Grand Saint Alloy

Pushing the perfectly weighted doors aside, Eve stepped into the council chamber. Her grandfather had told her to look as regal as possible. Elder River most likely wanted her to wear the expensive robes that the head family favored, however, she took it differently. She still wore the mythical beast leather armor, but it was died a deep blue with gold borders. The artifact sword Tristan had given her was strapped to her back.

She was not tall enough to draw it from that position, but this was a council meeting, if anyone got past all the guards and Kerri, there was little she could do. Eve had braided her hair, going with the style that she had seen Lesly wear, and on her head, she wore a golden circlet. She wanted to send a message to the council, but they were too indecisive. Eve wished someone else could send that message, no matter how much she wore or spoke, the message would be better received from someone who inspired awe.

Unfortunately, those people were rare and the ones she did know of were doing their jobs. Siren was attempting to break the siege on the Stone Caldera as they spoke. Cole was most likely doing the same, the list of those who were beacons of hope ended there, no one else seemed to understand why it was a bad thing when your two rallying points were sent into a nest of creatures two to five tiers higher than themselves.

“Welcome Eve, glad you could join us,” Elder River said. He quirked an eyebrow at her garb.

“Thank you, grandfather,” Eve said.

She was not the first to arrive, Guider Mathis from the temple had preceded her. He was a younger man who was completely unlike Guider Daphan from the Forest Caldera. Guider Mathis actually believed in his own religion, it made him both predictable and wholly unreliable. Most of the teachings of the gods were simply stories about their exploits, deriving moral rules from those was unreliable at best. Was Furnace raining fire down on people attacking a village a story about killing the unbeliever or protecting the innocent? Depends on the interpretation.

At least in this situation, Guider Mathis was reliable. The Lord of the Underworld was part metal elemental, and that piece was literally his brain. Mathis was of the opinion that it was more likely to be a champion of the demon lord than the three gods. He also wanted to burn Guider Daphan alive for betraying what he called the Guider’s sacred duty.

People slowly trickled in, the head of finance, commerce, security, the commander’s voice, and the steward. Two surprise guests showed up Elder Lake and Elder Plain whom she had assumed dead. The last person to arrive was the new civil protector. He was a thin man named Herod with a light and water kern. Eve did not know where her grandfather had found him, but he had been elevated to tier four because his dual kern made it cheaper to do so. She did not like the fact that her grandfather had chosen to promote someone even weaker than Henry Golden Heart. Henry was a dedicated healer who just happened to be handy with a sword,

Elder Forest stood, “Let us start this meeting, Guider Mathis will be here to receive the blessing of the gods. We have two guests to introduce if you are not already aware. This is Elder Lake and Elder Plain, thank you for joining us.” Everyone politely nodded in greeting, “Now to get a sense of the situation, I will ask the head of Finance and Commerce to give us an overview.”

The head of finance stood as Elder River sat down, “We are sliding into a barter system, which is bad as we can’t tax a barter system. If we can’t pay our soldiers then we will have trouble making them fight. We can pay the engineers and crafters with food, a deal that heavily favors the crafters with the inflated prices of food. Even if we can’t drive out the elementals, we need that farmland back if we want any sense of order to be restored.”

The head of Commerce didn’t stand but he still spoke, “Well said, however you undersold the issues we are having. Elder Lake has made me aware that elemental scouting parties are investigating his lands. They have not proved hostile to larger groups, but to the unarmed or small parties, they have proved lethal. The fish and kelp that are getting us through the winter may be good food, but we need to have a way to safely transport them. I would suggest taking some of the warriors off the battlefield to secure our supply lines.”

“Those warriors are fighting to take back my home!” Elder Plain yelled, “How would you feel if your home was in a war zone?”

“I don’t think you have enough citizens left to be concerned about the Plains Caldera,” Elder Lake said, “Take care of the living first, then we can take care of the grave you call home.”

Nothing had been proven, but a rumor of Elder Plain’s involvement in the Ghost Crab plague that had started everything had spread. A letter was evidence, but not damning evidence. It had not done anything good for the Elder’s reputation.

“Why are you here?” Kerri asked the question everyone was thinking.

