Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 1

22nd Day, Upper Wind Month, 1 CE

“So, let me get this straight,” Ida said. “We were teleported here from the opposite side of the Empire, then we were teleported back to the opposite side of the Empire just so we could walk back here.”

“That’s right,” Dame Verilyn nodded.

“But…but…”

“It was very convenient for Zu Chiru. Zu Chiru brought back twice as many goods.”

Nemel and her friends waited in line with Dame Verilyn and Zu Chiru at the Death Bread branch in Wagner County’s capital. The plaza around them was about as busy as she remembered it. Hundreds of Humans went about their evening business: a mix of resident artisans, rural visitors and Merchants from the Empire.

A sprinkling of Demihumans could be seen as well. Goblins, Ogres and Trolls went between the shops and stands. Or operated them, in the case of a few. What she thought were Harpies – she only knew about them from her army courses – gathered on the aerie of an official-looking building with a cute sign.

Some reptilian beings stopped and turned to approach them. Nemel tensed and took a step back. The one in the lead was nearly as tall as a Death Knight. She was sure that if it bumped into her, it would break three or four of her bones. Or all of them.

“Wh-who are you?” Nemel asked.

“Er, not you,” the reptilian glanced at her. “Dame Verilyn.”

“Who are you?” Dame Verilyn asked.

The black-scaled reptilian blinked at her question.

“I-it’s me, Dame Verilyn. Kesstris Esess?”

“Don’t be silly. You may smell like him, but Kesstris Esess is twenty-four centimetres shorter than you are.”

“I grew over the winter.”

“I wasn’t aware that Lizardmen were a race that suddenly grew after reaching adulthood.”

“We’re not.”

“Then you’re not making any sense.”

“Look,” the Lizardman’s tail tapped on the pavement, “it just happened. Lady Zahradnik said something about it being common for Demihuman Lords.”

“I see. Well, that makes sense.”

“What, just because Lady Zahradnik said so, you suddenly believe it?”

“No, but it’s common for Demihuman Lords to be larger than their fellows. If you’ve become a Lizardman Lord, then you would obviously grow larger.”

What Dame Verilyn said was true, but it didn’t make sense at the same time. Demihuman Lords tended to be significantly larger than their followers, but why would someone get bigger just because they became a Lord?

“By the way,” Dame Verilyn said. “Does that mean you’ll be dying soon?”

“Wuh?” Kesstris Esess froze, his tail sticking straight out behind him.

“I see it all the time. A new Demihuman Lord appears and they pick fights with all the neighbours. I’m sorry to say that if you pick a fight with Lady Zahradnik, she’ll have a new set of Lizardman leather accessories.”

“…she has an old set?”

“Who knows,” Dame Verilyn shrugged. “Though our acquaintance has been brief, it’s been nice knowing you, Chief Esess.”

“Don’t just kill me off like that! Tribes fight their neighbours because resources are scarce or they need to suppress the competition. The Winter Scale doesn’t have to do any of that.”

“The ‘Winter Scale’?”

“Oh. My people sort of made up a name for our tribe on their own. The Winter Scale Tribe is an officially recognised member of the Lizardman Alliance now.”

Nemel furrowed her brow over the unfamiliar topic. As Dame Verilyn’s seneschal, she needed to familiarise herself with the politics of the Sorcerous Kingdom quickly. Unfortunately, Dame Verilyn seemed to know little – or care at all – about the Sorcerous Kingdom’s politics.

Nemel was Dame Verilyn’s vassal or minion, depending on whom one asked. Dame Verilyn was Baroness Zahradnik’s Knight. Baroness Zahradnik was Lady Shalltear’s vassal. Lady Shalltear was the Sorcerer King’s direct vassal. Since Lady Zahradnik was Lady Shalltear’s vassal, that meant that Lady Shalltear was a Noble too. But Nemel had no idea what court rank Lady Shalltear held. She only knew that the powerful Vampire was the Sorcerous Kingdom’s Minister of Transportation.

