Chapter Two - Island Nation Boraia

*** Leo Cazador ***

Exploring the castle I learned many things, firstly my mother is Gianna and first princess of the island nation of Boraia was married to the first prince, Bastion, and son of the current king, Edwards. The queen mother died some years before I was born and bore Edwards only one son, Bastion. The king has no concubines though the monarchy has no ill disposition to having one or more. The first prince is currently out of the country setting up an island naval base, the island is between it and the massive continent beyond. It is said that his task would take years to complete, he was tasked after all with fortifying the buffer zone island base that would stand between Boraia and a newly discovered continent.

Boraia is half the size of japan and while it is surrounded by many smaller islands it has no way to tap into them as their ship building skills are rather inferior for a ship dependent nation. They use vessels very similar to Viking long ships which are not really made for long ocean voyages, the first prince’s current project is actually requiring the use of more than half of the existing fleet just to supply the base with materials as most of the vessels are loaded with provisions and supplies for the journey itself.

Boraia is a fortress island, it is rather curved in a C fashion with two wide lakes in the middle connected by natural canals. Inside the curve are its three major cities with several smaller towns and villages on the coastlines and valleys. The capitol of Boraia, Isyndril, is perched overlooking the second inner lake and situated over cliffs making it nigh impregnable by any naval force even if you set aside its high walls.

The few points of interest that I discovered were beyond the castle walls; the massive city library, the docks, the trading posts, and recently the auction house warehouse. There were many curious wares there including pets, weapons, trinkets, trade goods, and slaves. The slaves interested me the most as they were of varying races, some were not even human at all. A few would notice me and tell me their tales which drew me to venture regularly into the warehouse.

As I turned one and a half a baby girl was sent over from another island nation, it was from a smaller tribe that was no match for Boraia. After it was crushed only the daughter of the island chief was allowed to live in return for complete surrender, it was by a promise between the chief and the naval commander that it was made possible. The king decided to honor the promise and adopt the girl. This drew me to learn more about the islands discovering that many had tribes on them, some of which had pledged themselves to Boraia, the rest were usually left alone unless the island nation needed to expand its fishing territory.

After the girl showed up many of the islanders from that tribe had been turned into slaves and many ended up in the warehouse. Some would talk to me, others treated me as a rich man’s ignorant child. I did not try and hide my fine clothing.

During this time I also discovered the tinkerer’s workshop who dealt with making complex tools and other such things with movable parts. I visited the workshop of an older master craftsman named Bjorn, a rather uncharacteristically bulky man with a long beard and chaotic matte of greying hair upon his head. He designed some of the more interesting things and through him I came to understand that the island nation did not yet have a firm grasp of the pulley nor gear system. He designed many things that hand some basic forms of either but it was quite clear that he was years away from truly discovering the full utility of either if indeed he ever achieved it in his lifetime.

*** Bjorn ***

He was back again, that little rascal. The child was probably no more than two years old yet somehow he’d manage to get on the high window of the workshop every time he would come by. Not wanting the little rascal to hurt himself I eventually made it routine to just set him on the workshop table. There was some intelligence in that young one, he always made an effort not to destroy anything on the table and actually seemed to enjoy looking at some of the work designs and projects I was currently working on.

The boy was clearly from the higher class, his clothing was far too fine and he’d always show up in something different and just as fine looking. What kind of high class nobles let their infant child wander around was beyond me, but if he was adamant about visiting my workshop I was not about to stop him from doing so lest I have my head removed. I once tried escorting him back to his home but he sternly refused before quickly disappearing.

“Ah, you like that one huh?” I asked noticing him looking at a particular model I was currently working on, it was of a boat that I hoped would be able to traverse ocean waters much easier than our current longboats.

There was a look of disappointment in his eyes as he scrutinized the model poking at it and shaking his head every once in a while.

“Well tis not a finished model,” I puffed up my chest defensively.

He seemed to motion that adding rows of oarmen was not the answer. As much as I wanted to refute the child I knew he would not understand me yet I could not help feel that the child actually understood the problem and was simply unable to convey the answer just yet.

“I figured it wouldn’t work,” I said after a moment. Even I had my own doubts, ocean going was just too new a concept and anything conventional was simply not cutting it.

The boy smiled then, it was brief but I noticed it, it was like he was telling me ‘good now you can work on finding the real solution’. What a frightening child to make me feel as if I was talking to an equal if not a master of the craft.

