Chapter 1.19

Ax

There was a noticeable shift around the hill in the days that followed. Latona stopped training directly with the myrmidons, but didn’t stop training at all. She returned to wearing a peplos, but kept the hem above her ankles and the side unpinned to her thighs. Karson had completed her armor, so she wore that at all times, with a purplish blue cloak clasped from a hook on one side of her chest. Latona began wearing her father’s knife and one of the new swords I was cranking out instead of carrying a spear, and her morning training was done with the old warrior woman, Xia Fang. In the afternoon, however, she began taking an active role in organizing the growing numbers of people coming into our camp. It was clear that she was asserting her position in our growing clan, and cementing my authority at the same time.

I worked endlessly, for I had task after task to complete. The maze of rooms being added on to the rough shelter I’d help throw up meant that I was being called on periodically to put up columns and support frames. I also had to reinforce walls. An early accident with a surprised ox and an errant trace line led to an ox-sized hole through one wall along and a bruised but uninjured ox driver whose ankle got caught in the traces. That showed that sufficient force could simply bash through my brick-and-post design. I had to go through each room, adding new columns every three feet or so to brace the walls. I was going to have to rethink how we did construction when we got to a place where we could build proper fortifications.

I also had to work on the order from Dadaces. Tempers had cooled since Karson’s run-in with him, which was reassuring. The bronze had been delivered as promised, and I had to make helmets to go with the spearheads that I was popping out. The problem was that I didn’t actually need or want the poor-quality bronze Dadaces had sent. I could conjure far superior quality without having to take the time to purify the crap he’d provided. I also didn’t want to provide him the same helmets as I was equipping the myrmidons with.

Instead I made a new machine. Using the helmet Karson had purchased as a model, I produced simple open-faced helmets with cheek guards. They were similar in style to the helmets Dadace’s militia already used. Once that machine was working, I assigned a peasant to work it, collecting the helmet and piling for transport back to the town. That left only the problem of a full load of bronze I didn’t need. I tried banishing it, to find it took just as much mana to banish as it did to summon. I spent an hour or so repeatedly banishing, before ordering the crates to be piled up against one wall. I had things to do, and didn’t want to waste more time.

Karson caught up to me as the workers finished unloading the crates of bronze. He stood next to me and watched as they worked.

“How long until the order for Dadaces is ready?” he asked in English.

“A few days. Spearheads are finished and crated. Just waiting on helmets to be finished.”

“How is married life treating you?” he smirked. I felt like smacking him in the head.

“I’m not married yet,” I replied.

“Dude, you are so married,” said Karson. “You’re living together and she’s taken over your household.”

“Haven’t seen the priest yet,” I said smugly. “Not married.”

“Priests aren’t required here,” he countered. “Did she give you her dowry?”

I frowned. That was a sore subject for me. It felt like like I was getting paid to take her in, as if she was a slave or something. It felt wrong. But Latona had insisted, then spent several pleasurable hours convincing me. I’d accepted because I figured we’d use it together, anyway. It turned out to be a surprisingly large amount of money, a few decent quality knives, several bolts of high-quality wool, and a smaller amount of linen.

“I did,” I said slowly.

“After you… ahem… consummated… your relationship?”

“Yes?”

“You’re married,” he said firmly. “The priest blesses the relationship at the wedding feast, but it is more of a blessing for the happy new couple, not a formal ‘join before God’ thing.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“No, dude, I’m serious. You’re already married.”

“Oh.” I was flabbergasted. Was he just screwing with me?

“Don’t worry,” he said with a laugh. “If she moves out and takes her dowry with her, you’re divorced. So, based on your track record, that’ll be next week?”

“Shut up!” I said, and punched his arm while he laughed. Then his laughter quieted.

“So you’re setting yourself up as a warlord,” Karson stated matter-of-factly.

“Yeah, it looks like it,” I replied. “You know I’m not trying to push you aside or anything, right? I look at this like we’re partners, like always.”

“I know, dude. But let’s face it. You’re the leader-type, I’m the bookish type. It’s always been like that. You played football, I played chess. You had a gang of friends that followed you around, I was a nerd.”

“Yet somehow you’ve always landed more tail than me,” I said.

“Women dig smart guys, especially confident ones,” Karson said. “And I’ve never been afraid of rejection. Confidence goes a long way.”

I didn’t disagree. Karson also understood them far better than me, much to his amusement. “So we’re cool?”

“Yeah, you do your warlord thing. I’ll be your ‘power behind the throne’ or whatever. Just don’t forget what we’re doing.”

“Asphalion and his cronies,” I said darkly. Kabiri’s killers would get theirs. Our adopted father’s death would not go unanswered.

“Exactly,” he said. “I’m not suicidal, I know we need to prepare. I know that we have a life to build here, too. We just can’t lose sight of the goal.”

“No worries, brother.”

Karson hesitated. “I need to run something by you.”

“What’s that?”

“Danae.”

“What about her? I thought you were into Zahra,” confusion written across my face.

