Hunter Or Huntress

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‘Well then, I guess that part worked out,’ Tom thought to himself as he stared at the inquisitor, who was still sitting comfortably in Apuma’s big chair.

“You want to build a big workshop… at our keep?” Apuma had to let out, clearly quite taken aback. To be honest, Tom had sort of been expecting something like that to come to fruition. He’d just been wondering how exactly.

“A factory,” Joelina clarified politely. “Paulin made it quite clear he wouldn’t be leaving. And I don’t want him in one of the big cities anyway. Here will have to do, even if I would prefer an Inquisitorial stronghold loyal to me.”

“I guess we can skip that argument then,” Tom shrugged, pulling a forced smile.

“Quite,” Joelina replied, not sounding that happy with it. “My little tour confirmed my suspicions that this place is insufficient for the tasks ahead. More buildings are to be constructed, and what personnel I can find flown in. I have had to pull a lot of favors to be the only inquisitor here today, arranging people I can trust will take time,” Joelina said calmly, with what Tom at least believed to be a fake smile plastered on her face.

“I see. I believe we got a quick run down from the investigator last time. Not everyone wants me meddling, do they?” Tom asked.

“No, though luckily the Inquisition is rather busy at the moment with the war going on. We have recovered another of those accused blades, and we have reason to believe more are out there. So as long as I can manage to play down the effects of what’s going on here, I do believe I can keep unwanted attention away from your island.”

“Actually, speaking of that…” Racuck added, the inquisitor turning to look at him, the smile gone from her face. “The attack that we suffered...”

“Yes…”

“We found out who organized it,” he let out, seeming to bind up and trying to clear his throat.

“A Tsarina Kosovo. An aspiring businesswoman. Wants to run the engineering guild,” Tom added, Rachuck looking more than a little thankful.

“I see,” Joelina replied, not looking pleased. “I believe it would be possible to deal with that problem.”

“Thank you, Inquisitor,” Rachuck said with a bow. “She crippled my mother. Revenge would be a great boon for us.”

“I see. And I take it I need to keep the church from interfering here as well,” she continued, glancing at Jortun.

“That would be for the best,“ the major replied with a nod.

“And here I thought you would be the ones helping me…” she let out with a very slight shake of the head. Tom guessed that was the closest you were getting to a joke from this woman.

“About that,” Tom interjected. “What exactly do you have in mind?”

“I believe Paulin put it best. ‘He can’t make equipment he does not have the equipment to make.’ ”

“You want me to set up a machine factory?”

“If that is what you call it, then yes.”

‘Well it beats building weapons,’ Tom admitted to himself. In fact, he was struggling to find a catch with that right now… aside from the fact it would mean the Inquisition had quite the say in what was made. ‘It’s gonna turn into a weapons factory isn’t it… god dammit.’

“And how do you plan on defending that…” Rachuck asked, Tom making out the hint of hopefulness in his voice.

“And I’m sure my daughter Dakota would ask how you will feed so many people too,” Apuma added in his best formal tone.

“We expect to have three keeps on this island once spring comes. For now, you will receive more supplies for the new year from wherever I can source them. I expect the construction of a warehouse to commence shortly. Perhaps more of those bunkers Paulin told me of would also be in order. Once the new year comes the proper construction will commence. I’m hoping the war will have won me enough support by then to allow me to send a more substantial force of Inquisitorial personnel here.”

“Oh my gods,” Apuma let out, looking a little weak in the knees, Tom helping him to sit down in one of the remaining chairs. “Thank you, Tom.”

“No worries.” He stood back up, looking to Joelina. “What kind of personnel?”

“Soldiers, workers, paper pushers, artificers, priests of technology, whatever will be needed.”

“Wait. Did you just say Techpriest?” Tom blurted out.

“I guess the abbreviation works… why?”

“Oh, nothing,” Tom tried as he looked at the empty expression of the Inquisitor, fairly certain he wasn’t fooling her about anything.

