Sophia somehow DID get royal permission to own a six-shot. It was official. She got it in writing, after all.
"So do you, by the way," Sophia said, handing her a parchment signed and sealed with the royal Darksign that Maria Campbell, Knight of Sorcier, had royal permission to own six-shot alchemical weapons. How nice of them to allow her the right to own the very things she'd be manufacturing. "I told daddy I planned to be your partner, so they gave us these in case someone in future decides to make some kind of case against us or something."
"There's always someone," Maria agreed, resolving to put the royal permission someplace safe. "Did your father give some hint as to when we would receive an official contract?"
"We'll have to demonstrate it for the Royal Guard's commanders, give them a sense of how it works," Sophia said. "They might insist the production facility be established at the castle, or at least the capital, for secrecy or proximity. Your estate is kind of open. And you shouldn't even be setting up a factory there! No one said anything, but your manor REALLY isn't ready to receive visitors! Since you cut down the garden you don't even have any place to host a party!"
Maria thought about it. "I wouldn't be adverse to setting up a facility there, provided I had the budget for the land."
"THAT'S what you're taking away from this?"
"I need that space for the bathhouse."
"You have a lot of land! Did the gunpowder factory HAVE to be visible from… actually, have you even picked a bedroom in there?"
"When I graduate from the Academy."
"How do you even still have any room left open? You have over sixty people living there!"
"At least two people share a room. Most have four, and the children all sleep together in a dormitory, segregated by sex," Maria said. "They all have permission to try and murder their caretakers if they are taken advantage of."
Sophia paused, staring in Maria in horror. "Why would you do that?"
"Because it was the only way some of the older ones could rest easy with someone having power over them," Maria said grimly. "The caretakers were quite agreeable with the arrangement when it was explained to them. Besides, it just make good sense. Should I discourage the children using violence to protect themselves from abuse?"
Sophia's mouth flapped open a few times. Then she sighed. "PLEASE tell me that you have some way of keeping them from killing your caretakers and blaming it on attempted molestation and I can't believe I just said that…"
"I told them if they did, Katarina wouldn't like them anymore," Maria said.
"A good system, but stop using Lady Katarina to solve social problems!" Sophia cried.
"But it works so well."
"That's not the point! Anyway, can I have my six-shot now?"
Maria told her how many souls it would cost to have one commissioned.
Sophia stared. "Um, on second thought, maybe I should wait for my allowance and– wait, are you trying to gouge me?!"
"I could not possibly comment," Maria said.
"Damn it Campbell, don't gouge me for something that's half my ideas!"
The next day, Maria brought Sophia to the blacksmith's to commission her own six-shots.
"What are you going to do with them?" Maria asked as they walked back to school.
"Use them to shoot all the people who called me creepy-looking," Sophia said.
"That will probably be murder," Maria said.
"They called me creepy-looking!"
"Lady Katarina won't like you anymore," Maria said.
"Stop using Lady Katarina to solve social problems!"
"May I suggest target shooting?" Maria said, ignoring that one. "I believe recreational archery and crossbow shooting is something some lords and ladies do?"
"Sometimes," Sophia said grudgingly. "Sometimes they have archery targets set up at a garden party, but that's not common."
"Hmm…" Maria said thoughtfully. "Does your family ever host parties, Lady Sophia?"
"Only my parents," Sophia said, sounding mildly bitter. "Even after I made friends with Katarina, I didn't feel safe inviting other people to my home besides, um…"
"The others full of insatiable lust for her?" Maria suggested blandly.
"Don't make it sound like we only want her for her body! But yes…" Sophia admitted.
"What about Lord Ascart?" Maria said.
"The boy lusted after even more than Katarina, inviting people to party in his home?" Sophia said blandly. "You have a functional imagination. I invite you imagine the level of depravity, dishonor and disrobing that party would probably sink to."
"Ah…" Maria said, nodding. "So, generally, you and your brother don't host parties."
