A/N: Like before, you can join the discord channel for questions and discussion with this invite code: X6WeHRn

The tool spun under her watchful eye, another sliver of steel sliding off the workpiece. Miria sighed as the cut completed without a fuss.

The new lathe, optimized with the latest fittings and screws, was the latest mechanical wonder. Instead of an operator setting each individual operation, running the lathe through the desired length, then changing the lathe over to the next operation, the new model was programmable.

Based off work with Cato's second generation magic circles, the programmable lathe could accept instructions for specific cutting lengths and angles, with up to four tool heads that the script could be set to use. It had multiple consistent speeds, driven directly with magic power instead of belts from a steam engine. Each cutting action had the parameters defined in a script not unlike typesetting for the printing press, the action of the magic running through the scripts toggled the switches and set the screws automatically.

Add in the highest quality rails, newly designed collets and bushings, vibration resistant mountings, all polished and oiled to a perfect mirror finish, this new lathe could cut steel pieces to fractions of a millimeter. A whole order of magnitude precision improvement over the previous models, with greater accuracy, speed and supporting harder materials.

The toolroom quality lathe that Miria was using to cut pieces for the production models also had an array of diamond tool bits. Procured and cut at great expense, the ultrahard tips enchanted with resist magic could cut the hardest steel pieces, those meant to go into other lathes or highly demanding applications.

On the other hand, the development of the lathe's capabilities was outstripping their requirements. Very few actual production pieces required that level of precision and procedures to convert a design drawing into a cutting script for the programmable lathe were not finalized. Miria had written the script practically from scratch, there was very little logical connection between her script for the lathe parts to their design, save that they were both referring to the same envisioned product.

The only product that truly required lathes of this quality that Miria could think of was Landar's Trumpets.

Well, Miria expected that someone would find a use for an overly accurate lathe. Too much accuracy never hurt anyone.

The production model lathes on the other hand, while slightly less accurate, were much cheaper due to being cut by the high quality one in her workshop. These lathes came in a variety of sizes, powered by different sources of motive work and were built according to what a customer needed.

By the time the toolroom lathe was done and calibrated against the primary standards to everyone's satisfaction, the released specifications had given the industrialists of Minmay ideas. Sales and orders were already backed up for thousands of rimes. So of course the first thing Miria did with the lathe was to duplicate itself.

It looked like she was about to become a very rich subsidiary of the Ironworkers, but Miria only felt a little disappointed.

She might be earning a lot but being the lead engineer in the new generation lathe business got boring. Designing a lathe or jigs or measuring device for a customer required just enough creativity that Miria couldn't do it in her sleep. But also wasn't anything truly new.

What Miria most wanted to do was to build an even more accurate production tool. Perhaps something that could work on extremely small scales? Dare she even dream of a cutting device with precision to the micron scale?

The Northern Fort, as the expedition's base came to be known, was into its sixth month of existence. The ruins of the city were situated near a river for easy water access and transport. The rolling plains around it held evidence of this region being a breadbasket, rivaling even the Central Territories in fertility. And while the weather was colder up here, the windeyes could still grow just fine.

The ruins of the city had been mostly cleaned up by now, but military dwellings were far more compact than the combination residences and market. Still, the ample space behind the mostly intact wall gave the location a convenient defensible point to stockpile supplies for further patrols northwards. Long ranging mini-expeditions were aimed at filling out ancient maps of the land and finding any survivors or remnant civilization that might yet be falling to the monsters.

The strong logistics base that was required meant that the Northern Fort had to be able to fulfill its own needs from more basic supplies. They couldn't wait for weeks if they ran out of boots again or if steel nails ran short. Setting up mana wells, metalworks and trench defences had taken months to fully realize but with them, the Northern Fort was effectively a colony, only reliant on the Minmay motherland for basic materials. A few civilians had even come up from Minmay, mostly traders doing supply runs on heavily escorted barges.

It helped that the presence of the Northern Fort had reduced the attacks on Fort Yang to a trickle and on Wendy's Fort, plus the Fuka village there, to almost nothing. Ranra had also reported a mild reduction in the intensity of attacks on their eastern border to Algami Plains. All of that was now falling on the Fort, which fended off attacks with the hammer of a large mobile force and the anvil of its prepared defenses and killing grounds. The deadly bone worms did not make a second showing.

That the magnitude of this attraction effect significantly increased after the mana wells had been set up did not go unnoticed. It went a long way to explain why Fort Yang and its copious magical power generation infrastructure had attracted such intense assaults. As the theory went, the zombies could perceive magical power at both long and short ranges, unlike humans. The short range magical power attraction helped them find prey as well as send them attacking strong magical sources like spell cannons. The long range effect attracted zombie packs to each other for form large swarms as well as made said swarms drift in the general direction of the largest group of magical activity, presuming that said magical power also meant human activity.

