“What the everlasting fuck?” the Mick asked, staring at it in disbelief. “Pyreal… don’t just grow like that, do it? I mean, there be magic, but… this?”
“And it was worthless, because the old system of making pyreal into weapons and armor nobody trusts, so they never bothered to come back for it, and you can’t eat pyreal,” Princess Kristie pointed out. “The new Artificing method of Burning pyreal and other precious minerals is too new to respond like they might want to, plus the island had to be cleared, and they weren’t equipped to do it like they did back then.”
“But now, we’re rich,” the Mick pointed out, rubbing his hands softly.
“If those MMD’s we found are viable, we’re going to take care of the goldweight problem for a few years,” Princess Kristie agreed. “But yes, this is some really, really good backup.”
He looked at her sharply, and the knowing gleam in her eyes. “Ye’ve some nasty scheme in mind?” he asked her with knowing approval in his eyes.
“Ryin can pull this out of the stone like drawing pebbles out of sand, just like she’s doing with the honeycombs of the Phyntos, then Tapestry it out to someplace to get smelted or purified as need be. Bringing in Elementals to guide her along the veins, she could probably empty out this entire mine in basically next to no time at all, just walking slowly along and dropping stacks of pyreal and ore ready to go behind her.
“The Freebooters will not like that a whit,” he grinned maliciously. “It were always about the money with them.”
“I have to wonder where they took the ore to smelt it down, the mine tracks leading right to that Portal Room they doubtless vacated this place through. It couldn’t be any of the known bandit holdings.”
“An’ nine’ll get ye ten it’s connected to Northwatch’s Market, too.” He eyed the rows of picks leaning against the wall. “No one had any idea this was here, either, or that the island had any viable mines at all.”
“Makes you wonder if Xi Ru’s Island is hiding something, right?” Kris asked, and he turned to look south, swearing under his breath.
“We’re going t’ have t’ have the Lady Magos Geas everyone to pretend this never happened, as the Freebooters are goin’ t’ be askin’ t’ see if we found something. Wouldnae be surprised if they work something out with Master Oswald’s crew t’ get on the island, now that we cleared a path up here.”
“We can easily cover it up by calling it special training and hunting down the last of the real Phyntos hives that are around. There’s several Dungeons we still need to investigate… and if we can get through them without needing Ryin, she can easily clean this place out under cover of working on Shaping up a Pyramid for area denial here.”
“They’ll be wantin’ t’ get here quick an’ early, then, seeing if they can lay claim to it?” he hazarded.
“Mmm, well, don’t want Oswald caught between generous remuneration for his services with erstwhile ‘friends’ and potentially crossing us. We’ll just not mention it and say we’re clearing the Dungeons and hunting, and Ryin should start to work on this with all speed when she can. There’s little doubt they want to fight for it, but who they are willing to fight will be a different matter.”
“I think she should drop it off in Stonehold.” Kris gave him an assessing look as he said that. “They’ve got the mines and the smelting operation there already, an’ while Master Oswald has lots o’ influence there, the Black Market does not.” He tapped the straps of his slender Masspack. “If this thing with the MMD’s works out, we’ll be dropping thousands o’ tons o’ pyreal on the kingdom. Having a reserve o’ goldweight up north just be makin’ sense after that, aye?”
“Briggs definitely won’t object to it. All his lads are mad for improving their Gear, too, so they need it, even if they’ve got active mines in the area. Hells, the gurogs can probably use it,” Kris nodded to acknowledge his point. “I’ve no doubt Master Oswald would like to improve his Gear, too.”
“Then let’s head up top, break the good bad news to the lads and lassies, an’ head back down the mountain to meet up with the lass there.”
“You know, her pulling out that honeycomb would be a REALLY good cover for also pulling out a lot of raw pyreal at the same time,” Kris mused as they turned back around and started heading for the way out.
“Are ye sure ye’re a Princess? Ye’ve got the instincts o’ a born smuggler, as me uncle would be happy ta point out t’ ye.”
“Lord Mick, you should know by now that laws and social position aren’t going to stop a Rantha from doing what they think should be done. At the same time, I’m not going to sock all this shit away for my personal use. I’m going to put it at the use of the kingdom and its artisans to be consumed and used to make the shit needed to reclaim their status and power on Dereth, and anyone who tries to take it for themselves I’m going to fuck up pretty damn badly, and with great pleasure.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Aye, not a hoarder, much t’ the dismay of all the merchant princes everywhere, I do be imaginin’,” he grinned, not finding much at fault with that.
“Improving Gear means money runs through my fingers like water,” Kris admitted in a low voice. “Precious metal and gemstones sitting around is just screaming to me of all the magical stuff that could be made with it. Using it for currency or a cash reserve is just stupid on all the levels.”
