Chapter Twenty-Seven
"Hide me." Devona asked, peeking around the corner of the study into the hall.
"Can I ask what it is that has frightened you to the point you are seeking refuge?" Coran asked, turning from the 'blackboard' as he called it, that he had been jotting on thoughtfully, judging from the multitude of incomprehensible white chalk marks on its surface.
"Cynn… she has been forcing me into horrid gown after horrid gown all morning." The warrior answered. "The train on the last one could have trapped a small child, never to be found again."
Coran chuckled. "She has gone overboard on this wedding, hasn't she? She is aware it's not until after the fall harvest, right?"
"She contends it's never too early to plan everything." Devona sighed hopelessly as Coran returned to his scribbling. "What are you doing over there, anyway?"
Her bondmate echoed her resigned sigh, and replied, "Nothing really… just something I've been toying with in what little free time I've had."
"Is it more aid for Ascalon?"
"If it were, it would be much higher up the chain of importance than my free time." Coran said with a smirk. "No, this is just a personal challenge of mine."
"To do what?" Devona queried further, even as she was certain the answer would be far above her. It always was…
"The simplest explanation I can muster is that I am using differential calculus to try and identify the causality link between matter and energy."
Yep… she was right…
But by that point, Coran was on a roll. He turned over the blackboard, and started writing on the other side a series of letters and numbers that might as well have been the ancient tongue of the Gods as far as Devona could comprehend.
"See, this is a simple energy to energy conversion equation. With this, and a few variable numeric values, I could tell you, for example, how much damage Cynn could do with her fireball in an ideal situation…" He jotted another slightly longer string, and continued, "Or this one, used to determine just how much energy the necromancer Eve could siphon off per second… rather simple, really."
"I'm glad you think so…" Devona muttered.
"But this… this continues to elude me." Coran said, turning the blackboard back to the first side, where the mess of halfway erased marks and chalk-flooded surface did suggest a great deal of frustration. "There's a link between matter and energy… but I just can't pin down that constant."
"Maybe such a thing doesn't exist?" The warrior offered, sensing that the conversation was starting to drift towards concepts she could grasp.
"It has to, or the very laws of physics wouldn't work the way they do." Coran said, shaking his head. "I mean, when you burn a log to produce fire, you create heat… a type of energy. But if you were to weigh the ashes of the log after it is done burning, you'd discover that it had less mass than before."
"Really?" Devona asked… wondering the sort of curious mind that would have thought to weigh a log in the first place.
"Really. You can try it sometime yourself if you don't believe me. But by the terms of the Law of Conservation of Matter, that mass can't just disappear. It has to go somewhere. My theory is that the matter is being converted to energy, but until I can find the theoretical constant, I can't calculate how or why."
Leave it to Coran to complicate something as simple as starting a fire. Wood… spark… warm. Anything beyond that seemed rather unnecessary. "Maybe the world doesn't behave the way you think it does." She said.
"That's entirely possible. Much of science is merely a string of educated guesses." The king said wistfully. "There could just be a fundamental premise I don't realize is a factor, or don't even know about yet."
"Which begs the question… why are you bothering with something so… complicated?" Devona almost said "inane and trivial", but caught herself quickly.
"As I said, it's a personal challenge." He said, "Sslani said I couldn't do it, and I hope one day I'll prove him wrong."
"You have a queer idea of spending your idle time, you know that?" Devona finally said, even as, at least on a base level, she understood his motivation. During the latter years of her training, Duke Barradin had often declared certain things were beyond her ability. The drive to prove she was capable had been profound, and perhaps pushed her to levels that she could not have attained on her own.
"There you are!" Cynn shouted. "Devona, you still have two more dresses to try on!"
"I'm afraid the fittings are going to have to wait, dear Cynn." Coran said. "I am due to present the completion of a new project, and I would like for the future queen to attend."
