Knight of Avalon
Chapter–19
Kay, Artoria
Llyn Llywenan, Ynys Mon, 500 AD:
Kay breathed heavily as he raised his sword. In front of him, Cath Palug snarled and hissed in pain. The lake's waters nearby had started turning red as streams of blood from Cath Palug flowed into it.
The beast was weakened from the severe blood loss it had suffered, Kay having countered its ability a long time ago. He just needed one more.
Kay took his stance and charged at Cath Palug to deliver the final blow…
"KAY!" Helga yelled from aside. "WATCH OUT!" She yelled as Cath Palug's claws glowed blood red.
"...!" Kay immediately realised his mistake, and thrust his free hand forward in a jet of flame, trying to propel himself away.
At that moment, Cath Palug moved faster than ever before, swinging its claw right at Kay's head with speeds faster than a lightning bolt.
Everything turned silent as Kay watched Cath Palug's claw arc towards him, its mana bending space around it.
And then, searing pain hit his left eye as Kay let out a scream.
Cath Palug grunted as a rune blazed on its chest, leaving it stuck as Kay clutched his eye. It wasn't just a wound, there was something more to it…
…And that moment, Kay's vision transformed.
Norwich, 2019 EoHQ:
A few kilometres from Norwich, a group of riders made their way to the great industrial city. At the head were Artoria and Kay, Kay riding on his horse while Artoria sat behind him. Behind them were the Silent Knight and Muramasa on their respective horses. Da Vinci and Habetrot were there as well, with Habetrot riding with Anice on her horse.
"Shame Puck didn't come with us." Muramasa spoke as Kay shrugged.
"He said he had to go to Salisbury to search for its rebel cells." He spoke. "Its best we branch out wherever its possible."
"Now, according to estimates, we still have weeks before the calamity strikes Norwich. So, me and Artoria will go to the Guild county soon enough. Others?"
"Muramasa and I will head to Ironbridge to inspect its industrial capacity. This could be a good opportunity to get a read of the economic capacity of Morgan's armies and how much she's reliant on them."
The Silent Knight, Anice and Habetrot looked at each other.
"We'll try and see if we can find any accommodations for us."
"Good." Kay spoke before noticing a carriage off to the road side. One of its wheels were broken, and two young men were standing nearby talking to each other. Both of them were dressed in trench coats and black ties with black bowler hats on their heads. One of them had black hair with the clean shaven face while the other had a more brown hair with a small moustache on his mouth.
"Looks like some travelers are in a pickle." Artoria noted.
Da Vinci's eyes suddenly widened as she squinted at the pair.
"There's no way…" She whispered.
"Do not worry, Watson." The black haired man told the other coolly. "It seems we are in luck." He spoke pointing his cane in Kay's direction.
"Oh!" The other man spoke as he turned around. "Excuse me!" He spoke waving his cane as Da Vinci stopped, staring at the black-haired man with wide eyes.
"Do you need some help?" Artoria asked the two men.
"As you can see from our clearly inefficient carriage…" The black haired man spoke pointing at the carriage. "...Yes."
"Not the time for your quips, Holmes." The other man spoke as he took off his hat.
"Would you be willing help us get to Norwich? We'll pay you for your assistance."
"Holmes?" Da Vinci spoke as the brown haired man raised his eyebrows.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I am John Watson. This is my friend and companion…"
"...Sherlock Holmes." The black haired man replied with a prideful smirk.
"What is your name, milady?" He asked as Artoria blushed.
"U-Um…A-Artoria." She spoke as Muramasa snorted, leading to him receiving a side glare from Artoria.
"Please excuse him. He has a little bit of an ego problem." Watson spoke as Holmes let out an amused chuckle.
He definitely is right about that. Kay thought with a frown. But again, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson? They didn't seem like servants, so Kay assumed they were living human beings who were Faerie Britain's version of the the great detective and his companion.
Da Vinci stared at Holmes in muted shock as Holmes tapped his cane to his chin, his gaze sweeping across the entire group.
"Hm…" He spoke before taking off his hat, staring at Artoria with a knowing smile.
"Please, milady? Could you help us out?"
Artoria looked at the Silent Knight and Muramasa. "Muramasa, Mr. Knight. Could you take Mr. Holmes and Mr. Watson on your horses?"
