3rd of Ashan, 722.
The Office, as usual, was in disarray. Books and knick-knacks tossed wherever they would fit, mixed in with mess and general clutter. He could barely make out half of what was strewn over the table that dominated the middle of the room, but he assumed most of it was pretty unnecessary. At least, if he did that, it made it a whole lot easier to push it all aside until some of it dropped to the floor with heavy thuds, while he made room for the huge roll of parchment that held a map of Faldrass and a few detailed descriptions of its key locations and landmarks. Granted, it was still a pre-destruction map; getting surveys from proper cartographers was on the to-do list, but considering the parchment for that was significantly larger than the map itself, they'd simply make do for now.
"What're you doing?" Tyler asked almost immediately, rushing to pick up some of the fallen books and collect the pages that had scattered from within. Apparently they might have been important after all.
He didn't bother to check. Spare books were being used to pin down the edges of the map while he plucked the nearest loose stick of chalk and began circling the key regions he could draw from the front of his memory that had changed since the landslides. The new settlements, the Manor, the collapsed forests that were now death-blighted ruins known as the Badlands... "We've been idle too long." Tylar tilted his head. "That ends today. I need a good region, high-up, with plenty of clear open ground, close to a nearby settlement so that supplies can be funnelled quickly, but far enough away to give us a good margin of privacy." Wesley, the go-to personal assistant for smaller matters, stepped forwards to take up the job, but Nir'wei halted him with a hand before he got too close. "Not you. Tylar. This is very important, and I want you to draft up a list of at least three or four options to make sure that we have the best pick. I want prices for each of them, how much landmass we can afford with the Natural Affairs budget, and what sorts of construction costs we'd be looking at to outsource to the area." Gwynevere had been hunched over her usual collection of books and diaries, but the more Nir'wei talked and delegated, the slower her pencil moved - by the time he'd finished, she'd utterly abandoned whatever she'd been in the middle of and nearly tripped in her efforts to reach the table.
"What am I doing?" Wesley asked, practically breathless as his eyes darted over every inch of the rapidly filling map. There it was. He was to blame for it, there could be no doubt - the slump they'd been almost lost in for who knew how long... but they were still good people. Reliable, capable people. Give them the beginnings of a plan in motion and even after what felt like almost seasons of struggling stagnation, it was as if he could see the life being breathed back into their lungs.
"We need letters. Written to Baron-Councillor Devin and Baron Darius, with a request for... let's say four or five, able-bodied individuals. Preferably guards - people with combat training. Don't tell them what it is, not until we know for certain how many we're going to have... but they need to be comfortable working with large animals. We're going to give Faldrass an edge that few islands can match, shore up their defences and raise morale until the other Councillors are green with envy." The smile he conjured was positively devious. "Quietly reach out to someone in the Elements. Not the Militant. Air Deputy, perhaps? Someone lower? I just want a meeting, to discuss options, is all. The opportunity to work towards something very different and unique." He paused for a moment and twisted his mouth. "Councillor Mednix, too. And some information on the Rangers, since... I must be honest, I don't entirely remember what they do. One way or another, it'll be a good thing to have them both aware of." Though he had his own plans for it, of course.
Wesley scribbled it all down in his diary as Nir'wei spoke, his pencil a blur against paper until he was done, and realised a crucial point was still missing. "So what is the intention behind all of this preparation?"
Oh boy. "We, as the Office of Natural Affairs, are going to spearhead a new breed of Scalv Sohr Khal riders. Faldrass, as the base where these riders will be trained and where the Scalv Sohr Khal will be bred, will gain a new class of protectors that will act as symbols for the populace and become the most capable rangers, scouts and soldiers that they could hope for... and the Air Elements and the Rangers might even get a new rapid-response unit or two out of it, if we can negotiate an arrangement for soldiers, resources and currency to make sure it's viable for the numbers they expect."
