Cato and Landar walked down the market street, appreciating the differences he was seeing. Come to think of it, he hadn't really left the University street in some time, all the necessities of life had popped up to serve the students and well-to-do research employees of the various merchants.
"Shall we take a walk?" he asked Landar, "see what has become of Minmay. "
Landar smiled and nodded. If anything, Landar got out even less than Cato did.
Hm. Could that actually be a problem?
"I wonder what that is?" Landar exclaimed and skipped forwards happily.
The cart that had drawn her gaze was just one of many along the streets. Colourful banners and crude pictures proclaimed their wares, delicious food, trinkets and even the occasional cloth accessories. The number of people out on the streets were much higher than Cato remembered too, probably due to the exploding population.
Strangely though, Cato saw a fair number of young adults and even teenagers. Even if the population of Inath was skewed towards the younger side due to the high death rate, this was far too many. Where were all the children? Or did something happen to cause only the young able people to come here?
Cato watched as Landar handed over a telin. The shopkeeper smiled and cleared the flat copper faced board before measuring out a quantity of yama sugar and wind eye flour into a thick slurry. With practiced movements, although still unrefined, the man melted the sugary mix in the boiling water on the stove to the side. Then he poured out the golden brown caramel onto the copper board where a single wooden stick rested. It quickly hardened as it cooled.
A simple swirling pattern and dusting of sugar on top and the confectionary was done.
"Here you go, miss," the shopkeeper said, plucking up the hardened sugar on a stick.
"Mm!" Landar grinned as she licked the sweet treat, "a bit too much flour but I guess that's okay. "
"If you were willing to buy more sugar, I could give you a sweeter one. How about it, sir? Won't you buy a better one for your lady?" the shopkeeper turned to Cato.
Cato smiled and looked at Landar, who was still enjoying the taste. "It's all right," Cato said, "although I'd buy one too if you could answer a few questions for me?"
"That's all right, I don't have many customers this early in the morning," the man began to mix up a new batch, with nearly pure sugar, as Cato handed over a few coins, "what do you want to know?"
"When did you first start to sell this? And how much money you make," Cato waved a hand as the man raised an eyebrow, "you don't have to give specifics about the second question. Just whether you're getting by or actually earning money. "
"I earn enough," the man laughed, "besides, doing this is harder than it looks, don't think it'll be so easy to copy me. As for when I started... well, I first came to Minmay after the local baron merged some of our farmland. I just couldn't find work with all those new inventions. After a week of working for the builders, I finally saved up enough to buy the materials to build my own cart. This treat is something of a Cel Inci special recipe from my village and if it wasn't for my wife's skill, we would be having much harder time. She taught me how to make this, you know? Her days get more customers too. "
Cato nodded to himself and thanked the man. As he began to pour the sugar, Cato asked, "can you draw a pattern on it? How about a flower?"
"That'll cost you extra," the man winked and proceeded to pour out the caramelized sugar in a complex spiraling pattern after Cato nodded, "took me weeks to learn how to do this. We've had this cart for a few months now. I'm thinking of expanding my range of desserts so we can get some savings. "
Cato handed over another two telins as he took the completed fancy spun sugar on a stick. It looked like a pair of wings more than a flower but Cato felt that was all right too. It wasn't as if he really wanted the sweet. "Thank you for the answers, that was very helpful," Cato thanked the man.
He looked over to find Landar eyeing his treat. Hmm. Cato snapped off one side with his fingers and handed Landar the stick and the remaining half. "Do you want this one?" It was sweet indeed.
Amazingly, Landar took the stick and smiled happily before pocketing it instead of eating the sweet. Cato frowned and looked at the shopkeeper, who just winked at him, before looking down at the pattern on the stick. Come to think of it, those could be a bell shaped flower instead of wings.
Twin flowers? Oh. And Cato had just eaten one and gave the other to Landar.