Minor Nobles and their staff only needed to have ‘vertical awareness’ in their own chain of fealty and know who was living nearby. Everything else tended to be pointless trivia as they would never interact with anyone aside from the aforementioned people. As far as her work went, she had to be especially wary of neighbours who might attack them since Lady Zahradnik’s demesne was one where people could eat other people. Nemel didn’t know whether Lizardmen ate Humans or not, but it would be a problem if she had to deal with an alliance of Lizardman tribes.

“I suppose that’s why you’re out here…”

“Nah,” the Lizardman Lord waved a claw. “The alliance meeting happened last week. I had to use the new transportation links to get there and it turned out to be pretty easy. These guys here with me are Merchants that I’m showing around. I want them to set up a trade route between Warden’s Vale and the Great Lake.”

“Hmm…come to think of it,” Dame Verilyn said, “you mentioned something about needing to thin out the fish farms by autumn.”

“That’s right,” Kesstris Esess’ tail waved lazily. “The Merchants in Corelyn Harbour, E-Rantel and this town all said they’d be interested in purchasing our fish. Some of my people are interested in what’s being made back at the Great Lake. We’re on our way to the western half of the duchy now to see what it’s like there.”

Nemel let out a sigh of relief. If they had fish to sell, that probably meant they wouldn’t come to raid Nemel’s people for food. She was a War Wizard, but she only had a handful of second-tier spells. Most of what she knew had to do with her work with the highway patrol.

“In that case,” Dame Verilyn said, “I shan’t keep you any further. We’ll be heading out ourselves after picking up dinner here.”

Kesstris Esess and the other Lizardmen went on their way. Nemel shifted closer to Dame Verilyn.

“Dame Verilyn, how do you know that…gentleman?”

“He’s one of Lady Zahradnik’s vassals,” the Frost-Dragon-in-Snow-Elf form replied. “The Chief of the Winter Scale Tribe.”

“How does that work in Human terms? Is he a chief as in a village chief or does a tribal leader have court rank?”

“…he is the chief of a village, but…hm? Wait, why do you have to make it a Human thing?”

“Because it’s part of my job to know! If he’s a part of Lady Zahradnik’s court, then I’ll have to interact with him at least semi-regularly. I need to know what sort of influence he has. How big is his demesne?”

“Around two hundred square kilometres.”

“What?!”

In the Empire, that much land would make Chief Esess a Count. It was twice as much land as House Gran had.

“Most of it is underwater, however.”

“Huh?”

Nemel’s thoughts jerked to a halt. What did it mean? Did it make him more powerful or less? No, they were talking about fish farms so should it just count as pasture for livestock? If it meant that they could farm all year round, it would give them a major advantage.

“Are you alright, Miss Gran?”

“L-let’s try this another way. How many subjects does he have?”

“Less than two hundred before winter.”

She felt herself relax. Even if his demesne was large, he only had about as many subjects as a small village. That meant he was more like a village chief so not being introduced properly hadn’t cost her much. Maybe their people would be similar since Nemel also only had a few migrants and a lot of land.

They purchased dinner and returned to the warehouse district. There, Zu Chiru’s cargo was being transferred to vehicles designed for transport within the Sorcerous Kingdom. Nemel wandered over to where the migrants that she convinced to move to the Sorcerous Kingdom with her from Arwintar were putting their things into a giant metal box ten metres long and tall enough to stand in.

“Dinner’s here, everyone.”

A group came over to retrieve the bags from Nemel and her friends. In all, she managed to secure one hundred people: all of them under the age of seventeen. None had families yet. Only thirty of them were present in the first wave of migrants.

As she had suspected would be the case, all of her migrants were men. Unless they were utterly confident in their ability to personally secure their independence, women who came to the city tended to seek partners while they could, no matter their background. Those partners were usually well-established, leaving an army of young bachelors with poor prospects and nowhere else to go.

There were twenty woodcutters. Well, there were thirty woodcutters but ten of them claimed that they had experience hunting, foraging and trapping. Whether that made them Rangers or not was yet to be seen. Since Dame Verilyn said that her territory was completely wild, Nemel and her friends figured that it was the proper group to start with.

“Thanks, Lady Gran,” one of the men said.