The silence that dawned over the room was so thick, for a moment it was almost suffocating. This was an idea that he'd been mulling over for a while - quite a few seasons, if he was being entirely honest, but he'd never found quite the time or the energy to really commit to its development. In truth, he still didn't really have it... but, he'd suffered quite a revelation in the past few days. He'd been waiting for the perfect moment, the right opportunity... but nothing really came at the perfect moment, at least not intentionally. You had to make that moment for yourself, and commit to it. If he spent all of his time waiting, after all - by the time the moment came, it'd already be too late to put the plan into motion. He was still nervous, though. What if it wasn't enough? What if it was a stupid idea, and he'd have been better off just not bothering - or worse still, what if it turned out to be utterly inferior to what was already in place, a detriment to only slow things down and hold everyone back even more?
"That," Wesley breathed at last, "sounds fucking cool."
He hoped nobody saw just how much tension he breathed out when the room filled with smiles and nods of agreement. Maybe, just maybe, there was hope for him yet. "Excellent. In that case, there's no time to waste. I'll be gone for the next few days - Tylar is in charge. Marcus is to take all messages and allow nobody that isn't a member of Natural Affairs into this room, bar nobody, under no circumstances, and Wesley I want you to work closely with Tel'wehn and have those letters ready, but not posted, by the time I get back so that we can finalise them." He was pretty sure that covered everyone, and they seemed quite eager to jump to the first actual project in what felt like the entirety of his tenure in the role... until Silk, who had been conspicuously left out of these arrangements, pushed back against the wall she'd been leaning against and folded both arms over her chest in a slightly judgemental pose.
"And while everyone else is doing that, where are you going?" Okay, he should have expected this. Silk's role had left her quite left-out as of late, since he really didn't need much of a bodyguard in most circumstances and her position was somewhat redundant except for so-called official business... and even then, carried perhaps a little too much of a connotation of threat.
Still, now wasn't the time to involve her. But he also couldn't lie to her, not only because he couldn't lie to all of them at once. "There are a few key regions around Scalvoris... and above it. I'm going on an expedition, with Traveller. We're going to track down a few wild Scalv Sohr Khal... three, maybe four or even five if we can handle it. We're going to lure them in, I'm going to befriend them, and then I'm going to lead them back to Faldrass... where they can be matched with carers, and trainers... and shortly afterwards, with riders." Silk moved to open her mouth, and he knew what she was about to announce, but he wasn't having it and raised his hand before she could suck in a breath. "Since speed and efficiency is key for this, I'm not going to be able to carry anyone else on Traveller's back, so while you might want to come with me, I'm going to ditch the niceties here and say that for the purposes of this task, anyone coming with me who can't keep up is going to end up slowing me down." Oh, the scorn on Silk's face at the implication. "All the more reason to make sure this is done quickly, to give everyone the chance to catch up again." She still looked pissed, and he could hardly blame her, but it gave her some food for thought, and she seemed to latch on fairly quickly, with how quickly her eyes were darting back to the map yet again.
"Scalv Sohr Khal are rare and renowned creatures. Ordinarily, they are restricted and protected... but since technically the Office of Natural Affairs are the ones that designated them as such, I'm pretty sure I'm within my rights to go and visit them myself, especially since I have no intention of springing them in nets or harpooning them in the wings." He shuddered at the mere thought. "Consider this the first step in the Office of Natural Affairs declaring a monopoly." He paused, abruptly. "One more thing. I need three staff. I don't care where you pull them from, Faldrass Barony or other Natural Affairs business or anywhere else in Scalvoris, but Wesley, I want them working for me, and only me." Tylar's lips pursed tight in thought, but his second-in-command was likely already thinking the same thing - after all, they couldn't allow such an opportunity to be lost to themselves as well, not when it was being outsourced to so many other areas. "Put them on payroll. Allocate resources. Make sure they're outfitted, and Silk, you're taking point on all of them to make sure that they can all handle themselves. More than handle themselves." As much as he wanted to trust in her ability to keep a cool head, he knew deep down that he couldn't afford to leave a single member of the team idle while the others were firing like this. They'd end up making themselves busy, and that would never end well for anyone - or they'd lose their touch with too long left idle and unaccounted for. Silk was too good for either option. "Designate them Special Officers. I'll find them mounts, one way or another, and make sure they're up to scratch. They'll be the eyes and the ears." And, when the need demanded it, they'd be the hands.
