A Dubious Peace

by Olan Thorensen

  Twenty minutes later, a procession wound through the Moreland City streets. More thousands of citizens lined the way, two and three deep, to wave, cheer, and hold high the Moreland, Caedellium, and Paramount flags. The travelers ended at a residence for important visitors.

  “This was just finished two sixdays ago,” said Abelard. “The men worked hard to complete the work in time for the heir’s visit.” The abbot smiled sadly. “In normal times, the structure would stand out as new compared to the rest of the city. Now, of course, almost the entire city is new.”

  “I’ll be interested in a detailed tour of your progress,” said Yozef. “Even though I was here only a few months ago, I see changes since then.”

  “Progress? Yes, I suppose it does seem that way for anyone not from Moreland. However, for us, the rebuilding is painfully slow and the memories still too fresh of what was lost.”

  Yozef had a major concern he wanted to deal with immediately. “What of those two factions’ simmering resentment over not gaining the hetman position? Is there anything I should do as Paramount?”

  “No, that would only inflame a few of the people. It’s best handled internally. The situation was never a serious danger, but we’ve been concerned about hindering the clan from moving forward. Originally, four major factions vied for the hetman position. Two of those strongly supported the decision on the next hetman. I know for certain that one and possibly both of those were as much concerned about one of the other factions winning as they were about their own possible success. Once the succession was settled by the Grand Council, those two factions have accepted it and no longer have such aspirations. Of the other two, they are finding themselves more and more isolated. The leader of one has been expelled from the Grand Council, and the other has lost enough support that we don’t think they’re a factor any longer.”

  “All right,” said Yozef. “I leave it up to you. Discontents will always exist, but as conditions improve and Moreland City is rebuilt, I expect only a little more time is needed.”

  The next two days passed with few accomplishments . . . in Yozef’s opinion. There were seemingly an endless stream of meetings with individuals and groups; speeches by people Yozef knew about and people he didn’t recognize and quickly forgot; and more opportunities for the people of Moreland City to view the heir, the heir’s mother, and the Paramount. Yozef gave the same short speech enough times that he had to focus on not sounding like a disinterested clerk on Earth saying, “Have a nice day,” because of company policy.

  At Yozef’s insistence, one day every sixday was reserved for whatever Anarynd wanted to do, whether rest, accede to meetings, or visit with relatives who had traveled to Moreland City. The latter visits ended up being restricted to her Aunt Glynis and younger brother Iwun. Other relatives were told they would have to wait until later in the month.

  Yozef spent part of those days with Anarynd and Odysius, but most of the time he met with members of the Grand Council, took detailed tours of the reconstruction, and went on tours of the immediate surrounding areas—leaving it up to Anarynd if she wanted to come.

  “I believe you’re doing well on the reconstruction,” Yozef told Abelard one day after the abbot started to apologize for their progress. “You’re building an entire large city literally from the ground up.”

  “Well, I’m glad that’s your opinion,” said Abelard. “Perspective is hard when you know what was lost and when every day we experience the destroyed parts of Moreland City still being cleared. We certainly wouldn’t have gotten this far without you and the other clans’ help. Almost half of the workers are carpenters, masons, and other craftsmen who are not Morelanders.”

  “Yes, but you’re providing most of the manual labor. I see men and women of all ages working. It’s a combined effort from your clan and the other clans helping as their part of the union. In return, perhaps sometime in the future, Moreland will be called on to help other clans as much.”

  More to Yozef’s liking was the visit to the budding textile facility five miles west of Moreland City, on the opposite side of the city from the train station. Mark had provided detailed diagrams of his “speed loom” and “many spinner.” He had spent several days in Moreland City explaining the diagrams and the operation to a team of woodworkers and weavers selected by Abelard from Moreland Province and Owill Brell from Brell Province. Yozef’s vision was that Brell and Moreland provinces would jointly become the center of a textile industry.

  Another part of the plan was to have Owill provide oversight into progress in both provinces. Mark’s many other projects took too much of his time for Yozef to add textiles unless it was necessary, and Moreland had enough problems with reconstruction. The Moreland Grand Council had reluctantly agreed to the organization.

  News had come that the development team in Moreland City believed the machines were operating satisfactorily enough to plan on increasing production. Owill traveled from Hanslow to meet Yozef and Abelard so the three of them could witness the demonstrations of the first spinner and speed loom.

  “I admit I was skeptical,” Brell said later to Yozef when they were alone after the demonstrations. “I’ve seen women in my family making clothes, though during these last years my wife bought most of the clothes for ourselves and the children. One of my cousins was considered a master weaver. She made good coin selling what she wove. She was much older than me, and I remember watching her use her loom. This one here must be four or five times faster. This will be important for my province’s future, as well as Moreland’s.”

  “I suspect you understand the problems, Owill,” said Yozef.

  “There are always problems. It’s up to us to solve them. But the problems are only relevant to our purposes. At the least, I expect clothing for everyone on Caedellium will be more plentiful, cheaper, and of greater variety and quality. That’s in the future, of course. I’m not one to jump into something this new too quickly. For one thing, once these machines are known, other provinces will start using them, so I need to consider how to wisely commit my province’s people and resources. And yes, I know you say you’ll work to let our two provinces be the lead in textiles.”

