Date: 2021-07-29T18:00:00+00:00
Description: With their island home now more or less established, our multiverse castaways now turn their attention to the mainland. The need to expand their markets, and better understand their new world brings new and unprecedented challenges, dangers and opportunities. How will they cope in the wider world? Will the find themselves over matched by the might and splendor of the centuries old and established centers of wealth, power, and culture of the regions ruling city states? Or will they find eager trading partners and welcoming markets for their exotic and revolutionary products and ideas?

EXPANSION

a World Wright Incorporated Venture

Vlad ben Avorham

Copyright © 2021 Vlad been Avorham

All rights reserved

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 9781234567890
ISBN-10: 1477123456

Cover design by: Art Painter
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309
Printed in the United States of America

For my family...

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Figuring it out

Meanwhile at Home

No

Settling Out

After the Harvest

Winter Seas

Making an Impression

Xi, City of Splendor and Squalor

Contacts and Consequences

Gathering Clouds

Getting by with a little help from my friends

Making the most of it

Laying foundations

No Place Like Home

Epilogue

About The Author

Books In This Series

Figuring it out

“Uh, Father...  I don’t think that the sail is quite right.” John said, trying to keep the rising panic out of his voice.

Syria’s father was helping them test out the new fast attack craft that the Roths had designed. The gnarled old fisherman had been sailing since he could walk. He had been a fisherman in the village since arriving there six months before Syria was born, and after paying with some rather exotic merchandise for a house and a fishing boat, had gone to sea each day in fair weather or foul to provide for his tiny rather delicate wife and only daughter.  Rumors, not loudly whispered, of course, were that he was a retired pirate.  His bride part of his plunder, as her exotic features marked her as definitely not a local girl.  They had been good neighbors since settling here, so as far as the locals were concerned, they were one of their own now.  What he may or may not have been in the past was best left in the past.  What was certain, as much as he approved of the boy who seemed to take very good care of his Syria, and as much as she seemed to idolize him, he wasn’t about to let a child who knew nothing of the sea dictate how he set his sails!  “Ah, so you’re the Captain now?” he asked the boy in a growl.

John tried to call out, honestly he did, but everything happened so fast.  The wind caught the sail just right, causing it to spin the lower arm around; he thinks Josh called it the boom, but he couldn’t remember, and it swept the old man off of his feet and into the water.  John was at least able to duck under the wildly swinging club and loosen the rope that made the sail fall.  More or less stopping the small boat where it was. Then he turned to look for the older man.  “Father, are you alright?”

He could hear the spluttering curses before he actually got turned around enough to see the older man swimming through the gentle swells in his direction.  While the lightweight little trimaran had been designed to be the fastest, most maneuverable thing on the water, it was designed for a total crew of seven people.  He really had no hope of rowing it to his father-in-law alone.   He needn’t have worried.  The man was a strong swimmer, and while the boat rocked furiously as he angrily pulled himself up over the low rail, he was never in any actual danger.  John actually liked and respected the old man very much.  He kind of half hoped in his heart that he was an old pirate. It would have suited him.  So out of that respect, he carefully avoided any smile, or any trace of ‘I told you so’ in his voice.  “That is what I was afraid Josh Roth had been talking about.  I have only seen pictures, so I don’t know for certain.”  He hoped this would buy him enough experience in the eyes of the old man, after his recent swim, to at least explain the little that he did know.  “The triangular shaped sail,” he shook his head with confusion, “I don’t think catches the wind like your square sails.  Kind of like the difference between trying to stop a man who is running at you, that’s the big square sails, or just kind of pushing him to the side, that’s the little triangles.  Like with Searel.” he concluded.

The old man thought about it for a moment, slowly nodding.  He had remembered watching Searel showing off.  It had all been ‘in play’ so he couldn’t directly put a stop to it.  Searel had always fancied Syria, even as little children.  Perhaps something would have even come of it had John and his people not come, but they had.  John had been telling the other young lads about a game he used to play where he was from, something called ‘football’ and these were all much larger boys.  Searel had thought he had found a way to hurt John, look good in front of Syria, and because it was a game, not get in any trouble for it.  Leon shook his head at the memory. He had thought that Searel had found just such an opening as well, and longed to stop it before it went too far.  Young John had known what he was about then too, as he recalled.  While the injuries weren’t serious, they were debilitating for many days for Searel and two of his conspirators.  Leon was shocked somewhat by John not being seriously harmed in the game, but even more so a few days later when John had confided in him that there was a trick to it all.  It allowed him to use the power of the other man. He just redirected it at a critical moment.  He also confided that he knew their mind, and had set up the game so that they could send a message that could be waved off as accident and sport at a time of his choosing so that he would be less likely to have to confront them at a time of their choosing, when it couldn’t be dismissed, and he would have to hurt them much more.  If John said you could get better results by redirecting rather than directly confronting, he wasn’t fool enough not to at least try it.  “Hm.  Never heard of it before, but then, never heard of a sawmill, or aqueduct, or boats made from pitch, charcoal, linen, and leather either!”  He gave a gap-toothed grin at John.

John shrugged. “This is what the pictures showed...  After that, we pretty much gotta figure it out on our own...”

Three hours later, they had the small improvised imitation of a modern racing trimaran skimming across the top of the waves, even tacking against the wind.  At one point, leaning nearly completely horizontal.  Leon howling like a wild man, and adrenalin junky test pilot LT John St. Claire hanging white knuckled and feet dangling from the railing convinced that their experimental efforts at “Caveman Fiberglass” as the Roths had dubbed it were going to disintegrate before his ever widening eyes.

Judging by the reaction of the large and astonished crowd who greeted them on the docks as they wrapped up their first full day of testing, John wasn’t the only one who viewed this early trial as a success.

◆◆◆

Eli didn’t want to be too far from the hall these days.  Any time over the next six weeks he was expecting to become a father five times over, maybe six if Hermia’s size were any indication, with another two expected just eight weeks later.  This was also the reason he didn’t want to be too close to the Hall, either.  He couldn’t help grinning, thinking about how unbelievably beautiful they all looked as they waddled about.  For the most part, at least compared to all of his previous experience with women in the late stage of pregnancy, they handled it with minimal complaint and a generally sunny disposition. There were still seven of them.  With confirmation shortly after planting season was over that Phoebe too was expecting, that made it all eight.  At least her anxiety passed, and now she was an excellent help with all the rest.  All of them were handling it so much better than one Georgia Stone, anyway.  Despite all of her decades of life experience, difference.  Eli thought it was just a difference in worldview, but it was probably not wise to mention that in front of Georgia, as Marcus had discovered quite by accident one day.

Eli chuckled and shook his head as he made his way down the newly cut path. Having crested the main apex ridge that ran the length of the island, he found his way to the other spring that Magus Ries had directed them to.  The ground here was steeper than the other stream and had more rugged and rocky terrain on the south side of the island, but it was closer to the guano cave that they were mining for saltpeter and even had a deposit of iron ore.  It wasn’t exactly high grade, but for their low batch production, and to be this close at hand, beggars couldn’t be choosers.  It was mostly in iron oxide deposits that were built up in a layer of heavy clay.  Normally it wouldn’t be very difficult to refine, given the technology of the day.  The Roths were nothing if not creative. Eli would give them that.  Speak of the devil. He could hear Sam and Josh yelling at someone from here.  He grinned. They had little patience with their technologically ignorant crew.

The young sons of farmers and fishermen weren’t stupid, they just didn’t really understand much about mechanical things.  Things like bolts, gears, and drive shafts were new to them.  Even pulleys beyond a simple rope over a timber was a novel experience.  Oh, some of the fishermen’s children had seen a block and tackle, but few had ever used one or knew how they worked.  There was a lot of on-the-job training, and a lot of learning by error.  The really expensive or dangerous stuff, crew members had to do themselves, at least at this stage, but the others were learning.  Only the rewards, and of course getting the status that came along with being associated with the project kept the workers from all drowning the Roths and walking off on the bad days.  Fearing just that, Eli picked it up to a quick jog.

Just a couple of minutes later, he made it around the bend in the path and there before him was the dam.  The water filling in behind it nicely.  His saw mill had been up and running for weeks now and they had shipped two water wheels up for this first dam.  One for each bank, powering its own shaft.  As long as they were limited to wooden driveshafts and their technology for producing bearings was limited. No matter how much power he could put to a wheel, he could still only get so much transmitted down to a machine.  Ries said there were ways to make them magically stronger, but that it was expensive and that it took a lot of time.  Honestly, eventually it would be worth it, but he wanted this up and running now.  Without Ries magic to fill in the little gaps, a lot of this would be a lot harder.  Ries doesn’t realise how much this is actually helping, he’s just seeing the mechanical advantage, making his magic more powerful and getting giddy.  Teaching Evita is making a tremendous difference too.  She wasn’t as good as Ries was, but with her handling the minor stuff things were progressing much faster than Eli had dared to hope.

As he got closer, he finally could see what all the commotion was about.  Everyone was out, and they were trying to set the drive shaft for the second water wheel.  If they could get that in place today...  He did some quick estimates in his head, hooking up the linkages tomorrow, a day for troubleshooting. First test before sundown on Shabbat!  They might be able to test their first generator from the wreck before the sun went down!  That meant they could finally have at least limited access to electricity!  They had tools that could make things go so much faster, even if only until the tools wore out.  Eli, with his history fascination had read a series of books when he was younger about a small West Virginia town that had gotten transported back in time.  They had used their tools to build simpler tools that were still far better than what the locals had.  The parallels between his situation and theirs was not lost on him.  He didn’t have access to nearly the amount of equipment they had, but he also had about forty years of technological development on them, and this world had magic.  Of course, that brought its own challenges as well.  He had just arrived at the work site when the cheer went up.  The axle was in place; they were just bolting it down now.

Seeing him walk up, Magus Ries turned with a wide grin.  “Almost! All of this work, all of these months, and we are almost there!”  With a deep satisfied sigh he said, “Another three weeks maybe?”

Eli shook his head. “Maybe for the first block of pig iron.  That is still a long way from high grade steel.”  Seeing Ries face drop, Eli relented a bit, “Oh don’t get me wrong, it is a victory for sure.  If that second water wheel words like I hope, we should know by the end of the week.” He sighed a bit, realizing that even then it wasn’t certain that the computers would work, or that the information on them wouldn’t be corrupted.  See, in his private reading material on his own tablet he had several useful reference books.  With re-enactment as his hobby, he had collected many unusual things over the years that would be handy not to have to rely on his memory for.  The Roths too had confided that because they had lacked much in the way of a social life, they had spent many hours debunking and essentially trolling anyone who made a claim of anything on the internet.  Yeah, while they didn’t admit it in so many words, they were the snarky assholes who snidely explained to you why your theory about ironclads was moronic because as any child knows, the sulfur content of the coal used by the Confederacy was too high and the process for removing it wasn’t discovered until the 1930s by Professor X.  His formula (listed below) used a material not known to the engineers of the Confederacy!  ‘So There!’ Yeah...  The beauty of the great leaps in digital storage is that they have all their chat logs and research.  The bad news is, they had it.  It was all stored on their tablets, and no power means no access, and with what happened to the batteries, no one can be sure if the information was corrupted or not.  With all of that, what they’ve got planned is likely workable in a reasonable time frame, you know like a human lifetime, without it...

Magus Ries had simply been watching as Eli trailed off and was obviously mentally chewing his way through something.  Finally he spoke up, “End of the week?  Then what?  I can see by your face, there is more that worries you.”

Eli chuckled.  “Yeah.  Difficult to explain.  So much base knowledge needed first.  Lets just say that it is the key to opening a box.  Inside that box are books.  Not actual books, but the analogy works.  If the books are still there and aren’t damaged in any way, then a lot of this becomes a lot easier.  Still plenty we will have to figure out and reinvent along the way, but at least we’ll have many of the tools.  If not, we have to make the tools to make the tools to make the tools... or better said we have to do that anyway, but instead of just making the tool, we have to learn how to make each tool first.  See how much harder it will be?”

Ries blew a long breath out in exasperation, his cheeks puffing out as he did.  “Thank you.  I think I see now.  We also have to learn how and where magic fits in, so that is an additional layer of complexity.  Right?”

Eli nodded. “Well, yes, and no.  Let’s go over this set up real quick so you can sort of see.  Might as well use it as an example since we’re here and we’re working on it.  Step by step:”

“We mine out the clay with the iron in it.”

“We mine the tar, and transport it here.”

“We burn some of the tar, to heat most of the tar in that large metal tower there we call a refinery,”

“When the tar is heated, it separates into its parts.  Some of those parts are lighter than others, kinda like rendering sheep tallow, it separates out and you scoop it off, well this just takes a bit more work.”

“The top layer is light like air.  We burn that to make the iron.  We’ll get back to it in a minute.”

“The next layer is a light liquid, almost like olive oil you burn in your lamps, only it burns a lot hotter and you don’t want to eat any”  Eli grinned at him.  Ries snorted.

“The next layer is heavier, and will burn but it’s a lot harder to light, with the next one even thicker yet but they are good for making things slippery.  You’ve already seen us use axel grease?  There you go.”

“The last layer is a mix of heavy dried pitch and sludge that is almost like rock.  Asphalt, we call it.  Lots of uses roads are the biggest one.”

“We do that just for the fuel, though we get by products we use other places, to smelt the iron,”

“We burn some of the lightest to bake the clay that has tiny pieces of the iron in it.  Why it’s red like that.”

“We move it to that ball mill, the big wooden barrel with the long belt that goes to the water wheel.  As it rolls the metal balls inside bang on and beat up the dried clay until it’s a very fine powder.”

“We move this powder out and if we’re very lucky, the generator works, and we can use an electromagnet to pull out the tiny little pieces of iron.   If we have to do it the other way... we’ll worry about that then.”

“Finally, we move the iron pieces and a little sand into this big metal pot and blast in air and the rest of the light air like fuel until we have it all melted and everything that isn’t iron burned away, except for the now liquid sand, a crude glass that is floating on top of the iron.  We pour off the glass. We pour this into bars call ingots, and we have pig iron.”

“We haul the powdered clay and asphalt to Anju Patel for his attempts at making bricks and paved roads.  We pile up the glass, for one day when I figure out how to make it usable glass, or we could always run it through the ball mill bashing it back to sand and reuse it...”

“Each of these steps, has a lot of different ways to do them.  Minor changes that can make big changes in the end product.  We can change little things one at a time keeping careful notes until we get the result we want, or we can find the list that someone else already did, that is in those books in the box I keep hoping aren’t damaged.  Your magic, helps make up for the fact that are tools aren’t the highest quality being made by amateurs, that this is not my main profession, but rather something I did part time as an amusement when not doing my profession, and perhaps even to stumble on some improvement or other unknown up until we find it.  So yes more work to integrate, but it also lets us ‘cheat’ some of the hard work that we would need to do without it.  At least that’s the simplified version.”  He grinned at Ries.

Ries eyes just bulged and looked near to crossing.

Meanwhile at Home

Marcus wiped the sweat from his eyes, leaving a faint trail of mud to dry on his forehead.  His brief bout of dark humor when put in charge of keeping the development projects around their home continuing in the face of all the expansion projects of being the southern black man in charge of the plantation had long since faded.  Marcus was never one to focus on the things of the past.  He knew them, and much like Eli, as they had discussed late one night, they were vigilant to never let conditions be such that the horrors of the past could happen to them or their children, but both men were of the mind that you couldn’t live in the past either.  Marcus had found in that conversation a surprising bond with the man. Eli also had a rather dark sense of humor about such things.  Marcus found nothing funny about the job now, though.  Damn, near impossible was what he found it now!  He had thought the locals worked far too cheaply when first negotiating for their help.  They weren’t used to working by the hour, so the amount of goods they asked for had seemed more than reasonable to Marcus at the time.  It was Marcus who had sorely underestimated the sheer amount of man hours involved in doing large projects by hand without any power tools or even large draft animals.

Hell without the steel shovels and pickaxes they had forged in advance as part of the payment for all of these farmers coming in to work during their slow times, and the damn goat drawn carts hauling away the small mountains of dirt, running in rotating teams all the long day and even with lanterns late into the evening, it would have taken the whole of the summer just to dig out the damn rain catchment pond.  Even as such, if Eli didn’t get enough quality baked clay hauled all the way over here to seal it good, it would all be for nothing.  That doesn’t even take into account that the dugout barn they were working on was only about half dug, and will all the timber going to the waterwheels...  he took a deep breath and shook his head.   The animals had a really rough season last year, and even with as many as they were going through feeding this small army of workers, they were likely going to end up with more than a few more after this fall, that barn had to happen.

What with all the extra animals, and keeping the olive grove watered, not to mention the growing population around here, that little spring just would not keep up without the pond and the winter rains...  Marcus stopped mid-thought.  When did he become a worrier, he asked himself in a bit of a moment of shocked self revelation.  Hell, when did I turn into farmer brown?  I even sound like every farmer I ever knew back home.   I used to laugh at them, wringing their hands about the weather and always expecting the sky to fall in any minute.  Why am I worrying about all of this?

A little voice in the back of his head he was trying damn hard to ignore, knew it was because worrying about all of these things scared him a lot less that Georgia, and that little life she was carrying.  How was he supposed to be a father in this world?  This would not be little league, or ballet classes.  Who’s asking who to the Senior Prom, and which university you can get into, or being mad that he insisted they learn to drive stick... hell in this world, actual real life mother fucking PIRATES were a real thing!  Hell, for that matter, even most of the “good guys” weren’t much more than pirates who were on your side, at least for the moment.  He knew what he was doing was important.  Critical even.  Still, there was a large part of him screaming to be out with John, testing the tools that would keep his new little family safe.

Wiping the running sweat again, he thought for the twentieth time that he either wished his hair would finish growing out so he could put it in dreads or that Eli would get a quality razor forged he could confidently shave it all without fearing that he was going to inadvertently scalp himself.  Enough of this!  He chided himself; the barn was coming along as fast as it could, and he was doing no good to anyone wasting time here.  It was time to make his way over to the upland meadows, make sure everything was still going according to plan for extending the grazing areas there.  Still grumbling to himself, he stalked off up the hill.

As he got out of earshot, one farmer still digging out the barn area looked to the other, “There goes a man gonna work himself into a grave.” he nodded wisely. “Trying to do all this expansion in one season?  Crazy!”

The other man just snorted. “Just keep working.  With as good a deal as we’ve gotten out of this, they can be as crazy as they want to.  Farm’s almost a side job at this point.”

The first man simply grunted his agreement, never slacking his pace.  Happy to have the extra work.

◆◆◆

Elena winced.  She would swear that Eli’s child had to be at least part like a Minotaur of legend.  Every time it moved around it felt like it had horns poking her insides.  Other women had told her that sometimes it was just like that and she needn’t worry, but it made it hard to concentrate.  She looked down at the massive piles of parchments on the table before her.  Learning their Arabic numerals, as they called it, and their double-entry book-keeping, had made keeping track of their growing enterprise’s immense finances possible.  She shuddered to think of trying to do this without these tools.  She was still trying to grasp the concept of a balance sheet, which Eli, Marcus, and Georgia had all assured her they would absolutely require before they could begin trading with other islands or the mainland.

The heat in their quarters was stifling.  Elena looked up from her paperwork, as Eli called it. Apt name really, she thought idly, and felt guilty fretting over the heat as her eyes fell on Hermia.  The poor woman looked the size of a house, Elena thought and then revised that. SHE looked the size of a house. Hermia looked the size of two houses.  In this heat, she MUST be miserable. Still, she was over busily spinning yarn without comment or complaint.  The young women had moved from what Eli’s people all called the ‘Textile’ workshop because of the total lack of a breeze.  As sweltering as it was in this room, at least a slight breeze stirred the tepid air.  In the textile shop, there had been none.   Also, here at least, they had comfortable cushions to rest on.  Thinking of tenderness all of them had been experiencing in their hips, caused Elena to squirm uncomfortably in her chair even now.  Phoebe had been wonderful, doing all the running, collecting all the finished skeins, cataloguing them all by grade and entering them on the tallies, and keeping all of their baskets filled with freshly carded wool, and the baskets of all the carders filled with new bales of raw wool.

A noise on the stair drew her eye. One of the new maids Hypatia had insisted on retaining was bringing up a tray with two large pitchers on it.  Elena hoped they contained the ‘lemonade’ which Eli and the others had introduced them all to and which had become all the rage.    Now that the island’s lemon trees were producing their first ripe fruits of the season, she found that she really couldn’t get enough of the stuff.  Nor was she alone.  Honey shortages, it seemed were a likely concern going forward, driven in large part because of this new passion.  Sighing at the pages of swimming numbers before her. Honey wasn’t the only thing that was going to be in short supply.  Despite her bargaining, and what she had originally viewed as their inexhaustible wealth, they were in fact exhausting it at an alarming rate.  It’s one of the reasons she had objected so strongly to the household staff of eight maids, four cooks, two additional footmen, and a full-time laundress that Hypatia had insisted on when they had put her in charge of running the domestic side of things.   It had all seemed such an excess and extravagance to not just herself but to most of them.  Hypatia had patiently explained everything to her, with Eli and Evita present to provide judgement.  Unlike nearly everyone else in the household at the time, Hypatia had not only grown up in a house that often entertained as part of business, but also who’s parents time and status demanded that they be doing other things with their time besides cooking and cleaning.  No one was more surprised when Evita was the first to grasp the concept and discussed what she had termed ‘division of labor’ with Eli.  The phrase meant nothing to Elena but Eli’s expression changed as if that explained everything, and he suggested that they approve the whole ‘budget’ which she later meant to give her the resources she asked for.

The staff had proven its value.  She had never questioned that.  Especially as she gratefully accepted the lemonade that was offered.  She simply winced as she returned to her calculations.  At this rate, their resources would hit a breaking point a couple of weeks before the Fall Festival.  Evita took her first sip of the cool lemonade and made a face.  It was a bit more sour than usual.  She realized the cooking staff had also realized that they were going to run short of honey at this rate and had taken steps to ration it.  She missed her honey, but she couldn’t help but approve.  Such steps if taken in key areas could see them through those final few weeks.  After the Fall Festival, resources should be plentiful again.  Abundantly so if they could trade all that they had produced, however, looking at the incredible numbers attached to their wool skeins alone, she didn’t see how they could possibly trade them all off this year.  She winced again as the little monster dug the horns in again!  Must be protesting the honey shortage too, she thought as she looked over their grain usage, wondering if they could make bread loaves just a bit smaller for a time...

◆◆◆

Georgia absently scratched at her swollen belly, then realized what she was doing and snatched her hand away.   She hated it when she did that!  She thought it made her look like some ape.  Still, between the heat of the day and these damn simmering pots of olive pulp, she was fairly certain she would melt before it was all over with. She watched the enormous bronze cauldrons filled with olive pulp simmer slowly over the fire pits dug into ground.  Anju had promised her real clay ovens last winter, but just like everything else she wanted, something else seemed to always have a higher priority.   If it hadn’t been for the fact that children could be used to gather her flowers for her fragrance production, she would never have gotten any manpower approved.  Children, it seemed were more than happy to gather entire fields of flowers for hours for the nice lady who offered them dried candied dates for each full basket.  She snorted. She had always been so down on child labor.  Somehow she didn’t think running a sweatshop was supposed to mean that she was supposed to be doing this much sweating.

She supposed she shouldn’t complain.  Marcus, poor man, had hand hammered each of these three cauldrons for her out of bronze after all.  It had taken him months of hard work.  Eli had said that they would build a lathe of sorts that would let them ‘spin’ copper and bronze cookware, but that it would probably be more than a year off.  They couldn’t wait that long for soap.  It was about more than just her fussy modern squeamishness. Without modern medicine, hygiene really took on a whole new importance.

It wasn’t so bad for Elena keeping the books or Hypatia running the house, or even Agatha and Chloe with their moonshine still, but the girls spinning wool sheep could carry Anthrax for the love of Pete!  To say nothing of the cooks who made all of their food, and the maids emptying chamber pots, and poor Helena and Syria doing all of that hide tanning.  How they could handle the smell?  Especially now?  Sometimes even cooking meat was enough to have her running for a bucket.  Ok, she thought irritably, waddling for a bucket, running just wasn’t in the cards at the moment.  If men had to live like this...  She sighed and let that thought go.  It wasn’t fair, Marcus had been nothing but understanding, and it wasn’t like she did test that often enough.  Oh, she loved that man. In all the years she had known him before getting stuck here, how could she have never seen him?  She just couldn’t understand it.  They had worked together fairly closely for the better part of seven years.  Both of them single... never a date.  Honestly, never even really thought about it.  He hadn’t been a bad-looking man at all for his age she mused.  Yeah but you were the size of a horse, the traitorous voice in the back of her head chimed in.  Then it corrected itself. No, you’re the size of a horse now. You were much bigger then, at least now most of it is baby.  Gonna suck losing our figure you know.  Hope Marcus likes us fat.

Georgia gritted her teeth. She knew that voice.  She knew she didn’t have to listen to it.  She knew she didn’t have to be that person anymore, but every time she closed her eyes, she could still see that lonely fat old woman there just waiting to claim her life again.  Not going to happen this time.  I am in control and I won’t let it!  Marcus loves me, and he loves our baby.  If I have to starve myself half to death to be the woman who makes him as happy as he’s made me, then damn it that’s what I’m going to do and I don’t care what the old me would have thought about it.  It might not be right, but neither is how I ghosted through life before.  She felt the baby kick.  She smiled down and muttered quietly, “that’s right little one, mamma’s got a whole new plan this time.  You me and daddy, we’re going to be happy and to hell with anyone’s ‘movement’ or ideology.  Our family is going to have a good life.  You, any brothers and sisters, and the million others of our little tribe here that will grow up with you like cousins at the very least.  This time around, we’re going to LIVE this life, not just live through it.”

I know, but it isn’t happening.

◆◆◆

It was early.  Eli had slipped out before the sun was even up.  Today they would be testing the generator.  His pack was filled with batteries, extra wire, dozens of connectors, an inverter, and yes, his tablet.  This was the big day.  So much depended on today.  He hadn’t slept, couldn’t.  If this didn’t work... he really didn’t want to think about what it would take to do what he wanted.  He trudged along in the darkness, the small lantern casting only faint light for him to see by.  His mind racing the entire time.  He thought about the story of everything it took just to figure out a workable filament for the light bulb, and then multiplied that over every component of every device that it would take to build even a moderately comfortable late nineteenth century life style much less a mid twenty-first century one.

By the time the sun was up and casting real light, Eli had made it most of the way by this point.  With urgency, he picked up the pace.  He knew it was useless. It wouldn’t make it any more or less ready when he got there than it would be.  Still, he felt his pulse quicken and his steps were soon to follow.   “Get a grip on yourself, man!” he chided under his breath as he completely ignored his own words and felt his excitement build as he got closer.  He smiled. He wasn’t the only one excited, obviously.  He could hear the voices as he approached.  “Already at it, I see.”  He grinned at Sam and Josh.

They looked at him and sighed. “Already had the first failure. Too much chatter because the wheel isn’t perfectly round and trued up.  Ries is trying some of his special voodoo on it... We’re actually using something flexible, heavy boiled leather reinforced by a steel coil.  He’s giving it a special kick...”  Sam shrugged, looking a bit lost but then grinned because understand it or not, they had gained respect for the young mage’s skills.

“Ries, I thought...” Ries put a hand up to stop him and you could tell he was focusing intently as he began to slowly brand the first symbol into the heavy rolled and bound leather cable.

Evita smirked at Eli, seeing his face twist just a bit at being summarily shut down like that.  She walked over and motioned for him to follow her a little way up the banks so that they wouldn’t disturb Ries while he was working.  “He is trying something new that he and I kinda hammered out over the last week.  We still don’t know if it will work.  If it does, let’s just say life got a lot easier. If not, we’re no worse off than we were before.”

Eli nodded. “Is that why it’s not going to cost a fortune and take forever to strengthen it like he told me before?”

Evita nodded.  “Magic, isn’t well magic.” She grinned at the face he made.  “It is, but it also follows rules.  There is no something for nothing.”

