Chapter 7: The Best Defense

“Anything?”

Electra shook her head as she came through the door. We were in my office; I’d rushed back after the fire, but luckily no one made a play for Ishanti. Either it just hadn’t occurred to them, or they were still testing our defenses.

Really, I should just be glad they didn’t have the cajones to go for the gold.

“Nothing.” Electra spread her arms. “They weren’t subtle; there were plenty of boot prints near the barn, and I saw a place where they might have moved a bale of hay so it went up better.”

“But?” I prompted.

“But the moment they went back into the jungle, they started covering their tracks.” She snorted. “So yeah, it was an arson, but that’s not exactly a lot of good without a police database and sh—and stuff.”

I nodded, steepling my fingers. Electra gave me my few moments of silence, and Rel and Ishanti came into the room.

“How were they?” I asked.

Rel stepped forward. “No one died, fortunately, but several livestock were lost, as well as the farmstead.

I waved a hand. “They’ll have the next available house within the walls. Hopefully we’ll be able to find work for them.”

“That should not be a problem, my lady.” Ishanti dipped into a brief curtsey as I looked over at her. “At present, we are still running short of hands to do the work required. That is only likely to increase if you intend to push forward with your plans for the shipyard.”

I rolled my eyes. “We’ve invested too much to turn back now. I can only prop up my entire economy on salvage for so long before I actually need to get on with things.”

“On that note, it should please you to know that the foundry was unaffected.” Ishanti pulled out a thin missive from her sleeve, looking it over. “Indeed, the scouting demons you sent out have reported, inasmuch as they are capable of reporting anything, that there is a bounty of scrap metal well beyond our local waters. With a few more ships on hand to more readily harvest that bounty, we could keep our steel works in production for quite some time.”

“Why’s that, anyway?” Electra scratched the back of her head. “Like, don’t get me wrong, we have other problems to deal with, but why is the ocean just carpeted with weapons and armor for us to use?”

Ishanti gave an airy laugh. “The Empire of Mulmyn has waged more wars upon Vecorvia than any History cares to count.”

“Would be the first time they gave up on counting,” I muttered.

Ishanti continued unimpeded. “Of course, even after it fractured, Mulmyn has had a great deal more men of much higher level than Vecorvia. Should they make landfall, it would spell the doom of the Republic.”

I let out an ‘ah’ of realization. “The solution: drown them at sea.”

“It is so.” Ishanti nodded. “The Vecorvian Navy is the Jewel of the seas, though there is much less call for it these days. Old Mulmyn has greater concerns than the colony that never was.”

“Huh, didn’t know the whole island was the tutorial zone.” Electra rubbed her chin.

I clapped my hands. “Focus, Sherlock. You’re our detective.”

Electra jumped, before shaking her head once. “Right, right. So yeah, we know who did it.” She shrugged. “From what we’ve picked up, all of the remnants of the Adventurer’s Guild in Silverwall have more or less formed a ‘bandit guild’ in the surrounding jungle. There’s a point, at the isthmus or something, where they don’t mess with anything because the capital city will come down on them like a ton of bricks, but we’re North of that.”

I turned my gaze towards Ishanti. “A remarkably laissez faire approach to governance.”

Ishanti bowed her head. “The Senate knows that as long as the cities remain under control, any such group is doomed to sputter out and die.”

“There’s plenty of food out here.” Electra waved her hand. “We’re doing okay.”

“We are also cheating off of a thousand plus years of technological development.” I rolled my eyes. “Even still, elaborate.”

“There is food aplenty,” Ishanti said, “but as you’ve no doubt discovered, other resources are scarce. Of wood, there is no shortage, but workable stone? Metals? Other such ressources as a band of cutthroats or revolutionaries may require?” She shook her head. “Those are in vanishingly short supply. Silverwall itself owes its prominence not only to the fact that it sits on the only known silver vein on the island, but also that it has claimed control of the lava mines, where most of the iron is mined from.”

“And those lava mines are no doubt fortified,” I mused.

“Better guarded than the city.” Rel tugged her hat. “Da—my father works the mines. They have nearly half the guard on rotation there each day, to make up for the lack of the walls.”

I hummed. “So all the material goods come from the cities, or else the ports.”

Ishanti nodded. “Just so. Corvandyr has maintained a stranglehold on maritime trade since the fracturing of Mulmyn. No other coastal power has had the resources or the experience to challenge her dominance of the sea, and that dominance has made the Senate very rich, and very powerful.”

I laughed. “And when you’re rich and powerful, why waste your time swatting gadflies. The idiots.”

“Via?” Electra tilted her head.

“They’re making the classic blunder, El.” I shot her a grin. “Ignoring the plucky underdog.”

A look of dawning realization crossed her face. “It never works out well for them, does it?”

I snorted. “Why do you think I always took you so seriously?”

“Awww, you do care.”

“Don’t get sappy on me.” I leaned forward on my desk, pulling over a map of the island. “That still means we have to deal with this mess ourselves. And I doubt Silverwall is going to help, not the least because they’re paying this ‘Bandit guild’ to get you back, princess.”

Ishanti dipped into another curtsy. She’d slipped back into her court etiquette as she found her balance here, but it wasn’t like I was gonna punish her for being too deferential or anything. “Indeed. Though, that is the very same reason that Silverwall will not move against us directly.”