“Just ‘Miss Gran’ now,” Nemel said. “Well, I was never ‘Lady Gran’, just ‘Mistress Nemel’.”

“…I don’t get it. You said that there’s land for ten villages, right? That’s a Barony, at least.”

“Yes, but it’s Dame Verilyn’s land and a Knight can’t promote Barons. I’m just working as a seneschal for now.”

If one went by land area alone, it was a strange situation. Baroness Zahradnik managed the territory of a Marchioness. Dame Verilyn had the territory of a powerful Countess. The Lizardman Chief was in a similar position. It was justified as those territories were mostly-undeveloped frontier territories, but everyone was stuck because Lady Shalltear hadn’t promoted Lady Zahradnik.

Not that it was particularly bad; just awkward. Those not raised in Human society probably thought nothing of it.

The men finished packing, somehow only managing to fill half of the giant box with their five wagons’ worth of stuff. After that, they boarded covered passenger wagons with their dinner and departed west down the highway. Fendros, Elise and Ida screeched as they sped off.

“W-w-wait!” Fendros gripped her seat, “Why are we going so fast?!”

“The ground speed limit here is only forty kilometres an hour,” Ilyshn’ish said.

“Forty!” Ida’s eyes widened, “That’s too fast!”

“We’re going to die if we hit something!” Elise cried.

“We’ll explode!” Fendros said, “Humans aren’t meant to travel this quickly!”

It was about the same as a Hippogriff’s cruising speed, so Nemel didn’t think it was anything to panic over.

“A Fly spell tops out at about thirty-six kilometres an hour,” Nemel said. “Weren’t you planning to learn that?”

“Not anymore!” Ida said, “This is crazy!”

Nemel stared at her friends, who were all simultaneously panicking while trying to hold their breaths for some reason.

“Imperial Knights charge at fifty kilometres per hour on horses,” Nemel said. “Our–the Imperial Army doesn’t explode on a regular basis.”

Her words fell on deaf ears. Nemel sighed and focused on her shepherd’s pie instead. E-Rantel was roughly fifty kilometres to the imperial border and the town was about ten kilometres from the border, so they would arrive at the city in about an hour.

A telltale nibbling sound rose from the seat behind her. Nemel turned to find Zu Chiru munching on some sort of rock.

“Another green one?” Nemel asked, “You’ve been eating green rocks since you bought that whole wagon from Arwintar.”

“I don’t recall seeing any Quagoa eat green rocks before,” Dame Verilyn said. “Don’t come crying to me if you mutate.”

Nemel tried to imagine a giant rodent person mutating after eating green rocks, but her imagination was deficient.

“Quagoa mutate if they eat different-coloured rocks?” She asked.

“Sort of,” Dame Verilyn replied. “When they’re young, the ores they feed on determine adult traits such as the quality of their fur.”

“Will not change when already adult,” Zu Chiru swallowed. “Zu Chiru thinks the flavour will be popular.”

“What does it taste like?”

“Copper, with–”

Some garbled noises came out of Zu Chiru’s mouth. It appeared that Humans had no concept of the flavour he was describing.

But isn’t copper expensive?

The metal was used for a variety of industrial applications. Sheets of pure copper were also employed as lining for rooms to thwart attempts at divination.

Nemel watched the fields roll by the window. Roughly half of the land appeared to be pasture. She supposed that was how the city fed its Demihuman citizens. It was too early in the season to tell what they were growing on the rest of the land with how fast they were going.

Eventually, the walls of E-Rantel came into view. Instead of heading to the city, they turned south at a large crossroads. Another set of walls could be seen in the distance ahead.

“There’s another city?” Fendros said.

“That’s Corelyn Harbour,” Dame Verilyn replied. “A town.”

“But it’s as large as that city just now…”

“Half as large. It’s a half-circle with the river on the south side.”

“Still,” Fendros frowned, “it’s too big to be a town.”

Nemel nodded in agreement. Towns were generally compact so land for rural industry wasn’t needlessly taken up.

“Well, you’ll see why it’s so ‘large’,” Dame Verilyn said.