"Is that right? Does it have something to do with those weird wires you've been having run throughout the kingdom since the start of summer?"
"Indeed it does." Coran said. "You're welcome to attend the unveiling if you wish. Mhenlo will be there."
Devona smiled deviously as she saw the slightest hint of a blush form on the elementalist's face. "So why should that concern me?" Cynn said quickly, a little too quickly.
Cynn had picked on and teased the warrior for so long that she sprung on the opportunity to turn the tables on the elementalist. "Well, I just figured ever since I caught you two being… very friendly… a couple weeks ago that you would be interested in knowing what he's been marveling over as of late."
"For your information, I'm not interested... not in the slightest." Cynn said, nervously shuffling her feet as if waiting for the first opportunity to escape. "Now, since you both clearly have somewhere you must be, I suppose the gown selection can be put off for another day. I'll… take my leave, now… your highness."
Devona could barely keep from laughing as Cynn retreated swiftly, the skirt of her dress kicking up at a fairly swift pace. That had been too much fun…
"So this… tele… thing… you're talking about is supposed to help us in the defense of Ascalon?" Barradin said as he and the other representatives of the Lord's Conclave were finally let in on the project Coran
"Telegraph." Coran said. "And yes, I think you'll find its usefulness immeasurable."
"Not to doubt you, your highness, but I don't see how the wires you've been stringing up are supposed to turn aside a Charr's blade or magic." Lord Evan said skeptically, his arms crossed and displaying the very doubt he claimed he wasn't feeling.
"Well, think of it this way… how long does it take to get a message to Rin from Fort Ranik?"
"About two days if all goes well." Barradin replied.
"So, let's say… Fort Ranik is attacked again. It would take two days for a messenger to reach Rin… then at least another two days at best for forces to arrive… assuming they were ready to go the instant that the message was received."
"Hah… troops are never ready." The duke answered with a scoff.
"Well, that's most likely true, but the point I was trying to make here is that even in the best foreseeable scenario, Fort Ranik could not expect aid to hold off the Charr for four days. That's a long time to have to hold a line."
"Well… yes… which is why…"
"…this telegraph will prove to be so useful." Coran finished. "With this device, we can transmit messages near instantly from one end of the land to the other."
"That… that's impossible." Lord Nassus said in stunned disbelief. "How… what magic is this?"
"Not magic in the sense you know it, Nassus." Coran said with a hint of reproach. "This magic is available to anyone with the proper knowledge. But at any rate, I'll let a demonstration prove its worth. Lord Darrin should be ready… Raynor, send a ready query to Fort Ranik."
The technician manning the somewhat hastily constructed addition to the manor began tapping his finger repeatedly onto a small metallic lever… each press making a short or prolonged beeping noise.
"This is a code that I fashioned, in which each series of long and or short beeps correspond to a certain letter of our alphabet. The telegraph operator at Fort Ranik hears exactly what you are hearing, and is able to translate, then send a similar message." Coran explained just as the beeping stopped.
Then nothing… about three minutes worth of nothing.
"I thought you said this was instantaneous, your highness." Lord Evan noted.
"I said near instantaneous." Coran said, biting his lower lip nervously, "There are still some bugs to work out, I suspect…"
But finally, Coran was spared a potential embarrassment when the telegraph again started to beep, this time without the prompting of its operator, instead he was scrawling down with a pen on the paper pad next to him.
"Fort Ranik reports they are fully operational." The operator said with a sigh of relief. "I wasn't looking forward to having to test all those miles of wire, your highness."
"That will never be necessary, Reynor." Coran answered lightheartedly, "But nonetheless, I do share your relief that we had not acquired a glitch somewhere."
Barradin seemed confused, and said, "So… that communication came from Lord Darrin?"
"Well, probably not him personally… but as I understand, he is supposed to be overseeing it right now. Better yet, why don't you ask him yourself?" Coran said, gesturing for Barradin to take the seat that the operator had just vacated.