"Everyone good?" Five heads nodded as one, and he smiled like a Cheshire. "This is it. Our first step. It's been a long time coming, huh?" For the first time in recent memory, the room filled with laughter. Genuine, happy laughter. He hadn't realised how much he'd let the place fall into disrepair until then - not just in terms of looks, though the Office still looked like an overstuffed closet in dire need of just a simple sweep of the floor and dust of the shelves. He'd let down the people of this room. No matter what, through the controversies and the problems and the absence and the struggle, they'd never abandoned him or betrayed his trust. They'd kept things in the Menagerie running, they'd kept up appearances and routines, sparse as they were - they'd done everything they could, short of outright replace him entirely, over what felt like almost an entire arc of reduced activity and lacking effort.
Today wasn't just the first step in establishing a new dawn for the Office of Natural Affairs. It was the first step in repaying the invisible, unfathomable debt he owed these people. In the moment, lost in the giddiness, he slipped. There was some old saying he'd heard Karesh mention once. Something that had struck a chord, he supposed, though the old chant had no meaning or history as far as he could tell. "For the Great Hunt!"
He knew it was a mistake the moment it left his lips. These were hardly worshippers of Karem, after all - and they'd never held some sort of organisation, regardless, unless you counted the Eternal Empire. It was a silly idea, the rumours were rife enough without stirring the pot even more, he should have just left and-- "For the fresh kill!" Tylar replied with a hearty laugh. Well, usually one just repeated 'For the Great Hunt', according to Karesh, but honestly he much preferred Tylar's interpretation, and laughed in turn... soon, surprisingly enough, joined by the others again. "Just, you know... don't actually kill them. It might be easier to ride them that way, but they're not really going to get us anywhere very fast like that..." Oh, that earned a whole lot more laughter. By the time he'd finally excised himself from the group, they'd devolved into in-jokes about exactly how far a Scalv Sohr Khal corpse could carry someone, if strapped to enough horses or perhaps carried on a barge.
Honestly, he wished he could have stayed longer to hear the entire thing... but there were many, many things to be done before then. "I suppose I'll be off. Next stop, Scalvoris Mountains."
Tylar blinked, the humour that had spent so long slowly forming on his face vanishing in an instant, replaced by the cool professionalism of a man hard at work. "Hold on. Windward Haven?" He must have read the confusion on Nir'weis face, and easily reached into a pile of books to pull out a roll of paper, which unravelled into what appeared to be a page from a history book. "Staging post of the Air Elements." He'd always thought they were all housed within the same hall - the Element Hall. They really had an entire building to themselves? Actually, scratch that - the painting of the place made it look more like an outright castle than a measly outpost - worthy of rivalling the Element Hall itself, complete with towers and peaks and castle-like ramparts. "It might be a good idea to prepare that letter for the Air Deputy sooner rather than later..." He'd certainly be killing two birds with one stone, visiting the Air Elements at the same time he procured the new stock for them... and it'd give him a good excuse to cut out the middleman and leave the Militant out of the arrangement for as long as possible. In the end, he didn't even need to nod. Wesley, Tel'wehn and Tylar banded together at once, composing and sending a letter to arrive a day before he'd land.
The rest, he supposed, would fall to him, to explain exactly how, and why, he intended to create an entire second staging post for the Air Elements outside of the Scalvoris Mountains... and use it for an entirely new breed of mounted guards, scouts and soldiers... and do it all outside of their direct scope. Easy, right?
