Chapter 156 – An Order of Airships

Mirian started off the cycle with her usual tasks, then broke the spellward barrier around town in several places. After that, she sent out more disruptive letters through the Royal Couriers to various people she knew, or knew of.

Then, she brought Nicolus down with her to Cairnmouth. Sire Nurea came along, because of course she did. Serious attachment issues, Mirian had decided. He’s a grown adult.

As they took the train down, Mirian reviewed the next step of her plan.

“We’re going to secure orders of fossilized myrvite here and have them shipped to Sabbicita, and another order from Alkazaria and have it shipped north to Normarg.”

“I’ve never heard of those,” Nicolus said, looking at Nurea.

She shrugged. “Neither have I.”

“That’s because they’re tiny villages. The first one is in the scrublands at about the halfway point between Cairnmouth and the second capital. The second one is as far north as you can go on the Jatehfemare. That’s the old road that goes north of Alkazaria.”

“Why there?”

“Again, I doubt you’ll be captured, but just in case, I’d really rather not tell you the details you don’t need to know. I just need high-grade spell engine fuel at those places. And yes, the world is at stake.”

Nicolus squinted. “So… are you going to build a giant spell engine to try and stop a leyline? Or redirect it or something?”

“No. No one has ever even reached a leyline, nevermind created an artifact that could interact with it without getting destroyed. The kind of necessary advances in technology and production simply can’t be done in a month. The only possibility of solving this is an indirect approach. And, I finally stumbled on something that can get closer to the leylines than anything else I’ve seen.” Her divination data made that clear enough. Mirian had begun to wonder if that was the behemoth’s main source of food. It sounded ridiculous, but if myrvites could consume mana directly, maybe there was a way. It was all guesswork. She had too little information to know anything for sure. “I still don’t know exactly how it’s affecting the leyline, or the leyline affects it, but I’m going to find out.”

“Vague,” Nicolus said. He sighed. “Man, it just kinda sucks, you know? Waking up and realizing you’re just a card being shuffled into the deck. I guess I get that it doesn’t make sense to explain it all, but it sucks having no context and no idea what’s going on.”

Mirian could only agree. She still recalled the frustration and fear of her earliest cycles.

“I still don’t understand why you need us,” he said.

“Did I not explain that part?” Mirian sighed. “Sorry, I forget sometimes. It’s all a lot to keep track of. One, withdrawing you from Torrviol causes small changes to build up as everyone who would have been in contact with you encounters a different outcome. The more changes, the harder the timeline becomes to predict and manipulate. Second, I’ve never done this before. I don’t know how it works.”

“Really? Basic trade contract stuff?”

Nurea looked at Nicolus. “Most children’s fathers wait until at least adolescence to instruct them on business practices.”

“Oh.” He looked a bit embarrassed.

“When you’ve known something long enough, it becomes hard to remember what it was like to not know it,” Mirian said.

“If only we could selectively forget,” Nurea said quietly, so quietly Mirian thought she hadn’t intended to say it out loud.

***

They split the orders into five smaller ones to allay suspicions. The process of establishing trade contracts was mercifully straightforward, though there was an extra layer of paperwork and gold to rushed deliveries. However, in terms of actual time cost, Mirian thought she could get the entire process down to a few hours.

That’s the fuel settled.

Next was the harder part: getting the actual airships.

“Do you want to go down to Palendurio, or stay up here and hide?” Mirian asked Nicolus as she made preparations to visit Fort Aegrimere.

“I’d rather stay up here with you. Closer to the action,” he said. Then, he got a worried look. “Did we ever… uh… I mean, did I tell you…?”

“That you like me?”

He let out a breath. “Yeah. Haha, sorry, I know it’s a bit awkward.”

“You did,” she said.

“Oh. Cool, I guess,” he said.

Mirian could tell he wasn’t satisfied, that he wanted to know more. But what was she to tell him? Yes, for several years we were intimate, and then I lost interest in you because now you’re years younger and can never change, so now you’re just another board game piece I move around. Or would it be better to lie? There’s no answer I can tell him that isn’t cruel, she thought.

“I need to focus on my operation,” she said. “You and Nurea need to lie low. Assume any Deeps agent is hostile. The enemy even has eyes in the Syndicates, even if they’re not as cooperative as he thinks.”

“Yeah, got it,” Nicolus said, looking sad. “Just, at first, I thought there might be more… adventure, you know?”

“Sadly, no. Mostly, it’s repetition, planning, and study. And repetition. And did I mention repetition?” She got back to her planning.

By the next day, she was ready to begin. She cast her bindings so she’d look like Adria and put on the dead woman’s clothes and orichalcum torq and hairpin.

She walked toward the front entrance of the fort and presented her signet and credential papers. The soldiers stepped aside, and the gate opened. They didn’t even question it. Well, that part was easy. Then she was off to the Commander’s office, keeping her head high and gaze forward. She found that knowledge helped her feign confidence.

“I need to see Commander Hirte,” she told his secretary. “It’s a matter of national importance.”

His secretary blinked, obviously recognizing her status as Praetorian. “I… I can see,” he said. “Ah, who should I say is calling?”

“Adria Gavell,” she said.

“Oh. Oh!” he said. He would likely recognize the name from Adria’s correspondence. “Yes, I’ll see if he’s available.”

It hardly took any time at all. Hirte burst out of his office doors. “Adria! It really is you.” He hesitated, then held out his hand. Mirian shook it. He held on longer than normal. “It’s been too long,” he said.

His secretary cleared his throat.

“Come in.”

Mirian tried to keep her demeanor friendly but slightly aloof, as she’d seen Specter doing for so many meetings. She took a seat in one of the nicer chairs across from the commander’s desk.

Hirte closed the door. “Don’t we have a moment before business starts?”

Mirian suddenly was connecting the dots. He looked just like Nicolus had the other day. But Adria Gavell has a relationship with another ma… ah. “I’m sorry. It has to be business. I can’t stay long.”

“They’re still running you ragged up there? You know, it never seemed like security for something already so secure ought to take so much time. And the least they could do is cycle up a replacement.”

How much does he know about the Divine Monument? Then she had an idea. “Well, they’ll be sending someone else up now. The project bore fruit, just not the kind we hoped for. We still don’t fully understand it, but there’s a divination component we did figure out.”

Hirte leaned forward, excited. “Does this mean the secrecy level is being reduced?”

Hmm. I don’t think he does know. “Not up to me. But I can tell you one thing it discovered. There’s a myrvite titan going to awaken soon. Just north of Alkazaria.”

The commander reeled, eyes widening. “What!?”

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“I’m organizing the defense. I need all your airships flown to Normarg.”

Hirte gaped at her. “I can authorize two. That’s the maximum. Under the law, it requires war to authorize more for a single operation. Unless Parliament is going to declare against a creature…?”

Two isn’t going to be enough. And I sure can’t stick my hand into the mess around Parliament. She decided to push for her maximum goal. “I need all of them, as well as a full complement of mundane and earthshaker shells, plus an artificer team to modify the shells and onboard cannons.”

“They don’t have the range.”

“They’ll refuel at Sabbicita, then Alkazaria. I’ve arranged the deliveries already, you’ll just need to send the maintenance crews ahead by train. I need the force assembled at Normarg by the 23rd.”