Foundry tour

Shoyo, chief of foundry operations shifted through the thick stacks of vellum parchment on her desk; stamping each with her official seal.

"Tsk!" she hissed as she had to re-stamp the document again. Her request for paper was denied by the officials as apparently, a majority of the sheets were lost on another ship during the storm that whisked them away to a frozen wasteland in another world. Whatever reserves left over were being hoarded by the higher ups until suitable a production chain was possible.

Hence, she was left with cheap and easily workable parchment made from treated animal skin.

"Haaaah..." She sighed while re-dipping her seal, it would take some time to get used to the low-quality writing material.

They did not have the chemical or mechanical industry to support the large-scale processing of paper despite having ample resources from the logging operations in the mountains upstream.

Her eyes scanned over a particularly troublesome request. With the depletion of their coal reserves, the sea vessels had taken up a massive chunk of the charcoal supplies; leaving little for the burgeoning plant.

Due to lack of materials and manpower, the foundry was not only responsible for processing ore, but also mining ore, refining blast powder and carbonizing wood to produce charcoal; most of these processes required charcoal as fuel or and ingredient.

However, they had to provide charcoal for the never-ending fuel voids that were the sea vessels as the charcoal burned much faster than coal. Shoyo could only comfort herself with the hopes of a coal quarry or mine being discovered soon.

'Heh... as if that's even possible....' She thought ruefully.

According to the geographers who extensively studied the surrounding soil and rock formations; it was highly unlikely for any such discoveries to be made even though the island was a volcanic in nature.

Unlike the prosperous Fire isles, this island lacked much, if any farmable land, the climate was barely habitable and unsuited for most crops. However, what the land lacked in habitability- it made up for in minerals. Each time mineralogists were sent out they found another deep vein of precious minerals.

Unlike the fire islands, these lands didn't seem to have coal, gold, iron, silver or platinum. Instead, there was copper, tin, lead and nickel. The copper and nickel veins were particularly extensive. Not to mention the ample basalt rock formations which would be indispensable for construction.

The higher ups were going crazy over the copper discoveries. While many people thought of iron as the fire nation's most valued metal- which was fair as it was the most consumed metal in the grand war effort. Copper and Nickel were one of the most important metals to the nation.

These metals were used almost as much as iron, with copper as a vital conductive material in electronics and wide-scale chemical uses. While Nickel alloys were is used for armour plating and in propeller shafts and turbine blades.

Limestone and quartz were also found in abundance near and at the shores and in time they would be good sources for cement and glass manufacturing in when enough manpower and infrastructure was available.

Her heart ached as she signed off on the charcoal requests, placed the parchment aside and began leafing through other reports. Each one she looked at gave her more headaches.

"Collapsed mineshafts..... explosion accidents.... Machine injuries... all at high rates..." Shoyo whispered.

She was well aware that her position and that of hundreds of other officials and site managers would be lost in a regular situation. The numerous regulatory offices and administrators of the empire would be at her throat for numerous hazard and risk violations.

In normal situations the plant workers, equipment, materials and processes would be of high quality. Regulations would be placed on the machines and materials used while the workers would all be well trained in their tasks.

However, this was no longer a normal situation and many of the workers aren't educated or trained enough to meet imperial standards. She herself was a just an civilian who was traveling to the colonies to find work as a junior administrator in mining operations!

They had no choice but to use subpar equipment which was thrown together from the corpse of the damaged emperor class battleship: the Azulon. It was being cannibalized to create steam engines, furnaces and other vital tools that required highly treated steel. Even now, large portions of the ship was still being disassembled and reassembled into new machines.

"Haaah...." she clasped the bridge between her nose as she heard a knock at her room's door.

'This can't be good....' She looked up

"Enter!"

The door opened promptly, the frigid air of the wasteland they were stuck on poured in and blasted her. Even with the relatively higher temperatures of the plant, the air was still damnably cold.

She saw the face of the person who came inside and had to forcibly steel her expression so that he didn't notice here displeasure at the sight of him, she knew it wouldn't work so she turned her head to look at her documents.

"Chief." The man greeted.

"What is it now Tozai?" she tried to hide the mounting frustration in her voice. It wasn't his fault really, he was just the messenger, but his appearance usually heralded bad news.

"Ma'am, good news!" His voice sounded chirpy.

She looked up at him, his amber eyes shining with glee.

"I just received a Dragon-Hawk from the northern geology team! They've found a raw crystal vein in the north. The minerologists stationed there hasn't sent word yet but just by the looks of it diamonds and topaz have been spotted!"

She released a sigh, 'Well that's some good news.' It meant she would have more work in the future but at least there were no deaths or injuries.

She was about to say something else when a thunderous knock was heard.

"Chief!" she heard a familiar voice.

"Enter!"

The door opened and another came into her office, it was her junior officer, Ozo.

"Ma'am... The ... The crowned prince is here!" The man shouted.

"What!" she jumped to her feet.

'This is just great!' She felt a pulsing ache developing in the back of her head as she scrambled to meet the dragon of the west.