Their procession slowed down as they approached a brightly-lit gate. The road within was just as well-illuminated, and the quality of the thoroughfare put the proud streets of Arwintar to shame. Nemel stared out the window of their cabin. The first stretch of road was canyon-like, with something built on the earthworks five metres above them. They crossed under a bridge, then past another level of the town.

She could only get short peeks of the bustling urban plazas before their vehicles turned onto a ramp and headed down to yet another section of the town. A huge harbour district stretched out before them, glowing in the evening light.

“This is nothing like Elenel,” Ida said. “Or any other imperial harbour.”

The first thing that she noted was that the place was scoured clean. Everything was laid over with smooth stone pavement and none of the unsavoury odours that usually accompanied a waterfront could be detected. The warehouses were spotless and well maintained; the lanes between them well-lit. Rather than the dingy ports of the Empire, the entirety of the harbour felt even more pristine and secure than Arwintar’s First-class district. Occasional patrols of Death-series servitors and Elder Liches reinforced that notion.

They stopped in the middle of an open lot. Nemel got out just in time to watch Zu Chiru’s cargo get hauled off into a covered yard filled with similar containers.

“I thought your operations were in E-Rantel,” Nemel said.

“They are,” the Quagoa Merchant said. “But storage in Corelyn Harbour is one-tenth of the cost of storage in E-Rantel. Transport is also cheap, so Zu Chiru replenishes inventories from here.”

That probably made sense. It was something far more feasible in the Sorcerous Kingdom than in the Empire. She looked south across the harbour at the huge fortress built on an island in the river, its brilliant limestone walls painted bright orange by the setting sun. The local Noble – or at least the Noble’s court – had foreseen the change that the Sorcerous Kingdom would bring and chartered a town specifically designed to see to the country’s future needs.

“The Harbourmaster’s Office is this way, Miss Gran,” Zu Chiru said. “You will need to book passage and hold space for your trip tomorrow.”

She followed Zu Chiru to a stone building with a sailing ship on its sign, finding that the Harbourmaster was a Vampire Bride. After reserving space on a ship for the following morning, she came back out with the Quagoa Merchant to join the others.

“What now?” Nemel asked.

“Public transport to E-Rantel is at the town level,” Dame Verilyn said. “You can find accommodations here for everyone, as well.”

They followed Dame Verilyn back up the ramp that their wagons had come down, returning to the plaza that they had seen from the highway. Nemel observed the goings-on as they slowly made their way along busy lanes filled with people.

“Are you sure this isn’t a city?” Fendros said, “It feels like one.”

Towns were busy on market days, but they were nothing like this. The atmosphere was filled with the same energy as one might find in the markets of Arwintar’s second-class districts. There was more to that, however. Corelyn Harbour had a distinct character that she had never seen or felt anywhere else.

“Is that a temple?” Elise asked, “It’s bigger than most city temples…and look at how many people are attending!”

“Maybe it’s because–”

Fendros snapped her mouth shut. A group of Undead walked by. There were two types Nemel had never seen before. Both were lightly armoured: one in black robes and the other in dark leather. The robed type wielded a gnarled deadwood staff, but it didn’t look like an Elder Lich. The other had a pair of wickedly curved daggers gripped in each fist.

There were two of the latter walking ahead of the group, their crimson gazes looking out intensely over the crowds as they marched along. In a way, they reminded her of the two scouts in every imperial patrol, but their movements didn’t convey any sense of stealth.

Once they passed, Nemel’s gaze returned to the complex on the western end of the plaza. It might have been natural to conclude that the temple was so busy due to the presence of the Undead, but Nemel was sure it wasn’t the case. No one looked scared – they didn’t even move away from the Soul Eaters or Undead patrols.

As they came closer, the details of the temple became clear.

“A temple of The Six,” Elise frowned.

“It’s not just a Temple,” Ida's gaze went to the buildings nearby. “It’s…a campus?”

Theocracy script was carved into the stone of one of the main buildings.

“Harbour University…” Nemel read the name out loud.

“But what’s the Theocracy doing here?” Elise asked.

“This place wasn’t built by the Theocracy,” Dame Verilyn answered. “All of Corelyn Harbour was chartered by Countess Corelyn.”