“That’s my title. Well, that and Artificer. I can both create and sanctify holy technology,” Edita let out with a smile. “I’ll do my best to help you understand what we know, translate, and make sure you don’t commit any grievous errors.”

“She will also oversee possible dangerous technologies and items of religious significance,” Joelina added in a slightly pointed tone.

“Yes, ma’am! Don’t you worry. No people are ending up in jars on my watch.”

Tom couldn’t help but feel Edita and the Inquisitor weren’t quite on the same wavelength, which did lend the question of why Edita had been picked for this as he just stared at the artificer.

“Do pardon her behavior, I believe this is her first time outside.”

“You mean like literally?” Tom questioned skeptically, looking at the excited-looking woman. ‘What did she mean, people in jars!?’

“I have seen the sun before!” Edita protested before shutting up as Joelina cleared her throat.

“No, as in outside the holdings of the Inquisition. She has been briefed on what you are allowed to know, and I believe you will have plenty of time to discuss.”

“Yes. I will learn everything.”

Joelina sighed ever so slightly before regaining her composure. “Very well. I want to see this Yldril in person. Tom, if you wouldn’t mind Showing Edita her workspace, she has quite a lot of unpacking to do. After that, I believe we have some more vaults to inspect.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

Saph could see Glira busy napping, though she seemed to be stirring now as their small formation circled above, Fengi and Essy standing in front of Yldril and looking up at them.

“So this is the lucky individual,” Joelina said, somehow managing to still sound dignified over the roar of the wind as Baron circled above the camp, looking down.

“From my impression, I believe she would disagree, although we are hoping to change that,” Saph replied, shouting over the wind.

“How so?”

“Fengi is insistent on proving we are nice people! Yldril hates keep dwellers. She has some history!”

“I see.” Joelina chuffed a bit at that, not seeming very convinced. “A novel sentiment. Still, a noble pursuit.”

Baron came in for a landing a short distance from Yldril and well clear of the small campsite. The old red dragon had only just arrived after being relieved from the tunnels by one of the younger reds. He and the colonel had both joined them for the little expedition. Victoria had taken the time to meet Yldril on her short visit a few days ago, but Baron was yet to receive the privilege. It had taken a little pleading from Saph, but Dakota had let Saph come along too. She was hoping to help Fengi stay calm just in case.

Glira had gotten up and walked to meet them, exchanging a quick nod with Baron before looking down at their little group and tilting her head.

“I didn’t get the impression she thinks she’s lucky either,” the dragon went, giving a quick head bow to the inquisitor. “Joelina.”

“Glira,” Joelina replied, returning the slight bow. “Now. Where is this Fengi?”

Dakota cleared her throat, looking at the two huntresses who were walking over from the small campsite. “Good afternoon girls. Anything to report?”

Fengi and Essy just froze under the inquisitor's gaze as all eyes turned to the two of them.

“Nothing much. Though the healing seems to be going well,” Essy replied as Fengi stood there staring at Joelina. The armored woman that had not yet left Joelina’s side cleared her throat slightly, making Fengi jump a little.

“Hi. Yes uhm, I’m Fengi,” she got out, Joelina nodding. “Joelina Hashaw of the Holy Inquisition. I hear you have had an extraordinary week.”

“Yup,” Fengi replied with a nod, clearly having no clue what to say or do right now.

“No need to be scared. Major Jortun has already made your case, and I have already agreed to keep your encounter out of any official reports. Not your gift, of course.”

“Oh…” was all Fengi got out in reply, standing there staring.

“Thank you, Inquisitor,“ Esmeralda interjected, taking a step forward and bowing.

“Yeah, the last thing we need are nosey priests right now,” Glira chuckled from above. “She’s not gonna be flying for weeks, but walking might only be days away. Well, limping.”

“Very good,” Joelina responded, looking over to the dragon. “I guess we need to have a chat then.”

