Frozen Stars Over Wonderland - Chapter 24 (Patreon)

There was a letter waiting for Alfre the next morning when she awoke. She stared at the elegant font on the envelope, hardly recognizing Ren’s name in such a fancy script. It certainly wasn’t Ren’s handwriting. She’d seen Ren’s signature before, and it didn’t look like this. She must have gotten a scribe, lazy ass. She tore open the envelope, unfolding the letter tucked inside. Her eyes slid over the words before her, written in a much easier to read print – Ren’s actual handwriting.

“What does it say?” Elias asked, passing Spica her morning coffee (black, easiest cup to make in the morning).

“Apparently, when Ren left with her guild, she made everyone on the council agree that she could choose who took over her seat,” Alfre informed them, continuing to read over the letter. “And now that we’ve established ourselves, she wants us to take over. Especially since there’s something important she needs to inform us of.”

“Something important?” Spica echoed. “And she couldn’t just put it in the letter?”

“I guess she only want to have to say it once,” Alfre said. She wondered what it could be. Did it have something to do with the intercontinental communications project her guild had taken on? Had they finally heard back?

“I assume this means she’s called a meeting,” Elias guessed, his ears twitching nervously.

Alfre gave a hum of agreement. “They’ll be here at the end of the week. Though it’s important enough that she wishes we had ‘trains or something’ in the game to make travel easier.”

He frowned. “But she loves riding the elk…”

“Not right now, she doesn’t,” Alfre muttered.

Alfre called on June and Atticus, trying to figure out if they’d heard anything else from Ren about the meeting.

“We got letters a few days ago,” June said. “She asked us to support you when you take up the position on the council. And that something bad is happening in Ahmar.”

“You haven’t heard about it?” Elias asked, sounding concerned. “But I thought you were part of the intercontinental communications project.”

“I am, but we split the workload between a few of us,” June informed him. “My guild’s been in charge of creating lines of communication with Berdea. And Wall Street Spade has been in charge of contacting Kowhai. When we split up the work, Ran offered to take up contact with Ahmar. He’s been continuing to work on it with the Crystal Moon Kingdom even after they left the city.”

“Have you had any success with establishing lines of communication?” Alfre asked, hands clasped on the table before her, looking to June all the more like a guild leader than she’d expected.

“Yes, to varying degrees of success. Berdea is, by design as the southern continent, the farthest away from Siniy. Maldrom’s had more success with Kowhai. He’s used a combination of summons and teleportation spells. Both have limits, you know, teleports can only go so far and summons can only hang around for so long. He lost a few messages in the ocean the first few times. I hadn’t known what sort of system Ran had been using, or what the success rate was.”

“What had you been doing?”

June looked a little sheepish. “Paying Wonderlanders to carry messages for me. I think the establishment of a post office using Wonderlanders might be a good idea. But the process of sending a message that way is long, and fairly arduous. As I’m sure you can imagine.”

“If you were going to use Wonderlanders, you’d need more advanced methods of transportation,” Spica pointed out. “Even something like a single engine propeller plane would be better than elk back or sail boat.”

June and Atticus nodded.

“That’s why we’ve got some engineers in the Public Works Committee working on designs for new modes of transportation,” Atticus said. “We have a power source here we never had in the real world.”

“Magic?” Alfre guessed.

Atticus nodded again. “Even the most basic engine running on magic would be far more efficient and clean than any steam engine back home.”

Spica raised a thin brow. “Steam engines? Why work with something so rudimentary?”

“Because it’s so rudimentary,” Atticus explained. “It’s easier to build and work out the math on steam engines that anything more advanced. We may have magic, but everything else here is early Industrial at best.”

Alfre sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. “So you’ve had some success with communication. Do you know if the other continents have heard anything from Ahmar?”

June shook her head. “They’re all trying to perfect their communication strategies with us before they try anything else. Right now, we’re the information hub.”

“And yet we have no idea what’s going on with a quarter of the world’s Fell population,” Alfre muttered, running a hand down her face. “Ran, what are you doing?”

“More than that.” Alfre looked up at Elias when he spoke. “Ahmar is the largest continent, and its Fell city, the City of Heart, has the highest population of the entire game. We’re not missing communication with a fourth of the Fell, we’re missing communication with half.”

Alfre sighed. “Well that’s doubly not good, then. Ran, you bawbag. If this is the extent of your communication skills with your friends, I hate to see how well you communicate with your boyfriend.”