  Was it my idea to make Owill the new hetman of this clan and province? Yozef thought. Or maybe Maera’s? I forget, but whoever it was hit pay dirt. He’ll be cautious and take this stepwise.

  “Workers, machines, markets, and fiber are the four main issues I see,” said Brell. “They all interrelate. We’ll need more machines, more workers trained to use them, and a lot more fiber. The first two are the easiest. We can make as many of the machines as we want. Workers are harder because we need time to train them. Then there are the consequences to society of having workers change where they work. You say Kaldwel thinks it’s more efficient to gather spinners and weavers into groups. I understand the advantage, but I’m not sure that will work. Most of the initial weavers will be women. That might work only for those who live near the textile sites. They aren’t going to leave their families or even travel too much and be away from home.”

  “I agree, Owill. How about a ‘hybrid’ . . . uh . . . a system between solitary workers and large gatherings. Just imagining an example, maybe a village with ten or twenty people living nearby who gather for work spinning and weaving. I could imagine twenty, fifty, a hundred such smaller groups, instead of two or three centralized workplaces. It wouldn’t be as efficient, but efficient enough.”

  Brell folded his arms and stared skyward. “Yes . . . that might be a compromise. Of course, we still need more fiber. It does no good to have machines and workers if there’s no fiber to work with. Kaldwel’s machines were developed to work with flurok fibers. We could quickly exhaust all present sources. Farmers may need a year or two to increase production. We have enough undeveloped land for that purpose, but again there’s the worker problem. Existing farmers are usually at the limit of what they can do. New farms will need new farmers and workers, and where do they come from? Oh . . . I know it wou
ld open up opportunities for people who want to farm but don’t have the coin. We can help with that, but we could still have a shortage.”

  “All important issues,” said Yozef, “but I believe they can be solved over time.”

  No reason to get into the idea of bringing in immigrants to fill worker gaps or the possibility of Mark designing farm machinery, thought Yozef. Let’s focus on startup issues and go from there.

  One topic Brell had only brushed on was that three fiber types were used on Anyar. Mark’s machines were developed for flurok, a flax-like plant and fiber. Also commonly used were the wool of krykors, the sheep/goat-like Anyar analog, and tougher fibers of the rosolun plant that were similar to hemp. The names were another suggestion that Caedelli and Frangelese were closely related languages. Krykor was the same word in both languages, with the other two fibers having only minor sound shifts: flurox to flurok, and risolum to rosolun.

  The flurok machines would not work with the other two fibers. Development teams would have to modify Mark’s designs if Caedellium textiles were to use all three fibers, which would lead to similar issues. Rosolun farming would have to increase, as would the krykor herds. Realistically, years might pass before there would be enough fiber production to branch into all three fiber classes.

  Yozef sometimes felt dizzy when contemplating all the interconnections and the problems.

  “And we haven’t even gotten to markets,” said Brell. “There’s no point doing any of this without buyers, which means the Landoliners and the Iraquiniks.”

  “I’m working on that end, Owill. I’ll also ask Balwis to have his people query the ambassadors in Preddi City about the possibility of importing fibers. We’d like to be independent, but a two-way trade of fibers and cloth could work as a temporary measure until Caedellium’s fiber production increases.

  “I’ll leave you to gradually develop parts of the system internal to Caedellium for both Brell and Moreland provinces. I remain firm that you should lead the development for both clans until Moreland is more organized. They’re too occupied with rebuilding their province to take a major role in the initial stages.”

  Brell shook his head. “I don’t see how I’m going to do all that’s necessary and also be hetman to a new clan, many of whose members are still emotionally tied to being Eywellese. I need managers and leaders.”

  He’s right, thought Yozef. In retrospect, we might have been better off with Owill as the secretary of whatever—commerce, industry, agriculture, or maybe all three rolled together.

  “We’ll have to find people then,” said Yozef. “I expect that talented and capable people will arise on their own as this develops. We may have to push people into positions of responsibility earlier than we’d like, but I believe enough candidates will appear for all this to work. And I agree with you that this will have to be done gradually. Do the best you can and be alert for people to take over as all this develops. We’ll have a better idea where we are a year from now.”

  Yozef also didn’t see a reason to mention, yet, that he would be sharing Mark’s textile machines with the Fuomi. If the Frangel guilds had the machines stolen in the raid on Tregallon, it was only a matter of time before Frangel switched its textile industry to the new machines. The Fuomi would eventually learn of the changes, but it would give Yozef some credits with a critical ally to share the knowledge. It was too bad Caedellium had no connection with the Harrasedics, who, according to Mark, were important mercantile peoples. Sharing would not impact potential markets for Caedelli products either. Fuomon and the Harrasedics were too far away by sail to compete with markets in the western nations. Besides, Caedellium would have new dyes.

