Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 2

Natalia Abarca sniffed the suit of leather armour for the fifth time that night.

This is Kalinsha Soap, right?

She had only used it once – just before she went up on the platform where she had been picked by Liam – but she wouldn’t ever forget its luxurious sensation compared to the caustic soaps made out of lye that people usually used.

But why would leather armour smell like Kalinsha Soap? Liam didn’t use it and neither did any of the men in the camp. Men didn’t even care about having super nice soap.

In that case, what does it mean?

An icy trickle of worry ran down Natalia’s spine. She had asked for a sample of leather armour so she could learn how to make her own, so Liam provided her with one not long after. Except it smelled like Kalinsha Soap. As far as she knew, anything that came out of leatherworking shops smelled like leather. Well, the suit of armour did smell like leather, but it also smelled like Kalinsha Soap.

“Ow!”

Natalia winced as she pricked herself with a needle. She needed to concentrate on her work, but various fears kept creeping out of her imagination to torment her.

Her first thought was that Liam was visiting the platform again to look for a new wife. That didn’t make any sense, however, as Liam never wore the armour: it was just an example for her to learn from. Her second thought was that Liam had gotten the armour from a woman somewhere. That woman probably fancied Liam – who wouldn’t? – and thought he would use the armour. Thus, she had infused the armour with her scent to constantly remind him of her.

But who could afford Kalinsha Soap? Even the wives of Knights in the camp only had access to it when they were preparing new women for the platform. The only possibility was someone who lived in the Prime Estates. In other words, a noblewoman.

Someone rich and powerful and beautiful was trying to steal away Liam from her. She couldn’t fight a woman like that directly, so she resorted to what few methods were available to her.

First, she kept the armour locked in its own chest whenever she didn’t need to study it. Liam never came looking for the thing, however, so keeping it away from him was easier than she thought it would be. Next, she went to the Alchemist and bought some perfume. It was expensive, but Liam was worth it. She went and put a tiny bit of it onto all of his equipment. Liam didn’t seem to notice, but Natalia hoped that other women would and stay away from him.

Finally, she went to the temple every morning, praying fervently to the gods that Liam wouldn’t leave her for another woman.

“Up all night again?”

Natalia looked up to find one of her neighbours, Miss Vieria, looking in on her from her plot. In the distance, the light of dawn was starting to creep out from behind Hoburns’ massive curtain walls.

“Good morning, Isabella. I’ll be up at night for as long as Liam’s on the night watch.”

“That’s so sweet of you,” Miss Vieria said. “I hope Liam appreciates it.”

She hoped he did, too. Once she had saved up enough money, she went and bought a Darkvision ring from Raquel. As advertised, it allowed her to see as well in complete darkness as she could at night in a twenty-metre radius around her. Since she had a shopkeeper in the market managing sales during the day, it allowed her to work uninterrupted at night. Most importantly, she could be awake when Liam was and sleep at the same time that he slept.

Natalia had hoped it would quickly lead to babies, but nothing had happened yet. Still, she was filled with happiness at being able to fall asleep cuddling her husband…or at least the bedroll he sealed himself into.

With the camp coming to life, she went and brought out the pieces she had finished overnight, placing them on the workshop table. Most of her work was repairs for the members of House Restelo’s elite companies and orders for her market stall. Additionally, she had just finished a new saddle for Sir Jimena and cobbled together two pairs of boots in her spare time. The saddle had taken three nights to make, though it should have taken closer to two weeks.

She still couldn’t figure out why she could make things so quickly. It was as if common sense didn’t apply to her at all. She didn’t feel that she was rushing her work, yet everything was done faster and better. Due to this, she was swamped with orders for goods and toiled endlessly night after night. This only seemed to improve things even more and she was starting to fear where it might lead.

What if everyone decided that she was a monster? What if Liam left her?

No, he said that he liked the Nat who was good at leatherworking.