Eli just grunted, “I always assumed it just cost you your soul.” he said, he meant it to come across as a joke but if he examined his thoughts on the matter too closely, he wasn’t sure exactly where he came down on that question.

To his surprise Evita didn’t laugh or chastise him but instead answered him very seriously, “From what I’ve been told so far, there are beings out there that will exchange power for either influence over you, or draining life force from you.  Not just the normal energy that you put into any magic that is like the energy you put into any normal work, you rest and you recover but long-term permanent health damaging life force draining.  Either of those options I supposed could easily be considered trading for your soul, as well as those who accept the sacrifice of others in exchange for favor.  Ries says he doesn’t mess around with any of that and says I should avoid it like the plague.  I think he doesn’t understand how much more appeal the plague would have for me than that.” She shuddered.  “Anyway, paying in normal energy, the kind you get back after resting is slow and takes time, just like digging a ditch or hauling rocks by hand, especially for a big job.   I came up with the idea of using the energy of the machine.  Could you transform it into magical energy the same way you would transform your own energy into magical energy and just power a spell like that?”

Eli interrupted her. “You can do that?”

Evita rolled her eyes. “We don’t know yet.  What part of we haven’t tried this yet did you miss?  Anyway, that’s what the spring on the leather is for, instead of trying to take from the drive shaft, because we’ll need that to power the generator, we’ll pull from the spring, to power the protection spell, which should, in theory anyway, let us send all the normal drive shaft power that isn’t lost to the chatter, to the generator, and use only what is already ‘waste’ for the spell.”

Eli whistle low, “Pretty damn clever if it works.”

Evita shrugged. “The more I look at this, the more it lines up with quantum theory.  With just a little counter-intuitive leap, I suspect he and I could make a serious breakthrough with this... given time anyway.”

Eli nodded, “Well I don’t know how long this will take bit if it works, if we can get some batteries charged up, and if our software didn’t all get wiped or some other horrible thing, you’ll soon have access to all your old reference books and notes.  Take a lot of the guesswork out of this shit.”  He said with more frustration that he intended.

She smirked, “I work in theory, not guesswork.”  He just snorted.   Watching the man pace, she couldn’t leave him like this. “Enchantments like this usually take a minimum of one hour.  This is something new, going to need three symbols. Go check on the latest batch of mud they ran through the machine.  It isn’t iron by anyone’s imagination, but all the parts seemed to work.  From what I understand that was the primary function, considering they didn’t separate the iron filings from the clay.”

Eli sighed, “Yeah they could make that work with hammers and like a million years but probably just need to be recycled through again once the electro magnet is up and running.”  He started to head off to the other bank of the small creek when he realized he was being rude.  “Thanks for bringing me up to speed.” he said with a grin.

She just grinned back and shook her head.  Eli was so used to a closed loop of information assessment then issue the order that little human things like courtesy could slip his mind.  It wasn’t disrespect it was a focus on the mission, still living with all of those women no matter how submissive they might all seem on the surface, seemed to be having a positive effect.  She approved.

Eli had looked over the slag pile and looked over it again.  He’d gotten bored and started dipping into the heaviest grease distillate from the tar, trying to mix it with enough sand to make it solid.  Didn’t work. Realized that if they put some of that rough glass through the ball mill, added some carbon for good measure and then added it to this grease it might make an acceptable polishing paste.  With a small treadle powered buffer...  He was still thinking as he absentmindedly added a sticky glop of the grease and a half a glop of the heavier tar onto a large leaf and then was wrapping it and re-wrapping it with others to make what was mostly a secure package.  He added a couple of large chunks of the dark smokey brown, to sometimes out right black glass.  He still hadn’t decided exactly what he could do with it yet when he heard a whoop from the other side of the dam.

All else forgotten, he nearly broke his neck getting there.  An exhausted but triumphant Magus Ries was grinning as if he had just won free lunch for life.  He looked up at Eli and just shook his head. “No matter what else this worked.  Everything has changed.”

Eli could only nod.  He understood that they had figured out how to power a spell from the water wheel and that was great, but it wasn’t like you could carry a water wheel around with you everywhere.  Still, he couldn’t help but grin back.  Ries’ excitement was infectious.

Soon Eli was grinning for all his own reasons.  Sam Roth had the generator engaged, and the hum was audible.  Josh had been connecting the line conditioners and chargers that Eli had brought this morning and miracle of miracles, the LEDs showing that they were charging had started to glow!  No matter what else this day may bring, electricity did work here and they could, given time, benefit from it.

He looked up from the lights to shout his good news to someone, but the Roth brothers were deep into debate over some technical issue.  He’d seen them like this before and didn’t WANT in the middle of that.  So he turned back to Ries, but the man had walked away.  In the distance, he saw Ries and Evita duck off into the tree line, holding hands.  Eli smiled. Well, guess they had their own ideas about celebrating.  Taking a deep breath, he took the plunge and plugged his tablet into the inverter.  The power from the generator was only running at a fraction of what it had when being cranked by a jet turbine. Still, it had some disturbing fluctuations and was more than powerful enough to risk irreplaceable electronics.  So he had the power line running through a line conditioner that he had rigged up, then into a battery, then was running the inverter off of the battery power, then was charging the battery on his tablet.  He wouldn’t try to run it until it was running off its own battery power.  Fortunately, unlike the tablets he had when he was young, these new ones could be fully charged in less than a half an hour.  So in this case, only one eternity he thought as he sat down to wait.

When the battery fully charged, indicator light came on Eli disconnected the charging cable.  With his heart in his throat, Eli was ready for this to be emotional.  He was prepared for it to try to boot up but be erased.  He was prepared for it to boot up and have all the information that they so desperately needed.  He was even prepared for it to boot up and in the process short out and die.  As his finger came off the button, what he hadn’t prepared for was Debbie’s face in his back ground screen smiling back at him.  The loss and sorrow that he had repressed and suppressed to enable him to survive these last eleven months all hit him at once.  Debbie looked like what you would think of when someone said “Astronaut’s Wife” and she wore the title with pride.  She had her own accomplishments aplenty not the least of which was essentially playing single mother for three and a half years back during the war while he was on deployment, and then for another year while he was recovering as they did their best to reassemble the back of his skull Even so, with all of that, she never hesitated to brag about him.  To her friends, to people they would meet.  She... his mind reeled and swam in the void between this world and that for a time.  Eventually he looked back down and noticed he had unread messages.  Downloaded before they left, but never seen from almost a year ago.

Pulling them up, he almost choked on laughing. The first was about a warranty on his used car.  He hadn’t seen spam in almost a year. Finally gets a working computer, and it’s the first message he gets.  There is something just cosmic about that.  The second message was from his son. Looks like he and his wife just confirmed the news, expecting another boy due in March.   Eli smiled. Long past, hope all went well.  At least that will keep Debbie busy and focused on something positive.  The last email was from Debbie.  Seems she had spoken with their daughter-in-law and had a surprise for him when he got home that evening.  Oh, and put in for some leave in March, she’d know more later but she said she thought they should fly out there for a little while.

Tears falling Eli hoarsely croaked, “I know, but it ain’t going to happen”

Surprise!

◆◆◆

Evita lay there with Ries after they had actually made love fully for the first time.  She had always held back that one thing because if she had become pregnant... well she didn’t want him to think she was trying to trap him.  This time, however, after just sharing this tremendous breakthrough and him asking her to come meet his family tomorrow, she felt that if it happened, it would just be the next step.  She still couldn’t believe he hadn’t invited her back to his home because early on she made an off-hand comment that she couldn’t imagine staying in a place that didn’t have plumbing when he had commented on their bath house.

He kissed her lingeringly for another moment, and then groaned.  “I have to go now, if I am going to make it there before dark.  Even with magic, this is going to be cutting it close.  If I show up with a guest and no warning...” he sighed deeply.  “I’ll never live it down.”  with that he pushed himself up.  Then quickly knelt again for one last quick kiss, before pulling on his tunic as he turned away.  Already at a jog, he called over his shoulder, “Til tomorrow!”

Evita only lay there for a little longer, just reveling in the feeling.  After all these years, it was finally her turn.  All those decades of her old life, watching friends and coworkers getting married and having children and always she was alone. She had consoled herself that at least as she watched them dealing with cheating spouses or going through divorce, at least she was alone.  She had always had her work.  Ries SHARED her work though! Even shared it in a more real and fascinating way than she had ever experienced it before.

She had wanted to lay there the rest of the day, but there were things to take care of if she were going to leave to meet his family, she nearly danced as she thought that thought and picked up the blanket they had stashed out here and been using for their little stolen moments alone all week, she quickly folded it over one arm and had to stop herself from skipping back to the dam site.

When she got there, she noticed that Eli was looking very rough.  “I take it the computers aren’t working?” she asked with a bit of a sigh.

Eli startled just a bit, and took a deep breath, obviously reigning in emotions he didn’t feel like displaying in front of others. He cleared his throat. “Uh, no.  They work great.  Amazing news.”  He let his breath out and then realized that he would not be able to just play this off, and so he gave her a little sad smile. “Got a couple of emails that must have come in just as we launched.  Seems I became a grandfather again back in the spring.  Just kind of wishing I could have met him.”

Evita took a deep breath herself understanding now and sighed in sympathy.  “Yeah, he could have had a play date with the brood getting ready to hatch.” she gave him a mischievous smile.

Eli barked a laugh. “Yeah, that thought occurred to me, too.  If we ever could go home, arriving with my current entourage would certainly have me doing some serious explaining to my Debbie.” he chuckled, but continued, “the thing about it is, while it wouldn’t be easy, I know her, we’d get through it.”

Evita shook her head, “She’s a better woman than I then.”  After only a brief hesitation she continued, “Eli, I know I was hard on you about all of that.”

Eli cut her off. “I get it.  Wasn’t sure it was the right thing myself for a long while.  It’s just...”

Evita cut back in, “It’s just that they weren’t raised to be children at this age, but adults.   I don’t know if that is right or good or not, but it is a fact.  You weren’t out trolling the high schools looking for the naïve and the gullible to take advantage of.  You took responsibility for each and every one of those young ladies and have done nothing but right by them.  I was wrong to treat it otherwise.  I’m sorry.”

Eli nodded silently, not fully trusting his voice for a moment.  “That actually means a lot.  I felt conflicted when my daughter was that age about a lot of things, felt like I was holding her back and keeping her a child too long, while at the same time, feeling like she was growing up too fast.  The desire to protect her, warring with the need to teach her how to cope as an adult.”  he rubbed his face.  “Culture.  If culture will pick one or the other, it’s a lot more manageable, but when they tell them they are a child yet promote the casual sex and promiscuity message to them, the confusion leads to turmoil.  Doesn’t help that their body is screaming that they’re ready to start making babies, even if culturally they haven’t yet been equipped to accept that responsibility yet.  I understand why it was hard for you.  I can’t tell you which is right or wrong for certain.  I’m just glad we don’t have to have it as an issue between us anymore.  So thank you.”

“Well, speaking of your lovely ladies, I take it you’ll be heading back this afternoon?”

Eli nodded. “Soon as I’ve got a couple of charged batteries.  Time’s getting just too close now, for me to be away too long at at stretch.”

“I’m leaving in the morning as well.  Ries has invited me to stay a couple of days, to meet the family.” She grinned a bit embarrassed.

Eli chuckled, “Ah, important step.”  He nodded considering, “Seems like a solid young man.  Mazel tov!”

Evita groaned a little, “Don’t remind me how young he actually is, I try not to think about it.”

Eli shook his head, his face serious this time. “Don’t underestimate him.  In our world he may just be barely more than a kid, but here at least on this island, he was in many ways the most important man around until we showed up.  One reason I’m glad he had the sense to work with us instead of sulking because we stole his thunder.  I figure he’s what maybe twenty-three or four?” Eli shrugged. “Plenty of combat vets at that age certainly aren’t children anymore either.  You’ll be fine.  Speaking of combat, you want when I get back I should send one footman to at least put on a show of force?”

Evita grinned wolfishly this time, “Ries has been teaching me a few things,” she drew herself upright and in the space of two heartbeats she moved her fingers, Eli watched the energy form and draw around them in an odd broken triangle design before a ball of fire formed and she threw it out hissing into the middle of the stream.  “Won’t say I am invincible, but it will take more than your average thug to do for me now.  If I get attacked between here and town, they will be in for one hell of an unpleasant surprise.”

Eli’s eyebrows climbed well up on his forehead.  “I see,” was all he said.

◆◆◆

Demetria smiled as she watched her aloof and self assured Ries fret over minor details like the choice of wine, or which dishes would be served for dinner. And she could barely suppress a giggle.  She hadn’t seen him like this in years.  She would actually enjoy it, if she didn’t realize that on the rare occasions that he worked himself up into this state of agitation that he would obsess over details, over thinking things, and the outcome too often was self sabotage.  So she quietly approached him, and laying a hand gently on his shoulder, “Relax.  Take a deep breath and hold it.  There, that’s good... now let it out slowly.  Very good.”  Her voice was soothing and reassuring.  “Melitta and I have seen to everything.  When have we ever let you be shamed before important guests?”

Ries sighed and reassure her he did not doubt her ability to host guests when a small flash of deep leaf green gauze gown and a riot of tumbling and twirling golden locks came spinning into the room.  Literally dancing as she made her dramatic appearance giggling as she came. Through the nearly musical sound he could hear the singsong quality of her voice seem to vibrate and dance right along with the rest of her.  “Of course we will see to every detail silly!”  Melitta was very much like the wood nymph that was her namesake.  Beautiful, playful, but more than a bit innocent.  Her grace matched with her total lack of guile.  Ries couldn’t help but relax and laugh as she spun care free through the room, as if it were the most normal way for everyone to move through their day. “You love her, so she must be lovely!  Of course we will make her feel welcome and part of the family.”

Ries stretched. “Maybe I am just fretting over nothing, it’s just that... you should see the marvels they live with.  Water that flows directly from the wall on command, and either hot or cold, by command!  They have this, in a structure that by their standards they consider rustic!  She has described small MOVING rooms that are used just to bring one from one level of a building to the next!  Oh, once the design is complete... our next home shall be GRAND indeed!  I just don’t want to appear a bumpkin, a rube, or a savage in her eyes.”  he trailed off the thought looking a little at a loss then he shrugged.  “It was only that she lived in a raw tent for weeks at a time over the last many months that gave me the courage to invite her here before they could complete the new house.  I don’t want her to think that I cannot provide her with the luxuries she is accustomed to.”  Then he grinned widely, “Besides, I kinda want them too.”

Meanwhile, not more than an hour’s walk away, Evita stopped by the river’s bank and decided this was as close as she could get and still have some privacy to wash up.  It was a delicate balancing act when traveling in this world.  Staying far enough out to clean up with modesty still intact, and yet close enough that the rest of your trek in didn’t undo your efforts with a fresh layer of road grime and sweat.  She wondered if they could make the trail smooth enough for a bicycle.  If they could make a functioning bicycle under current conditions?  She pushed the idea aside. Neither question would have her appearing before Ries parents looking one bit less like an extra from a mad max movie this evening.  First things first.

So it was, cleaned up the best she was able under the circumstances and cursing the place for not having a hotel where she could check in and get ready for an important meeting, or baring that, even a dress shop where she could just buy a new dress without the travel stains and wear that, but alas, off the rack clothing was not a concept that small fishing villages in this part of ancient Greece were familiar with, apparently.  When she had asked about it, they had greeted her with blank stares.  The wealthy would commission tailors to make their clothing certainly and of course the poor would get by the best they could...  To them the idea of having several items of clothing pre-made and in a variety of sizes seemed extravagantly wasteful and cost prohibitive.

She gave a long sigh. So it was that she found herself in front of the garden gates to one of the largest villas in the town.  Smelling faintly of sweat, and covered in a very light dusting of heavy pollen and light dust that had been blowing in the breeze all day, she was about to be presented to semi-aristocratic mother of the man she hoped to marry.  She supposed that there were worse conditions for meeting one’s future in-laws, but... she forcibly shoved all of those thoughts to the side as a dignified-looking man came hurrying for the gate.  “Mistress Evita Young is it?”  At her nod, he all but ran the last twenty yards to the heavy wooden gate, pulling it open.  “Please, please, come in.  Let me show you to the house.”

Evita followed along behind the man, but she couldn’t help wanting to twist over her shoulder to admire the detail on that gate.  Everything out of wood.  No metal.  No screws, or hinges, or anything of metal.  Also, it was amazingly detailed in the carvings, considering all would have had to have been done with stone or bone tools.   The same for the fine mosaic walkway they were on.  The butler, she assumed, he had introduced himself but his title was unfamiliar to her, seemed to take such painstaking work in stride, as just another part of the grounds but each smooth stone no larger diameter than a quarter had been hand selected for its natural color and then hand placed so that when viewed from a modest distance the whole walk was a running story strip, almost like frames in a movie.  The sheer man hours involved, the cost of something like this in Beverly Hills or LA would be heart stopping.  Then she realized they had done it all with only clay for mortar and grout. They didn’t have concrete and her admiration for the artist bloomed again.  It made their bath house for all its technology seem quaint; she thought.

As they entered the entryway into the home proper, the man started to formally announce her but before he could do so, Ries saw her and left a couple of young women, his sisters perhaps Evita guessed, and ran to her waving the man away as he came.  As he swept her up in his arms and swirled her around she forgot all about road grime and aristocratic judgemental parents and who had the nicer house or more accurately guilt over arrogant and insensitive things she may have said about the level of hygiene in his society that led him to feel shame over his home, and in that moment she was just happy to see him again.

At last he sat her down and asked, “The trip in?  You are alright?”

She had mostly caught her breath; she smiled and nodded.  “Other than I smell like a goat.” she whispered.  Then realized that the women he was with had joined them while her attention had been diverted.  Evita flushed. She hadn’t meant for that to be overheard.  She continued though, trying to make the best of it. “Is there somewhere that I can clean up?  I’d rather not meet your parents looking like I had just escaped a city under siege.” She arched an eyebrow. “It’d really be nice if I might wash this dress too, and you could do that thing you do to dry clothes, I don’t yet trust my control, and well they might be able to overlook dirty easier than half burned to ashes.”

Melitta’s melodic giggle seemed to ease some of Evita’s earlier embarrassment at having her confession over heard Ries thought, and when Demitra’s soft, smooth voice added, “He’s just so useful that way.  Though I feel guilty having him use his powers for such, it must be wonderful knowing that you will be able to do things like that yourself. I’ve always secretly envied him his casual ability to do wondrous things.”

All three women were smiling at each other.  This was going quite splendidly, Ries thought.  “Well, of course you we have a place for you to clean up.  There is plenty of time.  Unfortunately, you will not be meeting my parents, they were taken from me while I was quite young.”  At her look of sympathy, he waved it off.  “It was long ago.  I’ve been horrible with my manners...”

Melitta giggled again, “Yes, but it’s ok.”  Looking at Evita, “We’ve all heard so much about you, it almost feels as if we know you already.”

Continuing on in a formal introduction tone, Ries said, “Doctor Evita Young, let me introduce my wives, the Lady Demetria and the Lady...” He hesitated, seeing the expression change on Evita’s face.  From one of confused but happy enthusiasm, to desolation and devastation such as one rarely has outside of the news of the death of a close relative.  His voice was almost flat as he completed the sentence “Melitta”

Demetria saw the expression change as well, and her first thought was that the woman was having a stroke. “Are you alright?  Do we need to call the physician?”  Then she saw the look turn to anger, and while she wasn’t certain what was going on, she knew this wasn’t a physical ailment.  It was only her poor Ries who’s heart was going to break.

Evita couldn’t react for a moment.  Her mind refused to process what her ears had heard.  A punch to the face would have been less of a stunning blow.  Slowly, almost as if she could feel the gears grinding along, slipping, then catching and moving along to the next piece it all hit down in on her, crushing her world.  Wife.  No, WIVES.  She wasn’t here to be introduced to his parents, but to his WIVES.  All this time, he never said a word.  He LIED to her!  All this time!   She lapsed into English. “You BASTARD!” she hissed at him through clenched teeth.  “Married!  All this time!  You never thought maybe you should say something to ME about it?”  She screeched.  Before he could reply, she returned to Greek. “Married, yet you never once said a word about it?”  She was getting so angry now she could notice her vision tunneling as the edges darkened.

Ries was suddenly transported back to that day early in the small room on his first visit to their holding.  He had not understood why she had gotten so angry and stormed out on him then, and while he sort of understood what she said was the reason, he still didn’t really understand it.  Upset that he was married?  Why?  Finally, in his confusion and exasperation, he just blurted it out, “Of course I’m married!  How could I not be?  At my age, and especially given my position?  What does it even matter?  No, forget that,” he shook his head, realizing he was making a legal argument, not one from his heart, “of course it matters. That is why I invited you here to meet my family so you could join us!  I said when I invited you I didn’t believe in pieces of a family scattered everywhere.”  He shook his head sadly. “Half brothers growing up in the same city, not knowing they have blood kin that they may call upon less than a day’s walk away, or worse viewing them somehow as a rival?”  He said the last words with a bitterness that went beyond what the mere words could express, “Not any child of mine!”

Evita looked at him in total incomprehension.  This lying, cheating, philandering, lothario, wants to talk about the children like he’s doing something noble?  She just shook her head.  “These poor women may have been taught that they have to put up with this! I won’t!  You’ll not just add me to your collection like I am another notch on your bed...”

Melitta began to tear up.  How could their new friend turn so mean?  Ries was an amazing husband and father! For that matter, Demitra was wonderful as well!  Sure, sometimes Demitra needed Ries, when Melitta would have liked his attentions instead, but that was the same with anything in life.  Not to know how to live with something like that?  Was this woman serious?  Even if she was to be so mean about it?  She imagined the chaos in their home if they let one of their children act like this because their brother or sister needed some attention when they wanted some, and her mind just boggled.

Demitra didn’t have Melitta’s gentle disposition.  She heard the condescension and derision in Evita’s tone toward her and toward the sweet Melitta who would never stand up for herself, and worst of all, to openly and vilely slander a virtuous man like Ries in this way, in his own home, and before his family... She loved her husband and would always honor his wishes, but she would not let his obviously misguided admiration or infatuation with this crazy woman leave him undefended before such insult and attack!  She took a step forward, imposing herself between Evita and Ries.  In a voice as flat, cold and dead as the grave, she interrupted Evita’s temper tantrum, stopping the tirade mid rant. “My beloved husband, has always spoken very highly of you.  Obviously something has offended you.  I am sorry that this is the case, however what ever the barbaric customs of your homeland, slandering my honorable husband, in our own home, and in clear view of his family, is not the act of a guest. I will ask you ONCE to control yourself.”  Her voice never rose, nor even truly became impolite, but was certainly more intimidating because of that.

Even through her near blinding rage, Evita could not help but be impressed with the woman’s poise and grace, considering what must be very stressful for her as well.  Her anger and her pride wouldn’t let that admiration diminish the look of scorn that she returned upon the shorter, voluptuous woman in front of her.  Her lip curled in a snarl, “I get it, ‘stand by your man’ is brainwashed into you from birth.” the English term ‘brainwashed’ was unfamiliar to Demitra, the scorn however was not, but before she could respond, Evita turned her gaze on Ries, hot white rage dripped from her words “Even if he is a lying, cheating, misogynistic pig!”  Halfway through, her Greek had failed her and she had lapsed back into English.  Finally she snorted derisively, “I’m not your guest any longer, I’ll see myself out.”  Her eyes hadn’t met either Ries or Demitra with the last statement. She had already been turning to leave.

She heard him call out, “Evita!  At least stay the night!  You can’t make it back before dark!  It isn’t safe!  I don’t want to see you get hurt!”

His words only fueled her anger.  Sure, she thought, just stay the night, feed me some more lies.  She stormed through the garden, all of its beauty now utterly lost on her.  The gate before her was latched, and she realized she wasn’t sure how to unlatch it.  Try to lock me in, she thought. How dare he?  No matter, as she got closer she focused her anger on drawing in her power.  Not even thinking clearly enough to form it into an actual controlling rune she simply lashed out at the gate with everything she had.  The painstakingly carved gate shattered before the force like fine spaghetti, littering the fortunately mostly empty road in front of the villa with small splinters of debris.  She stormed off out of the village, no one daring to obstruct her path.

No

Halfway across the island, Eli was experiencing his own disappointments.  “Elena, I’m not saying that you did it wrong m’love.  It’s just that didn’t you say we had secured a third of everything that the island produced last year when you counted it up?  How can we not have the funds to expand the steel production now?”

Elena winced a little as the minotaur punctuated his father’s objection for him.  “Eli, I’ve run the numbers over and over again.  Until the market at Fall Festival, we are broke.” She looked rather glum.  “We’ve financed,” she actually liked that word better than the other word they used ‘expensed’ though she understood that they had different meanings, financed just sounded better to her, “The massive improvements to our food production and animal barns, at the same time as expanding the saltpeter production, at the same time as three water wheels total, at the same time as the tar refinery, at the same time as soap, at the same time as the prototype attack boat, at the same time as the additional spinning wheels and mowing machines...” she sighed.  “I’m sure I’m forgetting something or other...” she shook her head one more time.  “How are we not broke?  So no, no matter how cool what you’ve found is, we just can’t do it until after Fall Festival.   Even then though we’ll probably do better this year than last”  her voice had a defeated tone to it.  She hated refusing Eli anything.  “Without a ‘larger market’ as you put it, we’ve reached the limit of this one.”

Eli sighed.  Deep down, he really was so proud of her.  Yeah not having the money really sucked now that they finally had formulas he had been trying to remember for months, but not only had she known where they were at in their finances, she had confidence to tell him so, and defend it against his push back.  She was just so damn cute as she found ways to use the terms that she had struggled so much with over the winter months as they taught her these concepts, in practical, useful ways.  Eli’s smile kind of said it all when he teased her, “How soon will we be expanding the local market by one?”  Sliding in close, he gently rubbed her swollen belly.

Elena’s impatient groan was echoed by several others around their room.  Eli chuckled softly as he cuddled her up close, then he raised his voice just a bit, “Ladies choice, I’m headed to the bed and any who want their cuddles now can join me, or if it’s just too much to move, I understand and I’ll make my way to you a little later.”  At first he thought that there were going to be a couple of holdouts, but in the end they had all made their way over.  If he couldn’t work on the projects he wanted he thought, there was little better in this world he could spend his time on.  Yeah, he was feeling just a bit smug and pleased with himself he admitted.  For as much as had gone wrong to put him there, being there wasn’t that bad of a situation.  He didn’t just mean the childish fantasy of a lot of women, not that that wasn’t quite pleasant at times.  More than that, he had people he loved and who loved him, whose lives he was making better.  The work was important, and more than that it was deeply satisfying.  For all the legacy he could leave behind for his children in that other world, and by its standards it wasn’t bad, it will pale compared to what he should be able to do for these little ones with him here.

As if his thoughts were being read, Elena called out with a sharp gasp and suddenly the bed was wet.  Eli’s mind went into overdrive, and just as he had brought it back to a functioning level to manage the situation, he hears another gasp from the other side of the pile and a shaky voice call out, “Uh, Eli?”

◆◆◆

John was getting just a little pissed.  This wasn’t like Marcus at all, he thought.  They were standing in the sawmill arguing about priorities on the cut schedule.  The saw wasn’t in operation; the light had faded too much, and it wasn’t safe to continue by the dim light of oil lamps.  “Marcus, you don’t understand.  The new design works!  We need to get the modifications in place and do a quick test so we still have time to get the first five built for trainers, or we’ll have no one who can sail them before winter sets in and puts a stop to it all.”

Marcus was hot, and he was tired, and he was covered in sawdust.  He hadn’t been out sailing for the last several weeks, ‘testing’ out the new boat design.   He had been here sweating his balls off.  Hand digging a pond for water catchment, digging forty feet down and twenty feet out of a hillside making a four layer dug out barn, not to mention cutting all the wood for it, that didn’t even touch on planting the olive grove or the normal day to day work.  He just shook his head, “Barn is priority.  Without the barn, we lose too many animals over the winter.  Between what they provide, meat, milk, wool, muscle power, of course add to that what Eli’s girls add in spinning that wool, and of course what Georgia can skim off snagging the lanolin for her soaps.  Too much lost when we lose animals.”

