Kaia the Argent Wing

A couple of days after the sawmill frame was finished, I finally found a crossbow cocking design that worked for me. Inside the stock, below the flight groove, I installed what the medieval weapons book called a crannequin. The one in the book was very different to mine, but the broad idea was the same—A straight metal rod that was attached to some sort of leverage mechanism.

Mine was actually quite funny, because the mechanism I copied was fairly ubiquitous among folks who'd ever needed to move stuff on a car roof. It was basically a ratchet tie, and you cranked it forward while holding the top down with your other hand. Inside the flight groove and stock, the little arm would pull the string back until it was nocked, then one last crank would pull the arm downwards, releasing the string to the trigger mechanism and clearing the way for the bolt.

Unfortunately, the design had a lot of moving parts, and it could take as long as four days just to get the components for the two mechanisms into a roughly usable state. Because each one was handmade, they had to be individually retooled and checked until that particular set of components worked together. I had definitely gained an immense new appreciation for the assembly lines and standardised parts that we had Pre-Storm.

By now, I'd decided to start writing down all my tinkering notes in a proper book, which meant I had a lot to help me write down the plans for the final design. I made three copies, one in my book and two on loose paper stapled together, so that folks could begin producing them.

When I handed the notes to Charles, his grin got so wide I thought his face would split open. “Girl, this is a damned wonder.”

“Really?” I asked, surprised. That was extremely high praise coming from him.

He must've seen the thoughts in my expression, because he grunted and placed the two sets of plans down on the bench beside him. He was quiet for several seconds, and throughout it his face was a mask of concentration.

“Look, girl,” he said. “Your… The way you live your life, I ain't ever gonna understand it, but I'm also realising that it don't much matter to me. You're an unreliable flake, but you do good work when you turn up, and with your role in this workshop the first part don't matter too much. You've also been doing some proper hard work, which is a point in your favour.”

He paused, expecting me to say something in reply, but I just smiled sweetly.

He cleared his throat. “Now, as for… well, considering how much of a whiz kid you are, I gotta make sure you're workin’ towards your fullest potential, and that means no slacking. That's why I treat you a little harder than some of the others.”

His logic might be a little shaky, but it was nice to know he was trying.

“When you show me this, however,” he tapped the plans for the crossbow. “This is exceptional, Kaia. God damn exceptional.”

“Thanks, sir,” I said with a grin that, maybe, was a little too smug. Still, I had a warm fuzzy feeling in my chest. Getting that kind of praise from a man like Charles had me feeling pretty damn good.

He rolled his eyes at my expression. “Now, go start—”

Someone knocked loudly on a desk nearby, and we both turned to see Finn standing there. He gave me a big smile. “Cap wants to see Kaia. The Bandon folks are here, they want to see what's going on with the crossbow. Apparently they have to fight dog-sized diseased pigeons down there.”

“They can't have any until we got enough for ourselves,” Charles growled, hand on hip.

“They still want to see, Charles,” Finn said, giving the older man a stern look.

“Fine, fine,” he grumbled, shooing me along. Then he paused, and a wistful expression flitted across his face. “Ask if Mary still lives down there, too.”

Finn and I glanced at each other, as if to get some insight into why he wanted to know.

Charles picked up on it, because his expression turned wry and chagrined. “An old flame. We had some fun together, afore my old man beat her for seducing his white son. Sad to say I came around to his way of thinkin’ for a while, too. Course, that's a whole other story.”

If my eyebrows could've climbed any higher on my face, they'd have popped off and shot through the roof. Goddess, but sometimes I looked at an old man like Charles and in my head, I just assumed that he’d always been old. Being reminded that this guy had seen sixty-plus years of life, filled with so much… stuff, it was a little like staring up into the sky and realising there were other worlds around those stars.

“Sure thing, Charles, I’ll ask if she’s still around,” I said, ignoring his admission that he used to be a racist. He probably still was even if he’d done work on it, to be honest, because that shit goes deep.

Grabbing my crossbow, I headed out with my escort. Finn and I chatted as we walked over to the admin offices, but we very quickly arrived at our destination.