The Office, as usual, was in disarray. Books and knick-knacks tossed wherever they would fit, mixed in with mess and general clutter. He could barely make out half of what was strewn over the table that dominated the middle of the room, but he assumed most of it was pretty unnecessary. At least, if he did that, it made it a whole lot easier to push it all aside until some of it dropped to the floor with heavy thuds, while he made room for the huge roll of parchment that held a map of Faldrass and a few detailed descriptions of its key locations and landmarks. Granted, it was still a pre-destruction map; getting surveys from proper cartographers was on the to-do list, but considering the parchment for that was significantly larger than the map itself, they'd simply make do for now.
"What're you doing?" Tyler asked almost immediately, rushing to pick up some of the fallen books and collect the pages that had scattered from within. Apparently they might have been important after all.
He didn't bother to check. Spare books were being used to pin down the edges of the map while he plucked the nearest loose stick of chalk and began circling the key regions he could draw from the front of his memory that had changed since the landslides. The new settlements, the Manor, the collapsed forests that were now death-blighted ruins known as the Badlands... "We've been idle too long." Tylar tilted his head. "That ends today. I need a good region, high-up, with plenty of clear open ground, close to a nearby settlement so that supplies can be funnelled quickly, but far enough away to give us a good margin of privacy." Wesley, the go-to personal assistant for smaller matters, stepped forwards to take up the job, but Nir'wei halted him with a hand before he got too close. "Not you. Tylar. This is very important, and I want you to draft up a list of at least three or four options to make sure that we have the best pick. I want prices for each of them, how much landmass we can afford with the Natural Affairs budget, and what sorts of construction costs we'd be looking at to outsource to the area." Gwynevere had been hunched over her usual collection of books and diaries, but the more Nir'wei talked and delegated, the slower her pencil moved - by the time he'd finished, she'd utterly abandoned whatever she'd been in the middle of and nearly tripped in her efforts to reach the table.
"What am I doing?" Wesley asked, practically breathless as his eyes darted over every inch of the rapidly filling map. There it was. He was to blame for it, there could be no doubt - the slump they'd been almost lost in for who knew how long... but they were still good people. Reliable, capable people. Give them the beginnings of a plan in motion and even after what felt like almost seasons of struggling stagnation, it was as if he could see the life being breathed back into their lungs.
"We need letters. Written to Baron-Councillor Devin and Baron Darius, with a request for... let's say four or five, able-bodied individuals. Preferably guards - people with combat training. Don't tell them what it is, not until we know for certain how many we're going to have... but they need to be comfortable working with large animals. We're going to give Faldrass an edge that few islands can match, shore up their defences and raise morale until the other Councillors are green with envy." The smile he conjured was positively devious. "Quietly reach out to someone in the Elements. Not the Militant. Air Deputy, perhaps? Someone lower? I just want a meeting, to discuss options, is all. The opportunity to work towards something very different and unique." He paused for a moment and twisted his mouth. "Councillor Mednix, too. And some information on the Rangers, since... I must be honest, I don't entirely remember what they do. One way or another, it'll be a good thing to have them both aware of." Though he had his own plans for it, of course.
Wesley scribbled it all down in his diary as Nir'wei spoke, his pencil a blur against paper until he was done, and realised a crucial point was still missing. "So what is the intention behind all of this preparation?"
Oh boy. "We, as the Office of Natural Affairs, are going to spearhead a new breed of Scalv Sohr Khal riders. Faldrass, as the base where these riders will be trained and where the Scalv Sohr Khal will be bred, will gain a new class of protectors that will act as symbols for the populace and become the most capable rangers, scouts and soldiers that they could hope for... and the Air Elements and the Rangers might even get a new rapid-response unit or two out of it, if we can negotiate an arrangement for soldiers, resources and currency to make sure it's viable for the numbers they expect."