Today I wanted to show him something interesting I had found in the market instead of my many works, it was a stone that actually attracted metal. When the boy was done looking at the model he turned towards me, I already had the stone and many metal bits in hand. I motioned for him to pay attention to the stone, he looked at me curiously but then his eyes widened as the metal bits began to lift away from my hand and actually attack to the stone like glue. His reaction was not what I expected, instead of beaming at me with excitement he was looking frantically around the room before he shot off looking for something. He came back with a bowl of water first but seemed to have a greater difficult time finding whatever else he was looking for. Eventually he came back with some cork with and a needle.

It was the first time the child wanted to show me something.

He rubbed the need on the stone then pierced it through the small but of cork wood before gently placing it in the water bowl. I wandered what he was wanting to show me, at first I was confused as he looked up at me proudly. When he saw that I did not comprehend he motioned for me to keep my eyes on the pointed end of the needle and the direction it faced. He turned the bowl around and the needle moved with his motioned, coincidently it settled around the same direction it had been facing. I still did not understand. He looked at me again and noted that I still did not comprehend what he wanted to show me. This time instead of moving the bowl he picked up the needle and cork combo and motioned again for me to pay attention to the pointed end. He set the combo back down facing the opposite direction and then I understood. The needle, it moved under its own power to face yet again the same direction it had been facing before.

My eyes grew wide as I understood the implications of this simple discovery, a revolution in navigation, an advancement that would change the way things were done.

My mind began to whir with the implication of this new discovery.

*** Helton ***

“This is a pretty good haul no?” I winked towards my companion, a small child probably no older than two. The small child had led me to a river full of black dust which turned out to be the purest iron ever discovered on the island, the iron sand was unfortunately settled in the sulfur lakes of the old volcano on the west peaks, it was the largest of the volcanoes and some veins were still actively heating the sulfur pits. Hauling out the iron required using lightning magic on a metal rod to pull out the iron from the extremely acidic waters.

The little boy was some rich family’s kid but that didn’t put him on the bad side of things, instead the child had also taught me how to turn this iron into silver iron, a lighter grey iron that was much stronger, much more durable than normal iron. I think the boy has plans for the iron, he makes me store what I don’t use in the caves after it has been processed and turned into ingots. Interestingly enough he restores the trees cut down to make charcoal by planting many more seeds per tree. He sings to these seedlings a song I don’t understand but it produces a visible effect, newly sprouted seedlings take on the look of several months in just days.

I think the boy chose me specifically, I have no inclination of being overly greedy with the iron, I like living a small village life with my wife and my three daughters. Maybe the boy will grow to like one of them? They are not much older than him, ha! But alas the boy seems to have great plans and I don’t want to be the reason why he is held back, nor do I want my daughters to be in his way either.

*** Granate ***

There he is, I observed quietly as I yet again discovered the child that constantly visited the ward of the library that contained books on magic. It was a restricted section yet somehow the child had managed to somehow bypass the seals that locked the ward away from all who did not have the key to open the doors. The first time I had noticed him I wanted to capture and punish him for wandering into an area he should not be in but then it hit me, he could not wander into the ward. There were seals, barriers, locks, and heavy doors.

Each time I would discover him I found myself staring at him wondering what book he was reading and what was he looking to learn. Unfortunately before he would leave he would diligently return all the books back to their rightful places so I would be forced to guess as to what book he had read by the general spot he’d return a book to. Most of the books were either on theory, bestiaries, or artifacts as well as history.

One day I could not spot him after discovering him only to be surprised moments later by a tugging on my robe. Somehow the child had gotten through my defenses and my perception abilities without getting noticed at all.

He had a book in hand which he promptly opened to a specific bookmarked page, it dealt with the mana channels in the body and the core itself. What happened next still intrigues me to no end, it was a conversation involving much pantomiming and hand gestures by the child as he tried asking complex questions without words. The questions themselves were on a level beyond what the child should have understood yet as I explained the answers to his questions I found myself answer questions even I was not sure I knew the full answer to and some I just had no actual answer to. He would show disappointment then as if asking if this was all I was capable of, somehow that got to me. In fact after meeting the child I found myself researching more and more for answers to the questions the child may ask next.

Like this I found myself looking forward to meeting the child on his rare visits to the library.