First, the knight had teased him, and now this hawker too? So they really did look that way, huh?
----------------------------------------
"Well, the two lovebirds finally deign to come in," Minmay put down the sheet of paper. A familiar looking grey style densely packed with words. Arthur packed it away efficiently and replaced Minmay's lunch on the white table cloth.
The table had changed and the cloth had a glossy sheen characteristic of thorndown. Even Arthur had a new suit. Clearly Minmay had come across some fortune.
"I wanted to see the city after leaving it for so long," Landar said.
"It has changed greatly," Cato added, "you can almost feel the wealth in the streets. "
"Oh, so you weren't on a date?" Minmay smiled.
"No no, we're not like that. " "No, we were not on a date. "
Cato and Landar looked at each other, right after their denials came out nearly in sync.
"I suppose it's much too late to convince you otherwise?" Cato sighed.
"Yes, you're not very convincing," Minmay said, casually popping a slice of buttered toast in his mouth, "but let's put that aside. Take a seat and join me for breakfast. We have a lot to catch up on. "
"Indeed, but I must ask, the city of Minmay seems to have become much more wealthy lately," Cato said, "does that have anything to do with Duport's territories?"
"And Corbin too," Minmay added, "in fact, you probably noticed that the price of food has been coming down. "
"The pastries and cookies weren't cheap," Landar said, "but cheaper than when I was younger. "
Cato laughed, "so the first harvest has been collected? How big was it?"
Minmay sighed, "even though we can grow them year round, most farmers still plant their crops at the same time. This always causes some problems because we have to store the grain each year. I anticipated this year would be rather... problematic and started building six warehouses before the war started actually. "
Cato raised an eyebrow.
"They said I was greedy. I was too optimistic. I was going to be saddled with empty lots. Well, they're not laughing now," Minmay sighed again.
"How bad is it?"
"I don't know just how much we wasted but the peasants are storing grain in their own houses and just about everyone is trying to grow piyos," Minmay said, "I loaned out the warehouses and made a coin or two, but we're completely out of storage space. And it doesn't help that the Central Territories next door are going to have the same problem in two months, only far worse, their entire economy runs on farms and I hear they just about paved over the entire region with plots using your plows. You almost can't sell grain at any price. Also, are you sure those fertilizers are safe? I have never heard of a harvest this huge, you'll ruin the land if it keeps on like this. "
Cato nodded, "I wasn't expecting it to be this big either. But that explains a lot. If it's easier to eat on less money, people have money to spend on luxuries like sweets. There are stalls out there in the streets selling sugar to commoners. Enough that I'm willing to say it's becoming a trend. "
Minmay frowned, "you should get out of the university more, Cato. That's been happening for months, but Aes tells me that some of the food merchants made a breakthrough in some leaf extract that turned grain into sugar two weeks ago, something about maturing the leaves. Kalny got beaten to that by the way. Although he got his revenge when his cooks reproduced it and a spy leaked his recipe. That was a fun little trade war, let me tell you. So peasants can afford sugar now and come Cel Inci next month, everyone will be fat and round. But you haven't answered the question on fertilizers. "
Cato shrugged, "if you keep the balance of nutrients in the soil, you can replace whatever the wind eyes take out with the appropriate fertilizer. The fields will be fine, but we'll have to start watching out for river pollution. How did the test plot go by the way?"
"Amazing. That dwarf variant you gave up on? The four research farmers started to work on it without you. They're telling me it just ruins the soil you grow it on, but the fertilizers can make it work if we spread more. They say if they get a cross of that with the hard eyes from the Inath mountain variants, they could get up to quadruple yields. Even if they'll take four seedings at minimum to get it, that's still another miraculous jump. On top of what we already have. " Minmay shook his head, "what am I going to do with that much grain?! None of the farmers have any money, with prices so low, and it seems like every son and daughter is coming to Minmay city to find work. The peasants are unhappy and it's really causing me problems, I had to collect tax in grain! At least no one's starving, in this economy, you can't starve even if you tried. "
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"I should think about the Haber process at some point, the Ironworkers have good steel in quantity now," Cato said, "fixer crops, composting and lime can only get you so far and you still need a proper crop rotation. Mild weather here means fertilizer loss is low. With artificial nitrogen fertilizer, we could probably jump the dwarf variant yields by another two or three fold and start planting year round harvests back to back. Pesticides and herbicides could get another multiple. Maybe. "
"I don't think we need that," Minmay said, "are you even listening to me?"
