Announcent
If you want a visual guide to where all the cities are ntioned in this chapter, there's an image in the author notes and a full world map in the discord - :)
The next day, with only a few hours until they landed at Asamaywa, Alia was dragged away from her ga of Drunk Demon’s Hand where she’d won a significant chunk of Dagon’s monthly pay and was led by Serena out and onto the deck of the Vengeance.
“Wow!” Alia exclaid, stepping out into the open air and pointing towards the front of the ship. “You can see the airflow!” Like the aircraft from her world, the Vengeance had flaperons. The large panels that extended off the port and starboard side of the ship's hull could be adjusted from the bridge to affect the ship’s roll and help generate lift. An opaque air stream erupted from their tips, trailing the ship's length.
“It’s called trailing vortices,” Serena explained. “Happens due to differences in pressure along the flaperon. Atmospheric conditions around the Nai inlet and its mountains are ripe for it when we’re at full sail.” She gestured, and Alia saw the enormous port and starboard sails fully deployed and catching the westerly winds. Good winds could reduce fuel usage by as much as a third, and most vessels took advantage of this fact as much as possible.
“Here,” Serena said, leading Alia to the railing and pointing down. “That’s Nai.” Far below was a plateau city tucked into the end of an inlet. “They were the last kingdom in the East to fall during the Long Discordancy and the first to re-establish themselves. See how their position is uniquely defensive?”
Alia nodded. Mountains hugged Nai on three sides and only a thin path a few kilotres wide was passable between the mountains and each edge of the inlet. On the eastern side, this gap narrowed into nothing as the mountains reached the continent's edge and on the western side the passage opened up to the vast expanse of the wilderness.
“Only one chokepoint to defend, right?” Alia asked. At the end of the western passage, a large wall separated the territory of Nai and the wilderness beyond. Of all the plateau cities she had seen so far, Nai looked like it had cleared the wilderness further from itself than any other, although the total area was likely less than Kenhoro’s surroundings. “Hey,” Alia continued, pointing down. “You can see earthworks where each previous line of defence was.” It looked like Nai expanded its territory in no fewer than a dozen separate offensives throughout the centuries.
“You’ve got good eyes,” Serena said approvingly. “Each Terra Firma’s Overlord closely controls territory expansion. If we take too much too quickly, it’ll trigger a reaction and the ensuing monster wave could wipe out a city.” Alia nodded. She found it incredible how this sprawling Empire was forced to coexist with this great wilderness and its dinosaur-like inhabitants.
She glanced over Nai and its surrounding towns. Dozens and dozens of small fishing vessels were sailing from one side of the inlet to another; nets spread wide. In a manner similar to waterborne fish in her old world, the continent edge was where the majority of airborne fish life was found in this realm. “Looks like living here would be cosy!” Alia called out happily. Nai reminded her of a quaint seaside town.
“It’s a popular holiday destination for the citizens of the Three Sisters,” Serena replied. “Nai is Nina’s favourite city. House Halen owns a small estate in one of the towns. It should be…” Serena's eyes narrowed as she searched the land below. A mont later her brow furrowed and a frown appeared.. “...I’ve forgotten,” she eventually mumbled.
“Must be so nice to be so rich you can forget about all these extra hos you own!” Alia grinned and began strutting about the deck in her best impression of a stuck-up noble. “Why yes, Sir Chesterfield! The theatre was most- oops!” Alia pretended to trip over sothing. “Oh my! What was that!? It appears to be yet another estate I own. They seem to pop up everywhere these days!”
Serena rolled her eyes and placed a hand on her belt-holstered pistol. “You trying to get shot again, idiot?”
“Always,” Alia fired back with a smile.
“Don’t forget, you’re soon going to be so rich you can begin buying multiple hos across the East,” Serena explained pointedly. That morning, Alia signed an updated contract. So of the provisions of the previous contract revolving around Alia needing to use her healing powers on Serena’s orders were possibly illegal now she was a Lord-Prospect. Nevertheless, a new contract was signed where Alia was simply an advisor to Serena - now Lord Halen - and her monthly pay doubled to two thousand four hundred denarii! It was an enormous sum, equivalent to three hundred soldiers!