The silence that dawned over the room was so thick, for a moment it was almost suffocating. This was an idea that he'd been mulling over for a while - quite a few seasons, if he was being entirely honest, but he'd never found quite the time or the energy to really commit to its development. In truth, he still didn't really have it... but, he'd suffered quite a revelation in the past few days. He'd been waiting for the perfect moment, the right opportunity... but nothing really came at the perfect moment, at least not intentionally. You had to make that moment for yourself, and commit to it. If he spent all of his time waiting, after all - by the time the moment came, it'd already be too late to put the plan into motion. He was still nervous, though. What if it wasn't enough? What if it was a stupid idea, and he'd have been better off just not bothering - or worse still, what if it turned out to be utterly inferior to what was already in place, a detriment to only slow things down and hold everyone back even more?
"That," Wesley breathed at last, "sounds fucking cool."
He hoped nobody saw just how much tension he breathed out when the room filled with smiles and nods of agreement. Maybe, just maybe, there was hope for him yet. "Excellent. In that case, there's no time to waste. I'll be gone for the next few days - Tylar is in charge. Marcus is to take all messages and allow nobody that isn't a member of Natural Affairs into this room, bar nobody, under no circumstances, and Wesley I want you to work closely with Tel'wehn and have those letters ready, but not posted, by the time I get back so that we can finalise them." He was pretty sure that covered everyone, and they seemed quite eager to jump to the first actual project in what felt like the entirety of his tenure in the role... until Silk, who had been conspicuously left out of these arrangements, pushed back against the wall she'd been leaning against and folded both arms over her chest in a slightly judgemental pose.
"And while everyone else is doing that, where are you going?" Okay, he should have expected this. Silk's role had left her quite left-out as of late, since he really didn't need much of a bodyguard in most circumstances and her position was somewhat redundant except for so-called official business... and even then, carried perhaps a little too much of a connotation of threat.
Still, now wasn't the time to involve her. But he also couldn't lie to her, not only because he couldn't lie to all of them at once. "There are a few key regions around Scalvoris... and above it. I'm going on an expedition, with Traveller. We're going to track down a few wild Scalv Sohr Khal... three, maybe four or even five if we can handle it. We're going to lure them in, I'm going to befriend them, and then I'm going to lead them back to Faldrass... where they can be matched with carers, and trainers... and shortly afterwards, with riders." Silk moved to open her mouth, and he knew what she was about to announce, but he wasn't having it and raised his hand before she could suck in a breath. "Since speed and efficiency is key for this, I'm not going to be able to carry anyone else on Traveller's back, so while you might want to come with me, I'm going to ditch the niceties here and say that for the purposes of this task, anyone coming with me who can't keep up is going to end up slowing me down." Oh, the scorn on Silk's face at the implication. "All the more reason to make sure this is done quickly, to give everyone the chance to catch up again." She still looked pissed, and he could hardly blame her, but it gave her some food for thought, and she seemed to latch on fairly quickly, with how quickly her eyes were darting back to the map yet again.
"Scalv Sohr Khal are rare and renowned creatures. Ordinarily, they are restricted and protected... but since technically the Office of Natural Affairs are the ones that designated them as such, I'm pretty sure I'm within my rights to go and visit them myself, especially since I have no intention of springing them in nets or harpooning them in the wings." He shuddered at the mere thought. "Consider this the first step in the Office of Natural Affairs declaring a monopoly." He paused, abruptly. "One more thing. I need three staff. I don't care where you pull them from, Faldrass Barony or other Natural Affairs business or anywhere else in Scalvoris, but Wesley, I want them working for me, and only me." Tylar's lips pursed tight in thought, but his second-in-command was likely already thinking the same thing - after all, they couldn't allow such an opportunity to be lost to themselves as well, not when it was being outsourced to so many other areas. "Put them on payroll. Allocate resources. Make sure they're outfitted, and Silk, you're taking point on all of them to make sure that they can all handle themselves. More than handle themselves." As much as he wanted to trust in her ability to keep a cool head, he knew deep down that he couldn't afford to leave a single member of the team idle while the others were firing like this. They'd end up making themselves busy, and that would never end well for anyone - or they'd lose their touch with too long left idle and unaccounted for. Silk was too good for either option. "Designate them Special Officers. I'll find them mounts, one way or another, and make sure they're up to scratch. They'll be the eyes and the ears." And, when the need demanded it, they'd be the hands.
