CHAPTER 104: Enjoyment of the land
Small, beautiful flowers filled the entire glade like a floral explosion. They reminded me a lot of pretty, white Snowbells on earth. A mellow aromatic blend of citrus and rose hovered in the breeze, invigorating our spirits.
“Are all these flowers from that fairy flower bulb you buried?”
Hana asked curiously while picking one of the flowers to place into her hair.
“It must be. But is that tree also from that dryad seed I planted?”
On the top of the hill, exactly where I planted that seed grew a tree about four meters high. It looked like an oak. Its thick boughs carried sturdy branches the diameter of my waist, although unlike oak, its bark texture felt finer and its colour looked lighter, like a poplar. The evenly spread dappled light from its copper-coloured broadleaves covered the top of the hill and surprisingly all the flowers and grass seemed to flourish under it.
“Well, it’s growing where you planted it.”
Hana’s matter of fact comment woke me up from my reverie.
“Yeah.”
Heavens only knew what I monster I released when I planted everything there. But even I admitted the tree’s shade gave a wonderfully refreshing sensation. With a natural shaded canopy available to us, we couldn’t resist and lay down under the copper-coloured leaves and promptly fell asleep. When we woke up both of us felt refreshed like having a shower under a soft, spring-fed waterfall. It felt like we slept for days. In that place with its wonky time, who knew. Hana was the first to talk.
“I feel so wonderfully inspired. Will you help me make some jewellery?”
I helped Hana with designing one piece of her jewellery. She settled on a theme inspired by our surroundings. She decided to make a pendant with a tree, gold edged branches and a white enamelled background.
“Perhaps you should use a brass background for the leaves? It could work well with the gold edging.”
She copied the brass-coloured leaves of the tree shading us. While we discussed the details on the carpet of flowers, I couldn’t shake the feeling someone else shared our conversation. When I looked around, I couldn’t see anyone.
“What’s the matter?”
Hana realised I was distracted.
“I’m not sure. Do you feel anything…off?”
“Not really. If anything, I feel perfectly comfortable and welcome here.”
I agreed with Hana. It felt comfortable and welcoming there. Even the sense of being watched didn’t seem invasive, but rather… ignoring my feeling as unwarranted I continued helping Hana. Once we sketched her idea on parchment, I took out the creation core and created a few concept ideas. We made similar copies of Hana’s necklace for Sue in the adventurer supply, although we only created variations of Hana’s necklace as I mentioned to Sue.
When we finished creating the jewellery pieces, we lay down under the pleasant shady tree again. Perhaps due to Hana’s happier mood she spoke for the first time about the situation regarding her sister.
“Did I ever tell you about my younger sister Anna?”
“You mentioned your younger sister, but you never went into details.”
Hana paused for a while gathering her thoughts. Then she related what happened to them.
“Bandits attacked my village three summer cycles ago…”
Never had she related the events of that time to me. All through her description of the tragic events that shaped to her and her sister I couldn’t help but quietly cry. She described in detail her sisters face and features, her mannerisms and how much she loved her and missed her. They were violently separated in Arania at a slave encampment before slavers shipped Hana out to Firestone city on a voyage that took close to three moon cycles. She never saw her sister again.
“I’m not sure if it’s possible, but if I’m ever able to help you, I would like to help you find her.”
Hana didn’t say anymore, only gripping my hand tighter. Under the fragrance of the fairy flowers and the shady boughs of the copper leaf tree we fell asleep again. When we awoke, we reluctantly stood to get our things ready to go. Hana spied something on the ground near where our heads lay. I thought she found a piece of wood fallen from the tree.
“Did you make this?”
She showed me the piece of wood. It was only then I realised it looked like a polished piece of artwork. Intricately carved into a circular wooden piece were the profiled faces of two young girls smiling at each other while holding hands. One looked suspiciously like a much younger version of Hana, the other face, similar looking but just a little younger.
“No. Did Grenfell perhaps bring it in?”
Perhaps the old man, not wanting to wake us up, quietly came into the glade and placed this near our heads. Hana didn’t know but swore it was a spitting image of her and her sister when they were younger. Hana never related the story of her sister to anyone except me, and a while ago to Karato and the king. I recalled that time King Leopold cried as well, heck it was a sad visit. We left the glade, puzzled as to where the wooden carving came from, although I had one hint. The wooden carving was made from the exact same wood as the copper leafed tree standing on the hill.
