Warsinger James Baldwin (read this if TXT) 📖

of the bed and rested my elbows on my knees. “Dammit. Ignas just wrote to me and told me that Baldr is massing an army. We need something that can bring down two hundred and fifty dragons. Airships are basically worthless against them, and Vlachia relies heavily on its airforce. They’ll mop the floor with us.”

“ Don’t worry - we're going to study Nocturne as much as we can,” Rin said. “And try and figure out what anti-dragon and anti-Drachan weaponry it has. We're going to generally research everything we can about the Warsingers, but there's only a few people who could possibly know anything about their mechanics.”

“The Grandmaesters of Zaunt.” Ebisa nodded curtly. “The reigning families of the Akto Tlaxican, the Great Houses. They are the only ones who might know how to repair, maintain, and animate these machines. ‘Might’.”

“Yeah, and there's a problem with that,” Rin added. “The civil war.”

I frowned. “What is the civil war on Zaunt all about, anyway?”

The pair of Mercurions looked at each other. Rin turned back to me. “It’s complicated, but, well, the short version is that the country is split into two factions: North Zaunt and South Zaunt. The North is ruled by the Phaedra, who are... how would you describe them?”

“Religious zealots,” Ebisa growled. “The Phaedra trace their ancestry back to the Mercurion they are named for, Phaedra I, who was widely considered to be the greatest Artificer ever crafted. They worship dragons as their liberators, and despise the Aesari, who created us to fight a war that was won aeons ago. They have a prophecy that the Mercurions will inherit the world when the Drachan return and are defeated once and for all. By contrast, the Zaryan houses of South Zaunt are secular, descended from Phaedra's estranged wives Zarya and Tanis. They divorced Phaedra after he went mad during the forging of the Caul of Souls and founded their own Houses and lineages. They believe every Mercurion crafted by Phaedra's line is insane and must be exterminated, and that the Caul of Souls must be preserved at any cost. The Phaedrans consider the Zaryans to be illegitimate, poorly designed bastards who must be wiped out to preserve the supremacy of our species.”

“Yeah. And they're both fighting for control of the most important resource in Zaunt,” Rin said. “ Pat’xhi Man’takak. The Cavern of Blossoming Flowers.”

“I’m guessing that isn’t the Mercurion botanical gardens?” I arched an eyebrow.

“No. It's a huge well of Seid - mana - near the center of the Zaunt mainland.” Rin nodded. “And... now I think of it, it could even be one of the Dragon Gates.”

Great. I thought back to my own main world quest - the one I still hadn't accepted - and sighed. “Who's in control of the Cavern right now?”

“No one. The Cavern is the center of Zaunt’s no-man's land.” Ebisa gestured with one hand.

“Okay. So, are there any good guys in this fight, or are they both just shades of shit?”

The assassin shrugged. “The North is a totalitarian cult led by a single figurehead, the sixty-sixth Phaedra, who claims to be continuously reincarnated through his descendants. The South is somewhat more politically liberal, but they have a contempt for human life the north does not. The Phaedra consider themselves saviors of all humans, Meewfolk and Lys. The Zaryans see your kind as fodder for the mines, the Caul, and for sangehti'tak. Both factions maintain that Mercurions are the pinnacle of sentient life. “

I groaned, and rubbed my eyes. “So what you're saying is that getting the Warsingers serviced is going to be a nightmare.”

Rin let out a nervous giggle. “Ahh… Yeah.”

“Alright. Well, good to know.” I stretched my hands out and grimaced. “Sorry to cut this short, but I have about twenty quests to tag and assign before we fuck off to Dakhdir. When I've got some time, I'll give you a call back. Hope you guys are doing okay in Litvy.”

“We are!” Rin's face lit up. “Soma is super into the Warsinger. He's trying to figure out how the engines work, so he doesn't really have any time to be... well... Soma. By the way - Karalti can teleport now, right?”

“Yeah.”

“If she brings you here before you guys fly south, I have new gear for Suri!” Rin bounced on her seat, waving her fists. “And... I uhh... I was wondering if there was anything you wanted or needed? We have a lot of resources here, so my crafting skill and EXP are going WAY up...”

“Not unless you can get me a motorcycle,” I joked.

“A what?” Ebisa asked.

“I'm kidding. Don't worry about it. We need paved roads before magitech motorbikes become a thing.” I waved her off. “Let me think about it. I don't want to burden you with-”

“Wait.” Rin held a hand up. “You're not burdening me with anything, okay? Inventing stuff is how I advance in this game. If you give me ideas or projects to do, it benefits me as well. Plus, now you're Voivode, you get to allocate all the resources of the province, right? Having you as a patron is an Artificer's dream. Ask me for anything, and if I can make it, I will.”

“Oh. No worries, then. I'll have a think about things I could use while Karalti and I are flying,” I said. “She and I are working on our aerial combat style, so maybe there's some tech she and I could use for that?”

“I bet there is!” Rin bobbed her head. “Okay, I have to go too! Good luck finding Suri!”

Ebisa chuckled, and looped an arm around Rin's waist as the smaller Mercurion concentrated for a moment, and then the video cut and vanished.

Man. I sure did miss having someone to hug like that. But because I didn’t, I opened the KMS Quests window and tried to distract myself instead.

I couldn't fault Ryuko on their Content Management architecture. Every system they had worked on the same nesting doll principle: macro to micro, all the information