Dorn didn't wait for me to answer.
He turned and ran back toward the town hall. I followed with Henrik beside me. The square had become louder behind us.
Axes struck iron-tusk bone. Knives opened thick hide. Children who had spent the last week hiding in cellars stood near the market awnings and watched steam rise from the fire pits.
For the first time since we entered Kaltbach, the town smelled different from smoke and dirt.
The town hall's upper room had been turned into a temporary command post.
Lena stood over a brass-framed comm crystal on the long council table. Its blue core pulsed unevenly, struggling against the storm still moving through the northern hills.
Dorn stood at the far side of the room, one hand pressed over the crystal.
"Connection's stable. For now," Lena said.
The crystal flashed.
Augustin's voice came through in a thin wash of static.
"Kaspar?"
"I'm here."
The relief in his exhale came through.
"Good. We received reports that you had reached Kaltbach, then reports that House Hexenzeit had surrounded it, then reports that you had driven through their cordon in six magi-cars." A pause. "The accounts became less reliable after that."
"I sent them away."
"I know. Major Brauer's account reached us."
I looked toward the rain-streaked window.
"And?"
"And you now have two territories."
I went still.
Henrik glanced at me.
"How did that happen?" I asked.
Augustin was quiet for half a second.
"Elara supported Varen's petition. Publicly."
"That was never going to be free."
"No." His voice lowered. "She amended the grant."
"Tell me."
"The Hall accepted the amended charter. The provisional grant now includes Kaltbach, its surrounding demesne, Grenzheim, and the Grenzheim garrison district."
For a moment, I heard only the static.
I should have been angry. A town in the north and a garrison town on the southern front, weeks of road and the Empire between them. It would split every plan I had made.
"Kaspar?" Augustin asked.
"I'm here."
"The title remains provisional until the Crown seal is placed. The house designation has been entered as House Grenzwacht."
"Grenzwacht?"
"Asena's choice."
I could hear the faintest trace of satisfaction in Augustin's voice.
"She said it fit."
"It does."
"Then you accept the full grant?"
"It's going to be hell for us, but I accept."
Augustin continued before the connection could fade.
"There is more. I am leaving the capital immediately."
"Already?"
"Yes. We have everything we need."
I looked down at the town square through the window.
"Everything?"
"Supplies, surveyors, contracts, tools, timber, metal stock, and every person I can persuade to get into a wagon before dawn." Augustin sounded tired. "The first construction teams will begin work as soon as the roads can support the freight."
Papers rustled on the other end of the crystal.
"For now, Voralberg Magitek remains in the capital."
"Good."
"But everything that doesn't need Academy personnel will begin transferring to Kaltbach," Augustin said. "Simple casings. Cooling housings. Basic copper fittings. Ironwood preparation once the processing compounds are secure. Repetitive components. High-volume work that can be taught, standardized, and produced by people with strong hands and proper supervision."
"We can start with that," I said.
"In the meantime we'll expand with warehouses, a freight yard, housing, and a proper road system."
The crystal hissed.
Augustin's voice returned sharper.
"Also, Rolf began speaking to potential recruits. Mostly First Circle candidates and people with no noble patronage."
"How many?" I asked.
"Rolf has seven interested already. Three applied Magitek students. Two low-level formation analysts. An alchemy assistant. One glyph student."
"Take them."
Augustin paused.
"All of them?"
"If they are trustworthy, all of them. Don't recruit for the positions we need this month. We need people before the rest of the Empire understands what we're building," I said. "When Kasimir and Elara realize that we are gathering specialists they will begin buying everyone available. They will try to starve us of people before they try to starve us of coin."
Augustin's voice had become firmer.
"Noted. I'll prepare long-term contracts. Housing guarantees. Family relocation support where necessary. A share of profits for lead workers."
"Good."
He was already turning it into a ledger.
"I'll send the first route report as soon as we clear the capital," Augustin said. "And Kaspar?"
"Watch the road," I said.
"You too."
The blue core dimmed.
Lena lifted one hand from the outer brass frame.
"Don't go anywhere," she said. "There's another connection waiting."
The crystal flickered again.
"Cousin."
Varen.
I stepped closer to the comm crystal.
"Prince Varen."
"You have Kaltbach. And Grenzheim."
"Apparently."
His voice held a thin amusement.
"Elara has given you a magnificent problem."
"She thinks so."
A brief silence.
"You need to leave Kaltbach immediately."
"I just arrived."
"You have a mayor to appoint. A garrison to establish. Augustin will bring construction crews and supplies. Your Knights can hold the town until he arrives."
"What is happening in the south?"
"Your second condition."
"Our scouts have identified movement along a weak section of the elven line. Not enough to call it an opening yet."
"The equipment you requested is being prepared," Varen continued. "It will be moved separately under military freight cover."
"Where?"
"Grenzheim. The first shipment should arrive approximately one week after you do."
The line went quiet.
"You are several weeks from Grenzheim even if you leave Kaltbach within the hour," Varen said. "The operation you promised me needs to be completed within thirty days. Every day you spend there leaves you less time to secure that victory."