Through this all, Cato and Landar had been at the Fort, still trying to come up with something suitably useful to the Iris in exchange for their political support for their engagement. It did not help that Landar was constantly distracted by her rocket tests, meant to refine calculated trajectories. Testing Landar's Trumpets at the Fort put the tests in realistic conditions as well as helping zero in the rocket batteries deployed there.

Cato's proposed device to aid in the usage of summoning stones was meeting with problems. Each type of stone had their own control schemes and making a general device that helped with all stones was proving close to impossible. The second generation of magic circle could theoretically do it, being accurate enough to direct power to the stones.

Currently, Cato had a prototype that could interface with the most common type of Sword Stone, almost forty percent of the total number of Swords. However, the number of variables exploded as more stones were supported, just attempting to support all the variations in a single major type of control scheme was proving to require far too much complexity. And there were six types of control schemes too!

What he had was good, but his pride did not want him to return with just this.

An engineer had to have standards!

Ka winged his way onwards, catching a gentle tailwind that only needed him to correct west a little. Behind him trailed two hunters from Clan Two. The clans had been reluctant to be a part of this expedition due to the loss of Muli in that climatic battle months ago. Having a small population, every elka was precious to the clan. Muli's death and the demands of having two-thirds of the clan's hunters be away from the range for possibly months made them leery of the request from the landbound.

Ka had argued, along with many of the survivors of Clan One, that the humans were here to stay and their generous offers of food, magic and other tools was worth it. More than the transient gratitude for aiding the humans, who did understand the population pressure on the clan, Ka wanted his adoptive Clan to work more closely with the humans.

He had seen what Cato and the rest of the University did. Anything that they used, they improved. Magic and machines got better and more complex, people got training and better tools. If the elkas decided to separate themselves from the humans, they would not receive these advantages and they might lose their place in the world the humans were building around them.

His arguments had paid off, Ka felt. The humans knew how important flight was and the elkas provided a capability that the landbound did not have. So much of their focus went towards helping the elkas fly faster, longer and be more protected. Each of the scouts that were ranging outwards from the landbound northern fortress was armed with the best weapons and best magic that could be given to them.

The flight harness given to each of the elkas of Clan Two was a finely designed weapon. The primary limitation of the elka's flight and weapons were the amount of magical power they could bring to bear. With spellforming wands to shoot spells and mist shields to blur beams, the average elka in a combat situation could not fly for long. Hence the harness consisted of the best magical storage the humans could give them.

it was a delicate balancing act. The more power they contained, the heavier the power pack was, even if the newly discovered and very expensive high density magical crystals were used for storage. Too heavy and the elka couldn't fly at all. Each elka flew slightly differently and as they improved in their lift and endurance, so did the weight they could carry. Not to mention the requirements of distributing the weight. Every flight harness was sized and customized for the elka who carried it, at great expense and to great effect.

The crown jewel of the whole flight harness device was the launch assist. Rather than take a running start, each flight harness could provide one to three liftoffs from a standing start. They were barely enough to get into the air, but the ability to simply spring away from enemies made landing a much less risky prospect.

There was talk of creating larger glider surfaces that could be deployed from the harness, to reduce energy consumption over long distance flight. Such designs only further justified working with the humans, in Ka's mind.

The land far below him was empty. Open rolling plains and patches of light forest dotted the land interspersed with many small streams that flowed northwards. Wild animals could be spotted, though rarer than might be expected given the obviously fertile land. The reasons for that became clear after the last few flights had found traces of old farmlands, now abandoned and overgrown. To the average elka, this would be a great hunting ground if not for the lack of convenient perches.

The mapping the clan had done so far had the humans speculate that there was a major river to the north and Ka's patrol had been tasked to find it. Flying so high that even elka eyes could not spot large prey on the ground was not normally done, being cold and quite useless for hunting. But missing a big river like they were looking for was impossible no matter how high Ka flew and the height let them survey widely.

They had passed the limits of the mapped area yesterday, where the last scouting group had reported another ruined town. The brown smudge on the ground was all Ka could see of it, along with the misshapen squares where the growth difference between individual abandoned fields showed the decaying boundaries of this northern civilization.

It only took a few hours of flight before Ka spotted what must be the river he was looking for.

Not as big as the River Yang, the winding river was punctuated by a myriad of curved lakes, circular lakes and stretches of white rapids. Further to the west downstream was a marshy area that the river spread out into before disappearing over the horizon. Dots and smudges and the little discoloured patches indicating human activity was evident north of the river, and at higher density than the south.