Muramasa and the Silent Knight, who were looking at Holmes and Watson with slight surprise, nodded as the two gave a bow of thanks and climbed onto the horses.
"So, how did your carriage break?" Artoria asked as Watson shrugged.
"Well, the two of us left Oxford about a couple of days back. We bought an apartment in Norwich you see, and plan to set up a laboratory there."
"A laboratory?" Artoria asked in confusion.
"Ah, yes. Holmes and I just graduated from Oxford. With our rotten luck, the two of us managed to get bonded to fairies living in the same building. With a bit of Holmes' negotiating skills, they allowed us to live as tenants with them as long as we help them in their forge with Holmes' knowledge of chemistry and my knowledge of biology."
"How does studying living organism apply to a forge?" Kay asked
"Oh, biology is not just studying the anatomy. A significant chunk of it is magecraft and the flow of mana through the bodies of humans and fairies alike. If you are making an enchanted armor for someone, you would need to know their mana flow to ensure the spells woven into it are anchored well…"
"Otherwise that armor is about just as worth as a regular one." Holmes piped in.
"Really? I never knew that." Artoria spoke as they rode on.
After some time, the sky turned cloudy and Kay noticed dark shapes in the distance.
"Ah, finally. Norwich." Watson spoke.
"The symbol of modernity and progress in Britain." Holmes spoke bitterly as Kay glanced him before looking at Norwich.
Once again, he only knew of Norwich as a minor town in the saxon kingdom of East Anglia back in his day. Although, that place was also something Artoria really wanted to visit because it was just near the old capital of the Iceni Tribe. The place of Queen Boudicca's birth.
To see that small town as a bustling cosmopolitan city of Britain, it felt odd. Kay to see massive towers of smoke coming from factories belching out smoke into the sky, with residential areas being houses packed closely together on small hills stretching towards the lifeless sea. In front of this were large walls coated with iron.
They were big, but Kay could tell they seemed more for intimidation then for a prolonged siege like Sheffield's walls. He highly doubted Norwich's walls could withstand an attack like Tam Lin Gawain's if even Sheffield's walls couldn't last a night against it.
"Kay." Artoria whispered. "How're we going to get in?"
"You just need to disguise us." Kay spoke.
"But…what about Holmes and Watson?"
"Excuse me, milady?" Holmes called out as Artoria looked back.
"Thank you for your help, but myself and Watson can go on our own from here." He spoke as Watson looked at him in confusion.
"Wha…"
"Watson, old chap." Holmes spoke, giving Watson a glance as the other man slowly nodded in silent agreement. The group stopped as Holmes and Watson got off their horses and waved them goodbye.
As strange as their counterparts in Proper Human History. Kay thought.
"Seeing a young Holmes here, so strange." Da Vinci noted before nodding to Artoria who waved her staff. The air rippled and Kay and the others suddenly found their appearance looking like human merchants, with goods appearing on their horses backs.
"Let's go." Kay spoke as they approaches the gates, which were guarded by both earth fairy and human guards.
A human guard walked up and looked at the goods. "Are you merchants from Norwich?"
Kay shook his head. "Gloucester."
"Gloucester? Show us your trading license."
"I thought the agreement said only a slave crest would suffice."
"In light of the recent trade sanctions imposed on the Separatist state of Sheffield, Norwich has temporarily annulled that part of the agreement with Gloucester. You must prove you are indeed Gloucestran merchants and not Separatists pretending to be ones.
Hm, security is tighter than expected. Kay pulled out a small slab of stone from his pocket and handed it to the guard.
"Cei…hm." The guard looked him over before looking back at the slab. "That's strange…"
"Hm?" Kay asked.
"Are you sure you're from Gloucester?" The guard asked. "Your trading license is missing an official funding seal from the Dome."
"We're not a very big trading guild. We have yet to gather the funds for purchasing a seal for that."
"..." The guard was silent, as he stared at Kay. "In that case, I must…"
"Excuse me sir!" A familiar voice spoke as Holmes and Watson walked up.
"Sorry for the confusion. Please let them pass."
Kay looked at Holmes.
"And you are?"
"Sherlock Holmes. Recent graduate from the University of Oxford." Holmes spoke before bringing a gold medallion out of his pocket which had a bull holding up a book as it crossed a river.
