"Heard they used to be able to send voices over the air and through wires," Keth said. "If only we could do something like that, we could ask Terry to send help."
"That doesn't help us now does it?" Gatyn returned.
Val watched as Keth turn downcast at Gatyn's remark, seemingly now embarrassed that he had even spoken up or attempted to contribute to the conversation. Truth was, they were all grasping at straws at this point.
They had stopped at a roadside inn a few miles outside of the city of Ulareg. The introduction of Terry's supposed business rival, Markus seemed to have completely thrown off Val's travelling companions. Gatyn, Strema, and Keth all now appeared to be very wary on how to proceed next. For now, it was decided that they would hold up for a little while to give Gatyn's wound a chance to heal.
They had rented out three rooms and arranged for the innkeeper to have their food delivered so they could keep as out of sight as possible. Their cart had also been tucked away behind the inn and covered in a tarp so it couldn't be seen by anyone travelling on the road. It felt relatively safe for now, but time was of the essence so they would have to pull the trigger on how to proceed soon.
The reason why Terry had sent along a small group in the first place was to quickly set up the claim for the salvage operation. Terry had told them that he would be sending along more manpower once he was able to organize a proper work party, but it would take some time to organize. In the meantime, moving in quickly to claim the area was necessary to prevent anyone from moving in before they could.
According to Strema and Gatyn, Markus had moved in on Terry's claims before and it had gotten violent on several occasions. Markus also apparently had a small stable of metalmancers under his employ and had used them to sneak into an established salvage site and quickly strip portions of the claim.
"It explains why he was so insistent that I go. He's using myself and Keth as some sort of countermeasure," Mand thought. "That's got to be it."
Val was now furious about the entire situation. This trip to Ulareg seemed less about ultimately rescuing her sister, and more about Terry's broader plans. She had seen the logic in preparing for an invasion, but nothing was being directly done about her missing sister. A good portion of her rage was directed at Terry for talking her into this trip, but the majority of her frustration was directed at herself for letting herself be led down this trail. She had been blinded by her desire to do SOMETHING that it felt that she grasped onto the first idea anyone had.
"It was always Mand that made the plans, I'd always just go along. Now that she's not here, I'm making mistakes," Val thought. "Mand would have seen this coming from miles away."
She shook her head at this, trying to clear away the negativity. She changed her focus. She was here now and she was committed. As much as a large part of her wanted to dump everything and return to Cain's Point, she still ultimately needed Terry and his resources to recover her sister."
"On the upside," she mused. "At least I was able to try out my little friends."
Unconsciously, her hand slipped into one of the deep pockets in her cloak where she kept the little spider-balls. She gripped onto one, feeling the cool touch of metal.
"These are a good start, but the fact that using them knocked me out isn't great."
She thought back to all the times she had used metalmancy in her life. "Why was that time so draining? Is the fact that Mand isn't around affecting me somehow?"
Mand's voice drifted into her thoughts, "Val, you haven't been eating."
"Great, now she's even lecturing me when she's not even here," Val thought sourly.
"Val?"
Val blinked, realizing that it wasn't her sister's voice that was speaking to her. She had been so caught up in her own internal dialog that she had blanked out on the last few minutes of conversation at the table.
"Val are you alright?" Strema said looking at her. "You haven't touched your food and you've been staring into space."
Val was suddenly back in the inn, she and the other three all seated at a small table in the guard's rented room.
"Sorry," she said, her cheeks turning flushed. "I've had a lot on my mind."
"Well," the warrior woman leaned forward. "Do you have any thoughts on what we should do next?"
Val shrugged, "Hire a courier? Send a message back to Terry to ask him to send help as soon as possible."
The two guards looked at each other wide-eyed. Gatyn slapped his head, "Good gods, it's so completely obvious. Why didn't we think of that?"
Val looked over to the boy, "Well it really wasn't my idea, it was Keth's."
All of the other three at the table seemed a little confused by Val's statement.
"How..." Gatyn started, seemingly befuddled. "How was it Keth's idea? He's been as quiet as you for most of this meeting."
Val looked over to Keth, who seemed to be as confused by this notion as the two guards. He mouthed "What?"
"Keth mentioned sending messages by wire," Val continued.
Gatyn shifted in his chair and raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, and I said that didn't help."
"It did though. It got me thinking, if we can't use wires, what can we use? How do we send messages now? It's done by courier."
Gatyn burst out laughing at this. "Still your idea girl. Still your idea."
The guard calmed down to regain his composure. "Word of advise, take credit where credit is due. Don't try to give it away."
Val opened her mouth to protest, but noticed that Keth was looking down again, his face beet-red.
"Great," Val thought. "I've screwed up something again and I'm not even sure what."