“... Oh right, sorry,” Fengi squeaked out after a brief awkward silence, the armored woman shaking her head a bit as Joelina just stood there patiently. “I’ll… I’ll just go wake her up.”

Saph could see Fengi’s hands shake as she pointed at the dragon, the young huntress turning to walk towards the dragon.

The rest of the group followed a few steps behind, Saph taking a few quick strides to make it up next to Fengi and putting a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, It’s okay. Relax. They’re friends.”

“I’ll try,” She muttered in a low tone as their little party walked up to Yldril, who was clearly already awake and staring at them.

“Who are you?”

“You heard my introduction, dragon,” Joelina responded flatly. “I would much rather you know you are the single luckiest creature I have encountered in a while.”

“And what gave you that idea?” Yldril sneered, Saph swallowing once. Disrespecting an inquisitor had to be one of the most dangerous games she could think of. Then again, they might just get their revenge for Nunuk out of it.

“The fact that even I am hesitant to defy a unicorn. Otherwise, I would have worked you to death someplace very far from sunlight.”

“Joy of joys. I get to stare at the sun as I work till I die. I know your type. You will take Fengi’s friends hostage and force me to do your bidding anyway. It’s just semantics.”

Fengi turned to look at Joelina with wide eyes, the inquisitor's gaze turning to meet hers. Saph swallowed once more, patting Fengi’s shoulder a few times before giving it a soft squeeze; she could feel how fast Fengi was breathing right now.

“No… I don’t think I will. Besides, making an enemy of an enchantress is a remarkably short-sighted idea,” she went, giving Fengi what Saph guessed was her best reassuring smile, an expression she was very clearly not familiar with using, before turning back to look at Yldril. “And since this unique situation incredibly enough manages to make you trustworthy, I’ll be more than happy to have you slave away with construction work here.”

“And what might the Inquisition be building out here? This is the middle of nowhere,” Yldril scoffed, clearly finding that notion quite ridiculous.

“Fengi, would you mind forcing her to never spill these secrets? I believe the rest of you already know what can and can’t be talked about.”

Fengi just nodded quickly. “Yldril. Uhm… You can’t tell anyone anything about what you are about to hear,” she went before looking to the inquisitor with a careful smile. “Was that okay?”

“A bit blunt, but it will do. Now. I believe it’s time for me to get to work.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Wow… It’s amazing what you managed to make out here. You built this yourself?” Edita asked, admiring the milling machine, fingers touching absolutely everything as she inspected the smithy in detail. Tom was quite happy that Jacky was busy working when his clothes were also investigated in great detail. Thankfully no one else was actually present for that to tell her either, since Tink and Junior were busy helping with all the supplies for the moment.

“Yup. Well, mostly. I brought some important parts from home. “

“Like that,” she pointed at the lead screw then turned to look at the tool bits he had brought. “Those are not from here either.”

“Uhm yeah… how can you tell?”

“These are compressed metal powder. You lack a press to make them,” she went, holding up one. “And there is itamen in that,” she went, pointing at the lead screw.

“Wait. Is that like your magic?” Tom asked, looking at her hands.

“Yeah, I can tell what it is just by touching it.”

“Okay… what happens when you don’t know what it is?”

“It feels strange,” she shrugged. “Like tasting a new thing.”

“Wait… what is iteman?”

“Itamen,” she chuckled happily, turning away from her inspection. “It’s hard to explain. You find it in steel sometimes. It makes it harder. Makes it less prone to rust too.”

“Chrome?”

“Well, I don’t know your word for it, but maybe.”

“That’s Chromoly steel. Some kind of 4100 series, I think. It’s high in chrome.”

“Then there you go. Chrone,” she replied, playing with the words before once again going back to her search. “I was wondering how much you would know about metal. I now guess it’s more than me.”

“Quite a bit, I would say… but how do you know? You guys don't make anything with chrome, right?”

“No, not anymore. But we still have knowledge of it. And we have stores for maintaining holy artifacts that require it. That’s my job. Well, it used to be at least. Now I’m apparently supposed to help you make new stuff. That’s so much more exciting.”

