The duchess was satisfied when she was certain that Jenn had left. She could tell that there was a connection between her and Emily. Although, what that connection was, she hadn't been able to determine. Whether or not Jenn was the person Emily knew wasn't yet clear, but she did suspect that 'Jenn' wasn't that girl's actual name.
While she suspected that Jenn was in fact the one that Emily mentioned, she hadn't gotten an actual read on her. All she could do was wait to see what she was able to turn up down the line. She just hoped it wouldn't turn out badly for herself and Fluerine.
Her efforts to get some intelligence from the mercenary's camp hadn't produced results yet, but she was hardly surprised. She knew these things took time. Besides, it wasn't even time for the first report to come back. As such, she was confident that nothing was amiss about that.
She wasn't sure what Jenn had intended to reveal when she came not only to her home this morning, but even on this entire trip. However, the fact that she'd learned what happened, mostly, to the slave caravan that had been heading this way, the majority filled with slaves that she'd purchased for tasks that were still going unfulfilled because she didn't have the slaves with the necessary skill sets to take care of them.
However, if they could find something of value through that gate to be trading partners, she was more than willing to write off that loss. There were other slaves that she'd already taken the means to procure, but the only problem left with that was how long it would take for them to arrive.
The only problem that she could think of with the meeting had been her daughter's presence. She wasn't sure why but Fluerine had taken a liking to Emily and was willing to risk getting punishments that she was very averse to. If it wasn't for that fact, she would have sent Fluerine on to her tutors regardless of anything she might learn by attending that meeting.
Irrespective of the comments that had been made about taking a break from learning could help her daughter out on her studies. Versith wasn't convinced about that, but it wasn't something that she was willing to disregard out of hand anyway.
She couldn't help but wonder if her daughter was having trouble accepting any of the suitors that were being arranged for her because they weren't women. It happened occasionally, though usually they were able to still marry a man and have women on the side to meet their needs.
With Fluerine, it felt like she opposed to almost any marriage proposal, no matter who it was from. While Emily wasn't an option for Fluerine, except maybe a dalliance or have her as a mistress, she could look into other options to see if maybe Fluerine would be willing to accept a female suitor rather than a male one.
The duchess shook her head as she walked on to her last meeting of the day. She needed to discuss things with the merchants guild again, since she wasn't likely to meet the birth rate quota of her slaves again. Which meant she was going to need to find a way to offset the losses that she'd be experiencing.
Which, naturally, the merchant's guild wasn't happy about. As it also affected their pockets as well.
Versith paused before when she reached the door. She wished something, almost anything, would occur that would allow her an excuse to delay this meeting. She certainly wasn't going to relish what she knew was coming.
All because of that slave caravan that had disappeared and then reappeared for her in a different form. A form that may or may not pay out in a way that she'd like, but one that she'd still have to live with, regardless of the results.
She'd already cast those dice. All that she could do now was wait to see what came up on those dice and if she won that wager or not.
_
Ralph wasn't sure what he was looking at. Maybe it was because of how dark it was or because he was too close to what he was looking at, but he couldn't wrap his mind around what a ship, even a small one, was doing in a kind of warehouse beneath Heanith's cabin.
In front of him was what looked like an old time sailing ship. The kind that he'd seen on pirate movies. Though, this one clearly didn't have any cannons on it.
There were three sails, the center one having the tallest mast. The rest of the ship looked exactly like what he'd seen on those same pirate movies. If the gates hadn't been opened recently, he'd have thought that Heanith had merely come to their world and gotten the design idea from a pirate movie or something.
While Heanith assured him and his friends that it was her project, Ralph couldn't imagine why she'd build it here in the first place. Especially where there wasn't a body of water big enough to let that ship sit in it.
"So, is it supposed to fly or something?" Wes asked, sounding more thoughtful than Ralph thought the situation deserved. What was it supposed to fly with, anyway?
"Yes, it's supposed to fly out of here," Heanith replied. I developed what I'm sure will allow it to fly, though I'm not quite sure what to call it yet. Only, I could get it to work when I had someone who would use their magic on it, or if I burned wood in it, but the wood hardly had any effect for the amount of cost it took and I certainly didn't have anyone I could trust to constantly keep it going with their magic," Heanith explained. "But if your stones work like I think they will, that might be the power source I need to get it going."
"Are you sure this whole ship will fly?" Tim asked, looking like he was in the same boat as Ralph about this subject. Wondering how it was supposed to work in the first place. What with the laws of physics and all.
