Dear Arthur,

I would like to ask you to perform a task for me in my absence. This letter has been vetted by Minmay personally, he has signed it below.

Please gather some local blacksmiths who are not affiliated with the Ironworkers and some untrained peasants. I wish to experiment on a workforce who are not Ironworker qualified and attempt to produce some iron products.

I believe that the current culture of the Ironworker masters are inhibiting the adoption of standardized measures and quality control. You can find some preliminary ideas for plans of this experimental workshop organization enclosed. For minor issues, I trust that you can resolve them satisfactorily, otherwise, please write to me.

Beginning with wood, I want to see if unskilled workers can be trained to build complex and precise parts using the relevant tools when given instructions from set procedures. For the time being, I have included plans with Kalny's input for a waterwheel powered planer and grinder that I hope will eventually be able to work for iron as well.

For help in setting up the workshop and powered mechanisms, I have secured Kalny's help in exchange for help setting up the same manufacturing processes for Kalny later, please work with him.

Cato

"Come in Landar," her mother nodded at her.

Landar shuffled into the room and sat at the end of the low table warily. Her mother brushed back her dark hair and poured a cup of tea for Landar. The woven straw mat under her tried to get her comfortable, but she would have none of it.

"Have you met your father?"

She nodded mutely, not touching the cup of tea. Her mother gestured for her to take a sip, but she refused to budge.

"Are you getting enough to eat?" her mother asked her gently, "you look thinner than last time. You are taking care of yourself?"

"I have more than enough to eat," Landar frowned at the cup of tea, wondering where her mother was going with this.

"Then do you need money?" her mother asked, giving up on getting Landar to drink. She poured a cup for herself.

Landar shook her head, "I have more than enough money. Both from my own work and from the University. "

"I suppose Cato is responsible for most of it?"

Landar nodded. While building magical art pieces with her alchemy was fruitful, Landar knew that Cato's work had them commanding far more money than any single alchemist could, no matter how talented. Sure, most of it was in terms of bank loans and consultations with guilds and companies, but more money had passed through the CaLa Consultancy's hands or at its words than she had ever seen.

Her mother sighed, "clearly you are wondering what your father is thinking. The University of Minmay is getting powerful, and I believe he wishes to secure ties with it. From what I understand, you wouldn't object too strongly. "

Ties? Landar must have let some of her confusion leak onto her face as her mother started to giggle. "What is he planning now?" Landar said sharply.

"Ho ho," her mother smiled and took an annoyingly long sip of her tea. Then she dropped the bombshell. "I believe he will offer your ring to Cato. "

Landar could feel her eyes trying to pop off their sockets. Her father was going to try to marry her off to Cato?! Of all people?! But... but... wasn't he irritated at Cato? And Cato wasn't even an Iris! Anyone from the sixth branch and up never married out; and offering her as subordinate in the relationship?! Landar ran out of words to describe how unthinkable that was.

"Why didn't he say anything?" Landar asked. Never mind how absurd the notion was, her father could at least have asked her first! She brushed aside her uncertainty with the fire of anger. If her father wanted this, it was going to be for some dastardly reason. "And don't think I'm just going to accept it without a fight!" she left a warning for good measure.

Her mother shuffled her way around the table and sat right in front of Landar, looking seriously into her eyes. The black eyes and black hair that so mirrored her own were filled with a gentleness that ate at the fire in her chest like waves destroyed a sandcastle.

"Landar, my daughter. You look so much like me but the inside is so much like him," her mother sighed, brushing the stray strands of hair from Landar's face, "the two of you are really father and daughter. "

What? "Can you explain more clearly?"

