The ruin of a host in the eastern gorge was a victory of swords, but it laid him bare to the wider realm.

The wrath of the lords would be great... The Emperor himself would surely demand an accounting for the use of such strange and ruinous fire by a lesser lord!

Konrad needed to gather his strength and secure his spies before the Emperor’s men arrived.

He sat in his study, the ledgers stacked high, reckoning the swelling iron from the Rothenburg mine. The swiftness of his powder-mining, joined with the promise of silver coin, had drawn four times the ore.

Master Dieter worked the fires and the trip-hammer day and night, turning the ore to fine steel for the grooved barrels and the falconets.

Knock... knock... A soft knock broke his thoughts.

"Enter." Konrad commanded.

The door opened, revealing Elise. His younger sister looked nervous.

"Konrad," Elise began, her voice quiet. "I have reckoned the harvest tallies for the month. The four-field planting is set in the south and west. The serfs grumble of the taste of the clover-fed mutton, but the wheat yields will swell by a third."

"The extra grain is needed to feed the growing watch." Konrad looked up.

Elise hesitated, stepping closer. "It isn’t just the tallies, Konrad... I wanted to ask of Lady Isolde." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"..." Konrad’s face remained a mask of stone.

Isolde of Württemberg had been a quiet shadow in the keep since the shattering of her pride following the slaughter in the gorge.

She had traded her rich gowns for simple dresses, and she spent her days gathering deep secrets on the Swabian League’s lords, serving as Konrad’s chief spy.

"Lady Isolde is giving vital knowledge," Konrad stated flatly. "She is a bound tool."

Elise frowned, twisting the cloth in her hands. "But Konrad... the servants whisper. They say she acts like a beaten hound around you... They say you have broken her mind."

"I did not break her mind, Elise... She chose to bend that she might live. It is the natural way of things."

He paused. "Why does her standing trouble you?"

Elise looked down. "Because she was sworn to be your wife. And now she is just a shadow."

"The sworn pact was a snare to steal our lands," Konrad corrected. "Her yielding is of far greater worth to our survival than a forced wedding."

He turned back to his ledgers, closing the talk entirely. Elise lingered a moment before quietly leaving, clearly unsettled by his measure of kinship.

Later that day, Konrad walked down to the forges.

The noise was deafening, a ceaseless beating of iron that drowned out the quiet of the valley.

He found Master Dieter in the shed, overseeing the building of the new falconet carts.

"The iron axles are forged, Lord Konrad," Dieter reported, wiping soot from his eyes. "We are fitting the strong wheels. They will roll swiftly, even on rough earth."

"Excellent." Konrad nodded. "And the forging of the new grooved barrels?"

"Ah..." Dieter hesitated, his face turning grim. "That is the snag, my Lord. The cutting is slow, and the rare tools needed to carve the winding grooves break often. We have only finished three true barrels in the past week."

Konrad reckoned the pace. It was too slow...

If the Swabian League returned with heavier guns or a wider host, he needed true fire from afar to strike down their lords.

"We must change the way of forging..." Konrad decided.

Pulling charcoal from his pouch, he drew swiftly on a wooden board. "We cut the grooves by hand. It is too slow."

He drew a drawing of a cunning, water-driven engine. "We must build an engine to cut the iron... If we bind the blade to a wheel of gears driven by the river, we can press the cutter through the barrel in one smooth, winding stroke. It will hasten the work vastly and make every groove perfectly true."

"This...?" Dieter stared at the drawing, his eyes wide.

He was a master smith, but he had never thought of using the river’s might for such fine carving!

"It will require entirely new gears, my Lord. Incredibly strong gears... If the cutter binds in the barrel, the strain will shatter the wooden teeth."

"Then we forge the main gears from our finest steel!" Konrad commanded. "Turn the men to this task at once."

As Konrad settled the plans with Dieter, he noticed a sudden stir near the edge of the forges.

A small band of watchmen were guiding a rider toward the keep. The rider wore the colors of the Fugger merchants.

Konrad walked out to meet the rider before he reached the gates.

"Lord Konrad." The rider offered a short bow, handing over a sealed parchment. "A swift letter from Master Fugger."

Konrad broke the seal and read... The message was short but dire.

’Lord Konrad. The Swabian League has cried to the Emperor’s Diet. They claim you have used witchcraft and foul, ungodly arms to slaughter noble knights. The Emperor has called a holy Inquisition. A host of seekers, guarded by Imperial Knights, has ridden from Nuremberg. They march to Swabia to seize your forge and bring you to trial.’

Konrad slowly folded the parchment.

The truth of the realm had caught his swift-running forge. He was no longer fighting a petty feud against greedy neighbors... He now faced the might of the Holy Roman Emperor.

If he met them with powder and shot, he would be named an enemy of the realm, and all the Empire would march against him.

He turned to the Fugger rider. "Ride back to Augsburg... Tell Master Fugger that the forging in these lands is wholly of this earth and ruled by plain numbers. Yet, I counsel him to hold back from claiming any ties to this forge until the danger is passed."

The rider nodded, looking eager to leave the doomed valley, and spurred his horse away.

Konrad walked back into the keep, bypassing his study, and headed straight for the guest rooms. He found Lady Katarina reading her own letters.

"Lady Katarina," Konrad announced, stepping into the room.

He handed her the Fugger letter.

Katarina read it quickly, her sharp face tightening in horror.

"An Inquisition..!" Katarina breathed, looking up at him. "Konrad... my father cannot shield you from the Emperor. If the Inquisition finds you guilty of witchcraft or using forbidden arms, you will burn at the stake, and your forge will be torn down."

"The Inquisition will find neither witchcraft nor forbidden arms," Konrad stated, "They will find a swift, true forge guided by plain numbers, breaking no laws of the Empire."

"..." Katarina stared at him, entirely bewildered. "You slaughtered a host with poison gas and blasting powder! You forge weapons the Emperor has never seen!"

"I used the lay of the land and the force of powder to guard my rightful borders against an uncalled strike," Konrad corrected smoothly. "And the weapons I forge are simply cunning engines of iron. I mean to prove this to the Emperor’s men."

"But to do so," Konrad added, looking back at the Bavarian Duchess, "I require a showing of force so absolute, so terrifying in its truth, that the Emperor’s men will see that seeking to take my forge is certain death."

"What will you do...?" Katarina asked, a chill running down her spine.

"I am going to hasten the forging of the grooved barrels..." Konrad replied.