Natalia clung to his words and continued her work. As the sun rose over the city walls to flood the camp with its brilliance, the first of her customers appeared.

“I couldn’t believe it when you said three days,” Sir Jimena said, “but it looks like it wasn’t an exaggeration.”

The Knight looked very knightly most of the time, but now he was just walking around in a pair of plain pants. Pretty much all of the men in the camp were like that. Except for Liam. He always wore a shirt.

“Welcome, Sir Jimena,” she made a small curtsey. “Please try it out and let me know if you want any adjustments made.”

Sir Jimena turned the saddle on the table, examining it from every angle.

“Doesn’t look like there’s anything wrong with it,” he said. “I’ll go and see what my horse thinks. Can you get the rest of the tack done, as well?”

“Of course,” Natalia nodded, “I’ll check with the Blacksmith to see when he can get the metal bits made.”

Once the Knight left, Natalia’s shopkeeper – a pretty young woman by the name of June – appeared.

“Good morning, Miss.”

“Good morning, June. Sir Jimena ordered the rest of the tack for his horse.”

“I guess that means he liked the saddle.”

“He’s trying it out right now,” Natalia told her.

“When can you finish everything?” June asked.

“It depends on the Blacksmith. The metalwork shouldn’t take more than half a day, though. Once I get that, I can finish everything in a few hours.”

“Hmm…alright. There shouldn’t be a problem with that.”

June was pretty clever about the way she handled sales. Even though Natalia could produce leather goods far faster than anyone else, the shopkeeper still made it seem like her work took as long as the average leatherworker. That way, they always had the option to slip in orders for important people or members of House Restelo’s companies. Any spare ‘spots’ in the real waiting list just became additional goods that popped up at the stand in the market.

As a result, even though Natalia was kept busy every night, pretty much none of the other Leatherworkers in the camp realised that they were being quietly outcompeted by her. This helped her avoid the various headaches that might come with people perceiving her to be a threat to their business.

“What do you think I should work on now?” Natalia asked.

“Word’s out that the rest of Fire Street’s going to us,” June answered. “As far as we’re concerned, the demand for products related to metalworking will go through the roof.”

The portion of Fire Street the shopkeeper spoke of was the area between House Restelo’s current jurisdiction and the Prime Estates. Pretty much all of the city’s Blacksmiths, Silversmiths, Goldsmiths, Coppersmiths, and all the other smithy people worked there. Due to the ongoing standoff between House Restelo and the other houses in Hoburns, becoming a part of House Restelo’s jurisdiction meant being cut off from the rest of the city’s economy and House Restelo had to make up for it somehow.

“It might be more complicated than that,” Natalia said.

“You think so?”

“The smiths in the city sort of supported the rest of the city before, right? Now they’re coming over to our side and we already have all of our smithing needs covered by the work camp.”

“Hmm…”

June crossed her arms and frowned down at the table. Losing the smiths might work in their enemies’ favour because it would make the city even more reliant on their work camps. House Restelo, on the other hand, just had a bunch of dead weight dumped onto its lap.

“Maybe we should see what happens,” June said. “But that would mean we’d miss out if I was right…”

“I’ll talk to Sir Jorge about it,” Natalia said. “I’m sure he’ll know what to do.”

To June, ‘missing out’ probably only meant that they wouldn’t have goods prepared ahead of demand for a day or so, but the shopkeeper was really particular about those things. Something about standing above the competition and solidifying their reputation with prospective new customers in order to secure supply contracts. It was a lot less fancy than it sounded.

After seeing June off, Natalia went around with a box of repaired items, delivering each item to its respective household. Once she was done with that, she returned home and got herself ready for a trip to the city. Liam’s shift wouldn’t end for another few hours and she usually spent the time doing some extra work, shopping in the camp market, or looking around Hoburns to see what was going on.