"I am and I think we just need to hurry up the next stage," Cato said, "with this much spare hands, we'll just have to push the factory model and standardized measurements. There should be more than enough slack in labour now to power a nice little industrial revolution. "
"About that. No one's made any progress. It's just too hard, I say. The Ironworkers have one workshop whose axles will fit with any of the wheels from the same workshop, and that workshop is staffed by three brothers who are all masters. But that's it. Even Kalny still has to fit his can lids to the cans. "
"It can be done," Cato nodded, "it has to be done, if we're to build any device in mass. I'll talk to the guilds again and see what the problem is. "
"It's a political problem, Cato. The guilds aren't used to coordinating and far too many master craftsmen can't be bothered to use measurements when the customers only care if their pieces work, not if they fit other pieces," Minmay sighed, "I'm patching the problem right now by exporting the food to Duport where they need it and from there to Illastein and Inath. The coin and food tax goes to developing the land with irrigation projects, the only thing keeping the farmers happy right now. But that means the problem is only going to get worse come next harvest in four months. "
"At least the mana tax could supplement their income," Cato sighed, "until we get factories to work. Do you think we might get better results training peasants to work in factories instead of having the masters do it?"
Minmay said, "it could work. And yes, that's why I opened the magic guild early. The peasants need a way to earn money and most of the first alchemy class have begun to teach others. Everyone wants to learn, what with the Minmay guards propping up the price of stored magic. I also started selling the stockpile to the merchants. "
Cato nodded, "we keep a strategic reserve, I hope?"
Minmay nodded, "enough to blow Ektal to pieces, yes. I expanded the Guard too and I'm going to give everyone the upgraded crossbow and a iron plate backpack power source. "
"You have enough tax for that?"
"Income tax started, remember? And the price of cast iron is low," Minmay said, "the demand for patrols has exceeded what the knights can do so the Guard are doing it too. They need weapons, training and it all comes out of the new tax. I'm actually slightly in the red. But money for power is a good trade I think. "
Cato smiled at the phrase 'in the red'. Unknowingly, he must have used it in front of the Inath people and they seemed to have picked up some of Earth's idioms.
The door opened to show Polankal wheeling in a trolley with their lunches, lead by Arthur. The woman smiled at Cato as she put his plate down.
"Something nice happened?" Cato asked.
"Thank you," the woman bowed, "and I'm sorry. "
"What?"
He glanced at Landar and Minmay but they were just as bewildered.
"You said that you would make life better," Polankal bowed again, "I'm sorry, I... I guess never really believed you. Not until now, when we all have enough to eat. "
"Many farmers just lost their livelihood, you know?" Cato said, "I thought you'd be angry at me, for ruining the value of your harvests. "
Polankal shook her head. "Never. I'm sure people will complain, but no one will think this is anything but an improvement. No one who knows what it is like to lose children and siblings to starvation will want to go back to that world. So thank you for making that dream come true. I never imagined you could have done it so quickly. "
Cato could only nod awkwardly. His secretary finally straightened, her eyes glistening wetly, but the smile on her face was bright and happy.
"So what about your end?" Minmay asked once Polankal had left, "changed the world lately?"