"Of course," Heanith replied, her voice firm and unshaken. "I've done enough tests to see that it will lifts up the entire thing, but I still have to finish putting in a few more planks on the ship and then add the fuel to my invention and we can see if it'll be enough to take the ship out of here."
"Hate to rain on your parade here, but I'm not sure how I see you can take this out of here, even if it flew," Amelia said, voicing the dissent that he himself had been feeling.
"Oh, I made this next to the cliff face," Heanith replied as if that was merely an oversight.
While it might have just been that, Ralph wasn't convinced. He had a feeling she'd been planning how to show them through the entire day as she hauled the materials us to her cabin. Not that he expected her to admit to that, even if they confronted her with any facts that they really didn't have about it.
"Well, where do you plan on flying it?" Tim asked, starting Ralph. Mostly because he hadn't thought of that, either.
"Where?" Heanith asked, sounding like she hadn't thought that far ahead. "Just making it fly was my only goal. Once I'm sure this works, I can work on my next project."
Ralph sighed. While he felt like he should be surprised about this development, he couldn't say that he was. Somehow this just felt like what he knew about the woman and how she thought.
"Well, if you're willing, you could fly us to Marquis Denshia," Tim suggested. "We're friends with him, and I'm sure that he'll be happy to help you with whatever your next project will be."
Heanith sighed. "I try to avoid nobility. They're the worst offenders. Thinking that just because they were either born into that wealth or because they're the elite of our society, that they're better than everyone else."
Ralph couldn't say that he blamed Heanith from sounding so bitter about this. He was confident that if he was in her shoes that he'd be rather bitter as well. Even though he couldn't say that he really felt that way about all the nobility of this world. As Denshia certainly proved that idea wrong in the first place.
"Don't worry about it," Hannah chimed in, surprising Ralph as she had been silent up until now. "Denshia is our friend and I'm sure we'll be able to convince him into helping you out."
Heanith was starting to look annoyed and Ralph was about to suggest that they talk about something else when she gave a response. "Fine. We can leave in the morning. Once I make sure that they power source does in fact work and-"
Heanith was interrupted by a loud noise at the front of Heanith's cabin. A loud pounding on the door. Not from someone knocking, but rather like they were trying to knock it down.
"Uh, I think we should grab our stuff and make that test flight now," Amelia said, already heading back to where they'd left their packs.
"She has a point," Ralph remarked to Heanith as he started running to grab his stuff as well.
While Amelia and the others might have gotten it for him as well, Ralph wasn't going to put all his eggs in that basket. There was too much of a chance that they'd either not notice it, forget, or even not care since it really was his responsibility anyway.
Ralph had a feeling that whoever was pounding on the door as using their own body to try and break it down rather than a tool like a battering ram. Otherwise he was confident that they'd have already gotten in by the time he and his friends returned, Tim and Wes both holding the sides of the same bag of grain.
"Did we get everything?" Wes asked as quietly as he could, but still able to be overheard by the pounding.
"I think so," Amelia said, sounding a little harried as she dropped her bag on the ship and started running off.
"Where're you going?" Ralph called after her.
"To get another bag of grain," she replied as if that should b obvious. "We certainly don't want to let whoever's out there get it."
Ralph couldn't help but chuckle. While she was good at holding herself back where there wasn't much food available, she certainly still had food on her find at the oddest of times. Not that he could blame her on this instance.
He certainly didn't care to let them know that he'd gotten a sack of their potatoes.
While it might add a bit of chaos to them, with how he doubted that it would be as clear how the potatoes got up here in the first place, he didn't want them to even accidentally guess that someone had been spying on them.
Not only would it create a potential issue later on, but it would also mean that they might be more wary down the road.
"Where're you going!?" Tim called after Ralph as he started following after Amelia.
"Where else?" he replied, his usual humor in his voice. "We can't let them get any food that Heanith had."
"We'll have her get this thing ready to go for when you get back, okay?" Hannah called after him.
Ralph didn't reply. He just gave them a 'thumbs up' to let them know that he'd heard. He didn't know how far his voice would carry in this place, and he was certainly closer now to whoever was trying to break into the cabin. So, a non-verbal response seemed best right then.
It wasn't a difficult task, given the food was stored in the same place all the time, so as Ralph approached it, Amelia was dragging both the grain and potatoes behind her, clearly not able to carry both.
"I'll get one," Ralph offered, partially wondering if she'd refuse his offer. Sometimes she did get in her mind to be more stubborn that she really ought to be.
