I sat shivering under a blanket, perched on a log near the new entrance to the shaft. It was deep into the second night, and we were inching closer to the group of miners I’d found earlier. It wasn’t really the cold that got to me, but the exhaustion. I hadn’t slept properly in two days, aside from a few brief moments when I’d drift off.
Each time I dozed, I dreamed of Ju—just as I’d seen her the last time. She stood right there, no longer the haunting figure from my vision. Yet, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t bring myself to meet her gaze. I couldn’t look into her eyes.
She was here because I had asked Alice yesterday to bring her—to heal the workers and be ready to tend to the miners when we finally reached them.
Suddenly, the noise around me seemed to muffle, and before I could fully grasp what was happening, Ju wrapped her arms around me.
"Please, forgive me!" she cried. "I can't take it anymore. Please, don't be angry with me!"
I lifted my eyes to her, finding her in tears. Gently, I pulled her into my own embrace.
"How could you ever think I'm angry with you?" I whispered, holding her close. "I was the one in agony, angry at myself and at what I was putting you through. That's what’s been tearing at me."
She pulled back slightly, looking at me with wide, round eyes.
"Really?" she asked, her voice soft, before hugging me tightly again. I could feel the comforting effects of her soothing spells washing over me. We stayed like that for a while until I noticed some movement in the distance. With a sigh, I murmured,
"I think a delegation wants to speak with me."
Ju sighed too but released me, her eyes now glowing with happiness. With a subtle flick of her wrist, she dismissed the privacy field she’d cast around us. That must have been a new device she’d picked up in the capital.
I turned to face the approaching group: Durham, Master Engerhard the old Xsoha, another younger Xsoha I didn’t recognize, with Tom and Hew beside him.
Behind them, a crowd of forty or so people.
The brief moment with Ju had a surprisingly strong effect on me. The weight of my anxiety and exhaustion seemed to lift, and I no longer felt so overwhelmed. Maybe her soothing spell had worked their magic too. With renewed energy, I raised my eyes to greet the approaching group.
"Blessed be your heart, Lady Lores!" Master Engerhard declared as he stopped a few meters in front of me. "We have gathered the best miners from the village. They are ready and eager to rescue their comrades trapped beneath the earth. Your valiant orcs have been working tirelessly for two days now. It’s time to let them rest and allow these brave men and women to finish the job."
I almost agreed. Almost. But something about his phrasing made me hesitate—your valiant orcs.
I took a deep breath. Wow, what a change of heart! Wasn’t this the same man who had lectured me earlier about how hopeless it was to try and dig those miners out? And now he was suddenly concerned about the well-being of my orcs? The cursed abominations? Damn, they weren’t even my orcs—they were Drackar’s!
Maybe if Ju hadn’t refreshed me, I would have accepted his proposal without thinking twice. But now, with my mind clear again, something didn’t feel right. I let out a long breath, then met Master Engerhard’s gaze.
"Master Engerhard, I have no doubt the young people behind you are eager and capable," I began, keeping my voice steady, "but the team working now is the strongest and fastest we have. Changing the team or adding more people would only slow things down. There simply isn’t enough room for more to work effectively, and the orcs are working in shifts. They’re stronger, quicker. No one wants to leave our people down there any longer than necessary. Every moment counts."
To my surprise, there were murmurs of agreement from the crowd behind him. Even Alice raised an eyebrow, her expression showing a hint of approval.
Durham stepped closer, his face grave.
"Lady Lores, please allow me to speak openly," he said. "I beg you to consider this: there’s an old saying, 'If you give an orc a plum, he'll leave the plum and take the whole basket.' Lady Lores, do you truly believe these renegade orcs are any different? I don’t know what their plan is, but dealing with orcs never ends well. Whenever a chieftain manages to unite them, once they’re done fighting each other, they start looking around for the next weakest neighbor to exploit. They look at our land, envy our prosperous cities, and then they come with swords in hand, claiming that our lands were always theirs. Orcs will always be orcs. They don’t think or act like us humans."
He finished with a dramatic gesture toward the orc standing behind me. "Ask the orc by your side, Lady Lores!"
Instinctively, I turned to look at the orc.
He gave a shrug and, in a rare moment of speaking, said, "What? I don't like plums."
Whether it was a foolish remark or a stroke of brilliance, I couldn’t say, but the burst of laughter that followed took the sting out of Durham's words, lessening the weight of his warning.
I sighed. I knew that Cala had favored orcs for her raids because they stuck to their agreements better than most, but that was raiding, not living side by side in a community. As I was mulling over how to respond, a woman from the group spoke up before I could say anything.
“Our children trapped in that mine are tired and scared, after all they’ve been through in the darkness,” she said. “You yourself told us how distressed they are! What will they think when the first thing they'll meet will be these dreadful-looking orcs?”
Ah, so... In just two minutes, we’d gone from praising the ‘valiant orcs’ to fearing the 'dreadful-looking orcs.'
