"So, how exactly is walking out of the palace going to hide the fact you are...?" I ask, somewhat quietly. The royal guards are certainly aware, that's for sure and they just can't help themselves. Yet, the Lady-King is completely unfazed by the circumstances.
"This isn't the first time I've left the palace under cover." she answers, our switched up attire hardly anything not to get curious about. She refused to carry on helping me unless I came along and... Here I am. Dressed in something else for once. Though compared to her, I'm just a pile of sheets.
At least I got some ribbons to use in the place of my bandages!
"Besides, this is the best way to go looking for materials. You're better off looking yourself and then I can handle the rest." she explains, and I nod along, lingering my gaze on some of the needlessly decorated stuff about the city.
"Will they even be willing to make something... Simple?" I ask, right as we happen to spin around a fountain that just doesn't want to stop showing off how many faucets it has. Each statue and orifice of them is a fountain. Even the more indecent parts of it all, but, at least the carver had a sense of humour, making them all flabbergastedly embarrassed.
"They will make what you need to the specifications required. Daddy's men make use of their talents in the same way when it is needed." she tells me, and I frown at that.
"Wouldn't anything here be lesser, though?" I ask, not too sure why they would do that. And apparently, neither does she. That shrug is world-ending.
"I don't know," she lets out so quickly.
"Fair." I say, practically chirping it as we catch some attention, but not an awful lot. I can hear it, they can definitely tell our magic is out and about. But, at the same time, they respect our lack of uniform enough to not say anything.
Though the streets are paved, there's not a whole lot of traffic of note. Most people are content to walk and the shops are certainly designed as such. Sprawling out onto the streets as much as they harbour interior designs. However, none of these clothing merchants, spice sellers or wholesales are what we're looking for.
My devices need metalworking, quality metallurgy and a fine, professional touch about it. We need a proper factory, workshop or a blacksmith. However, I don't recall ever seeing such dirty industries in this city. Better yet, where would they find the workforce?
Factory work alone is filthy, harsh work, and no one here has worked hard a day in their lives. Writing is about as intensive as their labour gets and it hardly makes blisters, now? Though I suppose I'm about to learn. Morgihranur never felt the need to put us in a stage coach, so, it must all be in the city. Somewhere.
Maybe out of sight, out of mind? There is a mini-mountain, after all. The clouds that are constantly about must surely be a means to hide the smoke of smithing work? Black clouds chock-full of death are hardly what one wants in their cities.
"We'll be going down some stairs, so mind your entrails." Morgihranur warns, and I do just that, holding up my loose bits in the same way this woman is minding her dress.
Damn...
"Ah, this is quaint." I remark as we go through the staircase, revealing a whole new level to the city. And for all the parts of it that are hidden, none of it is badly touched on. All of it is well looked after and just as gaudy as the surface. Many buildings even go up through the underground and straight to the surface.
I guess it's impossible to avoid, really. Jhermonikra love their mountain cities and all that knowledge of multi-layered cities has to go somewhere. Regardless of how out of touch with the surface it really is... For all that is covered up, I can still see the signs of proper surface engineering. Granted, I only have Thrurstradtur as my point of reference, but still.
When you see it, it's impossible to not see.
"So this is where your city's industry is?" I ask her, minding some steps as some other people come up them, a whole load of shopping in their arms. Arms, armour, tools and cutlery. Yep, this is certainly the place to get some materials worked out. Can only hope there's a lift of some kind, I suppose. I'm not doing a hundred trips to pick up some spikes and hooks.
"The whole kingdom's industry is basically here. Though, the secret is that, unlike the villages, this is all built with the Ancient Jhermonikra device in mind." she explains, and my mouth hinges open, a silent 'ah' echoing about my cloth-covered face. What an odd feeling, having so much cloth on my face. It's already getting soggy from my never perfectly sealed mouth.
"Oh, that explains a lot about the maintenance crews, then." I remark.
"Actually, no. While there is still magic being used down here, it's not enough to match the standards they need. Daddy has all of that equipment in our keep on the surface." she says, and I cock a brow, somewhat curious about all of this.
"So, this entire mountain is your property? I mean, obviously, but like everything about and around?" I ask, not sure how else to phrase it without it sounding stupid. Morgihranur comes to a stop, turning my way with a curt smile.
"Daddy owns the entire mountain range. Technically, if you came into my kingdom along the roads outside the mountain. You should've paid the taxes and road tolls." she explains, a sweet little giggle propelling her off.
"That explains why Hrurim was so fiddly about how we got about here and who we went to." I mutter, not caring too much if she catches onto the sound of it. Though, I still make a point of catching up so she doesn't vanish and disappear without me. I can handle being on the surface, being stuck underground is another monster of being lost.