As we entered the Dryad we bumped into Schneider who was back for his regular visit. His keen eye immediately fell on the jewellery in Hana’s hand. I could already see his eyes counting all the gold he could make. He wanted to take a few copies to see the response in the city, although I could do that, I didn’t have any copies offhand. I told him to have a drink with the old man and then went back to the glade to make some for him.
“Shane, get a few fairy flowers for Haruhime.”
Again, Hana pointed out something that should’ve been obvious to me. I couldn’t but agree with her thinking, those little flowers looked so cute I couldn’t but imagine Haruhime going gaga about them.
Schneider looked overjoyed with the jewellery as his eyes sparkled in anticipation of the king’s response. It turned out that a while ago, King Leopold commissioned Schneider to create a royal line of jewellery. Until then, he didn’t find any jewellery in Shimmerstal or Draguilet that could be considered worthy of royalty. In his hand lay some refreshingly different jewellery pieces that no one had ever seen before. He liked the theme she used and made Hana an offer.
“Would you be able to create a few other items like the ones you made here? I have a wealthy client that would be very interested in jewellery pieces like these. If they like what you made, they’ll commission a large set for their personal needs. Are you interested?”
She seemed to take a long time to think about that proposition. I strongly suspected the old trader in her kicked into overdrive.
“I’m interested, but the materials I use are from Shane. I need to ask him first before I can agree.”
Sheesh, she passed the pressure over to me like a pro. Both Hana and Schneider looked at me with expectation. How could I say no with so many puppy eyes looking at me?
“You guys are something else. Go for it, I’ll support you Hana.”
Hana hugged me as Schneider laughed like Father Christmas. The arrangement we made with Schneider was that he could take fifty percent of whatever profits he made from the sales, Hana and I would split our portion of the profit between us. Hana’s seemed embarrassed with our arrangement, she looked unbelievably cute when her cheeks flushed. I knew Hana well enough to know she felt guilty about receiving twenty five percent of our mutual profit.
“Don’t worry about it.”
I said out of the blue.
“Worry about what?”
I wisely left the conversation there. Later that evening at the inn I gave the flowers to Haruhime who was pleased to see them and commented how lovely they looked. She put them into a vase on the reception desk for everyone to admire.
The next time we arrived at the Dryad, Grenfell came asked me to help the local cart workshop called by the same name. They were probably best described as the closest competition to the Dryad, albeit a stretch of the imagination. When I arrived at the barn of the cart workshop, placed on the outskirts of town, I discovered just how far the word competition stretched. The workshop sported all sorts of iron tools hanging from the wooden walls. A large blacksmith furnace roared in the background with some partly completed irons still heating in the background.
A young workshop mechanic called Bello greeted me. He had recently taken over the running of the business from his father who sat in the corner of the workshop tinkering away on a cart. Obviously the cart workshop focused on specifically that…carts. Weaponry seemed only a secondary function for them. In fact, I only identified two weapons, a partly completed sword rusting away in a corner and a spear propped up near the door. I got the distinct impression the sword represented a past failure and the spear an unhappy customer deterrent. Everything else lying around embodied the bread and butter of the cart workshop which brought me to why Grenfell sent me there in the first place.
Unusually the cart workshop mechanic, called Bello, experienced some problems he needed help with. Normally Bello could deal with most blacksmith related issues, but they lacked the ability to make finer tools.
“Yeah, thanks for coming. Old Grenfell owes me a few favours, and this is one only he can do.”
Bello explained that the carts they were making were experiencing constant problems with fasteners that kept coming loose due to cart vibration. Usually, Bello used nails to fasten down wooden parts on a cart, and it was quite ingenious how much they were already able to achieve with square and round shaped nails. The issue of vibration was due to wagons, carts and carriages not having any suspension.
That meant that the vibration of the road travelled directly from the wheels through to the cart frame which resulted in the nails shaking loose every three months or so. No matter what Bello and his team tried, the nails would inevitably come loose, and frustrated customers would return demanding they waste time tightening them up instead of making new carts.