“I thought the Sorcerous Kingdom adopted the laws of Re-Estize,” Fendros said. “Why is a Noble involving herself so deeply with the Temples?”

“Who knows?” Dame Verilyn shrugged, “I suppose you should ask her if you really want to know.”

Nope. Random scions of random minor Nobles did not come up randomly to ask random questions of High Nobles. Especially High Nobles who could charter city-like towns and ridiculously gigantic castles.

A pair of fair blonde men clad in shining mithril plate armour walked past them, followed by a man and woman in steel plate. Following the four were a dozen armed and armoured children chatting animatedly between themselves. All of them wore black tabards with silver trim. They disappeared into the front entrance of the university.

“Surshana worshippers,” Elise shuddered.

“But what were they doing with those kids?” Ida asked.

“They’re Acolytes and Squires,” Dame Verilyn told them. “I recognised about half of them from the last time I wandered around here. The adults in mithril armour are Paladins. The other ones are Clerics.”

Another group of Paladins, Clerics and their apprentices walked by to enter the building. Nemel glanced at the Undead patrols and sentries nearby. Why did a country ruled by an Undead sovereign have a temple university? Why were they training so many new Clerics and Paladins?

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Elise frowned. “The Temples are flourishing here. In a country ruled by the Undead!”

“Isn’t Lady Shalltear a Cleric?” Fendros said, “Never mind Human temples raising Clerics and Paladins, you have powerful Undead Clerics running around.”

She had a point. The idea of an Undead Cleric felt wrong, but it might be that what they saw as normal was wrong. It certainly wasn't normal here. Nemel looked around the plaza again. Maybe there were Undead Paladins walking around, too.

They crossed the plaza to rent rooms at a local Merchant inn for everyone. Dame Verilyn whined as usual over having to pay for everything.

“I had better make this all back in taxes,” she muttered. “Whoever heard of a Dragon paying to support her minions?”

“It shouldn’t take long,” Nemel told her. “The accommodations here are cheaper than in the Empire. You’ll get everything back and more with this season’s revenues alone.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“You didn’t spend that much. We stopped in Engelfurt for one night and you made us camp out all of the other days.”

As wealthy as she was, Dame Verilyn wasn’t very open-handed. At least that part of the legends about Dragons seemed to be true.

Nemel couldn’t make any guarantees, but she was reasonably certain about her assertion over taxes. The first season – probably the whole year – would be taken up clearing land for the first village. They would be cutting down trees and selling them. There wasn’t much room to go wrong there.

Once they put their things away and made sure everyone was settled, Nemel went back outside with Fendros, Elise and Ida. Zu Chiru was going home to E-Rantel with his apprentices and Dame Verilyn had some people to see too. It was a good opportunity to take a look at the city before they got themselves stuck out in the wilderness.

They returned to the highway and boarded a passenger wagon sporting a plaque with ‘E-Rantel – Corelyn Harbour’ written on it. Several seats in the cabin were already occupied. Nemel sat down beside a young woman in the uniform of the Merchant Guild.

“Good evening,” Nemel smiled.

The woman looked up from the documents on her lap.

“Good evening. Hmm…from the Empire?”

“That’s right. We’re here to stay, though. Nemel Gran, by the way.”

“Edwina Hoffmann,” the woman replied. “Merchant traffic from the Empire is mostly back to normal, but you’re the first migrant that I’ve heard of. Human migrant, at any rate.”

“I was offered a management position,” Nemel said. “It was more attractive than what I had going in the Empire, so here I am.”

Edwina Hoffmann nodded knowingly.

“I see. There’s a severe labour shortage here, so that’s not surprising.”

“There is? I thought the Undead did a lot of the work.”

“Menial labour, yes,” Miss Hoffmann said. “What everyone is looking for is skilled labour. The majority of the population in the duchy works in rural industries and most of them are illiterate. The Sorcerous Kingdom produces so many raw materials and we don’t have the skilled labour to process it all. Some people joke that we’ve become a giant village: most of our exports are what you’d get from the countryside because we can’t process them into manufactured goods. We import everything that we can’t make enough of.”

