The Twelve Great Guilds
Ferraclysm was one of the Twelve Great Guilds of the Slatemark Empire, and for most of a century it had been the one the other eleven measured themselves against. Its foundries ran day and night from one end of the Empire to the other. Its weapons hung on the walls of every Imperial garrison. Its name was stamped on the hulls of ships that had never lost a fight.
At its head sat Maxwell von Pontes: alchemist, engineer, and mid Immortal-ranker, in that order. He had built half of what Ferraclysm sold with his own hands, and the other half he had taught other people to build. He did not consider himself a soldier. He considered himself the man soldiers called when they wanted to win.
The letter arrived a little after nine in the evening.
He read it once standing, and once sitting down. Then he closed it, because the letter was not where the information was. Letters were what clerks wrote afterwards.