"Proud, willful, you always want to have your own way. And you can't accept anyone deciding your life," her mother raised a hand at her obvious retort, "but for those you really care for, you can sacrifice many things to help them. Even the chance at understanding each other. "

Landar felt her eye twitch. So her mother was saying that her father was just misunderstood? That all he wanted was to help her? She felt her anger rise again. "How stupid do you think I am?" Landar snarled, "all he has done is try to tie me to Iris every step of the way! He never understands what I want and always always tries to make me into some kind of magical doll so that he can make me dance in family politics. Even you have to live in his shadow all the time, I hardly even see you do anything-"

"Landar," her mother interrupted her, "I have seen you two attack each other for years. I always hoped you might see past each other's differences some day but it seems that nothing will change if I do not make a move. "

"What move?" Landar eyed her mother suspiciously. Her mother? Actually doing something? Since when did her father ever give her mother enough lee way to act on her own?

"Ho ho ho, I've already made it," her mother's eyes were twinkling above her smile, "and you underestimate your mother if you think she's just a doll meant to dance for your father. "

Landar gulped, not knowing whether to be afraid of this unknown side of her mother she had never seen.

"Come," her mother patted the straw mat for Landar to come closer, "let me tell you the story of a lonely girl from the second branch family and a plucky young boy from the sixth. "

"Is this going to get sappy?" Landar asked warily.

"Since it ends with you being born, yes, it does," her mother smiled. She didn't mention her hope that telling the story might help matters along, she knew her own daughter far too well to make that sort of mistake.

Cato sat in front of the cup of tea nervously. Being called away from the war of words between Minmay and Ektal, Cato had expected the worst. And he got it.

He had been shown into a compound outside of the guest zone. It was obvious how the architecture changed, from stone to aged wood, and the sliding wooden doors set into the carved pillars were in fully Tsarian style instead of the odd fusion with Inath outside. He had also been directed to change his shoes into a floppy cloth so thin that he could feel the grain of the wood flooring through it.

The place felt even more isolated than usual. The immaculately pruned gardens and spotless wooden floors of the corridors held the same maze like quality that seemed to stretch on forever. Cato had even spotted, or smelled in some cases, kitchens and toilets that would have been placed outside in Inath style.

Inside the Iris clan, Cato had been brought to a room as well decorated as any of the others. Across from him sat Yan, Landar's father, quietly sipping his tea.

"Why did you want to see me?" Cato asked, finally breaking the silence.

"What do you think of Landar?" Yan asked in return.

Cato sighed, "what answer do you want?"

Yan merely raised an eyebrow, "an honest answer. "

"She loves ideas. More than alchemy and magic, Landar wants to make her ideas come to life. I respect her for that," Cato explained. He tactfully didn't comment on what sort of ideas a certain mad alchemist was known for.

"I have heard worse from others," Yan muttered.

Cato smiled a little, "I'm sure. She can be a little over enthusiastic in applying them before the ideas are workable. But I do not deny that her help has been extremely valuable. Your daughter is an excellent alchemist. "

Yan nodded and sipped his tea. Was he a little happy about the praise? Well, Cato had never subscribed to Landar's world view that her father was out to get her.

"Tell me, is she more than just a helper or a friend to you?"

Cato blinked and kept his hands carefully still. Answer wrong and you'll have one angry father searching for a shotgun, Cato thought to himself. He took a few breaths to compose his reply. From what he could see, Landar's sour relationship with her father stemmed from a lack of communication. On both ends. Best not to make the same mistake.

"If you are asking whether we have a relationship like lovers, the answer is no," Cato said, "but I admit that our goals align and our personalities are similar. We may share a little more intimacy than just friends, but there is nothing more than that. "

Now it was Yan's turn to take his time thinking. He sipped his tea slowly, letting the silence drag on. The stony face was impassioned, not letting Cato read even a trace of the man's intentions.

After his cup ran dry, Yan was out of excuses to delay talking. He finally started to speak. "Landar is headstrong and untraditional," Yan sighed, "a most unfavourable personality. Within the Iris clan, it would be impossible for her to find a suitable partner. Much less happiness. "

Cato was holding his breath now. If this was what he was thinking of...

