Birth of Thunder
Ljiljana approached the walls of Kislev City with a steady pace, not at all hurried. Boris was not yet officially crowned as Tzar, for one, and it would not do to be rushed even if he was. A certain amount of dignity needed to be retained for the Ved'ma, even as reduced as they were. Boris was waiting for her by the entrance to the inside of the walls near where the gates are, his 'pets' standing around him three men thick- no surprise, given his father's sudden passing.
"You have certainly been running about since Vladimir's death," Ljiljana commented as they ascended the stairs. "Meetings with Boyars, meetings with Atamans, now meeting with the Ved'ma…"
"Perhaps," Boris responded as they reached the top, "if I move around them quickly enough, the Boyars will be too unsteady to put up a fuss about what Kislev needs. Along with others… this has not reached any beyond a scant few, but I have reason to believe my father did not die of natural causes. He was a fit man, why so suddenly? And the surgeon, when he cut into him, his heart was cut through. It was as though someone reached in with a knife but broke no skin."
"You have suspicions," she said as she looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"Yha. We were making inquiries into Pragg, into the Kalashiniviks. I believe they feared my father would discover they hid some of Kattarin's kind among their number… but they made a mistake when they killed him. I will reach into Pragg and remove the blood-drinkers and all their puppets, and Kislev will be safe from at least one horror."
"And you wish to have our support, the support of the Ved'ma in this?"
"Yha, but that is not the entire reason I requested you come here." They stopped along the battlements at a large cannon, which he gestured at. "Do you know the history of these guns?"
"Nya. Blackpowder and cannons is very far from my understanding. They are loud and dirty and the short folk and Imperinyi are far too fond of them to be healthy."
"These guns have a particular legacy to them. Tsar Alexis commissioned a dozen of these from Nuln before the War, great big Thunderers that can lob enough iron to take out a whole pack of trolls. Most of them were stationed in Pragg, where most of them were destroyed, but they each took their share of the Za with them. Only a few remain, but to the credit of the Imperinyi, they've lasted well. These old Thunderers are the oldest guns we have, and certainly the most storied- not many veterans of the War left to us now."
"A neat bit of history. Very pretty. What do the Ved'ma have to do with these Groms?"
"I wish to take them into battle, to bring them to fight against the Za directly."
"Then I would say you are a great fool indeed. I know nothing of guns, but these great big things? Too heavy by half, whatever pulk you place them in would move at the pace of a snail to not leave them behind."
"I've had thoughts on this. There is a particular spell that Imperinyi Ved'ma Weber cast, that seemed to turn a muddy field into the finest of roads, made out of fog and mist."
"Yha, I am familiar. She spread it around very much when we went with the short folk to look at their missing mountain. You wish me to get her for this?"
"Nya. Now, I have read books on the magic in the world, but I am not so arrogant to think that I could know more about your art than you do. Still, from Weber's spell the thought came to me, and I felt the need to seek an answer- could the Ved'ma put magic into a sled that the cannon could sit upon, and the sled would create ice beneath it so that the gun would slide along as though it were a skater on a frozen lake? Is this a thing your magic could do?"
Ljiljana thought for a minute or so, staring at the cannon and considering. "Yha," she said finally, "it is not
apprentice work to do it, but it could be done. It is not enough though, these things are so heavy you would need a team of horses to drag them along. They would still be useless in Raspotitsa or anywhere there is no solid road, which is everywhere."
"Ah," Boris began with a smile, "you have my word. Supply sleds fit to carry them, and I shall supply something capable of dragging these Grom into battle. I think it will do the pulks much good to have a symbol of defiance against the Za among them, roaring thunder once more."
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And that may-or-may not be the story of how these units get made in Divided Loyalties.