I had an idea to make self-tapping screws using tapping dies and went back to the Dryad to get Ara to create different sized dies from Orichalcum. I couldn’t deny it, to make those dies from scratch required a large amount of work creating casting moulds and making better and better casts. Ara negated all of those, creating perfect moulds in a moment. In front of Bello, I started making a screw out of an iron rod using a die. The two handles on the die made the screw easy to cut and it worked even better if the iron was a little warmer from the fire.
What remained for me to make were two carpenter brace screw drivers, one had a square bit to fasten the screws and the other had an orichalcum drill bit which would drill through iron and wood without any problems. A carpenter brace was a roughly U-shaped bar that started with a rotating handle that was held in the left hand, and the right hand rotated the bottom end of the U-shaped bar to create the rotation of the drill bit which sat at the end of the U. At that stage the bits were permanent attachments until I could come up with an easier bit changing system.
I demonstrated the results to Bello and his team on how to use the screws and carpenter brace screwdriver and the drill. They took to the demonstration like a fish to water they were so impressed by the technology. I offered them more if needed. I only wanted five coppers for each screw in future. Half of sales would go to the old man of course. I offered the carpenter brace tools free of charge if Bello and his team would advertise the screws if they liked them? There was unanimous agreement.
I explained to Bello that the screws were slightly more expensive than nails, but it was a negligible cost compared to the large savings they would make not having to keep repairing carts. I was even interested in making some free demonstration leaf-suspension systems for their carts as a promotional tool. I also offered to make a few other tools for them, like a decent pinch vice when they had a bit of spare cash. Currently they were using a system of rotating sinew tighteners to fasten equipment down to a bench, it worked but was difficult to set control, if you slipped with the handle on the sinew tightener it could cause some injury to someone’s hand. I left there a little happier, it seemed that business still happened in Obon.
On my way back I crossed paths with Tomu.
“Hi Mr. Shane. How’re you doing? Long-time-no-see. Where’s Hana?”
It was pleasant to see his boisterous enthusiasm once again.
“Hi Tomu. Okay, okay slow down, one thing at a time. I’m doing well and I’m glad to see you are too. As for Hana, she will see you later. Right now, I have something else I would like to discuss with you.”
I had a job for him. That got his immediate attention like blood to a shark.
“Do you remember those stones we noticed on the ground where the men are digging up the sand?”
He nodded.
“The plant stones made Shane sad.”
I started laughing. I could understand how he thought it was the stone that made me sad.
“No Tomu. It was a memory of my mother that made me sad, not the plant stones.”
I decided to use his terminology and called the bulbs plant stones.
“I want you or your friends to pick up all the plant stones you can find and bring them to me.”
“What are you paying for that?”
He said enthusiastically.
“The payment of gold you received from those men who are now digging up the sand.”
His smile disappeared but he understood why I said that.
“It’s your final punishment from me over that incident. After this I will no longer mention it again or hold it against you.”
He nodded. He still felt guilty for selling the information on the sand’s location. His helpfulness at the slaughterhouse related to how he felt about that incident. I think my punishment would lift that burden he felt off those tiny shoulders.
On my arrival at the Dryad, I met Hana, Elle, Antonetta and the old man all sitting at the reception desk.
“What, none of you are sleeping?”
“Ooh, that’s so cold.”
Said the old man. I ignored his comment by introducing a new.
“I have a problem I need to address soon.”
“Your attitude.”
“You don’t like sleeping people.”
“He, he, he.”
“What’s your problem?”
“Thank you Antonetta, you are the only considerate person here.”
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That invited a chorus of laughter from the others.
“Anyhow, as I was saying. I need to make a trip to the Wildemere Marshlands soon.”
Grenfell looked puzzled.
“Huh, why do you want to do that? I thought you had enough marsh iron already?”
“I have enough marsh iron. What I’m running short of is ethereal energy.”
“Um, Shane. What’s ethereal energy?”
Antonetta wouldn’t know much about my skills, so it wasn’t surprising to hear her question. I explained.
“You know I have skills, right? You’ve seen some of them in action. Well, just like muscles need food to make the energy for them to work, I need something called ethereal energy to make skills work.”
The cogs in her brain suddenly fitted together.
“Shane. You’ve helped so many people. How much ethery, erthery…energy did you used already?”
“It’s difficult to explain to you just how much I have left, but it will be finished before the winter snows arrive.”
“When do you want to leave?”
Asked Antonetta?
