Chương 46: [Practical Gifts]

They were maybe ten minutes into the forest when Merin spoke.

"So," he said.

"How was it?"

"Bigger than I expected," Rika said, not looking up from the cube.

"And I knew it was going to be big."

"The buildings they use for food," Torren said.

"They called them supermarkets. I want to start there as that may be the biggest shock outside of their weapons." Koss glanced at the cube in Rika's hands, then at Merin. Merin shrugged.

"Go on," Yara said.

"It's a single building," Torren said.

"One building, and it holds enough food and goods for thousands of people. Fully stocked it would hold tens of thousands of individual items. There were five or six of them in that town alone before they were brought here." He paused.

"In their world there is at least one in every town and bigger ones in cities." Merin was quiet for a moment.

"And they keep them stocked continuously."

"They did yes. Before all this."

"So the ordinary person," Merin said slowly, "walks in, takes what they need."

"For a price," Shai said.

"But yes. It's accessible. The idea behind it is that no one should have to worry about food. That it should simply be available."

"It's not perfect," Torren said.

"They said so themselves. People go hungry there too. But someone built that place, that system, with a different idea in mind to anything we have here." Yara looked at him.

"What idea?"

"That the ever present worry of where the next meal is coming from should be gone," Torren said.

"Not managed or kept at bay long enough for people to do their jobs but gone entirely." Merin walked without speaking for a moment.

"They built that system without magic," he said.

"No enchanted stores or preservation spells, just knowledge and organisation."

"And time," Torren said.

"Generations of people figuring out how to do it better. It's a feature of their kind. Similar to the dwarves in that way, industrious and driven when they have a goal."

"That definitely sounds right to me," Shai said.

"I wonder how many more traits they have that mirror the races of our world."

"And now they're here with none of it," Merin said.

"Two buildings worth of stock and a fishing harbour."

"For now," Rika said. Merin looked at her.

"Torren's right about the dwarves comparison," she said.

"They don't accept a limit the way most people here do. They look for the way around it. It's not about what they have, it's how they approach not having something." Merin nodded.

"The greenhouses."

"Exactly," Torren said.

"They plan to build them properly in time. But the ones we found today, set up inside the town, growing through winter — a source of farmed food when nothing else grows is something nobody here has. That potentially solves a problem before their first winter." Koss smiled at something but said nothing. They moved through the rest of it at a steady pace. The pub, the games shop briefly, the football ground, the game itself.

Torren described Leo running down the touchline with Phil over his shoulder and the elders exchanged a glance. Then the marina.

"The boats were metal," Shai said. Yara looked up.

"All of them?"

"Every one we saw. Small ones, fishing vessels mostly. But those aren't representative of what their world builds."

"What do they build?"

"They called them cargo ships," Torren said.

"Enormous vessels that move goods between countries. The ones he described were around four hundred metres long." Yara frowned slightly.

"How long is that?" Torren thought for a moment.

"From the elders hall to the far edge of the market near the houses. Roughly. A single ship that length, stacked with containers from one end to the other. They said thousands of these are on the water at any one time and that their whole world depends on them moving." Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators! Yara absorbed that.

"There's more," Shai said.

"Go on."

"They have what they called aircraft carriers. A flat deck, long enough to land and launch aircraft from."

"Aircraft?" Merin said.

"Metal vehicles that fly," Rika said, still working the cube.

"Something called an engine powers them. Passenger ones carry hundreds of people across enormous distances in hours. The military versions carry weapons and move faster than anything alive."

"How much faster?" Yara asked.

"The distance between Stonehall and the town," Shai said.

"A passenger aircraft covers that in seconds. Military ones don't bear thinking about." Yara said nothing.

"The carrier itself," Shai continued, "operates for months without needing anything from land. Thousands of crew, dozens of aircraft, weapons. It goes where it needs to go."

"And beneath the water," Torren said, "they have vessels that travel submerged. Submarines they called them." He paused.

"They didn't say what the military versions carry but given what they put on everything else, I'd assume the worst. What we do know is that somewhere in their arsenal they have weapons that can strike accurately from hundreds of miles away. Whether those are launched from the sea or somewhere else I couldn't say." Yara stopped walking. The others went a few paces before they noticed. She looked at Shai.

