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Chapter 28 - Drums of War
🕑 Added 2025-07-19 10:20:39 +0000 UTCStorm Kingdom
Rain House
8 BAC
The last foot of Ei’s progress was the Rain House, the seat of House Wylde. Built at the northeastern tip of Cape Wrath, the castle had short but thick walls, and its lord, Allard Wylde, had a rather merry disposition, which was not shared by his prickly wife, though his children did not seem to take after their mother when it came to personality.
As he was downing his cup while saying “Yes, dear” without even listening every time his wife spoke, Ei guessed it wasn’t a happy marriage.
But she wasn’t here to be a marriage counsellor; that was more Mizuki’s field.
The Shelltown, named after the myriad of colored glassy shells found on the beach, was built near the shore to make use of the sand, cutting down on the logistics costs, and was constructed outside of the guidelines. Construction materials used did not inspire confidence, and rather than being built in blocks with plenty of space between them, the buildings were clustered and unshapely.
She had a meeting with Lord Allard on that matter.
“Lord Allard, do you know why I wanted those towns to be built in an orderly manner?” Ei asked, pointing at the new plans drawn for the town.
He looked at the drawings before giving his answer. “So any growth in the future would be less costly?” Perhaps all that wine hadn’t dulled Lord Allard’s mind yet.
“That, and so the city would look orderly, movement of goods and people would be easy, and to avoid the risk of a fire. Now, please have this town rebuilt, and use sturdier materials. If it is a matter of coin, I’ll personally give you a loan with no interest for this time and a long-term payment plan.”
“I’ll start it immediately, Princess.”
The setback of having to rebuild the town not standing, Ei did not look forward to returning while Lady Wylde was alive. Even with her present, the woman did not stop her needling comments, while Allard Wylde drowned deeper in his cups.
She stayed longer than anticipated, having decided to oversee the reconstruction of the town to avoid any more delays. From ordering new and quality materials to personally inspecting the construction efforts, Ei spent a month in Rain House.
Against her better judgement, she also tried to have the Lord and Lady Wylde act civil towards each other, which was more challenging than having to rebuild the town.
Turns out, it was a willing match, but things slowly turned for the worse over time, as Allard went out to war and spent more time away from his seat, and the love they thought they had gradually extinguished.
Now, there were just two empty people left, one who was an alcoholic, the other, a bitter woman who made it everyone else’s problem.
At least they were willing to be more civil towards each other by the time Ei left for Greenstone.
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Greenstone
Greenstone was an apt name for the castle, as the outer layer of the walls was an unnatural green, and seeing as the castle was ancient, the founders of House Estermont might have been aided by magic, much like Durran Godsgrief must have used magic to construct Storm's End.
Lord Cormack was waiting at the docks, dressed much the same as he was during the tourney celebrating her father’s wedding. His family was arrayed in a single line with him at the head and had brought in bards, who started singing Blessed Argella as soon as she made it off the gangplank.
His efforts were admirable; if only they were aimed at training his knights to be honorable people, then Ei would have applauded him for it.
“Princess, you honor us with your presence.” Lord Cormack curtsied perfectly, followed by his wife and five children, two sons and three daughters.
Nodding, Ei replied with her usual calm tone. “Thank you, Lord Cormack. Your castle does justice to its name.” She could have complimented him or his family, but owing to the last time she had seen the lord of Greenstone, Ei chose a more diplomatic approach.
Beaming with pride, Cormack Estermont launched into a tale about the history of his keep while they walked at Ei’s insistence. She had enough of the ship and the carriages and just wanted to walk.
The bards were a constant figure at Greenstone during Ei’s stay, though after hearing the same song over and over again, Ei requested they sing something else.
Having had enough of merriment, she began her inspection of the glass workshop built at the port, which had started production days ago, and seeing as she was already more than a month behind on her program, Greenstone must have faced delays as well.
Ignoring it since there was no harm done, Ei inspected the small port in its entirety. There wasn’t much to see in the first place, but seeing as House Estermont had shipyards, even though they were only able to build enough ships for their own use, it still was better than nothing.
Convincing the lord of Greenstone to expand the shipyards and start selling ships to other lords, with Ei promising to have ships as payment for her investment. In the Storm Kingdom, only Houses Tarth and Estermont had navies, though calling the dozen or so trade vessels Lord Cormack had a fleet was a stretch of the imagination.
Nonetheless, Lord Estermont was pleased at his fortunes, and Ei was able to broker a deal where House Estermont would send shipwrights to build a shipyard and train apprentices, and House Swann would send lumber as payment, with the details to be determined between the lords.
She couldn’t be expected to do everything for them after all.
Deciding to do some sightseeing, followed by a retinue, of course, Ei trekked across the island, enjoying the greenery and the golden shores. While putting her feet in the water, Ei found an oyster that had been washed up to the shore and pried it open, seeing no harm.
