Valkyrie's Shadow

Winter's Crown: Act 7, Chapter 1

Winter's Crown: Act 7, Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Currents of frigid air played over Ludmila’s toes. She shivered and started to pull her feet back under the blankets…but she was blocked by an unyielding adversary. A soft murmur drifted into her ear, and the leg clamped over hers squeezed down. As per usual, Countess Clara Corelyn had turned Baroness Ludmila Zahradnik into her personal body pillow, except now Ludmila decided that her childhood friend had firmly stepped onto a wayward path.

With Corelyn Castle still under construction, Clara had opted to remain in her old manor rather than moving into a temporary residence in the new harbour town. They were sleeping in her old bedroom, which Ludmila had frequented many times throughout their long relationship. She could never get over how large it was. Not including all of the smaller rooms attached to it, Clara’s bedroom was as large as the entire Zahradnik manor in Warden’s Vale.

Not that Ludmila’s home was very large. Still, this fact always wore on her: House Zahradnik always had a reputation for humility, but even she understood that a manor should be more than a hole in a rocky hillside no larger than a noble daughter’s bedroom.

She narrowed her eyes, peering through the gossamer veils of Clara’s luxurious four-poster bed. Arranged in a line on the floor across the room was the source of the cold air. Her friend had six of the magical cooling boxes from the Empire custom-made to be opened on both ends. She then purchased six magical fans and left one running inside of each. The result was that, despite the sweltering heat of the lowland summer, the air in Clara’s bedroom remained cold.

Not cool, but cold. Nearly as cold as winter in Warden’s Vale. The sole reason, of course, was so that Clara could latch onto Ludmila to her heart’s content while they slept. Clara’s arms and legs were securely draped over her, and she occasionally pressed her body against hers as if she could somehow snuggle even closer than she already had. Because Clara was at home, none of her household came to rouse her…and so they dozed the morning away until Ludmila felt that it must already be noon.

Decadence. Decadence and wickedness.

Oblivious to Ludmila’s thoughts, Clara snuggled against her again, nuzzling her shoulder. A contented smile was painted lightly over her face. Over her belly, Ludmila could feel the metal band on one of the fingers of Clara’s hand: like herself, she now also had a Ring of Sustenance.

Clara had learned about the item from Ludmila shortly after Ludmila received it from Lord Mare. A few days later, Clara had one too. She declared with firm conviction that, since they now only needed to sleep once a week, they should do so together. Ludmila wasn’t sure how that made any sense at all, but she did think it would be nice to spend time together on a regular basis. And, so, Countess Corelyn had secured her preferred article of bedding.

She didn’t like it when their scheduled time together was disrupted, either. When the Goblin army had invaded the upper reaches, she told Ludmila to ‘slaughter the stupid Demis as quickly as possible’ so they could go back to sleeping together. She wondered how the hundred-thousand-odd dead Demihumans would feel if they knew their demise was expedited by one person wanting to sleep together with her best friend and another wanting a bottle of the enemy commander’s blood. Even as a follower of the Six Great Gods, she felt just a bit sorry for them.

“I wonder how people would feel if they saw the Radiant Jewel of the Riverlands lazing about like this,” Ludmila muttered.

“Various fantasies would enter their imaginations, I think,” Clara replied through lidded eyes. “Too bad for them that I will never leave any space between us.”

Ludmila sighed at the self-indulgent reply. It was not something anyone else would ever hear or believe in the slightest.

To the people of Corelyn County, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Clara rose above even her lofty moniker. She selflessly toiled away to develop her territory, never allowing her wealth and power to get to her head. Yet, at the same time, she wielded that wealth and power with unquestionable mastery. Every other noble in the Sorcerous Kingdom could only look on in envy or exasperation as she continually pulled further ahead. She didn’t compete with anyone, and no one could compete against her anyways – she existed in her own realm, pursuing ambitions that only she could consider.

