H - 132: It Can Still Be Done (Patreon)

“They line up perfectly, as you can see, sir,” Engineer-Captain Miras said, holding the blueprint angled for Kaln to study. The phantasmal documents the Legionaries seemed able to instinctively conjure were fantastically legible now that they could communicate in modern Vhii and Filvallin; the glowing white lines on cloudy blue pages were clearer and easier on the eyes than proper ink on parchment. “Both segments of hallway are also identical. There’s just this…gap in the middle, here, and the Timekeepers were so long ago that geography itself has shifted, so the space between was filled in by the mountain.”

Kaln frowned at the blueprint, then up at the corridor around them, where the gentle glow of Timeglass revealed, indeed, impervious and gracefully decorated Timestone vanishing into a dead end of ancient rock.

“Really? This lines up exactly with the access corridor branching off the main vault?”

“Very much exactly, sir. It’ll be a mercifully straightforward job to dig it out again, and then we’ll have our access directly from the vault to the city.”

“That’ll be a relief to Emeralaphine, all right…”

“I wish to go on the record, sir,” Miras said with a frown, “emphasizing that mollifying a grouchy dragon is no part of my objectives here. Lady Emeralaphine is correct. For the main thoroughfare in and out of a city to run straight through a library is unacceptable. This must be fixed ASAP.”

“We’re in agreement,” Kaln said fervently. “So…do you know what was in this space between the two halves of hallway?”

“We’ve thoroughly surveyed the surrounding rock to verify it’ll be structurally safe to dig through—which it is—and in the process found no hint of whatever used to be here, sir. Neither end of the Timestone construction shows any sign of damage, of course, but it also doesn’t look incomplete. My best guess is that whatever this corridor was used for, there was some reason for this one segment of it not to be made of their impervious materials. And as the mountain shifted around it… Well, here we are.”

“Huh.” Kaln stepped back, studying the rock filling the end of the hall. It was solid rock, not the rubble of a landslide; it looked for all the world like the Timekeepers had simply bored the walls of their construction into the living stone and not bothered to clear out the middle. The edges of their walls were indeed embedded in unbroken rock, but that didn’t stop the intangible Phantom Legion from inspecting them up close. “I wonder what they could possibly have been up to.”

“As always, sir, the answer to the question of why the Timekeepers did anything is a fatalistic shrug,” Miras said, nodding in sympathy. “The city at least is laid out as a city, in ways that make sense, but there’s plenty in there that we haven’t figured out the reasons for, and I still have no idea what this main facility was built to do. The multiple large vaults suggest storage of some kind, but so much else about it… My working theory is that the chamber the dragons turned into a bath was originally for some sort of aquaculture, but that’s the only part about which I even have a theory. The clockwork visible through those exposed segments in the wall appears to be purely decorative—at any rate, there are no discernible attachment points for machines to be plugged into it.”

“Very well, then, this sounds like a simple enough job,” Kaln agreed, “and it’ll alleviate our traffic problem. Fine work, Captain, my compliments to your team. You’re cleared to proceed with this; make it priority one.”

“Yes, sir!” Miras saluted, grinning. His glowing, translucent face was one of those with such an inherently rounded shape, complete with a hint of a double chin, that would always make him look plump despite the military fitness of his overall form; it was a face meant to feature a smile, and frequently did so. “You heard the Dragonlord, team; pickaxes up. If you’ll follow me, sir, I’ll show you the other proposed site.”

“At the big gates, right? Go on ahead, I’ll meet you there. I’ll try not to waste your time, but I want to watch the recruits drilling while I walk.”

“Understood, sir, no problem. We’ll see you there!”

Kaln nodded politely to the Phantom Legionaries around him, who all saluted in reply, before conjuring tools from nowhere and beginning to hack away at the ancient stone of the mountain. Leaving them behind, he strode through the octagonal, vaulted antechamber which formed the entry point for this corridor.

The large foyer itself was spacious and elegant, with its open doorway—the doors apparently having been made of something less impervious than Timesteel and long gone—framed by panels of Timeglass which provided a nice view of the plaza outside, and the city spread out beyond it. Looking at it now, he could indeed believe this had been the original main entrance to the city from the vault complex. It would serve admirably in that capacity again, once it was spiffied up a bit.

He did not dawdle on his way around the edges of the city, though he took full advantage of the time to watch the goings-on in this formerly quiet ruin. The ghosts and their newer mortal assistants had been hard at work, and most of the frequently-used terraces and roads were now cleared of rubble and vegetation. They had even preserved the full-sized trees growing out of soil-filled gaps between lengths of Timestone, erecting carved stone curbs to delineate those spaces and planting decorative ground cover around the spreading roots. Kaln had not told them to do any of that, but he strongly approved.

