Chapter 623 — Security Advice

The door of the study swung open, and an old mage appeared before Loyan Augustus—his body hunched, a black robe patterned with dark veins draped over him, artificial nerve cords writhing behind his back.

This was not the first time they had met.

Daniel had once been a hermit mage living in seclusion in the countryside, but before that he had been one of the senior members of the Royal Mages' Association, and today, after all that, he was the finest expert of the Artificers' Association, the mentor of the Royal Mages' Association's president, the creator of a great many new technologies for the Empire, a master technician whom the nobles of Aldernan now vied to court, and a man in whom the royal house placed deep trust—including the trust of Loyan Augustus himself.

Emperor Loyan had always treated men of technical skill with the utmost courtesy. He did not mind in the least the frightfulness of Daniel's appearance, and a somewhat stiff smile surfaced on his face: "Master, I hope my summons has not disrupted your work."

"To work for you is my duty," Daniel said with a slight bow, quite deferentially. "I am always glad to answer your questions in the realm of technology."

Loyan nodded, and only after the old mage had taken his seat did he ask, "I hear the imitation of the magic-drive vehicle has succeeded?"

"Yes, the prototype will be tested in two days," Daniel replied. "If all goes well, we will move it into practical application as quickly as possible."

"Your wisdom is an immeasurable treasure to the Empire," Loyan could not help exclaiming. "With the new means of transport, and the new railway system on top of it... at last we will be able to solve the problem of moving raw materials and finished goods to and from the factories."

"My personal wisdom is of little consequence; the imitation of the magic-drive vehicle is the fruit of everyone's common effort, and compared with our own meager cleverness..." Daniel said, shaking his head gently. "Perhaps we ought rather to marvel at the wisdom of the Ansans—it was they who first created the magic-drive, and then created precision machines as powerful as the magic-drive vehicle."

"Strictly speaking, it is the wisdom of the Cecilites—and it is precisely this matter that I summoned you here today to discuss."

Daniel lowered his eyelids, using the posture of deference to the throne to conceal the glimmer that flickered once, and briefly, deep in his eyes. He bowed his head slightly: "Please, go on."

"Magic-drive technology originated with Cecil—including the magic web we have imitated; though it differs from the Cecilite magic web in structure and unit specifications, many of its properties are broadly the same," Loyan said, unhurried. "Beyond that, there is the railway system now under construction in western and southern Aldernan—that is even more plainly a Cecilite product, with all the core technology in their grasp..."

Daniel raised his head. "You fear that these technologies, born of Cecil, will in the end threaten the Empire's security?"

"Even setting that aside, it is ultimately unwise to place the Empire's lifelines in the hands of outsiders, even if only a portion of them," Loyan Augustus said gravely. "The Cecilites are adept at harnessing the energy of the magic web, and now they have built railways within the Empire's borders—those trains of immense power can carry goods, and they can carry weapons and armies. Even now I can conceive of schemes for waging war by means of the railway, and the Cecilites cannot possibly have failed to think of them."

How great was the use of the railway? Before he had seen with his own eyes the detailed reports on the trains brought back by the survey teams, Loyan Augustus had held only a vague impression; but after reading those reports, he had grasped almost instantly just how fearsome a force, and how terrible a range of potential applications, lay in this nearly subversive technology—

It could, in a short time, transport to a destination a force sufficient to storm a city; it could sustain logistics at exceedingly low cost; and when used against other nations, cutting the railway could in an instant paralyze the supply of a city, even a whole region—so mighty was its carrying power that many things unimaginable on traditional roads and with horse-drawn carts became possible upon the railway.

The previous winter, when the noble council and the royal advisors received the relevant materials on the railway, they were profoundly shaken. With shock and tension they debated the feasibility of laying railways within the Empire for three full days and nights, and at last presented Loyan with a report more than ninety pages thick. The whole report first confirmed one thing:

Typhon needed this advanced transport technology, because Typhon's factories needed it.

The report then set out assessments of the two most significant potential dangers—

First, they must beware of the Ansans using transnational railways to launch attacks on the Empire—at the running speed of the trains, should the first wave of attack come without warning, the guards at the passes would likely not even have time to blow the tracks.

Second, how to protect the railways within the Empire, to ensure they remained entirely under imperial control and to prevent them from being sabotaged by the enemy.

As an empire forged out of the fires of war, Typhon had never lacked vigilance against war, and especially after the Empire had developed to a certain... critical state, Ansus had become the imagined enemy in the minds of nearly all of Typhon's upper strata.

Daniel looked quietly at Loyan Augustus for a few seconds; then his somewhat yellowish eyeballs stirred faintly.

"Your Majesty, I am only a man of technology, so I am probably not able to fully understand your military anxieties, but from a technical standpoint, I can offer you some advice."

"That is precisely what I want."

"The key to the problem is energy—or rather, the magic web," Daniel said calmly. "The railway, the trains—their operation all depends on the magic web laid along the route, and if the Ansans, or rather the Cecilites, truly mean to attack the Empire, many of their war machines would likewise depend on the magic web to function—the magic web they can carry with them is certainly limited, so keeping the Empire's magic web out of outsiders' hands is the key.

"I have lately been conceiving of a control structure for the magic web. Perhaps we could establish a central control over the magic web in the Empire's most core region, allowing it to shut down the magic web supply to any region at any time—even to shut it down destructively...

"Unless the enemy controls the Empire's core region and storms the capital and the palace, then wherever they operate within the Empire, their energy supply will be cut off..."

"...This plan is excellent," Loyan Augustus said slowly, pondering. "Mm... very excellent."

As he spoke, the Emperor of Typhon lifted his eyelids and gazed quietly into Daniel's eyes.

The artificial nerve cords behind Daniel still stirred gently; his face was utterly calm as he met Loyan's gaze without flinching.

"Master, I leave this matter to you. Please produce a plan as quickly as possible and submit it to me for my personal review."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The old mage departed, and Loyan picked up once more the documents he had earlier set aside, casually leafing through a couple of pages.

"Ansus..."

He murmured low the name of that ancient kingdom now caught in the vortex, his eyes utterly calm, free of both hostility and sympathy.

Cecil's sudden rise was unexpected; those inconceivable technologies and the very existence of Gawain Cecil had stirred in him a faint sense of a threat he had not felt in a long while. It was for this reason that this powerful ruler of an empire could not help but turn his thoughts to matters of "defense."

But at bottom, he still preferred to attack.