15 - Other names to know

“So.., who else should I know about here?” Lyn started, “I'm certain there's others who are doing their own duties or have their own skills. Speaking of.., what are you doing here…. Duties related I mean.”

“Well…, I suppose I am ‘Captain of the Guard’.” Mira gave a weak grin, “I was on the Town watch before it got burnt down so I’ve been trying to get some defenses set up, walls repaired, a few of the tougher people training together, see who’s good with a bow…, that sort of thing.”

“It’s not much but it’s something. Besides that, I’ve kinda become a local ‘leader’ given I was the main person interacting with you and your Armors. I can’t command them but if I ask them to do a thing like clear out some rubble, they seem to do it most the time.”

“I could maybe give you a little more control, given you’re my favored.” Lyn thought for a moment. There probably was a way to give Mira some more ‘rights’ over her minions. Something for later. “Then there’s Isabel who seems to be settling into the role of ‘head maid’.”

“She was with my group when we first got here. She’s the one that figured out the armors didn’t seem to interfere with those they deemed as ‘servants’ and got everyone to go along. If I can't convince others, she just... stubbornly convinces them I guess.” Mira winced at a memory.

“Alright but… is there anyone else I should meet or know? I don’t want to say ‘anyone else useful’ as that sounds bad but you can’t all just be random farmers and miners, can you?”

“Well….,” Mira poked her fingers together, “We do have a meeting set up after dinner that we usually talk about things. I suppose it would be proper to introduce you to them that way. If we leave now we should be able to catch the tail end of the meeting.”

Mira led the way as she explained. By this point about four or five different groups had stumbled into the keep’s walls so each group had ‘elected’ someone of theirs to stand for them. It wasn't anything overtly grand or codified yet but they were using it as a sort of a ‘council.’ Made everyone feel that they at least had some voice in what was going on or at least; they would bring up different subjects to worry about rather than focusing on one or two things.

While that was useful to make sure they all felt involved, if these mini factions fractured, that could be a problem. It would be best if Lyn once more leaned on the ‘I’m in charge, but more as an arbiter than work or die’ sort of ruler. Trying to force them to obey would lead to a bitterness she didn't want to deal with.

The pair made there way to a room on the first floor. It looked much like the room Mira had first met with Lyn, only cleaned up and with a longer table set up. A few figures were seated around the table, a handful of mugs and documents resting on the surface. They looked up when the duo walked in and several of them paled, shrinking back when they realized Lyn was inside. One however stood her ground.

“Good evening, Lady Lynexi.” Isabel spoke as she rose and gave a curtsy.

“Good evening, Isabel. Please do not let me interrupt this meeting.., too much.” Lyn took a seat at the head of the table, “Mira simply told me there would be a meeting here and I wished to see more of my new… partners might be the proper term.”

“I am assuming most these meetings are towards discussing what to do about supplies or how to gain resources needed to survive.”

“Among other things.” Isabel took a seat once more, “Sometimes it’s about what to do about you but such plans have been…,” She spared a moment to look at the other figures at the table, “Up ended with your proper awakening.”

There was a chill in the air as the other figures shot each other looks of varying emotions. It wasn't entirely surprising; having a Vampire walk around half asleep would put humans on edge, even if she was a 'helpful' one. That they entertained ideas of just how to 'remove' her wasn't unexpected.

“Yes well, plans for my..., sudden absence,” Lyn chose to reword their most likely thoughts, “Are best left as a backup rather than something to work towards. After all I do not believe the humans here are in a strong enough position to hold the keep by themselves. Are you, Mira?” She leaned back in her chair and turned her head towards her ‘Captain.’

“The draw bridge is up but the wood is cracked and starting to rot. It wouldn’t take much to bring it down and make a new temporary bridge.” Mira spoke, her eyes forward and her arms behind her back, “If anyone gets in, we could hold them back from the manor for a time but we only have maybe six guards and a handful of day laborers. Without the Lady’s Armors we’d be dead the moment someone got inside the walls.”

Lyn had a small smile as Mira puffed her chest up with some pride. She wasn't well versed in combat, let alone siege warfare, but even Lyn was confident a bunch of farmers and miners with tools and whatever rocks or junk they could dig up and throw at enemies wouldn't be enough to stop them from making a new bridge. Sure, they could probably break the new bridge once or twice, but it would only be a matter of time before someone got in if they pushed it. If a Town Guard like Mira knew that the others should be able to pick up on that as well.