“Probably within this moon cycle.”
“Can I come with you?”
I shook my head. There was no way I could take her with, it was simply too dangerous. Not after what happened with the Red Sparrows on our last trip from the Wildemere Marshlands. We were attacked by large groups of direwolf riders, goblins, and ogres. Everyone in the team that went with me needed to be capable of looking after themselves, I couldn’t afford to look after someone else when trying to fend off large groups of monsters.
“Sorry Antonetta. I know you want to come with, and I want to take you with, but we’ll be moving fast, and the monsters are too dangerous.”
Antonetta’s face said it all. She really wanted to join us. Her excitement looked pulpable, but her face fell when she learned she needed to wait at home once again. The old man held Antonetta’s shoulder in sympathy.
“Don’t worry Antonetta, I’ll start training you how to use a knife, how’s that?”
“Thank you, thank you. I really want to be useful to you.”
Antonetta’s face lit up. I guess she didn’t want to be a burden on us. Grenfell then looked at me.
“Seeing you are planning to return to the Wildemere Marsh, I would like to send you on a private quest as a personal favour. I have a friend living alone on the southern western shores of those marshlands. Normally I would visit her twice every summer cycle but after helping you in Endeavour I wasn’t able to make it this time. It would be nice if you could go and visit her and take some supplies with you. Her name is Lady Anne and Shane, I think you will like her.”
It seemed strange that he singled me out in his last sentence. He obviously knew I hadn’t heard of Lady Anne before, so I wasn’t sure why the old man introduced her like that. Whomever she was, she had to be someone interesting because anyone living on their own in a land covered with monsters, must have their secrets. That issue alone made me interested in visiting her.
“No problem. I’m looking forward to meeting with her.”
“Who’s going with you?”
Grenfell asked while looking at the others.
“I’ll go.”
“Me too.”
Hana and Elle said without hesitation, only to be joined by a younger enthusiastic voice.
“Me, me.”
“Sorry Antonetta, you can’t go.”
I said, smiling sympathetically. She made a puffy baby face and crossed her arms in frustration. She liked to appear grown up, she worked hard and tried not to behave like a young kid, but at times it couldn’t help but shine through her façade. Elle offered to collect the items from Grenfell for Lady Anne closer the time I planned to leave. I suggested the Goldcastle team meet at the Screaming Banshee a little later to discuss the planning.
That evening in the Screaming Banshee, a pleasant surprise visit by the Red Sparrows scuppered Goldcastle’s plans to discuss the upcoming trip. It made for a welcome distraction catching up with Tobias, Aliz, Corey and Cortez. Of course, after some drinks, Cortez started playing his tunes whipping up the mood amongst the people eating there. Even Hana and Elle enjoyed the festivities. Afterwards, we settled down and started reminiscing on our previous times together. Tobias and the rest of the team were adamant that I should create a public hot bath for the town. I totally agreed, I would give it some thought.
“What should we call it?”
“Obon Baths!”
They chorused. Had they already agreed to the name. Again, I felt like everyone was one step ahead of me, even Hana who was laughing and enjoying Corey’s company. Since when did they become such close friends? According to Tobias, the Red Sparrows planned to take on a few dungeon quests to keep them financially ticking over until something more interesting or lucrative came up. Since Endeavour no longer existed, they couldn’t rely on regular protection quests. That night we all left a bit tipsy and to be honest I don’t remember much afterwards.
The next morning at work I still suffered from a headache. I decided to quit drinking excessively in future, even if friends were paying for it. After all, it only led to unnecessary pain. Schneider arrived at the Dryad, looking to pick up some items before he left for Shimmerstal. I noticed there was a cart parked outside the shop. How on earth did he manage to get a cart through that narrow pathway? I gave up, the Dryad was a time-space paradox, it obviously changed to suit conditions it considered necessary and I had nothing to do with it. The old man first caught up with Schneider then later had some business in town to attend to and left the shop. Over a cup of tea, Schneider and I discussed our latest business following Endeavour’s closure.
“Your razors are also in popular demand amongst the dwarves. They are doing well. At this rate your twenty-five small gold loan will be paid off soon. Also, I will be tripling the order from the dwarves which should pay off the loan even faster.”
“Who exactly are the people looking to purchase them?”
“Mostly dwarven men, purchasing it for their wives, girlfriends, and female relatives.”
