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Rain fell over Portus Fidelium and pattered off a window. Tolish, third of Coreth took in the downpour as he returned to his study after a trip to the bathroom. It was not the most intense of storms but still more than enough to keep him home this day. He usually liked to at least drop in on one of the sawmills to see how things were going, even if Silhin, Karsh, Darvik, Kadji and Marl were all good at their jobs and could handle most of the day to day affairs. He also got to spend some more time with his kids. But even he was no longer doing the heavy lifting, he still had plenty of work to do. Paperwork. His wife Kainla, bless her soul, handled most of what came his way and he'd seen the hills of the stuff she'd go through on a daily basis. Only about one note in twenty got to his desk (including summaries) and many of them he just had to sign, but it was still a considerable chore for him to get through. He also noticed that Kainla had sent up Cuola with a fresh load along with a hot cup of coffee.

He sat down, took a fresh cigarette out from a pack in his disk, lit it with a match and got to reading. Like much of the important stuff, Kainla had attached a few notes to it with paperclips* annotating matters and he soon saw why. It had come from the desk of High Prelate Thimarn. He thought at first it would be an order for an expansion of the ports or a new set of temples. In truth, it was something more substantial. Apparently they wanted to build a "Railway" linking Portus Fidelium with Ecclesiopolis. He knew about railways, there were a couple of them on the estate he grew up on for sending logs to the river and he'd heard some more talk about them since then. But what was proposed was incredible. Galthirith established Ecclesiopolis more than sixty miles away. It would take a lot of oxen to operating, leaving aside the demands of what it could build. They said they needed at least 186,000 stout eight foot six inch hardwood timbers as "sleepers" alone and more for bridges, tunnels as well as embankments, cuttings, water towers, coaling stations and other things he had little idea about what they were. He was asked to provide an estimate on this and how quickly it could be done for an official audience with the Conclave of Prelates. Doubtless Kainla was already working the insane numbers on the price, but he'd have to send out some letters to his loggers and various land owners and talk about their current stocks. He coughed a few times out of shock just looking through the list.

He took a long drag on his cigarette and considered things. Not that he would give the Conclave anything less than his full cooperation, he saw that as his spiritual duty on top of the massive payday that the undertaking would give him. But rather what he'd become. He'd been a humble slave logger, destined for a life of simple toil on House Dhrelcyth's estate. The most that he hoped for was that the children he had with Gelis and Noril might one day find themselves Consecrated and get rooms of their own and better food for less physically demanding work. The loss of a hand and a foot had taken even that life away from him and eventually left him stranded alone on a distant land on the far side of the world from his birthplace in a makeshift shack putting together more makeshift shacks. But by some bizarre quick of fate he ended up here, living in this huge house with a dozen rooms, meat meals every day and four children by Kainla with a fifth on the way. He owned two sawmills and their lumber yards with twenty one employees and nineteen slaves. He owned eight square miles of forest and had another sixteen slaves and nine employees just to harvest it. He owned three barracks buildings (what some of the mercenaries and the other non-faithful called "flop houses" or "tenements") that housed about 60 people and two of them had workshops on the ground floor. A forth was being built, since he had more money than he could spend and the only thing he could do with it is spend it on things to make even more of it. He was one of the richest men in Fidelium, which itself had exploded in size from a small camp to a large town surrounded by an ever spreading circle of farms and villages creeping over the landscape. A hundred new people (ex-slaves or otherwise) would now regularly arrive and be a drop in the bucket.

It was overwhelming to think about. He had worked hard to gain things and he'd learned a lot to do so. He also heeded the words of the Priests about the virtues of Thrift, Moderation and Discipline, spending fairly little on himself, saving and investing. Mercenaries would quickly squander their pay on wine and women, he would eat reasonably well, practice his reading, spend time with his family with cigarettes being his only real indulgence. There was also Kainla, who was frighteningly good as a clerk, had a strong set of connections among the Deaconates** and had a relentless drive in business. To Tolish, all of this was overwhelming and staggering to think about. But despite that, it was also comforting and reassuring. As incredible as things were and despite the challenges they'd tilled, built, conquered and thrived in this new land and they'd done it through sweat, blood, toil and above all else, Faith. Faith that binds the Faithful together, Faith that keeps them anchored from the temptations of the world to do what needed to be done and Faith in the plans of their Masters across the sea.

A quick cough broke his reverie and brought his attention back to the matter at hand. He set the paper down, got out a piece of stationary with a request template and filled in the requisite blanks in his legible but far from elegant script.

*An idea which House Valcas' agents had acquired and Phyrith ti'Drinjol managed to implement.

**Fidelian government Ministries

From the Beginning...