They weren’t the ambitions one might expect out of a wealthy and powerful noble, either. Clara treated her demesne as her personal garden, trying to make every millimetre of it into the future paradise that only she could see. She wanted everything to grow and blossom and thrive, bearing fruit impossible to cultivate for anyone else. Any political or economic motions that she championed were also focused towards this goal of seemingly infinite refinement.

The administration held her productivity up as a model for the other nobles to follow. The people considered her a saint. Ludmila was fairly certain that the Temples would actually declare her one sooner or later. As people so often said, she was an Angel made flesh and, with every passing week, this seemed more and more an indisputable truth.

“I should make my way home soon,” Ludmila said.

“Muu…”

“The Lizardman Chief often makes that sound.”

“At least he sees you more frequently than I do.”

Ludmila wriggled her way free, fishing up her smallclothes from the floor beside the bed. Clara just rolled straight off of the bed, silken sheets and all, hitting the stone floor with a light grunt before she lazily pulled her own things on without getting up. The exemplar of noble grace and elegance, indeed.

“Lunch?” Clara’s question rolled out from under the bed.

“I have over two weeks of work to catch up on,” Ludmila answered. “I hardly even know where to start now.”

“Lord Mare is just about done with his landscaping, is he not?”

Somehow, in addition to her huge demesne, Clara somehow also kept track of Warden’s Vale. It always felt like she could handle much more than that, as well.

“Just about,” Ludmila replied. “I have to figure out the weather once Lord Mare is done diverting that river…bleh.”

“What?”

“He is raising the southern end soon,” Ludmila frowned. “After that, everything really starts.”

“I think you have a solid plan,” Clara said.

“You always say that I have a ‘solid plan’.”

“Because you always do? Sometimes I envy how you are not tempted to fly off on hopelessly convoluted schemes like me…are you really running all the way back in armour?”

Ludmila checked over her equipment. The hole left by the Gnoll arrow was already fixed – it was literally two small plates of her brigandine that Kovalev replaced in less than an hour. Two months ago, she would have felt encumbered by the weight of everything. Now, it felt no more a burden than a summer dress.

“Yes,” Ludmila nodded. “The way there is still basically wildland, after all. You never know if you will run into some hungry or aggressive beast.”

“Then just take the boat if it is not safe.”

“It is safe enough, and the boat is headed upriver already. Besides, I am at least three times faster than the boat.”

Though she had fallen behind the Platinum-rank Rangers of the Adventurer Guild, she still possessed substantial speed and endurance when it came to long-distance movement. There was no need for a horse or a wagon. In fact, a horse was slower – extremely so when navigating the rugged highlands. The time required to travel from place to place grew shorter as she grew stronger, freeing up time for her to get more done. She could move from village to village in a matter of minutes, and the run from Clara’s manor to her own in Warden’s Vale took roughly half a day. It made her wonder what a Ranger like Lady Aura was capable of.

After bidding her farewells to Clara, Ludmila headed not west, but east on a whim, entering the still-under-construction Corelyn Harbour. She crossed the Katze River over the newly-constructed bridge, then made her way west again through the burgeoning vineyards along the river valley. Two hours later, she was scaling her way up the eastern barrier range. It wasn’t long until she spotted one of the Krkonoše above, who she called down to get a Fly spell from.

She ran southeast across the high mountain meadows, then secured another Fly spell to drop down to Warden’s Vale. She landed on the flats before the village, where several of her subjects gawked at her airborne arrival. Looking to the west, she decided the new route had saved her roughly four hours. It was not only her physical growth that had changed the way that she saw the world, but also the experiences beyond the mundane life that she had once lived.

On the way up to her manor, she found Lluluvien and Wiluvien eating dinner in front of their home with their mother. Ludmila held up a hand as the two pregnant women started to rise from their seats.

“I took a shortcut,” she said, “so I know that I am unexpectedly early.”

The sisters exchanged glances, and Lluluvien offered her a puzzled look.

“A shortcut, my lady?”

“I went over the mountains this time,” Ludmila said. “I will be catching up on work – was there anything urgent that required my attention?”

“Yes, my lady. I’m uncertain if you knew of this beforehand, but Lady Shizu arrived at the harbour two hours ago. She’s waiting inside the manor for you right now.”