"An Oxfordian?" The human guard spoke suddenly straightening up. "Do you…know these merchants?"
"Oh, yes. I am from the economics department, and doing a research paper on Ironbridge's worker syndicates. These fine gentlemen are my hosts at the Guild county."
"Gloucestrans? Scholaris Holmes, do you have proof of this?"
"Oh, uh…" Holmes looked at Watson, before pointing at his coat. Watson titled his head in confusion before producing a paper. Holmes snatched it from his hands and gave it to the guard.
"Research endorsement from Scholaris Eomer of the Oikonomikos school." Holmes spoke as the human guard looked at it.
"Hm, this seems genuine. Is this true?" He asked Kay.
"Um…yes. Mr. Holmes and Mr. Watson asked us to drop them off at some distance from the gate, since their process of entering would be different as Scholarii."
"Hm…" The guard stared at Artoria before shaking his head. "Very well, welcome to Norwich, gentlemen." He spoke before looking at the fairy guards.
"They're spock and clean." The guard spoke as the fairy guards raised their hands and the gates opened on their own, allowing the group into the city.
"Well, then, Sir Kay." Holmes spoke.
"How?" Artoria spoke in confusion.
Holmes gave a lazy smile. "You can change your appearance on the spot, but mannerisms? Those are harder." He spoke. "Your nervous fidgeting was easy to make out."
"But Sir Kay, points to you. It was harder to pick up your mannerisms." He spoke as Kay gave him a side eye.
"Thank you." He deadpanned.
"Um, why did you help us? I mean, you don't really have a reason to?" Artoria asked.
"Oh, truth is…we didn't really have our papers in order as well." Holmes spoke sheepishly.
Watson's head whirled towards Holmes. "What?!"
"Now, now, Watson. No need to shout. Norwich's stringent regulations when it comes to entry pretty much ensures more than half of the travelers who enter Norwich don't fit the regulations. So, well, as fellow 'fugitives', I suppose a little help would serve our case better." Holmes spoke as Kay looked at Norwich.
The city was certainly big. But it was very, very different from what he had visited before. Salisbury was a much simpler place, with almost too clean roads and houses. Gloucester was loud and glamorous with its architectural designs. But Norwich…if there was a way to describe Norwich, it would be a rusted metal sheet. The houses were quite dull and dirty in some places. The sky was grey with soot from the factories. But the city itself still looked very advanced.
Kay metal pipelines moving around for transportation of materials to factories, steam ships docked at the harbour ready to deploy. The street lamps were of the lughesen design and Kay could even see airships floating, although they were being powered by what he could see were magical spells enchanted by wind fairies.
"Ah, Taranis airships." Watson spoke. "I heard Her Majesty is thinking of incorporating them into the imperial army."
"They'd certainly make for intimidating sights all right." Holmes noted.
"Is that carriage not being pulled by a horse?" Artoria spoke in wonder.
"Ah, I believe its a new trend. Some carriage manufacturing company here in Norwich recently introduced its new horseless carriages that use heat and steam to move rather than a horse. I believe they call it an 'automobile'." Holmes spoke. "Its quite fancy, although I suppose the carriage craftsmen in Salisbury won't be too happy with the competition."
"So, Norwich is supposedly the human city of Britain?" Kay asked.
"Indeed. According to its history, humans helped the earth fairies to found Norwich after the birth of Fairy Britain and proved themselves to be extremely helpful with their innovative mindset in the forges, especially what the earth fairies called the 'astral forge'."
"Astral forge?" Kay asked.
Holmes' smile lessened a bit. "This stepping into more speculative territory, but belief goes that there is a forge made of a star which the great fairies themselves knew of, but hid from the rest of the world. The Great Earth Fairy Korrigan had once attempted to reach the astral forge to create a great weapon, one capable of slaying even the most powerful of monsters but died in the process. Ever since then, the legend goes that his descendants, the earth clan, has been trying to reach the astral forge since then so that they could forge what they call 'The Sword'."
Kay stopped.
The Sword…a weapon forged by fairies… Kay thought, looking at Artoria.
"Could it be…?" He muttered as he noticed Habetrot stiffening up in recognition.