Previous: Infrastructure: Part Four Hundred
Next: Infrastructure: Part Four Hundred and Two

Description

Rain fell over Portus Fidelium and pattered off a window. Tolish, third of Coreth took in the downpour as he returned to his study after a trip to the bathroom. It was not the most intense of storms but still more than enough to keep him home this day. He usually liked to at least drop in on one of the sawmills to see how things were going, even if Silhin, Karsh, Darvik, Kadji and Marl were all good at their jobs and could handle most of the day to day affairs. He also got to spend some more time with his kids. But even he was no longer doing the heavy lifting, he still had plenty of work to do. Paperwork. His wife Kainla, bless her soul, handled most of what came his way and he'd seen the hills of the stuff she'd go through on a daily basis. Only about one note in twenty got to his desk (including summaries) and many of them he just had to sign, but it was still a considerable chore for him to get through. He also noticed that Kainla had sent up Cuola with a fresh load along with a hot cup of coffee.

He sat down, took a fresh cigarette out from a pack in his disk, lit it with a match and got to reading. Like much of the important stuff, Kainla had attached a few notes to it with paperclips* annotating matters and he soon saw why. It had come from the desk of High Prelate Thimarn. He thought at first it would be an order for an expansion of the ports or a new set of temples. In truth, it was something more substantial. Apparently they wanted to build a "Railway" linking Portus Fidelium with Ecclesiopolis. He knew about railways, there were a couple of them on the estate he grew up on for sending logs to the river and he'd heard some more talk about them since then. But what was proposed was incredible. Galthirith established Ecclesiopolis more than sixty miles away. It would take a lot of oxen to operating, leaving aside the demands of what it could build. They said they needed at least 186,000 stout eight foot six inch hardwood timbers as "sleepers" alone and more for bridges, tunnels as well as embankments, cuttings, water towers, coaling stations and other things he had little idea about what they were. He was asked to provide an estimate on this and how quickly it could be done for an official audience with the Conclave of Prelates. Doubtless Kainla was already working the insane numbers on the price, but he'd have to send out some letters to his loggers and various land owners and talk about their current stocks. He coughed a few times out of shock just looking through the list.

He took a long drag on his cigarette and considered things. Not that he would give the Conclave anything less than his full cooperation, he saw that as his spiritual duty on top of the massive payday that the undertaking would give him. But rather what he'd become. He'd been a humble slave logger, destined for a life of simple toil on House Dhrelcyth's estate. The most that he hoped for was that the children he had with Gelis and Noril might one day find themselves Consecrated and get rooms of their own and better food for less physically demanding work. The loss of a hand and a foot had taken even that life away from him and eventually left him stranded alone on a distant land on the far side of the world from his birthplace in a makeshift shack putting together more makeshift shacks. But by some bizarre quick of fate he ended up here, living in this huge house with a dozen rooms, meat meals every day and four children by Kainla with a fifth on the way. He owned two sawmills and their lumber yards with twenty one employees and nineteen slaves. He owned eight square miles of forest and had another sixteen slaves and nine employees just to harvest it. He owned three barracks buildings (what some of the mercenaries and the other non-faithful called "flop houses" or "tenements") that housed about 60 people and two of them had workshops on the ground floor. A forth was being built, since he had more money than he could spend and the only thing he could do with it is spend it on things to make even more of it. He was one of the richest men in Fidelium, which itself had exploded in size from a small camp to a large town surrounded by an ever spreading circle of farms and villages creeping over the landscape. A hundred new people (ex-slaves or otherwise) would now regularly arrive and be a drop in the bucket.

It was overwhelming to think about. He had worked hard to gain things and he'd learned a lot to do so. He also heeded the words of the Priests about the virtues of Thrift, Moderation and Discipline, spending fairly little on himself, saving and investing. Mercenaries would quickly squander their pay on wine and women, he would eat reasonably well, practice his reading, spend time with his family with cigarettes being his only real indulgence. There was also Kainla, who was frighteningly good as a clerk, had a strong set of connections among the Deaconates** and had a relentless drive in business. To Tolish, all of this was overwhelming and staggering to think about. But despite that, it was also comforting and reassuring. As incredible as things were and despite the challenges they'd tilled, built, conquered and thrived in this new land and they'd done it through sweat, blood, toil and above all else, Faith. Faith that binds the Faithful together, Faith that keeps them anchored from the temptations of the world to do what needed to be done and Faith in the plans of their Masters across the sea.

A quick cough broke his reverie and brought his attention back to the matter at hand. He set the paper down, got out a piece of stationary with a request template and filled in the requisite blanks in his legible but far from elegant script.

*An idea which House Valcas' agents had acquired and Phyrith ti'Drinjol managed to implement.

**Fidelian government Ministries

From the Beginning...

Previous: Infrastructure: Part Four Hundred
Next: Infrastructure: Part Four Hundred and Two