Off in the distance, a work crew of combined ghosts and mortals was continuing to clean up a block of buildings, the Legionaries handling the brutal labor of hacking up giant roots and hauling away loads of rock, while ex-bandits performed the lighter and more detailed tasks of cleaning up eons of moss and grime.

Lighter in context, relatively speaking. It seemed like a sensible division of labor.

Though the rings were not symmetrical or equidistant, the terraces of the city rose from its central flooded section in a series of roughly concentric loops; now that much of the rubble and vegetation had been cleared away, the shape of it was more clear. Every level had at least one broad avenue running entirely around the drop to the one below.

One level down from Kaln, on the loop that happened to be the most cleanly oval in shape, about sixty people were jogging laps around the entirety of the city. He wasn’t sure how many laps they’d done now; the entire rear half of the throng was clearly still not used to this kind of exercise.

Of the hundreds of Dragonvale bandits whose stories he had seen and judged, ninety-three had met his criteria of having been outlawed unjustly and managed to uphold enough of a code of honor that he didn’t want to send them back home along with their more overtly criminal comrades and the several state spies embedded in the gangs.

Kaln had been surprised that there were so many, but had learned in the process that “noble banditry” was something of a cultural institution in the Evervales, due to people being driven out of society for falling victim to various aristocratic schemes; this had been going on so long that successful bandits often rose to the status of folk heroes, and it was downright commonplace for gangs to exclusively rob those who could afford it, and preferentially those who deserved it. Though it was less relevant out here in Dragonvale, apparently a lot of gangs which operated deeper inside the kingdoms made a point of providing services to the common folk that their governments failed or refused to.

He’d also been surprised there were so few spies, but it turned out Oswald and Rafaela had been aggressively sniffing out and culling them for years.

So far, his army was…unimpressive. Of the bandits who’d chosen to accept his amnesty, about a third wanted nothing to do with any more fighting, and various jobs had been found or created for them; the rest joined Tiavathyris’s brand new Dragonvale army. She had opined that it was wiser overall strategy to build up a conventional military and keep the Phantom Legion in reserve as much as possible; the more they were exposed to the Vale and other powers, the faster rivals would come up with countermeasures for them. Kaln had seen the wisdom of this and approved it, but it was very much a work in progress. At present, his secret elite troops vastly outnumbered the mundane kind, and also these were half-trained hooligans and layabouts.

Tiavathyris had also said that their ranks would grow as Dragonvale’s population did, which it would, if he intended to keep offering shelter to those in need, and that the sooner a functional corps was established that others could join, the better. She’d further admitted that it was often more difficult to get experienced fighters accustomed to proper military discipline than it was to train raw peasants into soldiers, but had expressed zero lack of faith that she could do it.

Watching her work, he didn’t doubt it, either.

Tiavathyris was in her larger form, perched atop an entire row of Timekeeper buildings as she supervised her troops. Her posture was deceptively languid, but her head swiveled constantly atop a fully upright neck, obviously missing nothing.

“Pick it up, Schmidt,” she ordered, her deep voice ringing across the valley as Kaln approached the towering city gates where Captain Miras was waiting for him. “You are not weak enough to be the last one in again.”

The man who was trailing along at the end of the pack actually staggered to a halt, slumping forward to brace himself against his own knees, panting dramatically.

“Just eat me,” he wheezed. “I’ve had enough.”

Schmidt was too far away for his weak voice to be audible to either Kaln or Tiavathyris—but Kaln had found himself able to pick up sights, sounds, and scents far too small and distant for normal human senses following his breakthrough in Boisverd, and Tiavathyris…

Was the apex predator.

She launched herself into flight in chillingly absolute silence. Sensing dragon magic being activated, Kaln could tell she wasn’t that quiet completely by physical skill—but sensing the amount of magic being employed, he could deduce that there was more physical skill involved than he’d have thought possible.

She was not silent when her enormous bulk slammed to the ground on the avenue directly behind Schmidt, and especially not when she extended her neck to snap her jaws right next to him with a force that sent echoes reverberating back and forth across the entire valley.

Schmidt emitted an inhumanly high-pitched sound and burst back into motion, quickly accelerating past several of his fellow trainees, all of whom had also put on bursts of speed.

“She knows how to motivate people,” Kaln remarked as he came to a stop alongside Miras.

“More important, she knows when to,” the engineer agreed. “That wouldn’t work on a man who was genuinely collapsing, but the General can tell a medical event from a drama queen. I sort of wish she’d been in charge of my platoon in basic. We had a few louts who could’ve benefited from the fear of death.”

It was kind of eerie to realize that that wasn’t an impossible scenario; Tiavathyris had not only been alive back then, but already a legendary figure.

“This is the site, then?” he said, turning back toward the gates.