Holmes shrugged. "The topic of this so-called 'sword' has been brought many times within the history department. Geoffrey of Salisbury, before his execution, had himself recorded several evidences of there being a mysterious weapon mention in the ancient folklore of the fairies. According to him, this 'weapon' is the sword the Earth clan is supposedly wants to make. He gave only one name for it…"
Holmes' eyes closed. "...Excalibur."
Kay's jaw tightened at the mention of that sword's name. It may not have been the one that set his sister down her path of kingship, but…he never truly felt any sort of comfort near that blade, and that's mostly because how he noted he felt more peaceful in its presence.
That sword did something to people, and even if it was simply pleasant emotions, Kay still did not like it.
"But there's little research on that. Now, Norwich has reached economic prosperity practically unheard of in its history, mostly because of lifting of the ban on iron 200 years ago." Holmes spoke.
"Although, doing that has ruined Norwich's share of Britain's texture with its corruption of the natural elements. It's mostly preferable to gain a stable finance in Norwich, and then shift to a more cleaner place."
Once again, thank you for getting us here." Watson piped in. "What will you be doing now?"
"We have a meeting with a representative of the guild county." Kay spoke.
"Me and Mr. Muramasa will be going to Ironbridge." Da Vinci spoke.
"The rest of us will be looking for accommodations." Anice spoke.
"Accomodations, eh?" Holmes spoke.
"Holmes…" Watson spoke in warning.
"Oh, Morgan's spear, Watson! Do you think they'll find a place to stay with the housing prices here?"
"This isn't Gloucester, Holmes!"
"With Spriggan's monopoly on Norwich's real estate, it might as well be! Besides, are you suggesting we be cold-hearted and leave them?"
"Of course not! If we had the capability to host so many people, I would have agreed. But we haven't even moved in ourselves, let alone host people."
"Ah, but it'll take time for our belongings to arrive from Oxford." Holmes spoke with a mischievous grin as Watson groaned.
"Oh, Eiru damn it, fine." He spoke.
"Milady, would you do us the honour of staying at our residence?" Watson asked as Kay and Artoria exchanged looks.
"Um, thank you Mr. Watson, but are you sure your house will accommodate us."
Holmes laughed. "As I said, there's still time before our belongings arrive from Oxford. You can stay over for the time being, do not worry about anything like a place of residence."
Da Vinci smiled. "Thank you, Detec…Mr. Holmes."
"Oh, were you going to call me 'detective', Lady Da Vinci?" Holmes asked with another prideful smirk.
Watson chuckled. "Oh, boy…Holmes here has quite a history with that word. The two of us had an investigation business back in Oxford, charging 10 morpounds for any sort of case we're assigned."
Holmes pulled out a pipe. "And I can't wait to do something like that here in Norwich."
"Holmes, Oxford was different. With the Queen's forces in the city, there's a high chance you'll get arrested doing this."
Holmes simply gave a smirk as Watson sighed in disappointment.
"Anyways, we should really be going now." Kay spoke. "Anice, Habetrot, Sir Knight. You all go with Mr. Holmes and Mr. Watson to their house. The rest of us will go do our work and then come back."
The three nodded before walking up to Holmes who began leading them to another street.
"Alright, master. Time to visit the guild county." Kay spoke as Artoria beamed.
"Don't worry, Kay! It'll be easy!"
"Finally, some genuine confidence from you."
"Oh, milady!" Holmes called out as Artoria looked at him.
"Watch out for the goblins in the alleyways. They love pickpocketing your entire month's savings within seconds." He spoke laughing as Artoria gulped and looked around the street in paranoia.
Kay sighed and shook his head. "So much for that…"
The guild county's office was located near the harbour, a massive building with towering spires reminiscent of Salisbury Cathedral, with large tinted windows and pale brown bricks making up its construction.
As Artoria looked up at the building, she didn't feel too intimidated. It was something like the cathedral in Salisbury, and The Dome in Gloucester was much grander.
But Spriggan's castle…that was slightly scary, with its iron coated walls looming over the rest of Norwich. The Vault was exactly that. A vault to house Spriggan's riches that he gained from exploited Norwich's workforce.
"Is there we're meeting?" Artoria asked as Kay shook his head.
"No. They said to meet them in front of their office, not inside it."
