Chapter 4. "Making Rounds"

The workshop shuddered as the palm met the wall.

I tactically slid further down from the figure looming over me. “Do you want to talk?”

The nostrils flared. “Why?”

As far as the body shapes went, Isra Haleh was a big girl. A very big girl. Not the lamurian six metres in cold weather, but Enoch respectable two-something. Just slightly taller than Irje. Moreover, she was from the main, ‘bovine’ Enoch branch and thus did not lack in other proportions either. My face was desperately trying to avoid two of those proportions right this very moment. I had priorities. Talking was nice. Breathing too.

“You know why. A manor needs a lot more people than an estate. Especially a manor in a remote uncivilised area. Do you want to spend your time shaping earthworks instead of building new and bigger machinery that no one in Emanai had seen before?”

The slightly sooty fingers clutched the hem of my khalat and, with a quick ‘not again’, I was yanked up into the air. “But why did you have to take those two hussies!?”

“Hussies? Did they steal your husband?”

Isra paused her shaking, cycled through a slew of emotions, put me down, and turned away. “…No.”

That was one swift reset. “Is there some bad blood between you that I wasn’t informed about? If necessary, I can try to keep you separate but please don’t force me to choose without a valid reason.”

“Did you take them as your retinue because they let you s-stroke their antlers!?”

I groaned. “First Tarhunna and now you. No, I took them because every other Enoch wermage is asking me ten dowries worth for a fraction of what they offered. Yeva showed me the missives. Yes, they are from a branch family, their Sparks aren’t the brightest of the lot and their spell codices aren’t brimming with writings older than Emanai itself. I don’t need them to move mountains or float entire islands — I need them to sculpt sturdy walls around my colony and stand beside me if an enemy attacks. Their loyalty, confirmed and enforced by the oaths they gave me, further multiplies their worth to me ten, no — a hundred times.”

Isra inhaled.

“Nooo-o-o!” My finger pressed across her lips as I stared at her with my wide open square eyes. “No, no-no, no-no-no-no! Don’t you dare!”

She pouted. “Why not?”

“‘Why not?’, she says. Because I would like to remain ungored, unskinned, and untrampled.” I sighed and wiped off the cold sweat from my forehead. “Let us be honest with each other for a moment here — we both know that the Kausar twins have a pretty insignificant rank amongst the other Enoch wermages. Insignificant enough that Zamindar Azrin sent them with us on a campaign just for an off chance Anaise taking them in as concubines. Insignificant enough that your first assumption was that they did become my concubines.

“Insignificant enough that their mother is pleased with her daughters finding a ‘lord’ to serve, despite them all but naming me their new Matriarch. She is willing to relinquish her control, knowing that if I can’t provide her twins with land, prestige, and wealth — Anaise would. You were none of that when you approached Aikerim Adal to serve under and even more so now when she permitted you to leave her domain and follow us. I am already happy that the current Kiymetl-Enoch relationship is strong enough for Zamindar Azrin to sit and watch as you grow under my tutelage, even if it comes with a very small price of high quality steel gifts, training other wermages inside this manor, and, of course, the recent skyship project. If I ask for more, if you give me more, your mother would fleece me naked in a heartbeat, if not take you back outright for the benefit of their future Hilak city. And just as I am unwilling to choose between you and the twins, I wish to avoid the painful consideration of whether I could afford your mother’s new demands or should I simply grit my teeth and look for a new smith.”

She started to speak but I pressed my finger on her lips once more. Gently, this time. “I am not saying this as a threat — I don’t want this to happen just as much as you do. I am telling you this so that you are not mistaking the difference in my approaches with me thinking less of you. Or anyone else, for that matter. Remember when I said that I will deal with politics and let you focus on your craft? I am keeping that word, but in my own way. Instead of trying to wrench you out of your current rank, pay dearly for it, and likely lose you at the end anyway, I am creating a parallel system where you can fit in without relinquishing your Enoch status. Think Domina of Bayan Gol with a seat on their small summit. Better yet, think of yourself as a Pillar House of my future colony, with an individual domain that is defined not by the land you hold but your sphere of influence over my…” I couldn’t help but smile, “province. The Enoch of my Emanai. Obviously, we are not going to call it that and anger a lot of very powerful people. Since my sadaq seems to be partial to a ministra title, that is what we are running with right now. A lofty name yet a known counterpart to the magistrate position thus it can help us legitimise your status among the population as quickly as possible. So far, only my sadaq is guaranteed those titles. You will be the fourth.”