On the way out, she stopped to see Sir Jorge. The armsmen guarding his tent were thoroughly confused when she walked up to them and asked to see the camp overseer, but they relayed her request regardless. A few minutes later, she was escorted into the tent. Sir Jorge looked like he was trying to eat breakfast, do paperwork, and pay attention to her all at once.

“Nat,” he smiled after swallowing a mouthful of scrambled eggs, “is there something I can help you with? A message from Liam, perhaps?”

“No, Sir Jorge,” Natalia replied. “I had a question about Fire Street.”

“Fire Street…as in the Fire Street already under us, or soon to be?”

“The last part we’re taking over. My shopkeeper said that they might need goods made for them when that happens, but I’m worried that they won’t have any work at all.”

Sir Jorge rested his fork against his plate, staring at her for a long moment.

“…did I say something I shouldn’t have?” Natalia shifted on her feet.

“Not at all,” the overseer said. “It is simply…irregular. Noblewomen occasionally involve themselves in such matters, but I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of someone like you doing so. Well, Liam is bound to become an important man in the future: perhaps it is not a bad idea for you to look to the future as well, eh? By the way, has anyone else spoken of this?”

Natalia shook her head.

“We were just trying to plan ahead for our workshop.”

“I see. It just so happens that Lord Restelo has been planning ahead, as well. The newcomers to our jurisdiction will not want for work: they will be tasked with producing arms and armour for the foreseeable future.”

“Why?”

“Why? The Royal Army is in the process of rebuilding itself, no?”

“Oh.”

She hadn’t considered that at all. Natalia supposed that was the difference between a commoner and a Noble. Nobles seemed to be able to think of everything.

“Does that mean the other districts under our control will be put to work as well?”

“Indeed,” Sir Jorge poked up loose pieces of egg with his fork, “The remainder of Fire Street was the last piece we needed to become a major supplier for the Royal Army.”

“But what about raw resources?” Natalia asked.

“That part comes naturally,” Sir Jorge answered. “The activation of the reserves is a royal edict. Anyone who refuses to supply resources to those assisting in that effort will be seen as an opponent of that edict and overcharging us for those supplies will only take away from the funding they contributed, placing it directly into our purses.”

It was amazing how House Restelo could so deftly grow in power even after they had made the entire royalist faction their enemy. They were seemingly invulnerable to anything that anyone tried to do to stop them.

“On a related note,” Sir Jorge said. “You’ll be seeing plenty of work right away, as well.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lanca leather armour is standard issue for the Royal Army’s superior troops, is it not? The armour that Liam is wearing now is something that you made, yes?”

“It is…but why didn’t you ask me to start making leather armour before now?”

A slight smile traced Sir Jorge’s lips.

“If we did that,” he said, “the Royal Court would have known what we were up to, no? Our rivals would have fought tooth and nail over us being awarded Fire Street if they were aware of what we intended. Instead, they thought we were being handed a burden as most would believe.”

The Knight’s smile broke into a grin as Natalia’s mouth fell open. House Restelo had fooled everyone by making them focus only on their schemes in Hoburns. Either no one realised how the new acquisition would affect the big picture or they didn’t think it mattered enough to care about.

“How many sets of armour do I have to make?” Natalia asked.

“The exact number remains to be seen,” Sir Jorge said, “but superior troops made up three-tenths of the Royal Army back in the day. Thirty thousand suits of leather armour should be the eventual goal. They’ll have to sort out the reservists to see how many qualify as superior troops first, of course.”

“…thirty thousand suits of armour is going to take a long time to make.”

Sir Jorge let out a short laugh.

“We don’t expect you to do it alone, of course. The industries of the entire Holy Kingdom will be called to contribute. The Royal Army will be buying arms, armour, and other equipment in lots of one hundred. We will, of course, try to provide as much of that as humanly possible. This is an extended effort, however, so please don’t ruin your health trying to do too much.”