At that moment, Artoria spotted an older man with brown eyes and short red hair and beard standing in an overcoat over the jacket and a tie, all in black. In his left hand, he held a cane made of orange wood.
The man's eyes went to them as he gave a respectful nod and walked over.
"I trust you are the ones from Sheffield? Sir Kay and Lady Artoria?" The man asked as Kay nodded.
"In…"
"Indeed, sir. We are." Artoria spoke with a soft smile. Kay looked at her with slight surprise before nodding in appreciation.
Ever since Puck scolded her, Artoria decided she would not try to simply sit back and let everyone else do the work. She would also try as much as she could to show she was the leader of this group.
"Very well. I am Thomas Smythe, auditor for the Guild County of Norwich and alderman of the Dereham borough of Norwich. I also am the owner of the East Anglian Trading Company. Let us go somewhere else for this." Mr. Smythe spoke.
"I thought there'd be more people."
"Apologies, Sir Kay, but considering our strained relations with the Ashen Throne, any proof of us speaking to declared Separatists will give Her Majesty all that she needs to shut us down. This is just caution for us to ensure our involvement is not traced to your actions."
"Fair enough."
"Now follow me. We must go."
"Not here?" Kay asked.
"We have been getting repeated visits from Ducal officials in negotiations for 'accomodating' us while the Imperial forces take over control over any part of the city near the Morimaru."
Dead sea. Artoria thought.
"So, we may risk being caught." Smythe spoke. "We'll go to a place where any ducal or imperial officials won't dare peek into."
"Very well, Mr. Smythe, let's go." Artoria spoke.
"Call me Tom for now." Tom spoke as the three of them moved away from the guild county's building and to a different spot.
It was a wooden podium in the middle of a pathway reserved only for pedestrians. On it, stood a man speaking loudly about something, with red flag emblazoned with black hammer surrounded by a gear.
"Our wage rates are at an abysmal rate and cannot keep up with the Ducal rents being imposed on the city's real estate! The SGN roadway will only make things worse for us as the workers! Not only are we being forced to work for 12 hours a day at a wage of only 5 morpounds, we are not even aware of what we're working towards! This cannot go on!" The man on the podium yelled as the audience cheered.
"And what about the calamity? It is certainly a noble endavour for Her Majesty Morgan and the Ashen Throne to devote effort towards quelling the calamity and preserving our city! But how will we be compensated?! We have to do something about this!"
"Ah, the Workers' Syndicate." Tom spoke. "They're the result of Spriggan's corrupt policies and the Queen's authoratarian ones that have made their lives miserable. They've been classified as an anarchist movement that wants to carve up Norwich amongs its labour unions, although they like calling themselves 'syndicalists'."
"Anarchists? Hasn't anything been done about them?"
"Lord Spriggan doesn't want word about the Workers' Syndicate reaching Camelot and giving Morgan any excuse to look into his accounts and records, so he tries to pay off criminals operating in the city to sabotage the syndicate's rallies. And with the Imperial forces arriving to deal with the calamity soon, Spriggan will be even more concerned in keeping them quiet. Right now, what he's done is let them have some rallies to keep them satisfied before he cracks down on them."
"But, there's a lot of people…"
Tom pulled out a paper. "Contract for a telepath meeting." He spoke.
"Telepath meeting?" Kay asked as Artoria's eyes widened.
"Merlin told me about this…its basically consent allowing anyone to telepathically communicate with you."
"Once again, to ensure there is nothing to connect the Guild county with the two of you. We can't take any chances if we are to do what you asked." Tom spoke. "Do you accept?"
Artoria looked at the contract before her thumb glowed with golden light as she pressed it against it, marking the contact.
"Excellent." Artoria heard Tom's voice in her mind.
Master, shall I…?
Just let me do it. Help me if I get into a sticky situation.
As you say.
"Now, I believe you requested us to promise funds to your secessionist state in the coming days. Do you intend to escalate things further with Her Majesty?"
"...Yes. She will not let us live forever. She will be looking for opportunities to crush Sheffield in a second battle." Artoria replied. She had accepted that fact by now.
"I see. And your proposal is about a loan of 100 million morpounds with an interest compounded quarter-monthly for the sake of maintaining and building up your army, no?"
"Yes."
