“‘Ready’ may be a generous word,” Willard interjected. “Nothing can be made in three days with regards to the Philosopher’s Box.”
“Three days to plan, fortify.” She’d have to spell it out, apparently.
“Fortify with what?” Gregory snapped back. “There are no weapons.”
Arianna sighed at the lot of them acting like children.
“Let us resume the Tribunal,” Florence announced suddenly. She looked around at the crowd that had filled the hall, journeymen and initiates watching the vicars bicker like children. Arianna took a step away and Florence caught her as she was about to turn. “You too.”
Arianna was picking her battles, and she chose not to fight the girl on the matter.
Once more, the doors closed on the meeting hall. But the room was significantly less full. Only the vicars—who all stood—and a handful of masters clustered around the lowest floor. Arianna sat herself on the edge of one of the higher rows by the door, more than ready to make her escape at the first possible opportunity.
The vicars continued to squabble. Ethel withdrew from the conversation entirely, whispering to the other Alchemists. Willard tried to appeal to everyone’s collective sense of logic; Dove preached action, backed up by Gregory until she refused to agree to let him train all Ravens with a weapon. Powell looked lost and frustrated every time he failed as a peacekeeper.
Arianna rested her elbow on her knee, her chin in her palm, watching the chaos unfold.
“None of this would be an issue if she—” Gregory threw a finger in her direction and with it reminded everyone else that she was still in the room “—had merely given us the schematics for the box from the beginning.” Arianna wondered if his accusation was reason enough to kill him where he stood.
“How many times will you take that shot at me before you realize it’s missing?” Arianna quipped.
Gregory’s hand was at his gun. Let him fight her. She’d taken down Dragons twice his size and skill.
“Even if she had—” Willard started.
“Even if I had we would be in the same spot.” Arianna spoke over the man who was well her senior in years and experience. But she had no remorse. She didn’t want to be at the forefront, but if she was to be thrust there, then she would speak for herself. Gregory opened his mouth to speak, and she spoke over him as well. “If I had given you the schematics from the first day, it would have taken weeks to set up any kind of manufacturing to roll out on the scale we need. And that’s ignoring the fact that a key component cannot even be found on our world. A problem that the Vicar Raven still has not solved.”
The room had been effectively silenced, but Arianna didn’t want to stop.
“This, this here, is the reason I have held the box for years. This is what I tried to caution you against.” Arianna looked down on them all like the children they were. “From the first minute, it was all you focused on, to the neglect of other necessities.” She gave a nod to Powell, who seemed surprised to be addressed directly. “The Philosopher’s Box is powerful. I can’t deny it. Likely more powerful than any of you realize. But the box is a tool that strengthens people. Loom can have all the power in the world, but if we are divided and squabbling, it will matter little as the Dragon King makes sport of our disorganization. Even a Perfect Chimera can be picked off with little issue by a trained Dragon. There has to be a system around making Perfect Chimera, training them to fight, giving them as many organs as possible. Systems we just don’t have.”
“She’s right.” Florence was finally on the same page, and the relief of it was like cool water on fiery flesh. “Here we are, proving her right. Vicar Willard, how long to set up some kind of manufacturing for the box?”
The vicar looked back to her, but Arianna stayed silent. If they wanted her input, they’d have to ask. “Well, Arianna said weeks, so I would estimate . . . two months? But only after we have the flowers. And only if we can use the remaining machinery in Ter.3.”
“Vicar Dove, you have three weeks to figure out a secure way to get us flowers, and hopefully some stock.”
“Three weeks?” the vicar balked at Florence. “I don’t know—”
“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.” Florence silenced the vicar from further objection with a look that Arianna didn’t know she could make.
“Vicar Gregory, are there any weapons left?” That was the moment Florence’s voice softened and the whole atmosphere of the room with it. It would take some time before the mere mention of the Revolvers’ Guild would not fill every man and woman on Loom with pangs of loss and sorrow.
“No. Not beyond what every Revolver carries on their person or had stashed in some alternative location.” Even the vicar lost some of his anger in reporting the fact. “Not unless there were any in transit through the Ravens’ routes?”
“It’s possible. There’d be a record at the guild hall.”
A record. Speaking of, she needed to get the copy of Louie’s ledger to Florence.
“Good, we’re all headed there anyway.” Florence continued in the wake of everyone’s surprise. “The king expects to find us here. He knows all of Loom has assembled. I have no doubt that when he comes back, he will do so with force, ready to attack the instant he finds us noncompliant.”
“So, we move.” Willard finally sat, a hand on his knees as he eased himself down.
“We take Loom underground.”
“Underground?” Vicar Dove repeated. “Florence, you cannot possibly mean . . .”
“The Dragons are a threat to us as long as they can use their gliders. If they cannot do that, our bullets can reach them.”
Arianna thought back to Leona’s glider crashing into the entry to the Underground they had escaped into months ago. It was solid logic grounded in proof, even if no one else knew it.
“That’s assuming the Dragons even know the entry point . . .” Vicar Dove murmured.
“The Ravens’ Folly? You can’t possibly expect us to go there.” Willard wiped sweat from the back of his neck.
“I don’t expect you to. You will go down to Ter.3 and begin to set up manufacturing for the box. It will be faster to use whatever remains at the Rivets’ Guild than start from scratch. And we can use the existing train lines for transport. They should mostly be intact.”
“Alchemists will be the first to go.” Vicar Ethel turned away from the masters she had been whispering with. “Train us to implant the box, and we can complete the organs for each Chimera, should we have enough of a farm to harvest from.”
“Can you harvest from Perfect Chimera?” Vicar Powell asked.
Arianna grimaced at the idea but answered anyway. “You can. My organs regrow as a Dragon’s would.”
“That’s convenient.” Vicars Ethel and Powell said at nearly the same time. Arianna was no longer going to allow herself to be in a room alone with either of them.
“Who are you to order us?” Vicar Gregory’s tone had lost some bite, but the question was still pointed enough.