"And you are the leader of an organization of some power, even if it's new. You have helped the Iris indirectly by asking us to keep the books you wrote. So there is some merit after all," Yan continued to talk, "therefore, I would like to propose that you take her ring. "

"Is that an Iris way of asking me to marry her?" Cato asked. It would not do to misunderstand this point. Even if Cato thought it was fairly clear.

Yan nodded solemnly.

Cato looked at the man pouring out another cup of tea. Characters in stories, when this sort of surprise was sprung on them, tended to get flustered or panicked. Somehow, Cato didn't feel any of that. Maybe it was the way her father resembled a stern tiger assessing the worth of a new piece of meat.

"I shall think of it as earning your approval for any prospective relationship between us," Cato said slowly and carefully, "but I should emphasize the point that we do not have any relations of the romantic nature right now. Furthermore, I will not tolerate any such relationship without both of us wanting it. I will not ask, nor expect, her to enter one just because you say so. And if you do somehow coerce her into trying to start one with me, I will not accept. Please keep this in mind. "

There was a short pause before Yan nodded his assent. Landar's father sighed and added, "I know her well enough to know that such things will not work. In fact, you should keep this talk secret from her or she will reject you just to spite me. "

From what Cato had heard here, the harsh remarks out in the garden was probably just her father putting on a strong face in front of her. He certainly didn't hate her, quite the opposite it seemed. But did Landar hate her father that much? Cato thought back to her antics whenever her father was mentioned. Okay, maybe she did.

It was Cato's turn to sigh, "I will keep your advice in mind. But even though I am an outsider, allow me to say this. Perhaps your daughter is hostile due to poor communication. I will not presume to know what your disagreements are, but if you will not explain anything to her, she will never understand. I am not saying the fault lies entirely with you, but I do not think your actions so far have helped bridge the gap. "

"I hear your words," Yan said, giving no indication whatsoever that he agreed or disagreed.

Cato studied his face but that yielded no clues either.

"If she does give you too much trouble, I shall have to discipline her," Yan sighed.

Drat this stubborn man.

"And so that's what your father said," Cato explained to Landar.

She whispered back, "my mother said the same thing. That my father was trying to matchmake us. " Cato noted that her hands were clenched so hard that her knuckles were turning white. "He's gone too far this time. How dare he bring you into our problem!"

"You know," Cato whispered, "I think you are misunderstanding something. Your father-"

"-does not mean well," Landar hissed. Then she licked her lips and grinned, "well, if he wants a fight, he can get one. I have a way to cheat now. Let's see how his so called Iris pride stands up against our best Alchemy. "

"You're an Iris too you know," Cato said, which earned him a derisive look.

"Excuse me. I believe this meeting is for your sake," Minmay rapped his end of the table, "are you going to listen?"

The gathered merchant representatives looked carefully neutral. Cato wasn't obtuse enough to not realize that they were trying to avoid angering either Minmay or himself. He nodded an apology, "sorry. Could you please repeat the last topic?"

"Come find me after this," Landar whispered and got up to leave, "I've got some preparations to make. "

"Wait, what?" Cato tried to catch her sleeve but missed. She slipped out of the room.

"Ahem," Minmay cleared his throat meaningfully.

"Sir," Cato could only turn back, "I hope I'm wrong but I think Landar is about to have a fight with her father. "

"And?" Minmay raised an eyebrow.

Shouldn't Cato go do something about it? He thought the answer was obvious and said as much.

"She fights with her father all the time," Minmay rolled his eyes, "the Mad Alchemist and the Iris don't get along. That's quite well known. "

Geez, even the nobles knew about their family spat. Cato shook his head and sighed, "I think it might be bigger this time. Allow me to go find her. I promise I'll catch up with what happened in the negotiation later. "

Minmay watched as Cato got up and left the room after Landar, wondering how such a routine thing could turn into a reason to miss an important briefing.