“Well, the territory was just annexed last year…”

“Oh, we realise that. It’s just…well, you’ll understand once you’ve been here for a while. This isn’t some sleepy pastoral realm frozen in time anymore. Everything is moving. There’s something new every season. New ideas. New technology. New ways of seeing the world. We need more artisans, administrators, schoolteachers, engineers…all sorts of specialists to create our new reality. It’s an exciting time to be alive!”

Even for a city girl like Nemel, Miss Hoffmann’s energy felt stifling. Nemel could understand what she was saying, however. Every Human nation in the region was an agrarian state and the strength of each nation’s economy – and thus its power to do everything else – was dictated by available labour. It had been that way for as long as anyone could remember.

How to optimise that labour was part of the Imperial Magic Academy’s curriculum. There were even advanced classes in the Imperial universities that experimented with Golems, summons and various creatures in an attempt to harness their power for economic gain.

Rumour had it that the Undead were not overlooked as a part of those studies, but no evidence that the Empire was experimenting with Undead labour could be found. With how the Faith of the Four was, the temples would certainly raise a stink the moment they sensed that the rumour had any truth to it.

The Sorcerous Kingdom, however, had no such qualms about the Undead and now they had the manpower to spare. The problem was that one couldn’t simply put a Farmer in front of a lathe and tell them that they were now a machinist. Every vocation – including Farming – required upward of a decade to produce masters at the standards of the guilds. Even if they had the resources to spare to invest that time, there weren’t remotely enough master artisans to train hundreds of thousands of people in new trades.

Nemel wondered how she would fare with Dame Verilyn’s territory. On one hand, they were starting from scratch. On the other hand, they had set things up so they could tap into the spares from her parents’ territory. House Gran being well-liked and respected by its subjects went a long way toward convincing people to come to the Sorcerous Kingdom.

“So what are you doing so late in the evening?” Nemel asked.

“Late…? Hmm, I suppose that would be true a year ago. With how secure the Sorcerous Kingdom is and how easy it is to get around, even that part has changed.”

Miss Hoffman picked up the documents in her lap and waved them lightly in front of her.

“Updated accounts and paperwork from the Corelyn Harbour Merchant Guild. Back in the day, we’d have someone go out once a week to the nearest towns in the duchy to transfer documents. Took one day going there and another coming back. Now, you can jump in a wagon, have dinner on the way and be back in less than two hours. Information flows quickly here. Even rural villages that used to only have news come in once a season can be pretty up to date on things.”

“Hehhh…is that so?”

“Yup,” Miss Hoffman nodded. “Coming to town has become a regular thing. A lot of those people that you saw filling the plazas in Corelyn Harbour are actually from the villages in the baronies nearby. Young people, especially. They just hop in the village wagon and go out to town after work. Everyone knows that Countess Corelyn is a genius, but I don’t think they understand just how much of a genius she is.”

“What do you mean?”

“They started building this place a year ago, but, even then, Countess Corelyn saw what was coming. Her towns are all like this: they all purposely showcase the new things that the Sorcerous Kingdom brings. Tens of thousands of people come to these towns every week and they go home with visions of the future in their heads. There’s just layers and layers of stuff that she’s planned in advance and it all catapults everyone forward.”

Nemel was still stuck trying to understand how the town was built so quickly. Did that mean the castle was new, too? Was Countess Corelyn even Human?

“Anyway,” Miss Hoffmann said, “enough about that. What about you?”

“Me?” Nemel blinked, “Er…I just wanted to see the city before going to Warden’s Vale. I came with the other people here.”

Miss Hoffmann turned to look over her shoulder.

“Oh, if it isn’t Master Chiru!” She smiled brightly.

“Hello, Miss Hoffman,” the Quagoa Merchant waved a claw.

“So you’re finally back from the Empire. How did it go?”

“Zu Chiru thinks that it could have gone better. The ‘Merchant’ part was good, but the part where Zu Chiru was kidnapped by Assassins was not so good.”

“Ah, well,” Miss Hoffman said. “Merchants just have it rough sometimes. Where are you headed next?”

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