On the road again, in the past...

“It’s time for us to go.”

The three girls looked at one another in astonishment. “Go where?” Verd asked Hazé, caught off guard by this sudden statement.

“For starters, down to Zynozure. Veis’ brother Errant is heading there, and the capital will be a very interesting place for you to ply your talents.”

Amber was definitely the most interested of the three, as the center of the Empire was also the center of fashion. She was the oldest of the four of them, and the fact she enjoyed some of the young men in town was no secret, and didn’t really bother any of them. She was already picturing herself cutting a swathe through the pampered pretty-boy nobles of the capital. “That sounds like great fun!” she announced. “I wonder how many people from the wine party might be there...”

That party had certainly made them famous from a certain point of view. Certain young noblewomen were still stopping by to get custom dresses made for them, as well as riding outfits.

“What about Mama?” Veis spoke up quickly. She was still short, and always would be, but she was a fair beauty with a complexion like milk and a waterfall of silken white hair, so beautifully cute when she wanted to be that it could drive men crazy to see her. She still wasn’t quite yet ten years old in reality, although she was physically fifteen or older after going through the Ritual of the Silver Queen... and she knew far more than she looked like, and she saw a great deal more than people expected.

“Mama needs to stay in Vyster for now. She still needs to train more of the young women, and keep the factory going for now.”

The morning Tai Chi exercises and knife competitions among the women who worked in their shops had spread throughout the little town. Training the women of the town as apprentice Rune Chemists meant that production of raw material for certain herbal remedies and minor alchemical goods was easy to keep up, and empowered the women with good pay for good work. Mixing healing effects into the local wines, pastries, and sausages had, along with other Potion effects as requested, made them relatively popular for the military and nobility, as alternatives to merely drinking another Potion.

One of the prime requirements of working in the shops was being good with a knife. To get a promotion, the women had to display the ability to cut quickly and precisely, chopping and dicing both plant and animal matter. They had to know the cuts of meat and how to assess them, as well as the plants. They had to be able to exchange knives between hands, juggle them, and be able to throw and catch them back and forth between themselves. This had also started up an actual knife-throwing competition between them, which, since their knives weren’t made for throwing, took some actual skill.

Two other young women had also been found to be Powered, and were undertaking earnest lessons from Mama, eager to better themselves in the world. They already performed many of the duties of Mama’s personal helpers, while the three Hagchild girls worked the stores and helped with mundane operations during the day.

During the night, the three Hagchildren often went traveling with Hazé and Master Feist here and there, with varying levels of excitement dashed with scarlet.

“Why do we need to up and leave?” Verd asked calmly, always the most level-headed of the three. She also looked the most mature, with lush curves that had as many boys pursuing her as they did Amber. She was more discrete about such things, but her libido as a Hagchild was not something to fight against. Amber had gone over everything with all of them with the authority of an expert, and they knew all the risks and what to watch out for.

And really, the boys were rather fragile; they had to be careful not to hurt them.

“You’ve seen the kind of things we are running across within the Empire... and they are spreading. We won’t be able to stay here very long. There are bad tides on the horizon, and we are going to get a bit of a head start on them. Mama and I have made some preparations for Vyster, but they need a little while longer to come to a head.”

Amber’s crimson eyes glittered. “Is that where all the money has been going?” she asked softly, glancing around. She was always very concerned about money, and had seen that the profits of their alchemical enterprises seemed to drop into a black hole. Having experienced herself just how much money it cost to upgrade her own Gear, it was obvious what was happening.

Hazé did not bother to hide it, leaning forward with the others. “Yes. The Artificing is already done, I worked on it for years. We’re just Powering it up now, day by day. Needless to say, it is a lot of coin. Happily, we’ve made good money, and much of the foundation magic is done.”

“Can you tell us what it is?” Verd pressed eagerly, and Hazé shook her head.

“Only Mama and I know. Once it’s revealed, naturally everyone will know. In the meantime, we’re finally going to be taking The Wagon.”

Their eyes all lit up. That was the special project all of them had been working on for literally years, the main focus of their Artificer levels. The demanding craftsmanship required for it had necessitated a lot of doing, redoing, and doing again to get it right, repeatedly beating them over the head with the high QL pre-reqs of truly decent magical items. The woodworking and machining requirements of The Wagon had been high, and no small amount of their own gold had gone into its making.

It was their own little moving base of operations, meant to be able to go with them anywhere, and allow them to do their supporting downtime Crafting while giving them a place to put their stuff. While traveling via teleporting was very cool, it just didn’t have the same allure as traveling overland themselves... and they also had to extend their Lived-Lines, such as it were. Visual Files didn’t just fill themselves, after all.

“When are we going?” Amber asked forthrightly.

“Tomorrow,” Hazé stated, and the three girls all jumped in astonishment. “So, busy, busy! Whatever needs to get done, get done. You know by now what to do and what not to. We leave after morning ritual tomorrow.”

The three all uttered flustered sounds and went scampering away in excitement, calling out to one another intermittently on all the stuff they had to pack and supplies to assemble and food to pack and so on and so forth.

Hazé smiled and went out to make her own arrangements. She had told Mama about this some time ago, so preparations on her side were already completed. Mama was already getting ready in case some bad crap went down, and wouldn’t those be a big surprise to everyone...

