Valkyrie's Shadow

Before the Storm: Act 10, Chapter 1

Chapter 1

『Hmm...okay, is that everything?』

『Everything I can remember. I can single out conversations in a busy market, but following a dozen arguments at once is a different thing entirely. Are you sure I should be the one doing this?』

『Don’t worry, you’ve been doin’ a great job so far. I’ll sort out everything you’ve told me before sending the next report to Lady Albedo. She’s gonna have to figure out what she wants to do with this.』

A quiet sigh came over the Message spell.

『I hope she figures out what she wants to do soon. Things are getting more and more messy over he–』

The Message spell cut off. Liam had gone through seven message scrolls to deliver his latest report and it didn’t seem like there was anything more to say, so she tossed the parchment in her hand to the table in front of her. Across the table, Florine picked up the page and added it to the others. Her best friend’s amber eyes went back and forth as she scanned its contents.

“I suppose this is about as expected,” Florine said.

“Except for the faction thing,” Liane said. “Actually, no. Something like that’s pretty normal – it’s the fact that it didn’t get reported by the Eight Fingers that’s odd.”

“Do you think a criminal syndicate would be so fastidious?” Florine asked.

“No,” Liane answered, “but I do think they’re scared senseless of Lady Albedo. You know how she is.”

“I do,” Florine replied, “but I don’t think outsiders understand her. That includes all of the collaborators she’s wrangled in Re-Estize. To them, she’s whatever their imaginations can conjure about a Demon working for the Undead sovereign of the kingdom of darkness. Hasn’t she complained to you about them before?”

“Uh, not in as many words...”

“It’s likely that the Eight Fingers are so terrified of her that they’re more likely to keep any problems to themselves than risk her wrath by reporting them. The information gathered by Liam and the other intelligence agents dispatched to Re-Estize has shown as much.”

As Florine mentioned, those outside of the Sorcerous Kingdom didn’t know Albedo. While they may have feared the Demon’s wrath after reporting failures, complications, or general trouble, the opposite was actually true. Like Lady Shalltear and the other members of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s Royal Court, she didn’t punish people for doing what they were supposed to be doing. Not doing one’s duty, however...

Not that members of a crime syndicate would have anything like duty in mind.

Clara emerged from her cabin door nearby. The Countess of Corelyn was adorned in the pastel hues of a summer dress, with a gossamer shawl that floated behind her as she made her way to the table. With the Oriculon Reach being as balmy as it was even in the winter, they were all lightly dressed.

“Is Liam done with his report?” Clara asked.

“Yep,” Liane answered. “Some stuff happened.”

“What ‘stuff’?”

“House Beaumont’s old faction got back together. Another faction made up of lowland lords formed to protect their food advantage.”

“Old faction?” Clara frowned, “As in what existed before the Countess inherited her title?”

“Yeah, plus some extras. Turns out it was why the Eight Fingers moved her out of the city in the first place.”

“It would have been nice if they had reported this when it happened,” Clara said.

“Yeah, well, they didn’t,” Liane stretched her legs under the table. “I’m sure Lady Albedo will have something to say about it. For now, our dear Countess Beaumont is mired in a...well, I can’t even call it a trade dispute.”

Florine handed Liane’s notes to Clara. Clara furrowed her brow upon reaching the third page.

“This is a regrettably pessimistic stance,” she said. “How does this count as protecting a ‘food advantage’?”

“What do you expect from House Blumrush’s vassals?” Liane shrugged, “Honestly, I expected this kinda opportunism to be more rampant. Maybe they just needed some time to get their feet under ‘em.”

“Whatever the case may be,” Florine said, “the situation in the Azerlisian Marches has gone from bad to worse. The population already doesn’t have enough food with imports being withheld at their respective sources.”

“There’s an easy answer to that problem and we all know it,” Liane said.

“Whether Countess Beaumont resorts to that option is up to Lady Albedo,” Clara told her. “As unfortunate as it is, the state of the Azerlisian Marches is the result of the natural course of events and Her Excellency has been careful to conduct things covertly so far.”

Liane still had no idea why things were being done ‘covertly’ in the first place. Re-Estize was already a Kingdom rife with shaky allegiances, so it would have been far easier for the Sorcerous Kingdom to bide its time while more and more of Re-Estize’s nobility joined it of their own free will. It would have been a far more painless transition than the needless theatrics of the current plan.

It took an hour to come up with a satisfactory report, complete with insights and recommendations for the Prime Minister. The report was handed to a Shadow Demon, who left to deliver it to the Sorcerous Kingdom’s embassy in Oriculon.

“How do you think Lady Albedo will react?” Liane asked.

“To which part?” Clara asked back.

“To Countess Beaumont’s new situation.”

“I think that hinges on how she reacts to the upcoming famine in Re-Estize,” Clara said. “Combined with her dissatisfaction over how her collaborators in the Kingdom have been acting so far, it may push the schedule for the main plan ahead. Otherwise, I hope she’ll follow our recommendation and use Countess Beaumont as a model to instil some semblance of order into this ‘third faction’ of hers. Something stupid is bound to happen if they’re left as is.”