“Is that the sort of item you normally purchase for a woman?”
“Not usually. In the capital, it’s not proper etiquette for women to be buying these items from a store.”
“What you’re saying then is that we need another marketing strategy?”
“For the moment it is fine, but I can see that it will soon become a bottleneck. I suggest we talk about it next time we meet?”
“Okay.”
“Otherwise, your swords and knives are very sort after by the military these days.”
I remembered King Leopold mentioned his generals kept bugging him to purchase more Dryad weaponry. I decided to play dumb and find out what they liked about the weapons.
“Why are they so sort after?”
“The military cadet academy is situated in the capital and cadets are usually operating on thin budgets. The palace doesn’t buy weapons for the cadets, who are expected to purchase their own as part of their entrance requirements. Because of that, cadets are always on the lookout for cheaper, better quality items and the Dryad’s weapons fit that criteria perfectly.”
“Perhaps I should create a standardized line of cheaper military knives and swords for start-up cadets? It will look good if a standardized knife also suits the uniforms?”
“I like your thinking. I know the commander of the cadet corps; I’ll encourage him to sign a supply agreement?”
“Sounds good, make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
I couldn’t help chuckle at that Earthling quip. I could see the confusion on his face so not willing to explain I continued.
“Feel free to put any order in. I now have the means to make any number of knives at short notice. But that’s only part of what I want to discuss with you.”
I saw Schneider’s eyes narrowed as he sensed business opportunities like a bee to pollen.
“I want to make you my official and sole trader in the capital. That includes all items we mutually agree to sell there. Not everything we trade in will be successful but overall, I expect a good deal of business to come your way.”
“What are you proposing?”
“If you agree, you will first cancel all debts I owe you as an understanding for our future relationship. Secondly you will agree to a fixed ten percent profit on everything we sell, regardless of price. We may also choose to operate through third parties for our expediency, but our contract stands regardless of our arrangements with them. We both own the liability of our own arrangements, you in marketing and sales, me in production and supply. You promise me the best market price you can get, and I will promise you regular and sustained production and supply. If anyone of us fails to meet their agreed obligations we have full right to withdraw from the contract. Barring that; ill health, death, mutually agreed delay or termination being the only other conditions. You are also subject to a non-disclosure agreement and cannot under any circumstances with anyone, except with my permission; discuss, insinuate, or imply how I produce or supply goods to you including my personal details. I can draw up a contract if you like, but I am happy to give my word on that, and Hana is our witness.”
Hana looked at Shane. She reminded herself of what an enigma he was. One day he waded waist deep in the marshlands fighting bullfrogs, the next he talked like a merchant. A few moon cycles ago he helped the townsfolk out with free food and there he was he was creating the foundations of a trading empire. He looked so engaged with everything in life.
Schneider seemed to think for a while. His ability to remember details only a skilled merchant could display. I knew he would be sifting through each sentence, pondering each word. I expected to him to take a while to…
“I’m okay with it, no need to draw up a contract.”
I felt like someone doused me with cold water. I wondered if he even bothered to think about the fine print. Before I could comment about his brevity on such a potentially large contract, he added something else.
“My only counteroffer to your conditions is that by law I must disclose my supplier’s details, if required by the relative authorities. If you accept that change, consider this my word and agreement.”
I guess he looked less sharp than he was. My apologies Schneider, I misjudged you. Then I had to agree.
“Done.”
He took my right hand with his as if to shake it then placed his left hand on his arm. I realised I should do the same and reciprocated. Since the administrative issues were completed, I wanted to continue, but he quipped,
“You might make a good merchant’s lawyer one day.”
“Nah, I’ll leave that for people who enjoy that sort of thing. On another note, are you able to sell marsh iron?”
“Really, you have a sample with you now?”
I placed a bar on the counter. He checked it by tapping the bar with a tuning fork and listening closely to the vibration it created.
“It’s a good quality bar. You melted this down?”
I nodded. That bar was one of at least three hundred I had converted to bars, not including the mustite I already extracted. I didn’t want to hand those to Schneider because heaven only knew what a pandemonium that would cause further downstream when people realised that I extracted the exact component they wanted. Then they would be battering down my door to get at my trade secret, the last thing I needed in my life at that point.
“It’s about seventy percent iron and thirty percent mustite.”