"Well, we'll continue without them," Minmay said to the representatives around the table. "The gist of the peace treaty between us and King Ektal is simple. Duport remains under our temporary administration until Ektal finds a suitable replacement for the post. I doubt he will choose someone too friendly with us. On the other hand, I have managed to get Ektal to agree to give me a seat on the Greater Council in exchange for setting up a similar university in Ektal Capital City.

That means as I work on the Greater Council, Cato or his representative will be spreading our influence in Ektal itself. We have to build friendly relations with the Central territory if we don't want to get boxed in by Duport again. Luckily, we already have a friendly partner in the Iris. We just need to convince the rest that working with Minmay region has much benefit to them. The best way I see is for you to help me conclude a trade treaty with them when the mayors meet next week, so I need to know what agreements would best help you. "

Cato followed Landar's trail, by way of asking the servants where they had seen her. He managed to track her back to the carriages for the Minmay delegation but she had already left by the time he got there. Not for the first or last time, Cato wondered how the Iris managed to navigate their way through their own compound.

No time to worry about that though. The carriage that had held Cato and her luggage was open and one of the short steel rods was very conspicuously missing. Shit.

He turned back to the curious manservant who brought him here and asked, "Are there any places where the summoners often fight each other?" Surely she wouldn't just start a magical battle in the middle of the Iris home, would she?

The servant nodded, "there is the dueling grounds. It is often used for tests and displays of power. "

"Are there more than one?" Cato prayed that there wasn't.

He shook his head, "there is only one. "

"Lead me there. "

He got there too late. Cato stepped through the gate in the low wall to find Landar's father already standing in the middle of the wide open field, facing off with Landar. Landar's anger on her face was emphasized by her fist clenched around a dark metal rod. The bands wrapped out the end she wasn't holding were familiar to Cato.

"Landar!" he shouted across the dried dying grass.

"Not now, Cato!" Landar shouted back, then turned back to her father, "you have your summoning stones, I have my alchemy. I don't know what you have planned for Cato but you leave him out of this! Fight me and when I defeat you today, you will stay out of his life!"

Her father looked back calmly and snorted, "it's too early for you to even talk of defeating me. I was thinking of checking how much you have grown this last year, so go ahead and show me your power!"

Cato could only sigh as both Iris lit up with magical power.

"It's all right, sir," the servant reassured Cato with a friendly pat on the shoulder, "this happens all the time when Landar visits the clan. "

"Is there any way to stop them?" Cato asked.

They looked at the magical blasts flying around in the field. "Sir is strongly recommended not to try," the servant replied.

Cato sighed again.

Landar dived to the side as the Sword raced past her, with barely a handspan to spare. The dirt sprayed up onto her dress as she poured her magic into the rod in her hand.

The rod glowed in her magical sense, the power running through it was shaped by the residual enchantment left in the steel. Like a spell plate, the banded end of the rod spat out a fully formed forcebolt.

This was the solution to her slow casting speed that Cato and her had created. The rod could shape magical power in much the same way as magical circles or a spell plate, only it was more durable and flexible than the fixed magical constructs. The study of magical circles had given him the idea of configurable spells, the three bands at the tip allowed up to three parameters of the spell to be changed.

The fourth band controlled the path of the entire circuit, giving the rod access to more than one pre-programmed spell.

She angled the rod slightly and fired off another forcebolt, without having to concentrate at all. Pouring magic into the input end was as easy as breathing after all those Iris exercises. The first forcebolt shot off as the second formed, arcing to the side where she had aimed it. A mental tweak nudged it onto a more correct path and it slammed down towards her father as the second began its acceleration and the third was forming.

Landar kept a figurative eye on the Sword swinging around to attack her again. Her father had shielded easily against the first forcebolt but his Phantom was still coming after her. Taking advantage of his distraction, Landar stepped back to get her forcebolt arcs to line up and began to attack the Phantom directly with disruptive magic.

As it swung past her again, only a desperate shove of disruption magic managed to destabilize it enough to move the Sword out of the way. The misshapen lump of magic immediately began to reform but it had slowed a little. Enough for Landar to click the second band into the direct fire mode.