The woman had barely finished speaking when a bald man chimed in, his voice laced with accusation.
“Lady Lores, why didn’t you hire the mages the Xsoha found? Everything the orcs are doing, humans could do just as well. Why bring more orcs into our lands?”
I felt the tension rising. The undercurrent of distrust was clearer now.
I stood up. That was a direct challenge, questioning my decisions. How convenient that these accusations were being lobbed from the safety of anonymity behind the crowd.
“The Xsoha searched for those mages because I paid them to do so," I said sharply. "But the mages they found wouldn’t arrive for days, would cost more, and wouldn’t be as effective as the ones I already found through the orcs. So, tell me—why should I have waited?”
“Isn’t it suspicious that the orcs were ready with their own people? Almost as if they knew they'd be needed!” someone called out from the back, his tone laced with insinuation. Master Engerhard raised his hands in a placating gesture.
“Lady Lores," he said, his voice measured, "I always seek what’s best for the domain and heed the will of the people. These people, they want to free their families—without putting the domain at risk of submission to orcs.”
I snorted in anger.
“I don’t have time for this nonsense,” I said, my patience wearing thin. “Just go away and let us get the job done before I decide to make you disappear.”
I had meant to say "disappear from my sight," but I was tired and the exhaustion made the words come out more threatening than intended. The man who’d questioned about the mages stepped forward, moving closer to Durham’s group while raising his voice.
“Disappear, like Goma, the lead engineer? Where is he? Did he say something the orcs didn’t want to hear?”
That caught me off guard. I hadn’t seen him since the previous night. Could that fool have run off after my interrogation?
Meanwhile, Master Engerhard's voice rang out: “Lady Lores, are you truly considering violence against loyal servants of the domain?”
I took a deep breath and glanced at the crowd. This was starting to feel like an organized rebellion, a push to back me into a corner. They were trying to force my hand.
I subtly pinged the lead Xsoha in the group. <
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Before I could respond, Alice stepped forward, positioning herself between me and the crowd.
“There’s news from the mine,” she announced firmly. “They’re calling for Lady Lores to check a new opening. Please step back and wait.”
Just like that, the tension shifted, the conversation turned in a new direction.
I sensed a presence at my side and turned to find Wortar, one of Drackar's lieutenants, standing there. He was clad in full black leather armor, with an expandable shield on his left arm that caught my eye. It reminded me of Cala’s legendary shield—rare and powerful. Wortar met my gaze and gave a nod of acknowledgment.
As the group retreated, Tom and Hew approached. Both looked exhausted, their faces showing the strain of the past days.
“How are you holding up?” Hew asked, stepping into the circle forming in front of me.
“I feel about as bad as you look,” I replied, earning a tired chuckle from him. Then, turning to Alice, I asked, “What’s the news?”
“Come with me,” Alice said, gesturing for the others to follow. She led us towards the shaft’s entrance, guiding us to a spot where we couldn’t be seen from the outside.
As we gathered, just before Alice could speak, Ju interrupted.
“Wait. It might be best to keep this private.”
Alice nodded, and Ju touched her bracelet, summoning a dampening field around us, cutting us off from prying ears.
“So, what’s going on?” I asked Alice.
She sighed, clearly exhausted, and gave a shrug. “Tenessar warned us someone’s trying to stir up a revolt. I only said that to buy some time. Now, they'll wait for you to get back.”
“A revolt? But they'd be crushed,” I said, still puzzled.
Alice nodded. “Exactly. But that's probably part of the plan. Throwing mud at you was probably the next phase. Once the clash happens, stories will spread—about orcs beating, wounding, maybe even killing villagers and the narrative would quickly turn against you and the orcs, running through the entire domain.”
I sighed, annoyed. “The Xsoha?”
She gave another shrug. “Maybe. We’re not sure yet. Moran and Tenessar are working on tracking down who’s spreading these rumors and countering them. There’s this ‘would-be-mayor,’ for instance—the guy who brought up the question about human mages. He’s trying to overthrow the current mayor, so stirring trouble works in his favor, but he is just a minor figure from the village.”
“Someone's useful idiot” Tom quipped from the side
I turned to Hew. “So, what's the deal with these xsoha? What exactly are they doing?”
He took a deep breath before answering. “Well, this might take a while. You sure you want to dive into it now?”
I nodded. “Go ahead.”
He chuckled lightly. “Alright. In your domain, you've got 6,528 people—excluding the 145 orcs and 112 xsoha. There are six villages, thirteen hamlets, and fifty-four isolated farms, totaling 3,435 serfs and their children. Each serf is required to work for three days per quarter for free for you. That means three out of every eight days are technically yours. The rest they work on their fields, which are actually still yours and they pay rent for it as you own all the land in the domain.”
