From Restitution: Fire and fury:<\/p>\n
“Thomas glared at Ned, his face thunderous. “I suppose that ball’s walls were too thin? Eh? You useless churl.”
\nHe turned, ready to vent his ire toward the alchemist.
\n“My lord,” Luis quickly ventured, his Spanish accent thick with nervousness. “The formula… this batch must have decayed since testing. Perhaps it needs more refinement. The proportions of the naphtha to the quicklime – ”
\n“How much more time?” Thomas’ voice was flat. “How much more money?”
\n“It is a slow process. Another six months, perhaps. A year at most. If we could conduct more tests – ”
\n“A year.” Thomas laughed bitterly. “In a year, my brother will have consolidated his power so thoroughly that the Privy Council won’t even employ me as a pot boy.”
\nHe picked up the leather sack he’d brought with him. Fifty gold angels, the payment he’d promised if the demonstration succeeded. Ned’s eyes followed it, before he forced himself to look away.
\n“My lord, we’ve made progress,” the ironworker said carefully. “The concept works – sometimes. We just need – ”
\n“I know. You need more time, too. More gold. More tests.” Thomas hefted the coin sack. “No payment today, gentlemen. Not for failure.”
\n“But, my lord -” Ned began.
\n“When you have something that works, consistently works, not ‘one in three’. Then, and only then, come and find me – if I still have a head.” Thomas swung the sack over his shoulder. The coins clinked heavily. “Until then, keep trying. But you’ll see no more gold until I see some results that warrant it.”
\nHe strode toward his horse without waiting for their response. Behind him, he heard Luis’ anguished protest and Ned’s quieter resignation.
\nLet them be angry. Let them work harder. Desperation makes men ingenious, he thought.
\nAnd Thomas Seymour knew desperation all too well.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From Restitution: Fire and fury: “Thomas glared at Ned, his face thunderous. “I suppose that ball’s walls were too thin? Eh? You useless churl.” He turned, ready to vent his ire toward the alchemist. “My lord,” Luis quickly ventured, his Spanish accent thick with nervousness. “The formula… this batch must have decayed since testing. Perhaps … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predestination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}