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The next day...

The Salute to the Morning was over, the Dance of the Day had moved them through the warm-up routines to get their blood flowing and ki humming. The crowd of women and a few men broke up into groups, chatting with one another as they flowed down the hill to their jobs and get on with the work of the day.

The Wagon was already ready. It was painted in subdued hues that would darken in shadow and pick up reflected light alchemically, meaning it blended into the surrounding terrain very easily.

Tabi was a fine horse with good lines, strong and well-built. With the garnishes and ribbons on him, he looked like a show horse, not a war horse, and that was completely by design. His job was to look inoffensive right until he kicked someone’s face in, and he was very good at seeming harmless right up until then.

He was prancing and eager to get going, too. This was his first trip out into the greater world, and he couldn’t have picked a finer bunch to do it with.

Master Feist was waiting to go with them. His job was to shepherd them, after all, and he was sort of their crewmaster and overseer. He’d stayed on well past his allotted time simply because he enjoyed working with all of them. In any event, he took up even less space than they did, and he could Meditate on the roof in a driving thunderstorm without batting an eye.

Tabi was fixed up to The Wagon and pulled it on out of the barn cheerfully. Verd and Amber were up front driving, Feist was sitting on top in overwatch, and Veis was hanging out the door as they rolled down the drive, calling out to Mama, waving their pastries at her, and she waved back with her two new apprentices as they set out.

Hazé was already gone, flitting off to somewhere doing something that didn’t require help, only a Caster in the right place at the right time. She would doubtless be back before lunch. They headed on down the road, Tabi setting a good pace.

Actually, Tabi wasn’t drawing The Wagon at all; it simply matched his speed and momentum precisely, as The Wagon was actually floating on eight separate Disks that collectively could bear several dozen tons of weight. The wheels that were spinning on the sides right now were only illusions, made all the more real-seeming by how expected they were. There were real wheels, stowed underneath in Compressed Slots for backup, along with a Perpetual Motion Wheel that could be used for slow but steady progress if something were to happen to Tabi.

The net effect was that Tabi expended no effort drawing The Wagon, and the ride was absolutely free of the normal bumps and bruises that came from traveling the rather primitive roads. The four of them made very good time as they headed out for the main trade road to the south and east, and the way to the Imperial Capital.

They were expecting to see a great many things on the way, and Hazé had promised that she would find some fun projects for them to work on while they traveled. After all, these were dangerous times, and it was best to be prepared...

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Calespi was a trade town near the mountains that divided the West March from the Central Empire. Given the unruliness of the Kohlete Mountains and the creatures and wild tribes that still lived there, it had a wild, frontier appeal to it, filled with prospectors, mining companies, hunters, trappers, explorers, and the occasional team of adventurers all eager to find remnants of prior eras buried in the depths of thousands of square miles of ancient and brooding mountains.

Feist sat on top with an Autobow in his hands, treasuring the new toy Hazé had made for him. Making the ammunition was a bit of a pain, but with the additional accessories on it, this was definitely the best sniping tool he had ever seen. His eyes conveyed the idea that he was looking for someone to practice on, and other than a few glances at the girls riding up front, and really strange looks at Veis kicking her legs excitedly next to Feist, they weren’t bothered as they trundled along.

The Wagon was technically a covered carriage, and so longer than a buckboard for hauling stuff. While it wasn’t showy and ostentatious, anyone who inspected it closely would be able to tell it was very well-made, and would have cost a pretty penny. Of course, those same people would likely half-faint if they knew how much goldweight had gone into it.

They pulled in next to a general store near the end of town, and dismounted with a casual ease and confidence that had a number of curious eyes go wary when they saw how the lot of them were moving... and the number of knives they seemed to be wearing with total familiarity. They also let the wagon there unguarded... except for Tabi, who was unhooked and ambled over in front of the door to the wagon, waiting calmly as they hung a feed bag for him, and gave the stink-eye to anyone who got too close.

----

Walking down a town street to see the sights and anything interesting, you generally don’t see someone ganked right in front of you.

The man was non-descript, in a black cloak and well-made leathers, rough and competent-looking, like many of the hardy independent sorts who ran into and out of this town. All four of them were munching on apples and berries from the local orchards, looking over the stalls and windows of the buildings they were passing by. There was a lull in the crowd, and just ahead of them, a dark figure smoothly went up a wall, came down on the back of the man passing an alley between two buildings, and drove a knife into his neck.

Even as the man fell, he was rolled sideways, looking as if he stumbled if you didn’t have the angle right, and toppled out of sight to his left.

Nobody around reacted at all, except for the four of them.

The three girls and the hyn looked at one another, and then Veis didn’t hesitate at all to dart ahead to the edge of the alley and peek around the corner, rapidly followed by Amber and Verd going up, and Feist going down.

A hooded hyn was hauling the man backwards like a sack of meal, the hood somehow throwing his whole face into shadow despite not being long enough to do so. He looked up at the four heads peeking at him, and paused for a moment at the sight.

Shadowed, nigh-invisible spirals of gloomy energy were spinning up and down around him...

“Elder?” Feist asked in amazement.