"Thanks," she replied, giving Ralph a tired smile.
"Was there anything else in there?" he asked as he picked up the potatoes.
Amelia shook her head. "Nothing worth mentioning, at least. I did see another bag of grain, but that was almost empty. So, I didn't think it was worth grabbing. I doubt it'd go very far with whoever's at the door."
Ralph nodded. They certainly did have their hands full with these two bags and it probably wouldn't be very helpful to add more to what they already had to deal with, regardless of how little it was. Especially with how Amelia was moving slower than Ralph under the burden of the bag of grain she had with her.
While he doubted that the bandits were using any tools to break down the door, he couldn't say that he knew precisely how long it'd take for them to get through the door. In fact, with the level of construction he'd seen so far in this world, he was a little surprised at the fact that the door had held this long in the first place.
As he arrived at the ship with Amelia, both quickly dropped the bags they were bringing with them. He wasn't sure what to expect, but he still wanted to do something so he didn't have the time to start wondering what could go wrong. He knew that certainly wouldn't be helpful to do at this moment.
"There anything she needs help with getting done?" Ralph asked, hoping there'd be something he could do himself.
Wes merely shook his head. "We asked and she refused. She said something about how it's not something for men to deal with. That she'll get us out of here so we don't need to worry about doing anything unsightly, or something like that," he said, sounding a little bewildered. "Though I bet if Amelia or Hannah asked, they'd probably get a different response."
Ralph nodded, though he couldn't say that he was surprised. With how much he'd seem of how men were treated in this world, it wouldn't be too far off to say that men would be more likely to be seen as the 'damsels in distress' than anything else.
So, he turned to Amelia. "Think you could check with her?" he asked. "We might get better results if you asked instead of one of us."
Amelia sighed, looking like she'd rather just sit down and let Heanith take care of the rest. Not that Ralph was surprised. Not with how heavy those bags of grain were.
If he wasn't so full of adrenaline from the situation at hand, he probably would be getting ready to sack out for the night. Especially with how much effort this evacuation was taking. Where at the moment, he hardly felt tired at all, despite the fatigue he'd felt earlier and not having had a chance to take a nap yet.
Suddenly a loud hiss erupted from overhead and there was the sound of wooden gears turning. Ralph felt like where he was standing should start moving at any moment. Simply based on what he'd seen on movies and games previously.
However, the wall that was in front of the ship was what moved away. Ralph wasn't sure if anything else was supposed to happen, but he suspected the moving was likely involved in the white steam they'd seen right before they found the cabin. It was probably too late to confirm that now, but it at least felt nice to have an answer to that question, if nothing else.
After the wall had stopped moving, making a clear path for the ship to 'sail' through when it was time, Heanith made an appearance.
"Is everyone here?" she asked, looking around, the pounding on the door almost seeming like background music.
"Yeah, and we got all of our stuff," Tim said.
Heanith nodded, looking satisfied. "Good. Anything that keeps them from knowing that you were here," she said before turning around and disappearing back through the doorway into the ship she'd just come through.
Ralph wanted to follow after her, but suddenly, as the adrenaline started to fade, he couldn't help but sink to the deck of the ship and lean his back against the railing.
He almost didn't realize when the pounding stopped. He doubted it was a good thing when he was aware of it, but it wasn't like he could do anything about it.
Though, at about that same time, he became aware of the world starting to move around him. Not so much that he was moving while everything else stood still, but rather the ship itself was starting to rise into the air as it moved forward, the top of the center mast hit the stone ceiling before it sailed out into the night sky.
Ralph was aware of shouting behind them, but he doubted that there was anything those bandits could do to them at this point. Unless they were somehow able to fly themselves, that is and Ralph seriously doubted that they had that capability.
"Where is she going to take us?" Amelia asked, sounding like she was suddenly feeling as tired as Ralph felt.
"I'll go ask her," Tim said, immediately heading off to where Heanith had disappeared.
Ralph would have like to have followed him, but at that moment he felt more comfortable just staying where he was. He wasn't sure if he'd felt this tired before, but he doubted that he'd gotten this tired very often if so.
Whatever Heanith said in response to Tim asked, Ralph didn't hear. All he knew was that as he tried to keep his eyes open, darkness was closing in all around him. Though, not the kind where he felt like his vision was going, but rather like a curtain was being lowered over him. Not only taking his ability to see, but also muffling the sounds around him, leading him to quiet, peaceful slumber.