John frowned, he could see the man’s point but... “Can’t you just get me the parts I need for the boats, then maybe bring in a few more guys to rush things up after the harvest is in but before the weather turns?”

Marcus snorted. “From where with what?  Labor pool is limited, only so many folks.  Same with food to feed ‘em all.  Yeah, we’re building up to where we have access to more but right now... “he shook his head, “All my requests for extra resources have been shot down and I was even shown where I need to make what Elena is calling ‘adjustments’.” again he snorted.  “Wish we’d never taught her damn accounting terms, but yeah we’re broke until harvest comes in and we start trading some things off.  Which means I can’t get what I want.  Eli was going to go sweet talk her into trying to get a couple of his projects, but I don’t think he’s run into Auditor in Chief Elena yet.”  Marcus gave a bark of a laugh trying to take the sting out of his words.  “That isn’t fair to her. After all, she is just doing the job we asked her to learn, and doing it damn well, but I need my extra manpower the same way you need your boats.”

Well shit, John thought.   He wasn’t angry anymore just disappointed.  All that work this summer, and now they couldn’t do anything until next spring more than likely.  That pushes back training time as well... he was helping Marcus shut things down when Helena’s head popped back in the open door frame.  “You’re going to want to come quick, it’s starting!”  Seeing the look of confusion on both men’s face she grinned widely, “Elena and Sapphira have both gone into labor.  The midwife that Eli moved here over a week ago just sent two footmen with torches to the other village for their midwife, too.  Says the stress from hearing the other mothers in labor could send them into labor one after the other.”  Helena’s grin got even wider as she shrugged her shoulders in a helpless gesture, “she thinks she may need reinforcements.”

◆◆◆

Chaos was too polite a word for it.  Throughout the evening, many of the pregnant young women in the house would have contractions.  Fortunately, most were what the midwife termed ‘false labor’ and would shortly stop again.  On more than one occasion, they started back up again.  In one such instance, just after midnight, the second time was for real, and then there were three.  As this was the first child for each of them, the midwife expected nothing quick about the whole affair.

Eli paced in the small office area that was located just outside of the main apartments area on the second floor of the great hall.  This was a mid-sized conference room area that had been intended to conduct smaller more private dealings than would be held in the open public space below.  Tonight, it was more of a waiting room than anything.   Months ago he had forged an exacting set of surgical tools from the best steel he could salvage.  He had sterilized everything in boiling oil, then washed it in boiling water, then packed it in alcohol fresh from the still.  Eli knew it was a bit of overkill, but infections in the here and now scared the hell out of him.  He prayed that they wouldn’t be needed.  His odds weren’t good, though.  With eight pregnancies, thirteen total if you counted all of them in their little family, death in childbirth and infant mortality rates before the modern era. It all just terrified him.

His argument with the little round Georgia hadn’t been his finest moment, or hers.  She kept swearing that there wasn’t much she could do; she had no medical training or any experience with delivering babies.  The panic rising in her voice, the way she had been clutching her own swollen stomach... Eli sighed. If he hadn’t been so emotional himself at the moment, he could have been far more help to her.  Instead, he just growled at her, “Get in there and do what you can, damn it!  You know enough not to let them rub dirt or dung or some other vile folk remedy that will just spread bacteria!  I’d be there, but you saw how they reacted, superstitious...” he had managed to bite back the worst of it before he would have had apologizing to do to his ladies at a later time.  At least he hadn’t gone completely ugly American about the whole thing, he thought sourly.  No wonder Georgia was scared.  The only real prenatal coaching she or any of them had had, was what he could remember from Lamaze classes over twenty years ago.

Every twenty minutes or so one the maids would come out for fresh hot water at Georgia’s insistence, give him a brief update, which usually was “these things just take time.” and then go right back in with the fresh pot of boiled water.  John and Marcus had arrived earlier that evening.  They had taken to visiting in shifts, trying to keep his mind off of the often unnerving sounds from the other room.   In the pale gray of the pre-dawn morning, still drawn tight as a bowstring, Eli felt he understood the Patriarch of Israel a little better than before.  Wounded, yet still not letting go, ‘Bless me or I will not release you.’ The desperation of doing the only thing one can do, when the alternative is so unimaginable.   His actions had put her in this danger.  At least with the child he could console himself that without him the child would have had no chance to be. But the mothers... these women, girls really...  All his talk about their maturity, bah, when it came to the big things like this... even all of his decades made him no more able to preserve himself than an infant.  In that other world, when he went through this before, all the technology, and the doctors and their education and their tools, they had given him the illusion of security.  Even there things went wrong and mere men were powerless after a point.  “Bless my family this blessing...” he prayed.  He was feeling the substance of his faith, the reality of things more intently than he could ever remember.

The long night was done, and the day had burned bright for a couple of hours when after a truly heart wrenching bout of contractions, at least judging from the sounds that nearly had him bursting through the door, local superstitions be damned, he heard that beautiful sound.  A new life screaming its existence at the universe.  Healthy to by the volume of it, he couldn’t help a choked laugh.  Marcus was just grinning broadly.  “Too bad we don’t have any cigars, kinda seems like the right moment for one.”

Eli laughed shakily, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the door. Damn it, why wasn’t anyone coming to tell him anything?  Was Elena ok?  The baby?  Then the door opened.  It was Phoebe, her eyes wide and smiling and wet with tears.  “You have a son m’love.  He and his mother and both healthy and strong.  Elena is exhausted.  The babe is so BIG.” her eyes bulged. “He looks like he could carry his mother, instead of she carrying him.” She giggled and hugged Eli tightly.  “He is beautiful.  Eating hungrily!  Blankets are being made into curtains, so you can see them and not disturb the others who,” she nodded a bit wearily, “still have some time ahead of them.”

Eli let out the breath he didn’t know he had been holding.  The traditional prayers of thanks temporarily couldn’t come to mind, he just spoke his gratitude, as he had spoken his fears that long night before.  Phoebe studied him intently, she knew her husband was a man of his faith, but before she had seen him practice his rituals, this deep personal display was new to her, and somehow... she didn’t know the word for what she was seeing.  Not more devout, or even more sincere, perhaps more intimate. That seemed the better choice.  She looked up and noticed Marcus looking on approvingly, and was even more surprised.  She didn’t really understand their faiths, but she knew that they weren’t the same.  Somehow related, yet also not.  Not quite feuding brothers, but not allies either.  As if reading her thoughts, Marcus’ gaze never left hers, but his smile only broadened and if anything became even more satisfied.

Settling Out

Upon arrival at the village in the early pre-dawn, the two footmen split up.  One to seek out the midwife, the other to deliver the message to Evita at the Magus Ries estate.  Seeing the shattered gate and fearing the worst, the footman entered the garden, calling out loudly despite the early morning hour throwing the whole of the house into turmoil.  As the initial furor subsided, an anxious look came over Ries face.  “So, as we’ve explained, Mistress Evita is not here.  She left late yesterday determined to go back.  You did not meet her on the road obviously, is it possible she could have made it back before you left?” he asked doubtfully.

The footman shook his head in confusion. “Why would she set off that late?  It isn’t safe to travel alone, especially after dark like that.  Since Mr. Eli ordered the road to be mown, no one goes any other way anymore.  We even briefly stopped at each of the shelters for water, so had she chosen to rest there, we would have come across her.”

Ries didn’t answer his question he simply paced the floor considering his best course of action.  It wasn’t like a Magus being called for a birthing was a normal thing, even for a complication it was usually viewed as not their concern, however there were things that magic could do...  at times that only magic could do... these people were important to the future of everyone on the island, and moreover he thought of Eli as a friend.   It was also quite clear that Evita did not want to see him, but if she were in trouble, he couldn’t let her be harmed because of him...

Demetria’s gaze passed between the confused and worried look on the face of the poor footman who was obviously in way over his head in these matters, and the obvious strain on her husband as he wrestled with duty and desire to do the right thing and his uncertainty as to what that was and came to a decision.  Her first impression of these people had not been a positive one, but her husband was right: they were important, but that alone would not have moved her.  That she could, with this small sacrifice, ease the burden he was carrying... Demetria took a deep breath and steeled her resolve. “Go find her.”  She said it with decisiveness and assurance, bringing him the clarity he so desperately was seeking at that moment.  She continued as his gaze fell gratefully on her. “I will go with the messenger.  I will represent you to her people until you can bring her to them.  You need to know that she is safe, and she needs to be with her people at this time, and while I do not have your skills, I am not without experience in this area.  I will not be useless to them. Melitta can easily handle things here for the week or so that we’ll be away.”  She smiled confidently at the pretty young woman who had become such a reliable friend over the years and was rewarded with a return smile that would warm even the coldest of souls.  “Besides, I heard there were convenient rest areas along the new road now?  On the way home we can take it slow and you can spoil me for a day or two!”  Melitta giggled.

Ries just snorted a short laugh. “Deal!  Have I told you recently that I love you?”

“Mmm, once or twice, but it still hasn’t gotten tiresome hearing it.”

Ries gave her a quick kiss, and then one for Melitta. “Thank you, too M’love.  Please tell the children that I love them and that I’m sorry I couldn’t wait to say goodbye.  I promise after this all settles down, you’ll get some spoiling as well.”

Melitta just gave him a quick, smoldering wink. “Remember, you promised”

The footman flushed, but Demitra was already off, packing a few things she might need. While Ries had taken out the chessboard, using it as the focus, he began to cast a spell, attempting to focus in on its creator.  Ries didn’t really care much for these spells to be honest.  Always too vague. Or maybe he just wasn’t very good at it, but when he finally had his answer, he knew why the messengers hadn’t found her.  She hadn’t gone home.  She was down somewhere by the Festival grounds.  With a frown, he decided on another spell he didn’t much care for, and with a sigh of determination he traced the symbols and then he cried out in pain as his bones shifted.

To the great unease of the very startled footman, a great gray wolf now sat licking its paws and stretching out its muscles where the Magus had once stood.  Melitta came over and smiling gave him a quick scratch behind the ears, and he let out a brief whine.  He didn’t like animal magic as a whole; it was very seductive.  The instincts came over along with the senses.  As his new world opened up, he could smell that it was Melitta’s time.  If he were to stay home tonight and be with her, it is likely that they would have another child.  The wolf side of him strongly desired this.  As a man, it was something that they wanted, though neither saw a reason it had to happen this month. But with the wolf’s instincts influencing his thoughts he found it more difficult to turn and go out the door.  Spend long enough in animal form, and they said that you forgot to want to turn back.

◆◆◆

In wolf form, the typical six-hour trek to the Festival grounds was covered in less than three.  The wolf’s nose also made finding her no challenge at all.  Deciding how best to approach her on the other hand... that took him a good twenty minutes, and he changed back in the woods and walk to her.

She had been looking out to sea for at least a half an hour, as far as he could tell.   Probably a lot longer than that, he feared, judging by the vicious sun burn on her skin.  She didn’t seem to have noticed.  He called out to her once he was within twenty yards, “Evita!”

“Go away!”

“Evita.  Something has happened.”

“I don’t care.  I said go away!”

“Evita, I know you’re mad, and I know it only makes you angrier when I say I don’t understand, so we won’t even get into that.  Elena is having the baby, and according to the messenger sent to let you know, several of the others may be birthing at the same time.  I think that they need you at home.”

Evita just snorted, and it almost came out as a sob. “What would I know about having babies?  I said go away!”

“Evita!  You’re mad at me, ok I get it.  Maybe in some way that I don’t understand, I even deserve it, if so I’m sorry, ok?  None of that matters right now.  We need to get you back to your people.  If something were to happen to any of those mothers, or the babies, and we could have done something but we were out here because of this, whatever this is?  I think of Eli as a friend. How could I ever look my friend in the eye again?”

Evita spun and glared at him, willing lasers to shoot from her eyes and burn him where he stood.  For a moment, though Ries did not know what a laser was, he feared just that very thing, looking at the anger and hatred in her eyes.  The rage didn’t go away, but the intensity cooled as she sighed bitterly, “She’ll have already had it by the time we make it back.”

Ries nodded, “Likely.  I still have an idea to get us back in time for the others.  You’ll need to work with me for just a bit.”  He shrugged. “Some things are just more important than you or I.”

Angrily she gave him a curt nod, and he knelt and began tracing the needed runes when the gathering magic suddenly slipped its containment, throwing Ries several yards.  It was some undeterminable time later when he regained consciousness and gathered his wits about him; he noticed he had been out for more than just a little bit.  He sat up and blinked again.  Even with his transformation, he thought, they’ve lost much time.  Still determined he called out to her, “Evita, are you ready?”

Seeing her stand up and angrily begin walking his way, he focused and began to draw the symbols in the air.   Again, he cried out in pain as his body shifted.  His eyes locked on to hers.   He had intentionally not told her what the spell was or how it worked.  Yet even seeing his pain, and not knowing it would pass, or that it was part of the process, he saw no dimming of the anger in her eyes.  His heart truly broke.  No matter what else happened, what they had was gone.

The horse that stood in the place of the young mage simply knelt on one knee to make it easier for her to climb on his broad back.  Heartbreak or no, as he had told her before, some things are just more important.

◆◆◆

Demetria was in a bit of a daze.  She had not expected a formal greeting with all the chaos that the household was experiencing, nor had she expected to be coldly received as if she were intruding, and in truth she got neither, but what she did get, she also was certainly not expecting.  After the initial genuine surprise at her existence by all but the locals who had joined these foreign castaways, she was greeted warmly, treated in truth like family.  Both accepted and neglected in equal parts as the needs of the moment warranted.  Far from being offended, it truly made her feel welcome.  They neither fawned over her offer of assistance, nor shunned it, but simply evaluated her skills, abilities, and willingness, then put her to task.  For all that they had just met her, she might have been in her own sister’s home.

In the quiet moments between the rushes of necessity, she quietly and discretely questioned the maids and the local women who had become concubines to these foreigners about this.  From the newest maid in their service, to the woman who managed the household, Hypatia, whom she was at least acquainted with from before.  All of them simply shrugged, smiled, and gave an “it is their way” kind of answer.  Hypatia was a bit more detailed.  Demetria gathered that she had gotten a poor start. This didn’t surprise Demetria from what she knew of the girl, but it seems as a whole these foreigners treat the husbands and wives as one item more or less.  So because they considered Ries a good friend, she is as well, unless she did something to change it, and even then, for his sake will be given every consideration to make things right.  Hypatia had said with a bit of redness coloring her face, they are a fair people over all.  Some strange ideas, but easy to get along with as soon as one learns a measure of humility that is.  She hadn’t gone any further than that, but Demetria knew one thing for damn sure, she didn’t need any humility lessons from Evita.   Everyone else seemed almost too good to be true.

◆◆◆

Ries had arrived, bringing the storm cloud with him.  She didn’t look at Demetria, nor did Demetria look at nor speak to her.  Even when unavoidably in the same room, they carefully avoided each other.  She noticed the other women watching it all with a mix of faint amusement and trepidation.  No one was rude and everyone generally just avoided the subject.  They gave her and Ries an odd cone shaped tent to stay in.  She got to try out that magnificent bath that he had told her about!  Yes, their new house WOULD have one!  Also, one of those chamber pot rooms where the flowing water just washed away everything, and no one needed to empty it by hand.  Why had no one thought of that sooner, it was a marvel!  In discussions with the one they call Marcus, it amazed her to learn that they were even planning a way to set up a similar system to wash out their animal barns too no need to muck out stalls in the winter.  Their inventiveness knew no limits.

Demetria finally saw the opportunity she had been waiting for.  The other woman who came from the land of the foreigners, the one named Georgia, had given birth two days ago, and was going to make her first trip to the bath.  Demetria made sure she was the first to volunteer to help her.  This was likely to be the only chance she would have to have a truly private conversation with the woman, and maybe get some answers.  Georgia seemed to sense something was up because she smiled a funny smile when Demetria volunteered.  This was confirmed after they had gotten away from the house just a little way where the others could not overhear.  “Don’t take this the wrong way. I appreciate you offering to help me.  It’s just that, I consider Evita a friend.  I would like to be your friend too, but I can’t tell you things about her behind her back.”  Georgia gave Demetria a weak smile.

Demetria smiled broadly.  Smart woman, this is good!  “I want to understand, but not like I think you mean.  My husband is hurt, and she was very rude, so yes I am angry with her, but mostly I am confused.  Before she realized who I and Melitta were to Ries, I thought we would get along very well.  Then it all changed in an instant, and I would like to understand.  The reason she gave makes little sense, and I am hoping that you can help me understand.  That is all.”

Georgia smiled a sickly smile, as she opened the door to the bath and gingerly sort of perched on the bench to rest.  The trip took a lot more out of her this time than before.  She watched as Demetria busied herself lighting the fire under the heat exchanger, laying the wood in the secondary warmer that kept the water warm, and selected the special box of bath salts that Georgia had made up months ago for just this time.  A few herbs that she remembered had antibacterial properties mixed liberally with some sea salt, anything to fend off infections.  “You really don’t get it do you?” she asked, then not waiting for an answer.  “He slept with her, didn’t tell her he was married.  That’s kind of big deal where we come from.”

Demetria nodded, helping Georgia out of her dress and helping with the bandages.  Georgia couldn’t believe this woman was just helping her with things this intimate while they were having this conversation.  “I understand that, what I don’t understand is WHY it is a big deal?  Is the first wife one with more status?  I mean she had to know he was married, he’s seen over twenty harvests, and is the only magus on the entire island!  Look at your Eli as just an example.  They are about the same age, similar status... or your Marcus, again similar age, also married though I understand it is recent, which is unusual, but I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to pry.”

Georgia couldn’t help it. She was laughing so hard she couldn’t breathe.  Seeing the concerned look on Demetria’s face, she only laughed harder.  Fortunately, Demetria realized that she found the statement amusing, and while she was still a bit confused, she just forced a little smile. Georgia hissed as she lowered herself into the water that was now flowing warm into the tub.  “Where I come from, girls close enough to be doing this...” she waved at the pile of bandages on the floor by the clothes, “are well past prying.  How about I promise not to act like Evita and get offended, as long as you’re not trying to sleep with Marcus,” she amended with a small smile," and you do the same and not worry about prying and just get this done.  I think it has caused enough pain because people didn’t talk already, don’t you?"  When Demetria’s eyes lit up and she nodded vigorously, Georgia just sighed a little as she adjusted herself in the water.  It took a little explaining for Demetria to completely get the concept of monogamy, not from poverty, but enforced by custom and law.

“That is insanity!”  Demetria had a look of incredulity on her face.  “I thought I was confused before!  You are her friend, could you not get her to see reason?”

The conversation got a bit stressed here again, as it astonished Demetria to learn that Georgia agreed with this horrific concept.  Georgia even got a little offended despite what she had promised earlier, seeing the ever-growing look of absolute horror on Demetria’s face.  When they got to the cheating and general infidelity and divorce rates, the feelings of betrayal involved, Georgia concluded, “So you can see why she would be upset and feeling betrayed.”

Demetria found she was having difficulty breathing.  “So, in this culture, a woman demands that a man cripple a large part of his essence, to satisfy her insecurity.  If he won’t, or if he later does what is natural as a man, the same as breathing or eating, then she sees it as a betrayal and blames HIM?”

Georgia was getting angry now. She didn’t like being looked at like she was Charles Manson because she didn’t want to be cheated on damn it!  “Yeah!  He sure blames HER if she goes and hops in bed with another man!”

Demetria blinked.  Again, these people compare things that have nothing to do with each other.  Seeing the confused look, Georgia started to elaborate, but Demetria finally caught up with the flawed argument enough to be able to answer it.  “It’s not the same thing at all!  A child’s father must be known.  Also, when I got married to him, he agreed to care for me and our children.  If I were having other men, then how would he know he wasn’t paying for their children, not his own?   Why should their children inherit his name and honors?  It is not the same situation at all.   They cannot compare.”  She shook her head as if she had just witnessed a ghastly scene, “to do such things to your husband is horrible, but ok, some men are animals, I can understand, but HOW?  How could a mother teach her little boy to think so little of himself, that he would cut out so much of himself, for any woman, much less one who would ask such a ghastly thing of him?”

Georgia wanted to yell at her and wanted to tell her that she was the crazy one.  She couldn’t.  She didn’t agree.   She didn’t see it the way Demetria did not at all, but she could see how Demetria could... and that was uncomfortable enough.  They had been here for a long time, and she couldn’t handle any more of the water, or to be honest the introspection.  “Demetria.  Let’s just leave it at cultural differences.  I’m going to shrivel up like an old woman and stay that way if I don’t get out soon.”

Demetria jumped, shocked back out of her thoughts.  “Oh, of course.  Georgia...” she hesitated. “Thank you for explaining, but for your own safety.  I will try not to even tell Ries, and if I do, I will swear him to secrecy first, but speak of this to no one.  Our men would never risk such ideas taking hold here.”  after a moment, “Not just our men.   I would fear for your safety, and despite this,” she gestured with her hands wildly as if trying to grasp something that couldn’t be held, “I have very much enjoyed meeting all of you.”  She grinned a bit naughtily, “Ok almost all of you.” Georgia barked a laugh, which was quickly replaced by a wince as Demetria helped her to stand. “I would like us to be friends.”

Georgia laughed and just shook her head wearily, “Girl, if we get through this mess in one piece, I can’t see how we’re anything else.”

◆◆◆

Marcus was tired.  He looked around the room and realize that they had all had a week that was probably the most trying since the crash.  The ladies were all upstairs. Those who had been close to their due dates had pretty much all decided it was time over the course of this week.  Oh, there were two hold outs, plus of course the three who weren’t due for several more weeks... but this had been a baby tsunami.  Adding into it the unexpected drama between Ries and Evita that still made his head hurt.  Demetria seems very nice though, and she and Georgia seem to have hit it off surprisingly well, considering their rocky start.  He was still musing on exactly how that friendship was going to all sort itself out when Eli interrupted his thoughts. “Marcus, you’re brooding.”

“Eh?  Oh, not really.  It’s just cultural norms...” he started the sighed.

Ries groaned loudly hearing the topic.  The whole thing was a bit too raw for him right now.  Eli sympathised, but more or less just sort of laughed.  “Well, I can’t help with that one, but maybe a bit.  A lot of our problem seems communication.”

Anju snorted, “Going to turn relationship councilor on us Eli?” but his grin took any malice out of the sarcastic humor.

Eli shook his head with vigor. “Heaven forbid!  When it comes to women, I’m as confused as the rest of you, just eight times over!” this brought a bit of a pained laugh from the entire room.  “No, I mean literally communication, not whatever it is they mean when they say the dreaded, ‘we need to talk’.”  again the general chuckle, though Ries seemed more to laugh not to be left out than with the deep understanding of the others.   “I’m going to be helping out around the house for a bit.  I suspect the rest of you will be sticking closer to home for a bit as well, at least those who have a diaper or two to change.  And since we all know money is tight, or at least what passes for it locally, we can’t really start up any new projects.  I thought we might get the ship’s main radio up and running.  Maybe build the good Magus here a foxhole radio to take back with him?  I mean, it should all be possible from our own scrap so it shouldn’t cost anything...”

Ries’s brows wrinkled “Ship?’

Eli grinned at him, “You didn’t hear that part.”  Then to the others, “It would only be one way...” he trailed off obviously thinking something through.  The others waited patiently for a moment until he grinned and continued, “Unless we also built him a small spark gap transmitter.  Would have to teach him morse or some other functioning system but...”

Marcus nodded, “But it could work.”

John chimed in, “Of course we add a second system in the other village with either Chief Dorien, or Syria’s father Captain Leon.  He’s been the one helping us figure out and test the new attack craft, and I think given time he could probably figure out how to handle a radio too.”  He shrugged.   What could he say, the more he worked with the man, the more he found he admired the old pirate.  Just HAD to be what he was before, John thought to himself.

Sam chimed in, “We’ll need a little hand crank generator, kinda like for the old school phones.”

Ries spoke up, “I know I don’t understand much here but hand-cranked generator?  Maybe I can help?”

The discussion ran long, but before the night was done working plans for the first prototypes were in place, including a magical crank that turned the little generator.  Wasn’t much power, but at least if it worked, it would never need recharging so long as the mechanics held out.

After the Harvest

The Fall Festival this year was unlike any before it.  With the wood scavenged from the warship that had needed to disappear last year, they had created a wooden aqueduct.  Fresh water flowed from the closest stream nearly two miles away, at a gentle slope into a temporary basin at the astonishing rate of twenty gallons per minute. It then overflowed into an open ditch and ran off through the woods and eventually out to the beach.   It wasn’t really a pretty thing at this point, but considering the improvement over hauling water, it was the highlight of the Festival that year.

Only one highlight, though.  Because World Wright’s corner at the festival this year featured an actual brick and mortar building.  In truth, it was only a ten foot by twenty-foot entry way for the building to come, but it was all that Anju could manage with his limited resources.  Still, it was the first structure on the island constructed of kiln-fired bricks, with real cement mortar.  Only a small portion of the decorative tile floor had been laid, but it was enough to give the impression of what the finished project would look like.  Inside actual drawings were posted of what the finished building would look like, though few believed they could build it.  Anju and Eli would only smile as they heard repeated gasps of incredulity from those ‘wise enough to know better’ “Madness!  Five floors! In only two years?  Sure some of the Temples in the great Cities on the mainland were so large, but they took nearly a generation to build!  They had a workforce of more than a thousand slaves!  Were they planning on making us all their slaves?!”

Of course the asphalt path leading up to the thing large enough for eight men to walk shoulder to shoulder across and not feel crowded drew no less comment. Sure, it was only a hundred paces long, but it was smoother than any road of finely laid stone!  They say they want to put one from here to each of the villages.  More cries of “Madness!  Impossible!” Again the outbursts were only greeted with calm smiles.

Melitta was enjoying the new drink that was offered this year, ‘lemonade’.  The one that they called ‘Chloe’ was selling it.   She had little tables and chairs under a nice little shade, and it wasn’t cheap either!  Though when she found out that Melitta was married to Magus Ries, she just gave it to her.  Melitta thought that was very sweet of her.  As she sat there enjoying her lemonade, she heard the ladies at the other table talking about the soap being sold by Georgia.  Demetria had told her all about Georgia, so she wanted to know what they were saying about their friend.  She knew these women, they were all the wives of important men in the two villages.  She associated with them only when she had to because of Ries. They weren’t very nice...

“... it really is the most fantastic stuff, did you get any?” one asked.

“At that price!?” the other scoffed.

The third looked very dejected. “They were all sold out by the time I heard about it, I couldn’t get any.”

“Same here.” said the second woman.

“I thought you said it was too expensive!?” scolded the first.

The second pouted. “I said it was too expensive.  I didn’t say I didn’t try to get some, anyway.”

The other two broke into giggles.  Melitta relaxed.  Demetria would be happy to hear that Georgia’s soaps were a big hit.

◆◆◆

In other social circles, Sapphira had some free time away from working the displays.  She had been enjoying just walking through the festival with her new babe enjoying the slightly cooler fall weather.  When the little one decided it was time to eat, she sat with a small collection of other young mothers who were taking care of the same need and exchanging some gossip.  The hot topic, it seemed was the new pre-spun yarn that one could buy for little more than the price of the raw wool!  It was an incredible bargain.  Since the baby came, there just weren’t enough hours in the day!  With all the cooking and cleaning and feeding the baby and ugh of course all those diapers to wash!  It just saved so much time.  Sapphira couldn’t help but smile.  She was doing a good thing, and if the numbers Elena had said were right, they hadn’t sold even half of the yarn yet and had already made more than a lot of fishermen made in an entire year.

She asked all of them a quick question, “If someone could make dirty diapers go away by magic, and clean diapers just appear...  how much could you pay for that?”  They all laughed.  That would be a miracle.  Which gods were going to perform that miracle for the likes of them?  She smiled and wondered if Eli would be more flattered or scandalized at being called a god.  “My husband, he made for us a washing device.  I don’t think that he could make them cheap enough for everyone to have one, and you kind of need to live by a river... but there are eight of us wives with nine babies under one year of age, so a lot of diapers.” The collection of mothers’ eyes bulged as one, imagining the mountains of laundry.  “So he created this device.  We just set the dirty diaper aside, and the maid collects them all up at once, puts them in the device, then comes back in a little while, and takes them out clean, then hangs them up to dry.  She then brings them back to the house so the entire cycle is ready to start all over again.”