“With that addressed, I believe you lot can agree or at least understand, that I am a boon to be used not something to be feared. That said, I'm going to repeat myself from dinner. I am not going anywhere and you don’t seem to have a better place to go. I think it would be best if we work together moving forward.” She gave a wide toothy smile that sent a shiver down most their backs.

“So rather than trying to figure out what to do about the Vampire; perhaps we could figure out how best to ‘use’ the vampire. Tell me, if I wasn’t here, what would you be looking to do. I understand food is a top priority.”

“Food is a priority yes my Lady.” Isabel spoke without missing a beat, “Water is plentiful thanks to the underground water ways but most of us aren’t trained fishers, which makes fishing a slow process. We have enough food stored that, with some rationing, we could stretch it out to maybe a month, perhaps two.”

“Would hunting be able to expand our supply or would that be a short-term solution. Perhaps smoking it?” Lyn looked around the room, “We could use some of the older broken wood pieces for that, so long as the smoke isn’t poisonous.”

“That could be useful but the most important thing we could use are some replacements Elemental Gems.”

“Gems?” Lyn asked as she looked at Isabel.

“The Manor used to have its own built-in freezer, powered by Ice Elemental Gems. If we could acquire some, or gems of a similar vein, perhaps we could get it up and running again.” Isabel went on to point out that several things in the keep were once powered by said gems..., but the Ice ones would be the most immediately useful.

“That would allow us to store more food than we use. We’ll have to keep an eye out for them.” Lyn snapped her fingers before letting out a sigh, “That said… I can produce Ice myself, but I’m unsure how long it would last.”

“In your fight against the bandits, the Ice you used to kill one lasted only…, two hours. Less I think.” Mira offered.

“Enough to chill a drink but not enough to make our own freezer I’m betting.”

Maybe if she grew in power, she could do that but for now, she needed some way of either producing more food, or storing it more effectively. Even if they were able to open up the orchard again at the top of the mountain, it would take a season or so to grow crops. That'd be great for the future but in the here and now, they needed something faster.

“Alright so that’s food brought to my attention. Anything else.” She gestured towards the rest of the table, “I assume you have your own woes and concerns. Please, feel free to speak.”

The humans around the table gave one other looks, each one not wanting to speak up. Even if she had allowed them, this whole thing felt just…, odd to them. And unsettling. But one eventually gave up and downed their entire glass of drink before slamming it back down.

“Alright if none of you are going to go, I might as well.” The woman said as she steeled herself.

Her curled, blonde hair was frazzled at the ends. She wore a white coat or over coat that much like everyone else, was heavily patched in places, with a grey dress under it. It was matted with all sorts of stains on it, and she had a pair of thin gloves on. She cleared her throat before speaking.

“Name’s Thea and … well I suppose I’m the only one that has any kind of medical experience beyond just what your family teaches you. I’m not a doctor, GODS no I’m not but I can at least put your bones back into place. Anyway…,” She took a deep breath to steady herself, “We could use better a better medical set up. I understand you can’t just… make a new wing for the sick and wounded. But more to the point, our supplies of herbs and tonics are getting low. We could use some more.”

“Do we have any other healers? Other Casters?” A shake of her head told Lyn the answer, “I see. I believe I am the only one that has healing magic, though it is limited. Mira,” She gestured with her head towards her supporter, “Has told me my ability seems low level but I would have to attempt to try it myself to be sure.”

“Still, banking on just my healing ability is worrying if I am gone for one reason or another. Those herbs you talked about; would it be possible to forage for them?” Lyn asked as she focused on the medic woman.

“Should be able to. I know of a couple places nearby we could get the plants.” Thea as she tapped the side of her head, “But I don’t know all of them. I wasn’t part of the process in gathering or making them. Just applying them.”

“It is better than nothing.” Lyn paused to think for a moment, “I believe we might have some books or notes that could be useful in brewing things. I suggest you look at them if you can, as if we can find replacements in the caves, that should go a long way in extending our supplies.”

“Isabel; while we’re on the subject, if you know anyone that has free time and is good with letters, put them to work organizing the remaining books. I’d like to know just what we have beyond just some records and maps. Perhaps something we could use.”

“I’ll make the appropriate asks my Lady.” The older woman said, “Though are you…”

“Please. If there’s anything that’s counted as ‘secret information’ left behind, I’m sure I wouldn’t know it’s significance till it was brought to my attention. I’m not worried that someone might dig something up. Just… let’s split off any books that look like journals off from the rest of them.”

“Of course, my Lady.”

