The dust from the Clockwork Ossuary had barely settled on Caelan's shoulders when the first horn blast echoed from the valley's rim. It wasn't the ragged, desperate blow of a bandit; it was the crisp, three-toned signal of a professional vanguard.
"Varick," Hestia spat, wiping a smear of black hydraulic fluid from her cheek. She gripped her claymore, which now thrummed with a faint blue light—the result of the Deep-Forge's lingering mana-residue. "He didn't even wait for the scouts to report back. He saw the steam flare from the tomb and moved."
Caelan stood at the center of the subterranean chamber, his hand resting on the knee of the kneeling Iron Landlord. The massive golem, a ten-foot-tall construct of interlocking gear-steel plates, remained motionless, its eye-slits glowing with a low, standby amber.
"He thinks he's coming to claim a dungeon," Caelan said, his voice echoing in the cold metallic air. "He doesn't realize he's trespassing on a private residence."
> [Warning: Siege Imminent]
> Attacking Force: The Hawk's Talon (50 Light Cavalry, 10 Tier-4 Knights).
> ETA: 12 Minutes.
> Territory Status: Unprepared.
>
"Twelve minutes," Elara said, her face pale as she checked her ledger. "Caelan, we have fifteen people and a handful of spiders. Even with Hestia's men, those Tier-4 Knights will shred our wooden walls. We haven't even finished the stone gatehouse."
"We aren't fighting at the walls," Caelan said, a cold light entering his eyes. "We're fighting at the pipes."
The Strategy of the Veins
Caelan looked at the Iron Landlord. "Guardian. Can you interface with the valley's Mana-Copper grid?"
The Golem's head tilted with a mechanical whir. "Affirmative. I am the... Property Manager. All conduits within 500 meters are... under my jurisdiction."
"Good. Elara, get the gnomes to the cellar. Tell them to open every steam vent we've installed in the drainage ditches. Hestia, take your men to the 'Two-Finger Crag.' Don't engage. Just bait them into the mud."
As the sun began to set, casting long, bloody shadows across the Nameless Valley, Lord Varick's cavalry thundered through the entrance. Leading them was the same scarred knight Caelan had humiliated at the border.
"Burn the Hall!" the knight roared, his lance leveled at the wooden structure. "Kill the Lord, but bring the girl and the gnomes alive! The Hawk wants his property back!"
The cavalry surged forward, their horses' hooves churning the soft, wet earth. They crossed the fifty-yard mark. Then the hundred. They were funneling into the narrowest part of the valley, right above the main drainage lines.
"Now," Caelan whispered from the shadows of the Hall's porch.
In the cellar, the Earth-Gnomes slammed home the massive brass levers of the Deep-Forge.
[Skill Activated: The Landlord's Eviction]
The ground didn't just explode; it screamed.
The drainage ditches, pre-laid with Mana-Copper pipes and connected to the high-pressure steam of the Iron Heart, erupted. Blinding, white-hot vapor hissed upward in a vertical wall, creating a literal "fog of war" that was 200°C.
The horses, magical or not, panicked. The knights, encased in heavy steel plate armor, suddenly found themselves inside high-pressure ovens. The heat didn't have to break their armor; it just had to cook them inside it.
The Arrival of the Law
Through the steam, a heavy, rhythmic thud... thud... thud began to vibrate the earth.
The Iron Landlord emerged from the mist. It didn't carry a sword. In its right hand, it held a massive, glowing red branding iron shaped like the Hearth's sigil. In its left, a heavy iron chain.
"Trespassers," the Golem's voice boomed, amplified by the valley's natural acoustics. "You have failed to provide... valid identification. You have caused... property damage. The fine is... your life."
The scarred knight tried to wheel his horse around, but the mud had turned into a boiling slurry. He looked up just as the Golem's massive shadow fell over him.
"Wait! I am a noble of the North-Hawk—!"
The Golem didn't swing. It simply stepped forward, its weight crushing the knight's horse into the mud, and grabbed the man by his breastplate with two fingers.
"Noble status... unrecognized," the Golem stated. "Transferring to... Administrative Processing."
Hestia and her Iron-Eaters moved in then, picking off the disoriented cavalry like wolves in a sheepfold. Without their leader and blinded by the steam, the "Hawk's Talon" broke and fled back toward the Crossroads, leaving behind twenty prisoners and their discarded gear.
The First Prisoner of War
Ten minutes later, the valley was silent again, save for the occasional hiss of a cooling pipe. The scarred knight was dropped onto the porch of the Hearth-Hall, his armor smoking and his pride shattered.
Caelan walked out, followed by Elara and Lyra. He looked down at the knight.
"You're back," Caelan said pleasantly. "I believe you mentioned something about 'Chapter Two' earlier? Well, we're on Chapter Ten now. And in this chapter, I don't just survive. I turn a profit."
"Varick will... he'll level this valley," the knight wheezed.
"Maybe," Caelan said, leaning down. "But you're going to help him reconsider. Elara, draft a new contract. The Prisoner's Lease. For every day Lord Varick doesn't attack us, I'll return one piece of captured Tier-4 armor. If he attacks, I feed the armor to my Golem."
Elara smiled, her quill already moving. "And the knight, My Lord?"
"He's going to help Boros with the sheep," Caelan said. "He looks like he knows how to handle a crook."
> [Notification: Siege Defended!]
> Prestige: +200 (Word is spreading of the 'Golems of the Nameless Valley').
> Population: 15 + 20 Captives (Labor Class).
> New Achievement: The Iron Landlord (Unlock the 'Fortress' building tree).
>
Caelan looked up at the stars. Lyra was staring at a specific constellation, her brow furrowed.
"It's not over, is it?" Caelan asked her.
"The Hawk is a bird of prey, Lord," she whispered. "But he is small. I see a shadow coming from the Great Empires... the Autumn Tithe is no longer just a tax. It's a culling."
Caelan tightened his grip on his ledger. "Then we'd better finish that gatehouse by morning."
Status Update
* Level: 4 (Ascending)
* Military: 6 Hearth-Guard, 1 Iron Landlord, 12 Maintenance Spiders, 20 Indentured Laborers.
* Buildings: The Deep-Forge (Level 3), Hearth-Hall (Level 2), Steam-Grid (Active).
* Next Goal: Reach 50 Free Citizens (15 Days Remaining).