Year: 1882
The production numbers spread across the table like an indictment.
"Twenty-five per month." Igue's voice was flat with frustration. "That's our maximum with current resources."
Twenty-five rifles a month. Three hundred per year. Over the years ahead, maybe a few thousand.
Against however many soldiers the Europeans would bring.
"It's not enough."
"I know. We're constrained on every front. Smiths. Materials. Space."
"What's the primary bottleneck?"
"Iron. We're getting enough for current production, but the northern suppliers can't deliver more. The route is too long, too vulnerable."
"And alternative sources?"
"There's a deposit near the eastern hills. Closer. Richer ore. But it's controlled by the Owina guild. They've refused to sell to us."
"Why?"
Igue's jaw tightened. "Because the Owina master thinks the Igun smiths have been stealing his guild's techniques for generations. Old feud. Runs deep."
Guild politics. The enemy Akenzua hadn't prepared for.
---
The Owina guild master's name was Osaze.
He was a small man with hands like carved wood and eyes that missed nothing. His workshop produced the finest precision tools in Benin—instruments so delicate they could measure the thickness of a hair.
"Prince Akenzua." His bow was correct but cold. "An unexpected honor."
"I'm here to discuss the iron deposits."
"The deposits belong to the Owina guild. They have for three centuries."
"I'm not disputing ownership. I'm proposing partnership."
Osaze's lips thinned. "Partnership with the Igun? After what they've done?"
"What have they done?"
"Stolen. Copied. Claimed credit for techniques we developed." His voice sharpened. "The rifling process your smiths use—we invented that for precision boring. The Igun watched our methods and reproduced them without permission."
"That was before my involvement."
"Before your involvement, after your involvement—guild honor doesn't change with political convenience."
Akenzua studied the man. Behind the wounded pride, he saw something else. Ambition. Hunger.
"What would it take? To establish a genuine partnership."
"Recognition. The Owina guild named as co-developers of the weapons program. Equal status with the Igun in any histories that are written."
"That could be arranged."
"And something else." Osaze leaned forward. "I want to lead the expansion. Overall technical authority. My methods. My standards."
There it was. Not just recognition. Control.
---
"Osaze is brilliant," Igue said flatly. "He's also impossible."
"Explain."
"His precision work is unmatched. His understanding of metallurgy exceeds mine in some areas. But he's..." Igue searched for words. "He drives people to breaking. Three apprentices have fled his workshop this year. Two masters refuse to work with him."
"Because he's demanding?"
"Because he's cruel. Excellence at any cost." Igue met Akenzua's eyes. "If you give him authority over the expansion, he'll produce results. He'll also destroy anyone who can't meet his standards."
"Including you?"
"Including me, if I get in his way."
The choice crystallized. Use Osaze and his iron deposits, accepting his methods and his ambitions. Or continue with limited resources and slower growth.
"What if we split authority? Production remains with you. Osaze handles raw materials and precision components."
"He won't accept second position."
"He'll accept what lets him prove he's better than the Igun."
---
The second meeting with Osaze went differently.
"Technical authority over materials and precision work. Not production lines—those remain with Master Igue. But everything that feeds the production lines comes through you."
Osaze considered. "And the recognition?"
"Joint credit. Owina and Igun names together on every weapon. The historical record will reflect both guilds' contributions."
"That's... acceptable as a starting point." His eyes narrowed. "But I want something else. Access."
"To what?"
"The designs. The plans. Everything you've shown the Igun." His voice hardened. "They got to see the future. I want to see it too."
Knowledge as currency. Dangerous to share. Dangerous not to.
"Supervised access. To production designs, not strategic plans. And any improvements you develop become shared property."
"Shared with the Igun."
"Shared with Benin. Which is what this is ultimately about."
A long silence.
"Agreed. But I have one condition."
"Name it."
"When this works—and it will work—I want to be consulted on all future expansions. Not as a subordinate. As a partner."
"You're asking for a seat at the table."
"I'm asking for what I deserve. What my guild deserves."
Akenzua extended his hand. "You'll have it. If the results justify it."
Osaze's grip was stronger than expected. "The results will justify everything."
---
The partnership began smoothly.
Osaze's iron deposits transformed production. Higher quality ore. Shorter supply lines. Within weeks, output doubled.
"Sixty per month," Igue reported. "Heading toward eighty."
Then the problems started.
"Three furnaces down," Igue said, his voice tight. "Metal contamination. Someone mixed slag into the ore shipments."
"Accident?"
"No. Deliberate. The contamination pattern is too consistent."
"Osaze's people?"
"That's what I thought. But my investigation suggests otherwise." Igue pulled out a piece of slag. "This came from the old northern route. Someone is mixing clean Owina ore with contaminated northern material."
"Who has access to both?"