“Well… I guess it's more just gonna be things you have already seen before, but built a bit more crudely.”

“But it will be new. I have never seen a machine like this without Runes of warding and protection engraved wherever they would fit. It won’t even last a decade, this thing.”

“Glad you have faith in our work,” Tom replied, thinking about just what magic machines like that could do. ‘Drill bits that don’t dull maybe?’

As he pondered, Edita knelt down next to one of the tables, taking out one of the laptops.

‘Oh shit, here we go,’ Tom cursed to himself. It was bound to happen eventually, but still.

“What’s this?”

“A thinking machine, do be careful please,” Tom tried in his calmest voice.

“A thinking machine,” she echoed, looking it over. “More of your plastic stuff for the shell. You people seem to love that material. What’s inside? The gears must be tiny to make one this small.”

“We are quite good at plastic, yeah. That is electronic, not mechanical… Do you have thinking machines then?”

“A few have been preserved. They are massive constructions though. Thousands of gears, shafts, clutches, and linkages all built into a massive machine. The largest we found records of was larger than this keep,” she let out, looking out the window wistfully. “Sadly that was lost long ago. I once worked on one we could never fix. We could find no error in the construction, yet it always returned the answer forty-two?”

“I see… I-”

“I never understood that.” Edita cut him off. “But according to the holy scripts we once had a truly vast one that couldn’t be moved. Its splendor was too great. So it withered away… such a shame,” she replied plainly, turning back to the laptop. “Even in pieces there apparently wasn’t room.”

“Right… These vaults. Where exactly are they?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She chuckled, standing up and putting the computer on the table. “Show me how this works and I might tell you.”

“I believe you are supposed to be my assistant. Not the other way around.”

“I am still a member of the Inquisition. Even if you rarely see people like me out in public. Or even outside various secure locations.”

“Secure locations?” Tom asked, hoping he might get some more info out of her as opposed to Joelina or Paulin.

“Places you will only find inquisitorial or validated personnel. I guess this place is gonna become one soon enough.”

“In some senses, I think it already is… Where did you come from then?”

She just gestured at the laptop, taking a step back. “Something for something.”

Tom just sighed, going over, opening up the screen, and hitting the power button.

She watched thoughtfully at the screen as it started booting, finally nodding when it had stopped at the login screen for a bit. “I was working in the inner sanctums of the Capital.”

“I see… What’s in there then?” Tom tried, receiving an expectant stare from her after she had touched the screen and the buttons then nodded towards the laptop. “I see. Okay, then I can play that game.”

Tom put in the password, hiding his hand from her as he did so, then showed off the desktop. “And now it’s unlocked. Battery only lasts a few hours then it needs to be recharged.“

She just chuckled. “Thank you very much.” She went to play with the mouse pad after Tom showed her. “I worked with weapons maintenance. Joelina thought I would be a perfect fit for this mission.”

“Well, we do have guns on the workbenches,” Tom replied with a nod, looking over to one of the cut-down shotguns for Dakota and Jacky.

“I want to take those apart later. How does this thing work? It’s not alive, right?”

“No no,” Tom went, shaking his head. “I swear, I’ll try to teach you, but... You must understand; Some of this equipment is beyond even me.”

“That is your whole purpose. You are going to teach me how to bring back the glories of industry.”

“Yes yes, I know. But let me put it this way.” Tom plucked a hair from his head, holding it up. “There are wires in that thing so thin you could spin tens of thousands of them together and they would still be thinner than this hair.”

Edita just stared at him, her jaw-dropping. “You know, I’m gonna make Joelina test if you are lying to me.”

“I ain’t. I’ll show you what I have on how that thing works, but we aren’t making one any time soon. We have engineers, hell several kinds of engineers, dedicated just to working on machines like that.”

“And you are a different kind of engineer? What does that mean to you anyway? You clearly don’t build bridges and ballistas.”

