Spear of Destiny by James Baldwin (little bear else holmelund minarik .TXT) 📕

“Yo.” I called out. “What’s up?”

“Your Grace,” Rudolph called out. “Rin is here to see you.”

“Sure. Let her in.” I pushed aside my cold dinner dishes and straightened up as one set of footsteps retreated, then two sets returned. The door opened, and Rudolph waved Rin inside. She was dressed for exploration, in light leather armor and tall boots.

“Heya, Rin.” I swiped my holoscreens to one side so I could see her better. “What’s up?”

“I saw the Kingdom alert you issued,” she said. “About needing a hundred and fifty parachutes? Well, I have an idea!”

“Hit me,” I said. “I put the castle staff on it, but they don’t know if we’ll have enough by tomorrow.”

“Rin beamed. “Okay, so, I want to go down to Karhad at dawn tomorrow, to the tailor’s compound that you ordered to be placed under quarantine. I’m a construct, so I can’t get sick with thornlung. Anyway, I want to teach the tailors the crafting recipe and have them make the parachutes. We’d have to pay them to cover the cost of materials and wages, but I think it’d be a great way to get what we need and avoid any unrest from the plague. Because that’s an issue. Right?”

I glanced at my screens. Yes indeedily, unrest was an issue. Bubek had followed my orders to the letter, which meant the Thornlung was contained—for now. There was only one zone of the city shaded in the toxic green hue of an active disease outbreak, the Riverside District. But because it was sealed off, unrest was starting to climb. Between the damage left from the war and related factors—food, water supply, public buildings, utilities, crime—unhappiness in Karhad overall was sitting at 67%. That was a lot better than the 92% unrest rating I’d inherited from Ashur. However, Riverside had gone from 62% to 89% in only a couple of days due to the lockdown. People in the district were worried about their livelihoods, sickness, food, and the presence of armed guards patrolling the streets.

“That’s fine. I’d be happy to pay them,” I said. “We should have enough to cover it. Parachutes can’t cost more than a hundred olbia each.”

“Oh, much less than that,” Rin said. “Silk isn’t a particularly rare resource here. Each one of the square parachutes only costs ten rubles to make, plus a wage of twenty lintz per day. The ram air kind are more expensive, about twenty-five rubles”

“A hundred and fifty-three olbia? That’s chips for an operation like this.” I restlessly bought up the Mass Combat manager to check the status of my cargo ships. “We’re only a few days off from the vault extraction in Krivan Pass. I just dispatched the security outfit to get the dig site ready. By this time next week, the money will start to roll in.”

“How much treasure do you think we’ll find?” Rin asked.

“There were at least five hundred dragon graves in that place. All of them had grave goods, and a lot of those goods were pure gold coins. There might be repositories in there we don’t know about, too. But from what I saw down there? Millions of olbia’s worth, and that’s not even counting any rare armor, weapons, or artifacts we might find. All in all, it’ll be enough to split some items between you, me, and Suri, and still get Myszno back on its feet.”

“Phew. Just as well inflation isn’t a problem.” Rin smiled nervously, twisting her hands. “Umm… I also wanted to ask you about another thing that’s... maybe a little less easy to agree on.”

I sat up a little straighter. “Let’s hear it. You’re like the smartest person here. You almost always have good ideas.”

Rin’s cheeks flushed with a faint silvery-blue sheen. “I don’t know about this one. I, umm... I want to take Jacob with me, to the Riverside District.”

“Wait. Who in the what now?” I boggled at her, and pushed my chair back from my desk. “You want to take Jacob?”

“Yes.” Rin worried her lip between her glassy teeth. “For a few different reasons.”

“I’m listening, but I am not convinced,” I replied, frowning. “As soon as he leaves that dungeon, he can call for reinforcements.”

“Actually, no. He can’t. As long as he’s our prisoner, he can’t PM anyone. He doesn’t have to be in the dungeon for that to work,” Rin said. “It’s just that I think that spending time with NPCs who aren’t criminals or victims and that aren’t locked in a prison might change his perspective. Also, I think he will listen to me in ways he might not listen to you and Suri. We worked at the same company and we speak the same jargon, you know? The idea of being around him creeps me out, but I’ve heard from Suri that you guys are trying to give him a chance. I want to help.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t authorize it. I worked security for a long-ass time, and no matter what we think Archemi’s system will and won’t allow, there’s too much risk. The only way I’d feel comfortable with him going anywhere is if he were shackled and with you, Suri, and Vash.” I shook my head. “Besides, Jacob hurt Suri, not me. What happens to him is up to her. Once Bas is over and done with, and if you have good reasons for taking him on an excursion, ask Suri about it.”

“Yeah. I guess that’s true.” Rin’s shoulders slumped. “Okay. Well... I won’t push it. I just think that if he has a chance to interact with NPCs outside of Al-Asad, he’d come to realize that they’re people, not just strings of code.”

“You sound surer than I feel,” I said. “He’s pretty locked into the belief that only human players are ‘real people’. He gave us a big long spiel on how it works. Unfortunately,