A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.

Pre-Fall General

The morning saw the four in Catherine’s dining room for breakfast. Countess Rocastle looked rather more frazzled than yesterday… and Valentin was standing behind her, guarding – or attending – the morning ritual.

“I probably slept two hours, if any,” Catherine admitted as she started heaping enormous piles of bacon on toasted bread.

“Oh?” Johanna replied.

“The implications of this kept rolling in my head,” she pursued.

“I… well, I had bad dreams at times too.”

“I wish it was bad dreams,” she sighed before turning to Valentin.

“And you? Anything special?”

“I try not to overthink those things, you know. I do my job, and take it as it goes… although it takes adjusting.”

“How so?” Catherine asked.

“Anytime I see someone… I immediately judge them on how powerful they are… or maybe it is how they might be. It’s entirely automatic.”

“Might be?”

“I doubt Mrs. Verron is as powerful as you are, Lady Rocastle.”

Johanna frowned.

“When I looked at her this morning, she felt as powerful… no, maybe even more powerful than any of you.”

Catherine and Johanna exchanged looks.

“Claudia Verron is the kitchen cook. An old retainer, forty years in the manor. She served under David’s mother. And I’m not going to risk much in saying that I don’t think she’s a sorceress… or a saint. Let alone a hero,” Rocastle added.

“I thought it was about Talents. We have more than you… but if you’re saying that someone without is higher than us… it doesn’t make sense,” Johanna said.

“It didn’t before,” Laura added while biting on a sausage. “I mean, I have five talents to your four, Lady Rocastle, yet Mr. Valentin thinks I’m equally as strong as you. Didn’t you?”

“Yes. And Mr. Valentin is weird, it’s Valentin or Mr. Rosenberg. But all that is what the impression I have. Anthony, for instance, feels… slightly weaker than me.”

“Anyone else?”

“Most people do feel lesser. But there’s a kind of gradation. It’s not exactly a precise thing, but I can pretty much gauge people relative to each other, I think. Miss Casey feels very weak.”

“Casey?” Johanna asked.

“My daughter. She turned 15 a month ago. What about Donald?” Catherine asked.

“I haven’t seen him yet.”

“Is that somewhat age-related… wait, no. You’re all a lot younger than Valentin, yet he thinks of you as equally strong to me, and I have nearly ten years on him and twenty years on you,” Catherine mused.

“There is obviously something different. It’s not talents or age… but related?” Johanna mused.

Elena would love this kind of puzzle, even on a Hero, she briefly thought before burying the notion.

“We’re not going to solve this immediately,” Catherine said, before putting down her empty tea mug on the table.

She folded her arms around her torso, contemplating the team. Johanna immediately felt things were switching to a different topic.

“You’re an enigma, wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in a massive problem.”

Catherine waited a bit before continuing.

“As I impulsively said yesterday, you are way more than simply powerful young Talented. You’re an entirely different category. I may be going by assumptions, but I think they’re reasonable ones.”

Johanna waited.

“First, forget about the bounty. Oh, I’m sure some people will be motivated to claim it, under its current form. But the instant what happened yesterday becomes known, that bounty will be rescinded immediately by the Warden. Or at least turned to ‘alive and intact’.”

“You’re sure of that?”

“I can’t guarantee anything. But it will come out, eventually. I’m sure of my staff, I mean, but experience has told me that such important secrets are never for long,” Catherine said. “Three people can keep a secret, if two of them are dead, is the ancient saying.”

“Then what?”

“Then people will come looking for you. You say that it’s based on your… Ancient’s will, but there’s no way to make sure of that. I know you do believe it, but everyone will want you, personally, if you can grant the powers of sorcery and saints, heroes and mastercrafters. Whether you want it or not.”

“And you…”

“Ohhh, don’t I want you at my side. I mean, I can’t be sure, but you do make a compelling argument about there being an intent behind this. The metallic theme for me makes it obvious it’s not some random thing you made, although you could have decided to do that, specifically. Which means staying on your good side, regardless of what my fingers itch to do.”

Johanna’s surprise must have shown.

“I’m not stupid. If there is really a Will behind this, the last thing I want is to piss off your patron, whatever it is.”

“Whatever?”

“There are lots of stories about the Ancients, and half don’t always make sense, given the modern world, but it’s undeniable that they had wonders that we can only dream of. But they definitively weren’t gods. They were ordinary people, with wonderous things like constructs that acted on their own, immense machinery that did things no one can do. Did you know they apparently went to the Moon? And it is so far away, even light itself takes time to come from there.”

Johanna blinked.

“I know you found a skeleton, which in the ruins means an Ancient themselves, but to read some of the stuff written after the Fall, they lived surrounded by their tools that made their mastery of the world. Anything they could do, it was through these tools. And you might be using one of those instead.”

“But the Skeleton has a will,” Johanna countered.

“If you read some books, they had tools that mimicked that. There was even a test designed to decide if it was a tool or a person. So, what I mean is that just because it looks like it’s an Ancient doesn’t mean it is one. One of the things that made the Fall hard, was that all of this failed them. But… some of those tools might have survived when mana flooded the world.”

“The Skeleton seems to be a fine… master of the modern world,” Johanna said.

“Maybe. And I’m also guessing we’ll figure Valentin’s Talents well before we do your Ancient, or whatever is behind the skeleton.”