“What do ye use fer coin, then?” the Mick had to ask, frowning.
“Base metals not consumed for goldweight, standing in for them, or paper currency, like MMD’s. The key thing there is limiting the supply of coins and not overprinting them at values inflated to their truth worth. A goldweight’s true value never changes, so you just base the coinage off what a goldweight is worth, either in fractions or multiples, but you keep the actual precious metal for use, not for circulation.”
“I imagine counterfeitin’ becomes a problem?” the Mick had to wonder.
“Well, they try to make it a problem. The easiest way to stop it is to make it really expensive to make the coins. Like, you need a thousand goldweight to make a machine to forge the coins, or you need to spend more time and money than the coin is worth to make it, so it’s not worth it to counterfeit it.”
“Using magic to make doubles?” he considered aloud.
“The merest slice of a Null metal, usually lead, in the coins makes Duplicating them magically impossible, or Fabricating one from an example impossible. The standard way to test for counterfeits is usually just to touch the coins with a crystal attuned to magical residues. Dad’s coins won’t hold any kind of a magical charge. Counterfeiters almost always try to use magic to speed things up, and the coins pick up the magic, and never have plumbum or other Null Isotopes as part of their makeup.
“Do ye have some examples o’ those?” he asked, interested at the idea.
She reached into her pack and hauled out a small purse. “Mementos of home more than anything else, now.”
The coins were indeed of lesser metals, mostly iron, brass, bronze, and zinc. However, the carving and artistry on them was exceptional, with more than one layer of metal and complex engraving on each of them. Even the holes in the centers of them had carving in on them, and it was all extremely straight and symmetrical to the eye.
“Changes colors in the sun, and they are harder than steel, too, at least while in coin form,” she told him, taking the coins back and stowing her purse away as they reached the door to the chamber. “Counterfeiters can replicate them, but it takes two or three times as much money as just using a coin does, and so is so small in use that it means nothing. Basically it’s just bragging rights, and they go fake something else, like paintings or something.”
Everyone had been glad to take the rest, and turned to watch them as they emerged from the hallway, clearly relaxed and not having had to fight anything. Small sighs of thanks were given for their workday being mostly done.
“Gather up! We’ve got some good news for you, but also dangerous news. You’re going to like where we’re going with it, but also you best appreciate that we’re trying to save everyone some trouble!” Princess Kristie called out. “Gather in and let me tell you what we found below…”
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I eyed the parts of the Crystal Array that Lord Mick and Kris had brought back from the Fortress above. I was aware of most of what they did, looking out Kris’ eyes and listening in with a thoughtstream in case I had to get there urgently, but they’d all acquitted themselves pretty well.
The Fortress was clear, but now would either have to be garrisoned or blocked up, lest it become the lair of other forces or likely a whole lot of Phyntos finding an ideal second nesting location.
“All seven Life Protections at Platinum from a touch?” I considered the parts speculatively. “I can probably repair the crystal’s physical structure without much effort, it’s just a higher Valence Mending spell, like Reconstruction or Reformation. But that level of magic in the Matrix system?” I just shook my head slowly.
“An Eight in the Matrix system cast at will is 120k goldweight Infused. You can maybe drop that down to 90k by making it touch range, but then you want ALL the Life Protections. Even having gathered the physical Protections under one Force Protection, that’s still five of them, which is 450k.
“That’s a lot of goldweight. And you’d have to be the ones to do it, with Briggs. I don’t have Legendary Crafting to do that much, and Investing that is 900k, not 450. It’s still going to take you three months, for something that only lasts an hour at a time.
“I’m not sure it would be worth it, giving you’re only going to have one person using it per six seconds. That’s a maximum of six hundred at a time. Good for tactical squads about to go into a fight, but as a strategic device? Probably not so much.
“This thing could not have been easy to make, so, yes, I imagine there weren’t that many of them, and it was a sign of prestige to own one. It would be nice to bring it back, but it’s a project for a large group of people with the time and the money, not for me.
“I can redesign the matrices inside to conform to the new paradigm of magic, but I’m not going to occupy my personal Infusing time with it. I’ve got too many things of my own that I need.”
“I think that might be enough,” Kris just nodded. “Spread out the time among multiple artificers taking turns, so it won’t cut into personal crafting much. Heck, if it’s just the infusing, apprentices could do it for a nominal wage, nothing to be worried about.”
“And you really want me to pull the pyreal out of that mine up there?” I threw a glance southeast, towards the Keep up there.
“I figure it should take care of our own goldweight needs for the foreseeable future, right?”
“Especially if that MMD thing turns out to be a pipedream. But if not…” I calculated quickly. “I’m going to have to Tapestry your loads of coins if they bring them out. That is a LOT of metal, even if it is fairly light. Probably because it is fairly light.”