"Hm, there may be complications from our side. As you know, this is the harvesting season for chocolate all the way up in Edinburgh. We are spending quite a lot of money in purchasing chocolate shipments from Lady Cnoc Na Riabh. To fulfill your requirements, we would have to buy less, and the chocolate market may overwhelm our supply, but alright."
Artoira breathed a sigh of relief.
"However, we are not ready to loan you funds."
"What?"
"Why?" Kay asked as well.
"Once again, this is a very risky venture for us." Tom replied, his voice growing nervous. "It would only be a matter of time before her majesty grows suspicious of Sheffield's economic bounty despite the revocation of Earl Boggart's eorlgild, and find out. I can tell that there will come a civil war with this, and we will be against the queen."
Tom shook his head.
"And right now, the 11 gentlemen are not confident in Sheffield's military capabilities."
"But we have beaten Morgan before!"
"And she is the child of the prophecy!" Kay spoke.
"We still are not convinced. You will have to do more to convince us of that. And besides, we are talking strictly in business terms. I'd prefer if our islands mystical and supernatural elements weren't brought. I'm sorry, but we need more assurance to back your cause."
Artoria simply closed her eyes calmly.
"I see. Then we will…"
"What about the calamity?" Artoria asked. "What if we take down the calamity about to strike Norwich?"
Tom's eyes widened. "The calamity?! You wish to fight the calamity?!"
"That is what Aesc the Saviour did, didn't she?" Artoria shot back as Tom spluttered. Kay shot her another surprised look.
"W-Well, if you do that, then it would be of immense relief for us." Tom spoke. "Not just what I'm talking about right now. You see, we suspect the Ashen Throne will use the calamity to damage our naval assets, disrupt our trade and force us to use the land routes." Tom spoke with downcast eyes.
"600 years, we have tried to open up Britain's economy from the clutches of Camelot, but Morgan practically puppets all the clans like they're her toys, hiding that manipulation behind her so-called democratic reforms."
"Forgive me, Mr. Smythe but the workers' syndicate and my own readings indicate the guild's approaches are more for themselves and for those with them, not any independent competitors." Kay spoke. "Do not drag morality into this, this is a business relationship, nothing more."
"Oh, of course. Forgive me, Sir Kay. If you take out the calamity, then we won't have to pay the tariffs for using the land trade routes. It'd save us a lot of money. If you can do this, I promise you will have full support of the guild county." Tom spoke.
Artoria nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Smythe."
Tom shook Artoria's had. "A pleasure meeting you milady. I wish you and your companions good luck." He spoke before walking off.
As he left, Artoria let out a huge sigh of relief.
"Oh my goodness, Kay. He had me sweating like crazy for a second!" Artoria spoke shaking her head. "I felt like I was going to turn into a puddle of anxiety there!" She spoke laughing.
Kay remained silent.
"Master…" He spoke softly.
"Yeah?"
"Are you sure about this?"
"Come on Kay! I told you about this back in Sheffield as well! I have to do this." Artoria spoke shaking her head.
"Its time I acted more like the child of prophecy and took the initiative on stuff." She spoke, before smiling.
"Come on, we have a calamity to beat!" She spoke, as Kay stared at her glumly.
"Master, you just got robbed."
"Huh?" Artoria patted her skirt to check for her bag of morpounds and noticed a goblin slinking off with her pouch.
"HEY! GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE GREEN BASTARD!" Artoria yelled as the goblin looked at her and made a run for it.
Kay simply looked down in worry as his master chased after the goblin screaming obscenities as him.
"You're going down the path she did…" He spoke, as his scarred eye, which had been glowing purple, dimmed down.
That was not good. There was a chance Artoria might die against the calamity.
Kay wouldn't let that happen…
…Even if it meant taking Artoria away from the calamity.
A/N: And we jump straight into Norwich with this chapter. Starting with an introduction to basically Lostbelt Sherlock and Watson. Looking back on it, I realise I just like the depiction of Sherlock Holmes more as an eccentric, adventurous detective with a slight sense of pride and ego as the ace attorney franchise depicts him rather than how FGO does (Mostly because I believe Ace Attorney's sherlock is closer to Doyle's character than FGO's), so Lostbelt Sherlock will be exhibiting that more.