For now, House Halen was handling her funds until all the official paperwork for bank accounts for House Thornheart could be processed. House Thornheart! Alia was the newly minted head of her very own noble house! In the near future, she’d even get to create her very own sigil and have her insignias crafted! Alia wasn’t sure what her sigil would look like, so she needed to find ti to go over records of other houses for inspiration.
“The Three Sisters will co into view soon,” Serena said, pointing to the horizon. The Three Sisters; the cities of Asamoto, Asamaywa, and Asamino were where Serena grew up, with Asamaywa being ho to House Halen’s core estate and the academy they would soon be attending as instructor and teaching assistant. They would stay at the estate where Serena’s mother resides. Judging by the expression Serena made on her face when talking about her, it seed the mother of Alia’s girlfriend would be much less accepting of their relationship than the soft-hearted father!
Well! Alia would simply have to kill the woman with kindness! If she saw how powerful she was, surely the demon mother would co to understand how safe and protected her eldest daughter was from Alia’s wards!
Right?
Still, a small ball of anxiety refused to go away, and Alia was glad to be distracted by the beautiful sights offered by the Vengeance’s deck. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing towards an area outside Nai where so kind of worksite was established against one of the mountains. “A mine?” Rail was laid into tunnels, and Alia’s sharp eyes could see they were bringing out minecarts filled with rock.
“Ah, not quite. They’re building train tracks through the mountain. Soon, Nai will beco connected by rail to the Three Sisters. With the help of mages, they’ve been blasting their way through the mountain range for more than ten years now. I think they’re on target to finish next year.” Serena had a look of pride on her face, clenching her first. “Once it’s done, it’ll be one of the greatest achievents in the East! To ta even the mountains themselves!”
“Mmm!” Alia humd happily. “Do you think I should help? I could-”
“Idiot,” Serena interrupted, reaching out and ruffling Alia’s hair. “Let us have our achievents! Knowing you, you’ll level half the mountain range and walk away whistling!”
“Hehe…” Alia smiled, retying her hair. As she tried to think of a coback, she spotted another point of interest. On the outskirts of one of Nai’s towns was a series of great stone pillars ford concentric circles from which long columns of pillars stretched to the east and west. The construction seed important as the nearby towns avoided building near them. “What’s that?” Alia asked, directing Serena’s attention to the mystery.
“That’s the Needles of Nai! Guess who put up all those stone pillars?”
“Uh, the Empress?” Alia guess.
“No one knows!” Serena declared with a sly smile. “They’re old. Really old. I’m not exactly sure how the archaeologists know but apparently it was built thousands of years before even the first human caravans arrived in this realm! They could be five thousand years old! Imagine what they’ve seen. To those stones, the Empire itself must seem young! See those two columns extruding from the main circles?”
“Yeah!”
“They align perfectly with the sumr and winter solstice. Whatever ancient demon civilisation built them, it must have been a grand undertaking.” Serena cast a glance at Alia. “Why did they build them? What gods were they worshipping? Was it a site of religious pilgrimage… or sothing else? Very mysterious, aye?”
Mmm! It was trendously mysterious! Alia quickly filed the Needles of Nai away as yet another tourist destination she would visit! The pair made small talk as the Vengeance crossed over the Nai inlet into the mountains. Not long after, the Three Sisters ca into view.
The sight was breathtaking! Across the eastern edge of the mountain range, the urban centre presented a great congloration that was perhaps ten tis larger than Kenhoro! Alia could make out the three distinct built-up areas that were the plateau cities of Asamoto to the north, Asamaywa below it, and Asamino below that. However, these cities had long been joined into one huge tropolis with buildings and towns sprawling out not just on the ground floor but throughout the mountain range!
