A willing spirit diligently performs the sacred duty.

Wisdom of the Ancients, book 2

“You found it?”

“Ninety-nine percent sure. It matches the vision… and it used to hold so many books.”

“Assuming they’re still there,” Tom replied.

“You said it was ruined,” Peter asked.

“I did. But the building… the one the vision was focused on, was still mostly standing. Parts crumbled, but overall intact.”

“That’s where the Skeleton is sending you? Makes sense there should be lots of them still,” Tom said.

Johanna nodded.

“That’s what I think. That’s the good news.”

“Bad news?” Tom asked.

“Let me guess. No one’s managed to get there since the Fall?” Peter asked.

Johanna smiled awkwardly.

Moore had watched Johanna’s reading, of course. He could flit his attention between each of the Four at any time, retaining an awareness of what went in each “window” since he did not have peripheral vision, just focus of attention.

He had zero idea what had prompted her to check that particular option thoroughly. But the focus on the Library of Congress had been fairly obvious once she started reading in earnest. After nearly six months of doing nothing but the voyeur, he was starting to know her mannerisms, notably in reading, very well.

That confirmed mostly what he hoped for, that his ideas, his hopes, and recommendations had somehow made their way into her consciousness despite the lack of true communication. If they found a library, a major bookstore, anything, they could start the ball rolling on reconquering their world. That she fixated on the fucking Library of Congress as their objective spoke of… well, ambition.

Kudos, but you’re setting yourself up for a massive endeavor.

He’d read plenty along her and Peter’s searches which he did on the side, and the depictions of the east coast made the mana zone the Four had crossed look like a walk into Disney Park. No real base of operations close by, major threats, and a high density of Changed beasts.

He looked briefly at the store of his personal XP. That was his major problem right now. After the 4500 unexpected XP, he had nothing new. He couldn’t even attempt to pull one of them for another… well, “discussion” if such a thing was possible. He had to rely on them to figure out the steps by themselves.

Besides, if he was honest with himself, his competencies were mostly about amateur gaming, and managing human resources in a corporate or startup structure. Setting up expeditions into hostile territory in a game was too easy. Click on a map to set a destination, enjoy a cinematic, and let invisible gnomes or daemons do the Sherpa work behind the scenes.

Peter was leaning back on his chair, Laura was frowning, and of course, Tom remained placid and unperturbed.

“Two hundred miles of mana zones,” Peter finally said. “He couldn’t give you an easier objective?”

“I don’t know what it thinks. He?”

“Laura thinks he’s a he. Too small hip bones on that skeleton.”

“Okay, he. But you have to admit it makes sense. It is supposed to be the largest store of books in the entire pre-Fall continent, if not the entire world.”

“That’s a lot of potential parchments,” he replied.

“That’s true. And I think that’s the point,” she said.

Johanna chewed briefly on her lip, remembering. What had the Skeleton said?

What makes your allies begin there, and, the powers the world needs.

How did those words fit? After all, it was the Ancient’s power that manifested when they handled Ancient Books. It was the one who decided how to turn them into parchments of power.

“The Ancient said we were to use them for our allies… but they also are the power the world needs.”

“What does it mean?” Laura asked.

“I have no idea. It spoke oddly, for sure. But there has to be something behind that. We’re supposed to recruit allies, I guess. And then, maybe give the power to others?”

“Why does the world need power?” Peter asked.

She realized she had an answer there.

“We’ve been to the mana zones. Remember the Narrows? Where we fought that giant hedgehog? Captain Devereaux…” she hesitated briefly, remembering how they had to kill him, during their escape from the Army, “… said they would have suffered terrible losses.”

“Killed that thing easily, though,” Tom noted.

“Exactly. A large part of the continent is uninhabitable by people because it’s too dangerous. Ancients had weapons powerful enough to deal with wild beasts, but we don’t need to. We can contend with Changed beasts with… Talents.”

Johanna stopped, and the rest stared at her, recognizing one of her moments.