Finn ushered me into the classroom where the meeting was happening with a gentle hand on my shoulder, then patted it and left.

“Ah, Kaia,” the Captain said, spotting me. “Thanks for joining us.”

I waved awkwardly and hurried over. He quickly introduced me to the party from Bandon, of which there were significantly more this time. Brielle was there, as were the rest of her party, but she had taken a back seat by the looks of things. An older man was sitting in the middle of their group at the table of desks that’d been pushed together. The way he held himself, and his position, told me he was the leader, and that was confirmed when he was introduced as William, or Bill. He’d been chosen as a sort of ambassador or merchant to interact with us here in Edgewood.

“It’s real good to meet you, Kaia,” he said with a wide smile. “We heard you had some nifty new weapons that you’ve designed?”

“Uh, yeah,” I said, and pulled my crossbow out of its makeshift holster on my back. I placed it carefully down on the table, and trailed my fingers over the stock for a second as I pulled back. “This is my prototype. I’ve just come from giving the plans to our workshop so they can start making them.”

“Damn, that’s a fine piece of work,” he said, and reached for it. Then he stopped and gave me a look, asking for permission. I nodded.

When he had it in his hands, he looked over it in more detail, and as with everyone who gets to hold it, he tried to pull the string back. It barely budged. His eyes widened slightly, and I stifled a little giggle.

“Uh, sir,” I said gently. “That one requires about four Strength to pull manually. You can use the crank on the bottom, however.”

He glanced underneath and saw the crank, which was currently set flush against the bottom of the stock. He had to use a bit of muscle to hold it down, then he pushed the crank forward. There was very little resistance initially, until there was a click as the drawing arm engaged and caught the string. Then he began to crank it, taking eight full cranks to get the string seated in the trigger mechanism.

He looked to me for guidance again, and I mimed seating the crank flush against the stock again. When he did so, the arm dropped into the body of the crossbow, then sprang back into place where it'd started.

“That's amazing,” he said, holding the crossbow like it might bite him now.

“Thanks,” I smiled, and took the weapon when he offered it gingerly back to me.

Once it was in my hands, I carefully pulled the string off the trigger and guided it back into a more relaxed state. Bill’s eyes boggled when I did that, and the other Bandon folks looked just as surprised.

“Like I said,” I told them with a theatrical, if slightly self conscious, shrug. “You need a Strength stat of above four.”

“Sheesh, that was a hell of a flex,” said Brielle, eyes still wide.

“Kaia has been sneaking off to fight monsters on her own, and should not be given any more encouragement,” the Captain said gruffly.

I almost immediately failed to keep a smug grin off my face.

“Feisty,” Bill chuckled, his voice so deep and rumbly that I felt it in my fingertips.

I had to say, I was getting some good vibes from this man. His strong southern accent was so much fun to my ears, too.

“Aight,” he said after he was done teasing me. “So obviously, we got a whole bunch of food we can trade to y’all. Our growers been magicking up all sorts of vegetables and such, so much in fact that they had to stop usin’ the magic, ‘cause it was just rotting on the ground. We'll bring, say, two hundred pounds of veggies every couple of days, with no skimping on the type of vege neither. If y’all can figure out some easier way to transport it all than just making the young’uns carry it, we can increase that. We'd like to come back with an axe when we do. When we figure out how to haul more, we'd like to talk about armour.”

The Captain, without any emotion on his face, leaned forward and steepled his fingers on the desk. “How long does it take you folks to make an axe, Kaia?”

From there, they bartered back and forth on the price while the rest of us were either bored or treating it like a spectator sport. As for me, I was now thinking about how fast I could churn out rough-and-ready hand carts. We could make timber now, even if it was super rough.

It took less than two minutes for me to get bored, so with a few polite words, I took my crossbow and excused myself. Apparently I wasn't the only one, because Brielle also got up and followed me out.

“Hey,” I said awkwardly once we were outside.

She gave me a tentative smile. “Sup. Look, I was getting bored as shit in there, and well…” she shrugged.

“Yeah,” I agreed. Glancing around, I thought for a second then shrugged. “C’mon, let's go to the workshop.”