“Well, if you can find some sort of book of plants or tonics, I’ll look it over, but I don’t promise much.” Thea said shaking her head and settling back into her seat.

“I won’t expect you to instantly learn even if we do anyway. But having someone learn would be useful. If that is all, next concern?” Lyn asked, leaving the floor open to someone else.

“I’m… Jarin. I used to manage a small mining outpost.” A man in a dirty white shirt and black pants, a red vest over his chiseled chest. The shirt was ripped around the elbows and he had heavy gloves and boots on. His black hair was cut extremely short to his head, and his brown eyes had several circles under them.

“Now we have tools to dig, and even if we didn’t…, My Lady,” He took a moment to catch himself before saying the last part, “Your Armors would be strong enough to dig out the few ore veins we’ve found. Not to mention raw stone.”

“Problem is, we don’t have the means of smelting it.” He leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms, “So we just have a big rock we dug out of the earth. If we wanna do anything with it, we’d need a furnace to melt the ore down."

“And of course someone that could make said tools, correct?” Lyn steepled her fingers together.

“Yeah. I don’t think anyone here knows how to work metal beyond just basic shapes. Not hard to give a sharp point to a chunk of ore but that's completely different from a pick. Now I know a couple of the miners pulled double duty with the smelter so we can make ingots if we get a smelter. And a proper one too.” Jarin added, “But if we want to be sufficient in tools, we need those three things; Smelter, Workshop, Blacksmith.”

“Did the Keep not have those? We should have had our own facilities.”

“They did but looks like they were destroyed when the Hero came through, or those behind her. For all I know it got looted.” The gruff looking man shrugged, “At the very least, we have space for the facilities. If there's one thing we have in spades here it's room, even if we have to clear it out to use it.”

“What about repairs then? If we don’t have the means to work metal, can we work stone to repair parts of the keep? We have enough stone for the walls themselves.”

“Kinda.” Jarin scratched his head as she leaned further back into his chair, “The guys I work with are good enough cut the stone into blocks; it’ll be rough blocks but it’s manageable. It’ll be better once we can make the right tools for it. Problem is none of us are good at building with stone. Besides we'd need mortar or something else to really seal it together.”

“See, My Lady.” He put a little sass behind it this time, “Most towns out here are built with wood, or other light material. Just strip it down, pack it up, and move when things go south. We do this when a vein runs dry, bandits start moving in, or other problems. There's rarely a need for this level of stone work out here, and most of our stone we dug up, we drop off to get paid for. Don't care where is goes after that.”

“So, who would have a Stonemason?” Lyn asked.

“Any of the bigger holdouts I would think, mainly the organized ones. Bandit lord or king or whatever; sure, they might have one. Some of those cults probably would nick one to help make their alters and hide outs. And there’s at least two big ‘towns’ but they’re little more than some hopped up Noble basically running their own little fiefdom. Not much better than the bandits only they have ‘outside’ authority backing them.”

“But their control basically ends at their walls or shortly past them.” Lyn arched an eyebrow. She got a nod for an answer.

It figured that someone would try to fill the power gap for their own ends, but these nobles… how high up the chain was their backing? Nearby nobility in the other kingdoms or further up? Did they have a legitimate decree backing them or just what they 'said' they had? It good to know for now, but that was just another problem to go onto the already tall pile of problems.

“Um….”

A woman at the back of the table raised her hand. She had long, wavy, sea green hair shaved on the right side and cyan eyes. Her right ear had some sort of earring that looked less… decorative and more ‘marking.’ Her ears were also longer than the others at the table. Along with some sort of collar around her neck. She wore a simple patched up tannish tunic, with an open vest over it. The skirt she had on was the same color as the tunic.

“Um…, hello, my name is… Mary.” The woman murmured out before shrinking down into her seat.

“Hello Mary. I’m guessing you’re going to ask for something yourself.” Lyn sat up straight and gave her a warm smile. Well as warm as she could, “Don’t worry yourself, please. What can I help with.”

“Err… that is…, food, medicine, and tools are all good and all, and are very important in their own rights but…, the people haven’t been living… well.”

“That’s not to say that…, well.” Lyn motioned with her hand for Mary to continue, “What I mean is we could use better accommodations. Help keep morale up. I’m not asking for anything fancy right now but… some people are having to wash their one set of clothes every day or even sleep in them. Some extra clothing would go a long way in making people feel cleaner and better.”

“We are running out of ‘uniforms’ to give people.” Isabel noted, “As we had to use a good number of the remaining ones to patch up the others. We won't be able to make new uniforms though with you awake, perhaps they aren't as 'required' as they used to be.”