Landar spoke up with a big grin on her face. "Yes. Twice actually. "
Minmay laughed, "great! Just great! Hopefully you have something that everyone can build so the peasants can get something to do. Those spell cannons are just impossible. "
"That's the first one," Landar said, taking out a few spools of thread that never left her tool belt now, "the device enchanter has been upgraded to magic circles as Cato calls it. You don't need magic to be able to use it now, the thread functions are completely modular, you just add power and wire it up and-"
"Magic circles let anyone who learns theory actually create magical enchantments, without having to train them on the physical basis... well, magical basis of actually enchanting the item," Cato said, "learn how to construct magic circles and you can turn stored magic into an enchanted item without being an alchemist. You can even make more of the threads that are used to construct it. "
Minmay winced and sighed, "there goes all hope of controlling dangerous magical items. I don't suppose there's any chance you haven't taught this to anyone? No?"
"Well, unless the trade in stored magic picks up, that little guild of yours won't supply enough to make learning magic circles useful," Cato pointed out.
"But, here's the second thing to change the world," Landar cut in excitedly.
Cato grinned, "we found the cause of the crystals and you can draw power from it without waiting. There is a huge bounty of magic to be earned, enough to make our current stockpile look small. But to get that, we need magic in the first place. "
"Turns out, magic collects near rock," Landar continued, "or maybe just soil. And this concentration is just like the Firestorm. It makes crystals instead. We found a way to draw power from that concentration. "
"And where can we find those concentrations?" Cato's grin grew wider.
Landar swung a hand downwards, "why, there's a huge mass of rock right below us!"
They grinned at each other. That was a good tag team explanation!
Minmay rubbed his temples, "you're going to dig a hole in my city. "
"Yes!" Cato said happily. "A hole as big as a house. Just go half a kilometer straight down and shore up the sides with concrete and steel. We're going to pump that magic up. "
"It'll cost magic, both to mine with and to enchant the walls," Landar said, "lots of magic. "
"Lots of money and people too," Minmay said, "should we even get the funds for that?"
It went without saying that the proposal, if it went ahead, would likely be supported by the Minmay bank.
Cato's reply was instant. "Yes. We should. "
----------------------------------------
Willio laughed as he read the public development plan. Dig a circular hole ten meters across and five hundred straight down? In search of natural magic power density?
Keeping the project secret was completely impossible, so Minmay had opted to blow it wide open and recruit just about every guild into its construction. With a eight hundred Rime budget, and the fact that there were armies of idle hands all eager to earn some coin, Minmay was going to throw an entire army of people down that hole to build it as quickly as possible. Orders for the reinforcing steel rods and concrete were already received, they were huge orders and Minmay was putting pressure on them to fulfill it as quickly as possible.
Sure, if the project worked, and Willio was sure it would, the magic coming out of it would earn the Hole Corporation back its entire investment. It didn't change the fact that a project this major could only be accomplished by someone like Minmany. Well, Ektal and perhaps Iris might be tempted to copy it, since the theoretical underpinnings was published for all to see.
No. Willio picked up another report by one of his subordinates. Bashal. A brilliant young man, although a bit lacking in arm strength, the alchemist mastersmith who had lead the Ironworkers' effort to build their steam hammer had noticed something that no one else had. Not even Cato.
If magical power density behaved like a gas, and high concentrations couldn't leak out of a closed box, then wouldn't shrinking a closed box increase the density? Just like a steam engine. Enchant a steam engine's cylinders like a power box, design a valve that worked with magic density, and the steam cylinder would automatically compress ambient magic into high densities. Discharge at the highest point of compression and viola, magical power.
And Bashal said he could build magic density valves. In fact, the preliminary tests had been promising enough that Willio had ordered Bashal's group to drop everything and start optimizing the design, the prototype could convert fuel into magical power but only at terrible efficiency. Something about back pressure on alchemy enchantments that Willio didn't understand.
Despite all that, Bashal was certain he could get it working before Cato's Hole.
Willio smiled, a race then. It was long overdue for the Ironworkers to win one.