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“We both lose,” you declared, poking Van Halm’s chest, “So you’re treatin’ us both t’ some real rancid <span class="mu-i">gourmet</span>. Hope you’re hungry, because you’re sharing the taste of defeat with me.”
Van Halm shook his head with an amused smile, “You didn’t have to share in it, but if you insist. The hour is still early, though, and our ears are yet to ring through the plugs. Some academy students might be asleep, even.”
Shame this wasn’t the cannon range.
Another set of shots was gone through, this time, just for fun.
“May I have a go with one of those derringers of yours?” Van Halm asked. After a round, he commented, “Handy things, aren’t they.”
“Can hide ‘em in just about anything,” you agreed, “Could stick one in an atom suit on a twig even.”
Van Halm glanced at the pistol in his hand. “Where were you keeping this one again…?”
You honestly didn’t remember. “My sleeve.”
“Ah, good.” Hmph. “Carrying a brace of pistols like that reminds me of stories of boarding officers of old Valsten. Before repeating arms were common, they’d have as many guns on them as cannons on their ships, it was said.”
“How many was that?” Naval history wasn’t a strong suit, and it wasn’t demanded for landlocked Strossvald.
“Depending on the ratings at the time, a century before the Shattering, twenty to one hundred,” Van Halm said, “A gross overstatement in other words. But it’s a fun tale to tell.”
You were hefting up the carbine. The full-length rifle was too long for your tastes. This was far handier, though the power of the round made it a loud and feisty piece of kit. “Your family’s from Valsten, ain’t it, <span class="mu-i">kliefnaz</span>?” The slight difference in title was the tell. “When did that happen?”
“Last century,” Van Halm said, “The <span class="mu-i">Valstener Rijk</span> once spanned the south seas of Vinstraga and beyond, before the Shattering. When the Grossreich took over Valsten, we found ourselves up north, and when the Valsten Civil War broke up the country, the last ancestral lands were seized.”
“Thinkin’ of gettin’ them back?”
“No,” Van Halm tilted his chin up, “The Archduchy would have to be bold indeed to attempt that these days, and expand its border with the Kaiser. All I would want is a patch shore to push a ship off of, and sail for seas unknown.”
You didn’t know how to imagine it. You didn’t remember what the ocean looked like, let alone been on a boat bigger than a river barge. “Have you been to the sea?”
“In more peaceful times with Valsten, I’ve visited with the family,” Karel said, “They dream of the shores once had, and I dream of the horizon none could take from us.”
“Yet you’re here.”
“Alas.” Van Halm sighed a short relent.
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