77 - Ekarone Days Pt. 4 [Cherno]

Rather than Jahangir, the treason which Damrus had been made aware of was related to a loss which he hadn’t mentioned. Silberblut himself. Damrus had meant to take his body as the next step in his own growth. The old Coupler meant nothing to him, the accursed thing ran on Thaumic Fusion and leaked anathemic remnants into the user’s system; even someone like Casus Aristedes, with his freakish resistance, couldn’t use it for long.

Indeed, the traitor was his own son, for his failed attempt to steal the body of Casus Aristedes for himself. Blackhand’s coincidental thwarting of that obvious attempt at usurpation was the largest reason why Damrus chose not to go after her. He was thankful, in a way. Better to lose a resource than to have an enemy gain it… And Semzar was a much more immediate threat than either Blackhand or Silberblut.

This was a matter of no surprise. Succession disputes were all too common, doubly so when one couldn’t turn to the law. That didn’t mean Damrus wasn’t disappointed in his son; not for trying to overthrow him, but for being so incompetent in the attempt as to just openly discuss it in a smokery and send eye-candy rather than come get the body himself.

If that dumbfuck had somehow managed to overthrow him, the Hashem Family would go up in flames before the year was out.

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A few days passed… And Krahe just couldn’t seem to figure out an energy-efficient way to deliver construct-projectiles where they ought to go. Sure, she could apply the properties of Spray to create a rocket-like effect, but the energy investment for the results was worse than undesirable, and it would have extreme backblast, enough that getting caught in it might endanger even her. No, there had to be a better way…

…A solid delivery system. Once more, Tar came to mind; specifically, simply sending a tendril with the actual projectile hidden within its tip. It would be very limited in range, but it would strike quickly.

Beyond that… Well, she supposed she would just have to deal with the limitations of her elemental affinity until she found something that could fill in for those weakneses. Cinder Gatling was still a very good medium-range option, as she found that it imparted Hard Entropy while benefiting from the main appeal of beam-type attacks, which usually inflicted Soft Entropy. This would at least partially balance out the issue of being a less-than-ideal barrier-breaking method.

She decided to just ask Casus: “Are there magical bullets that I can attach one of my own thaumaturgies to? I can do it with one of my basic projectiles, but I need to apply that same effect to my bursters.”

“I… Am not aware of such a thing. You could buy some blank thaumshot and try with that. They’re just bullets made of low-grade thaumstone, crude base material for lower-order magic bullets like Red Reapers and Yellow Atropals. Still expensive, mind you, but a single bulk order ought to last you a while.”

“I’ll get a handful for testing and see about the bulk order later. Though… I recall someone offering to sell me dregshot. Is that another word for the same thing or a different type of ammo?”

“It’s… Different. Many consider it plainly superior, but it is not so. Thaumshot is consumed when fired due to acting as a catalyst for the reaction, while Dregshot merely discharges and can be reused. The problem is that Dregshot requires Thaumine powder to catalyze the reaction in the absence of another catalyst. The cost-per-shot is much lower, but it becomes problematic with firearms such as yours.”

“A gun that ejects spent bullets between each shot.”

Casus nodded.

Krahe pulled her gun, unloaded it, and stripped it then and there on the coffee table. She took some care to keep the side plate out of view, as the serial number, series, and dedication to Audun Sorun were stamped on the inside of it. After examining the elegantly simple mechanism for some time, she took the bolt in hand.

“I could have a modified bolt-face without an extractor machined and have it go with telescoping clips that would hold the bullets while letting them rise through the magwell normally. That way dregshot would work in the gun without issue.”

She quickly put the gun back together, continuing: “Failing that, I’ll just get a revolver of some kind for when I want to use dregshot bullets. Just need to figure out how to make thaumshot work instead… Maybe cast it as the core of a bullet?”

“It would certainly cut down on material cost. If it fails, you can simply use solid thaumshot - it is a heavy, strong mineral.”

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Casus found it utterly idiosyncratic that a woman such as Blackhand would have such bubbly tastes in food and drink.

The last few days, he had only eaten fresh fruit, fresh meat, fresh fish, fresh everything, all prepared to meticulous specificity according to a recipe book she had brought back from the markets. There was nothing wrong with her cooking, certainly not to Casus, since he had grown used to eating anything that was available during his Pilgrimage. He understood why it was so, assuming she had been truthful regarding her past life, but that did not diminish the contrast between Lady Blackhand’s outward image and her tastes. Even Arrha, that which she preferred to smoke, was the sort of thing one would expect from a scholar trying to make up for lost sleep or a refined lady rather than a hardened anathemist. It was a nice-smelling herb whose smoke did not linger and whose effects were mild, entirely unlike the acrid and musky mixtures that anathemists used to kill their pain and lessen the other maladies caused by their discipline.

Then again… She was no normal anathemist, by any measure of the word. Firminus had made it abundantly clear during his most recent visit to finish off the maintenance of his arm.

“It is as though her anatomy is naturally capable of metabolizing Anathemic residues in the same way anyone else can metabolize Entropy. You would do well to ensure that she does not go to a grafter she does not trust to the utmost,” the grafter had said to him. Blackhand’s reaction to learning of this warning was… Far lesser than Casus had anticipated. It was as if she had simply assumed that some grafters would opportunistically butcher their patients from the first.

“Yeah, figured as much. I guess I’ll go to Firminus for now, since I doubt he would’ve warned me if he had planned to do it himself,” she shrugged, continuing about her breakfast as if nothing had happened.