"Everyone good?" Five heads nodded as one, and he smiled like a Cheshire. "This is it. Our first step. It's been a long time coming, huh?" For the first time in recent memory, the room filled with laughter. Genuine, happy laughter. He hadn't realised how much he'd let the place fall into disrepair until then - not just in terms of looks, though the Office still looked like an overstuffed closet in dire need of just a simple sweep of the floor and dust of the shelves. He'd let down the people of this room. No matter what, through the controversies and the problems and the absence and the struggle, they'd never abandoned him or betrayed his trust. They'd kept things in the Menagerie running, they'd kept up appearances and routines, sparse as they were - they'd done everything they could, short of outright replace him entirely, over what felt like almost an entire arc of reduced activity and lacking effort.
Today wasn't just the first step in establishing a new dawn for the Office of Natural Affairs. It was the first step in repaying the invisible, unfathomable debt he owed these people. In the moment, lost in the giddiness, he slipped. There was some old saying he'd heard Karesh mention once. Something that had struck a chord, he supposed, though the old chant had no meaning or history as far as he could tell. "For the Great Hunt!"
He knew it was a mistake the moment it left his lips. These were hardly worshippers of Karem, after all - and they'd never held some sort of organisation, regardless, unless you counted the Eternal Empire. It was a silly idea, the rumours were rife enough without stirring the pot even more, he should have just left and-- "For the fresh kill!" Tylar replied with a hearty laugh. Well, usually one just repeated 'For the Great Hunt', according to Karesh, but honestly he much preferred Tylar's interpretation, and laughed in turn... soon, surprisingly enough, joined by the others again. "Just, you know... don't actually kill them. It might be easier to ride them that way, but they're not really going to get us anywhere very fast like that..." Oh, that earned a whole lot more laughter. By the time he'd finally excised himself from the group, they'd devolved into in-jokes about exactly how far a Scalv Sohr Khal corpse could carry someone, if strapped to enough horses or perhaps carried on a barge.
Honestly, he wished he could have stayed longer to hear the entire thing... but there were many, many things to be done before then. "I suppose I'll be off. Next stop, Scalvoris Mountains."
Tylar blinked, the humour that had spent so long slowly forming on his face vanishing in an instant, replaced by the cool professionalism of a man hard at work. "Hold on. Windward Haven?" He must have read the confusion on Nir'weis face, and easily reached into a pile of books to pull out a roll of paper, which unravelled into what appeared to be a page from a history book. "Staging post of the Air Elements." He'd always thought they were all housed within the same hall - the Element Hall. They really had an entire building to themselves? Actually, scratch that - the painting of the place made it look more like an outright castle than a measly outpost - worthy of rivalling the Element Hall itself, complete with towers and peaks and castle-like ramparts. "It might be a good idea to prepare that letter for the Air Deputy sooner rather than later..." He'd certainly be killing two birds with one stone, visiting the Air Elements at the same time he procured the new stock for them... and it'd give him a good excuse to cut out the middleman and leave the Militant out of the arrangement for as long as possible. In the end, he didn't even need to nod. Wesley, Tel'wehn and Tylar banded together at once, composing and sending a letter to arrive a day before he'd land.
The rest, he supposed, would fall to him, to explain exactly how, and why, he intended to create an entire second staging post for the Air Elements outside of the Scalvoris Mountains... and use it for an entirely new breed of mounted guards, scouts and soldiers... and do it all outside of their direct scope. Easy, right?