“Yes, sir,” Miras replied more briskly. “This appears to have been the main entry of the city; it’s the only upper-level entrance that doesn’t open into the vault complex. There are three tunnels currently under the water level that extend lower; whatever they used to open onto isn’t there anymore. As you can see, this is an exact match for the big doors to the vault’s front entrance overlooking the valley.”

Kaln nodded, examining the familiar shapes of huge Timesteel doors now standing open before him. He had not known this was here previously; it had been fully buried under a rockslide before the Phantom Legion’s excavations had restored the shape of the upper city.

Behind the open gates was just more rock.

“How much rock is in their way now?” he asked.

“That is what I wanted to show you, sir.” Miras held up another translucent diagram, this one a topographical map with the rigidly straight lines of the Timekeeper construction contrasting with the natural shapes of the surrounding mountains. “It’s hard to see from this angle, but I’m sure you noticed on the way over that this now points directly into one of the largest nearby peaks? Well, that means there’s quite a distance of mountain to tunnel through to make this the main gate again, but I would still recommend it. Timekeeper construction obviously can’t be dismantled, and the only other way to construct a direct exit from the city would be to build a huge ramp over some of the existing structures. The finished result would be vulnerable to damage from both natural and deliberate phenomena, would be quite an eyesore, and also be an even greater pain to travel up and down.”

“So your recommendation is still to bore through the mountain?”

“Yes, sir.” Miras traced a translucent fingertip along the page, and a glowing line formed behind it, marking a path down the mountain. “My team has scouted a route to construct a descending avenue from that point down into the valley; it’s inevitably quite a climb, but the proposed route employs a lot of switchbacks as you can see, which both minimizes the angle and makes the final result fantastically defensible.”

“I suppose it’s good to think in terms of defense,” Kaln said with a smile, “but this place is full of dragons.”

Miras did not smile. “Yes, sir, which means any hypothetical attacker will do what the last one did and draw the dragons away before invading. Even if we’re prepared for that, the fact that Dragonvale now has friends, allies, and other interests abroad means it can still be done.”

“Point taken,” Kaln acknowledged soberly. “Yes, by all means, let’s keep defense in mind when planning the exterior gates.”

The ghost nodded, satisfied. “Naturally, this would be the real hard point; nobody’s breaking through a Timesteel gate no matter what they bring to bear, but an underrated part of a strong defense’s purpose is to dissuade people from trying. What I propose is an access that any general will take one look at, realize they’d only be getting to the impenetrable gate with dragons behind it with the ragged shreds of their army, and go bother someone else. Defense aside, sir, what’s interesting to me is that there’s a sizable natural cavern beyond this rock wall. We’ll only need to bore tunnels at either end; creating this path will involve constructing a suitably sized bridge.”

“An underground bridge?” Kaln repeated, trying to picture it.

“Yes, sir. If I may, I expect the final result to be quite scenic indeed. It’s a lovely cavern—arched ceiling, subterranean ravine below, all the requisite stalagmites and stalactites and several flowing water sources from the abundant springs in this mountain range. It will make for a suitably grand entry to suit the Timekeeper construction, and the dignity of our resident dragons.”

“They do like their grandiosity,” Kaln agreed with a smile.

“Which is why I propose to design all this construction to mimic the materials of the city. The bridge will require illumination, and fortunately the effects of Timeglass can be faked pretty easily. Making stuff glow is one of the simplest and most basic enchantments, and adding durability to glass isn’t much harder. It’ll still be more fragile and need upkeep and eventual replacement, but that burden shouldn’t be onerous. My people are also able to design faux Timestone; it’s a simple matter of getting the right materials, and extrapolating from the decorative patterns engraved on what’s already here. I’ve learned the right type of sandstone can be sourced from Rhivaak, and the alchemical reagents necessary to finish the effect are commonplace. Well…they were, eight centuries ago, and I doubt they’re much less so now. Likewise with fake Timesteel accents. Bronze with some decorative enchantments and alchemical coating will do.”

“Hm.” Kaln took a step back, craning his neck to take in both the Timesteel gate in its arched housing and the mountain peak rising above it. “Carving stone out for the tunnels will produce stone, won’t it? If we’re willing to compromise on the décor a bit…how much of this could you get done with purely local materials?”

Miras hesitated for a half second before answering. “Sir, it isn’t… Well, let me put it this way. With their skills, my crew could move up into the Highlands and build you an entire city this size using nothing but what we found buried in the ground or growing atop it. In fact, now that I’ve suggested that, I find myself wanting to try it someday, as a fun little exercise. But even given that we need no sleep or rest, can conjure almost any needed tool with a thought, move at up to the speed of sound and can pass straight through any matter at need, that task would take ten times as long as if we had access to ready-made trade goods. In fact, if the hypothetical people to inhabit this hypothetical city were to enjoy a modern standard of living, we would eventually run into some hard barrier across our progress; the more advanced a society becomes, the more it needs materials from specific parts of the world only available via trade. And if you’ll forgive me for stepping outside my specialty, sir, there are benefits to trading for stuff that go well beyond acquiring it. A nation needs relationships.”