"But… I don't know how that… thing works…" The duke then said, as if fearful the telegraph was going to jump up and attack him. Devona chuckled at the sight, never knowing the heavily built warrior to back down from anything.
Coran dropped a hand on Barradin's back, and said, "No problem, I can guide you through it. The more people learn about my innovations, the better prepared they will be to use them if necessary."
Even though Devona knew it would have been impossible for her betrothed to have forced Darrin into the chair, it almost seemed like it considering the tentativeness the Duke of Green Hills was displaying.
"Okay… the code is listed right there in front of the telegraph right there." Coran pointed out. "The filled black dots indicate a long press, the unfilled dots indicate a short press. Make sure you leave about a second of silence between words so that they can properly make the break."
It took Barradin a few moments, but he did accurately and rather swiftly tap out the message "Is that you, Darrin"… in order to receive the reply a few minutes later, "Of course it's me, you damn lummox".
"That's coming from Fort Ranik all right!" Barradin said with a laugh. "Incredible!"
"And that's only part of the surprise." Coran added, "If you all would care to join me outside?"
Mhenlo and Aiden were waiting just outside the manor exit. "I take it the telegraph worked as advertised?" The monk asked.
"More or less." Coran answered. "Drake isn't here yet?"
"I don't think so… but we could have simply missed him."
"Oh, if he had arrived… you'd know it." Coran said. "But he is late. I wonder what is keeping… oh here he comes…"
Devona was about to ask how Coran knew that when the sounds of squawking interrupted her, and a blob of figures appeared at the top of the hill about a half mile off. As the mass approached, the distinct figures of four Moa birds began to form… all linked together by some sort of rope or tether. Even more interesting than that… was someone riding the lead bird?
She recognized the man eventually. She had met him in the Hylan colony, when he had complained about having to let something go. No way…
"Greetings, your highness." Drake shouted as he expertly jumped off the back of the bird he had been sitting upon.
"What… is… this?" Barradin asked.
"Well, at the moment, not much." Drake said with a sigh. "But within a couple years, I should be able to breed stronger and larger birds. While these little guys are capable of carrying a rider for short lengths of time, they don't quite have the strength and stature for prolonged riding, especially if they're carrying some of those heavily armored soldiers we have."
"And what would the purpose be for…" Barradin said then his eyes bulged as he came to the conclusion himself. He might not be the smartest scientific mind, but the duke was an exceptional warrior and strategist. "Of course… these birds can run leagues faster and farther than any human. If they could be trained to carry infantry units… yes… coupled with the new messages… what would normally take four days at best to get reinforcements could take as little as one!"
The duke then got a devious gleam in his eye, and he asked, "Mister Drake… do you suppose these birds could be trained to fight while soldiers are mounted?"
Drake seemed to take that as a challenge to his skills. "Well, of course they can. Why, the birds I had trained in Hylan were almost twice the size of these little critters, and as brave as a bear. We'd give some of our units these long spears… we could skewer Charr up to three at a time on 'em, all the while the beast is pecking at whatever comes close."
"You simply must tell me more… the strategies we could apply are too numerous to count." Barradin said, taking up close space with the beast master, and quickly the pair tuned out the rest of the world in their discussion.
Devona noticed the triumphant grin on her bondmate's face, reflecting confidence that everything had gone pretty much exactly as he had planned. Lord Nassus also noticed this, and said, "Well, your highness, now that you have revealed more of the future of Ascalon's security… I am curious when we will learn more about that…"
The nobleman, of course, had pointed towards the top of the Great Northern Wall in the distance. While too far away to been seen with normal eyes, it was obvious he was referring to the mysterious tarps along the battlements on the wall, covering some, as of that moment, unidentified objects that were steadily replacing the trebuchets.
Devona was certain Coran's eyes twinkled mischievously and his lips turned up knowingly, "That… is a secret for another time; a time I earnestly hope will never come."