Johanna winced slightly.

“All of this doesn’t change the problem.”

“Which is?” Johanna asked.

“I can’t afford to have you here.”

Johanna frowned.

“As I said, as soon as people realize you potentially raise them to Talented… and the kind of Talented the world has never seen before, they’re coming for you. And if you stay, I am going to be in the middle.”

“Ah.”

“Yes, ah. Although all that weird metal-based power is probably useful for whatever your patron plans, if I get the Warden’s army showing on my doorstep, the Rocastle Demesnes aren’t going to last long, Guardian or not. Sorry, Valentin.”

“I know my limits, my Lady… hmm, actually, I probably don’t. I doubt them, then.”

“So, what that means is that your plan is a go, then,” she continued.

“Our plan?” Johanna asked.

“To push forward as soon as you can. Although I would advise you not to stop in the Dakota, for the reasons I outlined yesterday.”

Catherine stood up, steaming mug forgotten.

“Let’s do this, then.”

The next hours went into a whirlwind. Catherine “suggested” they check the marketplace, which turned out to include a general vendor who had a handful of tents, adequate for cold weather. Although nominally individual ones, you could fit two people in them if you wanted to, which was probably better anyway if you faced winter conditions.

She also directed them to Jory the innkeeper to get their trail provisions cooked and prepared.

“He’ll know when you’re leaving anyway. The less I’m seen helping, the better.”

Johanna ended up back in the library as the countess pulled out maps. But, unlike what Johanna expected, she declined to help her.

“I want what the Ancients called plausible deniability. I want to say I don’t know where you’re going. Re-reading that Mages of America volume made me think that I might face a mind sorcerer. There are two truth sayers listed in there, and they may get here from across the continent. And given that we have Talents that no one ever saw before, I won’t bet there is no unlisted mind sorcery that could compel me to talk.”

“But we were there. And you hosted us. And you’ve gotten Talents.”

“Thanks for reminding me that even if I pretend not to, fire immunity can’t be turned off,” she smiled. “But I can, convincingly and truthfully, say that I did consider detaining you, but that I thought you far too powerful and dangerous to risk it.”

“You did?”

“Thinking about all kinds of scenarios is a very useful skill. One that you need when you find yourself the head of a territory like the Demesnes because your husband left on some kind of quest and left you holding the fort and your two kids. So, yes. It doesn’t mean I was doing it, just that you think about what would happen ‘if’. So, I can freely speculate that you were trying to bribe me with your parchments.”

Johanna spent almost an hour in the library, a hot mug of tea at her side, while she tried to figure out what to do, and where to go. The initial plan, the Dakota, was the right one, she decided. They needed to leave the Marches of the Montana as soon as possible, to gain at least some safety, and the Dakota road offered the best chance. Catherine had outlined three states she positively knew didn’t have a draft in their legislation.

“You will not be safe even there. Once your ability to grant Talents becomes known, some people will not bother with the law. But it’s still an additional complication that you definitively do not need to have. I would advise that you don’t immediately seek out a lawyer to obtain a judgment against your draft, because it will almost certainly force you to stay in a city until your case is settled. And potentially, the murder-slash-self-defense charges will add to that delay. You want to be able to move fast without burning bridges.”

“So, do we get cleared or not?” Johanna had asked.

“You do, but only if that gets necessary. If someone brings up the desertion, then you ask for a lawyer and get that sorted out. And if asked why you didn’t do it immediately, well, just say you thought the law would protect you anyway. Which would be correct, I guess.”

From the Dakota, they needed to head south or southwest next. Winter was coming, and pushing east toward the Lake Marches was begging to get them stuck in place by heavy snows. Cheyenne State was not one of those draft-safe states, but it was much better.

Although trying to guess how things work based on a map might be foolish, she thought.

The three safe States Catherine knew about were the True Missouri, Independence State, and the Fremont, all southwest of Cheyenne. Following the Missouri river sounded like a good plan. There were lots of mana zones along its course, but they were not a true obstacle if they decided to go outside of safe roads.

Catherine sent them back to the inn to finish their preparations.

“You’re conspicuous enough as it is, better be seen staying normally there. I assume I’m going to be surprised to hear you are gone tomorrow. No, don’t answer.”

She added, “You know, it would have been better a couple of weeks ago. There was a group of locals heading to the capital of the Dakota before the weather got worse. Two sisters, Annie and Victoria Blythe, and their friends Robert and Emma. Eight young people traveling together wouldn’t match two couples of deserters. You look better like this, Peter, by the way.”

“Thanks.”

Johanna moved and hugged the countess.

“Thanks for helping us.”

“You bribed me well enough. By the way, here’s a list,” Catherine replied, slipping a folded paper to Johanna.

“Of what?”

“Contacts. My extended family, mostly on my mother’s side, is a mercantile cartel, with lots of branches all over the north and center of the Union. You can use my name as an introduction. Just… don’t use it until you’re ready to move.”

Johanna raised an eyebrow.

“Just because they’re distant relatives doesn’t mean they can be trusted. You need to learn to figure out who is truly your ally and who isn’t.”

She waved to them.

“Get allies. Powerful, influential enough to keep you safe. And once you are established… send me a message. I wouldn’t be adverse if your skeleton decided White Meadows and Cattlemen Glory needed more help.”