“You’re right about that,” Kaln mused. “Thank you for the dose of perspective, Captain, and the reminder. Izayaroa has been talking about opening trade channels mainly for the purpose of strengthening ties with our neighbors.”

“Indeed, sir,” Miras agreed, nodding. “The hoard of Atraximos represents an inconceivable amount of liquid capital that the Vale states probably want more than you do. Anything you purchase will come with a side order of goodwill.”

“I do already have an account with a Verdi trading company… Buying Rhiva sandstone sounds like more of an undertaking I scarcely know how to begin, but Izayaroa will undoubtedly be able to walk me through it. Very well, I approve of your plan. Including replicating the look of the Timekeeper materials; I doubt that will actually fool anyone, but those of us living here well get to enjoy the consistent aesthetics.”

The engineer smiled. “Yes, sir! Hegemony codes stipulate that public infrastructure should be beautiful as well as functional, according to the aesthetic standards of the culture in which it is to be built.”

“This is going to be a massive project, though, a far cry from simply boring that tunnel into the lair. And one you can’t even begin until I source those materials for you… All right, if you can get me a list—”

Miras produced a sheet of parchment from seemingly nowhere—physical parchment with neat handwriting upon it in ink, in Filvallin, not like one of the Phantom Legion’s spectral documents.

Kaln took it from him with a solemn nod. “Captain, your efficiency makes you a pleasure to work with.”

“I do my utmost, sir, thank you for your regard!”

He half-turned to look back out over the city, where Tiavathyris was back on her previous perch, watching her troops drilling and calling occasional encouragements and reprimands. They were on another lap; Kaln didn’t know how much longer these drills would take, but it was clearly not over yet.

Though he didn’t like to admit it to himself, that came as a relief. Despite Rafaela’s and everyone else’s reassurances, he had worried about speaking directly to the former bandits—his former prisoners.

“Since you will likely have the access tunnel done well in advance of being able to start on the gateway,” he said, turning back to Captain Miras, “let’s take the opportunity to lay out next plans while I have you here. What are your recommendations, Captain?”

“Yes, sir! To begin with, continuing to refurbish the city will ultimately involve fixing the water level. My people have scouted to the bottom, and it’s clear this city was always intended to have that lake in the center, just…farther down. Geologic activity has both eliminated some of its original drainage channels and funneled more mountain springs in, with the result you see here. Both of these are problems addressable by constructing new drainage outlets. With your permission, I’ll have my surveyors draw up a plan that will restore the water to its originally intended level.”

“Granted. Let’s make that the next priority after the access tunnel.”

“Very good, sir, consider it done. Now, after that, our surveys of the valley outside have mapped ruins beneath the forest which I recommend repurposing. The foundations of Valeri-era complexes are still sound enough for new structures to be built atop them; I ordinarily wouldn’t suggest that, but centuries of consistent occupation by various outlaws have stripped them of any archaeological value, and there are residents of this lair who remember more about Valereld than we could learn by studying those ruins.”

“Noted. I’m not yet sure for what purpose we would need to build structures in the valley, is the thing…”

“Yes, sir, this would be a more distant priority. I bring it up now because in such cases it’s good to have a plan well in advance of needing to implement it. Of more immediate interest, you previously mentioned getting some agriculture going within our territory?”

“Indeed. The dragons hunt, but bringing in enough game to feed our entire population will start to annoy them very quickly. So far we’ve been able to buy enough food, but that leaves us vulnerable to being cut off.”

“Yes, sir, an important strategic concern. The good news is I think we can also address that by rebuilding old structures currently hidden by the forest. At least some of what are now rivers in Dragonvale were obviously canals dating from the Valeri era, and my people have found what we believe were a network of terrace farms along the northern and eastern mountain rims. That would be an ideal place for planting if we repair them, much better than the river valleys. You never want to just rip out an old growth forest, that’ll cause ecological collapse followed by catastrophic soil erosion.”

The ghost conjured up another glowing, translucent map, this one of Dragonvale, pointing to markings along the mountains where he’d referred to ancient farms.

“These were originally fed by mountain springs which mostly still exist, through aqueducts whose paths we can infer from context, though the structures themselves are almost entirely gone. These works date from about a thousand years ago according to the best estimates of my surveyors—a lot more recent than whatever happened to the Timekeepers, though still older than Valereld. It’s a larger project than rejuvenating the city, but we can do it piecemeal, and we won’t be fighting the effects of nearly as much time and decay.”

Kaln nodded along, enjoying the glow of satisfaction that gradually overcame his mild unease at the prospect of addressing the troops.

One piece at a time, his little kingdom was coming together.