The tundra above Guguo was a ferocious beast. Meered aurher as beast or booday, it had swallowed a team of twelve cultivator students and spat out bones. Ambushed from all sides, impaled by spear and horn, torn by axe and tooth, crushed by hammer and hoof.

  Golthus tore his axe out of the cultivator’s chest, the blood staining the brown fur on his legs. He felt his hairs stand up and she air. From the south, ten dots appearing in the sky. Cultivators riding swords. Ten… twenty… fourty… sixty frandmasters, not one of a lesser rank. He picked out the colours in their clothes, at least a dozes had e together. He turo one of the lesser goatmen iping his spear down. “Go ack master. This hunt may be our st.”

  “Recruitme.” All eyes in the war-room turned Sara upon Arascus’ words. The woman took a deep breath, didn’t even open her report and started to recall from memory. She had ged, from the girl who wore dresses and had her hair down to now donning a suit like the rest of them with her bck hair tied back. Those eyes had grown sharper too.

  “The Rancais branches are at capacity. Other Epan tries are nearing oal. The Union branches in the West still exist, although we’ve halved our support for them.” She readjusted herself and crossed her arms. “Additionally, we’ve had a development in the East. A branch has opened in Guguo. There is locatio and I did not order for the creation of one, I think our ideas have simply spread.”

  “And numbers?” Arascus said.

  “Rancais stands at around a hundred and fifty thousand, Epa as a whole has almost a million. The Guguo branch has five members currently. Union members dropped severely although I think the lowest point is past us. Numbers have risen back up to eight hundred among the sixteen brahat exist.” The woman finally leaned bad smiled at everyone in the war-room. Two months ago she was a mere sapling among the men and women here, now she had grown into an oak that stood equal among them. “I would like to add however that in Rancais, twelve of the fifty nation-wide branches have been promised. In Epa, we estimate about fourty pert now have some police or intelligence operative w within them.”

  “That is not an issue.” Arascus said. “Do you know which branches are non-promised?”

  “I’m not able to be certain on that, but to degree, yes.”

  “Very well.” Arascus turo Rickard Narma. “And the expenditure of our expansion?” Rickard flipped through his notebook.

  “Far cheaper than expected. We’ve not expanded into new locations, branches are simply meeting more often. In Aris, some of the branches have decided to share the same buildings and simply rotate. So one branch has Monday, auesday and so on. The Guguo branches requests start-up capital. They’ve forward a report with a cheap room to rent as part of their set-up. It will only cost around five-huhousand Guguoan Yon. Ierms, that’s about eight hundred Epan Marks, or six hundred Union ones. Monthly-payments.”

  “Pocket ge.” Arascus said.

  “Indeed. I’ll firm the transa.” Rickard ented. “Donations have risen from the spike of new members too. We’re floating a good treasury. About twenty million Marks right now, I’ve factored in a drop-off of ier the recruitment surge but by three months, even the worst estimate is we’ll have fifty million.” Several of the members around the table looked at each other in shock.

  “And the best?”

  “Two hundred.” The table burst into g for a few moments. Arascus let them have their moment of joy, these would be rare enough in the near future. “That’s all for my report Sir. It’s good news all-around.”

  “Ilwin.” Arascus asked. “And the factories?”

  “I’ve found three locations which are deemed suitable. All three in Karaina.” Three dots emerged from his folder and he slid them along the table to Arascus. “East of us, I don’t even know if it be said to be Epa anymore.”

  “Long distance.” Arascus said dryly.

  “With little ht from the gover, there’s a good amount of autonomy in the provinces, and it puts us closer to support Fer’s hordes too. The Karaina-Guguo railway also lowers transport times siderably.”

  “How expensive?”

  “The Tarin pnt costs thirty, Aksia is thirty two, Kira car factory is fourty, but it’s the rgest one and we could use it for vehicles too.”

  “Why are they being sold?”

  “Depoputiely, people have moved to cities from the local towns and there’s not enough workers. I’ve seo pose as buyers, the pnts are old but there’s no issue with them fually.” Arasodded.

  “Eveer for us then. Kira, theher two. Narma, secure the funds, the earlier the better. When they are secured, start moving excess members from brao the nearby towns aock the popution. Give them det wages, but don’t tell them what is going on.” Arascus stood up and walked to one of the wooden ets behind him. “Daganhoff, stand up.”

  “Yes Sir.” Sara replied and stood up, her face painted with nothing but excitement. Childish true, but Arascus preferred that to fear. He returo his with a small box, he extended an arm to the woman.

  “For your impressive performance.” He passed the box to her. “Open it ter and sit down. Good job.” Sara smiled in disbelief, took the box and sat back down.

  “Thank you Sir. I will do my best.”

  “Do better than your best.”

  “You’re correct Sir.” She pulled a salute. “The best is not good enough.” Arascus looked around the table.

  “You may inquire about her gift privately. Everyone who mao achieve in their field what Miss Daganhoff did over the past two months will receive a simir reward.” Arascus smiled. Gifts always made everyone work better, the goal was to give them sparingly enough to be worth the effort, but not so sparingly that people fet they exist. The table cpped for Sara again before being cut off. Arascus turo Iliyal Tremali. “Report on Fer?”

  “The Guguoa Hunt is underway, it was rger thaed. Fer is currently retreating her position and movi, towards the Karainan border.”

  “How long before she gets to it?”

  “She’s moving slowly to avoid dete. Three months at the current rate. So far, we’ve firmed the deaths of twenty members of the Hunt and about thirty beastmen. One darkfur has died.” Arasodded.

  “In regards to Fer, keep monit but do not engage.”

  “Yes Sir.” Iliyal Tremali replied. Arascus extended an arm to the man at the end of the table.

  “Now for the main course of the meeting. Ash, you have something to show us.” Mikhail stood up and awkwardly waved for one of his helpers. The man from the back came forwards with an object ed in bck cloth and pced it oable.

  “Ladies alemen.” Mikhail began, his voi pure bliss. “Sir.” He bowed to Arascus. “I would like to present the Ash-1.” He unfurled the cloth. Iliyal and Arascus stared at the object with a smile, the rest of the table simply did not know what they were looking at. Mikhail began, Arascus let the man boast, frankly, this thing surpassed his expectations in every regard. The engineer deserved his pride. “Just as sp arrows have spiralled feathers to add spin, the inside of the barrel is rifled to add spin to the bullet. The issue of muzzle-loading has been solved with this breech.” He poi some meism in the side. “The A-1 is able to shoot with a deviation of two timetres te of a hundred-metres. Six timetres at two hundred. It has a maximum fire-rate of twenty-four shots a minute, and that’s with reloading the clip.” He picked up a small thing, a metal stick with six brass gs on it. “The metal will not melt uress. It has passed all my boratory tests, the only thing I need now is live fire experieo know how to improve it further.”

  “Mikhail, if I may.” Rickard interrupted the man. “That’s nid all, but what is that?”

  “This, my friend, is the on of the future.”