“Maybe something stupid is the goal,” Liane said.

“That’s doubtful,” Clara replied. “You know how needy Lady Albedo is when it comes to being in control.”

Liane gazed up at the nearby towers of Eastwatch, which loomed over their delegation’s fleet. The fortress city remained abandoned even after the Beastman invaders were removed from the Draconic Kingdom. With the Human population as depleted as it was, there were no near-term plans to repopulate the area. As a result, all sorts of green things had overgrown the dark stone structures of the city, making the place look far more dilapidated than it actually was.

“It’s almost noon,” Liane said. “How much longer are we staying here for?”

“We’ve been here for less than two hours,” Clara replied.

“Two hours that we could have been travelling upstream,” Liane said. “According to Ludmila, this Beastman city we’re going to is pretty far away.”

“Which means a few hours won’t change much,” Clara told her. “We’ll arrive in good time, so I would be more concerned about getting a grasp of Rol’en’gorek and its circumstances.”

“It’ll be half a disaster even with us in the picture. Even if we had the inventories to answer all of their food problems, we don’t have the logistical throughput. It’s going to be chaos.”

“I’m not of the same opinion,” Florine said. “About the chaos part, at any rate. Everything we know about these Beastmen indicates that they’re very orderly. Even when Ludmila was chasing them across the Draconic Kingdom with the Royal Army, the Beastmen managed to stage a fighting retreat up until the point when they were completely destroyed.”

“Their occupation was also highly structured,” Clara added. “They did the best with what was made available to them and I hope that will also be the case for their homeland.”

Their meeting with Lady Xoc left them with too much to speculate over. In many ways, speaking with the Ocelo Lord was like speaking with Ludmila, whose answers were generally brief and undescriptive, leaving them with more questions.

Speaking of which...

“Looks like they’re back,” Liane said.

A trio of figures emerged from the nearby city gate, making their way over to a rowboat dragged onto the flooded wharf. Ludmila, along with Count Zorlu and Count Carillo, rowed their way back to the ship where a davit near the stern lifted the boat onto the main deck.

“So,” Liane said as they came to join them, “what did you find?”

“There was no trace of anyone entering the city,” Ludmila replied. “It seems that the threat of the Undead is keeping the Beastmen inside their borders, even if there are no Undead stationed here.”

“My fief will be a wilderness before long,” Count Zorlu said, “Eastwatch included. I cannot say I enjoy the idea of my lands being left unattended.”

“What about the places mentioned in the entry?” Ludmila said, “Do any of them sound familiar to you?”

“East Abelion is the obvious one,” Liane replied, “but what counts as Abelion now might be different from what it was whenever this was written.”

“If we assume it remains mostly the same in the present day,” Ludmila said, “The Kecrian Plain can only be the grassland just west of my southwestern border. That makes Zugara the ‘haunted forest’ on the slopes below the ancient pass.”

“Is there anything that supports that idea?” Liane asked, “The Kecrian Plain could just as easily be the plains that the Theocracy’s founders settled. That would count as ‘East Abelion’, too.”

“The Undead populating the ruins in the forest manifest with Demihuman forms,” Ludmila said. “Many of them are Orcs. I didn’t pay attention to the exact distribution of Undead forms, but I’ll take a closer look when I get the chance.”

“So what did we get out of this entry? A few places filled on their map?”

“And the notion that a small country was utterly destroyed with no survivors,” Ludmila said. “I also must wonder about the thing that was ‘too terrible to imagine’.”

“Maybe it’s better not to know,” Liane said. “It could be one of those things that pop up when you mention them.”

“What things ‘pop up’ when you mention them?”

“I can’t say.”

She pointedly turned away from Ludmila’s glower. Clara gestured to the river ahead of them.

“Is that something at the edge of the trees?”

It took a few seconds for Liane to spot what Clara was referring to. At the edge of the flooded jungle was an irregular shape half-concealed in the shadows of the trees. She leaned forward on the railing, trying to figure out what it was.

“A small building,” Ludmila said. “Perhaps a house that was swept away by the flooding.”

As the minutes passed, more structures caught between the trees came into view. Their construction was unlike anything Liane had ever seen, looking like large branches woven into almost basket-like forms. They were barely large enough to accommodate a single Beastman, never mind any belongings they might have owned.

“Where did all of these things come from?” Liane asked.

“They float, so they could have come from anywhere upstream,” Ludmila answered. “We should be passing something like a city soon, however.”

“How do ya figure?”

“From what I saw,” Ludmila replied, “Beastman territories function on the same rudimentary logic as ours. Each tribe occupies enough land to support itself. There is a town for every group of tribes and a city for every group of towns.”

“That’s a bit too similar to us, don’tcha think?”