Ludmila turned around and rushed off. She hadn’t received any notification of the sort. She entered the hall to find the pink-haired woman being entertained by the three Vampire Brides. They looked up from their discussion around the dining table, where they appeared to be having tea.

“My apologies, Lady Shizu,” Ludmila lowered her head, “I was not aware that you were coming to visit.”

“It’s ok.”

Was it? No, it was almost certainly not ‘ok’ to have a servant of the Sorcerer King wait around for two hours.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of your company, my lady?” She asked.

“Shizu is fine.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Shizu is fine.”

“Understood, Miss Shizu.”

“Shizu is fine.”

“I apologize, Miss Shizu,” Ludmila lowered her head again, “but out of respect for your position as a member of His Majesty’s household, I must at least address you as such.”

Lady Shizu’s scarf shifted as she tilted her head slightly, eyeing her with her expressionless look.

“Ok,” she said after several moments of silence.

They stared at one another. What was it that they were supposed to be talking about again? Lady Shizu rose from her seat.

“Bow,” she held out a gloved hand.

“Bow? Ah, yes,” Ludmila retrieved the weapon from her Infinite Haversack. “The Rune Bow Ultuwah.”

“…Ultuwah? Oh. Mm, yes.”

Ludmila went to one knee, holding out the Rune Bow in both hands as she faced the floor.

“Please let His Majesty know how grateful I am for his consideration,” she said solemnly. “Without the Rune Bow Ultuwah, I would have been powerless against the Fiend that arrived from the west.”

She stayed where she was until she felt the bow being lifted from her hands.

“Got it.”

Ludmila rose to her feet as Lady Shizu walked past her, making her way through the hall towards the door. Ludmila and the Vampire Brides followed her, and one of them went ahead to open the way. They escorted her towards the village entrance and, on the way down the lane, Ludmila cleared her throat.

“Miss Shizu,” she said, “where might one purchase weapons forged with Runecraft™?”

There was a long silence between them, and Ludmila wondered if she had asked something inappropriate.

“Not in stores yet,” Lady Shizu finally said. “Maybe soon?”

“Then, is there some way to order them in advance?” Ludmila asked, “This wonderful equipment will surely be in great demand. If I may ask, how much would something like the Rune Bow Ultuwah cost?”

Lady Shizu looked down at the bow.

“This bow,” she said, “I don’t know. Expensive?”

“Even a rough estimate would be–”

“Expensive.”

“I-I see.”

“Mm. Work hard.”

Ludmila dipped into a respectful curtsey as Lady Shizu turned around and went on her way. Maybe the influx of magic items from the recent conflict had caused her to become greedy. She hadn’t even considered that she wouldn’t be able to afford items produced with Runecraft™. A weapon like Rune Bow Ultuwah was probably at the level of a national treasure – how could a minor noble like herself think of purchasing something of that calibre? Never mind that, her meagre archery skills were not even remotely worthy of such an excellent bow.

She turned around to find the three Vampire Brides standing in a row behind her. Lady Shizu wasn’t the only person she had kept waiting. With a deep breath, she scraped together her thoughts.

“Now that the matter to the south is resolved,” Ludmila said, “we can start looking at how the postal service will be set up in Warden’s Vale. I believe I’m aware of the basic requirements for a service branch, but were there any specific needs for what we build here?”

“Lady Shalltear desires this territory to be a testbed for concepts related to the transportation network,” the one in the centre told her. “Rather than a regular post office branch, one suitable for this location – complete with a development office and a bank – will need to be established.”

Ludmila’s slow nodding stopped at the mention of a bank.

“What does a bank have to do with the transportation network?” Ludmila asked.

“It is a proposal put forward by Lady Gagnier,” the Vampire Bride answered. “Aside from the Merchant Guild branches in E-Rantel and the towns of various counties, the denizens of the Sorcerous Kingdom do not have access to anything resembling banking services. This includes rural Human populations, as well. The postal service is perfectly positioned to provide banking to all citizens of the Sorcerous Kingdom – especially those in remote and inaccessible locations.”