"Only the transport workers. And they answer to..." He hesitated.
"Say it."
"They answer to the Igun guild master. My superior."
---
The confrontation happened that evening.
"You're sabotaging your own guild's production." Akenzua kept his voice level. "Why?"
The Igun guild master—an older man named Ehosa—didn't deny it.
"The Owina have no place in our work. Bad enough we share credit. Now they supply our materials? Control our quality?"
"The partnership was necessary."
"The partnership humiliates us. Three centuries of Igun primacy, reduced to... cooperation."
"Cooperation that doubles production."
"Production that makes Osaze look like a genius while my smiths do the actual work."
Pride. The oldest enemy. And Ehosa had let it drive him to sabotage weapons meant to defend the kingdom.
"You understand what this means."
"I understand that traditions matter. That guild honor matters. That some things are worth more than numbers on a page."
"You'll be removed from your position."
"By whose authority? The guild chooses its own masters. That's been law since—"
"Since before the kingdom faced extinction." Akenzua stepped closer. "I don't care about guild politics. I care about survival. You've sabotaged that survival for wounded pride."
"You can't remove me."
"I can exile you. Strip your family of their status. Make you an example of what happens when personal grievance endangers the realm."
Ehosa's face went pale.
"Or you can retire. Quietly. With honor intact. Your successor will be chosen normally—but chosen from candidates who understand what's at stake."
A long silence.
"You'd destroy a man's life over some mixed ore?"
"I'd destroy a man's life over treason. The ore just made it obvious."
---
The sabotage had been stopped. But the damage revealed a larger problem.
"Our supply chain is vulnerable," Osarobo reported. "One disgruntled guild master nearly shut us down. What happens when enemies try the same thing?"
"Diversification," Akenzua said. "Multiple sources. Redundant routes."
"That takes time we might not have." Osarobo spread a map across the table. "The British have been buying up ore deposits along the coast. Quietly. Through local intermediaries."
"They're building their own supply chain."
"They're denying us ours. Every deposit they control is one we can't access."
Igue joined them. "There's more. Osaze's eastern deposits are good, but not unlimited. At current expansion rates, we'll exhaust them within three years."
"And then?"
"Then we're dependent on the northern route again. Which passes through territory that's increasingly under British influence."
The trap was becoming clear. Even if they built enough weapons, without materials to maintain and expand production, the effort was doomed.
"What do we need?"
"Control. Not just access—actual control over raw material sources. Mining operations. Transport routes. The whole chain."
"That requires expansion beyond current borders."
"That requires becoming something more than a kingdom. That requires becoming an industrial state."
---
The first real crisis came three weeks later.
"The northern shipment didn't arrive." Igue's face was drawn. "Bandits. Or so they claim."
"How much did we lose?"
"Two months of iron ore. Plus copper for precision components. We can continue production for maybe six weeks on current stocks."
"And then?"
"Then we stop. Completely."
Osaze arrived with his own news. "My deposits can partially compensate. But I'll need more workers. More transport. More everything."
"Which costs resources we've already committed elsewhere."
"Then uncommit them." Osaze's voice was sharp. "Unless you want production to collapse while you debate priorities."
"He's right," Igue said reluctantly. "We need to prioritize materials over everything else. Including some of the training programs. The coastal defenses."
Everything they'd built. Everything they'd planned. Suddenly dependent on supply lines they didn't fully control.
"Make it happen," Akenzua said. "Strip whatever's necessary to keep production running."
"That will set back other programs by months."
"Months we can recover. Weapons we can't build are gone forever."
---
That night, Akenzua met with the inner circle.
"We've been building weapons without securing the foundation," he admitted. "Raw materials. Supply chains. The infrastructure that makes production possible."
"The British understood this before we did," Domingos observed. "Their industrial power comes from controlling not just factories, but the raw materials that feed them."
"So what do we do?" Erebo asked.
"We expand. Not just production—control. The ore deposits. The transport routes. The entire supply chain from ground to finished weapon."
"That means moving beyond our current borders."
"That means preparing for Phase Two earlier than planned. Consolidation has to include material security."
The map on the wall showed Benin and its neighbors. The Itsekiri waterways. The Urhobo territories. The Ijaw delta.
"Every one of these regions has resources we need," Akenzua said. "Iron. Copper. Timber. Access to coastal trade. We can't just have alliances. We need integration."
"That's empire-building."
"That's survival."
The room was quiet.
"The forge expands," Igue finally said. "But only if the ground beneath it is solid."
"Then we make it solid." Akenzua traced the supply routes on the map. "Starting now."
The weapons program had revealed its own vulnerability. And fixing that vulnerability would require becoming something larger than they'd planned.
The forge would expand.
Or it would die.
---
END OF CHAPTER SEVENTEEN