"We were told about the capability to strike from huge distances but to have such a force at land, sea and air. It's hard to wrap my mind around. Even if the whole world came together, the elder dragons included, I don't think we would win in a war against what they have. I don't see a reason we would fall out of favour with them but this just shows that we must never risk that.

We don't know what the future holds, their people may find a way here somehow, I'd like such a situation to lead to a bright future not a catastrophic one."

"Agreed," Shai said.

"Honestly, I don't think that will be a problem though. It's much more likely the people from Monkhaven will get on well with our people. I could see people finding more than just friends if things continue as they have so far. They all seem so friendly, the opposite of what you'd expect from those ruling the core." Koss gave Shai a devious smile. Shai's eyes widened and she quickly looked away. Yara started walking again.

"So, none of these things came with them?"

"No," Rika said.

"None of it."

"But the people did. And the Codex." Koss had been quiet through most of it. She waited until the silence after Rika's line settled before she spoke.

"What about the people?" she said.

"Tell me about the people."

"Which people?" Rika asked.

"All of them. Start with the town. How did they react to you walking through?"

"Curious mostly," Shai said.

"Some stared. Nobody looked scared or hostile. A woman came over to introduce herself within the first few minutes."

"Agnes," Torren said warmly. Rika made a sound.

"She was forthright," Shai said carefully.

"She told Torren he was a big lad," Rika said.

"In a way that was not entirely about his height." Koss raised an eyebrow. Torren looked entirely unbothered.

"What about the pub," Koss said.

"What was it like?"

"Similar to the Warden's Hearth," Rika said.

"Same kind of atmosphere even when it was mostly empty. It felt familiar in a way I didn't expect. The woman running it, Lauren, she's set it up so people can come and eat for free while things are difficult. She's also apparently going to start running games nights." She paused.

"She plays something called Dungeons and Dragons." Koss looked at Merin. Merin looked back at her.

"It's a game," Shai said.

"We'll explain later."

"And the gifts," Koss said.

"Shai?" Shai glanced at her.

"What about them?"

"The compass. The multitool." Koss's expression gave nothing away.

"Who gave them to you?"

"Leo," Shai said.

"Isn't he the owner of the watch that's still on your wrist?"

"It helps with coordination."

"Of course it does," Koss said pleasantly. Shai looked at the treeline.

"What about the five of them," Koss continued.

"What are they actually like?"

"The report covered the general impression," Shai said.

"The smaller things didn't make it in." She paused.

"Phil asked Torren about orcs within the first ten minutes of meeting him. Directly, with an apology in advance in case it caused offence. Then asked anyway."

"And your response?" Koss said, looking at Torren.

"I laughed," Torren said.

"It was a good question given their situation, he asked it the right way."

"Sam spent most of the first meeting watching everything before he spoke," Shai said.

"When he did it was usually the thing nobody else had thought to say. Luka had tea for eight people in his inventory, just in case they wanted a drink and because he expected to need more because some of them are pretty clumsy apparently. Parmo, sorry, Brandon kept Rika occupied for an entire afternoon." Koss looked at Rika.

"I don't know why she says it like that, I'm a delight," Rika said. Nobody commented.

"Today was more of the same," Shai said.

"Except they relaxed. All of them. By the time we got to the football ground the careful first meeting energy was gone entirely."

"Leo ran down the touchline with Phil over his shoulder shouting," Torren said.

"Phil was demanding to be put down. The rest of them laughed along." Shai smiled at the memory before she caught it.

"And Leo specifically," Koss said.

"How did he come across?"

"He's good with people," Shai said.

"Explains things well. Honest about the parts of his world that weren't good alongside the parts that were."

"He gave you his watch on the first day you met," Koss said.

"And today a compass and a multitool."

"Practical gifts."

"Both things that help you find your way home," Koss said. Shai said nothing. The village came into view through the trees ahead, the palisade walls catching the last of the afternoon light.

"I wonder what Kai will make of all of this," Koss said. The trees moved around them. Shai went very still. Rika found something extremely interesting to look at somewhere above the treeline to her left. Torren kept walking. His shoulders were shaking very slightly.