Ka called the other two elkas in the patrol to him with a signalling pulse of magic. The pair adjusted into a close formation around him.

"Down there," he pointed, where a large black mass was pressed up against the river from both sides. It was moving, though that was all Ka could tell from this height.

"It could be a zombie group," said one of the scouts. Lali looked a little worried but everyone would if asked to face a zombie swarm. The memory of Muli had reminded the elka that they were not invincible, even to the ground bound monsters.

"I think it is a zombie group, but we should investigate and track where it's heading," Ka replied, "the humans will appreciate the warning. No need to go low enough for the beams to be a danger. "

Her husband, Waukee, shared a look. The scout pair finally agreed after a few moments and the three elkas fell into a sharp dive.

Almost immediately, Ka felt something was wrong with the group of monsters. They were crossing the river, but heading north. More importantly, someone was fighting them. When the elkas dropped lower, they found out who.

Arrayed against the small horde on the opposite bank was a series of small dugouts. Little mini forts of sand and soil, each of the defensive positions could shoot at each other from the side or at an angle from the back, while the shield of mounded soil protected them from the light beams.

Compared to the hard and concentrated defence of a trench line, walls and killing fields that the southern humans preferred, this bunch was reducing the horde by attrition. As each point was overrun, at great cost to the zombies, it was subject to a withering barrage of counter fire from the defenses behind and to the side. And rather than physical projectiles, the defenders were using almost purely magic for their attacks.

The patrol's overflight drew little attention. The humans were locked in combat and the monsters were too attracted to the major magical signature from behind the humans' defenses. Most of the humans wore slightly heavier clothing, the air being colder here than south of the Snow Wall, and their metal armour was of a heavier design.

As Ka and the patrol climbed back upwards with the speed they gained from the dive, they felt more than saw a huge bloom of magic from a bigger platform hidden behind a small hill. The humans there milled around, dragging bodies and injured, while the red dressed other humans scurried between them. Ka couldn't make out what they were doing but the magical bloom was hanging around their camp area like a cloud.

As the monsters surged forwards in an attempt to reach the cloud of magic, the magic responded. Quick like lightning, the humans' magic funneled into a spike of disruptive mana that smashed into the zombies' own black mist. The two clouds struggled against each other for a moment before the black mist won, though much diminished.

Ka could almost feel the shock on the faces of his companions. These humans had their own mist-equivalent! Though it was crude compared to the hammer blows of the spellcannons, these people were not to be underestimated.

"Let's help them," Ka said, after watching the struggle against the dead continue unabated.

"What? We were asked to find the river, not fight a battle," Waukee complained.

"We wanted to find the river because the humans suspect others exist. Now that we found it and the others, if we help, they will be friendlier to us. Our humans will be happier. "

Ka's explanation did not satisfy them, he could tell. But they eventually acquiesced to Ka's leadership.

"Three bombs each, target the main mass on the south side," Ka said.

The elka patrol winged over, circling the horde to the east, before beginning an attack dive. Their spellforming wands spat out globs of magic that splashed on the top of the black mist into a blurry shield that dispersed a light beam. Then they were at the bottom of the dive, a mere few wingspans above the mist, and Ka pulled on the chosen strings on his bomb vest.

Three cylinders each double the size of a fist were hurled into the crowd, with Lali and Waukee's own salvo beside them. Plunging through the weakened black mist, the layered disruptive shells on the cylinders and their high speed resisted the corrosive magical effect for a few moments, long enough for the bombs to reach the ground.

Each of the cylinders popped open, a carefully balanced magical construct spraying the mixture inside evenly in all directions. The special payload instantly caught fire and then exploded with a deep booming sound.

To make elka attacks more effective, the University had provided small quantities of handmade special ammunition. Rather than the plain living fire of the normal grenades, these contained a quantity of the new explosive powder. The living fire ignited on contact with air and caused the powder packet in the middle to instantly explode, scattering the sticky fire in a massive but short lived fireball. Flaming droplets were propelled in all directions, lighting up the dry zombies which were yet to ford the river.

Nine blasts smashed a gaping hole in the center of the zombie swarm, and then the weakened black mist completely collapsed under the strain of trying to deal with so much fire. The small horde devolved into a charging mess.

The zombie army was cut down easily without their terrible power. Once the black mist had collapsed and the defenders noticed the change in behaviour, they had rapidly formed up into a shield wall that reduced the zombies to chunks with ease.

Ka and his patrol watched from above, circling the battlefield warily. They didn't want to spend their precious magic firing their spellforming wands at the army. It would kill only a few more zombies and the defenders seemed to have things on a rising wind.

