Witches won't release me! Chapter 3

Anna panted slightly as she lowered her hands. The target of her conjured flames lied in a large boulder that was pulled into the walled in back portion of my castle was glowing cherry red on the fire bricks the large boulder was placed upon.

"Good, you have become better at channeling your flames in compressing them." I praised Anna who smiled tiredly but looked proud of my praise anywauy.

Then my lips twitched as I coughed and added. "I need to get you some fire resistant clothing however." I muttered to myself, as much of Anna's petite but beautiful form was exposed.

As when she conjured her flames, it would often burn her clothes due to the high temperature igniting the fabric even if we splashed her with water. But, she was also completely immune to such flames.

And for the last couple of day's I had kept Anna mostly out of the commoner's sight, with my right hand man in Barov getting over his fear of the evil terrible witches. At the simple realization of how kind, simple, and good Anna was.

Speaking of Barov, he was hustling over to my small work table I had brought outside with a bundle of leaflet's that made me smile inwardly. 

"Here you are my lord! I have aquired the population count, along with the reports of raw production and the occupations of Border Town's citzens!" Barov spoke proudly which to be fair.

There was good reason to be proud. As he and a small group of servant's talked to the population of twenty thousand people that lived in the Border Town area.

But looking over the reports of the towns earnings during the winter months I sighed. "Truly this place is damned... I can't help but wonder if even my father wanted me dead with how hopeless it is." 

Barov's face twisted as I mentioned the king, but I continued in a dull voice. "No real force of knights in my service, and the goal to see if I am worth of being king is to elevate and control this land... A land that will be attacked by demon beasts for three months and my place of power being overwhelmed with myself only have two months to take control."

I shook my head before I took a breath and said. "Good, I will remember that... Now Barov, I need you to gather the laborer's. They will begin digging a large ditch in front of the Northern Mountain, we are going to begin making a wall around Border Town."

Barov's already twisted face pinched with him saying quietly. "My prince. We don't even have stone mason's to build such a wall! How will we build such a thing! To say nothing of the time, till the months of demons. But we don't have enough money to buy food for the workers!"

I sighed at Barov before I clenched my hand, feeling the Ring of Flames around my finger that carried Anna's power of flames. "I have plans... I have been, having Anna melting ore to make materials remember? Come, have the servant's ready the carts to bring the materials over to the mine."

Getting up from my work station I looked over at Anna who had put on a worn cloak to cover up the burnt remains of her previous clothes. And I called out. "Anna, come with me please. I want to show you some things." 

The last few day's I wasn't just familiarizing myself with the Border Town after all. I had made several drawings and had taught Anna how to make the pieces, and parts I needed from the raw ore we collected from the large iron and copper mine outside of the town.

Whereas in canon, Roland Wimbledon, had Anna working on microcontrol of her flames, as well as power. I had her working on stability, power, and percision. And after a week of work, she was quite literally a 'human' metal refiner, and torch cutter.

Barov, having went separately to pull a bunch of laborers together, we all met at the large mining area next to a large cliff face that had a large hole in it, that led into the mine's systems. "Now! You will work together to control the motions on this pivot device! I don't want anyone's hands or fingers getting crushed!" I spoke aloud.

Seeing as I didn't have much in the way of making anything better then steam power... I was going to do just that as I wasn't going to be able to create actual mechanical constructs that could work almost automatically.

So with five giant kilns that would be used to make iron laced concrete due to the stone in the area being mostly limestone. I would also be able to collect the iron in the other giant kilns in a refining area that would smelt large amounts of ore.

Most importantly! The lime from the limestone would act as an akaline solution so I could also make Saltpeter... The core ingredient for gun powder as well!

Progress was being made, and as Anna stepped away from the giant ore furnace that had been put up after several hours of work. She spoke quietly. "The people. They are too tired and focused to even care about me being a Witch. Why is that?"

And with a sigh, I said with a wry smile. "Idle hands make the devil work Anna... Give a man a field to plow, and he won't have time to plot a revolution, but have an idle over overeducated man in the city... And the city will end up burned down." 

Then before I could continue, Carter the sole real knight I had in my service came over with three men. "My lord, these men are here to speak with you as you requested in hunter's who have been through the Long Night, and the Months of Demons." 

Looking at the men, I nodded with my gaze falling on the dark skinned man I knew to be Iron Axe, the man who belonged to the arabic themed lands to the far south. And how at least in the series, he was one of Roland's top men in terms of military use and loyalty.