After seeing themselves out of the temple Amondo and his squire headed to the mill to have a quick word with the miller. The mill was a relatively new building compared to the rest of the village having been built in its current form when Amondo’s great-grandfather was the baron some seventy-odd years ago. The previous mill had been all but destroyed in a fire and a subsequent explosion of the flour that had been stored there after having been milled.
The new Mill hadn’t been built in the same location as the previous one but rather on the castle side of the Membe river which divided the village in two. A new leet and sluice gate had been built to divert the water to the new mill from the river and the old one filled in. The new mill used an overshot water wheel while the old one used an undershot one which was less efficient.
The mill was owned by the barony and run by the Miller on its behalf in exchange for a share of the fees everyone else had to pay to grind their flour. The current miller Nagesh Dietz was a man in his mid-thirties married to Theodora with a son called Gaius aged twelve and a daughter called Olive aged nine.
His mother had died giving birth to him and his father the year Amondo had left Membe in an accident at the mill. When Amondo and his squire approached the miller’s house they were greeted by the miller’s wife who was busy brushing the path leading to the mill.
“Can I help you, sir, if it’s my husband you’re looking for then you can find in the mill house checking on something or other. “, she inquired.
“That I am I’ll head there presently good day to you.”
And so they headed to the mill itself and at the door to the mill they paused for a while to read the notice written upon it.
KNOCK AND AWAITE
A RESPONSE
BEFORE ENTERING
And that was exactly what they did and the expected response took a while longer than expected.
“I will be with you in a minute I just have to take care of one last thing.”, called a voice from inside the mill.
It was at least two minutes before the door to the mill opened and the miller stood in the doorway beckoning them in and they did as he requested. Amondo had once visited the mill years ago and had seen the inside of some others since still, it was a sight to be seen.
With its machinery that milled the product of the harvests in Membe village, the outlaying hold’s belonging to the yeomanry and also the lands held by the knight’s bachelor it helped feed all those within his family domain.
“Welcome sir Malla how can I help you this fine day?”
“Well, master miller I have come to hear from you the current state of the mill so that I may assure myself that it is up to its task and hopefully see what needs to be done to make sure it stays that way.”
“Well except for one small matter the mill is currently operating as well as can be expected given its age, workload and the size of the funds provided for its maintenance.”
“That’s good to hear master miller, now what is this small matter you mentioned?”
“Well, I believe that one of the smaller gears has perhaps seen better days and needs to be replaced.”
“So how long is it gonna take to replace the gear in question and will the existing one fail before then?”
“The village carpenter can create a new one in a week but it will have to be a temporary thing since none of the wood that grows around here is very good for this sort of thing. I have sent away for wood that will do the trick but it won’t arrive for another few weeks. As to whether or not the current gear will last that long I cannot say but if it lasts a week we can replace it with the temporary gear which could last as long as a month.”
“How long does it take to physically change the gear?”
“It isn’t one of the hardest to get to gear so with someone else helping me it should take just over an hour or so.”
“Well please keep a good lookout for it failing, do the best with what you have got and quickly get the new one built once the wood arrives.”
“That’s the plan then, can I do anything else for you.”
“Earlier you said that the mill was operating as well as expected given its age, workload and funding for maintenance what exactly did you mean by that?”
“Well, the mill really could do with some renovations here and there, its nothing that needs to be taken care of right now. If it doesn’t get done within the next decade or so then things will start breaking down and the cost of repairing the mill will go up. It is best that it gets done as soon as possible and certainly before 980.”
“It won’t be this year for sure but draw up a renovation plan for me anyway and keep it up to date. We will then have it on hand for when we can do something about the mill. Now how are the leet and the sluice gate and the rest of it doing, they seem okay to me but then again what do I know.”
“Nah, nothing wrong with them nor the millstones either.”
“I imagine that you were one of those called up to defend the barony during the recent unpleasantness.”
“That I was, we didn’t see any real action, by the time we were ready to go, it was all over and at least in Membe. Other than your poor deceased brother and a few who went with him no one was even injured. It will, of course, be different if or should I say when he tries again.”
“The levy hadn’t been called up since the year my eldest sister was born during the Kushman Rebellion. That was also over before it was even fully mobilised, how do you think this one went. Do you have any suggestions about what could be done to improve the next one?”
Well, sir, the main thing that I noticed about the whole thing was the quality of the weapon everyone had in their possession. Some had been well taken care of course but most had certainly seen better days. The one provided by the barony to the serfs and the others who don’t have to provide their weapons were in most cases even worse than the others.”
“Was that the only problem you encountered?”
“The only other thing that comes to mind is the fact that no one knew what the hell they were up to not even the Marshal and certainly not your brother. Once we were informed of the situation and told that we were being called up we collected our weapons and the small pieces of usually Ill-fitting leather armour some of us myself included possessed and assembled in front of the temple.
After everyone had gathered there we waited for over an hour and a half until your brother and his Marshall showed up. The Marshall further explained the situation to us and introduced us all to one of the men at arms called Craig Figueroa I think and then returned with your brother to the castle. Craig then inspected the weapons of those who had them, showing what even we thought was well-deserved disdain for them at every opportunity.
He then had everyone without a weapon plus a few whos own weapons he deemed usable and had another Man at Arms escort them to the castle. While awaiting their return he had us run drills like we were supposed to do every year and ended up doing every other year if that.
When they return from the castle we integrated them into the drills and carried on for another hour so before being sent home. We were ordered to return the following morning at sunrise at which point we were informed we would be marching to Hanhold Tower to meet up with others before heading on to Ruehasen.
When we return the following day we didn’t get underway until afternoon, then the following day once we reached Hanhold Tower we were told about what had happened to your brother and ordered to hold in place until we were told otherwise. We did as we were ordered until the following afternoon when we were ordered to continue as previously planned but an hour so later we received new orders. Anyone older than thirty was told to return home while everyone under thirty would continue to Ruehasen.
It was a good week after I and everyone else over thirty had returned home before everyone else did. You’d think that after all that we would have practice being called up again and perhaps started drilling but no not even once and that is all I have to say about that.”
“Well I promise you that that will soon change, I’ll see myself out keep up the good work and don’t forget about that renovation plan.”
“Thanks, milord, good luck with everything we’re all going to need it, you know.”
“Yes, I’m afraid we will but don’t worry about it too much that’s my job after all.”
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