“So something like what the Merchant Guild offers to its members? Accounts and such.”

“I believe so,” the Vampire Bride replied. “In our case, however, the focus will be on the citizenry rather than businesses.”

“What sort of services will this bank offer?”

“Establishing a system that facilitates the circulation of coinage in a similar manner to the Merchant Guild is our first goal,” the Vampire Bride told her. “Educating the population and developing trust in the system may be a significant hurdle to its use for many species.”

“…many species?”

“Yes. Lady Gagnier initially conceived of the idea while working in the Great Forest of Tob. The local Demihuman and Heteromorph populations have access to vast quantities of untapped resources in their remote territories. Now that the means are available to conduct trade with the places where these resources are in demand, the postal bank will facilitate transactions, secure citizen savings, and act as a means to unify the economy of the Sorcerous Kingdom.”

“I see…”

Ludmila thought she understood what was being proposed. The idea wouldn’t have warranted consideration in Re-Estize, as the vast majority of its citizens did not have much in the way of savings, but the subjects of the Sorcerous Kingdom were set on the cusp of unheard-of prosperity. The recent harvest had placed what would be previously considered vast wealth in the hands of her tenants, and the administration of Warden’s Vale was currently keeping track of it in a manner inspired by the operations of the Merchant Guild.

The other territories in the Sorcerous Kingdom did not have the luxury of optimizing their industry from the ground up as she had, but they would still gradually experience the same transition in their respective industries. They would probably need something similar to handle their newfound wealth unless everyone started building vaults in their homes.

If the postal bank was allowed to fill this role, her people would gain access to a financial network that spanned the entire Sorcerous Kingdom. It would enable them to access their wealth from anywhere a postal branch could be found, or even make purchases over long distances without needing to leave the demesne. One could order goods from E-Rantel through a catalogue – presumably something better than the crude list that she had drawn up for her magic item production – and send their payments through the postal bank.

For that matter, one could order magic items produced in Warden’s Vale from anywhere in the Sorcerous Kingdom with this innovation. In her mind, the benefits of the system were nothing short of astonishing. If Florine had come up with the idea, Ludmila doubted that someone like herself could point out any flaws with the proposal.

“I assume a comprehensive proposal for this postal bank has been forwarded?”

“We’ve brought a copy with us, along with everything else that Lady Shalltear wants looked into.”

“Excellent,” Ludmila smiled. “We should head back in and take a look.”

It would be an understatement to say she was excited by the potential of the postal bank. As the ruler of a remote and isolated border territory, the concept struck a chord in her heart that she hadn’t known had existed up until this very point. Her motivation to advance the development of her demesne and its industries was galvanized even further than before.

?Ludmila??

She raised a hand to her ear as they walked along.

?Yes, Lady Shalltear??

?Will you be back at home soon??

?I found a bit of a shortcut, so I have already arrived.?

?Oh good, I’ll be dropping by in a bit. I’m sending that one I mentioned over tonight, but she’s difficult to locate sometimes with all of her wandering about. Albedo has us all trapped in a Royal Court session right now, but I should be there before she arrives.?

?Barring some emergency, I will be reviewing things with the Vampire Brides in the manor tonight. Should I have anything prepared for your arrival, my lady??

?No, it’s fine. I’ll just be there to introduce you to her and outline my expectations, then I have to go do some things up north. Anyways, Albedo is starting to send dirty looks in my direction, so I’ll see you later this evening.?

The Message spell cut off, and Ludmila lowered her hand. Her gaze went out to the dried-out floodplain, where Chieftain Esess was working with his people to raise their new dwellings.

As with the Lizardman Chief, Ludmila was supposed to become a mentor to a promising candidate for whatever Lady Shalltear had in mind for them, but she had no clue who or what this person was. Things were due to become very busy soon, so she wasn’t even sure how much time she could put into ‘training’ her. Since this mentorship was something that would presumably last for an extended period of time, she hoped that they would at least be able to get along.