With Norwich, I'm pretty much realising that my Faerie Britain will be more like a hybrid of a fantasy steampunk nation with a feudal government. Something like Dune's universe. It's not really like the more medieval aesthetic that Nasu put into LB6's worldbuilding. Salisbury will probably be the closest I get to that medieval look. But don't worry, i'll make sure there's plenty of supernatural elements in Faerie Britain.
Aside from that, I will be putting more historical figures into it. This is the British Lostbelt after all, and britain has plenty of historical figures to put in. One is Thomas Smythe. For those of you that don't know, Auditor Thomas Smythe in our history was one of the founders of the British East India Company. So, he is very, very significant to Britain's colonial history.
Other than that, Artoira starts trying to take more initiative. Of course, I showed that there is a big possibilty Artoria may die fighting the calamity but that's not really material for an interesting narrative since we all know Artoria has to survive. So, I'll be taking a different angle with it.
Hope you guys enjoyed and constructive criticism is appreciated!
Foot Notes:
Trading License: Since his ascension as Duke of Norwich, Spriggan moved Morgan to put up a licensing system for trade to ensure no unscrupulous trade is conducted. Each license has funding seal from the ducal or alder office of a city to ensure that said trader has indeed received a Minimum Support Sum (MSS) from the duke to set up their trading company.
Gloucestran-Norfolk Agreement: Norwich had an agreement with Gloucester in 1984 EoHQ that merchants would not have to show trading licenses in each other's cities, with only a slave crest sufficing. However, the trade sanctions of Sheffield have forced Norwich to temporarily suspend the agreement in a session of the Seelie Parliament.
Scholarii: Scholarii are respected academics of the University of Oxford. They are held in high respect as retainers of ancient and sacred knowledge of Britain's past, present and future by both fairies and humans across Britain. Each Scholarii has a medallion proving their status as an Oxfordian.
Workers' Syndicate: The Workers' syndicate was founded in 1917 EoHQ by Tom Mann in Norwich to contest the issue of worker's rights and livelihoods. They call themselves' syndicalists, but their demand for the removal of the ducal office has led to Spriggan designating them as anarchists. (Yes, I put fantasy socialism in Britain.)
Automobiles: Automobiles were created recently in 2012 EoHQ by an inventor for the Pearl Carriage company named Benjamin Benz. Their usage of fire and steam to move themselves without requirement of a horse have made them popular amongst Norwich's upper class members. However, they still haven't gained the trust of other cities yet, although Pearl Carriage has been trying to expand its automobile production in other parts of Britain.
Taranis Airships: Taranis Airships were invented in 2017 by an Oxfordian named Phillip Cromwell who worked in a company owned by the guild county. Their massive size and tough hide would make them extremely useful as weapons of war. In fact, Morgan has been planning to accommodate Taranis Airships into her army.
Guild County of Norwich: The guild county was founded in 1403 EoHQ by 11 wealthy merchants of Norwich, known as the 11 gentlemen. They were founded to unify the traders of Norwich and ensure Britain's economy is built on free trade, buying out companies and taking them under their wing. After that, they have always struggled trying to balance out their activites with Morgan's attempts to keep a control on them.
Response to Reviews:
Guest (1): Sorry for the hiatus. And yeah, I just wanted to have more Castoria-Puck interactions to make sure I'm not neglecting Castoria's relationship with her 'adventure group'.
Pelican117: Thank you. I actually fell in love with Beryl as a character. And I really wanted to see where his character could have gone if writen with more of a complex character in mind than a clear-cut villain. Now that I see it, I think Oberon won't appear too much in this story until later on. For the cryptos, I'll be drawing upon the cultures they associate themselves with, at least the crypters who I'll have an opprtunity to write on. In Daybit's case, I'll try to have his magecraft stil be alien, but sort of trying to emulate a speific culture's magecraft (In the LB7 rewrite after this).
Guest (2): I always keep reminding myself to not fully commit to the seriousness, because Castoria isn't written to be a fully serious character throughout her story. Sometimes I forget and almost make her brooding and depressed all the time before I remember that and try to make things humorous with her.
GrandmasterRed: I presume you're talking about Puck. I will not talk about that.
Hatred and Love: Yep. That sequence was just my way of showign the direction I want to take with Castoria. No way in heck I'm keeping her as a generic protagonist.