"I know."
"Good. Because the elves will not wait for you to be comfortable."
I exhaled.
"Got it. I'll move within the hour," I said.
"Good."
The crystal dimmed.
Lena glanced at the brass frame. "High Command is still in the queue."
"Varen already gave the order. Cut them."
"Get ready," I said. "We are leaving for the southern front."
Mara was beside the fire pit when I returned to the square.
She had removed her wet coat and draped it over a chair near the town hall wall. Lyra stood with her, holding a wooden bowl filled with steaming iron-tusk meat.
"You got bad news, Hunter," Mara said.
"I got more problems to solve."
"That sounds like bad news."
"Yeah."
I stopped in front of them.
Around us, Kaltbach had begun to move.
"I need someone to run Kaltbach while I'm gone," I said.
Mara's expression became guarded.
"That's fast."
"It has to be. I'll be leaving as soon as possible."
Lyra's feathers shifted.
"Already?"
"The south won't wait."
Mara studied me.
"You just told this town it has a lord. Now the lord is riding away before the first supply wagon reaches the gate."
I took a breath.
"Augustin is coming from the capital. The first work begins as soon as he arrives."
Mara's eyes stayed hard.
"And who tells him where to put all of it?"
"You do."
Lyra looked between us.
"What?"
I kept my eyes on Mara.
"From this moment, you are Kaltbach's provisional mayor. Appointed by the Baron of Kaltbach under the authority of House Grenzwacht."
The nearest talk died.
"I don't want an Imperial office."
"It's not an office. It's authority."
Mara said nothing.
"You already command the people," I continued. "Now I need you to command the rebuilding."
Mara looked at them.
Then back at me.
"Mayor," she said.
"Mayor."
"I've never run a town."
"You managed a defense while an army of nine hundred soldiers stood outside the walls."
"That was simpler."
Lyra snorted.
Mara gave her daughter a look, then turned back to me.
"I'll do it," Mara said. "But we do this together."
I waited.
"No surprises. No plans made in the capital while Kaltbach is the last place to hear about its own future." Her eyes hardened. "You want factories, roads, workers, defenses, and contracts. Fine. But you tell me before they arrive at my gate. You tell this town what's being built, what you want from us, and what trouble comes with it."
"Agreed."
Mara didn't look away.
Then she held out her hand.
I took her hand.
"So don't make me regret this, Lord Kaspar."
"I'll try not to."
Lyra stepped forward before I could turn away.
"Have a good trip," she said.
"I'll try."
"And don't do anything stupid."
Henrik made a quiet sound that might have been a laugh.
Lyra glared at him, then looked back at me. "Come back alive. I'm not done with you."
"Alive. If I can manage it."
The wrecked magi-cars stood in a muddy line outside the eastern gate.
Six had entered the Hexenzeit camp.
Only two would leave Kaltbach.
The other four sat with their side panels torn open, their crystal housings empty, their steering assemblies exposed to the rain. Henrik and three Knights had removed the first drive unit from the vehicle that had taken the lightning strike.
Copper coils lay in orderly rows on a tarp.
Control rods, crystal brackets, rune plates, axle pieces, brake fittings, spare cables.
Dorn stood knee-deep in mud beside the second functioning magi-car, tightening a copper housing around its replacement drive crystal.
"How long?" I asked.
He didn't look up.
"Five minutes if no one talks to me."
A blue-white crystal rested in the open housing. Fresh enough that mist still curled slowly through its interior.
The dead drive crystals from the damaged cars had been removed and set aside. Their mana was exhausted. Decorative glass, just as Henrik had called them.
The convoy's reserve supply had given us two replacements.
The first magi-car had been stripped down until it barely resembled the vehicle that had crashed through House Hexenzeit's cordon. Its ruined rear compartment was gone. The remaining chassis had been reinforced with plates taken from the other vehicles. The steering linkage had been replaced. One wheel had been swapped entirely.
Dorn sealed the crystal housing.
The engine gave a low, steady hum.
"One," he said.
Across the road, another Knight slammed the side panel shut on the second vehicle.
"Two," Henrik said.
Dorn straightened and wiped grease across his already filthy coat.
"The other four are finished. Nothing left to take."
"They died with honor," I said.
"They died because Henrik drove like a lunatic."
Henrik grinned.
Mara and Lyra stood a short distance away beneath the gatehouse awning.
I walked to Mara.
She looked at the two repaired magi-cars, then at the four stripped frames left behind in the mud.
"Those things brought you here?"
"Yes."
"They look like coffins with wheels."
"They often feel like it."
Henrik called from the first magi-car.
"Kaspar. We need to move now."
I looked at Kaltbach one more time. The barricades still stood. The walls still bore combat marks. Cooking smoke over the square.
Three Knights stayed in the square. Lena stayed with them, one hand already back on the crystal.
I climbed into the front compartment of the first magi-car.
Henrik took the steering bar.
Dorn drove the second vehicle behind us with the remaining Knights packed into the rear.
Henrik drove south.