“Must be nice to have a maid.” one woman said sourly.

Sapphira felt a flash of anger.  Nothing about her nice husband who built the wonderful machine.  Nothing about how even the maid can use this to make her life easier.  Only jealousy for having a maid to help.  She couldn’t resist. “Yes it is, it gives me the time to do the spinning so you can buy that yarn you were all so excited about earlier.”  She tidied herself up. Baby can burp as we walk,’ she thought.  The only thing that gave her any satisfaction about the whole misadventure was seeing the woman’s sour face fall and watch embarrassment overtake her.

◆◆◆

Eli was preparing the reports in front of him.  He couldn’t help smiling as he remembered Elena’s confused mix of elation at even greater returns than last year, and near panic at the amount of goods that they have left over.  It took him a long time to convince her that he had expected this all along and wasn’t disappointed in the least.  Still, he needed all the numbers in front of him before the impromptu meeting he had called for this evening.  Normally they would have waited until they got back home for such business, but given conditions, he had invited several others not in the normal decision cycle.  Things were about to change, and it meant that he was going to need to cast the net wider for talent, or at least for those willing to shoulder the responsibility.

The last day of the Festival was wrapping up, the “income” reports were excellent.  Eli had decided that they really needed to introduce money to the island.    It wasn’t as if they didn’t know what money was, but they had traditionally been so poor that they never had enough coin to develop a culture of using money.  The real issue wasn’t that they weren’t selling enough, so much as they had produced so much in excess of what the island could use or afford with their more advanced production methods that they had no alternative but to expand off of the island if they wanted to continue to grow.

Their little brick display building was packed as meeting time rolled round.  It was well past dark but with kerosene now being refined as a by-product of the tar, the quality of the oil lamps and the affordability had improved dramatically.   They were able to have an actual hanging chandelier that allowed the room to be well lit for a change.  As everyone settled in, Eli stood and raised his hands to call for a little quiet.  After only a moment, all was quiet.  “Thank you all for coming.  I’m certain some of you are wondering why you are here.” A murmur and soft chuckle went around the room.  “I assure you all will be made clear.  First please indulge me as I resolve a little of the company’s more traditional business first.  Once that is out of the way, we can move on to what we have called all of our special guests here tonight for.  I would ask that you keep anything you learn in this first part of the meeting confidential of course, just as you would any private business dealings.  I foresee no issues with this with any of you. If we did not deem you worthy of our confidence, there would be no reason to make the proposals you will receive immediately following.”  Eli smiled warmly.  “We’re all family here, we all benefit together when things go well.  AND THEY HAVE GONE WELL INDEED!”  Eli clapped, “all of you deserve a round of applause for an outstanding year!  The Festival is all but over, and the numbers this year are about thirty percent better than last year!  That is just for our companies.  Speaking with the authorities presiding over the Festival itself, they say that an estimated fifty percent more business was concluded this season, than last year’s record breaking season.”  There were first gasps, then cheers around the room.

Eli held his hand up again for quiet.  “This brings me to the next item on the agenda.  We are a victim of our own success.  Even with all of this increase in business, we still have rather large surpluses of product.  Rather than sell them at a loss, to people who really don’t need them, and would only be buying against future need and thus hurting prospects in the future... we need to expand trade to the mainland.”  That set off a round of murmuring.  Eli let it sink in for a moment and allowed them all to get some handle on the situation before continuing.  “Unfortunately, with all the continuing expansion plans here on the island, we find ourselves incredibly short staffed.  This means opportunity for many of you.  World Wright Incorporated is now offering franchise opportunities for subsidiary companies.”  Eli went silent and just waited.  He knew this was an unfamiliar country for the people gathered here, he wanted to give them time to come to it without feeling as if it were being ‘sold’ to them..

Finally, one old farmer who had actually done quite a bit of work for them in the past stood up and said, “I’m not the only one here who don’t know what you mean, but I’ll be the first one to ask.”  The room blew up with laughter.

Eli grinned, “Good, that means you’re an excellent candidate and whichever one of us recruited you to be here, was doing their job.”  More laughter.  Eli had prepared for just this question, though.  Two of the women that Sapphira had been gossiping with earlier had found her to ask her more about the washing machine.  She had brought them to Eli.  It’s really a big part of what had given him this idea.

He called on the two ladies, “Please stand up so the nice folks can see you.”  When they had, Eli couldn’t help but grin. They both looked as if they wanted nothing more than to crawl under their benches and hide.  One was a farmer’s wife, the other a fisherman’s.  In both cases, their husbands worked for barely above subsistence.  Affording diapers for the babies was a challenge, much less a washing machine.  The best part about it was that their poverty was obvious in their appearance. No one could make an excuse if these two could find a way.  Eli thanked them, then explained that they were opening a diaper service. One in each of the villages.  He had to explain what a diaper service was, how it worked, how leasing the washing machines worked as well as the goats and fishing nets that had to be put up for collateral against the diapers that were bought on credit and paid for out of the customer’s subscription service fees.  The small percentage that went to World Wright Incorporated as a franchise fee and the access to credit and business consultations etc that came with being a franchisee.  The whole place was silent as a tomb as he described how it all worked.  In the end, he wrapped up by saying, “So, that was one example.  It was only an example. Each business type will have its own business model and unique business needs.  If there are no general questions, what I’d like to do, is open the meeting up so that each of the various project managers can visit with you about the specifics of the opportunities awaiting each of you.  Any questions for me before I let you get to the people who have the answers you really want?”  He asked with a grin, knowing the answer...  “Ok folks, they’re all yours.”   The whole place erupted into chaos.

No one got much sleep that night.  Eli managed to slip down to the beach with four of his wives for a couple of hours later that night to play in the surf and celebrate a Festival gone right, then just before the grey light began to show they left to take over baby duty, and the other four arrived to watch the sunrise with him.  Sleep was overrated he thought.  Somewhere in the back of his mind that remembered what it was like to actually FEEL 62 he determined to hold on to this for as long as it lasted.

Winter Seas

With the Festival over for the fall, everyone packed up and left for their respective homes, carrying treasures bargained for, and contracts to be filled throughout the year.  Ries had seldom seen either Chief looking quite so smug and self satisfied.  You would think each had single-handedly created this recent boom by the way they strutted around.

He was glad that the way things had turned out between Evita and himself had not ruined things for the others on the island.  Honestly, other than the fact that she had not said more than three words to him since he delivered her home all those months ago, his relationship with everyone else there hadn’t really changed.  Or if anything had improved.  He discovered Eli has magical talent as well, and has been willing to work with him some, it’s just that with all of his other responsibilities, there isn’t much time left for magical study.  Though he must admit, the amazing mechanical tomes that are far more magical in Ries’s eyes than any actual magical tome Ries had ever heard of was amazing.  Seeing Eli's hand copying the information on to parchment, he despaired of Eli ever having time to devote to magical studies ever again.

When he arrived at the humble home of Leon the fisherman, Leon greeted warmly him.  Provided with a warm plate of fish and a hot cup of tea.  The others were already at the table and had seemed to have started without him.  “Sorry I was running late.  My son had gotten one of the wooden swords they were selling at the play commemorating your great battle from last year, and managed to break it and run the jagged edge into his little leg.  All is fine now, but between bleeding boy, and distraught wives, I got a late start from the house.  Though with these new paths, much lest once the paved roads are cut in... travel is already much improved.”

Marcus snorted. “Boys, always trying to find new ways to kill themselves.  Mine can’t even walk and he tried to roll off the bed and onto the stone floor almost two feet below.  They’ll be the death of us!”  He grinned at Ries.

Eli just nodded, “Mine tried, the new batch seem determined one up their elder siblings.”  There was a bit of a sad note in his voice mixed in with the pride.  “Anyway, we’d determined that we needed three fishing boats to have enough room to carry our goods, and that Captain Leon here can find us capable men with boats up to the task.”

Leon nodded. “I can, sure.  Do it myself if I hadn’t agreed to create a Navy for your company.  Soon as spring comes, we can head to the mainland.”

Eli and Marcus objected almost with one voice, “Spring?”

Leon nodded wisely, “Oh, of a surety.  Few are foolish enough to risk deep water in Winter.  The Mer-Elves war and raiding season is in the winter.  Only war ships, and on in desperate need, risk deep water before the Ides of March.”

Eli’s first reaction was ‘Mer-Elves, RIGHT!  Pull the other one, except he saw the serious look on Ries face and decided it was foolish to make assumptions when sitting at the table with a bonafide wizard.  Instead he asked, “Leon, you saw the mess at last Fall Festival, are they really something WE should be concerned with?”

Ries interjected, “He’s right.  High end mages can generally get a ship through these attacks.  I would not be considered one of these, even if I didn’t already have three lifetimes’ worth of projects to do, that ties me to the island for the foreseeable future.  They generally attack your boat from under the water.  You can’t outrun them, and you can’t really attack them through the bottom of your boat, so they go unchallenged for the most part.   No one has ever managed to capture a living one.  So no one knows for a certainty why the spring arrives and the attacks cease as suddenly as they began.”

Eli frowned, deep in thought for a moment, and then a wolfish grin crossed his face... “They are in the water you say?  I’ll need a week in my workshop to prepare.  Mer-Elves won’t be a problem.”  He just chuckled, and picked up a clay tile and small charcoal from the fireplace and laughed as he did calculations. “Yeah no problems at all.”

◆◆◆

Among the original crew and their close companions, who went and who stayed was lively debate, revised, and re-re-revised, more than a dozen times before the critical launch date of the third day of the new year.  In the end, as much because of the necessity of various projects already underway as anything else, it was Eli, John, and Evita who boarded the three small fishing boats.   One each to operate the “special surprise” in the event they were accosted by the denizens of the deep, as the sailors all swore was all but assured this time of year.

The captains had all assured them, a day and a half from losing sight of the island, to gaining it again.  From there it was simply sailing along the coast until you found the city.  They all said it was large enough that you couldn’t miss it.  Eli couldn’t help but ask, “If they are so close, why have they not brought the island under their control?”

The old captain laughed. “Whatever for?   Sail all the way out to us... to get fish?  What have we got?”

Eli looked at him grimly. “What is in the hold of your boat?  What is so heavy, we needed three boats just to carry it?  What is on this boat, that could buy this boat a dozen times over?  What could they want, indeed?  Perhaps you should keep that in mind while you’re in port.  I don’t think having the City of Xis send us a governor and a tax collector, and put an end to us sharing the wealth with you, in favor of taking it for himself, would sit will with your neighbors...”

The humor had died on the old man’s face early in the statement as his mind made the connections. The sour expression that replaced it filled Eli with a lot more confidence.  “Good to see we agree.”  Eli continued calmly.  “I’d rather we didn’t go straight to the large city but a mid-sized, subordinate one perhaps?  We can hire carts to carry us into the city by land.”   Seeing the look of concern on the captain’s face, Eli only smiled.  “This was in our plans all along.  We don’t expect to return before spring, we expect to spend some time setting up future trades, and it is better if they think us coming from far away to do it.  If we need you to come back for us, Marcus will contact you when the time is right.”  Eli just gave him a confident, knowing grin, and the old man blinked twice.  He didn’t understand how, but if Eli said he could do something, this man would not doubt him on it.

◆◆◆

The weather had been beautiful for sailing.  They had made good time, and it was only the experienced sailors who were truly scared as night settled in...  Then as the experienced sailors had all warned, the pre-dawn watch called out his warning as the boats all rocked violently as there were multiple heavy impacts to the wood of the hull.

Evita was not a morning person under the best of conditions.  Sleeping in small cramped quarters with a half a dozen smelly fishermen wasn’t the best of conditions.   Nor was the dried dandelion root and sideritis leaves adequately replacing her Starbucks addiction, and she hadn’t even had that.  So when a couple of terrified fishermen abruptly shook her awake because a couple of over testosterone fish-man assholes wanted to play ‘who is king of the high seas’, she rotated the bar with the electrodes into the water with satisfaction.  She flipped back the safety cover, and the small boat shook again.  She was really getting pissed.  In her mind she envisioned a bunch of lobsters with Jordan Peterson faces on them being dropped in a pot of boiling water, as she gleefully pulled closed the big Frankenstein looking knife switch.  Unlike the movies, there were no sparks or flashes.  Even the faint hum of the fully charged capacitors scavenged from the wreck, releasing in excess of several million volts of electricity into the surrounding water, was lost in the noise of the ongoing attack.  What Evita remembered was the almost instant quiet after.

Then chaos erupted.  Bodies began floating to the surface.  The fishermen were quickly getting hooks or nets lodged into their shark skin harnesses or shell and bone armor, then dumping them, often still twitching unceremoniously onto the deck.  “Tie them well.” She ordered.  “Unless they are exceptionally weak, they aren’t likely to be dead, just stunned for a bit.  I wouldn’t want them waking up later and causing trouble, or getting away to call more friends to help.”

The fishermen didn’t need to be cautioned twice on that score.  While they were impressed with their victory, they were far from over confident.  They knew that they were not the masters of this domain, and given the opportunity, the creatures they were now binding with rope would gladly make fish food of them, as they had so many before.   So in short order they stripped the captives of their gear, bound them tightly, hand and foot, then gagged and bags placed over their heads for good measure.

Immediate crisis averted and the sun now risen high enough she could see that a similar process was happening on the decks of each of the other boats.  She sighed a bit in relief as she turned back to overseeing her own prisoners.  She was struck by their appearance.  These were not fish people like she had imagined in her anger.  Striped of the admittedly ferocious looking armor and wicked barbed weapons made of intricately carved shell or bone, they looked like teenage boys.  Her mind groped for something from her old life as a frame of reference, skinny goth kid wasn’t quite right but they were all very pale, and thin wasn’t quite right, but certainly lean, with long dark hair that seemed to dry almost instantly once they were out of the water.  They reminded her of gymnasts, or... her still sleep fogged brain supplied. ‘duh, an Olympic swim team perhaps dummy?  Aren’t you supposed to be the smart one?’ She told the little voice to ‘shut up’, and at the practically feline little ‘sniff’ in reply that Evita could swear was almost audible. She continued, ‘and go get me some coffee bitch!’.

Unsurprisingly, she found that even winning an argument with yourself didn’t bring the satisfaction you thought it would in that moment you were being so savage.  A lot of arguments were like that she thought. Ries confused and hurt expression floated before her mind’s eye briefly before the white hot fire of her anger at the memory of his lies and betrayal seared her conscience clean of any such doubts.  As her resolve hardened again and she found the strength of her own dignity, her eyes fell upon the last of the prisoners as they were trussing him up.  “Not that one.  Just his hands and feet.  He seems to have had the fancier stuff. I bet he was the one in charge.  Look, he’s also the first one who’s waking up.  Don’t gag him, I want to see if I can get some fucking answers!”

The fishermen looked nervously at each other.  None of them knew this woman well, though she had the reputation of being the one with a temper.  They had never heard, nor heard of, her using any foul language.  They just complied with her orders and were glad that they were not this poor bastard.  Two hours of asking questions and issuing  threats had only gained Evita an impassive blank stare.  He hadn’t even made eye contact, just focused his eyes on a fixed point somewhere out on the horizon and didn’t give any sign he was aware anything else existed.

The rage swept over her again.  How dare he ignore her!  How dare he lie to her!  She balled up her fist, and she punched him with all of her might.  As her knuckles impacted the soft tissues of his face, she felt them give way before her.  That was until they encountered hard bone and muscle.  The impact hurt her hand.  She pulled it back with a look of shock and a gasp of pain as she shook it to try to relieve the shooting pains.  She looked up through the tears that were gathering in her eyes and threatening to fall, and that’s when she saw it.  At first her mind refused to register it, but it was definitely there!  The BASTARD!  The voice in the back of her mind screeched!  Then she realized SHE was actually screeching, but she didn’t care!  Two hours of not even acknowledging her presence!  When she hit him so hard that she was pretty sure she actually broke something in her own hand, he didn’t even have the decency to flinch!  The only sign he showed that she had hit him at all was a small trickle of blood, from the tiniest of cuts that barely marked his perfectly chiseled lip.  Oh, but that lip now dared to curl in a mocking smirk of amusement and scorn!  This son of a bitch thinks he can just sit there and calmly laugh at me! That voice in her mind screamed at volumes she hadn’t heard it reach since that humiliating day in Ries home when his betrayal and feigned ignorance had mocked her.

She might not have been able to do anything to him. He had all the power.  Like men always do.  Not this time, asshole, she thought.  This time, I own you.  I will break you.  You will learn.  The voice hissed in her mind and Evita took strength from it; she seized one of the long wooden hooked rods that the fishermen had on deck for pulling in the nets, and with both hands, and with a swing that would have made Joe DiMaggio or Barry Bonds swell with pride, she squeezed both eyes shut tight and connected right with the middle of his forehead.  She felt the rod vibrate in her already sore hand, but she didn’t care. The dull thunk of it hitting his head, and of him hitting the deck barely registered in her rage soaked mind.

She took a deep, shuddering breath.  In English she hoarsely whispered, “I’m the one with the power now mother fucker!” and she brought the rod down again on the unconscious mans back.  And again.  And again. And... it was stuck in the air?  She whirled around. The boat’s captain had come up behind her and caught the rod with one hand.  Her anger flared anew, and her eyes narrowed.

The crew all feared for their captain, but the captain was calm as a bathtub when he spoke before she could vent her anger on him.  “I don’t care how much you want to beat the bastard.  Kill him for all I care. He planned as much for the lot of us.  Can you do it with something else?  My grandson made me this hook for my birthday, I’d not like to lose it.”

Evita stopped.  The insanity of the whole situation suddenly hit her all at once.  She broke into gales of laughter.  She released the rod to the captain.  “My apology to you and your grandson.  Ah-hm,” she smoothed her clothes and straightened her posture, realizing that she must have looked every inch the mad woman. “With my compliments on the, uh, sturdiness of his craftsmanship.  Would you please bag him now Captain, oh and if you could, find a place to hang him upside down.  No reason he should be too comfortable when he wakes up.”  She looked around at the rest of the crew. “I’m making a fresh pot of what passes for coffee these days. Anyone else like a cup?”

Not particularly fond of the vile brew, but not eager to offend. They all agreed that they were delighted to join her in a mug.

Making an Impression

The agreed upon story was, they were distant merchants who had been lost in a storm.  They weren’t completely certain of where they were.  Then shipwrecked.  These fine fishermen had simply been handsomely bribed to risk life and limb to take them and their limited remaining cargo to civilization, so that they could establish trade and figure out how to link back up with home.

The fishing boat captains handled docking fees with grumbling, but the port officials were used to that.  What they weren’t expecting were foreign boats of any kind this time of year.  Especially small craft such as these.  The furor that went up once the unloading began was unlike anything the admittedly small but thriving port city had experienced in more than a generation.

A warrior, in armor unlike any known to be used by of the regional powers, caught their attention first.  The boy, child really, perhaps his son?  Obviously of the Nobility, who else could dress in such finery, and who else would arm a child with such weapons any warrior would carry with pride?  The lady joining them was obviously nobility as well.  Whispers from the growing crowd could be heard. Just look at how she easily orders the fishermen as if they were her maid staff, and where were such things in fashion?  Have you ever seen the like?  This alone would have caused a stir.  The crates that took four straining fishermen to move, though they weren’t overly large, could only be metal of some sort.  Even if it were only copper, fifty crates of it?!  It is a fortune. No wonder they needed the warrior.  What if it is the exotic metal that makes up his armor?  No, that couldn’t be, could it?  Look, even the child is directing the unloading!  Doing it well at that!  Ha, not his first time I should think.  What is in that pile there?  Is that armor?  Can’t be it looks like sea shells.   Who would bring those for trade, you can pick them off any beach?

Full pandemonium broke out, when the twenty-nine Mer-elf captives, hobbled and tied, were marched up the pier and forcibly knelt in a group just as if they were only one more casual pile of goods.  Mer-elves were not unknown, at least by reputation, but seeing a live mer-elf and not dying was a rare boast, seeing twenty-nine mer-elf PRISONERS ready to be marched to the slave block?  Unheard of!  “Was this warrior the legendary Hercules himself?” one bystander wondered aloud.  “No less than Achilles!” another responded.

As was planned, all eyes were on them.  The boat captains could give their story, plead ignorance, and resupply.  John called them all together one last time as Eli discussed with the Dock Master about arranging adequate transportation from a local caravan to continue their journey to Xi.  John motioned them closer so that they would not be overheard.  “Ok, is everyone clear on how the new weapon works?”  He made eye contact with each of them to be certain.  He wanted no losses on their journey home without him.  Wolfish grins accompanied all the nods.  Reminding them to keep a low profile, he motioned to the pile with the bales of pre-spun yarn in it and then quietly said, “You know what to do.  Once back, Syria is staying with her father.  She’ll take charge of them from there.  Keep your men under control. I know this isn’t your custom, but they will end up your new neighbors and any resentment you can avoid, you want to.  Who knows who’s wife one of these girls will end up as.  Know what I mean?”  Again, serious frowns accompanied by nods of understanding.

The Captains then departed, giving orders to their men.  Hauling away their “payment”, heading straight for the slave market.  They would be returning to the island with the morning tide, carrying a full cargo of young women between the ages of fourteen and seventeen.  Eli had taken the complaints of the young men of the island to heart.  With the arrival of wealthy strangers decimating the available dating pool, offering to exchange these young women’s rather bleak future for one that at least potentially could be a little brighter and more stable seemed the best solution.  Georgia and Evita had both been uncomfortable with the solution, but they were more uncomfortable with the girl’s current condition, so had in the end agreed it was the best of poor options.  John wasn’t really all that certain the option was that bad. After all, in this society, many women had arranged marriages, and it seemed to work, no matter how strange it may seem to their American eyes.  He pushed the whole affair out of his mind as he rejoined Eli and Evita. It was up to the boat captains now, and Syria, when they got back to the island. He had his own job to do.  Mostly to make certain that they were so flashy that no one paid any attention to a few small fishing boats slipping off back into the early morning light, or where they were going.

Eli had just exchanged roughly four pounds of bronze trade ingots that they had smelted from the ram of the warship that had attacked during the Fall Festival last year for space on the next caravan, leaving in two days for the City of Xi.  The fee included secure storage for their good, including their as yet unbranded slaves, leaving them free to seek lodgings for the next two days.

They had taken no more than a dozen steps when a young boy runs up pantingly out of breath, calling out to them far before he had gotten close.  Again, they felt all eyes turn upon them.  The boy, maybe twelve or thirteen, caught his breath. “Please good nobles, wait here but a few moments longer. My master, the Lord Governor of Venn Provence, has sent his chief butler to meet with you.  Being one of lesser dignity myself,” he grinned at them, “it was thought that they should send ahead me so that his arrival would not alarm you.”

“Lesser dignity,” John said, returning the boy’s grin. “Could still run you mean?”

The boy blushed furiously.  “I... The lord butler is always eager for our Master’s business, but it would be unseemly for him to run.”

Eli suppressed a grin. Watching the boy try to be sure that nothing he said could be considered disrespectful.  “I’m quite certain we understand.  We shall be pleased to await his...” Eli trailed off momentarily. The line of white linen canopied sedan chairs were making quite the scene coming through the streets approaching their location.  Six in total, each large enough to comfortably carry four persons and carried by twelve large men in identical clothing.  “Arrival.” he concluded with a nod to the procession.  John’s eyes bulged just a bit, and Evita could be heard making a bit of a strangled sort of cough.

Once the procession came to a stop, three richly dressed men, heavy with jewelry got out and approached.  Before they got close enough for Eli to hear exactly what they said, the one on the right, Eli looked at him closer and his eyes boggled. The man was wearing what looked like it was a tallit!  Oh, it wasn’t as formally styled as those he was familiar with but it met all the basic requirements right down to the blue thread in each of the corners that were no longer used because the right kind of ‘blue’ had been lost to history.  Could it be that there were other Jews in this world as well?  There were other Greeks after all he reasoned, yet still he just had always assumed he and the Roths would be the only three since no one on the island seemed to know what a Jew was.  After conversing with the others for a brief moment, they hesitate and he approaches alone.

“I am the Lord Governor’s private physician, Arial ben Yoseph ben Dan.  I am to do a quick examination to protect everyone’s health.  May I?”  In this question he ignored Eli but after receiving nods of acceptance he turned to Eli and asked in what to Eli’s ears was an oddly accented Hebrew, “You are a son of Israel?”

Eli who’s eyes had boggled at the physician’s name replied in response, “Eliyahu ben David Ben Yehuda”

The physician’s eyes shot to Eli’s face the startled look obvious before he went back to his mask, “Are our words understood?” he looked meaningfully at John and Evita.   When Eli shook his head as if answering a medical question, the man nodded. “Who is in charge?”

Eli raised an eyebrow quizzically at him. “I am” then watched again as if the poor man looked like he was trying to hide the fact that he was about to have a stroke.

“That will never do.  You do not know the laws here regarding our people.  The boy, can he be trusted?”

“With my life.”

“Ahh, that is a rare gem.  He is in charge then.  Explain it to him when I return to the others.  You may be an advisor, but more will be problematic for you.  Later though, yes later we must speak, we have much to discuss you and I ben Yehuda!” the old physician said the last, almost as if whispering a prayer.  Eli was confused. The man claimed to be of the Tribe of Dan.  That was an odd thing in and of itself.  Dan was one of the so called ten lost tribes.  Lost into exile when carried off by the Assyrian Empire thousands of years ago, but to be this excited about seeing a Jew, a man from the tribe of Judah?  On Earth they were almost the only tribe left, so much so that son of Israel, and Jew had become synonymous in common parlance.

Eli had no more time to think it over at this point.  The physician was done with his “examinations,” declaring everyone non-contagious and going back to deliver the news to the other dignitaries.  Eli spoke quickly in English. “The Doc there says these people are a bunch of anti-Semitic bastards, and since I didn’t bring enough powder and shot for fifty thousand of them this time, you’re in charge, John. You can ask me whatever you want as an advisor, but you’re the company’s chief representative.  Got it?”

Evita’s blood boiled, “Sure better a child, after all at least he has a penis!” she hissed.

Eli wasn’t in the mood, but at least she had said it in English.  He snapped at her. “I gotta deal with it, so do you!  Suck it up, buttercup.  This is their world, and if we want a shot at changing it, we’re going to need to not pick a fight we can’t win.  At least not until we’re ready.  I’ll be happy to feed them their livers if they deserve it but damn it we need more information, and more resources, if we’re going to live through it!”

Evita wasn’t happy, but she knew he was right.  Besides, they were too close now for the argument to continue.  The butler approached and introduced himself, and the third man who accompanied them the liaison to the area’s various trade guilds.  The butler was there to extend to them the governor’s invitation to be his guest at the palace for their stay in town, and to dine with him this evening as his honored guests.

It wasn’t really what they had hoped for, but the opportunity was too much to pass up, and since it wasn’t really the kind of invitation one could refuse...  Eli took out one of the ivory daggers that he had taken from the mer-elves, it was very fine handiwork.  The blade had rich symbolic mother-of-pearl inlay. That was most likely some form of Elven magic that he was unfamiliar with, and the pommel and quillons were both adorned with fine pearls.  Eli handed it to John, and said to him in English, “Accept, tell him it is an honor, and send this back as your gift to the governor.  If nothing else it should buy us a bit of good will.”  Eli had set aside a small pile of such little plunder as bribes/“gifts” for greasing the wheels as needed.  He couldn’t be sure but in places like this, that was commonly “just how business was done.”  The way the butler’s eye’s lit up as he took possession of the blade, Eli was fairly certain he had gotten it right.  Now wasn’t the time for it, but he needed to assess just the right sized “gift” for the butler as well.  Too big and rather than loyalty it could inspire greed, too small and you risk offending by implying they could be bought cheaply, or that you didn’t truly value their worth.  Perhaps he would get the chance to speak more with this Ariel ben Yoseph and be able to understand more of what they were up against.  This was turning out more complicated than he had thought it would be.