On the other hand, their overflight of the back area that had conjured the human's grey mist had shown some rather disturbing signs. Ones that made Ka nervous.

As the battle wound down, the humans on the ground below began to wave upwards at them. White flags were used to mark out an empty field on which Ka could land.

"Can you even trust these landbound? They are not the tame ones from back home. "

Ka glanced at Waukee, but the male was still in formation. "We have to, we were asked to scout and find information. Talking to the local humans will tell us more. Especially about the things we saw. "

"And if they decide to cut you open to steal your wings?" The man might grumble but Ka knew his wing mate was just worried for his safety.

After all, they had spotted the humans cleaning up some bodies in the healing area. Bodies that had come from those strange raised stone blocks that were now stained with red blood. Judging from the special graves that were set aside from the open grave of dead soldiers, the humans down there were burying around thirty bodies from their strange action.

It looked like the humans had taken some of their own people and cut them open over the stone blocks.

What for, Ka had no idea. Only that the humans wearing red seemed to be both in charge of the killings as well as the healing.

"I have my harness and I won't be taking it off," Ka replied, "you'll be on over flight. I did ask you to only use half our bombs just in case we need to use the rest. "

Ka didn't wait for his wing mate to reply, instead diving down to the open area before settling into a landing glide. If they were going to be so kind as to set up the clear space, Ka wouldn't waste his magic. And if it helped encourage them to think he needed a long run to get off the ground, he would have a surprise escape ready for them.

As soon as Ka touched the ground, three of the soldiers came running into the landing zone, waving and gesturing at him. The other soldiers just stood around, watching Ka with open curiousity.

The words coming out of their mouth sounded like a warped almost unintelligible mess. "Leave magic things, come with" was all that Ka could make out. It was like listening to an accent even worse than the differences between the most poetic elka Clan phrases and the Inath humans' Tsarian. At least they were speaking a dialect of Tsarian, rather than the Inath's more common First originated language.

"I'm not leaving this," Ka said, plucking at the harness strapped around him and shaking his head.

The foremost soldier just frowned and gestured at him again, "put down magic, not allowed. No fighting. "

"I am not going to leave my weapons," Ka refused adamantly. After seeing the sacrifices, there was no way he was going to leave his safety behind. Even if it meant he couldn't meet with their leadership.

"Not no weapons, commander cannot meet," the soldier insisted. He reached out towards Ka's spellforming wand but stopped when Ka took a step back out of reach.

They stared at each other, each not willing to give up their positions.

"What about messages?" Ka suggested.

The soldier brightened up and spoke quickly to his colleague, who ran off.

"Thank for help with big enemies, all people must fight with each other. "

Ka frowned, the chance for misinterpretation was high, he barely understood the soldier. But an attempt had to be made. "The other humans are coming from the south, and they would like to meet with you. Do you have any introduction messages I can bring?"

The soldier frowned back, "if more come, fighting with each other is good. Introduction is good. "

Ka paused then decided that he really needed to understand if the soldier was talking about fighting the Inath people from the south. Or perhaps these northerners thought Ka was talking about monsters coming from the south?

He paraphrased himself. The soldier did the same.

This continued for a few more rounds before the colleague who had run off came running back with a rolled up tube of paper in his arms. "Message for coming people!" the man proclaimed and thrust it out to Ka.

Ka received the large roll of paper carefully. "I thank you for this-" He started to bow respectfully but was interrupted when he heard some shouting around the borders of the cleared area around him.

The soldiers who were crowding around trying to get a closer look at the foreign elka were suddenly pushed aside. Leading the way was a man in red robes, trailed by similarly red dressed flunkies. The soldiers gave them a wide berth.

Marching straight towards Ka, the red robed man's assistants spread out trying to surround Ka and the three soldiers. The soldier who was talking to Ka puffed up with indignation, but his incoming rant was cut short when the red robe pointed at Ka and shouted a single word. "Catch!"

Ka took one glance at the circle of red rushing towards him. Time to leave.

He tugged on the magic in his harness and flared his lift as high as it would go, feeling the sudden magical drain from the backpack. The power blasted Ka into the sky, hurtling forwards and upwards with furled wings. Ka deployed the wings with well-practiced timing, the launch system saved power by only giving him just enough speed and height to get off the ground.

His ability to launch from a standing start obviously took these northerners by surprise. The red robes were left gaping at Ka as he winged his way higher and upwards.

It took until Ka had caught up to his wing mates before realizing that he was still holding the scroll containing the message the soldier had given him. Perhaps this wasn't completely a waste of time then.