And as luck would have it, Ei found a pearl inside. It was misshapen with bumps and cavities, so not that valuable. Deciding to check if there were more, Ei dove while no one was looking and saw that the sea floor was covered with oysters.
She could have ignored it, but then again, Lord Cormack would have to pay taxes on any pearl sale, so Ei brought the matter to him.
Turns out House Estermont did know about the pearls for a long time, but they didn’t have divers capable of carrying the oysters out, leaving Ei to find a solution in the form of a hand-operated pump tied to a waterproofed leather tube, which allowed a diver to stay submerged long enough to gather a basket full of oysters.
Instructing them to be gentle while opening the oysters and to release them back to the sea so they could produce more pearls, Ei was gifted several pristine pearls by Lord Cormack.
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It was time for Ei to return to Storm’s End to carry out her end of the work, though she would stop by Weeping Town first to check the Iron Works, especially when it came to its security.
Boarding the ship with several more gifts from the Estermonts, with the bards singing Blessed Argella as a farewell song, the Windproud set sail for Weeping Town.
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Standing on the forecastle deck, Ei was watching the sea, lost in memories. It reminded her of Sasayuri, her tengu general, who was also responsible for the revolution the Imperial Fleet of Inazuma underwent. Rather than just troop carriers, they had become warships capable of holding their own against any other vessel in the sea.
Of course rebuilding the navy from scratch wasn’t an easy affair, but with Sasayuri’s disciplined approach and generous funding, it was an eventual success.
Now, all that experience would be used in this world.
Which made Ei wonder if she would be able to return to Teyvat. Mussou no Hitachi could cut through space, but using it to travel between different worlds, much less different dimensions, was not something she had ever considered.
Perhaps it would be possible in the future, but Ei had no idea where to start or if it was even possible in the first place.
Leaving the bothersome thoughts aside, she focused on the present to ground herself. There were several houses left that she needed to find suitable business fields to grow, overhaul the taxation system for a more just distribution of wealth, and create a legal codex to define the responsibilities of the lords towards their subjects, as well as limit their power and ensure they were held responsible for their actions towards the small folk.
The right of the first night might have been banned, but it didn’t change the fact lords could act as they wished with impunity, only held back by their own common sense, and every once in a generation, a lord who believed himself untouchable would cause problems for the smallfolk.
She also wondered about Selena’s pregnancy, wondering whether it would be a boy or a girl, and if the child would be healthy because the quality of healthcare in this world was appalling.
Admittedly, her knowledge when it came to human medicine was almost nonexistent, as Inazuma had plenty of healers and Ei didn’t need healing herself, so the only thing she could do in that field, besides starting her own research, was to hire healers and have them do it.
Some of the Free Cities were more advanced in their treatments, owing to the unrestrained experimentation they did on slaves, which was sickening to her, so hiring any healers from across the Narrow Sea was out of the question.
What she wouldn’t give to have someone capable of sharing her workload.
“By the gods.” One of the sailors muttered as he leaned on the railings to get a closer look ahead.
Ei raised her head to look, eyes glued on the horizon, as smoke rose from Weeping Town. Straightening herself, Ei took a couple of steps back as the sailors crowded the forecastle deck. Summoning the Baleful Omen, Ei closed her eyes to see what was happening.
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“Put those fires out, and make sure these bastards don’t get close to the Iron Works.” Lord Tommen shouted orders, rushing with his knights and men-at-arms to push back the Ironborn.
Weeping Town had been caught by surprise when the Ironborn attacked, as a fire had started on the other side of the town, diverting their attention. They had already started fires on the docks and were pushing towards the Iron Works, which must have been the reason they attacked in the first place.
Thirty ships full of Ironbornslammed into the docks at full speed, slaughtering the depleted number of guards. By the time they understood what had happened, Ironborn were making their way through the town and setting everywhere on fire.
“Ready the archers!” Tommen screamed, but it was cut off when the skies darkened as storm clouds gathered for the first time in over two years. Purple lightning danced across the clouds, and a shower of rain poured, slowly dousing the fires out, shocking them as much as it did the Ironborn.
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Unknown to the people of Weeping Town, a purple eye in the sky was watching the battle.
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Ei could have stood there to consider whether to reveal herself or not, to think if it was worth the lives of the people of Weeping Town.
But she did not.
Creating an electro platform to spare the ship, Ei jumped, the force sinking the front of the ship to the water before it rebounded, throwing a sailor overboard.
Realizing what had just happened, the sailors watched the figure of their princess fly off to Weeping Town with their mouths open.
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Weeping Town
Having morphed her clothing to that of Samurai armor and landed on Weeping Town, Engulfing Lightning was drawn and ready to fight.
Comments
Falyn Frost
I was not ready... and neither are the Ironborn
Bal
There is gonna be a nice aftermath and also fuck the ironborn let them be reminded what a true storm is.