“Person who designs things of a technical nature. I’m a mechanical engineer. I design machines.”

“Oooohhh,” Edita let out, looking at him and nodding. “So you can’t make thinking machines.”

“No,” Tom replied, shaking his head.

“And using a person’s mind is considered heretical,” Edita let out, sounding more disappointed than anything.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Automatons. They need to be able to think somehow. A mechanical brain can only do so much. We have found several using organic components for thinking. Even have some locked away. Fascinating machines, but they are anathema to our way of technology. It’s the closest I know to what that is, if it can indeed think.”

“I can see why…” Tom replied. ‘Well at least they don’t think sentencing someone to being a laptop is a-okay.’

“Good. Then we won’t have any problems with that. What can you make then? It’s not like we are bringing back industry by ourselves after all. No wait, we are. Ohh, this is going to be great!” she laughed out, Tom just nodding carefully. “I mean, it’s not like we can just magically conjure parts,” Edita chuckled to herself. “We’re gonna have to make it all from scratch.”

Tom just stared at her for a second, waiting for her to elaborate.

“What?...”

“Well can you?” Tom pushed, staring at her.

“No?... You can't just make something from nothing.”

“Ahr. Well you never know with magic”

Edita just shook her head looking back to the laptop. “Okay. Now how do you make it calculate something? And how much can it remember?”

__________________________________________________________________________________

The questioning session that followed made Saph re-evaluate her stance on them having been thorough with their questioning. Joelina took that metric to a whole new level, and Fengi clearly didn’t dare put a stop to the questioning this time. Joelina had more or less managed to map out Yldril’s entire life, private or not, nearly from when she was born, going back far enough the dragon could honestly answer because she had no clue whatsoever. To Saph’s surprise though, she was being very sparse with the note-taking.

She had also refrained from using her magic on the dragon. Saph’s best guess was that reading someone’s mind is clearly quite the mental battle, and doing so with a dragon when you didn’t even need to might be a bit much of a risk. The thought did make her wonder just how long Tom might be able to escape that fate though.

It had seemingly dawned on Yldril as the questions continued that this wasn’t some kind of sick joke or pitiful attempt to scare her. Saph had no clue what the names of her childhood friends had to do with anything, but she wasn’t questioning the methods of an inquisitor.

“So to recap. Do please interrupt me if anything is wrong,” Joelina went as she put down some final remarks in her book.

“Interrupt her if anything is wrong,” Fengi echoed, looking at Yldril.

“You were born at a large inner keep outside Cartehega sporting some 1200 dragonettes and 4 dragons. 5 counting yourself. You were sent on your way at age 40 along with your mother after said keep decided not to renew your mother’s contract. You both took a job as farmhands outside the capital shortly thereafter.” Joelina looked up at the by now very calm dragon.

“That partnership came to an end when your mother was rightfully accused of theft. She was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor… You then took up a job as hired muscle at a lumber yard. You stayed there for nearly 5 years before taking up mercenary work instead with a group of upstarts out to make a name for yourself. You had a decently long and fairly uneventful career of some 80 odd years. During this time your mother was released and returned to your home to be with your father. That lasted all of a couple of months, your mother ending up back as a farmhand before she was again sentenced to hard labor, this time for extortion and blackmail.”

“Your life continued uneventfully after you distanced yourself from your mother, settling down at a middling keep as the only dragon following your mercenary career. There you stayed for the better part of 90 years and were generally happy, even visiting or receiving visits from your father on multiple occasions.”

Yldril just nodded, head resting on her forelegs as the inquisitor kept going. “The keep then proceeded to fall on hard times following a change in leadership as a result of a death due to old age. Two years following the death of the last lord, supplies had gotten tight enough the new Lady decided you could not be fed through winter, and as such, she kicked you out—which was a breach of contract.”