Isra slowly uncrossed her eyes from my finger and looked at me. “Will those two receive it as well?”

“No. While I do need a group of people to start working on specific tasks as soon as possible, it is far too early to talk about dozens of fully-staffed ministries. Baby steps, and all that. Four maybe five people, with the fifth being Wrena, would be plenty for now to get the ball rolling. In the future? They might. Quite a few of those positions require specialised knowledge and, as my retinue, Kirana and Huare are better poised to acquire it than most. Especially if they put their minds into it. That is to say — I am not blocking them because of you alone. Now, about the feud between you-”

“-rns…”

I blinked, “What?”

“Polish my horns too!” Isra huffed, crossing her arms. “Why are they allowed to and I am not!?”

I pulled at the hem of my collar, slightly uncertain where the conversation was heading towards. “Is that a euphemism?”

“It is unfair, that is what it is! First, Yeva tells me I would have no slaves and now I have to listen to those two bragging while I do everything by myself!?”

“You can have servants that are not furnace workers or apprentices, Isra. All I ask is that they are paid.”

“You don’t hire people for such things, Erf! It is shameless!”

I raised my eyebrow. “But slaves are fine?”

“They are part of the household.” Isra deflated. It was astonishing to see someone like her looking so small. “I don’t have a twin that would follow me wherever I go and the other sisters… well, that’s…”

“Yeah, I get it.” I sighed — if a heavily chastised Amalric was willing to cast doubt on my decisions in front of his mother in the wake of Hilak news, I could only imagine what Isra’s siblings could gaggle within her earshot. “Make your horns shiny and all that, right? Or are you talking about lacquer or varnish to make them look different?”

Isra perked up. “Do you have ones as bright as your cloth colours yet do not flake or get ruined by the heat of a forge? I can’t ask for it every day, after all.”

So she was talking literally. Inspecting Huare’s antlers was anything but.

Definitely not for Huare.

I reached out and put my hands on Isra’s horns, feeling the texture underneath. Keratin but, since she was a wermage through and through, it would require quite a lot of elbow grease to make them glass-smooth. Definitely a reason to develop heavy-duty polishing equipment in the future. For now, since the horns were well-maintained already and only slightly rough to the touch, I could just coat the imperfections smooth. “Yes, I can synthesise something in a couple of days. What colour would you want?”

“B-black. L-like a dark night,” she squeaked.

“Solid black with a glossy shine, matte, or do you want some shimmering in the light too? Can’t have a night without stars.”

Her hands lifted me once again but instead of usual shaking she promptly dragged me out of her workshop and slammed the door behind. “Black is p-proper!”

I chuckled at the closed door. “As you wish.”

A flustered Isra was much, much better than a dejected one, and even if I was unable to shield her entirely from family drama as much as I wanted to, at the very least I could make sure she wouldn’t dwell too much or too long on it.

“Erf?”

“Yes?”

“…add the stars.”

XXX

“May the warmth never leave your house, Shahin Esca.”

“May the warmth never leave your breath.” The lamura shook her head. “I was trying to ambush you, Erf. Or meet you sooner, at the very least.”

“I know. Was busy with other, pressing matters. And you can’t ambush me in my own estate.”

“So it seems.” The lamura leaned closer and inspected me from head to toe. “My eyes are delighted to see you return unharmed and victorious. My ears are delighted to hear that your numerous accomplishments have earned you land to govern. My heart worries as you begin to speak in a manner similar to that of Yeva.”

I mirrored her movements. “You do not look worried. No, you still have that usual smug look and more. I presume you’ve heard more than me getting land by now.”