The forcebolts popping out of the end were delayed by a few seconds, she tweaked the first band to get it right and poured a fresh surge of magic down the rod while running along, keeping the rod pointed at her father. Six forcebolts trailed behind her, spherical lumps of magic hanging in the air.

Again, Landar was reminded of the folly of the summoners and their emphasis on brute strength. No knight would remain in the same spot even if they could shield. Then she was forced to attack the Sword again, this time crushing it from existence.

Panting a little, Landar looked up to find her father generating a new Sword already. The six forcebolts fired sequentially, forcing him to reinforce his shield. Hopefully that would delay things a little. Landar clicked the fourth band and thrust the rod at the pebble near her foot.

The pebble stayed suspended in the air by the magical force emitting from the tip. This spell had taken some time to make, compensating mechanisms for rod angles had never been required by casters and seemingly simple questions like determining which way was down cropped up everywhere when they tried to make it.

The magical power built up into a spell enveloping the stone and Landar leveled the rod at her father. Then adjusted the aim to his leg. Just in case.

The Sword flew at her, meeting with her flying pebble halfway. The pebble shattered into a scattering of shards and her father was forced to throw up another deflecting shield. Landar took the chance to smash the Sword again.

She gulped and wiped away the sweat pouring down her forehead. This was getting bad. She wasn't even doing as well as the last time. She hadn't used the same spell hijacking trick this time and had been forced to meet his Phantom head on with disruption magic. Even if she had grown a little from all that alchemy, she was still clearly weaker in strength.

Landar clicked the fourth band into the third and last position. She hoped the rod would hold up under this much magic, if it burned out, replacing this would be troublesome.

The downside of the rod was that stuffing that many spell plate equivalents into such a tiny rod simply wasn't possible without magical circles. And the circle that had created this little rod had taken up the floor space of an entire warehouse. And had be redone sixteen times before they got it correct, and the first ten rods had blown up when they tried to power them. Well, no one could be expected to draw a magic circle right the first time, not when it was a circle that imprinted other circles in compact form into the target object.

This last function hadn't really been tested in battlefield conditions yet.

Twin columns of magic spread out from the tip of the rod towards her target, with a solid disruption magic bolt sitting between them. Landar dug up her reserves, throwing all her remaining power into this last spell. The rod just had to work for one time! Her father was already firing up his Sword stone again and she had to fire before he was done.

The power was split between the disruption bolt and the columns. The magic in the columns to either side served the same function as the barrel of the spell cannon, the magic in the columns shoving the spell between them forwards at speeds that couldn't be achieved with the usual bolt style. With half the power in the columns, the disruption bolt screamed downrange at speeds that no Iris had ever seen or could expect.

Speed wasn't usually a thing most casters focused on. After all, conventional wisdom and low speed trials had shown that in a battle of disruption shield against bolt, the stronger spell usually won, much diminished. But Cato's experiments had shown you just had to go faster.

The highly compact disruption bolt swept through her father's dome shaped shield, carving out a neat circular hole. This wasn't enough to stop the bolt and it slammed into his shoulder and discharged.

Landar could scarcely believe her eyes as he toppled over soundlessly from magical shock. The half-formed Sword dispersed into the air as the summoning stone rolled out of his loosening fist. The rod in her hands sparked and spat out some magic, it was probably malfunctioning after all that stress she put on its circuits.

By all the light of Selna. She had won?!

"I won!" Landar coughed as her stomach disagreed with her reckless expenditure of power. She swallowed and glared at the two domes of disruption and deflection shields around the body. Landar didn't have enough power left to do much of anything, much less get rid of those powerful shields. Gloating would have to wait.

But she had won! Finally after all this time! She had won!

She sank down to the grass as the magical exhaustion began to catch up to her. Cato was running up to her, shouting something but the buzzing in her ears turned his voice into a blur. The burning sensation in her nose to all the way down her throat was the same symptom of forcing too much power out at once. But this time it smelled of sweet victory.