His laid-back attitude felt like the exact opposite of Liam’s, though Liam said that Sir Jorge was actually really good at what he did. Natalia was excited about the seemingly limitless opportunity to improve her work, however, so she intended to do as much as she could. Having a big order would make her work more efficient too, as a lot of her work involved waiting for things to soak in and dry, as well as waiting for the Blacksmiths to do the metalworking parts.

“Thanks for answering my questions, Sir Jorge,” she said.

“It’s no problem,” the Knight nodded. “I look forward to seeing your work.”

Natalia left the tent and made a stop at the market, speaking to June about the new work before leaving the camp to enter the city. House Restelo’s jurisdiction had become much livelier since their influence in Hoburns started expanding.

Much of that she understood to be due to a shift in House Restelo’s approach to controlling the city. Before, all of the houses that had taken over Hoburns were focused on draining the monetary wealth out of the city. They did everything that they could: artificially limiting supply by controlling the roads leading to the capital, establishing work camps to minimise the amount of money they would otherwise need to spend paying city industries, and even resorting to using a food-based form of scrip that allowed the Nobles to spirit all the gold garnered straight to some unknown place.

House Restelo, on the other hand, had adjusted its strategy to incorporate its jurisdictions into a sort of bigger labour camp. They were still trying to suck money out of the city, but it was nowhere near as bad as it was before. Little by little, House Restelo allocated more and more work to the city folk. Everyone used scrip and people could actually go a day without skipping meals. The sense that everything was tangibly improving went a long way toward securing the cooperation of the citizens and maintaining order, allowing House Restelo to focus on external threats.

As far as Natalia was concerned, however, none of that mattered. All she could do was look out for the people that she cared about. Trying to do anything more was too big for little people like her and might invite trouble, besides.

Her first stop in Hoburns was the Temple that she always went to when she lived with her parents. She handed her alms to a member of the temple staff – it was a crate filled with bread – before entering one of the small chapels. Today, she would be praying to the Earth God.

Natalia knelt at the altar, folding her hands solemnly in front of herself and squeezing her eyes shut.

BABIES PLEASE!!!

She shouted as loudly as she could in silent prayer. Above all else – at least to Natalia – the Earth God was the god of fertility. The Priests never explained how the gods received the prayers of the faithful, but she always imagined it to be like a line at the Merchant Guild. Natalia didn’t mind waiting in line, but it wouldn’t hurt to be noticed more quickly.

Her devotions completed, Natalia left the temple, cutting across the corner of the plaza to the Leatherworker Guild office. As usual, her uncle, the guildmaster, was at the front desk. She shut the door to the office a bit loudly to wake him up.

“Huh?” He said in half a snore, “Nat? Did something happen?”

“Sort of. Did anyone from House Restelo come to see you recently?”

“Not inside the last week or so,” her uncle replied. “Do you have something to share?”

Though he had just been startled awake, her uncle’s gaze turned sharp at the prospect of valuable information.

“Have the guild members gotten many orders for leather equipment?” Natalia asked.

“Nothing out of the ordinary. We get a bump in demand every time House Restelo expands its influence, but that’s about it.”

“Don’t you think that’s strange?”

“What do you mean?” Her uncle frowned.

“They’re raising men for the Royal Army,” Natalia said. “Why hasn’t the guild gotten any work for that?”

“That’s a good question…”

Her uncle cupped his chin in his hand, a calculating expression filling his face. The notion was bound to stir up the Leatherworkers of the city.

“I can only imagine that those damn Nobles are keeping the work to themselves. What did you hear about it?”

“I heard that people from all over the country are working to provide equipment to the Royal Army.”

“Damn it all,” her uncle cursed. “We need to get in on this! What do you think House Restelo will say if we demand our share?”

“Well, all of the Nobles are competing to get ahead of one another,” Natalia said, “so I don’t see how they could have a problem with it.”