The additional sedan chairs were there to offer them comfortable conveyance to the governor’s palace.  So much for seeing the sights, Eli thought as they were split up for the ride back.  He with Ariel, John with the Guild liaison, and Evita was escorted by the butler himself.  Eli was a bit concerned. With Evita’s recent frame of mind, and current level of magical understanding, they could find themselves trying to explain a parboiled butler over an ill-advised attempt to cop a feel.  Unfortunately, there was nothing to be done for it at the moment.

The ride back wasn’t as productive as any of them had hoped for.  The butler only wanted to discuss Evita’s dress, saying that she was likely to start a new fashion trend in Xi if she were presented to court.  He seemed to think she would care about such things.  John was no less frustrated. The Guilds liaison didn’t want to talk about product, or trade or even current prices, but rather Guild memberships and which his company was associated with.  He seemed to find it very confusing that they would deal with both yarn and metals and building trades.  Something about conflicting guilds and difficulties involved with doing business without the proper guild support in his chosen industry.

Probably the most frustrated though was Eli.  To him Ariel represented no less than a dozen major question marks.  Israelite, but not Jewish.   Tribe of Dan, yet surprised to see one from the tribe of Judah.  Seems to be this Governor’s “court Jew” to use the medieval Earth term, yet now that they seemed to have the opportunity to talk, he just gave a meaningful glance at the slaves carrying the sedan chair and shook his head subtly, and spoke only in Greek and kept his topics casual and benign.  He neither clarified the situation, nor if, in fact they were being spied upon, did he try to use their assumed connection to press him for details to curry favor with his handlers.  This confused Eli.  Any other course of action he could have understood and calculated the angles. This simply left him confused.  Eli didn’t like being confused.  Ariel only smiled placidly at him as he continued to make small talk.  It was only as they rose to leave that Eli was surprised when Ariel stumbled and fell into him.  He cursed the litter bearer loudly and apologized to Eli profusely.  Eli studiously kept his face calm as he accepted the apology not letting on for an instant his elation at the feeling of the small wedge of paper, now tucked inside the breastplate of his armor.

◆◆◆

They were shown to their rooms and allowed time to rest before their audience with the governor that evening, before dinner. The rooms were lavish. Servants were everywhere.  Only their confidence in not being understood in English allowed them anything approaching actual privacy.  While they did not confiscate their weapons, they were informed that other than for John, who’s noble dignity would demand that he not be disarmed, they deemed it unnecessary for anyone else.  The Governor would provide all necessary security during their stay.  This didn’t sit well with Eli’s Texan sensibilities.  Even Evita was uncomfortable with how uncomfortable she was about being told to go disarmed and as a general rule she disapproved of being armed.  Fortunately, it didn’t really matter.  Much of what they carried for weaponry, the powerful stuff anyway, wouldn’t be recognized as such easily.  Small improvised grenades, smoke bombs, and a half a dozen other incendiaries, explosive, or chemical weapons.  No, they hadn’t made mustard gas, but some quick lime that with only the addition of some water will generate enough heat to melt through the central barrier separating the two parts.  Eli didn’t know which of a dozen different reactions it was the Roths were using in this thing, but when they said plant it, wet it and run.  Eli did smile slightly at that memory. He was glad that the Roth’s were on their side.

Obtaining what privacy he could muster by use of carefully placed furniture and piles of his own armor, Eli opened the small note and fought the urge to swear.  While he was confident that the message was in Hebrew which he read fluently, it was not written it the familiar script used by Jews around the world since the Babylonian captivity, but rather in the earlier more pictographic characters of what linguists called Proto-Siniatic Hebrew similar but even earlier than what was used by the Samaritans.  This alone lent credence to wild theories that Eli didn’t dare to let himself seriously entertain.  It wasn’t a simple task, and he got no rest before their audience with the Governor.  He began by converting the simple characters that were obvious, and those that he could remember with ease.  Then he moved to those which could be reasonably discerned after some careful study.  Then looked for what would make familiar words that fit into the context he had from the message. This was not easy as the lack of vowel points meant that the same spelling could mean different words depending on which vowels were intended.  However, by the time he had dressed and was ready to depart for their meeting, he had converted the entire message into modern Hebrew script.  A text that he was confident now, in this entire world, only he and the Roths could read.  He tucked away this valuable information, frustrated that it would do him no good until they arrived in Xi, and destroyed the original copy lest it be discovered by the spies that Ariel confirmed were in fact watching his every move.

The Governor met with them in his garden.  John had to admit the place was beautiful.  He couldn’t imagine the amount of man hours that went into keeping it in this condition.  The construction of the place as well would have been labor intensive as all hell.  Thinking of their place back on the island that he had taken such pride in, he couldn’t help feeling a bit awed by the splendor.  In a quiet moment, he mentioned this to Eli as a whisper in English.  Probably a little louder than he should have, Eli responded, “Quantity has a quality all of its own.”

Over hearing him, the Governor asked what they said.  So they admitted they were admiring his gardens and the labor that went into keeping them up.  Trying to compare it to the production capacity of their company’s facilities and the labor force employed there.  The Governor only nodded.  He didn’t exactly look convinced, so Eli continued.  “We noticed that you seem to lack some of the agricultural machines that our company produces that greatly increase the productivity of each worker.  The young Master was impressed that in the absence of those machines such splendor was still achieved.  I reminded him of the words of a military commander from our ancient history, who when confronted with an enemy who had far superior weapons.  He fought them to a standstill, by the simple expedient of feeding them the lives of most of his nation’s people.”

The Governor’s eyes went wide.  “So, he succeeded in saving his nation then?”

Eli shrugged. “Only for a little over one generation.  See he had been the aggressor in the conflict, he could have sued for peace at any time, yet he did not.  His nation never really recovered from the loss of so much of its manpower, eventually it simply collapsed because it could no longer do the work of taking care of itself.  Not enough people to share the burden.”  Eli knew he was playing fast and loose with the story, but he hoped that the Governor was getting the picture.  If he wanted to fight, Eli would make sure it cost him.

The meeting went fairly smoothly.  The official story was told and at least officially accepted.  Letters of introduction offered for the Royal Court in Xi, as well as to select members of their legislature.  Evita was quickly getting the impression that this was a nation ran by the Guilds.  Eli was figuring out that trade as such wasn’t the main game, though.  Guild Masters had more or less figured out a racket to get the most out of the average man on the street, but the concept of trade between cities wasn’t so much of a thing, at least not in any organized manner.  The big exchanges between cities happened on the battlefield, and as such always had the full backing of the various guilds.   So every summer after planting was over the wars would begin.  Stylized combat that had relatively light casualties of around six to seven percent on the losing side, and four or five percent for the winning side.  No cities sacked, no farms burned.  Mostly just the occasional siege, which usually just served to drive up prices for the common people.  The more Eli heard the less impressed he was, but he schooled his face to remain neutral.   It was too soon for acting, now was the time for learning.  Act before they were ready and nothing would ever improve.

Xi, City of Splendor and Squalor

Arriving in Xi proper was eye opening.  The city had a large port; it was divided into a civilian section that was outside of walls, and a naval section that was inside.  A bustling merchants’ quarter where a wide selection of goods were available for those with the coin to pay.  On either side of the merchants’ district were residential sections of the city.   Up hill, toward the walled off area leading to the inner city the houses progressively became more and more impressive until bordering right up against the wall were the actual “Guild Halls” and a high dollar shopping area where only the most wealthy merchants, and the nobility from the inner city area could afford to shop.

As you went on the other side of the Merchant’s Quarter, you’d find the humble homes of the city’s free working class.  Progressively, as you went down the hill toward the marshy area at the base of the wall that was designated as the Barbarian Quarter.  Eli knew a ghetto when he saw one.  He didn’t mean an American slum; he meant a European style ghetto, like Prague or Warsaw, lept to mind.  To his surprise, while they required bene Yisrael to register and live in the Barbarian Quarter, they weren’t who it was designed for, nor its largest ethnic group.   The place was packed with Dwarves, Gnomes, halfling, Beastmen of various clans, even he was amazed to see a few elves.  Not mer-elves. His arrival with them on a leash caused quite the stir again.   Damn near caused a parade.

Given the legal situation, they decided to get everyone settled in the most expensive of the lodgings.  Their wares could fit with a little effort in their rooms.  Only the mer-elves could not be kept at the hotel.  They were set up for domesticated slaves, not hostile prisoners of war yet to be broken to the lash, as the manager put it.  Knowing that he would need to seek lodgings in the Barbarian Quarter anyway, Eli hired a couple of local toughs to assist him in driving his small herd to the other side of town.  Considering the bragging rights involved, the men didn’t hold out for much in the way of payment.  The price of a couple mugs of stale ale, and he had them well in hand.

The one eyed old dwarf whistled in surprise when he saw Eli’s line of mer-elves.  “I’d heard it.  I had no believed.  No til’ now!”  He walked around inspecting each one.  “Fine price I’ll get you fer ‘em too!  Say, split the cut fifty fifty?”

Eli sighed deeply as he let his inner Texan show through, “I don’t really much believe in the slave trade myself, but in Texas there’s a sayin’, ‘If you try to kill me, I’m gonna kill you right back.’ These murderin’ bastards tried, and it didn’t work out so well for ‘em.  So’s I figure anything that happens to them that keeps ‘em above the ground is my merciful nature, which by now I’m sure is wearin’ mighty thin.”  He looked the dwarf dead in his existing eye and let all humor and tone drop out of his voice as it dropped an octave, “Care to hear our sayin’ about swindlers and thieves?”

To his credit, the old dwarf just broke out into a broad and as much as Eli hated to admit it charming grin, then with a chuckle said, “Customary commission is twenty percent, but having this rare of an item, is only going to boost my reputation, and I do like your style, so fifteen percent for you.”

Eli snorted and nodded, “Agreed ten percent.” The dwarfs face wrinkled, but Eli continued.  “On all but two of them.  One you’ll clean up and deliver as a gift to the palace.  I’ll leave contact details for who to contact etc with your man on my way out.  That exposure direct to the crown is worth the extra five percent alone.” Not giving him time to argue, Eli continued on, “The other, hell I’m tempted to just kill the poor bastard out of mercy, but Evita wants him.”  Eli pointed out the one.  He pulled from a bag one of the iron ingots and handed it to the dwarf, “collar and cuffs made for him.  If you need help working on that material, let me know, I can show you some when I have time.”  The dwarf looked insulted.

“Have trouble working the material!” he snorted loudly.

“Have you ever used iron before?”  Eli asked.  Truth be told, half of his purpose in getting the collar made is to introduce the metal.

“No, but it’s metal.  I can smell it.  I’m a dwarf.  Of course I can work it.”  he is feeling it as he splutters along, rubbing it softly, “fine material at that, hmm...”  To Eli’s surprise he actually licks the bar and raises both eyebrows in surprise.  “Da’ya ha’ anymore?”

Eli grinned at him.  “It’s not cheap, you know.  Trade you one to one for gold.”

“Bah... gonna ha’e to learn that sayin’ about swindlers and thieves. I am...” he grinned at Eli.

Eli laughed, too. “You’re right, it’s not that bad and I like you, but it isn’t cheap.  Three to one with bronze, ten to one with silver, and two hundred to one with gold.  That price is good only if it is you and me in the middle of the ocean swapping it on boats with no one else getting a cut.  Understand.”  Eli looked him dead in the eye.

The dwarf nodded distractedly, still contemplating the metal.  “Alright, ten percent fer ya this time.”  He nodded and began walking away, muttering to himself.  All Eli could make out was, “Hrm, Iron...”

◆◆◆

The sun was low on the horizon when Eli had finally seen to everyone else.  Finally, it was time for him to find a place for him to stay.  He had questions that had been burning his mind ever since meeting Ariel ben Yoseph three days ago, but he had been trudging around in full armor all day.  He did not trust his foggy mind to be clear enough to honestly evaluate any answers it might give him at this point.  Eli had just determined that he would find any room for the night, and simply seek his answers in the morning.  He turned to say so to the young man he had hired to haul his baggage when he saw a sight that was both alien and familiar.  It wasn’t how even the Orthodox did it back home, much less what his far from Orthodox practices had been, but he recognized it instantly all the same.  He looked at the sun. Less than an hour before it set, he was torn.  “Where is the nearest place to rent a secure room?” he demanded of the young porter.

The abruptness of the question startled the boy, he hesitated for only a moment, “Uh, secure, in this part of town?  The Slain Orc is your best bet.  My cousin runs it.  Do not haggle the price of the room, and tip the doorman.  Anything you leave in the room will be there when you return.”

Eli nodded. “Thank you.  Take me quickly.  Time is important now.”

The young man struggling under the weight of the heavy pack took off at a fast walk. In his armor, Eli found it took an effort to keep up. Still, true to his word, the Slain Orc was not far.  Eli dropped a block of trade bronze on the bar. The bartender’s eyes went wide. It was several times what the room was worth.  Eli explained that he needed it for two days at least, he needed it in a hurry, and he needed it secure.  He didn’t have change so please see to the doorman for him.  The bar keep looked to the porter, then nodded to Eli.  The room wasn’t much, but it seemed mostly in good order as such things were counted.  Shedding his armor as fast as he could, and dressing in his most basic tunic, Eli told the boy there would be more work for him in two days if he was here for it, and he left the room after barring the door at just short of a dead run.

He made it to the little curtained area down by the river bank.  The sun was in the process of setting, but the last of the line had not made it through.  Eli dove for the back of the line still panting from the run.  For the first time, he knew now what day it was.  This was Friday evening.  His people were doing the mikvah. The sabbath was close at hand.  He did not know if they had a synagogue, or how they chose to celebrate the sabbath here, but for the first time in over a year, he knew he was doing it on the right day, with the rest of his people.  He felt the emotions rising as he moved along the line.  Those gathered with him looked at him a bit strangely.  They obviously didn’t recognize him, and it was obvious that his community was small enough that they knew they should.

He went into the water.   They relaxed. He obviously knew the ritual, so obviously he belonged.  When he came up, the emotions were overwhelming... As he went under again, he thought of the family he left on Earth.  On the next, he thought of the children on the island, in the next he thought of his wives, their faith in him and his overwhelming responsibility.  He stayed under an extra minute trying to collect himself. As he came out of the water this time, he found himself facing an elderly man with a long white beard and concerned eyes.  “Son, are you alright?”

Eli let out a bit of a strangled, choked laugh.  “I’ll be fine.  It has been a long time since I could be with others who share my faith... and this has been a very long and trying week...”  He took a deep breath and stood up straight, collecting himself.  “Sorry.  None of this is your concern.  Thank you.”  He smiling a bit sadly.  “I will be fine now.  I... I just...”

The kind old man smiled. “Do you have somewhere to eat this Shabbat evening?”

Eli shook his head, “Wouldn’t want to intrude.”

The old man’s eyes brightened and his smile widened. “Nonsense!  Abraham’s tent was open, and it was a blessing for him.  Allow me this same mitzvah?”

Eli decided he liked the old man, so still dripping water, he agreed and began to dry off.  Dressing again in the plain woolen tunic and belting it around himself.  He followed the old man to a very dilapidated old building.  The sound of the crowd inside could be heard from the street as the last light was fading from the horizon.

Once inside, the bizarre combination of exotic and familiar again struck Eli.  The old man turned to him. “I haven’t yet asked, How do I introduce you?”

“I am Eliyahu ben Dovid ben Yehuda.”   He said calmly.  The old man looked sharply at him as if gaging to see if he were being deceitful, then slowly raising his eyebrows he led Eli into the midst of the swirling throng.

While Eli wasn’t at his most impressive, at least appearance wise, he was truly enjoying himself.  The meal was amazing.  They asked him his story, and he gave them a brief overview, leaving much out.  “Honestly, after Shabbat I have business to attend to here, and at that time, I’ll put forward a lot more information about myself, but because it is all business related, for tonight, if it is ok with my host?”  Eli looked to the kindly old man who had invited him, “I would just like to keep the Shabbat with you, with no concerns and considerations that business affairs will bring into it.”  Two of the younger men who had obviously not liked the fact that, as the unfamiliar face, Eli had been getting curious glances from some of the young women snorted.  Eli pretended as if he hadn’t noticed.

The old man smiled magnanimously. “You are my guest tonight.  Prince or Pauper it matters not.  Take your rest as the Creator showed us by His own example.”  While Eli was sure that the man wasn’t drunk, since the kaddish cup had passed early in the evening, the wine had flowed freely.  Most people seemed to be in that pleasant stage between sobriety and the first stages of impaired judgement.  Eli as well had noticed that a combination of the wine, the company, and familiar customs that were just exotic enough to not drown him in homesickness, had greatly reduced his tensions as well.  He found himself truly wishing his wives were here to experience this.  He had tried to create it for them, but alone, it had been difficult to project it properly for them to experience.  Perhaps one day... he thought lost for a moment in the pleasant prospect.

He was pulled out of his daydream when music began.  He noticed several of the men had pulled out various instruments and began to play.  As was common in the Orthodox circles he was familiar with the men began to dance, then in another group so did the women.  The music wasn’t familiar, but he found the themes were.  When the musicians took a moment to rest, he approached the man with a lute-like instrument.  “I’m not familiar with this, but it looks similar enough to an instrument that I do know where I come from. May I try it?”

The man only hesitated a moment before shrugging and handing it to Eli.  Eli played a scale. The tuning was slightly different, but not so much so that he thought it would make the music he could remember unpleasant.  So after a few basic experimental chords, he played from memory the three traditional liturgical songs he could remember.  Seeing that they seemed to go over well enough he moved on to HaTikvah which brought a hushed awe to the crowd.  Except for the two younger men who now seemed ready to explode.  Finally, out of music with Hebrew lyrics that he could play from memory, he settled in for Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.  It wasn’t really appropriate for the venue but knowing that they wouldn’t understand the English lyrics and the music was certainly beautiful; he played it anyway.

As expected, it went over very well.  Too well for the young men.  The obvious leader of the pair sneered at Eli, “So son of David, tribe of Judah,” he drew out these words letting everyone know exactly how much he believed any of it, “Who is a musician worthy to sooth even King Saul himself, are you also a shepherd as well?”  Gasps ran around the room.  Rudeness on this level to a guest was unheard of.

Eli smiled and stood, returned the instrument, thanking the owner for its loan.  The man accepted, insisting that sometime soon Eli would have to teach him this music.  Eli just nodded and said that time and opportunity allowing he would.  He then thanked his host, who was looking at the offending young man as if were considering more direct and drastic measures.  Eli, on the other hand simply, mentioned that he was grateful for the opportunity to meet everyone but that he needed to return to his hotel for sleep.  He made eye contact with the angry young man and smiled then nodded politely and made his way to the door.

◆◆◆

The Orc had been a lively place when Eli got back, but he decided to forgo any carousing.  He really had been tired, and with everything the weeks ahead held for them, he decided to sleep while he could.  He was a bit surprised at exactly how soundly he slept, because the banging on his door that woke him was John and Evita.  It was afternoon, and they had gotten concerned when they hadn’t been contacted by him.

He explained the situation, and after some good natured harassment, they decided to take this day just to get the lay of the land.  Walking half the city, letting Evita get some shopping done, and seeing the sights, wouldn’t have counted as resting in the eyes of the Orthodox back home. But Eli felt a weight come off his shoulders.  One day of just being more or less normal was pretty damn amazing after weeks of hard pushing that they had all done to get to this point.  They traded out some of the heavy trade bronze bars for lighter local coins that were smaller denominations, far more useful in the shops and street vendors.

For a port town, everything still seemed to be of relatively local manufacture.  Oh, if you compared it to the Island, this was practically a bustling metropolis with everything one could want.  If on the other hand, you compared it to even a small town in America, the selection of goods available was poor, and only of modest quality.  Even in the shopping area that was frequented by the nobles of the city, secluded up, in and among the guild halls, finding items imported from over five hundred miles away could be difficult, and were limited to not more than a couple dozen things.  Some of the items displayed great artistry and craftsmanship to be certain, but selection was a limited number of styles and designs.  Though as they were all handmade, no two were likely to be the same.   One simple perusal through the available fabrics for clothing, yes custom tailored at this level to be certain, assured Evita that if the Roth boys could ever get that Jacquard loom up and running right, it would be like spinning wool and linen into pure gold.

Over dinner, John brought Eli up to speed on things from their side.  They had set the radio up, and could receive voice over the little foxhole radio they had cobbled together to bring, and could send via morse code with the little spark gap transmitter they had built.  No one wanted to risk their modern electronics out away from home, but no one was certain this would work either.  Turns out both had plenty of range.

The fishermen had made it home with their cargo, plus another thirty-one mer-elf captives.  Seems that the mer-elves had tried to execute a rescue raid also injured two villagers before Marcus and Leon organized their new naval trainees and sent them packing.  They came back again two days later with reinforcements. But Marcus had a chance to get with the Roth brothers, and it seems that Sam started serving up Molotov cocktails and the party ended shortly after that.  Josh was working on some basic depth charges, and Ries was trying to get a locator spell to work to figure out where the mer-elf home was.

Eli was pissed.  Mostly at himself.  He had picked this fight, and now the others were having to fight it.  “John, get on the horn when you get back. Tell Marcus to drop two bombs.  Seemed to be the right number for world war two,”  Evita made a face, but John just felt a tight grin start to spread on his face.  “Then take one of those assholes that they’ve captured down to the cement plant.  See if you can get him to understand that if we have to drop anymore we’re going to load them with the quicklime.”  Seeing that neither John nor Evita understood, Eli sighed and tried to get the sick taste out of his mouth as he explained.  “It’s exothermic, and it’s powder.  If it disperses in the water it’ll muddy up their gills, all while burning like hell fire.  Their equivalent of breathing white phosphorus.  I want Marcus to be sure that this fucker understands.  Give him a taste of a chemical burn.  If he still don’t get it, put one of his buddies in a tank and drop a scoop or two in and make him watch the fucker suffer and die.”  Eli felt sick, but when Evita started to say something, he just shut her down. “No, I don’t like this!  I don’t WANT to do this, but I want these fuckers to get it, loud and clear, they’re playing with something that they’ve never experienced before.  This will kill their young, their old, women children, all of them.  Make sure the fucker understands if you can, that these orders are coming from the boss on the mainland so just over running the island won’t do him any good.  Then send him back to get someone who can talk to us.  Damn it, if we’ve got to just keep killing them until they get it, that’s a hell of a lot of bodies.  Though, if we don’t get someone, we can actually talk to, or if they violate any agreement they make with us, we give the depth charges loaded with quick lime to all the human navies and declare hunting season on the mer-elves.  Fuck with me, and they will be as rare in the sea as their brothers are on the land, promise him that!”

John looked a little spooked.  Evita shook her head. “Eli!  We can’t do that!  We’d be committing genocide!”

Eli looked at her, and the look in his eye made her shrink back in her chair. “After the week I’ve had, YOU are going to lecture me about genocide?”  He held eye contact until she looked away.  He then took a deep breath and said to John, “Tell Marcus to negotiate for hostages.  Nobles kids, important people etc....  and don’t look at me like that either of you!  If they are with us then, yes their people won’t attack us, but more importantly they learn about us.  They learn that as long as you’re not murderous bastards trying to sink our ships, we can get along just fine.  They also learn that if you are, we’re damn clever at coming up with ways of fixing problems, even fishy ones that like to hide at the bottom of the sea.”  He sighed.  “I need a drink.  Besides, the sun will be setting in a few hours and I should probably try to reach out to my contacts then.”

They said their goodbyes.  Eli could tell that Evita was pissed, but he didn’t care.  Her ivory tower ideas would get people killed.  She may not be able to form relationships, but damn it he had people he cared about on that island and if it meant scouring the sea bottom clean of every elf to keep them safe, that is what he would damn well do.  He just really hoped it wouldn’t come to that. He wasn’t a monster, after all.

Contacts and Consequences

Evita told John he would have to go back and plot genocide without her.  She couldn’t believe it. Military types take away civilian oversight and it’s not even been two years and they’ve already taken to corrupting native girls and are planning to wipe out civilian populations.   She decided she was going to spend her time more productively and went to the official Academy Arcane of Xi.

She noticed right away that she was out of place.  There were no women anywhere.  When she found the administration building, they were most unhelpful.  Her latest, reasonable objection to their misogynist rules was met with the administrator sending one of his assistants for the city guard.  That is when she heard a voice say, “Shh... Come with me...”  The boy couldn’t be more than fourteen or fifteen.   He wasn’t even old enough to shave, but he could learn. After all, he had a penis.  She thought angrily, but the guards would be here and then all the penises in her own group would lecture her... so she just followed the boy.  They got out of the main building that housed the library, admin offices, and first year class rooms.  Headed down a walkway to an ivy-covered wall that surrounded the courtyard of the school.  The boy looked around and, seeing no one paying attention, pushed the ivy aside and slid through a hole in the wall and out into an alleyway on the other side.  Carefully putting the ivy back in place, he turned around and said, “Hi, I’m Sandy.  Do you have the ability?  Have you been tested already?”

“I’m Evita, and yeah, I’m not bad for being new.”  Evita drew in her power and brought up a small fire ball in her hand just holding it there.

“Whoosh”  Sandy’s eyes got big. “Put that out!  What if someone saw you?  They don’t teach offensive magic even to students until their third year!  You are good, I’ll give you that though.”  The grin that appeared was real.  Evita let her concentration fade and the flames with it.  When she looked back to Sandy, the scholar’s robes were off and being tucked into a small hidden box there in the ally.  There gown under it, and yes Evita’s eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. It was a gown, and Sandy wasn’t a pre-pubescent boy, but rather an attractive young woman who had been working fairly hard to disguise that fact.  The scholar’s cap, that had been hiding her hair went into the little box as well, and once it was closed, if you didn’t know to look for it you probably would never notice it.

“So, Evita, it’s getting kinda late. I have to get back home before my husband realizes I’m gone.  If you want to find out how we study anyway, meet me back here tomorrow, mid morning.  I can’t get you into the library yet, but I can take you to meet some of the others, so you can share with them.”  Her eyes twinkled mischievously.

Evita looked at her in surprise. “Uh, ok?  If you know magic, why not just tell your husband?”

It was Sandy’s turn to look at her in shock. “He would have me before the tribunal, before sunset!  I have to go, I’ll give him no excuse to accuse me today....”

Evita found she was just sort of numbly watching Sandy’s back as the young woman wove her way through the crowd. “Accuse her of what...?” she couldn’t help but wonder.

◆◆◆

Eli returned to the Slain Orc in a foul mood.  This business with the mer-elves was a wrinkle he didn’t need added to trying to do business with a bunch of bigoted bastards.  He tossed a loose copper he had in his pouch to the doorman as he headed to his room.  Yeah, he’d already tipped the man, but keeping the man who watched your gear while you were away happy with you was always an excellent investment.

In his room he pulled out his “business suit”, as he thought of it.  True, it was still just a relatively simple Viking style woolen tunic, however once his wives learned of knot work, they left no inch unadorned.  Traditionally Greek women would put some needlework on their man’s clothes, announcing to the world that he was cared for.  Among the lower classes this was usually small, simple pieces, done with little bits of left over thread, lovingly done in stolen moments of the already way too busy work day.  The working classes would obviously have time for a little more, and often with a little decorative yarn, dyed especially for decoration.  Wealthy nobles or merchants of course bought it richly done directly from the tailors or had slaves spend many hours on it, but even so, at least some small portion was still always done by their own wives as a point of pride.  It is one tradition that made Eli so certain that the effort being put into the Jacquard loom was worth it.  The dyes available on the island had also been of poor quality until the tar refining and access to his own re-enactment research gave them recipes for coal-tar dyes that they were able to achieve some success with.  Not enough for trade yet, but enough that when the girls saw a chlorine bleached wool tunic, and vibrant colors of yarn now possible, and the Celtic and nordic knotwork patterns he had in his tablet...  Let’s just say that he doubted Yoseph’s coat of many colors, could hold a candle to him now.  All eight of them went to work. And to his modern eyes, it was gaudy as all hell, but judging by the reactions of the locals who had seen it during their meetings with the Governor last week, it was a local sensation.  He just hoped it wouldn’t inspire the jealousy in his distant cousins that Yoseph’s coat had once stirred in his brothers.