(-)

Moments later, she stood outside in the blasting chill, cupping her fists to the Crown Prince.

"Greetings your highness, I'm the chief of foundry operation, Shoyo. It is an honour to have you here." Her eyes couldn't help but roam over those he was with.

Apart from the prince and his royal guard, there was a mix of natives and fellow fire nationals. Though most of the natives stood apart.

They were even more strange looking compared to the regular natives. The fur wrapped group of four were all covered in primitive tattoos and were mostly ravern haired. A rather tall native woman stood at the forefront.

The wooly, black hair framing her face could do little to hide her chiseled jaw and jutting forehead. Her green eyes flittered about, though she held herself with poise, a one primitive but she was certainly different than the others.

'A chieftain? His wife, his daughter?c she wondered.

"Ah miss Shoya! You didn't have to come all the way here personally! I just requested and escort to show us around." His highness' amber eyes seemed to smile at her.

It was one of the first times she was this close to royalty. She didn't feel any oppressive aura or presence. The prince himself was rather amiable with his diminutive size, kind eyes and calm demeanor. This was not what one would expect from a hardened general and one of the most formidable fire benders in history.

"My prince, we didn't know you were coming.... I would've made preparations for you." She rushed to say.

"My visit is rather prompt. Don't worry, this isn't an inspection... I just wish to show around my guests. They are rather interested in the mines." The prince waved away her concerns.

"Ah! Where are my manners, these fine people are delegates from Driftbark in the west, this is Lady Stane and these are her faithful guards." The prince pointed out the natives.

"Greetings." She said in their direction but she could see they weren't paying attention to her. They were too busy looking around..

She didn't feel offended at all, it was only natural for uncivilized barbarians to be awed by just the ramshackle works of the fire nation.

"You may return to your duties miss Shoyo, I'm sure you're very busy. Just send an escort to explain the inner works of the plant." The prince dismissed her.

"Y-yes your highness. I'll do that right away." She did have a lot of work to do. Though she wouldn't mind showing the prince around, walking with savages wasn't very appealing. In her opinion, the natives were good for nothing more than heavy labour-worse than earth kingdom scum.

(-)

Ubba looked at the magical crafts surrounding them with awe. He was so enraptured that he didn't even care for the sweat the ran down his back.

He looked at the fire men running around doing various tasks. Shoveling charcoal into metal boxes, ferrying around rocks down the mountain side and tending to the large, monstrous beasts that bellowed loudly as they hauled wagons of material

He never believed the rider that came to driftwood hall on the orders of the magnars who claimed to be summoning his lord and lady to discuss threats fire witches on the island. He wondered at the time if lord magnar went mad or if it was some trap to bring his liege low.

The Magnars and the Sanes shared a bloody past and tense present. They claimed themselves overlordship of the lands due to their so-called blood of the children, yet the abhorred skinchanging and oppressed the woods witches in their lands.

They separated the denizens of the west with their claw pass and charged them heavy tolls whenever his lord wished to trade with the east. If I wasn't for their position on the island, house magnar would be no more.

However, the lobsters weren't lying or japing.

There were fire witches on the island, Igor consulted his woods witches and the young lady skinchanged and flew to the fire men's stronghold to confirm it.

He never doubted the lady but it was unbelievable when the lady spoke of magical crafts wrought in metal, strange beasts and red clad men warriors.

Now here he stood, looking at the marvels in the flesh. He watched as the magical crafts moved on their own- bellowing loudly and farting black smoke as they worked.

It was then he heard a shout and then a boom! He ducked as the earth beneath them shook with the sounds of distant tumbling.

Instinctively he drew his sword and moved to protect his lady. The fire men didn't draw their weapons but they did turn to them.

"Ubba, Sigfard, Rakka, Stva! Put yer feckin' weapons away!" The lady shouted at them.

"B-but M'lady!" He was reluctant. Whatever magic the fire men used must be terrible weapon! What else could make the ground shake in such a way?!

It was as if the gods had descended or thunder had fallen from the skies!

The small man which seemed to the lord of the fire men spoke to lady Halga in fire tongue before the smokey shore natives with them spoke in common.

"The booms are caused by black powder. It is somethin' used ta clear out stone and make way for digging."

'Black powder!? Just how much magic do these fire men have?!' He was deeply shocked and disturbed however, there was nothing he could do as his charge wished to continue further in. Ubba casted a prayer to the old gods for strength.

As they continued, he kept his eye out for sacrificial alters and blood but there was none to be seen, only heat, steam, smoke and bright liquid which poured from cauldrons!

When lady halga questioned them about what the hot liquid was, the herwyn girl spoke for the fire men, saying it was metal! The fire men somehow took the stones and turned them into liquid metal!

He wondered if this was how his castle forged sword was made.

The sword he wielded was passed down for generations within his tribe and was taken from the clutches of a stark bannerman in an ancient battle.

The stoneborn didn't know how to make the metal swords so each one was prized. He was the sworn shield of the Stanes of Driftwood Hall. If the fire men and the Stanes went to war he would stand and fight. But he truly hoped it wouldn't be the case.

'By the gods...'