The guildmaster shifted out of his chair, muttering something about blind Nobles not seeing the value of the cities while going through several filing cabinets. Natalia figured she had given him enough of a push in the right direction. Sir Jorge probably wouldn’t miss it.

Above anything else, she had learned that favours were the most valuable form of currency that Nobles used. Money, labour, and resources could be expended in grossly disproportionate quantities to return those favours, not to mention one gaining access to all the doors that would otherwise remain closed without them. She had accumulated a small pile of favours with the Knights in the camp and continued to add more whenever an opportunity presented itself. One never knew when they would come in handy.

Just as she was about to turn and leave her uncle to his scheming, his head popped up from behind the counter.

“Oh, before you go,” he said, “I looked up that master’s mark you asked me about.”

Natalia froze. It was a request she had put in shortly after Liam found the suit of leather armour to study. She had almost completely forgotten about it.

“Where did it come from?” Natalia asked, “The piece was even fancier than I thought it was at first glance.”

“It’s from a famous studio in Debonei,” her uncle answered. “How in the world did you get your hands on something like that?”

“Liam got it for me. He said it was from somewhere else in the city. Any idea where that could be?”

“Somewhere in the city…the only places that come to mind are the boutiques in the Prime Estates.”

“You mean the garden market?”

“Yep. Liam must have some pretty important connections if he can get his hands on something from there.”

Her stomach churned with unpleasant feelings. The truth was getting closer and closer to everything she feared it to be.

“Thanks for checking, Uncle,” Natalia worked up a smile, “I’m going to go see what else they have.”

“Always good to see you, Nat.”

Natalia rushed back to the labour camp and grabbed the suit of armour from its locked chest. She returned to the city, going straight to the Prime Estates, paying no attention to the armsmen she walked past as she searched for the shop where the armour had come from. It didn’t take long, as there was only one boutique selling leather goods.

A silent sigh of relief escaped her as a man, not a woman, looked up from the front counter to greet her. She wouldn’t know what to think if Liam wasn’t attracted to her, but the fact that she was a Leatherworker.

“Is there something we can do for you, Miss…”

The man spoke to her as if he wasn’t sure she should exist. Nat placed the suit of leather armour on the counter between them.

“I’d like to know where this came from. Or who this belongs to.”

“…hah?”

“I-I meant I found it. I’d like to return it. For a reward, if possible.”

A sneer curled the shopkeeper’s lip as he reached out to examine the suit of armour. What she said had clearly damaged the shopkeeper’s already dubious view of her, but it was probably the best way to get an answer.

The shopkeeper produced a leather-bound dossier and perused through lines elegantly penned on crisp noble paper. He kept glancing at her as if he expected her to do something bad.

“Our records show that this suit of armour was purchased by the Custodio household.”

Custodio?!

Natalia’s mouth worked silently before she fled the boutique, tears stinging her eyes. She couldn’t win. Everyone knew who Remedios Custodio was. She was the most beautiful woman in the Holy Kingdom. The most powerful Paladin in Roble’s history. The personification of the Holy Kingdom’s justice. She was rich and single and could have any man in the country.

Someone like Natalia didn’t stand a chance. It would have been better if she had never tried to find out.

Her flight brought her back out of the Prime Estates and into House Restelo’s jurisdiction. A panicked voice sounded from ahead of her, and she stopped to find her newly-discovered nemesis being addressed by an armsman nearby. The man pointed to the rooftops across the street where Liam stood overlooking the street like a hero from the stories. Natalia felt her heart shatter into a million pieces when he smiled and waved at Remedios Custodio.

She made herself as small as possible, silently creeping by the scene to wait at the Rimun Gate. A half-hour later, Liam appeared and walked up to her with a perfectly straight face. Natalia looked down at the cobblestones, afraid she would burst into tears if she met his gaze.

“Is something wrong, Nat?” Liam asked.

“It’s nothing, dear,” she put on a smile and held out her hand. “Let’s go home.”

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