The commander's voice answered, “While Elder Plain has lost his Caldera and most of his elite warriors, he still controls around twenty percent of the standard warriors. The better question is why do we have two tier fours sitting at a table when they would be better suited to taking command of our troops.“

Kerri stood fast enough to knock his chair over, “Take that back, you are only here because of who you represent, while I am here on my own merits.”

The Commander’s Voice sighed, ignoring the insult, “Two previously unknown tier fours have shown up and single-handedly stolen control of the warriors out from under the commanding officers. I can’t blame the warriors either, these two are getting results, and our people are tired of bleeding in pointless conflicts.”

Kerri narrowed his eyes, “Who are they?”

Eve decided it was time for her to step in. The commander's voice had obviously done some digging and knew who these two were, but his opinion would be told from his viewpoint which was third hand information at best. Eve could not risk him truthfully saying that Luke was unstable and having this council making him an enemy.

“They were part of the security detail at the Forest Caldera’s mine, you know how artifacts were unearthed there with regularity?” When Eve got nods, “Well, a lot more than were advertised have been recovered. They managed to nurture Siren, a tier four warrior, and Luke who you may know better as the lightning devil, is actually tier five, same as the alchemist.”

“For clarification,” Guider Mathis said, “He is called a lightning devil due to the heretical use of one of our ancestor’s holy weapons while having a strong friendship with a silver devil.”

Eve nodded in false thanks to the guider before continuing, “As Guider Mathis has said, Luke is young and inexperienced in anything beyond violence. Fighting elementals in a mine shaft does that to young boys,” the sentiment was back in her favor, “Siren is the one you want to communicate with, the handful of what the public called super elites were all trained by him. He is trustworthy and takes his promises seriously, if you can get him on your side he can sway every man he meets to your banner.”

Kerri narrowed his eyes, “Do you support them over the River Caldera.”

Eve raised her palms to placate him, “No, I support those who are doing the work. The heads of Finance and Commerce are doing work, and the commander’s voice is doing the best he can to keep channels of information open. Elder Lake is keeping everyone fed while preparing for a potential siege, and the head of security is barely keeping public order. Herod at least has the excuse that he was brought on this morning,” All the people who were mentioned nodded, Eve had learned that her congenial attitude was not always a boon. However, true praise never fell on deaf ears, “Kerri, I don’t know what you're doing, and I don’t care, because some miners have decided to do your work for you. So sit on your hands and do nothing, we have found better people for the job.”

Kerri opened his mouth to argue, but Guider Mathis was the one who spoke, “It is a sad day when the duty of the steward is outsourced to a Heretic.”

Kerri wisely shut his mouth and sat down. His backer, Elder River, had not chosen to defend him, so there was little he could do. Herod gave Eve a thumbs-up and a dumb smile. Definitely chosen because he was cheap.

“All this is well and good,” The commander’s voice said, “but you need to get the rogue elements under our command before they can truly be considered assets.”

“I do not believe they will submit themselves to Elder River or Elder Lake, they barely submitted to Elder Forest,” Eve said, “They follow those they respect, and the Elders have not comported themselves with dignity in the last year and a half. Instead, I propose a different method, make their goals align with ours and treat them as allies. We both want the leader of the elemental lords dead, find a way to use that. Once he is gone, their participation is irrelevant.”

The commander’s voice nodded, “I assume you have a plan?”

Eve nodded, “We need to get one of three people to go to them,” Eve held up three fingers, “Conni, the mine foreman, Tristan, who is both a friend and something of a disciple, or Hadrid who can manually keep them in line.”

Guider Mathis exploded, “This is preposterous, you can’t expect us to willingly place our lives in the hands of a silver devil!”

Eve shrugged, “This council is an exchange of ideas and planning. Feel free to bring forward your own ideas.”

Guider Mathis straightened his robes and sat back down. His outburst was very embarrassing, he had nothing to offer to a military strategy. He spoke to peaceful people who sat quietly in pews, this was not that setting. All the Elders gave Guider Mathis dirty looks, the temple had caused issues for Elder River, and Eve could see that being something all elders had in common.

The discussion went on for the next six hours. Everything from the rations being distributed to the distribution of tiers. Even whether or not women should be considered a tier lower in terms of fighting strength. The only thing that was going smoothly was the construction of war engines, the bountiful forest around the river, and skilled craftsmen making it possible to keep up with demand.