“Rather than some sort of strange coincidence,” Ludmila said, “it’s more like a constant shared by all living things. Territory is required to provide the sustenance required to live, regardless of whether one is a squirrel, a wolf, or a Human. The difference between a Human and a Beastman is that Beastmen require far more land to live on than a Human does.”

“Does that mean their settlements are spaced further apart?” Clara asked.

“It does,” Ludmila answered with a nod. “I’m not sure if anyone else has noticed, but we’ve already gone by a few towns. Their cities are far more substantial, so the one coming up should be impossible to miss.”

The truth of Ludmila’s words manifested as they rounded the next bend in the river. No walls or towers marked the outskirts of the Beastman city. Instead was a thinned-out section of jungle that exposed an expansive sprawl of dwellings and the paths that wound between them. Roughly half of the city was at least partially submerged. In the areas above water...

“Come to think of it,” Liane said, “this is the first time we’ve seen Rol’en’gorek’s Beastmen.”

“That’s not true,” Florine’s voice sounded from behind her.

Liane spun and pointed at the Beastman cub cradled in Florine’s arms.

“That little terror doesn’t count. I’m talking about the Beastmen in a more, uh, natural setting?”

“I don’t understand what’s so ‘natural’ about this,” Florine said. “Half of their homes are underwater.”

“There aren’t any ships on the shore,” Clara said, “nor are there any signs of active markets.”

“Meh, you know what I mean. Any information we can collect about their normal behaviour will be better than the nothing we have right now.”

“I highly recommend that we do not stop here,” Ludmila said. “We’re still close enough to the border with the Draconic Kingdom that these particular Beastmen will probably have preconceived notions of Humans...mostly as food.”

“We all agreed that we won’t be stopping until we reach Lady Xoc,” Clara said. “Any information gathering will have to be limited to distant observation.”

Liane sighed. While they had agreed to head directly to Lady Xoc’s city – which none of them could pronounce – it wasn’t a very fun way to travel. The best part about being a Merchant was being able to stop at every town and city, working the markets and mingling with the locals. While she didn’t dislike what they were doing now, she hoped that they would be able to go on conventional journeys as Merchants in the future.

On the distant shore, the inhabitants of the city had noticed them as well. All they could do, however, was stop what they were doing and watch them in return.

“It looks like the majority of the inhabitants are Nar,” Clara said.

“What’s left of the inhabitants, anyway,” Liane said.

“The migration that overran the Draconic Kingdom was organised into monoracial tribes and clans,” Ludmila said. “It appears that their homeland is no different. It’s a bit disappointing.”

Liane looked up at Ludmila.

“Disappointing? Why?”

“Because these Beastmen have been around for at least as long as the Draconic Kingdom has,” Ludmila said. “One would think that, after forming a confederation that functions as well as theirs, they wouldn’t have to resort to such divisions.”

She was probably thinking of her efforts to unite the different races in her territory. For Liane’s part, she didn’t understand why any effort was needed to bring different races together in the Sorcerous Kingdom. No one else that she knew of did, after all. Individuals of each race who wished to mingle with others were free to do so; trying to force everyone else together could result in more bad than good.

“They may not do so out of necessity,” Clara said. “It could be due to tradition or how their society is structured. Change doesn’t come simply because it can; things often stay the same because people consider their situation broadly satisfactory.”

“Or they’re too busy trying to not die to change things,” Liane said. “Speaking of satisfactory, what’s with the buildings in this city? They’re even smaller than those big baskets we found floating back there. Are the Beastmen really happy living in those?”

It was difficult to classify most of the structures in the city as ‘buildings’. As far as Liane could see, homes were either den-like shelters made out of piled stone and logs or crude tents fashioned out of animal pelts.

“They may not place the same value on homes as we do,” Clara said. “As far as I can tell, they only seem to be places where they rest. The Beastmen are clearly capable of constructing proper buildings.”

“What we see could also be temporary,” Florine said. “Countless people have been displaced by the flooding, after all.”

She wasn’t so sure about Florine’s guess. In the Draconic Kingdom, the Beastmen simply occupied Human settlements or made their homes in nearby copses. As Clara mentioned, they were perfectly capable of constructing proper buildings, so it was more likely the case that the Beastmen simply saw their homes as a place to rest while they spent the rest of their time elsewhere.

“So much for Ludmila’s dreams of selling furniture to the Beastmen,” Liane said.

Ludmila’s ever-present frown deepened.

“I don’t dream of selling furniture to anyone. I’ll be satisfied if people can find a use for my companies’ exports.”

“I hope that doesn’t mean you plan on selling your stuff for absurdly low prices again...”

“Perhaps the Beastmen won’t share the same opportunistic nature as yourself,” Ludmila said coolly. “That the Guilds hold no influence here already suggests that there is much to hope for.”

Liane’s gaze lingered on the outskirts of the distant city as their ships continued their way up the Oriculon. Whatever they found at their destination, it was clear that they had a lot to learn.