The sun had set.  This late in the year, fortunately for him, it was still fairly early.  Business could still be conducted.  He strapped on his heavy leather belt so he could support his full load of weapons, as well as the heavy coin purse and powder horn.  Baring the door behind him, he headed back off down the stairs.  In the bar the bar keep called out for him.  “Boss wants to meet with you.  Got a sec?”

Eli’s eyebrow shot up. “Thought you were the boss?”  Eli asked as he followed the barkeep into a back room where there sat what could have been mistaken for a small child had it not been for the pointed ears and the rather long beard.  The lively little gnome looked up and his face broke into a broad grin, and Eli noticed that suddenly he had on only the second most garishly colored clothes in the room.  “You wanted to speak with me?”  Eli asked politely.

His eyes twinkled as he worked his way out from behind the desk, “Everyone calls me Uncle Raj, and I make it a point to meet everyone who rushes in, pays enough for a months stay, says it is for a couple of days, drops off enough armor to protect half a phalanx, and then rushes out.  Especially when they have such fantastic taste in clothes.”

Eli couldn’t help it. The little guy had the gift of charm. He let out a snort, then couldn’t hold back and broke out into a laugh.  “Is that all?”

“Mostly.   Just level with me, are you in to anything illegal?  If the city watch is going to be pounding on me door, I really should know ahead of time.  For a price, the escape plans can include a way out for you as well.  I just need to know what I’m dealing with in advance.”  The little gnome was still smiling, but Eli could tell he was dead serious.  This might be a better contact that he had at first thought, Eli realized.

“Nothing illegal at the moment.”  Eli thought for a moment, “Out of curiosity, how much to put you on retainer?   Odd jobs are always popping up, and a local who knows the scene and already has a network established...”  Eli trailed off, seeing that he had completely lost his audience.  So he explained how retainer worked.  How long he was staying, and that there may be instructions that come from time to time even when he was not here, but because of the retainer, Uncle Raj, would just cover the expenses, save his receipts, and present his bill at the next opportunity for prompt payment of any and all reasonable expenses.  Negotiations were quick, prices fairly reasonable. At least Eli thought so, and Uncle Raj couldn’t believe his good fortune to be paid just to be ready to work. He was always ready to work!

To kick things off, he asked for a bit of information about the names he was going to find.  Heavy hitters in the Israeli community were all that Raj knew without digging, and Eli didn’t want him to do that.  While he wanted the information, he wanted to test Raj on a few, much less sensitive jobs first.  So for the next task he had him dig up a bit more information on the dwarven slaver, and his history and reputation.  After all, he had until Monday before they were delivering the gift to the King of Xi, and until the following Monday before the auction in which the other mer-elves would be auctioned.  Raj whistled, and his eyes gleamed a bit greedily when he confirmed the rumor that it was in fact his guest who owned that particular prize.  He was even more delighted to know that it wasn’t an advance on that windfall that he was spending.  This man’s pockets were deep indeed.

Raj was so distracted that he was only half listening as Eli said that his last task was to show around a new kind of metal to his contacts to see if there was any interest in it.  All that changed as he took the block of iron in his bare hand and then felt his hand begin to itch and thrum.  It wasn’t a bad feeling; it wasn’t particularly good either.  Eli hadn’t seemed to notice it when he handed it to him. Nor had the bar keep when Raj handed it to him later, but Raj was fascinated with this new material that seemed to hum with an energy of its own.

While it was getting later than was polite for a normal social call; it had not completely passed into the realm of impropriety.  So Eli decided that at a minimum he would make arrangements to be able to find and meet with them in the morning.  So on streets lit only by what small candle light managed to escape the windows of the buildings he made his way to the house where he had celebrated the sabbath with them just the night before.  Politely, he knocked on the great wooden main gate to the large building.  When the door opened, it was one of the middle-aged men whom he had met the night before. After a very few moments of idle chatter he brought him in to a small room that had been converted into an office.  There packed in among the books and reports, was the smiling face of one Moshe ben Moshe ben Dan.

Moshe’s face showed no surprise at seeing Eli.   He invited Eli to sit and join him.  “Shabbat is over.  I take it you are here on business?” Moshe asked his sly smile never leaving his lips.

Eli snorted. “I am, at least sort of.  I was told to seek out Kalev ben Yehoshua ben Dan, by Ariel ben Yoseph while traveling through Venn.  I realize that the hour is late and it may not be possible to seek him out tonight, but do you know where I could find him?”

Moshe’s smile grew wider. “I had hoped this might be your business.  I presume Ariel provided you with the proper contact information?”

Eli sighed. “I’m glad this seems to make more sense to you than it does to me.   I was told to simply tell anyone who asked, “Arbeh”, and to say no more until I spoke with Kalev.  Though to be honest, I’m not really certain what this is all about, and I have so many questions."

Moshe chuckled, “So do we, but you’re in luck.  As it happens, Kalev works for me.  I am the local Arbeh commander.  I will send for him, he should be here within the hour.”

Eli shook his head, “Arbeh is locusts, I know the word, but the context alludes me.”

Seeing his confusion, Moshe was astonished. “For this alone, I would believe you are truly from far away.  It is the Arbeh who defend our people.  We cannot have large cities where we can develop powerful armies.  Nor can we afford many warships to have vast navies, our ships are our homes and must transport cargo to be our livelihood.  Even our land dwelling cousins to the south live in tents in the vast trackless expanses of the desert.  Our strength is that we are everywhere, and information we find and we share, and we use to protect ourselves...”

Moshe stopped cold, rather surprised by Eli’s reaction.  Laughter mixed with Moshe wasn’t certain. Was it sarcasm, or perhaps...  he looked closer, peering into the young man’s eyes and seeing an old man’s soul.  So world weary for one so young.  Eli’s gasping laughter belied the obvious mixed emotions he was experiencing.  “Some things never change!  First person I meet from among my own people is a bloody Mossad agent!”

Eli wiped his face, trying to push memories of the events of the summer of 1991 out of his mind.  This was a different world, and these were different people, and even as much as he disliked how that whole mess had went down back then, he couldn’t disagree that the Mossad agent’s solution had entailed fewer risks, it just had cost him a piece of his innocence and he wasn’t sure that the lower risks were worth the added sleepless nights.  Realizing that he was lost in his own memories and that Moshe was looking at him confused, but with an intent appraising look, Eli decided he had better pull it together and explain a few things. He cleared his throat. “What you’re describing, we call it ‘Intelligence Gathering’ and all the nations of the world do it where I’m from.  Israel’s Intelligence Agency is called The Mossad.”  It took him a bit to define ‘Institute’ even in the Greek of the day, but in the end Moshe nodded.  Eli could tell he wanted to ask questions, but like all good interrogators didn’t want to interrupt either while the subject was freely giving information.  “Don’t get me wrong, our CIA is worse when it comes to questionable acts so it isn’t that, it is just that I worked with the Mossad once on a mission when I was a young soldier, and things happened that still haunt my sleep some nights.  I respect the hell out of the job they do, and understand the need for the mission, just sometimes their methods...”  he shrugged his shoulders, “are undesirable?”

Moshe nodded solemnly. “So you have seen the side of this work that no one likes to talk about.  Mostly though, we are simply interested in you.  You said Israel, did Assyria not destroy everything then?  After all of this time, do we yet survive?”  The intense look of hope and excitement in his eyes made Ely loathe to answer him.

“Moshe, I’d like to wait for Kalev.  There is nothing in this story that I plan to keep secret from our people. I’d just really rather only go through it once if that is ok with you?”

So it was that they waited for a short time until Kalev had joined them.  Sign and counter sign given and verified, Eli began his story afresh.  When sunlight was seen again and had Eli not halted their questions, all three men realized that there would have been no natural pause in them, until exhaustion claimed all three men.  Eli couldn’t even be angry, he had been just as intent at learning the fate of the tribes that had gone missing from the pages of history, as well as the situation of the new world in which he found himself.  Upon learning of the ongoing situation on the island, (though not which island, nor where, not at this time, not until he knew them better) and that he could communicate, miracle of miracles, they not only agreed that he must go to check on his family, but Kalev asked to accompany him.

Eli, already planning out how valuable it would be to have access to all the information of the Arbeh network, offered for him to come along.  He was only thinking furiously as to how he would disguise the workings of the process.  With Kalev in tow, Eli swung back by the Slain Orc.  He changed into his armor again.  Time to put on display a different kind of strength.  Last night he had been in many ways taking their measure. Now it was time to go into a bit of demo mode.  Time to make them want to do business with him.

Before leaving. and with Kalev still with him, Eli asked Uncle Raj for his progress report.  Kalev’s eyes widened when he heard the gnome rattle off an intel report to Eli as casually as a grocery list.  Eli just flipped him a small copper coin and gave him some new instructions before leaving.  Kalev was uncertain how Eli had accomplished this kind of relationship in such a short time.  By all accounts he had only been in the city for days at most, the entire region for only two weeks!

Gathering Clouds

John was exhausted.  He might be eighteen, but his body was six, and he had been awake the whole night and glued to the radio as reports kept coming in of the daring raid by Captain Leon in the fast attack craft.  In a two-man mission, he and one new naval volunteer that John didn’t know but was certain he would as soon as they made it back to the island, had skimmed out over the water in the early gray twilight of predawn.  A small magical light stone affixed to the top of their mast so that Marcus could get directions from Ries and use the radio to guide them in on their target.

John rubbed his eyes wearily as he recounted the story to Eli and this new ‘friend’ of theirs.  John wasn’t sure how Eli could trust them enough to tell them about the radio so quickly.  Though he noticed Eli only wanted him told about receivers being relatively portable, not transmitters.  Eli might think these guys were like the Mossad they knew back in their world, but how could he be so sure after only knowing them for a night?  All John knew was that he was too tired to care.  So when Eli ordered him to get some sleep, he didn’t argue.

“Oh, one last thing before you go...  Where’s Evita?  With the island under attack, I would have expected her to have been here to help you man the radio.”  Eli asked.

John yawned. “Said she had to meet someone. She took off early this morning.  Who she was meeting before sunrise I do not know.”  He just shrugged and stumbled into the other room to sleep.

Eli settled in by the little foxhole radio that they had rigged up, and he and Kalev took turns operating the crank every few hours while the news continues to pour in over the little speaker.  Eli breathed a little easier when the reports said that the depth charges must have hit something big, because blood stained the water enough to be seen on the surface, and they could see bodies floating from the observation spots.

The radio crackled, Eli tuned it with care, and Georgia’s voice came over the tinny little speaker. “Eli, if you’re out there... Marcus just gave the signal that he’s made it to the cement plant with our messenger.  I’ll report again when he signals his release.”  She then repeated the message twice more.  Eli smiled grimly and translated the gist of the message to Kalev.

Upon hearing the plan, Kalev’s eyes grew wide, and he gave a low whistle.  Eli just grinned bitterly. “Yeah, I know.  Wouldn’t have been my first choice either.  Fuck ‘em. I didn’t pick this fight.  You don’t want to see my nasty side, Don’t be a bunch of mudrerin’ bastards.”  He let out a long sigh...  “You might as well get some sleep.  I’m going to be on radio watch for the next couple of hours, then I’ll wake you and you can have a turn.  I know you don’t understand what they say, but you can wake me if you hear them talking.”  He nodded to the couch. “Might as well get comfortable.”

Kalev looked uncomfortable about the whole arrangement, but only for a moment.  He hadn’t slept in going on thirty hours now, and he knew he would do no one any good before long.  He simply nodded and stretched out on the couch.  Kalev was afraid that he would have too much on his mind after all that he had learned recently to be able to sleep.  There were just so many incredible... his eyes closed with those thoughts... and Kalev knew nothing more until he felt a tapping on his foot.  He awoke with a start.   The odd surroundings confused him for a moment, but soon it all came back to him and he just nodded with a grunt.   Forcing himself into a sitting position, he gratefully accepted the large bowl of dark tea that Eli offered him.  “Kosher?” he asked, pointing at the food on the table.

Eli who had gotten out of his armor over the last three hours, snuck off to send a quick message received reply, and had been pacing the last twenty minutes or so just to keep from falling asleep shrugged at him.  “It’s just bread and fruit.  Unless they used pig fat in the bread somehow...”  Seeing Kalev also shrug at this reasoning and grab a chunk of the bread, Eli decided that he had been too hasty in his earlier assessment of Kalev.  “Wake me if there is a report, or a couple of hours before sunset.  Pisses me off, but we still have to make it back to our side of town.  It’ll be up to John at that point.  Damn, I just want to know everyone is safe before I shut down for the night.”  He heard Kalev ask him something about his family on the island, but his eyes had already closed by that point and his mind was past trying to sort out what it was.

◆◆◆

John woke and forced himself out of bed.  He felt like he could sleep for a month, but he knew Eli had had even less sleep than he.  John hit the transmitter and keyed in the shortcut for a status update request then went out to the suite’s little common room.  He saw Kalev trying to wear a path in the floor, stopping on each pass to check the make shift tuner on the radio to be sure he wasn’t missing something then back to his pacing.  Soon he noticed John standing there. When he started to speak, John waved him off, pointing to the sleeping Eli.  John shook his head, indicated to be quiet and let him get more sleep.  Then he motioned that Kalev could sleep, and Kalev started to argue when the radio static squawked.  Waving Kalev away, John tuned it, and heard Georgia’s voice say, “same as last report, the messenger has been sent, but no reply yet.  Still probably too soon, will advise if the situation changes.”  John looked over to Eli and seeing that he slept through it just shook his head at Kalev and whispered that there was nothing new.

Kalev was about to question John further when the door to the suite opened.  John’s hand flashed to one of Eli’s pistols that lay on the table and leveled it at the door, but relaxed as he saw it was just Evita returning.  She frowned when she saw him lower the pistol. “John!  Were you going to just shoot me?” she demanded in a loud voice.   Of course this brought Eli out of his sleep in a panic, his hand flying to the table for the pistol, which of course was no longer there.  “What is up with you two?”  Evita’s voice was getting shrill.

John had had enough of this. “Us?  Just where the fuck have you been?”

“What couldn’t just carry out your grand plans of genocide without little ol’ me?  I told you, despite the backward misogynistic hicks that run this place’s excuse for a magic school, I am making useful contacts and learning how to improve my magic.  Who knows, maybe that way our first answer to meeting new people won’t always have to be ‘let’s bomb them’. “she screeched throwing her hands up in the air dramatically and then stomped off into the room she had taken for her use.

Eli just rolled his eyes.  Kalev on the other hand looked completely stunned.  Was this woman insane?  Everything she had said was in their language, so he had understood none of the words, but her voice was just so screechy.  It made something in his spine want to shrivel and shrink away from it.  He wasn’t sure what the little metal tube was, but judging by her reaction it was a weapon of some sort.  Still, her tone. Ugh, and to lecture a man in his own home?  The daughters of Israel, especially those of the Tribe of Dan, were not timid.  Life aboard the ships did not nurture such, yet never would one have dared speak like that to a man in her family.  He wasn’t sure she would have spoken like that to anyone, though he had heard stories that fights between them could get very nasty.  Ugly as between any men, just different. Still, those were so rare that he had never personally witnessed it.  Yet both the man and the boy seemed to not be surprised by her actions.  Irritated yes, but surprised no.  When he got back, he would suggest in his report to Moshe that she be assigned someone appropriate to watch her.  If this was her normal manner of behavior, Kalev did not trust her.  People who were unstable did unpredictable things when pressure became intense.

John’s voice interrupted his train of thought. “Sorry about that, Eli.  I was going to let you sleep for another hour. You looked like you needed it.  Anyway, since you’re up, do you want a shift on the radio, or would you rather head back?  It doesn’t look like there is going to be a reply from the mer-elves for a little while yet.  I can try to send a messenger to you, if big news comes through.  Remember, depending on how our gift is received, they could summon as soon us as tomorrow.  Hopefully, they would give more notice than that, but kings are kings after all.”

Frustrated, but knowing that John was right.  Eli looked to Kalev.  “We should get ready to head back.  Tomorrow could end up being a very busy day for me.”  He sighed as he stood and began to put on his armor.  Kalev came over without being asked, and just helped him buckle the straps that were in less than easy to reach spots.  Eli was right earlier. He had misjudged Kalev. He valued his traditions, but he wasn’t like the Orthodox back home.  New ideas didn’t take him extra time to get used to, as it often seemed to be the case with them. At least that had always been Eli’s impression.  Of course now, dealing with Kalev, Eli wondered how much of that had been them, and how much of it had been his own secular conditioning and biases getting in the way?  He was man enough to admit it was probably a healthy dose of each.  Once they were ready to leave, he called out to Evita’s closed door, reminding her that tomorrow was probably not a good day to disappear for long periods with no way to contact her.  Then shaking his head in frustration at her steady downward spiral in reliability and stability since the whole Magus Ries fiasco just headed out the door.  Secretly he wished he could talk to her, to help her in some way, but if even Georgia hadn’t been able to reach her, what chance did he have?  Any good will that had showed promise that day by the iron refinery had long since died, as she seemed to take every opportunity to make clear.

Once inside the walls of the alien quarter, Eli said good bye to Kalev. With a knowing smile he just nodded to the man, “Moshe will want your report as soon as he can have it, and we can’t really progress further until he’s had a chance to evaluate it and probably discuss with whomever he reports to as well.”  Kalev had the good taste to at least look a bit embarrassed by the truth of this.  Eli continued, “Besides, I may have some business to discuss with Uncle Raj, and as I assume you are a married man, your wife must be anxious for you as well.  So go make your reports, spend time with the family, get some rest.  Tomorrow is likely to be a hectic day for me, but the next day, I will be quite surprised if Moshe doesn’t have you tracking me down once again.”

Kalev just gave an appreciative grin, and nodding once waved his goodbye.  Eli then made his way to the Slain Orc. He needed a nap, but first he wanted to see if he could find Uncle Raj.  He had a few ideas pop into his head over the long, stressful hours.  Why his mind always seemed to do that, he didn’t know, but whenever he had a big problem, he couldn’t do anything about, a dozen smaller ideas would always seem to pop up to try to distract him.   Usually it was just annoying, because he couldn’t focus on them, and all too often by the time things slowed back down, he had either forgotten them or was just too tired to pursue it anymore.  This idea though, maybe he could get others to do the legwork for him.  In the past he had thought that what he really needed was to be ten people at once, now that he was essentially in a position of hiring personal staff. Maybe he sort of could be...

◆◆◆

First, he went up to his room and dumped out of his armor.  He knew that he should pack it away properly, but damn he was tired.  Besides, it wasn’t going anywhere, and it wasn’t like he wouldn’t be able to put it away right later once things calmed down.  He dropped back into the main public room, ordered a mug of the sweet and yeasty local ale from the barkeep.

Took a minute to exchange gossip with the doorman, asking his opinion on local craftsmen, and where a man could find a little gambling action in town.  To his surprise, the options seemed a bit limited.   Mostly informal bets between parties on public events, not really any scheduled events nor did there seem to be what he would consider traditional games of chance.  Not that gambling wasn’t popular, as it was all the rage.  It just seemed to be limited to betting on things like animal races or fights, or flipping of coins.  There was said to be some special stones that were thrown in the Temple of Fortune in the City of Courvelle, that were said to foretell the future, but also functioned sort of like a lottery, in that with the right roll, there was a relatively large pay out.  However, it required a donation for each casting of these stones.

Eli had learned enough from this conversation and didn’t want to raise any suspicions at this time.  So he went back to looking for Raj.  Finding him at his desk, toiling away at the piles of parchment.  Upon hearing Eli at the door, Raj looked up and his face became animated, and he motioned for him to come in and indicated the chair across the desk from himself.  Eli stepped inside and closed the door behind him, drawing a momentary nervous look from Uncle Raj, until the other determined that Eli was not doing so as a prelude to an attack.  “I’m glad you stopped by. I was looking for you earlier.  I have news, that I believe you will want sooner rather than later.”  He waited for Eli to take his seat and then began. “I investigated the dwarf you asked about.  Solid business reputation, though after asking around about him, he sent a messenger here attempting to contact you directly.  This concerned me, so in keeping with our discussion about retainer, I bribed the messenger, a small amount.” Raj hastily added. “Just a copper.  I needed to be certain that my sources weren’t informing on me, you understand.”  Eli’s face didn’t even change expression as he casually fished a copper out of a pocket and tossed it on the desk, motioning for Raj to continue.  “Anyway, it seems that the new metal, it burns the mer-elves.   When they tried to make the restraints from it as you requested, it damaged the slaves.  They feared that prolonged exposure would be fatal, so, they made bronze restraints instead, and only inlaid the new material to the outside of the bronze.  The messenger wanted to seek your approval on this change, considering the intended recipient of the gift.”

Eli felt his eyebrows rising involuntarily, the legends of fae creature’s weakness for cold iron coming to mind, but he never suspected it to be a real thing.  “Hm... that is unexpected.  I commend his resourcefulness and initiative, I will swing by his business later and set his mind to ease.”  He thought for a moment... then continued, “You did not seem to experience this when you handled the metal?” he asked.

Raj only hesitated for a moment before replying, “No.  If anything, it was quite the opposite.  It felt... quite alive in my hands, and yes I presented it to a few select individuals.  They had many questions, but were most interested in obtaining more so long as the price weren’t substantially higher than say bronze or perhaps silver.”  Raj looked at him as if trying to judge how much he could trust what Eli was about to tell him.

Eli smiled, and Raj’s face instantly assumed a mask of indifference. And this made him laugh outright.  “Relax Raj,.  We are all going to make money off of this. There is no need to hide things or cheat anyone.  The truth is that there are limited supplies now.  It is difficult to make, the temperatures involved are fairly extreme compared to say bronze or copper.  As far as I know, my people are the only ones who can make it and ship it in.  Once we open that trade rout, more will be available and the price should drop back down much more in line with the cost of bronze. I know you find that disappointing, but let me ask you this, are the bronze smelters paupers?”  Eli let it hang there.  Then casually said, “Besides, it is only one small venture of mine.  I’ve often lamented that there aren’t at least ten of me.”   He continued just maintaining eye contact with Raj until he could see that Raj got the point, and then shared the wolfish grin that grew wider as the implications of that statement became more firm in mind.

“Whew... Sooo... If it’s like that then...”  Uncle Raj’s eyes were incredibly large in his small face, and incredibly animated.

Eli leaned back in his chair and casually rubbed his hand over his eyes.  “Yeah, that’s how it is.” he said the exhaustion in his voice clear.  “Two big questions and then I gotta get some sleep, it’s been two days...  First, you own the place, so how hard is it to own land in the city, and what does that really mean?  Do you own it, own it, as in you do what you want on it, or do you just kinda get the use of it but gotta get everyone under the sun to say ok if you want to change anything?”

Uncle Raj looked at him a bit odd, “For you?  It would be out of the question, but you’ve got to know that.  No one is going to let a son of Israel have solid ground to launch an attack from in the heart of their own territory no matter what.  For me, meh, its only a matter of money.  You can do pretty much whatever you want.  I mean, I’m sure if you were in one of the big high dollar places and you wanted to put in,” he tried to think of a business foul enough to cause public outcry, “say a tannery.  Someone would come along and offer you enough money that you’d take it and go away or if you didn’t, they’d offer it to your heirs if you get my drift...  Kinda how it works if you try to build something that scares the guilds... but other than that...” He shrugs.

“If the guilds got scared, but like my mer-elf friends, found out that they had bitten off more than they could chew, do the city guards get involved?”  Eli asked.

Raj shrugged. “Depends on which legislator is getting paid.  The law is the law, and there is no law saying that the guilds can’t receive what they dish out, but it’s just that they’re so rich they can hire more guards than anyone else.  If it starts to look like a riot, that is when the guard can be called in to restore order.  They usually summon a jury of two hundred to assess damages and assign any fines if they find an actual injustice was done.”  he shrugged. “Guilds try to avoid that.   The public knows that they bully people, so a jury is usually going to go against them.”  He snorted, “The only thing the public might fear more than they hate the Guilds, is if they thought your people were the ones trying to own the land causing the squabble.”

Eli made a face and waved his hand. “Who needs to own the land, leasing it to me isn’t a problem.  After all, it is just a longer term agreement like the one on my room now.”

Uncle Raj’s face became thoughtful, and he nodded.  “Besides, it wouldn’t be us renting it directly but rather a company in which we simply owned some stock.”  He grinned, “Of course a few key legislators would also have to be stockholders as well...”  seeing Raj’s answering grin Eli knew he had the right man for the job.  He wasn’t sure if Raj had the needed contacts or the needed pull, but if he didn’t, he would know who did.  “So research and assemble a list of capable men who make it their business to manipulate such men.  Include histories and proclivities with the names. The more you can get me the better.  Your budget for this assignment is say... two crates of iron?  Having that early on, while it is still exceedingly rare, it should be more than sufficient for you to be quite thorough in this assignment.  It will be a good way to showcase your capabilities.”  Eli grinned at him.

Raj nodded soberly and then harrumphed just a bit. “I thought you Sons of Israel knew everything about everybody, anyway. Why pay me for this?”

Eli just grinned at him. “How do you think we learn everything about everybody?”  Eli had to stifle his open laughter as he heard Raj mutter under his breath, ‘ask a stupid question, dummy, and what do you expect?’.

Eli felt his eyes drooping despite the solid information he was gaining here.  “Last question, and then I must head to sleep.  How deep is your network?  Can you only supply this assistance for me here in Xi, or can you provide the same across the other city states?  Answer honestly, there is no wrong answer except a false boast that derails and delays plans...”

Raj’s eyes went wide... “My family connections are very far flung, but while I may call upon them and may contract with them, I cannot speak for all of them.  While none may over rule me in my city, the same is true for each in theirs.  Nor would their aid likely be inexpensive.  Any time you are trying to conduct business between cities, communication alone can become costly.”

Eli waved his hand dismissively again. “Problems that can be solved with money, aren’t really problems.  It is problems that can only be solved with time, that are heartbreaking.”  Eli sighed, “Speaking of which, sleeping time is more critical than the cost of a messenger.”  He fished in his pocket again and dropped a small silver coin on the desk. “Please send a messenger to the dwarf approving of his solution to the iron collar problem.   Leave him in darkness as to how I learned of it.”  Eli had a small smile, “Builds one’s reputation.”  He grinned even wider as he noticed Raj’s new obsession with his pants.  Pockets were an unknown thing, and for the second time tonight his hand had gone to his pants and a coin had seemed to just appear.  It had been fast and Raj had not been paying close attention either time, but he suspected there was a trick.  Eli decided not to tell him, but rather have the girls make him up a pair with a lot of pockets and multicolored embroidery as a bonus. IF he was able to come through on these projects.  For tonight, he just nodded. “Now I gotta get some sleep.  Let me know what cities I can expect your network to reasonably be able to offer help in.  No rush, this is a longer term project, might not happen even this year but soon.  Definitely soon...”

Eli found he was humming to himself as he climbed the stairs to his room...  This idea was crazy, and he really wished he could talk to Marcus, Sam, and Josh.  Hell, even Anju might be useful, but it seemed out of his wheelhouse other than as the one who was going to play construction manager extraordinaire...

Getting by with a little help from my friends

She was deep in sleep finally.  Her spending money had started to get tight. She now owned three different tomes of magic books and six local herbals.  While the others had been running off starting wars, she had been busy working to learn something useful.  She found that it had left her just plain exhausted.  Between the simple fact that she was always going somewhere or meeting someone new that the sisterhood thought important to win over to their cause, there was the very exhausting practice of using magic itself.

The small group of women who had gathered to learn magic were mostly pathetic she thought.  Their primary goal was to be recognized by the men in magic’s official circles.  Even if they got what they wanted, it was only local access, as there was no global authority in such matters, or in any matters truth be told.  Evita would not put herself through everything just to prove herself to some ass hat who had a superiority complex damn it.  She didn’t owe them an accounting; they didn’t deserve one.  More than that, if she let them give her permission, then they could take it away any time that they wanted.  She snorted the first time she had had the argument with them, as much as Eli was a war mongering bastard a heart who didn’t appreciate the things she brought to the table, if he had been with her when they were trying to convince her they just needed to prove to those misogynistic pigs that women could do it, Eli would have backed her up.  War monger he might be, but he wasn’t a fool.

