explained a lot.

"Smart people rarely keep quiet when they see something stupid. Actually, I was wondering, why are there so many of you here? I mean, this is a frontier town, shouldn't most of you be in the core territories?"

"A lot of us came from families that followed lady Vostner's parents into exile. It was either that, or the axman back in the Empire's core."

Airah blinked. Lenna's parents were exiled? That was fascinating. And it explained the paintings of the large city in the manor.

She opened her mouth to ask more, and froze as the thunderclap of an explosion filled the air.

"What the hell was that?" Yelled out Rolan as he leapt onto his feet.

"I have no idea." Said Airah before turning her head towards the exact source as Stellyra finished her analysis. "But I'm going to check it out. Stay here, I'll be back!"

And with that she ran forward, turned into her dragon form, and took off.