"Only small, private parties with Katarina… and the others we couldn't throw off," she said.
"So, you're saying that if Lord Ascart threw a party, everyone would come," Maria said. "It would, in fact, be much talked about, as his refusal to host such things is probably well known and he would have many insatiably lustful admirers who would wish to see him."
"Yes, but why would he?" Sophia dismissed.
"Well, it would be a nice way for his sister to demonstrate her new alchemical gadget by demonstrating on some archery targets…"
"We are not using my brother to pimp Gehrmans," Sophia said flatly.
While they waited for word of a government contract, Maria and Sophia went back to planning for Sophia's mother's birthday. Maria began training he Nightflower Workshop's workers for the second part of their job: learning how to properly load a lofting mortar to launch a nightflower. Maria began by demonstrating what could happen if they somehow set off the lofting charge or the color charge early. It involved a two chickens.
Less two chickens later, the new employees were looking horrified and nauseous, and the older employees were reminded of their previous trauma. It was a very attentive group that listened to as Maria explained and demonstrated the importance of correctly measuring the fuses, using the right kind of fuses (no one wanted to use a fast-burning fuse when they wanted a slow burning one), why you needed to properly tamp down the powder, using the right amount of powder, and never, ever incautiously approaching something that should have exploded but didn't.
On the remaining Sar and Sul until the birthday, she requested that everyone stay late for nightflower launch practice. Light Magic could not create visible light, and there was no way they were going to ue candles or lamps, so they had to rely on prism stones for illumination. Four tied together actually provided each person enough light to work by, if you didn't mind they were different colors. Under their light, she had them take turns loading a lofting mortar, watching for mistakes. Once mistakes were corrected, everyone was able to stand back and watch the nightflowers.
In those weeks, they had nine lofting tubes not go off. Maria used a dipper tied to a VERY long tube to pour water down the mortar and they were left overnight. Three of them exploded as she was doing this. Two only sent up a belated nightflower, but the other fell over and launched its charge at an angle and Maria ordered everyone to get buckets in case it started a fire. Fortunately, it hadn't, but the detonation was deafening.
More care was taken after that.
They also, as Sophia said, had to demonstrate to the Royal Guard's commanders, who were initially skeptical of the alchemical weapon's capabilities. One of them, nine feet tall, four feet wide and completely disbelieving, decried it as nothing but a loud crossbow, claiming it would be about as useful and declaring he'd survived several shots to the head from crossbows and this little thing was nothing to worry about. He even challenged Maria to do so to prove himself.
Maria, not wanting to murder him, shot him in the lung.
After carefully writing down the effects (broken rib, bruised lung, enormous bruise, no exit wounds, powder burns, bullet visibly lodged in skin, etc.) as the commander who'd volunteered to be shot swore very loudly for someone basically using reduced lung capacity, Maria healed him.
His assessment was it was like being stabbed by a hammer with a short knife attached: painful and shocking but you could walk it off. If you were used to it. They asserted their armor would have bounced it off.
He and everyone else were more respectful of the gun afterwards though. Maria made a note to design an oversized gun for larger knights.
They left seemingly very well-disposed to the weapon. ESPECIALLY the commander who'd been shot, for some reason, who was muttering names in a way Maria suspected meant he was listing people he wanted to use a gun on. She suspected she had new advocates in favor of the contract, or at least private customers.
The days passed, and preparations for final exams began.
Eventually, Countess Ascart's birthday came.
Prism Stone
A slightly warm rock, never bigger than a fist. Emits a beautiful, phasing aura of seven colors, with a very rare eighth. Though it's not really all that rare.
Its light is weak and only lasts a couple of hours, but may be restored when exposed to the sun. Not commonly used, as even candles burn brighter, but useful for working in flammable environments. A favorite toy of children. Everyone has a lucky prism stone at some point.
No one knows where these rocks come from or how they are made, but legend says they were once mined in Brightstone Cove. The mines are gone, and only the name remains. But the beaches and stones beneath the waves do glow...