She inclined her head. “A handful of whispers here and there.”

“And what do you think?”

“I think less of the Kiymetl. Yes, Aikerim Adal led them around with skill and an experienced hand, but they were still too eager to dismiss your venture. They will pay the price of arrogance.”

“Oh? You believe that I will succeed in the Babr Mountains?”

“I have discussed with Yeva at length how we organise our merchant cities and you seem to wisely follow her advice. It is still too early to tell if you will succeed but I am certain that you will not fail either. Your weakness lies in safety.”

I nodded in agreement. Obviously some of that was her pride from me relying on the ‘superior’ lamurian city-state methods of governance, but Shahin also lacked that agrarian bias of Emanai where sufficiently productive lands were assumed to be the paramount step to success. The foundational prosperity of her home city, Yusuf, was achieved not by the fertility of nearby lands but by the network of water wells that brought multiple caravan routes across the sands into that region. As such, Shahin didn’t need to alter her way of thinking to understand the possibilities of my plan for she experienced similar approaches firsthand. It wouldn’t surprise me if other lamuras would be just as quick on the uptake.

It would also please me if this meant an easier integration of all those servants the Esca gifted me. Yet another reason why I chose to walk the ‘city-state’ path — by the head count alone, most of my estate was far more familiar with the lamurian way of life than Emanai Manors. They needed to be integrated and acclimatised as quickly as possible, because it wouldn’t be me or my sadaq that would form the core of our new colony but those very servants. A seedbed of new traditions and norms. The flywheel of my progress. Bigger it was, sooner and quicker I could absorb new people into my colony.

“I want you to come with us, Shahin. Will you?”

“You had no need to ask,” she mused, “yet you did.”

“You are a big girl, you know exactly why I phrased it this way.”

Shahin stilled as she stared at me for a few seconds. “…I see that Yeva spoke quite highly of me.”

“Of sorts. Consider this as my gratitude for the work you’ve done so far at my estate and as my solemn wish that our camaraderie will continue far into the future.” The snake did orchestrate an assassination attempt on me and wounded Irje, but she also guided Yeva through wermage politics while I was gone and was partially responsible for my mother no longer seeing me only as a fae wearing her son’s skin. That and keeping a Servant Esca while freeing all other slaves, wer and murk alike, would cause quite a lot of problems in the future.

Her fingers brushed my braid. “It is my good fortune that you are free, or Aikerim Adal would have been quite cross with you. She might be still — breaking off my Servitude not a day after gaining your freedom. Yes, Erf, I will come with you under my own will. What is the name of your future settlement?”

I shrugged. “Too early for that, I think. We can pitch in our ideas for now and decide on a name once we set off.”

“…Ah, what a familiar feeling in my chest. That lingering desire to wrap my tail around you and crush you for a bit… How exactly do you expect me to take a new name if it does not exist, Erf?”

“Take a name? I was under the impression that the origin name is exactly that — the place of your birth.”

“It usually is. It is also usual for settlers to take on the name of the new city as a mark of their new allegiance.”

“Well, we aren’t quite at the settling stage yet. Planning, at best.”

“Will you deny my wish to be the first to bear the name of your city? Or should I call myself Shahin Esca Erf-ya to mark my new allegiance?”

I couldn’t help but shudder as she laughed. “I will go to my sadaq and cry that you are trying to ‘settle’ me. Irje with one magical dildo is scary, Irje with seven dildoes and a trimmer is a nightmare incarnate… Fine, I will see if we can come up with a name soon enough and you will be the first lamura to learn it. You can change your name then, but you will be the one dealing with any outside consequences of this change. Satisfied?”

She pulled her woollen cloak tighter and checked once more that her winter caparison fully covered her tail. “How cold is that place?”

“My current guess — somewhat colder than here, even on the southern edge of Babr Mountains. The proximity of the plateau means katabatic winds bringing cold air down the slopes.”

“Not every flower smells pleasant.” Shahin sighed in resignation. “Please make sure I do not change my mind on staying by your side.”