“Do the xsoha direct them on what to do?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“No, not directly. That’s handled by the village elders, or they follow orders that come down from the castle. The xsoha keep meticulous records of all the work done. For example, if a serf works on road repairs, it’s recorded as road maintenance, which is valued at fifty copper per person per day. Fixing a bridge is more costly—sixty-five copper per day. The same goes for wood logging, which is sixty copper per day per worker. The xsoha have detailed tables that classify all this labor, translating it into monetary terms. Their role is to ensure everything’s accounted for.”
“Do we pay the peasants for their work?” I asked.
Hew shook his head. “No, as I mentioned, they have to provide this labor for free.”
“So, is this ‘money’ just fictive?” I wondered aloud.
“Yes and no,” Hew said. “It’s not actual money, but it gives you an estimate of how much work the serfs contribute. All of that virtual currency goes into a budget called ‘domain work and maintenance.’”
“Do the xsoha also work for free, three days a quarter?” Mike asked, joining in.
Hew shook his head again. “No, they aren’t serfs. They get paid per transaction—a five percent cut for recording and managing the work. Across the entire domain, that comes to about sixty gold per quarter. Their share is three gold.”
“That’s twelve gold per Kargath!” I exclaimed.
Hew nodded. “Yes, in addition to being fed and having free housing. But wait, there’s more. The miners are paid between eighty copper and one silver twenty copper per day. They work four paid days per quarter, plus three days for free since they’re serfs too. The eighth day of the quarter is always something of a holiday, though the divinity celebrated varies depending on their religion. So, altogether, you’re paying around eighteen to twenty gold to the miners per quarter, and one gold to the xsoha. This makes another four gold for the Xsoha, while the miners' total comes to around seventy gold.”
“So the miners are basically privileged serfs? Seventy gold per Kargath is a lot!” I commented.
“Don’t forget, there are nearly five hundred of them, the work is tough, and they still need to live—buy food, clothes, maintain their houses, all that. That money cycles back into the domain’s economy as they buy what they need to survive. As for the mine, it generates about twenty to thirty gold profit per Kargath after covering all expenses—roughly the same as the cost of the xsoha. It could be run more efficiently, but I need to dig into the details.”
“You mean the xsoha cost between twenty and thirty gold per Kargath?”
“More like thirty plus. The domain sells wood, cattle, grain, and silver ore to xsoha-approved merchants, but I suspect there are some shady deals going on there.”
“Fuck! These bean counters are bleeding the domain dry!” Tina exclaimed.
"Tina?"
I looked at her, surprised. She was picking up too much of my foul language, leaving behind her noble upbringing. I might have to rein that in later.
Though honestly, it didn’t seem like that much money to me—just my pair of shoes that got ruined in the mud had cost two gold, and the Earthmage was costing me two gold per day.
“It’s not an enormous amount, but it is a significant drain,” Hew said, echoing my thoughts.
“Can we get rid of them?” I asked.
“Not easily. First, we’d need to have someone to replace them and handle their work. I could organize that if necessary, but the bigger issue is the legal mess,” Hew replied. “They claim they have a contract directly with the domain, not the domain owner. In their eyes, they’re part of the domain itself. There are termination clauses, but they come with a bunch of conditions—including about a year’s worth of pay as ‘resettlement money,’ and it has to be paid upfront.”
“What? I’d have to fork out over three hundred gold just to get rid of them?” I asked, astonished.
“Something like that,” Hew said with a nod, then after a sigh, added, “I might be able to find some loophole to lower that amount.”
“Do that!” I said firmly. Just the thought of how hard it was to get rid of them made me even more determined to do so. “And what’s with that ‘Master’ title?”
“That means he’s the highest-ranking xsoha in the domain—basically, the domain’s chief accountant,” Hew explained. “He manages the treasury and oversees all the spending.”
“And that idea of taking out a loan? Is the domain really that close to being bankrupt?” I asked.
“Yes,” Hew replied, “but I still wouldn’t recommend it. If you borrow from them, they get a say in all your spending. They can even deny certain expenditures if they deem them unnecessary.”
I sighed. “Enough about the xsoha. We’ll deal with them later,” I muttered to myself. There was no way I was paying them three hundred gold just to get them to walk away.
“So, most of the domain’s income comes from the silver mine?” I wondered.
“No,” Hew corrected, “only about half of it. The other half comes from selling cattle, timber, and cereals. There’s even a brick workshop where neighboring domains buy from us, along with smaller things like furs and red stone used for street repairs.”
“If we’re selling cereals and food, are the domain’s stocks full for the winter?” Alice asked.
Hew chuckled lightly. “No, only partially full, and what’s worse, there’s not enough food for everyone. The domain has enough stores for the castle inhabitants and a bit extra as a reserve, but the villages? Their situation looks bleak.”
“Uh,” I muttered, “then why are we selling?”
“We need the money,” Hew explained. “If we didn’t sell, the domain would go broke. We have to buy essentials like gardening tools, nails, canvas, and so on.”
I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see an orc approaching. I raised a brow in question as he entered our circle.
“Lady Lores,” he said, “news just came in—they’ve broken through!”