“Even though we’re only a day’s march away?” Electra asked.

“Two.” Ishanti came over, drawing her finger down the road from Silverwall to our little village. “Men on the march move slower, and they would need to bring more than a few guards, knowing that you’ve already given them a black eye.”

I drummed my fingers against the map, glancing back up towards the lava mines. “And they can’t bring that many, can they?” I glanced over at Electra. “How many guards do you remember seeing in Silverwall?”

She blinked, shrugging. “Not many; they mainly stayed near the gates and other hard points.” She blinked. “Heck, now that you mention it, I don’t think I saw a single patrol the whole time we were there.”

I nodded. Leave it to a hero to understand the importance of manpower. Well, after I rubbed her face in it. “They don’t have that many men.” I glanced over towards Ishanti. “Least of which because they have to guard those mines and keep the royals from running away.”

The princess inclined her head silently.

“Alright.” I clapped my hands again. “So, we know our enemy, and we know who’s propping them up. Next we need a plan.”

I curled my fingers into a fist. “First and foremost, they attacked my people. That is not acceptable. There will be recompense.”

“Woah, there.” Electra gave a nervous smile. “Your supervillain is showing.”

I grinned in reply. “We all need a bit more supervillain in our lives.”

She huffed. “Speak for yourself.”

I waved her off. “What’s the status of your irregulars?” Irregulars, of course, was the term for people with supernatural abilities who assisted the heroes, but weren’t full time themselves. In this day and age, Aegis and the other hero organizations had almost never needed to call up and train irregulars.

Of course, if we had all the resources of Aegis Corp., we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

“They’re still green.” Electra shrugged. “We’re seeing some okay skill growth, and they’ve all managed to swap over to combat classes, but right now I’m worried they’ll fall apart if we force them into a scrap.”

“Noted.” I turned to Rel. “Our infrastructure?”

“My Lady.” Rel bowed, hand folded across her chest. “The first sloop was put to sea today. It will be ready for its maiden voyage tomorrow.”

“Excellent, we’ll need the money.” I turned.

“Lady Via.”

I paused at Rel’s voice. “Yes?”

“There is also the matter of christening the flag,” she said.

I shared a confused glance with Electra. “The Flag?”

Rel nodded, a nostalgic smile flicking across her face. “It’s a tradition for the ruler of the port to hoist the flag showing the ship’s port of call. Of course, it’s something that most monarchs ignore for normal construction, but for flag ships or the first ship laid down at a new port…”

Ah, so christening was different here, but our magic translator didn’t change the word to ‘flag of port raising ceremony’ or some kludge. Good to know.

“We’re really busy this week.” I waved a hand. “We need to hit this problem hard before we can worry about stuff like that.”

“If I may, my lady.” Ishanti stepped forward. “The ceremony itself is only a short affair, requiring you to stop by the docks. It could be slipped into your itinerary later this week.

I narrowed my eyes at the both of them. Rel and Ishanti got along like cats and dogs, and yet here they were saying I should go glad-hand people and kiss babies?

I looked back towards Rel. “And you agree with Ishanti on this one?”

Rel quirked her lip, before nodding. “I do, Mistress.”

I sighed, massaging my forehead. “Right, sure, pencil it in.” I pretended to ignore the triumphant look the two of them shared. Whatever. I’d leave them to their little plans. If they thought it was a good idea, then I’m sure there was a reason for that.

“Beyond that, what does our infrastructure look like?”

“Ah, of course.” Rel took a moment to gather herself. “The construction of the outer wall will be delayed.”

“We’ll have to increase the number of guards, too.” Electra raised her hand. What a goody two shoes. “It’ll take a bit to put a rotation together.”

I turned towards the window. My office—which by now had been shuffled around more than a few times as we made space—was set on the second floor of the Lightning Mill.

As an aside, can I just say, in the privacy of my own thoughts, that I wish I’d come up with that name? Oh well, even a villain as fabulous and intelligent as me couldn’t be right a hundred percent of the time.

“So we’re stable right now, but a stiff breeze away from collapse.” That was more due to the nature of our expansion than any sort of bandits. The population had more than tripled in the past few weeks, and my days were full of scheduling work crews and setting up power lines just to get everything in place. “Growing pains are never easy, huh?”

“Indeed.” I heard more than saw Ishanti’s nod. “Though with the sloops, we might countenance closing some of the farms and importing more food from the Southern side of the isle.”

“That will slow us down in more ways than one.” I leaned against the windowsill, looking out over the village I was responsible for.

But when I closed my eyes, I could see the shape of the city I had only begun to build.

“No,” I said.

“Uh…” Electra shifted on her feet. “No?”

“We’re fragile right now, but so are our opponents.” I turned back to face my three most trusted lieutenants. “Our fighting force is green, but theirs is poorly supplied, and still demoralized from their beating at Silverwall.” I waved a hand. “If we take a defensive stance, not only do we slow down our own growth, but we give them more time to organize, to consolidate, to prop themselves up with money and supplies from this Seneschal Hawkwright of yours.” I smirked. “So, what do we do?”

I leaned forward.

“We attack.”