"But yes, Daddy owns quite a bit of land. More than most minor power mountain-states, really. This is but one mountain and not even our largest. Though the keep on top is our primary home." she explains further, leaving me nodding even more in understanding.
"Well, that's a lot of money, actually." I say, not sure what else I really can say upon hearing that kind of information.
"I don't remember the specifics, nor have I really looked into it. But, I'm pretty sure it's because our family is one of the few proper noble families left in this part of Jherikra. A lot of inherited and married into land rather than outright purchases. Cousins and that all tend to have different names about them, so I think calling us a family is a very loose use of it...? Again, I'm not entirely sure. I keep myself down here basically all the time unless Daddy says so." she tells me, her closed off life certainly throwing the wrench into my curiosity.
Still, I think I know enough to assume things. The emphasis on the whole 'few nobles' left makes it sound like something in Thrurstradtur-Suhurlodst's jurisdiction. They did, after all, swap over from a monarchy and its trappings, so a hunt of royal supporters definitely sounds like them. But, at the same time, the quakes are way too late and far to be anything to do with Atarifuge.
What else could possibly have caused the quakes? There's not a whole lot in All-That-Remains that can do that. Unless the invasion that was happening during the Emergency has turned into more of a proper war...? No, that can't be right. There's no earthquakes going on in that war Vapooliar was apart of. That thing is unending relative to my time with magic and this year alone has seen my only earthquakes.
Only other place I know of earthquakes is mythology... The Age of Heroes, the gods being out and about. Power on that scale is needed to make the earth shake. Even Atarifuge is the byproduct of the gods, it was no mortal-made machine. Not even the mystical Ancient Jhermonikra or the claymen.
I suppose it doesn't really matter where we are specifically. South Theocracy or north Dual-Republic, either or, I head down the land to familiar trappings. Thrurstradtur still exists, I should be able to at least find Liadanann and Inerish still there. I hope. I just need to recall some things about the land we're in to go anywhere else for the others...
Rose, Vadei, Vapooliar, Einervaene. I think that's all of them, but I...? No, no. Focus on getting my magic sorted and doing right by Heiya for the time being. Focus on doing right by her and my word. Heading south is all I need to remember right now, and I can do that easily.
"What about you, Nin, what is the world like for you?" Morgihranur asks out of nowhere, perhaps feeling like I owe her a debt of information. Still, this part of the city has a lovely view and I would like an excuse to enjoy it some more. Keeps my mind off of everything, really. The work I need to do, the promises I need to keep.
Just a moment of peace. Peace and no quiet at all because this part of the city is an orchestra of hammers. No curtain call. No nothing, hammer, hammer, hammer.
"Well, first thing's first. It happens on the surface!" I go, barely making a proper laugh though I get her to giggle either way.
"I don't like the surface. It's why Daddy made this for me. So I could keep away from it but not go utterly insane from isolation." she tells me and I nod by that, appreciating the sound of a father doing right by his daughter. Still, though, a whole kingdom underground? Bah, rich people.
"I guess there's a lot of bad on the surface..." I go, thinking of my first run in with the osibindah, all the time I've been hounded for being one, Smiling Jhurack and... "But, there's also a lot of beautiful things on the surface. Things that are, as you were saying with your paintings... The way things are meant to be."
"Please, I anguished over my paintings enough as is. I don't need to feel the same about my forests and rivers." she lightly scorns, a smile still there to her lips with no malice at all.
"Still, you should have a look if you can. You learn a lot by exposing yourself to things beyond what you normally see. It's how we always grow." I say, thinking of how dependent I became on the girls I've met this past decade.
Vapooliar for saving my life with her talents as a soldier. Vadei for spitting in my damn ears and saving me the trouble of learning a tongue. Rose for being... Well, Rose. Einervaene and the like for being there for me with no regard to my buggish body at all. And... Larishazza.
The reason I'm alive.
A claw goes to my neck, scratching at it as an old memory goes by me. A night I was scared, terrified and utterly lost. It was only because that broken knife that I... That I'm even alive now. Of all the times I've nearly died, that one time has stuck with me the most.
Because... Because it was me who tried to do it. I was the tone who tried to take my life that day. Not a bully, not a criminal, not a corrupt piece of work or even a monster. Me. Me...
"I will consider it. Much as you bring bad omens and worries into my life, Nin. You've certainly given me a moment to feel free for the moment. I suppose. Someone in my life who is beyond all of this," she says, gesturing out to her city and the kingdom beyond it.
"Oh, I'm not sure about being beyond it. We've still got shopping to do!" I point out, letting go of whatever it was I was clinging onto so we can get going.
"And I suppose you'll want to hear me ramble on about my city, then?" she asks, smiling slightly as I shrug, more than happy to have the noise be about.
"Blabber away!" I chuckle, letting her giggles breathe their own life into me.