“You managed to scrape through winter, managing to get in a small amount of hunting before wintering in a natural cave found on the side of the island. You came out the other side malnutritioned and sick. You traveled overland to 6 other keeps on the island only to get turned down, most citing lack of supplies, two wanting nothing to do with you. You hunted in these keep’s hunting grounds to survive, eventually earning the ire of said keeps. That lead them to chase you out of their lands and off-island.”

“You, through great difficulty, managed to make it to a nearby town where you were shortly chased back out. You then re-engaged in illegal hunting, though with more luck, before the nearby town contracted a group of mercenaries to chase you out. Instead of chasing you out, they offered you a job. You then proceeded to raid the smallest keep on the island successfully. Henceforth your record consists of raiding keeps, racketeering, piracy, and extortion. Punctuated by your attempt to reconnect with your father, which ended with him disowning you and a fight to drive you from your childhood home.”

“You and your mother managed to reconnect very well though, which led to the two of you taking up raiding together. That came to an end with a lucky hit from a hidden ballista purchased by one of your regularly extorted keeps. Is this accurate?”

Yldril just nodded silently, Saph spotting the hint of a tear in her eye.

“So disowned by your father, your mother dead, all the keeps you knew despising your existence, you elected to head for Bartelion, wanting to turn yourself over to the Royal Guard, hoping to pay off your crimes through service. You were rejected and sentenced to life in servitude for multiple counts of murder.”

“You eventually managed to escape thanks to the help of some of your previous connections as well as several of your old crew ending up in the same mine. Following your escape, you went right back to your life of crime, which brings us to today… Was this recounting accurate?”

Yldril just nodded once again silently.

“Very good. I believe you know that failure to comply with the terms presented to you here will lead to your immediate execution, but then again I believe this factor is irrelevant in this case. Fengi, we will be discussing this further soon. Will you be able to attend me at the keep?

“I-I don’t think so,” Fengi stammered out, looking at the inquisitor and swallowing once.

“And why is that?”

“Linkosta believes I might be burning magic.”

“Does Major Jortun not possess the ability to nullify such an effect?”

“He said so, yes, but Linkosta says you can still be burning magic just without result… and his magic didn’t stop me from commanding Yldril yesterday.”

“Intriguing… Glazz, gauge please,” Joelina went, holding up her hand expectantly. The armored woman produced a small metal collar-looking thing from her under her robes, handing it to the inquisitor.

“Uhm… what is that?” Fengi asked, voice quivering a little as she looked at it.

“We call it a gauge. It measures if magic is being used. It can’t cancel it, but it is nice to know either way.”

“Handy,” Saph went with a nod, looking at the odd device. It looked just like a simple metal collar that you would use on a slave. But it was decorated in more tiny runes than Sapphire could count. Doubtlessly enchantments of various kinds.

Joelina put the collar around Fengi’s neck checking it before looking back to Glazz, much to Sapphires surprise.

“Anything?”

“Nothing, boss.” The armored woman replied with a slight shake of the head.

“Do please try to issue a command.” Joelina questioned turning her attention back to Fengi.

“Okay… Yldril. Uhm… say hi, please.”

“Hi,” Yldril echoed, pulling a slight sneer, glaring at Fengi. “You promised.”

“Sorry… I couldn’t think of anything better.”

“You are apologizing to her?” Joelina remarked with a raised eye ridge.

“I promised not to force her to do things unless it was necessary,” Fengi defended herself, looking down at the ground.

“Well, this was necessary. Glazz?” Joelina questioned, looking back at the armored woman.

She for her part just nodded. “Yup. Just a little bit.”

“Very good then. Fengi… I don’t believe I have gotten your last name.”

“I uhm… haven’t got one … yet,” Fengi replied, looking at the ground before quickly glancing at Unkai, who was keeping a safe distance from all of them.

“I see. Fengi, you are clear to return to the keep, though I believe the young mage’s advice on magic is sound. Do remember not to issue an order when that far away.”

“I shall. You need not worry.”

“Very good. Now, I have plans to rewrite. Good day, ladies.”

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