“I’m just wondering if people can have Changed beast’s Talents.”

“Or the reverse,” Tom said, smiling.

“It seems unfair. There is someone Talented per hundred thousand people, Helena Worchester said. How come Talented Changed beasts are so numerous?” Laura complained.

“I guess the world isn’t fair,” Johanna acknowledged.

“As if the Fall didn’t prove it,” Laura said.

“But we know how to make it fairer,” she replied.

“It’s not fair that we’re the ones to do it,” she countered.

“We don’t. That’s what the Ancient wants. We turn the tables. People with our powers… can safely hunt the dangers hidden there. Whittle the Lepus hordes before they become problems for the fields. Keep the real predators in check.”

“And win wars,” Peter said softly.

Johanna deflated slightly.

“That too,” she admitted. “But before we get to that, we need to get there. We need planning.”

All nodded back, and she started enumerating goals.

“First, get as much distance between us and the Montana, as fast as possible.”

“Can’t hurry weather,” Tom noted.

“I know. Even if winter isn’t officially started yet, we’ve got early snowfall. If it’s like that for the rest of the season, we may end up being stuck here for months. ‘Leave with the first snow, be found after the last snow’ is a local saying, apparently. That doesn’t mean we can’t make an itinerary. So, we need a destination.”

“Which is?” Laura asked.

“Independence State. It’s the second largest, and the most populous of the Union, but it has two additional important bits going for it. It’s one that Catherine said doesn’t have draft laws, and two, it abuts the mana zones of the East Coast.”

“Would have thought that Fremont or the True Missouri would be our destination since they’re a bit closer, but no,” she noted.

“That was before…”

“Before you got a holy mission from a dead Ancient, you mean,” Peter injected.

“Before we all got that. Remember, it looks like we all need to be there to convert Ancient books into those parchments.”

“You’re the one who likes all those fantasy novels, remember.”

She frowned, and he raised his hands defensively, without further comments.

“So, Independence State,” Laura said.

“And the closer to Washington DC, the better, but I don’t know anything about the state, beyond the rough geography lesson back in Anasta from Mrs. Vanu.”

“I’ll get more maps from the store,” Peter replied. “Tomorrow, that is.”

“Second objective. A plan for that Library,” Johanna said.

“Worse than the Northern Barrier?” Tom asked.

“We’ve improved a bit, true, but it’s not comparable. We have power, but we have our limits. Those mana zones still give Changed waves occasionally. There are probably a lot more Changed than we encountered back when we fled Kootenai Gap. We need… allies. Like he said.”

“You mean additional people with Talents,” Laura noted. “How did they call it? Catch-22?”

Johanna grimaced.

“Yes, we need parchments to get more parchments later.”

“And people,” Tom added.

“Not everyone’s going to be interested in accompanying us there, even if they get Talents in exchange,” Peter noted.

Johanna blinked slowly.

“Salvagers.”

“What?”

“Salvagers. People like us. People who routinely go into all kinds of ruins.”

“For profit,” Laura noted.

“Can’t beat Talents,” Tom said, and Johanna laughed.

“You said it yourself earlier, Laura. Getting Talents ought to be worth a lot. And you can use Talents to scavenge ruins with higher safety.”

“I guess it’s not just armies who’d like to have Talents available,” Laura admitted.

“Just my Talent for seeing mana in action would be invaluable for a team.”

“I’d rather avoid competition. Given the prices, I’d rather we find these Artifacts first.”

“That too. We can equip you, make you safer.”

“Let’s make that side objective one.”

Johanna nodded.

“Okay, back to objective two. Finding salvagers to recruit.”

“Sounds good, but I doubt we’ll find them on a map,” Peter said.

“We’ll see when we get to Independence, I guess.”

“So, that’s step two. What next?” Peter asked.

“I think that’s enough. I know. It’s not easy.”

“It’s never in your novels,” Peter said with a smirk.

“You don’t have to leave all the planning to me, you know?”

He raised his hands defensively.

