Summoning America

Chapter 71: Rivals

March 7, 1640
Seattle, Washington

Light winds breezed through the concrete jungle of Seattle as construction crews noisily operated their machines throughout the city. Archmage Bromson stretched his wings as he stared outside the window of his lofty hotel room, wondering if he could be allowed to fly around for a bit.

"I'm surprised these... humans," he said with a hint of distaste, "of all beings managed to create such wonders," Ambassador Krunch walked up beside Bromson, musing on the swathes of steel and glass outside.

Bromson pointed out flaws in Krunch's remark, "These humans are not of this world. It would be unwise to characterize them like we do the others."

"Still... to see an inferior race accomplishing such wonders. My worldview is truly shaken," Krunch admitted. "Were it not for the Ancestors' prophesied return, I would have worried for our future in the face of these new arrivals."

"We still have over a decade before anything is set in stone. Given what we know about these Americans, we might find ourselves hard-pressed to succeed in any conflicts against them." Roars of jets overhead echoed Bromson's sentiment poetically, instilling an emotion that had almost never plagued the Annonrials — fear.

Krunch stared at the bustling city below, steel skeletons rapidly taking form to accommodate the city's unexpected growth. "I loathe to admit, but your judgment may be correct."

"That's exactly what my honest analysis of their military suggests," Zhenmann voiced from his desk.

"I must say," Bromson remarked, "I'm quite surprised you were able to conduct an analysis in the first place. They've kept us away from their libraries and technologies. Surely you haven't managed to derive military technology from their civilian technology?"

"Well, not necessarily, although I did make some inferences. If we take the discrepancy between our own civilian and military technologies and apply the same logic here, then we may assume that their vehicles and equipment operate similarly to their civilian counterparts." Zhenmann then brushed off the idea, "However, without much access to even their civilian technologies, there's not much I can say outside of a visual analysis of their vehicles on the road, and phones in their hands, and planes in the sky."

Krunch tilted his head as he questioned Zhenmann's intelligence gathering, "How then, were you able to adequately analyze their military?"

Zhenmann smirked, almost dumbfounded by the manner with which he was able to perform his analysis in the first place. "The Americans were keen enough to prevent our access to many of their technologies, except for one important one." He pointed to the sleek television mounted on the wall, which was currently playing a news segment on a company's new magical air conditioning system.

"Yes," Bromson remarked, slowly walking up to the device while rubbing his chin. "Their television is indeed full of information, but how much of this information can be trusted? If the Americans were keen enough to obscure everything else, why leave this television? If their broadcasted programs and channels are like ours, then they should have news, fictional programs, and documentaries."

Krunch nodded his head, agreeing with Bromson. "It is truly curious that they would leave a loose end here." His attitude shifted to that of arrogance as he scoffed, "Not surprising these inferiors would make such mistakes. A pity their technology is so advanced..."

Bromson cut in, "Or perhaps they did not think we could discover much from their programs. Admittedly, a lot of their programs are simply, as I said, news or fiction. Even if we were to analyze their documentaries, I hypothesize a majority of them would be mundane and unrelated to critical technologies."