That’s why she was so frustrated as she was arguing with him now.  He made her so angry!  He was choosing those little girls, and now she was going to be all alone!  The next moment she found herself confronting Ries. He was just standing there with his two wives, asking her what was wrong over and over.  Then she heard a loud whoop.  Evita’s eye shot open.  Damn it, she had been dreaming.   Why couldn’t they be fun dreams anymore.  She squinted. The light outside the window was a light silver gray. Must be an hour before dawn... maybe?  She could hear laughter and celebration from the next room.  What the hell was going on she wondered as she stumbled over and yanked open the door.  Out in the common room of the suite, John was standing balanced on the back of the couch.  He was barefoot and naked to the waist; he had his head thrown back, and he was howling like a wolf at the moon.  The damn lunatic would wake the dead.  It would be a wonder if he didn’t get them kicked out of here.

“John!” she hissed.  “What the fuck is wrong with you!  Quiet down!  You’ll wake the whole place!”

John at least had the presence of mind to look taken aback, but he just shook his head. “War’s over!  They capitulated.  Agreed to give us hostages.  King’s own daughter from what they say is supposed to come live on the island too, in addition to the normal hostages.   I don’t understand the details but I guess the local tribe surrendered and when it was told up the chain of command what had happened, decisions were made.  Point is, the war is over.  We don’t have to kill any more of them, and we don’t have to sleep with one eye open over who is going to crawl out of the ocean after us.  Cease fire starts immediately full peace treaty to be signed early spring.  Probably about the time we get back.”

Evita sighed, “Fine.  Yeah.” she said in a completely flat, emotionless voice.  “I’m going back to bed now.  Wake me if we have to go see the king.”  She fell back onto the bed and shoved her head up under the pillow.   These men and their wars.  No thought to anyone else, just stay home and make babies!  You and however many other women I say!  This world was sick!  Look at how poor Sandy had to live!  She and Sandy needed to find just a couple more women, women with the right skills.  Then they would show them, they would show all of them, even Eli and Marcus.  She couldn’t believe Georgia just went along with all of this so easily.  Still, before she went anywhere, she needed to have a plan.   She also needed her stuff from the island.   She wasn’t planning to go back. It was too easy to get trapped there.  Evita liked her freedom here, she decided that no matter what she would stay in Xi for a while.   She wondered how she would get them to send her her tablet and a small generator to keep it charged.  She had too much of her work on it to just abandon it.  Maybe she could... she was musing as she drifted back off into a fitful sleep.

◆◆◆

Eli had gotten dressed early that Monday morning in his armor.  He had grabbed a quick breakfast in the common room and was surprised to see his young porter from Friday night arriving.  Eli let out a soft sigh. With everything that had happened over the weekend, had it really only been two days ago that he had arrived in town?  The young man saw him and quickly approached. “Good morning M’lord.  You said that there would be work for me?”

Eli chuckled. At least the boy was a go-getter.  Punctual too.  He looked him over a little closer this morning.  Scrawny kid, not more than sixteen.  “So what’s your name, boy?”

The kid ducked his head. “They call me Kip, M’lord.”

Eli frowned. Did he really need to pick up another stray?  He sighed, didn’t he just tell Raj he needed ten of himself? “So, Kip, tell me about your situation.  I’m kinda needing someone a little longer term, you feeding a family, still living with your folks?”  Eli inwardly cringed a bit upon hearing Kips story.  He didn’t think the kid was trying to make a sympathy play. From what he’d seen of this world, there wasn’t much hope for that.  It was just him and a kid sister. No home, but had an improvised spot that no one had kicked them out of, and he was pretty tight-lipped about where it was.  Kip’s goals were pretty straightforward, keep everyone fed, and not end up in anyone’s debt where they could be turned into slaves for non-payment.  Unfortunately, he didn’t really have any skills either, but for now Eli figured it was someone who could run messages and who knows maybe he could turn him into something.  If nothing else, he didn’t have Eli’s legal issues with ancestry.  “Alright Kip, here’s the score.  You’re going to my general fix it man.  If something comes up, you go fix it for me.  For that, will three coppers a day keep you and your sister from having your ribs stick together?”  Eli knew it was more than fair, but watching the look of amazement in the kid’s eye made him feel good.  “Alright, I expect to be in town for the next two months.  You got work that long, unless you fuck it up.  After that, we’ll talk.  Have you eaten?”  By the look Eli could tell the answer was no, but that Kip didn’t want to slow him down on the first day.  Eli sighed, “Can’t do your best work if your mind is on the hole that lives where your stomach is supposed to be.”  He called over his shoulder to the bar keep for four of the small loaves of bread and a half a round of cheese to go.  “He’ll wrap it up, bring it with.  I’m heading to the hotel where we dropped off the others on Friday.  You catch up!”

Eli smirked at the doorman as he left.  The doorman just nodded approvingly.  Eli was beginning to get the feel for this place, and while it would thrill him to be back home on the island, he thought he might end up missing this too, at least parts of it.  By the time he got to the hotel, John had stopped having spontaneous dancing outbursts, but Eli feared he might start.  Unfortunately, as the day wore on, there were no other messages of good news.  No bad news either.  Kip made several trips back and forth between the Slain Orc and the upscale hotel used by the Greek merchants where John and Evita had a suite checking for messages.  The dwarf had made the delivery with no issues.   The slave was presented and announced in court as agreed, yet no message arrived from the court.  The dwarf asked about auctioning the armor and weapons of the captured mer-elves.  Eli agreed, as weapons they were fairly useless, but as exotic collectables, the same sort of buyers who were coming for this particular auction, they would likely fetch a good price.  At this point in the day, Eli was feeling a bit discouraged in the area of making contacts among the royal court.  Instead, he turned his focus to drawing up some partial plans for equipment parts.  Things that he thought could be produced by local craftsmen, then assembled into his larger machines.

He and John brainstormed in English to avoid tipping their plans to anyone who might try to listen in, and then detailing the individual requirements to Kip.  Kip looked at him like he had lost his mind, but for the money the man was paying, Kip figured he could be as crazy as he wanted to be and it was just fine with Kip.  As he trudged heavily back toward the Slain Orc that evening, Eli had to admit that the day had mostly been a disappointment.  Oh, the news from the island pretty much made the day worthwhile no matter what, and seeing Kip grip the coins in his hand as if it were gold not copper was certainly a bright spot.  Still...

◆◆◆

His first meeting with Moshe that week went about as expected.  That is to say, not well.  Moshe gave him the recruitment speech, to which he politely declined.  That was not what Moshe had expected.  Eli was polite.  Eli explained to him that he wasn’t saying that he wasn’t planning to help his people. Quite the contrary.  He wanted to get to know them, let them get to know him.  Catch them up on the history that they’ve missed, learn from them the history he’s missed.  Did they have a copy of Torah that survived the exile?  Yes?  Excellent, would they like to compare it to a copy from his world?  Oh?  He thought that might interest them.  Yes, he had quite a bit of things he could share with them, in time...  Yes, he needed some things from them as well...   Well in a couple of months a ride back home would be nice, it would give them a chance to learn more of each other.  Oh, they had to meet up with others of the tribe from other cities?  A schedule?  I see... One ship?  All Eli could really ask... after all it was all about trust building... just needed to have people senior enough that their testimony would be believed after all some of what he would show them, many would find difficult to credit without witnessing first hand.  Oh please send a critic as well, yes the young man from the first night we met, he would make an excellent witness.

John had struggled as well when he tried to deal with the guild masters.  They viewed him as a child.  Eli’s presence as an advisor meant that he was the one in charge, and he was an Israelite, which meant that they didn’t have to do the deal the same way that they would with a fellow Greek.  If they wanted to sell this new and untested metal in the markets of Xi, it would have to be to the Guild Masters at a discount, and they would then decide what it was worth and which craftsmen got it.  Unless they wanted to sell it down in the Alien Quarter, of course, but who had the money down there to buy anything of value or worth?

Evita always struggled.  However, since she had decided to break with the others, she had been quietly pursuing her quest to stitch together a core of strong female mages.  Some of the areas of magic that they needed to resort to, such as sacrificial magic and such, were certainly in the gray area, but her strength was growing daily.  Her mer-elf slave had been retrieved, his collar enchanted to give her control over him.  Now that he was obedient and loyal, she harnessed his strength as well, and also used him as a recruitment tool.   She focused her attention on wealthy women in unhappy marriages, seeing her level of control over the once proud mer-elf warrior, who now was quite docile, dressed rather effeminate, and waited on her every whim, they too wanted a taste of power.  She played on this to build her power base.   Evita knew it wouldn’t be long now until Eli and John were ready to run home to go back and play house with their little girls.   She would simply tell them she was staying behind to handle things in the city.  To please send her some things from home so she could continue her studies, and a small generator so she could power her tablet.  They would have to do it.  Once she had these things, then they could make their arrangements.  Take what portable wealth these very wealthy women could carry off, and they could start over somewhere where they didn’t have to answer to a bunch of control freak men who thought that they were right just because they were born with a penis.  The more she thought about it. Since slavery was a thing here, as long as they could enchant the collars, they wouldn’t need overseers.   Just happy willing workers.  No one hungry, no one fighting.  When we finally get toilets again, no more stupid arguments about not putting the seat down like any civilized person would.  Finally a world where women made sensible decisions, she thought.

Making the most of it

John looked over at Eli as Marcus signed off the transmission.  News from the island had all been positive so far, had Eli waiting for the other shoe to drop, but if Ries was right, and he could really pull this off.  “A magic printer?  Can it really work?  I mean sure we’ve mixed magic and tech a dozen times but it was almost always built from the ground up and only for simple things.  Mixing it with computers?  Wirelessly?  To print a digital file?  Sounds like a reach to me...”

Eli snorted. “Like anything with magic involved doesn’t!  He’s just wanting us to get the proper runes from the academy, shouldn’t be that expensive.  My day is already packed, I’d send Evita, but she’s kinda worn out her welcome there.”  Eli grinned.  Evita had become something of a cliche lately.  He wasn’t happy about it but it was either face it with a smile and try to have a sense of humor or confront her and that would only lead to another blow up.  If they were on the island, he might risk it. At least there she could blow up and not risk bringing down more trouble than they wanted to deal with on their heads.  “Where the hell is she, anyway?  She never seems to be around anymore.”  Eli shook his head. “Ah, it’s not important.  If she’s not here, things usually get done faster, anyway.   It just means that at some point, I need to find more time to work on my magic.   Losing our only mage outside of Ries, isn’t good, and as long as she’s flakey like this we can’t count on her.  It really sucks too, Ries said her insight was amazing, all that quantum physics mumbo jumbo and all that.   Figures that shit would be related to magic, makes me dread having to learn, not to mention the fact that I can’t help but have a few moral questions about it.”  Eli shook his head to clear his thoughts. “There I go getting sidetracked again.   No time for it now.  John, just go see if you can find the magic formula or secret sauce or what ever the hell it is that Ries needs for the ‘copy spell’ he called it.  Try to trade iron for it if you can, we’re going to be a bit short on bronze until auction settles out.  If not, it is more important that you get it than what you used to pay for it.  After we’re sure we’ve got it, the next step is to go on a parchment buying binge.  Like every scrap, and we probably still won’t have enough.   As soon as Kip gets back, Kalev and I will take him and run back to the alien quarter.  I’ve got more errands for him as well," then looking over to Kalev, “and then we can go track down Moshe.  I know, I’m slow responding but there’s a lot to do over the next eight weeks.”

Kalev nodded, “Moshe isn’t used to waiting,” he said with a small smile, “perhaps the experience will be good for him.”

John snickered, remembering several of his instructors from back in the company who were former military and had that punctuality beaten into them. He had never met Moshe, but he had that picture in his mind.  Somehow he didn’t think Moshe was going to see it as a positive experience.  “Hey once he realizes what he’s actually getting in return...”  John shook his head with a smirk... “There’s just no way to tell him before he experiences it...  He just wouldn’t believe us...”

Kalev looked between Eli and John as if trying to assess how much of what they were saying was the simple truth and how much of it was inflated self importance.  Eli’s confident smile made Kalev uneasy.

◆◆◆

John arrived at the Academy and instead of trying to go through official channels, decided to just snoop around for a bit.  Maybe talk with a few students, kind of get a feel for the place.  The big building in the center was obviously out, too much chance of running into someone there who would make his business their business, so instead he headed for a squat little building that was sort of off to one side.  The building must have been old. It looked like it had seen better days.  A few of the stones had come loose in places, and others were cracked.  There was even what looked like soot residue at the tops of a few of the windows.  He couldn’t help wondering if this building might have been a survivor of the last time Xi had been sacked.  He knew that was supposed to have been a very long time ago, as no one ever really sacked cities with the way they did ‘war’ for the last thousand years or so.

Stepping inside his nose was instantly assaulted by the most riotous combination of odors. Certainly sulfur was obvious, but also ammonia and traces of too many others to distinguish.  He walked through the halls and could see that many of the rooms had classes in them, students sitting on long benches facing what he assumed would be a professor giving a lecture, however invariably the angles were such that the professors were never visible from the door. After wandering the halls for a bit, he noticed one room that appeared to be empty.  Curious, he took a peek inside. As he stepped in, he saw what looked to him like a mad scientist’s lab, complete with mad scientist.  The man had a long gray beard, and wild unkept hair. His wrinkled mage’s robes looked very much like they may have been slept in for a week.  The man looked up, noticed him, then went right back to his work. “We don’t teach halfling here.”

John blinked, confused first, then irritated, these bigoted bastards really pissed him off.  He put that all aside; he had a mission to complete and getting angry over things he couldn’t change would just drive him as crazy as Evita.  “I’m human.”  John snapped at him irritably.

The old man’s head popped up. “You should know then that first-year students aren’t allowed in the Alchemy building!  Also, why are you out of uniform?  Does your instructor know where you are?”

John shook his head. This old guy was just about the crankiest old geezer he had had to deal with in a while, and considering he talked to Eli every day that was saying something.  “I’m not a student either.  I’m here on a trade mission.  Hey, you really want to take that off the flame, it’s going to boil over.” he said pointing at the beaker on the small brazier on the table.  Heating what looked to be acid in an open beaker usually wasn’t a good idea to start with, especially in an era of no fume hoods. Actually, John was fairly impressed that there was a see through beaker available. As far as he knew there was only one glass blower in town and he doubted any of his glassware would stand up to hot coals.

“If you aren’t a student...” he started, but never got to finish.  Just as John had feared, the critical point had been reached, and the liquid began to violently boil out over its container.  The old man jumped back as the hot acid splashed out and began to quickly bubble its way across the polished stone table top.  John, seeing it headed towards a pile of other unknown chemicals, and knowing that the old man would be too slow to recover to stop it, jumped forward, quickly scanning the pile, he found what he was looking for.  The large bag of gray and white powder was probably pot ash. He tossed first a handful, then seeing it neutralized the acid added more.  The old man, now recovered from the shock, snapped at John, “Watch out!  That stuff is dangerous!  This is no place for a child to play!”

John had had enough. “Child, you mean no place for a senile old man!  Too busy trying to tell me what to do, to pay attention to what he was doing!  Or to pay attention when I WARNED him about what was about to happen.  Or was so damn slow to react, that instead of neutralizing the acid with a base, he just was going to sit in the corner in his own drool while it soaked into this slovenly pile of who knows what chemicals, causing lord only knows what kind of unregulated reactions?  Is that who it’s dangerous for, maybe?  No?  Maybe it is for all the other innocent poor bastards who are unlucky enough to be in the same building that he blows himself up in?”  A small part of John’s mind realize that all of that kid/old man banter between Eli and himself over the years had made him brutal when it came to this kind of thing with old people, he also knew that eventually he would feel guilty about it, but not now.  Now if he could burn this ass hat to the ground with his eyes, it would have happened long ago.

The man’s eyes bulged in shock, then burned with sudden anger. His face was livid as the large blood vessel in his forehead pulsed wildly.  His mouth worked, but no sound came out. John’s hand drifted to his pistol as he prepared himself for an attack. After all, angering old men was one thing, angering old men who were professors at colleges of wizardry was quite another.  Then suddenly, the old man deflated.  All anger and defiance flooding out of his features in an instant.  John feared for a moment that he had suffered a stroke, so great was the change.  Almost like a marionette whose strings have been cut, so dramatic was the change.  The old man heaved a deep and heavy sigh. “You’re right.  Thank you for acting when you did.  It was the right move.  You are a credit to your instructors, whoever and wherever they are.  I should commend proper and decisive action in one so young not reprimand.”  He nodded again solemnly.  Then with just a touch of a reproving grin he added, “Your manners though, well...” he just trailed off, seeming more faintly amused now than angry.

John was a bit stunned.  The sudden and mercurial mood shift made him very wary.  As if sensing his thoughts the old man chuckled and held up a hand displaying a ring of carved jade.  “I’ve always had a violent temper.  Been subject to fits of murderous rage.  Damn near killed my own brother when I was not much older than you are.”  The old man snorted derisively. “Over who’s turn it was to clean the sheep folds.  It was mine, and I even knew it was mine.”  He’s smiling sadly at this point.  “If my oldest sister hadn’t turned up when she did and hit me over the head with her milking stool... yeah wouldn’t have been good.  My father took me to the local Magus.  The ring triggers whenever I do.  It doesn’t stop me from getting mad, it just changes the mood I’m in.  That lets me look at why I was mad.  Gave me a chance to see that I didn’t have a reason to be angry with you, except for your manners, which given the circumstances...” he trailed off again with a lopsided grin.

John felt the tension ease out of his shoulders with the story, and he felt his fingers release the grip of his pistol.  While he hadn’t drawn it, he hadn’t consciously realized that he’d actually had his hand on it, either.  John almost grinned as the term “magical Xanax,” popped into his mind.  Finally he figured screw it, lets try to not waste this.  “Well good, I think... Sorry I yelled at you... I guess... um... look maybe something good can come of this, anyway.  They sent here me to trade for the symbols for the ‘copy spell’ the Magus who sent me said you’d know what he meant?”  Seeing the old man’s cautious nod, John continued on in a rush... “See, the thing is I’ve got the coin to trade, but I kinda also got this stuff I picked up.  I wanted to figure out how it works to use myself but I haven’t been able to, but I’m just one guy.  You’ve got more resources...  So I thought maybe I trade what I got to you, you for the runes, then when you figure out how it works, I pay you the coins so you teach me too.  That way you get the coins and the new stuff, I get the new stuff, and my Magus gets his runes... everyone wins.  Interested in at least seeing what I’m proposing to trade?”

The old man shrugged and looked dubious. “Never hurts to look, but I make no promises.  This isn’t a charity business, son, no matter how much I like you.”

John nodded with a serious look on his face.  Inwardly, it was all he could do to keep from grinning.  He loved running a con game.  If he could do it with a clear conscious all the time he would do it for a living, as it was there were only a few times when it felt like it wasn’t the wrong thing to do.  This was one of those times.  After all it wasn’t like everything he was telling the man wasn’t accurate, the fact that he would need to discover aluminium refining processes, which really needed electricity, meh details...  He picked up a relatively thick bronze brazier, examined it, then asked, “This wasn’t given to you by anyone important or anything was it?”  The old man made a face and John just shrugged. “Just checking.  This stuff is powerful.”  He dropped a block of the trade iron theatrically on the tabletop. “This is one of the key ingredients.  It’s a rare metal. This is half of what I got from the man.  That way, once you get the formula, we both have some to work with.  He then pulled out a small vial of Thermite and dumped it into the bottom of the brazier.  “This is the last of the powder sample.”  He reserved back a small portion, “So you’ve got some to work with after the demonstration.”  Then with as much flare as possible, considering thermite can be difficult to light given the ignition sources available to him at the time, he eventually got it to light off.  The bright flash brought a gasp from the old man, but it was seeing the small puddle of molten bronze and iron on the stone table top that sealed the deal.  John played it off, “I think it will finally allow for the burning away of any impurities in a sample, after all look at the hole in the brazier's bottom.”  He knew offering an innocent use, and with his apparent age that it would be accepted, but the old man no doubt had realized what fire like that would do to a hoplite’s bronze breastplate and had visions of grand rewards gifted to him by the grateful king.  John snorted. Soon as you do about two thousand years of technological advancement buddy, it’s all yours.

The old man jumped on the trade.  John was whistling as he left the building.  He wondered if Kip and Eli had been as successful.

◆◆◆

Kip went scurrying off with his bag full of coin and a list in his head of four different merchants he needed to place orders with.  It seemed like his boss had lost his mind spending all this money on a bunch of junk that Kip couldn’t think of what in the world you would ever use it for, but as long as he kept paying... Kip smiled to himself remembering the look on Dina’s face when he brought her home that little honey treat last night.  She thought it was her birthday.  She would be a woman soon, and if Kip couldn’t figure out some way to scrape together a dowery...  That was a worry for another day.  Suddenly it struck him as funny, this time last week, he was just worried about finding her food and now that that was secure for a little while at least, instead of being happy, he just started worrying about a dowery...  people were funny creatures.  The gods must laugh themselves silly watching us all day, he thought and then pushed all that away and concentrated on getting back to work.

Once Kip was off and about his business, Eli gave a long sigh. “Let’s go talk to Moshe.  I think I may have thought of something, a part of what we can offer that I will talk to him about, that might buy me enough goodwill to get him to be patient and wait to see the rest.”

Kalev grinned and instantly felt guilty for doing so.  “You know, I’m actually on his side in this.  I think you’re the one being unreasonable.  If you came to work for the Arbeh, there is much good you could do.  I can see you have the ability.  Honestly, I am not sure why you resist.”

Eli groaned a bit. “I get it.  I can see how from your way of looking at things it would look like that.  You just don’t know what I know, and if I just flat out told you, I don’t think you would believe me.  Honestly, I’m not completely convinced that once you see it, you’re going to really understand the full implications.  Oh, you’ll understand enough to be more excited than a groom on his wedding night, but kinda along the same lines, it isn’t until a lifetime later and your children are grown and you are bouncing their children on your knee, do you truly understand the full implications.   I’ve had a good look down that road. How can I explain it to someone who’s never seen it?”

Kalev frowned, and Eli could see that he was really mulling that one over.  It must have been a real doozy for him, since he didn’t say another word until they arrived at the home that Moshe was renting.    After the normal formalities of greeting and the normal tap dance around the issues that have become a well worn routine to both of them by now, Eli leaned forward and got quiet as he said softly, “I told you we had some information that came with us.”  He watched as Moshe nodded frustration making him a little impatient, “Well, as we may now have found a way to protect that information a little better, I’m willing to tell you more about it.  The information is stored on a special type of machine that we have that allows us to store large amounts of information in a very small space.   The problem is, it needs special energy requirements and conditions to read it and the machines can be fragile.  Meaning each time we use it, we run a small but cumulative risk of breaking the machine beyond repair and losing access to that information.  This would be a catastrophic loss, as you’ll understand better in a moment.  Where I come from, this limitation isn’t a real problem as making copies of the information is cheap and easy, so if the machine breaks, you just use another machine with the same information on it.  However, here, those machines will be beyond our ability to build for many generations, and the information contained within took many generations to gather.  While it is a very small, and incomplete selection of what was available to humankind or really to any man there, by comparison to what you have today...”  Eli stopped to do some calculations, “lets see, a megabyte is about five hundred typed pages, and a million megabytes to a terabyte, and I had two hundred terabytes of data, but half of that is probably programs and pictures and apps, so of just text pages... say about one and a half million books, more or less.”

“Impossible!” Moshe shouted in pure shock, then realize what he had said and got better possession of himself... “Isn’t it?” this time he was back to just above a whisper.  “There haven’t been enough sheep for that much parchment since the beginning of time!”  His eyes boggled with incredulity, but Eli could tell that he was taking it seriously.

Eli grinned a bit self consciously. “I warned you some things had to be seen to be believed.  That was the figures for just my personal device.  There are seven others, and the primary system dedicated for the mission.  Bound to be some redundancies in all of that, of course, and a lot of it will be completely irrelevant to life here or be incredibly useful if it weren’t vague on the details... still yes it is a treasure trove.  One I dared only use sparingly for fear of using up, but thanks to the availability of magic in this world, like I don’t have enough demands on my time already I have to learn that too...” Eli just shook his head and waved the thought away, “Not the point at the moment, the magus who’s been helping us, teaching me a little where there’s been time, says that he can use magic to make written parchment and ink copies.  From there, well we can make as many copies as we need with the spell or the printing press or well lets just say once I know that the machine won’t break and then the information be lost, a lot of things become possible.  Even more than the already...  have to leave that discussion for another time as well.”  Eli looked at him. Moshe was awfully pale...  “Moshe?  Are you ok?”  He glanced over to Kalev to see if Kalev thought that they should go for help, but Kalev looked little better than Moshe.

Kalev looked up and met Eli’s eye when he saw Eli looking at him with such concern in his eye.  Kalev smiled a bit of a sickly little smile, “Until the grandchildren, got it....”

Eli didn’t know if he should laugh, or cry...  wait until they start to understand some of the bigger changes that were possible.

Moshe finally recovered his wits, “Uh, hrm, perhaps I may have underestimated this situation somewhat... we’ll just have to deal with that as may be... did I hear you say that you were having one of the goyim teach you magic?”  Moshe made a face.

Eli looked a bit startled. “Why is their magic treif?”

Moshe snorted, “Probably should be.”  He chuckled as if at a private joke. “Not usually, unless they are playing in one of the fields that Torah forbids, but not usually.  It’s just because of how their people were taught magic, they kinda go at it all backwards.  Their symbols are... I guess crippled is the right word.  In the beginning, all that is was spoken into existence.  When you use that language, the universe remembers and obeys.  While our understanding of these primal symbols isn’t what it was in days of old, it isn’t the intentionally crippled version that the fallen ones taught the goyim both before and after the deluge.  If you’re willing to share access to some of this great knowledge you have with us, I will see to it that you have two private tutors to make certain that you’re trained up as far as your natural abilities will allow.”

Eli was a bit stunned.  He knew there were ways in which being back among his people would be a good thing, but never had he dared to dream about this kind of help from this quarter.  He just grinned. “Moshe, its like I’ve been telling you from the start, it’s not that I won’t help or don’t want to help.  I’m just going to be MORE help, much more in fact doing what I have planned than what you’ve got planned for me.  The world isn’t going to know what hit it by the time I’m done, and it’ll be a lot happier over all.”

They said their goodbyes.  Kalev had basically been ordered to be Eli’s new shadow.  Eli didn’t really see the point, but he didn’t argue.  He liked Kalev over all and there was too much to be done to waste time in fruitless argument.

Laying foundations

Eli’s mornings all started off pretty much the same since the auction.   That had really been the dividing mark in their trip.  Once that significant source of funding had arrived, Eli had divided the funds, John had taken on the parchment procurement role.  They let their lodgings outside of the alien quarter go and Eli used those funds to rent out most of one full floor of the Slain Orc.  Including a run-down section that was only being used for junk storage, but which was a perfect place to warehouse the growing boxes of parchment that by the time the collection was complete would represent as close to every scrap that the five regional city states had produced up to this point.  It would never be enough, but it would handle the priority stuff while research on paper was happening.

Evita said she was securing contacts with the nobles, though Eli had no way to know.  John was gone all the time as well, but the parchment shipments kept arriving.  From Evita he would get only infrequent visits and small sample level orders of their various products to have arrive with the next trade mission.  They didn’t mind paying in advance, though Evita had said it meant that she would need to stay behind to reassure them until they delivered the goods.  She liked it here though, and was looking for office space, preferring city life.  Eli really didn’t like this turn of events, but after discussing it with Marcus over the radio, came to the conclusion that they didn’t want to treat people like prisoners.