“Sure thing.”

Walking alongside her as Kaia was very different to when I was Silver. She wasn't big by any stretch of the imagination, but… well, I was very small.

We left the building through the central hallway that fed out into the courtyard. As soon as we'd crossed it and turned the corner, Brielle muttered, “The fuck?”

I glanced at her, then followed her gaze. Ah! The sawmill! It was thatched now, if badly, and someone had put side walls on it for a bit of protection against the elements.

“Oh, um… that's just a sawmill,” I said, confused.

“Nah, I know, but that wasn't there last time,” she said with a wry shake of her head. “Which, I guess ain't that crazy considering how things work nowadays. Just surprised me, know what I'm saying?”

“Ah,” I said. “Yeah, I get you.”

As we walked around it, I had to stifle a laugh when I saw that a section of the roofing had collapsed inward. My newly designated thatchers were standing there arguing, but I opted not to interrupt. They would figure it out.

Then, I had an idea, and I turned to look Brielle up and down. Her gear was much the same as before, it was giving dollar store monster hunter, and I was sure I could fix that.

I gestured for her to follow me, and we ducked through the tent style door into the forge. April was there, hammering away at something, biceps rippling and flexing with each swing. I paused to watch for a second, then quickly shuffled closer. She was hammering out some more nails, which was both fast and finicky work.

Finishing the nail, she put it to the side and raised an eyebrow. “Heya, cutie. What's up? Who's your friend here?”

“Brielle, this is April, our best smith,” I said, gesturing to my very attractive friend. “April, this is Brielle, a caster and scout from Bandon.”

“A caster, huh?” April said, giving the woman beside me a smile. “What's your focus?”

Brielle, pulled a seemingly random sharp claw looking thing from her belt. “This. A claw from a scrapper.”

“Oh, can I see it?” April asked, stepping closer as her metallurgical curiosity was activated. When Brielle offered it wordlessly, she took it and looked it over. “Huh. It's a poor quality metal, for sure, but infused with enough of the Storm that it doesn't matter. You said this was from a ‘scrapper’?”

“Yeah,” the mage said. “That's right.”

April's eyes flicked to mine, and when she saw the slightly mischievous look in them, she grinned. “We got some new stock in, a little while back. If you could choose, what form would your focus be in?”

Brielle snorted. “Not a fuckin’ spike, that's for sure. Let me tell you something, when the only hurt you get in most battles is from your own focus slashin’ your hand, it sucks.”

April gave a little laugh of amusement and handed the claw back. Then, she reached over and plucked a twisted piece of orange and green metal from a bin to the side. “We killed a mountain lion the size of a small bus the other day, and it was covered in metal like this. We think it's probably copper, but it's so tough we aren't sure. It's got a lot of power, but especially so for channelling magic. So, I ask again, what form would you like your focus to be in, if you could choose?”

That's when Brielle realised what was going on, and she quickly held up a hand. “Hold on, I don't want to be just handed a focus. I ain't done nothing to earn it. Plus, we're still negotiating about the food trade.”

“You're alive and by the look of it, a pretty competent monster killer,” I said. “I'd say that qualifies you in my book. Plus, we're the ones who helped kill the cat, and it's us who built the forge, and it's us who'll make the thing. I'd say it's perfectly okay to make this as a gift.”

She glanced around at the forge for a second, then at the metal in April's hand. My friend offered it to her, and she took it carefully.

Her eyes went a little wide when her bare fingertips made contact with the metal. “Dayum. Ain't this something. Just touching it I can feel how smooth it takes magic.”

We waited, and after a few more moments, she rolled her eyes and said, “Fine. Give me a— a handle, but on its own, kinda like knuckle dusters, or something like that. Something that I can't just drop in battle. You know?“

“Absolutely.” April said, and took the scrap of metal back. It went into the forge fire, and we began talking specifics.

I liked helping people, but especially a group that wasn’t from Edgewood, because it meant that we might get a very good ally out of it all. Plus, the world we’d just come from had been so full of selfish attitudes. It was time to change the vibes.