“I can order my Armors to treat everyone here as a servant but at the same time, I do think it would be better if we had some sort of..., unifying outfit. At the very least some sort of patch or emblem. I'm thinking of using the Von Rosen emblem for this.” Lyn explained as she held up her necklace, “Between this and the outfit, it would be easy for me to set up my Armors to treat anyone else as outsiders at best and enemies at worst.”

“Oh! I can do that..., I was a weaver and a tailor..., so long as I can get some tools, I should be able to make more outfits or those patches. Though I left them behind when we left my....., village but they aren’t… noticeably valuable so they should still be there. Most of us have been working with just small sewing kits but we need something better to weave cotton or wool into threads.”

“We could also use better bedding too. No sense in getting healed up if where we sleep is likely to make us sick too.”

“That is a good catch, Mary. I'll make sure that gets added to the list though,” she looked around the room, “We have a pretty long list to get through. An rather overwhelming amount but now that I'm awake, I can at least attempt to pull my own weight so to speak. I do believe this is quite enough to address right now, though I am open to any additional requests or news.”

“Well. There is Cerzes, My Lady.” Lyn turned her head to look at Mira as she continued,“Cerzes was a scout and a forester as he claimed. He took some men with him to scout the nearby areas and do some hunting but they've been missing for three days now. If we can find what happened to them, perhaps even with upsetting news, that would ease some worries.”

That was quite the check list.

• Food - Storage
• Medicine - Herbs
• Tools - Stonework
• Clothes - More Tools
• Missing Hunters

And that wasn't counting other problems that could be brewing. The Bandits hadn't come, but Lyn was certain that they would be paying a visit sooner or later. After all, a group of them went out to kill/capture some villagers they'd been hounding for a while, only to stop replying to any orders and not come back. Someone had to be paying attention to news like that so at the very least they would send a scouting party. Perhaps that's what happened to the hunters. Not enough info to really make a call there though.

This was informative, letting her come to terms to the problems her humans faced. Well, it was time to inform them of some things herself.

“This is quite the info dump to chew through; I feel I should have been up and about much sooner. Still I am awake now, so I best get to work. It might be easiest if I tackle some of these myself but before I do anything, I would like to make a few things clear.” She made a clear sign of tapping on the table to focus attention on herself.

“First; if I'm not around for one reason or another, I authorize Mira and Isabel to speak and act on my behalf. Treat their words as my own.”

That got a lot of words sent her way, but she let them speak whatever was on their minds until their words finally died down after which before someone else could interrupt, she held up a hand to cut them off. She motioned for them to sit back down and continued.

“Mira is of course, my Bonded, and thus the only one I can feed from right now, so she has my absolute trust.” She let out another smile as she saw Mira beam with pride out of the corner of her eye, “As for Isabel; she hasn't been as... enthusiastically willing and loyal, but she has simply spoken her mind fairly and plainly. As such, I believe I can trust her with acting..., not necessarily in my best interests but at the very least, not acting outright against me. I trust her ability to keep things as is without overstepping too much.”

“Besides, I will require Mira to accompany me for a few reasons at least for now, so I require someone to act for me while I am gone.”

“If that is your wish My Lady.” Isabel nodded her head,“I will at least try to keep everything from falling apart.”

“That's all I ask of you.” Lyn rose from the table and started to make her way towards the door.

“Again, I hope we will have a long and fruitful relationship. Do not treat me as some sort of foul monster. You can think that way if you wish but should you act on that... well I should start acting as if you're food by that point. I just hope we understand each other.” She made a show of her eyes glowing in the dim candle light and her white fangs glinted before she left, Mira hot on her tail.

The humans left behind had to let out a few breathes they didn't realize they were holding. It wasn't long before Lyn could hear them talking again about the meeting, with Isabel firmly stating that this would be the best thing for everyone. At least that's what she last heard before she was out of her new enhanced hearing range.

“That went okay I believe. What shall we do now My Lady?” Mira asked as she walked side by side with her.

“Now? I would like you to get some travel supplies together. I believe it would be best if I go out and take a look around the general area of the keep. Perhaps go deal with one of the things I was informed about today. We still have plenty of night ahead of us anyway..., you will be okay right?”

“My sleep schedule has been... bad since being on the run, but I have had to change it a bit so I would be awake during your... feeding. I'll be okay for this trip. But where are you off to now?”

“Now?” Lyn asked as she felt a tug from deep inside herself, “I head towards my 'Core'.”