Kip and his little sister had been moved into the Slain Orc as well.  After picking up a potter’s wheel, and getting one of the local potters to figure out how to make abrasive ceramic discs to fit it, Eli had taught Dina how to use it to cut and polish glass.   He started with simple six-sided dice..  From these he taught Kip how to play basic games of chance, and for a cut of the action got Uncle Raj to set Kip up with a little funding and a couple of tables as well as providing basic security.  It wasn’t long before the public room of the Orc was quite the attraction, and the amount of coin passing through those tables each night had Uncle Raj excited.  He started listening intently to Eli’s carefully dropped comments about possible further development under the right conditions.

◆◆◆

Eli had taken the “advice” given to John rather sarcastically by the Metal Smelter’s Guild.  He converted a small space behind the Slain Orc into a makeshift smithy, using the cheapest inferior quality tools he could get he forged basic iron tools.  Then using those tools, and a Master Craftsman’s pay scale as bait, he lured a talented young dwarven journeyman smith, Arvel Truestone to become his personal smith.  He set him to making smithing tools and then started offering them for sale directly to the smiths.  The Guild had smugly said the only place where people might buy unapproved metals was in the alien quarter. After all, who knew what barbarians would do, but they didn’t have any money.  Yet craftsmen needed tools and so long as Eli could make payment plans that worked for both sides, they were damn happy to pay a premium for iron tools that were clearly better. They just needed to use the tools while making the payments.  Soon young Mr. Truestone was cranking out more than just smithing tools. Other craftsmen had heard of this new option and were lining up.  By the end of the third week, he had six more dwarves who weren’t smiths by trade but rather sailors who were out of work for the winter who were happy to earn money doing grunt apprentice work.

Eli spent his evenings before the spring sailing date collecting any skilled craftsmen he could bribe to start over.  The promise was always the same, a new way of doing their trade.  It was going to change everything!  They had to be willing to learn and willing to try new things.  He didn’t even try for master craftsmen; he went instead for journeymen who wanted to be their own man, but couldn’t quite break out given the structure of the current guild system.  From sun rise, until sunset, that was his day.  In the late evenings, he would meet with Kalev or Moshe.  Working with them on the size of the flotilla they would need for the big day in the spring.

Each night before bed, Eli would give his report over the radio.  He would talk to Marcus.  He would talk to each of the ladies in turn, hear about the triumphs and trials of new teeth and panicked worry of illness from minor fevers to days of sickness that ate away at them all.  Eli simply blessed his Maker every day that in a world where infant mortality was all too common, all nine of his children had made it through the first three months of their lives mostly healthy.  All the boys had recovered from their bris, which he had done, despite his personal terror at the idea.  The mothers had all recovered and seemed healthy as well.  They seemed to be particularly blessed.  Eli knew that some of it was that they were simply eating better than was common for most people elsewhere, and were cleaner, and also understood some of the basic ailments better so were less likely to do harmful things to try to cure minor ailments as was common historically, but mostly he believed he had just been the beneficiary of benevolence from above.  More than anything, he was in a hurry to get back to it.  He had been away too long.

◆◆◆

The weather had changed.  This was really the signal that everyone had been waiting for.  Three days of violent storms pounded the city and surrounding areas.  Once they broke, it was obvious to all that spring was coming.  Two days later Eli joined Moshe and his family for Rosh Chodesh, the sighting of the new moon and start of the new month.   From that day all of bene Yisrael went into the most elegant demonstration of organize chaos that Eli had ever seen.  For two weeks no one had time for anything outside of Shabbat.  Everything was cleaned aboard the ships and they were made ready to sail.   They made special provision for the passengers that night and asked that they please remain in their assigned area that evening only.

As the fleet sailed from the port and Xi fell behind them, Eli couldn’t help but worry for Kip and Dena, whom he had left behind.  Rent at the Slain Orc was paid up for months, and business had been good for both of them when he left, but... so much could so easily go wrong.    Raj would look after them. It was in his best interest after all, and it wasn’t like Eli wouldn’t be sending back regular trade missions now. He had laid so much groundwork he couldn’t just let it go to waste.   Besides, Evita was there for all of her flaws. It wasn’t like she would let something horrible happen to the kid and his sister... right?

Eli was so deep in thought looking back at the city that he failed to pay attention to the clamor that was happening behind him.  So it was that when Kalev rested his hand on his shoulder and Eli spun around with a start, he was amazed to see that they had filled the once empty deck with tables and benches.  Trays piled high with roasted meat and loaves of flat, unleavened bread.  Something clicked in Eli’s mind, fourteen days since the new moon.  Unleavened bread!  Yes, that is exactly what they were doing!  The traditions were different of course, at least in the details, but still it was completely recognizable.  Especially with the ship captain began to recite the story.  Eli was ashamed to admit it, but it had been long enough since he had read Torah’s account that he couldn’t be certain if some of what he heard were embellishments, or just parts of the story that weren’t emphasised in modern Judaism and he had just forgotten.

Kalev seemed especially pleased that he recognized what was going on.  They discussed different traditions, both Rabbinic and family specific.  Kalev seemed to find the ritual washing of hands most odd.  Cleaning one’s hands before eating certainly, but to make a point of it in such a manner as to interrupt the flow of things.  Also, the tradition of ‘bitter herbs’ was kept as well, but among the Tribe of Dan, it was the lamb that was spiced with a mildly bitter spice.  To Eli’s tastes it was almost like a hop.  Quite unusual, but oddly not unpleasant.  Eli also noticed that while they removed the chametz (leaven) they were not quite as obsessive about it as Judaism had become.  Kalev merely shrugged and said the thought process was to mimic more what conditions would have been like fleeing Egypt, rather than seeing it as a representation of sin.  Eli wasn’t sure that they were right in this, but he couldn’t condemn their reasoning, either.

Eli noticed that there was no wine served.  Surprised he asked Kalev, who responded that again in keeping with a long flight through the wilderness, sobriety was the rule.  Eli explained the four cups and the four questions.  Kalev listened intently, and while Eli was fairly certain he didn’t fully approve, he could tell that Kalev was considering the reasoning behind it.  Surprisingly Eli found himself enjoying this holiday far more than he had in years.  Even when back home among familiar customs, he realized that he often found himself just going through the motions.  He wasn’t being disrespectful; they were just so familiar that they didn’t cause him to stop and consider them. Being among these, he wondered if Dannite was the proper term, with their strange, yet familiar customs, caused him to examine everything fresh.  He found that he liked that it seemed to give deeper meaning to things, even the things that he thought he preferred his traditional customs on.  He found he now had something to compare them to.  It wasn’t a different religion, so it was the same, yet it was also very different.

Eli had eaten his fill and then some, and yet here came another young woman with a shy smile, adding yet more lamb to his plate.  Eli had a bad feeling that the shadchanim on the ship was working overtime. He really hoped this wasn’t the case.  He had no desire to turn into a Solomon.  Oh, as a young man it sounded good, but knowing what it takes to actually be a good husband and father, he knew he was already in over his head, especially with all the other duties screaming for his time.  Still, he smiled politely at her. After all, it wasn’t the girl’s fault, and she was quite lovely.

Dutifully, Eli forked another bite of lamb into his mouth and almost choked on it.  From somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembered that one problem was that the northern tribes had been doing sacrifices in other places besides the Temple, and that is forbidden.  Had they actually done this lamb as a real Pesach sacrifice?  If so, that would make it not kosher to eat...  Eli felt a little foolish, until recently, he had never really worried too much about kashrut... but this?  Somehow, to his mind this just seemed..  He didn’t want to spit out the bite, but he found he couldn’t make himself swallow it either.  Around the large bite of meat that seemed to keep swelling in his mouth, he managed to mumble at Kalev, “Um... you don’t actually sacrifice these do you?”

Seeing the look of distress on his face, Kalev wanted to tell him yes, but he couldn’t suppress a smile that long.

◆◆◆

Eli realized that they were mostly floating with the currents as the night wore on.  Then it came to him. No servile work, they weren’t actively sailing, just more or less not letting the ship get into any danger while generally heading in the direction they wanted to go.  For a moment he was concerned about what that meant for the planned rendezvous with John and the two wagon loads of parchment that the city gate guards were now all searching for.  The severe parchment shortage had not gone unnoticed, and the whole five city state region was in an uproar over in.  Each city had its own bureaucracy and everyone knows how paper pushers love their paper.  Eli couldn’t help grinning at the thought.

His own Israelite sages on board had assured him that if using kinetic energy from a turning water wheel could be used to power the crippled runes that goyish Magi used, that once they had observed the process, they could do the same for the language of creation, and probably with better efficiency.  Eli didn’t know if this was boast, or blind faith belief, or literal fact, he had nothing to judge it by, but he knew that by this time next week they would all be well on their way to knowing.    He looked behind them at the two large ships, okay large by the standards of the day, frightfully small by his twenty-first century standards but still compared to the three tiny fishing boats they had made the journey to the mainland in...  *snort*

Eli made sure that he was on deck to greet John, even though it was just barely before dawn.  He knew it would be important to be there with a couple of the regular gentile craftsmen who wouldn’t mind lending a hand.  The Israelite crew were bending the rules enough already doing this pick up.   Loading two wagonloads of parchment would have been asking too much.  Eli himself shouldn’t do it either, because he wanted to keep the commandment, and because it was important to be seen to be one of them, keeping the faith right along with them.  John gave him a bit of a frustrated look.  Not that John didn’t have any faith, but rather that because like most people in the world, John’s definition of morality was tied not to scriptural commandments (he would argue that, at one point and be embarrassed when his own conduct proved Eli right) but rather to the general acceptable social norms of his day, he could just not understand how choosing to do work or not do work on a particular day made any moral difference at all.  Eli easily averted any chance for drama or bad feelings by simply resolving the issue before it became one.  Besides, who needed sleep, there was time for sleep when you were dead.

With the sun up, everyone more or less spent the day relaxing and enjoying being out to sea.  Well, except about half of the passengers, who upon experiencing the sea for the first time, were enjoying the wonders of sea sickness instead.  Eli spent this time talking to the Sages, converting the little he had been taught over to their way of shaping the magic.

That night, as the sunset and the stars came out, Eli pulled out the navigational tools that he’d packed away since their voyage over.  Instantly he was the center of attention and topic of conversation.  He showed them how the measurements were taken, and explained that once they had taken those measurements for several places on a map of known distance a grid could be set up between them, this would allow any point to have a specific address and as long as you knew where you were and where you were going... how to get there was just common sense.   Eli was fairly certain he saw tears in the navigator’s eyes.   With known coordinates to be able to create fixed locations, maps were about to improve.   If they could ever get engines working like he wanted... he sighed.  Once he had their location, he knew that they were close to the island.  Below decks, and between boxes of parchment, Eli fired up the little spark gap transmitter.  In this configuration, with no real tower, and only his small bank of batteries, it wasn’t powerful at all, but this close, it did not surprise him when they acknowledged his signal to start the dog and pony show he had arranged for their return.  Usually Eli hated theatrics.  Ok, this time was really not an exception, but he needed to make an impression on these people.  He needed numbers and organization to make his plans for the future work, and they had some rough organization, and they had numbers.  Besides, they were his people, and he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing while they struggled the way they did with their Greek neighbors.

He returned to the deck just in time to point the helmsman toward the giant sky flower firework going off. “There they are signaling us, guiding us in.  That will be my wives, lighting the path home.”

The helmsman looked at Eli startled, “Not shy one bit are they?” he said in a half strangled voice.   Eli simply roared with laughter. It was going to be good to be home.

No Place Like Home

The first sight of the fast attack craft welcoming little fleet had John ready to dive overboard and swim out to meet them.  While one of the two had only personnel of the newly formed navy on board, the second of the two which was Captained by Leon himself, had two rather conspicuous occupants, Syria and Helena were smiling and waving wildly in greeting.

Eli managed to talk him out of any youthful foolishness, but only barely.  Truth be told, if it were any of his ladies so close after so long, he wasn’t sure he’d have had much restraint either.  It was going to be so good to be home again.  The next hour as the island drew ever closer was maddeningly long.  Had it not been for the many questions from Kalev and the other crew about the unique design of the Islander’s boats to distract him, he couldn’t have imagined what an eternity it would have seemed.  As it was, he was about to find this was not the greatest delay he would deal with today.  Once in the bay, their docking was completely inadequate for the three large ships.  Fortunately, Marcus was an incredibly innovative man, and had improvised a floating dock, as well as a windlass system for smoothly moving it out and back from the vessels.  Using it as a large barge, they were able to unload each ship in three trips a piece.

Eli tried to hide his disappointment that his family wasn’t there to greet him at the dock, but Marcus only grinned.  “That’s my fault.  I over ruled them.”  He held up a hand to stave off the complaint. “Syria and Helena were already here and staying with Leon.  Moving your whole clan here and then back again. While handling logistics for the newcomers, as well as seeing to any needs of our guests, it wasn’t practical.  So I made a compromise.  I have a wagon right here.  If you tell me which ship you have your horse teams on, we’ll off load them next.    You can take the wagon and a horse or two and head immediately out.  I’ll handle getting everyone else settled.  Oh, and everyone is on a project in one place or the other, so besides the staff, your family has the house to themselves, and I’ve left strict orders it is to stay that way for two full days.  After that, you’ll have to fend for yourself.”  He chuckled a bit wickedly.  “Lot of people have an entire list of things they’ve been waiting to see you about.”

Eli groaned, “I’ll bet.  Hey just a heads up, it’s Passover, so if they refuse a welcome party or whatever...”  Seeing Marcus’s eyes go wide and then nod knowingly Eli felt comfortable he would be able to handle things.  “Ah, here comes Kalev now.  Let me introduce you.  He’s sort of my chief liaison at the moment.  Oh, and before they get in earshot, that young guy coming up behind him, he’s your project.  That is Shlomo ben Aviel ben Dan.  He took it upon himself to challenge my word the first night I was there.  Quite sure of himself.    I think he’s eaten enough humble pie to be over it, but I specifically asked for him to be a witness to report to their elders on what we can offer.  Make sure he gets a very humbling look at what is possible, especially some of the video of things like fighter aircraft and submarines, etc.  Oh and let him see any pictures we have of Israel.  I know you’ve got some from your trips, and I’ve got a few, plus the Roths are bound to have a few.  We want him going back unable to properly form words.  It will mean more than any of the other’s reports.  His animosity toward me early on was fairly scandalous, more so when the things I said started to appear to be true.”

Marcus gave an evil laugh. “Rub his nose in it?”

Eli shrugged, “You don’t have to make it obvious, but there’s no zeal like that of the convert.”  Marcus just nodded.  There wasn’t time to talk further because they had drawn close enough that it was time for introductions.  After explaining the situation and general plan for the next couple of days, Eli offered for Kalev and his family to join him at the house to relax and see some things before the whirlwind tour began.

So after an excruciating three hours of waiting for horses to be unloaded and hitched to a wagon and Kalev’s two wives and four daughters to be loaded on the wagon.  The former all day walk would now have him home shortly before sunset.

Kalev’s wives were a bit shocked by the open displays of affection that greeted Eli upon his return.  While not prudes, it was a tradition in their circles to wait until one was alone.  These women were not interested in waiting, and their husband did not seem to concern himself with admonishing them.  They looked at each other, then to Kalev who to their surprise was smiling.  Well, if he saw no fault in it why should they, and as if seeing his mood as approval, each of them took one of his hands in theirs.  This caused him to jump slightly as it was unexpected, but his smile only broadened and he said nothing to stop them.    Eli apologised that he would need to see to his family for a bit, but asked the staff to see to his guests and make them comfortable.  Show them to the baths and help them operate it properly.  In English he said, “Bath Only”.  That was the special code that had been arranged so that the maids would know the preferences of the guests.  Georgia had been firm on setting a few English terms that could guide past culturally sensitive spots.  Eli had thought her over reacting at first, but now as he had a chance to use one, he saw the foresight of her plan.  Then in Greek he added, “Any food they like, but no bread at this time.   They are observing a religious holy day and may not have any.  For the next five days, you may view my family as under this same restriction.  We must do any bread we consume in a special way, and we will prepare it ourselves.”  Then turning to Kalev, “In the morning, if your wives would be so kind, perhaps they could teach mine how it’s done?  This will be our first Pesach together.”

Kalev’s eyes went wide with understanding, but before he could say anything both women we nodding and smiling happily.  Mostly just glad to find some way that they could be of help with this vast project.  They knew how much was riding on this. Kalev had been under so much pressure since Eli had arrived.  If Kalev did not approve of him so much, and if he had not always been so kind to them, they would have resented him for the hardship that he had brought to their husband.  Perhaps knowing his wives would let them learn something to help Kalev in his work.  To help all of their people have a better future.

So it was that each little family went their own way.  Neither actually got much sleep that night.  For Eli’s family, of course there was the obvious physical reunion, but there was also so much to catch up on.  Antics of the children, and advances in each of their personal projects, and of course hearing about the wonders of Xi and all the people he met there.  Did he think maybe they could go sometime?  Really?!  Regular trips?  Could that be possible?

For Kalev’s family there was running water, hot and cold!  Open affection?  Goyim as servants?  Did you see the size of that house?  How was that stone held together?  Could a ship have running water?  All those fields. Could they really work them with only those few machines they saw?  You mean he says those were only little ones that they could make fast?  Are you certain he isn’t bragging?

◆◆◆

Morning’s exhaustion was quickly burned away, consumed by new and exciting wonders.  Egg, cheese, olive, and mushroom omelets, served with mugs of sweet thick cold milk straight from this wonderful thing called a ‘spring house’.  Not to mention their oven for baking!  It was ingenuously designed. There was almost no smoke!  It was also so hot that the unleavened bread was done almost as soon as you put it in!

His wives were so industrious!  Truly, women spoken of in the proverbs.  To think that they thought Eli may have been misleading their husband, the spinning wheels, and the amazing colors of dye’s that they had!  No wonder their Eli wore a coat as rich as Yoseph’s.  Oh, and the washing machine!  A true miracle right there...

Kalev’s ability to deal with the multitude of wonders that he was experiencing was no less overwhelmed than that of his wives.  Eli started by showing him the tablet.  Book after book after book. And then he moved on to pictures of Israel and Kalev found himself unable to hold back the tears.  He was ashamed of his lack of control, but he saw no condemnation in Eli, only one who truly understood.   Kalev resisted when Eli pulled him away from the tablet; he had just discovered video...  Eli only laughed and said that they would have to make time later, or he could spend years on that alone.  Reluctantly Kalev followed him out to the small shop area, and saw the few simple machines that Eli had built there, and could see that in the hands of master craftsmen, and on a large scale, even these simple things could change his world.  Still, Eli was not done.  The horses had been hitched, and with promises to return for a late lunch with the family, Eli took him to the crash site.  Seeing the remains of the craft, for the first time Kalev understood the level of world that Eli and the others had come from.  There was no magic there. Yet if all the Sages of Israel, and all the Magi of the goyim were to work together for a dozen lifetimes, he didn’t think that they could do this.

◆◆◆

Lunch was a madhouse.  Screaming infants and Kalev’s girls dashing about, playing and laughing.  The sun was warm without being hot.  Eli’s wives were laughing and seeming to be genuinely enjoying their visit with Kalev’s wives.  Who were in turn trying to explain to Kalev about the wonders that they had seen that day.  The washing machine seeming to take prominence in their minds at the moment.  Eli hadn’t been this satisfied with his life in a long time.  Oh, he really wanted to sleep for about three days straight, but he wouldn’t miss a moment of this general insanity for anything.  He noticed that Kalev hadn’t said more than a couple dozen words.  Not that he was being surly with his wives over their excitement, Eli could tell he was just very distracted.  The man desperately needed time to process what he had seen.  It’s why Eli hadn’t pushed him for conversation on the drive back.  He wasn’t sure what to do next.   Of course Sapphira to the rescue, she suggested that the ladies take the little ones for a bath to clean up, then put them down for a nap, while they had a soak and got in a good gossip, giving the guys a chance to talk shop.

With the ladies gone for a couple of hours, Eli picked up a bottle of the Roth’s moonshine.  “Any rule against having a drink other than on the first night?”  Kalev looked up at him a bit blankly, then shook his head.  Eli poured some lemonade, then spiked it.  Ok spiked it fairly good.  He handed Kalev what would have to pass in this place for a whiskey sour.  Kalev tried it, looked at it and raised an eyebrow and took another drink.

Twenty minutes and two-and-a-half cups later, Kalev was ready to talk.  Kalev poured out a little more honesty that he probably would have wanted, but Eli felt so much better once he understood Kalev’s concerns.  They were healthy, and normal, and to be expected.  Change was spooky and once he got done, nothing was ever going to be the same again.  After Kalev finally ran down, having gotten it all out, Eli just smiled. “I’ve got an easy fix for you.  Start with my wives, and then move out, ask the people here. It wasn’t always easy.  There were plenty of times when it was downright scary... but ask them if they would go back to how it was if they could.   I don’t think you’d find many who would willingly do that.”

Epilogue

The tour of the island for the bene Israel had been a rousing success.   They had stayed for only a week, then two of the three ships left to meet up with the rest of their kin.  Kalev’s departure caused more of a void for Eli than he had expected.  They agreed to drop of John, Syria, and Helena, as well as Anjun, on the mainland to maintain the gains made in Xi.  They had already reported in via radio that they had taken up the rooms at the Slain Orc, and Kip, Dena, and Uncle Raj all send their best.   Evita had stopped by long enough to pick up her tablet, generator, and budget for the next three months, and then just as quickly disappeared back to where ever she was hiding.

The third ship elected to stay.  The crew was helping out on the island.  They had also taken to making supply runs for the islanders to other small islands in the area.  All in all, this was turning into a very productive partnership.

Finally, the day for the treaty with the mer-elves had arrived.  They met on the beach, where the water meets the land. When Eli had them demand a mer-elf that they could talk to, he hadn’t realized how bad the man’s Greek would be.  Still, it had managed to get them here.  Magus Ries had provided two small perfectly matched smooth black stones, with the spell runes carefully etched into them.  With a nod, Eli and the mer-King each took up a stone.  Speaking first the Mer-King, “We greet you Conquering Barbarians, and are shamed that you have forced us to this humiliation.”  The king’s eyes went wide with shock as he stared at the stone in his hand as if it were a serpent set to devour him.

Eli barked a harsh laugh, “Well isn’t that useful, and damn inconvenient!”  It was his turn for his eyes to widen as he experienced intending to say one thing, but a more truthful version of being heard aloud.

The low, rumbling evil chuckle from across the table grated on Eli’s senses.  It was too knowing.  This man had more experience at this game than Eli, and they both knew it.  “Isn’t it though!  Relax!  Until I saw it acted this way on both parties, I suspected you of intentionally altering the spell work.   I have seen your reaction with my own eyes, and you are not that good of an actor.”  At Eli’s wry grimace, the King merely shrugged. “This still works to your favor.”  He let out a long sigh. “If candor it must be, then so be it!  I can see that you’re new to this. I have been swimming in among the frenzied sharks of our political waters since my birth over two hundred of your years ago.  Ambasador Krilliesh has admitted that his ability to communicate with you has been limited, but your threat was obvious enough, and from the wonders he has reported, so is your ability to carry it out.  So yes, as humiliating as it may be, ours is a people who recognizes and admires strength.  So we are not fools, so long as a few simple conditions are met, joining our strength to yours, even if it is as the junior party,” the last was growled out most unwillingly, “is the only way forward for my people.”

Eli nodded soberly. “For my part, I do not wish your people harm. I even have a vision where our people do amazing things together, things that you would say were impossible even for the gods.  So believe me when I say, I do not WANT to hunt them down and destroy them from the face of the Earth,” he carefully tilted his hand so that the small smooth stone could be easily seen within it, “but I will!”  Eli said the last clearly, slowly, never breaking eye contact, trying to convey sincerity, “With the Creator of heaven, earth, and seas, as my witness, IF you force my hand, I will unleash a fury upon you such as you have never dreamed.”

The king only gravely nodded. “I believe you!  Why else would I insist on ties of blood?  Why else put my only daughter Princess Whysh not simply as a hostage, but as bride to your young noble, Marcus? Though his exact title eludes us, perhaps you could make it more clear? Ah never mind, the point is I understand why you wanted hostages, and after consideration, I think it not enough.  Humans are short-lived, in time children take the place of parents making decisions, when that time comes, I want the children making those decisions to share our royal blood.  Without that, all of this...” he waved his hand around, “it is all just delaying the inevitable fight...”

Eli felt a bit of a gut punch... married to Marcus eh?  Well this was going to be more than a bit awkward.  “Um, what made you think that we would agree to this condition?”

The king looked at him a bit shocked, “My ambassador assured me that when he proposed it that your Marcus agreed.”

Eli cringed. “The same ambassador we both just discussed his limited communication ability in our language?”

The king’s temper flared. “It is better than your ability in ours!”

Eli’s eyes blazed for a moment and the angry American came out in him. “Advantages of being the victor!”  Then he took a deep breath, and the King saw him visibly calming himself and realized that they were letting this get out of control and murmured his apology first.  Eli simply nodded.  “It is just that I’m fairly certain it has been a miscommunication.  Marcus is already married, and in his custom, he is permitted only one wife.  His current wife would also find this news most disturbing.  Surely there is another option?”

The king snorted. Who ever heard of such a ridiculous custom?  It was against nature!  “I cannot see another way.  To his credit, your Marcus painted you as the very embodiment of destruction should we not decide to accept his ‘reasonable’ offer of protection to ‘shield’ us from your wrath.” The King chuckled, “I am no naïve child, or rural bumpkin.  No man of yours did anything without your orders, nor meeting with you here do I find you to be villainous, ruthless yes, but that is respectable when one has so much that depends upon his decisions, villainous, no.  However, my daughter truly fears you.  This may change in time, but in the short term, marriage would be impossible.   Your other senior officer is a child, even by your people’s standards and so unacceptable.  No one else on your side, has the necessary status to marry the Princess.  Otherwise it would appear an insult and undermine the very connections that you and I must forge here.  I am sorry for your man’s odd customs, but I see no other way.”

Eli thought about it.  The king of the mer-elves was right, and ties of blood would matter...  Oh, this was going to go over like a lead balloon with Georgia.  Eli looked the other man in the eye. “Among our people, this is not something that one can just be ordered to do.  It would be as unthinkable among us, as you ordering your daughter to marry the man she most fears.” Seeing understanding creeping into the king’s eyes, Eli continued.  “I need to explain things.  I need to be the one to break this news and NO other.”  He involuntarily glanced back up the beach toward the Festival grounds where the larger entourages of each man were warily mingling, tentatively testing out the possibility of peace between them.  “We should table this discussion right here for now, while I try to solve this little dilemma, before someone over there, “he nodded back up toward the crowd, “accidentally says the wrong thing, and makes this all a lot harder.”  Then muttering under his breath, ‘like that could happen.’ he immediately regretted it, fearing that he may have inadvertently just challenged the fates.

The king nodded. “Continue in two days?”  Eli nodded his agreement.  Then stood, and they walked back to the assembled crowd together.  Eli’s mind raced. How was he going to present this one...

About The Author

Vlad ben Avorham

I started to write books because I wasn't finding what I wanted to read. I like books that make me think, that inspire me to fill out the world with what could be done there. Tomorrowverse is a series of novels and short stories to explore the technological innovations that are preparing to throw us into an unknown and in many cases unknowable future.

Books In This Series

World Wright Inc.

Scientists from the near future, struggle to make a home in a world strage and yet all too familiar.

World Wright Incorporated

Crash landing in an alternate reality with no hope of rescue, a research team of eight highly educated and accomplished but woefully ill equipped scientists find themselves struggling to carve out a new home in a harsh new world. In this bronze age meets fantasy world of city states and magic, will these early twenty first century explorers be able to survive without all of their customary tools and technology to rely on? Will they be able to build a future for themselves that is worth living or will life prove to be like much of history, brutish, painful, and short?

Expansion: A World Wright Inc. Venture

With their island home now more or less established, our multiverse castaways now turn their attention to the mainland. The need to expand their markets, and better understand their new world brings new and unprecedented challenges, dangers and opportunities. How will they cope in the wider world? Will the find themselves over matched by the might and splendor of the centuries old and established centers of wealth, power, and culture of the regions ruling city states? Or will they find eager trading partners and welcoming markets for their exotic and revolutionary products and ideas?