“No, not that!” he said. “I am into Zahra. Besides, Danae isn’t into guys. She might even be asexsual, because I don’t think she’s into girls either.”

“So what about Danae, then?”

“She asked me to… modify her.”

“What, like how you made yourself taller? I noticed you haven’t fixed that, by the way.”

“Not going to,” said Karson. “I discovered I liked the extra inch. But yes, sort of like that. She wants to be stronger and faster. ‘Able to overpower a grown man’ as she put it.”

“So what are you asking me for? She’s a grown ass woman. She doesn’t need my input.”

“It’s not about your input. Well, kind of. It’s risky. I haven’t done anything like this before, and I’d be tinkering with how her body functions. I could fuck up, and she’d be screwed. I don’t know if I should even do it.” He looked down at his hands, worrying over the fact that someone was literally putting her life in his hands.

“Did you explain all that to her?”

“I did,” he allowed.

“Then it’s on her,” I said, wanting to help ease his concerns. “If she’s willing to take the risk, and you think you can do it, within reason, then why not? Do you know what you’re doing?”

“I’ve studied the bodies of the gigantes and cynos when we got here. I looked at the harpy body the other day. I’ve studied my own body, and I’ve studied Danae’s a few times now. I’m pretty sure I can give her a boost.”

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you. If she’s willing to be a guinea pig, and you’re willing to try, it’s not my business.”

“Alright,” he said. “I’ll think on it. Probably going to do it.”

At that moment, a group of myrmidons marched by with Antiope yelling the whole time. She looked like she was having the time of her life, running alongside in her full panoply of armor and weapons and barely sweating. The myrmidons looked exhausted. That woman was scary dangerous, and cheerful about it.

“Have you been doing any weapons practice?” I asked.

“No, I don’t have time for the whole ‘drill til you drop’ thing, and a spear just gets in my way.”

“You should join me in the mornings,” I said. “Me, Latona and Lacedaemon skip the morning drill to practice swords with Xia Fang. That old lady is brilliant with a blade. She may even be better than Antiope.”

“What about recruitment and buying supplies?”

“How are we doing on supplies?”

“Fine. We’ve stockpiled plenty of hay for the oxen, barrels of dried fish, dried fruits, beans, cheese and olives. The fresh vegetables and bread gets eaten quickly, but we’re ahead of the curve. Another few days of buying, and we should have enough for the trip to Iolcus. There is a never-ending list of things from belt buckles to sewing needles, sandals and clothes, tarps and barrels.”

“Alright. Turn over the purchasing to Crathis. Recruits can come to us now, we’ve got what we absolutely need. We’re approaching 50 myrmidons. I’ve been talking strategy with Xai Fang, and I’m recruiting archers and slingers now. She thinks more women will sign up for that, which should help speed recruiting.” Despite openly accepting women into the ranks, we only had about one woman for every five men in the myrmidons. I had hoped for more, but cultural mores worked against me.

“That should free me up nicely. I’ve been making headway with the Atlantean book. Did you know that mana can be measured and quantified? It is measured in thaums. The average Atlantean mage naturally can hold, on average, 500 thaums at a time. They estimate it takes one hundred fifty thaums to boil one gallon of water, or make a fireball of ‘modest size’.”

“That’s… incredibly boring.” I made a disgusted face, probably like what I’d made in high school chemistry when they were teaching the scientific definition of Celsius.

Karson laughed. “Be bored all you want, I’ve gotten hints of all sorts so far. They know how to make complex magic machines, including powerful weapons. It turns out Zahra has a knack for language, and is helping me learn the language. She says there are many pages filled with ‘recipes’ as she called them, detailed guides for using runes to create more powerful enchantments and wards, and theorycrafting on sympathetic magics.”

“I understood all but the last part.”

“Sympathetic magic is like how we’re converting heat to mana, or how I heal an injury. Changing something from one thing to a different, but similar thing. It’s interesting.”

“Yeah, okay, so you got spells, runes for different spells, and boring ideas about theoretical spells?”

“That about sums it up.”

“Well, bring me up to speed when you need me to help with something. No need to bore me to death right now.”

Karson smiled but didn’t rib me for once. I headed back in to check on the fletchers to make sure they had everything they needed for making arrows. A pile of finished spears and javelins were piled in one corner, and my production machines were all going at full speeds. Quivers, we needed quivers, and more armor. We were going to have to come up with a simpler armor solution for the archers. Perhaps unenchanted armor, or maybe unfitted armor? It would take too long to make enchanted cuirasses for all of them, at least right away, on top of what I needed for the myrmidons. At the pace of two per day, we were still three or four weeks away from equipping the whole platoon of soldiers, and that was before adding in new recruits and archers.

But that was a problem for another day. For now, I had plenty of work to keep me busy. I spotted Latona across the room, listening carefully as a woman talked to her. She looked up and caught me watching her. She smiled warmly before returning her attention to the woman. I was already looking forward to tonight.

“Milord? If you have a moment?” came a man’s voice behind me. I sighed, then turned and got back to work.