There seed to be a never-ending stream of ships docking and leaving. Dozens of plateau lifts moved people and cargo to and from the ground while it was all interconnected by an extensive web of tramlines and rail. Even from this distance, Alia could see so much movent constantly going on. Grand buildings, larger and more impressive than anything she had seen in Kenhoro were littered about. The architectural style of the Three Sisters was similar to Kenhoro, with tiled garble roofs, although there seed to be a much greater usage of stone than wood.
She turned to Serena and saw her girlfriend looking at the distant tropolis with a gentle smile. The last ti Serena was at the Three Sisters was over a year ago.
“Welco ho!” Alia chirped. “How does it feel?”
“Good,” Serena said. “But also, an unusual feeling of… tension. It’s strange.” Serena shook her head, and with one last look at the horizon, walked away from the railing. “Co on, let’s get ready.”
They made their way through the ship towards the captain’s quarters. On the way, any sailor they passed would offer a quick salute to Serena. Interestingly, many of them also nodded towards Alia. Her recent ascension into Cascadian nobility had caused a notable change in how she was treated on the ship, and everyone seed to treat her less casually and talk to her in a more respectful tone.
Except for the ship’s Head Cook, who seemingly would have ordered the Empress herself to do the washing up should she ever have dinner on the Vengeance. Last evening, Alia’s protests had been ignored and she’d sohow been corralled into another short shift in the kitchens. “Once a chef, always a chef!” had been the rallying cry that had shut down her complaints. Still, it was nice to feel part of the team, working towards the common goal of feeding the hundreds of sailors aboard the ship.
“Sothing you should know,” Serena said once they’d returned to the familiar Captain’s Quarters. Serena shut the door and sat at her desk. “The Three Sisters has almost no human population. There are no human districts like in Kenhoro. You’re probably going to be stared at. A lot.”
“I can handle being stared at.”
“Of course. Of course…” Serena nodded, twiddling her thumbs. “I just want to prepare you. It’s not so much discrimination you’ll face as much as curiosity. Not many humans pass through the Three Sisters; most human travel in the East only goes as far as the cities on the northern edge: Kenhoro, Tanhae and Nachon. That travel will mostly be natives of the Sabanis Dominance and sotis the Federation. Chances are you’ll be the first blond-haired human a lot of the public have seen outside of photographs. So areas outside the city might have never seen a human in person.” Serena shrugged. “It’s going to be different from Kenhoro.”
“I suppose my lovely eyes will only add to the spectacle of my arrival?”
“Ha!” Serena leaned back in her chair. “That’s one way of putting it. Yet, it’s not the general public I’m most concerned about. Experiencing your capabilities is very different from only hearing about it from rumours which have no doubt spread all over the Three Sisters. You’re young, and so might outright deny you’re a Speaker. You’re human, and so might disregard your new-found nobility. Just… don’t expect to make friends with everyone.”
Alia nodded. “Alright, I’ll keep my expectations low.” It was perfectly understandable and Alia didn’t carry any assumptions that anyone would automatically accept her. At least, not until they witnessed how cute and powerful she was.
“And finally…” Serena took a breath. “There’s my mother. She’s a bit…” Serena held out her palm, turning it this way and that. “Not exactly a lover of humans. It’ll take more than one eting before she warms up to you. I received communications from our estate earlier this morning. She’s expecting us for dinner. So, just…” Serena sighed. “Expect so awkwardness.”
Well, this hadn’t helped with her anxiety one bit!
“Now I’m dreading it,” Alia said, prompting a sympathetic smile from Serena. “Still, it’s just us and her, right? Nina is still working in Centralis.”
“Right,” Serena nodded. “We can manage it.”
“Hmm… Captain,” Anathor piped up from the mounted moose head on the wall. “Communication just ca into the bridge. You might want to hear this.”
“Tell , Anathor.”
“Hmm… it’s your mother. She communicates her delight at seeing her eldest daughter after so long. She looks forward to having you and Lord-Prospect Thornheart over for dinner this evening alongside Greatlord Oshiro and his wife.”
“Ah…” Serena bent over the desk, head in her hands. Those hands moved upwards and firmly grasped her horns. “Fuck.”
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