“What’s mustite?”
He obviously wouldn’t have heard my naming convention for it, seeing I called it that.
“Actually, mustite is marsh iron, a metal with ethereal qualities. It’s what gives this metal combination its desired qualities.”
“I didn’t know that. I only knew one of my customers from the palace orders it from me and that it has properties they want. But what intrigues me more is that you can appraise it.”
Grenfell obviously mentioned my skill to him a long time ago. He hadn’t forgotten about it.
“Shh, it’s a family secret.”
“But you don’t have a family.”
Trust him to use low down schemes when he smelt blood in the water. Schneider rubbed the beard on his chin while saying it, which made me wonder when I was going to be bothered by something I wouldn’t want to be involved in.
“Back to the refined marsh iron.”
I said, bringing the subject back on track.
“Ah yes, sorry I digressed a bit there. Let’s see. How many of these bars do you have?”
“Three hundred of them.”
“Well, I would advise not to release more than that for this moon cycle otherwise it might drive down the prices. Having said that, winter snows are about to kick in soon so if you have more, give it to me and I will release it slowly into the market over the winter.”
“Okay, for a matter of interest, who’s your contact?”
“It’s no secret, it’s exclusively the Royal Palace. Even the adventurer guild posted it up on their quest board.”
“I seem to recall seeing it there. How much do you think I would get for a bar?”
“The prices are normally pretty stable; I would say fifty gold per bar.”
“Seriously?”
Goodness, I had walked into some money. I then arranged the three hundred bars to come out of the store in the back. He didn’t have one thousand, five hundred small gold on him so he arranged a fund transfer through the merchant guild. Since I was a registered merchant trader, I worked through their fund trading system that offered numerous benefits like significantly reduced taxes on money transfers and withdraws. Where I paid ten percent for withdraws at the adventurer’s guild, I only needed to pay five percent at the merchant guild and deposits were free.
With no merchant guild branches in Obon to withdraw from only the adventurer guild recognised the merchant guild’s system and they charged, you guessed it, ten percent withdraw fee including the merchant guild’s fee. You just couldn’t get away from it. Schneider offered to bring me the cash next time he came around, which he would keep in the pocket dimension ring I gave him. Of course, that would take a while before I met him again, so he gave me a hundred gold up front which took some of the financial pressure off my back. There was one thing I still wanted to discuss with him, so I placed a quiver of arrows on the table.
“I have a special arrow the military would be keenly interested in
and jewellery of the type I gave you last time. I should have more variety the next time we meet, which will be?”
“Just before the first snows.”
“That’s longer than your usual trip turnaround times?”
“We have an end of season gathering for all guild merchants, takes at least five days if you exclude the festivities. Unfortunately, you will not be there this time but that and including that I’m using the Old Forest Road means I’ll be a bit later than usual. It will likely be the last trip for a long time.”
And with that we concluded an agreement for supply that was going to last us a very long time. Schneider left with more of a skip in his walk than usual. It seemed I was going to be a very busy person making swords etcetera. I needed some time to make them, and I wanted some company. There was only one way to do that.
“Hana. Are you in the mood to make some jewellery?”
Judging by the way her eyes lit up I think she was fully engaged with my suggestion.
“Let’s head for the forest glade?”
It was far too easy.
In the Dryad’s glade under the one shady tree on the hill, Hana looked at the soundly sleeping Shane. To her, he seemed totally at peace. It wasn’t the first time she watched him while he slept. She remembered the first times when she slept on his bed and he, like a gentleman, bravely chose the floor. She wished her parents could have met him. They would have adored him. Her father would have loved the endless duelling with him like Karato, her mom would have doted over and overfed him.
Shane made her feel secure and wanted. She loved him from the moment she met him, other than the time she nearly beat him to death thinking he was a pervert. He freed her from slavery without demanding anything from her and saved her life so many times. Something of an enigma, his memories of his alien blue world intrigued her. Like her, he had no family, but he quickly made good friends. His heart bled for people and yet he behaved like a monster on the battlefield. He invented and made impossible things that overwhelmed and excited her at the same time and yet she never had reason to question his intent. Hana didn’t know what the future would hold for them, but she knew she wanted to spend that future with him, and to protect him. She gently put her hand on his arm so as not to disturb him.
End of volume 2.