  Also, Mark pointed out that no matter if his machines were adopted worldwide, he knew enough of the milestones in textile manufacturing to give Caedellium an advantage for many decades. One example was the Jacquard machine, which was a loom with an attachment of large punched cards that determined the weave pattern for producing more intricate designs. Mark claimed the machine was more labor-intensive but could produce higher-value products.

  The cards were a major concept adapted for the punch cards of early computers. Yozef doubted they would get to even the simplest computational machines in his lifetime. Still, they could leave such instruction sequences as a theoretical concept to lie in wait for a future right time.

  Other loom developments could eventually be introduced, including power looms and semi-automatic looms, where four or more looms were operated by a single worker—but these were well into the future.

  “I have good news,” Yozef told Anarynd the morning he would return to Orosz City after his sixday in Moreland. “Abbot Abelard has suggested it may not be necessary for you and Odysius to spend the entire month here.”

  Anarynd’s face lit up. She had just handed Odysius to Sylia Orkwyn to change before rocking him to sleep.

  “How much less? I’m ready today. Oh . . . I don’t mean that. Everyone has been courteous, too much so at times. I just miss home, Maera, and the rest of the children.”

  Her expression darkened. “Is anything wrong? I haven’t offended anyone, have I?”

  “No, the abbot knows these visits aren’t your favorite activity, but he thinks this year’s visit was so well received, he suggests that more good would be done if you traveled to some of the other major towns to show off Odysius. Perhaps four-fifths of the Moreland population is in the northern half of the province. Abelard believes visits to three towns would allow the surrounding people to gather for your visits. It would be most of two sixdays of travel and formal occasions in those towns, but the total visit would be only four sixdays, instead of the scheduled six sixdays of the month. In that case, I think Maera might come for a few days, and then I would return to formally dedicate a memorial to the Battle of Moreland City and our first victory over the Narthani.”

  Well . . . it was really a standoff, thought Yozef, but the Morelanders can use all the affirmations they can get.

  Anarynd sighed. “I assume one of the towns is Dreton. That’s where my family is from and where I was raised. It’s the second or third largest town in Moreland after Moreland City. That would mean I couldn’t avoid seeing my father and uncles. I suppose I should truly forgive my mother for how she treated me after I escaped the Narthani, but I’m afraid, no matter what The Word says, that is too far for me to go with my father, his brothers, and my older brother.”

  Yozef couldn’t remember whether he’d ever heard that brother’s name. He was certain he had never heard Anarynd speak it.

  “Remember, Anarynd, no matter how you were treated then, now you’re the mother of the heir and the wife of the Paramount. You can always tell your father to shut up before Odysius or I have his head.”

  Anarynd giggled with both hands over her mouth before she relaxed them. “No, you won’t, and neither would Odysius, but it is a tempting thought. OH! God forgive that thought. I didn’t mean it.”

  “I think God easily forgives passing thoughts, especially ones quickly recanted.”

  CHAPTER 22

  GOING TOO WELL

  Yozef arrived at his office in a buoyant mood. And why not? After returning from the Moreland visit, the Kolsko family had been together for two entire months without travel. Yozef had made only brief visits to Mark’s projects, received progress reports, and always left smug that once given authority and resources, Mark would move at a run. Their brief contretemps, if not forgotten, was at least submerged.

  His good mood had been further heightened the previous evening when, at dinner, two pieces of similar news were announced. Maera had received word that Ceinwyn had given birth to her and Balwis’s second son, born healthy and squalling. Anarynd had then all but bounced in her seat, her face radiant, when she declared she was certain she was pregnant. It had been almost two years since Xena’s and Odysius’s births, and she had begun to worry there would be no more children from her. Both Maera and Yozef told her it would happen in God’s time,
which did nothing to ease her concern. Although Yozef appreciated her enthusiasm to bring about that condition, he had mixed feelings about the number of offspring he was already not spending time with. However, once the announcement was made, Anarynd’s and Maera’s ebullience was contagious.

  Then there was the telegraph. Three months ago had been the official final test of the telegraph system before they would commit to connecting the entire island. Producing the wire had been overcome, as Mark predicted, and wiring of all the province capitals was well underway.

  Yozef had originally tried tamping down his expectations of what Mark could accomplish. After several years of wishing for an engineer, to have one literally sail into his life was suspiciously fortuitous. However, the successful exchange of telegraph messages between Orosz City and Preddi City only three months after Mark arrived had bolstered Yozef’s confidence that other problems could be solved. He was uncertain whether the telegraph problems had been trivial or Mark was an exceptionally competent engineer. The following months had eased his reservations.

  Mark was delivering on the first machine tools. The components of the first lathe were the easiest part. The cutting surfaces/points were the problem. Fortuitously, Yozef had previously directed a mineral survey of Caedellium to identify potential ore deposits to add to those already known, some of which were actively mined. Mark had pushed hard for an even more extensive mineral survey and had samples sent to Orosz City. He’d had just enough experience in ore recognition when earning a master’s degree in material sciences to make educated guesses. From there, Yozef directed lab crews in trial extractions. The survey maps were still expanding, but they confirmed the extensive iron veins running down the middle of Caedellium, plus copper ores. Several of these sites also included high-enough levels of cobalt and nickel to think about producing steel alloys.