“It’s easier. So, we need maps, itinerary, recruits…?”

“Money,” Laura immediately added.

“That too,” Johanna admitted.

“That first,” Laura countered. “Makes travel easier, makes recruiting easier. Makes people take you seriously.”

“I don’t think we’ll have ‘take seriously’ money easily.”

Laura shrugged.

“But we already know how to make some money. Salvage. Tom was already asking about ruins, after all.”

“Do we have to scavenge right now?” Laura asked.

“Not right now. We have enough money to stay here until April if necessary, but even if we camp on the road later, we still need money to resupply, and when we arrive in Independence State. One advantage we have here is that we’re staying for a while, given the weather, so we may as well prepare. Who knows if we will find opportunities for salvaging, and more importantly selling that salvage while moving.”

“I asked a bit about the area when the town hall yesterday,” Peter added. “Let me get back that map.”

The small man darted up to the rooms, before coming back with the Zahl County map.

“Okay, so your Mark guy was right. The plains east of Zahl are, or rather, were peppered with small houses and farm groups from before the Fall, but almost all of those have vanished by now. And most were scavenged in the early years, over a century ago,” Peter explained.

Johanna winced and Peter shrugged.

“I mean, even if Zahl apparently got established over a set of pre-Fall structures, there’s nothing left of the original, unlike Valetta. Now, there are a few sizeable ruins still around, but nothing appears to be on the order of the one that was near home,” he continued.

“How sizeable?” Johanna asked.

“A mile across. That’s south of here. Fifty miles, at about one-and-a-half-day travel in non-winter conditions. Two, maybe more depending on snowfall.”

“Anything else?”

Peter pointed east-northeast on the map unrolled on their table.

“This is ‘Fallen Hill’. Apparently, the county was comprised entirely of plains when the Fall occurred, but there were a number of powerful Changestorms, and they left bits of forests around… and one big hill. Or maybe a plateau – it looks relatively flat and dozens of miles wide. Somewhat heavy Mana zone, unsurprisingly. The vegetation around is a unique weed that regrows in weeks if you try to burn it down, but thankfully it does not spread outside of three-four miles around the hill thing. There are reports of some ruins on that flat, but almost nobody made it up there in recent times. The last attempt at an expedition was almost thirty years ago.”

Johanna’s eyebrows rose.

“Yea, the plains of Dakota are not that simple,” Peter said. “And then you get the Magical Forest.”

Johanna’s even more surprised look prompted Peter to point to another area.

“It’s another mana zone, a perfect circle of thirty miles across, thirty miles north of here. Another Changestorm popped it in place after the Fall, like Fallen Hill. It looks like southern trees, apparently, something like ‘palm trees’ that thrive there despite the climate. Got lots of Changed beasts inside, but they rarely come out. Nobody really explored it, so it might have some well-preserved buildings like the ones we found back west. Or maybe nothing.”

“Lots of Changed?” Tom asked.

“Most of the wild Changed that you find in the plains nearby come from there. No Lepuses, though,” Peter said, snorting.

“Let’s focus on those ruins known to exist and that aren’t cleared already,” Johanna said.

Peter nodded, “Think you can find us another Artifact?”

“Who knows? Maybe we can even get some Ancient books as well. We might get lucky. I know…”

“Never found any book before, right?” Tom asked rhetorically.

“And the closest was that map in the Mana zone, but I don’t think it would work. Well, we didn’t know before that these could be more than collector items,” Johanna admitted.

Laura took on a pensive stare.

“How much do you think we could sell those parchments for?”

Johanna looked at her horrified.

“Hey, just a random thought. Artifacts are valuable, but you can lose them. Or resell them. Parchments… you use them, and then their power is yours forever. That’s bound to be somewhat valuable, sure. All kinds of people may have Ancient books, like the ones the Countess had collected. How much would they pay for us to turn them into Talented?” Laura said.

“No need to salvage,” Tom laughed.

“It’s all moot until we find more books,” Laura admitted.